A chilli plant that taught me optimism and hope

Organic Gardening and composting  has become an addiction now for me. I am obsessed in seeing what I can try to grow  and compost with everything around me, whether I am in the kitchen or travelling or out shopping. I am sure all of you  would agree that all of us are happy when  we are engaged in doing something that contributes to the well being of our family. And composting also contributes to the goodness of the the environment.

I have grown vegetables earlier in my childhood and feel immensely proud to say that it was my mother who inspired me into this pastime when young. Back then, gardening did’nt come with the tag organic.everything done then was with natural things, there was not much use of synthetic fertilizer and also circumstances were relatively more favorable where gardens were larger and sunnier.

Now, with most of us  living in flats, we have to fight certain odds  like space, lack of sunshine, pigeon menace, using the right potting mix etc.

When you fight such odds and emerge triumphant by converting your limitations into possibilities the joy and pride that comes with it is inexplicable. Even a small progress in your garden during trying times fills you with optimism and hope.

I have many such moments in my little garden( if I may call this, it is just a small container patch).  but the first moment which taught me this lesson is special.

That first moment was when I grew my special nostalgic chilli plant. Another of my principle in gardening is to keep it sustainable as far as possible. I avoid buying new pots, seeds from branded organic shops, fancy equipments etc. Most of my seeds are from my spice box and so one day while cleaning my spice box, I toppled the chilli container on the pot. The chilli seeds I toppled were of the little round variety called as madras milagai. This is generally not available in most shops in Hyderabad  and so I who usually buy the Byadgi( a variety of chilli from a Karnataka village by the same name)  and Guntur chillies( Andhra village)  was excited on seeing this while walking the aisle of SPAR hypermarket.This variety is special for me not only because it is not easily available in markets of Bangalore and Hyderabad( only in a few supermarkets it is available) but also for the simple reason there is a nostalgia attached and my mind raced back to my Grand mom’s kitchen.

I have some special food memories of my Grandma’s kitchen. Her cooking was  simple with the basic locally available ingredients but the arisi upma( rice upma) cooked in the brass utensil( vengala uruli) or the simple keerai masiyal(mashed greens) in kal chatty( stone vessel) had a special aroma and I who would be watering the plants in the terrace on the second floor would rush to the chimney to smell the aroma emanating through the chimney. When I rush down for lunch,  From the lunch spread that  was kept for serving, what comes to my mind now is the red round dry chilli used for tadka covering these dishes. My mind for some reason attributes that special aroma to the red chilli. And so I immediately picked up the packet off the shelf in the supermarket.

I used them for tadka and although I did’nt recreate the magical aroma that emanated from patti’s kitchen , I felt happy to see the sights of red round chili in my tadka over the dishes.

So, when I planted the dry seeds of this red chilli, the seeds germinated pushing forth the tough soil and it was a delight to watch the seed coats hanging precariously. The germinated seedlings went on to become big plants and I transplanted them into different pots and atta bags( I upcycle them)  and after surviving transplantation shocks they bloomed. The first chilli bloom brought so much of joy and the fact that I grew my nostalgia was something very very special. But my joy was short lived, when the blossom dropped  and many more blossoms bloomed and dropped too….with no hope in sight. One fine day, it taught me the lesson.  Patience pays and there was a little green chili with the blossom tip hanging like a tail. Ah man! That was it, the day that taught hold on to your will, optimism and hope and you will travel to the end and ofcourse fight your limitations with patience, hope , grit and determination.

A lesson which I learnt not in a classroom, but in a mundane place like a little balcony garden where each day with sunrise throws beautiful sights and teaches me beauty and life lessons  lies in every little nuance, at every nook and corner and in every activity.

This post written for #Lookup  stories at  https://housing.com/lookup.

My experience with Quikr

The year 2010 – My husband got a very rare opportunity of working  at a nuclear automation site in the US. It was a challenging role and my husband who loves challenges was keen to take it up but he had to think of the growing children. After lot of deliberations, we decided we will give it a shot, after all we had to take risks in life and after some calculated risk taking debates, the husband moved first. I and the kids were here waiting for the term to get over.

 In the meantime, I had decided to dispose of all the gadgets and furnishings. A few like our antique dining table and other customized furniture we had decided to lock them up in our 3^rd bed room.  I had decided to advertise the remaining on quikr but word spread around in my condominium through my maid and the service providing community picked up our folding space saver sofa, spare TV etc, the remaining gadgets like the Fridge, washing machine, double cot were booked by some of our maids. I had told them I would use them till I am here and then they could take after I leave. Even my premium well-ventilated and well lit  flat was booked for rent by one of our co-residents. All things were either sold or" booked to be sold" except our car – Honda city. I had advertised this on quikr site and within 4 days, the car was sold for our price…no negotiations. An insurance company guy from whom the buyer had availed loan checked the vehicle and it was smoothly transacted.

