THE BALD OLD MAN

I have known a nearly bald old man,with spectacles,for all the 19years of my life. The old man,who had been a pillar of strength for me. An extremely protective and caring old man.

He was extremely particular about what I ate. He would call up Ma to make sure I was eating right! He had a special fascination for fruits,especially mangoes!! :) He had a white cloth bag with which he would go out everyday and return with the bag laden with fruits. And since he loved mangoes,he made sure everyone had their share of the king of fruits,every summer. So,at the onset of every summer,I would receive a certain amount of money from him,just to buy mangoes!! Although I hate mangoes myself, I gave in to his demands of spending the "mango-money" on buying mangoes and having them too!! & that was quite a challenging and daunting task for me.

My studies were a cause of enthusiasm to him.Ever since i was a babbling,bawling kid,the bald old man was convinced I had the spark of a genius. Its a completely different case altogether, that noone else shared his viewpoint. But the bald old man was not to be deterred! I am told that in a school interview at the age of 3-4,I was shown a fruit basket filled with the usual fruits as well as cucumber,carrots etc. When asked what it was, I had replied "SALAD"!! ;) I guess the "genius" in me had let out its "spark" in the interview!! Now obviously you can all conclude what the result of that interview had been. But the bald old man had said "see,she gave such an intelligent answer! the school authorities ought to take her in". Such was his faith in me!!Anything that concerned my school life interested him. Whether it be my exams,or some competitions I took part in,my results,the new books that came in each class.....After giving every exam,he was the first person to know how my exam went. If i did not fare well in something, he would call 3-4 times a day to cheer me up and offer words of encouragement.

As a kid,I used to count him as one of my playmates. We would play all sorts of make-believe games,with him being anyhting i asked him to be. Station master,shopkeeper, bus conductor, detective, any damn thing! The bald,old man was also very interested in anything new,be it computers,mobiles,digital cameras. When Baba bought him a mobile, the bald old man was as excitd as a kid gets on getting a new toy!! He spent hours examining the mobile and discussing with me how it worked,how he could operate it,whether my mobile was different from his,whether he could click pictures with it etc etc....Another of his great loves, were watches.. He wore a watch at all times of the day,even while sleeping. A habit which has grown on me. And he was very particular about the brand of watch. It necessarily had to be Titan.

My birthdays were the days he would get the most excited. Even more excited than myself. & thats saying something! Really!! The bald old man made sure he was with me on each of my birthday,except for the last one. He would be extremely involved and wanted to know how many guests were coming,what was being cooked that day,what i would be wearing......The birthday present from him was always very very special..'coz whatever he gave me,he would make sure to write a few lines on top of it.. :) But perhaps the most precious thing that he has ever given me is my name, Deblina. The name which is my identity,the name with which i am known,and the name which will remain with me forever...

On my last birthday,the bald old man lay on a hospital bed,diagnosed with cancer,battling for life..Inspite of being so critically ill,he still remembered my birthday & when Baba went to visit him all that the bald old man asked him was how my birthday was celebrated! The old man passed away a day after my birthday,leaving a huge void in my life. people said he was 86,it was time for him to go.. I disagree. For an 86 year old man,with the spirit of a young child raring to go,full of life,& always enthusiastic & excited about everything,NO AGE is the RIGHT time to go,'coz such people are rare..Rare and unique..

I have so many memories with the bald old man..memories which seem like a treasure trove to me..memories that will cherished forever..memories of the man,who was & will always be an integral part of my life. The man who lives in almost everything I do..The man whose words and thoughts echo in my mind all the time..The man who has had such a huge hand in making me who I am today..The man whom I'll dearly miss.. The man whose place cannot be taken by anybody in this world.. The man for whom i was "Sona".. The bald old man.. The bald old man who was, is,& will always be MY GRANDFATHER......

