Chail – a quiet , sleepy town in Himachal Pradesh, close to Shimla

This gallery contains 6 photos.

So, I had a mid week Thurday off for Dusherra and as you know Durga Puja is a big bong festival. Both of us were feeling homesick, so we decided to take our mind off and travel. Chail is a … Continue reading →

My realizations during back twist. ..bed rest period

I twisted my back sunday morning, cudn’t move at all was restricted to bed in a particular angle. Took help even to turn n was drinking water with straw…i guess u can now visualize my pathetic situation. Because i m writing from my android mobile, i’ll note my feelings in points, otherwise u can trust me for writing a dramatic story. ..guzarish type

1. Life halts badly

2. Reinvented hubby’s love, care n dedication

3. Realized how important office is n yes work is worship…without work how dull life is

4. Friends, yes they called n every call made me glad, life was not that bad after all…thanks to loads of wishes on Facebook and  Twitter. Well I also realized its good to be active on social media…very helpful in such times.

5. Learnt to handle parents. …they got super anxious….context is my dad is retiring this sunday n a huge party is arranged…but parents they just love you too much esp when they’re a lil old…so dad is so upset that he wud cancel the party….and i had brought a saree for party as well…sigh…what timing for back twist

6. How can i forget my MIL, SIL, BIL all of them so cooperative in my ILL, don’t  miss the rhyme here

7. My sis who wud shout at me for not calling her….just kept on making worried calls….eureka. SHE LOVES ME

8. Last but not the least, my maids were sooooo cooperative…can I hear some clapping here

Well, dont judge me reading this…I am killing time and am also under sedative meds….and yes how can I end without  a piece of gyan….if u fall ill, its not that bad afterall….u’ll reinvent lots of things and most importantly I also realized that fan needs to be cleaned!!!!

Intelligent product-iball mobile for senior citizen- a blog post dedicated to my dad

For my dad

I saw this advertisement of mobile designed especially for senior citizen, very thoughtful product and very useful.  It has this button which if pressed in an emergency situation will automatically send emergency alert message to 5 people….must for every senior citizen. Imagine this device being a life saver and when most of the youngsters stay away from parents for job compulsion. This post is for my dad who is a heart patient. …I am gonna gift this to my parents….. I am sure this mobile will not be a profit churning one for the company as it deals with a limited section of society. But I want to join my hands together and clap for the company for designing such a sensitive product! Hats off for highlighting this issue…..i wish them all the best

 

 

Mobile for senior citizen

 

 

Go Organic – Series I

I have recently realized the importance of going organic on micro level for improvement of my and family’s family and on macro level for the society as a whole. The changes you make are small and effects amazing. I know the common notion with Go organic is that –it is a pricey option, only for the rich and affluent – let us analyze this in detail a little or may be you can say, let me convince you -  If you are a person with average income and good level of awareness, you will understand that Go organic is a matter or conscious choice and a lifestyle that is developed slowly and steadily because you are always conscious ( here a point to remember is, not to go to extremes of consciousness, because ultimately we are in India, and need to make compromises sometimes)

To start with, a simple thing like “STOP/REDUCE  USE OF PLASTIC BAGS” instead use cloth bags. Initially, I would not understand this logic, plastic bags seemed to be so easily available and equally easily disposable . In fact, I had a separate cloth bag behind my kitchen door to collect plastic bags and use them whenever required. Well, now things are changed for me, I need not lecture you on why plastic bags are bad  etc etc…because all of us know that, have heard it umpteen number of times…but trust me, what is difficult is to change your habit.

Now I have a cloth shopping bag, smart n chic…with SAVE THE WORLD kind of thing written on it…and it matches my jeans also……u know what, when you carry such a shopping bag and ask the shopkeeper not to give you plastic bag and put forward the chic cloth shopping bag, it always makes a style statement, people are sure to notice …..so on lighter side you make a fashion statement and get noticed and on a serious note, you might make people think a little on the issue and even if one person changes, quite a lot is achieved.

These cloth shopping bags are cool n smart, you can match them with your dress, design them out of anything you wish to…go designer. They are very economical, sturdy, can be washed and ready for reuse………..and to top it all, they are very environmental friendly.  All you need is to be conscious, make a small effort and carry them when going shopping or just keep one in-car and one in your purse. It need to make such small changes, think about.

This was my old shopping bag style- collecting plastic bags n storing them behind kitchen door

My new eco friendly cloth shopping bag..I simply love it!

Mirror Mirror on the wall, who has the toughest job of all

Whenever I am on the road and see a traffic policeman amidst, all the pollution, sun and rain rendering his job, I kind of feel like this. I know there is ill fame for them – traffic police don’t do their job properly, they try to fleece money etc etc…..but come to think of it, if we just focus on the nature of their job, I think they have the hardest job.

