Twenty- five Seven

Personally speaking

Recent Posts

  • At the end of the day

    Today is just the middle of the week but for some strange reason it seems like the end of the week. Wednesday has always been a rough day perhaps it is because it is the middle of the week. I’ve had a good day so far. After a night of tossing and turning and wondering whether my back would ache I woke up to the sound of traffic outside the window. Even though my house is a 100 ft away from the edge of the main road it is opposite a school and on the 23rd floor you get sounds from all around. On some days when I’m on the other side of the house, the side that overlooks the maidan and the inner part of the city, I wake up to the rumbling of a train or the wake up call of the muezzin. But on the western side that gives me a great view of the sea and which overlooks the main road , I can get up to strange sounds: sometimes it is the honking of cars waiting to drop off the girls to school, sometimes , when it is later in the morning, it is the loud boom of the drum and the cries of ‘left left left right left’ as the girls practice marching for the inter school sports.

    I wonder if the inter school sports were as much a big thing as they were in our day. I can never forget how the girls from the convent school that is in front of my house ran after the condoms that were blown up by the rowdy boys from the school on the other side of town and sent specially their way. The boys and girls from my school looked on in amusement as the nuns shouted at the girls’ unseemly behaviour and warned them to ignore the condoms that floated over their heads. That was the highlight of the inter school sports meet for most of us, while others exploited the chance to meet others from the opposite sex.

    So this morning I woke up to the sound of school traffic and eased myself out of bed, not wanting to spend it in pain as I did yesterday when my back suddenly have way. Coping with pain is exhausting and perhaps that’s why I felt as though I’d run a hundred miles and it seemed like the end of the week.

    The day unravelled slowly with a gentle pace and by the end of the day I felt it was Friday evening and I was ready to unwind I’ve the weekend. Alas tomorrow is Thursday and another day. I do hope it’s as unhurried and lazy as today.

  • Are mothers our greatest critics?

    My parents live in Pune which is only 120 km and 3 hours away from Mumbai yet it often is as long as three months before I see them. Every year I start out with the intention of visiting them at least once a month but then like all New Year Resolutions, this falls between the cracks and before I know it, I land up visiting just when I have to. Some years ago I decided I’d meet them on their birthdays but even that has become slack with my every day schedule. Since I am really very busy, even my parents don’t come to Mumbai all that often so it’s been a year since they visited my home. Yesterday, after a year, my parents finally  came over  for lunch.

    I was really excited as a lot has happened over the year in terms of home refurbishment and redecoration. I am of course in daily touch with my parents thanks to the mobile phone which allows both of us to talk while on the go but was specially happy to finally be able to show them how the house looked after all the paint and polish. And I was thrilled when my mother approved of the entire effort and look and said that everything was looking great.

    My mother is no interior designer, nor is she a party planner but she is a meticulous worker who has always prided herself in doing a good job. Always one to follow instructions to the T, she can’t stand sloppy slipshod work and takes pride in learning things and trying to improve herself, even at this age so praise from her is praise indeed!

    Do we all seek approbation from our mothers? They are after all our first teachers, our first supporters and ardent fans so is that why we value their praise the most?

    Are you like me, grinning like an idiot from ear to ear when your mother says well done? Even when you’re all of 50 + ?

    This is my post for Write Tribe Pro Blogger Challenge.

  • Every blogger needs some guidance

    I have been blogging for several years but just realised last year that I was getting nowhere. With no plan in mind, no goals to reach and no audience to reach out to, I realised that my kind of blogging was like pouring water down a drain hole – a complete waste of time and energy.

    For any activity to be meaningful it has to be channelised and often one needs guidance. Last year I consulted with a professional blogger in the hope that he’d get my online publishing on track but I found that I was made just another sucker and that my blog identity and online presence is just as insignificant as it was last year and the year before that.  Just today, when most of the month is over, I realised that all one really needs to do is to find help online and while surfing the net, I came across Blogging 101 which I will join up in February.

    Reading the fine print is key to being a better writer, indeed a better blogger. There are so many blogs out there in the blogsphere with wonderful content that often leaves me wondering – hey why didn’t I write that one? or – that’s just what I think, how come I didn’t think of writing it ?

    Well, the answer is quite simple really, to be a better blogger, you have to be a better reader. It is only when the mind is exposed to a million written words  that can one get inspired to write – for writing is not only about ideas and thought but also about words that make sentences and stories, words that describe sounds and emotions, words that stir and stimulate, words that create and inspire, words that capture the past and paint the future. In short, it is words that make a blog and you must have a whole treasure trove of them from which you can dig up the most amazing words, retell the most amazing stories and make the most amazing blogs.

    I am looking forward to joining up the course in February and hope to be a better blogger.

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