A Tour of City’s Water Falls

On the very first day of School Summer vacations 2010, I took Gobind and Jania to Water falls established by the city beautiful San Ramon.

To My Brother-In-Law Amrit Dhir - Father of Generic Medicine Marketting in India

I understand that you will be soon wrapping up your innings after a glorious performance where you almost were a leader in the entire Nation in the field of Marketting Generic Medicine in India. I have seen you closely rising the steps in your profession. I was, however, not able to follow you up that closely when you reached the pinnacle in view of my migrating to US of A. But still I feel with proud that you have done a remarkable job for yourself, your employer and for the humanity. I found you so much engrossed in your work at the cost of your personal interests.

So, now Waheguru has bestowed upon His utmost blessings to you. Now is the time to start fresh for the next innings which I am hopeful that you will come out as masterful and successful. You have to pay back to the humanity for all the goodies offered to you by Him.

Only the other day, I met you for the first time for a lunch at a Vegetarian Shudh restaurant in Regal building to talk about proposal for my sister Amar Jit in the hot summer month of May 1975. From then onwards, we had a remarkable journey of friendship culminating into brotherhood all through. During this period, we stood up to the sad times together and overjoyed happy times shaking the legs on the melodious tunes of Bhangra music, without ever forgetting Him.

I appreciate that you have always given me more respect than it has been due to me during these years. Finally I pray to Waheguru that we continue to have same and even better relationship in your next innings.

May Waheguru bless you even happier, contented and full of opportunities to attain them.

With love, affection and lots of hugs.

Gobind Jania In Hawaii on Spring Break Trip with parents.

Hundred Flowers

Luau Moments, Courtsey: Shiv

I warned both Gobind and Jania on their Spring Break 2010 Trip to Big Island Hawaii (a Volcanic Island), when I went to drop them at the San Francisco Airport that they are going to miss the grandparents. Both of them were so excited and almost ignored the warnings and instead insisted us to accompany them. The ticket pricing, at the last moment was so high, discouraged us to join them.

3D computerized image of Big Island

The next day we waited for a 'Miss you' call, but hardly there was any call coming from Hawaii. So in the evening, we finally checked to find out what was happening. We were assured that they were having a blast on the trip. Second day, we found out that they had enjoyed themselves in their Resort pool and were having fun of their lives.

As the third day approached, while we were coming back from the Wednesday Weekly Program from the Hayward Gurdwara Sahib, THE CALL came. It was a long one for almost 25 minutes and were pressing to chat with grandpa also, as I could not do so while driving. She continued to emphasize that she wants to sleep on our bed with grandma.

Sleeping Pattern:

This is quiet usual after every couple of days, she would like to go to sleep on our bed. So does Gobind, but Jania has a last say and would never budge from her spot on our bed. Poor Gobind accepts the option to go to his Star-war Room along with his grandpa. Surprisingly they take only 60-90 seconds to go to sleep. Jania is now shifted to her Princess Room for spending the night. If by chance Jania remains on our bed, one of us will have constant barrage of kicks on our bodies, while the other will be used as a pillow. Similarly they throw away their parents from their bed if allowed to use their bed. This is their consistant sleep pattern.

As I parked the car in the garage, the phone was finally given to me. While Gobind was talking on Volcanos, pool and other strange things, Jania grabed the phone. When confronted if she conceded that she missed us. She immediately reacted that she was missing us too much. She further told since only one more day was left and would come back home to join us.

Luau Moments, Courtsey: Shiv

Now I told her to bring one Hawaian flower for me. She spontanously replied that she will bring one hundred of them for me and further consoled me not to worry.

                                                    

                                                      Lehua Blossom, Hawaii

      

So, my day is awaitng for 100 flowers, may be as shown above.

PS: As Gobind and Jania stepped into the main enterance of our house after the trip, both of them synchronously spoke that they could not bring the flowers as they (authorities) did not allow them to bring. Yes they were absolutely right as no vegetation can be allowed to be brought to the main land by passengers.

