My Peeves Are
(with messages)
JIRARA
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© JIRARA, May 2020
Published by JIRARA
On matrubharti.com
Disclaimer: This is the work of fiction as far as all the characters, their names and the names of all the events are concerned and all these are imaginary and hence any resemblance to the persons (and their lives) dead or alive, and any places are coincidental. Even if a few events might look realistic/’real’, these are fictionalised and the associated names are changed in order to maintain their privacy, honour, and security. No intention whatsoever is meant to hurt any feelings of whosoever, irrespective of their personal/cultural beliefs, social or political inclinations, religion-orientations/practicing/philosophy, life styles, and work/business. The ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘me’, and ‘mine’ (if any used) do not necessarily mean the author of this book, and these and other such pronouns: her, hers, his, he, she, him, you, your, yours, ours, theirs…; are used for effective personification and dramatization, and the readers should not take these on their ‘own persons’.
Please Note: The readers should take these stories/verses/thoughts with/in good spirit. The presented ideas and material are based, where feasible, on readings and (thought-) analyses of scientific/other open literature (which seemed most profound and trustworthy), with as much care as possibly taken. The readers are requested to verify these notions on their own, and use their own discretion. However, these stories/verses/thoughts/ideas (mostly original) are expressed here with an intention of increasing awareness of the readers with a hope that in an overall sense, their (and ours) consciousness would be heightened (in all and multiple directions), so that we all can live our lives on this planet with true happiness, ever-lasting peace and real joy (irrespective of our orientations). The author and the publisher will not be responsible for any negative effects/situations arising as a result of reading these stories/verses and/or following the suggestions if any. No discussions/dispute of any kind will be entertained at any time and in any way, manner, and/or forum. JIRARA.
My Peeves Are (towards)/I am peeved of
(with messages)
1. Doctors who advise their patients against smoking, but they themselves smoke.
Once, I overheard one of these doctors say: It is better to smoke a cigarette than eat ice cream. It might be true that some ice creams when stored in a freeze and subjected to differing temperatures (due to electrical power fluctuations, which is too frequent in many states in our country) might be conducive to growth of bacteria; hence one should avoid eating such ice creams; but, this is not a good reason to justify smoking at all. They have a serious and moral responsibility in respect of general health of the public. In today’s times, the doctors are second mothers, or for those who believe in God, are the ‘real’ gods who can bring succour to the patients.
Message: The doctors should never send wrong signals to the public.
2. Very close (-door) neighbours who throw or push their garbage towards/in front of the entrance gate of my own house.
3. Those neighbours who frown up, and even pick up quarrels, when my wife complaints to them regarding the garbage dump, and then coolly advise us to wait for the road sweepers to come and clean it.
4. The un-common sense people who argue that you do not have any common sense.
5. Other similar neighbours who make extraneous noises even after 11:00 p.m., and continue up to 3:00 a.m. with no respect to their suffering neighbours.
These are regular offenders, despite they are reasonably educated, and have good jobs; mainly their spouses, and often their house maids. They have an ego that what they are doing is fine. This is happening in the 21st century, and also despite lot of information available on garbage management. These people think we do not have common sense, and hence we are making a big fuss about this. Similar offenders create lot of nuisance, by making too much noise, even they yell, shout, and scream. All these people are socially insensitive neighbours, and they exist in modern India.
Message: If you think, ever you have behaved like this, please learn to be more kind to your neighbours.
6. Those who might have studied a subject called ‘Civics’, i.e. Nagarikshastra (code of conduct for the citizens) in their high school syllabus, but now they do not practice it a little.
We used to study this subject in school syllabus, and used to give a lot of importance to its lessons. I do not know whether this subject is taught now a days. What is this subject about? “Civics relates to behaviour affecting other citizens, particularly in the context of urban development, and the civic education is the study of the theoretical, political and practical aspects of citizenship, as well as its rights and duties”. Unfortunately, some highly educated people with college degrees and earning a lot of salary, seem to be beyond the ‘civics sense’. They believe they do not need to follow this at all in one or more of their common-sense duties:
a) garbage management: they will open the window of their cars in motion, and throw bottles, coconut shells, and garbage out side on the roads;
b) water conservation: they use water very freely, keep their taps open for more times/durations than it is really necessary, use water freely to clean their compounds daily, they do not tell their housemaids to conserve water;
c) air pollution: their vehicles emit smokes, and the emission tests are not done regularly; and/or
d) noise pollution: these people enjoy freedom to arrange their parties in nights from 10:00 p.m. to early morning up to 03:00 a.m., whether it is Friday night or even Sunday night.
