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| No, the car isn't mine, though I wish it were..!! |
Tuesday 28 June 2011
Enjoying light morning hours of Sunday at Jubilee Baug
Tuesday 21 June 2011
On M F Husain with Jay Vasavda
hiteshbhai,
for u it may not sound convincing, that doesnt mean it is not convincing. current indian mentality is just reflection of Victorian n jehadi mentality about art- n its not indian at all. in my all four articles i have given point... by point answers with facts (not opinions ) without considering single of dem...hussain bashers just in hurry to present thier repeatably programmed response (not of theirs, as tyhey cant sustain in single argument but its smart 'inception' of a so called hindutva propaganda. as i respect u as lover of the language, beyond amitabh's example point was absolutly clear. as i mentioned yday-comman ppl's perception in name of faith (?) may favored satipratha too in past-but it took time (n firm progressive governance) to change mindset. but freedom of expression don't need laymen opinion as it is clearly defined by high court n supreme court of india...n my explanation was nothing but extension of supreme court's verdict on hussain. now if ur not convinced with supreme court of india, than its fine
The following convesation happened today online:
The following convesation happened today online:
Dear Jaybhai...oh! thanks for the response...yes, u r right. If something doesn't sound convincing to us, it doesn't mean it is not convincing at all. We at best can give our perceptions, the final judgement comes out from the discussions... . Apart from those paintings which I see as blunders that even men with logical mind sometimes commit in their life, I have no problem with M F Husain or his other paintings, rather it is difficult not to get impressed by whatever is being written about him in newspapers and magazines. He was the man who didn't only live his life fully but also savoured it to the fullest... I firmly believe in Supreme court's verdict on freedom of expression, but, at the same time I must say an artist can not do everything that pleases his whims and fancies. Do you believe an artists' work is above the people and the scrutiny of supreme court esp when it hurts the sentiments of an entire community? I hope you don't.
dear hitesh, as i already explianed in detail many times-if in creativity n truth community sentiments are considered-mankind cant have railway engine, porinting press, medical science, rocket science too...n we cud hav continued satipratha... , ashprushtya, vidhvagruh at kaashi etc on name of so called religious sentiments. its upon we- if we want to seat besides pakistan, afghanistan in mindset, or france, usa. that wil decide future of a nation. community which is not hurt by selling of 'tulsi' (scared plant in india, wife of shaligram -vishnu) brand gutka in REAL life, n make fuss about VIRTUAL art-itself have double standards-n ignorance towards its own ancient scriptures n sculptures. it seems u didnt take care to read all past articles in detail. being a man of literature u must dear.
u reply so fast!! well thanks again...i will read those four articles u mentioned....Satipratha, and all those things are fine and can be understood...but not this...no problem...
that shows exactly the mental block..as i told, virtua;l creative things r inacceptable in name of faith, but real things r digestable :D its coz since centuries india has been affected by jehadi / victorian effect...n lost what creativity ...or artistic sense is all about :P btw, if u cant accept these things-its gud that u dont read sanskrit or travel in india-as u will noyt going to acceepte many scared texts n temples too
kher let me tell u I am reading 'Yuva hava' second time. Am Enjoying it. Enjoyed the artcles on Sabir and Kabir, shri krishna, Gandhi and particularly the one on E. I. emotional intelligence...your articles do make readers think..that is what I like and the other thing is that it seems words are always at your service like true friends....It is always pleasure to read u...
arey arey...aqam to hu pachho jadiyo padiyo thai jaish FULAAI NE
No, Jaybhai, i mean what i say. I never say anything that i don't believe in...i have always appreciated ur commitment with writing.
23-06-2011
I read the articles on M F Husain u suggested on your blog. After having read all you have written there what remains is just the final note from me on our discussion on M F Husain’s paintings controvercy. I request you to form you answer, ...if you think answer is necessary, after completing the entire note
After reading those articles I have concluded that your forceful support to M F Husain over this controversy comes basically from the fact that M F Husain was a pure artist. And that there was no malicious bone in his mind when he was drawing those paintings. Apart from this, you have your evidences from the history to support your arguments. These are enough reasons to support anyone we think needs to be vindicated.
If you read my earlier arguments, you will notice that I didn’t write anything that writes off Husain as a human being or as an artist. I just said I see such paintings or in fact any such artistic work as rash blunders made by artists which mars their own prestige and goals. When I say I can’t appreciate those paintings, my point quite simple which is: Why attach nudity to god and goddesses or any person we revere for no rhyme or reason? At least exclude them. Here you will interrupt me with proofs from history: the 50 feet tall nude idol of Bahubali in Shrvanbelgoda , Kalidas’ narration of love-making of Shiva and Parvati in Kumarsambhavam....Now which sculture will make an idol of Bahubali in clothes after reading his history? and who knows whether people of that era criticized Kalidas or not when there is but little information on Kalidas himself in this 21st century?
People may not like nudity attached to their idea of God and goddesses whom they revere but it seems artists are keen on that!! What artistic pleasure will any Christian get from picture of nude Mary or any Indian from the pictures of nude Saraswati or Bharat mata whom we have always seen in clothes? This is the question that common people are asking. Not all who don’t like such painting are hooligans….Common people are not members of Bajarang dal, or any RSS linked dals nor will they stage violent attack on Husain or his paintings. Will any whim and fancy of the artist be tolerated on the name of Freedom of Expression? A lot many things can be done under that title, but centruries after centruries such controversies will comes to fore. A lot of fuss resulting from the writer’s keen desire not to follow the emotions of the people? What to do? When Husain thought he should apologize, he said: I apologize if my paintings hurt the sentiments of people… humanbeings comes first …Arts comes next…
What happened with M F husain is no doubt a matter of concern. A creative artist is always in possession of multi-faceted personality and that’s we can’t afford to judge them with one aspect of their personality( and for that matter can’t be justified for his negative aspect just because rest is good in them). If that happens, it shows that something is wrong with particular artistic fraternity which failed to explain people the worth of the artist. That’s why I have been able to revere artist like Amitabh Bachchan, Chandrakant Bakshi or for that matter you.
You may ask me to broaden the horizon of my thoughts and be more tolerant. But the main thing is not the problem, the problem is boundry line. How much liberal can/should a person be? When you protested against the fact that we can’t unfurl national flag, I had agreed with that. But when you say national flag bikini show patriotism, I differ. Now I can’t dictate those who show their patriotism wearing bikini, but we have to stick to our guns if we think we are right.
At the end of the blog you have said you might lose a few of your readers..I say you will lose any real reader because they like not because you say what they believe or dislike you because you say what they don’t believe.. they like because of your commitment to writing and to the readers…such controversies most of the time are non-issues. The main thing is the contribution of the artist which should be saluted…
After reading those articles I have concluded that your forceful support to M F Husain over this controversy comes basically from the fact that M F Husain was a pure artist. And that there was no malicious bone in his mind when he was drawing those paintings. Apart from this, you have your evidences from the history to support your arguments. These are enough reasons to support anyone we think needs to be vindicated.
If you read my earlier arguments, you will notice that I didn’t write anything that writes off Husain as a human being or as an artist. I just said I see such paintings or in fact any such artistic work as rash blunders made by artists which mars their own prestige and goals. When I say I can’t appreciate those paintings, my point quite simple which is: Why attach nudity to god and goddesses or any person we revere for no rhyme or reason? At least exclude them. Here you will interrupt me with proofs from history: the 50 feet tall nude idol of Bahubali in Shrvanbelgoda , Kalidas’ narration of love-making of Shiva and Parvati in Kumarsambhavam....Now which sculture will make an idol of Bahubali in clothes after reading his history? and who knows whether people of that era criticized Kalidas or not when there is but little information on Kalidas himself in this 21st century?
People may not like nudity attached to their idea of God and goddesses whom they revere but it seems artists are keen on that!! What artistic pleasure will any Christian get from picture of nude Mary or any Indian from the pictures of nude Saraswati or Bharat mata whom we have always seen in clothes? This is the question that common people are asking. Not all who don’t like such painting are hooligans….Common people are not members of Bajarang dal, or any RSS linked dals nor will they stage violent attack on Husain or his paintings. Will any whim and fancy of the artist be tolerated on the name of Freedom of Expression? A lot many things can be done under that title, but centruries after centruries such controversies will comes to fore. A lot of fuss resulting from the writer’s keen desire not to follow the emotions of the people? What to do? When Husain thought he should apologize, he said: I apologize if my paintings hurt the sentiments of people… humanbeings comes first …Arts comes next…
What happened with M F husain is no doubt a matter of concern. A creative artist is always in possession of multi-faceted personality and that’s we can’t afford to judge them with one aspect of their personality( and for that matter can’t be justified for his negative aspect just because rest is good in them). If that happens, it shows that something is wrong with particular artistic fraternity which failed to explain people the worth of the artist. That’s why I have been able to revere artist like Amitabh Bachchan, Chandrakant Bakshi or for that matter you.
You may ask me to broaden the horizon of my thoughts and be more tolerant. But the main thing is not the problem, the problem is boundry line. How much liberal can/should a person be? When you protested against the fact that we can’t unfurl national flag, I had agreed with that. But when you say national flag bikini show patriotism, I differ. Now I can’t dictate those who show their patriotism wearing bikini, but we have to stick to our guns if we think we are right.
At the end of the blog you have said you might lose a few of your readers..I say you will lose any real reader because they like not because you say what they believe or dislike you because you say what they don’t believe.. they like because of your commitment to writing and to the readers…such controversies most of the time are non-issues. The main thing is the contribution of the artist which should be saluted…
sorry buddy, i adice u to read it asgain as ur points raised are anwerted in it too. u tend to pick up few lines from it n tends to leave others coz of strong mental bias while reading...ek ek shabd chavi chavi ne vachva ni salah hu varmvar amasti j nathi aapto...
