VEDH -वेध - The first interview

The interview-VEDH  -वेध

Preface

Some days back ( some years, you could say) back, one of my nephews forwarded a series of videos, made by VEDH  -वेध . I thought of writing about it and about the interviews.

                VEDH  -वेध

 VEDH, which stands for Vocationa Education, Direction and Harmony)  &  IPH (Institute for Psychiatry Health) under their Avahan (आवाहन) series and presented in Association with M.C.Dattar Classes & Palshikar Institute. Dr. Anand Nadkarni who is eminent psychiatrist and founder director of the Institute. Here Avahan (आवाहन) could be taken as summons or call for all of us to take notice or as a challenge to achieve something.

One of the objectives of the institutes is to expose young minds to varied career perspectives. This is done by introducing them to prominent, successful academicians or achievers via a live on stage chat session with Dr.Anand Nadkarni or series of interviews conducted by Dr. Nadkarni and Dr. Jyoti Shirodkar. It is being done very effectively

These videos were captioned under the heading  ' Zapatlepan Te Jamtepan (झपाटलेपण ते जाणतेपण) and Pratikul Te Anukul (प्रतिकूल ते अनुकूल). झपाटलेपण ते जाणतेपण has been appropriately labelled as Passion to Wisdom in their logo  and so is  प्रतिकूल ते अनुकूल, which is, as we all know, ' Adverse Conditions to Favourable Conditions', has been also titled aptly.

All the interviews were fantastic, conducted with professionalism. Both the interviewers allowed the interviewees to feel at home, asked them leading and pertinent questions, bringing out their stories of struggles, challenges faced and the success they achieved. But no moment the interviews were monotonous or boring. In fact, they were so interesting that the viewer sits glued to his seat watching the entire stories being unfolded in these videos. All the anecdotes in the lives of these successful achievers are brought to light by asking them questions but there is no bragging or self - praise anytime. Switching from one anecdote to another is done with precision, right timing and careful interruptions, without being or appearing to be rude to the interviewees or viewers. You simply ease into the whole thing.

It was certainly a learning curve for me. I must have interviewed many, a number of staff and teachers, but all of them for recruitment or assessment purpose. All the interviews were conducted in a routine manner with same set of questions for all the candidates, never bothering about the candidate's nerves, whether or not he / she felt at home, and most of the time trying to find what the candidate doesn't know rather than what he/ she knows. We never bothered how to make the interview interesting to both, the interviewer and interviewee.

The Interview - Aseem

Through one of these videos we come to know about Sarang Gosavi and his Aseem  (असीम) Foundation, an NGO. असीम means infinite or limitless!

Sarang Gosavi, a thinker, a change seeker and change maker, who has been in Kashmir since 2001. He is the founder of Aseem Foundation. He is helping the Kashmiri Youth to become entrepreneurs by providing training; and on the larger front helping establish a bond between Kashmiris and the rest of the India.

‌ Yunus is a student representative from Kashmir. She is doing her BA in Psychology. Simultaneously, she is an entrepreneur (Apple Biscuits Bakery). Replying to the question what she has got from Aseem, she has now got confidence and she is able to stand on own feet and likewise she wants to motivate others. She says Assem is not an NGO for her but a family, where they all work as a team. She is grateful to Assem and Sarang Sir, who is her mentor, adviser and guide. She is, she adds, what she is today is only because of them.

Through the interview we come to know about their work, which is primarily concentrated into three areas:
1) Education, providing different opportunities of Education to the people in border areas of India. We learn about their great work especially in Kashmir.
2) Social Entrepreneurship, creating different avenues of Enterprise by utilizing local resources in the border regions areas of India. We meet Yashmin Yunus.
3)  Research about the problems faced by citizen in border areas, and Creating awareness in the rest of India.

