Came across two disturbing news today. In continuous firing by Pakistani troops on Indian positions, we lost a JCO yesterday. It was also mentioned in the news item that this was 7th case of an Indian personnel dying in these border skirmishes with Pakistan. It doesn’t imply that we are taking it lying down; our response is very fierce causing extensive damage and casualties on the other side.

Second news is another showdown at Indo China border. One version is that China was once again moving its troops to front position to resume construction work, Indian forces foiled the attempt. Chinese version is that India has been asked to move back its troops to de escalate tension. In either scenario, it indicates renewed tension at Sino Indian border.

The above news items have mentally disturbed me more strongly in view of my day old fresh experience of having watched world war 2 drama Saving Private Ryan. The film directed by celebrated Hollywood director Steven Spielberg is a very brutal and raw depiction of war action. The story relates to martyrdom of three brothers in action, the high point being that even 4th brother is also in action fighting German troops. Chief of staff General Marshall sends a crack team to the field of action to bring back home the 4th brother so that the entire family is not wiped out. Private Ryan comes back home safely, but not before six out of eight members of the crack team are martyred. Also, the scenes of war and suffering are agonising and heart wrenching. And don’t we come across such incidents in our own context where we see multiple martyrdoms from the same family – father first then son or two sons, in another case a wife joining army as replacement for her martyred husband.

When will the good sense prevail in humans that negotiated settlement is the only civilised way of resolving issues. War is destructive. And this I am talking of 40s when the weapons were still not as lethal or destructive as they are now!

Let’s pray for peace, safety of our troops and prevalence of judiciousness and prudence in the minds of governments. Isn’t Corona pandemic causing enough suffering that nations like Pakistan and China are finding it difficult to just hold on to agreed positions of LOC and LAC respectively and fight pandemic instead? Praying for and preaching peace are not necessarily cowardliness! Our forces need not necessarily have to make more sacrifices to prove their valour.

God bless our country and our forces.

They met in the month of February and developed an instant likeness for each other. Actually, their meeting was incidental. He was waiting for the bus, while she was on her two wheeler, which seemed to have had a flat tyre. In a place like Mumbai, where everyone is in a hurry to reach his or her destination, chivalry is rare, but he was chivalrous by nature and he helped her change the tyre. In turn, she offered to drop him to the nearest station, which is also rare in Mumbai where pay back gift is at the most a polite “Thankyou”. Of course, he didn’t accept the offer but came to know the name of the company she worked in. He found the board number of her company and gave her a courtesy call the next day to check whether she had reached home without any further ado. She was really smitten by this kind hearted Samaritan and they decided to meet one of the days post office hours. However, this meeting was not to be as in a few days time the nation was under completely lockdown in view of the Covid pandemic. Luckily, as they had exchanged numbers, they could call each other up and have conversations. Their conversations changed from impersonal to personal and they had started planning for their future. She largely liked his background, job and demeanour and he of course was totally smitten by her.

However, this story was not to have a happy ending. Girl’s parents received a very good match for her from a Dubai based boy of the same community, in fact a boy from the neighbourhood, who had come to Mumbai on a short break, but had got stuck up in lockdown. Now that flights had resumed, his parents didn’t want him to go back alone, but get married and take his bride along! Boy had seen the girl and had generally liked her. The prospects of a simple, no fuss, no expense marriage on an immediate basis suited girls parents eminently as they had 3 daughters all marriageable and marriage of at least one and that too to an overseas boy in a simple fashion was too good to be true. She also couldn’t say no, seeing her parents’ delight and dim prospects of furthering her relationship with that stranger, whom she had net only once, though dreamt of living lifelong with him!

When she informed the boy of her immediate marriage and repatriation to overseas, the boy was crestfallen! But being a true chivalrous, he ………

There are two options to end this story – (1) the boy asked the girl to escape, meet him and elope with him by marrying in a temple or (2) the boy hanged himself to death.

Actually he did nothing. He took it in his stride, wished her a happy married life and moved ahead, waiting for the pandemic to end!

If a non story teller like me can fabricate a quick story in Covid background, no wonder that Bollywood producers are lining up registering names and rushing to make movies with Covid background. The above story has also another dimension for the boy who had come from Dubai. He got stuck up here but went back with a bride and that too of his choice.

Covid is a pandemic

But it can be an opportunity too

There’s so much to learn from it

And so much to do !

My old time friend Sunil Babbar, who is very active on social media, sometimes sends very meaningful posts of lasting value, like the one he sent today on the legend around truth and lie.

