Caged, I experience Freedom

-
Yesterday I spent a lot of time in front of the television . I was watching the Rath Yatra at Puri and actually listening to the commentator as he explained the significance of  many of the rituals. Aastha channel was covering Morari Bapu's Ramayan live at Vatican city. Wanted to watch both at the same time. The telly time was, because I was getting bird net put on all the windows. Three workers were working in the three rooms of the house. Kitchen was the only place to go to and the food was cooked. There was a lot of conversation on whether I should put the bird net, what is the costing like, where can I get the best rate, who will do the best job and will they be reliable. Final choice was between two young boys from Uttar Pradesh. One had just started his own business after leaving his job. The other boy worked for a Bori Muslim 'Seth'. The new kid on the block was enthusiastic but little arrogant. He said they do contract all household work like electrical, plumbing, carpentry, fabrication etc. The other guy did only nets in houses and buildings and did not do any other work. The owner of the company sent me pictures on Whatsapp of nets put in various houses in Mumbai including of a film director who lives with his mother. Being a pucca Hindi movie buff, my decision was made easily.

The heart kept saying I should give the new guy a chance. I liked his courage to branch out on his own. If people do not give him a chance, how will he make it big in life? But I was not sure about the quality of work he would do and I was not willing to take a chance. The other guy knew his job and was very clear about how he will do it. He seemed to have an expertise in bird nets. Both were charging the same rate. With a heavy heart, the husband and me decided to go ahead with the second guy. And we were not disappointed.

The bird net has given us a new freedom in our own house. We are able to keep our windows open now. We are able to sit on the ledge and look at the sun setting in the direction of the Arabian sea. In Mumbai, we did not wake up with birds chirping but crows cawing at our window ledges. It was impossible to keep any window open as they would fly in and we feared would get hurt by the fan. The crows would come into the kitchen or put dirt on the washed utensils which were kept in the sun to dry. Yes, dishwasher is still not a common thing in India. On the window sill, we were always cleaning pieces of fish, bones and what not. It has all stopped.

Suddenly the air has become free for us. I wish I could do this with the people in my life. Not have other people's negative thoughts thrown at me, not allow them in my space, not get affected by their vile words and yet have everyone co exist happily without harming each other. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nange Paon in Navratri

-
When I was working and staying in the hostel, I kind of stopped believing in most festivals and rituals. I thought all this was some weird things which people did, it had no scientific base and why should I follow anyone. In the college hostel, vacations were time to go home and not connected with any festival except Diwali. Sophia College hostel was a cocoon in the heart of South Mumbai. The campus with an old palace building was a quiet oasis with trees and birds, in the mayhem of Mumbai. No festival touched it unless the college celebrated it. The Polytechnic had rock shows and one Dandiya night every year, which it soon stopped having by 1988. Only celebration was the Vegetable Biryani in lunch on Sundays. The Polytechnic hostel did not even believe in pampering the children with food. Memories of bread being there round the clock for breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. For them, while the non vegetarians ate eggs for breakfast, the vegetarian had bread. And then when non vegetaria
Read more

Antakshari

-
Today we were playing antakshari at the Holi get together. We did not know any new songs so naturally only the golden melodies were being sung. The whole generation playing antakshari was singing the similar era songs on the alphabets they got. I realised a couple of things. In English language there is no game like Antakshari. How many sentences end with I or The? How can you sing when most songs start with I, The, Once, When and How?I cannot resist explaining the game, we all grow up with, in India. Antakshari means Ant : end , Akshar: alphabet ie last letter of the word. Akshar also means God. It also means God has the last word. Its a game with two teams and we call the teams as  'party'.  We say "Baithey baithey kya karein, karna hai kuchh kaam, shuru karo antakshari , le ka Hari ka naam." Translated from Hindi, We are sitting idle, lets do some work, lets start antakshari, starting with God's name. In Indian games, there is a lot of religion or belief in Go
Read more

Shraddh period in Hinduism

-
According to the Hindu calendar, this is the shraddh period going on.  For fifteen days in a year, the ancestors are remembered and prayed to. No auspicious events / ceremonies take place in this time. People use the tithi/date of death to invite a Pandit and feed the departed soul. It means you remember the person passed away, give food to the Pandit and the crows. People keep a cooked meal on the terrace. They try to make the favourite food of the departed person. My memories are of my Grandma mixing and crushing all the savouries with her hands and when it was in form of  a paste, my Uncle would go to the terrace and throw the food for the crows. Crows in Hinduism are considered messengers of the departed souls. A lot of people feed Gathiyas to the crows for the full year. If your ancestors are happy, then your life goes well ,is the general belief amongst Hindus. The shraddh period falls exactly between Ganpati and Navratri. One does not buy a house or have a wedding in this time.
Read more