A walk to my birthplace Day 55 (160 Km covered so far)

Yesterday the jungle babbler took me back in time and today as I walked along, I was still in the world of birds. I remembered story of a bird family I had read as a child. 

There was a bird that had formed a nest in a field in the midst of tall grass. Every day the mother bird went out to pick up food for the baby birds and the baby birds eagerly waited till  their mother was back. One day as the mother bird came back, she saw that the babies were scared and unusually quiet. She asked them about the reason. One of the babies said, “O mother today the owner of the field was walking around. He looked around and commented about the wild grass to be cleaned up. What will happen to us?” The wise mother told the babies not to worry and their routine continued for a week. Again after a week the mother bird saw her babies worried when she returned back. Babies told her that the same man had returned and he talked about getting some farm-help to clear the weeds. Mother bird smiled and reassured the babies. Few days passed peacefully and the mother could see the fear haunting the babies once again. She asked, “What happened today?” One of the baby birds said, “Well, the same man had come and he said that tomorrow he himself will start clearing the field”. This time the wise mother bird thought for the moment and told the baby birds, “Its time to go. Lets move to a safer place.” Next day morning she shifted her babies to another place.

This simple story kept coming back to my mind. The message also is simple but profound. Many of us are aware about the weeds we need to clear in our life / mind but just the awareness does not help. Then sometimes we keep waiting for a help to arrive and no-one is in any hurry to clear your weed. The day you take a step to act yourself, it would actually happen sooner than later. The wise little bird knew this reality and shifted her babies only when the owner talked of doing something on his own!

As the year comes to an end, here is wishing my friends a new year full of purposeful action. Do take charge of your own destiny and act to clear the unwanted weed in your life! Wishing you an action filled 2014

A walk to my birthplace Day 55 (154 Km covered so far)

I am fortunate to have a huge campus of NCL next to my house. It’s a lovely place to take a walk in the morning. You do not feel you are in the midst of city as you walk through trees and tall grass.

Today as I crossed a cluster of trees, I was distracted by a sudden noise made by a group of birds. I realized these were jungle babblers- commonly known as “seven sisters” for the habit of moving in the group of 6-7 all the time and making a lot of noise.

“Seven sisters” took me back in time. During my college days, a few of us had formed our own nature club and registered ourselves with WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature). We diligently used to go on our bird-watching trails every Sunday. Mumbai has (or at least that time had!) a 91 Sq Km jungle which used to boast of about 285 species of birds ….

…. We used to park our two-wheelers near the film city gate of the forest and walk deep inside …. We walked on many Sundays in all different seasons …. During monsoon one could lose count of peacocks crossing the roads … a pheasant crow – an otherwise shy bird with a sweet call used to be a regular friend there …. Oriole with a bright yellow body and black head was a sight to behold! I still can feel the shiver up my spine when we spotted a family of huge vultures on a lonely road!

The best memory I have is that of a Malabar Hornbill. Hornbill is a bird with huge beak and not very common around crowded cities. On one corner of the road, we spotted a tree little below the level of the road. As soon as we spotted the hornbill, we stood there still like statues lest the bird should get disturbed. Hornbill sat there on a big branch and as we saw little more carefully, we saw a hole in the tree trunk covered with mudpack. A baby hornbill sat there comfortably taking feed from the parent hornbill on the branch. I don’t remember exactly but we sat there for a long time transfixed. It was something of a spiritual experience!!

Looking back, I realize that those jungle trails did a lot for me …. Those trails taught me to walk on lonely roads without any expectations and be appreciative of the gifts, the journey has in store for you. Walking around aimlessly, after all,  can be very purposeful!

I winked at the babblers and walked away with a promise to return tomorrow!

A walk to my birthplace Day 54 (150 Km covered so far)

Couple of weeks back, I got an invitation for a function that aroused my curiosity. The function was about donating two boxes of books to readers. The function was organized by ‘Kusumagraj pratishthan(Foundation)’. Kusumagraj was a towering personality in Marathi literature so when you get an invitation to participate in a function that bears his name, it was an absolute honor.

I entered the venue to be met by a short man. “Hi, I am Vinayak Ranade from Kusumagraj Pratishthan”. I shook hands with typical enthusiasm I reserve for office bearers of any type! I had reached early and there were not many around. So I asked Mr Ranade “Tell me something more about this function”. I must say, I asked the question just to kill time and was not ready for what I was about to hear!!

Mr Ranade started his narrative. In 2004, he met with a near fatal accident in which his friend lost his life and Mr Ranade himself was seriously injured. He had to lie on the bed for close to one and half years. All he could do that time was to reflect on life. “For the first time I realized that the world can run without me. I have a printing business which my wife had to run and she did it efficiently.” Mr Ranade recounted. He also had a unique hobby. He never forgot to wish anyone on their birthdays. He soon realized that he had about 3000 contacts. He organized these contacts into the groups. He would send a birthday message to the person concerned along with the others in the group so that others in the group also wished the birthday boy/girl – a very simple way of spreading happiness.  Invariably people celebrating their birthdays called Mr Ranade in the evening and asked him about what can they do for him.

