Happy Independence Day ...

 In a world where I wonder If the WTO still exists ... May countries use the WTO to end Arbitrary Trade Wars and May all our Neighbours get onto a Path to Progress and Stop Envying the Hardearned place Indians have painstakingly carved for themselves ...

May this Entire Region Improve relations with each other and remember that we are Carved from the Same Block and share blood relations and DNA with erstwhile Parts of India ...
May India truly Become a Leader in this Region and show the World How to Forge Ahead Without War
Tact and Chanakya Neti should help us turn Foe to Friends and Solve Age Old problems with Adroitness that makes India a place where Solution Seekers take Succour
May we as a Nation learn to be the Bigger and Better Entity and not Resort to Petty issues some folk seem to be stuck in ...
May we keep our Focus on the Bigger Picture ...
May we not Forget Climate Change and keep aside funds to deal with it ... may we help Everyone in this Region deal with Climat Change with Co-operation
May we become the Nation that Turns the Tide on War and put up an United Front to deal with Arbitrary Tade Wars and Focus on Collaborations for Knowledge Sharing and Persistent Progress ...
May All the Foreign Travels by Leaders help us Learn from Best Practices everywhere else and incorporate it here
May India become a Leader in Uniting this Region and moving forward ... if we have extreme poverty in neighbouring states ... it will become a Dead Weight around our ankles ...
Ergo may Governance be Thoughtfull and Gracefull too
May Ashoka be a Guide to understand ... avoiding war leads to Prosperity for All ...
May the Government have EU as a goal for This Region where we can have a Border like the one we share with Bhutan on all sides ...
May we have something to Gloat about before hitting the 80th year ...
Jaihind ...

Happy National Handloom Day ...7th August

 7th August 2018

Happy National Handloom Day....it is a labour of love ...the history teacher in school ...Mrs Gena Lemos used to tell us about the special weavers of India who grew their thumb nails long and used to weave the finest of muslin saris through the holes drilled on their thumb nails …. the British cut off the thumbs of those weavers and that method of weaving died out completely ….

the thriving handloom industry of India took a heavy beating during the colonial years to provide a market for the cloth woven in the industry in Britain ….

luckily handloom got the patronage of Royalty( in some cases) and the Govt and has a niche market ….

in rural areas many women know how to weave and have small looms in their homes ….. it is a way of life in rural India

7th August 2018 traditional clothes

 being Indian means .... loads of Types and Genres of clothes ok ...then my parents are from Kerala...i was born and bred in Maharastra.... and i got married to an Assamese ....then i have to have operations on my hand ....during which time i lose ooodles of weight and then there was the stint with teaching in colleges ...ergo Saris, And western clothes i wear during normal times ...then the western wear that fits Only post operation times ....

then there is the Assamese wear which is the mekhela chaddor .... the home wear ones and the silk ones ....

then there are the Mallus saris ...white with gold borders and pallus.... and the Mallu mundu and neriyathu ....which is the very traditional two piece Mallu wear ....then a few typical Maharashtrian saris ....

i Rarely wear all the traditional clothes i have ....however can i give away those things ...Noooo ...everything has a whatever and however kind of RTC (reference to context) plus there are occasions i have to wear some of it .... it is so expensive that ...even if i give all the old stuff away ...buying news things would seem like a crime ....  

every year i give away clothes i do not wear ...mostly Indian wear and saris that i can give away .... now there is vey little left to give away ..... and yet ....there is a load of stuff ...that is waiting patiently for ....just airing and putting away ....

first i used to get upset with All the travel across the lenght and breadth of the country and the few times i travelled outside India .... 

now i feel it is good way to Know ...How much of Jazzzmatazzz i own .... and it is the Bestest Barometer of Frugality .... 

Everytime i feel like buying Anything .... i just have to remember three words ....

