Message To The Stars

Dear Star : you called to inform about a major leap in your career - a significant increase in your responsibilities and role in your organization.  You wanted to express your gratitude for the mentoring and support that you said I had provided you, and which you think contributed to you reaching where you are today.

I have no recollection of providing you any such mentoring and support.  I believe you have risen due to your own efforts, and - as you yourself mentioned - also due to big dollops of Luck. It requires a lot of humility to acknowledge that many of our successes would not have happened without luck being on our side - and due to being in the right place at the right time.

I feel quite proud of the huge success you have achieved.  Genuine success is when others feel as much (if not more) happiness and pride in your success as you yourself do.  And for that to happen one needs to - as you have done - strive diligently, smile a lot, and be grateful for being where one is today.

Why You Should Not Talk To Your Wife About De-Cluttering Your Lives

"Now that we have become an empty nest, let us move to a smaller, more compact apartment" I told my wife.

My wife gave a very resigned look and said : "Don't blame our empty nest for the move - it is in your nature to get bored every few years and wanting a change".

But I had grossly under-estimated the challenge of shifting to a smaller place.  When we stay in large apartments we collect a lot of useless stuff over a period of time.  How do we now fit all these useless stuff into a small compact apartment with very limited storage space?

"We need to simplify our lives - so let us declutter" I told my wife.

My wife looked at me with apprehension - she knew nothing good happens when I talk philosophy.

"What do you mean?" she said.  I detected a tone of aggression in her voice.

"Better get rid of all the multiple sets of crockery - we need only 1 set of crockery" I told my wife.

"What?  Give away my priceless collection of crockery?  Why don't you give away your book collection?  We have 2 large over-flowing cupboards full of your books for which we have no space to store in our new TINY apartment" she said.

"Crockery is useless unlike books.  Going by the amount of crockery we have it would seem as if we regularly entertain a lot of guests" I said with sarcasm.

"Yeah, and going by the amount of books at our home people will mistakenly think you actually do read books" she said.

Unlike other husbands, I am not the one to give up a battle so easily.  So I replied : "Why don't you at least dispose off all these excess beddings and bed-sheets that you keep collecting?"

"And why do you need 3 harmoniums as if you are some great music Punditji?  You don't even use 1 harmonium regularly" she replied.

I wisely decided that it is easier to create more storage space in the new apartment.

Simplifying is not that simple. 

The Gift Of The Maruti

Now that we are moving houses to another locality, the one thing I am going to miss about our old Parle apartment is the periodic visits of the monkey.

This monkey would make sudden appearances on the huge tree overlooking our balcony, and then would amble along the length of our balcony checking whether any of the French windows are open for him to enter our apartment.  Unfortunately for him, on most occasions the French windows would have been firmly shut by my wife who would have been alerted by the ruckus created by his sworn enemies - the crows on the tree.

Maruti trying to open

the French window

He had mastered the art of opening the sliding French windows - he would check each French window on our balcony in an attempt to slide it open. Only once was he successful in entering our house - and he went off only after he took a packet of dates from our dining table.

My wife felt terrorized by this monkey.  She empirically discovered that whenever anyone in the house uttered the word "Monkey", it would unfailingly manifest itself on the balcony within a few hours. Hence usage of the word "monkey" was banned in our house - we were never supposed to bring up this word in our conversations.  My mother, however, found a way around this ban - and she started referring to the monkey as "Maruti" (the mythological term used for referring to Hanuman - the monkey God).  I felt that my mother actually secretly looked forward to the visits of Maruti.

Then abruptly his visits stopped.  We wondered what has happened to Maruti - has he been caught and put into some zoo?  My mother especially was quite concerned - she wanted to take one final look at Maruti as the last day of her stay with us in Mumbai was fast approaching.

Maruti did not disappoint.  On my mother's last day in Mumbai he suddenly appeared on our balcony.  He took a round of the balcony and then left after leaving behind a large packet of Cashew nuts on the balcony - no doubt his prize from a raid at some other house which he left behind for us as his gift. 

That was his final visit : we did not see Maruti after that day.