RAIN RAIN Go Away.. Let the Winter Come and Stay..

New Years Countdowns at WiddlyTinks.com

between you and me

How are you supposed to feel when someone who was once very special calls you up- someone with whom you used to share an intense emotional bond for years and years and who is married to someone else now - when you find the eccentric and immature person, who you never thought would be sane, talking about his 1.5 year old son who he says is very naughty?

Yes, you were expecting his call. He had called you up last year just before the Durga Puja - the season carries with it memories and remembrances - last year you had choked and had hung up midway.. You had not saved the number from which he had called.. you had not felt the need to. But since the last few months you have been wanting to talk to him. When everybody can be forgiven, why not he? When X and Y can live in peace with the knowledge that you have forgiven them and accepted fate and moved on.. why should A be denied that peace? Was it not him whom you had loved the most... was it not him whom you have ever truly loved?  ... you were hoping for and wishing that he calls up..

Well he did.. he did not tell his name as usual ... and kept on mumbling "its me.. its me".. and you understood who it was... Old buddies talked after a long time.. friends who understood each other and had known each other for years had catching up to do.. and so they did.. it was a warm chat.. it felt good.. for the first time he told you his wife's name when you asked him.. he told you about his son whom he had not mentioned in the last conversation... "he is named Swapnarghyo.. he does not have a strange name like me" and the two of you shared a hearty laugh...he asked some personal questions and seemed to get the subtle replies that you gave... he said he is not happy.. " when will you be happy if you are not happy with a child?" .."your question is justified but I do not know the answer"..... "I cannot believe you have a family with a wife and a kid.. I cannot imagine you as a responsible father" you mumble.. "I dont know whether I am a good husband and a good father but I try my best" he says humbly.. "that's very good" is your spontaneous and honest reaction... "my wife has a cadaverous temper.. I ask her how she controls it in the school where she works" he confides.. "good for her.. and serves you right... your partner needed to have a temper.. otherwise your temper and mood swings would have killed her" you say without hesitation.. both of you pause for a few seconds.. memories flood in... and you manage to giggle warmly...

Its time to hang up.. with lot of peace and goodness in your heart you wish each other well... he who never wore his heart on his sleeves blurted out "it was nice.. it was very very nice talking to you.. TaTa".

Yes, it was nice. You had wanted it to be nice -- you thank God and yourself for making it nice -- you feel happy with yourself--- you are proud.. of yourself...

Sachin gets his 200 this morning.

It is Panchami today.

My bro has bumped his car behind a Tata Ace last night. The restoration estimate is worth rs 17000.  He is asking for donations. Anyone interested?

 Sachin reaches 105 after hitting a 6! :D  Congrats on the 49th Test Hundred and thanks for not getting out in the 90s :P !!!

WHAT A CHEER..... THE SKY IS CLEAR ! :-)

Woke up late.. In a drowsy state..

"Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's."
~ Billy Wilder.

"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye."
~ Helen Keller

I have got addicted to Aniruddha Sasha Ghosal's voice. I will write about the entire account later.

My niece's 10-day-long half yearly exams have come to an end last week. Phew! She says her teacher "Betty Miss" has told her "GOOD" everyday!
The soon-to-be four-yr-old has a steady boyfriend named "S" :) -- they cannot be separated- the mothers have a tough time when they try to take the kids back from school to their respective homes. The school gatekeeper tells my SIL that they do not play like other kids during recess and roam around the school compound, their arms linked!

A Pair of Books

 I have not met them for years. In fact, I have never met the younger one properly. The elder one scrapped me a few months back on Orkut. Then, we started interacting on Gtalk and Facebook. I love talking to kids- and loved being in touch with them.
I am talking about my nieces who have spent most of their childhood in Delhi. One of them is in Class Eleven and the other is in Class Seven.

They were supposed to come down to Kolkata to attend the family wedding and I was quite excited at the prospect of meeting them - they are a pair of teenagers whom I have seen as small babies.

A week prior to the wedding, me and my cousin went to a bookstore. I wanted to get books for the girls and some other children who would be coming down for the wedding. We spent a considerable amount of time in the Children's section and Young Adults section. Choosing books for two young girls whom both of us knew quite superficially turned out to be a difficult job!

When I browsed through Classics, my cousin cautioned me - they might not like classics - he said. When I browsed through light Young Adult fiction- he said there was no point in paying so much money for these kind of books. Finally, after much deliberations, I decided upon a Enid Blyton school story for the elder one and The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo.for the younger one.

When I went for the wedding, I packed the books with my belongings - I would be gifting the books to the girls when I meet them in a couple of day's time.
The day they were about to board the train with their mother (my cousin), news reached us that they have cancelled the trip for a number of reasons.
As soon as I got the news, I put the books into R(another of my niece)'s luggage - she too had come down from Delhi and would be returning there once the wedding was over.

