Priy Aaba

Dear Aaba,

I always remember calling you aaba from the time I started talking.

Our family had a history of only boys being born into the family for almost 11 generations. And there I came fighting against that tradition of "only boys". A daughter born into a family is often considered to be a treasure trove in our community, which you also rightly believed. You named me "Deepa", which means light. It was Diwali around the time I was born and that is the reason you named me Deepa, is what grandmom tells me. You indeed considered me a bright little light which brought you joy, happiness and the pride of becoming a grandfather.

You doted on me and took me places. You never spoiled me by buying anything which I demanded. But you gave me only what was good and healthy for me. You were very particular about your morning walks and what you ate. You never ate food from outside, you only ate what grandmom prepared at home. You always said "The food which tastes good to the tongue is not necessarily good for the stomach". How true you were! As a child, I couldn't understand the meaning of it, but now I very well understand what you really meant! You never missed doing Yogasanas and other exercises which kept you extremely fit till your last days. Neither a single tooth of yours gave you any problem in your life time and nor did you face any eye sight problem.

You were not able to complete your schooling and colleging due to a family problem. But then you rose to a high position in the textile mills and retired as a General Manager on only your sheer perseverance and intelligence. Way back in Punjab, where you worked, people respected you for what you were and always spoke high of you. You were a very strict task master and very dedicated and punctual when it came to work. You worshipped your work and also enjoyed it. You never considered it as work, but always an opportunity to learn something new. You excelled in whatever you did. And that streak of yours, you tried finding in others which often left you unsatisifed with most of the people as they weren't like you.

You enjoyed me going to school more than I did. You always evaluated my report card when it arrived at home. You always asked me, why this time I got less marks in a particular subject. You wrote your evaluations on it too which I didn't like that time. But then given the person you were, you were bound to make your own notes on it. You read the entire paper daily, without fail. Your vocabulary was fabulous given the fact that you received no formal education from school or college. You were a self-made man and remained so till the end with your up-to-date knowledge of current affairs and politics etc. You never enjoyed watching movies, but classical music made you happy.

I still remember the last days where you took food only from me. I could see you lying there helpless on bed, waiting to start moving again. But unfortunately, you never did. Your eyes shone till the end and only on the last day of your journey on this earth, did they grow listless. You donated your eyes and body to a charitable trust and I think it was a very noble thing to do. You did not want dad to perform the rituals which are usually performed on the 10th and the 13th day after death as you did not believe in them.

I sometimes choke at the thought even today that I will be never able to see you or meet you in person in my life again to show you all what I have achieved in my life today. I am sure, I would have made you proud today, aaba. I wish, God had given me some more time to learn till more from you in addition to whatever I learned from you. But, I am sure aaba, you are there somewhere amongst the starts in the sky blessing me and showering all your love and affection. I am really fortunate to have spent the first 18 years of my life with you and get to know you as a person.

I owe my existence and whatever I am today to you as you were the one who always stressed the importance of having a good education for leading a sound and stable life. I always considered you as my role model and if I become even 1 % of what you were, I would be extremely happy!

Aaba, thanks for whatever you did for me.

I miss you and I will always love you!

Your grand daughter

Deepa 

Tom and Jerry

 Today, my landlady's grandson, who is just 3 yrs old, came to me and told me that he wants to watch Tom and Jerry at my home. He also asked me to sit beside him and watch it. I hadn’t watched Tom and Jerry in the recent past as I was so busy with my life. But still his persuasion I sat to watch it today.

As the first titles rolled on, his eyes lit up as if he was watching a magician reveal his tricks in front of him. He started laughing uncontrollably and was talking to me in Kannada and trying to tell me something. I was just saying yes and ok. He was shouting loudly and giggling with joy. It was such a treat to watch his innocent laugh and see him enjoy so much. His laughter was so pure and unadulterated. I also joined him in this enjoyment.

