Bumble bee bee

H O M E

2009-04-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

An apartment, with the warmth of indian colors, a balcony with a swing and a lot of plants and a small tulsi plant in the center. I am sitting on the swing sipping a hot coffee, enjoying the warmth of morning sun, my eyes wandering the streets of my apartment complex. I see a father hurrying up his kid for starting to school, I see hustle bustle.......I see an auto with school kids

I woke up, careful not to think of anything but the dream , continuing the dream,
now sitting with oatmeal in hand... with teary eyes.... I miss India.

Wheel of time

2008-08-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

I often find myself, thinking " I remember those days.....", looks like the world around me is changing drastically (lets put it that way for aging process) .

When I was young, I used to go to the vegetable market with my mother and aunt. The process to start for a market is long, they used to take a stock of what was available ( Now, I do a random walk on the aisles pick up stuff, come back home and find that there are no tomatoes) and what they needed to buy. Next step was to grab those big jute bags with wooden handles or hand wired bags and some cloth bags for smaller items and made sure they had enough cash for shopping. All the smaller cloth bags were folded neatly and put in the bigger ones. Once every month all these bags were washed cleaned and folded and saved for the next trip. My mother used to stitch and embroider some of the bags that were used for non-grocery shopping trips.

I remember a day, after their market trip they said, these days they put everything in "carry bags" , isnt this very comfortable?. We didnt realize at that point that mother earth was squalling like a baby. My aunt and my mom were happy as they didnt have to collect bags before they went to the market... Thus started the "carry bag" era...

The carry plastic bags were handy, they adorned the garbage cans in the kitchen,served as lunch bags, easy to stuff in wet clothes after a beach trip and what not !. Soon they also started floating in the river waters and adorning the branches of trees, electric lines and started filling up the land fills. After some years, there were protests from the environmentalists that the usage of plastic bags should be stopped in the animal preserve and forest areas as the animals were excited by these carry bags chewed them and the result......

Now there is a lot of awareness about the conundrum of plastic and grocery stores encourage their customers to buy the reusable bags. Last month I bought a couple of shopping bags from the grocery. Yesterday I felt like my mother, not for the planning part but when I remembered to carry the re-usable cloth bags and felt happy that I am contributing a weeeeee biitttt to save my earth.

History repeats !!!!

Krishna Leela

2008-08-27T01:42:00.000-07:00

In scriptures Lord Krishna is portrayed as a bubbly, naughty kid who kept his mother Yeshoda on toes all the time. Songs that are sung describing this aspect of Khanna strikes a special chord in my heart. Two of my favorites are here...

Mayya mohi mein nahin makkan kayo...
-Krishna refusing he ate butter. He reasons with Yeshoda and at the end of all that Yeshoda hugs him and says you could not have eaten the butter. A lovely bhajan by surdas. You can listen to it on Raaga .

Maadu meikum Kanne
- Krishna wants to graze the cows and Yeshoda is scared to send him out of the house, and again he reasons with his mom for every plead and gets away. She lures him with butter, scares him describing the wildlife and thieves in the banks of Yamuna but nothing works. You can see Aruna Sairam doing full justice to the song here . This song is a little special for me, as my grand mother used to sing this on every Krishna Jayanthi.

Lyrics

o maiyyā morī, maiń nahiń mākhan khāyo
bhor bhayo gaiyana ke pāche madhubana mohi paṭhāyo
cara prahara vaḿśī vata bhaṭakyo sāñjha pade ghara āyo
(maiyyā, maiń kab mākhan khāyo)

The little one says, I graze the cows, play the flute and return in the evening. When could I have eaten the butter?

maiń bālaka vahi yan ko choṭo choṭo yeh chīko vidhī pāyo
yeh gvāla bāla sab bair pade haiń bar-bas mukha lapaṭāyo

I am so short and the butter is so high, how is it possible for me reach ? These young calves drink milk from the cows and lick me on lips, so you are having a wrong notion.

jiye tere kuch bheda upaj hai tuhe mohe jāñyo, parayo jāñyo
sūra dāsa tab hasī yaśodā le ura kaṇṭha lagāyo
(naina nīra bharī āyo)
(te nahin mākhan khāyo)

Now I realize that you are my foster mother, hence making all these accusations. Here is your stick and kambala you can use it. Hearing this Yeshoda hugs Krishna and with teary eyes says "you didnt eat butter" !.

To kill a mocking bird

2008-08-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

The plot: There are a lot of book and movie review sites that give a vivid descriptionof this American classic. Here is the wiki link for the book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird

Some books leave indelible impressions on the reader and this was one of them....

The book revolves around Maycomb (town in Alabama) and Atticus Finch fighting for Tom Robinson, a black man being convicted for raping a white girl Mayella Ewell. Though from evidences its clear that Tom Robinson is innocent, Tom is being declared guilty because of his race. Jem and Scout are Atticus' children brought up with the help of Calpurina their house keeper. The book is narrated by Scout, daughter of Atticus.

