The proud Father

Delhi to Bangalore journey - Rajdhani express

In a compartment with 2 policemen and 1 engineer

One policeman starts talking - brags about his heroics-criticises the government and his seniors- loads of wrath-I was texting- he grabs my phone and tells me "Stop recording"- I told him wasn't- Then on he started reversing his statements and utters praises about his seniors.

The other policeman - A little older and soft spoken- calls home- hands over the phone to me - asks me to converse in English with his young children - phone in speaker mode- As I was talking to his kids , there was an ecstasy on the man's face- one of a proud father brimming with joy hearing his kids talk fluently in English to a stranger- He spends a good amount of his salary to send his kids to a good school.

Sometimes we don't even know the little things about us that makes our parents happy . I am sure all our parents have such moments . Love em

Love thy neighbour, not just religion

I walked to my usual evening chai place. A few casual Hi's, Smile exchanges and occasional conversations are a habit by now. Honestly its not always important conversations, a fair amount of male gossip also happens here (yes even men gossip!! Incase you thought otherwise ).

Yesterday the 'mahaul' seemed more serious than usual.

There was an issue. There were 3 types of people ( victims, concerned and pseudo-concerned population). The hotel didnt have enough chairs and the chai bhaiyya kept serving chai along with the 'garam' news and faked a concern After all this hot news was running his business more than the soggy cold bhajjis that were made probably 2 hours ago.

The “issue" (For my simple brain, there seemed to be none).

There was a ‘Hindu’ uncle whose ‘Hindu’ son married some ‘Christian’ Uncle’s 'Çhristian’ Daughter in Chennai.

Just remove the ‘Hindu’ and Çhristian’ from the above statement and read it. If you think, it reads normal then probably I ve made my point.

I wondered why people in that area made such an issue out of this, Then I remembered the huge outburst our countrymen made about Sania Mirza marrying a Pakistani. The key words there: Indian (Uncle+ Daughter) ≠ Pakistani (Uncle+ Daughter).