Thursday, February 19, 2009

Trudging thru fast-paced Mumbai %@#$

I was thrilled when I got a confirmed placement with an mnc bank, at their Worli, Mumbai head office and yet, after my final meeting with HR, on my way home at 6.30 pm in the evening, I had mixed feelings about the commute; as when I stepped out of the office gate no taxi was willing to go to the closest train station, busses seemed crowded and I was unsure of which one to take … so I decided to take a taxi … and of course the traffic was chock-a-block -- by the time I got home it was 8.45pm … my face looked dirty but happy, my hair was frazzled and my wallet was lighter by Rs.300 … and thru dinner thoughts of the commute kept gnawing me … Sigh!

Ever since my first day at work; which was 14 August 2008, I have tried several modes of transport and felt that a chronicle of my experiences would be a fun read:



1. Self-drive to office: For the first few days I drove to office and went insane, not only with the traffic but also at the end of it finding a parking spot at Nehru Centre. The attendants at the parking lot insisted that I leave the car keys behind with them. Although I was really uncomfortable about leaving the keys behind, I had to do so because there was just no free parking space -- all spaces were reserved for people who had bought a monthly pass. The next morning I paid up for the monthly pass which was Rs.1000. I asked for the receipt and he said that they do not issue one – clearly it was a racket and these attendants were simply pocketing the money. The next 2 days went fine as he allowed me to park in one of the empty spaces. However, on day 5, I found that there was no space and he was asking for my keys again. He said “Madam kya karega aaj bahut saab log gadi leke aya hai” Drat!!! I obviously could not do anything but hand him the keys. The parking experience was new every morning and I would get to office with a frown on my brow :( The evening drive home was an altogether different punishment as the traffic would inch forward and there was never a need to drive beyond 20 km/hour. I would leave the office at about 7.30 or so. Despite playing my choice of music in the car and catching up on long conversations hands-free the journey, needless to say the journey was long and exhaustive and would get me home never before 9.45. Having spent much of my energy commuting I would hardly be in a mood to be more than pleasant with my family and of course my wallet would be lighter by Rs.500 every one and half days so I would be spending at least Rs.2500 every week on petrol + the parking charges that I had already committed to. If only I could get parking in the office building but I am told that the cost per month for a parking lot is 40K!@#$ This arrangement of travel was costing me Rs.11000 bucks … never mind said Fruki at least you are comfortable while commuting!?!

2. Driver driving me to office: Once the launch of the club happened it was necessary to have a driver as I had to meet with clients across the city and arrive in a cool and composed state. So, we decided to hire a driver. Along came Rakesh the classic driver from Bihar with a copy of his license and a sugary keenness to work for a salary of Rs.7000 and nothing less – “Ussey kam mein to kaise chalega Madamji”. I told his there would be late hours and long travel to different locales of the city. He was over excited about the opportunity and said he would arrive the next morning. He did arrive, and always did arrive at sharp 7.45AM standing at attention with a slight forward bend in his stance saying, "Good Morning Madamji". He would open the door for me to sit and switch on my pre-set Gayatri Mantra Chant and the AC at just the temperature that I liked and I would be off feeling nothing short of a queen :) However as soon as we were on the main road, his driving which was filled several instances of rash lane cutting causing peeved drivers to race up and abuse him and look disapprovingly at me as well started giving my brow lines that deepened to the affect that I finally shouted out at him, ”Rakesh tum kaise gaadi chalatey ho”. The first few days he didn’t say any thing but slowly he would start getting upset and when commuters abused him he would look back at them saying, “Kya hai” and then proceed to grumble below his breath for the next few minutes. To add to the madness he was very poor with road navigation so I would have to keep my eyes open and be alert all thru our escapades thru the city. On my way to a meeting in Andheri East (he had driven me there thrice before) I got involved in a complex conversation with another client and so was not paying attention to where we were heading – on emerging from my conversation I looked around to find we were lost and it took us a while to get back to the actual destination – I was late for my meeting thanks to the detour our dear over-smart driver had taken. I asked him, “ Agar tum ko raasta nahin samajh raha tha to tumhein rukna chahiye than na!?” to which he said, “Arrey Madamji aap baat kar rahe they aur main to theek aa raha tha … raasta pata nahin kaise badal gaya” I wanted to throttle him! On one day I was busy at work and the security officer called me saying my driver has come to meet me at the front gate. I went to see what was the problem and there was Rakesh virtually in tears, “Madamji hamar batua kisi ney maar liya hai – usme hamara license aur paisa sad chala gaya hai – hum garmi ke maarey shirt utaarey huey the aur hamari ankh lag gayi thi – jaane kab kissi ney batua shirt ki jeb sey nikaal liya” Poor guy … looked miserable. I gave him some money and asked him to immediately go write a complaint for a re-issue of his license. One good thing we discovered after parking the balance few days at Nehru Centre was that there was another option of parking space for which we did not have to pay any money – Worli Sea-face was where a lot of the office staff would park. Another benefit I gained was that my petrol bill came down a bit – this I learned from Rakesh was because the attendants at the Nehru Centre parking lot would steal petrol when I would leave the keys with them. So, although the conveniences were many of having Rakesh drive me around; the angst of constantly being angry with his rash lane cutting and his argumentative behavior defending his driving flaws and top it all the cost of the commute which was now close to Rs.17000 a month (too steep a price for my liking – but seemed justified as Roshni could use him for the long drive into town for her SPB class plus Mom and Papa could also use the comfort when required to make long commutes – it’s a different thing that Roshni’ SPB abruptly came to an end and Mum and Pa never used the car), just made me want a change! One fine evening Rakesh said that he wants a loan of Rs.10000. He had worked with me for just over two months and he was already asking for a loan to pay the deposit of his rented apartment. Nu and I decided not to oblige him. Two days after this incident he said he needed to visit his village as his brother had run away and was missing from home for the past one week. I let him go giving him an advance of Rs.2000 from his next salary. On returning after 4 days he was grumpier than ever! A week later he abruptly said that he would have to leave back for his village and his return was uncertain as there was nobody to look after his home and farmland … SIGH!%$# Now what!?