Working in heavy pollution itself notches them to the top list. When we are in traffic, we tend to pull up the car windows to avoid pollution but they are standing right there throughout the day, day after day. It was raining heavily the other day and traffic police man was just there in half rain coat. To top up the difficulty level of job, their salary is meagre as compared to other services and according to a research survey, a good number of traffic policemen suffer from lung diseases, reducing their average mortality rate.

Risk of life, lower salary and all this coupled with lesser or no respect of the job by general society standards…hmmm I guess these points make the job toughest of all.

I can not imagine myself standing on the road giving directions, even for an hour!  Well, I have decided to give them more respect from now onwards…..

Travelling to Pasighat – my maiden trip

When ever I sit fondly remembering my married life, one thing that surely brings an embarrassing smile to my face was my maiden journey with my husband. Few days were left for the marriage to be solemnized. And then Somen called up and declared, “We will move to Pasighat after marriage, I have got posting order”. Puzzled at this weird name,” ghat……..Where the hell is this place?” “This is in Arunachal Pradesh, the eastern most part of India”, explained Somen.  

I had a mixed feeling, there was an ache of not going to a metro city, also there was anticipation over this completely new, never heard of place called PASIGHAT. Well as a traditional Indian bahu, I was not given much time to think, my baggage was packed and we were given a moist adieu.  

So I began the journey towards my home, my own home. We took a train from our hometown and this was my first ever longest  train journey….3 ½ days. I felt as if that place would never come. Ours being a completely arranged marriage, I was a bit skeptical also……. Well at last Somen announced,” another 1 hour and we reach the destination station”. Believe me this was the most awaited statement of my life. But poor me, in my anxiousness I forgot to deliberate on the term used  “destination station” It was only later that I realized that train journey was only ¼ th of the destination.  

Completely exhausted after almost four days of chuk chuk journey we got down at Tinsukhia railway station. A new energy sprang into me , so  “Somen how far is our house?”, he gave a cunning smile and showed me the way to resting room. Ready in 2 hrs, I saw a jeep waiting outside. We hopped into that with 2 suitcases and 3 airbags. Both the sides of the road were lined with tea gardens. It was early morning and the sight of women plucking tea in their traditional cane baskets ( till now I had seen it in some Hindi song sequences only), filled me with a new excitement . Though the sights were picturesque but the roads were bumpy enough and innumerable times did I hit my head to the sides of the jeep ……..and this was just the beginning.  

After 4 hours of such a jeep ride , we finally got down with our baggage to a river bank ………..actually only a bank without a river. Boat men who had collected there to exploit poor forced travelers like us, told us, “ Saheb the river has shifted 5 kms”; now what in the world is this , myself being always weak in geography, could in no way understand this shifting of river. When I tried to question my husband, he gave me a wise man’s look and I nipped the question in the bud itself. Price was negotiated and two people took our luggage and we walked behind them on the sandy bank. Well a point to remember is that in all the happiness of portraying myself as a new bride, I was wearing sandals.  

Finally after painfully walking for about 1 ½ Km , my eyes heaved some relief, seeing traces of river, so we had to travel by boat to reach our final destination. But , “Somen isn’t this river a little less wide”. Somen gave me a whimsical look and said, “ Dear wife this is just a sublet of river, the main Brahmaputra river is ahead”. So, without much questioning, I sat on one side of a narrow but long-boat and Somen on the other side with two suitcases precariously positioned on each side to maintain balance. I was commanded by the boatman not to move even an inch otherwise all of us will be food to the mighty Brahmaputra. So for the next ½ hour, I even tried not to breathe. Took a deep breath after getting down!!!  

