Khatte Mithe Pal Jeevan ke, nostalgia, experiences, family, humour

To, MR. A        It is regretted to point out that you have failed to comply the instructions issued by the competent authority which required you to have breakfast on time and play piano for one hour, despite repeated verbal reminders.        This act of non-compliance amounting to unbecoming of a good child has been viewed seriously and calls for strict disciplinary action as per family conduct rules, 1997 and 2005 including debarring you from playing   video games or eating pizza for one week.   Due care should be taken not to repeat such acts in future.                                                                                        Your Mom PS: This note may be kept in behavioral record of child and needs to be referred to at the time of his next demand.

image courtesy: png tree, google “Countdown to valentine day begins with Rose Day ” reads a headline! Seriously? Countdown?   What the hell! Seems as if some spaceship is going to be launched by ISRO or some missile to be fired by Indian army for which countdown is beginning!   Another headline reads,” Valentine week begins with Rose Day” And the headline for the next day is even more intriguing announcing the Agaaz of “ Propose Day ”! As if one day is not sufficient for celebrating the birth of Saint   valentine, people are celebrating the whole week, and the news papers and TV channels are also going gaga over Rose Day, Propose Day, Alana day, Falana day etc. etc. With all this hullabaloo doing rounds, my inquisitive, hard-core unromantic mind forced me to have a critical analysis about the origin of these days. Image courtesy: Google To my surprise, Wikipedia says “ Propose Day is an  unofficial holiday  celebrated on  February 8  in  India  . On this day

The last time I wrote about the surprise birthday party of my daughter, she said,” Mom, That’s not fair! We also give your surprise birthday parties and successfully manage to keep the surprise element. Why don’t you consider that?” “Sure!” I thought, "Except that I am fully aware of the surprise!" I started recalling the surprise birthday parties arranged by my family for me.  I recalled my birthday few years back, with my family  preparing for a surprise party for me which I was fully aware of. After all, how can a lady not be aware of any activity going on in the house? More so, it’s a simple guess when the “ Jani Dushman ” kids talk to each other in whispering tones and the irritated father is trying hard to abstain from scolding the children for stupid ideas! One or two days before, the kids demanded their long overdue pocket money and I readily agreed. Even my husband demanded two thousand rupees (we were not much used to plastic money then), to which I though

“ Oh my God! I am having severe headache!” I said to my husband, getting up from the bed. He was quick enough to jump to the conclusion,” It is because you were reading till very late last night! How many times I have told you to sleep early!“ Now, this was not what I was expecting from him. I was just sharing my pain, and even though he was generous enough to investigate and point out the reason, it was in no way going to relieve me from pain. I started thinking, why this happens? When we share our pain with someone, in return people start analyzing the cause of suffering, mostly concluding that it’s our own fault. My mother is a glaring example of this. Whenever I complain of some illness, in addition to getting worried, she is quick enough to find the reason and prove that I am the one who should be blamed for it. In my childhood days, I was very much prone to throat infection. Every time I had throat infection, Mummy would attribute it to the curd or ice cream, which I might

Happiness is a blessing, true, but there are some things you realize, only at the time of hardships. I always used to joke about how my husband helped me in the household chores. Whenever I asked him to make tea, he would go in the kitchen and scream from there,” where is sugar kept? Where is tea kept?” after answering two-three queries, I would say,” you come out of the kitchen. I will make the tea for both of us.” Like any other lady, I never minded being busy in small household chores like cooking, preparing tiffin for my daughter, etc. Like a typical mother, I had never imagined that the house could run without my contribution. But I was proved wrong last year, when I suffered from severe backache. The doctor, after preliminary examination, prescribed many tests, the results of which horrified me. When I went to the doctor with the reports, I was concerned,” would I be all right?” “Why not?” The doctor said, “But strictly follows my instructions.” I could have

As a child, I had an opportunity of staying at many places because my father had a transferrable job. But I was always fussed about the fact that he had a state government job, which meant he could never be posted out of the state. Those were the days when it was not common to go on vacations to hilly states or seabeahes like today, so our school vacations were spent in our grandfather’s house. I remember telling my parents that blessed would be the day, when I would see the world out of Madhya Pradesh. A central government job gave me opportunity to venture out of the state, but not much impact was felt during the time of probation, as the life was mostly limited to training institute only. So, when after probation I was posted to Shimla, it seemed like a complete change in my world climatically, socially and culturally. This posting was not totally unplanned, as by this time my marriage was fixed and my future husband was posted in Shimla, but it was the period from posti

“Gossip is good for health.” says a study! But why do they need to conduct a study for it? I can say so just by looking at my Chachis, Mausis, buas etc. who spend lot of time gossiping around happily, leading a long, healthy life. Gossip can always be healthy and enjoyable for all, except for the one who has to leave the gossip meeting in between as he/she then becomes the most vulnerable target of gossiping. Otherwise also, gossips can upset the person being made the object of gossip, like  Hrithik Roshan got upset over the rumours of his wife Suzanne demanding an alimony of 400 crore. But, why was he so upset over this? Doesn’t he know how a gossip travels? I had been reading the news about the alleged enormous alimony demanded by Suzanne, but was never surprised as I know when a piece of gossip travels from one person to another; it is the moral duty of the receiving person to do some value addition and pass it on further with the remark, “Don’t tell anybody!” Gossipers a

अजगर करे न चाकरी पंछी करे न काम,  दास मलूका कह गए सब के दाता राम! The literal meaning of the above saying is that “neither the python does any job, nor the bird does any work. Saint Maluka has said that the God takes care of all!” The moral of this saying is that even if one does not do any work, God is there to feed them. Now friends, before you bombard me with endless questions and infinite logics such as even the python has to make efforts to catch his prey and the bird has to get up early morning to catch worm etc., let me remind you, that the above words are not mine, they are said by Saint Maluka! The reason I am sharing this with you is because they help me console myself when I encounter some person being paid (especially by me) without doing anything and I am sure that these words might act as a consolation to you as well. I am sure, if the Saint would have been alive today, he would have taken his words back on seeing just how many people are desperately trying to s