3. Meanwhile, on the several days of Rakesh’ absence the next obvious commute for me seemed to be a taxi which would cost me about Rs.450 a day i.e. approx Rs.11500 per month. I also tried a rick and taxi combination for a few days on my way to office that failed miserably and also worked out marginally cheaper but the time to commute invariably would be the same – I would get off from the rick at Bandra Talaab and look for a cab to Worli. To my frustration; no cab would be willing to go as they found the journey too short and, “Uskey baad khaali jana padta hai kyunki subah ke time worli sey koi bhaada nahin milta”! So, I was taking the taxi all the way from home to office and back for several days and would always feel guilty about the serious waste of time and money.


4. On one evening, while looking for a cab to Bandra outside the office I strayed towards the bus-stop adjoining our gate and discovered bus No.33 drive up (I had remembered Nu often telling of taking this bus from town). On an impulse I jumped in and to my pleasant surprise even got a seat within the next 5 mins at a FOR LADIES ONLY designated seat. The ticket conductor clicked by with his familiar bag of change and box of tickets and tore me a ticket for Rs.12 (I quickly did my math and realised that if this arrangement worked it would mean a monthly expense of not more than Rs.625 ONLY!!!!) I thanked the conductor with a broad smile and looked around to take in my surroundings – the bus was clean, well lit up with several tube-lights and so I could read - yippeee, fellow commuters were courteous and a mixed bag of all parts of India and something about that made me feel good, the ventilation was ideal and above all the bus dropped me virtually outside Fame Adlabs … this seemed the ideal solution!!? Nu too was amused that I was contemplating the bus everyday but also added that if it suited my convenience it would be ideal. Sure enough, the next day onwards my joy started crumbling once again – the busses would be delayed and often not even halt at the bus-stop and the route it takes i.e. via shiv-sena bhavan and then enroute to Siddhivinayak Temple … mornings would invariably get me into office later than my usual time and evening I would get home later as there would always be a waiting period before a bus arrived.

5. One evening while waiting for the 33 to arrive I saw a fancy AC bus drive up and the plank said BRTS 4 Oshiwara Depot. I once again jumped in impulsively. The fare was 35 bucks all the way to Lokhandwala. The seats were spacious, the bus was well lit, FM was playing on the system and the fellow commuters were the typical white collar executives. Felt good and the math proved not so bad too Rs.1820 per month!! The additional good things about this option are that the bus has an every 15 mins schedule and it takes the Shivaji Park, Mahim, Linking Road, Juhu route so the journey is quite much similar to any comfortable car journey and I do believe that this is actually one of the best alternatives to arrive comfortably at your destination. The one and only bane is that these busses are freezing cold so when I am not carrying a jacket I just don’t take the bus as I shake like a leaf for the long 2 hour+ journey. For some reason with regular progression the traffic has been getting worse and worse and any road journey past 8.15 in the morning and past 6.00 in the evening is a frustrating, slow experience (the god-dammed sky walk being built at Bandra has further worsened the situation) Sigh …just when I thought I had found the ideal solution I was saddened to know otherwise :(

