Looking Back On Life, Achievements, Career... At 31

31 years is a long time, but not really that long, its about perspective. I just realized it is my birthday this week, and I had nothing planned. I have been so busy with life, work, changes, health, that I totally forgot my flipping 31st birthday.

Oh boy! I've crossed over the 30 hill, and I will say this whole "grownup, non-college student, real life, responsibility is all over-rated. Kids don't know how good they have it, despite having their sugar limits controlled, etc. They need to chill out and enjoy life, moments, when they have the time, because as we grow time flies by faster, and we don't pause and enjoy the moments, and life as much. C'est la vie!

31, what have I accomplished? A couple of degrees, this job, and another job... but they don't seem as important to me as other amazing things I have done. I learned to rock climb, I climbed half way up a mountain and then felt pretty sick, so had to come back down, but I tried, I got half way up. Next time it will be all the way! I learnt from this that Climbing isn't about brute force, its all about the mind, overcoming it, coming to terms with it, and using the brain to figure out how.

There was a spontaneous trip. I went to Yosemite, although just for a day, I went there with my sister. It was our first adventure together! This was a place I had heard about, read about, dreamed about since I was a child. Just being present there was awe inspiring. You can read my blog about it here.

Realizations have been arrived at in my 30th year: I'm a pretty badass, hardworking, strong, and passionate person. Somewhere along the way I stopped believing in myself. Maybe the lack of enthusiasm and optimism from jaded seniors rubbed on to me? Maybe it was that the hard times or the reality that a fancy degree does not mean you land your perfect job. In fact it takes a lot of searching to find that. Finally I remembered why Pree is so awesome! I first quit eating meat when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. I couldn't deal with the cruelty. I was able to give up caffeine, meat, dairy, alcohol this past year. I did not miss a single Yoga teacher training class, this girl who tries to wiggle out of most commitments, made a commitment that i would keep all my commitments, or be utterly honest about why I was backing out, (even if it was just because I was tired and just needed "me" time).

I am a badass, and always have been. an amazing example is when I was 17: I shaved off my hair (before Britney did)! This was in the 12th grade about Jan or Feb, my senior year, kind of right before the farewell party (kind of like prom). I just didn't want my hair to define me. I was tired of being judged by the way I looked, girls disliked me, guys objectified me... so off the hair came. This experience taught me alot about hair: it grows back, hair on our bodies make so much difference, yet so little. This taught me a lot about people: many people who were my friends, disappeared into the woodwork. I found out who my true friends were, I learned that hair is so easy to have, we hide behind it, it takes so much confidence to be bald. Walking into school was so tough the first day, everyone stared, people asked me dumb questions, like if I had cancer. I told them all to Sod  off. Some people don't care how you look, they love you for you, others are all about judging on outward appearances... hmm! Remind you of the millionaire who dressed up like a bum? So many stories... 

Being bald is tough, carrying yourself with a bald head is tougher than with hair: more reason to be self conscious... or does societal norms make that happen? Days passed by and each day became easier, not because the hair was growing back, but because I learned to carry that head, I knew I was more than just my hair, and looks.

The Olympics, the world cup, yoga, the grand slams of Tennis: I love sports, and have always taken part in sports. A lot of my passions always lay in athletics because it seemed so real to test the human spirit through our bodies, thus mind and soul. Being an athlete takes immense discipline, it has nothing to do with race, genetics, gender... its about your state of mind. I wanted to be a "Yogi", and I am slowly getting there. It's not unattainable. I want to be a runner, I am runner, I might not be Usain Bolt, but I am closer than I was yesterday. It's not about losing weight, its about setting goals, being healthy, and becoming the Pree I want to be. This year I'll be blogging on my journeys through running, hope you'll check in on it! Hope to run a half marathon by September!

Who Moved My Cheese, it was the wake up call, that 'hey changes happen'. However, actual growth is a conscious decision. Of course one could succumb to the societal norms of growth, its the easy way, but every now and then there are those, like me, who chose to grow differently in life. I picked a different path, and I am brave enough to go down it alone, and with loved ones. It takes more conscious of a "I will grow" factor. It's different from going from job to job, it definitely requires getting out of all your comfort zones, making sacrifices... etc. C'est La Vie!

Online dating does work: I met my boyfriend online, it was a long process, we lost touch, and reconnected, met in person. We clicked, and it's been a wonderful 3.5 years getting to know each other. :-) I will say it did take a lot of men who didn't match what I wanted in life before I met Ryan, but I am glad I waited, and tried. In fact I had almost given up hope with the male kind when I met him. I love him deeply, and dearly. We make such a good team - tandem kayaking, biking, hiking, camping, travelling, moving,  gaming, cooking... and most of all just being!

Pursuing Dreams: it can be done, just takes a lot of growth, mental awareness, and mentally, physically being able to digest that "Wow that's a heck of a mountain, but I can climb it. *gulp*" - it's OK to be overwhelmed, scared, but once you take the first step. You know you can do it. I've been writing my first book, half way through I realized how huge this is, how difficult, tiring, and complicated, but at the same time so simple. So its really about building blocks, taking one step at a time. Phewie - Breathe!

I had no idea what my "dreams" / goals were until I created a vision board. First I stuck pictures that I wanted on there, then pictures I liked, and things which I wished I would / could become. A year and a half later, encouraged by a friend, I finished my Yoga Teaching Studies Certificate, I received a raise at work... it was happening just like the stuff I stuck on my vision board. Now looking to further improve, am creating a new vision board.

