Musings

 A short trip to a small town in Himachal Pradesh (HP)  turned out to be a huge eye opener for me. I feel like the boy in the famous story who shows his father a village from his point of view to show what 'rich' really means. Being born and brought up in Mumbai I always felt that 'Mumbaikar's' have it all - simplicity as well as being fancy. Yet, Nahan (the place I visited in HP) taught me what being 'real' is - no showing off, just being pure unadulterated 'human'.  To build up the context better - imagine a single old lady all by herself in a city. We will get our sympathies out and work out al possible schemes to keep her safe, but will hardly do anything beyond that. A simple 'take care' will seal our conversations with the elderly. However in Nahan, I saw friends and neighbours never say ' take care' but are personifications of  "I will take care". I know some of you may remember I had a blog post on a similar feeling ...

 Last few weeks have been particularly painful for the likes of me - where 'we' the nuclear family become an extended family of the place where our spouses work. The fraternity of any service becomes a close knit one - with all the baggage's of any typical family. We celebrate together, we cheer together, we gossip together (separately) and yes we also we mourn together.  The man at the helm of affairs of the Indian Coast Guard Director General, had an unexpected call from the heavens and he went away just at the snap of a finger. Imagine someone leaving the house in a perfect condition and coming back in a casket?  Hardly had we gotten over this loss that, we heard that an ALH (Advanced Light Helicopter) who was on the way to save someone from a merchant ship had to ditch it's course mid way and land in to the vast sea. Precious lives lost again. Incidentally the same ALH had saved close to 67 lives in a flood situation, just few days back. Unfortunately there was no s...

A few days back I was looking at the data of HNI in India. For the uninitiated, HNI is High Net worth Individuals. Basically all the people who pay the highest Income tax in the country which directly means the elite cream class whose earnings per year can rob the day lights from any one of us! Like the very successful Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said “Money is the harsh reality of life. Some love it, some die for it, some use it well, some waste it, some fight over it, but most people only desire it!” Somehow this word ‘Net worth’ set me thinking, what is my net worth? In terms of accounting after you remove all the liabilities /debts, whatever money you are left with is your net worth. So if I earn Rs. 5,00,000 per year and I need to pay a loan of Rs. 3,00,000 then my net worth is Rs. 2,00,000 ..As simple as that! How much is my life worth? Can I put a number to it? While I do not have any impressive numbers to speak about, it took me in to an ‘Accounting’ mode. What would be my Net ...

  Paradise has never been a ’place’ for me, it mostly represents a memory that is frozen in time, always getting that smile in the heart. While there are many memories that do brighten up my face and warm up the soul there are a few that are truly etched in memory! It was the time of my life where I had taken a ‘break’ from regular career and was volunteering in the IT centre of an NGO. There was a proposal of conducting a heart camp for little kids which sounded like the need of the hour. As many of you may be aware, many small kids especially till the age of 10 to 12 have a heart condition where they have a hole in the heart making normal life extremely difficult.   In no time, we were preparing for conducting the mega camp and like it or not I became the ‘eye’ of the storm. All coordination between patients, the conducting hospital our own NGO was being handled by me. Sometimes I feared that I myself will develop some ‘heart condition’ as it was an extremely stressfu...

Image from Shutter stock   We are just beginning to settle in the new year 2022. While it will still take time to getting used to writing 22 in the year column we have (thankfully!) gotten over the arduous task of sending  our New Year Wishes to one and all in our Whatsapp Groups, FB family , Insta, LinkedIn (never mind mindlessly!) My genuine wishes for all of us is that - We throw away our masks - physical and otherwise and live in a free world. Over the years I have begun to fear the virtual masks worn by human beings. We no more have the courage of telling our close ones - I love you or otherwise. Sometimes I feel that all are operating with a garb of 'looking good' avoiding our innermost truest feelings! May this year give us the courage to move closer to our family and friends and move away from the ones who no long contribute to our growth. Our children start going to school to give us parents a breather, not to mention the reduced stress on our teaching community! Not ...

The past few weeks have been filled with news that made you shudder every morning when we accessed the phone. Shudder to think who has hit the bucket, who else has succumbed to Covid, which family has been brought to their knees by this unknown, unseen enemy. It's the first time that you actually felt your breath every morning and sent out a silent 'thank you' for feeling it! It also has made me think 'It could have been me..' It could have been me whose passing away was being circulated on WhatsApp groups and so many people replying a life less 'RIP' or  'Om Shanti' and forgetting all about it the next minute. It could have been me struggling to get an Oxygen bed desperately with the husband man running pillar to post for the same. It could have been my obituary in the newspaper, which by the looks of it may need a separate supplement these days. It could have been me who recovered from Covid but the lungs got so damaged in the process, that the bo...