Gulfi's Rainy Day

Distant flickers of puffy clouds as they crawled in on the blue mat of sky ........it dawned to me about my reading the weather forecast on the weekend. There were rains, "good rains" expected in Doha on Saturday. Much awaited indeed. Hail rain in this desert. It is not uncommon for we Asians here in this part of the Gulf to exclaim in much overwhelming gesture about a welcoming rain.

I am not less than one crazy creature on a rainy day here in Doha. On a lighter note can say it's silly to be so mad on seeing rain perhaps but this is "Gulf".

I do not have pictures please. Have this words as all.

An absolute unending downpour the whole day leaving the sensitive bitumen lay ed roads of Doha wrecked. They are not rugged & designed so well for  rains. These roads  are perfect mirage providers. Yes it was an one mark question that occurred in school time tests "what is a mirage?". And only as I drive on the Doha roads in mid summer did I see there is a real beauty in it too. As I drive at 100 k mph I get the creepy feeling there's water a little ahead. It doesn't turnout to be. A little ahead it is, there...now there's is water, so it goes on throughout the drive with ultimataley scotching heat only.

Rains are a boon in this city. December is month that generally sees some rains before the winter shoots in full swing banging the weather to a zero Celsius of the midnights.

Wish  the rain could wash some of the uncouth realities of life too. That it rains and everything starts looking so bright and nice in life. How true. Does it not revitalise your adrenaline to new tunes of liveliness and vibrancy. Everything around you looked so full of life that day but could not help the thoughts of the torrents of rains in other parts of the world that is so unwelcome.

I bet people dwelling in parts of world like India would appreciate a dead opposite scene. Specially the coastal Southern India where the rain god has been too generous.The lashing rains has devastated the people calling for causalities, material damage.

As I could not withhold exclaiming about this day to my India guys there was hardly any reaction from there. Understandable. Dad retorted" OK". That's all!! It is actually raining here..you know. huh. Only we felt the depth of it. The much awaited moment. Specially for our children who are brought up here and do not understand the India rains at all. I was glad my daughter wrote her first verse as she galloped in her room with all windows open and embracing the water sprinkle against her window.

Yet one rainy day was a pleasure and welcome scene for we Doha'ites. And aah as I write this post two days later it is raining again outside. I just love it.

Hail Rain.

Rewinding Wishes

backward time -courtesy google image

We often lament on the paradox of time. It doesn't stop. Time flies we all exclaim, and then there are umpteen things to be done. There are unending tasks that want us to pause for. Wish we could have the incredible, quixotic time machine to go back into past .....into the bright spot of ones life. The innocent childhood.

Scenes of past that decor my memory lane blossom with full spring ever. 

Scenes of my childhood rewind...........

A joint family it was till I attained teenage. The beauty is in love and pampering by grand parents. Though I stole "green mangoes " from granny's pickle jar her reactions turned me into responsible person. Though I hid his "chappals" [flip-flops for you] my grandpa always laughed at it. He was like a spur of catalysts constantly encouraged me in my every activity be it academics, table tennis, shuttle badminton. Took me to movies. A constant inspiration as he was, his face as I saw on my wedding day is one of the flashes I remember as he is no more with us today.  It revealed so many unsaid advice for me when he was gone today............One joke of his, I can remember,  to  crack me up as a child was "What is the opposite of O.K?". On my sad negative nod he would say.it's NO.K!!".

I wish I could go back into past to give them an extra bear hug and feel the special moments again.

Being with "chachu" [chachu in Hindi is paternal uncle who is fathers brother] was like having a friend at home. I hid his scret of "smoking" from my granny for which he bribed me with rounds on his new bike and some movies! My chachu was my another mentor and constant support. At age 6 each time as jealousy creeped upon me over my little sister my chachu kept me busy and played with me. Need to mention he was the huge support of pillar who initiated positively when I decided to marry out of community one day!

I wish I could go back into past to feel the special moments again..

The two gems of my life my sisters. Their constant expecting faces is still fresh in mind as they treated me like "big didi"[elder sis].  Times of quarrels are innumerous. The younger one is still a baby to me who was fed, given bathe by me. At mere 13 age I dressed her to school as she went to kindergarten. I was like amma's right hand in her care taking. Only few days back did I remember how I managed to push my sister over the big stumling step between th rooms of our old ancestral house and her chin had bled. 3 stitches on her chin was the solution for my reckless act!

I wish I could go back into past to give them a bear hug again...feel the special moments again.

And then comes the tremendous peerless love of mom and dad.

A watering the garden act often flashes the picture of Amma in the garden with continuos comments on the plants.

Tedious errands for us she ran round the clock, Beautiful stitching she did for all our frock.

She juggled for us some multi-tasks, Attending at the drop of that hat to every request we ask.

An unending list it is to exclaim mom ..."you are a gem".

