Sunday, 30 October 2011

Pam in skype- 20 years of friendship

Today I woke up at 5 am, took yoga for 45 minutes, and opened the skpe to check whether Pamela whom I call Pam was on line or not.  I was 39 years when I met her. It was in 1991. My elder son Rajesh was 13  and  younger son Rakesh was 6 years when I met her. Now her son Bishan is 13! Both  of us were in the Sanfrancisco State University in California as students of the department of Pychology, living in Verducci Hall, in single rooms. I was in the Clinical psychology program, and she was in the School Psychology program. I was away from my family living in Kerala. When I felt very lonely and sad, I used to talk about them to her. She listened to my stories. I felt very comfortable to comunicate with her. I have a habit of staying in everlasting friendship, and visiting my friends when I get an opprotunity. I visited Pam in and her family consisting of Lejvardi her husband, and Bishan and Alex, her sons in 2007. They live in Gilbert in Arizona.  I wanted to see all of them. Today I could see them in skype.I  talked to Pam and Lejvardi. Bishan and Alex have grown nicely. I was very happy to see Pam and family. I hope one day they will visit Kochi, where we live. We talked about our teachers.  If I visit Canada, I will surely visit her in  Arizona.  I wish I could also visit Mexico.          

Saturday, 29 October 2011

Sun set- bye Jammu

I left Jammu with  beautiful memories. I will get more chances to visit Jammu. I will be happy to meet students, teachers, and others who will happily accept me and share their love to me. Thank you Jammu.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DzN7crlEmdYw

It is very interesting to see this ceremony. Please enjoy it.



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    9 Aug 2007 ... Wagha border retreat ceremony - part 2. ... Wagha border ...





  • http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DzN7crlEmdYw



  • Thursday, 27 October 2011

    Comments of students of Jammu university on One day workshop on Women, Gender Ideology and Stress

    A fantastic woman....with a soft heart and a definite aim.... I am fortunate to know her....Every word, every action of hers', teaches one some or the other thing........!!!! a star spreading her light and enlightening others...YES a gem of a person.....luv u AMMA....!!! 
    CORAL VISHAL -  Ph.D. scholar, Jammu university
    Thanks, mam for such a good workshop. I am really thankful to you for giving us the opportunity to learn certain skills which are not related to our subjects but are beneficial to use in our life situations.I also like your enthusiasm as well as the Malayalam song which u made us to learn. I feel the way my mother tries to make me understand about life situations.Really thank u mam for giving ideas to overcome stress and making aware of good effects of stress. I understood the concept of self you explained. Please again come to Jammu to enhance our knowledge.
    Suresh sharma

    The work shop was very enlightening, wonderful, very informative, and I liked the activities in between your lecture. We thank psyychology dept. for giving us opportunity to hear Dr. Amma.
    Destiny.tani@gmail.comI
    Today's workshop on women, gender ideology, and stress make us very much clear about the concerned topic. Ammaji, with your help we attended such a good workshop in our department and hope that you will come again for such workshops in future. I became proud of my self after hearing your views. Please come again  Ammaji to Jammu. We love you.
    "foolom ka thareem ka sabka kahna he
    bharath ke pas "Amma" sa anmol
    gahna he, sari umar hamem sada  rahna he."
    Shika Sharma

    The workshop was really intersting, attractive, knowledgeable and thought generating. I very much appreciate the lecture delivered by Ammaji. I enjoyed her style. Amma has loud voice, full of positive energy, positive thoughts and I like her very much. One day I wish I am like her!
    Pritie

    The workshop contained vast amount of knowledge. Dr. Sarada enlightened us with her valuable thoughts about gender and stress. We were honoured to have you here for such a workshop. Please come again.
    Aakriti Sharma

    I had a great time through out the workshop. It is a pleasure to have met  Dr. Sarada Sreedevi Amma. I am fortunate to listen to her for 4 hours.Thank you, Amma for giving me such a wonderful experience.
    Vritti

    Being part of the workshop was a very wonderful experience. I learnt things I never heard and knew before. I love to be part of such workshops in future. Thank you.
    Rohini Jamwal

    The lecture was extremely enriching and illuminating, especially because it focussed on the emotional abuse, stress, gender and all of us, women. Every woman faces all these at home and outside at some point of our life. Dr. sarada was an exuberant speaker. It was a treat for me to listen to her.
    Syed Shehna, Ph.D. scholar

    Dear madam, It is a great honour to receive a great lecture from you. It was really awesome. We learnt many good and necessary things to follow in life.  I love you, madam.
    Vandana, psy. student

    It was a good experience, mam. The way you interact with people is impressive.The knowledge that you provide is valuable. Thanks for your visit. Please come again to share your knowledge with us.
    Veena Thakur

