Life is easy kya karein

Daiwaa washed the vessels at home. The washing area was outside the kitchen area but a long walk away as the kitchen did not open into the washing area. The washing area had a place to wash dishes, another cement platform to wash clothes, two open tanks to store coal and wood. Another area next to it for garbage collection. Later even the generator was kept here and Kerosene too for Lanterns and Dhibri. Dad had got a red small generator from Kolkata and later a white bigger one. Both were Japanese or Korean made. The red and the cream colours were so different from what I had ever seen. In the generator, we had to pull a thick string to make it start. After a couple of pulls or more, the machine started. The bigger the generator, the more the strength needed to pull that accelerator kind of thing. There were two iron tubs to store water to wash dishes.  The vessels were washed with ash which came from the Chulha or a coal fire. No detergents going into the drainage. No plastic colour

All friends fill a gap in me. A gap, as in a quality, I am looking for or a trait which is missing in me. I have friends who are great cooks. Some are great guides be it relationships or travel or shopping. Some friends are great listeners and some friends make me laugh a lot. Some friends listen to my support staff's  stories and some listen to my family gossip. Each one provides comfort in a different way. These days, I am scared to write the word 'maids'. I have to write house help or support staff. It is not that if I write maid, I treat them any different. But the whole liberal agenda is getting to me. Earlier, for me, staff meant people working in an office set up. Maid or servants did not have a bad meaning. Everything cannot be casteist as some intellectuals make it out to be. To do 'Sewa' was the best form of service which we did to people or God or Guru. Suddenly all these words have become shameful. May be when the English said it, that is what they wan

I want a new bank locker. I want a new locker in another bank. I want a big locker. My bank decided to shift a couple of kilometres away from its original place without any information or rather an email to me. They took the lockers along. The notice they had put up outside the premises they vacated, was not legible. Do not understand how they managed to shift the lockers too. Guess what, they even managed to move the entire bank and lockers to the first floor. In the original premises, the lockers were in the basement. Wonder why they shifted to such an inconvenient location, narrow steep staircase in a new building. First floor and no elevators to the bank. Thank God, the elderly clients are strong enough to climb one floor. Finally, I found the new location which even Google Maps could not find. Husband and me kept asking around in the area. All kept guiding us to go ahead till we were a couple of kilometres from the place. I should be grateful, my locker was found in the new prem

The school Parent teacher meetings are a very important part of the life of mothers of school going children. My house help was the Class representative for the parents of her child's class. She had to attend a monthly meeting with the teachers and the school Principal. She would inform me in advance that she will come late to work or do little work and leave early. That day she would not wear her daily Salwar Kameez but would be in a Saree. In those two years, I realised she had such a beautiful choice of Sarees . She wore them so gracefully. That day she would have the extra excitement on her face. I could see her buzzing with energy. I think that was the place where she had a position of a leader. She felt pride in her role as the PTA head for her class. She never missed those meetings. Now both her children are in college.  Coming back from Yoga, right outside our house is a vegetable vendor . He has encroached the footpath space. He and his wife have a big table to keep

Parents are sending their children for Speech and Drama class. This is supposed to make the child bold and confident. Every one wants a child who wins debates and speech competitions. I know our school used to have something called Extempore competition where the topic was given and children had 10 minutes to prepare and then go and speak on stage. For me, I never understood the meaning of extempore. I could not even understand or pronounce it correctly. I have just checked the meaning on Google and it says to talk or do something without preparation. Preparation for a speech always meant my Mother helping me by writing the speech and guiding me where to pause when I tried to 'mug' it and 'rattle' it at the same time. 'Rattle and mug' was the colloquial language that I knew. Children would get a couple of quotes from their parents and tried to fit it in the extempore speech.  Nowadays in schools, if the child is quiet, it  is a problem. All parents want th

Yesterday I had a meeting at Shivaji Park at noon. The October warm weather has set in the last week of September. This time the Ganpati Visarjan happened without any rains and then the temperature went up by a couple of notches. With Shivaji Park as the venue, I was assured of  shade under the trees. I absolutely abhor meeting anyone at a CCD or Starbucks kind of place. First of all, I do not like machine made tea or coffee. The tetra pack milk which is not boiled tastes 'raw'. These small little cubby holes which have got converted to Coffee places are not my thing. I find a distinct smell of  the mixture of Air conditioning, stale air, coffee and raw milk and the mop with disinfectant which they use to clean the place and the tables, nauseating. The smell issue happened as soon as I started working for a 5 star hotel. My work involved meeting corporates in their offices. Coming back to the hotel lobby to walk towards the sales offices, the smell from the restaurants would

