KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH PEERS

KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH PEERS

Someone had posted a placard which read:

It was the last day of school, everyone promised to stay in touch.

Then life happened and friends became names in contact list.

He posted his comments as, “I hope (perhaps, he meant ‘ I am sure’ and not hope) everyone must have experienced dis (this).

My dear friend, it is indeed sad thing that you have lost touch with your classmates. The very idea of having school reunion is to be with our classmates once again. So be there on 12^th December, 2015 when we are celebrating 90 years of our St. Sebastian.

On this very subject, I had written an article in Marathi, ‘तुफान मेल, ही दुनिया एक तुफान मेल!’

This is the extract (you may read the entire article on my block link: htpp// vinaytrilokekar.blogspot.in):

काही दिवसापूर्वी माझा एक मित्र बऱ्याच वर्षांनी दादर स्टेशन बाहेर भेटला. जवळच असलेल्या इराणी हॉटेल मध्ये आम्ही शिरलो. आमचा तो अड्डा असे. ऑर्डर दिली , चहा झाला आणि खाता  - खाता गप्पा सुरु झाल्या. गजाने मला विचारले, " आपण येथे कितेकदा आलो आहोत. खुर्च्या - टेबले तशीच, चहाचा स्वाद तोच आणि खिमा-पावची चव पण तीच. व्हॉट इज मिसिंग?" "जूक बॉक्स !" आम्ही दोघेही एकदम ओरडलो. .------

मला आठवते आम्ही, मित्र असो किंवा सहकारी, बऱ्याचदा भेटत असू, गप-शप करत असू. हास्य विनोद होत आणि वादही होत. वाद व्यक्तिमत्वावर  नसत तर ते तत्वावर असत. आमची मत भिन्न असत, आम्ही एकमेकांना विरोध करत असू पण आम्हाला एकमेकांचा आदरही असे. सुरूवाती -सुरूवातीला गाठी भेटी चहा- कॉफीचे घोट घेत घेत रंगत असत. नंतर कपाचे रुपांतर ग्लास मध्ये झाले आणि चहा- कॉफी सोडून आम्ही बियर, रम किंवा विस्कीचे घोट घेत घेत गप्पा मारू लागलो. आमचे आणि आमच्या गप्पा गोष्टींचे असे प्रमोशन होत गेले, पण त्यातील गोडवा कधीच आटला नाही. 
पण ह्या धावपळीच्या जीवनात आपण सारे घडत असलेले क्षणच जगू लागलो आहोत. घोषणा बाजीत वेळ दवडूलागलो आहोत. अर्थपूर्ण संवाद विणणे हेच मुळात विसरलो आहोत. आता आपली सायंकाळ सूर्यास्ता बरोबरच संपते. पूर्वी प्रमाणे आपण जुन्या आठवणीच्या आनंदात रेगाळू शकत नाही. ज्या वेगाने लिहिण्याची कला नष्ट होत आहे तितक्याच वेगाने संवाद साधण्याचे कौशल्य आपण हरवून बसलो आहोत. ह्या दोनही गोष्टी साधण्या साठी तल्लख बुद्धी पेक्षा मोकळे आणि स्वच्छ - निर्मळ मन असायला लागते. पण आज आपल्या साऱ्यांच्या डोक्याचे झाला आहे विचका. 
 पण 'आजचा दिवस माझा' असे म्हणत आयुष रेटण्यात काय मजा आहे? एक एक  घडणाऱ्या क्षणचा   आनंद उपभोग घेण्यातच गंमत असते! आपली धावपळ थोडी कमी करूया. आपल्या तुफान मेलचा वेग मंद करूया. स्वप्रेरीत आणि  स्वाभाविकपणे पुनः नाचूया! मनमोकळ्या पणाने हसा, आपल्या आप्तेष्टा आणि मित्र परिवारांबरोबर वेळ घालवा आणि आठवणीना उधाण देऊन आनंद लुटा. (Do read the entire article)