    Respected madam, Thanks a lot for giving such enriching information on these three concepts. By this, especially I come to know about these concepts and now I learnt how to cope stress in my ways. I understood my place as a woman and what I can  do as a woman.
    Bandana Sharma, Jammu university

    It is really a great opportunity for me to attend this workshop. I am encouraged and I thought it would be better to attempt to change my way of thinking about me. It helped me in many ways. It helped me to understand me better.  Please invite Dr. Sarada for another worthwhile workshop.
    Vriti Sharma (M. A. Psychology)

    Dear Amma, Amazing experience from an amazing professor. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge with us. We are honoured. Please revisit us.
    Psy. student

    Thank you Amma, please come again, give another lecture for us, I like to become like you, you are unbelievably powerful!
    Psy. 1st year student

    Ammaji, U r fantastic. Please come to psychology department, I believe that you will create history for our department. You are just like a mother to us. I love you ammaji, you know the way to teach, you know the perfect path of interaction, we will miss u so much . Please join a professor of our department.
    Sini Anand, Jammu university

    The workshop was awesome, interesting, interactive, experiential, thought provoking  and very practical. You are always able to convince us with simple examples. Learning became very interesting. We like your teaching ideology.We enjoyed your quiz, presentation style, content , and communicative style. The test was also very useful. Thank you
    Reetikakerni

    You have given a fabulous workshop. I had not attended such a workshop in my life. You are definitely different from other teachers. You are lively, unique, and we are impressed with your style of teaching. Thank you for spending your precious time with us. Please visit again.
    Shobna

    The workshop was very good. I gained knowledge about what ever you explained. It is a very inspiring lecture. I enjoyed it very much. I am thankful to you for coming to Jammu and spending your time with us.
    Jagriti sharma

       I have a nice experience. It was a wonderful workshop. I enjoyed a lot. I can never forget this experience. . The way madam Sarada explains things is very simple and understandable. Dr. Sarada  gave us a test on Perception. It was very fruitful to me to understand my own behaviour. Thank you.
    Nischal Sharma

    The workshop on women, gender ideology and stress was an awesome experience. It wasa unique experience. I wish I get such workshop more.Prof. Sarada's energy level is consistent through out the day! congratulations, Dr. Sarada. Please help us to learn more.
    Sonali Jamwal

    The workshop of the PG> department of Psychology was really very interesting. It was a wonderful workshop. Prof. Sarada Sreedevi Amma has amazing talents. I enjoyed her workshop.
    Bimmi Big

    About workshop-  very informative, full of humour, complete positivism, able to grasp women psychological  issues,conduct please such fruitful workshop for us in future, cause such workshops help us apply concepts in real life.
    Vinay lata

    It was a very good experience in attending the workshop. Listening to Dr. Amma was a great  experience. She is very cooperative with the students. She is a genious teacher. Amma helped us a lot to understand certain  concepts in psychology in understanding  certain  psychological issues. Her style was very unique. Thank you so much, mam.
    Arooj Chib

    I appreciate dr. sarada sreedevi amma for her content, style and commitment to her work. She is very clear about what she talks. She made us understand relationship between  women and  gender, gender ideology and stress, and women and stress. later she connected women, gender ideology and stress with beautiful examples. Please invite her by other departments aalso to enable more students to benefit from her lectures.
    Thank you madam for sharing so much for coming to our university and sparing your precious time for us.
    Akriti Rajput

    The workshop is very interesting,    we liked it very much. She has given knowledge to us. She is a great personality. We are fortunate to listen to her. Thank you, mam. We request to you to come again an dteach us. Please come again and again.
    Pooja sharma

    This workshop was a great experience. You were able to convince us about different aspects of emotional abuse. You were able to connect it with gender ideology. I would like to attend such workshop again. Most importantly, you are very  active, enthusiastic, lively and bold. You know the best tecchniques of teaching. You know to sense the moods of students.
    Twinkle Kam

    It was an awesome experience to interact with Dr. Amma. Madam made us familiar with new concepts in psychology, she added to our knowledge. Her workshop on women, gender ideology and stress was a valuable contribution to our life. She convinced us with many examples. I am thankful to her and the department  for giving us this opportunity
    Aditi

        This workshop with Dr. Sarada  was educative by all means. The event was very well organized.
    Dr. sarada was always enthusiastic, and energetic and she was convincingly explaining everything. But I also felt that  some more time would have been for us to clarify certain doubts. It always happen.
    Sneh Mirakhur

    To ammaji: First of all, I would like thank Ammaji for such an enriching, knowledgeable, and enjoyable workshop. This is my first experience to listen. This my first workshop to participate. My self esteem moved high.  Due to personal circumstances, I am already in stress. But after attending this workshop, I think I will try my level best to combat it and help others to manage it. I will help others to manage stress in good ways for more better rresults as you said.
    Ammaji, please come for another workshop and help us learn more from you. This day is one of the happiest days in my life! Thank you ammaji.
    Karuna Gupta


















    Tuesday, 25 October 2011

    Journey Back to My home state, Kerala!

