#100sareepact
78/100
A Bengal handloom with vertical black and brown stripes ; could have been dull but relieved by a smart red thin border and I decided to wear it with a blood red blouse . A rare neck piece and my favorite long danglers complete the ensemble today .
The day began with an early morning visit to my dentist in Vashi . Vashi !!! Always like going home because we spent more than a dozen years and it was where the boys grew up . The morning was a glowy kind of morning and the streets of Vashi with the dense tree cover looked so beautiful . Perfect setting for Saree Pact Photo said Azim but as I was already late I said ok great but after the consultation. So you can see me clutching at my jaw in the photos we took as I walked back after the dentist’s ministrations !
There is a story as to how I found this dentist who not only is the best in his business but also one of my dearest buddies and I guess that is today’s Saree Pact story !
Cut to 1987 / 88 almost yes 25 years ago ! We had settled in Vashi after our return from Venezuela as my husband’s place of work was in the industrial area of New Bombay .
The niggling pain in my lower jaw screamed Wisdom Tooth happening big time and meant I needed to see some one soon and it was with some relief I realized there was a dentist right next door ! A big board that said Dr Narendra Paralkar , Dental Surgeon with a series of impressive alphabets following . This was the apartment right next to ours where at all times there were at least half a dozen young boys wielding a cricket bat and slamming a cricket ball all over the place . It was a miracle that the ball had not yet found our window panes . Nice kids though , smart and energetic .
And the evening when I finally mustered up enough courage to go around and get an appointment , the boys stopped their game and smilingly made way for me .
The Clinic was on the ground floor and obviously part of the doctor’s home too. A smart looking young lad answered my knock and looked enquiring at me leaning against the open door . Recognizing him as one of the budding cricketers from the front yard matches I smiled my hello and said Is your father in ? I would like to see him . I almost thought he would say Why ? Window broke or what ? But he just said in a puzzled manner , My Father ? Why. ? He is not here . He doesn’t live here .
I was the puzzled one now . But , I said , the board outside says Dental Clinic ? So if he is not here then ?!?
Yes.. He nodded and now I could sense a kind of impatience creep into the lad’s tone ; this is the Clinic . Oh I said . Doctor Saheb is on a break ? Then he smiled . That slightly lopsided , slow smile that eventually finds its way to those keen brown eyes ..the smile I have grown to love over the last 25 years . He smiled and straightened and drew himself to his full height and said I am Dr Paralkar !
But but I mumbled , you play cricket outside every day . Yes I do he said . And stood aside so I could walk in ! Confused and a bit embarrassed I hesitated but the throbbing pain decided in favour of stepping in .
Once I was in the chair and he was behind his mask there was no doubting his mastery over his craft . His handling of the drill was as elegant as the flick of his wrists swinging the cricket bat and thus began our friendship .
From my fainting on his chair once to our shared passion for books ( one of the best books I have ever read , Watership Down was lent to me by him ) to his liking of my Dosais and being an admired role model to my young sons to our even now common likes and tastes (we both have the same colour and kind of car ) young Naren became someone I would really look forward to spending time with . Even the time spent on his chair ( my teeth are horrible and need constant attention ) was welcome . Though he had to master the art of shutting me up so could go about his business .
Young and ambitious he soon established himself as one of the best in Vashi and soon I was recommending my friends and visiting family to him .
In the years I’ve known him I have been part of all the big moments in his life . His engagement one Dusshera day to the lovely Sharmila ( and riding pillion back to Vashi on his mobike after the ceremony in Khar) Their wedding on the following Republic Day and then the birth of their beautiful daughter one Diwali day . That beautiful daughter is now a dentist herself ! Yes 25 years indeed . Of a life built with determination and discipline . And that one awful brush with near disaster when he was crushed under his motorcycle . The painful recovery and getting back on his feet . Determination and discipline are really the right words for Naren !
No wonder I look forward to going to see my dentist 🙂
On the way back from work , yes it was another long day ; the dark clouds and grey skies offered a totally different landscape and setting for today’s saree and Azim decided we had to stop and shoot …