Tom and Jerry are no less than any magicians, are they? Almost everybody of my generation has grown up watching them. They make us laugh and make us cry with their crazy tricks. Tom constantly chases Jerry and Jerry does all the things under the sun to irritate Tom. They are constantly at loggerheads with each other. But then they also can't stay without each other. They complement each other and complete each other and also miss each other when one of them is missing. They are the most formidable pair in the entire bulk of cartoon series, I have ever seen in my life. No other cartoon character has made such a profound impression on me till now. Though that cartoon series is very old now, it looks so fresh and makes me smile every time I see it.

There should be times like these when you just let go of all the worries and tensions in your life and watch Tom and Jerry (or for that matter anything which you watched and enjoyed as a child) and have a good quality time, where you just become a small child and laugh out all your anger, irritability etc. As we step into adulthood, we lose the child in us or I would say that child takes a back seat and becomes dormant. But sometimes, that child should be brought in the fore-front. That child in us makes us fresh and gives us renewed strength to face the challenges of life.

I met the child in me today once again and that mood spread unto my whole day and I was cheerful throughout the day and felt very light!

Which is your favorite cartoon character which makes you forget the surrounding around you?

The art of giving

When I had been to Germany in November last year, I also visited my host mother, Ms. Christiane Laehnemann in a city called Magdeburg. I had been there earlier as student and wanted to meet her again this time with Atul. She is a lecturer in a college and is a very well spoken and well read person. We visited her on a week end and on Sunday she took us to a nearby church as it was the first Sunday of Advent before Christmas.

We attended the services in the church, where there was a small programme of kids and then the priest spoke about the importance of Advent. It was a very nice experience. People were friendly, everybody smile to me and wished me. But I observed that most of the people present there were old people. There were hardly any youngsters or people of my age for the services. Maybe they didn't believe in God or didn't have time to attend the services on a cold winter morning. After the services, there was a small tea party where there were stalls of different items, which were up for sale.

It was a small hall in which the exhibition was put up. There were few items for decoration of the Christmas tree and they all were hand made by the people in the church. Rates were also nominal. There was another small room next to the hall, where there were multiple articles, up for sale too. But the difference was that all the articles out there belonged to the people attending the church and they had brought these things with them to give away, which they thought would be useful to someone else. They had used it enough perhaps and now they thought of giving it to someone else. There was no price tag on the articles there. People picked whatever they liked and put the money, they thought was good enough for the articles they bought in the basket kept at the entrance. Everybody was happy and everybody picked something or the other. Those articles didn't look old or used or tattered at all. There were books, CDs, cutlery items, show pieces etc. We picked a few items too!!

I then remembered my good friend, Raghu telling me that he had got a book shelf and a bed from the road side in the university campus, where people put unwanted articles on the road on a particular day in the week. One could just go around, look around and pick up anything which one likes for free! And there were not only small items, mind you! How cool was that!

I thought to myself, how much do we do for our community or our people in India like these people do here in Germany? Do we use the articles, products sensibly to pass them on to someone else? Do we return to the society enough in proportion to what we get from the society? Everybody needs to give a thought to this. We have a certain duty to our society and in some form or the other, we must give it back to the society.

It may not be always possible to serve the society in terms of money, but time, love and care are much more important than money many a times. We may donate books to a school or teach poor students on a w/e, visit old age homes and spend some quality time with the people there by reading out to them or simply talking to them. We can plant trees and encourage others to do so. We can also sponser a girl child's education, which is very noble I feel.

 Whatever little is possible for each one of us, we must definitely do it so that our next generation has something to cherish and live on.

I would quote a few lines of Govind Vinayak Karandikar popularly known as VinDa on the art of giving, which I like very much and is in my mother tongue, Marathi.

देणार्याने देत जावे - घेणार्याने घेत जावे - घेता घेता एक दिवस - देणार्याचे हातच घ्यावे

(Denaryane det jaave - ghenaryane ghet jaave - gheta gheta ek divas - denaryache haatach ghyave)

(Donor should keep giving - the receiver should keep taking - and one day while taking - the receiver should take the donor’s hand)

So when are you going to learn the art of giving?

