" Triiiiiing" …the alarm set for 5.30 am screeched on time.I groaned as I reached for the knob which would stop its screaming .(Oh why didn’t I throw it away when I had the chance ?)
“Why cant the bl…..d thing wait for 10 minutes more before shrieking ?” I grumbled .
“Simple , because you set it for 5.30 ,”replied my ever correct spouse .I wanted to throw a pillow at him .because I hate people who are so correct early in the morning .
“Ummm may I sleep for 10 minutes more ,wake me up will you ?”
“No way ,I am off to jog and remember you are the one who has to go school .”he replied blithely and proceeded to pull on his socks .
Yeah right .So much for the supportive male .
Resembling the fast forward human in action, I rushed through making breakfast .(I decided to fast ..three dosas less to make ) dressing and was into my second cup of coffee (..my cup of pick me up and keep me there )when my husband jogged in .
“Ready ? have you taken your books and other tools of your trade ?” he asked .
“Yes” ,I shouted making a dash for the car .I sped off .Ten minutes late is ten buses more on the road ..School buses were already plying .I wondered at the plight of the mothers and the kids .Well no pain ..no gain .
I switched on my favorite music as I zigzagged between buses and autos .I cursed at the red signals and evaded scooters and bikes with a skill of long practice ..An altercation between a bus and a cyclist ended up in us waiting for a good ten minutes in a jam
“God …with the power bestowed on you please put an end to it and see us on our way”.It must have been a mass request ,the traffic began to crawl forward .I pulled into the parking on dot . Grabbing my books and sheets and tools of trade ,I ran up trhe steps ,up the short stairs .I paused at the administrators office ,She doesn’t like any one getting in late .I slunk past her room ,as she was on the phone .The peon pushed the register towards me with a sly smile (A tip of Re 5 once in a while works wonders ). Putting P T Usha to shame I reached the class room panting and gasping ..All were present . All heads turned at my entry “.Hi good Morning” they chorused “.Hi” I greeted back .I waited for the next question and there it came , “Have you done the homework ?”
I grinned and nodded holding up my book and sheets .A pair of eager hands pulled at my book and another at the sheets .Within no time the sheets were being circulated and heads pored over the note book .Some scribbling others reading .I went to my seat .Ten minutes more for the instructor to come .I settled back making myself comfortable and thought ..Ah…. it was nice to back in school not as a teacher but as a student.A student of interior designing .
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
To Kerala in June
A trip to Gods own country Kerala , in the month of June is unthinkable but had to take one owing to a family affair .(my cousin’s house warming ) The reluctant monsoon was arriving in bits and pieces and so the heat was bearable,so we were told .So there we were all packed and set for the exhausting trip From Bangalore to Kannur(rhyming isn’t it ?) .I even packed sandwiches for lunch as we would have entered the hartal loving state by noon .As we sped leaving Bangalore behind ,I felt as though I was seeing the view for the first time ,technically …yes .I was viewing it through the lens of a camera attached to a cell phone .The road was much traveled by me but this time it had a new look or was I looking at it through different eyes (cataract and all )…whatever !Leaving the city behind in good time we were soon on the road to Mysore
.We turned off soon to use the shortcut ..The traffic was at its best ..almost nil . and the road taken (the short cut ) bad in many places which had the driver (my husband )using choicest words to curse the trip ..
From the bird sanctuary at ranganthittu(the bird sanctuary ) the scenery began to change .so did the road bringing a sigh of relief to the lips of the passengers The road side was festooned with carts laden with ripe mangoes ..red ,yellow and orange ..resembling balloons of different colours piled up like tiny pyramids .The traffic was at its best ..almost nil.The road took us towards Hunsur ..using the by pass we py passed the town .
