A Class Reunion

A Class Reunion 

A School friend of mine for over 6 decades (you read it right!) got in touch with me and invited me for breakfast at a nearby eating joint along with another School friend of mine (we were mutual friends for over 6 decades!).  Well, long story short, we three friends decided to meet.  This was not very unusual.  We had been in touch off and on;  only that we were busy with our own lives and had never found the time to meet at regular intervals.  Only the breakfast meet did not materialize due to some indeterminate reason. But there was a huge promise in the air.  Spoiler alert.  There was some backchannel talks going on to rope in more number of School mates for a reunion of sorts.  Presently, lo and behold, a firm date and time was set for the grand reunion of a dozen or so School mates.  The venue was proposed by a senior arranger and agreed upon by all the reunion group members. There was an unanimous chorus that the Hotel agreed upon would be well suited for the purpose.  

The time: 4 PM

The Venue: Hotel Anantha, Jayanagar 4th Block 

Directions: Click on Google GPS link

All set for the grand reunion of Class mates of Holy Christ School batch of 1970.  

Finally, the  propitious day of the grand meet arrived. It was early November and good old Bengaluru was getting cooler by the day.  There was a nip in the air, announcing the onset of Winter.  Weather was glorious. The weather gods had smiled down upon us.  The azure blue sky was spotless, not a speck of cloud anywhere in sight.  The school mates started arriving at the venue.  Hello, said the first mate to arrive and warm greetings ensued.  More and more mates started arriving.  There were firm handshakes and few warm hugs going around.  The School mates had not seen each other for 54 years, to be precise.  Were there any surprises.  You bet, there were. All the cute, sweet baby faces of yore (I mean the School days) had wizened out; the smooth and flawless skin had given way to signs of ageing.  Truth be told, many of the class mates had become grandfathers and grandmothers.  I couldn't recognise a few of them.  But this was par for the course.  Few of the mates had stayed in our School for only a year somewhere in between the middle school years.  There was a flutter and our main star attraction had arrived.  I wouldn't dare say the name of the person.  It is anybody's guess.    We all moved in a file to the inner seating area of the Hotel.

The chattering of the school mates continued unabatedly after they were comfortably seated in the cool Hotel climes.  The old School mates had becomes young boys and girls once again reminiscing on their past memories.  There was the customary round of introductions; and each of them talking about themselves revealing their life stories.  Many of our mates had achieved high degree of success in their lives with extraordinary achievements to their credit.  We toasted them, applauding their hardwork and perseverance.  

The appearance of a latecomer to the gathering created a palpable excitement in our midst.  The mate turned out to be a handsome gentleman with impeccable manners.  He had brought a sweet and snack packet along with him, which he meticulously went on distributing to each member of our group.   We were all excited and the latecomer forgiven.

In between these beautiful interactions between the old boys and girls, there was the enquiries and small talk; and the unavoidable cross talk; What happened to this person, where is that person, where does this person live/stay; the incessant chatter continued on into the late hour as the dusk set in.  

Meanwhile, the waiters were hovering around the tables, waiting patiently to note down the food orders.  Many of us, were not forthcoming on what to eat/order. Although, there were a few firm food orders.  The waiter who was initially assigned to our tables (a probationery waiter, perhaps) was completely dumbfounded.  He appeared flustered. Acting on a cue from the management representative,  he confabulated with his senior waiter colleague looking for clarity.  The conversation with the waiters took predominance. There was a lull in our conversations.  Waiters' doubts were completely addressed.  Finally, food orders were taken and food distribution ensued.  

Was the food that was served on the menu, the highlight of the evening.  Not really.  I can conclusively and vehemently say, 'NO' to that my dear sirs and madams, it was not.  The highlight was, of course, the afterglow of the warmth and the camaraderie that had set in amongst the mates; that was slowly forming into a deep, abiding and beautiful friendship.  Will this last.  That, my dears, is a million dollar question. 

As good times cannot last forever, things have to come to an end, so did our meet.  We ended our conversations on a very happy and pleasant note promising to keep in touch with each other and to have more such meetings.  This was an event to remember for all concerned .  Will the promises made on that eventful evening be remembered.  Only time will tell.  And that my dear readers, is life!  In all its glory and mysterious ways. 

A great party indeed!

