Discrimination against Housing societies using piped gas LPG should be stopped

I fail to understand why people from middle class are targeted time and again because of the government policies. The latest being the case of 6 subsidised LPG cylinder in a calendar year. I clearly understand that there should be a cap on consumption of cooking gas by individuals, and this policy will bring a control to the overall consumption of LPG. But, why people who are using piped gas supplies in the societies are made a soft target because of this policy? How can the government and the oil companies consider society piped gas supply as one single connection which is shared by several flat owners? While piped gas supply has actually put a control on the usage of LPG to a certain extent, it is also considered a safer option for residents as the cylinders are not kept inside their flats. Considering these reasons, people opting for piped gas connection are already helping the government from the misuse of gas cylinders. If government and oil companies do not bring an amendment to the clause of piped gas supply, I am sure it is going to create havoc. People will be left with no option, but, to choose individual cylinder gas connection. This could hit the demand supply ratio to a great extent as there would at least 20% more demand for cylinders. It is our constitutional right that every individual needs to be treated equally on any such policies. Even a school going child can calculate that if there are 200 people using a piped gas connection, there should be 200X6 = 1200 cylinders available on subsidised rate. Once the consumption of individual member reaches beyond 6 cylinders he could be charged on a non-subsidised rate. Where are all the politicians who visit these societies during their election campaigns asking for votes? What if out of the 200 owners’ only one member chooses to vote as a representative of the entire society? 

A curtailed/edited version of this letter was published in Pune Mirror 8th Oct 2012. Following is the scanned image of the same letter.

Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!

"Ganpati Bappa Morya! Pudhchya warshi lavkar ya!!" they all were shouting their lungs out. A small boy hearing the loud sounds of loudspeakers and watching the people dancing and singing with the procession of a huge Ganesha idol asked an innocent question to his mother. "Mamma, why do they immerse lord Ganesha in the river, and, how can someone be so happy parting with their own God?" The mother of the child was taken aback by the innocent question. She did not have a convincing answer to the question. All she could tell her boy was "Ganesha comes, stays with us for 11 days, and then with HIM takes back all the worries and problems of His devotees." The small child was not totally convinced, but, at his age he was more bothered about his school, his friends and his childhood games. Year after year as the festival returned, this question kept haunting him.

Many years passed; the small child is a grown up man now and he has found some convincing answers to his question. Hindus worship the Supreme soul in everything around them. But, for majority of people it is not possible to worship this formlessness. They need some form to worship, pray and to seek blessings. Thus they made the form of Ganesha using clay and water. As it is a cycle of life, the cosmic law that the form gives way to the formlessness again. Thus, the clay through which the idol is made has to be given back to where it belongs. That’s the reason why the Ganesha idol made of clay is submerged into water to symbolize the concept of Moksha, or liberation, in Hinduism. That explains the immersion, but, one still needs to seek answers for the association of celebratory enthusiasm that is associated with it. Not much can be explained about it apart from condoning it as a trend started by some enthusiast, which stayed with us as a religious fervor.

Now, when this significance of Ganesha festival and immersion is compared with the way most of us celebrate the festival today, there is a lot that has changed. The creators of the idol are using easy to mold POP (Plaster of Paris), so that they can give eye catching shapes and colors to the idol and making a hefty profit in the process. People also like to see Ganesha in variety of forms, shapes and colors, and human inclination for such idols has grown many folds over the years. The idols which ideally should have been smaller in size and made of clay have become humongous in size and shape and normal water soluble clay became obsolete for idol creation. The transition from clay idols to POP idols was the beginning of an era when we started affecting the nature with it. We are polluting the rivers by immersing water insoluble POP made idols. The toxic colors that are used for decorating the idols are again making the life of creatures in the river, hell. The water in those rivers is slowly becoming useless for human or animal consumption.

Every year we all see the ill effects of Ganesha Immersion and still things are getting worse rather than showing any signs of improvement. In the name of Religious sentiments we all are actually polluting mother earth. Why don't people realize that we are spoiling the creation of the same Almighty in this whole process? Will any mother give blessings to the people who are killing her children? Then how can we expect the blessings of God when we are actually spoiling the nature.