The roadside was dotted with huge mayflower trees in full bloom …carpets of yellow and red were spread under each tree .Quaint villages with their clusters of tiled houses nestled to gether under huge trees giving it a picturesque effect ..The bus shelters fascinated me .They had an old world charm about them
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The time being early morning …bullocks stood free of their carts in the courtyards and under the trees .The carts rested along side Now the carts….They were fascinating They were painted carts..the likes of which I hadn’t seen before ..The sides of the carts were painted with different pictures .Some had different forms of Ganeshas ,others had sceneries and yet otheres sported scenes out of the epics ,Ramayana and Bharatha ..Passing at 120 miles an hour it was so difficult to get a good shot of them .even then my Son inlaw managed to get a few for me
At the end of the last of the villages we spied a serene lake with a tiny island on it .Herons perched on it, in patient wait for their breakfast to jump up There was barren land between the villages which is typical of most countryside other than Kerala .
.Leaving the villages behind we entered the forest area .It was almost magical .Bamboos created a world which looked untouched by human feet . I almost felt that at any time an elephant or a deer would come crashing out of the undergrowth .There were elephant droppings on the road which were fresh .I expressed my disappointment at not spying a single animal .. “its possible that they are aware of your passing through ,after all who is not scared of a lioness ?”guffawed my husband .He never loses an opportunity to take a dig at the fact that I am a Leo and a female at that .I laughed at his PJ ( I believe that its best to humour a maniac especially when he is the one driving )
At the end ,where the forest area ended there stood a tiny temple of The guardian of the forest .) The greenery was dense and thick without any gaps .The road climbed on to enter the beautifu lof land Coorg This was Gods own country indeed ..There was a dramatic change in the scenery again but this time it was not just beautiful but well ordered .Well pruned hedges bordering the coffee plants which grew under the shadows of huge trees .Tiny tiled cottages with their neat hedges and potted plants on the window sills ,flowering creepers on the fences and walls …oh coorg the beauty of the South.One just broke into sunny smiles at the daintily spread beautiful scene one passed through .
Daintly dressed ladies of Coorg(famed for their beayty ) draped in sarees a la coorg style ( with the pallu from the back to front pinned at the right shoulder ,walked along the side ,all on their way to a wedding ,it looked like We sped on through the tiny Goni kuppe drinking in the morning sights of a bustling town .Leaving it behind we turned off to the road that led to Peruvambadi .The road narrowed to a lane at some places . we reached the check post at Peruvambadi, was flagged off to the road newly opened to the public which would take us through the western ghats to Kerala.
Right after the check post we stopped or rather we had to stop to enjoy the mesmerizing beauty of a lake .A few others too were there drinking in the natural beauty of the lake with its deep green waters bordered with trees .Well as much as we wanted to stand and stare the mystical lake we couldn’t as time did not permit us .
..Driving through that piece of Western ghats felt as though I was on my own drive way as the road winded down through the middle of gigantic trees and dense bushes .The newly tarred road at some places were so narrow and had no adequate space to maneuver .A miscalculated move by the driver would have the passengers count the leaves of the tree , from limb of which they would be hanging if they were alive or conscious enough .So we ,especially me, held my tongue in my head till we winded down to a safer piece of road .Before we touched the bottom we spied the huge black rock named Nari Para ,by the locals
.Panthers (nari ) were often seen atop it .Now it had a small shrine of Hanuman and there was a tiny lamp burning just above the shrine .We also spied a couple of tribal colonies amidst the greenery .
We sped down and reached a most welcoming sight …the quintessential teashop (chaya kada ).It looked warm and welcoming with a curl of blue smoke rising from it We stopped and refreshed ourselves with hot cups of tea .The menu included Puttu –kadala ,Kerala porotta and curry(a favourite fare for Keralites ) .There were a couple of cars other than ours enjoying the healthy food .
We started off again and reached the bridge that connected us to Kerala….the kootupuzha bridge .
The scene from the bridge was picture post card perfect .
It again made me wonder at the artist called God .The blue mountains, the green hills and even darker green vegetation and a ribbon of river tumbling down over the rocks
Crossing the bridge the first thing that caught my eye was the Toddy shop right round the corner …a common sight in Kerala .The road had narrowed …for a highly populated state the highway was rather narrow .Shops on either side looked as though they would tumble down on to the road any minute .The vegetation was unruly ,a blur of green ,from darkest to the lightest giving us a feeling of speeding through the middle of green curtains
Amidst the greenery were brightly painted houses that seem to vie with each other in size and style .Most of them looked monstrous , examples of insensible architecture ,of pomp and possession of gulf money .The colours ranged from bright pink ,green ,electric blue, yellow and orange some of them almost gave us an eye sore .A few of them even sported roofs resembling Pagodas .Which had us feeling that we were at the gateway of Tibet .(Whatever happened to our simplicity ?our good old tiled roofs ?)The buses rushed past like unleashed beasts on a mission .We narrowly escaped being smothered down by a couple of them .
