25th May – 31st May 2015 [On recovery path]

 

Bindiya returned home on 27^th. Everyone was smiling. Muskan arranged a simple ‘Pao Bhaji’ party attained by full family, except for Manju who was with her parents in Mumbai.  Climate was getting hot, so we expected monsoon to start soon. To welcome it, terrace was cleared of accumulated discarded house hold items. We have started getting attached to our big terrace. Muskan sprawls herself on terrace floor, watching stars, Akshay likes to take his evening nasta with big chunk of gossip with next door neighbor, sitting under cloudy sky. Kashyap and Dhwani invite Guarav Kadu for musical night, feed him a simple dinner and then asked him to sing few of his original songs. I am planning to start weekly chess games with Kashyap – Amar – Akshay – Shyam Uncle.

On office front we are moving towards major change. It is kind of change, which we never expected and wanted. It is kind of walking on thin ice. If Ice breaks we drown. Few months back also we have tried same action, but some good news in form of fresh orders, made us change our mind. This attempt is final and hopefully we stick to it. Major change is inevitable, which direction? Only time will tell.

As Lali keeps saying, we are near closing of few major financially improving situations in very much positive way, than somehow closing of deal moves forward by few steps, and our chase starts again. So is the situation today. Siddapa Deal, Land son deal, 609 deal, Rohit deal, Kaikade deal, KK deal all are just step away from being productive.

Saturday: Ritu has returned from her Ireland visit. After her education, she again returned to Ireland to get some job and make some money. But it was tough and difficult to get job. So she finally returned on 26^th. Full Sanjay and family visited Bindiya. Rishi has turned out typical Dodeja, tall, heavy set, good smile etc. All old our family child birth stories were revealed. Neha made her mum to rush to hospital from mid movie, Ritu arrived within 10 minutes of her mother being admitted, as soon as Chinky was born, Umranekar’s hospital caught fire. And one major surprising fact came out. One person who was present during all those births was Mummy.

Mummy was present when we all four brothers were born, her four grand sons came in the world and so was the case with her grand daughters! 

From 10.0 pm onwards we were treated to great musical evening by Guarav. He is very good with guitar, good at lyrics and ok in singing. He is fully entertaining one man show. Tanvi – Kosha – LP are visiting for weekend, Lali and Sharat joined us after dinner, which was ‘Aam Rass with Aaloo Bhaji’. Wow. Everyone got set in our entertainment zone. I would like to share is few gems, but he is planning to make some commercial videos, so premature exposure would be harmful for success of his commercial product. Hence sorry.

 

by P G Dodeja

18th May – 24th May 2015 [Hum Tum aur Kamra]

 

We started the week with round of hospital, this trend of rounds continued for next 10 days. MRI was done at Inamdhar Hospital to confirm that there is need for surgery. Dr Jindal glanced at report, waved his figure and said, ‘Get it operated. You are in earth quick area of Nepal, you home is damaged, so be prepared.’ Now, if doctors says such things you get scared. Few years back, Mummy was operated by Dr Jindal for her hand problem. Savita recommended only two options, one Dr Jindal and other Dr Sancheti. Kamal Khetan vouched for his ethics and skill.   And finally what helped in making the correct decision was when doctor said, ‘We will operate only if she gets medically fit. We need two days at least to prepare her.’

On day one, she was given 2 blood bottles and 3 plasma bottles to prep her up. Many reports were taken and finally decided to operate her.

The Ratna Memorial Hospital has open door policy. Means, any time one can visit patient, can stay as long as you want. This is very much Indianish Hopital. Except for ICU, one can have full freedom. Yes, if one converts room into party hall, security steps in. How much this was helpful? Only one can make judgment but cannot prove this.

On Friday Bindiya got operated. Her hip joint was replaced by steel implant. We all waited out at OT. Akshay – Kashyap – Muskan and myself. Dhwani was barred from visiting hospital and Mummy was keeping company with her. She was sent in operation theater at 1.0 clock and was out by 4.30. And first one to visit her was Ashok and Gullu who had just reached hospital from Mumbai. She looked relaxed and without pain.

How much visitors help in getting patient in positive frame of mind? No way to gauge that.

Well, I can say this for myself, it was great relief and positive factor for myself at least. Next day, Mona – Meena – Prakash – Bhabhi all visited, kept her company for few hours and made tense atmosphere more cordial, homely and pleasant. Special thanks to Mona for taking place of mother and for many more things. Pushpa Mami and Bal from Hydrabad - Manu - Reshma also made late night visit. Pushpa is on vacation trip to Mahableshwar and Goa, with her 'Maika Ladies'. Bal had come just to give her company till Puna. In her usual style and form, our Mami fired few crackers and left.

 

First Attempt at Standing

On 24th Sunday, constant flow of visitors kept mind occupied with good thoughts. In fixed time slot of visiting hours, most visitors are kept at hi-hello level as they have vacate seat for next arrival, but here, visitors start from morning and continue till evening. My cousins kept visiting in rolling order. One visit was followed by other with gap of ½ hour or so. Amar – Ravi – Savi – Sanjay all came with better half’s and gossiped. By evening it was time for Bindiya’s Guddu and Muskan, Avi and his gang. Her recovery journey has started earnestly. I am sure, Muskan's seva, and other family members concern and care will make her fit and fine in no time, ready to act Grand Ma role very soon.