Here are a few simple suggestions for improving things in the years to come. The government should totally ban the creation of Ganesha Idols that are made of POP and there should be a size limit for idols that we actually immerse in the rivers. Ganesh Mandals should re-use permanent idols for the procession and symbolic immersion of small Eco friendly, clay-made, Ganesha idols should be done. If we look at the significance of the immersion as explained above, we are not at all deviating from it. There should also be a complete ban on loud speakers. Traditional dhol-tashas make the festivals worth watching and an enjoyable affair. Now, how difficult is to follow these simple suggestions?

Note: This blog was published in the September 2012 edition of our company Newsletter.

Double Standards

It irks me so much when I hear about the double standards of the people of our country every now and then. When I was small, making fun of people from the Assam and North east by calling them with the name "Chinki" or "Chinese" was cool. But, that was then, when I was a child. I did not know or understand how bad the people might feel whose fun we make. In school, we used to pledge that all Indians are my brothers and sisters. But, then I really did not know or for that matter did not care to understand that North East or Assam is as much a part of India as any other state.  As a child I was so patriotic for my country that I can imagine how bad it would have felt to me if someone would have told me that I am not an Indian. For that matter even after I have grown up if someone calls me a non-Indian, I would get so much irritated and feel hurt.

As I grew up, slowly I realized that its not funny to make fun of our own brothers and sisters from another part of our own country India. I understood its called racism, and racisim is a crime. If we cant understand such simple things then why feel irked when someone calls us a brown or a paki in the US  or Australia? Can you imagine how much it will hurt you if someone calls you a Paki? If you can understand it my dear friend then its the same calling an Indian a chinki or a chinese. What is their fault if they are born in another geographical region (mind you that is very much a part of India) based on what they have derived their facial features?

To me they are the most hardworking people you will ever come accross. They have the physique and stamina that helps them achieve the toughest of physical tasks. No wonder you can find them performing way better than others in any sport they decide to play. The lastest and shiniest example is Mary Kom who has won the boxing bronze medal for India in the 2012 London Olympics. And when we thought that she would really be proud of her achievement, the first statement she made in the media was, she was sorry for not winning a gold medal for India. One can imagine what dedication she had for her game and her pride for her country makes you salute her. You have really made us proud Mary. I am sure every Indian would be very proud of your no mean achievement.

It shattered me to hear and read the news that people from North East are targetted in Pune and other parts of the country for belonging to Assam. Can you believe that the reason behind hating them is just that they belong to the state of Assam where there are some communal riots going on. How ridiculous? How can innocent students studying way away from their home be held responsible and punished for something they have nothing to do with. It is a well known fact that people committing a henious crime of hurting another human do not belong to any religion. They do not belong to any community or any particular state. They are just brain washed, illiterate bunch of people who have been just taught to kill.

Why does people hating the North Easterns only see one side of the coin? Why cant they see that there are people from North east only who are winning medals for India and making India proud? Why only hatred? Why not share love? We are on the brink of another Independence day. why cant we make our own people feel independent and comfortable in their own country? Why these double standards? Let us really mean what we all have pledged in our school during our childhood. Every Indian is my brother and sister.

A gist of this blog was published in the Pune Mirror on 14th of August 2012. Here is a scanned image for it. My contribution is highlighted in green.

Must Watch Movies 2012

What makes a movie work? I have been a movie buff since long and I like to watch movies that are different from the routine movies. I watch a lot of movies, but, I am always glued to some specific ones. After so many movies that I have watched in 2012 so far, I found something common in the following movies that released in 2012. Dirty Picture, Kahani, Paan Singh Tomar,Vicky Donor and the latest Gangs of Wasseypur. I still have to watch the movie Shanghai(I have heard about Shanghai also to be a movie that is different). In Marathi Cinema I would like to name Shala and Kaksparsh so far this year. So whats common in all these films. Even in your wildest of dreams you wont be able to find anything similar in each of these movies. Correct ! the common thing in these movies is that they are different. They all have a content which is far far away from normal film making. None of these films have the big starcast or the big budget. So there is lots of things that are found common in these movies high on content.

