Stories, You & Me

Hello, readers! Last week on Thursday, school reopened in Maharashtra. Which meant that I got an opportunity to go back to school. The day I heard this news I was excited, in fact, my parents and I had gone shopping for physical school which means that you can imagine my level of excitement. I had all my stuff packed inside my bag and the moment I sat inside my bus, it all felt nostalgic. Every single moment or every place or class that I walked into, it gave me a sense of nostalgia as I had not visited the school for 18 months.

When all teachers saw me, they had only one response ‘You have grown so tall Chinmay.’ Though I acknowledged their compliments, they were several compliments to an extent where acknowledgment and a smile itself felt like routine. I thought that growing up to 6 feet and winning a Gold medal in the Olympics was the same achievement.

My honest review on physical learning seems to be much better than online learning itself. You have several people around you, there are not any distractions and the teacher comes to your rescue if you are unable to understand anything. On the second day of school, which was Friday, my two favorite classes that I was looking forward to two classes that were scheduled: Music and Sports. It felt nice to walk inside an actual music room with no virtual human beings. Playing music with my teacher and my classmates was actually a lot of fun. After that, I got a chance to play football on the field. Though the score was a tie I still enjoyed playing on the field with people and with the raindrops showering above from the sky.

After a few classes, the school dispersed and many tired students jumped back inside their buses which took us back home. I am excited for school next time and I hope that this pandemic ends soon and all of us can walk inside our classes and have more fun.

Few pics from school fall here:

Hope you liked it 🙂

Thank you and stay safe

-Chinmay

Hello readers! I have come up with a new story, a new blog for you to see. On a Sunday of 3rd October 2021, I got a chance to meet my friends from school at this restaurant named Urbo. I must say that the food there was amazing. Taking you back to a few weeks ago. A few parents came up with the idea of arranging a get together on a Sunday at a restaurant so that the kids do not miss out on their social life because of this pandemic.

I was watching the IPL when this news came to me. I jumped out of my couch and started dancing in excitement of getting to meet some people from school as I have been stuck at home for a really long time. I started asking my friends and other schoolmates if they are attending the get together. They too were excited. Coming to Sunday of 3rd October. I felt like a chicken coming out of an egg. That was my exact emotion when I stepped outside donned in a pair of jeans, a blue t-shirt and white sneakers. I was so excited and jubilant of the fact that I am going to go and meet all my schoolmates after a long period of 18 months.

Meeting new students who joined during the pandemic was also exciting. We discussed a lot of things with them related to the IPL, sports, music, movies and books. I am that kind of a person where just simply meeting a bunch of people and talking to them makes me extremely happy. The moment I met all my friends and the parents who knew me they were all astonished with the fact that I have grown tall and way more handsome (Okay I was always handsome). Everyone there was caught by surprise based on my height (which is 6ft). Some friend of mine from that get together sarcastically joked that I am competing with the Empire State Building.

Anyways I had an amazing time at that get together with the amazing friends, the amazing food, the amazing place. School is reopening soon in the state of Maharashtra so a blog related to school should come out very soon.

Hope you liked this story,

Thank you for reading and stay safe 🙂

-Chinmay

Hello everyone! Its now that I will be telling all of you all about a few significant women in my life that have inspired me, motivated me and helped me every time. Here are four women that have been with me throughout and stood by me. There are learning, quite many that I have learnt from all of them. Since its Women’s day I would like to use this blog as an opportunity to thank them.

1. My Mother

My mother is the calmest, most tolerant person ever. I wonder how can she tolerate almost everything and how does she learn how to stay this calm in the worst of situations around. Every time there’s a situation which is entirely tense and burning. All she asks is “What’s the worst that could happen”. Just that one magical question is what she asks. Learning how to stay calm is what I have learnt from her and with a calm head like her. One can get through any tense situation ever. She is the most happiest person and the calmest person. A smile on her face does help also because I have the same smile as hers. Another thing that I have that’s in her is having a way with people and having a great social connect with people. There have been multiple times that I have been on thin ice but her great social connect and her way with conversing with people is so unique, magnificent and clear that I was forgiven and not in deeper trouble all because of her calmness and her way with people that saves me out of the worst situations every. So the two learnings from my mom is being calm and having a way with people

2. My grandmother

My maternal grandmother is an ex-Biochemistry professor and currently has an organization that she is a trustee of and her determination towards her work in the North East for the children there and even for the sake of helping society. As good as she is with her expertise in her field of science. She also is a great experimenter with cooking. She always has and always does work hard and give her best at what she wants to do. She never fails to learn new things even though she was in her 60s she learnt computers, technology and always took incidents or events of life as a learning. She is my motivation of giving your one hundred percent and always learning as learning never stops.