A wonderful aspect of Kerala is that it feels as though its one whole town .There are no barren spaces between one town and the other .One cannot rightly say where one ends and the other starts .unlike towns and villages of l Karnataka and Tamilnadu .Pockets of areas with red flags instead of gardens are a common sight in North Kerala (also known as Malabar ).At some places the road sides were festooned with red banners and flags which told us that we were well and truly in Kerala..
Old fashioned churches dotted the country side There were mosques and temples too side by side proving once more our secularity to the world .
Thus we sped on passing Iritty with its cool rubber plantations on either side of the road the small crowded town of ,Mattannur and reached our destination Kannur by noon where my cousin stood greeting us at the entrance of her new home..in true malayali style.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
The idea and the application
Mrs .K ,my immediate neighbour and the young mother of two came running to me the other day dragging her seven year old boy who was doing a very good imitation of a stubborn mule .She looked shaken ,her eyes were red and swollen ,her bosom heaved and her breath came in gasps ..Alarmed, I ran to get her a glass of water .The little boy stood by her ,his expression mutinous .Oh ..okay I took a guess at the problem It could be !.Sibling rivalry 2.Home work issue 3.low marks or plain disobedience .As a mother of two grown up daughters and a jobless ex-teacher I was considered an expert at child rearing and a counselor for all school related issues, by the residents of my layout .(my service was of course cheap as it was free ).It was not every day thatI had consultations ,but come the exam time and there would be a long queue in front of my house No, not children but parents holding classworks ,home works and project books .
To get back to Mrs K’s issue ……It was simple in nature ….the younger one to our hero ,a little baby doll had made his new eraser, hers .A scuffle ensued , in order to get it released which resulted in her plopping it into in her mouth .Defeated, her brother gave her a bite at the first available organ he could reach ,her cheeks ,which in turn had her spitting the eraser out along with a blood curdling scream loud enough to wake up the dead .Her still alive mother who was in the kitchen almost had a heart attack .Not really aware of what happened prior to the scream she belted each a good one .The first to the son and the second to the daughter to stop her screaming .It was only then she understood what had happened and did not take a kindly view of her boy’s method .and of course I was the only person available to make him realize that (to drill some sense into his thick skull …her words not mine ) ..and so the villain was dragged to me for justice and counseling .
The hero ,all of seven years stood before me ,with bowed head, rubbing at his cheek where the slap had landed .I could almost read his thoughts . “Why me ? it was she wasn’t it ? its always me who gets the scolding and punishments .That little she devil always gets off scot free.She with her dimples and all .”
Assuring the mother that id take care of the issue I sent her home to the little one who could still be heard screaming ..I sat the hero before me and asked him a few questions
Who is seven years old and who is three ?
Who goes to school every day ?
Who reads English from text books /
Who knows to write Hindi and do maths in the notebook ?
Who knows to ride the two wheeled cycle ?
Who helps Daddy to wash his car ?
Who knows to say please ,sorry and thank you ?
To which he had only one answer , “Me”
He seemed to grow inches before my eyes ,a smile broke free and he looked jubilant as realization dawned that he was a smart boy indeed .
Then the next set of questions followed ,
“Does Anita go to school ?’
“No”
“Does she know to read ?”
“No”
“Can she ride a cycle?”
“No”
“Can she do Maths ?”
“No”
“Does she know Hindi ?”
“No”
He almost shouted the answers .
“And so who should teach her to say sorry and thank you and please ?”
“Me”,pat came the answer .
The clouds cleared and the sun came out .He ran home clutching the biscuits I gave him (for all the correct answers )
A week later Mrs K appeared at my door step ,beaming and bearing gifts .Ten to fifteen homegrown drumsticks .She glowed with pride as she praised her son’s new avatar .I instructed her on how to keep it unchanged.
