Train to Bombay one cold January - Part I

It was a last minute programme. I was getting back to work, Ajay had to catch his ship, but Dinu having nothing else on the agenda, decided to tag along. We were to take the train from Delhi. I already had a reservation as my program was pre-planned, but Ajay and Dinu didn't have any. But we had learned of these agents who typically hung outside the reservation counter and who had longer hands than 'kanoon'. These guys sniffed around like the lady pimps on the juhu beach looking for a lonesome soul who sought for some solace in the arms of a stranger. The only difference was that these agents looked for troubled kids like us who were incapable of traveling by general compartment, and excellent face readers they were. As soon as we stood in one corner in that dingy reservation hall that morning, they surrounded us and asked us with a grin whether we wanted reservation. Before we could make up our minds, the thick wad of money somehow slipped from our hands into theirs. At first we remained hopeful, but after an hour we grew impatient. Even after repeated urges, muffled threats, and corporate style managerial talks by Mr. Rawat, we neither got the reservations nor our money back. We did get penetrating glances from the agents standing motionlessly, combing their moustache and plotting on how to steal our money without having to give us the tickets. But Mr. Rawat's political tricks did work in the end, and when it was only 10 minutes left for the train to depart, the agent handed over the tickets to us and told us that our names were not on the charts yet, but the TT knew about us and would accomodate us.

Next -> Is it TT or TTE? Whatever!

Balwant Rai Mehta committee-Chapter VI(Twist in tale)

Tony’s grandfather wanted him to be a Sardar with difference and different was he ;thin wiry body , beak like nose, long legged with short beard and long pony tail.Tony did cut impressive figure till the time..till he opened his mouth and than came out squeaky shrill voice with lots of air, to get out this squeak lots of contortions of mouth happened alongwith chuckling/hissing which almost sounded like nuts/bolts banging inside an empty box.
Tony wanted to shout at the Himanchali bumbling fool he had just employed but by the time nuts and bolts were still working inside his mouth Ballu had already entered the Kitchen, Tony squeaked to Kharagbahadur his manager to chuck our earliest this good for nothing, Kharag as usual could not hear anything but being a sharp observer knew what his boss wanted, Ballu came out the Kitchen door precariously balancing tray with food dishes,Kharag wanted to warn Ballu but was cut short by Chuckling/hissing ..nuts /bolts banging against empty box, startled by the shrill squeak Ballu fell !
Thrown out from the restaurant, Kharag bahadur helped Ballu, armed with a word of recommendation from owner of ‘Tinku poultry farm’ in sangrur whose friend Bhagwan lal had been running a poultry unit at Haldwani, Ballu eagerly boarded the night bus for Haldwani, by early morning he reached Haldwani safely till the time at the gate of Bhagwan Lal’s poultry farm at Haldwani he fell again!
Barely out of his teens within a span of year ..Kharagbahadur with Old fashioned name but fresh analytical mind had risen from a waiter to the manager of ‘Tony Restaurant’ , wizard with mathematical figures his school teachers, friends alike in ‘Sangrur govt school’ were mightily in awe of this son of a poor poultry farm Nepali worker, darker in complexion than both his parents, Kharag had this filmstar like handsome looks and presence but he could never get hang of hostility in fathers eyes till the time he passed away when he was nine .Abject misery of his surroundings made him resolve to get out of this quagmire at earliest after passing his XIIth in 1997 immediately he moved to Chandigarh in search of job, now within a year his mother was staying with him and he had already passed B com Ist year by the correspondence and In this new world different from the poultry farm existence in Sangrur, he was waking up his soaring ambitions knew no bound and he was restless ..restless in all sense because his mother was sad, his precious mother ‘Padma’. (Purely a work of fiction any resemblance to persons living or dead is incidental)

( 'Soaring in Sky' painting by Joshita Rawat)

Bravo Haldiram !

There is no doubt Haldiram has revolutionized the packaged food like nobody else. For more than a decade, I have been enjoying his sweets & namkeens and I have only heard good things from others as well. Now, as far as the main meal entries, Haldiram was not in this area. And, for more than a decade, I have been buying read-to-eat dishes from various other companies solely on the basis of the nice picture on the box and self-praise printed in nice attractive ways. Almost always, I heated them up with my mouth watering and later dumped them down the drain after the first spoon. On the American side, as well, except for one brand, all others are disappointing.

Last week, though, it all changed, thanks to the attention to taste and quality by one man, Haldiram. His new line of 'Minute Khana' is just too good. The picture is as attractive as other boxes, but the taste of the items is even better than the picture suggests. Nothing can beat fresh food, of course, but this one is almost 90% as good as freshly made. While others have to be kept frozen, this one only requires you to store it in a cool place. When hungry, open the pack, heat it up and enjoy. It's a must have for any food lover who doesn't want to settle down to left overs on an evening when the kitchen is closed. And best part, the price is only $1.79 here at the time of writing this and the quantity good enough for 2 people.

Balwant Rai Mehta Committee-Chapter V(Nights are long)

Kulanand waived to Parvati, PSRTC Night Bus to Ludhiana had got full at Haldwani bus stand itself, sitting with her Aunt whose husband eked living as Mithaishop owner in Ludhiana Parvati was going to spend next two months with her , early morning breeze through the open bus window woke her up, the vulnerability on the face of young man staring at her at Sirhind Bus stand was fascinating, he smiled foolishly at her it was refreshing Parvati perked up! than suddenly sense of déjà vu stuck her! No…Not again!!