6. On one frustrating morning when I had missed the BRTS 4 that gets me to office on time, and the cabbies at Bandra refused to take me to worli; I walked to Bandra station, walked unabashedly to the front of the long winding line at the ticket counter and bought a first class ticket and went up to platform no 5. Within seconds a train halted, there was some frantic jostling and muttering and ouching but I was safely in the train and within the next 15 mins flat I was at Bombay Central! I walked out and hailed a cab for Poonam Chambers and just as I was getting in 3 other commuters wanting to go to Poonam jumped in with me – we shared the fare which was 28 bucks and therefore just 7 bucks per head and believe it or not I was in my office in 15 mins – had I stuck to the road route I would still be caught in traffic somewhere at Mahim… that evening I accompanied some colleagues to Bombay Central station and took the train back too. The journey door to door i.e. from my office building to my doorstep was a flat 1 hour and gathered that the same would be the case in the mornings!!!! The next morning, I bought a first class monthly pass (I thought it best to try out this option before committing to more) from Jogeshwari to Bombay Central (Getting to Andheri in the morning is a nightmare thanks to the crazy traffic + getting into the train at Andheri requires a mastery in train travel – which clearly I am inept at), which cost me Rs.400 and the road fares per day add up to about Rs.75 per day and this math works out to a comfortable Rs.2350 per month!!! Not bad at all – in fact damn good. The journey is invariably spent standing but is never more than 30 mins and the ladies, well what can I say, as always, it is a mixed bag and mixed experiences on each day with a lot of - body massaging specially in the mornings, dirty looks, dry looks, tsk tsk tsk please madam you are poking me …, the rear most girl/lady will holler imploringly array yaar please move ahead no I am falling out, OUCH followed by closed eyes and deeeeeeep sighs and finally a look that says I wish I could kill you, fourth seaters balance on a quarter of a bum but still stubbornly continue to sit and at every few minutes turn to the other 3 seat members to “please move little” … that is what the 3 ladies do they just move their bodies in the same place and the situation continues till someone else gets up to leave; what hasn’t changed is the desperation to jump into the train and the eagerness to grab a seat and the pointing your finger at a lady sitting being enough communication to prompt a response about her destination … I usually have a squeezing experience when I board the train at Jogeshwari and then stand to a side once the crowd becomes less at Bandra. On the journey home, getting in at Bombay Central and getting off at Andheri is hurried but not that bad at all … the only challenge that remains with this commute is the getting a rick from Andheri station to home … I need to ask 15 0 20 ricks before I get one to agree to take me (this is all thanks to the metro construction happening in full swing on JP Road, which they say will take 2-3 years to complete) … Sigh!! Getting off at Jogeshwari is a pain too as the long winding ride thru the market takes forever! So, I guess Andheri station is my best option and take a bus from there if a rick doesnt happen within the first few minutes.

It’s been 6 months since I joined work and I have tried 6 modes of commuting to work and all of them have their positives and negatives, pleasant moments and nasty ones and as I look back I do believe that none of the services match the speed of the train commute and price albeit more expensive than the bus 33 option is really worth it. I do still take an occasional taxi to work or the rick taxi combo (I have learnt if I take a rick up to Santacruz and then take a cab from there the cabbies are more than willing to go to Worli) or even the 33 or BRTS 4 if get off early from work and contemplate trying out the contract bus as an option. However, when I want to make certain my time to destination I choose nothing but the train. My pass is coming up for renewal soon – I plan to renew it for sure :)

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Becoming Mom

1.30pm, 26 March 1994 ... the time and moment that Dr. Ashok Bhatt of Excel Nursing Home, at 19th Road Khar, Mumbai said with a dramatic smile as he held up the wiggly wailing baby that had just been scooped out of my dissected tummy; “Priya you have a beautiful baby girl and all her toes and fingers are perfect” … I cried out with a burst of emotion as tears of joy gushed out and asked to hold my princess to my chest. Bhatt obliged albeit briefly, I felt her wet and warm body against my chest and prayed silently over her head thanking God for blessing me with motherhood and before I knew it she was whisked away to a counter to my right … as I strained to watch the nurses tending to her, her image blurred and within a few seconds (I guess) I lost consciousness. I opened my eyes and winced at feeling excruciating pain in my abdomen ... I could see a blurry vision of Farrukh smiling down at me ... I gathered my senses and realised it was twilight and the joy on Fruki' face was apparent because he had become a father … "Where is she" I croaked, “nursery mein so rahi hai” he said. I was eager to see our daughter ... oh my Gosh MY BABY ... MY CHILD from my body, a part of my flesh and blood was brought into this world ... I felt like was on top of the world and that I had gifted the world the biggest treasure ...how beautiful is that emotion!!!! I was dying to hold my lil princess close to me ... and so I asked to see her. As the nurse brought her into the room my pain was forgotten and I savoured my little baby all tied up into a bundle of white and blue linen -- only her tiny (fist sized face could be seen crowned by locks of long dark hair, her eyes and pink lips were firmly shut and she had a few remnants of the calcification white peels on her forehead (thanks to her birth being delayed due to the indecision of whether we should wait for natural birth to happen or go in for surgery) and there was a calm on her face like that of an angel -- the sight of her lovely face made me feel ethereal, as if I had been blessed to mother this little treasure … and I suddenly felt so close to God, as if I was holding God in my arms. The nurse had laid her down on my left side with her small head resting on my arm ... My eyes filled again as I tried to hold her close to my body, whispering a silent prayer over her. At this point her eyelids opened and her lovely black beady eyes looked about and her pink lips opened to, as if say, 'Hi Mom'. I touched her left cheek with my right finger and said 'Hi my princess, I am your mama', and her mouth promptly opened and she swiftly turned her head towards my finger and started wiggling in my arms as if trying to search for something.
The nurse prompted me, “She is finding milk. Will you feed her or should I get her a bottle”
“I will feed her ... but I don’t know how to”
“Don’t worry she will know how to”

