Life is easy kya karein

When we were young everything happened in moderation. The weather was bearable. The stress was almost non existent. The water problems were there and people still managed to cook and bathe. The school tests were not so tough. Passing an exam was achievable.Gradually things started shifting. Bade halke se (very gently). For me, the first was getting into a college hostel. My parents wanted to send me to Bombay to study. One Aunt who was a local, married to a Bombay man had recommended for me to study in Mumbai. My parents were completely enrolled by the idea. They had no fears for their child's well being in a new city. When my results came, they knew I would get into any of the good colleges. The thing was getting a hostel seat. We had chosen Sophia College as that was recommended by the Aunt. Mom had asked her sister living in Mumbai to go and check out the place. Then we had asked a relative who was a Chemistry professor in a college to go for the hostel interview as I was in Dha...

Mumbai is one city where every activity is magnified. Sorry, Delhi, I know you are the Nation s Show offs, but allow me to complete why I write this. The newspapers decide how I shall feel in the morning. They will complain about Mithi river desilting which never gets done for some reason. Then, it is the potholes on the roads which the BMC is trying to fill up. Then for some days, we shall see the Disco pub cleansing unlike the ethnic cleansing happening in other parts of the world. So I decide that bad roads affect me, the Metro rail construction and Mithi river doesn't affect me as my house and area of travel both do not fall into it. I do not frequent the city s watering holes or happening joints and Dhoble protests do not bother me. I had no pending files in Mantralay but I really felt bad about the five people who died in the fire. The last one month, we are talking about school results. Ads of various tuition classes are there on most empty walls and electrical poles. Just c...

It was an arranged marriage. I do not remember why I had agreed to it. I was married and the boy lived in a chawl. This chawl was not a building. It had a ground floor and a central courtyard. The bikes were parked in the courtyard. People threw their litter there. Clothes were dried there and washed there too. Children were given their bath in the tub outside. The roof was not high but people made like an attic for sleeping quarters. There was a room followed by a kitchen and that was the house. The toilets were common and at the end of the chawl. They were almost always filthy.The bath area was in the kitchen itself. In the night, people used that area to go to the loo. There was one single bed in the room with an old dirty bed sheet and even dirtier pillow. The place had the stink of urine and rotting food. Everyone s house smelt like that or so I thought. The people also avoided using the toilet unless absolutely required. There was a shortage of water. So every house had a drum fu...

Saw a pet dog on a walk at Shivaji Park with his owner. The children from the nearby school come to the park for their games. They were surrounding this Labrador and playing with him. The dog was completely peaceful around the children. The children were delighted by his every action and were following him. The Master was preening like a peacock and very cool with children touching his dog.What if schools allowed pets? What if each class could keep one pet and one week every child had to take care of it? It would be so much fun for the child. And the sense of responsibility of taking care of someone would be developed naturally in the child. The feeling of caring and nurturing. I am not so hot on pets. I feel I have enough work and responsibilities and would not want to take on more. I feel two children are enough. I cannot take on one more child. No point having a pet if you cannot treat him like your own child. A week maybe but only a dog. I am not yet open to felines, turtles, bir...

I am thinking about the school and college admissions. The stress parents and children are going through. I am thinking about the potholes which the newspapers are counting and the BMC is claiming to repair. I am thinking about the traffic scenario in the rains and what time will my children come home. I am thinking about the amazing candid photographer called Joseph Radhik and the video he has shot of the Ram Charan Teja- Upasana Kamineni wedding . The video makes me smile. It has captured the celebrity wedding in its most beautiful moments. I do not know the Andhra Pradesh film stars or politicians. I have not read much about them and I do not recognize most of them.So their fame eludes me but the wedding teaser by Joseph Radhik is simply awesome.Any wedding can be a beautiful wedding if the emotions are captured well. Last Sunday, we kept going through his work and videos on Youtube and Facebook. It actually inspired me to look at my own wedding album. My wedding was not the most ...

The other day I stepped out to the terrace and my feet burnt. The red tiles of the terrace floor were so hot. Instead of pain on my face, which is my normal reaction, I smiled. It was instant. My feet felt the heat and my face lit into a smile. A small memory hidden in the recesses came up. Summers in Jharia were always scorching. If we went to the aangan to cross from one room to another, our feet would burn. Terrace was a complete no no till four pm. Then we would go to remove the clothes which were drying and were warm. The terrace was swept and then water was splashed on it so that our rooms below cooled with sun set. Later we would put our mattresses and sleep with Granny on the terrace. Granny ,six children, religious stories, gentle breeze and the stars. My world was complete. A friend gifted me a bag with beads and I was all nostalgic. Our drawing room had jute and bead curtains. It was not jute. It was the brown strings of coir like the threads of a brown gunny bag. I had a ...

