United We Stand Divided We Fall!!!

It was such a pleasure whenever I visited my friends house in Dadar. It was a four floored house located in one of the best place in Mumbai. While visiting Hindu Colony or Parsee Colony in Dadar, you will never feel that you are in Mumbai. Two very clam and quite place in a city that never sleep. The house is just stone throwing away from Ruia and Poddar college. Only the first floor was rented while other floors were shared among the family members. All of them were in share trading business. It was a big family and a joint one. It was like big stage with unlimited activities. At present many of that family members moved out to the other houses as their requirement for spaces increased. It is happening every where in India. The joint family system and its charm is losing out. Gujarat, Haryana and  Punjab still are the flag bearer . My previous generation was very small, so when we grown up together we never felt as growing up in a joint family but whatever experience I have,  I still cherished as one of the positives thing in my life.

While in Singapore, I stayed with a Punjabi family, when whole family gathered at a point it was all masti (fun) time. Bengali families  too once preferred staying together but no more it is practiced, specially in urban Bengal.

In an extended family parents and their children's families often live under a single roof. This type of family often includes multiple generations in the family. In India, the family is a patriarchal society, with the sons' families often staying in the same house. In the joint family setup the workload is shared among the members, often unequally. The women are often housewives and cook for the entire family.

While living in Mumbai, I saw how suburbs were getting crowded and broke away family couldn’t afford a house, preferred to move away rather than adjusting with their folks and remained in under same roof. Life was never  very easy, every morning woman of the house before proceeding to their respective work had to rush with their wards to the nearby crèche. On the way often children caught between double culture and failed to adopt either.

Living with senior members of the family from the time one was born, obliviously we grow up appreciating, admiring and loving them. Adjustment is one of the great human quality that can be learned from early core level.

Finance, environment and space would have been less concerned in the expense of little tolerance and altruistic.

Most of the cases, members who are financially more stable preferred to move away.

Don't have to go far, around my surrounding area, houses and personal lands are vanishing thick and fast. Every house that was once occupied by a joint family are already turned to a high-rise or now in the hand of promoter.

When a family broke away most of the such cases women were blamed, even the men always accepted the facts whole heartedly. The brothers and sisters, who once shared everything then found each others unbearable.

!!!Depression is the prize possession for the modern society in the expense of tolerance and adjustment.!!!

Caterpillar, the saviour.!!!

Exploring the years I spent in Mumbai is something that I love to do and always like to write about it. This one was not preplanned but while doing so saddened by the current events and things happening in Mumbai. It seems that since 1993 it is a routine for the city, once again terror returned to the city that took away several lives. These man made disasters are tagged and will remembered with the dates tag, like  12/3, 9/11, 26/11 or 13/7. Surviving one after another such things and then trying to move on like walking through a double edges knife. It is the affected families are the loser but who knows tomorrow may be I will be one of them.

It is a nostalgic journey to my memory lane. As world grows closer and time is specious, if money is no factor then it is worth buy time. Did I say buy time? Stupid thing to say at least if my grandmother was around, she would have been said so. My granny always said, time never waited for anyone and it is priceless yet I am talking about buying time. Yes, it is possible.  Now these days when we are traveling, we preferred to fly out and in instead of using our age-old facilities I mean trains.  Whenever my pocket gave me the choice I too  follow the same but at the same time I agree that a train ride still is a thing that close to my heart.

Going back to my early days when we were traveling to Jamshedpur on every vacation. Those rides were no less than a nostalgic. With the times good or bad both that included to the service, the Indian Railways, world largest corporation is standout.

Luck favoured me big way, for twenty-four years I had a second family on the wheel, it was ride that took me back and forth between my workplace and my house in Mumbai. Yes, I considered to be lucky because I traveled in a local trains in Mumbai, I enjoyed every bit of that nostalgic rides. Enjoyed it? No, not always. There were numerous moments, I was irritated, angry and often fumed with an instant rage, but equation is 85:15.

