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Year 2000. I was free for almost a year. I had accepted it but for my family, it was difficult to accept that an academically excellent boy like me would fail in the Higher Secondary Board Examination, and especially after scoring a first-class in Grade 10 Board Exams. I knew I would fail. As soon as I took admission in the Science stream, I realized that it wasn't my cup of tea. When the board results were declared, my father came from his office carrying a box of sweets as he was confident of my result. That box remained unopened for many days. "We cannot bear more for your education now. You have to work your way out for it now," very humbly my father told me. I planned to reappear for the exams. So, I was left with a lot of free time. Now, I no more dreamt of becoming a doctor. Those days, software courses were in demand, and I was more interested in them, and especially in graphic and animation. On my bicycle, I went to many esteemed institutes to find i...
Daaji, my grandfather, was a silent fellow who would dwell in sitting on the porch in the verandah relishing the tobocco and roasted supari (areca nut). I often saw him turning his face from one side to other watching people come and go in the chawl while munching his supari. I never saw him speaking to anyone. "Hey Daaji, how are you?" Daaji would raise his hand signalling he was ok. "Jai Bhim Daaji." Daaji would join his hand replying to the greeting. Three times a day, my mother would call, "Daaji, come inside. The meal is ready", and he would eat whatever was offered without any complaints. One would find Daaji always sitting on the porch in his loose white pyjama and white shirt and a Gandhi cap on his head. We kids used to hide that cap when he would sleep on the porch. I remember one story Daaji told us kids. We kids were in the verandah playing hide-and-seek. I was hiding behind Daaji and I saw a big scar on his thigh.Later, I ga...
W e heard many stories of Anita mam, Mrs Anita Karmarkar, our soon-to-be Maths teacher in Class 9. Till now, we had the maths teachers and they were lout, but nobody was even an inch closer to Anita mam. They say, "Maths teachers are always strict", but I believe that the one with anger management issues become Math teachers. Our seniors had given their testimonial about her and had already scared the hell out of us. "Don't even try to fool her. She is Lady Sherlock Holmes. She knows when you lie." "You dare not to do her homework, and she would hit your knuckles with that damn wooden duster." "She loves hearing your screams when she pinches your stomach and pulls your hair." "If she smiles, don't think she is happy. It means you are screwed." Though I was an average boy in academics, my friends were excellent in making other students lives hell in the school. We used to call it Fun , but now, the leg...
Ganpat and The Khais She was our Mhatari Aayi (the old mother), our grandmother, the best story-teller I have ever met. After our dinner, we children would gather around her in the front yard waiting for her stories. As we would sit in the circle, she would take her tobacco pouch out, take a pinch of it and rub it on her palm, and like a movie hero, in slow motion, she would make it disappear between her lips. Like the most wanted narrator, she would tell a new tale every night. Though she had a great stock of stories, our favourite was the ghost stories. We, the kids between 4 to 14 years old, would listen to the ghost stories with great amusement. They were unique as they had a weird kind of lead character, silence and suspense. Just to prove that we weren't scared of ghosts, we would sit there listening to the story till the end,...
I remember my childhood days when every weekend my entire joint family would gather to enjoy a Bollywood movie on Doordharshan. We would laugh, cry and make predictions about what would happen next. During fight scenes, we would pray that the hero should give nice punches to the villain and then we kids would celebrate his victory by dancing without music. Those memories are still very fresh in my mind. Today when the entire world is shutting down and people are social distancing, self-quarantining themselves, this can also be seen as a time to come closer to our families and make each moment lighter and memorable While many would prefer to watch web series or movies on Netflix or Amazon Prime during this quarantine period, individually on their mobiles, I would prefer to watch some light-hearted family movies along with my entire family, from 8 year old to 80 year old, while relishing tea and hot pakodas. The ten films I’ve decided to re-watch with my family are: ...