Step into my shoes.

Bringing up a son or a daughter is not easy. The task becomes difficult when one of the parents is little worried about what will be lying in store for them as they begin schooling, complete graduation and end their search for a career.

The implication is manifold- finance, securing proper grading, and higher education and so on and so forth.

Parents try and maintain a constant vigil till these goals are reached one by one. If the mother is a home maker, she literally studies with them, prepares them for exams, except for writing it herself.

If she happens to be an office-goer, financial support is ensured but the constant attention, on the wards, suffers a little or becomes an additional load.

The father has only one focus – to urge them to do better and better. Some fathers do help in studies, project works and suggesting additional learning activities, all with the aim of preparing them to face education & employment goals with ease.

This attitude makes the wards to dislike the regimen. This feeling is more in students nursing their own priorities in life, different from that of father.

Few kids express their feelings openly & politely. Some resent and store it in mind. A few rebel against the constraints.
Let us meet the father of an out spoken kid. The kid has now become a professional.

It is time for the father to ask for some little help – downloading, posting, a repair or such things. The ever polite young man, reasons out when he could do them or why he could not do them.

A temporary difference of might begin and end quickly. Each side conceding, some ground. The son might find a little time to do the works or the father himself might work out alternatives.

Next, let us meet the father of a squirrel minded kid. He is a young man and has his own share of troubles - adjusting with job environment.

His father had to ask for a little assistance; e-Payments, booking /cancelling of journey tickets or such similar things – while out of station. The cell phone call from his father, inadvertently, triggers an avalanche of anger.

The stored resentments try to surface and using little harsher words, he says, “I have no time for such things and pray tell me, why I am being disturbed. I have enough work on hand and worries in the mind, will you leave me alone?”

After this exchange of words, both of them maintain silence & distance for some time and wait for the ice to thaw out, slowly. The son tries to fit in a little time to extend help or the father himself tries to complete such jobs- with the help of friends.

Finally it is time for us to meet the father of an impish minded kid. This man had shrunk his psyche, becoming sensitive, over even small issues - a closed loop of stimuli & response. He had started living in a world of his own, intolerance masking his short comings.

This professional is in the habit of getting in to some controversy or other, with his colleagues & work, day in and day out. He has failed to let go the childhood attitude of “why should I?

This attitude isolated him from forming friendships and becoming irascible.

Once, his father just asked him why he cannot share some his daily chores, in the house. This casual remark of his father only aided the pressure on the suppressed resentments, to shoot up. The volcano simply erupted, spewing rage on his parents, particularly on the father.

After waiting for the outburst to subside, the father said, “Look, we all have problems. If you were in my shoes, you would readily understand the way I still struggle to keep us all going”

Haughty that he was, the son raised his voice and said, “The same thing goes here also. To understand my difficulties, try wearing my shoes instead. You will not even last a day, in my environment”

This smouldering anger stung the father. He quietly withdrew from the scene of conflict and sat thinking for a while. The son left home for a walk in the park, to cool down.

The son stopped talking to his father and avoided being present in the same place at the same time. Wondering what he had done, the father tried to put up with this indifference. Hurt and remorse playing spoil sport.

A week after the incident, the son asked his mother, “Did you see my pair of shoes? They are not to be seen where I left them last” The mother, not liking son’s disrespectful behaviour, remained silent.

A few hours later, the father showed his wife the two pairs of new shoes he had purchased and said, “He was right; his shoes are hard and hurts. So I decided to buy shoes for both of us”

His wife stood, rooted, with a faraway look for some time and finally said, “Like father, like son! Don’t drag me in to mediate. Both of you sit together and try to clear the mess”

The impasse continued and the uneasy calm around them made the Father and son to understand the true import of the phrase “step in to my shoes”.

According to the last available indications, they are still trying to reach out to each other – holding olive branches and cactus plants.
Why only sons? Why not daughters?

Oh yeah, if you can step in to her shoes, why not?

Bystander – the muser’s mouth piece

The railway platform has a unique lawlessness of its own. The general public, that is unreserved to the elite - First AC class passengers, are joined by the station staff in creating chaos.

Here, each would vie with one another to place an obstacle in the walking space. Squatting in a huddle, lying down surrounded by number of luggage pieces, creating bottlenecks by standing in front of the Arrival/Departure display (or) mesmerized by the commercials.

The least heard (or) having the least clarity will be the station announcements. This, if audible, leaves one with a feeling that the announcer might be in a rush to catch a train.

The state of chaos worsens, when the train pulls in to the platform.

As though reading his mind, a bystander said out loud that, he wondered why the luggage van could not be attached at the rear of the rake (or) why the staff should choose the same side of the platform to haphazardly unload the parcel items, occupying the limited space available for the passengers to reach the exit. God forbid, in an emergency none could escape to the exit.

The reserved ticket holders fight to get in, even before the occupants who have completed their journey, have a chance to come out. The turmoil to get in to unreserved compartments is like getting stampeded in kumbh mela crowd.

