How much do you owe?

 How much do you owe? 

The boarders in Bishops were forever short of cash.

Although their parents ' banked' money with the Dormitory incharge , they were only permitted 5 - 10 rupees a week unless they could justify a larger sum to buy a book etc. 

Now they were always hungry as well, as most kids are . 

There was only one solution ' eat now and promise to pay later'- something like a PDC . 

There were three outlets for this.

The Ice cream man.

The School tuck shop of Mr Donoghue.

Manji ,the vada  pav seller .

All three were in high demand.

There were some boys who smuggled in money as well, and I knew who they were .  They paid school support staff to go and buy eatables for them at night. 

Others had relatives and friends who they managed to coax to send them food. Some brought in food when returning after the weekend .

Others used the age old ' eat now and pay later method'.

The bills were usually cleared by MOST  of the boarders either on the last day of term when their parents came to pick them up, or on the first day of term ,when being  dropped back to the boarding.

This worked well for all stakeholders for years I guess . 

Bishops is well over 150 years old. 

Some parents lamented on how big the bills were ! Even 100 rupees was quite a large sum back in the 80's and 90's.

The reason for large bills was kindness and generosity.

Most of the boarders were kind , generous guys with a large friends circle . Hence if you went to eat an ice cream, you often had to buy one or two for friends. 

Some boys hung around these areas and begged friends to buy them an item or two or just ' mucked into one samosa or whatever. Some were satisfied with one lick of an ice cream too! 

Some senior boys were offered eatables by juniors as well- as a sort of bribe. 

Let me tell you that some of the biggest customers were the day scholars, who always had money in their pockets . However they too had a running bill with these vendors / stalls.

Whether you were rich or poor ,there was always a day when your money was over and you wanted to eat- so typical !.

So tell me - how many of you boys had a ' bill' with the Tuck shop , the Ice cream man  and Manji and more importantly how many either ran off without paying, or just forgot to clear that last bill?

Let me add- a few parents believed that their sons also took cash loans from all three sellers and put it down in the bill !

So speak up .

PS- Some boys had bills with the bhutta and guava sellers at the gate too .( Thanks Hasanali Sura  for this info)

( Share this story with your wife and kids )

Where did you pray

 Bishop's boarders were a class apart.

In order to galavant on Sunday , be out with friends, have a meal or just see the girls - Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh boys visited temples, mosques and churches and gurudwaras. 

No,not only their own places of worship, but each others too! 

It didn't matter in the least. They went where their heart took them that day and all returned smiling and with satisfied stomachs. 

They went out on Permit, supposedly to the house of their local guardian, but were often found elsewhere .

Often the Master on duty had to explain to guardians that the missing boy had probably left school with a fake guardian , such was their ingenuity. 

Faking signatures and producing letters from parents and guardians who never wrote them was their forte.

One poor uncle popped into school after 6 months to see his nephew. He told me that the whole family had been out of India for 6 months.  However, records proved that the nephew had visited him every week!.

Where they went, who they went with, who picked them up from schhol , who wrote those  letters remained a mystery .

Those were simple and  safe days.

No one was kidnapped and no one went missing . No parents complained of neglect. 

I know some of you will read this and relate these incidents to your wives and kids. 

Please also tell them that you were naughty boys. That most of you never studied enough and were often in trouble. 

But tell them this too - that the staff loved you and the boarding taught you plenty .

On wearing shorts

 I presume, that as one gets older, one does not mind discussing, writing, or speaking about topics, that earlier seemed embarrassing.

Keeping the above in mind, I am emboldened to tell you about something that occurred a few days ago.

However, let me set the scene …….

As a young boy, I was extremely skinny and tipped the scales in the 45-kilogram range for many years. Seeing me now, you may think this is a joke, but I am keying in this story with one hand on my heart – it’s the truth and nothing but the truth!

According to my mother, my hollow cheeked, lean , scrawny look was because I was a fussy eater & refused point blank to eat tomatoes, spinach, carrots, and ladyfingers. She also coaxed me to have Feradol, Complan and Egg flip – all in the hope that she would fatten me up.! Much to her dismay, it didn’t happen. 

