Happy Diwali

Wishing all a Happy Diwali.

It was my 60th birthday last week and my children sent us (my husband & me) to the island of Langkawi, off the coast of Malaysia, as a birthday gift. It was a lovely gift and we had a relaxed extended weekend holiday.  Here are some pictures.

View from the hotel room verandah

From the cable car

My Bali Hai 

Breakfast fruit platter

Today, while visiting Facebook & Google +,  I missed my mother so.  I knew that if she'd been around, I would have pushed her into one or both, although she would have protested that she was too old and she couldn't possibly.. But I know she would have enjoyed interacting with nieces, nephews, grand children, etc.  Just as she was a little reluctant to begin blogging, but enjoyed herself after the initial reluctance.  She was a pretty tech savvy person for someone her age.  When she first wanted to get a computer--at around age 79 or 80, her sons couldn't believe she would really use it.  I told them 'Just get one for her and see what she'll do'; and sure enough, she first got some youngster to come in and help her, then located a book to learn and used to call me once in a while, when she had doubts.  By the time she moved next door to me, around 5 years later, she was quite a pro.  She also loved playing the card games and chess.  I know she so wanted to be gone from this life, especially after my dad passed away.  But I still miss her, especially when I come across something I know she would have loved.

Among the songs on my 'For walking' list is the Beach Boys 'Surfin' USA'  This reminded me of our trip to LA this year.  We were there mid May, and the day before we left, my nephew, both ardent surfers, said that it was a perfect day to surf and they wanted to drive to San Onofre State Beach, which was around 30 miles from where we were staying.  My husband and I had never really seen any surfing and didn't know what to expect.  Anyway, we bundled into the car with nephews, their dad, their dogs, wetsuits & of course the surfboards.
When we got to San Onofre, we almost didn't get place to park on the beach and what we saw was a bit like in this video


There were like hundreds of surfers in the cold water, surfing, falling in the water and clambering up on their boards again. It was a revelation to us from across the world. I stood with the two dogs, off the beach and watched the surfers. Didn't get any pictures. Hence the use of this video.

An evening entertainment

Last night, my husband was having dinner out.  So I was listening to these songs of my youth -----
,
'Sunshine of your love', and 'Born to be wild' and a couple of sundry other songs, moving along to the music and................................................
scrubbing the bathroom!
So I now have a  sparkling, rocking, bathroom :-D

Weekend reading

We get the Business Standard at home and I enjoy their Weekend magazine.  This time I read quite a number of the articles.  Two articles kind of got to me.  One  was an interview with the current channel head of MTV and the other was titled 'Pleasure is Good'. 

Now, in the first article, what caught my attention was the sentence  “We live in the age of sinnocence where virtues are out and vices are in.”  I wondered whether that was true and if it was true, then why all this anti-corruption brouhaha, after all, if vices were in, why would young people want to be anti-corruption, or was this supposed to mean that 'I, me can have all the vices, do what I want, but the people in office should not be like me'?  That sentence hurt me somewhere deep and made me wonder whether those of us, who still try to teach young people ethical ways of thinking and living are a dying breed, going the way of the dodos and whether such teaching is now irrelevant.

Regarding the 'Pleasure is Good' article, it was discussing the dynamics of interpersonal relationships today and to quote "More relevant are the modern-day gradations and variations in what was the traditional man-woman coupling. One of the newer entrants to the lexicon of the way people relate to each other is the term “friend with benefits”, which the writer goes on to define as given in the Urban dictionary.  Further--

"A relationship website that passes by the name of Mr Ethical Slut has a more empirical explanation. “For the most part, these two people are friends. The big difference between their other friendships is sex. Friends with benefits have the ability to go out on date-like activities. However, real dates are not initiated because there is no romantic interest between the partners. They hang out because they enjoy similar activities and each other’s company. Sex is an optional part of the relationship. If one partner has sex outside of the relationship, it does not end their friendship. Instead, the sex element is taken out of the relationship and they continue to be friends. Sex can also come back into the friendship when both parties are ready for it.”   The writer goes on to say that "Friend with benefits, perhaps, is just what the doctor ordered for the fast-paced, demanding, ephemeral lifestyles in Indian cities."   

What I would like to know is, if what the writer says (along with what articles in Cosmopolitan or Femina imply) is really what is happening out there; have our young people really changed their mindset so much and do both women and men accept this without negative connotations. I am also intrigued, because, again as per information from various magazines, our age-old system, of arranged marriages, is still thriving.  Somehow, I just cannot reconcile the two.  Can some youngsters enlighten me on these issues?

A song and memories

I searched for a song that I'd heard my daughter-in-law play again & again, while we were in the US.  It was part of a playlist on Grooveshark, which she used to put grand-daughter to sleep.  This is the song


It's a sweet song, light hearted and airy, nothing sad-making!  But, finding and then listening to the song, even before any memories came up in my mind, I found myself weeping away and the feeling of missing them & the nostalgia for the lovely holiday just washed over me................

