And the winner is ...

I was skeptic on reading a news item that metal objects could be bent, at will. I had to revise this skepticism to acceptance when my free will itself started undergoing this bending phenomenon in the presence of this kid. The person in the news item had used his psychic energy and this kid in front of me does it with pure magnetic force of smile and affection.

The sun rising in the east is normal and if it stands in front of your face, it is an event. An ear to ear grin with twinkling mischievous eyes and an authoritative voice heralds my dawn, whatever is the time, in the morning. This sun stands on raised toes, impatiently wiping the palms in eager expectations.

The agenda for the day starts with a hunting expedition to select his favourite toys. In an elaborate ritual, he opens up few cupboards, inspects, selects and then chooses a place to sit and playing with them. After a few minutes, the whole set up is abandoned with disdain and eyes the giant bear kept on a chair. Though it outweighs and dwarfs him, he manages to invite it to his boxing ring, by literally dumping it on the ground. Finding some issue with its non cooperation, he tweaks its ears a few times to express annoyance.

As you standby, as a referee, mainly to minimise his falls, he grapples with the toy bear exhibiting a boxer’s instinct. After showering few punches, he declares the match in his favour and switches over to horse riding cum bike racing. Sitting astride and by holding the hands he jumps a few times, on its tummy or back, starts riding the horse. For the motor sports he turns the hands of the toy to the left or right to steer his imaginary bike.

His vocal cords lend able support for mouthing various kinds of sounds, during these practice sessions. You wonder how he could imagine the prone bear on the floor as a horse or a motorbike. For some unknown reason he has chosen this teddy bear as his pet toy to which he will come back time and again, till bed time.

With no visible drop in the energy level, the next event is climbing over sofa, chair or a coffee table. The selected objective is always a difficult one due to height or accessibility. He does not do anything without a purpose and the objective must have something on it to attract him - toy or book or an electronic gadget. Disregarding the shortest route possible literally walks through obstacles without worrying about falls and injuries. These issues are sidelined after a brief cry to march towards the set goal. In case of unreachable heights, simply yells at you to become the stepping stone to bridge the gap. He expects you to be there when he requires such assistance. On reaching his summit, simply throws down the article of interest only to pick and place it in the same place. This is a ruse employed to keep on playing this climbing game till he gets bored with it.

Packing and unpacking or opening and closing is another favourite game to which he devotes considerable time. Cartons are opened, contents removed and repacked in deliberate wantonness. Kitchen shelves and fridge door are opened and banged shut till the hinges come off. Any interference to the activity, the intruder gets to see his annoyed face staging a range of emotions competing with the skills of a thespian.

The best attention is reserved for mechanical toys including a tricycle and pushcart. The music and flashing light from the toy is watched in wonder and then all of a sudden you hear only the silence. The reason is not far behind the toy; he has turned it over and forcefully applied his hand brake to stop the mechanical action. The poor toy must have tried valiantly to overcome the resistance and lost the battle by simply breaking down.

He spends more time in tilting and inspecting the underside of the tricycle rather than sitting on it to push the pedals.The pushcart suffers the ignominy of being always dragged, in belly up fashion, and dashed against the walls. If getting bored with these activities, he decides to stuff things in to their luggage compartments. Unable to comprehend that volume is a factor that decides the outcome, he becomes angry and stomps away.

Walking or wandering in and out of the rooms in the house is his way of breaking monotony in the schedule of activities. Standing still for a moment, on his toes, plans the route and then with a war cry tilts his neck to the right or left side and synchronises this with an  out stretched right or left hand. The best description I had come up with is like this: the left leg does not know where the right wants to go; the left hand wants to grab one thing and at the same time the right will be after something else; all the while his eyes will be darting from play-field to another.

If the agenda is only Walking, he tries to experiment different styles, on purpose. If the purpose is to exhibit skill, I am left wondering where from he had learnt all these. If it is to impress me, I am truly amazed! 

 If it is meal time, different set of activities are incorporated in to his busy schedule. Looking for stray dogs or watching a cat on the wall or the coming and goings of automobiles or activities of construction workers and so on. He goes on adding new items to this never ending list. It keeps him busy and makes you to wonder whether to feed him first or finish yours. He has even perfected a call sign, remix symphony of barking of dogs and meows of cats, to greet them on sighting and refuses to move on unless this shouting ceremony is completed!

