MY FAVOURITE NEIGHBOUR

Once during my initial days in school, maybe class 1st, I got a homework to write an essay in English on the topic 'My Favourite Neighbour'.

I came back home and started to think which neighbour is worthy to be written about. What should be the criteria of selection? Whether it should be that uncle who gives me toffees everytime he meets me or whether it should be the aunt who shows how much she loves me by pulling out my cheeks everytime I encountered her? Well on different parameters, different names popped up.

— % &We used to live in a government quarter alloted to the officers of Water Works Department, the department in which my father served for 31 long years. So basically there was a colony consisting of 8 quarters for the families of 8 officers. So to choose my favourite neighbour I had seven options. And eventually for me as a child, it got very difficult to choose one name.

I really wanted to take help of my parents or elder sisters but probably I wanted to prove myself in front of my family that I can write an essay on my own and that too in English. I guess I had a fight with one of my sisters the other day back in which she might have said that I can't do anything on my own and that might have hurt my self pride.

— % &Highly determined as I was, I picked up a name of one of my neighbours and wrote down a two page essay on the topic. I closed the notebook and went out to play deeply happy with satisfaction. For the first time, I have completed my homework on my own. That too an English essay of two pages- cherry on the cake. My father and mother would be so proud of me when I will show them that essay. Thinking this, I was playing with my friends waiting for my father's return restlessly. Maybe that was the first time I was excited for the showcase of my first literary work.

Finally the time came. Delighted, as I was, I told my parents that today I myself have written the homework essay on the topic 'My Favourite Neighbour' without my sister's help. So I asked my father to quickly freshen up and then read the essay and tell me if I have written it good or not.

— % &To my utter surprise, as he read the very first line he started laughing. Then he showed my notebook to my sisters and they also started laughing. My mother then asked out of curiosity, " What is it you all are laughing about?"

My father read out loud the first line of my essay, " My favourite neighbour is uncle Munshi Red..." and he continued laughing followed by my sisters. My mother also joined their company. I was sure that essay is good enough to hear some praise from parents, but it was that good that they will laugh their hearts out, I never imagined.

Honestly, I didn't understood why they all are laughing. I thought maybe they are laughing because I didn't translated Munshi in English. I said, smiling shyly, "Oh, that. Actually I didn't knew the English of Munshi, but of all the neighbours I was able to translate his name in English to some extent. That's why I chose him to write this essay."— % &My father then told me that even when I had to write essay in English there was no need to translate the name.
"It's good that you used your brain to write your essay in full English but remember there is no need to translate the name. Let Munshi Lal be Munshi Lal, not Munshi Red. And by the way, English for Munshi might be clerk but you don't need it now I guess."

This was one of my silliest yet cutest mistake from my childhood. Don't you all ever wonder how amazing a child's mind is. He thinks of things so differently which might be so obvious for adults. Yet when we hear their thoughts, their questions, we are awestruck and amazed. Can you recall any such mistake that you committed in you childhood ?— % &

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Do you give Kabadiwala one side printed pages before utilising the other blank page and then buy those brown page notebooks to do rough work? Well if you ever cared to use both sides of the pages before discarding them you could have saved a lot of money spent on rough notebooks and few trees from being cut as well. Well I do it and I would like to reveal that in COVID times when we had to submit online assignments and online tests by writing on A4 sheets, I actually used these sheets fully blank on the other side without needing to buy new A4 sheets (paisa bhi bach gya, shayad kuch pedh bhi...) Demand could be halved, recycling could be made efficient by this effort because recycling mein jitni energy lagti hai usse kaafi kam reuse mein lagti hai isliye toh 3Rs mein Reuse aur Reduce, Recycle se phele attempt karne ko kaha jata hai ... So, start saving from now onwards 🤗👍

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ये ज़िन्दगी है एक फ़साना
इस फ़साने की बातें भी अजब,
दिल जो चाहता है पाना,
उसको पाने की राहें भी अजब।

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No amount of struggle or
hardwork can award you
with success if you cannot
perform at the time when
it is needed the most.
Timing plays a crucial role
alongwith your struggle
and hardwork.

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#midnightpoem becomes #goodmorningpoem for me

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Sometimes you find a path to get lost,
And sometimes you get lost to find a path.....
A momentary success, you settle for it and you fail permanently,
A faulty failure, you hustle after it and you succeed continuously.....
Sometimes life pushes you forward to pull you back ultimately,
Sometimes life pulls you back to push you forward secretly.....
A game of multiple levels and rounds, this life is,
The one who stops to hustle and try only fails here.....
When you win, be ready for the next round tougher than the last one,
When you lose, take lessons, restart and keep trying till you win to move to the next round.....

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खुश हूं कि अब दूर हूं उनसे,
अगर करीब होता,
तो शायद खुश ही न होता।

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बताए भी तो अब क्या बताए उन्हें,
मेरे अल्फ़ाज़ों की उन्हें अब कद्र कहां।

जताए भी तो अब क्या जताए उन्हें,
मेरे जज़्बातों की उन्हें अब कद्र कहां।

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Don't attack the centre, surround
from all sides.
An uneducated
mother made Chanakya win.

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Never pray to God for success and happiness, rather pray for the strength and ability to achieve that success and happiness

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