Sydney Street Level Mission

Today I woke up early morning, got ready to go to the city. Packed lunches, made breakfast and took a train. As my company’s Culture ambassador, I had organised a volunteer event for my workmates with The Salvation Army. Salvos runs a place called ‘Sydney Street Level Mission’ and they were more than happy to have corporate teams volunteer with them. This place opens up to the community members who need food and basic necessities. They cook lunch every day for people who are homeless or undergoing financial stress or dealing with addiction or anyone who is having it rough.

Our CEO joined us too and we were a team of 5 people who participated. We were briefed about our tasks in the morning. Two of us were assigned to look after the coffee cart, where we had to make a beverage for anyone who asked for it. One of us was put in charge of barbecue. Rest of the two went into the kitchen to help the chef prepare lunch. They served free meals on Thursdays and charged $2 on other days. About 50-60 people were expected and so they did show up as well.

K and I were at the coffee cart initially and we had a constant inflow of people. K was asked to help in the kitchen soon and I was alone at the coffee cart for most part of it. We had diverse variety of guests coming in. It was heartbreaking to see some of them. I did manage to strike a conversation with some of them. Some seemed to be under the influence of substance or alcohol and appeared withdrawn. But overall, it was a great experience.

The coffee cart closed at 11:30am. And then I went into the kitchen to help with the lunch prep. It was like a high pressure restaurant kitchen. We had to serve lunch by 12noon. And the dining hall was already filled with guests. We had to plate up and start serving very soon. On the menu was – sausages, charcoal chicken, potato salad and trifle pudding. The chef also made me cook a small quantity of fried rice for vegetarians.

People seemed to enjoy their meal. It was heartwarming to see them eat all with dignity. They were served in beautiful plates with proper cutlery and serviettes. Some of them also took takeaway. After lunch was served and guests had left, we washed, dried and put away all the dishes, plates and cutleries. Cleaned the kitchen thoroughly, swept and mopped the floor.

It was a memorable experience overall. Because our team was there to help, the staff could focus on their pending admin tasks or things that they don’t usually get time to do. They were all super friendly and made our day with their hospitality and kept thanking us for choosing to help them.

The centre not only provides food but also other basic facilities like shower, clothes, washing machine, hairdresser, JP, English courses, access to computer and internet, TV and news among others. They have an open door policy and help the community in so many ways and it is all funded by donations. It’s amazing what a great job they were doing.

This experience also made me acknowledge the privileged life that we lead and how grateful we should be for everything that we have. It felt amazing to be able to give back in the smallest way to community 😇

Filing under 32/100 days of happiness!

Good people exist

Abbas and I returned to our car after our swimming class. As we neared the car to get in, we saw a gentleman approaching us from the car that was parked in front of us.

He said that his car had touched ours while he was parking. He reckoned that there was no scratch as such. But he wanted to let us know. He had finished his workout at the gym above our swimming class. And he was waiting for the car’s owners to return. Abbas checked and there was barely anything. We thanked him for his genuine honesty and good-hearted gesture. He could hava driven off and we probably wouldn’t have noticed it anyway. He could have just brushed it off and left. But he chose to do the right thing. We felt very happy that goodness still exists in this world with such people.

Filing under 31/100 days of happiness

Took a break

Warning: Pointless rambling ahead, proceed at your own risk.

I’m trying to write post on my phone and staring at the screen and wondering if I should just scrap this and try again tomorrow.

It’s just that I have this tendency to hit a slump when I have been doing something regularly. But when I take a short break, it often ends up being a long sabbatical and I end up struggling to resume.

So here I am, just rambling through this post for the sake of publishing something, in the hope that I get my mojo back.

That’s all I had to say! Off to get a short walk in to complete all the rings for today and then read my book before hitting the bed. See you all tomorrow!

Another feather in my cap

Continuing yesterday’s post because we had some more conversation on the same topic this morning.

Abbas had packed the fruit dabba for the girls when I came downstairs to pack lunch. I noticed a peeled mandarin sitting in a dabba. I exclaimed in utter shock:

Me: Hey, why would you peel mandarin for them? They can do it themselves

Abbas: The mandarins were lying around for a few days. I peeled them to make sure they were fine on the inside.

Me: Oh ok, fair enough

Mannu (out of nowhere, mocking me and winking at Abbas): Sounds like a primary caregiver to me

Me: Hey! It’s better to peel and eat the fruit fresh, okay?

Mannu: Peeling makes our hands sticky. you wouldn’t know Mumma. Only the primary caregiver does. (And the dad-daughter duo have stealthy smiles on their faces)

Me: Gah! Whatever! (and ignores them and moves on to pack lunch)

Mannu: Mumma, what’s your personality type?

Me: ISFJ

Mannu: What’s Baba’s?

Abbas (clueless about the topic): What personality type?

Me: His is ENFP, completely opposite of me in every sense

Abbas (trying to make sense of the gibberish letters I was mumbling)

Mannu: Ok, let me ask you a question and we’ll see how you both answer.

Me: Before you ask the question, I knew Baba’s personality type even though he has no idea what we are talking about? What role does that give me huh? I’m the one you need for all the important information? (fishing for compliments and hopeful for a fancy title for my prominent skill)

Mannu (without batting an eyelid): That just makes you Baba’s secretary!

And even I bowed to her for the great comeback and we all had a roar of laughter during the mad morning rush!