The sun in the zenith is the period reserved for disturbing others' activities in the house. The person on the cell phone is the first victim and in a jiffy it changes hands. He readily volunteers his services in the kitchen without waiting for a request. The pressure cooker ejecting steam or the gating noise from a mixer is all the invitation he needs to run in to the kitchen. Having entered that space he does his bit to strew utensils, cereal and pulse packets on the floor or transports them to the drawing room for the fun of it.

At the slight sign of resistance to his pleasure, goes down on all fours, lowers his head and gently bangs the forehead on the floor. The initial attempts must have hurt him as he was unable to judge the distance and force to be exerted during the act. Taking the pain in his strides, he spent considerable time, to find the solution for minimum impact and perfect this form of pleading. This forehead touching scene would melt any heart and what a way to get his opinions heard!

When twilight presages sun set, this sun sits, legs folded back , in the form of “M” as if to keep the spinal column erect, in front of your tired mind and body, expecting entertainment till bed time ,that might be hours away. Brimming with excess energy, he finds ways to drain away yours first.. Spreading of a bed signals the start of bedtime activities. The giant bear is unceremoniously placed on the bed to start no hold barred punching match.

Pushing away the beaten bear, he next eyes a supine person to continue with the war games. Sitting astride, urges the person with his legs to imitate horse riding.The poor chap has to arch his tummy up and down many times, simultaneously neighing like a horse. If the kid finds the game less simulating, he slides back to sit squarely on the throat to express his displeasure at the poor horse show.

After sometime, he dismounts from the imaginary horse only to perform experiments in cosmetic surgery – lengthening of nose or ears or chin to add a dash of beauty to the face of his erstwhile horse.. All through this operation, the prone figure gets to hear a constant stream of humming as an anesthetic dosage.

Nearing the energy expenditure allocated for the day, the kid lies down on the same bed, besides the already tired and snoring old man, and falls asleep. In sleep, I the old man wish my sun to enjoy a dreamless sleep and whisper to him, “tomorrow is another day”.

From sun rise to close to midnight, this kid takes you through gravity defying manoeuvres, dabbles in a bit of chemistry, botany and animal husbandry challenging great minds such as Newton, Einstein and a host of scientists in various disciplines. By the time he calls it a day , you are ready to pack a bag or count the drops falling from an intravenous fluid bag and say “and the winner is the kid”.

The Flower vendor

For the past few months, a vendor on motor cycle was getting my curiosity aroused. Almost on all the days, I happened to see him, during my morning walks. On otherwise a dull routine, following him, as he delivered flowers at each door step - a shop, a hotel or an apartment building , made the walking more  enjoyable.

At a particular time, each morning, we happened to be in the same place. Both carried on with this routine, irrespective of the weather .Not on speaking terms yet, I simply named him as the flower man.

Why the interest in a flower vendor?

He rode his motor cycle, like a man riding a horse strung with saddle bags. But his saddle bags were filled with flowers packed in sachets for easy distribution. Is that all that held my curiosity, No!

At some of the stops, he added a few or a handful of flowers into the sachet before delivery. To make this observation I had to spend many morning walks or otherwise it would have sent a wrong signal to him that I am following him every day. Is he showing partiality to selected customers? Thus my walking turned into a guessing exercise too.

This led to some funny and near miss incidents –like trying to go through a fence mistaking it for a pathway; the rear view mirror of a speeding motorcyclist almost succeeding to dislocate my elbow joint; getting ankle deep in a puddle of dirty water, which left me feeling foolish and my pants and shoes annoyed.

With hindsight, I felt happy that none of my escapades were noticed by the flower man as he had disappeared into an apartment or was climbing the steps of a shuttered shop.

Days rolled by increasing the number ‘sighting’ of each other and slowly matured into a nodding acquaintance. Even at this point of time no verbal exchange took place. The ice was broken one day when both of us came face to face, instead of the usual passing –by-each other.

On that day both of us had changed sides, on the road, for some inexplicable reason. We managed to exchange a ‘hello’ and a brief smile.