3. My Friend: Abiya

My best friend Abiya, she is a soft and a really kind person. She also is the intelligent beings and the biggest avid reader I have ever seen which makes me read not only the thriller and sci-fi genre but also all sorts of genres. We keep discussing books, movies, issues and try to give each other some good pep talks. When one has a bad day I believe one should go to her to talk about your problems. She happens to be the most avid reader, the most sensible and happens to be the most sorted person even though she thinks that she pretends to be sorted. She never is satisfied with any of her achievements she always thinks that she is supposed to go a level up and always accept challenges. When there is a situation in front of you all she asks is ‘Would it matter’ or ‘Is it worth it?’. The learnings from Abiya here would be: Always accept challengers and care about things until and unless its worth it.

4. Ms. Fizza Nambiar

My School Coordinator Ms. Fizza is also an English teacher. She happens to be the most positive and the funniest person I know. She happens to have a great sense of humor and is also a soft spoken person. She is a gentle being and I always wonder why and how is she the most positive beings and what is inside her that gives her the energy that makes her push the extra mile for the students at school. She is a really kind, joyous, happy and a really funny person. Everyone has their source of positivity and she is the person from whom I get all the positivity, out of all teachers she is the most positive person. I have never seen her having negative thoughts nor she has ever been pessimistic so I believe what I have personally learnt from her is always be positive.

Thank you to all these women and a Happy Women’s day. There are more women that I could talk about and what I have learnt from them but it would be an endless talk. To all the important women in one’s life I wish all of you all a happy women’s day once again

Hope you enjoyed it 🙂

I’ll be Back

Thank you and stay safe

Hello everyone! Hope you all are doing well. This destination of my storyland is very special to me. As the title says its the relationship between me and my dog, My dog Angel may misbehave and have a behavior of a devil. But for me she will always be my Angel, my gift of joy, the significant member of my family is my dog. I love her more than anyone else. Lets use our time machine here and head back to five years ago when we got Angel from a kennel, before getting the dog we were discussing names of our dog, my sister wanted to name her ‘Empress’, my parents thought about naming her either after a Disney princess or a dessert like ‘Cookie’ or ‘Cupcake’. I had several but in the end I thought of finally naming the dog ‘Angel’. With that great a name, everyone couldn’t agree more with my unique choice of the name.

We looked at the kennel of one large female dog who was also named Angel. There were 8 puppies wandering around the kennel. I was looking at all the pups, wanting to adopt all of them, but we couldn’t decide whom to chose until one small, two month old puppy chose us, the next week we adopted the puppy and got an Angel in the house, she was wandering around the house exploring, for a few months she was having a blast inside the house until she was grown enough to walk outside, everyone else were being careful with her while petting her, whereas I was the one who made the first contact with her and taught my family members how to pet her, those moments still melt my heart even till today. I used to lift her and give her a small tour of the house. Till the age of 2, she was a fully grown dog who could fight with other dogs and scare other dogs tons of times when she went out for a walk. My relationship with Angel is much more greater than anyone else in the house, with my sister or my dad, she messes up or tries to play some tricks around them but when its me which is once a blue moon, she walks really well with me and would never pick a trick or do something fishy.

