Repository of smiles

Knew someone who is repository of smile ,
Chirpy while talking , always brimming with energy ,
Admired the words even when repeated ,
I learn , apply , improve and feel privileged to know one.

Sometimes I can speak non-stop without inhibition,
Some words which make some sense, others without much sense ,
Time played spoilsport as it moved fast,
Not before multiple precious moments got created.

As i reflect back , want to extend wishes ,
Wish for you all love and care ,
Reach new heights , explore new frontiers ,
Dream big , add colors to your dreams ,
To repeat , spread happiness as you always do.

Worries and concerns for you will continue ,
Don't skip meals , eat healthy and on time ,
Take care of health , be emotionally strong ,
Take work less seriously , add other attributes ,
Be regular with exercises and walks , pick books to be read .

Journey of life is full of happy surprises ,
Surprised that introvert in me can find special people as I walked ,
Some lines meet only to separate ,
In helplessness happiness could be found ,
Special bonds will get older and better with time ,
And I knew someone who is repository of smiles :-)

 p.s : I shall try to be regular with blog entries.

Let the story continue

Counted days for long , finally it came ,
did wait to have moment of pure joy ,
had to hide excitement , to live in the moment ,
when one wants to speak too much ,
One ends up with much less.

 When one wants the moment to stop,
All it does is to pass so fast ,
Not to forget , happy memories created in between,
To remember and smile always.

As the story moves on ,
The journey will require continuous effort,
To say, start itself was courageous ,
Conclusion will be worth the effort ,
I shall wait to see your successful endeavor.

Things will keep changing in path ahead ,
Light will reveal the unexplored path ,
Some obstacles may seem insurmountable ,
It will require motivation and confidence ,
take one day at a time , remember your good points.

 As for me , I shall treasure all moments ,
Will keep finding excuses to remain in contact ,
Motivation series will be elongated for sure,
I just hope time-space won't diminish it in long go.

Remain always just the way you are ,
Keep spreading smiles , as you always do,
Just to repeat , I'm happy to know ,
I came across a wonderful soul like you.
Let the story continue...


************************END**************************

Simple and beautiful

These thoughts have persisted in my mind over the years. It's better to assemble them at one place for future reference. Here it goes , some thoughts , beliefs , memories from past which leave me all smiles . Years considered for these are circa 1993-98 .

1: It was ritual to keep reminding dad to get new pair of slippers , shoes . Measurement of the foot size was handed over to dad using cotton thread. Sometimes the footwear had to be returned for not fitting perfectly. In hindsight these were cute and priceless moments for sure.

2: It was customary to check what dad got while returning home. Closely associated activity was to tell dad what to get while returning home. Mostly , eatables in form of fruits , sweets , toffee etc used to come. In due course i did develop special interest for Samosa . Even now , when i visit home, dad acknowledges my presence by affectionately bringing hot Samosa as evening snacks.

3: Visiting vegetable market with brother was enlightening activity. More often than not it was our habit to ask each vendor for the associated price of almost all vegetables on display. Even if buying was not on agenda , just knowing the price was all important. Brother used to buy from poorest and probably most marginalised ones sitting in corner or outer area of the market. Now i know it can be called equity in decision making and one should have sense of empathy to do that .Sadly , lack of empathy and equity are reality in everyday life.

4: Counting number of wagons in railway goods train was priority activity. Bragging about the longest goods train one had seen was some sort of prized experience. Deciphering the meaning of letters written on the wagons was another associated fun activity. Even reading all lines written on back side of trucks was hilarious for sure .  To name a few , TATA , Fir milenge , Horn OK Please , Baba tera sahara , Awaz do and many more .

5. I still remember the curious expression of mother's face when i told her that we should give tip to the waiter in the restaurant we had visited. She quipped , " Is is mandatory? ". I had replied , " of course not" , as we moved out all smiles. Even now its difficult to explain to mom that people do spend thousands of rupees for one meal.

6: Among kids there was special fascination for content of movie posters. Reading anything and everything in the posters was done with utmost care. There was general consensus that the instances of hero falling in love with heroine was absolute non-sense. It was assumed to be a grave sin to even think about love and romantic things in real life. Thanks to movie fight sequences, we kids used to fight in slow motion with sound effects created from our mouth.