Message: Let us teach the ‘Civics’ to our children for their betterment.
7. That guy who shouted, screamed and yelled at me, when I opened the door of the rest room of the Railway station.
As soon I pushed the main door of the public rest room at a city railway station, a worker just screamed at me, and started abusing me with whatever vocabulary he had. I was taken aback, but, soon realized that he was cleaning the bathrooms and toilets, and was perhaps disturbed. He told me that I should have understood that since the door was closed (though not bolted from inside), some cleaning must be going on inside, and I should not have entered the room; whereupon I said, I had an emergency; but he did not show any mercy to me; and he forced me out by using very strong vernacular phrases. With a great courage I walked for nearly two kilometres, and entered a restaurants, and sat on a chair for a minute, and put my bag there on the table, and then went to their restroom to relieve myself. Then, although I had eaten a breakfast at home, I ordered some and ate and then went to my residence. I wonder how I kept so much calmness, since I am sort of a ‘short tempered’ guy.
Message: Keep ‘calm’ in emergencies.
8. That passenger created nuisance for almost half of my flight by Maharaja Airlines from New York to India.
During this flight, a guy occupied a whole set of three chairs behind my seat. Why he was allowed to do that I do not know. He kept on drinking bear throughout this half-leg of the flight (nearly 8 hours), and kept uttering nonsensical words to me: ‘I will see you’, and so on (some of these in his mother tongue, that I partially understood, but cannot pen these here). What was my fault: he put his luggage on the overhead luggage space, and did not close the door; after the steward had closed and gone on her first checking; and the flight took off, and the luggage moved, but luckily did not fall off; so, I just turned back to him and told he should have closed the door properly, otherwise the bags would have fallen and hurt me; whereupon he had frowned at me. Since, then he started misbehaving with me. Then, I went to one crew member and complained that this man is bothering me. I waited for nearly half an hour, but no action was taken. But, this nuisance fellow continue to bother me. So, I went to tell the crew member again about this; whereupon he came and told something in his own mother tongue and went away. Still that nonsensical passenger continued his rhetoric against me (with a lesser frequency); and since he used to continually drink, he would often get up and go to rest room so many times, and while going and coming back again use his ‘bad language’ to me. I tolerated this because I was on an official tour, and I did not want to give trouble to my organization. Later on, I was contemplating to formally register the compliant but for some reasons, I gave up the idea. Why that airlines allowed or even tolerated such a manner-less passenger on-board I do not know. Ironically, when that guy alighted from the plane, he looked at me and said ‘sorry’. I did not say anything to him. I wonder how again I kept so much calmness, since I am sort of a ‘short tempered’ guy.
Message: Keep ‘cool’ in such cases, but you should register the complaints, otherwise such people will consider it as your own weakness.
9. That great self-made yoga guru (SMYG) who has millions of followers in India and overseas, and who keeps telling the young children that they should not eat eggs, because they are coming out from the hens’ ‘loo’.
Most of the world eats eggs in one or other form: a) break open the shell, pour the contents in a glass, and stir and drink, or add milk and then drink; b) boiled eggs; and/or c) omelette. It provides a good source of protein, and more: “a) whole eggs are among the most nutritious foods on Earth, b) eggs improve your cholesterol profile and do not raise your risk of heart disease, c) eggs are loaded with Choline, an important nutrient for the brain, d) eggs contain high quality proteins with a perfect amino acid profile, e) eggs are loaded with Lutein and Zeaxanthin, which protect the eyes, and g) eggs for breakfast can help you lose body fat”. It means that SMYG does not have an iota of knowledge of the usefulness of the eggs in our diet. What a contrived notion of this man, when there are millions of people and children who live on a very poor diets; and even do not have a square meal in a day.
Message: You may please eat eggs in a manner that you like. But, keep your cholesterol under checks. If you are bound by any religion sentimentality, then you need to drink milk, eat curds/butter milk, and mushrooms.
10. The BCNP (big city nagar palike) who keeps getting awards, but their actual work is really terrible: a) it is almost always incomplete, b) they do it with very poor efficiency, c) if work is contracted, then they do not supervise, and d) close our grievance-complaints as ‘resolved’ without these problems being really solved.
There are open drainages of several meters length in the middle of the residential area, and the trenches that are there for allowing rain water to easily flow away, are invariably clogged. Although, the high court has put a ban on burning of the garbage, it is routinely burnt and they are not able to control this menace. These menaces continue in our, the so called modern India, and in 21st century.
