Life Lessons Served in a Bhel-Puri!

 

There stands Kishore, a bhel-puri seller in his late 50s. Standing with his portable cute little bhel-puri stand, Kishore has just arrived in a busy hustling market, full of contenders. But here, he calmly stands, with a big smile on his face, as his eyes look out for potential customers.

 

A customer comes, Kishore deftly prepares his order, his big smile never leaving his face. Seeing this man, so pleased and contented with his life, has made me rather curious.

As I walk up to him, his smiling face turns to me. I ask for a serving of his bhel-puri.

As he starts making it, I observe standing by. He performs each step in a fun, rather dramatic way, almost as if he has been asked to make a display of his cooking prowess in front of each of his customer. 

He works precisely through the entire process, not moving further until he feels satisfied.

 

First goes in some puffed rice, then some roasted chickpeas, crispy green peas, some crunchy potato chips and some roasted peanuts. For freshness, Kishore tops this up with chopped onions, tomatoes and boiled potatoes. Then there go in lots of fresh green and red chutneys. A lemon is then cut (after tossing it in the air), and generously squeezed with great zeal. This entire mixture, is then enthusiastically shaken up, tossed up multiple times and transferred to a large leaf platter. To perk it up, freshly chopped coriander leaves are added for beauty and fragrance. The entire process is conducted so passionately, I find it almost funny, but at the same time, am filled with admiration towards this simple man doing his simple job with so much of vigour and energy.

 

As he presents me my plate, I excitedly scoop out a spoonful, and the flavour outburst is genuine! Just the right amount of sweet, salty, tangy and spicy, make up to what is a brilliantly simple but passionately done work. When you love the work you do, the lovingly done work is simply marvellous!

 

And thus, this trip to the market has proved to be a lesson in workplace positivity.

 

Doing everything as if you are doing it for the first time, enjoying it fully. By thinking of himself as this big celebrity chef on the world stage, sprucing up this brilliant dish, Kishore has totally changed the game!

 

As I think of myself, going through my college works with the same attitude of I-have-to finish-this-task, I actually make them all feel like tasks, meant to be completed, but not enjoyed. I spend the entire week going through these ‘tasks’, waiting for the weekend to actually do something more enjoyable. But then, we all know how time flies over the weekend. So is every week spent waiting for the weekend, and the weekend just flies!

Is this kind of existence actually going to work out for me? No. So, now, having identified the problem, I’ll have to work towards the solution. Sprucing up each of my works, making them feel less like ‘tasks’ and more like ‘works’ I have decided to put myself in. And, how am I actually going to do this? I actually don’t know for now. But, I hope to work this out. And, we can always come to Kishore, for a plate of deliciously done bhel-puri, and some inspiration too, I guess!!

 

 

 

 

Bud-dy

 Living in the same place since birth does come with its benefits. You don’t need to look for memories scattered all over, they find you instead. And friends! Your friends too stay with you, until you or they decide to leave.

But my friend, I knew, would never leave. My study partner, my playmate, my good-morning wisher and my agony aunt – the one to whom I could always turn to, always to find it strong and reassuring beside me. This is what my Ashoka means to me.

It was not as if we were friends right from the start. I was always a lost-in–my-own world kind of kid and though I always was an appreciater of nature, I never really noticed this pretty tree outside my balcony waving in friendship.

As I grew up reading Ruskin Bond and Mayank Austen Soofi (a.k.a The Delhi Walla) I instinctively learnt to observe and appreciate my surroundings, most importantly the natural beauty I was surrounded with.

It was then that I befriended the Ashoka tree. Though over the next few years, I was to befriend many more trees, the Jamuna, the Frangipani, the Neem, and the Peepul, but the Ashoka was always to remain someone special.

Standing calm and poised with its pretty leaves fluttering in the breeze, creating their own palette of green from its lightest to its deepest hue, it stands as a strong but pretty guard. My study table window opened out to the Ashoka and there I used to sit for hours, memorizing and repeating out to it, trying to work what the content in my books really meant, pausing for a chat with it when I got too bored,  wondering my doubts aloud to it, sometimes it answered them too, though I really don’t know how!

A bubble of life in itself, my Ashoka houses a cuckoo, a pair of mynahs and countless pigeons and squirrels. Sometimes, at night, it reminds me of a Christmas tree.

So, in times of joy and distress, I just need to peep out of my window to find my Ashoka, standing reassuring and tall. And if it isn’t physically possible to always do so, well, I can always close my eyes.

 

Unleashing Memories

 Photographs are not mere captures of moments of our past,

They are moments enlivened by memories that thrive as long as we last.

After rummaging in my grandparents' ancient, dusty attic for almost three-quarters of an hour, I emerged with a victorious smile, blinking in the sudden light in the sunny, fragrant veranda of my grandparent’s large ancestral home.

