Mukhamani
WATER – In our village, in the middle of the Areca garden, a borewell had been drilled more than fifty years ago. To contain the water, a pond had been made. Once the rains start, in June, the pond which is about 25 feet deep gets filled and the water is there till almost the end of the year. Generations of children have enjoyed swimming in this pool.
For your blog do you basically use Windows or Mac, laptop, desktop, pad, or phone?
Windows , laptop
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I don’t really remember what I wanted to be, but I am doing what I want I want to do and love to do:))
Did you grow up in a small or big town? Did you like it?
My father was working in Indian Railways and we lived in big cities, it was nice then, but after marriage I have lived in a small place and now I just cannot imagine living in a big city:)
How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
I once read that if there is anything we want to do and feel that we are too old to do it, then we should do that at once:) Age is just a number.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
My son has come back from US after having a very good presentation and a lovely time. My Daughter and grandson have come for a holiday and we are all having a great time. next week there two family functions and I am looking forward to meet our relatives,
Thank you Cee:)
ON TOP – A few years ago we had been to Pavagadh near Vadodara in the state of Gujarat. We went to this temple of Goddess Mahakali on top of a mountain. We had to walk up quite a distance and from one point go by ropeway to the temple on the top.
ROUND – Small round areca nuts drying in the sun. The outer covering is orange in colour when they are just plucked. They are sun dried for forty days and then stored or sold.
For more than a month, we have been regular visitors to the Hospital. My husband’s brother had to undergo Bypass surgery. The hospital world is a different world. All around us we see people with different types of health problems and the people who come with them to help and support them. Then, the doctors, nurses and students and all those other people who are the backbone of a hospital. Seeing that busy and moving world of hospital I remembered these lines my grandfather used to tell us. He had some favourite quotations which are a part of our lives.
“If wealth is lost nothing is lost,
If health is lost something is lost,
If character is lost everything is lost.
But I am really not very sure whether these lines hold good to these days. It is said even truth changes every ten years. It would not be correct to say nothing is lost if wealth is lost. Whatever said and done, money is very important. Without it life is a struggle to make ends meet. Life just becomes survival from day to day.
On the other hand, if health is lost everything is lost. All the wealth in the world means nothing if we do not have the health to enjoy the wealth. I have heard so many say that their only wish is they should enjoy good health, physical and mental till the end. And they should just go without being a burden on anyone. After saying this they immediately say, ‘ God only knows what is in store for us, we have to do our best n looking after our health and the rest is our fate.
Then what about character? The meaning of character must have also changed over the years. Of course the basic values are the same and will always be the same. What exactly does character mean and would it really be true to say if character is lost everything is lost? I am not so sure. And this is something so subjective and personal. What is right to one person may not be right to another. We could go on discussing about this with each of us being right or wrong. Anyway after seeing the world of hospital , it really bears down us that if health is lost everything is lost.
“He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything.” ~Arabic Proverb
SIGN – Two years ago we were in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is a quiet , beautiful place. The roads are very broad with separate tracks for cyclists. We loved this sign on the track showing bicycles.
Water is the most important requirement of our life. It is rightly said that thousands can live without love but not a single person can live without water. My father writes about the water conditions in the small town where he spent his childhood. This was in the 1930s and 1940s.
“Our house in Hospet was on a wide road
coming out of the Hospet Main Road at Ranipet.
Most of the houses on the right side of
this road, including ours, had wells with hard
water. We called this a ‘Uppu Neeru’ or salt
water. If you put the water in your mouth, it
was not salty, but bitter in taste. It could
be used only for bathing and cleaning the house.
Soap cannot be used with this water, as no
lather came out. we used ‘seege pudi’ or
Bengal-gram powder, while bathing.
On our side of the road, there was a
Udupi hotel. An old man, called Ramachari,
was working there. He had a three-wheeled
hand cart with four holes on which he could
safely keep four water pots made of brass.
During his free time, he collected drinkable
water from some wells and distributed it to his
clients. We were one such client of his.
On the other side of the road, and not
far, was a big house of a merchant, who
originally hailed from Pattikonda in Kurnool
District near ours. Their ancestors came here
long ago. On their ground, there was a big
well full of sweet water. This water could be
collected from the house side as well as from the
road side. Ramachari, during his free time,
filled his four pots and distributed it to the
houses of his clients. That is how we got
water for drinking, cooking and washing clothes.
Ramachari was fond of talking to us,
children. He had many stories to tell. There
were one or two bells tied to his handcart. And
it was easy to find out his movements. After
our school hours, if we heard the bells
of his cart, we eagerly awaited his coming
to hear stories. Very rarely, he was absent. Then
we had to go to the sweet water well and bring
water for our house. Fortunately, the owners
of the house never refused. Even during summer,
there was enough water in the well.
Later, after building of the Tungabhadra
Dam, there was no shortage of good water.
Supply arrangements were made by the
Municipality.”
( The photo is of the dam across the river Tungabhadra, taken about 25 years ago)
SMOOTH OBJECTS- This photo was taken in Spice Bazaar , Istanbul. All those beautiful plates and boxes and so many other things fascinated us. Many of them were so colourful, bright , smooth and lovely.
THRESHOLD
“One of the most beautiful gifts in the world is the gift of encouragement. When someone encourages you, that person helps you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own.”
John O’Donohue
This photo was taken in the Ellora Caves of Aurangabad, Maharashtra
This is one of our country roads. We were on our way to a temple and had reached the place where we had to turn from this road, so the milestone shows 0 kms.
