Mother nature - Beautiful, wonderful, but so powerful.

The mountains and the bees, the rivers and the seas, 

The falls and the leaves, the valleys and the breeze. 

Oh my beautiful, ma nature wonderful,

Oh mother nature, you're but so powerful. 

The sunny mornings, the orb of light,

The moon that shimmers and shines so bright.

The dew drops like diamonds, raindrops like crystals,

The chirping of birds and the jungle whistles 

Oh my beautiful, ma nature wonderful, 

Oh mother nature, you're but so powerful.  

 

The tall tall mountains and the deep deep valleys,

The gorges of the tornadoes down the alley,

The huge storms and the black clouds, 

The cyclonic winds blowing so loud,

Oh my beautiful, ma nature wonderful,

Oh mother nature, you're but so powerful

Indian home-made food and the culinary skills required.

When you live on your own, one of the main tasks is preparation of food. If you live alone in any part of India, you may find homemade or near- homemade food outside with some research. I have known people who have lived in various parts of India for several years and never had to make their own food. But yes, outside of India and depending on the place, getting homemade food from an outside joint may be difficult. In such cases, you have to learn and rely on your own cooking.  

When you start cooking your own food, the journey into your mother's area of expertise begins. These days, youtube can help with lots of recipes and food channels being available. So do video calls with mother or wife !! 

I vaguely remember my 'cooking streak' started with cutting onions, making tea and instant noodles. Slowly I graduated to making Potato sabji, rice and dal in the steam cooker and egg preparations (Bhurji, omlettes, scrambled eggs). 

The other day, one of my friends told me that he is going to UK for studies. He said he was worried because he could only make tea and instant stuff but no sabji. I told him - just learn how to make potato sabji and you can make sabjis out of almost all other veggies in the same way. He found the tip useful -  he told me so and also because I saw him alive returning after his 2 years of studies !!

I'd say cooking is not difficult. Anyone with a fairly good sense of taste and estimation can cook a decent one time meal - Decent one time meal - here meaning that it can atleast be digested properly at the time without causing any trouble along the way !! 

In the long run, or if you are going to cook for a long period of time regularly / everyday, the struggle is for the right consistency and the balance of ingredients while keeping the taste, texture and the nutritive value alive. 

1.    Consistency - The same taste repeats when you repeat the recipe. 

2.    Balance - Everything is just right. The right amount of spice, salt, sweetness - nothing in excess than is absolutely necessary. 

3.    Taste - It should be tasty no matter how much or how little you use of the ingredients in order to keep it at healthy levels. 

4.    Texture - An onion tomato gravy should have a gravy-like texture !! Raw / uncooked slices in the pulp of onion or tomato spoil the texture. Another example is uncooked dal in a curry. Or partially cooked chickpeas in 'cholle' 

5.    Nutritive value - For the sake of creaminess or richness, you cannot be heavy handed on the oil, butter or ghee. You have to maintain healthy levels of it if its in everyday cooking.    

When I lived alone and cooked everyday, I struggled with Point no. 1,  was ok with pt. 2, 3 and 5 and was strictly ok with Point no. 4. 

All in all, with experimentation, trial and error, a certain level of understanding and common sense, you can manage to prepare almost everything. 

However, it is said that even if you become a world class, michelin rated chef,  you will always miss your mother's food. 

Another belief, which I had heard when I was young and lately experienced it is that eating a meal cooked by someone else is always more tasty and satisfying than a meal which you have prepared yourself !! (Its probably because when you make it yourself, and it doesnt turn out as good as you expected,  you feel let down mentally - knowing the amount of effort you put in making it.) 

We Indians place a lot of importance on food. And rightfully so because we have the best of it in the whole world !! Westerners may call our food oily, spicy, extremely hot, too sweet and all the things that may defame it or put it in bad light. 

But it isn't so at all. In fact, quite the opposite. The real Indian foods - 'real' meaning the 'home-made' ones are very nutritious and balanced - just perfect in those regards. These are perfectly 'designed and created' keeping in mind the weather, levels of activity and the availability of crops in those regions. 

