Antarang - The shades of life

2018 is nearing its end and I have some exciting news to share. This year is ending on a very positive and cheerful note. I expect a lot of good things for personal and professional growth in 2019.

Resolutions for the new year 2019

It's 6 pm in Karlsruhe, Germany.

It's another 1.5 hrs in India to approach the new year.

My brother-in-law, who is in Tokyo, Japan has already arrived into 2019.

So how was the year 2018 for me and what are my resolutions for 2019?

Can't stop the feeling by Justin Timberlake - My new crush

I am a self-proclaimed music freak.

I listen to music every day.

I am born to be surrounded by music.

I love music, in any language, anything melodious, soulful, rhythmic, foot tapping number.

Visit to the Strasbourg Christmas market

As the year 2018 comes to a closure, I really did something exciting and worthwhile, though on the second last day of the year. We visited the city Strasbourg, which is in France and is very famous for its Christmas market. It was cold, it was grey, it was cloudy, but the atmosphere and the decorations there brought a smile to my face and the day will be forever etched in my mind as one of the memorable days of the year 2018.

Picture Challenge - 2

This is the second post for the picture challenge sent by John. He is kicked up about it and he is dutifully sending the images, the second week in a row. I hope we both continue with it till a long long time.

You can read about the first picture challenge here:

https://thebluecanvasofwords.blogspot.com/2018/12/picture-challenge-1.html

Here's my interpretation of the second image that he sent early this week.

Tom Hanks - A fine actor

It's December, its Christmas time and more than half of the world population is busy celebrating Christmas with family. But it is also the most boring time of the year for us, who don't celebrate the festival, have nowhere to go because it is cold all over Europe and schools have close to 3 weeks holidays. T got bored on the second day of vacations and he asks me almost every day about the school reopening. Next year I plan to go to India during this time. Last year it was the same story and this year too. So how to kill time in this dull and grey weather? Watch movies! And yes I did a good job by selecting two movies of my favorite actor, Tom Hanks. What were the movies?

Picture Challenge - 1

My good friend John who introduced me to the world of blogging stays in Canada. He shifted there last year. Like any other person, he faced problems with settling down in an entirely new county and among new people. He took to a new passion there. Photography!! I am sad that he doesn't blog anymore. I miss our Monthly Writing Marathons. But he is happy with the new passion and he is very active on Instagram and has the handle name johnjethi. Please check out his collection. It's marvelous, stupefying and it completely mesmerizes me. He asks me to chose which I like the best but there is no best. All are too good to even rank them 1 point lower. So this brilliant idea struck me last week. Something that would bring his passion for photography and my passion for writing together! Yes, it's a brilliant idea as it is going to keep us both creatively active. So what's the idea?

The Bread Story

I had written about the "Indische Nudeln" (Sevai Upma) when T started school. It was about how happy he was with the arrangement about taking bread in his box twice a week in the Kindergarten and on other three days, he would take Indian breakfast. We also adopted this in his school from September this year. All was going well until 3 weeks back. He suddenly started bringing back the Indian breakfast without finishing it. And when I asked him why he didn't finish it, he gave me the same answer that he wasn't hungry every single time he brought it back!

Daycare for dogs

Life never fails to surprise you, if you are really ready for it with your heart and eyes and ears open! December means shorter days, darker days, no sunshine, no vitamin D for my body and soul and I feel down on many days. It's not as bad as it was last year, but sometimes it gets onto me. After an encounter about which you are just going to read, I thought life is not bad after all!

Goodbye my dear friend!

"Did you get to know about K"?

These words flashed on my Facebook messenger from a friend with whom I am regularly in touch about my current lifestyle, the intermittent fasting.She is also my colleague and we have many common friends. My heart beats increased for a minute. K! What about him?! I hope he is fine. I hope he is doing well. I hope nothing untoward has happened. My ears turned red and hot. These thoughts raced my mind. I mustered courage and said, "No. What happened"?

"He passed away last night in Bangalore. He had an cardiac arrest"

Indische Nudeln!!

As you all already know by now my son, T goes to a Kindergarten nearby and has a wonderful time there with his multi-ethnic friends and he looks forward to go there every morning. He has now caught a fancy to take a small tiffin box for snacks in the Kindergarten. Usually all the meal times are taken care over there, but recently his friend Alex started getting "Milchbrot" (Milk bread) with some sausages and honey to the Kindergarten and the fever of bringing snacks spread to other household too. T and I explored at least 2-3 supermarkets to search Milchbrot and finally found a packet of 8 small breads (very unhealthy, contains Maida and complex sounding chemicals which we have no idea of what it exactly is). I bought it for him because he was so looking forward to it but I managed to convince him that it can't be consumed on a daily basis for 2-3 weeks in a row. Thankfully he understood and then began a series of food surprises in his tiffin box.

