My musing and other: Twentyone years of Morning Walk

My musing and other: Twentyone years of Morning Walk: Come Jan 27 2012, I might be celebrating my 21 st anniversary of my usual morning walks. It all started in 1991 and till I discussed...

Twentyone years of Morning Walk

Come Jan 27 2012, I might be celebrating my 21^st anniversary of my usual morning walks. It all started in 1991 and till I discussed this with a young friend of mine who is a lecturer in a local college I did not realise that it is really quite a long period of time. Twenty one years of walking in the morning without any prolonged break! He could not believe it!

As a matter of fact, till he expressed it, I too did not feel that it is something I should be crowing about. After all twenty odd years of life for a person who is blissfully on the other side of sixty is only one third of his whole life span; when at the same time for a young man like my friend who might be on his early thirties or late twenties it is more than two third of his whole life. No wonder he was astounded by my not so great an achievement.

O Henry was my favourite author during my college days and when I read his thrilling short story “After twenty years” I too felt that twenty years (two decades) should be really a long period of time. Definitely it was, for a college going teenager like me at that time. When my friend exclaimed about my not that spectacular feat; suddenly I was on a time-machine travelling back to that period of time when all this started.

Hitting psychological forty has a peculiar feeling. In simple terms it is known as ‘mid-life crisis’. Turning 40 is one of the key psychological milestones of a person’s life. It is the time of evaluation; about whom they are and where they want to be going.

For me those were the days when nights were full of nightmares. You have growing up children; you have a job which is not offering any promise as far as the future was concerned. You have ideas and aspirations but you are afraid to make any bold decision because you don’t know how. Responsibilities are bogging you down. The day time worries turn out to be the night time nightmares.

Holidays turns out to be a bane rather than a boon as they provide opportunities for you to brood. Most of the time I felt very silly of me to think in these lines and because of this - this feeling of silliness- I was afraid to share my fears even with my wife.

I wonder; may be such were the occasions when people opt for a counselling couch. In fact I was really in a psychological bind and longed for a shrink to help me. Some where I read that aerobic exercises will help. I was not sure and did not know should I really give it a try.

In northern India winter adds on to your negative moods. During that period day breaks very late and night falls quite early providing a very small window of daytime; and this add to your negativity. I read somewhere recently that a study has revealed that lack of sunshine adds to your low moods.  Though I was not a teetotaller, alcohol never was an attraction.

27^th Jan 1991 was a Sunday and it was rather a gloomy and cold day; a day after another holiday-26^th January-when you are imprisoned at home because all roads in Delhi on that day leads to Rajpath; and if you are someone who is opting not to take that, gets virtually tied up in your house without any thing particular to do, as every shop every establishment everything will be closed celebrating the great day.

    

By evening I was on my foulest mood I ever been and did not know how to come out of it. In a spur of a moment I decided. Putting on my loafers I got out. The Roads were rather deserted during that time. The brisk walk took me to the large Agricultural University Campus which was close-by and I went on walking in the campus roads briskly for nearly an hour. When reached home socked with sweat I was totally in a different mood.

 Have you seen butter melting away when kept on a warm surface? My mental condition was just like that. I can feel my worries melting away exactly like that. I had a nice night sleep. Next day morning I was urged by my previous day’s experience to take to the road for another brisk walk.

Since then I have never looked back. Twenty one years of morning walks. Is it time for me to hang my boots?

No way.

I received this mail forwarded by a friendly group and  found the information very useful. Though I have not tested the veracity of the information; nevertheless I find no reason to disbelieve it.Hope my readers will appreciate this info and make use of it.

From M.V.Ramana Murthy ,   Incident 1 It happened few months back.  We were traveling and I and my family were waiting in the A/C waiting room at Secunderabad Station. The attached bathroom was not clean and was giving  bad smell. Added to this discomfiture, the bathroom door was not closing tight , and I also observed  that shutter was not closing tight because of faulty door closer. I complained to the attendant .  I also sent an SMS " The bathroom of A/C  waiting room on platform No 1 of Secunderbad Station is dirty and stinking. Pl arrange cleaning . Also the the door is not closing  properly". After few minutes we left the waiting room as our train arrival was announced. Within few minutes I received text reply from Railways,   giving an Id No and that action will be taken . After few hours I received a message that  the bathroom has been cleaned . After ten days I received another message that the faulty door has been repaired and thanking me.    Incident 2  Recently on 24 th October I and my wife were traveling by Hyderabd Ajmeer Express on our Rajasthan trip. Next day morning , I noticed there was no water in the bathroom and the taps are all dry, whereas our journey will continue and we will be reaching our destination ( Bhilwara near Ajmeer)  after another 18 hours. I was worried that it is going to be a miserable time to travel without water. Water or No water, people will continue to use the bathrooms and the stink will become unbearable. I complained to the Conductor. I also sent a SMS "Traveling in the A1 compartment of Hyderabad Ajmeer express train No 12720. No water in the bathrooms . Pl arrange. Also replace leaking valves else  problem repeats." Pat came the reply" Your reference id is 1110250019. For status visit www.scr.indianrailways.in. or SMS as STATUS<SPACE><id> TO 8121281212 . Thanks for registering complaint "  . After about 20 minutes I  received message that water will be filled at the  nearest Railway station having water filling facility. At Itarsi station water was filled and we had no problem . After about a week I received another message that the faulty valves have been replaced . It was amazing.   I am thankful to the Railway authorities for introducing a system where one can complain from a running train and doubly grateful that they have acknowledged the complaint and  attended. I collected this help line number from the Railway waiting room !   Many times while traveling by train  we are put to unexpected inconvenience , we react by cursing and criticizing. No other response. Of course once we reach our destination we just forget.  There is no use in cursing the darkness around you, do light a candle however small it be, it gives an inspiration and ten more candles will be lit . The process continues reducing the darkness. The Railway  Number to which you can SMS is   8121281212 . Please pass on this message to your friends and it may help some one in need including you .

