I've sold my farm

Thirty two years ago I bought my farm in Hoskote in Dads name. Looking at the picture above I cant imagine how disappointed I was when i impulsively bought the '' farm" which is pictured above from Davids French teacher. After doing the registration we drove down and I stood in utter shock when I saw the land. What a mess it was and all my savings had gone into it. Steve was a little guy and David 12. You can see his annoyed face at the purchase which I had spent my entire savings on!

It took a good 5 years before we even began to work the land as I had no money to sink in there. Then the surrounding farmers had begun to rob my soil, thats when I bought all the old chapdis from a convent and an old gate and started enclosing the land. It was hard as all the surrounding farmers protested, but I gave them a 10 ft access from the left and enclosed the rest. 

The farm today is gorgeous and no wonder the man who bought it has paid a whopping number of crores to me in compensation, as its a running farm today with a house and beautiful solar lights and he knows he is going to enjoy it. We have put thirty years of work into it and have changed what was rubbish into a Shangrila today.  Twenty five crores is nothing for what he has got.

I have planted only the best fruit trees which are all mature and fruiting now. He is getting a ready made orchard which will give him good returns. 

Two types of graft mangoes -- Raspuris and Mallikas. We have eaten and gifted and sold to our hearts content. Only the very best organic fruit.

Rose apples and star fruit, chickoos and Jamuns, avocado and pomegrante, custard apple and Ramphal, sitaphal and lichies. The list is endless.

In fact I brought a fruit picker all the way from London to pick fruit carefully rather than damage them while harvesting.

 
The first time I tasted the hybrid Mallika is when I decided I had to have at least 15 on the farm and I do. All graft saplings bought from Lalbagh and they give the most wonderful fruit.

It will take a few months before all the documentation is over and the farm changes hands, but its done and what we have received for our labour is a windfall, which has already gone to the boys towards their mortgages.

I'm sad Dad and Mum are not here to enjoy what we have worked on the two acres, but it has given us years of happiness and enjoyment and now once Steve has also left, its best we sold and gave them the money while they really need it. 
 

Our Steve is finally content!

 

Chief guest for our Furtavaddo Christmas event.

Why do we over think a child's request if it does not fit in with our idea of how his life should be? As parents when our youngest Steven wanted to join the priest hood we just brushed his request aside saying,"Finish your studies, then we can see!" My Uncle priest was ecstatic about his decision, but we were not thinking he could have been just impulsively wanting to join drawing his inspiration from Uncle Simon. Uncle Simon was my Dads older brother and a Jesuit.

 So over Christmas when he got 10 days off from the seminary, he asked us to go to Goa. Steve loves the vaddo and is happier now as we have become one with the village. Everyone remembers Dad coming fondly and now us over the decades to look after the house. The Parish priest took him usder his wing and gave him a week packed with so many programmes, it was a whirlwind Christmas for us.

We have not had a vocation in our village for over 20 years and so this is such an auspicious moment in our village history, said Fr Derrick our Parish priest. From exploiting his talent on the guitar to being the chief guest for so many events. Steve just blended in and the whole village loved him going Brother Steve, Brother Steve. 

He was an obedient son listening to what we as parents expected him to do, finishing his Post Grad and then even getting jobs which he enjoyed. But he was restless and wanted to leave. So one day he just decided to apply and after looking at the Jesuits and Redemptorists, he has joined the Diocese much to the joy of the  Arch- Bishop. I'm so glad a nasty relative ( sisters husband) who called him names has had to swallow his nastiness. Like I said Karma comes back to bite those who bad mouth others!

I'm just happy as a mother that he has found what he is content being a part of and I leave him in God's hands to guide forward.

Christmas in Goa

 For the very first time we were in Goa for the Christmas week. And what a week it was as now our youngest son has joined the priest hood and so we were thrown into the maelstrom of the church activities with him. Usually in Bangalore our activities hover around the Catholic Club and the St Josephs chapel. Here it was very different. The whole village threw themselves into all the activities of the church and for the very first time we really enjoyed a truly holy and blessed Christmas.

. The crib competition had creative cribs across the village an also IN the creek!

Since our youngest has joined the seminary, Brother Steven was so kindly and generously invited for all the church programmes and was made the chief guest at several of them. He made extempore speeches at our Somudai ( group) and went around with u s to judge the cribs across the village. We saw so many places and so many utterly fabulous cribs, our minds were in an absolute whirl after that. After patiently driving us around, Fr Derrick took us home to his dining room and gave us very welcome soup and croissants.

