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 ......
Thursday, 7 August 2025
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 ….
musings ...7th August 2019
Sometimes the Knock from Destiny is so very Gentle that I do not see it …. sometimes I feel I do not want to go into the Arena anymore ….. the point is will the Arena let a gladiator go ….for once it smells a gladiator …. the gladiator had only one task ...
to enter the arena and get annihilated in the name of the game …..Gladiators are not human ...nor does anyone feel or weep for fallen gladiators …. fights are what they are Groomed for since the time they are born
the arena is their Final Destiny ….and those that run the fastest ….away from the arena get arrested in their tracks when their eyes open ….they can not run ...they have to stay and face the crowd that is booing and or cheering
their lot is …. Not to Question Why ...but to Do and Die
Tuesday, 5 August 2025
Parenting 5th August 2018
I was wondering what to do with the Boxing Fixation ...last time I would go after them for reading their Bible of Football and hide their football every night without fail and it had the Contrary Effect ….my kids went Krazy for football …. every day for the last few days I would wonder about How to get the kids OFF boxing ….
and then suddenly ...just like that ...
Boxing is Off !!!!!!!!
the new friend they had made is a huge JP and LP fan and Boxing was his idea …. both that kid and mine went to different boards and schools …. finally those kids dumped a friend my kid had introduced to the group
and the differences started ….
it became a school thing and the collaboration is sooo Off …
when discussing what happened and how it happened and everything else …. I voiced howwww horrible Boxing can get to be …. no matter if it is Amateur ….. luckily the elder kid agrees on most things I suggest ….
Phewww…. that was that
however the most surprising thing was the networking and crowd support boys get ...the minute their friends got wind of an event being organised around a Boxing match …. out came a friend who is into Football and is a State Level Boxer !!!
the last school my kids went to was an IB board and the friends the elder kid made are his big fans too …. ergo he is used to making decisions ...it was educative for him to deal with older kids and getting into a situation where those boys were not in favour with his designing ….
another thing I was worried about was ...Not knowing the parents of these new kids …. I know the parents of all their other friends and I know who my kids should not call during exam time …. as I know what each parent's goal for their kids are ….
meeting and discussing and setting the rate for hiring a venue and everything else that went into organising an event …. I take it as practical application of what they learn from text books ...
ergo it was not time wasted … plus the elder kid got a brush with dealing with people older than him ….
the little one is still boxing in the air …. hoping that will stop soon … hmmmm
and I seriously Hope ...Fauzy Tube gets well and returns to YouTube …. he is any day better... than the others out there …
as for me ….I learnt how peer pressure can be a Force to reckon with …. vehemence and force to deal with peer pressure can have weird outcomes at times …. ergo I was waiting to see how this would pan out ...as every time I wanted to meet his new friends …. something would come up and I never got to meet those kids and talk to them ...
5th August 2018
black is the granite
strong is the coffee
light weight the frothy bubbles
sad is the story
this is the first coffee mug i bought when shifting to mumbai after getting hostel accomodation there ....it was August 1995 and i had just joined work ...went home for Onam that year and went shopping for essentials to carry with me to mumbai and this mug i bought in Tulsi Baug ...a shopping area for steel products and all kinds of household items ....i like steel better than ceramic as one it does not break and two it lasts Forever
and off i went back to mumbai to work for a minimum of two years for the sake of a good start in my CV ... the kids father had left for assam and i wanted to live away from home to be able to write and recieve letters and be able to talk via the phone with him ....everything was being done to keep a long distant relationship alive
what life is preparing us for is never clear nor do we Ever see or know how the rest of india lives ....despite the kids father getting a job with an economic journal in mumbai ...i told him his family would be wild with me if he stayed back here and specially since his father was a widower and liked the kids father the most .... i thought it would be best if he went back to assam ...
the risk was the relationship ending ....and the Worst Part ...i had Zero Clue as to what life in assam and tea is All About ...
i was in a 7 seater room initially ....5 engineers from Tamil Nadu, me and a Mallu lab techncian ....the mallu girl was a very innocent and friendly person .....however mallus stare ....early morning on my second day in the hostel and first day of travelling to college from the hostel ...i went to the bathroom and finished and went to the room in my blouse and petticoat with a cover on top of my blouse and found the mallu girl watching me ....it was unnerving to see her stare ..... Mallus can stare the most in all of India ok
then i opened both the doors of my cupboard and stood in between them and drapped my sari ....it was irritating and time consuming ... and i went down to have breakfast at 6.50am ....it was just being made ....big fat medu vadas ....meaning big fritters made of black lentil ....and i Groaned
if took one bite of it ...i would Not be able to speak for a week ...
went running to the bus stop on an empty stomach ....and compared to buses in Pune where no one looks at me and no one tries to get Fresh ....mumbai buses were Irritating ....once or twice i remember getting down from a bus and feeling sick to the point of wanting to Puke
finally i came up with a theory that men in Kerala and mumbai are the same and rather horny ...the bus travelling kind at least ....sic to the core
ate at the college staff room kitchen from a kaka there and it became my one good meal of the day ....only problem was that ....i could get my first meal only after the first lecture ....ie after 8.20am ...at 7.30am no food .....and i always feel the B.Com students in Maharashtra have the worst timetable ...actually it is so as many of them do their Chartered Accountancy along with graduation and can do their Articleship peacefully after 11.30 am when college is over for the day
reached back to the hostel and went down with a coupon for food ...got to know that if i wanted lunch ...i should have to leave a tiffin box at breakfast time ....i was hungry and upset and did not have the will to go out and eat Alone ...went back up and had snacks ....took a nap and then hand washed quite a bit of clothes ....
then took this cup and went down to get coffee ....the kitchen girls were giggling at how i did not know the system and i too laughed about it
now anger, hunger and wallowing in self pity is a lethal combination for things to go Wrong ....
and as if on cue on my 3rd step i tripped and dropped hot boiling coffee on my left chest ....went running down to the cafeteria and poured ice cold water on myself and soooooo wanted to cry ....took antoher cup of coffe and went back up to the room ...ate biscuits and applied a calamine lotion where my skin had turned a raw red and swollen ...
thought about what i was doing and when things would turn …..
that night i told my roomamtes about my brush in with a burn... and they Immediately suggested a Kovil trip ....all those engineers were such staunch temple goers and i was their interpreter and guide in mumbai ...
i would go to all the tamil kovils in chembur but i put my foot down about going to mahalaxmi on a sunday ....when i had prep to do and i was not free at home like those engineers were ...
practically every evening they would go out .....one girl was engaged and she had the Most Desparate urge to roam around ....
as we women know what our Lot in Life becomes once we get married ...the jail term starts and all movement Questioned and counter questioned and debated and then we get to step outside the house .... even if we are breadwinners too ...we have our movements outside the house curtailed... life is very different
my cup i used all through my mumbai stay and then i used it in pune and then i carried it to assam and then it went to tamil nadu and then back to assam and from there to pune and then to bahrain and back from bahrain ...back again in 2017 and finally after soooooooooooo many travels it is back in Pune ....
my cup and me still going strong as ever
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