This and That, There and Here

My Idea of Fun

padmum — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:59:08 +0000

To be able to sit with a book
And not be interrupted

To do crowswords
And finish them in minutes ten

To be with my family, no arguments
And not talk of times glum

To meet my kids every two months
And enjoy food, fun and frolic-some

To be greeted by grandkids
With a hug, kisses and sweet demand

To invent stories, tell tales
For their ears alone ad nauseum

To join my friends and others
Create skits, stand-up comedy and clown

To go shopping, buy nothing
And owe my credit card none

Write, ruminate, pontificate
With Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium!!

Welcome to the Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where Akanksha, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, Gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie11, Nema, Noor, Ordinary Joe, Paul, Maria the Silver Fox, Rummuser , Will Knott, and I write on the same topic. Please do visit the linked blogs to get seventeen different flavours of the same topic.

Love through the Ages

padmum — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:59:49 +0000

This is not a historic tale of separated lovers
Nor a bard’s paean of love to passions
This is a journey through a woman’s decades
From childhood, the middles upto the nineties
Let us have a look through the trail
Of love through the ages

As a girl you are told beware of boys
Rough and naughty troublesome creatures
Made of snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails
While you are a girl, cutely made of emotions
“Sugar and spice and all things nice”
Love at this stage is strictly for dolls houses

Then the hormones kick in with puberty
You are sixteen going on seventeen merrily
And many fellows will and do fall in line
They cause speedy pulses, crushes and flushes
Haunting your dreams and daytime musings
Love in the teens is Surya, Ranbir, Brad Pitt and Dhoni MS

In the twenties marriage reigns supreme
Romance and roses, diamonds, wedding dresses
Stars in the eyes that turn into fiery rages
Adjustment, compromise and quarrels
Pregnancy, labour pains and baby gurgles
Love happens with doses of real circumstances

The troubled thirties ladies become busy
With in-laws, kids, friends and colleagues
Careers, home, school, exams and grades
The rat race keeps you running in the maze
Love and sex is stolen or put off by headaches
Where darling is any time for sweet nothings

The freaky forties is learning about yourself
Maybe time to pick up a personal interest
Develop a business, give time to underprivileged
Face teenage rebellions, problems, kids affairs
Nightmares of becoming a grandma sans son in law
Love is TV couch affection with first gray hairs
Failing Fifties is a time of slowing and hot flushes
Left alone playing with your partner doubles
The aches and pains, groans and twinges
Need holiday trips, Pilates and presses
Amour, passion set aside by menopause, pensions
Love is that you have just grown used to your husband

It is rocky to enter your stumbling sixties
Hoping to be as fit as a fiddle
Thank god I am not answerable
To anybody you say with an air invincible
I’ll do what I want you affectionately wheedle
Love is grandchildren’s hugs, crosses and kisses

Sinful seventies is a time to indulge
In fancies wicked, oral and mental
Saying what you want, doing what you like
Claiming age and faltering mind as excuses
Greeted as the batty sweetie with indulgence
Love is just a four letter word in crossword puzzles

A thousand moons you would have seen
When you have entered your edging out eighties
Beloved, swaddled, spoilt and petted
Physically weakened but mentally with it
It is a benign adoration that haloes your pate
Love is benevolent, saintly and universal

So passion, affection, romance, infatuation
Red hearts and arrows, thorns with roses
Bouquets and brickbats follow through life
You sit in your nervous nineties in a wheelchair
Hopefully waiting to make a century intact
Love is waiting for Lord Krishna’s Valentine visit

WAITING IN THE QUEUE

padmum — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:20:42 +0000

Waiting is not something that comes easily to most people. This is especially true in India where everybody is a leader and there are no followers. It is the survival of the fittest and works to the letter T in every situation where you have to wait.

Let’s take queues. I have noticed that there is a marked difference in notions of forming

An Indian wait!

and standing in a queue in other countries and in India. A queue is an ordered line of people or tasks waiting to be attended to in the order of first come, first served basis. However, we Indians cannot stand in a queue in an orderly manner.

