Till we meet again

Depending on where we are, it is all so varied-Navratri, Dandia nights (or rather evenings now), Ramlila, Dushera and the Dolls and Ayudha Puja-----but it is also so similar too in the way we blend traditions with having fun and scripting memories. Maybe it’s just one more excuse to come together and celebrate and spread the wishes.

I have missed the drumbeats at Durga Puja this time but am celebrating by taking off for a week with my “Fairytopia”.

Will be back soon to share more moments as we journey to the southernmost shores of India.

Best wishes for the festival time!

Blog Friends!! Now what's that?

I met Swaram

Someone whom I have known only through her words and that too only for the last couple of months…

And it was the same as meeting an old friend from years ago.

It shouldn’t be like this.

After all what you put in your blog is just a tiny fraction of what your life is all about. And then how do you know even if that is for real?

I guess there is no algorithm to find that out.

But when you have been reading each others words for some time, sharing memories, exchanging smile (and apprehensions), chasing dreams and laughing at each others posts, you do begin to go beyond the blog-etiquette of reciprocating on comments and start connecting to the real person out there.

And when you meet, you really don’t need the introductions. It’s the person you’ve known for quite some time now.

Thanks a ton, Swaram for coming over. It was lovely meeting you; I just wish it could have been for longer and that I’d clicked some photos.

Looking forward to meeting you and all my other blog friends through our blogs for now……. until the next time. :)

Durga Puja countdown begins

I don’t like it.

I am trying my best to be logical, clinical, rational….

I can’t help feeling terribly mushy.

And to make it sillier, it’s about Durga Puja, a festival that I’ve been attending for all five days, with clockwork regularity, for every year of my life.

Yet, I miss each one of those moments.

The exchanging of parcels of new clothes between Jaipur-Siliguri-Kolkata-and where ever Boro Pishi happened to be.

Being emotionally blackmailed into a thorough spring cleaning before Mahalaya by Mom (To ensure each inch of the house was washed, each bit of well everything was kept in the sun for hours and arranged back, she would start the whole process, and end up looking so tired and frails that………u guessed it!)

Rushing away right in the morning for “pushpanjali”, preening up in all finery just to go and watch the cultural functions, the puja, and……… well everyone else. Having friends stay over just so that we all could spend hours at the puja. The Arti, the competitions, the bhog, the evenings-it was an unreal existence for five days, every year.

The best part for me used to be the Bhashan, the immersion procession, where I would always wrangle one of Durga Thakur’s weapons to keep until the next year…

The last “trishul” I kept was thrown away long ago.

High time I grew up. I know!

But I still think my kids are really missing something. 

In Sickness and in Health

What do I do to get them behave like normal, loving siblings?

Princess Aurora came home from school complaining of a sore throat. It soon turned into a horrible sniffy, sneezy, weepy affair and when she showed a slight increase in temperature you can guess what it did to my hardly there equanimity.

Even then the catfight was still on.  

Being Loverna, I switched to the selective hearing mode-they had to be in separate areas of the house till the worst was over.

As I convinced Aurora to sleep with me, Elena teased her endlessly about being a baby and missing her “day” to sleep on the top bunk..

Aurora got her back by grabbing the remote: Now you can’t watch TV because I have put my germs on this.

Elena cribbed that it was not fair this one was getting away with not finishing her dinner because she felt too sick.

Aurora kept insisting she was the one who was sick and needed to be near the toys, so her sister should be sent out of their room.

I continued not to hear.

The tone changed a little….

Mamma, can I come in for 20 seconds-I have to tell her a secret

Mom, I am missing didi….

I want to sleep in my bed…

Ok Mamma. I am not coming in, I’ve kept this book outside the door-please give it to her.

This is sooooooooooo not the natural state of affairs…

In spite of all the closed doors, Elena too caught the bug, and they were both thrilled! More so, when they were both on the way to recovery, and I was the one down in a bad way: sneezing and sniffing, and behind the closed door.

