Life and ME!

friends

I wrote about my teacher, i wrote about my parents.. i wrote about my life and my God.. I did not write about my friends.. Wherever i went, i have always had friends who were classified crazy.. and 2 gems in this category are Neha n Raji (names have not been changed to protect identity coz honestly, they take pride in being called mad..) Whenever i write a post on my blog, i wait for raji to comment.. and the last post i wrote, i got pure gaalis for my post.. her perennial conundrum has been, why do you think so much? why? why? why cant you simply be happy? and i tell her i am.. but the poor female worries.. and then takes a promise from me that i would write a happy post.. i thought i will write a post dedicated to this crazy female called raji... i though of what had we shared in those almost 10 yrs that we have known each other, and i am amazed it has been only 2 yrs that we have really been together! i mean after that it has always been a long-distance relationship ;) but what a relationship it has been.. we have shared innumerable secrets.. and coz these things cant really be put on a blog, i will write of the other things that we have shared - crushes... (yeah i know raji will say i stole the idea.. ) We, alongwith 5 other girls in our class in JC had a crush on 1 guy.. imagine 7 girls, 1 guy... we did all sort of crazy things, right from signing on his roll no everytime attendance passed our bench first to downright adam-teasing at times.. we would fight to park our bikes next to his, and we would at length discuss him right in front of him! Today when i look back i wonder, why exactly him?? i mean really.. he is so dumb!!! but naah at that time, it was 'him' all the time.. i remember when one day raji saw 'dumbguy' with his girlfriend and came us told us, all so dramatically and we were all so heartbroken... :) not that we gave up on him.. but still.. and then one fine day, there was this another fellow.. honestly he was the most handsome guy we had ever seen in our college.. and he always wore clothes in the combination of 'blue and white'.. and contrary to our 'mr.dumbguy' this guy was damn smart.. 'blue n white' knew exactly how handsome he was and therefore was a snob.. there was this once when i was going on my bike with mom sitting wid me, and 'blue n white' crossed us.. and boy oh boy, i kept looking at him till my mom had to tap me from behind n tell me to 'look in front while riding' we were so mad that we would, during the 12th paper, run to his classroom to have one look at him, for good luck!!! :):):) i mean really, for all the good luck that he gave us, he passed 12th std with 45% :) and then to continue the streak of craziness in my life there came neha.. now she deserves one (or in fact more) entirely different post(s) altogether in my blog... its been wierd but it is as if our lives are linked.. me, neha and raji.. whenever i want some (un)sound advice, i can count on these two.. whenever i want someone to assure me that what i am doing is not bad, i call up these girls.. they are exactly those friends who will stand by me when the whole world will shun me coz i am doing something stupid.. and surprisingly, we always find ourselves going through similar phases in life! i therefore pray that these two girls be forever happy, (for my sake)... I have marofied a lot of senti to neha, when we left coep hostel, i mean all that rona-dhona and senti gifts and cards and what not... to tell her what she meant to me n what she will continue to mean... but i never really got an opportunity to do so for raji.. not that i intend to do so now, but yeah all i say is thank you both of you for adding the widest and the brightest streak of craziness in my life, it scares me to think that without you, i would have been a completely normal female!

I would have been...

