The ''Just Married, Please Excuse'' Contest

Yashodhara, whose blogs I often read silently, is out with a book with the above quoted title and she's now up with a contest for we bloggers. And since I've been itching to pen something on this blog for quite sometime, I guess rejigging some old memories would result in no harm!

This was just a week after our wedding after all the requisite customs were done with. We finally got the green signal for our honeymoon. I was pretty much sure I did not want to go abroad for one, as there were so many places to discover in this magnificient country of ours. And well - on a honeymoon - sight-seeing is best done indoors! So Simla it was. And being December, it would be lovely cozying up in the chill!

Being a railway fanatic, I wanted to book up a First AC coupe on a Rajdhani, but the idea of a 24 hour journey on train was vehemently and unceremoniously vetoed and so I think we flew Indigo from Hyderabad to Delhi. The better half was in a good mood, having gotten over the million rituals and away from the maddening crowd. The fact that I consciously prevented my eyes from darting towards the air-hostesses helped. The two hour flight was spent in whispering sweet nothings and getting her toe-ring jewelry off the feet and into the hand bag!

Wifey never was nor is a fan of road journeys. And that helped the railfan in me. She agreed to travel from Delhi to Kalka by a regular train and of course she easily agreed to do the scenic Kalka-Simla Narrow guage train run by the Shivalik Deluxe!

When I entered the Old Delhi railway station for the first time, I pinched myself and confirmed that I was still on earth and not yet in hell. I could just imagine what wifey was going through. Anways, we waded past the fish-market that the station had become and finally reached the spot where our train was supposed to land up! Now, we were booked up on the overnight run of the Kalka Mail that would its way from Howrah to Delhi. This train is a treat for a railfan what with its multiple change-of-configurations and loco changes. It arrived with a dirty red Howrah WAP-4 loco and I was disappointed. I was expecting the state-of-art brand new white monster WAP-7 loco that had been recently added to the Indian Railway's fleet. The loco was allotted to sheds in North and East India initially and I'd never ever seen one with my eyes down south. I took the disappointment of not having that loco with a positive view of getting to have more of wifey in my thoughts than the loco and boarded the train with a smile. Wifey had strictly instructed me not to leave her for a minute and since I did not want to disappoint her, I made myself forget that I was a railway enthusiast.

We chatted till late in the night and then dozed off. We were a little late when we reached Kalka, but there was more than half an hour left for Shivalik's departure. Just when we had disembarked from the Mail, came the melodious tones of the loco. It was not a sound I was familiar with. It was a new loco. And there I spot it.. a white loco at the head of the rake. Wifey, wait a minute; and off I ran with my camera and immersed myself in the pleasure of having seen my first WAP-7 loco when there was another short tweet from across the platforms! Ah, the puny little sky blue ZDM-4 which was to haul our Shivalik to Simla!

I returned to the wife to find a different woman there. Smile on face and twinkle in the eye replaced by frown on face and anger in the eye! The love was left on the broad guage track and the sulk had joined us on our journey up the narrow!

Lips sealed, smoke bellowing from the ears, killer looks from the eyes was what wifey threw at me. I must have said a thousand sorrys as the Shivalik wound its way through the pine covered hills and dark tunnels. The night lamps were going off as the day broke and the sun shone ever so lightly onto the large windows of the D4 coach of the Shivalik.

The Shivalik has only one halt on its entire run and that is at Barog, a wonderful station! The weather was brilliantly bright and it was extremely cold. Then they served hot breakfast on the train. That did the trick and the frown returned to her bag and the smile came out!  Simla provided us another great treat. It received its first snowfall of the season the day we reached!

Wifey still freaks out when reminded of this incident! She says that I left a newly wed wife for an hour and went away somewhere! A lil exaggeration is fine I guess, if it brings a smile on her face.

Please excuse, I was just married. But been a railfan since years!

I. Ill.

I. Ill.

Cold. Cough. Body pain. Fever.

Ambedkarism, my foot!

The Father of the Great Indian Constitution must be turning in his grave today at the sight of the gross distortion of his ideals in making our society abolish the medieval and archaic system of untouchability and low castes.