The common reaction in our country is, “Why do I have to waste time standing in a queue?” For any purpose—buying a ticket, paying bills, in hospitals, at the check in counter at airports, supermarkets etc.—our good intention is to join the queue, wait and achieve our goals in an orderly and patient manner. Reality however is different. Driven by fear and the gut instinct of survival of the toughest, you don’t dare leave any space between yourself and the person ahead! And, this can really be a sticky experience in our weather conditions. The only rule that works is to hold your place in the line and watch whether your feet are grounded.

The training to wait patiently and to stand in a line begins in school –to line up for assembly, enter and leave classrooms and board buses in an orderly manner. At play time, we implicitly obeyed our teachers to ‘get in line’ before being marched off. Once we grew up and left school, we also forgot these simple rules.

Queues can be entertaining. You make instant friends, you have discussions about everything under the sun and collectively you strain at the leash to move ahead and reach the goal. If it is a wait to lodge a complaint, the sharing of grievances and the inequities of authorities can be a very satisfying experience.

In a common queue, if any guy dares to get close to a lady ahead, he could end up at the receiving end of a few thwacks from handy footwear! So in India, we also have special Ladies lines. A common queue could also be the scene of a mini riot when unscrupulous queue jumpers could sidle up and occupy dangerous blank spaces and usurp your place! Lifts and public transport are other hot spots where people rush to get in forgetting altogether that unless the vehicle empties, there won’t be any space for them. It is GIGO here too—Guys in Guys out! You see, the fear is that you may literally miss the bus or lift in this case.

The scene in religious places is not different. People jostle and knock others down in a great hurry to have a darshan of their favourite deity. Queues that are carefully monitored and guided at initial stages in these temples, become a mass of human bodies, any which way, closer to the sanctum sanctorum. Surely, the same people would not be so eager to actually have their final rendezvous with the Almighty!

In the USA or UK people of Indian origin patiently wait for their turn at traffic signals and in other queues. The same people at an Air India counter in JFK or Heathrow regress rapidly to push and pull to reach the check in counter or to board the plane. They want to come back home the earliest, so waiting be damned.

Whenever, wherever I have to wait, I take a book and happily sit reading with only a few anxious glances to check the progression ahead of me. When I have to wait unexpectedly, I spend the time ‘people watching’ and that is a great pastime.

HOW LONG DOES STUFF TAKE TO DECOMPOSE

padmum — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:36:19 +0000

When we go to different areas, knowingly or unknowingly, we harm nature by littering the areas. Actually our original purpose is to search for peace of mind and to enjoy nature. We end up adding the degradation of Nature however.

For example,we go for a picnic to a sanctuary, have fun with loud music, knowing full well that loud music is prohibited in sanctuaries. We drink and happily break the bottles on the rocks or throw the cans, make a fire, cook and most of the time, after having a great lunch we leave the plates, disposable glasses and polythene as debris scattered all over the place.

It’s not that we don’t have the knowledge of environment pollution but sometimes because of lack of awareness and responsibility, we do harm to Nature.

Here is a small list of things with the time it takes to decompose. Before behaving thoughtlessly, we should think about how long our act of foolishness remain on this earth.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO DECOMPOSE ?

Banana Peel- 3-4 weeks

Orange peels- 6 months

Apple Core- 2 months

Paper Bag- 1 month

Cardboard- 2 months

Milk Cartons- 5 years

Newspaper- 6 weeks

Paper Towel- 2-4 weeks

Cotton Glove- 3 months

Tinned Steel Can- 50 years

Aluminum Can- 200-500 years

Disposable Diapers- 550 years

Plastic Bags- 20-1000 years

Glass- 1-2 million years

Cigarette Butts- 10-12 years

Leather shoes- 25-40 years

Rubber-Boot Sole- 50-80 years

Plastic containers- 50-80 years

Monofilament Fishing Line- 600 years

Foamed Plastic Cups- 50 years

Wool Sock- 1-5 years

Plywood- 1-3 years

Plastic Bottles- 450 years

This is also one of the reasons related to Global Green House Effect.

