Rain Cloud and the Small Bird!

Peacocks dance and cry seeing the rain clouds. Farmers also look for the rain clouds to appear. Each student looks for a rain cloud so that he can float paper boats, get a rain holiday, eat mother's garam pakodas. People in arid regions look upon the sky for a rain cloud. 

Like all, a small bird was expecting a rain cloud for a while. The rain cloud appeared a little far. The bird could see the cloud, but could not witness the rain. She felt very sad, that the rain cloud was near, but still far to touch. The bird flew away over the mountains, rivers, to a new place. The bird was happy here, that it need not feel that pain for the rain cloud, rather pretending that  there is no rain cloud.

Again on a bright and sunny day, the bird on its routine search for food, could see the rain cloud at a farther distance. The bird tried not to have any hopes that it would come closer, as it didn't want to feel that pain again. But this time, the rain cloud came and showered beautiful water drops on the bird. The bird has never ever felt such love, and it was wonderful. The bird felt that the rain cloud travelled so much for her.

The rain cloud disappeared from the place with a powerful pull of his dark grey robes. Poor bird couldn't understand that there are millions of people looking forward for the rain cloud and he didn't come for her alone. She understood that a little late, erased her memories of the rain cloud and began to live her life.

The rain cloud came again! She saw him and she flew fast to get rid of him, though her heart told her to stop. The rain cloud moved faster and came over her.

She could see that the rain cloud was just above her. He had pulled himself, his robes over to become like a small umbrella over the bird. The bird understood that he was here only for her, and the bird danced with her feathers in joy. Rain cloud was so happy to see her in joy and once again poured on her, his love in the form of beautiful rain drops.

The bird realised that the rain cloud was for her, but he had a more higher responsibility of taking care of so many people. She promised that she would wait for him to return, after he completes his responsibilities. But she doesn't know how long she should wait, it could be for days, months and years! She even enjoyed waiting, for she would think of the happy moments she had with him in the past. These moments would have got lost if he was always with her. The bird enjoyed waiting and enjoyed more on his return. The rain cloud would tell her the stories from different land, with her in his arms. She would stay for days in his arms, with just love and fresh air!

Its all about "Stealing"

"Stealing the moment"
"The stolen boat ride"

So many! but not considered as a theft..
I read somewhere that 'what' stealing is for people. It is only about stealing 'Money'.
The other things are ok with us... And everybody 'STEALS'

'The stolen boat ride' poem of William Wordsworth remains fresh in my mind, after 13 years of learning. I did a similar act, drove the car, without my husband knowing it.

'Stealing somebody else's moment' is one thing I would never do. But it kind of happened without me knowing, in a treat hosted by somebody else. And I still regret attending the treat till today.

How does it feel after the act of stealth? William Wordsworth describes it all in his autobiographical poem,

There in her mooring-place I left my bark,-- 

And through the meadows homeward went, in grave 

And serious mood; but after I had seen 

That spectacle, for many days, my brain 

Worked with a dim and undetermined sense 

Of unknown modes of being; o'er my thoughts 

There hung a darkness, call it solitude 

Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes 

Remained, no pleasant images of trees, 

Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields; 

But huge and mighty forms, that do not live 

Like living men, moved slowly through the mind 

By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.

SMS speaks...

Hi, This is the story of how I died. No, No, this is the story of my life. Once upon a time, .....No, No, Not that way. Ok..

I was born on 31st August 2012 out of a beautiful mobile. I was born out of happiness and sweet memories. My creator, 'Mia' gave me few seconds of her life, few moments of her happiness and her feelings. I was created very carefully. I still remember her happiness when she created me. She picked the receiver's name, 'Ryder' and clicked the send button. I was unwilling to go away from Mia and my mobile mother. But I will make them more happy if I performed my duty. I bid my mother and Mia 'Good bye' and went on my journey. I was carried by some powerful waves. It was a long journey indeed, passed through many towers. As an infant message, I was initially scared to see the outside world for the first time. But I saw millions like me travelling through the same journey. I comforted myself.

I heard stories from my fellow travellers, the stories of happines, love, agony, pain, panic... In those moments, I understood what Mia like people are undergoing in their lives. I got few friends on my way. But we couldn't share our thoughts for long, for our carriers were strong and we had to part ways. I finally reached the destination, 'Ryder'. I was waiting in his mobile for few hours before he opened. Then he read me. He was happy to see me, but he didn't reply. My life ended there. My life would have extended if he had resent me with his reply. But my portrait is still there with Ryder. I was lucky to be maintained atleast as a portrait.

