Pappu
( This photo was taken when Pappu met me last time in June 2006)
Today, I talked to pappu on phone. Last time I met him during my Jalgaon visit in June 2006. He is my childhood friend. We are almost of same age and there are lots of differences between us. But certain common bonding between us , keep me attached to this person. I consider pappu as my best selfless friend I ever got in my life. We did the schooling together , he was a year younger to me , but we never felt like that since we were together for almost 8 to 9 years from his birth to till third standard. During that time we had developed common interests , like playing marbels , cricket and carrom. Marbels was our most favorite past time , in fact it was hot game during those days in colony as my brother was the king of it. Playing marbels with cards was just another form of gambling and we used to fight like anything.
At age of nine , we moved from our rented house to new rented house. The new house was just one colony away from the old colony house. Even though it was small distance, it changed the things drastically for both of us. As I grew up, I became serious with my studies and was going to old colony occasionally. The only time , I was used to be there , was during my summer break. And that was the golden time of my life as we never used to be at home for whole day. Pappu, me , Ashok, Amit , Amey all were used to move around the ITI(Industrial Training Institute) jungle which was closure from the colony. That Jalgaon summer , with sun giving you all sorts of trouble to live normally, we were used to be the most fearless gang. The major part of the day was going in playing marbels and cricket. Slowly cricket was converted into Hide and seek. I swear , we made the colony a live match stadium with our vicious voices and noises all the time. When people used to sleep peacefully, we were the culprits who were not allowing them to sleep properly in those summer days. Hide and seek took the place of all sorts of game slowly. With the increasing popularity of game in colony, it was not restricted to we five or six people, but players increased to around 20 when we allowed girls to play with us. How altruistic attitude we had those days?
All this lasted for very short time as my parents started taking my career seriously and told me about the seriousness of education. The interest in studies overwhelmed the enjoyment with friends. Slowly , I left going to the colony and was used to be there only during Ganpati Puja days. Pappu, was losing his interest in his studies as he did not get proper guidance from his parents. At one side , I was topping the school in every standard , Pappu was not even properly passing the subjects and he was just becoming push over for next standard. Around his 8th standard when I was in ninth, I told him that he should take the studies seriously. I decided to make him stronger in his weaker subjects and gave him some English Grammar lessons. Somehow he cleared his 8th standard , but he failed in 9th standard. His failure made his parents serious about him. And they made him to join my father's class. But he was never concentrating on any subjects as he was the person who was never bothered by the education's success or failure. And true to this norm, I tell you people , never judge anyone based on his success or failure in life, judge him by his nature as a human being. Pappu was never bothered about his career since he never compared himself with anybody. That was the best thing I found with Pappu. He had his own ways to live the life. He never thought of competing for anything and with anybody. He knew certain things had to happen in the life, so they will.
On one end, when I was doing good in schooling, I was becoming unsuccessful as a good human being due to my shear arrogance while the case was exactly opposite with Pappu , he was immensely popular in colony since he was the helping hand to anybody. I have not seen Pappu saying "no" to anybody after asking him for help. I consider Pappu as Narayan in Waykti aani Valli(By P.L.DeshPande).
After my 12th, I joined COEP and almost lost touch with Pappu. Even though , I was going to home during break, I was meeting him hardly. During my first year of engineering , he joined Private ITI as his interest in electrical stuff had grown. During my second year summer break, I met Pappu. I asked him about his studies and he as always told , he is not studying , but he is more interested in practical things. During the talk , we touched upon a topic on synchronous motors , and tell you people , I was defeated as I was not even learnt about synchronous motors. He talked to me on that topic for almost an hour and told me everything from principles , how he was designing it. I was aghast. I never meant anything here to compare with Pappu because I knew he was more practical person who felt that books were not meant for him , but whole world belonged to him.
