When I was a child, the month of January was a month of joy and excitement for me; it was a month of my birthday!! Those were days of simple living where kids used to get a new dress only on birthdays and festivals and so I used to be damn excited that I would get a new dress! I would be excited in anticipation of the gift my parents would give me.
We used to live in a colony where kids would await the birthdays as the evenings would be full of fun, food, and masti. My mom would make everything from the scratch, right from the cake to the snacks, and in the evening all the hungry and tired kids would polish off the delicious food in no time! Those were the days when there was no concept of return gifts and kids would simply play passing the parcel, some more fun games, dance to the music of cassette, and bid adieu. It would be a fun day for the birthday kid but a tiring day for the kid’s mom😜
Over the years my excitement has mellowed (though very slightly, my hubby and kids can vouch for my nautanki), still I counted today morning, only 2 weeks to go for my birthday!🤣 I asked my daughter which cake they would get for me and warned the three of them they dare not forget my birthday (as if I would allow them to!!) On the face of it I say that “now I am not getting any younger” but my mind and heart are not in sync with what I say😬
Nina grumbled again looking at her best friend’s vacation photographs on Facebook. She had been to an exotic location with her husband to celebrate their 10th anniversary. Nina sighed, “How lucky is my friend! She travels to exotic locations every year for her anniversary. Their photographs are so romantic. Why couldn’t I get a husband like hers? Mine is so unromantic!”
Somewhere in a small office Nina’s husband was doing an overtime. He knew he wasn’t a very successful man and Nina resented him for this. Everyday she would compare him to her friends’ well-established and moneyed husbands. He tried hard but somewhere fate had also not been kind to him. He wanted to take Nina for a good vacation this year, yes not in any foreign location, but anywhere in India in a 5-star property. He worked overtime everyday to accumulate the money for the vacation.
Of late, Nina had started becoming suspicious of her husband’s late nights. Though he would say he had office work Nina wasn’t sure if he was being truthful. He always said he had dinner in the office. She in her mind believed that he was having an affair. She had read about a lot of such posts on her FB mom groups. One day she decided that she would investigate the truth.
One rainy night she hired a cab and went to her husband’s office to spy on him. From the corner of her eyes, she saw her husband coming out of his office and going somewhere. She followed him. Due to the rains, she couldn’t see clearly. She got out of the cab and went nearer to where her husband was standing. What she saw brought tears in her eyes. Her husband was having a vada-pav half drenched in the rain. She went and tapped his shoulder. He was startled to see her.
“Why do you have to do all this? Why do you have to remain hungry and slog? What’s the need for the overtime?” she asked. Her husband said calmly, “You know, I wanted to surprise you but it seems I have to tell you now. I have been planning a 5-star hotel vacation for us this year. I can’t see you sad looking at your friends enjoying. I am just short of some money now. Darling Nina, I promise this year you too will be able to post our vacation photos on FB.
With tears in her eyes Nina knew that she had the most romantic husband in the world.
The lady saw a friend’s request on Facebook As she clicked on the request, her heart skipped a beat. The familiar name brought back so many memories. It was her teenage school crush who had sent her the friend request.
Thirty long years had gone by, but suddenly she became that giggly, romantic schoolgirl again. A closer look at the photo revealed that the boy, now man, had gained weight, was balding, had signs of ageing. She smiled and thought she had also aged. She was no longer the pretty young schoolgirl. Her heart skipped a beat when she accepted the friend request; she was surprised! She wasn’t supposed to behave like this at the age of 46!
In some other city, a middle-aged man was anxiously waiting for the friend request to be accepted. He had been searching for his crush since the past 5 years since the time he had joined Facebook. Finally, one day he could find her profile. She was still pretty with that infectious smile. Time had made her older though! He was checking his FB every 5 minutes. He saw that she had accepted the friend request and the heart of a 46-year-old behaved like a 16-year-old.
Very nervously, he messaged “Hi..” Thirty years ago he had the same nervousness when he had given her a red rose.