My spiritual path, learnings, studies, reflections, and teachings have all deepened while on this journey. I have been able to meditate for an hour a more at least once a week, and practice a daily meditation/ yoga practice. Although my daily practice may range from a short 15 minute to an hour, I make sure i touch upon some form of meditation, yoga or Pranayam. My self discipline has increased, and I impress myself with my abilities daily. On weekends I am a little more laid back, or else I would be burnt out.

I think on writing this I reflect on what brings value to me and my life, especially since I panic after crossing 30. I say, measure yourself in experience and growth, and not in "accomplishments". If we live from one goal to the next, we forget to be, and the journey is the important part. So keep sight of your goals, let them free flow, but always remember to be true to yourself, to be present in each moment, and most of all be happy in what you do.

Re-post: The Importance of Reading

A sweet friend of mine re-posted this article, which of course I loved It emphasizes the importance of reading fiction in a world of cell phones, movies and video games. My favorite line "Albert Einstein was asked once how we could make our children intelligent. His reply was both simple and wise. "If you want your children to be intelligent," he said, "read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." He understood the value of reading, and of imagining. I hope we can give our children a world in which they will read, and be read to, and imagine, and understand."

Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming
A lecture explaining why using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens

It's important for people to tell you what side they are on and why, and whether they might be biased. A declaration of members' interests, of a sort. So, I am going to be talking to you about reading. I'm going to tell you that libraries are important. I'm going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do. I'm going to make an impassioned plea for people to understand what libraries and librarians are, and to preserve both of these things.

And I am biased, obviously and enormously: I'm an author, often an author of fiction. I write for children and for adults. For about 30 years I have been earning my living though my words, mostly by making things up and writing them down. It is obviously in my interest for people to read, for them to read fiction, for libraries and librarians to exist and help foster a love of reading and places in which reading can occur.

So I'm biased as a writer. But I am much, much more biased as a reader. And I am even more biased as a British citizen. And I'm here giving this talk tonight, under the auspices of the Reading Agency: a charity whose mission is to give everyone an equal chance in life by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers. Which supports literacy programs, and libraries and individuals and nakedly and wantonly encourages the act of reading. Because, they tell us, everything changes when we read. And it's that change, and that act of reading that I'm here to talk about tonight. I want to talk about what reading does.

What it's good for. I was once in New York, and I listened to a talk about the building of private prisons – a huge growth industry in America. The prison industry needs to plan its future growth – how many cells are they going to need? How many prisoners are there going to be, 15 years from now? And they found they could predict it very easily, using a pretty simple algorithm, based on asking what percentage of 10 and 11-year-olds couldn't read. And certainly couldn't read for pleasure. It's not one to one: you can't say that a literate society has no criminality. But there are very real correlations. And I think some of those correlations, the simplest, come from something very simple.

Literate people read fiction. Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it's a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it's hard, because someone's in trouble and you have to know how it's all going to end … that's a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you learn that, you're on the road to reading everything. And reading is key.

There were noises made briefly, a few years ago, about the idea that we were living in a post-literate world, in which the ability to make sense out of written words was somehow redundant, but those days are gone: words are more important than they ever were: we navigate the world with words, and as the world slips onto the web, we need to follow, to communicate and to comprehend what we are reading. People who cannot understand each other cannot exchange ideas, cannot communicate, and translation programs only go so far. The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them.

 I don't think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children's books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading. I've seen it happen over and over; Enid Blyton was declared a bad author, so was RL Stine, so were dozens of others. Comics have been decried as fostering illiteracy. It's tosh. It's snobbery and it's foolishness. There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories. A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn't hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is a route to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you. Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child's love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy, or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21st-century equivalents of Victorian "improving" literature. You'll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant.

 We need our children to get onto the reading ladder: anything that they enjoy reading will move them up, rung by rung, into literacy. (Also, do not do what this author did when his 11-year-old daughter was into RL Stine, which is to go and get a copy of Stephen King's Carrie, saying if you liked those you'll love this! Holly read nothing but safe stories of settlers on prairies for the rest of her teenage years, and still glares at me when Stephen King's name is mentioned.) And the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and look out through other eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. You're being someone else, and when you return to your own world, you're going to be slightly changed. Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals. You're also finding out something as you read vitally important for making your way in the world. And it's this: The world doesn't have to be like this. Things can be different. 

I was in China in 2007, at the first party-approved science fiction and fantasy convention in Chinese history. And at one point I took a top official aside and asked him Why? SF had been disapproved of for a long time. What had changed? It's simple, he told me. The Chinese were brilliant at making things if other people brought them the plans. But they did not innovate and they did not invent. They did not imagine. So they sent a delegation to the US, to Apple, to Microsoft, to Google, and they asked the people there who were inventing the future about themselves. And they found that all of them had read science fiction when they were boys or girls.

 Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you've never been. Once you've visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different. And while we're on the subject, I'd like to say a few words about escapism. I hear the term bandied about as if it's a bad thing. As if "escapist" fiction is a cheap opiate used by the muddled and the foolish and the deluded, and the only fiction that is worthy, for adults or for children, is mimetic fiction, mirroring the worst of the world the reader finds herself in. If you were trapped in an impossible situation, in an unpleasant place, with people who meant you ill, and someone offered you a temporary escape, why wouldn't you take it? And escapist fiction is just that: fiction that opens a door, shows the sunlight outside, gives you a place to go where you are in control, are with people you want to be with(and books are real places, make no mistake about that); and more importantly, during your escape, books can also give you knowledge about the world and your predicament, give you weapons, give you armour: real things you can take back into your prison. Skills and knowledge and tools you can use to escape for real. As JRR Tolkien reminded us, the only people who inveigh against escape are jailers.

