Contradictions

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!

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!!