What impressed me in this book was the character of Atticus Finch, a person with integrity that makes right choices and stands by it. He is potrayed as one with humor, good will and a wonderful father. Atticus is the first in Maycomb committed to racial eqaulity and hence his children are often teased and bullied by other white people and kids in the town. It is the parent side of Atticus that left a deep impact. Atticus keeps his young ones informed, teaches them of reason and instills in them that being brave is not just learning how to fist fight or walking around with a gun but to stand by what you reason as right.

Once Jem loses his head over Mrs Dubose, an old lady for criticizing on Atticus' case. Jem destroys Dubose's flowers, Atticus reprimands Jem for his actions. Mrs. Dubose wants Jem to read to her every day and Atticus compels Jem to read everyday even if it is for a month.

There are subtle but powerful words interpersed here and there...

Scout complains to Atticus that Mrs.Dubose house is dark and scary. Atticus tells her that he did not ask her to accompany Jem for his reading errands and that it was her choice and asks her not to complain. Throughout he insist on his kids that they have to face the consequences of their actions and the choices that they make.

Later on Jem realizes that Mrs. Dubose was an morphine addict who was not in her mind when she spoke most of the things and that she made him read every day as a diversion to reduce her morphine consumption.

excerpts from the book....

When Scout says that Atticus is wrong being on Tom Robinson's side because the whole of Maycomb seems to think that Atticus is wrong, Atticus replies ......

They're certainly entitled to think that and they are entitled to full respect for their opinions . Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by the majority rule is a person's conscience.

This case Tom Robinson's is something that goes to the essence of man's conscience - Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God, if I didnt try to help that man.

Kindle...

2008-01-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

My first instinct as I open any book is to smell it !. Imagined myself getting Amazon kindle and smelling it after I download each book, sounds wierd, doesnt it?. I can distinguish a signet paperback that publishes Ayn Rand books from Harry Potter from the smell !!.

This is probably the same feeling that my grandma had when she had to accept washing clothes in a washing machine, rather than fetching a pail of water and scrubbing the clothes in hand and hanging it meticulosly aligning every corner in a cloth liner.
But how many ever kindles may come, I would still enjoy reading "a book", with a sip of a nice coffee, lost in the realms of papyrus ! (sorry trees!).

Probably kindles are good for reading newspapers, magazines and blogs :-) but I wouldnt use them for reading books

Chinnanchiru Kiliye....

2007-12-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

I remember those cosy days at home, snuggled happily listening to my mother sing chinnanchiru kiliye...I have grown up listening to this song. Whenever this song is sung, there is always an expression of love, longing and pride in the singer's eyes.

Here are some of the verses that creates a niche in the heart of every listener.

sollum mazhalaiyilE kaNNamma tunbangaL teertiDuvaay

( In your childish blabber I can forget all my worries)

Mullai siripaalE yenadu murgamtavirtiDuvaay

(In your smile you make me lose my anger)
inba kadaigaL yellaamunnaipOl yEDugaL solvadunDO

( Are there any books in this world, to narrate stories as you do?)
anbu taruvadilE unnai nEr aagumordaivamunDO

(Even the God cannot bestow love as much as you do)
MaarbilanavadarkE unnaipOl vairamaNi kaLunDO

(Even the precious stones dont adorn my torso, so much as you)
seerpaTri vaazhavadarkE unnaipOl selva piridumunDO

(There is no wealth in this world that is more precious than you )

Listen to this song by S.Gayathri on MIO

These verses made a huge difference, when I actually got to share a special bondwith a little one , my darling niece !!. I cannot stop, but listen with wonder when she regales me with stories from her trips to Australia, Jaipur and what not !!. Turn into a 2 year old with zip zap zoom and ringa ringa roses, be obedient to her commands to sit, stand and dance, Lose myself when she calls Itthi aaru (charu chitti twisted very creatively !) and gives a big hug.

I am sure our Mahakavi, was blessed with such wonderful company to sing, laugh and to be proud of, lest this song would have been just a dream!.

Cassandra Compact

2007-05-13T20:25:00.000-07:00

Cassandra Compact is one of Robert Ludlum's Cover One novels. Philip Shelby has co-authored this work.
Robert Ludlum has been a master of story-telling novels involving the cold war between Russia and USA.This is one of his novels in which the Covert-one operatives thwart the manufacture of bio-weapons. Covert-One is the intelligence organization that is directly under the President.

The thriller starts with Jon Smith, the covert one agent trying to rescue his counterpart Yuri Danko. Yuri Danko's sudden plea of extraction from the field makes Smith fly to Venice. However even before Danko conveys the information he is carrying, he is brutally murdered by two sicilians. This leaves Smith no clue as to what Danko was upto that prompted him for extraction or the information that he was trying to convey.

Smith soon finds out that Danko was trying to alert him about the theft of the deadly small pox virus from the storage facitilities in Moscow. This is initiated by some of the high officials in the US, who conspire to mutate the small pox and develop a deadly biological weapon. This reasearch is furthered by their ties with the space mission. The rest of the plot is how John Smith and other operatives unravel the mystery and save the biological warfare.

Some accomplices , incidents and twists are very much expected. But the main plot seems very realistic with the threat of bio weapons like anthrax hanging in the clouds !.