Answering a question how did Kashmir happen to him, Sarang tells us that he had acquired a job in Tata Technologies through the campus placement and knew that eventually after getting experience of 3 years or so, he too ultimately go to the US, may settle there as his brother was there. However, after listening to  General Patankar's motivativational talk at Balgandharva (Auditorium) and his call for  youth to work in Kashmir, he felt that he should go and have the  real picture of Kashmir. There were all negative reports in Sakal and other media about Kashmir. When his mother refused him permission to go there, he lied that he was going to Goa with friends, but instead landed in Kashmir. Thus began his journey. He was good at computers and so it was only natural for him to start computer centre by default and it began at S Alfayaz Public School. We come to know how he would take a five days leave from his Tata Technologies, Pune, clubbing it with weekly holidays. This would get him 9 days, but actually just 3 to 4 days (5 to 6 days lost due to train travel) to work in Kashmir. He tells us about General Patankar's motivations and help. All the anecdotes are interesting, about people of Kashmir, how they take ten steps forward if you're to take just one step in their direction, about their hospitality -  how they would never ask you as to why you were there (your purpose of visit) but would say "Aap aaj therjaao" (You stay with us for the night) and how they entertained him lavishly every time. Asked whether he was not scared of working all alone, he says there was bliss in the ignorance.

We come know about their other projects like Olive Green Bakery (a project for widows of army men, where Mehek and Yashmin train them), Abhilasha Project and Second Opinion Health Center (in collaboration with IPH) We get to know about Aseem's Super 40 project. (Super 40 is an initiative of the Samba Brigade of the Indian Army in association with Assem to help local students in the entrance tests for joining the Armed Forces.) Sarang talks about the emotional bonding that he has with his students, he tells us how he and two of his students cried at the time of seeing them off at the railway station and how they came back the next year and today he considers them part of his family and they can drop in any time they want. He says he doesn't have a sister of his own but says they are more than his sisters to him.

[Entire video is available on YouTube, and it's worth viewing].

Another video pertains to Amrut and Amit being interviewed. Since Amrut Dedhmukh's mission is 'Make India Read' and which is also my pet subject (Reading, I mean), I would love to write about him at length. So that video and the interviews can wait.

Vinay Trilokekar 

‌

 

F

A TRIBUTE TO MY FRIEND RAMAKANT DESAI
  (I had written this very  article earlier and I wanted to repost the same on 27th April, which was Death Anniversary of  Ramakant Desai. However, I somehow missed it. Now I am repostimgv itvtoday,  on 20th June,  which is his Birth Anniversary.)

When I expressed this idea of repostimg,  his classmate,  Shri Prabha Karle immediately wrote to me and  I quote,
"Never get tiered when its about Ramakant, though a repeat, such a wonderful and a loving personality he was! Thank you Vinay. Your article reminds us , how rich and lucky we were, having friends like Ramakant.'  So here I go"

Today is Ramakant's birth anniversary. I do hope that today many will pay him rich tributes. There was no mention on this Tiny gismt, not a column, not a single line or even  a word, when it was a big day in  Indian cricket. It was a milestone - completing 500 aTests!

 It was on Thursday, September 22, 2016, exactly a week back, India began its milestone journey of playing 500th Cricket Test match, a feat previously reached only by England (976 Tests), Australia (791) and West Indies (517). England’s landmark occasion was a drawn affair in 1974, Australia’s was an Ashes win against their arch rival England in 1990, while the West Indies celebrated their crushing win against Bangladesh in 2014. India crushed New Zealand by 197 runs to celebrate the 500th test in style. During this period there was mention of many cricketers of the yester years. Sadly there was no mention of my friend R B. Desai by anyone. I do hope, they will rectify their blunder and recognise his contribution soon 

I knew him since his college days. I was schooling then. I used  to go to watch Inter- collegiate matches. He had left  Rupatel College and joined Siddharth. There was this classmate of his, Dinoo ( Dinkar Joshi), who became pally with me. He introduced me to Ramakant, Sudhakar Adhikari (who later on married my sister’s friend Radha, she passed away some time back. May her soul rest in peace.). Ramakant was quite soft spoken and down to earth person and he was very friendly to me. But during his  college days he was very shy. Their college group was very huge. During the inter collegiate played the Brabourne Stadium, invariably between Ruhia , captained by Ajit Wadekar  (a lone fighter for them) and Siddharth, this group would go to a restaurant  after the match day and as my sister was part of this group would also join in and would take me along. There would a lot of shouting and laughing all arparo. But Ramakant rained aloof, a shy boy sitting on one corner. 

