I have always found it
fascinating to read stories written from a different perspective. After
all the other view point may actually change the entire way we ‘see’
things.
Mahabharata is on our ancient texts and all of us have heard it in
bits and pieces in the form of different stories. Lord Krishna’s
dialogue with Arjun on the battlefield is commonly taught and explained
as a standalone piece. Every reader can find their own perspective.
Yet each character in this epic has his or her own story which is often
not told hence not commonly known. Adi Parva by Amruta Patil is a story
told by a woman narrator, the River Ganga. It presents the epic to us
from the viewpoint of the women therein.
Gandhari who blindfolded herself when she was married to the blind Prince Dhritarashtra who later became King of Hastinapur.
The unmarried Kunti (called Pritha in her childhood) who gives up her first born.
The
book is rich with colourful picture panels that powerfully express
the author’s thoughts. I must add that this is not a text heavy book
which makes totally unusual. I bought the book on Flipkart but it may be
available in the major bookstores as well. It takes time to digest the
conveyed ideas but well worth a reading.
The following post won the second prize in the Women’s Web Celebrating Girls, Celebrating Women Contest
Children are our most treasured possessions especially daughters. The mother daughter bond is very very strong and never really seems to be broken whatever the age. I know my mother worries about me even now and would take every opportunity to look out for me though both of us have several decades to our credit.
This is my entry for the Women’s Web Celebrating Girls, Celebrating Women Contest. It is an introspective article I wrote long ago (31 Jan 2009 to be precise) and which was published online in a now-extinct e-zine called 4indianwoman. Its entitled “Butterflies”
Butterflies
I had watched her tentatively spread her
wings as she ventured into a hundred year old college. Frankly I was worried.
What if she could not find suitable friends? What if she was ragged? What if
she could not manage notorious Pune traffic on her brand new two-wheeler? What
if… the list was ever growing and I worked overtime to sort out any wrinkles in
picture developing on the canvas of her life.
I was roundly accused of pampering, a
charge I sometimes admit to… Had I forgotten I too had been to a college or my
first days there? Our parents were tougher I think, as we fended for ourselves
quite easily. There was not such a huballoo about ‘healthy interaction’ a
polite term for ragging- as mostly it stayed just that. Being in Bombay (as it
was called then) we all travelled by bus or train with no mobiles to stay
connected. Yet never once did we feel disconnected or unsafe. Actually parents
too never felt the need to constantly be in touch with us.
Then why was I different? I looked around;
all mothers like me seemed to be in the same boat and they too had an
upbringing similar to mine. We all were falling head over heels to do that
extra bit for our kids. Did somebody say children faced peer pressure? I seemed
to be falling prey to the same….
So here I was managing home and hearth and
career and now had pulled on this added responsibility. Tackling college
authorities for amenities was my pet peeve and one that had my blood pressure
going through the roof.
But getting back on track, she made her
first solo and slowly found a whole new world opening up. I saw the world
through her eyes all over again yet could never understand the joy of eating a
wada pav from the streetside vendor or endless texting on the cell phone or
watching movies from the first row!
Getting into a B-school was a natural
progression of her education but all my joy was offset by my worry receptors
again working overtime. So began yet another episode. Of course today’s hostels
are much different from my time, but I was not reassured.
The course was designed to sort out wheat
from chaff, never mind that these students had undergone a gruelling selection
process. Hearing her strenuous routine had me in shivers. But then companies
did not pay obscene salaries for nothing. They knew the product they recruit
has it in him/her to take on corporate battles. So I guess learning was
happening 24X7 for both of us. To be fair some of this ‘help’ was unasked for….
A sane voice inside reminded me everyone
has to put in such hours. I understood that she needed to go through the
process to emerge stronger. But understanding would not translate into actions…
I prayed that God give my strength to her, give me her fatigue and doubts so
she could soar higher. I did whatever I could to ease her burden!
That’s when I was told this story. A
butterfly emerges from a cocoon by pushing out through its enfolding layers.
Unable to bear its struggles, a child peeled off layers of the cocoon and
waited with baited breath for the colourful beauty to fly into his hand. But
that did not happen. It fell to the ground lay weakly flapping its wings…
Nature had deemed its struggle necessary. This was to force liquid from its
body to its tiny wings to make them powerful.
