First Night in Our House

 Our house in Panavezys is near completion. There are still things to be completed. Kitchen needs to be finished.  Bathroom and toilets still to be installed. Few minor repairs here and there. A number of boxes of our clothes, furniture, kitchen stuff, kids toys and other decorative items have been moved into the house already. I did managed to sleep in the house for a night. I watched movie and had a good sleep. Difficulty came when I had to use the toilet as the toilets are not ready yet. I hope that next year we could spend time in our house finally after a delay of three years, which has lead to a lot of frustration for me personally. 

Ds birthday

 1979 was a very important year, beautiful Persis khambatta made it to Start Terk. Mother Tress-a got the nobel peace prize and Charn Singh laid the foundation of telecommunication in India. This particular event also casted the destiny of my beloved friend Divya, who’s birth for me was indeed the most important event of that year. While Divya was already kicking his feet my parents were busy laying my foundations.

Lets skip to 10 years forward, while Sachin Tendulkar was making his international cricket debut and VP singh was laying foundation to become next PM, You were spending your time in an all boys school, well let me correct it not completely all boys there were few girls in the senior boys section. But being their little did you knew that you were going to be deprived of pleasure of being next to a girl for some time to come. By this time you had also acquired a nickname, which I know you don’t like so will keep it a secret for now but perhaps to be revealed on some other occasions. 

Fast forward to next 10 year, you made many friends at school and few girlfriends at tutions. Bajaj Chetak was your favourite ride and Jai Veeru’s jodi was either seen on Your Chetaks or Ahuja’s hero Puch. I often wonder was the chemistry tution you attended were really for studies or to enjoy the company of girls, miss rathi in particular, which you missed at school. We shall never know the secret.

By now  your youth was running high with testosterone and with the  availability of personal computers in hostels of Nagpur you were making good use of your dads money and liberating your freedom watching some very interesting movies. You can not be blamed for it, what else shall one do in a city known mostly for oranges.  Let me not be little the time though you spent in Nagpur. These were also some of the most fantastic years of your life, which shaped you as an independent person, your thinking, and you made some good friendships. 

Form here on we take it a bit slowly, you finished your engineering with good grades but then your urge to learn more, I wonder some time was it really urge to learn more or was it just homesickness that, brought you back to your home town of Roorkee. You joined the management program at IIT Roorkee. This will prove to be an important turning point in your life. As little did you knew that you will meet your soul mate and our beloved bhabhi Anu also in the Roorkee campus. For the next few years, finally, the testosterone running in your body was going to be put to good use instead of getting wasted. But I am a bit envious of this time as well because these were the times when your friends took a bit of a back seat, even Ahuja on the scooter was replaced. You only started to remember your friends once your to be wife was sent to work in London for some time. Long distance is never easy for anyone and for a roorkee boy whom it took over 20 years to make his first girlfriend you all can imagine the shock of it all that you decided to get married as you were a bit nervous about Anu running away with someone else in london. Typical small town logic but I am glad that you did made that decision and look at it now you are blessed with two beautiful daughters and your lovely wife sitting next to you. On this note lets raise a toast for your 40th birthday and many more to come. 

Beggar outside the Church

 Beggar outside the Church

As I walked past the Church on the Voketchu street in the Old Town of Vilnius, I couldn’t help myself noticing a beggar, who was crumbled into a lump sitting outside the church gates. He intrigued me as I stood their looking at him. Was it the cold weather or was it his old age that made him sit like that. He was crumbled into a lump with his knees touching his face and back rested against the railings of the church gates. His face was hardly visible. Wrinkled eyes poking between the muffler and the cap he was wearing looked intense. A handkerchief lay in-front of him with few coins scattered onto it. It was getting dark mist was setting in. I wondered if he is even alive. I placed a coin on the handkerchief his eyes blinked and he gave me a sign of gratitude for the small help. I walked back home. Lager that night as I lay in my bed, a thought kept on making loops in my mind, Why was he there suffering in old age ?  I couldn’t sleep well that night. 

Grandma

Grand Parents 

Often I think about my grandma, whom we called deda with love. I have a lot of memories of her from my Childhood. Whereas for my grandfather, nana, I have only a few. I  don’t have any memories of my dada or dadi as both of them were long gone before I arrived on this planet. 

I remember my nana and nani being old with one contradiction though, nani’s hairs, which remained black up until her death. Nana was short but must have been a handsome man in his youth. I remember my nana gave me three presents, a English hard hat, not of much use for me, a zippo lighter and a winter jacket with fur. Winter jacket was my favourite. I never new why he gave me the hard hat or the lighter. Clearly there was no use of it for me. Last memory of him I have of him lying on the makeshifts bed of bamboo sticks with cotton stuffed up his nostrils. It was in preparation for his funeral pyre, I know now. 

Memories of my nani are many. She was a strong woman she lived by herself for a long time in the village. I often visited her with my mother, one of her 10 siblings, who would go to check if she was fine and needed any help. I remember my nani feed me me butter cream from milk and fried fish. With her age it became harder for to be by herself. At this time she moved in with her eldest son. I visited here there too some times. I remember her thick glasses. Her white sari, she always wore white cotton saris, often resembling mother tress-a. He sink was fair and wrinkled. He often chewed beetle leaves and the juice kept her lips red and there was a smell of tobacco. For Bengali women it was common in those days to chew beetle leaves. I don’t see that now a days. 

There was one funny thing about her, her Hindi was very poor. Although she was originally from Bangladesh, she lived in India since she was 18 years of age but didn’t managed to learn herself any hindi. I communicated with her in my broken Bengali. During her very old age I often took her for short evening walks holding her hand. 

Last I remember she got very very sick unable to move and even simplest of things became hard. My mother often went to help her during this time. I regret not visiting her a lot during last few months. She passes away thereafter. But good thing of that is I still have in my head the image of the strong women and not one of a helpless old lady.