a bright, sunny, cold afternoon..all to your self...

 

 

11.12.13                                                                                                       Wed, 11:30 am

 

                                                                                                                    

Had I been a Stay-at-home-mom (well. I was...for the last 3 years)...today would have been the kind of day that I would definitely NOT be  Staying-at-home. Alright, the mornings and evenings are cold, about 3-9 deg C , just like that...but, the afternoons are lovely. A stroll out by our neighbourhood beach, or play-yard pushing one of my younger boys in the pram...do miss those days, at times...ever since I got back to workforce .

 

 

 

 

(Thats our Boy No.2 on his rounds while he was around 2 yrs old (a 3 yr old click). And that was our very very handy jogging stroller..it stayed all though his days and Boy No.3 as well.)

 

Anyways..like the old saying goes in our language..malayalam..

 

"vaidhyan kalpichathum...roghi ichichathum paalu"

 (what the patient longed..is what the doctor prescribed..in those lines.)

 

I had to take a half day off from work today, to be back home before our two younger ones reached back from school and I had about an hour to kill before they were back. So, either I reach back home early and just be there alone by myself... doing some browsing or watching TV..or ...or...or...

 

I take the other road and go straight to the beachfront for a stroll ! and yes ! thats exactly what I did.

 

Was not in the best of dressings for a walk, esp in workwear shoes ....yet....It felt good...a silent walk by the beach..eyes just wandering....

 

The usually, crowded playarea was soo silent, being a weekday afternoon except for few adults who were taking their afternoon walks ....

 

and, there was this Mom-Son duo

 

 

just sat there at the bench watching them play for a while..making sure, they dont notice that i was clicking as well (some paparazi work, i admit..but harmless ;) )

 

 

 

 

and what i felt cute...was this. More than the kido enjoying the sand..it was the Mom...making a mound out of the mud...then breaking it down as if the architecture doesnt fit and then trying out some other shape. 



At times..its fine to let out the child in you..to enjoy the beauty around us, to the fullest.

311 - The Beauty & The Beast

 

Day # Beautiful # Waters # Calm # World # Happy # 311

 

 

 Day # Beastly # Waters # Scary # World # Terrified # 311

 

Look across # Serene # 311

 

Look across # Fearful # 311

 

 

Son # Alone # Water # Merry # 311

 

 

Son # Alone # Water # Despair # 311

 

Trailing behind # Mind # Relaxed # 311

 

  Trailing behing # Mind # Turmoil # 311

 

Mom # Baby # Secure # Happy # 311

 

 

 

Mom # Baby # Insecure # Thankful Just to be Alive # 311 

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I hope you could co-relate. It is definitely a disturbing post, and i was just being selective in not keeping even more disturbing pictures of this incident in here.

 

The two phases of the world...the same day......same time....just across the globe.

Friday, 311 - March 2011 - was a beautiful day here. Sky was blue...few cottony clouds around...weather was perfect that you had to be out to enjoy it to the full...the sea was soo calm.

Mother Nature was being really pleasant and sweet.

 

But right across, straight across the globe..she was putting on that most wicked mask. Unleasing terror all around.

 

She could be soo calm and soo violent at the very same time.

 

 

 She could just be ME, YOU..and honestly, that look on her face, just makes me wonder.."are you prepared for the unexpected, God forbid something bad happens.? Manmade...natural disasters ..are way too common in the papers these days, that they dont move you any more, unless you yourself gets affected by it. Personally, ME..am not at all prepared for anything bad..and I would go blank. Unable to respond.

 

Mamma Earth....pleeassee...dont do this to us . Their pray ?
....
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That was of the second episode of Tsunami that we came to witness.

The first, Dec 26th 2004, was even more scary, for me. Coz..he was there..right in the middle of it, in Maldives..when it hit, and me, a 5 month preggie lady back home in India !

 

 

you will have no clue what i went through....

 

...to be continued.

 

Good rain...bad rain....

