Life is a paid sabbatical...
... of course, it depends on your perspective towards life too. If everything seems a chore and an effort, then either you have made some seriously wrong decisions or your negative attitude is over-riding the joy of life. To enjoy each moment, is the privilege of a few. But to mostly go through and enjoy the larger parts, is an opportunity that can easily be seized by the generally logical, mostly common sensical human beings. And if you're still not doing that despite the above two attributes, you may somewhere be quite suicidal in your approach to enjoyment. Life always gives us two choices - to grin and bear what we're lumped with, or to crib all the way through. Which way do you go?

How Ugly Is Our Earth?

An Exhibtion by Me...

Acrylics & Oils on Canvas
Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre
Oct 1 – 6, 2009

When you want to pull your kids to lie down in the grass, and count the stars at night, what happens? A simple childhood game for people of my generation, becomes a sad story.
Because, there are no visible stars in the sky.

It’s a world gone wrong at every step. The woods are empty, the waters are muddy, the rivers are drying, and hence, the species in the forests and rivers diminishing, along with the forests and rivers themselves.
How long will it be before we wake up? Will we wait till every child born is asthmatic? Every city begins to have unpredictable weather? Every rare species is wiped out? Every river has either dried up or is a nala? Every street has water shortages?
When will it be too late? Isn’t it already too late? The Ugly Earth attempts to wake you up to that fact.

Its a parent thing

I always thought I could manage it and have it all. And I did. For some time. Then, on my daughter's 11th birthday, I couldnt be there. It killed me. Then, her studies started to decline. She's a bright kid, but misses a lot of school due to her asthma. She makes up for it if I'm around (or my husband -- when I was travelling, he taught her, and the marks demonstrate it). But when we cant, and ask her if she'll cope, she always says yes. But she cant. Poor girl. Dont blame her.
For 11 years, I haven't ever felt guilty about leaving my kid to the maids. Today, when the quality of her education suffers, I do. And we are those kinds of parents who are fine with average marks -- average marks that really mean average -- 60%, no more. But yet, the joy and pride AND ego of a parent whose kid gets 85-90%, which our daughter gets when we hand hold her -- is a lot to give away for letting her just cope on her own and get a 60% (except in subjects where she is a natural).
It's a tough call. Many friends (read mothers) have quit working in these crucial years. Is that the right way to go, when you have taught your child to be responsible and independent? When I look back, my marks have never counted -- I'm doing very different stuff from what I studied for anyway. So is my husband.
So I wonder -- how much of this dilemma worth it in the long run?

Singh is King!

This is really the new era. With the Left out, we're in a phase of growth, and privileged to see India go from the thirld world to super power! And Dr Manmohan Singh (MMS) couldnt have prepared a better and more heart wrenching, sincere repertoire to BJP and that insincere Advani, who puts us all to shame. MMS manner was touching and humble as always, and the references to Rajiv Gandhi's vision went beyond talking about Sonia Gandhi's husband, and more for a leader who gave a free reign to a visionary economist like MMS. I covered Rajiv Gandhi's asthikalash (immersion of ashes in Allahabad) as a journalist in 1991, and I remember the strength of sorrow of the people from Delhi to Allahabad. He may have been immature in politics and done many wrong things, but he did push India to walk on it's own two feet by giving her MMS.

I am currently in the US on work, and the interest India has generated Vs what it was even 10 years ago, is so totally different. There is a respect that stems from a proof of concept, of appreciating that when India says it will do something, it gets it done. Despite the lack of infrastructure, despite the lack of support from many quarters. The buzz clearly is... India is becoming successful, despite all the things going against it. It's almost like our minds are pulling us towards success, and that mental strength will win the physicality of bad roads, no electricity and poverty. We shall overcome.

It was a song we learnt in school. And it holds true. We have overcome. Thank you MMS.

View all my blogs...

http://redforwomen.blogspot.com/
http://eachdayispecial.blogspot.com/
http://thesupermomclub.blogspot.com/

Goa down the drain

Goa makes me very sad. Three weekends ago, my daughter and I went there, and I was so let down. We have been contemplating buying a lil home there, like a million other people, but re-visiting Goa after 5 years broke my heart. Esp North Goa. The beaches are dirty, crowded, and the people who visit Goa are no longer holiday makers. At least their perspective of a holiday isn't the same as ours. Anyone looking for cheap fun basically lands up there.

We went to South Goa to check out some properties, and the nice ones have a really nice price too. Plus it's secluded, and we've all read about the problems of being alone on a beach in Goa.

So while we enjoyed our stay at this really happy and fresh property called the Lemon Tree at Candolim, and enjoyed our dinners at Republic of Noodle (in the hotel), Shiros (2 km off, I love that place and the peace it brings in form of the fresh breeze and the waves just below where we sat), Cavala (Baga beach, very Old Goa) and Riviera (forgot exact location, but it's beautifully done up, though food is average), the same nagging thought kept going through my mind -- can we really have a lil home here?

The answer my friend, is a sad no. I wish something would help us change our minds though.