Well , Puffoos is fine and Poochoos has had three...yes, three.... more kittens. Bad girl!!!!
Its been a long time I've been away from my blog, is laziness a good enough excuse? I admire people who have something to blog EVERY DAY. They must lead such interesting lives.
In the interim (I've always wanted to say that,"In the interim") we went to Delhi.... sorry!! Gurgaon for the purists. Havent had such a holiday in years where we just slept and read and slept and read some more. My idea of bliss!!!!
My only grouse against the place is there there is no public transport, only the cycle rickshaws. The last time I travelled in one was when I was 10 years old and in Allahabad. I know the guys are trying to make an honest living , but I feel very guilty.... I will not travel in one.
Gurgaon skyline looks like something out Dubai or some place, just as long as your gaze remains on the horizon. The illusion snaps when you look lower than that.
Also went to a multiplex and saw "Chak De" (Will some Punjabi tell me just exactly what that means?) Loved it. I dont care what anyone says, I love feel good movies. I'm paying good money to enjoy myself and I do not enjoy myself when I see movies where they stare at a fly on a chappati for hours on end.
Picked up cheap books on the roadside, though really the place for that is Daryganj. Shall make another trip for that.. Now thats something to look forward to.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Puffoos is not well... he hasnt been eating anything for the past 2 days and is just curled up on his box and sleeps. I'm not a cat expert, havent had a pet before Poochoos walked into our life last year and here
I am worried about her offspring. I havent the faintest idea what is wrong. Thought he would snap out of it, probably eaten something that hasnt agreed with him, but he seems to be getting worse. Tomorrow is Sunday and dont know if the vet will be available. I have a gut feeling he wont make it. Why do I feel responsible??? and so helpless.....
Saturday, July 7, 2007
I walked past Palace Road today with the heavenly smell of coffee being ground wafting up from one of the shops there. It is cold, wet and windy and that smell just makes me want to curl up in the corner of a room with a hot mug of fresh coffee in my hand, a few cushions around and a good book in my hand. Smells transport me to places I have been and memories that are buried deep.
Smells I love..
..fresh ground coffee..
..newly wet earth after the first rain....
..the smell from the pages of books - particularly old ones, new ones and in between ones...
..of a classroom in the holidays.. try it, it smells of chalk and wood
..jasmine from outside my bedroom window...
..Johnsons baby powder on a baby..
..freshly cut grass..
..laundered sundried clothes..
..the smell of peeled oranges..
..of crushed lime leaves..
These are just top of the hat, Im sure if I thought about it there would be more.
..
Smells I love..
..fresh ground coffee..
..newly wet earth after the first rain....
..the smell from the pages of books - particularly old ones, new ones and in between ones...
..of a classroom in the holidays.. try it, it smells of chalk and wood
..jasmine from outside my bedroom window...
..Johnsons baby powder on a baby..
..freshly cut grass..
..laundered sundried clothes..
..the smell of peeled oranges..
..of crushed lime leaves..
These are just top of the hat, Im sure if I thought about it there would be more.
..
Photos
I was going through old photographs that Kuttenmama has preserved so carefully and meticulously. I cannot tell you the number of photos he has got.He has shelves full of them at home and at the office. Photos taken of various functions that we have conducted, attended ,were invited to, somehow slipped into the periphery, or in other unsuspecting ways were victims of camera mania. Now I am not a big fan of fotos, not just because I am not photgenic and I never come out well in any of them,but also because I dont like the amount of time and money spent on taking photos of people from different angles which then gathers dust in some corner of the house.I do enjoy seeing well taken portraits of say an Aishwarya Rai or a Sreedevi.
But I object to having photos of random people eating,staring hopefully at the camera,or doing things that, if they knew would be captured for posterity by a trigger happy person, they would never have done.
I object to seeing wedding photos, annniversary fotos, birthday fotos, office or workplace function fotos of people I do not know and will probably never meet.
I object to having wedding albums that weigh a ton thrust at me where I have to dutifully turn pages and comment on people I know nothing about.
If I looked like Aishwarya or photographed like her perhaps I would change my mind!!!!
But I object to having photos of random people eating,staring hopefully at the camera,or doing things that, if they knew would be captured for posterity by a trigger happy person, they would never have done.