I do not know how many people experience this.. you do things coz u feel it has to be done, that it is the only right thing to do, coz your heart tells you so.. and then you sit back, to analyse why exactly did your heart say so! and now that you have listened to it, and acted the way you have, will you ever regret being impulsive? This is exactly what i am doing now. Was just going through the album of a friend in IRMA. And as it always happens with me, I realise that i would have been there. In those photos. standing with my arm around smriti... outside the mess, cutting cake for someone's bde.. I would have had a completely different set of friends. Life would have been so so different. Just 1 decision. and there r loads to come. Scares me to think "now i am going to make decisions bout my life.. and it is going to go the way i make it go!!!" damn damn scary. one decision and here i am @ bajaj. What made me take this decision? i must confess, it was impulsive. My logic said stay, do not go.. my heart said go... it was as if it said "Go... u dont know what is there.. i know better.." I wondered how could that be possible, but i did not argue. coz i have stopped arguing with my God. but i know i still have not come to accept his absolute supremacy in terms of my decisions. even while coming to JB, i fought.. i gave my sound logic of how it would surely help me better if i stay back.. in the long run... but still it said.. "go" and here i am. if i would have not come to JB, i would have looked at the website and wondered, well i would have belonged here.. i would have though of mumbai and would have thought.. hmm... 1 decision and i would have been in mumbai... now, for every decision i take, will i be going through this depressing process? yes it is depressing. will it so happen that one fine day i will be so happy with my life that i will look back upon something i gave to be whereever i am and say "hmm... oh thank God, otherwise i would have been there!!!" will it become so routine to make big tough decisions that i will actually stop getting into this process of looking at where i would have been had-i-taken-that-rather-than-this?? I do not know. Landmark forum told me to be into the decision that i took coz i took the decision. but it gets tough. you really cant help but wonder "what if...?" today i wonder, "what made me give up AI?" i say again it was God who told me... he dint say no.. but he dint come alongwith me. This one decision was the toughest one in my life... uptil now. 25 days of turmoil. sleepless nights.. depressing mornings and listless days... and then one day he told me he aint thinking it is a good idea. and there it was! oh so clear! he dint say take this up.. he said dont go for it. and i did not. uptil now, i have never regretted any decision my God took for me. and i sincerely pray, i never ever regret this one too... lot at stake, left a lot... a dream washed away.. a dream given up on... in the hope to create something more beautiful, in search of new dreams, new wishes to ride upon. the path is dark, unknown and hard, the road more travelled though it is, my dream is distant and blurred.. dunno where i am heading towards, dunno where i go from here.. but my God has told me to do this, and that is what i have done, laid my faith totally onto him.. the day he disappoints me, there wont be any me..

Yaadein

Regatta again on the KB day this year.
Yes 9th March, for the KB team of 2003, is celebrated as KB day.
This year is therefore special for all those 30 participant of the best KB that COEP boat club saw.. Got calls from friends saying lets go attend this regatta..
Lets have fun.. lets live those days again... but...
himmat abhi nahi hai jane ki phir waha..
darr is baat ka nahi ki hum waha jayenge kaise darr is baat ka hai - hum wahase wapas ayenge kaise?
duniya nai ab basa chuke hai hum.. us mod se aage aa chuke hai hum..
zakhm jo dil pe lage the wo abhi sukhe nahi hai par.. sukhne se pehle hi khul na jaaye, is baat ka hai darr.

My Teacher

I was in sixth, he was 60. He, my favourite teacher, and I, one of his favourite students.

He would ask us to meditate before he would start his class, and what meditation lessons they were!

He would ask us to listen to all the sounds in the surrounding, right from birds chirping to cookers whistling. And then relax...

We would of course giggle all the way through those meditation lessons.
Yet he persisted.
He had been a scientist in Germany.. His wife a dancer.
I have never seen a man more proud of his 'girl'. Yes, that's how he would talk about of his wife.
He is also my senior from engineering college. He,from the centenary batch, and I from the sesquicentenary one.

He is my mentor, my Guru, my first real hero, my friend, philosopher, and guide.
He was the one who taught me how to fight boys who would tease me. He taught me that different is cool. He taught me how to believe in myself.

He was one of those people who believed in me.

He, somehow I feel, can see through me, even today, like he could then.
He knows me like no one does.

Today I met him after 4 years.
I really do not know what made me walk up to his place out of the blue today. But I did. And I knocked.
As he opened the door, I realised he looked as handsome as always.

'Olakhla ka Sir?' I said.

'Arre Pallavi! Mag olakhla kai!!' is what he said, and I felt extremely happy and guilty.I should have come more often to meet him.

