Recently I saw this news about a 112 year old war vet who wrote an autobiography. A wrinkled old man, he sits on his wheelchair smartly dressed, looking a little frail yet very respectful. A hundred and twelve years old!!! It boggles the mind. He was born in another century, witnessed two world wars, fought in them and is now slowly passing through an era of cloning and cyber revolution. He has been asked on numerous occasions to reveal the secret of his health and long life. Fed up of the questions, he jests that its due to cigarettes and whiskey! Is time even a dimension for him? I often wonder what it feels like to be that old and live in a world you weren't born in. My grandmother is running strongly in her nineties. She belongs to a India that was pre independance, without electricity and men were men and women had a restricted niche in society. Unlike this war vet who has had an adventurous life brimming with anecdotes and incidents, my grandmother lived a pretty benign life except for a single tragedy that rocked her world. I have never really sat with her and spoken of times that belonged to the same century I was born in and yet doesn't feel a part of my world. I don't know why I haven't. Her life's archeology would be a revelation even if is no telling tale.
Floriade is a tulip festival that blooms every spring in Canberra. People all over the country come to see it. A small public garden gets converted into a sea of multicolored tulips. One saturday afternoon my husband and I went to see it and boy did it feel like something out of a book! The sun was shining bright in the sky, the fountain was shooting happy jets of water in a distance, the air was warm and lulling. There were several tiny tents outside the garden selling everything from seeds, clothes and summer hats, food to garden artifacts and equipments. A narrow pathway opened sudenly into the ocean of flowers. Row upon row of colorful tulips bobbed in that gentle breeze. I have had several occasion in the last one year to say the line "If this isn't nature at its best, then what is?" but nothing seemed more apt than to say it at Floriade! Amidst all the flowers is a small pond glistening in the afternoon sun which adds a wonderful respite to the splash of colors. This is truly a nature lover's paradise.
The news is all abuzz about the crash in the US economy. Debates and discussions are filling up prime time. Many people have unfortunately lost a lot of money from their retirement funds here in Australia. Personally, I find it so hard to understand all this finance, economics and stock market jazz. My husband tried now and then to enlighten me but after a couple of minutes noting the dull glaze over my eyes, he gives up!
To end on a cheery note, I have learnt to make a near perfect risotto and I am proud of it. Gordan Ramsay...I am catching up.