PERCEPTIONS

padmum — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:25:50 +0000

When you wake up to the alarm bell
To know that you are alive and well

The aches and pains in your limbs say
That you are not disabled in anyway

The clarion call of the raucous horn
Disturbs but gladdens for you can hear

Garbage, stench and burning rubber
Tells you that your sinuses are clear

Shocking scenes in TV, news or print
Remind that choice is within your sight

Giving charity to the poor and destitute
Thank God! You’re the one to donate

Getting wet, cold and freezing away
You have a roof to revive with shelter and fire

You can opt to diet, fast or miss a meal
There’s enough in the larder to eat

A cough, cold, appendix, or bad teeth
Medical help is affordable to treat

Think of the rainbows, blue skies, nature and sea
The world is beautiful, your perceptions tell you

Dissolving the bitterness of life…

padmum — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:51:54 +0000

I am sharing a message that was forwarded to me:

POORNA ANANDA

WISDOM LETTER

January 31, 2012

Mount Kailash and Mansarovar Lake

Dissolving the bitterness of life…

Once a young man came to a revered teacher, who was seated under a tree near a beautiful lake, and asked for the solution for his unhappiness. After some minutes of conversation the old master kindly instructed the visitor to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink a few mouthfuls.

“How does it taste?” the teacher asked. “Awful,” said the apprentice after he had spat out the revolting liquid a few paces away. The teacher chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the youngster swirled his handful of salt into the lake, the old man told him, “Now drink from the lake.”

As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked him again, “How does it taste?” “Good!” he replied. “Do you taste the salt?” asked the Master. “No,” said the young man. The Master sat beside the troubled youth, took his hands, and said,

“The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the level of ‘pain we taste’ depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.

And you can become a lake where you broaden your outlook; when you stop looking only at yourself and your own miseries. Look at life as a whole and the many things without which you would not be what you are today – your friends, family, hobbies, nature around you.

When you are confronted with a problem, you see only the problem and ruminate over it endlessly which only makes the situation more tragic. Think of previous instances when things were better. Look at all the blessings that God has filled your life with about which you never give a thought.

Never compare yourself negatively with others. You are a unique person and if you have the faith, God will provide what you need. When you have a pain in your life, put it in front of GOD – then it will surely lessen. Do not put it in front of yourself – as you cannot see beyond it.

Ramesh Jain

SIMPLICITY

padmum — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:04:16 +0000

The word simplicity can be superficially misleading…is that an oxymoron? Well the word describes a quality or condition of being plain or natural, a freedom from artificial ornament, pretentious style, or luxury. It is usually associated with dress, style, language, diet and generally a simple way of life.

There is a great deal of difference between simplicity and pretensions. I can pretend to be simple while the whole thing can be pretty complex. This is especially true, I think, when it comes to behaviour and trying to be somebody in society circles.

The aim in Vedic culture is to pare down your life to the bare basics, to accept pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow with equanimity. This can be achieved when our life is simple with minimum needs and expectations. In fact the aim is to function in a life structure that is like a pyramid—start with a broad base and taper until there is only the ultimate truth, a pin point of awareness. However, the human psyche keeps building on blocks, vertically, horizontally until the simple structure is modified beyond reason and recognition into a tower of Babel, a fortress of relationhips, a silo of tastes and sensations and a turnstile of attire and styles.

Henry David Thoreau demonstrated this by immersing himself in nature. He hoped to gain a more objective understanding of society through personal introspection. Simple living and self-sufficiency were Thoreau’s other goals, and the whole project was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy. Thoreau’s cabin was not in the wilderness but at the edge of town, about two miles from his family home. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”

Simplicity to my mind is an instant recall of sewing patterns that I used to tailor my kids and my clothes. In fact I learnt to sew with these most detailed patterns…..a DIY guide to stitching tthe most complicated designs in a basic and easy way!

I must let you all into a favourite way we have in India—especially the South—of answering why’s with an answer ‘Simply”!! So if somebody would ask me ‘Why are you writing this blog’ instead of dishing out the chapter and verse about Friday LBC, my brother, Grannymar and gang and how I started writing for the group (missing the Friday usually), I could reply, “Simply” and get away with it! Isn’t that simply cool!

Welcome to the Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where Akanksha, Anu, Ashok, Delirious, Gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie11, Nema, Noor, Ordinary Joe, Paul, Maria the Silver Fox, Rummuser , Will Knott, and I write on the same topic. Please do visit the linked blogs to get seventeen different flavours of the same topic.

LBC

padmum — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:31:53 +0000

Wisdom

For Conrad!

