When we came to USA in 1990 and reached TX in 1991, after a
10 day warm welcome by my brother Vijay and sister in law Gretchen and their
two beautiful cats, a golden Tabby and a White darlings, for Christmas during
1990, it was so beautiful, going to the park hill, some old classic homes that
stood test of time over 200 years and kept alive to show the world how it was
back then, we were back on earth at College Station and the reality dawned
after a few days or weeks with Anirudh having culture shock to use the western water closet and it was not understood why for two weeks to come he had to withhold
bowel movement.. he was hardly 4 years old.
On Jan 2, 1991, he said first thing in the morning, "ee chali deshaniki naanna endukanna vachcharo emo" (Wonder why has my father come to this very, cold country..)
Fortunately, with lot
of medical bills aside the insurance and worry, he was slowly back to normalcy
as he began schooling in Head start at South Knoll school, and got
fantastically adjusted. He was up, energetic, enjoyed the buckets of new Lego
toys Vijay mama and Srinivas uncle gave and used to construct rockets, break
them and remake them, everyday. He would first make airplanes with legos, and
hundreds of them draw them on papers with crayons of all colors, 48 or 64 of
them Vijay mamayya got for him. Vijay anna, bought not only
those, he also bought Microwave, dinner set, silverware, making sure we got the basic home set up, from service merchandise. As for some basic groceries, we bought on our way
from Houston to College Station stopping to shopping at Houston, that was only
possible when we could get a ride from Shravan mama. (my cousin)
I had difficulty in adjusting to stay 24/7 home while Balu
was at school, however come Summer, I was enrolled in one basic course in
Sociology, just so I could maintain my student medical/health insurance.
Fact to remember was, how the airplanes turned to rockets as
our stay progressed and watching News over TV brought about knowledge of Space
ships, which Sriram also used to draw as a kid. both boys would spend hours in
constructing planes, rockets and break them again, and remake painstakingly and
not caring even if they worked almost until the end of the day, as the Lego
pieces got tinier and their fine motor skills improved. And in 2003, they had
their first Nintendo, that was returned and PlayStation was bought from Xmas
bonus from 2002. was it 1997? not sure. Yes, we were in Houston by that time,
dad graduated with his PhD in one hand, holding two year old Sriram in the
other who pulled his cap away! They said, “you guys at that time were the
youngest ever Aggies in the campus!” While back in Sugarland both of you going
to Colony Meadows and First Colony MS back then... I tried to do
substituting...
There is a reason I
was recollecting this: as I was reading about a study on progress, the author
watches his young grandson(?) Nathaniel, play Legos, as he was constructing rockets and space
ships, making and remaking even better ones as he went on reshuffling the Lego
pieces in a better way. He finds it interesting and intriguing and wants to find,
what was the motivating factor, for the boy to repeat doing that. One of the
boys, Caleb, in a different study was struggling hard to touch the ceiling with his balloon, and keeps falling down as he moves from a chair or table or bed
as his launch area, so that he could send his balloon to touch the ceiling
above. If he did not succeed, he would try over and over.
Remembered the poem, Try, Try Again, that we read as grade
school students in 6th grade or so..
No matter how old you may be, your dreams are the motivating
factors, so dream big!
What was the factor, that motivated that boy, even when it
was not possible to reach his imagination, and did not let him settle to meager
ones, as he tried over and over to rebuilt a better rocket?
Is that what creates and makes progress possible… I wonder,
as I sip my morning coffee..
Series: 2 How do I write?
Writing for some is a catharsis, they say.
Some say it is a panacea, and they are penchant to write,
lest they be lost in the burden of the thoughts raking waves of disturbances,
that may affect their mind, and suppress toxins which otherwise might injure
their health as they conjure them souls that are gone away, and may return to
as well as dwell on them to feast.
So a seed of thought might turn itself into a tree of creeps
of sorts and build a nest so humongous that even the Mongols may have never
imagined as Kublai khan inheritor of Zenghiz khan’s dynasty and empire and at
one point suppressed the Wuhans by fighting them, despite the fact that his
brother, who he was assisting on force, has died..
Did the Wuhans souls who died reincarnated as the viruses?
Is it why they cannot be controlled in one form or the other.. Ahem.. more cryptic sciences if one may…
So, you have a thought, a seed and you drill it, a dozen
times and create a cryptic thought or whatever you may, apply it to the present
situation, add more cryptology science and crates of sciences and design a book, a
novel, a study or think what you may..
And then, as your cryptic thoughts are functioning, your
anticryptic positive side of brain takes charge and drives you away from
getting yourself into nuts and may be throw light on what may or may not work
and leads you to further progress until you may pause ..
Do not let it stop you! Now tell yourself to wake up and
proceed further!
What are you working on now?
Let me hear too! How is it going for you? XXOO
Uma Jiji
How do I write?
When I question myself, how do I write, the first thing that
comes to my mind is why do I write?
Why do I write of songs so lost
Why do I sing those songs oh so lost…
If it is a poem, I write what my heart feels, mind perceives
or words convey, my feelings of lost, that first and foremost may convey that
there once may have been a sense of belongingness.
Once Srirama is said to have told his brother Lakshmana, Hey
brother, Lakshmana, no matter how loving or close a relationship be, one day or
the other, or one time or the other, it will be broken, it will be lost.
If the Lord has said something in those lines to the brother
Lakshmana, what product are we to know anything else?
Despite a loving relationship all along in one’s lifetime,
all through, when the life is lost, there is no more togetherness. Every soul
leads an independent journey to seek Him or their mission.
Coming to the point of writing, it is thought that runs ones
life, or leads one to write.
These thoughts can be generated through processes that may
be generated due to activity or feeling, or necessity or care or any other
umpteen reasons.
The seed is the thought.
Once a thought is generated, an idea takes form.
You would churn on the idea so much that it will evolve
further.
If you keep churning the idea and not take any further
action, but keep boiling the thoughts over and over again, what would happen?
Think about it until next and let me know what would or
might happen, as a response.
May be you could let us know other things that might
interest you… what may or may not work in your case..
Or perhaps, what you may want to pursue, or advise or go
after..
Until later!