I know that the point I have raised is already answered in those three articles, but somewhere we have to stop ourselves and say that here we differ...
but i do agree n apriciate ur balanced writing here n views on art in general..thnx for that...u hav triede to discuss it wth dignity n genuine honesty n i respect dat. :)
Thanks for nice words...dignity and honesty ...they r the quality that attracts two people and sustains the relationship
there can be difference of opinion in viewpoints dear-just hrs befor i wrote abt at under ranmal sindhav's comment on my wall. but in name of difference of opinion wrong facts can not be accepted by me. it may look bit stubborn - but its m...y nature. :P
what few doubts abt bharatmata u hav raised is already answered by court -n i mentioned that. bharatmata is just century old concept potrayed in bankimchsandra's aanandmath when coutry has been given a female form of worshipped idol. at that time (19th century) our gods n goodessess had calander art in printing so laxmi to sarswati hasd south indian to gujarati sarees etc. in same form bharatmata had been visulised..now an artist can play wth the form n color...dats wat creative imagination is all about (n wat endorsed by d court too)...regarding objection against kalidas or sculptures in ancinet times- point is across d things all such things remain intact-means voice raised against them clearly thrown out by authorities then.
india by nature was against censorship wth religious mindset on art in sexyality..its impact aftr radical islam..(taalibani mindset created in india-exported to [pakistan) n victroian british catholic culture...so aftr middle time oyer defination of culture n values changed...rather, influenced...moreover, ppl who just stuck to ancient india forget dat its not about photografic image...one has to understand whole movement of modern art too at d same time as hussain had tried to create fusion of ancient heritage wth modern art. most ppl r unaware of basics of evolution of paintings across d globe-n opine just as religious person.
regarding jesus arguement i had already mentioned da vinci code..n movies too. any creative person has basic choice of subject..its all abt what is inpirationl to him/her...u cant force narsinh or meera to sing song on ram n blame him to just write abt krishna...islamic -christian heritage r nt so colorful as art subject(great christian painters turned themselves to paint pagan gods n visual form itself is suppressed under radical islam)- but u need to catch good paintings first to understand all this.
what few doubts abt bharatmata u hav raised is already answered by court -n i mentioned that. bharatmata is just century old concept potrayed in bankimchsandra's aanandmath when coutry has been given a female form of worshipped idol. at that time (19th century) our gods n goodessess had calander art in printing so laxmi to sarswati hasd south indian to gujarati sarees etc. in same form bharatmata had been visulised..now an artist can play wth the form n color...dats wat creative imagination is all about (n wat endorsed by d court too)...regarding objection against kalidas or sculptures in ancinet times- point is across d things all such things remain intact-means voice raised against them clearly thrown out by authorities then.
india by nature was against censorship wth religious mindset on art in sexyality..its impact aftr radical islam..(taalibani mindset created in india-exported to [pakistan) n victroian british catholic culture...so aftr middle time oyer defination of culture n values changed...rather, influenced...moreover, ppl who just stuck to ancient india forget dat its not about photografic image...one has to understand whole movement of modern art too at d same time as hussain had tried to create fusion of ancient heritage wth modern art. most ppl r unaware of basics of evolution of paintings across d globe-n opine just as religious person.
regarding jesus arguement i had already mentioned da vinci code..n movies too. any creative person has basic choice of subject..its all abt what is inpirationl to him/her...u cant force narsinh or meera to sing song on ram n blame him to just write abt krishna...islamic -christian heritage r nt so colorful as art subject(great christian painters turned themselves to paint pagan gods n visual form itself is suppressed under radical islam)- but u need to catch good paintings first to understand all this.
You go back to ancient India to support your point of view and the value system of that time and I am more concerned about the value system of the current era!!! which you don't take into account because you think it is the older one is better .. You say the artist can play with the form and colour...I say they cant play with the feelings of people you talk about creative imagination want me to catch good paintings to have better understanding of ....so now the discussion can move ahead only after I do that....in the mean time we will keep in touch...i wud much like chat with you like this but my only fear is that it will take so much of ur valuable time...
i am more concerned for real life value system n not artistic space value system..
Rea life value system...That is the best choice, as the artistic space value system falls under it..
Thursday 9 June 2011
The end of the vacation
Vacation will end on 13th this month and schools will start. Teachers will go back to their respective schools in cities and villages and that will end the honeymoon period for them and for us too. Though we don't have vacation at DCE(DIET), we organise no training programmes during the vacations. Now as school will be open from next Monday, we would be busy scheduling training programmes for them.
I am eagerly waiting for the monsoon. The first rain usually comes around the second week of June every year. That is the time when schools open. Many a time I have found myself drenched to the skin in the first rain while going to the schools on the very first day. Surprisingly that happens most often.
As renovation work is going on at home, I hope the onslaught of rain waits for at least a week this year for selfish reasons. The front room at our home needed some renovations and masons are at work. Once it is over, it would give a better look to the home.
Monday 6 June 2011
Good Friday - the holiday
Thursday, 21 April 2011
The campus looked a bit deserted when I entered the college today. There were some girls at the hostel stairs, some others were walking round the main building in their casuals as a morning exercise and still others were trying to drop mulberries from the tree near parking stand. I thought they were given time for reading as their exam is due on 26th of April and so they are idling away time like this. The parking stand was devoid of vehicles and I wondered: How come I am the first to arrive today? I parked my bike, adjusted the bag and started towards the main door. Students started laughing at me the moment they show me. When I took a turn, a bevy of walkers met me and greeted : Jay shree Krishn, sir" I Repeated the same. Then they exchanged some gleeful glances. After a hearty laugh they asked in the chorus:
"Why have you come today? Didn't you consult the calender? Today is holiday"
"Holiday ? For what?" I asked.
"It is Good Friday today!!" Again they shouted in chorus.
I looked at the gate. It was close.I remembered Nayana told me about the holiday on the Good Friday before two days when I called her, but today I totally forgot. So careless of me! How couldn't I remember that it is Good Friday today and it is a public holiday.I put my fingers on my forehead, feeling embarrased. They giggled! How would they miss such a chance to make fun of their nutty English teacher!!!
I asked them:
"Do you know why it is holiday? What happened today?"
A chorus "No"
"Becasue Jesus was crudified today"
"But there is nothing GOOD in it!"
I took some time to explain them why it was a Good Friday.
" Now what will you do, sir?"
" Even I am considering that question: What shall I do now?...If I knew this, I would have gone to Jetpur"
" Why?"
" To meet one of my recent kin"
My answer was followed by a barrage of queries regarding the kin. I avoided the queries tactfully and left. I didn't want to return home, so I loitered in the market, did some shopping, bought some magazines and the newspaper and came to cyber cafe to take this opportunity to talk to the readers of this blog.
"Why have you come today? Didn't you consult the calender? Today is holiday"
"
"It is Good Friday today!!" Again they shouted in chorus.
I looked at the gate. It was close.I remembered Nayana told me about the holiday on the Good Friday before two days when I called her, but today I totally forgot. So careless of me! How couldn't I remember that it is Good Friday today and it is a public holiday.I put my fingers on my forehead, feeling embarrased. They giggled! How would they miss such a chance to make fun of their nutty English teacher!!!
I asked them:
"Do you know why it is holiday? What happened today?"
A chorus "No"
"Becasue Jesus was crudified today"
"But there is nothing GOOD in it!"
I took some time to explain them why it was a Good Friday.
" Now what will you do, sir?"
" Even I am considering that question: What shall I do now?...If I knew this, I would have gone to Jetpur"
" Why?"
" To meet one of my recent kin"
My answer was followed by a barrage of queries regarding the kin. I avoided the queries tactfully and left. I didn't want to return home, so I loitered in the market, did some shopping, bought some magazines and the newspaper and came to cyber cafe to take this opportunity to talk to the readers of this blog.
We exist, because there are some people who imagine that we do
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
One news story on CNN IBN I saw yesterday evoked both poignant and creepy feelings in me. It was about two sisters, Anuradha and Sonali, in their early forties, who cut off all their contact with the world outside seven months ago and locked themselves in their home in a small colony in Noida. For a few months they ordered for groceries at the grocery shop, but before a month or so that too stopped. The girls never came out of their home and ultimately yesterday police had to intervene. The condition of the elder sister Anuradha was severely bad. She had virtually turned into a skeleton with a thin layer of skin on her bones. As she had lapsed into coma, she had to be carried out in the stretcher. Sonali, younger sister, could barely walk her way to the vehicle. She was starved and dehydrated and had turned into a zombie. She was wearing pull-overs even in this hot summer. When asked why, she said she lost track of time. Summer or winter doesn’t make much difference to her or her sister. Entire house reeked with foul smell just as the two sisters and their clothes did. The visuals of this story were shocking and disturbing to the eyes and mind as well. According to the news in the morning today Anuradha died.
What made these two well-educated sisters, daughters of a colonel, take such a drastic step in their life? Neighbours said the death of their father in 1992 came as a mental shock to them (Mother had died much before that) and after a property disputes their brother left the sisters to fend for themselves. With no one around, these sisters attached their feelings to a dog, which died before seven months after which they locked themselves in the house. What were the neighbours doing when they were dying? Neighbours say they tried their best to contact them, continuously knocked at their door. The sisters answered, but never opened the door. Once police came, but they didn’t open the door. The police told the neighbours not to bother about them (the sisters). If they want to remain so, let them live that way.
Psychiatrists say these sisters were suffering from some mental disorder. (Aren’t we all suffering from one or the other form ofmental disorder? We think a person is suffering from mental disorder when he or she becomes violent ot abusive. We forget that a person may be looking cool and calm and yet be suffering from a mental disorder)Sometimes our physical conditions cause mental disorders and sometimes the conditions in life causes mental disorder in human beings. We normally lose our interest in life in two situations : When are not happy with our physical conditions(Our body pain kills us every moment and doesn’t let us enjoy the life) or when we are not happy with the conditions of life in which we are living and we think that there is no remedy for or escape from it.
The news of these sisters disturbed my mind. In the evening when I accompanied mom to Jwellery market, I was observing people, young and old. I just wanted to see how many of them looked happy and satisfied. And the conclusions of my research was quite positive. There were beautiful wives moving in the market wearing blissful smile accompanied by their healthy-handsome husbands. I again started thinking about the sisters. Their story makes us realise that our existence is not independent. It is linked with the people whom we love. When I was observing the cheerful faces of men and women in the market, I realized that our desires, hopes and the love of the people around us keep us happy and healthy. It makes us take care of our body, it makes look beautiful for them and it makes us take interest in life despite our physical conditions. With every death of our near and dear ones, a part of us dies within us. And we keep dying so many times before we ultimately die.
What made these two well-educated sisters, daughters of a colonel, take such a drastic step in their life? Neighbours said the death of their father in 1992 came as a mental shock to them (Mother had died much before that) and after a property disputes their brother left the sisters to fend for themselves. With no one around, these sisters attached their feelings to a dog, which died before seven months after which they locked themselves in the house. What were the neighbours doing when they were dying? Neighbours say they tried their best to contact them, continuously knocked at their door. The sisters answered, but never opened the door. Once police came, but they didn’t open the door. The police told the neighbours not to bother about them (the sisters). If they want to remain so, let them live that way.
Psychiatrists say these sisters were suffering from some mental disorder. (Aren’t we all suffering from one or the other form ofmental disorder? We think a person is suffering from mental disorder when he or she becomes violent ot abusive. We forget that a person may be looking cool and calm and yet be suffering from a mental disorder)Sometimes our physical conditions cause mental disorders and sometimes the conditions in life causes mental disorder in human beings. We normally lose our interest in life in two situations : When are not happy with our physical conditions(Our body pain kills us every moment and doesn’t let us enjoy the life) or when we are not happy with the conditions of life in which we are living and we think that there is no remedy for or escape from it.
The news of these sisters disturbed my mind. In the evening when I accompanied mom to Jwellery market, I was observing people, young and old. I just wanted to see how many of them looked happy and satisfied. And the conclusions of my research was quite positive. There were beautiful wives moving in the market wearing blissful smile accompanied by their healthy-handsome husbands. I again started thinking about the sisters. Their story makes us realise that our existence is not independent. It is linked with the people whom we love. When I was observing the cheerful faces of men and women in the market, I realized that our desires, hopes and the love of the people around us keep us happy and healthy. It makes us take care of our body, it makes look beautiful for them and it makes us take interest in life despite our physical conditions. With every death of our near and dear ones, a part of us dies within us. And we keep dying so many times before we ultimately die.