When someone tries scolding me. Its Angel who is more protective about me than anyone else. If someone is trying to scold me, she instantly jumps right in the middle and barks at the ones scolding me. Whenever I’m having a fight with someone, Angel would be my one and only wing woman fighting for me by barking. About 2 and a half years ago she also gave birth to six puppies, she is a mother of six puppies, all of them have inherited the trait of being mischievous, full of energy and crazy. She was in her own world when the six pups were born, she didn’t even care about them, she was and is still the same old dog that fools around the house, sleeps in a weird way and still acts like a puppy in spite of being a fully grown dog. Its true that adopting a dog is like adopting a child, it never grows nor has the brain capacity of a grown animal. A dog always loves to be pampered day in and day out. I honestly feel like what would it be if I were a dog, I would have enjoyed my entire time being a dog, from always hungry for food, sniffing around the house for something interesting, to digging around as pastime, including chasing other animals or just enjoying the day by eating, sleeping, fooling around and repeating. I would love to discuss about Angel endlessly . I would never stop talking about my relationship with Angel, how much she protects me, how much she cares for me and listens to me. A dog is a man’s best friend, its true and ‘pawdorable’.

I hope dog lovers out there would agree with me and talk about one’s relationship with its dog,

Hope you all enjoyed this story. Thank you so much and stay safe 🙂

We’ll meet again real soon

Thank you and stay safe

Your storyteller

Hey there! About two weeks ago me and my family drove off to Aurangabad. It was a year after we moved out of the house for a road trip. The last trip we took was way down south in December 2019. That was a memorable road trip ever, I still remember every road trip that I have been on with my family every since the age of 5 which was to Gir in Gujarat. The energy for a road trip does not only depend on the driver but also depends on the people inside the car and how energetic they can get which creates an energetic atmosphere for the car as well.

Every road trip for me starts twelve hours before departing from home. You pack all the bags and luggage, you drop your four legged creature to its Pet Hostel and you prioritize what your clothes and accessories accordingly. My mom organizes everyone’s clothes and packs some snacks for the journey. Meanwhile my dad does some of his work and looks at some mails from the hotel or at the place we are going to stay at. My sister makes her playlist for the journey and I complete my homework as well as create my own playlist. I already have my things packed of what I’m supposed to wear tomorrow for the journey and what I’m supposed to wear when we reach.

The next day we head to our destination starting with my parents’ playlist which dates back from the present to the 70s or 80s. Their playlist gives me a glimpse of me travelling through a time machine showing me how the country and how the technology was back then, about an hour later my sister plays her playlist for most of the time and finally its me who plays my playlist although that rarely happens as my sister manipulates me to play her playlist. Although her playlist has good songs so I allow her to play her playlist but I most of the time try making conversations so that I get my piece of the pie as well. But most of my time in the car is spent talking, cracking jokes, listening to music, looking out of the window at the beautiful sceneries and dozing off rest of the time with my headphones on. Looking out of the window, gives me some time to think about should I do. Looking outside the window with music blending gives me peace and helps me live in the moment. Its that only moment where you live in the present. A road trip is a family time as there are no devices, no TVs, no work. Its just four people hopping on the car enjoying the trip, talking. The thing about road trips is that much more than departing and arriving, its about the journey, the roads, trees and cars passing by. The more trees and cars we pass by is the more closer we are is what I believe. We have been to several places. We even drove in some European countries, Here are some pics to glance at the Ladakh and South India trip.

Road trips are glancing at the beautiful road, the flying trees and my country rock music that hypes me up most of the time. Hope you enjoyed it, and if you did then let me know your brief story about road trips in the comments

Thank you and stay safe 🙂

Your Storyteller

Chinmay

Hey there! I’m here after two weeks. A few months ago my grandparents moved in a place in the same building where I live! Since I rarely visited them I thought I should stay at their place, give them some company and get pampered at the same time. No matter how old you get and no matter how many times you request your grandparents to not pamper you anymore, they always see you as a kid. At the end they can’t stand you growing. As I arrived at their place, I sanitized myself and gave my grandmother a big hug. Every time I hug her, she says that her hands have rods inside them since she had a surgery and to be careful with her hands. So I shrink myself by bending down and hug her. Whenever I visit her she makes delicious food for me.

My grandfather and I always discuss about cricket, cricketers and chemistry. Since my grandparents were Chemistry professors they are extremely passionate about the subject. We have a detailed discussion about cricket. He never fails to discuss about his favorite cricketer whom he always admired-Vijay Hazare, a former cricketer and captain of the Indian team. He discussed about the memory of being able to meet him and see him play. He admired his batting style. We chat, eat and have fun all the time. Sometimes I get some snacks from home, walk down the stairs and enjoy it with my grandfather, listening to his experiences about the social work he does for North East students, as a professor or a cricket coach. Maybe they want me to remember that they were also practicing a profession before having white hair and becoming my grandparents. Grandparents for me are always white haired and slow in walking but yet they have this powerful element that motivates them on the inside and always keeps them active. I believe all grandparents love having fun with the child, playing, pulling pranks and talking.

