Friday, March 29, 2019

#debsaristories #ninetieskids #personalcomputers Remember to remember rocks and springs! These are two powerful tools for life balance. When life pulls you down to the bottom of the ocean and gives you pain, remember to "spring up" so you don't settle down and fret forever, instead spring up to the surface! When life pushes you up to the sky and gives you success and happiness, remember to stay grounded like a "rock", and not get carried away. Just a word of caution - please dont mix match the above. "Springing up" during happiness leads to pride, "Staying rock bottom" during pain and testing times leads to depression!




I was collecting unused printouts to be reused for notes and other stuff. And zoomed back in time to the nineties. The time when the superpower only next to God visited earth. It was called the personal computer. I remember the first time our suburb school had established a "computer room" which was treated more sacred than a temple. We removed shoes, tiptoed quietly into the only air conditioned room in the entire school campus besides the chairman's office. Fingers trembled as we pressed any key on the dull creamish keyboard. The black screen was scary too. With much care and extreme caution after many stares and warnings from the sophisticated-of-all computer teachers at school, we would successfully get a circle or square on the screen. The amount of "programming" was overwhelming and the results almost gave us noble prize feeling. Who cares the black socks stink as we sit there in that 'temple' without shoes, working on the invention of our century and the newly entered being into our lives. Those who could afford to have a home computer automatically upgraded themselves into the wealthy elite category. The air conditioned room in their home was maintained with utmost care and hygiene so as to not infect the most precious possession with "virus". Yup we took it literal then. The bright clear monitors with spectacular resolution without flicker was nothing less than magic to us. After all our balck and white television sets (close comparison but distant cousin) had grains all over, needed an antenna (and someone to yell from terrace) to adjust picture quality and most often would blank out with buzzing noise. This marvel creature called computer did not! As for me, I completed my computer engineering without owning a computer. Like there is no mysore in mysore bonda right? πŸ€—πŸ€— chalta hai. Jugaad pe duniya qayam hai.

Very soon banks were "computerised" The print out paper from banks would sometimes end up home for our rough work, when dad would bring them. The dot matrix printer had typed something we could not comprehend but the neatly hole punched margins were amusing to me. Little did I know then, this day would come where those devices in several quantities would become part of lives, storing our memories as photos, storing our knowledge in folders and drives, storing our lives in emails and cloud .... like how one day in future I could imagine a robot making me masala tea and also sitting with me to sip as I narrate these stories to it (him/her? Unisex?)

For now its chai time for me and my chai buddy - baba (father in law).
I humbly chose this drape that ma picked during her last visit to Puri.

Thursday, March 21, 2019

#debsaristories #womenofsareespeak #lifeisexperiences One is just a sum total of one's life's experiences. Dont you think?
Do you notice how some people assume way too much about themselves over others? I wonder why.. I mean if you zoom out from space, this individual is just a speck of dust. Life here, gone tomorrow!
But while around, the air around ego is huge than a mountain. And that leads me to think through that somewhere in the journey of life, the head starts behaving heavier than the heart.
Life starts beating in a womb around five weeks of its first creation. The heart knows its job and does it well. It beats till death and tries to keep us warm moist and human. It teaches us to feel. It reminds us in every beat that the unbeaten are gone. What then remains is the "body"
I try and remind myself to stay true to the order of creation. Heart first. Use brain to help the heart. Use it for wisdom, use it for others.



Switching topics! Did you have to deal with ex? Nope not just the broken courtship relationships.. ex-friends I mean? People who were once close to you but not anymore. And the worst thing is you still know how to interpret what they say (or they dont say) and sometimes you know they dont even mean what they say! But you dont care to care anymore. Hmm. Life!

To everyone that wishes me, I keep telling I am so very un-holi! I love colors and that's evident in my drapes, but that doesnt equate to me smearing color powder on my or anyone's face! See? Jo dikhta hai woh hotha nahi hai aur jo hotha hai woh aqsar dikhtha nahi hai. However I definitely wanted some gulal so chose to drape this gulabi pale pink organza and stood close to blooms.

Saturday, March 16, 2019

#debsaristories #themiddleclass India's destiny wasn't and isn't just being written in air conditioned well furnished boardrooms. It's actually written in the kitchen of middle class home by the simple unassuming cotton sari clad woman who created world class designers like Sabyasachi, the shikakai, rita washed wet hair wrapped in gamcha towel creating the best hair dressers of the world, the kajal lined eyes that not just created but delivered vision of India, from the tea selling prime minister to the nuclear scientist president Indian economy isn't always decided in the parliament and assembly. It starts as humble savings in masala dabbas (my pocket money back then would smell like methi :) ), under the old yet memorable smelling newspaper lined shelves in squeaky handled Godrej almirahs (the 1,2,5,10,20..notes smelling of naphthaleneballs), in the knots of saree pallus, and the "aate ke gola" were the first cricket balls for great batsman. That's India, that's the India that made me who I am and many of you I guess.That's the woman that created me and my husband and millions like us. Whether or not they went to corporate offices, their practical thinking and implementable strategies could far beat the best theoretical analysis from universities. That's the woman that would secretly help my "pocket money " wished when the newspaper reading dad STRICTLY refuses to give some. The special pocket money that is smeared with sometimes turmeric, oil, ghee or masala. Pure love and pure visionary.





