I went down to send the netflix dvd and sat for a while in the lobby of our building. Many old couples got down from mobility centre bus. Most of them looked like they were in their early 80's. They were all waiting for the lift so I let all of them go in and decided to take the stairs instead.When working in Qwest I had the habit of climbing the stairs all the way from basement -2 to 4(that was seven floors as we had a zero too) atleast 2 times a day and sometimes
I took 2 steps at a time. But that was almost an year ago and now I used to climb slowly puffing all the way up everytime there was a fire alarm. So I was not sure if I would be able to make it . I was all fine until I reached 4th floor , 4-5th I was a little slower n 5-6th I got tempted to open the 5th floor door n take lift to the next floor ..but dint want to do that and let myself lose nor did I want to rest for a while and then start over instead I thought I will push myself and took two steps a time . I was so happy I did it. What inspired me to push myself and take two steps at a time is what I am going to write about.
Almost an year ago after our travel dates were fixed I went to my doctor to get prescriptions for generic diseases . She wrote a big list and out of the blue asked me to get a few tests although I insited that my pre-travel tests were done.She pointed out that fasting blood test was not part of the pre-travel checks..like it did really matter. I really did not care but when a doctor says something like this in front of moms you can imagine the effect. I wished I had ditched my mom and gone alone.
So there I was on a monday morning at 7 in Ragav's sitting and waiting for tests to be done. My dad had taken an appoinment for me at 8 but the hospital people suggested I come early just incase if few people dont turn up I would be let in early. Mondays are the worst days to have such appointments ..its usually loaded on mondays.
My dad wanted to come along but I did not want him to miss his morning walk so I asked him to join me at 8. Luckily two people did not turn up on time so I finished my tests at 7:45. They said they would hand me the results in an hour so I decided to wait instead of going home and coming back again. I got bored of guess who is the patient, guess what this person might be here for games so I went down. Usually spending time in Ragav's after 9 is not so painful as there is a Sapna book store in the same building but at 8 most of the shops in jayanagar was not open. I sat on the steps staring at the recent books that was on display and finished eating the apple which
my mother forced me to carry incase I feel tired and dizzy. I was trying to read the front pages of the books on display through the thick glass display covered over by a huge metallic gate when an ambulance arrived. A old lady in her late 80's was transferred from a stretcher to a wheel chair and was pushed inside by two white uniformed men. She looked so thin and fragile on the monstrous looking wheelchair. Her well oiled silver-hair was neatly tucked into a bun with bobby pins that held all the hair together. Her son and daughter-in-law were behind her carrying huge files. Usually small hospitals which do not have all the facilities like ultra sound, radiology and other labs get their patients to Ragavs and get the test done. Usually such patients don't need an appointment ..they go in as they come as there are few tie-ups with the hospital.
They took her into the lift but the lift door was not closing. After several attempts they pushed her wheelchair out and was figuring out what to do. Before 9 am its impossible
to get help from the lift servicing company. The staircase was small for 2 people to carry a wheelchair. I waited to see what they would do..the old lady kept insisting
she would try climbing but her son was worried. She looked so weak that I was not even sure she could get up from the wheel chair . The men looked tired after few minutes of
planning and failing ways to climb the stairs with the wheelchair .Suddenly the old woman got up from her wheelchair and started heading towards the stairs ...I was so surprised
to see her do this..she could not see properly so her son held her right hand and daughter-in-law held the left hand and supported her. She climbed step by step taking few deep
breathes in between and slowly she made it all the way to the second floor.Her son had tears in his eyes and everybody around were surprised. I was so overwhelmed seeing her determination and her inner strength.
I don't know who she is and not even sure if she is alive now but she inspires me when I let myself down and underestimate myself.
Few minutes after this I was still sitting near the stairs and was staring at black santros passing by to spot my dad when a pretty young couple..must be in there early 30's come there.
The overweight lady pressed the lift button and got in . She realised the lift was not working and walked out angrily.Her hubby insisted her to take the stairs ..she said it was very difficult
for her .She stood there thinking for a while ...I was hoping she would climb the stairs but instead she took her cellphone called the receptionist cancelled her appointment for that day and
rescheduled it. I was flabbergasted by her behaviour.Hated her for not climbing just two floors.I just hoped that she was there a few minutes ago to see the old lady but I really don't think
that would have helped her climb the stairs. She left cursing the lift. I hated her husband too..how could he tolerate her laziness and why dint he push her to climb just 2 floors instead
of cancelling her appointment.In a few minutes my dad arrived and I was so glad he came. We still had sometime to collect my report so we went to a nearby hotel to get some coffee .