CHILDHOOD SECRETS

I think everyone has some fond childhood memories..memories which will always be there with you,throughout your life..some which even if you try to forget,you will be reminded of at family gatherings and be laughed at!! yes they can be outright embarassing,some of them can even make you wish that you could go hide in the centre of the earth!! ;) but those were the fun days!! just felt like sharing some childhood secrets of mine....... enjoy!!

1. I used to be a cry baby..would cry at the drop of a hat..

2.Loved chasing cockroaches with my slippers n then mercilessly banging them to death!! yeah i guess i was one freaky kid..but trust me it was sooooo much fun!! just try it once!!

3.Every single morning,while brushing my teeth i asked my father the same questions :"baba,kanad ki bole?" "baba, bubu koto boro holo?" "baba,moni ki bole?" kanad n moni are childhood buddies n bubu is my cousin..

4.I used to think that the british ruled india immediately after the dinosaur age!!i had asked my maternal grandmother,"diya tumi british der dekhecho?" when she said yes..my immediate question was "tahole to tumi dinosaur der o dekhecho na?" ;)

5.I wanted to be a princess when i grew up..*sigh* (my next door neighbour rik,who is my age,would be the gatekeeper of my castle!!!)

6.I loved dancing to Madhuri's dance numbers!! ek do teen was my favourite!! n another favourite song was d akshay kumar song "churake dil mera"..n d song from mohra!!i forgot the name!! those two were quite cheesy,but i would start dancing as soon as the song came on tv!! ;) n sometimes i would start dancing at the oddest places,even without music!!once due to my dancing,a bowl containing curd just flew off the table!! that incident is still the standing joke in our family!!

7.I fell in love with SRK at the age of five..after watching DDLJ..i was convinced he was THE man for me!! i still LOU him!! :D

8.I was mistaken for a boy once in digha!! a photographer came up to my dad n asked "dada,cheler shonge chobi tulben?" :o lol! :D

9.I discoverd my love for acting at the age of seven at a neighbourhood function,where i took part in a drama..it was MODERN RAMAYAN..n i was sita..n both ram n laxman were shorter than me!!! haha!! :D

10.I used to get involved in violent fights with one particular boy in golf green..so much so,that once we were in the chulochuli state,n dis boy pulled my ear so hard that my ear-ring came off cutting my ear n leaving it bleeding!!

11.I learnt playing cards at the age of five,n beat 8 adults with whom i was playing!! what an achievement!!

12.I had the firm belief that my dad was extremely ignorant n probably illiterate!! so much so that i started crying when my mom told my dad to teach me a certain lesson one day..i feared that i would fare miserably in the test if my dad taught me!!! ;)

13.I loved wearing my mom's sunglasses(which were so big that it would cover half of my face),n posing stylishly for my dad's camera!!!

14.I started drinking tea from the age of 3!!!! i started quite early i must say!! n i had said "monkey cap ta thik chayer shonge jache na"

15.I had a fascination for the tickets bus conductors used to carry..i would collect them n put them in bunches just like the conductor carries..then i would act out like him!!! i had an ambition of being a bus conductor!!! ;>

16.My paternal grandfather was a great friend..i would play for hours with him!! n being the eldest grandchild,i was favoured more..a situation i took full advantage of!!;)

17.In lower infant in each column of my report card it was written NEEDS IMPROVEMENT..!!!!:O

18.When my first cousins came over from the US, i was totally fascinated by them..the way they talked,the way they dressed,whatever they ate,what they watched on tv etc..i was 3 at that time..i used to copy their accent n speak gibberish..my cousins ven have a video of that!! n i would copy my cousin Rishi in whatever he did..n the fights that we used to get into!!our mothers had a tough time handling us!!;)

19.Whenever i would get up in a car,i would push whoever sat beside me with my elbows n say "uff shoro!! Space pachina!!!" ;>

20.I used to own a HUGE,HUGE number of toys..soft toys,plastic toys etc..n there were those dolls..i had around 20-25 of them and each of them had a name-tina,mina,amina bibi,dolly etc..i miss them!! :(

"DUTY CALLING"

Was going through my school farewell diary..Filled with anecdotes,thoughts,happy memories and lots of other such memorable moments,from a journey of 14 years,called "SCHOOL LIFE".. Flipping through the pages, I found a beautiful poem written by Srestha,a dear friend.. Just thought of sharing it..

