My Grandfather

Books, I have always loved, right from a very young age. And this I must credit to my mother, who had a voracious appetite for reading. But there was someone equally important or probably even more who made an indelible impression on me in my formative years. My Grandfather on my fathers side, Mr. Samuel Jonas Bangera. He was a man with a strapping personality and a rigid frame, who served as a convoy in charge for the Indian army. His skin was more red than brown, and his stern look always kept the neighbours children away. In other words very few of my friends had seen the insides of my house when he was alive. He traveled all over India transporting military equipment and goods from as far as Rawalpindi to Kashmir and the far east of India. After retiring from the military, he worked for a transport company into his conclusive years. He passed away when I was 10, in 1992.

The few years that I spent with him were pretty precious to me. He was a very well read and a well traveled person. He had traveled all over India and that part of India which is now in Pakistan & Bangladesh, thanks to his job and he traveled over the rest of the world through his books. He also was a great storyteller. Whenever he narrated his stories to me, they all felt backed by the seemingly vast experience that his wrinkled skin, fastened eyes , posture and reputation, making it difficult for me to pick out reality from fables, considering my young age. For his stories were like sand mixed with clay, some from his military experiences, some from his collection of books & readers digest magazines that he so diligently subscribed to, and some from tinkle comics he read at my cousins place. He never revealed the source of his stories to me, but they all seemed magical, from another realm, or so they seem when I try to recollect them, heightened by the nostalgia that surrounds them. Later as I myself started discovering & reading his books, his sources slowly unraveled themselves to me.

We had a small rack of books, say around 4 feet long, by two feet tall and around 14 inches deep. This was his treasure trove, way beyond limits for us children, for they held his most priced treasures, his books. The books mainly were encyclopedias, books on history, geography etc. Most of them were ordered from the Selection of books that Readers Digest keeps coming out with, so most were readers digest publications. Thus you can say that the unicorn with its raised wings riding over water (the readers digest logo), was always a part of our life. My mother was the person who got to hear most of his stories, even more than my sister and myself could get. Every afternoon after she finished her household chores (I used to be in school at that time of the day) she would want to take her afternoon Nap. But My grandfather would be waiting to tell her some of his stories. So she would have to pull out a chair, and sit listening to him for a large part of the sleepy afternoons, only to be rescued by my Grandmother, so that she could get at least part of her afternoon nap.

We children also got our share of stories. But we also longed when 'Ajja' (grandfather in Kannada & other south-indian languages/dialects) would pull out a book from his trove, and show us some pictures of the wonderful places mentioned in the book. One of the books really stood out, "Natural Wonders of the World". This book had wonderful pictures of beautiful places from all over the world. In those days of doordarshan (where the popular programmes were humlog, chayageet & amchi mathi amchi manse) & the internet being eons away, these pictures were like a window to the world. Books like these certainly have very few people who will read them today, considering we have National Geographic HD & Discovery HD which we can watch on our large Flat screen televisions, and even pause, rewind and replay as many times as you want if you have DTH and the right kind of set-top box. Then there were those other books that we never got to see. The encyclopedias and his treasured 'Mysterios Regions'. I only got to read that book after he passed away. Those were books we probably would not understand when we were kids. The visuals were old odd paintings of expeditions gone wrong, or strange daguerrotypes of strange bearded explorers.

Now all those books still lie, along with the many I have added into his collection. I am sure he would be proud to see what his Grandson has done with his collection. Still, with all the new books I have added, those old ones that i grew looking up to on the high bookshelf, would always have a special place in my heart. They remind me of a man, who inspired me to read, explore the world and embrace knowledge. My gentle ajja, Samuel Johnas Bangera.

All I hear 'Anna'

"This is a write-up from sometime last year, in the heat of the Anna Hazare Movement. This wasn't published in time, so posting it now. Better late than never."


I never have been too interested in politics, be it National Politics or office politics. Though it usually has a direct impact on my life, I have always preferred to bury my head into books or other things that distract me, just like an ostrich would. Not that I am completely oblivious of it, but it doesn't interest me to warrant beyond 15-30 minutes of my attention (when I read the papers) per day.

Yet, the Jan Lokpal bill is something I cannot ignore. It is everywhere. My FB wall is clogged with write-ups and one line wisecracks against the government. People who don't understand politics much more than I do, are generously disbursing their judgments on how good or bad the Lokpal bill is to the Nation. Many copy paste the Status messages form their friends pages, and share it on their wall, as a result of similar messages being posted by numerous friends. I am glad that FB just made an update that clubs all similar messages into one status, and can be expanded on click.

Most of the FB Freedom (against corruption) fighters, fight their freedom only with their fingers. A spurt of fetid flatulence would be enough to distract them from their so-called-fight. This category would probably account for 95% of the population. The other 5% (I am usually generous with my self invented fictitious statistics) go a little farther. They probably would spare some time to attend a local "morcha" in support of anna, or would wear a gandhi topi to college, and return home with the feeling of being a freedom fighter from 1947. Delayed rang-de-basanti effect? And then a handful who have actually taken days off and are spending a lot of time at the protests at Azaad maidan etc. How many of them have actually researched into the Lokpal bill, and evaluated the Pros & Cons that come with. Not many I guess. The whole movement seems momentum based. 'Everyone wants to support Anna because everyone wants to support Anna. I don't know two hicks about the Lokpal bill, but the whole nation cannot be wrong, right?'

And then that are the ones that are against Anna. 'We support corruption, but not Anna.' There have been a group of people, a minority though, who say that the Lokpal bill is not the solution. We support anti-corruption, but not Anna Hazare. The Lokpal bill is no good, and so on and so forth.' This again seems like an extremist point of view. The Jan Lokpal Bill if drafted sensibly, could possible be one part of the many other things that we can do to fight corruption. But the problem is that the focus here is only on this one bill. What about the other gazillion areas including self introspection that needs to be looked at.

Anyways lets see where this leads too. Very soon, many would not even be able to re-collect what the lokpal bill was. Well, thats the way the cookie crumbles, isn't it?