Memories flood back…

as I watch Mumbai engulf in fear while the terrorists manage to spawn another massacre after the 1993 blasts .When the famous 9/11 episode happened in the US, we were stuck in Chicago as our flight back to India which was scheduled that day got cancelled. Fortunately we were in our cousin’s home, while we watched the second airplane bring down the WTC, I stared at the TV in disbelief and horror when the WTC came collapsing down. Few weeks later we were glad to be back to the safety of our home in India but….
Right now I watch the prominent Taj hotel’s dome in Mumbai engulfed in fire and realize we are never safe anywhere. It’s all in the mind. The nightmare is not yet over.
As for some statistics

• Explosions at Taj, Trident, Oberoi Hotels and the Nariman house. As I watch flames being doused down by the firemen who are multitasking by rescuing the trapped people, I salute them with respect for risking their own lives to save others.
• Three top cops succumb to the encounter. It’s sad that these men chose to lead while they should have strategized the operation and stayed on until the end. Hope would be lost if leaders die early.
• Terrorists ran through, checking passports of trapped people to check if they were foreign nationals to take them as hostages. This is to clearly create doubts in the minds of foreign nationals by disturbing the peace in India
• More than 100 killed and 350 injured. I express deep sorrow at the loss of life in Mumbai. Terrorism chairs no value on human life or innocent core. While these innocents are being murdered, I pray to God that these people die an equally brutal death.

Terrorism is using this tool to bring down humanity and we should unite together to fight this foe regardless of religion, caste or creed. As I write this post, I watch TV helplessly as people trapped in the hotels are screaming for help...

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Parting ways and

…getting-together after a gap of 11 years was a pleasant happening. We girls (ladies now) have been in constant touch with each other but that has not been the case with the guys (men now). Years back when we said goodbye to each other to pursue our dreams, we knew that this would be the case. All of us got caught up in the rat race and never found time to think of each other. Each one struggled to get to where we are now considering the fact that we din’t have a computer background which was a basic necessity in the IT world. Money was an important factor and we had to gear up to equip ourselves to take the computer guys head on. This meant putting the cream on top of the cake. Yes! Am talking about the lousy computer courses we had to take up. They have all managed to pull it off in style and I was so happy to see that all of ‘em have done well for themselves. Good job, married and settled with kids .To think of the care free days we spent on the college campus, none of us could imagine that we were capable of being responsible adults considering the fun and frolic we had. Thanks to orkut for knitting the men back to our gang. Venkat had come down from the US and suggested on meeting up with whoever are there in Bangalore, which meant just the 5 of us with our families. Though Bangalore crowd was limited, the fun was just the same .We never felt like we were meeting after such a long gap, the topics were still the same, the theme was to pick on each other just like the old times. For a moment we stopped thinking about our age and laughed our hearts out at all the jokes cracked by Dubey and Ravi. Dubey enlightened us with the 250 acres of land that ravi got as dowry which was located between two mountains with a river flowing in-between in the beautiful place of krishnagiri. Well! Ravi denied it though he wished it was true. Ladies and men in the US needn’t complain since we did think of you guys and cracked up some comical bits at your cost. Shan, din’t we have a great time! Will post some snaps once shan uploads them.

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Frog Killing and the after effects

Off late Adi has been developing an interest in animal planet and discovery channel. He has been fascinated by men especially ex-Steve Irwin who catch animals and enlighten their anatomy. I am not sure how kids digest the information or what exactly limits their understanding of how far they can go. Can they go to an extent of killing an animal just to explore its anatomy? Well I have dissected four frogs in my zoology lab. His old man has killed several species in his home town including snakes and he knows his limits now. Looks like Adi has some in-born instincts which am sure will mature over the years to come and I hope Maneka Gandhi will not be intimated about it until then.

Regarding compassion towards animals, I am working on it but this doesn’t come naturally to us being the non-vegetarians we are, as we have seen and eaten anything that does not bite us back. Another fact being that Adi’s old man hails from a town where they kill and cook the animals as opposed to the fancy packets we get in supermarkets now. Can we close our eyes and talk about compassion just because we don’t see them getting killed?

The other day Deepa called me up to say that she saw Adi brutally killing a frog. He did get his share of punishment and things have been better until few days back when I saw some kids teasing him about it and not letting it go. It was clear that this was being discussed in their respective homes by adults which prompted the kids to do so. This enraged Adi and he got into fist fights with them. When someone wants a person to change for the better genuinely and if that person has been trying hard to do so, things can go wrong if they are reminded of their wrong doing time and again. So in this situation my sympathies are towards Adi and I would like my friends to co-operate by not making a big issue out of it i.e. if they really want to see some positive changes in Adi and his friends.

PS: I am not the kind who will always defend my kid’s wrong doing at the cost of other’s sentiments and most of the time it is Adi who is at the recieving end when it comes to getting punishments from me or rebuke from other moms for the silliest reasons but this really got on to me!!

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33 year old!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!! I am happy to be in the thirties because of couple of reasons. I don’t have any deadlines to meet and am free. Being a housewife and mother was definitely easier than being a *working*mother and wife partly because I feel I have done justice to my family as opposed to the guilt that many working mothers feel at the end of the day for not having *enough time * for anything in their lives. Atleast I can say that I am enjoying everybit of Adi’s childhood and don’t have to regret that I missed even a minute of it though it meant catfights with him .No! I am not saying that I am right by taking this choice but that it’s been a priority issue for some while a struggle for living for others.
In my thirties and after Atul happened, I have changed a lot in the last two years in terms gaining of maturity to realize that parents get crankier as they get older ,being a bit more diplomatic in handling relationships, letting go of things that I cannot handle like the maids taking off without notice for days together (I crib a lot about it), Ajith’s money management half of which is beyond my grey matter, adi getting into trouble time and again even after repeated warning , Atul’s stubborn seizures, stopping to please everyone, no more living the way other’s would like me to as opposed to the way I want to by doing things that make me happy.
OK, let me stop my philosophy and talk about what a wonderful day I had yesterday. Thanks to Anjana and Linda for initiating it and putting it all together. We arranged a potluck with 8 of us coming up with our specialties. I must admit that I never had such an eventful birthday after my marriage with ajith with all the fun, laughter and jokes. The last was during my college years when all of us would go out and spend time in dabhas situated on the outskirts of the city. Let me thank the lovely gang I have here which never makes me miss my college life. Thank you Anjana, Linda , Bindu, Deepa, Radhika, Archana, Jaya and Seema for making my day and I hope that you guys had fun too. Thank you Adi for giving me that lovely card you made in school. Let me leave you all with some snaps.





Thanks to Deepa for positioning the camera so well with the autoclick option

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