DUTY CALLING

At life's crossroads we met,

Since then years have been spent....

This bidding will not be with tears,

But with music that will play for years.

It will be the music of laughter,

Chirping voices,running feet that together have

the journey sauntered;

So when we look back,

It will be of the happy times and the jokes

that we have cracked.

The unfolding of events,

Sitting for the examinations with our backs bent,

Seeing the same old faces,

Will be gone and now will come the challenging

new races..

Life is a ride.

We have to accept what it gives with pride.

If it means parting with friends,

It also means the duty of

remembering them.....

by Srestha Gupta

R.I.P Akriti

The news about the death of Delhi school girl Akriti Bhatia,due to negligence of school authorities has left me numb with shock. I fail to understand why the school authorities were waiting till 11a.m when the girl started having breathing problems at 10a.m. As per newspaper and television reports,its known that the principal of the school was waiting for the akriti's car to arrive from home(which according to akriti's family is a 45minutes drive from the school),while there were so many cars parked near the school premises. Considering the urgency of the situation,the principal should have used her own car to take akriti to the hospital. In a situation like this,where "TIME" is the KEY factor,the school authorities were just wasting it!! Time, precious time..Time that could have saved Akriti's life! But alas.....

The second allegation that came up,was that the school nurse who was looking after Akriti,had put an oxygen mask on her face,but had removed it later when Akriti was being taken to the hospital,claiming that the mask was school property & hence had to be removed!!! I guess safeguarding school's "property" was more important than a student's life..I mean how much can it matter if you lose one student??Certainly not more than the troubles they would have to go through if that "School's property" was misplaced, isnt it?The newspaper report today,also said that Akriti was forced to gulp down a glass of fresh lime soda on which the girl choked. Now a glass of soda can never be fatal,but yes,if given to a person gasping for breath,the results can be otherwise.. I wonder if the school authorities didn't know about the "nebulizer". Or perhaps, they thought that the fresh lime soda would prove to be more effective than the nebulizer!

No matter how much we crib about his issue, rage at the negligence of the school authorities,the fact remains that Akriti is no more. What is important now,is to make sure that no other student meets the same unlucky fate as Akriti. Now this raises anotherequi pertinent question. Are ur schools well equipped, to deal with situations like these?Do they have the necessary facilities to ensure the well being of their students or are more such Akritis there in the offing? Akriti's school is a very posh school,with students from affluent families. Yet in such a school, a terrible incident such as this occured. Sad but shocking.

How many schools out here have a full time doctor to take care of emergency situations like these?Akriti's school still had a nurse,might not have been competent and trained enough,but still the school had the facility of a nurse. How many schools here can boast of having trained nurses? Instead of nurses,we have ayahs,who are best equipped to tackle children in playgrounds,give basic first aid,helping out the kids in the loo etc. God forbid if a situation like Akriti's arises out here, I think the student shall meet with the same fate! Its high time school authorities sit up and take notice of their shortcomings & get the schools well equipped to deal with any emergency situations..

OFF TO A START

So finally here i am starting my blog!! my friend angira had given the suggestion long ago,but i was too lazy to start blogging at that point of time..today,in the middle of lazing around n idling away my time,i decided to start blogging with a vengeance!! well,some of that vengeance fizzled away quite soon,with a 1.5hrs powercut,some phone calls,coming in the way of me n my blog..but then better late than never! so although i had started at 6:30p.m, i'm finally writing this at 9:16p.m!! quite an achievement,i must say.. :p
the only thing bugging me right now,is one important question - WHAT DO I WRITE ABOUT?
i guess i need to go n figure that out!! so till the next time, ciao!! :)