Roaring forties

On being 40

As I approach the dreaded age of forty I recall what one of my friends used to say - wrong side of 35, I feel certain amount of changes what are they???

Am I less fit than I was…? Not that I feel, people say that I was fitter at the age of twenty but now I proceed for my walks with renewed vigor than I did in those days, I go to gyms ( with knee pain) that I did not want to in those days I feel that I am fit. In fact, I am fitter than I was, because I am working hard for it and I appreciate the value of fitness which I took for granted.

Am I less loved than I was???? Not at all in fact have I felt that the people who love me have grown by leap and bounds.

Am I uglier?? May be ….now hair fall is more but then I am rich enough to buy good treatment in parlours and though I look out for wrinkles I can afford face packs which I did not have time for at the end of my second decade. My son recently told me that I was the most beautiful of all the mums even if I was fatJ.

In what way then, have I changed? I am in a position which is more respected than I was when I was twenty. I am a mother, a wife, an established career woman.

The power that I command in the domestic front now is formidable. I take decisions about our journeys, about clothes that I can wear and buy, not just for my self but also for my family. When we decide to go out some where even if I do feel tired I have to make an effort to go as my children want me there, my husband and also my mother in law feel out of sorts when I am not around. We entertain in a social circle which I want assembled, when I want to go out my family does too.

In fact from breakfast to dinner, from innerwear to sophisticated clothes my family depends upon me. This brings me renewed confidence for my day to day life. Which is reflected in my behaviour as a career woman. As I am happy and successful as a home maker I bring that confidence in my work and in my surroundings.

There is another freedom which the younger me never knew about. I am free to walk on the streets without greedy eyes gawking at me. I can do as I please without being the center of attraction of a crowd. This invisibility brings about certain amount of freedom. A few days back my husband had forgotten the tiffin in the house and I had gone to the main gate to return him his tiffin, and I was riding the cycle, I am amazed that no one bothered to give me the looks. In fact no one noticed.
I remember about four years back when I tried the same thing people said many things about decency and what middle class women should not do. But then that was another time and another decade, now I am free to ride the bike when I want to and not ride when I do not want to. Aah.. What it is to be free from these strings

There is another feeling that all my to be forty sisters should be happy about. Okay tell me what were your traumas when you were twenty???

Career????

Marriage?????

Children?????

All those questions are settled now and hopefully, the first is established and many are successful in that front. One is at a very comfortable relation with the second. The third in the list are well above their blood sucking cute days and now are pride of the eyes by their activities without us having to worry about them all the time, In other words darlings we are free form all the hassles that have had us moaning with back pain and stress ful days. Do you miss them. I am happy without those days. We can now enjoy kids and play with them without bothering about huggies / nappy rash. We can give sermons to other younger ones, about the ways they should use what bais they…. Because you see now we are armed with experience which comes with age and practice
So girls ready get set and go reach that forty something with a smile and cheer.
Karishma, Juhi, Kajol and the ooh so gorgeous Shilpa I am coming to join the bandwagon of the roaring fortys with pizzazz and cheers

Trip to Amritsar

Trip to Amritsar

1. Day one
Trip started in the morning when we all started for Amritsar at 2 am, we stopped enroute for evening lunch we had already eaten a good lunch but Partha was late and so we all had cold drinks and one Parantha. The route taken was Karnal – Jullandhar – Phagwara – Amritsar.
` We reached Amritsar at about 9:00 pm we freshened up in a hotel and left to do darshan. I was glad of the meal we had taken on the way as Kuku was fed

Golden temple :- So serene calm and beautiful It had the decorations of people who had laid down lives for our nations also there were people sleeping like it was there home there were many people like me who were doing sewa. Some kept our slippers for us there were many who were giving us water to drink. The ambiance of the temple – full of people yet one was alone, there was a courtyard and the temple was in the centre of the lake. The temple was a beautiful sight to behold and many were dipping themselves in the holy water of the sarovar at 10 PM!!! Inside the temple there was a line and amazingly no one was pushing or wanting to go ahead. The interiors were also wonderful. I loved the experience. I had the feeling just like I had when we had gone to shani temple in Shirdi. I felt oneness with the Supreme Being.

After our darshan we left the temple and came out to the restaurant and had food it was about 10 AM at that time we also bought Papad and wadas ( azalea which are a must buy once you go to Amritsar.
Back to the hotel and we had eaten. There Goles got a room with MIL and we both had Kukku. The room had moon and starts on the roof.


2. Day Two

In the markets of Amritsar

Today one Mr. Maheshwari, who was formerly my husband’s colleague, joined us. Also today was Ashtami and both MIL and me were having less to eat. We had naan and curd and the kids and Partha had kulche’s to eat. We again went to the Golden temple. I am glad we did because today there was another beauty and serenity to the shrine. We also saw fishes which came up to us and nearly rubbed against our legs which were inside the sarovar.

In the narrow entry point in the Jallian wala bag where Gen D had prevented the exit of the meeting members
We had been to Jallain wala bagh which simply made my blood boil especially the letter which Gen Dyer had written after killing many people. We saw the letters written by Rabindranath Tagore denouncing his knighthood and also the photograph of the bloke who had killed Gen Dyer in England. There was the well in which about 150 people had jumped to escape the bullets. There was an obelisk about the history of the place.