The weekend supplements of many newspapers carry the news and photographs of the people having great parties in upscale hotels and restaurants or pubs; the photographs of some of these people holding a drink in hand or swinging away their blues on the dance floor, set me thinking.  What could be the reason that newspapers spend so much of resources on publicising the news and photographs of the partying men and women.  Many of these people partying hard are not even celebrities like movie actors (well, who doesn’t adore cinema idols!) or cricketers or some sportspersons (famous for their exploits on and off the field!) who need attention and publicity for their survival.  Seriously, do the newspaper editors really allow these rubbish materials to be published; fortunately, or unfortunately, it appears so!

Going through these news snippets in question, I saw that one of the photographs mentioned about the partying exploits of some DJ or RJ with their band members in tow.  The families and friends of such wonderful people would, of course, love to read and feast their eyes on the jovial camaraderie of their kinsmen/friends in the newspapers. If, on the other hand, these people are unknown to the readers, what interest would these news and photographs generate?  Don’t you think, reading snippets of partying information of unknown shenanigans or looking at some random photographs is sheet waste of time.

Made me wonder, who would benefit from the published news/photographs of some people having a nice time in upscale restaurant or pubs.  May be some of these partying people are wannabe actors or professionals in their respective fields who bribe the newsmen and photographers to publish them to further their careers;  Or is it that the newspapers need some juicy titbits of information for the financial survival of their newspapers;  Or the upscale restaurants and pubs would pay the newspapers handsomely to get publicity for their businesses; Or could this be some remnant colonial practice left behind by the aristocratic (or is it autocratic) British genteel customs.  We would never know, unless the newspaper publishers or the concerned newsmen spill out the truth behind this practice.

Whatever be the reason, it stuck me that if I were to visit one of these upscale restaurants or pubs during an exciting evening with my lovely and graceful partner in tow, maybe we could be lucky enough to be photographed and published in a popular newspaper!  Oh, dear vanity!

Short Pants - the sartorial statement!

I have always wondered how the fashion trends in men’s clothing department has evolved over the years.  Time was when, during my boyhood days we were sick and tired of wearing shorts or half-pants (as we called them, then); we wanted to grow up fast so that we could start wearing trousers or pants (as we used to invariably call them); what can I say, the shorts have now come onto the fashion scene with a bang; not only for young boys, but for men of all ages!  Older the man, more his new-found love for wearing the shorts.  I recently saw an old man, touching eighty, I would say, wearing beautiful chequered shorts and lovely beachwear T-shirt too.  He looked really smart with Nike sports shoes and a walking-stick swinging in his hand!  Shorts or half-pants, so to say, has really caught on, with great aplomb, in the minds of style-conscious men; young or old, alike.  It is considered the new-age ‘cool thing’ for men, to be seen wearing shorts!

Well, ruminating on my boyhood days, I had felt, rather ashamed of being seen, wearing shorts in public; I was ever so eager to enter manhood, mainly to show off wearing full length classic terry cot pants and growing a moustache (or rather, start the process of shaving).  I remember, I was so embarrassed of buying half-ticket in city transport buses.  I used to persuade my parents to buy me full ticket in buses; more than anything else, to feel the pride in being called a man, rather than a boy eligible only for half-ticket.  As a young boy, when travelling alone in buses, I was stealthily buying full ticket, away from the prying eyes of my parents; though, I was entitled to half ticket, according to my age, then.  When I asked for the full ticket, during those half-pant days, the bus conductor, used to look me up askance, weighing the options, whether I was eligible for half ticket or full ticket; but finally, the conductor used to issue a full ticket; giving in to the profit motive of the Bus Corporation!  In those days, the bus conductors had a way of assessing the boys’ ages, based on their attire; whether the boy was wearing half-pants or full pants.  Full pants warranted a full ticket and half pants were eligible for half-ticket.  It was that easy!  I don’t know, how it is, with the present-day BTS bus conductors.  It may not be that easy, considering that most men wear shorts or half-pants as their casual attire. Or else, do they even have half-tickets now, I am not so sure!

It was standard attire with the villagers of those days, to wear striped shorts; with a pocket sewn on the inside to keep their currency notes safe.  These striped shorts were made of pajama cloth material and all the village tailors were wonderfully skilled at stitching the pajama-based custom shorts.   I am not sure, if this village dress code was confined to South Indian States alone or was used widely in all other villages of India.  Striped shorts combined with inner vest (or banian, if you will) was a regular attire for village men.  Recently, when I passed through some of the villages, I could observe from the road-side that these village men too had radically evolved into wearing vibrantly fashionable shorts and colourful T-shirts.  It appeared to me, that the India I knew, had changed; had indeed, moved ahead on a swift path; fast catching up with the wealthy nations, at least, from a sartorial perspective!

