AROUND THE WORLD FOR FRUITS, FRIENDS AND NEW EXPERIENCES

THE "VERY GOOD" WEATHER OF ENGLAND

2009-12-22T18:43:00.000+05:30

I visited England first time in 1984. So it was a matter of great excitement for me. I was on my way home from Liberia, West Africa, after completing my two year teaching assignment with the University of Liberia.
One of my old friends, Balraj, lived in England. He had migrated to UK in 1965 and was living at Reading, a city about 70 km north of London. I had decided to spend a few days with him and also to see England.

Our flight landed at Heathrow airport at about 10 AM. It was the last week of March which is still cold in England. The first site to catch my attention inside the airport area after disembarking from the aircraft was the Punjabi women moving about the airport with brooms in their hands and cleaning and dusting the area. These women were wearing shalwar kameez. Though they had nicely made up faces with lipstick and rouge, but still one could judge from their dressing up and talks that they hailed from Punjab villages.
Balraj had come to Heathrow to receive me. Somehow, we missed each other. So I took a bus and reached his home at Reading. As the home was locked, so I started waiting outside. It was a nice bright sunny day. Fortunately, I did not have to wait for long as Balraj also reached back from the airport. We were very happy to see each other in England.

Balraj opened his home. His wife was at work and children at school. He asked me to keep the baggage inside and freshen up in the shortest possible time so that we could move out. He said, “Weather is really fine today. So let’s go out”. I got ready in 6-7 minutes. We sat in the car and after driving me around for 15-20 minutes, he stopped at a pub in the outskirts of city. The pub had large open area all around with beautiful old rustic style wooden benches and tables placed there. Most of the benches were occupied by English people taking beer. Everyone seemed to be happy and enjoying. Balraj said again that fortunately the weather was very good.

Now I started wondering about his repeated comments about the weather. After all what was so good in the weather on that day. I could not help asking Balraj about it. He immediately said that it was a so good sunny day. I still could not follow his point. After all what was so special if the day was sunny. We have such days in India atleast for nine months in a year. So I asked him again what was so special in weather.

Now Balraj realized that it was my first day in England. So he explained that it was very rare to have such a sunny day in that part of England. That is why he could not help saying that 3-4 times. And that was also the reason that the customers at pub were in so much jolly mood.

I was in England for 8 more days. But there was no day like that after that. It was always cloudy, dark and cold. They mostly have this kind of weather in area about 100 km around London. One cannot see sun for days together. In London city, it is fogy too, nearly same as we have at Shoghi and Shimla during the rainy season. In London, one always needs to use flash for taking pictures even during the day time.

Later many other friends including some British told me how much they crave for sunny days which were really rare in that part of England for nine months during the year. Some even told that we in India were lucky to have a sunny weather.

Balraj also told me that sometimes when there was a sunny day after a long gap, the English people felt so happy that they would apply for a day’s leave and enjoy that “very good weather”.

THE MISSING THING IN THE GAME OF BOXING – VIEW POINT OF A PUNJABI INDIAN

2009-10-23T20:38:00.000+05:30

Boxing is now gaining popularity in India as a game at national level. India got a bronze in boxing at Beijing Olympic Games. And now, the same Indian boxer Vijender, has made India proud again by securing the first rank in world in his weight category. So, sports lovers have started taking interest in this game all over the India. Boxing matches are now being held in small town schools.
However, the situation was very different 50-55 years back. Boxing as a game was played in very few elite schools of the country. It was not much known in a state like Punjab which otherwise held a very respectable position in sports because of its hockey players. Most people had seen boxing matches only in movies (there used to be no TV during those days).

So it was a moment of great excitement for all when the Northern India boxing championship matches were announced to be held at Ludhiana in 1958. I was a B.Sc.Ag. final student at that time studying at the Government Agricultural College (PAU came into existence later) located at Ghumar Mandi.

The venue for matches was Daresi Grounds. A raised arena was erected there. Chairs of 3-4 types (in commensuration with the status of visitors) had been placed put all around this arena. I do not remember exactly, how much the entry ticket was, but it should not have been much as most students of those days could not afford more than a rupee (20-25 US cents) for such events.

The matches started in the evening. Nearly all the chairs were occupied. The first rows, which had a few cushioned chairs too, were occupied by the officers from the district administration like Deputy Commissioner, SDM and other district officers. I clearly remember that there was no politician VIP. The system of making local politicians as VIP in such functions came much later.