But he was only so glad.
I asked him about his health. "Good" he said.
"and how is ma'am?" I asked.

And then there he was. After all these years too, the same principles, the same rational words of advice, selfless and sensible and so apt!

I many a times wonder what has made me the way I am. And today I partly got my answer.
75 he is today. But still he keeps himself busy with counselling parents and kids.

In the one hour I was with him, he told me to decide what my life is. Whether it is 'principle centric' or 'happiness centric' or anything else.

I told him 'principle centric' is too tough. He said it isn't. I feel there are very few people who simply talk my way.
And he is one of them.
He then asked me to read a few books. All sensible philosophy.
According to him, I must always maintain mental and physical health. Physical, by doing Yoga daily and mental, by reading atleast 2 pages of 'sense' each day.
He then said he believes in strength of character than strength of personality because strength of personality needs external approval.
Strength of character comes from within.

He then again gave me the same confidence that he had always given me about myself.

With a warm hug, a pen and lots of best wishes, I left from there.

There are some personalities who come into your life and leave an impression so lasting that you can feel their influence in your thoughts, decisions and actions.

Kolhatkar Sir is one of those people in my life.

I still remember my first day in his class. He told everyone that I had come for tuitions though I scored about 80%. I was amused. Because 82% in 7^th was a taboo in my house and so I had been sent for tuitions.
But he seemed to believe they were too much for tuitions! My first lesson in self-confidence, that was.
He was one person who always wanted to see my name in print in newspaper, and when in 10^th I did not make it, I felt bad because I had failed him, but when in 12^th I did manage to make it, I made sure I went and met him and needless to say he wasn't surprised.

He always told me to do something different in life.
"Engineering is for the mediocre", he said. "You should become a scientist".
I think this itch to do something different comes from there.

Today was a day of realisations for me.
Today I did something I should have done long back.
Today I met my dear Sir.

A race to lose

The world is out there fighting a rat race,
each one outdoing the other,
but no one really knowing wat they want
even when they are the winner...

One fine day then, they wake up
not too soon though i must say
to discover that they have lost that one beautiful life
fighting for what they never wanted anyway

but when they realise this, its too late
and all they can do is be resigned to fate
Is there anyone who stop by to question,
the stupidity of our daily actions the senselessness of our fight for perfection?

you've got only one life to live,
live it such that when the time comes and
ur whole life flashes before your eyes
let thr not be any regrets but all along only smiles :)

My maa

Main kabhi batlata nahi, par andhere se darta hu main maa.. Main kabhi dikhlata nahi par teri parvaah karta hu main maa.. tuze sab hai pata hai na maa.. Mom knows everything. I dont have to tell her when i am feeling low. I dont have to spell it out when i am happy. She knows. She simply does. I so vividly remember the day she left me for the first time. At the COEP hostel gate. She was standing under the street lamp, waiting for me to turn around, but i did not.. coz i did not want her to see my tears.. tears of the daughter whom she thought was always the bravest of her kids. I cried in the bathroom everyday for a month after that.. i also came back running home to her.. i crept in her room @ four in the morning and cried to her saying i never wanted to go back... I cried on the phone. i cried all the time. The change was so difficult to take. her bravest daughter was the weakest indeed.. I missed her all these years.. Its been more than six years since that evening under the streetlight when she bade me good bye for the first time.. when this home became a vacation home for me.. but even after all these years i still miss her everytime i am away from her.. I still cry myself to sleep at times.. I still call up to cry to her at times.. i dont care if she thinks her bravest daughter has failed her.. afterall i feel she always knew i wasnt the bravest afterall and so she always made me think i was.. so that i would indeed be brave.... I miss her all the time.. All the time...

forgot something..

