Hats off to the Teachers

Alright. So many a times my husband had suggested me to take up the teaching job. Though, I had almost every time declined it since I am struggling with my one child at home and cannot even fathom the thought of being surrounded by 20 toddlers or teenagers. But secretly even I wanted to take up teaching since I am very good at giving the gyaan and “explaining” things in real good details. I know, that’s not the only attribute of being a teacher. The most important quality that one must possess, especially if you want to teach pre-primary or primary students, is PATIENCE, which I clearly lack.

Anyway. With COVID hit situation around the world, my daughter was lavishly enjoying her “holidays” and being away from school and seeing her parents 24 X 7 around her. Suddenly, to her utter shock, her school announced starting virtual classes. No, it was not her who was shocked, it was her mommy, uhhhh – I. She was happy but we were apprehensive about those virtual classes, that too she got the afternoon slot of 12:15 till 3:00 PM. For the first time in probably five years, I really liked my husband’s work schedule which starts post-lunch. For all these years, I would hate it. But his schedule means that most of the days, he could lend his laptop for our daughter’s classes and be around her instead of me. But an invisible pact signed among us – first preference, Mr. Husband’s laptop and time; second – mine and if both of us have any meetings/urgent office work, then it’s her grandmother’s iPad and she would go through the torture of being around her. Errr… I mean, she would be around her if she needs any assistance.

Day 1 – Connect and Bond session – went well. Kids were happy, teacher was able to engage them, and we got some time to feel happy that our daughter is happily eating away her teacher’s head.

Day 2 – Started off really well. Were amazed at her teachers’ patience and how they were handling the kids and sometimes their parents as well, since some of the kids had to also switch the online links for Language classes.

Day 3 – Oh, we have settled down now. All good. I just happened to come to the same room where my daughter was taking her classes and decided to sit down to have my lunch. That was their music class. Smiling to myself, I even went back to my school days where my music teacher would always struggle with me. And that’s when I heard one of the classmates of our daughter call out for his Music Sir’s attention.

Boy – “Sirrrrr”

Teacher – “Yes my child”

Boy – “Sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”

Teacher – “Yes beta. Tell me”

Boy – “Sirrrr. When will ma’am (their class teacher) come back? This class is soooooooo boring”

I almost missed the bite and I and my husband looked at each other with our respective mouths open.

Our Daughter – “Yes Sirrrrrrrrrr. This is such a boring class”

My mouth managed to open even more bigger.

We tried to exchange some warnings to our daughter with our big wide eyes. She was courteous enough to put herself on mute and tell us – “what? This is really a very boring class”

When we asked her why, since we saw that she was enjoying the song her teacher was teaching? She was like, “yeah, I know but its sooooooooooo boring” (while literally making a big round circle with her head and upper half body).

Thankfully, music teacher’s supporting teacher came to his rescue and engaged the kids by teaching some virtual classes protocols and igniting some excitement by telling that sir will now teach the song along with the instrument. Kids came back on track and I managed to finish up my food. Some kids here and there were like – “Sirrrr, I want to go to the washroom”, “Sir, I am hungry. I want to have food”, “Sir, when will this class get over”

Day 4 – Again, started off really well. Kids were showing off how “wonderfully” they spent the weekend. Post lunch was the Dance class.

Sir started off by making the required adjustments to the sound, laptop screen, placing kids away from laptops and so on.

One of the boys – “Sirrrrrrrrrrrrrr”

Teacher – “Yes beta. First you learn these steps and then I will listen to all of you”

Boy – “Sirrrrrrrrrrrr”

Teacher – “Yes. Tell me”

Boy – “Sirrrr. You are looking like a girl”

Teacher – “Is it? Why do you say so beta?”

(silence – clearly the boy’s parent has put him on mute while being hidden away from the camera)

Teacher – with a smile, he literally checked himself – trouser all good, t-shirt is fine, shoes all okay. “Alright beta. Doesn’t matter. Just enjoy the dance”

It’s just been four days of virtual classes and I already have two things to share - 

1. Teachers have put in immense work and dedication to make sure that they are able to teach the kids as much as  possible without wasting their year, even if that means working for longer hours by taking the same sessions twice a day or working even after the classes to prepare teaching material so that they can pass on the concepts to the kids virtually as well. Our curriculum and the teaching material were not “virtual ready” but they had made it. Hats off to all the teachers.
2. Secondly, I am not going to take up teaching ever. The way our daughter’s teachers have been handling a group of 15 toddlers with such patience and smiles on their faces, if I had been in their places, either I would have disconnected the call or given an earful to them.