 

 

 

 

Spoonerism

I have a problem. I have a friend; and no she is not the problem. A friend of mine and a colleague for some time; a beautiful woman with a unique name Shiji; or is it Jishi? I am confused and that is the problem. Whenever we meet I ponder a while before uttering her name. I earnestly try to address her correctly and avoid embarrassment for both of us. I toss both the versions in my mind for a while before addressing her.  It makes me so nervous and this leads to assured failure on my part. The jeer appearing invariably on her face loudly tells me that once again I have failed miserably. Each time I profusely apologise to her; and even though I genuinely feel sorry for my predicament, it is providing me only a diminishing return. Now a day she started to take it on its stride and gives me a beautiful smile instead; I am put in to more problems as I am deprived of the feedback. Previously the curled up lip is a sure tell tale sign of my bungling.

William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930) was having this kind of a handicap. As a matter of fact he has even developed this into an art and the world has christened it after him. “Spoonerism” as it is now known is an error in speech or deliberate play of words in which corresponding consonants, vowels or morphemes are switched. There is any number of examples and though apocryphally attributed to Mr. Spooner he disowns most of them. Some famous examples are as follows. “Three cheers to our queer old dean” (for “dear old queen”) referring to Queen Victoria, "A blushing crow." (crushing blow), "A well-boiled icicle" (well-oiled bicycle), "Is the bean dizzy?" etc.   Now a day spoonerism is widely used in music, theatre, cinema, broadcasting etc and even in profane expressions in order to hide its raw nature. When profanity is mentioned; in Malayalam it is nearly used exclusively for this purpose.  There are experts who can coin any irreverent expression into a harmless one doing this chorichu mallal (marichu chollal)

Now coming back to my problem; spoonerism is not my only problem though I frequently address, for example,  Anil as Sunil, etc. My main problem is of name dropping. (Let me hasten to add here that by the usage “Name Dropping” I mean forgetting names of those known to me and not the euphemism for showing off my celebrity contact).   It is said that once you are on the wrong side of fifty these things start showing their head very frequently.  Surprisingly all those things stored in your memory, way back in your youth are remaining intact. You are prone to forget names of those whom you have met just a day back. It is said that you should jog your brain regularly; and though I comply it by doing cross-word, Sudoku etc and maintaining the habit of reading intact by keeping that idiot box in your drawing room beyond the remote’s range; all efforts have their limitations.

I came across a technique of ‘association’ to overcome this difficulty to a great extend. It is a very simple way to remember things especially the names. If you are meeting someone by name say Rajan for example associate him with your good old primary schoolmate Rajan about whom you have a vivid memory. So next time when you meet this new person you are bound to remember your school chum and hence remember his name.  During my morning walks I used to come across a couple of college going youngsters with whom I just had a nodding acquaintance. For courtesy sake I asked and registered their name using this technique. They stopped coming for the walk as soon as their colleges re-opened. After a two year gap I again met one of them in the market and stopped to have a chat.  First thing I did was to address him by his name and enquire about his friend (also by name). You should have seen the expression on his face when I addressed him correctly.  He was flabbergasted and at the same time very happy as well. He could not believe that I will recall his name even after a two year gap. His happiness did really make my day. 

But the problem I mentioned earlier is still persisting because there is a catch. In olden days every name either had some meaning or some connection. The modern names are as alien to me as Greek is for a bumpkin. Recently I saw the list of names of the pupils of my wife’s school.  I felt that they are all of Chinese descent.  How can you associate these names with anything which you will be able to recall?

I am still pondering and searching for a solution for I do not want to antagonize anymore my good friend Shiji.....? or is it Jishi?.

Here I go again.