Wonder woman

There was this girl in college, with backlog papers in final year, obviously her career aspects didn't look very bright. On top of that she was in a relationship which both their parents disapproved. Anyways, we all graduated, joined our jobs, got busy in our lives and life moved on. Until one day when i was surprised to see her in the basement of our apartment and even more surprised to learn that she had been living here for quiet sometime. She invited me over to her place and in a few days time I arranged to visit her. Little did I know how many more surprises were there for me in store as i would come to learn more about the happenings in her life. As a starter I was impressed to learn that she had married the love of her life, and that too with the blessings of both their families in spite of all the obstacles, oppositions and tension they hadn't given up and finally got together. Then I learnt that she was working in a reputed iT firm, and I could sense the effort she would have put to reach here in her career given the weak academics. And unlike many other girls around me who had good academic records and degrees but were still not interested in pursuing a career, this woman seemed pretty serious and sincere about her job. Double imprsssed!! Next I couldn't stop gazing around her house, sorry, home. It was so nicely decorated and managed, so cute, warm, charming and inviting with the love and spirit of its owners reflecting in it. I couldn't stop wondering how many so called successful women around me would have scored more than her in this aspect - hardly any.

Needless to say, my opinion about her personality, her strength and weaknesses,  completely changed. I was impressed by the way she had pulled things up and managed to balance together all aspects of life. 

Today she is the mother of a small baby, still smartly striking the balance between her home, job and the infant with the help of her husband and just one domestic helper. I wish her success in whatever she does in life.

When I feel the work life pressure, when I feel lazy in keeping my commitments towards my home, then I think of her and it energises me.

Hats off toyou girl.

Grandmaa.....

Imagine you do a schooling only till class 2 . Then you get married at a mere age of 16 and have a child the very next year. You then become a mother every couple of years for the next 12-14 years, some of your children survive, some are still-born and a couple of others are consumed by epidemics. Your husband has hardly sufficient money to meet the monthly expenses, yet you have to manage the upbringing of  all your children to the best you can, and then you get them married one by one and have grandchildren, and you take care of each one of them, at times even better than their moms can! As if your life has just one purpose - to serve your children and grandchildren. But, things don't end here. There are these clashes and fictions of joint family that happen, the children you raised with your sweat and blood separate from one another, the grandchildren grow up and go their own ways, you grow older and older, enduring all this, taking into your lap whatever life has to offer, without complaining, without leaving the zeal to live and to make the life of people around you better through your care and love….how does it feel imagining yourself in this kind of a situation? Melodramatic? Out of the world? It does feel like that to me. If I had such a life, either I would have abandoned it or  I would have gone insane.

Sadly, its not something over-dramatic or imagined or exaggerated. It’s the life bestowed upon a Grandma, it’s the life she lead for the past 80+ years. But I am not writing it out here so that you have pity for her, I am writing It out to justify why she is one of the greatest inspirations in my life, why she deserves a salutation from all the women out there, I am writing this to bring to fore the beauty of her great personality and that of numerous other Grannies like her.

A life which me and you can't even think of, which we would loath, which would drive us mad and crazy, to lead such a life, and not just lead, to maintain your integrity throughout your life - is something more than commendable. That's what this grandma did. Never once I remember her loosing her integrity through all the ups and downs of life, never did I see her compromise on her values, however hard it was for her.

If she had a single penny with her, she would make sure to spend it equally among her children, if she had a single piece of bread, she would divide it equally for them. She had no grudge against any of them, even if they ignored her needs at times. She would feed the whole family and eat at last. Every time any one of her children needed her support or for the matter of fact, anyone's support, she would be there standing besides them, even without they asking for it explicitly. I remember when her daughter-in-law was ill and they had to take her to another city for treatment, none of the brothers or sisters had come forth to go with them, but grandma was there for her son and daughter in law. When a grandchild was alone at home, she would be there to take care of him or her. When they went to study far from home, the day they would come home, where ever she would be,even when old and unable to walk so much, still she would come over to meet them. When all her sons were settled except the youngest, she lived with him, taking care of him- saying to other children - "my youngest son needs me the most, you all are settled, until  he is settled, my prime duty is to take care of him". She used to do all the household work and then attend all the society events as well.

When a cat had abandoned its kitten , a newborn just a few days old, in the backyard and the children were trying to feed it in vein, she came with a box filled with cotton, placed the kitten into it and then fed it through a cotton ball, squeezing milk into its mouth. The kitten survived and 3 days later its mother took it with her.

I had seen silent tears rolling down her cheek the day her joint family had broken, but she had not uttered a word. The very next day she was her usual self , going through her daily chores, she had accepted the big blow in her life with such calm. 

If I continue writing about such incidences where her composed personality, her love her compassion for her family touched me deep down..its going to be the longest blog ever written. So, I don't want to squeeze in all the details here...let some reside in the core of my heart … :) 

When I face little problems in life, when the loved ones around me fail to meet my expectations on petty matters, I feel frustrated, sometimes furious. Then at times I think about this Grandma, and it gives me so much strength. I don’t need to look forward to any special Saint or holy person to get the inspiration on spiritual aspects of life, on selflessness and true love, when I have her to look up to. If she can do it, she can be so loving, caring, composed and giving all through the hardships that life endured upon her, each one of us can be … and the world would be so much more beautiful if each one of us could learn something from a personality like her.

Tech Talk... Creating a temporary file using java

Template:

File tempFile = File.createTempFile(<temp-file-name>, <temp-file-extension>);

Using the above template would create a file with name <temp-file-name> and extension <temp-file-extension>.

Code sample:

File tempFile = File.createTempFile("mytempfile", ".txt");

Where such code gets useful:

Mostly, I find it very useful when writing unit test cases in java which require to test scenarios where a file creation is required, because, this way, I don't have have to worry about which OS I am on, what location should I choose to create a temporary file etc. In the setup method in my unit test, I can create the file and in the teardown method i can call delete() on this file to ensure that the file gets created before I run my testcase and gets deleted after the testcase is complete. 

Inspirations - cheers to all the women around me…

I truly feel blessed to have so many women around me - friends, relatives, elders and youngsters, colleagues - whom I look up to and seek inspiration from. Then there are distant acquaintances and sometimes even some strangers whom I got to meet in hotels, in lift, on the roads, in the shops, on bus-stops, in the buses  and everywhere else -  for very brief span of time, yet in that small span of time they left their imprints on my mind in one way or the other - so that I remember them till today. I want to dedicate some of my posts to all those women in and around...who inspire me in everyday life in various ways.  I would like to say to those women - you are all so filled with qualities, you all have something or the other that every other person can learn from you… kudos to you for being you :). God bless you all….

I would love to dedicate some of the posts that follow to some of the shining, inspiring, guiding examples from women around me. A recollection of these always gives me strength to keep moving in tough times and fills me with positive energy in daily life....

Coming back soon with the inspirational stories....