Come autumn or Sharad Ritu in Hindi and its time for Sharad Navratri. It heralds the beginning of festival season marked by 9 days of offering worship to nine forms of Goddess Durga viz. Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skanda Mata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri, and Siddhidatri.

Sharad Navratri brings whole lot of nostalgia of my childhood days to the fore for it was time for the first school break called autumn break or Dussehra holidays. The nights in Delhi were crisply cool and it was Ramlila time, nine days of celebrating Lord Rama’s life culminating into assassination of the demon king Ravana and burning of the effigies of Ravana, his brother Meghanad and son Kumbhakarna on Dussehra day.

Ramlila staged by amateur actors happened in almost all the localities. Of course, there were more professional ones at Ramlila ground and DCM, where well known actors played the characters from Ramayana and there was good grandeur and use of gadgets for special effects. Going with friends after dinner to watch this show that lasted well up to midnight over groundnuts is an unforgettable experience. And watching burning of the effigies of the aforesaid three evils on the last day was accompanied by the mandatory treat of kadai hot jalebis though by the end of the day, spirit used to start sagging as it was school time again the next day!

In Kolkata it used to be total shutdown from the sixth day onwards during the day, with the city coming alive at night with hordes of families doing pandal hopping and eating savouries.

In Mumbai, it was all about 9 days of dandiya that presented colourful pageantry.

Readers must be wondering the use of past tense in this blog. Because while Delhi , which I left in 1986 and Kolkata, where I last stayed in 1999 are all in my memory, Mumbai, where I have stayed for last 2 decades is sensibly staying away from all this celebrations to defeat Corona virus. Like Lord Rama killed the demon king to liberate his beloved wife and goddess Durga killed Mahishasura, we the ordinary folks will have to emulate our revered gods to kill this demon coronavirus by wearing mask, washing hands, maintaining social distancing and staying safe so as to celebrate Ramlila, Durga Puja and Dandiya next year and convert the past tense into present once again.

Happy Navratri!

Do you ever imagine the kind of feeling that could be experienced by a space traveller, who spent months in space conducting certain chores and experiments ? Or for that matter someone on an expedition to Antarctica or posted in a place like Siachen glacier that would keep him or her away months together from the normal world? Though not the right example and definitely not in the same vein as above quoted instances that are reflective of heroism and bravery but evoking may be similar feeling would be that of a prisoner undergoing term punishment?

Before my readers start feeling zapped with the riddle, let me clarify what it is all about? It’s a unique, hitherto not experienced and a very strange feeling that has engulfed not only me but all of us for the last 7 months! What has led to this feeling:

(1) I have not boarded Mumbai local for 7 months, which I used to board daily while returning from office. Ditto Mumbai metro.

(2) I haven’t seen my driver who has been with me for last 20 years and who has been ringing my doorbell each day sharp at 7.30 am, since the lockdown started.

(3) I have not visited Siddhivinayak temple since my last visit on March 7th and Four Bungalows Gurudwara opposite my residence, a source of daily inspiration, has been out of bounds since the start of lockdown.

(4) I haven’t been to my favourite restaurant for last so many months, which has been my weekend haunt for the past so many years and when I visited multiplex for a movie last beats my memory.

(5) I have been working for close to 4 decades and the only time when I missed office for more than 15 days at a stretch was during my marriage when I took leave for 4 weeks. Since 1st of April this year, I have been to office only on 4 occasions, working from home all this while.

(6) Haven’t met my old mother staying in Delhi for more than 1 year and my daughter and her children living in Johannesburg for almost an year.

(7) I eagerly awaited the morning copy of daily newspaper first thing after getting up; haven’t touched hard copy of newspaper for last so many months!

(8) And this list can go on and on – haven’t visited friends place, have not been to Mall, haven’t boarded an aircraft, haven’t shaken hands or hugged and above all, haven’t eaten a paan !

Could we have ever imagined the impasse that our lives would come to ? Isn’t it a feeling that’s like no other feeling that ordinary folks like us have experienced in our lifetimes and so far would have been unique to astronauts, explorers, soldiers and as an outlier to prisoners!

Go Covid go!

Now that the process of unlockdown has started, things are slowly trying to come back to normal. However, the point to be noted is that unlockdown is not an outcome of waning Covid. Rather Covid seems to be growing stronger, infecting people and killing many. The latest victim of Covid is US President Trump, who seems to have come out of it as dramatically as he fell victim.