My birthday
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
It was 5th April yesterday – my birthday. My mom often tells me that when I was born 32 years ago,my grandma, Pankunvarba, was particularly more happy because it was the day of Ram Navami ( Birthday of Lord Ram) .She believed that Lord Ram himself has taken avatar in the family. ( When I told this to Mita, she giggled at first and then said, “ What she believed is right. You are just like Ram!!” How nice she is!)
I don’t remember having celebrated any of my birthday in childhood. In fact birthday celebrations never took place in my family. Birthday parties and exchange of gifts etc were far away things. Where was the wherewithal for allthat? But still my birthday was given a bit more importance I being the youngest member of the family. Father bought some gift, toys or spiderman books etc, elders gave some extra money which made my day and mom made sure that she includes Shrikhand and Puri along with other items in the lunch because she knew Shrikhand was my favourite item.(it is so even now) Many years passed, but still she follows that ritual without change.
I don’t celebrate my birthday even now, at least not publicly. I hide my birthday at my work-place, so that there is no fuss about it. Sometimes they – colleagues and students – catch me red-handed on this day and I follow their command without uttering a word in protest. At the most I go out with my childhood friends Anil, Arvind, their wives (Kajalbhabhi, Divyabhabhi) and kids and eat out. When we(Anil, Arvind and I) were kids we used to invite each other on our birthdays, offered snacks and pendas and gave gifts( mostly pens, for we couldn’t think of any other item!!). After two-three years, we lost interest in that and that tradition came to and end. Now we don’t remember each other’s birthdays and hardly we wish each other on these days. Sometimes I try to remember their birthdays the whole year with the hope that I will wish them, but I forget on their birthdays and then I promise myself that I won't repeat the same the next year. In fact, living in the same area, we meet each other so many times that there is no need to meet and greet on any special days. But I am happy that so many other people do send me their wishes on my birthdays.
This year the flow of wishes was unprecedented and so overwhelming that entire day was spent on calls from relatives, friends, colleagues, students et al . Besides calls, wishes poured in thorough net. (orkut, facebook and emails). I had a holiday at job because of Chetichand ( Birthday of Jhulelal celebrated as the New Year by Sindhi community) which helped me carry out the tête-à-tête with each and everyone at leisure.
I don’t remember having celebrated any of my birthday in childhood. In fact birthday celebrations never took place in my family. Birthday parties and exchange of gifts etc were far away things. Where was the wherewithal for allthat? But still my birthday was given a bit more importance I being the youngest member of the family. Father bought some gift, toys or spiderman books etc, elders gave some extra money which made my day and mom made sure that she includes Shrikhand and Puri along with other items in the lunch because she knew Shrikhand was my favourite item.(it is so even now) Many years passed, but still she follows that ritual without change.
I don’t celebrate my birthday even now, at least not publicly. I hide my birthday at my work-place, so that there is no fuss about it. Sometimes they – colleagues and students – catch me red-handed on this day and I follow their command without uttering a word in protest. At the most I go out with my childhood friends Anil, Arvind, their wives (Kajalbhabhi, Divyabhabhi) and kids and eat out. When we(Anil, Arvind and I) were kids we used to invite each other on our birthdays, offered snacks and pendas and gave gifts( mostly pens, for we couldn’t think of any other item!!). After two-three years, we lost interest in that and that tradition came to and end. Now we don’t remember each other’s birthdays and hardly we wish each other on these days. Sometimes I try to remember their birthdays the whole year with the hope that I will wish them, but I forget on their birthdays and then I promise myself that I won't repeat the same the next year. In fact, living in the same area, we meet each other so many times that there is no need to meet and greet on any special days. But I am happy that so many other people do send me their wishes on my birthdays.
This year the flow of wishes was unprecedented and so overwhelming that entire day was spent on calls from relatives, friends, colleagues, students et al . Besides calls, wishes poured in thorough net. (orkut, facebook and emails). I had a holiday at job because of Chetichand ( Birthday of Jhulelal celebrated as the New Year by Sindhi community) which helped me carry out the tête-à-tête with each and everyone at leisure.
Starting, Stimulating and Sustaining English Language Teacher Education and Development
Thursday, 27 January 2011
The British Council and the EFL-U (English and Foreign Languages University ) co-hosted a three-day conference on ‘Starting, Stimulating and Sustaining English Language Teacher Education and Development’ for the English Language Teacher Educators from 22-24 January 2011 in Hyderabad
As a part of District Centre scheme(DCS) I took part in it as a delegate. I was a tad reluctant to go and attend this conference as I was there for three months very recently. But second thoughts persuaded me into taking part. It was indeed the most wonderful of all conferences I have attended so far. Because it was an international conference for English teacher educators, it had the presence of heterogeneous group of people as delegates and speakers mostly from Asian countries likeNepal , Bangladesh , Singapore , Sri Lanka , Pakistan , Uzbekistan Russia , Spain and UK
The venue for the conference was famous and magnificent Novotel & HICC Complex, near Hitech city. The total no of delegates was a whopping 700. From DCS there were around 30 R.P.s and C.T.s and we all were given accomodation ( no, not in Novotel hotel but) in Dr.Y.S.R. NationalInstitute of Tourism
There were more than 100 speakers and distinguish experts on the subject. And because the conference was only for three days parallel sessions were held and audience thus was divided. However there were plenary sessions which, obviously, were more enriching than the sessions by the rest of the speakers.
I'd love to write more and in detail of the ambience and experience there and the wonderful people I came across, but time shackles my hands. So I just give below some of the objective of the coneference:
• to provide an opportunity for English Language pre and in-service teacher educators from across South Asia to meet and share best practice and experiences
• to provide English Language pre and in-service teacher educators an opportunity for professional development and updating which will enable them to become more effective
• to establish and build a sustainable community and network of English language teacher educators
As a part of District Centre scheme(DCS) I took part in it as a delegate. I was a tad reluctant to go and attend this conference as I was there for three months very recently. But second thoughts persuaded me into taking part. It was indeed the most wonderful of all conferences I have attended so far. Because it was an international conference for English teacher educators, it had the presence of heterogeneous group of people as delegates and speakers mostly from Asian countries like
The venue for the conference was famous and magnificent Novotel & HICC Complex, near Hitech city. The total no of delegates was a whopping 700. From DCS there were around 30 R.P.s and C.T.s and we all were given accomodation ( no, not in Novotel hotel but) in Dr.Y.S.R. National
There were more than 100 speakers and distinguish experts on the subject. And because the conference was only for three days parallel sessions were held and audience thus was divided. However there were plenary sessions which, obviously, were more enriching than the sessions by the rest of the speakers.
I'd love to write more and in detail of the ambience and experience there and the wonderful people I came across, but time shackles my hands. So I just give below some of the objective of the coneference:
• to provide an opportunity for English Language pre and in-service teacher educators from across South Asia to meet and share best practice and experiences
• to provide English Language pre and in-service teacher educators an opportunity for professional development and updating which will enable them to become more effective
• to establish and build a sustainable community and network of English language teacher educators
26th Gnansatra of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, Ahmedabad
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, Ahmedabd organises Gnansatra in different regions of Gujarat every two years. There are many objectives for organising Gnansatra, the chief one being: to bring literature to the interior part of Gujarat where people are less prone to education or literature. And to serve this purpose, they deliberately choose, not cities, but villages as the venue of the Gnansatra every time. This time it was in Modasa (Sabarkantha) for three days(24-12-2010 to 26-12-2010) at M.L Gandhi Higher Education Association.
I had always wished to take part in it ever since I came to know about it, but it is only now that I got chance to do that. Soon after I read about it in “Parab”, I sent the registration fee and reserved my entry. On 24th of this month I was busy with official duty of visiting schools for classroom observation, so I couldn’t take part on the very first day. It was already 4.00 pm when I was free to leave for Modasa. As I couldn’t catch a direct bus to Modasa, I had to go to Ahmedabad first.I reached Ahmedabad at 10.00 pm. The night was getting colder and no travel was available for Modasa! I went to Geeta Mandir from where I boarded the ST bus for Modasa. When I ultimately reached there, it was already 12.30 and I was freezed with the cold wind that easily pierced through my body to the soul because I forgot my pullover and shawl at home. I cursed my forgetfulness while facing the music in the bus. There was not a single soul to be seen at the venue who could tell me whom to meet.There were cooks and some others who were preparing for food for the next day, but they were more stranger than I. I made two rounds of Shree M.L. Gandhi Higher Education Association campus and at the end of the second one, fortunately, I found an angel who advised me to spend the night in any of the rooms whose door was open. The formalities could be done in the morning
The next morning a boy’s voice awoke me: “Kaka, you won’t get hot water if you don’t get up at this time.” I opened my sleepy eyes and looked out of the door. It was still dark. Cold wind rushed through the open door. I would have preferred sleeping, but I shivered at the thought of taking a bath with cold water. I jumped out of the bed, went to the corridor and looked down. Two- three boys were igniting fire under a big vessel full of water in the compound. I finished my morning routine, along with exercise. And water was ready for me.
I had always wished to take part in it ever since I came to know about it, but it is only now that I got chance to do that. Soon after I read about it in “Parab”, I sent the registration fee and reserved my entry. On 24th of this month I was busy with official duty of visiting schools for classroom observation, so I couldn’t take part on the very first day. It was already 4.00 pm when I was free to leave for Modasa. As I couldn’t catch a direct bus to Modasa, I had to go to Ahmedabad first.I reached Ahmedabad at 10.00 pm. The night was getting colder and no travel was available for Modasa! I went to Geeta Mandir from where I boarded the ST bus for Modasa. When I ultimately reached there, it was already 12.30 and I was freezed with the cold wind that easily pierced through my body to the soul because I forgot my pullover and shawl at home. I cursed my forgetfulness while facing the music in the bus. There was not a single soul to be seen at the venue who could tell me whom to meet.There were cooks and some others who were preparing for food for the next day, but they were more stranger than I. I made two rounds of Shree M.L. Gandhi Higher Education Association campus and at the end of the second one, fortunately, I found an angel who advised me to spend the night in any of the rooms whose door was open. The formalities could be done in the morning
The next morning a boy’s voice awoke me: “Kaka, you won’t get hot water if you don’t get up at this time.” I opened my sleepy eyes and looked out of the door. It was still dark. Cold wind rushed through the open door. I would have preferred sleeping, but I shivered at the thought of taking a bath with cold water. I jumped out of the bed, went to the corridor and looked down. Two- three boys were igniting fire under a big vessel full of water in the compound. I finished my morning routine, along with exercise. And water was ready for me.
