Panna

Panna is a book,a fairy- tale meant for children. But, the moment I saw the book I was taken by the beautiful drawings inside it which I later learnt is Madhubani folk art.
It's written by Kamala Das who is a poet and this book is her first attempt in writing children's book.

"Panna lives on the seaside with her brother Moti, a fisherman. One day, while waiting for Moti to return from the high seas with his catch of fish, Panna falls asleep. When she wakes up, she finds she has magically reached the land under the sea. And what a wonderful land it is, with its pearl-lined streets, coral houses and green moving sky. Here she meets the Fish King and Fish Queen. But becomes of poor Moti when he returns from the sea and finds his beloved sister gone?"

This being the story, children would certainly enjoy reading it as did I.

To kill a mocking bird

I must admit that I started reading this book because of Mouna's suggestion and I am glad I read it.
I read it twice- the first time I was forced to give away the book to the library when I had almost finished it. So had to borrow it the second time. So as not miss the link I started it from the beginning and it was good as things gave much more meaning to me when I read it the second time.
There were several instances where I would laugh loudly at all the adventures of Jem, Scout and Dill (especially the Boo Radley incident) and would look up to see if someone is watching me laughing like that.

One can relive their childhood days while reading this book.

I think it's not just the humor that bound me with the characters but the intricacies with which they teach the simple lessons of life, of adulthood and growing up.

The little episodes of Boo Radley; fire at Ms. Maudie's; Jem and Scout's encounter with Mrs. Dubose; Atticus shooting at the mad dog; Dill's running away; the case of Tom Robinson and at the end Boo Radley saving the children from Mr. Ewell; all carry such good messages with a touch of humor.

I really enjoyed reading the book.

The Act of Smiling

A few years ago I happened to read this book called 'Phantoms in the Brain' by Dr. V. S. Ramachandran. He said there are two different circuits for the act of smiling. 'When you see a friend you grin. But, when the same Friend aims a camera at your face and asks you to smile you fail to do so. Instead of a natural expression, you produce a hideous grimace.

The reason these two kinds of smiles differ is that different brain regions handle them and only one of them contains a specialised "smile circuit". A spontaneous smile is produced by the basal ganglia. When you encounter a friendly face, the visual message from that face eventually reaches the brains emotional center or limbic system and is subsequently relayed to the basal ganglia, which orchestrate the sequences of facial muscle activity needed for producing a natural smile. These entire cascade of events happen in a fraction of a second without the thinking parts of your cortex ever being involved.

But when someone asks you to smile, the verbal instruction from the photographer is received and understood by the higher thinking centers in the brain, including the auditory cortex and language centers. From there it is relayed to the motor cortex in the front of the brain, which specialises in producing voluntary skilled movements'.

So when you smile next time at your friend and at the camera remember the work that our brain carries out.

Shadow on the wall

The shadow of my favourite Tara devi idol.

It annoys me when I have to introduce myself to someone twice.
I can understand the situation when it's a big crowd and people can hardly remember one's name and basic information.
But I meet someone personally, do the initial introduction and the other person fails to register it.
I meet the same person again in the next few days and the person asks- 'Am sorry I didn't get your name?' and 'What do you do, working?'

For someone who is fond of travelling and going places the list of "Places to see" never ends. A new destination, a new land awaits to be explored and savoured. Yet, there are so many other places which have already been treaded upon once and have even faded from memory's corner. And those places too need to be revisited. For all these, both time and money fall short.