On my journey, I heard stories that many fellow SMS like me would be killed and moved to trash even without being read, many had been opened with hatred and many had caused unhappiness to the receiver. I am happy that Mia was also happy when she sent me, and Ryder was also happy when he received me. I feel little sad for lovely Mia, that she doesn't know how Ryder felt on receiving me. If only I had been given extended life by Ryder, I would have told Mia his happiness, even if Ryder has not composed it that way!

Would somebody want to know who I am ?? I am similar to the messages you all create everyday. I was a special message from Mia to Ryder and I read 'I  love you!'.

Shruti - 3 years

Children become more naughtier each passing year, and also learn new things. Parents also learn a lot during the child's learning process. Shruti has now crossed 3 years.

Language differentiation:
She is able to tell some of the words in whatever language (currently 4 - English, Tamil, Bengali, Hindi) we ask. Children can learn lot of languages at this age!

Count Numbers:
She can count numbers, chocolates, pictures from 1 to 20. She has attained perfection in this. She can show the numbers using her fingers. She was trying with her fingers earlier and was difficult to maintain the particular set of fingers and now she can manage. Very cute! and you would want to ask her to show more numbers with her fingers.

Alphabets:
Thorough on her capital letters. Not so good with the small letters. Learning.

Household work:
She wants to help me in all the household work, whether it is cooking or cleaning. Yesterday she tried rolling a chapathi and actually did pretty well. But it doesn't stop till that. Playing more with that, and finally brought it back to the original ball shape :-(. She wants to do everything, clean the floor, clean vegetables, dry clothes. Hope she maintains this interest when she grows big so that I can share my work.

Memory Games:
I started playing games with cards, in identifying similar pairs when I was in second or third standard. I have seen my mother teaching Shruti the games with cards in identifying the pairs, when the cards are turned upside down. I didn't know she understood the concept. There is a similar game in laptop - purble place. Two days back, noticed that she could easily complete the beginner level on her own (5x5). She is yet to try the intermediate and the expert level. She can also easily navigate using the laptop touch pad.

Looks like i didn't learn much when I was three??!!

Learnt to make good paneer!

Always wanted to make paneer myself. I am very fond of soft and fresh paneers. Finally learnt it. Learnt it through Google. Wanted to share the way of making paneer - to get good compressed one so that you can cut beautiful cubes.

1. Boil milk
2. Squeeze lemon into it (avoided vinegar - as advised by my husband!)
3. The water separates out
4. Take a clean white cloth and drain the paneer in it
5. Remove the water completely
6. Make the paneer into a flat rectange, by shaping the cloth
7. Now you have to keep heavy weights on top
8. I placed a cooker (clean one) with water on top of the cloth
9. Kept it for around 5 hours
10. Nice compressed soft paneer is ready
11. And you can cut it into nice cubes

And after which I made a paneer dish - a simple one with onions, tomatoes, garlic, coriander leaves.
I think it was good.

Satisfied a long desire of making paneer.

Pune - Polkas and Palkhis

I am here in Pune,

• a city very less denser than Chennai, 
• roads designed to ferry traffic for the next 5 years or more,
• a weather, in which people like to holiday, 
• mixed culture, where you feel you belong to the crowd here,
• happy young working population, 
• time for the family, even for the working couples,
• long daylight, to enjoy the extended evenings,
• community living - flats, flats and only flats,
• retired old men and women, who gossip from 6am to 11pm,
• even the outskirts of the city is well developed,
• more military campuses and their smart officers,
• buses which never stop in the bus stops,
• buses which stop, stop only for few seconds,
• autos which stop 200m away from the place where you stood and waved your hand,
• crowd who shops at star bazaar and big bazaar at 9 am sunday morning

Another thing which caught my attention - "White shirt with polka dots"

The girls who ride two wheeler here have a uniform - "white shirt with polka dots". The colour of the dots vary from girl to girl, but rarely identifiable. An 'undeclared' uniform, but 90% of the girls adhere to - very amazing! Generally, it is difficult to lay some rules and follow, and here all girls follow the two wheeler dress code! They don't wear helmets though! Even few female pillion riders wear this shirt. Why is that, this is popular among girls here? I am yet to find an answer. 