There were 8 sittings in all during these three days. I had already missed 3. The fourth was to start at 9.oo am that morning. I reached the auditorium much before the time after finishing my tea- and snacks. Soon audience started coming followed by the great authors of Gujarati literature. Raghuvir Chaudhari, Bholabhai Patel, Ratilal Borisagar, Bhagavatikumar Sharma, Chandrakant Sheth,Vinesh Antani( “Priyajan” fame), Narottam Palan, Varsha Adalaja, Dhirubahen Patel, Bindu Bhatt( “Meera Yagnik ni Diary” and “ “Akhepatar” fame), Sarifa Vijaliwala, Manilal H Patel, Nitin Vadgama, Harshad Trivedi, Shirish Panchal and many more whose faces I was not familiar with. I wasted no time in photographing them all.
The fourth sitting started on time. It is on any particular writer and his/her works. Speakers deliver their speech based on their study. This time it was Umashankar Joshi and rightly so because he(Umashankar Joshi) belonged to Sabarkantha. The subject was : “The Ctiticism and Research work of Shree Umashankar Joshi”. And the speakers were : Bholabhai Patel, Chandrakant Sheth, Narottam Palan, Ashwin Desai and Usha Upadhyaya and Shirish Panchal. Each speaker was given half an hour to discuss the different aspect of the subject.
After a two-hour break for lunch the fifth sitting started at 3.00 pm in which eight young writers gave their critiques of the books published during the two years: 2008-2009. And the literary genres were : Poetry, drama, novel, short story, essays, criticism, research, compilation, children literature and translation. Most of them complained about the lack of satisfactory output in these two years.
to be continued
14th Orientation Programme by DCE, Rajkot
Monday, 13 December 2010
14th Orientation Programme by DCE, Rajkot
This is the group of 32 wonderful teachers who were part of our 14th Orientation Programme which concluded on 11th Dec. this month. Under District Centre for English (DCE) we invite English teachers teaching in govt. schools coming under the purview of
The fact that these teachers are newly recruited and that this training is amongst the first trainings they have gone through so far makes me feel more hopeful about them and about the training they have got here. They have 30 or 30+ years to be in this teaching career before they finally retire. And nothing is better for them than the kind of training that DCE is proving to them during the last five-six years. As a Resource Person(RP) in DCE, I have got chance to come across around 600 English teachers for one or another reason during the last one and half years. And most of them have confessed about the lack of conducive atmosphere where they themselves can feel motivated to teach English in an untraditional way. Most of them have said they don't even get chance to speak English in their schools and villages. It is only when they come to training like this when they come out of their monotonous routine, and think of something innovative for their students.
During the 10 days, we discuss about the nature of language, how a child masters it, perspectives on language learning and teaching, all four skills LSRW with their sub-skills, phonetics, study skills, and writing. The only thing that we take care of is that the classes are not lecture based. They should be interactive and activity-base where all teachers get chance to come out of their shell and open up
DCS has provided us with everything that we need to conduct our programmes successfully : Laptop, computer, internet, printer, photocopy machine. For OHP and LCD and the screen etc we take help of other branches of District Centre of Education and Training(DIET). MHRD provides funds enough to run the programmes efficiently. And so we can invite visiting faculty who can come and meet teachers with their innovative ideas. I always tell trainee teachers : "Don't think of such training as mere ritual without meaning. It is the time when you are away from your school and your students and so your mind is free from all worries of your routine work, taking periods, checking answer copies and all. You come across the best people in your field and your mind is free to think of innovative ideas and be filled with them."
At the end of the O.P., we find teachers unwilling to part, wanting to stay for few more days. Parting is always painful for both teachers and us because we know that after they leave the class-rooms will look like a deserted island without them. But we have to part somewhere. How long can training last? It has to end. And we have to go back to implement what we have got during the training
A MOVEABLE FEAST - An Account of My Tour to Mount Abu and Ambaji
Sunday, 28 November 2010
You want to do something you love to do, but you don’t do that. What does it suggest? As for me: Sheer Idleness. I am not being philosophical. I am just talking about writing this blog. I wanted to write when I came back from Mount Abu and Udaipur. I wanted to write again when I came back from my tour to Tulsishyam and Diu with my childhood friends Anil, Arvind, their wives Kajalbhabhi and Divyabhabhi and wonderful kids Drashti, Darshan, and Deepal. But I didn’t. Obviously there is pleasure in shirking what you are supposed to do.
The other day I got a call from my friend Pradip. Full name Pradipsinh Jadeja. He is not popular as my friend. Actually he is elder brother to my college friend Dashrath, but Dashrath lost all contacts with me for a long time, but Pradip didn’t. And as a result he is more closer to me now than his brother Dashrath. On the day I am talking about he seemed restless from the way he talked:
“ Half of the vacation has already gone and now I’m having itchy feet!”
(ગુજરાતીમા એના શબ્દો હતાઃ "મને પગમા કીડી ચડી રહી છે.")
“Where do you plan to go?” I asked
“Anywhere”
“ What about Kolkata?”
“ Don’t have that much time. It will take six days just in traveling. My school will open on 22nd this month”
“ Then let’s move around the coastal area of Gujarat on bike”
“ I want to move out of Gujarat”
“ Mt Abu?”
“ That sounds better”
“ Done?”
“ Done”
After a tiring night journey, we reached Abu Road at noon and rented a room in Gujarati Samaj. The manager told us not to visit Mt Abu that day and instead advised to visit Ambaji first. I came to know about Ambaji during my stay in Ahmdedabad. I have seen people walking down to this pilgrimage centre from far away places like Ahmedabad which is around 200 kms away. Really an arduous journey. When we reached Ambaji, I was shocked to see the number of people thronging at the place. I like religious people. All I hate is the pretension of being religious that many people indulges in. Whenever I go to temple( which is very rare), I make sure I bow down to the idols of gods or goddesses. Pradip asks: why? I say: If they are kind enough to allow atheists like me inside the temple, I have no qualm in bowing down to gods. And besides I don’t want to offend anyone by behaving in a manner that seems awkward in the temple.
When I was in Hyderabad one day there happened a very long discussion on mobile this subject of God between Mita, one of my recent friends, and me.
M : But what is your problem with god? Why do you hate him?
I : I never hated god. And even if I ever hated Him, I don’t hate him now.
M : But still you don’t believe in God. Why?
I : God is a concept created by people. So many people believe in him does not mean that I should also believe in him.
M : Is it just a concept? Don’t you see there is someone, some supernatural power high above us who controls us, this earth, the sun, the moon, the stars and in fact this entire cosmos. How can you think that all this happens without anyone to control it?
I : So you think it is God who controls us?
M : Who else can do that?
I : Nature
M : Everything is same. You are just using different terminology.
I : No, everything is not same. Nature is Nature. It is not God. We think of god mostly with regard to PAAP (bad deeds) and PUNYA (good deeds). We think there is a god high above us who keeps records of all our good and bad deeds and punishes or rewards us according to that. Nature doesn’t make such distinction. For Nature everything is same. No distinction. No PAAP or PUNYA, no Punishments or Rewards. It is just that you need to be fit to live in this world, if you are not you are going to die. Many wonderful species like dinosaurs have vanished from the surface of this world for one or the other reasons.humanbeings will also survive on this earth as long as we are fit to live on this earth or anywhere in this cosmos.
M : And your Nature works automatically? Without anyone’s support?
I : Nature is alive. It is self-reliant. It doesn’t need anyone’s support. Even
before men came on this earth, trees used to grow. was there anyone to water the
the saplings or sow the seeds at that time?
M : But if there is no god, no punishments or rewards then why should people be good
others?
I : We should be good to others not for the fear of being judged by god one day; we should be good to others because as thinking human beings we should realise that it is the ideal thing to do, morally and ethically. As humanbeing I know that I suffer pain when I am ill-treated. That knowledge tells me that I should treat others in the same way I want to be treated by them.
M : But not all people can be so great to think so high..
I : That is the case at present. Not all people understand this. Terrorists don’t
understand this. Who will punish them. God? No. It will be done by us. By laws. Laws created by us , not by Gods. There are strict laws in any nations to regulate people, to make sure they honour GOOD and don’t follow BAD.
M : So you don’t hate God because you think there is no God at all.
I : In fact, I would be the happiest person if someone proves to me that there is
God. I like the qualities that are attached with the god: omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, kind, liberal, taking care of all, a really father figure…that’s why I don’t hate god. It is poor thing that there is no God. That makes me sad. I wish there was one, because in his absence I see no rhyme or reason or poetic justice in this world. In his presence, the world would have been a better place to live.
I am going off the track. Now I am coming back to Ambaji…After visiting the main temple of Ma Amba, we went to Gabbar. I was happy to see the rope-way. People were calling it “Udan Khatola”. What a nice word! I wanted to go by rope-way, but Pradip wanted to take stairs. He promised me we would return in Udan Khatola which we did. Besides these places we also visited Koteshwar and Kumbhadiya Jain Temple. The marble temples at Kumbhadiya were awesome. Pradip was so struck with the beautiful carving in the marble that he exclaimed that no humanbeing could create this temple. Only god alone could have done that.
The next day we went to Mount Abu. We hired a bike from the a shop in front of the bus- stand so that we could take our own time to visit all those beautiful places: Gurushikahar, Achalgarh, Delwara temples, Adhar devi, Nakki( Nakhi) lake and sun-set point. All these places have their own beauty, but I liked Nakhi lake a lot. There are different versions of its creation. One version says it was created by Balam Rasia (or Rasia Balam) with his nails just in one night’s time. Balam Rasia was an aged sage who fell in love with a teenage girl, kunwari kanya of the king of Mt Abu. The two lovelorn souls were prevented from tying their love in a nuptial knot, by the scheming parents and their conniving Gods. They had demanded that the sage could marry the teenager if he could dig up a lake for her with his nails over night. The sage was just about to accomplish the impossible feat when he was tricked by gods. It is said that the sage was the incarnation of Lord Shiva and the teenager was the embodiment of Ma Parvati. It is predicted that they would return again and then there would be upheaval in the universe. The poem 'Lost Love' depicts the pathos of the two!
LOST LOVE
It's for love
So much was at stake
With nails was done
The digging of the lake
The sage felt no pain
For love-pang-ache
But her parent's promises
Just turned out to be fake
And the virgin and the sage
Could never ever make
To the nuptial altar
Just for the parent's sake-
Love reigns supreme yet
With all its heartbreak.
Maybe that’s why there were so many love-birds and married couples boating and loitering in and around the lake. Beautiful wives flanked by handsome husbands. It was pure pleasure to see those picture perfect couples enjoying the blissful moments. Pradip, very emotionally, told me that he missed his wife. I said that was bound to be. That was natural influence of the place.
A bit sad over our being alone, we came out and started window-shopping in Nakhi Bazaar where Pradip bought some gifts for his wife and one-year daughter Sanvi. It was getting dark and as a result of our two-day loitering I was feeling throbbing pain in my legs. I told pradip to call it a day and return to our room. He told me one thing still remained. I asked what it was. He made a sign for “drinking” with his straightened thumb and bent fingers. We went to the one and only wine shop near Nakhi bazaar. There was a maddening crowd there. Pradip disappeared in the crowd and when he emerged from it again, he was carrying two bottles of Bagpiper whisky, one in each hand. He beckoned me to follow him towards the backyard of the shop. I thought we would take bottles to our room and drink there. I couldn’t think of drinking in front of so many people inside and more passing on the road. Pradip arranged the tables and glasses, poured the whisky into glasses and mixed water. When our glasses touched each other for the cheers, we were joined by another fellow. Fortunately he happened to be Jadeja. Manharsinh Jadeja. He came there as a driver to one Ganatra family. After leaving them at the hotel, he was free to enjoy. It need not write that Pradip struck a rapport with him and soon they were talking about their common friends.
