Surprise

Meena sat desultorily in the Mall guarding the numerous bags that Anu, her daughter-in-law had deposited in her care along with the children. Anu was getting her nails done.

Music blaring from hidden speakers drowned out shrieks of her grandchildren playing in the Kids Zone. The Game Console shone with bright lights which made it the top attraction. A toy train chugged past, whistling ineffectively in its attempt to clear its path.

They had been here since the Mall opened and Meena’s knees were protesting. Her feet ached from the unbroken Walking Shoes. Was her Plantar Fascitis returning? Walking on these super smooth floors was not easy at her age.

She was nursing an expensive coffee that had more froth than brew. It was cold now and tasteless . Maybe she should have opted for good old Nimboo Pani instead..

Meena had never understood the attraction of spending time in a Mall.

Before her patience was tested, Anu returned, smiling from ear to ear.

“Thank you so much Maaji. I hope the kids did not trouble too much. Now its your turn. I have booked a special foot massage for you. All you have to do is relax, I will mind the bags and kids.”

So saying she escorted a happily surprised Meena into the Spa she had just exited.

I am joining Vinitha in her Fiction Monday series using the word prompt ‘bright’.

T is for Toys

Hello! Welcome to my seventh attempt at the April AtoZ blogging challenge. My theme this year is Experiences of a first time grandmother! Some sweet, salty moments and learnings! My posts are totally based on what I felt (may even border on rants) and are not meant to be a guide. 


 
Toys! 
As  we awaited our Bundle of Joy, I found myself in a totally new world .. one of baby products! I guess I must have mentioned this in almost every post, its a whole new game out there!

It is now all about sustainability, non toxic materials, learning experiences and so on… Ofcourse there are the usual brick and mortar but online shopping from various start ups opens up a fantastic range as toys go traditional. 

There are toys made from cloth, washable ones with non toxic materials. Some were so cute, I almost ended up ordering one for myself!! 
This cute cloth Elephant is actually a Rattle!

And there are wonderful books as well.. ones that afford a sensory experience for the infants .. 
These books have contrast colours and different textures 
What has not changed at all, is that we find toys at unexpected places around the house … under the sofa cushions, in the show case of the drawing room, even in the kitchen!

What has been your experience?
I am sure my thoughts may cause a deje vu to some of you, especially someone who has hosted a new born. I would love to hear from you..


See you tomorrow folks!

Here are links to my previous AtoZ attempts. 

2013 Mixed Bag
2014 Exercising For Fitness
2015 Gardens of Pune
2016 Herbs
2018 Contemporary A to Z
2019 Caring for the Caregiver


Disclaimer: My posts do mention some products or service providers but these are not sponsored and not meant to be an advertisement.  All posts are from a maternal grandmother’s point of view!

P is for Prepare

Hello! Welcome to my seventh attempt at the April AtoZ blogging challenge. My theme this year is Experiences of a first time grandmother! Some sweet some not so sweet moments and learnings! My posts are totally based on what I felt and are not meant to be a guide. 

Obviously the baby is the focus of this years posts.. but today I would like to share my home preparations for arrival of the grandchild. 


Besides the usual stuff like washing curtains, linen etc.. I cleaned all the doors and windows and had pest control treatment done about one month when baby was still at about 30 weeks of pregnancy. Drawers had to be cleared out to keep baby stuff (its amazing how many things are needed and the amount of space they need!). Besides other stuff, I bought things like buckets to keep used clothes till they were washed next day, round clothes hangers (these are really really useful), sufficient stock of provisions and so on. 


During one of such many shopping trips, my husband had this interesting experience…


At the plastic goods store, he purchased a large bucket with lid and a huge tub
Nothing was discussed about what these were meant for. 
Next day, he went to the same shop again to buy something else and the shopkeeper showed him a circular clothes hanger saying “Take this, its very useful to dry baby clothes”!! 


