Three Wise Men

I have always believed that the general insurance industry in India has always been run by people with mediocre to low intelligence quotient. So expecting any gyan from people working here, is not what one expects. However, in the course of last couple of weeks, I encountered three gentlemen from the insurance broking fraternity who, also over the years, have turned into good friends and taught me a survival lesson or two in these tough times that we find ourselves in today.

“Ajit bhai, Janamdin Mubarak ho! How are you doing my friend?”

Thanks Sibesh bhai. It is good to hear from you. All is well. Sab badhiya hai.

Ajit, I have known you for almost forty years since school and college when we were together. There is something solid in your voice…ekdum kadak hai…and makes one feel that truly all is good. How come you manage to evoke such positivity and confidence with so much bad happening all around?

Arrey bhai, just look at all the things you have and that will change your perspective. Firstly, we are fortunate to have a roof over our heads. Secondly, we are still getting our monthly salaries on time every month, so there is food on the table for all. And finally, we have our hands, head and legs all functioning reasonably well….aur kya chahiye?

I paused for a moment to think what my friend had just said. He had given a new definition of the world. With the television anchors shouting through every channel that shit is happening all around from politics to filmdom, from corona to vaccine, here was someone telling me in simple language that All iij well. Ajit slightly modified the age old dictum of roti-kapda-makaan (food, clothing and shelter) to roti- sehat- makaan (food, health and shelter). Come to think of it, what more do you want?

                                                               Ajit with the Maestro

Thanks Ajit for telling me, you’ve got all.

……………………………………..

With all travel at a standstill, we have downloaded all possible applications which allow us to travel anywhere, anytime. I have with me frequent flyer programs of Zoom, WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Google Duo and a few more digital airlines. I wish they had invented loyalty programs and linked the miles to be redeemed with home deliveries of pizza, cakes and coffee….some of us would then have been promoted from Sliver to Gold and then to Platinum Card holders, based on usage, allowing us more benefits like Urban Clap haircuts and extra 50% off on Big Billion Day online sale. Anyway, that is not the exotic idea I wish to share but another instance of a dialogue with an insurance broker, based out of Surat, whom we connected as part of our so called ‘engagement program’.

Namaskaar Khatri ji. Kaise hain? Hope you are doing good.

Thank you. Sab badhiya hai.

And as the conversation started on the general things before warming up to the more business talk, our man popped up a question which taught me my lesson number two.

“Sen Saab, tell me the positive things about the pandemic situation?”

No one had asked me such a question but surely there were a few positives I could easily talk about.

“I have been eating healthy in these five months. Before the pandemic, my hectic travel, within the city and outside, would entail eating everywhere from lounges, canteen, complimentary hotel breakfast, lunch meetings, midday snacks, dinners with colleagues and partners, not to mention the home deliveries. But now, it is all good home cooked food and I have shed almost six solid kilos of excess weight. I am also waiting to do the other regular tests to check my vitals and, hopefully, the cholesterol level is now within the acceptable limits. I have also taken to morning yoga, something I could never get myself to do earlier. That to me has been the one biggest positive. Then there are other good things like being able to spend more time with my wife enjoying the movies and serials on Amazon Prime, Netflix and Disney Hotstar. Those couple of hours of togetherness, even though peppered with some late evening official calls and mails to attend, is a huge stress buster. Yes, there are many positives to this changed way of life as well.”

“For me, Sen Saab, the pandemic has shown me and possibly all of us, how much money we really need to live.”

This statement really got me thinking once again. How true? With multiple credit and debit cards in the wallet, how many did I use in the last few months? With no travel happening, no visits to the malls and movies, we have started living within our means and things that are there with us. All we have invested in, perhaps, is a better WiFi connection and no other gadget. The only clothes we now wear are shorts and T-shirts and semi-formals. The formals are all lying in the cupboard untouched since that fateful day of 22^nd March 2020. So many festivals have come and gone and some more are coming shortly and yet we are not jumping to the juicy offers of 50% off that are flashing from our phone and social media screens. Today, I actually needed to check my secret diary to recollect the ATM pin before going there again wearing my surgical gloves and mask. There is no reason good enough to celebrate and swipe the cards to buy things.The joy of buying is lost. The joy of spending and splurging is lost.  All we do now, possibly, is buy essentials like fruits, vegetables and toiletries that will take us from one weekend to another and no more. If this is the life I could lead, then why crave for more? With so many known people getting affected and also falling down, life seems frail and full of surprises and unpredictable. So then why am I in this rat race? Most important question we all need to answer, how much do you need to live our lives?

