Week end ride to Parvati Valley(2)

Week end ride to Parvati Valley (1)

Life still charms!

When she was a naughty little girl,

Dad used to play the game of circle.

Chasing a tiny girl to feed her,

Mom had to wander here and there.

Brothers were jealous of their love for her,

But from heart, were well wishers for her.

School days were gone so swiftly,

The amazing college hour appeared cheerfully.

A new family created with honest friends,

They were precious like gems and jewels.

Fellows gave her hope when her life was low,

And lead her to stand where she was now.

Then came the time for her to get marry,

She was so upset, hopeless and scary.

She had to lose her friends and family,

To take care of a person without knowing him properly.

A new life began with pomp and show,

A new family grew into esteem and glow.

Exploring traces of her friends and family,

She made her partner her boon companion so early.

Falling in love with each other so deeply,

They became friends forever actually. 

A girl's life totally changes when she gets married (I do agree with it for boys also!). The epoch of a new relationship begins. She looks the shadows of love of her parents, siblings and friends into his husband no matter how old she has become.

She always wants to remain like a child at heart. She wants her husband to take care of her with much love and emotion. He wants him to be a true friend who is always with her in her good or bad time, when she breaks down on failure as well as when she is excited on a little achievement. She needs a friend who does never laugh or discourage her on her stupid mistakes or at the time of depression. 

She wants him to lifts her up when she falls down. She always wants his hands in her hands when she feels alone or when she is in the crowd no matter how much she is happy or sad. She wants to surrender herself to him for anything he wants. She is so emotional but she becomes so strong as if she will win the world when she gets her husband's motivation and appreciation. She wants him to listen and give attention to her when she faces minute problems. She wants her husband to admire her when she looks beautiful and gets done something with her for him. Oh my God!  It is being said too much about her so called “expectations”!

When I am with my life partner, a feel of satisfaction lies in me even when he doesn't chat with me and just plays with his mobile phone or reads some novel for hours! After marriage when I came to Delhi with him, I was so alone, totally hopeless, hundreds of miles away from my mom and dad. It’s him who filled my life with love and emotion.

It’s his inspiration who gave me courage and strength. It’s him who wanted me to feel that I could do anything I wanted. I was, I am and I will always be incomplete without him. I need his support, his motivation and his affection at every moment of my life. He is a person with clean heart who never wants to hurt anybody's feeling and respects my parents unconditionally.

I still remember the time when we were together on our first tour to Kerala after marriage. For almost two weeks we were away from physical world. It was a great time when we had a chance to understand each other’s nature, emotion, choices, dreams etc. During those days I had seen another face of him besides being affectionate and emotional. 

He encouraged me to continue my studies, to do something that could make me different in the crowd, motivated me to fight all difficulties in life like a true friend and persuaded to support me in achieving my dreams. 

I can never forget those days as they were the best days of my life till then. I thought that a girl’s life gets destroyed after marriage but this was not true in my case. Now I am doing well enough in my life with my loving partner who is always with me like a shadow motivating me, inspiring me, supporting me and living my own dreams. 

Life is not so difficult!

“She got 96 in Mathematics. She must take mathematics optional along with physics and chemistry”, Said Sharma sir. “No, I want to be a doctor. I will take biology”, I interrupted. My parents were very happy when I scored 90% in secondary exam and why they shouldn’t be; after all their daughter was very brilliant who had never gone to take any coaching classes and still managed to get such good marks in her exam. Actually they belonged to a small town where education was not given such importance but they were very proud to educate their elder daughter Shyama who recently cleared her B.Ed. entrance examination and was getting ready to join her new college. She was being sent to a girl’s hostel provided by the college. Everything was going very good. I scored good marks in XI too. My sister got engaged to Sandeep, a post graduate teacher. Soon her marriage was fixed to be held in February of the next year.

Everybody specially my mother was very happy. She had many dreams in her life but couldn’t accomplish because of adverse circumstances. She had been married when she was only thirteen. At that time she couldn’t even complete her 9^th standard. She was very good in sports and gymnastic but society never favored her in her choices! My father, a simple natured gentle person, not much educated, forced to feed a family of fifteen when he was only seventeen year old. There was not so much scope of earning in that small town and he somehow, crossing all ups and downs of life, managed to lead our family to that condition where I and my three other siblings were getting regular education in government schools, having better food and sufficient facilities to live everyday life. Life was going very smooth along with lot of dreams that were being piled up one over another with time.

Those days of happiness were no longer remained for us. Creator had destroyed all our dreams. My father, a very naïve person was betrayed by his best friend in some business matter. He lost all of his capital along with all means of livelihood. The day of my sister’s marriage was coming swiftly and in typical Indian society it’s very difficult for a lower middle class father to arrange a marriage ceremony of his daughter and also at the time when he had nothing more than an educated sincere girl. In our society daughter’s wedding means pouring everything you have earned, or saved, it means breaking fixed deposits, selling assets, taking loans etc. The remaining assets were gone with her wedding.