Later that week, when the ceremonies got over, R came down to our place to spend the day with us! I hope you have got the books with you-  I asked her. No, I have given them to T-Didi, she has put the books in her luggage- R assured me. T is a cousin of mine who would also be returning to Delhi.

A day later, T came down to our place with her husband and kids and spent a couple of days with us, before boarding their train to Delhi. It never occurred to me that I needed to confirm that the books were with her.

When the whole group reached Delhi, we exchanged calls and messages ... the wedding photos were uploaded on Facebook and cousins, nephews and nieces from every corner of the country joined in happy reminiscences. The nieces for whom I have sent the books also chipped in once in a while. But they did not mention whether they liked the books or not. T might not have met them and so they have not got the books yet- I thought.

Later that week, Tu, the elder of the teenagers, asked me about the books. Masi, who has got our books? - were her exact words. My heart skipped a beat. I told her that I had given the books to R and she has given them to T. This interaction was taking place on Facebook. R joined in and expressed her apprehension that the books seem to have got lost. We seem to have left them in the room rented for the wedding - she said. And she apologized. I was taken aback - didn't know what to say.. how to react!

I made it quite clear to R that I was a bit annoyed and she apologized once again. But that would not find the books for me. I called up my aunt and she assured me that she would try to inquire. She called me up in the afternoon and told that the rented place had been checked properly and nothing was found.

Meanwhile, the Facebook conversation was going on .. TU had been online after school and had written to R, "Shit! Masi.. how could you do this.."

I wrote to T's hubby who replied stating that the books were never given to T and might be found inside a covered bookshelf in the rented room! I called up my aunt once again and she confirmed that there was a covered shelf in the room in question.
Finally, I called up my uncle (the one who had rented the room). At first, he thought I was talking about the grand reception venue which was far off from their home. He rightly said that things thus misplaced in public venues could never be found.  I corrected him and told that I was talking about the rented room (which was being referred to as The Island for various reasons :P )just opposite his house. My uncle was in one of his sweet moods and assured me that he would look into the matter.

In the evening, he gave me a call from The Island and read me the names of the books. I instantly knew he had found the books and had them with him. I gave a cry of relief!

I called up my aunt, T, her hubby, and R (who did not pick up the phone) to give the good news. Then I came online and found a very repentant R offering TU to buy her the "lost" books.
And then I was amazed to find how fast news travel these days!! TU was informing R that the books have been found!  In just a matter of five minutes, the news has traveled from me to T and to TU who was typing it on Facebook to let R know!

A minute later I received a call from a giggly R who suggested me ways of sending the books over to Delhi.

India celebrates August 15

"India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!"
~ Mark Twain.


Lets be proud of our country - Happy Independence Day!!

as Baaishe Shraabon goes by..

good old DDLJ

I am watching Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (for the nth time?) and wondering why this movie never does lose its appeal!

I know the dialogues and the sequences almost by heart.. but I still cannot change the channel...

My most favorite dialogue from this movie is where Raj reminisces about what his mother had told him: ..at every crossroad of life, you will find two paths - one wrong and one right..the wrong path will draw it towards you.. it will offer you fast prizes..but at the end you will be a loser.. the right route will be difficult and unattractive.. you will face numerous obstacles.. but in the end you will be a winner in the game called life..

I know, in today's world, it seems too simplified and ideal.. but this has helped me on many occasions when wrong routes attract us with tempting possibilities... and resisting ourselves becomes difficult.. I try to remember this dialogue and keep a check on myself..

rath'er mela ~

Yesterday, I went to the "Rath'er Mela" (can we call that Chariot Fair?) after quite a few years... I remember going there last when I worked in Ibiza and the fair used to stretch from the Rashbehari 4-point to the start of the Chetla Bridge.

Now the fair runs underneath the bridge cutting the area below the bridge at right angles. The volume of the fair has shrunk a bit -- with lesser number of plant nurseries and no bird/guinea pig sellers at all.

But I loved it! I had my favourite companion with me, i.e. myself .. there was nobody to hurry or push, judge or comment.

I bought tea sets and other toys for Bhojai (my dear niece) and the other kids who are going to come down for the Aug wedding. I got the red horns that we have been planning to buy--- they were much much cheaper than what they cost in Gariahat or Part St! Beware SM & MS, we are ready with the pranks!! :D

Pickles, ajwain goli, boRi and sago papad are always on my list when I visit the Mela.. so down they went into my big shopper. I got hold of essentials like hair clips, hair bands, safety pins and combs. Beautiful flower-designed teacups caught my fancy and I got a pair -- I have had my morning tea in one of those (the more beautiful one) and the empty cup still sits beside my monitor as I write this post.

