An Unplanned Stoppage

An Unplanned Stoppage

 

Last December, nine members from three generation of our family visited Kerala. 

The tour was progressing great, everybody was enjoying every minute of the tour.  On our second day we started for Munnar from Cochin at around 3 PM. The route was very panoramic, film songs were in full swing in the vehicle.  At around 6 PM we felt a sudden jerk and the vehicle started swaying to one side. 

Driver managed and stopped the vehicle on the side of the road.  We all got down and saw that the rear right wheel was flattened.  It was not welcomed by all the tired singers of film songs. 

Driver started the process of changing the wheel.  But alas! The driver did not find a particular screwdriver in his tool box, required to change the wheel. Driver took a lift on a passing two wheeler and went to a nearby town to fetch the screwdriver.    

It made all of us ‘tired people’ edgy, everybody started cribbing.  We had nothing to do except waiting, slowly everybody sat on stones here and there facing valley in the direction of west.  Each face was showing various shades of grumpiness.  

Suddenly I observed sky turning in various shades of red as the Sun was setting in west.  I said, ‘Oh! What a beautiful view. 

The atmosphere started changing.  My father praised the view of the valley, mother liked the greenery and kids started trying their legs at rock climbing.  My wife exclaimed, ‘See the Sun is setting, in another ten minutes it will be gone completely.’  My brother-in-law added, ‘Wow! The view is mesmerizing.’ Soon cameras were out and we forgot about the flattened wheel.

From somewhere the driver shouted, ‘All of you come, the vehicle is ready’.  I heard the voice of my sister, ‘Give us another ten minutes, or better, join us and enjoy the view.’

What name should I give to that point, ‘Sun Set Point’ or ‘Flat Wheel Point’?

Writer-

Sanjay Bordia

Companion of 18 years

Companion of 18 years

Eighteen years ago, which does not seem to be longer than eighteen months, I got married to a girl selected by my parents.  After a few months of marriage I realized that my wife is not inclined towards various prayers, fasting days, donations to priests, temples and other religious rituals. 

She was not disrespecting to any of these things/acts/places but she was not in to it.  Her disinterest did not raise any eyebrows in my house, as the family members were liberal and democratic by nature.

Later on, eyebrows did were raised but for different and pleasant reasons.  The reason was my wife’s nature of extending impromptu help to any person.  Sensing anybody in trouble her mind starts working frantically to arrive at a solution or help.  And it does not matter an iota that the person in trouble is not known to us. 

I first experienced about her helping nature after a few months of the marriage.  We went to see off my parents at Delhi railway station.  They settled in their compartment and we were standing on the platform, doing the usual see off talk. An old lady, sitting in the same compartment, near window was cleaning her specs with her sari.   A sudden movement of train resulted in loss of balance for the old lady and her specs fell down out of the window and below the train.  The train had started and the specs could be retrieved only after the departure of train.  No relative of that old lady was there at that moment, so retrieving the specs after the departure was not making sense.  Train was catching up the speed.  Suddenly my wife started running along the train asking that lady to give her phone number.  The old lady could not understand but my father understood what my wife was saying.  He immediately took the name and Delhi phone number of the old lady, scribbled it on the back page of a newly bought magazine, tore it and threw it out of the window.  My wife took that paper and we waited for the train to depart completely.  After the departure I got down on the rail treks and took possession of the specs, which fortunately were not broken.  Later on we called the relatives of old lady over phone and soon her son came to our house and collected his mother’s specs. 

I was bowled over by her immense desire to help and the great presence of mind.

In later years I witnessed many such acts like taking out a tiny stray pup from the gutter, least bothering about, spoiling the hands. Once she decided to remove all the plastic litter from Aarey Milk Colony in Mumbai.  Yes, it is true, with the help of two hired hands and myself, she set on a mission to make the Aarey Milk Colony litter free and we 4 people in 6 hours cleaned 250 KG of plastic litter from that paradise in Mumbai.

A recent act amazed me once again, even after being witness to so many acts of hers.  She found one of the watchmen of our housing society very weak and pale.  She inquired and the watchman told her about his fever and medicines he is taking.  She asked him about his diet and soon realized that the diet which the watchman was taking was at all not nutritious.  She asked some more questions and was sad to note that his financial position did not allow him a better diet.

