Moving On

It's time to move on yet again.
This time I've tried to keep all my stuff under one roof, so to speak.
So visit me at Thought Raker, and let me know what you think.

Purple

It’s always been purple for me. That seductive tight-rope walk between red and blue, the horizon where passion meets melancholy.

I was first aware of its power when they did a general house-swap at school. The smooth, pale purple, heart-shaped badge I wore treacherously changed color, inspite of my crossed fingers and silent prayers. Entering the realm of blue that drowned me in its cool depths, I longed for the comfort of my purple patch. My color had betrayed me. I never forgave it for that.

Yet, it beguiled. The purple frock, with its orange smock pimpled with tiny french-knotted purple roses. The heady combination of flaming orange and docile purple. I loved the feel of the soothing cotton on my bony frame. And later, I swirled proudly to the rustle of my new silk lehenga, feeling like a princess. A royal purple with a rich brocade border, weighing me down like a chocolate dessert.

During my solitary afternoons, it was the delicate purple of the flowers, scattered in the unrestrained wilderness of our garden, that kept me company. Mimosa Pudica – the shy plant that drooped at my touch - captured in our biology lessons, and in a piece I wrote for our school magazine.

The color of my childhood stayed young while I grew. I admired the impossibly tender red of fledgling mango leaves, the warmth of wide orange brush-strokes by a setting sun, the blinding white of snow, and the ultimate unshackling – the crisp blue sky of a winter day.

I spotted the final reconcilation in a pristine white sari, with lilac and blue flowers entwined. I possessed it with a passion that I needed to purge from my system, and then gave it up in a hermitic moment.

Reminders surfaced like flotsam: “Deep Purple” etched deep into a college desk; an ethereal salwar that reflected the twilight; a wedding sari with gold threads drawn like my memories; a tricycle that my daughter refused to pedal and move forward…

Earth-tones keep me rooted now, the reds and browns speaking to me with a maturity, but purple will always be my Peter Pan.

India Poems

Here are the results of my experiment with different poetic forms...

Signs that lil D is growing up

When kids grow up, they grow up all right. Overnight, they morph from helpless, indecipherable-sound-producing babies to authoritative, voluble toddlers. To say it’s amazing is an understatement.

Signs that my lil D is well and truly into her terrible/terrific twos:

1. She tells me “Mama, don’t get upset, OK”, when she knows she’s done something wrong, and I haven’t yet discovered it

2. She asks with a frown, “Why you acting like that?”, if we do something she’s not pleased with.

3. She treats her dad like her protégé and teaches him all her rhymes and games with great diligence

4. She insists on eating most propahly at the table; what’s more, she insists we follow her example

5. She behaved like a proper hostess with some guests, asking them to come in, sit down and have some apple juice (doubtless with the fond hope that she would also get some)

6. She behaved like a dutiful citizen, asking the saleslady at a shop where the dustbin was, and then disposing of her lollipop stick most appropriately, with no prompting from me!

7. The very first day at her pre-school, after washing her hands post-snack-time, she asked the maid there with a most puzzled look on her face: “Where is the towel?”

8. She’s grown strong enough to carry 4 small chairs at once – 2 in each hand! (Baby Xena, I wonder?)

9. July 28th was a red-letter day: she told me the magic words for the very first time - “I love you – I love you very much!”, accompanied by a big hug.


And the top sign is……


10. I exclaimed “Wow! You’re great!”, when she chose to eat more radish over potatoes at dinner today. She replied, perhaps unwittingly, but most appropriately: “I’m not great, I’m smart!”

Clean

Read my new poem, or rather, song, here.

Short Ramble

Speakers were finally refitted on my PC a few days back, and hence am enjoying some ear-phone free music.

Opted to listen to Mangal Pandey's songs from musicindiaonline just for a change, instead of listening to my favourite oldies as usual.

First intriguing thing: Singer is listed as Mangal Pandey. Hmmm....interesting.

Idly glanced at Related Stories section. Looked like old news: Bhansali moves to new perfection with ‘Black’. Whatever.

Last intriguing link: Shabana habitually loses her keys!

How was this related to Mangal Pandey? Beats me.

Checked it out anyway, and did a double-take on a couple of sentences.

"It is really heartening to see that today people are ignoring small movies when their content is strong. I really wish that sponsors back such movies rather than just support big budget films," she said referring to Reliance's support for "Morning Raga".

Heartening? Hmmm…

"I'm not worried about vulgarity and nudity on TV and movies as we are all adults and can deal with it. But what worries me is the image of Indian women dancing in a chiffon sari in Switzerland. Why are women shown and treated as second-class citizens?

Chiffon sari in Switzerland=second-class citizen? Hmmm…

:)

Slick

Read my new poem here.

To A Marked Tree

Read my new poem here

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

He offers me the sweets proudly. He's just landed a job at IBM. The entire room is abuzz with optimism, and the people I see around me are all pumped off, ready for take-off.

