I could convince the family to switch off the TV and sleep early on Sunday night. They agreed and the lights were off by 11.30 and the man was snoring by 11.40.... I have to be reborn a 100 times to achieve a state where I can instantly switch on/off.
I passed out listening to Kapiel Raaj KRSchannel new videos in another 10 minutes. I dream from the moment I close my eyes. Exalted mercury gives one 24/7 brain, the flip side of having a good raj yoga. I was talking to someone on the ph in the dream and the man’s mobile was dancing (vibration mode) on the back rest of bed. I assumed it to be an emergency call from the MRI dept, disconnected the call in the dreams to attend to a call in the real world, on the other side it was the son .happy anniversary ma, what are you all doing, did you cut the cake ?, which movie are you all watching ? .. I shouted at him, we are sleeping early on a Sunday night after ages, and you decide to disturb it with your greetings, cant you hold them till tomorrow? you disturbed my sleep, and you know it will not be easy for me to go back, he said good mom, you sit and write about your painful 23 years with dad, and if you wish to take revenge upload on fb and tag him. I said thanks for the suggestion but what are you doing at this hour on phone, and what about tomorrow’s classes, he said Monday is a holiday and then we engaged in chat for a couple minutes, tutoring him about how to wash clothes etc...
In the morning when the man was getting ready I insisted he wear a new shirt, he said saza ki saalgirah koi nahi manata. I said but I will celebrate the successful completion of 100740 nights , next to a man who has different snoring patterns, and who comes up with a new tune every fortnight. He said, good that you started the day by counting your sacrifices in our relation. I said if you bowl a googly I will hit a six.
At breakfast I shared with him, about how my friends in south of india visit a temple together, followed by lavish, luxury lunch and a movie all as a part of ritual on wedding anniversary. He dint lift his eyes from The telegraph, but was quick in his reply “ begum for me work is worship, and being engaged in work is entertainment and lunch with you in office is celebration. I was clean bowled and acceded defeat to my nawab.
I wore the new suit and offered puja in the small temple at home and asked parents and dad in law if we are conducting ourselves well in life, they gave a silent nod. Happy with their validation I drove off to work happy, contained. My babhi Shakuntla Shekhawat who is more of a mother ,wouldn’t ever allow me to feel like an orphan, more so on special days, delivers a cake and flowers from Gurgaon. Much required Emotional boost for me.
As suggested by the son I ended up writing , tagging….i wanted to upload a pic too, but a cousin of mine warned the last time I uploaded a pic on anniversary about ”EVIL EYE” , hence restraining …
I want this man as a companion for the rest of my life…… I want to end it, breathing next to him till the last breath!

She has been requesting me for some time to go along with me on a Friday morning to one of the toastmaster’s session.
Every Thursday night she declares her willingness to go with me to the meeting the next day. She either has to go to school or she catches up with her working days sleep on Friday if it’s a holiday. So I don’t bother to say a yes or no.
Today morning I noticed her controlling the alarm on her phone. During vacation father daughter discuss every night about going for a jog the next morning, but they watch movies till late in the night and snore to glory in the early hours of the day.
I told her to sleep and not disturb daddy, as he has a long work day ahead. Her reply was “ma this alarm is not to go with daddy but with you to your meeting”. I said then you have to hurry up, I will not wait even a minute for you.
Before me, she was ready waiting with the car keys at the door. I asked her on the way to keep quite during the meeting and not make a fool of herself by agreeing to talk. She said don’t worry about me, you focus on your stage freight and changed the channel on stereo from Bhakti music to western.
We walked into the hall and were seated. I had a responsible role of a general evaluator to play, and as I was doing it for the first time, had wobbly knees.
But she was relaxed. When the table topics master asked for her name and her willingness to participate in the impromptu speech competition, she said a confident yes. I pressed her hand as a signal to withdraw the name. She ignored me completely.
And when her name was called to deliver the speech, she walked with confidence towards the stage; I felt awkward, embarrassed and lifted the writing pad to hide my face.
It was surprising for my senses to see a different daughter of mine there for the next couple of minutes. Humor, content, punches body language, she covered everything. And she got a big applause.
When the prizes were being announced, I dint pay any attention, I was filling the evaluation form, and to my surprise her name was announced for the best speaker ribbon. The members were generous in blessing her with confidence by honoring her with the ribbon.
I came back and shared with her dad that my Vedic astrology predictions always indicated a career in public speaking for her, a career within enclosures like studios, or hospitals, or asylums or ashrams. My forecast for her was she may become a counselor, an electronic media journalist, or a therapist.
She gave some indications of flowering in that direction today.
A day of fulfillment and reassurances for me
1) A sense of accomplishment as an astrologer
2) Overwhelmed with joy to see her speak well, much better than I do!
3) Pride to hear toastmaster TM Hemant Kumar Agarwal say, "mam learn from her ".
4) to hear Toastmaster Abha Ohri mam say, get her to the meeting more frequently.
5) Her mentors tm prateik and tm Joseph Sebastian encouraged her with some good feedback.
She is a simple girl with average performance in academics, sports, art...but we cannot write off anyone.
Our luck comes in phases called as mahadashas and antardashas.
Time can twist and turn anybody’s fate in any unimagined direction.
I have seen the luckiest, best performing children in school having a mediocre career and vice versa too.
i felt small taking a small award next to her.

