Eco-friendly Ganesha

Ganesh Chathurthi is one of my favourite Hindu festivals, since it involves lord Ganesha, the most fascinating Hindu God and also the modaks that are made during the festival are my favourite sweet. The vivid memory from my childhood celebrating this festival, involves the trip to the market to buy a small idol of Ganesha for the puja. Couple of days before the festival, the market area used to be bustling with activity, with mountains of clay being kept on the pavements and artisans busy making the idol for the orders. I used to watch fascinated the way the artisans deftly created the elephant face and within minutes, the ball of clay turning into an idol was a real treat. the fun part of the puja was the visarjan or immersion of the idol in ponds or wells that followed the day after the puja. The idol was dropped into the well and the whole family stood around the well watching the idol slowly getting immersed and disappearing.
Though the prices of the clay idol have gone up over the years,  the simplicity of the festival, celebration with a clay idol and its immersion is still a custom that is followed. But after coming to mumbai, the city which is known for its Ganesh chathurthi festival and its grandeur, I realise that the celebration here is not as eco friendly as in chennai, my home town.
We could not find a single market which had clay or artisans making clay idols and we were not interested in buying huge PoP idols that were sold.  The idols  are huge and the festival is a community celebration. Hence the puja and immersion are a grand affair with lot of song, music and dance. Though it has a different flavour here, the noise pollution and the water pollution that result from the celebrations here is really frightening and I wonder what kind of negative impact will this festival have in the future, and just hope that huge PoP idols and playing loud music during the festivities at every corner of the streets is banned soon.
Though a small percentage of the population in Maharashtra is now thinking of eco friendly ways of celebrating the festival, its going to take several years before the entire state changes its way and the damage caused to the nature might be too much by then.

 Huge procession for immersion which stalls the entire city on the day.








Immersion of huge idols     

    The remains of the idols at the sea shore days after the immersion

Getting rid of books.

My father, as I have mentioned earlier in my blog posts, was a voracious reader. He used to say that his father, who was a school teacher in a small village used to get him books from his school library and my father read them at such a pace that soon my grandfather had to borrow books from friends and relatives to keep my father engaged. My father had no restrictions with regard to the subjects he read. His biggest disappointment in us as children was that we were not as widely read as he was. But the good habit that he inculcated in us , I realise, is of great value at middle age.
I have not been an avid reader like my father despite having a huge library at home and always had the excuse that I was busy with my studies and later on with my family duties. But I am ashamed and at the same time amazed that my daughters have taken after my father more than me and are able to read books along with their academic pursuits. If alive, my father would have been proud of them.
Now, well into my late 40s, I realize that I have more time on my hands than before and I should not be giving lame excuses for not reading books. But with time, technology has grown multi-fold  and books as hard copies are no longer preferred. Few years back, my daughters used to pester me to buy books they have heard about from their friends and this habit was burning a hole in our pockets as the new editions were really expensive. But for the past couple of years they have switched over to e-books and they are busy with their tablets and kindles reading books. I too have started reading books which I had been planning since years to read and find that they are easily accessible over the internet and I need not even step out of my house, visit a library or a bookshop to find my favourite book. But its a strange feeling to hold a e-reader and flip pages just with the touch of the finger. There is no cosy feeling of holding my book close to me next to the pillow when I doze off while reading. The intoxicating fragrance of the printed pages is no longer there. I am missing all this, but still having thousands of books at the touch of your finger is rather a big boon than searching rows and rows of books in a library for that single one which you would be hooked to.
My e-reader I hope would become my best buddy in the days to come. 

Courage in adversity

Few years back, for a brief period , I had to stay alone in Bangalore with two small kids as my husband had been posted to Singapore and I could not move in immediately with him. That brief period of managing two small kids all alone in Bangalore was a tough period. I could not leave them behind in the apartment if I had to go out to buy groceries or vegetables as they were very young and I was scared that they might accidentally do something if left alone. but managing them outside with all the shopping bags and busy roads to cross was a bigger challenge. But the biggest challenge of staying alone was facing the callous attitude of one of the officers of my husband's company  towards me as we were staying in the company given apartment.
As per the rules, we were entitled to occupy the apartment till my children completed the academic year in the school, even if my husband was posted elsewhere. My husband had clearly explained this to me and asked me not to worry about continuing to stay in the apartment. But , out of the blue, one day, a good friend of my husband who was also the senior officer in the company, barged into my apartment and asked me the details as to when I was to vacate the flat. When I explained to him that I was awaiting the visa and school authorities to provide me the necessary transfer certificate for my children, he refused to believe it and said I was overstaying and I could be thrown out any time. Despite being an educated woman and fully aware of the company rules, I was shaken and had to call my husband and inform him about this threat.  I was petrified and was under constant fear that some other officer too could walk in like that and threaten me. Luckily, I vacated the apartment soon after that. Despite being an educated woman, I was afraid of the higher authorities who had the audacity to threaten a housewife in the absence of her spouse. It takes lot of guts to stand up to them and I have  never been a brave one in my life who could raise her voice or show courage while facing rude or abusive people .

