Monday, June 26, 2017

Nostalgia

………………

If it is a Sunday and it’s raining in the morning, then a certain nerve in my neural network triggers a reaction by injecting some chemicals which takes me back to my good old days and my nostalgic trip starts. That exactly happened yesterday when I woke up it was cloudy and then rain started….and I was transported to the past moving back and forth in the time capsule guided by the music which was wafting in from the music system tuned in Mirchi 98.3 playing Rabindrasangeet at that moment and then I pushed my pen drive containing collection of old Hindi and English songs….the songs are the best time conduit for seamless time travel….the mental age keeps on varying with the songs when I very first heard those. Sometimes it would be like in my school days when Kishore’s Mana janab ne pukara nahin is playing from the film Paying Guest…I am sitting in Regal cinema hall in Connaught Place and watching Devanand following Nutan…like this each of the song reminds of a day or events or some place or some close relatives,friends….when I hear the song Awaz deke hame na bulana then I remember my first night spent in Digha sea beach during our first visit there , I cycled down to Digha with my friends from IIT,Kharagpur in 1963 or so…..behind our place of stay in Digha those days there was fir forest running along the sea beach and this song was wafting in from a distance in the night…sometimes I feel that there is a storing area in our mind where all the words and sounds get recorded and stored….the trick is how to access those and play it back at will….one may suggest why not self-hypnotize to access those sweet memories but it is easier said than done…I have read that people during hypnosis go back to their childhood days and start narrating bad experiences which a psychiatrist helps in deleting from the memory, I must admit I have not met any such person in my life time who has undergone this experience…during my second visit to Holland I was sitting with this Dutch gentleman in an outdoor cafe along Rhine where he was telling me that his wife was a hypnotist and told some cases which she had cured. That is the only time when I had this first hand encounter with someone who was witness to dredging of subconscious mind.

Back to my nostalgic trip of 25^th June when I was swaying in time pendulum with the help of my music system where I had put it in “shuffle” mode so the songs were getting randomly picked and I was mentally getting kicked around in my nostalgic trip this call from Delhi came from the younger brother of my close friend who is no more now.....yes Kutu was my closest friend from my school days, we were staying in the same Chummeries of Gole Market…we had a common running veranda, we were staying at the two ends of the same veranda, we grew up together though in different class but in same school…I went out to IIT and then joined IOC,BHEL etc but whenever I was in Delhi Kutu will make it a point to meet me…my father retired shifted from Gole Market to Karol Bagh and finally settled in Pashchim Vihar and Kutu shifted from Gole Market to CR Park but the distance did not matter to him. He attended all important function of our house…he helped my parents in shifting house to Pashchim Vihar,he was by my side when I was grieving my mother’s death in 1994….the ring from his younger brother Jotu transported me back to the days spent with Kutu and that fateful day in hospital where he was in his last stages of prostate cancer…..i was in Calcutta when my youngest brother Budu rang me up to tell that Kutu was in critical stage, me and my wife Madhuri rushed to Delhi and visited him in hospital, he was unconscious and lying helplessly there in hospital bed, I cried and thought of him being such a great footballer lying there so weak…he was captain of the football team of Delhi College…after 2 days he left us….any death makes me feel guilty that as though i have not spent enough time with that person because of my other priorities but then often most those priorities are wrongly placed ...

Last Sunday I mostly lived in the past….

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

A little push

……………………

“Sir, someone wants to meet you.”

I was in my chamber in Chatterjee International when my PA Late S N Bose came in.

“Who?” I asked.

Bose ushered in a middle aged gentleman dressed nattily.

“Sir, I am Arjun.” That gentleman said and then he became emotional, with tears in his eyes touched my feet. He broke down and said, “I have been looking for you for a long time.”

I could not believe my eyes, Arjun whom I knew was a strapling young man.

I still remember vividly the first day when I met Arjun in the canteen of Barauni Refinery.

Me,Bhatia and Verma like every day were there in the canteen for our morning tea when I noticed a young man hardly of 17/18 yrs or so of age in shorts was busy serving the clients. He was very actively running between the tables. I asked Nazareth, the manager of the canteen about that young man. He informed me that he had come recently from Bengal with an oil tanker driver.

