PeePaaJee

Don’t get shocked with the title ‘PeePaaJee‘!

The person you are seeing in above image (your left) is PeePaaJee himself. I am pretty much sure that, the name itself would have brought a smile on your face, if not a laughter! If not, try pronouncing the name and see the magic that happens on your face-cheeks! It happened with me too as well, when I first heard this name.

His real name is quite a genuine one, Mr. Dinesh Mehta, who is a Jain living in Ahmedabad. A die hard fan and a very close friend of the leading Gujarati humorist Ashok Dave. Infact, this pet name of PeePaaJee is a gift from Ashok Dave to Dineshbhai!

After I interviewed Ashok Dave, the article received many views along with comments. PeePaaJee was one of them there. Later, through email conversation with PeePaaJee, I got to know more about him. Through email conversations, he seemed a soft hearted rather humor-loving person.

So I made a point to meet him whenever I was to visit Ahmedabad next. The oppurtunity came quite sooner. Just this week, I visited Ahmedabad again, as I was to interview leading Gujarati humorist writers, Vinod Bhatt and Tarak Mehta. I called up Dineshbhai, weather he was availabe to meet me at the friend’s place I was staying.

He eagerly came at 10:00 am to meet with a friend of his, Pranjivan. He seemed to have a great sense of humor, as on the meeting itself, he introduced his friend saying his name consists of two villians of Hindi cinema, Pran and Jivan! So the laughter started our meeting, rather a friendly talk.

If we look at the age difference, he is quite elder than me, but still I felt the friendship bond with him. A soft spoken retired person with a small smile always playing on his face. He has entered the group of senior citizens, but unlike others, he walks 11 kilometres every single day. A bit surprising for me, but he loves walking. He says “if you ask me to walk anytime, anywhere, I will just start walking without asking anything. I just love it. If you ask me to walk to Gandhinagar right away, I will take my first step on the spot.”

And not only that, his father whose age is over 80 years, still walks with him. PeePaaJee has a great flair for old songs. Infact, they have a group in Ahmedabad, consisting of around 20 families, including Ashok Dave, who meet up every Saturday at 09:00 pm at one of the member’s home in sequence. They listen to old songs, enjoy friendly talks and humors followed by snacks, prepared by the host.

By profession, he is associated with AirConditining with the company name ‘Dawn Breeze‘. What a symbolic name for his profession!

He was kind enough to bring some chocolates packed in a very rich looking cover. He said that the chocolates were made by one of his family members. The taste was truly delicious. After I reached home, my wife tested the same followed by owing entire pack!!

A down to earth person. Meeting him was like meeting an old friend.