The photo shoot!

Graph we drew when we were children
then came the photographer with his box and
black cloth, stand and cap, told us all to stand in line
looked at us and told to smile..bulged his eyes
and pulled the cap in a way to show us something

He didn't show us any thing but said thank you
then he closed his box and cloth, folded the stand
in three fold and packed, then he looked up
and thought a while, said the photo will be ready
by such and such date making over awed all of us

He walked away with a gait, box and cloth and
stand in hand all packed up in style
All of us looked at his box and bag
wondering how each one of us looked
in his black box with steel clips and lock

After a few weeks he came again with only his
small bag and everybody stood around him
from the bag he pulled out the packet neatly
covered and nicely ribboned, opened it in great
fashion to show us the class photo of the year!

All of us in wonderment said in unison 'how wonderful'
and scrambled to see our own faces, so neatly
arranged in the photo with the masterji in the
centre and our liked and unliked friends around!


Then came the photo camera owned by our better
colleagues, could borrow from our best friends
bought the cartridge at the studio and set out to
shoot our near and dear in style and at times
evening set in went out to shoot the nature around

Dad and Mom were happy, sisters and brothers
were happy too to see their little boy shoot them
in style and keep them all in his little box turning
the handle of and on, with a great air about him
All were anxious to see the developed photos
which he brought from the city studio

All were happy, all were joyful to see their
photos shot by their little one.
Then of course came the better one
the 'digital' shoot and sight and grab in
style, keep in the pocket and see on the net

Take it to the computer or lap top and
copy to the 'Thumb' take the thumb anywhere
you want, show it to any one you liked
if they had the time to watch!

But alas, the times have changed and times have
passed, no body had the time to watch,
Mom and Dad had passed away,
Brothers and sisters had grown old,
some had passed away!

Children had become grown ups and had
to find their daily bread!  As the world is
running fast, they had to run faster and
find their place among the runners up
No body had to time to watch and the
photos remained in the 'Thumb'!

A sunny day

The day is sunny after the morning cold and slight breeze.  The breeze in the early morning at the end of the winter season is normal.  There will be due, fog and light wind.  People come out still, the house maids come for their work covered in their woollens, the little cars and vans com to transport children to schools, the early office goers rush out and so on.

After that bustle, the old and elderly come out looking for a little sun light and warmth.  They are people who have spent a life time doing their hard work in field or otherwise, now leading a little peaceful family life, if there is a family or else, they live with who so evcer is left behind!

When the family is mentioned, in the olden days, the families were larger, father, mother, the big brother, a lot of small brothers and sisters etc. and at times one or two reltives! Women were destined and took it upon themselves that they have to keep the house, cook and clean and play host to who so ever were there including all the children! Children on their part also did as much support to make the family life move in harmony!

Not any more.  Now the family is generally husband, wife, and one or two children!  Sometimes, there may be father and mother too, either of the wife or of the husband! In city houses, the father and mother is normally not needed except when they are useful in handling children by sending them to school and receiving them back etc.  At other times, the work allotted or accepted is to fetch milk, look after ones own health check up and collection of medicines and walk around to have a glimpse of the sun!

I set out to collect milk.  The milk shop closes by twelve thirty in the afternoon, before which I have to collect the milk.  Milk is provided in polythene packs these days!  Far back, it was in glass bottles of half a litre each!  This was linked to the ration cards of those days!  Two bottles of milk is the normal take of a family of four, including husband, wife, and two children.  If elders are there, there will be four bottles making it two litres.  I collected my polythene pack of one litre and strolled on in the sun enjoying the change in the climate.  A small cell phone doing the additional work of the pocket radio was with me and the wires brought either songs of yester-years to my ears or advertisements for the Delhi elections, party by party!  I wlaked on till I reached the complaint cell of the housing complex and there made a complaint for the leaking pipes and returned!

We have too many dogs and puppies in the compound!  They are stray dogs, indeed, but well fed, from the left overs or residues !  A bunch of four puppies  were under a lamp pole and I thought it is a good idea to take a snap of them!  But once I stopped to take the snap, the little ones thought that I am going to give them some food and came around me sniffing me all over.  Since they could not find any food, they slowly walked away.  My idea of taking the photo was gone. I walked further on and there was a little girl playing with stone pebbles.  She was a servant girl, in good clothes, and had to play alone.  The game with pebbles can be played alone too as one has to put a stone up and catch as many stones on the ground quickly and lift the hand back and catch the stone one sent up too.Her loneliness among so many residents will make any body slightly sad!

Only the house women spoke to her that too commands only when she went to them for cleaning utensils or washing clothes if not to wipe and sweep floors.  The house women always criticised those girls for being late or not doing the chores with extra cleanliness which they themselves did not want to do because of the cold!

