Sunday, August 17, 2014
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Meet my grandfather!
My grandfather
(maternal) visited me yesterday on the sideline of my late great grandmother’s annual
ceremony. I haven’t seen him for a very long time, as he wasn’t well to move
out of his house or climbing down from his upstairs home. I was truly surprised
when my grandma brings him home along with her. Since he was suffering from
certain health setbacks in recent past, I didn’t expect him to visit me and for
me it is hardly possible to meet him at his home in first floor and coming
across their congested street in wheelchair is something quite awkward to image.
Since it is hard to take a car inside their street and also post fracture last
year, I am going through difficult times transferring between car and
wheelchair.
My grandfather and grandmother (shot at Kodaikanal in 2012) |
I feel so happy
meeting him and I really moved looking into his eyes that was yearning to see
me… His affection and care for me is something very special and is always evident
through his eyes. Though he won’t speak much and couldn’t make gestures easily,
I understand him quite well and I can’t explain how much I love him and he
means to me. He is our best well-wisher and what and where we are today is only
because of his chief intention along with his son’s (my late uncle) hard work, and
selfless being provided us so many advantages in life. Until he closed his teashop
at early 20s, he has been a hard worker and active being. For more than two decades he had been a cabs car
and lorry driver, before started fulltime dairy business and opens the teashop.
My uncle’s
demise in late 2001 had hit him immensely and shutting down the teashop, left
him jobless at home resulted in greater drawback at health followed by a
cardiac arrest due to clot in heart. But
in latter days he suffers from diabetic and nervous problem and the side
effects of tablets forced him to quite depend on others. He could walk only at
very slow pace and someone need to lift him from the chair to stand and being
little obese it has been very difficult for my grandmother to take care of him.
We ever expected him to become infirmity at this early age of 75, while older
than him are progressing well. I am one of his main concerns to make him feel
regret, and he had expressed his sorrow many time with granny for unable to
help me in anyways.
In 2001 he used
to drive me every day to a clinic in T.Nagar here, where I took Ayurveda treatment
for nearly two months. Driving through the heavy morning traffic is a true
venture in his way of driving, though he manages only because of the eagerness
to see me as a normal being. While studying in school, he used to pick me in
his bicycle if I received none. Putting
the bags on the handlebar, he pedals me to home placing me on the rear carrier,
since my school was very close to their house. He had scolded me and also
embraced at same, as he always had special attention towards me.
I think it is
our turn to take care of him, not only because he had worn-out his life for our
self but true love he has shown for others and as children/grandchildren it’s
our duty to support not only physically but also make him feel happy and
content. At my stand I am conscious not to disturb him anyways, but I feel
sorry that indirectly I’m one of the main concerns on his drawback stream. Emotionally
he has been disturbed by others, forgetting whatever he had done for them and
just for the brief of ego and updating their fake statues - though they
deserved to be so – makes him feel anguish. Until 2012 he had traveled with me
for many places, as I love doing it so, I am helpless now leaving him at home
as he finds it very difficult to travel and getting in and out of the car, and
in case of urgency he prefers Auto (rickshaw) to pick and drop him at doorstep.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
World Elephant Day
On August 12,
2012, the inaugural World Elephant Day was launched to bring attention to the
urgent plight of Asian and African elephants. The elephant is loved, revered
and respected by people and cultures around the world, yet we balance on the
brink of seeing the last of this magnificent creature.
The escalation
of poaching, habitat loss, human-elephant conflict and mistreatment in
captivity are just some of the threats to both African and Asian elephants.
Working towards better protection for wild elephants, improving enforcement
policies to prevent the illegal poaching and trade of ivory, conserving
elephant habitats, better treatment for captive elephants and, when
appropriate, reintroducing captive elephants into natural, protected
sanctuaries are the goals that numerous elephant conservation organizations are
focusing on around the world.
dad bears an elephant trunk |
The World
Elephant Day stressed the need to experience elephants in non-exploitive and
sustainable environments where elephants can thrive under care and protection. The
intention of this day is to share knowledge and support positive solutions
for the better care and management of captive and wild elephant. (Read more on elephants current status here)
Footnote:
Pictures shot at
Kozhikamuthi Elephant Camp at Top Sip, near Coimbatore.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Sunday Photo: Stanley Reservoir
Stanley Reservoir is one of the largest
fishing reservoirs in South India, River Cauvery as its main source of water.
The water is retained by the Mettur Dam, which has a capacity of totally 90 Tmcft! The creation of the reservoir means submersion
of two villages, all of whose inhabitants were relocated to Mettur.
PS. Right now its celebration time at Mettur Dam, hence dam has touched 110ft of water
on the total height of 120ft. Thanks to the heavy rainfall across Cauvery
catchment, which forced the dams of Karnataka to release surplus water from the
KRS and Kabini dams to rose to nearly 1,00,000 cubic feet per second from less
than 40,000 latterly. The shutters of the dam are opened for samba rice
cultivation from today. ( Photos composed while the level of water was about 75ft , while taking a drive on the dam few years back)
Thursday, August 07, 2014
Stories (memories) related to Tea Urn and Bicycle Vendors
Coffee and Tea has
become an essential part of life and we grow up drinking either one of the other,
depending on our lifestyle or taste buds; some take regularly or occasionally
for refreshment and at the occasions of meetings and events, they becomes a
treat. I know some who don’t drink coffee or tea, thinking it’s not good for
health, but gulp bottles of soft drinks! There isn’t certain facts how much good or not
taking coffee or tea, but in my opinion there’s a limit for everything. I enjoy
both coffee and tea according to my desire at that moment, but my most favorite is coffee.
