Saturday, November 29, 2008

Bullock cart ride anyone??

I was around 6 or 7 years old I think. It was in our old house in Karama. I decided it was time I looked through and sorted out our family albums ( or mess it up rather ). I came across this one particular picture that brought tears to my 6 year old eyes...
I went running to my mom whining more than crying, "Maaaa....Look at this picture!! IT IS NOT FAIR!!!".

My puzzled mom looked at the picture and continued to be puzzled, "What? What happened?"

And with all the righteous indignation I could muster,
"How come you took my BROTHER on a bullock cart but you never took ME on one....sniff!?!"

My mom and a couple of neighbors she was with just burst out laughing while little me was standing there wondering what in the world was so funny when I felt so betrayed!

The picture was of my mom, brother (who was born 11 yrs before me) and cousin sis-in-law (yeah we have a lot of extended family) on a bullock cart with my brother trying to handle the bullocks.

Now as I mull on about the lecture given by Nand Prabhu on Varnasrama and farm communites ( Side note: Excellent lecture really....he made wild cheetahs around the farm sound like cute little adorable cats you can play with ;D. He also made riding on a bullock cart sound like go-karting or something! Hence the bullock cart anecdote), I wonder if I have it in me to live simply and I mean SIMPLE SIMPLE in a village on a farm...producing your own cloth, no cell phones, no electricity, growing your own food...the works!

I mean I've always had an inclination really to villages and village life. My last visit to India just held me in pure fascination for ways of life and things in my dad's old village and farms...




Milking a cow..... :D An 'interesting' experience...








Climbing a haystack is quite fun. Should be on your list of things to do in life.....










Eating coconut chutney that is ground on a stone grinding mortar has this taste that none of your blenders, Sumit or Preeti grinders can duplicate......
Btw, my arm muscles were screaming in pain after attempting to grind the chutney for 2 minutes. My kind aunt took over taking pity on the poor city weakling that I am... :|








My cousin's kids educating this ignorant on the proper way to stoke a fire.... That was my bath water boiling by the way so I could have hot water to take a bath. :)







Mmmm......freshly churned butter from milk! My aunt is such an expert, it takes her only around 10 minutes to churn the milk that produces the butter that is transformed into the most fragrant and tastiest ghee that I've ever eaten....



I really loved every minute of living there with my family, breathing in the fresh air, seeing green fields all around, having fresh food. But can I do it everyday for life? Maybe....sounds like fun really.....heck I'm still young! I can afford to try it out.....

BUT...one question pops into my mind. Please forgive my vanity.....but how in the world will I wax? and thread my eyebrows?

8 comments:

RK said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RK said...

Childhood pastimes are usually the most cherished! Indian villages and rural life is astonishingly beautiful

Anuradha Keshavi said...

Yupp! I agree..... but then I wonder if it would be so fascinating and beautiful if I was actually living a rural life......

4VISHNU said...

Hare Krsna Anuradha,

I don't know if you remember me, but we both got initiated the same day in Atlanta over two years ago, at the Panihati festival...

Anyways, I just came across your blog, and wanted to exchange links for my blog...

http://4krsna.wordpress.com/

Hope you're doing well. Hare Krsna!

Sri Ranganath Krsna das

Anonymous said...

It was extremely interesting for me to read this post. Thanks for it. I like such topics and everything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more soon.

Anonymous said...

Pretty nice place you've got here. Thanks for it. I like such topics and everything that is connected to them. BTW, why don't you change design :).

Anuradha Keshavi said...

Thank you 'Anonymous' (though it would be nice to leave a name with a comment!)

change design to what? suggestions? It isn't nice the way it is??

Anonymous said...

Just tripped across your blog...its simple and good. Just remembered childhood days climbing on hay stack, blowing through a pipe to fire up the chulha and the stone grinder!!

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Go through whenever you may find some time.