 Prepared with fresh vegetables; perfected to an accurate proportion and recipe; fed to a child or served to a loved one with the preparers love and feelings; eaten with prayers, respect and reverence without wasting a mere morsel of it and then digested well due to the feelings of gratitude towards the food....our culture has covered all the science behind it as well !!

Our foods are in a later stage of evolution than any other cuisines and that is one of the basic reasons why we have to actually 'learn to cook' rather than just throwing in a lot of cut vegetables in a bowl and adding pinches of pepper, salt, dashes of this and that to it.........  

Cribbing

 I have come across a lot of 'cribbers' in my life. So much so that I can crib about cribbers cribbing about their life. Everyone knows that happiness is relative. A person is not happy because he has everything. He is happy because he has something MORE than others. With that definition, everyone is happy because others are not and everyone is not happy because others ARE !! (Dont know whether this is a Catch 22 situation??). 

Its not that the cribbing mindset is adverse - everytime. It increases your dissatisfaction and drives you do stuff, which you wouldnt do if you'd been satisfied or happy with it. It gives you an objective, a goal, a motivation. It makes people aware that you are unhappy about something and in office situations comes pretty handy at times !! 

On the other hand it pulls you down mentally and creates stress or friction. People start to avoid you - so that they don't bear the brunt of hearing your pains and lending you a sympathetic ear. (Who wants to hear of other's issues anyway? Dont they have enough on their plate already? :) )  So how to go about it? 

I have discovered - and it is totally based on my experiences - that its fun to crib, but in a detached sort of way. When we friends meet, we gossip and crib about things - office, life in general, people, other friends who aren't in the room etc. It gives you a feeling of satisfaction, of letting go a burden which you were bearing on your own. It even charges you up - you feel elated that your friend now knows and agrees with you (even though he will know only your side of the story, which makes him biased !! :) ). You crib, gossip, enjoy maybe over drinks and dinner or a ride in the car. And then its over. You leave it at that. You come back home and sleep soundly or watch TV. There is no dissatisfaction in your mind at all, because you cribbed - BUT in a DETACHED way. 

All in all, you have to face all sorts of situations in life. Some make you happy, some leave you sad, still others affect your decisions. If you let every other thing affect you, you will crib incessantly and with unnecessary involvement. Anyway, you have to face the situation it, so face it, crib about it to your friends or relatives, but in the end let it go. Find a solution. Move on. Time heals everything.  Dont get stuck. 

And please pardon the home grown philosophy in the last para.....     

Gifting.

 I am never very good at gifting. Be it for young toddlers, married couples, birthday boys, girls or for my lady love. I dont really have the passion or the thoughtfulness for selecting gifts. The first thing that comes to my mind when someone says 'gift' is -  a 'decorative' envelope with some money inside it. Plain simple money - crisp notes or old ones. After all, money is money. It cant buy you happiness but it can buy you a gift that brings you happiness. Money - you can keep it, deposit it in a bank, invest it, pass it to others or roll it up into a cigarette if you are as rich as Pablo Escobar. 

Recently, a good friend (lets call him 'R') invited me and my family to the birthday party of his 2 year old. Now what to get him?  A 'thoughtful' friend called me up and asked me what I had in mind. As usual I had nothing in mind except a 'decorative' envelope with some money in it. But - I kind of improvised and suggested we get him an amazon voucher. (Progress comes in small steps. From just money to a voucher is a significant improvement.) But my thoughtful friend (lets call him 'S') said, 'Kuch cheez dete hai yaar' and suggested that we buy him a push scooter. I tried my logic with him 'Look - What happens if someone else has already bought it?'. 

We finally decided to call up 'R' and ask him what gift should we give his child - frank discussion. 'R' is as thoughtless as I am and if possible even more !! He said what I had expected. 'Its not necessary to buy any gift. Anyway, he is already getting a push scooter from my sis'. I asked him whether we should give him a voucher so that he could buy something within that budget for his child? He was ok with that. So it was decided to buy a voucher for him. 