 

I like rain
I hate rain
Rain is good
Rain is bad
Rain helps plants grow
Rain destroys cities
Rain cleans the air
Rain causes floods
I like rain
I hate rain
Rain is good
Rain is bad       

                                 by
                                                  Ricky Durkin

one of the most simplest poems on |RAIN, that i have ever come across ...

 

......like/hate..good/bad...as simple as that .

 

For the "like", "good" part of the rain, below are some images of my husband's nephews lavishing in the rains. His place is at Pala in Kottayam District, Kerala and its very very green...(oh well...more watery these days like the rest of our state)

This is originally a paddy field and now its more of a lake.

 

The road and the fields at equal height, from mean sea level. ;)

 

 

With their self made "dhow". My son who was also in India during those days (but sadly at my paternal home, which is around 2 hrs drive from here) was terribly sad that he missed this "boating" expedition.

Thats our Kuwait product nephew also on vacation and having an experience of a life time !

 

Our backyard, and the kido in red is our Big B. (whuw !! he put on so much weight in just a month. see his big tummy ! After effects of "lots of grandparental-love" )

....

.......

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 now..for the "hate", "bad" part of the rain poem above.

Our Cochin International Airport getting flooded and all flight services suspended, just few days before my son and husband (who went down to bring him back) was to return !!!!  

 

As such my younger one's were on a continuous question mode as to when their dad n brother will be back, and this was ...

 Oooh Noo !!!

 

 

(just to share, this was the hospital we used to visit during our college days).

 

Anyways, thankfully, the rains reduced and the flight service restarts...and...my family was back to square 1...right on time !

 

So, the Rain poem goes back to..the "good", "like" mode...



image courtesy - google-y.

 

....I like rain....

 

....Rain is good....

 

Thanks Lord...for today, my world is intact.

“The summer is HOT here?”……”Yes”

“The winter is cold?” ….”Yes”

“The months of weather change (cant use the term spring and autumn- they are more polished) are a mix of all – dust, rain, humidity, sand, at times hot, at times cold ?..and you definitely fall sick especially at this time of the year “ …….”Yes, very true”

..then..why in the world are you people ever complaining that Kuwait weather is soo soo unpredictable ???

 

….that was a portion from an article that I read in the newspaper sometime back (words not exactly the same..but the content is)..written by a British..on how his home country has drastically changed in the weather front…the rainy summers… how its soo grey almost year round…and why there is a bulk influx of Britishers to Australia in search of some proper summer sunshine.

The weather is getting bad..true…and so is the case everywhere..but, alteast..can’t we be just grateful to God that its manageable for us..atleast where we are right now.  

The first thing to catch my eye today morning was the images in the newspaper of the flattened terrain and the debris after the large, destructive tornado plowed its way through Moore, Oklahoma – May 20^th. Just a look at those images and can you really stop yourself from saying..”Thanks God..atleast we are still surviving, our kids are so pleacefully asleep.

 

Once I did wonder…God forbid, something bad happens..and how prepared are we to face it ? With the best conditions that you are together with your family, during crisis…and not separated…what would you make a dash for at the very first place? Kids, food ? passport ? medicines ? dress? I would just panic and go plain blank. Absolutely nothing would work.

 

Just a simple powercut which is very uncommon here (compared to Kerala, where it is very much apart of your daily routine) and you panic..where are the candles? You just don’t have any…except for the show candles which you have kept in your collection to be using just as a décor during get-togethers. And no match boxes or lighter either ! You never needed them anyways. The cooking range is on auto-ignition, and your husband doesn’t smoke (another BIG thanks God ! ;) ). The only time you think about a lighter is when its your kids birthday and you need to light the birthday candles. (Atleast the kids are more smart these days. They turn on the assistive light in the mobile phone).

 

The virulent mother nature fuming in wrat and using all its available forms – water, wind, earth… to take the sting out. .But..over what ?? Innocent lives ??

 

The calm sea turn to mammoth waves – the tsunamis

The cool breeze that lifts up that kite now morphs into gigantic destructive swirlwinds wiping out an entire county – the tornadoes….