As I placed my unsure breast to my baby’s right cheek (while she was busy trying to reach out to my finger on her left) she magically took the cue, turned her head towards me and swiftly grabbed my breast with her small mouth and started suckling as if she had done this forever. It was a magical moment for me, that took several minutes for me to get used to, while our lady was guzzling milk and intermittently gasping for breath after every few sips and then promptly getting back to the task at hand. We all laughed at her intelligence and ability to cope with the situation with so much ease and I felt that I was the luckiest woman on earth. We had been thinking of several names for her but When Baji suggested, "Priya iska naam Roshni kaisa rahega?" "Haan" I said with pleasure, "Badhiya rahega -- it is so fitting and perfect Baji" ... my princess ROSHNI had brought so much light and delight into our home.

Through her growing years Roshni continued to amaze me … the only few baby-like words that Roshni spoke were ‘dabban’ for ‘get down’, ‘anga’ for ‘ice-cream’ and ‘Natti’ for ‘Roshni’; the rest of her English expression was immaculate; she always appeared confident and intelligent and knew how to get her way with all the key people in her life – she would unabashedly ask to be taken 'daban' and once she was down she would point in the direction of the ice-cream store and say 'Anga' with great joy and give her most adorable toothless smile the moment the shop keeper gave the ice-cream in her little hand -- she would lap up the Quality Walls Vanilla ice-cream to the last drop (The Walls factory has a lot to thank Roshni for) and of course try her luck to ask for more; she walked at 9 months and a few days and spoke 3-4 word sentences in perfect English diction before she was 1; she danced to Bollywood tunes in perfect rhythm at her first birthday party which was celebrated on the Carter Road terrace; she memorised several ladybird books as I read the stories to her and would mouth the words of the story alomg with me ... on completing the story she would say 'Mama again' and 'again' and 'again' and I always obliged until finally it was time for her to sleep; she was comfortable using the computer at the age of 2 years and would manoeuver the mouse thru all the complex clicks that the several Jumpstart CD’s demanded and even figured out all the games therein; she loved watching animated films and all my lose change was spent in buying her all the possible Disney stories, Jungle Book and Lion King - he favorite character as a kid was Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" because she thought that Belle was good at heart and fell in love with the beast even though he was so ugly and scary!!! She always had the perfect sense of dressing and style from an early age and like her parents, was Ms. Vanity Fair from the time she realized that the person in the mirror was her (the first time she could express herself she said ‘Mama see ... baby’ pointing to her reflection and thought that there was another girl with her mommy in the mirror - I tried hard to make her believe that it was Natti and not any other baby - 'No its a baby Mama' -- then I kissed her face and she saw me giving the kiss in the reflection and that the baby had the same dress as her – it took some time but finally she realised that it was her own reflection, after which, every time she passed the mirror she would point, smile with glee and say 'Hi Natti' and then laugh out loud); she looked and danced like a DIVA and had the body like that of a fish - slim and agile; as she grew she understood emotional bonds shown in complex movies with immense maturity; her teachers (Ms. Geeta @ Little Bo Beep, Bandra would always sing praise of her intelligence and artistic talents); our friends would be amazed at her speech skills, style and confidence; she displayed leadership qualities from a very early age (which would be seen in the amount of kids who wanted to befriend her and would circle around her to seek her approval and love right from the time we lived at Mira Road to date); her sensitivity to people around her was also unbelievable considering she was so young (on several instances she would cause eyebrows to lift at her insight on the best course of action to be taken in an emotionally strung moment, or assessing who is upset and why and offer an amazingly simple solution or draw a perfect character sketch of an adult that would completely blow the person away, or know how to end a fight amongst friends even if it meant hurting herself in the process); and above all, whenever I have been insecure or hassled about anything it is she my Roshni that I have turned to without a thought -- she is my patient listener, my shoulder to cry on, my guardian angel, giving me the right solutions ALWAYS with so much ease that her capacity to be such a beautiful soul simply instills a sense of pride in me ... all of these innumerable experiences of my daughter' life with me are held within the warmth of my heart forever reaffirming my believe that she is the angel of my life and I am proud to be her mother...