Some activities are necessary to gain
survival skills. That is the law of Nature. The modern urban jungle too has its
own laws to live by, its unique dangers that one has to learn to face and
conquer. I would be doing an injustice if I tore away the cocoon or worse
continued to reinforce it. Butterflies have to strengthen their own wings if
they want to come out of the closed confines of the cocoon however warm and
cosy it may be. And those around (namely me or other Moms like me) have to let
them learn and win! The earlier we do it the better!
Its strange that since our work/data is now stored in a digital form, the importance of spring cleaning seems to have reduced. Here in India, other than spring, its the days leading up to Divali (a major festival usually at the start of winters) that sees all households in the throes of a major clean up. Wardrobes, shoe racks, store rooms, kitchen stores and so on all get a thorough make over often with a coat of paint as well. Tons of faded/torn/outdated/outgrown clothes are either given away to the needy or some are possibly recycled into mops/dusters.
Yet I find that our digital ‘storage’ too must be cleaned occasionally. While it may not be necessary to ‘throw away’ things, data may need to be transferred into another format or some such ‘geeky’ treatment.
Here is another post that has emerged out of my e-spring cleaning of the October 2007 vintage!
…..
This has been a difficult week for me.
Reason? I was finding it really difficult to procure a particular soap bar.
Elementary, you may as well say like the legendary Sherlock Holmes. But there
was a huge barrier.
Seeing the deteriorating state of my kadahis my domestic help recommended a particular brand to get them to sparkle. “None of this
fancy stuff you bring is any good,” she said. However she did not know its
name. Seeing my confusion she helpfully described the product to me.
So I set off to the local shop confident of
making a purchase. What happened was totally surprising. The shopkeeper was
completely foxed by what I was asking for. Any fancy description seemed to draw
a blank.
Finally I began with the description I had
of the soap. I wanted a bar with a picture of a lemon on it! It had to have a
particular fragrance. It was specifically meant for aluminium vessels. This
brought strange looks from everyone on both sides of the store counter. I
seemed like an educated lady, had come out of a car and here I was describing a
brand like an illiterate person! I went from shop to shop with this description but
no one could provide me the ‘right’ stuff. I did not even know what right was
anymore. Did we really have such a large range of cleaning products? Then why
could I not find one for my kadahi?
Here I was a self-proclaimed celebrated
hostess, shopaholic, mall savvy and alert consumer who could not get one bar of
soap. My ego thoroughly deflated I picked up the first one I was offered at the
10th shop and returned home.
‘This is not the one’ she pronounced.
I gave up. I told her to get a wrapper
from somewhere and I showed the shop keeper to give me the kadahi panacea. The joy I felt that day was something I
had not felt even when I had managed to pick up the rare kantha sari at
the monsoon sale!
The struggle was worth it because my
utensils are sparkling now! Lesson Learnt: Keep an open mind and learn from
everybody. There is no substitute for experience and recommendations from such
a person will invariably make a positive change.
Age should not be a barrier but mental
attitude can be. Overcome it and open your mind there is a wealth of learning
waiting for us!
NOTE:
Kadahi: Wok
Kantha: A type of embroidery from India’s West Bengal state
Khatta Meetha or Sour Sweet is an unlikely flavour combination for some but one that many in India relish. Many of our foods (dals- lentil preparations, vegetables) all have both Khatta (Sour) and Meetha (Sweet) ingredients in just the right proportion that one is left wondering if the dish he/she just ate was sweet or sour!!
Lemon juice, Tamarind, Kokum, Amchur powder are usually added for the sour flavour and sweetness is afforded by sugar, jaggery etc. The sweetness kills the sharp tangy edge of the sour ingredient even as the same lemon makes a sweet dish wonderfully memorable.
Obviously our food habits mirror Life in general as if brings both sweet and sour moments. Moments that we cannot avoid moments that make life the beautiful journey that it is. This is aptly captured in an old Hindi movie called Khatta Meetha directed by Basu Chatterjee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khatta_Meetha_%281978_film%29). Do watch it if you get an opportunity to do so.
This is the essence of my blog, to capture both sweet and sour moments that happening around us! Then ofcourse there is Teekha (Spicy), moments that test our very patience and bring out the true nature of our character, that force us to sit up and think.. How can we ignore those?
As you can see its been a while since my last post and I have a zillion reasons for it…
Advancing age doesn’t mean that work recedes – and I don’t mean ‘work’ as in professional work – rather the pile of ‘things’ to be done seems to increase without one even realising it. Whatever be its source, work must be done and done in its time for it to have any meaning….
