Bye, Bye, Dear Telegram

Bye, Bye, Dear Telegram 

The telegram is now officially dead. Regarded for many years as the harbinger of really important  news, both good and bad,one looks back, sometimes with joy,  other times  with dread, when one thinks of the telegram. A relative lost, a job gained, a birth or a celebration, all warranting a time consuming trip to the telegraph office, to get the message to near and dear ones, in the days before the arrival of the ubiquitous gadgets , that we now know as phones, pods and tablets. 

It seems , as time goes by, that I am indeed lucky to belong to this generation of people who has experienced the slow, languorous way of living, with no pressure on time , to find myself now catapulted into the exciting world of fast games, racy cars, joysticks, and what have you, all available at the press of a button, or a fingertouch even. 

And so, I have moved, as has an entire generation of old- timers, from the good ol' world of waiting , to the world of instant gratification. From the time when a telegram was a luxury, and a telephone, decadence.And have been fortunate enough to have traversed two worlds of existence, in one lifetime !

Regards
Aina Rao
The amblingindian.

Happiness in the mirror

Happiness in the mirror
It was exactly 20 years ago. A new graduate, about to join my first job, waiting at the Victoria Terminus ladies waiting room. 

A lady walked in, peddling raisins . Something was different about her. I looked , and then i saw. Her legs were halved , kind of only upto the knee. She walked on these, maybe somewhat stumpish a walk, but managed to hobble along . Somewhere along the way , she looked at me and asked - did i have a mirror ? She needed it to position a small bindi on the centre of her forehead. I found a small compact, an old one , and handed it to her. She wanted to give it back . I gestured - she could keep it. Really, she asked ? "Dont you need it?" " No, I don't. Keep it".
I walked out of there to my first job, glowing with reflected happiness. She did not need to struggle to reach the wall mirror anymore. A small mirror, that reflected her joy, said it all.
Twenty years later, it came back in a flash " Aina - a mirror" . They say, what you sow, you reap. Maybe, twenty years back, I sowed the seeds of happiness in a tiny mirror.

Today , it comes back to me. Makes me so happy, when i write , masquerading as Aina , the mirror.

Regards,
Aina Rao facebook: amblingindian

Amblingindian nuggets on life - on ego

It feels so much lighter to travel around without an ego. Feeling light as an ant, who dilligently carries out her chores , without a shred of worry , or pride. Looking  at the ants, their neat little patterns moving  through my garden,  steadily towards their goal,  feels so humbling. In the realities of the cosmic creation, we may all be ants , our life spans being so miniscule in a universe spanning millions and gazillions of years.  Bowing to the lofty ants, feeling so uplifted. Without a care in the world, and most importantly , without the unwanted heavy duty  pride, the e-go, way to go..

Regards, 

Aina Rao ( the amblingindian)