There is a serial which my child loves called Karan and Kabir. It is about twin boys and their Mother. The mother works and lives in a hotel. The episodes are about the trouble the children keep getting into or the pranks they play. The boys are adorable. The good part about this serial is that it is not slap stick humour. It is not disrespectful to anyone and it does not encourage bad habits or value systems. I do believe that the value system in children come from the parents. But the society has to be responsible which also means the kind of content shown on TV.  Today in the name of liberalism, the content of children's programs has really gone down. The humour is crass and mannerisms and behaviour is sad.  Like in the radio channels in Mumbai, they all have a section on a Mumbaikar. One of the channels calls it 'Mawali Bhai'. His Hindi is absolutely gross. No one in Mumbai speaks like that. His language is filthy. What the radio channels are doing is using bad wo

When I was in school, I knew the phrase "Cool as a cucumber". Then in Mumbai, I heard the word 'cool' in a different context. After some years of gauche ness, I started considering myself hep and cool. Nowadays, I am scandalised by everything whether it is 377 or adultery. The crimes were there before and even now. But the way the media runs it over and over again, it just spreads like wild fire. Then all that the people do is talk about it. Whether it is a virus or rainfall or floods, we blame someone else. I cannot stay up late for events or movies. I need my eight hours of sleep. I cannot wear uncomfortable clothes which are tight or synthetic or the 'Kaatu' variety. Those are the ones where the fabric feels hot or it pokes into the skin due to the zari or thread work or the synthetic fabric. For me, it is only about comfort wear. It also means that a lot of women are comfortable in the tight synthetic clothes which I cannot stand. So for all these reason

Have you experienced 'Nashik Dhol' ?  There is a reason that I did not say 'Have you heard the 'Nashik Dhol'? Let me begin, Nashik Dhol is native to Maharashtra. It is a band playing drums. These drums are huge and tied to the waist of the players. There is one stick for the drum and the hand is used to provide music the beat. This is traditional Maharastra music. There is one member of the band who plays a bell. The bell is the old school bell which we had basically a dish and a spoon which was given to young children to play with. In our country, No one gave plastic toys to their toddlers. It was always old steel vessels from the kitchen like bowls in various sizes, plate and a spoon. The child learnt to hold and grasp the vessels. He understood sound which he created by banging and he stopped it after a point unlike the battery operated toys where the synthetic sound just does not stop.  Nashik Dhol is played during Ganpati and Gudi Padwa. The band is in hu

In Dhanbad, the only things I knew was what was written in The Telegraph, Reader's Digest, Jane Austen books. My knowledge was limited to that and later to Sidney Sheldon, Harrold Robbins and one cry baby author . I am glad I do not remember her name because in all her books the hero or heroine died and one was left alone. Then in Mumbai, so many new words were heard and a lot of cuss words too. Swearing was so fashionable. Now I find it so sick. Much later I came to know what was Stockholm Syndrome. Till then that was my only connect to Stockholm. Strange but when I was in Stockholm, I never thought of it.  I am sure people do not think of it like that. For me certain words bring certain images.  Jharia means childhood, Sophia was college life, Nariman Point was Oberoi, Colaba was hostel, Buffet was Outrigger, Coffee shop was Shamiana and Samarkhand and Ikea is amazing home stuff. I had been to the Ikea in Dubai years back and then avoided the store as it was always out of t

Stockholm is the most spectacular of the Scandinavian cities. The old buildings are imposing. The City Hall is grand. This is where the Nobel winners come for a party after they get their Nobel Prize. There is a fancy restaurant as a part of it. The pavements and the bridge across the river/ sea is used for fitness coaching. Children have to jump on the poles which support the bridge and balance themselves to jump back on the pavement. The kids and adults are doing all this with so much ease. The 14 islands of Stockholm are well connected in the Baltic Sea archipelago. People cannot swim there as there is huge amount of water traffic. There are cycle tracks along the roads. In the evenings, there is huge traffic in the cycle lanes. People in office clothes cycling back home, a never seen before sight. And then cars, buses and trams apart from the trains. The public transport is very cheap and best is to buy the Travel Pass depending on the days you are staying as you can use all mode

