I walked 5 Km - wow !

I am normally so lazy when it comes to exerting myself physically - its unbelievable. When we lived in Bandra, Bombay - I used to take an auto rickshaw to go from home which was on Mount Mary Road to get to Mehboob studios where I shopped for groceries and ate Pani Puri at a lovely stall ( from where Karishma Kapoor ordered chaat - but thats another story). This distance was not more than half a Km. I cringe when I think about that.

I've gottten a bit better over the years but not overly so. However in my stays in various cities I have realised that city centres tend to be small. And famous landmarks tend to be pretty close. So getting from The Merlion in Singapore to the Esplanade is just a handy walk ( this I discovered after about 4 years of living on Singapore).

One tends to think that there should be some effort involved in getting from famous landmark A to famous landmark B - very often that is not the case.

It was with this great wisdom that I decided that I would walk from Dhruv's tennis class at Regent's Park to Hamleys ( the most famous London toystore) on Regent's Street. I mean how far could it be. I needed to buy a tube train toy for Madhav's 4th birthday tomorrow ( 19th June....happy b'day my love :-)....and for some inexplicable reason it wasn't available in stores closer to home.

Thats Hamleys on Regent Street

Regents Park Tennis Courts

After trudging from Baker Street Underground to drop Dhruv at his tennis courts - I marched off to Regent Street with my trusty London A-Z Mapbook. And I walked and walked and walked.

I have to say few cities are as lovely as London on a warm summer evening. Maybe its just the contrast with the majority of London evenings which are dull and dreary that does the trick.

On the way - a plaque on one of the buildings stopped me short. For those of you who have seen "The Kings Speech" - the speech therapist was such an amazing character and instrumental in building the confidence of the stammering King.  Of course - I was on Harley Street ! Thats one thing I love about London - there is history littered here and there just waiting for  interested souls.

As a resident - one tends to overlook the magnificence of London architecture. The green plaque jolted me into pausing to look up periodically as I walked. I walked down the entire length of Harley Street, past Oxford Circus and into Regent Street. A distance of 2.5 Kms. WOW ! ( Okay, okay - I know for many of you it isnt such a big deal. Well for me it is - and this is my blog - so there :-p ) .

I bought the much sought after London tube train toy and a couple more before I headed back the way I came. Another 2.5 Kms. I know that this is a precise measurement because of Google Maps. Bless them.

By now my feet were leaden and I was soooo tired. Dhruv called to ask me where on earth I had vanished off to. I told him to make his way back to Baker Street station and meet me at the Sherlock Holmes statue just outside the tube station. And so we met there. And went into the bowels of the earth to get to Finchley Road station.

But Oh - the day wasn't done yet. I needed to buy Paneer for Madhav's special b'day dinner and that had to be bought at "Price Wise" the Pakistani store at the station and of course I had to buy pancakes - Madhav's favourite breakfast at good old Waitrose ( how I love that supermarket).

Now why on earth have I put so many pics into this blog post ? I have no idea - I guess I just had a visually and physically over powering day and felt the need to record it...........

And now my aching muscles tell me I must go to bed. Good Night World.

Only as happy as your least happy child

Dhruv, I and Madhav ( yes, even he at 4) - love this series called "The Middle" which is a TV serial about the ups and downs in the lives of a middle class American family - The Hecks.

Fabulous actors, simple and relevant story lines.....superb dialogue.

Frankie Heck is the lead female protagonist ( the mum in the family of 5) and she recently said in one of the episodes " a mother can only be as happy as her least happy child". It struck my heart at the speed of light. In fact it is so profound I can well imagine she was only quoting a well known old quote.
But I was hearing it for the first time.

Gosh - how true it is. It has happened ever so many times. If one of the boys is down - it is impossible for me to be any happier than that child which is "down". And its only the children. It isn't the "family". So I do think, frankly speaking, that RamC or I could well manage to muster being quite happy even in the face of minor downs in the other's life. But when it comes to the kids...........well, what can I say - I think the umbilical cord never snaps.

And I am pretty sure I am just one in a vast majority if not unanimity of mums.......

Metabolism down for sure

I had heard metabolism goes down at about 40. And I had always prided myself on never ever having dieted and yet having a discernible waist ( I don't set the bar too high ).

