US Visit-Snowfall

We had visited U S A during winter. One morning, i saw, through the glass-pane in the door,  tiny pieces of falling snowflakes. 

It was drizzling. As the flakes fell, they turned into sleet. I found out that sleet refers to two distinct forms of precipitation: rain and snow mixed, snow that partially melts as it falls. Sleet is precipitation consisting of small ice pellets formed by freezing of raindrops or of melted snow flakes. Precipitation is condensation of atmospheric water-vapour that falls under gravity.

'Flurry' means, among other things, a brief light snowfall.  

Snowflakes continued falling during the evening and night. When we woke up the next morning, we saw through the window that the entire surrounding had become white, covered with snow. Snowflakes continued to fall till around mid-day, even when sun was shining brightly. It had stopped for some time when Daughter I suggested that we take photographs of ourselves against the white blanket of snow. We went outside, fully covered, and did that.

Around noon, the snowflakes stopped falling. The snow lying on the ground started melting at many spots. Yet there were patches and spots on which the snow did not melt even with the sun's rays. This was due to the fact that the temperature outside was still zero or sub-zero.

The wife ventured outside and made a snow-man.

Five States in East Coast declared Emergency in view of the blizzard. Daughter I lives in Georgia which is one of the States in the Southern part of U S A. Southern U S A is generally warmer and was not affected.

Here are some of our photos with Daughter I and her children:










And here are those of the outside scenario.

A

Nine Weeks with Uncle Sam

In January, the wife and i were on a 2-month visit to Daughter I who lives with her family in the US of A. We had a wonderful time with the grand daughter and grand son.

In Time Zone, USA is ten and a half hours behind India. So it is almost on the other side of the world, or to be more correct, the other side of the Earth.

After reaching USA, i read two novels by Chetan Bhagat, who gave up his investment banking in Hong Kong to live in Mumbai to become a full-time writer. In his novel 'Half A Girlfriend' the protagonist is struck by two things on his first visit to USA, the clear blue sky and the silence on the roads. He ascribes the first one to the absence of dust in the air as it is in India. The second is due to the fact that vehicle-drivers do not honk in contrast to the cacophony on the roads in India. I have been equally struck by these features. A friend had once jocularly observed that drivers in India blow their horns more to prevent being hit by the other vehicles than for any other purpose!

It was a chilly January, with icy cold winds. One morning,the wife hung a small piece of wet cloth outside to dry. A little after, I found that the cloth had become stiff; the little water in the cloth had frozen and had made the cloth stiff. I noticed that the little streams of water which had oozed out of at the lower ends of the wet cloth had also frozen and looked like frills. After some time, the sun appeared; the cloth got dried up and became soft again.

Once we visited the headquarters of CNN (Cable Network News) and went around its studio, newsroom and other work-places. It is very impressive.

We also visited the Head Quarters of Coca Cola where we viewed a 4-D documentary on Coca Cola. Then we visited a room there in which the various brands of this soft drink all over the world are available on tap. These are grouped continent-wise, like, Asia, Europe, America,Africa etc. I found that the Indian soft drink Thums Up was also there. Coca Cola acquired the company in 1993. We found that the brands on sale in Germany are slightly bitter.

I visited a nearby library, and during the first visit, borrowed two novels by Chetan Bhagat and Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, which the author has declared as his most favourite writing.

Here are some photos at C N N and at Coca Cola Head Quarters:

Widowing Self

It had become disgustingly unbearable, his coming home drunk and beating her black and blue, often in the presence of their two children.

They were living in a shanty in the slum. He was a rickshaw-puller and she, a daily labourer. Years ago, she had eloped with him from their village to the city. At that time, he had filled her mind with colourful dreams of comfortable life. In the first few years, she was really happy to be a devoted wife and he was the adoring husband. Both of them earned and were happy to be together.

It all changed after the birth of her second child.

He took to drinking and spent all his earnings on liquor. The burden of meeting all the expenses of the household fell on her. Occasional bickering gave way to regular fights. His earnings became insufficient for his needs at the liquor-shop; he started demanding a share from her income. When she refused, beatings became more frequent. He started stealing her money, wherever she concealed it.

Then she could take no more of it; she could no longer bear it.  One night, after his beating her mercilessly, he demanded food. She drugged it. When he fell fast asleep with the effects of the drinks and the drug, she took out the grinding stone and clobbered him on his head with all her strength. He struggled and screamed; the children screamed. Then he became still.

Hearing the noise, neighbours gathered. Police came. She was arrested.

For the first two days in jail, she was in peace with herself; she had a queer sense of satisfaction.

Then the rage in her mind began to cool. She started pondering over what she had done.

It dawned on her that she had widowed herself; she had made her children destitute.

Was she right? Was she wrong?

As a widow, she was no longer to wear her bangles. The glass bangles worn by her had to be broken down. On many occasions, she had seen women from neighbouring houses, breaking down the bangles from the wrists of a wailing and struggling woman, who had been just bereaved and widowed.
   
