Wednesday 20 May 2015

My mother --the expert sculptor

"My first expert '  that is such a sweet way to define a mother,  for she actually is every person's first expert . She is the one who teaches a child everything about life. She is a doctor , a cook, a teacher , a friend , all rolled into one and she is an expert in all these fields and always the first to guide you.

A mother is actually the first expert in everyone's life and so was mine .

Everyone loves their mother and feels that their's is the best but my mother holds a special place in my life because she was everything mentioned above and much more .She was my Mentor  .

She put my life  on a pedestal ---yes that is it ,on a pedestal ---I am not trying to say that I was better than the rest  or superior to others but the way my life had gone into shambles even becoming a normal child was like being standing on a pedestal , and having put me on a pedestal she went about her mission of  making me worthy of staying on that pedestal.


  My childhood was spent away from my parents because my father was in a continuously transferable job and his postings used to be in remote areas where though we were provided  all other comforts of life by the company but good schools were not available .I was sent to stay with my grandparents and there's was a joint family , so though otherwise very loving and caring a feeling of competition and jealousy did arise  between the various uncles and aunts and their children ---and since my other cousins had there respective sets of parents they were emotionally more secure than me .I sort of had no one to rush to for emotional support if I committed a mistake or if I failed to reach a certain grade in studies or extra curricular activities in school.All this made me a nervous wreck and I cultivated a terrible inferiority complex underestimating myself.

When my parents noticed this they decided that It was time I was brought back home . They decided to have double establishment and my mother shifted to the city with all us brothers and sisters  . She would shuttle between my father's official residence and our house in the city.
She devoted all her time in making me strong and self sufficient . She gave me the mantra that "nothing succeeds like success " and that society has a very short memory People don't have the time to think about you so never restrain your activities for fear of social criticism eg when I was selected to give my voice to hindi plays on All India Radio I was a bit apprehensive as society in those days was a bit conservative but she encouraged me she asked me to go ahead and she told all her friends about my achievement .

She gave me a book called "They Dared To Be Doctor's '  its the story of two lady doctors of the 19th century Dr Elizabeth Blackwell and Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson  who dared to become medical practitioner's during the conservative Victorian age . She also told me the story of Rani Lakshmibai ( the queen of Jhansi ) who defied the male dominated times and fought the British She was one of the pioneers to start the first war of Independence in 1857. Mom always told me that had these women thought about social reaction they would never have achieved what they did ---and then she would tell me "  do you see who praises them ? the men folk don't they ? so don't worry about what other 's will say as far as you are not doing anything wrong go ahead and achieve"  .

She was the youngest of two brothers and two sisters  and since both her brothers were in hostels pursuing their academics and the sister was married she was a lonely child who used to follow the nomadic lifestyle of her parents .But instead of becoming a "lonely "child she moulded herself into an "only" child  full of talents and expertise in as many fields as possible    Her father being in the railways would continuously get transferred and she would land up making friends with the local people as well as the families of the Anglo Indian staff . As a result, in that small span  of 18 years ( she got married at the age of 18) she had become an expert in the cuisine of all the local places she had stayed in .She was fluent in Bengali, Oriya, and chhatisgarhi  and she was an expert in knitting, crochet and baking and cooking courtsy the mother's of her  Anglo  Indian friends .All the ladies doted on her and were more than willing to teach her because she was a very bright student whereas their own daughters were not at all interested in anything . In fact though a school drop out ( because in those days not much importance was given to girls education her parents just let her do her matriculation as a  private candidate)  She picked up the English language from the Anglo Indians. Impressed by her intelligence my grandfather  allowed her to buy the famous magazines ("Women and Home " and the "Patons and Beehive" books on knitting and crocheting etc) he was very proud of her  .

 She left those books and magazines as a legacy for me. I still have them , though they are  dated much before my birth .  

After she got married to my father who was a Mine's manager in a British Firm she never had any problems getting along with the wive's of the British officers. In fact she was very popular among them and they admired her because they just couldn't imagine an Indian girl being so knowledgeable --she could bake and cook and was an expert in making even  continental dishes this  was very astonishing for the Britishers themselves . All this was in the early 1950's .

She was a God gifted person as far as talents were concerned She was not only fast in acquiring skills but she was the owner of a very sweet and melodious voice and a renowned singer in her social circle. 