But 'S' wasnt happy. He called me two days later, saying that he wanted to buy something for 'R's kid. He sent me some photos of those kids tent which you just open up and kids can go in and out of it. Since S wanted to give it so badly, I told him to go ahead. So he ordered it and had it delivered to my place. We had both contributed for it and gave it R's son on his birthday and he was very happy with it. 

I realised that day that an actual gift given in surprise makes both the giver and taker happy. I remember on occasions when I used to get cash as a gift , it used to be passed on automatically to my parents and then it was done. There wasn't joy in that. There was no guarantee that out of that money, a gift would be bought for you. It would in fact be invested in some kind of fixed deposit with some additions !! 

It is ok if you gift cash to an adult. They will go out there and buy what they want. But its fun to see the child's expression when he opens the real gift, that you give him/her isnt it? Money is just paper for a child. What do you think?       

  

Eric Van Beek

 My first 'workshare' project was with the Netherlands office. Workshare is where work gets shared between two offices, with one of the offices acting as the main office and reporting directly to the client and the other acting as the engineering office, where most of the work is carried out. In this case, Netherlands office was the main office and we were the engineering office. 

I was around 7 years old at the time. (Not my age, my experience in years !!) And was assigned as the lead engineer on a particular project with around 5 colleagues working in my team. For the 'kickoff' meeting, we went to The Netherlands, where I met everyone from the Instrument dept and then taken to 'Eric Van Beek'.  He was introduced to me as my counterpart of the main office. 

I looked up at him. 

A balding gentleman with all his remaining hair white, approximately 6 ft 3 inches tall, with large glasses and a stern looking face was looking at me - from atop a tower, it seemed. Apart from being twice my size, he seemed to be atleast twice my age. At that moment, I remembered my father back in India, who might've been younger to the guy !! He shook hands with me and smiled. He had uneven teeth, looked kind of 'fierce' and reminded me forcibly of a certain character in Asterix comics. I smiled back and we exchanged the niceties. Over the next few days, we became familiar and I realised that, contrary to his fierce appearance, Eric was quite friendly. There were a lot of jokes and laughter when he was around. However, I got the feeling somehow that he wasn't interested in work. Looking back now, I think maybe it was just me - I was a bit too eager to start off work on my first workshare project and as a first time lead !! 

Once when I went upto him during that 5 day visit to the main office and asked him whether we can discuss a few queries which I have, he said yes. However, he simply noted the queries, without providing answers to any of it at the time !! A bit annoyed, I asked him when could I expect a response on those, he replied very curtly and directly that "I cannot provide you the replies to it anytime soon. I am yet to read all the scope documents. When I complete doing that I will tell you." 

I was kind of taken aback at this reply. Half of me was annoyed and the other half was unpleasantly surprised at the curtness of his reply. Perhaps, at the time, I thought it was even rude !! Annoyed because, you would normally be prepared for a critical meeting atleast. Also, I tended to think that he wasnt taking me seriously because of my age or experience. Later on, as I worked with the dutch, I came to know that they are very 'direct', as in - they dont care about mincing words. They tell you everything very 'to the point' without beating around the bush. Maybe that is why he said it the way he did. 

Later on Eric came for a co-ordination visit to India. When I went up to meet him as he arrived in our office, he looked like a small kid who'd just been given the biggest ice cream you've ever seen !! He shook my hand vigorously, told me that he just loved the warm weather in India and was waiting to eat the spicy food !! He was very eager to find out more about 'Indian culture' which he knew is very colourful and vibrant. He even asked me about 'Bhagavad Gita' and where he could get a copy of it. He said that he had heard a lot about ancient Indian scriptures and books and he thought that they should be a part of the country's school curriculum - to which I agree. 

Once during the same visit, we took all our dutch counterparts for a treat to a popular restaurant which served Rajasthani food. Eric was very adventurous in trying all sorts of dishes - right from the ones which were VERY HOT and SPICY to those which were VERY SWEET. At one time he dipped his big finger in a 'Rajasthani lehsun ki chutney' (Chilli garlic chutney) known to be very hot -even for Indians and licked the whole of it in one go, as if to prove a point and said, "Oh, When, I stayed in Saudi Arabia for sometime I had eaten lots of spicy Indian food". 

