Whatever will be .... will be ...

5..4..3..2..1

She has been crossing  out the dates and counting the days on the calendar since the month began.

Tomorrow will be her birthday . 10^th one to be precise.  
Ever since she can remember, her birthday was the best day. It was the day she was treated like the princess. All attention was showered on her.  All the phone calls came for her.  

She will be the one in new colourful birthday dress at the school assembly … 

It will be her name that will be as called out and everyone would sang 'Happy Birthday to you'

She would carry a bag full of chocolates for all her friends ... 

Her pretty pink frock was for the evening ,

Her friends would come over for the party in the evening…

  

Will my mama gift me the barbie doll ?

Will I get lots of gifts from my friends ?

Will I  look pretty in the pink frock ? 

Ah … whatever will be will be …  

 *****************************

5,….4….,3….,2….,1…..

She has been mentally crossing out the dates on the calendar since the engagement.

Tommorrow she will get married.

Hope, anxiety, trepidation, happiness, sadness and a countless other mixture of unfathomable emotions are churning out the insides of her heart.

The wedding guests are all over the place, there is frantic activity all around, her parents, relatives, friends,  the groom and his family are all there. 
There is gaiety and celebrations all around.  
Everyone seems to be busy.

But she is lost.  She has nothing to do but she is restless. 

The beginning of a new chapter in her life. 

Will I be happy

Will I be cared  

Will I  be loved

Ah… Whatever will be will be …

**********************************

5…....4…....3…....2…....1…....

She has been crossing out the months ever since the doctor confirmed the test.   

A few more weeks of discomfort, heaviness and restlessness and she will be a mother.

It is not all that bad.  With the first trimester, her incessant morning sickness had ceased.          

Her bump was all too evident by the time it was the sixth month. 
She has grown big and heavy. The soccer champion inside seems to be hyperactive all the time.

In a few weeks she will attain motherhood. She cannot wait for the day to arrive.

Will it be painful,

Will I be strong ,

Will it be a boy ,

Will it be a girl …

Ah…Whatever will be … will be …

*************************************

5……......4…….......3…….......2…….......1…….......

She has been crossing out the years to retirement. 

I will quit my job after I deliver my baby …   

I will quit after the Home loans are paid off.

I will retire after the children are in college …

She has been saying this for years now …

And finally here it was .. her official retirement age was just round the corner …

She was not exactly looking forward to it … but was making plans.

Life after retirement .... 

Will it be boring …  

Will it be depressing

Will it be relaxing

Will it be enriching

Ah...Whatever will be will be …

***************************************

5……..........4……..........3……..........2……...........1………

She had been counting since the tests revealed the malignant tumour …

Months, days, hours, minutes and even the seconds when the pain became intolerable.

Terminal illness .. 4^th stage, the doctor told her family.

They could have let her know. But instead they tried to cheer her up.

All in vain.   As though she could not see through their eyes.

Or maybe she herself saw it coming.

When ? .. how? … why ? 

She did not know.

Will it be quick …

Will it be sudden…

Will it be painful …

Will it be peaceful …

Ah...Whatever will be… will be …

The Future is not for us to see …

Ke sera sera …        

   

Dedicated to the four generation of women, who counted years, months, days, minutes and seconds .. each expecting something different at different stages in their lives.

We all look to the future. 

That magical future where we pin our hopes, expectations, dreams and fears.  

Real life is NOW.  This moment .

Enjoy the moment and live your life.

Whatever will be … will be …

The future is not for us to see…    

    This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

Pudchya Varshi Laukar Ya ( 2013)

Grey, overcast and cloudy skies, a perpetual drizzle and fresh sprouts of greenery all over.

 Before you realize it, the ganapati and gouri idols covered in transparent plastic raincoats,  displayed on pedestrian platforms all over the city remind you that this year’s monsoon would soon come to an end.       

 

To make a difference ( TMAD) and NGO working on social issues, set up a stall selling Eco-friendly ganapati idols made entirely of clay. No paints, sprays and chemicals on the idol.

The trend is catching on . There were so many families who chose to buy their Ganesha idol from the eco friendly, not so glamorous TMAD stall instead of the colourful ones. 

