THE RECIPE FOR PERFECT GRANDPARENTS

Ingredients:
One box needed of crazy birthday cards you give to me.
Three cups of daal and roti you make for me.
Two trips to the store to get me my nail polish.
Four different pairs of earrings you lake for me.
Nine games of card tricks you taught me.
Twenty minutes of time we spent on walks.
One package of all purpose love.
Directions:
Preheat oven at 350 degree Fahrenheit.
Mix all purpose love with three cups of daal and roti.
Take crazy birthday cards and mix thoroughly with nail
polish from the store.
Pat twenty minutes of walks with nine games of card tricks
and mix all separate mixtures together.
Put on two separate trays and put in the toy room.
Bake for fifteen to twenty minutes.
Wait for it to cool and serve into seven little bite size
pieces.
Now you’ve finished making the perfect grandparents.
Love,
Ruhi.

1.WITH SCHOOL CHILDREN AT DIU BEACH 2. AT HAJI ALI

Pawar slapped.
Only one slap? comments Anna Hazare.

Slapgate is dominating media and Parliament for the last two
days. There are different takes on the episode. BJP is talking with tongue in
cheeks. Anna has publically justified
it. In his opinion one slap is just too little for the injustice towards
farmers who were forced to commit suicide.
I am not in a position to digest this logic coming particularly
from Anna. Does he means to say that people are free to slap the FM for rising
prices or the HM for law and order or the PM for corruption all around. The
reasons seem to be good enough as far as he is considered. The other day he
said that people who drink alcohol should be tied to the tree and beaten. This
way there will be no end and one day each one of us will be slapping each
other.
He seems to have lost his way or he thinks he has remedy for
every ill in our society and his way is the right way. This is what happens we
put people like Anna on high pedestal. All said done he has little or no
knowledge of many complex problems of a huge country like India. India lives in
villages but Anna’s village Ralegaon Sidhi is not India. Those who called Anna
is above Parliament or who compared him with Gandhi should think twice. We have
still not forgotten ‘India is Indira and Indira is India” and the aftermath of
this in imposition of Emergency.

BEAUTY + BRAINS
=OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With due apologies to women in general and brainy and
beautiful female Verdurians in
particular I am posting this RRR. We have hundreds of examples of beautiful
intelligent women in every walk of life be it Politics, Glamour or Profession.
We had beautiful and a very sharp brained woman PM and we currently have a very
beautiful and sharp woman CM down south. We will leave other two women CMs for
obvious reasons. This only strengthened the point that women are also blessed
with brains in addition to beauty.
But here will talk of exceptionally beautiful women who were
blessed with brains also. It is generally believed that beauty and brains do
not go together and when they do it can lead to disaster, not all the time but
generally because once an intelligent women uses her beauty assets to further
her ambitions, anything may happen. We know that blondes considered beautiful
in western world are made fun of their brains. Beauty with brains has been
blamed for all havoc right from the times of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra II who
was accused and rightly for the assassination of her husband Julius Caesar. She also met a
very tragic end but that is history as told. The point is she used her beauty
to gain power.
Kaikai, the beautiful and most favored Queen of King
Dashratha also used her beauty and brains to get the Kingdom for her son
Bharatha. In the process, Rama was exiled and Dashratha died. It is another
issue that Bharatha refused to go her way.
It is common
knowledge that beauty with brains could reach their goals while beauty minus
brains is simply exploited. The peculiar example is that of Aishwarya Rai who
first used Salman Khan to further her career and then Vivek Oberoi to get rid
of Salman Khan and finally landed in Bachchan household as a Bahu by marriage
to junior Bachchan a few years younger to her. Poor beautiful Rekha had no or little brains and was
exploited by Bachchan senior only to land in a failed marriage ending in the suicide of her one/two
month old businessman husband.
Friends you may agree to disagree or give more such examples
of scheming brainy beauties.

COLORS OF LIFE-6. LOVE IS BLIND
This also relates to MDSIC and my final year of Intermediate
commerce. Bade Bhai Saheb, as you all know was my class and roommate. I think I
have told you that though he was two
years senior to me but we were in the same class from 6th class
onwards not because he was anyway less of a good student but because I took the
advantage of skipping 5th
class to be with him in the same school.
Now let me come to the subject. Ravindra and we lived in the
same neighborhood. He was the brother –in law of our Commerce Teacher to whom
his elder sister was married. As always happens a teacher can teach anybody on
earth but when it comes to teaching his ‘saala’, it is an impossible job mainly
because he cannot twist the ears of his wife’s younger brother. So very often
he would send him to our place for help and since he was one year junior to us
we were happy to help because it gave us some sadistic pleasure. He was a below
average student and was pursuing his Intermediate Arts.
Final exams were on and he came to us for advice how best to
secure good marks in Essay writing. We told him there were good chances of
pleasing the examiner if the essay started with some quotation in English by a
great person. We gave him some examples as which quotation could be used for
what subject and so on.
He took our advice for good. Next day he came to our room
and was looking in best of spirits. We asked him how he did in his Essay. He
very joyfully announced that he started essay with a very popular quote. And
what it was, we asked. “Love is blind” was his reply. And whose quote is it, we
asked. “Pandit Nehru”. And what was
subject of the Essay, we asked. “Bharat Me Badhati Jansankhya Ki Samasya”
(Problem of increasing population in India).
We laughed to our hearts’ content. Don’t you think he had
given the best quote?

