It was the 20th anniversary of the breaking of the Berlin Wall recently and what it brought memories of, to me, was of the fact that it's been 20 years since my son had his spinal operation the National hospital for Neurology in Queens Square in London. He was in the hospital after his surgery and he saw it on the TV in his ward and told us about it , when we went to visit. He was 16 then. He and all of us have come a long way and I am so grateful for all the good things that have happened to him and to all of us, in the last 20 years.

What with my new granddaughter, school, regular power outages (*drat, darn, whatever*), I haven't been able to post. Besdies new granddaughter seems to have driven everything out of my mind and find it difficult to think through any post. So, I thought I wouldn't post for a while. But I'll be around reading blogs.
See you later.

Inspired by Mrs T over at The Witty Words of a Wayward Wife( who is sharing bits of her holiday in Cyprus with us as and when she gets the time) and by the fact that my grandson--who is, in typical new Gen fashion, an absolute computer addict and so wants to use the comp whenever I'm in front of it--has gone to visit his other grandparents, I decided that I would share some more of the good times of my holiday in the US.
Among he high points of my trip was the music I got to hear and most of it free, as it was summer.  I think it's so wonderful that there is so much free culture available in the US during summer.
I love jazz and much of the music I heard was jazz.  I got to hear a concert at Chicago's lovely Jay Pritzker auditorium.  What an impressive sound system!  And it was wonderful to know you could sit anywwhere and hear the same quality of music, whether up close to the stage, or way back on the grass.  There was a trip to the Hollywood bowl on my California part of the trip--a treat from my brother--big band jazz (but I preferred the Jay Pritker) and some Latino music in a street square in North LA  and then the Chicago Jazz festival held over the Labor Day weekend. Though I got to hear only a bit of that, what I heard was a tribute to Benny Goodman, and I loved his music. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to hear any classical music, because by the time I found out about the summer music happennings, all the classical music shows were over.
The last time we were in the US was firstly for a very serious visit and secondly was made at the end of summer, into autumn.  So at that time I had no opportunity to listen to any music.  So this was so much fun.  I only wish now,that I had researched more before going, so that I could have taken better advantage of all the music that was out there.  Now I know that I will certainly do more research before I make another trip.

'Boy who harnessed the wind'

Don't know how many of you have come across the story of this young man from Malawi..  Truly inspirational!!

Friend heart/fiery heart

So now, I'm back at home from the other side of the world and feeling more human, instead of one of the undead (modern technology does to one by whizzing us around!)
I had a lovely time in the US, spending time with my new grandbaby and her proud parents, spending some time with my brothers and their families, enjoying the mostly pleasant weather most enjoyable and a real bonus--meeting my blog friend Onedia.
This post will be about my meeting with O--one of my oldest blog friends I think.
O drove around 10 hours--the driving done completely by her--with Katha, O's exchange daughter from Germany. It being the Labor Day weekend, I'm sure traffic wasn't easy. They stayed in downtown Chicago.
Unfortunately the day she reached Chicago, I was still recovering from the onset of a cold and cough. So I got to spend just a morning with her. But it was a wonderful day!
Firstly, although the forecast had predicted rain, it turned out to be a glorious morning as I walked--meandered--along Wacker Drive, and the 'Magnificient Mile'. I did attract a few glances during my 2 mile walk (which took me close to an hour incidentally), because I was all togged up in 'Indian, Indian' clothes.
Finally I reached a cross roads and there across the street was a tall (to me) woman, dressed elegantly in black, who I recognised as Onedia immediately. Oh it was so exciting to travel to the other side of the world and meet up with a blog friend you have only read--like old time meeting of pen friends!!
O and I then headed to the food court in the mall where young Katha was enjoying a morning's shopping and decided to eat brunch at the restaurant there. We had the most amazing baked apple pancakes, which I can still taste! And we talked and talked!! I did wonder if O could quite understand my accent. But it was grand.
After the brunch, O called Katha, who came and took pictures of us, after which O and I caught the local train, me to get off at Jackson to go listen to a bit of the Chicago jazz festival which was on and O to head out somewhere, where Katha would meet her later.
I don't usually put up pictures of me here, so the picture of me & O will go to another blog. But here is the picture of the lovely gift O gave me, (which she made keeping in mind our 'Auras' as showed up on a fun quiz in Facebook). O said that it is a friend heart and I have noted that a pendant like this is there on her Fiery Hearts blog

Thank you for the beautiful gift and the great time O! I do hope you and Mathew will be able to make a trip to India sometime.

Thoughts from a sleepless night

I stay up and read a murder mystery to know the ending and then think I'll check my mail and realise it's early morning and it's afternoon half-way across the world at my home and that this time next week I'll be in Chennai and getting ready to leave by the night train to go back home. 
It seems so long since I left home.  And in the dark as it happens so often, I feel disembodied, detached, and wonder do I justify my existence.Do all sentient beings feel the need to justify their existence?  What use am I in the scheme of things?  And i think of the lines from the poem (never can remember which one, certainly not at this time of the night) 'They also serve who only stand and and wait', which I often use to justify to myself my existence and I think of Agatha Christie's novels and a thought that runs through many of them, that sometimes a person's whole existence maybe only for the moment when his or her presence alone can change the course of somebody else's life.  And I try to see if there was a tapestry of life on the hill or of the life of my family am I there and what colours would the silks that portray my life be.  And I know I am there--muted shades of blue and green--background shades. 
But that is for the daylight.  Now, in the early dawn darkness, I am only words.

Am in the US of A and getting used to cooler climes, longer daylight times and my new granddaughter. We have been to Chicago twice now, once spending a day walking around and looking around and doing the touristy things like visiting Millenium Park. That was a pleasant day.
Last weekend we visited the 'beach', which is on the shore of the lake--Lake Michigan.
It was a hot day--91 F. [My children in Chennai were highly amused when I told them that it was hot here :-)] Well it was rather like a Bangalore hot day--very sunny and dry. But the water of the lake was ice cold--or so it felt to us Indians. But the water was packed with people, even little kids, playing, swimming and some just wallowing in the water. A large portion of Chicago seemed to be there, enjoying the sunshine. We had wondered about what clothes to wear, but out there at the beach we realised it truly didn't matter, because skimpy was in. We saw a whole bunch of runners--both men and women-- participating in a Susan G Komen 'Race for the Cure' for breast cancer, wearing pink shirts, pink ribbons, pink bands on their wrists, all dedicatedly walking/running although it was so warm. There were little vignettes of family life, from many different cultural backgrounds, in the deep, cool shade of the trees in the area, each a setting for a little story. I wish I could have lingered longer, but we were out with a little baby too--who was in a sling on her mom and it was too hot to stay in one place.
But all of it was interesting. Sadly, there are no pictures.