The blue sky

I had an appointment with the eye specialist yesterday regarding my right eye, which is dry compared to the other eye and has weak eyesight. I had been there 4 weeks back and spent a good 4 hours there only to go back yesterday so that one final test would be done and then the problem would be ascertained. The head doctor would examine the final results and decide the line of treatment. I was in the waiting room where everyone was in their 70's and 80's. I was the youngest of them all and the problem which I had seemed to be trivial as compared to the others who were sitting there.

John is back to Canada and I pinged him for the next picture challenge. I have actually run out of topics for the Blog Marathon and I have just two more days to go. So what better than attempting to interpret a picture that speaks a thousand words. This one is very close to my heart. I couldn't stop thinking about this place and the city which gave me the best days of my life with a well paying and satisfying career, my own dream house and of course, my baby was born in this city.

After having gone through some very bad emotional lows, I finally gathered myself again and limped back to normalcy. The weather is getting better. Next month, my mother in law is visiting me. We have a new year festival on 7th April for which we all are preparing very nicely. While doing the Blog Marathon yesterday, I remembered that I was once on Indiblogger and had some connections and posts there. It's the biggest platform of bloggers in India and realized that my blog, The Blue Sky isn't listed there with the changed URL. I got into the process and got the new URL registered and saw the rank of my blog go up from 25 to 50 on a scale of 1 to 100. The greater is the better. I also went through the top blogs and was pleasantly surprised to see so many passionate people like me expressing themselves on the platform.

ये जिंदगी भी बडी नाझनीं है कभी गम और कभी ख़ुशी की आँख मिचोली है लोग मिलते बिछडते हैं यादे बनती बिगडती हैं कभी फुल तो कभी काटे राह पर पिरोती रहती हैं डरना नही अँधेरो से रुकना नही पथ के रोडो से बस चलते रेहना ऐसे हीं उजालो की खोज मैं इन्सान वही जो  गिरकर संभले ठेस लगे भी तो गिरके फिर से ऊठ जाए जिंदगी बहुत कुछ सिखाती हैं जीने का होसला देकर आसू पोचकर, उमीद बांधकर आगे बढ़ने की हिंमत जुटाती हैं

कितने दूर कितने पास ये धरती और वो आकाश दूर होके भी हैं ये हमेशा साथ साथ मिलते हैं थोडी देर सही उस क्षितिज के पार कुछ पलों के लिए ही बस हाथों मैं हाथ कुछ देर बाद फिर हो जाते हैं जुदा और ढूँढ़ते रहते हैं एक दूसरे से मिलने की बस एक वजह  

It was just an ordinary bright sunny day today but my little boy just made it extraordinary for me. The pains I am taking on him to inculcate certain good things show up sometimes and today was such a day. When we were in Bangalore and when he was around 4 years old, we were sitting on the common road of our apartment complex and talking among friends. Between the B2 and B3 building, there shone the beautiful sun on the way towards sunset. It was a beautiful sight and T saw it first and told me to see it and exclaimed, how beautiful!! He was just 4 then. One of my friends heard it and fell in love with T. She was happy and surprised at the same time. How can such a small boy have an eye for beauty which the adults sometimes fail to notice, she exclaimed!

I am an ardent fan of Hindi Retro music. The music of 70's, 80's and 90's keeps me sane. It uplifts my mood when I am down. Music is a constant accompaniment when I am alone at home. I need some sound, some noise. I can't bear the stunning silence. So the app gaana.com comes handy in these times. There are innumerable songs on this app under the "Retro" section and one of my favorites is the Riya's Retro Show. Every Wednesday she comes with a new topic or a new composer, singer and then weaves a story of songs around it. I enjoy every bit of it and look forward to each new episode.

T is currently obsessed with numbers and Maths in his school. He always asks me what is this plus this. Usually, they are more than 2 digit numbers which he can't handle right now. But he wants to be the best like his dad in Mathematics and calculations. I try to tell him whatever I can calculate without help from a calculator, but as the 0 keeps on adding, I lose track and become disillusioned. Numbers have always left me confused and speechless. I don't understand inches, cm, meters, miles. I can't imagine how small or big is 1 meter or 10 inches when it comes to specifications. Anyways, I have stopped troubling myself over it. It hasn't made much difference in my life. But seeing T's obsession with numbers, I secretly wish he should do great in calculations in his life. That will help him a lot.

The raging storm has calmed down The black clouds have been washed out The swelling waves have become mellow And the deep waters can be now heard crystal clear The decision made the destination clear No ifs and buts No shades of self-doubt A new horizon awaits With new clear skies The ship having found At last its anchorage

As I mentioned in the last posts, the month of February has been unexpectedly warm with sunshine and temperatures touching 14 degrees during the day. With the sudden change in the weather, the bouts of cough and cold also abound. On Monday evening, I had gone out for 2 hrs and hadn't worn the usual winter jacket or winter cap thinking it is sunny and the temperature is close to 10 degrees. This over-confidence gave me a mild headache and choked nose. I always look around the Germans dressed minimally in freezing winter sometimes and then try to be like them and act like them. But I forget that they are different and I am. I can never become one of them or like them.