When I told Rosh about my second pregnancy, she was really excited that she was going to get a baby in the house and would make up long stories about the baby (and each of her stories were creative and endless). When I was due for my delivery Dr. Kiran Coelho (my gyneac) said upfront, that I will need to have a c-section again and suggested either the 9th or 11th of October as optional dates for the surgery. I wanted my baby sooner and so chose to go in on the 9th. While leaving home on the 9th morning Roshni was still asleep looking as beautiful as ever. I kissed her goodbye with tears rolling down my cheeks and whispered into her ears that I am going to the hospital to get her a baby to play with. She mumbled something in her sleep and turned her side ... I hugged her firmly knowing that by going into surgery I was taking the risk of never seeing my princess again ... even the thought pained me to think how her mind would adjust to my absence (a mother does believe she is the central focus of her baby -- which is true … and yet I know of enough fathers who do a wonderful single-parenting job with their children). I turned to Farrukh and made him promise that if something irreversible happened to me in that OT he would never let my Rosh get neglected and always support her despite whatever and whoever ... he assured me he would! Mum, Papa, Apaji, Daddy and Farrukh were with me before I went into the OT and they all assured my about Roshni' well being... despite their assurances I was not sure of my baby' well-being if something went wrong in the next few hours ... as one of the petite looking catholic nurses readied me for the OT she saw that I was silently cryin - 'Kya hua.. aapko pain hota hai?' 'Nahin...meri do saal ki beti ghar par hai - mujhe kuch ho gaya to usko kaun dekheyga?'
'Usko God dekheyga ... God sey bada sambhalney wala koi hai kya is duniya mein?!'
'Nahin'
I closed my eyes and thanked God for sending this lady to me in my moment of worry' She was right ... God watches over us all and that is the biggest blessing we have ... my Roshni has!


As I gained consciousness in the gloomy OT on 09 Oct 1996 at Holy Family Hospital, I felt excruciating pain in my abdomen and then realized I was all alone in the room and the lights were out -- the first thought that came to my mind was that something horrible had gone wrong -- Why am I still in the darkened OT all alone? What has happened to my baby? (I had been given General Anesthesia after the epidural injection failed to have the desired numbing effect on my abdomen and limbs) ... and I started crying; I then heard some nurses chattering in marathi in the background and I called out to them as loudly as I could with my croaky and hoarse voice,
"Nurse... mera bachcha kahan hai?"
"Arrey tum hosh mein kaise aaya? Ladka hua hai tumko, baba family ke saath bahar hai"
One of them then rolled me out of the OT into a corridor, where she said I will be, till I was allotted a room!! Ignoring the pain and discomfort I screamed, "Please mujhe mera baby dikhao ".
Within a few minutes, I heard mamas voice saying, "Congratulations Priya, for your handsome son" and she showed me my precious baby -- he looked indeed very handsome with his skin fair and pink ... his eyes closed and his lil fists out of the blue linen already -- this boy was out to rule the world! I hugged him as tightly as I could and wept bitterly thanking God for blessing me with parenthood twice around. Soon Apaji, Farrukh, Papa and Daddy came by my side looking thrilled with the newest addition of the family. Apaji had distributed money the moment she got the news, Papa and Daddy had gushed and cried with joy at the news of their grandson being born and Fruki was skipping about with excitement. Anj suggested we name him Raunaq which was again very fitting considering the excitement he brought into the house on his arrival (Roshni and Raunaq also sounded good together). Roshni came to visit me in the hospital during the visiting hours – I think it was about six in the evening. She was in Farrukh’ lap and was wearing her best dress to meet her bhaiya. She grinned on seeing me in bed and said,”He is so pink Mama”. She snuggled up next to me in my bed and wanted to hold Raunaq in her lap. I let her touch his cheeks, “He is so soft and cute Mama”. “Do you like him darling?” I said. “Yes, thank you so much for giving me such a cute baby Mama - I love him tooooo much”