But people are treating this opening up as old normal. They are crowding markets, bidding adieu to masks, becoming casual about need for social distancing and doing almost everything that they were doing in the pre Covid period. So far Mumbai local and metro have not commenced services but I am sure once these services restart, the scene will not be very different.

Actually, the main reason behind this casualness is the feeling that I am immune to Covid! Everyone thinks so unless he or she is actually infected! But here people should understand that if the President of the most advanced nation on the earth is vulnerable, than we ordinary mortals are certainly very much on Covid’s hit list!

The reality is that by not observing the Covid rules, we are not only risking our lives, but we are in fact becoming Corona carriers, as against Corona warriors who are national heroes. When we don’t wear mask, don’t practice social distancing, don’t go out unless extremely urgent and adapt “ care a hoot” attitude, we are making ourselves corona carriers. We may have natural immunity or antibodies as a result of herd immunity, but we can transmit the virus to others, which could be fatal for those who may not be as strong as we are! I go a step further and assert that by applying the analogy of Corona warriors being national heroes, Corona carriers become national villains. When it comes to the matter of community, the onus is on each member to ensure the safety and well being of the community. One rotten fish can spoil the entire pond.

Lockdown is opening

And things are becoming normal

But not wearing mask and being careless

Are both impudent and immoral!

Warriors have fought the virus for months

They are exhausted, tired and groggy

If we can’t augment their efforts

Let’s not be carriers either, making nation’s fight soggy!

Let’s defeat Corona and eradicate it because it’s so contagious that even if one strain remains amongst us, communities will continue to face suffering. Let’s resolve that enough is enough and Corona must exit now!

رزق اور موت کا خوف نہ رکھو
یہ اختیار صرف اللہ کے ہاتھ میں ہے..
रीजक और मौत का खौफ न रखों_ये‌ एख्त्यार सिर्फ अल्लाह के हाथ में है .

I think I am currently fascinated with writing sequels. Yesterday I wrote something about a Sikh preacher, who had interpreted Guru Nanak’s words that had a great relevance, especially in today’s milieu. The above couplet is something I came across today in one of the the Urdu groups I am member of that seems to be another interpretation of my previous thought.

Rizak is livelihood or the work we do to earn our livelihood and Maut is death. I think these two are currently the biggest causes of depression that’s forcing many ordinary and not so ordinary folks to committing suicide. Corona virus has scared us to our bones and though in some senses the strain seems to be weakening, the fact is that we are all worried about our lives. And of course, one of the biggest victims of this pandemic is economy that’s resulting in job losses all around! Factories are yet to restart to full capacity and the bigger challenge is to bring back labour who has migrated back to native. Companies are finding it difficult to sustain their workforce, when revenue streams have dried up.

I think the above couplet shows the light and the way. “Don’t be scared of loss of life and livelihood; no one else but only God almighty controls both of these.” There are several other connotations of the aforesaid teaching – “ जिसने पैदा किया है वो जीने की राह भी दिखाएगा ( Giver of life will also open the way for its sustenance)” , “जाके राखो साईंया मार सके ना कोई ( who can kill one whom the God protects) .

When nothing else works, faith works and let’s hold on to the string called life, for if life is there, livelihood will be arranged as both of these are not in any individual’s but God’s domain and control.

Came across a sermon by a holy Sikh preacher who quoted the famous Shabad (gurbani) by Guru Nanak that says:

“Hum aadmi hai ik dami hai
mohlat mahat na jana” which can be loosely translated as “Human beings live for short moment, not knowing the appointed time of departure.”

He cites a very glaring example of a person who has been advised by his Doctor that he has only one week to live as his serious ailment has now reached its end stage. The sermoniser asks the audience, “ Do you think such a person will fight with anyone or have greed to shortchange someone for quick gains or any such requirement for any material gain? His standard refrain to all this would be that what he needs to accumulate materials for or to have avarice for more as in any case he’s going!” The preacher further tells his audience that if such a person has even an iota of intelligence, he’d be bereft of all insecurities, fears or despair! To drive home his point, he says that if a person destined to live at least one week realises the futility of greed, materialism, fear, insecurity etc, what about all of us, who have no guarantee as to whether we will be alive to live the next moment! And then he quotes the aforesaid bani of Guru Nanak that there’s only one last breath that separates us from death!

