Blessed Generation, dont you think?

Can you imagine that 15 years ago, there were no mobile phones? Land lines were the Pulse and Tone of our lives. If one wasnt at home, we left messages and waited. We had cameras that took photographs that needed to be developed. We used to wait for 32 photos to be taken on a kodak or a konica roll. Then we would wait for a whole day or two to develop them. That excitement of the wait used to be so good.  One vacation was just 32 snaps. There was beauty in minimalism. And then there were tape players where we rewound and moved forward with immense patience. 10 songs in a rectangular device with spools. 

There used to be constant power cuts and no inverters. We would just step out or take a hand fan or go to the terrace if it was night time. Make shadow figures over a candle light on the ceiling, watch the wax melt and form shapes on the  candle stand, sit with your grandparents and listen to old village tales, and of course sweat like a pig. When we went to restaurants, we wanted anything that is not south indian and it most probably was panner butter masala or gobi manchurian. We did not know any other cuisine. We were glued to chitrahaar, top 10 countdowns. 

We were there and witnessed and experienced all this. 

And then we experienced mobile phones, digital cameras, pizzas, pastas, 100+ channels, YOUTUBE, orkut, facebook and what not...

We are a blessed generation, arent we... a bit of both , each enriching our lives in its own way!

Green Bangles

She had always loved the color green. It reminded her of the lush fields in her village, of her ribbon knotted in school, of the fountain pen that her grandfather gifted her when she stood first in college, of her first moped, of the t-shirt she got her husband for their first anniversary.

The green bangles on display looked good. Her favorite color too. Nothing has changed, she consoled herself. 

"Here you go", said the man, opening his paan box and handing over a wad of cash. "Take two if you want, bare hands don't look good. Don't wear them and sleep like your old ones. These will break".

She couldn't stop the tears welling up. The old ones were her mother's gift to her. She rushed out of the shop. The neon board was still flashing - 'C.S.Motilal & Sons Pawn Brokers - since 1935'

Life is Such....

I called my friend over for a cup of tea today over chat. We have been in touch on and off, but with school and college friends, it really doesn't matter, does it -  they know us quite well to understand the long silences between. We used to bunk classes together, sleep in huddles in a small room, share every tiny little event of the day and so on.. but now, she is married, has a kid and all that. We chatted up on the gmail. The urge to meet a friend is always manifold..but then comes a series of thoughts and actions and repercussions that you need to evaluate.. and that is exactly what she was doing.

She works in a MNC, she is already away from her kid for 7-8 hours a day, people at home are taking care and so, she is burdened with the guilt of it. Between the seconds that she is tormented to type in a yes or a no, she has to evaluate the feelings of her mother / mother in law, who is already pretty tired, her father/father in law whose indifferent glances she needs to ignore or bear, the looks of the neighbors which bore into her heart the feeling of "what kind of a mother is she" and then the complete guilt by which she is already overwhelmed.

And so she types in a NO....

Midnight Kiss

Oh, the routine. Morning begins, tea, cooking, washing , waking the  little one up, getting her up and ready-brushing, bathing, feeding, drop and pick up from school, making her sleep, taking her down for the evening play,  dinner, clean up, making her sleep again.....Phew!

And then a kiss. The little one hugs you in the sleep and kisses you as though it is the most natural thing to do in the world... And thank god for the routine, it is worth every minute of it :)

Power of the Senses

Years pass by, but a tiny note from a known song, the scent of an unknown flower, the sight of a patterned dress evokes memories that have been deeply buried in the folds of incidents and events. We underweigh the strength of our memories. They are unimaginable.

And blessed are those people who are still able to connect to them. If you still feel the same as what you felt then, then you have remained untouched by the years. You travel through time to live that moment again.

The pang of nostalgia is divine. It makes you feel alive. Words do little justice to those feelings evoked but still, something is better than nothing.

Saar Post!

I was playing with my daughter the other day with a set of cards called "People and Professions" . There was the usual doctor, carpenter, pilot... and suddenly flashed a card of a "Postman". Remember, the diligent human who used to deliver blue color inland letters, brown cards to our doorsteps. I am from the "eternal summer" land of Chennai and every postman would always ask for "thanni". My granny very meticulously would fill water from the tap and not from the vessel which contained the boiled water..:)

I do not see many postmen now. I see courier boys flipping karts or delivering the innumerable airtel bills. But no classic postman. Why? Because nobody is writing letters anymore and hence the absence of post boxes as well. My daughter associated the post box to the small box that is outside all houses either to collect milk packets or pizza hut fliers or worse "No parking" boards.

I really miss those days of postmen, circular dial telephones, 'boom-boom maatukaaran', night time kulfi man, vaerkadalai kaaran (thankfully this is still there, "kadalai" never stops ;) ) For all the non-tamil readers these were a bunch of people of the nineties who added color to my life.

Please do not condemn this post saying that "Our economy grew, we progressed and all that..". I completely understand. Its just that I miss them like we miss our grandparents who passed on....

lol, :), rofl, hru and so on.....

Look around you. There are mobile phones everywhere. People talk, message, play, while they eat , walk and run. You name an action and that can be done in parallel while on a mobile. Whatever happened to people talking to people? Or enjoying food without the need to hear a voice on the other end? Or walking without thinking about anything, just plain walking looking around at trees and birds (well, not many to look at nowadays - thanks to the million intersecting waves). People have lost the sense of a real society. You send a message to your colleague in the different room, you tweet, fb message your friend on the same floor. I am not an exception except that I used to do the same for official reasons. But I question why?

When a person types in :) or ‘lol’ or ‘rofl’, does that mean he/she is smiling? NO. Most of the time, it is a habit, courtesy. You are online; you see your friend ping you but choose to ignore it. Your best friend.  Why? Because you can. Emotions have been replaced by emoticons and each of us has lost the identity. Nobody is plain vanilla anymore and most of the time; we do not even know that. We all have a cyber personality. And we get confused between the real and the unreal. I can hear people yelling -'You cynic..' :)

People have changed, the world has changed, for the better or worse, I do not know. There used to be times when our ancestors were contented to be who they were. Few of them lived only to survive, while the other fortunate ones lived for art and music, science, and most of all passion of some kind. Few notes of music, a concert, some books, some equations, a scripture, would be enough to make them happy. Now, we need a CTC, benefits, reimbursements and what not. We are moving with the tide, and thus are not able to sense the pace at which we are moving. Life has become unhandleable. There is an invisible hand that is controlling us all. Well, it used to be God, now it is something else - ambition, money, power, fame, competition and most of all , sense “non-contentment” - if there is word.

I am certainly not an exception – just encouraging people to indulge more in the little joys that make life more meaningful. This is not a very structured ‘scribble’, just random thoughts.. and I know many will disagree! But, after all, it is a free world!