 Baby clothes can easily hung out in less space and dry fast

The shopkeeper obviously had superb business acumen and had spotted a grandfather preparing for his grandchild! We talk of Artificial Intelligence (AI) but there is nothing to beat a keen human mind! My husband ended up buying the clothes hanger and the shopkeeper has won a loyal customer!


Have you also met such astute shopkeepers? I am sure my thoughts may cause a deja vu to some of you especially someone who has hosted a newborn! I would love to hear from you!

See you tomorrow folks!


Here are links to my previous AtoZ attempts. 

2013 Mixed Bag
2014 Exercising For Fitness
2015 Gardens of Pune
2016 Herbs
2018 Contemporary A to Z
2019 Caring for the Caregiver
Disclaimer: My posts do mention some products or service providers but these are not sponsored and not meant to be an advertisement.  All posts are from a maternal grandmother’s point of view!

L is for Lactation

Hello! Welcome to my seventh attempt at the April AtoZ blogging challenge. My theme this year is Experiences of a first time grandmother! Some sweet, salty moments and learnings! My posts are totally based on what I felt (may even border on rants) and are not meant to be a guide. 

 

Lactation is a part of breast feeding which is what a grandmother is expected to guide the new Mom to do. So I will I will take the liberty of focusing on some really useful aids that are now available. 

Over these years, luckily or unluckily I had almost no exposure to handling newborns, so I had no idea that there is new kind of expert called Lactation Consultant! I heard about them via the prenatal classes at our OBGYN. (Prenatal classes itself was a new thing for me!!) 
That’s when I learnt about different positions to nurse a baby.. If like me, this is a first for you, do update yourself here


Yet another master stroke by whoever designs such things is a range of products that has made the nursing process much easier and comfortable for Mom. Online shopping sites and regular stores offer a range of Feeding Pillows which are absolutely indispensable … ask any new Mom! They come in several shapes and some even offer back support! 


Just check out the Breast Feeding section of any online shopping site and you will wonder how we managed so many years ago! 

What has been your experience? I am sure my thoughts may cause a deja vu to some of you especially someone who has hosted a new born. I would love to hear from you!

See you after the weekend folks!

Here are links to my previous AtoZ attempts. 

2013 Mixed Bag
2014 Exercising For Fitness
2015 Gardens of Pune
2016 Herbs
2018 Contemporary A to Z
2019 Caring for the Caregiver


Disclaimer: My posts do mention some products or service providers but these are not sponsored and not meant to be an advertisement.  All posts are from a maternal grandmother’s point of view!

N for Netflix





Welcome! 


We are with the 2018 April AtoZ Blogging challenge and its my fifth attempt. For those who missed it, here is the link to my Theme Reveal post. Do the alphabets still stand for the same things we learnt about in Nursery school? 


Its day fourteen and the alphabet is N.



Usually, N would be for Nest. Right? Yet today, the first word that this alphabet reminds me of is Netflix!


Do I hear you laughing? I guess, for a fifty something doting mother and mother in law, Netflix is a perfect alternative to watching cliched TV serials. 
Before I proceed, let me assure you that this is not a sponsored post 
😉

I had been hearing about this for quite some time but I guess there is time for everything. As they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.


Just as we found that TV channels had nothing interesting for us, we explored Netflix. Ofcourse it meant having to first get a fast broadband. Looking back I am not sure which came first, Netflix or broadband (till then we managed on dial up connections). 
Now we barely watch the telly as Netflix allows us to watch movies and shows both old and new. 


I have enjoyed many Netflix Original shows like The Crown, Narcos and House of Cards and also several old movies … When displaced from this screen, there is always the old TV to go back to. Or the phone. 


So which is the idiot box? 


Do you watch Netflix? Which is your favourite show?
Tomorrow is the alphabet O and I wonder whats in store!! 

