Twenty- five Seven

Summer time

June 5, 2022

Obviously Cliff Richards’ famous song Summer Holiday wasn’t meant for me though at one time it was one of my favourites. Unlike most people, summertime for me is not a beach holiday or an escape to the hills. Nor is it a trip abroad or a visit to a distant relative .

An arterial road is empty

I’d much rather stay back in my city of Mumbai which is itself on a holiday with most people having abandoned it for their vacations. While most of India is heating up in wave after wave, I can enjoy a warm breeze while I look down on its empty streets bereft of bumper to bumper cars and incessant sounds of horns, drill machines and the noise of busyness.

Airing out my saris today made me feel that life was returning to normal. For two years during the pandemic I didn’t feel like doing this traditional summer activity .

Yes , summer is the time for goofing off with a book, scouring the bazar for mangoes to be pickled and of course giving my precious saris a bit of air

Sari Pride

I think saris are the most elegant garment ever discovered. They fit all sizes and shapes and can double up as sheets and blankets and even a towel to wipe off one’s hands while working.

Of course blouses are another story because unlike most people, my blouses shrink with every wash. That’s the reason why many of my saris have lain unworn for the past two years. Especially the silks with threads of gold as there have been no weddings or celebrations thanks to the Dirty Old Virus stalking our planet relentlessly.

But I love my saris that have been collected over the years : saris to mark occasions like my own wedding, the birth of my girls, a memory of a holiday, gifts from friends and family or just an indulgent purchase. Many of them are now getting to be vintage pieces and I hope to pass them on as heirlooms.

But they needed to be aired and given a good shake and I had very few days to do it before the monsoon struck.

Airing and wearing

Actually it was a chance visit to Jo’s house last week when I saw her living room sofas adorned with precious silks, that reminded me that my own saris hadn’t seen the light of day for two years now .

So I pulled them out of my trunk and draped them all over the house. Hubby Dear of course despaired the fact that the only place he could read his paper remained the floor and told me to wear them and air them instead!

Of course I didn’t listen to him and let the saris hog all sitting space for two whole days.

Finally, when I felt each sari had enough, I began keeping them back .

For two consecutive afternoons while the whole house slept, I carefully checked each sari for tears, rips, loose falls and tiny insects that somehow love saris. Then I patiently ironed each one and folded them away, in a different fold this time and kept them away with some natural insect repellent like cloves.

And ironing 6 yards of silk isn’t easy -especially when you have to fold them just so without burning the gold threads or pulling at the intricate brocade work.

And I felt my saris smiling back at me as I kept them back in the trunk, wrapped in a cotton sheet and a sachet of lavender to keep them smelling good and fresh.

But there was a sense of calm, while I did the work and as they piled up in perfect folds that would have made Marie Kondo proud, I felt happy. I felt good.

Does airing your clothes make you feel energized and rejuvenated ?

Ciao
Thoughts on a Monday Morning

May 30, 2022

So the merry month of May is coming to an end.

And with it the famed Alphonso mango will bid farewell. As will the flaming red Gulmohars and glorious yellow cousin the Rusty Shield bearer .

Alas this year, the blooms have been fewer and the heat hotter. Can heat be anything but hot ? Yes it can be less hot than what it is now.

Day breaks at 5 and the darkness dissipates slowly so that by 6 when the sun is up, the Koel has already started its wake-up call.

It’s been quite a while since I woke up before the sun. Almost a month to the day when I woke up to catch an early morning train for Pune.

The air is still and the fan whirs slowly. I wonder if I should get into a Yoga stretch or go back to bed till noon!

Well, I did wake up and spend the day in a pretty amazing way. A singing workshop for kids took me to the end of town in the middle of the day.

A sign of the times : if this was the distance we were meant to keep, there wouldn’t be any workshop would there ?

Though the place was air conditioned it was a ridiculous time for a kids’ activity – right at lunch time. Obviously it was planned by either a Britisher ( mad dogs and Englishmen) or by a childless anorexic.

This was followed by a light lunch or TUNCH ( if a meal between breakfast and lunch is brunch , the meal between TEA and lunch is TUNCH)!

At 3.50, it was hard to keep my eyes open so I had to take a 10 minute nap before the swim class to cool down after yet another hot day .

How was your Monday? Busy? Restful? Happy?

Take care and ciao.
Why shoot the kids ?

May 27, 2022

“If you don’t stop that RIGHT NOW, I’ll kill you!” is a refrain many of us have heard while growing up or even used as parents under extreme stress.

But we all know how hollow those words ring. None of us would dare kill a child, let alone one’s own. And then again, this extreme threat is uttered under frustration, after repeated attempts and requests to stop doing an activity that is irritating, annoying or even downright bad.

How then can school children be gunned down, time and again in remote towns in the USA? Isn’t that the land of milk and honey where the government looks out for its people, has welfare schemes to ensure that each person gets a fair chance, sends soldiers into foreign lands to bring back one of their own?

I can’t for the life of me, imagine how a country that is so advanced in medical science is a champion of the underdog ( so it proclaims ) can allow their young ones to be exposed to random shooters .

The recent shoot out at Ulvade Texas is a case in point.

I refuse to follow this case as I stubbornly refuse to follow all such killings because the motive for the killings doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, some trigger happy maniac has had the pleasure of going into a school and shooting at innocent children.

Isn’t this a form of terrorism? And what can possibly justify the killing of children? They are the least involved in any kind of political activity.

Is this what freedom of expression means? Does this justify the right to own firearms?

I doubt it!

An increase in violence

While killing has always been part of man’s DNA, is the constant barrage of news of killings, wars, murders etc, playing some kind of earworm in our heads? Or is the genre of video games where winning demands getting rid of the opponents?

I wonder if there is an increased exposure to violence in general with unmitigated supply of content that is violent whether it is audio ( music that is discordant,loud and disturbing), or visual (movies and books that are dystopic).

Or is it the change of traditional family structures that cause insecurities and deviant behaviour?

Whatever the reason, I do hope the next killer doesn’t target school children but go after someone who can defend himself.

Ciao