Where's the party tonight?

A beautiful morning, lazily she got up. The routine of the day was to be followed, when a soft voice with a dancing tone said exquisitely, “Where’s the party tonight?”
“Hey!.. but for what?”
She is a darling daughter, Papa was soon to add “Happy Birthday! Dear!”
“Papa!……….so you all remembered” she said smilingly, looking at everyone.
The room cheered in one…” Yes!”
“Come on, celebration to be another year old??…. That’s not fair… no party please! And no ‘Happy Birthday’, she wanted to make her point.
Papa said lovingly,
“’Happy Birthday’ to you means much more
Than just having a happy day, my dear
Within these words lie lots of things,
I never get to say to you
It means I love you first of all,
Then I'm proud of you
And most of all, I guess
It means this day is special for me
As it is for you
God gave me a job of a ‘nappy changer!’
As you would delightfully know!”
She burst into laughter and added, “Oh my loving... Papa! this deserves a celebration for sure, lets have a party tonight!”.
She hugged him and said “Proud of you too, Papa”.
Small fingers on Casio
playing a birthday song,
The cake tasted so sweet
never like before
Everything's been different,
All the day long
Lovely things have happened
Nothing has gone wrong
Nobody forgot the party
Everyone has smiled
Isn't it delicious
To be a birthday child?

Happy Independence Day!

The above photograph is of the Independence Day celebration in my locality. The building display board contained a message of Flag hosting sharp at 8.30am, I read this message a day before & made it a point to be down at the venue to witness & be a part of India celebrating its 60th Birthday on 15th August 2007.
The air was feeling fresh, the soft breeze blowing & bringing in waves of patriotic songs played in the loud speaker. The children holding ‘triranga’ in their hands running all around, the happy faces to see all over the place.
Then when we were standing still & singing the national anthem, a tiny tot asked me, “Why do we celebrate Independence day?” After the Jai Hai, Jai Hai.. I was quick to respond “We celebrate our freedom today, dear”
“Freedom…?” that was more of an enquiry from the tot than really knowing the meaning of freedom & its celebration. I realized that these kids who are born in free India to the parents who are also born in free India can hardly understand what really meant to have freedom & what really was sacrificed to achieve this.
I was lucky enough to have parents who were born before 1947 & had been a part & witnessed freedom struggle in their lives. As the snacks being served & the gathering became more crowded, I cornered myself to a place were I could get a glimpse of the National flag which was flying high more proudly. There was sense of proud within me; my throat was choked with emotions, a nostalgic feeling entered. I recalled my parents narrating me few of the incidents during those days when the REAL freedom struggle was going on. My grandfather was a Tahsildaar during the British Regime; he was posted at Wardha and later at Raipur. My father could not hold his emotions when he told us “though the job holds a high profile cadre & faithfulness towards British monopoly, his father did not leave any opportunity to help the freedom fighters. Wardha being the core center and freedom fighters coming here from far was given shelter & food by him. He did not fear the British & had guts even to go against them at times while participating into freedom struggle”. He soon bought few books gifted to him by my grandfather who was very learned & said “wish he lived more to serve his nation he loved so much”. My grandfather had an untimely death just when India was celebrating its first anniversary of Independence.
My parents witnessed the bloodshed, the trains coming with blood & dead bodies, the people leaving their homes, the fear and even death…. I could not think more and forced myself to come out all of that dreaded memories...
Its difficult to realize how much each & every person present in that era must had sacrificed to give us this freedom and an Independent nation that we proudly have today. I salute to all those unsung heroes who the history fails to remember but they were there to make it.
Independent, Sovereign, Democratic, Republic of India has guaranteed to all its citizens of freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, action, justice and equality before law etc. Let us friend now be ‘civilized’ enough to give back our motherland a small token of love & remove the problems mostly arising along the lines of religion, caste, class, gender, language and region. Come on friends, we sure can do this!
And then only we can flourish as a free spirit and India can hope for glory…….the true dream of all our freedom fighters!
LOVE YOU INDIA!

Dentists-- where would we be without them...

Yesterday I was late for my dental appointment due to heavy rains, but what surprised me on reaching the busy clinic of Dr. Sandesh Mayekar was the attendance, in spite of this rain!
This world renowned doctor has clients from rich & famous to everyone. Most of happy & beautiful faces from glamour industry. I watched the people sitting around me they did not look happy nor too pleased with their life at that moment, but still plenty of them here.
Dentists are sad to say not a popular lot, but here it did not seem to me like that. I was wondering what on earth persuades someone to want to be a dentist. I recalled my days when I had to choose a career & dental certainly was not my option.
I wondered again, why would anyone take up this job? Putting on gloves, mask and saying “Open please”, looking down the rows of teeth…. at best not a pretty sight and definitely not when something is wrong with them. There is another belief that we consider this genre lower in the medical ladder than the surgeons and only those who did not get admission into medical colleges end up as dentist.
This was true in past but the fact is today, if you measure the rate per square centimeter of work done, the dentist wins a hand on the money. I realized this when I paid 38 thousand for only a small shift of teeth to align them beautifully.
Dental science has come a long way, it is no longer a profession where pain haunts, and teeth pulled one after the other. Techniques like cosmetic dentistry makes smiles beautiful, the broken or discolored teeth repaired, etc. etc. In all the dentist ensures that our biting apparatus last & last and looks beautiful… forever, no matter even if our mouth is filled with all artificial teeth!
And they end in a glass at night!!! Hehehe……..
But I strongly believe that our key to health and longevity lies in the welfare of our teeth. They still remain the most essential part of our body. And so the poor doctor who looks after them remains important.
Today I got my answer to all my wonderings… thank God we have Dentists!