Too busy to record what I am doing

It is nearly two months since I wrote in my blogspot. It is not because I had nothing to say. On the contrary I was so busy doing so many things that I couldn’t focus long enough on one topic to write about. I haven’t learnt or it is not my style to say things so crisply in few selected words like my son Rajan. The thought of having to write elaborately in detail on what I am doing and what is happening with my life is enough to make me want to take a nap.

Living in a Home is neither like living with the family nor like living with neighbours. Living here is kind of like living in-between or both. It is a close-knit, gated community. Being in a Home with hardly 15 – 20 people at any given time, meeting them at least three times a day, one tends to get involved in everybody’s life, without being too intrusive. We happily interact with guests of any of the members. We get to know who is going where and what their current interests are. Watching other people and their life-style in such close quarters is an interesting hobby we all engage in. This has enabled me to feel so aware of myself.

In the last two months I read 3 books.  Hemingway’s “The old man and the sea” downloaded from the internet in pdf format, which I have read, may be, over 35 years ago. Erma Bombeck’s “A marriage made in heaven” which my daughter-in-law Barbara gave me from her private collection may be over ten years ago, which I have already read three times, and “The Cousins” which my friend Pradeep sent me by mail for my review. 

I enjoyed each one in its own special way. This time around, I understood the ‘old man’ Santiago’s struggle in a different way.  I do not get tired of reading Erma. Having enjoyed reading it again, this time I also read some of her newspaper columns from the internet. I enjoyed the story telling style of ‘The cousins’ but not the story as such.

Last week, quite by accident, I came across a shop that sells new and used books, next door to the supermarket, where I do my usual shopping. I bought two books - The alchemist and  To kill a mocking bird - , again the ones I have already read, to read again. 

I also did a 16 page, Devi Stotram booklet for a swamini, who has an ashram from across our Home. After being out of practise for over 10 months had to get familiar with typing Tamil and using Pagemaker. Enjoyed the challenge of doing it and learning new words.

Last month I visited an old cave temple with 4 other people. And on Krishna jayanthi, on an impulse, I went to a Perumal koil in a small village, had special darshan, a full-meal prasadam and I made a friend too.

Two months after I have sent in my application, I got my ‘proof of residence’ ID card from the post office. Believe it or not, this is the first time ever I have gone through such a process for getting a document, all by myself. That by itself I consider an achievement.

To comment in my Blog

For people who have trouble commenting in my blog, my son Rajan has sent the instructions

To publish a comment on your blog, your readers need to have an account with one of the services recognised by blogspot.

The one I have is with Google. It is easy to create a Google account and Google doesn't ask for personal information. Go to the following website and follow the instructions.

https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount

Then when they wish to make a comment, they type it in to the space provided, select Google as their "profile" and then select "publish". They will then be directed to enter their Google account log-in details.

Easy.

Also, when your readers log into google, they will be asked to type in two words that will appear on the screen to "prove you're not a robot".

Try it, you'll see what I mean. I'm glad I can still pass this test!

To be able to appreciate

To be able to appreciate

We, the residents of the Retirement Home where I live, are happy with cooks we have for the past couple of months. They replaced the father-in-law + son-in-law pair who were managing the canteen for the previous one year. Though the earlier cooks were OK, the meals they provided were pretty ordinary; never a surprise item in the menu; never one to take any suggestion from the customers. They just did their job.

We are happy with the young couple – Jerry and Daisy - who have come to replace them. They are cheerful, friendly and energetic. They smile a lot. They have the right attitude for the service especially considering the residents are entirely dependent on the meals provided by them. Though they are also from Kerala their cooking style is slightly different and a shade better. They are innovative; they make newer items to provide variety.  They would add an extra item of a pickle or chips that is not mentioned in the menu. They are caring. If a person is unwell, they would offer to do a special porridge and deliver it in the room.

With people coming from such diverse background we all have our own set tastes and norms for how a dish should be made. Every day we would have some comments to make about the food. I would give suggestions for improvement – to use less coconut, less oil, or not to make it too spicy etc. The cooks would take some of them in the right spirit and some as harsh criticism. But we are able to communicate with each other most of the time.

Last week they had to take couple of days off to visit their children living in Kerala with their grandmother. For those days, as a stop-gap arrangement, the contractor sent two ladies to manage the kitchen. Being isolated from the rest of the society we usually look forward to any new change. And of course we had our fingers crossed.

But right from the first morning coffee we found that their standard didn’t match ours. They were not at all suitable to cook in an establishment like this. The quality of food was very poor. Rice was not cooked well, coffee was not strong, curds were sour, sambar did not have enough dal or vegetables. The portions served were limited. They made it very clear that they are not happy to be working here, don’t like any comments and that anything said would be taken as criticism. They did not have the right attitude for a service industry. With that kind of atmosphere, it was very difficult, especially for me, to go through each meal time. Though before going to have my meal, I would make up my mind not to make any comments, it was impossible for me to restrain myself. One meal I even walked out without finishing the food in my plate. I refused to have the watery sambar and went without it. By the second day everybody was pretty uncomfortable. People complained of stomach ache and upset stomach.

But by the third day most unexpectedly Jerry and Daisy came back. I can’t describe the happiness I felt seeing them at lunch time. I expressed my happiness openly. The dining room reverberated with joy with everybody welcoming them back. They provided us a good lunch. There was absolutely nothing to comment about. For afternoon tea they served snacks they had brought from Kerala – banana & jack fruit chips, and Kerala dark halva.  Even the next day they served chunks of papaya with the meal. 

It was a great lesson learnt. We all had to go through the worst experience before we could whole-heartedly appreciate what we have.