Thursday, January 24, 2008

Republic days of the Past

Oh yes, this is how I started the blog with. Musing about the olden golden days. And here we go again. Let's begin. And it's fun. Because this does have a beginning, a middle and an end. Surprisingly beginning and ends are just 1 years each.

Beginning: I don't remember what I did in Lower KG (We called it KG1) but in KG 2, I performed. Stop.... I forgot a prologue.

Prologue: Republic day for me/OF Ambajhari Nagpur, people mean the mega interschool competition held at the ATS grounds in the OF estate. Don't be overwhelmed by the abbreviations and the jargons, it simply means the only stadium in our locality. There used to be 2 sections, KG schools and schools (included primary and secondary). There was competition in 3 categories (March Past, Dance, Mass PT) and finally the coveted best school title). Note that KG schools did not participate in March Past.

Resume Beginning: I was in the dance competition and we danced on the famous 'Jee Ka Janjal' which I also mention in an earlier post. I don't remember whether we won or lost but undoubtedly that was my biggest ever stage appearance. I would believe the typical crowd will be 6-8 thousand people. And that was the end. I never performed anything on the republic day ever after.

Middle: As I said, I never performed after that and the main reason being PT and dance was a girls only territory and march past was for people >= 9th Standard. So lets concentrate on the other factors for this huge period between 1st standard to 10th standard.

Though officially a holiday, thanks to my fathers insistence, we never thought we could NOT go to school that day. Another attraction was the Laddus. After flag hoisting in respective schools, there used to be sweets distribution to all the students in the school. It used to be 2 laddus and a packet of Chewda. Sometimes the school gave just 1 laddu and we would shout that the management is "eating" money. Anyway the point is not that. My mother is a big fan of this school laddus (though they are far from the best) and it was perhaps the only occasion where I could give something to mom instead of she giving something which was the case every time. So fighting with my greed and determination, generally mom will end up with at least half the laddu and I would like to believe that she understood the hardwork that went behind giving her that piece.

The other fact is the feeling of patriotism. Pardon me for generalizing my feelings, I feel Indians are one of the least patriots amongst all countries. At least from what I have seen, patriotism amongst Indians is far less than the US people though its a farce because hardly any of the US people have American roots. But this republic was different. I would wake up and amidst getting ready to go to school, I would surely not miss the live telecast of the republic day celebration from Delhi. With the entire nation, I would also stand up when the national anthem was sung in Delhi with the 21 firings of canon. After that dressed in an all white uniform I will head for the school where until the actual falg hoisting starts, they will play all the patriotic songs most moving being 'Ae mere watan ke logon'. Then after the laddu distribution, we all will head towards the big stadium where the inter-school competitions will start. With one eye on the ongoing events, we will be mainly looking at all the food and small toys shop. We never got our weekly/monthly pocket money but in occasions like these, we did get some (10/- being on the higher side.) We always compromised with cheap food so that we could buy some toy not because the toy is good but because the longevity of a toy or a flag is more than the food and we get more time to show off our purchases. Finally around afternoon, the prizes will be given out and more often than not, it was the 'other' school which won most of it and I came back with a sad face back home. But that is only momentary. Some special cooking by mom will be ready in the tables. I will ask maa about all the details of the various tableau (jhaaki) that were in procession in Rajpath Delhi and who won the best tableau which was mostly goa or lakshwadeep.

Lastly in this middle zone, I also realized that republic day actually marks the entry of spring. It was the first day when I would take off my sweater in the middle of the day and never wear it again.

The end: The end was as undramatic as it can be. I was in 11th standard. There was a divided opinion among that being the last year you can have some fun in school life or being the most crucial year which if neglected will screw up the very important 12th standard. The geek that I am, I was of the second opinion and hence restrained from taking part in the March Past which all others of my class participated in. Me and my firend sumit were the only two 'studious' guys who did not take part but that doesn't mean we didn't come to the event. We were there full time. What extra advantages we got by not participating is a question I still wonder.


Anyway, after this pretty much was the end of republic day celebrations for me. Though we did celebrate it at college, it just involved 5 minutes of flag hoisting ceremony.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

New year, new musings

Well, a new year has come. I spent the first few hours of the new year with old and dear college friends partying in California. A great start I should say. A few new year resolutions made only to be forgotten and renewed during the Bengali new year 3.5 months later.

A few trends I have observed. A increase in the number of blog readers. Makes me happy but sad as well at the thought that though people are reading, even those who used to comment, do not comment. And I could trace various reasons for that. Most important is being lazy to type. The second most important reason is that most of the times the topics are so vague and out of the world that people won't connect to it. For example my last 2 cookery posts. Even the 2 posts related to West bengal was not that appreciated. Only bengalis will care about bengal. Whatever, I have decided to go on with my present style of writing irrespective of people's perspective about the blog. The trick is to have good titles to increase the readership. For example, te title of this blog is very vague and will never come up with possible searches. On the other had, things like potter pandal, tasleema nasreen will be widely read.

Coming to the third point, different that I am, from everybody, this one, is another characteristic of mine which right at this moment I am cherishing immensely. There is a bus service in Natick: Natick neighborhood bus, going all around Natick. Nobody except the really old people ride in the bus. those who can't drive or don't have money enough to have a car. Well, as I still haven't got mine, I sometimes travel in that bus. Even a few friends of mine did. But they got scared. They feel depressed seeing all the old people. But for me, it gives me hope, a lot of hope. A hope that I want to live a long life (bolte nei). That during the long life though my children will desert me, the government wont. I can still talk about how Mr X of 72 is dating Ms Y of 76 and how Mrs Z made pudding by mixing pudding powder as per instructions on teh back of the pack. All of them know each other. Today all the 3 of them scolded a 4th lady for not wearing enough winter clothing. I liked the whole fact a lot. Though I feel out of place. Though it should act as a motivation to buy the car soon that I do not have to look out of place, but I think even after I have my car, I will intentionally travel in this bus and sitting in a corner window seat in the back of the car, listen to these old people.

4th point is about doing things alone. People want to do several things alone and several things in groups of different size. To talk a bit yuck, even though bath with your partner may be a good idea, one never wants to potty with other people. While this is straight forward, some other things are difficult to generalize. Like eating food. Some people like it alone and some people like big group. Shopping is another such thing. Now for watching movies at the theater. As far as Indians are concerned, it is very rare that one goes alone. But today I made up my mind. Nobody was ready to see 'Atonement', so I went alone. And it was not bad. Neither was it good because I did miss sharing my ideas about beautiful Kiera, I missed talking about the wonderful transition of typewriter sound to music. But it gave me a lot of self confidence. That I can do even the unimaginable things alone.

Tublu