Memories of Summer Vacation

My sister and I used to visit Brahmavar during summer holidays. And those were the days when I was the head of the gang. (Eventually, as we grew up, that equation changed  and I was almost discarded from that gang!!! – that’s another story!!)

But that particular summar, my cousins Gan and Roo were really not happy with the fact that my sister and I had come on a visit to grandmom’s house. I am sure they will not be able to tell you even now why they felt that way – they too were teeny weeny then!!!

We had a fight for something, I do not recollect. But the only memory I have is that of Gan holding my arms tightly and Roo (was a little kid) biting my stomach. And me crying !!!

Mind you, I was the oldest of all of them.

I went crying to our grandmom, who called Gan and Roo and advised them not to fight with me. And all was well again. But this incident has just stayed in my mind crystal clear

Childhood Memories and Ra

Ra was the most naughtiest among us. He along with his brother San and sister, Re was growing up in Brahmavar and knew nook and corner of the place. If you see him today, you will NEVER believe that he was so very naughty.

He hated going to school. And our grandfather would usually escort him to school. He would cry so much that eventually grandpa would get angry, cut a branch from the “air tree” and whack him on his feet.

I guess Ra must have got countless whacks from ajja – not just for crying to go to school, but being naughty too.

Then there was this time when we were playing running and catching. We would run around the house, across the fields, inside the house, inside the kitchen… all warnings always fell on deaf ears.

One day, when we were running inside the house, my aunt had just about put the rice cooker down on the floor directly from the stove. Ra did not realize it was hot. He was running all over the place and accidentally, his feet touched the cooker. And within no time, there was an egg-sized ball between his knee and ankle, behind his feet. Gosh, I had never seen anything like that…  He cried in agony. Aunt applied burnol (the famous antiseptic cream). I don’t remember if Ra was taken to the doc or not.

Few days later, it grew like a bubble waiting to burst. Then it happened so that Ra was running in Bank Uncle’s house compound. His feet dashed against the parked scooter. The wound burst open and there was blood all over. We took him home and his mom cleaned his wound with water and applied Burnol!!!

It was like Laakh Dukhon ki ek dawa hai – Burnol!!!

Then there was a day when Ra took us to show his school. We were walking down and saw a dead snake. Ra took a stick and picked the dead snake. And I (am the eldest of the lot) said, “drop it…you know, i read that if we see a dead snake, we need to do sarpa sanskara (13 days death ceremony for the snake)”. I remember Ra dropping it like plague… And as if, I was an “all knowing body” then… LoL

How much I miss those innocent ways and innocent days… What would I give to re-live these moments again !!!

Childhood Memories – 1

I was waddling through FB and realized I had not yet made a post of all the rocking memories I have of my childhood. And that was all the motivation I needed to create a new post Rather, posts…

The earliest memory I have that of my childhood is my paternal grandparents house in a (then) village called Brahmavar (near Udupi). We had to pass through a small forest area to reach the house. And in the evenings, we used to be scared to even look that way as there were no street light from main road to the house, the distance will be easily 1 km.

The tiled house had a huge living room and huge kitchen with sunlight steaming in. The house had a HUGE backyard with 2 giant jackfruit trees. There was a swing made of wooden plank or sometimes of cycle tyre hanging down from one of the branches. Nothing gave me more thrill than to spend my time there…

Ofcourse, without my crazy siblings and cousins, my momories would not have been this colorful!!! 8 of us are peers with + or – 1-2 years difference between us. And that was a big gang of rowdies, if you can term it that way. We were possibly amongst the notorious bunch of cousins then. And the antics we would do, would possibly tire our parents…

We would climb the chikoo tree in front of the house. The chikoo tree belonged to the owner of the house. (It was a rented house!!!) and he would always admonish us for climbing the chikoo tree. But then, there is a different satisfaction in doing exactly those things, that are not supposed to be done…

I have a vivid memory of the day when the owner of the house caught us climbing the chikoo tree and brought a huge rope and tied us to the same. He created such a hue and cry and made our grand parents, uncles and aunt come out of the house listening the commotion…

Anyways, they did rescue us from that old brahmin. But we definitely went back to our notorious ways…

Then there were our adventure expeditions. We would explore the forest area between the house and the main road. There was an interesting tree in the middle of the forest that bore a fruit we had named as “Ganapathy Kayi” (Fruit resembling Lord Ganesh). Truly, when you carefully broke the fruit into 2 halves, you could spot 2 ears, 1 trunk and a huge belly!!! Wonder of wonders, it indeed resembled Lord Ganesha…

And then, there were these fields right across the other side of the house… we would just go there and keep roaming around as much as we want… Once we returned home tired, grandma would heat the water on firewood. She would huff and puff to ignite the fire. We would look at it with awe…Because we stayed in Bangalore and coming here was a visual treat for us!!!

