Sunday, April 19, 2015

Nicknames that got stuck

In public life we come across  a very large number of people , but some of them remain etched deep in  memory , either due to their peculiar habits or  the words that they  frequently and repeatedly use and utter , day in and day out , sometimes even out of  the context. In my service  career spanning  exactly thirty five years , I have  also come across such  types  and am  amused to think  of them . I started my career in a Commercial Bank and during the seven odd years I spent there, had  two or three such  colleagues. A colleague, with  leadership  qualities ingrained  in him,  in conversation  frequently used the word  ‘Karamchari ‘ so much so that  he came to be addressed as  ‘Karamchari’ , his real name relegated  to the background. Another colleague   who’s    takia qalaam  was   ‘I  don’t  bother ‘ , soon   saw  himself being called   ‘ bother mull ’ . When  an officer  named  Moksh  joined , someone   suggested that perhaps he had mis-spelt   his name , which should have been  Mukesh . When I said that the name  Moksh  was correct and the word   meant   ‘salvation ‘,  the name  ‘Mr.Salvation’  got stuck to him.

Later when I joined Government service, such instances  appeared again. In my tenure  at Pooh in tribal district of Kinnaur, I found that  an official  was referred  to as  “Matung” .It transpired that the official was a  teetotaler and once in a gathering , when a drink was offered , he said   ‘matungse’  meaning- I donot drink. But the word  got stuck as his nickname.A maternal uncle of mine came to be referred  to as   ‘ Na  Ji  Na’ as this was the  phrase he repeatedly used. A  service colleague of  my father was  known as ‘Bhai ji ‘   due to frequent use of this  word by him  while addressing others. One can add on and on  ,though these are some  glaring examples. 

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Deus ex machina :

Seated in the car with my wife at the wheel , the deflated tyre goes unnoticed during the time it takes to cover about 5km at normal speed manoeuvring curves and ascent . When we reach our destination, and stop the car for parking, someone points towards the deflated rear left side tyre . While we are cursing the unknown unseen guy who deliberately did so,when the car was parked on the road where we had gone visiting some relatives, a passer by comes and volunteers to replace the tyre ,if we have a step-in and the jack and the wheel-pana . In a few minutes the god- send replaces the tyre . While we profusely thank the nice guy, we are also left wondering about the two opposite sides of humanity .