Later on, when I went to the Netherlands on a long assignment, I found out that his wife had some prolonged illness. He had to travel frequently to Spain so that she could live in moderate climes which was good for her. In the times that he was in office, we chatted easily with each other as if like good friends - of the same age and as if we knew each other for a long time. "Ravi, you are the next stage of evolution" He used to say for fun. "You're small in size, must be consuming lesser food and are very intelligent !! - so an efficient and evolved human being, just like computers getting smaller in size with time." 

Another one of his favourite statements was, "We have taken so much advantage of nature, reclaimed so much land here in Netherlands that one day all of this will be under water. But then, I will be no more at the time !!" 

After my assignment, I was connected to him via linked. He once messaged me about the health problem that he had, but also said that it was fixed so he is getting better. The year 2017 was when I went out of the country on another assignment. I wished him a happy birthday that July. He replied back saying that he likes it that so many people remember him on his birthday and hoping that everything was good at my end and to keep in touch. 

Last year I wanted to wish him a happy birthday, so I asked a colleague whether I could have his watsapp no. My colleague informed me that Eric was no more. He wasnt keeping well for sometime and had finally lost the battle. 

I didnt know Eric that much or that well, but felt shocked on hearing that he'd passed away. He was one of those persons, whom you are in contact with only for a short period of time, but somehow, they stay in your good memories forever.                    

     

           

 

Fear factor

Fear is a negative emotion, right? 

You should not be afraid, 

Do not fear your opponent, 

If you are afraid you wont be able to do anything, 

Don't be afraid of me, 

are some statements we hear all our lives.

Fear of ghosts, fear of darkness, fear of God, fear of a situation, fear of death - all different forms leading to the same conclusion - Fear is a feeling of apprehension - of the unknown, of the unfamiliar, of the unchartered. 

Are all people in this world afraid of something or the other? Yes. But.....

A person who takes care of the cemetery cannot live in fear of ghosts and darkness if he wants to do his job !! 

A priest knows better to respect and pray to god than to fear him/her !! 

If 'Be prepared' is your motto, you will be able to function in any situation, however terrible it may be. 

A soldier performs his duties even in the face of death. 

My point is fear is the kind of ultimate truth which you would have to face if you do not counter it sooner or later. Fear keeps you on your toes and drives you to function the way you are supposed to. It may make you hesitant, reluctant or even stall you for a period of time. But it should never stop you from achieving your goals.      

Whenever, you are afraid, always remember - 

The presence of negatives are as necessary as the positives. 

Maybe not for the sake of mental peace, but for the sake of realizing the positives in life and making it worth living.    

Life is like a current. A current flows only when there is a positive and a negative. If there was only a positive, there would no current, there would be no life, isnt it? 

The Joy of Competition

Competition is unavoidable. Right from the time your parents conceive you till your death - its a competition all the way. Just as the song goes.....'Maa ke pet se marghat tak hai teri kahani pag pag pyaare - Dangal Dangal' 

As soon as you are out in this world, your first contest is your fight against illnesses to become healthy and strong. Luckily - your mother takes care of this one. 

As you grow older, there are a lot of fights with your siblings. 

Still older and you compete - in exams, with friends, with classmates. 

Still older and you may compete for the girl you love (depending on your inclination !!). 

Still older and you compete with your colleagues to earn more money or for a particular corporate position. 

Still older and you once again struggle with your health and compete with illnesses before dying.   

You may like some of the contests, others you dont, still others you hate and god help you in those where you even fear participation !!

Of these I have discovered that the contests I enjoy the most are sports competitions. Watching and participating are equally fun. 

When I was 10 years of age, I used to go for Karate classes. Apart from progressive tests for higher belts, there were also tournaments - for Kata and Kumite. 