Talking of advancing age reminds me of a post I had written earlier and published on a website called 4indianwoman in October 2008. Its not available online anymore hence I repost it here, celebrating the fourth decade!!
They say it’s not polite to ask a woman her
age. The answer you get may not necessarily be entirely correct! Some gallantly
say that no woman is older than 35. However much we may shy away, none of us
can halt the march of Time.
I did not really think much about crossing
the dreaded 40 milestone. I was too busy in my ‘sansar’. Each birthday
meant celebrations though I don’t remember having any parties when I was a kid
but more than made up while in the IAF.
So when did this begin to hurt or rather
matter?
The first brush was obviously with the
first appearance of silver (not white!) in my hair. That was promptly dealt
with Mehendi initially and later with more expensive (not necessarily)
better tubes! You wont find many women crediting their white hair for
experience- there isn’t any to! It would be more like the burgundy, black,
browns or now blond!!
I managed this hurdle pretty effectively I
thought. The next brush with my age came up when I went looking for a job in
Pune. While I did not have an issue with belonging to the baby boomer group
prospective employers certainly did as I got some really startling responses to
my searches. Most seemed sceptical about my commitment. The really frank ones
said what do you need to work for? This is not your age to work? Age to work?
Hey I was just touching 40! Usually the person giving me this advice was
someone touching 60!
Did I already have wrinkles and sagging
skin? These comments forced me to increase frequency of trips to the parlour
that lightened my wallet but did nothing much for my face. At least I thought
not.
Any way. I managed to get a job and began
working with someone slightly over half my age. It wasn’t so difficult actually
in fact I think our combination worked quite well. Anyway I was not willing to
get into a rat race and quit the job.
By now a couple more years had been added
to my account. I joined the gym, which did wonders for my ego that had been
bruised often in the age department. I found I could lift as much and more weights
as a 20 year old and was certainly more flexible. Looking around I realised
that most ladies of my ‘age group’ had this quality! Hooray! I guess that meant
I had future bone, joint and hopefully heart troubles under control!
That’s when another enemy struck and at the
weakest point! To be honest I am a firm believer in retail therapy and am an
avid fan of malls, organised retail, exhibitions, stores … Fancying myself an
‘informed’ customer I always made it a point to read ingredients, expiry dates and
of course MRP. Now this is where calamity struck. Silently my ocular lens and
muscles had weakened and slowly but surely I found myself holding the product
further and further away as I tried to read the figures and alphabets that
suddenly looked like tiny black dots. Now this was a definite handicap. In
crowded places besides fear of physical injury being displaced by other
enthusiastic shoppers there is a real danger of misreading the digits (end up
paying more) or buying expired stock (yes, I sadly discovered that glitzy shops
too stocked those!).
I rushed off to the ophthalmologist and
armed myself with a pair of spectacles. But that was not the end of my
troubles. You see, spectacles have to be carried along and worn to be of use!
Right from my childhood I had developed this concept that anyone wearing
vision-enhancing eyegear was a lesser mortal. Probably arose from a staple diet
of vernacular movies that showed that girls with less than ‘approved’ features
or with add-ons like spectacles did not stand a chance in the marriage market!
Help in the form of husband and daughter is
not always around and I gradually was forced to carry my new ‘eyes’ around. On
a sober note, it made me aware how much I took vision for granted.
Now I plan to keep a separate spectacles
pair in my purse and one at home.
I started writing and the Internet opened a
whole new world for me. I was discovering skills even I did not know I had. In
fact joy, sorrow, disappointment, success experienced over the years gave me a
new perspective. They say wine gets better with age…
It took me some time but I am now quite
comfortable and proud of my age. Next up on my list of to-do things is to join
a dance class- obviously inspired by Richard Gere in Shall We Dance!
Irrespective of external appearances, it is important to stay young and happy
at a mental level. Keep yourself busy and learn something new. Age becomes
irrelevant then…
The best way to really know our country is to physically travel and ‘see’ different states. This is especially true for our vast nation with diverse habitats and cultures. We have ‘learnt’ history in school but I certainly do not remember anything more than certain names. The Chalukyas, Vijayanagar empire, all were names that shone from behind a thick mist. As things worked out, I got an opportunity to visit some historical sites, one that I took up eagerly.
