Sunday, August 9, 2009

unkal


Thats how my neighbourhood vegetable vendor refers to me and i have been a regular to his store for 4-5 years now.

Along the way I transformed into the supermarket type opting to buy "fresh" refrigerated vegetables from the neatly laid out displays. Except that these vegetables did not happen to be fresh most of the time.

Plus the religious que's in front of check out desks manned by semi skilled faces that happened to change with the frequency of the moons - drove me back to this gent. He was only too glad to see me back and fussed over me with grating squeals of "unkal" .

Yesterday, as I bought vegetables from his shop I wondered -
would I have received a better fare in an XYZ retail outlet. Probably, the vegetables may have been fresher, and even the prices cheaper (though that is contrary to experience), the store designs would have been appealing and perhaps there would have been a very youthful face at the counter.

But, can all these compensate for the for the familiar face across the thela.
And, why deny a honest man his livelihood - just to pander to our westernized preferences.

Ans who knows someday this man himself might save enough to set up a small store with refrigerated displays -

Friday, August 7, 2009

Conversations


Morning over breakfast this took place with the elder1

L1: Appa.... I want to go to a boarding school.

Me: Well .. they might not take you as a boarder in your current school(her school has a few boarders) as we stay in the same city. Perhaps we can send you to a good boarding school in Yercaud or Ooty.

L1: Sheepishly ..... oh no ... I dont want to be too far from you ..

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Swine flu


The pune teen who died recently turned out to be the class mate of my nieces' neighbour. This bit of news was frightening.

Till now with no known instance of a death related to swine flu - the danger never really concerned us. 10 days ago when the elder1 was down with fever and body pain - it never even occurred to have her checked for swine flu, and neither did the doctor suggest anything of that sought - the most we feared was chikungunya.

But, this latest bit of news has set the alarm bells ringing.

As parents , What are we supposed to do. What precautions can we take. Easily, children are the most vulnerable section as they have lesser resistance, plus , they come in contact with a lot many other children.

Do we refrain from sending them to school ? Especially considering that the current weather is ideal for the spread of flu's and colds.

To start with I am trying to keep myself fully informed about what to look for in the symptoms and just plain being vigilant. The good part is that it is curable - provided if detected early. The bad part is that most of its symptoms are very similar to the symptoms of other common flus.

Here a few links on the pandemic :

1.http://www.swinefluindia.com/

2. Indian preperations

3. wikipedia - Asia

4.bbc news