After my engineering , I joined Patni Computers and was hardly going to Jalgaon , but whenever I went to Jalgaon, I did meet Pappu who had grown up now with responsibility and understanding. He had completed ITI successfully and had joined a small firm in Jalgaon along side he was helping the people in repairing their electrical stuffs e.g. Mixer, lighting in Diwali etc. and that too for free of cost. During one of Diwalis, my mother told me to call Pappu. I asked her the reason. She said to repair the lighting. Can you believe it? How much my mother had faith on him rather than her engineer son :-((? But I asked her there was no need when her own son could do the things. Even though I repaired the stuff, my mother still did not believe that I could repair more complex stuff( may be I am not). Later whenever she faced problems , she called him (as I was never at home :-)). With the search for money and success, people lose their old buddies and mets. How selfish is this life? Pappu is still popular in colony , not only old colony, but even in my existing colony. He is true Narayan who never learnt to say "No" to people who sometimes tried to take his advantage. He just helped anybody whenever he was asked for any sort of help.
Now when I am in US and feel lonely sometimes, I remember my old buddies and the image Pappu created in my mind, is still so crystal clear that I think I can not describe him fully in words. Due to time constraint , I have to finish this blog and I owe my most of the success to my family and my friend Pappu. I hope to meet him when I will be back in India during my next fall break in December 2007.
All this lasted for very short time as my parents started taking my career seriously and told me about the seriousness of education. The interest in studies overwhelmed the enjoyment with friends. Slowly , I left going to the colony and was used to be there only during Ganpati Puja days. Pappu, was losing his interest in his studies as he did not get proper guidance from his parents. At one side , I was topping the school in every standard , Pappu was not even properly passing the subjects and he was just becoming push over for next standard. Around his 8th standard when I was in ninth, I told him that he should take the studies seriously. I decided to make him stronger in his weaker subjects and gave him some English Grammar lessons. Somehow he cleared his 8th standard , but he failed in 9th standard. His failure made his parents serious about him. And they made him to join my father's class. But he was never concentrating on any subjects as he was the person who was never bothered by the education's success or failure. And true to this norm, I tell you people , never judge anyone based on his success or failure in life, judge him by his nature as a human being. Pappu was never bothered about his career since he never compared himself with anybody. That was the best thing I found with Pappu. He had his own ways to live the life. He never thought of competing for anything and with anybody. He knew certain things had to happen in the life, so they will.
On one end, when I was doing good in schooling, I was becoming unsuccessful as a good human being due to my shear arrogance while the case was exactly opposite with Pappu , he was immensely popular in colony since he was the helping hand to anybody. I have not seen Pappu saying "no" to anybody after asking him for help. I consider Pappu as Narayan in Waykti aani Valli(By P.L.DeshPande).
After my 12th, I joined COEP and almost lost touch with Pappu. Even though , I was going to home during break, I was meeting him hardly. During my first year of engineering , he joined Private ITI as his interest in electrical stuff had grown. During my second year summer break, I met Pappu. I asked him about his studies and he as always told , he is not studying , but he is more interested in practical things. During the talk , we touched upon a topic on synchronous motors , and tell you people , I was defeated as I was not even learnt about synchronous motors. He talked to me on that topic for almost an hour and told me everything from principles , how he was designing it. I was aghast. I never meant anything here to compare with Pappu because I knew he was more practical person who felt that books were not meant for him , but whole world belonged to him.
After my engineering , I joined Patni Computers and was hardly going to Jalgaon , but whenever I went to Jalgaon, I did meet Pappu who had grown up now with responsibility and understanding. He had completed ITI successfully and had joined a small firm in Jalgaon along side he was helping the people in repairing their electrical stuffs e.g. Mixer, lighting in Diwali etc. and that too for free of cost. During one of Diwalis, my mother told me to call Pappu. I asked her the reason. She said to repair the lighting. Can you believe it? How much my mother had faith on him rather than her engineer son :-((? But I asked her there was no need when her own son could do the things. Even though I repaired the stuff, my mother still did not believe that I could repair more complex stuff( may be I am not). Later whenever she faced problems , she called him (as I was never at home :-)). With the search for money and success, people lose their old buddies and mets. How selfish is this life? Pappu is still popular in colony , not only old colony, but even in my existing colony. He is true Narayan who never learnt to say "No" to people who sometimes tried to take his advantage. He just helped anybody whenever he was asked for any sort of help.
Now when I am in US and feel lonely sometimes, I remember my old buddies and the image Pappu created in my mind, is still so crystal clear that I think I can not describe him fully in words. Due to time constraint , I have to finish this blog and I owe my most of the success to my family and my friend Pappu. I hope to meet him when I will be back in India during my next fall break in December 2007.