    2 men teachers made the travel dream of LI students real!
    Sourav, Dan, Rahul, Sarath, Akhil, Edwin, Sinjith
    I very badly wanted to visit Unnikuttan, and meenakshi, son and daughter of Ambili, my sister. Unni had to return from Lucknow after attending an official meeting. He came by car to New Delhi.  I did not know Meenakshi's place of residence.  Other wise, I would have gone to visit her. After the hospital visit, I decided to sleep  in my room at Ginger. I took rest in the afternoon. At 7 pm,  Unnikuttan came to the hotel. He drove me to Nizzamuddin train station, bought dinner for me, and boarded me in the Doronto train at 9 pm. He was in the station until the train moved. I was very happy to see him. He is such a nice son. I love him a lot.
    Dan, Rahul  (8th graders)and Sinjith(11th grader)
    The compartment was filled with luggages and students of Labour India school. The next 2 days were filled with very interesting  events. All of them were asking many doubts about mental health. They started telling their concerns on several issues.  I treid to help them understand their issues. They closely listened to me. I really enjoyed those adolescent students. They too loved our interactions.

    All of us felt so happy in the morning of 24th, as we touched Kerala. We reached Ernakulam station at 6 pm. My husband, Raj was in the station to receive me. Vow! It is again a happy feeling to come back to our home at Kalamassery.  I enjoyed the Jammu trip a lot. Thanks Jammu friends. Thanks Vinu mon who received me at Nizzamuddin on my arrival to Delhi from Kerala. I have special regards for Vinu from his childhood. Thanks  Unnikuttan. Thank you my dear friends in New Delhi.
    Thank you Raj and my sons Rajesh and Rakesh and my daughters in law Lakshmi and Sheetal. Thanks to my amma at home. Thanks to my grandson Abhikuttan.  All of them made my life happy and worth living.

    Bye, Jammu!    

    Arrival at Delhi, October 22

    At Ginger, the Yatri Nivas hotel at New Delhi near the train station.
    The medical students, strong hold of Dr. Pawar,  Doctor herself, Amma, I and another medical student.

    I arrived at Delhi at 10 am. satya praksh Sourav, my former student at sms. received me at the station. He helped me to take a room in the Ginger hotel of Yatri Nivas of the Railway. It was a very good hotel. After taking bath, I went to the RML hospital to visit Amma. She was given lunch at the time I entered to her room. Amma looked ok. Her daughter Dr. Pawar told me that she would be discharged at 3 pm. I spent quality time with Amma. She asked me to sing songs. I sang all the songs I sung at Jammu for her. She was very happy to again see me at the hospital. She promised me that after getting well she would visit Kerala again and would live with us. I invited her to stay with me in our house in Kerala.    

    Bye, Jammu, October21, 2011


    Bye, Jammu!  I love you.

    Kashmiri travellers to New Delhi from Jammu. They visited jammu to invite their relatives to attend the wedding. I had a very nice interaction with all of them. 
    Jhelum express at Jammu train station on 21 october, 9. 45 pm. Ready to board.
    Beautiful flowers. Deedi has a good garden.
    Deedi and Dr. Sharma live here. It is my jammu family
    I visited Dr. Avninderji and Deedi. Arti called her Deedi, I too followed her in calling her Deedi. She is siter of Dr. Satya, Arti's husband. I visited Dr. Bahri, whose daughter is married to Avninderji's son. Avninderji , his mom and Deedi visited Kerala  year ago.  Amma is a wonderful character. Our communication was perfect in the sense she could not speak Malayalam or English and I could not speak Hindi or Panjabi. But we could very well commnicate our emotions. I sang a dogri song, 3 hindi songs which amma loved to hear. Amma is now 82, the same age as my amma at home.  


    The day arrived for my exit from Jammu. I got many opportunitiese to visit several other colleges, schools and universities. I postponed them for the next trip. I had to leave before the Diwali, teh festival of lights. In north India, it is a big festival. I prepared sambar, raita, thair satam, chicken curry, rasam, and thoran. Satyaji, Arti and I enjoyed the Kerala dinner. They ensured that I was boarded in the Jhelum express bound to Pune via New Delhi. The train started at 10 pm.  There were 4 Kashmiri women in the compartment in which I was boarded.They were happy to hear the dogri song. I enjoyed the train trip to Delhi.      

