Annapurna - new beginnings

 Patwardhan Kaku messaged me yesterday, 

"Annapurna is going to be demolished tomorrow".

She is my neighbour from Dombivli and we stayed in the same apartment for many years. She and her daughter are more like a family. Kaku is visiting her daughter, whom I consider my sister. I spoke to my sister in the morning and all the years life spent there flashed before my eyes.

The cat story

My love for the felines was known to all my school friends and to the neighborhood where we stayed in Dombivli. My school friends came home to play with my cats and to eat the tasty food made by my aaji. 

We stayed on the first floor and the flat had two big balconies from where the cats could easily go out, take the stairs and come back home when they wished to. 

The divine intervention

The sole intention to start the spiritual group, Adhyatmwari in Germany was to give people a platform to practice their spiritual beliefs and to help them grow in their journey. I was searching for such a group and when I didn't find one, I got the idea of starting it from my mother-in-law and there has been no looking back since then. In March 2023, on Gudhi Padwa, I started it on an experimental basis and since then till now, we have done various chanting sessions of Maruti Stotra, Ram Raksha Stotra, Atharvashirsh, Sri Sukta, Manache Shlok, Bhagwad Geeta etc. Various people have talked on different spiritual topics on different occassions and the response has been good so far.

Lost and found

Today, it was especially warm compared to other days in the otherwise dull and gray month of November. The sun was shining and was hinting at me to bask in the sunshine and pack away sun's energy for the gray and rainy days ahead. My mother in law is currently visiting us, so I asked her to dress up and we both went for a round in the neighborhood. There is a very nice track to walk, with apple trees, fields, horse stalls etc. It was going to be a long walk, of around 6-7 Kms. And we were dressed up for the winter. As we walked for about 10 minutes, we started feeling warm. It was unusually warm with around 15 degrees and we had all the winter gear as a habit now. We removed the cap, then the scarf wrapped around the neck. I put the scarf on my sling bag and we walked and talked merrily. We took a break after two kilometres and then walked back the whole route back home. There were many people out today, with their dogs, kids, cycles etc. I thought to myself, why can't it be like this throughout the year, but then what fun it would be if we had the same weather throughout the year. All the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter have their own beauty and bring in different emotions and ways of life. 

Movie review - Meiyazhagan

The Tamil movie Meiyazhagan is creating waves in the lives of people who have watched it.

Many people have loved the movie and reviewed it on different social media platforms.

Why should I be left behind? I thought!

Co-existing

I grew up in a central suburb of Mumbai, called Dombivli and spent 23 years there. I went to school in Dombivli and later to college in Mulund, and for post-graduation, I went to Mumbai University at Kalina, which was manageable by train. The formidable years of schooling and college were spent studying in one of the two bedrooms in the house. We stayed on the first floor. The society, next to ours was very close and we could almost hear the arguments, discussions, television noise or arrival of guests in the houses on the first floor and they could hear everything that happened on our first floor. During the Ganpati festival, there were always elaborate rituals and aarti sessions that even we enjoyed listening to from their end. Still, there were also bitter arguments between family members that left us sad and fearful.

Connecting with nature or self?

"आई थांब, तुझ्यासाठी काहीतरी बनवतो मी".

Mom, let me make you a cool summer drink.

After returning from school today, he chirpily offered to do something for me. These moments are rare and don't see the light of day often, so before his mood changed, I happily told him to go ahead. 

 

From mid-June on, the serious business of learning, studies, and exams is over, and now it's just some or other activities at school where kids can relax and enjoy the time waiting for summer vacations. As an Indian parent, I can never get comfortable with T's attitude towards school and learning in general, but I am also learning as a parent, and I try to accept the German school system and try to see something good in it. Side-effects of learning the Bhagwad Geeta.