ALTER IDEM

Road - widening hits home : ( When the announcement had come two years ago, all of us had accepted the fact. Yes, our roads were too narrow to accommodate the sudden increase in traffic - both local & tourist.... and, widening them was necessary. Proposed & approved way back in the 70s, financial shortcomings had post-poned the widening works till now! Those of us along the proposed widening path were hoping that the financial crunch continued & the proposal would remain just that! Alas! it didn't happen that way. Today, the dreaded moment arrived and was gone within a couple of minutes, leaving all of us sailing in the same boat ...... Most neighbours have lost old, high yielding coconut trees, mango trees, etc. Some have lost a portion of their verandas. We have lost about 8 feet of our garden. My favourite corner would look like this at this time of the year. Now, it looks like this ..... Soon, it will be tarred and be called 'road' .......

The other evening, my friend and I were in her veranda - talking about this and that - and her farm hand walked in. He had finished his day's work. As my friend got him his tea, she told him, "Heard that your son's post has been made permanent. Now, you should think of getting him married". That was all the opening he needed - to pour out his opinions, quite oblivious to the presence of a stranger. "What 'permanent' akka . With his Rs.7,000 per month income, I'll have to look around for a girl who earns at least that much. Otherwise, how can he manage? Just see...both of us leave home at around 8.15 in the morning. While my work place is at a walkable distance, he spends Rs.20 one way as bus fare.Then, amidst work, I have proper lunch, tea,...& walk back home, in time to do some chores there. For this, I earn about Rs.6,000 per month (Farm hands in these parts are paid Rs.200 - Rs.300 per day, plus meals). I save whatever remains after spendin...

The other day, on our way to Chikmaglur, we passed by this pond near a sleepy hamlet..... and, we saw something that we had never seen before! Monkeys, or any other animal in the wild for that matter, do not like human attention/ interference. When they are in a group, they are fearless and do not hesitate to show their dislike. Fearful of attack, I didn't dare to go closer than about 40 feet! That's why, in this pic, one can just about make out that these monkeys are eating some part of the lotus plant! As a term, 'lotus eater' is synonymous with 'pleasure seeker'. On the other hand, it is a well known fact that the entire lotus plant is edible in one form or the other - roots, stems, leaves, flowers & seeds!! I remember seeing lotus stem in brine on the shelves of some super markets. As food, roots, leaves, etc. are supposed to have several health benefits. Curiously, the seeds are supposed to be slightly narcotic. Whether they were having a ...