A book from Raddi

I was cleaning up the mess of old papers, old clips, old paper cuttings from the cupboard with my little helper. "what are these papers mom?" her query."Sweety, this is all raddi, I need to clean up the mess now". "Laddi???" (L=R) my daughter. "Yes dear, raddi is all the old papers, old books which we dont need"....my explanation. But this chat took me to the faraway land in my childhood where clearing off raddi was a bi-monthly affair and a task to be done with all the family members.

I remember my sister and myself would sit with our dad that day along with mom and clear off the old newspapers, books, magazines together. Then would start our paper
cutting activity. My sister and myself would have cuttings from paper like "Glow your face with cucumber paste" "Fashion world" "Tips for studying economics"...followed by cuttings for my mom "Mulancha aahar", "Khoklyavarchya gharguti upaay", "palakachi vegli bhaji" followed with the cuttings for my dad " dollar vs Rupee", "Kirloskar taken over by cummins" "ambani brothers". Then these cuttins would nicely go into one folder with the separators tagged my name, mom and dad. And the folder went into the cupboard never to be seen again untill next raddi clearing time. My mom was the only person who dug it occassionally to find out some new recipes or remedies..thats all...again into the cupboard.

Talking about raddi can never be complete without the books from raddi. Going with dad to sell raddi to raddiwala was a task looked forward to, as I got to buy a book
from there. One of my friends was also fond of reading and collecting books. Both of us would go to raddiwala and bargain for books. A book more than Rs. 5 was
extremely costly for us then. We would argue with him and say "Instead of buying this book from u we might as well go to new books store and get one there for Rs. 50.(??????) (which would of course never happen....buttt we proved our point that the book is costly and we wont buy. My friend finally exceeded the count of books with him to more than 300 and won the lifetime competition which we had tacitly agreed.

I have never understood till date the connection and relation between raddi shop and coconuts. Why do they have coconuts in every raddi shop...its always a puzzle for me and will remain.

I came into present when I heard my daughter holding one of my old books in hand and asking "Is this Laddi mom"?.....which of course was not....it was my favourite book "Oliver Twist" which I would never call raddi..but a CLASSIC...bought at Re.1. :)

Do u have any such Raddi or Classics??

Morning Vibes!

A sunrise, day break,may it be sunny, may it be foggy, may it be rainy or it be snowy. I always observe one thing when I go to drop my daughter to school. Whenever I am at the red light and all the cars passing by there are so much morning vibes in the air. I feel the vibes and the air filled with the people around.

I see different scenes like every person in the car. Some are talking on the cell, some are singing, some are listening to the radio,some are talking to each other, some are sipping coffee, some are managing with the kids. But there is one common thing in each ones case, and that is morning rush, morning chores, or morning fever. May be they are busy with the activities they need to do, but I think most of them are thinking about the day ahead. Will we be on time for office, ohhh this traffic, today's meeting, today's news, today's market, today's lunch and thoughts flow till today's dinner.

I like to observe these people and feel nice to see that each one is so busy and so occupied, I mean at least I feel so. The air is full of liveliness. Everybody getting ready nicely, dressing up decent, fresh faces and inviting fragrances. Ohh these mornings are so active, so energetic I love it.

Well I also need to get active and feel energetic...me off to gym..vrommm!!

My Tabla Riyaz!!

Today I had a good long practice session of playing tabla,a long due exercise. It was fun experiencing all different combinations of kaydas and taals. I always have and had a fear of remembering those and playing them in the same order and thus was not able to make it a complete piece while playing. But recently I have developed a pattern of saying those in tune and ta-daaa...i know them well.

Tabla gives a perfect percussion for a musical piece making music all the more rhythmic. Its makes music feet tapping and worth nodding. Of course not that other instruments are less valuable in melody. Today while practicing I was constantly thinking about Ustaad Zakir Hussain. How flawless his hands move on tabla giving melodious sounds and so many variations. We just could not see his hands at times when he plays fast. He is completely lost in taals, kayadas, relaas and make us drench in the rain of music. That sure is a divine experience. How much efforts are put into it, that's what I realize when I practice. Playing just one piece flawless makes me sweat and tired. Hands feel numb and carpal tunnel is under stress :))....but sure a worth when once we get the result we want.

So today I was determined to sit for longer time for my Riyaz and at least pay a little tribute to such living legends who prove themselves an inspiration. Hats off Ustaad! May you be immortal just like your never fading glory to the world of music!!

