Petrol and the ladyfinger

The ladyfinger could not stop crying. She, along with her green buddies, had been lying in the basket of the vegetable vendor for almost a week. Until yesterday, she was under the heap of other ladyfingers in the basket and she reached the top only yesterday.

She awaited some aunty to come and pick her so that she can get transformed into bharwan bhindi or bhindi fry. She dreaded the arrival of the restaurant guy who would eventually mix her with some oily masala to prepare bhindi masala. While that too is an excellent preparation, she knew that in restaurants people prefer the arrogant paneer over bhindi masala and that she would eventually be thrown in garbage.

Last evening, finally an aunty picked her up! As she was about to put the ladyfinger into the small tokri, she asked the vendor, "Bhayya, bhindi kaise diya?"

The bhayya avoided any possible eye contact and replied hesitantly, "35 rupaye pau kilo!"
The poor (or now rich) ladyfinger felt the pinch as the aunty dropped it back in basket from where she was finally picked!

What followed was a discussion between all the ladies who came to shop for veggies.

"Arre itna mehenga kaise ho sakta hai?"

"Kal to pacchis rupaye bola tha!"

"Arre petrol ke daam badh gaye na, abhi trucks waalon ka naatak hoga, sabzi toh aur mehengi hogi..."

"Problem toh hum logon ko hi hoti hai na!"

"Mehengaai toh badhti hi ja rahi hai!"

The aunty who had picked bhindi finally opted for 1 kilo aloo. "Aaj puri aloo hi bana leti hoon, bacchon ko bahut pasand hai!"

The ladies complained incessantly. The vendor didn't look at anyone and continued weighing aloo kaanda. No one cared for the ladyfinger who knew that now she would never transform into any interesting preparation. For once, she wanted the restaurant guy to come to her rescue. It's better to end up in oily bhindi masala than being thrown uncooked in the garbage bin!

Dear government, ladies aur ladyfingers ko mat rulaao, petrol ke daam ghataao!

Is unique always special?

I remember when I was a kid and I watched Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan starrer movie Anand for the first time, I used to say that if I ever suffer from a medical condition its name should be as unique as Anand's lymphosarcoma of the intestine!

I know it sounds silly, but I was a kid then. I loved Anand's character that was always so bubbly and happy. More than that, I loved how much everyone loved him. There was something about the way he spread happiness and stayed happy even when he knew he was dying. For me he was Mahaan, and as kids, Mahaanta always inspires us, right?

Now we wish for so many small and big things all the time:

"I wish I manage to catch the 8.34 local train!"
"I wish I reach home early today!"
"I wish it rains today!"
"I wish it doesn't rain today!"
"I wish the househelp comes early today!"
"I wish I can buy this big a house!"
"I wish I have a good hair day!"

Not all our wishes come true, but unfortunately for me this one stupid wish of having a unique disease was fulfilled. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (here's how you pronounce it). It's been almost three years now if I calculate from the time I visited a doctor and described the symptoms.

No, I won't die due to Fibromyalgia... thank God for that! But I will have to live with pain until I am alive. Please don't feel sorry for me as I have accepted it and am managing my life with it. And also, that is not the purpose of writing this post. The purpose is spreading awareness about the condition.

The way lymphosarcoma of the intestine had a commonly known name Cancer, Fibromyalgia doesn't have any commonly understood name but is always misunderstood. In fact, it is also known as Invisible Illness. Rightly so, as people with Fibromyalgia do not look sick. If you meet me you will not notice that I have a medical problem. You will not notice that I am having excruciating pain all over my body even as I talk to you.

Now while I have tried to derive some positivity from this (you can read about it here), I need the support of bloggers. I have created a blog on Fibromyalgia Awareness. Please take some time to go through it and understand all about it.

