Life is easy kya karein

I love sitting on a desk with the laptop open. It gives me a sense of power. Most of my calls  with friends and family are when I am in kitchen pottering around. Sitting on the laptop makes me keep my back straight. I feel I am organised when I am sitting like that. It is so easy to organise the folders on your laptop. Organising a home is not the same. You have to bend and work hard. Am  I wanting to feel "Corporate"? Usually I feel very inept when people are talking about work . Most working people also manage their homes but when you manage only home then that becomes your world. Now, I do not even attempt to join in any 'corporate' conversations. I feel my knowledge is not up to date and people may find it weird. Most times, I am just not interested in making a point. It is too much of an effort to sound intelligent. So many people are doing that all the time. When you reach these times or should I say when you reach my age, you learn to back off. "You want...

I am not much of a TV watcher neither can I watch too many films. We have never had a TV in any bedrooms of our house. Sitting in the living room which we call "hall" in 'Bambaiyya' language is not my idea of fun. Our 'hall' is our dining room, sitting room, book shelf, crockery cupboard, giveaway bags room, snacks cupboard, temple, study table and office in times of Lockdown. Mumbai's apartments which we always refer to as 'Flats' are always one room short. How much ever big an apartment people buy, they never have enough storage for their stuff. Either the stuff increases over a period of time or the storage space shrinks. In the last nine and half years, my stuff has increased and how. So now I do not even bother to put things in the cupboards. They are kept on display in some empty tabletop in the Hall. I really wish the Builders did not make you feel so small in life by giving you a living room which was the opposite of a 'hall'. Som...

I am living on five pairs of clothes since the last one month. They do not look old or shabby though I do not iron them after washing. I am someone who loves all my clothes ironed, provided someone else is doing it. The intensity of heat has gone up. By now, I would be rushing to buy summer clothes for self and children. I would be in the finalisation stage of hotels, airlines, transport etc. for my annual vacation. The curtains would have been washed, cupboards cleaned and all old stuff removed from home. Come May and Mumbai starts easing up in terms of traffic as schools are shut. The Mothers  and their cars are not running to drop their kids from one class to the next. So automatically, Mumbai traffic calms down. Today, I stepped out to buy my daily necessities to Matunga. It was green and quiet. No aroma of Filter Coffee and no fragrance of the flowers at Phool Galli. I stopped by to pick up bread and found Sprite and ThumsUp at a milk booth. I picked it up as a treat for the ...

I am seeing things about myself that I am not comfortable with. I saw that I hate it when the family eats my pickle. My pickle is the pickle which my 'Bhabhi,' sister in law, makes in Dhanbad and has been sending me every year for the last nineteen years. Since the pickle is from my hometown and my 'Maayka', it has that pyaar and the "Apne watan ki mitti ki sondhi khushbu" waali  taste.  I get so cheesed when hubby and children eat that pickle. I am always telling them to eat the other pickle which my mother-in-law has made. It is nice too but they  insist on eating my mango pickle. Suddenly I have realised there are so many things in the house which I consider solely mine. I do not like sharing those things. Children fight about chocolates and I am possessive of any food item which comes from my 'Maayka'. I was not like this during my hostel days. I could share my tuck. One thing is also there that I can hardly make the Maayka food items which I lov...

It is all a number game. A Mother wants the child to get good marks. A Company wants to make good sales. Someone wants more customers. Someone wants more mileage. Someone wants more Likes. Someone wants more TRPs. Someone is looking for more Sales. Someone looking at cutting costs. Someone looking to serve more people. Basically, all of us want more money, more visibility and more fame. The order in which we want these things is not sacrosanct. The selfishness is fine if it serves a higher good. Jharia households, there was no gossip unless someone eloped or died. There were no divorces and no extra marital affairs. If there were, then I was not aware. I did hear a few or lot of murmurs after I came to Mumbai. May be I was shielded from things happening around me or may be they did not happen. The mind has a way of convincing us that those things happened. The intensity instead of dimming  has increased over time. Or should I say during Lockdown time. Going out of station was go...

