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Showing posts from 2007

What do I do???

I teach the 7 yr old son of my maid as she cannot send him to school. The reason behind this is that her youngest son is too young to go to school and she cannot leave him alone when she comes out for work. So the eldest, the 7 year old son, has to stay home and take care of the youngest one. She cannot trust her kids with her husband as he is frequently inebriated. Anyways, this son of my maid was coming with her every saturday to study. Today I was rejoicing that the boy had learnt to write 1, 2 and 3. But the joy was shortlived. His mother was sitting with us while I was teaching him. I was asking him to randomly identify 1, 2 and 3 as he frequently mixes them up. He bent low to peer into the notebook and my mobile phone fell out of his pocket. His mother was shocked and asked him how he had got it. He stayed silent. I asked him how he had got it. He stayed shut. I asked him whether he has taken anything else. He said no. His mother started searching his pockets. I asked her not to

Charity for a price?

This happened about 2 years back. I had noticed an animal ambulance running around the neighbourhood and had noted down the phone number. One day, unfortunately, I had to use it. There was a stray dog in our locality with a badly hurt ear. Every night, it would howl and was in obvious pain. People, including my family, would curse it as a dog howling at night is thought to bring bad luck. I hated it. If anything, it was the dog who had a hard luck. The poor dog would come as soon as someone got out of their homes. With his ear hurt, his head would be bent to one side and he looked menacing. But once I petted him, I realized that that was the only thing he wanted. When I could not bear it anymore, I called the number that I had seen on the ambulance. The lady who answered noted down the address from where the ill dog needed to be picked up for treatment and then asked the magic question. "How much will you donate?" I was taken aback. I asked her what she meant. She told me in

Face-to-Face with human kindness

My Grandfather, Dr. Indramani Malhotra a.k.a. Indermani Shastri passed away at the very beginning of Uttarayana (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttarayana ), early morning of January 15th this year. So it was some days after Makar Sakranti when we went to Haridwar with almost the entire Malhotra clan. My father was offering the last prayers when we were strolling on the stairs on the banks of river Ganga and commenting upon the Hindu rites that cause a lot of non-biodegradable stuff being piously poured into the river Ganga. A lot of kites were flying overhead, some just a few feets above the fast-flowing river. It was a beautiful sight, with the bright kites and their reflections in the clean water. It was very crowded with many people offering pooja's for the same purpose as us. Apart from the pundits and the bereaved families, a few cows and a lot of monkeys were also lurking around. Monkeys were very aggressive and though they were afraid of coming down to the Pooja grounds,

Transformation

Yesterday, my nephew, Nishant, became 4 months old. Ever since he was born, I have seen my sister change. As usual, there have been wakeful nights, tiresome days, and unending baby demands. When the baby was not dirtying his nappies, he was crying for feed. After having his fill, he was again dirtying his nappies. No doubt it was tiring. His sleep cycle keeps changing. When his parents are up, he is asleep and when they want to sleep, he wakes up. On the whole, it is very interesting. I visited them on the last weekend. A visit to their place cheers me up a lot. So whenever I feel I could use some rest emotionally, I end up at their place. Anyway, this time I saw something so beautiful that I realized that my sister is a new person altogether. It was a busy day at their place and by the time my sister got some free time to take a bath, it was almost noon. After bathing Nishu, she put him to sleep and went to take her bath. She had just entered the bathroom when Nishu woke up and starte

Poor, poor people!

As usual, we were stuck in a mini-jam at the red light near my office today morning. Me and my husband were looking around and making intellectual observations about things around while our car crawled through the traffic. Down the road, some meters ahead of us, we noticed laborers pushing a cement-mixing machine on the side-walk. Those of you who know what I mean by a cement-mixing machine will picture it as a circular container suspended on bars with huge wheels. Cement along with other material is put inside this circular container and the container is rotated to mix the cement properly. It is not a light contraption; on the contrary, it seems quite heavy. These laborers were moving quite fast. They were actually running behind the machine while pushing it with their hands. One laborer was pulling it from the front. "I wonder why they are moving so fast," My husband wondered. "They must be in a hurry," I suggested. "But this machine must be heavy and difficu

Me?

Am I the Candle Flame flickering with the assault of wind? Or Am I the gust of wind that in its path teases the candle flame? Can you see me in the steps that lead up to the home of Lord? Or do I exist in the feet, that tread their way up to divinity? Can I be felt in the song that wanders around the tall trees? Or Am I the lonely lass who meanders singing songs of love? Am I the abundant nectar, that finds its way into a butterfly's mouth? Or am I the pretty insect, That sighs in ecstacy with the sweet sip? Do I travel with the light, from the lamp of the fast moving train? Or am I the black darkness, chased by the train on its nightly tour? Who am I? Am I the one whose pen, has overflown with these words? Or Am I the one whose eyes devour each word as they move from top to bottom?