Family of Fireman Killed in Mumbai High-Rise Fire Refuses to Take His Body(News headlines)

Therefore, it was a huge surprise for me when I came across this news of a fire fighter’s wife, who was not half educated as me , raise her voice against the authorities who were responsible for her husband's death and blamed their apathy for her husband's death. She even refused to take her husband's body home unless she was assured in writing for a handsome compensation and an assured job for her. The authorities as usual waited for her to relent , but when they knew she was adamant in her demands, they had to given in and had to provide the written assurance she asked for. Now few other fire-fighter’s widows too are coming out with their woes of not being provided with adequate compensation or jobs. But congratulations to this brave woman who stood up even at that moment of personal loss to get justice from the authorities. Truly a lesson of courage for me!

Germany and football!

Germany winning the football world cup this week is the biggest source of joy for me personally. Reason being that I was in Germany during the first meeting of the same two teams, namely , Germany and Argentina , in the world cup final in 1986. I was a typical chennai girl at that time, with hardly any exposure to sports and least of all,  football. So during my stay when the world cup was underway, I could not understand the frenzy that surrounded the game there. It was funny for me to watch people glued to their tv sets whether it was in the office or at home. They spoke of nothing else than football at all times. With limited knowledge of the language then, I was not greatly influenced by their chats but then it was personally boring for me, since I neither understood the game, nor the football fever that grips the population there. I was totally ignorant of how great it is for a national team to qualify for the final until I had to step out on the day of the final and was on the road for about half an hour during the match time, and it was scary. There was not a single soul on the road for miles ahead and my friend who was driving the car was driving at top speed of 200km/hr to reach home to watch the match. I was petrified and for the first time, I realized how much this game meant to this European nation. Maybe all the European countries and even the south american countries are under the same intoxicating influence of this game.

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But I had first hand experience of seeing it, living with it, in Germany and it was sad that they lost the finals that time. Even a double championship in tennis (both Boris Becker and Steffi Graf won the singles titles that year) could not be a consolation for the citizens with that biggest loss in football.
After my stay in Germany, back home , I started watching football matches and especially during the world cups. Again 4 years later, these two teams were the finalists and this time , I understood the craze this game generates worldwide and was cheering wildly for my adopted country, Germany. They won and every world cup after that, I stopped watching the matches, once Germany lost and was never interested in any other country playing the game in the finals. I was becoming a crazy German fan while watching football and hence it was a sweet and memorable moment this time around where the country made me sit and watch them till the finals.
Kudoz Germany!

Finding appa

I thought I was close to my father, like all daughters who think so and was shaken to realise that I knew only one side of him and had not noticed the fascinating other side of him. My father, as I knew him, was a very patient, not so disciplining, but loving and caring father, Though he was not physically present in most of the important occasions in my life, I knew his heart was with me and felt very blessed that he chose to stay with me during his last days.  He was intelligent, witty and very well read and admired by people who knew him. I got to know him better only during the last few months of his life when he stayed with me after my marriage. Till then, I grew up without realizing that I was the daughter of a genius who was a walking encyclopedia. For me he was the man who brought me lovely dresses and loads of chocolates after each of his trips abroad and who cracked the best jokes in the world and was chilled out even when I carelessly lost valuable items or didn't do well in the exams. I was also scared and intimidated by his knowledge and would pray everyday that he didn't ask me awkward questions about my studies or whether I have read about random stuff he could come up with. He was a voracious reader and had tons of information about any subject under the sun. I was nowhere close to him in this aspect.

But still he was my lovable friend, philosopher and guide and gave some valuable advice regarding life in his own cool style without imposing his opinions on me.
Now after his death, various people come up to me and chat with me about my father, recall incidents about him, narrate how great a man he was, how generous he was etc. I get to know more about him than he was alive .

I learnt about my father's struggle as a young boy when both his parents passed away in quick succession and he had 5 younger siblings to take care of. The kids did not have anything to call their own, as they had sold everything to take care of their ailing mother. My father, who was just 15, with his 5 younger siblings (youngest one being 3 years old), had to take refuge in his grandmother's  house. He had to walk miles everyday after school to take tuitions to meet his expenses for education. Despite not having even two full meals per day, he was outstanding is his school and later on, in college.  He worked as a lab demonstrator earning a paltry sum and could not continue his higher education. But he managed to answer a difficult chemical quiz in an international science journal and the professor from Germany who posted the quiz was impressed by my father's knowledge that my father was invited to Germany to do his higher studies free of cost.