I feel proud as an Indian when I hear minorities talk about how secure they feel in India in comparison to Pakistan. It is a matter of pride for us Indians.
But what irked the rest of the Indians over a period of time is when the welfare schemes for minorities became vote bank politics... when their safety has become an appeasement game. When the rules were skewed and ultimately rulers became biased.
The congress is to be blamed for this

With BJP taking the central position, and tightening the loose ends, covering the grey shades, the minorities who were used to pampering for 6 decades are feeling scrutinized and incriminated all of sudden.
And the majority population under this current government are behaving like the inheritors if this land. India belongs to every Indian. It is what it is because of all of us. If we weren’t secular we would have been another Pakistan.
Please, please stop the ridiculous fight around the cow; To respect the sentiments of the majority population the government can put a ban on cow slaughter, but beef ban is audacious.
It feels cheap to read debates centered around cow from both sides.
Muslims should voluntarily come forward and support the ban on cow slaughter, Hindus should be liberal in allowing the beef eaters their right to food.
If I draw an analogy between how it happened in India in last 70 years :-
Suppose if India = 1 family
Their only son = Muslim
Their 5 daughters = Hindus
To maintain the secular fabric of India the 1 and only son was protected and pampered, they asked the 5 daughters to compromise. the boy became arrogant with time.
But now with daughters being educated and fighting for equal rights, the boy is no longer pampered.
The boy should realize this and start respecting the girls; accept that girls cannot be suppressed anymore ; and he should stop believing that he is the privileged one because he is a minority.
we can still be 1 big happy family, protecting each other's rights.

As we have good number of friends from the army , I was more worried and involved in the discussions about standoff between indian and chinese soldiers at doklam. As we also live close to the plateau I am kind of more into every bit of news released into the media about the emerging situation.
A fortnight ago our family was Driving back from a social gathering , where army personnel too were present and everyone was discussing the impending war.
I told the man " I am going to Send you and the son to border in case of a war , go there and do your bit, I will ensure the food supplies to the soldiers at the border from siliguri , let us see off this girl to hostel and do our bit for the nation.
The girl got furious from the rear seat, and started yelling, mom you talk big, about gender equality but you actually do a Lot of discrimination between me and bhaiyya , if he can go to the border and you can help with food supplies, why can't I do my bit....

