The kid was pretty much into reading... in fact books were the only past-time that he had access to. And what would he read ? Stuff like Lotpot, Champak, Nandan, Nanhe Samrat, Baalhans, Chacha Chaudhri, Billu, Pinki ..... etc..... dad would often bring them over when he came down from Lucknow/Agra . Some of the memories that remain are
1. The story of a certain character called "minni" in Lotpot.....it was about a "him manav" --- something like a man of ice....... which somehow resonated with the internal image of "thandu mandu" and scared him ...... :P
2. The story of this character called "daddyji" in some book (can't remember) ...It had a friend of the protagonist named "khojbin prasad bhanot" and was funny.....the protagonist used to jump feets in the air if something wrong happened to him.....often literally hit the roof ..... talk about high jumps and Sergei Bubka.
3. A two page thing in Nanhe samrat.....was called moorkhistaan......was very very funny...
4. Junior James Bond from Nanhe Samrat again.....it rocked ... :-)
5. Shitty stories about alien invasioins, time travel etc. again in nanhe samrat.....
More later.....
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Origins : The village.
Origins:
There was a little kid.....he grew up for the initial 7 years of his life in a small village called Pandey Paikuli, near Faizabad, UP..... The village, in the initial years of the Kid's life, did not have power supply. The boy was told after he grew up that when the first bulb was lit up in his village house, he tried to blow it out through a gush of air from his mouth..... He used to spend all his time as a young boy with his mother, who used to play every evening with him ...sometimes cricket, sometimes badminton, eyes-spy ....
Mother:
Mummy was someone who was always there with him. it was such that the kid, now a grown up man, even took her for granted and did not add a separate paragraph for her...... It however does not mean that she is less important.....it just means that she is so important that e did not even feel like mentioning her.....for it was so obvious to him......... she basically shaped the kid into what he would become in the future....she taught her the ABCs . As expected she did the thankless jobs from A to Z.... and at the same time, she made sure that the kid did was raised in the best possible way...she taught Guddu english, mathematics and even kept telling him about the greats of the past and of the present. One of the heroes that she introduced the kid to was Captain Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to be in space. Another was Edison .....thus began the kid's love towards science......
The kid's mother basically was responsible for everything that he would do in the future ... she carved out the dreamer....the silent and ambitious soul... and also the person who would rather keep his emotions to himself.......... not to mention someone who would never say die (sorry for self praise) ...no matter what. As a kid, she made life so simple for him.....he would find out only a little later....
Grandparents:
his grandmother and grandmother lived with him in the village....the grandpa was an authoritarian who used to dictate terms.....he wanted everything on time, absolutely like an army Major. T:e kid was expected to do everything by the book, The kid's grandma was a little sentimental type....she sometimes fought with the grandfather and wanted the rules to become different....she also used to take the kid out of the big house to see places...The kid loved going to watch the tractors which appeared huge to his small eyes. Amma (Dadi) also talked a lot to him and played with him.... He just loved them all.....
Father:
Daddy was mostly away, initially because he was still studying and later on when he was working, posted in Aagra ..... It used to be celebration time whenever dad used to come home from Lucknow and Aagra....... Everyone was so happy..... it was amazing how much a single person could matter..... The kid used to treasure the time he used to spend with his dad.... He used to play games with paper aeroplanes and the kid's imagination was so vivid that he actually used to feel like he was the commander of a squadron of airplanes.....
Thandu Mandu
The kid was a little foolish as well...there was this thing that he was scared of..... his mummy and daddy told him that there was this creature called "Thandu mandu" ..... which comes and catches kids .... (or so he thought) . He was shit scared of thandu mandu and whenever his mummy had to tell him to do something, she would say....Guddu, jaldi se khana khao nhi to thandu mandu aa jaaega......and Guddu would run scared on and on ... He would run like hell and just do whatever the mother would require...... By the way, every time dad had to leave, guddu would be sad from one day before....he just did not want daddy to leave.... he would stay awake for nights with daddy's bag in his hands to make sure that daddy did not leave......he used to be sad for days after daddy left....it was so much that he used to smell the shirt of his dad because it reminded him of daddy.....