Dear friend, I have passed (SSC) way back in 1965 and yet some of us, I mean we classmate, do meet. In fact, one of my classmates, Deepak Desai, had just dropped in at my residence the other day. We had met after quite some time and the pleasure of meeting thus was writ all over his face, I could see. The feeling was mutual. Do read my ‘A DIALOGUE WITH MY SCHOOL MATES’, which I have already posted here. Slow down the speed of you life’s Tufan Mail, spend some time with your friends and classmate.But then again life is too short to live only for the moment and erase the joys of the past. We need to begin celebrating again. Sadly we seem to have lost it today.

Break into that beautiful song once again, spread your wings and jump and dance. Do not be too politically correct every time. Joke and laugh as used to and bring back memories; relive them with gay abandon and allow the child in you to prevail.  Enjoy this life while it lasts.

                                                                Vinay Trilokekar

EMOJI PICTOGRAPH

EMOJI PICTOGRAPH

Do we know what ‘Emoji Pictograph’ is? Refer to a dictionary, you would say. And there you are we do have ‘emoji pictograph’ in Oxford Dictionary- an entry that is not a word but a symbol, a record of sorts, I believe, showing a yellow smiley face weeping tears of laughter. It has been declared as ‘THE WORD OF THE YEAR’, a ‘No –Word’ is being declared as a word. Now there could be more of such emoticons. And soon all the words in Oxford Dictionary may all be replaced by pictures or signs. For every action there could be representative picture or sign.  For every emotion there would be emoticon.  One may start wondering whether it is English Dictionary or Chinese!

And this how it will look:

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But sometimes we may get confused, now what emotion this particular picture would mean:

It could land you in trouble!
 

                                                                Vinay Trilokekar

A Study In Contrast

A STUDY IN CONTRAST

The other day, I started my day by reading a superb piece of work. It was an essay written by a school – going kid, Shrishti (some 12 years kid), my grand niece. I realized it was indeed a model of writing good and correct English.  It was a school assignment. Then the very next morning, hidden in the pages of News Paper was this leaflet , advertising about some Tuition Class in Mugbhat, Thakurdwar, Mumbai.  It addressed the parents in this manner:

Dear Parents & Students,

Its ( It has) been a 7 successful years conducting this (these) test series and thousands of students has (have) truly benefited by increasing their percentage in Boards (Examinations)…..

They are supposed to guide and teach children, when they seem to have forgotten the basic rule of English Grammar – ‘ AGRREMENT OF THE VERB WITH THE SUBJECT ’- A verb must agree with the subject in Person (First, Second and Third) and in Number (Singular and Plural)

Would you ever send your children to such classes? For that matter would you tell your kids to read News Papers to improve their language skills?  This is what I read in Mumbai Mirror, -- he had beat up Anees black and blue.  We would have beaten up by our teachers for such grammatical blunders.

Our teachers would always stress that we should read news papers to improve our language skills. They would even ask us, "What the front page news, what was the head line ?" to find out whether we actually followed their advice. But then these days what do we have:

I] THE TIMES OF INDIA:

28^TH MAY.2015 - PAGE 4: REPORT ABOUT MONIKA, WHO HAD SECURED 63% IN HSC: Monika (who lost both her arms in a train accident last year) and her family got public tremendous (?) while being treated at Parel and drew a lot of attention to commuter safety.

II] MUMBAI MIRROR:

20^TH JANUARY, 2014: PAGE 3 – Job-seeker made to work at Riyadh camel stable …. However, Mushtaque did not answering his calls, nor was he available at his Bombay Central office.

