Ten years of companionship

This year we are celebrating our 10 year's of companionship. We first met in the fall of 2008. It was love at first sight. In the initial days, he was not well versed in driving our relationship. He was nervous and innocent. He would try to get me rolling along and I had to show a lot of patience. His lack of experience led me to be hurt a lot at times, scars of which are present even today.

Gradually, thinks started to work. He would take me out on Sunday mornings and tried to "impress" me. Though for short runs, I was content that he was showing dedication and inclination towards me. Gradually, our relationship was fostering, it seemed. However, this was only temporary. He left me in the month of June of 2009. I was disheartened, that he left me in the company of his relatives for two years. The relatives were kind to me. They took good care and even today we have a fond relationship.

It was only in the year of 2011 that he was back and I returned to him. From then on it has been a steady but solid relationship. I may have failed him a couple of times, but very rarely during our outings. I have a problem that I am down and out when he leaves me wanting for few months. Not even touching me. He says he has to go abroad for few months, so he cannot attend to me. Sad! And when he returns, I make him pay to get all charged up and (re) start our relationship.

It has been a great journey so far. But he says that I am getting old. He is thinking of replacing me this year. He says this is the right time to get a new one. I am so afraid and sad, but what can I do?

Whatever happens, I know I have given him a good service and fulfilled my part of the relationship. In fact, today he took me for the most memorable service. It was my 10 years service day. They worked on my oil filter, engine oil, distilled water, spark plug, wheel balancing and what not. He splashed a lot on me today.

I would like to serve him more, but I am getting old. I do not have the same pick-up more so when the AC is switched on. He complains that he has to switch off the AC during the ascent on flyovers. I feel pained at heart. But we cars are not supposed to have emotions. Who cares?

Labour's Day

Today was labour day for me. Middle of the week holidays are sometimes dangerous. Suddenly a lot of "TODO" items come alive from nowhere. Okay, weekends too have similar traits, but the mind is more than prepared to handle.

Morning 8'o clock, 2 hours, was all the "extra sleep" I had the luxury. Then it was time for my son to go to school. My wife does all the hard work but since I was on leave, I had to accompany them to the school. Not that I mind. I love seeing the tiny-toddlers holding their guardian's hands tugging along and going to the school. My son's school is 450 meters from our house, a casual walk is all it takes. I feel pity for those kids who have to get ready and wait for their school buses (or school vans, those pathetically overloaded, utterly unsafe, rash driven vehicles) at 10 minutes to 7 in the morning. Things have not improved since my days. In fact they have become worse.

My son's school building reminds me of my own. Red bricked outer walls, the school name displayed with huge letters painted in blue and airy classrooms (yes, it is a non-AC school). The playground is much larger and it has these new fancy pools and skating areas. Thankfully there is no horse riding yet. I recently had a chance to pass-by my school. It has expanded. It must have taken the buildings on one side. Now it has a huge gate with a huge banner, a huge new building alongside the older building and possibly a larger playground.  During the nursery admissions this year, I heard that it is now considered one of the best schools in this district of the capital city. I have some memories buried deep inside that place. Sometimes, when they break open my flood-gates of emotions, in the ensuing deluge, the image of the building sometimes finds it way floating along. The present building looks an unfamiliar burial ground.

After the see-off, my wife went for her usual work-out session. I returned home to start the "installing of the overhead tank overflow system project". Climbed up the stairs of our roof only to find that the lid of our tank was blown over in the recent storm. Fixed and that and installed the new wireless level sensors. These are cool. You drop the sensor wires in the tank and the level of the tank is transmitted wirelessly down to the ground. The receiver in the room below picks up these signals and displays the water level on the display panel.

My wife joined me on the roof by the time I was giving the final touches to the installation. It was very windy today, so the effect of the summer heat was somewhat compensated. Once back at the house, I had to take my mother to the dispensary. Her medicines had been indented and she received the SMS on Saturday. It is never a pleasure to drive in the pathetic peak hour traffic in Delhi. More so if you are staying in an area where another flyover is being constructed in parallel to an existing operational one because our so called city planners could not estimate that we would require a bigger one in the first place!

After I returned home, I decided to clean the air-conditioner in our room. It has picked up a lot of dust in the filter and the guys who serviced the AC this time did not do a good job. This is a painful job. To use a toothbrush to clean the filters!!

It was almost getting time for my son to return. So I made a quick dash to buy few "cornettoes" for him. I had to take the car again, but thankfully I could drive this one inside the lanes and avoid the wretched outer ring road.  My son was very happy to see me at the school gate. He agreed to carry the umbrella and his school bag by himself.

It was after this that I had nothing else to do. I tried to invent work by checking my office emails on my mobile. There was nothing interesting there. Then I took lunch and had a siesta. In the evening, took my son for cycling so that he starts to get accustomed to our ways of driving early in his days.

To cap off the day, we decided to order the "Maharaja Thali" from Karnataka Food Center for dinner. These mobile food ordering and delivery apps surely help. Oh! and it was the most delicious present to gift oneself after a days hard work.

