Author Archives: memoriesandsuch

Poem: The Joys of Travel

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I love to travel and have a bucket list which only gets filled, but never empty. My dream is to win big in a lottery so I can indulge in travel. At this point in time, life is in the way and I yearn for a time when I can complete obligations so I am free to travel. This poem is but my yearnings set free!

 

I believe that travelling opens up your mind and is a great teacher. As much as we can afford it, we try to take BB & GG to as many countries and cultures before they grow up.

At this point in time, life is in the way and I yearn for a time when I can complete obligations so I am free to travel. This poem is but my yearnings set free!

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The Joys of Travel

 

The excitement starts long before you board the plane
In fact, it starts when you start making your plan

You look at travel sites and plan your holiday
At the shiny hotel rooms where you plan to stay

The excitement builds up until it’s time to board the flight;
Waiting for the captain to announce the descent
You can’t control yourself, you’re almost at your dream destination

What a thrill it is to be able to travel,
There’s never a moment which is dull

You learn to broaden your horizons
You learn to respect other cultures

To be able to travel is a precious reward
One that will serve you all your life
Make you someone more than your backyard
Keeping yourself above all strife

So go ahead and book your ticket
The world is your buffet
Pick and choose where you want to travel
The world is after all just a bubble

So go ahead and explore to your heart’s content
It’s your life, make it an unforgettable event!

 

 

In My Hands Today…

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The Illicit Happiness of Other People – Manu Joseph

13707645Ousep Chacko, journalist and failed novelist, prides himself on being “the last of the real men.” This includes waking neighbors upon returning late from the pub. His wife Mariamma stretches their money, raises their two boys, and, in her spare time, gleefully fantasizes about Ousep dying. One day, their seemingly happy seventeen-year-old son Unni—an obsessed comic-book artist—falls from the balcony, leaving them to wonder whether it was an accident. Three years later, Ousep receives a package that sends him searching for the answer, hounding his son’s former friends, attending a cartoonists’ meeting, and even accosting a famous neurosurgeon. Meanwhile, younger son Thoma, missing his brother, falls head over heels for the much older girl who befriended them both. Haughty and beautiful, she has her own secrets. The Illicit Happiness of Other People—a smart, wry, and poignant novel—teases you with its mystery, philosophy, and unlikely love story.

2017 Week 32 Update

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This felt like a short week, one that started and then restarted again. This was because of the mid-week National Day holiday. I am always reminded about a friend who loved these mid-week holidays as she felt it rejuvenated her.

BB had his first Avani Avittam early in the week and the day after was the recitation of the Gayathri Mantra. He went late to school on the first day and missed school the next.

Work is ok, but I don't want to write a lot about the negativity surrounding work, so I guess work will not feature much in my updates.

It's a Monday so have a wonderful week.

Secondary 2 Week 32 Update

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This week felt very fractured, especially for the children!

Monday was the festival of Avani Avittam and since I had already secured permission for BB to miss part of the school that day, he was dropped off in school only around noon. So he was in school for just part of the day. Tuesday was the eve of National Day and so there was no lessons that day. Because BB & S went to the temple to pray and do the Gayatri Mantra, he missed school that day (again we had already taken permission and his school told us if it ends late he need not come into school because there would be no lessons). Wednesday and Thursday was holidays because of National Day and the day after for school students and it was only Friday that BB had a full day of school!

GG also had only two full days at school – Monday and Friday because of the same reasons. Yesterday her school had another streaming talk for parents and students. GG had a test in Hindi school, so only I went in to see what this was all about. A couple of days prior to this, I had an interesting discussion with one of the teachers from her school. Since I am part of the parent support group, I was able to speak to this teacher who was the school liaison person. I wanted to see if GG could do some humanities subjects at a higher level if she was not able to get a lateral transfer this year to the higher level. Since the school’s focus in in STEM subjects, unfortunately this is not possible since they don’t even have interesting humanities subjects available. So she has no choice but do the subjects available and then make sure she does well enough at her O levels so that she can enter her subject of choice for her tertiary education.

The term is coming to an end by the end of this month and then term 4 is usually a very short one since they will focus on exams during this term and then it’s the end of Secondary 2 for them. We have to exercise our stream choices sometime in October and results will be out sometime in early to mid-November. I only pray that both GG & BB get their subject choices.

This was a National Day week! Have a blessed Sunday everyone!!

In My Hands Today…

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Fire on the Mountain – Anita Desai

16178767Gone are the days when Nanda Kaul watched over her family and played the part of Vice-Chancellor’s wife. Leaving her children behind in the real world, the busier world, she has chosen to spend her last years alone in the mountains in Kasauli, in a secluded bungalow called Carignano.

Until one summer her great-granddaughter Raka is dispatched to Kasauli and everything changes. Nanda is at first dismayed at this break in her preciously acquired solitude. Fiercely taciturn, Raka is, like her, quite untamed. The girl prefers the company of apricot trees and animals to her great-grandmothers’, and spends her afternoons rambling over the mountainside. But the two are more alike than they know. Throughout the hot, long summer, Nanda’s old, hidden dependencies and wounds come to the surface, ending, inevitably, in tragedy.