Dirty Picture: Excellent performance by Vidya Balan depicting the biography of the legendary south actress Silk Smitha. The makers and off course Vidya Balan have left no stone unturned in showing us the real Silk Smitha. The real Hero in this movie was the heroine i.e Vidhya Balan. Vidhya Balan had earlier given stellar performances in nearly all her previous movies barring a couple of them. Talk about Munnabhai, No one killed Jessica, Ishqiya, Parineeta  or Kahani Vidhya Balan's performance was always appreciated and she does not at all dissappoint us with this movie. Dirty Picture was out and out a Vidhya Balan film. No wonder she got various awards for the movie.

Kahani: And when you thought you have had enough of Vidhya Balan she surprises us again with totally over the top performance in yet another different movie called Kahani. Once again the hero of the movie was Vidhya Balan. Two back to back thunderstorm performances by Vidhya. True to its name, Kahani, indeed had a brilliant kahani that would keep you glued to it from start to end. With this film Vidhya Balan has started giving tough competetions to the male heros. She seems to be the female Aamir Khan nicknamed as the perfectionist. I wonder now whether any established male actor would even agree to take the challenge of working with Vidhya Balan. Kahani was just awesome and the way it unfolds in the end, it really shocks you. Hats of to the makers of Kahani and Vidya Balan. It is easily the best film by Vidhya Balan so far.

Paan Singh Tomar: The story of an army athelte turning into a rebel was played extremely well by Irfaan Khan. Unarguably the best work by Irfaan Khan in his entire career. Another must watch movie of 2012.


Vicky Donor: Now this one is so so differnt that its unique and new concept has even shocked the hollywood filmmakers. There has been no film made ever so far on this taboo concept. A very unique and humourous way to present the life of a sperm donor in India. Stupendous performances by Ayushyaman the hero of the film and also Anu Kapoor in the role of a Gynac. This is one movie that should not missed.

Shala: I saw the promos of this Marathi movie Shala when someone uploaded it on Facebook. Just the promos take you to the childhood so there was so much more to look forward to in the movie. This movie is another feather in the cap to the Marathi film industry. I have heard the great movie maker Anuraag Kashyap say once, that there are great things happening in the marathi film industry. Indeed after watching movies like Natrang, Mee ShivajiRaaje Bhosle Boltoy, Balgandharva and now Shala the Marathi film makers have completely erased the memories of the Ashok Sharaf and Laxmikant Berde genre of movies. Shala takes you to back to school and takes you the journey where each one of us might have had their first crush. Brilliant performances by the child artists.

Kaksparsha: Another gem by Mahesh Manjrekar of the Me Shivaji Raje bhosle boltoy fame. The story takes you back to the times of the Marathi era that was when the India was ruled by the British. It really makes you realize how much things have changed over the years. Terrific performance by Sachin Khedekar and Priya Bapat. Sachin Khedekar has a very strong screen presence in this movie. To me this was his career best performance.

Gangs of Wasseypur: This was the Indian entry to the Cannes Film festival this year (2012). After watching the movie one thing that I am wondering is that how people who dont understand the language have watched this film just by the english subtitles. Because the primary reason that I liked the film was its language (read abusive language). This movie is a path breaker in Indian Cinema. There is no doubt awesome performance by the star cast but to me the people who have worked behind the scenes have done a far greater job. Be it the writer, dialog writer, editor, screenplay, music,director. The whole team has put together a masterpiece. There might be people having different opinions about the film, but for me this movie has broken the jinx and for years to come this movie is going to be a turning point in the Indian Film Industry. Movie is very long but it still keeps you glued. One cant imagine that a revenge story can be presented in such an awesome manner. Hats off to Anuraag Kashyap and his team. I can write a complete blog about the finer points of this movie but I am waiting for the second part. Oh Yes, even after being such a long film there is a part 2 of Gangs of Wasseypur. The only low point of the film was the end when we realize that the story will continue in the next part. Cant wait to see the second part. In fact Gangs of Wasseypur actually inspired me to write this blog.

