Twenty- five Seven

#MondayMusings – eternally waiting

August 5, 2015

Day is done

Gone the sun

From the sea , from the hills , from the sky

All is well, safely rest

God is nigh.

Well, the beginning of another week is over and before I go to bed, I am reminded of these Taps we used to sing as Girl Guides .

Today was one of those days where I played lady in waiting – waiting for the chemist to send the medicines we needed to stop the baby’s colic. Needless to say , the delivery came after we’d spent the better part of the evening walking the colic away!

Last week I finally managed to get through to my regular plumbing contractor Mr. D who was away looking after an ailing mother -in-law . It seems that this lady who is well past her 80’s had a heart attack which was so severe that it would have killed her were it not for the intervention of a doctor whose treatment left her alive but barely just. Now the poor bed ridden lady who is also suffering from Alzheimer’s is just lying in bed wondering why she wasn’t allowed to die in peace. With her only child left in India to take care of her, she feels she’d be better off dead on the days she remembers who she is. On other days , she just stares blankly at her daughter.

Like many urban , educated , upper caste Indians Mr.D faces the prospect of living out his old age in an assisted facility as his two sons have migrated overseas, knowing that their intelligence and hardwork would be unappreciated in India. Not only is this a loss for the country but also a loss for the parents who often have to pinch several pennies to send their children abroad to study.

Now many children are more than willing to take their parents with them and carry out their filial duties but as Mr. D said he’d rather be alone in India than stay in the lap of luxury as an alien in a foreign land.

But does this mean that we are all condemned to a miserable old age and are better off dead? Should one decide when to pull the plug?

The Buddha said that all life is suffering and an old lady once told me that each one of us has a quota of ‘suffering ‘ that we have to fulfil so planning one’s exit is as futile as walking in the rain without a raincoat and expecting to remain dry.

So I’m going to stop worrying about my end but concentrate on the now and continue waiting for the Amazon parcel which was scheduled to come last week, continue waiting for the plane to arrive and to enjoy each moment while I wait.

I’m linking this to. #MondayMusings
Memories

August 2, 2015

Lena ben glanced at the clock: its neon hands glowed 4.30. “Oh dear,” she thought, “another two hours to get up.” She shut her eyes and rolled to her side facing the wall and was about to nod off again when the curtain moved to reveal Coco padding furtively on the window sill. “Scat cat,” she whispered, “go back into the street,” but Coco refused to listen and continued his way into the room, defiantly, daring her to get up and shoo him. The soft pad pad of his paws disturbed the stillness of the night as he came forward slowly and walked onto her bedside table, put his paw on her diary and slowly arched his back. Looking at the graceful curve of his spine , Lena ben was transported into a time machine.

She was sitting nervously on the blue sofa in the Upper drawing room waiting for ‘the boy’ to come. Pupul, one of the many stray toms that had adopted their home, was sitting on the window sill, looking down at the drive way. Her mother and sisters were waiting with her and Motli, her youngest sister was actually giggling and blushing like the silly 10-year-old she was. Lena, herself only 16 years old tried to still the thumping in her heart as she waited for Sureshchand Lalbhai and his father Seth Gopichandbhai to come visit her grandfather, the patriarch of their family . Seth Gopichand Bhai, her father’s tennis partner at the Club, was a familiar figure in their house as he was one of the merchants who accompanied her father to the market every day. Occasionally, she had spotted Sureshchand tagging along with them – a tall, lanky lad of 20, dressed in white like the rest of the merchants but sporting a rather stylish hair style like the young men of his generation.

“He’s a good boy,” said her mother, looking at Lena, “don’t worry, I’m sure your grandfather will approve of him.”

There was a scrunch of tyres on the gravel in the driveway and the sound of doors shutting as the men walked into the house. The ladies upstairs could hear the faint sounds of conversation as the men sat down to discuss the business at hand – to ask for Lena ben‘s hand in marriage. Pupul got up and arched his back, then gave the ladies a pitying look and gracefully lept onto the branch of the Gulmohar tree outside.

“He looks handsome,” said her mother, peeping through the glass window in the floor of the Upper drawing room – which no outsider knew of – the secret look out to the Lower drawing room so that the women could have a sneak peek at the strangers who walked in through their door.

“I know, ” said Lena blushing, “I’ve seen him many times waiting in the car for Papaji to join them.

“Let me see, let me see,” whispered the girls jostling one another to get a good look at the potential groom.

Crash! The cat moved and tipped over the Waterford vase that had stood by her bedside for so many years. ‘Oh No!” thought Lena ben rudely awakened from her reverie. Shards of glass glistened on the floor and a darkening patch of water spread all over the soggy diary holding memories of a lifetime now gone.

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

I’m also linking this to Write Tribe Pro Blogger Challenge.
Thank you for the month of July

July 30, 2015

Well, it’s that time of the month again when we sit back and take stock of what we have and what we don’t . It’s strange but this is the ritual I also follow for my regular groceries and my stock of medicines. In fact, it is one of the more interesting aspects of housekeeping where I analyze the consumption of oil, rice, wheat and sugar and compare it with the consumption of these items last month. I then make a list of what I require in the store room, the medicine cabinet, the laundry, the linen cupboard and the other odds and ends that need repair or replacement. This is because I like to be organised and avoid any last minute glitches. Of course, this doesn’t mean that my life runs like clockwork – quite the contrary because life throws you curve balls every day!

Source : http://media.photobucket.com/

But now that July is coming to an end, I have a lot to be grateful for:

1. The first half of July got me a new grandson and I am grateful that I have the opportunity and ability to take care of him.

2. Thank you all the ladies who help me with my housework – taking care of the mundane tasks like cleaning and dusting. Without them, I’d be really at a loss.

3. I am glad that the Rain Gods have listened to my prayers and it has rained only when I was doing nothing important and could sit at home and watch the clouds pour down.

4. I am grateful that my erratic tailor actually got my measurements right and stitched my blouses before I changed my size. (He normally takes so long to get anything done that I invariably become too tight for my new clothes.)

5. I am grateful for the friends that I have – who understand my time constraints and still remain my friends despite my feeble attempts at keeping in touch.

6. This month two of my friends lost their fathers making me realise how lucky I am to still have my parents because as they say, you never really grow up until you lose your parents. I’m glad that as a granny I can still be a “kid” myself.

I’m linking this post to Vidya Sury’s Gratitude Circle and the Write Tribe ProBlogger Challenge

#MondayMusings – eternally waiting

Memories

Thank you for the month of July