Best Wishes and Thanks

  I would like to thank everyone who is participating in the A to Z Challenge.  I am hoping that I will be able to read a good number of blog posts this time, since I am not taking part. These blog posts from the challenge have been very informative and entertaining while being inspirational as well. I wish everyone all the best.  

Also, special thanks to Arlee Bird for starting this challenge. 

Let It Go

***SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE FROZEN BELOW***

It has been  almost a week since John Travolta has pronounced Idina Menzel's name incorrectly. People everywhere are making fun of him.  I do feel sorry for him, because a lot of people have mispronounced my name and I simply corrected them a few times. The big difference between Idina Menzel and me is that she is a well known artist. So how could anyone not know her name. I did not know about her until I saw her as a guest on a couple of shows. Later on when I saw the movie Frozen, I realized how good she sings. 

When we were young and our moms told us bedtime stories they always told us the moral of the story in the end. When we see Disney movies we know that they are meant for kids. What we seldom realize is the fact that there are hidden metaphors in those movies. The Oscar Winning animated movie is amazing to watch. We take technology for granted, but if someone understands the difficulties of the work that goes behind animation they will be amazed too. Besides having beautiful animated scenes, the movie has a very good motto. It is teaching us adults that if you have a child with a problem, do not hide it. Try and see if there is an answer to that problem. A treatment if you will. In the movie the younger sister, Anna suffers separation from her older sister Elsa because their parents want to keep Elsa's secret from everyone including her younger sister. In the end of the movie Princess Elsa the girl with the problem is telling herself to let it go, meaning let the secret come out in the open. The best part of the movie is that the treatment for the problem of the older sister is only unconditional love and that she finds in the heart of the younger sister. 

What I learned from the singer Idina Menzel is to keep trying your best. If she can sing in spite of broken ribs I can keep doing my daily chores in spite of breathing problems. "Let it go" to me means do not dwell.

Chronic Illness and the Workplace

When someone gets a big cut and has to go to the emergency room or even urgent care, they get sympathy and they also get a note for work. Also when someone falls and breaks a leg and has to use crutches, people can see that they are hurting.  It just seems like people need to visually see when someone is in pain to understand and give the hurting person a break. Those of us who are suffering from debilitating long term illnesses do not seem to get a break.  What do we do? I asked one of my co-workers and she said that maybe we can either suffer or let the illness get so bad that it gets visual attention. I knew that she was kidding so we both laughed. 

 Living with diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma is hard enough, but if you are working full time it gets even harder. Harder than putting up with the daily routine which is different from a healthy person is the fact that so many of us have these conditions that people think they are easily treated. While keeping diabetes (type 2) under control is somewhat in our hands and high blood pressure is not very hard to keep under control, asthma is a totally different condition. It can be triggered by a number of factors and one of them is our nerves. So, some of us who understand this fact are able to breath all right in spite of being chronic asthmatics, but some of us who have emotional hardships like anxiety and also depression need the help of people with strong nerves. I urge people at work place to help asthmatics in any way possible. They are working in spite of suffering because they want to be responsible citizens and pull their own weight.

 Last week, we heard in the news that some NY State employees were taking uph compensation and disability benefits by using false documentation. Of course they were arrested.

Love yourself notes

 In India,  those of us who were born between the 1950s and 1960s were supervised by our parents and other adults to make sure that we are doing our best to study as good as we can. Working adults were told by other working adults to do their best to make sure that they don't make any mistakes at work so they don't lose their jobs. We were also told that since India has become an independent country we need to improve our standards and we have no excuse not to do good. So those of us who could not make it in India left India for different reasons. That was well and good. The thing that bothered me a lot about our upbringing was the logic of not letting anyone talk good about themselves. Adults believed that if we talk good about ourselves it is bragging and bragging will make us big-headed and also lazy. I don't believe in bragging but I do believe in believing in myself and finding out about my good side and at the same time finding out where I can improve. 

Now that I am a grandmother, I would want to stop the notion that thinking good things about oneself is going to make them lazy. If one gets ninety percent in a subject instead of hundred, one should not have to feel bad, just try better next time. Same thing at work, if you know that you have done your best and the company still picks you to be the one to let go (because they are down sizing), you should not ask yourself what did I do wrong?

This Valentine's Day along with writing words to let someone know how much you like them ,why not write yourself a note about the wonderful qualities you have.