 

Next interesting occasion was the Palkhi to Pandharpur. Around 4 lakh people walk around 400 km during the journey split into two groups - Sant Tukaram palkhi and Sant Dhyaneshwar Palkhi. They recite prayers and sing songs on their way. During their journey, other people offer food and snacks to them. There are sometimes, strong fights while collecting food and snacks. Some groups, take along with them a set of people to cook food and feed them. The cooks and the food items are transported by vehicles and these vehicles run slowing along with the people who are walking. Traffic is blocked at different places during these days. I had an opportunity to see around the city, when i was travelling with my colleagues to office, during one of these days, since our normal travel route was blocked.

 

Hmm, I need to know a lot more about this place!

TRUST Folder modified

I should say that last 'Sunday' was a day of learning for me. There are times in life when you change your perceptions towards life. Two such incidents have modified the folder of 'Trust' in my life. This is one of the folders which had constantly got updated in my mind till today. 

First in 'Coffee Day'. After a long while, in the hot sun, wanted to have cold coffee. It had been a long time since me and my husband went for a coffee chat. Each step there took a long time, from receiving a menu card, to taking an order, and receiving the order. People there didn't bother much about the long wait, all in their own world with their friends! We got our menu card, me a 'cafe frappe', a 'cappuccino' for him and a 'warm choco indulgence'. The waiter didn't speak good English, but he uttered words very fast and asked about lot of toppings and add ons. We avoided the toppings. The order arrived little late. Time just passed looking at people around, muted 'animal planet' on TV, loud Hindi song. Finally my 'cafe frappe' arrived, but without the whipped cream on top! 'Where is the whipped cream?!' was my first reaction. Then they added to it.The hot weather made me enjoy the cold coffee. I really relished it and the yummy choco indulgence. I was happy about the wonderful evening and the coffee, but the happiness really didn't last long. Here comes the Bill, almost double than what we had ordered! We could count the three items we had ordered, and there was a fourth one 'Pomegranete quencher' - quantity 2. Oh! we hadn't ordered that. When enquiring the guy said that it was the sweet flavour which was in the coffee! 'Can you show us in the menu card?' was our next questions. The guy showed us a 'drink' in that name and said that was the extra flavour we had ordered. He argued with us for long and trying to make us believe that he was very correct. We went to the branch manager and asked him about it. His response to his subordinate was 'this is different' and cancelled the charges for that order. After this a lot of unanswered queries still linger in my mind:

1) Does all the people in the branch have a hand in this fraud?

2) Missing of 'whipped cream' - was it deliberate?

3) When people come with their girl friends and boy friends, do they find it hard to get into the details of the bill, feeling that the other might take it bad?

4) Does the shop do this kind of things regularly or am i the only victim?

A basic shake of TRUST from a branded popular chain. But we could get our money back. How many people here are getting deceived??

The next incident want in the Gaming area of 'Skywalk'. The same evening, after returning home, me and my daughter went out to Skywalk. I always wanted to take her to the Gaming area of skywalk and finally found time for her. I am not an ardent lover of video games. I went to the counter, asked the guy for details of payment, since I was going there the first time. There was an offer that day, i.e., you pay for 2000 and get 4000 rupees worth of gaming free, pay 500 and get to play for 700, pay 300 and play for 380. It took the 300 rupee scheme and he gave me a card. The money is not refundable unlike the food counters in Skywalk. The place was so crowded as it was a Sunday evening. I was looking around to see what kind of games would suit my daughter. A small boy came to me, and guided me to a direction where games for small kids is available. I didn't find the games suitable for kid. But swiped the card in two areas, and played the games, with guidance from the small boy. The third game was bike racing. The boy swiped the card for me, to start the game and gave back the card to me. I was holding my daughter and helping her play and after which, I found the boy missing. I thought he might have gone to help others. I took my daughter to a next play booth. I didn't know what the game was about, no instructions. I swiped the card, and got an error 'Insufficient balance - please recharge'. I counted the expenditure the last three games and it was less than 100 rupees. I tried 2 to 3 times and I thought there was some problem with the machine. Another set of people were able to swipe their card and play in the same booth. Then I realised there is something wrong with the card. I went to the counter and asked him to check the balance. The balance was 10 rupees. I realised that the has swapped the card! Then I told the man at the counter that there was a small boy with me who was helping me operate. The person at the counter said that there are people like that, and he could do nothing, but put some 100 rupees in the card. He escorted us with a person and asked him to take us around. I was not in a mood to play any further. I never expected this from a small boy like him.I went out and called my husband and narrated the incident. He asked me to be there and he could come. I suddenly realised that since it is an electronic card, it should be easy to block or deactivate the card. I went to the gaming section again, asked the person in the counter if it is possible to block. At first he hesitated, but finally agreed to check it for me. I narrated the first 3 games we played and the approximate time. He could trace the card name for me. He made the previous card balance as zero and moved the balance of 300 in a new card and he gave me the new card! I was happy, thanked him and came out. Here too, I have a set of unanswered queries:

1) The people at the counter are aware of such frauds. Why have they not written down any 'warning'

2) Are they also involved in this fraud?