Kata is a series of steps are performed sequentially. Kumite is a one on one sparring match. 

I was a recognized expert for Kata in my class. And being such, I entered a lot of inter-district, inter-state tournaments in Kata category for the same style of Karate. 

I remember my first tournament : It was an inter-district tourney and took place inside a badminton courthouse housing 3 badminton courts side by side plus some additional space. 3 events were held side by side, simultaneously. Only the finals of each category and age group were to be held separately, using the full courthouse. 

I was enlisted for the Kata contest and was competing with 30 other contestants of the same age category (12-15 years). Amongst the contestants was a national champion in Kata. He was a Brown Belt 3rd Kyu (I will henceforth call him KC for this post). I had heard a lot about the guy before - he had been highly praised by the Sensei and had a truckload of Medals. He had competed and won atleast 3 national awards in Kata.   

I was a green belt 5th Kyu at the time (Kyu is a kind of synonym for degree. It goes backwards - 3rd Kyu is higher up and more qualified than say a 5th Kyu) and very 'green' since it was my first tournament !! Obviously KC was my senior in terms of belt qualifications. 

The rules were as so - They called out the name of the student (Karate-Ka) on the microphone. That student had to come and stand on an yellow tape marked 'X' inside the  'Square' which was - a  large squarish area marked within a single badminton court. On the corners of the 'square', were four referees, who had placards in their hands to show the points after the Kata was completed. The main referee was at the center with a placard as well - facing you directly. The points system was simple - points were to be given from 1-10. Decimal points were also ok. A score of 9.6 to 9.9 could be considered really good. A perfect 10 was rare, but not impossible. The referee could also be your class instructor (So you were fairly certain of getting good points from him / her!!). The total of points was your total score and were given based on the perfection and intensity of your steps.        

When my name was announced in the first round, I got up smartly and went, stood on the 'X', offered my 'Salutations' which is done by covering your right fist with your left palm, holding it in front of you and bowing down from the hips. Then I took stance (hands down 45 degrees in front with clenched fists - about shoulder width). Then I shouted the name of the Kata loudly, so that the whole crowd sitting could hear it and as is customary. At that time, I had this strange burning sensation at the pit of my stomach (Nerves !!) 

Believe me, nothing can prepare you for this moment of nervousness - it has to come !! 

Then I started my Kata - punching, blocking and kicking at the invisible opponent in front - tight and fast so that the thick dress that I wore made a crisp, whisking noise at every step. No loose steps, no stumbling, everything done with precision and the occasional 'Kiai'. 

(The Kiai is a short shout which is uttered when you perform an attacking move. Basically, it empowers your movements. Eg. A cricket bowler grunts before he bowls a ball, or a tennis player does the same when he hits the ball with his racquet.) 

As I performed the Kata with absolute focus, the burning sensation eased off. I started enjoying whatever I was doing. The intent now was to do a perfect Kata, impress all five judges and to score perfect 10s. 

The referees were watching each step carefully. Hundreds of people in the packed spectators stand had their eyes on me !! I wanted to earn their wows and applauds, wanted to make my seniors and instructors sitting in the crowd feel proud of me. 

Finally, my Kata finished and I came to the resting stance. For a second there was silence and then the crowd exploded into a thundering round of applause whilst my fellow Karate-Kas from our class started singing - Ravi.....Raaavvviiii.....(then three claps). I couldnt really supress a smile and was feeling top of the world. The referees raised their placards. Three of the referees gave me a 9.8 and two of them 9.9 making it a total score of 49.2 !!. I had made it to the next round !! 

The next two rounds were quite similar and I was riding high on confidence by the end of it. From 30 contestants, I had made it to rounds of 15 and then to 10. 

7 of us qualified for the final round from which the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place would be decided. Obviously amongst these 7 was KC. KC and I both pulled really neat Katas and much to my surprise I had tied top scores with him. The rules said that if you tied for first place, both would do another round of Katas. 

