The story of my Life by Helen Keller - a book review

It is hard to imagine life of a person who is both deaf and blind. It would be something like groping in total darkness akin to being in a deep, dark well with deadly silence. If God wishes even such a person would have her soul out of that dreadful well. Not only that her soul would fly and feel the beauties of meadows and the sky and even beyond that. 'The story of my life' by Helen Keller is part of the syllabus of class tenth where my younger son is studying. I read the story to explain it to him and his friends but now I am finding it difficult to express it in words.

Helen was born in 1880. She lost her hearing and sight due to some fever when she was merely nineteen months old.

With the aid of her teachers and the books written in Braille, her soul got enlightened as much or even more than those who can hear and see. She with her limited faculties experienced and lived her life to the full. She was the first person of her kind to be a graduate. According to her acquiring education without feeling  is like being deaf to the harmonies of nature. The richness of her vocabulary, expression and thoughts is amazing and most likely to dwarf the able bodied reader in his own eyes.

What one may not see with his eyes and hear with his ears she could feel with her hands. At times smell alone guided her ways. Despite her deprivations she had read a vast number of books and imbibed their essence into her soul.

Her enriched soul is such an inspiration that we should never at any time get depressed and discontentful in our life.

The immortal kids of the literary world.

A boy having long hair puts a strange question to his mother, "Why am I so dark cloured mother?"
To tell the boy that it was due to his grazing the cows in the sunshine could have been counter productive. So the mother says, "Not at all. You are so very normal."
" But mother, why the girl who lives around the corner of the street is fair like a fairy while I am almost black?", asks the boy unappeased by her reply.
"When you were very small you had a black thread around your waist for your clothing. Nowadays you keep a black blanket  over your shoulders. Possibly these things have rendered a hue of darkness to you. Or may be it is because you were born on a pitch dark night. But there is no need to take the complexion so seriously as is not at all black but merely a shade or two darker than others."
When the boy was still not satisfied the mother says, "Now whether you believe it or not the damsel you are talking about is, no doubt, fair but she has got dark black eyes upon which she applies black Kajjra powder. And from those black eyes she has casted a black spell upon you turning you black." With this reply she leaves the matter fully settled.

Above is the theme of a popular bhajan from the Bollywood movie 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram'.
Now let us talk about Hamid, a child character created by Prem Chand.
Hamid is an orphan. He visits the Id fare with just three paise given by his grandmother. This boy is far too mature for his tender age just as most other orphans tend to become. He sees no fun in joyrides. He cannot afford them is a different matter though. Neither is he taken in by toys made up of sugar crystals. A toy soldier, a barrister with black coat and a Bishti (the water deliverer) also fail to impress him. He considers such stuff a sheer wastage of hard earned money although a corner of his heart desperately wants to own them. By any means he cannot strike a deal as they are much beyond his budget. Finally through hard negotiation he purchases a pair of tongs. The boys try to downgrade his prized item while on their way back home. But our hero has a smart salesman within him. He throws his tong on the ground and challenges others to put their toys to such a test. The tide changes and all the little ones get attracted to the pair of tongs. "It is a multipurpose thing friends. If attacked by a baddie it can act as a weapon. No doubt one can play also with it by making the two ends strike with each other. In this way a music can be created." The other children start fancing his merchandise. They requested him to exchange their toys with his tongs for a little while. Hamid agrees to their proposal and gets the pleasure of touching and feeling all other toys turn by turn. Before reaching home most of the fancy toys get either broken or distorted. But Hamids mighty pair of tongs is in full glory. Hamid's grandmother was brimmed with affection when she learns that her grandson has bought a tool which could make her easy to make fire without burning fingers.

Tom is yet another child character. He is the creation of the story writer Mark Twain.