So overall so far I would say that this year has been tremendous for a movie buff like me who had a gala time watching such fantastic movies. Movies with content. Movies that do not have a big star cast but they still keep you totally glued for the entire duration.

Musical Madness

Awesome talent. Never seen or heard that something like this exists. When you think that you have already seen enough in life and there is nothing more left to be seen, something surprises you so much that you are literally blown away by it. I have been always criticized by friends that I go a little over the top when it comes to appreciate someone or something. But, to me this is something I have never seen, heard or experienced and when the end result is so pleasing to the ears, one has to appreciate it.

Enough of the mystery, I know that if I will take more time to reveal it,  readers of this blog would simply click the close button. To me Sneha Khanwalkar is one of the most underrated music composer in India. She has her own unique way to look at each of the unique sound that is produced around us in normal day to day life. When I first heard the title song of Oye Lucky , Lucky Oye I was glued to it for a long time. I liked the way the various sounds were played in the song. Little did I know then that, tremendous effort is being put in to first record those sounds and finally make a songs out of all those wierd sounds. I am really kicking myself, now for why I never tried to go into more detail about the music and the music composer of the Oye lucky lucky oye. I am generally so particular in finding out everything about the music director whenever I love the music of a particular song or movie.

A few days ago I read in the Times of India about the music review of the film Gangs of Wasseypur. The writer went a little overboard in appreciating the songs of the movie. Now, I am not someone who would generally listen to the songs of a movie before its release and now a days I dont even listen to radio so there was hardly any chance for me to listen to those songs. Another day I read the interview of Manoj Bajpayee in the Pune times about the same movie and that created some interest inside me about this movie. It just happened that I was a bit free in the afternoon and I came across the first look of Gangs of Wasseypur movie on youtube. The promo was awesome and I was really looking forward to see the movie. After all it was a movie by Anurag Kashyap (Director of the movie Dev D). Suddenly, I realized that, off all the things this movie has different music as well. Immediately I found out the website gaana.com and started listening to the songs of the movie Gangs of Wasseypur. And boy, It would be an understatement to say that I loved the songs. The hunter song which is in the voice of a singer named Vedesh Sookoo from Trinidad and Tobbago (West indies) just bowled me over. I listened to all the songs and every song was different. Found out the name of the music director. I could not believe my eyes when I saw Sneha Khanwalkar written as the name of music director. Well my surprise has obvious reasons as she is only the 4th music composer in the male dominated Indian Film industry.

I wanted to hear more about Sneha Khanwalkar. Wanted to know whether she sings as well. Found out that she is a singer herself, but her voice is not her USP :). When I heard a few people like Dibakar Banerjee and Anurag Kashyap talk about Sneha on youtube, I realized that there is something unique about this girl. Then I came across these MTV Sound Trippin videos. Sound trippin is actually a program on MTV in which Sneha Khanwelkar is the host and a music composer. She travels to some place in India and records various sounds specific to that place, composes some lyrics, gets some locals to sing and records those songs with all the various sounds that she had recorded earlier. If anyone has seen the efforts that had been taken to compose and produce those songs, one will realize the stuff that Sneha Khanwelkar is made of. You are hit by the first blow when you expect a femine, shy, introvert girl and, what you see is an extrovert, macho girl. Its absolutely clear after seeing her that she loves what she is doing. So even after putting in such great efforts she seems to be happy always. Someone has very rightly said that exellence comes when you love what you do  and life is really fun when you love your job. (No, I am not talking about Aamir Khan :))

Here is the link to the first episode of Sound Trippin in which Sneha went to Punjab and recorded the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X21kvYl0Mds
Awesome song indeed.Watch the video and you will realize the talent this girl has got and she makes no bones about it. I have discovered some new kinda music and a music composer to follow. I would really be looking forward to more from Sneha. Normal is boring and we keep searching for something new always. The musical madness of Sneha Khanwalkar is one such step in that direction.

Lessons learnt from "The Wall"

This article was published in the March 2012 Edition of our company's Newsletter.

