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Friday, August 21, 2009

Gowri Ganesha Habba!

Its that time of the year and I cant help but wonder how everyone back home must be busy with preparations. What I enjoyed most about growing up in Mysore is it's old world charm, very prominent in areas like, jayalaksmipuram, krishnamurthypuram , Chamundipuram,Agrahara considered to be Parts of Old Mysore.

My Granny's place(The Ballal House) is located in Krsihnamurthypuram which is like a retired man's colony today where every one from a retired T.T. ,retired post master to an Ex Tashildar all live in the same neighbourhood and have been living for the past 50 years or so in such harmony....that one wonders why is it that our generation can't have a neighbour/friend for more than 5-10 years...we are like nomads, living out of suitcases if you think about it. Krishnamurthy Puram might now have a Nilgiris,big bazaar,Fabmall, Tata showroom in it's vicinity but you will still find the oldies hanging around a small coffee stall in the corner of a road that serves some piping hot coffee, nipattu and kara mixture...such is the beauty and tale of this place.

The festival of gowri and Ganesha was always celebrated with so much grandness, that is until one of my grandad's brother and then my grandad passed away...the joint family was incomplete, but I would like to remember the good times

There were a lot of things that needed to be taken care of and we kids loved all the responsibility that was given to us...it made us feel like grown ups ;).....This is what I remember of it though.
I was specifically assigned the task of helping my aunt with the beautiful spread of colorful Rangoli...though I am not an expert, I would just help her by filling the colours and later guard the rangoli from all the bratty kids who would come to see Ganesha, which in most case did not work, the kids would stamp on it and mess it up, I would be so furious and upset and would try to correct it immediately.

Next, how can I forget the delicacies....Sihi(Sweet) Kadabu and Kara(Spicy)Kadabu...the kitchen was busy with all the women of the house cooking and we kids and the Ballal houses' numerous dogs and cats trying to help by being the official tasters ultimately getting kicked out. I don't have a sweet tooth, but I love spicy food and Hence the Kara kadabu was my favourite....Hmmmm....my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Half the excitement was and is always the food he he....

Ok, so now Ganesha had to be placed in a mantapa ( a small stage like object) and the mantapa had to be decorated with everything from garlanded flowers, baaleyele(banana Leaf), silver coins , lamps and flashing light garlands. It sounds simple , but this would take atleast an hour or two as nothing is spared in making Ganesha look his best on this day. Our job here was to help cut the leaves and wash them, cut flowers and make sure the diyas(Oil lamps) stayed lit all the time.

Now that every other thing was taken care of, we would get dressed in our best attire and become the official candy distributors...yes, starting 4:00 in the evening kids and adults from all over the neighbourhood, some known faces some total strangers would pour in to see Ganesha and worship....how would we know....they would come calling...."Ganapathi Kursidhira"...Do you have Ganapathi at home....and we would nod and welcome them...then started our duty of making sure they did not mess the rangoli, offer the ladies KumKuma(kum kum) and flowers and then before they leave the kids get a candy each, ....just for this one candy these kids would come...ha ha...amazing those times....now comes the funny part...we would sometimes catch the same kid come in 3 times, each time with a different shirt or with a different group of kids.....again for one peppermint. This out of all would make us terribly upset and angry....Yes, we were like detectives trying to identify every face...and then...boom...punha barthayidya, ninge chocolate illa hogu(Are you coming the second time, no chocolate for you)....Oh God, those were the days...and why would we do this, so that we would have some candies left at the end of the day to share among ourselves.

Sometimes these memories bring tears to my eyes and I wish I could go back in time and relive these moments,,but alas I have to move on and look forward to tomorrow. So many things have changed since then, so many things are changing now...but the memories are strongly buried in my heart.

last heard, Ganesha is now wearing a face mask to protect himself from the much talked about Swine Flu....what is the world coming to....anyways wish you all a very Happy Ganesh Chathurthi and I am leaving you with this article from TOI about the clay artisans of mysore...and also this famous Kannada song...

Ganesha bandha, kaayi kadubu tindha
Chikka kereli biddha, dodda kereli eddha.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

TLC August 19th- Interesting but weird day!

I don't know if it is my magic touch or something like that but 2 other dogs that I took out in my previous sessions have been adopted, Betty a pit bull mix and Luther the German Shorthaired Pointer both have been adopted. Big Boy and Crocs as mentioned in my previous post have also been adopted, essentially every dog that I have taken out so far has been adopted.

I don't know whether what happened today was just the trend or something weird but it started like this. After having made 2 rounds of both the kennels I decided to take Tessa Out...Tessa is a Pit Bull Mix, Tessa did not have a Kennel Mate, so all I had to worry about is Tessa trying to sneak out....very very carefully I went into the kennel after distracting her with a treat, leashed her and brought her out of the kennel, literally patting myself in the back for doing it without goofing up. As I was about to take her out, a man walked up to me and said that he had signed the papers and had come to take Tessa.....I was like damn, so disappointed but anyways happy Tessa found a home...so I had to put Tessa back into her Kennel, Poor Tessa was disappointed too, for a minute she looked like she was all ready to hit the playground only to be put back into her Kennel.

