Appendix.

I used to have great pain in my stomach once in a while since my early childhood but my parents used to think that i might have eaten something which i am not able to digest and my mother used to give me massage with oil and after a while i used to get relief from pain but one day the pain got unbearable,it was like somebody is hurting you with knife and seeing my discomfort my father took me to nearby clinic.After seeing my condition doctor immediately realised that i have appendix ( extra growth like tumour )which needs operation at the earliest and told my father to rush me to a bigger hospital.
It was a big shock to my father but he didn't had any time to think and he took me to safdurjung hospital which was nearby.There doctors told him that i need to be operated immediately and told him to sign the consent paper and asked him that while we were preparing for the operation you bring her mother from your house since anything can happen and they also told him that i you will not reach on time then we will not wait for you and we will proceed with operation.
Imagine the plight of my father because he was all alone and those were not the time of mobile phones.So leaving me behind he rushed to my house to bring my mother.In the meanwhile doctors got ready with operation and sisters started to take me to operation theatre and my parents not reached the hospital as yet and i was thinking if i will die during operation then i will not be able to see my parents for the last time and the very thought brought tears to my eyes but as my bed was entering the lift i saw both my parents and then i got relaxed.
In the operation theatre i saw a big round light above my head and doctors standing all around my bed and suddenly one doctor told me to close my eyes since i was given injection to become in concious but i told him to go ahead with operation since i am not afraid of anything but the doctors smiled and closed my eyes with their hand and after that when i revived my conciousness i saw my parents sitting around with bandage on my stomach.I was the youngest patient of the ward as i was only 13 years old and because of that i was getting maximum attention from everybody and doctors told my father that how brave i was at the time of operation and i nearly escaped death since if there would have been delay of even 15 minutes then my appendix might have got burst.

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PETS.

I will not do justice to my childhood memoires if i fail to mention the different type of pets who were part of our childhood.In our Grandfather village whenever we used to go there which was mostly in summer vacations,then we used to play with our dog whose name was Moti and he used to lord over other dogs of that area and we were really proud of him.Apart from dog we had cows,bullocks ( who used to till our fields ) & buffaloes.In the early morning when we used to wake up,we used to find most of the farmers going to fields with their bullocks whose mouth was capped with wooden cap so they can not anything at the time of tilling the field and there neck were tied with bells which used to make beautiful sound when they walked.
At the time of holi festival there is a tradition of race between bullocks of different villagers with lot of prestige attached to it and everyone wanted that their ox should win.Before the race they were given a special diet  and lot of colours were put on their bodies.The whole village used to assemble at high school ground to watch the race with lot of excitement all around.
There is another memory of our childhood of going to our maternal grandfather village which is around 8 to 10 kilometre from our village in a bullock cart which was covered with roof made of bamboo sticks and covered with cloth to protect us from heat of sun.It was really a fascinating journey.My maternal grandfather was Tehsildar ( District Collector ) of Maharajah of Darbhanga,who is considered the richest king of India at the time of British rule in India.So my maternal grandfather was quite well off and he had elephants,as told by my mother but i don't remember them as i was a baby but i have seen horses,bullocks,buffaloes & a small dog with hair all over his body named bijlee ( electrical ) and he was really as fast as his name suggest.
Then in bhopal we brought a parrot in a cage,my friend bhayuu had two rabbits of pure white colours with red eyes and we used to play with them.We also had fish of different colours & sizes in our fountain tank plus one small terrorise also.So all these pets made our childhood so interesting.

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New Beginning.