. If there was a man who proved that size and stature did not matter when it came to bowling ,it was Ramakant Desai. Standing at five feet, four inches tall, Desai was capable of bowling at a deceptive pace and getting the ball to rear up unnaturally for a man of his small size. He was affectionately called “Tiny” because of his height, but he was still by far the fastest bowler India possessed throughout the 1960s. He troubled the batsmen with bouncers, which was unusual for an Indian bowler at the time. He had ‘bunnies’ of two batsmen, the first being the Pakistani legend Hanif Mohammad, whom he dismissed four times in nine innings during the 1960-61 series. I remember, in that test match at Brabourne Stadium, it was the fourth day of the match and one of my uncles, Prabhakar Dharadhar, who was the chief scorer, took me there. As a fourteen year it was my first experience to watch a live test match. When India’s 8th wicket fell at 300, everybody thought the innings would fold up and Pakistan would start their second one. But in came my hero. He mixed his innings with aggressive and lusty big hits and perfect copybook defense. At the end of the day’s play he was not out on 60 and wicket keeper Nana Joshi unbeaten on 29. In the evening both the teams were invited by one of my relatives, Dr. Prabhakar Kothare at his residence. (Dr. Kothare would always invite teams when they played at Brabourne. His son Raju would often take me to their home on such occasions.) I also remember, how I had congratulated Ramakant and he had replied, “Vinay, come to watch me score some more runs.” He did score some more runs, coming in at no.10, he scored 85 (unfortunately not a century) and shared a record 149 – run with Nana Joshi, which was broken by Pakistani players Asif Iqbal and Intikhab Alam. But it is an Indian record for the ninth wicket that stands even now. India had taken lead in the first innings. Pankistan started its second innings. All the eyes were on the great Hanif. Ramakant ran in. First ball - hhsh- went past his bat, narrowly missing the edge- beaten neck and crop! We could hear the radio commentary blaring 'beaten all ends up!' Ramakant ran in again - second ball, a bouncer, his most reliable weapon - and this time it did not fail to take the edge and the ball safely landed in the hands of Polly Umrigar in the first slip. The whole stadium erupted. This time we could not hear the radio commentary.Though they say 'seeing, is believing,– we simply couldn’t believe our eyes! The legend was out for a blob -a zero! It must have been his first zero in Test cricket and it started 'his 'Ramkant's bunny - days' as we Indians say, since then he became Ramakant's 'bakra' or goat
 In all the subsequent matches in that series,  he made the great Hanif  hop at times and the legendary opening batsman was generally all at sea against Ramakant. Ramakant also created 'bunny' out of England's Peter May. 

Ramakant played Test cricket for only nine years, appearing in his final Test against New Zealand in India’s 1968tour Down Under. New Zealand batted first at Dunedin, getting bowled out for 350.Desai took two wickets. In response, India were 300 for eight when Desai walked out to bat, and were soon 302 for nine. Then Ramakant and No. 11 Bishan Singh Bedi added an invaluable 57 to help India take the lead. This was impressive in itself, but there was more. Desai was struck on the face by a bouncer during his innings. His jaw was fractured and there was an instant swelling. Braving the pain,and a fractiured jaw , Desai batted on to remain unbeaten on 32. That was the fighter in him! He even bowled some overs in the second innings, but it was EAS Prasanna who turned the tide with a six-wicket haul as India won what proved to be Desai’s final Test. It was heroic final hurrah. 

In his first year in the Ranji Trophy, he took 50 wickets in 7 matches at an average of 11.10. It is still a record for Bombay (Now Mumbai), and that too in his first Ranji Trophy season, a record at least till 1972-73 It included a performance of 5 for 10 and 6 for 28 against Saurashtr In the Ranji Trophy final in 1960-61 he took 7 for 46 and 4 for 74 in Bombay's victory over Rajasthan. Two years later, also against Rajasthan in the final, he scored his only first-class century, 107, in another victory. In his 11 years in the Bombay team (1958-59 to 1968-69), he never finished in a losing side.

I had watched him in the Times Shield ‘A’ division inter office matches, he would often take me in their tent. It was indeed a treat to watch batsmen getting clean bowled by him, in any form of cricket, Test, Ranji or first-class cricket, especially when the stump would get uprooted and go cart-wheeling quite some distance. Playing for A.C.C. he would bowl his heart out just as he did in Tests, and that too on the dead pitches in India. Perhaps, a more judicious use of his talent both in the Ranji Trophy and other matches could have preserved him as a penetrating bowler for a longer period.
I not only had the privilege to know him personally but also to play against him once. It was in Kalyan, it was during my college days. During the vacation at gone there and was staying with Vernekar family. Raju Vernekar was captain of Kalyan XI team and had selected me. It was Tennis ball cricket match between Kalyan XI and Thana XI. I do not why or how, but many ‘outsiders’ in both the teams. Ramakant was in the Thana XI. We lost the match. But I had remained unbeaten on some 10- 15 odd runs, faced some overs from Ramakant. May be he bowled loose deliveries to me with a purpose. He had taken all the wickets, so I think. A tribute to you my friend,the 'Tinny Terror' - On the occasion of this India’s Cricket milestone! ( Now on his birth anniversary)

Whenever he came  to our home in chawl , he would join us enthusiastically in playing underarm tennis ball cricket in the passage adjesent to the staircase.  Needless to say  all the building kids would get excited and thrilled to play thus.

