sittingathome

 

What does a young girl, who is extremely worried about the big and small things that are changing

around her, do to get a good grip on her anxiety  ? She makes a numbered list of all her worries,

ordering them by their threat potential.

 

So you have 'Don't Look Now', another very good book in the ´'Clarice Bean' series by Lauren Child.

The book is fun to read because most of Clarice Bean's worries stem from her limited and warped

understanding of the occurences in herlife. Nonetheless, Clarice Bean takes them very  seriously and

tries to systematize them by maintaining a list of her worries,which she is always changing and updating.

She also refers very frequently to one ' Ruby Redford Survival Handbook' for useful ideas to beat her problems.

Why she thinks what she thinks, and consequently, why she does what she  does, is where the entertainment

lies in this book.

 

Now, this sound bite from the book ,in inimitable style :

 

" REMEMBER- It's the worry you haven't even thought to worry about - that is the worry that should

   worry  you the most ."

 

 The book has a happy ending. Not to worry.

 

 

 

It is interesting that people who travel in the same route, at the same time, everyday for very many years

master the art of dozing off as soon as they board the bus or train, and manage to get up just in time to

get off at their stop. They are the lucky ones who sleep comfortably and confidently. I have heard about

them during our stay in Thane, near Mumbai. Here, in the ' Locals'  ( in the Mumbai-it's suburbs  context,

 'Local' means Local Train) regular travellers have the habit of sleeping during their daily travel and they 

seem to know when exactly to get up and get off. Some women commuters also utilise  this time to ready

vegetables and greens for the next meal,so you find them deveining  beans ,shelling  peas and nipping the

Methi Saag etc.

 

Napping during short travels must be a universal occurence. Here,of late, I find more women dozing in the

 subway routes.After making sure that not one fold in their clothing is out of place, they clutch their bags daintily 

with their well manicured hands and doze off. Are they thinking of the next meal ? not likely. Men, and this need

not be specially mentioned, also sleep. I think it is the winter weariness that is affecting everybody.

 

I  feel really very very sleepy in the train these days, but I dare not sleep. First I must learn how awaken just

before my stop. Otherwise ........this is the very thought that helps me fight the urge to sleep. When sleep tries

to overpower, I stand and travel. It mostly works, but I did overshoot my stop a few days back ( when  I did

not even actually sleep !)

 

The train is one place where I fight sleep.The other place is in class, during certain lectures.The sight of

somebody dozing off during a lecture with their head limping down their necks, then they suddenly jerk  their

 head straight up and  listen for a few minutes, but very soon the head droops again...I try hard not to laugh

when I see someone doing this, but I know that I must be doing it just the same way.

During my Graduation course, faced with the 'attention versus attendance' dilemma, some of us classmates were

trying to find out if or not yawning/ sleeping during boring lectures is contagious. A few of us managed to establish

that it is, and predictably we were the ones who did not get the top grades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Public transport in Stockholm is very expensive, but also very good.

 

A few weeks back, my daughter lost her Student Travel Card.This expensive piece of paper which could have been

used for 2 more months, got blown away by the wind.Even as we tried to look for it in the vicinity,I instinctively converted

it's cost in Kronors to that in Rupee. What I figured out did not make me any happy.

 

How many years does one have to live abroad before getting over this 'conversion to Rupee' habit ?

 

Anyway,  we did not find the card.I gave my daughter a very very small reprimand even when the situation warranted

a lengthy lecture about being careful with things etc etc. But why would I let her off so easily?

 

Flashback:

 When I was a college student in Hyderabad, I lost my Seasonal Bus Pass,not to the wind, but by a more careless method.

It seemed such a big loss then. Fortunately, someone found that Pass and sent me a letter asking me to collect it from their

house. I remember going with my father( What if the letter is a trap?) to pick up my Pass.The man who took some trouble

so that I may get the Pass back was a very decent and regular person.Not only did I get my Pass back, but this incident also

reinforced permanently in me the idea that the world is full of good people.Just like you and me, if I may add. 

 

Back to the present:

 So, we got on with the travelling after purchasing another Travel Card ( which obviously included another round of converting Kronors

to INR) and then one day we get a call from the Police....the lost Card has been found and is with them.When can we come and pick

it up ? Surely, our family has some luck with lost Travel cards.

