My nonagenarian father who is a cardiac patient is sorely missing his wife of 67 years. My mum’s passing came as a bolt from the blue for the entire family as she showed no symptoms of the devious Glioblastoforme tumour that was stealthily growing in her brain. And in all the years that they were married, my mother’s chief passion/ occupation was to run after my father and make sure he was comfortable. Even when she was unable to see, she served him his tea in bed and chopped his salad before every meal. It is no wonder then that he is having difficulty in adjusting to his new situation despite the fact that he is still getting his tea in the morning and his chopped salad thanks to the care given by my brother and his wife.
Yet a few weeks’ back, he developed a swelling in his legs which finally resulted in hospitalisation. It also meant getting an attendant as he needed help while walking .
The attendant we could get was an Ibrahim who only spoke Hindi and even though my dad has spoken Hindi all his working life , claimed that he couldn’t understand Ibrahim’s Hindi .
And one night dad complained that Ibrahim was yelling at him saying that he is a nuisance and should learn to behave himself . That same night he insisted that Ibrahim was reprimanding him for not taking his medication as advised and should be more responsible.
Naturally my sister in law questioned Ibrahim and it turned out that Ibrahim was on a long distance call to his family back home and was talking to his four year old son and pregnant wife !
Now this does seem too close for comfort or was it genuinely a misunderstanding in communication?
De-clutter, minimalistic living, have become the new buzz words in today’s living. Life style shows and life style gurus like Mary Kondo have a huge fan following with their tips on how to organise your things and thereby your lives. Living by the credo that less is more has had many of us suddenly throwing out things that haven’t been used for the past 5 years or even months. No longer will Hubby Dear show with pride his grandma’s 100 year old beaten brass pots that has served three generations of his family. It isn’t even consigned to the loft because recently we have broken down the loft!
Every big job has a small beginning
Like most of us , I purge my home of clutter twice in a year : once in spring time and once after the monsoons. Of course, there are times when I de-clutter even more often when I suddenly get overwhelmed by the piles of clothes lying on my rocking chair.
Recently, however, we decided to renovate one tiny bathroom that badly needed repair, refurbishment and a new life. So we ripped up the tiles, took out the fixtures and began building a bathroom from scratch. Before we knew it, we moved on to the adjoining room which had jammed windows that hadn’t been open for 20 years . So we decided to replace the windows and consequently paint the room.
In order to do this, we had to empty out the room and keep all the stuff in another room. This room happened to be our living room.
And then, we found that our kitchen needed re-doing so the kitchen was ripped apart and all the stuff came into – you guessed right – our living room.
While the kitchen work was being done, we decided to paint the other bedrooms one by one (on advice of the contractor who told us to grab onto the workmen who were free and put them to work when they needed to work rather than call them when we needed them and they had no time to do it). And so more stuff was emptied out of cupboards and rooms and shifted to our living room.
So now we have a huge pile of clutter occupying our living room and as we go back into our rooms, find that there is a lot of stuff that we needn’t put back into the cupboards or rooms that they came from.
And till we find someone to take away the stuff that we have weeded out, the clutter in our living room is slowly increasing.
Isn’t that strange that what began as an exercise in de-clutter has now resulted in more clutter?
Most events in life have a serendipitous beginning and before you know it, your life is transformed into something you never imagined. Who would’ve thought that by the end of July I’d become a dog sitting granny like many of my friends ?
My mother had just passed away in early June and I was still coming to grips with her loss when Hubby Dear announced the commencement of our long overdue house repairs.
Granted they were much needed but I do wish the contractor had found a slightly more propitious time . But life never happens the way you want it to so when Sauji ( the only contractor we could both agree on) said he was free to take on our job, we really had no option but to agree.
But even before we could start the work, another wheel began turning in my life – or more precisely in Anna Shetty’s life. Little did she know the plot that the Universe was setting up for her .
Adoption
It is normally humans who go to a kennel or shelter and bring home a dog or puppy. The trend these days is to adopt a Rescue or an Indie. Whatever you call them, I’m my vocabulary they remain Pie dogs or Pariahs. And I was quite reluctant to have any stray in my house. If ever I did keep a dog , it would have to be a pedigree of immaculate lineage
From mid-May a young straggly puppy showed up in the lane where Anna Shetty’s in-laws live. During the week, she would hang around in the gulleys but come Sunday afternoon when Little Po and Wow Dinga went to their grandparents’ for their weekly lunch, she would sit on their front steps, looking wistful. She didn’t beg for food , she didn’t sniff around . She just sat there curled up looking at the boys with her gorgeous light brown eyes. After three Sundays the family capitulated and little Ithie officially adopted Anna Shetty’s family as her own .
Can you resist these honey brown eyes ?
She was a fine specimen and was surprisingly humanised for being a stray. From the first day she showed signs of being house broken and indicated her desire to pee by going to the front door when she had to go. She never begged at the table, nor did she bark or snap and was a quiet well behaved dog and she gave her paw when she wanted an extra cuddle.
It was hard not to be drawn to her gentle, aristocratic demeanour. She was elegant and held her slim body tall as she delicately walked around the house . And she turned out to be not so Indie after all but a pie with a generous amount of Rajapalyam Hound thrown in .
After she got accustomed to her new home , Anna Shetty decided to introduce her to the world and it was only last Saturday that she made her debut visit to our house. Perhaps it was the general mess and chaos of our house that put her at ease but within minutes of sniffing around she found a nice cozy corner to claim for herself .
Hiding in a cozy space
She sat quietly till lunch time and had her meal without a fuss. We hardly knew we had a dog in the house.
Sunday greens
Little Po and Wow Dinga were asked to perform at the Soldierthon , this Sunday to mark the 25th anniversary of our victory at Kargil. 5000 runners were participating in this marathon held at the most beautiful and idyllic part of Mumbai. Here in the Cantonment of Mumbai you can still see traces of the British Raj with huge barracks and some odd bungalows and lots and lots of tree. . This of course is changing fast as accommodation for our servicemen is quite inadequate. It won’t be long before the skyscrapers outnumber the trees .
But today it is still greener than the rest of the city and those living there are privileged . And it is indeed an honour to play at a function that pays tribute to our brave soldiers. So I readily agreed to doggie sit despite making fun of my friends who have fur grand babies they are called upon to dog sit. I had promised myself that it was one thing I wouldn’t do.
But this morning , as I wait in our garden, I wonder who’s having the last laugh while I watch Ithie snapping happily at the blades of grass and stretching out in doggie bliss.
Twenty- five Seven 