BUSY BEE COLUMN - APRIL/MAY/JUNE

BUSY BEE COLUMN - JUNE

This is the last editorial I am writing for the Busy Bee. An unprecedented change in plans has me packing my bags all of a sudden and a gloomy sadness weighs down even while I write this. It is always so hard to say goodbye. I console myself with Thoreau “Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.” Am I glad I spread my vistas as far as Mhow! It is a surprise I wrote so little about it even when I explored and loved it so much - Its exquisite sunrises and sunsets, its vast expansive backwoods, its menagerie of flora and fauna, its changing canvas with the change in seasons, and its quaint cantonment life – its clean roads, its easy traffic, its beautifully manicured parks and boulevards and the crisp freshness of its health conscious, disciplined, respectful and dignified citizens, living in clock work constancy. I will miss it all as much as Bhavrilal’s jilebis and samosas , the monsoon pitter patter , Waqar bhai’s biryani and Jehangir, my car mechanic’s rambling natter. I will miss the awesome collection of the AWC library , parties at DSOI and Ashiana , planned picnics, impromptu barbeques and kite flying at Jam Darwaza ,Choral and Biercha .

Remembrance, the lasting perfume will waft a pang or two and leave me musing like Eliot “Footfalls echo in the memory/Down the passage which we did not take/towards the door we never opened”- What is it I left undone, unseen or unsaid? Army School Mhow of course .How can I even forget? I spent one glorious year here, as a part time counsellor, studying adolescent tricks. More than a thousand army children from all ranks come here to get educated and carve out their bright future. More than 500 tentative parents are always weighing their posting possibilities in this tiny cantonment town against the opportunities of education that this school may provide. Yet to my surprise I discovered the management has to run a highly subsidised, “self sustained” unit while juggling with insufficient funds. Teeming children may be bursting of the grossly over stuffed classrooms but neither can they turn away new admissions nor build more rooms (for lack of funds).

What confuses me so utterly is while lakhs of rupees can be contributed by institutional funds for the luxury of a new golf course why does one truly welfare project like a school have to remain so neglected? Without an additional corpus to expand and modernise how can any school ever rise above mediocrity? With no funds or facilities for any extra-curricular activities, is it a surprise then that sooner or later such places become the breeding ground of disciplinary problems? Have we lost a sense of priority or are we simply too preoccupied with the trivia to ignore such warning signs? Can we afford to compromise with the future that lies with our children?

I truly believe that if any organisation can reach out and make an immediate and overall difference in its environment it is the Army. All it needs is an order and an action plan. I set the ball rolling. I some of you reading this may set a much needed change in motion to make this Queen of the Malwa an oasis for us nomads.


BUSY BEE COLUMN - MAY


In order to avoid making this tiny column an addendum to the news laden combat magazine, I liked using information and headlines like tea leaves in a strainer here - just to add a little colour and flavour and a wee bit of zing to refresh like a morning cuppa. However I couldn’t ignore the hum this time. While small B became the centre of attention in the mainstream news, the Big BEE of the college stirred up a drive that was most laudable. Saying “No” to plastic has been a college credo, but plastic bags being as versatile as they are and irresistibly useful, managed to resurface from time to time. A ban wasn’t enough. Mrs Mohanty recently stepped up the process, making individuals responsible of keeping their immediate environment clean. A simple strategy but I was amazed at the repercussion all around. For one most of us finally resorted to carrying cloth bags around, simply to avoid the discomfort of having the paper bags tear away easily. It was the right choice to make but we didn’t have the gumption to live it. Wonder why? By the way, “Autonomy with Accountability”, is a strategy that is used extensively at school level, to induce a sense of responsibility in adolescents. Kids as we know need more than prodding to learn about rights and duties. Promises of privileges, indirect tactics and even veiled ultimatums are required, to steer them away from making the wrong moves, unlike us the grownups!!!Are we not glad that they have us to figure out all about making the right choices in life?

A gloom had set in with the last of the HC trucks trundling away. Not only the lush green lawns of their abandoned homes singed and shrivelled, soon even the ladies clubs wore a shrunken look. The brand new SC and JC courses invaded the dull heat like unanticipated summers showers. The bright and blooming Gulmohars assured that there was hope after all, even in the harshest times. Sleepless nights, frequent power cuts, regular stampede for the inverter run fan and the relentless fight with mosquitoes were all bearable till I discovered, with raving jealousy, that my civilian counterparts actually faced none of that. Irregular maintenance, lack of fund or poor equipment, I am really curious to know why we find ourselves in the throes of this sordid summer tale year after year!

However nothing was as sad as the shocking news of Lt Col TK Das passing away unexpectedly, only days after he joined SC 107. Death is the harshest fact of life. It is always easy to offer solace but difficult to recover our faith when we lose a loved one. Only in silent prayer can one find some peace then .Our heart goes out to his family in this moment of deep crisis and pain. “Asato ma sat gamaya /Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya/mrityor ma amritam gamaya”. Lead us from unreality to reality, from darkness to light, from death to immortality, we pray too.



BUSY BEE COLUMN - APRIL


The bees I think got a bitter end!
This column belonged to them,
Yet all and sundry bequeathed headlines
While they bemoaned in vain.
The trill and chills of exam fever,
The frenzied Worldcup pitch,
The Deep alto of tepid Water,
The crackling Sensex screech.
The Hurley burley marriage drums,
Of spendthrift celebrities,
The Basant sonata of colours,
With tesus blazing it.
The bugle cry of the Earth’s New Year,
The Vernal Equinox .
The rising tenor of Who’s- Who
In the latest list of Forbes.
The rubato of a robust Budget,
Its taxing falsetto.
Even a buffered Ottavio
Bellowed in his grotto.
JATM struck a false note
Amidst the election symphony
Nandigram's nagging concerto,
Took downhill the March-ing medley.
Befuddled, beleaguered, meanwhile
With their babies, bibs and bins
The bees sought harmony in consternation,
With benign grace and grin.
Beautified their little homes,
Spent each day in pining,
Ladies meets and ITLs,
Were little silver linings.
The beaches and the barbeques,
Belonged to their dreams,
The only beacon in their life,
Was the tiny ‘midterm’ gleam.
The bestial term end beguiled them
But left them in a tizzy
With the batting of an eyelid
Their men were again busy.
Who cares then who the next billionaire is?
Who cares for a beautiful sonnet?
If you know what’s good for you
Take care of the bee in your bonnet!