Dad as I remember left no stone unturned in fulfilling every silly wish of mine from grabbing every mango that fell from the tree in the garden as I was four to arranging my documents in order today! An incident of age 2 of mine is this. As my dad was posted in a village for a small period, I sat on outside of house with entire box of milk powder hiding from my parents. I was caught only when dad heard me cry as a moneky grabbed the box from my hands and I was left sobbing!! he can narrate this incident like a fresh one even today and also another when a bull actually chased me as I played a prank on it tried to flee. When I smell the new books, it still reminds me of school times as we lay on floor with piles of books and dad carefully bound and labelled them all. A small wound of fall and I recollect a scene of me sobbing [a little bit of melodrama seeking attention at times], mom with her right palm stuck on her cheeks and head bent watching and consoling me. And dad would take me on shoulders like vikram taking the betaal!! and walks up and down in the living till I stopped my drama of weeping.

I wish I could go back into past to give them a bear hug again...feel the special moments again.
Clock sticks not to stop, times lapses.
Let's leave the tomorrow, it is unknown.
We cant hold the yesterday albeit it was beautiful,
Lets'  live the today, It is a fact.

Wishes rewound......... Certainly felt the moments favorite of the heart, in these couple of hours as I penned them down.

Swarms of memoirs teeming in mind in-perpetuum. 

But thanks to the " Surf-Excel Matic"  -Get Smart Contest via Indiblogger. That I managed to force a couple of hour's time to feel the special moments of past, as I write this and make this a beautiful album of memoir to catch up in days to come too as I catch grey hair on my head!

The contest announcement just read like this: " Surf Excel Matic is smart enough to get rid of stains while your clothes are inside your washing machine, so you don't have to spend your precious time doing it seperately. Let the detergent do the washing, while you spend time with your family!"

If you had two extra hours in a day, how would you spend it?

courtesy google

Oh Boy! Surf- You get rid of the stains on my clothes while I surf my memory lane as I walk down and  get rid of some strains of adult issues, stressful & hectic robotic life, peeking into my innocent childhood. That presents me so fresh and vibrant.

So I sign off happy ..

Sush always Khush.........

Appy Children's Day

google image

Being the apple of ones eye, is that common idiom that basically originates from the Bible. And carries a special meaning in it. It is also very common we call our cherished ones specially children as the apple of our eye. Being the eve of Children's Day in our India perhaps as routine all the schools will celebrate with pomp, distribute sweets and telecast on various local television channels and media too. Happy Birth Day to Nehru Chacha. Various Nations celebrate the same on different dates with different logic. However I found this issue important to be considered on this eve.

Talking on "children"  there are typical concerns for which I consider this post a platform to share.

Had heard from my cousins put up on the other parts of the hill specially in western countries about how children are being brought up there. The lenience, discipline and the independence that is being inculcated into them as part of education might mean they could even go against their parents in case of harsh punishments .  Children custody can be grabbed be a mere neighbour upon revealing any harsh treatment towards their own children. A same scene in India would be the other way. Punishments are methods to "mend the ways" of child behavior. Contrasting.  So where do we draw the lines? Where are we heading to? Are punishments the right means of educating a child? Or a mere cry call by children to the police for a small smack by parents can cause a case?

Another huge issue that is surfacing is the e-boon. Boon or bane has been a hot debated topic and why not i'd vote for boon unless we parents forget to draw a line between the boon and bane. The modified versions of computers, lap tops to palm tops. Digital world, majorly the Internet posing the threat to other activities of children's upbringing.  The bold promises of the technology revolution to improve the children's lives seems questionable. Considering MSN news, it was found in the journal of  a Youth and Society that 1 on every 5 of the children were exposed to sexual material online. A child will boast on the number of electronic games that he/she collects at home but might fail to grasp the real physical gaming and real life activities to some extent unless the parent is aware of it. I definitely am not penning an ant-agnostic appraoch towards the whole issue. However on lighter note truly sense the negatives of this leap of the Science and technology that presents some luxurious indoor games  that snatches the interests of the children on the real times practices.

And here goes a Mamma's confession on Children's Day:

"Amma I'l give you loads of hugs and kisses, please let me use the I-Pad" is my daughter's pleadings while she herself realizes the list of better activities pending for her to be done. Who is to be blamed?. It's me, not her.

 Her reactions on the pinches and pats that she has got all this time from me turned me white sine it had not gotten the real impact after all. The purpose was not solved. The real lesson never goes right that way. Again this puts me on the culprit stand.

She can hide under her blanket on her bed before sleep, or lie to me about covering a science lesson reading, in order to peek into her unending list of gadgets. Is this not pointing fingers at me perhaps for not balancing her activities or imposing too much of don't on it.

google picture

An appleA day perhaps keeps the doctor away. How about the apple products today that keeps us all awake! I had admired my grandpa always when he cut an apple each afternoon very promptly after lunch. He would make careful pieces for us all to share. Even in his 90's he followed the ritual of this. How Can we relate this to the apple mania today. Our children talks include the time about the apple products and their hands over the knowledge on it!  So much said and done about the two sides of the today's presents of the technology, here goes wishing "Appy Children's Day"

Its time to establish our roles in the subject. So its time for us to make our check lists of the do's and dont's towards our children and not a wishlist of what they will do..............