Return to my blog

I am plugged in with this music in the background. That is how I want to restart the blogging.
This is a 1978 recording, 40 years old and as old as me.

This man's muisc never fails to give me goosebumps, even after 26 years.

Helpless

Sometimes you feel so helpless:
दोस्त बनकर उसको चाहा ये कभी सोचा ना था,
दोस्ती ही दोस्ती में वो ख़ुदा हो जाएगा। - 'रुस्तम सहगल वफ़ा'

Indian Train Simulator

Awesome game! I have played MSTS earlier it was a great game. But this one is super on mobile devices. Totally customised for Indian environment it has so many versions of gameplay options to chose from. I used to think that I am part of a very small minority who like to drive trains. Apparently I was wrong. The gameplay is not much, just drive the train from source to destination and maintain the correct speed. Enjoy the scenes as you travel around. The announcements at the stations are very authentic giving a real feel of the Indian Railways.

A must try game if you love games that do not require you to demonstrate reflexes of your fingers! It is available on both Andriod and iOS App Store. The Android one is the primary development environment. The iOS gets its updates following the Android release.

Star Trek - The Naked Time - Season 1 Episode 5

Watched this episode on Netflix just now. This entire original series of Star Trek brings back old memories of childhood when these were used to be aired on Doordarshan on Sundays. I remember going up to our neighbours place (we did not have television in our house until 1991), to watch these. It was so exciting for me and my sister.

Thinking of those times, would it have ever occurred to me that one day I would be watching these sitting in the house, but now on a MacBook and a thick broadband connection. I didn't even know about computers then and to acquire one was certainly out of question. Owning a landline phone connection from MTNL used to be a very big deal in those times. I remember we got our landline phone in 1997. Some couple of years ago, we got that phone disconnected since that was becoming pretty redundant and most of the time unusable. We don't care about linemen these days.

Apart from the financial angle of owning such devices, technology has become affordable too. Technology has really come in and played a very big role in our lives. Nowadays not being able to contact your near ones after trying for 10 minutes  is a big cause of concern. Why is he/she not answering my call? Why no response to my Whatsapp pings? Earlier the expectation of people reaching home would be on approximate time based on daily routine. Nowadays it is a text message, "Stuck in traffic near Chattarpur", or better still just share your location along with the traffic layer on, as a whatsapp message. Also I remember that my father would make sure to go to the bank and withdraw money, so that we had sufficient cash for the shopping to do during Durga puja. No cash meant deferring the shopping until next time. And look at it now. I just sit on my bed and touch a few areas of my phone with my fingertips and order a sari for my mother or a cycle for my son!

So much is the power of ones fingertips that we in India even decide our governments by pressing a button. Our generation is very fortunate to have witnessed these revolutions first hand. So we have the experience of the "old way" and also the "new way" now. It would really be good if I get a change to observe the next revolution in technology. God know from where it will come.

Ye Zindagii

As I look at the books on my shelf, I start to have a strange feeling. I never met either Nida Fazli or Jagjit Singh personally, but their works have been very close to my heart from a tender age. I have so many unaccountable memories, images and made-up situations associated with each of their work, be it dohes, ghazals, nazms, geets, books and what not. Even the TV interviews, live shows, and radio programmes! It is a huge collection that I carry in my tiny overworked brain, but boy! is it etched into my memory or what?

My first encounter with Nida was with Sajda, and the "Har taraf har jagah" number in it. That ghazal is the most "catchy number" of the double album and a trademark composition of JS. Then, I did not understand half of the stuff, but you know how it happens with JS and his music and his composition, it compels you to ponder on the lyric that he is singing. Ah! and Sajda has two compositions of Nida in it, the only poet to have so. "Dhoop mein niklo" still remains one of my favourite ghazal.

Then I heard Hope, and that too featured two ghazals of Nida. JS seemed to have a unique way to get it right always with Nida's philosophical works. Insight could not have come at a better time. I remember walking up to the store within days of the album release! The lyric booklet in it was a new thing and I loved it. It was on a simple white paper with black ink and the difficult words explained. Dohes were wonderful and JS did absolute justice to each of the compositions. Public at large of course remember "Mooh ki baat" number as it featured also as the title track of "Neem ka ped" that was aired on Doordarshan at that time.

As time went by, I purchased most of the books by Nida. I got to know a lot more about his childhood, why he has "ghar" and "bacche" as his favourite topics. His struggle during the partition and his struggle in Mumbai so that he could say, "Humne bhi is shahar mein rahkar thoda naam kamaaya hai".

There are many recordings of live shows that show the mutual affection between the two artists. Some of them are available now on popular video streaming sites and some are still are guarded as prized possessions of the respective owners. But the stuffs are definitely gem from an appreciator's perspective.

When I started this blog, Nida features almost instantly. Second post!.

It is no coincidence that Nida was "beckoned" by JS on the latter's birthday, this year. What is more strange is the JS passed away 2 days before Nida's birthday 5 years ago!

May both souls rest in peace.  I can only offer my thanks for their work and the mark they have made on my life.