Celebrating Independence Day with a meal of traditional Marwadi Basa!! :)

First of all Happy Independence day! :D

Today I happened to have experienced a hospitality so fine that I have ever had in my 22 years so far. I had my lunch at this place that is located in the interiors of Calcutta and I was served the traditional Marwadi Basa :) This place is on the top floor of the building called Bhangad(hope I spelt the name right) buliding which I believe is quite old at least from I understood from the tale that one of dad's friends narrated about how he had slept on the third floor of the building in the seventies when he was 21 and had just graduated to join as an intern in his company. As I climbed the dark stairs to the terrace, I realized that I am in for quite a surprise because this was the view that I got from the first floor of the building of one of the sides :)

Scary? :P On reaching the terrace I was left astonished at the sight as a number of activities were taking place all at once. On one side, a bunch of people were making mathris in those huge kadhais and on the other side a set of people were cooking lunch. The rest were busy serving. A part of the scenario looked something like this :)

While we made ourselves comfortable on the wooden benches, in around five-seven minutes, a very interesting thali was placed in front of me. There was roti that was dripping with butter, then there were three curries-aaloo ki subji, papad ki subji and moungori ki subji, then were was yellow dal(which tasted nothing like the one that is usually made at home) and there was this fourth curry which I didnt really like so I didnt bother to find what it is called :P This is how my thali looked like!! :D

On top of this, freshly cut cucumber and tomato made the entire meal just about perfect. We closed the meal with a bowl of curd and sugar :) Now usally, I dont have more than two rotis...and butter...I have not had it since a millenium...but today I had three butter rotis and one full serving of white rice :D

Here is the person who made sure that our plates were always super full!! :D

This is the view that I had from where I sat :)

To balance all the hogging..today I went running in the evening!! :D Couldnt run for long...obviously..the last I ran was in Delhi..two months back :P all in all I had some super fun today...after a long time...I think the last time I had so much fun was in Hyderabad when I had irani chai in one of those age old chai cafes :D

Brother Brother--Happy Birthday!!! (OK Belated) :D

To Arancar! :D

Highs and lows..and lows and highs....
It all comes in when you learn to fly..
you try and try..
in the end you sigh...
but then oh my god..there you fly..
so all the time that you spent all this while
was worth I bet..a million pies
:)

What to do??

Look at them...how happy and all... sob.....

And now look at me--Things going terribly slow. Pathetic weather. No exercise. Reading this damned book. Need to send paintings..but before that need to finish them! Studying, but the tempo is not what it is supposed to be. Missed brother's call because I was sleeping..today is his birthday! Was just cleaning my cupboard..and realized because of moisture, a few of my clothes got spoilt (mom says it is fungus :O I would say aa aa definitely not)

Basically, bad start for a day that was supposed to be wonderful(exaggerated..but whatever) One thing I have realized is my biggest enemy....SLEEP! Not allowed to drink coffee (my favorite-est drink...sob) becuase I get a sore throat otherwise.

What to do...what to do????

Breaking the barriers...

Yesterday was indeed very eventful. And I had completed 60% of the tasks that I had set for myself the day before. Not bad I would say. How many of us manage to scratch off four tasks from a do to list of seven? Well, I have been trying to do this for months now.

Today I will touch 80% :)

Had got up late from the bed (around 9:00) because this silly cold and crazy headache just didn't allow me to get off any earlier. So things might get a little delayed for the day. Anyways, everyone has their own specific issues lined up :)

Now, coming back to yesterday, we had finally managed to pull off our introduction class at the Light House School for Blind :) The students, as expected were not really in to attend another class after their hectic schedule in the first half. Obviously, who has ever liked extra classes? :)

There were 12 students from the 9th std initially, who were later joined by the 11th std girls making it a class of 18 students in all. There were 15 girls, out of which 4-5 were shy and did not open up, the rest were easy to strike a conversation with. There were only three boys, who were willing to open up but only when approached personally.

We started off by asking each of the students to introduce themselves while mentioning their name, where they come from and their favorite subject(preferably in English) While a few were shying out from speaking those few words of English, there were others who spoke quite confidently.

The class got me nostalgic as I thought of my own school days. What struck me then was, I realized that there is absolutely nothing that made these kids different or not normal. There were the back bencher girls who were giggling and making jokes. The front benchers talked but only in whispers and their self made sign language of nudging followed by giggling. The 11th std girls on the left were sitting comfortably and making their own judgments and remarks on what was going on then. The boys quietly sat and were probably thinking when will somebody talk something that actually makes some sense :)

The students had their own ambitions and had absolutely no problem sharing with us outsiders. Few of them wanted to become subject teachers, one of them a music teacher, one of them an air hostess and one of them even wanted to be a cricketer.

We discussed about what they wanted from us and how we could help them with it. One of the boys placed his concern about how he can improve his efficiency if he could use computers. He remarked that ideally he takes 3-4 minutes to write a sentence on paper. But, using a computer, he could write a sentence in around two minutes. Everyone really wanted to learn computers and were actually looking forward to it which is quite understandable. How do you any of us can survive if we are not allowed to access our lappy or desktop huh? :)

By the end of almost two hours, we were discussing about how we could adjust our sessions according to their convenience as they had their regular classes, their hobby class and their private tutions that needed their attention. We were relieved that almost everyone wanted to attend our teaching sessions :) We were thankful for they had very discreetly allowed us to enter their territory and help them meet their goals and ambitions. Now this feeling that we had....that of an accomplishment...was extraordinary :)

Looking forward

Finally my first post :) Bhayia left today for his MBA to Yale. Mom and dad were really sad. He will be coming home after his first semester but you never know. MBA programs are quite hectic. Was given tons of enthu from him to give it my 100 percent for MBA preparations before he left. His way of giving enthu is by butchering me every hour at least once on my commitment levels and mode of preparation :) In fact, everyone is really very concerned about me and career including me but I know that I will do quite decent whatever the circumstances maybe :)

I have learnt to believe that everything happens for a reason. If you have put in your 100% then that is all that matters. If things work out then great and if things don't go according to your plan then you just need to have some patience. Your negative result simply means that there are better things in store for you.

So, I need to give this whole plan that I have chalked out my 100% and have patience. All righto, will sign off now. Take care and stay safe.