Thanks Khatri ji for telling me how much is enough. Thoda hai, thode ki zaroorat hai…

………………………….

The third wise man is truly a man of all seasons. On weekends, he will send six to seven comic strips of Lockhorns, Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible, Dennis the Menace, Garfield, Dilbert and Calvin and Hobbes. But the reason for my adding Sats in the list of people who gave a meaning to life is not because of these forwards but the way he ends the day daily around 8.00pm, musically and poetically. Sats sends out a song to me and it is not just any random song. Each song has a co-relation to the day he is sharing like the singer’s or the music director’s birthday or anniversary. Each song is accompanied with a short note where Sats pours his love out for the song, the singer, the movie and even pronounces his dislike for none other than Queen of Melody. He writes those lines as if Sahir Ludhianvi were writing his lyrics with a glass in his hands….in fact Sats tells you whether he is drinking Black Dog or Glenfiddich…as he types the lines of the night….but never to miss a comma or an exclamation mark! Here’s one of his last verse for you to appreciate what I said:

“I am early in your box this evening, the night is still a distance away. But I rush, for at 8.30pm, I intend to immerse myself with Mukhtar & Co (some musical) with a single malt in hand. Why single malt? Because, peene waalon ko peene ka bahaana chahiye…and today I have a reason….in fact, for a while now, I have also been contemplating Jagjit Singh- isn’t a song by him long overdue? And therefore, I grab this opportunity. Raising a celebratory toast to Shabana Azmi on her birthday! A stunning powerhouse of talent, from a time when film makers were masters of their craft. This song, today, is from the 1982 beauty, Arth, directed by Mahesh Bhatt (always a man who loved to be in the middle of controversy) and starring two powerful lady protagonists- Shabana and Smita Patil. And Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Raj Kiran. The music and singing is by Jagjit Singh, lyrics by her dad, Kaifi Azmi himself…Jhuki Jhuki Si Nazar…She comes alive on camera without saying one word. What an actress…Just watch!

And along with it comes the film clip of the song.

Wonder how a man can write every day after doing so much research and putting so much love into those lines….he too can’t be having a great day every day….he too must have his worries at work and home…and yet here is a man who brightens up the evening. I, not only enjoy the music and the power of Sats’ pen, but also make sure to send out the post to a couple of friends and groups….at least a hundred more - to enjoy the power of this man’s creation. Incidentally, many of them believe that I am the creator despite my vehemently denying and sending out multiple clarifications. So what did Sats teach me…passion…love…when you love something you will find time for it and words and actions will follow…the more you love something, the sweeter the creation becomes, for you pour in loads of love and sweetness. And more importantly, here is a man not only enjoying music but unknowingly making evenings and nights of hundreds of people so much better. Hats off Sats!

Thanks Sats…for the music and the joy it brings to troubled lives.

Before I close for the day, I must share what Sats told me yesterday. He said all Indian Gods are the best insurance salesmen, Shiva being the ultimate. They promise and sell the All Risks insurance policies or Sarva Jokhim Bima as you would translate it into Hindi to their disciples but leave a small exclusion clause or two hidden somewhere in fine print which is later used to deny claims. Take for instance, Hiranyakashyapa. He was granted a boon that neither man nor woman would kill him, neither will he die during day nor at night, no man or god will ever destroy him….he was given almost All Risks cover. The Gods then created the exclusion clause called Narasimha who was half man and half lion and who kills Hiranyakashyapa at the twilight hour. Claim of invincibility denied! The other fascinating tale is of Bhasmasur, the demon, who got the boon, once again from Shiva, for all the austerities the demon had performed. According to the boon, anyone on whose head Bhasmasur were to put his right hand, he would turn to ashes. Bhasmasur created quite a scare till Vishnu created an exclusion clause hidden in the form of Mohini who entices Bhasmasur and agrees to marry him provided he dances the way she would do. And during the dance, she puts her right hand on her head and the demon does the same….willful misconduct as the marine insurer in me would pronounce….claim denied…demon demolished!