Considering the current fashion trend in men’s casual wear department, young boys of the present day need not feel ashamed of wearing shorts or half-pants.  Most of the men’s population is wearing them too; men of all shapes and sizes; loving the comfortable and trendy short pants.  It may not be too far-fetched to assume that in the very near future, we may see most Indian men wearing shorts and T-shirts to their work places and offices in lieu of the formal shirts and trousers.  The only downside of older men wearing shorts, is the amply visible hairy ankle, which may not be such a pretty sight to most people, after all!

Work is worship!

 

 

 

I go back in time when “work” was considered to be a serious form of worship.  Serious workaholics strongly believed in the idiom, “Work is Worship” and toiled day in day out.  Most of these workaholics were “seen” to be good leaders and successful people.  The names of these people were often quoted, as shining examples to emulate and to motivate the younger generation to work harder.  For anybody who was seen taking a break or just relaxing in-between office work, their acts were considered blasphemous. Back in the eighties, during the early stages of my banking career, I had a nagging suspicion that the Bank had assigned some senior executives solely to keep a close watch on the young employees who had been recruited in hordes in all nationalized banks post the bank nationalization phase in the late sixties and early seventies in India.  Recruitment took place in Banks in thousands, in the late seventies and early eighties, very much like the mass recruitment we see in IT and Services Companies these days.  I suspect, some of the senior executives in Banks were ordained by Bank management to go around their Head Office / Main office building in the Bank just to catch the youngsters in the act of chatting among themselves standing near the staircases or loitering here and there or just “whiling away” their precious “work” time in the office canteens. I remember being remonstrated a few times by senior executives to go back to respective work stations and complete the “work” instead of wasting time.  Working late was considered the norm with employees putting in extra hours of “work” beyond their stipulated working hours.  Sitting late would fetch the employees the required additional marks in their annual appraisals which was considered a “must” for promotions!

The youngsters in Banks who had been freshly recruited from various colleges had carried over their baggage in forming groups of like-minded individuals for sharing experiences and discussing their work-life occurrences standing near the staircases.  The atmosphere in the Head Office of the Bank was buzzing with activity.  Young people were seen milling all around the Head Office or their Main Offices with enthusiasm.  There was so much energy and freshness around the Bank environment, which is in sharp contrast to what we see in the nationalized Banks today.  Pardon me, while I say that most of the nationalized Bank employees today appear all too tired, dull and old, ready to pack up their bags at the drop of a hat, once and for all, either to opt for voluntary retirement or wait for attaining superannuation.   Since there was the mass recruitment of employees in the early eighties, now there appears to be the mass exit of employees occurring in nationalized Banks these days.

Coming back to the topic at hand, we hear the refrain “work life balance” being bandied about constantly these days; used synonymously with the IT and other services’ employees who work around the clock, 24/7, catering to their “clients” from around the world.  These days the term of yore, “work is worship” seem to be almost absent.  It is now all about teamwork and making greater use of technology.  Great ideas and inspiration seem to be the buzzword.  People have realized the darker side of slogging 24/7; with the pervasive lifestyle, related health issues cropping up; employees not having quality time for their families; and many other negative factors in the society catching up, to show up, the ill effects of working too much at the cost of their personal life.  Personal life gets disrupted with too much focus on “work” and nothing else, in between.

