Received presumably an old piece of poetry by redoubtable Gulzar, for the kind of vocabulary he uses touches your heart immediately, from a friend on WhatsApp on the occasion of festival of lights, Diwali. I feel a strong urge to share the same with my readers, along with my translation, which is no patch on the original Gulzar poem, for translating the spirit of his work is not only difficult, but impossible and I am no great shakes as far as linguistic skills are concerned. Yet I exhort all of you to enjoy – the original as far as possible, and the translation, if Hindi is not your forte, especially youngsters, who may not realise that walls were indeed painted with lime and 25 and 50 paise coins indeed had value.

हफ्तों पहले से साफ़-सफाई में जुट जाते हैं
चूने के कनिस्तर में थोड़ी नील मिलाते हैं
अलमारी खिसका खोयी चीज़ वापस पाते हैं
दोछत्ती का कबाड़ बेच कुछ पैसे कमाते हैं 
चलो इस दफ़े दिवाली घर पे मनाते हैं ….

Cleaning operations commenced weeks in advance
With walls painted white in line with a dash of blue
Almirahs moved from their place led to  recovery of long lost items
Selling scrap would yield a rupee or two
Let’s keep the same spirit of Diwal alive


दौड़-भाग के घर का हर सामान लाते हैं 
चवन्नी -अठन्नी पटाखों के लिए बचाते हैं
सजी बाज़ार की रौनक देखने जाते हैं
सिर्फ दाम पूछने के लिए चीजों को उठाते हैं
चलो इस दफ़े दिवाली घर पे मनाते हैं …. 

Running across to fulfil the last minute needs
Saving some money in the process to buy crackers to light
Well adorned markets attracted everyone
And window shopping gave all the delight
Let’s keep the same spirit of Diwali alive

बिजली की झालर छत से लटकाते हैं
कुछ में मास्टर बल्ब भी लगाते हैं
टेस्टर लिए पूरे इलेक्ट्रीशियन बन जाते हैं
दो-चार बिजली के झटके भी खाते हैं
*चलो इस दफ़े दिवाली घर पे मनाते हैं ….* 

Electric lights adorned the roofs
Master bulb made them to twinkle
Tester was the most important tool
And occasional shock gave no wrinkle
Let’s keep the same spirit of Diwali alive

दूर थोक की दुकान से पटाखे लाते है
मुर्गा ब्रांड हर पैकेट में खोजते जाते है
दो दिन तक उन्हें छत की धूप में सुखाते हैं
बार-बार बस गिनते जाते है
*चलो इस दफ़े दिवाली घर पे मनाते हैं ….*

Traveled long distance for cheaper crackers 

And Cock brand was a preferred brand

These crackers were dried in the Sun

So that burning then produced effect that’s grand

Let’s keep the same spirit of Diwali alive 

धनतेरस के दिन कटोरदान लाते है
छत के जंगले से कंडील लटकाते हैं
मिठाई के ऊपर लगे काजू-बादाम खाते हैं
प्रसाद की थाली पड़ोस में देने जाते हैं
*चलो इस दफ़े दिवाली घर पे मनाते हैं ….*

Utensils were bought on Dhanteras 

Paper chandeliers adorned the top

Dry fruits atop sweet meats were eaten first 

And exchanging sweets with neighbours was priority on top

Let’s keep the same spirit of Diwali alive 

अन्नकूट के लिए सब्जियों का ढेर लगाते है 
भैया-दूज के दिन दीदी से आशीर्वाद पाते हैं 
*चलो इस दफ़े दिवाली घर पे मनाते हैं ….* 

Festivities continued the next day 

With vegetables adorning households 

And Bhai Duj a day after 

Strengthened brother sister bonds

Let’s keep the same spirit of Diwali alive 

दिवाली बीत जाने पे दुखी हो जाते हैं 
कुछ न फूटे पटाखों का बारूद जलाते हैं 
घर की छत पे दगे हुए राकेट पाते हैं 
बुझे दीयों को मुंडेर से हटाते हैं 
*चलो इस दफ़े दिवाली घर पे मनाते हैं ….* 

End of Diwali was a matter of despair 

Vestiges of the crackers burnt representing happiness gone by

And it was time to clean the neighbourhood 

By removing wastes, burnt lamps but feeling high and dry! 

Happy Diwali to all once again!