KC came to perform his Kata first in the tie breaker. He started doing his Kata well, but at the second or third step - froze and faltered - forgetting the subsequent steps (Guess the pressure was on him to perform, since he had to uphold a national champs reputation !!). As per the rules, he was disqualified for the round meaning that his points for this round would be zero and he would automatically lose if I perform my Kata without forgetting the sequence of steps. 

My focus now shifted to only getting the steps right, even if it meant my movements were'nt as crisp as the previous rounds. I was'nt looking to score anymore, just that I had to COMPLETE the Kata correctly. After what seemed like an eternity, in which everything seemed to move in slow motion  - I finished my Kata, without forgetting or freezing at any step. As I came to the resting stance, I knew I had won the gold !!. 

As soon as the referees announced the points as a formality, the crowd erupted. This time the applause was deafening. I can never ever forget those moments in life - crowd standing on its feet all applauding, classmates shouting my name in joy their voices hoarse, some of them jumping off the stands, running towards me and carrying me on their shoulders, my parents and sister applauding also, their faces full of joy. Everything was so foggy ...just like a dream. But it was a dream come true!! I had won the gold and I had won it big, defeating a worthy opponent on the way. 

In sports, all nerves and pressure apart, once you enter the field of play, you start enjoying the game and forget everything else - its just a game and that it what games are meant to give you - enjoyment and pleasure. The element of contest added to it gives you a kind of adrenaline kick, inspires you to get ahead of your opponent and win. In a competition, the pressure is always on the participant who is at the top. 

And this gives the underdog a great chance to surge ahead !! All the effort, hard work and the practice that goes through is to achieve the final objective - a sweet victory. Exhilarating, glorious, intoxicating inspiring, blissfully sweet victory. And even if you do not achieve the ultimate, the honour of participation and the joy that it gives is unparallelled.          

          

  

    

Online school vs real school

Recently, as a fun activity for my 6 year old daughter - my sister told her to write a small passage - 'online school' vs real (in-person) school. I didnt think of it much at the time, since I was busy doing 'online work' for my 'online office', but later on in my free time, I thought that I should write something too - my observations for perusal later so that I can laugh about it after all this is over !!

  

The initial few minutes start with each child on logging in, unmuting his microphone and yelling "Good morning teacher !!" The thing with online and telephonic meetings is that everyone has an instinctive sense of speaking louder than usual - as if contemporary technology is still from the ancient 19th century times when telephonic conversations were full of background garble and noise and so you had to speak louder.  

As it is, most kids are loud. Such type of online setup will make them doubly loud and by the end of a class, they are loud even when you speak to them in the same room and from only a foot away !!

My daughter likes school. So it is not a problem for her to stay focused and attentive. But a colleague of mine told me that after he logs in and the class begins, his son just mutes his device, turns off his camera and starts playing with his toys !! I understand because I probably would've done the same if I was young and had SFH !! 

Since most of grown ups have friends outside of the office circle also, we can do without meeting  office colleagues (Although there are a few sad ones who dont have a life outside office. For them office is their life. Well known colleagues are their only friends, bosses are their only gurus, juniors are their real children and walking in office is the only exercise they get. If a bed was arranged for them in office, they would stay there at night too !!) 

But for kids as young as 4-6 years of age, their social life truly starts and develops at school - so this kind of online thing, puts them in a shell. There is no talking when the teacher is teaching, no drawing under the desks, no muffled eating, no playing games with rubber and pencils - in short none of the things for which we used to enjoy going to school !! Its only study and listen  (if the kid decides to do that much atleast without being distracted !!) 

Lots of observations which are funny, but overall full credit to the kids. They have been very co-operative (more than was expected from them atleast !!) during the lockdown times. Being with their parents all the time is as stressful for them as it is for us to be with them all the time !! Hope it will be back to fun and friends for them soon. 

     

Covid and memories of yesteryears...

