My Sweetheart

Diwali, a festival of lights, joy and happiness. For the past few years I never really enjoyed this festival nor did most of my friends, part of growing up i guess. And so I thought I'l celebrate this diwali, though nothing big atleast something to cherish about, and my sis-in-law and me planned to have a really beautiful rangoli in the entrance of the house.
Both of us had selected a simple yet beautiful design, we got lots of color powders so we could make our rangoli look more attractive. We stay on the first floor but thought we'l have our rangoli in front of the gate but unfortunately it was raining so we dropped the idea of designing it there and ultimately decided to have it in front of the door.
We started our rangoli on the eve of diwali, so it'l be there from the start of the day. With the day's work sis-in-law was all tired and I wasn't feeling well, so our enthu had almost gone but still we wanted the rangoli. Somehow managed to do something with the colors and proudly called it as "our rangoli" (we anyways knew how bad it was).
Here came diwali, we welcomed our friends and relatives and were busy serving and having sweets. And came my niece (2-1/2 yrs old), happy and excited and showed her new dress (She looked cutteee). I took the broom to clean the room where bits of papers had fallen and left it as got involved in chatting with an aunt and saw my niece take the broom which was longer than her height. I felt like a proud aunt to see her cute niece doing some work. And in no time I hear my mom call me. When i went out, my sweetheart was very nicely cleaning my rangoli off. Had mixed feelings, of shock, anger, helplessness, cry and a voice that said "how sweet". When I asked her "what are you doing?" she replied with a lil fear in her voice "Am cleaning the place". Who cannot love her for that... My sweetheart had again won my heart.. :)

A Walk to remember

After a gap of few days, my friend (cum cousin) and I went for a morning walk (not that we go walking everyday). The last time when we went for walking we had found a new park opened nearby, well not very near but still. Both of us started walking from our house, and headed towards the park. And that is where the fun or should I say the early morning tragedy started??
Right when we were opening the gate, we saw a young girl walking very slowly, with her mobile and headphones, clearly giving an image as though she was enjoying some music n walking. The moment my friend saw her, she said this girl reminds me of a particular girl at least from the way she is behaving. A small discussion followed about it.

We were still walking in the park and I happened to see a young boy jogging and coming towards the park. I told my friend, look at him how sincerely he is jogging. That’s when she said me that he is one of our very very far relatives. (I had never seen him before, and she had never spoken to him).She said how he is related. Well we got one more topic to discuss about. ;)
At one point the girl was walking in the opposite direction of ours, fiddling her mobile. And my friend said what is this girl doing? (A tone that meant has she come for walking or to fiddle her mobile). And my crooked mind said “I think this guy and girl actually have come to meet”, as I just started to say this to my friend she said I know what you are going to say, she had read my mind. ;) little chuckling and giggling.

After sometime we happened to see the guy walking near her and talking something both smiled and he crossed her in no time. This was enough to confirm what I thought. But pitiful both did not talk cos we were there, relative of the guy. It was obvious, he had the fear that the story might spread like fire among other relatives.
God knows if they were just good friends or there was anything more, but somehow our presence had spoilt their day by giving a bad start for their day. In sometime he left first and in few mins she left after him. And after some more time we left discussing about whether to come to the same place tomorrow or let the two meet peacefully. I somehow cannot forget the day’s walk. “A Walk To Remember”.

The Hapoos

The Alphonso, a type of mango and is called as "Hapoos" in Marathi. Its one of the best types of mangoes that I have ever tasted. Today evening I don't know why I remembered about these mangoes. ;)

These mangoes don't only remind about its sweetest taste but about the long summer vacations.
As a kid I and my cousins were really lucky rather blessed I would say.. We had our own mango trees and summer was the mango season. My grandfather and uncle used to store the mangoes in a room.. yes yes in a room... As soon as one enters the room... wow what a fragrance... The sweet smell of the mango.. All one would do is hunt for best mango among the hundreds spread around.. Search for the biggest yellow mango and pick it up before anyone else picks it.. and first thing you do is squeeze a little and bite them off directly... So much of juicy pulp in it.. The very thought is so mouth watering.
The best thing of these hapoos is that we could have it raw with salt also.


Miss those days... The fun we used to have in plucking mangoes from tree and wiping them a little(just for the sake of doing it) and consume them right away. Nowadays, I do get such mangoes but not that fresh and sweet :(
And the trees have become very old and you can hardly find a mango on it. None the less at my granny's place (maternal)we get the Kalmbi Mangoes (I don't know the English name), they also have their own unique sweet taste.. Be it any Mango it definitely rules the heart and so is always said as "the King of Fruits" :) :)

Experiences

I was just flipping through a old diary and found something I had written months back...


Completed my Project at a well known Govt. Bank.

A great experience, academic wise and also about people generally.

People are good; people are bad.
People are helping; people are selfish.
Loyalty usually goes unnoticed; laziness gets rewarded with extra benefits and
lazy people somehow become a part of the furniture. (furniture can at least
be used ;) )
Be Positive; Listen to your Heart.
Never talk behind the back.
If u feel something is wrong, try to fix it, if you can't don't interfere.

