Most of the major Indian festivals are observed in our co-op housing society. So on this March 1st the festival of ‘Holi’ was celebrated by lighting a Holi / bon fire in society garden.
(This was clicked from the balcony, so Neem tree branches are criss-crossing across the Holi fire).
The flames leaped very high and everyone religiously enjoyed the occasion. A week after the festival, the Neem twigs and leaves began to wilt and die at places.
Actually, the damage was much more extensive during the previous years, almost half the foliage had turned brown. We have quite a sizable garden and the fire is always lit in the center, as far away as possible from the surrounding trees. And yet, the heat of the high flames dries up the green leaves.
Then what is the solution? We definitely should follow our customs and festivals; and at the same time we have to protect our greenery, too. So, while keeping our traditions alive, are we hurting our environment?
I don’t know whether life gives us lemons or not, but one thing for sure, all these consumer product companies are leaving no stone unturned in providing us with the yellow citrus fruit – that too, not in one or two or in dozen, but in thousands. Probably they are worried that some unfortunate soul may miss out, in case if life does not provide him/her with lemons. So they make sure that everyone gets it in ample, from all possible sources. What a noble thought! Bless them! Continue reading →
This is something I really like to write about – my window with a view, a green view. Though our city Mumbai is infamous as a concrete jungle, my corner of this metro is exception to this rule, at least till now. I have already written a posts about the pleasant greenery outside my window and also about My Almond Tree. Continue reading →
The prompt says, any one annoying habit; but then wouldn’t that be like doing injustice to so many other special talents of our brothers and sisters (as in ‘All Indians are my brothers and sisters)? Wouldn’t the rest of them protest about ignoring them? We can’t do that, can we? Shouldn’t ignore the different talents displayed through numerous arts and crafts. Continue reading →
(How much time do you take to write a blogpost? Sometimes the words just flow while sometime it remains in the draft for a long time in the quest for perfection. This weekend, how about setting a timer for 30 minutes and just write.)
This business of writing is an altogether different ball game. Yes what is said here is true: When you are least ready to write, ideas, words and what not – everything rushes in at a whirl-wind speed. And when you have all the peace, quiet and time in the world – Blank! Continue reading →
What the great Bard said is true, the rose by any other name would smell as sweet. However, if the quote is turned around or applied to human beings, would it prove equally true? I mean, is it necessary that a person by the name Rose would display a rosy disposition? In reality, it could be more thorny than anything else! Continue reading →
I am in absolute awe of these ‘mothers’ of the ‘other’ world. By other world, I mean the Ad world. One thing common about these mothers shown in the Ad world is, — they all are great, simply great!
I truly envy the tooth-paste ad mom, who worries about the cavities caused by chocolates. No, nothing wrong in worrying about cavities. The ‘wonderful’ thing is the way she can afford to just sit pretty with a box of chocolates next to her, waiting for the stars of her life to come home with stars on their report-cards. How a mother of two kids can coolly sit with not a single crease on her face or on her clothes – with absolutely nothing to do, but only wait with a box of chocolates! At least, I have never come across any such mum in real life. (Here I’m talking about the commonly found common mothers and not the rare specimens adorning the rarefied atmosphere!)
Then there is another tooth-paste mom with a long list of ‘Ayurvedic’ ingredients in her tooth paste. Her entire family clamors around her appreciatively, as if she has concocted ‘THE’ recipe of the year. But then, it probably is a ‘complete meal’ recipe. Because, with soooooo many ingredients (and that too, all healthy ones), even if you eat just that tooth-paste, it would be more than a filling meal. (And if you like some fruit after your meal, just gulp a spoonful or two of any available shampoo – nowadays they all are so full of fruits! But that’s beside the point)
There is no dearth of Super-mums in this world – the extra-protein mom, the-I’ll-also-fall-with-you mom, jam-n-ketch up tiffin moms, clean-shiny clothes moms, shoo-the-small-hunger-mom, the list is endless—-
Another set of ‘wonder’ mums are the ‘antiseptic soap’ mothers! Here the key word is ‘confidence’. After playing in the rain, mud-pools etc., the kids gleefully announce their dripping, drenched arrival – fully confident that their mother would not shout at them, not even get a little cross at their antics. And they are right! The mother so happily plays ‘catch the soap’ with the kids – because, she is completely confident that the antiseptic soap would prevent any and all the ailments caused by the ‘water sports’. All? Really? A soap stops all the diseases! Then what the doctors and pharma companies are for? Please pardon my lack of faith. Probably the buried and hidden microbiologist in me is responsible for this scepticism.
Another mom advocating the same product has a grown-up son and just because the mother says ‘Yo’ she is certified (in sunny boy’s eyes) as ‘cool’ and then the otherwise lazy, supposed to be dirty son immediately obeys his mom. Has to! Well, is it that easy to get the-we-have-a-mind-of-our-own teenagers to obey just by the virtue of a soap?
All in all, I thank my stars that no such ads were there on the horizon (rather, television) back during my child-rearing years (or else I would have had to answer some tough questions about me and my actions viz a viz these ads). Thank God, my parenting years were over before the advent of these super ad-moms!
The famous quote by Winston Groom states, ‘Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you are going to get’. This is very true. There are so many flavours and varieties, all covered with chocolate, that unless and until you bite into one, you don’t know what you are going to get.
After walking quite some distance along the path called ‘Life’, when one turns around to look back, life appears like a box of potpourri or a mélange of many many things. (Unlike chocolates) It is not different flavours of a same type of thing, nor are all the moments/experiences coated with chocolate or sugar.
Innumerable diverse things, like – happy moments, sad feelings, sweet memories, bitter experiences, spicy seasonings, gentle happenings, harsh shocks and many more are randomly mixed together in this box of life.
When we glance around, even in the nature we find that the beautiful rainbow is comprised of seven different colours. As pretty or bright a single colour may look, but only when all seven colours come together a striking rainbow is formed.
Similarly, there are seven notes (sur) in music, whether it is Indian or Western classical music. Just like our life has high and low moments, there are high as well as low notes in music. When we experience a real low in life, that makes us appreciate the value of the high points.
A life cannot enjoy only a good run all through-out, and in the same way, no life would suffer only and only bad phases. Every hue and shade of all possible things are woven together to form the fabric of life. And so, in my view, Life is like a box of Potpourri…..
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore is well-known as a great poet and writer. But he is also renowned as an accomplished painter. And to think that he was seventy years of age when he took first steps towards this art! Continue reading →
Repeatedly I kept receiving this message on my phone: ‘Your device is low on space. Need to clear minimum……’. Busy in some work or the other, I continued to ignore the message. Continue reading →
The Reflections 