My mum often referred to my legs as ‘spindles’ and that was not far from the truth. I detested the term but couldn’t do much about it either, because it was a realistic description. I presumed I would be skinny for life, or so it seemed back then.

 Now as a young teen, I somehow avoided wearing shorts to go out. I always preferred track pants or jeans  – for comfort and style obviously. Earlier it was because of the ‘spindles’ and then as I grew older, the habit grew.  

As the years went by, my spindles increased in size- keeping pace with my tummy, I guess. Wearing shorts, however, was something I never got used to. 

About five years ago, and prior to one holiday to Europe, I checked the temperature of the city we were scheduled to visit, and seeing that it would be warm, I bought two pairs of shorts on a whim and decided to wear them abroad. I took them along, but only wore one pair, once. They were then consigned to the back of some shelf in the cupboard. 

Covid saw them being worn frequently at home and I began liking them. We recently shifted house and home and the two pairs of shorts continued to come in handy while gardening and even for quick trips by car to the supermarket. In fact, I bought a few more pairs.  One evening I decided to wear a pair & go for a walk. 

Now, I usually do two or three rounds of a large lake near our place, and there are several other fitness enthusiasts walking as well. It was early evening by the time I got out of the house.

I had barely done half a round when I saw ‘her’ and a friend approaching from the opposite side. She was lean, had long legs, and long brown hair. Her lady friend was short and dumpy.  We passed each other quickly, and while her friend was busy on her phone, I could have sworn that she gave me a sideways glance. I had made sure that I had given them sufficient room by stepping aside, as the path was narrow. 

I didn’t think much of it. It was an amazingly cool evening, I was listening to some ‘Slow Whiskey Blues’, feeling fit and pretty good about myself, as it had been a productive day.

 Now one round of the lake takes about twenty minutes and lo and behold I soon saw them approaching again.

As we passed each other, a few things happened in quick succession. She looked at my legs, growled, lurched forward, and made a dash as if to bite me. Taken completely by surprise I jumped backwards, almost banged into the railing, regained my composure almost instantly, and stood staring. The attack – if it was that- was unprovoked! 

The young lady who had her on the leash was highly embarrassed and told me that her dear pet had never ever done anything like this before. She apologized profusely and said that probably her dog wanted to play with me! By then ‘Donna’, her Labrador retriever was wagging her tail playfully, trying to jump on me, looked like she was smiling, and I began feeling rather foolish. 

Two or three others who passed by, seemed highly amused by the entire incident, which had played out before their eyes. 

Had I overreacted? Was Donna just a young playful dog  who wanted to have some fun ? 

Was it my legs? The shorts? My nervous look when she passed by? 

I will never know. 

Nevertheless, I have vowed not to wear shorts while going for a walk. I can almost feel teeth on bare skin, and it makes me cringe.  There are several dogs being walked – albeit on leashes, but one never knows when another ‘Donna, Bella, Coco or Charlie takes a fancy to my legs and decides to act crazy. Playful my foot. 

Track pants will be safer.

Just look around

 Look around and what do you see

Famine, war, and  misery

Crooked politicians - ruthless czars

Missiles, tanks, and armored cars.

Mile-long lines of refugees 

The old, infirm and amputees 

All with just one goal in mind 

To see their lives are redefined.

They cry for mercy 

They weep in pain 

They seek salvation 

But all in vain

 

The barbaric enemy marches on

Trumpets blowing - battle lines drawn

Trampling all beneath their feet 

Till their victory is complete 

Who knows when this war will end? 

What will be left to defend?

Who will win and who will lose? 

Who are we to pick and choose? 

We all know 

That there is pain

That our selfish world

 Is going insane

Let peace prevail

 How do world leaders who are directly responsible for starting wars

 sleep at night?

 Leave alone sleep.

How do they rest, eat or go about their daily lives?

Do these despicable people pray?

They can't be normal - can they? 

No twinge of pity?

No remorse or guilt?

No feeling of sadness?

No sorrow or pain?

Are they liable to feel stress?

Do they really have hearts, minds, and souls like all of us? 