I object to seeing wedding photos, annniversary fotos, birthday fotos, office or workplace function fotos of people I do not know and will probably never meet.
I object to having wedding albums that weigh a ton thrust at me where I have to dutifully turn pages and comment on people I know nothing about.
If I looked like Aishwarya or photographed like her perhaps I would change my mind!!!!
Friday, June 29, 2007
MALAYALI NAMES
Working along with Rajendran these many years (I don’t want to count how many years) have been an eye opener in many ways. When I first came to Kochi after my marriage, I think I believed that this would be short and temporary stay and that we would, after a couple of years move out of here. If someone had told me at that point that I would spend over 20 years here, I would have told them to go get their heads examined. But as we spread roots here, (I did, Rajendran’s were already well entrenched, only I did not know it) I decided that I might as well enjoy life as it comes.
Long ago before the Kumbalanghy Bridge came up, the Lions Club had a weekly medical camp at the Kumbalanghy School and Rajendran being a lion in those far off days, was roped in to attend them. So every Thursday afternoon a group of us would go in a car the long way round via Kannamaly. I say we, because by then I decided that I might as well pitch in.
My job then was to dispense the medicines. Now I had no idea of the names that the average Malayali could dream up. Names like Jeejo, jojo, jibi and joji were far from my usual horizons. And I expected names to have an age limit. For instance, the names above could only be for young kids, not those over, say 30 years of age. I made up a game as I dispensed the medicines. I would imagine a person for each name. I would read out the names in the medicines slips and wait with bated breath as it were, to see whether my association for the name and the person would match. Mostly it didn’t, thanks to the Malayali felicity with names. But my biggest surprise was when I dispensed medicines to Rocky. Those days, the movie Rocky I and Rocky II about the fighter Rocky Balboa had been released. So naturally I associated the name with a Sylvester Stallone type a character. Some one strong and virile. So I called out the name Rocky and waited. Rocky arrived. He was 75 years old and bent over with age. Rocky had severe asthma so he wheezed with every step. He couldn’t be further from my Sly Stallone association.
Even now I play the game sometimes. What do you expect Saed Afridi, Lata Mangeshkar, Vani Jayaram, Tipsy and Wasim Akram to look like?
I kid you not. These are names of Dr Shaila’s patients. If you don’t believe me ask her!!!
Long ago before the Kumbalanghy Bridge came up, the Lions Club had a weekly medical camp at the Kumbalanghy School and Rajendran being a lion in those far off days, was roped in to attend them. So every Thursday afternoon a group of us would go in a car the long way round via Kannamaly. I say we, because by then I decided that I might as well pitch in.
My job then was to dispense the medicines. Now I had no idea of the names that the average Malayali could dream up. Names like Jeejo, jojo, jibi and joji were far from my usual horizons. And I expected names to have an age limit. For instance, the names above could only be for young kids, not those over, say 30 years of age. I made up a game as I dispensed the medicines. I would imagine a person for each name. I would read out the names in the medicines slips and wait with bated breath as it were, to see whether my association for the name and the person would match. Mostly it didn’t, thanks to the Malayali felicity with names. But my biggest surprise was when I dispensed medicines to Rocky. Those days, the movie Rocky I and Rocky II about the fighter Rocky Balboa had been released. So naturally I associated the name with a Sylvester Stallone type a character. Some one strong and virile. So I called out the name Rocky and waited. Rocky arrived. He was 75 years old and bent over with age. Rocky had severe asthma so he wheezed with every step. He couldn’t be further from my Sly Stallone association.
Even now I play the game sometimes. What do you expect Saed Afridi, Lata Mangeshkar, Vani Jayaram, Tipsy and Wasim Akram to look like?
I kid you not. These are names of Dr Shaila’s patients. If you don’t believe me ask her!!!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
May was a hectic month,travelling between Chennai Bangalore and Cochin.
Why you might ask.. for kichus admissions. Actually,come to think of it that was not much runing around to do and Kichu has got admission in almost all colleges he applied to. Finally he decided on Loyola College, Chennai for Economics. I'm happy coz its a good college and not too far away. He can come over some weekends if he wants to. Meera is too far away for that, a fact that I really regret. ALso the fact that we sent her to Bangalore for her studies after the 10th. Should have kept her here for another 2 year. At that point, I didnt realise how quickly time flies and too soon it is time for the babies to fly away.
