026 HIMANI

026 HIMANI

He was a multi-talented teacher who not only had in depth knowledge of literature but also of performing arts. He was preparing students for a musical drama in government inter collage Rikhinikhal – a remote village of Uttarakhand. Republic day was around the corner and many cultural programs used to be part of celebrations.

There was a king and a queen in the story. Two hawkers came to them. They were selling peanuts and bangles. King was not found of peanuts and queen was not of glass bangles. They asked hawkers to go. But hawkers with their heart-warming talks persuaded king and queen to buy their peanut and bangles at an extremely high price. King honoured them for their talent of convincing and asked them to come every month to sell in his capital.

This interesting incident was narrated by teacher in form of poetic dialogues and was enacted by students.

Sanju and Himani were the two best students of the class. They used to get very good marks. One used to be first and the other second in the class. Both of them were favourites of all teachers. They used to dress neatly as their parents were government employees, who were better off than the village people.

Teacher gave the role of king to Sanju and queen to Himani. Two other students were given the role of hawkers.

They practised skit for a week. Students acted as puppets on the lyrical voice of teacher. Whole act was impactful and was coming out beautifully. All students were sure that the act will win the first prize on the republic day.

Sanju, Himani and others were too young to have any romantic inclination. Some senior girl students came to see their practice. They were over enthusiastic on pairing of Sanju and Himani. They went and teased Himani after the practice.

The day before the final, Himani did not come for practice. Teacher called her and asked. She told about the senior girl’s bullying.

On the republic day, Sanju sold peanuts to the king who was played by a girl student. Teacher had given role of king to a girl student and Sanju was given role of peanut seller.

A few months after, Sanju’s father was transferred to another place and Sanju carried the memories of Himani to another school.

Thoughts of Himani came to Sanju’s mind when he was trying to forget everything else. He was trying to reconstruct her face as he didn’t remember her clearly. But all the faces coming to his mind were from later years and wasn’t matching his feelings.

My stream of thoughts was broken by the shrill voice “They got me married to man out of his mind- again smiling in meditation”

“It was Himani” words came out from my mouth naturally as I was still in half meditation.

“Who is Himani papa” – asked my son loudly after applying a sharp break to his toy car.

I opened my eyes only to see a completely new version of my wife.

 

025 A breakfast worth million

025 A breakfast worth million

I was getting late for the meeting, came running for breakfast in IBIS Pune. I took idli vada and proceeded to take fruits. The guy before me took plateful of papaya and watermelon. I had to wait for next serve, I looked at him in anger, he was tall and exceptionally handsome. His tea shirt said - Tamil Thalaivas. After re-serve, I filled few fruits in my plate and went to an empty table.

Next to me, many members of the team were having breakfast. I went to them asked if I could take a photo. They happily obliged and I clicked two selfies.

While having breakfast, other thoughts were subdued by that of myself playing Kabaddi in childhood. I get chance to play cricket, badminton, swimming, running, gyming. But there is no place to play kabaddi in cities. Kabaddi doesn’t need a big field or special indoor facility. For some reason it wasn’t promoted and no one wants to play it. 

I was in thoughts and their had coach was looking to a table. I offered to sit in the empty seat of my table. I wanted to start a conversation but he looked too serious. 

I came out to board my cab, two people were standing. I was in hurry and was in two minds if to take the photo or go. But cab took sometime so I asked. 

“Can I take a photo”

       “We are not players"

“What?”

      “We are in management; but you can take if you want”

“I am also a manager; they also do lot of work- let us take a photo”

#kabaddiplayer

#kabbadi

#kabaddilover

#prokabaddi

#tamilthalaivas

#TamilThalaivas

#prokabaddi

#prokabaddileague

#pkl

024 Shri Sundarlal Bahuguna and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

 024 Shri Sundarlal Bahuguna and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

027 MY MISPLACED CHUCHLE 2

Without waiting for anyone else, I tried to listen to that voice again.

I learned the custom from my engineering classmates that it is important to have a suitable ambience for proper study. They called it “mahaul Banana” in Hindi. I went and bought an expensive yoga mat and some serene looking branded clothes on a Saturday. I then prepared my drawing room for an ambience suitable for meditation on a Sunday morning around 10. I sat on the mat cross legged in padmasana and closed my eyes.