© preet mohan singh., all rights reserved.

A visit by our Jangpura Neighbors

Jangpura Neighbors

Mukesh, our next door neighbor, recalls his memories of my wedding reception which was arranged in the Park in front of our houses in Jangpura Extension, New Delhi in 1972. He clearly remembers how he, as an eight years old boy, enjoyed the song which I performed on that party night.

He migrated to USA in 1998 and settled down in Houston Texas. Fortunate as he is, Mukesh is running a successful operation of couple of gas stations including a large Shell gas station near the airport.

Presently he is anxiously awaiting to bring the rest of his family to USA. Mukesh had filed the immigration petition for his wife and their four daughters at one go.


For strange reasons, his oldest daughter Pooja was luckily approved by US Government and stamped with an immigrant Visa by the US Counsulate in New Delhi about nine months ago, while the rest of the family still awaits the stamping to have a happy re-union.

So, Mukesh decided to cheer up Pooja and give her a vacation by visiting us in the Bay Area during her spring holidays.

At San Jose Gurdwara Sahib

At Monterey

At Lone Cyprus

At Beach

At Beach

At San Ramon Water Fall

At Crooked Street

At Pier 39

  At Golden gate

© preet mohan singh., all rights reserved.

One Side Of Papers

My Desk

One side Of Papers

I normally work from a desk placed in a multipurpose room attatched to my bed room. This attached office has a table, a chair, a treadmill, and walk-in-wardrobe. This arrangement fits into my kind of reqirements. A fast internet with excellent bandwidth is wirelessly available to me on my laptop. I also use extensively the I-Phone which also works as standby tool for my internet reqirements.

Shiv is a great fan of paperless office working. But I continue to tell him that at times the reqirement is essential. At the same time, as a 'green' thing I would like to make the use of paper to the minimum. Hence I have resolved to use the other side of the paper which has been already used on one side. I usually do 'doodling' and throw away the paper in the evening.

The other big use of one side used paper is to fulfill the demands of Gobind and Jania. Every now and then they would make a demand and I would oblidge them  with a crisp one side used paper. Initially, Jania refused poin blank and with little pursuation she agreed. Both of them accepted this arrangement solving my problems to avoid wastage.

Today, I got into deepest of troubles. Gobind came in a hurry and demanded three papers as he was required to take them to his Dad for some assignment. As I questioned his requirement, he was blindfolded bent upon to have papers. In mean time, I just got busy in some studies, this guy went to the other side of the desk and grabed 3-4 papers after thoroughly checking that they were used on one.

To my good luck, I happened to check those papers and to my utter surprise those papers were important real estate documents just received in the mail. When I stopped him not to touch them as they were very important papers and I needed them badly for my records. To which Gobind immediately reacted, " these are one side used papers, grandpa."

How can I expalain to him now!

© preet mohan singh., all rights reserved.

Panipat Zila Karnal

Our house Number 391, W-12, Kalandar Chowk, Panipat. This is the front of our house where we spent 25 years after partition. The house, with multi owners, has been redone by the builder who built many appartments by merging neighboring houses. The picture is courtsey my niece Simer Chhabra who joined all my four sisters in March 2010 and revisited the place where we grew.

Young and talented Simer Chhabra

                 Bhagwant, Amarjeet, Mohinder and Tripat on their recent visit to Panipat March 2010

Bhagwant in our courtyard with a Portable 'Tandoor' in the background

Panipat Zila Karnal

It was quite often when our family will meet over a get together, I being a four/five year old will be made a focal point of attraction. My dad will call me, while sitting among his group of friends and ask me to narate the same few lines on Panipat.

We were lust in the process of settling down in Panipat immediately after the partition of the country. Most of our other members of our family was settled in New Delhi. One evening we had got together for a wedding dinner and squatted on the floor on the roof of a dharamshala in Rohtak in connection with the wedding of Mr Atam Narain Singh (my mothers eldest sister's son).