The other day a friend shared a post on WhatsApp in which former Pakistan cricket captain Intekhab Alam shared his reminiscences about Bishan Singh Bedi, the great Indian left arm spinner, who expired a few days back. The post vividly brings out the man that Bedi was – a loveable friend, a great cricketer and above all, a perfect gentleman.

Bedi was one of the architects of the position of eminence in the cricketing world that team India finds itself today in. He along with his compatriots, leg spinner B S Chandrashekhar and off spinner EAS Prasanna ( also S Venkatraghavan, who frequently substituted Prasanna) formed the great spin triumvirate, much before deadly duo of Thomson and Lillee, Imran and Sarfaraz, Waqar and Akram and the great terrible twins – Croft and Garner formed pairs. India of those days just waited for the new cherry to be soiled a bit – two three overs by the likes of Abid Ali, Ghavri, even Solkar before unleashing it’s main weapon of destruction- the triumvirate. Usually, Bedi was the first to be introduced as he was able to grip a relatively new ball better than the others . With his gently flighted deliveries, he’d put immediate brakes on the runs, choking the batter to try something adventurous and he or his other colleagues would start the demolition. No wonder, till Kapil’s arrival on the scene, who then started the trend of India producing genuine fast bowlers, the spinners ruled the roost with the three of these greats sharing almost 700 wickets amongst them. Bedi’s 266 wickets, till Kapil broke his record, which is now bettered by Kumble and Ashwin, was the best performance by any Indian for several years.

And Bedi was all about grace, patience, artistry, magic and beauty. He was a perfect gentleman but firm when it came to the rules or injustice. But he was a true friend, a person most humble in spite of his great success. He was such an obsessive friend that he named his first son Gavasinder Singh, being totally enamoured by his another great colleague, Sunil Gavaskar, though later on they fell out on some issue.

There were spinners before Bedi ( Vinu Mankad, Subhash Gupte etc) and spinners after him ( Dilip Doshi, Maninder, Ravi Shastri and currently Aksar and Jadeja), but we in our lifetimes may not witness anyone like Bedi – charming, graceful, wizard, artist and of course, a gentleman to the core!

No tribute can be big enough to cover all aspects of his life, which was well lived despite its ups and downs!

RIP the great man !

Folklores connected with our festivals make up for interesting stories, comprising very colourful characters. These fables have a mention in our great scriptures, having great moral value. But apart from the characters tinged in the shades of black, white and grey, there’s strong symbolism in these fables and the excitement over the story sometimes pales this important symbolism and we miss the important underlying message.

Therefore Dussehra, celebrating slaying of Ravana by Lord Rama and Bijoya, celebrating departure of Durga Ma after killing Mahishasura, in fact symbolise victory of good over evil, also reflected by burning of Ravana’s effigy and immersion of Durga’s idol.

This Dussehra let’s slay the demon of communalism, regionalism, casteism, factionalism, gender bias, corruption, divisiveness and personal vices by burning or drowning them and emerging victorious a la Lord Rama or Goddess Durga. We must celebrate all rituals and eat the best sweet meats, but not waste the opportunity by overlooking the underlying great symbolism.

Happy Dussehra and shubho Bijoya!

My previous blog on family reunion on the occasion of my Mama’s golden anniversary received lots of love, but another more beautiful and affectionate reunion happened in my family, albeit a little away in Johannesburg.

My daughter was required to go to Berlin for a week in connection with the global module of MBA being pursued by her. Neither we nor her Durban based in laws were able to be with children in her absence because of respective preoccupation. Ankita had started preparing both her kids, 6 and 4, many days in advance and advised them to be good boys and not yo bother their father or their full time domestic help. But expectedly children were playing truant at the thought of being without their mother for one full week.

At last the D day came and the scene at the aeroplane was most heart rending. The elder one started crying uncontrollably and the junior joined the chorus. Sitting thousands of kilometres away, we were feeling helpless.

To cut the story short, the children behaved well and spent most of the week in anticipation of their mother’s return. The elder one, an accomplished baker, prepared special chocolate cake iced with vanilla cream, while the younger joined him in decorating the house. My daughter, upon her return, received virtually a red carpet welcome with house decorated, cake beautifully laid on the table and above all invaluable hugs and kisses from the two munchkins.

It was a family reunion most memorable and most affectionate. Children really won our hearts and proud parents and grandparents are understandably on cloud 9.

