I am sorry for a long winded post, but wanted to share a story first and then proceed with my ramblings.
My grandma (my dad's mom) used to come all the way to the bus stand in my native place to see us off. It was not that big of a walk or it was not that she could not walk, but there was no need or necessity, but she did it anyway. Curiosity kills the cat or in this case gives a new insight. Of course, I asked her why she did that. She said that one of her cousins or sisters (I cannot remember who) used to do this and my grandma used to tease her a lot about it and had complained about it several times. She told me that there was nothing like next life to reap the benefits (I always feel everything in life is a benefit even if we might not know it or realize it) of your actions, it is always in this life, so now that her cousin/sister had passed away, my grandma felt the urge to come see us off till the bus stand.
This talk with my grandma had a very big impact on me and made me rethink my actions in several situations (sometimes in retrospect - but that helps too). I used to argue about certain things with my Mom and I notice that I am doing the same things that she used to do that was bothering me then.
Anyways, the reason I thought about this today was because it is very very cold today here in Flower Mound, TX - 28 degrees Fahrenheit which makes it below freezing and we are having sleet rain and very icy conditions on the road. There is nothing on the TV other than road conditions, weather updates and news snippets related only to this weather. There are so many accidents because Texans are not used to this kind of weather and they just cannot drive in this weather.
When I was young I went to school in Ulavi (a small village in Karnataka) near Dodderi (which is the home of my grandfather and the famous novelist Dr.D.V.Rao). I used to notice that people could talk for hours even like half a day about the buses. Yeah, buses - like did Krishna Bus come in today? I am sorry if this is a huge information overload, but buses back there have names and then run at specific times. So, the conversation would be something like,
"Did Krishna bus come today?"
"No Not yet, although Gajanana bus did go the other way."
"I have heard that there is a new driver in Krishna bus along this route."
"Hmm, maybe he is a better driver than the last driver, who was so rash that I was always scared when he turned around the Hosabale pond."
Of course all this dialog would take place in Havyak language - my native tongue which is a variation of Kannada - the state language of Karnataka.
So, all the teasing and complaining about the way they could talk for hours on buses have come back to haunt (or is it benefit) me in Flower Mound, where we have talked nothing but the icy weather in the past half a day.
Life is awesome indeed.
ಉತ್ತಿ ಬಿತ್ತಿದ್ದು
1 week ago
