Take a look at the 'Barbie girls' dancing here!

As for the cold, am feeling better. I've been feeding the cold with a vengeance :)

Am in the starting stage of a bad cold and for me, when that happens, the whole world gets blue. As a consequence all my hard won self-esteem gets extremely tough to hang on to :( Besides it becomes difficult to sing and after all that's my job! Well, hopefully the worst of it will be over in a week.

Eve tagged me. She wanted me to write 5 things I wanted to post about but didn't post. Well, here goes.....
1. Couple of times when I wanted to rant about events in my life but didn't.
2. As you mentioned about the onset of winter, I too had wanted to do a post about the end of the rains, which incidentally went on & on this year. I didn't but compromised by taking a picture which I've put as my heading :)
3. One about the ever so many flats that are coming around here (with pictures already taken), and the angst it's causing me.
4. A time when I was awash with self-pity but felt that indulging myself like that wasn't such a great idea.
5. A poem I had saved for the longest time and didn't post. But here it is now (so does that qualify?)

To fly free, unseen,

To have no me, mine

No more hunger, thirst, bodily desires

It will be good to be free of my body and become one with the Universal Being.

One day!

So there's the tag done!

I can't believe I'm actually listening to Christmas music--albeit Holiday jazz!! Oh well there's all this hoopla on the Internet (read from the Western world). But I think what really brought home the Christmas feeling was the request from my daughter that her son--who's coming to spend around a week here pre-Christmas--be allowed to decorated the tree with me. That made me search online for Christmas related things toddlers could do, which was when I finally succumbed to the temptation to listen to Christmas music :)

A Tag

This is a tag I found over at Onedia's & Moanna's.

4 jobs I've had

1. Housewife
2. Teacher
3. Marketing & Sales (family-owned firm)
4. Music teacher

4 places I have lived
1. Bombay
2. Calcutta,
3. New Delhi
4. Cochin
(All in India)

4 places I've holidayed
1. Kovalam, India
2. Khatmandu,
3.Europe by rail
4. English farmhouses

4 favourite foods
1. mangoes
2. biriyani
3. appams
4. fruity ice creams

I left out the last one about where I'd rather be, 'cause it depends so much on my mood!

You put on the web cam and the mike and speakers to talk to your children halfway across the world. You see fuzzy pictures of them filling up the screen. You are so busy looking at them that words don't flow and the conversation becomes stilted. You can hear them and see them fuzzily. But that just makes you greedy for more--to reach out and touch them, to hug them and feel their arms around you.
I know that there are so many mothers like me across the world. But that doesn't make the longing any less. Funnily, you go on every day without really thinking about it. But you hear their voices and see them and it all comes back like a flood.
Well anyway, thank heavens for different ways to be a part of their lives, blogs, photographs and social sites!

A song I love, (though I don't know the meaning), sung here by the woman who made it famous, the one and only Miriam Makeba, but sung recently on her farewell tour at age 80! Doesn't she rock!!!

While we were practising the dance, all my young colleagues were complaining about the fact that they all had tummies. They are all mothers. I spend 'thought time' over that and I realised that once a woman becomes a mother, almost certainly her tummy--especially the lower ab--is bound to be a little flabby and then I wanted to tell all the young mothers everywhere, 'Don't feel bad about your tummy. It's because you have been able to be a mother. Think of all the women who can't be a mother (and want to be). Besides, it's because we were healthy as mothers and had the money for the necessary nutrition at that time too.'
So, all you mothers out there, be more accepting of your tum. Of course it's good to exercise and do what's necessary to be healthy. But don't get upset comparing your body to that of a skinny, not-yet-a-woman 18-yr-old's body (which seems to be the basis on which skinny beauty is defined in my view).

Home now after the 'Barbie Girl' dance etc. We were actually part of a Variety entertainment, in which almost all the teachers took part. The kids cheered wildly for everything (incidentally the school has classes from 1st to 12th grade), especially to see their teachers in costume and being nutty. Guess who got a standing ovation though--you guessed right, the 'Barbie Girls" :) It was fun.

Children's Day

Tomorrow--Nov. 14th is celebrated as Children's Day here in India (birthday of our first PM, who was supposed to have loved kids). So the teachers, at one of the schools I teach at, are putting up a show for the students. That is apparently what they have been doing for several years now. I got involved for the first time only last year. So this year I am part of a group who is dancing to--guess what-- 'I'm a Barbie Girl' by Aqua and guess who is the oldest in the group--yours truly naturally!!! After around more than an hour of practice, my body is reminding me, very stridently I might add, about my age. Well, here's to an entertaining morning for the kids :)

Today one of my aunts passed away. It was her 91st birthday tomorrow. She was very much a part of my childhood. She was an aunt who I knew truly loved us. I'm so glad that my brother and I got to spend some time with her in May. She, like my mother, used the Internet to e-mail. But she used her arthritis was too bad to allow her to sit at the computer long enough to surf the Net.
I know she must be glad to have crossed over and joined her beloved husband. But you'll be missed aunt dear!

Diwali

Today is Diwali--or Deepavali as it's known down South, in South India, and though Malayalees don't really celebrate Diwali, I can hear the sound of crackers from all sides! Now the non-Mallu population in Kottayam is quite large. There are many Tamilians as well as Oriyas& Biharis, and maybe Andhrites. I guess that's how come there are so many fireworks going off. I remember when I first came to stay in Kerala how I used to miss Diwali! Anyway tomorrow we're celebrating in the other school too.
Happy Diwali everyone. May your life be full of light and goodness.

An award

"They color my life with the beautiful hues of friendship. Although we come from different backgrounds and cultures we share the same spirit of friendship."

I was given this award by Shari. Thanks so much Shari. I feel truly honoured.
Now to pass this award on to someone:
I give this award to Dot, Esbee, Eve's lungs, HipHop Grandmom and Annie Bluesky of Blogu.

My favourite things 2

Now for my favourite things--
The sight and sound of the sea--in all its moods and colours,
a breezy afternoon,
the weight of a baby on my shoulder,
a warm hug,
the feel of a warm dog under my feet,
browsing through a book store all by myself,
music, music, music--different for differing moods
a comfortable bed when you are so tired,
reading old childhood favourites,
jamming with the kids,
looking across a room at my husband knowing he'll find the same thing funny.
Well, those are some of my favourite things. What are yours?

Favourite things

I had wanted to write about my favourite things. But somehow I just can't put it in the same post with these beautiful, haunting words below.

These I have loved:

                     White plates and cups, clean-gleaming,

Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, faery dust;

Wet roofs, beneath the lamp-light; the strong crust

Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food;

Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood;

And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;

And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,

Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon;

Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon

Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss

Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is

Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen

Unpassioned beauty of a great machine;

The benison of hot water; furs to touch;

The good smell of old clothes; and other such—

The comfortable smell of friendly fingers,

Hair’s fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers

About dead leaves and last year’s ferns. . . .

                                                Dear names,

And thousand other throng to me!  Royal flames;

Sweet water’s dimpling laugh from tap or spring;

Holes in the ground; and voices that do sing;

Voices in laughter, too; and body’s pain,

Soon turned to peace; and the deep-panting train;

Firm sands; the little dulling edge of foam

That browns and dwindles as the wave goes home;

And washen stones, gay for an hour; the cold

Graveness of iron; moist black earthen mould;

Sleep; and high places; footprints in the dew;

And oaks; and brown horse-chestnuts, glossy-new;

And new-peeled sticks; and shining pools on grass;—

All these have been my loves. 

This passage is from the poem 'The Great Lover' By Rupert Brooke.

fireworks10,
originally uploaded by suemamma.

At the pre-school I teach at, there is a Club for the young mothers, which was the brain child of the owner/founder of the school. She felt that many of the young mothers needed support, encouragement to bring out their talents, a place for them to let their hair down and bring them out of themselves. She felt that indirectly helped the children. Besides, young mothers with children in the same age group, got to meet and could compare notes and see they weren't alone in dealing with some of the problems they may encounter. Even once their children leave the school, they have the option of continuing in the Club. We teachers are de-facto members of the Club. Besides we have all had at least one child who studied there :)
Anyway today, the Mother's Club had their Diwali celebration, with a light lunch with Bhelpuri and mithais too. I was there to dance Dandiya with young girls, many of whom are only a bit older than my children! But after that I somehow feel OLD, even though I know I kept up with them quite well. I somehow felt that I should step to the side and let these young girls have their space and its their time for their place in the sun.
Well, a little music and solitaire is guaranteed to make me feel better.