By Invitation: How this Van Gogh got his name

Good friend SS on why her tabby answers to the unusual name of Van Gogh
Every year in mid-July our town has a four day, popular event, the Central Pennsylvania Festival of Arts. Artists and handicrafters from different parts of PA and eastern USA come here and showcase their work.
A litter of five stray kittens was found during one of the editions of this festival. They were taken to the local shelter and the kittens were all named after famous artists. There was only one orange tabby in the litter; obviously he had to be named Van Gogh.
Fast forward five months.
We walk into the shelter in October 2018 looking for an orange tabby. And there he was with his brother Picasso, a grey tabby.
I couldn’t have been happier that he was named Van Gogh. Van Gogh has always been my favorite. We had no intention of renaming him.

Geet sangeet

Husband hearing Suresh Wadkar sing his classic Seene mein jalan / Aankhon mein toofan sa kyon hai / Is shahar mein / Har shakhs pareshaan sa kyon hai on Amazon Music.
Wife commenting: If he has problems in his chest and eyes, why doesn’t he go to a doctor instead of wasting time singing songs?

Eavesdropping: Oh for something new

#LockdownBlues
Customer to his regular vegetable vendor: “Arey bhai, kuch naya sabzi lao na. Yeh paanch sabzi kha kha ke puk gaya hoon.”

Forwards Ki Duniya: I grew up in Bombay, not Mumbai

I grew up in Bombay, not Mumbai

Regardless of the weather, our dinner time was at 8:00 PM and bed time was 10:30.

Eating out at a restaurant was a huge deal, a rarity actually, that only happened when it was a birthday or a very special occasion to celebrate.

There was no such thing as fast food on every other day, and having a bottle of soft drinks and an ice-cream from the local shop was a real treat. Pass your final exams and you might have gotten a new set of clothes, or Bata shoes.

You took your school clothes off as soon as you got home and put on your ‘home’ clothes. There was no taking or picking you up in the car, you either boarded the school bus or rode on public transport, or just walked home. You got home did your chores and homework before dinner.

Not everyone had a house phone and much later, all private conversation were at PCO booth’s.

We didn’t have appletv AmazonPrime or Netflix. We had only Doordarshan to watch. Jungle Book came once a week on a Sunday and Chhaya Geet on Thursday’s, for which we waited all week.

We played chor police, lappa chuppi, Football, Cricket, lagori, dabba ice-spice (actually it was “I spy”) Marbles and any other game we could come up with… At home, we stuck to chess, ludo, snakes and ladders and Monopoly.

Staying shut in the house was a PUNISHMENT and the only thing we knew about “bored” was — “You better find something to do before I find it for you!”

Life was good without insta, facebook, twitter.
Followers were the friends standing behind you.

We played music via magnetic tapes or radio. A walkman was a luxury for the uber rich.

We went to the local shop for groceries and chiclets, jeera goli, kismi used to be a couple of paise.

We ate what Mum made for dinner and put in our lunch and snack box.
Bottled water was non existent. We drank from the school water filter.

We called our friends from home by shouting their names from the street below.

We weren’t AFRAID OF ANYTHING. We played until dark… sunset was our alarm.

If someone had a fight, that’s what it was and we were friends again a day later if not SOONER.

We watched our MOUTHS around our elders because ALL of our aunts, uncles, grandpas, grandmas, AND our parents’ best friends were all extensions of our PARENTS and you didn’t want them telling your parents you’d misbehaved! Or they would give you something to cry about.

We respected the Police, Firemen, Ambulance workers, Teachers, Doctors and Nurses.

We never answered back… ever!!!

We got detention at school for not doing homework, no hair cut, being late to class or being naughty. Our teachers spanked us when we deserved it and our parents did not complain about it.

We did not know what luxury was. Our simple lives were so good.

Those were the good days. So many kids today will never know how it feels to be a real kid. I loved my childhood and all the friends I hung around with.

