Wednesday 29 October 2008

FIRECRACKERS!

Umm, I share a love-hate relationship with these, really.

Just don't like the loud sounds. Or the smoke. Or the smog that just envelopes the air. The green me wakes up around this time, and grumbles to anyone who'll listen about the gasping, wheezing environment. I swear that the world around is shrouded in depressed stale air.

Now here's the love part: firecrackers signal the festive season. Colours. Family. Friends. Food. What's not to like?

Green versus human nature. Ergo, we fence sit.

Thursday 16 October 2008

OF BIRTHDAYS AND THINGS

Have always enjoyed having a birthday from the time that I can remember.

Sharing a birth month with my sibling meant that we'd have a combined birthday party - twice the number of friends, cakes, presents (interesting!) and double the fun as well! Birthdays while growing up meant a party at home with Mum and Dad planning everything weeks in advance, painstakingly working on the menu, the invitee list and sundry other details, just to ensure that we kids had the perfect birthday. Home-made savoury snacks, desserts and the ubiquitous cake, chips and soft drinks, games such as musical chairs and passing-the-parcel, streamers, buntings and balloons adorning the walls, paper plates and towels, plastic spoons and glasses, the last-minute preparations and running around... And there we'd be on the selected evening, blowing out the candles, cutting cake, and smilingly receiving the presents (and wondering just when they could be opened!), eating, playing games and pressing return presents into our friends' hands.

Those were the days, when birthday parties were put together and not manufactured. When it wasn't about the commercialism but the feeling. When life wasn't just about greeting cards and fast food chains and birthday party organisers.

Thursday 9 October 2008

THIS ONE'S FOR RAAVAN

It's Dusshera time, and I see people getting ready to burn effigies of Raavan almost everywhere I go. Of course, you do know that this stems from the Ramayana, wherein, to cut and long (and very interesting!) story short, it was necessary for Lord Rama to defeat Raavan and bring peace to the land (among other things). In short, it was a battle to the finish, of good versus evil.
Naturally, Lord Rama, being the good guy (and I'm not even disputing the fact!) has always been portrayed to be the epitome of the ideal man, while Raavan, on the other hand, being evil, is dark and somewhat sinister. There are seemingly very few positive attributes that are associated with his character.
Here's where I beg to differ: it is possible to look at Raavan in a new light? It is possible to see him as a more complex, layered individual? Is it possible to add a few gray facets to his character, and view him as a more rounded person? Is it possible to not just tarnish him with black, but paint him as more real?
Maybe this applies to the Raavan in all of us.

Sunday 5 October 2008

HEY BABY!


Flashback to the time back in school, when we’d sit at your kitchen window, sampling yummy stuff courtesy your mum’s culinary skills… To the time when we’d swap books to read, and discuss the characters like they were friends… And also to the time when we figured babies were not our most favourite topic of discussion!!

Cut to the present. Clichéd but true – how I’d love to be there at this special time in your life, when you’re probably still sitting at a kitchen window (this time, your own), maybe reading a book…. A baby book. (So how many people have had you read ‘What to expect when you’re expecting’?) Now, when a baby is so eagerly awaited, a precious l’il gift already so wanted and loved!

Wish you loads and loads of fun times with Baby! May each day bring with it wonderful moments that you’ll forever cherish.
Here’s to you, Mommy!
Hugs,
Vaijxxxxxxx

P.S: So do you regret not having figured out how to knit from back in high school?

TO A FRIEND


Good thought. And scary, too, in a way. You made me think...

Does this mean that we don't have the time to take a moment and look at what's important to us anymore? Is it that the world is spinning so crazily, and we're hanging on for dear life, fighting to make sure we don't fall off the carousel? Sure, the economy and its state of health do impact the world, but what about closer to home?

So you're going to be 62 in 14 years time. (Hmm, am not getting any younger myself! :) Looking back now, have you achieved (most of) what you'd set out to do? (No, attaining Nirvaana needn't be part of the list!)
Have you enjoyed the time you've been blessed with - spending it with people you love and value the most; your parents, spouse and child? Scarily enough, there may be a day when, if you sit back and take stock, there's so much more you could've done.

Made their lives - and yours - so much richer, more fulfilling, with the smallest act: a monsoon evening spent on the verandah, drinking tea and taking in the sight and smell of the rain; an afternoon spent with your child, dabbling in paint and colours; a day catching up with an old friend, maybe via good old snail mail.

Time to wake up, smell the coffee, and take stock of our lives, don't you think? You don't want the big picture taking away moments that could've been precious memories to be cherished in the years to come.

Wednesday 1 October 2008

PIN-DROP SILENCE


So much so, that I've been moving in a daze between work and home. Work, and then some more more. Home, clubbed with nerve-wracking traffic en route. Tumble sleepily into bed, and wake up to the same routine.

Need a day that is 'blank', devoid of any activity, thoughts or what-have-yous. A day dedicated to pin-drop silence (something we never did manage to achieve in school, in spite of the teachers' pleas). Bliss!