Monuments at Bijapur, Badami and Hampi (close to Hospet) all in Karanata are not easily accesible. Our visit ended at Hampi but those who can must include Halebid in their itinerary as well. By easy I mean that one needs to travel by train or air to the closest destination and reach these places by road. Luckily the roads are all excellent, well maintained and one covers large distances easily. These are small towns but the three offer comfortable, clean, vegetarian hotels with helpful and courteous staff. Lack of such facilities have deterred me from visiting places despite being a self professed ‘travel enthusiast’. But this time, I was pleasantly surprised.
(Each of the sites named below are linked to the ASI website for detailed information.)
Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur was one place that I had heard of but never really made any attempt to visit it. Its main feature obviously is its dome, a.k.a whispering dome that is second biggest only after the dome at Rome. Whispering a few words in it causes them to echo up to 13 times and naturally everyone coming there wants to experience this phenomenon. Result.. an ear-piercing continuous crescendo of screams, laughter that is sure to send your head spinning. Its best if you visit early (when the Gol Gumbaz opens at about 6AM) so you can peacefully appreciate the skills of the men of yore who have created this monument. There is a museum on the premises that is said to be excellent but being a Friday, it was closed when we visited. The Ibrahim Rauza is yet another must visit tourist attraction at Bijapur. These monuments are under the care of the Archeological Survey of India and have a nominal entry fee for Indians plus nominal camera charges.
The main attraction at Badami is the cave temples. However between Bijapur and Badami one must visit the Aihole and Pattadakal temple sites which are World Heritage Sites. While these are called temples, most of them are not places of worship any more. When at Badami do visit the Banashankari temple – a peaceful serene temple that was originally said to have been built in the ninth century. We were blessed to get a peaceful unhurried darshan of the goddess – a wonderful experience. Dakshin Kashi or Mahakuta is yet another ancient Shiva mandir. Legend has it that the demons Vatapi and Ilvala were destroyed by Agastya at this site.
A couple of interesting things that I recommend: walk in the underground Pradakshana chamber at the Vitthala Temple, Hampi and walk in the secret chamber at Pushkarni. Both involve walking in the dark but some light does filter in and one can see outlines as the eyes adjust to the low light.
Hampi is close to Hospet (about 12-15 kms), a small yet busy town due to several steel plants around it. If I was impressed by the highways we had travelled on so far, the ones under-construction outside Hospet will be absolutely stunning as and when they are completed. The entire region Bijapur, Badami, Hospet and Hubli is well irrigated and we saw flourishing crops along the highways. Bright yellow sunflower fields were our steady companions all through but the other crops changed from jowar, maize, sugarcane and the Hampi area had plentiful coconut and banana groves growing amid towering rocks. People spoke Kannada but were open to answering our queries in Hindi. We looked forward to tasting north Kannada cuisine (supposed to be different) but found that most restaurants offered Punjabi, Chinese, fast foods …. And we opted for bottled water all through. One crosses the Bhima, Krishna and Tungabhadra Rivers and Kudalsangama is a best place to see the mighty Krishna after its confluence with the Ghataprabha and Malprabha rivers.
A strange observation at Virupaksha… When visitors offer money
to the temple elephant, he ‘blesses’ them with his trunk by placing it on their heads . Yet I saw him
‘refuse’ to do so for a foreign visitor… The mahout returned the coin the lady visitor had offered but I still cannot understand the reason for this denial..
The rock carvings at all these sites are
stunning not only for their intricacy, beauty and symmetry but also as
to how the artisans must have worked back then without the help of the
so-called indispensable modern gadgets. The inverted shadow image of the
main gopuram at Virupaksha temple, Hampi seen in a dark chamber about
200m away as the light streams in from a hole in the wall. The Badami
cave temples have been carved from the top downwards and some free
standing ones were carved from down upwards much as we now build our
buildings. The walls here have carvings that record work of the
artisans who created these magnificent structures. Frescos painted with
natural dyes have stood the test of hundreds of years. The three rows of carved rock channels outside the Navrang mandap in the Vitthala Temple, Hampi was designed to cool its interiors by the water that trickled down. The musical
columns at this site are amazing not only for their artistic
creativity but the scientific thought put in to recreate musical sounds
from solid rocks. Ditto for the water channels at Pushkarni, Hampi.
Badami is also home to monkeys and their presence almost amounts to a menace as they steal food out of our hands or snatch bags, bottles expecting them to contain food. Do not carry plastic bags, plastic bottles when at the Badami cave temples. Ditto at Virupaksha temple at Hampi.