The Serai at Kabini runs like a well oiled machine. The hotel has got everything right from the word Go. Awesome location with superb river view from all the rooms. No villages surround the property. Earlier the hotel was known as Kapila. Kapila is the name of the river and Kabini is another river. They both merge into river Kaveri. Nagarhole forest and these rivers are entwined. The property was then called The Cicada which is only sound you hear in the nights. The group which runs the Cafe Coffee Day chain in India has taken over. I understand the group has some political backing. But the professionalism in the property is admirable. I do not feel like using the word 'Resort' for The Serai. Resorts in my mind and in India are these noisy hotels with even noisier restaurants. All 'wannabe' crowd wants to flock to these resorts and make much noise. The Serai has a calm and serene energy about it. They have made / renovated the hotel along with nature. So unlike the...

I get very irritated by aggression by people when they see food. This is most obvious at a hotel buffet. Kids run to the buffet and push the adults away. Guests want hot food on the table by the waiter in spite of the buffet set up. People are crazy. They will take all fish pieces from the gravy. Some will ask for more meat in the gravy and will wait for 20 min till it comes from the kitchen. Parents have this weird fixation of feeding their children even at the restaurant. The kid is crying as he is being force fed. the parents are proud that they are doing a great job of shoving food down the child s throat. Then you have rich Indian who can afford more than one child and carry a maid along for the child. The maid is supposed to hold the crying baby and walk all over the restaurant while the parents are in the pool. The wailing children in a restaurant is too much to handle. It can spoil anyone's meal. These parents are oblivious to all this. It is not the child's fault. Mo...

On our holiday, we went to The Nagarhole forest in Karnataka. It is now called Rajiv Gandhi forest sanctuary. I have a huge issue with Indian politicians changing names of everyplace in India including streets and chowks and now forests too. The Sanjay Gandhi national park whose original name I do not know, in Mumbai, is being sold by the government all the time to make buildings. Then they talk of encroachment. Encroachment is not by hutment dwellers but by the Builders mafia. Every week a leopard is caught or shot at.The builders are like sharks and will gobble up every piece of our land. They have the muscle power thru the underworld and the black money thru the politicians and underworld. Priyanka gandhi is making a bungalow,12 km outside Shimla near the President s house. I thought buying land in Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir by non residents of the state was difficult.The newspapers mentioned how the President s prior permission was sought before the razing of the old bungalow a...

Last month I had been to the Swaminarayan temple in Dadar. I had work that side and decided to do darshan at the Mandir. the first time the children did not want to leave the temple. We were there for good one hour. They saw the evening Arti too. The next week, I took them again around the same time. I was happy that I was able to expose my children to the temple culture. They had a lot of questions. Prime question was why are women asked to move out when the Arti is going on in the airconditioned section. Why do mot seen get to be ahead in the Arti and women have to sit further behind. I explained that in Swaminarayan dharam/ religion, the saints/ sadhus/ Swamis do not look at women. There are different sections for women as the Swamis can to the rituals and not women. I myself now cannot see any logic to all this. And sure enough, whatever I was explaining to my children was not a good enough explanation for them. To explain celibacy vows of the priests is one thing and to explain th...

We are back from an amazing vacation. India has so much to offer. Why do we Indians go abroad when our country is so beautiful. I mean if we have not even seen our country, whats the rush to spend our money on foreign shores? All want to go to Hongkong now because it has a Disneyland and Dubai beacuse it has ice skating. Have the parents ever thought of Mahabalipuram, Coorg, Kabini, Bandhavgarh, Kalipur and so much more? We traveled to places which were within three hours of each other.The topography , the weather , the food, the culture everything changed from one place to another. They do say that in South India, the taste of the sambhar changes every 100 km. I thought lots more changed than just the sambhar. South India has amazing roads, clean restaurants, clean public toilets and Superb hotels. Whole of Maharashtra and Gujarat surely cannot compare to the tasteful clean hotels and places which South India has. I do not feel good when I demarcate India into North and South. Whe...