BAKRA! (courtesy: Angad)

As I was busy with my boring day, I hadn't imagined a surprise would be thrown in front of me. I was busy performing the 'so-called' small chores that were assigned to me by my parents (which more more often than not do amount to quite something!), my cellphone started ringing....A call for me from an unknown number!

I not such a popular guy that my cell would be ringing all the time, not even my friends added in the contacts ever call me! So, getting call from an unknown number seemed out of place! I attended the call nonetheless.

A very confident voice began, "Is it Hitesh?" I was confused at being addressed by name from someone I didn't know. He continued, " We are from PEPSICO and we are..." I thought he must be some salesman or something. But he continued "conducting a talent search mega event "xyz" (don't remember) which would be displayed on Rang channel and your name has been put forward by your principal along with Priyanshu, Rafius..." He went on to name quite a few limelight hoggers of the school (ask me, they have certificates to open a library, and enough awards and momentoes to open a museum!). And all that he said left me in intrigued as to how my name went for quizzing and other brain stuffs...But I didn't hear my gut feeling and was ecstatic that I had been placed with trust of representing my school. The gentle voice asked me to SMS my details to the number from which the call had come and report at 7:30 in the evening at the venue of shooting.

I was overjoyed and was searching for my father to tell him what had happened when a call came again and I wondered what details he had forgotten to give me. But now brought down to the earth! I was actually made a "BAKRA", by the people of Gupshup 94.3 FM. And thought, "Oh!'' And who made me the BAKRA? My buddie Angad! When they connected me to him, I said, "Tumko toh main hi mila na Bakra banane ke liye..." And there were giggles all over...

But I took the episode in a good humour (cause it meant that I was on air). So, not a bad way to go on air yaar....Hehe!

THE BEE AND THE DOVE RETOLD

Actually, we had been asked in school in the English period to frame a story, based on the outlines given. That morning, I had been studying Science in the morning. And the rest as I say in Chemistry (and not history)!!

THE BEE AND THE DOVE

Once upon a time, exactly 203 years ago, when the spring had showered beauty on the earth (on the Northern Hemisphere only because of the axis of the Earth), a bee was flying in high spirits (used in literary sense here, not alcohol).

In the search for nectar for the queen, it started performing aerodynamic stunts to amuse itself, propelling itself up and down with its wings flapping at a frequency of 50 hertz, sending series of compressions and expansions (sound waves) into the air, which caused a buzzing sound. As it tried to do a double 360 degree flip, it collided with a water lily and because of Newton’s third Law of Motion; it fell backwards into the water.

As the bee struggled for life, a dove flew past. The dove caught a glimpse of the bee with its same eyes, which it so tactfully uses to catch fish. As soon as the real image of the bee through the convex lens of the dove focussed on the retina and sensory nerves carried the information in the form of electrical impulses to the cerebrum, it decided to help the bee.

It brought a large leaf and dropped it into the tank, so that the leaf would float (since its density is less than that of water; Archimedes’s principle) and the bee would be saved. The act had the desired result. The bee flew away, this time cautiously, thanking the dove in the deep abyss of its heart (not the pumping station, but its soul).

Next it was the turn of the bee to help the dove. As a boy took an aim to hurl a stone at the dove (at around 50 km/hr), the bee got alerted (because of the adrenaline gland, if it has one like humans) and stung the boy, injecting its methanoic acid (a member of carboxylic functional group) causing immense pain to the boy. Thus the dove was saved.

Moral: One Good Deed Deserves Another

OH MOTHER!

From the operation theatre comes out a nurse- smiling with some happiness, with an expression that foretells of something good. Outside waiting is a man, a young man of about thirties who is walking forward and back, showing signs of anxiety. The nurse walks up to him and says, “Congratulations! You have become a father!” A child is born. And with the birth of a child is the birth of “MOTHER”.

How happy the mother feels when it first sees its child. Her joy knows no bounds. With great love she kisses her baby and nurtures it with great warmth and affection. The bond between the mother and her child is inexpressible.

For every child, its heart is its mother, its essence is its mother, for the child its mother is everything. The mother is the dawn – the beginning – she is the one because of whom we all are here, on this earth.

It is the mother who feeds its child when it is just a child. When the child grows up a little, the first word it learns to say is “MA”. It is the mother, under whose careful guidance, the baby takes its very first steps. It is the mother who is like the guiding star that shows the way. When the child grows up, it is the mother who teaches the child good values, morals and virtues and keeps it away from bad company. It is the mother who makes so many sacrifices in her life just to ensure that her child gets good education and comfort.

But as the child grows up, it slowly slips away from its mother’s hands. He feels he has now become a man. On the day of son’s first salary, the mother waits till late to bless her son celebrate with him this auspicious event. But the son arrives late, having already partied with his friends!

He marries against the wishes of his parents. But seeing the change in the upcoming generations, the mother gladly accepts her daughter-in-law. Now, the son begins disliking his mother, thinking her to be a burden or a nuisance who keeps interfering in all day to day matters. Conspired by his wife, he either drives the mother out of the house or starts living separately with his wife and children.

Doesn’t he value and respect the greatest treasure on the Earth who had cared for him and had thought of all his good since all these years? Doesn’t he realize how many hardships his mother had undergone and how many sacrifices his mother had made, so that he could live a good life? Doesn’t he feel guilty hurting the dignity, the self-respect of his most well-wisher?

Mothers are the angels sent by God because he himself cannot always come on the Earth. It would not be fair for us to behave in such a manner with our mother – the mother who loves us unconditionally - the mother who acted as a shield and saved us from all the evils. Can’t we repay a little to our mothers to whom we are all indebted?

The day we will understand this, we will truly understand the real meaning of ‘MOTHER’

And in the words of Honore de Balzac, “The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness”