Lonavala Greets The Group Of Pretty Women

“Remember the time when I jumped over the school wall to be in time for school prayers and I got punished for that?”

“And you remember the time when our class teacher came home to complain to my mom about my naughtiness at school and you defended me?’

“I used to love the two plaits, folded neatly and I really admired you for your interest in sports”

I sat listening to the conversation of 12 grown up women in late fifties who travelled back four decades and were nostalgic about the times way back when they were in school together. I was invited by my friend to spend out-station picnic (reunion) at Lonavala with her school friends from St Teresa’s School, Santacruz.

Forty years have passed but the memories are fresh. Each one with a story of their own, the different experiences, some happy, some sad, but the comfort level was high and much too much laughter. The conversation was punctuated with music of the late 60’s and early 70’s and talk about their crush over the famous Bollywood star of that era, Rajesh Khanna, as they gyrated their body with seductive gestures singing “Roop tera mastana….Pyar tera diwana..bhool na koi hamse ho ja ye…”

I was in the midst of women, who preferred to sit cuddled in the room than to venture out on rainy wet streets, who preferred to cook the comfort food of Dhal, potatoes, rice and spicy pickle rather than to sit in a fancy restaurant and eat the unhealthy food, who preferred to sip slowly on red, fruity Sangria concocted to a perfect flavor.

Most of the time was spent at home in a beautiful cozy bungalow, ethnically furnished, surrounded with greenery and fresh air. There was aroma of freshly brewed coffee that escaped from well-stocked kitchen and kept us in good spirit.  Just a small fraction of our time was used to take a quick ride to the city to do a bit of shopping and to see those large gushing waterfalls. But there too, the child in them transported them to bathe under strong sparkling waterfalls, with slippery rocks to stand on. They came back with the bruises on their body (having lost their balance on slippery rocks), completely drenched, leaving a puddle of water wherever they stood, their clothes clinging to their body exposing their pale skin and a playful smirk on their faces.

In the group of like minded people, it was easy to share stories, to lay back and enjoy the game of ‘GK quiz’, a ‘Bingo’ and ‘Passing The Parcel’(with naughty punishments, like seductive belly dance or bold daring gestures) and winning gift was presented to the best performer. 

The time ticked too quickly, packing to head back home arrived too soon. Saying Goodbye is always painful but all good things come to an end. I sit here now, in solitude, on my own, but the wonderful memories brighten up my day.

I play the movie on U-tube to refresh the lovely time spend with girls from St. Teresa's School.........  You can watch too.....click on the link at tube . Thank you girls for letting me peep into your friendly world..May your friendship prosper till the last breath of your life.......

Floating Market at Bangkok - A photo Essay

Although I have made several trips to Bangkok in the past, I have never visited the famous floating market for one silly reason that I am too lazy to wake up early to go for shopping. Okay, I admit, I am not the shopping type too, but this is one of the ‘must-see’ tourist attractions, I had decided to make a trip this time.

It took us three hours to reach rural floating market of Damnoen Saduak situated 110 kms west of Bangkok. I started the journey at 6am, but reached only around 9:30am. (I am not an early riser, so I slept most of the way and missed out the fabulous view outside my window) Ah well!

By the time we reached, the sun was up, weather was warm, and some people had brought their umbrellas to float in shade

But the true fun is rowing in a paddle boat, freely down the river, surrounded by wooden houses and vendors on the either side, with hundreds of boats, paddling side by side, ready to bargain and sell.

There were some pretty houses on the route to the market, how interesting it is to sit in the balcony facing just waters...

 

Or watching the tourist from up above

The tourist seemed happy to just go clicking, they were sure they would find something different and some memories to take back home

For those who did not wish to go boating there was a market on either side and a bridge connecting sides, but the pretty sight was watching boats under the bridge

The water was dirty but nobody cared....we kept our hands closer to our body and water did not splash

Interesting part was the food stuff that was sold on land and also in boats

The boats rowed so close that we bumped many times

The vendors with fixed boats had a long stick with a hook, when our boat paddled closer to their stall, they gripped our boat with the long stick to bring it closer for discussion and selling

Those in larger boats could not shop, I think that was mainly for rowing experience

They bargain using their fingers, because they don’t speak English. But still it is easy to communicate with them

The woman cut fruits while she waited for some clients, she stored them in plastic bags

The man had a huge snake around his neck and he offered to rent it to a tourist for a photograph

There were pretty bags, I could not resist buying, but yes..I bargained too with just gestures

and Oh! lovely painting for sale too

I was veg on that day, so I just ate veg spring rolls with sweet sauce..it was delicious

It was lovely afternoon, enjoyed a lot...a great experience too...

Embroidery of india Part 1: Chikankari

Before my interest in social media and internet, most of my time was allotted to needlework. My mom encouraged me to do embroidery and major part of my day was spend creating designs with colored threads. India has a diverse range of embroidery spread across different states and varies according to culture. Starting today, I will focus on different embroidery used in different parts of India. 

