Celebrate Life...!

My gratitude to Shri T K Phukan Sir,  (  former Secretary of Assam Volleyball Association ) On that December night, we the ball boys, all between 10 to 15 years old, were shivering from the cold. The last match of the day continued till mid-night.   It was the senior national volleyball championship organized by Assam Volleyball Association (AVA) at Guwahati in 1989. Exhausted after continuously performing ball boy duty for the entire day we were feeling hungry and sleepy. There were hardly any spectators on the stand, only the officials watching from the nearby stand. Just when I was waiting to hand over   the ball to the server, an elderly person came from behind , took the ball from me and said "etiya juwa vat khuwa goi, bahut rati hol" (now go and have your dinner, its already too late) . That elderly person was none other than Shri T. K Phukan Sir, a senior member of AVA. On the other corner I saw another senior official taking charge of the ballboy  ...

The Bengali speaking lady, who Ma could only recognise by face, stopped in front of our house to enquire about Ma’s health. The lady was concerned because she had not seen Ma recently during morning walks. She asked in Bengali, “Sab Bhalo tu” and Ma responded in Axomia, “Bhal bhal,” and both the ladies in their early 70’s understood each other perfectly. Their smiles reflected their genuine respect and concern for each other. As I was in Tezpur, on that particular morning Ma opened a new Amul Taza Tetra pack to prepare a special cup of tea.   Otherwise she could have managed with part of the Ek puwa   (250ml), cow milk that Abdul delivered everyday from Ashinta da’s house. Than, she tried to prepare the tea like Priyanka (my wife) prepares in Delhi by adding some extra milk. She thought I might not like the tea with less milk. That is what she thought and I have absolutely no control over her thinking…!      The ...