Walking on I reached my block where I was waiting for the elevator to come down when my eyes grazed around the see the writings made on the walls! But nothing could be read as a very corrective authority had rubbed out the writings !  But the fire extinguisher was of course in doldrums.  The glass in front of the stock of items for emergency was broken and gone like many others in other blocks also!

The elevator called the lift came.  It is a self operated lift, the doors of which have to be slided to its closing place and a button to be pressed to take me to my level! Oh..then I remembered my friend! He was sitting in the park in the sun!  I had to say helo to him as he is slightly elder to me and had retired much before me.  He has got all his children settled and now is in prayers and treatment with the normal old age problems!  He had his own stories which I have not enquired into to keep our respective privacies!  He namasthed me with folded hands when I saluted him from a distance.  Sat ith him for a few minutes, enquired his well being got satisfied then I walked back with my milk!

Come, let us celebrate the fragrance filled day..!

A day can't go without being mentioned
when the winter is going and spring is setting in
the smooth rain clouds give a silver glow
to the morning sky, the birds are happy
and chirping, the doves are flapping their
pretty wings and flying from house to house!

The sun is shining on the south eastern skies
trying to climb back to the north
the low cloud has started grazing the ground
sending the fragrance of the dew and mist
into every bodys nostrils exciting everyone!

Come let us go for a walk and shake of
the winter cold..the day is going to the pleasant
and sunny with light rain in the morning
mixed with light fog and no breeze..
Come let us celebrate the fragrance filled day..!

The Subji Market..!

   Evenings we go to the subji market.  It is the local vegetable market. The vegetables are sold at the make shift place, a decadent place where there is a lot of stagnant water and all kind of vegetable and other wastes heaped in places and being removed at time, don't know to where.

These huge vehicles like tractors and tippers or trucks and mini-trucks are all seen from time to time.  The stagnant water attracts the seasonal birds and little white storks which have lost their sheen and colour due to the filth and the filthy water.

Yet, near all that most of the poor people, and the general public reach for their vegetables which are seasonal crops brought from the wholesale market (mandi) which is also near by.

The whole3 sale mandi works in the early mornings where as the retail sellers work in the evenings to sell of their wares.  Once, the evening is around, people start pouring in after their daily work to buy a few vegetables for the day and the day next.  The market being a make shift one, work only on three days of the week and people also buy only on those three days generally.  Everything in the village is done generally.  The vendors are generally poor, less educated but good at the art of selling their wares.

They call out, shout out the prices, coax and cajole the buyers, give in to bargain, which they have a knack of doing with useful customers and ultimately settle for a mutually agreed price without being very offensive.  Even though they siit next to a lot of much, the vegetables are fresh always.  The same vegetables will be highly priced if we approach a mall, where going itself is tedious!  Here, the weekly or bi-weekly market offers the vegetables at you walking distance from the house and every body prefer it.

Mothers know which vegetables to be bought when, and they get a chance to select their requirements from the local vegetable market, which they keep as a great thing to have.  In the cold, when the man of the house and the children of the family arrive after a hard day's work and schools and colleges, it is the mother's wish to serve them with some hot food ! For that they need good vegetables which is available in the local market.

What ever that may be, the cleanliness of the market remains an eye sore all the while.  May be the Panchayat or the local self governments may change them in the years to come, as we are said to be making rapid progress in all fields!!

People in the market and those visiting for vegetables are quite unconcerned about all that. Mostly ladies go for the vegetables and rarely any of them make a complaint of the surroundings!  That is the greatness of our people.  The extent to which they suffer! They only look for the cheaper vegetables.  Olden times, vegetables were plenty and it was the prerogative of the ladies visiting to select most of the vegetables.  No more now.  The dealer or seller will take them random, weigh it and give it to you. But bargaining is still there.  There is a small  idea of keeping a scale on a slightly slanted position etc. is there, but hardly make much difference.

A new system which has slowly creep in is at times the sellers colouring the vegetables to resemble very fresh vegetables!  Another is putting green lights especially as CFL lights are available, most of them light up a cfl lamp in green !  You will be stupified by its green light which falls on the green vegetables and will give the impression the vegetable is green.  But all that can't  fool the seasoned buyers who are also knowledgeable and adept at these arts generally attempted by the vegetable sellers.

A day with tooth ache!

A cold day in Delhi is not one to be very good to be in if you have tooth ache.  When I landed up the other day it was foggy and cold and I was having the tooth ache on the left upper molars where the filling had fallen off a year back.  I had not cared to fill it up as the city town was a fair 15 miles away and the tooth was not giving any pain.

