Life In Context

Helen Keller was a writer, lecturer and a political activist. This piece of information doesn’t inspire me. But when I read it in the context of the additional information of her being deaf and blind, it makes me sit tight and concentrate. Context is a simple word but it’s relevance is insurmountable. Context converts a story into history.

Context alters the characteristics of every outcome. Context has the ability to make us more understanding and empathetic. Context adds value to a situation. In context, lies the real story of life. If only, life would have been a collection of few memorable moments, context wouldn’t have mattered. But life is also what happens between two memorable moments.

The story of Arunima Sinha, first female amputee to climb Mount Everest is glorious with its context. She was thrown out of a moving train because she bravely fought the thieves. Consequently, her leg had to be amputated. To overcome the pity in the eyes of people, she attained the extraordinary feat. Of course, climbing Mount Everest is a challenge for any human being and it is probably the ultimate test of your determination and perseverance along with physical strength, but the context as in the above situation adds value to the success and assures of glory to every individual who dreams.

The story of Phoebe Snetsinger, an American birder, first in the world, to see more than 8000 birds is more inspirational if we look at it in the context of her life. She was a mother of 4 children. Her first birding tour was in her thirties. She was diagnosed with terminal melanoma at the age of 50. This did not deter her. In fact, the diagnosis compelled her to concentrate on her own life and her own wishes. Her happiness paid off and she lived for 18 years after diagnosis. She died in an accident while birding. So, an American woman seeing a record number of birds can be a good story but a housewife, a mother of four, a cancer patient who found her passion quiet late in life, but who also alongside found courage to pursue that passion makes the story extraordinary.

Participation in Olympics is itself a dream for any sportsperson. Winning there must be beyond the dream world. But when athletes from USA and New Zealand help each other to reach the finish line after a collision, their story attains greater height than the story of the winner.The grace in the face of defeat made their story, history.

In today’s competitive world, we concern ourselves only with the winners. We are not interested in the reasons for failure. But we need to understand that though the end point and the finish lines are important, the point where you started is, if not more, equally relevant. Success of a millionaire and a poor can be equally important but we cannot turn a blind eye to the context of poverty and the resultant additional obstacles that had to be overcome. Context is of utmost importance here.

Oscar Schindler was just a German industrialist who saved lives of 1200 Jews working in his factories. The extraordinary characteristic of this feat achieved is not highlighted as long as we do not look at it in the context of the horrors of the Holocaust and the courage it demanded of the Oscar Schindler.

The superficial division of people based on the criteria of winners and losers will make Hillary Clinton look like a loser in the 2016 Presidential elections. The context of her being the first female presidential candidate nominated by a major party in the history of the USA highlights the different shades of her defeat.

When I read about the slow verbal development of the great Einstein, the “too stupid to learn anything” comment of the teacher of the Thomas Edison and his unsuccessful 1000 attempts at inventing the light bulb, the story of Stephen Hawking overcoming depression after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease, I find the context more appealing than the ground breaking work they did.

The context of all these people and the situations, gives me a renewed sight to look at my present. Today’s difficulties and obstacles are the context of my glorious tomorrow. A story without context doesn’t amount to much. But with context, if I win, it will be a story in itself and even if I lose, it will be a story worth cherishing and worth telling. It strengthens me. The understanding of the context inspires me to be less judgemental, to face adversity bravely, and to be a better human being.


Shobha Bhutada
24th JAN, 2018
Porbandar.

An Affair With The Tea

In general, I love food but tea has a special place in my heart. It has been associated with so many different emotions at different stages of my life, that I cannot tell the story of my life without mentioning my relationship with tea.

In childhood, I was told that children were not allowed to drink tea. So, I associated tea with being grown up. I also associated it with an adventure. They said, tea could make your complexion dark. In a society obsessed with fairness, this was enough to terrify a little girl. But this did not deter my obsession, rather it made tea a symbol of rebellion for me.There were special occasions when we were allowed to drink tea e.g. when We were down with fever or viral, we were given an Ayurvedic Medicine called Tribhuvan Kirti with tea. I loved the special treatment and wished not to get well soon.

As I grew up, tea break during study was an event in itself. My mother took special efforts and woke up early morning to provide the most important tea motivation. When I went to Delhi for study, the winters in the capital made my favourite drink further tempting. Adrakwali chai in Delhi winter is a poetry in itself. You literally look forward to that evening hour, when students make friends, find the love of their life and if time permits, discuss studies over a cup of tea. Tea gave us a moment of relaxation in the present, when we were bogged down with the worries of future.