“All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”, seems to be the mantra these days; in the process, companies are urging their employees to have a perfect work-life balance.  The big multinational companies, software, services and otherwise, have all provided for various facilities within their Headquarters each looking more and more like college campuses rather than companies where people need to “work” for generating profits for these companies.  Googling, "Google" HQ shows up Group cooking classes or coffee tasting arrangement for its employees; bikes are provided to employees to move around the campus; Cafes galore within the campuses; group fitness classes with A class Gym facilities and much more are provided to their employees.  Facebook (it's Meta now) HQ, on the other hand, have many other wonderful facilities for its employees; company store–filled with FB apparel and items; it seems they even have foxes on campus, real ones, with specially designated fox-habitat area, and the campus certified for wild-life; video arcade for employees to hang out; many fast food restaurants filled with Burgers, pizzas, burritos, sushi, sweet shops, coffee shops, vending machines filled with snacks and beverages. All free. An interior swing for employees to “chill” in the playground near to the mini-kitchen.  Lots of electric cars in the parking lot.  Apple, it appears have designed their new HQ in a unique circular style reminiscent of their iPod, iPhone and iPad.  Their new campus includes a café for 3,000 sitting people;  surrounded by extensive landscaping, and offer parking both underground and a parking structure.  Media reports widely describe the new structure as "spaceship".  Other facilities include a 1,000-seat auditorium, 300,000 square feet of R&D facilities, a fitness centre; an orchard, and a dedicated generating plant as the primary source of electricity (powered by natural gas and other more environmentally sound means); with a gorgeous courtyard in the middle, and a lot more.  What else, next?  Your imagination is as good as mine!  With all these wonderful facilities’ available, where do the employees find time to complete their required “work” hours, in between all the recreation and fun?

How times are A-changing.  The workers of the world, rejoice!  Sitting late in Offices is now considered passé.  Life seems to have come full circle.   Workers, in general, who were once viewed with suspicion and had to be reined in to be more productive with catchy phrases such as “Work is Worship” as a means of motivation is no longer bandied around.  Retaining employees was unheard of, in our earlier days; there were no retention policies to retain talented youngsters by providing various state-of-the-art facilities, including but not limited to employee stock options.  Workers were considered mere “automatons” or “robots” working at the pleasure of the employers; the loyal “employees” of yesteryears were threatened with more stringent working hours and bad reviews if they did not “fall in line” with the management philosophy of work, work and more work.  What a royal fall from their high horses for the employers/managements!  Who has had the last laugh, now, the “workers” or the “employers/managements”, your guess is as good as mine!

The aspirational Bangalore!

The aspirational Bangalore!

My memories flash back to the days when we were young and full of lively spirits! Bangalore was the most beautiful place to live in during my growing up years (through the seventies and eighties). I would love to call Bangalore of yore, a veritable heaven on earth! There were lovely parks, gardens; and lakes; streets were lined with lush green shady trees. Change of seasons were hardly recognisable; except for fallen dry leaves and flowers from trees signifying coming of autumn; the weather was cool and pleasant throughout the year. Summers were fleeting; temperatures hardly touched 32 degrees centigrade. The local houses were built keeping in mind the circulation of fresh air and Bangaloreans preferred to keep their front doors open through the day; there wasn’t any need of ceiling fans or ACs. Youngsters played cricket on the streets, during all times of the day. The City had few localities with medium class infrastructure. There were very less potholes on the roads as the vehicular population was low; People mainly owned two-wheelers. Owning a two-wheeler (the ubiquitous Bajaj scooter and Jawa Motorcycle) was the ultimate aspiration of young office-goers, those days. Young men were addicted to watching movies, listening to Radio and of course, the ubiquitous street-cricket (gully cricket in local parlance). Showing signs of rebellion, as students we used to bunk classes and sneak off to watch movies or play cricket surreptitiously avoiding getting seen by teachers and more importantly parents! Being sanctimonious with one’s parents was expected. Most of the young people were wary of their parents, especially dads; not that the parents were harshly critical or didn’t shower love or affection towards their children occasionally; but as parents they were supposed to exercise their right of judgement over their children and have strict say in their upbringing. Social mores demanded so. Luckily my parents were very protective and rather naïve; and didn’t want to believe that their son had a streak of rebellious nature in him too! Bunking classes to go to movies and Hotels. Though I don’t remember having ever taken undue advantage of their gullibility (small transgressions here and there are acceptable)!

Over the years, Bangalore has transformed into the garbage-ridden, stinking city that it has now become with interminable traffic movement during all hours of the day and night! This fundamental environmental aspect apart the culture of the City has changed drastically over the years. There has seen a major shift in the composition of people. Information Technology boom of the nineties and later years, brought in huge influx of young people from all over the country; while the earlier employment opportunities were limited to Public Sector Industries and few Banks, that had their Head Offices in Bangalore. With the founding of ‘Infosys’ which became synonymous with Information Technology and Software boom, many more IT software companies opened their Offices in Bangalore. Call Centres and BPOs came with a bang in a big way. The incoming people brought in their own culture which gradually became part of Bangalore culture. Youngsters were exposed to Western culture as part of their Companies’ outsourcing technology efforts, largely catering to US or European clients. The expression ‘Bangalored’ came into being, synonymous with outsourcing in US. More number of pubs and restaurants came into existence to cater to the demand from young people. High-rise apartments became the norm rather than individual single-storey houses built on ‘30x40’ or ‘40x60’ sites as was the culture earlier.

