Religion: My classmate, Artemizia Vaz fell for it
hook, line, and sinker. I told her that I was a Roman Hindu. She said she never
knew such a denomination existed. Roman Hindus, I explained, were a small sect
from Southern India, who went to temples Sunday mornings, decked up in dhoti
and kurta, attended mass bhajan sessions at the temple, and celebrated Diwali
on December 25. I lived a Roman Hindu for the rest of my college life. You
don’t want an ill-tempered, large, strong woman as an enemy, do you?
Godmen. I was deep asleep when my dad and mom woke me
up. It was a tented waiting area somewhere near Manohar Pukur Road I think (or
could be Sarat Bose Road…who cares anyway). Our turn to meet Elimbichapazham (Limbu) baba had come. At a godforsaken 1am. When we were ushered into this tiny room, the
baba was seated on a low stage, with a couple of his ‘bhaktas’ next to him. I
have a hazy recollection of this young man with a stubble, probably wearing
kaavi thundu…he listened to my dad’s woes, probably with amusement and
impatience; dad, who till recently was a diehard atheist had changed! Three minutes
into my dad’s rambling, he picked up a few limbus and gave it to my dad. The
meeting was abruptly over. I don’t think he spoke at all. But the message was
clear – slice, squeeze, and have the limbu straight - NOW. No diluting, no
sweetening, no nothing. “Oh what a bastard”, I probably thought, while having
my share of this potent potion.
I was of course right…the guy was one more in a long
list of conmen who came to Calcutta to milk idiotic TamBrams. And there was a
surfeit of idiots then. Many, many years later, when I brought it up with my
dad, he laughed it off. After all, this engineer too fell for the age-old
trick.
Miracles. Doodhsagar Waterfalls, Goa, 1980. It was the
usual College Biology Expedition. After we were done collecting insect, snake,
and plant samples, we headed to the waterfall. A few braves decided to swim
against the current from where the water drops off 400 or so feet to the small
‘cove’ about 100 yards away, and behind the fall. The ace swimmers in the party
asked me to swim at an angle to the current. Of course, I decided otherwise. I
headed straight for the rock about forty yards in front as my first stop. The
current was very strong but I just about managed to reach the rock, completely
exhausted. Foolish that I was, I decided to take off for the second leg, after
a very brief pause. But I slipped off the rock, and the current took me away. Too
tired to fight the current, I bobbed towards the edge of the cliff. Babuli and
Surdy saw my plight from their perch on the cove. They jumped, and rapidly swam
towards me, and caught hold of me a few meters from the precipice, and slowly
me pulling about 80 meters towards the cove. Boy! it sure was a miracle to be alive.
My classmates thought it was unfortunate. They missed seeing my name in that year's Darwin’s List.
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