I was quite normal and following their conversation till we finished one bottle. The second made me lose control over myself. Not that I was struggling to stand. But I started hearing a lot of noise, all variety of voices mixed into one another. I was not able to distinguish them. Pradip and Manharsinh were talking and I was watching them minus their voices. When I complained about the noise and told them that I couldn’t listen to them, their faces broke into silent laughter. I moved my face to have a panoramic view of the surroundings and I could feel that everything was moving rather slow, like slow-moving reel of a film or like the waving TV screen during low electricty.
I remember clearly that Manharsinh held my arm while returning so that I don’t fall down till we reached the bus stop. And I was so thankful to him for the service he rendered that while departing I hugged him not once or twice but three times before I got into the bus!!! There was nothing that I could do after reaching the room except fall asleep. When I woke up next morning I had regained the senses. But there was splitting headache in form of hang-over. I sat on the bed rubbing my head.
“Good Morning” Came Pradip's voice from his bed.
“ Good Morning….Where is the second bottle?” I asked.
“ What rubbish! Are you still intoxicated. Don’t you remember we finished off both of them?”
I scratched my head. Then took my brush and toothpaste and moved towards the bathroom
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The phrase "A MOVEABLE FEAST" was used by Ernest Hemingway to mean the memory of a spendid place that continues to go with the moving traveller for the rest of life, after he has had the experience of it and gone away. The author used the term A Moveable Feast for the title of his late-life memoirs of his early life as a stuggling writer in Paris, in the 1920s. He said to a friend: "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
You want to do something you love to do, but you don’t do that. What does it suggest? As for me: Sheer Idleness. I am not being philosophical. I am just talking about writing this blog. I wanted to write when I came back from Mount Abu and Udaipur. I wanted to write again when I came back from my tour to Tulsishyam and Diu with my childhood friends Anil, Arvind, their wives Kajalbhabhi and Divyabhabhi and wonderful kids Drashti, Darshan, and Deepal. But I didn’t. Obviously there is pleasure in shirking what you are supposed to do.
The other day I got a call from my friend Pradip. Full name Pradipsinh Jadeja. He is not popular as my friend. Actually he is elder brother to my college friend Dashrath, but Dashrath lost all contacts with me for a long time, but Pradip didn’t. And as a result he is more closer to me now than his brother Dashrath. On the day I am talking about he seemed restless from the way he talked:
“ Half of the vacation has already gone and now I’m having itchy feet!”
(ગુજરાતીમા એના શબ્દો હતાઃ "મને પગમા કીડી ચડી રહી છે.")
“Where do you plan to go?” I asked
“Anywhere”
“ What about Kolkata?”
“ Don’t have that much time. It will take six days just in traveling. My school will open on 22nd this month”
“ Then let’s move around the coastal area of Gujarat on bike”
“ I want to move out of Gujarat”
“ Mt Abu?”
“ That sounds better”
“ Done?”
“ Done”
After a tiring night journey, we reached Abu Road at noon and rented a room in Gujarati Samaj. The manager told us not to visit Mt Abu that day and instead advised to visit Ambaji first. I came to know about Ambaji during my stay in Ahmdedabad. I have seen people walking down to this pilgrimage centre from far away places like Ahmedabad which is around 200 kms away. Really an arduous journey. When we reached Ambaji, I was shocked to see the number of people thronging at the place. I like religious people. All I hate is the pretension of being religious that many people indulges in. Whenever I go to temple( which is very rare), I make sure I bow down to the idols of gods or goddesses. Pradip asks: why? I say: If they are kind enough to allow atheists like me inside the temple, I have no qualm in bowing down to gods. And besides I don’t want to offend anyone by behaving in a manner that seems awkward in the temple.
When I was in Hyderabad one day there happened a very long discussion on mobile this subject of God between Mita, one of my recent friends, and me.
M : But what is your problem with god? Why do you hate him?
I : I never hated god. And even if I ever hated Him, I don’t hate him now.
M : But still you don’t believe in God. Why?
I : God is a concept created by people. So many people believe in him does not mean that I should also believe in him.
M : Is it just a concept? Don’t you see there is someone, some supernatural power high above us who controls us, this earth, the sun, the moon, the stars and in fact this entire cosmos. How can you think that all this happens without anyone to control it?
I : So you think it is God who controls us?
M : Who else can do that?
I : Nature
M : Everything is same. You are just using different terminology.
I : No, everything is not same. Nature is Nature. It is not God. We think of god mostly with regard to PAAP (bad deeds) and PUNYA (good deeds). We think there is a god high above us who keeps records of all our good and bad deeds and punishes or rewards us according to that. Nature doesn’t make such distinction. For Nature everything is same. No distinction. No PAAP or PUNYA, no Punishments or Rewards. It is just that you need to be fit to live in this world, if you are not you are going to die. Many wonderful species like dinosaurs have vanished from the surface of this world for one or the other reasons.humanbeings will also survive on this earth as long as we are fit to live on this earth or anywhere in this cosmos.
M : And your Nature works automatically? Without anyone’s support?
I : Nature is alive. It is self-reliant. It doesn’t need anyone’s support. Even
before men came on this earth, trees used to grow. was there anyone to water the
the saplings or sow the seeds at that time?
M : But if there is no god, no punishments or rewards then why should people be good
others?
I : We should be good to others not for the fear of being judged by god one day; we should be good to others because as thinking human beings we should realise that it is the ideal thing to do, morally and ethically. As humanbeing I know that I suffer pain when I am ill-treated. That knowledge tells me that I should treat others in the same way I want to be treated by them.
M : But not all people can be so great to think so high..
I : That is the case at present. Not all people understand this. Terrorists don’t
understand this. Who will punish them. God? No. It will be done by us. By laws. Laws created by us , not by Gods. There are strict laws in any nations to regulate people, to make sure they honour GOOD and don’t follow BAD.
M : So you don’t hate God because you think there is no God at all.
I : In fact, I would be the happiest person if someone proves to me that there is
God. I like the qualities that are attached with the god: omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, kind, liberal, taking care of all, a really father figure…that’s why I don’t hate god. It is poor thing that there is no God. That makes me sad. I wish there was one, because in his absence I see no rhyme or reason or poetic justice in this world. In his presence, the world would have been a better place to live.
I am going off the track. Now I am coming back to Ambaji…After visiting the main temple of Ma Amba, we went to Gabbar. I was happy to see the rope-way. People were calling it “Udan Khatola”. What a nice word! I wanted to go by rope-way, but Pradip wanted to take stairs. He promised me we would return in Udan Khatola which we did. Besides these places we also visited Koteshwar and Kumbhadiya Jain Temple. The marble temples at Kumbhadiya were awesome. Pradip was so struck with the beautiful carving in the marble that he exclaimed that no humanbeing could create this temple. Only god alone could have done that.
The next day we went to Mount Abu. We hired a bike from the a shop in front of the bus- stand so that we could take our own time to visit all those beautiful places: Gurushikahar, Achalgarh, Delwara temples, Adhar devi, Nakki( Nakhi) lake and sun-set point. All these places have their own beauty, but I liked Nakhi lake a lot. There are different versions of its creation. One version says it was created by Balam Rasia (or Rasia Balam) with his nails just in one night’s time. Balam Rasia was an aged sage who fell in love with a teenage girl, kunwari kanya of the king of Mt Abu. The two lovelorn souls were prevented from tying their love in a nuptial knot, by the scheming parents and their conniving Gods. They had demanded that the sage could marry the teenager if he could dig up a lake for her with his nails over night. The sage was just about to accomplish the impossible feat when he was tricked by gods. It is said that the sage was the incarnation of Lord Shiva and the teenager was the embodiment of Ma Parvati. It is predicted that they would return again and then there would be upheaval in the universe. The poem 'Lost Love' depicts the pathos of the two!
LOST LOVE
It's for love
So much was at stake
With nails was done
The digging of the lake
The sage felt no pain
For love-pang-ache
But her parent's promises
Just turned out to be fake
And the virgin and the sage
Could never ever make
To the nuptial altar
Just for the parent's sake-
Love reigns supreme yet
With all its heartbreak.
Maybe that’s why there were so many love-birds and married couples boating and loitering in and around the lake. Beautiful wives flanked by handsome husbands. It was pure pleasure to see those picture perfect couples enjoying the blissful moments. Pradip, very emotionally, told me that he missed his wife. I said that was bound to be. That was natural influence of the place.
A bit sad over our being alone, we came out and started window-shopping in Nakhi Bazaar where Pradip bought some gifts for his wife and one-year daughter Sanvi. It was getting dark and as a result of our two-day loitering I was feeling throbbing pain in my legs. I told pradip to call it a day and return to our room. He told me one thing still remained. I asked what it was. He made a sign for “drinking” with his straightened thumb and bent fingers. We went to the one and only wine shop near Nakhi bazaar. There was a maddening crowd there. Pradip disappeared in the crowd and when he emerged from it again, he was carrying two bottles of Bagpiper whisky, one in each hand. He beckoned me to follow him towards the backyard of the shop. I thought we would take bottles to our room and drink there. I couldn’t think of drinking in front of so many people inside and more passing on the road. Pradip arranged the tables and glasses, poured the whisky into glasses and mixed water. When our glasses touched each other for the cheers, we were joined by another fellow. Fortunately he happened to be Jadeja. Manharsinh Jadeja. He came there as a driver to one Ganatra family. After leaving them at the hotel, he was free to enjoy. It need not write that Pradip struck a rapport with him and soon they were talking about their common friends.
I was quite normal and following their conversation till we finished one bottle. The second made me lose control over myself. Not that I was struggling to stand. But I started hearing a lot of noise, all variety of voices mixed into one another. I was not able to distinguish them. Pradip and Manharsinh were talking and I was watching them minus their voices. When I complained about the noise and told them that I couldn’t listen to them, their faces broke into silent laughter. I moved my face to have a panoramic view of the surroundings and I could feel that everything was moving rather slow, like slow-moving reel of a film or like the waving TV screen during low electricty.
I remember clearly that Manharsinh held my arm while returning so that I don’t fall down till we reached the bus stop. And I was so thankful to him for the service he rendered that while departing I hugged him not once or twice but three times before I got into the bus!!! There was nothing that I could do after reaching the room except fall asleep. When I woke up next morning I had regained the senses. But there was splitting headache in form of hang-over. I sat on the bed rubbing my head.
“Good Morning” Came Pradip's voice from his bed.
“ Good Morning….Where is the second bottle?” I asked.
“ What rubbish! Are you still intoxicated. Don’t you remember we finished off both of them?”