I cannot end this post without mentioning the trees that I identified…
The Vitthala temple, Hampi has a supposedly 160 year old Chafa
(Plumeria) tree (still blooming). The Virupaksha temple has a couple of
Kailaspati trees in its premises and there are two huge Kadamb trees
outside the Mahakuta. The Ibrahim Rauza had massive Thespesia in its
beautiful lawns- much bigger than any I have seen around Pune. These were common around Bijapur but less so in the other towns mentioned here. I noticed the occasional Shirish but Maharukh was commoner around Hospet and Hubli. Sag (Tectona grandis) grew rampantly everywhere in fact, there were what seemed liked dedicated plantations at some sites. The landscaped gardens have some beautiful trees (Sawar, Sterculia foetida, Chandan etc). The
Badami cave temple complex has some lovely trees growing on the rocks –
an effect that we as bonsai enthusiasts struggle to achieve.
When visiting these sites make sure to wear strong, comfortable walking shoes. Carry your cap and sunglasses, sunscreen and drinking water. Its a good idea to take services of a local guide as they have an uncanny knack of bringing these silent stones alive. There is lot of walking involved plus climbing up and down often irregular and long flights of stairs. Keeping some analgesic creams for your joints may be a good idea!
Concerned authorities have worked hard to preserve our heritage. The sites are extremely clean, well maintained and surrounding manicured gardens add to their beauty. By visiting them we can reconnect with history and really know this incredible country of ours.
Pune is widely known for its Sarvajanik Ganeshutsav and for various reasons we had preferred to watch them on TV or read about them in Sakal. This year we finally made it to the streets (albeit with tons of doubt- do we, should we go into the crowds etc etc) and here is a photostory of what we saw. It was a wonderful experience.
Before that, let me answer some FAQs, doubts that many of us may have, want to ask but dont know whom to ask. Obviously the answers are based on our experiences. Do take a decision based on whatever your particular circumstances.
So here goes:
Does the darshan involve lot of walking: YES. go prepared with sturdy shoes.
Which route do we take: Well, some homework will really help you get the most of your trip. The Sakal dated 23 September 2012 has a map depicting locations of different dekhave. Depending on your planned visit time and vehicle, you can choose to begin at Kasba Ganapati and end any where in Tilak Road. If you prefer to walk, then you may be able to cover fewer Pandals. If you are on a two-wheeler then do remember that certain roads are closed for all vehicles and you may have to park it some where and take bus number 11 (no prizes for guessing which is this one).Four wheelers are best left at home and three wheelers (ricksha’s) are difficult to find….
Map from Sakal to help you plot your route
What do we take along: Drinking water, cap/umbrella depending on the weather, cash (to buy some the irresistable toys on sale-some shown in the photos that follow), Cell phone, medicines as required (headache) etc. Keep your bag as light as possible.
What about crowds? Well, it IS a public celebration of the highest order so people (and LOTS of them) are a given. But we were not too troubled by them. Some roads are one-way walking plazas especially at peak rush hours. People are from all walks of life, young and old all out for a wonderful experience. TIP: Visit the pandals on days before the Gauri visarjan when crowds are smaller. The electric decorations are best seen at night (Eureka!) but visitng just around sunset means lesser people.
What about Cleanliness? Contrary to our expectations, the roads we visited were clean. No piles of garbage, no peculiar odours and no beggars. Ofcourse there was no rain on the day of our visit, which may have helped.
What about Safety? We saw several only women groups, ladies with children and daughters all out to enjoy themselves. Personally at no point did we (as women) encounter the so called ‘eve teasing’. There are plenty of police who are very helpful. However its a good idea to leave your jewellry, wallet etc behind and carry only bare minimum cash.Take whatever other precautions necessary when moving in a huge crowd.
Any spots to Rest: Sadly the answer is no. There is no place you can rest your tired soles but if you are lucky enough you may find a tea stall that has some chairs. Grap a cuppa to revive both the sole and soul! This year, reports say that some public temporary toilets have been installed and to be fair we did spot a couple near Mandai. However there are no reports about their state of cleanliness.
Is there anything to eat? Yes, lots of typical Puneri street food. Vada pav, Pav bhaji, Bhel stalls are aplenty. Packaged water was available as well. There was the occasional stall selling ukadiche modak. If you make a trip during the day time, some popular eateries may be open, which makes it a good opportunity to eat their delicacies.
