Archana – Page 69 – Spice of Life!

07/09/201321/07/2020

The Dhol pathaks are here

Come August and every year the city starts reverberating to ‘dhol’ beat every evening especially along the bank of the River Mutha. And every year there is general outcry against high sound levels, protests from organisations, dire warnings from authorities etc but usually all these have only a limited effect. For the uninitiated ‘dhol’ is a traditional percussion instrument, drum as it were that is played in a group at festive occasions, processions etc. These preparations are for the Ganesh Utsav, that usually falls in sometime in September, which is the prime showcase for the dhol pathak.

This year I had an opportunity to visit one group during their practise sessions. As I mentioned earlier, training begins at least a month before Ganesh Utsav. People from all walks of life get together each evening for about four hours of practise. The Raja Mantri Path in Pune has several groups practising simultaneously which can be troublesome for people living close by. I spent just under an hour there and my ear drums went into a defensive shutdown that lasted for over two hours thereafter! The groups seemed to be well organised and disciplined. The air reverberated with different beats that grew louder as we approached the practise area.

A Dhol pathak during the 2012 Ganesh visarjan procession, this image taken on Laxmi Road.

Practise was on full swing and they did not stop for even a minute for the period we stood there. They obviously forcefully struck the stick on the dhol but the beats seemed to invigorate them rather than tire. The group seemed to follow an apparently invisible command set by the leader (invisible to outsiders) as they smoothly changed their strokes. That’s great team effort!

Ganesh immersion procession, dhol practise

I wonder if this image conveys the speed and force with which the dhol players strike the drums…

Dhol

The group practises

Participants come straight from work, college to practise

I tried carrying the instrument and it seemed to weigh about 5 kgs, which is not much considering its size. It is carried strapped around the waist and a stick called “Tippru” is used to strike one side of the dhol. The other side is struck with the palm of the hand. Girls/women use a slighlty smaller dhol but there is not much of a difference I am told. Smaller drums called ‘tasha’ are also part of the troupe along with big dhols. The entire group plays together to create memerising catchy unforgettable rhythms. An average pathak can have 40-60 people.

Vidyesh has come to Pune all the way from Nagpur just to participate. He has had an amazing experience so far and given a chance would like to come again next year! He says, “Yes the practise is tiring but when we play at full power and full rhythm the pleasure acts as a pain killer!” They use cotton balls to protect their ears he said but after a while they get used to the sound.

Its people like Vidyesh and the many others like him who manage to juggle time with their jobs who are helping keep this traditional art form alive and flourishing. This Ganeshutsav, do go out and enjoy the processions especially the foot tapping,decibel defying dhol!
Cheers!

31/07/201321/07/2020

Does Mothering Ever End?

Every mother will agree that she thinks that the ‘next’ phase in her child’s life will be better or easy on her. Easy in terms of her worries, stress…

Ask anyone who has stayed awake at night when her baby was crying or bit off her nails when the ‘apple of her eye’ was in a school interview or tied herself in knots when her kid’s school bus was unreasonably delayed or has had high decibel, lachrymose arguments as the children grow up for not seeing eye to eye about the colour of the nail polish or site or type of the strange tattoo …

Yet when that ‘next’ phase arrives she finds that the maternal stress never ended nor for the phase thereafter…

There is much written about Motherhood and all it stands for. Selfless Love, Sacrifice, Teaching (customs, traditions, manners, family religious rites and so on…) to name just a few things a Mum is expected to do and do well. Naturally this ‘mothering’ takes a toll in the form of worrying and becomes a second nature to her, especially whenever her child is in front of her.

This is the crux- the child (son or daughter) always remains a child in her eyes. Whether the baby is now school going or a college or post grad student or when about to get married and to top it all… when her ‘child’ has one of his own…

So now she is worrying for her child and the child’s child. There are many Marathi Moms who baby sit their grandchildren as their own children are working. So the grandmother manages (ignores) any of her own age related ailments and plunges into nurturing the young ones… This process continues for the next generation as well, trust me… I have experienced it!!

Here I have to admit that I know a few Moms who have not gone down this “babysit the grandchild” Street but that doesn’t mean they don’t worry.

I think Moms must learn to mentally stay aloof so that they can give sensible and practical advice – IF its sought- to their children (now adults) about their children. Sounds complicated? No one said Motherhood is easy… This strategic mental aloofness is vital so she continues to have time for her own hobbies/activities/friends, devote time for exercise/health and so on…

All this sounds easy to write, or agree to but when put in the actual situation, I am not sure…
Honestly, Does a Mom ever retire? Can she?