J is for Jungle

Welcome! 
We are with the 2018 April AtoZ Blogging challenge and its my fifth attempt. For those who missed it, here is the link to my Theme Reveal post. Do the alphabets still stand for the same things we learnt about in Nursery school? 


Its day ten and the alphabet is J.


The earliest memory of what the alphabet J stands for is a Jug.


However, I would like to talk about another J word .. Jungle. I guess this is not surprising considering my interest in Field Botany. 


No, I will not talk about how fast and extent of jungles that we are losing to ‘development’ but instead I would like to give you some glimpses of a few forests. India is rich in natural heritage and there are reserve forests and sanctuaries across the length and breath of the country.


A naturalist once told me, “No two forests are the same. Each one has its own beauty and must be enjoyed for what it has to offer.” I had asked him which forest is better – Tadoba or Pench or Kanha.


Then, I had not really understood what he meant but now that I have managed to tick off a few forests from my bucket list, I can truly appreciate what he wanted to say.


Here are some images …


I have always loved trees and plants but I think this ‘nature walk’ in the Dubare Forest really set me off on my current path. It was quite scary to walk on those paths considering that we had to wear anti-leech socks and had to keep totally quiet as there were wild elephants around…



                                              


That was when made it a point to add trips to Jungles to our holiday lists. 



The Sal forest in the Corbett National Park has a beauty of its own especially when the trees break out into fresh foliage. The landscape takes another dimension when you know it is the home of the Tiger.  

Driving through the towering Shorea robusta trees

The Gir forest is home to the Asiatic Lion and some amazing trees as well. Here is a dramatic white ghost like tree which is the Sterculia urens . 



Yet another totally different jungle is the mangrove forest of the Sunderbans. Looks innocent and forbidding simultaneously. Tourists are not allowed to step inside. A single day trip is not sufficient to admire this amazing ecosystem that protects our coastlines from hurricanes and storms even as it yields important forest produce. 


View of the mangrove island from the boat

The jungles of Gir, Tadoba, Pench, Nagzira, those in the North Eastern states and in the hills of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have a different terrain and beauty.

Many forests and sanctuaries offer accommodation either outside the Park limits. Each region comes into its own depending on the flora and fauna that lives there. A visit can be planned depending on what one wants to see or admire or study. Permits are required and in most cases, they can be acquired in advance online. 



This is a teeny tiny introduction to forests without being boring or bookish! 


Folks, what does J remind you of? Jug? Jungle? Jalebi? 


🙂

C for Camera

 

Welcome! 

We are with the 2018 April AtoZ Blogging challenge and its my fifth attempt. For those who missed it, here is the link to my Theme Reveal post. Do the alphabets still stand for the same things we learnt about in Nursery school?


Its day three and the alphabet is C.


C is for Cat. Or Camera! To be very specific cell phone camera.

Years ago, we were proud owners of a simple rectangular point and shoot. Moments were captured for ever and we eagerly waited for the film to be developed. Our joy knew no bound when we had perfectly beautiful people or landscapes staring at us from the paper. More often though, we had grainy images with camera shake or eyes shut or even worse… image captured just when someone was about to put a huge piece cake in their mouth! 


With tech progress cameras have kept getting better so much so that they are now small enough to be installed on cell phones. The initial devices had only rear facing cameras now we have cameras that look back at us! 


This is the one that has caught the fancy of people everywhere as it produces the famous ‘Selfie‘. Now we need not depend on anyone else to take a picture of ourselves. either alone or in a group (when it becomes a groupfie). According to this article in The Telegraph, an Australian man has claimed to be the inventor of the word!

One finds these selfies as Display Pictures, Profile Pictures and so one… mostly with a horrendous looking pout! And it does not discriminate between the young and old, male or female! It has created a totally new object called Selfie Stick! In fact, one particular phone is advertised as a Selfie expert! 


