the chicken roll

Today I took a cycle rickshaw from the noida city centre metro back home. The boy who rode it was no more than 20. I was to give home 30 rupees for the ride k home, a reasonably strenuous ride of about 10 may be 15 minutes in the burning sun. He did not even have a bottle of water with him to drink. Probably new to the trade. Midway he stopped to wrap his towel around his head for the sun was way too strong and the rickshaw does not have a roof over the driver. Death due to sunstrokes are not uncommon in these parts.

I was a bit lost as I usually am and realised he took the wrong route, he was lost and so was I.it took him a while to get me back to my place. Twice the regular route at least. He was drenched in sweat and breathless by the time we did. When I got off I gave him a 20 rs more, and then the roll I got from the station. I gave it on the pretext that it was chicken, many during the fasting  season keep off it. He almost exclaimed when I said it, this is chicken??? it wasn't, just a not so good paneer roll from the station vendor, but the way his face lit up I wished it was.

It was sad how the 20 rs did not bring such happiness as the remains of a may be chicken roll did

Of love and washing of the bum

Just saw the Kohler ad. They say hands are made for love...and not for washing our bums with, they imply.... Of course you can't do both with your hands!

of elephants and women and other vulnerable creatures of Uttar Pradesh

Read about Raju the crying elephant of Utter Pradesh. Aren't we ashamed of the way we treat others, elephants and human alike. Looks like we are not, even after a team flew down from London  (should spell seriousness) along with state authorities ( should spell law) the owner did not have the grace to let the animal go, he stood around to obstruct the process by goading the animal and shackling it further. A poor paper and plastic eating 50 year old elephant.

my sleeping child

The boy is asleep....the ghuppu thing that he is...eyes shut, the toothless actually tiny fanged right now, mouth closed in a pout.......the hair sticking out......sometimes I could just eat him up

There are dark places in motherhood..

There are dark places in motherhood...places where one is not sure if the rosy pictures painted in media are there just to fool women into reproducing, to keep the species going.

Where the men are allowed to go through life uninterruptedly, passing on the genes nevertheless. Whereas women with all the help in the world still spend at let 3 years per child......away from the life that was....the giving goes unnoticed, mostly unrewarded.

what names say

Idukki has the loveliest of all place names in the whole world. Where else can you find murinja puzha - the broken river, ilaveezhapoonchira - the hill of flowers and no leaves ( that is indeed bad translation), manvettom - deer light, mayiladumpara - hill of the dancing peacock, mundiyeruma - the crane and the buffallo......it goes on.

Names from another time, another world, another people.....

noida it is

Moved to noida, in the tiny building society in sector 50. Very green though.As loving the new set up :) work wise I mean

life is like a walk in the mottakkunnu..

Went to vagamon and walked the mottakkunnus. The landscape is gently undulating hills till far faraway, green with the grass on it.

Its then that it struck me, life is like a walk on the mottakkunnu..at times you feel yours is not the best, at times that the path you took might not lead you where you want to go. At times it may look like your friends will get there faster, end of the day all that matters is how you enjoyed your walk.

hard at work

Its wonder the amount of work I do when I get home. Of course the support there is is immense. Today Xavier came and fixed the tea stumps. Now have to clean it up to convert to lamps.let's hope things work

A rainy night

My mother says she loves rain in the nights better. It had been sunny for two whole days that too in mid karkadakam. Then early in the morning, so early that it was close to midnight, it started to rain. As I lay in my bed next to achu I can see out of the window in the intermitant flashes of lightening. The leaves are dripping diamonds, the rain on the roof is punctuated with occasional thunder. There is breeze now through the insect proofed windows, it is wet and smells of earth. She was right, rainy nights are lovely. I just hope my cucumber blossoms hold through.

back home again, for monsoons this time

Yes,  back home and feeling poor. Its a pity as everything is perfect except for the fact that my brother and wife are home. He is rich and loves making others see and appreciate the fact that he is rich. Its a bit bugging at times coz am jobless and has not much money of mine right now. My parents unfortunately are too proud of the fact that he is rich and doesn't see why I can't forget everything else and feel the pride too :). Its funny as they had richer siblings and must have gone through a similar time too.

Wonder if I'll ever personally be rich, by rich I mean equivalent to 50 lacs per annum today. I doubt it........way too clueless and jobless :(

Time to start a bucket list

Turned 35 a few weeks back,  I think its a good time to start a bucket a list.....who know I might have time to populate it well. So here's the first.

1. Visit Kyoto, Japan, stay a month just looking around
2. A fifteen day trek in the himalayas

Winds of change

inexplicable warmth and cosiness in my life :)

Its strange, children do the most unexpected things to your life,even to cynics like me. Arjun has made my life inexplicably cosy. I imagine him coming back from school on grey wintry days, or cold rainy ones in wet shoes, just waiting to get home and warm, with a cup of hot chocolate may be, or at night warm and snuggly in a blanket reading him a story...

Awesome! can read again.

Awesome! can read again. read Aatu jeevitham by Benyamin. a good one. quite contemporary for Malayalam literature. None of the philosophical rantings that typically becomes part of a malayalam novel 

life's a sad place

Life is a sad place, when you think of all that you have to begin with, parents, people who love you with all they have, more than themselves, like nobody else...... possibilities of a lifetime........senses, sharp and new, to experience the world with..... love..... all those wonderful things yet to happen. And then slowly, one by one you lose them all, all that's left would be a shrivelled used up body. I guess you gain something , may be knowledge, understanding of the universe.....all this can't be for nothing!

I leave on Wednesday, I hate leaving here. Its like I belong here with the trees and the plants....the dogs and the cats....most of all amma and appa....