A few commandments of slow-living

From the slow-living website:

The Art of Slow Living
To stay for all your life a free thinker: this is the meaning of Slow living; to have the courage to stop, ponder and made your own choices before external events and trends will sweep you away.

Here are some simple steps to start with ( again from the web-site):

-Wake up five minutes earlier than usual so you have time to shave, do your make up or have breakfast without hurrying

-While queuing at the supermarket or in traffic relax, don’t get angry and try to use your time for planning your day or talking to your neighbor in line

-When you enter a café, make a habit of saying hello to the waiter before ordering and after enjoying your coffee remember to say goodbye (this rule works for all stores, offices and in the elevator!)

-Write your text messages on your cell phone with no symbols or abbreviations and get in the habit of starting with “Dear…”

-When possible, don’t do two things at the same time (for example don’t write while speaking on the phone). You run the risk of becoming impolite and imprecise

-Don’t join and don’t let your children join any teams or activities that are far from home

-Avoid being so busy and full of work that you don’t have time for yourself and the delight of thinking about nothing

-Don’t force yourself go shopping; most probably there is enough food in your cupboard to make something tasty for dinner

-Sometimes go to the corner shop even to buy what you need, even if it’s not cheap; this will save you time and stress

-Go for a walk, alone or in company, to a local restaurant rather than driving and waiting in traffic to get to your customary eatery across town

-In the evening turn off the television and read the newspaper

-In the weekends don’t always leave town, learn to enjoy your own city, wherever it is

-If you have a two-week break from work, spend ten days on holiday and the remaining days relaxing before and after your trip

-Stop saying: “I don’t have time to…” – these words won’t make you appear more important than you are and will only cause you stress

 

Sense of place : what is yours?

The title of this post is borrowed from Michael Shapiro’s book

A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration

, which has some very insightful interviews of prominent travel writers ( among them being Pico Iyer, whose writing I love, and Tim Cahill, who was the Editor of the Best Travel Writing books, who has some pretty neat stuff to say about travel writing). More about this on another post.

Though the name of the book suggest something different ( the sense of place a travel writer brings to his writing), I use it here to mean your affinity to a place. People like us, who, uprooted from where they grew up – which place do they call home? A question that I am sure troubles us all at some point or the other – where do I belong? I mean, in a literal sense, not in any metaphorical sense.

When Appa and I came back to India from the US, we felt quite strongly that we “belonged” more in India than in the US. But now that we are in India, and the question of putting down roots in one place comes up ( read that as the peer pressure of buying a place of our own), there looms large the issue: but where?

I wonder at our own rootlessness, and where it stems from. Partly it is the fact that I was away from my hometown of Guwahati since my college days, and, apart from holidays long and short, have never really lived there. Partly it is the fact that we are looking for  too much perhaps – we want a place where we can have some friends and family around, a place where N can have good schooling, a place which is green, has manageable commute, clean air, is either cosmopolitan or is entirely rural. A place where we can put down roots for a decade or so, at least till N grows up and leaves the nest.

The list is, admittedly, long – but, on the other hand, which one would you suggest one can live without? Somehow the thought of living in a large metro where all one can do is have pizzas and burgers for dinner and watch movies on IMAX cinema for entertainment is feeling less and less attractive by the day.

We know that this lifestyle does not feel right for us. We know we want a lifestyle which is more connected to nature, and where we can live more naturally. Living naturally to me means things like walking rather than sitting in a vehicle for long portions of the day, able to enjoy the sun and rain and natural elements, breathing clean air, seeing things grow. Having plants and birds and animals around. Where kids can grow up in a rough and tumble manner, dirtying their knees on the sand and soil and not on cemented walkways.

On the other hand, we are not hermits. We do want to stay connected to family and friends. And enjoy food and drink as everybody else. But, as we think about our “Sense of Place” it feels more and more that we have to make an extreme choice.

The dilemma is on, and we know we need to make a choice sooner or later.

 

Three Idiots, and turning the clock back

Thanks to the persistent Little Sis, I got to go watch a movie without dragging N along. This was in Guwahati, so this post comes just about 10 days late.

What a pleasure it was to watch a movie without having to get out every 5 minutes because N has reached the end of her not-so-long attention span. And of course if that movie is Three Idiots, then the evening is a rocking one!