Nam myoho rengo kyo

Back in 2008 when I had been to Hyderabad with my colleague, Ranjani for official visit, I was introduced to the phrase 'Man myoho Renge kyo', which is a part of Buddhist philosophy. Ranjani was also recently introduced to it and she chanted daily for half an hour and it had brought positive things in her personality and also in her life and she asked me to join her in daily chanting. After coming back to Bangalore, I continued for a few months, attended a few sessions of group chanting and later stopped practicing. I do not remember now why I stopped it. Then I got into the usual rut of family, job, kids, stay in Germany for 2 years, came back to India and then again after a break moved to another city in Germany with family. After moving to the new city with no job and no friends and family, I began to sink deep into frustration and depression until one day I read a short story about the Buddhist practice in a book on my Kindle. And it changed my life.

My mother is the most beautiful woman on earth

I had read the story titled 'My mother is the most beautiful woman on earth' in school and I very well remember the teacher who taught it to us in Secondary School. Ms. Majumdar was well versed with English and was an excellent orator. She was also the head teacher and she also choreographed our skits and dances for the Annual Day. She was always very warm and smiling and a favorite among the students. The story goes like this:

Kazakhstan and Mithun Chakraborty

Last week, I met one more mamma of T's friend. That friend is 2 years younger to him, but they get along well with each other and often play together in the Kindergarten. 3 weeks back I met his mom in the Kindergarten and we exchanged phone numbers to decide about a play date. It was easy as we stay close-by. But she cancelled twice due to family emergencies and we finally met last week. As we chatted along, I got to know that she is from Kazakhstan and in Germany since 28 years now. I told here that I am from India. And the next sentence blew me off, she was a great fan of Mithun Chakraborty and has watched all his movies when she was in college in Kazakhstan. I was pleasantly surprised! Mithun had a fan base in Kazakhstan!? What!? Really!?

Friends - The Sunshine

I left my job, my home, my parents, my social life and my best friends and came to Germany around 5 months back. I had no idea how I was going to have a foothold here in a new city. Earlier when I was in Germany, but in different city, I had made a few Indian and German friends there. But this was a totally new city and environment. I am not working here either, so chances of going to office and making friends there was also ruled out. I am a true Libran and I have to be surrounded by people. If not for talking, but at least for company, I need people around me. I need to see people, hear sounds, hear them talk and interact and then I feel that there is life around me and that I am alive. For the first 3 months, I had absolutely no contact with anyone around the area, except the immediate neighbors of course. Also it was winter here and people all rushed back home. Hardly anyone was seen on the road or in the play area nearby. I felt extremely lonely and had thoughts about the good times I spent with my friends in Bangalore. But as it is said, 'give time some time', I slowly found a few friends around and thought to myself, it's not that bad!

Intermittent Fasting - My lifestyle

July 2017 was a turning point in my life. I came across the term 'Intermittent Fasting' in one of Luke Coutinho, the celebrity coach's online video stressing the importance of giving break to the body by not eating for a certain number of hours and the benefits it brought with such a "fasting" phase once a while. Not eating for around 12 or 14 or 16 hours? And me? How was I going to sustain and even live for a day by doing it? I read a lot of books about it. I read many articles online. I gathered information, got convinced by it, made up my mind and took up this lifestyle. Read on to know more about this lifestyle, which I have adopted very successfully, lost a lot of weight and also introduced a lot of friends and family members into it who are reaping its benefits every single day.

Life is a box of chocolates

You never know what life offers you, what a brand new day brings for you! The sun rises and sets every single day, but what you make of that entire time is your personal thing and you can either create wonders out of it or just let it pass by like an ordinary day. The past 2 weeks have been very magical for me and I am finally out of the "low" phase in my life. I decided not to be a victim of the games that my mind was playing on me and I moved ahead with a renewed vigor and strength.

It's never too late to learn

The Spring is here now and the dark, gloomy and misty days have given way to bright blue skies and sunny days with trees and plants blooming all over wherever I see. It gives me immense joy and I look forward to my walk in the morning exploring different tracks in the forest nearby and also on the roads which I had not taken till now. I observe that suddenly there are lots of people on the road and roads are teeming with people and their cycles. There are cycles of all shapes and sizes and colors all over the place. The city doesn't have hills and has flat surface and area and it's a very smooth ride for bikers here. I watched every biker passing by with marvel and a great respect. There was only one glitch.

Awwa

Last week on a Wednesday morning, around 5 am, T woke up from his sleep shouting "Awwa, awwa". Awwa is a replacement for the word "aai ga" or "hey ram" when one is especially hurt or in pain. All the kids and also sometimes grown ups utter this funny word "Awwa". Yes, so at 5 am it dawned upon us that T has a bad pain in his neck and he is not able to move it to his right side.