In our style of living, we do something when we have trouble with it, or else we leave it as such undisturbed.  I did not think that it will disturb me but now it has started disturbing.  The Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station was cold and was becoming colder by the minute on a cold evening at 8 pm.  A cold breeze was making things worse.   We scrambled into the nearest taxi and reached home to cry on the paining tooth and the spreading pain.  The shearing pain spread all over the left of the face bringing tears in the left eye!

The next day a visit to the nearest doctor brought a few medicines for pain and antibiotics for healing which gave allergy and my lips started to get swollen with a tongue paining at the beginning! A dentist specialist advised further antibiotic and not  chewing with the paining tooth, and asked to wait for the new medicine to take effect and the inflammation to subside and then to come for root canal etc.

I will go for it.  I am convinced!  When I was young, my mother, my father and other elders used to get tooth ache from time to time and when they complained I never understood the gravity of their pain..!  Now I do understand!  When it happens to oneself, one understands! Or understands the best!

The pain has receded for a bit, the inflammation is gone after five days of continued medication, but the procedure of root canal and restoration is to be done yet.  I have to get it fixed.  I spend time with google blogging and fb checking, two favorite of these days as one is getting more and more away from others and group activities are becoming lesser and lesser due to movement and non-movement.

After two days, II went to the Dentist and this time, she rubbed out a lot of decayed tooth parts and filled it up with some item which has relieved the pain.  The climate improvement has also given a good turn as the sun has started coming up during the day time.  Altogether, it is a welcome sign as the pain suffered so far was too harsh.  No body wants to take that kind of pain on a cold day!

The Dentist has assured that the in two more sittings, a permanent crown or something will be fixed and that will be that.  I agree as I have a tooth already capped earlier.  Once the climate improves things will be better!

***                           ****                                                       ***


The climate improved.  Two weeks had gone by with a lot of anti-biotics and allergy and further anti-allergy medicines.  In between the Dentist saw me and rubbed out a lot of the tooth parts and suggested me not to eat with that side of the jaw till I was allowed later.  There was pain after the rubbing which was controlled by an occasional pain killer tablet.  The pain decreased now. By this time a stub of the tooth is left in the tooth area and a part is filled with some medication.  Now the wait is for a crown in ceramic.

The sunny days improve the condition of the teeth.  Until the tooth are worn out, they hold on what may come, hot or cold, but once they start wearing out, oh..the change in temperature sends shock waves to the brain to make a person to wish for a better condition.

Yesterday, I had been checked and a clay mould had been used in my mouth for take an impression of the area where I want the tooth.  Today, I am to get it redone as the earlier impression I am told is not properly decipherable by the laboratory man.  Did it! There is no other go. Once anybody is down with health problems, things slowly multiply and at times for no apparent reason.  However, a saving grace is theere, the climate is steadily improving with a cold climate slowly giving way to a lot of warmth and sunny days which brings up the temperature!   It is surprising, a sunny climate always go well with human beings!

A cold morning in Delhi

   I was happily  writing to my  friends it is 8 degrees Celsius here with a lot of fog!  Nay, when the newspaper came it was 5 degrees plus.  The present day climate is much beyond the olden times and many a times too below normal if it is cold and too high if it is hot.

The fog makes visibility very poor keeping everyone indoors and sipping at their hot cup of ginger tea! Families will be happy that all their inmates will be in place and there could be found some time to chit chat except for those who are on fb or google.

Still nearness is something.  It brings in talks of times which we went past, memories of times we lived and loved, times we got our first child, second child and times we grew them up and now sitting as early nesters!

There was a time I used to bargain with the next door auto rikshaw walla and neighbour for a sum of 250 Rupees to take 5 children from Mayur Vihar to New Delhi.  Money was hard to come by.  The only thing which went up in those days were the petrol prices and not salaries!

He agreed and started and at the end of the year we had to shift residence. On a second visit to the same place next year, our old neighbours brought up the subject of transporting children to the New Delhi school.  They said the present day rate for the auto rikshaw walla is 2500 Rupees and he has given ab ultimatum that if the rate is not revised to 3000 Rupees check for other modes!

Lived through all that, got school buses inside Delhi  where we shifted ! The children slogged at Schools and we slogged in Government offices and Schools and the timing was only on record as we worked all the time, went to office in the early mornings to reach before 9 am and never looked at the clock for coming home.  5 pm was tea time, 7 pm was officer's meetings end, and 7-9 was work times.  9.30 pm was pack up time thinking of the first thing of next day..!

