Every day is a new day

 एका वस्तूचा गन्ध किव्हा त्याचे स्पर्श अनुभव कर्ण्यसाठी त्या वस्तुच्या जवळ जायलाच पाहिजे! त्यामुळे गन्ध आणि स्पर्श हे दोन इन्द्रीयानी जे आप्ले अनुभव असतात, ते अत्यन्त वैयक्तिक अस्तात। याञ्चे अनुभव मनात साठवू शकतो परन्तु पुस्त्कात किव्हा चित्रपटात पकडून ठेवू शकत नाही!

 I recently read a centre-piece written by a senior citizen for our City's newspaper. He writes that when his father bought him a bicycle, he had to get a licence from the local police station, to ride the bicycle. The police station issued him a metal plate, which he had to fix below the headlight. Now that's a far cry from today's world, in which we do not aspire to buy a bicycle anymore! That is not all. When the family bought a radio (people called it a radio set, in those days), they had to get a licence for it, from the local post office! The family paid fifteen rupees a year for this licence. Today, none of us would be willing part with a rupee, to use a radio. 

  Today morning, I passed a cow on the way back home from the milk booth. I happened to have milk, bread, biscuits and grapes in a large satchel. The cow stopped as we passed each other, and licked my arm. The natural thing would have been for me to give her something to eat. But I could not part with anything in my satchel. My ancestors lived on a farm. It might have been a small holding of a few acres. However, they had a few cows and buffaloes in a barn. They also had banana plants in the backyard, as we see in traditional Indian farmsteads. They not only had cows, they could also feed those cows! Though my ancestors might have been poor in monetary terms, they were rich in terms of the assets that mattered!

Blessed are those in whose ears falls The nectar drawn from sound of music, When autumn moonlight dispels the shade And the beloved draws near. From the Panchatantra Translated by A. N. D. Haksar

Seven notes and three octaves, Scales one and twenty, Quavers fortynine, This is the circle of sound. Three are the pauses, the lasyas six, The rasas nine the ragas six and thirty, And the bhavas there are forty. Thus the elements of music Are one hundred and eighty five, As stated in the scriptures, And by Bharata in times of yore. From the Panchatantra Translated by A. N. D. Haksar

Due to the pandemic, one of my acquaintances (let us call him Charan) decided to keep his shoes and socks outside the door at all times. When he returned from work, he would take care to leave his socks in his shoes. Since his socks were now outside the door the whole night, the mice in the neighbourhood carried them away one by one. Charan had bought new socks for his daughter, so she could wear them to school. Since his daughter attended online classes, she had no use for the socks. When he found his socks missing in the morning, he picked up a new pair of socks from his daughter's closet. The problem was that the mice did not stop at carrying away Charan's socks, they carried away his daughter's socks too! Now Charan is back to square one. He needs to buy new socks for himself, as well as for his daughter.

I remember an incident that brought home to me the importance of being humble. This was after one of my visits to Hubli, which is my wife's hometown. My wife's family was a joint one, consisting of her grandmother, parents, brother, uncle, aunt and three young cousins. All her cousins were boys. On one of my visits, my wife's cousins told me about the Nrupatunga Hill, which was about a kilometer or so from their house. We decided to visit the hill the next day. The morning of the next day was spent in play and chatting at home. Late in the afternoon, when the heat had subsided, my wife's brother, cousins and I set out on our sojourn. First we walked past the high walls of the Hubli Sub - jail. Then, we stopped at the Hanuman temple which is beside the water reservoir that supplies the entire locality. After praying at the temple, we continued our walk and reached the long flight of steps that takes climbers a quarter of the way up. There is a winding road that sk...