SOULspace

It is interesting that after a long hiatus, I choose this topic to start my second spell. Well it is none other than the ubiquitous maid/ paid help scenario…. Boring…C’mon…Don’t you have better things to write about? In Tamil we have a phrase; aracha maavu…to indicate a topic that has gone through the wet grinder of thought processes and has been pulverized infinitesimally!! I don’t intend to grind the same stone, but hope to show you another perspective. As all story tellers like to do, I now take you on a trip back to nostalgia. I vividly remember my childhood days in our sprawling suburban house, with its scarcity of neighbours. To maintain such a house, my mother surely needed help, and my earliest memories are of this family of 3 who stayed in the small outhouse that went with our house. Mother, father and a grown son, were employed. They came right out of the village, and I know for sure they disliked living in the city and the disconnect they felt with the job they were ...

Every episode leaves an impression in our lives. Some of these we cherish as they are, while some we wish we could reach back and change that moment. Kanpur leaves some memories with me The hot sultry summer when we landed here from a cooler clime was an unbearable ordeal in my mind...I remember sleeping, sleeping and sleeping and wondering what's wrong with me...Its the same this summer as far as the sleep is concerned, but I do feel I am better prepared...the air conditioner seems to be on constantly...I know I feel a wee bit guilty about contributing to global warming! Winter was lovely...though I was worried how we would get through the cold and not to disappoint, Kanpur saw some extremely low temperatures last winter. It is that winter when I had to fill in as substitute for a friend in her school. Boy, was that a challenge! Saree being compulsory, I struggled through thermals/ sweater/ jacket and scarf over and above the saree! Battling the steep stairs, holding on to pa...

This post like an entree, short and crisp. Another pet peeve of mine is regarding food. I love my rajma, chole, paratha, paneer, and peas pulao. I can unabashedly partake of such a meal, especially one that is the home cooked version. Yet...my crib is why is this the only menu on the table when one is invited for dinner? Menu planning in my house, I mean in the house I grew up, was done by my father much to my mother's dislike. Yet over the years she resigned herself to this, and inspite of her disapproval of some item on the menu she would make it with no compromise on quality. Ah, coming to the menu; well, my father would neatly balance couple of South Indian items with couple of North Indian ones, and throw in a Continental item number too ( a baked veggie, if he felt like it)! Complete in my mind...creative and loads of room for learning. But nowadays when we are invited to eat, be it a person from the South or the North, I find the chole/paneer/paratha platter glaring...

It's that time again, to move on.... Having a partner whose job entails a migratory shift every 2 or 3 years, sounds fun, especially if you like me, enjoy traveling...but I can assure you fun is something I have stopped associating with this any more. Yes, its time for us to move again...we have been recalled back by the same unit where my spouse was, one year and 3 months back, whose location is my second home, Bangalore. Happy ...Yes... Thrilled in fact...I attribute this entirely to 'Rhonda'esque thought waves that have been streaming forth from the time I landed here in Kanpur. ( For those who have not heard or read Rhonda Byron and her book Secrets...I can only say, read it/ listen to it....the audio book is worth listening to, as she huskily whispers her secret to you, making me wonder why make such a hoo-ha over it if in fact it is a secret. No, thats not the point, the point is that she says when we start thinking positive thoughts, then we surround oursel...

My Mother is 60....so what does that make me.... Yep...thats right...you got it...OLD!!! Now this is not about me, it's about her all the way. As I flash back, I remember many incidents...some funny, some sad, some thrilling, some mundane, and mostly that she was always there.... Most of my memories of my mother is of her diligently working at something or the other, either at the kitchen, or in the garden, or in our rooms. No wonder she could maintain our spacious house single handedly! I remember our first house, a huge sprawling one, with an even bigger garden. That's probably why she developed a passion for plants, perforce having to tend to such a big garden, the natural nurturer in her took over! I remember the wallop my sister and I got when we got wet in the rain one afternoon!! Now I have to constantly remind myself that, when my son insists on running into the rain.... I remember how my mother took one look at my brother and the hanging arm, broken while ...

Elif Shafak What a powerful speaker, sensuous, inspiring, and so rooted. The message she gives us is that of breaking barriers within our minds. Please do watch the entire presentation. It is mind blowing.

A few words spoken in consolation, a reassuring hand is all that I can extend. A stranger facing an extraneous situation. I observe the reddened eyes, misty with tears that refuse to fall. Head bowed down, a tremulous smile.... A smile on the face...I look closer. How does one smile through what she has borne? She left with Him on a holiday, but returned with only memories of Him. Like in a dream...or a nightmare... Heart Attack they said. They had barely boarded the train when he laid down in unease, never to open his eyes. Youth and age has no mercy with death. The inevitable hand does strike us as and when it pleases. The young boy who smiles shyly from the couch knows... yet does not know what has befell him. Does one really understand at any age? When age and time is sufficiently endured, the death knell doesn't sound so ominous. But what does one do when the youthful are snatched away? We see the pain in their loved ones. The smile on her face and her ready w...