Govt. employees also are loyal..
If you happen to come across any unfit Govt. Employee please don't brand them as "Govt. employees so..." There are efficient employees also who are always ready to help you, but required you have a little patience, treat them as human and not machine.

Too much of philosophy?? i know... ;)

Imaginations....

Late night two friends have a long chat over telephone. And one friend (say D) says to other (say S) that she just had a thought about how the relationships with people changes with time, due to some circumstances or some lame arguments or misunderstandings and we just end up not being in touch with them. And none of us really know what future has in store for us.

And D thought what if in future her kid (say her SON) falls in love with one of her old friends daughter with whom she has had some problem and is not in talking terms.

And both the friends go into the world of Imagination, especially S.

Scene 1: D’s son comes and says mommy I am in love… D is all excited and says “oh (not really able to hide the excitement in her voice, that her son is in love) why don’t you invite her home so we can meet her.

Scene 2: D’s son one fine day brings his girl home to introduce her to his parents. D starts the conversation with girl by asking her general details like what is she doing and future plans and ends up asking about her parents. And to her horror D gets to know that her son is in love with the daughter of her very old enemy..

Scene 3: D advises her son that the girl’s parents aren’t really good and the history that she has had with them. But love is blind, deaf and insane and above anything else right? So D’s son is not ready to listen to anything his MOMMY tries to tell him.

Scene 4: So ultimately D agrees to the disagreement and meets her age old enemy and become relatives for the sake of their kids’ happiness…

Both the friends end discussion with a hearty laughter... ;)

The Smart Kiddo..

Kids of the next generation are really smart, I must say. Always ready with a question, which mostly starts with a WHY… and would not be satisfied without a proper and detailed answer and sometimes adding few more “WHYs” for the answer they get…

Just before a couple of days my friend’s son (Shivank) had not been to school for almost ten days as they had been for a family trip. On eleventh day she was a little worried about the complaints she’ll be getting from school for not sending him to school for so many days. Well the kid is about 3 and half year old, and is in pre kg.

Yes the mother could have easily said some reason for an excuse but knowing her son she preferred waiting for the call form school. (He was capable of telling his teachers about how well he enjoyed his trip and all the places he had been to). But she dint get a call until her son was back from school.

When Shivank was back from school,

Mom: Shivank, what and all did you today in school?

Shiv: Mama, we na.. blah blah blah……

Mom: good.. And what did your teachers say?

Shiv: Mammaa Radha Mam never spoke to me today.. (in a sad tone)

Mom: oh.. she must have been busy shivank, what did Sudha mam say?

Shiv: Sudha mam na asked why dint you come to school for so many days? And I told her…. (he did not say a word after that)

Mom: Ya shivank what did you tell her, why dint you go to school…

Shiv: ………………………………………………… (again silence)

Mom: (really worried about what he would have answered)
Shivank tell na what did you tell….
(Finally when she din get any answer she bribed him with a toy and said she wouldn't give it to him until he told her what he answered to Sudha mam)
Shivank: Maine sudha mam se kaha “ABHI TOH MAIN AAYA HOON NA”
(I said “I have come now, haven't I?”)
(We both burst out laughing and she gave him the toy and was cuddling him for a while)




When she got the call she just said he wasn’t feeling well and agreed to send a medical certificate. Can’t believe there are so many rules for pre kg also…

Someone I can never forget…

Someone I can never forget…

I had met this man in June 2007, first thing that I had noticed about him was how shrimpy he was. His spectacles and the wrinkles on his face said that he was in his mid sixties. He is rude that was the first impression I had about him.

He never got along people that easily or let people know how kind he really was but I was very lucky that he had easily opened up to me and cared for me a lot in a very short span of time. J

Mr.Balakrishnan, a respected, retired accountant of one of the best mills in the city was now working as a peon cum accountant for a very small BPO consultancy which wouldn’t have paid him more than one fourth of the salary his age and experienced deserved. But he never complained about his JOB PROFILE or the Salary he got.

This pious Brahmin had the courage to adopt a 6 days old baby without thinking about how his young son and wife would react. And he stuck to his decision even after facing all the tantrums that his family threw at him. One needs real courage to do that isn’t it?

I was nobody to him but….

He never called me with my name, at first he had addressed me as“MADAM”, I just could not let such an elderly person call me Madam. And so he started calling me “Kuttima” (something like Child, in Tamil). After knowing him for a period of around 20-25 days I had to depart to move on further in my life. But he took efforts to call me frequently and be in touch. Just 3 weeks after I had last met him, I got a call asking for Mr. Balakrishnan, thinking it be a mere coincidence that a wrong number asked for Mr. Balakrishnan, putting aside his thought I carried on with my work and after a couple of hours I got a call from a friend (Jayanthi) saying “he is no more, he has had a heart attack sometime back”. When I told Jayanthi about the coincidence and she made it clear to me that it wasn’t a coincidence and I got that call as he had my number in his pocket and people around him contacted me first thinking am his family. I was totally touched after knowing that and before I realized tears rolled down…

Balakrishnan sir, you are always and always will be remembered by me and Jayanthi…