With my hair dishevelled, dusty face and fingers, and almost untucked shirt, I must have been a scruffy sight but the lightness pervading my heart let me see beyond all of this. Thumping on our spacious swinging bench under my favourite mango tree and placing my rather heavy object of search on my lap, I began to go eagerly through it. My grandparents’ album! Replete with memories that allowed me to see beyond the wrinkles of their old age, as doting angels determined to ensure my joy. My chance to see them fresh and young, as individual personas before they were bound by responsibilities.

I had hardly started when my grandparents arrived on the veranda searching for me. Poor souls, they had been anxiously searching the entire house noticing the sudden quietness, wondering what had happened that had quietened me!

On seeing me with their album, the joy on their faces was unparalleled.

Pulling them both to my side, I began flipping through the album. Here was my grandpa standing with his gully football team, here looking up at me with all the confidence in the world was my grandma posing on her convocation day, photos of my newly married grandparents, how young they looked!

Some photographs brought forth anecdotes, some inspired shy smiles and some, peals of laughter. It was great to see my grandparents who sat together only to disagree on the most trivial of things, suddenly chatting so animatedly, remembering the days of their youth, the days when they too, could be carefree.

This little incident led to me realising the joy of small things, the joy of those little diversions, which, in a seemingly monotonous routine can awaken us to the joy that comes in living, not just by continually aspiring, but also by pausing for a moment to look back at the moments well spent and cherished with the people we own, the ones for whom we can proudly say,“That person is mine!”

                             ******

Brought something new for you this time! For a long time, I’ve been thinking of bringing something different for my readers, and this piece seems to be the best thing to take the first step towards a new journey. From now on, I, your blogger, shall be bringing forth not just book reviews, but also different pieces that I keep writing. Hope you’ll keep showering this new endeavour with the same love you’ve always given to my book reviews, and maybe even more!

Love,

A Readaholic’s Panorama.

 

The Trees of Dehra by Ruskin Bond: Book Review

 “The seed, the stem, the leaves, the flower, the fruit! Can there be a greater miracle?”

Got up early today, and, pulling up a chair in my balcony, I flipped through this volume, in what, to me, was a perfect Sunday morning.

‘The Trees of Dehra’ is a refreshing take on trees. I expected an encyclopedia of sorts but was pleasantly surprised to discover short essays, stories, poems and even character sketches of trees, all sprinkled with bits and pieces of information.

Bond, in talking of trees, lets them assume a character of their own. A naturalist at heart, he talks of trees as great friends, who have, in his conversing with them, also had their turn in conversing with him.

In speaking of Sal, Pine, Coconut, Deodar and the Weeping Willows, Bond leads us through a detailed and enjoyable excursion through the forests of India, sharing their own little secrets and stories of their residents, both terrestrial and aerial.

The fresh green print of the book was an innovation I really enjoyed!

Although the stories are woven around myriad characters, the centre stage throughout belongs to Bond’s beloved trees.

The book is quirked up in the right places with lively illustrations and pretty quotes. This book promises us something different and delivers it too with its thoughtfully envisioned reading experience.

Once you read ‘The Trees of Dehra’, you can never look at trees the same way you did before. Bond makes us look at these taken-for-granted angels with renewed awe and understanding.

Reading this book, I was filled with more love and gratitude for my favourite tree, the Ashoka outside my balcony, the one tree which has been my bestie forever for a long time!

Which tree’s your bestie?

Happy Reading!!

Classic Ruskin Bond Vol. 2- The Memoirs by Ruskin Bond

“ I was hoping that there was still room in this world for a simple storyteller, one who strives to give pleasure to both child and adult, not by hiding our scars but by showing that we can be beautiful in spite of them.”

Wholesome….this one word sums up the entire feel of this book. Simply wholesome. India Today, in writing of our dear Mr. Bond wrote, “ Our very own resident Wordsworth in prose.” A truer description can’t be ascertained.

Over the years, there are some places, some peoples’ companies, which provide all the comfort and solace to our troubled minds. They are our people or places of power. This book can be your book of power.

Wonderfully conceptualized, the omnibus has works ranging from his youth, on to his middle age, and still on... A treasury of purely non-fictional works, the book brings us a step closer to the real Ruskin Bond and his life. His major works being semi-autobiographical, a reading of the omnibus brings us closer to reality and helps us differentiate between what’s real and from where Bond’s imagination takes over.

True Bond lovers will find themselves enveloped in sheer delight as they’ll come across the many people and places which inspired the author’s works.

Peppered with numerous positive credos, “Refuse to lose” (one which I took to heart particularly), the book has just the right parts wisdom portioned with the right parts fun.

Many of the pieces published here are those that are experiencing the joy of print for the first time. In ‘Scenes From a Writer’s life’, we discover Bond’s first attempt at an autobiography. ‘Landour Days’- a particularly enchanting read, divides an entire year into the months and expands on the small fleeting moments of joy each one brings. The refreshing journal segments cleverly placed in the omnibus provide the ideal breathing spaces to the readers acting as a window into the author’s personal life, into his literary, yet not so literary vistas.