The great Rahul Dravid (Indian cricketer with a moniker of 'The Wall') announced his retirement from Test cricket in March, this year. His illustrious career comprised with 164 test matches and 344 one day matches in which he was a top order batsmen, scoring prolifically for the Indian cricket team. There is a lot to learn from his professional career and following are the five things that we can learn from Rahul Dravid as professionals.

Technical genius
Rahul Dravid was a technical genius when it came to batting in test match cricket. Any youngster wanting to learn batting, watches Rahul Dravid bat in a test match. Such was his genius that the best of the bowlers in the cricket world would learn new techniques to get him out. But, his brilliant batting technique is what made him still standing on the field. We can learn from him to keep ourselves technically very sound in whatever field we are in.

Humble nature
Even after being recognized as a technical genius, Rahul Dravid was always very humble. For what he had achieved in a small age could have made him haughty, but he never talked with anyone in a harsh tone. He always was ready to help anyone when it came to cricket or otherwise. In his entire career, he has never ever been a part of any controversy. Being humble earns you respect from one and all. One thing Rahul Dravid has earned apart from everything else is the respect of his team mates, the media and the fans. Rahul Dravid teaches us how to be famous, earn success and still keep your feet firmly on the ground.

Team spirit
If one has to learn team spirit from someone in the cricket world, then Rahul Dravid is the best example. He was a wonderful team person throughout his entire career. Famous commentator Harsha Bhogle once said "If Rahul Dravid was asked to walk on water for his team, he will ask how many miles?" Even when asked to bat a step down in the batting order, he happily agreed to bat at any number in the batting order for his team. When he was asked to keep wickets in the 2003 World Cup by his captain, he did not give it a second thought and did not let it have any effect on his batting. Such was his team spirit. Rahul Dravid teaches us how to keep team before self.

Being a wonderful student
He was a wonderful student of the game. He always prepared well in advance. Whenever he went on overseas tours, he always prepared more than a month in advance. He kept learning new things from the game as he knew that bowlers around the world were always learning new techniques to get him out. He used to work harder in the nets before playing against them. He used to learn from the tour and also implement the new things he learnt into his batting. We can learn how to be a wonderful student and that virtue is a rare thing to possess in any profession. If one has to have an eye for learning, there is a lot to learn personally and professionally, every day.

Hardwork, focus and commitment
I have not seen anyone who has worked harder than Rahul Dravid. He has worked very hard for whatever he has achieved and his efforts never stopped even when he achieved a niche place in the Indian cricket team. He was always committed and focused on his job. He was very good in academics and had a great personality. Nothing stopped him achieve his ambitions to play for India. When he was criticized for his slow game in one day cricket matches, he worked very hard at it and made it a point to be one of the best players of one day cricket. Even after being a genius batsman, he was never short of commitment when it came to fielding. He is holding the record for most number of catches by a non-wicket keeper in test match cricket. Now that is some commitment! Rahul Dravid's career teaches us how to work hard, be focused and committed towards everything we do in life, professionally as well personally.