Tom's spirits are dampened when on a fine holiday morning he is asked to whitewash the entire boundary of the hutment. He puts a brave face and starts brushing the wall ignoring his friends who were out for playing. He declines the request of others to try their hand on such an unusual activity. Tom relents only after making a hard bargain and gives them a chance turn by turn. While tom sits under the shade of a tree with the bargained things like apple oranges, broken toys etc, his friends whitewash the fence two times over and stop only when the whole of the whitewashing material is finished. It is all over in such a short time and Tom still has the whole day before him for fun and enjoyment. Thus he discovers a very important aspect of human nature where a thing can be made extremely coveted if it is made difficult to attain. Had he requested his friends to help him in his task, he could have only got their smirks and jeers. With a tactful approach he wins their labour as well as their eatables and toys.

Sharp turns in terms of diet

Protiens start doing more harm than good when a person approaches fifty years of age. This trouble is comparatively more with men as compared to women. People with lean bodies may also be less prone to uric acid related issues caused by a protein rich diet.

The vegetables that a young boy hates the most are Gheea, Sitaphal, Ramtori, Tinda etc. Normally children become annoyed when they learn that their mothers have cooked Kaddu for them. But strangely enough these are the best for people nearing fifty. A teenager prefers Rajma. Moongi Chana dal, Masoor dal, Kalachana masala or Kabuli Chana masala. It is all because protiens are body builders and he needs them immensely.

Some people in rural Punjab tend to put their bodies on drugs like opium or poppy husk to deal with the health related issues. That causes a huge weight loss and the problems seem to get subsided . But that method takes away all the glow from their faces along with the respect in society. Moreover a person enslaves himself to his daily requirement of the dosage of the drug. Withdrawl is out of question in most cases.

When most of the things tend to become harmful for health one has to choose between the less harmful ones over the more harmful ones. According to me eating Chapati with a bit of Desi ghee and Achar (pickle) is better than eating with Dal in case there is no vegitable dish in the house. A slight amount of Gurr or sugar after the meal gives a feeling of fulfillmeant when the diet is frugal. Although both Ghee and sugar are not very good for an aging person but usually overtake of protein is the least desirable thing. There is no denying the fact that diet requirement varies according to a person"s body composition but in general the reqirement of protein declines considerably when a person nears fifty. What a sharp turn in terms of diet a person has to take at this age !

The changing pace of the love stories

The hero is all alone in his Dak Banglow. He is very young, just a little above the age of boyhood. It is the monsoon season at a very remote village. He hardly has any work. He is all alone. It keeps raining heavily most of the time because the place is in  Bengal. There is an orphan girl to help him in his odd jobs. She helps him in cooking, preparing his bath, making Chapatis and even preparing his smoking pipe. Once when he had fever she pressed his forehead and tended  him very delicately in a way that is typical of a loving and caring girl. He tells the stories of his family to her and she tells about her parents although she is an orphan now. But despite the long rainy season and such conducive environment, they had no physical relationship. The boy seeks transfer to his hometown. Upon rejection of his application he resigns. He parts away leaving the girl emotionally pregnant. She weeps and sobs upon separating from her hero whereas the hero consoles himself for the emotional pain inflicted uoon the heroine by musing that partings and meetings keep taking place even in the nature. The river meets the sea, day meets the night etc. Similarly the river departs from the mountains, distributaries part away from the river, so on and so forth. Thus it is natural for humans also to keep meeting and parting.

The above is the theme of the story 'The postmaster' witten by Rabinder Nath Tagore about a century ago. We note that the hero had an amazingly sound character.

Now let us move half a century forward. There was a movie called Aradhna sometime in the early seventies. The hero gets just one monsoon night to spend with the heroine per chance of fate. He is aware that he can err. He sings, "Bhool koi hamse naa ho jaye (may I not make a mistake)." But he definitely makes a mistake and impregnates the heroine physically in the real sense of the word.

Moving a few decades still further to the present times, we observe a sea  change in the affairs. A boy and a girl do not need any solitude of any type during rainy season along with the thunder of the clouds and lightening in the sky flashing in the back ground etc. One good mobile phone with internet connectivity is sufficient for ninety percent of the intercourse to take place. That too without any hassle of impregnation of any sort.

Holiday - a movie review

'Holiday' is not a boring movie. It is not very interesting either. The most amazing thing is Akshay Kumar's spring like body despite his age. Unlike us these heroes seem to be immune to old age. Sonakshi Sinha is a buxom beauty. Normally we have strong heroes and slender heroines. She is quite an exception. How long she would be able to retain her heavy duty charm in the industry is yet to be seen.