Hot bath followed by brown rice gruel (ganji) with ghee, salt and pickles. Papad too was abundant. I guess that was the sweetest food I have ever had in my life. No restaurant has ever served me this kind of food that was served with an over additional dallop of love from my grandmom and aunt.

Evenings, we would walk down to the mainroad. There was a huge bench made out of stone. We used to sit there and count the buses. We were crazy to read the names of the buses – Durgamba, Ghatke Patil, Manjunath, what not!!! We would spend hours doing this and gazing the sky to see the 2 red lights of aakashvani (radio station). When Grandpa and uncle would return home in the evening, they would drag us home.

We would go home, wash our hands and legs, sit in the pooja room and sing bhajans. In all voices, raagas – but it would still feel melodious. Dinner there would be choice of gruel and/or white rice with rasam/dal and curry.

Bed time was always on the huge living room – all under the same roof, same floor with beds or bedsheets spread on the ground – we never thought the ground was hard, the bedsheet was thin. We would just drop dead to the world!!!

RJ and Aeroshow

Its the time of the year where Bangalore is hosting the Aeroshow. All roads are certainly leading to the Jakkur aerodrome where the show is being held. Lot of action and lot of man made machines showing their kamaal there… Just buy a pass for the dekho

With so much of action happening in this event, obviously is an opportunity for our RJ to comment:

On the Radio Show, our RJ starts: “So, Bangaloreans, here are some Dos and Don’ts for the Aeroshow:

1. Do take your original photo id – PAN Card, DL, etc

2. Don’t take food and water – both are not allowed inside the view area

3. Also, do not take explosives, knives, multi-tool gadgets (swiss knife), etc. BUT, you can take along with you a HOT BABE. BOMBS such as this, are DEFINITELY ALLOWED”

Performance Appraisals

We live in a world where Appraisals matter a lot. Your strengths are added; opportunities subtracted your pay may get multipled or divided based on the feedback you receive

You bet, your future janma (birth) depends on your this life’s karma (deeds)

Think about what I just wrote – have you not experienced:

1. If you have used your birthday as a bait to get more gifts/nod for a picnic/new dress; your parents would most surely asked you “Did you behave well during the xyz event?, We had asked you to do something…did you do that? How many times have we not told you”

2. An older brother or sister – almost always says  “How many times have I asked you not to touch my things. I will not buy you that gift for your birthday since you have been messing around with my stuff”

3. Manager – “The whole year, we expected you to drive xyz project, abc portfolio. While mno went well, I think you could have done better on @#!. here are your strengths and here are your opportunities. Please put a plan to work on your opportunities… da da da”

Eventually, when you die and go to Yamaloka (Lord Yama’s abode is called Sayyamani – akin to Vishnu’s Vaikuntha and Shiva’s Kailasa); Chitragupta, Yama’s faithful assisstant will open the book of karma and read out:

“Vidya, this is why we sent you to earth to be born as vidya. And we expected you to be a good daughter, a good wife, a good mother. But what did you do? You messed your parents happiness by choosing your husband, you messed your husband’s happiness with your constant demands for clothes, jewelry, footwear, new house, you worked a lot and seldom spent time with your children. So, you deserve to go to HELL”

Jai Ho !!! Appraisals !!!

Sappy Yet Fun

Minnesota Winter

Snow hit house

Though I have worked in Canada and seen cold weather unto -30 degrees, I have not seen a snow storm. Neither have I experienced how one might be. (Don’t know if its a good idea to experience one!!!)

This year, winter in USA has been particularly bad. I have been hearing stories from my US parters about snow storms and flight cancellations. The traffic jams and road blocks have been wreaking havok on their routines. Several of them have been opting to work from home.

But nothing prepared me to see this photograph, shared by one of my peers working out of MPLS. The ice has literally wrecked his home!!!

Check this out.