The preacher further says that it doesn’t mean that due to uncertainty of life, we should not do or plan anything but wait for the ultimate moment. In fact, the message exhorts us to plan for positive things – progress, benevolence, charity, character and nation building, kindness et al!

A very powerful thought that, in fact , not only promotes positivity but expels negativity by stressing impermanence of everything, including life. And this immediately brings me to my favourite topic – Covid 19! If life is momentary, Corona cannot be permanent. If we are not to have greed for or attachment to materials , we definitely not need to fear pandemics, cyclones, floods, droughts etc.

Let’s live the moment!

Veni, vidi, vici ] “I came; I saw; I conquered”) is a Latin phrase popularly attributed to Julius Caesar who used the phrase in a letter to the Roman Senate around 47 BC after he had achieved a quick victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela.^[2] The phrase is used to refer to a swift, conclusive victory.

I don’t know Latin and therefore, I am not sure that if this phrase in first person is to be converted into a phrase in third person, how will it sound, but in English, it will be “ He came; he saw; he conquered” and this is what describes best the personality to whom is this blog dedicated!

Like Caesar used this phrase after his quick victory, this person led us to many such quick wins. In fact, he came like a phenomenon, who changed the very way we thought and worked before, till we experienced his influence.

And he didn’t come at the best of the times! Within a few days of his arrival on the scene, he was welcomed with a relatively large sized fraud that we faced! He was just new in the system , but the way he brought all the stakeholders together, delineated clear cut responsibilities and set up a rhythm of deliberations, actually made us beware that this person was indeed a phenomenon and no ordinary mortal. While we were still struggling with the aforesaid fraud, the first signs of pandemic started knocking at the door! Of course, it’s a different story that pandemic gripped India virtually in no time and by the last week of March, it was already there everywhere and even more than 6 months since then, it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime too soon. And here he was, leading from the front, ensuring that our BCP preparation on paper actually effectively got executed on the ground. And what he started in the first week of April, a daily cadence to review all related aspects – critical activities, customer proposition, health of the people working on the ground, work from home et al – it’s a long list, , has all got embedded in our DNAs today and ironically, we have emerged more strong, more enabled, more in control, more smart and more systematic as an outcome of the pandemic rather than anything to the contrary.

A popular story goes about Guru Nanak having blessed a useless, idle, foolish person to stay put wherever he was and a hardworking, intelligent, positively attuned person to be uprooted to be going places. When his disciple asked him about his strange act of blessing a fool and bestowing curse upon a hard worker, Guru replied, I want this intelligent person and doer to go from one place to another to spread his knowledge, positivity and hard work attitude amongst masses, while the other person should remain confined to one place only so that no body picks up his vices.” In English, they say that rolling stone gathers no moss. What else can explain his such a short stay? It just beats the imagination that if instead of 10 months he had stayed for 10 years where could we have been!

All the best NT, as we lovingly call him! Our loss is someone’s gain, but what we gained from you is something that we are going to cherish during our lifetimes and to that extent, it’s been a short time togetherness but an experience of a lifetime!

However, I would not like to elaborate on the title of this write up as I couldn’t think of any other words to sum up this personality.

As lines of a popular song go-

May God be in your mind
May God be in your heart
May God be always looking over your shoulders

God is in my mind,
In my thoughts all the time
God in my words,
God is my life
God is in my heart,
In the love that I share
God in all I do,
God is my prayerGod looks over me,
God looks after you
God is in me,
God is in you

My earlier blog that had the similar title as this one was received rather well. Encouraged by the response and looking to the reaffirmation of my belief and that too by none other than our very own ex president and the Missile man of india, the most revered Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, I felt encouraged to write part 2.