Now, I have a confession to make .The idea is not an original of mine .Years ago I was acting referee to a fight between my two daughters aged 8 and 3..Retorting to some comment of mine praising the younger one ,the elder one said scornfully ,”oh if she’s so good and clever let her say how much 8*4 + 6 is .”My mouth had fallen open at the twisted logic and now I put it good use it to boost the morale of a seven year old .
May be some of you reading this could use it too
To get back to Mrs K’s issue ……It was simple in nature ….the younger one to our hero ,a little baby doll had made his new eraser, hers .A scuffle ensued , in order to get it released which resulted in her plopping it into in her mouth .Defeated, her brother gave her a bite at the first available organ he could reach ,her cheeks ,which in turn had her spitting the eraser out along with a blood curdling scream loud enough to wake up the dead .Her still alive mother who was in the kitchen almost had a heart attack .Not really aware of what happened prior to the scream she belted each a good one .The first to the son and the second to the daughter to stop her screaming .It was only then she understood what had happened and did not take a kindly view of her boy’s method .and of course I was the only person available to make him realize that (to drill some sense into his thick skull …her words not mine ) ..and so the villain was dragged to me for justice and counseling .
The hero ,all of seven years stood before me ,with bowed head, rubbing at his cheek where the slap had landed .I could almost read his thoughts . “Why me ? it was she wasn’t it ? its always me who gets the scolding and punishments .That little she devil always gets off scot free.She with her dimples and all .”
Assuring the mother that id take care of the issue I sent her home to the little one who could still be heard screaming ..I sat the hero before me and asked him a few questions
Who is seven years old and who is three ?
Who goes to school every day ?
Who reads English from text books /
Who knows to write Hindi and do maths in the notebook ?
Who knows to ride the two wheeled cycle ?
Who helps Daddy to wash his car ?
Who knows to say please ,sorry and thank you ?
To which he had only one answer , “Me”
He seemed to grow inches before my eyes ,a smile broke free and he looked jubilant as realization dawned that he was a smart boy indeed .
Then the next set of questions followed ,
“Does Anita go to school ?’
“No”
“Does she know to read ?”
“No”
“Can she ride a cycle?”
“No”
“Can she do Maths ?”
“No”
“Does she know Hindi ?”
“No”
He almost shouted the answers .
“And so who should teach her to say sorry and thank you and please ?”
“Me”,pat came the answer .
The clouds cleared and the sun came out .He ran home clutching the biscuits I gave him (for all the correct answers )
A week later Mrs K appeared at my door step ,beaming and bearing gifts .Ten to fifteen homegrown drumsticks .She glowed with pride as she praised her son’s new avatar .I instructed her on how to keep it unchanged.
Now, I have a confession to make .The idea is not an original of mine .Years ago I was acting referee to a fight between my two daughters aged 8 and 3..Retorting to some comment of mine praising the younger one ,the elder one said scornfully ,”oh if she’s so good and clever let her say how much 8*4 + 6 is .”My mouth had fallen open at the twisted logic and now I put it good use it to boost the morale of a seven year old .
May be some of you reading this could use it too
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Yantras and Mantras
A tulsi(basil) leaf a day kept problems at bay ….was my sister’s mantra and duly she would pluck one and chew it on her way to school every day .She has never written an exam in her life with out the juice of one swirling in her mouth .How did this help her in her exams ?(something for science to discover )She is not unique in this .A lot of people I’ve come across have their own mantras or yantras which they believe will tide them over life’s difficulties .A friend of mine breaks into a tune of a popular hindi song when she is in a dilemma or when trouble comes calling .So I became so used to her breaking into a hum when we are in a bus stop , at the mall ,or simply crossing a crowded road .and have trained myself to ignore peoples stares when she does this .Yet another friend of mine believed that green glass bangles brought her luck .And more often than not they clashed with her outfits which again invited stares ,sniggers and raised eyebrows .