why do i feel like i am not me? what i am going thru right now and the way i am reacting to things and they way i am handling things this aint me. I already feel alienated. from my God. its like when you forget something important at home and come a long way with a feeling that something is amiss and you only realise a little later that you have forgotten something. Well, i have forgotten my God. I was a little too wrapped up, my life a chaos, my head a big muddle and honestly i had gotten some airs bout myself. I had decided something for myself, without even asking what my God thought about it. I think my God is becoming a little cautious about my continuous experiments with life. He finally is tightening his reins on me. He is now pulling me to correct directions. Does that mean i am getting closer and he doesnt want me to lose it NOW... He realised i am being stupid and still thinking like a irrational kid in engineering when i decided to fly high in the sky, when i set for myself some targets that were not 'me'.. targets that i was never meant to be.. targets that were in contrast to what my God is and what i am. Yet i set those targets, much to his defiance, he protested.. i ignored. i told him that u know nothing, and u are pulling me down. It hurt him but he let it go and stood by me.. coz he knew a day would come when i would write this blog.. I realise that the aim that i came here with, the aim that brought me here from IRMA is not what i am pursuing right now. It always takes a nice spanking on the butt to come fact to face with some hard facts and i got quite a few of them lately. I got carried away with the flow. I decided to change myself and i decided for my God too, without asking him whether he wanted to change. I came a long way and thot my God is walking with me, but here i stand with a feeling that i have forgotten something home.. Its my God i miss the most out here.. I need to go back home to him..

Love You Always!!!

Just had to have this poem on my blog... A look at me and he lost his heart Love at first sight for him it was With an overwhelm he stared at me “You are going to be my life”, believed he. His presence I began to realize Whenever I saw him I broke into a smile. A bond so special was on its way Always together happy and gay. The Best of friendship we began to share All through the years he loved me he cared He the saint was, I the rebel But my whims and fancies he understood so well. I was his life, his purpose of existence My wish his command, my life his dream Sometimes I ignored his presence Sometimes I dint bother it seemed. But, he rejoiced in my joys, even when he was fighting his demons Encouraging me to live my dreams, to smile in all seasons When all was low for me, and seemed that nobody bothered I bounced back I fought, all I needed was his “I love you sweetheart”. A day came to move away from him, to fly with my own wings He gave a hug and a smile, for me that said everything. Many a times on my new found path I forgot to look back, But like always he was there my strength my pillar, where I could fall back… I went to my friend to tell him I was in love To tell him how this man loved me how he cared That no one other than him had ever made me feel special this way. He just took my hand and told me I was blessed to feel this way. I came back with a broken heart I came back to my friend With open arms he soothed my pain. All through he was my pillar my strength. Today I know he is; The one who loves me most The one who never forgets to say “love you sweetheart” The one who can perk me up in time of pain The one who always reminds me I am his life’s biggest gain The one who still scolds me for my irrationality The one who still understands my stupidity The one I know I can always fall back on The one who has made me what I am The one who I love the most My friend, My critique, My gift from GOD. I am a daughter, proud to call him my DAD. by Raji

My Own God

I have a personal God. My own God. It keeps a watch over me. It checks what decisions I am making. It wants to lead me to something. I don’t know what it is. I have an inkling about ‘The Thing’ but I am not sure. It is hazy, vague.. My God keeps on giving me tough situations to make me move more and more towards it. Situations where I have to make some really tough decisions, situations wherein I learn something more about myself. And then he sits and watches. I will not say he has fun when he sees me going through the turmoil, but he feels satisfied, he cheers me from the stands.. and he cheers me the loudest. He really wants me to fight it and come out a winner, he really wants me to get as frustrated as possible so that when I get out of it, the message will be louder, clearer. I will have moved substantially towards ‘The Thing’ though not completely. (I sometimes wonder whether I ever will be able to find ‘it’ completely? Then I wonder as to whether I really want to? Isn’t it more interesting this way?) I don’t know what he does when he sees me moving in the entirely wrong direction. I think he makes me go through some more turmoil then. He too desperately fights while I fight. And what if in the end, despite his and my efforts I make the wrong decision? What then if I instead take a lot of steps away from ‘The Thing’? I don’t know that. I don’t think my God is so weak that he will give up so soon. But how soon is too soon? Is it already past the ‘soon’ phase? Will there be a day when I will stop seeing him? Will there be a day when I will stop feeling his presence around me? Will it so happen that my God will give up on me but eventually realise that he cant let me go where I am heading and just get back to me, slap me and start working on me again? And when he does, will I listen to him or will I be already so far away that I will ignore his call? My God is, I believe, something inside me. May be my own conscience(?).