My toddler son came and climbed on my shoulders and pulled my hair. I shouted and asked my wife to take him away to the kitchen. My shout already increased my blood pressure. After making myself calm again through alternate breathing, I closed my eyes. Pressure in the cooker increased to its fullest and the cooker's whistle did not increase my blood pressure but the hunger. I observed uninvited thoughts of daal and rice along with a few spoons of ghee on it. An apsara dressed in white traditional dress descended from the sky with the help of a parachute. She landed directly on our balcony. She came out of the parachute and adjusted her hair garland made of the white jasmine. She then walked passed through the drawing room with soft steps so as not to disturb me. She saw my wife busy with mobile and enchanted her with a magic stick. My wife could not see anything other than soap opera in mobile. She then glued my son to his toy cars. He could not notice anything else other than his toy cars. 

She then walked to the kitchen and plated the food. She kept rice on a porcelain plate and daal in a bowl. She then garnished it with finely cut ‘dhaniya’ leaves. She cut a salad of carrot, radish and cucumber. She decorated the plate with salad. She was finding it hard to open the slippery lid of the ghee's jar. She wiped the lid with kitchen cloth, opened it and then put two spoonfuls of ghee in the daal. She brought the plate to the dining table and waited for me to open my eyes. Smell of ghee and coriander leaves were mesmerising me and I felt the silence again. I was smiling with water in my mouth. 

Suddenly a shrill high-pitched voice hit my ears ”They got me married to a man out of his mind, he is smiling in meditation as well”. I opened my eyes to see my wife turning to my son and screaming. He was trying to break open his toy car to see all the inside components. 

We all ate on steel plates without any bowl. Dal was directly poured into the rice. Dhaniya leaves were mixed in dal and salad was separately cut in another plate. As advised by our dietician and several doctors, ghee was voluntarily avoided to manage weight. 

Glimpse of silence through food gave me hope and I thought of trying again next Sunday.

023 MY MISPLACED CHUCKLE

 023 My laugh at the wrong places.

023 MY MISPLACED CHUCKLE 

With folded legs we were sitting on the floor of  class 6, our Teacher on the chair, and the best student of the class was standing and was reading tables from the book and everyone was repeating after him - “dho ekam dho” meaning 2 1 ja 2, 2 2 ja 4.  Suddenly a peon came and said something to the teacher. Teacher stopped everyone. He said that someone has died and we need to keep a silence for 2 minutes as condolences.

Everyone stood up at his own place. the eardrum breaking sound of 2 2 ja 4 converted into a sudden silence.

I looked at the teacher and his eyes were closed. I looked left and then right, their eyes were closed.

I got scared. I too closed my eyes and stood in silence.

I heard the sound of air passing through my nostrils. Sound gave me comfort but tingling.  I smiled. Tingling increased.

I chuckled.

I tried to stop myself from a loud laugh but the silence didn’t allow me. 

Tingling increased as was the fear of the teacher.

Armies of two innate instincts- fear and laugh were fighting against each other inside me. 

I started trembling.  

A small laugh came out of me. 

Few of them proved the proverb right “a friend in need is a friend indeed” as some of them joined me in chuckling.

The teacher also had a chuckle but he quickly maintained his composure. Almost everyone was involved but I was the only one to be punished. “Hey! you stupid fellow!, move out of my class and go become a ‘mugra’ at the door”- said the teacher. 

All my true friends laughed at me when I took the ‘murga’ position.

Ladies and gentleman, it didn’t stop in class 6.

The second prominent time it happened was when I got married. Right after my wedding my mother was busy seeing off guests and giving them return gifts. She was trying her best to ensure that no one gets the return gift of more value than that of the gift they have given. Many guest families wanted to leave together. Mother ran upstairs to get gifts for another family who wanted to leave right after one. She was so happy, excited and confused at the same time that she got an attack of asphyxia. She fell on the floor and was breathing with great discomfort. I had seen this happening to her before. I didn’t chuckle, I laughed out loud at my mom. My wife gave me a strange look and said - “They got me married to a man out of his mind”. Yes, she cried - “O ija …”

Friend, it did not stop at my mother, a few years later, my wife fell down in front of the bathroom. I laughed at her. She gave the look and said - “They got me married to a man out of his mind”. She wanted to hit my head with the rolling pin, as she usually does. But it was my good luck that she got a big white plaster in her right hand. After a few days, I was terrified when I saw her drawing a smiley and a rolling pin with her left hand on the paster. 

Cure for misplaced chuckles was not an option but a survival priority for me. After listening to my interesting story and realising the threat on my life, my bartender friend got me enrolled in a meditation workshop.

My wife opposed, cried and said - “They got me married to a man out of his mind”. But I went.

For the first two days, I again listened to the tingling sound of my breadth, chuckled, and disturbed others.

The third day, I stopped hearing everything. It was the silence again and I did not chuckle but cried, cried and cried.

The fourth day, I neither chuckled nor cried. Silence allowed me to hear some other voice from within. 

What was that voice? 

Go! find out!