Drobak is a small island outside Oslo. It is an hour by boat or by road. It is ethereal with the flowers and the little houses. There is a church by the fjord and an art gallery with a sea view.  When we stepped into the art gallery in a hundred year old house, I forgot to admire the paintings as I was so fascinated by the play of sunlight on the water through the quaint windows. The artist himself was present. All the paintings were based on the colours of the sea. The nature was much more resplendent. There is a village square which had the locals of different nationalities set up food stalls. There is a second hand shop as soon as you get off the boat and walk towards the village.It is a gold mine. Crockery in Norway is so beautiful. I wanted to buy the unique green crockery there. I just managed to buy a vase and get it back intact. The fjords here are lovely, the cruise liners pass through it. We swam in the sea at 16 degrees temperature. There is no beach. You walk into the wat

Oslo is stunning and spectacular. It is the capital of Norway and the most beautiful of the Scandinavian cities. I would go a step further and say it is the most beautiful capital city in the world. It has fjords, mountains, lakes, rivers all in the city.  The people are super fit. Since we were there on the onset of their summer, the local people were all out in the sun running, jogging and exercising . They all looked so gorgeous. Now what should you do in Oslo? Day one land at the airport. take a local train to oslo central railway station. There is a non stop express train Flytoget from the airport to Oslo central. It is more expensive than the local train. Time difference in their arrival time is not much. Travel time is 45 minutes. Buy your Oslo travel Pass at the airport so you can travel in all public transport and travel will turn out cheaper. As you reach Oslo station, take a tram to your hotel in Grunnerlukka.  If you are staying near the Oslo Central railway station

When we were in school, all students wore black Bata shoes. The shoes could be bought from anywhere but I called it black Bata shoes. On Games and PT days, we wore white canvas shoes. There was always a chalk available to make our dirty shoes look white. The concept of sneakers or sports shoes came much later. It was a total foreign phenomena. If you had relatives abroad, you had chances of owning a pair of sports shoes. I learnt the word Sneakers only when I came to Mumbai. And then when the children grew up, I learnt that 'Snickers' is a brand of chocolate. I knew the word ' sniggering'. We did a bit of that in school. Learnt in my higher class  that P.T. was Physical Training. The Bata shop was the best looking shop in the whole of Jharia with red and white Laminate. We called laminate as 'Sunmica' which was brand name of the Laminate. Like I still say 'Xerox' for photocopy. All our stationary shops also put up a board saying "Xerox for Re.1&qu

Plastic ban has come into effect in Maharashtra. When I was leaving for my vacation it was on the anvil.  I saw with a keen eye how much plastic and paper is used all over Europe. And everything is packaged. Shops, stores n boutiques do not give you cloth bags. The office crowd is buying plastic packed ready to eat food and sitting in the park enjoying their salads n food in lovely one time use plastic containers. The disposal system is excellent so there is no litter seen anywhere. The garbage collectors are hunting through garbage cans for beer bottles. They get one euro or ten Kroners per bottle. The beggars are there at railway stations in Paris, major shopping streets in Oslo, Stockholm and Paris. The beggars collect the alcohol bottles. All beggars have their own cell phones, a suitcase and a huge plastic sac. All people who drink alcohol, do not put the bottles in the dustbin but leave it in the grass in the park for the beggars to collect. They feel they are doing their bit o

People will go to Oslo after they have finished the more popular destinations of Europe namely Paris, Switzerland, Italy etc. Paris almost sounds like a country rather than a capital. Apart from being the most visited place on the planet. I wonder why as most monuments were burnt and rebuilt. The pressure of Paris and Switzerland is unbearable if you have not visited them. Come summer and Mumbai seems to head to the cooler climes of Europe. No, I did not meet anyone I knew during my vacation. I am super excited to meet people I know. It makes me feel very happy that I know so many people that I bump into them wherever I go. Trees are getting chopped due to rains and the fear of falling branches. The trees on the footpath on my way to the Yoga class grow back after every trimming they get. I feel bad seeing the chopped wood and leaves and the nests gone. But Nature takes care of itself, we just have to trust it. The lone Koel is heard occasionally. I often wonder what the Koel doe

Tiffin boxes looked different during my school days. I had a steel rectangular tiffin box with a small rectangular 'dibba' inside. Sometimes the coloured steel boxes were in royal blue, purple, golden yellow and a funny green. Some people had an aluminium or a plastic tiffin box. The tiffin box for the school has become bigger and fancier now, with few shelves or partitions or decks. The food has become less nutritious and is usually packaged. Though we left for school at six am, almost all students carried a fresh meal. Thanks to our Mothers, who cooked meals without any house help nor the kind of support structure and ease of living which we have now. Some people covered their tiffin while eating, with the lid. The lid made a right angle with the base of the tiffin box, so one could not see what they were eating, unless you stared at them chewing. Unlike the Mumbai schools, our school was huge. Kids ran out to eat their meals in the sun in the school grounds. There was so m