We have all sort of parents.

Some of us wanted schools to start the classes, even if online, since it’s so hard to keep them engaged with our own office work and any further delay would mean a rushed session for this year. Some of us do not want online classes since it means “even more” screen time, or we don’t have proper resources to support online classes.

Some of us think that teachers cannot get or give the required attention with online classes. Some of us think that ample attention is being given.

Some of us see it as the new mechanism from schools to “extort” more money from us in the name of supporting infrastructure for virtual classes. Some of us understand that it’s required in this time when we don’t know when will schools go back to “normal” on-campus operations.

Whichever type of parents you may encounter, know this that we have immense respect for all the wonderful teachers. Their work has increased manifold. What they would teach once in a day, they now are teaching twice a day to maintain a small group for virtual classes.

All the resources which they had in school are now hand-made or managed by them.

They have to spend extra time and so much more effort to prepare teaching material so that they can pass on the concepts to their students during virtual sessions, which are so different than physical classroom sessions.

The amount of energy spent on making everyone maintain the decorum, the patience to listen to all the banters from the students and yet bringing them back on track and getting their attention to take the huge yearly syllabus forward.

From our side – whoever can afford to attend the virtual classes, we should help them by making sure that our kids – younger or older ones – understands the importance of joining the classes on time, being on mute when teacher is talking and listening to instructions properly.

It’s a different time which needs to be dealt with differently. They are trying their best to teach our kids. We better respect them and their efforts. Yeah, I do have grievances but that’s with the school. Not the teachers.

कौनसी घड़ी थी वो?

जाने कौनसी वो घड़ी थी जब दिल मे शादी करने की बात ने जगह बनाई थी
आज तक सोच रही हूँ के वो आग किसने लगायी थी

कुछ दिन पहले तक रात रात भर जागकार नए तरीके सोचती थी, के आये हुये रिश्तों में कौनसी खामी निकाली जाए
अचानक से मन में ख्याल आया के इस मिठाई को भी चखी जाए

एक दिन भाभी ने एक रिश्ता ढूंढ के मम्मी पापा को बता दिया
हमने भी बिना सोचे समझे उनमे इंटरेस्ट दिखा दिया

दिल और पेट में अजीब सी घबराहट तो तब हुई जब थोड़े ही दिनो में माता पिता उनके घर पहुंच गये
पहली बार तब एहसास हुआ के बेटा, अब तो बुरी तरह से फस गए

भगवान ने भी इतने में हार नही मानी
लड़के की पोस्टिंग उन्हीं दिनो मेरे ही शहर बैंगलोर में करवा डाली

बात फिर थोड़ी और आगे बड़ी। अंदर से फीलिंग हुई के ये पंगा तो लेना पड़ेगा
हमने सोचा, डरना क्या, कौनसा हमको कोई एक ही बार में देख कर पसंद कर लेगा

हद तो उस दिन पार हो गई जब लड़के वालों ने मिलने के बाद अगले ही  दिन हाँ कर दी
खुद को आईने में देख के भगवान को बोला, आपने तो आज लिमिट ही क्रॉस कर दी

आँखो के सामने अन्धेरा छाने लगा, फिर भी हमने हार नही मानी
शादी से बचने के अपने पुराने बहानो की लिस्ट बना डाली

एक एक करके वो बहाने मम्मी को सुनाये
वो हर बहाने को फुल्ल तोस्स (full toss) पे उड़ाये जाये

"दिल्ली का रहने वाला हैं, कितना कम बोलता हैं"
मम्मी ने कहा के इससे अच्छी बात भी भला कोई सोच सकता है

शादी से पहले मत निकालो लड़के में इतनी कमिया
वरना शादी के बाद कैसे निकलोगी हर बात में गल्तियां

2020 में पूरे हो गये हमारी शादी के 10 साल
अभी तक कुछ खास समझ नही आया हैं के किसने किसका किया है ज़्यादा बुरा हाल

चलती रहे सालो साल गाड़ी हमारी इसी confusion में
वैसे, बेटी पूरा फायदा उठाती हैं हमारी इस situation में

- निकिता

वक़्त कहाँ हैं

वक़्त कहाँ हैं किसी के पास दो पल ठहरने का
गौर से देखना अपने दोस्त को, उसके चेहरे को पढ़ने का
वो जो हसी लिये बैठा हैं मेरा दोस्त अपने चेहरे पे
अंदर की है खुशी या ज़रिया हैं गम छुपाने का
वक़्त कहाँ हैं किसी के पास दो पल ठहरने का

