Happy Birthday Ma

This is what I had written in 2006. She is just the same - only a little known immuno failure condition has impaired her eyesight and effected a few organs but she is fighting and continues to be her fun self - spreading cheer. @suhel helped her get a grand entry into Twitter and Facebook world - http://www.suhelbanerjee.com/2010/04/fascinating-story-of-69-year-old.html I can never thank him enough. This proved therapeutic to her.

Got to be really lucky to have her as my Ma - read on to know why I say so :)

FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2006

Saluting with a Head Stand

It should be her 66th birthday but she insists it is her 67th. Do not ask me the reason because I could never understand her calculations in the “fast mode”. Always a step ahead, always ready for a leap, almost ever ready for take off that is surely an interesting way of leading life!

Mixed together in all this is an awesome sense of humour and deadly observation skills. Can lip read and mind read words as they are being formed. Flights of fantasies and ghosts creeping up are a reality for her!

Scrabbles and puzzles, news and fiction, atlas and capitals are her daily bread. Bookworm thrives on data, never mind its authenticity. An eye for minutest of details. She reads between lines and what is not in the lines!

Love beads and colours. Ornaments are to be flaunted is her humble motto. Why she must wear her sun dial locket to the jewelers or why she must ask the time when she wears the watch locket that she bought from Switzerland, remain an obviously in your face unanswered question in our minds!

Brought up in a large illustrious family among seven siblings have lent its own hue onto her. Loves to be amongst people, chirpy talking 119 to a dozen. Giving always, be it in kind or service. Laughing, not paying heed to her missing teeth!

Anything that is purely “English” brings a gleam to her eyes. High teas, snooty airs, English pronunciations, sun peeping out after a shower makes her feel that English weather is here. Wonder if the Britishers regret leaving her back!

Every afternoon that I spend with her, she takes me on a journey around the globe. We begin with her favourite Jakarta and move onto the Far East. Then we briefly stop over to say “hello” to my son in the USA. Then we could be anywhere! Maybe on an African Safari or in Europe soaking in the beauty. Or we could be on a cruise on the Mediterranean!

Chocolates, kittens, puppies and dolls are a few of her favourite things. Children find her to be an excellent friend. I have been left stumped seeing small kiddies walk in through our door and hold and her hand and drag her to a corner so they can play undisturbed. I have peeped through closed doors and have found her follow intricate dance steps and do precarious balancing acts all that she is being asked to do!

Roller coasters, giant wheels, rocking ships, bouncy cars, tumbling seats and what have you are her favourite rides. I have stood gaping as she threw up her hands with glee enjoying such pleasures. I have had dizzy fits just watching her but she was cool as cucumber waiting at another queue for another ride!

My children love her because she is their answer to all their wild desires. She went in search of a pet shop at night for my son. With my daughter she used to be her singing partner. Have seen them blissfully share an ear phone lost in listening to music. Also can talk about Einstein and Shakespeare in the same breath!

Oh she has acted in plays, won debates, quizzes, and champion in table tennis. Written plays and poetry. What takes the cake is her act as a joker at an official function, the photographs stand as testimony!

An achiever in short. Always in the fast forward mode. Daringly optimistic.

Tomorrow is her birthday, 66th or 67th we shall debate on it. But today, all I want is to wish her with all my heart a very happy birthday.

Let time stand still for a moment and recollect your journey. It is not everyday that life creates a unique creation.

Wish I could do a ‘Head Stand” to wish her! She deserves one and it would have been just appropriate!

She is my mother!

Anna Hazare : Icon Of The Youth

Youth helped India lift the World Cup.

Now youth at it again. The support, the outpourings are spontaneous for the JanLokpal Bill. It is amazing to see how Anna Hazare has been able to create that connect amongst people. India has stood up as one behind this 72 year old leader giving him their unconditional support.

Honesty still has many takers a realisation that has made the corrupt very uneasy. How can there be a body without their stooges and cronies to clean up the trail that they blaze while money laundering.