Raunaq was the coolest kid from day one. He took his time to do everything including walking, speaking, eating etc. Clearly the experience bringing up Raunaq was totally different from that of Roshni. He was not a milk guzzler like her … on the contrary he had a very laid back and princely approach towards drinking milk – and most of the time just ignored the offer as if bored stiff -- I literally needed to force him to drink milk. He also preferred to sleep much longer hours and thru the night and generally needed lesser attention and was much less clingy. Whenever he was awake he would be very alert about his surroundings but would never be bothered about expressing himself. He clearly had a mind of his own from a very early age and all thru his growing years (and even to date remains so) his biggest role model was none other than Roshni ...the moment she entered the room he would try to reach out to her and watch all that she was doing very keenly - on one instance Roshni was rolling on the bed so Raunaq also decided that he could do it and in a blink rolled himself OFF the bed and screamed with joy at the experience not realising that he had bumped his head in the process; He learnt to use the computer earlier than he could run. He was not even two when he would haul himself onto the cartoon charactered chair we had in the kid’s room and jab away at the keyboards signaling he wanted me to switch it on for him to play his favorite Jumpstart CD. One particular instance stands out vividly in my mind -- now, this may sound unbelievable but it is true – he was calling out to me to switch on the computer, I stalled him for a while as I was busy attending to something in the kitchen saying "Mama is coming my darling ... 2 mins please” ... so what does our impatient young man Raunaq do!?? Well, my lil prince climbed onto the study table, switched on the mains, turned on the computer and then clicked on the monitor. As I walked into the room I watched curiously for what he would do next … he grabbed his favorite CD from its pack, opened the disk drive and placed the CD in it (with the correct side up) and then waited for the familiar template to show up (which had an auto start the moment you put it into the disk drive) … on seeing his favorite characters on screen he turned to me realizing I had come into the room, and his adorable face burst into a gleeful smile and he shouted pointing to the screen, “ Ma Ma Ma see” (he spoke only monosyllables at this age). He then jumped up and down on his chair clicking away at all the different buttons and danced every time music would play... I think he was also dancing because he knew he didn't need my help any more ... and sure enough, he would be at the computer at any given time in a day :) He loved climbing things (as was seen in the computer incident above). Actually, he climbed every high surface fearlessly and with agility of a monkey. We had bunk beds in the kids room and I would often find Raunaq hanging onto one of the rungs screaming for help as he lost balance on one of the steps. He was also very proud of himself from an early age - If you were to even look at him with a stern face he would be very insulted and would react with great emotional breakdowns and would be very difficult to quiet him down… Speaking sternly or yelling was totally out of the question. He was a real boy while Rosh the perfect girl. He never spoke squeakily like most kids do. In fact the first word he spoke “Ma” was in a gruff manly voice and I laughed out loud with joy that my baby had finally spoken. This was when he was about a year old. Laughing out loud reminds me of another characteristic of my son – he could not bear if anyone laughed when he said something. So, when he did something cute that thrilled people around him they would laugh with joy and he would think they are laughing at him and burst into tears. This increased with time to the extent that even if a tiny smile broke out he thought you were making fun at him. It took me a long time to convince him that the laughter and smiles were because we appreciated and loved him … Sigh!!! ... We also moved home after Raunaq was born -- we sold the Mira Road house and bought a 2bhk at Kandivili. This was a lot more spacious and we did the children' room beautifully in all the primary colors. As a toddler, Raunaq loved dinky cars that he would race down the corridor; and believed that he could do anything - he would work on puzzles endlessly again and again and again; and make me read all the Poldy and Time life books I dont know how mant times over - the 3 of us would huddle together into a blanket and read every afternoon after lunch before they dozed off to sleep; cycling on his tricycle and doing camps with Rosh and me in the compound below was a thrill for him...

Some unforgettable incidents of our wonder years together were:
- our trip to Punjab for Sachin' wedding with Roshni dressed in fine lehangas and salwar kameez's and Raunaq in a suit and sherwani;
- on one of our camping incidents we all got bitten by an army of red bully ants -- Roshni got chased by the stray dogs in the compound and Raunaq got stuck in the lift;
- Roshni and Raunaq riding on an elephants back at Kandivili and me chasing after the elephant paranoid about what I would do if this huge animal decided to go wild!??
- Horse riding, merry go-riding and building sand castles on the beach
- Our trips to Goa, Manali, Pune, Mahabaleshwar and Lonavala with the gang
- Raunaq slinging his bat on his shoulder from which hung a little bundle that contained a few of his toys, an apple and a set of clothes and saying good bye to us -- he was actually ready to leave home as he was disgusted about going to play school;
- Roshni speaking to Raunaq with authority like a lil granny 'Raaaaunaq noooo doooont do that';
- Akshay and the kids having this bon hommie relationship where he was like the big brother protecting them at Kandivili;
- Teaching Roshni how to swim and her jumping into the pool with her bathrobe in the excitement of showing off to Anj that she could dive into the deep;
- Roshni dressing Raunaq up like a girl;
- Roshni' first crush Chirag;
- All their birthday parties;
- All their little friends Utsav, Sanchi, Akshay, Sahil and then later Sanay; Sanju, Bhoomika, Neha and Zeeshan
... beautiful and memorable times together all of which related to me being a mother.

