18 May 2010

My OMG Moments

Here’s a recollection of all the moments when I felt either great happiness or unbearable pain; an inexplicable fear or extreme disbelief or even the times of complete shock & horror. In short, my “Oh My God” moments or the “I Can’t Believe It” moments.

When we sighted a majestic tiger near a watering hole in a forest reserve near
Mysore.
When we almost ran into a mother elephant & her cub en-route to Hunsur.

When I sat on a camel for the 1st time & felt the huge lifts in the air throughout the rocking ride. When I learnt that I had got the 1st rank in M.A

When the nurse held my just-born baby in her hands & showed me a glimpse of her face.

When I read in Grazia (May’10) that women in Ghana die in childbirth for lack of money & hospitals & doctors. Urine samples are kept in hand gloves. Such abject poverty makes your heart pray, ‘God please help them’.

When I was air-borne on my maiden flight from Hyderabad. The memory of your 1st take-off stays with you. When my letters were published in Femina(7 Apr'10) & Grazia(Mar'10) & won the gift hampers.

When I read Mills & Boon for the 1st time in high school. When I visited Akshardham in Delhi.
When I watched the horrific scene in Bandit Queen where she is gang-raped. I had gone to watch the film, ALONE, to Diana theatre in Udupi. No one would come with me to see the highly controversial ‘bad’ film & as usual, I of course, had to see it. There were only 3 girls. 2 medical students from Manipal had dared to come too. We sat huddled together in the hall. When i felt the movement of my baby in my womb for the first time.

When I looked up (quite literally) at Sathya during the wedding rite where we offer prayers to the sun god & I was barefoot & I turned to see him & realized I was really craning my neck. His head seemed out there in the sky. He is so tall!! (he is 6'3) I remember saying it in my head. Something I hadn’t noticed in the 3 months of our courtship; probably because I was always in heels then.

When Tan, who was around 1 ½ years at the time, saw me crying & wiped my eyes. I felt so loved.
When, on my 1st flight landing in Bombay, the sight of the slums, just meters below, ripped my heart apart. The plane almost touches the roofs of the ramshackle houses & if you’d put your hands out of the window, I bet you’d even touch the walls. The irony is, in our cities, while there are men who earn a meager Rs 100 after an endless day’s back-breaking labor, a single radial tyre of Amitabh Bachchan’s Lexus costs Rs 2.5 lakhs. In India, utter poverty & consummate luxury live together; a string of jhopad pattis right in the backyard of a high-rise building.
When Tan was 2 1/2 months old & around 2:00 in the middle of the deep, dark night, minutes after I’d fed her, I saw milk oozing out of her nose. I didn’t know what was happening to my baby.

When I visited Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari for the 1st time while still in school & felt the ocean breeze against my skin. It felt like heaven on earth. I haven’t seen Kashmir, so I don’t know any better.

29 comments:

  1. A big OMG to that amazing list. Belated wishes for the Rank and Tan

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  2. Good one...seems as if it is coming straight from the heart....and it actually is :)

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  3. @Farila: thank u thank u

    @Hemant: yes straight from d heart :)

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  4. Nurse holding the newborn baby and showing to you...it's so special. It happens to everyone. Still so special. We had this moment 21 years back.

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  5. @Hariharan: correct Sir that moment is such a special one, u had it 21 years bak but u'll always cherish it :)

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  6. Beautiful post, inspires you you to look back at your own life.

    BTW, do they allow now to click pictures in Akshardham temple?

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  7. @Sunil: no they still don't allow. some quickly click from the parking lot. this image is from google.

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  8. Hey- this was amazing yaar. enjoyed reading it.
    catch me on http://sushmaspage.blogspot.com

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  9. @sush: i visit your pages very often. even commented on ur post on friendship day. & now m following too :)

    @India's: yes they were. thank u :)

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  10. grt memories... n awesome recollection...
    really so many moments as OMG... but in ur moments the best-one for me, when u felt movement if ur baby... caz I just listen it, n its far away to experience... ;)
    thank you so much for sharing... :)

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  11. @Pooja: thank you Pooja for stopping by. N glad u liked the post. See u again
    checked ur blog. Aquarian! :)

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  12. OMG! Why was milk oozing outta tan's nose? Does that happen to all babies???

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  13. @Nikhil: yes, it happens sometimes to babies if we dont pat their back well immediately after they are fed.

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  14. Wow! Amazing list. :)
    Tanvi is such a cute baby. Milk coming out of her nose? That is scary. What had happened?

    Very brave of you all to sit and pose for the cam when that Elephant is right behind you. :P

    First rank in MA. Would have been such a proud moment to you and your family. :)

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    1. thank you Akshay.

      yeah that is kinda common if you don't "benn thattu" the magu after she is fed

      yeah that elephant thing was quite an experience & i was carrying full-term otherwise i would have sat on it :)

      true, my father had passed away by then but when my mother saw me on stage,she was ecstatic

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  15. Wow.. that was some list. :) Really amazing life captures from your memory camera. :) It also provides a good glimpse of the kind of person you are, the things that excite you and move you. Some of them were so touching: the baby in your womb and the new-born in your hands are priceless.

    Feeling and experiencing poverty brings in a small change inside us as it brings us face to face with the grand scheme of things and our inability to alter them which in turn gives us a hapless feeling.

    Oh.. btw.. a big WOW for your first rank in MA. That was a proud moment. :) Beautiful post.

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    1. memory camera! :) like that.
      you do have a knack for these word combos - i will quote similar phrases from your blog posts (later) & mail you.

      rank - :)) thanks - its been 12 years now and yet it remains one of the cherished moments

      the poverty & our inability bit - so true

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  16. That was a great journey though your memory lane! Great! Enjoyed the way you have recorded these!

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  17. well written suji.... each n every lines are beautiful...touching..truly OMG...u came delhi...when....? ...
    Suma

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    1. Hey Sumy....thanks dear :))

      delhi i came twice but long back ..last time was in 2009 !!

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