A trip in time, 20 years behind...

Life at a Rural Management school can be quite interesting..

As soon as we landed there, as a part of the induction itself we were sent off to villages in gujarat..

2 people per village for seven whole days...

I was sent wid a gal called swapnil to a village wich was the worst of the lot.. i mean we had been told that villages in gujarat are quite prosperous so i was hoping something very different.. and al the other ppl from the class got wat i had anticipated and i got a place near the MP border wich is the most backward region of gujarat...
really tribal..!
will put some photos for your convenience….

Well, so this place was where I was to stay for seven days and thr was no toilet here!!! I mean we actually had to go to the fields!!!
The first day was hell.. then second disgusting.. third depressing.. fouth was ok.. fifth , got a little used to it.. and so on and so forth…

So well, this place…
Was a nightmare as I said and sme of our class mates went to places where they were given AC rooms and 2 attendents and all!! Now talk bout discrimination!!
But all said and done I will say I was glad I went to the place I went to…
Got to learn a lot..
(apart from how to use the fields for....)

The house was crude.. their needs simple.. the family huge.. 1 man(80 yr old.. I fell in love with him.. the reasons will b apparent as u read on…) 2 wives.. 1 dead, 9 children and their families.. which summed up to some 32 grandchildren (excluding the kids of his 3 daughters…) and all stayed thr!

This is the house that we stayed at

And then we were supposed to roam about in the village meeting ppl.. and understanding their problems.. now imagine a village where thy cant speak anything but gujarati and I dint know anything of it!!! Except for a few rescue classes that we were put thru @ IRMA b4 they sent us to this godforsaken place…

The ppl we stayed wid were atleast 20 yrs behind.. more than that actually…
Thy had a farm land.. and lot of cattle.. the food was cooked on the chulha… in mitti ke bartan!! The taste was awesome.. but I used to eat less coz the morning ordeal was enough scary already…

Thr I met the dadaji.. the man of the family… 80 yr old.. but as strong as any of his sons.. worked more than any of them and could do everything.. he was a very good carpenter.. so good that he was quite a professional… at the same time he could make bows and arrows and use them to kill wild animals..

A very proud man…. Bold, Courageous and fearless… At the same time very compassionate… Man as a man should be..

btw when we were sent off, we had been warned that if we wanted to see leopards IRMA will take us to Bhopal zoo but plz don’t be ultra excited and adventurous to see the leopards that stayed less than a 100 mtrs from the place that we stayed at… the family I stayed wid was a parmar family.. deepu bhai being the host..

So on the first day dadaji told us to come along.. and we went wid him.. thr he took us to a ‘tekdi’ near by.. we dint realise wat he was doing until when told us that “idhar baagh(tigers/leopards) rehte hai” … I was shit scared.. I told him I want to go back.. and al started laughing that ‘dadaji hai and u r afraid?’ apparently he was a legend thr and he was famous for his tales of having actually faced some wild animals and he had actually saved prey and brought it back from the animals cave.. ALIVE!!! And this is no exaggeration.. this tale we heard from so many ppl in the village!! These ppl practically stayed in a forest which had been a tribal area and converted into farmland.. anyways..

and so suddenly he says that he cud smell a wild animal somewhr nearby… and that now it will come out… an lo and behold, right from under the stone that he was standing on came out a wild animal called ‘jarak’!!! I had never seen it before.. something like a jackal.. but white.. and he shooed it.. we started screaming!!!