Now for it to be perfect, she should get a job in Chennai or Bangalore........
That would be too good to be true, I dont think God would allow that.
Am waiting for July 21st for Harry Potter to make his appearance.....
Why you might ask.. for kichus admissions. Actually,come to think of it that was not much runing around to do and Kichu has got admission in almost all colleges he applied to. Finally he decided on Loyola College, Chennai for Economics. I'm happy coz its a good college and not too far away. He can come over some weekends if he wants to. Meera is too far away for that, a fact that I really regret. ALso the fact that we sent her to Bangalore for her studies after the 10th. Should have kept her here for another 2 year. At that point, I didnt realise how quickly time flies and too soon it is time for the babies to fly away.
Now for it to be perfect, she should get a job in Chennai or Bangalore........
That would be too good to be true, I dont think God would allow that.
Am waiting for July 21st for Harry Potter to make his appearance.....
IMA musings
As I sit down to write this I haven’t the faintest idea what to write about. Hari had requested me for an article many weeks ago and the first one I sent him was sent to the editorial waste basket. He asked me to sent him another one (“brief and witty” were his exact words). Since then, I have struggled to put pen to paper, and have ended up being neither witty nor brief.
What does one write about with the dead line looming up a couple of hours ahead of you? Try it!! The cogs of your brain seize up!!!!
Trying valiantly again... no topic in mind, not even a germ of a witty line. Another factor causing this writers block is the fact that it is for the IMA news letter. Does the article have to be about medicine or related things? And how can one be witty about such a serious thing as medicine?? Sacrilege!
Also the fact that I am not a Doctor and therefore not a member of the IMA as such, but a member of its sister organization, The Ladies Wing (which reminds me, I better check whether my membership dues are current). That fact alone mandates that I look at medicine and its practice from the sidelines, as it were. Of course from the side lines, one sees many hilarious things, but whether it can be the topic of an article to the News letter is another thing all together.
So I sit here in front of my computer, wondering what to write about. When I very foolishly said OK to Hari, let me confess I had in my mind, visions of a column in the newsletter something like Art Buchwald or perhaps even Erma Bombeck. Visions of dashing off small vignettes of medical life and life in its periphery... humorous and yet profound and touching. From the news letter I would progress naturally to the local newspapers and then further afield. Start one of those syndicated columns. I would be famous. Earn a lot of money. Those dreams are rapidly going the way of Bertie Wooster and his masterpiece “What the well dressed man is wearing” for his aunt Dahlia’s rag Milady’s Boudoir.
I shall try for some more time and then tell Hari I can’t do it. Perhaps I shall have to avoid him each time I see him at the IMA meetings. Maybe I should just ring him up and tell him right now. Maybe I should move to the Middle East some where…?
What does one write about with the dead line looming up a couple of hours ahead of you? Try it!! The cogs of your brain seize up!!!!
Trying valiantly again... no topic in mind, not even a germ of a witty line. Another factor causing this writers block is the fact that it is for the IMA news letter. Does the article have to be about medicine or related things? And how can one be witty about such a serious thing as medicine?? Sacrilege!
Also the fact that I am not a Doctor and therefore not a member of the IMA as such, but a member of its sister organization, The Ladies Wing (which reminds me, I better check whether my membership dues are current). That fact alone mandates that I look at medicine and its practice from the sidelines, as it were. Of course from the side lines, one sees many hilarious things, but whether it can be the topic of an article to the News letter is another thing all together.
So I sit here in front of my computer, wondering what to write about. When I very foolishly said OK to Hari, let me confess I had in my mind, visions of a column in the newsletter something like Art Buchwald or perhaps even Erma Bombeck. Visions of dashing off small vignettes of medical life and life in its periphery... humorous and yet profound and touching. From the news letter I would progress naturally to the local newspapers and then further afield. Start one of those syndicated columns. I would be famous. Earn a lot of money. Those dreams are rapidly going the way of Bertie Wooster and his masterpiece “What the well dressed man is wearing” for his aunt Dahlia’s rag Milady’s Boudoir.
I shall try for some more time and then tell Hari I can’t do it. Perhaps I shall have to avoid him each time I see him at the IMA meetings. Maybe I should just ring him up and tell him right now. Maybe I should move to the Middle East some where…?
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