Life is easy kya karein

When we were in school, all students wore black Bata shoes. The shoes could be bought from anywhere but I called it black Bata shoes. On Games and PT days, we wore white canvas shoes. There was always a chalk available to make our dirty shoes look white. The concept of sneakers or sports shoes came much later. It was a total foreign phenomena. If you had relatives abroad, you had chances of owning a pair of sports shoes. I learnt the word Sneakers only when I came to Mumbai. And then when the children grew up, I learnt that 'Snickers' is a brand of chocolate. I knew the word ' sniggering'. We did a bit of that in school. Learnt in my higher class  that P.T. was Physical Training. The Bata shop was the best looking shop in the whole of Jharia with red and white Laminate. We called laminate as 'Sunmica' which was brand name of the Laminate. Like I still say 'Xerox' for photocopy. All our stationary shops also put up a board saying "Xerox for Re.1...

Plastic ban has come into effect in Maharashtra. When I was leaving for my vacation it was on the anvil.  I saw with a keen eye how much plastic and paper is used all over Europe. And everything is packaged. Shops, stores n boutiques do not give you cloth bags. The office crowd is buying plastic packed ready to eat food and sitting in the park enjoying their salads n food in lovely one time use plastic containers. The disposal system is excellent so there is no litter seen anywhere. The garbage collectors are hunting through garbage cans for beer bottles. They get one euro or ten Kroners per bottle. The beggars are there at railway stations in Paris, major shopping streets in Oslo, Stockholm and Paris. The beggars collect the alcohol bottles. All beggars have their own cell phones, a suitcase and a huge plastic sac. All people who drink alcohol, do not put the bottles in the dustbin but leave it in the grass in the park for the beggars to collect. They feel they are doing their b...