The son started "preesha you know how Mom overreacts to everything , believe me there is no war anytime soon ,and even if it is there our government is self sufficient , it will not involve civilians, even if it involves you are not even 18 to participate , so in a way mother is right we will see you off to a hostel in South india., Which irritated her even More .....
She declared with resounding confidence in her voice "I am not going to move out of siliguri and miss all the action here "... I have seen so many war movies ,I know how children can contribute, like you all I will do my bit for the nation...
I go to the office the next day and discuss about war with evey person who is into following the news. There was a common enemy and a common goal for all of us ,patriotism is such a binding factor.
That evening when we went to watch indu sarkar at inox I was louder than my usual self in reciting jana gana mana...
The war discussion fizzled out eventually and gujrats game of thrones took over our mind space ahmed patel and amit shah the floods the raga car attack came to forefront and kept us occupied.
The next week was took over by the midnight attack on an IAS officers daughter , and the bjp suddenly became beta bachao , from beti bachao . Bjp ke achhe din definitely are going on as it is getting nitish, pawar and aiadmk into its kitty!
Hatred is a hot cake , and can be easily sold , in such ambiguous times the controversy you raked up is so unnecessary hamid ansari ji.
In sports, team india is taking us into 70th independence day with joy and jubilation.
But
Even if we keep dr kafeel khan outside of it , all our progress is a fluff as we lose 67 children to a disease with bad prognosis..
Happy 71st independence day fellow indians, we need not wear our patriotism on our sleeve but we are traitors if we sheild/harbor/defend the enemies of nation in the name of caste creed, or religion!

8th nova 2016.

8th nova 2016.
I was back from Hyderabad on 6th November after giving my astrology masters 2nd year exams. Was relaxed as I submitted the research paper, the viva went very well. I invested a lot of time and energy into it. The son went back to the college after diwali break with his quota of money for 2 months. (all Rs. 500 notes)
it was a Tuesday and it was around 8pm I was in the office, looking into the accounts details looking at the due payments, usually we get done with our monthly liabilities in the first week itself, but this month it got delayed as I was out of siliguri . The cash was all ready, I would have disbursed the payments the next day, the house construction too was in progress, and so I accumulated enough cash to pay the laborers and the suppliers also.
With a happy heart, that I have enough fund to meet all the upcoming needs I closed the accounts book.
8 pm we shut the centre, the back office work takes another 10 minutes and then I leave for home. It's my routine. I was gathering the lunch box, the coffee flask and as always the TV was fixed on a news channel. I locked the cupboard, called the man in his room on the intercom and told him that I was leaving. He said he too is almost done, and is going to follow me shortly.
I was about to switch off the TV, but the anchor abruptly made an announcement that the PM is going to address the nation, and then they take an ad break.
I sensed something wrong...
my first assumption was maybe he is going to declare a full fledged war on Pakistan. And I started panicking.
We have seen so many Hollywood movies where people make cellars in their homes, where they store supplies and go hiding in crisis/when in danger. I did not plan any such space in the new house. I should have anticipated all this and designed a home, at least created some secret space In the house which even rebels cannot locate or crack. In case of an emergency where will I hide the girls, what will happen to the son, if India is cut off from the Nepal?
My mind was racing fast, within the few minutes of ad break; I created a war, put our family in danger and designed 100 methods to come out of it safely. I felt dejected that I did not enjoy the jewelry I brought in the recent times; I wish I wore it on few occasions. I created situations of joy and disaster. I was hopeless and then hopeful.
Meanwhile the ad break was over and the mitr came on TV, he started the Bashan, he looked somber but determined...
I was sure he was going to break some bad news... I waited endlessly for him to blurt the actual message.
He then proudly said rs. 500 and rs. 1000 notes will be defunct from midnight. I picked up the intercom summoned the man immediately to my room. He came, heard the news and rushed back to his room to share the same with his team. All of them assembled in my room listening to modi, all of them secretly in their head started making various plans. One of the team members rushed with his atm card to withdraw the cash. Few people have this ability to react very fast.
But I was actually happy as the news I anticipated was worse than what he announced. It was like khoda pahad nikla chuha.
Then I realized I have some hard work to do in the next few days, all the cash I accumulated to make the payments on 9th and 10th is not legal tender anymore. I have to get them changed and it is a mammoth task.
The modi on the TV suddenly looked like a sadist to me; I felt he was taking pleasure in making that announcement. But then if it is good for our nation, our children, our families then let's do it, let us face it. Let us convert it. No big deal.
That evening I made multiple calls, received equal number of them. There was panic somewhere, joy at other place, and fear at another place.
For the next few days the only work we had was to convert the currency...
A lot many interesting learning’s came my way in the ensuing days...