My dear Uncle

This article is a tribute to my uncle who has transformed my way of looking at life. His name is Nuthalapati Srinivas and we call him "Srinivas Uncle".

Uncle has been a part of our family since our childhood. My father works for Heavy Water Plant and shifted from Kota in Rajasthan to Manuguru in AP in 1986. I was 3 years old then.Srinivas Uncle used to work in the gas agency at that time. Sometime after we shifted to the colony we got a big bungalow which had an out house. Srinivas Uncle shifted into that room. Slowly he became close to us. He was epecially very close to me.

He used to drop me at school, pick me up after school, take me out and buy me chocolates and goodies and pamper me. My dad and mom say that srinivas uncle pampered me more than they did. Every morning I and my sister would go to uncle's room and wake him up. He was a very lazy person and would not wake up. We would then have breakfast together. We all loved the dosas my mom made. We all still marvell at the amazing speed at which she prepared dosas for us. Later Uncle moved out of our house when he got a job in the chemical lab in Heavy Water Plant and was alloted quarters in the colony. Uncle got married to Rekha Aunty. Our relationship with Uncle did not change even after he got married. I have always taken uncle for granted in the sense that I knw that Uncle will be there for me whenever I need him.

Recently i.e about two years back, something happened that affected all of us badly. Srinivas Uncle met with an accident. The incident is painful for me to recall but I want to recall it to admire the brave and courageous person that Srinivas Uncle is. Srinivas Uncle had taken a contract of laying roads somewhere near aswapuram. He was returning from the site sometime during midnight. He was driving to the left side of the road within speed limits. Suddenly a truck hit him from the front and the he took the blow in his face. The impact of the blow threw him a few feet away. His motorcycle went under the truck and was crushed to pulp. Uncle says his mouth was somewhere on his cheek after the blow. His jaw and nose had broken to pieces. He was not aware of the extent of damage that had happened to his face as he was under shock. He was lying on the side of the road and he felt that he was dying. He was unable to breathe as his nose was broken. Uncle says people were looking at him and saying that "this guy is going to die". No one even tried to help him it seems. He says he thought of his daughter and waited for death. However after two minutes he still felt conscious. He then thought that there still might be a chance for him to survive and decided that he would not give up without a fight. He got up and walked onto the road. People looked at him and got scared it seems. Uncle says no one tried to help him. He forcibly stopped a motorcycle and sat on it asking the driver to take him to our residential colony. Uncle says that the guy begged uncle to get off his bike. Uncle got off and then had no strength left to fight for his life. He laid down on the road motioning for vehicles to stop. After about 20 minutes an auto stopped and uncle got into it promising the driver whatever he wanted in return. When uncle got to our hospital the doctor retrieved a bottle of blood from his nose and mouth. Uncle's jaw was completely shattered and he lost his left eye. He was shifted to the Kamineni hospital in Hyderabad. I went to see him and was shocked to see him. He was unable to talk and was writing down what he wanted to convey to us. I went with my mom and sister. Uncle was lying on the bed and tears started streaming down his eyes when he saw us. I can never forget the fear that I felt that day. I was happy that uncle was safe and alive. However we were all afraid for Uncle and Aunty thinking of the struggle they would have to go through after the accident. The way Uncle bounced back is admirable. He recovered soon and got a lot of treatments done. He fought courageously and got back to work within 6 months. Whenever I see uncle now I think of the way he fought for his life that night. After my marriage when I was leaving for Vamsi's house I cried. My mom and dad were crying too. Almost as I was about to leave I looked at Uncle and saw that he was crying too. I thought of all that he had done for me and for himself and felt a surge of love for my dear uncle.

I have always been a great follower of "THE READER'S DIGEST". The magazine publishes articles talking about survivors of accidents and the way they bravely face life. I used to read those articles and think of those people as heroes. My uncle is no less than a hero to me. The way he has faced the odds is commendable and I love him and am proud of him for that.I wish to tell him through this article that I respect him and admire him as a person.