I am not asking for monetary contribution as there's no surgery required, since there is no cure at all. So you can read on ;)

I am requesting you to join me in spreading awareness about this unique condition. This will serve a two-fold purpose:

1. People will know what Fibromyalgia is all about. They will understand that we are not being lazy or unreasonable, that we seriously cannot do certain things which they can do like preparing the morning cup of tea / lifting shopping bags / working full time. This is really necessary as it affects our personal and work life more than you can imagine.
2. People who might have Fibromyalgia but have never heard about it can understand the condition and report their symptoms to a specialist. So there won't be delay in starting the treatment. Here, you must know that there is no sure-shot way of diagnosing it; Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning several tests are done to rule out other conditions before it is established that one has this Fibromyalgia. So it takes a lot of time. The sooner one starts, the better!

You can help me in raising awareness in any of the following ways or you can suggest me more ideas:

• Talk about Fibromyalgia with people you know.
• Join the Facebook page of the blog and share it on your timeline. Who know someone somewhere on Facebook might benefit!
• Contribute a Guest Post on the Fibromyalgia Awareness blog - your views / fiction stories / posters / anything you wish.
• Follow the Twitter handle and retweet the tweets you like.
• Follow the Pinterest board; Repin the posters you like.
• Share your ideas to help me spread the word.

Thank you for reading such a long post. I hope a time comes soon when people with Fibromyalgia would not have to explain others what it is all about, get tips to feel better and lead a better life.

PS Do not ever wish to have a particular disease with a unique name... you never know at that very time someone up there grants it!

The power of Oprah!

In remembrance of Shubhangi teacher

When I went for my marriage registration three years ago, the rude and lazy registrar treated us differently, or should I say indifferently. Knowing that me and my husband are not Maharashtrians, she started speaking against us to her colleagues in Marathi when we complained that she cannot make us unnecessarily run from pillar to post. 

She was left speechless when she learnt that I understood every single word. She had almost ruined our marriage registration process had I not understood Marathi. At that moment, I was just glad that I understand the language. But the thought that it was thanks to Shubhangi teacher, and not just my school as I bragged, did not occur to me then. THANK YOU TEACHER. 

REALisation: Past Perfect, Present Continuous(ly busy), Future Tense

Noticing half-a-dozen strands of silver hair a while ago and the thought of writing on the lines of "When I was young...," would have ideally made me skip this subject. But when I mentally time-travelled into the late eighties, I realised I was lucky to be born much before this era of online chats, online gaming, escalators and treadmills. Not that I am against the online revolution... it helps me earn my bread, butter, jam and mayo, but I realised that back then (suddenly I feel as if I am aging at the speed of light!) childhood was just perfect!

PAST PERFECT

I used to write real letters (I must specify - hand-written ones!) to my nana/nani, aunts-uncles, cousins and my friend Ranjeeta.
The letters to the elders would always start like:
"Pyaari Maasi, Namaste! Aap kaisi ho, ghar par sab kaise hain..."
And the ones to Ranjeeta would go like this:
Dear Ranjeeta, how are you? You know what happened the other day.."

We still retain some of those blue inland letters and yellow envelopes with lots of stamps. Holding and reading them once in a while is an indescribable experience!

Jab main chhoti bacchi thi...

Jab main chhoti bacchi thi
Kahaan sharaarat karti thi ;)


Chidiya awaaz lagaati thi
Aur main jaag jaati thi

iThank iYou iFor iPad

I can't take my "I"s off the iPad (that's when it is plugged for charging or I am in sleep mode). Else, I can't take my hands off the wonderful creation!

I was thinking about buying an iPad 2 for quite some time. But as I waited for the price to come down, IndiBlogger and Dove surprised me by announcing the second prize (iPad 2) for the The Hair and the Tortoise post. For the first time in my life I was happier about the prize rather than the winning part!

I thank IndiBlogger, Dove and all my blog readers straight from my heart. I also thank the Apple team for inventing this beauty. And I wish they take some time off and do not introduce iPad 3 soon... hehe.

Meanwhile, there are some people because of whom I am an active blogger. I have never thanked them in person, so I would like to talk about them here.