मैने पूछा उससे ऐ दोस्त कैसे हो तुम
उसने हस के कह दिया के बस खुश हूँ मैं, हुँ अपने काम में गुम
मैने उसकी बातों पे विश्वास करके अपने खुद के गम को दबा लिया
यही सोचा के क्या फायदा उसको अपने दुख का भागीदार बनाने का
वक़्त कहाँ हैं किसी के पास दो पल ठहरने का

- निकिता 

Human Beings - The Trivial Race

To all those

• who would ignite communal clashes for political gains
• who would smuggle things to make big bucks
• who want more power to rule the "world"
• who would stoop down to unbelievable levels to malign someone for sadistic pleasure
• who would throw acid on any who refuses their proposal
• who would curse and kill a girl child
• who cribbed that their life is hell
• who want more and more money and attention
• who did scams after scams
• who tortured and burnt their wife/daughter-in-law for dowry
• who run land, sand, drug mafias
• and many more... basically the entire human race who think that they are the supreme race and one of them will rule the entire race and the planet.

Do you now see that we are such a trivial part of the entire universe?

Do you now see that we are scared to death and confined to our nests because of an invisible virus?

That money, power, fame, land, gold, position, property - nothing, nothing is more precious than being alive, being with the family, being with loved ones.

I am ashamed that I was shouting at and fighting with my daughter when I was confined in my room attending to my office calls and all she wanted was to share the frame.

We have been sharing jokes and forwards about how difficult it is to work from home with your kids around and how we should become creative in keeping them engaged. I think they were looking for a little bit of our time and yes, engagement. Now that some of us have become creative on how to engage them while we work, I wonder where was this creativity before this forceful confinement?

My company had announced such employee friendly ways to work from home and we are figuring out how to connect with each other and share a laugh and keep everyone engaged and motivated. But the moment we would be back in the offices, all that would matter would be "meet the deliverable". I myself would shut out my daughter if I would work from home under the 'normal' circumstances because that's not an acceptable and I totally agree but I can't help but wonder why can't we be always that empathetic with each other?

This virus has made us empathetic about others - "I should be careful with my habits so I don't transmit it to anyone else and this pandemic is contained and ended." I am being careful for my family and friends, yes, but even for all those fellow human beings whom I come in contact with several times of the day without even realizing it. Yes, we are being overtly cautious but even after this ends, I hope that we all carry this empathy and hygienic habits at least 50% of what we are doing now.

We all clapped for our medics, support staff and several community helpers on 22nd March because they stepped out of their homes to be right in the center of the war zone to keep our lives going. But I clapped for those who did that genuinely and always does - not only in the hour of crisis. This applaud should also hit the hearts of those of the community helpers who does not do their duties sincerely otherwise. Yes, I am not ashamed of calling out that there are several doctors, medics, policemen, teachers and so on who run scams, take bribe and take us for a ride under the name of "I spent so much money on my education and now is the time for me to eat the fruits" theory. All of you have been blessed with a beautiful power to heal, safeguard and nurture this world. Yes. I clapped for you all also. 

But, once all of this comes to an end and we step out back onto the streets and to our workplaces, I wish all of us to step out as a lot more humble and thankful people.

Mother Earth is using up this time to rapidly recuperate from all the pollution and exploitation that we had been subjecting her to since several years non-stop. Animals are roaming around fearless because they know they will not be killed/poached.

Human race has done a lot of damage to their own home and almost every century has given us one big tight slap to introspect our actions. We cry, we suffer, we blame God and we are forgiven but every time we come out of that crisis, we come out even more meaner. 

All the mafias would be back in the business, all the 'MEN - the stronger ones' would be back harassing and raping women, all the rich and powerful kids would start using their family names for being unfair, all the politicians would restart resorting to dirty games for their vote banks, all the thankfulness would vanish, all the empathy would be limited back only for our immediate family, we will start polluting the earth with our stupid ways of living, we will throw away the sanitizers and soaps. We are a trivial yet such an asshole race. 

Kill Kill Kill

Find a girl or child alone, rape and kill her.

Someone refuses your proposal, kill them.

Someone does not give you side on the road even after your stupid honking, curse them and if possible, follow and kill them.