The bystander vowed to reserve 50% of coaches in trains for unreserved passengers, if he ever became the Railway Minister

The bystander felt, the number of luggage pieces carried by the passengers was a goldmine waiting to be tapped- if the he ever becomes a minister for Railways (or) Finance minister. He was mentally coining a catchy slogan for exhorting the passengers “Shun excess weight, keep Indian Railways lean”.

Indian Railways is truly a unifying force –Books, bikes, boxes, perishables & odorous goods are transported along with human passengers. Who is concerned about the Mal-odor?

Philosophically speaking, are you not aware of the stench greeting all of us, as the train enters in to any railway station serving greater (or) minor Municipal Corporation? Then why the hue & cry about the same inside the railway station (or) in the coach?

Yes, this reminded us that the hygiene in the compartments need focused attention of  a few ministries to start with- Water, Power, Health, Food & Agriculture and of course the active  Minister of Railways.

The bystander made a mental note to involve the Human Resources Development ministry to try and educate the passengers, once the other ministries completed had their tasks.

The more the Muser thought about these things during his journeys, more and more did he become agitated. He had to make three or four journeys in a particular month. Every journey added that extra bit to the already agitated mind and finally tipped the scale.

Dictated by the bio-clock, the muser went to bed. A cauldron of agitating thoughts made him weary and sleep eluded him. Late in the night, from deep sleep, he started to shout and pleaded with the bystander to do something positive. - When, he becomes a minister.

This blood curdling whelp woke up the family members in annoyance. In unison they told him to shut up. This cavalier treatment stung him and the only he realized it was all a dream.  Annoyed getting disturbed from their cozy sleep, they rebuked him and advised to go back to sleep.

Then the realization struck him. The bystander was his own creation!

If not for 'One Legged Crow' - 1.

Muser had two other special friends, who were his colleagues. They were quite different from his other friends – composed, pragmatic and jovial. They were Mr.BV, a hostel mate like muser, and SK, who stayed with his parents near by the Company.

Due to the insistence of the duo, the muser reluctantly agreed to apply for a post in a government organization, along with them. The Government Organization was then looking for candidates with industrial experience.
The trio initially shared staying accommodation with an Administrative Officer, on pro-rata rent basis. After a year or so each one of them became eligible for individual quarters.

When the Muser became eligible for the individual quarters, he took in two of his acquaintances-Ravi & Iyer. They were working for an Electrical Engineering Company based out of Madras. Their company was carrying out erecting & commissioning of electrical switch gears and other equipments. Soon the 30’ X 12’ hall became their living quarters.

Wherever the Muser was, strains of musical notes would fill the air. Drawing from his previous experience (earthen pots & speaker elements) he came up with an idea, making his favorite singer’s voice to travel, literally, along the walls of their 30’ x 12’ hall.

Using a rotary switch (with multiple terminals), a spare tape-recorder drive motor and sets of radio speakers he designed a change-over system, which functioned flawlessly, from the 1st switch contact to the last without missing even a single musical note.

In a rare exhilarated mood, Muser invited his best friends and over cups of steaming black coffee (java-juice) he declared his home made audio system operational.

The gathering was speechless when, 30 odd speakers, sequentially played the musical notes from the tape. The song kept racing like a cyclist in a velodrome. The sight of several speaker units hanging from the wall was like bats hanging from tree branches.

Every one appreciated the ingenuity and took leave. BV, SK, Ravi & Iyer stayed back as all of them had to go for dinner together. Out of the blue sky a sudden bolt of a question struck the Muser. He was asked, by BV & SK, “What would have happened if you had not been inspired by the Lame Crow?”

Muser never expected them to remember that incident after that many years. Muser fell silent for a moment as his friends had asked that question then after 5 odd years.

Muser did not miss a beat and said “I would have joined a Pain Balm company (or) a small scale fertilizer industry (or) a pharmaceutical company”.

His confidence was due to the fact that the then Managing Director of a Balm company was his Chemistry Professor and had been renewing a job offer for the muser in his Lab. Also, his maternal uncle had influence in many Fertilizer & Pharmaceutical companies.

The Muser further said that he probably would have become a self made inventor.

He assured his friends that he would have made something of his life rather than languishing.

What the Muser did not know then was that such sound systems were going to be marketed by International Audio system manufacturers.

One Legged Crow.

The muser, when he was in his teens and early twenties, was mostly homesick. This manifested, albeit unknowingly, in to a bunking syndrome .That is, at the drop of a hat he would get into a shell and become melancholic. School & college attendance register had many absent marks against the Muser in each academic session/semester. Many a times he had been rebuked by well meaning teachers and lecturers.

Somehow he came through and landed a job in a private company. He had relatives (distant) in the company and yet the homesickness bug did not leave him. He maintained his distinct image at work too and the worst came to the fore at the wrong time.

Those were the days of power shutdowns and Industries were forced to lay-off employees in staggered manner. An employee had to work for 10 days in a month on full salary and the remaining 20/21 days was laid-off with half salary.

This was a golden opportunity for the muser to practice his craft – bunking. The muser normally did not visit his parents on these days but to his uncle (or) aunt’s house. Being a doted child, they did not question even if he overstayed. As a result, when the other employees had only 20/21 days lay-off, he voluntarily extended his lay-off periods by another week.

