Ma & Dexter

Dexter and his antiques continue to light up and my family's world

What makes me proud that after meeting Dexter so many people around our block have a labrador. One spark to light a fire is so true.Of course there are so many who would not understand this crazy canine love.

Some of his antiques

Ma & Dexter

Ma one day came home thirsty and told Dexter, " Give your Grandma some water Dexter", Dexter figured smartest thing to do was drink some water himself and go wagging his tail to Ma as though saying "look how smart I am"

Ma also loves jesting Dexter by mimicking him and that gets Dexter's doggy panties in a roll.. Its funny how he stops talking to us and will sit grumpily in his house ( under the dining table) and will refuse to come out till I cuddle him like crazy

In order to ensure Dexter eats his food quickly Ma will always call him to eat him food and become first and then she announces to the house "Dexter has again become First" Am not sure Dexter understands the meaning of first but he realizes its something good as he does his proud prowl around the house after that for a minute. Earlier me and my bro would groan at my ma's ranting if I may call it so but seeing Dexter really enjoys it I and bro have our own ultra Spoof version to get back at ma.

Ma is the only one who never takes Dexter for his walk as she has arthritis but she at times accompanies us for our walks and its so sweet to watch Dexter care for her, he would walk slower and if she is unable to keep pace he would run back to her and start walking even slow.

He touches our lives in so many way and so many times that keeping track and penning them down is one of the few things that bring joy to me
  

slaves then, now & then again

I logged on to blog spot after couple of months & took some 5 minutes to reach to "new post", phew technology sure is changing our lives, for better or worse is I guess very debatable. 

Too many thoughts & all in chaos makes it impossible to pen or rather key in words on my blog but thanks to crazy bombay rains and nothing interesting on 200 channels on tv got me back to blogging.

Have been reading this fictional book on black slavery and that got me thinking , how have we as humans really progressed. From white skin to brown to black skin, slavery still has not changed much. But what has changed is we have stopped retaliating for change. We accept that the poor will be slave to rich, the fat will be scorned by the slim, the white skin will smirk at brown and pot shots will remain the favorite sport for humans, only venue changes, from real life it now resides also in cyber life.

But am in awe with the speed at which information travels off late, thanks to the viral social networks, now the speed of lightening too must be getting a complex :)

Its a bit more crazy how often things change so often and now we are forced to accept instantaneously adjusting to change as the constant, which unfortunately is gonna stay in the long haul. Earlier the breather period to accept change was a lot longer but now its either change or perish. 

The generations to come wont I guess know the meaning of relaxing means doing absolutely nothing :) 

Sounds a bit scary to me but maybe that too will have its fun quotient however many zeros will be there before the point !  

make shift world

A few days back I was waiting for the lights to go green at an signal and then I saw an old man with a hug bag on his head and bow legs crossing the street with lots of difficulty. I wanted to give the man a lift to his destination but was scared what if the destination was not safe for me. My inward battle continued but the lights turned green and unfortunately I had to drive ahead but I went back to him and gave him money for his destination ride. He looked at me trying to figure out whether I had a catch to it. The simplest thing to do was just move on. So I dont know whether he took the ride in the rickshaw or not but my conscience weighed a little less even though what I did was a peace meal approach.

Great people are selfless and make this world a better place and for the lesser people like me, we create our little make shift world which we try to better. 

the truth about cats & dogs 2

I am not a cat lover like any other cliche dog loyalist and I never give cats a thought even when I see a real cute one. Having said that I do not encourage Dexter to growl or frighten them away either. That's against my "live and let live" principle and always want to inculcate good habits in dexter which I mostly fail in. But off late dexter too has stopped bothering with cats and am kinda proud about it as I like to believe because he has been reprimanded by me often ;)

But off late a cat has been coming to our house past a month and once she even hit dexter with her paw and poor dexter sat like a big dodo get whacked by her who happens to be 1/20th his size! Not only that this cat would also growl (yes not meow like a cat but growl like a tiger) at my ma for milk. It was really funny as ma too would growl back to annoy her and she would growl with added lung power till my ma would admit defeat. At home we have been teasing dexter a lot about how a cat hit him and of course we never thought he would take things to heart.

Whether it was our constant teasing or the annoyance of sharing our affection with a third person (second being fluffy our part time  street dog  pet) but day before when the cat came home and started her usual banter for food Dexter scared the living hell out of her by barking at her till she ran off. What was funny was initially she did not budge till dexter started hopping mad at her.

Ha Ha. Dogs and Cats ... the story continues.. 

gone From the dogs

Had to take dexter for his vaccinations. I love going to the vet only for yearly vaccinations  as that time I am not tensed about his well being and can enjoy the company of so many canines and let dexter also play with the fits ones.