  [On reading this tribute of mine to Ramakant his friend and class mate, Prabha Karle sent me this WhatsApp msg.: Excellent tribute, Vinay. What a  good natured boy was Ramakant! I also remember him taking 25  quick wickets in Australia tour. His recored some 85 runs at the Braborne Stadium if I mistake not.'(which of course you had already written in this in your blog)]

Vinay Trilokekar

मराठी व्याकरणातील गंमत - जंमत !

 मराठी व्याकरणातील  गंमत - जंमत !     

                           तसे माझे शिक्षण इंग्रजी माध्यमातून झाले . जे काही मराठी  शिकलो ते सारे शाळे पुरते मर्यादित राहिले . आणि तरीही मी मराठीत लेखन करू लागलो .

 आणि मग मला साल्या वर सल्ले येऊ लागले . लेखणीला ब्याकरणाची जोड हवी. आणि  इंग्रजी ग्रामर मध्ये वाचले होते. A verb agrees with the subject in person and in number.पण आपल्या मराठी  वेगळे असते . आपण चक्क लिंग मध्ये आणतो. 

Gender म्हणजे लिंग .इंiग्रजीत ( व्याकरणात ) खालील प्रमाणे  चार लिंग असतात. बरोबर ?

A) पुल्लिंग(n) पुल्लिंगी. (Masculine)

B)स्त्रीलिगं(n) ( Femenin)

C)  common gender in Marathi

सामान्य आणि 

[कदाचित कॉमन जेंडर  (Common Gemfer ):केवळ इंग्रजीत असावे. उदाहरणार्थ:

मुल (child / children.  ) म्हणजे मुलगा  / मुलगी ह्या पैकी कोणाही , (ती -f ) लोक /( तो - m )  समाज ( People), तसेच (ती );गर्दी  (crowd), आणि ह्या  गोष्टी कॉमन जेंडर मध्ये मोडतात :  ant, cattle, baby, bear , bird, cousin, doctor, dentist, etc Though cat comes in common gender in English but  in Marathi we have मांजर आणि बोका .

'मांजर आमी बोका ' वरून' पु ल  दयेशपांडे ह्यांचे निवडक पु ल -:पाळीव प्राणी भाग 2 मधला एक किस्सा आठवला .  

त्यांच्या ह्या व्हिडिओत ते असे  म्हणतात , (कदाचित अक्षरशः  /  शब्दशः , may not be in verbatim, ,  नसेलही )

"आपला बोका , हा   शब्द किती भारदस्त  आहे  मला लहानपणी उगीउच्च वाटायाव्हे की बोक्याला इंग्रजीत डॅम्बीस म्हणत असावेत पण नंतर लक्षात आले, मुळात इंग्रजीत डॅम्बीस शब्दच  नाही आणि बोक्यालाही  कॅट (cat);म्हणतात. तेंव्हा मला  ह्या भाषेच्या दुबळे पणावही  कीव येते. " ( मात्र माक्सय कडे असलेल्या ओरिजनल टेप (original tape) मध्ये ते  पुढे खेद व्यक्त करत असे  म्हणतात , " माफ करा , कोणत्याही भाषे ची  अशी थाटा करणने बरोबर नाही  असे करणे गैर आहे .."  मला आठवते की  त्यांचे लाईव्ह कार्यक्रमात अशाच पद्धतीने आपली दिलगिरी व्यक्त करीत .

And

D) नपुसकलिंग;.  (Neuter gender) 

आणि  ह्या नपुसकलिंगात सुरु होते खरी गंमत 

  जंमत  . येता का  ह्या गंमतीजंमतीत ?

