Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The heart feels young, there's the spring in the step, the smile on the lips.  Checked in the mirror ... and it was a different face staring back at me!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Thank you, Sir,

 26th September 2011.

Dear Mistry sir,

Today morning I dropped off my daughter at her examination centre. She is appearing for the Intermediate Drawing Exam. While I was going through her bag to see if she had packed all her art stuff, I remembered you. I thought of that day 3 decades ago.

While in school, I was amongst the toppers and mum thought  that any time away from my study books  was time ill spent. So  most of my drawings used to completed by my neighbours.   And they probably did a good job, to suitably impress you.   Impress you so much, that you felt I had it in me to clear the Elementary Drawing examination. So on Day One of the exam, though I had made up my mind Not to appear for that exam, you came into my class, told me to pick up my bag and leave for I B Patel School, the venue of the exam. When I told you that I had not brought my drawing and painting material, you took me to Jayanti Stores and bought me all that was needed.

There was no getting away from this one. I appeared for that examination and cleared it. I was excited. You said, ‘mujhe pata tha’ . Later, I learnt from you in the drawing classes you conducted in the evenings and appeared for the intermediate exam too.

Today morning my daughter’s drawing teacher came to the exam centre and announced nonchalantly  – ‘Atharva nahi aa raha hai'  and saying this she herded her wards to one corner for last minute hints and instructions.   I thought of you once again .

Thank you Sir.!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Chaos and me go  hand in hand.............

We planned a vacation...Had out tickets in place more than3 months ago.. Tkts to Jabalpur... Vacation in Jabalpur Indore Bandhavgarh Pachmarhi.   But then things are never this simple for us ... 3 weeks before our date of departure all our flts get cancelled.   KF reschedules all our flights and we move from direct flights to flights routed via delhi.   .   Our itenary changes too. It's just Jabalpur, Pachmarhi and Kanha, with a day's halt at Delhi on the return journey.

At 11.20 pm  on the 22nd  I get an sms metioning a delay of an hr for our mum del flt.  I was relieved ..... i could sleep some more..   but then the thought strikes that we might just miss our connecting flt.  More phone calls to KF and they acomodate us on a spice jet flt to delhi.  Problem  being that the flight is now at 5.30 am.....A preponement of an hour.........

  4 sleepy heads trudge into the airport at 4.00 am.

The flt  takes off a little after 6.00 am.

I had always dreamt of watching the sun rise on a new yrs day.  Today i saw the first light of dawn break as we were flying.  What an experience that was.  The dark of the night giving way to an inky blue mixed with a bright orange.  a streak of black clouds . The orange taking on several shades ,  a flaming red now, a shocking pink a little later!  The daughter  even managed to click a picture of the crescent moon in the sky.  The pictures are beautiful.


The children  managed to see 2 aircrafts in the sky along with ours.



 

Our  flt scheduled t arrive in delhi at 7.50 manages to and a little after 9.00 am , that too at the old terminal.  Our jabalpur flt is frm the new terminal.. We find out that it t has been delayed too and breathe easy.   breathe easy?    the temperature in delhi as we come out of the craft is 5 degrees.  the chill hits us and catches us unawares.   our woolens are all in the cheked in baggage.  we make a dash fr the terminal, collect our luggage and hail a cab.   just as luk wld have it.... our cab is frm baba adam ja zamana.   a frantic husband is trying to impress upon teh driver our urgency.  but the chap has a troubled deen dukhiyari and perplexed expression pasted on his face.  and any q by vittal is greeted by a nod of the head.   we couldnt decode, whether it wwas inb the affirmativr or not... we do manage to reache the other terminal with the boarding having commenced and the counter being closed.   vittals platinumcard comes to our rescue and we r asked to hurry to the gATE, which ws miles away.  amidst repeated announcements over the public address system fr mr K n family to report at the gat, huffing n panting and weating profulesly , we find a bus waiting to transfer us to the craft.   heaving a huge sigh of relief we clmaber on to the bus and look out fr our aircraft.   the bus takes forever to reach the corner where our craft is waiting fr us.   and the first sight of it wasnt one of relif.. it was more of  a shcok.... \this is  a toy plane... it has just 3 steps as against the long flight of steps for other airplanes... the 1st thoght that came to the mind was tat of our bollywood villain ajit.   fleeing the country with hs sona and his mona on a tiny chartered flt.   as we got in , we realised that it carried ni moire than 60 paseengers... the seats were in 2's. that's how narrow the aicraft was!  ps

an uneventful 2 hrs later we laded in jabalpur.   jabalpur airport.. nt  a bldg in sight... bare a d barren... hardly abny treesr any construction.   military cantonmnet area... so vry very clean  . eche the hotel meals and beedaghat.... see the dhuadhar falls frm a cable car...  my first cable car ride.    then frm a close range...there is also a horshoe  shaped waterfall a la niagra dalls.  the sheerforce gives rise to waterrdroplets rising up high and causes a smoke screen... hence the name dhuan dhar\\frm there we goto see the marble rocks..... we hire a boat. as the boat cuts thru the calm waterrs there is a deep silence... the rockyyinh walls rise up on both side..the whole view iis surreal .. feelis as if i am watching a 3 d movie... there seems to n be a extra diemnsion thre.  the boatmans voice echoes as we row along the narrow river betweeen tht towerign rocks.. the rocks are of diffennt hues... pink blues, gold a and ehite,.... a treat to the eyes... thewater at some place is 650 ft deep.  cantexpress the range of emotiions nor the beauty of the place.