Monday, April 27, 2009

Knowledge

A breezy, rainy and dark Bangalore night. I was on my way to City Railway station on an auto. Not through any familiar routes. Through streets littered with godowns where rain had stalled loading and unloading activities. Labourers huddled under canvas shacks. Fallen treee trunks everywhere. Names like Dewan Bahadur Royan Road. Paranoia lurks.

Just then the conversation flows with the driver. In urdu and madrasi mixed hindi. Along the way he asked me if Mumbai and Chennai are different places. What could I say? How do I make sense of his question?

Heres a man who has been ferrying countless souls across this city on his auto - perhaps for 30 years now. Perhaps he has fathered three or four children. Circumstances may have made him a husband to more than one woman. And this piece of information he sought seems so basic to me. To think that he could have carried on with life this long without ever stumbling upon the obvious answer to this question. Wouldnt his children know this? Wouldnt the vernacular newspapers he reads shed some light on it?

Now, to look at this the other way. Is it really vital that he know this? He has made a living thus far and exudes a condiserable sense of satisfaction with life. What knowledge is essential? Multiplication tables at the speed of light? States and Capitals? Makes me further ponder the educational system that is manufacturing minds for cubiclcedom.

Friday, April 17, 2009

The 80 clicks tag

Responding to the tag by Chox on five things I love about being a mom....I have modified it to five things that I love about having children.

  1. Noise. I love the enhanced noise levels when my children are around. Laughing, wailing, screeching, screaming, scratching, smashing... It soothes (and sometimes numbs) my brain.
  2. Patience. I can put up with ANY pace of progress on ANY front. Relatives (including my dad) who knew me as a short-tempered witch can hardly believe the change that my children have made me undergo. I view it as a positive change
  3. Back-to-Basics learning. To anticipate, To answer (and sometimes Google together), To learn. Is there a traffic policeman for so many satellites cirlcing the earth?
  4. Good company: Three of us are good company to go to parties where we wouldnt know anyone other than the hosts.
  5. Readymade Fan Club: They like and appreciate what I cook. And we love cooking together.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Majestic

At 10:15 pm, after waiting for 30 minutes, I boarded BMTC Route #2 bound for Majestic. The wait in itself offered a variety which I may have seen, but one that I rarely paused and Observed at close quarters - the sobriety of the waiting traffic policeman having wound up the days duty, the garrulousness of three cell phone flaunting college kids talking movies, a family of four who alighted from an auto and barely able to carry the almost-asleep toddlers and the rest - a book salesman, an elderly couple with suitcases ...all waiting for the Route # 2 bound for Majestic.

All through I was having a surreal feeling... A very long time since I had traveled by bus, unaccompanied, and at so late an hour and so suddenly. And I had never been to Majestic before, about which I have not heard too many pleasnt things. The only consolation was that my destination was not Kalasipalayam.

I had a feeling akin to a villager in a big city when I alighted at Majestic. A thousand buses going a hundred directions. People People...all in a hurry. I did not dare ask anybody the way to platform 15, where my APSRTC bus to Tirupati will depart from. I walked around as non-descriptly as possible in quest for PF15. When I did reach it, a board there said that buses to Wilson Garden and Dairy Circle depart from here. That certainly was not what I wanted to see.

There were scores of pedestrian ramps all of which seemed to lead up to a common higher plane. So I took one of them and reached a foot-over-bridge.Going north on it for ten minutes brough me to the Railway Station. Retracing my steps for ten minutes and surveying the scene revealed another bus stand which was filled with inter-state buses. Climbed down another ramp and entered the melee.

I loved the scene with all its chaos and character...and a few dogs. I reached PF15, with 45 minute to spare. Scanned all the food stores and 'fancy' stores. Finally reached a Newspaper Stall. At this unearthly hour for newpapers the stall offered just two English magazines.Between a publication called Caravan and another called Competition Wiz, I chose the former. And I was much deligthed by this choice. It was not 'current affairs'. It had just a handful of essays on politics and culture.

With this prize catch tucked into my hand bag, I waded through the masses back to PF15, just in time to board my bus with a hope that more of these majestic trips are waiting to happen.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Ten Random Notes

  1. 50% of my children have been promoted to the next class (UKG). The fate of the remaining 50% will be known on Monday.
  2. Grandparents arrived last month along with the exams and made life a lot easier for ALL of us.
  3. I have done the usual screaming at messy rooms strewn with Monopoly and Carrom artifacts, hands ingrained with grime after playing cricket with filthy balls in filthy shoes (no socks of course) in absolutely unhygienic 'play grounds'.
  4. I did not dare yell at broken nail polish bottles - which resulted in hands, legs and nose dyed (red) in nail polish for two full days. Nor did I dare comment on strange cartoons that had sprung up on the walls of the kids room. I did not dare... because the culprit was the younger one.
  5. Incident 4 listed above took another avataar in the form of eyeliners in my teenaged nieces room. The niece and I haven't seen eye-to-eye since.
  6. Both the monsters' schools have redesigned the respective uniforms. That extends my shopping list.
  7. They spent two nights at my sister-in-laws place at the other end of town. I felt miserable at home in this end of town. You know the usual feeling - all quiet, quite lonely etc. Inspite of this, am contemplating leaving them in Chennai for a month
  8. We dont have any VACATION plans. Though I have been consulted by all and sundry on their respective plans. What kid friendly food to take on long drives? How best to pack light for Ooty (in MAY!)? Is cooked Maggi better than cup-o-noodles with hot water and all the crap? Best temples?
  9. I entered a swimming pool after ages. I didnt swim, but just hung around in the water. But five days later, my upper arms still hurt. They are the most awkward and most high maintenance body part.
  10. Painting classes - I am resolving once again to enroll myself in one.
    (This blog is truly useful in noting making. I was trying hard to remember how the last summer was spent, and the blog readily gave me clues. So, this is just another attempt to assist my worn out memory cells next year)

Friday, April 3, 2009

Coming Home

Long day at work. Crawl in early, but leave early too..around 4:30pm. Drive back home..pick up groceries mid way...answer a few phone calls...mind still partially occupied with the office. Scurry up the steps to the library. Hmmm....long time since i read Vikram Seth. And whats that! A transaltion of Sivasankari...hmm.. Will probably settle for John Updike now. Must catch the Branson autobiog sometime....saunter back to the car still sorting out if Sivasnkari should be read in Tamil or translation.

Traffic jams...so take the internal detour. Heart rejoices at seeing vacation spirit in full swing. Kids of all ages ...cricket in the middle of the street along with skating, badminton, cycling.. a few 'older' ones exchanging ten rupees at a shop for ben ten cheetos and bumbaaloos.

Ah, the final turn towards my home appears. I 'wake' up with a start....where are my kids? what would they be upto? how will the home look? At its best its a zoo of stuffed animals or a car showroom. At its worst its a tsunami town, with powdered Marie bicuits to guise the ruins. Monopoly? Sand Craft? Play Doh? Oh NNNNNOO!

If S is IN the pool, what about V? Will they be doing some stupid acts of bravado in water? i hate the game they play called Life Saver...Perhaps V would be at her friends place. Will they be nice and playing doll-doll? Would they have scratched each other, and made a scene? May be they would all be rolling in the sand. Maybe they would be having a nice game of cricket. May be cycling...a few bruises.

How are their grandparents through all this.Should i be prepared to see them ready to leave by the next possible means of transport to Chennai?

Reality always dawns only at the last turn home.