The Namesake

Already having watched the movie, there was little room left for my imagination of characters of the book 'The Namesake' by Jhumpa Lahiri. The two characters- Ashima and Ashoke were represented (for me) by Tabu and Irfan Khan. Nevertheless I wanted to read the book. As with the movie, I liked the book too. Lahiri's narration is impressive and it maintains reader's atttention throughout.
The story which revolves around the name of a Russian writer 'Gogol' carried me to the many books by Russian writers- Dostoesky's Crime and Punishment, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina', Chekov's The Cherry Orchard and of course The Overcoat by Gogol himself.
Almost all the protagonists of these Russian authors wear a gloomy appearance, their stories are tragic, they speak of hardships of Russian citizens which is either forced upon them by the governmental policies or by themselves.
Talking of Nikolai Gogol, I studied The overcoat as a literature student but then I seldom ejoyed either the story or the person who taught the story. Or may be beacuse of the way the story was told made it all uninteresting.
Though I disliked reading The Overcoat, there are few scenes which still linger in my memory. The story of Akaky Akakyevich who earns a meager salary as a clerk loses his only overcoat which protects him against all the hard climatic conditions. His struggle to save few pennys to buy a new overcoat is touching. His walking on tip- toes to save his shoes from wearing out, his struggle through the dark hours to save his candle- all speak of his sacrifices in order to save money for the new coat.
Keeping this name- Gogol in the background, the story of The Namesake progresses well to expalin the yearning and nostalgia which both Ashima and Ashoke have for their motherland. But in the end, how Ashima finds it disheartening to leave a foreign nation also a truth. That was the land whre she formed new memories, where she saw her children grow. But most importantly, that's where she lived with her Ashoke for so many years.
Some of the excerpts from the book goes somewhat like these:
"...pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will never regret it. One day it will be too late.
My grandfather always says that's what books are for,... to travel without moving an inch."
"Finally, they stood by the lighthouse, exhausted...He heard his father cry out- they had left the camera with his mother. 'All this way and no picture', he'd said. we will have to remember it then."
"The man who gave you his name, from the man who gave you your name."

People seldom use camera's with film rolls these days. They get a fairly good digital camera with the same price as a film camera. Likewise, people no laonger take the pains of getting the pictures printed and arranging them in an album. They take refuge in less laborious task of copying them in a CD and watching them on their computer screen.
But there's a different kind of joy involved when the photos are flipped through an album. It gives more personal touch, makes you a part of the memory itself. The connection gets lost somewhere between the keys while watching the same pictures on a computer screen.

Staying at my parent's means living without any mobile network or an Internet connection. The other modern facilities- as a phone, TV or electricity seldom work due to heavy downpour. The slow paced days end here at late evenings. For the one who's been sheltered here since their childhood wouldn't have much problem with this set up. But for people like us it could be quite depressing, especially gazing at the incessant rainfall day in and day out.

Relief for my healthy future (still crossing the fingers), monotony of the hospital, gloomy weather of Bengaluru, days of idleness, yearning to start my routine at Hyderabad, craving for the delicious food, urge to go out and loads 'n loads of books to read....that's what my life has been since past three weeks!

Have been reading a lot of useless books to entertain myself: '2 states' by Chetan Bhagat; 'P.S. I love' you by Cecelia Ahern and 'Mansfield Park' by Jane Austen.

The first and the second books felt as though I were watching a Bollywood and a Hollywood movie respectively, while I liked the classic by Austen.

Insomnia

I was called an insomniac by my roommates when i was in hostel.
I wouldn't get sleep any other time other than nights, even if was dead tired.
They were all, on the contrary, slept all the time.
I would be jealous of them.
Me being insomniac continues even today.
I feel jealous at S who gets sleep in 2 seconds at any time and any place.
As for me, i need a perfect place, perfect ambiance, perfect NO- lights and NO- noise to go off to sleep.
Even then, it takes several minutes for sleep to come near me.

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner, the book which I finished reading recently.
I can say it's definitely one of my favourites.
Few excerpts which I liked (especially of Amir's father's dislike towards the American way of life)...

"But the Bay Area's smog stung his eyes, the traffic noise gave him headaches, and the pollen made him cough. The fruit was never sweet enough, the water never clean enough, and where were all the trees and open fields? For two years, I tried to get Baba to enroll in ESL classes to improve his broken English. But he scoffed at the idea. 'May be I'll spell 'cat' and the teacher will give me glittery star so i can run home and show it off to you', he would grumble".

"It turned out that Baba had had no money on him for the oranges. He'd written Mr. Nguyen a check and Mr. Nguyen had asked for an ID. 'He wants to see my license,' Baba bellowed in Farsi. 'Almost two years we've bought his damn fruits and put money in his pocket and the son of a dog wants to see my license!'".