In the course of a talk, Dr Kalam narrates an incident relating to his friend, an eminent cardiac surgeon of Baroda, Dr Shailesh Mehta. Dr Mehta in his 69th year was as busy as ever, with patients needing up to 1 month wait to get his appointment. Only junior doctors would see the report first and refer a doable case to Dr Mehta so that his precious time was not getting squandered away on gone cases. This was the case of a 6 years old child who had her heart totally clogged. The battery of junior doctors had declined the case but on fervent plea by the child’s parents referred it to Dr Mehta for his final opinion. Dr Mehta reiterated what junior doctors had said – that it was a hopeless case. He said that surgery would be very complex and chances of success were barely 30%. Without surgery the girl could survive for a few months and given the luck even a few years. Parents decided to take chance and the girl was admitted for surgery on the destined day. Dr Mehta wearing his sterile uniform saw the small child lying on the operation table. He asked the child whether she was worried. The girl said she wasn’t but she had a question to ask? She asked the Doctor, “ My parents tell me that a child’s heart is the abode of God. When you cut open my heart, please do tell me how the good looks like”? Dr Mehta told Dr Kalam that he was then caught in a double dilemma. As it was, chances of survival were only 30% and if at all the surgery was to be successful, he would have to do the impossible task of explaining how the God looked like to the child!

As the child was cut open, the case appeared to be more hopeless than it was imagined to be. 45 minutes into surgery, the flow of the blood into heart stopped completely and Dr Mehta decided upon calling off the surgery and informing the parents about the bad news of the child’s death. His mind strayed into the child’s query and he started sobbing! Then a miracle happened, suddenly a junior doctor informed Dr Mehta about the start of blood flow into child’s heart. The surgery went on for more than 6 hours and at the end of it, child had a heart that would last her a lifetime.

Dr Kalam sums up the above incident beautifully. He says that from then onwards, Dr Mehta who had performed thousands of surgeries and had full confidence in his skills decided to put a picture of God in his OT and to commence his surgery only after paying obeisance to almighty.

The story is not about miracles or spreading religion or blind faith. It’s about the good teachings or “samskaras” that we receive from our parents and gurus that have the effect of “culturing” us. The sheer purity of the thought makes it a powerful one raising it above all the cliches and lip service that we receive at later stages of our lives.

Let’s bow to Dr Kalam and Dr Mehta for this is what we need today – to skill our selves the best and have faith in our heart that an invisible power is with us to guide us through in this life’s journey.

My mom turns 84 today on the 4th of October. Touch wood- she’s superb for her 84 years. Enjoys reasonably good health, is fiercely independent – physically, mentally and financially, sounds mellifluous for her 84 years – probably thanks to her lifelong passion – singing.

She loved singing right since her childhood though it wasn’t considered a good passion and even a worst profession by her family. However, after marriage, she found a supporting husband in my father, who encouraged her to sing, whenever any opportunity came her way. She soon realised that professional singing required learning under a good Guru and practice or riyaaz. And in spite of her familial responsibilities and limited scope, she went on to achieving one milestone after another. From singing at the local cultural programmes to singing in Gurudwara, temple and social parties to singing on AIR and cutting a disc for HMV, she achieved all that was possible given her rather late start and other constraints. And her active career spanned almost half a century till about a couple of years ago, when she decided to slacken the pace and sing only occasionally at the most special request.

However, if there’s get together – whether of family members or friends, it’s not complete without her singing one ditty from the large repertoire of work that she built over the years of her professional singing career. She sang almost in all genres – Geet, ghazal, bhajans, folk songs, film songs, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Haryanvi et al and earned public accolades.

I think her passion for music has kept her young, mentally alert, generally happy and having zest for life. It’s unfortunate that none of her children or grandchildren could emulate her art, though all of us possess an ear for good music.

Happy 84th birthday Mummy. It’s just a number for as long as your voice retains melody and heart love for music, you should live and enjoy life.

Writing is power and sometimes a powerful piece can change one’s perspective. At some stage or other in our professional lives, all of us must have attended leadership talks or programmes or review meetings with bosses, where we are exhorted to act and inspired through pep talk. It is indeed true that what looks very impressive initially does tend to taper off as less effective or theoretical or even rhetorical in due course, but to call it banal and cliche needs some serious pen power. As the writer says, at a recent party, she minced no words in telling a cliche spouter, “ You are the most obnoxious, self-centred, predictable, cliche spouting bore I have ever met in my life.” Of course, she hurried on to add that the above she only said in her mind and not on the face of the mentioned person to whom she instead showed her pretty face with a vapid smile as he went on and on with “mind- numbing cliches”.

What are these self-centred, mind-numbing cliches that the author is referring to? These are actually common idiomatic phrases that can adorn one’s expression in writing but sound cliched and boring when mouthed by a self styled leader in the context of establishing his or her supremacy or dominance. We all must have heard, “ Instead of crying over spilt milk, I am on boarding movers and shakers in my company , capable of delivering results” or “ I need someone who thinks out of box” or “ Let’s get to the low hanging fruits” or “ Come dressed to kill at the office party and let your hair down.”

