Time marches on!

" The hands of fate just won't wait as time marches on"! Thus go the words of an old song.
Well, 2009 has slid to an end and in retrospect,what do I remember the most from the happenings of the year?

Uppermost on my mind , of course, is the passing over of my sister in October. This was undeniably, the cruellest blow to me, quite devastating. However, since I have written about her earlier, let me move on. After all, time also marches on.

I had the opportunity to undergo the truly magnificent experience of a wedding on the beach during sunset in Goa. My school pal Amit's son decided to hitch his wagon to his star in this memorable way. As the bride and groom, dressesd in their resplendent wedding fineries, exchanged vows, the sun dipped low over the Arabian Sea to provide a perfect backdrop to a most romantic scenario. The soft breeze, the rhythmic chants of the priests, the fragrance of the twilight hours.........all seemed to mingle with one another to create an enchanting ambience. It was beautiful! The whole ceremony is firmly implanted in my mind. But trust me to mess up in some way! I forgot to carry my camera! Imagine! So, the only picture of that unforgettable experience is the one in my mind!

Another wonderful experience of 2009 was our holiday in Kasol. Of late, I had been carping about the fact that I had not been to the hills for a very long time. Well, here we were accompanying the Chaudhuris of Kolkata to this pristine pure hamlet nestled in the Parvati river valley in Himachal Pradesh. At an altitude of about 5000 ft Kasol was splendidly cool and a welcome escape from the muggy September days of Delhi.
The resort that we stayed in was built on a sort of promontory which overlooked a sheer drop to the gushing river down below. The living quarters were quite a bit set back from the edge, and therefore, they left a large open space for people to lounge in with only the hills and the constant roar of the river to keep them company.

It was on this open space that we had formed our favourite perch. Indeed, as I reflect on those days, we spent practically all the waking hours sitting on this deck and losing ourselves amidst the imposing, lofty green hills, the majestic snow-capped peaks, the songs of myriad birds frolicking in the woods and the constant soporfic call of the Parvati. We ate there al fresco, we drank there, we read books there and we regularly dozed there as well!
It really was a blissful hassle-free week that we spent. The only regeret is that the holiday could not be longer.Alas , how the good things in life are in perpetual short supply!

2009 was also the year when we lost a friend, a sister, a colleague's wife in Uma, Gautam Mitra's wife. To us, she was always Chhotu, never Uma. Kumi and I vividly remember the day when we were at a lunch hosted by Chhhordi at her East of Kailash house in the early eighties. It was during this lunch that the snap decision for Gautam to meet Chhotu was mooted. And it was from this lunch that the protagonists of this romantic liasion drove to my in-laws' house (they were firmly recognised as the real marriage brokers!) where Chhotu had been brought over to be "presented", so to say! So, that was where Swapan, Gautam's able deputy, stamped his seal of approval on the proposed wedding and, as they say, the rest is history!

Ironically, both Chhordi and Chhotu left this world in 2009! Over the years, the Mitras and us became really close friends which took us through almost 3 decades , including the carefree and eventful years in Faridabad between 1979 and 1986.

So, 2009 was really an year of mixed experiences for me. Naturally, at this juncture, I am hoping for a 2010 which will be loaded more in favour of the fortunate and less in favour of the unfortunate! But as the cliched phrase goes, man proposes and God disposes. So, I await my life's future experiences with open arms and an open mind. After all, que sera sera! Happy new Year!

Kid stuff!

What is the most shocking city? The answer is electricity! If you think that this is the mother of all PJs then think again. This gem came, not from me and neither from The King of PJs (my son-law!), but from Raghav, my grandson, all of 6 years of age!!! Imagine! I cannot but feel - a little grudgingly, to be honest - that today's kids are far more developed in their intellect than we were, or at least I was, at that age.

Take for instance the case of this hapless writer. At the age of six I remember asking my parents whether M/S Mukherjee and Mazumdar of the Imperial Bank were Indians! This was also the age when I stole four Black & White cigarettes from my father's case only to chew them thoroughly before being sick as a cat all over the drawing room carpet! Six was the age when I fought with my mother one day because she refused to allow me to use her make-up! And six was also my age when ,on another occasion, I bawled my lungs out at my first sight of snow, as it lay blanketing the entire landscape that was visible from my window!

Do you still feel that today's child is not smarter than his agemate of 50 years ago? Were you very smart?

Take the case of Kabir, our other grandson, much the elder at the ripe old age of nine! At nine I used to wonder whether I could ever be clever enough to become an engine driver! Or a "bara babu" in my father's bank! Kabir has other ideas. Recently, he traumatised a cabbie in Sri lanka by asking him where did that country obtain their petroleum products from and whether it had its own power industry! See what I mean?

I remember that, when I was about nine years of age, I spent a lot of time trying to perfect the various techniques of spinning a top or swinging a yo-yo. At times I was better than the other boys and girls and at times I was not. It seemed to me at that time that to aquire the extreme skills needed to execute the more complicated manouvres was nothing short of a Herculean task.

Todays' children play video games. The games are actually very interesting and seem easy enough till such time I have a go! On several occasions, I have been bold enough to contest Kabir at various such games. And I must say that I did fairly well considering the initial trepidation that I had. Sadly my euphoria was always short-lived because the 200 or 300 points that I had managed to garner on these occasions did not at all appear as match-winning as I thought once Kabir had totted up the points in excess of 2000 or so!

Both Kabir and Raghav are adept at anything electronic - as I am sure are thousands of kids elsewhere. This generation's affinity for digital contraptions is amazing. May it gather more momentum to be able to cope with the marvels of technology that are sure to come in the future.

As for us grandfathers and grandmothers, may we continue to perpetuate all the nuances of Darwin's theory of evolution!!!