Photography: 'Leafy Sky'

‘Leafy Sky’

© Rahul Tiwary | New Delhi | January 2020

I took this picture in Delhi recently. I liked the way greenery was covering the sky. Of late I have been watchful of the sky a bit more than before. Sky looks open, accommodating, and welcoming. It is free of clutter, free of worldly problems. Sky looks like proverbial paradise. 

Story: An Unromantic End to a Sindoor Dani

After his recent house-shifting, he was opening the cartoon-boxes one-by-one. When he opened that cartoon box, he was shocked to see inside it. There was a saffron color powder wrapping every object inside the box. He sat down on the bed and remained still for a while. Old memories came alive to him.

During their wedding, his wife had got a big colorful wooden ‘Sindoor Dani’ – a box to keep Sindoor. Sindoor is supposed to be a symbol of marriage for every Indian woman. Women display it on the parting of their hair as a sign of marriage as well as a gesture respecting their husbands. After their wedding, his wife had frequent quarrels with him. And when she went away for higher studies, she left her Sindoor-dani at home. It kept lying at the bottom most row of her almirah. And when she was back, she kept it inside the under-bed storage. There, it kept lying along with other miscellaneous useless items. For many years, the Sindoor-dani kept lying there – one among the other ‘useless items’. He had noticed it from the beginning; and had felt a bit of disappointment at its lack of care. But that was it. In front of bigger problems, smaller problems are never addressed.

Every time he got transferred and moved houses, the Sindoor-dani was shifted from one storage to another, but always with other useless items. This time however, it seemed that the Sindoor-dani had given up all hopes. It decided to implode.

On the way to the new house, the Sindoor-dani had got opened and whole of its Sindoor came out, rubbing each of the miscellaneous items it was clubbed with in the box.

He took some of the other items to the bathroom and washed those under the tap. The cover of Sindoor melted and started moving to the sink. He watched its traces disappear into the sink. Later when the objects dried up, they still had traces of orange Sindoor over those. The Sindoor did not get totally washed off. It clung to whatever object embraced it, even if unknowingly.

In the end, the Sindoor-dani was totally empty. And traces of Sindoor still clung to each of the other useless object which travelled with it in the cartoon-box.

He wondered how wise his ancestors were to have created such a miracle of ‘symbolism’. As Sindoor was a symbol of matrimony, the neglected and useless ever-wandering status of his wife’s Sindoor-dani was just an apt symbol of what was going on in his matrimonial life. He saluted the tradition and started unpacking other boxes.

- Rahul Tiwary

Pictures: Old Button Art :)

Took out buttons before retiring old shirt and created random art: 

- Rahul Tiwary 

Society: A Walk to Remember

Recently there was lot of ‘unrest’ created by opposition parties and Leftist students in Delhi. They were protesting against a series of scattered issues: some college hostel fee hike, against a recent act related to giving citizenship to migrants, against police action against protesters and also against police inaction in some cases. If you switched on your TV and checked any news channel, it would be presenting a scene of havoc. Same stuff, day in and day out. On one such days, on an evening walk, I came across a family of laborers.

The family seemed to be returning to their home after a day’s work. The man was walking on the footpath. His son, younger and having more energy was walking in front of him. His wife was walking on the main road on their left, maintaining slight distance from these two. Was she not related to them? I thought she was from the same family, because it is common for laborer families to go at work together. Kids play along side the construction site or road repairing work site and during lunch break, they all eat together. In winter, if someone lights a fire on the roadside, they would all warm themselves together. If son would fell playing on the bricks and hurt himself, mother would come and make him okay. This way, entire family sticks together and takes care of each other. Leaving behind kids is never a safe option in big cities. In villages, it is a different story.

The family was walking in a straight line. I knew that the footpath where the father and son were walking, was never used by the locals. The only times it is used when someone brings one’s pet dog for a walk and the pet dog wants to do something there. Otherwise local people walk on the service lane (seen on the right hand side lane in above picture). But this family did not bother. They just walked. No stopping by for the kid, to check on some trees or animals. No talk among themselves. They walked as if they were machines or some moving sculptures. It should be normal for people like them who lived a hard life.

Looking at their ‘detached’ behavior, I clicked their picture using my cellphone camera. And I wondered what these people would think about fee hike in some college, about some changed law, about some migrants being able to come to this country. Would they care? Most probably not. May be if talked with in private they would speak. But their ‘walk’ was simply trying to erase any other thought in my mind. Their walk was a force of nature. It was as if branches on the trees moved with a wind. As waves come and go in the sea. As birds leave their nests in the morning and come back in the evening. Nothing can explain it other than a “force of nature”.