Art

I am sure that on Grammy's Monday, productivity of most people at work goes down by at least ten percent. In the first place we are all tired. Also, most of us are talking about our favorite artists. We are happy if they won, and we justify the winning to the fullest, and we show our regret if our favorite artists didn't  win anything.  

What is the criteria on which an artist gets an award? I would not know. I asked a few people and they said that it was complicated. Nevertheless we keep getting tips and clues from our television and radio announcements about different songs and different artists being nominated. So we watch in the hope of seeing someone we like get up and take the award. When that doesn't happen, we feel bad for the artist. What we don't realize is that to an artist winning is not everything. 

Last night watching Sara Bareillis sing along side of Carole King made me realize that for an artist singing with someone they admire is more important than winning an ward. 

Grandson to Grandpa

My mom was a tenth grade Hindi teacher and loved fiction. My dad, although an accountant, also loved to read fiction. It was fun to watch them discuss various novels and when my aunt came over, the three of them would talk about novels that they read, sitting under the blue starry sky of an Indian evening until the fruit bats came, and they realized that it was almost midnight and they would go inside.  So, needless to say four out of six children of my parents love to read for fun besides college or work material.  My brothers and I could not wait for our turn to read a good young adult novel that our parents would get for us. However after I got married, I did not get the same company.  My husband thinks that fiction is a waste of time.  Some one told him when he was young that he needs to read fact books only. So he thought that I was wasting  my time.  That did not stop me from reading. I made sure that my kids grew up around fiction from the age of two. They love books of all kinds . So I did my job as a mom. Year after year, I felt sad for my husband for being deprived of such wealth of enjoyment. His memory is extremely sharp and the fact that he does not want to read what people wrote is something I cannot figure out.  It is ironic that as much as I love to read,  it is not easy for me to retain fiction in my mind and following long stories have become a problem . So I have been bugging my husband to enjoy reading for fun, not just for learning and I think I have succeeded a little bit. 

 After reading Granny Annie's inspirational blog post I have made up my mind to look at the positive sides of things. Granted, it is cold outside and snow storms  do not seem to cooperate with work schedules, I decided to enjoy our grand-kids even from  long distance by talking about them and remembering each and every visit and comparing how they are growing up each time my husband and I see them.We discussed how one day our eight year old grand son told us in a matter of fact way that his class is trying to understand the different genres of books.  My husband at first did not realize that an eight year old could use the word "genre". However  he seemed to understand when I told him how the world is changing very fast and kids are being introduced to all kinds of books as long as they do not have foul language.  I told him that it is a good thing that fiction books are being introduced to kids at a young age as well as fact books. Guess what ? While so much of my nagging and convincing did not prompt my husband to read, the fact that our grand-kids are into fiction books is making him look into fiction as well. He is taking interest in different characters of Marvel comics and yesterday he watched the movie X- Men.  Now the question is - - - will he read fiction?

 

What shall we do ?

We elect our leaders because of their political believes, their promises, and because we trust that they will take care of things that matter in our daily lives. Little do we understand that they are not alone and there are several people working with them.  These people also have their own political believes, likes and dislikes, and hence grievances and grudges.

 I wonder,  out of all these  people, how many actually got any lessons in ethics in the work place and how many of them got their positions because of nepotism. 

Needless to say elections have become a dirty game (or has it always been a dirty game? I wouldn't know.) However I thought that once elections were over, things calm down and life goes on.  Apparently I am wrong. Some people did not help a certain Governor  get elected and as much as that governor does not mind, his own staff is upset and want to get back at those people. What do they do? They go ahead and order that some lanes at a very important bridge get closed. What happens now? Public suffers. Traffic is bad enough already, we do not need these kinds of political games affecting our daily lives. So, for some time, the leaders of the jurisdiction of that area of the bridge are facing criticisms. I guess human nature is to get to the bottom of things and rightfully so. Sooner or later the truth always comes out and now the person responsible for making it hard on others does not have a job. 

 Work ethics is one big part of the culture of India and yet there is a lot of corruption. I thought that it would be different here in the USA. It will take a lifetime before we understand that we have to keep an eye on people who we thought would be our leaders. It is sad but I guess I am beginning to believe that eternal vigilance is the price for democracy. I am just thankful that we did not hear of any casualties during these lane closures. A couple of years ago, we were not this lucky. City workers were not happy with the mayor and did not do the snow cleaning and salting like they were supposed to and a couple of people lost their lives as the emergency vehicles could not get in.