7: We kids used to feel bad for coming into world quite late. British had left long ago giving independence to India. Gandhiji was no more to lead the people of the country. We used to subscribe to the idea that Subhash Chandra Bose was alive and will return to India soon. India fighting war with Pakistan was only hope we thought we could use our life meaningfully for the country.

8: I do not from where it had started but all kids used to believe that Dev Anand was not permitted to wear black shirt. Reason circulated was , many girls had committed suicide on seeing him in black shirt. Exploits of Dara Singh and Kapil Dev used to be part of folklore as well.

9: Running after butterflies and dragon flies for hours was done with excessive dedication . Disturbing sister when she applied high degree of concentration to catch dragon fly added to unlimited fun and uncontrolled laughter..

10: My morning wake up signals used to come in terms of mom shouting incessantly proclaiming since how long sunshine is there and since when birds are chirping. She used to say only a "kumbhakaran" like person can sleep like this. This has not changed over the years. Somethings never change , undiluted love with same intensity.

I treasure these things and are so close to my heart. I have changed a lot over the years , the kid in me is alive and keeps reminding me the past that was there . It helps specially in difficult moments. Message is laud and clear , life is beautiful in simple things :)

The Carrom Moments

Over the years I did came to know that this is means to be part of memorable moments. I remember, when I was eight year old , I used to whine before dad every day in quest to get my own board , the carrom board. After initial reluctance dad had relented thanks to my over-zealous-incessant-demands. To my delight , later on , I did manage to get a custom made board as well. Then it seemed some sort of dream , now i can’t stop smiling thinking about those demands and wonder how dad used to handle that .Even though cricket has been my favorite game , carrom did command considerable interest and it manifested in multiple special moments.

While initial association was to take a break, best carrom-moments were to follow during college days. In college, people had almost endless-time to kill and carrom room was prominent place for doing this. Soon all kind of players were to assemble around the board. Some novice , other beginners , some with their peculiar but efficient style of playing . One interesting part i was missing earlier , it’s not all about playing , it’s also about speaking while playing. I was privileged to meet people who could actually make people around them go ROFL. Jokes flowed , taunts and counter taunts were hilarious to say the least. Some used innovative expletives to show their disgust and anger on themselves and their team members  , when critical shots did not bring desired results. One friend applied probabilistic style of playing ,while other friend  took really long time to execute his trademark shot which tested patience of souls present around the board. Not to forget the controversies about rules and expert opinions. In short , almost all basic and necessary ingredients of memorable moments were present in carrom-moments. Just to add ,it was heartening to see novice players become good players in due course.

Life is some sort of quest to add happy chapters and one can easily find means , people and places to create those chapters. Now , as I look back , its slightly difficult for me to comprehend and replicate the excitement which was associated with carrom-moments. What I can  easily do is remember those vibrant faces and smile for few minutes without any reason. All good things must come to an end with one-dimensional flow of time ; may be this is how life has been designed or maybe there are many more chapters to add , equally good , if not better. The quest must goes on :)

Some changes and Independence day

The Independence Day ( 15^th Aug  )eve takes me to memory lanes when future was not anxious wait and past was not significant to be taken as good/bad experience. Many people were yet to meet me , journey called life had just started . I was sweetly innocent and was brimming with energy each morning. Then, the best thing for me was watching Sampras-Agassi duals on tennis courts and getting  dhania-chutney (coriander-chutney) for breakfast-lunch-dinner. Even though Diwali and Durga-Puja were festivals to wait for ;Independence day did find equally high importance in my family . I was yet to read any significant book on India but mom was able to successfully tell me why this day was important.