Another way to destroy a child's love of reading, of course, is to make sure there are no books of any kind around. And to give them nowhere to read those books. I was lucky. I had an excellent local library growing up. I had the kind of parents who could be persuaded to drop me off in the library on their way to work in summer holidays, and the kind of librarians who did not mind a small, unaccompanied boy heading back into the children's library every morning and working his way through the card catalogue, looking for books with ghosts or magic or rockets in them, looking for vampires or detectives or witches or wonders. And when I had finished reading the children's' library I began on the adult books. They were good librarians. They liked books and they liked the books being read. They taught me how to order books from other libraries on inter-library loans. They had no snobbery about anything I read. They just seemed to like that there was this wide-eyed little boy who loved to read, and would talk to me about the books I was reading, they would find me other books in a series, they would help. They treated me as another reader – nothing less or more – which meant they treated me with respect. I was not used to being treated with respect as an eight-year-old. But libraries are about freedom.

Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information. I worry that here in the 21st century people misunderstand what libraries are and the purpose of them. If you perceive a library as a shelf of books, it may seem antiquated or outdated in a world in which most, but not all, books in print exist digitally. But that is to miss the point fundamentally. I think it has to do with nature of information. Information has value, and the right information has enormous value.

For all of human history, we have lived in a time of information scarcity, and having the needed information was always important, and always worth something: when to plant crops, where to find things, maps and histories and stories – they were always good for a meal and company. Information was a valuable thing, and those who had it or could obtain it could charge for that service. In the last few years, we've moved from an information-scarce economy to one driven by an information glut. According to Eric Schmidt of Google, every two days now the human race creates as much information as we did from the dawn of civilisation until 2003. That's about five exobytes of data a day, for those of you keeping score. The challenge becomes, not finding that scarce plant growing in the desert, but finding a specific plant growing in a jungle. We are going to need help navigating that information to find the thing we actually need. Libraries are places that people go to for information. Books are only the tip of the information iceberg: they are there, and libraries can provide you freely and legally with books.

More children are borrowing books from libraries than ever before – books of all kinds: paper and digital and audio. But libraries are also, for example, places that people, who may not have computers, who may not have internet connections, can go online without paying anything: hugely important when the way you find out about jobs, apply for jobs or apply for benefits is increasingly migrating exclusively online. Librarians can help these people navigate that world. I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more than 20 years before the Kindle turned up, a physical book is like a shark.

Sharks are old: there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is. Physical books are tough, hard to destroy, bath-resistant, solar-operated, feel good in your hand: they are good at being books, and there will always be a place for them. They belong in libraries, just as libraries have already become places you can go to get access to ebooks, and audiobooks and DVDs and web content.

A library is a place that is a repository of information and gives every citizen equal access to it.
That includes health information. And mental health information.
It's a community space. It's a place of safety, a haven from the world.
It's a place with librarians in it.
What the libraries of the future will be like is something we should be imagining now. Literacy is more important than ever it was, in this world of text and email, a world of written information. We need to read and write, we need global citizens who can read comfortably, comprehend what they are reading, understand nuance, and make themselves understood.

Libraries really are the gates to the future. So it is unfortunate that, round the world, we observe local authorities seizing the opportunity to close libraries as an easy way to save money, without realising that they are stealing from the future to pay for today. They are closing the gates that should be open. According to a recent study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, England is the "only country where the oldest age group has higher proficiency in both literacy and numeracy than the youngest group, after other factors, such as gender, socio-economic backgrounds and type of occupations are taken into account". Or to put it another way, our children and our grandchildren are less literate and less numerate than we are. They are less able to navigate the world, to understand it to solve problems. They can be more easily lied to and misled, will be less able to change the world in which they find themselves, be less employable. All of these things. And as a country, England will fall behind other developed nations because it will lack a skilled workforce. Books are the way that we communicate with the dead. The way that we learn lessons from those who are no longer with us, that humanity has built on itself, progressed, made knowledge incremental rather than something that has to be relearned, over and over.

There are tales that are older than most countries, tales that have long outlasted the cultures and the buildings in which they were first told. I think we have responsibilities to the future. Responsibilities and obligations to children, to the adults those children will become, to the world they will find themselves inhabiting. All of us – as readers, as writers, as citizens – have obligations. I thought I'd try and spell out some of these obligations here. I believe we have an obligation to read for pleasure, in private and in public places. If we read for pleasure, if others see us reading, then we learn, we exercise our imaginations. We show others that reading is a good thing. We have an obligation to support libraries. To use libraries, to encourage others to use libraries, to protest the closure of libraries. If you do not value libraries then you do not value information or culture or wisdom. You are silencing the voices of the past and you are damaging the future. We have an obligation to read aloud to our children. To read them things they enjoy. To read to them stories we are already tired of. To do the voices, to make it interesting, and not to stop reading to them just because they learn to read to themselves. Use reading-aloud time as bonding time, as time when no phones are being checked, when the distractions of the world are put aside.

We have an obligation to use the language.
To push ourselves: to find out what words mean and how to deploy them, to communicate clearly, to say what we mean.
We must not to attempt to freeze language, or to pretend it is a dead thing that must be revered, but we should use it as a living thing, that flows, that borrows words, that allows meanings and pronunciations to change with time. We writers – and especially writers for children, but all writers – have an obligation to our readers: it's the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were – to understand that truth is not in what happens but what it tells us about who we are.

Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all. We have an obligation not to bore our readers, but to make them need to turn the pages. One of the best cures for a reluctant reader, after all, is a tale they cannot stop themselves from reading. And while we must tell our readers true things and give them weapons and give them armour and pass on whatever wisdom we have gleaned from our short stay on this green world, we have an obligation not to preach, not to lecture, not to force predigested morals and messages down our readers' throats like adult birds feeding their babies pre-masticated maggots; and we have an obligation never, ever, under any circumstances, to write anything for children that we would not want to read ourselves. We have an obligation to understand and to acknowledge that as writers for children we are doing important work, because if we mess it up and write dull books that turn children away from reading and from books, we 've lessened our own future and diminished theirs. We all – adults and children, writers and readers – have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that we are in a world in which society is huge and the individual is less than nothing: an atom in a wall, a grain of rice in a rice field. But the truth is, individuals change their world over and over, individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining that things can be different.

Look around you: I mean it. Pause, for a moment and look around the room that you are in. I'm going to point out something so obvious that it tends to be forgotten. It's this: that everything you can see, including the walls, was, at some point, imagined. Someone decided it was easier to sit on a chair than on the ground and imagined the chair. Someone had to imagine a way that I could talk to you in London right now without us all getting rained on.This room and the things in it, and all the other things in this building, this city, exist because, over and over and over, people imagined things. We have an obligation to make things beautiful. Not to leave the world uglier than we found it, not to empty the oceans, not to leave our problems for the next generation. We have an obligation to clean up after ourselves, and not leave our children with a world we've shortsightedly messed up, shortchanged, and crippled. We have an obligation to tell our politicians what we want, to vote against politicians of whatever party who do not understand the value of reading in creating worthwhile citizens, who do not want to act to preserve and protect knowledge and encourage literacy.
This is not a matter of party politics. This is a matter of common humanity.

 Albert Einstein was asked once how we could make our children intelligent. His reply was both simple and wise. "If you want your children to be intelligent," he said, "read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." He understood the value of reading, and of imagining. I hope we can give our children a world in which they will read, and be read to, and imagine, and understand.

Memories of Younger Years with My Sister Dear

Today is my little sister's birthday. She isn't little anymore... but I do recall that I called her "Baby" for many a year. I switched between calling her Baby and Bontie through the years, until per chance, me and a close friend of ours began calling her Pig. This blog post is dedicated to my lovely sister - Piyali.

Dearest Bontie, Pig, Baby, Piyali... 
I just want to wish you a happy birthday, but those are cliched words, I really wish you all the joy, love, success and laughter today, this year and forever! I love you so much, and I am so grateful to have you in my life for 28 years! Ok I think we didn't see each other between 2001 - 2002 but after that we have seen each other once every year. It's unhealthy and unnatural for us to be apart... we have some weird familial, historical dynamic... something from our childhood, genetic, and spiritual bonds us. We are telepathic and you know it!

28 years! we've fought, hugged, cried, grown, argued, silent treatment, tickled, giggled, pulled hairs, played, slept, ate, read, wandered and wondered, lost ourselves, found ourselves... we've been through so much, and here we are sharing stories and growing even more. Some memories of our childhood which only we know, secrets, gross stuff, sparkly stuff... locked away in our hearts. Playing with you was always so much fun - imagining castles, our flying horses, and our light sabers... what wonderful adventures we had together, what awesome world's we lived in. Running barefoot in school, playing at the jungle gym, waiting for our car together under the tree and observing those red-diamond bugs, the powder -puff tree, the tamarind tree, climbing the mango tree, Tennis with Raghu, then later with Sundar, Mrs. Menon's singing class, Hindi tuition with Motoraj! Bengali clas,s french, class, German, class, dance class, swimming class... I almost forgot the naughty things we did - put on ma's make up, clothes, and shoes, skipping class, feeding the dog our breakfast under the table, cuddling with the bunnies at night, sneaking and eating all the chocolate, our search for stick-em-stones, the war over the trolls, the "i'm-gonna-be" game... 

I lead, being the older sister, and you followed. You always tagged along on my birthdays, and got gifts on my birthday! But strangely I never got gifts on your birthday, or was allowed to tag along. Some double standard! Anyway, I remember approving of your crushes, and was always wondering why you fell for the geeks! It was because I was a geek! Which I had learned from our uncle first hand.

I remember you being fussy with food, the curly head of hair, the big innocent eyes-oh god- heart wrenching, and you were always a skinny little thing. You always said the cutest things, and the most absurd dreams, oh pig although I never told you then... you were always my best friend. The whole time... even when you were hurt, and they called me from class to go take care of you, I acted resentful, but when I saw you I thought- aww that's my sister (I didn't know the word "aww" back then though) I need to hug her if at all anything. I remember I would just hug you. Heck the whole school thought you were so cute though, they would all tell me how cute you were! Maybe I was a little jealous, but hey I got to tell you stories at night from the upper bunk, and share adventures with you on the weekends!

We were scolded together, and then we grew up and played politics and got each other in trouble. All in all I'm glad we've grown and aren't playing those games, but I do miss the imaginary games we played. Sometimes I think I described things to you as I saw it in my head, and only you know what worlds are in my head! You are my best friend, you are my secret keeper, my sister, my angel, (also ma's angel), my play time friend, my motivator, and inspiration. Thank you for the talk we had the other day, I really needed it.

