MY WEEKLY COLUMN THE SECOND WEEK:

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MY WEEKLY COLUMN 

THE SECOND WEEK:

'Kaleidoscope' and 'Collage' are words usually associated with visuals, But my mind too is like a kaleidoscope, just like the designs keep changing by frequently by rotating the tubular device the scenes on the screen of my mind move about rapidly. On the slate of my mind is like a collage of thoughts of images, instances and characters, who are real living people, none of them being fictitious.  At times, I may not have revealed the names of some of them, only because I did not know or do not know how private a person that person is and he or she may not like to be identified. Here I go unfolding all those events of the past week, dismantling intricate designs of my mind's collage.

 Sunday, they say, is the first day of the week. But I always consider it  as the last day, right from my schooling days. During those times, our schools uniformly reopened (pardon me, my teachers would say the classes opened and not the school) on Mondays and not on any other days as they do these days (in the middle of the week). So, you see, Monday was the first day of the week for us. Funny isn't it, week-end is defined as Saturday and Sunday and yet Sunday, they say, is the first day of the week. May be this is so because every end marks the beginning of something. But in UAE and other Gulf countries as well as other Islamic counties, Saturdays or Sundays are considered as the first working day, as Friday is the weekly holiday for them. This reminds me of what one of  my friends from US, had once told me how his local colleagues would waste time. When they would resume work every Monday, they would discuss, the whole day, how they had spent their their week-ends and again on every Friday, the whole day, they would discuss about their plans for the week-end. Thus they enjoyed a very long week-end of four solid days and worked just for the remaining 3 days of the week. And the whole work load was passed on to emigrants like that friend of mine. May be he was just bluffing. Well, my friend, if what you told me is true and  if you felts so intimidated and  exploited down there, why don't you just leave and come back home. Or is it because of those carrots in form fat salaries of  $$$$s are more precious to you than self respect and dignity, that you are still there. 

This weekly routine of mine takes me back to those days, when I would read ‘The Illustrated Weekly of India, which was considered to be an important English – language publication, and unfortunately ceased to be published since 1993.  Many young students of English used it as a regular reading and guide for honing English language skills in vernacular India. It was fully illustrated by cartoons of R.K. Laxman and Mario Miranda, and I had the privilege of meeting the latter on a barge at a party hosted by one of my cousins (but that’s another story, which I would tell some other time).

 I think, during the time it was edited by late Mr. Khushwant Singh (the man in the bulb), there were some issues of the magazine dedicated to different communities of Bombay (oops, Mumbai). 

But the one that caught my fancy was the ‘Parsi’ special. There was this article, one written by, again I think, it was by some Miss Bachi Kanga. It went in this manner, and I quote ‘Ear plug, ear plug here cometh a Parsi--- (it went on to describe how they changed the party scenario on entering the avenue, reverberating the whole scene with their free loud talk and infectious roaring laughter.) ---We Parsis are very possessive. Everything good is “Apro” or "our own" for us and so do we treat any celebrity as “Apro”. Hence we have આપ્રો હોમી ( Homi Bhabha) , આપ્રો દાદાભાઈ (Dadabhai Naoroji,), આપ્રો ઝુબીન ( Zubin ,the famous Indian conductor of Western classical music), આપ્રો મિસ ઇન્ડિયા પર્સીસ (1965 Miss India- Parsis Khambata),આપ્રો માણેક ( Field Martial Manek Shaw) and there are many more such ‘Apros’. Why, we even have Apro King George and Apro Queen Elezabeth! Can you imagine we even call John F Kenedy as આપ્રો જઓન. ----'

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---

 

[DEBJANI DID NOT STARVE TO DEATH: INITIAL PM REPORT]

By Jayatri Nag, Mumbai Mirror | Jun 13, 2015, 01.24 AM IST

The preliminary report of the post-mortem conducted on the remains of Debjani, the sister of Partha De who was arrested after he was found living with her skeletal remains and those of her dogs, has shown that she did not died ( did not die)of malnutrition and starvation as claimed by De. 

There are many more instances of such blunders..I wonder whether they do editing and proof reading these days. And what about the front page? The first page is not the front page, it is hidden behind those three 1/4, 1/2 or 1/3 pages, advertising sum product. It's so irritating,you know!

This particular illustration (from the Weekly) by Mario depicts the current scenario:  Those days:

Now on Friday, the 19th (and not Friday the thirteenth), this was the picture:

It reminds of song from 1956 Hindi film C.I.D. :

रफ़ी :ऐ दिल है मुश्किल जीना यहां।  ज़रा हट के ज़रा बच के ये है बम्बई मेरी जान कहीँ बिल्डिंग ,कहीं ट्रामे ,कहीं मोटर ,,कहीं मिल मिलता यहां सबकुछ।इक मिलता नहीं दिल, इंसाफ का नहीं कहीं नामोनिशां। कहीं सट्टा ,कहीं पत्ता, कहीं चोरी, कहीं रेस,कहीं डाका, कहीं ठोकर,कहीं ठेस ---- ऐ दिल है मुश्किल जीना यहां।  ज़रा हट के ज़रा बच के  and yet ये है बम्बई मेरी जान।

 So it rained, rained and rained. It rained cats and dogs. The phrase has to be now changed to ' Bulls and buffaloes' (oops! I know 'beef' is banned. But it is not literally, it is only on your dinner table, That's dietary control for you!) Rains in Spain may stay mainly on the plain but here in Mumbai it rains everywhere, on street, inside your home and even from your roof tops! What's more, it rains inside your trains and BEST buses! Yet I too love my ' Cosmopolitan Bombay, सबकी  बम्बई आणि मराठीमोळी मुंबई and love the rains, when it rains moderately so that I can have bhajis and do some 'mauj masti:'.

तसे भजी व मक्याचे भाजलेले कणीस आणि पाऊस ह्यांची काय सांगड असते कोण जाणे. घरात बसून किंवा मित्रां सोबत थोडी मजा लोटणे मौज मस्ती करणे ठीक आहे. पण जेंव्हा असे घडते -----

It saddens me to read about tragedies, like the Hooch tragedy - SAD, SAD, SAD!

Total prohibition is no solution to stop the evil that these men brew. Prohibition or heavy taxation on IMF LIQUOR will only increase production of illicit liquor,

And now this final thought of the week. Sunday,21^st of June was the last day of the week. It was International Yoga Day. So I began my day by doing some Yoga Asanas and Moodras. You may read the article titled 'YOGA- ASANAS & MUDRAS' in my blog @ : htpp//vinaytrilokekar,blogspot.in , But this Yoga Day eclipsed our day – Fathers’ Day and robbed us, fathers, of only day in a year, which we can call our own- oh, just kidding! So until the next week au revoir, good bye,આવ જો, --चला  भेटूया !

                                                                                                 Vinay Trilokekar