"I wanted to tell him that in Kabul, we snapped a tree branch and used it as a credit card. Hassan and I would take the wooden stick to the bread maker. He'd carve notches on our stick with his knife, one notch for each loaf of naan he'd pull for us from the tandoor's flames. At the end of the month, my father paid him for the number of notches on the stick. No questions. No ID".

It's funny the way Kannada movie advertisements are posted in news papers...
After the title, they always want a caption in English...
And to describe a hero they need English words such as 'power star', 'crazy star', 'challenging star', 'hatric star' and so on...
In the end they speak of saving Kannada language.

Pondering...while in the hospital

* Learning to change the saying 'Health is Wealth' to 'Wealth is Health' or 'One that is wealthy (or the insured)can afford to get health care'...
* Getting few good news on my health side:)
* Cursing all the Doctors who diagnosed me incorrectly; for having made me swallow those bitter pills for one whole year; for preventing me from having some delicious food items for so long...
* Looking at my daughter from the fifth floor window...
* Listening to her speak new words (umbella for umbrella and Hydabd for Hyderabad)over the phone...
* Watching cookery shows just to increase my food cravings...
* Fighting with the sisters and canteen boys to get a cup of Horlicks (my condition was never so pathetic)...

S bought flowers for me today (to say 'get well soon')...
He has of course bought flowers for me many times but this time it was special. Why?
He argued with the hospital management to get those flowers inside the premises as it was not allowed.
He also gave them a valid reason for doing so...that being "Hospital management entertains a flower shop inside its premises at same time puts up a rule inside the hospital that flowers are not allowed into the wards".
With this point being raised, even the management laughed and said he would do something about it.
At first I was angry on him but once he explained the whole story I felt it was very sweet of him.

For Granted

While I was lying on bed this weekend sick with fever, I went back to the days of my high school and college days or rather call it 'days when I was matured enough to think about others and not just myself'.
Then, whenever my mother was down with fever I never helped her. Even if I did it was after she told me to do so but not by self.
I knew I shouldn't be doing that yet I couldn't get myself up helping her.
She would just tell me once and not insist or complain about not giving her helping hand.
Lying sick in bed this time I realized how mother would have felt- so tired and weak yet carrying out the responsibility as usual.
For me at least, I had S who took over all my job while at the same time looked after my little brat.
But my mother wouldn't tell anyone...
I still take her for granted for so many things and I think even after realising this I will still continue to do so just because she is my Mother.
And I also know that she wouldn't complain in future too.
May be one day my girl too will start doing the same and I wouldn't complain.

Bribery v/s Reinforcement

I always considered bribery and reinforcement were one and the same...
...Until I entered my master's.
It was then that I exactly learned the differences between the two.
And the basic difference being that: in bribery you give the reward even before the work is done and in reinforcement reward is given after the work is finished so that the individual performs the act again wanting to get the rewards continuously.
These two terms entered my mind while listening to the song of 3 idiots...Give me some sunshine...wherein he says 'rishvat dena to khud papa ne sikhaya, 99 marks laoge to ghadi varna chadi':)

Of course, the subject under which the reinforcements were taught (Behaviour Modification) was one of my favourites and I had mastered it very well which proved to be useful later too.

Charminar

I never get bored of watching some of the old comedy movies such as Chupke Chupke, Khoobsurat, Angoor and Golmaal...
They carried humour in such a natural and easy manner.
And they successfully catch our attention even today.

Another weekend adventure

Last weekend we were lost and this weekend it was our turn to go shopping without our wallets in the pocket.
Good that we had not yet started our shopping before which we realised the situation.
But luckily, we had some food coupons to spend on eating and filling our stomach after all.
We swore never to repeat the mistake but all the while I thought to myself "we have a saved a lot this weekend"!