I had quit working with Telerate after my 4 month long maternity leave – I just could not stay away from my lil princess. Farrukh was supportive and somehow we managed to pull thru financially as well. It seemed so right that I spent time bringing up Roshni and Raunaq instead of going to work … to this date I do believe that the 5 years that I stayed home with the children were the most satisfying years of my life and are filled with beautiful memories.

Thru the years, I have always believed in a simple philosophy while mothering my children - that I am always there for them in every aspect of their lives and always treat them as my closest friends who I turn to when I am low. That has in turn helped them turn to me as a friend too, whenever they need an ear to listen and a few words of wisdom. I usually have liked to leave the final choices in their lives to them after sharing the consequences with them so that they learn to be responsible for their choices and actions. I have also told them that they will always have a place in my heart and home but that we live in a society and hence they need to make a place for themselves in this world too and I will always be there to guide them through their journey of life -- My philosophy works pretty well most of the time … and yet there are times when I question my mothering and feel that I could have done so much better and that my children deserve better ... I do work hard at improving on a daily basis from books I read, from people I talk to and from movies I watch … it is a continuous learning process and I believe will always be ... I am blessed to have Roshni and Raunaq in my life and hope that I can do justice in their upbringing so that they have a good life ahead ...

God! Help me always to make the right choices while guiding my children ... help me perform the role you have bestowed on me better ... because they are your children and the angels of my life ...

Monday, February 2, 2009

Down memory lane with … Class of ‘80, St. Josephs High School

Last weekend was different in many ways. It was the first long weekend of 2009; as Monday was a national holiday on account of 26 January, India's Republic Day celebrations. And although there was so much more time on hand, there was just so much to do, too. 

Saturday morning was spent at work as usual, followed by a quick lunch from my tiffin. Just as I was tucking in my last bite of dal-rice my hand-phone buzzed - It was a call from Ramona Dhawan, my childhood 'chaddi buddy'. I was excited to hear her rattle on about an all-girls reunion from the Class of 80 on, Sunday, 25th of January at the Radio Club, at Colaba. 

Coincidentally, Shama Mohnani had called me a few days ago too, saying, “Hi Priya, kaisi hai … this is Shama from school. I am in town with my hubby and son and do lets please catch up yaar – I am dying to meet with all of you”. Shama had got in touch with me a few months ago on Facebook and introduced herself and embarrassing for me I just could not place her despite her many animated ways of trying to remind me who she was. She looked beautiful but strangely unfamiliar. After her call I remember looking closer at the miniature sized school picture of her in my class III black and white photos. She said that Ramona, Lipika, Shama and I studied together in class III at St. Joseph’s High School, R. C. Church before I struck off with my parents on several naval transfers across the globe including Vizag, Russia, Chandigarh and Delhi and then finally back to Bombay in 1977 in the VIIIth grade once again in the same school from where we all passed out in 1980. It was that it dawned on me that she was known to me as Mala Guriya and she was registered on Facebook as Shama Mohnani (her after-marriage name). 

After Shama or Mala's connect on Facebook, I had received a call from Vinod Hamilton who had set up a yahoo group called Class of 80. He not only got me to join the group but also gave me a list of everyone’ telephone numbers and email ids. I was ecstatic to connect with my old school friends. It was great speaking with Ramona Dhawan, Sangeeta Lalwani, Geeta Kapoor, Rehana Karim, Vinod and above all Utkarsh Palnitkar, the first ever head boy at St. Josephs. In fact, shortly after speaking with Utkarsh he visited Mumbai on work (he did travel to Mumbai every week) so we did lunch at Copper Chimney, Worli. He was late and so I waited anxiously at a table facing the entrance of the restaurant. When the familiar face finally stepped into the restaurant, I noted from a distance that he had put on some weight, lost some his salt and pepper; but he still had the same toothy child-like smile and his intelligent way with words - he is now a partner at E&Y and is doing exceptionally well for himself, optimising his leadership skillset that had emerged in him as a schoolboy. It was a pleasure meeting with him and knowing that he is now married to Padma and has twin boys – they live in Hyderabad.