After operation it was a kind of routine recovery stay. Lali will drop in, or Sharat will come in and say hi. Kashyap kept giving special appearances. Staff brought morning nasta and some office gossip. Whereas Akshay took leave from Mumbai and kept visiting. Dhwani’s mother and Phuie also made a one day trip. Soon I was able right frame of mind and made some comments as usual Bindiya thinks this is pure harassment from my part. She has stopped even saying 'Hawa Khao'.

 

Among my few comments I liked following comment and am waiting for response.

"HUM TUM EK KAMRE MEIN BUND HOON, AUR CHABI KHO JAI?"    

 

by P G Dodeja

11th May – 17th May 2015 [Humpty Dumpty had a great fall]

 

Bindiya as she gets ready for Operation

Friday: It is fare morning, soon going to turn into nightmare morning. The heat was fare enough, that is, not unbearably hot, but hot enough to give feeling of summer. Morning was warm, but sunlight put the dash of heavy summer in our living room. Dhwani’s progress towards motherhood is satisfactory, she is fully enjoying this phase and we all are anxiously waiting for news. In short things were moving at fairly good pace, in desired direction. But then when is life so predictable?

Today Mummy and Kashyap are sitting and chatting on one sofa. Nowadays he is preparing to be a good father, hence no late nights, getting up early in morning etc. Bindiya in her standard swinging style, moving gracefully and slowly came out of her room at one end of living room and moved towards her day time sofa. Kashyap asked her to join them, she corrected her direction by taking two steps in other sofa’s direction and sat next to Kashyap. Bindiya has capacity to sit straight for 10 – 15 minutes only, so after few minutes she stood up to return to sofa just few paces away and lie down. From kitchen entrance I saw this scene taking place in fraction of second.

She took one step forward, her balance swayed a bit, as usual nothing alarming. To correct her balance, she tried to take support of chair on her right side, which was unfortunately six inches away from her reach. Her feet folded, she crashed down on her left side, falling on her hip bone, hitting her head gently on floor as Kashyap’s instinct took over and he was beside her, just in nano second as she touched floor. In editing language it appeared as fast cut, one frame she was down and second frame Kashyap was next to her. It took me one step to reach her. She was bleeding from her head wound.

Immediate Kashyap lifted her, made she lie down on sofa. Ice was applied on head to stop bleeding. I checked her for any other damage. She was not in pain so with relief I said, “She is Ok, no fracture.” How wrong I was. No pain is not a correct indicator.

Just to set aside any nagging worry about her fracture, we called portable fracture machine. The X ray guy gave first inclination of coming challenge. “I am not sure, but there seems to be hair thin line fracture. You will need MRI to confirm it.” This statement started our uphill task of bring Bindiya back to her feet. In short, after consulting three surgeons, who said, ‘Surgery is necessary, but in her case not advisable. But Dr Punkaj Jindal, said you will not be able to take care for 2 months without damaging her fractured leg and pushing yourself for major - risky emergency operation. So take chance and get her operated. He is very blunt, shoots like gun, straight.

This week ended with this bleak – most tension filled episode to another more depressing, tension filled week. Something, which was unavoidable, but filled with minefields of decision making from many point of views.

 

by P G Dodeja

4th May – 10rd May 2015 [Blessing of Indra Devta]

 

  7^th May : Once again Lali & Myself did 500 km tour in a day. We were out investigating Land stretches for our prospects. This time our focus was in and around Karjat area. For last few years, this area is under sharp eyesight of all builders and developers. Major projects are underway in this area. Karjat – Murud road has being made recently, it goes through vacant stretchers of land on both side for miles. It is kind of rare experience to drive for 10 km without and man made structure on both sides of road, a rarity.  Superb road recently completed, no traffic and clean air with expanses of land and lot of heat. Wow.

For company we have Deepak Amar. A prospect of Landson, saw and decided against buying land, but offered us 165 acres as he had liked Landson project concept. He is experienced guy, has worked as Security In charges, PA of a politician cum don, Toll collection center's manager. In 9 hour journey he told us all his life history, his struggle, his religious beliefs, his love story. A simple man, honest, not ambitious, believes in God very strongly. We met on 9^th, and our tune in was so, that within 24 hours we were zooming around in i20 with him, he entertaining us with his life as well as Ulhasnagar stories. He told us stories of Srichand Hinduja, Papu Kalani, his Boss Shetty, his father etc. He is good story teller and here is example, telling us how he started reading Gita.

Nearly two decades back, he was going through very rough patch of his life. His Mother had paralytic attack, wife had continuous fever for 90 days, he was without job, as his boss was put behind bars, he had to take care of 2 year old son all by himself. He was sad and lost, felt like end of the world for him. One day he was whiling away his time in local ‘mandir’, there he received Gita from a mandir’s  sadhu, to sort out his problems with instructions to read and understand it.

