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 co...

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...