Pea Pod - A taste of everyday life

I was at an Ahmedabad beauty parlour two days ago. It's run by a middle aged lady in her home which is very close to where I live. There were two other ladies before me who were waiting for their turn. The lady finished with them and called me. On completing my services, I was on my way out only to discover that my Dr. Scholl's that I had removed outside her house had dissapeared. I could only see the Rs.2500 tag in front of my eyes as I went back inside the house and asked the lady if she knew the ladies who had come before me. I was relieved to know that one of them lived in another wing of the building I stayed in. The other one was an old lady and the beautician only knew the name of the building she lived in. I thought I should tackle them one at a time. Like a true detective, I reached my building wearing the footwear of "one of the two" and asked around for this lady. I located her flat and was thoroughly disappointed on finding out that she hadn't run...

On my way back from buying some groceries down the quiet lane, from a distance, I saw an old woman in a nav-vaari saree trying to pluck the bright yellow flowers from a tree. She held her walking stick above her head and was pulling the branch lower with it as she couldn't reach the flowers. "Aaji, thaamba. Mi tumaala madad karte," I said to her. She looked surprised to listen to someone speak in Marathi in Ahmedabad and gave me a sweet, wrinkled smile. "Donaj paayje mala,"she said. I asked for her walking stick and lowered a branch for her. She plucked some flowers and as I returned the stick to her, she put her shaking hand on my head and muttered some blessings with moist eyes. My day was made.

Back in the 80's, my father had received a video cassette of " Adi Shankaraachaarya", a  Sanskrit film by G.V.Iyer.  We, as children must have watched this film more than twice. With excellent direction, photography and music, this movie is etched in my memory. The most poignant scene being when a young Shankaraachaarya returns from the gurukul to do the final rites of his dead mother. He laughs continuously to everybody's amazement. It's this incident that made him compose -  Bhaj Govindam,  Bhaj Govindam Bhaj Govindam, Bhaj Moodh Matey Punarapi Jananam, Punarapi Maranam Punarapi Janani Jathre Shayanam Chant Krishna's name, Chant Krishna's name Chant Krishna's name, you dim wit Born again, dead again, Sleeping in the womb, yet again When my father passed away, I kept humming this in my mind and it felt so comforting to know that my father would be born as another life - again. Another aspect of the film that I can't forget is the v...

To my teacher of web design and architecture - Prateek Deo Gupta, congratulations on becoming a father to a pack of twin boys. Glad you moved "two" steps forward! :-) God bless you and yours'.

There are many people I meet who proclaim to have a voracious appetite for books. Maybe, they just fill their hunger for acquiring new books to fill up their showcases in the living room.  I say this because when these people write down their thoughts, their written English is just terrible - in language and grammar.  If you want to advertise to the world about your reading habits, please start digesting what you read so that the next time you put forth your thought in writing, you can prove it to them that you don't only read, but read really well.

My son sits on the pot with his slate. He usually scribbles and draws when he's at the big job and takes quite some time to call me to wash him up. Yesterday was a bit different. He called me almost immediately and said, "Potty finished, Mummy!" I told him that it can't be done so fast and he needs to sit for some more time. To this he replied."God gave me only one potty in my bummy today!"

Yippee!! Just one more week and the holidays begin at school! My son "wants vacation now"!

I saw my father's film after so many years and weeped my heart out. On my husband's return from work, I told him about how we would go for his film shoots every vacation. Incidentally, my husband was studying in the same town where my father shot most of his films and where we spent most of our holidays as kids. He said something so sweet to me. "Why didn't you meet me then?" Well, that's the irony of fate.

For people who don't know, Maya means Worldly Attachments. I saw my old home - in a state that I would never have liked to see it in. It's been 17 years since we moved out from there. It was difficult to forget the past. But then, it's just Maya. My sister left the city with her family after spending one whole month with us. All the kids were weeping. It was time to seperate now. Fold up the beautiful carpet of Maya. Put it aside. It's time to stare at Reality. Goodbye, Michelle, it's hard to die when all the birds are singing in the sky, Now that the spring is in the air With the flowers everywhere I wish that we could both be there We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun But the stars we could reach were just starfishs on the beach.