Booajis, Foofajis, Didi, Bhaiya, Prince, Manu:
His father had two sisters, and Badi-booa's family had a son and a daughter, (Pragya and Tony), while choti-booa had two sons, named Prince and Manu. Whenever they used to visit the home in Pandey Paikuli, days used to be fun ....the boy particularly got very close to Pragya didi ..... they used to play all kinds of kiddish games like gudiya-gudda ki shaadi, eyes-spy and even cricket.
Values:
His mother used to tell him the stories of ideals like Sri Raam, Krishna, and other mythological people, she was impressed by Karna from mahabharat, eklavya and many others and that rubbed off on the boy. He became the idealist that his mother was...he started believing in being honest to himself..... and in not doing to others what he did not want done to himself.....
Social circle:
However, between all this, the kid's social circle became limited mostly to the family members, he was hardly in touch with any children of his age.... The kid just used to compensate for that by going into his own world of dreams ....he used to think of all the imaginary things that he could think of....some of the best times of his day however were still when he used to play with his mother every evening and also when he used to lie in the bed with his Grandfather...mostly at the afternoons...and the two used to listen to the "Fauji bhaiyon ke liye farmaishi program" on aakashwani. Babaji also used to tell him stories from the India pakistan wars, the param veer chakras, from history , india pakistan partition and other historical stuff....it made him interested in Politics, diplomacy and strategic issues.
Two close friends:
The kid however had two close friends, one was a girl, Mamta, a neighbor .... and the other was Sandeep, he also lived very close to the kid's place. Guddu used to play with pebbles (whatever it is called) with Mamta....he liked her company so much that the 5 year old Guddu used to cry when Mamta left.... he just did not want her to leave....... mamta happened to be the first unrelated female that he happened to develop such a close emotional attachment with....The other guy was Sandeep, he was the son of a carpenter... he was a very close friend of Guddu as well.... Guddu used to love the company of sandeep and used to play the same games that he used to play with his Dad....only that the army games had grown more detailed and included imaginary gunfights apart from plane fights and tank fights............ The imagination of a kid is such a wonderful thing.....he almost thought that he was fighting against Pakistan to save the Kathua sector from being taken by the hostiles.
The few that I must mention:
A few people in the village that the kid interacted with were Kaptaan (captain) , Annu, Ruchi ....those are all the names that he can remember at this stage of his life... he used to play games on and off with them...they were good friends, but got lost on the way somewhere ......
Loved abundantly
He was loved too much.... being the first child in his generation, and hardly had to crave for attention, it made him cool and collected and made him content.....as it turned out, it would become a part of his personality in the near future.... The absolute best times of his life were however when he used to go to his maternal place, Varanasi. The city was wonderful and he was a lot more free....besides, he was also given the right to use everything....Nanaji was a sanskrit professor and used to take him on mornings to eat jalebi/rasgulla.... He still remembers having gone with his nana and nani to a pradarshani .. (mela) ....it was an amazing experience to a 4 year old.... the images are blurred but they are very much there....... toffees chocolates .... his favorite toffee was "honey globe" which apparently does not sell anymore... and he used to eat a lot of that toffee whenever he went to Varanasi.... and he loved "gud" - sweet made out of sugarcane ...and ate a lot of it--- only to see most of his teeth rotting :( ...
Banaras (Varanasi) :
In the maternal home, there were two mamas and 3 masis....they all loved him so much, and he equally loved them.... It was an absolute dream for him and being showered with all that love made him so happy....it was probably the most wonderful part of his life....
In mama's place, he was particularly close to his Chote wale mama . He used to tell stories to guddu,..... there was this story about this amazing "battery" that had amazing abilities.... he was completely mesemerized by chote mama... and loved him a lot....Bade mama was a little less free and worked a lot, but he was an admirable person and commanded respect for that amount of responsibility that he took on his shoulders.... Nanaji used to stay sick and mamaji was gradually taking command of the family.