It was the time when I was forced by the situations to leave my studies. I was supposed to remain at home helping my mother in her household work. There were only two options left for me either to do or to die. My dream was about to buried in mud but I did not accept defeat by the hands of destiny. At the age of seventeen I decided to leave the town with my younger sister and pursue my education further with only the capital of twenty five hundred rupees arranged by my mother with extreme difficulty. It was the last time when I asked for money to my mother. I along with my sister left the town and destined ourselves to an unknown future with a lot of dreams. We had time when we couldn’t manage square meal a day but decided never to go back home without achieving something.

I started tutoring at a local coaching institute along with the college within few days. My first monthly salary was rupees 500. It was a big achievement for both of us. I tried hard to manage my college studies along with my part time job. I had to work fourteen hours or more a day. My sister used to take care of household work. She also started tutoring at home. Besides fulfilling our basic needs like rent of the room, stationery, grocery, uniform etc we decided to save some money too.  After seven years of struggle, finally I became the head of a reputed coaching institute. Though I couldn’t be a doctor but became able enough to fulfill basic needs of my family.  My sister completed her doctorate in science and now working as assistant professor in a well recognized university. I could not give my helping hands to my parents in making my elder sister marry but became able enough to spend a little on the marriage of my younger sister.  I still think that decision of moving away from my town was a boon or a bane! I was certainly a blessed child of my parents who dared to let me go to achieve my dreams. Now I am married and live in metropolitan city with my parent in laws, loving husband and a sweet daughter. Life is not so difficult until you make it difficult.  It is true to say:

“Where there's a will there's a way".

Miss You Grand Ma!

Grand Mother! The mother of our mother! If mother is sea of love then grandmother is ocean of love. If mother is your first teacher, it’s the grandmother who becomes your first friend. If your mother is your guardian then your grandmother is an angel.

I have never seen my grandfather i.e. my father’s father and lived with my dadi for only short period of time. I have extreme affection with my maternal grandparents (I call them nana-nani) because my whole childhood was spent with them. When I was 18 months old my grandmother brought me to her home. My mother was too young to take care of me and three other siblings. Since then I was taken care of by my grandparents.      

My nani, a beautiful elderly women will always be an adorning part of my life. She is my inspiration. She kept me in her arms when she needed a hug with deep warmth. She nailed my fingers to make me walk while her feet were floundering.  She used to cook delicious dishes for me at the time when she needed to be served. She helped me to finish my homework even when her spectacles were not there. She used to cover my note books with her trembling hands.  She put different varieties of meal in my lunch box every day. She always took me to school and came to receive me after it. I still remember her stories of “Monkeys and Crocodile”, Thirsty Crow”, “Greedy dog” her poems “gol gol pani, mummy meri rani”, “machali jal ki rani hai” etc.

I have often heard that only good people are taken away by the God. And one among them was my grandmother. She was gone too early for me to give her everything she deserved. I could do nothing for her when she needed extreme care, love and compassion. But I know her selfless love is always with me no matter what I have done for her. She had taught me many things like discipline, care, selfless love, tolerance, hard work, perseverance, and trust in almighty god, a good sense of humor and a beautiful smile that relieves all pains.

I always search in the sky that which of the star belongs to her. Probably it is that which shines the most as she was none other than an angel in my life. Indeed earth has lost a great person and heaven has got a divine soul. I pray to god, “please take care of my grandma”  

Oh god, why you took her away!

Why do you feel that I don’t need her?

Was I giving her so much pain?

Was I hoping so much from her?

By the way it’s your greedy choice.

Don’t you have so many angels with you?

Why don’t you know I need her!

I need her forever and ever!

To have a smile of hope and love,

To give her the heaven of blossoms here!

Please let her sleep with entire calm,

Please give her extreme love and warmth,

Please rest her soul with at most peace,

And let her bless me from stars of galaxies. 

To make India immune

Though human beings are most developed species in process of evolution with most differentiated brain, they are most vulnerable, helpless and totally dependent creatures in their early stages of childhood. A calf can move to its mother to get nourished itself, chick takes a flight within few days of egg hatching, a cub searches for its pray soon after its birth but what an infant can do is only to seek support of people around him/her. But what is important in it ? The important thing is to think that how should such most dependent creatures on the earth be developed into a healthy and disease free generation, living a healthy life.

We all enter this world with an inexperienced immune system. What happens when a child is exposed to external world after birth !! He/She battles with an on ongoing series of germs, viruses, bacteria and many other micro-organisms; slowly developing immunity against such invaders. Immunity is basically the tendency of an individual to resist a particular infection, disease or toxins with the help of certain chemical agents known as antibodies synthesized with the help of WBCs.