The stones are the caves of the wild animals.. and thats dadaji lookin for 'it'

He knew blackmagic.. ppl from nearby taluka places came to get treated by black magic from him… once I was sitting wid him… and he was drawing some weird drawings on a broken pot.. it was scary and I asked him wat was he doing.. and he told me it was blackmagic!!! And that He was going to cure some one
… i asked him to plz let me watch him doing it.. and he scolded me and told me not to even come nearby!!!
Watever….

He hated non vegetarian ppl… he asked me whether I was one… I said no…! cudnt risk being honest.. we had been told that these ppl are quite conservative… and then he was so relieved to know that I was a veggie.. he then went on to say that all the non vegetarian ppl are ‘ganda manas’ meaning dirty pplL and that they don’t even drink water from the house of ppl who r non vegetarian.! anyways… so thr r innumerable experiences of this place.. like the bhil wedding that we saw…. Which was one awesome thing..

I fell in love wid him.. he was 80 yr old.. had not seen more than 6-7 different places in his whole life time.. was a proper hunter wid bows and arrows in his young days.. at 80 he had no ailments except that his knees were growing a little weak..
He was a verrrry proud man… seen a lot of life.. a wise man… he was proud of his moustches.. and he must have been really handsome when young…
He wud sing suddenly out of the blue.. some weird songs and ‘radhaben’ and other girls wud start giggiling… by the end of our stay I started understanding it a little.. he wud sing things like ‘beso re beso jamavalo’ (meaning sit and have food!!) he wud sing anything…his own compositions..and tunes too! he was cute…he was also famous for his bhajans and kirtans… his knowledge bout mythology was awesome.. he never went to school ever but he cud read and write.. how ? don’t ask.. he was never formally trained.. he was a famous palmist in that area…

The Eldest and the youngest of the family...

Thats radhaben... one of the many granddaughters of dadaji...

One incident that touched me was when I told him that I wanted a photo of his and he was working then so was not wearing proper clothes and was on his underwear..
He said ‘hum pagdi bandhenge phir photo leo.. hum apka desh me jayenge na photo se.. phir pagdi to bandhni chahiye ni… ’ he went all the way, got dressed up, wore his best dress, pagdi and then came and told me to click his snap!!
He is such a sweetheart.. I told him that nasik is a beautiful place and that he must come thr.. he told me that he wil if it is in his destiny to see nasik….

That is how he wanted his snap to be taken…

I was moved by the poverty..
these ppl lived on so little.. I mean thr needs were so little..
so different was their life.. and we have come from here..
this is how my great grandfather must’ve lived… and today I live in such a different world!! The place had a beauty of its own… it became sooooo beautiful in the eve!! It was unbelievable..

Evening At kamboi… beautiful aint it?

peacocks used to be coming around their house every now and then…

The kids wud be happy wid such small small things..
These kids were never told not to play in mud.. coz that was their only toy. They were never asked to wear chappals coz thr feet had to get used to the stones.. and thy were never told to not roam around alone.. life of these kids was very different.. very different.. thr was this cute little 10 year old.. he loved this little calf that was thr…
He tended to it all day long.. and all the kids kept playing wid it… these kids dint need any soft toys.. they had the real thing, real animals to toy with….

thts deepu bhai's youngest son, goti... such a cute kid.. the calf then suddenly got up and goti had a great fall ! cried for long after that

Deepu bhai’s kids.. Goti, Bholu and Sejal… Bholu had beautiful Eyes…

Life was tough for them… if rains did not happen more than half the families wud go without any food to survive..

Thr was a family of this very poor farmer..