Next day I called that young man to find more about him. After talking to him I came to know his name and how he had chanced upon a Sardarji oil tanker driver at Haldia and came away looking for a job opportunity. Thus Arjun landed in the canteen of Barauni Refinery.

This was sometimes in late 1975 when construction of Indian Oil’s Haldia refinery was in full swing. My father in law was Chief Engineer in Haldia Refinery then and my son was just born. I used to visit Haldia frequently those days as my wife was with her parents there.

I was surprised that inspite of a massive construction work going on next door Arjun had to leave the state as he could not land a job there. I took a pity on him and told him, “Next time when I go to Haldia I will take you with me and try to fix a job for you.”

He readily agreed.

I paid him for his train fare from Barauni to Calcutta plus bus fare up to Haldia and gave him my father in laws' address.

As planned I reached Haldia and Arjun came and met me. His village was hardly 20kms away. Munshida who was Deputy Manager Civil in Haldia Refinery was very close to me. I requested him to fix up Arjun with some labor contractor and he did so. Arjun started working as a laborer in the civil construction, would often visit my father in law’s bungalow to meet me. He used to bring wooden village toys for my son.Ín front of the bungalow he planted a palm tree which he brought from his village. The time passed on I resigned from IOC in 1978 and lost touch with Arjun.

That day in 1996 that was after 21 years he was standing in front of me narrating his progress in life.

From a daily labor he became a labor supplier. From there he became a civil contractor. He got married and seen to it that his younger brothers got good education. His one younger brother joined refinery as operator. He constructed a double storied house in place of that thatched roof hut which I visited during my stay in Haldia, he was owning a car and a motor bike. Later on my attendant Subhash who stays near Arjun’s village told me that he was politically strong too.

I was impressed by his progress in life, his hard work and entrepreneurship took him to a different level. I was just an enabler; rest was his hard work and determination.

I had a chance to visit Haldia Refinery in connection with BHEL work in 1998, the bungalow where my father in law was staying is very close to the IOC,Guest House. In the evening I walked down to the bungalow and found that the palm tree planted by Arjun has grown tall symbolizing Arjun’s progress. All the memories connected with that bungalow started flooding in my mind, in the moonlight I could see the Haldi River behind the bungalow flowing quietly towards the sea reminding the flow of time.

Many young men in India like Arjun are waiting for just a break and then there is no looking back for them. Also there are those who are born in privileged family and got all right breaks but could not achieve much. Recently in the company with which I am associated now there were interviews for the recruitment of fresh engineers. All the candidates were from private engineering colleges and must be from fairly well to do families. Some of them had come with their mothers. The senior officers who took their interview informed me that they could not find a single one up to the mark so did not select any.Possibly some of these rejected candidates may take up some other profession and shine, we know many of these are forced to do engineering by their ambitious parents whereas their calling may lie somewhere else.

Monday, April 24, 2017

Nondescript

I am no astronomer but when SR of my office volunteered to introduce me to the night sky of Kolkata I could not say no as I was thinking what is so special about the sky. I was wondering whether he would show me evolution of universe which is going on since eternity. Hydrogen and Helium together with Proton bumping in the nucleus creating new elements going down the periodic table after becoming heavier. I have read “A brief history of time “by Stephen Hawkins so all those myriad thoughts were racing through my mind.

SR as promised came to my flat in Golf Green with a nondescript gentleman in crumpled kurta and pajama. I did not bother much about that gentleman. SR was carrying a longish box. We all climbed up the stairs to the roof of our 11 storied flat.

SR opened the box and got busy in setting up a telescope with the help of the gentleman who to me at that time appeared as Professor Shanku of Satyajit Ray. I mean not physically as per Satyjit Ray’s sketch but in his simplistic behavior.

If I remember correctly the telescope was oriented towards norths as I was interested to see ring around Saturn.

SR and Prof Shanku ( i started calling him that mentally) adjusted a few knobs after having a deep discussion between themselves. Both looked through the scope and were satisfied.

