24th Aug – 30rd Aug 2015 [Birthday week]

Sun:  Sleeping time. Akshay is busy watching Pro-Kabadi, it is in second year of its inception. After Cricket, it is turn of Kabadi to catch eye balls of Indian Public. Actors, Industrialist are all promoting and buying teams and participating in competition, Star Channel is gathering huge TRP’s by airing the matches on prime time. Few weeks event takes place leading to final match. Owners, TV Channel, players, advertisers all make big bucks in this process and get good publicity. So like lakhs of Indians, Akshay has also taken to this game. As I am getting ready to sleep as it is past 10.15 pm, Akshay shouts in his booming voice, Papa, Mussu, come soon.

As his tone is not panic filled, I think, he wants to show us some action replay scene, so I take my time. But, again his shouts piercer the peaceful home, ‘come fast’. Muskan, who has reached hall and saw TV, is now more excited than Akshay. She keeps shouting, ‘Papa, come see this.’

I reach and see on TV a crowd scene being zoomed out. ‘What is great about this crowd scene? This is what you made me run?’

Turns out the youngest Dodeja was selected in the crowd and shown on TV. LP [Kosha's husband] is involved with Star TV’s team in organizing this event. So he had invited all Shah’s and Kashyap Dodeja with family for final match. And commentator trained camera on Kabir and family, and commented on national TV, ‘See the popularity of Pro-Kabadi, two month old kid to 80 years old are in the audience!’ So, unknowingly and luck by chance, Kabir created history by making first Dodeja boy appearance on TV at such a tender age. Non of male members have ever appeared on TV. Whereas Pinky and Vibha had participated in some TV game show, many years back. Kashyap's name was flashed way back on TV as sub-editor.

Wed: I set my feet in Mumbai after many months. We seven were on Office – Training – Social – Personal visit. This was Dad type trip. Xylo was fully occupied with three staff members and four family members, Dad would never allow us to take Car to Pune without minimum of four members, dickey filled with Books – Paper – Press material. And keeping the old ways in mind, we had brief ‘Nasta’ halts at Duta Wada while going and at Kamat’s while returning.

After dropping staff for training at Sanapada, we reached CB office for marathon four meetings. Meeting were good and we made some commitments. What will be net result? Only time will tell. This can turn into a major game changer.

Guarav Raheja  yesterday was blessed with baby girl. And as we were just few buildings away, Muskan insisted on flying visit. I said no way, we will get very late. She finally promised, ‘I will push you all out in five minutes.’ With this assurance, we made a visit to hospital. Meena’s MIL was happy to see us all, asked for Mummy [she is her first cousin] and she forced me take Mithai packet. Just few hours back, Muskan had wished for Elco Market Pani Puri and I for Tharu’s ‘Singar ji Mithai’ and here my wish was being full filled.

At hospital entrance we met Mona – Gulu – Amar and Sharda. Said hi and bye, and rushed out to Xylo.

Visit to Santacruze – Sindhu wadi – Matunga were cancelled, as it was 6 in evening and we were already running late by one hour, we reached home by 11.30 after simple but tasty dinner at Kamat, with ‘Batata Wada’ included.

Sat: And in total contrast to our Wednesday Mumbai trip, was Akshay's Mumbai trip on Sat. 

Akshay – Muskan – Mummy left for Mumbai round trip for Rakhi at 9.0 am, whereas Lali – Manju – Sharat left for one day over night trip to Mumbai at 6.30 am. One more example of high handedness of Mumbai traffic is like this. Akshay returned at 2.0 am on Sunday. That is 17 hours trip. And in this 17 hour trip, he spent 1 hour with his sisters in Bandra, 1 hour Muskan spent time with her brother and family in Mira Road, and 1 hour they spent in Santacruze with Mummy’s brothers. Rest of the time was in Xylo, pushing car from 1^st to 2^nd gear in Mumbai traffic.

Thankfully, there was no land slide, so expressway was open. 
by P G Dodeja

17th Aug – 23rd Aug 2015 [Kabir’s Mumbai Trip]

Kabir is keeping Mumbai crowd very busy. Just in last 15 days, he has been active so active that I am devoting this week blog to his visits and meetings!

Mona – Amar Narang invited her daughters as well as Kabir, his Mum and Nani, at Narang Manor, Bandra for lunch. She called this event as a "introduction party" . Trust Mona to convert a simple Lunch invite into a party and trust Pashu to make it funky party.