Back home

Hi everyone!  It's been a week since I have been home after a 5 week stay in the United States.  It was a lovely, relaxed holiday as we didn't do too much rushing around.  I enjoyed the experience of Spring, something totally new to me; it was fun having all my grandchildren together and all of us on holiday.  We went to hear the Oracle of Omaha, my husband's big, big dream.
I had wanted to meet up with blog friend Mint Chutney, but sadly that didn't materialize.
I tried to keep up with blog world, but wasn't completely able to.  So I'm just catching up on all that's being going on.
I'm sorry my holiday's over and I miss my children & granddaughter there.  But life has to go on.  I suppose it will take me another week or so to settle back into the routine.  I presume I will be online more often as I am at my own computer.

Have got a bit of quiet computer time today and so thought I would wish all the mothers I know Happy Mother's Day.  As I am in the US now, there is no way I could forget that day anyway.  Any which way you look, and whatever maybe the medium of communication, there are ads for Mother's day.

I feel good and bad about all the media hype that I see.  In the sense of the celebration of motherhood and what goes into it, all of which may not get enough appreciation otherwise(?), I feel good.  But the commercialization seems so much and it seems to me, from some of the messages I see in the media, its as though love is measured only by the value of the gifts you give your mom!  I would think Moms are the last people who would weigh their children based on the material gifts they get from them.  Ah well, I guess, goods have to get sold, and reasons made for getting people to buy them. :-)

Happy Mother's Day.

We will be leaving in half an hour for the station to take us to Chennai and on to the US and I am feeling sad for my dog.  There will be someone coming in everyday to feed her and there are folks around who are fond of her.  Even so.........
Hope to keep up with my blog reading, though I'll be away from my comp.  In the meantime Happy Easter to you all.

We'll be leaving for the US in just 3 weeks time.  It was a sudden rescheduling and so I feel a little pressured, though of course, I'm looking forward to it too.

A good link

Those of you who read Huffington Post may have seen this article for caregivers of Alzheimer's patients. If not, do take a look, especially if you know of anyone who has Alzheimer's or senile dementia.

A way of looking at life?

"You are a big fruit tree, with your branches spreading wide, providing shade. Your fruits drop down and sustain many. I see and know that your growth is good and that, through you, other living beings are sustained in your shade, in your branches and from your fruit. That is your destiny.

I am but a little tiny wayside flower, glimpsed, maybe, by a wayside traveller on the way to your shade and that is my destiny. I provide neither cool shade nor fruits to gladden body and soul. If I gladden the heart of a passer-by with my smile, if I can provide a bit of nectar to the littlest butterfly or the tiniest bee, I am content.

Both you and I, grand and insignificant, huge and tiny, all are God’s creations and all are part of God’s plan"

I think of myself as the wayside flower.

My heart goes out to the Japanese people, who are going through horrific times, and to all those who have had to suffer the after -effects of natural disasters--so many places and so many countries in the last 2 years or so.
These natural disasters remind us, so powerfully, how little we are. We are made aware, once again, that Mother Earth is much more big and powerful than we give her credit for and all life is puny and helpless in front of her wrath. Humans are the only life which think that they can tamper with, tame, use, take advantage of all that nature gives us. So Mother Earth reminds us of our frailty now and then.

Was better and then had a hectic life for a week and am back on antibiotics now!  But the hectic activity was all enjoyable.  There was a trip to Chennai, where youngest grandkid is too at present (visiting) and so had a great weekend with 3 grandkids.  The other absolutely hectic activity that I was involved in was.............*drum roll*.....dancing!!! And that too with a lot of young women my daughter's age!   There were 4 days of dancing (with days in between).  I enjoyed myself thoroughly I must say.

After all the hectic activity I am now sick and I feel stupid because I am never sick for more than a couple of days normally--that is sick & so out of it and I feel like a malingerer.  I felt pretty ill on Friday and promptly saw the doc and was feeling much better by Sunday.  But come Monday morning and I'm feeling shivery & running a temperature!  Ah well.  Hopefully I'll be fine in a day or 2 more.

The last month and half were hectic.  All my grandchildren (3 in total) visited us .  The last one left last week.  And, I was surprised to find that I felt as bleak as when, in those far-off days, my children left home for university.  It took me a day to get over it.   I may have felt so very down also because I know that now life is back in it's usual routine.

Well anyway, there is still a lot to look forward to, mainly a trip we plan later this year and in some ways going back to routine too is comfortable.  I am old enough to realise that for us seniors, like for children [:-)] routine may seem boring, but is most definitely comfortable.

Last Decade

One more post on the first day of the year! Wonder whether I will post more the rest of the year too.

The last decade has seen a number of different happenings in my life.
My 3 children all got married in the past decade and I became a grandmother.
My parents both passed away and I became truly an adult. (As long as one has a loving parent living, one is always a child--at least to somebody!)
I went back to teaching--my first love--from working in the family business, which was not my cup of tea.
I admitted to myself that I had been quite badly depressed and was able to get out of it, blogging being a big help, and learnt to be gentle to myself.
I climbed over the mountain of menopause, and am I glad I'm on the other side :-D
I found out what I had always known--theoretically--that peace comes from deep within.

Peace to all

Happy New Year.

2010 is over and done with and is going, going, GONE!  Happy new year to all.  May 2011 be a happier, brighter, more peaceful year.