    Mithu soothed me while I was in pain due to 20 km walk from Vaishnov devi the temple to Katra

    Mithu could not believe that a stranger would open his cage. He surprisingly looked at me. I was suffering with intense body pain after walking 20 kms from the Vaisnov Devi temple on the himalayan mountain.  I was lying on a bed, spread on the floor, whistling a song for him. He did not move for a while.
    Mithu slowly moved and reversed his body.Still he looked at me with a genuine question,"who are you?"
    He seemed disapproving of my request to come out of the cage. Mithu slowly walked and settled behind his water pot, hiding his head. He was in that posture for a while.
    Mithu, after sometime raised his head and looked at me. I was singing, but I did not pay any attention to him. He started enjoying my music by moving his head back and forth. Mithu started singing back to me. Later he danced. I was thrilled.
    He seemed to be more comfortable and looked happily at me. Is Mithu ready to come out? Vow! he was getting ready to come out of his cage.

     Mithu decided to come out of his cage. He slowly crawled out of his cage, and walked to my toe.
    Mithu decided to touch my foot. He stayed near my feet for a while.
    Now he touched my feet. I did not move my legs.  I passed the trust test! He gave me 100%.   The next moves from Mithu were quite quick.Mithu walked towards my face. We bonded very quickly.
     He called me AMMA like Sarita and Reena.
    Mithu then touched my face and called "Amma". He was ready to express himself. I was ready to listen to him.

    I greeted him. He walked to my shoulder.
    Look at Mithu,  and his confidence! Son, how are you? I asked him.
    Now Mithu acted very fast. He kissed me. I felt very happy. He blotted very slowly my body pain.
    Mithu did what he could!  Saitsfied in his efforts, he moved behind and settled on my neck as if it was his new comfortable cage!
    I slept for a while with Mithu.
    He woke me with his beak telling me that it was time to get up from the nap.
    Mithu knew I was so tired, so he wanted me again to sleep. I slept.
    Mithu was very comfortable in his in his new cage.
    Until this stage, I did not touch him. But now he permitted me to touch. Tender, loving touch, mithu enjoyed it very much.
    Look at Mithu enjoying his amma!
    Mithu heard the sound of the front door opening and closely listening to the sound.
    He again walked back to my feet.
     He felt so comfortable with me that he started playing with me. I too played with him.
    He was such a nice son. I held him so close to my heart.
     I wanted to get up. But  he was not ready to go.
     He Climbed up and again settled on my chest.
     Mithu pleaded, "amma, do not let me go, I love you" 

     I love you too. Be with me , Mithu.
     I kissed him. Thank you, son. You helped me to forget my pain. I felt so relieved of my pain.
     Thank you, mon for your care and concern.
    Is it so, Amma? Mithu asked me.
    Sure, I responded.!
    It was time to go for dinner. Go to your sister. She was waiting for you.
    Mithu left for his dinner. he happily had his dinner from his sister's plate.
    Mithu lives. He is their brother, friend and everything. Mithu is my Trikuta son of Jammu!

    Visit to Acquarium

    Underground acquarium was very nice to see and  we enjoyed it very much. How many varieties of fish enjoying their lives in water!  But no one can enter in to the acquarium without enjoying the monkey families.  

    visiting a whole sale shop to see Punjabi style of suits and clothes in Amritsar

    Although we had little time to spend to see few shops, we did a quick visit to certain good shops. I saw beautiful suits for women. The jammu daughters persuaded me to buy one patiala. I yielded to their request. They made the shop Wala to get it stiched with in one hour! The next day I wore the patiala. All of  my Jammu friends liked me in the new outfit.

    Spending time with a village family in Punjab

    ready to go to the market!
    tasting the sweetness of the paddy

    enjoying paddy field
    such a beautiful girl
    far away you can see the tents where they live
    far away, you can see their living tents! 
    I  approached the village girl.The girl looked very pretty. I requested for her permission to take a photo with her. She was very happy. She offered tea although I, sarita, and Reena were a little hasty to drive back to jammu. her family had cows and goats. She was taking care of all of them. A little farther, I could see the tents in which several villagers living a community life. We also stopped near a paddy field to take few photographs. It was very entertaining to be in a paddy field. It reminded me of my younger days when I stayed with Munduthara valliyachan and valliammachi( maternal aunty and uncle at Chavara, Kollam, Kerala). I was 8 years. I used to play with cows, and goats. I loved to feed them with fresh grass that I picked from the fields. I ran through the fields back and forth from the school.  I collected mangos from hte mango tree and gave them to all of them. I could still remember the evening prayer that I and the children of aunty( lalitha accan, raviannan, sasi and suseela) chanted every day at 6 pm. I was a butterfly! Thanks to uncle and aunty. I love all of them very much.