Kshema's 7 Quick Takes Friday (Volume 14)

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It was a nice week. Started white wash work at home. Hopeful of completing it by this Sunday. Earlier look had bare cemented walls that looked raw and a bit dull too. Now they look bright with the ivory colour rendered by the primer. The marble floor is also reflecting the brightness. Everything that adorns the walls looks so nice. Finally, we'll have a fresh new look. Pictures next week. Fortunately the climate is being very cooperative, its pleasant.

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Most quintessential elements in every home 

I love organizing. Be it home, office or any space, anything. Perhaps this very nature of mine prompted me to become a librarian. As I cherish a dream of building my own house some day, I keep researching on house building, interiors, gardens etc. I am not talking about an apartment. May be a small but independent house. Through these years of my research I observed that every house has some very important spaces that need to be catered for. And they start from a "mudroom". Yes, unknowingly I always dreamed of having a dedicated space for storing newspapers, footwear, umbrellas, raincoats and gardening and cleaning equipment, preferably before we can actually enter the home. The idea behind this is to keep the home sparklessly clean and away from dust, insects etc. Then every home should also have a dedicated laundry space with laundry baskets, washing machine, dryer, washing supplies, steam press and a board, clothesline etc. These days every household has a car. Therefore a well organized garage space with cleaning equipment and some essential tools is desired. Last but not least, a kitchen garden! May not be a large one, but one can always start with growing some herbs in pots. Having green fingers is so gratifying!

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Janmashtami

In India, after a good break of festivals from almost April to July, August ushers us into a string of festivals.After Raksha Bandhan it is the Janmashtami, the birthday of Lord Shri Krishna. Celebrated with equal fervor and devotion in almost all parts of India, people call it with different names like Krishna Jayanti, Krishnashtami, Gokulashtami, Janmashtami etc. I was reading an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Times of India's Speaking Tree section on Janmashtami day. I liked the way he explained certain things like -- "Ashtami (the moon as it appears on the eighth day), the half-moon, indicates a perfect balance between the seen and unseen aspects of reality; the visible material world and invisible spiritual realm....... The whole essence of it is to maintain that balance, to be joyful, happy and centred. You can have a big smile when everything is smooth in your life;......So whenever you are disturbed, instead of thinking that this should never have happened, simply surrender........Krishna is the symbol of all possibilities, the total blossoming of all aspects of the human, and the Divine. Janmashtami is the day when you enliven that virat swaroop, the cosmic nature of Krishna in your own consciousness once again." Exactly! Something of this sort I have experienced recently. As a matter of fact, we all have such experiences often. But we being mere human beings, fail to recollect what we read, learn and assimilate, in times of adversity. Yet, faith helps. One can interpret the same explanation as above with respect to any form or any name of the supreme divine that one may worship. 

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My first school

Sylvania Garden School. My first school where I started my school life with the preparatory class. Mrs. Leela Choudhary, the most beautiful, graceful motherly figure, somewhere 50-ish, and the authoritative principal of the school. Mrs. Choudhary's persona left such a lasting impression on my mind that throughout my elementary and middle school I dreamt of establishing my own school like her and distributing free unlimited stationery to the kids!! Well back to my story, I joined two months late due to my dad's transfer. I was transported to join my dad's joint family in Hyderabad first and my parents joined us later. The school was run in the palatial house of Mrs. Choudhary. I must say it was more like a palace with a huge gate, big garden spread over a large area, garden sit-outs, swings and the rotundas that led from one floor into another mysteriously. Often my dad used to drop me to the school on his bicycle. One day somehow he hit the pavement, lost balance and both of us had a great fall from his bicycle. I injured my lips and he bruised his knees. That was the end of going to school with him. One of the family members would drop me to school. While I was in the class, my granny would often come to school with my lunch and sit in the garden chit-chatting with mothers or grannies of other children.

Bakula flowers

I remember Mrs. Choudhary was very fond of me. I had thick curly hair braided into two neat plaits and big round eyes. But I was very skinny then. She used to tell my granny that I need more physical activity for me to be healthy. In due course of time a dance master came wandering to our school in search of a job. Our principal gracefully accommodated him our school as the dance-cum-music teacher and also provided for his family in their outhouse that was just inside their main gate. Thus started my classical dance training in Bharatanatyam. Soon I won laurels of all elders. My dance teacher used to pay special attention to me and used to train me on holidays at his home. What I loved about his home was the heavenly fragrance of bakula flowers that adorned the statuette of Lord Krishna. There was a huge bakula tree near his house. Bakula flowers fall easily as they bloom. But their fragrance is so strong that it remains even in the dried flowers. And generally, I have seen, in southern parts of India, the fallen bakula flowers are collected and naturally dried and then stringed into garland for adorning Lord Krishna. Bakula flowers were His favourite itseems. The memories of my childhood are also like the fragrance of the bakula flowers!

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This week's recipe

The humble ridge gourd

Two days ago my regular vegetable vendor had two varieties of ridge gourds on his stall. I am a big fan of humble vegetables like all varieties of gourds and beans. They neither require great preparation nor any special spices. I love them for their natural taste and ease of cooking. Moreover they are very easily digestible. Can go with any kind of bread (rotis etc.) and rice. Plus health benefits too! More info from Tarla Dalal's. When I took a trip to Ahmedabad in the month of June this year, I was on dinner at my very close professional friends where I happened to taste North Karnataka style of ridge gourd curry. My friend prepared it so deliciously well that I ended up eating two extra rotis. This style of ridge gourd is a must-try! Recipe courtesy - www.sinfulcurry.com.

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This week's book

"A Walk to Remember" by Nicholas Sparks is what is on my list presently. I have not been great fan of romantic stuff; specially when it involves passing away of one of the partners. Too emotional for me. But this book has a message. I, sort of, started liking it. Also intend to watch the movie version too. Will need some more time to actually express my opinion.

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This week's movies 

This week I watched two action thrillers. First one, "Unstoppable" (2010).  I must have watched it twice now. It shows similarities to Bollywood's "The Burning Train", which was filmed back in 1980. As always, "The Burning Train" has all the necessary spice of Bollywood. I liked the Unstoppable better. Here's a clip:

Second one, "Snakes on a plane" (2006) was a good watch too. For the first time I could appreciate the technicalities of action movies, which otherwise do not enter my simple brain.

Wishing you a very happy weekend and stay tuned :)

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