Cleaning The Ear.

For years, I used to use Hydrogen Peroxide drops and buds to clean my ears till an ENT specialist who I accidentally met on a plane trip told me that I should not. He suggested just the bud and if at all necessary to an ENT specialist. I have heeded his advice till date and have not had to go to any specialist for a cleaning session.

My cousin Shankar who has been to China and is fascinated by that country sent me a story about the ear cleaners of Chengdu and asked me rather plaintively “I wonder if this custom exist in some parts of India?”  This does not exist in that part of the country where he lives but, I am surprised that he did not see this in the other parts that he has visited.

He asked the right person!

I promptly sent this link to him.

I would not dare opt for this service.  Would you?

Brilliant Solution.

My very dear friends N and A have been married for over half a century and like all such long lasting marriages, have their idiosyncrasies. One particular trait is whenever A talks to me on the phone, I can hear N puttering around in the background and either talking to their dogs or to A to divert his attention from the phone call to add some tidbit for me. Perhaps this happens when others are on the phone too!

Their only child, a daughter, let us call her Princess, lives overseas but visits them often enough to see that some solution has to be found for such behaviour. Sensing that lack of occupation could possibly be the reason for such increased interruptions, she came up with a brilliant solution.

During a recent weeklong visit to the Princess, N was gifted with a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

Two days ago, when I received a call from A, there was unusual silence in the background and I asked what N was doing. Prompt came the reply that she was intensely focussed on solving a 1000 piece jig saw puzzle and on probing I found that the puzzle was a gift from the Princess.

I promptly got the drift and laughed out loud and congratulated A for the brilliant solution that the Princess had found and wanted him to convey the same to N with my compliments. I also asked him to send me a photograph of her at the desk and he did but, the photo on top is a stock photo from google images and not of N. In the original N looks far more focussed!

The last I heard, N is still at it. It has now been four days!

History – An Unintended Consequence Of Migration.

As I wrote in my last Friday post, I am deeply into reading about history and here is something fascinating that I found which I am sure will be of interest to my readers too.

In the late 13th Century BC, a military elite called The Mitanni migrated from the East (India) into Northern Iraq and there are many war stories about them in that region’s history. A treaty that they entered into with the Hittites was solemnized in the name of Vedic Gods Indra, Varuna, Mitra and Nasatya. The Mitanni also took with them technology of Indian origin – Iron. Noteworthy is the fact that this was five centuries after mass production of iron took place in South India.

Interestingly, the Mitanni God Mitra would remain a popular deity in the Middle East and, centuries later, would witness a major revival in the Roman empire (where he would be known as the solar god Mithras). The cult of Mithras would become very widespread in the late Roman period, and would produce serious competition with Christianity. The pagan Romans used to celebrate a big festival called Saturnalia that went on for a week from December 17. At the end of the festival on 25th December, the Mithras cult would celebrate the feast of Sol Invictus or Unconquered Sun. Many scholars believe that when the Christians came to power they simply took over the popular pagan festival. (After all, the exactly date of birth of Jesus Christ is not known.)

Mind you,not every one agreed with this choice and the Orthodox Church still celebrated Christmas on 7th January. The Puritans would later disapprove of the unseemly heathen celebrations that clung to the festival and would try to ban Christmas in North America and Britain in the 17th and 18th Centuries. 25th December survived nevertheless as official Christmas day and a festival celebrated by Christians and non Christians alike. Thus one of the unintended consequences of early iron age migration seems to be that the world has come to celebrate the birthday of an ancient god from Haryana in India!

PS. Even today, the phrase Indo Aryan is used in many communications, like the Wikipedia article on Mitanni though the Aryan invasion / migration of India has been thoroughly disproved by archeological and genetic findings. This is a topic by itself for another post in the future.

PPS: My source – The Ocean Of Churn by Sanjeev Sanyal.

She Mothers Me!

This is a photograph of me reading my kindle while Chutki blissfully is asleep on the floor next to me.

When my son and daughter in love are not at home, this is how she keeps an eye on me.  Chutki normally sleeps with them upstairs or on one of the sofa chairs in the drawing room but, when I am alone at home she will be as near to me as possible. If not on the floor like this, she will be on the divan just in front of the recliner chair on the left unfortunately not shown here.

Even when I am on my bed in the bedroom, she will sleep below the bed and every now and then come and poke her wet nose into my out flung hand to see if I move.

An animal behaviourist who had come home to visit some time ago said that this behaviour is because she believes that I am her pup and she just wants to ensure that I am okay!

Whether that is true or not, she is my companion when I am all alone at home.

I am blessed or what?

Jalaluddin Rumi.

Some beautiful answers and way of thinking of Turkish poet Jalaluddin Rumi….

What Is Poison ? ? ?
AnyThing Which Is More Than Our Necessity Is Poison. It May Be Power, Wealth, Hunger, Ego, Greed, Laziness, Love, Ambition, Hate, Or AnyThing.

What Is Fear ? ? ?
Non Acceptance Of Uncertainty. If We Accept That Uncertainty, It Becomes Adventure.

What Is Envy ? ? ?
Non Acceptance Of Good In Others. If We Accept That Good, It Becomes Inspiration.

What Is Anger ? ? ?
Non Acceptance Of Things Which Are Beyond Our Control. If We Accept, It Becomes Tolerance.

What Is Hatred ? ? ?
Non Acceptance Of Person As He Is. If We Accept A Person Unconditionally, It Becomes Love.

Like MIL Like DIL?

I was busy attending to my email etc on the computer when my daughter in love said: “Appadum, would you like to see what your DIL is doing? Just what the MIL of this home used to do?”

So, I got myself moving to the garden to see what she was up to and this is what I saw.  The other lady assisting her in the very noble activity is our help Mangal who features in some of my posts regularly.

Not quite the kind of painting the elder Mrs. Rajgopaul used to indulge in but, painting nevertheless!

I thought to myself that the former will be spinning like a top wherever she is.