I've always hated the very sight of Farah Khan and her brother Sajid Khan.
They criticise and degrade people to the fullest extent possible.
And they consider themselves to be the finest directors of Bollywood which is utter nonsense.
I especially remember last year's award function (don't remember which award) wherein they both anchored the programme and did not miss a single chance to humiliate the best of directors.
They even insulted the debut director of the movie 'A Wednesday' for not having worn a suit for the function to which he remarked after winning the award that he would certainly get a suit stitched for himself as he had won the award!
Ashutosh Gowarikar later blasted them for being so critical for which the sibling duo didn't apologize because they considered it to be humourous.
May be it's wrong on our side to expect such a good behaviour from the Great Directors of the movies such as 'Om Shanti Om', 'Main Hoon Na' and 'Houseful'

Getting Lost

Getting lost or taking a route that is exactly the opposite may be quite frustrating, we may find lots of reasons to blame each person for not preparing ourselves to go in the correct direction.
Even more frustrating could be the fact that, there is very less fuel and no petrol station nearby.
Even worse, when you are hungry!
But the same situation can become humourous when everything is solved.

A Rajasthani shopkeeper at Dhola ri Dhani resort, Hyderabad.

Magnanimous Golconda Fort

One thing I must admit about visiting this place is that, me and S (he carrying my daughter too) had to climb up 365 steps to view the complete fort and we were completely exhausted at the end. And we were worrying about our condition for the next day as our muscles would remind us of our previous day adventure (which usually happens), but both of us were as perfect and painless as we would be everyday!
Call it the miracle of the fort and its structure.
Here is a picture of the beautiful fort...

Whenever I start reading a new book I will be compelled by the idea of turning it back and looking at the total number of pages of the book.
Not that I am scared of big fat books or the number of pages but it's just an old habit which I find it hard to get rid off.
Not only that, even after finishing each chapter I look to see how many pages the next chapter contains.
Weird it may seem but it is true.

Paulo Coelho

I had thoroughly enjoyed reading Paulo Coelho's Alchemist long time back.
With the same expectation I read his other books- The Witch of Portobello and Eleven Minutes and it didn't impress me much.
Though the stories start nicely but they fail to hold the attention till the end.
Here and there his philosophy about life and dreams is good. But at the same time, his explanation about some ritualistic practices is hard to understand.

Here are some excerpts from his books which I liked:
From Eleven Minutes- "Dreaming is very pleasant as long as you are not forced to put your dreams into practice. That way, we avoid all the risks, frustrations and difficulties and when we are old, we can always blame other people- preferably our parents, our spouses, or our children- for our failure to realise our dreams".

From The Witch of Portobellowriting about 'Ants' he says "The guards are genetically prepared to to sacrifice themselves for the queen, the workers carry leaves 10 times their own weight, the engineers make tunnels that can resist storms and floods. They enter into mortal combat with their enemies, they suffer for the community and they never ask 'Why are we doing this?'".

Mirrors

Purse (with mirrors and Lambani style embriodary)which i had bought from Hampi. And the mirror is a gift from my sister.

Remembering the Operation Theatre

There are four things which I remember when i was in the OT during my C-section delivery...
First, the anesthesia that was given on my back...
Second, even after being anaesthetised, the painless yet weird feeling of my skin being ripped off...
Third, when the doctor brought out the baby and said it's a baby GIRL which I so badly wanted!
Fourth and the most uncomfortable, when the stitches were being done. Then I remembered the English movies of the olden royal ladies whose corsets were tightened by their servant maids. Pulling and tightening of the stitches gave the same feeling.

But one thing which i cannot forget after coming out of the OT was the pain after the anaesthesia warred off..

P.S. Small Cities

I received a complaint from S that i hadn’t mentioned about all our favourite eat outs at Davangere. So here is the list: masala paddu at gundi circle, potato bun at Kaveri bakery, tomato toast at Aiyengar’s bakery, avalakki at Rasavanti cool drinks, sandwich at Nature fresh. Ah! So many...how could i miss so many !!!

From Anne Frank's Diary

"What's the use of war? Why can't people live peacefully together? Why all the destruction? Why do some people have to starve, while there are surpluses rotting in other parts of the world? I don't beleive that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone, are guilty of the war. The little man is just as guilty, otherwise the people of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! There's in people simply an urge to destroy, to kill, to murder and until all mankind, without exceptioin, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated, and grown will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to start all over again".