You always protected me; once we were walking through new market and some guy did what any ingrate low-life would do: brush against my body. And you asked me: did that guy just touch you inappropriately? I confirmed your suspicion, and you were enraged and said no - one touches my sis like that. You grabbed the guy and asked him - aren't you ashamed? don't you have a mother, or sister? you should be ashamed of yourself. You tried to cause a scene, but as we know Calcutta did not and does not care what happens to its women. You were and are my hero pig! Thank you for being there, for standing up for me, and having major balls! I love you!

Pig there's so much I still want to talk to you about, sometimes I wish we could go back and be innocent again and play, and make mud laddos, but we can only travel in our hearts, to relive those moments, revel in the nostalgia. However I want to make new memories and spend more time with you... but time flies so quickly now... Those 100 day summer vacations are gone, they flew by! I know sometimes it seems I don't make enough effort to be there for you... but if I could I'd be there with you making tents out of blankets on a rainy monsoon afternoon, so we could play monster - monster. Or I would be there for you when you called, but grown up life is so different... did we ever imagine this? You've found your prince, and will soon be wed... I never imagined that! I never imagined you being the New Yorker, and me the New Yorker, loving midwest suburbia!

To more adventures and journeys together!


I love you little sister and hope to see more of you!


Your Dedly deds/ didi ...

Forever!



 ps: loved doing yoga with you!

waiting at the dentist! 2013 July 19th

Breathe!

Mommy Texts

Mom: Did you speak to Nandini?
Me: Yeah
Mom: its... YES... not YEAH... not good english!!!!
Me: Good Grief!
Me: I was speaking German duh
Mom: ur German spelling wrong... dah is Russian

my mommy in her hillbilly clothing looking at our house!

Chai and Biscuits

The cream that holds the two biscuits together was what we craved for as a children. We even loved just eating the frosting off a cake. Grown ups would be happy with their chaa and Britannia-Marie Gold biscuits, the cake part of the cake without frosting, and read a fat book on philosophy in the corner of a room, or under the tree.

We needed the sugar, the running around, and occasionally swallowing up an Enid Blyton or other fictional book whole, along with cookies. We didn't understand how as we grow tastes change and we refine our tastes in food and books alike. Where is that marie-gold biscuit now, I wish to dip it in my tea.

That day will never come, when I say no to Oreos or Bourbon biscuit (Britannia). I still like biscuits with cream fillings, but I have learned the pleasures of Britannia-Marie with my chaa or earl grey. I do enjoy sipping my wine slowly now, rather than gulping it down like a boisterous college kid. It took a while to get here, but sometimes I still do and did enjoy the childish craves for sweets, and the college binge drinking. Mellowing out as an adult, does give space for the subtle pleasure of life, sometimes even childish, like laying on the grass reading a book on a warm sunny day and observing a lady bug for hours.

Now I finally get it! Why the grown ups love having chai and marie biscuit on the balcony on the morning, reading the newspaper, or just chatting over chaa. Its a simple pleasure and lovely way to start the morning. I would do that, and do the crossword puzzle at the back now, if I was there. Some kids would come and wonder 'why are the grown us eating marie-biscuit, when they could buy the cream filled wafer biscuit? Lets go storm the cookie cupboard!' I'll go on sipping my chaa, dipping my biscuit, hoping it doesn't fall in, and carry on with the crossword. Now I get it.

From running around playing "police-and-robber", to college parties, to meditation and yoga... life has its medley, some stay on in one stage others move and grow. It's nice to revisit stages every now and then, but growing into the butterfly is most exciting!

Breathe

What I Miss From My Childhood

1991-2001

Walking barefoot in the wet mud, the grass, the hot sands of mid day, the gravely path...

Morning Assembly and sitting on those yellow bamboo mats, cross-legged, straight back; singing, listening, sitting in silence...

Nature walks, enjoying the little things in nature

Having time to notice the tiny things in life- little bugs that move about, grains of sand and their different colors, enjoying a pebble's smoothness...

Running to play; running to feel the wind in your hair, and sand between your toes... running to feel free

Climbing trees just to climb and mangoes, tamarind, were just the bonus

Going to the library to read and reading with friends, exploring books, exploring worlds...

Lazy Sundays and laying out on the terrace with the dog and sister, and doing homework

Tennis and swimming with my bestie and sister... world's best coaches!

Imagination during play time with my sister, creating different worlds, songs, and art...

Yoga class at the Chennai Sivananda Center every evening with my sis

Sitting on the balcony and feeding pigeons

Short hair all those years...

Wearing those absurdly loose comfortable clothing all the time

French classes, German class, Choir, Bengali Class, Hindi tuition!

Walking around the Green Tower's compound with friends in Golf Green

Playing basketball, throw-ball, softball, dodge-ball, cricket, football, badminton during "games" at the end of the day... I liked playing barefoot!!

Licking Glucon D and Glucon C from our palms on sports day

The sandpit

the strange area of limbo between the UKG-LKG building and the senior quadrangle

Freeplay!

Trips to mahabalipuram and muttokaddu on the weekends

Enjoying the coolness of the hill-stations in the summer - horse riding, boating, hiking, and nature preserves

The celebrations, business, guests, hustle-bustle during Durga Puja

Taking the dog for a walk through IIT campus, and AC Tech College

Going birdwatching ridiculously early to cool places... and seeing amazing birds

Going on turtle walks all night long, and playing with the luminescent phosphorous the Bay of Bengal spat out...

Floods during the monsoons, the large puddles which would let my paper boats sail far and wide

Music on cassettes meant you had to listen to the whole thing, and B side...

Good lyrics in good songs with good music...

The Doberlane concert series and meeting amazing musicians in a half asleep state...