Thus I conclude with the sentiments that though she was the metaphorical " first Expert "  that every mother is .  She was literally an expert in real life too .

In addition to all those skills and achievements that she was an expert in , she was a skilled architect a sculptor who could chisel my life in such a way that she cut away all the unwanted edges in my existence smoothening   away  all sharp and harmful edges to make my personality  successful  and as near to perfection as possible .

After my father's early demise , too , she brought  up us three  brothers and sisters single  handedly  without any help from any one thus shouldering the responsibility of the good and the bad .

I end this write up with the words 'Maa tujhe salaam ".

 I salute her not only as a mother but as a woman who knew how to live She never let  herself become  a victim of times when girls were not allowed to blossom, she did not let herself become the victim of prevalent backward society, instead she made use of all opportunities that came her way  and became a role model for us girls who were living in times full of opportunities and facilities.

Thus she not only sculptured my life she also sculptured her own life coming out a victor .

The mother to be 

The caring mother 


                                                       The proud mother 

http://godrejexpert.com/single_used_pack.php------is the link to this post

Friday 15 May 2015

Happy to be alive


Smart phones are the latest technical wonder as far as I am concerned .

 I am a BIG fan of mobile phones from the time the first one hit the market I just couldn't help admiring those  black objects which I could   hold in my palms and carry them everywhere ---and which had made connectivity so easy for all ----the fear of being lost had just vanished and the ability to trace people's whereabouts had come within my reach .

'No children would cry
No husbands could lie'

was my slogan for the usefulness of mobile phones.

Then as days and years and time flew past new innovations began to appear on these mobile phones

They became sleeker , lighter , easier to carry and were accompanied by many many more facilities , radio , camera ,   chats and of  course the latest 'APPS'  .

Apps as I have understood them to be, are made to make life simpler for us .They are self contained programs used to enhance the existing functions of a mobile in a simpler  way They make the mobile more user friendly eg they remember your login information for next time and present critical data. They make life easier and tasks better suited to mobile use . 

In fact when I had asked my husband to download an app into his smartphone when we had bought one he had brushed aside my suggestion as rubbish making fun of me saying that these apps were not for people of our age they were for the young , because it was the young generation who used mobiles for both play and work .He said apps were for teenagers to dance and sing and chat and watch movies  or for trendy people with rich luxurious lifestyles or for businessmen and CEO's who needed information etc at their fingertips Apps according to him were not for us  senior citizens who were leading a sedate life and who had all the time in the world to walk down to the electricity office to pay the bill or who needed an excuse to walk down and meet people and make friends to kill time .

Then he happened to see my daughter's phone with an app and he was brain washed into going in for one when he saw the benefits ,and how easy life could become with the help of these apps .And he could do the same activities of walking down the lane and making friends without the mental tension of reaching the billing office in time. By the way let me tell you he is addicted to the computer , social sites and blogging sites  even the news he prefers to read on the computer instead of the TV. IPL and world cup and test matches are all watched  on the computer than on the TV .So naturally he found the app to be a  more convenient and comfortable option than a plain simple mobile. He need not sit on a desk top if he downloaded one of these apps .. 
  Then we discovered the other advantages --
Apps install in seconds
  •  Apps are always available.
  • Apps are always up-to-date
  • Apps won’t crash your computer.
  • .
  • Now came the time to select which App to down load and the choice automatically fell on "My Airtel App'  Because of the benefits it offered. As the advertisement . says "

  • My Airtel App with its simple and intuitive design helps you manage all your DTH, Broadband, Prepaid & postpaid services in one place. Apart from amazing offers for post paid and pre paid users it also helps you pay your bills, recharge your DTH, track account usage, track service requests, buy products, add your family & friends’ numbers and much more. It's the simplest way to manage all your Airtel services through your handset! "

  • And above all,  all features were available on Android.
  • And then as my daughter explained the features and their  benefits we  became more determined with the choice 
  • We found that the 2G and 3G data recharge facility and special recharge offers were so welcome 
  • and what  can be more appealing to a retired person than the free coupons on every recharge .
My Airtel app - The smartest way to recharge, pay bills & manage all  airtel mobile, 3G dongle, landline/broadband & DTH accounts at ONE place.----REALLY !!!

The new  Shake  feature !!!!  .hahahah we are supposed to just shake our phones and get to know  about the amazing savings offers .Its like shake your phone and listen to the sound of savings every time you recharge.Dad don't use it like a toy " jhunjhuna" to listen to the jingling of bells said  my daughter and laughter ensued .


