Slice of Life – #SOL- 2020
My weekly Slice of Life are my letters to my Doddamma. She is my father’s elder brother’s wife. Doddamma literally means ‘elder mother’. She is 88 years old. She cannot hear properly if I telephone to talk to her. So, I have been writing letters to her since October 2017. I enjoy writing letters and she is happy to read them. They are only about the everyday moments in my life. Since last week I am sending my letters by e mail to my cousin’s wife. She is reading them to my Doddamma. We are at home and cannot go to the post office to post the letters.
7-04-2020
Life has changed so much. In January we had been on a vacation to Amritsar in Punjab. We had a wonderful time and we on the last day we left Amritsar in the morning and reached our place in the evening. And now we have not stepped outside our gate since the 24th. The new normal 😊. A cousin said yesterday that earlier she used to leave home only on some occasions but never felt that she was home-bound. But now she is feeling home-bound because she is not allowed to go out.
( We call this flower ‘sada pushpa’ or nitya pushpa)
It is heartening to see people in our town under the leadership of a charitable trust helping the needy, the homeless and migrant workers. We are donating to them and to another group in Bangalore. They send updates and photos everyday. All over the country people are helping others who are need. For the migrant workers the fear of hunger is more real than the fear of the virus. Living in the cities without work is making them go back home to their villages. The government is trying in all possible ways to help them. Life without safety and security must be very difficult. It will be just survival from one day to the next.
Somehow all that we are doing seems trivial but life goes on and we have to live each day as it comes. From 2nd to 6th I participated in a session hosted by Mr L Subramani by Zoom. I heard about this only recently. We are learning so many things about the world and about ourselves in these times. Mr Subramani told us about how to use story telling to build a strong personal narrative. It was interesting. He blogs in WordPress.
I am listening to lectures by the great Sanskrit scholar, Bannanje Govindacharya on Skanda Purana. I listen to him while stitching my sari blouse and salvar kameez. I had got the material from Amritsar. I used to read so many books to my son as he was growing up. I did not want him to miss out the world of books. In Amritsar we purchased a book about Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, Walking with Nanak by Haroon Khalid. I am reading it to him and it is very good. We are both enjoying the book. One of our neighbor is a doctor. He sings beautifully and every day he is recording a song and forwarding to all his friends. It is a pleasure to listen to him.
The weather has been very hot for many days. Today evening we saw dark clouds gathering and hoped it would rain. And it did. It rained from 5.30 to 7.30. There was thunder and lightning too. We sat back and enjoyed the sound of rain and thunder and for a while all thought of the coronavirus and the suffering of people took a backseat.
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.- Marie Curie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bannanje_Govindacharya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skanda_Purana
Catharanthus roseus – Wikipedia
A blogging friend , Kiki Suarez from Mexico sent me this link. It is very interesting. It is as if we are writing a daily journal. Cornell University is collecting people’s stories about what it is like to live in the age of Covid-19. If you’re curious, or think you might like to participate, go to
Home | Covid Stories
LET’S WRITE IT TOGETHER . The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is an historic event of unparalleled proportions that will have direct and indirect impact on nearly every life around the globe.
http://www.covid-stories.com
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You can contribute without having your name or identifying information included in any publication that results. Please feel free to share the link with anyone who might be interested.
Mukhamani 
Comments are welcome :)