The blue sky

काय मंडळी? तोंडाला पाणी सुटलं की नाही, ब्लॉगपोस्ट चे शीर्षक वाचून? हे असं एक त्रिकुट आहे जे कधीच फेल होत नाही. नाही का? मी अजून एक दोन गोष्टी मुद्दामहून तिकडे लिहिल्या नाहीत. सांडगी मिरची, मिरगुंडं, चिकवड्या आणि पापड्या. ह्यातल्या अर्ध्या गोष्टी तर माहिती नाहीत बऱ्याच जणांना. आज संध्याकाळी जेवणाची तयारी करताना अचानक हे सगळे पदार्थ मनात आले आणि सध्या माझ्याकडे कुरडई, पापड, मिरची, मिरगुंडं हे सगळंच असल्यामुळे ते सगळं मस्त तळता तळता मी परत भूतकाळात गेले.    डोंबिवली ला आमचं पहिल्या मजल्यावर घर आहे. त्याला दोन्ही बाजूला दोन मोट्ठ्या गॅलऱ्या आहेत. त्यात आम्ही लहानपणी भातुकली, पकडापकडी, घर घर असं बरच काही खेळायचो. झाडांच्या कुंड्या हि बऱ्याच होत्या तिकडे. आई ला खूप हौस होती. त्यातला एका गॅलरी मध्ये एप्रिल आणि मे महिन्यात हमखास माझी आजी आणि मी काही ना काहीतरी वाळत घालत असायचो. साबुदाण्याच्या चिकवड्या, तांदुळाच्या पापड्या, पोह्याचे पापड, एक ना दोन. उन्ह तापली की आम्ही आत आणि आमची मांजर राखण करायला बाहेर मस्त पहुडलेली असायची. कोणाची बिशाद तिकडे एखादी चिमणी किंवा कबुतर फिरकेल ...

The bond of fathers and daughters is an exceptional one; someone has said this. But to experience it in reality, you have to either be born as a daughter or become a father to the daughter. You can't fathom the depth and nature of a father-daughter relationship from outside. My father, whom I have always called Baba is a testimony to this, and he has pampered me to the core and taught me many valuable things in my life which I try to follow. Sometimes I am successful; sometimes, I am not. He was born into a middle-class family. His father, my grandfather, had made a name for himself by his sheer hard work and dedication, and he tried to give the best to his son, my dad in whatever he could. My dad stayed in Pune and studied at the Bhosala Military School. The discipline and orderliness of the school got inculcated in him so much that even today if someone touches his things or moves things from his drawer, he immediately comes to know from the way the other person keeps things. He ...

The jinxed year 2020 is almost to an end. And Germany is gearing up for the second lockdown. All the non-essential services have stopped, and people are encouraged to be indoors and avoid unnecessary traveling and shopping. I was also in a low mood on Monday just like many others who have no answer to the question, when will the world be back to normal. When will this end? When will this massacre stop?  The year 2020 dealt one more blow to all of us, the school friends, the 1995 year SSC pass-out batch of Kidland English School in Dombivli when we got the news of the demise of our head boy, who was just old as we all are. In our early 40's! We all were in rude shock, and many of us thought that it is a cruel joke someone has played on us.  We girls have a WhatsApp group, and we suddenly were talking about this person, who was no more in this world. We never saw him after school. But he was a brilliant and sharp individual. He excelled in sports and was a school topper. He was ...