Bicycling for the fun of just wandering the neighborhood, bicycling with bestie, and sister, finding puppies and kittens along the way

Ice cream on special occasions only

The random drives to Besant Nagar beach (Elliot's beach), just because my dad felt like it

Making apple pie with my mum, and all my friends loving it

Making fruit salad in a watermelon basket with my mom and all my friends loving it

Sitting under the tree at the car-park and waiting for the car to show up, enjoying the bark of the tree, enjoying the curious red beetles with diamond designs on their backs...

The flock of parrots that fly over head

Eating puchka (Golgappa)

Going to the stationary store once in 2-3 years and getting a new pencil box, sharpener, eraser, pencil

The yearly notebook and textbook buying for school...

Going to dad's work and getting scrap paper to draw on...

Those old printers and the noise it made, was like music, and I could almost dance to it

The Video Cassette rental store and the different worlds it held

Getting a phone call from a friend on a week night and sister picking up the parallel line and eavesdropping on the plans for the next day!

Going to the dentist/ doctor, and seeing what I could be afraid of this time, or what I would become a hypochondriac about

Spending time with my dogs, napping with them, feeding them, walking them, barking with them...

Talking to my sis all night long...

My awesome neighbors in Kotturpuram

Bus rides to and from school with the best bus people in the school

Playing indoor cricket

Playing leg cricket

Dosa, Idly, Sambar, Rasam, Chutney, Vadai, Mullagai Podi, Korumbu

Biryani

The rare summer time family trips to the most boring places like "The Himalayas", "Corbett National Park", "Agra", "Kolkata", "New York", "Ooty", "Kodai", "Mysore", "Coorg", "Pondicherry", "Delhi"...

Grandma's cooking

Going to Mama'r baari in Boronagar, Kolkata

Begun Bhaaja, Alloo Bhaaja, Bhaat aar Ghee... Iktu dal - simple satisfying meals

Dadu taking us to "bara" to the most random-est places...

Going to the book store with mom, and wishing to buy all the Enid Blyton books... or all the children's books in general

Reading non-stop during Summer Holidays

Reading non-stop during the term

Taking part in plays, the drama, the hustle, the thrill of performing...

Creativity - art, pottery, weaving, dance, gymnastics, writing, acting, singing

Calls from my uncle Danny in USA

My uncle introducing me to "outer space", "physics", "astronomy", "star wars" and being cool in general in a nerdy way!

Never missing the internet or smart phones... and Prince of Persia was the only fun thing on computers.




 Breathing the whole time! Loving every second of it!

Visiting Our Childhood - Piyali Banerjie

Yoga Diaries

Yesterday I went to my first yoga class since 1997. This class brought back so many memories. From 1991 to 1997 my sister and I went to Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center in Kotturpuram, Madras, which later moved to Thiruvanmayur or a little further from there. My sis and I were children, and we were in the children's beginners class, in a year or so we were in the advanced classes, teacher training classes, then back to the advanced classes.We went everyday, and later 2-3 times a week as we grew older. The Yogis became a part of our lives, the center became a part of our lives, although reluctantly at first, it was sure, especially the Center in Kotturpuram.

My mother told my sis and I she was going to enroll us in classes and took us to the yoga center. We were sitting there to sign up in this lobby which has a plant, a few pictures of the Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnudevananda, and a very large OM. I remember wondering what that meant, I was 6! I had no idea what yoga was, although I heard my mom say she did it. While we were sitting there, a lady also waiting there, suddenly began talking to my mom "Oh Aruna! I didn't recognize you. Remember we met at the Gupta's dinner 2 months ago? Anyway how are you doing? I didn't know you had kids! How are you? Are you married too? I knew you looked familiar..." She went on and on before my mom could even correct her mistake. She mistook my mom for someone else. Finally my mom said, "I am not who you think I am!" The lady apologized and felt so embarrassed, I felt her embarrassment! It was funny but also strange. We were in a strange place, signing up to do something strange,  and this stranger lady begins talking to my mom!

We signed up for the classes, and my mom bought us t-shirts and a book for the class. My sis got a yellow shirt which had a big Om on it. It had the motto of the Sivananda Center:

"Health is wealth, Peace of mind is happiness, Yoga shows the way."

-Swami Vishnudevananda

I got a blue t-shirt identical to my sister's. So we proceeded to the class which was upstairs on the thatch covered terrace. There was this interesting picture of the spine, and postures, and a small changing room. We used bamboo mats to do the yoga on. No fancy pansy, rubber mats we have now a days. This was yoga the original way. We were asked to bring a cloth - not a towel or rug. It was minimal props. We got our mats and sat down on them. We met our instructor: Yogi Sabu-ji. They were all  real yogis here - never married, living the yogic way, eating that way too - pure vegetarians etc. There was one more modern teacher, we called him Swami-Ji and he had been married, but left his family to live a life of a Yogi. They were very serious and would scold us if we misbehaved, talked too much, did not pay attention. We made friends with other students, and friends with the yogis over the course of the year.

 The first class we learn the Surya Namaskar. We did that for a few classes, till we knew it, by heart. Then we learn other poses, and our first upside down pose - shoulder-stand! Sarvangasana! Yeah! We kids loved being upside down for some reason. We also had to learn all the Sanskrit terminology. As the year went by we learnt more poses/ asanas, and got closer. At some point my sister and I were the only students, yoga was not popular hobby in general in India. I think we enjoyed doing yoga outside, and on the rare occasion play games with the Yogis, attending the special events, ie. Swami Vishnudevananda visited the Chennai center in 1992 or so. It was amazing to chant, meditate, sing and eat with him. We really had no idea he was a senior and learned yogi. We just knew he was aged, to be respected, and this was a super serious day.