On the other side, For 6 months parallely, we were doing the research on the study patterns of US curriculum and Indian curriculum and we found our children could easily pick up the core subjects, Infact Indian curriculum is much ahead …..the only area where they might find difficult was breaking the group and they had a wide array of subjects to choose from like RJ, VJ, applied arts, soccer etc. We were also told the children would have formed groups in high school and it would be difficult to break into the group and high school in the US is from 9-12 wherein my daughter who was already doing her 9^th standard  would be missing a  high school year if she were to be admitted in a school there.

We decided it would be challenging situation, but we trusted  and thought we would support our children to do well and we were also happy that they would get international exposure. When the admission procedure started, the Philly school refused to accept my daughter for grade 10, they said she was underage for grade 10 by US (East coast) standards and my daughter clearly refused to redo 9^th grade in the US. She wanted to stay back here alone in hostel or with grandparents and study if need be. We too realized it wasn’t worth moving the family and wasting a year of the child and so we stay put here while the husband stayed for a year more there till he sought permission to do remote engineering from here.

Back here, thankfully some of my furnishings only had been sold, the rest were only booked, so I held back the sale. My car which was advertised on Quikr was  sold in 4 days time. Now, I had to buy a car for my family needs, I decided to go for  a second hand one since my husband would not be here to use it.  And, where do you think I turned to for help? Quikr, of course:)  I advertised on quikr and parallely browsed in the “cars for sale” section the same moment. I narrowed down on a silver Honda city which was to be sold because the owner was migrating to Australia.  After some checks, we found the car was accident free and only had some challans for negligent driving. This was taken care by the seller and so the car changed hands smoothly without any hassles.

Even today, Quikr, is my first 'go to site' not only for buying cars, even for houses,gadgets, books to buy/sell/rent etc . Today, if i were to change my car, i would do with Quikr NXT, this way I  choose to keep my number private and avoid random calls.

Vacations - With children in tow

Nothing for me can be better than seeing the world with my family. Travel gives us new perspective and it’s my strong belief that it is the same with children. We have always wanted our children not to learn just from school books and what offers more to learn than classroom is travel. Life beyond the warm confines of our home and class rooms has to be seen to be believed. Although, as a family, we hav’nt travelled far and wide, there are only couple of  vacations we have missed. We often travel as a family if not to exotic destinations  at least to  interesting places closeby.

Packing for family travels is a major chore especially with a husband who would reach at the nth hour from work on travel day. It was at this time, I realized my children could pack their own things. They were already 8 and 6.5 by then. I would give them their travel bag( which was a jetair kids bag). They would draw a check list of items that had to be packed and put their things in that bag. I only had to supervise. While this was more like a play for them, my job was done and it also instilled in them a responsibility of carrying and organizing their things during travel.

Most of our day travels were car or train travels, while during the car trips they would enjoy the countryside scenery or sleep, we would hoard travel games, puzzles and comic books for train travel. Both of them were not demanding or fussy kids and were great company even when they were kids.

Temples, tombs, museums, farm estates, hill stations, valleys, beach, resorts, relatives place and many more…..these are some of the places  we have visited on vacations. While travelling on vacations, we have tried to balance our travel aims with their interests and age in mind.

 It was at Pondicherry, while we were ambling along the beach promenade, we found our daughter studying in class 8 then, describing the Bastille’s day on seeing the statue dedicated to “The French Revolution". Till then we were just enjoying the sea breeze and view   totally unaware that such destinations can unfold your history texts and open or reopen our eyes to which you’d become used to over time. The very fact that we were standing on a place where the Carnatic-anglo-French war was fought gave a new experience. With children in tow, you suddenly become a new being, not just another tourist.

We even underestimate our children many a times. The child who would refuse to walk over to the neighborhood store will clearly trek down the 350 steps much ahead of you.  We had  almost collapsed after the the 700 steps(Up and down) to patalganga @ Srisailam but not our kids, they were off to the bonfire camp site during our office team outing. To be honest, many a times they had more energy than us the adults while trekking steep climbs and walking the wild paths.

During our  routine at home, Children who never wake up at even 6.30 in the morning after several wake-up calls surprise us during vacations when they are up without any alarm at 4 in the morning . The early morning safari at Farahabad( an eco-wildlife resort) to watch the wild life was the bait.

Kids are  such great tools for connecting with new people too. Often, we need’nt put any efforts to befriend people, many a times people would walk over to our children and talk to them before they even notice us. At a resort in Munnar, It was because of them we found many contacts and even before we knew we joined another family on our trip to the nearby Parambikulam  sanctuary and mattupetty dam. Their interaction with many new people at the various   resort get togethers have helped foster many friendships.

But i believe, We have to balance our travel aims, while travelling with children. If we go only to holy places, museums and tombs, we have to balance it with the sort of experiences they get really excited about it. So while they were still young, our itinerary has had many theme parks and zoos although many were not on our “Must do” list.

Today , as  teens, they  heart travelling and they were helpful and made great  travel companions during our last vacation.

This post written for Indi happy hours   and  Teddy travelogue with Club Mahindra