Filing this fleeting moment under 30/100 days of happiness

Roles & responsibilities

Before I learnt driving, Abbas was the one who had to carry the burden of all driving duties. Since Covid hit and we have been working from home, I became a more confident driver. Abbas also used to have meetings in the mornings and I started taking on more of the driving duties. In the last one year of so, he has had to commute to the office via public transport. So naturally, I have been doing most of the pickup, drop off duties. When Abbas is working from home, he pitches in when he can. One day he offered to drop the girls when I wanted to too. And he made a comment in jest saying – I’m the primary driver and you’re secondary. It hit a raw nerve and I instantly got mad at him. I thought he was undermining my driving capability. After I had calmed down, he explained what he meant by that. His thought process was that some chores naturally fall to one of us while the other person pitches in when needed. For example, I cook meals and he does the dishes. But he pitches in to cook or get takeaway when I am not able to cook and similarly I do the dishes when he is not able to. Similarly, I never used to like driving much and always preferred that he did it. So he considered him as the primary driver in that sense. Anyway, that argument happened on a weekday morning and everything was sorted after adult conversation.

In the evening, Mannu had to be taken to her art class. She came to me and asked if I was going to drop her. I was in a meeting then and noticed that Abbas was also in a meeting. I asked her to check with Abbas if his meeting was about to finish or not. This girl went to him and asked him:

Is the primary driver dropping me or the secondary driver?

I couldn’t stop laughing at the rubbing of salt over wounds that were already healed. Since then, it has now become an inside joke in the family.

Random conversations:

Mannu: When I learn to drive, what is my role going to be?

Me: What do you mean by that?

Mannu: Baba is the primary driver, you are the secondary driver, what am I going to be?

Me (chuckles): Oh that way! You’ll be the tertiary driver.

Mannu: I see.

Me: Hey, what about Tammu? Both of you would be eligible at the same time. What about her huh?

Mannu: Oh, she is going to stay as the passenger princess!

---

After picking the girls from school:

Mannu: Mumma, can you take me to the library? I need some colour printouts for my assignment.

Me: Can you ask the primary driver to take you. I have to return home for a meeting.

I tell Abbas later that he needs to take them to the library.

Abbas: Ofcourse, I am the primary caregiver too. I will take them.

Seema: Hey hey hey! What are you implying huh? I am the secondary caregiver?

Abbas (dramatically): There is no secondary caregiver. I am the only parent who cares for them.

Wordless Wednesday

Guava from our backyard.

29/100 days of happiness!

April Fool

Every year on 1st of April, I think of my Ajja (paternal). Many many years ago, when I was still in school, April 1st fell on a Saturday. Saturday was the busiest day at our shop because it was the town’s fair day. All farmers and artisans from surrounding villages would come to our town to sell their produce and goodies. Hence, people from all around would flock to our town on the day for their shopping as well.

On Saturday afternoons, when my grandfather would walk home from our shop for lunch, he would bring half day earnings in cash home. He would carry the bundles of notes in his tote bag, hold an umbrella in his other hand and walk home. This was a ritual of many years and he happily and proudly did so.

On this very fateful Saturday, the 1st of April, when Ajja was on his way home, one guy followed him on a bicycle. The cyclist must have been trailing him for a while until he entered the small deserted bylane that led to our home. There was nobody in the lane when the cyclist pushed my Ajja into falling onto the ground, snatched his tote bag and fled. Ajja got up with great difficulty and barely managed to reach home and was in shock. I still remember that scene like it was yesterday. My cousins and I were playing April fool’s prank on one another all morning and then this happened around noon.

Police complaint was lodged and soon the news spread like wildfire around town and among our relatives. The amount of people who came to visit Ajja was insane. We used to sit in the courtyard and count the number of footwear like it was a temple. The number of glasses of tea and coffee my Amma had to make would have fed an army. It was funny because everyone said that they it was an April Fool’s joke but they had turned up in hordes yet.

Every year, we reminisced about the incident as a family and had a laugh about it. But that year, it was heartbreaking because sixty thousand rupees were stolen and it was quite a sum back in those days. Ajja never walked back home with money after that day. He had felt extremely guilty for what had happened. Thinking of my dear Ajja 💜

Easter Weekend

Having a 4-day long weekend was a blessing in disguise. We took it slow, went with the flow. Had quiet lethargic days but also surprisingly got a lot of long pending tasks done.

While the long weekend is over, we have another sort of long weekend coming up towards the end of April. And I am planning to take a few days off work around it to enjoy the school holidays with Mantam. Already planning to paint the wall of my office, which we planned to do last holidays.

I had a whole post in mind for today but it’s too late for it. Will write about it tomorrow.

Hope you all had a great easter long weekend. How did you spend it?

Another month

This is the 3rd month that I have consistently closed my rings of stand, move and exercise. I have skipped my strength training on more days than I would have liked. But I somehow managed to close the rings by the end of the day by walking, dancing or treadmill exercise.

Logging this under 28/100 days of happiness

Also went for a full body thai massage aftet ages today and it was absolutely heavenly. Ended the day by watching ‘Crew’ movie in the theatre. I loved the movie so much, such a fun refreshing movie. I am not a fan of Kareena Kapoor’s but after Jab We Met I enjoyed watching her in this movie. Tabu was brilliant as always and Kriti did a tremendous job too.

Flex

This morning, I went in to our local pathology for my regular blood checkup on empty stomach. The pathologist asked me to sit in the chair and tied a thingie around my arm. While she injected into my arm to suck blood, she paused to ask

‘Do you go to the gym?’

I was surprised at this sudden unexpected question. I said ‘No. But I workout at home.’

And she said with an admiring nod – ‘I can tell. Good on you’ as she eyed by biceps.

I have had a spring in my step since morning and felt so happy that someone noticed 😅

I told Abbas and the girls proudly.

Tammu: ‘You and I are both muscle girlies now. We both workout’.

Mannu: ‘I am one too’

Tammu and I: What workout do you do?

Mannu (moves her jaws): ‘I flex my jaws consistently to eat’ 😂😂😂

She cracks me up with her spontaneity!

27/100 days of happiness 😇