5th September

A few messages on the cell wishing on teachers day is such a pleasure. I presume this remembrance is a token of love to the little contribution if not huge. While my students remember me on this day….it is natural that I too express my gratitude and respect to my teachers. They indeed had their influence in making and unmaking of who I am today.

But the best of all is Ms.Vijaylakshmi Rajgopal.

• She taught me life lessons. 
• She taught me patience. 
• She tried hard to put emotions in a dead log and was pretty much successful. 
• She taught me when to say what and how. 
• She walked what she preached. 
• She is indeed the embodiment of such fine distinctions of life that makes her the best Mother the planet has ever seen.

I couldn’t remember any greatest gurus of all times than her. Some noble soul has rightly said, "Thaayiye modhalane guru, manaye modhalane paatashale….."

While her teachings and preaching’s continued ever since I was born, my bad, I wasn’t respective enough and gave unnecessary pain and caused hurt. Wish life had Ctrl Z, I would go back and wipe some of those which I did and which I dint do.

This was the worst of all……

Amma was ill and couldn't have food the previous night. Probably she was hungry by mid night and had no energy left in her to help herself. She preferred to wake me and asked me if I could prepare some porridge, for which I obliged. I Walked to kitchen and returned back with some semolina porridge. I kept it changing tumbler to cool it faster. When it was right temperature handed over the same to Amma. She woke from the small nap, gulped a couple of spoons and pushed it to the corner. I overheard the sound, and questioned Amma, for which she said, she is done and she couldn't have more.

I gave mouth full for,

1.       Not having what I have prepared fully…. that too, post-midnight

2.          I found it too silly to just fill yourself with a couple of spoons and waste the rest.

She dint utter a word. I fell asleep with the noise of the clock lingering in the background. Worse, she had two noises to put up with.

While all were busy the next morning to attend to what they had in the schedule, Amma was still on bed. She looked really weak. She asked me to prepare porridge for the second time. As I made faces and started walking towards kitchen murmuring, she softly uttered, "Ee sari ganji maaduvaaga, swalpa reva huridhu maadappa."

I felt like kicking myself. Semolina if not fried prior doesn't get cooked, no wonder she couldn't have the half backed one which I gave the previous night. Imagine you are ill, missed food the previous night and was given some nonsense to both body and brain and you still keep quite!!!! Who on earth could behave this way. While this incident was just one of them, and there are many which went unsaid, unnoticed and buried deep down.

Amma, I take this opportunity to kneel down in front of you and seek forgiveness for my wrong doings and being stupid all through. Love you Mamma.

Maralugaadina Alegalu

14th March 2014, Friday, Time 10.51 PM - Sharjah

I 'am leaning on a couch near to the balcony door which is partially kept open. It’s highly unlikely that the weather has been pretty good so far. Rain god really does have the powers to sooth the temperature of a desert!! I have been allocated a fully furnished flat on Al-Jazairi building on the 54th street of an Al-Wadha Main road.  Also, I stay near the City Centre Shopping Mall in Sharjah.

My flat, 1104 is on the 11th floor of 'B' block, unlike in Bangalore where the car parking are underground, here the first 6 floors from the ground are the place where cars hid from the frowning sun. This puts me logically on the 17th floor.

'A' block of the same building blocks the sun hitting my balcony directly making my home relatively cooler, needless to say it also blocks my frontal view. If I tilt my head to the right, this is what I could see in the morning @ 6.00 AM.

 

 

 

My cell read the time as 7.30 AM, I purposely dint change the IST to correlate better with the loved ones. The scenic view made me to put on a decent cloth [its just a matter of time, Sharjah will feel comfortable me wearing lungi] and started walking with my priced collection, Cannon Digital DSLR.
 

My place of stay ..... Al-Jazairi Building

 

 

The sounds produced by cars ripping on the roads were similar to that of sound produced by waves on Sri Somanatheshwara beach of Mangalore. A perfect resonance.

 

Pedestrians also had to take a D tour to reach the other side of the road. After walking up the lane, we found a subway that took us [Me and Muki] to the other part of the road and this is what we could see.

I ensured I captured only the man made nature and was cautious not to capture any humans, and if I did, it shouldn't offend them. The laws of UAE are stringent, the judgement days will maximum be a week away. Appreciated the effort that the people here imported mud and grew lawns and planted trees. Chirpings were heard near the trees, for a while, it definitely made me wonder if there were speakers hid in trees!!!

There were quite a few who took the stroll round the park. Muki, was busy categorizing Indians and Non Indians, though, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis also looked similar to us.  

