Its just hours to the new year. And I still can't come to terms that a year is over.
It seemed like only a few days ago that I last wrote my resolutions for 2008. How do I say goodbye to this wonderful year.
It began when I was still in Australia, and its ending when I am still in Chennai. I was supposed to go back to Singapore on the 28th of December. I didn't cos I still have some unfinished business in India.
This was the year I completed my Cisco certifications. Yes people! I have officially completed all exams required to be a CCVP [Cisco Certified Voice Professional] .I am now part of the “Human network” as the Cisco ad goes.
2008 gave me a new home, a new group of friends, new environment [Chennai]. I came to Chennai planned for just a 2 month trip, but stayed for more than 6 months for my certification as well as for the love of Chennai. Chennai is a big city , and amidst all the crowd I still managed to bump onto my blog friend Shalini. How cool is that?
It is this year that I graduated from my university.
It is 2008 that gave me the longest time I had ever spent with my grandmother. Though she died this year , I am satisfied, I got all I could ask for.
In 2008 that me and my brother finally spoke heart to heart. The brotherhood which was lost due to simple quarrels a few years back has been rekindled.
So how do I say good bye, to this wonderful year. Who ever wished me a happy new year last year, Please to it again, cos it worked and I hoped it worked out well again, in 2009
To my Friends, Readers, Strangers, family and all lonely soles. I Wish you a Happy New YEAR! May 2009 be the Year we remember for all the good reasons! May it be more prosperous and with overwhelming happiness to all.
God speed, Full Speed ahead to 2009. you better be a good year, or else I will complain to 2010!
I dedicate this song to all my readers.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
That 16 days...
I am so sorry for not posting for a long time. I had been busy with exams and prayers to attend in my native place for my grandmother. But during my absence online a lot of interesting things happened.
It was one of those days that I had to go to spencers plaza to get my routine fix for money at IOB bank. While I was there I bumped onto a blogging friend, Shalini. It was totally out of the blue. We have never really met and talked, if you don’t consider the bloggers meet organized by Indi blogger, in which we never spoke nor had eye contact. We were planning on meeting up before but our commitments would never let us. And I guess I was lucky.
But my luck didn’t stop there. In that week I had to clear 2 more of my exam for CCVP. I was literally studying at every minute I got. For the first time after a really long time I was studying diligently cos I have a deadline to meet. I will tell you more about the deadline later. As Cisco exams can be taken from any testing centers at any time any day. So my plan was to write 2 in 3days. I scored full marks for both exams!! Its multiple choice questions, but they were tough. I still don’t know how on earth I pulled that off.
Then I stated to wonder, what have I done to deserve this luck? I have not been praying to god nor visit temples as I am not allowed to for 16 days after the death of my grandmother. During these 16 days I have to be vegetarian. Is all the Sambar (a gravy made of vegetables and lentils) I eat almost 3 times a day. Is it the good nutrition that I have been getting these days giving me more memory power? Or is it my grandmother smiling at me from above? I seriously don’t know. During this time that I am vegetarian, I tended to get hungrier all the time. I had to keep my mouth munching on samosas and tidbits. I have this endless craving. By the time I reached the 10th day dogs in the street started to look like lamb shanks. I just could not wait for the 16th day to be over and I could feats on just meat. How to vegetarians control that desire? Do they tell themselves “killing is bad and cruel”? I take my hats off to them for such self control. To me the hardest thing is to walk pass KFC, smell then chicken and to leave without hunting the chicken inside.
Whatever that is these 16 days were memorable, hard, tested my control and gave me lots of rewards.
If it all it took was just to stay vegetarian, maybe I will start by taking baby steps. Maybe starting from next year I will take short vegetarian fast.
About the deadline, I have a return ticket to Singapore on the 28th December, if I didn’t had to attend a funeral, I would have comfortably finished my CCVP by this date and head back. Now it is close to a near impossible climb to finish the final 2 exams by that day.