Or are these selfish, despicable monsters, so devoid of all human emotion,

 that they smile and go about their depraved lives

 without a care in the world?

What sickens me is their condescending arrogance 

Their disdainful swagger 

Their deplorable treachery  

Their repulsive, unscrupulous behavior.

Are they family men?

Wives, mothers, sisters, kids? 

Are their friends as evil as them?

Do they not see the killing – the bloodshed of innocents? 

Babies, children, women, and men are literally being slaughtered by the second

And not an iota of mercy? 

Are these not heinous crimes

That sickens one to the core?  

Do they not perceive the ruination of houses, hospitals, schools, museums, and the like? 

Cities that have taken decades to build are being bombed and bulldozed to smithereens

 and reduced to rubble in the blink of an eye.

Families are being torn asunder and some will never meet again.

 

For how long will this insidious campaign continue?

For how long will these political perverts, persist with their preposterous plans?

How long till the guns are silenced? 

Our world is bleeding 

Let peace prevail

War is not the answer

 War is NOT the answer - it never was 

Who does a war benefit?

Who stands to gain?

Who instigated who and pitted one against the other?

Definitely not the citizens of the countries involved

Definitely not the soldiers who pull the triggers

Certainly not the pilots who drop those bombs 

Nor the fathers and sons who are forced 

To abandon their weeping families 

And fight a war, they know precious little about.

Then who? 

Right now

Friends, families and neighbors

Besides being torn asunder 

Are destroying each other’s property 

Across a supposedly - neighborly border 

And killing one another mercilessly 

To placate the desires 

Of leaders they inwardly despise 

And appease the egos of despots who rule them

With iron fists and velvet gloves.  

Who actually benefits?

Who will win this war? 

Businessmen? Bureaucrats? Presidents? Politicians? 

Soldiers and Generals? 

This is no petty skirmish

No stealth attack at dawn 

No brief incursion 

No battle for a hillock

It’s not about swords, shields and guns 

Crossbows, daggers and spears 

Bugles, or a call to battle.

 

This is about mouse holing and collateral damage 

A ‘shock and awe’ offensive and rapid dominance 

This is unadulterated genocide

In broad daylight and publicized with defiance.

A disaster of unimaginable proportions.

A holocaust in the making. 

 

Now hundreds and thousands of innocent victims 

Are being pulverized into the dust 

For no fault of their own.

This is a massacre of the innocents 

Involving vacuum bombs, missiles and lasers 

Autonomies weapons and hypersonic aircraft.

 

And this world will pay the price 

Pay we will, and a heavy price it will be 

Literally and figuratively speaking. 

Unquestionably, everyone will pay 

If we are alive to do so. 

Bloodbath, Recession, destabilization 

Are the new buzzwords

Not just in one or two countries 

But the world over.

 

This is a spectacle of immense proportions 

A pandemic of a very different kind 

With no cure or quick fix vaccination in sight

And for a while even the dreaded ‘Covid’

Has been forced to take a back seat

And look on at the unfolding drama

The horrifying clips on the news channels 

Make one’s blood boil.

You don’t need to be a geopolitical expert 

To figure out the grizzly details.

BUT WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER

IT NEVER WAS 

IT NEVER SHOULD BE 

mg

I wish...

 What's on my mind ? 

I wish I knew how to draw

Even just a cat !

I wish I knew how to paint

But I'm colour blind !

I can float a bit

But can hardly swim

Definitely not enough to save my life

But I displace water nevertheless.

I wish I was not so claustrophobic 

That enclosed places didn't suffocate me

In my mind!

I wish I was taller 

5 feet seven isn't much to boast about

I wish I were slimmer

A paunch is definitely not appealing 

I wish I was like those handy guys

Fixing switches and intricate electrical connections

Those bulging muscles..

Sawing wood to size 

And producing tables and stools and shelves with ease and dexterity. 

With drills , tools and a few screws .

Have often wished I were smarter 

Not an Einstein or a Zuckerberg 

But just a little cleverer 

Maybe in Math ,science, and things 

That matter. 

But then again 

I am who I am

I am unique in my own quirky , silly way 

And for that, I am proud.

I am me!