H----Halo

                                                 

                                         
                                                      Basking in the glory of an acquired Halo

Blogging for A-Z Challenge







                                                

G- Great Wall of china

 The Great Wall of China 

The first ascent leads to an opening in the wall
I catch my breath and wonder...
Left or Right...
Up or Down...
Much like facing the questions
that life poses in front of me..
Great decisions..life changing choices..
One ascends, the other goes down
Strength gathered, my mind made up,
I choose my path.....
                    and walk along...                      

Gone are those who toiled for this...

years hence,

I can smell the blood shed,

 their sweat  cements and   holds the bricks

with each small step,

the giant wall takes away my breath

The ascent leads  to a steep descent ..

those who chose to go down 

now face a great climb..

Embracing all,denying none,

come sleet, rain or shine

The old guardian stands

the  test of time.

Blogging for the A-Z Challenge

F---Forbidden city

                                       
                                                                                                
                                         

          The Forbidden City was so called because entry to commoners was strictly forbidden .
          Comprising of about 980 buildings,the Forbidden city covers about 720,000 sq.m.area.  

this image courtesy Google images

Once you enter these gates,there is only one way to go....forward !

    Once home to the Emperor and his family and the offices, this huge complex now houses museums.

Good luck!

                             
                   !

Forbidden you say...well, I do not follow boundaries, I am a little birdie and I don't care!

Another day comes to an end to usher in a new beginning !

This is for the A to Z April Challenge

E----- Epitaph

                                                 
                                                                   

       

                                                                   

                                                     

                                                      

                                                     

                                             

                  Here lies Sharmila

    done to death by no secret formula
    she dared to live a little too much and far too long .

    Now that she is dead,she wants it known,

    that till she died , she was smiling wide,

    and here she does what she always did best,

    playing dead and enjoying a good rest.

    Visit if you must, then laugh a little laugh...

     so says she, through her own epitaph .

                       

This is for A to Z April challenge               

                                                               

D---Driving me crazy

                                                            

My mother in law once remarked that most housemaids in Mumbai are called Laxmi and most of the drivers call themselves Raju. Well, I did have four Rajus out of a sizeable number of   drivers that have worked for me over the years.

Obviously I don't drive so I have to depend on Rajus and over the years I have employed  many of them and each one has been an eclectic personality in his own right. While I take pride in being able to  retain the oldest of clinic and home staff from the time I made Mumbai my home,this  driving  force has been an ever changing aspect of my life and a frustrating one at that.

Read about a few particularly interesting ones we can never forget...

Raju no. 1- Lasted one year.

 Pet peeve-sleeping on duty,body odour,absconding to his village every now and then for months together.He killed imaginary family members one by one,some of them even twice to find an excuse to abscond to his village. 

Good natured fellow,but would sleep through duty hours thanks to his night duty as a watchman elsewhere. BO was taken care of by my son by gifting him a stock of deodorants. We could however do nothing about  his favourite chameli ka tel (a very strong smelling Jasmine oil ) which he so generously applied in his hair .He finally went back to his family in the village ,and I am sure must be sleeping on duty somewhere in Moradabad .

Raju no.2 -Lasted 4 years
 Pet peeve-none
Fiercely loyal,extremely skilled ,he was the best of the lot.He would somehow manage to  make an appearance in our family photographs! All the snaps during that period have him in a far corner with a corner of his 'rumaal'( handkerchief) pressed between his teeth.Mumbai weather took a toll on his health and he relocated to Hyderabad. Family misses him in the photographs now.
Raju no.3-Lasted 2 days
pet peeve-too short a time to register
He was a parking lot driver who turned overconfident a little too soon.My cars have bruised bums thanks to him reversing right into the wall ,any wall !
 Saw him at a mall a few days later...reversing an unsuspecting shopper's car .
Raju no.4-Lasted for a month
 pet peeve-Forgetting his way around.He had this uncanny ability to get lost on his way back. I tried very hard to understand how and why,but gave up eventually as he would keep forgetting the way to my house. One day,when he overshot the last turn to my lane,I thought he was dreaming,but no... he couldn't recognize the lane because ,in his own words -"Woh eent,patthar kahan gaye?Road saaf ho gaya to pehchaan nahin aaya."(What happened to the construction material on the road ? I could not recognize the turn because of that) Fixed landmarks were obviously of no importance to him.
He just could not remember the landmarks,the roads,nothing at all.My phone bill was the highest in that month and my hairpulling reached its peak during his tenure.
Raju no.5-Lasted a month
 pet peeve-impatience and his reluctance to park the car anywhereelse but the building garage!
This one made us the laughing stock of friends,family and staff.He would drive us to our destination,but on our return there was no guarantee that he would be around waiting for us.He would drive all the way back home and park the car back in the garage.He refused to wait  if the mall was not to his liking, or it was too hot for his liking,or he couldn't find a parking slot close by or any other reason that he fancied.So after being left in the lurch twice, we let him go. Wonder where he is now? Someone ,somewhere must be pulling his  own hair in frustration .
Raju no.6-Lasted 3 days,
                                                           