With the boom came the aspirations of the young people. Travelling to US and Europe by International flights was becoming the norm among younger generation. The Bangalore HAL Airport had hardly any flights outside of India in our younger days. I recall that I had visited HAL Airport as a young boy by bicyle to watch the take off and landing of Aircraft; this made me bloat like a baloon for days, it was as if I had landed on the moon. The IT software Companies sent their young smart people to various centres in US or Europe where they were headquartered to service their large clientele base. The aspirational middle-class Bangaloreans had now begun their journey onwards towards the World scene!

Pardon my saying so, it is nice to hear when my circle of friends and a large family of uncles, aunts, their children, relatives acquired through marriage, etc., wonderfully roll out the names of cities and towns in US, UK, Canada and Australia, pronouncing the names exactly like it is spoken in US or UK with the lovely accent rolling off their tongues like Americans or Britishers. I think that their knowledge of World Geography has increased amazingly, thanks to their children! Many a time, it had prompted me to google the place in question and look into the maps of US, Europe or Australia, searching for the exact location. Most of the people I know have either a son or daughter (includes son-in-law or daughter-in-law) in US or UK or Europe studying or working there. How things have changed! Wonderful!

As proud parents of an aspirational generation, it is but natural to talk of their childrens' achievements when they make it ‘big’, both in terms of educational qualifications as well as earning incomes in Dollars, Pounds or Euros. We are proud of children acquiring highly coveted technical qualifications, master degrees, doctorates from well acclaimed Universities in US, UK or Australia or employed on H1B, L1 visas, Green Card etc., in client locations in US! Some of my friends even know the various stages of Visa processing in US. Not so, in our younger days, our chief pastime was confined to listening to Hindi film songs (on Radio) apart from playing cricket at all times of the day! In our minds, studying and acquiring educational qualifications was just incidental and not important. Studying was a waste of time (in my mind at least!) as more important things like cricket or movies was on the top of our minds!

Now as parents, it makes us feel that we have finally ‘arrived’ in society on aspirational terms. When we meet our friends or relatives in marriages or some social functions, the natural topic of conversation would no doubt end with toasting our children and their wonderful achievements (conversations would also alas, include immediate transport arrangements using ‘Uber’ or ‘Ola’ app and reaching their nests!); Great! It is nice to hear proud parents speak with self-importance on their newly-acquired elevated social status, thanks to their wonderful children.

My thoughts turn to the issue the present generation of the parents would eventually have to come to terms with. Like they say, with every change there comes some pain too, which is inevitable! What would eventually become of us the parents when our children who go abroad, settle down comfortably in those wonderful places, never to return to India! Staying away from beloved children, pining away for them; would our thoughts rue the aspirational society that created this mess in the first place? Certainly not. I am sure our present day generation of parents are much smarter and wiser. We would think of new ways to deal with the situation as and when it arises. It is in nature’s way of things that children grow up and fly away from their nest; eventually they have to make their own futures. I think it should make us extremely happy and proud that our children have a very bright future ahead of them, with the World literally their playground! We should be proud that our children would eventually make a difference to the Society that they live in (be it in US, UK or Europe or Australia); when they rise to the top of their professions, wherever they are! Some of them may even get to be CEOs or Astronauts or even MPs or Prime Ministers/Presidents in their respective countries, who knows! Aspirations and achievements never cease to amaze!

The Mouse Hunt

The Mouse Hunt

The small mammal close to humans, the house mouse, can cause extreme reactions in us, humans, if they infest our homes. There was one such house mouse which had invaded our home recently and stayed put for more than two weeks. You may not believe it, the tiny rodent started playing with all our human emotions and created short circuits in our brains. I am not exaggerating. All of us, in our family were on tenterhooks, waiting to explode at any time, due to the ruckus created by the tiny mouse. To be fair to the mouse, all this was not the fault of the tiny rodent, it was just living its life under our auspices, enjoying the warmth of the refrigerator motor unit cubicle and the cool climes of the kitchen cupboards.