Character sketches, travelogues, essays on flowers, rivers, people, reflections, epigrams, journal extracts…you name it, we have it! Did you know Bond took on the job of a veggie seller once? Wanna know more? Go on…

Although each piece is different and unique in its own way, a common vein that runs through each is the celebration…of love, of nature, of life. Bond’s extraordinary ability to celebrate the most ordinary of things makes this book a truly beatific celebration of the festivity called life.

A comforting read, this book allows you to go at your own pace, according to your mood of the day and lets you choose. It isn’t one of those compulsive reads that keeps you hooked with the ‘What next’ quotient, yet leaves your heart yearning for more. Read just one piece, or read an entire segment, it will suffuse your heart with the same…..well, it’s actually indescribable. It’s something you’ll get only once you read this collection. There’s so much more to it. Wanna find it out? Well then, grab a copy of the book, find a cosy nook and dive in !

And yes, of course,

Happy Reading!!

 

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann : Poem Recommendation

‘Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.’

The New Year comes with a demand for something new, something different. So, here I am, not with a Book review but with a poem recommendation. The poem came to me as part of my course syllabus, and I was completely taken up by it at its very first reading.

Desiderata…..the title itself has a click. A Latin word meaning ‘desired things’, it prepares the reader, right from the start, for what’s going to follow isn’t going to be something very easy. But relax, there are no Latin words in the poem, the poem is in plain English, only the sense is deep and the teachings simple. Not easy, but simple.

The poem comes with a calm acceptance of who we are yet gently convinces us to bring about a small but significant change in ourselves. Ehrmann has chosen a very realistic rather than an idealistic approach for writing this poem (something entirely different for the self-help genre) as he agrees that ‘the world is full of trickery’ but still inspires us to not allow this to ‘blind you to what virtue there is’.

A perfect little guide for our personal, social, professional, psychological, and spiritual life, it gives us a reassuring touch, something many of us require today.

A beautiful aspect of the poem is how it is peppered with qualifiers like ‘but, as far as possible, especially…’ which is due to the fact that life is a great complexity that can not be reduced to an absolute.

A didactic poem, Ehrmann claimed to have written ‘this bit of prose’ for himself as a journal entry ‘because it counsels those virtues I felt most in need of’.

A perfectly crafted go-to book, the first part from stanzas 1 to 3 talks about how we should deal with the people around us and prevent ourselves from being influenced by anyone around us, and the second part from stanzas 4 to 7 focuses on our relationship with the self and our spiritual pursuits.

The poem acts like a soothing balm to our mind, easing it of all the stress and tension this continuous running brings to our mind, giving us a moment to pause and reflect.

A wonderful treasury of powerful life-enriching mantras, the poem has something for everyone.

A must-read, Desiderata comes with a sure promise of awakening its readers to a new way of living, certainly providing you with at least one change you bring about in yourself. Available to access all across the web, the poem can be a sublime start to a new year, a year in which we choose to be happy, no matter what! For, as Desiderata says,

                        “Be cheerful,                                                    Strive to be happy.”

 

 

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini : Book Review

 “I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.”

I wonder how he did it. And The Mountains Echoed is a poignant tale of the powerful love between a brother and a sister. Hosseini makes us look at a taken-for-granted relationship used mostly for quarrelling purposes with a renewed lens.

Abdullah, ten, is someone who would go to any lengths for his three-year-old sister, Pari. Having been by her side since her birth, with no mother to care for them, he means the world to Pari. But what unfolds when their father sets off with Pari across the desert in search of work, is what fate is all about. Thus the story unfolds across decades, countries, continents, and myriad characters, all leading somewhat intertwined lives.

The novel begins with the kids’ father telling them a bedtime story about ‘A finger cut to save the hand’. It is only later that we realize what unsaid implication the story had.

Hosseini masterfully veers through multiple narratives at once, a moment back you might be in a rich Parisian house and the next moment you are flown to the dusty streets of Kabul. The setting shifts from Shadbagh, a small village in Afghanistan, to Kabul, then to Paris and America.

His adroitly sketched characters deserve a special mention to themselves. He brings out the inner turmoil experienced by his characters, their secrets that lie trapped in them forever. The backstories of all the characters are beautifully brought out leaving behind hardly any string dangling. Knowing their stories gives us a sense of intimacy with the characters. All their actions become magically explained, leaving us wondering if we could, in real life too be as forgiving if we knew as well the past of our family and friends.

His captivating style clutches at your heart the most, leaving you entranced and bewitched. Hosseini brings out many shades of mankind in a kindly non-judging manner. How he manages to squeeze the many aspects of humankind remains a mystery to me.

An intricate tale, the novel was something unlike anything I had read so far. Although the narrative frequently switches, it always has a firm hold on your heart and mind, making it a compulsively addictive book. Hosseini, with masterly skill, wrenches your heart out yet leaves it suffused with one of the purest forms of love.

The story might’ve been lost. Who brought it to us?

Time passes. Generations are replaced. Only the mountains remain, the steady witnesses of the truly transparent love. And the mountains, echoed.