We went through the advertisement  once again and reading the literature provided, we discovered that --

"PCIDSS certification makes the myAirtel app the most Safe amazing recharge benefits, recharge offers & free coupons when you recharge or pay bills.    and allows fastest checkouts with card store feature for prepaid online mobile recharge, Digital TV DTH recharge, data card / dongle recharges, 3G pack recharge, postpaid online mobile bill payment, landline & broadband bill payment and airtel money load cash.
Not only this, Now Enjoy ‘Airtel Surprises’ free coupons on every recharge & bill payment. Just recharge with any amount & get offers on every recharge transaction. We also have special recharge offers designed especially for you on recharges and bill payments

Be smart with ‘I Want to’ feature - Save your frequent recharges & bill payments on homescreen.
Manage all your services & raise all your complaints & requests at one touch with 24X7 customer care".

The above excerpt from the ad was all we needed because it gave us THREE reasons to select MyAirtel App ------firstly .what suits the lifestyle of an elderly couple more than paying your bills without getting into a queue Its a Godsend 
 secondly saving money through offers and a service provider with 24x7 customer care what more can we ask for 
.and last but not the least in fact I personally find this third point most important  exchanging your cash benefit coupons for sandwiches  and coffee and movie tickets  ( i.e shopping, food , wellness, entertainment) and also online shopping on sites like  Flipkart,  Amazon Because for us above 60's these things are as important as any other technical wonder a sandwich without shelling out cash from ones savings   wow  !  had this facility been their say about 15 years back I would have redeemed all the coupons with VLCC . lol

These wonderful technical wonders  of modern times make one" happy to be alive ".

 So it is done and decided that we go for MyAirtel App 



Thursday 7 May 2015

Khelo Dimag se ---Ek Nayi League ---the brain game

Ek Nayi League a new  show by Kapil Dev and we have to blog about it !!!

Saw this alert at  6 pm yesterday 6th May 2015 and racked and wrecked my head thinking about it what could it be ? one thing was sure it had to be a league not a knock out . It  had celebrities  and  because it was a league it had to have teams consisting of these celebrities . May be the layman from the audience too will be included by the team leaders in their teams. And yes may be they will all put their heads together to discuss the answer and the leader will put it forth.

One thing I am sure is that it has to be a question and answer session because there are those googlies to face ----hee! hee! got it Kapil Pa ji throws a question and  your answer has to be in  question form ---some thing like


 ek sawal mai karoo  ------------------------------------I will ask a question
 ek sawal tum karo--------------------------------------you too ask a question
har sawal ka jawab hi sawal ho----------------------thus making each question an answer for the other .

This way it wouldn't be a direct answer and the question of becoming a "Hit wicket" will not arise .A lot of 'brains' or' Dimag' will be required to think and frame a question so there won't be time to play 'Dil Se' ( from the heart). Lots of thinking( Soch) will be required like Kapil Dev says " socho socho" (think, think) .

There will be a buzzer round ---or will it be there ? I think  a Buzzer round is a must to ensure a googly ..

The audience may  include  family members of the celebrities so that more fun and glamour enters. ...

Each question may  carry marks  some of which  may   later be exchanged for money and donated for some good social cause , like for the betterment  of the girl child , rehabilitation for acid attack or rape victims ; victims of  natural calamities may also be benefited by the money donated eg relief measures for the Nepal earthquake victims may be provided from this money ---the programme will  be heavily sponsored and considering its a programme by Kapil Dev and the players are celebrities there is not going to be any dearth of sponsors .

This point about donating for a good cause came to my mind  because I know  Kapil Dev is a very good human being a humanitarian at heart  a human par excellence so there will be some social cause to be benefited . The celebrities will be achievers from all fields sports,  show biz , politics social  activists  and they will include veterans as well as contemporaries and budding ones.

Apart from social causes the show will , I think also promote and help budding talents  by providing them with opportunities  , exposure and financial help .


Then there will be international stars too specially from the  sports  arena  a la IPL style .Encouraging international bonhomie .

I think I have made a lot of guesses and now should wait for the actual launching of the programme today at Mumbai ---and let the curtains rise . .

We are all waiting with bated breath for this new Mega Event .




the link to this post :---


 http://www.eknayileague.com/.

@eknayileague #EkNayi League