Both knew that time had lapsed and now they could only be acquaintance and friends, but deep down somewhere the 16-year-old kids were giggling nervously…
Day in and day out, I keep reading and observing failed marriages, dragging marriages, couples falling out of love after a couple of years, monotony and in a gist dead relationships. After many days, all over the Internet today, have been reading about “true love” and how the death of a spouse can shatter a person totally.
In all the obituaries and respects being paid to the late actor Shashi Kapoor, his love for his wife Jennifer is mentioned and that how he became a shattered and changed person after her death and could never really be normal emotionally and physically again. Jennifer succumbed to cancer three decades ago and Shashi Kapoor also changed in those three decades.
This was such a refreshing read. This reiterated the fact that true love is beyond nationality, religion and age.
Miss World 2017, Manushi Chhillar’s winning reply created a debate across social media. Her victory and the fact that an Indian girl won the Miss World title after 17 years was kind of overlooked. Tumhari Sulu, a movie which tried to show women empowerment and emancipation, was criticized because of the nature of the job of the woman. She was supposedly doing an “indecent job” by talking sensuously to strangers at night! In both the cases more than the men it was the women who were opposing, criticizing and debating.
Agreed that motherhood is not a profession, but for years now homemakers and mothers have been wanting respect, recognition, and love. When a girl tries to highlight this and on a world platform tries to give motherhood and all the mothers respectability, appreciation and recognition that is also criticized. For a moment, lets forget that folly of Manushi of mistaking motherhood as a profession, lets simply appreciate the fact that she highlighted motherhood.
The whole point of the movie Tumhari Sulu was overlooked only because the main character decided to be a late-night RJ! Why didn’t the women who criticize try to understand the fact that it was trying to show how so many women have so many dreams and are capable of achieving so much!
Why does everything have to be scrutinized to the point of being negative? Overlooking and ignoring small things and appreciating the bigger picture isn’t acceptable by some people. Every thing needs to be nitpicked and criticized. Yes, I am an optimist and I would like to see the positive aspects here. There are enough things which are genuinely negative and need criticism.
In the hustle bustle of this Mumbai city, we meet so many different people, each a character! Like local trains, buses, one of the other places where we get to see different kinds of people is share cabs.
I often travel by share cabs and silently observe the co-passengers. Some are simply glued to their phones, while some try to make a small polite conversation to cut out the boredom of the “traffic-laden” route. Most of the times we don’t even know how the person looks like if he/she is in the front seat.
I would particularly like to share two incidents which caught my attention. Once I was in the front seat and a male co-passenger was already there in the backseat engrossed in a serious conversation. He was conversing in Marathi and being a Mumbaikar I understand Marathi very well. He was in conversation with his wife and it seemed she was unhappy with his job and traveling. He kept on calmly explaining her that he cannot leave the job and that she knew beforehand what his job was like. Later on his relatives also bombarded him with calls and he again and again went on explaining the same thing!
Yesterday while traveling a young girl in her 20s kept on chatting nonchalantly and loudly with her friend not bothering about the co-passengers. She kept on discussing how her boyfriend has cheated her and treated her like “shit” and so on! She was least bothered who heard her and what she said! Actually I liked the attitude. I still think a thousand times before speaking!
This is Mumbai where people don’t bother what others will think or they know that in a share cab he/she will never meet the co-passenger again and hence won’t be judged! Its just another mode of conveyance for them.
As a writer, every new character that I meet evokes a thought in me. It gives an understanding and perspective of how different people have different issues in their life and different ways of handling it!
As the quote says: Traveling; it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.
My husband loves driving but the Mumbai traffic doesn’t allow him to “relish” his driving. He loves driving at 120 km/hr and that’s only possible on expressways or “good” highways.
Our much awaited holiday to Goa this year was planned on a short notice and we decided to drive down. We had decided to start early morning to avoid the traffic and it was a rather good decision. We started at 6 in the morning and within an hour we had crossed Navi Mumbai!
Road trips are not new for our family. We have taken long road trips from Mumbai to Himachal before. Few things when traveling with children that I keep in mind is to carry the required medicines, water, few chocolates, chewing gums, and of course a lot of good music in the car!
Halting at roadside dhabas is always a good experience barring the unhygienic washrooms. That I would totally blame the lack of civic sense on people’s part.
