No Plastic tales - Tale 1

Rewind 2 weeks:

On Jun 5, World Environment Day, our family decided on this: Say-no-to-one-time-use-plastic. We took selfies, groupfies with the posters & posted in facebook, whatsapp etc. So what comes next. It takes time to eliminate one-time-plastic use. We decided to go in phases. I discussed with my kids on the first step that we would take. Yes, it's not to use carry bags or plastic covers. We decided to take our own bags to the shops. This is where my memory was severely tested. Read on.

Memory slip 1:

Half the time I would know that I have to buy something when I go to pickup or drop kids at school. There would be a call from my sister-in-law or Amma to buy something. Most probably I won't have a bag with me at that moment. Once, I received such a call while returning from school with kids. We didn't have a bag. We searched our car to find anything that looks like a carry bag and finally found one plastic cover, decided to reuse it and went to the shop. We got tomatoes and onions, went to the billing counter and when the guy was about to pull out a cover, we proudly gave ours. He dropped the tomatoes inside the bag and oh no..the cover had a hole which we didn't notice and the tomatoes started rolling royally on the floor. Some of them broke and it was an embarrassing sight. We apologized and took their carry bags. Bad!!

Memory slip 2:

Another day, same thing happened. We didn't have a bag and we again searched for a bag. Kavi gave me an idea. She offered her lunch bag which is made of cloth. She took out her lunch box and water bottle, emptied the bag and gave it to me. We went to the shop.  Now this was decent. We somehow succeeded.

Fast forward 2 weeks:

To overcome these slips, we are doing this now. Once a week, we keep 5-6 cloth bags in the car and use whenever needed.

Well...yet to test that memory part to reload the bags. I realized how much of this attitude "to go empty handed to a shop" is ingrained within us. I vaguely remember carrying bags in 80s. Gotta get back to that culture.

Well, this is the highlight, Jani - my little niece came today with a sad face. She had gone to a shop with her father to buy vegetables. I asked her the reason for such a sad face(she was actually looking cherubic even with that face). She said that she forgot to take a cloth bag. Hah! this is what is needed. The change started happening within the youngest one.

Tales to continue....

The alarming annoyance

      Being part of that population that gets annoyed with the tone of morning wake up alarm, I tried all methods to keep it pleasant:  used my favorite song, chirps of birds, lilting  sound of waterfall, raindrops on the roof, splashing waves, baby's laughs...never works. It could be the best music you love,  but when it becomes the alarm notification tone, you know what.. 😃

     And yeah, to avoid snoozing, (well I used to snooze 3-4 times which definitely increases the annoyance quotient), I kept the phone a lil far away...better, but still, getting up to go get the phone and snoozing again is another Himalayan task.

     My resolution is to get up early to do yoga, first thing in the morning. So what did I do...I woke up before my alarm went off..bingo! the tone is not that annoying now..😃
     
      Call it biological clock or whatever, but of late I get up exactly 6-7 minutes before the alarm goes off..and consistent at that.. Isn't that awesome?

So, what worked : I say,  my mind listens and my body obeys.. How? the answer is yoga. 😃

Pls read what worked again..😉

The crow chronicle

      One afternoon Amma n I had a good siesta. I was still snoozing, when Amma went to pick flowers for puja. That's when we heard a non-stop chirping. We saw that a crow was calling us. We ignored her first. But she was not flying away or hopping, but calling us.

     Amma immediately realized that our water bowl was not in it's place. It had fallen down during last night's rain. She took another bowl, filled water and kept on the wall. The crow happily drank. It started calling it's friends. It had water again n flew away.

      For the little soul, which regularly frequents our home, water means so much to it's life. I watched all this with absolute reverence to water, the elixir of life. Thank you dear crow, we will make sure the bowl is in it's place everyday with water and you are welcome home at anytime of the day.

The not-so-famous Chinnasamy

On our way to school, I was speaking to my children about how crores n crores of people have come to this world and gone, while only few are remembered. I asked them to name a few, say 25. Pat came the answer from the little one Jani - Chinnasamy. I was like, what? Chinnasamy?? Who is that?? But by the time I asked this question, the elder one answered Gandhi, Nehru n so on and the kids were churning out more names..we forgot abt Chinnasamy..

Adi wanted to buy a notebook and we stopped at a shop. Jani n Adi went to the shop while Kavi n I stayed back in the car. That's when Kavi noticed an obituary poster with an old man's photo with the name..u guessed it right..Chinnasamy..😃

For all of us, Chinnasamy will be remembered forever...😃

What's in a shape

My friend visited us after attending Grahapravesham at his village. He said that they were served idlis made in thin plastic cups to get that innovative(!) shape. OMG😱😱

Our humble idli has been taking varieties of avatars in the past one decade..Khusbhu idli, Masala idli, vegetable idli, fried idli,...and now this plastic idli..but why?
If we ask our mothers, they made idlis in brass moulds, slowly we moved to aluminium and stainless steel..but plastic??

In the name of being creative, are we digging our own graves. We have been told not to carry hot food in plastic covers, as it is hazardous to health. Just imagine what could happen if it's steamed in plastic cups. Scary right?

Dear chefs who cook for functions or restaurants..Pls Pls say no to plastic in any form, for cooking.

We are quite happy and in fact relish the original, cute, soft, round idli..

Welcome to my blog.😃
This is a blog that highlights life's little beautiful moments.
It has cute moments that define us, our lives.
While we see many depressing news around, this is not the truth in entirety. Everyone of us celebrate life in our own way, even in the middle of chaos.
Yes, I try to capture them here. Hope you enjoy reading.