Accidental Encounters of the Best Kind
I continue to make my quarterly business pilgrimages to Bombay. They give me a great opportunity to make quarterly family pilgrimages to Bangalore. For a couple of days on either side of the business trip I get to spend time with mom and other close family.
Sleepy Bangalore (especially compared to Bombay) is the place to take a break, chill and relax.
I needed this, especially now and even for just a few days, after my rough couple of months of work and travel. And the TLC you can get from mom…why, that’s just priceless!
This morning, I had a visit to my dentist here [“Dentist in Bangalore, Why?” – title of a future post 🙂 ].  Mine was the first appointment and I was in the waiting room waiting for the doc to get set up. A lady walked in and went to the magazine stand. Another patient. She looked very familiar but I just couldn’t place her.
As I was sitting/reclining in the dentist’s chair with my mouth hanging open, it came to me. Ooooh! Â During the next break when I could use my mouth to talk, I asked the doc, is that lady waiting there Mrs. J? Â He said, yes, do you know her?
Do I know her? Â She, who introduced me to the best of English Literature in middle and high school. I remember A Midsummer Night’s Dream and especially Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. How well she conveyed all the nuances of its characters and plot. I never forgot it.
Most of all, how she made us love English prose and poetry.
So, of course, I had to go meet her, speak with her and catch up on many, many years of life in a few, short minutes. In the dentist’s office. 🙂
How lovely it was!
Interestingly, this was two in a row for me. During my last trip to Bangalore, as I walked out of the airport, one of the first people I noticed was the chic and elegant Ms. K, my teacher from school who was such a role model for so many of us girls, not to mention our fashion icon. We were her adoring fans, that was for sure. What a great chance encounter and so fabulous seeing her in person after years and years.
These ladies were such important figures in our school lives. But that was not all. Â Like all great examples of this noble profession, they left indelible marks on our lucky lives. Forever and ever.
Now, on to next time. I wonder who I will get to meet in November?
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The following picture is one I found by accident on a site about our school that I did not know existed. It’s way before my time, but there are some very young teachers I recognize who stuck around for our batch. Aah, the memories!
Remembering Dad
Last week was my dad’s birthday.
He was gone too soon. Already ten years have flown by since his passing – so hard to believe!
I just read a beautiful essay written by Zen Habits blogger Leo Babauta called “The Painful Beauty of Impermanence“. It reminds us to treasure our every moment and make the most of this impermanent existence we all live.
There’s nothing more inevitable than death and yet it’s one of the hardest things for us to accept and make peace with.
I know we always think good things about those who have left us (see, I can’t even write the “d” word here!), but in remembering my dad, I can’t think of a single thing I would have changed about him. I count myself very lucky that I can say that. Wouldn’t you?
It is presumptuous of me to boast of having the greatest dad ever – because isn’t that an affront to all those great dads out there?  However, I do count my many blessings for having been favored to be his daughter – and this was true about every stage of life that we had together.
I reflect on his patience, kindness and tolerance, his humility and good humor, his contentedness and serenity – these were his standout qualities – and hope that those very qualities, in some way or fashion, have been passed on through his genes to me and further down.  It’s hard for me to remember a time when he lost his cool, but of course, being his favorite daughter, I would have been the last to see it. [FYI, before you react to that presumption, I am also his only daughter].
Our family lives now with the painful beauty of his impermanence. And we try hard not to dilute our memories of him, nor our wishes to follow his example on so many aspects of life and living.
If there’s one last thought, it is that we make a pact with ourselves – to make a mindful attempt to relish, to celebrate all those wonderful relationships we are lucky enough to have – in the only life we live. I know my dad did.
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Photo credit:Â http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFather_and_Daughter_at_RK_Beach_in_Visakhapatnam.jpg
The Yin and Yang of Life Anywhere 