I Love Elephants

Magali & the Elephants in Yangon Zoo, Myanmar (1994).

Elephants to me are huge, sweet and gentle animals.

Here in Mumbai we used to see them on the road along with their mahouts who used them to beg for money and food. Normally they do not harm anybody but there are some instances where they have gone on a rampage and killed people (mostly due to ill treatment) Now they are banned on the roads in Mumbai but can be seen on the outskirts of the city.

Since Magali was just one year old we had been regularly taking her to the zoo in different countries.

Here in Mumbai we are not allowed to feed the animals but I remember when we visited the zoo in Yangon, Myanmar we had to pay a certain amount of money and we were given a small plastic basket filled with sugar cane. Magali and I enjoyed feeding the elephants.

About five years ago the whole family went on a holiday to Bangkok where there are a lot of elephants at the zoo and different places we visited during our stay. Magali even sat on an elephant for a fee where the trainer was taking the elephant around the area for the ride. There too we could feed a lot of elephants with sugar cane and they would nicely take it from your hand.

Magali (above) & me in Safari World, Bangkok (2009).

Poachers should leave the elephants alone who they kill for the ivory. Ivory is banned in India and many other countries so I hope the elephants can live a longer life now.

Love to all,

Sheila

This post has been written as part of ABC Wednesday.

A for Appreciation

Today being the start of ABC Wednesday I am starting with the Alphabet A.

Appreciation: meaning recognition of the good in a person.

Many a times we take people for granted and never appreciate them.

My Father loved having me around the home doing most of the work he told me, but he never appreciated me or said a word to me.

But I got to hear from a lot of people that he always praised me as being an active and smart person and being able to do varied things right from gardening or going to Churchgate to pay his Life Insurance premium when I was just 13 years old.

I also feel that I should let people know that I have loved having them in my life.

The first person will be my husband Ezy who has given me the freedom to do what I want though I have never abused that freedom. We will be celebrating  25 Years together in a few days.

The next person is someone who came into our life more than 22 years ago.

That person is our daughter Magali. I am happy that she has grown into a smart and kind girl especially to animals. Ezy and I love her and have done all that we can to make her happy.

Next is our families and friends. Thank You all for being a part of our lives.I Thank God and appreciate you all.

Love you all,

Sheila

Why I hate Holi - The Festival of Colours & Hooligans

Holi, the festival of colours celebrated by Hindus all over the world.

When I was a child I loved Holi as I would get the chance to play with water balloons and colours with all my friends.

As I grew up I began to hate the festival as I found that it gave the lecherous men a chance to touch and paw the females and generally misbehave.

In 1983 when my sister, her 4 month daughter and I were walking along J.P.Road Andheri (west)

a group of rowdy children started flinging water balloons on us. I was carrying my niece and a balloon hit my hand and burst.I was thankful that nothing hit my niece as it would have hurt her.

The rowdy children were in a group aged about 12-18 years and I happened to know some of them as they were studying in the same college as I was.There were still 7 days for Holi and the children had begun their celebrations so early.

In 1989 I was in Delhi along with my 4 friends and we were guests at a family friends home. To our bad luck it happened to be during Holi .

Photo by James Khoo.

As our host knew that we would not be able to go out, we were relaxing at home.Around 9 am a group of young men known to the host knowing that there were 5 female guests were visiting from Mumbai, came over and applied colours on our face and drenched us in water and were basically very excited that they managed to mess up our faces and hair with colour. Though our host was not very happy he was not rude to them as Holi is celebrated in a big way in Delhi.

We had to wait till evening to have a bath because Delhi was having a water shortage and the water came only once a day in the evenings. There was enough water stored for cooking and any emergency requirements otherwise.

In 1992 when I was pregnant with Magali and was going to the Doctor for a check up some small boy flung a balloon on my back and ran way.I was in the 8th month of my pregnancy. The most irritating thing is this happened when there were 8 days for Holi.

Parents should teach the children not to throw anything (balloons, plastic bags filled with water) on anyone as it could hurt them.

Just this morning I happened to read of one train commuter dying & several being seriously injured after some foreign substance entered their eyes. Slum dwellers throw everything from stones to chilli powder or other harmful / toxic substances at moving trains & buses.

Have A happy and safe Holi everyone and enjoy yourselves.

Love,

Sheila

Holiday in New Zealand

Hello everybody. It has been a long time since my last blog post.

These last few months have been busy and my husband and I have had a holiday to New Zealand where we spent Christmas 2011 and New Year 2012.