I and Dexter both were having a good time with a pug and cocker spaniel when a huge Rottweiler came in without a leash. I had never seen one up and so close and was not regretting the same then. As you know Dexter is not so brave to put it very mildly :) he dug inside me for protection and I too was seeking protection from the side wall as the Rottweiler's growls were bursting my ear drums. Not being judgmental but keeping us a ferocious dog at home like we have in bombay is kind of not at all normal to say the least.

There is another thing about vet waiting zone, you meet a lot of like minded people who alone can empathize about your crazy affection for animals and treating them as equals or more loved than humans. Its where you share eating habits, discuss dog food (sigh .. Bombay does not have great variety of doggie treat ) and share funny incidents about your pets. So during one such stories, an uncle told us that dogs too have a very strong code of conduct and do not attack their bitches (no pun intended here ) and I was like yes that we cant say about humans, no wonder dogs are better.

The owner of the rottweiler interjected us and said women need to be shown their place some times and there is no better way than hitting them and then he started off with his story of why he hit his wife twice!

I wanted to argue but the rottweiler without a leash instantly helped good sense to prevail and I let go of the topic and felt a bit a coward for not standing for my fellow women clan.

But on my drive home I realized just putting in my point of view to him would not have changed him so no point sulking about it.  What is unsettling is these are not people who are living in slums with no education or are deprived or mentally challenged but people who had the fortune of good education, upbringing and exposure. I say people because there are women too who believe husbands should hit their wives to teach them who wears the pants in the house.

But I guess change of human behavior is rarely instant which is both a boon and a curse but today women and men both are much more assertive and hopefully people with such barbaric thinking will meet their matches who will make them eat their words with humility.

Until then online lashing continues at them :)

Jaane bhi dou yaaroan

Many times letting go has been the cause of my trouble.

As a kid, giving away my chocolate to my friend was the cause of major turmoil, but today I thank my parents who man handled me then so as to ensure I learn to let go of the chocolate.

Later in life, the object of letting go just changed but the turmoil I guess was the same.

My learning from life has been that we make the actual process “letting go” a major event. The time we give away what we treasured physically or mentally, it is just the fag end of process.

Life would be lot simpler if we could realize when we decide that it is time to let go, the very object has gone long back and now handing it over or leaving is merely part of the protocol.

Have you noticed that when you let go, sometimes you feel light, as though you are free from a physical pain, mostly very empty, sole purpose of existing has been snatched away and yet other times too numb to feel anything, then you go to stage of empty.

Nothing better could come of letting go if the feeling the pressure go off. But when there is pain, uncertainty and loss, that is when we need to apply this theory of mine.

Always tell yourself, it was yours then but now no longer and hence there is something else which is now yours. Search for it !

No guarantee that the new thing will be as good as the old, it could be better and if it is worse, we need to try and make it better. If not, let go again and find the new.
I have seen by mentoring myself, I have always looked ahead to change, freedom from stagnancy, flow of new ideas, new avenues, newer opportunity leading to new highs.

Not always will we be successful and not always will we be a failure but not letting go is holding back, stagnating, regressing and acting like a petulant child who refuses to accept world as is.

But my experience with letting go has been always positive. So thats why I am all for letting go.

 

Jaane bhi dou yaaroan !

Golden People in Golden City

I was in Amritsar recently because of work and was really looking forward to visiting the Golden Temple. Usually with expectations it is inverse ratio, I mean if you have huge expectations, what you really get or experience is never up to the mark. But in this case I went with a huge expectation, the feel there was supposed to calm a restless soul like me and it sure did.



The tranquility there is divine and is a starck contrast to the pandomonium there due to devotees doing their various types of pooja (prayers), the saints reciting from the holy book, other saint doing the rituals, throngs of tourists waiting in queue to get in, to get out, to explore, to have the langar (term used in the Sikh religion for free food at the Sikh temple).



I met this very nice elderly couple who very kindly showed me around the Golden Temple and narrated the glorious history behind it with many interesting anecdotes of the city and its people. They were kind and hospitable and invited me for breakfast at their place which I just could not refuse.



Being impersonal comes with staying in Bombay. This is not in a negative sense of the word. In Bombay, you learn to keep your distance with people, neither to get personal nor be brusque. I love this city and things it has taught me.



So I went to their house for tea and on my way back was really touched by their hospitality and had requested them to come home when they visit their daughter in Bombay.



When I told my parents about this, my father was very upset in the wake of things happening now adays.



That really brought me back with a jolt to reality, how true is it, we off late do not trust even people we know and yet I (a very "better be cautious than sorry" kind of person) went to an unknown house to an unknown family in an unknown city and yet felt completely safe as these thoughts not even once bothered me when I was with them.

On my way home bound, I left a city not that unknown, left people I knew a bit and carried with me the little peace I gathered at the Temple. 

All is not lost thank god. Good people still are around, heart still can identify them and spirit that all will be well is not lost.