तेरा ज़िक्र हो या न हो बस वो तुझे याद करने का बहाना ढूढ़ना तेरे चेहरे पर वो मुस्कान का खिलना तुम्हारा ऐसे ही अचानक रूबरू आना सूरज की पहेली किरन जैसी तुम्हारी भोली सूरत बालों का वो हवा के साथ खेलते रहना तुम्हारी आँखें और उफ़ वो पलकों का उठना और मुझे देखखर गिरना और आहिस्ता से निकल जाना तुम सपना हो या हकीकत सोचता हूँ अक्सर तुम्हें पाने की है चाहत कब होगी मंजूर मेरी दुआ

A left for a business trip to the USA and T and I didn't know what to do on the weekend. Lucia, my friend from Buddhist Chanting offered to spend time with us and suggested that we go out somewhere with T. There are many good museums in Karlsruhe, especially for kids. So I checked with Lucia if "Naturkunde Museum" (State museum of natural history) would be a good place to take T. Check out their website here https://www.smnk.de/en/  She said it's a good place to take kids where there were different exhibitions of animals, birds, dinosaurs, insects. They are not real, but they are a specimen and it's a huge collection which kids and adults enjoy equally! Then she told T that after a visit to the museum, we will go to a Cafe which has cats! I was surprised. A Cats Cafe?! Really?!

17.02.2011 The Blue Sky - My blog was born. This Blog was an attempt to express my thoughts and feelings after getting inspired by John, who was writing seriously at that time. I started writing day to day activities and experiences and lessons learned from them. I regularly mailed my blog articles to a few friends that time who took out the time to read and comment on them. Those people are no longer in touch and they have moved on and so have I with new people, new experiences and new cities. But I sincerely thank them from the bottom of the heart. Had they not been supportive that time, I wouldn't have come this far. They took time from their busy schedules and encouraged me to write more and more articles. 2011 was the best year with new enthusiasm and vigor and then the years got busy with the arrival of T in my life. He changed the way I looked at life. Made me more strong and this baby got neglected. But I didn't discontinue writing. I wrote sporadically, s...

I had gone to the city center on a weekday to pick up some things. After I finished my work, I was waiting at the bus stop for bus no. 73 which takes me home. It takes just 7 minutes by bus to reach my stop and it was quite cold, I decided not to walk back, but take the bus. The city center is very busy. Many trams and S-Bahns stop at the city center and it is always busy with people and trams and buses and cyclists and cars. A tram was going its way towards the city center and a big goods truck came speeding next to it and wanted to take a left before the tram passed by. The truck was heavy and big tilted slightly to left and touched the driver's cabin of the tram. Everything came to a standstill. Everyone realized that an accident has taken place.

Brain: Are you out of your mind? Have you lost it completely? Heart: I knew, you will say it. But I think I know what I am doing. Brain: Oh Really!? Who told you that you are right? You have a good life here. No pollution, no crowd of people, no one to disturb you at home or outside and you are saying you don't like it here? You have nice water, air, a good house, a nice husband who never troubles you and a child who is an angel and you want to leave all this and go back to that chaotic, polluted country called India?

Do you believe in Angels? Good people? Bad people? Pleasant personalities? Repulsive personalities? I am sure you must have come across many people in your life with the above-mentioned tendencies. How did you react to such people? What experiences did you have? How did you exactly feel?

मुझे कोई पेहचानता नही ना कोई पुच्छता है ये सवाल कैसे हो भाई क्यूँ हो इतने बेहाल फुल मेहेकते हैं इधर भी पर मेरे देस जैसी खुशबू नही पंछी उडते हैं इधर भी पर उनका आस्मान मेरे जैसा नही सब कुछ होते हुए भी यहाँ लगता है बिलकुल खाली आस पास ना दोस्त, ना भाई रास्ते एकदम खाली खाली गलियां खाली, घर खाली कमरे खाली, इन्सान खाली, दिल परेशान और हैरान गिनते हुए दिन कब होगी घर वापसी कब होगी घर वापसी

I had written in an earlier post about a birthday party which T had attended in a movie theatre with his school friend from Class 2. That day he lost his winter cap in an electronic shop when he had gone there to check out PlayStation with his dad. I had thought he lost it in the theatre. I also went and checked there immediately on that day, but hadn't found it. Then after coming home, A told me that the cap was with him and he kept it in the electronics shop. I decided to go and check on Monday. I was very confident that I would get it. I had listened to stories where people had got their mobile phones after losing them in the bus. This was just an electronic shop.