Anna Hazare has filled that void of leadership that India face. The patience that the corrupt were enjoying and abusing has snapped. India wants it now. Give us the Lokpal Bill.

Queasy voices of politicians defending the in action for over 42 years sound disgusting. That politicians are being kept out of this entire movement perhaps gives it its credibility.

With elections on in a few states including mine hope we speak out loud and shake up a few out of their reverie. A jailed Maoist leader has expressed his desire to contest elections from behind the bars. Incredible. Just because it helps in the mathematics of elections, have not heard dissenting voices yet.

To the untrue, power of truth looks weak and outdated. But somethings are timeless. Gandhian ways are as much relevant as they were during our Independence struggle. Today it is the same struggle only the enemy this time is within us.

If Bapu with the support of 33 crore Indians could drive the British away so can Anna Hazare with the support of 1 billion Indians drive the corrupt away.

At the end of this fight against corruption India will be well toned - lighter, fitter, trimmer and clean. The corrupt would be taken to the cleaners.

2 April 2011 - Yaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!!!

Difficult to find words beyond "India Lifts The World Cup".

A lot has been said and all that had to be said already spoken. More than words it was the ruptured screams and dancing that said it all.

Long before language got evolved and refined we must have spoken just this way. Grammarless yet so effective, so explicit, so audible and more importantly so understandable. So joyously infectious was the communique that it escaped no one.

India began by bowling and fielding extremely well. Their determination to contain the Lankans came through with every ball kept on the stumps and every run saved. A slight laxity came with a heavy price of 60 odd runs in the last 5 overs.

The target of 275 was set.

It is in this chase that I saw a new India emerge. Our legends left with precious little on the score board. The young brigade took charge. As our hearts pounded they built the innings brick by brick - controlled, confident, defiant, brave, nonchalant, fearless, yet focused all the way through.

In Dhoni we have a captain who not only shaped our dreams but steered it towards fulfillment. Am sure he would inspire many a book on leadership.

The winning six was like a metaphor - it mirrored our soaring billion souls.

Tears of joy flowed and as Sachin Tendulkar said we were not ashamed to show it.

The win was for India and every Indian, said Team India. It was something they wanted to do for the legend - their colleague, mentor and guide - Sachin Tendulkar.

The party erupted in every street of India, in every heart of Indians. Rarely we are witness to such moments when we connect as a nation - as Indians.

This victory highlighted a few basics : Patience, fisheye vision, tenacity, confidence and belief. When the Cup was ours it was exuberance with graciousness and humility.

I also found the re - emergence of the phrase "Destiny's child".

India turned a corner last night - the youth brigade have arrived to carry the nation forward to glory!

Never have I seen so many of our flags fluttering high and happy :)

No more pining - One Day Mataram! Vande Mataram!

p.s - Exclusion of Kapil Dev from the invitee list an error or deliberate we'll debate another day.

Hype : The New Energy Drink

22 Yards and 22 players slogging it out for guts and glory - now that line I think you could find in the yellowed pages of the National Archives. Won't do now. Get peppy - get smart - pull out the one liners - take a swig from the can of Hype. (Oongli mein tingli style)

Instantly it works! It is the magic potion that can transform any drab day or occasion into one hip and happening do.

Tomorrow as the Wankhede fills up with who's who of every world - we will talk and tweet about everything that happens on the field and on the stands. The paint, the flags, the virtual badges, the war cries, the emotions, the brotherhood, the goodwill ... all one big can of hype.

Come 2.30 PM nothing else will matter to the 2 teams - the celebrities, the dignitaries, the 1.21 billion hearts beating or bleeding blue.

22 men will fight for guts and glory and ours shall lift the Cup :)

Destiny...?

September 28th 2005 got a huge kick writing my first blog piece. ( http://silakantomyduniya.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html ) It was on change rather 'Understanding Change'. It had to do with my son and his transition. Today about 6 years later my son is the reason for starting this blog. It took him 2 months and 21 days to coax me :)

Hopefully I shall continue now that I have got back to my pen again.