Aamir Khan is unbelievable – how on earth does he manage to look like a just-out of teens boy? He’s past forty, isn’t he? And its not just the looks, the way he walks, talks, moves, everything. Its a pleasure to watch him.

The movie was of very funny, and brought home a point without sounding too preachy. I am sure all of us engineering types, who went to engineering school because… ummm.. we were good at maths and didn’t want to be doctors, had just that slightest twinge of “wish I had followed xxx dream when I had the chance”, or even a little blame game on the parents thing.

I think I have reached the age when blaming the parents for something is no longer really feasible. I mean, where was my own will when I killed myself to get a good rank in the state boards, instead of, say, going off to  basketball games or to NCC camps? I studied like I was expected to, and I knew I did it because I wanted the adulation that went with getting a good grade. That, and the fact that I really did not know what else to focus my energies on.  I guess the one thing that interested me then, and that interests me now, and that has not changed, is the love of the Outdoors. And given a chance, I would have liked to work out a career that lets me spend time outdoors, in the middle of natural surroundings.

Thats a thought, given a chance to go back , turn the clock, what would you do, if you were, say 18/ or even 21?

 

There is hope yet: Mawllynong village in Meghalaya

I just got back from an 8-day Gypsyfeet trip to Meghalaya and Assam (  called the Fabulous-3 trip, because of the three Fab places, Meghalaya, Kaziranga and Majuli we visit).

We spent two days at a village called Mawllynong in Meghalaya, way out on the India-Bangladesh border.

Why did I take my guests to this place? The village has the distinction of being the cleanest village in Asia. It did not disappoint.

The village was spotlessly clean. Cemented Pathways were lined with bamboo baskets used as garbage bins. There was not a bit of plastic or other litter to be seen anywhere. Flowers on bushes and vines lined the pathways.

THe guest house made through community effort ( and whose profits are shared within the community) is truly pleasing. It has a machan reached by a bamboo bridge.

Mawllynong guest house

The whole village was cleanliness conscious. People swept the walkways in front of their houses, and diposed of the garbage at pits dug for the purpose. The organic waste was decomposed and used as fertiliser.Children were paid some money to collect litter thrown by tourists – the money was from a central fund collected from visitor’s fees. There was even a visitor’s registration desk!

And here’s the beautiful church, designed by a local person taking inspiration from a photograph of a church in England.

What a pity other villages and cities in India do not follow the example of Mawllynong!

 

When the hills turn purplish-gray ( in Guwahati)

Dusk is settling all around me as I stand on the terrace of our house in Guwahati.

I went there to collect the clothes which had been put out to dry.  When I stepped onto the terrace, it was as though I’d suddenly stepped into the final act of a play, in which no human was taking part. I stood and watched, an attentive audience.

Nature was calling and end to the day, and the sight was lovely and graceful. She was doing it with colors, and sounds, and movement, and drama.

Our house is in a narrow valley. At four in the afternoon the sun was already disappearing behind the hills, not in a blaze of red, but a disc of gold slowly sinking.

The last rays of the sun alerted me to a splash of scarlet right in front of me. There, on the betel-nut tree in my neighbours house, a woodpecker was foraging for dinner. It spent only a little while on the tree, then flew away disappointed.

Meanwhile, in the bush on the hill-side there was a great deal of activity. A few robins were hopping about on a broom-tree, barely resting on a branch before jumping onto another. Their black and white bodies could be spotted only because of their incessant movement.

Suddenly, there was a loud “tuweet tuweet” – I looked overhead. A pair of parakeets were flying high – heading homeward?

Peaceful though everything was, it was not quiet. Birds, hundreds of them, of many different species, were at concert. The loudest were the crows. They were also the most plentiful. Many were flying high above right across the valley. A few were sitting on my neighbour’s terrace, keenly looking around. One flew over to our house, perhaps to the betel nut tree in the front. I’d often seen crows there pecking at the sap of the tree. I wonder if they ever found any food there.

I looked for the sun-bird that came often to the Mussanda tree in our house. It was not to be seen – perhaps it had already flown to its perch. An active bird, I had seen it often brilliant in its red, purple and green shiny feathers, sipping on the flowers.

