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Jun 10, 2005

An Invitation to my first birthday..

On 16th June Thursday I would be completing a year on earth. Its been exciting and I have already stayed in 4 cities of India. I am new to Bangalore and thus know very few people here. My dad and mom suggested your names whom they know in Bangalore. And I am very happy to invite you.

On the occasion I would need your presence and your blessings more than the gifts which you would anyways bring. My dad will be more interested in the gifts as he has always been (you may ask him about what I need or dont need) .

So please keep the evening of 16th June (Thursday) free at your end. And for all those who will miss the party (being out of bangalore) my dad promises to publish some details on his blog later.

So no excuses (traffic congestion, office work or stomach upset) and readjust your priority chart. Please make my first birthday party special by being there and being a kid for some hours (as there were very few kids that I know I hope you will all fill up their role). Most importantly I am looking forward to meeting Tasu and Shristididi..

P.S - Penalty for not making it to the party involves taking me, dad and mom to a very nice restaurant later.. so you better be there...

Location:
3/1 Lazar Road Layout Frasertown (Dad has already mailed you the map to my place)

Menu: ... lets keep it a suprise
Return Gifts: A mind heavy with nostalgia, A stomach heavy with food

R.S.V.P. - 98803 41085 (dad's number)

Jun 8, 2005

A Motiveless Existence

For all reasons my Pune sojourn was most memorable because of my tryst with a place called Ranje. Its an experience I savour and an incident which has left an indelible impression on my psyche.

Its a remote place about 25 kms from Pune and is symbolic of most villages that dot our country. At the heart of the village stands the remnant of a fortress built by the Peshwas in 14th century which was subsequently gifted to the Holkars. During one of the wars when the Bhor tribes attacked the fortress from across the hills it was set on fire. The inhabitants had to flee the place and what was once a place bustling with people was abandoned for some 200 years to weather the ravages of time.

It was only in the early part of this century that Mama Ranjekar Holkar a descendant of the original Holkars decided to come back to his native land. He was man with a mission and it was the age of idealism which saw such stalwarts as Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Gandhi, Netaji and many others. He wanted to rehabilitate the place and educate the poor villagers in how to lead a better and more meaningful life.

Mama Ranjekar is no more but subsequently he has been able to inspire many a soul to restore, bit by bit, the once resplendant fortress which is also an archeologists delight. The erstwhile fortress now houses an old age home which is run by his 80 year old widow, affectionately called "Mami" by all. She is hard of hearing and is frail but to my astonishment she personally oversees every thing there. She has a man friday whom I only know of as "Bhaiyaji".

There is a board of trustee which runs the place. It comprises people from all walks of life who have not forgotten to give their due. My dear friend Kedar Chitre is one such soul who visits the place atleast once in a month and is the reason for which I was there. He spends some quiet moments in the temple singing kirtans and talking to the residents who are far away from the urban madness that we all are negotiating daily. He says it helps him to recharge his soul.

He is right. A night spent there makes you feel weightless. Being an urbanite who has been schooled to take out as much as one can from a situation I almost greedily tried to take in as much fresh air as I could. We went there with very little time in our hand and thus wanted to fill ourselves up with everything that we saw, heard, smelt or felt. But I guess we missed the point as most of us are missing the point.

The very concept of an old age home is one of the many fall outs of our times. Each face there seems to tell a story. However inspite of being bitter each of them are intrinsically happy about their present. A happiness which we would all do well to replicate in our circumstance. We are living their past in our very present.

The episode posed some questions which forced me to revisit the place but I could still find no answers. I was guilty of going there with a motive besides trying to find out the answers - to get my wife, my parents and my little daughter to experience the place. May be that was the reason why I couldnt find the answers. Now I have stopped searching for the answers and have gone back to my urbane shell but I will be still ever grateful to Kedar for taking me there.

P.S. - Visit the following article to get a feel of the place.

Jun 6, 2005

To B or Not to B

Its possibly been the best 12 months of my life. Exactly a year back Sudeshna and I were waiting with eager anticipation for the birth of June. On 16th of this month it will be exactly a year since she came on earth and I guess its time for some kind of commemoration.

The entire gangPosted by Hello Right from the time when I first got the opportunity of seeing and holding her there have been many a moments which I wish I could capture in words and pictures. June's first whimpers, her crying out for food, her blank looks till her first smile. Then one fine day she turned on her back right in front of my eyes and now June has two different styles of crawl - the tiger prowl and frog-leaps. She is also acquiring a personality of her own. She is having her mood swings and is picking some antics or the other.

But one year is too early an age when celebrations, gifts etc would make her feel special (a key objective of any parties organised around someone). Also June still does not know enough kids to organise a nice kids' party. Besides June still has the "Strangers' Syndrome" which makes her averse to most new faces that she sees. But we adults being adults tend to look at everything from our own eyes. And I am told that June might not realise the significance of a birthday party now but she would definitely question our intentions of not doing something to celebrate her one year on earth.

Thus Sudeshna and I feel there has to be something. Hence we wish to organise a small get together amongst the people that we know in Bangalore and hope that everybody would come uninhibited and have a nice time around June, even though she might not have the same around them (strangers' syndrome).

So I urge you all to keep yourselves free on the evening of 16th June Thursday at the cost of anything that is confronting you on that day (atleast that would make the occasion special). Watch this space for a personal invite from June containing all the required details....