WHY ARE WE AFRAID OF POLICE?
In Delhi, the Police Department has a Senior Citizens Cell.
Seniors who are living alone can register with them. The beat constable of the
area is expected to visit them routinely and help them in case of need. We are
registered with the Cell. The beat constable visits us at once in a while but
certainly to deliver the Birthday Greeting Cards for both of us. The beat
constables are transferred quite frequently and that is the reason so far in
last two years we have been visited by different constables. They are young,
educated and smartly dressed. Mostly they are in a hurry as they have lot of
other work to do but once in a while they agree to share a cup of tea with us.
While the tea is getting ready in the kitchen by my wife I keep talking to them
about their families and life in general. We are happy when they leave with a
smiling face.
That brings me the topic ‘why we are afraid of police’? It
is said that ‘police kin a dosti achchi na dushmani’ (Neither friendship nor enmity
with a policeman is god). If you are friendly with them they may use you and if
have enmity with them they may harass you on flimsy grounds. We lived with this
saying through our life. Fortunately or so we had no one in the police
department from our family and therefore could not have a fair idea.
One thing was always certain. We were afraid of policemen.
Mostly rightly because we jumped the red lights at traffic points or did not
have driving license or vehicle papers in order or played cards during Diwali
or had booze in the parks or did many such things. We were not afraid of being
legally punished but of the amount we will have to take out from our wallets to
avoid legal punishment. We were afraid of them for no reason also. We always
saw a policeman as an essential evil that harassed innocent people and sided
with the influential people. We saw them as hand in gloves with the thieves or
robbers. We were told they had a share in the loot everywhere. Most of these
policemen were shabbily dressed, pot bellied and foul mouthed. In short they
did not incite confidence.
I think if more and more educated and people came in the
police department and they are trained properly, we may see a sea change in our
life itself. It is not that ail policemen are corrupt or uneducated or did not
come from good families but it is the training and work environment that has
not helped them to be a good citizen and such people were put on the roads to
teach the laws of good citizenry.

COLORS OF LIFE-5. TO SIR WITH LOVE.

“Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Gurur Devo Maheshwara,

Gurur Sakshat Para Brhma, Tasmye Shree Gurve Namah”

With these sacred feelings I resume to write a few lines about my respected ‘ Sir’. I enrolled for my Intermediate, in Moortidevi Saraswati Intermediate College(MDSIC) run by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain Trust( Times of India Group) primarily because it was the only college offering Commerce and also because the institute was considered to be the best in the district. It had the distinction of 100 % success rate in Board Exams with many making to the merit list. It had well laid out complex with play ground of its own. Financial aid was available to poor students in form of uniform, books and admission fees. Additionally it was administered by Shri Ram Narayan kela, Principal , whom we affectionately called ‘ Sir’, known for his efficiency, administrative skills and impressive educational background.

As a student of course ,pretty soon it became quite obvious to me why it was considered the best. Discipline was the name of the game. The Principal was a disciplinarian to the core not only for the students but for the teachers too. The teachers were supposed to reach school at least half an hour before the scheduled time, sign the attendance register and ensure that the students behaved themselves.

Students were supposed to reach school 15 minutes before the scheduled time but in no case after the Main Gate was closed. He would place himself on a chair at the Main Gate with a Newspaper or a book in his hands. As was the custom, each student would touch his feet and silently walk to his class. Late comers would be detained at the gate, made to do some sit ups and then allowed to go to class with a promise for not to come late again. Habitual late comers were sent back home. It was heartening scene to watch the parents returning with the student, apologizing profusely. The net result was almost all students reached school well in time.

Another was about uniform. We had those Khaki shorts/pants with white shirts as uniform. The uniform had to be neat and clean, all buttoned up and no button missing, shoes properly polished, nails trimmed and hair cut, oiled and parted. Students not conforming to rules were sent back.

The town was not big then. Sir was a known figure. With his tall figure, flowing long beard, white kurta and dhoti, he could be easily spotted easily. Sir’s writ was not limited to the school walls only. He could easily recognize his student and reprimand him if found eating Chat at some stall or doing any such thing not worthy of being the student of his school.

Same thing applied about watching movies in the only movie theatre we had in the town. It was not that we did not or could not watch movies but there always was the fear of being watched by Sir. Movies, smoking, drinking and cards were strict no and considered sinful.

There was a soft side of Principal Sir too. He never used a stick or beat any student. His eyes said everything. He was very helpful too. Poor students were helped with monetary help in forms of books etc. Below average students were given extra tutorials after the school. Bright students were encouraged and rewarded with books and testimonials. A few of us were even allowed to teach the junior classes in the absence of the teacher.

It goes to the credit of Sir that students did shramdan (donation of labor). We used to clean the play ground and move the bricks and other construction materials to the construction site. Though there was no way we could refuge but the way we were asked and motivated to do such jobs was always a pleasure and satisfying experience.

It was said that he did have a family but they did not live with them. His wife probably could not coup up with his dedication for his work at the school that went from Primary School to become an Intermediate College in the district because of his untiring efforts and commendable results.

He was also closed to the trustees of the school. He would, as the students from the family informed us, spend his evenings with the elders of the family. His meals also came from there only. The one secret about him we could never digest was his love for Movies. He would almost watch every movie with the elders of the family in the late night shows, as informed by the students from the family.

It was our final year and exams were round the corner. The day of reckoning came when one fateful night we went to watch the late night show and saw “Sir’ sitting in the balcony during the interval. He too probably saw us. We slipped in the darkness after the interval. We were scared to go to school next day but there was no option. Nothing really happened. Ay the prayer assembly, he was there as usual. Again as usual, we waited for his speech. He told us about the coming exams and how we should use our time to secure maximum marks. He ended with saying that he was pained when he saw some of the bright students watching movies and advising that we should not be over confident.

Such was my Sir. You were as human as anyone else but there was something special about you. We are proud of you. You made our life.