Mon: Finally, all four kids have returned into the category
of healthy children. This process of reports/ doctors visit / second opinion /
more reports have ended. Post Diwali, all ‘Kharchi’ was spent on
doctors, and more on reports. Hopefully, lesson will be learnt and proper food
habits will develop. [This is directed specially to Kashyap & Muskan]. Both have good
constitution, so it becomes their responsibility to take care of God’s
blessing.
Mahesh Radheshyam Bajaj, came down from Banglore for house
hunting. He is planning to shift to Pune. He has not being able to make friends
in Banglore and misses Pune life along with his friend circle. Secondly, Mumbai
is close by, so he will be more socially active. He has made good money, but
scarified in department of Social Life. He plans to shift by Jan 2015, otherwise
will wait for 4 years, till his son clears his college education.
MEET THE DODEJA's
Manohar Dodeja: One member of troika, Maa – Manu – Lali.
Moni loves to hear our stories. I love to repeat them, Muskan - Dhwani - Deepa - Neha all love our colourful stories. The first time this
Maa-Manu-Lali idea was put by Dada, when in 1976 we planned 30 days trip to
North India. Dada called this as three musketeer trip, and I named it
Maa-Manu-Lali trip. At that time I did not knew that this combination will
stick together for decades.
My earliest memory of Manu is his mimicry of Dada Jashan! He
will perch himself on a stool and give sermons in Dada style. This must be in
late 60’s. During Pune vacation, our friendship grew, all due to Hindi
movies. Our main activity during that period was seeing old Kishore Kumar &
Dev Anands matinee show re-runs. Dev-Anand week will have his seven best movies show, every morning, daily change! A blessing for us. After Kashyap, Manu has capacity to see three movies in a day! He will
repeat Dada Kondke’s Marathi movies also, just to give us company.
In mid 70’s, our parents gave us 1000/- rupees each, 30 days
to roam around in India, wherever we wished. Of course, Dada and Daddy planned
our itinerary, as is custom in our ‘Khandan’. We took Pashchim express to Delhi, and rest of
trip was mostly unplanned, spontaneous and on our whims, diverting from the
planned itinerary given by our elders.
I cannot put in words that enthralling freedom, the sense of
adventure, surprises, pure joy and fun. The lifelong bonding was developed
among three of us on this trip and this got more strong with our Mahableshwar,
Matheran, Char Dham trips.
He is very easy going, no hang ups and totally relaxed
person. Manu as we call him, has one major defect from Dodeja family point of
view. Dodeja's love food, but he loves to eats only Aaloo and few other items, if forced to. Lali
specially tried to make him eat other varieties during our trip in 1976, but he
failed, even Reshma has not being able to change him in big way, in this department.
We had planned few business ventures during vacation stay in
Pune while growing up. We will munch Dosa’s etc in Supriya Restaurant on MG Road and plan huge projects, but they did not get executed.
Manu never develops deep, intense, strong relationships.
Simply put, hassle free,
jovial and nice company. Just keep him away from any serious talks and issues.
No debate or discussions or arguments, please.
Sat: Suddenly I woke
up, and was confused and at the same time surprised also. What is this, it is
raining, has monsoon started? Groggy mind played some Nolan movie script; this
is classic scene in Time Jump. I slept in November in Sacred Heart, Pune and am
waking up in June in Simla hill station in North, after the gap of 7 months. My mind in few seconds landed on terra firma,
i.e. firm ground and realized, it is dark due to power failure, 4 O'clock in morning and dark clouds, raining due to
cyclone in Arabic Sea, I am in B-7 Sacred Heart Town,
and climate has turned cool due to wind factor and rains. I nudged Bindiya and
told her, wake up, enjoy the excellent climate, in response she shrank herself
more, under the blanket, and muttered, 'let me sleep'. I made tea for myself and enjoyed the Gods
blessing to hilt. Gentle rain rattling on few tin shades, creating sweet back ground music, our open living room allows gentle free flow of fresh early morning breeze, as it has
three sides open (when main door is kept open), with grand view of garden
from balcony. A true blessing. Can I fix
a price for this?
by P G Dodeja
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