Sir Rahul Dravid

Dear Sir Rahul Dravid,

All I have for you is one word; Respect. If I have to award someone the title of Sir in the game of cricket your name comes first in my mind. I have been following your game right from the day you played your first test match at Lords, the mecca of cricket. And right from that first game to your last game in Australia, I have never seen any change in the committment you have shown towards the game and the way you approach the game. You are one team man who could do anything for the team. Your individual batting talent was always larger that the world. For that very aspect of your game, if you would have been a poor fielder, people would have accepted you and you would have still played those many number of games that you played in your career. But, you did not choose to give any less commitment when it came to fielding. You were always a brilliant fielder and the kind of catches you took in your test career, a normal cricketer can only dream of. Your were never after personal milestones but your commitment towards fielding have made to the fielder with most number of catches apart from a wicket keeper in test match cricket. The kind of team man that you are, any team for which you played was so much honored to have you in the team. Harsha Bhogle once said that if Rahul Dravid is asked to walk on water for his team, he will ask how many miles. Navjyot Sidhu's quote about you is so famous, "If Rahul's team asks him to walk on broken glass, he will happily walk on it." Such is your team spirit. You have sacrificed so much for your team that no other player did in his entire tenure. Whenever you have been asked to open you happily agreed. Whenever you were asked to bat at no. 6 you accepted it with a smile. Your acceptance was exploited to such levels that they even made you a wicket keeper in the one day team. But, you never budged, and you gave your 100% in everything. Had you not sacrificed so much for the team, I am sure your career statistics would have been far far ahead than that of the Laras and the Tendulkars, the Kallises and Pontings. For me you are one single man who has taught every youngster playing cricket, how to respect the game and how to be a team man. Your commitment has never been doubted and in a career spanning more than 15 years this is a tremendous achievement. You were one of the fortunately unfortunate whose entire career was always in the shadows of the Tendulkars and the Gangulys and the Laxmans. But, for me and I am sure there are thousands like me who believe that you are far far better then all those big names. The technique that you possess is by far the best in cricket. There is, never was and never will be another WALL. Yeah, thats the name given to you by the media and you in true sense showed the capabilities of a WALL shielding Indian Cricket behind you from all those deadly bowlers. Your hardwork throughout your career was immense. I have heard that once when the entire team was out shopping on some tour game, you were the only person who was knocking in his room. Such was your commitment towards the game. Very recently you had shown once again in England, when the entire team was falling apart, you were the only player who was fighting it out for the country and the team. Below is an evidence for the same.


True to your name they have built a wall in Bangalore's chinnaswamy stadium. Here is a pic of that wall.



Makes me very emotional as a true fan of yours when I see such gestures from the cricket fraternity for you. Because I have always felt that for whatever you have given to the game, you have not got back your due. You have always given your heart and soul and you always deserved more from the likes of BCCI. For me you are a role model a youth icon for the fitness you have maintained throughout your career and I have hardly ever seen a bad patch for you in test cricket. Something was worrying me off late when I saw you getting out in England and then Australia recently. The manner in which you were getting out was showing some flaw in your ever so great technique. I was very sure that something is coming from you when it happened for more occassions than 3. And the inevitable happened. You announced your retirement yesterday after returning from the tour of Australia. I felt bad at first but then I thought that for a man who has done so much for his team, there must be something he must have thought which made him take such a decision. To move away from a game that you loved so much would not have been easy. But, have you ever done anything in your life that is easy? Again as a true fan I respect your decision that time has come that you make way for the youngsters. It takes great courage and a self less attitude to do something like this. Your greatness is such that you have never played for any personal milestones, always played for the team, but still, you are a prolific scorer in both forms of the game. Let me make it very clear, when it comes to test match batting skills, there is, was and never will be anyone better than you. If anyone deserves the title of Sir, that's only you. Once again I only want to say that all I have for you is one word. Respect. Period.

Your Ardent Fan

HOLI Ankleshwar Di.

"PC,PC,PC", they all were shouting, much to the inconvenience of my parents. I was changing into old clothes as fast as I could and rushed outside. Within seconds I was pushed down by the crowd of my friends and for the next couple of minutes I laid still, till I was allowed to move. I could only stand once the storm had completely passed by and I was covered in innumerable colors of Holi. It was difficult to identify who all did it from the colorful faces and already soaked clothes of my friends. There was no trace left on my face or my body which would help someone identify me. It would have been difficult for me to identify myself at the point in time, even if I was in front of a mirror.



Before you rush to any conclusion let me rest the matter by informing you that the above introduction is of a Holi day celebration during our childhood days in the ONGC colony of Ankleshwar where we used to stay. No one was spared on this particular day. Everyone was coloured from top to toe in the Holi colours. This is how Holi was celebrated in those days. One by one we would go to everyone's house, get our mate out of the house throw him down and color him black and blue and maroon and purple. Ours was a big gang and it would take about 3 to 4 hours to bring out everyone on the Holi day.

