'kanti aunti'

The ill feeling:

That early morning of 21st October, I was struck by seasonal flu and was feeling too weak to get up in the morning. Whole night I had been tossing in bed which made me all the more drained and tired. When kanti aunti knocked at the door, I was too tired to respond. Kanti aunti comes daily for early morning household chores. Ashu opened the door and I could hear her barging in. I hoped Ashu would tell her to come back later, as I wanted to rest at that time. I was slightly irritated when I heard her coming in. she knocked and came inside the room.

The concern:

She looked really concerned when she looked at me. I was all wrapped up in blanket with the whole room smelling of medicines and vicks. She instantly went to kitchen, heated some mustard oil with some ingredients and sat down to give me a head massage. I was really touched by her concern. All through she kept on advising me about what herbs to drink as tea. The extent of her concern was evident when she even came back with few herbs(which she called ‘jaikush’ in her native language) after two hours. She must have walked few kilometers to get those leaves. She really made me feel warm and loved. All through this, I was really overwhelmed by her concern, care and simplicity.

The Grand Chennai:

 Had it been Chennai( the city I lived previously), my maid would have been very happy to return back and would have celebrated her day as holiday. But looking at kanti aunti I kept on wondering at the human touch with which people carry on their duties in smaller towns and villages. Here people are more important than things, and emotions prevail over thoughts. This magic touch seems to be vanishing in our fast and modern metro lives, and seems to be far too much price for our urbanization.

Sacred cow

It was a usual pleasant morning and I was hurrying to my work. Nowadays I drive to my work, but driving in a small town as Lakhimpur is way different from driving in Chennai, where traffic is more systematic. In addition my blood pressure always begins to rise when it comes to either parking in a small place or taking a reverse gear in the car. The single roads without dividers, with bidirectional traffic are one of the major drawbacks of small towns. It gives me goose-bumps, when people land right in front of my nose on pretext of overtaking.

So when I took out the car and turned in the next lane, two cows were sitting on the road, one in corner and the other right in the middle. I started giving horns, but the one in middle looked at me with her large black eyes as if refusing to give up. I constantly honked for few minutes but she kept sitting. Finally I got out of the car and started ‘hushing’ her with both my hands. But she was far more determined than I thought. I started getting desperate. I looked around but no one was out there. I again sat in the car and started the engine trying to scare her. I slowly started moving the car and reached very close to her. For once she moved her face away but there were no signs of giving up. I was also sacred that I might not hit her. Finally I stopped the car and started calling for Ashu. He came smiling and tried the same trick of pushing the car towards her. But the clever creature might have understood our desperate attempts to scare her and hence sat there undisturbed.

Finally we ended the battle when Ashu took a long reverse and took up another lane. It was the time when he told me that a cow is considered to be the symbol of “soul”, and one of the most peaceful creatures on this earth. Hence the name ‘kamdhenu’ i.e the one which grants you all your wishes. And I drove to my work contemplating on this mystical experience.

touching lives

It really sounds like a ‘heavy’ phrase. But does it really takes much effort to do so? Or we really live our lives in so much unawareness that we hardly notice things arounds us.

Today we had the luxury of having lunch in a five star hotel. Whenever we had a chance to go to such places I often told ashish that life seems so perfect at such places that the mind wishes to have it more often. Perfect temperature, ultra cleanliness, smiling and extraordinarily courteous attendants…. I think that,s what they charge so much for.

Anyways, after ashu brought food and came to the table( it was a buffet lunch) he mentioned a person standing behind the dessert table who was lost in his thoughts and looked vey gloomy while serving. When ashu said thanks to him after he served him, he still kept looking down. Ashu felt he was just doing a formality from his side, like everyone else, so he touched the person with a thanks again and the person smiled this time and looked up. When ashu returned we discussed that the person must be missing home or must be troubled with something in his mind.

When I went to get the dessert I too looked at the person in his eyes, smiled and said ‘dhanayavaad’. I felt a warmth seeing him smiling. But when I went to keep my plate after finishing, to my surprise the same person left his place, came forward and with both hands took the plate from my hand with so much of grace, as if accepting some gift from me. I will always remember this event as one of the touching moments of my life. Seriously this made me feel, we don’t perceive so much of love is there around us. The only thing we need is awareness and an open heart.