And so nothing could have been more humbling than that bulge in the middle that is beginning to set in firmly in place and well in time to welcome my 40th. Oh God ! I love to eat.....correction - I love to over eat...when it comes to my favourite food - I eat till I really can eat no more.

And the body is now getting back . And the problem is while it bothers me - it doesn't seem to bother me enough to do something about it seriously. And so I eat and the tummy bulge grows. And I just don't feel great anymore.

I recently discarded some nice shirts that I had chosen a couple of years back - precisely because they highlighted my now lost trim waist. It was so painful...sob, sob....

But the battle isn't completely lost yet. I have recently started YOGA ! And I am hoping that I can reverse the bugling process somewhat........so help me God !

Dark thoughts, anyone ?

I sometimes feel like sharing even my deep and dark thoughts...........we all have them, don't we ? Our little secrets, our little desires, our little wrong doings. Do we all just want to take it to the grave with us ? That, I suppose, is the sensible thing to do.

I do , sometimes, feel like talking about the taboo topics.

What, pray , could be the forum ? This blog ? Heavens, no !

An anonymous blog ? There could be some potential there.....Hmm......

But given I barely have the time for this legit blog - its a little difficult to imagine getting the time to write an anon blog.

And so, for now, the dark ones will remain consigned to the dark recesses of my mind. Amen !

2 very different women

On a recent trip to India ( to be with my dad on his 80th birthday. Yes, he is 80+ plus and truly rocking) - I read 2 books on the long flights to and back. Coincidentally both were stories of very strong women written in the first person.

On the flight to Bangalore I read "Provoked" the story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia . She came to England from India in an arranged marriage to a very strange man. Many years of abuse of every kind imaginable ended in her setting her husband on fire and causing his death. Apparently she remarks sometimes with macabre humor that she is a "self made widow" !
It was a case that captured the public imagination when it happened and finally resulted in an early release from prison for Ahluwalia because of the circumstances of the case.
It was an utterly depressing read. Made more so because I could imagine quite well what the journey for a girl from Punjab into a dinghy London home would have meant. As I crib about the
life of an expat myself - I must remind myself more frequently how much worse it would be to be an "expat" with no one to speak to while tolerating abuse and coming to grips with an alien society whose langauge you don't speak too well.
Ahluwalia still lives in England - employed by the Royal Mail.

On the return flight I read "Remembering Anne Frank" by Miep Gies , the Dutch woman who played a huge role in sheltering the Jewish family Frank from the Nazis during World War II. It all ended in tragedy with the family discovered by the Germans and sent to concentration camps where Anne, her sister and mother persished.

It is a remarkable book about this heroine who had a strong sense of right and wrong. And at great personal risk - she sheltered and cared for the Franks in a secret set of rooms on the top floors of Mr. Otto Frank's factory. Having lived in Amsterdam for 3 years and having visited the Anne Frank house( and of course having read the young girl's diary ) added a big layer of understanding and appreciation to my reading of this book.

 It struck me only after completing both the books that they were so similar in being the stories of strong women. And yet were so different. Would I say Kiranjit Ahluwalia showed greatness in her actions? She was a desperately wronged woman pushed to the wall ......who then took the most drastic action possible. A great story , a lesson to all of us, a great task ahead for women's rights campaigners but an admirable woman ? Not in my view.

 Miep Gies, on the other hand, was a truly outstanding human being - who showed strength of conviction in the face of adversity - many many times over. It's not easy to know that one could be safe by just keeping to oneself and yet court risk repeatedly to help people that are being unjustly discriminated against.
 I can't wait to go to Amsterdam again and revisit both the Anne Frank house and various other Amsterdam spots mentioned in " Remembering Anne Frank"....

Intent

I will soon be 40 ! I admit what I feel right now is not what the blog title suggests. Rocking at 40 ? Well it can always be an aspiration............
I will try and record my  observations and experiences in this blog. While not being very social - I seem to have a high "need to share" . I did this for a while through Facebook but realised that I wasn't able to draw a line on how much time I spent on it. I am now on a self imposed exile from FB.
The "need to share" however hasn't gone away . And I hope that this blog will fill the gap.