I was greeted by the sight of the overweight loser who was busy eating a vada,butterdosa and chow-chow bath. I got reminded of a line from Sai Charita which says " The body should neither be neglected nor fondled but should be properly cared for ,just as a traveller on horse-back takes care of his pony until he reaches his destination and returns home"
Dad said the old lady was not blind but this young one is ...she cant see what she's doing to herself.. So true!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Life without Internet
A few months back my 5 year old nephew Mayur was upset that he had to do a science assignment during the weekend. His main concern was that he had to finish googling for his assignment in one hour out of his two hours allotted for games on his mom's laptop.He was cribbing all morning and trying all possible ways to be nice so that his mom would help him doing more than helping him get printouts and stick the animals on the charts. He wore a sad weird expression throughout the morning so his mom and I decided to help him... not with his assignment but with his mood by our talks. We started telling him how we did our assignments - we had to go to the library , browse a lot of books , copy the things we wanted to go into our assignments and then browse through newspaper, magazines for pictures and cut them carefully and stick them up, write down the consolidated information .His mom a doctor told him how she would carry heavy huge books from library and stay up nights after nights copying or making notes and how she would get only the things that were really important xeroxed( days when xerox was pricey and you did not find a xerox shop in every street corner). He was so surprised he innocently started asking many questions why we didn't use ebooks instead of carrying heavy books, why we didn't take printouts instead of wasting time searching in magazines , why we had to get a xerox when we could have saved the page on our desktop(yes that's how he thinks we save files) . When we told him we did not have internet or personal computers till we started our professional courses..he was so surprised and he just couldn't imagine it..he was so full of questions ..how did you send emails, how did you do video chat, how did you get all the information, how could someone spend summer vacation playing outside whole day without playing on psp or laptop, how one could get information on literally everything(he had a big list). He was asking if we always went to ATM(bank according to him) instead of e-banking. He looked so confused and surprised and all his questions made me realise
how dependent we are on internet and how our world has shrunk because of internet. I cant think of going to a store everytime to do shopping searching aisle after aisle..I shortlist things online and get the aisle number from hubby's iphone and my shopping never stretches more than half an hour in store.Imagine if we couldn't make our bill payments online..phone,electric, utilities..phew we would be so tired running around everywhere. Video chats with folks back home and social networking sites to keep us updated about things happening everywhere. Boy! Are we lucky. This little talk with my nephew made me realise how much things have changed since 80's till date ..the black and white tv that stood in the corner of the living room to color tv to projection tv to flat screen, lcd screen n now internet tv..the transition has been amazing.I was discussing this with my hubby telling him about how much our generation has seen ..he argued that its a even bigger unbelievable revolution for our parents generation radios to lcd screen tv's, huge round Dial phones to touchscreen 3g and 4g cellphones, huge weird looking black screen computers to compact laptop,notepad,notebook to ipad. It must really be fascinating for them.
After our discussion I heard Mayur telling his little sister that we were lying to get him do his work ..I was not surprised but I was wondering how the discuss with Mayur and his grandparent's childhood would go..I wouldn't be surprised if he imagined them to be in caves!!
how dependent we are on internet and how our world has shrunk because of internet. I cant think of going to a store everytime to do shopping searching aisle after aisle..I shortlist things online and get the aisle number from hubby's iphone and my shopping never stretches more than half an hour in store.Imagine if we couldn't make our bill payments online..phone,electric, utilities..phew we would be so tired running around everywhere. Video chats with folks back home and social networking sites to keep us updated about things happening everywhere. Boy! Are we lucky. This little talk with my nephew made me realise how much things have changed since 80's till date ..the black and white tv that stood in the corner of the living room to color tv to projection tv to flat screen, lcd screen n now internet tv..the transition has been amazing.I was discussing this with my hubby telling him about how much our generation has seen ..he argued that its a even bigger unbelievable revolution for our parents generation radios to lcd screen tv's, huge round Dial phones to touchscreen 3g and 4g cellphones, huge weird looking black screen computers to compact laptop,notepad,notebook to ipad. It must really be fascinating for them.
After our discussion I heard Mayur telling his little sister that we were lying to get him do his work ..I was not surprised but I was wondering how the discuss with Mayur and his grandparent's childhood would go..I wouldn't be surprised if he imagined them to be in caves!!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Home Away From Home
When first Ganga mentioned about travel I really did not know what to say. I knew he was happy about it but I was confused . Do I quit my job, can I stay away from parents and from familiar surrounding ...questions kept popping up in my head. After months of debating with my myself I decided to quit my job and spend time with my hubby.
