Lakshman's Corner

Birthday & Requiem are definitionally dichotomous . But then so are so many of our thoughts & emotions : hence I excercise the Blogger’s privilege to stick with the title .

This photo is of some six decade vintage : others in the photo have been suitably cropped out . Needless to say , the one on the left is the Blogger & the one on right to-day’s birthday boy & my late Dad : Dada as I called & remember him.

It is perhaps incredible & at the same time believable ( there I go again with my penchant for dichotomous statements ) that Dada lives on :

• in the pulsating world of www . Google search his name & one finds him in Volume 17 page 11 of the Crosfield Papers at the University of Cambridge  Centre of South Asian Studies .
• Scroll down a bit & you find him in the scroll of honours in the History of Dist 322-D of Lions International .

In my two consecutive visits to Duliajan  Assam  in the past six months , after a hiatus of 4 decades plus , the most overwhelming sentiment that I came across was that the beautiful people of Duliajan remember Dada with a lot of love & reverence , for all the good work he did out there in the fifties & the sixties of the last century. Interstingly , most ,  almost all , of these good people had never actually met Dada & yet they spoke of him as though they knew him well , through his yeoman service in the creation & early nurturing of the multi-faceted & deeply rich socio-cultural ethos of the place called Duliajan.

What better way to remember you , Dada , on your birthday than to share with you this oven-fresh feedback , so to speak , from the place you loved so much.

Cheers & ATB

I have a special  reason to dedicate my blog this evening to my late mother : Amma as I called & remember her . Herewith excerpts from my tribute to her recently at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Ladies Club of Duliajan .

” In her early fifties , Amma  suffered a cerebral stroke  which left her in a coma for several days , & bed-ridden  &  completely paralysed on one side, post-coma , described by the medical fraternity as the final milestone in her miraculous recovery from the jaws of death .

‘A disabled person who fights back is not disabled….but inspired’  was Sir Douglas Bader’s  credo  (Retd  Royal Air Force Group Captain  Sir Douglas Bader was a living legend, who , after losing both his legs in a pre-war air crash , had enlisted as a Squadron Leader with the RAF during  WWII  to play a stellar  role in the  legendary  Battle of Britain ).

His amazing story had been immortalised in the Book & the Film “ Reach for the Sky”    And he reached out to Amma  , a complete stranger , through a hand-written  letter & a personally signed copy of his book ,  to inspire her  to call on her inner strength to undergo a rigorous regime of exercise & physiotherapy to achieve re-integration into the mainstream of life. “To my way of thinking, a disabled person who achieves independence is no longer disabled”  was the inspirational message that he had delivered .

For over 20 years thereafter, Amma made every effort , as only someone with her fortitude  could , to lead as normal a life as possible . With one arm completely & one leg partially paralysed   constantly needing the support of a walking stick, she would often be in the kitchen to cook family favourites , & was very much the Lady of the Manor who refused to retire & lose a well-fought  battle against  disability.

It would make her immensely happy, if there were a way for her to know,   that the Ladies Club of Duliajan is celebrating its Golden Jubilee. She would, of course , wish the Ladies Club all success & an even more glorious future than its glorious past.  I feel honoured & privileged to be the one to convey these thoughts on her behalf. ”

Its Wimbledon season again & time to remember , almost like an annual ritual,  one Wimbledon of years ago  , when my daughter of about 8 months often watched  late-night telecasts of matches cuddled in my lap gurgling with joy every time a good shot was applauded .

Defending champion John McEnroe had already been dislodged in the Quarters by  Kevin Curren who went on  to face a very young Boris Becker in the finals ( Becker won his first Wimbledon that year to become the youngest Grand Slam winner at 17 ) .

My late mother was cremated  the day Becker beat Curren . And :  I have not watched a Wimbledon final since , for the past 27 years.

C & GN

Fayyaz , Sales Mgr Radisson , sent me an invite for a Special Father’s Day Supper event: I declined.

Tejaswini , Sales Mgr  Hyatt Regency did not : I would have gladly accepted : more to make amends for my last-hour back- out last month ( in favour of a Cricket Match ),  than to celebrate Father’s Day.

Fathers are not expected to celebrate : sons & daughters are !!

Not that I am unduly perturbed : merely concerned ( borrowed from Jaya Rao’s definitional nuances : Tamsiks are perturbed though not concerned ; Rajasik’s are both concerned and perturbed ; whereas Satviks are concerned though not perturbed ) . Why ? you might ask , correctly punctuated with a ? instead of a ! to show your bona-fide concern . The answer really is quite simple :

Circumstances over the years have ensured with monotonous regularity that I have never really had a special celebration dedicated to me : some occasional exceptions have been more as an add-on to other  more deserving occasions ( “oh btw this is also Lakshman’s Birthday” – variety ) : I call this the Nandi -Bull syndrome ( those who frequent a Shiva temple will understand what this means ) .

I do believe this has something to do with my Namkaran : contrary to the widely held belief my first name is not just a crisp Lakshman but an elongated though non-hyphenated Lakshmandas. May be my proud parents felt I was  good enough to be named after  some one in the Ramayana though not the numero uno Maryada-Purshottam : but the Pandit i/c of Nam-Karan ceremony saw in me the promise no higher than a mere Das to Lakshman ( Servant ka Servent ) . Or may be the priest in-charge was a Sikh granthee who felt I might just about make the grade of Lakshmandas , the Sevak of Bala & Mardana , the two close followers of Guru Nanak : ( Servant Kay Servant kaa Servant ) . I have never never really found out though , despite this little cobweb in mind , I have proudly held on to my full non abridged uncorrupted name assigned at birth . For a while I did contemplate a  pen-name, Ramanuj ( those with a working knowledge of Sandhi-vichhed in Hindi grammer will understand the connection ) to shoot darts at real-life characters bearing coincidental similarity to fictional characters in my inane drivel , but chose to revert to real-identity soon enough with a resolve not to fictionalise the inanities of Real Life characters : darts or no darts !!

Cheers GN & SD