The independence day mornings of childhood days were nothing less than any religious urgency. Everyone used to be in some sort of hurry. School Independence Day celebration was given a miss as I had to attend/see functions at other places. We ( 3-4 wandering friends ) used to sincerely visit all government offices in our locality. It seemed as if some top priority assignment was given to us to ensure that national flags are hoisted on each building without a fail. Saluting the national flag at each building gave us some crazy and unknown joy. The wandering activity used to conclude with ‘official’ flag hoisting ceremony at my place ( around 10 am ). Dad was always chief guest for that and being in police uniform he used to give some necessary weight to the event. The great Indian sweet Jalebi was placed as if it was some sacred offering for the celebration. We used to eat the same only after hoisting the flag and singing national anthem in full volume and  repeating  “bharat mata ki jai” , “bande mataram” and other slogans  a few times ,  giving full stress to our vocal chords. The eventful day used to end with me taking the flag down with due respect. 

In coming years the pattern of my independence day celebration got evident change when attending the school flag hoisting used to conclude the activity for the day for me. What remained memorable was going on prabhat pheri  in the town ; Covering almost each important roads of the town.In later years I  did prepare speeches on few occasions and did participate in Nukkad Natak to add different dimension to my celebration experience. 

The boy did grow with passing years. The world which was so simple for him suddenly became complex for him. He saw there was disparity in society evident as poverty. He knew what being from lower-middle class family means. He was surprised to know people, even learnt and respected,  can hate each other and  can kill each other in the name of god/pride. The boy saw how world looks like when seen from the eyes of a non-believer. It felt some sort of low to know  people who always tried to outsmart other with their wit. Why one has to fool other?  Boy was amused to see selfish souls really exist in this world. The question came to his mind ,” why I am here?” , “which path I should walk on?” Questions galore, none were answered. May be some questions are not meant to be answered.

It saddened the boy that his country faced so many problems. He couldn’t believe the fighter planes he had seen were not made in his country. He did not become happy to know there are billionaires living in his country. Amidst all the changes one faith continued to gain strength in him. The boy fell in love with his country. I know there will be many chapters in this story; the love will be tested in due course. One thing is sure, there will not be any break-up in this love story.

This story will continue with unique twists and turns…….Happy Independence Day

p.s : Song Badari Badariya is my favourite for the day :)

The Distributed Role Models

In those days dad was posted at beautiful sleepy town of Thakurganj , in Bihar , i was in class 5.The town had modest population count of around 2000-3000.The town had admirable culture of playing cricket and other sports activities. There was one humble guy there , i am sure everyone knew him by name , at least for we children he was a cult figure , a man of respect , dignity and unmatched calmness . We could associate the word gentleman with him. He was rightfully admired Mr. cool of the town . He did extract genuine respect from people around him . Presently what he must be doing? My one vague guess is, he must be teaching underprivileged children ( He had got job of Government School teacher in primary school ). Those pictures are still vivid in my mind.

The name of the person mentioned above is Mr. Rajaram Mahto. He was role model for all children of Thakurganj. This was for his passion for cricket in general and mainly for other attributes associated with him as mentioned above. He was the captain of the cricket team of the cricket crazy town.What inspired everyone was the way he handled with smile the leg pulling sessions with his friends in public ( It was fun to watch the same , just imagine 20-30 people targeting one with unique antics) . The elan with which he used to walk, the way he talked , the signature style of his riding the bicycle ( too slow for youngster ). One Routine activity of Mr Rajaram needs a mention here. He used to pass from road near our house , on his bicycle , on way to school where he taught . The road had quit steep slope. Instead of allowing the bicycle to reach maximum speed Mr. Rajaram used to apply breaks to maintain his unusual signature speed of a tortoise.Sometimes , people who inspire you can make you smile with their awkwardness .

It's almost impossible to find a complete person call him a role model. I used to appreciate some people over the years only to become critic of them .Down the line, i have realized, its very much natural. As our thoughts broaden and views are molded , opinion change is quite expected . At the same time its very much easy to find role models in bits and pieces who keep on inspiring you everyday. Here are some instances...

1: I haven't tried selling anything till now , but i know how difficult the proposition is , when you try to sell your goods to complete strangers. The Marketing skill of the vegetable vendors is appreciable. Specially the enthusiasm with which they sell their vegetables. Special mention to the not so fortunate vendors who get corner location in the vegetable market/mandi.

