Episode 01
You needed something. Go to the washroom. You enter and forget why you came in. Come out, sit on the dining table to have your breakfast, try to have a bite... Oh shit, you needed dentures lying in the washroom!
🤥 🤥
Episode 02
My friend is 85. Independent, can help himself in daily chore s. His hands tremble a little, has a mild ET. Has been advised by the neurologist to practice tying and untying things. Yesterday he decided to tie his shoelaces himself. He did it and came down to tell me about his success. Stood barefoot, holding the pair of shoes tied together strongly!
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Episode 03
*****
Happened about fifteen years ago. A learned lady, in her sixties, was in my team in a week-long workshop: was beautiful, frank, and witty too. You could find her pulling down whomever she confronted with, with sarcasm and lively wit.
One afternoon, she tried to pull me into the trap, bantering , "You look so handsome Sir..."
I said, "Yes, but where were you when I was in my twenties?"
Apt came the reply, "Well, mind you Sir, my father was a police officer, won't have allowed us to befriend!"
"But, in any case, you would have run away with me, wouldn't you?"
The whole group burst into wild laughter.
🤣😂
Episode 04
•••••••
विशाखापत्तनम्। लगभग बीस साल पहले की बात।
फैकल्टी इंप्रूवमेंट कार्यक्रम में कुछ चुने हुए स्कूलों के शिक्षक-शिक्षिकाओं की कार्यशाला आयोजित की गई थी। दूसरे दिन मेरे सत्र के बाद चाय अंतराल में एक प्रतिभागी शिक्षिका मेरे पास आई।
~ सर आपका एक फ़ोटोग्राफ़ चाहिए।
~बच्चों को डराने के लिए? मैंने चुहल की।
~ नहीं सर, बुजुर्गों को समझाने के लिए।
~ क्या मैं इतना डरावना दिखाई देता हूँ?
उसने समझाना शुरू किया- सर मेरे ससुर और पिताजी दिन भर शतरंज या ताश खेलते रहते हैं। कुछ कहो तो कह देते हैं हम रिटायर हो चुके, कुछ काम की उम्मीद मत करो।
~तो मेरा फ़ोटो क्या कर सकता है?
~सर, उन्हें दिखाकर कहूँगी, लोग इस उम्र में भी सक्रिय रहते हैं और ..
बात मेरी समझ में आती, तब तक फ़ोटो खिंच चुका था। फिर भी मैंने कहा, फोटो से कुछ नहीं होगा, उन्हें मिलने कम दिया कीजिए।
संभव नहीं है, सर। सटा हुआ घर-आँगन है, बचपन के दोस्त हैं और आपस में समधी भी!
संबंधों की इस अबूझ पहेली को बाद में किसी ने बुझाया कि यहाँ हिंदुओं में भी ममेरे-फुफेरे भाई-बहनों में विवाह हो जाते हैं।
📸
Episode 04
•••••
I have arithmophobia, a fear of numbers, right from my childhood. I never had a good score in mathematics. Throughout my life I have faced many awkward situations due to this handicap. This is one among several.
A few years back, I was coming back from the CBSE after a day-long sitting. I took an autorickshaw. Reaching at my society gate the autowala asked for ₹120. I gave him a 200 ₹note that I had put separately in my pocket for the purpose.
"Chhutta 80 nahin hai sab", he said.
Searching for my other pockets for ''chhutta", I tried to help him.
Finally, working smartly on mental mathematics and some loose cash in my hand, I found the solution.
"Okay, ye lo chhutta 80, aur apne 20 rupaye kat ke mujhe 100 lauta do."
He precisely did that and drove off happily.
•••••
Episode 05
•••••
This is about my most esteemed friend, a respected journalist of the bygone era, sadly no more now. This is s penned for me by his darling daughter.]
👇
“One morning after his hour or so of yoga, followed by meditation and breakfast, my father read a little and then took a little pre-lunch snooze. My sister and I were at work and my mother was in the pooja room.
At lunch time our house help woke my father and told him to freshen up for lunch. He sat up and looked down to find his slippers missing. He immediately complained that while cleaning the floor, she had again pushed them under the bed. She looked under the bed to no avail, and then, equally unsuccessfully, searched the whole room. Now two of them were puzzled.
Then, my father decided to get up without the slippers and shook off the sheet he had draped over himself and lo and behold, the slippers were snug on his feet. The house help, who was very fond of my parents and could growl at them at times like this, growled and sputtered with laughter, “Uncle!!!”.
And in his unique style my father replied, “Arey! Ye yahan kaise aa gai?”
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Episode 06
Old age: Episode 06
•••••
Decades ago a not-so-distant relative of mine, in his sixties, lost his wife. He had two married daughters with their kids. One of his grandchildren was just about two years younger to me.
After a couple of months of bereavement, he started looking for a bride. Finally he got one in her teens, from a very poor family in a far off village. He allegedly offered some money to the poor parents, people used to say.
Anyways, marriage was fixed. It was sensational news in all the neighborhood. Not that people didn't have a second marriage, but the age difference of about 40+ years was the concern. However none could dare to tell him.
Finally people approached one sayana (village elder) to persuade him, to which he agreed reluctantly. Sayana ji went to the house of the bridegroom and told him:
~ देखो बेटे, तुम ठीक नहीं कर रहे हो। अपनी उमर देखो। तुम्हारे लड़की-दामाद हैं, नाती-नातिन हैं। सोचो, लोग क्या कहेंगे?
~ ताऊ जी, लोग जो भी कहें, शादी तो मैं करूंगा। जो मना कर रहे हैं, उन्हें न्योता नहीं दूंगा।
~ लड़का सयाना हो गया है, उसके लिए बहू ढूँढ़ो।
~ उसकी बहू आए और मैं अकेला बाहर ओबरी में सोऊँ! कैसी बात कर रहे हैं आप?
Obviously Sayana ji didn't succeed.
Fortunately this marriage could not happen. Later we heard that the girl had run out of her home to jump into Ramganga to commit suicide. A soldier on his way home saw her jumping from the bridge and ultimately saved her.
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