‘sir you can see the Saturn with rings”.

“Do I take off my specs?”

“No, keep it !”

I bent down to the lower end of the scope and saw the spectacular rings around the planet through that, I was spell bound by that terrestrial sight.

“ The rings of Saturn are the most extensive planetary ring system of any planet in the Solar System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging from μm to m in size, that orbit about Saturn. The ring particles are made almost entirely of water ice, with a trace component of rocky material.”

Explained Professor Shanku and I was impressed by his knowledge.

Then both of them showed me Mars with two moons.

We were on the roof for more than one hour and they showed me Venus, Mercury , the milky way and finally a few constellations.

They had deliberately come after 8 PM so that all the planets are visible. We trooped back to our flat. My wife served them tea.

I did not know that more surprise was waiting for me. I had just returned from my UK trip and SR started asking me how was the trip.

I told them about my experience of England including the popular London tube.

Sipping tea professor Shanku started telling his experience of tube railway and informed that the tube of Moscow was better organized than that of London.

I was bowled out as I did not expect that non-descript gentleman to have travelled so wide. SR watched bewildered look on my face and laughed.

“Sorry it is my mistake of not giving proper introduction of Dr.R, professor of Mathematics in JU and has vast knowledge of astronomy.”

I thought to myself that rightly I have placed him as professor Shanku as he was a man of science and gave respectful smile to him. He was feeling embarrassed by my reaction.

During that period I had watched the Oscar winning movie “A beautiful mind” where Russel Crowe acted as Nobel winning mathematician Dr.John Nash ,who had done extensive work on Chaos theory. Dr.R informed me that he had met Dr.Nash in US and started explaining chaos theory and how psephologists use this for poll prediction. He gave a lecture which of course I could not understand fully.

I always wanted to meet a real intellectual and not a pseudo kind and was happy to come across Dr.R of JU and thanked Satyajit Ray for creating a carbon copy in his fictions.

I wanted to share my experience of planetary system and Dr.R's knowledge of Chaos theory with others.

When i was posted in Bhopal i contacted SR and invited him along with Dr.R to BHEL to enlighten the kids of six schools of BHEL,ladies club, officer's club and other employees.

Yes both of them came to BHEL,Bhopal with their that high powered telescope and shared their knowledge of planetary system , it was unique experience for those who attended these programmes.

In India people like Dr.R go unrecognized because in India the system of political patronage works. Watch those innumerable debates in channels and so called intellectuals occupying some important position in some institute which they never want to vacate and give way to younger generation.

I was invited by JU to participate in 100 years completion of their Electrical Engineering department after my retirement where one of the eminent Ex professors SD gave a presentation before my lecture. I often see him in TV connected with any technical discussion as expert but his presentations were straight lift from the articles appearing in the net, one has to simply Google it. He threw a question at me based on his latest knowledge acquired through web about use of permanent magnet in switch gears and incidentally i had read the same article so i shot back at him saying that his question was based on that article and the reply was also known to him.

So much for Indian intellectuals the species which gained currency after private channels of TV came in.Now of course intellectuals have colors as per their political leanings so we often hear them called as Red,Green,Orange etc. For me that Dr.R still remains a true quintessential intellectual who does not sell his wares to get glamour and wealth, a nondescript to the core.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Sketches of Ghats of Varanasi

I have been visiting Varanasi regularly while i posted from BHEL in Singrauli Super Thermal Power Station of NTPC from 1981 to 1984.
Then after reading Shiva trilogy by Amish started visiting Varanasi from 2013 every year. During my those last 4 visits i have captured many shots in my camera and in my mind. These sketches are partly from those pictures taken by me and partly from memory. I must admit i was guided by some existing sketches of ghats of Varanasi.

Dhamekh Stupa in Sarnath near Varanasi

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Mind blowing

……………………….

It was a hectic day, getting up early in the morning to catch Shatabdi for Kathgodam and then a road journey of one hour by SUV to Naukuchiatal. By the time we reached it was 1.30 PM.