Chair, table fan, radio, bed and for all these we use pronoun 'it'. However, in Marathi it is different. For example, we say: 

१):तो साबू  soap

2) तो पंखा  fan

3) तो पलंग (bed)

4) ते घड्याळ (;watch)

५);ते निरांजन ( lamp)

6) ती पाल (house lizard)

But for the English words that frequently used in Marathi, (ते ) table  (ते ) टेबल, (ती )chair   because it is (ती) खुर्ची , (तो ). रेडियो (;radio),  it is ( ते) जीवन  म्हणूनच (ते ) Life  आणि तरीही कित्येक वेळा टीव्हीवर  ती लाईफ म्हंटले  जाते.  ( तुमची लाईफ   असे नसते तर तुमचे लाईफ असे असते   कारण तुमचे जीवन / आयुष्य असे म्हणतो )

पण काही वस्तूंमध्ये थोडा गोंधळ आहे , जसे : 

(तो ) का (ती)  चहा, स्टोव्ह , पावडर , इत्यादी .

  पण तो शर्ट आणि ती पँट कसे , हेही एक कोडेच आहे .

मला. एका जाणकार व्यक्तीने ...(हो 'व्यक्ती' स्त्रीलिंगी म्हणजे  आपण ती व्यक्ती असे बोलतो / लिहितो पण जेंव्हा आपण मोबाईलवर ऐकतो " ज्या व्यक्तीशी आपण संपर्क साधण्याचा प्रयत्न करीत आहात तो / ते व्यक्ती संपर्क क्षेत्राच्या बाहेर आहेत" , तेंव्हा डोके चक्रावून जाते. असो .) मला त्या जाणकार  व्यक्तीने असे डांगितले की any substance, be it a fruit, ..फळ , खाद्य पदार्थ किंवा एखादी वस्तू (all the nouns are singular onlyसर्व एक वचनी ) असो., anything, , if the word ends in  'i' or इ  or ई, it is feminine तो   शब्द स्त्रीलिंगी  असतो  जसे   ती जिलेबी , ती बर्फी , ती मिरची , ती काडी , ती  कडी , ती नळी , ती नाडी ...बांगडी , चकली , सुपारी सुतारफेणी , फणी ,विडी शिडी शिटी  सणशी , ,मोरpळी  , सूरी , गावी , चावी  अशी अनेक उदाहरणे देत त्याने आपला मुद्धा मांडला.  पण मग ' ती'  पाणी का नसते  ते पाणी का असते सांगाल का ? सिगारेट  दारू ह्या गोष्टींना स्त्रीलिंगीत का मदतल , मादक असतात म्हणूल की सुक्या दारू ( फाटयातल्या ) प्रमाणे  स्फोटक पोस्टात म्हणून? हा थोडा वादाचा विषय ठरू शकत! वाणी म्हणजे भाषा (  language   ) स्त्रीलिंगी ( feminine) पण वाणी (;दुसरा अर्थ ) दाणेवाला , बनिया (.grocer)  पुलिंगी  (! masculine   ). Again some words end In  'i' or इ  or ई,  but  they are plurals पण दारी अनेक वचनी आहेत )  जासी  गोष्टी ,  गोणी , गाणी , केळी ,वगैरे.

अर्थात आपल्याला  माहित असते की  हा काही मराठी व्याकरणातील नियम नसून , त्यांत बरेच  अपवाद आहेत .ज्या सर्व एक वचनी  वास्तूंचे   अनेक वचन अशा प्रकारे होत असते , जसे   फणी चे होते फण्या ,  फळ्या , काड्या , इत्यादी ह्यांचा  ( एक वचन व अनेक वचन) मी उल्लेख करणार नव्हतो .

  हा काही मराठी व्याकरणाचा वर्ग नाही. असा वर्ग घेण्याचे 

 माझे मानस नाही . ह्या सर्वातून केवळ आणि केवळ मजेचा भाग  वेगळा काढून आपणा सर्वांना मराठी व्याकरणातील  ह्या   गंमती- जंमतीत बुडून आनंद हाच हेतू वाणी हा सर्व खटाटोप !

विनय त्रिलोकेकर

 

Reading Books       

 I have been a very voracious reader (उत्साही वाचक) up until a decade or so. I would read whatever that I could lay my hands upon, be it in Marathi or in English.  In fact, in the beginning  I began by reading novels in Marathi. It was Baburao Aralkar's (बाबुराव अर्नाळकर -अर्नाळकरांच्या धनंजय - छोटू , काळापहाड आणि झुंझार कथा )  Marathi crime and thriller novels.