I start with Chikankari, the embroidery popular in Lucknow

image source:http://www.dsource.in/gallery/gallery-0349/index.html

I used to do shadow work during school project on handkerchiefs, it was not exactly chikankari work but almost similar to it. 

Chikankari looks good on cotton kurtis and is perfect for summer. The unique characteristic about this work is the shadow effect that are created by making the design on the other side of the thin fabric. I have a bed spread of this work in my room and it really has a cooling effect

A Dialogue of a Different Tone

After the success of her first humorous book,The Reluctant Detective, she is back with a second book. 

I was happy to learn that my writer-friend, Kiran Manral, has published yet one more book “Once Upon A Crush” and it will soon hit the bookshelves. It feels good to see my friends achieve success.

I met Kiran Manral the first time at Lavasa resort. Back in 2011, we were group of 8 privileged bloggers who were invited during car rally from Mumbai to Lavasa to celebrate the women’s day. The trip to Lavasa was one of my best trips and I met lovely people there.

We met as strangers but at the end of our two-days trip, we became good friends.

Kiran Manral is very warm and affectionate woman and immediately makes the person feel as ease. During our conversations, I learnt that she founded ‘India Helps’, a volunteer network to help ‘disaster victims’ post 26/11 and has worked on long-term rehabilitation of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack victims and 13/7 Mumbai bomb blast victims, amongst others.

Soon after this trip, she became the part of the core founding team behind CSAAM and Violence Against Women Awareness Month, two very well received social media awareness initiatives across twitter and the blogosphere. She also blogs at ‘Tehelka Blogs’ on gender issues.

When I followed her on twitter, I realized that she is considered a 'social media star' by the TOI and ‘IBN Live’ named her as among the 30 interesting Indian women ‘to follow on twitter’ and among the top 10 Indian moms ‘to follow on twitter’ for 2013. Her blogs, forty-two and counting and karmickids, both are in Labnol's list of India's top blogs.

The best way to congratulate a writer friend of this caliber is to interview her.

So here goes my chat with Kiran Manral

Reading the synopsis of your book, I learn that this book is about the office romance, is it inspired from real life characters?

It is more inspired from a composite of many people I know, and have spoken with and bits and pieces of experiences around me when I was working full time. Office romances happen all the time, and it is inevitable I guess seeing that people spend time with colleagues even more than they end up spending with spouses or partners. I think there is always a conflict about whether one should take a crush in the office further or not and whether it would be unseemly, or not work out, in which case it could be rather embarrassing for both parties. Office romances are like a minefield. Anything can set them off, and they can be rather devastating.

How long did it take you to write this book?

That's a difficult one. One writes then one rewrites. And rewrites. And if you're a writer like me you're probably writing two to three different books at a time, so its very tough to say this book took so long, because one is constantly working on it off and on for at least a year or so, and then it goes out to publishers, after which one reworks bits and pieces that work or don't work, according to the feedback.

Did you ever come to a dead end and had to start all over?

I never start all over. I keep reworking what I have. Over and over again until I'm happy with what is done. Or the editor is happy with it.

Most of the young mothers that I meet today complain about time constrain in dealing with work load of the children and house, knowing you and your busy life, how do you discipline yourself to write a book?

I believe you always find time or make time to do what you want to do. If you really want to do something you will ensure you make time for it. I don't believe in writing when the muse strikes, I sit down and write out what I have to every day even if it is just 500 words. It all adds up in the end.

Do you have reader in mind while writing a book?

Depends on the kind of book, for the first book it was my friends, married women with children, suburban moms. For this one, it was single women everywhere.

Do you have moments when you notice something and say, “Ah! This should go into my book”

All the time, all the time. I take frantic little notes either in my notepad or on my phone or in the diary I always carry around with me and keep going back to them. People who know me will find snippets of things which have happened with me in my books.

Have you got the urge to get up in the middle of the night to jot down your thoughts, fearing that you might not remember in the morning?

Sadly, never. But I've woken up and pondered over my dreams which are rather fun at times.

Have you used the same style as in your first book or the approach is completely different?

It is still humour, but the voice is a little different, given the protagonists are very different, in different lifestages, in different situations.

What according to you is the difference between lust, crush and love?

A crush is a someone you are attracted to, it might or might not be a physical attraction. Normally, crushes pass within a few months, if it lasts longer than that, you might have crossed into love. Lust is purely physical attraction, very immediate. Love, that is very different. To me love is a state of mind, where everything else gets subsumed by the person one is in love with. Love can be passionate fiery, all consuming, or it could be gentle, accepting, encompassing. And love sometimes accepts the person one is in love with warts and all, accepting all their flaws, but yet continues to love the person intensely. I think we all have very different takes on what comprises love depending on our personal experience with it, but yes, when you are fuelled on love, you become omnipotent, you can do anything for the object of your adoration.

As a published author what advice would you give an aspiring writer?

Write as much as you can. And read as much as you can. That's it.

Don't wait for the muse to strike, don't be too critical of your work, don't over analyse it, don't write 'to' an audience. Write for yourself. And because you must write. That should work.

I enjoyed my chat with Kiran, hope you did too.