Lebanese, Koreans, Africans, Austroloids, Philippine, walked apart from the locals, whose men wore a long white robes. From the impressions, I could guess they wore a full sleeve vest inside, but couldn't get an iota of what they wore below the belt!!!

 

We got home, guess what? In a fully furnished home, where all amenities were at our disposal, we deeply missed the gas connection, which is scheduled to be fixed only by Saturday evening. Bread, butter and Jam of previous night became our breakfast.

A small flash back here.....

As Mr.Lakshman picked us from Dubai International Airport. It was quarter past eight in the evening. Heavy traffic stretched our journey of 20 minutes to an hour and half. Change in plan.....my stay of residence was made in Sharjah than Dubai, probably because of the low rentals here.

A nice gesture from the employer, they made sure "Important & Urgent" stuffs were at our disposal. A welcome kit contained 250gms of Sugar, Jam, Water bottles, Nescafe, Lipton tea bags, a small can which contained condensed milk, a small knife, bed spread, pillow [which blew up as I cut opened the plastic ]. Nice of them, they had placed bread and butter in fridge too. For some one who had virtual travel for 12 hrs and had a bad back this was heaven.

Mr Lakshman also handed over the envelope which contained,

• Id Card
• Medical Insurance Card and
• Re locating allowance of 3000 dirums.

As Mr.Lakshman finished the formalities I too went in search of the local SIM. I knew family and friends back home were very curious/anxious to know about our wellbeing. Learnt City Centre mall sold 'du' SIM, only to find a long queue which was more than a half a kilometer and took the shape of serpent in a busy mall. Pure economics, demand and supply. Only two companies sold SIM, 'du', a private agency and 'Etisalat', a govt competitor.

I managed to speak to the authority who was managing queue. They wanted passport copy in original for verification for the issue of new SIM. I had carried only the photocopy of it. All efforts vent in vain. Walked back home with a dropped shoulder. I knew even though I took back the originals, the long queue will certainly prohibit my entrance.

We munched on bread butter jam after a quick shower. Muki got busy cleaning and unpacking stuffs in kitchen. I started setting up the hall.

 

 

I was exhausted by the time I vacuumed hall and passage. Probably the culture here doesn't expose women of the family to the men who gate crashed and my home look like this.

 

 

 

I hit the bed after keeping my cloth in the cupboard. It was 1.00 AM local time by then. Woke up as early as 6.00 AM. Saw the Narasimha photo who was staring at me sitting on the dressing table.

 

'Nodidhya Narasimha, ninge naanu dubai thorisibitte' was my first thought. How mean one could be, "Narasimha nange dubai thorisirodhu", came the next thought. Walked to the balcony and have shared with you about what happened henceforth.
 

Now back live. The left overs of yesterday became our breakfast. The anxiety by this time has shot up. People back home are still not aware about our whereabouts.

As the clock showed 10.00 AM, me and Muki rushed to the City Centre mall, this time with originals. Congratulations!!! It was Friday. A public holiday. People of private agency resumed work only by 2.00 PM. We were disappointed again. On the way back walked to the grocery shop where Muki did some purchase. My first transaction came up to 27.5 ADE [Dirums]. I realized the importance of 17 tables and cursed the fellow who according to me overshoot the bill for a mediocre purchase. Never again, I will visit his shop vowed my conscience. We were getting a few insights into the people around and more importantly our own selves too.

R & D began, Muki used the electric kettle to make a cuppa of Maggi and I suggested we can also make mosaru avalakki which eventually became our lunch. Orange juice and cucumber too filled our drought struck stomach. On the day of travel, 13th March, Amma served idlies and I restricted to four as we were getting late. A snack and a lunch provided in Blr - Mumbai and Mumbai - Dubai flights were pathetic. So, it was close to 36 hrs of food deprivation.

We headed back to the 'du' center and I stood in the queue and Muki went to shop household stuffs. A Lebanese du personnel helped me through the process. Unlike back home, here the SIM activation takes only 10 minutes. There were frequent shower in Sharjah, the rain god has swept the roads neat by the time we walked back. Made a call to Appaji and thought to use 100 MB complimentary data in bits and bytes .......literally!!!, to connect to gampara gumpu via WhatsApp. Did update Jagga Pete and Kallu and also asked them to inform Amma that am safe. Some solace that I have got connected to the angles back home.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Something stroked in our minds. We rushed back again to City Center, purchased a glass container which could withstand heat up to 300 ⁰ C ... made use of the electric oven, resultant,

As I started keying down, my dish was still baking. It was 30 min past 12 in the night as I thanked god for the morsels of rice.

Thanks for your patience listening.