2: Hard work is not personified better than the farmers. Luckily i got opportunity to see farmland and dreams associated with same with close quarters. The pleasure of hard work becomes obvious when the reaping season comes. The Moral is , as you sow , so you reap.This actually happens.

3: The perseverance is exemplified by the blacksmith. Burning coal can melt the iron which can be given shape one wishes to. One has to see this to believe , thanks to 1st year engineering workshop , i did actually see iron melt.

4: The impeccability with which the housemaid does everyday cleaning activity is remarkable. Monotonous work requires a lot of will power and appreciable expertise.

5: The security guard at office who greets you without fail : " Good morning!!" . You learn this lesson of human relations ( HR ) , everyday ; obviously with a smile.

These bits and pieces combine to give a wholesome effect, and its heartening to know how people can teach you without saying a word.The distributed role models, You do think about them and gratitude comes automatically. One is indebted to so many souls....knowingly and unknowingly. I wish i could tell Mr. Rajaram he had such effect on at least one soul..that's me.

Moments in the Sun of Summer

This year, here in Delhi, rise of temperature has been delayed by sometime . The weather these days reminds me of the summer vacation of yesteryears ; Sadly, i am not eligible for the same .Surrounded by monotonicity of grown up life , with mad rush and pursuit of catching dreams one has to move forward.Children are at mischievous best during the summer vacations. With ample time to kill , they do find unusual ways to amusing/entertaining themselves and do end up enjoying in the set up created by themselves. Summer afternoons are agonizingly long , there has to be a lot of planning to make the hours count. We used to wonder why we can't have our summer vacations as in books and movies i.e. visiting relatives , discovering hill stations etc. Years later , as i try to recall , it was not so boring either. There were so many memorable moments which can be vividly captured in words. Some moments are generic and most can be specifically associated to the summer season...Here it goes....

1: Door bells were a rarity in those days. Everyone was hugely fascinated by the door bells in particular and all bells/whistles/sounds in general. There was curious way to show this fascination . We used to run away after ringing the door bell of someone's house. It was kind of open invitation when we knew uncle X and family is not at home i.e. on vacation.

2: Electricity meter was equipment of huge interest. checking count of electricity meter was everyone's favorite activity. To be specific, the excitement of noticing the red point in the rotating circle was reason to get elated.

3: Telephone , as they said , was wonder of science. Not sure of the working of the same , we used to believe that we can listen to the talk going on the phone by bringing the ear close to the telephone wire. We were sure of one thing we won't get electric shock by telephone wires. This listening activity was tried , we never got to listen any voice on phone. I had to wait for many more years to get chance to listen human voice on phone. Then the mechanism was quite obvious , but still it felt great listening to human voice on phone , it was dad's voice on the other side.

4: Everyone had strange stories to tell. Take this example: Rupee 1 coin becomes magnet if kept on the rails over which the railways train passes. No wonder Alice in wonderland was very believable story for us, So were Donald duck , jungle book , Aladdin etc. My love for cartoons and animation had germinated in those days , that has continued till this date. Recently i watched "the toy Story" part 1,2,3 , i realized, i might had enjoyed this movie more as a child.

5: Movies were big talking point. Checking for pictures of actors and actresses at any location i.e. stickers , auto rickshaw and obviously spending a lot of time in front of cinema hall posters were fun activities. The location of our school which was not far from a movie hall did act as a catalyst. Some lucky friends used to describe the world inside the cinema hall .Extensive discussion of the actors and their style was on every-day's agenda of childhood friends meetings. Emulating actors was one of the better moments. Even we used to simulate fight sequences with sound effects produced from mouth ex. a typical dishum!! with fist movement. we were believers of Dara Singh's super human capabilities . we actually believed that he can not sit on a chair as any chair will break if Mr. Dara Singh sits on that.

6: Thanks to Ramayana and Mahabharata TV Serials , children were inclined heavily towards archery. Everyone had their own bamboo made arrow and sow. One of my misadventures was when i aimed correctly at the honey bees hive. My face was swollen for many days due to Honey bee stings.My fanfare with bow and arrow continued for some more years.