She made a plan, discussed with me and implemented.  She decided to provide one glass of milk and two glucose biscuits to all the 16 watchman everyday at 8.00 AM.  16 steel glasses were bought the same day and from next day the process started.  She gets up early in the morning, fetches 5 liters of milk and at 8.00 AM 16 people are served some nutritious diet.  She confessed to me that a bigger satisfaction for her from this program is generating faith among the under privileged about the helping nature of mankind.

With her by my side, every day, a saying crosses my mind which says ‘Hands that help are far greater than lips that pray’. 

Once I asked her about her disinterest in worshipping in temples and she replied, ‘Human beings are created by god and god is created by human beings, it is better to worship the creation of god rather than creation of human beings’.

This is how my companion of 18 years is.

Sanjay Bordia

As you sow, so you reap

As you sow, so you reap

One evening as I entered the house my wife told me about an incident happened in the family of my cousin named Kailash. The whole incident put my memory in the time machine and I travelled some 15 years in the past.

The occasion was a marriage ceremony in my Masi’s (Mother’s sister) house.  I had gone there with my wife and daughter.  All the rituals of marriage were being conducted with lots of enthusiasm and fun. On the eve of the marriage ‘Mahila Sangeet’ was organized and a professional lady was engaged as ‘Masters of Ceremonies’.  All the relatives and guests were enjoying the evening.  MC was good at her craft and was inviting the family members to perform in a very good sequence; in between she was announcing various spot prizes also.  We all were participating with lots of zeal and were full of ear to hear the next spot prize.  And the MC announced the next spot prize, ‘any kid below 15 years of age brings me the marriage invitation card first will get a prize’.  Listening this all the kids started running here and there, some went to their rooms; some started digging their mother’s hand bag, a few collected the car keys from their fathers and ran to the car park area to collect the card. 

My cousin (Masi’s son) who was beside me during the evening had two sons below the age of 15, was cheering them to arrange the invitation card fast.  Suddenly I saw a girl of around 8 years running towards the MC with an invitation card in her hand.  Just then my cousin’s elder son caught the girl, snatched the card and within seconds presented it to the MC.  In the milieu of so many people the MC could not see the reality and gave the prize to my cousin’s son.  Now my cousin’s joy knew no bounds.  In his view his son had shown supreme smartness by snatching the card from the little girl and presenting it to the MC.  He was all high about his son. He called his son, patted his back and asked him to sit on his lap pampering him. I kept quiet trying to enjoy the next performance, but the cousin who was looking for endorsement for his son’s smartness rose the topic again that how sharply his son had acted.  I paused for a second, framed the sentence in my mind and said, ‘Don’t be so happy, today he is snatching from others, tomorrow he may snatch from family members. Condemn him now’.  This sentence put a brake on my cousin’s display of joy but his face expressed that he did not appreciate this piece of advice. Then I showed him the 8 year old girl, who was weeping silently in a corner.

The incident my wife told me that evening was related to the same cousin i.e. Masi’s Son named Kailash.  Wife told me that Kailash’s son Mahesh is threatening his father to transfer all the property in his name.  And his threatening was not only verbal but physical also.  His tactics included removing the quilt from his father’s body in the midnight of December/January winters of North India, disconnecting phone calls made by Kailash to his other children, deliberately putting excess salt in Kailash’s food etc.

The information made me sad and I decided to call Kailash.  Phone was picked up by Mahesh, he spoke very politely but made excuses about the presence of his father.  I could not stop visualizing Kailash weeping silently in a corner somewhere just as that little girl was weeping some 15 years ago.

Passive acceptance of children’s rude, selfish or insensitive behavior by parents is a real cause of them turning in to brats.  Whenever I hear about counseling session for children, I wonder, who is in more need of this session, Children or their parents? 

