Dazzling star

This story is about a boy who had a magnetic personality and super human qualities. Irrespective of age or gender, he had a knack for winning hearts of all and sundry. As they say in Hindi "Yaaron ka yaar tha woh."

He was full of zeal, excitement and love. Talking about passions, he had two of these which I can recall, one was a beautiful girl with blue eyes (he was only sixteen at that time), and second was his fixation for body building. He was obsessed about good physique and would stand in front of the mirror, always trying to figure out if he has a perfect "V" shaped body. But, his charisma was in his big expressive eyes, and an attractive face with a light chocolate coloured complexion.

A popular guy in the neighbourhood, even his parents were known by his name. Inside the house also, he was the beloved clown, bringing smile to everyone's face. But he was more than a funny guy, he had a golden heart.

The boy had a younger cousin who was an average student, but he had a lot of trust in her abilities. Always encouraging her to study hard and come at the top of the class. I remember that year when he was very sick and confined to bed, he was still worried about her performance. The girl eventually followed his advice and did very well in her exams . In fact, her academic results never went down again. But before she could share the success with her brother, he was already on a different journey.

It's been more than a decade now that he left his grieving family for heavenly abode. Losing a child is the biggest loss for any parent. But his parents were no ordinary people, they were brave, strong and special. They not only continued to live life, they even gave a young girl a chance and an opportunity to live.

This is a tribute to the boy and his parents; together they symbolize the spirit of life.

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Buried Treasure

All my fond memories of Delhi revolve around the different seasons, filled with the elaborate preparations to welcome a new one every three- four months. The change in seasons from summer to autumn to winter and from winter to spring to summer was defined by the weekends spent with the family. The monotony of the year seemed dispelled by the varied seasons.

Come October, there would be a slight chill in the air, Diwali would just be around the corner, and you would realize that it was time to welcome the winter season. All the members of the family would be summoned to keep a weekend free; after all everybody had to be at home to help with the unpacking of winter stuff.

Just like ants work together to stock their supplies for winter, we had to open the trunks and boxes, and dig out those old woolens, quilts, hot water bottles etc. For the whole year the treasures in those boxes would have been forgotten about. But now everybody would look forward for the little surprises to spring up.

Under the piles of blankets you'd find that new lovely fur coat you had bought last winter, it wouldn't be very cold, but you'd still try it on and admire yourself as a royal duchess in the mirror. Suddenly, in the background, you'd hear your mother calling out, to stop goofing around and help her. You would feel a little sting of disappointment for giving up being a duchess. To top it, you would find yourself making endless rounds to the terrace, "like a mere commoner", spreading the clothes in open air to get rid of the funny smell of moth balls. Now there was no fun in this, the only consolation was that after a few weeks, you could sit on the terrace, in the winter sun, with everyone in the family, joking and making fun of each other and enjoying goodies like peanuts with jaggery, dry fruits,oranges etc. Without giving a dime for calories, you could enjoy mouth-watering gajar ka halwa & gulab jamuns.

October and November had a mild winter; the true fun began only in December, what with rising up in the foggy mornings and having steaming breakfast in your warm & cozy beds. Soon it was January the coldest month and by February you were already bored of the cold weather and warm clothes. Your rising discontent at the end of the four months of cold and a longing for a warmer climate was fulfilled with the arrival of spring.

But alas! it was again time to get back to work. The woolens were sent for dry-cleaning, the quilts carefully folded and hot water bottles properly dried. Once again you had to spend a weekend repacking the things in the trunks. But it was also time to rejoice, because by now you would have forgotten about your summer stuff and the small surprises were ready to be discovered. A forgotten summer dress, a new top which you had bought during the Diwali sale and never got a chance to wear... The moment of revelation was here again.

Year on year, this cycle went on, but you never got tired of it. Instead you looked forward to those weekends, spent working together with the family.

These memories will always be special for me, as would the haggard furry thing that might still be buried somewhere deep in the old rusted trunks at home !

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Looney Terrors !!!

When I was a young kid, before the advent of satellite television in India, my life was fairly simple. During weekdays due to lack of any interesting program on Doordarshan, I played with other kids of the locality. Kiddish games like hide & seek, stampoo, pithoo and kho-kho. I used to look forward to Sunday morning. It was a ritual to get up at 8.30 am and sit glued to the TV to watch Disney Hour, He-Man,Duck-tales at 9 am. But now I cant help but sympathize with my nieces and nephews. These guys are so confused with 24X7 cartoon channels, and with Tata Sky giving option to watch in any language -English,Hindi or regional. The cartoons are no more Superheroes or cute characters, they are like Shinchan , who is a five year old kid who uses inappropriate language and shows disrespect for elders. Parents are terrorized and don't want their kids to watch TV. Many parents think they are smart and put child-lock. But they miss the point that today's kids who use laptop and play games on X-box can't be easily fooled with a child-lock.

Now to an outsider this may just seem as a generational gap or technological advancement. But on the ground level kids are losing their innocence and childhood. Watching T.V. all day is as it is bad, but watching disturbing and aggressive animated programs results in restlessness and aggression in kids behaviour. Their sense of reality and acceptable social behaviour is blurred.

I guess good old days of Doordarshan and DD metro were really not so bad after all.

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Obituary for an Inland letter

I don't know how many people in my generation remember what an Inland letter was... As a kid I used to write letters to my Daddy(that is what I call my grandfather) in a blue Inland letter.. now the name of my blog Elizabeth is actually the signature that I used in my letters to him. Daddy has preserved all my letters carefully more than any treasure worth millions. I always feel glad that somewhere my thoughts are written on a paper and kept safely... coz writing with hand is the last thing that we do in the emailing days. I don't remember when was the last time I wrote something on a piece of paper and took the pain of pasting a stamp , going to the post office, and posting the letter in the red letter box. In fact I have not seen a red postbox which used to be the landmark for reaching those nooks and corners of the locality for a longtime.. like dinosaurs it has become extinct.

Everyday I force myself to write a letter to my Daddy.... but somewhere I have lost touch with my thoughts and feelings... I have forgotten how to express myself in words. That is why when today a friend insisted that I should start blogging.. I forced myself to write these few words. The truth is I felt good after a longtime.. less guilty . I hope my grandfather had a computer so that he could read my thoughts and save them with a click of a button...

This one's for my grandfather...

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