We didn't know at the time how much Yoga was benefiting us, and how it would become such a huge trend in the west. We just went because our mom sent us there to get better from out asthmatic and sinus conditions. With regular practice we got sick less. However I am ever grateful to my mom for sending us everyday!

I will have to wait for more memories of  yoga class to come back to me... however I never stopped doing yoga after 1997. This was some magical skill we had acquired, while most girls finished their Arangetram in Bharatnatyam, my sis and I were skilled yogis - we could stand on our heads, our hands, and become "crazy human pretzels". We practiced it at least once a week with our mom, and we would enjoy showing guests the power of yoga!

Falling for Fall

It's amazing how our energies change month to month, person to person, season to season... It is always in Autumn that my Chakras seem so activated and open. A sense of calm, understanding, love and acceptance sweeps over me. It's a dream world, these red, orange and yellow leaves; when the wind blows the trees gently shake their blessings of golden hued crispy dust onto me.

The trees themselves, so happy, they get ready for hibernating for the winter. They smile, they look dead to us, but they smile and lay their heads down to slumber through winter.

I remember as a kid I would go sit myself down in a huge pile of red, yellow and brown leaves which my parents would have so meticulously cleaned off the lawn. I would pick that spot to read a book, it just seemed perfect! Why sit anywhere else?! I think I got yelled at for sitting there and ruining the pile.

I remember being mystified by fall, the once green lawn turned red and yellow over night, blanketed in leaves. My parents would make piles and clean them off. The next day there would be yet another blanket of red, orange and yellow... the trees were shedding their next layer. The air wood get chillier and I would see dark shadows rise up in places I never saw them at in summer. The neighborhood dog turned into a wolf, the raccoons turned into vicious burglars, the pumpkin patch was vandalized, the squirrels turned into greedy little hoarders. The deer got braver and appeared majestically between the leafless apple trees. Once my parents brought us down in the middle of the night to show us a badger, badgering about the lawn. It was like catching the thief red handed! He scampered away into the darkness. I don't remember what the hue and cry was for, but it was fun.

Falls in India were much different, depending on where it was at. In Madras it meant Diwali/Deepavali, Kali Puja, Navaratri, Dashera and Durga Puja (Dashera and Navaratri are Durga Puja but in different names. They all celebrate Shakti). So it meant new clothes, sweets, fireworks, music, art and drama! The days do seem to get longer, and darker at least. The food at this time changes to the more satisfying kichudi, which warms you up to the core. This fall weather lasts through till about February and then it begins to heat up (not that it cooled down much). Fall in Madras meant to me a time of community, art and family. Sometimes a trip to Calcutta for Durga puja.

Calcutta falls, yes it gets chilly and we have to begin to wear our blazers toward the end of October. Fall means Durga Puja! 10 days of holiday in West Bengal. Crowds, road blockages, art, festival, large tents and "pandals" erected in every neighborhood. Shakti is dancing in everyone's hearts. The Mahalaya can be heard on loudspeakers everywhere, then children performing, grownups reciting poems... so much cultural activity. It all ends with drums, dance, and these lovely idols depicting the goddesses being submerged into the Ganges River. The idol is gone, but her spirit stays back with all the people. The arts is washed away, only to re-inspire another year of artistry and hard-work.

Fall in the above the tropics in the northern hemisphere, means bonfires, 'smores, camping, holidays are around the corner, the festivities of hallows' eve, horror movies, hiking weather, blessings of nature... utter beauty and acceptance of change which only nature can give us so freely with love.
Falling for fall: The last of the beautiful bright blue skies, and the last rays of the  warm golden sun, for a few months, until spring. Seems like such a long time from Fall to Spring. Fall colors, smells, the crisp air, warm clothes and the yearning to gather around bonfires and tell stories of Summer!

Greenbrier County, WV 2007

Greenbrier WV 2007

Greenbrier WV 2007

Greenbrier WV 2007

Greenbrier WV 2007

Greenbrier, WV 2007

WV - New River 2010

WV- NRG 2010

The Upper Gauley, WV 2011

My favorite Lothlorien tree at The Point, NRG, WV 2010

Power of Fiction

Have you ever want to escape from your reality and go somewhere else, where what you do makes a difference? Where you are on an epic adventure in far off lands battling a beast that threatens all of your kind? Ever wish this mundane life was more than it is?

I have.

...and I wish it were all so more often than not. Someone once said to me "you're an escapist".
So I am! I can go to lovely places just by closing my eyes. I go on amazing adventures, I save the world from epic disasters, I can fly, I can travel between universes, I have met the creator.

I'm driving down the road, and suddenly I hear "May it Be" by Enya. I am immediately transported to Middle Earth, the gas station turns into an evil base camp of the orcs of Mordor, the trees are the sign that there are ent kind and the Lorien elves near by. I am safe for now. I journey on, and I reach a destination, only to find Urukhai have invaded my camp site and my friends are all missing. The Misty Mountains are far off in the distance, and the Shire, far beyond that. It's too late to think of turning back and going home. I lose hope. What would Samwise do? What would Gandalf say? How would Aragorn approach this situation? They are all a part of me and I learn through their characters, their stories.

