Home Away from Home

As I got up today, I felt the smell of fresh coffee. I woke up to see a cup of coffee with some biscuits kept at my bedside table. This reminded me of home. The old school and college days, when mamma used to wake me up by serving a steaming cup of coffee. The aroma, the taste, so refreshing, still so fresh in my memories.

A sudden thought hit me, ?I was in bed, so who prepared this coffee for me? Is it a dream?? I pinched myself, ouch? that hurts, which meant I was not dreaming. I walked out of the room with the cup of coffee, in search of my roommate. I asked her whether she prepared that for me, and the answer was YES.

I was relaxed but somehow my heart wanted her to say NO. A no because I wanted to be in a belief that my mom prepared it for me. The whole scene reminded me of mom, and I missed her at that moment. I got ready for the office and all set to leave, when I noticed a lunch box kept at dining table just for me. I thanked God saying, ?finally he(cook) turned up?. I took the box and left for office.

On my way, I was thinking about those days, when mamma used to cook my every meal. All her possible ways by which she could stuff her daughter. I could not remember any single day when I slept without food. Maggi, chips, biscuits, all junk food was banned and I always cooked maggi when I was sure that mom was not around. But now, I no more enjoy cooking maggi for myself. Almost every day I eat it, not because I like it, but because I am left with no other option at times.

This very thought brought tears to my eyes and I decided to call up mom. I reached office and gave her a call. The first thing she asked was, ?Is everything alright??. I was speechless. And I thought, how the time has changed. When I was with her, I used to nag her by calling after every hour when I was out with friends. In those days she never asked me what was wrong, as she knew that it was my habit. My call at this point of day to her, means that I am in trouble. Time has changed, she is still the same, it?s me who has changed. But I continued my conversation saying that I just called up to ask how she was, and how are things going on with her. And we continued our conversation. Then the ice-breaker came when she asked, ?Don?t you have any work today?? I was shocked and asked her why she asked that, in reply to which she said, it was almost 30 minutes, I have been talking to her.

I hurriedly ended the conversation saying I have to attend a meeting. I lied to her and deep down I know, she knows that I lied to her but what else can I do? The lady with whom I used to have endless conversations, sleepless nights of gossips? has all ended. I am so occupied with my new life that I forgot to spend few hours with her.

I rollback the time and thought of every single day that I have not spent with her. This made me realize that there was not a single day when I was busy, busy in a sense to neglect my mom. The lady who gave her whole life just for me, I could not even give her the time that she deserved. I remembered how I used to tell her about all my daily happenings and how I always failed to ask about her day. It left me all in tears. I missed her and missed her to core.

I was feeling ashamed, because it was a cup of coffee that made me realize her presence in my world.

We all are here, away from our family, living with our friends, who are our new family. We spend our lunch time with them gossiping about what?s going in and around, weekend-shopping with them and even festivals as most of us are staying too far from home. And when we call home, we are in a hurry to hang up as most of are BUSY. Are we really that busy?

Think of the lady whom we have left back at home. She still misses her son/daughter at the dining table, although most of us enjoy our meals with our friends and colleagues. She still waits all day just to hear her son/daughter?s...

No Internet

I have many things in my mind including good (at least for me) and bad news. Since I don?t have internet facility, I am unable to post any post in my blogs. I will try to post by this weekend.

Mindset

Got it from manuscript. Hope you like this article.

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As my friend was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not. My friend saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.
Well," he said, "when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free." My friend was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before? So make an attempt to grow further.... Why shouldn't we try it again?

"YOUR ATTEMPT MAY FAIL, BUT NEVER FAIL TO MAKE AN ATTEMPT."

Changes: Too Dangerous

Madurai, it is one of the biggest, peaceful and beautiful cities in Tamilnadu. For development of Tamil Language this city has considerable participation. The great Meenakshi Amman Temple is in Madurai. We don’t get good food anywhere in Tamilnadu like Madurai. “Madurai is better than heaven” is the slogan that we can hear from Madurai people. Such a great city, nowadays it’s slowly losing its originality and becoming like Chennai.

When I was studying my Diploma 2^nd year, I went to Meenakshi Amman Temple. I had good Dharsan without pay anything. But when I was visiting same temple on my Engineering 3^rd year, I have taken special ticket by the cost of Rs. 25 and I had given Rs. 5 to kurukkar. Other than this I have not faced any issues anywhere till come out of the temple. Last weekend I went to the same temple with my Mom and Dad. When I was taking special ticket, literally I was shocked, because the ticket cost was Rs. 100. Really this is unacceptable but I did not have any other choice. So I took the ticket and entered. We called ayyar for special pooja and gave all pooja items to him. Simply he told me that “today is Tamil month karthikai 1^st and next year kumbavishegam, so I need Rs. 200 for this Pooja”. We don’t know what to say. If we did not accept then he won’t do pooja properly. That’s why we accept for this also. I have enquired why such a drastic changes in this temple. I heard that when Meenakshi Amman temple was proposed to the World Wonders, temple devasdhanam has increased the amount. People who are all coming for free Dharsan, really they won’t get Dharsan since “idol” is very small. Temple devasdhanam is introducing new rules and conditions, to show the richness. I feel that this temple is trying to come like Tirumala, for that devasdhanam is sucking money from public.