Our children want to live their dreams and not our dreams is my motto what say?

Cheers,

Sush

Mamma-Iam the Rapunzel

Rapunzel and the Prince [J's Collection]

It  was exactly three weeks ago my little daughter returned home [flashed in is the right word for the speed that she enters] too excited "Mamma I am the Rapunzel in the Skit being played for the School Annual Day". " Look at what you did to my beautiful hair"-she was cross with me . Because of chicken pox boils on head this summer I had snipped off her hair! She has always marveled long hair. The new Bob- Style made her enthusiastic. She dressed different, combed different loved her new hair do. Alas! This Rapunzel skit and she plunged back into plan 1. Long hair is nice!
Now with Annual day preparations just round the corner, though the skit is a suspense to parents J [J-my daughter for you] recites all her dialogue with her accent, gestures and vibrancy.

A part of the skit goes like this:

J[Rapunzel playing with her long golden hair, sitting at the window, sad]: "Ohhh how I wish I had an I-pod so I could listen to some music".

One day the prince passing by sees her and says " Rapunzel let down your golden hair so I can climb up".

J: "Ohh please use a step ladder instead. You know how many days it takes to clean and dry my hair. Moreover these days the contaminated water and dandruff has damaged my hair you know!

Prince: But...But Iam supposed to climb up the hair not the ladder. eh?

[psss: J says the prince is shorter than her yet her Ms.Kares says it's manageable]

That was hilarious indeed. So  I understand in the pretext of turning the skit into humorous one there is a message too.  Caring for the hair in today's contaminated environment.

I see my childhood in J. All the silly little things that she treats her hair with puts me into the so called "going into the past" mode. Like telecast in many cartoons and  movies, press a special button and you can walk into your past. J is like the time machine for me!

It was long ago, at her age I too fantasized long hair. I would be often found with a dupatta's [dupatta] hanging on the head imitating long hair. Would spend long time admiring the hair, turning it around, tossing & feeling it on the shoulders. At times I would run crazily in the garden shaking my hair left to right. Smelling it after the shampooing was my favourite. I might have looked like fool. Secret is I do all that now too! You can bet on my attempting all the silly pleasure imagining my hair also loves to be pampered like a queen. I make sure that she adores me for all the attention and fuss that I pour on her.

Now, I see J clinging onto "wigs". Globalisation and changed world! From old dupattas to fancy wigs. The picture on the right is just one sample of the collection of her dreamy  world of hair-do's that she cant possess naturally. A curly hair, a blond, and so on. Let me assure you it's not just that. There are an array of types of combs and brushes for her hair that shes collected. "Any commercials of shampoos that mesmerizes her and she'll place a request to me if she could try it. Nothing newer than what I did. I have been an organised care taker of my hair. She makes me feel lively. She's oiled and wahsed in regularly. Nothing new in that? There is. I take a fancy for experimenting many different kinds of herbal hair oil. Buying them every time I visit India and stocking them here is called "patience" by my friends. "You can have an exihibition" teases my hubby some times. Googling on the fundamenatals of keeping the hair roots stronger these days is a necessary past time for me now. So for my follower J too! 

It was in class ten one day that I was in hyper great mood. Hair neatly washed and set and I went around swinging it left right some stylish techniques. My best friend usually asked me what do you do to your hair. I dont deny how wanted question that was! huh appealing attention gathering techniques of teens. Specilly about hair. Proudly I boasted but sarcastically "Nirma". I blurted. Perhaps I had some secrests with me about the products. The incident however brigns in laughter on my lips even today.  As if the scene is still. We were climbing up the steps of first floor with our small skirts bouncing and couple of books in hand. As I climbed every step I shook my head to ensure the hair bounced and tossed hapily in the air with the new fragrance of my shampoo too. And what an attitude of telling Nirma, even after the much wanted attention was payed. Yeah it was me. And still do that when it come to hair.

A common habit of people yanking at your "pony tail" or your hair. And the other still scene moment I recollect is in my Engineering days. My senior friend found me on the corridor and came rushing behind me and yanked at my plaited hair.  That was it. The kind of scrowl that I gave and kind the kind of fury my eyes threw is still fresh in him and he mimics me even today about my ahughty behaviour. You and your hair! he says even today.

As for J she is happy go lucky girl. Playful and a typical girl. She might forget brushing her teeth before bed time but not her hair!

All said and done, to brief in a point do we see the X-factor there?. The Love for hair.
Love your hair? then you will Love the Dove. Wow! Check Out. 
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Cheers,
Sush