Once we were done playing Holi with the traditional colours, the next step was to find out who all can get a two wheeler. Everyone used to partner someone or the other who owned a two wheeler. Luckily, I was always allowed the two wheeler from my dad. The destination was Narmada river at Kabirwad which was about 25-30 kms from our ONGC Colony. It used to be a wonderful ride always. Together we used to go on about 10 to 12 two wheelers with minimum two riders on each one. Reaching Kabirwad would take another hour or so. We would take one halt for having some junk food and cold drinks and then reach Karbirwad for enjoying the bath in the Narmada River. It used to be an amazing experience and we would only return when we were thoroughly tired and there was no energy left. Hardly ever we reached back home before evening.

Holi in Ankleshwar was so much fun in those days. It seems like just yesterday and all the scenes of ONGC colony still are very much alive in my memory. Remembering the Holi of old today on the Holi day 8th of March 2012 is nostalgic. Today we celebrated Holi in our office and the way some guys were hunting in groups took me back to my old memories of Holi. Here's wishing all my old friends from Ankleshwar a very Happy Holi. Those days will never come back but the memories of those days have been stamped in my mind forever.

Dada

From the early childhood, Dada for me, meant maternal Grandfather. We called him Dada (and not Nana or Azoba) because that’s what we had heard others call him. Dada for me was a wonderful personality. I was afraid to talk to him in my first few encounters with him, as he was a strict old man. But, eventually, I realized that he was loving and kind when it came to dealing with his grandchildren. I remember of him as a very hardworking and a disciplined person. He must have been in his late 60s when he used wake up early in the morning daily, did lot of physical work in the garden to the extent of cutting wood for using them as fuel in the kitchen, feeding the cows, milking them, cleaning their place and an innumerable physical activities. I used to wonder how much energy an old man can possess to indulge in all these activities. I remember asking this to my mom a number of times and all she answered was that she has also witnessed the same since her childhood.
Dada was an English teacher in school before retiring. After retirement apart from all the physical activities that he was involved in, he used to teach English to the students of primary school as tuition. There were a lot of poor students also who were unable to pay his fees whom he taught without charging anything. He was a strict teacher and had his own ways of teaching the English language to the children who were predominantly speaking a dialect of Hindi in the small town of Handia in Madya Pradesh. I still remember few of his rhymes prepared for the students to cram in Hindi so that they can use them to make a decision in English grammar.
One goes like this: "Thou yaani tu ke saath, 's' pratyay ko rakhna yaad". Another one "He, She, It aur Ram, saath mein inke kriya mein pratyay nahi lete". These were few of the mantras he had given to his students for the use of 's' with verbs. He had his own method of teaching English which the students enjoyed and had fun while learning. I used to spend time with him during his tuitions as I liked his conversation with his students. I still remember when he used to encourage us read the comics as kids when my parents were against it. He used to say, let the child read, any kind of reading will always help him. He used to get very excited every time we visited his place. Out of all our cousins visiting, we (me and my brother) were the most fortunate ones as per him as we were studying in English schools. I remember him asking me to translate a Hindi story into English and he used to be very pleased and praised my efforts when I did that. Off course, he used to fix my mistakes and teach me, but, that was his favourite activity with me. He used to ask me to tell a story in English to his students and to all his visitors in the small town. People there used to be surprised at how a small child can speak in English. I knew I was not a very fluent English speaking child, but when the audience does not understand what you are speaking, your confidence grows many fold. :) Same was the case with me. If I am able to build up my confidence in English, Dada is one person; I would like to give the credit to. I used to write a daily dairy during my school days and Dada knew about it. I remember him suggesting me that you should write daily what were the good deeds you did and what were the things you should not have done. I did not understand at that age why he wanted me to write all that. But, now as grown up, I can realize that it was his way of passing me the wisdom. If at the end of everyday we look back and ponder over what good we did today and what we should not have done, it definitely helps us in improving things the next day.


People must be wondering, why suddenly I thought of writing about Dada. Well, I was reading the book "Chicken soup for the Indian Golden Soul", and reading the stories in it inspired me to write about Dada. Dada has indeed taught me so many lessons of life. A true teacher that he was, I am sure he must have touched and improved lives of so many people in his life time. Dada is no more with us today, but, I am sure he is reading this from up there and feeling so proud that his grandson, me, can really write so much in English. :)