I Salute You!!!!

Today I met an attention-grabbing personality at my office, LIC international.

He came to my table with a service request and started speaking in Malayalam with a sort of North Kerala slang and I recognized him as a Malayalee. Before handing over the papers to me he got a phone call and he started speaking in Telugu without any “AAhs and Errs” and now I recognized him as a South Indian who can be a Malayalee as many of my friends fluently speak all south Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

After the phone call, he handed over the papers to me, and to my surprise, the name and sign on the paper doesn’t match what I have expected as I was expecting a typical South Indian name.

I could not control my astonishment and I enquired and found out that he was born and bought up in, Thane, Maharashtra.

Ooh!!!… So you know Marathi too other than the South Indian Languages. I asked.

Yes……and he can speak Gujarati, Punjabi, Tulu, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Arabic and Hindi and a little bit English too. His friend who came along with him said.

After the man left; to complete the service request and little bit curious too to know further about him, I took his Policy file.

I found out that, he has studied only up to Matriculation and working as Crane Operator and drawing a small Salary.

  

Dear       Dada Rao Thaku Ingole,     I Salute You………

I recognize you not as a Malayalee or South Indian.

I recognize you as a True Indian.

Epilogue

Mr Dada Rao Thaku Ingole was looking tensed when he came to my table.

He told me he will be leaving Bahrain with in a day or two as the company has terminated him.

He showed me the termination letter which states the reason that, he took part in the strike against the Company Management.

I was not a party to it. He said

I was passing through the rage area and somebody took a photograph which later came to the notice of the Management. Along with the other 25 people who took part in the rage I also got terminated without seeking for explanation. He concluded

Mr Dada Rao came to my desk to transfer his policy to LIC of India.

If he happened to come to Bahrain again he will definitely come and meet me as his request can not be completed by me due to the regulations in the policy.

Too Sad....

rajaramvasudev@gmail.com

Red Chilies

Howzzaat!!!!. My Dad and his gang were      shouting in our TV room. That was 31 of October 1987, the historical day in world cup cricket. The up roaring was when Chetan Sharma took the wicket of Ken Rutherford. As an 11 year old boy, I was also eating, drinking and breathing cricket at that time. The idiom “Born with a silver spoon” can be re phrased as “Born with a cricket Ball” in my case.  But I seldom view a full length one day match as my friends wait for me to play two or three 10-10 over matches. On holidays or on vacations we will on ground full time in the scorching sun. Due to the constant Sweating and drying made my ears get infected.

On that historical day I was bed ridden, due to intense unbearable pain on my right ear, I was rolling on the bed. Seeing my state of distress, my mom thought of calling my dad to console me; and to consult a doctor in the evening.

That was when my mom reached our TV room, the wicket of Ian Smith also had fallen and Chetan Sharma is on hat trick Chance. Without knowing this stressful, nerve racking moment, my mom conveyed the message to my dad and asked him to be with me. My dad wanted to see the next ball of Chetan and he was waiting for Ewen Chatfield to come to bat.  Mom demanded his presence with me immediately and with due hesitation and irritation my dad came to my room with his mind still on hat trick.

The most influential person in my dad’s life his years old friend Mr Pappachan was also there in my room seeing my dilemma and he suggested a onetime remedy for this infection. The remedy is that, take one spoon of coconut oil, boil it and pour the hot oil through the top opening of a red Chili. Allow it to cool and once it is little warm which is bearable enough for me, nip the bottom portion of the chili and pour the oil drop by drop to my infected ear.

As instructed my mom made the things available. In the mean while some body from my dad’s gang was shouting that Ewen Chatfield on the crease and Chetan is ready to bowl. My dad’s thoughts were still on Chetan’s Hat Trick, took the Chili and nipped the bottom part keeping it just above my ear.  As he nipped the chili big the medicated oil started flowing to my ear instead of drop by drop.

Haaaaaaaa,  I screamed and rolled on my bed upper ear down.  Yes!!, as Chetan Sharna is ready to bowl, dad had forgotten that the heat should be bearable and he had poured the extreme hot oil on my ear.

Hearing my scream all the gang rushed to my room and along with my mom and Mr Pappachan, they started shouting at dad for his carelessness. In the mean time Chethan Sharma was taking his run up from the pavilion end of Vidharbha cricket Association Ground, Nagpur to bowl against Ewen Chatfield. The rest is history!.

That power-less night, I was sleeping on my dad’s lap I saw the reflection of the lantern on the bottom of dads eye lids.