Pari:
Then something beautiful happened, and actually the kid was even slightly insecure about it for a while, when the parents told him that he was about to have a sister/brother.... he felt that some competition was coming in.... but then he still remembers the mother telling him how they were meant to be together....he does not remember the words but the sentiments touched him......
At the birth of his sister, he just wanted to go out there and see her....finally when he did, he named her "Pari" -- meaning a "fairy" ....she was so beautiful, she deserved that name.....at least in the book of the 4 year old, she did.... and the name stuck.
Sorrow:
However happiness would last only so much...........Soon, Nanaji passed away, the memories of that day are still clear in the kid's mind... he was barely 6 years old then but the saddness and the crying that happened that day was something he would never forget.... Still, he could not really understand the gravity of the situation at that time ....that there will never again be that time when he would be taken to eat rasgullas by his Nanaji ... he just spent the night in a neighbor's home with his sister... Times were tough, but things moved on....life kept going on and on and on.....
The mundane yet interesting:
Interestingly the grandfather was a little obsessed about medicines......even at the slightest sign of trouble, he used to take Guddu to the doctor, and he compelled them to give medicines... it was so much so that once the doctor got angry and told the grandfather to leave because according to him, "The kid is all right, you have gone crazy.... all this medication is useless, he will be fine." . Again, while this incident makes you wish that it had not happened, the fact remained that he and his ma got to visit Varanasi a lot because of his "health issues" . The maternal family was on family terms with the doctor and told him to tell the grandpa to let them stay for longer and longer...thus both the kid, the mother and the maternal family were happy. Not to mention Babaji.
So this overcared, easygoing, happy-go-lucky guy enjoyed life, but his initial life in the village had made him a little shy.... he even did not like to go to school and although his nanaji run a school where he used to go for exams for class LKG and 1st and 2nd, he hated to attend classes and used to make excuses to not go to school......He practically never went to school except just for the annual exams for the first 4 years of his school life...... Then an important event happened.....
Daddy got sick, he was in Agra and there was no one to take care of him...mummy, mamaji and the boy left for Agra straightaway....it was a tough visit.... but a memorable one as well..... daddy got well, and they all had a great time in Agra...it was such a beautiful time of his life. The kid loved every bit of it......the social life however was something which was still missing....... He was friends with himself...... and himself alone... living in a world of his dreams....thinking, talking to himself about the beautiful and the mundane....everything....it was something he would get used to...and keep on doing a lot.... :) ......
If you've read this far, thanks a million.... Stay tuned for more of PnP .:D
Signing off on 16th April, 2010.
There was a little kid.....he grew up for the initial 7 years of his life in a small village called Pandey Paikuli, near Faizabad, UP..... The village, in the initial years of the Kid's life, did not have power supply. The boy was told after he grew up that when the first bulb was lit up in his village house, he tried to blow it out through a gush of air from his mouth..... He used to spend all his time as a young boy with his mother, who used to play every evening with him ...sometimes cricket, sometimes badminton, eyes-spy ....
Mother:
Mummy was someone who was always there with him. it was such that the kid, now a grown up man, even took her for granted and did not add a separate paragraph for her...... It however does not mean that she is less important.....it just means that she is so important that e did not even feel like mentioning her.....for it was so obvious to him......... she basically shaped the kid into what he would become in the future....she taught her the ABCs . As expected she did the thankless jobs from A to Z.... and at the same time, she made sure that the kid did was raised in the best possible way...she taught Guddu english, mathematics and even kept telling him about the greats of the past and of the present. One of the heroes that she introduced the kid to was Captain Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to be in space. Another was Edison .....thus began the kid's love towards science......
The kid's mother basically was responsible for everything that he would do in the future ... she carved out the dreamer....the silent and ambitious soul... and also the person who would rather keep his emotions to himself.......... not to mention someone who would never say die (sorry for self praise) ...no matter what. As a kid, she made life so simple for him.....he would find out only a little later....