Who would do the job now? Who would break down her bangles?

She picked up a piece of rock with her right hand and laid her left wrist on the ground.

As she started hitting her bangles with the rock, images of her pounding his head with the grinding stone flashed back in her mind.


*

Based on reports of an actual happening in Bhubaneswar

Koodiyattam

Kerala has contributed two of the eight recognised classical dance forms of India :Kathakali and Mohiniyattam. A less known dance form of Kerala is koodiyattam. On the 6th October, 2015, I had the good fortune of watching the enticing presentation of Koodiyattam dance by Indu G., as a part of the 3-day Devadasi Dance Festival at Bhubaneswar. Koodiyattam is a heritage dance form of Kerala presented in Sanskrit and was in vogue in the major temples of the State from the 9th Century and became a full-fledged dramatic presentation in the 15th Century. Complicated gestures of the face and eyes mark this form of dance. Here is a glimpse of Koodiyattam The nuances of gestures and subtle expressions of face and eyes are clearly discernible in the following video.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

This Independence Day, let us listen to the historic 'Tryst with Destiny' speech of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at midnight on  August 14-15, 1947 at the Constituent Assembly:

Not a Surgeon's Scalpel but a Butcher's Hatchet II

In my post ‘Not aSurgeon’s Scalpel but a Butcher’s Hatchet’ dated 23.09.2014, i have narrated the story of drawing of boundaries of India and Pakistan at the time of Partition in 1947. This is a sequel to that.

Recently, i came across an extract from the book ‘Midnight Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition’ by Nisid Hajari.  This appears to be a wishful thinking, but here it is:

What would have happened if India had been partitioned amicably without the rancour that preceded it?

1.     History shows that whoever had invaded India, be it Alexander or the Mughals or others, had done it through land which is now Pakistan (West Pakistan in 1947). This land would have served as a buffer against any invasion of India on the land-route.

2.     The fertile land that is now Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) produces 75% of world’s jute supply. Before Partition, eastern part (now Bangladesh) of undivided Bengal was producing jute and this raw material was being used by jute mills in Kolkata (then Calcutta) in the western part of Bengal. Soon after Partition, the jute produced in the then East Pakistan lost its market and the jute mills in Calcutta were starved of raw materials. Thus both jute-producing agriculture and jute-processing industry in India and Pakistan started facing problems soon after Partition.

3.     At the time of food-shortages in pre-Partition India, areas now known as Pakistan were supplying food-grains to mitigate the situation.

4.     The pre-Partition Indian Army had been trained together and had fought as one for a century, with a spirit of comradeship. None of its members looked at any other member as enemy.

5.     Many politicians in both parts had once together fought the British, shoulder-to-shoulder with brotherly feeling.

6. India and Pakistan are culturally similar like U S A and Canada.

So, had India and Pakistan been partitioned without ill will or bitterness, what a wonderful situation of co-operation and mutual help and mutual benefit would have been ushered in!

But – and this is a big BUT – had this been the situation, would there have been a need for Partition of the then India? 

Post Script:

As a rising Congress leader, Jinnah was originally against mixing religion with politics - specifically Islam with politics. Later, he underwent a religious re-incarnation and demanded a separate State for Muslims. Nehru and Patel wanted a strong Centre which Jinnah opposed.

Black Cherries

Once, when i had gone to a nursery to purchase some plants, i noticed a small plant with one small red fruit. I asked the person there what plant that was. He said, “Cherry”. Nurseries, for attracting buyers, make even small plants to bear fruits by using some hormones. I became happy that i would now have an exotic fruit-bearing plant and purchased it. I brought it home and planted it in my garden. It was 3 or 4 years ago. I do not remember whether i had tasted the solitary fruit which came with the sapling and how it tasted.

Last year, when the sapling had grown to the size of a small bush with thorny branches, a few flowers bloomed on it which bore a couple of small fruits of the size of cherries.

Now, the bush has grown to a height of over 4 feet. A month ago, tiny white flowers bloomed on it. The flowers turned into small whitish fruits. I kept a close watch on the plant and recorded the progress. Gradually, the whitish fruits turned red. I was happy that i was now the owner of the plant bearing red and sweet cherries. However, the fruits were still somewhat hard and not soft like the cherries we purchase from the market.

The Flowers

The Raw White Berries

Cherry?

I waited for the fruits to ripen and be soft. The fruits did ripen and did become soft but their colour became black like black berries. These are a little smaller than black berries.

I was intrigued. What fruit is this? I plucked some, brought home and asked the wife to taste ‘black cherries’. She flatly refused to do so. Then i washed them and tasted one.

The fruits are sour! 

I checked from Google and learnt there are different varieties of cherries- red, yellow, sweet and sour. The fruits in my garden have rather thick skins: the pulp inside is sour like tamarind and have small flat seeds inside.     

Black Cherries?

Is it cherry? I have christened the plant ‘black cherry’.

Can you help me in identifying this plant?