Our beautiful John the Baptist Church in Pilerne.

The whole village gets together and every house has to hang a star around the church for Christmas. When we visited the Parish priest on the 24th, Christmas Eve, there were kids helping to clean up the church property and hang the latecomers stars up for them. What  a wonderful way to celebrate the coming of the saviour. We who come from the city can never see this simple pleasures which bind the church together. All we do is come for midnight service which is not at midnight any more and after a slice of cake and wine we go off into the night to our own homes. Not so in Pilerne. Here the Parish priest has encouraged the parishioners to enthuse the week with various programmes which bring them all together till the 6th Jan which is the feast of the Epiphany.

I prefer the pure white exterior of churches in Goa.

So from being the chief guest at a sports event and playing the guitar for Mass Steven was roped in every single day to participate and support the church celebrations. He headed the saying of the Rosary and gave out the prizes at a special Furtavaddo event. And suddenly asked to make speeches too did not seem to faze my boy at all. Im  so glad he was encouraged to showcase his talent of playing the guitar and so he has never had any fear of crowds or speaking.

Playing with the choir

It was an absolutely wonderful week when we had such a warm and inclusive Christmas celebration. "Everyone is just like us Mum!"said Steve and that true. The similarity in thought and likes came out in a huge way, enveloping the three of us with memories of a Christmas we will never forget.

IIT to America - my recent book

 

My latest book I was commissioned to write.

I was headed on my annual visit to the boys when I found an email in my inbox from my professor colleague in Iowa State Unie, requesting me to be agreeable to write a sort of autobiography of a friend  who was his IIT buddy and now lived in the US for the last four decades. Kamala Rajan had grown up dirt poor in a slum in Chennai and through various serendipitious chances which he grabbed with both hands he  got into the prestigious IIT and then onwards and upwards to the US. 

When I first aw the email while I was travelling through London to the US I felt who the heck wants to write about a rich dude who just wants to show off? Hardly what I would enjoy writing about. My travels took me onwards to the US and there my Professor friend said cummon write the book, hes a very decent man. I said give me time to read the brief and I'll get back and that was that. One month flew by in the US and I arrived back in the UK. Sitting quietly in my room one afternoon while the house was quiet, with all away on their work I re read the email and the brief and was instantly hooked.

The story was a shocker and so compelling for me, coming from a fairly comfortable back ground. The hunger Rajan had faced was unimaginable for me. Just by chance his muslim friend asked him to accompany him to Loyola college to put in his application. Loyola was my dads old college so that was another plus.

 Standing there in the que with rich children he was embarassed with his broken chappals. When the registrar came and shouted at them for coming to this hallowed institution, his friend stood up for him and said -- look at his marks card and you will see his true value. The registrar looked at the marks card and walked up to the principals office with it. In minutes the principal came out in his cassok and asked -- Who's Rajan?  and the rest as they say is history. The Jesuit priest saw Rajans worth and gave him the first step forward like all our religious institutions do.

 

Read my book -- it gives you an idea of the poor boys determination to succeed. Today he heads a multi-million dollar conglomerate in the US and India. And my fee of 8 lakhs I divided it between my grand daughter for their University fees. My needs are small and I really need to see the girls are well educated so they can always stand on their own two feet and not get dictated to by any silly man. 

Halloween catches up in the UK

 

Pumpkin carving for Halloween

On my way back from Andy's in the US I stopped again for a few days before heading home. It was fun to see the kids and Rashme carve pumpkins getting set for Halloween. Strange to see Halloween an American  festival become big in the UK too! 

Nice size to carve unlike the massive US ones!

So Rashme took the kids and got them these beautiful , decent sized pumpkins unlike the US ones which were so HUGE, we couldn't even lift them at COSTCO!! Rather than mess the dining table they took the fruit out to the garden and I got to collect the seeds for my Hoskote.

Seeds were washed and dried to carry home to Hoskote

I collected the seeds, but they had some pulp sticking to them so needed to be soaked and washed. Have no idea of they will grow but I have  to give them a try now in the  unseasonal rain. Last time I grew them I took the pumpkins to the Only Place restaurant who made wonderful pumpkin pie. I got a free pie while they sold the rest!

Arthur poses with his perfect one!