The charger for the MacBook is not working. My phone charger is working solely on my will power. Has the time come to switch to the healthy Apple? The whole family uses gadgets of different brands. We are not able to share our chargers for phone or laptops. During the last Europe trip, I had carried only one adaptor. We had such a tough time charging our phones. I do not think, my phone saw a 100 percent charge ever with all the excess use of Google Maps and timings n entrance fees for all the sightseeing places. I am wondering if I should cut the stems of green chillies and will that make them stay fresh longer. Should I cut the coriander and keep in a glass container or do I let it be in the plastic bag? My fridge is messy but who wants to remove everything and wash the shelves.  These are heavy questions on my mind. I got some vegetables and left it untouched the whole night. Next morning , Viola, there was fungus on most of it. Have decided from now on, I shall wash, dry an...

I am inundated with cake recipes since the last two days.  Well wishers are all feeling sorry for me and helping by sending me cake recipes without baking powder, baking soda, yeast, flour, sugar , vanilla essence and baking tray. I am truly loved.  For my mental well being, I meditate with Sri Sri twice a day. And for what to cook, I rely on my family or friends. There is so much on offer on the internet. I am barely able to read all my messages. I am not able to see all the people Live on FB and Gram. I want to be with my phone and learn to Zumba or dance or something new. But I do not have the time for it. I take good two hours nap in the afternoon. Being on the phone with all forwards on how to take care in these challenging times is draining.  Plus there is housework. I am happy to be wearing only a few pairs of clothes through the Lockdown. I barely comb my hair or file my chipped nails. I was never the meticulous groomed person ever but I always want to be one. I...

My Yoga Sir passed away last year. He was my rock. I went for Yoga for the last  twelve years for him and because of him. He cheered me up when I was low. At 7a.m., I am always sleepy and wanting to rush home to make breakfast. The Yogasana happened somewhere in  between deep sleep and crazy planning for the day. He put things in perspective for me. I could tell him anything and he had the ability to get to my real worry. No, he was no Life Coach or a new age Guru. He was someone who practised and lived life by Yoga. He never complained or cribbed about being alone . He lived in the same house where his parents lived. He had got the house painted and repaired before he left for greener pastures. He had a  younger sibling who was also alone. Her spouse had passed away and she lived on her own. At 84, Ramanthan Sir used to travel to Chembur to spend the weekends with her and help her out. Still remember the day I got the news. After buying groceries, I could not fi...

My close friends and family members bake very well. The only sad part is that we all live very far apart or in different cities. I just savour the taste with the photograph. My friend said that here are no fights in WhatsApp groups amongst friends, if you keep posting your baking pics. She said it makes friends green with envy or inspires them to cook. Either ways, they will stay away from the phone. Or they will post their cooking pics. Little competition is always healthy. Basically, it will stop all country conversations. 'How to run the country' is the only thing friends do not agree upon. Everything else is manageable and adjustable.  I am not liking my children in the Lockdown as they are not baking like other people's children. My children are only cleaning  the house, drying and folding the clothes and doing the dishes. That is a whole lot of work but how do I click it and show off. Do I take a video or a Boomerang? I so so want to be in the big league:...

I have stopped calling friends in the Lockdown.  After the initial  "How are you, Do you have live-in house-help and What are you cooking", there is nothing more to talk. I cannot bake. My simple Aloo Gobhi and Yellow Dal, do not stand a chance in front of the cakes and breads being baked by my friends. My children see the the same posts on the "Gram." We do not live in GuruGram. A friend s super cool daughter taught me that it is not cool to say Instagram or Insta. The Uber Cool say 'Gram'. Children are convinced their Mom is not a good cook. She does not plate out exotic meals or fancy desserts. I am not going to brave the virus to go looking for Cocoa, Baking powder, Baking soda, yeast. I will first have to find a baking tray in the lockdown.  I did not even know that Baking Powder and Baking Soda were two different things. In Jharia, I knew there was a 'Khaane wali' Soda. We did not have a Pressure Cooker in our house. It was considered unsafe ...