Its common to see people of all sexes sporting scared ashes of his or her favourite deity with the belief that it will protect them from all evils .and then there are the lucky dresses, earrings ,chains ,shoes and bags to name a few of the yantras My daughter believed that purple was her lucky colour and she had a purple T shirt she was very partial to .She made sure that she wore her purple coloured T shirt to all important dos .That was Okay, but the not so-okay part is that she refused to put it for wash believing that the luck too would get washed away .(It was no wonder that people let her have her way on the days she wore it ) My elder born would never step out of the house without her lucky hair clip and lucky earrings. She had about five pairs of them .(each had a different degree of luck )It was the red coral for luck at the exams ,the blue stones for luck at shopping (getting a discount )the green danglers for the movies (getting her friend to fund the tickets and eats )so on and so forth .Now theres a person I know who carries a dried gooseberry given to her by a ‘sadhoo’ .Come the cricket season all the yantras and mantras come into play .My brother in law refuses to let anyone park themselves in a particular chair as it would bring bad luck to India .And on the days India played he also took care to sip his drinks using a straw as each sip would see India scoring a four or a six and predictably India lost the day he was at a meeting and couldn’t use the straw .Another cousin of mine donned his hel met when cricket was on .The story is that once he had just come in wearing his helmet to see India hitting the winning sixer and from that day onwards his helmet holds a prestigious place his showcase to be taken out and donned on important cricket days .The football season is here .I spied people chanting strange chants with their eyes glued on the idiot boxes( Wakka wakka hey hey )
With the popularizing of Feng- shui ,people carried various things on their person and in their purses ,Three legged frogs ,gold ingots ,Chinese coins and what not .If they could tie wind -chimes on themselves some of them would have done so .Many of my friends. have chimes of different shapes and sounds in every nook and corner of their house The fortune bamboo ,figurines of the laughing Buddha , the prancing horse and the tortoise are some of the popular success yantras (helped to popularize wild life too and chinese history )
In the olden days people were said to carry rabbit foot for luck ,now we have chicken bones (She was informed of winning a lottery while chewing on one ),dried apple cores ,chocolate wrappers ,coloured stones (set as rings on fingers )carried along for luck .An acquaintance of mine refuses to remove a stain from her favourite dress as she fears her luck will disappear with it ( to each his own ! ) .
Now that reminds me …..where did I put my lucky green nail polish ?
Its common to see people of all sexes sporting scared ashes of his or her favourite deity with the belief that it will protect them from all evils .and then there are the lucky dresses, earrings ,chains ,shoes and bags to name a few of the yantras My daughter believed that purple was her lucky colour and she had a purple T shirt she was very partial to .She made sure that she wore her purple coloured T shirt to all important dos .That was Okay, but the not so-okay part is that she refused to put it for wash believing that the luck too would get washed away .(It was no wonder that people let her have her way on the days she wore it ) My elder born would never step out of the house without her lucky hair clip and lucky earrings. She had about five pairs of them .(each had a different degree of luck )It was the red coral for luck at the exams ,the blue stones for luck at shopping (getting a discount )the green danglers for the movies (getting her friend to fund the tickets and eats )so on and so forth .Now theres a person I know who carries a dried gooseberry given to her by a ‘sadhoo’ .Come the cricket season all the yantras and mantras come into play .My brother in law refuses to let anyone park themselves in a particular chair as it would bring bad luck to India .And on the days India played he also took care to sip his drinks using a straw as each sip would see India scoring a four or a six and predictably India lost the day he was at a meeting and couldn’t use the straw .Another cousin of mine donned his hel met when cricket was on .The story is that once he had just come in wearing his helmet to see India hitting the winning sixer and from that day onwards his helmet holds a prestigious place his showcase to be taken out and donned on important cricket days .The football season is here .I spied people chanting strange chants with their eyes glued on the idiot boxes( Wakka wakka hey hey )
With the popularizing of Feng- shui ,people carried various things on their person and in their purses ,Three legged frogs ,gold ingots ,Chinese coins and what not .If they could tie wind -chimes on themselves some of them would have done so .Many of my friends. have chimes of different shapes and sounds in every nook and corner of their house The fortune bamboo ,figurines of the laughing Buddha , the prancing horse and the tortoise are some of the popular success yantras (helped to popularize wild life too and chinese history )
In the olden days people were said to carry rabbit foot for luck ,now we have chicken bones (She was informed of winning a lottery while chewing on one ),dried apple cores ,chocolate wrappers ,coloured stones (set as rings on fingers )carried along for luck .An acquaintance of mine refuses to remove a stain from her favourite dress as she fears her luck will disappear with it ( to each his own ! ) .