Share if you are from the same generation…

By Invitation: The changing face of Indian banking

My childhood friend VPK, who retired after a long stint with a prominent bank, enumerates the main changes at her workplace over the years.

I spent three and half decades in a bank and in every decade there was some change or the other.
I would like to elaborate on the three main ones.
1) I was new to the banking industry and all the work was done manually (by just playing with numbers for six hours a day). The typewriter was the only machine in the bank those days.
2) The second big change was the use of the automatic ledger posting machine. Only senior staff of the bank would handle it, with extra allowance in their salary. Then came the use of computers, ATM machines and note-counting machines. Staff at all levels were required to work on these.
3) Internet banking and the introduction of debit/credit cards led to a major shift of focus. The customer could now just know a password and withdraw her money. The responsibility shifted to the customer once the bank had parted with the card. This was in stark contrast to the earlier days of manual working where the banker used to be held responsible if cash fell in wrong hands.
In every decade the staff position would shrink as many were reluctant to accept the various changes in the system.
In my three and half decades in the banking sector the first one was most enjoyable as there was personal interaction among staff members as well as with customers.

 

Eavesdropping: Dark talk in the time of corona

Two men on their morning walk:
Man 1: HR has announced a freeze on all increments at our office.
Man 2: Oh no!
M1: There will also be no incentive-linked bonuses till things come back to normal.
M2: Shit, that’s bad, man…
M1: Yes… Bad and sad.
M1: Blame it on corona!

It’s all in the numbers

So the local politician bought one more house recently and his wife decided to bring in a vastu consultant to check out the place.
“Hmmm,” he pondered, even before stepping into the spacious 12th floor abode. “Your flat number is 1205. It adds up to 8, which is an unlucky number for you.”
“So what is the solution?” asked the concerned wife.
“No problem,” came the quick answer. “We will do a small puja which will cost you only 15,000 rupees. And we will change the flat number on your main door to 7 + 1.”

How Dhoni’s advice helped me in the lockdown

How Dhoni’s advice helped me in the lockdown
By RAJU BIST

FEEDBACK
Shampa Bahadur: Very nice read.
Dilip Gupta: Interesting read. I am spending my lockdown time sprucing up my resort including gardening… with two helps, of course. I have never had a better period in my life. As a semi-retired person I can claim that. During this period I have learnt to give a patient hearing to my wife, about which she always complained. Hope I keep it up.Your piece is very encouraging. Wish many follow after reading your article. Love and good luck.
K. Kowshik: Superb. You inspire us so much!
B. Virendra: Pretty cool. Enjoyed reading it.
Kishore Kotian: It’s nice Raju, to know that there are people like you who are able to make good use of their time and also look at the positive side when faced by a great challenge like what we are going through now. I have always known you as a calm and happy person so it doesn’t come as a surprise to me that you were able to convert the lockdown into a great opportunity for yourself, managing to bag an international deal.
And yes, I was pleasantly surprised and happy to know that you remembered the story that we shared in the yoga class. Thank you Raju for your kind gesture of remembering me in your article. I would say that it’s a very nice piece of article that you wrote which if read carefully reflects a very good character that you possess of being able to manage in whatever situation that one may be in. I am sure, not many who read this will agree that they have utilised their time during the lockdown as well as you have.
BG Rao: Super, Raju, as always.
SS: Enjoyed reading! Very interestingly written with a touch of humour. I feel in addition to following SMS strictly, humour is the pill that can help us to overcome the anxiety caused due to this pandemic. I really appreciate your style of presenting the reality with a touch of humour. Your style of adjusting to the difficult situation with humour and compassion is really inspiring.
Mala Nair: I love Dhoni tooooooo… my fav! Be like Dhoni. Cool!
Christopher D’Souza: Went through your article. Was really apt for the lockdown. Hope you are enjoying the rains too. Cheers!
S. Jaiswal: I read Rediff every day. Glad to see this today morning. Superb. Congrats.
Pramod Sawant: Very nice article, Rajubhai!