However, the craze to take ones own pictures has turned dangerous as people throw caution to the wind to take images in strange, out of the way poses. So much so that some tourist sites actually have warnings about taking selfies…

I must not ignore the rear facing camera.. They are now pretty powerful and my old cell featured a Carl Zeiss lens. I believe clip-on macro and wide angle and zoom lenses also available for the cell phone cameras.


The best part, is that one can immediately check the image. Eyes looking weary? A spot on the nose? Wierd background? Red eye? No problem. Just delete and Say Cheeese!


I have seen beautiful images taken on sophisticated DSLR cameras but I find them technologically challenging. Not to mention the fact they are pretty heavy too. 


The move to digital has possibly meant a decline of the old style film based cameras. I am not sure if they are still in use. I do know that the local shop has stopped selling films for camera. No one has the time or patience to wait for the prints to be developed.. Plus my old printed photos have gotten damaged with age. 

My vote for this alphabet goes to the cell phone Camera!
What do you think? Which type of camera to you prefer?
🙂

Lord of the Files

We purchased our home quite a few years ago, a time when computers were not an integral part of the government machinery. As was the norm, the registration papers were retained by the Municipal authorities and owners retained photocopies. There was a central office that looked after registrations of the entire city. With burgeoning real estate, and scores of property registrations every day, one can only imagine the number of documents that had piled up. Where and how well were they stored were questions best left unasked.


I guess, the task of storage was eventually just too much and the Municipal Corporation decided to digitise the documents. This meant that owners could now collect their documents after producing the original registration receipt. We were happy as the property file with us would now be complete with original documents. The only problem was that in the interim 15 odd years, the procedure had been decentralised and we had no clue where to begin.

Inquiries got us redirected from office to office, table to table in true bureaucratic fashion. After many such fruitless searches, we landed at the correct place. Yay!! A pan chewing, dour faced man took our receipt and disappeared into a cavernous room and emerged after an eternity.


“नही मिला सहाब. १० दिन बाद आईये “
(Could not locate it Sir, come after 10 days)


A shrewd man that he was he had already guessed that we were from the Services.


Having assured us that he would locate the file, we returned hopefully 10 days later. Again he made a prolonged ‘search’ of his store room only to return empty handed.


“अभी नाही मिला . १० दिन बाद आना ” he informed without any emotion.
(Still not found,come after 10 days)


My husband is a stickler for going by the book. And he is a patient man. He decided to give it another 10 days. At the third visit, there were others too waiting to get these precious files. When the Lord reemerged from his search, he had two of them in his hand. Every one surged expectantly towards the desk, but luck was not with us.


“8 दिन बाद” he said in the same expressionless voice.
(After 8 days)


The conversations were getting briefer as some folk lost their tempers. Couldn’t blame them really, one of them was on his fourth trip each time taking a day off for this purpose.


A Peon explained that they had to first check if digitisation was complete and then locate and bring the file. All this takes time and entails a lot of work, he said with a wink.


Now we had already been cautioned that such jobs needed the owner to give incentives to the concerned person for his efforts! After all, he lorded over the files, looked after them, protected them from termites, water seepage, theft etc till the careless owners turned up to claim their original documents. A mammoth task indeed for a poorly paid government worker.


The file claiming procedure turned into a battle of patience and wills. The Lord of the Files on one side and a soldier on the other. My husband punctually showed up on the date prescribed by his Lordship and each visit lasted a couple of hours at least. 


This went on for about four months. He had visited all the cafes and street food joints in the vicinity and was now an authority on which one offered the best tea or sugarcane juice, which fans were serviceable in the office, which spot offered the maximum cell phone coverage and so on… 


Soon tempers showed signs of fraying and patience was wearing very thin…

Eventually, the 12th visit, was clincher. He deposited a dusty file with yellowing frayed papers in my husband’s hands.


“मिलगया “
(Got it)


And the Lord of the Files actually smiled.
Patience Pays.
😉

BARATHON
This is my post for the BAR-A-THON by Blog-A-Rhythm and the theme for June 26th 2017 is Lord of the Files.