My friends who are settled in Auckland since 2002  had been inviting us to visit New Zealand since a long time and last year we decided to visit them. We have known each other for over 25 years and were colleagues at Bombay Hospital.

We have had many holidays abroad to Disney World  Florida in U.S.A., Penang, Mellaca, and Kuala lumpur in Malaysia and Bangkok in Thailand.

Ezy & Me.

At all these place we booked into resorts and really enjoyed ourselves. We spent a minimum of 2 weeks at each resort and all the holidays were lovely. All these holidays were as a family. Magali always accompanied us. But this time she did not want to come along because she said we were going to live in someones house and that she did not like that. 

We left India on 21st December and were received at the Auckland Airport on 22nd December by my friends.

We were our mad selves all the while and the men were wondering whether we were drunk (not possible since we hardly drink) or taking drugs (also not possible since none of us does drugs).We laughed and laughed remembering our old jokes and cracking some new ones and Ezy added to the fun by telling some funny happenings on board the ship.

Almost all of us.

Ezy is normally very quiet but there in Auckland he was quite talkative and my friends were quite surprised.

We visited all the places in Auckland and went for overnight stays to Coromandel and Rotorua.

My friends have a good social group and there were lot of invitations to parties and the days just flew by.

I missed Magali a lot and was sad because this was a first holiday abroad that she had not acoompanied us but she enjoyed herself too with her parents out of her hair.

We spoke regularly over the phone, on skype and also exchanged messages on twitter. So it did not feel like she was so far away.

On 20th January 2012 Ezy and I celebrated our 22nd Wedding anniversary and it was Ezy's birthday also.

So the three of us had lunch at a  mall food court followed by a lot of shopping.

Life could not be any better. I am loving it.

Love to all  of you,

Sheila

Happy Birthday Ezy and A happy Wedding Anniversary to Us!

Hello everyone. It has been a long time since I have done a blog post and it is because I have been lazy to do it.  I am a person who loves to talk face to face with people or over the phone with family and friends who I cannot meet regularly. My daughter  Magali has been pestering me since such a long time to do a post so I decided that today is the right day that I should do it.
Today being 20th January happens to be my husband's birthday and our 21st Wedding Anniversary.
Happy Birthday Ezy and a Happy Wedding Anniversary too.
It is 21 years ago that I gave up my career since my husband who is a Captain in the Merchant Navy wanted that I should sail with him and that we would be able to spend a life together rather than being apart when he would join a ship.
Time has gone by like the seas, sometimes smooth sailing with not even a ripple on the waters and then sometimes were like the choppy seas and bad weather but basically we have managed to keep ourselves together without allowing any outside interference to break us apart.
I really do not know what life has in store for us but I hope and pray that we keep in Good Health and have a happy life together along with Magali.

I love you Ezy and wish that we have many more Wedding Anniversaries to come.

With all my love.
Sheila

Nest

When I was a small child we lived in a home having trees and a lot of greenery  I was used to seeing a lot of birds flying around. I also used to observe the birds building nests for the eggs that would later hatch into many more little ones flying around in a month or so.

I used to see the male/female of the tit bird and also the weaver bird building their nests that would take care of the eggs and keep them safe from the weather and other predator birds.I also saw the crows picking up all sorts of wires and all sorts of things to make a nest where the cuckoo would also lays its eggs. I always marveled at the energy that the birds had going in search of things and coming back to make the nest a cosy place for the eggs and also for themselves because it was they  who sat on the eggs to give them warmth and helped in the hatching of the eggs.
In a way we too build nests for our small babies as we prepare for their arrival. Most parents will forgo the things they want so that they can give the best to their children.
Hoping and praying that we have the strength to always take care of our nests even when the young ones have flown away.
Happy nesting,
Sheila

This post is part of ABC Wednesday.

I for India, Identity, Ice cream

India is the country of my birth.
It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area and  the second-most populous country in the world.
I was born 47 years ago in Mumbai (India) when it was not so crowded as it is today. Even though India is looked down upon by the other countries I would like to say that I love my country.
My husband and I got chances to move to other countries earlier on but my husband never wanted to go to live in another country as he was very happy to be living in India.
There are so many beautiful places to visit in India and I am sorry that I have hardly visited few of those places.
Will definitely try to visit some historical places and learn more about my country.


Identity: Each of us should have our own identity other than being some person's wife, mother, brother, sister, father etc.

We should achieve something in our lives, big or small  that makes us happy and content.Then this world will be a much better place to live in.