As i have told you in my last blog that we came to delhi from bhopal on my father getting transferred. We have to start our lives all over again and slowly we started making new friends but there was no big ground and so we have to play in a park which was not very big.But it was at this time (1976 ) Television came to our lives.Our immediate neighbour had a TV in his house and from our drawing room it was visible and we brothers were quite excited to see the TV from our window specially the cricket.
And one day our father to our utter surprise brought a Television for us and we all started to jump with joy.It was the time of Black & White Television and Weston and Televista  were the two leading brands of that time.Our TV was of Televista brand.Advent of television in our lives brought new excitement in our lives.
                                                         I remember that i along with my elder brother used to study in Government school in sector-12 R.K.Puram in afternoon batch ( 1pm to 5:3o pm) and we used to go on cycle while my younger brother was in 5th class and he used to study in primary school at Malai Mandir.And immediately after finishing the school we used to run to our house so we can not miss a single minute of start of TV.Those days television used to start at 6 pm in the evening with a signature tune of Doordarshan and we did not wanted to miss that.After that there used to be programe for farmers called Krishi Darshan and even that we used to watch with bated breath.Pratima puri and Salma Sultan were the two famous news readers of that time and Dr.Narottam puri was the leading sports broadcaster. We used to watch Cricket & Lawn tennis matches live and even my mother slowly learnt the game and started recognising most players.It was the time of BORG,CONNERS,MECANROE,NAVRATILOVA & CHRIS EVERT in tennis.There used to be a programme of hindi film songs called Chitrhaar which was the most popular programme of its time.

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Catastrophe.

While we were enjoying our stay in bhopal,one day our father broke the news that he has been transferred to delhi.This news came as a catastrophe to us since for nearly 4 years bhopal had became our home and it was unimaginable to think getting separated from friends and from a community which was like an extended family.There was gloom all over since not only it was a bad news for us but it was for everyone.Our house maid Sapru wept like a child,even our Land-lord was sad since we have built a beautiful Garden which was full of flowers but we had to come to delhi.
Now i realise that how difficult it is for children of Government servants who get transferred every now and then to new places. Every time you have to start your life all over again by making new friends in new environment,going to new school,new house,different weather conditions etc.Any how we reached delhi and our elder uncle who was living in delhi had got a new house at the same time and he told my father to shift there since house is laying vacant.So we got shifted to our new house in Munirka colony which is in south delhi.It was a two bedroom house with park on the backside but it was no where in comparison to our big house in bhopal.Our friends from bhopal remained in touch with us for few years and one of our friends Welcome also visited us in delhi even Gaur aunty our neighbour in bhopal who used to treat my mother as her sister also visited us.In those days ( 1976 ) mobile and computers were not there only posting letters was a mean of communication which is unthinkable now.Slowly we got adjusted to our new surroundings.We got admitted in R.K.Puram in a government school while we were studding in public school in bhopal.It was a Hindi medium school where they start teaching you english from 6th class onwards.In bhopal we used to study in english medium so we have to make lot of adjustment in our life.

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Holi in bhopal.

Holi is one of the main festival of India and it is a festival of colours.This used to be the busiest time for us because preparation of this festival used to get started month in advance.One day before the actual holi of colours is celebrated there is a tradition of lighting bonfire of  wood which signifies victory of good over evil and we used to collect wood in advance from where ever we could collect it from. We used to steal bamboo and shuttering wood from nearby construction sites.
It used to be so much fun & exciting experience since we friends used to go in dark in night with torch to steal the wood from these sites.In Holi also we used to collect donation from each house in our neighbourhood and with that money we used to offer sweet to the fire deity at the time of bonfire and then used to distribute it to each household who had given us the donation plus the visitors.So it was in very large scale and bonfire was lit in the centre of a big park.
I remember that one of the person refused to give donation to us and as i have told you in my earlier blogs that i was very naughty & mischievous in my childhood so i along with my friends decided to teach him a lesson.He had a garden which was fenced with wood from all side so we decided in the night before holi to destroy his wooden fence and burn it in holi and we exactly did that in night.Later on he came to know that it was done by us but he couldn't identify the culprit from several children.
Holi festival is also special because we eat lot of sweets and Gujiya & Malpua ( Both special sweets made at the time of festival ).Apart from using colours to throw at each other it was thrilling experience to throw balloons filled with coloured water and using water canons of different sizes and shapes.It is a festival celebrated by every body weather he is young or child or of old age.This was in 1975 when i was 12 year old.

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GANESH PUJA.