So please do not go out looking for Godmen and Gurus in the caves of Himalayas or the serene climes of Haridwar and Bangalore, they live among us….all you need is to seek and you shall find!

SS

Happiness Is...

 It was still dark outside but she quickly got out of bed and in no time was ready in her school uniform. She even found time to rub off the dust from her black shoes that were lying under her bed for months together. She walked up to the mirror on the wall, adjusted her hair a bit and smiled….I did good!

She then walked into her parents’ bedroom and went straight where the mother slept. She removed the thin wrap and gently tapped the sleeping mother on her bare hand. “Wake up Mama and make me my breakfast.”  A startled mother woke and couldn’t believe what she saw before her…her little one, all dressed up in school uniform and her packed satchel on the floor.

“Pinky, go back to bed. We do not have to go anywhere for school now…not now and not anytime soon. We have brought the school into our house and will continue to do it on the computer screen as you have been doing for months now. “

“No Mama, I want to go to the school. I don’t like this computer school. I want my friends. I want my teacher. I want my games. I want my school bus. I want my tiffin box,” said a five year old toddler, almost in tears.

The mother got off the bed and hugged the little girl and kissed her tight on her chubby cheeks and then on her forehead. “Babu, I know you like going to school but because of this bad and dangerous disease all around us, the school is shut. The teachers are not going there. Your friends are also not going. No school bus is plying. Everything has come to a standstill. Yes, but I can make you some nice snacks and put it in your lunchbox to be had at home when you are hungry.”

“No Mama. I hate this school from home. I even checked with some of my friends who have all agreed to go to school today. I am sure they are all going and I am not going to be the one to miss all the fun. Please Mama, take me to school,” said a pleading Pinky.

“It is not safe outside. How can I allow you to go? I love you so much and cannot see you fall sick. Now that you are ready, we will have breakfast and by then it will be time for your morning online assembly and PT class.”

“No, no, no…I will not do PT before the computer screen. I will do it standing on the school lawns.”

“At school the teachers punish you and even smack you at times for not doing your homework. So when you are at home, you are safe. The teachers cannot even scold you now. It is so much better studying at home. And Mama and Papa are there with you all the time.”

“I like my teachers. They love us and they never beat us. They only tell us good things and get angry when we make mistakes. They even get goodies for us and often play with us. I cannot have all this when studying at home. Why don’t you understand Mama, I want to go to school.”

By now the tears had started pouring out and the commotion woke up the father who was pretty startled by the scene before his eyes…a crying daughter and a sobbing wife! He rubbed his eyes to check whether he was not hallucinating. “What’s happening to my beauties? Why are you both crying?”

“Your darling wants to go to the school and is refusing to do the home study. I have explained everything to her but she is like you…headstrong and never strong on logic…ab sambhalo isko…I am tired and going to the kitchen.”

After a while, the father and a smiling daughter walked into the kitchen to the utter surprise of the mother. “We are all going to the school together…Pinky…Pinky’s Mama and Pinky’s Papa.”

Outvoted, the mother agreed. The parents quickly changed into semi formals and all of them had a good breakfast together. Today, the girl did not have to be told to eat quickly or else she would miss her school bus, she did not even have to be told that she had to finish the hard edges of the bread and sip till the last drop of milk in the glass was over….she did it all on her own…and did it happily.

Pinky put her bag on her shoulders and slung the water bottle over one arm as she confidently opened the back door of the car and happily allowed her mother to sit in front, a seat that was permanently hers all this time. The mother, too, was surprised at the change but without making any fuss, strapped up the seat belt as the father started the engine.

