The stories from my childhood and of Dad and others…

1.       Tauji – Sh Mange Ram – when he was a kid was juming walls. He got himself hurt badly by a jaili (two thronged stick used in farms) that almost pierced this head and just missed his eyes. He did not cared and kept on playing. After sometime, he noticed blood coming out and started crying. Dad rushed to call his father (Sh Prabhu Ram). The first thing he did was thrashed tauji and warned him not to do something like this again and afterwards had him treated with butter and burnt grease oil. Tauji has since then quite a mark on this forehead.

2.       Similarly dad had a big cut on his wrist while cutting grasses. He did not show it to anyone for 2-3 days when the pain had become unbearable and granny knew it and she then put some butter and bandages on it.

3.       Dad’s friend in his school got sick with fever and came to our house and stayed there for 2-3 days. Then dad went to drop him at his house, which was in a nearby village, his family came to know that he was not at home for a while.

4.       Dad had only one pair of slipper every year, which did not lasted very long. In the summers, it was too hot to step with slippers and everyone went to school barefoot. Whenever they spotted any cow dung, they raced to it and stood over it – and what a great relief it was from the hot sandy surfaces!

5.       Me now – getting out of home in long summer breaks was a quite a challenging task. Mom would not let us out as it would be too hot. She insisted we do our home work or sleep till evening before we could be out. So we pretened to sleep and when she had also slept, I would try to sneak out as silently as possible. Any sound and mom would get up and thrash me..

Pintoo

Pintoo is a 15-year young tea vendor near my office. He’s started not very long ago and helps his uncle on his shop in the mornings, while sells tea after that. He is from Bihar.

Amit Agarwal once thought to give his old clothes to him and brought them the next day. He politely refused arguing if he would start taking helps so early in his career, he won’t progress long.  Cool.

Some days later I offered to bring him a dustbin to collect all those paper tea cups that people throw everywhere.

A week ago, I & Amit were going to eat samosas from nearby shop. He also asked us to bring one for him. When Amit handed it over to him, he gave him 10 Rs. We were shocked & surprised and tried to convince him we don’t needed; we are friends and things like that. But he was admand. We have to take the money.

I’m yet to give him the promised dustbin.

Latest news from Amit Agarwal is that he had quit this to start something bigger.

Which sickness is worse?

I have headaches often. When I was a kid, they often lasted the whole day. To further irritation, I had in my dreams large ants coming and going endlessly. It was horrific.

Then once also had this appendicitis removed – it preceded & succeed with fever & long bed rest. I think I also had measles. The long bed rest saps all the energy out of you.

These days I’m suffering with tonsillitis . There are 3 large red & white spots on left side – all together and 3 scattered ones on right side. I cannot eat or even drink anything.  Neelam is great wife here doing whatever she can but still the illness frustrates me.

So I don’t think any particular kind of illness is worse. Each one is equally frustrating in one way or other. But might be the ones that left you with some permanent damage are more hate able. Then worst are which you have to live with. Like my mother’s gastro troubles – which doctors have no clues about.

The earliest of my memories in this life…

Ever wonder what are the earliest memories that I’ve of my life, I’m not sure, but these are few –

1.       Birwana/Rajasthan – The place where my maternal grandparents were stationed. Every summer holidays, the whole family gathered there. So many kids- it was great time for any kids. Also for fights. So one time, I got annoyed, not remember why, and hid myself under a bed. All that remember after that is, folks running here & there, crying and all that. After a long time got bored and came out. Don’t remember if I got a bashing after that!

2.       Badon-patti/Hissar – Well, Mau – my grandmother – wanted me to take a bath and I’d not. So she forcibly gave me one. Once done, she freed me and then I had a bath of my own – in sand & dust. My mom tells me I did same with my nani as well. Thereafter, I never had a forced bath!

3.       Before we moved to Hissar, we lived in our ancestral village – Baddon-patti. Mom told me it was my birthday that day. So I went to my Dadaji and told him so. He bought us apples and I’d my birthday celebrated.

4.       Badopal – a small place near hissar. Dad was posted here before we moved to hissar city. We lived in the govt quarters and a canal flowed nearby. It was before I went to school. There were lot of fish in the canal and boys were always busy catching them. We had a servant – Keshu – he was an eunuch and complained about the visitors who came often and ate a lot. I once also had an accident with a cyclist and I broke my leg.

5.       Kistoori Devi – my nani - 

Life and Premchand

– I found many of the Premchand’s stories quite unnerving. He tries to show a lifetime in a few pages. And mostly, they end up showing how a well established life, career or reputation goes to dust. I got one example to see. This guy – Chintu – Ashish’s brother-in-law, was quite a successful IT person, making big money with NIIT Tech. They got a good family background (properties) in Himachal. They are 2 brothers and a sister (Ashish’s wife). The second brother is mentally ill. So Chintu, gets married. The marriage lasts only a few days. He is always too drunk now.  Then he gets brain hemorrhage. His father passes away. A couple of months Chintu also loses from brain hemorrhage.  The mother is too old? Think of her condition…