A LEAF FROM LIFE

                  

                    A LEAF FROM LIFE

Papa had retired from KDHP CoLtd - it was James Finlay for a while - on 31January1975.

We left Munnar on 30 January 1975.

Papa's retirement had led the family into a turmoil. Unfortunately Mummy had passed away in 1978. As Papa was staying alone in our house at Thalavady, we had applied for a telephone connection at the house for accessing him through phone. Several years went by. The phone connection did not materialise. Exasperated we withdrew the application. It was BSNL or its predecessor.

Years later when Laji with his family was staying with Papa, they felt acutely the necessity of a telephone connection at home. An application for the connection was submitted again. In about two years the phone was allotted and it was installed at our house in no time.

The fun began there.

Those were the days when mobile phone was yet to make its entry in the country. But there was a solace. One could access anyone in the country through the STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling) facility. It had made communication smooth and fast.

Earlier one had to book a call at the local telephone exchange. You would be placed in the waiting list. They would put your call through when you move up in the queue and reach the number one slot on the waiting list. It was a cumbersome procedure where you might have to wait for pretty long a time.

Naturally, when you make STD calls your telephone bill would leap frog.

The question is, when you obtain a telephone connection after a long wait, what would a sane person do. In the normal run, he would surprise his dear ones and friends with calls from the newly installed phone.

I just wonder, who gave the odd idea to Papa. 

He took out several Inland Letter forms and wrote out to everyone - son, daughter, relatives and friends - that he had been allotted a new telephone connection and that the phone had been installed at the house. He inscribed the phone number in the letter. Fortunately there was a letter box in front of our house and it meant he did not have to walk far to post  the Inland Letters.

Then he sat at  home.

He was happy, many of the people on receipt of the Inland letters had phoned him up.

At home, in Trivandrum, we had all been busy with our heavy schedules. We expected Papa to ring us up from Thalavady, expressing his happinsee on the obtention of the new telephone connection. Phones at home were a rarity at that time.

After a while, when there had not been any phone call from Papa we surmised he was not going to call us from his new phone.

We called him. He was full of rancour. He said he had advised many people that he had a telephone installed in his house and they were  provided  the number. He had a grouse that I was the only person who did not call him at once though I was his son. He was very angry.

I kept quiet. I didn't know what to make of it. As I looked at it, being his son, Papa ought to have called me on the phone the moment it was installed.

Those days telephones were a luxury. People were overjoyed when they were allotted a phone connection.

I told Papa when I met him later, instead of writing a letter inscribing the phone number,  how wonderful it would have been if he had surprised me with a call from the new phone.

Well, Papa kept an iconic inscrutable face and the issue ended there.

TRIBUTE TO WOMEN

I had received the forward in WhatsApp.

*Who is a woman?????*

*When she is quiet, millions of things are running through her mind. When she stares at you, she is wondering why she loves you so much in spite of being taken for granted. When she says I will stand by you, she will stand by you like a solid rock. Never hurt her or take her for granted.

A very heart touching message by a woman.

Someone asked her, Are you a working woman or a housewife? She replied: Yes, I am a full-time working housewife. I work 24 hours a day. I'm a Mum. I'm a Wife. I'm a Daughter. I'm a Daughter-in-law. I'm an Alarm clock. I'm a Cook. I'm a Maid. I'm a Teacher. I'm a Waitress. I'm a Nanny. I'm a Nurse. I'm a Handywoman. I'm a Security officer. I'm a Counsellor. I'm a Comforter. I don't get holidays. I don't get sick leave. I don't get day off. I work through day and night. I'm on call all hours and get paid with a sentence. "What Do U Do All Day??"*

*This Is Dedicated to all women*

*A Woman has the most unique character like salt! Her presence is never remembered, but her absence makes all the things tasteless. Pass it to all the lovely ladies...Ur Mother. Ur Wife. Ur daughter. Ur sister & Ur friend. Forward to every woman to make her smile and to every man to make him realize a woman's Worth.*

I do not know who had authored it. As it had been posted in a family group there had been many references to the Bible by the faithful.

It aroused my thoughts. I started penning, to be exact, typing.

“Tribute to the woman is indeed exceptional. It graphically narrates what a woman is.  Biblical references are a welcome reiteration. But one cannot forget what St. Paul has passed on and harped on.

Well, a woman is a woman who is sacrifice personified.

But, she gets no respite, no reprieve and is often ignored at decision making. She has no role there. She's painted incompetent when she deserves nothing but kudos for her multifaceted roles. She's quite happy to stay behind her veil of silence and yet accomplish a lot more than the male chauvinist.
I have often wondered why the woman at the worship has to cover her head while the man sits there nonchalantly”.