The Krishnanagar clay replicas of vegetables and fruits were irresistible .. got a few of them (and a small hanuman).. I might gift a few to the kids and keep a few for myself :P
I got a few sticks of golden and silver imitation flower buds, a set of bangles for Bhojai and a cute red fan.

Seven o'clock and Nine o'clock saplings were my last purchase.

The evening was my gift to myself -- I loved the expression on the little boy's face whom I bought a candy. While writing this post, I am suddenly reminded of Tagore's poem --- the entire spirit of Rath'er Mela gets ruined if a child who is the soul of the fair does not get his share of happiness.

A letter to a child

Back in May 2008, I had written a letter. It was addressed to Kuhu, my friend Koyel's daughter. She was turning 1 on May 15, '08 and I wanted the letter to reach her around that time.. though it was intended to be read by a grown-up Kuhu.. the first letter written to her by her Masimoni (or maybe by anybody for that matter)! The letter was in Bengali, although I had my doubts whether she would ever learn to read her mother tongue, as her parents had migrated out of Bengal when she was 8 months old. I had expressed that concern in the letter also.
It was a time when Koyel lived in Faridabad (Haryana), and she did not have an email ID. We were back to our old days of writing letters and were enjoying it. (We were avid letter writers while we were in school and used to write to each other during the vacations, although we lived only a couple of miles apart!)

A few weeks back, while browsing through a diary, I discovered that letter written to Kuhu in May '08! It was never posted and I had forgotten all about it! Along with it, was folded an unfinished letter that I was writing to Koyel, back then. As I glanced through that letter, I was feeling as if I was dragging out ghosts from the coffin. It had details of the various matrimonial prospects that visited Jhimli (my cousin) and the odd matches I had tried to make for her. The image of the presently happily (touch wood!) married  and settled Jhimli peeped into my mind, and the unfinished letter in my hand felt like a piece of history. I saw the irony and knew Koyel also will see it when she reads this letter after so many months. I added a few sentences in the vacant space and posted both the letters together to their present Dombvelli (Maharashtra) address.

The letter reached the destination last evening.

Here, let me say a few words about Kuhu (she has turned 3 this May). She is a very special child... which child is not!! She has a love for books. Both her mother and me are very happy about it. Despite growing up outside Bengal, she knows most of the Bengali alphabets and has no inhibition towards Bengali storybooks. (unlike most of my cousins who grew up outside Bengal and unlike most of my friends' children who have been out of this state since birth). Kuhu loves RabiThakur (Rabindranath Tagore) in her own way!

She does not have friends and has a kind of fixation with her mother (which I hope she will overcome soon). Though I had done the difficult task of befriending her on both the occasions when she visited Kolkata, she does not speak to me over the phone. Well, her mother says she does not speak to anybody over the phone.

This morning Koyel read my letter (the one written to Kuhu) to Kuhu. She listened to it through her routine of getting ready for school -- a routine which generally sees that child throw up. I was told by her mother that she had an elated and proud expression on her face throughout the letter. When the letter was over, she had smiled sweetly and uttered, "Eisab likhechhe.. aamake?" ("She has written these things.. to me?")

The letter had diverted her attention and she reached school without throwing up -- which according to Koyel was the rarest of rare occurrences.

Koyel says Kuhu wants to write to me just as she has written to her Granny a few days back! "Didaan'er chiThiTa toh POST i kora holo na" ("the letter I wrote to Didaan has not yet been posted"), she has grumbled.

I am looking forward to Kuhu's letter, just as I used to look forward to her mother's, years back.

Home

I was up to my neck with work throughout the day, but still. . . a child inside me kept on crying , "I want to go home" ...where is the home that I am yearning for?

Sweet Sweet Peas

Just as I had completed the previous post, my doorbell rang. A courier was delivered from World Vision. The envelope contained a letter written by one of the volunteers on behalf of Likhitha and the most special content was a page taken from a coloring book where Likhitha has colored sweet peas green .. isnt that sweet?  :-)


I would try and scan the page so that I can post it here.


Till then,
Bye.

About Likhitha

World Vision India had been sending me mailers. I never opened them! Sometime around the end of last month, I opened one of their mails and was immediately inspired to learn about the work they do.

I visited the page where one could select a child for sponsorship and clicked on the picture of this little girl named "Likhitha". She is seven years old and lives in Hyderabad. She studies in pre-school. When I sent the cheque for the first three months, I received a kit which had Likhitha's picture and some literature to let me know about how things work. The kit provided me with a Partner ID and a child ID which needs to be mentioned whenever I send something or write to the child.

I have arranged for the ECS for the next 12 months from Aug 2010 onwards. They have informed that they have received that.

It was Likhitha's birthday on June 14! I have couriered her some books, a box of oil pastels, and a birthday card. I hope she liked them.

I wish World Vision India all the best for the brilliant work that they are doing!! I hope I can touch Likhitha's life in whatever little way I can.