Grandparents:
his grandmother and grandmother lived with him in the village....the grandpa was an authoritarian who used to dictate terms.....he wanted everything on time, absolutely like an army Major. T:e kid was expected to do everything by the book, The kid's grandma was a little sentimental type....she sometimes fought with the grandfather and wanted the rules to become different....she also used to take the kid out of the big house to see places...The kid loved going to watch the tractors which appeared huge to his small eyes. Amma (Dadi) also talked a lot to him and played with him.... He just loved them all.....
Father:
Daddy was mostly away, initially because he was still studying and later on when he was working, posted in Aagra ..... It used to be celebration time whenever dad used to come home from Lucknow and Aagra....... Everyone was so happy..... it was amazing how much a single person could matter..... The kid used to treasure the time he used to spend with his dad.... He used to play games with paper aeroplanes and the kid's imagination was so vivid that he actually used to feel like he was the commander of a squadron of airplanes.....
Thandu Mandu
The kid was a little foolish as well...there was this thing that he was scared of..... his mummy and daddy told him that there was this creature called "Thandu mandu" ..... which comes and catches kids .... (or so he thought) . He was shit scared of thandu mandu and whenever his mummy had to tell him to do something, she would say....Guddu, jaldi se khana khao nhi to thandu mandu aa jaaega......and Guddu would run scared on and on ... He would run like hell and just do whatever the mother would require...... By the way, every time dad had to leave, guddu would be sad from one day before....he just did not want daddy to leave.... he would stay awake for nights with daddy's bag in his hands to make sure that daddy did not leave......he used to be sad for days after daddy left....it was so much that he used to smell the shirt of his dad because it reminded him of daddy.....
Booajis, Foofajis, Didi, Bhaiya, Prince, Manu:
His father had two sisters, and Badi-booa's family had a son and a daughter, (Pragya and Tony), while choti-booa had two sons, named Prince and Manu. Whenever they used to visit the home in Pandey Paikuli, days used to be fun ....the boy particularly got very close to Pragya didi ..... they used to play all kinds of kiddish games like gudiya-gudda ki shaadi, eyes-spy and even cricket.
Values:
His mother used to tell him the stories of ideals like Sri Raam, Krishna, and other mythological people, she was impressed by Karna from mahabharat, eklavya and many others and that rubbed off on the boy. He became the idealist that his mother was...he started believing in being honest to himself..... and in not doing to others what he did not want done to himself.....
Social circle:
However, between all this, the kid's social circle became limited mostly to the family members, he was hardly in touch with any children of his age.... The kid just used to compensate for that by going into his own world of dreams ....he used to think of all the imaginary things that he could think of....some of the best times of his day however were still when he used to play with his mother every evening and also when he used to lie in the bed with his Grandfather...mostly at the afternoons...and the two used to listen to the "Fauji bhaiyon ke liye farmaishi program" on aakashwani. Babaji also used to tell him stories from the India pakistan wars, the param veer chakras, from history , india pakistan partition and other historical stuff....it made him interested in Politics, diplomacy and strategic issues.
Two close friends:
The kid however had two close friends, one was a girl, Mamta, a neighbor .... and the other was Sandeep, he also lived very close to the kid's place. Guddu used to play with pebbles (whatever it is called) with Mamta....he liked her company so much that the 5 year old Guddu used to cry when Mamta left.... he just did not want her to leave....... mamta happened to be the first unrelated female that he happened to develop such a close emotional attachment with....The other guy was Sandeep, he was the son of a carpenter... he was a very close friend of Guddu as well.... Guddu used to love the company of sandeep and used to play the same games that he used to play with his Dad....only that the army games had grown more detailed and included imaginary gunfights apart from plane fights and tank fights............ The imagination of a kid is such a wonderful thing.....he almost thought that he was fighting against Pakistan to save the Kathua sector from being taken by the hostiles.
The few that I must mention:
A few people in the village that the kid interacted with were Kaptaan (captain) , Annu, Ruchi ....those are all the names that he can remember at this stage of his life... he used to play games on and off with them...they were good friends, but got lost on the way somewhere ......
