Rambling! What Else You Expect Me To Do At My Age?

Dear Cheeniya sir,

Dare I say much to our benefit? You realize that grand kids have out grown you for certain things like for ex., story telling. Perhaps TV does a better job, who knows?

You are already practicing this.

Talking of older generation complaining, someone I know a decade ago, when they were in their seventies and I was a young stay at home mom with a new born and toddler would ask me "So are you still spending your time with art/shart and stuff like that". The same couple today, advised me thus "You know you have a talent that you can cherish and nourish. You are creative. When you are our age, you will look back, look at some of your work even and will have a reason to smile. Don't give up on that".

I guess everyone has growing up to do, no matter how old!

 

Dear Cheeniya Sir,

Sri Hari is right. In those days, becoming a Probationary Officer of State Bank of India is a great pride. You stand tall among so many who could not get in to SBI at the age of 23. What the Bank asked you to do in the training, how the other peers treated you and how much you enjoyed working in SBI, is a different story.

SBI is considered as a training field for most Bankers similar to what TCS is for information technology professionals. If you notice the top executives in most IT companies now, they would have worked a few years in TCS at the beginning of their career. TCS used to have golden handcuff in the form of a bond that one can't leave TCS for the same period they are posted overseas after their return to India. They were not paying the fair salaries one deserved overseas. Now because of the US legislation, all of those anomalies were removed.

Two of my wife's uncles worked in SBI and they are in the same age group as you. My father-in-law's cousin Sri V.S.Natarajan used to be the Chairman of SBI. When I worked in Keltron, a public-sector company in Kerala, I used to handle the loan applications and I was contacting Sri Margabandu, Chief General Manager of SBI in Chennai. We used to get a royal treatment in his office probably because Keltron was high profile company headed by K.P.P. Nambiar who later became the Secretary of the Department of Electronics, Government of India. All my experience dealing with SBI was very pleasant because I was not applying for loan for my personal company.

When I went and complained to a doctor in the US about fluctuating BP, he taught me a great lesson. The BP is supposed to fluctuate every minutes based on our thoughts, words and activities. If it doesn't fluctuate and remain constant, it is a sign that the person is getting ready to leave this beautiful planet.

The latest fashion in the US for all young men is to have cleanly-shaven head with a beard. Next time I visit you, I will bring a Hawaiian shirt with coconut trees drawn in it and an organic black color dye to apply to your beard. You can drop about 40-50 years of age and join hands with the college going students in the US. I will send my son's photograph, if you doubt my consoling words.

Viswa

 

Sir!!! You forget I know NO Tamil!! I tried hard, tried really hard to understand but . I understand somethings are best understood in their original language. I think I have written many a time in your ramblings what a great story teller my dad was, especially Ramayana - he glossed over everything but focused on Rama's grief as he observed Sita and his pain and things like that. He romanticized Rama and Sita for us children. I miss him a lot especially when I look at my kids and remember his stories and his enthusiasm for festivals. My dad I tell you!

I do want to tell you that story telling may have not died completely after all. My 11 and 12 year students still like it when I tell them a story or read a book and always choose me over their quiet reading time. I also like playing audio books for them and I love, absolutely love watching their attentive yet expressive faces as the story progresses. And then there is theater! It is fascinating - I am slowly falling in love with it, thanks to a student of mine who insists I watch everyone of his shows. To me, when you ramble, it is like a session of story telling - how wonderful is that? I am sure that is one of the reasons why you are adored by many here. Keep them coming!

 

@Cheeniya ,
Dear Mr Cheeniya,
I don't know how I missed your 'Senile ramblings' post.

I am older to you and if you talk about your senile ramblings now I have to chose some other word for my blabbering. You have put me under peer pressure now. All along these eight decades of my life I never felt peer pressure.
Please stop worrying about your hair loss. I got married in the year 1960 and at that time my better half did had some hair on his head and now I can't remember when he had become baldy. My brother got married in the year 1963 and my S -I-L was saying from that time he was baldy and I vigorously was opposing her. To prove her wrong I am in search of old photographs.
I have heard people telling that baldness shows wisdom. I have read somewhere mens' baldness is the sign of wisdom and wealth. Hence no need to worry about baldness,
PS

 

Dear Sri,

You have certainly reached the peak of your Rambling career in this post. The dear daughter who had greatly piqued you in the first paragraph, simply disappears in the very next paragraph, never to return back. You will probably offer senility as an easy excuse for treating the young woman so unfairly.

I am reminded of an oft-quoted essay by Tagore. In Bengali, he called it Kavyer Upekshita, which translates into The Neglected Ones in the Kavyas. He starts off with Urmila, Lakshman's wife. Tagore questions if she had received a fair deal in the hands of Valmiki, her creator. Lakshman departs for twelve (fourteen?) years in the company of the two individuals he worshipped, Rama and Sita. What happened to Urmila though during this grueling period, as her freshly blossoming youth slowly lost its lusture and languished in neglect? Valmiki even forgot to tell us where in the palace she was lost in tears as Lakshman deserted her without, probably, even taking leave of her.

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Two more characters show up in the essay. Anasuya and Priyamvada. Was Shakuntala even complete in Kanva's ashram without her two constant companions? In fact, Tagore even offers a hypothesis that Dushyanta would certainly have recognized Shakuntala, if the latter had shown up in his court with her two friends. Shakuntala was simply incomplete without her two companions. And neither Vyas nor Kalidas even realized this. See how Kalidas treats these two girls. The other characters in the play are hardly conscious of their presence once Shakuntala leaves in search of Dushyanta, or when, those who accompanied Shakuntala to Dushyanta's palace return back with the bad news. Yet, recall that these were the very two girls who pleaded the most with the irresponsible Durbasha when he released his vicious curse at the poor, lovelorn Shakuntala.

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Tagore goes on to yet another girl whom the Kavyas treated in a questionable manner. But I think I have bored you enough.

I know that you have named one of your grand-daughters Kavya. But look how you have treated her mother, not in life, but in your Ramblings (to be read Kavya).

oj