Ganesh puja ( A ten day festival of Hindu Lord Ganesha ) is the biggest festival in Maharashtra & Madhya Pradesh ( States of India ). We in bhopal used to start the preparation for this festival months in advance.We used to collect money from each and every household in the colony for the festival.As i told you in my earlier blogs that i was quite a mischievous person and a sort of rebel in my childhood and till today i continue to be so.Once one of the family refused to give money for the festival and i got very angry about it and coming out from there house i picked a stone and threw it on the window glass and the window glass got broken and we all ran away.But that person was contractor in my father's company and he complained to my father about it and naturally my father got astonished to learn about my behaviour and got very angry.I came to knew about it from my elder brothers and i was afraid to go to my home but it was late in the evening and my elder brothers cajoled me to go to the home and assured me that my mother has pacified my father and since it is going dark i must go to home and finally i went to my home and quickly went to sleep.
Anyhow coming back to Ganesh Puja,one of our friend whose name was also ganesh used to make beautiful ganesh idols from earth.We also learnt the art from him and used to make small size idol.After that idol used to get dried in 2-3 days and then we used to paint it with different colours.Then we used to buy decorative materials to decorate the pandal and jewellery to decorate the idol and sweet to distribute to all the visitor from the money collected from donations.Not only that after 10 day's of puja we used to distribute sweet to each house who had given the donation to us.I was only 12 years old at that time.There used to be lot of chantings of mantra in the evening aartis and most of the people from neighbourhood used to participate in it.After 10 days of puja ( worship ) the idol of Lord Ganesha was immersed in water.

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RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE.

Taking a break from my regular blogs today i am writing on a subject of Religious Intolerance for Indiblog's subject of Knowledge is Great.
Religious intolerance is the cause of unrest,deaths of thousands,political upheaval,jehad and terrorist attacks all over the world .In fact it is the root cause of 9/11 & 26/11 terror strikes.This intolerance is prevalent in  all the religion of the world whether it is Catholic v/s Protestant in Christianity,Sunni v/s Shias in muslim religion,Digambar v/s Shwetamber in jainism, and in Hindu religion is divided in castisam.Politician and religious heads divide the society for their own benefits because Christ,Prophet Mohammed, Buddha, Mahavir jain or Gurunanak always told the humankind that the whole world is one and we must love all humans  alike.
But most of the wars in the world like in Palestine,Israel,Syria,Iran,Iraq,Afghanistan are fought on religious grounds.Most of the terror attacks in India and Srilanka is also caused because of religious intolerance.
So,given a chance i would love to study Philosophy of Religion from OXFORD UNIVERSITY in LONDON.Because Knowledge can help me to understand the human psychology.In hindu religion there is a shloka in sanskrit language "VASUDEVA KUTUMBAKAM"which means the whole world is like a family.

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SANCHI & BHOJPUR.

Our school took us for picnic trip to Sanchi ( A place of religious importance for Buddhists ) which is few hours drive from bhopal.There was round shaped structures  which are called stupas and structure like gate with some sorts of scriptures engraved on it.The whole journey was full of excitement and after reaching the place we played various games but the best part was when we all sat together and opened our tiffin boxes and shared food with each other because everybody got to eat so many delicacies at the same time.I till today remember eating poha and egg bhurji from my friends tiffin boxes.
Another place we visited was Bhojpur which is also few hours drive from bhopal.It is famous for biggest Shiv Linga ( A hindu God ) in world.It was a very old structure and we all have to climb up the ladder to reach to the shivlinga.After that we all did the parikarma ( going round the lord ).There was a very big Beehive suspended from the roof and we all got scared incase the bee will bite us.But the scenery was very beautiful and there was a stream also in which the water was flowing but it was just ankle high deep.We also came to learn that hundreds of years ago King Bhoj was used to rule over this area and bhojpur was its capital and he was one of the richest king of his time.