Message: Do not sit on past laurels.
11. That colleague who blasted/blamed me for the increased electricity bill of the experimental bay.
Once or twice I would have forgotten to switch of lights in our experimental bay, while leaving the office by 5:00 p.m., since I would be in hurry to catch the bus which would then leave at 5:15 p.m.; and if I missed this service provided by our company, I would have to change the city-buses twice to reach my residence that was nearly 20 Kms. from the office. And this guy repeatedly brought up the same issue day in and out; and rebuked me just because he was (middle-level) senior to me. Incidentally, he used to help me in some of the experiments, and he was required to sit and conduct these as an operator, and I used to record the data in a magnetic tape recorder, and so on. Often, he would tell me to set up the experiment, and ask me to wait for him; and in most cases, he would not be available even after 20 minutes of my waiting for start of the experiment; till then all the equipment, devices, and sensors would be kept on. At times when he would not turn up, I would switch of the experiment; and just then he would prop up from nowhere. When I used to question him about this, he would get angry on me, and blame me that I am was not interested in completing the experiments. For nearly two years this circus continued, and the data were generated; in fact later on I realized that this was done towards his doctoral studies; but eventually he could not complete his degree and had to quit the programme. Of course he registered elsewhere and completed; and in an overall sense he took nearly eight years to get the degree. And the experiments that we conducted were only partially successful, that only the internal reports could be written, and no technical paper came out of it.
Message: Let us not blame others for our follies.
12. That self-declared saviour of our layout who promised us to see that the illegal dumping nuisance in/on neighbourhood vacant plots will be controlled, and that ‘my problem’ is ‘his problem’. Eventually, he could not do anything.
13. That mother of a young leader of the layout, who told my wife, she would not be allowed to the local area’s Shiva temple, unless and until she speaks the local language.
He spotted a great car, and had a good personality. He made promises but could not deliver. Eventually, he said he got headaches by reading my repeated complaints to him. Only he used to visit our areas with local political leaders asking for votes, and when elections were over, he won’t be coming around, and will disappear with his leaders.
Of course, my wife knew the language and quickly answered. However, it is very clear that she assumed that being the mother of the leader-son, she is also a leader, and can issue her ‘fermaan’, a verbal decree. The lord Shiva belongs to all the people, at least all the Hindus. It is unfortunate that though we have advanced so much in technology spheres, out mind-set has not changed so much, we still practice the orthodoxy. I doubt any real God would show this kind of partiality. In fact “religion is belief in a god/gods and the activities that are connected with this belief, such as praying/worshiping, in a building such as a temple, church or mosque”. It is unfortunate that this real meaning of religion is not properly understood by many of us. In this modern world the humanity has made tremendous progress, and yet we have given many colours to the benign religion: a) social, b) political, c) language, and d) affluence; and in the name of religion/s and/or gods there are people in this world who would not hesitate to eliminate others, who these self-declared protectors of the religion believe, are atheists.
Message: The social work is so complicated that it calls for a life time dedication, otherwise it is better to be simple observer and messenger, and never give false promises.
Message: Let us try to understand the real meaning of religion and God/s.
14. That half-trained compering-guy never uttered a single word for my work done for nearly three decades (and immense contributions made), though he did mention the names of other side-actors.
I do not understand why he did that, and I felt I should have not accepted the invitation to attend their celebrations. I could see a sheer bias, because he did mentioned the names of others, and not my name, and I was terribly upset; although I had worked in the closely-allied field (ironically others in this area were profusely praised) that was also an integral part of the major area for which the celebration was arranged. Since, then I decided not to attend such events anymore.
Message: Never mind, keep working. I kept working on the fields of my chosen interests and eventually wrote 7-seven technical books, published by overseas presses of UK and USA.
15. That young doctor who said to an 80 year old man who had a hip-bone fracture and was operated, that how he will bear this state psychologically.
The old patient had actually survived diabetes for the last 20 years, but within a few days of the bed rest after the operation he died, presumably he could not bear his state mentally. Did the doctor’s prediction come true, or was it an effect of his un-mannered suggestion?
Message: The doctors should give moral support to their patients.
16. A junior colleague who did not talk to me for one full year, and even did not look at me when he saw me in the corridor of our department, because he had not been promoted.
