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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