Gracious people of Hills

Seems so near when thinking today ,the beautiful faces and lovely smiles of people in Chamoli.
                                       

Loads with smiles

Smile It was really astonishing for me, people smiling amid hardships of daily life. a very frequent sight was women carrying 30-40 kg of grass on their backs and climbing with that heavy load to their villages. the worth mentioning thing is " the radiant smile" which you receive when you look at them ,even with that load on their backs.

         One evening I went out for a walk near the river,children were playing there they easily sensed that I was not a native of there. My welcoming smile invited them and soon I found myself flooded with lots of questions. The only thing children were aware of, as career was either joining army (if boy) and becoming a teacher (for girl).Everything was so untouched by the complexities of city life, what we experience usually in the name of modernization. I remembered saying of J Krishnamurthy "where there is choice there is no freedom" . and seriously these children didn't have many choices.

        Not many of them knew about internet.,a strange thing at place where newspapers reach after 1-2 days normally.(and many times even later if roads are blocked due to rains, or some other  miss-happenings).
       It was a different world altogether.Markets( tiny ones if u say so!!) gets closed by 9 pm one could hear leopards and foxes roaming in the marketplace, after then.
       I loved my daily travel to villages in the morning. It was like nature changing shades everyday with the weather. The hills ,trees and the river seemed new every morning. The road curved like a snake and coursed parallel to the river.

Back to thought-o-sphere

       Its my observation which may or may not be true ,that the frequency of thoughts are much less than normal at such calm and serene places. Whatever chaos prevailed in my life in those moments stopped bothering here.As I know perhaps the number of thoughts are thrown in thought-o-sphere around us is reduced with the number of people constituting that layer of thoughts....................!!!!
                                       

                                      

chamoli experiences.!!!!

smowfall in january on nearby hills.

besides the river in chamoli

thanks baba for asking me to write something about my stay and the prevailing health conditions  in chamoli.
                              today sitting in my room cosily, i shiver when i remember the cold weather of hills. when  ashish and i first left for chamoli , we were not really sure as to how many days we would be able to stay there. but i starting getting excited when roller coaster ride of hills started  after haridwar.
                             the scenes were extremely breathtaking.  straight ,high rising mountains with alakhnanda river coursing in a snake like fashion at the foot hills. the air started getting fresher and the river more adolescent, as we ascended the hills. i was imagining about the place we had to reach , thinking how much the population would be. the first populated spot was known as devprayag, followed by srinagar, than karnprayag , rudraprayag and finally chamoli. each prayag meant union of two rivers.
                              i felt like smiling on the irony of life ,as me going to hills for working ,who has always feared heights since childhood. these are the moments when i ask  myself as to would i have any regrets if i die right there. the answer came 'no'. and i was quite relaxed.
                              from haridwar the journey took almost eight hours . by the time we reached chamoli it was almost dusk and as soon as we reached our guest house it started raining. what a wonderful welcome!!!.

i stood at the door of my room staring at the hills in front and marvelling at the serenity and beauty of the place

beautiful chamoli

birthday girl

today when i reached my scanning centre, a patient was waiting and only one girl was available at reception. when i took the patient to the scanning room the ultrasound  machine was not yet on. i felt irritated and one of the girls from reception came rushing in ,apologising for being late that she had to go to a temple. i started thinking, who cares if you had to go to a temple. is this an excuse for being late? i tried to hide my irritation saying if any senior doctor was there she would have blasted everyone. at these moments i remember our CEO telling us to treat our staff politely. they are the ones working under us at much lower salary . they work as hard as us and yet get paid much less. anyways i started doing the scan and the event went out of my mind.
in the evening when i was busy on my computer making a report, the same girl stood beside me asking for a minute.
when i turned back she offered sweets to me saying it was her birthday. i was surprised at first than was filled with guilt recalling the morning event. but i thanked god the very next moment for being able to see myself and not express much of my anger, that morning. else i would have regretted for spoiling the special day of divya, the birthday girl.!!!!!!