 The whole Covid lockdown situation and people being put in isolation left and right reminds me forcibly of the time, when as a child, I used to be ill and down with fever. Back then, having fever was quite a regular thing, even though I was as healthy as the kids around me - who used to have fever from time to time too. I would say that we never really lived in as 'sanitized' an environment as our children are. Sure, we were taught by our parents to bathe after playing outside, or wash our hands before eating and all, but the city wasn't as clean as it is now with drives like swachta sarvekshan !!. There were regular waves of malaria, viral fever, influenza and conjunctivitis and I have been down with all of these plus some more !!.  

I used to go out to play - all day during the vacations and evening times when there was school. My friends and I used to play one-tip, underarm or overarm cricket matches, on the grounds and often on roads, where gutters were open all the time.  Since some of us were too lazy to wear shoes or in too much of a hurry to go downstairs, we used to wear sandals or flotters and since these were not at all suitable while running, we removed them, to run barefoot on the roads!! The roads were scorching hot during summer holidays and my feet used to be calloused, skin peeling off all the time.  In monsoons, we were out playing football on the ground in the sludge, splashing mud on each others face when kicking the ball. It used to be all hot, sweaty and dirty in the humid weather and a rain shower was most welcome, cooling the heat arising from a vigorous, fast and aggressive session of football. 

The ground where we used to play cricket and football had a steel fence around it. This was damaged in many spots, so that one could enter and exit the ground from an open area. The ground was surrounded on two sides by roads. On the third side there was a school and all along the fourth one, was a downward bank leading to a 15 feet wide sewage canal. 

Sometimes while playing cricket, an overbowled ball used to land up in the sewer. The canal usually had a flow - sometimes a quick one and sometimes not too fast. 10 rupees was big money at that time, atleast for us kids and we could do anything to rescue a 10 rupee rubber ball - be it from the dense bushes at the corner of the ground or be it from a stinky and repulsively smelly sewer !! And so, we used to climb over the fence and throw stones in the canal behind the ball so that it would drift towards us. Before it was too late, we formed a human chain and the guy nearest to the sewer and farthest from the fence used to 'rescue' the ball - one hand gripping the adjacent person's hand and with the other, guiding the ball toward himself using the cricket bat or a long stick. All this had to be done before it was too late and the ball was washed off downstream in the big underground sewer. Indeed this was the best display of team work !! Being the smallest (size wise) person in the group, I was the one who was the one farthest in the human chain and 'rescued' the ball most often, spoiling my flotters in the muck on the sewer banks. To this day, I can recognize the smell of sewer from a mile away !!

And then there were other smaller distractions. In the general store near the school we used to buy a 50 paise 'pepsi' which was basically a tube like popsicle frozen in a long plastic pack. You had to nip off the edge of the pack with your teeth, making a small hole out of which the cold flavoured juice could be sipped off - half an hour happily and sweetly spent. As we got older and had a little bit more money from our parents, we used to have a 5 rupee icy cool chamach gola after the morning 10-12 cricket match (during our Class 12 vacations.) All this despite repeated warnings from our parents not to consume them as the water used in these 'summer delights' could've been straight out of gutters as well, they said !! During childhood, I had quite often drank icy cold water right after coming home after play, have had loads of raw mangoes with salt and chilli powder and eaten gooseberries to my heart's content. 

The point of bringing out these nostalgic memories is that, 

1. We enjoyed all the above as kids, without fearing any fever, cold, cough, sore throat - which our parents were sure would follow. Upto a certain level, this kind of stuff indeed increased our immunity !! 

Since the last year or so, everyone lives in fear of having any of these. For instance, during covid times, which parent would send their kid in the scorching hot sun and let them have something like a chamach gola? Even a simple cold might be a covid positive infection and god knows how deadly it might be?  

2. Why is the corona virus killing millions and trillions in developed countries and is not as effective in Africa where large parts of the continent have not-so-good to bad sanitation? Is it because, as a developing country, we have become paranoid and have such highly hygienic conditions that our immune systems have become lazy and cannot fight corona virus?

3. Do you see kids these days on roads playing cricket or football? Or for that matter do you see kids playing outdoor sports at all? Leave aside the covid times (past one year), but generally do you see them outside?  

In those yesteryear memories, my heart wanders....

And on these questions, my mind ponders....