What becomes of us is what we want to be

This world, the funny world,
I become a doctor so I see I can heal bodies in pain,
I become a lawyer so I know every man is the same,
I become a writer so I see all equal plain,
I become an artist so I can see logic even in vain,
I become a judge so I can see justice as an aim,
I become nothing so I see funny world.

Banjo and his parental Bend

A realization came in to Bend when he was washing his dog Banjo after his usual morning walk that lasted slightly about more than an hour.

Monsoons in Ahmedabad have stayed for long, like they do once every three or four years. This creates rain puddles and Banjo loves to jump on them. This makes him dirty and he needs cleaning before he enters the house. Fourteen months old, the Labrador is full of energy and has become swift and grand – and has agility which not many in the pados* can match. The street mongrels, the faltu* dogs, now get scared of Banjo from the stride itself which he develops before he says he will pounce on them. Not all of them are scared of Banjo, for he is nice to ones who are nice to him.

Banjo hates this forced cleaning but he doesn’t have an option. He can use his swiftness and grand strength to run away but chooses not to. He doesn’t wants to trouble Bend beyond a point. He knows he has nowhere to go.

Probably, similar references can be drawn for kids who grow up in a cozy well loved parental or family environment; and after they have grown up a certain age, in other words when they become adults, are left to their own devices and the future. There are no chains to tie them to a pole.

*
faltu: extra not needed
pados: neighborhood

Write Quickly

I wanted to write a blog but I cannot. We need to think as we type, and it seems ants have found a temporary colony in my laptop's keypad.

Naming pets

I have found, any civilization with a 'developing' tag to it, has largely two types of pet dogs. I will go into a little detail about these dogs in one large and compact agglomeration we know as India.

The first types of these are locally known as 'the paltu', and the other as 'the faltu'. Both these types are usually harmless unless invoked, poked or xxx. The paltu type lives off on various combination of home cooked meal, plus processed pedigree and get almos an equal treatment like a family member who lives inside the house. This type is generally well groomed, clean, like I said earlier, is well fed, usually solemn by face, and prefers solitude probably as he gets used to it. He is the home pet.

Whereas, the second type, the faltu type, also known as a stray, is under the casual collective care of a particular community. For his own ease of life he lives in groups and marks territories un-barbed and unseen. As a part of collective is fed on leftovers or biscuits, and keeps clean - more details are available from the neighborhood, usually from concerned or retired citizens who feed them. In other words, he is treated like a family member who lives outside the house.

I am in regular contact with many from both the categories, and in close relationship with one of the each type. And, from somewhere a divine moment, perhaps artful thought full of love, concern, affection and world-peace has had put into my head that these pets, who ever they are, where ever they come from, whatever size, color, cast or creed they can be named after musical instruments.

So, the Paltu type, the first type, who lives with me most of the time is known as Banjo. A communal cat he shooed off from the courtyard because she made him insecure, for he hated her after I had affectionately started calling her Harmonica. The Faltu type, who I interact before entering my office, and slamming the door close, I call him Gitar, keeping 'r' at the end as silent using accentual effect.

***

p.s. The author has used Masculine intonations for purposes of ease

Animals, Humans and Pets

The Red Pony by John Steinbeck

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jody, Billy Buck, papa Carl, mama and uncle, and an another ailing uncle who stole away an ailing horse. The art of horse maintenance where promises are made and life goes on, the book shows a life and a people of those times, for there are details which cannot be escaped, and to some/one make fall in love with their pet again. I read the book in pauses because of my other work pressures, and many times I needed the company of my Banjo(a Labrador retriever) with me. The book and him, both felt better while I completed it slowly.

Micro Independence

Solid waste staff, contracted by the Municipal Karupration of the city kept on with their jobs. A Sunday as well, many continued with their work, many would have been attending the ceremony, and many resting with an extended sleep. Today is a day dedicated to all of them, and I agree the call from many fronts that today is Independence Day, i.e. one is officially free; even if symbolically.

In the morning, the dog insisted Jack take him out for a walk so he could take his regular crap, and probably enjoy the walk himself too. He had been insisting Jack for a walk for more than last couple of hours. Patience, one can say. So finally Jack got fed up and took him out for a walk but ensured he keeps to the leash because it is filth and puddle in the extended monsoons. Environs are livelier and greener around, a little muggy but full.

The leash is pulling Jack on the road, and on the left he sees a big hotel. The hotel is famous in the city for its eliteness, and its main entrance many steps up, like the steps you remember from the images of the great Acropolis. The large glass door has a few hands, say ten, one can say ten palms, white gloved palms waving on them, cleaning, fluffing, polishing, rubbing, just to get those spots and that shine out.

Heart Report – 9 months later

This is my Heart Report nine months approximately after it was repaired. Thank you well wishers, I am not in well, I am well. Also, due thanks is due to the life saver cardiologist Dr. Raval who has let me go and has moved on with his booming practice. Post surgical advice is from another well known specialist who has his own hospital. Anyways, these post surgery advices is not much of a routine, so no need to divulge in detail. I will get myself checked before I get on with my next self congratulatory great road trip. Angioplasty so far has been a great technology of benefit to me, and in comparison in my case more effective than yoga. I have become so much used to these two helping foreign bodies known as stents inside my arteries that we have become subjugated to each other. In a year or two, I will give them formal citizenship to my body.

Quitting on smoking and nullifying my exposure to the city fumes by staying and traveling in a micro climate otherwise known as air-conditioning rather than adaptation has helped. I would like to share my doctor’s advice that smoking not for a longer duration provides the body-system with more oxygen supply; which I can certainly feel.

Writing this also reminds to return a book given to me by an uncle who himself was been Angio-Plasted like me sometime before me. This is also an opportunity to mention the book itself for one’s own references - ISBN: 8187111631 written by Pravin P. Shah is titled –“HOW TO PREVENT OR REVERSE HEART DISEASE - : A Complete Step-by-step Guide: Including Tasty Food Recipes for a Healthy Heart”. This is a lifestyle book more or less written in India ishtyle. I would like to discuss the book sometime soon in days to come, for it is a good book. Anyways, one review is here.

Things are smoother now dear well-wishers and water experts.

Salut