All the spectators were waiting for the event to start with great excitement. After all, most of them were going to see boxing for the first time in their life. So they were getting somewhat impatient too.

The bouts started after about 20 minutes of the scheduled time. Well this much delay was normal in such functions. The names of boxers were announced and they would enter the arena, wait for the referee’s whistle and start fighting each other. Each match had three rounds and the winner was declared after that.

Nearly all the boxers were persons of ordinary body built. They were playing with a lot of caution probably not to loose points. So the sport was not exciting the spectators who expected that the players will be bulky freestyle wrestler type players beating each other like real life fights. Luckily, there came a boxer Pal Singh (most probably from Punjab Police). He was of medium built quite stout and looking very fearless and brave for most spectators. Unlike professional, he would stand straight in the arena and start hitting his opponent with electric speed and full force. The referee gave him some fouls too. None of his opponents could stand before him. He won every match and also got great applaud from the spectators.

There was only one pair of boxers in heavy weight category. One of them was Mr. Nakai from Police Training School Phillaur. This pair looked like wrestelers but did not impress us at all as they were played only defensive. They were no match to fighter Pal Singh who had stolen the show in the eyes of public.

The show ended after a little more than two hours. Spectators started getting up from their chairs. Everyone seemed to be happy and was commenting about this sport which he had seen for the first time. A sardarji, in his fifties was sitting in the row next to us. He remarked, “Every thing is fine in this game but one thing is badly missing.” When his companion asked him to elaborate, he said, “The players should also be permitted to hurl abuses while hitting the opponent as without a big loud abuse there is not much charm in beating the opponent ( Ghasunn marran lagey gaal kadhan dib hi izazat honi chahidi. Gaalon vagair ghasunn maran da josh ni awanda),

PAY DAY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BAGHDAD

2009-10-11T20:45:00.000+05:30

I worked as Assistant Professor of Horticulture at the College of Agriculture of the University of Baghdad in 1980-81. Incidentally, this College was located at the infamous Abu Gharaib, about 35 km outside Baghdad. However, the prison did not exist at that time. It was probably the peak period of prosperity for that country. The price of one Iraqi Dinar used to be 3.3 US dollars, probably the highest ever (Now one US dollar in Baghdad is reported to fetch 2500 Iraqi Dinars). The war with Iran had just begun two months back. All things of daily use were not only available in plenty but were also very cheap. Here in India during those days, a good cassette player used to be a dream possession for most university teachers. So Iraq used to be a highly sought after destination for foreign teaching assignments.

Iraqis paid very well to their foreign faculty, 400 dinars for a teacher with a Ph.D. degree plus five dinars for each years experience after Ph.D. My salary was fixed at 435 dinars, equivalent to 1450 US dollars. Here at Solan I used to be paid only 1136 rupees by my university. The Iraq Government allowed its expatriate employees to remit home 75 per cent of the total salary. There was no income tax. Life was quite cheap at Baghdad, even if one stayed with family. Most people could easily save half of the salary. Many even managed to save 75 per cent.

Salary used to be paid in the middle of the month, i.e. one used to be paid for January on 16th of January. The system of salary disbursement was very new and unexpected for one like me from India. I had heard the term “pay packet” before that. I always thought it to be just a business term. However, it was at Baghdad, I could see this pay packet for real.

The teachers and other staff members were asked to collect their salaries from the Accounts Office which they called MEHSABA in Arabic. This office was located at the first floor of a building in the College Campus. There was large verandah where a big table of the size of a table tennis table had been placed. Brown, letter sized paper envelopes containing fresh currency notes were placed on this table. Each envelope had the name of payee written on it. There used to be another smaller table nearby with a register placed on it. The payees were required to look for their name in this register and put signatures against their names. Then one would look for the envelope made for him in heap of envelopes and take it. That was all. No cashier or watchman on you.

The whole system was a great surprise for me. Of course the people would take out the cash from the open envelopes and count to verify the accuracy of the amount. I also did it. I found my 435 dinars intact. I asked an Iraqi colleague that what happened if the cash was found to be short. He replied that in that case one could walk into the cashier’s room and get the money found short. I said, though with a little hesitation, what if someone lied. He said that nobody did that in Iraq. I did not stop and said, “What, if some money has been stolen from the envelope.” He said that it did not happen in Iraq. It really did not happen so long I stayed there.