A few points of the park

After which we also went to visit another temple which was beautifully done up. There we saw not only fishes but also turtles;
From there we went to visit the house of one of our colleague Mr. Sanjay Thareja. Who had been with us in Chandigarh and come to my house in Delhi.

We then went to the house of Mr. Maheshwari. We talked of the old times and then we also discussed about the new times there was delicious lunch prepared by Mrs. Maheshwari. There were puris, sabzi, pulao, dahi wade, rajma which was delicious.
At about 4:00 we left for the Waga border. The interesting thing about this was that we were in Attari so in Amritsar it was called Attari boarder but her it was called Waga boarder as it was the first Pakistan district after the boarder.
Few amazing things that I saw there
1. The BSF Jawans were about a head taller than me and I am tall.
2. The BSF lady jawans were so very beautiful and looked really cool with the guns.
3. The Pakistanis were people like us and they too liked to show off just like we did.

The boarder was charged with the spirit of nationality. Songs were going on to add more fat this spirit and make us all sizzle in it’s wake. The man – I can call him the MC (master of ceremonies) was telling us to shout louder than the Pakistanis and he did every ting to make us shout- which included jumping, dancing. Waving his hands in a very peculiar fashion. It was very nice and funny. But we had a great deal of fun. On the other side there were flags w had them too and got a chance to wave them. We had great fun there.

We finished from there at about 7:30 Pm after standing and shouting for about 4 hours we were thrilled brimming with the patriotic feeligs and more excited. That is a place to visit but please remember to take bottles of water there.
We started from Amritsar at about 9:00.and reached back in Karnal at about 2:00 AM

TRIP TO AMRITSAR - GOLDEN TEMPLE AND WAGW BOARDER

in th golden temple

G. H. P. S fun or no fun

the new school I have here s very traumatic, first I fall in love with the lids of my class and then they treated me shockingly, One of the kids has also been suspended,... today he came to class as he said sorry to me repeatedly and then he came back to class>I love that Idiot he is in class ten and thinks it is cool to have standing hair, last time the principal told him to comb his hair and he refused... he was suspended again.

hope I will be right .. my principl is hppy with the prsentations that I am making,.... I wanted to resign and he refused

Life is like that

Idiscoveri

How I discovered I

In the training program that we were sent to called the idiscoveri, was the beginning of my innings in VDJS. The joy that we felt and encountered in the quest of being a better teacher was after all possible when one knew one self, isn’t it the eternal quest why sages have traveled to mountains to find out the why - s of life?

So did we - a group of 25 teachers were on a training session with idiscoveri.

The journey started in the 12^th of July, we started for Aut a picturesque village which housed the idiscoveri campsite.

We started in the afternoon from Hisar and had an overnight stay at the PPS Nabha Punjab. It is also an IPSE school.

On 13^th morning we started from Nabha after seeing their horses wonderful creatures one of them an Arabian stallion called Sultan was a heart stealer

The next day 13^th July was the first day in the camp. We were greeted by Rachna who was the coordinator. There were also two seasoned mountain climbers called Tara and Bhubaneshwari, there was Ayesha the artist and Raj, this team of 5 were the coordinators of this training session. The dinner was great it had both vegetarian and non veg fare

Day 1:

The name game

We were called to introduce ourselvrs in such a way that it is difficult to forget the names of all the participants

We were made to stand in a circle and then say our name prefixing it with a adverb that suits us the most so is started

1^st person - Real rachna

2^nd person – real Rachna victory Vivek

3^rd person – Real Rachna victory Vivek satisfied Santosh

the last person had to remember a lot of names

The blind rope :

We were divided in teams of 10 and were asked to make a perfect square out of a piece of rope and that too blind folded !!!

In 10 minutes !!!

There were fights anger squabbles, there were self proclaimed leaders . Any way after analysis we got to know a lot about ourselves, why we shouted , why we didn’t?? The other team won. There were many leaders in our team

The jigsaw puzzle

We were given a puzzle to solve, we did it first

THE BIG PROJECT :

At the end of the week, we were to submit a project and so the teams were divided

LUNCH

Free time to discuss the game plan till tea,

Then we discussed about the village we were to go to .

END OF DAY ONE

VERY FISHY

THESE are the pictures of a new fish tank we bought
there are two gold fish called goldy moldy
there are two mollies called - molly dolly

sadly a few days ago dolly died (was it because I added the well water which was cold after I changed the water. )

for the aquariun I needed
1. glass tank
2. antiboitic which was to be added
3. water purifier
4. pebbles, plastic plants
5. IMPORTANT Aerater which also has a crocodile toy which opens and shuts the mouth

new movie

There is some kind of strike going on in this city which is why there is no Hindi movie to be shown in the mall, as a result we all went to see the Indiana Jones movie ( crystal skull) and it was a good one, considering we were the only ones in the hall and reentered only after we saw a couple entering to see the movie, after which went to Bangla sweet house and bought Kulcha from there and had lunch of the same, Goles has not completed her homework and tomorrow the cooler people will come home to fix the coolers, with that the saga of the day is over, we may go to Atal Park after which we will have dinner of chicken and chappati. Well let me end .