JOY OF GIVING

padmum — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:40:13 +0000

Giving in India is not something that is done overtly–it is done as part of the daily routine.

Anna daanam, the gift of food, is a common feature in many homes in India. The Sarvodaya (kindness to all) program based in temples, where you put aside a fistful of rice everyday when you cook and give it to the temples for poor feeding, soup kitchens in slums run by Church and temple devotees are events that are happening all over cities. The Muslims give food every Friday and all through the month of Ramadan.

There is a lovely story…Once a Guru and his Sishyas were on their daily Biksha route. In a home where the lady usually gave them biksha they knocked at the door. After sometime a five year old girl with mud on her hands opened the door. She said that her mother had gone out and she did not know what to give. The Guru asked what are you doing and she replied, “I am making mud pies”. He said “Please give me oner of those” and accepted it in his bowl. The sishyas were upset and questioned him about accepting the mud pie. The Guru replied, “I am just inculcating in her the habit of giving”.

Mahatma Gandhi went all over the country collecting funds for the Charkha Sangh. In Orissa he addressed a meeting. After his speech a poor old woman, bent with age, greying hair and tattered clothes began to press forward through the crowds towards Gandhiji. “I must see him,” she insisted to the volunteers who tried to stop her and then went up to Gandhiji and touched his feet. From a knot in her sari palloo, she took out a copper coin and placed it at his feet. Gandhiji picked up the copper coin and carefully put it away.

The Charkha Sangh funds were under the charge of Jamnalal Bajaj. He asked for the coin to add to his kitty but Gandhiji refused. “I keep cheques worth thousands of rupees for the Charkha Sangh,” Jamnalal Bajaj laughed “yet you won’t trust me with a copper coin.”

“This copper coin is worth much more than those thousands,” Gandhiji said. “If a man has several lakhs and he gives away a thousand or two, it doesn’t mean much. But this coin was perhaps all that the poor woman possessed. She gave me all she had. That was very generous of her. What a great sacrifice she made. That is why I value this copper coin more than a crore of rupees”.

The Joy of Giving Week (JGW) is now a national movement. It is sandwiched between Dussera and Diwali a well-known period for opened purses and gifting. The JGW is targeting at least one crore Indians to get involved in different “acts of giving” that could be money, time, service, resources and skills. The movement hopes to rope in corporate, NGO’s and government sectors, schools, colleges and the general public.

This movement hopes to motivate every single Indian to give back something to society from which he/she continues to receive support and succour and above all an identity. The movement has already signed on 35000 schools, hundreds of colleges, famous personalities like Sachin Tendulkar, actors, politicians, media and society people, activists, sports persons and celebrities to show the way to the common man. South Indian Director, Jayendra has shot an ad film free of cost to popularise the Joy of Giving Week!

There was a news item in the NY Times that Indians are not great givers compared to their other counterparts in the West. In India giving is a way of life that is not an ‘in your face’ gesture. Indians give food, money, services on a daily basis. They do not mark out a percentage as such but just share from their own resources. In fact it is not even thought off as ‘sharing’ or ‘giving’.

The gesture of giving food, clothes and money or aid to the needy is automatic. Children are taught from babyhood by parents, by religion and by society to share resources. This indirect philanthropy is not easily perceptible.

On the other hand there are any number of educational, medical, social organizations that have been set up and continue to flourish through philanthropy of a single person (Pennathur Subramaniam Iyer, Raja Annamalai Chettiar, Sir Gangaram), or family (Birla’s, Tata’s) or community (Parsis, Marwaris, Gujarathis, Chettiars) or religious institutions (Ramakrishna Mission, Christian Missionaries etc.). Tourism has flourished in India at all times thanks to the free choultries (guest houses) set up by generous people.

In the West Christmas is a season that means giving. In India giving has been a quiet perennial activity. Today it is being given front page importance and is an effort to make it into a large and visible movement.

Finally the focus of the word ‘giving’ is all about the giver. The act of giving is not about donation, charity or philanthropy. It is about sharing, empathising, getting involved and communicating.

When giving becomes a habit, and not merely money but time and spirit, it comes back to you manifold. It helps us remember that whatever our own situation we have the power to do great good for others and for ourselves.

I ‘give’ this topic to Rohit—hope he gets to read it!!

LBC

padmum — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:36:21 +0000