Then why are we so attached with all the political debates and protests? Why have our TV News channels gone mad? Why can’t we find peace with this world, as it is, like this family had found peace with whatever came in their way? Society can learn tolerance and the spirit of ‘walking’ from people forming it. All good things need not come from a silver screen.

With these thoughts forming in my mind, the family which was walking much faster, looked distant and smaller as they kept going…

- Rahul Tiwary 

Travelogue: Public Park in Dwarka (New Delhi) (Part-2)

You can check previous related post here.

- Rahul Tiwary | New Delhi 

Philosophy: Finding Faults in Ourselves

First of all, I wish you a very happy and peaceful new year 2020!  

May the new year be a sunrise and bring happiness and positivity to you. 

In T. S. Eliot’s play, ‘The Cocktail Party’, there is an interesting episode. One of the characters in this play was not having a good time. She speaks to a psychiatrist about her unhappiness. And she mentions that she hopes that somehow all her suffering is her own fault! The psychiatrist asks her why she thinks so.  She explains that if her suffering is her own fault, she might be able to do something about it. But if it is God’s fault then she is doomed!

This interesting incident looks profound and can make us look at our own ways of dealing with unfavorable conditions. Sometimes if things go against our wish, we have the tendency to blame others and consider ourselves as a “pure victim”. While in many cases we may actually be a victim, but we could still find ways to find “faults” in ourselves using which we could correct our own behavior next time.

The easiest example that comes to my mind is the instances or news of crime. A few days back while a husband and wife were crossing the road around midnight, they were hit by an unidentified car and the husband died. Was traveling so late in the night really necessary? Could they have returned earlier; since darkness increases the chance of accidents? Earlier there was a case of crime against a woman where the lady’s scooter got flat tires and she trusted two unknown men and went with them for a long distance in an unknown locality. Could she not have chosen to make a safer decision and not to trust random men? In another incident, a young couple met with a brutal crime because at 11 in the night they took “lift” from a private bus. Why could not have they made a wiser decision? In matters of crime, of course the crime happens due to criminals, but still many times the people at the receiving end make unsafe decisions which lead them into becoming easy prey of the criminals.

In other matters too, if a situation is bad, we could still try to find faults i.e. improvement areas within us and do self-correction; rather than putting entire blame on the other person or party. If we think on these lines, there are endless opportunities in which we can improve ourselves.

Therefore, we can say that our tendency to put the entire blame on others bars us from using the unwanted incidents as growth and learning opportunities. Because of our tendency to consider ourselves 100% blameless and innocent, we lose a lot of opportunities where we could have done some positive improvements in ourselves.

- Rahul Tiwary 

Business: Successful Patanjali FMCG Products (Part-3)

Patanjali Mixed Fruit Jam

Patanjali Tomato Ketchup 

Patanjali Sona Masoori Rice

Patanjali Kali Mirch Papad 

Patanjali Poha, Dalia, Pulses, and Cow Milk 

Earlier Related Posts:

Part-1

Part-2

Travelogue: Public Parks in Dwarka, New Delhi

Rahul Tiwary | Dwarka | Dec 2019

बच्चों की याद: बेबी, बुक-मार्क्स और छिपा खजाना

बेबी

एकदिन बेटी कुछ खोजती दिखी। घर में चारों ओर घूमकर पूछ रही थी - "मेरी बेईबी कहाँ है?" "बेबी" को वह "बेईबी" पुकारती जो सुनने में अजीब प्यारा सा लगता। बाद में पता चला कि वह अपने सारे टेडी-बेअर्स को "बेईबी" बोलती थी पर एक पीले रंग के सबसे छोटे टेडी-बेयर से उसे सबसे ज्यादा प्यार था और वह उसे "येल्लो वाला बेईबी" बोलती।

बुक-मार्क्स

एक समय मैं फ्लिपकार्ट से काफी पुस्तकें खरीदता था और हर किताब में एक सुंदर "बुक-मार्क" मिलता। बुकमार्क्स कई रंगों के होते और उनपर कोई चित्रकारी या कार्टून भी बना होता। इतने सारे बुक मार्क्स हो गए तो मैंने सोचा कि भविष्य में एक दिन मेरे बच्चे इनसे जरूर खेलेंगे और इसलिए मैंने उन्हें सँजोकर रखा था। उम्मीद बिलकुल सही निकली और मेरी बेटी ने सारे बुक मार्क्स ले लिए। अपने मूड के हिसाब से अलग-अलग दिन वह अलग-अलग रंग के बुक मार्क्स खोजती और रंगों के हिसाब से उन्हें एक साथ रखकर सजाती। फिर एक बुकमार्क को उसने अपने "बेबी" टेडी बेयर का "फोन" बना दिया - क्योंकि बुकमार्क फोन की तरह आयताकार था! अब जब वह अपने बेबी टेडी-बेयर को गोद लेती तो उस बुकमार्क वाले "फोन" को भी साथ रखती।

