Special child and a special friend

Recently I met one of my college-mates after a long time. As close friends, we were a group of 5 , who had a blast and at the same time were good, obedient students. Then, with our lives taking different routes, we drifted apart. After a long gap of ten years I met one of our group mates who had lost her husband recently and had a mentally-backward child to take care of. She was a bubbly, carefree kind of girl in college. So, when I went to meet her, it was heart wrenching to see her , handling this crisis with aplomb and maturity. Hats off to her! Seeing her, I feel ashamed about how much we complain about our lives. We are bothered about not getting things done on time or our children losing couple of marks in tests or a spouse coming home late . But for this friend, taking care of that child while, at the same earning to run the family and taking care of aging parents (being the only daughter) and an aging mother-in-law (her husband had been the only son) is a great feat indeed. She faces it all with a smile and radiates such positive energy.
Meeting this friend has been an eye-opening experience for me . I feel proud of her, in fact, I feel that hers is a feat that overshadows achievements of so many other successful career women. How many of us could have the courage to continue to live when faced with so many difficulties? I only hope that I can be a person worthy of such a friend.

Reports and complaints

My children had their Open House meeting at school last week (a day to collect report cards and meet the respective subject teachers and class teachers). Every time I attend an Open House meeting, I wonder what the parents have to complain about to the teacher, that they take up more than half an hour of the teacher's time. Though the children are allotted a specific time slot to meet the teacher, never does the parent who is ahead of you keeps up the time. The parents talk, talk and talk endlessly with the class teacher. I am always at a loss when it comes to talking to the teacher- I simply cannot find things to talk or complain about. Usually, I am out within seconds after collecting the report card. It's not that my children are such perfect or wonderful students, that I don't have anything to complain about; it's just the feeling that if, as a parent, I cannot control two children at home, I have no right to expect the teacher to control what my child does within the few hours she spends with them. The teachers are, I feel, stressed out enough with having to handle hundreds of children everyday, keep teaching, organizing school activities, correcting test papers and assignment note books and still answer to the parents who come up with complaints such as "My child doesn't finish his/her lunch", "My son has lost two marks in maths class test and it was not even a valid mistake", "My child loses his/her pencil box once in two days"etc.
I personally feel that parents should learn to respect a teacher's profession and not regale them with silly complaints and harass them.
The best way to make these parents realize that the teachers have enough on their plate without extra helpings from them, is to force them to handle at least one session in a year for these children and experience firsthand what the teachers undergo every day of the year. I am sure that then, these Open House meetings would cease to be Complaint meetings!

Moaning in the Monsoon

The famous 'Mumbai Monsoon' is here. But it's not yet raining in full swing! Though the met department and the people in general are worried about the poor rainfall and the papers keep warning us about watercuts, I am one Mumbai housewife who is in fact happy about the low rainfall. I am indeed ready to adjust to watercuts and consume water with more care than walking in the slush and rain water that swirls with paan. Often, you can see people walking ahead of you on the streets, spitting into in the rainwater and then,you are forced to walk through it. If I were the mayor of Mumbai, the first thing I would do, would be to ban paan and gutka chewing in Mumbai. Everytime I walk past a parked vehicle or if a vehicle passes me by, I am doubly careful about any head that pokes out of the window for fear of my saree or dress being smeared with paan. In fact, I suggest that the Mumbai Municipal Corporation provide each citizen with a paan-proof jacket to be worn when they step outside. My daughters and I take care to appreciate any auto driver, whom we observe to be a non-spitter- and believe me,there have been only two of them in the past 3 years of our Mumbai life.

Considering all of this, don't you agree that we're much better off with less rains in Mumbai?

My moment of glory

Staying very close to Lilavathy Hospital in Mumbai has its own advantages. You get to see lot of celebrities who come to visit the VIP patients. Last week Bal Thackeray of Shiv Sena was admitted here. As usual the place was swarming with media vans and cameramen. I was walking through the Lilavathy Hospital gate, which is a thoroughfare to reach the Mount Mary road, and suddenly a group of men, among whom I could recognise Uddav Thackeray came out of the hospital, milling around me. Surrounded by this group making a beeline for the gate where the media men were waiting to get some bites from them, I was pushed right to the middle of it. Being the only woman there certainly put me in a spot. I had no other go than to wait until the group to disperse to get away.

At the end of all this frenzy, I suddenly realised that after all, my face could be splashed all over the news. I was ecstatic. So don't be surprised if you see a the face a woman circled in red in the middle of a throng with a bold caption reading "Who is this mysterious woman?" on India TV-it might just be me!

Bandra sealink

There have been too many people singing the praises of the Bandra-Worli sea link in the past few days. As a Bandraite and one who lives close to the sealink, I am also able to see the downside to the sea link being opened. My evening walks at the Reclamation promenade used to be a very enjoyable, with one stretch of the flyover being blocked to the traffic. One could see group of old women enjoying the breeze while sitting down to chat right on the highway. It was a common thing to see children playing, skating and people walking their dogs. Occasional film shoots (Dhoom 2 had lot of scenes shot at this flyover) provided enough entertainment for the locals. Now this stretch of the highway has been opened for the traffic. The lovebirds who throng the promenade have lost their privacy and their space on the highway. Birds that used to fly around the sea link area have been considerably lessened in number.
Over the years, I shall probably have to go through more of the negative effects of the Bandra-Worli sea-link
But, on the plus side, the sea link at night is definitely worth a watch. Despite all the things that have been lost to the sea-link, I think that is one of the most beautiful structures ever to be erected, at least in Mumbai.(The last line is for Shiv Sena supporters not to hound me!!)