Have you ever heard about miraculous stories? Are they true? Do miracles happen? Were you part of any miraculous journey? Are you waiting for any miracle to happen?
To come out of certain situations and challenges, you would have worked harder towards it and you would have prayed a lot. Eventually that would have worked out in your favor.
What made that miracle to occur? What was your role in it? Were there any people who made it happen? Were there any forces that had heard you and helped you to overcome something in a miraculous way?
You might have different answers to it based on your experiences. Miracles do happen but you never know when it would happen and how it would happen. Only thing what you do is to work on things which you know in a right way. And with your courage to face such challenges and work towards it is no less than any miracle. Your constant efforts in achieving certain things would take a shape one day and the end result might be very close to what you had thought and might be even more than what you had thought of achieving it.
You would trust on your efforts and believe in yourself. You are one of those behind such miracles. Nature, god and unknown entities would have helped in a way which you were striving to achieve it.
Hope you were part of some miracles and do share it to inspire!
Last evening, I went for a short walk with my daughters. It had rained in the morning. We just wanted to cross few farms and come back in the same route. We saw there was a way to reach main road in half a kilometer. So we decided instead of going back in the same route let us try the new route. To a certain distance there was a passage to walk which was in between the farms and later on there was none.
We thought of coming back and after quick discussion with my smart kids we again decided to try out the new route. We continued by figuring out where to keep the steps and move. After few yards we were amazed to see a pond freshly filled with rain water. Kids liked it much and took few snaps before we start proceeding.
We were just 200 meters away from the main road and as it had rained we could see water logged everywhere in the farm where there is no one and its not been actively cultivated. It looked like a abondoned place and we could see a tiny hut but no one there. It was getting dark and we had to be quick now. Meanwhile our eyes catched a way out where we had to go few yards back and take other way out.
Lot of grass and less water eased out a bit for us to move further. Here I had to carry my younger one as it was hard for her to walk in this heap. And I had to just guide my elder one where to keep the steps and where to jump a bit. She followed exactly and in few minutes we could reach the main road. All smiles and they felt like acheived something.
On return, they had to explain everyone at home including neighbours how we explored a way out to come from the farm where there were no roads, no walkway! It had its own adventure even though a short one and for kids they were amazed 🙂
While waiting for the vaccination, we are continuing to stay at farm house, a far away place from the crowded city. Very few houses around, less people, helping us to maintain healthy distance. Elders at home have received first dose of vaccination and awaiting for the second one in next few weeks. This is some relief considering the scarcity of the vaccines. The good sign is even Corporates are vaccinating their employees and dependents. And I’m one in that distant queue!
In the midst of all these, I’m getting good time with my family. We go for cycling crossing the lakes and cattle, relishing the serenity of the nature. Now it is about to start monsoon here, we could already witness variety of birds migrated and building their nests to secure one more season.
We are in the verge of overcoming one more wave during this pandemic like how birds normally do from season to season.
Hope you are keeping safe! And would like to know how you have been doing?
Books are very special to me and I read books of various genres. There is a pattern I found in my readings. If I’m reading a book of particular genre, I would read many in series. When I like an author for his/her writing skills, I would search and find out which other book from that author is good. Books have inspired me in many ways.
Reading books have led me even to write. “Carvalho” is one of my all time favorite book written by “Poornachandra Tejaswi” in “Kannada” – a south indian language. It was a science fiction and thriller and writer himself was a protagonist. I have a habit of gifting books and this book is one of them. This book made me to read many other books of the same Author which were enjoyable.
Sometimes I have re-read the books because of the speciality in it. It could be a plot, narration, elements and characters which have made me to imagine and pursue as one of the protagonist of that story during the read till the end. Over a period, we look for something new and certainly there are many new writers with different writing styles bringing freshness to the book world. There are books which keeps readers on edge and some times it has made me to sit and complete the novel in a stretch.
My favorite books are usually kept handy in the immediate corner of the shelf. Though I may not read that book everytime but somehow it makes me to recollect about the content or the author and bestows the positivity! There were times when I had lost best-loved books but have bought again just to make sure that it lies with me forever.
Which is your favorite book and why? Do you have a pattern of reading books or storing it? I look forward to hearing your comments!
As we continue to make sure that we and our family are safe during the current situation, I came across the life of wings during my photography.
