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 89 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. I write to her a little more about our grandchildren😊
15-06-2020
It is pouring as I am writing my slice of life. It was raining every day last week and at nights too. Today morning it was sunny for a short time. Due to wind and rain there was some problem with the telephone line and our landline was dead for three days !! So, we did not have internet too. Though we could use our data connection. We were remembering last year when it did not rain the whole of June. The rains started one month late and we had water problems too. The seasons are changing as they have in the past but this year the spectre of coronavirus is part of our lives.
On Sunday we were horrified to read about more than 11,000 cases in a single day. When will this end? Those who are suffering, not only from the infection but to everything related to it, continue to suffer. And it was sad to read about so many people returning to the cities in search of work as there was no work for them in their villages.
There has been so much suffering everywhere and it was good to read about the good work doe by so many people all over the world. People have come out of their comfort zones to help those in need. I have shared the link of the article in our newspaper. It was heartening to read about people in quarantine in their towns got together to clean the ground of the school where the were quarantined. They said they were working individuals and did not like to sit idle. A Mathematics teacher in the town of Kundapur, Babu Shetty visited the houses of his students, taking all protection, during lockdown, to help his students who could not go to school. He was appreciated by all. There is no internet connection everywhere, specially in villages and small towns. 28 year old Mallappa , a sculptor has created a beautiful idol of Lord Ganesha during the lockdown period.
https://www.deccanherald.com/sunday-herald/sh-top-stories/have-a-heart…
https://www.deccanherald.com/spectrum/spectrum-top-stories/sculptor…
People have discovered their hidden talents. We came to know that some of our friends sing beautifully only recently. We have been seeing children playing every evening near our house. It is good to hear them enjoying themselves because during the lockdown period it seemed unnatural to not see children playing in the evenings. Of course they were unnatural days. We were seeing children plucking something from the grass growing around us. I asked them what were they plucking. They were collecting some seeds which explode when immersed in hot water. Listening to them, my husband remembered his childhood when he and his cousins collected similar things from the fields in their village. It was good to see children outside.
Yesterday, it was pouring the whole day and we decided to fry onion pakodas. The weather was perfect to eat something fried 😊. My husband made them and we all enjoyed them with tea. We were making this after a long time. When my children were small I used to make fried snacks for them.
https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/vengaya-bajji-recipe-onion-bajji
There are so many changes in life and we keep changing with them.
“Sometimes in life, a sudden situation, a moment in time, alters your whole life, forever changes the road ahead.”
― Ahmad Ardalan, Baghdad: The Final Gathering