27/05/201321/07/2020

May is for Mangoes

May. The month that every one dreads for intense searing heat, blazing sunshine. It is also the month that mangoes are at their peak. While mangoes are available in India right from the month of March, I firmly believer that they taste their best only in May. The heat allows them to ripen naturally and their colour and flavour is best enhanced in these conditions. It is often called the King of Fruits.

Lovely ripe mangos fill the air with their intoxicatingly sweet fragrance that is sure to tempt passerbys to buy them.

It is widely known that fruit that is available in earlier months may be artificially ripened using various techniques. That obviously prevents the real flavour from developing. Reports state that Carbide is often used to ripen mangoes. Since they are available much before their natural ripenening period, they are obviously very costly and yet do not taste like the real thing.
So how do we know?

First and foremost, one must inspect the fruit before buying it. Check the area of the stalk. My regular mango vendor has told me that fruit where this portion (around the stalk) is raised has been plucked early from the tree. That prevents it from developing its full flavour on the tree which is a must.
In additon also check the curve of the fruit. The curve must be gentle and not a deep depression. The image I have added here will better explain what I have just said.

Choosing mangoes, artificially ripened fruit

Check the curve on the mango. It must be a gentle curve and not a deep depression

Check the skin for any obvious marks that suggest application of any powders etc. This article mentions that mango’s ripened with carbide have a uniform yellow colour. Such fruit are not ripe on the inside and is not sweet. Here is a link that describes how to detect a carbide-ripened mango. Hold a lit match stick near the mango surface. If it gives out sparks or catches fire then its quite likely to have been ripened using calcium carbide.

There are still few more days for the Alphonso season. Thereafter there are many other varieties each with it a unique flavour. Try them and continue to enjoy the fruit at its natural peak season.
Enjoy!

30/04/201321/07/2020

Zzzz

Almost universally everyone will know these alphabets to indicate sleep. Sleep is a very important part of our lives, its the time when our body recovers energy spent through the waking hours and the brain too gets to carry out and complete certain functions. I guess that is a very simplistic explanation of complex electrical activity in our brain cells that helps our memory. Sleep is the time when certain hormones are released in kids and young adults, it can stimulate creativity, can help reduce stress… This is just the tip of the a long list. ‘

Thus being deprived of sleep can obviously create havoc with our systems. Read this Huff Post article that has a slide show describing the benefits of sleep.

Those of us in stuck in the rat race, need to pause and think. What are we earning for if we cannot get one of the basic human requirements?

I don’t know about others, but I am surely going to catch up on my sleep now and not later.
Good luck!

28/04/201321/07/2020

Yes, I can

I admit I had huge doubts when I joined the April A to Z Blogging Challenge. It was unlike other such writing events I had participated in- one did not compete with others but rather challenged oneself. While I had posted regularly (What is ‘regular’ defined as as?), there were occasional long gaps. Once that occurred, lethargy set in and I found all kinds of reasons to delay posting – the commonest being lack of ideas.

This challenge seemed to be just what the Doctor ordered.

I am quite proud to have got this far, challenges withstanding. The main one was that I was travelling extensively across oceans and did not always have access to the Internet. Yet with some prescheduling and planning, I have made it to the letter Y. The family helped by suggesting topics and even allowing me to use photos. Some posts were changed at the last moment while some held at the first draft.

I have visited many interesting blogs and found interesting themes. Its been a wonderful ‘global’ experience.
A big Thank You to the April A to Z Blogging Challenge organisers.
Happy Blogging everyone!

27/04/201321/07/2020

XX

The XX chromosome is the genetic characteristic of a
woman. She has to juggle several responsibilities both
at home and at office. She needs superhuman strength to do so.

Here is a message forwarded to me some time back which
aptly covers all I have to say. I do not know the source but would love to
attribute the author.

As someone said, “Every man wants a girlfriend, wife, mother but many don’t want a daughter…”
In
India, having a son is given huge importance and women who have only
daughters are often ‘looked down upon’ metaphorically speaking of
course. Female infanticide following prenatal determination of the sex of the unborn child still occurs in many parts both rural and urban among educated and uneducated people.

This post is dedicated to all women…

Someone asked a woman:

Are you a working woman or a
house-wife?
She replied:
Yes I am a full time working house-wife,
I work 24 hours a day..
I’m a “Mom”,
I’m a Wife,
I’m a Daughter,
I’m a Sister,
I’m a Daughter-in-law,
I’m an Alarm clock,
I’m a Cook,
I’m a Maid,
I’m a Teacher,
I’m a Waiter,
I’m a Nanny,
I’m a Nurse,
I’m a Security officer,
I’m a Counselor,
I’m a Comforter
I don’t get holidays,
I don’t get sick leave,
I don’t get day off,
I work through day and night.
I’m on call.. all hours

And I get paid with a sentence…

“WHAT DO YOU DO ALL DAY?”