Mumbai-Goa is a beautiful drive natural beauty wise. We come across the Ghats, the greenery, and a lot of natural beauty. Do keep Avomine handy if you have motion sickness. It took us 12 hours to reach Goa with 2-3 halts in between.
We had made our reservation in Grand Hyatt Goa which is a beautiful and cozy property. Unlike the other 5-star properties in which we have stayed in our Goa trips, this was a relatively smaller property but extremely beautiful one. One more difference was that this was located on a bay and not beach.
The staff was extremely courteous and made us feel at home. The kids indulged in some great kids activities. We all thoroughly enjoyed the sailing experience by the Aquasail team. It was my first experience of sailing and I must say I was not at all nervous in the ocean!
The resort had good restaurants too and we tried out some great new dishes too. All-in-all we had an awesome three days of short break with a wonderful long drive and of course “stress-free” family time for all!
This is a short simple incident which changed my life for the better. Around 16 years ago, my aunt who lives in Delhi came to know that a prospective groom’s family was searching for a girl for marriage. Since I was of marriageable age at that time, she decided to talk to them about me.
Later we came to know that the boy’s family wanted a girl from Delhi and a teacher and I was neither! It’s not that this was something I was expecting or broke my heart, but it was kind of a “rejection” for me which I didn’t like!
That boy’s family passed on my alliance to a neighbor of theirs as they knew that they were also looking for a girl for their son. They liked me and after talking to me over phone it was decided mutually that we will meet. I met that boy and his family. In the first meeting itself, I liked that tall lanky boy with a disarming smile and simple nature and within 6 months we were married.
On the day of our reception, the other boy’s family came to greet us. He had gotten married by then. When I looked at him I instantly said, “Thank God I didn’t get married to him!” Personality wise he was nowhere close to my husband, he was a grumpy irritable fellow. Later on we came to know that he subjected his wife to domestic violence too.
That rejection of the boy’s family was a blessing in disguise for me as I got the gem of a man as my husband and not that abusive man! I got the best partner that any girl could wish for and here we are happily together for 15 years now!
This contest had put me in a dilemma. My grandparents are no more, I lost all four of them long back. So, it was difficult for me to pen this one as even imagining made me emotional.
This is totally what I believe I would have done had they been alive. My grandparents passed away much before the selfie, online shopping, mobile era. They didn’t live in the same city as we lived in.
So, the best way would have been to arrange a meetup where I could bring all four of them at my place. It would have given them an outing, a change from monotony. Nothing would have given them more pleasure than meeting their great grandchildren, i.e., my children. I would have arranged for a small cake, made their favorite dishes and surprised them. I would have taken them for shopping to the mall, which wasn’t there during there times, and made them try out some dishes that they would find amusing and new. I know they would have loved to gorge on the sweets.
I would try and teach them online shopping, online bank transfers, which again they would, I know, try out reluctantly as they would prefer their old school ways of shopping and banking.
I would have called my parents and siblings over too so that it would be a big family get together where there would be all generations; grandparents, parents, grandchildren, and great grandchildren under one roof.
I would arrange for them to watch some old classic Bengali and Hindi movies which are now easily available on the net. I would be happy to see them reminisce their golden olden times.
Of course, with such a huge gathering there would be constant bickering and mini fights as our family is full of hot-headed people! I would love to see the expression of amusement on my kids’ faces!
I would hire a big SUV and take them for Mumbai darshan. I can imagine them dozing off in the car. I can imagine them complaining about Mumbai traffic, their happiness on watching the sea, their amused looks while we went through the Bandra-Worli sealink. They wouldn’t be interested in watching Shah Rukh or Salman’s bungalows or who knows they even might be! My grandmother would be excited when we would have passed Amitabh Bachchan’s bungalow.
I would give them loads of hugs and kisses knowing that might be we won’t get an occasion like this again where all the generations are under one roof.
Well..I hope I could do these things. These are the things that my grandparents would have been so happy about.
I look forward to hear from you how would you celebrate Grandparents Day. Do share a selfie with your grandparents on Sept. 10, 2017 on Twitter or Facebook with #LoveJatao & tag @blogadda to win a goodie from Parachute Advansed.
Life and its different shades 