This Indian team competing for World Cup seems very special. The strength of this team can be very well imagined from its bench strength. One of the finest exponents of spin bowling Ashwin, the lion hearted quickie Mohammed Shami, explosive batter Surya Kumar Yadav and hugely talented Ishant Kishan are not finding a place in playing X1. And what about the captain of gold medal wining team in Asian games, Ruturaj Gaikwad and sensational find Yashasvi Jaiswal. Other members of the Asian games gold winning team included Arshdeep, Prasidha Krishna, Jaydev Unadkat, Avesh Khan and Shahbaz Ahmed, all eminently eligible to be part of the first playing XI for the country. And let’s not forget that Akshar Patel and Rishabh Pant are injured but may be available soon. I don’t think that our selectors were spoil for so much choice ever before.

The current combination is indeed a winning one, capable of lifting the World Cup. Yesterday’s dominating performance against arch rivals Pakistan reaffirms the preparation and talent of this team. They just need to stay fit and focused and avoid complacency and overconfidence and we can give befitting farewell to our great heroes of the post Sachin era – Virat and Rohit, whose services may not be available in the next World Cup.

Victory over Pakistan is just another game, a part of the journey and not an end: There are still important matches against England, NZ, Bangladesh and Srilanka to be played and won. Yesterday’s victory has raised our expectations from our heroes.

Fire all cylinders Bumrah and Siraj and repeat sublime batting Virat, KL Rahul and Rohit. We 140 crore Indians are there to cheer for you.

The morning thought from my friend, an ardent Mahatria devotee, once again inspired me to write this blog.

Mahatria says that food is no longer food but has become protein, carbohydrate, fats and more than everything else – calories. Food is not looked up as food but as number of calories it contains. This has become the tragedy of the modern life.

He explains that food should be cooked with love, served with love and eaten with love, then only even the simplest of foods becomes and tastes like ambrosia, the food of gods. He further says that even if the first two that is cooking and serving is not in our hands, at least we can eat it with love and such food will provide us with everything- health, energy, satisfaction and joy.

The above message is of great pertinence when we are trying to substitute our three simple meals with keto, meatless, vegan etc diets and practicing intermittent fasting, five meals and other such purportedly healthy but unproven acts based mainly on social media. To sum up poetically:

When our Ma served us dal, chawal, Roti and sabzi,

In between occasions of eating meat or special dishes were looked forward to;

No one counted calories or used supplements,

And yet meals were enjoyable and healthy too!

And then we started following a trend,

To look muscular, cut obesity and have a body straight out of gym;

Our three square meals became events most abhorred,

The joy of eating food and savouring it became dark and dim!

I think the key would be moderation. Rest whatever is edible is designed by the almighty for eating only. Let’s celebrate Mahatria’s message by eating what we have always been eating.

The occasion was very special – golden anniversary of one of my Mamas. Lucky are those who enjoy companionship of their spouses for half a century and more. And this occasion was celebrated with glitz and glitter it deserved. The function was held at a very upmarket venue, highlighted by choicest drinks and gourmet food and above all facilitated reunion of the extended family’s members. It was all the more special for me as except for one uncle based in US along with his family, all other uncles, aunts, their children and next generation comprising their grandchildren and in case of my mother, now the eldest surviving member of the big clan, great grandchildren too, are based in Delhi and meet each other frequently. I met a few of them after ages.

My elder brother is the eldest amongst all 14 of us cousins born to seven brothers and sisters. I am the second eldest. The junior most is good 19 years younger to me, while the next eldest is only two years younger. Thus, while the next eldest has been one of the best friends of mine, with whom I shared some of the best moments of my childhood, from the next eldest onwards, they have been kid brothers and sisters, whom I cuddled and lapped in their infancy and childhood. Now they are all parents with grown up kids, with one having become a father in law too! But when we reunited, it was all nostalgia and sweet memories of our shared childhood and time.

As aforesaid, I, by virtue of having stayed most of the last 4 decades outside Delhi, haven’t been meeting any of them frequently, but their love and affection towards me overwhelmed me. It’s rightly said that blood is thicker than water. In our lifetime, we make many relationships but the bonds that we build in our childhood or early part of life are bonds that last forever whether we make any efforts to renew or nurture them or not.

I would thank two of my cousins, sons of my Mama and Mami, the golden couple, who arranged this magnificent get together that brought all the old memories back with utmost fondness!

Once again happy golden jubilee to my beloved Mama and mami and thanks to everyone else for making this special occasion memorable!