Since the Hobbit is being released soon, Ryan and I have been listening to "The Hobbit" on audiobook. Every time we drive somewhere we are transported to the Shire; the tunnels beneath the Misty Mountains where we faced nasty goblins and riddled with Golem; The Mirkwood forest where we battled large gross spiders; The mountain top on which Smaug lives... We're almost near the end of our adventures, but deep inside we don't want it to end. Luckily for us, there are three more audiobooks, the Silmarillion and other works by JRR Tolkien. After reading the book, we will hope the movie can live up to this amazing adventure we just experienced!

Perhaps my ability to imagine fiction and make it so real to me is an skill only I have? I really hope more people can imagine like I do. It's an awesome thing. For a while I stopped, I felt ashamed of being an escapist, embarrassed that my mind could go from being a 30 year old to a 5 year old in less than a second. I enjoy being able to see things no one else can see, I am glad I can still experience books like children can. The Wind in the Willows, Last Fairy, Charlotte's Web, The Incredible Journey, Where the Red Ferns Grow, Call of the Wild, The tale of Benjamin Bunny, Enid Blyton Books, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Xanth series ... there are just some of these took me on adventures, met lovely people, and went to different lands.

Maybe I should do book reviews for those of you that like to escape, that enjoy the occasional fantasy world, the epic adventure, interactions with talking animals! Join me in these world's and let us play there for a while, and bring that experience to the real world.

Breathe... Imagine!

My sis and I could never figure out the hat

What did the house which was tucked into the roots of a tree look like!

Caras Galadhon

Caras Galadhon in Lothlorien

This was a lovely depiction of Caras Galadhon as well

Ivy Bush inn in the Shire, in Lord of the Rings Online (the MMORPG)

The Last Fairy by Fred Hancock

I love maps in books! Even maps / layouts of ships!

I remember reading this exact copy... Javis (the queen) looks so manly!

Love these books!

almost forgot about Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys!

My sister would remember this story we heard over and over again!

The Joys of Reading Blyton

The Famous Five, Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, The Adventure Series, The Secret Series, The Adventurous Four, The Barney Mystery Series, St Claire, Mallory Towers, The Wishing -Chair, The Naughtiest Girl, Noddie, The Mistletoe Farm, The Magic Faraway Tree, Book of Brownies... Did this British author brighten our childhood or what!

I don't know which of her books i read first, but I do think it was The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor and the Wishing Chair. My sister got a few Noddy, the "Book of Brownies", which she got incredibly attached to, Billy-bob Tales, Mister Meddle, Shadow the Sheep Dog, Six O' Clock Tales, The adventures of Scamp, Bimbo and Topsy, The Put-em-Rights, The Train that lost its Way, Snowbell the Pony, Bimbo the Kitten (etc)., and The Mystery that Never Was (and many more). I remember sticking more the adventure and mystery books, along with the school series. However my sis, read all these other magical stories, strangely she never let me read the Magic Faraway Tree, or the Book of Brownies. She did lend me the others, and Bimbo and Topsy led me to name the school cat, "Bimbo-Lion". We would have adventures in school with our school dogs, and plant fake mysteries for us to solve later. It never worked out as Enid did in the book, but we always sought to have such experiences as the Famous Five did!

The first famous five book I read was read out to the class by Chitra Akka. It was the most delightful experience. It was in fact The Famous Five have a Wonderful Time. Where they travel to the countryside, and happen to be camping out on the same field that the circus was camping out on with their caravans. The circus folk were strange but they made friends. Then there was a mystery to solve, a big mystery, obviously involving very important physicists or scientists. The best feeling of the adventure books, was as reading as a child, we would get involved, and the climax would prevent us from putting the book down. After we experience the adventure with the characters, they would settle down for tea and crumpets in the safety of home. The reader as well would be eased out of it, to the safe surroundings, with the sudden taste for tea and crumpets!

Most of all I loved her descriptions. They made everything seem so much more vivid in my imagination. George and Timmy of the Famous five came to life. The Secret Seven club were all well described, and seemed like a group I would be in. I would love to have been friends with Jack from the adventure series, his love for animals always inspired me to adventure and be with animals like he was. St. Claire and Mallory towers made me wish I went to boarding school, and made sleep overs, and school trips so much more fun!

Harry Potter seems to have been this great mix of Magic and these books. The warmth of these books is felt to some extent in the Harry Potter books. Enid Blyton and authors such as her, always made me wish to cozy up in a ball by the fireplace with a rug, hot chocolate in hand on cold an rainy day, to read these books. Maybe I will write such books in the future.

Now as I finally grow up I find out more about my favorite childhood author and her life, books, controversies around the time she wrote them, but these facts don't sway my adoration for her work. My love and lust for adventure, travel, and encouragement to be myself comes from her writing, her characters! I always pictured myself as George, but now I know, there's a Georgina in many of us girls!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton

Enid Blyton

The Adventure Series

A rather nice TV show created out of Famous Five... i love the people that played the characters, i thought they did so well! Also the theme song was great-  "We are the famous five - Julian, Dick, and Ann, George and Timmy the Dog."

Cover art for the Famous Five

The Books!

Old cover art

Julian, Anne and Dick, the three siblings. George is the cousin and she owns Timmy (the dog).

Here they all are, and some other kid. On their many adventures they would often make friends with locals!

We've all traveled and adventured through caves, tunnels, secret passages with them!

Magic Faraway Tree

this is not the cover which my sister had... but still!

Right, George has her own Island!

The Five Find-Outers ... Everyone loved fatty, I just found him annoying!

Oh Yes! It's a great book!

This was not the cover I had, but Scamp was fun!

Noddy

Love how Snowball is such an ironic name!

I had this very book!

Malory towers

I had this one!

:-)

Breathe