After a few days of this “wagha gate” ceremony, he stopped me one day to introduce himself. Being a bit shy I had not ventured to do the same, much earlier than this occasion.

Now, the routine was not any more a routine and few more words travelled between us. This was set to change on a particular day, when all of sudden an unannounced downpour caught both of us scurrying for shelter. The nearest hotel, where he delivers a flower sachet, offered us refuge from the rain.

A hot coffee had the effect of loosening my tongue and with a rare camaraderie, I blurted out the question, doing merry-go-rounds in my mind – “why only to some people you deliver additional flowers and that too from a separate bag?”

From his animated talk, I gathered that he owned a flower garden and after his work in the city, goes back to tend the plants. In addition, he has cultivated a nursery and keeps it open in the afternoons for prospective customers.

As the combined sales proceeds helped him to lead a peaceful life, work was the only worship he could manage.

Coming to my question, he answered, “Some get a few more flowers and some a handful of it. The few more flowers are my offerings to the prayers or poojas. The handful goes to senior citizens living in the apartments - a gesture to reassure them, as I bring flowers to their prayers, the prayers will bring them health and happiness.In fact I even don’t know why they are living alone. I am simply following my gut feelings. That is all”

The rain and the words ceased abruptly. In the ensuing silence, his words  hung heavily on my conscience.

The Pathfinders

 One who charts a course to the unknown and comes back to lead others to that unknown can safely be called a pathfinder. This term could be adeptly applied to any one taking a bold step in any field of human endeavour. The initiative he or she had taken becomes a path breaking step. This is the brighter side of life.

The lighter side of day to day life has heroes from a different mould. These heroes (heroines, in this case, if at all they play an active role it remains invisible in the public domain)

The Mac (macadam) violators:

 

These types of pathfinders commute on the macadammed roads on bi or tetra wheelers. From “L” to permanent driving license they have broken every barrier of officialdom by their ‘soft’ stand. Once ‘licensed’, they assume that they can ‘vroom’ past no-horn zones, with out valid documents on person, practice the art of jumping signals and use the opposite lane to avoid the trouble of finding the legal U turn and ride without helmet and  headlight to using a bike as an auto rickshaw.

Our traffic policemen are smart and lay in wait to ambush these pranksters, at the most inconvenient moments and in least expected places. Near malls and multiplexes they patiently wait like a spider to pounce upon the violators. After falling in to trap, the violators start pleading, loose face - if lady love is in tow and worry about their spoiled week end jaunt. Prolonged discussions ensue culminating in a receipted fines or plea bargains.

Chastened by this, the violators meekly follow the traffic regulations for the next few days, and only to violate them again.

This ilk, of pathfinders, believes in revisiting history. Unwittingly, they help the traffic police to be on their toes- may be!

 The Intermediaries:

 This, tribe of people act as a go between or intermediaries and do everything for a consideration. The ‘quantum’ depends on the consideration of the doers involved. In this activity, the go between is the catalyst and doer is the reactor.

A dire need drives a person to air his difficulty to a sympathetic person. He or she, in turn tries out two or three contacts. Once such a contact is established, the business end is left to the involved parties. The initiator of the contacts, though a vital cog in the wheel, may get a thank you note or a cup of coffee.

The intermediary now sends out feelers, through his own networks, seeking guidance on the correct approach. The landing has to be perfect or otherwise the plan might skid on the portals of power and he is aware that a failure here will spell doom for his enterprise. In his business, the grapevine is mighty powerful.

This is easily accomplished as he frequents the premises on others’ businesses and has a sense of bearing to navigate the labyrinthine path of rules and files leading to the desired destination.

The neighbourhood restaurants or hotels act as back drop for this clandestine affair of fine tuning the details. The negotiations on consideration go on for some time. First, the seeker and facilitator participate. This is followed by the meeting between the doer and the intermediary.

In the final round, a threesome is held to thrash out the deal. It reminds the parleys conducted by a host officials before the minister enters the scene to sign on the accord, between two sovereign countries. In this case the identity of the head of doer team will not come in to public domain at all – this is the key for success and the difference.

At the end of the done deal, the catalyser remains in touch with his new customer anticipating future requirements - of both of them.

Wonder what to call this: path finding or path breaking?