I am sure that to most of the readers the above expressions would be no strangers, having come across them and many more at various stages of our professional lives. But, as mentioned above, while many of us might have felt sceptical about these exhortations or transmission of Jnana ( Gyana), calling these expressions or phrases cliches is certainly a new perspective. I think the author of this piece weaves sarcasm around the hollowness of the spouters of these expressions! In today’s cut throat competition in professional lives and fast changing skills, the scope of lasting relationship between an employer and employee or a boss and subordinate is rather limited and waning. When these are mouthed sans the sincerity or deep rooted welfare of the audience, instead of making impression, they sound cliched. On the contrary, our parental advice or the advice by our teachers, friends and well wishers come from the bottom of the heart with genuine concern for our betterment and success. Therefore, such advices and exhortations stay with us throughout, without ever becoming dated or redundant.

For a moment I do not mean that we should ignore everything new as cliche ridden and only hold on to age old wisdom endowed by our parents and gurus. We all need to be adaptive, open to re-skilling, working hard like no tomorrow and constantly evolving. And listen to the bores and braggarts with a vapid smile like the author, picking up whatever sounds reasonable and ignoring the cliche!

I distinctly recall- exactly 29 days ago I had heralded the start of September on a very optimistic and pleasant note and had exhorted all my readers to dance to the tune of maverick Bobby Darin’s evergreen tune of Come September! However, even the most optimistic and eternally hopeful chaps like me can also get caught in the sea of negativity when the things continue to worsen but refuse to hit nadir, not raising any hope of reversal of the trend!

Covid tightened its grip on India and both – infections as well as mortality rates went up substantially. On a personal note, Corona entered my home with my wife getting infected having travelled in connection with the funeral of her brother and contacting Corona in the process. Her 3 weeks of self isolation within our home was one of the most painful and agonising events in our recent lives. And that’s not all. On the national front, Sushant’s death and Kangana’s rub off with Maharashtra government became unsavoury to the last t. Entry of Narcotics Control Bureau in addition to CBI has given new twist to Sushant’s case and only God almighty knows where will this mess lead to and quagmire end. China’s PLA and Indian troops came eye ball to eye ball at Pangong Tso in Ladakh and situation remained extremely explosive and sensitive. Economy went into deeper recession and seemed to be in tatters with one green shoot followed by a darker reality! Vaccine remained elusive and so was any comprehensive cure for Covid. International flights remained suspended and people continued to be bereft of their children and other nears and dears, stuck up across continents. Job scenario remained gloomy and ironically more people continued losing jobs than getting them! And we lost one of the country’s finest playback singers S P Balasubrahmanyam, apart from noted economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia. As if this was not enough, our elected representatives, those expected to lay moral code for the entire nation, behaved most irresponsibly and the nation once against erupted in protests against new Farm bill. To tell you the truth, I have not been able to assess till date whether it’s of such great benefit to farmers, especially the small ones and if so, why so much protest?

But let’s not lose hope. Just about while I am writing this blog, pace of Covid infections has come down, my wife has fully recovered, Bollywood has taken Sushant and Kangana incidents in its stride and resumed shooting, india and China have agreed against further built up of forces, rains have been adequate and sowing of crops has been at a new record level, in spite of all bottlenecks, IPL is happening and French open is starting, Delhi metro has resumed service and Mumbai metro is likely to follow suit and from tomorrow, restaurants and bars are likely to be opened in Mumbai! There’s no known song “ Come October” but let’s celebrate the advent of October by overcoming the gloom by singing and dancing to the following created by me:

September came and we celebrated

But it created ruckus and went;

We hoped all would be kosher and well

But stubborn Covid remained hell bent!

Covid attacked communities, nations and the world

But worst it entered my very home;

I was worried, agonised and distraught,

But we fought off and survived the doom!

Tomorrow comes a crisp new October

With cool breezes and blue skies

My hopes are alive again

And I want to sing, dance and eat delicious pies!

It’s the onset of Q4 of the calendar year and Q3 of the financial year, but the biggest cause of celebration is that 2020 is now just a quarter away from its end!