7: Some TV serials were indispensable .example : Alif Laila . Discussing missed/watched episodes of "alif Laila" was a must do activity. There were some privileged friends who had power back-up at their homes. They religiously watched all "important" episodes , so that we did not miss the continuity by listening to the story ( in case there was power cut/other unavoidable circumstances).

8: I was very fond of gardening . I used to grow flowers in in front/back yard of the house. ( was lucky to have the space for the same ). Sunflowers actually change direction and synchronize their faces with the sun.For us it was nothing less than a wonder. Similarly there were other flowers which used to bloom at particular time of the day/night.Growing flower was some sort of competition then , there was healthy competition as all friends were some sort of gardeners.As i recollect , Marigold was the flower which did require least care.


9: Another specific event during summer vacation was cricket match with teams from neighborhood localities. We used to contribute money for the match , half of investment was for the chewing gum to be used for the match. Usually chewing gum was at stake for the game i.e. winning team used to get chewing from opposite team with a lot of handshakes and hugs. This explains the investment of the other half of the contributed amount. Everyone claimed to posses special cricketing knowledge. The height was when we used to believe in stories of kapil hitting six in Lords and the ball did fall in Eden gardens!!.

10: Evening walks were concluded only when mosquitoes were swarming over the head. Friend having maximum number of mosquitoes over the head was termed as Mosquito king. This was followed by game of transferring the king's crown .As none of us wanted to have that crown over our head, the activity was associated with a lot of noise and running.

11: Summer is season of mangoes. we used to explore all the mango trees in and around the locality. Eating the unripe mango ( Kaeri , as it is called ) with salt is literally mouth watering . I wanted to own a mango tree , when i said this to mom , she said it takes 5 years for a mango seed to become a tree. I sown the mango seed. Looked after my would-be-mango-tree-with-mangoes for three years . Sadly,dad was transferred from the place , so we had to relocate . However,i did get the information later on that the small plant actually did become a big mango tree and people were actually eating fruit from the same. Sometimes to souls which love each other have to separate for ever. But i am happy as i know the dream of having a mango tree was fruitful.

12: Summer is the season of the he power cuts ( At least it is felt most in summer season ). I used to wonder why they cut power so frequently in summer. Dad used to explain, "there is extra load due to heavy usage in summer season". He used to earnestly make statement , " India is a poor country and we don't have enough power". Power cuts also lead to common point of discussion with everyone cursing the bleak power scenario. Power cut led people to come out of houses to get some relief and socialize at the same time. Strangely , we find good things even in sufferings.

Its great to trace back and locate the hobbies which we don't write in our resumes, they surely shape our lives. Moments of innocence , of great learnings , of curiosity , awe , anxiety ; a lot of things happen in the journey called life.The beginning , sometimes can be traced easily and sometimes with difficulty. May be we learn many things from time spent with books , at the same time, time spent away from books are not less important , specially during summer vacations. Summer is not that bad season if the vacation word is associated with the same.

p.s : Moments mentioned above did take place at various places in Bihar where peak summer season is May-June.

Somes Names and friends

There are situations when we subtlety try to make some moments understood by others. One situation is characterized by these questions e.g. How was one supposed to make new friends? What words one had to say? Was there any well defined ritual? I did try to find these questions and would be answers in childhood days. One of the innocuous activity then was touch of forefingers followed by a handshake . Not to forget the excitement that followed . I am still not sure how swami made friends in "Swami and friends-By R.K Narayan " . But they can be taken to be ideal friends , at least for me it was the definition . Another open question , how was one supposed to end the friendship? , yes there was easy way for this ( because it was part of friendship ) . The ritual was to touch little fingers of the forelimb and exchange unfriendly stare.

How was one supposed to identify the best friend? Again answer to this was abstract rather than absolute. May be you knew someone is best friend when you had to separate , not to meet again. An interesting activity , regarding best friend , i got to know from dear mother. She said for them it Was easy and mandatory to find your best friend ( everyone had one best friend ) . They used to call each other with same name because they were best friends. I always knew there was "engine Mausi". My Mom referred to her best friend as "Engine" . I did understand the full scenario when i actually heard "engine Mausi" calling my mom as "Engine". Its amazingly sweet , even now they refer to each other with the same word i.e. engine ( How they found this word for each other is another story ).