I scratched my head. Then took my brush and toothpaste and moved towards the bathroom
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The phrase "A MOVEABLE FEAST" was used by Ernest Hemingway to mean the memory of a spendid place that continues to go with the moving traveller for the rest of life, after he has had the experience of it and gone away. The author used the term A Moveable Feast for the title of his late-life memoirs of his early life as a stuggling writer in Paris, in the 1920s. He said to a friend: "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
Home Is Where Heart Is
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Back to Rajkot after nearly three months...Oh, what joy it is to see those familiar faces, roads, cross-roads, temples, markets, shops again!....On any ordinary day I might have ignored them, but after being away from them for such a long time I couldn't help but stared at them from both the sides of the auto-rickshaw.When we come back to our our place after a long time, even the sight of the familiar faces in our society-the people with whom we never got chance to speak to-soothes our hungry eyes.We think they might have forgotten us,but they don't forget so easily.
"The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Saturday, 25 September 2010
I completed Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake today. I started it very casually, with no intension to complete it, but its storyline and lively style took hold of me throughout and I couldn't put it down. I usually avoid reading novels full of concrete narration and least dialogues. This novel is an exception. Despite its narrative feature, the novel is readable for an average reader like me.
The story starts in 1968 when Ashima, who is married to Ashoke Ganguly, is pregnant with a son. After their marriage they have moved toCambridge , massachusetts
A son is born to them. The child is named Gogol after Nikolai Gogol, the great Russian writer. The name was given in a hurry, as it was necessary procedure for the birth certificate. The idea was to change it later, but the name sticks to him. Gogol, in his teens, starts hating his name because he finds it totally alien and meaningless, being neither Indian not American. Ms Lahiri has filled pages describing his uneasiness with the names. Gogol fights with his parents and changes it to Nikhil.
Gogol, born and brought up in US, possesses completely different mindset. He doesn't share his parents' eagerness to visitIndia India India
This part of the novel was the most problematic for me. Ms Lahiri's narration lacks psychological aspect which creates problem for the reader. And because of that all these three characters look like lifeless puppets. Gogol looks more human after Ashoke, his father, dies of heart-attack. That comes as an emotional shock for Gogol which revives his filial duties which had remained latent so far. (In fact that is the pity in life, when we realise our father was right, it is too late, perhaps the father is no more, and our own son is old enough to think that his father is wrong)
The novel describes Gogol intimate relations with American ladies, but ultimately he meets Moushumi, a Bengali girl, on her mother's insistence. Mousami doesn't hide any of her past sexual escapades during her first meeting with Gogol. Despite this they keep meeting each other regularly and after some time decide to marry. Unfortunately this marriage doesn't last much as Moushumi indulges in extramarital relation with one of her earlier boyfriends. Gogol can't tolerate this and decides to be separated.
The novel ends after one year of his divorce. Ashima decides to pass rest of her life betweenIndia
The story starts in 1968 when Ashima, who is married to Ashoke Ganguly, is pregnant with a son. After their marriage they have moved to
A son is born to them. The child is named Gogol after Nikolai Gogol, the great Russian writer. The name was given in a hurry, as it was necessary procedure for the birth certificate. The idea was to change it later, but the name sticks to him. Gogol, in his teens, starts hating his name because he finds it totally alien and meaningless, being neither Indian not American. Ms Lahiri has filled pages describing his uneasiness with the names. Gogol fights with his parents and changes it to Nikhil.
Gogol, born and brought up in US, possesses completely different mindset. He doesn't share his parents' eagerness to visit
This part of the novel was the most problematic for me. Ms Lahiri's narration lacks psychological aspect which creates problem for the reader. And because of that all these three characters look like lifeless puppets. Gogol looks more human after Ashoke, his father, dies of heart-attack. That comes as an emotional shock for Gogol which revives his filial duties which had remained latent so far. (In fact that is the pity in life, when we realise our father was right, it is too late, perhaps the father is no more, and our own son is old enough to think that his father is wrong)
The novel describes Gogol intimate relations with American ladies, but ultimately he meets Moushumi, a Bengali girl, on her mother's insistence. Mousami doesn't hide any of her past sexual escapades during her first meeting with Gogol. Despite this they keep meeting each other regularly and after some time decide to marry. Unfortunately this marriage doesn't last much as Moushumi indulges in extramarital relation with one of her earlier boyfriends. Gogol can't tolerate this and decides to be separated.
The novel ends after one year of his divorce. Ashima decides to pass rest of her life between
Training at EFLU
Thursday, 16 September 2010
Training at EFLU
Forty-two days have passed since our arrival in Hyderabad- 5th largest city in India- for the 21st Resource Persons’ course at EFLU which commenced on 4th August 2010.Though there is nothing special to do other than attending the classes with bag full of text-books provided to us (which gives me déjà-vu of my college days) and turning ourselves into ELT experts, I couldn’t find the time to write this blog despite my earnest desire to do so. Before I came here, I thought I’d get plenty of time to do all crazy things besides reading books and studying. Our classes start at 10 am and ends with all lunch and tea-breaks at 5 pm. Like school children we have our share of Home-work too which doesn’t leave any room for any aesthetic activities we might want to indulge in. However Saturdays-Sundays is a time of respite as university is closed on that day.
Our time-table displays a list of 32 high-profile professors from different departments of EFLU.32 professors for 32 trainees, all coming from different parts ofIndia
To watch 32 professors conducting their classes is itself an enriching experience; one of the finest parts of this entire training. Observing is a form of learning, goes the age-old maxim. Besides, the the sight of AN ARTIST AT WORK is something we don’t come across easily in our life. An artist loses himself completely into the piece he is creating, forgetting all his mundane worries, likes, dislikes, weaknesses and all his emotional baggages. It may be a writer, a painter a musician or a simple potter or a cobbler. Creation demands that discipline.
Before I dwell on any further, I’d like to mention Meera Srinivas, all-India co-ordinator of DCS (District Centre Scheme) under which all DCEs (District Centres for English) are functioning in different states ofIndia
The ambience at EFLU is unique. You just need to have a glance at the campus to experience it. You will find the presence of a heterogeneous group of students coming not only from different parts of India but also from different parts of the world, china, Russia, Germany, France, Aman et al. You bump into a foreign student at every corner of the campus and your ears hear a variety of sounds belonging to different languages. In her inauguration speech of our course pro-vice-chancellor Maya pundit had remarked “Here, we treat our students as mature adults and they are free to do anything they please as long as it is not something that harms the tradition of this university.” There is no dress code here so a students can wear any types of clothing he/she pleases to, so you see some Muslim girl students completely veiled in black burqa and western women in their western outfit( which may not be a pleasant sight to the eyes of the traditional Indian). People do feel culture shock if they are visiting EFLU for the first time.
Food is a major problem for all of us. On the campus there are two food joints: Nishi chapatti and Maitri Cafeteria, apart from mess for the students.1500 kms away fromGujarat , all we get here is idly and dosa, cooked rice and lentil, and South Indian chapati and puri that is far from our Gujarati Roti.I lost 5 kg just within 20 days of my arrival. After losing 5 kg I stopped having my meal at these places and started visiting girls’ hostel mess. Here they provide only cooked rice and lentil along with subji and butter-milk. No chapatti! Still girls seem to enjoy it. At night they provide the same things along with roti. And that makes a square meal for me and it is 80 % Gujarati in look and also in taste. I can say that this “Mess” has saved me from shedding more kilos.
Saturdays and Sundays is the time to chill out and hang out in the city. On the first Saturday after our arrival my colleagues Kalpesh and Jayesh sir and I went on a city bus tour along with our other friends. Last Satudrday they went to Shri Shailam to offer their prayers at thetemple of Lord Mallikarjuna Hyderabad
Traffic situation inHyderabad Hyderabad Ahmadabad Gujarat also, but late by one day.When I was working with TIME, Ahmedabad I used to read it. After buying newspaper we go to EFLU to have our morning tea. At this time, the campus looks quite peaceful. By the time chaiwala opens and prepares tea for us (we are his first customer of the day, so he treats us in the same way, like gods), we finish half of our newspaper reading, the rest half we finish with our tea. Occasionally we also visit secunderabad railway station area which is 4 kms away. Usuallly go there walking if there is no urgency to rush to have our meals etc.
Two new skills I have acquired here are : Playing badminton and Learning Telugu Alphabets. Telugu I learnt from the book which I purchased soon after I came here last month and Badminton I learnt from my Malayali friend Rajeev who is just my age, but stronger than me. He is a regular at court. Whenever I passed by the court, I would see him playing or waiting for his turn. One day I told him," I want to play it" fortunately he had one extra racket with him. That evening I accompanied him to the court. Two players were already playing on the court. rajeev talked to them and handed me the racket saying," Let's start a doubles game" I said, "But I don't know the rules" He said," No Problem, just keep hitting the shuttle when it comes near you. That's all" Within few days I gained enough confidence to go to court all by myself. Here I met another great player: Gandhi. Besides being handsome, he is the most stylist badminton player at EFLU. Watching him playing is a learning lesson in badminton. The style and the ease with which he plays stuns me. Rajeev told me he has played badminton at national level and won prizes. The other day while Gandhi and I were playing a doubles game, he told me," Your back hand shots are wonderful" I need not add that these words made my day.
There are so many more things to write about in this blog, but because Rajeev complains about the length of my posts, I would now put an end to it with the last thing I would love write about.It is book exhibitions, almost on a daily basis at EFLU. Sight of a book exhibition on the campus of our universities (Uni. inGujarat ) is uncommon, a rare sight.Here it is a part of daily routine. Different publications and retail book-seller pay money to this university to allow them to open thier makeshift shop. They display their books on the racks and this display doesn't fail to tempt the passers by into stopping there to have a casual look at the books which ultimately leads them into buying them. I've spent a lot of my time and money in perusing through books on display and buying them. Every third day there is new set of books by new publications with books on history, on ELT(English Language Teaching), on Languages....The glossy covers of books attract my eyes while I am passing by them and I just can't resist my urge to buy them. So far I have bought 70 books and I have four stacks of these books at my room. My biggest worry is : How shall I take them with me? How will I confront my mom when she will see two bags full of books? Kher, Jo hoga dekha Jaega.
Our time-table displays a list of 32 high-profile professors from different departments of EFLU.32 professors for 32 trainees, all coming from different parts of
To watch 32 professors conducting their classes is itself an enriching experience; one of the finest parts of this entire training. Observing is a form of learning, goes the age-old maxim. Besides, the the sight of AN ARTIST AT WORK is something we don’t come across easily in our life. An artist loses himself completely into the piece he is creating, forgetting all his mundane worries, likes, dislikes, weaknesses and all his emotional baggages. It may be a writer, a painter a musician or a simple potter or a cobbler. Creation demands that discipline.