I was taking rest after lunch in our room in the kumaoon Mandal Tourist lodge when my nephew Shuvo entered. Me, my wife Madhuri and shuvo chatted for some time and then shuvo suggested we go out for a walk around the beautiful lake before it becomes dark. There had been snowfall in Himalayas ,the day temperature at Naukuchiatal was hovering around 12 degrees.

I got up from the bed , put on my warm jacket , shoes,cap and went out with Shuvo. The perimeter of the lake is about 5.5km and the road around it is partly metaled. We were enjoying the walk in that cold ,after a few minutes of walk we came across a tea shop. Some local people were having tea and were discussing the landslide victory of BJP in Uttarakhand , the same day ie 11 th of March,17 the result of assembly election was declared. It appeared a Sadhu whose Ashram is in the jungle near the lake had predicted the result. We got interested and sat down with them to know more about the sadhu.

“Does he perform miracle?” I asked curiously.

They did not like my question, my tone was cynical.

I quickly corrected myself by asking , “ Can he heal chronic diseases? As we often see Ramdev talking about powers of Himalayan jadi buti or herbs?”

“We heard that he has discovered many herbs for loss of memory, regaining health, improving concentration etc.” One of them informed us.

“You take this road till the metaled road comes to an end then on the right a dirt road will take you to his ashram. It is about 100 meters steep rise.” Another one told us helpfully.

We paid for our tea and started our walk around the lake.

“Let us go to that Sadhu.” I said.

“Can you walkup that steep rise?” Shuvo was not sure about my prowess.

I was also not sure whether I would be able to climb but still curiosity compelled me to push my luck, “ Don’t worry, I will manage.”

After 10 minute walk we came to the end of the tar topped road, we found two dirt roads one going straight circling the lake and the other one was at the right going up. We could see an arrow indicating Ashram of Sukhdev baba on that road at the right. We trudged on for about 10 minutes, it was pretty steep, arrived to a flat surface. Not a big Ashram ,a moderately big hut with lot of foreign back packers sprawling around on the ground. The sight of backpackers was not surprising as they can easily access cannabis in Himalayas.

The sadhu was sitting on a raised platform, his disciples were scurrying around. We caught hold of one of those disciples and started enquiring about herbal medicines.

“Come straight to me.” We heard Sadhu shouting at us in Hindi.

We were taken aback; we thought he had not noticed us.

We hurriedly walked towards the rostrum and bowed at him.

He smiled and said, “Cut out the formalities, don’t get mislead by this orange garb. I am no sadhu; I am a botanist and came to do research on medicinal herbs twenty years back.”

“Interesting, then why did you stay back?” I asked while both of us sat down in front of him.

With a beatific smile he said, “I love hills and while going up and down these hills I fell in love with nature. I discovered many medicinal herbs and cured the villagers from chronic diseases. They insisted that I stay with them, I had no money excepting my doctorate degree from Jadavpur.”

“Are you a Bengali?” I hesitantly asked.

“I know how to speak Bengali but I am from Bihar. My original name is Sukhdev Tiwari and now I am Sukhdev baba.” He said with a big laugh switching to Bengali.

“Look at those foreigners, to them I tell about Hindu philosophy, Budhism, Jainism and give them bhang or cannabis which is available in abundance in the hills. They go back to their countries and talk about me; more of them troop in every year during winter.”

I was impressed by his simplicity, “You must be getting offer from Ayurvedic companies?” I asked.

“Yes, Ramdev sent offer but I don’t want to commercialize my research.”

“Do you have any herb for remembering things, I often forget the passwords or locker number.” I asked eagerly.

He called one of his disciples and told something. That guy brought some small baskets with labels.

He gave a pinch of herb and said,”first take your mind when approximately last you used your password which you don’t remember now”.

I was not remembering my email password of Yahoo since I switched over to Gmail. I remembered that my Gmail account is roughly 12 years old or so I tried to remember some event of 2005. I remembered to have shifted to our present address in Calcutta in February,2005, even I could recall my first visit to the flat before the purchase. Around that period I was using Yahoo so I took the pinch of herb. For a moment my mind went blank, a kind of zero experience and then with sudden jerk I came back to my senses. The mind was absolutely fresh and the password floated in my mind. I felt great.

