Blue Boat Home

  Rainy evenings When it’s pouring cats and dogs, my felines hide in a warm and dry nook of our building. That doesn’t prevent them from coming to my doorstep for supper with mews to announce the same. One of the society’s cats would swim through the water to turn up on time for meals. When the weather was dry, it drizzled or rained lightly, the joyous voices of our housing society’s children would waft through the evening breeze. These merry vocalizations are heavenly to my ears. Now during the dark evenings of heaviest rainfall, no child plays in the garden. The inky evenings are sombre and silent except for the rhythmic sound of the lashing rain. The kids may be watching the rain from their windows like I am. Their mothers will be cooking hot piping crunchy evening snacks and yummy dinner for them. They may be waiting anxiously for their parents to return from work trudging through waterlogged streets enmeshed in traffic snarls and standing in crowded trains stranded becau...

  Fifty shades of grey On cloudless days a choir of birds musically announces dawn while a riot of bright colours dapples the sky. On cloudy rainy days, the deep velvety early hours of the morning are engulfed by 50 shades of grey. This ashen hue is a staple of painters etching a monsoon scene. Blacks, blues and grey shades smear the white palette and artistically adorn the white drawing sheet. Black umbrellas mushroom up in these portraits while grimy clouds of various depths overhang the sky. A common Bengali realistic portrayal of a rainy day is of a black crow getting drenched in a heavy shower atop the green wooden window of an old-fashioned Bengali house. In earlier pictures, these carrion birds were shown as seated in see-saw motion on black rusted antennas.   Then dish antennas came into being changing the rooftops, skylines and high perches of these feathered friends forever.   Crows love water but have waterproof feathers. I often see them dripping in th...

  Don’t compare 6 The flowering minds of children may be brutally shrivelled when they constantly hear that they aren’t as good as someone else.   Taylor Elizabeth, Int'l Personal Branding & Certified Etiquette Advisor and Licensed Coach [Instagram account: @theeleganceadvisor] believes, “Children and adolescents can be very impressionable and sensitive. Therefore I don’t believe that they should be compared in front of others or even on a one-on-one basis .   From an etiquette point of view, I believe in highlighting the child or teenager’s accomplishments and then mentioning what they can work on in a private meeting.” On hearing Chris Wasko, Spiritual Counselor/Psychic Medium [Instagram account: @chriswaskomedium] say,     “I do not believe it is a healthy practice to compare anyone, especially children. It sets the groundwork for them to compare themselves to others in life,” I realized that I constantly review my performance and self-worth with hun...

  Do not compare Part 5 My English language teacher would read the compositions I wrote to the class and praise me. Then she would take a look at the essay that my classmate who had a learning disability had penned. She’d shout that she had once again scored 1.5 out of 10 in it and throw the exercise book at her. My Italian pen pal Stefano Mino recounts similar sadistic teachers during his school days. When it came to art and craft, I couldn’t do even the basics. I have a motor skill disability. To knit well, one needs fine control over the muscles. I was scolded and insulted so harshly on the day I first tried to knit, I never tried to learn it again in my lifetime. Benudhar Majhi opines, “Nobody should be compared with anyone. People have different capabilities to learn and understand things. This could make them feel insecure and under-confident. Instead, we should motivate them to improve and learn better.” Raisahab Nana Kunwar who agrees with Benu adds, "No such com...

  Do not compare Part 4          Both my sisters were far better students than I had been. They would win prizes for coming first or second in academics, I could not. I was nevertheless impressive with my grades.   School teachers often asked me, "What is the matter with you? It seems you are not working hard enough. Why cannot you be as good as your sisters? Both are much better than you. Maybe, you are not as intelligent as them. Try harder. Do you not want the applause your sisters get?"   I developed a severe inferiority complex. I studied very hard at home but teachers thought that my sisters put in more hours of study. This stress led me to develop hypertension as early as 8 years of age. I started getting panic attacks during exams and would repeatedly be hospitalized and put on oxygen. The same teachers who had broken my spirit by comparing me to my bright sisters were quick to ridicule me for my hospitalizations. Many ...

  Ratha Yatra From today, Ratha Yatra, the chariot festival in India commences. Mother would say that on the days this festival starts and ends, it has to rain, most probably heavily. I’m sure that parts of India will not receive rainfall today though. This isn't celebrated all that much where I live now but was quite a festival in East India where I grew up. I will miss seeing kids pulling their tiny carts with the three sibling gods Krishna, Balaram and Subhadra. This ceremony brings back fond memories from my childhood when we would pull tiny decorated wooden carriages on our terrace. They’d be decorated with flowers, colourful paper and incense sticks. The first term would be on in school along with class tests during that time. I'd study on the patio and while my mother quizzed me for the next day's test, I would pull the trolley. We had a one-storied handcart and my cousins a three-floored one. Our joint family had sadly not been taught to share and take turns i...

  June 2022 review Good ·        Necessary repairs were done. ·        Monsoon has set in. ·        I have seen a few snails. ·        @chriswaskomedium and @theeleganceadvisor have been kind and helpful as usual. ·        I am updating my teaching blog. Bad ·        I am feeling emotionally and physically drained. ·        My blood pressure is dangerously fluctuating. ·        I feel feverish because of the season change. ·        I feel very weak and can hardly sit. ·        I have body pain. ·        The summer was very hot with long power cuts that made me fall sick. ·        I’ve got a hole in my pocket with having to buy e...