Time much before was still curious and interesting to muse now. It was a time salary was too low and the jobbers at the lower end was provided with an ex gratia called overtime allowance, which was commonly referred as 'Overtime".  A posting in a seat which will want you to sit late after office hours was considered to be a gratis by those, who wanted some extra money due to extreme family needs, This could be got only if you had some good officers at the administration. Otherwise you got an exactly 5 pm out office and the month will pass by without any extra remuneration.

But the slate reversed after some time. After a long while in which several exams are passed, promotions are granted one became not entitled for any extra allowance, ie. overtime, then from day one, one got a  place where there was a lot of room where one had to sit late to complete the day's work! But then, all is in the game of life and work.  Those who were worldly wise and cunning kept away from such places!  The innocent accepted it in the name of all the good traditions and principles!

But still the climate was not this bad. During cold there was the fire place in each office to keep one warm and in summer there was surahis issued for pure drinking water! The plastic bottles were not needed in those days!

The day had passed by and the sun light never appeared. The slight drum beat can be heard to set the rythm of the Lori festival which suggests a change in the movement of the sun to the down south. Once it changes course, more sunny days will be ahead.  The festival is mainly celebrated in the north of India, mainly in Punjab, Haryana and nearby states. In other states various festivals known as Bihu, Makar Samkranti, Pongal etc. are celebrated.Generally, these festivals happen in a matter of three weeks after Christmas!

The sufferings of the poor will lessen with more warmth in coming months with the next festival of Holi.!

A tooth ache selected this time to show up!  He is a bad guest, indeed! Eating is affected straight away and the medicine allergies take you off your feet! Now grapple with it with anti allergants and come around to see the dentist!  Really  a pain! Will go away along with the cold! Lucky to get medicines, but when I think of the millions who do not get any treatment and medicines thoughts go to the local way side dentist who pulls out a tooth just putting his fingers into your mouth.  These days I see less of them in Delhi.  Years back, one or two used to sit near Central Secretariat and at other joints where people used to come a lot.  They sit on the road side with a few pictures and a few old teeth already plucked from other patients who had presented themselves to get their tooth or teeth plucked out!  They used to charge two Rupees in those days!

Now dental doctors are coming out in large numbers every year, still dental help is elusive or not easy! The best bet is to keep our oral hygiene and train children to do the same!

Now I have started to get one of my troubling teeth fixed and it has lessened the pain! And then, Lo..! The other tooth on the other side has taken up the pain.  It is not paining heavily.  But is starting to. That is how it start.  First it will be a jump when one drink a glass of normal water at room temperature. Then every now and then or one chews a piece of hard food. It will be followed up with a slight pain every now and then.  If you don't go to the Dentist still, then when you go to the Dentist your face will be contorted..!

Youth and children do not know of it! There is scant education regarding dental hygiene! The cold affects those who are elderly more readily!  The limbs will get it fast if one is not protected with good foot wear and socks.  Likewise, one has to be  well covered with woollen jackets or sweaters and a head gear or a muffler!

After four days, today, the third week of January is cold and rainy.  A mild breeze increases the effect !  In a cosy atmosphere in the in doors of houses with good heating, it will not affect any one.  It is when one goes out and all those poor people who do not have any where to go who really get it!

The loss of the Tooth Pique and the ear pique!

Jayanthi Janata express which used to ply to New Delhi (not New Delhi for exact...but Hazrat Nizamuddin, which is near to New Delhi) from Cochin used to carry me when ever I travelled to Delhi.  In Andhra a lot of nick knack seller will enter the train with many useful little articles.  One of them used to the a bunch with three little copper knick knack.  One is an ear pick, another is a tooth pick and the third one is a little forceps. The whole thing put on a little tiny copper ring it cost me two rupees of the olden days!  I fell for it at the first sight and ever since I was a user and a devotee of this great equipment.


I bought them on almost all my travels and gave it to mother when I reached home.  She will distribute it to those who wanted them.   But I kept my first one.  Chicken curry was a delicacy in those days in the train.  After a chicken curry lunch, I did not have to use it as I was a lad of 26 and very healthy.  I had no health issues and never had to use a tooth pick.  I had got the bunch for the beauty of the ear pick.  As a finger will not go into the ear, it is good to use the copper ear pick.  It cleaned the ear spic and span after a bath.  I used it for a long forty years all through my working years, but lately the use slowly changed from the ear pick to the tooth pick.

Any fibrous food will send in a few fibre into the cavities of the teeth which is simply taken out by the tooth pick and at times the forceps.  That bunch of three items, lately became a bunch of two items containing only the ear pick and the tooth pick only.  And among the two the tooth pick started to run before the ear pick as the use of the item increased..! Ask any one above sixty, and you will see they generally agree.

(to be continued..)