 I was a member of Ding Dong Library (now closed), and mt to and fro journey of 3 hours or so, enabled me to finished reading novel in a day or two. Mostly it was light stuff, James Hadley,  Agatha Christie, Perry Mason or some other  detective stiff. I was a privileged customer, I was allowed two books at a time. One book I would exchange in a day or two ( meant to be read during my train travel) while the other book was retained for longer period meant to be read at home leisurely and which was read by my sister and me, Heavy I have been a very voracious reader उत्साही वाचक up until some decade or so. I would read that I could lay my hands on, be it in Marathi or in English.  I was a member of Ding Dong Library (now closed), and mt to and fro journey of 3 hours or so, enabled me to finished reading novel in a day or two. Mostly it was light stuff, James Hadley,  Agatha Christie, Perry Mason or some other  detective stiff. I was a privileged customer, I was allowed two books at a time. One book I would exchange in a day or two ( meant to be read during my train travel) while the other book was retained for longer period and which was read by my sister and me, Heavy Reading category with likes of Lloyd C Douglas ( I was so obsessed by his Magnificent Obsession that read it many times during my  teenage), Thomas Hardy (his  Far from the Madding Crowd left a deep impression on me), William Somerset Maugham ( I have read and reread his Of Himan Bondage umpteen times) and many other English writers and also read Marathi literature, especially P L Deshpande and Achaya P K Atre. I have slowed down, may be my age and other things. Now a days I don't read much (books) and reading is restricted to net. 

  Currently, I am reading a book titled ' The Ultimate Cheatsheet On Goal Setting '.I has been quite sometime sessed since I had a book in my hand, with all my eye problem. Doctor is yet to give me number post surgery and I have to go for the check as well. I read using my old specs with magnifying glass. I find it extremely hard and I could but a few pages till now. The book is interesting, but I am rather apprehensive about such kind of self help books and this would certainly fall under that category. In our our days, we never had such kind of books, so never read these books. Reading books written by Bill Gates,would certainly not make you Bill Gates!  Have you ever read Self Helo books? 

 I asked this very question to my daughter in law  and and also to a friend of mine, Rashida and told her that shortly I am going to write on the subject.

 Rashida:replied, "No. I don't like reading such books either.

 Unfortunately I haven't read any book in a very very long time." 

My daughtrt in law hasn'i ever read such books.

 

Coming back to the subject of Self Helf Books, Iam reminded of this

 guy, Rajamamidanna. He is fantastic and his satire on the subject  is

 very funny and worth listening to. I will try to reproduce the same in

verbatim (शब्दशः) as far as possible. Rajamamidanna is on the stage 

and addressing young crowd.

"...but it doesn't matter. So I got admission inone college called 

 ...You ISB....No I didn't do it in ISB but did it in BSB, it is the 

parody version of ISB, which in Bangalore. I went there. There was t

this  Placement Officer who said ,' You will get there. Relax.' 

For me to get there I have to be alive also. With so much got one 

company  called Nandi Pipes. I am not kidding - Nandi Pipe. They

 had  eight rounds of interview, man. After that they didn't call.

 I had to do the follow up. I called up . 

Where is my job? I asked. 

' It is in the pipene , bro!'

When you go through all this you get depressed. And of the worst

you do... Ah, don't read those Self Help books. Anybody read

 these  Self Help books?"

Suddenly looking sharply in the direction of a

 young lady, he continues, "so maam, you read,

 don't be ashamed. You are here.which means it  worked.

   

These Self Help Books are... from thr author's point of view. For

 them they are helpful. It messes up with your mind.

One fried suggested a book called . Secrete'

 Millions copies sold insecrete, my friends read and got marks in

 secrete, I did' know their marks. But I was reading 'You can Win'

 and they got placent in secrete. 

And the motivational books mess up with your mind., you start

 believing  as if you sre greatest person alive, which you know and

I know, I am not you are not. .

There is another book called 'Monk who so his Ferrari, Robin

 Sharma wrote this book. If you are a monk where did the Ferrari 

come from?Who are you? Osho? The same fellow..the  fellow wrote 

another book called 'Who will cry when you die', that's the tittle of

the book, and  I cried after reading that book. My sister told me 'No

one will cry when you die'. I asked 'Why?' 'If you keep reading books

how will you make friends?' So I purchase another book , How to 

make friends.'