As a young kid of five to eight years. I always thought that a grandparent has such symbols and symptoms that define the brand of a grandparent. The white hair grows with them is the first thing that shows that the person may be an old grandparent. Always pretending to work even after retirement. I always saw both sides of my grandparents reading a newspaper or try solving some interesting puzzles in the newspaper as their leisure time. Every time I saw my grandparents with glasses staring at the newspapers I thought that they still miss their job and pretend to have a job and work by solving puzzles or reading newspapers. So they always do ‘work-like’ activities like reading newspapers, watching the news, calling their friends or relatives. The third thing I see is that whenever a grandparent comes and visits you the environment just changes. The adults are there to pamper the old person and the old person pampers you. Another thing that I see about them is that they act nothing like your parents even though they are parents of your parents. Whenever my grandparents visited me, I felt like I was free and I could do anything that I wanted to do through their permission and that they will never take a no as an answer for you. They will do everything for you, they will take care of you and pamper you even more than your parents. Maybe for your parents you are growing and its their responsibility of not spoiling you but for grandparents – a grandchild is always a grandchild. Finally even though they have a wrinkled skin and a slightly weak body by age, instead of them eating a lot of food, they force you to eat a lot of food and tell you to eat every delicious dish that they make. My maternal grandfather’s fish is the best fish I have eaten and even my mom can’t beat the fish. If I tell my mom that I’m not hungry she doesn’t really react to it. When its any side of my grandparents they will not like a “no” as an answer to food as its their right and pleasure in feeding, pampering and playing with you. My late paternal grandmother always forced me to eat and she had a problem when there was really less food on my plate. She manipulated me to have more food as she said that its my age and I’m too young, so such less food is not good for my body, hence I’m told to have a lot of food and enjoy it too. She would get angry if she heard the word ‘diet’ from anyone. When I used to get back from school, before asking me how am I she asked what I ate. Again no matter how old you get and no matter wherever you are and whatever you are in life, your grandparents will always be your “yes men” and will be the kindest people to you – no one can be more pampered in life by anyone but your grandparents. This one is to all the grandparents out there pampering their grandkids all the time.

I hope you enjoyed this destination and your time travelled to unravel your memories with your grandparents. If so, please let me know in the comments section below and tell me how and what you liked and what are your fondest memories as a child

We’ll travel to our new destination next week very soon

Stay safe 🙂

Yours sincerely

Chinmay

Hey there! Its me your storyteller and we’re back again. Faster than you could count to ten. Now that we are all stuck in a pandemic, the world has now gone online. I believe the school shall start very soon. I just hope and pray everyday that my school reopens and I deeply hope that it will in a month or two. Although I didn’t believe the moment 2021 came, because 2021 has the same old behavior as the previous year 2020. In that case 2020 won not 2021 (Sorry I can’t stop when it comes to puns). New year but yet the same ways. My online school started this week after the relaxing winter break, I was just remembering my journey to school. Here’s how my daily routine used to be when there was nothing called COVID.

I wake up in the morning a little late than my usual time because I can’t be an early riser till I have bad dreams. Then I go for a shower and at the same time I brush my teeth because I used to get late. Then I get ready and run faster than the wind to my pickup point which is five minutes away if I walk. The journey from my house to my school used to be approximately a 45 minute journey. On my way I either listened to music on my phone because I also had to stay back after school on most days for playing cricket or listened to music in my head. I used to have a lot of fun with my friends in the bus because most of the time was spent in making jokes and laughing as if there’s no tomorrow. The entertaining journey then took us to our school. From there I waited for a few friends of mine and we walked for breakfast having a chat. Me and my friends are always in a hurry and never get time to have breakfast at home because of the bus waiting for us. After breakfast at the dining hall we used to run for the assembly. At the cafeteria we sit down with our breakfast discussing about projects, homeworks, Marvel, thinking about pranks or cracking puns while munching breakfast.