It all began on a rainy day, when the weather was cool in Bangalore. We thought, Bangalore was slowly regaining its original rainy climate (the climate that existed so many decades ago) when the days were rainy and the skies overcast. Our home was cool and dark. We had to switch on the lights to lighten the gloom inside our home. On one such gloomy day, while cooking lunch, my wife noticed some sounds emanating in the kitchen cabinets below the granite kitchen platform. When she told me that, this could be the handiwork of a house mouse, I was aghast. I told her, she was imagining things. The problem, was, as always, my sceptical behaviour. I do not believe in things, until I see them with my own eyes. My wife was insistent, that I was wrong, as usual. The kind of light banter that happens routinely in most households, continued between husband and wife, back and forth.  The next day, she told me that more sounds were coming from the cupboard and she was quite certain this time, as she had seen the mouse with her own eyes, scurrying within the cupboard, when she had the cupboard door open to pick some house hold items from there. It was my turn again to be adamant. I told her that her imagination was running riot, she had better rein in her imagination.  She scoffed and challenged me to open the cupboard door and verify it for myself. I am normally hesitant to challenge the rodent family or for that matter even the roach family or lizard family. I have to admit to myself, (not in front my wife, of course) that I am, rather scared of the house pests. Not that, I would run away from them, if found in the vicinity; only that, I would not dare to put myself in the pests’ path and go looking for them in cupboards or elsewhere. As usual, my wife accused me of being less of a man, if I dare not shoo away the mouse from our home. She felt vindicated with her assessment, when I refused smugly to look into the kitchen cupboard.

As can be expected, the mouse had to venture out of its hiding place, in search of food some day. Within the next two or three days after its first sighting, the mouse came out from the kitchen cupboard and scurried into the room. Even then, I did not notice the mouse. Only from the reactions of those around, I could gather that a lightning bolt had hit in the vicinity. This time around, I was convinced that there was, indeed, some pest, going about the house and a strong, positive action, was required from me. Being the man of the house, I retrieved the mouse trap from the loft and gathered all my wits for setting the bait using the mousetrap. I searched for some help online, looking for a perfect bait that would attract the mouse into the trap. Some of them had suggested, cheese would be the best bait to trap the mouse. We did not have cheese in the house, so the next alternative we had, was, a small toffee. The bait was set and the trap kept near the refrigerator, where we thought it had gone into hiding, the previous night. On the next morning, we were eager to see the result of our smart move. Nothing in the trap. The mouse was not really bothered about the toffee. Our neighbour rubbished and laughed at the idea of a toffee as bait and said, ‘no way; the mouse will not be attracted by a toffee, you are simple wasting your time’ (You see, we were so desperate that we had consulted our immediate neighbourhood looking for the best ways of trapping a house mouse). The next day, we purchased rat poison from the retailer nearby, who told us, that this is the best way to get rid of rats. We placed the rat poison nimbly near the refrigerator with a fond hope that the mouse would be dead the next morning after having tried the poison. But, our mouse was made of sterner stuff, it was, in no way attracted to the poison. The rat poison idea too, had failed to achieve its objective.

My wife reminded me of a funny story which goes something like this. It appears that Saif Ali Khan (son of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore) had once taken out his shotgun to go after a colony of Indian mole rats that was pestering his neighbourhood. The story goes that Saif Ali Khan was called in every time an Indian mole rat was spotted in the neighbourhood and he was nicknamed the ‘Rat hunter’ as he had hunted down the rat every time with alacrity. His more famous father was nicknamed the ‘tiger’ as he had hunted real tigers in the jungle, while his son had followed in the footsteps of his famous father and become a ‘Rat hunter’!

Back to our mouse story. Based on one of our neighbour’s suggestion, the next day we kept a burnt dry coconut piece as bait in the mouse trap. The mouse seemed to have guessed our intentions and remained disinterested even in the dry coconut offering. The next bright suggestion came from our house maid. She said that there is a new mouse bait available in the market, called magic mouse trap or some such thing, which had an extremely sticky substance smeared on a piece of cardboard. She purchased the thing and bought it for us. All we had to do was place the cardboard contraption in the path of the mouse. Our maid had all words of praise on the new mouse trapping device; she had tried it out several times with positive results. She was confident the trap would work. It seems, the bait had been manufactured in such a way, that when the mouse, scurries over the cardboard piece, all of its four feet get stuck right there. The mouse would be left whimpering for someone to rescue it from the sticky cardboard. All one had to do was, dispose of, the whimpering stuck mouse, outside of their homes. Our mouse was smarter than any of us and avoided treading on the magic cardboard for days together. We all looked like fools and were left holding the cardboard contraption without any success.