Anything to Buy? Retail therapists may find a different range of wares to choose from. Hawkers sell a vast variety of toys, trinkets, balloons, bubble blowers that are great fun. We particularly loved the battery powered ‘horns’. Are great to spot your companions in a crowd! Lots of Lotus, Durva, coconuts etc- stuff that is typically offered to Ganapati.
The following slide show has some captions that describe the ‘what and where’ of each image. I hope you can view those easily.
There are still a few days before Anant Chaturdashi- the day for Ganesh Visarjan. We travel outside India to enjoy festivals of different countries. We need to explore, enjoy and experience whats happening in our cities first.
Go ahead!
Archana
It has always been a mystery to me if a
school Tiffin box and its contents really inspired excitement in its target
consumer. From the hosts and expert cooks on TV cookery shows this certainly
seemed the case. This sent me back to my daily morning tussle to innovate and
put in something interesting (child’s requirement) and nutritious (my
requirement) in the box.
When my daughter was still in preschool,
it was pretty smooth sailing. A sandwich/ fruits/ laddus or any other
savoury stuff made (home or ready-made) sufficed. Once into full time school I
had to give something more substantial especially for the lunch break.
Obviously this meant some variety of roti (Indian flat bread) and subjee
(vegetables) either separately or in a roll (to be called ‘frankie’ in a bid to
glamorise the preparation) or all mixed and rolled together as a stuffed
paratha (a form of Indian bread). The end product required the food to be
kept dry or risk feeding books in the bag. Obviously it would be testing any
child’s patience to expect him/her to eat dry roti/subjee six days of the week
for years together so little ‘extras’ were always demanded. On days when the
unfortunate bhindi (ladies finger) or karela (bitter gourd) found
their way into the plastic box they had to be countered with ‘extras’ that were
rated at the other end (high) of the scale like chips/ French fries/
chocolates/ cola in the water bottle etc. This of course had the rider that the
vegetable could not be repeated for a couple of months AND needed a peace
offering of a pizza for dinner.
Tiffin content planning demanded
creativity and variety. At one point I had chalked out a weekly tiffin plan
with due inputs from my child of course. This was negotiation skills at its
best for both of us – usually she won for the extra category and me in main
foods category. You win some you lose some, that’s life. This continued all
through the school years. In a candid moment I was privy to confessions of the
fate of some tiffins at school. When truly hungry or when contents were
agreeable, there was only option namely – eat the stuff. Sharing was something
that took on different hues as when one had to get rid of something one did not
like or could not risk taking empty Tiffin home. Hell hath no fury like that of
a Mom confronted with an uneaten school Tiffin. I learnt that some kids quite
easily emptied the disliked/ uneaten foods into the dust bin else out of the
school bus window on their way back home, Mom would never know. Did somebody
say thinking out of the box?
All this was obviously for foods coming
in at a low rank on the popularity scale. Topping the charts at the other end
of the scale, the ‘extras’ made the tiffin bearable and school worth going to
in some phases. However like all popular stars these too faced threats and from
the most unexpected sources…
One has heard of petty thefts at school-
a new pencil, eraser, handkerchief etc etc. But this incident took the cake,
almost literally…
A strange phenomenon occurred while my
child was in class four. As the school was some distance away I used to include
an additional small snack to cater to any food pangs during the return journey.
All was well for a few days but soon this food went ‘missing’ from the tiffin.
For the first couple of times I was excused as probably having forgotten but
when the tiffin lacked this vital ingredient day after day, things got serious.
Soon more kids were affected and action was called for. After verifying from
authorities (Moms) that food was indeed put into the tiffin, the kids concluded
that there existed a food thief among them. To add insult to injury, this
person ate up only the goodies in the tiffin leaving subjees for the
real recipients. No one would have complained if subjees had gone
missing…
Teachers were informed, the principal
brought into the loop but kids decided to take some action. The laddus were
doctored at home to have a core of chilli powder. Chocolates were removed from
wrappers and replaced with stones, papers or other similar stuff. They took
turns in ‘guarding’ the classrooms when kids went out for other activities. It
was not really clear what finally succeeded but one fine day all kids got their
full tiffins and the pain was over. Some said it was one of the kids, others
spoke of a monster and with kids’ overactive imagination there were new
culprits and causes daily. The academic session ended very soon and the entire
batch dispersed to new places and the matter ended there.