My first ride was from Dadar to Vikhroli and then my long association started with it. In the beginning when I took my first Railway pass, it was covering both Western and Central Railways. I was having Vikhroli-V.T.-ChurchGate via Dadar and the cost was twelve Rupees and fifty paisa. With that, you can roam all over Mumbai everyday and as many times as you want. A ride often soothes the people in distress, I knew, a woman who then lost her job and she was going through some personal problem, during that period everyday she traveled from her home to V.T. and took same train to get back, it worked as stress buster for her. In the beginning I was very novice and may be for a couple of days, by mistake, I traveled in a Gents Compartment but my experience was not very bad, particularly those two days the compartment was not crowded. Then slowly and steadily, I became a champion, catching a running train and then jumping out of it before it touches the platform, it was just a cakewalk for me. My years of experiences had to face an acid test when I moved to Dombi (Dombivli). I discovered that I was yet to learn a lot and my skill was not enough. Gosh, women of Dombivili are the champions of its kind. They are incomparable, I don’t have enough word to express their capabilities, nobody will imagine it, if not seen.

Two trains that I traveled, one from Dombivli to my work and another for returning, those rides left loads of happy memories. In the morning, 9.45, Ambarnath-Dadar and in the evening it was 7.35 V.T. to Kalyan, both were my second home. Specially in the evening we used rush back to the station to get the train with renewed zest, a hard day in the office never prevented us from having a blast while returning home. It was twelve-car train and then there were a few twelve-car trains apart from that one.

Today, I hardly have travel, to reach my work place and I prefer a walk, yet I miss that my sweet-sour-bitter relation with trains and the train rides.

!!!Thanks Caterpillar, all those joy rides and carrying but not crashing!!!

Hall of Shame!

No law in the earth can prevent a cheater form cheating. An instant fame that too with minimum effort is a delicious dream. India’s performance in track and fields events in Commonwealth Games was very encouraging and specially when girls gone to win 4x400 meter relay. Today three out of four of the girls tested positive for banned drug. In recent controversy, so far total eight athletes tested positive for the banned drugs. It said that every pharmacy situated near the sports complex in Patiala, freely selling the banned substance. When incident like this happens, there are few actions here and there and then with the time all become normal as it was. In India, every medical shop keeps selling medicine at their will. Medicine shops, mostly run by the people those not having any proper knowledge or a degree. You can find loads of sleeping pills if you wish, only you should know the person in the concerning shop.

Every banned drug is in your reach just open your pocket and must know how and where to throw the money. It is not only in sports, in current trends, every health freaks citizen are flocking to the Gyms with modern facilities are can be found at every corner. I know one such, situated very near to my house and the instructor freely advising the young boys to go for non prescribe supplements to get instant muscle, what you call it ‘packs’. This is a nice way to impress the girls around but in long run the result and the future is very gloom

The manufacture gone ahead and found a “designer steroid,” tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), there motto was ‘catch me you can’ but THG now can be detected by testing,

To help drug intake there are many kits available in the market to flush out the drug from you. I am here producing one such advertisement –

Just like you would prepare for any test, by doing your homework!

“If you aren't sure of the type of drug test that is going to be performed on you, or you want to know how to completely cleanse your whole body, then you should definitely consider our Total Body Cleansing Kit. It is the original blood and urine cleansing program that really works.”

I cannot forget some of the stars who failed from the grace for same purpose.