:-)

Gandha

कालच स्टार प्रवाह वर "गंध" हा अप्रतिम चित्रपट बघायला मिळाला. सगळेच कलाकार ताकदीचे होते. ३ लघु कथांना गुंफून  एक मस्त असा वातावरण तयार केला होता. उत्तम दिग्दर्शन, उत्तम सादरीकरण आणि थोडक्यात बरच काही सांगायचा अगदी सुंदर प्रयत्न वाटला. 

"गंध" ह्या शब्दाचा इंग्रजी मध्ये "स्मेल" असा अनुवाद करण्यात आला होता ह्या चित्रपटात. मला तो खटकला. "गंध" सारख्या इतक्या सुंदर मराठी शब्दाचा अनुवाद इंग्रजी मध्ये "स्मेल" असा कसा होऊ शकतो? नाही अजिबात होऊ शकत नाही. गंध ह्या शब्दाचा जो अर्थ मला पटकन सुचला तो होता एकच "fragrance".

पहिला पाउस पडला की मातीला जो वास येतो तो गंध, हिरव्या ओल्या पानांना जो हिरवा वास येतो येतो तो ही गंधच. एखादं बाळ उराशी धरला की त्याच्या तोंडाला दुधाचा  जो चिकट गोड असा वास येतो तो गंध. कोऱ्या नवीन पुस्तकांचा गंध तसंच नवीन करकरीत नोटांचाही गंधच, कपड्यांवर अत्तराचा मंद असा दरवळणारा गंध आणि शेणानी अंगण सारवतात तेव्हा येणारा ही गंधच.

आजी जेव्हा फोडणीत छानपैकी कढीपत्ता आणि लसूण टाकते आणि तेव्हा जो काही घमघमाट सुटतो तो ही एक प्रकारचा गंधच, नाही का? बकुळीच्या फुलांचा ही गंधच आणि गाभार्यातून येणारा धुपाचा तो मंत्र मुग्ध करून टाकणारा वास तो ही एक गंधच हो ना?.

गंध आठवणी ताज्या करतो आणि आपल्याला त्या रम्य अश्या जगात थोडा वेळ का होईना पण घेऊन जातो. गंध धुंद करतो, मुग्ध करतो.

आणि शेवटी गंध हा आपल्या अस्तित्वाचाच एक भाग होऊन राहतो.

Garam chai

Sudhir, Koustubh and I met when we first started our careers with Hewlett Packard as translators.
Sudhir knew French and I and Koustubh knew German. 

Sudhir had come from Pune and Koustubh and I from Mumbai. Coming from the same state and speaking a common language in a new state helped us bond over garam chai in the canteen very quickly. And there was just no looking back. We went for lunch together, went out on week ends for movies, shopping. We helped each other to beat the stress and frustration at work. We talked about movies, music. Eating and shopping were our favorite topics. Sudhir loved shopping and Koustubh always took time to zero down on buying something. We tried almost all different cuisines available in Bangalore.

Soon, Sudhir moved out of HP. I went back to Mumbai, however returned soon to HP. Koustubh was still there. But he also moved out for better prospects after I re-joined. But still we were in regular touch with each other on mails, calls and sometimes even met each other. I subsequently got married and also did Sudhir.

It is true that priorities change, rather life changes once marriage happens. It was not that our partners did not allow us to meet each other or something. but we all got engrossed in our personal lives and hardly talked to each other at length now. We knew that we all exist in the same city, but somewhere that regular keeping in touch just went stopped happening.

 We met today at Sudhir's house for a cup of garam chai and dhokla after a year or so. Koustubh had also come over. We laughed together, talked about the good old days which we spent as friends and colleagues. All those memories flashed like an old movie in front of my eyes. Everything seemed so fresh, as if it had happened just yesterday.