But the worst book I read was 'You can Win'. It had a tag line

 Winners don't do different things they do things differently. Replace

the word Winner with anyone, say, Cab driver, and it will fit the bill.

Cab drivers don't do different things they do things differently.. Why

 are confusing in this manner? There is another guy called Henry

 Ford, who also confuses people in this way. If you think you can,

 you are right. If you think you can not, you are right. Just because 

we are listening....You will tell whatever you want to.

I also wrote a quotation, Hope is like a soap, use it daily.

These days the book tittles they come up with ... I went to the book

 store and there was this book -  am okay, you are okay', I didn't buy

 it because I was okay.!

Everybody must have read this book.Ah, ah (हां,हां .. orange colored f

cover ... ah , yes, yes..what setellite F#CK ( THE SUBTLE ART OF

 NOT GIVING A F*CK by Mark Manson). I don't know what is

 F*CK and this came up with another, a sequel  it seems, Every

 thing is F*CKED. Yoy are the one who told not to give F and now

 you say that every thing is F. I hate thsese sequels. In movies it is

 okay but why in Self Help books? There is guy,  

he wrote, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People'.

It took me seven to eight years to cultivate those seven habits. After

 that he came out with 'The Eighth Habit' 

This guy is absolutely funny and entertaining. I have tried my level

 best to quote him and the entire show in verbatim.  But you must

  watch him (there is video on YouTube) to get the picture. The

 way he narrates the anecdote with the Placement officer, with his

 hand gestures, voice modulation, you can visualize the entire scene. 

The dialogue between them- the officer assuring him (he pats his

 own back, making you believe as if it's the officer) telling him ,"You

 will get the job man, relax?"  Later on, his  asking " Where is my

 job?" and getting the reply, " It's in the pipe line." The name of the

 company as ‘Nandi Pipes’, is done with  a purpose, and which

 synchronizes pretty well with ‘job is in the pipe line', and you

 simply  can’t stop from laughing.

 In fact the entire presentation leaves the audience in splits. 

The climax comes in the  the ‘F’ word book anecdote.  The way he

 tries to extract the name from the audience, encouraging them to

 come out with it with his intermittent interjections of " Ah, ah," and

 then  (spelling each alphabet as  F,*, C & K and then

 with  expression of innocence  on his face, asays, “I don't know

 what is that."  And then adds, "He was the guy who told us not to

 give F and now he says Everything is F  "

 

He has liberally used those interjection sounds  to good effect to

 express  his emotions. We are familiar with 'hmm', 'oops': woohoo:,'

 shh', etc.so  In English it is difficult to put it in writing the exact

 pronunciation of such sounds, but not so with our phonetical Indian

 languages. Therefore, I hace used  हां , हां . in brackets to denote

 thsese interjection sounds made.

 

 The last enecdote,, about  Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

 and The eighth Habit, he says '" In the second book, the first twenty

pages covered the acknowledgements why not remove them and

 put the Eighth habit in the first book itself? He then ends the

 presentation with this punch line...” in all these eight habits

 (ironically) Reading is not a ( good) habit." 

 

         I have always been apprehensive about these Self Help Books 

though I am currently reading the book which may well be

 categorised in the same class. Of course, at my age, I don't need to

 set any goals and no need for any self help books either.

Vinay Trilokekar 

Memories Triggered

 

Memories Triggered

 

Nikhil (my nephew) had shared a post and this is what I wrote to him:                                                                                                               Your forward, a tribute paid to Music Director and singer Bappi Lahiri, by late Nandu Bhende’s  wife ( her husband and Bappida were born on the same day, as mentioned in her post) brought back sweet memories of my childhood, आठवणी पुन्हा जिवंत झाल्या. Memories flashed before my eyes as though they had had happened just yesterday.

I had met Nandu for the first time when he must have been around five or six and I was 12 – 13 years,  I was going with Amber mama and Jaini mami (Amber & Saroj Kothare) to Gholvad. This was not my first time to go to Gholvad with them. But this time, the whole troupe or फड as you would say in Marathi (if not everyone from their team, many were there) of झोपी गेलेला जागा झाला'  ( I don’t know under what banner they would stage it.) had joined. We all taken the from VT station.

 Mahesh and I had watched this drama several times, sometimes with the other audience but mostly from the Wing. टुमदार घर नाटकातील सारी पत्रे आणि त्यांतील बहुसंख्या नटांची नावे माझी तोंडपाठ झाली होती.