Next was travel by foot but this time it was wet sand………..so I had to balance my chunni, purse, Ray ban’s and tread very cautiously, wearing my sandals. Somen was walking ahead checking the sand and I was to follow his footsteps. But but……..I was educated, smart, modern woman, I could not accept the fact why he was taking a curve rather than walking straight. So in my zeal to prove my smartness and save time, I walked straight and…………IT WAS WET SAND. The moment I kept my foot, I sank knee-deep and fell. Somen turned back and chuckled seeing my pathetic condition,  with sand all over my dress , hair and purse and myself sweating, for it was 12 in the afternoon. I was so embarrassed ……………..such a showdown for a new bride. But as it is said , show must go on, we kept walking, “ Somen will we reach our home in this life span?”. Extremely fatigued and disillusioned I could now see the main boat and the Brahmaputra River. It was such a mighty river, it is called the father of rivers for its might. It is such a wide river that it took almost 5 hours on boat to reach the other side. This boat ride is another interesting anecdote. Such narrow benches that an able-bodied woman like me was literally half hanging. Local tribal people smelled badly and more so the smell of indigenous tobacco and dried fish. It was a nauseating journey. I was once again optimistic and happy to see the bank finally, only to be told that a jeep is waiting and it is another 5 hours journey. In fact when I sat on the jeep , I realized that the jeep was not on road for there were no roads……………Yes it was monsoon times and all traces of road was washed away, it was only mud and water. The jeep journey was so adventurous that for minutes together the jeep would move on one wheel. Throughout I kept on shouting,” Mummy , oh my God”. But the skilled driver kept on moving. There would be streams of water in between, where the gushing water would rise above the bonnet level. My adrenaline level would rush and I could feel butterflies in my stomach. It was a complete roller coaster ride. Finally when we stopped in front of something like a gate, Somen opened the door smilingly, “Welcome to our home, my dear”. The breathtaking view of my home sitting beautifully in the pictureous surrounding took away all my tiredness and I started on a new journey of life…..and I also had a surprise gift waiting for me, a cane swing…..where I would sit n sip coffee for the next two years of posting. 

Glimpse of travels of Arunachal Pradesh

Being a housewife is not a measuring rod of personality

I am a full-time housewife and a part-time professional…and I am not embarrassed about it nor do I need to justify my choice……….or feel as a second grade citizen..lower to multitasking, super efficient professional women.

I hate to answer this question ” So how do you keep yourself busy…must be getting quite bored na……..” and I do not want to cover my lowly task of housewife in an undignified way saying…”oh my kid does n’t give me enough time left, otherwise before his birth I was working”  Hello………why should I cover it up……..I feel like giving them a piece of mind…………”listen I am not wasting my time or getting bored or living an undignified , speck of dirt life….just because I am a housewife” . I have my clear priorities , will work as per my choice and passion. it is not always important to pick up a 9-5 high glam job……….I am a teacher, I love my job……..I multi task as a website content writer..I do lot of blogging and experiment with so many new ideas and explore things……….unlike you who sticks to one job, leaves her kids with maids and then perpetually living a hypocrite confused life.”

Ok i am not against women who work, I have high regards for them………..all I want is ——–do not measure  smartness and personality of a women based on the undignified common notion of  “oh , a housewife” . Here I recall an incident, this was the time when I working…..I had a weird fear of travelling alone in aeroplane, and a relative of mine tried to cheer me up by saying…” hey , don’t behave like a typical housewife…you are much smarter”…………….WTH …is this the generic notion in society, housewife is unsmart, dependent women? I think I am happier, my family is happy and I do work at my choice, have both money and job satisfaction , is it not a good bargain…work from home……..what do you say?

Driver License— seems like a farce

Have you ever thought why there is an ever-increasing rate of road accidents…I am sure you must have, but what set me really thinking today was a scene at driving license office, the RTO….people who were registered with a driving school were blatantly flouting rules with help of these half learned, self-proclaimed masters of driving schools …to the extreme extent of writing computer exam on behalf of them…and when it was turn of practical driving test….it was a farce again. If they pass people like this in driving license test, I am out of my wits to think how many callous drivers are there on road….yamduts themselves. We have so many more Salman Khan’s on the road!

I hope only this RTO was lazy and RTO’s of other places are strict and upright with their job…..yes I can only hope……..and so can all of us that we are not hit on road by a driver who has been given license by such a RTO….well, just a thought ….do these RTO’s have any conscience and on a lighter side just imagine a situation when such an RTO my Mr L( Mr. Learner license) is hit himself and he shouts “Don’t you know how to drive properly…bloody hell…who gave you the license..show it to me, I will seize it”…………….and the driver says “Sir , you gave me the license” and then I , the writer will say “Does this put some sense in you in Mr. L” hmmm…quite a sadist pleasure for the writer…..

hmmm…Language issues

I am a North Indian living in South India past 2 years and trust me the biggest problem down here is Language. For me, who is a housewife this problem becomes manifold basically meaning….limited bargaining opportunities! But truly speaking this is not the most difficult part of it because there are shopping malls everywhere and obviously no bargaining there. For me the most problematic part of not knowing their language is getting bored at public places. YES, I admit blatantly that I tend to hear other people’s conversation…ya ya I know this is not good manners but excuse me…it is the best source of time pass in public places…now imagine you are getting bored in a beauty parlor waiting the color on your hair to dry out…and a young teenager sits next to your chair getting her hair cut while she converses with her boyfriend …..just a little time pass you know! but here I am devoid of such small pleasures and even though there are so many interesting conversations around I don’t seem to get hold of anyting…no new thoughts or new stories…….well I devised a way out, till I manage to handle Tamil language…body language yes reading body language can be so much fun..