Happy Gowrie Ganesh, today we recognise the big guys mum. 
And here she is…. Gowrie
Lord Ganesha himself has arrived in our Pooja room and will be celebrated properly from tomorrow.
Manjula has bathed and completed the Pooja of which she’s really pleased.
This time last year she was in hospital with Dengue fever. What a difference a year makes. Well done Manj!
It’s Ganesh’s Big Day
I was deputed to go buy Ganesh in the city centre.
I might be a shopper but sometimes there’s just too much choice!
Well the Pooja room is cleaned and prepared
Ganesh and his mum wait patiently on the dining table. I have to bathe before I can enter and place him on his stool!
She was only a little mite but even in a very short time has left a gaping hole.
I first heard her yelping as we passed during one of our MYCycle Tours on Srirangapatnam. It was as if one of the guys at a chai shop was teasing or hurting her. I sort of adopted her. For the next week, I saw her every time we passed by.
First impressions were not good. She was slow, almost subdued, had what seemed to be a scar on her head, was pretty run down and a couple of days later was completely covered in fleas. I fed her with milk each time and the locals, who have got to know me over the years realised she was adopted. Typical firangi! She seemed to be really very young but was already lapping up her milk. Her mother was nowhere to be seen. Pups are often cruelly separated and dumped. I treated her and got rid of the fleas. I decided to kidnap her (no one gave a damn) and took her to People for Animals ‘rescue centre’ aka death camp. ( a bit unfair but the level of illness and death is known to be high).
Ruby, as she became known with variants of Too, two and tue…. was left at the rescue centre for a check up and treatment but not for too long. It’s a lovely place with caring staff and volunteers but a lot of illness for puppies. I brought her home after a week. That in itself was a quandary. Should I have left her there for longer? What would the women of the household think?
At first she seemed to be managing OK. Eating, although not very much, the quantity of worms she expelled was amazing. This was the first of three lots. Her means of carriage, the princesses pumpkin with handles aka the shopping bag was ideal and endlessly entertained the local children. They couldn’t believe it when they noticed her little head popping out, I have of course reinforced their view that foreigners are more than a bit weird,
Lucie and Ruby’s relationship was a ‘work in progress’ they generally kept a discreet distance.
She developed a cough and chest infection, laboured breathing, running nose and constant diarrhoea. We seem to be at the vets every other day. They’ve stuffed her with antibiotics, a drip and minerals to rehydrate, vitamins, powder to stop the shits you name it, she’s had it. Michael-virtual-vet-Heath, in Australia was advising from afar. Back at home I created a den out of a cardboard box with a lovely bed with pillow, blanket and neat little door to get in and out. As things seemed to be getting worse I’d just nurse her. Manjula reckons for most of the day. Then the three of us would go out on our Adams family jaunts.
On reflection if might have been better for her to stay longer at the centre and perhaps she was too vulnerable even for the bath. Who really knows. We did our best but for our lovely Ruby the roller coaster ride is over.
We now are left with fond memories and are pleased we could spend that precious time together.
Manjula who was all no-no-no (she was the same with Billi) was won over after just a few days.
It helps me realise together with some of our other experiences (this is not the most challenging by any means) , what a hard life it can be here and how important it is to make the most of it.
so this is just the latest example of …. it’s been a bit of a weird year, more of that later.
I’ve been on a rollercoaster.
Well I haven’t really. I’m too small and too young but I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what it might be like.
It’s been exhilarating, my stomachs been filled, gone up as if into my mouth then rushed back down again. Whoops, and I’ve let it out.
I’ve been overawed, never quite knowing what to expect, given new experiences, found new things. Been warm and comfortable, cold and shocked. I’ve sometimes left a mess, I’m sorry!
Its been confusing and I sometimes wish I’d never been on the journey. I’ve felt awful, wanted, not wanted, sick, with the runs, full stomach, empty stomach, coughing fits, difficulty breathing, tears in my runny eyes, wishing it was over. Sometimes all alone and others feeling part of my family.
Hang on, hang on…. what is this? there’s a whoosh of water that fair takes my breath away. Didn’t expect that and could have done without it. Baths are overrated.
The rollercoaster has this amazing carriage. My aerial transporter my very own time travelling Tardis. I’ve seen places I wouldn’t have imagined. Its fun together.
Yes, I’ve been some strange places with odd people, had things stuck up my bum, had needles in my thin spindly legs, had endless concoctions squirted in my mouth.
It’s been a bit hectic and intense.
Sometimes I’m ecstatic, in love with the newness, the hugs the cuddles, our time together.
Sometimes in the middle of it all I just want it to end.
Sometimes I just wish my big-new-friend, the BNF would have left me there, on the pavement by the chai shop. It was maybe a little dull but it had its traumas too, but no….. On reflection I realise, what’s good, My new life is fun, I don’t want it to change, I like my new life. Just without the illness, please.
I’m maybe just not quite sure about that BIG black thing: Lucie.
our time together, me and the BNF has been short but really special, not easy but full of kindness, I know it’s important we make the best of what we have. I know I am loved and cherished and that’s right for me.
Ruby Too
……
The BNF in a fitful sleep was woken by an unusual cry at 3.35 am was that Ruby? BNF rushed downstairs, took her in his arms and finally with an unmistakable rattle at 3.45 Ruby 2, too and tue passed away.