I was summoned by Mr Dalip Singh( Dad's budy and his bench-mate) to bully me and asked me to sing that by now infamous naration about our new abode. As I sang, all the people around me would jump to thundrous laughter and will join me in singing alongwith while I was seriously doing the song. Obviously I was thrilled by the attention I got from all near and dear, while all others had real hearty fun.

The lyrics are given below, I do not know whether it attracts the same attention or not:

"Panipat zila Karnal,

No Koi Roti, No Koi Daal,

Bhukhe mar gae Bachche naal"

'There is a town called Panipat which falls under the district of Karnal,

There is hardly any bread or butter/dish available at that place,

How do we survive, as We and kids are dying out of hunger.'

This was just a pointer to my Dad, being a grain producer himself, till the other day owning 100s of acres of aggricultural lands, had to make his both ends meet with utmost difficulty to take care of the needs of his kids.


My Dad joined his kins without a wrinkle of worry on his face though and just laughed it away.

© preet mohan singh., all rights reserved.

When my Grand Daughter Jania Speaks

Jania is full of life and always chattering goody goody things. I am amazed if I was knowing even ten percent of the vaccubalary she knows. May be TV shows and exposure of developed nation are the factors giving rise to this level of information. I thought whynot to document her trifle titbits. She is another inspiration for me use my time in a fruitful and positive way.

Lesson of Love

Yesterday after dropping off Gobind, we straightway proceeded to Acorn Learning Center Daughtry Valley, where she is having her second year pre-school activities. While sitting in her car seat, picked up a Lolly Pop and give it to me, but she wanted to give the same to Dadi Ma too. Next what she did has touched my heart too much. While putting her right hand on my left shoulder and left hand on Dadi Ma's right shoulder, She pushed both of us towards each other saying that this candy should be shared by us both as we both love each other. 

© preet mohan singh., all rights reserved.

When Jania is happy to pose!

Feb 2012

My Grandson and Me

Our Relationship:

We treat each other as most cordial friends. He will like to instantly churn out all happenings during his day in School as I pick him and walk him to the parking lot.



Makes me Special:


Being the first in hierarchy of my next generation, he is the Star of my eyes. I like him to be naughty & graceful.







Enjoy About:
I would like to enjoy and be with him all the times playing numerous games which he exclusively plays with me.






Do Together:
Enjoy more with outdoor /indoor Activities

I wish him to grow a great human being to serve the human race in any field.

About my Childhood.

I am Preetmohan Singh Kapoor and being the father of Gobind’s dad, a really proud one.

With six decades removed, I grew up a toddler to witness a mass immigration in the history of human race from one place to another on grounds of religious demographics when about 25Million people were displaced.

Photo of a Railway Station in Punjab, India. Many people abandoned their fixed assets and crossed newly formed borders.

Life as a Child

Under the circumstances, my Mom started teaching me at home, while my Dad had to look out to earn for bread for the family. I had to wait to be five years of age to get admission into a Government run Primary School in a small and uprooted city of Panipat in the outskirts of Delhi the capital of the Country. But my Mom had already taught me good enough to be in the Second grade, so my Dad had to bribe Rs 1 to the Head Master Mr Sat Pal who allowed me get entry into the school even with a younger age.My First School

Our school was at a stone’s throw from our house. I shall start from the house only after listening the school bell. We had to squatter on a cotton carpet full of filth and sand along with our Slate for writing on with a Chalk, a small 8-page book and a wooden hand board for using the same again and again with black ink and a bamboo pen. (for reusing the wooden board again it had to be washed and given a fresh coat of a fuller’s earth every evening so that the same board would get dry and ready for use next morning).

The small book would contain the Alphabets, numbers, and one story at the last page with a hand drawn picture of a cat acting as Judge holding a two pan balance for equally dividing a piece of loaf between two monkeys. She continued eating the extra on either side till the loaf piece was completely consumed by her. Moral: do not fight and decide it between yourself, otherwise some body greedy like the Cat would grab the share of both.

