Life is easy kya karein

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...