In nutshell, the folklore goes around the meeting between the Truth and the Lie one day and the Lie telling the truth about that being a nice day. Though sceptical of taking the Lie’s claim on the face value, the Truth herself looks at the sky and finds it to be a beautiful day indeed! After that they reach a well and the Lie suggests that they should take a bath together. They undress and enter into the water. The Lie comes out of the water, puts on the clothes of the truth, carries her clothes to be disposed of and runs away. Truth comes out and searches the Lie everywhere. The World, seeing the Truth naked, turns its gaze away, with contempt and rage. The poor Truth returns to the well and disappears forever, hiding therein, in shame. Since then, the Lie travels around the world, dressed as the Truth, satisfying the needs of society, because, the World, in any case, harbors no wish at all to meet the naked Truth. There’s also the world-famous painting- “The Truth coming out of the well” by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1896, which is considered a classic.

It’s a simple fact woven beautifully in a simplistic story and immediately reminds one of our own folklore – stories from Panchatantra that were simplistic and yet had a deep moral message at the end. Whether it’s grapes are sour or unity is strength, we have all grown up imbibing wisdom from these folklores.

However, there’s one clear difference between Western legends and myths and our own folklore. Our folklores always end on a positive note to drive home the message. It’s always about the victory of the truth over the evil or good over the bad! In the above story, there’s no option given to the poor Truth to ever come out of the symbolic well and expose the Lie! The Lie dressed up as the Truth seems to be eternal!

If it were a Panchatantra story, a virtuous Prince would have come and stopped by the well, where he would have noticed the naked Truth. He would immediately give his shawl to cover her up, take her out and accompany her in search of the Lie. After a short war, the virtuous prince would kill the Lie, married the Truth and rule the world truthfully like Ramrajya.

Thanks Babbar sir for sharing such priceless nuggets that provide me with an opportunity to share such good thoughts with my readers.

When the Board results were recently announced, we anxiously called up our cousin in Pune, whose daughter had appeared for the exams. Our cousin sounded low and down. On being prodded further, she informed us about her daughter crying inconsolably and uncontrollably since the declaration of results, the reason being she having scored only 97 out of 100 in mathematics. I tried to good humour the girl by making her believe that 97 out of 100 was indeed a big score and that in my times forget 97%, scoring even 50% was considered a big feat. I can’t really say , when the poor kid swam out of ocean of grief, but the incident had a great learning for me.

We don’t celebrate 97 things, achievements or assets that we possess, but lament about 3 that we don’t . We lament not having reached to the top of the organisational hierarchy, but don’t celebrate having reached number 3 position against heavy odds. We don’t enjoy Maruti Baleno that we have, but remain mired in envy of the neighbour having a BMW! And this applies to everything we possess and don’t possess!

Actually, golden words by Mahatria shared every morning by a friend of mine is now a major source of inspiration for my blogging. Today’s thought by Mahatria is not only the inspiration for this blog’s title but the entire blog. The thought immediately transported me to my early days when what we all have today was simply unimaginable. By those standards, I shouldn’t be in the category of middle class or upper middle class but super rich! But the million dollar question is whether a marginal first division holder, an ordinary student, a child from middle class family is happy with today’s distinction and even something much higher? Am I happy with 97 out of 100 or still lamenting about the three beyond me? His today’s thought reads:

“We always complain about the 3 which we did not get, instead of celebrating the 97 which we already got.”

Such a powerful message put so succinctly is Mahatria’s strength.

Came across an interesting take on Covid in social media. Titled Corona Holidays, it goes beyond social distancing, wearing mask and washing hands frequently. It talks about making use of the break provided by Corona virus.

As the article goes, it exhorts readers to use this opportunity for something gainful other than eating junk food and watching television. Amongst the activities, the article lists reading a book, learning a new skill – be it as quaint as learning to cook a dish – and exercising the body. However, what makes the write up very unique is it’s suggestion to adopt daily office routine even if one is working from home. One should get up at the same time as he or she used to during office going days! After finishing daily chores, one should dress up properly as if one is going to office. It warns readers against wearing shabby lazy clothes throughout the day – shots, vest, nighty et al. In fact the article suggests that men should shave regularly and women should focus on personal upkeep.

The above is an entirely new take on Corona holidays. It’s a force majeure but we should not go into an inertia and take to lazy and unhealthy way of life. I have myself experienced change in mood and in fact, performance efficiency when I have treated work from home at par with work from office in respect of start time, breaks, end time and proper dressing. This lends the required seriousness to the office chore that it deserves.