They got to have Maggi for breakfast, miss school and fight together all day.

Here they are fighting over colors, elbowing and jostling each other, while making “get well soon” cards for Mom. 

Durga Puja around the corner

I found a maid who said she doesn’t want any leave during the year.

And then the catch:

She wanted annual leave to go to her parents’ home during Durga Puja.

Yes, even though I would do anything to get out of eating fish and roshogolla, there’s still a Bong in me, who went all mushy about going “home” during Pujo..

I was so glad about her still managing the annual trip that I said yes and turned away to stifle a poignant memories...

I forgot about it as the months went by, till “that time” of the year came around.

She had booked her tickets, and planned to reach her village two days before Shashti, confirm the dates for Kali Puja (Diwali), since it was the only time in a year that she could spend with her family, and then book her return ticket.

I did hit the panic button then, googled the dates for Kali Puja and offered to book her return ticket online…

OK, so if Kali Puja is on 17^th, would you know when is Bhai Phota (Bhai Dooj)???

Ahemmmm (nostalgia definitely has it limits) it should be on 19^th…

Okkk can you book my ticket on the 20^th?

Done

…before she could think about the next event on the festival calendar.

So as my maid completes her Puja shopping and packing, I start getting prepared to wake up an hour earlier in the morning and pack up an hour later for the evening, for the next month and a half.

Although I am dreading this time, I can’t help admire this lady who earns a fraction of what I do, giving it all up to go back to her roots to spend time with her friends and relatives, knowing that many of the odd jobs that she is leaving, will not be waiting for her…

She knows that she’ll lose out on a lot of money but is sure that this is what is more important to her and that she can always get another job.

I envy her sooooooooooooo much!

Born Bookworms

One of my favorite dreams as a kid was one in which I get locked up in a book shop.

On regular visits, I would specially get a thrill out of reading one at the shop, while selecting the ones to buy.

So what if I don’t have the time these days?

This is what a trip to a bookstore with my children looks like:

Gosh-I wonder what else gets stored and transferred through our DNA!

Powerless

No. This isn’t how my forefathers lived.

Even my grandma had electricity and a refrigerator.

She didn’t believe in it much though- cooked food was always finished on the same day –even if the family had to take second and third helpings. And she preferred to keep eggs floating in a bowl of water to preserve them as if they would hatch if she didn’t keep an eye on them…

I don’t have electricity in my house since yesterday. Absolutely no electricity because not being in Delhi-we don't even have a invertor for power backup.

Yes, you read it right-it’s been more than 24 hours.

We spent the night fighting off mosquitoes, everyone had quick baths in the morning with water heated in saucepans on the gas-stove, and we got ready to face the day ahead.

Can we survive without electricity? Yes, this is how...

Breakfast was heated without the microwave and as the kids and their Dad left for the day, I realized that the batteries of both my mobile and laptop were flattened- I’d have to work from office!

I honked, elbowed and jostled through the last minute office goer’s traffic-as I felt my car getting back in its groove, just like me…

This was my chance to blame the traffic and start work an hour later than usual.

Enjoyed not having to type out gossip for a change, and that too with coffee which came out of machine, although it tasted just as awful…

The power wasn’t back when I reached home and the laptop gave up after being on life-support for more than an hour…

Finally I had time for the long list of pending calls-the bank, my brother, the broadband service provider, the…

I even had time to walk and to catch up with my friends in the apartment complex.

I could update myself on all going-ons in the complex and on plans for the festive season, got reference checks on a potential maid, coordinated a different batch for my kids drawing class, brainstormed effective ways of teaching Hindi “matras” with another mom, and even discovered a new 3-in-1 M&B in the library..

And, I managed to keep most of the food fresh too…with my improvised cooling system.

Yeah Grandma, I can do it too…….

Truly nani, aapki bahut yaad aayi.