Recently , I came to know that my father has done his research work under Dr. Heisenberg, the Nobel laureate from Germany who is considered as God of quantum physics. In fact, my father, it seems , was the only Asian to have worked under him. I never knew this fact or the topic of his research and I never even asked my father about his student life and his research work.
Its a lesson learnt that we actually do not know our parents or siblings so well though we feel we are close to them. we are all immersed in our day to day life and its chores that we fail to recognise or take time to share the trials and tribulations of our family members.
This post is a tribute to the greatest soul in my life who would have turned 80 this week if he had been alive and also a post to say sorry to his soul for failing to understand his greatness!

Nature is giving it back!

As an Indian citizen , it pains to see people having total disregard to nature.  In a city of millions like Mumbai, its a tough ask for the state government to pull up people who abuse nature or treat mother earth with total disrespect. For me personally, it is appalling to see people spitting, urinating and throwing garbage at will at public places. Public toilets are badly maintained and overcrowded. There are never enough trash cans at public places and the few that are there are overflowing with garbage. There is no proper system for garbage disposal and the city totally stinks during the monsoon.
I am scared to step out of my house during monsoon for the fear of catching some infection walking around in the overflowing sewage water. (My earlier blog post on the same topic"Moaning in the Monsoon" dated 13/07/2009 ). This week , Mumbai sea was giving it back to the city. Usually there are warnings about high tide before the monsoon. Despite the warnings, people throng to the beaches to witness the high tide. This time, high tides were fun to watch till they hit the bystanders. It showered them with all the garbage they had been throwing into the sea for years no end. When I saw the pictures in the newspaper next morning, I was literally clapping my hands and even wanted to give a pat on the back of mother nature. There is only so much one can take and I think, its time we repent our doings and face the wrath of nature. But its also scary to think what else we would be facing in the future due to nature's fury.

This is how the very famous, supposedly beautiful Marine drive looked after a high tide episode this monsoon. Hope Maharashtra tourism board add this to their places of attraction during monsoon!.

IPL, the circus or tamasha!

My interest in the gentleman's game over the years has been directly proportional to the matches in which my favourite players (read handsome players!) played. With the IPL fever at its peak during summer for the past 7 seasons, I watch the matches in patches (oh, my writing skills have improved, what with rhyming words.....watch, match and patch in the same sentence!) when my favorite team CSK (chennai Super kings....as the name suggests my hometown team) plays.
Despite hearing a lot of superlatives about watching a match live in the stadium, I have never had the opportunity or inclination to go watch one in the stadium. Five days long test matches and 50 over one day internationals were so boring and long that I was never tempted to waste my whole day watching the game live and commuting back from the stadium late night was another issue. But recently, my husband got tickets for an IPL match in which my favorite team CSK was playing against the local lions from Mumbai. After a long thought about how long we can watch the match and ideal time to return home , dinner arrangements etc, we both decided to go and watch the match live. What an experience it turned out to be!
The carnival called IPL could be experienced right from the time we alighted the train at the station that was close to the stadium. There were small time vendors who were selling the team flags, t-shirts and even team coloured wigs and they were doing brisk business. I could see lot of young girls and guys busy munching and drinking whatever they could before entering the stadium because carrying your own food or even water bottles were banned inside the stadium.
Once inside the stadium, I was behaving like a kid lost in a village mela. the stadium was jam packed, loud speakers were blaring the latest bollywood music, cheer girls were dancing with a pasted smile and media men were busy setting up their screens and cameras. There was too much going on at the same time to observe everything. In fact amidst all the noise I even failed to notice that the match had started and the deafening noise after each boundary or six that was hit or a wicket that fell made me feel dizzy. Sultry , sweaty atmosphere with no water to quench the summer thirst made me feel nauseated and even the fact that CSK was playing well didn't cheer me up. I just wanted to get back home away from the noisy and stuffy stadium.
Hubby dearest who was enjoying every bit of the match (in other words, the small jigs from the cheer girls!) had to grudgingly come out of the stadium half way through the match because of me. The breath of fresh air and the sea breeze outside was in stark contrast to what I experienced inside.

I am sure no amount of cajoling or temptation in the future is going to drive me to watch a match in the stadium. I would rather watch it in my comfortable cool living room with loads of goodies at hand and enjoy the TV commentaries than the loud bollywood music or artificially enthusiastic jigs of cheer girls!