Now that reminds me …..where did I put my lucky green nail polish ?
Thursday, July 1, 2010
C C T V
It’s the age of the CCTV.It has come to stay .There was a time when human eyes were used for this .Nosy neighbours, interested bystanders or just plainly bored passersby. But the flesh and blood have been replaced by electronic eyes, eyes that see but don’t speak. The ones in front of my house has been installed a few months back when the construction of a high rise apartment began .Any thing and every thing can activate them like The bark of my dog ,the sneeze of my husband, the singing of my daughter ,the opening of my door and the horn of my car , the sound of the latch being lifted, and the paper boy’s shout also activates them. I just need to step out of my house and they come on. Their unblinking stares fixed on me.. Like the periscope of the submarines they will appear on the other side of my wall at the slightest sound from my house . Four pairs of eyes. the number may increase or decrease. There are male and female eyes, mostly female ones. ranging from the age of twelve to thirty two . Sometimes an extra pair will also be there, held up by dark skinny arms. I call them my very own cctvs. Sometimes I throw a smile across, other times I ignore them I just don’t like so much of attention . But a lot of things have changed because of those watching eyes. My husband’s usual peck on my cheeks before he leaves has been cut short to a flick of his hand, my usually tardy daughter takes care to smoothen her curly hair down and throw a stole over her pajamas ( who doesn’t like a few admirers ) before she steps out with the dog in the morning and my dog toffee just sparks up and wags her tail as if there is no tomorrow. She just loves them. A friend of mine on a visit noticed them and asked “Hey what’s with them?” “Just ignore them ,they are my live cctv”, said I, and opened the door to her. Another time the same friend joked “hey they speak too. They told me you were out and had taken the car and so u would be late. Helpful aren’t they?” Yeah sure, if you can see them that way but I am not sure that I wanted every move of mine watched and reported.
But they have their advantages too. When a snake wandered onto my verandah they set up a howling that I ran out and with the help of neighbour got rid of it. So was the case when the dog seeing the gate open made a run for it, again they set up a howling and screaming that the security managed to get a hold on her and stop her till I reached. I am also informed if anyone has visited my house in my absence and sometimes I am also appreciated for my dress, lipstick and hairstyle.(using sign language ) They are quick to show appreciation. and have infectious smiles (white teeth and all ) I get a warm welcome when I return home and enthusiastic goodbyes when I leave . .I wave back feeling like the queen of England waving to her subjects .In return I send over clothes, sweets ,old bangles, and toys. We share a relationship of sorts .
My life must be the closest they get to a reality show .Now I can guess how Aishwarya rai bachhan and Amitabh bachhan must feel when they step out on to their verandah with a cup of coffee in their hands .But let me admit …..i love to see their smiling faces early in the morning as I step out to retrieve the morning papers..At least we give them something to smile about .
But they have their advantages too. When a snake wandered onto my verandah they set up a howling that I ran out and with the help of neighbour got rid of it. So was the case when the dog seeing the gate open made a run for it, again they set up a howling and screaming that the security managed to get a hold on her and stop her till I reached. I am also informed if anyone has visited my house in my absence and sometimes I am also appreciated for my dress, lipstick and hairstyle.(using sign language ) They are quick to show appreciation. and have infectious smiles (white teeth and all ) I get a warm welcome when I return home and enthusiastic goodbyes when I leave . .I wave back feeling like the queen of England waving to her subjects .In return I send over clothes, sweets ,old bangles, and toys. We share a relationship of sorts .
My life must be the closest they get to a reality show .Now I can guess how Aishwarya rai bachhan and Amitabh bachhan must feel when they step out on to their verandah with a cup of coffee in their hands .But let me admit …..i love to see their smiling faces early in the morning as I step out to retrieve the morning papers..At least we give them something to smile about .
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