Coming to the
post, I just thought to share some of my memories related to Tea Urns (can) and
the vendors carrying it on their bicycles to make life out of selling tea or
coffee. Since my grandparents have done dairy business and owning a tea shop
then, I grown up watching their day-to-day activities but the Tea Urns are
seldom used by them. They make coffee or tea using the milk that kept heated in
a vessel directly on the stove and being a crowded residential area, theirs was
the only tea shop to open from early morning to night and they work hard to
keep up customers.
My initial
memory of Tea Urn was in 1991! During
the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, all the
shops were closed in Chennai or perhaps because of Bandh (a form of protest
used by political activists in India) to mourn his death. Since the bomb blasts
(in which he was killed) occurred close to Chennai (Sriperumbudur is 40km from
here), there was a situation of anxiety everywhere and I still remember how uproar
my grandfather’s house street was, where
the tea shop also lies, where people standing together here and there, and discussing
about the matters…
My grandparent’s
house is situated in one of the crowded or congested street in south Chennai
and getting in and out of it is an adventure and taking a car means stickers in
scratches. The people here don’t need a reason to engage in street fights and
it used to be an entertainment for the residents here, to come leaning on the
wall and watching the scene. So, in a situation like this, the turmoil has been
in its full swing related to the assassination. My grandparent’s does not only
run a tea shop, but also reared dozen of milch buffalos and couple of cows in
the backyard. So shutting down the tea shop means, lose of liters of milk.
To avoid the situation, they sold the milk in black (market) through
the side entrance of the house and the Tea Urn was filled and put on the street
side to deliver tea. I accompanied my
uncle while he took care of the Tea Urn, open and closing the tap filling the
little tumblers with tea. Every time I see a vendor pedaling with Tea Urn in
the streets, I remember that moment and my grandparent’s use on Tea Urn is
rarity and I have seen it only left ideal on the loft. Apart this, there was
also a ginger coffee vendor who later joined the neighborhood of my
grandparents.
He come from a very poor family and stayed at a rented hut, adjacent
to my grandparent’s house along with his wife and an infant. His only source of
income was selling ginger coffee in the Tea Urn carried on his only bicycle. Since
they rented hut at our neighbor’s friendly house, I used to go to their house
while playing around and have witnessed him filling the Tea Urn with ginger
coffee. But with my bad memory I couldn’t recollect the procedure he handled in
making the ginger coffee. (Couple of years back I happen to taste the ginger
coffee while visiting marina beach, from one of the Tea Urn vendors and it was
such hot and spicy to hurt my throat, and then I decided not to taste it
anymore.)
It was also a period where the plastic or paper cups weren’t prevailed;
so he used to take two small pails of water along with him, which used to hang
on both sides of his bicycle’s rear carrier. He also put hang a wire basket on
the handlebar with few dozens of steel tumblers, pressed one inside another,
and once the customers sipped off he wash away the tumblers with the pails of
water immediately, for another round of service. It was also interested to watch
him tying the Tea Urn in his bicycle carrier, making sure it doesn’t fall off
while pedaling on streets.
In early 20s, there was a bicycle vendor who used to visit my
uncle’s workshop regularly to supply tea and coffee to the employees. My uncle
runs a Maruti (car) workshop at the ground floor of our native house in Adyar
and while I am quite out of the school then, I used to watch his (bicycle
vendor’s) activates from our balcony. He used to put stand his bicycle in front
of the workshop, which means getting a good sight on his from the balcony and
unlike the ginger coffee vendor, who sold only ginger coffee, he was capable of
selling 4 in one (bicycle).
He was such an active young person, and his hands used to play while
he makes anything out of milk. With one Tea Urn (filled with milk) tied to his bicycle
carrier, he satisfies four kinds of taste buds with sufficient use of coffee
and ginger powders, hot teas brew and spice ingredient. He used to come hanging
two wire baskets on the handlebar, one had two vacuum flasks of hot milk and
teas brew and the other with three cylindrical boxes containing powders of
coffee, ginger and spice for making masala milk! It’s another great
entertainment for me, then, watching his series exchanges made between the
beverages according to the customer’s request.
If it is for coffee, he picks up a little plastic cup (from a packet
of series of cups that hang on the side of the Tea Urn) and drops a little
spoon of coffee power and fills it with milk by opening the Tea Urn tap. Before
he serves anybody, he make two long pours using another steel tumble he
separately handled for this purpose. And for making tea, he opens of the flask
and pours few mm of teas brew in the cup and makes another long pour after
filled with milk. He maintained this act for every other beverage.
Many a time I had taken coffee from him and those days the quality
of content used to be somehow fine… but these days they are just hot water Tea
Urns. Except hotels, restaurants and homes, coffee or tea has gone so bad in
taste and thickness at tea shops and bicycle vendors. Once, the tea shops at
countryside used to be excellent in beverage, with the use of direct cow or
buffalo milk, but now, they also seems well spoiled by making use of packet
milk. I really feel regret how well have we gone down in quality and quantity
compared to early days. Not only beverage, anything u takes lacks quality today.
P.S. Both the pictures were captured at Chennai Marina beach at
various moments, and what inspired me to write this post.
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