According to a study conducted by UNESCO (2010) 40% of children in India do not get complimentary food or nutrition in addition to breast feeding milk till they are 8 months old. The late introduction to complimentary feeding is linked to lower immunity levels in India. The infants born pre-maturely also have a weak immune system. A report published in 2012, shows that India has highest number of deaths due to pre-mature births and ranked 36^th (among 199 countries) in list of pre-term birth globally. Inadequate nutritional intake and lack of supplementary nutrition in pregnant women is main cause of low immunity in their pre-mature infants. Pre-mature babies tend to have immature immune system, which make them prone to frequent infections. So they need more holding, more food for growth and more protection against infections.

Malnutrition and specific nutrient deficiency are another important causes of immunodeficiency diseases in children. According to a report by Sam Mendalson, an estimated 40% of world's severely malnourished children live in India.

The solution to prevent immune deficiency is not supporting pharmaceutical corporations in India, but utilizing natural and affordable solution. Good nutrition provides the building block of strong immune system. The nutrients that immune system needs are extensive and includes Vitamin C, zinc, iron, antioxidants, vitamin A, Calcium etc. Fruits and Vegetable are rich in Vitamin C and antioxidants that naturally boost up immune system of children. They help reducing wear and tear on body and thus make body less susceptible to infections.

Ayurvedic rejuvenate herbs like Ashwagandha, Turmeric, Trifala, Amla, Tulsi etc are rich in nutrient supplements and antioxidant properties. But in order to intake all the essential dietary supplements, there is a problem of selecting food. As no one food is absolutely adequate in term of nutrition.

At this moment, I came to remember the words of my father, who used to say “Beta class me top karna hai to Dabur Chyavanprash khana padega” in my childhood. I used to wonder how one or two tea spoon of this Aryuvedic formulation in a day would get me first place in class. But my father's intention was to make me more healthy and immune, so that I could study properly without any health disorder. The whole work that Chyavanprash does, is to enhance immunity against infections. It is rich in Amla (good source of Vitamin C and antioxidant), Giloy (Guduchi with immune modulatory properties), Pippali (anti stress, digestive, immunity enhancer), Mustak (anti-inflammatory) and over forty herbs and plant extracts. Along with improving immunity, it gives strength to children, increase digestive power, memory and cure cold cough etc. Thus it is an ancient Aryuvedi health tonic rejuvenating, energizing and immunizing the body of children as well as Adults.

Another natural remedy for immune deficiency in children is daily consumption of Honey, which has anti aging and anti bacterial properties. 1 tea spoon of pure Honey of a reputed brand (like Dabur honey) should be given to child regularly. The consumer education and research society has ranked Dabur honey the “best buy” after conducting test on 17 brands on honey in India.

Whenever the word the “immunity” comes in our mind we can't ignore the word “vaccination”. It is the introduction of antigenic material to stimulate an individual's immune system against particular pathogen. Different vaccine are given to children at different time interval and also to pregnant women at different stages of pregnancy. But nowadays many vaccines are also associated with several side-effects and sometimes can even become a fatal. For instance in Beed district of Maharastra, an 11 month old child lost life because of low-immunity due to vaccine derived Polio. Although such cases are very rare, many vaccines have been banned in developed countries. It doesn't mean that all vaccines cause side-effects and injuries, but mission of immune India can not be achieved only with the help of Vaccination.

Kashyap Samhita (in Ayurveda) states that instead of Vaccination one must apply natural ways to build immunity in child like oil massage. The skin of infant is more permeable compared to adults. The child should be given a mixture of Ghee and Honey for first 4 days after birth along with natural herbal oil massage (say Dabur baby oil). It increases mental capacity, memory retention power and immunity in child.

Thus people need to move towards more natural and herbal remedies to improve immunity. India can become immune only through the combine efforts of administration and people.

Mandi, on Alert Again

“Sarva sadharan ko ye suchit kiya jata hai ki bhari barish ki vajah se….bla bla bla………. alert zari kiya gaya hai. Kripaya Beas nadi ke pas na jaye”

Possibly meant “everybody is informed that Mandi is declared on alert due to heavy rainfall ….bla bla.. Please don’t go to the Beas river banks (probably water was being released from Larji Dam), it can be dangerous.”

While detecting this unforeseeable sound in my half asleep and half awake mode last night, I was reminded of last year’s accident related to Larji hydroelectric project (Mandi) causing the death of 24 engineering students from Hyderabad by negligence. Eyewitnesses claimed that the hooter was not sounded before increasing water flow into the river. It is extremely painful that those students were put to death because of inefficient administrative actions. Inadequate measures to manage disaster and calamities are undoubtedly responsible for such causalities. I was in Delhi at that time. Since then I had nightmares about myself being in their situation but couldn’t feel in reality what they felt at that time. Now I am in Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) and gratified to hear such kind of alert from authorities though it was declared at midnight when most of the people remained in their dreams.