Then I gave one look at the Tessa's neighbouring Kennel with 5 small dogs....now small dogs are even harder, coz they are very enthusiastic and because they are small and so many,its harder to enter the kennel without one of them trying to sneak out....so I stood there and played with the partition door for a while, until I had just one dog on my side. The Lucky one was Pickles, a 2 year old white Terrier Mix. Keeping the partition door closed I went and got a size appropriate leash and collar for Pickles and took her out to the small dog park...Pickles is a funny dog, she does not enjoy treats, din' eat any in the 30 mins I spent with her, but she loves playing with the ball, especially the red tennis ball, she fetches it and keeps it in front of me and starts wagging her tail asking me to throw it again....she was so in love with the red ball,,,that she was carrying it with her when we had to leave , then I had to forcefully pull it away from her. I was about to put her back into her Kennel, when a lady came asking about her, she later said that she wanted take Pickles home and took her info packet to the front desk....hmmm...I thought to myself , second one for me today, but at least I got to take her out.

I had one more hour so I decided to take out Luther's room mate Jessie...the one that got away last time. Since Luther has been adopted there was another kennel mate who was sitting on the other side of the partition door, so all I had to do was to shut the door and I had Jessie on my side. Today I realised, that Jessie is a very smart dog...and no wonder he sneaked out last time...he has you figured out from the time you stand in front of the padlock trying to unlock , he tries very hard to sneak out by putting out his nose even before you have opened the door.Other dogs are equally excited and like to jump, but all jessie wants to do is get out and he is very persistent. he is very focused and cant even be distracted with treats.Anyways when trying to open the door he jumped on me once, I took that opportunity and grabbed his front legs in my hand and pushed him back and let myself into the kennel. Even when putting his collar and leash he kept trying to sneak out but the door was closed, so finally I leashed him and brought him out, guess what, a customer service rep walked up to me and told me that she had to take jessie out for a showing...and I had to give him to the rep...damn....what was wrong.....3 dogs in a row.....so I could not take jessie out, later found out that the people who had come to see him,were going to take him home....good for jessie....

I don't know if this is Co-incidence or just that there were a lot more people walking in to adopt today, either ways Good for the dogs!!!!! and thanks to my magic touch:)...looks like every dog I take out or try to gets adopted...he he....what an eventful day!

Monday, August 17, 2009

TLC August 5th and August 13th 2009

I have decided to make a note of all my TLC sessions or atleast most of them, not for my reading pleasure but to remember the names of all the dogs that I spend time with at the shelter...and I must say I am getting good at this...I can remember and identify the dogs that I have worked with.

On a Happy Note.....two of the Dogs that I took out on my previous sessions have been adopted...hurray!!!!!.....Yes, Big Boy has been adopted, did not think this would happen as he is already very old....Well so much for going steady with him:(.now am on a quest to find another date..he he...atleast he has a home now...lucky boy. The other lucky one is Crocs a Chihuahua that I will be talking about in my next few lines.

On Wednesday the Aug 5th I went TLCing with another Volunteer named Stacey. I took out Luther that day and she took out Jupiter. Luther is a German Shorthaired Pointer( I have also made it a point to come back and read a little about the Dog I take out). Must say he is a very handsome dog...he has beautiful eyes.Luther is a friendly,affectionate dog , likes to chase anything that moves.The session went well with him and Jupiter both kennelmates getting to share the playground as well....not sure if luther was happy with this as he kept pushing the overly excited Jupiter away. The next Dog I took out was Crocs, A Chihuahua, though small in size, crocs is a high energy dog.When I put Crocs back in his Kennel, someone came asking for him, May be the same person took him home.

August 13th, did not turn out the way I wanted it too. I lured Sudhi away from his work into joining me for the TLC session, but we were late and the front doors were closed , which meant we could come out but not get in. Sudhi could not use the big playground to take his Yellow dogs, so he landed up helping me take a dog out, which I should say on that day was like a blessing as I let 2 dogs escape from their Kennel. This is what I was afraid of from day one and it happened....I played smart by entering the Kennel without trying to separate the dogs...I thought I was in successfully when I realised the latch of the kennel was pulling my shirt, to release my shirt I pushed open the door a wee bit wide and hence landed up keeping the door open too long. Before I knew it Luther's Kennel mate was out, I was so shocked that I forgot that there was another dog (Luther) in the Kennel too which could escape and so it happened, Next Luther wandered off. I unsuccessfully tried to hold on to him.While I was all worked up and tensed, Sudhi was calm and waiting to see what the dogs do next..(or may be he was having a good time seeing my reaction)..later with the help of the collar in my hand I dragged Luther back and Sudhi caught hold of his kennel mate. In the process I broke a finger nail and started bleeding pretty badly, But I was so occupied in getting the dogs back that I did not realise it until I saw the blood.I am really upset with what happened, but I learnt my lesson, try to separate the dogs before you open the door. Thanks Sudhi for saving the day ,could not have put the dogs back into their kennel on my own.I feel sorry as Sudhi always lands up helping me instead of spending some time with his yellow dogs.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

TLC-Sunday 2nd August

This Sunday I went TLCing at the Shelter with Sudhi, a good friend. It was a lot of fun. I needed some help with the collars,leash and getting in and out of the kennel and he was very helpful, also he was great company. It's better to hook up with someone you know and connect with than someone you don't, as that makes the whole process a lot more fun and easy.So we decided to take out one dog at a time. He usually takes the Yellow dogs and I am currently only taking out Green. So, first it was my turn to take out Betty....She is big but not a very high energy dog, she did not really play much, only ate...she has this absolutely adorable sad looking face, that wants to make you love her. Next it was Sudhi's turn and he took Freckles out, He definitely is a high energy dog, all he wanted to do was run from one end to the other in the park. He was pretty distracted by some dog that was being walked outside...we were wondering if the other one outside was a female friend..he he..silly Freckles. This guy though liked playing Tug with my friend. It was a great TLC session with the dogs and Thanks to my friend for making it all the more enjoyable!