C.E.L.E.B.R.A.T.I.O.N.S. ! ! ! !

Think events - birthdays, anniversaries, monthi-versaries(all young people in relationships will know exactly what i mean), engagements, weddings, bachelor parties, first job/first paycheck parties, baby showers etc ..the list goes on & on ...

Think celebrations - lavish parties, large no. of people ... catering, lavish luncheons or dinners, bashes ... lots of money involved ...

Now, let me tell u about a family i know of very closely
they are a family of 3 - husband, wife & a child ... i am a very good friend of their child n they take me as a second son ..

Now, uncle recently turned 45 & for their celebrations, invited me also ..
i reached their place at 7 30 in the evening .. wished uncle, spent some time doing tp at their place till everyone was ready to leave..

we left their building, went to a nearby fruit vendor & bought 10 dozen bananas ! ! ! ..
i was scared (lol) ... & i asked them exactly how they were planning to celebrate the day in a mocking fun-filled tone ...
Uncle just looked at me with kind eyes without replying ...

we were supposed to go to a modest restaurant 20 minutes away by foot ..now, normally i dont mind walking, but i was in formals - good clothes & expensive shoes... but, it wasn't my call...so we walked ...

on the way, there is a portion of the road covered with poor people's hutments ... we went to each hutment & gave a banana to each person living there ...1 banana per person ... throughout the road ... we gave food to a hundred & twenty people ...

they were soo .... happy to see us , thanking us ... a couple of kids even sayin "thank you uncle" in their very broken english ... it was the happiest moment of the day for me ...
seeing all these people so helpless & realising that a very small thing like this could make them so.... happy - it was a lesson for me ...

i realised how i wasted money in "enjoyment" all the times i decided to "celebrate" ... What i did that day was more enjoyable, satisfying, the most fulfilling thing i ever did as a "celebration" ....

Celebrations need not me lavish ... they can be the most simple & still bring happiness to you.. also, the feeling of making people happy in such a way is just incomparable ..
from that day onwards, i decided to spend a certain % of my meagre monthly earnings on such things ... there are a lot of things to do, once u start to take interest ...

doing good to other human beings is the biggest religion...

about that night, well we had dinner at a nice-ish restaurant & also walked all the way back, me enjoying each n every bit of it.... all in my formal shoes ... ! ! !

Chhoti Chhoti Baatein . . . .

i have lost both my grandfathers (maternal & paternal) over the last 3 months.
They were both old, but not ready to leave this world ... they fought against disease all they could befor succumbing to its powers ...
i believe they are in a better place now .. god bless your souls..

Like many youngsters in current day Mumbai, i stayed in a nuclear family, away from my grandparents..
Inspite of many efforts of my parents to make me do so, i did not stay much in touch with my grandparents..
it was always "later mom"... "not today, im tired.. had a lot to do in college"..."im too sleepy, i ll meet them 1st thing tomo morning" ..
i never realised tht "later", "tomo morning" etc never came ...

yes, i did meet them on occasions - birthdays - mine, theirs, anniversaries, festivals .. before my exams, after my results .. etc ... always for a purpose.. wishing them, taking their blessings ..etc..

never did i go meet them jus for saying .."kem chho ba, dada" ...

it is these things that matter ..
after my dada's death, i missed him like hell ..
i remembered the things he did for me when i was a child ... the things i thought were normal, i expected them from him, never realising tht these are the things that are most special ..

like ... when ther was a cricket match and i had school, he would watch the match for me, keep a track of scores, wickets, batting n bowling figures etc, write them all for me so that i could read it n get a feel of the whole match... it had become a done thing for me ... i would even get upset at him for not doing this, never realising how sweet he was to do this .. i had taken all this for granted ..

now, after his death i miss umpteen such things ...
i along with my mom n dad was going through his cupboard looking for important papers, documents etc ... i found something tht made me cry ..
i had some years back topped in a prestigious exam ...
filed meticulously among other important documents of dadaji was a xerox of th marksheet and passing certificate of that exam ! ! ...
i dint even recollect when i had given it to him ...

im cryin while writing this ...

it reminds one of tht Times Of India ad with an old guy replacing a newspaper cutting of him being dropped from th hocke team with a cutting saying tht his grandson is selected ...

i also found a letter i had written to him in gujarati ( as a part of school projects, when we were taught how to write letters) ...
it was just a minor thing i had done coz it was told to us by the teacher "write a letter to ur grandparents... "

it was for us to learn how to write, stick a stamp, post a letter etc ...

he had saved this letter for over 14 years .. the only letter i had written to him ...

i miss him now ... n i regret not having spent time with him when he was here .. among us ..

so, for all people u r close to ... u love ... find time for them ... forget any misunderstandings .. be with them ...

life's not too short ... but it passes by quite fast .. u dont even realise it .. time once gone doesn come back

spend ur time in such a way tht u dont regret doing certain things later ..

and yes, for all those who are still lucky to have both their grandparents, meet them, spend time with them, talk to them ... they deserve that and much more ..
bcoz all they've done for u ... u ll never be able to giv back to them ..

remember these chhoti si baatein ...

what gumption ??

hey.. continuing from my last post ..

as regards the chase of South Africa ... i applaud the sheer guts of the team to even think of going for the target.

what must have been their team talk during the lunch interval ..??
what gumption ?? .. its something we all can learn from ..

no matter what the opposition, what the challenges ahead of us.. what the odds against us, it doesnt harm to try,it doesnt harm to go against conventional logic ..

as they say, "if u reach for the moon, u might fall down ... but u wont end up with a handful of mud either " ...

Basic Funda for the day " Keep tryin till u succeed... if u fail once, twice, thrice... keep trying ... if u fail more, remove all evidence that you tried " ;-)

til later
MSK

On my way . . . .

well... im well n truly lost on my way..
way to where ?? i dont know... lets see if i reach the destination, find out the destination first.

umm.. yesterday was a special day.. a special day for cricket..
no superlatives can do justice, so i ll let the figures speak for themselves.

1 match, 2 teams, 99.5 overs, 872 runs scored, 87 fours, 26 sixes, 175 n 164 being the highest individual scores for the two teams.

the losing side scored 434/4 and the winning side 438/9 batting second.

Man ! ! ! , i was lucky to have watched it. it was a once in a lifetime match..


anyways, moving on ...
i am a student of Chartered Accountancy.. currently doing my articleship with Deloitte.

its glad to be here..

i ll be back later..
ciao