खजाना छिपाना

पत्नी एक खाली कार्टून में अपनी फेंकने योग्य पुरानी किताबें डाल रही थी, ताकि उसे एक साथ रद्दी वाले को बेचा जा सके। मेरे बेटे ने वह कार्टून देखा तो एक नया खेल निकाला - उसे अपने खिलौने जहाँ भी दीखते, वह उन्हें लेजाकर उस डब्बे में डाल देता। सिर्फ यूँ ही नहीं बल्कि उसे अंदर तक ऐसे पहुँचाता ताकि खिलौना बिलकुल दिखाई न दे सके। इससे एक समस्या आई कि कुछ समय बाद वह अपनी बहन के खिलौने भी डब्बे में छिपाने लगा और बेटी अगर लेने की कोशिश करती तो वह बल पूर्वक उसे रोकता। ४-५ दिनों के बाद उसे एक और गुप्त जगह मिली - टीवी टेबल के एकदम नीचे का ड्रावर। फिर वह अपनी कुछ चीजें उसमें भी छिपाने लगा। जैसे कि अपनी बहन से छीने हुए "बुक मार्क्स"! 

राहुल तिवारी

Memory of Kids: Cold War

After kids arrived, I started taking them to the society park and they loved it. As soon as they got off from the laps and their legs would touch the grass, they would start running. I decided to teach them to have closer look at nature. So, after we reached the park, I sat down and started touching the grass. Kids joined in and they started snatching the grass! And they made it a routine. Once in the park, they would spend the first couple minutes every day picking the grass! Those were the first few days at the place and our kids had not made friends yet. Then soon one day, our daughter had a company.

One day when we reached the park, we found another girl of the same age as that of my daughter. She had come with her mother. The little girl was unusually over-weight and her mother too was very over-weight. When my daughter saw her, she went to her with both arms open and extended – that was perhaps her way of greeting. But the other girl ignored her and did not respond. She did not even look at her! My daughter noticed that the other girl had not responded and then she moved on. We started playing usual games and kept to ourselves.

After a while the other little girl came to my daughter carrying a rubber ball, expecting some interaction. But this time, to my great surprise, my daughter just ignored her and moved aside. It happened once more after a few minutes – the girl came to my daughter and my daughter just ignored her and kept doing her stuff. It came as a shock to me. Was I witnessing a ‘Cold War’? Can little girls of 1.5 years of age execute such a ‘Cold War’?

After that, both girls played on their own. Whenever my daughter would reach near the other girl, she would behave as if the other girl was like some object, like a tree or an electricity pole. She just ignored her existence!

This was a new lesson for me. How often in our life we are offended by same person repeatedly just because we choose to be “friends” again? Sometimes people would offend us and if we say something in retaliation they would act as if we have offended them. “But I merely retaliated, while they had started it!”; “Come on, if anyone has right to get offended, it is me!” All logical arguments fell flat in front of such tough people. But my little girl showed me that day an alternative response. She stood up for herself and took revenge on the other girl for ignoring her by giving ignore to her in return. I wondered if girls are good in such psychological acts from such early age!

Rahul Tiwary

Memory of Kids: Hair Color

When the due date for my kids to be born was coming near, I started feeling excited. I also wanted to “prepare” myself for their arrival. And part of the preparation was that I wanted “look” nice to my kids when they first saw me. By now due to leisurely use of chemical hair colors, my hair had got as many greys as blacks. Although I was not coloring my hair those days, I decided that I wanted to look nice and young to my kids when they first saw me. So, I decided to color my hair!

The big day passed smoothly. When my kids came out of the operation theater, their eyes were closed. But they were to see me eventually, so I was not disappointed. I was not in a hurry. When they were back at home, they did see me. My son had got big expressive eyes, although a lot of time his eyes showed “anger”. “I was safe inside my mother’s; why did you people bring me out?”, was he thinking like that? When faced with sunlight he would squeeze his eyes. Those were winter days and sunlight is necessary for babies. Anyways, we did take some pictures with kids in arms. In one of the pictures I am holding my son in my arms; while my hair is black! No speck of grey. I was happy. And I was sure that my mission was accomplished. But little did I know that life would come full circle in a matter of 3 years.