A corollary to above scenario is situations when you call some friends with unique names .This name is used by only you and not others in general .Some unique names become so popular and everyone in friend circle will use the same for person under consideration. We do end up giving really unique names to some friends , i remember, i nicknamed one friend "NDTV" because he always had unending "news" to share. His name was later modified to more sober "ND". It's creativity at best when you can nickname people around you without fear of hurting them . You can only gesticulate wildly on hearing those weird names , sometimes you are at receiving end :)

Next question comes , how often we get chance to nickname friends? Some friends are there only for few hours. You suddenly realize what if you had known him/her for better? There is unknown conspiracy to send some people to meet you only for few days and some only for hours , serendipitous. There is realization of the truth , you can't save many good things for tomorrow.

As i look for concluding words , in few days i shall have to shift to new city . Present acquaintances will become part of memory lanes. Some moments will be part of the sweet memories for sure....The Smiling face of newspaperwala when he came with monthly bill , the ever helpful kirana store bhaiyaji who knew what i shall ask for , the repetitive question from the house Maid on weekends , " Bhaiya aaj chutti hai kya?" , the waiter at restaurant who knew i did learn to eat sambhar-rice at his place , the Paan shop i did visit only to buy the match stick box of rupee one , the chicken Centre guy who did give apologetic smile when his stock did end. These Small but beautiful moments define life.

Talking about the nickname replication activity , it is strangely cute occurrence when you call someone special as "baby" and as return you are called as "baby" by the same person . Obviously, the person in question will be more than friend for you i.e. THE ONE for you.

India Unbound : A side view

Recently, i did finish reading the book India Unbound by Gurcharan Das. A blog entry on the same was expected as an after effect. The optimism shown in the book is one of the better points , all of us should show similar pragmatic optimism in daily routine. By the time i realized , i was deeply engrossed reading each chapter with utmost concentration . I wish i can read everything with that level of dedication and concentration. It was heartening to read the facts that how Nehru's idealism failed to get implemented ,how we created difficulty in our own growth story and we failed to eradicate poverty in time. By the time we took measures to remove those obstacles , 40+ years had passed since independence and many countries have moved ahead of us.

Without going into other aspects of the discussions beautifully raised in the book , i would like to come to the topic which i want to elaborate here. Obviously , these are my thoughts and as i fondly say , subject to evolve in future. In the book there were so many references of middle class values. Some values are so apparent and some are hidden , you have to really explore to discover that. The topic is difficult to handle as i can already feel . The source of values are multiple as i try to trace the origin. Some are family values which can qualify to be middle class values.

1: Earn the right to have/haven't : I remember once i had asked dad , " why we can't have that thing called a-car ". Dad's gentle reply was , " only eligible people get that , for that you have to study very hard and get that " . Then i didn't know what people become by studying very hard. He said ," study hard , you will become someone good for sure and you will get 'that-thing' for sure ". This certainly qualifies as middle class value and the motivation is kept alive by always working for the goal and good things do come in between.

2: Austere lifestyle : Extra things should be minimized . Have only those things which you require. When i visit home, i am reminded of austere lifestyle which should be the guiding force. Family members still wonder , how that plate of vegetable served in a normal restaurant can cost 200 rupees per plate. I don't think mom-dad will agree to eat food served which come with such price tag. At the same time , Somehow they think new generation has right to eat that food , the bottom line remains "Earn the right ".

3: Calculate your resources : I failed to explain to dad on the topic , why people use credit cards? His question was, anyway the money has to be paid , so what's usability. I tried to come up with those cash-back and use-now-pay-later argument. But still, that was unconvincing explanation . he said , "may be that is useful ,but i don't understand". Spending after calculating the available resources has been one main family teaching which has been repeated to me time and again . This sub topic will remain incomplete if i don't quote John Abraham . He once said , " I am from the family where 1 rupee is valued as 100 paisa" .This explains the importance of the value. Now i know ,in all middle class families this value is taught everyday.

