My Mother – A Tribute

All of us love our mothers. They are special in many ways. At times we may realize this rather late, may be long after when their ashes have returned to ashes.

I loved my mother. She passed away on 15^th June 1996. I never knew that she was going to leave us so suddenly. She was taken to a hospital for getting a gall bladder stone dislodged by endoscopy that had remained in the bile duct after her previous operation. The doctor had said that it is a safe procedure. She was in good health & had no problem besides hypertension for which she was under treatment. She died of cardiac- arrest immediately after the procedure. I have never been able to forget that day.

We were a large family of 5 children, my grand mother & my father. My father was the only earning member & it was very difficult to bring up 5 college\ school growing children. The times were hard. My father’s pay, whatever he was earning at that time, hardly lasted till the 20^th of every month but she never complained. I never saw her cribbing despite the fact that our house was rather heavily frequented by relatives & visitors. To top it all, my grand mother’s religious functions & consequent fasts required special cooking of one or the other thing. How did she manage it? Did she know some magic? No. She was ingenious. She never wasted anything. She used to turn peals of boiled banana, peals of raw gourd, pumpkin & bitter gourd into delicious vegetarian delights. Even the stems of cauliflower & cabbage & the leaves of turnips, radish etc. turned into highly edible vegetables in her hands. When there was no money to buy potatoes she would use dried potato chips as a substitute. She could virtually turn anything into food.

Besides all this she took keen interest in our studies. She was a graduate herself & knew well the importance of education. My father was busy mostly with his work & his sole contribution to our welfare was restricted to giving money to my mother for the household expenses. She was interested in her husband’s career too. Without her coaxing & show of annoyance my father could never have finished his PhD thesis. All of us are well settled because of her. All of us have done well in our lives because of her. All of us have knowingly\ unknowingly hurt her many a times. All of us miss her. I am her eldest son. She was closest to me in many respects. I miss her the most. She was a Great Home Maker. She was my MOTHER.

Beware If you can

Have you noticed or known any person who uses you as a dumping ground for all his\her emotional or any other need?I pray that you have never met & will never find any such person in your life. If you have met any one of this kind then you deserve all the blessings & sympathies because I know that you must have been victimized.Oh, you wish to know as to how do I know about it, don't you? Well, I will tell you. You have not been & will never be able to give them a no as an answer because you love them & they know about it. Just because you love these people, they will turn to you for any support in times of need. Forget about a letter, they may not have bothered to drop in a line at your email address or said hello in the past.They would not care less if you were dead for they may have other dumping grounds. But rest assured that they will find all about you as & when you are needed. They will again sneak into your life with all the love & affection they may or may not have had for you. You will embrace them. Yes you will. This is where you are finished\killed once again. You are obliged to offer all the emotional, moral, physical or may be economic support since they need it & you love them or may have loved them at some time in your life or may have been a friend once upon a time. The end will always be tragic for they will disappear after you have done your bit without even bothering to thank you for the trouble you have taken. I assure you that they will reappear as & when they need you again. Please do not ask me what to do in such cases.My only word of caution is,' beware if you can'. But despite my caution I know that you are bound to fail. They have a magical aura & they are very charming people. Honestly,I have failed time & again in avoiding them. Good luck to all of you any way.

No Confidence Motion in Indian Parliament on 22nd july 2008

CPI(M)has no face to show.The moment the party decided to stand with BJP & BSP it became clear that they also lack character. They too are not bothered about National interests like other political parties.They do talk about poverty & price rise but what have they done in the states that are ruled by them? How can they forget the anti people stand they took in Nandigram & blame the government about taking anti people stance ?In fact the majority in all political parties is indisciplined & corrupt. I am reminded of the dictum of Lord Acton who had said that power corrupts & absolute power corrupts absolutely but could not fathom the level of corruption.Now I understand how low can all of them stoop to conquer.What is wrong if the speaker decides to be neutral? He is elected for this purpose only. May be in case of a tie he may have voted as per his party guide lines but that did not happen. In fact the Congress managed every thing by fair & foul means to it's advantage. This is what others were also trying to do but failed.Now why blame Somanath Chatterjee for this? Why suspend him from the party ? Mr.Karat & others are now trying to find a scapegoat since they wrongly assessed the situation . Yesterday the behaviour of our Parliamentarians was bizarre & shameful. As a teacher I can vouch that our college & university students behave more responsibly in the meetings of the student union & it's election.Do we need such leaders to run our Nation?I do not wish to talk for or against the nuclear deal I only wish to say that what happened during the no confidence motion in the Parliament & outside as well is very very Disgusting.