Demons in dreams!

Mandi is in the foothills of Himalaya. It’s common to hear news about many disasters taking place in mountainous regions like one in Kaidarnath. The people from other parts of country in general are more afraid of such fatalities and so I am. Many times, I like many others, also think about a range of global problems, from terrorism to conversion, from black hole to catastrophes, from Ebola to Swine flu etc. Somehow people are always afraid of losing their loved ones and a thought of insecurity invariably remain in their minds.

 I know it’s not good enough to think too much about what would have happened to you if you were in this or that trouble. This thing unnecessarily puts you on a halt of vacuum where you no longer can breathe properly. It seems that you are buried in mud and not able to come out. It feels like your heart beat counts are going down and you are revolving around the infinite loop of death and life! A sense of fear takes the shape of nightmares…. The horrible dreams!!

Since last few days I’ve been suffering from such nightmares that vanished my bed times. It is off course because of my habit of thinking too much about some unpleasant situations that I could have faced. The situations that can arise causing harms to my loved ones.

One night I felt that some people (possibly terrorists) with their faces covered with black clothes had put my house on fire. And we (me and my husband) were badly trying to escape but not succeeded.

In one another dream I saw that there was a huge earthquake and my husband was lying on a small land (not exactly land but a small detached part of floor of my house) submerged and surrounded by water. He was about to sink. The earth was trembling severely and soon there was water everywhere.

On some other day I saw that all wild animals had come out of their habitat and were ready to feast on us. It was really horrible! I know it seem very funny but truly they have disturbed me a lot.

And so on…

When Nightmares Came True!

What happens if your nightmares come to true in physical world. Three things happened to me that forced me to realize that what all I would see in bad dreams would become reality and I must leave Mandi as soon as possible and shift to some other place like my home state Rajasthan.

1.    There was a small dispute with our neighbor because of some trivial issue. One day, he with his friend, fully drunk, tried to capture and beat us while we were on an evening walk.  I felt as if they were those people who had come to my dream with half covered faces to kill us. I know its little bit exaggerated but its true what I felt that time. Somehow we managed to get rid of them and taught them a lesson by filing a police complain that how they should behave. But yeah on my part the bad dream came true!

2.    Second incident happened to me was really scary. It was the day when I dreamt about earth quake. A large wall of our garden fell down due to heavy rainfall next day and I felt as if it was an earthquake of magnitude 6 (but it was not actually!) I suddenly realized that if I were about to stay there for two more minutes, I would have been crushed to death under those stones at all. I thanked god for saving me.

3.    Another incident is partly ambiguous (actually it had happened on last Saturday). While I and my friend were coming back to home after a refreshing evening walk, my land lord (I call her Aunty) was screaming “Sher! Sher!” (Leopard! Leopard! In the garden). We were scared of it and rushed inside home and stayed in till morning. I called my husband to be careful while coming back to home as the wild animal was wandering in our garden. But we could not see any sign of a leopard next morning. The third nightmare came true.

It’s all about perception!

While all these things were happening to me one after another, a second thought came to my mind. I somehow tried to make myself to think positive about these incidents, like it’s good that we were able to escape on time and informed police; or I was lucky enough to not to be crushed by falling stones; or believing that there was no leopard in our garden as I had not seen it at all! So it’s all depends upon the way you think about the things. We, in general, make our lives so complicated by simply judging situations and making them so unfavorable that we can’t afford to come out of them. It’s good to be positive but it’s best to remain positive till the end of the story as life is full of uncertainty. After all, at the end of the day we all need to have a sound sleep.

Coffee with the Mother Nature!

Hey don’t compare it with “coffee with Karan” or “Chai pe Charcha with PM Modi” or “coffee with Muffler Man”. It’s simply coffee with Mother Nature in my courtyard in every dawn and dim. It’s an event that galvanizes me enough to stay here in the foot hills of Himalayas away from temporal life. This event occurs without any discussion, without any argument, without any expectations, without any counter attacks and without any disagreements! It involves self analysis by thoroughly examining the problems and their solution. Here self discussion involves no counter argument from third person. Here I have a chance to debate with myself. The Mother Nature is calm and self sustained, it helps me to improve, reform, cultivate myself, my thoughts and lift my conscience. It gives me inner strength to resolve my conflicts at my own. If a cup of coffee can resolve big anxiety then there is no need to urge for delight. The lap of nature is sufficient to soothe you.    

View of Mandi from courtyard at my home.

Despite all those nightmares, it’s the beauty of nature that inspires me to stay here forever and ever. Isn't it enough to rejoice!