Month: July 2021

Jailed!

A dear friend Jayant, shared this image in a WhatsApp group page this morning.
If this is the case, I am very much in jail now.

In fact, I have been in jail since May 23, 1999. Before that, I was touching/sipping/drinking alcohol every day for 26 years. Perhaps that was being on probation. Prior to that, I was tippling once in a way, thanks to our glorious prohibition policy.

When I shared this image with some of my friends on WhatsApp, almost all of them said that they were in jail too as we are all from the generation of Indians who woke up before sunrise and followed all the other conditions in the list.

Are you in or out of jail?

Hard Life.

An exchange of messages on Facebook between me and my good friend Rajinder.

Rajinder Kumar Sharma

This life’s hard but it’s easy if you’re stupid

Ramana Rajgopaul
It is very easy for me Rajinder. I leave the rest to your imagination.

Rajinder Kumar Sharma
Ramana Rajgopaul I talk about humans and not about Mahatmas.
Pranam.

Ramana Rajgopaul
You know what would have happened had you been within arm’s reach don’t you?

Rajinder Kumar Sharma.

I would have hugged you.

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Another friend BKK sent me a message on WhatsApp and asked me why I had left fb.

(I had left a WhatsApp group in which both BKK and I were members.)

I responded that I am still on fb.

He is too embarrassed over his goof to respond. I however hope that he does so that I can have some more fun.

Indian Behaviour.

This video is so typical of many Indians that I simply had to share it with my readers.    While being quite funny, this video shows the behaviour of my generation of Indians who grew up during our glorious socialistic days when tooth paste was a luxury just like many other things that now are not, were, then.

While we did not go to the great lengths that the lady in the video does, we did innovate to get the last bit of paste out of our toothpaste tubes. All households had this gadget in their bathroom cabinets.

The tube’s bottom was inserted in the slot between the two shafts and the key turned to roll up the tube till the last bit was squeezed out.

Yes, we went through those times which seem so strange to today’s generation of Indians.

Do you remember any such gadgets in your childhood?

Loyalty Bonus And Learning Continues.

I have lived in the same neighbourhood in the same house for the past more than thirty years and am known to many of the merchants who have shops in our neighbourhood.

Today, I had to make use of the services of two of them who extend me the courtesy of home delivery.

The first was a stationer AJ, who arranges to get my paperback books covered in plastic regularly besides keeping me supplied with other stationary items as needed. My home is halfway between his and his shop and I simply call him up and he comes home to collect the books on his way either to or from his shop and the next day will return them after covering. He will also deliver other items similarly.

I have been using all kinds of paper weights to keep my newspapers  from flying off in the mornings when I have a strong breeze blowing in from our garden. Today I suddenly remembered the old paper weights which were routine features on all office desks in the good old days and asked AJ if he had any and was pleasantly surprised to find that he indeed had. I ordered for one and he delivered me the ordered one and a free one as a loyalty bonus! The ordered one is the multi coloured one on the left and the bonus is the plain simple one on the right.

The second was from a sweetmeat seller who too has been delivering at home for me for many years following his finding out about my health issues. Today, I ordered for two sweets from him The top one is called laddoo and the bottom one kalakand.


When I opened the parcel after I brought the package home, I discovered another small box containing these pedas too.
I thought that there must have been some mistake and called them back only to be told that the packet of pedas was with their compliments for being such a good customer.

A day for gifts much appreciated.

Incidentally, my learning process continued. Since I do not normally keep cash at home, I decided to pay using my bank’s tele-banking application which I had to learn to use as so far, I had used Google Pay which gave me problems in the new telephone. My resident geek took great pleasure in being the father for the child.

Learning.

In my post The Importance Of Education I had mentioned that the purpose of education was learning to learn.

Nothing else recently has happened to me to give body to that definition than my latest adventures with my new phone which I was gifted just a couple of weeks ago.

This model is very different in many ways than the one that I had used for many years before acquiring this one. It has been a continuous learning process since I acquired it and almost on a daily basis I have had to unlearn earlier ways to learn new ways with this.

The latest adventure was when I had to add a new contact to my bank of contacts when it simply refused to accept the full name of the contact and stopped at half way through the surname. I battled with it for over an hour before asking for help from my DIL who readily, if somewhat amusedly sorted it out for me and also taught me how to do it by myself the next time I had to add a new contact.

I never had any doubts that I was educated and this adventure simply proves that I am as,  I am still, at the age of 78, capable of learning.

Comedy.

I was peacefully reading a book in my room when there was a knock on my door and my DIL asked if she could come in. I said “of course” without looking up and heard her say “I will just quickly give you this injection and go away.”

I was jolted out of my peace and asked her why she is giving me an injection when I had just been given one two days ago in her presence.

I then heard her say, “I am not talking to you.”

“Good Lord, who else is in my room?” I said and turned around to see her injecting Chutki our dog with her insulin shot. Chutki who is under treatment for canine diabetes, had quietly come in and was lying down behind my bed. I had not seen her coming in and the misunderstanding.