Professor G.R.Rao & his life

He was not my teacher but he taught me so many things. He retired as a teacher of English from
Malviya National Institute of Technology, situated in Jaipur ( Rajasthan-- India ). Beside his command over his subject he was an authority on shells of all kinds & had a very big collection of shells from all over the world. He not only taught me the art of making Bonsai but talked to me about the history of Bonsai culture in detail as & when we were together. His knowledge of Botany was exceptional. Whenever we had trouble in finding the name of any shrub or a tree we used to take a leaf to him & just by taking a glance he used to tell us not only the botanical & the common name of it in different languages but also it’s detailed family characteristics. He hailed from South India. He had & still has all his relatives there but he actually belonged to Jaipur. He & his wife, who survives him after his demise on 23rd june 2008, hardly ever went to attend any family celebration in their family but they did go down south to attend the last rites in their family as & when it was needed. Professor Rao & his wife have had more than their share of bad luck. They lost a daughter very early in life & then lost their only grown up son when they were thinking of getting him married. These incidents must have hit the couple very hard but the strength of character they showed was remarkable. Professor Rao's culinary skills were also remarkable. His friends will remember the enthusiasm of the couple in this respect. More than often they would buy ten or fifteen kg. of any vegetable along with all the ingredients & then the two of them would get down to making the pickle. After the pickle was ready it was distributed amongst the friends. If all the friends gave an excellent report of the pickle the recipe was added to their recipe book. I have had the good fortune of tasting these pickles as well as various other delicacies at their house & always longed for a repeat. There were times when I asked for a certain thing to be cooked on my next visit & they lovingly served it. Believe me I was only one of those visitors to this open house. There were people from all walks of life to whom Professor G.R. Rao was a friend, philosopher & guide. All of us will miss him terribly but it is heartening for us that Ms. Rao has decided to stay in this city despite many requests of the relatives. She has undertaken the task of completing his unfinished work & I know that there are many in this city that are prepared to help her in this work. Jaipur has been the home of the Rao family & their friends will be proud & more than willing to take all the care she might need. Amen.

History Can't Be Changed

I read in the news paper that a former Berlin police officer tore off the head of an Adolf Hitler's
waxwork at a new Madame Tussauds museum. He said that he was angry. Why was he so angry?Agreed that Hitler waged a war, carried out genocide\ extermination of the Jews in the most brutal ways but it is history now. He has not been & will never be pardoned for what he did to mankind but by such an act can we wipe out the history of the world ? I remember a time when Nikita Khrushchev visited India. He asked Prime Minister Nehru --- " Mr. Nehru why do you keep these portraits of British imperialists hanging on the walls ?" Answering his question Nehru said " because I just cannot change history by removing them." So the moral of the story is that let Hitler be where he is, as a reminder of our past as well as to teach the future generations not to behave like him. We cannot remove Hitler from all the books . We cannot undo history so let his statue be there at the museum as safe as anything else.
This has also been reported that the person described above, beside saying that he was angry, also said that he did it to win a bet. Well , what is the truth? In case he did this for a bet he is a greater offender but it depends on the law enforcement agencies to see whether he deserves any punishment or not.

Homage To Dr.Michael De Bakey

I do hold contrary opinions about medicine & surgery. Surgery heals when medicine fails. A surgeon has to view human body differently. He works like a repairer in cases where medicine is
of no use or limited use. When all holistic & conventional methods of medicinal treatment fail a
surgeon may successfully repair to make an organ work more efficiently. This is what Dr. Michael DeBakey did so well for so many years & for countless patients . He was not concerned
about the social,political or economic status of his patients. He simply gave them all the needed professional care. As an inventor he innovated many instruments & machines that made open heart surgery safe & easy. As a teacher he taught & trained so many cardiovascular surgeons who will keep his flag flying for times to come. His dictum was that man is born to work hard & he lived it to perfection. He passed away at the age of 99 but his caring touch & contribution will be remembered in the History of medical science.

I Have Doubts

I have serious reservations about the present day practice of medicine.So many pathological tests
& so many specialists. The tests that talk about one's cholesterol level & many other things are not based on any empirical study of various countries, tribes & people. Who can tell that a level which is considered high for a European or an American is not natural for an Indian, Asian or African. Even the blood pressure & body mass index may be different for people of different regions. I feel that an empirical study is needed to determine the values & the pathological tests cannot be blindly applied without this study to all & sundry. Moreover who needs so many specialists to look into one body? It functions as a unit & has to be treated as it is, since it is not one's liver, kidney or heart that is ill but it is the person who is ill as a unit. The modern medicine has got to look into this & needs to be more holistic in it's approach.