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson or Benjamin Sinclair Johnson, is a former sprinter from Canada.  Won two Olympic bronze medals and then he gone to win 100 meters gold in1988 Seoul Olympic. That was a hell of a race at the end Ben Johnson won with a world record and able to keep his nose ahead from another greats Carl Lewis but he was disqualified for doping, losing the Olympic title and the records. Johnson's urine samples were found to contain stanozolol, and he was disqualified three days later. It was one of the shocking in

Marian Jones

She was one of my favourite sports person and darling of the crowds until she caught and subsequently confessed for taking performance enhanced substance. Marion Lois Jones is a former world champion track and field athlete.  She won five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia have to give up all medals and prizes dating back to September 2000 after admitting that she took performance-enhancing drugs. Jones admitted taking steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact, lied when she previously denied steroid use in statements to the press, it was a  "designer steroid" ring, Jones accepted a two-year suspension from track and field competition, and announced her retirement from track and field on October 5, 2007. She was jailed for 6 months. Now she is a professional basketball player for Tulsa Shock in the WNBA (Women Basket Ball Association).

Even performance of Lance Armstrong, Late Flo-Jo too was in questions but it never proved.

Most offences: Until date USA topped the list with 173 offences, of course those are caught or confessed. Sports like Weightlifting, Track & Field, Baseball and Basketballs lead the way for such offences

!!!Cheating for the short lived glory and then disgraced to live in ignominy forever!!!

Kiss and Make up? Not always!

As, not every dirt can be washed away, every feeling too, no matter how good or bad, it is difficult to wipe out. The days are gone when life was easy as needs and expectations were very scanty. World is no more a place where people lived with love and harmony. The time when we are armed with a mobile in our hand and an accesses to a couple of dozen social networking sites to keep in touch yet we hardly do anything for each other that are close to our heart. We are living in a glass bowl, that contains I, me, we and ours. In older days, it was difficult to get lost, miles away from your home you would still have been recognized. Today you may even not know your next-door neighbours.

Some of its blame goes to the current breed of politicians and different political parties, those are exploiting the young generation for their personal gain, their mantra is hate and hit. When we look at different political parties, of course I am quite neutral but not denying the fact that having little weakness for the Congress. Once an old Maharashtrian woman whom I met while traveling in a local train in Mumbai, she disclosed innocently that she always supports Congress because the generations before her were supporting the same, quite traditional. If my grandmother was still alive would have been very angry with me for this revelation because she was always reluctant to disclose about her political inclinations. Even my support to the Congress, I never liked Nehru as a prime minister but he was a gentleman and knew how to respect the oppositions. It is no secret that politicians promised a lot and failed in their promise but in older times they used tell us what they are going to do for us rather than telling about others failure. Therefore, life is more is finding fault in others than knowing and acknowledging ones own mistakes. It is not always an easy task to forget all bitterness and forgive others, living with hatred feelings is no good, it is more self destructive than hurting the subject in question. 

Just giving a sermon to forget and forgive is easy but not easy for those whose life is severely affected. It said that in love and war everything is legal, so Maria Susiraj and his boyfriend killed an innocent guy, chopped his body in pieces and then bag full of innocent flesh thrown into a remote area. A woman who went to destroy two innocent young lives and yet today’s media chasing her around the city, then there is Ram Gopal Verma and the Big Boss team waiting for her with a red carpet. I do not except the victim Neeraj Verma’s family to forgive Maria Susiraj. I, myself will never forgive the killers of Neerja Bhanot , the Indian airlines Air Hostess, who died in Karachi airport while saving passengers life from the hijackers. Not in a mood to forgive Kashab or people behind the 26/11 attack in Mumbai. Always wanted to see them to the gallows and same for the culprits those time and time bombing a crowded place and killing innocent peoples. Cannot forget that horrible afternoon of March 12, 1993, when serial bomb blast rocked the city of Mumbai. I was very much around their and still cannot forget the sound of blasts that interrupted my and my colleagues lunch session.

The above incidents are so huge, therefore, there are no places for forgiveness but we often bring out small things in personal front that causes a personal enmity with close ones.

Like global warming and greenhouse effect that damages the environment, needs a serious constructive step, same way the word tolerance is also vanishing from our syllabi.

!!!Why not small thing can be overlooked for the wider happiness?!!!