Loved abundantly
He was loved too much.... being the first child in his generation, and hardly had to crave for attention, it made him cool and collected and made him content.....as it turned out, it would become a part of his personality in the near future.... The absolute best times of his life were however when he used to go to his maternal place, Varanasi. The city was wonderful and he was a lot more free....besides, he was also given the right to use everything....Nanaji was a sanskrit professor and used to take him on mornings to eat jalebi/rasgulla.... He still remembers having gone with his nana and nani to a pradarshani .. (mela) ....it was an amazing experience to a 4 year old.... the images are blurred but they are very much there....... toffees chocolates .... his favorite toffee was "honey globe" which apparently does not sell anymore... and he used to eat a lot of that toffee whenever he went to Varanasi.... and he loved "gud" - sweet made out of sugarcane ...and ate a lot of it--- only to see most of his teeth rotting :( ...
Banaras (Varanasi) :
In the maternal home, there were two mamas and 3 masis....they all loved him so much, and he equally loved them.... It was an absolute dream for him and being showered with all that love made him so happy....it was probably the most wonderful part of his life....
In mama's place, he was particularly close to his Chote wale mama . He used to tell stories to guddu,..... there was this story about this amazing "battery" that had amazing abilities.... he was completely mesemerized by chote mama... and loved him a lot....Bade mama was a little less free and worked a lot, but he was an admirable person and commanded respect for that amount of responsibility that he took on his shoulders.... Nanaji used to stay sick and mamaji was gradually taking command of the family.
Pari:
Then something beautiful happened, and actually the kid was even slightly insecure about it for a while, when the parents told him that he was about to have a sister/brother.... he felt that some competition was coming in.... but then he still remembers the mother telling him how they were meant to be together....he does not remember the words but the sentiments touched him......
At the birth of his sister, he just wanted to go out there and see her....finally when he did, he named her "Pari" -- meaning a "fairy" ....she was so beautiful, she deserved that name.....at least in the book of the 4 year old, she did.... and the name stuck.
Sorrow:
However happiness would last only so much...........Soon, Nanaji passed away, the memories of that day are still clear in the kid's mind... he was barely 6 years old then but the saddness and the crying that happened that day was something he would never forget.... Still, he could not really understand the gravity of the situation at that time ....that there will never again be that time when he would be taken to eat rasgullas by his Nanaji ... he just spent the night in a neighbor's home with his sister... Times were tough, but things moved on....life kept going on and on and on.....
The mundane yet interesting:
Interestingly the grandfather was a little obsessed about medicines......even at the slightest sign of trouble, he used to take Guddu to the doctor, and he compelled them to give medicines... it was so much so that once the doctor got angry and told the grandfather to leave because according to him, "The kid is all right, you have gone crazy.... all this medication is useless, he will be fine." . Again, while this incident makes you wish that it had not happened, the fact remained that he and his ma got to visit Varanasi a lot because of his "health issues" . The maternal family was on family terms with the doctor and told him to tell the grandpa to let them stay for longer and longer...thus both the kid, the mother and the maternal family were happy. Not to mention Babaji.
So this overcared, easygoing, happy-go-lucky guy enjoyed life, but his initial life in the village had made him a little shy.... he even did not like to go to school and although his nanaji run a school where he used to go for exams for class LKG and 1st and 2nd, he hated to attend classes and used to make excuses to not go to school......He practically never went to school except just for the annual exams for the first 4 years of his school life...... Then an important event happened.....
Daddy got sick, he was in Agra and there was no one to take care of him...mummy, mamaji and the boy left for Agra straightaway....it was a tough visit.... but a memorable one as well..... daddy got well, and they all had a great time in Agra...it was such a beautiful time of his life. The kid loved every bit of it......the social life however was something which was still missing....... He was friends with himself...... and himself alone... living in a world of his dreams....thinking, talking to himself about the beautiful and the mundane....everything....it was something he would get used to...and keep on doing a lot.... :) ......
If you've read this far, thanks a million.... Stay tuned for more of PnP .:D
Signing off on 16th April, 2010.
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