The Bhil Family… Few members were out as migrant labours to ahmedabad…

he had only 1 acre of land.. and 1 bullock and 1 goat.. I asked as to wat milk they drank and he said they never had tea with milk coz they cud not afford it!!!! He had two kids! Imagine their childhood without any milk!!
Their house was made out of mud.. and when I asked him as to wat problem they faced in the rainy season, he told me the whole roof drips so much that thr is no place to sleep.. the chulha goes wet and sometimes thy have to go without food.. and this they were talking as if it was no big deal and nothing to feel miserable about!! I mean I was feeling so miserable but he wasn’t.. he was ok bout it…
I really dint know at that moment as to wat the hell do we crib about when we have every goddamn thing!!! These ppl were not miserable!! No thy simply were not!!! And that is wat touched me… something inside me moved…

Apart from the 4 months of rains here, thr was not much of farming to do here so they migrated to cities like ahmedabad and baroda.. and worked as wage labourers… and the condition that they lived thr in was more than pathetic.. it was disgusting pitiful, sick sad.. depressing…

They were exploited.. not paid proper wages.. thy dint have homes.. and imagine after so much migration was thr any scope of education for their kids? Was thr any hope of doing anything but fight for 2 square meals? This same family (photo) had a loan too… half his land was mortgaged for the wedding of one of his sons..!!

I will not depress u more.. but when I came back from kamboi(the village) I was changed.. u can say I was humbled.. thr is too much misery in this world.. and we are doing nothing bout it…
Nothing.
Thse ppl need someone like us… someone like u and me to be with them.. mind u they don’t need donations.. these ppl have immense amount of self respect…
They really do…

Anyways so then all said and done.. I saw a lot.. I saw that thr s a world wich is not aware of anything..they don’t care if USA was bombed.. and they wudnt care less about the local train terrorism too…coz for them imagining a local train is a big deal too…. They cant imagine why ppl will cramp up in a train everyday!! For wat purpose.. and they cant imagine wat is the big rush!!!

And all of them looooove ajay devgan J anybody we met told us that thr favourite hero is ajay devgan!!!

Seven days at kamboi…
Staying with a famiy of strangers whose ways dint match wid any of my ways,
Yet they loved us like a family.. first day I was wondering as to how will I stay wid these complete strangers for seven days… on the 4th day I decided to call up my sir and tell him that I wanted to come back and on seventh day when I was leaving from thr I cried.. and so did my sweetheart, dadaji… he promised me that he wll come to nasik… but I am not even sure if I will ever b seeing him again..
will I ever see cute little goti again? The beautiful little calf.. and the makkai ki roti.. its weird how life can bring u around some ppl and strike a cord within a few days….
Life continues to surprise me….

That’s the family.. deepu bhai wid wife, bakulaben and kids.. Goti, sejal and bholu
Then deepu bhai called up and told that they all miss us a lot and these ppl really mean it when they say it… they had nothing to give but yet they had soooo much to give! (sounds cliché but really… )

I will never forget dadaji… he kept saying that ‘ab to jaana hai…..’ and I felt sad.. I want to meet him one more time… I want to make him happy.. and I want to see him smile… and I you know wat? It is so easy to do that.. one phone call from me will also do it.. or I just have to send a print out of his photographs to him.. or the rice seeds that I have promised to send to him… that’s the beauty of it… they are happy even if u do so little for them… these ppl live by their heart…

Beautiful People…

Dadaji at work… making rope…

Looking for leopards…

Bholu’s eyes… Very very beautiful… Photo cud not do justice to them….

Goti.. Deepu Bhai's youngest son..

Sunset at Kamboi

Dadaji ka Hukka… Kept on having it the whole day.. I asked him for one swig too but he said he will not give coz it will become ‘jhoota’. He has asked me to get a hukka patra while coming next time.. phir saath me beithke hukka piyu chu…

They made me wear their traditional jewellery…All silver…

That’s Dadi…

That’s bakulaben in the kitchen… cooking make ki roti on chullah…

At last.. I know that was too long.. but had to tell u all owing to my compulsive disorder of writing long mails…
Anyways thr is more to it.. than what I have written.. meeting these ppl once in a while, around the corner, in trains while travelling etc is different and staying wid them is entirely different… I am thankful to IRMA for sending me to such a place.. :)