My Cousin Vinnie!

I've learned...

1. I've learned.... that when you're in love, it shows

2.. I've learned.... that just one person saying to me, "You've made my day!" makes my day.

3.. I've learned.... that having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

4.. I've learned.... that being kind is more important than being right.

5.. I've learned.... that you should never say no to a gift from a child.

6.. I've learned.... that I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him/her in some other way.

7.. I've learned.... that no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

8.. I've learned.... that sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

9.. I've learned.... that life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

10.. I've learned.... that we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

11.. I've learned.... that money doesn't buy class.

12.. I've learned.... that it's those small daily happenings that makes life so spectacular.

13.. I've learned.... that everyone in this world wants to be appreciated,respected and loved.

14.. I've learned.... that the Lord didn't do it all in one day. What makes me think I can?

15.. I've learned.... that to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

16.. I've learned.... that when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

17.. I've learned.... that love, not time, heals all wounds.

18.. I've learned.... that the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

19.. I've learned.... that everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

20.. I've learned.... that there's nothing sweeter than sleeping with baby (not your girlfriend or wife but child) and feeling her breath on your cheeks.

21.. I've learned.... that no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

22.. I've learned.... that life is tough, but I'm tougher.

23.. I've learned.... that opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.

24.. I've learned.... that when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

25.. I've learned.... that it is never late to say I love you to your loved ones.

26.. I've learned.... that one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

27.. I've learned.... that a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

28.. I've learned.... that I can't choose how I feel, but I can choose what I do about it.

29.. I've learned.... that when a newly born child holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.

30.. I've learned....that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

31.. I've learned.... that it is best to give advice in only two circumstances; when it is requested and when it is a life-threatening situation.

32.. I've learned.... that the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.
and I'm still learning....

This is an email forward I received. It's not my composition.

Father Returning Home

My father had his own workshop. The set-up was just ten minutes away from home. Father would leave for work at 8:30 a.m., come back for lunch at one and go back again. He would call it a day at seven. He was always around when we needed him. We were fortunate. But I remember having friends whose fathers worked in towns and reached home late, in spite of having an inscrutable urge to be with their children. They took the train to work and back home...the crowded Mumbai locals, which ferried human beings like they were ferrying cattle. But still, when those fathers reached home there was not an inch of weariness on their faces, it was always a sense of joy, the joy of seeing their kids running to them.

Dilip Chitre's poem 'Father returning home' captures the feelings of such a father,

My father travels on the late evening train
Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light
Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes
His shirt and pants are soggy and his raincoat
Stained with mud and his bag stuffed with books
Is falling apart. His eyes dimmed by age
Fade homeward through the humid monsoon night
Now I can see him getting off the train
Like a word dropped from a long sentence.
He hurries across the length of the grey platform,
Crosses th railway line, enters the lane,
His chappals are sticky with mud, but he hurries onward

Home again, I see him drinking weak tea,
Eating a stale chappati, reading a book.
He goes into the toilet to contemplate
Man's estrangement from a man-made world.
Coming out he trembles at the sink,
The cold water running over his brown hands,
A few droplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists.
His sullen children have often refused to share
Jokes and secrets with him. He will now go to sleep
Listening to the static on the radio, dreaming
Of his ancestors and grandchildren, thinking

Of nomads entering a subcontinent through a narrow pass.

Les absents ont toujours tort

'The Absent are always wrong'. So true in the case of fourteen-year old Aarushi Talwar. Not only did she die a brutal and untimely death, but also had to undergo posthumous character assasination. The media was rife with speculations on her alleged affair with the domestic help of the house, who also incidentally was killed. Her dentist father was booked on charges of 'honour killing'. Later, it was said that her father killed her because she knew that he was having an illegitimate relationship with one of their family friends. The 'so-called friend' came on television and totally denied the allegation. Then it was said that Dr. Talwar killed his fourteen-year old daughter because he caught her in 'an objectionable position' with the middle-aged domestic help, Hemraj, who was also killed. And all this was happening while Aarushi's mother was also in the same house. The mother showed no sign of remorse while she spoke of her daughter's loss, citing it time and again, that her husband was innocent and that he was framed. Meanwhile, the late Hemraj's friend claims that Hemraj often mentioned that he was receiving threats from someone. The Noida police, known for its corrupt image are in a fix now as the case has become one of public concern, with people on the streets observing candlelight vigils, demanding justice. No one knows what the truth is, but whatever it is, it definitely is going to be a gory one, what with the latest postmortem reports claiming vaginal discharge. Whoever did it....he/she was definitely someone whom Aarushi trusted with closed eyes. And for once, lets stop maligning her image in her absence.

Picture: www.daylife.com

The writer in me...

I've been asked to write an article for the school magazine. I tried pulling my head out of it...but to no avail. No, no, no, not because I'm the best writer amongst all the ex-students and the present students...but because I'm the only person who's sitting idle at home...that too at close proximity to the school. After a brief discussion with the Principal, we narrowed down on the topics that I could write on. He said that I'm allowed to write about something that I'm passionate about or maybe something that I wish to work upon or maybe take up a cause and research and write on it or maybe write about my experiences as a student of the school or maybe my experiences as the teacher of the same school or maybe about my interests and my means of developing the same or maybe....there wasn't a dearth of topics. I came back home and started my process of filtering for the right topic. I arrived at the conclusion that I can write on various topics...Academics, literature, reading, travelling, sex, love, lust, friends, theatre, celebrities....just about anything. Without saying its understood that being a school magazine, my favorite topics (sex, love and lust) were automatically ruled out. I lost out on a golden opportunity to deal with regressive protesters...who would gather a mob around my house, pelt stones and smear the watchman's face with black ink...but why black ink? Why not some other colours - something like green, the fluorescent kind, or pink or ochre - why black? I would like to know where and how did this latest trend begin? Off late trendsetters have a lot of novelty to offer but its not striking. Lets take a simple thing as a water purifier. Aquaguard, Kent, Moniba....so many names, all very expensive water purifiers, beyond the budget of the lower class, the section of people who need it the most. They get contaminated water and due to the ever increasing price of LPG cylinders cannot afford to boil water. It's an established fact that boiling water for several minutes kills the germs in the water making it hygienic for consumption. Water also reminds me of the Deepa Mehta movie 'Water' that ran into trouble in India for portrayingthe pathetic conditions of widows in North India. Anything to do with reality is outrightly rejected in this country. But there are some marvellous people like P. Sainath who still continue with their mission. Excuse me, but his mission is different from the mission undertaken by the Christian missionaries claiming to be modern day evangelists. Its funny! These evangelists can cure anything from hemorrhoids to malignant tumour without the surgeon's knife. I love the way they preach...In fact I'm thinking of distributing them free tickets to go to Somalia and perform some miracles. I need to help them with some performers also who would act out the miracles. How's magic different from miracles? Magic reminds me of David Blaine. Not for his magic act but the tattoo on his arm. How do people get tattoos done? It must be so painful . I remember a beautiful tattoo of Dalai Lama that I had seen on the biceps of a guy. Boy! That was some art. But the pain. Its just this pain factor that stops me from piercing my nose. I would love to get my nose pierced, but am also petrified of the pain. I know...no pain, no gain...Pain, gain, nose....what am I talking about. Ok! So the topic for the feature is .Books! Books! Books!'