“Yes, I can recall my lost password, thanks Sukhdevji.” I told him.

“You are kidding!” Shuvo whispered in my ear cynically,I winked at him.

“Please don’t discuss about this herb with anyone, this is my latest discovery. I had to go deeper in the Kumaoon mountain range with one of my volunteers and chanced upon this. I am in search of elixir of life which our sages supposed to have found in Himalayas.” Sukhdevji said.

“How did you find this?” I asked eagerly.

“Whenever I see some plants with small buds and flowers then I smell that first.From the smell I can make out whether that plant has some curative quality. After that I cut the stems, roots, buds, leaves, flowers and collect those in my bag. Once in three months or so I make trip to the hills to discover new herbs and of course my search for elixir of life will continue. I always take one of these volunteers with me. This memory herb is my latest discovery; of course I mix some other ingredients as well”

“Did you find any herb to reduce weight?” I was looking for a quick solution to reduce my weight.

He laughed loudly and said, “There are dieticians, gyms for that. Don’t you see film stars keep on adding abs at their own will? You contact one of them!”

It was getting dark and I already got a call in my mobile from my wife so nudged my nephew to get up.

Before leaving I requested him to give some of those concoctions of memory regain. He gave a small box containing the magic potion.

I wanted to pay but he refused to take money. Before leaving I asked about his prediction about BJP’s victory which we heard in the tea shop.

He said with a twinkle in his eyes, “ Oh,that! A team conducting exit poll had come to the ashram and they only told me. As they could not declare so I told on their behalf to the local people. Now local BJP leaders regularly visit me to find out if I need anything.”

The journey back was through the woods to the tourist lodge, we covered the distance in ten minutes.

I told Shuvo not to discuss about my taking that herb for memory and he kept it to himself.

After returning to Delhi I wanted to draw our maternal place in Birbhum which I have last seen in 1964. Surreptitiously I took that box out so that my wife could not see and took a pinch of herb. As experienced earlier, after a momentary blackout the complex in Bipratikuri , Birbhum got projected in my mind screen vividly. I could draw the layout correctly which was confirmed by my brother and sister. Later on I drew our house of Allahabad after taking a pinch of that herb. I have shared those pictures with my Face Book friends and in Google plus.

Well friends my request to you all is not to divulge about this mind blowing herb to anyone. I have a feeling this has shelf life and the potency may not sustain forever .
By the way after returning to Calcutta i am not able to locate that box of herb. I hid it in some such place that i forgot that secret location. Looks like i have to make another trip to Naukuchiatal.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Soul searching

…………………

We trudged through the lanes of Deoghar towards Babadham , a sacred Hindu place of worship. The ancient temple of Baba Baidyanath is one of the twelve 'jyotirlingas' in India. Baidyanath Dham, is in Santhal Parganas of Jharkhand.

As it happens in any Hindu place of worship soon we were surrounded by Pandas. It was irritating but I knew that it was inevitable. I looked at the crowd following us and I did a random selection. I selected an old panda with a wisp of white beard and unkempt hair in shabby gerua cloth.

I asked mischievously,” Why you guys are chasing us so much?”

“What to do? You are our crop.” He replied honestly.

“How many of you are there around this complex?”

“1000 of us depend on the pilgrims for our survival.”

“ok, let us then proceed to the temple complex.” I said to the discomfiture of my wife. She usually does not like to have a hanger on around.

The temple complex has a big yard selling all kinds of items required for puja offering. I knew these pandas have their preferred shops where they get commission and he was no exception. So it started with a basket of flowers, some sweets and of course bel leaf which is a must for Shiva Linga. Finally he took us to shop selling water from Ganges.

For the first time I came across a shop selling graded water of Ganges. This particular shop had shelves with water of Ganges arranged like stepped gallery. The bottom most water in kansa pitcher was the cheapest and costliest was the one on the top shelf. The bottom one was from Shiva Ganga, which is a pond in Deoghar so was the cheapest. The costliest on the top was water from Gangotri, then next was Rishikesh, then from Haridwar and so on.