This set him thinking. From this huge contact base came an idea “Pustak tumachya daari (Book at your Doorstep)”. Mr Ranade raised funds through his well-wishers and created what he calls “Reading Groups”. He would go and buy best of Marathi books and put 100 of them in a box. He would then give this box to one volunteer who would take responsibility of circulating the books in the box to the registered members of the reading group for next 4 months. After 4 months Mr Ranade or one of his volunteers would come to take the box and replace it with other box! The whole mission was about giving quality books to anyone who wants to read! “Lot of books in libraries lie on shelf but this way many of the books get read and people don’t mind reading if the books are easily available”.

Mr Ranade does not take a penny from this venture; neither do readers pay a penny. Today he has 400 boxes of books in circulation with each box containing 100 books. This is the overwhelming power of a simple idea acted on diligently. Here is a simple man who runs his business, his family but also runs a madness where 40,000 books are in circulation and the number is growing. Take a bow Mr Ranade – the world needs more mad people like you to make it a better place!!!

A walk to my birthplace Day 52 (145 Km covered so far)

Just like any average Indian middleclass boy, I drooled at Royal Enfield bikes (more commonly and fondly called “Bullet” across all its models). The problem was, I could never afford one – neither the price nor the mileage. However, the dream of buying a “Bullet” always lingered on in my mind.

Finally at the age of 43, I bought a Royal Enfield classic 500 - a sheer beauty. I just wanted to live up my old dream of roaming around on my bike with my wife. As we started roaming around, we realized the problem. Back seat is not all that comfortable to ride and Pallavi complained some back pain after some long rides. I was little disappointed and decided to take the bike to one of the mechanics I had heard about.

My cousin had told me about a mechanic who operates in Pune. He is considered as expert on ‘Bullets’ and also called Bullet Ramesh. I went to him with my bike to check if something can be done about the backseat. Well, Ramesh operates near a petrol pump and when I went to search for him, a man in shabby dress approached me.  He introduced himself as Ramesh. I was little disappointed – he looked a simple man not even wearing a mechanic apron! I told him the problem and asked him if he could do something.

He told me that he works on bike and not on “other parts”. He also told me not to waste my time searching for the solution for the seat. I was disappointed but liked his direct talk. “I am sure something can be done” I asked him. Ramesh scratched his head for and said, “May be if we adjust suspension setting, ride on the back seat could be little easier.” I asked him “Ok, how much time will it take and when should I come?” He looked at me, shook his head, sat down near my bike with a screwdriver, “I will do it now”. He showed me how simple was the adjustment and finished the job in couple of minutes. “How much do I pay you”. He smiled – “Nothing for this. Just don’t ask such questions, some people will advise you to change the suspension instead of this simple job! By the way, I am also authorized to service your bike”.

I thanked him and left thinking. There was something about his expertise that appealed to me. He was not the one who hyped his work. I also may not have to pay for overheads like his workshop rent, uniform and many other things which may not have any relevance to servicing my bike! May be this simple man had a very simple USP for which I would not mind paying him – his passion and knowledge for Bullet!

A walk to my birthplace Day 50 (142 Km covered so far)

Today as I walked my thoughts drifted to some random memories about my sister.

I have a sister who is elder by 6 years. I can’t exactly say that we grew together because she was someone I always looked up to and knew that she will always take care of me. Well, I always needed someone to defend me due to whatever mischief I played almost every day. My sister always used to fight my case and that delicate little girl used to be a terrific advocate!

I used to exploit her benevolence to the full. I still remember, once I had a slight injury to my finger at the beginning of the academic year. So my sister wrote the science journal for me. Her handwriting, unlike mine, is outstanding. I told her that if I now write the journal, teacher will detect the difference and that would be a trouble. She smiled and wrote my journal for the rest of the year!! My mother told her not to fall for such obvious tricks but she was ok…..

Of course there was a little fee to be paid for such cover. I used to be the errand boy not only for her but also for her friends. In those days when telephone was a luxury, I used to go from one place to other exchanging the messages she and 3 of her best friends wrote to each other. Other duties included standing in the Q for movie tickets, escort them from a late night movie etc but I was fine ….