 Nandu was almost of the same as Mahesh, year or two here and there. We kids, Nandu, Purnima, his sister , Mahesh, Mahesh’s cousin, Balam, who passed away recently and I, sat together abit away from the elders. But Mukund uncle (Mukund Kothate, who also played  the character of Mukund Kothare himself  in झोपी गेलेला जागा झाला), preffered to sit with us. I remember asking him, “ Mukund uncle, how can you keep on laughing for such a long time? Or is some prompter doing it from the Wing?”

“Ha, ha, ha! You are Mahesh’s cousin, बरोबर ?  आमच्या  नाटकाच्या प्रयोगांना तुम्ही दोघे येत असतात . अरे बाळा हसणं अगदी सोपे असते. हे असे”, so saying he started laughing.

In between those bursts of laughters,  he cracked jokes and  told us  and funny stories., and in between, suddenly he would say, “हे मुलांनो माझे नाव काय ? त्या दिनेजलालने माझ्या डोक्याचे हे काय केले ! मी सारखे हसत सुटतो का ? माहित नाही . माझे नाव काय ? हा ,हा !“  Suddendly pointing at Mahesh, he would say, “हाच तो दिनेजलाल !    मैं हूँ दिनेज...! Mahesh, I know that you do it quite well, common Mahesh!"

This would be invitation enough for Mahesh and he would burst out, "मैं हूँ दिनेजलाल, काम मेरा बेमिसाल   मेरे आँखोमे देख ..”  नट'महेश कोठारे बनण्याची ही नांदी असावी .

All this intermittent laughing, punctuated by jokes and stories, of Mukund uncle  continued till we reached Gholvad. 

In Gholvad, Jaini mami had a nice one storeyed , a small bungalow type, you could call it बांगलाच. It was actually जैनी मामीच्या माहेरचे घर.- a neat little , टुमदार घर. It was surrounded by many flowerin and fruit trees, of these these two chikoo trees,I distinctly remember.  Outside the house there was a big well and we, Mahesh and I, enjoyed bathing in the open while a maid or some servant poured buckets of cold water on us.

On the ground floor, in front was a nice verandah which opened into several rooms, including a kitchen and there was a passage at the end of which was a door which opened into a hall where the furniture, consisting of sofa set, a teepoy, and a cupboard,  all arranged in a semicircular manner.  Aadjasant,  समीप  to the passage door, on the right, was a staircase which took you to the upper floor, which had a bigger hall and some rooms. The ground floor hall with all the arrangements, resembled exactly  the one in the set of झोपी गेलेला जागा झाला. Baban Prabhu  would go around the entire furniture,  whenever he came down the stair case, and wanted to go in the ground floor passage, just as the way he did in his role in  the drama. He was king of farce, no doubt. झोपी गेलेला जागा झाला' हा फार्स बबन प्रभूंनी लिहिण्याअगोदर मराठी रंगभूमीवर 'फार्स' हा प्रकार रूळलेला नव्हता, तरीही त्याआधी फार्स लिहिले-केले गेलेच नव्हते, असं नाही. If you haven't watched the original one, you have missed something big in life. Subsequently many remakes have been made, even a movie, but they are all rubbish!  Both Baban Prabhu and Atmaram Bhende had great tunning. Their farcical enacting was fantastic, a treat to watch.  Even Asha Bhende was quite good actress and was also good in farcical acting,, but I did not know she was a good actress and was also good in farcical acting,, but I did not know she was a good singer. Later on I came to know that had Jewish lineage and her brother was a famous writer and poet.

Nandu did come to Gholvad, may be twice or thrice subsequently. I did learn that his real name was Sadanand.  But our childhood friendship never blossomed. As grew I did come to know that  he was  famously known for his rock, pop, soul and blue rock music genres in music.  On many occasions  I have attended  film line  with Soparkar (Vasant Soparkar, my brother in law) and met Mr Atmaram Bhende twice or thrice. Both, he and his wife were were such nice couple and very humble people.

Coming back to Gholvad, I also remember how Mahesh and I would run bare feet on those beautiful beaches of Gholvad, into the waters jumping on the rocks covered with live colonies of mussels and oysters.  At times, we would have cuts on our feets because of those sharp edges of rocks full of oysters (कालवांचे खडक), collect  those tiny crabs crawling on the beaches and feed these live creatures to stray dogs on the way back home.  It was such a fun.

Thanks for sharing the post.

Vinay Trilokekar