At one point in life, tea became romance. From different canteens of college and University to taking long walks after dinner for a cup of tea on Mall Road in Mussoorie to namkeen chai on a shikara in Jammu and Kashmir, tea provided a story to a hopelessly romantic girl.

When I started working in Gujarat, tea became a social compulsion and of course, I loved it. Here people are offended if you don’t accept their tea. They pour it directly in a ‘rakabi’ (saucer) in Saurashtra. If you are a special guest, they make it ‘Kadak mitthi’ i.e. your tea has double the amount of tea powder and sugar than a regular tea. They serve it with lot of love and affection. On the other hand, in the marathon meetings, tea is the only saviour to keep you awake.

I have read about the side effects of tea on health and tried to limit it to one cup a day many times but I failed miserably. I tried to replace it with coffee and green tea, but alas! My life doesn’t feel right without it’s precious moments with tea. I have my special places in every town, city, on highways or even in jungles where I love to sit and cherish it. In some remote places where I can’t find my magic drink, I have a quick solution, I go there with a flask and disposable cups. It feels more romantic if you have folding stool with you.

Tea made on a chullha has a unique flavour and taste. During my dieting efforts to shed extra pounds post pregnancy, I waited the whole week for that one special cup of tea made on the chullha. Finally, the love grew by leaps and bounds and now I have got a chullha in my backyard where my weekends become special with the special drink.

I have few places close to my heart where I go for tea only with my soulmate. The places literally make me feel alive and truly happy.

A cup of tea on road side on a busy street, another in the middle of a jungle in the serene company of birds, yet another under a banyan tree, and a cup in mon- soon on a dam site is all that I need to feel loved, and special.

Shobha Bhutada 
18th JAN 2018 
Porbandar 

The World of Words

The other day I was in Jamnagar. There was a book sale near home. It was quite tempting. You could buy 1 kg books for Rs. 150. Yes, that’s correct! Books were be- ing sold by weight. Words have a sacrosanct quality in my world and so I won- dered, how do you weigh the words in a book.

A compact classic like George Orwell’s Animal Farm and some other thousand page trash of the second hand literature can not be and should not be weighed with a common unit of measurement. Every word not only has its height, depth and width, but it has its unique texture, smell, sound and most importantly the feel. Words have power to wage wars and to establish peace. Words are the powerful tools to express our deepest emotions. Words have the ability to transcend time and space and take us beyond. Words have the ability to change its weight with every reader. Perhaps this was the logic behind the sale.

Over the years, I have been listening and reading about the writing styles of different writers. Some writers like Alexander McCall Smith write around 2000 words everyday without break while others like Harper Lee become immortal with just one book over lifetime. Some go with the flow of the words while others are stuck on a particular word for days. Different words have different ability to convey the thoughts and feelings of the writer to the reader. Though to a large extent, the vocabulary of any language is finite, the ways of expression in the language are in- finite.

One life is not enough to comprehend and experience the different shades of this complex world. But words have the magical ability to make us experience a life we have not lived ourselves. Words are the magic wand which gives us the breath- taking experience of other people’s lifetime in a moment.

Thanks to the ability of words, in a short period of time, we can be the ‘out- sider’ of Albert Camus or be in the open sea with the inspiring old man of Earnest Hemingway. We can experiment with truth with Gandhi or experience the horrors of apartheid with Nelson Mandela. Isn't it just amazing? We may miss these lives and lifetime experiences if we don't love words with all our hearts. Life is to be lived and it is to be lived well. Reading enriches life in more ways than we can imagine.

A place called Stanford upon Avon is just another place, but for the words of the great Shakespeare. And the magic of his words made the experience of visit to this place extraordinarily life enriching for a small town girl like me. The emotions are beyond words but the journey of reaching to that extraordinary emotion takes place only in the great company of words.

The understanding of the power of words gave rise to great leaders and great writers. Words not only empower us with knowledge but provide the touch of ro- mance, adventure, meaning and value to our routine lives.

Let the strength of wise words strengthen us in difficult times and show us the path to an enriched life.



Shobha Bhutada 
16th Jan 2018 
Porbandar