Old Hobbies

One of my favourite hobbies at school days was collecting stamps. Ofcourse, even now i enjoy collecting them but somewhere in between i had lost touch with it. May be it was because i didn't know how to continue it or that nobody else (especially my friends) found it amusing and interesting. And having a hobby like that of your friends was more important at that age. But now it doesn't matter if someone else enjoys it or not, so there are a lot more stamps added to my collection. Moreover, now, i have a hubby and a brother- in- law who are mad about collecting coins so i too get boosted by them. I don't like collecting them through opening an account at the India Post and similar ways but i like the ones that's stuck on the posatge covers. But nowadays that rarely happens.
The other hobby i thoroughly enjoyed as a school girl was to collect the pictures of the famous actress Sridevi whom i adored! Ranging from post cards to tiny/ huge paper cuttings i had some hundreds of her photographs.
There were other hobbies too like drawing and painting, doing craftwork etc etc., but none like Philately (whose name i learnt later) and collecting pictures.

Small cities

There is always an advantage staying in small cities...
Not much traffic, easy accessibility of things, less cost of living, yummy and cheap foodie outlets, hassle free life and many many more.
I am really gonna miss visiting this small city Davangere henceforth as my parents are moving away.
Getting things was so much easier here.
And the mouth watering eatables- the famous ಬೆಣ್ಣೆ ದೋಸೆ, ಖಾರ ಮಂಡಕ್ಕಿ ,ಜೋಳದ ರೊಟ್ಟಿ will be missed always.
But of course i have made up my mind to visit the place at least once a year (hopefully that's possible).

Disparity

Whenever i see my daughter's activities, be it playing (especially the symbolic play which she has learnt recently) or babbling or motor coordination while handling objects(finger dexterity) or self eating and many more such behaviours, i will be compelled to go back to those days when i worked with children with disabilities.

That's because, whatever my daughter is learning now as a 14 months old child those children being more than 5 or 6 years of age were learning it then.
I really at the damage that occurs because of the disability or the disability that's being caused because of the damage!

Blunders

A pamphlet attached to the newspaper read:
"Classical music: Hindustani, Karnatic, Guitar and many more instruments are TEACHED HEAR".

An advertisement for tutorial in a local Kannada newspaper read:
"Fail ಆದಿರೆಂದು feel ಆಗಬೇಡಿ "...I will help you pass, just pay Rs. 2000 per subject. Rs.500 extra for home tuition. If you want 100% result then only come to me!

At a beauty parlour:
"Wings Deepali BEAUUTTY PARRLOUURR".

The Republic Day Parade

As i watched this year's republic day parade on TV i went back to those school days and the by gone era of only channel on TV- Doordarshan.
Then, we would be waiting to finish the early morning republic day celebrations at school so that we could come and watch the parade on TV.
It gave so much of joy.
I watched it this year after many years of gap.
But this time as i watched it was not with joy but reproach and regret.
It's because of the reason that i too could have been there sometime back (when i was a NCC cadet) marching through the India Gate but had rejected it because of my health problem.
I still do not know whether that was a right decision or wrong because if i had agreed to go and spoiled my health completely i would have hated myself.
But , at times i do think i should have taken the chance to see if i could succeed.
Nonetheless, past is past nobody can ever change it.

And an year later...

November 22nd 2008, the day i went to a theatre with my hubby and my little one still inside to watch the movie Kung Fu Panda.
I had a least idea then that my girl would come out just after two days (a month premature).
Days went by taking care of her and it turned an year too.
January 22nd 2010, after exactly an year and two months both me and S hit the theatre to watch 3 idiots.
Hoping that our girl would go off to sleep we took the night show.
And she did actually sleep although she managed to watch half of the movie.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film but was a bit guilty for having spoiled my daughter's sleep as well as the loud noise of the speakers which was bad for her.

Chowmahalla Palace

Though S has taken me to many places in Hyderabad i keep cribbing that he hasn't done so.
That's because my thirst for visiting historic places doesn't seem to end.
Recently we visited the Chowmahalla Palace which really speaks of the grandeur of the Nizams.
The main attraction of the palace in the chandeliers in the durbar hall the beauty of which is magnificent.
We fell short of time to see all the four mahals,each mahal unique in itself.
After a long time it was a great weekend at Hyderabad, as i was thoroughly bored by the usual shopping malls and crowded parks.