You are having a cozy time watching your favourite TV show and the next moment, your roof is atop you. The earth has quaked.

US, Philipines, Australia, China, Bangladesh….the factory building collapsing…and if these are just not enough…the man-made “madness” is Syria.

 (she could just be you...that baby could just be yours..and you have nowhere to go)

It’s really disturbing how the newspapers highlight such painful pictures right on the front page, and even bigger sized images if they have small kids in there…lying mutilated covered in blood and mud. You humiliated a naked woman in front of her daughters..and we punish you by cutting you into chunks ! …. News featured last week about the common plights in Syria.

Really really disturbing..and the more disturbing these news are..the more again, you need to be thankful to God..for atleast today and now..you are safe…your family is safe..you have a home to go back to…and the roads are still there to take you back.

(this one...definitely scares me ! )

 

 (unlike my other posts which are always full of images..there are very few here. Don't want much disturbing pictures..there's enough and more out there in the papers, over the internet)

spot rain concepts

!!!! how cool is that??

well..today is an "overall" greyish day..the skies are moody, cloudy....as if its just about to breakup..but..not yet.....its desperately holding its tears back.

My home and work place is just about 25 minutes drive and and at one particular stretch, it was raining..and that too really well. That was for just about a half-kilometer drive...definitely not beyond. For before and after this stretch..the terrain was perfectly dry ! Absolutely no rain at all..

unlike back home in kerala..when it rains..it rains  literally everywhere - on my home..my uncle's home...my school....and definitely on the roads that we walk to and fro.

 

and what surprised me even more..is that.. during the way back home in the afternoon..it did rain, and that too at that particulat spot..a little bit less intense compared to the morning though.

 

Heard of SPOT LIGHT....but what do you call this phenomenon....SPOT RAIN .. as if the rainwater is poured down using a funnel ???

 

isn't that not a really cute picture? cudn't resist sharing...

 

(images courtesy - google ammavan :) )

 

my world..here...and across the seas...

Having a walk round one of our marine work sites...and looking back towards the mainland, took this picture....and thought..

"wow! it would be great if we were living some where there"

 Never in my wildest dream did i know that within a few months...we would move over here. A lovely suburb, close to the sea - Mahboula, here in Kuwait. Thats where we are, for the last 6 years... right behind those cream coloured twin hi-rise buildings.

                    our home.. my flowers....the clear blue sky....and the sea beyond...

just tiny saplings barely half a feet tall while they first came home...now they are full-grown up trees, standing tall, touching the ceiling.

..and...moving across the seas....ocean really....my homeland....

 namma metro - The mighty Kochi @ Kerala.

 Staying just right next to the National Highway...this is what i can relate to more than anything. "My" vyttila junction - the traffic...the private busues racing to overtake each other..literally moving on its sides with the people hanging from the doors and windows....

 the most common sites...peole moving forward and forward almost to the centre of the highway beckoning the oncoming vehicles for  a lift back home

and the scores running towards the buses while the conductor would have already blown the whislte for the buses to leave even before the people have loaded in.

not...not at all...to forget...the reputed autorikshaws lining the side roads.

This was something that i would be really looking out for. The signal to turn red, and one run across the road. All those years....yest years that i have literally spent a good part of my life walking up and down the side roads along the highway..to school...back from school..to work...back from work.

...and then..this city girl moves home (gets married) to the country side...where its just green green and green all around.

 It was an entirely different world and i loved it....still does.

 (view from the balcony)

(Shayne, as if in a wonderland - clicked about 4 yrs back)

(way leading to my in-laws place during heavy rains. The kids just shout in excitement seeing the water splashing on either sides of the car passing through this waterways.)

...going back home for vacation, its our kids who gets to embrace these two distinct worlds...one which is full of trees and rubber all around - their "Pala veedu"...and the other, where its all buses and cars and bikes all that is seen peeing out of the window - their "Kochi veedu".