[IT SHOULD BE ‘did not answer his call’ ]

24/5/2015: Devendra Tiwari writes: Shinde’s advocate, Sushant Kanjuram said,” In spite of Shinde giving several written complaints to the police about the death threats from ex-partners, they did not taken any action.---”  [ DID NOT TAKE ANY ACTION OR HAVE NOT TAKEN ANY ACTION]  It has also been alleged that whenever Shinde was absence  [ABSENT] from film city---

Do they have editing and proof reading these days? I wonder. Be that as it may, I shall continue with my topic –A study in contrast,

Now, I am posting Shrishti’s essay in verbatim, it could , you may say, definitely be a study in contrast:

The Run

Precise Actions: My heart was beating fast, my breathing was intense, and I was pushing myself to the finish. Through all my runs I have learned that running is just like life, you keep going no matter what, you never give up because it hurts or it is hard, but most important you push yourself to the max.

            Ready…. Set….. Go… Internal Thinking: Everyone starts at once, come on I think pace yourself. I go to the front and continue to run. Setting: I take a look up at the track in front of me and I realize that it is a steep slope up, so I gather as much energy as I can and I start running up the hill. When I got to the top I slowed down and walked down the bottom part of the slope to let myself get some energy back. I look back to see nothing but track and woods behind me. It is just me, all by myself running. I have no one to talk to and nothing to say. I a way I guess this is good because I can just worry about myself finishing and running all the way. I knew that I was nowhere near the end but I was already get cramps in my stomach. It hurts a lot now, both sides have cramps but I tell myself to keep going and not to give up. I tell myself to ignore the pain as I jogged deeper into the woods. I ran up the tiny hill and followed the twisted path that followed after that until I was back out of the woods and almost halfway there. I keep going until I see the bags filled with sand and a yellow sign. I hit the yellow sign and turn around to go back. As I turn around I see the rest of my camp just exiting the woods. I high-five them as I pass them, they haven’t even gone halfway yet. Soon enough I find myself re-entering the woods. At the top of the hill in the woods there is a bench. I am so tired and the bench is not helping, if anything it is making me tempted to sit, but I know I shouldn’t because then I would be taking a break and stopping. Instead of sitting I tell myself to keep going, so I jog down the hill and exit the woods. Since this is a public track there are other people on the track, as I am running I pass a lady who smiles and says “Good for you!” Even though I am so confused I say thank you and jog away. I find myself making a sharp right on the track. I run up and back down the tiny hill and keep going. Up in front of me is a training park  for men and women to become more physically fit. This place is crowded with people working out while listening to music. I wish I could listen to music right now it would be a lot more fun and exciting. It looks like a lot of fun there are monkey bars and pull-up bars, but I know that places like these are not meant for fun and are meant for training. Now all I want to do is sit down and take a break, but I know I can’t do that. I look behind me and see that there is no one in sight. Up ahead is a another large slope. I don’t know if I will make it up this one because I am so tired, but I manage to get to the top at the top all I feel like doing is lying down to take a break but I know I have to keep going. Come on I tell myself you’re almost done with your 2.2 mile run. With this motivation I walk down the hill to make the turn that leads me to the home stretch. The home stretch is like the very last and final part the most challenging part. It is just like the last three holes in golf. You play with all you got on these holes because you know that every stroke counts, but in this case every stride counts. I run up the final hill to see my coach riding alongside me giving me motivation. “Come on” she tells me “You got this last chunk” come on I tell myself as I am rounding the last edge you can do this I run as fast as I can all the way to the finish I hit the pole and stop. I want to sit but I know I shouldn’t I put my hands behind my head and remain standing. I remember my coach telling me that blood circulates to the the highest parts in your body and after a run you need to get the blood back to your head. I wait at the most 10 minutes before everyone comes. “You think this is bad” my coach says “wait till the next part.” She takes up to an open grassy field and says now we will be doing 500 core exercises  we all groan “Come on” she says “You’ll make it” we sit in a circle and wait for the directions.

            This is how I connect running to life and golf, you have to keep going no matter how much it hurts or how hard it is. 

                                                                                                             Vinay Trilokekar