In no time they reached the school. There were a few more cars that followed as they got off the car. Pinky was excited as she stepped ahead of her parents. Four other kids also reached the school gate at the same time. A masked security guard standing inside gave the kids a big salute and the kids stood in a row to return the salute….Jai Hind!

“School toh bandh hai…you cannot go inside.” There was a lock on the gate which saddened the kids as they peeped inside through the slits in the rows of wooden planks on it. Inside they could see the school building and the pathway, all of which was empty. They then saw the playground. It was kept so nice and green. The grass was mowed perfectly and there was not a drop of dirt around. All around the playground were beautiful flowers blooming. Their eyes then went to the gardener who was tirelessly working to keep the flower beds trimmed and tidy. The old gardener looked up and saw the peeping kids and with a broad smile he waved at them. The kids put out their hands and waved him back….Mali Chacha Namaste…Namaste Namaste…

The father walked up to the security guard and requested if he could open up the gate for a little while and allow the kids to play on the ground. “Sir, I will do it but if the principal comes to know about it I will lose my job.” “Don’t worry, no one will ever complain.”

As the guard went to unlock the gate, the kids were already pushing it hard with all their might…and when it was opened, they rushed towards the playground. As parents stood together with masks on their faces, you could not see their smiles but could clearly see the watery eyes as they saw their kids rolling on the ground…running after each other….shouting….singing….and then the kids were joined by the guard and mali chacha as they went round and round in circle singing….ring a ring of roses, pocket full of posies…

Life regained. Happiness restored.

SS

A Tale of Two Queens

“Ah! then if mine had been the painter’s hand

To express what then I saw;”- (Wordsworth, Nature and the Poet)

You might have seen this plain and common cactus growing in a pot in many a home.  You may be surprised to find it growing in your own homes, may be as an indoor plant or in a small pot on your window sill or even in the balcony or terrace of your friend or neighbour. Wherever you may have seen it, it is common, nothing great to look at; just a cactus which you may not care to give a second glance. It generally remains unmarked, unnoticed. Oh just an insignificant, prickly cactus clump growing in some old and shabby pot!

We, too, did not notice ours much as it never really needed any care or attention. It proliferated on its own growing prickly tubercles and mounds till it kind of filled the pot. The areoles were made of brown hooked centrals with radial spines. It remained lost among the other more attractive plants which drew both attention and admiration with their beautiful foliage and blossoms. One day, while kind of emptying the last drops of water on it from the can as an afterthought, I was about to move on when I noticed what looked like a bud growing on it. I never gave another thought to it.

One morning, in mid-June, while trying to shut the window since the menacing clouds had gathered on the western and southern sky heralding the onset of monsoon and the first rains, I noticed this beautiful yellow flower with radiating star-like petals. The first blossom on my cactus in what seemed like ages! This uncared for, hardly ever admired plant had grown the most beautiful flower and I wanted to share it with everyone but by then all had left home. In a city like Mumbai people generally have to leave early to make it on time. Fortunately, my mother was still with me to share that priceless moment.

                                               

Later, in the afternoon, when I came to look at it again, the petals had begun to close up. This beautiful flower has a life of only five or six hours. All I could do was share a picture of it clicked on the cell phone with the others. After two or three years, the cactus again gave two beautiful blossoms but this time Ma, though lying there clinging on to the last thread of her life in a state of coma, was really not there to give me company. The Day Queen wilted away once again. The Creator had given it a life span of only a few hours.

I am waiting for it to bloom again. May be next year, or the year after, or when Mother Nature decides. Who knows who will be there to give me company when the Day Queen makes its brief appearance?

Later, I did some research on  the net, since I am no horticulturist or botanist, to find that, in all probability,  this plant is Mammillaria beneckei , a native of Mexico and South America, now found in our country too, popularly  known as  the pincushion cactus or nipple cactus because of the pin-like spikes and nipple like tubercles on it. The flowers bloom early in the morning to completely close up by afternoon once or twice in two or three years.