3) How did the small boy target me?

Whatever be the situation around us, the success or happiness lies in how well we handle the situation. My TRUST folder has been modified and folder is linked to a SITUATION HANDLING folder. Both the folders have been updated with some valuable information.

VALUABLE MONEY

This piece is one inspired from a line from Airtel Ad - 'What is valuable money?'
What is the value of money?
Few searches on the net quoted this:
"It is the ability to use them in exchange for things we want or need that gives them value. As long as individuals have confidence that their money can be used in that way, then the money will have value."

If you ask people what do they consider as valuable money, it will vary with each individual.
It is finally "MONEY AT THE RIGHT TIME AND RIGHT PLACE"

Till today, what I consider valuable money for me, was '50 paise'! This value, I recognized during my college days. We had college bus to travel, and there was hardly any need to take other modes of transportation. In spite of this many students would travel by their own bikes and scooters. I would travel by college bus everyday. One evening, a friend of mine from a different department said she would drop me home by scooter. I wanted to have a change from the routine college bus travel and readily agreed to her suggestion. We started a little later after the college bus and half way, her scooty got punctured. She suggested that I take the local bus. I left her there on her own, and went to take the local bus. Today, when I think of that, I feel I should have been with her and helped her correct her scooty. I don't remember, if I offered her any help.

I took the bus. Luckily got a seat. Conductor was two seats ahead and he was approaching my seat. I looked into my bag, to get money. The ticket was just Rs. 2 from that point to the stop near my home. I could just get one rupee and 50 paise from my bag. I didn't know what to do. I was scared that the conductor would embarrass me in front of all people in the bus. There was a girl 'akka' sitting to me. She was very pretty! Her charm caught my eyes, even though I was in mixed mood of fear and tension. After thinking for a while and evaluating different options, all these in few seconds!, the conductor is nearing me. I asked Akka, if she had a 50 paise and if she could give me. I never explained her anything, and she never asked me anything. She readily gave a 50 paise coin. I took it in my hand and I see the conductor asking me for 'Ticket'. I gave the money and got the ticket. I thanked her! I felt embarrassment till I got down, hated the act that I borrowed money from somebody. Till today, I remember the incident and still feel that, that 50 paise was the most valuable money for me!

Everybody's Crazy!

I grew up in Vellore, a small town, now a Corporation! Initial few years of my life, I spent in place, where houses are very close to each other, small street, people always on the street or in the front of their houses, chatting, gossiping.. Evening, you can see children playing around on the streets. Being controlled by my mother, me and my  brother would be standing and watching children playing, flower sellers going by, sonpapdi wala's bells, people going to market, neighbours fighting and so many new things. There used to be a boy, who walks in the street every evening. He will stand in front of every house and ask for palpodi box(Tooth powder). Everybody used to give him some old empty tooth powder boxes and he will happily take it. I found out that he was mentally ill, had a little pity on him. I used to be afraid of him too, I should be 5 years then. The boy should have been around 18 to 20 years of age. Learnt that he was from a rich family. Somebody would come and then take him home. I could still get the same scene in mind, as I am writing. I used to think, what would he do with that?

Now here I am, 30 years old. When I think what I do now, I almost do the same thing. I like to store my kitchen  stuff in transparent bottles - Turmeric powder, chilly powder, jeera powder, coffee powder, everything! I started buying Lion Date syrup as a nutritional supplement. After some months, it was for the bottle, which helped to store stuff in the way I wanted. I gathered lot of bottles. After sufficient number of 100g bottles, I started buying 200g bottles and 500g bottles. I have a lot of them.. Ofcourse, now I again when I buy, it is as a nutritional supplement only, but still I store those bottles. I don't throw them away!

What difference is there between the guy who was collecting the palpodi(Toothpowder) and me collecting Lion Dates Bottle! NOTHING.. Everybody's crazy right?