The teacher had a portable Black Board only for the 3rd grade and above class. There was only one section of 30-40 student in the class. There was only one examination for promoting to the next class at the end of the year culminating in March of each year and the result was announced on First of April. All the kids would line up with a Marigold Flowers garland in their hands and would place the same around the neck of their respective teacher as the result of being successful was announced. Yes, a few were unlucky who could not be promoted.


Games I Played

We had two months of summer holidays, but usually they got prolonged as in our area it rained for Four months in a year and the roofs of the school were not able to handle the heavy and prolonged rains and the rain water continuously leaked through them all the times. All of us were extremely happy to get a school day off on such occasions. That was the funniest thing to happen. This will give us a chance to hang around and play marbles, Gulli Danda ( a local famous game played in south Asia). My dad got a good Job in the city Rationing Department and was paid reasonably well. He got me a rubber Ball which would attract many friends of mine who remained glued to play with me. In fact a small vacant place surrounded by row of houses came to be known as a play ground after my name.

I wish I could have my old time back, that would not happen. But while seeing Gobind passing a similar time in better environments and conditions, I feel so much elated and contented.

Here is how he sings the 'Mool Mantra'

Memo.m4a (1060KB)

© preet mohan singh., all rights reserved.

July 10, 2009

Drop Off and Pick Up From school

Gobind gets badge for 'Walk To School' from an officer of San Ramon Police Department on the Black Top

Gobind school starts at 8.00 AM, while Jania's Pre School Learning Center admits her at 8.15. So it works really well. We fill them up with lunch packs in their backpacks for Gobind & Jania and start the morning journey at 7.45. That is also the start of first fight. She would like to go to her school first, and would strongly argue as to why to go to Gobind School first. Neither me nor the grandma has been able to convince that hers starts late. As I, being on the passenger seat, am spared the onslaught from her.

Any way, Gobind and me get down from the car by 7.55. I carry his bag on my shoulder, walk him to the Row Number 27 marked in white on the Black Top. There are 40 rows meaning the number of sections for grade 1 to grade 5 in the Live Oak Elementary School in San Ramon, Ca. Black Top is a huge tar suface of about 5-6 Acres meant for games like tennis, soft ball, Basketball courts, and lots of swings in one corner. It is a treat to see the hustle and bustle both at the time of drop off and pick up of kids on the Black top. Mostly kids are accompanied by one adult member of the kids family usually by one of the grand parents or non-working mothers.

You will see a diversified section of folks of all color and creed in the True America style here. There are Cacaseans, blacks, Chinese, Vietnames, Phillipinos, South Asians, and Africans mingling with each other due to the necessity of imparting best education in the best environments. Being a practicing sikh, Gobind has four more co -Sikhs to his advantage.

As the bell rings, various teachers of all the classes will come forward and lead their sudents in each row to their respective class rooms. It is interesting to see Gobind holding a big size back pack and walking in a disciplined line, following his teacher Mrs Boreman through hoard of mates. At times he lags in his walk feeling still sleepy.

Mrs.Boreman's Gobind Teacher in the First Grade introduces herself

My name is Jennifer Boreman. I am a newlywed living in San Ramon with my husband of 11 months and our two dogs. I am originally from New York which is where I obtained my Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education and Psychology. I have been living in California for six years and have had the opportunity to obtain my Masters Degree from St. Mary’s College. I have been in the education field for eight years teaching in New York, San Francisco, and Pittsburg, California. I am very excited to be part of the Live Oak family.

I relax at the Soccer Coaching Play Ground by the side of Black Top

Playing Facilities

The neighborhood View from the black Top



© preet mohan singh., all rights reserved.

Jania Birthday 2010

Jania the Tea seller Dec 2009

Gobind’s Poo on a visit to Cruise Trip Dec 2009

Gobind has been with this 'POO' almost since his birth no matter home or away. On his recent Cruise trip, Poo got a job of a Sailer and was accordingly dressed.