Monday, April 23, 2012

My Mom - my insipartion

My mom is my inspiration - she does so many things, gets involved in so many things, blind school, ashvasan, unnati and then her passion / devotion to music. She goes to the doctor herself, gets her medicines herself and in addition is always there to support each one of us in whatever we do. Yesterday, she had gone to the doctor for her routine check-up and he asked her to do an ECG. Report indicates that she possibly had an heart attack some time ago. My whole world came tumbling... I was quiet, worried, wondering.... And then I spoke to her. She said - I am ready, I have done my bit on earth. I dont want to go running from doctor to doctor and checkup to checkup. Whatever happens, however it happens - I am ready. Now she is back to her usual self - her music class, visiting her brother and sisters.... But I am not ready yet....

Friday, April 20, 2012


Day before, Aditi-Ratnesh Mathur  and Venugopal Maddukuri had to leave in a hurry. Lunch was half done and many things were happenning. There was no vehicle either, so me and kids had to manage on our own. I was wondering - Aditi ne kaise manage kiya. Initially I was waiting for the kids to come. That was leaving me challenged with so many things to do. Then I shared with children, sat in circle and we discussed responsibilities and how they can help.  One child said, if there was a clock which would announce who would announce what needs to be done and by whom ( I am understanding it NOW as to remind without being emotional about it), one more child said if there was a robot which would do all the work and so on. After sometime, I realised that if I am clear what my expectations are and I communicate clearly, then we are able to work it out. Then we started having more discussions and more circle times and I realised that if I give option, they understand that there is an option, if I dont give option then they understand that as well. If I crib and complain, their response is in one way, If I ask with clarity, their response is different

Making of the toilet at Bodichipalli

Making of the toilet at Bodichipalli left me with lots of thoughts... specifically on how do I work, when I ask questions, when I seek for clarity etc.

The rented house at Bodichipalli does not have a toilet and we were finding it difficult to stay without a toilet. Owner had agreed to making the toilet. As we last left the discussion, she had said that we dont have a "mestry" so can you find one for us so that we can get it done.  There was also this discussion that earlier that we will pay for the toilet, but we need a toilet. So we did not conclude which way we would and who is paying for the toilet.

As the toilet was being made and work was to start, material had to be ordered. The mason said we would need 4 rings and 2 bags of cement and some other material. We did not have a vehicle and could not have gone to purchase the material - since kids were also there and I was the only adult. So I just agreed with mason that rings you buy since it has to be ordered today, rest we will order once others come.

The cost of the toilet has come to about 8000 and I am wondering - yeh maine kya kiya.... The cost of  each ring is 350 and the number of rings decides the cost of the toilet (ring cost and digging cost are the major components) A little bit of patience and we could have easily tided over the whole situation, maybe cost would  have come down by 2000 Rs or so, maybe we could have just introduced the mason to the owner and we would have got the clarity on who is to bear the cost of toilet ...