4: Hard work : Border road Organization's Motto : Shramena Sarvam Sadhyam ( Sanskrit words which means .... with hard work everything is possible ) . I was introduced to this fact in my family , though no one pointed this specifically . I remember my maternal grandma used to extract cream everyday from milk . The process requires a lot of patience and one has to believe the fact that milk contains cream and that can be extracted . That cream was later converted into ghee . With this small reference ,i knew with hard work we can do beautiful things. Other similar instances from my maternal grandma's activities are also mentionable i.e one can scan through 100 kg of rice in one go , looking for presence of small stone pieces or foreign particles not belonging to rice "community" , we can separate two pulses from each other ,last but not the least, one can wake up at "4am" in the morning. Only requirement is belief, supplemented by hard work and sense of urgency. Of course ,later on with experience as we become good at things we do routinely.

5: Learn good things from others : Washing cloths , cleaning utensils , cooking. I did not know these things until i did know i need to perform that activity.I thought ," What is the solution ? isn't it simple?". How mom used to do this task?It's wonderful to know , that you know things from others , in their style. As i wash cloths , i know i'm using mom's algorithm. When i keep a backup plan , i know mom does the same way. When i leave earlier than usual to catch a train , that is dad's way. The arrogance , which i show sometimes ,is from my elder brother. In addition many attributes of mine have come to me from my friends , but that will be other topic of discussion. As middle class we do take help from others and learn from them as well. This can qualify as middle class value.

6: Ignore and adjust :This has been another keyword which i try to work on. I still remember the day when i had to go away from family to carry on with life from boarding school . Mantra given to me was , you need to adjust with different people.
The end result has been , as most of the times i was reserved and was cautious with the fact that how much words i use with whom . I did manage to get good friends in the process.On broader side, we can not be friends with everyone, but this doesn't
mean we should have enemies. Sometimes we have to compromise for mutual good. This is evident in international arena as well ex. India and china are not friends for sure ,with due respect to "Hindi-chini-bhai-bhai" slogan , but our trade volume is
certainly very high.

The quest to understand middle class values is life long . There is always scope to improve on all values identified and one can always discover new ones.

Before closing : India Unbound is certainly one of better books i have read . Reading the book was simply fascinating and great learning experience as well . I can happily say , I am better person after reading this book. The concepts and ideas
described in the book will define me in future and will be guiding force for me.

winter saga: travelled

With mercury reaching new lows in different parts of the country oops!! different parts of the world ( Europe-russia-US will agree ) everyone has at least one question to ask to everyone " kitni thand hai yaar!!" ( cold-cold-cold ). This question works at local as wel as global level...err again...australians will disagree this time. One getting cough and cold only adds to already hot topic of discussion . How memory lanes will spare me in this thought process. Here it goes...


I can't forget going to play at 5am when morning light was still sometime away and fog used to delay the start of play by quite sometime.What made things interesting was all of us knew the delay will be there. But with game in mind it was difficult to sleep a la Swami and friends by R.K narayan. Waking up lazy souls was interesting and lecturing them on importance of the sunday game was fun at best.


If sunday wee hours were beautiful ,all dusks were magnificent.Daylignt used to fade up at astronomical rate and one had to hurry from school to home to get going with the game. Sun god seemed in great hurry to wrap up days activities. Above mentioned phenomena led to fight against time. No one could resist the urge to play new match with reduced overs and reduced boundries. No wonder fading light left us with innumerable games which didn't get complete. Every evening Mom's gentle reminder used to turn into warning for not wearing sweater while playing , this used to conclude with routine "scolding" session .With mornings and evenings getting the mention its time not to forget days when sun god used to get leave i.e chilly nights were after effects of chilly days. I can't forget to mention here Sattu-parantha-baigan-bharta on demand dinner. This was regular demand from me to mom and was generously completed without fail.