Jaane kya baat hai..

Today is my best friend Sonali's daughter's Zara's birthday. Zara is also my son's best friend and from morning I am thinking about her and the party which they will have in the evening. Last year we were all together, laughing and talking and eating. They will definitely miss us today but I am missing them and all my folks in Bangalore even more. She sent me the little one's pics in her new birthday dress. My son sent his wishes on a Voice message to his dear friend. She told me about the menu which partly she is going to prepare and partly going to order. She is going to cut a Peppa Pig birthday cake today. All my besties, Madhuri, Snehal, Rashmi and others are going to be there, but not me...

Locked out

What happens when you lock the main house door and go to pick up your son and come back 1 hr later and stand in front of the door trying to open the door which the same key with which you had locked it and the door doesn't open with the same key anymore? You feel like a fool and check the keys again and again and try to open the door several times. You start doubting your capabilities and also think that maybe you are standing before a wrong door perhaps.

Hawa Hawai - No more

The song Hawa Hawai from the ever green movie 'Mr. India' was immortalized by two ladies. The singer offscreen, who has a vast work in her name and is blessed with wonderful voice, Ms. Kavita Krishnamurthy and on screen by Sridevi, who with her funny dance moves and expressions made that song etched in our memories for a lifetime. She breathed her last in Dubai by accidental drowning and the whole nation wept for her and felt sad for her sudden departure. She had so much potential.

A walk in the woods

The weather is getting better..
The temperatures are in single and sometimes double digits (in plus)...
The Sun God makes it a point to give his Darshan for longer hours now...
So what better time than now to get back to my favorite activity of walking!

Frauenchor

I came to Germany in November, during the fall and almost when the season was getting grey and cold. In a new place, in a new city, in a new neighborhood, I was not sure how I was going to survive. But thankfully things fell in place and my son got admission in the Kindergarten immediately. I was relieved because he would be busy and not get bored at home. He would start school only in September 2018. In his Kindergarten, I happened to come across this monthly newspaper called 'Karlsruher Kind' (The Karlsruhe child) which has different events and activities and places, flea markets for kids and parents listed out for that particular month in Karlsruhe and the surrounding areas. This was where I first saw the advertisement of Private Music School Wasmer (Music School Wasmer). And the music lover in me immediately leapt in joy!

Just like that

Today is International Women's Day. My Facebook wall and WhatsApp is flooded with messages and I am quite amused by the revenue generated by these different Apps on a "special day" like today. Suddenly the whole world wakes up and sends and forwards messages though they might not really mean them or live a life like specified in them. They are after all "good to have" things and virtues. Who really thinks about them in day to day life?

Rise

I came across this wonderful poem on my favorite Facebook corner, The Senior Reading Raccoons. Someone had shared it on the group and I was in awe and dumbstruck. What choice of words! What feelings! What self-affirmation!

Her Master Key by Shruti Johri (Book Review)

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am a part of the Senior Reading Raccoons on Facebook and that is the forum where many new authors take birth. They showcase their work to other fellow members and ask for their frank opinions and reviews. On this forum, I met Shruti Johri, who recently released her book, Her Master Key. It was not available on Kindle earlier and as soon as it was available, she informed me about the same and I promptly bought it and started reading it on my Kindle.

The boy in the striped pajamas

I am a part of a group called Senior Reading Raccoons SRR on Facebook. It is a group of people who live and love books, buy and read and review and discuss books. Suggestions are asked for, criticism is taken in stride. There are authors who have published their books, there are newbies like me who want to read every day, at least for half and hour and there are people who finish 80-100 books a year. I heard about the book on this forum. 'The boy in the striped pajamas'. It definitely piqued my interest and I googled for it. Saw two boys on the cover. They were separated by a fence.

My social life in India

The person who is responsible in getting me back to writing is a lady, I will call her A here whom I met online in Germany. I happened to ping her on a common WhatsApp group of Indian ladies in my city and then began a very interesting exchange of topics on life in general. We haven't met yet, we haven't spoken on phone, except once. But we talk almost daily on mails and yesterday evening she asked me to write about the social life back in India. She has been in Germany for many years and she was curious to know how I spent my time there. So A, here's a post dedicated to you. Hope you like it.

Gratitude

I am a Libran by birth and I am a very sensitive and emotional person. I love Arts, I love nature, I love human and interpersonal relationships and all things that boggle the mind, but hardly have any scientific backing up intrigue me. E.g. Rebirth, Aura, one power that guides us, the reason why we meet certain people and take an instant liking for them and why we detest someone at the first sight, all these topics, which are hard to prove scientifically have been my favorite topics since a long time. It is no surprise why I am a sucker for books like 'Many lives many masters', Rhonda Byrne's books, 'Secret', 'Magic', and whatnot. The logical sense in me is a little less, I was roaming around looking at nature around when God decided to distribute logic. I take things to heart, by heart and think from the heart.