Thats the woman we all know as mom, mother in law, sister, aunt, grandma, friebd, neighbour. That's the India that created the gems that we gifted to the world, the Pichais, the Nooyis, the Modis, the Kalams, the Chawlas... and the list is endless. That's me today. Summers are orgasmic. It gives me the high that no drug could substitute. The warm breeze invokes the best childhood memories tucked in the deepest pockets of my heart. My madras and the telugu girl effect fully awake today! The white venkatagiri is perfect with my temple jewelry jhumki, the lakme kajal pencil, the red shilpa bindi, the gamcha for my wet hair. All I missed are my glass bangles, will get them in my next trip to India. And this is my humble salute to the quintessential 'aam' indian woman

Thursday, March 14, 2019

#debsaristories #irepeatsarees

 I have heard a story that mahouts tie baby elephants to a tree or post so they dont run away. Growing up even though the elephant is more powerful than the rope, it doesn't run away assuming the rope is stronger.. childhood memory and influence that runs deep in mind.
I tried wearing glasses to complete the look. Oh no! You should all thank me for not posting that disaster here! I looked scary as hell.

So back to the baby elephant story, I was a dark skinny pimpled teen with huge glasses. Forget crush and smiles, boys would stop by and compliment "soda buddi" alias "chashmish" πŸ€“πŸ€“. That continued into college and by then I hated the chashma-on-me. So much so that even after I switched to contact lens I would not take them off at all. I didn't want to wear sun glasses either, it took me a while to gain any basic level of self esteem!



Each of us have something tied to us like the baby elephant and the rope. We limit ourselves and don't try to break free. Things might have changed. Each of us grow every moment .. I think we need to try to break our ropes once in a while.. perhaps.... The bright pink bandhani cheered me up. No back pose today, blouse was too revealing for social media post I felt 🀭🀭

#holyweaves

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

#debsaristories #mysareetwin "Hey, how's it going?" "Good!!" The mechanical pleasantries! Standard greeting, some dont even wait for your reply, they move on. And I stand there wondering as I fill my glass of water (half and half, hot and cold) .. do you really tell people the truth when they ask the question, most likely not Like I dint tell them,
.  Tired! I feel exhausted already and it's not even 09:00 am
. Annoyed! I felt the meeting previous day was crap where bunch people talked and nobody did anything productive
. Worried! I was worried how my kid would do his history and science test
. Frustrated! Oh shit , its gorgeous outside and here I am in jean and tee, whereas I should be in saree amidst spring bloom
. Nervous! Duh, the eastbay saree meet is coming up soon and I have few more EventBrite tickets to send
  Smile! My colleague had brought lunch the previous day because I lost track of time amidst meetings and work, blissful
. Happy! Ma's bday coming soon and saree ready for her (and me 😝!)
.

So yeah, the short answer to that question was "Good"  I dint have an orange silk, so draped orange linen instead!!
#roopkatha

Friday, March 8, 2019

#debsaristories #lovewomanhood Mein aa gayi! (Gosh , I sound like Nobita from Doraemon!) Birds of same feather flock together! ❀and hence we are here. Period. This is my kinda twitter! 🀣🀣 Happy every day girls! I wanted to thank you today more specially for "watching my back". Literally 😘😘

I get mixed feelings about women's day. Every time someone at work stopped by to wish, happy women's day, I said. Everyday! I think it's on us to celebrate or crib about womanhood. I think womanhood isnt just about men respecting and acknowledging our merits and worth, I think it's equally for women to respect their our kiln. I have seen that by force or by nature men seem to be getting there but women still need the nudge. What they ask for themselves they dont always give to their kind. So today I reminded myself to ensure I stand by and more importantly support and enable my kind in any and all ways.





 Thank God for sending all the feminine Angel's in my life. I am what I am thanks to all of them. I loved myself today and added one more pic on top of the two usual! Self pampering is important part of women's day celebration you see. My fav of all the women's day watsapp forwards is this: Did you know.? History of Women's Day: Initially Women's Day was planned on 6th March... Women took 2 days to get ready. That's how it got postponed to 8th March!!! 😜 Men's Day was also planned... But as usual, they forgot the date!!! 😜

#byloom

Sunday, March 3, 2019

#debsaristories "Wow, she is hot" is a common thought that crosses many men's minds. Nothing wrong in it. But I often wonder what is the definition of 'hot'? Do they see the large heart behind the small breasts? Do they see the deep mind behind short hair or is it just the physical appearance and sizes that matter? Largely and sadly, it's just the appearance that attracts! After all, someone drool worthy is anyday taken over someone intelligent, how much ever the world may "progress". Sab bolnewali baat hai πŸ™„πŸ™„




These were the thoughts crossing my mind, as I watched the green pastures around and how beautifully nature had made this world look for us. At times, it feels as though time stands still on those hills and the only race around is of the humans, like puppets in a show. Its worthy being a blade of grass on those pastures and be the fodder to cattle that give us milk, than being unworthy in a world of inhuman expectations of human beings. Ah! I should try to do good karma to get lucky next birth, this one's a miss already! ye!


Pujo 2020. Shubho Bijoya

 #debsaristories #durgapuja2020 🌺🌺  || Shubho Bijoya! ||🌺🌺  Hmm.. One more year, one more Dussehraand  Bijoya. This year indeed had man...