 

Sanjay Bordia, 1044-A, High Point-1, Palace Road, Bangalore-560001.  Ph. 09743322555

Honda Activa-Happy Family

Honda Activa
Happy Family Contest-2007

Last year in the month of November, 06 the marriage of my niece was fixed and we all family members were very happy as the groom was very well settled and from a cultured family.
My elder brother and his wife both are teachers in a small town some 80 KM from Udaipur. For the marriage of their daughter they came to our ancestral house and we all started preparing for the ceremony with lots of enthusiasm. As I am settled in Udaipur, my brother gave me lots of responsibilities for the marriage e.g. stay arrangement for the groom side, food for all the guests, decoration, band, purchasing etc. etc. My wife readily accepted the assignment of taking care of the bride. Her dresses, ornaments, makeup were the responsibility of my wife.
The atmosphere was very joyous, my parents were very happy that their first grand child was getting married in front of their eyes. My sisters who are married and settled in other cities had also arrived with their families. Kids were enjoying or rather were the source of enjoyment for all of us.
My wife and I had become the de-facto marriage organizers as with time more and more responsibilities were coming on us. But we both were treating it our privilege and were trying to put a top show.
Everything was going fine and as per plan. I was happy for my niece; her increased time on mobile phone was indicating that she is gelling with her beau. Finally the D day arrived; I again took stock of the situation and found that everything is perfect. Cooks were preparing food since early morning, Mehandi girls were applying mehandies on the palms of whoever interested. Many ceremonies were taking place.
At around 2 PM my wife took my niece to the beauty parlor. As bridal makeup is a long process, we had timed the arrival of bride around an hour before the arrival of the Barat party. I was leading an army of young relatives who were assigned various marriage related works. Time was just flying out and the work was not coming to an end. At around 6 PM I got a call on mobile from my wife, and what she told me, immediately took centre stage of my mind. She told me that they are ready to leave the parlor but there is a huge traffic jam between parlor and our house. I immediately recalled that there was a huge political rally planed for that day in the city and it was the time for various villagers to return to their villages. I realized the gravity of the situation. Only half an hour was left for groom’s party to arrive and I knew with the kind of traffic on roads it was not possible for my niece to reach to our place in the car in which she went.
Soon information came on my mobile that the Barat has started to proceed to our house. I knew it will take not more then 45 minutes for Barat to reach to our place. Now some thing had to be done and immediately. I felt the keys of my HONDA ACTIVA in my hand, thought for a second and found out the solution. I knew scooter would be a much easier vehicle in the time of traffic jams. Soon I was on my HONDA ACTIVA cruising in the traffic. In 10 minutes I was in front of the parlor, asked my niece to sit on the scooter and told wife to come in the car. Now I was again cruising in the traffic with a bride in her full makeup sitting as a pillion. People were gaping at this odd combination of a girl in full bridal makeup and a tired looking man in dirty clothes driving a HONDA ACTIVA at a fast pace. I think one of them was a boy scout still looking for the good deed of the day to do. He came just in front of the scooter, I had to halt and he accused me of fleeing the bride from her marriage venue. I tried to explain the truth to the Boy Scout but he was not in the mood to let the good deed of the day slip away from his hand. He created a commotion and it seemed he had a lot of followers there. Soon there were two policemen. I explained the truth to the policemen; my niece also agreed with me and informed them that I am her uncle. But the Boy Scout said that he has heard many such stories.
Time was running out and I was visualizing the Barat reaching our house. Lot of arguments and explaining did not help then my niece suggested that policemen accompany us to our house. After some hot discussions it was decided that one of the policemen and that Boy Scout will accompany us to our house. The Boy Scout went to pick his vehicle and it come another HONDA ACTIVA. But here also the Boy Scout put a condition that policeman will drive my HONDA ACTIVA and I will sit as a pillion with Boy Scout.
Now we four persons on two HONDA ACTIVA proceeded towards our house. With in 5 minutes we were hearing the sound of Barat band. There was only one road to reach to our house and when we reached there the Barat was on its way. With no alternative we started driving amidst the Barat.
All Baratis were stunned seeing the bride and the policeman on a HONDA ACTIVA accompanied by two persons on another HONDA ACTIVA.
My niece who is a born mischievous waved to the groom when there eyes met, to my great relief I saw the groom smiling. But a few elders from the groom’s side were not so generous and soon there was lot of whispering.
I took the few elders aside and explained the whole situation and this time the Boy Scout and the policeman also were on my side as they had realized the truth. Everything became normal with in no time.
I profusely thanked the policeman, sought a friendly apology from the Boy Scout. And gave my biggest thanks to my beloved HONDA ACTIVA
Sanjay Bordia
1044-A, High Point-1,
Palace Road, Bangalore-560001