My words failed to say!!

My eyes closed, in a soft peaceful candle light, a wonderful soothing piece of music and room filled with heavenly aroma I was slowly slipping into a divine time. Relaxing all the muscles and tissues my body was about to undergo a complete massage, a complete rejuvenation. I surrendered myself to the beautiful experience releasing stress, pressures from my muscles, my tissues, my mind and my heart. My body was totally into manipulation of its own making itself free from the heaviness of the daily activities. I was giving away each and every red spot in my body making it filled with a golden light, making it feel healed, making it more and more strong.

The bath of aromatic lotions used for massage was so very mesmerizing that my body and mind are still stuck into the realm of fragrance. Every little particle of that aroma inhaled into my body was flowing freely inside making me more and more fresh, beautiful and invigorating. Every cell of mine was happy and functioning to the fullest now. I realised that my body and mind was restored and made full and complete. On completing the massage session every time I feel that our body really needs this pampering on regular basis. As we maintain the automobile and service it regularly , so should be done this as well.

I am so grateful to have given this gift on my birthday by my hubby. A so required gift certificate from this spa was a sure shot a heart winning gift :))....Each thought of mine is thanking him a ton times!!

Some lost moments!!

I always feel that everyone in life is happy when they meet old contacts or lost friends. It is indeed a pleasure to get along with the time and make new friends and relations, but then why do we lose the old contacts in first place? No... now please don't give me the barriers like no time, different life patterns, no same thoughts, no same goals....its the same like past right now, but yet we feel good about getting in touch with the old relations.

The reason for this excerpt is I got re-connected with one of my cousins recently. It was so good to know his whereabouts, his life and changes in his life and same was his reaction...happy to re-connect. That made me think this, why in first place we lost the touch? what was the reason for that...again no reasons that are mentioned above. Or its a law of nature or as said in the spiritual world that every relationship has a time bound, when the connection time of one to another is over we lose the touch and again after the completion of a specific cycle we meet again. As we don't generally separate due to fight or grudge re-meeting is always a pleasurable experience.

How would it be if people did not lose their contacts at all? We will have such a big circle of friends, relatives, contacts, and we would be so strong in our lives. As human being is so much community oriented and would be happy to be together. Getting busy with the routines is a fine excuse for not being in touch and we are the only ones later finding time slots to spend time with the lost contacts. We make new friends, relations only to find these as old acquaintances in future...Life is surely a circle, a cycle of events, a wheel that takes us forward and backwards. It would be great if we stayed in touch with all the people we meet since childhood and take them along and be with them till the end of life. Geographical distance is not to be considered here. We can be close inspite of physical distance and yet close to heart with one another, or be distance apart even if staying under one roof. The matter is how we want to see it and want things to happen!!But never it happens as it should.

Well I am happy to get back one of my lost contacts! How abt u?

My budding roses!!

I love nature (who doesn't?), but seriously I was a part of a nature club when back in school n college days. Our leader was a true nature lover. He use to tell us that he can understand the language of plants/trees/birds etc. And I have seen him talking to the trees/plants. He was very sensitive abt the nature and environment. I lost touch with him over the period of time and also lost the touch with the nature.
As projects he use to give us some seeds or small plants to plant them in pots/gardens and see the development. I use to deeply observe the growth everyday and every minute. I use to water the plant with the scene in front of me that the plant is practically drinking the water from roots. But as I said losing touch with nature has made me lose the understanding of the plant growth as well.

The reason of such a big story is one of my dear friends gave me a beautiful red rose plant for my birthday, and one more rose plant was given to me by my dear hubby on valentine day.Now it has become my duty (which i love of course) to keep those plants alive and nurture them. Fortunately I have been successful in keeping them alive and getting some new buds on them as well. Everyday I observe them and see what they need. But one thing that I noticed in both the plants is that the buds those blossomed after I got those had a faint colour on them as a full complete flower, and the flowers that were already there on the plant had dark respective colours. I do not know the reason for this change. Is it that it is not getting proper sunlight or water? As for water I am maintaining the soil texture as required, as for sunlight I cannot help much as due to this winter season its not possible to get sun everyday!

Does anybody have any idea why this might be happening!...I don't want to give up on my plants rather looking forward to plant a garden coming spring n summer!!