With mixed feeling I landed in Edina in July. I was extremly happy to be spending time with my hubby . For a year we just met only on weekends as both of us worked in different cities so spending time with him was what I looked forward to but I really did not know how to spend 8 am to 5 pm everyday.
July being summer when days are really long I started exploring the city . Super Target, Hennepin County Library, Cub Foods, South Dale mall, Blick Art store, Jo-Ann fabrics ,Adam hill park and best of all Cenntenial lake. My apartment is just 3 mins away from this beautiful lake. I could easily spend an hour or so looking at the ducks swimming in the lake, kids playing with there minature boats, old folks strolling around, teenagers jogging, couple cuddling, pets tagging behind the owners , people relaxing with books in hand on the swings in front of the water front, kids being pushed around in thier stroller, sun rays forming weird crazy shinning patterns on the water and also on the glass surface of the tall buildings, manicured golf lawns, beautiful colourfull flowers , local artists playing thier instruments ... it was so Wow!! Every thursday there would be Famer's Market where farmers would set-up stalls and sell thier grow to us directly.No place can beat the freshness of the veggies that you buy there.
A visit to most of these places and cooking was my week day activities and weekend always meant visting places nearby .We would end our weekends by watching a movie in South Dale mall . Ganga and I would run through the shortcuts not wanting to miss the trailers to reach the movie hall 5 mins before the movie started. Ended summer of 2010 by visting Chicago and Madison .
With mixed feeling I landed in Edina in July. I was extremly happy to be spending time with my hubby . For a year we just met only on weekends as both of us worked in different cities so spending time with him was what I looked forward to but I really did not know how to spend 8 am to 5 pm everyday.
July being summer when days are really long I started exploring the city . Super Target, Hennepin County Library, Cub Foods, South Dale mall, Blick Art store, Jo-Ann fabrics ,Adam hill park and best of all Cenntenial lake. My apartment is just 3 mins away from this beautiful lake. I could easily spend an hour or so looking at the ducks swimming in the lake, kids playing with there minature boats, old folks strolling around, teenagers jogging, couple cuddling, pets tagging behind the owners , people relaxing with books in hand on the swings in front of the water front, kids being pushed around in thier stroller, sun rays forming weird crazy shinning patterns on the water and also on the glass surface of the tall buildings, manicured golf lawns, beautiful colourfull flowers , local artists playing thier instruments ... it was so Wow!! Every thursday there would be Famer's Market where farmers would set-up stalls and sell thier grow to us directly.No place can beat the freshness of the veggies that you buy there.
A visit to most of these places and cooking was my week day activities and weekend always meant visting places nearby .We would end our weekends by watching a movie in South Dale mall . Ganga and I would run through the shortcuts not wanting to miss the trailers to reach the movie hall 5 mins before the movie started. Ended summer of 2010 by visting Chicago and Madison .
Fall began and it started getting colder .I was worried of house arrest but winter turned out busier with potlucks parties, movie nights ..thanks to netflix! and cooking made me busy all through fall . Winter was harsh but after a while we got used to -20's C and -30's C. Althought I hated going out as dressing in layers would take time it became a routine and a necesscity. Dj party for Diwali,Standing in the line at 5:30 am when temperature was -11 on Thanksgiving , Bowling and dance party in friend's house ..with activties like these months just flewby .
Beautiful place, friends, Ganga's love has me realise that I have found Home Away from Home.
I feel guilty as I am not missing home (Bangalore) ....Nope not even one bit !
Monday, March 15, 2010
Summer is Back
Monday morning... got up late. Appa gave me a refreshing cup of coffee. Sipped it hurriedly and was all set for the marthon. I did win the marthon coz I got ready after a quick bath in 15 mins ..phew I beat my own record of 20 mins . Picked up my box of breakfast which my Amma had packed and Appa rushed me to the nearest bus stop but I changed my mind and decided to take a rik instead. The journey back home from my mom's home is always a pain at that hour..everyone seems to be rushing to thier office.. traffic, polluted air, the hot sun, the flyover construction machine making noise.. everything seemed so cruel on me.After one hour of this I reached home and Boy was I glad. I ran inside and washed my face and pushed open the windows to let some fresh air ..that's when the amazing feeling of summer rushed in. The air smelled so fresh and good..the warm summer air with a falvor of dry leaves and pollen make me feel so good . I love the smell of fresh summer air ..its always takes me to a magical land just the way my husband's warm breath feels on my face when I hug him tight.
