A grandmother's wisdom...

"There, but for the grace of God, go I"

This was a line that my mother quoted many times. Over the years the wisdom in these words has sent down deep roots into my heart.

Something that I love doing is looking at people - I'm not sure why - but I love looking at people around me and see what they are wearing, how they are talking, or not talking, and most of all I look at their faces, trying to see what they are saying, behind what they are apparently saying... . So often, I see the pain, the heartache, the hidden longings, and sometimes I read the 'that-could've-been-me-there' look when they look at someone who seems to on top of things, and I think - "there, but for the grace of God, go I"...because all that is/was very familiar ground......and again the thought comes that "whatever happens, happens for a reason"...if only we can learn how to patiently wait to learn, and wait for the learning time to pass...

Victims all?

Are we all victims of some or other thought the mind throws up? The mind, as we learn from all reliable sources, is our greatest enemy causing any amount of damage in our heads which get translated into chaos in our lives. And though we can try to instantly put aside what the mind is telling us, in the brief instants that we give in to listening to what it has to say, we cause that much destruction in ourselves.

So see, thanks to our delusions, illusions, fanciful-imaginations-which-never-become-real, will-o'-the-wisp considerations, fleeting reflections, chimeric standards that we strive to attain, seriously-foolish-brown-studies we allow ourselves to get immersed in, we all become sojourners in victimsville.

And being in victimsville, is like being in the vice-like grip of some evil fairy...

The right kind of help...

We were browsing in Music World - intention being to pick up some DVDs that were on our viewing list; 'Tess', and if possible 'Swan Lake'.

Usually, one has to flip through thousands of DVDs to find what one wants, and of course that takes so much time, that you end up getting jostled by people who also need to flip through the DVDs, and being nudged by those who want to just walk around and browse. The salespeople generally add to the milling crowds, and when asked give non-committal replies, or an 'I'll just check' one. A Mr. Chandan Roy, salesperson, asked me if we were looking for anything specific. I said 'Tess', thinking, here we go...to myself.....and he goes, ' I have that -- I have that just here,' and he goes directly to the spot, thumbs through the set, and while doing so says, ' It's a Polanski film. Great one.' I was so taken aback, that I just looked at him in silence... very happily surprised...wow this guy knows... . Then, after a bit of browsing in the music section, we came back to the DVD section for one more look. Mr. Chandan Roy again................. I told him we were looking for Swan Lake. Instantly came the response, 'I have that here. It's a Tchaikovsky.' (and he had the pronunciation just right!!). An astonished WOW! to that. And he unerringly went to where he knew it was, and gave it to us...(strange thing is that we'd just thumbed through that very section without seeing it).

Terrific salesmanship, right? and terrific salesperson! so....................terrific experience!!!

Whooooosssshhhhhhhhhh......

Everyone who operates within deadlines would  love Eric Powell's understanding of deadlines (in Julie and Julia):

"I love deadlines. I love the sound they make as they go whooshing past."

And so, more often than not, it's not I wiiiissssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I could greet the deadline, it's whooooooooooosssssssssshhhhhhhhhhh there it goes...

and that is surely meant to bring a smile to all deadliners....

It's the barista...

on whom the taste of coffee depends - is what I've discovered. I'm a complete and total coffee person, and how I make/get my coffee really matters...this is something about myself that I stumbled on, because how else can I explain the wonderfully uplifting feeling a good cup of coffee gives me.

The whole matter of the taste of coffee comes up when I go to a café. CCD, initially was a great hit, so was Barista (the café). The baristas knew how to give you a really good cup of the brew. Now, sadly, it depends on which barista makes your coffee. I love mocha - but with HOTHOTHOT chocolate added to the coffee - no cream, and I totally love the barista who can make it like this - and there some - especially barista Iqbal in the Barista outlet near New Market...

Starbucks - if you're lucky, you've got it...................again!.............otherwise it's 'could you heat this up for me please?'---------------and anyone but anyone who loves coffee will know what kind of GHASTLY brew happens when coffee is microwaved...

Costa has been so far - a good coffee experience...

A cup of good old South Indian coffee in a Saravanaa Bhavan or Murugan Idli restaurant NEVER EVER EVER goes wrong...

Wish baristas would know how important they are in the life of a coffee lover!

Raising a toast (of coffee) to the baristas who make the day of all coffee buffs world over!

Building learning blocks...

I want to share something which is happening to me right now - I was given a chance at Editorial Assistant-ship  for a retail newspaper. Retail has never featured in my life-space, or life-sphere. I've always been fascinated by fashion, lifestyle, and way-out consumer goods that periodically come into the market, but never knew they came under the category of Retail, till I started off, very, very diffidently, on this new journey. Now I'm wondering at this huge outer world where all these exciting things happen...retail-related, retail-connected, and retail-connected-to-the-world happenings.

My DD, of course, took charge of my faltering steps, and gave me assignments to help me get the hang of what I was expected to do - so now I'm speeding away on the road of editorial assisting...

What I cannot but wonder at is how one tiny bit of learning starts a nuclear-reactor effect - this tiny bit of learning goes and pings against another bit of learning, which splits and releases other tiny bits of learning which also zoom off into the zones where knowledge floats around, pinging away in all directions, and contributing their bits to the original tiny bit of learning, making it large...this is exactly what is happening to me...and I'm learning and learning and learning - which is, naturally, making my DD absolutely smug, since she contributed the very first ping...

A teacher's ramblings...

I feel a great sense of fulfillment and happiness when my old students get in touch with me. It's not a regular kind of keeping in touch that they do - instead, all of a sudden I get a 'Ma'am I love you, and miss  you', or, a 'Ma'am I'm thinking of you', message, which absolutely and totally makes me go all weepy-eyed and woozy...

'Grown-up' kids is another thing I seem to stumble over--to me they are still in shorts or skirts or pinafores. Yet, some of them have school-going children now!

Best is, of course, the things I learn from them. One of my fav's taught me something new yesterday - life funk - isn't that a thoroughly and brilliantly evocative way of referring to an unsettled period of life? Realignment of different periods of life is also something I learnt from the lad - real wisdom, that from 'out of the mouth of babes'...

Sheer pleasure and joy to see my 'kids' flower....