I reluctantly purchased the water of Shivaganga from the bottom shelf.

Thus after getting armed with puja samgri we stood in the queue. The weather was dry and winter had not yet set in November. Finally we reached the sanctum sanatorium, a priest guided us to pay our offering to Shiva Linga.

Panda Rameshwar was all along with us. After our offering to Shivalinga I paid him the usual rate with some extra tips for him being honest. He was still hanging around with us.

Somehow after the visit of holy place I was in good mood so I inquired, “Anything more to see?”

Rameshwar hesitantly asked,” Will you be interested to visit an ashram ?”

“Whose ashram?”

“There is a sadhu who practices occult.” He said hesitantly.

I remembered to have visited such place during our visit to Tarkeshwar, those sadhus were in a crematorium ground where fresh dead bodies were being burnt. They were tantriks.

“If it is in a crematorium then we will not go.” My wife said.

“No, madam it is a very serene ashram with lots of flora and fauna, you will like the ambiance.”

“ Ok, lead us there, we have sometime before we proceed to Maithon.” We got in our taxi and he guided it to the destination.

The ashram was just outside the town, we drove through the gate on the gravel road with trees lined to a quint thatched hut. We could hear various birds chirping. A pond was visible behind the hut.

We got down from the car and Rameshwar led us to the hut.

I was surprised to find a very young sadhu sitting on a raised platform inside.

“Arey Rameshwarji come in, oh you brought some guests.” He smiled at us.

He invited us to sit on small stools which were strewn around. He asked someone to bring water for us.

Behind the sadhu there were almirahs with glass panes. I could see some scientific instruments on a table. There were canisters and bottles inside almirah. It was looking more like the chamber of a homeopathy doctor.

He was watching me closely and laughed seeing my dismayed look.

“Are you a man of science?”

“Yes, I am an engineer.”

“I am a scientist of occult science.” He said with a twinkle in his eyes.

I never heard such term as occult science. About occult every religion has something to say.

“Is occult a science subject?” I asked.

“When Jagadish Chandra Bose was doing research on botany then there was no subject as botany so he was known as physics professor similarly I am a master in physics and did doctorate in metaphysics but practice occult.” He answered.

“What is your subject of thesis?” I asked.

“Soul!” He replied.

“Anything to do with paranormal?” I asked

“Not really. As you know our body is mortal but our soul is immortal. I try to locate those souls.” He said solemnly.

“You mean those souls which left body.”

“You will be surprised to know that through my research I have found that the soul does not die but it disintegrates in many parts. Many religions believe in rebirth but then the number of birth would have been constant, when one dies that soul goes in another body and another one is born so on. But in reality the population is increasing exponentially, how do we explain that? My theory is because each soul gets fragmented after leaving the body and so enters in multiple bodies thus population increases. All the souls of the world freely migrate in stratosphere.” He patiently explained.

“Lobsang Rampa talked about astral travel of soul in his book, Third Eye. He was a British and claimed that a Tibetan lama’s soul inhibited his body. Is it something like that?” I was eager to show off my knowledge.

“Not exactly that. You see those canisters; I have captured some passing souls from Europe. I mean fragments.” He pointed to the almirah behind him.

I did not believe him but to humor him I said,” Is there fragment of Hitler’s soul ?”

He knew I was not serious but sportively he ignored my flippant barb. He got up and brought a canister with a spout with a pump like arrangement of an inhaler.

“I could capture some of the local souls of talented people; here is one fragment of soul of a mathematician.”

“What do you do with the souls such captured?”

“These souls don’t recreate but get mixed with existing one. We inject these souls to those who need some kind of booster."

“But then a person will have multiple personality.” I queried.

“Aren’t we all having different personalities while dealing with situations, so no harm having multi soul in one body? After all our mind is the commander which is capable enough to decide which soul to use when.”

“We may become like Dr.Jekyl and Mr.Hyde.” I said hesitantly.

“Now we are getting somewhere in the discussion.” He said with a smile and continued,"In the film Exorcist a bad soul enters the body of a girl, then the girl was having two souls."