We, the white collar types, who have our jobs and salaries protected, opportunity to work from the comforts of our luxurious homes, wherewithal to stay indoors without any problem and without having to worry about daily grocery and provisions, should thank almighty for this. Covid pandemic has rendered millions jobless and penniless, facing severe challenges in meeting their day to day essential requirements. Who knows when will factories resume normal functioning, infra sites resume developmental work, daily wage earners start getting labour contracts and other menial jobs will be available again? We the privileged ones, instead of treating this break as a holiday, should treat it as an opportunity for self introspection, improvement and improvisation so as to emerge better human beings.

Corona pandemic is not a vacation,

Rather it’s an opportunity for self introspection;

Eating and sleeping are not the only aims,

Learning something new can change the game;

Millions are hungry and without proper work,

Let’s help such needy and not shirk;

In adversity communities should unite,

If we look other way, our conscience will bite;

Let’s do something for ourselves and our brethren in need;

Because we are Indians, known world over for our noble deed!

He announced his ailment in May last year. Came to Mumbai in June for treatment. In 3 months time it was concluded that the strain was incurable. We were advised to try out alternative medicines. We took him to Bhilwara for Ayurvedic treatment that claimed cancer cure by following a regimen. He went back to follow the regimen. When the pain became unbearable, he returned in December. Various treatments were tried that gave him relief albeit temporarily. He was stuck here for 7 months due to Covid lockdown. Doctors advised us to take first flight home as soon as flights resumed. He went back in July and breathed his last this morning after losing battle to the dreaded cancer.

He was God’s man. Was he religious? No I don’t think so! Did he visit temples and Gurudwaras? Again the answer is no! Did he observe festivals and rituals associated with them? The answer is a firm no! Did he pray? Not that I know of, unless he was saying his prayers silently! Then how could be God’s very own man. Because he was selfless, gentle, honest to the core, unpretentious, out of any rat race for chasing materialistic goals and never said a bad word about anyone – not even for his worst enemies, which he had none! He lost more money than he earned in spite of working very hard, yet he had no rancour for his business partners who short changed him!

It was his first visit to our residence for which we had to wait for more than 32 years into our married life and that too under the most unfortunate circumstances. He was shuttling between hospitals and doctors yet we had good days to enjoy life. As he summed up most innocently – “ I might have come to Mumbai for treatment of a terminal ailment, yet I have had the time of my life.”

All forms of treatment, all sorts of prayers and mantras, magic potions and miracle cures prove ineffective for the death is all powerful and the ultimate destination and nobody can defeat or delay the destined moment!

A son, brother, father, husband and a friend is gone, but for the family, his memories will linger on for all times to come. So many people prayed for him and wished him well! He was too shy and reticent to convey his thanks for he knew no formalities! I fulfil this unfinished task on his behalf!

Rest in peace Jasmit! In death you have found deliverance from your woes! Gods will throw open the gates of heaven to welcome you because you were such a noble soul!

I distinctly remember the year. It was 2001 and we were only a couple of months old in Mumbai trying to come to terms with life in the city that was known the world over for the speed at which it moved. 7.45 morning bus to Andheri station to catch 8.15 am local so as to reach Churchgate by 9 am and my office at Cuffe Parade by 9.30 am. Ditto routine on the way back.

And then it was time for Ganesh Chaturthi. Our neighbour suggested that we should go to Juhu beach to see immersion of 1 and a half day idols. It was an exhilarating experience, something never seen before! Hordes of people chanting “Ganpati Bappa Moriya “ totally saturated in the love of their favourite elephant God who, after being their guest for 1.5 days, was going back to his mother’s lap but in the process taking all the woes of his devotees and blessing them with yearlong happiness!

I and my wife were totally flabbergasted with this experience and decided from the following year we would also bring home Lord Ganesha as our guest, celebrate his stay at our place and then immerse him in the sea.

And indeed we fulfilled our dream, a tradition that we have been consistently observing non stop for last 18 years or so. Bringing the lord home, preparing special food ( Prasadam), inviting our friends and neighbours for darshan and Prasad and seeing him off next day is a celebration that we eagerly wait for each year.

This year, however, my wife is nursing her brother, a terminal stage cancer patient living his last days and is not in Mumbai. However, she doesn’t want this tradition to break and I will be doing all the aforesaid celebratory rituals albeit on a smaller scale ( actually all by myself, sharing Prasad with security and other helping staff of our building)!

Life’s realities are unpredictable. We are thankful that we got an opportunity to celebrate this traditional festival for so many years non-stop, shall be doing so this year albeit mutedly.