We had formed a formidable team of mouse hunters to trap the mouse. The house maid as the team lead; as man of house, I, was the second lead, wife being the chief co-ordinator and rest of the family members, the curious onlookers. All our efforts to catch the mouse had failed and the team had, almost, given up on its mission.

In the meanwhile, our smart mouse was creating havoc within our house. We were, of the impression that the mouse would just move around on the ground floor alternating between the kitchen and the room. It had no dark place to hide elsewhere in the living room. We never expected that the mouse could climb up to the first floor and invade our bedroom. It did just that! One evening we saw the mouse scamper across in our bedroom and go back to its hiding place inside my writing desk kept on the first floor living room. My writing desk held all sorts of attraction to the mouse, it was an ideal hiding place. I had stored photo albums, old books, dusting clothes, toolbox kit and many more in my writing desk drawer. There was an opening behind the writing desk, which was convenient for the mouse to hide itself within this desk drawer. I avoided sitting at my writing desk for a few days, due to the fear of disturbing the mouse or its position. The mouse had made it a habit of moving from first floor to ground floor kitchen refrigerator during the night times and staying in the writing desk during the day times without fear of any disturbance from us, the humans.

Using all our wits and with the help of suggestions from various family members and neighbours, we finally hit the jackpot after two weeks of mental torture. We set a fried piece of savoury doughnut snack as the bait in the mousetrap, by dangling it, via the small metal wire inside. The hapless mouse, at last, felt bold enough to try out the tasty snack. This was its undoing. The mouse was finally trapped and the housemaid, the team lead, disposed it off, outside our home. All the team members, heaved a huge sigh of relief and felt good for having trapped a wily house mouse which had eluded capture for over two weeks. The successful team has been disbanded for the time being!

Endangered species

It appears that we modern humans, that is the present-day people living all over the World (‘homo sapiens’), evolved sometime over 200,000 years ago.  This figure keeps on changing with newer research studies!  I think for most part of their evolutionary lives, men and women were purely meat-eaters in their dietary habits! Hunting, gathering and having fun eating all moving creatures that were palatable, and provided sustenance, I guess.    I understand that as a consequence of human migrations into new regions of the world, there has been the extinction of many animal species indigenous to those areas. Human hunters apparently had played a large part in the extermination of large species of animals including majority of the larger ones like mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, etc. Most of these extinctions apparently occurred within a few hundred years and we humans were very likely the trigger that set off these catastrophic events. I am digressing, this is not a piece about palaeoanthropology. Pulling myself back on track,  I simply wished to point out to my dear readers, that I was born a strict "vegetarian" in my dietary habits (or more precisely a lacto-vegetarian in today’s parlance). Being vegetarian in today’s World has its own kind of drawbacks or disadvantages; to put it mildly, this has jeopardised my place as an honourable member of the society! In other words, due to my vegetarian dietary habits, I had sometimes been an object of ridicule and sometimes made fun of; this is my claim, of course, judging from people’s reaction!

Having stayed in the Middle East for quite a few years, my dietary habits were always a source of discomfort and embarrassment to me. Most of my colleagues at work and friends outside work were strict non-vegetarians! They loved the variety of dishes that were offered in the innumerable swanky Restaurants and were proud of their dietary habits! They happily gobbled up the choicest dishes available from all over the World served in the best Restaurants of that place. One of my colleagues at work always constantly needled me pointing that I was missing out on the good things in life; tastiest and best food in life by following the 'vegetarian' route! After all, what’s the use of living such a miserable ‘vegetable’ life, if you cannot taste the best food the World had to offer to non-vegetarians!