The sun finally disappeared. The crows kept flying overhead, looking for the insects that came  out in the evening. The tops of the betel nut and coconut trees turned dark. The show was over. It was going to be another act in the morning.

 

Snapshots from back home in Guwahati

Here are some photos I’d taken near Pobitora National Park, a small NP just on the outskirts of Guwahati.

Many people from Ghy are probably not even aware that rhinos are literally in their back-yard.

Rhinos grazing with domestic cattle at Pobitora

The landscape was lovely – mustard fields, hills in the distance.

Near Pobitora, a chang in the middle of mustard fields

Birding at Pobitora: Grey heron, bee-eaters, black-necked storks ( a rare species), Jacanas, drongos, bush-chat, ducks.

Grey Heron leading the watch

 

Of pumpkin soup and raw herbs chutney

My Mom’s kitchen always seem to produce at least one interesting dish at every meal.

Take today’s lunch, for example. All of a sudden she tells me to go to the herb patch behind her kitchen and get some fresh spinach, lai xak ( for which I don’t know the English word, but it is a slightly bitter leaf that we Assamese love eating), coriander and green chillies. She grinds it all with some garlic pods, and produces a very lively chutney that has a raw taste to it, but very flavorful nevertheless.Supposed to be eaten with very hot rice.

I decide to continue the culinary tradition into dinner. The tradition of making one unusual dish at least.

Decide to make pumpkin soup. I’d made some with butternut squash back in the US during Thanksgiving time, and figured I should try it out with good old pumpkin. Simple recipe – sauteed onions in butter with some garlic pods, boiled a slightly sauteed the pumpkin cubes, pulsed it in the mixie, added some milk and pureed some more, and grated some cheese on top. My Mom, a very picky eater, seemed to like it, and I loved it – warmed us up in the cold, it did.

Lets see what tomorrow brings. My Mom is the kind of woman who at the age of 58 still experiments with food in her kitchen, so I am sure there will be more!

 

Early Birds and a flashback to childhood

“Early Birds” or “Probhati Poxi” – a nice name for a bird-watching enthusiast group.

Went to meet the person who’d started this to get the low-down on the birdwatching scene in Assam.

He told me there are more than 50 IBA’s, or important birding areas, in Assam. And these guys have been working with the villagers who live around these areas, in  addition to enjoying the birding scene.

The nearest to Guwahati, of course, is Deepor Beel. A controversial IBA, because of the encroachment and livelihood problems. I’d gone there last year with my Mother and N, who was then a year and a half. We’d hired a small boat and gone out into the lake. My Mom, enterprising woman that she is, took her students out for an outing there afterwards. The kids had really enjoyed the place.

Anyway, so I’m looking forward to exploring more of these places while I am here.

Meanwhile, a funny thing happenned today. I’d just got into an auto today, when the auto driver looks and me and says, rather abruptly, “we used to play cricket together”. I was a little taken aback, especially because I could not for the life of me remember who he was.  Turns out he’s our neighbour, and we did used to play cricket together as kids.

 

Lack of civic sense, the environment and India’s climate change policy

The part of Guwahati where I stay used to be green and beautiful, bordered by the Brahmaputra on the North bank. Winters used to be misty, and cold.  The roadsides were tree-lined and shady in the summers when we used to sometimes walk back from school.

As a child of maybe 10, I still knew something was not quite right when the huge silk-cotton tree that gave lovely shade was chopped down suddenly one day.But I did not know that it was only the beginning.

Slowly, the stream that is behind our house started turning into a nullah. The one in front of our house is so clogged with plastic bags that water flows onto the road now. Neighbours throw rubbish into the nullah without a second thought – this even though the municipal corporation has actually started picking up garbage from people’s homes ( they never bothered till last year).

The primary school ground where the  Bihu function is held in APril every year has become a dump for construction material. There is an open garbage bin right next to the school grounds.

High-rise apartments dot the hill-side.

The main arterial road has become clogged with traffic. Walking on the road is a risky affair – you either die of diesel fumes or the dust kills you.

These are the times when I miss the clean, green air of the USA. Seriously, I do.

