Colors of life

My parents had a love marriage and initially lived separately from their family. The reason could be my mother's Punjabi origin, which made it difficult for the family to adjust. The family was a bit orthodox, but that doesn't mean they didn't want to accept the marriage. Since both of my parents were working and settled in a different town from our ancestral home, we gradually drifted away from our caste. We rarely attended social functions organized by our caste. Consequently, my parents often faced criticism from elder caste members, who warned that such an attitude would make it difficult to get their children married. My parents had a love marriage and in their initial days of married life they had separated out from their family. The reason could only be the Punjabi origin of my mother making difficult for most of the members of the family to adjust with. Of course, the family was a bit of orthodox, but it still does not suggest they didn’t want to accept the marri...

Very recently, my brother-in-law, after getting engaged, came to visit us for the first time along with his fiancée. He introduced his fiancée and after having a short formal chat; he took out his engagement album and handed it to my wife. The album was then circulated among all the family members and it finally came to me. While going through it, I found it a bit awkward since the photographs were arranged in such a manner that after viewing the left hand side photograph, to view the right hand side photograph, I had to rotate the album by 180 0 and, to my surprise, the fashion went on right up to the end. Somewhere in the middle, I very casually, asked my brother-in-law, ‘Who has arranged the album?’ Without having any idea about what could have bothered me, expressing his concern, predicting that I might have not found the photographs in correct order, he answered – the photographer himself. I called him to sit beside me and made him aware of the problem. Then, we rearranged a...

It has been buzzing around for quite some time now that India is shining and it is one of the fastest growing economies of the world. I had never been able to relate the story of emerging India in a true sense, until the day, way back in the year 2003, when I started trading online. Although, in those days, I used to have a dial-up internet connection, it gave me a sense of elation being able to buy and sell shares sitting at home. At the backdrop of the exposure I had to the stock market, it made me feel a bit hopeful that soon all the luxuries of the world would be at our feet. It was during the period 2003-2007 when the stock market bloomed to the unprecedented 21K mark. It was truly a boom time, since Indian companies across sectors demonstrated robust performance. It seemed to be as if everything was on a roll. I saw people flourishing around me. I saw small provision stores transforming into a mini super market or super market. It was only during this period when our en...

After completing my graduation I got an opportunity to work with IFFCO, a fertilizer company. Along with me there were many other boys who had also joined IFFCO to work as an apprentice under various trades. As an apprentice, we used to have hands-on training so that we can have the required expertise in our respective trades after completion of the training. As a part of training, on every Saturday, all the boys were required to come to the training centre where managers from different units of the plant used to take lectures explaining the theoretical concepts essential for running a fertilizer plant. After attending several sessions at the training centre, it was very strange to notice a man, who must be in a managerial category, sitting idle in a room for the whole day long. We used to wonder how IFFCO could afford to have a manager whose output is zero. We never saw him interacting with anybody. We never even saw any of his colleagues visiting his room. One day, when ...

It was just a couple of years back when I gifted my wife a mobile phone. Since the phone was meant only to contact each other whenever needed, we went for a very basic one. Although it was a basic phone, it had come with a preinstalled video game called ‘snake’. From the day we bought the phone, my son and I used to get hold of it to play the game, till we better ourselves to score more and more points. One day, when I was engrossed in playing the game, my wife asked me, “why like children you are crazy about this an otherwise very silly game?” To this I explained her that although it’s a silly game, it very much holds lessons for living life better. In an exasperation to what I remarked, she wanted me to elaborate it a bit so that she can understand clearly what I intended to say. I further explained her that there are different levels to play the game and each level is divided into a set of challenges and difficulties. And, to move on to the next level one has to success...

During Diwali vacation my nephew had come to stay at our place. Like we use to get homework for Diwali vacation, now a days, children call the same thing as a project work. For his project work, he had to write a passage on ‘ Health is wealth ’ and he wanted me to help him completing the task. I took the task as an opportunity, since I often feel starved of having enough ideas to write about. Soon I penned down a passage keeping his age in mind and taking real life instances  from my childhood. And here is what I wrote for him… Could you believe that I still get a feeling of gloom when I remember the days I had fallen ill. A few months ago I had a viral fewer which kept me bed ridden for several days. Lying on the bed in a corner of my room I used to hear voices of children playing outside which prompted me to get up and join them. But, I remember how weak I used to feel getting up which forced me to drop the idea of going out. It was only after a few days when...

It has not been much time when we saw people around the country rushing down to the nearby temples to see the idols accepting milk.  It is equally amazing to see people across the nation coming out in support of Anna Hazare, who has begun a protest against corruption. It is difficult to comprehend whether it is merely a faith in Anna that is driving people crazy to see their country free of corruption or it is their clear understanding how and in what way the Lokpal Bill (not the one, which Congress wants to introduce) will be effective in getting the corruption removed completely. The hue and cry on the street put a big question mark on the trustworthiness of the government to which people themselves have elected for the second consecutive term. Given the case, isn’t it a drawback of people in our country that it took eight years for them to realize that their country is being run by a corrupt government? In fact, people are ignorant of the fact that despite having Lok...