Initially the management did not take notice of these unauthorized absences. One day three other employees took a similar decision of bunking office (they were of course, first timers). All (including our muser) were called and told in, no uncertain terms that ‘enough was enough’. Feeling guilty but glad, the muser started to go out of the office of the Works manager.

His joy was short lived. The Works Manager told him to wait for few moments. Then, came the avalanche. The Works Manger pulled out the record for unauthorized absence(s).  Being a compassionate man, he said ‘When the company is reeling under a heavy power cuts, this behavior is unacceptable’. The only saving grace was that, for all the short coming s, muser was a technical wizard. The Works Manger told the Muser that, next time around he would no-more be an employee.

With punctured and bruised ego, muser came out of the office and somehow managed to dodge the prying questions of colleagues till end of the day.

When he was overwhelmed with sadness, the muser used to walk aimlessly for miles. He embarked on one such trip that day. The company where he worked was situated near a dam site. He started walking along the protective wall of the dammed area. The low water level mirrored the state of his morale.

Then he happened to see a crow wobbling on single leg. The crow must have lost its other leg in some accident. It was struggling to hop from place to place in search of morsels of food. Once or twice, it over balanced and fell down from the parapet wall, yet it never gave up its quest in searching for morsels.

The setting sun and the stunning performance of the lame crow disturbed the muser greatly. It was not due to pity for the lame crow, but for himself, as despite his faculties he was easily giving-in to impulsive actions based purely on emotional feelings of melancholy or homesickness (which begot what, is still a mystery).

This made him recollect the exploits of fictional character Long John Silver, real life achievers such as Admiral Nelson, Moshe Dayan and M A K Pataudi. To this list, he added the One Legged Crow. A resolve shaped up in his mind. The next day, the muser met the Works Manager and explained the change that had taken place since yesterday‘s meeting (He narrated the struggles of the One Legged Crow and it affecting his psyche).

After some time, the management as well as his friends started wondering why the muser had suddenly become an extrovert and workaholic.

May be three souls knew the secret – The WM, the crow and the Muser.

Adieu.

A dim-wit, who ha(d)s not endeared himself to enter into anybody’s good books, was asked to give his opinion on farewell parties (You see even persons not liked by many will have a few colleagues).

Not to disappoint them, the dim-wit said “Personally I hate those parties. However I would like to be given one”

His friends were taken aback.

Then he, with his characteristic bluntness replied “At least I would get to hear a few good words about me. That is why I like to be given a farewell party”

His friends are still debating whether to arrange one or not.

[The narrative though set in a specific environment, could have taken place at any month, in any organisation. This setting helps the reader spin their own yarn :) ]

Then and Now.

A dim-wit retiring in a few months’ time was asked by colleagues to speak about his feelings.

He thought thus:
In the beginning of my career I commuted to the work spot by department vehicle (none will volunteer to give me a seat) everyday. On the day of superannuation, the facility will see to that somehow I was dropped back ( the front seat is kept reserved) at my house in a Sumo/Qualis.
When I joined, a new ID was issued (had to go around collecting it) and after 30 odd years when I retire another new ID (they will come after me to give it) will be issued”.
If one agrees for a farewell party, every one will recall my contributions and the vacuum I am leaving behind. But most of the speakers were blind to my abilities & contributions when I had years of association with them!

Dim-wit remained silent for a long time and finally said “It is really no change except that 30 odd years have passed".

[The narrative though set in a specific environment , could have taken place at any month, in any organization. This setting helps the reader spin their own yarn :) ]

Grind in the mill.

Sometimes it so happens that you see a colourful brochure and get fired up in imagining that this is the equipment you have been looking, for a long time to purchase.

One a day the personnel of a particular process facility were quite taken by surprise, by the news, that new equipment has just arrived in Stores and they have the Honor of erecting, commissioning and using it.

Since it happened to be a pet project of blue-eyed boy, pressure was mounted on the facility staff to complete the works as early as possible. Day and night work was ordered and the blue-eyed boy himself supervised the works with vigour. He had already booked a flight ticket to meet and personally break the news to the Chairman.

A small gathering was on hand to witness the trial run. On went the equipment. It vibrated and shook a bit initially and then settled to a nice rhythm. Anxious faces were seen around the work area as a staff member collected a sample from the ensuing stream of crystalline material. 

The big man instructed him to immediately take it to the laboratory for particle size analysis. Not stopping with this, he moved over to a telephone and instructed the lab technician to give the result in 5 minutes. The five minute wait was stretching to 10 minutes and the big man could not hide his impatience. When the result came over phone, the enthusiasm drained from his face and voice.

He immediately chaired an emergency technical meeting. He wanted to know why there is a size reduction instead of particle classification.

A dim-wit picked up courage and philosophically said “Sir we have lost nothing. This new equipment could be used as a standby grinder”.

[The narrative though set in a specific environment , could have taken place in an organic chemical industry. This setting helps the reader spin their own yarn :) ]