What Ambedkar wanted was equality for all.

What Ambedkar wanted was abolishment of caste system.

What Ambedkar wanted was brotherhood amongst all.

What Ambedkar wanted was a society that was one.

He drafted the constitution with an aim to do just that, bring about a reign of equality.

But man being man and the politician being the politician he is, distorted all of Baba Saheb's ideals for his selfish benefit and made the term equality vanish from our society. Ambedkar wanted all castes to be equal; our politicians want them divided. They create a vote-bank of upper, lower, middle, left, right, centre and what all type of castes are possible, lure them into fighting against their own brethren.

A couple of screenshots from the Indian Constitution's official website.

The Preamble promises to secure Equality of Status and Opportunity to all citizens.

The Fundamental Right to Equality mentions Prohibition of Discrimination on grounds of caste and Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment.

This was the vision of the Great Baba Saheb.

Today's politicians have completely changed that. For their own selfish means, they have brought about the Reservation revolution. They have divided the country on basis of caste and religion. They have created the General class, the backward castes and the scheduled ones. They have removed equality of citizens in all areas and created a discriminatory scenario across the country.

Two kids who geow up together sharing all joys and sorrows suddenly find themselves in a couldron of inequality. One from a Backward caste and one Forward. Supposedly. In all other aspects they are equal. They look similar, they grew up similarly, their parents are similarly educated and employed. They reside in similar apartments. They drive the same model of car.

Entrance exam time. Equality. Both get very similar ranks.

Admission time. Gross inequality. One gets a plum seat in a posh college, the other relegated to a non-descript one on the city outskirts with limited facilities. Is this equality? Is this what the Father of the constitution envisaged?

You have created a barrier when there was none, you bloody politicians.

You have no right to celebrate the Great Baba Saheb and his Jayanti.

I dare the Supreme Court, which passes random orders taking into cognisance petty news articles to do anything in this regard. 

I know its wishful thinking. Baba Saheb did not know that!

Shubh Deepavali :)

A collection of Nincompoops

What is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons?
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Believe it or not ....... a Congress!





‎...and do you know what is the collective noun for a group of owls??
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A Parliament :)





...and do you know why the parties that form the govt keep running away whever questions are asked ??
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Bcoz they are a Coalition of Cheetahs! :)





The best of all:


Arrogance of MPs !!

One of my Oldest patients

This post is part of a series of posts in a dual duel between me and Shruti of Better Butter. She suggested that I should write about this.

The Oldest patient I had was about 93 years of age, a frail old lady with great composure. She had a tooth hanging along which would not come out so easily and so I was requested to do the needful. Neither the case nor the patient was of any trouble. So I should talk about another 'oldie'.

This was during the student days and the Third year requires us to have some knowledge of General Medicine and General Surgery. Since they assume that dentists need not know those subjects as docs do, the training is rather mild. 

However, during exam time, we are supposed to examine patients at random and take a detailed case history and suggest treatment for the case. What the hospital staff does is have a few easier cases put up for us so that we could do well in the practicals.

One such patient was named John. He was a chronic asthmatic and was called to get admitted to the hospital during every practical exam. He was a heftily built fellow who appeared to be around 60 years of age, but claimed to be 85 years old. Hence on this post. 

This chap was admitted and treated for free and was given free meals (proper ones, sometimes even Biryani and the like) so that he could be cooperative during the exam. We had heard cases from our seniors that he even demanded a bottle to be cooperative.

Fortunately for me, I was assigned his bed to take up the case history. And he had the answers ready as if on rote for every question I posed to him. Only when I re-questioned him on his supposed age did he get flinchy. He even dared me to visit his home so that he could show me proof of his age. But when I completed him on his physique he mellowed down and became more cooperative.

And when I had finished, guess what he did.. yeah, like a true Indian, asked for Chai-paani !! Had I had an inkling those ten years back that I would be writing this, I would have given him some Chai Biskut!!

So Shru, Why do u conceal your four letter words behinds inanities like Fish, Flop, etc... and not use the real word when you actually mean it?