I have started the Blog Marathon with great enthusiasm, but there are days when I am not able to write on the blog, though I have the idea and thought. So today I am filling the backlog. In quick succession. The day is bright, sunny. And it's the month of February, which should ideally be the coldest month of the year in Europe. But unexpectedly the temperatures have been in positive in February and the sun is also visiting us often. I can't complain. This is the best thing for me. It brings happiness and joy for me to be not wandering in cold and grey weather. Everybody is finally waiting for warm weather and the month of February is a good surprise for everyone! The weather is unexpectedly warm with temperatures touching almost 13 degrees Celsius.

T is an extremely outgoing kid. He makes friends wherever he goes. He had a lot of friends in Bangalore in the apartment, where we stayed earlier. He had friends in school and now when we shifted to Germany, he made many friends in the Kindergarten. They were mostly boys. He hardly spoke to girls after he turned 5, so he had a gang of boys in the Kindergarten and the trend followed in the school too. 3 weeks ago, he came home and asked me if he can attend a friend's birthday party and that boy was not in his class!

John is away to India on a vacation and I thought of doing this challenge on my own without him reminding me. He had sent me a couple of images of the snowstorm that happened in Toronto and I decided to pick up one of it and write something about it. I chose this image Coldness engulfs sends a shiver down the spine miles and miles just blankets of white snow no one in sight Life is still no birds chirping no wind blowing as if some silence has dealt its blow people who were near are now far with almost no access to them or their hearts

I am not blessed like my mother, my mother in law, my husband and my son in one very important aspect. They can sleep off once they hit the sack. Be it noisy, not too dark, not their usual bed and pillow and the room, it's not a problem. They are snoring to glory in a maximum of 5 minutes. I envy them so much. I am not blessed like them in this regard. I take a long time to fall asleep. I am a very light sleeper. The ambiance, sound,  light play a very important role. It has to be absolutely quiet and still with a pin drop of silence. And this often lands me into trouble in my own house or on my bed on which I have slept for almost 15 months now.

कुछ ऐसा रिश्ता है ए दिल तुझसे  जो समझाये नही समझता  मैने आगर कही दूर जाना चाहा तू है की बस लोगो में ही उलझा रहता क्यूँ तुझे अकेले रेहने की आदत नही पडती  क्यूँ तू औरों की फिक्र में डुबा रहता है  क्यूँ तू औरों के दर्द सवारने में लगा रहता है  जब खुद्द से खुद्द ही की नही संभलती  खुद्द के लिये कुछ देर जी  खुद्द से कर थोडी दोस्ती  खुद्द ही बन खुद्द का हमसफर लिख एक दास्तान नई

Don't get startled after reading the title of today's post. I am not sad or unhappy or low. SAD stands for seasonal affective disorder. That means this disorder affects people when the seasons change. Especially during autumn and winter, this disorder is prevelant and it is also linked to the absence of sun and in turn to the less release of the "feel good" hormone serotonin. I heard this term yesterday from a British friend and she said she has it too. She is happy when the sun is out there and doesn't feel good when it is grey, cloudy and dark. The months of December, January and February are the ones when this disorder is most rampant and many people all over the world take treatment for getting cured from this disorder. People are less sad and moody during spring and summer. There can be days together when you feel irritable, moody, low, extremely sensitive and you don't realise what is wrong with you. You start crying at the spur of the moment and most...

I had an appointment with a gynecologist today and I was very anxious about it. I had a little fear, little apprehension, but it was necessary to see her owing to a problem which I was facing recently. I had called almost 10 doctors in my area for my problem, but they didn't entertain me as they were overbooked and didn't accept any new patients. This doctor gave me the appointment immediately when I told the receptionist that I was a "private" patient. That means I pay upfront or they send me the invoice and I transfer the money online and then claim it in the company for which I am working. I got to know that "private patient" is the key to get an appointment in the near future. I tried and got one. My friend from Buddhist Chanting accompanied me there. It was sunny today, after a long long time. I was happy, I was basking in the sunshine and when I reached her clinic, all the good spirit sunk to the bottom.

The weekend flew off so soon. Yesterday I was busy with swimming class and today I had gone to Stuttgart to watch a Marathi movie called 'Bhai' based on the famous writer, P. L. Deshpande, fondly known as Pu. La. The Maharashtra Mandal in Stuttgart had organized this movie in a small theatre and it was a very good movie. Will write about it in detail in the future posts.

As some of you must have read in my new year resolutions, the next to-do item in 2019 is to learn swimming. I learned cycling last year and this year I want to learn swimming and driving car in Germany. So to take the first step in learning swimming, I enrolled for a class on Saturdays only. There wasn't any available on weekdays though. So I chose the one which was available as I didn't want to miss the chance this time. I managed to convince one more friend and she also enrolled in the same batch on Saturday. I was happy to have her company. I cannot somehow do things alone unless absolutely necessary. I am a people person and I need company.

January has given way to February. It's the shortest month of the year, so thought to myself:  Why not challenge my writing skills and check if I can be disciplined enough to write for the next 28 days? Without a break, without taking a day off. I will write, no matter what and how big or small, but I will attempt the marathon. It's first of its kind, ever attempted in my blog journey starting from February 2011.