It was one of those days that I had to go to spencers plaza to get my routine fix for money at IOB bank. While I was there I bumped onto a blogging friend, Shalini. It was totally out of the blue. We have never really met and talked, if you don’t consider the bloggers meet organized by Indi blogger, in which we never spoke nor had eye contact. We were planning on meeting up before but our commitments would never let us. And I guess I was lucky.
But my luck didn’t stop there. In that week I had to clear 2 more of my exam for CCVP. I was literally studying at every minute I got. For the first time after a really long time I was studying diligently cos I have a deadline to meet. I will tell you more about the deadline later. As Cisco exams can be taken from any testing centers at any time any day. So my plan was to write 2 in 3days. I scored full marks for both exams!! Its multiple choice questions, but they were tough. I still don’t know how on earth I pulled that off.
Then I stated to wonder, what have I done to deserve this luck? I have not been praying to god nor visit temples as I am not allowed to for 16 days after the death of my grandmother. During these 16 days I have to be vegetarian. Is all the Sambar (a gravy made of vegetables and lentils) I eat almost 3 times a day. Is it the good nutrition that I have been getting these days giving me more memory power? Or is it my grandmother smiling at me from above? I seriously don’t know. During this time that I am vegetarian, I tended to get hungrier all the time. I had to keep my mouth munching on samosas and tidbits. I have this endless craving. By the time I reached the 10th day dogs in the street started to look like lamb shanks. I just could not wait for the 16th day to be over and I could feats on just meat. How to vegetarians control that desire? Do they tell themselves “killing is bad and cruel”? I take my hats off to them for such self control. To me the hardest thing is to walk pass KFC, smell then chicken and to leave without hunting the chicken inside.
Whatever that is these 16 days were memorable, hard, tested my control and gave me lots of rewards.
If it all it took was just to stay vegetarian, maybe I will start by taking baby steps. Maybe starting from next year I will take short vegetarian fast.
About the deadline, I have a return ticket to Singapore on the 28th December, if I didn’t had to attend a funeral, I would have comfortably finished my CCVP by this date and head back. Now it is close to a near impossible climb to finish the final 2 exams by that day.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Rest In Peace Grandma
It has been a while since I last came posted anything; read any blogs or rather even come online. That is because I had taken a week off from my daily routines to see my grandmother in her last moments. She died peacefully on a Sunday night (30 of November).
(Readers please note: this was the period at which most of Tamil Nadu was flooded)
I received a call on Sunday morning from my uncle who was with her at the hospital at Pondicherry, since Sunday morning she had stopped talking and the only thing she could do is just lie and stare at the people around her. Just a day before she was cheerful, and talking and able to sit up and talk. Overnight her health took a plunge.
[1PM]
The doctors declared that her organs are failing one by one and she has only hours left. Her last wishes were to die in her home were her husband died. Uncle booked an ambulance and preparations to bring her back to her house and my native at Sirkali began.
[3PM]
Upon my uncles call I just packed quickly and set off for Sirkali. The only way I could now go to Sirkali is to catch up with the ambulance and my uncle’s car which would be bringing my cousins to Sirkali. Due to heavy floods on the paths to Sirkali buses were not available.
[7pm]
I was on the way to Pondicherry, when met with a problem. The locals in some town just 30 minutes before Pondicherry had blocked to roads in protest for the loss of electricity. The Tamil Nadu government has deliberately shut down the power supply to prevent accidents, due to the flood. The protestors’ demands were that they will not clear the roads if they didn’t receive their power supply.
[7.30 PM]
Still no change in my status. I was really stressed out, and decision was made that my cousins and the ambulance leave without me. Plan B was that another uncle will wait for me to arrive in Pondicherry and we would make our way by bike. The ambulance set off, with my grandmother breathing heavily. Fears were that I would not make it to see her alive again. The memory of her asking me to do her final rituals for her came repeating itself in my mind. My uncle in the ambulance had just set of for Sirkali; it will take him 3 hours at least. I could have caught the ambulance and followed my grandmother in the ambulance if not for the road blockage.