Before I dwell on any further, I’d like to mention Meera Srinivas, all-India co-ordinator of DCS (District Centre Scheme) under which all DCEs (District Centres for English) are functioning in different states of
The ambience at EFLU is unique. You just need to have a glance at the campus to experience it. You will find the presence of a heterogeneous group of students coming not only from different parts of India but also from different parts of the world, china, Russia, Germany, France, Aman et al. You bump into a foreign student at every corner of the campus and your ears hear a variety of sounds belonging to different languages. In her inauguration speech of our course pro-vice-chancellor Maya pundit had remarked “Here, we treat our students as mature adults and they are free to do anything they please as long as it is not something that harms the tradition of this university.” There is no dress code here so a students can wear any types of clothing he/she pleases to, so you see some Muslim girl students completely veiled in black burqa and western women in their western outfit( which may not be a pleasant sight to the eyes of the traditional Indian). People do feel culture shock if they are visiting EFLU for the first time.
Food is a major problem for all of us. On the campus there are two food joints: Nishi chapatti and Maitri Cafeteria, apart from mess for the students.1500 kms away from
Saturdays and Sundays is the time to chill out and hang out in the city. On the first Saturday after our arrival my colleagues Kalpesh and Jayesh sir and I went on a city bus tour along with our other friends. Last Satudrday they went to Shri Shailam to offer their prayers at the
Traffic situation in
Two new skills I have acquired here are : Playing badminton and Learning Telugu Alphabets. Telugu I learnt from the book which I purchased soon after I came here last month and Badminton I learnt from my Malayali friend Rajeev who is just my age, but stronger than me. He is a regular at court. Whenever I passed by the court, I would see him playing or waiting for his turn. One day I told him," I want to play it" fortunately he had one extra racket with him. That evening I accompanied him to the court. Two players were already playing on the court. rajeev talked to them and handed me the racket saying," Let's start a doubles game" I said, "But I don't know the rules" He said," No Problem, just keep hitting the shuttle when it comes near you. That's all" Within few days I gained enough confidence to go to court all by myself. Here I met another great player: Gandhi. Besides being handsome, he is the most stylist badminton player at EFLU. Watching him playing is a learning lesson in badminton. The style and the ease with which he plays stuns me. Rajeev told me he has played badminton at national level and won prizes. The other day while Gandhi and I were playing a doubles game, he told me," Your back hand shots are wonderful" I need not add that these words made my day.
There are so many more things to write about in this blog, but because Rajeev complains about the length of my posts, I would now put an end to it with the last thing I would love write about.It is book exhibitions, almost on a daily basis at EFLU. Sight of a book exhibition on the campus of our universities (Uni. in
SUDHIR BHUVA - હદયમા પડેલી છબી
Friday, 9 July 2010
Whenever I think of Sudhir, an ever-smiling face flashes on the screen of my mind’s eye. His face is structured so naturally that it looks beautiful even when he is not smiling.
I met him first in the first year of our BA inD.H. College
He asked, ″Are you sure? ″ "100%" I said. ″Okay then, let’s meet our professor and ask him″ I didn’t want to go to any professor with such a trivial matter. But I thought It might give me a chance to know more of this tall and lanky classmate of mine. I agreed and we went upstairs, met prof. Yogendra Rathod in the common room and presented our query. He had a casual glance at the sentence and said , ″Though both the answers are accepted as correct, it is Has Been Teaching which is better″
We came out into the corridor and had a close look at each other’s face. He smiled his ever-smiling smile and asked :
″Which school did you pass your 12th std. from?
″I was an external student″
″ Me too. So what else do you do?″
″Teaching.″
″Gosh! Me too ″
Our chemistry clicked and soon we became fast friends. One day, he handed me the invitation card of his elder brother’s marriage. With that card our friendship grew one step further. Now I was not just his friend. I was being taken as a family member. Though I could not go to Movia (In Gondal) and attend the ceremony, I did send my Best-Wishes in the form of a letter to the just married couple (Ajaybhai–Krishnabhabhi). When, after a year or so, a daughter (Shraddha) was born to them, I wrote a letter to her. Surprisingly, after a few days, I got a letter from her. By the time Shraddha was one year old, we had exchanged around a dozen letters and had become regular pen-pals.To date I don't know who wrote letters on her behalf. But I became a homely figure in Sudhir's family because of my letters. Everytime my letter reached movia Chandumasa-Sudhir's father would show it to her and said :"Here come your letter from your pen-friend"
After S.Y.B.A. exam, I went to Movia. It was my virgin trip to any village. All my life I have been city boy. Even if I had seen farms and crops, it was from the squares and rectangles from the bus-windows. So I was a bit nervous about it. I stayed there for days and it was the best hospitality I have ever got in my life. I n the absence of Sudhir, Ajaybhai and Pradipbhai were always ready to entertain me. Ajaybhai is a die-hard chess player and we would often sat down to chess for hours together. If I won the first game, he would press me to start a fresh game just to square the score. And he would keep on pressing me till he won the game. His father took me to their farm and showed me the crops. If Shraddha whined to join us, we would take her too with us. On the way chandumasa would talk about the crops of rain and I would talk about my jobs.
Bhabhi's love showering on devar. That is something that happens in old Hindi films. In real life most bhabhis hate their devars. But that is not the case with Krishnabhbabhi. During my three-day stay I saw that they have their daily quota of criticism, funny taunts and fights. As a kid Shraddha never addressed sudhir as uncle because she under impression that he might be her elder brother. Once when Sudhir got off the Gondal-Rajkot bus, he realised that either he has been pickpocket or he has lost his purse. He met me at university and told me of this unhappy incident. I was going to visit Movia in near future, so requested me not to report this to Krishnabhabhi. I asked : But why? What'd wrong with it?He said: Nothing, but she will start delivering harangue to me :"સામ્ભર્યુ? ભાઈ પાકીટ ખોઈ આવ્યા.ઍક પાકીટ પણ એમનાથી સાચવી શકાતુ નથી...." and so on. As an ideal friend I didn't. If I had and Krishnabhbabhi would have started haranguing, I know Sudhir would have listened to her with his smiling face without uttering one single word.
As a teacher, he is wonderful. Much more than promising. I have a high opinion of sudhir as a teacher .I'd not hesitate to rank him second best teacher among our group of friends (first ,of course, being me). I remember one incident: he was working as an English teacher in a girls' hostel in Gondal five-six years ago. After one or two years he had to leave that job as he got Govt. job in a secondary school in Amreli. Naturally, the owners of the hostel did not like that the teacher of his caliber should live the job. But they were helpless. After some time Sudhir came toRajkot
"The last day at the hostel was too tough for me. Girls showed no interest in the study. And when the time came for me to leave many of them could not help but started crying right in the class-room. I was at my wit's end. I could not think of what to do...so many girls crying...whom should I explain....whom should I calm down....After a month I went there again to meet my students. I met all those girls....At last the matron came to me and she said:
"Girls seemed to have no interest in taking food after you left and I used to witness a lot of leftover in the kitchen those days"
I have so many good things about him to say, but that doesn't mean that I have found no negative points in him. His greatest negative point is his smugness. He is happy with what he is and what he has. No grandiose desire to achieve or do something on a large scale. I think he is not developing his potential and does what ordinary mortals do. There is one more thing I don't like about him. It is his habit of not criticising people even when there are reasons enough to do so. He just smiles and keeps his cool. He behaves as if he has signed off a contract with God to love every Tom, Dick and Harry. I don't take this as a plus point. If I don't like someone or if I think someone hurts me, I don't waste time to show my displeasure right in the face of the person. If it makes him/her sad or feel insulted, so be it. Like Ravindranath Tagore,I believe that a man understands himself better when he confronts the pain. If someone receives criticism, insult ,or punches in some case from me, it is all for his own good. Sudhir doesn't think that way and takes care of the innermost feelings of the person and by doing so he has been able to endear himself to all and has got love from a large number of people.
His certain behaviour may irritate me sometimes. But we have never been at loggerheads with each other. We have never had any sort of argument or dispute over any thing. It surprises me now when I think of that. He had so many friends at the time we met. I had hardly any. I considered myself lucky that he considered me worthy of his friendship and accepted me as his friend.
I met him first in the first year of our BA in
He asked, ″Are you sure? ″ "100%" I said. ″Okay then, let’s meet our professor and ask him″ I didn’t want to go to any professor with such a trivial matter. But I thought It might give me a chance to know more of this tall and lanky classmate of mine. I agreed and we went upstairs, met prof. Yogendra Rathod in the common room and presented our query. He had a casual glance at the sentence and said , ″Though both the answers are accepted as correct, it is Has Been Teaching which is better″
We came out into the corridor and had a close look at each other’s face. He smiled his ever-smiling smile and asked :
″Which school did you pass your 12th std. from?
″I was an external student″
″ Me too. So what else do you do?″
″Teaching.″
″Gosh! Me too ″
Our chemistry clicked and soon we became fast friends. One day, he handed me the invitation card of his elder brother’s marriage. With that card our friendship grew one step further. Now I was not just his friend. I was being taken as a family member. Though I could not go to Movia (In Gondal) and attend the ceremony, I did send my Best-Wishes in the form of a letter to the just married couple (Ajaybhai–Krishnabhabhi). When, after a year or so, a daughter (Shraddha) was born to them, I wrote a letter to her. Surprisingly, after a few days, I got a letter from her. By the time Shraddha was one year old, we had exchanged around a dozen letters and had become regular pen-pals.To date I don't know who wrote letters on her behalf. But I became a homely figure in Sudhir's family because of my letters. Everytime my letter reached movia Chandumasa-Sudhir's father would show it to her and said :"Here come your letter from your pen-friend"
After S.Y.B.A. exam, I went to Movia. It was my virgin trip to any village. All my life I have been city boy. Even if I had seen farms and crops, it was from the squares and rectangles from the bus-windows. So I was a bit nervous about it. I stayed there for days and it was the best hospitality I have ever got in my life. I n the absence of Sudhir, Ajaybhai and Pradipbhai were always ready to entertain me. Ajaybhai is a die-hard chess player and we would often sat down to chess for hours together. If I won the first game, he would press me to start a fresh game just to square the score. And he would keep on pressing me till he won the game. His father took me to their farm and showed me the crops. If Shraddha whined to join us, we would take her too with us. On the way chandumasa would talk about the crops of rain and I would talk about my jobs.
Bhabhi's love showering on devar. That is something that happens in old Hindi films. In real life most bhabhis hate their devars. But that is not the case with Krishnabhbabhi. During my three-day stay I saw that they have their daily quota of criticism, funny taunts and fights. As a kid Shraddha never addressed sudhir as uncle because she under impression that he might be her elder brother. Once when Sudhir got off the Gondal-Rajkot bus, he realised that either he has been pickpocket or he has lost his purse. He met me at university and told me of this unhappy incident. I was going to visit Movia in near future, so requested me not to report this to Krishnabhabhi. I asked : But why? What'd wrong with it?He said: Nothing, but she will start delivering harangue to me :"સામ્ભર્યુ? ભાઈ પાકીટ ખોઈ આવ્યા.ઍક પાકીટ પણ એમનાથી સાચવી શકાતુ નથી...." and so on. As an ideal friend I didn't. If I had and Krishnabhbabhi would have started haranguing, I know Sudhir would have listened to her with his smiling face without uttering one single word.