Just the last week, I was in Mumbai for an important meeting and stayed at her place the night before. Next day morning, I sat up chatting with her on the breakfast table till she reminded me of the time. I panicked – I had to attend an important quarterly review meeting. I wanted to quickly iron my clothes and asked her for the iron. She told me to go and take the shower and she promised me to iron my clothes. Without hesitation, I followed the instructions and finally made it on time …

As I ended my day I wondered about the morning incident. I knew the importance of my meeting extremely well. I also knew that I couldn't afford to be late – Did I sit there chatting with her half-knowingly that she will help me to get ready? The answer is YES. Was it fair on my part to do so – the answer is YES again! There are very few people in life who preserve your childhood in their mind. These are anchors of your life who give you immense stability in your ups and down. For them, you always remain a child. If you keep aside logic and modern days norms of correct behavior,  you will understand what exactly I mean!!

A walk to my birthplace Day – 49 (136 km covered so far)

I am pathologically nomadic! I can never sit at home. Even on a weekend, I keep figuring out multiple options to roam around. My friends always keep asking me about the reason for my high energy when it comes to an outing.  I never have been able to understand it …. Well at least till today.

My mother underwent a serious cervical spinal cord surgery over four years back. She fought hard to get on to her feet but that surgery did leave serious restrictions on her movements. She has to walk with some help and that too slowly. After the surgery her going out for long trips became difficult and I also could not take her out anywhere for a vacation due to multiple reasons.

Finally things worked out. Pallavi, kids and I decided to go to Mahabaleshwar (about 120 Km from Pune) along with my parents. We had planned this vacation just to relax but my mother made it clear that she is not going to sit at the resort. She suggested that we should go to some place around Mahabaleshwar which we have not gone earlier. I did some search and narrowed down on Tapola – beautiful place with confluence of three rivers. We decided to go there and take ride in a boat for couple of hours.

We reached there and booked a boat exclusively for ourselves. As we went down to the water, I realized the problem! This place was not well developed with a proper jetty etc and one had to climb a little iron ladder to get into the boat! Impossible for my mother for sure! I abandoned the plan as I did not want to take any risk. My mother stopped me. “I will try”. I told her not to worry about the money that we might waste – it was ok for me. She insisted. “It’s a beautiful place = lets try”. Looking at her spirit the boatman was touched and he offered an innovative solution. He pulled the boat next to a small platform from where my mother could sit on the edge of the boat and we could get her in on the bench inside! She actually did it! Thank god nobody with a faint heart was around to watch it!!

The boat ride was great. It was serene surrounding and we sailed through at a comfortable speed. I looked at my mother. There she was - sitting quietly enjoying the breeze in that lovely surrounding. It was such a lovely picture that I forgot to look around and kept staring at her. That instant I suddenly got answer to the question my friends keep asking me. The answer was so obvious and in front of me! I know the source of my madness and answers could be found in genetics!!

A walk to my birthplace Day – 48 (133 km covered so far)

I read a Danish story in newspaper’s children’s section and that kept ringing in my head all the day. Just felt compelled to repeat the story  here. Of course I don’t remember the exact names of the character but that hardly matters!

John went to his grandmother’s place just before Christmas. Grandmother gave him 50 krones and told him to buy anything for Christmas. When they went to the big mall, grandmother said, “John, go and buy whatever you want. I will sit here and read my book”. John was little disoriented as he had never gone alone in such a shop. The shop was full of Christmas gifts and little John felt like Alice in the wonderland. He moved from one counter to another and stopped in his tracks when he saw a beautiful red and white woolen sweater. He remembered his classmate and best friend Rob. Rob never came to play out with other kids on the ground. Whenever anyone invited Rob to play, he politely turned it down saying he was not well. Only John knew that Rob avoided playing out in the open as he did not have proper warm clothes. John instinctively picked up the sweater for Rob. John went to the counter and gave it to the sales girl along with his 50 Krones. The girl smiled at little John and asked him whom was he buying it for. John told him about Rob and the salesgirl smiled and gift-packed it for John in exchange of 50 Krones. When grandmother heard the story, she looked the price-tag, went over to the counter and paid the balance of amount after thanking the sweet salesgirl.

Grandmother then took little John to Rob’s place. She asked him to keep the gift in the door, ring bell and come back. John followed the instruction and both of them stood behind a tree. Little Rob opened the door, came out, picked up the gift and was overjoyed. “Thank you Santa!” he yelled looking up. Grandmother told John, “Santa is very busy these days and that’s why he asks us to help him in distributing gifts. Santa will definitely thank you.”

It is such a simple story but it touched my heart. I wondered, who was Santa? Was it Little John who thought of spending all his money for a dear friend or was it the salesgirl who kept aside commercial considerations so that a noble mind does not get disappointed or was it the grandmother who guided little John like an angel. Perhaps they all were! Rob would never know his Santa. It must be happening to all of us.  There is always a Santa out there for everyone. All we can do to repay Santa is to be a silent Santa for someone else. After all that old man with white beard wearing red dress wouldn't mind a little helping hand here and there!