He had got low marks in one or two years for his performance, and hence automatically he was not called for four years’ merit assessment scheme; and knowing this he came to my office, and told me that his performance cannot go down. In fact, I recounted four/five major aspects that he had not completed in those two years, despite sufficient guidance and time given to him. But, still he argued that his performance could not have gone down at all. So, again I started explaining him in a little more details as to how he should have done and completed all that, and also explained the importance of the work that was handed over to him, and not to anybody else; but he did not wait to listen to me; since his limitations were now opening up, thereby justifying his low performance. His outwardly withdrawal from me was not expected, and he opened up after one year when he got promotion in the next assessment. What a mental makeup (-strength) to live with negative energy and attitude. Kudos to him!!!
Message: Good to let out any upset at right time.
17. A retired neighbouring-man who would come to my house in/at some regular intervals, and always tell me that by writing several technical books I have wasted my time and life.
18. A retired senior scientist (of my level only) once said to me that I have wasted my retirement and not utilized it in a fruitful activity, and I should not have written technical books.
He when on his daily routine walking schedule, once in a while would visit my house. He will talk about some sundry things, and would ask what I have been doing these days. Then, instead of appreciating my work, and technical contribution to the field, he would advise me to stop writing books, and not waste my times. I would ask what he has been doing all these days, and ask what is happening in the senior citizens’ meetings, whereupon he would say nothing much, they are also wasting their times. He would, though not always, enjoy coffee made and served to him by me, and chitchat on political issues, and leave with the air of ‘teaching’ me some political principles, for which of course I had the least interest; and would tell me that he would come again.
That scientist did not do much after his retirement, since he was not paid much (or often not paid at all), he left the job, and then started spending times in batting at the race course (though he had developed this habit much earlier); and lately had started bird-watching, and sharing pictures of these birds, that are not so un-common in our areas (these are not rarity at all). I was surprised that being a technical person himself, he could tell me that I have wasted my times.
Message: One retired person has no legitimate right to waste the time of another retired person on sundry things.
Message: No technically capable person should degrade other such individuals.
19. That cab driver in London who blamed me for the damage to his taxi, and made me held up with the traffic police nearly for one and half hour while I was to catch a train from there to Reading.
It was in August 1997, that I had taken a cab from the building of Royal Society of London, after meeting some officials there, and was to go to the nearby railway station, and from there to Reading by train. When I had just alighted from the cab, and removed my luggage, and I was about to move towards the taxi door to close it; he had just a minute ago started the cab, and the door remained opened, and dashed with the nearby side pole, and it got damaged. The design of the door fixing was such that when a taxi moves forward, the air-drag would not help the door close, but would further open it, and thereby it will get twisted and automatically get damaged. Most taxis are not that way, but some in UK are of that type. My passport was held up by the police, who was called by the driver. They talked to some officer in the Royal society, and had parleys with them, and the driver, and so on. Finally I was released and was allowed to make my further trip.
Message: Beware of the type of taxi you hire.
20. Those members of the two families who picked up quarrels with us in respect of our dog Mobi.
When our dog-caretaker-boy took Mobi for a daily routine one evening, in the neighbouring street, a guy for some reason got scared, since Mobi being a great-dane was a of huge size; and the guy beat the boy, who came back and hid in our compound. Soon, the guy and his entire family rushed to our house and started quarrel with us, and also threatened the boy with dire consequences. Soon, other two men from another house a few feet away also rushed and joined the previous family and started justifying their act of blasting the boy. It became a street display of their strength and (local-) superiority in handling the doggy matter; all their fears were of presumed threat to their own safety. Their mannerism was bad, and they were not relenting, and incidentally, meanwhile my son came from outside and handled the situation soon. Next, day he went to their houses in turn, and explained to them that what they did was not proper at all, and that they should not repeat it. They said that they had previously a bad experience some dogs, and hence were scared, and out of fear they acted in that way.
Message: Try to understand the neighbours’ issues before picking up quarrels.
21. That Wulfomaran, who had promised that he would send a strong recommendation on my behalf to the USA agency where I had applied for the prestigious fellowship, but eventually he had not sent the letter. Another Professor also had promised, but he had also not sent his letter.
The first man gave some unpalatable reasons. I had received a letter from the agency that my file had only two recommendation letters, and further processing of the file cannot be done without two more letters. It was then too late for me to pursue these guys to send the missing letters. Of course my file was successfully processed in the first two-stages, and this third stage could not be completed.
Message: Try to honour the promises you gave.
22. That room mate who would ask me to get something from the other room, and on delay, he would say that I am blind.
His routine continued for some time, but, then, I found out some excuses, and saved my honour. I cut off my connections with him thereafter.
Message: We should have respect for our fellow beings.
***End…with a new beginning…***