When you hear a barking dog bark, you hear a barking dog bark. I just heard one today.

Goa! There were more women there than men. Even as we made an entry into the airport. Saw a woman all ready to set sail in the sea with a pair of knee length bermuda shorts - printed with floral pattern. We reached the hotel and saw another woman with shorts that reached her thighs. And then another with shorts that reached above her thighs and then another with shorts covering only the bare essentials. Reminded me of the Cadbury 5Star advertisement that's running on television recently. Pitaji's shorts are becoming "ek bilaank" shorter and shorter and shorter...

It's been a week of stress and more stress. Actually it was building up for quite sometime. Finally it's all over. Thank God. When your child has to go under the knife, however minor the cut, your heart breaks into pieces. When they took him inside the operation theater, I wanted to run inside with him. And when they got him out, the first word he said was "Mummy" They called us immediately as he was uncontrollable. As soon as he saw me he just hugged me so tight. I had to cry. He went off to sleep soon...in my lap. His papa then told me one thing, "Don't shout at him for a few days. Just think of this moment when you feel like."

Vacation has begun. 2 more weeks. Hubby, baby and me. Out of the cement jungle :-) Yippee!

Funniest and Strangest. My good friend in college called me that. A few more at my workplace called me that. Lately I have lost the first title. I'm only Strange :-) The question is WHAT IS STRANGE??

I miss your loving hand on my head. Everytime I made a mistake, your hand on my head made me want to get up again, fearlessly, and face the world. I miss you, Papa. Come in my dreams.

I'm neither fat, nor I am thin But have a fat blob of a soul within With oodles of love, heavy in weight And 0 Kg of the wasteful hate I have gained something, after all A little tiny, a little small It's my son, my high calorie of joy A diet that I thoroughly enjoy!

R.I.P Saturday 17th September 2011.

Non Hindus often comment on how Hindu Gods are flirts and ladies men. They specially point a finger towards Lord Krishna. It's immature to think so low of Some power who is so Up there. Usually the talk is about how Krishna used to dance and sing and romance with Radha who was older than Him. Frankly, I too wondered, not about Lord Krishna's character, of course. But why He and Radha are a symbol of love and why He romanced a girl who was older than Him. And just two days back, my son was watching this beautiful animated episode of Little Krishna on TV. Seeing the images of Radha and Krishna together, I started singing the hymn that Paramhansa Yogananda often sang - "Spirit and Nature Dancing Together Radhe Radhe Radhe Govind Jaya" Suddenly a realisation dawned upon me. There are some things that we must understand from within. Krishna is the symbol of Nature - that is our body and whatever that is ephemeral. Radha is the Spirit - our soul, that which is eternal and u...

It was just one of those weekend trips. But a very memorable one it was. From Bangalore it's only 2 hours and the all new wide windowed Shataabdi Express is a beautiful train to travel in, not to forget, extremely punctual. We reached Mysore at lunch time and checked into The Royal Orchid Metropole. A beautiful hotel. It used to be a guest house of the Maharaja of Mysore. The entrance lobby was adorned with a silver sofa set and a silver swing (coated with real silver). A spiral wooden staircase which was a work of ingenious engineering, with no support whatsoever. All the ancient furniture still retained, this place was going to give us a charming experience. The rooms were nice and warm with some antique furniture. I personally love old furniture. For me, the new age things just don't matter. The balcony was overlooking an open air restaurant and two huge mango trees said to have been planted by the Maharaja himself. There is something about living in these places of r...

This wee little fellow resists sleep all day - and night. He just doesn't want to sleep in the afternoon and in the night we actually have to force him to go to bed. Tonight, he kept singing on the bed, in spite of the lights switched off. My husband had lost his patience and told him, "Go to sleep now! It's sleeping time." And to this he replied," No, it's singing time."!!