“How do you inject the soul?” I asked eagerly.

“It won’t be effective for you as you have a matured soul. Mostly people with disturbed child come here; I examine those young ones and then prescribe soul for them. Sometimes people with some near one dying come for soul but these souls are of no use in a dying body as the other soul which is inhibiting won’t allow any other soul to enter. It is not elixir of life. As far as injection is concerned there is elaborate method which i can not share with you.”

My wife who was not enjoying the talk said,”It is getting late, we must leave.”

I reluctantly got up, thanked the young scholar of soul and proceeded to our car.

“Amazing story!” I told Mr Trivedi, who narrated his experience to me in my office chamber over a cup of coffee.

“Do you believe that claim of injecting soul?” I asked.

“After watching the politicians changing their color I started believing that it is not the case of change of heart but change of soul. See that young scion of a leading political party returning after a sojourn of 45 days or so changed to a new person all together. He must have been injected with some aggressive soul.” He guffawed.

“haha, well said.” I joined him in his laughter.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Me and Babulal

The apprentice…part 2

…………………………..

After two rounds i leisurely walked towards the bench by the side of lake to enjoy the cool breeze blowing. Not much crowd was there, i was enjoying the solitude in the cool shade of the tree.

I heard a feeble coughing sound, looked up from my book and found Babulal standing with a broad smile. I was pretty surprised to see him though I had given him 500 rupees about two weeks back but I could not keep my promise to engage him in some work. I rather hesitantly asked him how he was managing to keep himself engaged.

“I used a part of the money given by you to purchase some dot pens and rest I spent for food.” He said unabashedly.

So many questions were crowding in my mind about him so I asked those related with his shelter, spending time, earning money etc ,the usual things required for sustenance.

He disarmed me by his reckless answer.

“I have managed to make friend with that muscular guy who used to chase you for massaging, of course I promised him that I will help him to convince you in getting messaged by him. He took me to a football club located at the other half of the lake facing Menaka cinema hall and introduced me with some young men of my age. One of them took pity on me and offered a bed in the shanty near Tollygunge.”

I remembered to have brushed off that muscular guy who very often would try to befriend me. It was my mistake that initially I exchanged some pleasantries with him when he told me that he did massaging, he had a rolled up yoga mat with him. Then I understood his interest in me and I started avoiding him and now Babulal has again brought that fellow back. Babulal could sense that I was not happy, he hurriedly said, “ Don’t worry about that guy I will manage to keep him away from you.”

I was relieved and asked, “ Ok! Are you doing any work?”

“I told you I purchased some dot pens, I sell those pens in front of temples. Just now I was selling opposite to that Lake Kali temple. Seeing you I quickly changed my dress and came here. When I am selling then I am dressed up as sadhu, you know that I was with sadhu so I have that garb with me. I sell these dot pens at 200 to 300 rupees whereas I paid 2 rupees each.”

“Why someone will purchase the silly dot pens for that kind of money?”

With a beatific smile he and said, “ The scam runs like this “ and he narrated .

I have targeted a few temples and this one at Lake is one of those. I have fixed up some street urchins at each of the temples. I put on my Sadhu garb and sit outside the temple. These boys surround me keep on shouting , “ Show some miracle! “

I will pick up a retractable knife and push that on my cheek, for any onlooker it will appear that I have pierced my cheek. All will be in awe. Then one of them would ask ,”what do you eat?” I will show them coal and pick up a lump of coal and will start chewing it. By the time a crowd will gather around me. Then one of them will ask, “Have you brought those miracle pen which my friend purchased from you before the examination?”

“You mean that pen where I have put special power so that any student purchasing that and using in exam will pass?” saying that I will pull out three sealed boxes and say , “Last night I could put mantra in three only as moon was visible for a very short time.”

Then that boy will ask me the cost. I will say, “ It is 400 but to you I will give for 300.”