Music of the film is forgotten as soon as it is over. The photography lacks depth. Over bright colours often make a movie look very artificial.

Mobile phone conferencing and the blue tooth technology is a part of the plot. Other movies should also follow the suit as it has become an inseparable part of our lives. The phone carried by the hero, however, is not the latest one. The viewers expect the hero to have atleast some good quality Android phone rather than a basic camera phone that even the children have discarded.

The collective image of the muslims seem to have reached a critical level in the bollywood. The film directors do not even think twice before depicting a muslim as the head of a terrorist gang. To escape criticism they give some positive shade to one or two muslim characters.

Watching these types of movies may encourage the children to join the Indian Army. The young minds ought to know that there is a sea of difference between the real life and the reel life.

This movie can be watched with the family but only if there isn't any other option of spending free time.

Preventive fence against immature relationships

How would one feel when his son studying in the tenth grade wants a sad song? There is a bollywood song 'Ye duniya, ye mehfil mere kaam ki nahin' (This world and this gathering is of no use to me )? It is from the movie Heer Ranjha. Today morning my son came to me and asked for getting it downloaded for him. In a few minutes he got it in his mobile phone via bluetooth.

The dwindling sex ratio across the country has made it really tough for the boys to court girls. Moreover the girls nowadays want boys who have a stylish hair cut and a gym toned body. Boys with Pagris are most likely to be left aside. In my opinion it is a boon in disguise. Tenth grade is not the time when one should be selecting a life partner. It is better to be left out for some time and remain focussed on the career.

Once I asked a group of girls of grade ten regarding what type of husband they would prefer in their lives. Some said, "with French cut beard" and some said, "clean shaven". I asked them if they would like to marry a Sardar with a Pagri. "No sir. Who would wash the Pagri for them?"

When I studied in the eleventh class in 1982-83 batch there were merely five girls in our class of approximately thirty students. Imagine the competetion when the harmones are perpetually violent like a Tsunami wave. Apart from that, a bearded Sardar like me had the least chance of being sought by any pretty girl. During those times l also loved singing the same song, "Ye duniya ye mehfil_____"

Now I would say that my beard and my Pugree acted as a good preventive fence when one is most likely to fall wrongly into an immature relationship.

The vanishing grey hair

Some say that the grey hair speak obout the maturity of a person. Such people often quote an Indian saying, "Maine ye baal dhoop main safed nahi kiye hain" (My hair haven't become grey due to the sunshine). They mean to say that they have the experience of life. Some people say that the grey hair are a calling from God. The God says that the timespan of life is running out. Once I heard my cousin say that these are letters from God. If we dye them we are distorting the God's command. Once during a casual discussion amongst the teachers in a technical college I was asked why some people get grey beard faster than the others. In a lighter vein I replied, " The grey hair of our beards are indicators of the expended charge of our sexual battery. Moreover if we remain true to one woman our electrical connections are robost. If a person keeps changing the connections every now and then, there occurs  an arc in our body's electric system and the beard becomes grey faster". Further jokingly I added that moustache becomes grey faster if a person tells more  lies than others and the hair of the head grey faster due to tensions and worries."

When I was employed in Delhi, I used to tie my beard using a hair fixer. Sometimes I feel that the lower part of my beard became grey faster than the upper part due to this imprisonment of the hair. However,  If I compare the greying of my beard with the people of my age it shows that my currents are draining at a very normal rate.

In the seventies when I was a school going boy, the society appeared to be less pretentious. Many people wore grey hair. The late prime minister Mrs Indira Gandhi used to have a tuft of grey hair adorning the forehead. It made her look unique and beautiful. In contrast nowadays people love to remain young with cent per cent black hair throughout their lives. Once a Sardarji from armed forces told me that it is essential as it is a kind of camouflage to survive in the society where there is a cut throat competition in every field.

In the picture below we can see the new army chief of our country in perfectly black hair and moustache. Maybe a grey hair and a grey moustache are less intimidating and less impressive for the image of an army personnel.