Shanti Raghavan has done it – she’s well on her way to realizing her dream, with every step of the way being an accomplishment. I remember when we met at the Indiranagar Coffee Day, almost 5 years ago. The enthusiasm hasn’t dimmed yet. EnAble India has come a long way from then. Her latest statistics are impressive: she’s managed to find employment for over 60 hearing impaired/visually impaired/physically disabled people within the first year of operation, 60% of them earn Rs. 4000 or more, and most of them have been placed in IT companies.

Her optimism is contagious: I see that in every person who has come to the class I’m taking. Few of them training on Excel, a couple on configuration management, and I can see that her magic has touched everyone. It’s hard not to get excited by such an atmosphere, to feel you’re part of a miracle that’s unfolding right in front of your own eyes. I’ve missed this for some time now - it feels good to be back.

***

I check my order status in a glum mood. Shipping, it says. WTF does that mean? They’re loading the pages one by one into the delivery van?

My niece is on the phone, ecstatic that she’s beaten me to the latest Harry Potter book. I try not to sound too thrilled when I hear that she’s actually having tests and so she can’t really read the book pronto. Jealousy is a strange beast, I tell you.

I call the Fabmall customer service first thing on Monday morning. They are politely surprised it hasn’t reached me. Yeah right! Please call us back if it doesn’t reach you today, they say. Tuesday morning, I’m back on the phone with them. No, I didn’t get it, and no, I did not step out of the house the whole darn day! The courier service calls up later: no one came yesterday? I am icily calm as I reply in the negative. All idiots, bah! Feels like someone’s cast a Petrificus Totalus on my book!

PS: It did come yesterday mid-morning, and I did devour it all down at one sitting. Life’s not so bad after all. My review: ASSAM as usual, full speed ahead for last leap.

***

The acting was awesome, but the theme was utterly revolting.

It was a production of “Filth” by Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting), adapted to stage by Harry Gibson, performed by Black Coffee, a pretty active and good theatre group in Bangalore. Preetam Koilpillai directed the play that starred the lone actor, Rajeev Ravindranathan.

It was sick to the core, portraying the filthy life of a cop Bruce Robertson, with all the dark, dank and sordid elements of life thrown in. Drugs, racism, office politics, pimps, sex, prostitutes, transvestites, genital eczema, toilet talk, and a monologuing tapeworm: Rajeev did it all, and was simply amazing: switching accents, postures and roles.

I came away feeling terribly low and repulsed. What an utter contrast to the splendid optimistic morning I had at my class. I wish Art would uplift, not depress! Perhaps I should have stuck around and had the complimentary Kingfisher beer (courtsey of sponsor), to cheer myself up.

Shanti Raghavan

Her boundless enthusiasm is infectious, her mischievous eyes twinkle, and she sweeps you away with her passion. Meet Shanti Raghavan, Founder and Managing Trustee of EnAble India, an NGO with the mission to empower people with disabilities.

Shanti’s initial encounter with disablity was right at home, when her brother was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease which leaves the patient progressively blind with the passage of time. She and her husband, Dipesh, (who is also a Trustee of EnAble India), played an active role in rehabilitating her brother. This was not just limited to orienting him to speech-enabled computers, or identifying tools and techniques for his studies, but also to various outdoor activities such as cycling, rafting, and snorkeling too!

When Shanti returned from US to India in 1997, she decided to set up her own organization, so that she could use her invaluable experience in empowering other disabled people too. EnAble India took birth in 1999, and since then, has been actively involved in Education, Employment, and Rehabilitation of people with disabilities. It currently has over 80 people registered with it.

Most popular is the Computer Center, which caters to nearly 30 students currently, of mixed age groups and education levels, using speech-enabled computers. She has involved herself in many volunteer-driven technology projects that would aid the disabled. She has also associated with various industries for creating awareness and generating employment. She has also conducted several workshops for parents of disabled children.

Shanti’s unique ability is to think big and yet focus on the details. She thinks of herself as a “road builder”. “Everyone”, she says determinedly, “has the right to have a good road”. What really motivates her is the thrill she gets out of realizing the “impossible”. “I’m still a child inside,” she says with a laugh. “I love to see things being done differently – things which are dismissed as impossible, made to happen”.

A multi-faceted woman with an MS in Computer Science from Monmouth University, NJ, Shanti gave up a lucrative career in GE Aircraft Engines as Program Manager and Engineering Manager to concentrate full-time on nurturing EnAble India. She uses her 12 years of experience in the software industry to give substance to her vision, and manage its affairs. Shanti is talented too – she is a Carnatic music singer who has sung in concerts, she’s an excellent mimic, she plays golf, and she loves cycling.

“Live life to the fullest –that’s my credo!” Indeed, she is a living example – a truly inspiring woman!

My Favourite Things!

Read my new poem here.

Bangalore

Read my new poem here.