Mavshi Aaji - Ekdum bindaas !!

I was not much attached with mavshi - aaji (Grand Aunt). Yet I found it hard to believe that she was no more, even though, ironically it wasnt quite shocking to me that she'd died !! This is because she had so many health problems for such a long time, we used to actually wonder how she stayed alive for so many years !!

Mavshi Aaji was my maternal grandmother's sister. Grandmother has three other siblings....Two brothers and one sister. My grandmother and mother were very close with mavshi aaji.
Mavshi aaji was a very eccentric lady. It was fun to listen to her talk at times. She used to have a lot of comments about a lot of things. She also had a lot of 'abusive terms' in her 'vocabulary' and didnt quite bother to keep them bottled up inside her in front of us kids !!! You can imagine the glee, a kid experiences, when an abusive word is used by an elder in front of him !! However her way of talking didnt quite amuse all people. Sometimes, harsh words can have a long lasting and damaging effect, which did happen in her case. She lost out favour with her own sons, daughter-in-laws and her grandchildren. On top of that, in her recent days, she'd stubbornly chosen to stay alone in her old apartment, even though she had major health problems.
My sister and I were her favourite. She'd always tell grandmom that she'd love to have us as her grandkids !! This was also because her own grandchildren didnt quite give her much attention nor did they seemed to care about her....whatever be the case.
When I got married, she told my wife, "You are indeed a very lucky girl !!"

She was an excellent cook and had taught my mom a lot of recipes. When mavshi aaji was young, she was very good looking and used to act in college dramas. She was adept to the art of embroidery and weaving !! One more thing that I remember about her is her home made pickles !! Boy !! How I used to love them and look forward to these, when she gave a jar full to mom, when we visited her during the summer holidays !!

Going back to her past, she married a man who was also very eccentric !! He used to write letters and post them addressed to the 'Prime minister of India'. I dont think he used to work at all, and I am not sure how they made ends meet. He died a long time back because, I never did see him in my lifetime.
Mavshi Aaji, took care of her children (who by that time must be old enough of course !!)

She had a lot of fluctuations in health. She had a paralysis attack some 10 years ago, had diabetes for a long time. Her sugar levels had once risen to 400 and she was hospitalized. She was back to normal within a week's time !! Obviously, her health genes were tough, because she'd lived an active life inspite of all these recurring health problems. She died at a ripe old age of 85, alone in her own house, she'd so stubbornly decided to stay in independently.

If there was a way blogs could be read in heaven...I'd like to convey one thing to her which I did not tell her while she was alive....Its just that...I loved to hear you talk, straight out and openly, right from the heart, not holding a word back....ekdum bindaas !!

Ignorance is bliss? Yes at times.

What is this? What happens when you do this? What are the advantages? How economical is this compared to that? How best can this be done? Why is this here? Where can I find this? Where do I get to learn this? What did he mean when he said that?
So many questions. And from there on starts an a quest, a thirst to learn something new, finally the satisfaction of having gained the knowledge and then a new question and another quest and so on...The topic of this post is People with a 'chikitsak buddhi' or in english an 'inquisitive mind'
People with an inquisitive mind are rarely satisfied with their degree of awareness. They are always yearning to be the encylopedia....of trivia or essentials. They seem to poke their heads into all kinds of things that go around in the world...in everyday life or once in a lifetime. They challenge your opinions and question your beliefs and if they differ and dont get their answers....they haggle and pull faces and wear an air of extreme superiority. Even the tiniest of doubt and they'll dissect the whole matter and study the elements and put it back again to make it ...what they would call 'perfect' !!

Its not like this...its not as good as you think it is....you dont know exactly....statements like this are always heard from people of inquisitive minds. There is no doubt that most of them are very intelligent...if they werent they wouldnt be able to raise questions about everything would they?

As long as they are happy with their knowledge seeking spree in life its ok. But sometimes, habits can misguide your way of life. These very inquisitive minds start going deep into stuff which some others would say 'Forget it, it must be there for a reason'. These 'others' dont give a damn about that 'reason'.

Going deep into stuff is not bad....but it makes you think too much...You develop a habit of doing it everytime and then you are not satisfied when you dont get answers....because once in a while you dont !!!
Thinking too much about everything just puts more stress on your brain and believe me, the brain needs to be given a rest every now and then for it to think clearly.
And lets be frank with ourselves...do we need to know everything? Dont you have different experts for different fields? Dont they say ignorance is bliss sometimes?