Not getting the property from your parents who btw nurtured you, harass them, beat them and then kill them.

A child does not complete the homework or poor parents did not pay the fees for "education/knowledge" which you impart, brutally beat up the child.

Suspect your spouse of infidelity, poison them.

Find an empty road, push the acceletor and fly and may be kill yourself and others too.

Even if you don't find an empty road but as per you, you have some emergency like going for a party or reaching office (when btw you should have left your home on time), honk honk honk and finally hit someone and injure them or kill them.

I mean, it has become so very easy and obvious to take someone's life. I don't get what I want, I can just kill someone. Not a big deal anymore...

Just spot a girl alone or get her to you in case you already know her, brutally rape her and kill her.

Such carelessness on road. Drunken driving cases, overspeeding, losing control of the vehicle, the way people mindlessly cross the roads...

I am a mother and I know how much we dreamt of and prepared to bring a new life. Nurtured her in my womb, husband took my utmost care and when she came in the world, all of us made a comfortable coocoon around her to keep her safe.

But everyday she goes away from us into this bad world who cares nothing about her or us. Who is she? Who am I? Who is my husband? Nobody will give a second's thought before overspeeding and killing me. Nobody will see how delicate the child is. Nobody will understand that my husband is the world for his family.

Some stupid youngster would get drunk, get behind the wheels of his swanky car and kill people on the road.

Yes. Do meditation. Don't think about these things. The world is beautiful. There is still some humanity left. There are good samaritans.

Everything fair but not thinking about something does not mean that its not happening and all of us are vulnerable. All of us. I can't close my eyes, meditate and say that I and my family are safe. Nothing can happen to us. It can.

When a superstar shared how he and his wife feel unsafe here and pondering to move out of India, everybody tainted them as traitors but I ask, why? They were thinking about their safety. Are you okay to see your daughter or friend being raped and murdered and still say that everything is fine? No. Everything is not fine.

My heart goes out to the young Vet doctor who sensed danger when she saw few strangers around her and her fear turned true. Raped and burnt to ashes.

I cried reading the news that a drunk BMW driver who was booked twice earlier as well for the same offence killed a young techie, whose mother is already is coma since past few monhs coz she was also hit by some vehicle at the time of her morning walk.

My blood boils when a teacher mercilessly hits a small child because his parents failed to pay the fees. You are a teacher for God's sake. You give education.

Kids sleeping next to their parents are picked up for child or sex trafficking. I can't even imagine the pain of the parents of knowing that they would never be able to see their child ever and the poor soul would be tortured, given pain, sold and thrown into a dark world.

Just because someone's daughter married a boy out of their caste, they kill them in the broad daylight?! I mean, HOW? How can a father think to kill the daughter he brought in this world just because she married someone out of their caste? You can be angry. You may not talk to her forever but kill her?

Every time I read any such news, I wonder about the moment when the accused may have thought "oh, a girl alone. Let me rape her. What will happen after that? I will burn her. Who will catch me? Nothing will happen"

or

"That idiot has guts to marry my daughter. Let me kill them both"

This is nationwide mental sickness which is catching up. We don't talk anymore. We don't argue anymore to sort out. We are not afraid anymore before committing such heinous crimes.

It's just that we don't eat human flesh but apart from that we are actually the Cannibals. Can we hang some of these cannibals? And btw, if any of the rapists would be hanged - if at all - then our 24X7 media would make him a hero during his last journey and garner sympathy for him. Will show his old parents, how he was an innocent young boy, get few illiterate ministers for debate - they themselves must have either raped or sexually assaulted many - but they would shout and debate that hanging someone is not the solution.

I say SHUT UP. Hanging them one by one and quickly is the only solution for now.

Yes. It's not okay to rape and kill someone or drink & drive and overspeed on the roads or torture your parents for property... It's not okay to do all these and yet pay some hefty amount and get out on bail, because who can kill once, can kill one more time. Yes, Country needs to be feel fearful before committing any crime. That moment when some idiot decides to commit a crime, that moment should send chills down his or her spine that if caught, I would be hanged and nobody will save me.

The only thing that we are not doing is eating human flesh but otherwise we are all Cannibals. Humans have become human prey. 

Me and the Luxury

So, I got the chance of my lifetime, well, not like complete life but something which I had been looking forward to since a long time. I was going to Pune to attend a professional training. What’s the big deal in it, you may ask. Well, for a person who had not traveled alone since past 5-6 years and have been travelling with overloaded suitcases and 3-4 handbags with an infant-turned-toddler in tow, travelling solo was an irresistible offer, that too an all-expense paid by the company trip.

