[My mother is with us now. She will be here till September. She was diagnosed Lymphoma in December. Fortunately she has responded well to Chemotherapy and her doctor is satisfied with the results. My mails are to my father’s elder brother’s wife. I call her doddamma which literally means elder mother. She is my favourite relative. From her I have learnt to take life as it comes. She is 87 now and due to her health condition she has not been able to go out from her home for may years. I started writing to her in October. Her son or daughter-in-law read it out to her and she enjoys the photos. The internet has really changed our lives. It has helped us to keep in contact with our friends and relatives.]
14-5-18
Dear Doddamma,
On the 11th morning my elder brother, Shyam, sister-in-law, Shaila and my mother (amma) came here by lunch time. Amma is fine, her doctor was very pleased with her response to chemotherapy. He said she is fit now and she has no medicines only supplements. That evening we all went to Endpoint for a walk. Amma and I walked till the football ground which is only 15 minutes away. We sat on the seats by the side of the ground. Students were playing football and there were many of their friends watching them. It was fun watching their excitement.
I meet one gentleman there, I had met him earlier in Asare. He lives here with his daughter. He is 80 years. He walks to Endpoint morning and evening. He enjoys watching students play and seems to know many of them. That night we had a real downpour with thunder and lightning. Actually, there were not many dark clouds. We were surprised to see it raining so heavily.
On the 12th was Karnataka Legislative Assembly elections. Our voting booth was in Mahatma Gandhi Memorial college, not very far from our home. We went at 6.45 itself and we were among the first to vote. I went inside with Aravinda and told him the position of the names of each candidates. I came outside the booth and he pressed the button in front of whom he wanted to vote. (my son has a vision problem called retinitis pigmentosa from birth)We were back home by 7.15. My brother and Shaila left after breakfast. They are returning to Hyderabad on Sunday morning.
I had written to you about our mango tree. Due to rains many mangoes fell to the ground. Moreover there are lots of ‘uri’ (weaver ants) in the tree so we cannot pluck many. By the time Kuvara plucks some the ants are all over him. In this area there are lots of ‘uri’ in all the compounds. Last year there were many in our star apple tree. But they have shifted to mango tree. We are having a second crop of star apples.
But due to wind and rains every morning there is a carpet of fruits on the ground. We pick and put them near the coconut tree. The Parijatha tree is flowering now and every morning we see the flowers on the ground. they look so fresh.
Last week we distributed some more small jackfruits to our friends. My friend gave me drumsticks from her garden. I made a curry. I cooked the drumstick with salt and little jaggery. In the mixer I ground fresh coconut, cumin seeds and green chillies to a paste. Added this to the cooked drumsticks with water and boiled it. Then seasoned it with red chillies and mustard. We call it ‘jeerige bendhi’ in Kannada. Amma is very allergic to them. So I made them when my brother and Shaila were here. Another neighbour gave us wild mangoes. We made rasam.
Today morning Kuvara went to Maikuri, he will come tomorrow morning. Today morning I took amma to the Yoga department of Kasturba medical college. I had earlier talked to Dr Annapurna if Yoga would be of help to amma. She said yes. The staff from their department go regularly to the Cancer hospital here to teach Yoga asanas to the patients there. It has helped them a lot. Amma is learning how to do pranayamas. We have to go for ten days in the morning. Then she can do at home. Doddamma , I learnt yogasanas in the Yoga department in 2015 and I am doing them every morning.
Today evening we went to the grounds of the Syndicate Institute of Bank management for our evening walk. Amma walked one round and rested in one of the seats. Aravinda and I walked two more rounds. Many people come here. It is a very peaceful place and amma likes to talk to my friend about whom I had written to you earlier.
(mango flowers blooming again)
We are all fine here.
With love,
Lakshmi
Weaver ant – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaver_ant
Weaver ants or green ants (genus Oecophylla) are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae (order Hymenoptera). Weaver ants live in trees (they are obligately arboreal) and are known for their unique nest building behaviour where workers construct nests by weaving together leaves using larval silk. Colonies can be extremely large consisting of more than a hundred nests spanning numerous trees
Pranayama – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pranayama
Prāṇāyāma (Sanskrit: प्राणायाम prāṇāyāma) is a Sanskrit word alternatively translated as “extension of the prāṇa (breath or life force)” or “breath control.”
Nyctanthes arbor-tristis – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctanthes_arbor-tristis
Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, the night-flowering jasmine or parijat, is a species of Nyctanthes native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Nyctanthes arbor-tristis is a shrub or a small tree growing to 10 m (33 ft) tall, with flaky grey bark
Letter from Home-17 (Slice of Life)
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Amma is going to Yoga class since 14th. We had to attend a wedding on the 17th so she could not go to the class and that day while getting up she her back muscle got pulled and she had a little pain. I did not take her last week. But she was doing the pranayamas at home. I do the same so I could see whether she was doing correctly. Now she is better, we went today. We go and come by autorickshaw. There is an autorickshaw stand near home. They have a phone number. They come home when we call them. Aravind also goes to his college in an autorickshaw. It is very convenient for him. On the 18th we had to attend a Satyanarayana Puja. Amma did not come, I cooked lunch for her before going. Evening we went to the park near Venugopala temple in Manipal. It is very beautiful. The temple is one of our favourite places. Amma sat in one pf the benches and we went for a walk in the park.
Last week we got many rains. Saturday night there was thunder and lightning too. Yesterday morning on our way to Maikuri there was rain till we reached Mangalore. Mava is fine though he does forget a lot. He cannot hear properly. But he does his work by himself, walks around and reads the newspaper regularly. We had taken mangoes from our tree and the couple who work there prepared rasayana. Mava likes it.
We got back lots of wild mangoes. We gave to our neighbours. Today we decided to make mambala. Amma removed the pulp from the mangoes. We made rasam with what was left of the fruits. I put the pulp on a steel plate and kept it in water because of ants. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy today. So the mango did not dry properly. I will see how sunny it is tomorrow, if it is cloudy will add this pulp to the pineapple which we got from Maikuri and make jam.
