Swimming and Kerala

I cannot pinpoint the exact year when we visited Kerala. It was surely 1971 to 1973. It was most likely 1972. One of my father's friends was getting married in his village in Kerala. Alas, I don't remember the name of the village either. It was close to Cochin as far as I remember.

I remember taking a train through Kerala. I have not ever seen such a verdant landscape. It was lush and green. More treats were coming our way.  We walked at the edge of a valley which was again, so full of foliage that all I saw was a carpet of green. If I had slipped and fallen into the deep valley, I doubt if I would have hit the ground. I would have landed on a leafy tree.

At night the fireflies came out. I was amazed at the numbers and the size of them. They seemed more numerous and more brilliant than the stars. It was an unforgettable image that has stayed with me. Whenever I think of Kerala, I think of Lush greenery and the brilliant fireflies.

There is another image that has remained with me, the sea. No, the valley had no sea close by. While returning, we stayed one night in Cochin, maybe waiting for a connecting train back to Bangalore. The hotel was Bolgatty Palace. I realize now it was a heritage hotel. In those days it seemed simpler. Just a hotel slap on the seashore. We reached there late and went to bed immediately.

Next day morning, I went around the grounds and was mesmerised by the sight of the sea. I stood at the edge of the lawn staring into the deep green water. I declared I wanted to learn swimming. My mother promised to teach me as soon as I returned to Bangalore.

We lived close to High Grounds in Bangalore and my mother chose the swimming pool of Hotel Ashok (then plain old Ashok, now the swanky Lalit Ashok) which was 10 minutes walk away. They had a nominal fee for a day use of the pool and had nice changing rooms. To begin with, my mother taught me how to swim in the kiddie pool. Once I learned, I graduated to the big pool.  It was a clean pool with water filters and well scrubbed tiles. I fell absolutely in love with swimming and went quite often to the pool. Sometimes, I even took my friends along to show off my swimming skills. I wasn't very skilled, all I can do is the breast stroke, but I showed off nevertheless.

Till date, swimming remains my favorite activity. I have just abandoned my aerobics class as I was too hot and took up swimming for the season. I was full of prickly heat because of the soaring temperatures. After a couple of days of being immersed in water for 50 minutes, I am cured and cool once more. The sight of the pool always brings back the memory (by association) of the deep green water of the Arabian Sea which inspired me to take up swimming.

On Reading the Narnia Series

During the 1970's my family reunited for a few years.  My father returned from the USA bringing along his wife.  My older brother and I were sent from Jamnagar to join him.

It was not wholly pleasant for me to be uprooted from my comfortable existence in Jamnagar among my dear cousins, school and friends.  What made me thaw was the books I got to read in Bangalore.

My stepmother had brought along some books dear to her from the USA. I cannot claim to remember them all, as I was just eleven years old then. There was Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Chronicles of Narnia, Beowulf, and a dog eared anthology of poetry. 

Out of these I fell in love, like Bella Swann, unconditionally and irrevocably in love with the Narnia series and Lord of the Rings.

The Narnia books, I remember, were laid out in our dining room cupboard, in chronological order, The Magician's Nephew, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and his Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Last Battle. Hence, I read about the wonderful land of Narnia where flora and fauna were respected and spoke. Humans were rare and mostly imported by the will of  Aslan, their real king.

I must have read and re-read these books time and time again. They opened up a magical world to be me where I could wander for hours together.

When the movie based on The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was released in 2005, I heard about it but was not able to see it on screen. I saw it in parts when it appeared on television. Seeing the movie in bits and pieces was not the best introduction to it, and I was a little underwhelmed.  I did not get the high I had experienced while reading the book all those years ago.

Three years later, I watched Prince Caspian in the theater and was suitably impressed. However, I did not recall the story as it was in the book much.  So I embarked upon reading the books once again. This time there were no neatly lined books in the dining room cupboard for me. Nearly forty years had passed, and times had changed.  I found ebooks of the series and read them once again. 

Nothing can replicate the joy of coming across a wonderful book that you want to read and re-read again.

The books are full of platitudes and homilies for children who must resist temptation and not fall prey to any of the seven deadly sins.  Aslan is said to be Jesus, or his father. Narnia is perhaps a sort of utopia. It has been criticized for this.

I did not heed the moral angle overmuch when I read it. All those years ago, when I read the books, I was captivated only by the world of Narnia where animals talked, trees had life and all was beautiful. It was where the Pevensie children were at their happiest and so was I.

Today I will curl up in my sofa and read The Magician's Nephew once again, admittedly the book I like best in the series. I will discover the beautiful yellow and green rings in Uncle Andrew's laboratory once again and vanish into worlds beyond our ken.

5 Essentials

Just finished reading this excellent post by Richa Singh.  We are all creatures of habit and cannot do without things that are essential to us.  I won't go near food, clothes and shelter; just mention the other essentials that you want on you all the time.  Again, I won't mention house keys and money, these are rather mundane.  I choose to mention the essentials that define me.

My Phone:

This is going to pretty much on everyone's list.  Ever since the advent of mobile phones everyone pats their pockets to feel the familiar bulge before stepping out of house.  There are times when I have blanked out and reached office without mine.  It hasn't killed me so far but I do feel like I have left my baby at the railway station.  As soon as I get home, I pounce on my phone to find out what has been happening in my little world while I was away.

Internet:

I have mentioned this separately.  Phone is one thing, internet another.  It is hard to breathe in a non-wifi world.  At home, internet downtime on my laptop makes me feel like Robinson Crusoe watching the ship sail away without him.  Luckily, my son feels worse. He is on the phone with the provider before you can say Jack Robinson and giving them a dressing down for letting the internet drop.

I use a prepaid pack on my phone and the notification about its limits being reached throws me into a tizzy.  I am on to Paytm in no time for my recharge.  I could easily get into a rehab for internet addicts.

Pens and paper:

I must have, in my bag or on my person, a set of pens.  One just does not cut it.  I have to have at least four pens at a time.  I am a real pen-junkie.  Let me inside a stationary shop and I start fiddling with pens and buying a batch whether I need them or not.  They don't have to be expensive, just different.  I like using pens of colors other than the boring ink-blue.  I like keeping tiny notepads or a sheet of paper. Sometimes I fold a plain sheet of paper, cut it, and staple it to make a makeshift notepad.

Lip Balm and Hand Cream:

I am not big on make-up.  A bit of a cream for the face is enough for me.  I try to be regular on kajal but forget often.  BUT. Lip balm is another story.  I have four or five tubes of every hue of lip balm at various nooks and crannies of my house.  Near the television seat, my bed, in the drawer of my workstation, in my bag, on my dresser.  The very nanosecond my lips feel a little dry, I need a coat.  Similarly for hand cream, I need a bottle handy to slather on my hands whenever they feel even a little dry.

Water:

Water is my manna, my nectar.  It keeps me hydrated and well.  If I don't drink my requisite volumes, I fall ill.  I really do.  I have to have a bottle handy whenever I step out of the house.  If someone reports an illness, I always ask if they drink enough water.  Try it.

Because of my water-mania, shared by son, I have a number of fancy water bottles around the house.  I try to avoid plastic and drink off a steel bottle.  I would prefer glass but as they are breakable I avoid them.