——————————————

This was written last night. Today morning, when I opened the papers there was an article on India’s commitment to greenhouse gas reduction. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh ( this guy I have started admiring, he’s sticks to what he says at least) has said India is commiting to 25% reduction on carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 2010. What does this really mean in terms of reduction in greenhouse gases? Certainly does not mean we will be emitting less of CO2, because GDP will also increase. Therefore, even though India, China and other countries have already declared intentions of bringing down the CO2 per GDP, that does not seem to be enough. More on this.

 

Vocabulary of a two and a half year old

When I have nothing else to do, I spend 2 hours recording the vocabulary of my 2.5 year old daughter. Why am I doing it? For no other reason than curiosity. Well, also, I was wondering how long it would take before I could speak as fluently in Telugu as she does in English? I mean, how many words do I have to master ( grammatical construction aside). Turns out as many as 402!

While indulging in this amusing pastime, I also learnt that:

A 2-3 year old’s vocab is usually anywhere between 200-300 words

To provide perspective, here’s what somebody has put up in wikianswers:

Grade 1 Student = 1,000+ words

Normal Person (Graduate) = 5,000 to 6,000+ words

University Professor = 15,000+ words

Spelling Bee Winners = 30,000+ (as claimed by them)

College Dictionary (Abridged) = 50,000 – 70,000

Total Words in English Language = 250,000+ (Growing)

Dictionary (Un-abridged) with derivatives = 450,000+

Shakespeare used 60,000 words

Anyway, she’s got a long way to go, especially if she’s going to be standing on the Spelling Bee podium. But as of now, I’m quite a proud mother, since I attribute a large part of her vocab learning to my own conversations with her ( she’s spent most of her time with me after all!).

Here’s the whole ( unabridged list) of words N knows and can use accurately in English ( she also can do a little bit of Hindi, and a few words of Assamese). Highlighted some of the ones that are non-typical. My favorites are : massage and pedicure

Body parts
Eyes ears nose head teeth chin mouth tongue cheek hair bum hand arm fingers nail leg feet toe stomach armpit moustache

Fruits
Banana apple orange pineapple mango watermelon grapes papaya

Vegetable
Tomato Potato beans carrot

Food
Rice daal roti curds milk shakes ice-cream water juice

Clothes
Pant half-pant t-shirt jeans panty socks shoes

Animals
Hippo rhino tiger lion mouse monkey zebra giraffe crocodile chicken duck pig gorilla camel turtle elephant cat dog dinosaur crab rabbit sheep lamb cow buffalo horse goat octopus shark fish

Birds
Pigeon crow parrot peacock ostrich

Flowers  Tree plant pot gardening

Daddy mummy friend teacher grand-father grand-mother aunt

I want to do where is you a tell that throw Dance sing play clap eat jump sleep drink exercise rhyme big hug little small tall fat thin how smile sad happy angry scary thing school kiss love please thanks sorry special thunder rain light darkness good bad why what know shop playground swing see-saw sand box Sofa chair bed table phone bangle bindi chips less more give take baby girl boy man woman enough tomorrow today get up down come here there everybody not yes no one two three four black red green yellow orange blue brown black white pink in at and but because pull push downstairs tennis basketball cricket football spicy TV movie cartoon sweet salt sugar curtains glass plate spoon fork Talk her him Book yoga waterbottle computer laptop god airport plane car seat bus truck cycle scooter basket mirror bottle sticker fridge kitchen bedroom butter burger pizza paneer cheese road jam jelly peanut-butter Doll toys teddy ball blocks clock window sky sun moon stars oil bath shower bucket candle birthday balloon cake gift bag dots doctor also door kite butterfly tea coffee paper comb dress cap uniform toothpaste toothbrush soap shampoo Bread noodles soup massage pedicure restaurant pressure-cooker specs break pillow crayon colouring camera call blackboard write behind look wall fan floor bangles lift towel hanky sandals scratch knife hurt fell around paining drum cover remove bike wash laugh pluck ground fallen cloth mosquito well fever cough piano skin so do clip slowly careful mischief tear break hole naughty shout scream howl step only lie truth stamp beat scold photo feel umbrella mouth snake scared happen okay boots tears jacket sweater shorts hair-band disturb trouble nosey diaper powder swim swimsuit necklace purse lipstick nailpolish touch racquet teach learn stick nailcutter shave find with earrings