Pea Pod - A taste of everyday life

I was at an Ahmedabad beauty parlour two days ago. It's run by a middle aged lady in her home which is very close to where I live. There were two other ladies before me who were waiting for their turn. The lady finished with them and called me. On completing my services, I was on my way out only to discover that my Dr. Scholl's that I had removed outside her house had dissapeared. I could only see the Rs.2500 tag in front of my eyes as I went back inside the house and asked the lady if she knew the ladies who had come before me. I was relieved to know that one of them lived in another wing of the building I stayed in. The other one was an old lady and the beautician only knew the name of the building she lived in. I thought I should tackle them one at a time. Like a true detective, I reached my building wearing the footwear of "one of the two" and asked around for this lady. I located her flat and was thoroughly disappointed on finding out that she hadn't run...

On my way back from buying some groceries down the quiet lane, from a distance, I saw an old woman in a nav-vaari saree trying to pluck the bright yellow flowers from a tree. She held her walking stick above her head and was pulling the branch lower with it as she couldn't reach the flowers. "Aaji, thaamba. Mi tumaala madad karte," I said to her. She looked surprised to listen to someone speak in Marathi in Ahmedabad and gave me a sweet, wrinkled smile. "Donaj paayje mala,"she said. I asked for her walking stick and lowered a branch for her. She plucked some flowers and as I returned the stick to her, she put her shaking hand on my head and muttered some blessings with moist eyes. My day was made.

Back in the 80's, my father had received a video cassette of " Adi Shankaraachaarya", a  Sanskrit film by G.V.Iyer.  We, as children must have watched this film more than twice. With excellent direction, photography and music, this movie is etched in my memory. The most poignant scene being when a young Shankaraachaarya returns from the gurukul to do the final rites of his dead mother. He laughs continuously to everybody's amazement. It's this incident that made him compose -  Bhaj Govindam,  Bhaj Govindam Bhaj Govindam, Bhaj Moodh Matey Punarapi Jananam, Punarapi Maranam Punarapi Janani Jathre Shayanam Chant Krishna's name, Chant Krishna's name Chant Krishna's name, you dim wit Born again, dead again, Sleeping in the womb, yet again When my father passed away, I kept humming this in my mind and it felt so comforting to know that my father would be born as another life - again. Another aspect of the film that I can't forget is the v...