Wisdom

 For quite some time, i have not attempted an acrostic. So here is an attempt at writing an acrostic on 'wisdom', the rarest acquisition in these times of "information explosion" and "opinion(ated) tsunamis"!

Wisdom is an entity laughable now

 In todays's times of clowns, and how!

 Sense is a-lacking, and 'per view' changes.

Dominant aggression everything manages!

On whom to rely, that is the moot question.

Markets make minds, wisdom desires none!

Pratima@"Never, no, never did Nature say                        one thing and wisdom another."                          Thus argues Edmund Burke.

Reminiscent!

 Because of Aai, so many people entered my life. Oh, no, I am not referring to the obvious, that is, my immediate family. Nor am I referring to the entire legion of the maternal relatives.

I am talking about people who were like the satellites to her daily life. Rasika, her physio of about seven years, could be an example. Actually, she stayed just a lane away, but I got to know her because of Aai.

 Aai used to wait for her daily visit wherein there used to be exercises, of course, but also light hearted banter, quite a bit of up-to-date information about Mukund Nagar Rasika would know much, much better than I would.

Aai used to share all her joys. When she acquired her degree formally, Aai insisted on an at-home party for her. Special gifts for Rasika on the occasion of Diwali and her birthday were a must. Aai would have been very happy today as Rasika gave a housewarming party today.

All of Aai's doctors were quite friendly, too. I remember once Aai had to be admitted to Mangeshkar Hospital at about 1 a.m. as she started grasping for breath. Her gerontologist, Dr. Tamane, was there at her beside at 3-ish. I was speechless with gratitude. 

Earlier when Aai was at Mangeshkar for a longer admission, Dr. Tamane and his team were literally godsend angels. That stay alongwith her on the seventh floor of the old building of the hospital is etched on my memory for 'why doctors are 'warriors' and what medical science can do'.

Her eye surgeon, Dr. Kale, her knee specialist, Dr. Gokhale, the ear surgeon who would come home for a dekko, such specialists have been a solace, too.

The Khare couple, too, have been my go-to destination for minor  medical complaints that are major for an aged patient. In fact, just a day before she passed away, I had insisted that Dr. Khare should give Aai a thorough check-up which he managed at 11.30 p.m.,  next 'he' went to the nearby medical shop to get some tablets he prescribed and were urgently needed. When I called him up on March 26 at 4.30ish, he was there ASAP. 

Amit, her nephew, would tolerate my umpteen worries at about 10.30 p.m when his OPD wd get over. In fact, once my brother wondered why i bothered Amit as he would anyways be so far away. But if it were a genuine but minor issue for which I could not take her to Mangeshkar, i used to depend on him as much as on the Khare couple.

Rasika had great faith in her colleague from Ranka Hospital. The gentleman, almost Aai's age, would at times come for a home visit, and tolerate my discussion of alpha and beta blockers as B.P. medicines, despite being an M.D.!

Pritam Rathod of Rathod Medicos was such a huge help so many times that it would be presumptuous even to thank him. He would procure and deliver medicines home if suddenly urgently required. So many times he has helped me get Aai back to her bed if she suffered a minor fall or a serious ischemic incidence. In fact, he acceded to my request to get Aai's death certificate from Dr. Khare, the last but truly unforgettable help for Aai.

Last, but surely not the least, the Mavashi's! They were indeed inevitable. Sure, they were a bother in multiple ways with their delays, their lies, their casual attitude to an aged patient as the living ATM!

 But some of them genuinely cared for Aai, like the very first Mavashi sent by Sanju. No wonder, Sunita Tai, who used to say that our home was her second 'maher', remembered Aai deeply on the first "Holi" without her.

So many others entered the sphere of Aai's life as a patient, like Mr. Sheikh of Golvilkar Lab who could gently draw the necessary quantity of blood for the customary tests without hurting her, given her fragile veins or the Columbus Mobile x-ray van people who had got to know our address almost by heart! 