The Epiphyllum oxypetalum, also a native of Mexico and Sri Lanka, has another story to tell. It was brought into my house a year or so ago by mali bhai. He told me that in Marathi they called the plant Brahma Kamal and that it flowered once for one night only in the months of July to September. He added that it brought good luck and happiness to the household where it grew and they were truly blessed. During the entire summer this year, as I watered my plants through all phases of lockdown and unlocking, this plant, belonging to the family Cactaceae and commonly called Orchid Cactus, did not show any signs of flowering.It had succulent green leaves with serrated margins. What drew my attention was that one leaf grew out of another. In the height of summer, as some of the edges of the leaves were turning yellow, I thought it would not survive the season. 

Though I could see the clouds rising up every evening and gathering together to form a dark canopy, there was hardly any rain the whole of June this year. Then, all on a sudden, the heavens opened up the floodgates and the rains poured day and night. More than half the country was flooded. As July made way to August, the rains intensified and temperatures lowered. For days, as we opened our eyes to the grey, foggy mornings with clouds and rains all around, it felt as if we had been transported from this concrete jungle to some hill station in the Himalayas. This city suddenly became more bearable and pleasant. All around the foliage burst into different shades of green and the concrete blocks got a much needed shower.

This plant, which was more a cluster of leaves attached to each other on short stalks, has no stems or branches, too turned a beautiful shade of green and suddenly, one day, from one serrate margin of a leaf, a pendulous stalk grew a bud. For the entire week I kept observing the bud as it grew nice and big. Initially, it was hanging down and then the stalk bearing it slowly turned upwards and gradually grew out laterally.No wonder another name of this plant is the Dutchman’s Pipe.It was one of the largest buds I had ever seen on any plant.

One night, post dinner, while watching the news anchors on different channels blaring away in high pitched voices, clamouring for attention despite churning out the same old stories, SS got fed up and walked to the window to watch the rain instead. Next moment he rushed to get his cell phone and asked me to come to the window. I had not seen a flower of such size and beauty in a long time. The giant bud was just opening up. As the rains continued relentlessly, the Queen of the Night was spreading its petals in all its majestic beauty. By the time it fully flowered it was nearing mid-night. As it bloomed we could also take in its sweet and mesmerizing fragrance which helped to lure the nocturnal pollinators like the moth and insects. No wonder it is also known as Nishipadma and Nishagandhi in some parts of India. I was so excited that I could hardly sleep that night. I kept getting up to take one last look at this rare flower. By five in the morning we could see its petals closing up and by seven in the morning it had completed its life cycle.

Another variant of this magical flower, also called the Brahma Kamal (Saussurea obvallata), is a native of the Himalayas and grows in the northern states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It is the State flower of Uttarakhand and is offered to the Lords Kedarnath and Badrinath by the devotees. This, too, is a nocturnal flower which blooms from dusk to dawn but, I believe, its smell is stronger and wilder, and its bud and blossom too show some variations. It belongs to the family of Asteraceae and grows at an altitude of 3000-4800 metres. The buds with their purplish tips are covered with layers of papery boat-shaped bracts to protect them from the cold winds and harsh climate of the mountains.

Innumerable legends and myths are associated with this Himalayan flower. Mythology has it that Lord Brahma, the Creator, uses the Brahma Kamal as his seat and holds one in the hand. Brahma, the Creator of the Universe, is also said to have been born from a huge white lotus. Another mythological story associates this flower with the birth of Lord Ganesha. When the head of the elephant was attached to the body of Ganesha, life restoring water was sprinkled from a huge lotus created by Lord Brahma. Legend also has it that in the epic Ramayana when Lakshman was revived by the herb sanjivani, the Lord showered flowers from heaven as blessings. These flowers took root and still grow in the Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand. The plant is also attributed with medicinal properties by the locals.

May be, some day, while ticking off the bucket list, I will find myself on a trek to the Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib Lake and come across a field of these sacred flowers growing on the grassy patches of the mountain slopes among the rocks and boulders.

DS