Blood Banks

I have always been interested in blood donation. I have been told that a person can donate blood if he/she weighs over 45 kgs, has haomoglobin level above 12.5 and hasnt donated blood in the last 4 months. I have donated for blood banks owned by institutions like red cross, Usha Mullapudi Cardiac Center, Apollo super speciality Hospitals and some other lesser known ones. I have also donated for Chiranjeevi's blood bank for the only reason that I have always admired him for setting up the blood bank. In a way he has inspired me and many others to donate blood. I have never faced any issue in the last 4 years due to blood donation. However an incident that happened to me recently has angered me.

Usually before collection blood from a volunteer the blood bank official makes sure that the volunteer has the required weight and haemoglobin level. I have always had a healthy level of haemoglobin. So I have always passed the preliminary tests. Recently I got a mail from my company's HR team saying that one of my colleague's relative required O -ve blood for a bypass. I called the concerned person to let him know that I was available for donation. He thanked me and asked me to come over to the hospital at 8.00 am the next day. I asked my husband to accompany me as I feel a little weak after donating blood. The hospital was located in Banjara Hills while I stay in AS Rao Nagar. We started early that day and reached the hospital by 8. I called my boss and informed him that I would be late to work. The hospital that I went to was the Star Hospitals in Banjara Hills. I was taken inside and was given a haemoglobin test. The result of the test was 16. I was surprised. I am healthy but 16 was too difficult to believe. And the official wrote it down as 15.5. I asked him as to why he was writing it down as 15.5 when it showed 16 but he refused to comment. They collected my blood and let me go after giving me some juice. I then called up my family doctor and asked him if 16 is normal. He said its okay to have 16 though its unusual. I got very worried. Fortunately or unfortunately I started running a temperature after 2 days and got laid down with seasonal flu. I however got worried that I could have contacted swine flu and decided to take a test. The result was ofcourse negative but my haemoglobin level was 11.7 which was perfect. Had I known this I would NOT have donated blood as you need to have a minimum level of 12.5 to be able to donate. I felt very bad that the blood bank authorities donot take pains to check the condition of their equipment. They conduct tests and collect blood without worrying about the test results. When people volunteer to donate blood they do so only to help others. I donate blood because my blood group is very rare and I know how difficult it is to find people with this blood group. So I think that the blood banks should make sure that they are credible and should have the sense of responsibility towards individuals. Volunteers should be given the respect that they deserve.

My first yoga session

This is a sequel to my attemp to lose weight. My attempt to lose weight finally made me find a nature cure center near my home. The doctor advised me to join the yoga sessions they offered as he found me to be 3 kgs overweight.

I agreed happily. Asale naku aarambhasooratva chala ekkuva. I coaxed my husband into joining me. We set the alarm to ring at 4.30 am as the earliest session started at 5.00 pm. We were among the first to arrive there. We spread our mats on the floor and so started the session. The teacher kept showing us various warmup exercises and we did as he did. After warming up the teacher asked us to lie down and he started demostrating the aasanas. My husband is a very lean man and is very proud of it. At the slightest available pretext he starts flaunting it. I dont know what got into him but he went absolutely crazy. He started doing all the aasanas. The teacher asked us to take it easy and do everything slowly as it was the first session and he just wanted us to get a feel of it. My husband(Vamsi) however wouldnt hear anything of it. He was twisting and turning his body and grinning at me proudly. The session continued for about an hour. The teacher would say lift your legs and my husband's legs would be up in the air even before the teacher finished the sentence. There was one aasana called dhanuraasana. The teacher demostrated that to us and I immediately decided not even to try to attempt it. I relaxed. My husband was the only one who attempted it. The teacher asked him to lie down on his stomach and lift legs and fold them at the knees. He then was to lift his head up and hold his toes in his hands like a bow. My husband did it and I could see that he regretted attempting it. The joke however was yet to come. The teacher then said "ippudu munduki venakki oogandi" meaning that he had to swing back and forth in that position. I almost burst out laughing but somehow controlled myself. My husband swung back and forth and then released his body. We relaxed and then the session ended. When we came out my husband declared that he was not in the position to drive. We somehow reached home and then he fell on the bed groaning and moaning. He has never again mentioned yoga and refuses to talk about that session.