Summer has always been my favourite part of the year . The bright sun, the warm breeze, mangoes, koel songs, red gulmohar, leafless trees with colorful crown of flowers, water melons, holidays , lazy afternoon naps and most interesting of all was my early morning walks with Appa.
Appa is a morning person and walks with him used to be the most amusing thing on summer morning. He used to enjoy the warm breeze, the green around, quiz me about a lot of trees and birds. We used to run into old neighbours, his colleagues , his customer and after a few days faces we see everyday would start exchanging smiles and hellos. I would hate this and people who stopped to talk were all my morning obstacles to reach for my hot filter coffee at home and I would go back to bed after drinking that.After few laps of jogging ,running or Appa dragging me in Krishna Roa park Appa would stop in front of the Ganesha temple and then walk back enjoying the sunrise. I would be cribbing all the while.
I put all that behind my head when the rik guy stopped and asked me for money.I ran inside stuffed my office laptop in my bag . Waved bye to mil and started running my schedule for the day meeting, status mails , Kt sessions ...phew I hated mondays. Especially after spending a pampered weekend at mom's house. Ran from one meeting room to another the whole day , ate my lunch at my desk checking mails, sending mails and ended the day at 8 after marthon meeting. When I came out it was dark and it had rained .The smell of the earth was so sweet and I wished I could capture it in some bottle. I could throw Elizabeth Arden perfume for this one and that's when I realised summer, rain , winter we are stuck in dark rooms and we dont even enjoy nature anymore. Appa used to close my eyes and take me out to show a rainbow ...I guess I have to show my kid a rainbow on the laptop . Money is not worth a anything if we cant spend time with our loved ones .
"Time is the most precious gift one can give . For each moment is unique "
Summer has always been my favourite part of the year . The bright sun, the warm breeze, mangoes, koel songs, red gulmohar, leafless trees with colorful crown of flowers, water melons, holidays , lazy afternoon naps and most interesting of all was my early morning walks with Appa.
Appa is a morning person and walks with him used to be the most amusing thing on summer morning. He used to enjoy the warm breeze, the green around, quiz me about a lot of trees and birds. We used to run into old neighbours, his colleagues , his customer and after a few days faces we see everyday would start exchanging smiles and hellos. I would hate this and people who stopped to talk were all my morning obstacles to reach for my hot filter coffee at home and I would go back to bed after drinking that.After few laps of jogging ,running or Appa dragging me in Krishna Roa park Appa would stop in front of the Ganesha temple and then walk back enjoying the sunrise. I would be cribbing all the while.
I put all that behind my head when the rik guy stopped and asked me for money.I ran inside stuffed my office laptop in my bag . Waved bye to mil and started running my schedule for the day meeting, status mails , Kt sessions ...phew I hated mondays. Especially after spending a pampered weekend at mom's house. Ran from one meeting room to another the whole day , ate my lunch at my desk checking mails, sending mails and ended the day at 8 after marthon meeting. When I came out it was dark and it had rained .The smell of the earth was so sweet and I wished I could capture it in some bottle. I could throw Elizabeth Arden perfume for this one and that's when I realised summer, rain , winter we are stuck in dark rooms and we dont even enjoy nature anymore. Appa used to close my eyes and take me out to show a rainbow ...I guess I have to show my kid a rainbow on the laptop . Money is not worth a anything if we cant spend time with our loved ones .
"Time is the most precious gift one can give . For each moment is unique "
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Metro Construction
My dad took a turn towards the south end road near Rajlakshmi Kalayan Mantap in J.P Nagar and what I saw there was so shocking...the road was dug up in the middle and the trees looked like a man in thirties who had just started balding.Road looked like it was surviving a monster attack. I was horrified to see the remains of this road.Dad saw my reaction and said "Metro construction ".