Now was the time to make the bookings. While searching for a nice, clean and a comfortable hotel on the travel site with which my company have an integration (technically)/collaboration (non-technically), the hotel at the top of the list was a 5-star hotel and it was tagged as the ‘negotiated’ (aka recommended) hotel for our Company employees. For a few seconds, I had a big grin on my already big face – just so you can imagine how ugly I must be looking at that time. But then, I was like, ‘what? A 5-star hotel?! No way. It’s so expensive.’

The next closest hotel was 4K lesser than the 5-star one and I toggled between choosing the Luxury over a Budget hotel, for like almost a day or even more – may be 34 hours. No, not exactly but just writing a ‘day’ was not giving that powerful impact. ‘34’ brings that attention and reaction. Anyway. Whoever I asked in the office to help me take the decision told to ‘obviously’ go for the Luxury, since its an all-expense paid trip. Whoever I asked in my family also told to go for the luxury one since they didn’t want me to land up in a hotel which may turn out to be uncomfortable – remember, I was going solo after almost 6 years? I finally decided to go for the luxury. You may be thinking for why was I so confused, why was I even thinking to choose between a 5-star and a 4-star hotel? Because, I am a MIDDLE-CLASS lady, like literally. I am always looking for a middle path.

5-star is good and closest to office, 4-star may be good and a little far away from office – can I get any hotel in between them?

Also, I just can’t handle so much a luxury. Why? Take food. Eating in a 5-star hotel. You ought to sit formally, eat formally, conduct yourself formally. I mean why? You wanna eat, you wanna eat as you like. Order something in a 5-star hotel and you get a carefully and craft fully decorated plate with a little bite, which will cost you in 4 digits. I mean, beautifully plated food looks great in the food contests or on lifestyle channels on TV but when it is meant to be eaten, quantity matters boss.

Lift – In other ‘middle class’ hotels, you enter the lift which is overcrowded with people of all caste, creed and odour and you just hit the button for the floor you want to get to. In the 5-star hotel where I finally (and reluctantly) landed in, I was supposed to swipe my room key (which was like a credit card) and when it flashes the little green light, press the floor where I wanted to go. Hell, the light kept flashing red light. I was stuck in the lift with another family who looked like they were pro of staying in this hotel. Now, how do I ask for help, show off that I am cool when internally I knew that I was stuck and embarrassed that my key was not working? Off they got from the lift but just then the lady stopped and called out her husband in a typical squeaky voice of a middle-class wife – ‘aye, Mukes. Give me our key. Let me see if it works for her’ and I was like, oh, same pinch. (I have not forgotten the ‘h’ in Mukesh. She called him Mukes). Both of them tried their keys by inserting them in every direction but nothing worked, and an alarm was triggered. I thanked them and told them to off-board, probably the lift will take me back to the ground floor and I will take help of the staff. I came down to 7^th floor I think and entered a celebrity – the motivational speaker – Gaur Gopal Das with few of his aides. Now, I definitely cannot ask for help from a celebrity but thought to give it a try again with my key, you know, it happens with us all the time. Things don’t work the first time, then it works with someone else and then immediately we try, it works for us too. But again, my key did not work. Solid embarrassment in front of the celebrity. But then, he was kind enough to quickly gauge that and ask his aide to help me since his keys work for all the floors. He off-boarded on 5^th floor I think and I was helped by his aide. Phew!! Then I got back into my senses and realized that it was HIM!! Ufff, I had a book where I could have taken his autograph and I had a very important question to ask him. I missed all this because of that super swanky but unhelpful key.

Finally, I landed on the 18^th floor. It’s almost 10:45 PM and the corridor is all quiet and empty. Not a soul to be seen or heard. In front of my room – 1812 and the same key was to be used. I swiped it – no prizes for guessing. It did not work. I was sleepy, I had to get up early in the morning and this key refused to let me in. I tried both my keys, this side, that side but the door does not open. I dare get inside the lift again. What do I do? Why don’t people walk in the corridors of the 5-star hotel? It’s deserted. Finally, good sense prevailed, and I notice a phone in the corridor and that connected me to the front desk and I ask for help. After I put down the phone, I walk back towards my room. Thought to give one more half-hearted try with the key and I swipe it. Voila…. The door opens. Ufff, another embarrassment waiting to happen when someone will come to ‘help me open the door’ when I would already be inside.

