Monday, December 16, 2013

                                     This and that....mundane matters...

                    I am forced to come out of my blogging hiatus for two extraordinary reasons – the first one being the wonderful privilege to read the samples of my nine year nephew Dhruv’s daily diary (DD) – it was indeed a treat to the eyes, for the content and style of his daily adventures not to mention the impeccable spellings and grammar. Yes , my digital diary (DD too!) had to come out of hibernation for this very sake! The other reason is the least expected, literally a bolt from the blue when my elder son put this question across “ why are you not blogging these days?” I was taken aback at this from somebody who had scant regard for articles , least of all for my blah blah! This question intrigued me until it was put to rest by the younger one after much cajoling, coercing and blackmailing into spilling the beans ...his teachers at school were hounding him for essays for the school magazine and he had this brilliant brain wave to cut, copy and paste from my blog...just as I was rejoicing on the fact that my blog was finally being put to use, came the rejoinder...”you know amma, nobody would know that this is lifted from the internet as there are no readers for your posts”..my spirits fell ..the truth is a bitter pill , no doubt..
                      I gave the Bangalore edition of the blogger meet a go by , on two valid counts– firstly, I had not contributed at all to the new posts category in recent times and felt guilty to be part of  a gathering which boasted of writers setting new records in blogs. Also, wanted sweet revenge on Indiblogger and the jury of the contests for denying me the pleasure of an award or at least a consolation . This elusive reward haunted me more , when I found my concept plagiarised by a fellow blogger who smartly converted it into a poem and adding insult to injury was that she won a prize too while I took solace in free gift hampers! I know this second reason of mine in not attending the meet ,hardly bothered anyone and nobody missed me, but it did give a sense of satisfaction to my alter ego!
            Moving on from the disastrous blogger world which was akin to Carlson showing his supremacy over our Anand and AB(c)D V..and team trouncing the men in blue, some nice things did happen , courtesy the darling devils..the elder one “earned” a coveted Math Olympiad trophy in an interschool event and was richer by ₹9500/- My dad graciously announced that a crisp ₹500 would be added to the sum to make it a round figure – what a fine liberal gesture from a seasoned Chartered Accountant! The next nice thing that left me open mouthed was the sight of my six footer second son straddling across to breast the tape at his school sports relay race. He galloped like a gazelle as I wondered whether one of the species had escaped from the Bannerghata National Park! My eyes were lustrous with joy and surprise  and I felt like Usain Bolt’s mom!!
                     I reframed  ABCD again  to read as ABCR for anybody can run and then again to ABCP for anybody can become Pradhan manthri ,after all the sole criterion was the magical age of 43 and I too became the most eligible to occupy the gaddi! I too like millions of foolish Delhiites fell hook , line and sinker for the AAP mania with its ‘sweeping’ reforms to cleanse the country but was utterly ‘bitterly’ disappointed with its idiosyncrasies and lust for power – the moment the sane people join the political bandwagon, they are turned into members of the glass menagerie – it is a circus out there , albeit not with jokers but with ‘joke pals’
                 Continuing with jokes, I also had the good fortune of reading an array of articles in different newspapers and couple ( sorry two again, only pure coincidence)of them were simply outstanding - C K Meena ji’s take on neighbours , but Meena ji , I beg to diasagree with you – one doesn’t need hands to count the good and friendly neighbours , fingers would suffice, on the contrary  I would rather put the fingers to good use , that of manoeuvring my smart phone! The other read was the American sojourns by Ms.Saraswati Narayan – I could see a mirror image of the tales of my mother in law’s American odyssey to baby sit !
          While a small percentage of the days gone by were spent on work, the major chunk of time was spent in endless queues in numerous agencies especially the LPG providers, for submitting the Aadhar card( for the un ordained , it is the Unique Identity Card adding to the myriad identity cards like passport ,as for me it has only so far been a card for identity, the ration card, the voter’s card to name  a few among them!) The already dwindling bank balances would see further reduction in the form of ever inflatory maintenance and gas bills as payments are linked to bank accounts. A portion of time was also spent in the addictive scrabble game on the web where I bonded well with a grey-haired English woman . We shared a lot on the chat facility and felt miserably sucked to read of her long partnership with her husband falling apart – Hrithik definitely has company and that club is no longer exclusive...

              Folks, it is that time of the year where forgotten resolutions reappear in brand new avatars , mine among scores of them is to keep my DD active and be a challenger to my nephew’s DD – well it is worth the effort!
    Happy Yuletide and season’s greetings....