This road was always my favorite for I always felt that this was the best planned road in the pensioners paradise Jayanagar. Lined with amazing parks on both the sides and huge age old trees covering the road and the perfectly straight road(yep no curves and turns) it was the best road that we could be driving. Born and brought up in south Bangalore this particular road was always close to my heart. The first ride that we had in this road on my friends new red scooty , my summer vacation walks to the city central library enjoying the cool breeze and shade( I used walk all the way from my house in Thyagarajnagar to the city central library in south end circle ), getting down at south end and walking all the way to reach jayanagar to save rs 3 ,My friend zipping in her scooty with me behind her on this road when it was raining pretty heavily without opening our eyes for more than half a centimeter(Rain drops kept falling on us from these trees hours after the rain had stopped)...This road was always so "WOW" for me and now looking at it made my heart weep and the question "Do we need Metro" kept creeping in mind. Well I am not too good a judge to think about pros and cons of Metro but I am sure going to be missing this lovely green calm road and the boulevard of M G road.
This road was always my favorite for I always felt that this was the best planned road in the pensioners paradise Jayanagar. Lined with amazing parks on both the sides and huge age old trees covering the road and the perfectly straight road(yep no curves and turns) it was the best road that we could be driving. Born and brought up in south Bangalore this particular road was always close to my heart. The first ride that we had in this road on my friends new red scooty , my summer vacation walks to the city central library enjoying the cool breeze and shade( I used walk all the way from my house in Thyagarajnagar to the city central library in south end circle ), getting down at south end and walking all the way to reach jayanagar to save rs 3 ,My friend zipping in her scooty with me behind her on this road when it was raining pretty heavily without opening our eyes for more than half a centimeter(Rain drops kept falling on us from these trees hours after the rain had stopped)...This road was always so "WOW" for me and now looking at it made my heart weep and the question "Do we need Metro" kept creeping in mind. Well I am not too good a judge to think about pros and cons of Metro but I am sure going to be missing this lovely green calm road and the boulevard of M G road.
Indian Tribal Painting
Well..this is my first blog on my latest interest .No prize for guessing it though..yep the "Indian Tribal Painting".
Few months ago I happened to visit a store which sells all the materials required to make hand made cards. While I was checking out the store I happened to notice a book with Madhubani paintings on it. I browsed through the book and decided to try it so I purchased it . I had heard of the famous Madhubani paintings and was always fascinated by the colors used in it and started trying that out and having finished quite a few designs from them decided to know more about Tribal Painting. This book was the trigger that helped me get started with Indian Tribal Painting.
I started browsing the net to find out more about Madhubani and saw the Warli, Kangra and Kalamkari tribal painting as well . What interested me the most was the simple and yet classy faceless figures of Warli. Warli paintings depicts the simple day to activities like Hunting, Fishing and Farming . Celebrations like festivals and Marriages are shown in these paintings also with animals and nature. Unlike most of the tribal paintings that depicts mythological characters these are based on events in our day to day life . Suppose to be painted on mud walls by this tribe earlier Warli was always done with white paint. The white paint was a mixture of rice flour and gum . Geometric designs like circle, triangle and square dominate these paintings. The circle represents the sun or moon, the triangle represents the mountains and square the feilds used for farming. Human body are represented by two triangles upper depicting the trunk and the lower the pelvis. Men and women are differenciated by a little knot drawn on the head.
Simple yet beautiful these faceless painting do express the joy of celebrations in life .Now I really wonder if we really need eyes, hands and face to express ....Creativity to express by these faceless tribal paintings answers my question.
Few months ago I happened to visit a store which sells all the materials required to make hand made cards. While I was checking out the store I happened to notice a book with Madhubani paintings on it. I browsed through the book and decided to try it so I purchased it . I had heard of the famous Madhubani paintings and was always fascinated by the colors used in it and started trying that out and having finished quite a few designs from them decided to know more about Tribal Painting. This book was the trigger that helped me get started with Indian Tribal Painting.
I started browsing the net to find out more about Madhubani and saw the Warli, Kangra and Kalamkari tribal painting as well . What interested me the most was the simple and yet classy faceless figures of Warli. Warli paintings depicts the simple day to activities like Hunting, Fishing and Farming . Celebrations like festivals and Marriages are shown in these paintings also with animals and nature. Unlike most of the tribal paintings that depicts mythological characters these are based on events in our day to day life . Suppose to be painted on mud walls by this tribe earlier Warli was always done with white paint. The white paint was a mixture of rice flour and gum . Geometric designs like circle, triangle and square dominate these paintings. The circle represents the sun or moon, the triangle represents the mountains and square the feilds used for farming. Human body are represented by two triangles upper depicting the trunk and the lower the pelvis. Men and women are differenciated by a little knot drawn on the head.
Simple yet beautiful these faceless painting do express the joy of celebrations in life .Now I really wonder if we really need eyes, hands and face to express ....Creativity to express by these faceless tribal paintings answers my question.
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