Then when Halloween came round Dave and I bought bags of sweets as they're called in the UK.  Not candy as they are called in the US. The kids who came around trick or treating were so British and well behaved. No wild grabbing and being greedy - instead each child just took a small pkt of M&Ms or Haribos each! I think its a cultural thing, good manners. They are brought up with the correct attitude and parents are quite particular that the kids are not loud and wild when they are outside. 

The pumpkins lit up at night!

I've seen it in Wales where the Brits in the bus will be quiet and polite while our Indian kids who have come to study in the Unie,  are wild and loud. No wonder they are fed up and killing off young Indians who go there to work. We were always taught to gell with the locals. Blend in, don't stick out. But today's generation want to go to their countries and be loud and dirty in typical fashion and so -- get into trouble.

Apple picking in the fall!

Apple picking in the fall!

The road to Jetta Farms

 Its such an amazing trip every single time I visit S Carolina or London! The boys make sure their mother is taken out to visit places she can write about for her magazines. So this time since it was Fall, Annika booked our visit to our favourite Jetta Farms. One can go apple picking for 35$ a basket and you can eat as much as you like while picking! Been told to do it for my farm  by the boys -- open it up for chickoo and mango picking but I'm reluctant as its a massive undertaking. Plus Jetta makes money on Cider donuts and all sorts of produce  including warm Cider and pies. You can make a whole days outing like we do -- buying food and enjoying the day out. I ant do that in Hoskote unless I am present to oversee it.

Annika was busy picking so is out of the pic

Its a fun trip and of course I got a great story for my mags. The apples had been damaged when young by a freak hail storm. To heal themselves, they grew a bump around eat hit!

The Depot where we took our harvest.

 Looked a bit like chicken pox and not very appealing, but we were educated on the issue once we were taken to the orchard. I was curious and so bit off the lump to see it was exactly that! a growth by the fruit to heal the 'wound'!

The lumps and bumps on the fruit

Reading up on the phenomenon, I wanted to be sure before I wrote a story for any magazine. Yes! Nature is wonderful in helping to heal the fruit rather than leave it open to attack from a virus or fungus. The apples were perfect to crunch into. Fresh and juicy unlike the powdery ones we get in India. I bought a huge bottle of apple cider vinegar as I love it in all meat dishes and ofcourse the hot and sweet Brinjal pickle which Mum used to make and I do now.

Hammered by sharp hail stones

We walked around picking a whole variety of apples and took the basket home. I had brought some apples from Davids tree which Alaina and me made an apple pie with but she insisted we make one with Stevia so we made the first one with Stevia and I scoffed the whole thing alone!

Alaina is 11 and a fine chef already!

It was Alaina who quickly found the shell of the pie in Aldis and said it saves tons of time. Then I sliced the apples and quickly sauteed them with cinnamon and Stevia. Oooh! the smell of cinnamon is enough to make me salivate. A squeeze of lemon"!:  said Alaina will give the final flavour and it did!

Then we pushed it into the oven for a few minutes and then I could enjoy apple pie after years. Being diabetic means a lot of food I do not touch, but this one time sorted my cravings till the next time Alaina makes me something with Stevia! Its so very sad that Mum and Dad cannot enjoy these kids like I do. I know they would have loved them like they did my David and Andrew! There is so much the boys remember of their years with them and I am truly grateful.

 The tractor what took us around the farm

The joy of being a grandmother

The joy of being a grandmother

 Alaina at yesterdays interschool Cross Country race

I was there when she was born. A premie at 7 months and it scared me initially carrying such an itty bitty girl. I remember when the social worker came home in Omaha to check her progress. I had to learn to look after a baby all over again and she was an easy baby, though delicate.

   After her race 

This is the US and one would think what chance would this skinny girl have against such tall and big made girls? Then I remember the tiny African Marathon runners and how they trash their opponents and prove their superiority!

She comes around the curve

I was never a long distance runner. I was a sprinter so double my awe of her prowess. Standing and watching her on the side lines I scream and whistle for her like I did for my boys. Her grit and determination zaps me. That she gets from her Dad and Great Grandpa. 

I watch her Dad Andrew rush across the field to give her some Gatorade. Both parents have finished their clinics in the hospital and rushed out to be present to cheer her on. Annika has even volunteered to be a race guide. 

I'll come as long as I can. This is the highlight of my life now. Seeing the grand children do well. And my boys pass the baton onwards and upwards.