Blossoms after separation

It's strange how Guha's car (passed on to him by his sister, which he signed over to me) has been steadily wasting away ever since he's gone over to Rockville. First (fu-h-st) it wouldn't start one day right outside Gerry's. I'd gone in to get my morning coffee before going over to teach. It simply wouldn't start. I turned the ignition key but a loud ponderous silence met my ears. I turned the key again and was met with the same. I wasn't in a mood to hear the weighty silent thoughts of Blossoms right then. Thankfully enough, I saw the trolley turning the corner and so I leapt out of Blossoms with my bag and key and coffee along with my packet of cigarettes and ran over to the bus-stop and flagged down the trolley. I called Gerry as soon as I was on the bus and let him know and he said, "I saw you. Good work there." I returned from the class and Kim (my neighbour) was there. He came out with me. Got into the car, turned the ignition key and Blossoms brrr-ed into action. I was puzzled and Kim gave me a look which seemed to say, "now what were you saying about the car not starting?"

After that I started taking the trolley in the mornings (and stopped doing that after a week or so and started walking to and fro). I still used Blossoms for groceries. That was nailed in the head when one day, Sean, another neighbour, informed me that one of the window's had been shattered. It was some sort of an accident, I guess. So one window went missing. I tried taking Blossoms out one evening (minus the shattered window) when the car door got stuck. It simply wouldn't close shut. The lock was tweaked and that was that. There was nothing I could do. I put the plastic sheet back in place and went off walking and bought a movie from Borders, My Cousin Vinny, had a nice cold sandwich by myself while grinning in glee and walked back home.

Now I'm not sure what state Blossoms is in. I've been worried that she'll be losing bits and parts of herself with every passing week. However, my very quiet nice neighbour and his nice wife (Senthil and Madhu) also wish to go grocery shopping today. Hopefully Blossoms will be in fine fettle today and not in her state of silent sepearation. Let's see.

P.S: I'm happy to report that Blossoms is doing perfectly fine. She happily "brr-ed" along yesterday. And did not give me the silent treatment nor does anything else seemed to have happened to her. She's behaving herself well in front of strangers and other friends.

Amazing Grace

Some days ago - a couple or maybe more I was marching down to Panera - a bakery chain, which lies across the river. I had my cloth bag and it's been a strange winter but it wasn't particularly cold but I had my (fairly new) white coat (which Guha nagged me to get and then simply bought) and a (fairly new) black hat on (which for those readers who may have come across the book series, made me look a little like Paddington Bear...at least I'm quite convinced that I looked like a "Detective Paddington Bear"). I was walking and marching along when all of a sudden a cycle whizzed by me on the side-walk and something I saw landed right on my right. I was somewhat vaguely startled out of my happy blob of a reverie to see that a grey-blue baseball cap was lying on the ground. I picked it up and there was a breathless little voice saying, "Oh, thank you, thank you." I turned around and I saw this bright, bright very young boy who was reaching out his hand for his cap. I handed it to him and said, "Jesus Christ I was terrified there for a second that you'd crashed somewhere." He gave me a brilliant smile with his eyes glistening, and I very beatifically blessed him. I don't know whether bear look-alikes are allowed to bless - but I went on ahead for my evening jaunt feeling quite serene.

That's that for the post today.

P.S: I went outside for a bit. The sun is here...the mushy ice is slowly melting...Spring is bouncing around in the air and The Cross on the Church (Immaculate Conception) steeple around the corner was all shining and just 'there'!....Hmm.

Hmmm...

Funny-funny: with all my memory for odd dates, which stick to me even when I apparently forget - I completely lost my sense of time - today is Valentine's Day. Should I say 'Yippee'?

Well I'll go ahead and say, "Happy Valentine's Day" and make wishes all the same. No harm in that.

Here's a song link and another one by The Beatles, which I've loved for a fairly long time - ever since we were in school...and some of us would get together and sing it quite lustily too, back in those days. A couple of young folks or more? might like it, me thinks (if they haven't heard 'em already, that is).

Riding on the Bus

I take the bus back and forth these days. Yesterday something pricelessly sweet happened. Normally I glint and glare and keep a dead-pan expression on my face although I do greet the bus-driver and he greets me with a cheery hello and so on. And as far as I have observed (and Guha when he was here is the one who got me communicating with bus-drivers although I can never be quite as garrulous as he used to be) - the greetings are genuine. One bus-driver indeed had remarked that it was always a pleasure to see Guha or me because we always smiled and said 'hello, how are you doing?' The young bus-driver who told me so was a young girl herself (younger than I am for sure) and she was so breathless when she told me the same and more - about how rude some of the passengers were - I would have tried giving her a warm hug if I could have.