While personal problems and grievances are part of one’s life, let’s collectively pray to Bappa to take this coronavirus with him so that the entire mankind can relive this beautiful world full of lord’s largesse blessings. We may not be able to meet Lalbagcha Raja, who is giving his audience a miss after 84 years or go pandal hopping or celebrate the festival with traditional gaiety and fervour with our friends and relatives like always, hopefully this Ganesh festival will end our woes and the next year’s festival will be back with all its traditional glory!

Ganpati Bappa Moriya!

Came across this beautiful piece, reproduced below in Hindi on as is basis ,on what we earlier used to call a “housewife” but like everything we now address with a slightly more respectable name – “homemaker”.

In the current Covid times, social media is replete with the new trend of working from home and how this new normal is dragging menfolk into daily household chores – cleaning, doing dishes, cooking and managing children. Needless to say most of these are in lighter vein and homemaker, if anything, has only become harder pressed with the office goer making his home his office and expecting all the office comforts at his home office.

I don’t believe in gender bias and in fact, so many women are also working from home and in fact balancing their professional and personal responsibilities far better. However, the fact remains that we have all grown up in society that’s predominantly patriarchal and though all of us would have come across strong characters in our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, wives, daughters etc, admittedly such cases are fewer and the scenario is largely that of lady as the homemaker and man as the bread winner. Many working women of super talent are also expected to sacrifice full time job to shoulder familial responsibilities.

Times have changed and several of the younger couples have based their relationships on the underlying principle of equality and are sharing all domestic responsibilities including raising children by being equal partners. However, the reality for larger percentage of families is still a lady being the homemaker. While I personally respect the role of a homemaker as I find it tough full time and exhausting, we can definitely make it more beautiful by acknowledging the effort and underlying sacrifice. I came across this prosaic cum poetic piece in social media and it touched the strings of my heart immediately forcing me to ponder over the sacrifice and selfless efforts by my mother, grandmother and wife, which we all tend to take for granted. The piece reads-

कभी बनाना लिस्ट…क्या क्या बनाया है बीवी ने…

वो कहती है बनाने में घण्टों लगते है…
और खाने में पल भर …

कभी कुछ बड़े जतन से बनाती है…
सुबह से तैयारी करके…
कभी कुछ धुप में सुखा के…
तो कभी कुछ पानी में भिगो के…
कभी मसालेदार..
तो कभी गुड़ सी मीठी…
सारे स्वाद समेट लेती हैं …
आलू के पराठों में, या गाजर के हलवे में, ऊपर बारीक कटे धनिये के पत्तो में, या पीस कर डाले गए इलाइची के दानों में…
सारे स्वाद समेट देती हैं एक छोटी सी थाली में…
न जाने कहाँ कहाँ से लाती है…
ना जाने कितना कुछ तो होता है …
कभी लिस्ट बनाना …
बीवी ने जो कुछ भी.. कभी भी बनाया है…
तुम बना नही पाओगे…

हमें भी बस खाना ही दिखता है…
पर नही दिखती…
किचन की गर्मी,

उसका पसीना,

हाथ में गरम तेल के छींटे,

कटने के निशान,

कमर का दर्द,

पैरो में सूजन,

सफ़ेद होते बाल..

कभी नहीं दिखते…,,

कभी तो ध्यान से देखो ना,,उस की छोटी से रसोई में… कोई दिखेगा तुम्हे ,,

जो बदल गया है इतने सालो में… दांत हिले होंगे कुछ….
बाल झड़ गए होंगे कुछ…
झुर्रियां आयी होंगी कुछ तुम्हारे मकान को घर बनाने में,,,,,
चश्मा लगाए, हाथ में अपनी करछी, बेलन लिए जुटी होगी…
आज भी वही कर रही है.. जो कर रही है वो पिछले पच्चीस तीस सालों से, और तुम्हे देखते ही पूछेगी
“क्या चाहिए?”…

कभी देखना उसके मन के कुछ अनकहे ज़ज़्बात, दबी हुई इच्छाएं,,
जो दिखती नही..

क्योंकि जो दिखती नही, उन्हें देखना और भी ज़्यादा ज़रूरी होता है…

जब रसोई से दो बिस्किट या रस हाथ में लेकर निकलता हूँ,, कभी उसकी गैर मौजूदगी में…

तब उसकी बात सोचने पे मज़बूर कर देती है… क्योंकि उसने सिर्फ खाना ही नहीं बनाया है इतने सालो में…
तुम्हें भी बनाया है…
खुद को मिटा के…
और याद है न…
बनाने में घण्टों लगते है..ख़तम एक बार में हो जाता है …पूरा घर बनाया है…
दिन रात मेहनत करके…
कभी बनाना लिस्ट और क्या क्या बनाया है बीवी ने…

लिस्ट बन नहीं पाएगी
कोशिश करना ..
कभी बन नहीं पाएगी🙏

I agree that all the work by homemaker is unlisted, unacknowledged, unpaid and thankless. Let’s all take a moment out of our busy schedules to pay our heartfelt gratitude to these daily warriors.