I realized that this re-bonding is a way of reliving those carefree days where we all were single and young and had no responsibilities. It is a kind of tonic which will help us all to sustain in times of difficulties and stress. It is an oasis which will always remain green in our memories and in our hearts.

Garam chai took us back to the past which freshened us up and will definitely help us live the present and also our future on those wonderful memories. Our bond of friendship is just like the petrol which keeps the vehicle called life go smoothly.

Garam chai sessions should happen more often, say in 2 months or so?

What does garam chai remind you of??

The cricket fever

In a couple of hours, the first match of the ICC Cricket World cup commences with the hosts India and Bangladesh pitted against each other.

Indians are crazy for cricket, which is a world known phenomenon now. No matter how much we fight against each other on the basis of religion, caste and other things, we all come together as one nation to watch, cheer and play cricket.

Lots of hopes of millions of Indians are pinned to the Indian cricket team and they are perhaps under pressure to bring home the much coveted world cup. I really wish and pray that India at least comes to the final and then win the cup. Watching India in a final against the arch rivals (no points for guessing their name, you all know it very well :-)) is just like watching a war game and adrenaline running high.

Today the road would be empty as everybody would be glued to their television sets and they will cheer the team and create a wonderful atmosphere. My husband often talks to himself about the missed catches or the wrong decision given by the umpire. I am sure he will have something to say today too.

I wish team India all the very best and I look forward to watch them outshine other teams and win home the glory of the world cup!

Yeah! three cheers to India India!!

Early bird

I usually wake up by 5 am on weekdays. An early bird, you see!

The alarm goes off exactly at the time, when I feel like sleeping for “only” 5 more minutes. These extra 5 minutes seem like heaven. Anything which comes extra in life is usually desirable, isn’t it? I want to take the advantage of these 5 blissful minutes, but then my conscience pricks me and I get up from the bed quickly lest I succumb to those 5 minutes.

I do yoga and pranayaam for an hour and then I also walk for about 15-20 minutes in the terrace. Almost daily, I am busy in completing the walk as a chore and do not notice the serene and calm atmosphere around me.

But today, I happened to notice the green lush trees around my house. They appeared so very full and strong and hearty to me, waiting to embrace the golden rays of the sun. The blue sky was standing tall with a few white clouds here and there. The birds were preparing to leave home in search of food just as I was going to leave home in sometime for office.

The breeze was cool and I felt very calm and happy observing the nature around me. It is so rightly said that the environment around you has a great impact on your emotional and physical well-being.

We are so lost in our hectic and fast routine that we forget to take cognizance of small and beautiful things in the guise of nature around us. We just need 10 minutes out of our daily schedule to connect with our inner self and attain inner peace. When we are peaceful within, we need not fight for searching peace in external things.

I have decided to connect with myself through the nature everyday so that I can feel better, think better, plan better and execute better.

Food zone

I am a foodie.

 

I love eating any types of veg cuisines from all over the world.

 

A few years back, I used to eat non-veg (only butter chicken, once in six months, that too in hotel). But I gave up in 2005 when I had been to Tirupati with my friends from Bangalore.

 

Just like that, out of the blue, I thought of giving something up and cultivate a type of discipline in myself. As I was not very keen on eating non-veg, giving it up was easy. I did not miss it much and also did not mind someone sitting besides me and eating it.

 

There were so many varieties available in veg food itself that non veg items couldn't lure me after I gave them up.

 

If you ask me to list down 5 five favorite dishes.. the first in the list would be

 

1) Gobi Manchurian. I just love it at anytime of the day and on any day. I love the very tangy taste of it. And the roasted flavor of it along with some cut vegetables makes me go bonkers!!

 

2) It is a tie. Shared between Sev puri and Pav bhaji. Sev Puri from a road side vendor in my home town, who appears very dirty and unhygienic to our practical side, but the heart knows, no one can make better sev puri than him. Pav Bhaji should be made by my mom with her unique sense of adding appropriate quantities of all the masalas and vegetables!