Ramona too had looked the same to me when I bumped into her at Links Pavilion four years ago, just as she did standing on the second row in the black and white class photo in which Ms. Rose our class teacher, looked prim and pretty. Along with her were several other familiar faces – Geven Hoogverf, Lipika Ghosh, Sangita Lalwani, Anisa Poonawala, Shamshad Mirza, Shola, Mala Guriya, Seema, Sharmila, Dennis and me and several others that I am sorry to say, my aging memory fails to recognise! All of us looking adorable in several stages of attempting a smile; our earnest looking minds not having an iota of what lay ahead in our lives.


My fondest memories of school were - sitting on the pews of the church listening to mass and hymns; going up to the figure of crucified Jesus who peered down at me through his sad eyes; singing along with choir during Christmas; playing in the fields and platforms of school without a care for the hot sun; eating samosas and jeera golis at the school tuck shop; eating perus with salt and chillies at the peru-wala cart; guzzling glasses of sugarcane juice at the bus stop; playing the 'Devils March' and 'Doe a deer' on the school piano each time I got the chance; attending a packed morning assembly and marching to class after that to some of the peppiest instrumental music; acting as Chimanrao and Gandhi in the plays; loudly singing 'Je suis dam me dam de dodo' orchestrated by our lovely French teacher Prabha; doing gymnastics stunts on the school's only gymnasium equipment - the parallel bars with Anisa and Rajani; Father Joaquim swishing around the corridors and the winding steps in his white robes with a smile on his face; our lovely teachers - Mrs. Murthy, Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Ramachandran, Mrs. Thor, Mrs. Agnihotri; playing kitty kitty near the priest's block; the classmates that I have individual memories with - Nalini Bamba, Suchita Kumar, Diana Menezes, Ruth Saldanha, Anisa Poonawala, Rajani, Sangeeta TC and Mansukhani, Preeti Rangachari, Anil Nair, Arun Iyer, Alan D’monte, Gwen, Gewen, Draupadi, Garima; having secret crushes on the boys including Utkarsh, Alan, Francis and Rizwan among others; our seniors - Ranee Desai, Swarna Rajagopalan, Sharmine D’monte; and above all the school building itself – just looking at it brings a lump into my throat and my eyes get wet.
On a recent trip to school with my sister Mala, mama and papa it was sad to see the condition of the school … and to think, that we have spent some of the best times of our lives within this half acre plot of land. Someday I hope I can give back to my school in some way … even it is in a small way! When Sunday morning arrived I had a knot in my stomach and I did not know what to expect from the lunch meeting that was but a few hours away. I quickly put brunch together for the family and then rushed to slip on my favourite white Kurti, beige corduroys and a pair of white heeled sandals. I got on my way with a skip in my walk and my digital camera in my bag. On the way, I stopped over at a florist to pick up 6 single roses for my girlies – Ramona had said to expect Mala, Reshma Shetty, Geeta Kapoor, Rehana, maybe Sangeeta Lalwani, at lunch. I reached a little late and went insane trying to find a parking spot. I first met Ramona or Cociii as I love to call her, with a little weight on her but looking as gorgeous and well kept as ever. Shama looked different from the school pictures but was a bundle of warmth and smiles - she was there with her hubby Harish and son Sahil (adorable 12 year-old). Reshma Shetty looked as prim as ever and both Rehana Karim and her looked as if they just got out of their school uniforms – so slim and simply lovely. Geeta Kapoor came after a while looking gorgeous with her salt & pepper tresses and was as mad and as beautiful as ever - she brought along her 2 lovely daughters. I felt so good meeting all of them. We laughed and screamed with joy and talked of our lives, school, our teachers, the economy while chomping loads of yummy Mughlai food and clicking loads of pictures. As I drove back after lunch my thoughts went back to the black and white class photo of std III and std X … so many years had gone by … to be precise 29 years … and each of our lives had changed in some very unfathomable ways … some for the better and many with a lot of sadness in them. Sigh ... this is not the place to share the details of the sadness, which I choose to keep within the folds of my heart with a silent prayer that their pain alleviates … some separated from their partners, some very unwell, one of our dearest dead and gone from the world _Anthony the ever smiling white toothed face either singing a song or kidding someone around_ I miss you Anthony and hope to meet you in our next lives again; some have lost their spouses and some are just very sad with the way life has treated them. And yet some of us are not only well but doing great with their respective families.None of us could ever have imagined the things that God had planned for each of us … and yet here we were meeting after close to three decades and all of us were down the same memory lane … I have and will always have very fond memories of each of my classmates and hope and pray that God fills their lives with all the happiness ever. It was great meeting my girlies and I hope to meet the boys and the rest of the girls, some day soon!?

Raj Kumar Singh - Being Good, Rickshaw Driver, Mumbai

While getting off a rickshaw saddled with a few heavy bags last afternoon, I heard a sound of something dropping and so turned to look ba...