Tiffins continued into college days as
well but now I had added help in the form of aluminium foils/ cling
films/absorbent tissues and zip lock bags, containers all in fancy ‘food grade
materials’. There were times when I had to make do with canna or banana leaves
to wrap food- they make an excellent wrap by the way. Even now the tussle of
what to put into it went on as before. The security of having Tiffin full of
tasty food is the most comforting thing for a child away at school/college and
worth Mom’s every effort. Every full Tiffin reflects maternal love and each
tiffin returning home has a tale of its own to tell.
Some years ago, I wrote another post with a similar title. Repeating it could mean:
lack of ideas on my part (wrong)
repeat post (wrong again)
OK lets not stretch this… Unlike the previous post where I wrote about MY name, this is about names of women. Rather, roads named after women…
Interested? I recently read this article on the BBC website which mentions that very few roads across cities in the world are named after women. Immediately I turned to my city and looked around trying to identify such roads here in Pune.
Horror of horrors Pune city too seemed to be bitten by the same bug as has bitten the ‘road naming’ authorities world over. I assumed that roads are named after people who have made important social, medical, scientific, cultural etc contributions to society or under political compulsions…. Logically this should include both men and women. Yet for every 8-10 roads named after men, I found only one road named after a woman.
I have found no reasons for this strangely skewed ratio.
From my limited search, here are the roads I located. Of course some of the names were only surnames so it could have been either that of a man or woman so we must give the benefit of a doubt…
Kumidini Pednekar Road
Kashibai Khilare Road
Kamlabai Bhat Road
Dr Banoo Coyaji Road
Kalika Devi Marg
Savitribai Phule Road
I was unable to confirm if the famous Laxmi Road is named after Rani Laxmibai or the Goddess or any one else…
Can you spontaneously reel of names of 10 roads named after women in your city/town?
So what’s in a name? Nothing or everything, depending on your point of view.
Until my next post, do read names of roads you travel on. Thanks to our zealous corporators, most Pune roads now have big blue signboards.
And yes, if you find more such names in Pune, do write in. Please do not endanger yourself in trying to read such sign posts and always follow traffic rules.
I have not included names of “Chowk” (Squares”) but I guess they warrant inclusion as well. We must update that meagre list above…
Take care! Archana
P.S: Addingto the above list: 8. Adarsha Mata Sonumai Joshi Path
P.S.S: Thanks to inputs from all my friends I am happy to add more names to our list. Please scroll down for the new additions.
9. Sarla Nivrutti More Path 10. Laxmibai Vishnu Sane Path 11. Shobha. H. Kolte Path 12. Rashtramata Jijamata Marg
Updating the list on 29 Dec 2014: 13. Iravati Karve Marg 14. Minatai Thakre Road 15. Kamlabai Bhat Road
Update on 02 May 2015: 16. Kai Vimlabai Shankarrao Pachange Path
Update on 07 Dec 2015 17. Swargiya Vijayatai Kenjale Path
Our tenure at Bhuj was among the most memorable for me. Besides the wonderful people we met there, I was honoured to get an opportunity to work with the lovely children of Dhanvantri School. Founded and managed by the dynamic Dr Shantuben Patel this is a one stop halt that caters to all needs (education, therapy and counselling) of special children. I am richer from this experience and from everything I have learnt from Shantuben.
At the outset let me make it clear, that the school is forever filled with joy and laughter and optimism. This arises from the diminutive soft spoken power house called Shantuben! The school was razed to the ground in the 2001 earthquake yet Shantuben and the teachers relentlessly worked on. Their efforts have resulted in a beautiful new complex that offers succour to special children from in and around Bhuj.
There are several large-hearted benefactors that help keep this noble venture going and the school recently got a wonderful new gift- a school bus. The gift was made all the more special as the one and only Big B, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan did the honours by presenting the bus keys to Shantuben.
Due to commitments, he was unable to visit the school, something the children were really looking forward to. When Shantuben reached the school, they reverently touched the keys as ‘He’ had handed them over. Such unquestioned, unadulterated adulation and adoration and respect has to be seen to be believed. We do hope that Mr Bachchan can visit and spend time with the students of Dhanvatari School in future.
Here are some images of the children and their new bus.
In case you happen to be visiting Kutch or Bhuj, do make it a point to visit this school. It’s not about what you can give the school or its children but the hope and optimism that you will can learn from them….
Good Luck!
Archana