My attempt to lose weight

I was a very thin child. Everyone from my school and college remembers me as a thin and very naughty child/teenager. After I started working the combination of the junk food and the lack of physical activity helped me put on weight. In the beginning I thought I looked cute and a little fuller. But I never realised where I was heading. I started gaining weight slowly and steadily. My jeans no longer fitted me and I attributed it to the fact that the jeans could have shrunk. I could only climb one flight of stairs without panting but that according to me was because the stairs were too high and I was very weak!! It took a lot of courage and strength for me to admit that I needed to shed weight and I needed to do it fast!!
I started reading about the ways of losing weight on google. Man were there ways! There were so many ways and for each way there were pros and cons. I decided to diet first. I stopped eating breakfast and lunch. I however would eat dinner and because I would not have had breakfast or lunch I would be so hungry by dinner time that I would stuff myself. After a week I had gained some more weight and was desperate. I then decided to exercise. I started walking and using the stairs instead of the lift. I made just one mistake. Instead of building up my rhythm slowly I rushed it. I started walking too much...more than my poor lega could take. This went on until my body refused to cooperate. I fell ill. The illness was backache :(. I could not sit straight due to the severe strain that I had out my body through. I had lost weight, in fact a lot of it. One week's leave from work and rest restored my strength and my WEIGHT. I was so depressed by then that I gave up. I started eating all the delicacies that I had been avoiding until then and stopped bothering about losing weight.
I guess my attempt to lose weight will have to wait.

A Lizard

I hate lizards. I am sure I am not the only one who does but the intensity with which I hate Lizards is tremendous. I cannot tolerate the sight of this creature. I know that its harmless but the moment I see a lizard I lose control of my emotions. I shriek, scream and jump onto the nearest available piece of furniture. When I moved into our new home after my marriage I conducted a careful scrutiny of the house to mark places which could be potential lizard homes. Surprisingly and rather gleefully I noted that my new home did not have even a single lizard. I immediately called my mom and informed her of this discovery of mine. She was very happy for me as the three leading ladies of my maternal home(my mom, my sister and I) are very scared of lizards. After a few days I got used to living without fear of lizards. Whenever I go to my sister's house I see lizards on the wall and thank god that I dont have any in my house.
I woke up at 6.30 am today. Brushed my teeth and then entered my kitchen. My kitchen is my favourite place in my home. I let my imagination run wild in my kitchen. Its the place which makes me feel in my elements. I have made sure that its very confortable for me as I spend most of my time there. I put on the heat and started making lunch for my husband. I heated up milk and then looked for a bowl to set curds in. I regretfully realised that I would have to check in the shelves. I opened the shelf and scream escaped out of my mouth. In a second I was out of the front door. Hubby dear who was blissfully asleep came out running. He looked for me but couldnt find me in the house. I called out to him and he came out. From the udnerstanding which comes out of experience, he understood that I had come face to face with my biggest fear this morning. I had seen a lizard in my kitchen. Vamsi went in to drive the unwanted intruder out of my place of work. I stood there thinking about the lizard. I had seen a tiny lizard in the shelf... Oh my god!! I thought...how did this get in there? When I opened the shelf it was there looking at me. It stared at me with unblinking eyes. It was creamy white in colour...ohh god!! thinking about it makes me shudder. I peeped into the house and saw that vamsi had opened the shelf and had made the lizard drop down using a broom. The thought of he touching it was unbearable. I started shouting again. Vamsi asked me to plainly shut up. He swept it out into the balcony and flushed it out of the drain pipe. He then came and took me in. I have to force myself to put my hands into the shelf. I did not want to touch the place it had crawled over. I then started asking vamsi. What is crawls up the drain pipe and enters the house again. Vamsi did not think that question fit enought to respond. He left me pondering over it.