 Speciality- Death personified ,extremely dangerous to all living beings on the road and off it!
Again a parking lot product,he was danger unleashed on the road!!
Day one ,my heart was in my mouth when I reached home after an hour of being in the back seat clutching the door handle.
Day two, my head was hanging in shame due to the choicest abuses that were hurled at us all day on the road .No one, I repeat,no one spared us.Car drivers,Rickshaw drivers,scooter, motorbike drivers,they all glared and abused.I was witness to the world's worst road rage that day.Driver saab though, was unruffled. He sat like Buddha in meditation,concentrating on the road ahead ( whatever that meant to him!)
Day three ,people saw me escape a near death situation when suddenly Raju 6 decided to enter at full speed between two speeding trucks jostling for space on the narrow road ahead  .Fraction of a second and there I was, all shaken up as if my arms were cut off from my body. Reality soon dawned on me that I was unscathed but my car had lost both  side rear-view mirrors as it emerged from in between the two giant trucks.I took a cab home and didn't see his face again.
More recently,the last Raju we employed, refused pick ups and drops to and from the airport.Some kind of superstition, according to his friend. Before he could refuse to drive down to and from more such sites on his list ,we let him go.
Why don't I  drive ? Now that is a very good question ! 
I have a reputation of bringing danger to the roads and to myself,when I drive.
I am not good at it...driving is not my forte - there ...I said it !!


This is for A to Z April challenge.




images-courtesy,Google images.

C---Children

                                                                       

Children are useful -
for the poor, as extra hands in  labour
for the rich , as proud exhibits
for the class in between,
 reasons for daily struggle and sacrifice.

Children are adaptable -
they entertain when you have the time
and a  free mind to listen,
they attract your ire
when you are tired.

You can banish them for speaking the truth
or punish them for telling lies..
you teach them to say sorry for their mistakes.....
while you go on denying yours.

Children  are intelligent -
they can see through you but choose to ignore..
You build a facade ,they let  your masks  be....
..and yes,they are kind ,
'cause they love you still.

 Words are mine but the thoughts are those of a simple, wise lady from a remote village in Maharashtra ,who I met at an airport .You can read more words of wisdom from this remarkable lady here. She had a lot to say about marriage,kids and life in general.I was stumped  when she frankly admitted that she was harsh on her kids during their growing up years .She said she understood perfectly well, her children's need to leave the  village and her, to lead comfortable lives abroad.She accepted that she did take out her frustrations on her children many times and regretted almost immediately afterwords.

Her eyes welled up as she remembered her brood. When they were around,she needed no one else.
"Have you ever tried a tight bear hug with your lekru (child) "- she turned around  and asked me.
When I nodded a yes, she smiled a toothless smile
"Have you tried smelling your lekru's  (child's) hair ?" -she asked , a little excited this time.
Umm ..yes, I said, albeit sheepishly, for I thought I may be the only weird mother doing that....
"Watlach!!" ( I thought as much !),- she squealed in delight.

We were poles apart ,she and I,in every single way but at that indescribable moment, we bonded as mothers.

                                                                 
  This is for April A to Z challenge                                                                        

                                                                     
 

Ruffled Feathers---100 words Saturday

He gazed at her intently,
She  looked back only  fleetingly.
Hurt healed long since , her time had picked pace,
 no edge of the cliff and no empty space..                                               She was unruffled ,she had found her footing.                                          
             


  His time since then, stood stagnant....
  In the dark nights,he still dreamt
  he missed the last train home ,yet again
 She still stirred in him,feelings deep
 he realized,they had stayed...they never did leave

 She looked up in the sky,
 old ,worn out  feathers,
 on her feet had gathered..
She shook them off her feet,
ruffled feathers never did look neat...


This is 100 words  for Everydaygyaan