Kabir is already moving into performing artists circle. Kashyap’s dear friend Akash, who is painter also, invited them at his Andheri Rented flat, where Kashyap has spent few months with him. Then Gautam Kudu, the singing sensation, whose one man show is very popular, held him during a brief pause in his performance to get some inspiration and energy from Kabir.

I am told that residents of Bhuta Nivas have staggered visits to oversee welfare of Kabir. One will come at time of feeding, then next will following during malish. Evening stroll is responsibility of some other guy. In between, school going kids will just peek in and say him hello. He has started responding to sounds made to him. Soon his confusion is going to grow when he tries to segregate them into 7-8 languages sounds being bombarded on him. Hope he becomes expert in one language.

Baby’s day out was with Mamma – Papa group of friends. All the guys in this picture belong to very close friend circle, most of them have stayed in Pune on various occasions. I am pleased to see that three arms are filled, soon, most of the couples will be holding one each.

Normally, Punjabi – Sikhs are considered as very energetic and active people, here one can see the other side of story. LP, [i.e. Love Preet] enjoying his siesta and taking care of Kabir. On enquiry it was revealed that Kabir influenced him and put him in sleep by yawning and taking naps on his comfortable tummy. He had no option, but to go to sleep.

Ratna Aunty was convalescing after brief illness. She forced Dhwani to come and visit her at Sindhuwadi as it was not possible to visit Matunga. So made her program with Kashyap and stepped in 21-A Sindhuwadi, with Kabir in her arms. This 5^th generation visit by Dodeja clan can be record of its kind. 

Lokram – Girdharilal – Prakash – Kashyap and then Kabir. All have being to 21-A, Sindhuwadi, not once, but many times, from 1960’s onward.

And how can I miss this opportunity to display my favorite picture. This is my corner of office, where I feel the presence of my three preceding generations. On my desk, one can see the Pessumal – Lokram – Girdharilal picture with next three generations posing for rare picture of Six Generations.

Few more stories of his visit to Chacha, Great Nani, Mamma’s Mama, Phoofi House etc are kept pending for next time.

 

by P G Dodeja

10th Aug – 16th Aug 2015 [Independence Day Week]

Sunday & Monday was sick leave days for me. Muskan has brought ‘Viral Fever’ with her, from Mumbai, which she passed on to Akshay, who passed this to Kashyap. Bindiya and I also received this gift. Luckily, Bindiya had mild attack so was able to weather it. Whereas, I was down, sleeping continuously for 24 hours to ward off fever. With help of sleep and Dr Manish Pawar medicine I am back in working condition.

Tue: Meeting with Dheeraj Kochar was set on Saturday then postponed to Sunday and finally on Tuesday. Xrbia has made very expensive and attractive experience center in Sanapada. Basically this is to cater to Mumbai clients. Huge plans are being made for launching of new projects. The new office is totally 21^st century office with mini auditorium, inter active display, automated registration and what not. Xrbia has this innovative knack of taking things forward. They think big, work big, ignoring all the negative publicity, working ruthlessly, crushing small players or taking advantage of them, keep correcting the course.

Wed: Muskan has learned to be innovative in cooking. Recently she has gone to Baroda for the wedding. There they had great food options and had enjoyed the food most, she keeps praising it and today proved also. Among that, she loved the roti’s made using ‘moong dal’. So today for nasta she made a ‘moong dal roti’ stuffed with paneer and boiled mutter, topped with freshly made chatni. Yummi…. 

10 out of 10 marks for Muskan. For innovation, for simplicity, for taste, for healthy food.  

In latest video of Kabir, he looked as if he has grown older. Hope he returns to Pune, where 15 members of family are missing him, soon.

Thu: First Akshay and then Mummy told me do some Pooja/Havan. You need a gentle push of good luck, blessing, positive energy or whatever you may call it. But they both have put a caveat. That should be done by proper person. Well who is that proper person? And what guarantee one can give?

Sat: 15th August. Our leaders have spent 15 days in parliament, stall the work, congress has started flexing it's muscles and disrupting the working of government. Now, how BJP is going to counter that? This will be seen the next few weeks. Meanwhile GST bill, One Rank One Pension issues are on hold. 

And tell me what is similarity between those two pictures. One picture is of “Kabir” and other is “Phodne Ka Pauda”.