During this vacation, I happened to see dad’s friend who prescribed the medicine. Seeing me he started asking me so many things for that I have not responded. In frustration he asked,Are you deaf?

I replied. Yes, your Red Chili treatment made me deaf.!!!!!!!!. Hearing that, he and my dad burst into laughter.

At last, one question remains. Where the infection has gone? If we personify the infection as a demon, he scared and ran away from my life seeing my dad and his red chili.

rajaramvasudev@gmail.com

My experiments with life

This is the Ice Breaking Speech I had given at WMC Toastmasters Club* Bahrain on 20-11-2009

The best day to plant a tree was 20 years ago.

The second best day is today……………..

Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters and my dear friends,

Warm good evening to you all…..

Yes, today is the second best day in my life….my career…

Do you know why???

I was very fortunate to attend the very first meeting of WMC TMC as a guest and it took long 6-7 years for me to join this club.

Iam finally here..Today…to give you a sip of the water…The water from the ice which has taken 6 years to melt!!!??

Friends, I am Rajaram,

 Born and brought up in a small village in Kerala, under a joint family type atmosphere. My grandma was the master and the mistress of the house …a strict disciplinarian.

Like any middle class child, my parents bought me up…by feeding Banana s and Cerilac…which turned me into the bonny baby…or shall I say…the eligible handsome bachelor that I am today!

At the age of 4, my parents arranged a teacher to teach me Malayalam alphabets and numbers with the intention that I can do good when I join the school at age 5.

Every day he used to come to my house……….to teach me …   After an hour or so, my mother used to bring him coffee. Immediately after having that, he would stop the class.

That was when An idea raised in my little mind.  If we give the coffee, in the beginning itself?? … He will

go.     Then no need to study.

So I started shouting in the beginning of the class itself…1+1=2…….. Ammaaa     Kappi….

Probably this is the first experiment in my life.

As ours was a  joint family, everybody  was always busy discussing this and that, and we kids  were not supposed to make noise.

If we made noise…then gone……..they would arrange a new tuition teacher with an instruction to load us with homework.

Friends, now you know……..Terrorists are not born…they are made..

The kid who made the least noise was considered as “Maryada Raman” and would escape…scot free!

So we all pretended to be “Maryada Purushotham Rams”…to get rid of these tuition teachers.

That can be one of the reasons that we all were introverts until we reached  college.

What do you want to become??

Probably that’s the question kids are often asked by elders.

My passions were many and varied. It ranged from Policeman to Mahout to textile sales man to tractor driver

In my teenage I wanted to become a cricketer like K Srikkanth.

Unknowing my limitations I wanted to be a singer also………

Fellow toastmasters, Do you know one thing???the president (Referring Ganapathy, my BIL who is also president of the club) of my home is Bahrain an autocrat.

Whenever I started humming a song

“Chookkar Mere Man Ko

Kiya too ne kya Irada”     

Raja   Can You Please stop it   ….. my kids are sleeping!!!!@$&*...…. that also nipped on bud

Not A BIL and BIL Business

 After my Bcom I Joined for ICWAI. That was when I started applying cost control techniques at my home too. I gave long lectures to my mother regarding how to optimally utilize available resources. I spoke to my father, how to reduce labor cost, on his agricultural activities.

They were finally fed up of my management. 

In the year 2002, my mother made a  1000.00 rupee call to my sister in Bahrain to  take the problem making child out. That’s how I put my first step in Bahrain……and thank god I don’t have a     sister in Andaman Nikobar Islands too

Today I am working with LIC International, as the officer in charge of Unit Linked Products.

I have started my MBA, Toast mastering and my driving lessons this year.

Friends, as our founder president always quote.. “A journey of 1000 miles starts from a single step.”

Yes friends I have started.

If I am something today, I believe that’s only because of that 1000.00 rupee phone call and the generous support from my brother in law………Support for everything I do except………………..Any guesses…………………. for my songs!!!!!!!!!!

I believe whatever happens in life is always for good… what matters is …. Your attitude and commitment to succeed.

So…here I am…continuing my experiments with life…crushing all that ice…spilling water…before you…to Empower my Dreams!!!

***WMC Toastmasters Club [WMC-TMC], chartered in 2003, as part of the Toastmasters International movement is the second largest Toastmaster Club in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Actively engaged in developing communication and leadership skills through the approved Toastmasters International curriculum, WMC –TMC   is recognized as a powerhouse of talents in both domains. It is today acknowledged as the most innovative of all the Toastmasters clubs in Bahrain.