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FATHER'S V/S SON'S

Continuing from my earlier blog about cricket now i want to tell you that one day one of  our friend Kartik proposed that we should fix a match between father's and son's.All of us welcomed his idea but very few of us were optimistic that father's will agree for this sort of match.But he said that he will talk to his father who was ex-first class cricketer.His father not only agreed for the match but also pushed his friends who were good cricketers to play and slowly some of other friends father's agreed and formed their team.It was decided to play the match on sunday in all white uniform.Not only that father's made arrangements for snacks for all during innings break.Although son's team won the match but father's team gave us a tough fight.
Ashok Jagdale & Sanjay Jagdale who was BCCI secretary till recently were living in E-2 sector of bhopal which was in neighbourhood.They both used to play for state and my eldest brother got the chance to play with them in one of the club matches.
Another feature of bhopal was annual cricket tournament organised by Ex-Indian Captain Mansur Ali Khan Patuadi who has a Palace in bhopal.This tournament was organised at Tinshed Stadium and most of the Indian first class cricketer used to participate in it.We used to go to stadium to watch the tournament and we saw Sunil Gavasker,Gundappa Wishwanath,Karsan Ghavrey,Brajesh Patel,Pataudi himself,Bedi and so on.But most excitement used to happen when Sharmila Tagore ( Wife of Pataudi ) used to arrive at the stadium since she was one of the top heroine of hindi films of her time. Sunil Gavasker was the top opening batsmen of  the world and he was the centre of attraction.We used to have lot of fun in the stadium.

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Cricket and Bhopal.

Although Hockey is the National Game of India but actually for general public Cricket is truly the national game in fact it is considered a religion now-days in India.So although we played all sorts of game but cricket was like a passion for all of us.There was a big ground in our colony and we prepared the pitch by digging the ground 22 square yards as prescribed by international law of cricket and we dug it deep approx. 2 foot. After that we put small pebbles of brick in the pitch area,after that one layer of badarpur ( Mixture of coarse sand ) was put on it, after that one layer of earth of fine quality was put on it.After doing all this we used to get it rolled by road roller and after that for three days we used to sprinkle water on the pitch and after it get dried again road roller was put on it.So after three days of hard work by all of us the pitch got ready with little bit of grass on it.All the material we got from construction work going in the neighbourhood.
Both my elder brothers were fast bowlers and eldest brother was captain of the team also.Another friend welcome was another medium pacer, hemant and maheshwari were spinners while daboo was our wicket keeper who letter represented state in the Ranji Trophy.( National Championship ) Other member of the team were Tom ( Looked like Clive Loyed ) ,Kartik, and Ganesh.I was the 11th member of the side and the youngest at 11 years.I was a all rounder and used to bowl both medium pacer and spin and that too from both right hand and left hand also.Actually at that time Karsan Ghavery was indian test cricketer who was opening bowler and later in the innings he used to bowl spin.He was one the most popular cricketer of his time because of his look and his bowling run-up with long hair flying in the air.So he was also my hero.As i told you that i was the 11th player and in cricket when 10th batsmen gets out then innings get closed and most of the time i remained not out so i complained to my brother who was the captain that why should i suffer and i should be given my batting.But my brother told me that rule us rule but i remained adamant and refused to leave the crease.Finally i was sacked from the team.

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Kite Flying

Kite flying season used to be quite exciting and very hectic for us.Preparation for it used to start days in advance because first we used to buy white plain thread  for kite flying and then we used to boil one product called Sares and used to mix it with different colours and then glass pieces which we used to grind like fine powder and then boil the mix in high temperature and after it cooling down we used to apply on the plain thread by using cloth and tieing the plain thread from one pole to another pole in both side of the ground.By applying the paste with glass powder we used to get knife edge on the thread and so we used to cut most of the rivals kites because of it.Although it was quite dangerous to do so because you can cut your hands also with such sharp thread.But we used to take adequate measures so that we should not get hurt.
But it was more fun to loot the kites which was cut and myself and my friends along with younger brother used to loot the kites of different colours and sizes and shapes.We used to keep all the kites in one room because as i told you in my earlier blog that we had a big house with several rooms.In whole season we used to collect more then 50 kites.And every time we were successful in chasing and looting the kite,it was felt like wining the world cup because there were other children's with whom you have to compete.