[8.30PM]
I arrived in Pondicherry, immediately me and my uncle speed off in the bike towards Sirkali. As we went pass Chidambaram (a city on the way to Sirkali) we experiences flooded roads. A water level was around knee level. The roads which were not flooded didn’t have proper roads; they were washed off by the flood waters leaving huge potholes on the roads. The roads and the water didn’t matter to us; all that mattered was us making it to our house in Sirkali. Every time the bike went pass a temple, I prayed.
[10.50PM]
I arrived at the house in Sirkali. My grandmother was still alive. But it is the scariest moments of my life. My grandmother was breathing very heavily. The sound of her breath filled the whole house. Her eyes were rolling about, but it didn’t seem like she was there. Her heart was breathing with whatever energy it had. All other bodily functions had shut down.
[11PM]
I held her hand and I prayed that she die with little pain. I held that hand gently in hope that she would feel I was there. Her breath became weaker, and 5 minutes later she let out her last breath, with me by her side.
She had died 15 minutes after I arrived. It seemed as if she was waiting for me to arrive. As tears filled my eyes, I taught, she must have loved me so much. I could have spent more time with her. I spent most of my life in Singapore, and I didn’t bother to make calls to her.
I wrote this post, to off load the burden in my heart.
(Readers please note: this was the period at which most of Tamil Nadu was flooded)
I received a call on Sunday morning from my uncle who was with her at the hospital at Pondicherry, since Sunday morning she had stopped talking and the only thing she could do is just lie and stare at the people around her. Just a day before she was cheerful, and talking and able to sit up and talk. Overnight her health took a plunge.
[1PM]
The doctors declared that her organs are failing one by one and she has only hours left. Her last wishes were to die in her home were her husband died. Uncle booked an ambulance and preparations to bring her back to her house and my native at Sirkali began.
[3PM]
Upon my uncles call I just packed quickly and set off for Sirkali. The only way I could now go to Sirkali is to catch up with the ambulance and my uncle’s car which would be bringing my cousins to Sirkali. Due to heavy floods on the paths to Sirkali buses were not available.
[7pm]
I was on the way to Pondicherry, when met with a problem. The locals in some town just 30 minutes before Pondicherry had blocked to roads in protest for the loss of electricity. The Tamil Nadu government has deliberately shut down the power supply to prevent accidents, due to the flood. The protestors’ demands were that they will not clear the roads if they didn’t receive their power supply.
[7.30 PM]
Still no change in my status. I was really stressed out, and decision was made that my cousins and the ambulance leave without me. Plan B was that another uncle will wait for me to arrive in Pondicherry and we would make our way by bike. The ambulance set off, with my grandmother breathing heavily. Fears were that I would not make it to see her alive again. The memory of her asking me to do her final rituals for her came repeating itself in my mind. My uncle in the ambulance had just set of for Sirkali; it will take him 3 hours at least. I could have caught the ambulance and followed my grandmother in the ambulance if not for the road blockage.
[8.30PM]
I arrived in Pondicherry, immediately me and my uncle speed off in the bike towards Sirkali. As we went pass Chidambaram (a city on the way to Sirkali) we experiences flooded roads. A water level was around knee level. The roads which were not flooded didn’t have proper roads; they were washed off by the flood waters leaving huge potholes on the roads. The roads and the water didn’t matter to us; all that mattered was us making it to our house in Sirkali. Every time the bike went pass a temple, I prayed.
[10.50PM]
I arrived at the house in Sirkali. My grandmother was still alive. But it is the scariest moments of my life. My grandmother was breathing very heavily. The sound of her breath filled the whole house. Her eyes were rolling about, but it didn’t seem like she was there. Her heart was breathing with whatever energy it had. All other bodily functions had shut down.
[11PM]
I held her hand and I prayed that she die with little pain. I held that hand gently in hope that she would feel I was there. Her breath became weaker, and 5 minutes later she let out her last breath, with me by her side.
She had died 15 minutes after I arrived. It seemed as if she was waiting for me to arrive. As tears filled my eyes, I taught, she must have loved me so much. I could have spent more time with her. I spent most of my life in Singapore, and I didn’t bother to make calls to her.
I wrote this post, to off load the burden in my heart.
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