Common Tailorbird
In our garden, I got to spot two chicks of “Common Tailorbird”. They were in the stage of fledgling and are learning to feed on their own, and they no longer need to stay in their nest. Often they are out and beginning to practice their flying skills and beginning to feed on their own.
Young ones
Windy weather had caused these chicks to fell down along with its nest. They couldn’t move much. We kept water and grains close to it. Initially hesitated, but once we moved away, they started consuming it. In some time, parent bird in search of young ones spotted them and started feeding with beetles and bugs. We could witness the parenting with all its emotions, trying to help young ones with food and conversing with empathy. We were amazed by seeing Sparrows, which were also helping this chick of the other family. All these continued for the next few hours as these chicks were hurt and couldn’t move much or even fly.
Parent bird feeding young one
In the next couple of hours, chicks started moving bit by bit but couldn’t fly much. Weather was also not supportive and heavy rain started. One of the chick could recover from the injury and flew away successfully. The other chick rested on Hibiscus stem. I noticed that it selected a stem by making sure that it had a big leaf covering at the top. I would say it’s a brave move considering the steady rain which ran overnight.
Next morning was bit sunny, I could still see the chick on the Hibiscus stem and it looked better suggesting recovery from the previous day injury. The parent bird again looked after its young one well with the food and gave good hopes. Next couple of hours was all about the chick trying to fly with smaller flights and gaining confidence. Finally, a moment of pride arrived because of its courage and perseverance to overcome the struggle, and it flew into the bright sky happily!
For humans, a life on wings symbolizes a life free of struggle—but birds don’t have it so easy. They have to forage for food and use those wings to migrate thousands of miles—all while avoiding countless threats from nature and humans. Hope we all can do our best, support others in need, and look forward to the new sunshine in the coming days.
When you visit your native or any other place where your association was strong, there are certain things you would like to experience, cherish and share. There are places or spots you would like to visit and bring back old memories from your childhood days.
Those memories never last, even after decades! Schools you have studied, roads where you had walked, streets where you learnt to cycling, grounds where you played cricket, placing an arm on your friend’s shoulder, buying chewing gum for sports, bullying some & running away, the adventure list never ends…
I usually visit my schools, parks, grounds and houses where we were staying in my childhood. After two decades, many things have got changed in my native. But some are still existing with minor change such as provision stores, old neighbors, bus and railway stations, market, bridges, schools and grounds. And some got entirely changed, such as buildings, roads and people.
After a certain period, we forget many things as our frequency of visit gets reduced. And once you visit those places, it will bring you nostalgic experiences with the places, events and people. You might share your experiences with your family and they would also bring back many stories around it. How any place changes over a period you never know and feels like was that real, did you live here before or was it your previous life and many such questions arise!
For me, whenever I visit my native place I go all over the places, cherish my childhood and share it with people. Some pictures are here to cherish!
My daughters Nidhi and Saanvi got to know that we are travelling. They got ready well before with their bags packed by making sure that they have carried toys, water bottles, crayons, drawing books, dresses, sneakers, goggles, masks and so on.
Nidhi’s drawing!
Once ready, kids started reminding us it’s time we need to start. They get so excited when we plan to go out and takes responsibilities on their own to take bags to the car and organize seatings.
Walking in the woods and playing in the sand are the fun elements.
Tenant in the ground floor has locked her house and started knocking on the door continuously. I had observed this earlier too. This time I thought of finding out why she always keeps knocking on the door after locking it. Is there a problem with the door or with the lock or something else?
I was passing by when I heard the knocking sound and stood there for a while thinking she might notice me and stop knocking. But she didn’t, rather continued knocking with the usual way. I started asking whether she needs any help with the door either to open or to close and then she unveiled a strange thing on why she knocks on the door even after locking it.
She explained that sometimes she forgets if she has locked the door or not. Sometimes she has left the house without locking it and realized when back. Hence this has caused her to make sure again and again by knocking on the door continuously.
For us, it may look silly, but there is something serious with the person who is going through with such syndrome. It could be an anxiety disorder or OCD and one can overcome it with certain therapies and lifestyle.
On a lighter-note, hope you have ensured that you have locked the door 😊.