Well, in brief, being a caregiver made me meet, talk to, understand an entire cross section of our society. I am deeply grateful to those experiences.

Yet meeting them again pries open that wound of her eternal loss, despite the apparent hemeostasis.

Pratima@ A journey becomes interesting because of the travellers you meet along the way.

Work as Worship

 It is a typical argument these days that currently none cares for work. Work place is more a place for furthering self, of making the right contacts, of power games, of petty politicking, it is presumed.

It is such a pleasure to meet people who prove this worthless rule wrong. Possible to argue that even in this case, the exceptions prove the rule. For me what matters the most is that exceptions exist, however rare!

My own brothers (pleonasm absolutely out of pride, please) are the best examples of such exceptions. Often, my brother, he,  has no time for proper food at the right time, but he would carry on with his work. It is indeed sweet to see his doggie who keeps a vigil by him, wait for him, call him for lunch. The cute sight made my nephew's special day absolutely unique for me. MNC, for such a genuine employee, means My Natural/Normal Commitment, I suppose.

My other brother leaves his place as early as 5.30 a.m., drives some hundred and fifty kilometres in the morning rush so as to reach on time and start teaching at 8.30 sharp. Neither lashing rains nor hot summers deter him ever. For his son's marriage, he took hardly ten days' leave. Both my brothers are thus following in my dedicated father's footsteps, and I am extremely happy and proud to belong to such a family.

Then there is this colleague of mine. Actually she teaches a very dry,  quite theoretical subject. But she herself is always a fount of enthusiasm and energy. Be it conducting exams online for the first time or organising an arts fest in literally no time, she is always bang on her duty. There are not any presumptions nor irritations nor eternal complaints.  She would always be ready with an answer to every and any query. Silent, efficient, sincere work, duty done/performed most selflessly.

I have written this blog to celebrate such genuine people with whom it is indeed a pleasure to be associated. It must be remembered, I think, that institutions, whether MNC's or colleges/universities, survive successfully because of such genuine employees. A grand building or two, posh decor do not make a workplace. It is the quality of the people who are committed to their work that makes (or mars) a workplace. The worth of such passionate  people is priceless. They must be encouraged, cheered, congratulated. Hence this blog!

Pratima@The theme of the blog is so genuine that I did not at feel like using emojis. Ideally, the pics of such wonderful people need to adorn my blogpost. I have not taken their permission, for one thing, and, moreover, they are the sort who might even get embarassed with such a tribute that they undoubtedly, absolutely deserve! Atta, guys! Impressed with your sincerity!

Back to Basics?

 In the new avatar of our blog, i would be exploring the visual possibilities. 🎥🎞️🎬 Yes, i would like to make it a vlog, too, at least partially.💻 I would by and by try and explore the different visual modes and moulds 

In that direction, right now i have started using the emojis.😀 Personally I am not much in favour of the emoticons. 🙈🙉🙊But small steps can lead to a big jump, right? Right now, however, i have to do with them.

Why am I wary of emojis? Well, i think they take away the pure verbal effect of the language and make it pictorial.  🤔This picture dependency is not innate, moreover, unlike the Japanese kanjis.🈶

Moreover, the emojis always give me a regressive feel. One feels one is back in to the era when all those pictorial scripts were prevalent. 💪🤟🖖n my opinion, such a step takes away multiple communicative qualities and possibilities of a language. No go right now without them! In distress, a fool, too, can be your buttress!

Pratima@do emojis emote or do they hinder meaningful communication?

Beginning anew!

 Our blog enters a new phase today.🥰It is already a year old🎂. As it thus progresses, let us now add to it visuality as well. 🤠

No, there would not any compromise content wise. In fact, there would be an attempt to make it equally, if not more, sensible and mature. Yet let us see if it could possibly be a vlog, a visually enriched blog, okay?

All of us born in the first half of the month of May, specifically from April 20 to May 20, are supposedly Taureans😀. Great company we share, beginning with "🥳THE🥳" Shakespeare.  Born creative, right?