Excess Luggage Bills !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LMAO LMAO LMAO

paper correction ...7th august 2013

 when i used to teach ....paper correction was quite tedious ...a few hundreds or even running to beyond thousand five hundred !!!!!!!!!!......but the silver lining for me was the sheet of paper for the HERCULEAN BLUNDERS ...poor things some kids dint know proper usage of english.....i never ever cut marks for grammar .....but i would write down some great ones .....some great stories too i got for economics theory ..... and when the others and i were very bored and needed a break .....i wud enact the big bloopers .....was such awsum fun .....dont think other profs ever did whacko things like us in the CAP room ..... i also played music on low volume to kill the monotony ......

i cant find my sheets of carefully preserved papers to put on my blog ....am so heart broken .......a mistake i make alllllllllll the time .....i put away things so carefully and then i forget where i put it .....mustve been a squirrel in my last birth .....or some squirrel DNA in my blood i guess

Climate Change… 7th August 2019

 Went chasing some Sun...I didn't get a direct.. one on one...though latent  .. took in the Atmosphere and walked a bit and tied a door that has got jammed and washed my hands and drenched my skirt and shoes ....hopefully the torrential rains that have been predicted ...won't happen ...it did not rain much yesterday and today too there is just light rainfall

And when the whole world is busy honking and running about their morning schedule ....to be able to stand in the rain and listen to it's faint pitter patter on my umbrella ....and keep my face towards the non existent sun ...is what makes me Lucky ...to have been able to Quit an industry i did not gel with much ....to keep being able to tinker with things .....to be able to have my kids with me 24x7x 365 ...to be able to homeschool them ....to be able to share with them and see them grow 

decided to count a few manageables today morning

last year my cousin who is a bank manager got a long leave due to the floods and she told me how her friends in low lying areas caught the fish which swam into the lower floors of their houses and ate those fish too ...to survive 

here in Pune water born diseses must be a problem in some low lying areas ....however the muncipality does use the necessary precautions when dealing with a calamity 

natural disasters and rain patterns changing is something we will have to find new ways to cope with ....instead of finding more ways to contaminate water and soil and now the mountains and Himalayas and the Moon too....heard that humans have left a lot of waste up there on the moon too ....

Monsoons in Pune 7/08/2019

 

iron doors expand so much during the rains ….. and can not be locked ….ergo used some wire to tie it up ….few days back it created a loud ruckus at night when there was a strong wind blowing …. 

Pune used to get mild to arid level rainfall during my growing up years ...

never ever saw mildew and moss or mold during the 80s and 90s  ...whereas used to have to Air every kind of silk and expensive wear in assam and annamalais due to rains the whole year practically 

I used to long to come back to the dry arid climate of Pune ..water shortages notwithstanding …. 

in 2004 for the first time Pune got torrential rains and I wondered if I had bought the rains with me from assam 

from that year onwards ...rains in Pune have been heavy ...Of course it had to be due to the major Afforestation drive taken up by NGOs and citizens of Pune …. 

water shortages are not an issue in my part of the city and is kind of induced in some parts thanks to the tanker public and the middle men and contractors 

my locality was Never soooooo Green during my childhood days ….everytime we had guests at home from Kerala ...I had to go with a cousin or whoever was visiting to buy chicken from a poultry farm near the house I stay now ….

it used to be a Walk in Scorching sunlight ...one or two trees only ...

now I can walk all over my locality and not get one bit of sunshine due to the number of trees 

the people in charge of pruning trees have not done their bit ….or else the electricity dept would not be having so many power cuts 

usually the people prune big trees before the monsoons …. dunno why they did not do so this year

7th August 2025 

PS: they regularly do prune trees before monsoons … 

this summer even the drains were also cleaned to avoid water logging …

Hmmm… rooftop… 7/08/2019

 

standing on the rooftop terrace and listening to the mild rain and then the slight fragrance of these small flowers ….. was a nice way to take a break ….. luckily the rain has stopped ….. first it does not rain for all of June and then it does not stop …. 

most people in Pune drop everything and go bridge hopping when the monsoons peak …..this year it is a bit too scary to go watch the bridges ….