Housekeeping!

Hi you! Yea, you! Thank you for reading my random musings. I’m so very appreciative of it, you have no idea.

I set a goal for 2015 to write here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and to use this as a training ground to improve my writing. I dream of publishing one day and I haven’t gotten enough practice for a while.

Mondays are times for me to write these entirely personal, almost journal-like posts to record my journey and growth. After all that is why I started this blog. It will probably have some sort of a something I saw or heard during the week that inspired me to do something or made me think. Yes, I used too many ‘something’s in that sentence, I know!

Wednesdays are for the creative stuff. I was exasperated in August and wrote my first poem, ‘Turning Point’. It was so freeing and cathartic; I really wanted to write more poetry. I also want to try my hand at short stories, so last week, inspired by Reader’s Digest’s 100 word story challenge, I wrote a story with less than a 100 words – read it here.

Fridays are for honing the report/article writer in me. I’ll put a spotlight on anything, really. Historical tales, buildings, people – the options are plenty. It is an area I hope to better as this goes along as I tend to make anything I write into personal stories and I am not allowed to do that on Fridays.

I’m sorry this post is all housekeeping but I needed to post this, if for nothing else but to hold myself accountable and motivated to stick to this schedule. It is something I spoke to my Buddhist district as well – setting goals, planning and declaration are very powerful in leading a fulfilled life.

So do go ahead, 2015 just started. Set huge goals for your life, plan to get shit done and go full throttle. Now is all we have, really!

Much love!

For Aayi

9/7/2013 – 9/11 2013

There are updates to be shared and they’re important; and then there is bad news.

I re-joined dance classes – a Google offer this time. I am not good at all but a Group-on I used earlier this year has had me interested in getting better. I managed my department through one of the worst Mondays in a long time as my supervisor fell ill due to her fast. Aditya made me delicious Panang curry. I have sort of gotten back into chanting alone for an extended time. I survived a bout of ‘lazy-sickness’ pretty well. Just 4 blog posts missed! Phew! 😀

Now for the bad news. I found out that someone very dear to me passed away 10 days ago. She was the house help cum nanny  with my family for about 8 years of my school going days – practically became family – her and her children as well. I spoke to my grandmother who visited her family on the day of her passing and that gave me a bit of relief around it all. She passed peacefully after enjoying her morning cup of tea while surrounded by her entire family.

I do and will always remember  my ‘Janaki Aayi’ (I call her Aayi, her name is Janaki) as one of the most loving, sensitive and generous people I have ever known. I remember  how she once cried in our living room because my kid brother, probably 5 years at the time told her off for picking him up from the bus stop because he wanted to come home on his own. I remember that after she had stopped working for us and was living with her own family, when she heard that my mother had met with an accident, she was home and taking care of us kids, 8 and 12 at the time the very next day. Nobody had even asked her to come. That is the person she was. She stayed on with us for another year while my mother recuperated. While my mother was still in the Intensive Care Unit, my grandmother sengt her a note that just said “Janaki has come”, which my mother still recalls to be her biggest relief – knowing that Aayi was with her kids. While my entire family literally lived in the hospital for weeks, we never missed a school day or a home-cooked meal, thanks to Aayi.

All my love and respects to my beloved Aayi. I will miss you so much and you will forever be in my prayers!

With that and lots of love

Sasneham Ammini (Malayalam ; translation: with love, Ammini)

for Aayi was the only person in the entire world that called me Ammini

“I’m Busy!”

9/6/2013

Today was one of my toughest days at work. My supervisor took the day off work as it was Day 5 of her Paryushan fast – that’s 5 days she has not had anything but water and she had asked me to stand-in for her. Fridays are always brutal for our department, and this particular Friday , no funds came through – seriously stressful. In addition, the softwares that usually work so well for us every day decided to not help us today. Which meant long calls to customer services, of which 98% of the time is spent on-hold!

My friend Bir works full-time as a software professional, is a very active leader in Buddhist practice and takes acting lessons by night. He always says that being busy is a blessing. It really did not feel that way today – at least not when it was all happening. I texted my supervisor of the final numbers and such as I walked to the train station and she replied with a ‘Good Job’ and a thumbs up smiley! Now, that felt nice.

Busy is good, busy is really how you handle it. Look at it as an opportunity to grow and show your full potential, and it is a wonderful thing. Look at it as work and that is all you’ll see: Too much work, No time to rest! It ultimately boils down to what you want to do and how you want to do it.

That has made me look at the places where I use ‘I’m Busy!!’ as an excuse – it is usually to explain why I did not call someone or keep in touch with friends from school or home. So here’s what I am going to do about it. One phone call to someone I haven’t talked to in a while every day!

With that and lots of love!