26/04/201321/07/2020

What is this life?

He walked down to the car, to the car, and walked into the hospital ER.
Never to walk out again.
Within a few minutes all was over

It was as if he just walked out of everybody’s lives…
A sudden void at every turn
A ‘chat’ with him would now be a ‘darshan‘ (दर्शन)
‘He’ was now a ‘body’
All in the span of a few minutes, the view changed.

What is Life and what comes after?
Where were we on the day before we were born? Where do we go from here?
When? That is the dreaded question none of us wants to ask but fears the most
Why? All of us have to move on – that much is certain from the moment of our birth.
How? Yet another question for which there are no answers…

Why not use 4Ws and 1H (Who, Where, What, When and How) to make the most of our moments on earth? Each of us has to find answers to these questions for ourselves.
Think about it…

25/04/201321/07/2020

Vanilla

Vanilla is a popular flavour especially in ice cream or Milk shakes and smoothies. Yet somehow I just cannot get myself to enjoy anything with flavoured with vanilla except cakes.
Why?
The reason goes back a long time to my childhood. For one particular year and I cant really remember which one it was, I had to drink milk with raw egg and it was liberally laced with vanilla to mask the smell of the egg. I hated it but did manage to gulp it down not daily not really knowing how much effect the drink had on my health. What it did do was permanently make me hate vanilla.
Now several decades later, I still cannot drink nor enjoy any vanilla flavoured liquid.
Many of us develop such unreasonable dislikes because of something or some event in our childhood. They tend to last a lifetime.
My aversion to vanilla has not really stopped me from enjoying food and beverages so I did not ever try to get over it. May be I should have. May be I still can. But at this stage I dont even want to…

24/04/201321/07/2020

Unexpected

Personally we do not like the unexpected. Ofcourse, some surprises are pleasant and happy and rewarding ones but we cannot really be sure that is what is in store for us. This is especially valid when travelling. Hence we make sure to go into great details when planning a journey for work or just plain fun. Hotels, transport, sightseeing, food, health and the most important- money… All budgeted for and made available in time and to be easily accessible. That should take care of most unpleasant unexpected surprises.
Or so we thought…

Flight cancellations do occur often due to weather. But as we learnt recently, and the hard way I might add, flights are cancelled when workers go on a strike. Its not at all pleasant to learn about flight cancellations when in a foreign city, at the fag end of a vacation, and when its a weekend and office hours have ended. There was no one to answer queries and our calls to customer care meant being on two-hour long ‘hold’. While our flight was on the next day, we had to end the suspense which entailed personally going to the airport and rebooking. Thankfully the airline executive manning the ticketing counter was very helpful despite being past her working hours. We were given confirmed tickets on another airline and now have returned home safely.

Lesson Learnt: Do carry addresses, working hours and contact numbers of local airline offices when travelling. If possible verify your booking on a working day during working hours before your actual flight. Usually airlines to offer alternatives hence one should know where to contact them as we learnt the hard way that customer care phone-calls though toll-free, are practically impossible to reach.

On another note, here is cool apparatus that we picked up on the above journey. Its a strap to carry a hand sanitiser that can be affixed to a purse or handbag. No more searching inside a bag/purse. This is from Bath & Body Works and is available in many different attractive types.

travelling, tips, clean hands, hand sanitiser

Happy Travelling!

23/04/201321/07/2020

The Power Nap

Adequate sleep at night or an afternoon nap itself is a priceless luxury for those in the fast lane. In many cases a small duration ‘shut eye’ or the so-called Power Nap can be a huge refresher. Everyone has different indications when the body cries out for a pause and we often ignore them. These symptoms range between moodiness/drooping eyes/ lethargy/ difficulty in decision making or communicating to name just a few.

It works best if one can comfortably lie down in a quiet place. Generally a maximum of 30 minutes of sleep works best to recharge both body and mind. Longer can take a person into deeper sleep stages which can lead to sleeplessness at night. Solution: set the alarm even for a 20-minute nap.

This does not take away the importance of adequate sleep at night. Some experts opine that if a person gets adequate night sleep then there is no reason to feel tired during the day. Others recommend the power nap as a simple mid day relaxation technique.

Either way there is no reason for not grabbing 40 winks provided work efficiency remains high and its not an excuse to shirk work. Listen and understand your body and choose what works best for you.
Cheers!