 

No time to lose.I went to the Police Station( you can visualise this place as the lobby of a 3 star hotel in India) and there it was :

sealed in  sterile plastic with a Bar Code.I happily collected the card and my reinforcement in the goodness of humans got more

'concrete'. So I told the Police personnel behind the desk 

 " I will never know who found and gave this to you, but it is really very nice of that person"

 

The Police guy did a quick check on his computer with the Bar Code and replied

" It is actually not very nice of that person.He was caught using it and it was impounded from him by the Police"

 

What a shock !! Concrete crumbling down to a rubble.

 

 I composed myself and managed to say " Well, then I must thank the Police"

 

As happy as endings can be, I managed to get a refund for the lost and found Pass ( again joyously converting SEK to INR).

Also, my ideas about the goodness of the human race remain largely unaltered.

 

 

PS : 1 SEK ( Swedish Kronor) = 7 INR ( Indian Rupee) 

 

 

 

A collection of stories by Hans Christian Anderson, translated from  Danish to English by Naomi Lewis.

 

Most of us have read the ever popular stories by this master storyteller as children.The Little Mermaid,

The Emperor's New Clothes,The Steadfast Tin Soldier,The Princess and the Pea....and many more.

 In fact, I believed that I have read most of his stories, till I found this book.

This collection has 13 stories in all, a few famous, but most of them lesser known.

 

The Tinder Box, It's Absolutely True!,The Jumping Competition, It is You the fable is About,

From the Ramparts of the Citadel, The Swineherd, The Little Match Girl ( This one I liked more

than the others) ,The Top and the Ball ...are some 'new found ' stories by Andersen that are

included here.

  

The stories seem  authentic in their English versions and I found interesting new details even in 

some of the stories that I have read many times earlier.Particularly endearing are the inanimate

objects that Andersen not only brings to life, but he also instils human feelings in them.  

 

This book left me wondering as to why some of his stories are more famous than the others,

 when all of them are really good.

 

The very well written 'Introduction' to this collection by Naomi Lewis mentions that Andersen has

a total of 156 stories to his credit.Assuming this is the case, there are many more stories penned

by him that are waiting to be discovered and enjoyed by children and adults alike.

 

 

 

 

This Diwali, I should have liked to make a few varities of Laddus, Barfis ,Halwas.....but I substituted all of these

for the one item - Gulab Jamuns , that I made using  a Gulab Jamun Ready Mix.I have this long pending desire to

 make Gulab Jamuns just the way they are are shown on the pack : Deep golden brown,firm outside,soft inside,

 well rounded and thoroughly soaked.On festive occasions , I like to try my luck at making these Gulab Jamuns so

 that some day I might get them ' pack -picture'  perfect. Some day........

 

What did I do about the savories ? Here I worked some complex sustitutions.For the sake of better understanding,

I would like to call it ' iterated substitution'. Firstly, ribbon, ompodi, theguyal, thattai,murukku...... etc , I substitute

with one item :wada. Furthermore, since I was unable to make them fresh or use a ' Wada Mix' , I substitute 'Uttapam

 Ready Mix' for 'Wada Ready Mix'.So, basically I make my wada's with Uttapam Mix. Frankly,they are not as bad as one

 might expect them to be. Do not forget to add onions if you try this 'iterated substitution' method.

 

Then , we will be lighting Tea Candles today evening instead of  Agal Valakkus(Diyas). Another substitution.

( It is so strange to be writing tamil words in english!!)

 

Also, instead of Ganga Snanam, we all did Baltic Sea Snanam.

 

But why all this change ? Because in a few day's time I have an exam to take, and nothing can substitute for

 not studying intensively.In fact, I should right away substitute 'blogging' with 'studying'.But before I do that, let

me say that the substitutions notwithstanding, we all had a good Diwali. Hope you and your families did too.

 

Happy Diwali.

 

In case you did not know:

 

ribbon, ompodi, theguyal, thattai, murukku  - are  South Indian Namkeens

Ganga Snanam- The special bath we take on Diwali, when we invoke the Holy Ganga into the waters that we bathe in.