Just came to know that the doyen of classical Hindustani music Pt Jasraj is no more. He breathed his last at US and died of cardiac arrest.

He belonged to mewati gharana and had an illustrious lineage. His father Pt Motiram was a doyen himself as were his elder brothers Pt Maniram and Pt Pratap Narayan.

Pt Jasraj had a charm around him, the way Pt Ravi Shankar had that attracted music lovers towards him, who would listen to his performances spellbound for hours. Though a torch bearer of his gharana, he was not a stickler for being a purist and experimented a lot in his lifetime. He sang bhajans, semi classical and other forms such as Multani and Sufi with equal aplomb. Highly honoured in his lifetime, Panditji got his Padma Vibhushan in the year 2000. But his greatness was not slave of any honour and his contribution to Hindustani classical music goes much beyond any recognition or honour.

While I have witnessed his performances umpteen number of times on TV and YouTube, I had the rare opportunity of listening to Panditji’s performance live at a musical evening organised at the Kolkata residence of Suresh Neotia, promoter of Ambuja Cement, a diehard music lover himself. I was held spellbound by several greats like Girija Devi and Panditji’s performance was an icing on the cake.

His children Durga Jasraj and Shaarang Dev are music exponents in their own right and his extended musical family includes famous music duo of Jatin Lalit, Sulakshana Pandit, Vijayeta Pandit, Devaki Pandit and late music director Adesh Srivastava.

Panditji leaves behind a rich legacy in the form of his work as also his disciples, including his children and other family members. However, the chasm and vacuum created by his death will be very hard to bridge for talents like Panditji are not born every day.

It can be argued whether Dhoni timed his retirement well. There’s never a right time for such things. And these discussions happen irrespective of whenever a player of substance opts for retirement . It happened when Gavaskar, Kapil and Ganguly retired.

Arguably India’s most successful stumper and keeper, what cannot be argued is the fact that he was indeed Mr Cool. A man with nerves of steel, he had the uncanny ability to give his best under the most trying circumstances. And what he and before him Kapil and Ganguly could be credited with is teaching the Indian team the killer instinct that was sadly amiss in the earlier years.

The only wicket keeper captain to win all ICC championships in all three formats, he could change his style of playing depending on the circumstances and game format. That’s what gave him longevity in today’s competitive times. 18 years in official cricket is helluva lot of period in today’s times. Credit must be given to his fighting spirit, fitness and hunger for winning.

Social media groups are agog with needless discussion whether he was greatest ever. Such discussions happen and feelings experienced every time a legend calls it a day – it happened when Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Kapil, Dravid, VVS called it a day.

While wicket keepers and stumpers play an important part in a team – they keep wickets as also uplift the morale of the team – in India, spinners have always played an important role. Whether it was Vinu Mankad or trio of Bedi, Prasanna and Chandra or Dilip Doshi, Maninder, Shivlal Yadav, Hirwani, Kumble, Ashwin et al – role of wicket keeper as a stumper becomes very critical. Therefore, Dhoni and before him Engineer and Kirmani, acquired almost cult status adding that extra edge to art of Indian spin bowling.

Whether it was leading India to World Cup victory or ICC T 20 or as long serving member of CSK – Dhoni’s memories are going to last for long long time to come amongst the cricket lovers of this country.

It’s a bit of an irony that Dhoni decided to hang his boots shortly after his screen portrayer Sushant Singh Rajput chose suicide as an option as a solution for his depression. While there is speculation on his suicide, there’s no speculation on the fact that Sushant immortalised MSD in the film of the same name. How a small time boy from Ranchi went all the way to acquire cult status and become one of the most adorable darlings of cricket fans is the stuff folklores are made of ! Musharraf loved his hair style, few loved his helicopter shot, a few others loved his captain cool image, but no doubt everyone loved the man MSD and will continue to love him as long as the game of cricket is played. In a sense, Dhoni immortalised Sushant the way Sushant immortalised him on the screen ! Playing Dhoni became silver lining in his short career whose long career is the silver lining on the game of cricket in India.

Who will keep his cool in trying times?

Who will hit those sixers ?

Genuine talent like MSD is rare;

In today’s times of fixers!!!

Stay happy MSD in whatever you do in your next innings. Good wishes and love of millions of cricket lovers will always be with you.