Ice cream: I must confess that I love ice cream in all different flavors and can see the end of a pack that is  in the refrigerator very soon. That is a weakness I have and I am trying to stop that. I do not buy ice cream often so that I am not tempted.

Love to all,
Sheila

This post is part of ABC Wednesday.

H for Hope

Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life.

Hope is the one thing that we have in our lives that keeps us going when the we are low and want something good to happen in our lives.
When I was working at the hospital I saw too many patients who just gave up and died because they did not have the will to live. The patients should always hope that they will get well but in terminally ill patients it was really sad when the Doctors had to tell the relatives that there was no hope of recovery for the patient.
Many of us nurses used to spend the little free time we had talking to the patients and relatives and trying to make them feel a little better because they came to Mumbai for treatment from all over India and were frightened by the big city and the outcome of the treatment given to the patient.
I hope and pray that all of us have it in us to find Hope in our lives in any circumstance we have to face.

Love to all,
Sheila

This post is part of ABC Wednesday.

E for English

English is the language that was spoken by the British & since the British colonized India for a long time, they started schools & colleges that taught the language. Every state in India has it's own language & since I live in Maharashtra, the language spoken by the locals here is Marathi along with Hindi (Our national language) & a few people speak English.

My daughter Magali is in first year of her Bachelor of Arts degree & she has joined the English literature association, she has been assigned to teach English to anyone who does not know the language.
She went to her school to try to help poor students but the timings for the extra classes were clashing with her college timings.. She was looking out for somebody & suddenly we came across this mother & daughter who are interested in learning English. The mother is not illiterate, she has done twelve years of schooling but with Marathi as the language of teaching.The daughter is in Kindergarten & studying in a convent school. So Magali & me will be teaching the mother & daughter to speak and write English . We hope we will be able to help them learn the language
Love,
Sheila

This post is part of ABC Wednesday.

C for Captain

This post is dedicated to my husband Captain E Vaz and all the Captains in the Merchant Navy.

Our family on the ship.

Most sailors are away from their families for at least 4 months when they are out at sea sailing from port to port and have wives in every port.... that is only true for the unfaithful kind.
It is really good  that the contracts for higher ranking officers are  not more than 4 months so they can be home more often. I remember the time when Magali and I were sailing with  Ezy for 18 months at a stretch. Magali had forgotten our home in Mumbai and for her the ship was home and when I came home when the ship was in Mumbai port she was crying to go back home (the ship). We really enjoyed the time spent together as we got to visit a lot of Asian ports though Magali does not remember much because she was between 18 months and 36 months of age.
So for  all the Captain's I pray that you all have calm seas and following winds always.
Since you are in charge of the ship and all the lives on board may you always have God's blessings and guidance.
Take care,
Sheila.

This post is a part of ABC Wednesday.

I've done this

Graduated high school.
Kissed someone.
Smoked a cigarette.
Got so drunk you passed out.
Rode every ride at an amusement park.
Collected something stupid.
Gone to a rock concert.
Helped someone.
Gone fishing.
Watched four movies in one night.
Lied to someone.
Snorted cocaine.
Smoked weed.
Failed a subject.
Been in a car accident. (was knocked down by a car and have been in minor motorcycle accidents when I used to go out with my Dad, He had a Royal Enfield)
Been in a tornado.
Watched someone die.
Been to a funeral.
Burned yourself.
Run a marathon.
Cried yourself to sleep.
Spent over 10,000 bucks in one day.
Flown on an aeroplane.
Cheated on someone.
Been cheated on.
Written a 10 page letter.
Gone skiing.
Been sailing.
Cut yourself.
Had a best friend.
Lose someone you loved.
Got into trouble for something you didn't do.
Stolen a book from the library.
Gone to a different country.
Watched the Harry Potter movies.
Had an online diary.
Fired a gun.
Gambled in a casino.
Been in a school play.
Been fired from a job.
Taken a lie detector test.
Swam with dolphins.
Votes for someone on a reality TV show.
Written poetry.
Read more than 20 books a year.
Gone to Europe.
Loved someone you shouldn't have.
Used a colouring book over age 12.
Had a surgery.
Had stitches.
Taken a Taxi.
Had more than 5 IM conversations going on at once.
Been in a fist fight.
Suffered any form of abuse.
Had a pet.
Petted a wild animal.
Had your own credit card.
Dyed your hair.
Got a tattoo.
Had something pierced.
Got straight As.
Known someone personally with HIV or AIDS.
Taken pictures with a webcam.

That was an easy one. Finished it in 2 minutes.Really fast.
Thank you Magali for the tag.

Take care,
Sheila.