My Father

Today I am missing my father for some reasons. I miss him very often and always wish I was with him at this moment. I wish if I could revert the time and take myself to my childhood and be pampered by him again. To walk with him holding his coerce hand, in the roads of Mukteshwar on a Sunday morning, collecting forest grass to decorate in drawing room vase. To watch him see playing tennis with his colleague and listen his thunderous laughter upon hitting the ball hard past Bhaskar uncle.

Wish I could reverse the time again!!!

Well! The need of earning my bread and butter will not allow me to realize my wishes. I am going to be here in Dubai, thinking about him, his smile, his innocence, his dark strong body etc etc…

When I think of him, first thing that I reckon is his smile. Never ever pretentious to hide his happiness he was flamboyant to show his happiness with his wide smile and thunderous laughter.

He never raised his hand on any one of us. Just a thought of disregarding his high self-respect, his innocence, honesty and the popularity of these characteristics kept us away from doing anything that goes beyond our family values.

My love marriage was a big shock to all. How can the son of Dr RC Joshi fall in love and go ahead with love marriage? What a disgrace!!! How can he do that? Well, I knew from the bottom of my heart this is temporary. In the long run they will be proud of Rashi and my choice. Now I can see the satisfaction in his eyes. He is so fond of talking to Rashi and loves pampering her.

He was a good sports man. In the small sleepy town of Mukteshwar, where anyone could fall prey of slow lifestyle, he maintained his routine of playing tennis, long walks in the forest roads, gardening and cutting fire wood on his own during winters. He did all his chores by himself when lot of his colleagues sought help from junior staff in the office. He did it all by himself, not for one, two or three years but for 33 long years consistently. His shoulders were rock solid like stone. I used to love feeling his arms, shoulders and back. He would eat 5 chapatis at a time. 5 chapatis? The thick and big one made by my mom and ghee flowing down from all sides. Well, I cannot even think of eating 3 and Rashi will never give me ghee with my food.

He had plenty of time to do his own chores. He would only watch the news at 8:30 on Doordarshan, when my mother would leave TV to cook food and that is all. Other then that, he would have never watch TV. We would call him to watch the movie only when the comedy actors would appear for 5-6 minutes. He would come running, laugh profusely watching them and leave us to watch serious or romantic part of the movie.

He has been a quite person all throughout his life. He has always done simple things in life, that gave him immense pleasure, without becoming a hurdle for anyone, neither with in the family, nor outside. Even at the age of 76 years he is what he has been 30 years ago.

I am proud of you Babu. I miss you very much.

My 1st speech at Toastmaster

Walking inside the deep forests, admiring the snow clad Himalayan ranges, listening to the chirping birds and thanking god for making me audience to such an ecstasy.

Fellow toastmasters, honorable guests and the toastmaster of the day. Good Evening.

My life has been full of adventures. I don’t like sedentary lifestyle. I feel life has to be full of personal accomplishments. To achieve this I don’t let personal inhibitions thwart my desire to do something different.

I was born in the year 1974 in a small town called Mukteshwar, which is close to the famous tourist place Nainital at the foothills of the Himalayas. My father worked there as a scientist and my mother was a housewife. I grew up with 2 elder sisters. Our house was surrounded by forest. I recall a beautiful incident of my childhood. That night at around 8 pm our household help- Devi took the leave for the day. Not more than 3 minutes later he came back shouting – Tiger! Tiger! We were shocked. He took us to our kitchen and from the glass door of kitchen we saw a big tiger sitting just under the light bulb close to verandah. Believe me … for more than 2 hours this wild cat sat there occasionally looking towards us. We gathered our chairs near the kitchen door and waited for her next move though we were not as patient as she was. Suddenly she rose on her feet, jumped towards the forest eloping in the darkness. For days we used to look out of our kitchen door with the hope of seeing some thing there again. But this was something that happens only once in lifetime.

In the year 1990 after passing my 10th standard I started studying in a boarding school. And as always hostel life had its own adventure. Even the punishments used to be thrilling. Later on, during my graduation I worked as freelance translator for some leading freelance journalists and for the famous magazine The Reader’s Digest.

I moved to Mumbai in the year 1999 to work with an IT company. It was different life altogether at Mumbai, very fascinating. The best experience was to practice French while traveling on Mumbai’s famous local trains. Not only that I could listen to the finest analysis of every cricket match or a political event anywhere in the world.

I came to Dubai in the year 2002. I came here for just 2 months for a small project with a small suitcase. But my company insisted me to stay here further. Now it is over 2 years since I am in Dubai.

If there is no adventure in life I add adventure to it. I love to run. In March 2004, I participated in 71 km relay race that started from Ras Al Khaimah and ended up at Dibba. We ran through mountainous terrain of Wadi bih under the blazing sun. Though my team of 5 finished this run in 7 hrs 15 mts it was indeed a personal victory, a triumph over confidence.

Now I am a toastmaster and I see it as start of another adventure of my life. I am sure I am going to enjoy it through out too.

But the only adventure I am refraining from is – marriage. I am not that adventurous either.

To conclude, my fellow toastmasters I request you not to kill your ambitions and desires because of your personal inhibitions. Do what you want to do and enjoy it to the best.