GOOD SHOW

Kamal, a young man of 23 or so, almost 6 footer, handsome with good physique, had been with me in one of the organizations where I was GM a few years ago. He was very good in his work but used to get very shy if he had to talk to any girl. After I left that organization he used to call up off and on. It was a pleasant surprise when I met him a couple of days ago in the market. A young woman showing signs of being newly married was accompanying him. He introduced her as his wife, Sandhya. They had got married a month ago. I invited them over to our house as it was time for evening tea.

It was over cup of tea when Sandhya was in the kitchen with my better half, I asked him as to how come he did not tell me about getting married. What he told me is something for which I admire him.

One of his distant cousins got married to Sandhya about 6 months ago. It was love marriage. His parents had agreed reluctantly. Her father had passed away while she was in school. Her mother survives on his family pension. Unfortunately his cousin died in a motorcycle accident about 4 months after marriage. His parents told her to either go back to her mother or marry their elder son who is a widower with 3 grown up children. She was still to come out of grief and she was shattered with this. Knowing her mother’s financial state she could not have gone back to her without first getting some good job and she could never think of getting married to her brother in law with grown up children as she had always looked upto him as elder brother. Her in laws were insisting that she decide soon. When Kamal came to know of this, he spoke to his parents as he felt this was total injustice to poor girl. His parents were very supportive. On approaching her in laws they were told who would marry that girl to invite bad luck. That is when Kamal, the only child of his parents, offered to marry her without any clauses. His parents backed him up. They got married within few days after that in a very simple ceremony in a temple and also registered it in the court.

Hearing this I felt lump in my throat and at the same time felt so proud of him. May God be kind to them and give courage to more youngmen to do what they feel is right.

ALONE WE ALL ARE

There is a saying ONE COMES ALONE INTO THIS WORLD AND GOES ALONE. I believe in it as a statement of fact with just little variation. After COMES ALONE it should be added IS ALONE before AND GOES ALONE.

Confused? Well, I have read some of my friends here wonder what happens and why friends drift away. I did comment that as time progresses each of us gets into own world and slowly not only friends but even relatives drift away. New friends come, far off relatives become close and then again the same process is repeated. At times closeness is due to own needs too. Now you may be wondering am I becoming senile at 65, so let me explain what made me state this.

I had been in this space for almost a year and half. I have been trying to write as regularly as I could but I did visit my blogger friends regularly leaving my comments. For the past month and half I had been erratic and did not visit even those with whom I bond. And in all this time, it seems that none of my dear friends wondered as to what has happened. Even those with whom I had been in touch either by e mails or some on telephone also, did not feel necessary to check how is this old man. I did write a post about it and I know we do believe in letting one have privacy and do not wish to intrude into his or her space but continued absence does make at least me wonder about my regular friends prompting me to enquire if ALL IS WELL.

So it is true that ONE COMES ALONE INTO THIS WORLD, IS ALONE AND GOES ALONE.

MOCKERY OF LAW

At times I wonder is law equal for all?

Recently there were reports of demolition of unauthorized structures on Government land. Just because those happened to have been constructed to offer worship or prayers, does it justify those to be allowed to remain? Why should the authorities wilt under threat of unrest? Is it because of vote bank as those in power are scared that if they act strongly the opposition parties will take advantage to garner that vote bank? Have we still not learnt lessons after having been ruled by outsiders for such a long time that TOGETHER WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL? Are we that short sighted and selfish?

That brings second point for thought. Have such structures or for that matter ADRASH Society Building or Lavasa township or Latika Park building which collapsed resulting in deaths of so many or any other unauthorized colonies come up overnight? Where were those responsible to ensure no unauthorized building comes up when all these were under construction? Should we not give exemplary punishment to those who allowed such structures or colonies come up?

May we have a discussion on this?

MANNERS?

A couple of days ago I had taken our dog, Cocker Spaniel, out in the afternoon and on my return I found lift to be on the ground floor with a lady with 2 children – a girl of about 12 and boy of about 8, getting in. As I came close to the lift, the girl said “ You take the other lift.” The way in which she said it conveyed that it was like an order and not request because of being scared of dog. I always keep the dog on short leash when people are around and am careful that she does not trouble anyone. She as it is, is very docile and childfriendly. Our grandchildren keep troubling her without any retaliation from her. What made me feel sad was that little girl did not have any regard for my age, close to her grandfather’s. And her mother, I so presume, also did not have courtesy to use polite language. She just kept mum. Is this what we teach our children for manners? She could have politely said “ Please take the other lift as I am scared of dog.”

LIFE IS HECTIC

In her comment to my post - Is It Fair?, Restless had said, though in lighter vein, she thought I would be reviewing my performance in this space. Well, I can not disappoint the Young Lady, so here I go for an introspection of 2010.

All in all it was a satisfactory year, though I would have been a lot happier if it was without all those politically shaded happenings. In my personal life I had set 2 goals, first being to overcome my whatever little negative thinking still left and second being to see what could be done to have our son settled with his wife and daughter. And I also set goal to write at least 50 posts here during 2010. For my first target, I can proudly claim that I did overcome a lot of negativity and am looking at the positive side of each happening. I hope to be totally positive in the near future. On second too, after a lot of deliberations, there has been success though at a cost. We shifted residence to another locality from where we had spent two stints of almost 5 years and over 10 years to fulfill this. We are together now and I pray that there are no more setbacks on this issue. Some of you are aware of what was the problem. Leaving old locality was not happy as we had got so used the that place. Apart from that our daughter’s children used to be with us after school till evening. Now I go there on each school day to be with her young son on his return from school so he does not feel neglected while being alone with maid. His elder sister comes back from school around 3 pm and I leave at 5 pm or so when they go to play in the park. This makes my life hectic but no regrets as we can not ignore them also.

I did achieve my target of 50 posts but now I feel so tired after all that running around that I have not been able to keep up with my earlier tempo of writing and visiting you all. Cold weather too has it’s affect on this old man. I have a long list to visit and had been making all efforts to visit each blogger friend at least on alternate days. But presently it has become difficult for me. Another factor which makes it so is that our 3 years old granddaughter is becoming computer addict. As soon as she spots me on PC she just charges onto me to put computer games telling me MUJHE BHI SIKHAYO ( Teach me too ). I have no option but to take her in my lap and guide her hand while entering for search or moving mouse. In the mornings when she is in school I have to rush to previous locality after finishing my morning chores including grooming of our dog and in the evenings as well as week ends she is there to claim her right to use PC. So please do bear with me. I shared some of my experiences and there are lot more to write about which I will as soon as I find my feet again properly.

Well, that is what is my life and I have NO complaints about it.