 

Both has Parmar Park, Ash Court 510 flat as their first residence address. Both were born here and are growing up there. Both bring freshness in life.Both are very easy to love. Both are low maintenance happiness machinery. 

by P G Dodeja

3nd Aug – 9th Aug 2015 [Late Latif]

[Note: Due to viral fever, net-connection I had not posted this blog on this sunday, so I dropped the idea. But few unlikely calls from readers, made me change my mind, 'Dher se hi, per Chiti jhani chaih'. So I am posting this today.]

Mon: Ashvin, Son in Law of Deepa and Dunesh is critically ill, on ventilator for last 6 weeks. I asked Lali what is his status? As it keeps changing, day to day. Sometimes, he is responding, sometimes he is sinking. His lungs have being infected and doctors are not able to identify the infection type, hence not able to cure him. So they have given him all known cure for infections. By law of elimination, they are in process of diagnosing disease.

Lali informed me in very sad tone, just now I received the news, he is no more.

Very sad. He leaves behind a 4-5 month old baby. Dayani family had being spared till now the harsh reality of life. Humans have ‘Life’ received in loaned from death, it is inevitable that loan we have to return, without exception. Our family faced first death episode in 1988 with Dada’s death, followed regularly with Rani – Bansi – Daddy – Prahlad – Daya – Bhagwan – Raji etc. Our intro to death was gentle, expected and bearable. On Chawla side, three sudden young deaths have left deep scars, whose impact and negative effects are still lingering in close quarters of family even after 10 years.

Dunesh – Deepa and other Dayani family members face a very uphill task of handling this biggest shock of life. 

‘Missing Kabir – Khusiram – Ladoo’ chant has started already. It is not even a week.

7^th Nov is my wedding anniversary and 7^th June is KhushiRams birthday. And Muskan celebrates every 7^th of month, her ‘ladoos’ birthday. This gave me an idea. I am going to post one picture of myself with Bindiya in a week having 7^thdate. So this is our 1^st Honey moon picture in Hotel room, Nainital, a good beginning, must say.       

 

by P G Dodeja

27th July – 2nd Aug 2015 [Kabir goes to Mumbai ]

 

26th July Sun: Officially Kabir stepped out of the house for first time on social call. He along with his mother and Nani, visited his great grandmother at Krshna Kunj. On Rinky’s demand, mummy has set her base again at Krshna Kunj. Rinky is good at emotional blackmail, she had 'pattooed' mummy for long stay in KK. 

Soon, Kabir will take his mother and Nani to Mumbai for few days. Lot of Dhwani’s relatives and friends want to meet and greet her and have a first look of KhushiRam. And she wants the change of scene, so next week, Kabir will also be available in Matunga.

Meanwhile he has learned to give wide range of expressions. Just to see if he can identify different sounds, I made variety of sounds. And to my surprise, he had good range of expressions to give me, which I named like, single eye, dimple one, toothless, not here etc. 

 And on popular demand I am uploading one picture of KhushiRam. Any good caption for this?

Is this picture connected with sounds, or he just went on in his happy mood? No clue. But one thing is sure, he has started responding to our communication with grunts or moans or buzz. And new thing which I taught him to do was how to push oneself up. 

Sat: Dhwani brought Kabir to office for the first time. And he was asleep in his mother's arm. So, I feel he is not going to follow his father with regard to work. Nor his grandfather and Great - Chachu battalion. Muskan and Akshay have returned from a very happy, enjoyable and relaxing wedding in Baroda. Full chawla gang of 40 'baratis' had a gala time over there, I missed this opportunity, specially, great photos chances. They made a sensible short and sweet trip of three days, including travel. All were together in Rajdhani, both times. Wow. 

Sun: Early morning Kashyap & Family left for Mumbai. There has being fresh land slide on Ghats, and expressway was closed from 10 to 5 am, so heavy traffic was expected. But by 7.15 they had crossed Ghats. This lucky strike is due to Kabir, as this was his first trip. And I am happy to note that he has also got traveling bug, because a> he is Dodeja, b> in spite of odd against smooth trip, his first trip to Matunga was very smooth and economical. Kashyap has investigated options like Taxi - Zoom Cab - Self Driven Car etc, but Akshay managed to arrange for Kamal Khetan's Innova for him. He gracefully gave free run for his car. So this made the trip very economical and smooth. Door to door within 3.5  hours and at cost of diesel, which is cheaper by Rs: 3.5, since last night!

And we are in month of August, traditionally the picnic/outing month. Need to wake up 'Chillam Chilli' group. It has being very long time. 

 

 

 

by P G Dodeja