I wish I could have done more.
Stephen
It’s Manjula’s and Willian’s (who’s he?) birthdays this month. First however it’s the BIG goddess herself: Chamundeshwari.
Don’t ask her age.
Hence the crowds for the free bus to the top of the Hill.
Here one day, gone the next.
So we celebrate it calmly at home.
Blue for Ganesh. Yellow for Chamundeshwari. Other partygoers: Krishna and Shiva.
Farrell Factoid
Chamundeshwari, known as Durga in the north, lives at the Temple, on the hill behind our house. She famously killed the demon after which Mysore (Mysuru, if you insist) is named.
How can they find it?
In America, four out of five people who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 saw an ability to bring about change as his most important quality. That tells us less about Trump than it does about the way that real agents of change, social movements that can truly transform people’s lives, have crumbled.
People need change, although they might deny it, and need to feel they have both purpose and some control over their lives.
Image is from my 50th birthday invite and how life changed a few years afterwards.
So what’s life without it purpose or meaning?
Humans, Frankl suggests, find themselves only through creating meaning in the world. Meaning is not something to be discovered – it is something that humans create. They do so by acting upon the world. “Man does not simply exist,” Frankl wrote, “but always decides what his existence will be”
Check the article here for more info.
I created my change and a new meaning through my muse, my catalyst, my Manjula.
I write this on a reflective journey, realising we can’t control, seeking to add to that meaning and find fulfilment whilst holding my dear to me.
The tour continues
I’m travelling back up north so what to do? Check out the Queen’s mini elephant?
And one or two other things…..
A wonderful exhibition of mechanical ‘toys’ or automata. Some minuscule such as the Queens elephant and some giants such as this amazing train!
In great location, country house with capability brown gardens in Warwickshire. Here at Compton Verney where there’s loads of exhibitions and Capability Brown’s landscape.
My advanced technical skills doesn’t enable me to get the map orientated properly.
muppet! .
More details here in the Guardian article.
It seems there are wonderful examples of these automata dotted around the country. One of my favourites is the little amusement arcade on the pier at Southwold in Suffolk.
I’m a firm believer in listening to the whispers.
It’s not complex.
There’s often a pattern to the things that happen, that we hear or notice, or somehow seem apparent.
They are often messages we can choose to hear or ignore.
Today I’m fondly remembering a friend, my first proper girl friend. I set up home with Tricia at 18 before I even left school. We had a bedsit. It was the downstairs living room of a terraced two-up, two down. The kitchen was shared with the couple upstairs, toilet outside in the yard and ‘slipper’ * baths at the swimming pool down the road.
Well I learned today that Tricia had died earlier this year.
I’d bumped into Tricia again in TK Maxx in Sheffield a few years ago. I’d met her daughters, exchanged stories and introduced her to Manjula over the past two years. I was so pleased we’d reconnected.
I’m sad and sorry to hear she’s gone but grateful for our wonderful times together and that we’d found each other again.
I’m sending positive warmness to her husband and daughters.
The loud whispers ? : people’s deaths, great conversations with the 97 year old and Manjula’s near death experience this year .
The message? : cherish what you have, make the most of it, keep connected to the precious people in your life, be good.
From the Peace Gardens, one of our places in Sheffield
Farrell factoid
* a Victorian swimming pool often had slipper baths alongside. Small bathrooms where you could go for your full wash. Instead of the tin bath in the living room on the fire hearth
Donkey loses legs!
Road Trip …. with a great geezer.
Attention!
Douglas and I spent the day together travelling from York to the Deep South!
It helps me realise how important it is to keep connected and spend time with those we might not ordinarily come into contact with….
… age difference 36 years!!
It was a great, fun journey and took maybe six hours (this disUnitedKingdom is a VERY BIG country, or so the Brexiteeeers think) taking in an extended lunch (talking) and unplanned detour (my battery ran out and talking).
Talk time was on a ratio of 9-1 Douglas to me). You may find that hard to believe but absolutely true.
Douglas is the father of Liz and grandpa of my sons Ben and Ol.
I’m clearly a donkey and my hind legs have now fallen off.
What a character! Aged 97 he retired from the army decades ago!
His final rank being lieutenant colonel (pronounced leftenant, in some inane British attempt to prove we’re not French. It’s a French word!) his experience is vast especially in logistics and management, nuclear armament transport (his daughter and I and Ben, years later would be demonstrating against those very things), the first Army helicopter outfit, suez crisis, parachutist, internal army machinations (like all organisations), and he’s an intelligent, thoughtful, aware guy and not the rabid Tory you might expect.
So thanks Douglas. Top man, great time and conversations.
It helps remind me that we just need to give people time and recognise that wealth is in sharing our knowledge, experience and opinions.
At ease
“The Home Office also refused visas by saying it was not confident the applicant would leave the country at the end of their visit despite applicants clearly visiting for a specific purpose, such as a weddin; submitting evidence that they had booked and already paid for hotel accommodation ending on a certain date; presenting letters from employers, that stated they had been granted a specific period off work for the holiday; or running their own, successful business back home.”
Guardian Article
This is exactly what happened to Manjula two years ago….. check below for links to the story of Manjula’s visa application.
She did succeed in obtaining a visa and now has had two wonderful trips to the UK
Me and MYCycle 