 

3) I love Italian pastas, the bland ones with the white sauces and vegetables. It is just the right food for any pasta lover. I would recommend you to try "Little Italy" whenever you visit me in Bangalore.

 

4) I have a sweet tooth too just like you all. I would place banana walnut cake, blueberry muffin on the 4th position. The moment they melt in your mouth, you reach heaven, an alltogether different plane of consciousness.

 

5) My all time favorite Sitaphal flavor from the Natural Ice Cream parlor. Oh, how can someone make him/her indulge so much with the help of such a rare, unattractive and seasonal fruit?

 

Now, please do not go by the calorie chart of these enlisted items.

 

Once you start counting them, you lose all the fun and the joy of having it.

 

Once in a while, everybody should give themselves a treat on occassion of a stressful day or a wedding anniversary or a birthday or even during the first showers of monsoon.

 

Having your favorite dish makes your taste buds happy and in turn they spread this happiness to your whole being. Afterall life is all about deriving happiness from such small things.

 

What say?

 

The joy of nurturing

I had been to Lalbaug with my best friend Koustubh and his mom during the month of January.

Lalbaug is a well known botanical garden in Bangalore. It has a famous glass house which hosts flower shows. It also has an aquarium and a lake, and is one of the tourist attractions in Bangalore.

The flower shows are held there biannually during the Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations and it is a worth watch. I had been hearing this since a long time, but the 6 yrs I was in Bangalore, I had never paid a visit there. So, this time I made it happen and it was a wonderful experience.

Being a Sunday, it was crowded, but we could see all the plants and flowers which were kept in the exhibition. I love plants, especially the ones that bear flowers..

Flowers of different shapes, sizes, colors and fragrances, just like the people in this world with their distinctive features.

I had given a small bamboo plant to Koustubh as it is considered to be a sign of good fortune and in return, I had asked Koustubh to gift me a plant too. We had a nice opportunity to see a variety of plants in Lalbaug and Koustubh bought me 2 small indoor plants. One had only one violet colored flower and another had many pink/baby pink small flowers.

I happily brought them home and started looking after them.

I kept them in the sun in such a place where they would get the sunlight, but wouldn’t be in sunlight for the whole time. They started growing and I was happy with myself. I wanted to induce self-discipline in me. I wanted to test myself and see if I can take care of something as beautiful and fragile as plants. I dutifully watered them everyday. I talked to them and asked them how they are feeling under my protective arms J

It happened once that I did not water them for 2 days. Somehow, I got caught up with work and wasn’t able to come home in time. Those plants grew lifeless and I thought, there I go again. Can’t I even do this much? I cursed myself. I prayed and watered them again without taking a break. If I forgot some day, I told my husband to water them!

Yesterday morning what a sight it was! I saw 3 violet flowers, standing proud in that little earthen pot which I had got from the exhibition.

My happiness knew no bounds. I was jumping like a child. I clicked the pictures of those beautiful violet flowers. I felt a sense of fulfillment and realized that I had nurtured something very fragile, small, which had life, but couldn’t express its thoughts or concerns. It showed development only by bearing flowers. As long as it bears flowers, it is happy and kicking and very much alive. Just like a child.

I am wondering what fun and fulfillment would it be to nurture a real child of flesh and blood and bring it up?

Welcome to my world

Hello friends and well wishers!

I am back with this new blog of mine.

I won't be boring you with long essays and write-ups here.

My friend John proved to be an inspiration again for this new blog. He has written his thoughts on routine things and after reading his blog, I thought of giving a channel to my thoughts which fleet in my head all the time!

You should check out his blog too. It goes

http://john-jethi.blogspot.com/

I will see you again with varied thoughts and my flight into the vast limitless blue skies of thoughts!

Happy Viewing!