Frau Dombi

When we moved to our new neighborhood in Germany, little did I know that the experience here was going to be way different than what I had in another city in Germany, four years ago. I didn't interact with a single person in that apartment, leave alone the neighbor. We never said hello to each other or talked to each other. But here, on the first day itself we got to know a few people in our apartment who were mostly aged, but very open minded and friendly. The lady (Ms. Dombi) who stays below my flat is from Romania and is 81 years old. She stays alone, she had a heart problem some years back. She has backache sometimes, but she is very much mobile and does her daily chores with more or less no problems.

Muffinton

I met her in the year 2012 on a cold January afternoon in Bangalore when she rang my doorbell. Her comb had fallen in my balcony and she had to come to take it from me. I realized only then that she stayed in the flat, one floor above me. I exchanged pleasantries and after talking for a few minutes, it struck me that she was also pregnant! Just like me!

The light inside

Grass is greener on the other side,

I heard

Who else but me can be

a live example of that?

Nindiya aaja re aaja

Have you ever stayed up at 12 am in the night when the whole world around you has already taken a flight to the land of dreams and you are wondering when will the brain finally give a signal to the eyes to get tired and doze off and you will also finally enter your land of dreams? Others around you are snoring happily though they have woke up late in the morning and have also taken an afternoon siesta. You haven't committed any of such crimes and yet you fail to get sleep? Has this happened to you anytime? Do you feel my pain, do you understand what I am trying to say?

Love you Zindagi

Love you Zindagi (Bollywood movie) was on my bucket list since a long time. I love Alia Bhatt. She has great fire in her, I feel, and she will definitely make it big in Bollywood, given her line of projects and the acting she does in all her movies. I also got to know that her godfather, the great Karan Johar, scrutinizes and approves every assignment before she says yes or no to. So, she is safe hands I must say. But still her acting skill and passion can’t be ignored. I watched Highway movie, where I loved her. Others were romcom, romantic movies and this one, Hello Zindagi was a completely offbeat movie which I loved a lot.

To be or not to be

I got to know about a group called DIG (Deutsche-Indische Gesellschaft) from a friend in Karlsruhe, whom I had met in a Christmas market. It is a group of Indians and Germans (I think) who come forward to celebrate the Indian festivals during the year and they organize different events for getting Indian and German people together.

They kickstarted the year 2018 with Republic Day Celebrations and I wanted to attend it just to see how is it here? I took T along in the hope of finding small kids there to play with him. He came with me hoping to meet someone of his age. It was a good chance to socialize with Indian kids, I thought! He has lost the Indian touch, already I feel 😉

We both reached the venue. It was a hall of a community center and was good enough to accommodate 25-30 people. The managing team of DIG and their spouses and other regular members were there already, around 10 people and 2 Germans. We sang our national Anthem and a few patriotic songs. I stood there wondering about the feelings each person present here in the hall was going through. Were they missing India? Do they still have feelings for India after settling here and taking German citizenship here? Might be, might not be. I was missing something more for sure! Kids! I couldn’t see kids of any of the Managing committee members of any age group present for the event. I was little surprised and it set me thinking again.

Why were the Indian kids of Indian parents not present for the Republic Day celebration of their very own country? Why didn’t their parents get them here? Then it struck me, the kids were born into German culture and in this country, Germany and they naturally consider Germany as their country, their home. They have no emotional connection with India, the country of their parents and grandparents. They just go there for summer vacations, spend some time with family and relatives and friends and then come back “home”, which is Germany for them! They have their school here, friends here, after-school activities here! Why will they come for an event in which they can’t identify themselves at all?

We as parents, as couples move to different countries for better prospects and chances. We bring our children along with us, some kids are even born here. We teach them to be a part of this culture and engage them in activities, school etc. How can we expect them to be emotional about India when they have not spent much time there? Teaching about India and her varied culture at home through stories and rituals is a different thing and living in India and experiencing all that is totally different.

My generation has spent a major part of their lives back in India. Hence there are emotional connections with the country and the places. We have our parents, friends, ex-colleagues, memories of grandparents, native place, mango season, summer vacation over there and not here. But my kid will have different reference points and memories and lifestyle. He will regard Germany as his country and I feel bad about it sometime and sometimes I feel good that he has a better chance to shine individually here.

I will try my best to nurture a good and sensitive human being. Then the country and the boundaries hardly matter, I guess!

Aaji

I held her hand for one last time.

I stroked her head for one last time.

Her hands were cold and numb, almost lifeless and her body was just bones covered with a thin skin layer.

And she was gone. Though she was breathing mechanically with the help of devices in the hospital, her soul had left her body and the doctor declared that she is no more.