First thing that caught our fancy during the Ganpati festival in the very year of our arrival in Mumbai was the adoration and respect bestowed upon the elephant god by anointing him as king of the area where the community pandal was put up to celebrate the 10 days festival. Of course, thanks to Bollywood and Mumbai’s numero uno place among the cities in India, we had an inkling of the grandeur and scale of the festival and had also heard about the very special status enjoyed by Lalbaug cha Raja amongst all the deities. But to come across various Rajas – Andheri cha, Juhu cha, Malad cha, Fort cha etc was the most fascinating experience.

Our daughter, a denizen of Johannesburg, came to know through local Indian diaspora about Ganpati festival being celebrated at one of the local temples. Over the weekend, she along with her family joined the celebration that included exhibition and various other programmes, including rendition of bhajans, the devotional songs. The climax of this very enjoyable and pious evening was delicious Prasad, the theme for the day being Marwari food, including dal- baati, churma. She also came to know that previous day cuisine was Gujarati while for the subsequent day, Marathi food was planned. Over 10 days of festivities, Temple has been celebrating by serving cuisine of one of the Indian states as Prasad.

While all the above was a great experience for my daughter for reliving the Mumbai and India’s experience, my joy knew no bounds when she told me that Ganpati idol installed there is being named as Johannesburg cha Raja! Mumbai, Maharashtra and India are Lord Ganpati’s domain; but when this popular God reaches far flung geographies to spread happiness amongst his devotees, it’s simply ecstatic!

Ganpati Bappa Morya! Johannesburg Cha Raja ki Jai!

Came across a TED talk video that touched something that’s very close to my heart – incivility. As per the speaker, incivility is rude or impolite behaviour and could comprise any of the following- texting during the meeting, coming late or leaving early under any pretext, demeaning others, making mockery etc. The video goes on to analysing the reasons that lead to incivility, especially in an office scenario and steers clear of incivility in our outside office behaviour, which will include all that tantamounts to breach of social etiquette, a very large theme in itself. But most importantly the talk refers to studies and empirical data flowing out of such studies that clearly prove that incivility leads to a serious and significant erosion in productivity and bottom line. And the indirect outcomes include lack of involvement of employees, indifference towards corporate’s cause and ultimate attrition.

I am neither an advocate of complete democracy in an organisation nor do I support insubordination of any kind. But whether rudeness, hitting below the belt, mocking people, treating them with disdain are the only tools with the managers to deal with underperforming staff or are their more civilised tools available that help in conveying the message without hurting the ego or the sensibility of the guy being reprimanded.

To me this issue should not be swept under the carpet by any organisation on the grounds of “ this being any manager’s inherent nature or style of functioning”, but should be discussed threadbare in the overall interest of the organisation of the outcomes of incivility are so serious.

The importance, grandeur and devotion with which Ganpati festival is celebrated in this part of the country was alien to us when we came to Mumbai more than two decades ago. We couldn’t resist its charm, the way we couldn’t resist the charm of this great city and decided to make this city our home and the festival our own. Life, like always, is a roller coaster ride, highlighted by ups and downs, highs and lows and good and bad, but as the Chaturthi comes and Bappa arrives to bless our home, all negativity just vanishes, making way for delight, happiness and elation. Such is the power of this festival and its presiding deity! And while our Ganpati is consigned to the depths of sea the next day, the celebrations continue for the next ten days entailing visits to iconic pandals, including the most revered, “Lalbaug cha Raja”, who enjoys unparalleled adulation of his devotees.

And the prayers offered to the merciful lord are not only about self, family and other nears and dears. In fact, whatever concerns our city, nation and planet is also placed before Bappa in the form of prayers. Whether it’s erratic rain or havoc caused by floods, welfare of our brave hearts fighting enemy or terrorists, peace and prosperity in the parts of the country, especially Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur, communal harmony, success of Chandrayan and Aditya and everything else for which we as human feel helpless, seeking salvation from Ganpati, get included in our prayers in the hope that, his immersion will herald the end of all the problems, bringing peace and prosperity for the entire mankind!

When faced with complex problems,

Only helplessness is felt inwards

The only hope then one gets is,

By looking nowhere else, but only skywards.

And our prayers to someone in the sky

Don’t go abegging or unheard;

On Ganesh Chaturthi comes visiting Ganpati

The sukh karta and dukh harta of this world!

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to everyone! Ganpati Bappa Morya!