Life doesn't start at any age...

In 2007, when I turned forty five and longed for a steady relationship, people started telling me not to think about myself as my life is more or less finished. ``It's time you should concentrate on your children' lives'', this was the most common phrase I was advised.
I started wondering - ``Am I really on the verge of dying?'' ``Is my life really over now?'' Also, if I think about myself, does that mean I am not thinking about my children or I am neglecting them?''
I had no answers, yet I decided, ``No, I will live my life the way I want and will also look after the needs of my children.''
Next year, I happen to travel to England and here in a small village of Cornwall, I bumped into a group of grannies - all in their eighties, dresses to kill with manicured hands and styled hair. They were chatting and laughing while sipping their Devon Cream Tea at a restaurant. Awestruck, as I was, I left my tea and started staring at them. They finished their tea and each one paid one's share.
Suddenly, I realised that they were about to leave. I approached them and requested them for a photo. They happily agreed and posed. One of them with her frail and wrinkled hands grabbed me by my waist and asked the restaurant owner to click us together.
This was my first stint with the fact that life has nothing to do with numbers of age. Young or old is what our brain tells us.













I am again visiting England. This time, another small village - Shaldon (Devon). On a sunny afternoon I see a group of over twenty women (all above sixty) sitting next to the Bowling Green. Their laughter was the only sound that was echoing in the quiet surroundings.
I was curious to know more about them and unable to resist myself I went closer and found that it was the County Bowling Team having its tea brake. Reading shock on my face, one of them said, ``We too, need to move our joints, isn't it?'' I looking dumb nodded my head.
How can they understand what goes on in my head when I see these old women playing, laughing, dressing up, meeting friends and in short `living' their lives. They cannot fathom what goes in my head when I see that these old women have their lives beyond their homes, husbands and children. They laugh without feeling guilty. They paint their nails and get their hair styled without the fear of being given names. They look after themselves without being called selfish.

Back home what I have seen and what I have been preached is that women should not think about themselves. Once you have children, you should put your life on the back-burner and should think only about your children' lives- this is the most common rhetoric which most women are forced to listen to. It is sort of crime if a woman over forty dresses up glamorously and looks good. After having a really short hair style about a couple of years back, what I heard about myself shocked me. ``She has a daughter of marriageable age (my daughter was at that time only 21) and look at her she is trying to look like a teenager''.

Look at this woman in the picture. Isn't she looking pretty? Travelling in a bus she was dressed picture perfect. I gave her a careful glance to see if I can spot a guffaw to criticise her but I failed. She was simply perfect at seventy plus. Once settled in the bus she opened her bag and took out a plastic bag full of toffees. Leisurely she popped one in her mouth and at the same time she saw me staring at her. She gave me a girlie smile and softly said, ``Can't resist chocolates''.

Absolutely!!!

life less miserable

The ownership of Harrods has changed in London. The government has changed in the United Kingdom. One thing that hasn’t changed in this country is courtesy and consideration. The moment we come out of Heathrow and get on to the Tube (underground metro rail service) there is an announcement that the central lines are under repair and people willing to go to London city will have to change to buses and then to another tube to reach their desired destinations.

While listening to this announcement I shuddered with apprehension... Oh no, not this hassle of tagging the luggage along and struggling to find a bus, I have just arrived in this country. Coming from India, I started imagining the worst. Before we could reach the next stop to look for a bus connection, I started picturing a crowd of people pushing each other to get on to the first bus, and rest of the people resorting to an endless wait with their stuff, for the other buses to come.

Dreading the journey ahead, we got off at the next stop. What I saw outside was beyond my imagination. A row of rail staff with their glowing jackets was standing at every corner to help the commuters. The back of their jackets boldly read ``Rail Replacement Help Service’’. What I see next is a row of buses carrying similar signs – ``Rail Replacement Bus Service’’. In other words – there was no hassle, no pushing, no waiting and no chaos.

Everything was so well organised. The government had planned to do the repair work on Saturday and Sunday – obviously as a consideration for thousands of people who use Tube to go for their work. Proper arrangements were made for those too, who had to travel on holidays.

The consideration made me think why can’t we (Indian government) think with so much consideration for its citizens? Why can’t we have a system in place –which helps the government function smoothly and at the same time let the citizens live a life less troublesome? Am I asking too much??

Elephants.. in Lucknow & in London

There is something common between London and Lucknow these days.....

Both the cities are adorning statues of elephants.

Mayawati – the chief minister of the most populous Indian state of Uttar Pradesh – has erected statues of elephants – the symbol of her political party (Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP) – all over Lucknow. Then there are organisations in the Queen’s land, which have put up figurines of the pachyderm at several places all over London.

The only difference between the two places is that when Mayawati gets elephants’ statues erected she does not think about the animal. Her government is least concerned about the status of the elephants or for that matter any other animal anywhere in the world or even in her own state. The only purpose behind those hundreds of elephants in pink stone – which can be seen anywhere and everywhere in Lucknow – is to push her political agenda and tell her people that she has immortalised the elephant (read the BSP).

But the elephants figurines, which adorn the lush green lawns in London – be it the greens of the parliament or any tourist site like London Eye – they stand there with a message – save the Asiatic elephants – which is on the brink of extinction because of shrinking habitat. There are agencies which are exhorting people to come forward and save the Asian Elephants. The agencies call on people to join the elephant family.

Organisations like Eco Movers and Fallow & Ball also organised an Elephant Parade in London, sometime back. The companies provided paints for colouring the statues band electric vehicles to transport the statues to different places. Various artists and designers painted the elephants’ statues in striking colours. Now these vibrantly coloured elephants are kept at various public places sending across the message to save the animal by adopting it.