“On a personal note let me share what I had learned from my Brahmin Teacher, a CA, when I had been preparing for the paper on Management Accounting for my CAIIB Exam Second Part.”
He had said, “You don't have to go to a Management School to learn management. You can learn it from your mother or the women at home. The way they conduct the job on hand in their kitchen is the finest example of management.”

“When she buys a KG of sugar she puts the larger part in one container and a small portion in a different container. When she draws from the second container she knows it is time for replenishment that she does quietly. It is not the replenishment of the items that is important, it is the mindset that runs the family without hindrances is the point to note in your Management Studies”, my learned teacher had taught me.

It was a great lesson.

Hats off to the prowess of women.

When a few had acknowledged the Post I wrote, “My post was a bit long. No one may have the patience to sit through that, I know”.

“The intention was solely to highlight the sad plight of the woman who is always ignored, who is often taken for granted, who is often persecuted and who is often tortured very cruelly, both mentally and physically without any remorse. The individuality and the capabilities of the woman are to be admired, well respected and recognised. The intention was never to elevate or glorify the woman or denigrate the man, but to invite the attention of the readers to a telescopic view of the imbalance in our sphere.”

“In a male dominant society it has no priority.The women are treated unfairly everywhere, a common phenomenon across the universe. They are made to slog it out and run the extra mile to prove their worth. An attitudinal course correction on the part of her counterpart alone may establish the right balance in the equation.”

When Abey, our cousin at Sharja had prompted me to keep on writing I responded, “I do this when in a creative mood and when something tickles you to act or react. People may feel a retired person has all the time in the world.  What I find after retirement is that I had lots of time to spare when I had been working. Lila too shares my view. Not because she's a yes woman but because she feels the pinch. It is not that we were not conscientious. We were. May be it's time management, may be as you advance in age you have too much on hand. We have no complaints. We meet the challenges head on squarely. There are times we fail. There are times we win.  When netted we feel happy when the stars are on the ascent. We fight it out when they descend and are on a downward spiral.”

“There’s a wide gap between practice and precept. Subjugation of women and establishment of ascendancy of man had been, has been and will be the order of the world for ever. The order will never change though we may all fight for it as long as we are around.

Advanced, developed, undeveloped and underdeveloped countries are alike in their ill-treatment of women. They hate to let the hegemony of man fade away or vanish into thin air. Look to history, learn from history and strive to alter the course of history in its march forward.”

“Indeed a very hefty, tall and difficult order.

But an inch gained is an inch of dissipation of the injustice. We can crawl and we can succeed. Even if we fail, the future would prove us right.”

YOU HAVE TO BE KIND TO CHILDREN

Sunil and Deepa visited us yesterday. We were meeting each other after a very long time. Sunil is from our native place. His father ran a Tea Shop across the road in front of our house. The family had difficult days as the income was not enough to sustain a family of four. Sreekant was the elder brother. Their mother was a very practical woman. She encouraged the two boys to go for education as much as they could. Even in those days education was a costly affair. She had supplemented the family income through lending money her husband made from the Tea Shop. Banks and money lending institutions had not reached the village at that period in history. The rate of interest was high. But the poor people who had no access to credit facilities, found the arrangement handy. They never had to run to organizations afar to meet their immediate requirements.

It was a surprise to the villagers when Srikant secured admission in an Engineering College. More surprises were in store. As he completed his course he found a job easily through campus placement. The family bond was strong. Srikant took the responsibility of looking after Sunil’s education. Sunil was a brilliant student. It was no surprise to his teachers when Sunil passed his Chartered Accountancy - C.A - examination with a high rank. Soon after the results were published an investment firm in Singapore offered a placement to Sunil. It was readily accepted.

The brothers had married. In course of time both of them had two children each. Srikant was employed in Dubai. After a few years in Singapore, Sunil with his wife Deepa and children Arvind and   Parvathy migrated to Australia. The placement in Australia was far better than the one he had in Singapore. It was a pleasant surprise when Australia granted them citizenship.

Sunil and Deepa were discussing their life in Australia. Arvind is now fourteen and he is proving himself good in his studies. He is excellent Public Relations. Parvathy is nine. According to them Parvathy is very smart. Like all children of her age she needs a bit of prodding to concentrate in her studies. At times Deepa becomes frustrated and would threaten her that the matter would be reported to her dad when he comes home in the evening.  As Sunil reaches home after a tiring day at the office, Parvathy would run up to him and ask him, “Dad, how was your day at the office?” Poor Sunil would get to know what had happened between the mother and the daughter some time later. The sweet question from the girl would dissipate the anger in the mother and the father.

When the school conducts examinations Parvathy occasionally lags behind in Mathematics. Her refrain would be,” Well, I had a bad day in Maths today.”

Deepa rarely scolds Parvathy. Whenever it happens Parvathy would respond, “Well, you have to be kind to children.”

We had a memorable evening together. We could not listen to more as Deepa had to board her flight to Australia.