30 sept
Parents and children
The newspapers are full of admission blues , admission of little infants into premium schools of Delhi .The parents are very tense and passing on this tension to the young kids .So much so that some children had been so pressurized that they needed Psychatric help .The parents have ambitions and want to fit the kids into a set mould .
So when today I met Mr.A after a long time I was very happy .The story goes long back 30 years to be precise .Mr.and Mrs A a young couple were expecting their first child .Those were the days when there wereno ultra sound and so they were pleasantly surprised when they were blessed with twin boys .But the joy was short lived .Both the babies were born blue and so the survival was difficut However the kids were fighters and they pulled along .But the normal mile stones were delayed and than the bewildered parents were told that the children had cereberal palsy .The babies grew up .They stuttered ,they had bow legs ,they limped but they were intelligent kids ,All through this Mr.And Mrs. A nurtured them with infinite love and care .As it is it is difficult to bring up twins and to bring up two handicapped kids .The miracle was the strength of the parents .They accepted the kids whole heartedly .There was no hiding the kids .They were sent to school ,sent to play with the other kids ,Scolded and loved as needed .Of course there were difficulties People could be cruel ,The boys were often mocked at .But the parents total acceptance of themm slowly made others also accept them .Mr.A planned carefully .With his limited savings he bought two shops for them .Now both of them are independent and self sufficient They still stutter and are very different to look but they are leading a happy life .I have no words to describe my admiration for the couple .When people are always putting pressure on their kids and making them neurotic these two accepted their special kids and made their life .There were always smiles and jokes and easy comraderie between the kids and the parents and it has paid off so well .Can there be any success sweeter than MR.and MRs.A have ?.No wonder they were glowing .Hats off to them .

Joy's Musings28th sept .
A real Paheli It seems there were four movies being considered as official entry for Oscars .They were 1 Black ,2Iqbal 3 HazaroenKhawishen aisi 4 Page 3 .Paheli was not even mentioned in running .So it is a real paheli how and why it has been selected as the official entry .It is extremely culture centric and rather far fethed .I think Iqbal or Black would have done India proud .
Maybe it is being sent as it has Shahrukh Khan .This reminds me of his latest advertisement extolling the virtues of Lux.It mirrors an immense social change .Till recently women in various forms of dress and undress were used to sell the products Now the shoe is on the other foot .We have male models showingoff their brawn .It simply means that among the middle class women have the major say so they are being wooed by male beef cake .Just goes on to show there is no gender bias it is the consumer who is the king or should I say Queen .

27th sept.

I recently read abook "BoonIsland "by Kenneth Roberts .It is about a ship named 'Nottingham ' which sanknear Boon Island along the sea coast of southern Maine in 1710 .It is a remarkable story of survivors .One paragraph whisch made a lot of impact on me was about how Captain Dean prays to God .All the fourteen survivors were in a very bad shape surviving on Sea weed in bitter cold without fire or clothing and yet The Captain does not ask God for any thing .He says "If God feels we should be helped,I think he ought to work it out in his own way.I don,t feel qualified to tell God what to do and how to do it " I think this is real prayer but very often we find people bring down God to our own level .I have never been able to understand how can our wishes be fulfilled if we pray in one temple rather than the other one .Are there different Gods living in different temples or church ,mosque 'Gurudwara or Synagogue ?.If we pray at any place of worship or for that matter at home will not we be praying to the same God ? I have been asked who is my favourite deity Ganesh ,Shiva ,Rama or Durga ?Are they different ?I believe there is a supreme power and by whatever name we call Him we call out to the same God .
Similarly I have never been able to figure out the reasons why some days are more auspicious than others ?The names we give to different days are not given by God We named them for our convenience Sunday is sacred for Christians ,Friday for Jews and Muslims .Hindus will not eat non veg food on tuesday .Iam all for vegetarianism (though I do relish non veg.)I believe it is best not to eat but than why only on Tuesday ?Why not on all days ?Similarly there are periods which are auspicious and in auspicious .Incidentally it is an inauspicious period running now (maybe I shdn,t have started my blog ?)This also I simply can not fathom .
I suppose it is a matter of faith and well faith is just that faith .