Jatayu and Siddhartha

When I came to know the story of Buddha in high school, I was surprised that he was a person who was never exposed to life's hardships and pain. My first lesson on sacrifice was from Ramayana. Jatayu is my favourite character. I loved the fact that the bird was brave and fought the much feared demon king Ravana. Did everything to his best of abilities to stop him from taking away Sita. Not afraid to sacrifice his own life to protect the divine lady.

I want to visit Lepakshi, where I believe Rama saw the wounded bird who helped trace his wife in the southern side. Ramayana is filled with such inspiring characters.. the squirrel who helped Rama in building the bridge, the bear who helped devise the war strategy, the monkey who helped in saving Rama's brother life. I can go on and on. Valmiki was a great writer and my mom a great story teller.

Wonder if Siddhartha's mom read him the Ramayana...

யானை நாராயணன்

யானை நாராயணன் ...Elephant God. This is one of my favourite stories from school. I think this was told by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. I am not too sure.

A guru was preaching to his disciples about how paramathma (God) lives in all Jeevans (Living things). Why we should respect all lives and how every life is important in this world. One of his disciples took it it to his heart and was trying his best to do everything possible to respect all living things.

One day the elephant in the hermitage had become wild and was running all over the place and trampling anything that came in its way. One of the disciples sitting on the elephant tried hard to control but in vain. So he started screaming, asking people to stay away from the elephant. Soon everyone, except one disciple, spread out and took shelter on nearby trees.

The elephant gave that love disciple a hard kick and moved on. Later the elephant was brought under control and everyone was curious to know why that one person dint take any shelter. The guru asked him why and pat came the reply. All jeevans have god and I trusted the யானை நாராயணன் - elephant god, will not hurt the நாராயணன் (god) in me.

The guru had a hearty laugh and said. Why dint you listen to the நாராயணன் (God) sitting on top and yelling to get away from the யானை நாராயணன் (elephant god).

I keep remembering this story often. Esp when people say all that happens is for good. Did I miss the other god who kept warning me when I stood stupidly facing the யானை நாராயணன்....

Wanning innocence

Aadi's feedback at school has been "well mannered, well behaved, silent kid"...I sure the feedback will change this year. In general mothers complain about their naughty and I have been upset that aadi has not been naughty. In the last one year things have been changing. I can see aadi is silent but still a naughty kid.

Some of his words continue to make me laugh...and I have been hearing quite a few these days. Todays quotes,
1. hulla hup - Planet black hole
2. Zebra crossing - why zebra crosses the road (with a wink)
3. I want to do an experiment - Throws his dart on the rotating ceiling fan.
4. XABWE... - reading the whole cross word when I asked him to read every word, to prepare for the test and has a hearty laugh.

it feels great to see him this way :)

Outsider

There are several things I have enjoyed in the past year as I stood outside the full time working women community,
1. I never missed the long commutes and the Bangalore traffic. The days when I had to rush for a training I felt so good that I don't do it everyday.
2. Seeing Aadi score excellent grade in every test made me feel on top of the world. Aadi may still have got excellent grade but I would not have savoured it.
3. Getting to write my blog..I would have never discovered this part of the universe.
4. Enjoying a trip to US with Aadi and Mahesha. This would have never happened otherwise.
5. The coastal Karnataka trip...wow that is something that may not happen too often
6. Nursing my grandmom without worrying about clients.
7. My friends visiting my house more often than before.
8. Me connecting to many old acquaintance who I would have never bothered to catch up with.
9. Opportunity to understanding my family much better
10. Understanding a whole new world of scarcity and survival.

Well there is a lot more and ofcourse I miss a few things like freedom to spend and self indulgance, but I am positive it will be better in coming months.

A special thanks to my good friends diya's mom, r1, g3 and su

Hobby Time

I decided to try something to keep my mind away from the everyday stuff. I had bought lot of chart papers a year back, thinking it may be useful during brainstorming sessions at LeafSol. Since they were lying unused I decided to splash some colours on them. I pulled out the permanent marks, aadi's water colours and started scribbling. It took a good amount of time away from the mundane stuff and I was thoroughly enjoying. By 4 pm aadi came back from school and he wanted to participate as well. Since this was my first, after several years, I didn't have the heart to let aadi splash his colours on my canvas (he he hee).

I gave him the other half of the chart I had cut and he started to unfold his creativity. Being the lazy bum he is, he quickly wanted me to pitch in and complete for him. I was all determined not to do it and so both of us couldn't finish out work yesterday. We agreed to continue it today and hopefully we will have something to start filling.

This is something Aadi did with crayon in his drawing class...

SDM

Mahesha was really sweet. Since I am under house arrest virtually, he got Slumdog CD for me to watch. The only reason I wanted to watch it was, obviously, the awards that are showered on it. Personally, AB's Bhagban left a deeper emotion in me than SDM. Black (a movie that I dint like) left a much stronger feeling. This movie has a happy ending..so was Bhagban. I watched them both at home. Bhagban got tears in my eyes. Here, AB's visit, the child beggars etc somehow failed to bring tears, though I know this could be the hard reality.



May be SDM is made for the west and doesn't move the Indian emotions.

Things I loved,

1. I loved the young Jamal, the twinkle in his eyes is great. Other than him I couldn't connect with any character.
2. Merc minus accessories
3. Brothers dozing on train top with hands held

I think the movie said the story is happening in 2004. Were the news channels they show were available then? Also, not much attn to costume I guess. On the whole the movie can be watched once without getting bored.

Grand mom

With 90% of my mind frame occupied with thoughts of my Grand mom... there is nothing else I can think of to pen down...except about old age, family, elder care and everything to do with it. Me being a movie buff, the other thing that keeps popping in my mind is the Oscar nominated movie 'The curious case of Benjamin Button'. I have a mixed feeling about watching it when it comes to India. (Is it out already?)

Old age is definitely second childhood. With diapers, poor memory, liquid food, and all the nursing and care it is second childhood. But it was joyful when you do it for your new born as you know they will grow up one day and all this will stop and there is all hope and happiness. With Elder care it is not something you love to do. There is probably no reversal and things just move from bad to worse. Wonder what is the message God is sending across.

To me it is an awakening. I am thinking about my old age (if i get to live that long). Time to start planning though little late..as they say better late than never. A elder care nursing home today costs 18K+med exp+hospital exp. A home care unskilled is about 6K + food and acco+ ofcourse the medicine bills.

So wonder what that would be in about 30 to 40 years..may be I will need it much earlier.

Ring the bell

There has been ads on various channels campaigning to stop Domestic Violence(DV) by ringing the bell. I am pretty impressed by the ads. And hope it has positive impact. But it also raises doubts in my mind if it will work. I wonder if the man would answer the bell when it is ringing. Even if someone does, will he not be abusive at the person who is ringing the bell? I got to the Bell Bajao website and see similar question on their blog, no answers yet. http://www.bellbajao.org/blog_details.php?blogid=213. The other question is the campaign is aimed at the middle class and I believe lot of DV here need not be physical and a lot can be mental torture. Silence can also be a torture many times and wonder how one can tackle such situations.

In any case I like the campaign and wish it saves as many women as possible from DV.