After that I headed to attend my classes, there me and my friends studied, took notes, doodled in my notebooks, playing with pens, chatting around, looking at other students and watching what were they doing. As I did my usual stuff pretending to be busy and occupied. Me and my friends and couldn’t wait long for lunch. After a few periods we finally had lunch. Me and my friends go for lunch, have lunch and arrive with full tummies. Before we could enter our classes we play outside in the lawns or in the jungle gym or just sit down in the open doing nothing or coming up with pranks, dares or anything to fool around and entertain ourselves if we were bored. After lunch we went inside our classes and were tired, waiting for the school to end. There were just 80 minutes left for the school to end post lunch. I am indeed a bright student but the mischief, the scurrying away to our desks when the teacher was arriving or the cracking jokes was what I liked. Even though I am a bright kid my foolish antics made me a last bencher. Another excuse to justify the first excuse was because I was the tallest in the class. When we couldn’t hold our patience waiting for lunch or waiting for the school to end, we headed slowly in slow motion to the washroom if we had a boring lecture going on. Me and a few friends waited in the washroom styling our hair and in slow motion we used to walk and return to our classes. If my teachers asked me why was I so late. I would answer them by saying that either the toilet was clogged or I was sick. But I never was consistent with the excuses at all. Because no one would really care nor would the teachers if you return from the washroom after two minutes. Finally when the timing was 3:30PM and we would walk out of the classroom on our way for some snacks. We used to get some snacks and headed to our school buses.

I always hated staying at home because I love school more than my home because having fun at school was a hundred times better than having fun at home. When the world entered 2020. When a small bat, a stupid flying animal just changes the entire world. The next thing that happens is that I am stuck at home with my laptop on. 2020 had been harsh on all of us. I would kill for school. I would love to just to go to school because staying at home pre-Covid was looking forward to Learn Another Day and Have Fun Another Day. Comparing normal, happy school from a boring, virtual, abnormal online school has several differences. If we had to meetup we would either after school or at someone’s house. Here we have to meet up on communication platforms like hangouts, discord, whatsapp and whatnot. When in 2019 I used to talk to my friends or we used to talk to each other in midst of a class. In today’s day and time it happens through chatting and staying online through private chats. It will be much more sadder because some friends are also leaving the school. Although even if one friend is shifting to another city I will still go behind his back and eat his head and have a lot of fun. The uniforms, the mischief, the notebooks, the sports, going to other classes when the teacher was still not in our class, pranking each other or talking during class has changed. I just hope everyone’s school is reopened and everyone just gets back to school and gets back from this unfortunate time.

I just hope we all get back to school and social distance from masks, from Covid, from loneliness, from a pandemic and from online classes. If I had a time machine I would be going back to to the past and stopping this virus that has destroyed millions of things and people.

One day we will be back in school faster than we could count to ten

I hope you enjoyed, I’ll see you next week 🙂

Yours Sincerely

Chinmay

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Photo clicked by: Yogesh Patgaonkar

Hello there! I’m your storyteller Chinmay Patgaonkar (The handsome avid reader in the picture above). As a kid (currently a kid). I love stories. Reading a story or listening to a story from what a person has seen or is imagining is something that fascinates me and I try looking forward to it. Consider life as a Netflix series. You have many seasons that portray all episodes of your life. You are now about to reach the Storyland of Chinmay. You are about to read some stories that will make you laugh, make you smile. So buckle up your seatbelts, because every week you are about to dig deep into a new destination.

A new story that you are going to sightsee. At the time of a Covid-19 outbreak and 2020 its challenging and sometimes its making us remember our past memories. It has been a terrible year. But since its 2021. You are about to read something from my eye.

I would be sharing something with ya’ll that seem general topics and events in your everyday life. But an unpredictable virus has stopped all of us from even going out to buy groceries. Conjuring is less scaring than COVID I believe. A general event that takes place more than once in our lives is something I am about to share. You are going to hear my story that will entertain you and make you remember how you would be and what would you be doing in such a situation. Stay tuned and your storyteller starts narrating. Next week

Thank you and Stay Safe

Your Storyteller

Chinmay 🙂