Chapter 1 - The Ram Household

As much surprising as it may so appear to be, it is but a fact, that the time in a human being’s life span is jus’ not sufficient enough to realize his dreams. 

Well sometimes, this Universe gives you more than you deserve, and as always, you are left, disgruntled, still yearning for more! 

A very good and a beloved friend of mine once narrated me few chronicles from his upbringing, telling me stories about how he spent the formative years of his life growin’ up in a lower-middle class family, stayin’ in a two-room rented house that graciously accommodated his forever sloggin’ parents along with his younger sibling and livin’ in a neighborhood that always had a dearth of electricity! And while listening to him I realized that all of us have a history, one that might not be too great or worth remembering, but at the same time, it might not be worth parting with either. For a better understanding, we’ll refer to my friend, henceforth, as lil’ Ram. But why Ram? That is primarily because our English teachers have imbibed in us that whatever happens in the English grammer, there is only one person who does it, and mind you, there are no points for guessing his name! That’s correct, his name is Ram!

Ram goes to school, Ram eats an apple, Ram stole his friend’s pencil, so on and so forth. It is like that poor kid is one hell of a do-er, doing all kinds of stuff that the teacher wants him to and simultaneously, he also ends up being a guinea pig for all his wrong doings. (Damn, my GMAT English is getting up close and personal!) I presume poor Ram would have had only one thought before the start of each day of his life –“Why Me?” Well, if my teacher couldn’t be less inconsiderate, neither would I!

It all started with the good times. Ram had a dedicated mother, jugglin’ her job, house and kids at the same time and tryin’ to strike a balance somewhere with Ram’s doting father who spent most of his time working and tryin’ to fill the needs with results. Ram narrated me how his parents bought their first air conditioner, their first video cassette recorder and their first car, a used-for-eight-years Fiat that was their prized possession!

In between all the hardships, turmoil and struggle, nevertheless, Ram insisted that he had wonderful childhood memories, those that he would wish to re-live if given a chance.

What a loser he is, I thought. Who would want to live the days when there were no computers, no plasma televisions and above all, no cell phones! What a dingbat!

Back then, the very few wishes that Ram and his family had, were restricted to the fulfillment of  their nascent luxuries that are now, bare necessities for us. A four-burner gas range, for E.g. was somethin’ that his mother had worshipped since ages, before they finally arranged the funds to buy one. However, the present circumstances make it improbable for any homemaker to stir up a meal in the absence of a mixer-grinder, a microwave oven, a sandwich grill, a non stick pan, a pressure pan, etc, to name but a few. Imagine what my good ol’ granny would have done, if she was gifted with an electric chimney during her times when black carbon monoxide laced charcoal smoke prevailed in the kitchen and LPG had not taken birth still.

Now suddenly, Ram’s mother appeared to be lucky to own that four-burner gas range. Is it not?  At least there was no carbon monoxide to asphyxiate her and I guess, she could do well even without an electric chimney! And according to Ram, she was indeed the best cook in the world. But then, isn’t everybody else’s mother too???

Being a Chef I know what cooking is! And I am told by a fellow colleague that every South Indian son would swear by his life, that his mother makes the best Sambhar on the planet! For the blissfully ignorant, Sambhar is a spicy lentil preparation from the South of India and is one of the most graceful accompaniments to almost everything that is a part of a good South Indian meal. I would agree with my colleague. Okay, I do not dispute it, at all, in fact I second that! I might not be from the South but I can promise that my mother makes the Sambhar that I think is still the best that anyone can make in the entire Milky Way or the Andromeda, or whatever you choose…!!!

For Ram, the best part of the day was the dinner time. But, Ram’s family did not have a dining table. For them their one and only bed was really very diverse in its uses and applications. Ram claims it was easy, the family used to sit on their bed and have dinner that was spread sumptuously on sheets of old newspapers and together watch the small television that was the size of the computer monitors we use today.

My Childhood was not strikingly simmilar to that of Ram's but I can bet that it must have been hectic for that poor lady, I mean Ram’s mom.

Gettin’ up early morning, sending kids to school, going for work herself, preparing breakfast for the family, packing brunches for kids, arranging for their lunch and finally after coming back from work, getting on with the family dinner… phew! And this does not include the chores that form the basis of running any household, big or small. No wonder the boy calls her the best! Oh come on, I said, instead of killing that woman from morning till night, you guys should have used a lil’ help from somewhere. But I never got an explanation for this and I guess it was too complex. The finances, the time management, the lack of maturity, the circumstances, so on and so forth. There were loads of factors that ruled the convolutions in the Ram household.

And I guess what they asked then as their wishes would have been good for them, had they been fulfilled. Today Ram comes in a Mercedes S-Class and boasts of owning 4-5 outlets that collectively earn enough to support hundreds of Ram households of the past. Yesterday, Ram bought an electronic surveillance system to guard his house during the nights and just last month, he gifted his father, a sleek four-wheel exported from the States and bought his mother world class diamond crystals from Italy.

He lives in a palatial bungalow that has a big lawn in the front and enough space to park his five cars. The Ram household has two cooks, three fulltime assistants, one gardener and one driver. Their Kitchen is equipped with Hobart machinery that cuts, slices, chops, processes and even cooks the food at the touch of a button, that in turn is operated by a hired domestic help who is as if employed only to push the buttons! A technician, present round the clock, takes care of the cooling plants and all the gadgetry in the Ram household.

Today Ram has no wishes left to be fulfilled. All he wants to do is to mint enough… okay wait! One second, did we use the word “wants”???

I arrest my case!