First ever opportunity for air travel and that to Andaman islands came as a surprise to our entire family when Dad announced the plan! It was December, 2004. I was also invited from my friend Arun for other south india trip on road. As both the trips were at the same time I decided to go with the family trip. For a middle class family where we were just heard about air travel but never imagined how it would be and its experience but it is happening soon. It was like a dream coming true. We started planning months ahead, especially me and my bro.
We have received a lot of instructions from the travel agent on Do’s and Dont’s and what to carry so on. We started to know about new terms such as boarding pass, security check, table manners, language, etc. We never heard about terms like these. Finally a day has come where we are going to catch a flight of life time! This is because we never thought we would get any more opportunities to travel. We got to get into the flight and looked at seat numbers to make sure we get the seats as we were used to travel in bus where you have to go and book in person through any things which you carry, it could be a handkerchief, bag or whatever you have with you and you could book either getting through a door or via window!
We had all new experiences starting from getting into airport, checks, boarding, fastening seat belt, instructions from the flight stewards, attendants, etc. Take-off gave us thrilling experience similar to the one which we had in a giant wheel. Landing was also nothing less miracle than take-off. While getting down from the flight we were energised and felt like celebrities with so much of paparazzi!
We have been taken to hotel and nearby sightseeing on day one and we starting enjoying the beach, food, people, places, etc. Day two was also planned to visit nearby island. We got up early and got ready to wait for the cab to pick us. We were in 2nd floor of the hotel. My mom and brother went down first. I was wearing shoes and when done went to wash my hands in the room and suddenly felt like falling. Previous day, I was bit unwell and thought it was due to giddiness. Immediately there were sounds of windows, people screaming and realized it is earthquake. Without any thought I started running down the stairs but it was crowded all over the place as people are rushing and falling on one another. With some struggle I made my way to the ground floor and joined Mom and Bro. We now realized Dad is missing and mama told that Dad was about to lock the door and realized geaser is still ON, so he went back to switch it OFF. We were all worried and thought to go and pick him but by that time he too has managed to come down by himself.
We started praying and thanking god that we are safe. After a few minutes when there was no more earthquake, two of us went up again and got our bags down. We had one more thing to face and there was a beach opposite to our hotel with in 200 meters. We are seeing big tides and rushing towards us. We all started running where the crowd is moving and it was like climbing hilly area to avoid sea tides. We were taking a deep breath after running to a safe place. We had been moved to one more hotel now which seemed to be safe. But we were staying most of the times outside the hotel, sleeping in open air as there were frequent earthquake tremors. We were having coffee at a nearby shop and my brother made an interesting observation on my t-shirt with quote “The lost boys” and it was perfectly matching the circumstances we were in where we were completely lost by running, escaping from quakes and tides. Both started laughing even in such situation and took it as challenge and opportunity to face Tsunami and we came back to our place safely after few days. First air travel was filled with joy and also weird challenges. And those tides are nothing but Tsunami which we realized after couple of hours!!
Last night it was raining sideways and got to see water getting through our farmhouse. We did some arrangements to stop the water getting in. This made me to recollect one of the old incidents of the year 2004. During those days I was staying in Jayanagar close to Lalbagh botanical garden. A room which was more than sufficient for me to place things like computer table, bed and kitchen in one corner. Struggling days but had an amazing life with the exceptional friends including our incredible landlord.
It never occurred to me that I was a tenant over there. Most of my coffee and dinner were being served at their home. Initially, I was hesitant and later on it became a routine. We used to play carom in the evenings with a lot of joy as we never played like a match though. Landlord Uncle was hilarious, and still he is. He used to crack jokes like anything, and it was turning to a mega laughter challenge.
Once it happened that I came back from my native place in the early morning hours. It seemed there was a rain previous night and as I opened the room door, I couldn’t believe that the room was flooded with water all over the places. All the things in the room were drenched by leaving the bed in the center to form a small island! I had thought of taking a nap before going to office, but it all went in vain. I tried to sleep somehow but couldn’t and started texting to the landlord saying, “No one has taken care of the room during the rain and it is flooded. I’m looking for a new room elsewhere.”
I started cleaning the room with all the circus just to make my evening better. Someone knocked on the door. To my surprise, landlord family had come with all the tools to clean the room. I thanked them for the support shown, but I managed to clean the room on my own. Our family is still in contact with them, and we keep visiting on occasions. They still talk about this incident when we meet and take us back to those nostalgic moments!!
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