English: An orange cloth umbrella. Français : Une ombrelle en tissu orange. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With the days getting hotter by the minute and thoughts of rain completely inundating my brain, I am also now beginning to think about UMBRELLAS. I have around four of them from different vintage collecting dust on the rack near my computer. Most of them are the folding variety which I have kept at home only to give to those caught in an unexpected storm.
Umbrellas in Mumbai are about as useful as are skis in a desert. While it does rain in Mumbai, the rains are simply torrential and umbrellas are quite futile – they are either blown away or blown inside out leaving you clutching on to the handle trying not to look foolish battling the wind and the rain. But umbrella sellers and umbrella repairers do brisk business in the monsoons as most people buy a new umbrella every monsoon having either lost or broken the one used the previous season. As for me, I believe that umbrellas are totally pointless and try to time my going out with the lulls in the rainy spells. Very rarely does it rain all day long and on the days there is no let up, I simply stay indoors. Or if I get out, I just get wet!
Years ago a friend had gifted me a book on which she had inscribed a very sweet thought which I’d like to share with all
There are over a 1000 bloggers from all over the world participating in this challenge. Do pop in and see what the others are writing. It’s amazing and fascinating to discover how people’s minds work and how the same prompt can inspire different thoughts.
Today’s Prompt: Pick up the nearest book and flip to page 29. What’s the first word that jumps off the page? Use this word as your springboard for inspiration. If you need a boost, Google the word and see what images appear, and then go from there.
Today’s twist: write the post in the form of a letter.
I am currently reading a really badly written book as a part of a book review program. The first word that leapt at me on P 29 was money which is the ninth word in the first line. So here goes.
My dear Money ,
Like most people in the world, I have this love, hate relationship with you. I love you for what I can get with your help but also hate you because many relationships sour because of you. Why can’t you elicit a more consistent response?
But I suppose you cannot help your nature. You are at once attractive, capricious, pricey and hard to come by. Your charms are irresistible and your utility uncountable. You are the one thing on this planet where big is better……….and one can really never get tired of you or even enough of you.
Lots of people can benefit with your help- and lots of people do help others with your help but equally lots of people do terrible things just to have more of you. Won’t you spread yourself thin if you share of yourself equally with everyone in this world?
In some ways I feel sorry for you – some people love you and some people don’t.Some people want you and some people don’t.
Thankfully I am not you!
Take care
With affection and admiration
p.s. ( actually I would like to address you as Maniben which means sister Mani and a pun on the word Money)
So finally the writer’s block seems to have got unblocked and today’s letter easily inspired an association:
T is for Tea and as usual it started an earworm that I often heard my father sing while growing up. Teatime was my favourite meal while growing up and it is only natural that I think of tea when I see the letter T.
My father is not much of a singer, but he did have an ear for music and a memory for words so quite often I would hear just snippets of songs that remain engraved in my memory. Today’s prompt got me thinking about the rest of the words of “Tea for two and two for tea,” and when got me thinking I googled the song found that it was written way back in the 1920’s even before my father was born!
I found two versions of the song on You Tube, one sung by Doris Day and the other the jazzed up version by the evergreen Ella Fitzgerald.
Which one did you prefer? I loved the pure spunk of Ella !
I don’t know why I’m fascinated by tea and the romance of tea because as an adult I ‘d much rather drink coffee. Perhaps it is due to the subliminal memory of visiting the Tea Centre at Churchgate, as a part of a field trip way back as an eight-year-old. It was the first ever school trip that I can remember and perhaps I was more fascinated by the whole process of going down the winding staircase to the assembly hall at the bottom, making groups of four and getting into cars that ferried us to the Tea Centre, learning how tea is grown and processed and brewed. Till today, the words still ring in my head:
How to make the perfect tea.
Rinse out a teapot with hot water so that the ceramic inside is nice and warm. Add a teaspoon of tea for each person and one extra for the pot. Then pour in the boiling hot water, one cup per person. Put the lid on and cover with a tea cozy. Allow the tea to brew for 2 minutes. Stir before pouring through a strainer. Add a drop of cold milk if required. Or squeeze some lemon juice. Add sugar if required!
This tea is quite different from the way we make it at home:
Measure out a cup of water for each person in a pot. Bring to the boil and then add the tea leaves. This amount depends on how strong you like your tea – more leaves for a stronger brew. Lower the heat and add the milk – once again depending on how you like your tea – milky or dark. Allow to simmer before turning off the heat and covering the pot, leaving it to sit for a bit. Strain into a teapot or into individual cups. This tea is generally really sweet and in the really traditional way, the sugar is added to the boiling water. In our house, however, we prefer to let individuals add their own tea.
Tea is made differently all over the world ever since it was brought out from the kingdom of China and it remains the favourite beverage over which people share ideas and thoughts. With tea cakes and sandwiches and all kinds of snacks, this truly is the cup that cheers!
T is for THANK YOU
I just realised that this is the Gratitude Circle Thursday Blog hop day so I’d like to also use this opportunity for being THANKFUL that everything is normal
It was a long time since the three of us had got together and I was grateful that we still could meet after all this while. We decided to take in a movie and went to see “Margarita, with a Straw” a movie that is currently playing at movie theatres and catering to an audience that thinks. This is a thought provoking movie loosely based on a woman whose condition triggered off a series of responses that ultimately led to the founding of the Spastics Society of India. This coming of age film of a child of cerebral palsy deals with sexuality among differently abled young adults, a topic that is rarely touched upon.
While I did empathise with Laila, I found myself actually thanking my stars that I am not differently abled.
So this month I am thankful for
~ the brief holiday I had in Dubai
~ the wonderful people I met during my holiday
~ the wonderful activities I could enjoy as a Blogger
~ my life that is boringly normal!
I’m also putting this up on Write Tribe ProBlogger Challenge.
There are over a 1000 bloggers from all over the world participating in this challenge. Do pop in and see what the others are writing. It’s amazing and fascinating to discover how people’s minds work and how the same prompt can inspire different thoughts.
