An abnormal day, amongst the multitude of such days.
But today another family member departed
As I returned home I slowly realised Lucie would not be here to greet me.
Sowbaghya had earlier invited our team to pay their respects and fill the house with love, as Lucie began to reach her last legs. This was, while I was being an attentive ‘parent’ to Kaveri at her school.
That’s two.
I’m missing too much …
… there’s a gap which far exceeds their size. Their imprint is ginormous
Radhika was 17 this week so with Kaveri back for a skating race we made Sunday into an extra celebration.
Happy Birthday
Radhika B Radical
Skating and school was tiringRadical’s fiancée did the honours and it now lives in what’s fast becoming Kaveri and Radhika’s room at the BnB In my role as one of Kaveri’s extra mums I’m finding the best moisturiser.
Manjula complained about me filling the house with art and books —- and we were running out of space.
She decided that when I was seventy-five (that’s right, i’m —not yet) and stopped leading MYcycle tours (big assumption there) we’d open the house as a library.
In her memory I closed one of the bedrooms to reopen it as ‘Manjula’s Library’
Just one of the bookcases
There’s now hundreds of fiction and non-fiction books in English, including those about education, India, history, philosophy, for adults and children.
It’s an idiosyncratic mix already used by our guests, the members of ‘reflective space’ and the time I spend with young people.
My own favourites are the picture books.
It changes by the day ….
… check out the new arrivals.
Yes, it’s not JUST books, we now have a selection of cool badges.
Well if ‘last’ years birthday is anything to go by I’ve fully localised.
31st December can seem a weird day for a birthday. Or maybe not.
Endings and beginnings
There’s always multiple celebrations
It was wonderful.
A steady stream of lovely friends making it a day to remember.
Plus my girls were here (kaveri and Radhika) having missed Christmas together, we shifted Christmas to the morning and began my birthday at noon 12.35 sharp 🤭
and Rinkal and Sheetal are seriously becoming an integral part of the team. Welcome to you.
and I became Pinocchio, it was my alternative to being fed cake… repeatedly.
Next morning
Radhika borrows one of Kaveri’s Christmas presents They are ‘sisters’, you’ll understand. Lucie prepares to go to the vets.
In the 1970s and 1980s, in my early adult years I joined political campaigns and demonstrations. I believe — that’s part of our democratic rights — nowadays the right wing media might label it woke in a divisive way.
We marched and disrupted against war in principle and the locating of US Cruise missiles in the U.K., in particular.
More recently I’ve revisited one of those places and had people from the military on my training workshops. For example, I participated in research about drone bees on Greenham common ewhere the cruise missile airfield is now closed. I’ve also had a manager from the warfare research institute attend one of my corporate workshops (on ethics 🤔🤭) in London.
There’s a long tradition of this around the world, given focus and energised by Mahatma Gandhi in the campaigns against the autocratic, racist British colonialists in India
In addition to anti-nuke demos from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament or CND (1950s onwards so before I was born) we campaigned against apartheid and fascism.
Modern day examples might be seen as the response to Gaza
BUT in countries around the world governments (for example in the U.K.) are legislating against peaceful demonstrations or intimidating demonstrators through arrest (or in India demolishing their homes.)
Our democracy is diminished through these actions. Our rights to challenge and demonstrate are critical parts of an active participative democracy.
Footnote
Let’s be absolutely clear and challenge a blatant untruth here in India.
The demonstrations in the west against the inhuman attacks on Gaza are organised and attended by a great big mix of different people from all communities including Jews and Muslims.
Even in our first year we were no 1 in Mysore on Trip Advisor but there were no contact details. Guests couldn’t quite believe it
As they realised, I’m Yindian, (Indian by marriage, Yorkshire by birth) the Yorkshire bit means I’ll not spend money unnecessarily. (that’s one way of putting it)..
We’d also joke that we only wanted guests that would put the effort in and find us!!
Our Facebook entries also meant we were on Google. All that helped.
AirBnB was our other big thing. We’re still on it but sometimes forget as most guests come as returners, byword of mouth or recommendations.
Just to prove it, here’s some of the reviews from our lovely AirBnB guests.
We can assure you, that we don’t chop people’s heads off
In Didion’s book ‘a year of magical thinking’ (well it lasts for longer than a year … like forever) she writes about the vortex, I call it being bushwhacked.
One is ….
Attacked for no apparent reason, as the sadness arises — mainly due to recollections that appear — as if from nowhere.
There’s also a regular hidden sadness that surfaces as intolerant anger.
Sorry everyone.
I’m dealing with CBB — can’t be bothered — but it’ll get sorted.
Slivers of paper, pencil sharpenings, crisp packets,
Neighbours blame the inconsiderate young people but let’s look a little closer….
Yes it’s adults with babies dumping their diapers (nappies)
A bag full goes in our bin to be collected by the city corporation (MCC).
Why can’t the people give their rubbish to the MCC who collect most mornings?
The fading Firangi (foreign pensioner) chooses to clear it up. My neighbours blame the students and it’s partially true but on closer inspection — it’s the babies shit now smeared all around by the dogs — who’ve adopted the park that’s made it worse.
So all ages are responsible together with their team mates, the dogs…. It’s not just due to the corporation not clearing up. People need to learn to put things in a bin and not expect other to clear up after them.
We had similar problems in the U.K. in the past.
The keep Britain tidy logo
So there was a countrywide campaign, decades ago to stop people littering.
Were organised by Manjula’s Mysore at Kaliyuvamane, the ‘open’ school that Kaveri attends in Mysore and separately for an NGO working with visually impaired young women.
Why?
… because it’s an ‘alternative’ approach we think reflects our way of thinking and that of the school.
Betty Edward’s writer of ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ puts it well…
“throughout many cultures … there is much talk of creativity and our need for innovation and invention. “ …. Yet …
“our education system seems bent on eliminating every last bit of creative perceptual training of the right side of the brain, while overemphasising the skills best accomplished by the left side of the brain: memorising dates, data, theorems, and events with the goal of passing standardised tests.”
Edwards believes that “with careful teaching transfer, drawing and reading together can educate both halves of the brain.”
Indeed the management guru Tom Peters declared innovation as the no 1 competency for successful, thriving organisations. That was also reflected in the work of John W Gardner author of ‘excellence’ and ‘self-renewal: the individual and the innovative society’
As I look into this more, I realise that creativity helps us develop and use the right side of the brain to enhance our perception and to bring meaning into our increasingly complex worlds.
It’s therefore no accident that we’ve promoted “two vital global skills: reading and drawing.”
I hope MAnjula was happy and proud that in her memory we’ve tried to better equip young people for the challenges they’ll face, bringer greater equilibrium and help them find their passion.
Me and MYCycle 