Anyway, yesterday I was somewhat distracted while on the bus. Thinking about this and that although I had noticed that it was a "toddler day". So these very young children are taken to the public library some days of the week by, what I think, are basically rather elderly and somewhat portly old women. Who takes care of whom, is a good question. They're a lovely bunch - that's for sure but most of the times I simply glance and look away. Yesterday was no different at the beginning. I was lost in my thoughts and at some point the bus came to a halt in front of the public library. At some point jostled out of my thoughts I looked up to hear one of the elderly women trying to tell one of the little girls to keep walking. Now something needs to be said. The bus was completely empty apart from the three women, the brood of little children and me. And the bus has some stairs towards the back. When I looked up a strange sight greeted my eyes. There were these young children all standing like darling little lambs. Right at the front of this standing queue was a little girl dressed in pink pants and a pink jersey and she was just standing there, waiting. The rest of the kids were also just standing there. The elderly women were unable to move ahead of the kids. There was no space and no amount of coaxing the little girl had gotten her to budge and walk on through the length of the bus. I smiled in my head very broadly. It was like they were little children for sure....but like little lambs. I got up from my seat without thinking and smiling at the little girl in pink, I took her hand and said, "Come along. Come along. Keep walking and you'll see that the rest of them will be following you." And she let me take her little hand in mine and sure enough the entire brood of little kids started following the girl and me. The bus-driver was so grateful that I felt terribly embarrassed. I got off the bus and picked up the tiny tot and put her on the sidewalk and all the other kids followed (and no, I didn't pick up each kid and deposit her (they were all little girls yester') onto the sidewalk! That would have been most time-consuming and quite unnecessary. They were very, very young - maybe 4/5 but were all quite capable of getting off from a bus, thank you!). The sidewalk was a tad slippery and so I kept a watch on the kids. And of course the three women were gushing their kind thanks and I was smiling gently and feeling terribly embarrassed or a bit at any rate but saying, "Oh, it was my pleasure. Really." The bus-driver thanked me again and once before I got off the bus and I grinned cheerily and got off. Back to thinking furiously and reading and pondering on other matters but it was a lovely little incident that filled my heart for those moments for me....

I remember a friend telling me that I could write about life here but I didn't know what to write about....this seems to be something lovely enough...

That's the post for today.

On comments and reviews and accents?

This post would fit better on my other blog....but I've become reticent on that blog for different reasons and so I'll fit this here.

I've received a variety of comments and reviews on my ability and competence as an instructor. Some of the comments are funny and some are strange and some are just mean (she's a racist!) and some although seemingly mean I can recognize the facts in them (she writes on the board and I don't know what the arrows and arrows and more arrows mean...strangely enough the arrows and the writing have also made sense to some students; she gets flustered in class and talks about too many things and goes off on tangents).

However one comment is so funny and delightful - I have decided to share it. I laughed when I read it. I have got all sorts of comments about my accent: where do you come from? Where did you do your schooling? You have a different accent...I personally think I've got a mongrel accent. I can modulate it a bit when I'm careful and when I'm teaching but it lapses sometimes into a hotchpotch of an accent which it is anyway.

Anyway, one student: a very sweet young boy with a very disarming smile had written words to the effect of, ....has got a lovely accent. Her accent reminds me of Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" !!!! Very embarrassed I was indeed.

I could write a mile long post here but I'll get going for now.

The bird bunch and the cat

It's definitely the middle of winter here and a very strange winter it's been but there's something stranger....there have been six or seven black birds that have been flying onto my porch for the last couple of days. I have no idea why....did they imagine that Spring had arrived?

It's the same bunch of birds (I hope it's the same bunch) that's been visiting my porch for the last couple of days. There is a stray cat who lives on the porch (a cat - whom Guha christened 'Minimus' - who still assumes that I'm going to catch him and turn him into a winter muffler; he sometimes forgets and approaches my extended fingers but then runs away; I don't know whether both of us are a little scared of each other because sometimes I am a little worried that he's going to bite my fingers off....and sometimes he'll be engaging in some form of communication - with longing looks and all exchanged across the window - with my two cats who live inside; sometimes he miaows for them when they are elsewhere; and then sometimes he'll be miaowwing furiously even when he has his food and water and both Barty and Max are sitting near the window - I know he's being a "cat" then; I rush outside still - like the human fool I am - and then he'll go scampering under the couch and sit there very comfortably and look at me; so I'll be sitting on my haunches and he'll be sitting there looking immensely pleased with himself and honouring me with a kind look every now and again but he'll not come anywhere near me; so I'll be yakking for a bit while sitting on my haunches; he has no intentions of coming any closer but he sometimes has an almost smug look alongwith a sort of forlorn look - the little dear - which seems to say, "aha. I got you to come out and sit with me." He looks perfectly content and after a while I go back in). The first day I saw the bunch of birds swooping down I thought I was seeing things until Barty (my cat) started chittering and chattering the way cats do when they see birds. I looked and they went for the little stray cat's bowl of food...at least I think that's what they did after chattering amongst themselves. So out I went and put some more cat food into a plate. The plate of food was gone in the eve' - so I'm assuming the birds had their fill. They came down again just some moments ago. They look a little confused...as much as I can make out and somewhat ruffled too - going by their feathers. I don't know whether they are rattled but I believe they might be for one of the birds with its feathers sticking out suddenly pecked the other one whose feathers are also sticking out and the second one pecked the other one back for no reason that I could see; it all seemed quite unnecessary - and rather rude - although I don't know whether they were exchanging fond gestures....

But what are the birds doing here in the middle of winter? Guha, the vet, has let me know that I should give them some moong dal and rice - and so I've put both on a plate out on the porch.