What is happiness all about?

I have been thinking about this for sometime now. What makes me happy...or for that matter...what makes anyone happy? I came up with a number of reasons for a person to be happy. But for each one I came up with an exception. I have tried to list them down below:
A person feels happy when
1. He has what he wants.
Example : A person might want a new car. He buys it and he is extremely happy for a week or so.
Contradiction : He would invariable come up with some other luxury which would be a necessity according to him and would be unhappy until hes able to buy it. This is a vicious circle and it revolves around money. Money enables people to buy whatever they want and this makes them happy. When they realize they do not have enough money they are unhappy.
2. He lives with ppl who he loves.
Example : I live with my husband and he takes very good care of me and so I am happy
Contradiction : I love my parents and want them to stay with me. I would also be very happy if my sister and bro in law stay with me. I miss them sometimes and that makes me very unhappy.
3. He is satisfied at work.
Example : I feel very happy when I have a great day at work. I experience job satisfaction.
Contradiction : A bad day at work leaves me frustrated, angry and unhappy.
I came up with many such reasons for a person to be happy. I however, also came up with contradicitons to the same. I therefore came to a conclusion. I was wasting my energy focussing on what I are missing, and the key to happiness was in taking pleasure in what I have. Happiness according to me lies in achievement. I however realized that happiness is however not a happening; it's a state of mind. I can have everything in the world and still be miserable. Or I can have relatively little and feel unbounded joy. I think that happiness is all about appreciating and consciously enjoying what I already have.

I then knew how to attain happiness, yet I could not put it into practice. I slowly realized that I was so used to my present state of mind that I actually prefered to be comfortable and unhappy, rather than endure the discomfort of changing my thought process and be happy. Learning to be happy was just like learning a new skill like when I learnt perl at work. It requires effort, tolerance and practice in the beginning
There are some people who say that being unhappy drives them to do more and grow in that process. They believe that if they become content and satisfied with what they have they'll lose their motivation to achieve more.
I am not saying that I would get rid of my desire to learn and be content with what I know. Happiness does not drain our energy. It adds to our motivation and keeps our spirits high. The positive energy that happiness emanates is contagious. You could motivate others to be happy by always being cheerful and happy.
Some of my friends questioned me on the practicality of this theory. My answer would be that it is practical. Its all about accepting change and being prepared to feel uncomfortable for sometime before you become confortable happy for a lifetime.
I certainly an going to give this theory a try.

I saw a ....

I woke up to the sound of snoring. I opened my eyes and realised that it was I who was snoring...oh man...i thought...do i snore too? Hubby dear was sleeping peacefully and happily...didnt have the heart to wake him up...I looked at my mobile. The time was 2.00 am. Oh nooo...asale ee madhya horror movies ekkuva chusesanu...ippudu na pristhiti enti? I started tossing and turning. I needed to use the bathroom but I could not muster courage to get up and go. Kept lying there silently. Then I started imagining things...I imagined noises. I then moved closer to my husband but he was in deep slumber and wouldnt be disturbed. I then started feeling hungry...god was also testing my nerves. I decided to drink water. The bottle was lying on the window sill. I opened the curtain and took the bottle. The window was open. I looked out and almost fainted. I saw something moving outside. It was white and seemed to fly all over the terrace of the adjoining bulding. I still dont know what happened after that. My husband says it was a dream. I think I fainted out of fear and slept through it. I believe I saw something that night.

Anjali

When I first saw the little bundle of joy
she looked like a cute and small toy
her color was pink
and she wouldnt even blink!
she was soft to touch
and did not cry much
She had small pink fingers
the memory of which still lingers
she brought along joy with her
that we had been longing for
as she grew older
she grew bolder!

















she writes on the walls
and plays with balls
she loves noodles
and always doodles
she goes to school
and doesnt follow any rules
she loves playing in water
and is a very nice daughter
she is very protective of us all
and like her father, is very tall
we all love her a lot
for she is a sweet and mischevious tot