Personally, I find such "sign"atures rather funny.🤡🤡🤡 Believe me though, in this twenty first century, in 2022, in the post-Covid era, despite the pandemic that none could predict, there are people who ask you your sun sign the moment you meet them. 

I find that quite crazy 🙄and rather frightening 😱 because it means they are going to gauge you as per some 'common quotient ' determinants. Without getting to know you, they are going to sit in judgement over you👩‍🎓. Indeed , tough and unjust proposition, would not you agree? Such 'Daniel come to judgement ' types, as our co-"sign"-ee, the great Will, would put it,  are better avoided! What say? Let me know both your response to "sign"scaping and the vlog avatar of our Blog!🤓

Pratima@ it is on, the new year and the new avatar, of our vlog!

A blog in the year of grief

 The title, so obviously a word play on the famous Marquez title, captures my elemental feelings and passion that initiated this blog exactly a year ago, that is, on May 9, 2021, the Mother's Day last year. It was started as a tribute to Aai, and, oh, yes, of course, to Papa. It was also a tributary to my unbearable grief then that sure needed a creative channelising.

Yes, I did not miss a single day or date. Stayed up late at night to fulfil a kind of promise to myself and to their memories. Often it literally used to be a case of "and the blog to type/before I sleep/and the blog to publish/ before I sleep". 

Managed 251 posts last year, May to December, 2021 and 129 posts till date this year. Not exactly a bad score, i would like to say. How about the readers, the doubting Thomases may ask, right? Well, in addition to the regular readers who read my wapp status and the attached blog everyday, there seem to be a few other anonymous readers as well. The last count of footfall is seven thousand three hundred twenty so far.

Not bad because it clearly proves that the 'private could easily be personal'. No, in the initial mourning year, i  did not use any visuals, though i may start now. Never ever was there any sentimental exhibitionism. And yet it was read regularly. Could that mean that indeed our blogs, too, are made of saddest thoughts well expressed, a combo of Shelley and Pope of all the poets. Both would sure forgive me, their ardent fan.

Yes, hereafter, i may open the blog to Google view, too. This okay-ish attempt has also encouraged me to soon start another blog dedicated to literature. Let us see! As far as this blog goes, a year later, i do have a deeply cathartic and yet a  very happy feel. Atta, my blog!

Pratima@"Write what should not be forgotten", as Isabel Allende would put it.

"Writing, to me, is thinking through my fingers," argues Issac Asimov. As ever, I would agree with him completely, as my blog is now a year old baby.  

 It never made me feel despair, and always helped me explore newer ways of being and becoming!

Mother's Day

 Yet another Mother's Day without Aai! Last year the wound was very raw. This year there is a hemostasis.That is to say, the wound does not ooze tears constantly. Yet, even now, fourteen months later, i often seem to forget the fatal day. 

Even now, i often feel that she is very much there, may be, in the other room, tops at my brothers' place. This afternoon itself, i was explaining something that I felt Aai, too, must know. No wonder, I wrote to my brothers this morning that she lives on, with/in us.

That makes me think yet again how difficult it must have been for her when Papa passed away. And people were insensitive enough to casually deny to her haldi-kumkum that she was used to for almost forty-five years, a ritual that mattered to her generation.

That reminded me of the many lost during the Covid, without even a proper good-bye, given the pandemic precautions. At least Aai-Papa were lucky enough to be paid the perfect, the proper farewell, often denied to many.

Thus the Mother's Day makes you aware that beyond the market frenzy released by the day, motherliness is this larger feel which understands the woes of others, cares for all those suffering, helps you love plants, pets who cannot even talk to you, makes you take care of mother earth, mother nature. 

Then you realise that though Aai is not with you physically, she is there everywhere, every second, in your every breath. Long live Mother's Day, nay, forever lives Mother's Day.

Pratima@ To the world, you could be a word, 'mother', for us, the word was the world that was forever sunshine, and yet ever created the gentlest shadow for us, however harsh the summer, Aai.