As he is my side kick so happily he will pay 300 and take one sealed box of pen. I will warn him not to open the box now. He should go back take bath and should open it when no one is around. Once he did the purchase there will be scramble from other on lookers to get the magic pen as the final exams are within one month. After that selling the first one other two hardly takes 10 minutes ,as you know every second a sucker is born.

“Wait wait not that fast!” I said.

“The retractable knife thing I understood but chewing lump of coal! How can you digest those? They are unhygienic!”

He laughed loudly and said, “No no those which I ate are not coal, those are black sugar crystals kept in the heap of coal.”

That was very clever of him.

He quickly told me about his ploy of the magic pen. “As the exams are one month away so till then merrily I can sell these pens in front of temples. I pay some 10 buck each to those urchins and I have a neat margin. As of now my business of selling the miracle pens is going well, later on with this capital I will think of other schemes or you may have some assignment for me. I am usually available in front of that temple in the morning.”

I was impressed by his business acumen and timing. Those parents who purchased those pens with divine power will never know that they have been fooled. If the students pass then it will be because of the pen and if they fail then the parents will conclude that even God could not help their son or daughter in passing the exam. It was neat trick where fooled guy doesn't declare that he has been cheated.

I patted him, to keep him in loop gave 500 bucks and promised to call on him for any exigency.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

It is all about humanity

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The other day Dr.Kamal Charaborty, a renowned social worker of Bengal was in my office. He had a lucrative corporate job with TISCO,Jamshedpur but left that to serve the poor tribal of Purulia. He located a barren land and started the school Bhalopahar and planted more than 30 lacs trees. The school offers free education and midday meal to the poor children free of cost. He has undertaken organic farming after creating ponds by rainwater harvesting. The day he came a knowledge sharing session in our office was in progress. One young engineer Rangam Das was sharing his experience of EHV testing of transformer witnessed by him in ABB works.

At the conclusion I took Dr.Chakraborty to the conference hall and requested him to address the young engineers of our organization ,Techno Electric Engg Co. He shared his experience of establishing that school in that remote location and graphically described the poverty of that region. He narrated that they are so poor that the ladies have only one saree, after washing the saree she would hide behind the trees waiting for the saree to dry up. While describing this facet he broke down, practically every one of us had moist eyes, got touched by the plight of those poor Indians whereas here we were relaxing in AC hall. He said that he runs the setup by donations from corporates and individuals. He made a request for donation of any kind.

After the lecture in my chamber he asked my opinion, I was skeptical and expressed so.

To my utter surprise I was proved absolutely wrong in judging the young lot. One young engineer came to my chamber and thanked me for the interaction with Dr.Chakraborty and expressed that he wanted to do something. While talking about the poor ladies of Purulia he broke down and I too could not check myself. Later on my PA Shubhra informed that many of them were approaching her for donation. I met a bright engineer who has passed out of Shibpur , he came to me and said he will organize a donation box where old clothes, books, stationeries can be donated. That boy who first came gave a cheque of 2000 as donation.

I am flabbergasted by the spontaneity of the reaction and it is beyond my imagination. All of them said, “ We always wanted to do something for the society but did not know which is genuine organization. We are sure about Dr.Chakraborty who has given his life for those poor by remaining unmarried.” I shared with them that as he is a renowned novelist and poet so all his earnings go to the school. I too in my small way make monthly contribution in addition to organizing corporate contributions from Techno and WPIL where I am Independent Director.

The above incident has opened my eyes about the younger generation as they externally don’t show but has that spirit dormant in them which requires a small nudge to make them act in the right direction. The firs engineer who came to my chamber travels from outside Kolkata for office and gets dialysis of his father done twice a month; with this burden he donated 2000 bucks. I am happy that though there is lot of negativism projected by the social network, print media, electronic media but there is a silent majority who are pure , think about others and they are young. This makes me optimistic about the future of India.

I thought of sharing this incident with you all.

Wednesday, February 08, 2017

My sketches

Cacophony because of mobile

Sketches done by me

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approximately me

Floating cube
(optical illusion)

Coins on a floating cube
(optical illusion)

Some of the sketches done by me. some are pencil sketches and then crayon or sketch pens used. Some paintings are done on tablet using digital pen and app.