After 3 days he was asked, ‘Have you read it?’ ‘Yes’ he replied.

‘Have you understood anything?’ Again he said ‘Yes’.

‘How much have you understood?’ ‘Full’ he replied.

The saint started laughing, drawing attention of others sitting in the room. This same conversation and reaction was repeated. He was confused, embarrassed, surprised, at loss. What is there to laugh about? In his words, he had no idea, what was happening, why ‘sadhu’ was laughing like mad at him. Finally saint saw his confused face, lost thoughts and told him, ‘I have spent 20 years, read it again and again, and still I find I have understood only small portion of Gita. Keep reading it again and again, you will learn more and more every time.’ 

This simple incident changed his life, he started reading Gita, very seriously and it has helped him a lot.

Day View from Living Room, with KK in center

Sat: Climate is getting nasty, day by day. Pune heat has started turning into humid, sticky, very hot. It keeps hovering at 40-41 degree! For days, with no respite predicted by met department. Then suddenly on Saturday night things changed. We had full family members first dinner at 510. Lali left soon after dinner as he and Sharat are going to Banglore, early  morning. Suddenly, no movement in air turned into a breezy, thundering ‘toofan’. A light drizzle changed the situation in just few minutes. We were planning to see old movie ‘Andaz Apna Apna’, as Amir Khan mouthed first few words, ‘Aila, Juhi Chawla.’ We said, ‘Aila, thunders and breeze, let’s go and sit on terrace.’ I turned off TV and we all moved to terrace.

Full family together, great lightening show, relief from stifling heat, gentle soothing drops of bliss falling from skies, excellent songs in back groud, and ‘sone pe suhaga’,   Strawberry + Vanilla Ice cream treat. What else you need?

 

by P G Dodeja

26th April – 3rd May 2015 [Shifting House]

 

 House stories:  I was born in Mumbai and I lived my first few years in Sindhi Building, ground floor, Ghatkopar. A far away suburb, open grounds, dirty roads, fresh air and sunshine. Those were the days when home really was made up of four walls only. No net connection, no TV, no Fridge, no Cooking Gas, no Air conditioners, no Music systems, no Telephones, no Cell phone, no fancy furniture, no wall units. For entertainment, you had radio, movies and friends.

Before I was five, Dad – Mum shifted base to Ahemdabad, Gujrat. Here we lived in rented houses. Dad settled down finally after changing two places in a flat near ‘Kankaria’. By my 9^th birthday, we returned to Ghatkopar, Mumbai.

We lived in same Sindhi building, but this time on first floor, where Anil Chandan is staying nowadays. From there we shifted to second floor and stayed there till August 2006, long period of 40 years! Akshay – Kashyap both were born there, did schooling while living in that place. Whereas first Lali, then Avi and  Mummy shifted to Pune, followed by myself in 2006.

Mummy has lived in various localities and cities, and changed home for maximum times. [In Mumbai city, 3 locations, Gwalior Tank – Santacruze – Ghatkopar – In Ahemdabad city, mainly in Kankaria area – and in Pune city, 2 locations Mira Society and Wanwadi.]

In current generation, Kashyap has lived in maximum cities and changed many homes.  [In Mumbai city, Ghatkopar – Andheri, England (London) – In Pune city, Wanwadi area, but two locations]

 1^st May 2014: Finally our ‘Dhana Pani’ in Sacred Heart town society is over. We had planned a shifting marathon, all on Labour Day, so that we remember the labour involved in shifting. 

All of us will cherish the memory of B-7 very fondly, no two opinions. It is most peaceful, serine society, all necessary requirements available, excellent garden view, very near to office, ample space and decent neighbors. What else you need. Landlady got good offer and wanted to sell it. Our agreement was getting over by June 15, so we agreed to shift two months in advance.

Muskan with her precious 'Bhagwans'

In one day, all family members got busy in shifting from one society to other. We started at 9 am and completed on 5.30pm. This was achieved in very constrained budget. 

No commercial movers were appointed, who asked 25k. We did successful shifting with our staff and our routine transport boy. Dhwani, her mother who has come down to help, took charge of setting new house, I along with Muskan and her right hand maid, Namarat was in charge of packing and dispatching, Lali – Avi – Akshay - Kashyap kept rolling the pipeline, so that this assembly line of movement of goods never stopped. Load Xylo / Tempo, unload at Parmar Park, move it to 5^th floor and from there in its proper room/place.    

Along with this shifting, Tata Sky connection was restored at Parmar Park, minor carpentary work was finished along with plumber job. Pinky – Mummy supplied us with the fuel to run along. Excellent ‘Rasam – Rice’ made by Pinky – Mummy filled our plate.  By eight 85% setting was finished, now we will start re-arranging, this I assume will take few weeks.

First Tea on First Day, Ash Court, Flat 510, Parmar Park Wing 'A'

Meanwhile, I and Kashyap plan to sleep out in vast terrace.

 

by P G Dodeja