The sands of time have been replaced by squelchy mud....

I would have made an excellent, top notch boy scout. Why? Because I am always prepared. But I didn't learn this valuable piece of wisdom from a scout guide. My Pa taught me this. He told me, "There are going to be lots of incidents in life that you will not be prepared for and some which you haven't remotely expected to happen. They will happen and it is always best to be prepared. Always." I am not the obedient girl my parents always wanted and much to their chagrin, neither is my younger sister. But I have hundreds of little words of advice piled up in my head somewhere and when something goes wrong, the pile unfolds and I remember everything my parents had taught me or warned me about. I also remember a very important line my Ma used very often. She would advice me about something and then follow it up with, "You will not understand this now. Hopefully one day you will and then you will remember my words." And when the pile unfolds, I always remember her words.
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There are days when I look back at my life and I realise that things weren't supposed to be the way they are today. I had imagined everything to be so different. There are other days when I look at myself in the mirror and I cannot recognize the woman staring back at me. The face is the same. The eyes are different.
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I have to write two letters. One will be addressed to my Nanu and the other to my Dadu. They are champion letter writers and they are the only people I know who still communicate through the good old postal service. Sometimes I sit down and wonder how the post office looks like today. When I was little, it was bustling with activity. People had no other ways to communicate. The postal employees were such important people. I wonder if they still feel the same. Do they curse the internet or have they just resignedly accepted their fate? Must go ask them and write some letters and postcards while at it...
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'Tore Bina' from Kahaani is my current favourite song. Love it. I also like Ekla Cholo Re from the same film. But I prefer the original version that my Ma used to sing for me. I am one of the privileged few who fell asleep  to the beautiful sounds of a mother's lullaby. I still remember the lyrics after all these years. She used to sing 'Nanhi kali' and 'Chun Chun karti aayi chidiya'. My Dadi sang to me in Marathi. 'Ye ga ye ga vithabai' and 'limbonichya zhaada maage'. Ma refuses to sing lullabies anymore. She says I'm way too old for them. I'm not. I'll never be.
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