(Parvati going to school down Mall Road Painting by Joshita Rawat)
She could recall permanent burdened expression on Kulanand’s face.. poor but proudy..Kulanand!, how he wished Parvati’s mother would have been alive today, after taking early retirement from Kumaon regiment the life as Physical instructor with ‘St Paul’s senior secondary school, Nainital’ was satisfying, add to that Parvati getting education in same school but Parvati was also aware how touchy his father was about his Brahmanical origins, she had already caused him great pain but she was relieved everything was over with his classmate..societal gap was too huge.
Young man had taken seat next to her Aunt, old lady started chatting him up, Young man was little shy to open up but Parvati could gather that he was looking for some job in Ludhiana, name was Rakesh,parents were at Sirhind’s Refugee colony,She was surprised by her sense of relief when Aunt offered job alongwith shelter to the guy in the Mithaishop. Parvati soon opened up with Rakesh, she had never seen such..such boy, he was too unreal,too vulnerable, he needed protection. …she was afraid of the feelings churning inside her.
Only women Rakesh had known closely was his mother but Parvati had done magic for him, life seemed good, the hard work at Mithaishop did not seem too hard..Rakesh was always eager to come back home to his English lessons taken by Parvati, he never went out with other guys..but always listened to their hushed conversations and saw winks for the nights spent out, there had been instances of hostility initially but everything mellowed later on.Than the world came crashing around Rakesh,Parvati was going back.
Sleepless besides Aunt Parvati stood up, Rakesh had not come back yet, he had been sullen and hostile since yesterday . knocking on the door…..standing there was Rakesh and than he fell, as Parvati stooped to support , the nauseating smell came ..Rakesh was drunk senseless, he was gibberishing something in English.Parvati went back next day.
After spending few days listlessely in Ludhiana, Rakesh moved back to Sirhind, tried picking up threads as ‘Saree Salesman’ on his fathers line best he could manage was picking up fights with buyers soon he married a neighbourhood girl, money was coming slowly as ever, part of it was spent on boozing he also became famous for his English discourses after booze sessions,Chironji lal passed away same year.
Rakesh yearned for sunshine again nights had become too long and dark,Than he moved to Haldwani as a wandering saree salesman.

(Purely a work of fiction any resemblence to persons living or dead is incidental)

YMCA Connection - I

Association with YMCA started early. This is when small little world limited to Khurbura & Hanuman Chok & Jhanda started expanding. The newly visited areas visited regulary being Tagor villa & Chukkhu wala to attend my high school. Astely hall was still far off and anything beyond that was beyond the city limits. That's why when I got out of SGRR, in 1983, after my junior high (8th grade), papa said no to vidya mandir because it had shifted to Jakhan in its new avatar Scholar's home and it seemed way too far and could take its toll on my studying at home after school because of long bike route , and SJA somehow he felt I would have hard time adapting to the "english" environment. Still the world on Rajpur road and beyond kept alluring me, and I have been exploring it ever since then.

Astley Hall -> http://www.flickr.com/photos/aratib/1330750707/

Next - YMCA: the first encounter

Balwant Rai Mehta Committee- Chapter IV(Blood burden)

Anil was totally serious in morning when he bragged to Misharwa that Kusum daughter of Gajju dhobi would be his by the evening and he was pucca sure she had touched his hand deliberately day before while returning the bundle of clothes of his uncle the Choudhary Batuknath Rai landlord of Risia in Deoria near Tarkulwa , now things stood totally demolished in evening he got the berating of his life by Dhoban after he tried to grabbing her from behind.
Choudhary had taken in Anil’s mother in his shelter as gratitude to Bhuiyan the low caste Lathait who fell in the field defending choudhary ambushed by his cousins fighting over land and did try to make up by giving little more respectability than could have usually earned, now he was a confused soul mixture of timidity of his natural blood and assertiveness of his surroundings, he never could look up to choudhary and his family and amongst his own he was a changed man, blending nontruths and halftruths he got reputation as a ‘Phenku’ life was spent in idling away the time amongst fields, orchards, canals. Illusions of grandness of landlords were there and same pride he got as if owner of the fiefdom.Batuknath was getting old and any type of bonding was never developed with the new masters whilst in his heart he was never ready for kinship of servants and masters, meanwhile the marriage happened early.

( Carefree existence of Anil painting by Ms Joshita Rawat)
It was day before Dushhera during 1997 and Ruby the famous Nautanki dancer of Muzzfarpur was holding shows in Tarkulwa, Anil had already bragged his closeness with Ruby to his listeners and promised everyone the show from the front bench. Passing off as nephew of Batuknath his entrouge was given the seating preference, Anil proudly sat in front bench as he looked back encouragingly for his group to come forward he was perplexed to see fear and confusion in their eyes and then Sky fell for him his new masters was sitting beside his chair red with anger they knew he would bow out immediately and then something overcame Anil, he stayed put!.... masters went out.
In the early dawn darkness with every bone aching from the beating given by in the night, two black eyes and the moustaches shaved off his face by the masters and with whatever small package his mother could gather for him Anil made way for bus to Gorakhpur, In the evening he boarded first moving train he saw, the ‘Kathgodam express’ he did not know where Haldwani was but self satisfied he could still recall the pride and awe on the face of his group after his masters went out he noted to himself to get back the moustaches soon after all he was a Rai!!, train was gathering speed and faraway through the train window he saw the flames and the burst of crackers..Ravana was burning.

(Purely a fiction any resemblence to persons living or dead is incidental)

Heat Waves

Back from voyage.  Saw your wishes on Amit-Sakshi Wed-Site & was happy to note that you guys are alive & kicking!!!!. Any plans of attending the Wedding. I shall be in Delhi on 7th and would leave for Doon on 8th April.

Mayank is in Mumbai since last two days and since then Mumbai has become very hot. 

Baki sab theek hei. Take care.