With change in location ( i'm in pune now ) change in sun gods routine is not so obvious. Now Waking up at 5 seems like crime .Enjoying warm winter sun-light seems rare activity .Now saturday mornings are reserved for till-10am-sleeping. Change in taste of winter vegetables are not noticeable any more. Before closing....i have words flowing in my mind......even if we can't live some moments again we can always smile thinking about them. This gives motivation to live new moments which in due course of time will get into sweet moments list.

p.s : happy new year if anyone is reading this blog entry :)

"Remote" control

This blog entry is over fight over remote control with special mention to the airtel advertisement : Mera Ghar , Mera TV ,Mera Remote . I always had fight with sister-dear in spite of the fact that there are only two options there in my house ( DD national and DD-news ) . No points for mentioning who used to win the fight and who opted for what....she won obviously (ignoring some exception when mom come to my help ) . I have been away from home for 13 years now, still that fight is renewed everytime i'm at home though the vigour and enthusiasm has diminished over the years.

Coming back to present scenario , in our flat ( 4-5 humans stay there with time-space complexity playing its part).Thanks to BPL TV's small "memory" there is option to tune only 30 channels . So there is COI ( conflict of interest ) everyday with people exchanging awkward facial expression involved with some interference in air resulting into "noise" pollution. I tried to list the reasons

1: Emotional attachment with particular program ( tom and Jerry in my case )

2: One doesn't want to see something

3: one can't ignore some channels.

4: one can't see something.
( other equally good scenarios have been left for reader's imagination )

In good old days one had to walk upto TV to choose channels....oops!! increase-decrease-volume , contrast , fine tuning etc...OOPs-again!! how can i forget voltage control using voltage stabilizer. least lazy one or the youngest one had to take care of these rudimentary works. They might had won the battle of choosing-what-they-want but thanks to this remote control thing the game has changed completely over the years. Ability to make facial expression and "noise" wins the battle( all are good at that ) .

How can one forget the jumbo disk antenna and different angles one had to select to choose channel. I had some experience in boarding school about this , thanks to our curiosity and "in-depth" knowledge of our system experts( seniors ) about the same. I used to remember the angle for star-sports and set-max ( sports specialist) . One interesting memoir....we had made cloth-hanger work as antenna to watch 98'FIFA world cup semis at mid night ( we had to sleep at 10PM by order ) . That antenna didn't work during finals so we didn't get chance to see France striking glory in finals.

No doubt remote-control to watch Tv has given special ability and now people are even recording TV programs with use of mobile phone. But fight over authority over remote control is adding new dimension to already memorable times with idiot-box. I hope someday everyone will have one personal TV following PHP ( Pigeon Hole Principle ) but will the pigeons will be happy then? it is another story.

sound from memory lanes......

image : thakurganj , bihar , i stayed there for 3 years (1995-1997) .look at encircled "mango tree" (planted by me ) and marked railway track (my long evening walk path )
click on pic to see enlarged version of same.

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55fiction:

Morning began with rooster's strut . Now, me walking on railway track.Oops! , train whistling , asking for way. That crow on the railway signal did sit on "my" mango tree today, breaking two leaves. I did retaliate by pelting stones.

Will remember strange whispers of surroundings , nostalgia they say , i will call this, the sound from memory lanes.


P.S : i did imagine me walking on the railway track "then" .

this blog entry has its seeds in

ashrita's comment in my last blog entry when she said she is going to sow some seeds. Me thought about mango tree planted by me long ago. Never saw that as grown up-tree. But from google-earth looks quite big now.

Sound of sound : article by P R chari on TOI 23rd april. Author had home near railway track, he felt nostalgic about trains noise. Me also lived so close to railway line (check encircled house in picture ).

Me did many morning and evening walks on the railway track (yes...me used to walk on the track). Dad used to warn me many times and asked me to walk on sideways.But i did hardly give any care to suggestions :)

So beautiful small-small town thakurganj , thanks to dads transferable job , me lived in such beautiful place . So green and a lot of rain there. Just loved watching huge fields of paddy and banana fields visible from backyard from our house.

Thanks to google-earth!!, me got chance to visit memory-lanes without actually visiting there :)

P.S.S : Another 55fiction from me , me loving this . But this time i had problem cutting so may words , compressing took a lot of editing. So many 'redundant' words were deleted.