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JAI SANTOSHI MAA

In 1975 there was a hindi film released by the name of jai santoshi maa,who is a hindu Goddess and the film became a cult film and became super hit.People used to go to theatres without wearing shoes and whenever the goddess  used to appear on the screen public used to throw coins and flowers on the screen.The moral of the story was that if you fast for 16 Fridays continuously without eating any food or fruit containing citric acid such as lemon or oranges then the goddess will fulfil all your wishes and it spread like wild fire.Most women started keeping fast and the ritual was that you have to give food to at-least 7 or 11 children and since this fast was for 16 weeks so every Friday we used to kept invited from more then 2 families and the item common in food was pooriees  ( Made of wheat flour & fried in heated oil ),choley( dish made of grams ),Kheer ( A sweet dish made with mixing milk in rice and sugar added to it and boiled to the maximum ).As i told you in my earlier blog that in bhopal we used to live like close knit family like village in the community and since we belonged to the upper cast ( Brahmins ) community of Hindus,so every family wanted us to eat at their place so we had no other option but to eat at each place on the same day.
Another hindi film which is considered to be the greatest hindi film ever till date was released at the same time called SHOLAY.It broke all box office records and every single dialogue of the films became so popular that every indian remembered the dialogue by heart and there was a character called Soorma Bhopali in the film which was  based on dialect spoken in a particular way in bhopal and we also started speaking like that in our daily life also.

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Trekking in the hill.

After spending few days in our village we came back to bhopal but our vacation was still on since its 2 month holiday in summers.In bhopal the whether used to be nice even in summers also so we were able to spend time outdoors.As i told you in my earlier blog that we had hills in backside of our house and one day we all friends decided to explore the hills and decided to go there.We were going to an unknown territory but we were all very excited.After walking for half an hour we entered the hills and started going upwards and on the way we found different type trees,birds,flowers but we all got excited to find tree of one fruit called Karonde which is used to make pickle.On the way back we collected lot of stones of different shapes and sizes and some stones were very light with shining material like silver ( Abhrak in hindi ) which i think was some kind of mineral stone.There after we went to hill number of times.One more thing which i forget to mention is there were lot Butterfly's of different colours and we used to catch them although it was a tough task.Another insect which we used to catch is called helicopter by us and then we used to tie thread from its tail and then he used to fly upwards and thread remained in our hands like kite flying.

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Mango Orchards.

Continuing from my last blog where i told you about reaching our village during summer vacation and taking bath in the pond and after taking breakfast we all used to go to our own mango orchards which was just 100 mts. in front of our house and most of the day was spent there relishing different varieties of mangos,Jamuns from the trees or playing cards etc.In the mango orchard villagers used to built temporary small hut made of bamboo and roof was made of rice husk and sitting space was around 2 to 3 feet hight because there were lot of snakes use to roam around and they were of different colour & sizes and one snake is having head on the both side which is called Gahuman.But our cousins told us that we should not be afraid of them because they don't harm you unless you harm you. In fact in our place people worship snakes and specially there is festival called Naagpanchmi in which people offer milk to the snakes.Snakes are also very useful for farmers since they ate rats who used to destroy their harvest.Another fruit which was very unique is called jalebi which grows on tree and it is called jalebi ( Indian sweet Dish ) because it is exactly like this sweet dish in shape & size.
The whole day was spent in no time but in evening it was like hell because there was no electricity and plus lot of mosquitoes so we have to sleep in the mosquito net which we are not habitual to in cities.So we used to sleep quite early in the night.My Grandmother used to keep best mangos for my father hiding it from all of us.She had a very good personality and was the only sister of seven brothers.My Grandfather used to command great respect from villagers and incase of any dispute among villagers his word was considered the last word on the matter.My story of village cannot end without describing our dog Moti .Even if he used to be 3 kilometers away in our fields if my grandfather used to call him from his house,he used to come running within minutes. It was a big surprise to us that how he can recognise his master voice so far away.

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