Saturday, August 1, 2015

My longest blog break

This has been my longest blog break ever since i started blogging. What excuses do i give for this break i don't know...It could be any of these...

!) staggered vacations of my teens..April, may for son and june to Aug 1 for daughter.
2) The laptop hijacked by the children and so i was connected to the world only through my hand phone.
3) My eye pain and headache thanks to the hyderbadi heat wave
4) or was it the writer's block....I tried twice to build a post in my mind but  the words were incoherent.

I don't really know....

But I thoroughly enjoyed and revived some of my dead interests in these period thanks to my teens.

Parenting i understand is a two way street now....while i taught them they were young, now they teach me and have helped me revive some of my dead interests.....drawing, painting and singing....so these is what kept me busy  along with my spiritual seeking interest while i was away from the monitor......apart from this ofcourse, my organic gardening is still on.....I harvested some mini carrots, microgreens like mustard, methi, tomatoes, alternanthera, amaranth,curry leaf, mint , few chillies and my thai basil adds health to my  green tea. There are still heavy blossom drops in my micro farm. If it weren't for these blossom drops, i should have harvested some red bell peppers, tomatoes, and by now i should have been self-sufficient in  home grown chillies but undeterred i move on adding soul to the soil in my pots which help in building immunity for them against the aphid attacks and my small contribution to avoid adding toxic methane into the air via  degradable wastes at landfills..

What i missed most this summer was my vacation, due to the staggered holiday calender of my teens, i could not make a trip to my home town...but they did visit myhometown , while daughter was awaited, son visited my parents and in-laws  and while son went to school, daughter visited hometown and she also had an additional vacation to Dehradun, Delhi, mussorie and Rishikesh with her friend).  But we  did enjoy a few mini family vacation to the adilabad area of Telangana. Telangana tourism has promoted some lovely tourist spots which are new and eco friendly like Kawal  tiger wild life reserve, Nirmal( famous for nirmal Paintings) and i also visited Basar and mantralayam.



During the trip to Adilabad, I made an interesting observation from Nirmal to Adilabad, this is a total tribal area. People here are dependant on Agriculture that too traditional methods of agriculture... they use only organic manure like animal dung and they store the grains in a beautiful conical haystack storage and they fence their homes with bamboo sticks which are artistically crafted in criss cross patterns....although hand made they were perfectly finished like machine made. And what is it about these tribal folks that even old people have no grey hair although wrinkled and dark due to the hardwork in fields. Me thinks,  It must be that they are in sync with nature without using artificial products like Shampoo and other fancy chemical products.While i made that early morning trip from Adilabad to Jonnaram(Kawal) i found most of them were already in the fields while some were walking, that explains why these tribal locals are slim.

Ah....that reminds me...i too have made a resolution to  rely on eco-friendly products and try to avoid plastics and  synthetic and unwanted materials into my home. atleast i try...as a first step, i am avoiding plastic wherever possible, I use the traditional coconut fibre for dish washing instead of scoth brite, i have replaced  chemicals and toiletries with eco friendly products.  I have stopped giving into fancy advertisements and am "Becoming minimalistic" and even in my painting i am trying to revive and promote Indian arts like Warli, kalamkari and other indian styles....slowly making a change for the better and trying to live in  sync with nature.

That in a nutshell ;) summarizes my break.....hope i hav'n t missed anything...


Oh yes!!! i missed something....while connected on Smart phone,... i was busy connected with friends and relatives in useful sharing of Gyan and info and i have  joined some wonderful groups on FB. The conversations there are so enriching  and i am learning a lot from some unknown friends, infact some of them are inspiring. but yes i am sensibly using the medium and gaining interesting info....it infact has become my news paper while  the newspape at home "The Hindu" which was once considered a  "prestige" to read has joined its peers and  is only adding value to the monthly ruddiwalla and to line my kitchen shelves or maybe to fill in the sudoku squares for others at home. and to read comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes.

( will edit to add pics of kawal, carrot harvest etc.)

I hope i don't get a writers block again and i continue to blog....cause these words are flowing at 1.50am...while i generally sleep early at 9.30 and get up at 5..

Oh another news to share...while my son got an effortless 9 CGPA without external tuitions in Grade X and got  admission into one of the best schools for grade XI through an entrance test ( i must say again effortlessly, no hardwork only traditional intelligence) . On the other hand, my daughter stood All india first ( first year -I & 2 Sem) in her national institute  amongst 3000 students across various streams and various places of India . And this course of hers is not about hardwork alone but it is also about creativity, perfection and impromptly answering to a jury of 12 member ( 3 in each of the 4 subjects)..... just a beginning for her  3 more years to go.....but it was a overwhelming moment for me.

12 comments:

  1. Welcome back. We missed you. I am glad you had a nice vacation. Congratulations to your son and daughter on their achievements.

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    1. Thank you SG:) I missed you all too and this space.

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  2. Nice to see you back. Was getting a bit worried where you had gone.

    Nice news to share. Bravo to the kids. But please don't consign The Hindu to the kitchen shelves plese - its stilla good newspaper.

    You write best at 1.50 AM :):)

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    1. Thank you Ramesh :) well regarding the Hindu, i completely understand what you say...i would have felt the same if somebody had said the same to me about the hindu....i am reading this newspaper since class 6 as far as i can remember but totally disappointed the way it is carrying the advertorials and giving prominence to negative news and shrinking all positivity. Their magazine section and pullouts were an awesome read once upon a time. I still remember even the matrimonial page which was an advertisement page would carry lengthy articles related to age old wisdom and traditions....but now content wise....less said the better...thus my angst about my childhood paper......otherwise may be it is still the "best of the worst" :)

      I like their student edition better which is full of information and inspiring articles but it is only for students:)

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  3. Congratulations on all your achievements, and also your children's. Instead of doing the usual things circumstances gave you the opportunity of trying other interesting things of which you can always be proud about.

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    1. Thank you Rama and what you say about circumstanctial breaks is true.

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  4. Welcome back and good to see you! In fact, I was thinking of pinging you and I saw this post of yours. Proud of your green initiatives. You are truly inspiring! Congratulations to you and the kids... super cool achievements. Wishing them the very best in all their endeavors. And dont vanish again. See you at this space with interesting and insightful posts. Cheers ♥

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    1. Thank you Shilpa for such generous words....yes....yes...i don't want to go again ....i will hang around :)

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  5. Asha,
    It is so good to see that you are back. I would visit the page almost every other day. I was wondering why there are no new posts and hoping everything is fine on your side. Finally I am relieved and happy to see your post. All the topics that you have touched are dear to me too. Congratulations to your kids.
    Veena

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    1. Thank you Veena;) welcome to my space and glad to note you share my interests.

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  6. As always a pleasure to read you. I try to keep a minimalist approach as well, but I have a long way to go before I can say I have been successful at it. Baby steps though...making small progress each day towards the ultimate goal.

    Way to go for your kiddos!!! hope they soar higher and higher!

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    1. Thank you Shachi:) ..you adopt minimalism too.? great things always start with baby steps...keep going...all the best to reach your goal.

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