 

That is a strong commitment to save the water bodies from getting contaminated in the days to come.  It is a small change but a significant change in the mindset of people. 

 

The big pandals are still all about grand, ostentatious, colourful and huge Ganesha idols.   

It is only a matter of time and hopefully they too will yield to the call of eco friendliness and clay ganapati idols in the years to come.

Being eco-friendly will soon become the style statement.

 

We bought home our Ganapati Bappa, made entirely of fresh, wet clay. Our normal vegetable vendor at the street corner has put up a stall selling ganpati idols, Pooja items, flowers and garlands for the festival ahead.  She is raking in a bounty today. Flowers and garlands are selling  10 times the cost that they were selling yesterday. This is Capitalism at its best.      

 

And why not ? Her customers are paying ( albeit grudgingly) and she is only a supplier at the end of a large supply chain.     

 

Her customers seem to be oblivious to all that doom and gloom about the economy predicted in the months to come. As of today it is all nice and bright.

Moreover it is celebration time.

Ganpati Bappa  deserves a royal sendoff.

 

 

 
It is that time of the year, to say thanks to Ganpati bappa for the bountiful monsoon this year.   Unlike last year, Ganpati bappa or rather the  monsoons have been more than generous this year.

 

Rains and floods made newspaper headlines throughout India.  The now routine bickering for Cauvery water between Tamil-Nadu and Karnataka had to come to a hard stop for a while now because the Cauvery was almost overflowing a couple of weeks ago.

It is time to celebrate the end of the monsoon season and look forward to a bountiful harvest and the onset of winter and then the spring before the scorching summer.

 Doom and gloom in the economy, the weakening of the rupee, erratic exchange rates, even more erratic gold and onion prices,  unemployment, impending layoffs, corruptions, scandals, elections, gossips, the latest releases from Apple,  Abhishek Bachans’, microsoft , google, shan rukh khan and  Samsung … we will brave all this in the year ahead until Ganpati bappa reigns once again..

 

Ganpati Bappa Maurya

Pudchya Varshi Laukar yaa !!!

 

 

Dancing in the streets to the drum beats amidst that heavy downpour with complete strangers, like there is no tomorrow…

Immersing your Ganpati idol at the local water body along with the others big and small…

Bringing a handful of wet clay that was part of your idol back home for keeps until the next year …

 

 

 

Ah... how I  Miss you Mumbai...   

My creepy wild forest ( part 3)

My creepy wild forest is a joy to behold.

It is no botanical garden . But over a 10 by 7  feet triangular sit out area this is possibly the best  exhibition of flora of about eighteen species of plants.

Ok ...That may be viewed as a very narcissititic and boastful proclamation for an amateur gardener. 
But what the heck … Am I not entitled to a little pride like everyone else.

They say in Tamil 'Kakkaikkum than kunju pon kunju' ( Even to the ugly crow, its little one is the cutest and prettiest …) .

The translation may not be exacting but I am sure you get the drift.

On similar lines … take it or leave it. ... My creepy wild forest is the best. 

As I sit and write this piece a gentle waft of the fragrance of Jathi malli permeates all over my balcony.

The little podalangai (snake gourd) plant that sprouted a couple of months ago  ( read part 2 of creepy wild forest) yielded a full podalangai (snake gourd) after creeping all over to the balcony up the second floor apartment.  The residents at the second floor  were gracious enough to let us pick up our harvest from their balcony.
 

 

Two small Karela ( Bitter gourd)  creepers are joyfully growing up making the creepy wild forest even more denser.  Sometimes we wonder if they will block the sunlight out  of the balcony.

'Andhi mantharai',  the flower that blooms only in the evenings adds colour to the little wild forest. With magenta and orange we added two more hybrids to our collection.  One with Yellow and Magenta and the other that is a shade of pink coming from a hybrid of magenta and white bloom every evening.


I start for work early and attempt to return home by sunset to relish the  blooming of these flowers. They do not last until the morning.

I have googled ... they are not the same as evening primrose.  Although Andhi mantharai could easily translate into something similar in English.         

We harvested a few tomatoes this season. 

The incredible joy of cooking what grows in your own garden is something that I am relishing these days.