Fast forward to early this year. I was to accompany my kids on a journey; and deep inside I was fearing that perhaps this was the last time. And to make it worse: I had not used my hair color!

A few days back from that day, I had got a hair-cut. My favorite way is to cut it very short. I feel light and fresh in small hair. When I returned to home from the barber’s shop, I sported a new very short hair with much of it in grey. Kids came to have “a look” at me. My son just observed me and did not say a thing. But my daughter? She noticed my hair and shouted, “Papa takle ho gaye!” (Father has gone bald!). I was taken aback. I told her defensively that I still had hair, just small hair. She did not seem to be convinced.

Back to the seemingly last journey. At the airport we took pictures. My wife is standing and smiling, kids have a toffee each in their mouths and are very happy. And there I am, trying to smile, in my grey hair. How could I be happy, at what was happening?

The grey hair kind of proves my mental unpreparedness for such an early parting. Had I known this would be so fast, I would have at least colored my hair. So that in the last picture together I would look better. So that my daughter won’t have to ridicule my hair, when she sees the picture. But life has to take full circles. What starts as black hair, ends up in white hair. In between it rests as grey hair. What starts in excitement may end up in disappointment. No matter how much you prepare to face life, it can always throw surprises on your way. And sometimes you are caught on camera with grey hair!

Rahul Tiwary

Memory of Kids: The Blue Slide

Children are very fond of “sliding”. They love this experience. Our kids were also fond of it. We had a slide in our society campus, but it was too tall and steep for our kids’ age. On the other hand, the slide in the neighboring park was of perfect height and inclination so our kids loved it. After having been to the park’s slide, when we took them to our society’s slide they would demand to be taken to the park’s slide. Our son would demand strongly, “Blue wala Slide!” “Blue wala Slide!”

And when we took them to the park, they would get down and start running to the “blue wala slide”. Our son would scale the ladder quickly and would quickly slide; as if he wanted to enjoy as many slides as possible before it was time to go back to home. In this “rush”, he soon realized an obstacle – other kids! Often some kids would sit at the edge of the slide and wait for minutes before taking the plunge, as if “pondering” whether to take the slide or not. So anxious to complete many slides, our son pushed a kid down the slide! And it worked! The kid was surprised but did not mind.

So, our son learnt this trick. He would rush to get over to the top and when he would find another kid there waiting and “pondering” over the slide; he would simply push the kid. Since it was not harming anyone, I decided to let him enjoy his “trick” but kept watching over other kids so that they were never hurt. And very soon, our son met his match!

Once a kid from a poor family was sliding. His clothes were rugged, and he was not clean. As usual, our son saw him at the edge sitting and simply pushed him down. Then our son took his slide and came down too. Little did he know that at the bottom of the slide, his “victim” was waiting for him.

As soon as our son stood up, the angry victim child who was of the same age, came up to him. He stretched his right hand and positioned to “slap” our son in an animated manner. He also made an angry and threatening face. Our son, who had never encountered anyone like this before, did not know how to react. He simply stood there, looking at this kid. He was neither scared (since he had never been slapped like this before and hence did not know the pain of a slap) nor threatened (since no one threatened him like this before). I immediately shouted and stopped the angry kid from doing anything. He brought his hand down and went away. We were relieved. I guessed our kid must have got a lesson that day. Not everyone will take the sporty pushing in the spirit of a sport… Not everyone has a sense of humor…  

Rahul Tiwary

Life: Blue Wala Bat

The other day I was at a barber’s shop. When I entered, a small kid of around 4-5 was getting his hair cut on one seat and his father was getting his on the next. The kid was very talkative, as kids usually are at this age. His father seemed to be not liking his talks, so whenever he asked him anything, he would give an annoyed answer and ask him to stop speaking. So very often the boy talked to himself. 

At one instance, he saw many mosquitos in the shop. So, he addressed the barber with something like this, “Uncle, you have many mosquitos here. Do you have a bat which kills mosquitos? If you don’t have, then I will give you my blue bat for some time and you can kill these mosquitos.” Neither the barber nor his father heard it, so no one replied. But I noticed the child-like innocence and also a noble idea in his offer. He actually wanted to help the barber, since the barber seemed to be helpless with mosquitos without a bat. It was a very touching gesture.

After a while when the father started getting his hair colored, the kid asked, “why are you getting your hair colored? Let it be like that.” His father was speechless at this.

- Rahul Tiwary