While travelling on Middle-Eastern flights, I have always been rather embarrassed to point myself as a vegetarian to the stewardesses. You see, the stewardesses do not like passengers who disturb their rhythm and create interruptions, while serving/distributing food trays. During one of such flights, I still vividly remember, the beautiful stewardess, giving me a cold stare when I told her that I was a vegetarian and would like a vegetarian meal; she stared at me hard and coldly, I thought; she was hoping that I would soon revise my dietary choice so that she can swiftly get on her way to serve other passengers! I can still feel her chilling looks on me (she wasn’t that beautiful anymore!); looking at me as if I was an alien from another world. I felt more embarrassed as other passengers in my row started staring up at me too with horror, as if I was pointing a loaded revolver at the stewardess! Unfortunately, adding further fuel to the embarrassment was the fact that all the other passengers in my row were of Middle-Eastern origin. I couldn’t find a sympathetic Indian face who could understand my plight and lend me moral support in the situation! I didn’t budge; I gathered all my inner strength and stood my ground repeating my request to the stewardess. I could see the chilly-cum-mildly hopeful expression on her face fall once again; which gradually turned into a stiff forced smile (no doubt, she was trained well by the Airline not to give chilled looks for long, directed towards passengers!); she realized that I was steadfast in my resolve to have a vegetarian meal. However, my beautiful stewardess was made of a stronger mettle; she wasn’t the one to give up the fight so easily. Making a last-ditch effort, she announced that she didn’t have any vegetarian option as it was a short flight. It was my turn to show dismay and we were back to square one. But I too, wasn’t in any mood to give up. Travelling continuously over a period of years, I had gained in confidence and had learnt the art of dealing with ‘beautiful-cum-chilly-looking' stewardesses; I asked her what are the options she had in her ‘pantry’ or whatever they call it on aircrafts. She thought for a moment and told me that she could give me a cake at the most. Getting wary, I instinctively asked her if it was made of egg (I was a strict vegetarian you see!); to which she replied she didn’t know.  Even  I knew rhat cakes have an element of eggs. The stewardess was steadfastly looking at me with piercing eyes now! I could clearly make out that she had her doubts confirmed that here was a specimen from some other planet!

After all, how long can you hold up an airline stewardess, however beautiful she might be to look at; she has to attend to many more passengers! After such high drama in the air, I felt defeat pass over me. I said, never mind, I didn’t want any of the food the airline has to offer. The stewardess moved away serving food trays to other passengers; the smile back on her face. She looked beautiful once again!

I don’t know if my luck had turned on that day! The beautiful stewardess was back in minutes holding out a small pack of chocolates towards me. I gratefully accepted her offer and promptly pocketed it. Being diabetic, I wasn’t supposed to eat chocolates you see, but I had a family which loved any variety of chocolates!

There was another incident that stands out in my memory clearly to this day. We had a party going in our office and many dishes had been ordered from an Arabic Restaurant nearby. The choice of vegetarian dishes was limited, as I was the lone vegetarian in the office. After the food order was received, the dishes were served, spread out on a table. Some of my office colleagues had already started nibbling away at their choicest picks. There was a dish looking very much like an Indian ‘Roti’, that was spread out on a tray. I was looking across the dishes wondering which of the spread was suitable for my consumption. I was trying to determine if it was a plain ‘Roti’ or some stuffed ‘Roti’, perhaps. Making up my mind, I finally zeroed in on one ‘Roti’, which looked quite inviting! I picked it up. Suddenly I heard a voice saying that it was a meat preparation. As quickly as I had picked it up, I instantaneously dropped the ‘Roti’ back in the tray; scrubbing at my hands as if I had touched a hot iron rod! Seeing my reaction, there was shock followed by laugh riot all around. All my colleagues had a field day,  guffawing at my expense. One of my colleagues, of Middle-Eastern origin, felt insulted and announced that he couldn’t eat the stuff after seeing my extreme reaction. I promptly apologised and hurried back to my cubicle. I couldn’t eat any food for the entire day! It was bad behaving the way I did, I had also unabashedly insulted my colleague. I could offer no explanation, other than the lame excuse that I was a vegetarian! As a parting shot, one of my office colleagues, in half jest told me that she would make all out efforts to convert me to eat chicken before I finally left the country. However, her wish remained unfulfilled, as I have steadfastly remained a vegetarian to this day!

During my entire stay in the Middle-East, I have hardly come across a person with strict vegetarian dietary habits like me (including not eating eggs or even onion/garlic), which made me realize that I and some of my ilk were part of a miniscule group of people surviving on their last legs of human evolutionary cycle! In my opinion, the vegetarians could be hardly around 1 or 2% of the World population, if such survey could ever be conducted! Could I take the liberty of mentioning that this tiny vegetarian group of surviving people (or ‘tribe’) is certainly a vanishing species or an endangered one; soon to be named perhaps as, ‘homo-veggy’ or something similar shortly after disappearing from the human evolutionary cycle!