KAALI PEELI AND KAALI DAL



Eat fresh food... I agree.

Eat simple food... I agree.

Eat in moderation... I agree.

Eat with a happy and grateful heart... I agree totally.

But then, can you and I eat ‘fresh food’ always, considering the hectic pace of our lives?

Frankly, we cannot. Many of us have to accept this reality... That, eating happily with a grateful heart is more important than eating freshly-cooked food...

Frankly, we are all on a space mission... We have to choose between the Moon and the Sausages...

Every migrant, who comes to big cities like Mumbai - with no money, friends or connections, but only a dream – has lots of struggle stories to share later when they succeed in in life. But, these struggle stories, invariably, inspire other strugglers, and not the children of those telling the ‘stay-hungry, stay-foolish’ stories...

One such young kid I came across yesterday. He wasn’t ready to eat the tiffin packed and sent by his mother... “I eat only fresh”... The tiffin went back home, got spoiled, and went into the dust bin...

I knew this young kid’s father... He was a migrant to this city several years ago... He had struggled his way up with no money, friends or connections... Yes, staying hungry and staying foolish... Making no fuss over what he ate or wore, and where he lived...

‘Nepo kids’ – They are the kids of ‘established’ film stars, politicians or industrialists alone... Every young kid, who did not have to struggle in life the way his/her parents had to – yes, this kid is a nepo kid...

But, then, nepo kids have a choice: to value their privileges and carve their own lives with less fussing and fretting – as their parents once did...

Else, it’s like this 35-year-old young man, thinking of whom I am still amused... His father was a little kid uprooted overnight from Pakistan during the partition and was placed in a remote refugee camp here in this city. Those days, the camp site was a godforsaken place... This little kid arrived in this camp as an orphan... As years rolled by, this kid worked his way up... Eventually, he refurbished the barrack into a large mansion, which had five separate bathroom-cum-toilets. One day, when I had paid a visit to this newly-built mansion, on the first floor, I happened to see the 35-year-old young man, a large-sized bath towel tied around his waist... and waiting for his turn to go inside... It was 10.30 in the morning. Someone was inside the bathroom, and this young man wanted to use only ‘that bathroom’... None of the other four!

The sight of that 35-year-old man is still fresh in my mind. Yes, just as the other kid here wanted to eat ‘only fresh food’, this kid had grown up to fuss and fret – “I want to used only my bathroom”...

Nepo kids?



A couple of days ago, on the way to the hospital, my Kaali Peeli had stopped in a heavy traffic jam. As Uber wasn’t immediately available, I had taken this Kaali Peeli... It got stuck in the traffic jam – right at that spot – for nearly twenty minutes... I wasn’t fussing and fretting, though... I was profusely sweating... I knew, I had to be patient and wait for ‘our turn’ to move... I had lowered the windows so that I could take in some ‘fresh air’ at least... My eyes fell on the public sauchalaya just outside where the traffic had come to a standstill... There were two long queues - one for men, one for women... all waiting patiently for their turn to show up... What teared me up was the sight of this young pregnant woman (I guess her maiden pregnancy)... As she was coming out, I saw her young husband waiting to help her gently get down the steps... When the woman had come down, the man held her hand and they slowly, happily, gratefully proceeded towards the direction of their humble shanty...





Fresh food, clean toilets, neat rooms – I am fully for them. But, then, but then, but then...

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s: Pixabay

 

Video: AARPODCAST18

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