As a teacher, he is wonderful. Much more than promising. I have a high opinion of sudhir as a teacher .I'd not hesitate to rank him second best teacher among our group of friends (first ,of course, being me). I remember one incident: he was working as an English teacher in a girls' hostel in Gondal five-six years ago. After one or two years he had to leave that job as he got Govt. job in a secondary school in Amreli. Naturally, the owners of the hostel did not like that the teacher of his caliber should live the job. But they were helpless. After some time Sudhir came to
"The last day at the hostel was too tough for me. Girls showed no interest in the study. And when the time came for me to leave many of them could not help but started crying right in the class-room. I was at my wit's end. I could not think of what to do...so many girls crying...whom should I explain....whom should I calm down....After a month I went there again to meet my students. I met all those girls....At last the matron came to me and she said:
"Girls seemed to have no interest in taking food after you left and I used to witness a lot of leftover in the kitchen those days"
I have so many good things about him to say, but that doesn't mean that I have found no negative points in him. His greatest negative point is his smugness. He is happy with what he is and what he has. No grandiose desire to achieve or do something on a large scale. I think he is not developing his potential and does what ordinary mortals do. There is one more thing I don't like about him. It is his habit of not criticising people even when there are reasons enough to do so. He just smiles and keeps his cool. He behaves as if he has signed off a contract with God to love every Tom, Dick and Harry. I don't take this as a plus point. If I don't like someone or if I think someone hurts me, I don't waste time to show my displeasure right in the face of the person. If it makes him/her sad or feel insulted, so be it. Like Ravindranath Tagore,I believe that a man understands himself better when he confronts the pain. If someone receives criticism, insult ,or punches in some case from me, it is all for his own good. Sudhir doesn't think that way and takes care of the innermost feelings of the person and by doing so he has been able to endear himself to all and has got love from a large number of people.
His certain behaviour may irritate me sometimes. But we have never been at loggerheads with each other. We have never had any sort of argument or dispute over any thing. It surprises me now when I think of that. He had so many friends at the time we met. I had hardly any. I considered myself lucky that he considered me worthy of his friendship and accepted me as his friend.
WHAT IS YOUR RASHI?
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
WHAT IS YOUR RASHI?
Sometimes it is more difficult to say NO than to say YES. That happens when you go to the girl's house to choose her as your life-partner. You may find her too fat, too short(नाटी),too ugly, too childish or too stupid, but your parents would always like to choose her as their daughter-in-law even if she is all those qualities roled into one. You leave the girl's house and take 10 steps. On the 11th step your mom will ask.'So how did you find the girl?' If you are reckless you would cancel her outrightly, but if you are a little bit considerate you would say: 'She is good, but I need more time to think over. 'And then you pray to God to handle the situaton in such a way the there is NO from the girl's side or there is mismatch of horoscope! But God has other more important tasks to attend to than your foolish-cum-selfish prayers so no item of your prayer is granted. And ultimately it comes down to you to accept or reject the Kanya. You think what right you have to reject any girl or to say that she is not worthy to be married? But still you say NO.
Take care of your body
Friday, 14 May 2010
Ravindranath Tagore took great care of his body even at the age of 60.Not only body, but also his looks. He never kept his hair dishevelled. It had to be well combed. Surprised (or rather irritated) by this narcissism, Gandhiji once asked Tagore: Why do you take so much care for your looks even at this age? In reply Tagore said : "I am not doing it for myself. It is for the people who love me that I am taking extra care of my looks. You see, they want to see me as good-looking, happy and well-balanced, mentally and physically. And if I don't look so in front of them, they would feel unhappy. There is no any iota of doubt about that”
Those who are health-conscious in the true sense of the word always follow certain regimen throughout their life. And even at the age of 50 or 60, they look as fresh as a flower (and also smell like it). One such woman was Bengali authoress Maitreyi Devi. People who have met her in her late fifties say that even at that age she looked gorgeous. She could keep intact the feminine charm, grace and softness that nature has endowed women with. Just one glance at her and the observer could witness the glint in her eyes, shining grey hair, balanced face, beautiful well-aligned teeth, mature smile, healthy body, light movements, sociable manners.....One would just wonder: if she is so graceful now, how beautiful she would have looked in the prime of her youth!
During the last two-three months so many of my well-meaning friends and students have remarked about my getting fat or about my bulging stomach (i.e. paunch).One of my friends told me rather philosophically: "A man is a man till he develops the paunch. After having this new limb in the body, man ceases to be a man. "I trembled to imagine myself as one such. And I realized it is high time I started some vigorous physical exercise. If I won't give some pain to body now, it will surely give me that thing after a few years .I have seen many roly-Poly bodies of men and women and I'd wonder: My goodness! what do people make of their body? How cruel/careless they can be towards their own body? Do they really know the value of their body? Slim figure of the pretty youth transforms into the swollen Mikey Mouse!....And even after all this, people are helpless to initiate any action against this attack on their body.
All these ideas, heath-related maxims, discussions with friends, my reading et al started revolving in my mind and I went to the market and bought new track-paints,T-shirts and shoes. I convinced one of my friends to accompany me in this venture. And we started walking and jogging along with other physical exercises. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. I followed this widely quoted proverb by Benjamin Franklin. Being a night bird, it was difficult initially to cast my body and mind in this new regimen. But after a few days now it is a habit.
Walking may be the best exercise. But if you can jog it is better than walking. if you are not accustomed to jogging, you'd realize very soon how weak your body is. It can't run even 200 metres! First it would come as a shock. Then you would remember that those who run marathon have to run for 42 kms(26 miles)!This fact would turn your shock into a challenge.
On our first day at Race Course ring road, our eyes witnessed hundreds of health-conscious men and women walking and jogging round the ring road which has the girth of 3 kms. We first went to weight machine so that I can know how many kilos I have successfully get rid off after one month or so. I weighed 75 kg! I gave a silent scream looking at that figure on the screen. Last time it was between 62 to 65.
It was not possible for us to jog 3 kms so we preferred to walk like many other. Inside Race Course there is a ground with laps of 400 metres for the runners. After walking being over, we just go there for jogging. On the very first day I suffered dehydration just after 400 metres. Legs started aching that night .After two three days I went for two laps that is 800 metres. And now I go 4 laps without much dehydration. It takes 2 minutes 10 seconds to complete one lap(i.e. 400 metres)and complete 9 minutes to complete four laps (i.e. 1600 metres i.e. a little more than one a half kilometres). 9 minutes is too long period for 16oo metres, because when you go for physical test to be recruited in army, navy etc, you have to complete 1600 metres within 6 minutes or 6 minutes 30 seconds. I am still to far away from that point, but it is good that I can run 1600 metres. The problem of timings can be resolved with practice. The record for the marathon is 2 hours 4 minutes for the men and 2 hours 15 minutes for the women. It simply means they they can cover 338 metres in one minute on an average.
It has been fifteen days now and I haven't weighed myself. But I think I have successfully got rid off at least one extra kilo from the body. Besides once you start such regimen, you feel yourself as light as a leaf through the day.
LOVE YOUR BODY.RESPECT IT.TRY TO HEAR EVERY CRY OF THE BODY.DON'T LET IT BE UNNOTICED.B'COZ DISEASES JUST DONT VISIT OUR BODY WITHOUT KNOCKS
"CHARITRAHEEN" BY SARATCHANDRA CHATTOPADYAYA
Thursday, 15 April 2010
SHEETAL, MANJUL, KOMAL, TERA AACHAL,
MERI SUDHIYO ME LAHERAYA, JALMAL JALMAL,
AUR EK SHAM MAINE TERE NAAM LIKH DI
These were the begining lines of the tv serial "Charitraheen" (based on the novel of the same name by Saratbabu)which was being telecast in 1990. Except a few scenes, dialogues and these poetic lines I don't remember much of the serial. Afterwards I read the novel and recollected the serial. And yesterday I read it again. Upen, Satish, Savitri and Kiranmayi. These are the main four characters. The book has such charm that you can enjoy it even if you have completed it no matter how many times.
MERI SUDHIYO ME LAHERAYA, JALMAL JALMAL,
AUR EK SHAM MAINE TERE NAAM LIKH DI
These were the begining lines of the tv serial "Charitraheen" (based on the novel of the same name by Saratbabu)which was being telecast in 1990. Except a few scenes, dialogues and these poetic lines I don't remember much of the serial. Afterwards I read the novel and recollected the serial. And yesterday I read it again. Upen, Satish, Savitri and Kiranmayi. These are the main four characters. The book has such charm that you can enjoy it even if you have completed it no matter how many times.
My passport and me
Thursday, 25 March 2010
My passport and me
Passport procedure!Tauba tauba!! Had I a slightest idea of how gruelling it is going to be,I would have hired some agent to do the task for me.But when I realise that,it was too late.There comes a time when we reach a point of no return.The bridges we passed through being burnt, we have no option but to slog ahead any how.
In order to save a few bucks, I decided to go through the passport procedure all by myself. I bought the passport application form from the main post-office near Jubilee baug before a month and started collecting all necessary documents, affidavits, my divorce papers, passport photos and what not. And when everything was collected I went to the main post-office again to submit my application and the beautiful lady at the desk told me that I was to submit my application at the Police commissioner’s office near Galaxee Talkies and not to them as mine was a divorce case. I wanted to ask: then why didn't you tell well in advance? But some arguments are out of place at govt. offices. All you have to do is keep your cool and provide what is demanded or do what is expected.
I went to police commissioner's office where I was told to come the next day as the time for submitting the application was over for the day. I went the next day and became a part of a long queue. All applicants with their applications and originals looked a bit nervous. When my turn came, they cancelled my form as they accepted only those forms which where filled up online on their official website: passport.gov.in. I obediently followed the instruction and the next day I went there with the downloaded form. Again the same queue. At last they accepted my applicaton and the gruelling procedure came to the end.
Now all I have to do is to visit the concerned police chowki. And after two months passport will be on palm if there is no other glitches.
In order to save a few bucks, I decided to go through the passport procedure all by myself. I bought the passport application form from the main post-office near Jubilee baug before a month and started collecting all necessary documents, affidavits, my divorce papers, passport photos and what not. And when everything was collected I went to the main post-office again to submit my application and the beautiful lady at the desk told me that I was to submit my application at the Police commissioner’s office near Galaxee Talkies and not to them as mine was a divorce case. I wanted to ask: then why didn't you tell well in advance? But some arguments are out of place at govt. offices. All you have to do is keep your cool and provide what is demanded or do what is expected.
I went to police commissioner's office where I was told to come the next day as the time for submitting the application was over for the day. I went the next day and became a part of a long queue. All applicants with their applications and originals looked a bit nervous. When my turn came, they cancelled my form as they accepted only those forms which where filled up online on their official website: passport.gov.in. I obediently followed the instruction and the next day I went there with the downloaded form. Again the same queue. At last they accepted my applicaton and the gruelling procedure came to the end.
Now all I have to do is to visit the concerned police chowki. And after two months passport will be on palm if there is no other glitches.
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