Wow, the room is amazing, clean, scented, 2 extremely red apples on the table which confused me if they were real or just some toys, bath tub, too many lights to make the room shine, a big TV and what not. What does a typical middle-class person do in such a room? Immediately connects to the free wi-fi (to save the mobile data) and then take lots of pictures. Every angle, covering every luxurious thing. I did that too. Had a Video call with my husband and daughter with the free wi-fi and then was the time to sleep.

For a mother who has been now used to sleep in the corner of the bed since the toddler is ever growing in height (or length, if that’s correct) and keeps on playing in the bed while sleeping, going to sleep on a King Size clean bed was unbelievable. But guess what? I automatically found myself sleep in the corner of the bed. Habit, you see. In the last 5 years, I have been tuned to slip to the corner of the bed, even if it is empty. The bed is too soft and cosy, but I can’t sleep.

I wake up early and check all the toiletries given by the hotel in the room and does a virtual toss in my head – to use the free things of the hotel or stick to what I have already got with me? Use what I have already got with me, so that I can take them on the last day with me back to Hyderabad – intact. What were you thinking? I see the bath tub and a shower area. Again, does a virtual toss. Use the bath tub or the shower. Use the shower, for 2 reasons – I didn’t want to waste so much of water which will be used for a bath tub and… shhhh, I don’t know how to use the bath tub. Why to call for another embarrassment if I accidentally make the bath tub overflow?

Time to go for the included-in-room-tariff free breakfast, which means that I must use the lift again. I pray to God and get inside, swipe the card. My joy knew no bounds when I saw that little green light which meant that my key has worked this time. Oh, you should have seen my confidence boost at that moment. Those drooping shoulders suddenly were back to where they should be. Back straight, confidence in eyes and attitude, no more wrinkles on my forehead – so much a tiny little green light of a 5-star lift can do.

So much to eat and grab in the breakfast. At home, after a juice or curd or fruit-based item we don’t take tea/anything hot but at a free breakfast in a luxury hotel, everything has to be consumed, all at the same time. At home, if we are having idly, we don’t make sausages – you know, the combination is weird. But at a free breakfast in a luxury hotel, who cares. Noodles, sausages, cakes, idly, fruits, Greek yogurt, fruit juice, tea, croissant, cookies, pie – everything within those dedicated 30-45 mins. But I was so conscience. What will those suited-booted foreign officials think about me? But then I looked around to find other Indians like me who were all charged up to consume everything of that lavish buffet because they were also on the company-paid visits. That eased me out. Decided not to look at those foreigners but at the Indians like me. A casual eye contact with them would convey so much in those 2-seconds – ‘Oh, you too on company paid hotel booking’ – ‘yeah, you too. Enjoy. Who knows if you will ever stay in this luxury with your own money?’

It’s an experience to avail a luxurious stay on someone else’s expense and the experience is same for all the Middle-class Indians and I am no different. The stay was amazingly comfortable and memorable.

'Rafu' - a must listen song

Yes, I get irritated with the senseless BOLLYWOOD songs which we get to listen to everyday. But what irritates me even more is that all these musical media keep on playing such songs in loop. That way, even such songs become the ‘chart busters’, for whatever may be the definition to declare a song as a ‘chart buster’. But then because of this, some of the good songs just do not get an option to be even heard by people. Only if audience go and watch the movie, they would get to listen to them. Even then, there are high chances that people look forward to hearing the ‘chart buster’ songs of the movie and dismiss the other songs.

Anyway, to cut the story short, while driving back home yesterday while my brain was overworking due to something really stupid which happened in the office, somehow I felt that there is a very soothing song being played. By the time, I realised that, it was just about to end but thankfully, the RJ announced the name of the movie - it was ‘Rafu’ song from the movie Tumhari Sulu. Mind you, it was not a newly released movie and I had also watched it on Amazon Prime but I knew only two of its songs - Ban ja tu meri rani and recreated version of my childhood favourite song Hawa Hawai.

But ever since I searched for this song today, I am hooked on to it. Simple and nice lyrics, melodious voice of some Ronkini Gupta (honestly, I have never heard her name) and if I understand a little bit of music, only couple of instruments used. I wonder why this song was never played on FM, may be played but rarely. I am almost sure that it would not even get shortlisted in any category for any of the popular awards (though, I wish it does). Those of you who have not yet listened to this song, please do:

https://youtu.be/6AICqitg368