I think I don't even think of it anymore as today I did totally forgot that it is my cancerversary. 28th April 1996 I was operated on and I think I should count it as my start of survival against the cancer. Hope with good wishes and support from friends like you I live on to blog more and also as a gift win the Pepsi contest.. What better way can be there to celebrate. I know I need to write more about my survival but today I will just give you some stats. The thoughts will flow sometime when they have to.
At the time I was diagnosed, I already had too much on my plate. My sister was in the last stage of her fight with the same demon and I was fighting to find a solution for my daughters rare kind of challenge she faced. Doctors were saying she would not be able to see, talk or walk. Her brain had atrophied. I was 29 and my children were 11 months and 4 years respectively. I was worried about the emotional trauma my son was going through.
Today I am happy to see that my kids are almost adults and I have simple things like exams, contests, weight, white hairs, etc to worry about. I could even forget that I had fought the battle so hard few years ago.
My advice to people having rough period is don't quit.
And after that back to my usual crazy rant which has been going on for past few days LOL I heartily thank everyone one of my friend who has generously commented on my Youngistaan Ka Wow ! contest blog post. The contest ends on 30th. Whew!! you all can sigh in relief as I will not pester you for comments after that... Send little prayers that I will do good in my exams. I have been wanting to graduate since last ten years but with growing kids it never worked out. So finally after a long long wait I am doing it this year. I am excited and nervous too.
Exams are nearing and I have to catch up with the studies. With holidays and having my daughter at home will never help but then she cannot go out without me either. I may not be on blogging much but I will catch up with everyone whenever I get back here. Meanwhile trying to keep the blog moving so that it will not become stagnant.
I heartily thank everyone one of my friend who has generously commented on my Youngistaan Ka Wow ! contest blog post. The contest ends on 30th. Whew!! you all can sigh in relief as I will not pester you for comments after that... Send little prayers that I will do good in my exams. I have been wanting to graduate since last ten years but with growing kids it never worked out. So finally after a long long wait I am doing it this year. I am excited and nervous too.
( People who have tagged me or awarded me .. Please forgive me for the delay in appreciating you. Life is very hectic and I am posting my musings which has been typed already as I cannot sit down and spend time on creating a blog post. I promise to do it.. just have patience. Thank you )
Listening is a skill many of us take for granted. If used properly this skill can win you more friends and a good reputation quite easily. Human beings are usually very expressive and in the race of showing off our views we do not care to listen. Listening is a best and cheapest gift we can give to people around us.
God (our creator) has given a clear message to us by giving us one mouth which looks best shut and two ears that cannot be closed that we have to do more listening than talking.
We cannot help hearing the sounds, but many a time we do not listen to what is being said. We just hear and don’t listen. We listen and do not comprehend at times.
Listening can be of various types like.
Active listening: - Here you are totally attentive and involved in what is being said. You give signals indicating ‘I understand’.
Passive listening: - This is what I call hearing. You hear sounds and
respond, but do not comprehend.
Supportive listening: - this is where a listener is providing support (emotional) and encouragement. It provides
strength, approval and is being in favor of the
person.
Stress is inversely proportional to your listening ability. The higher your stress the worst will be your listening
We speak at an average of 100-150 words per minute where as we think at an average of 500-800 words per/minute
You can listen to silence also as silence is a means of communication
Silence can be divided into
Warm silence: - There is lot of warmth being felt and there is no need for words for communication. Everything is being understood. (people in love)
Cold silence:-This is a way of communicating anger/ hatred etc ( A girl staring at the boy friend who bought her very silly cheap valentines gift)
Neutral silence :- as existing between 2 strangers (two people traveling on a bus and not interested in each other)
Demanding silence :- here a person demands an explanation without communicating with words but expressing his/her thought the body language ( A wife who puts the plate in front of the husband who has come home late and stands there looking at him without saying a word… )
To be a good listener;
ØBe yourself
ØTalk as an equal. Just because you are listening to someone doesn’t make you a great person. Never think you are doing a favor to someone by listening to their woes
ØListen actively with attention. Express your interest through gestures, eye contact, body language and comforting words
ØShow interest and empathy
ØSmile (not if it is very inappropriate for the topic)
ØReceive the feeling of the talker, not the problem. It is how a person feels towards anything that is more important
ØRemove bias filters
ØRephrase your understanding
ØTake special care if you disagree
ØDo not assume what the caller is going to say
ØBe patient . your impatience will make a person alert and warn him to be aware of you
ØCarry silences. Be comfortable with silence
Points of bad listening
Calling the subject un-interesting. No subject is un-interesting. There are only people who are either interested or not interested in a subject
Criticism of the speakers delivery (better say I am not following you properly rather than you are not being clear)
Getting over stimulated (excited , aroused, influenced) by one point in the talk
Listening only for facts
Trying to outline everything
Faking attention. Remember ‘attention’ has to be genuine. It cannot be faked out
Tolerating or creating distractions. It is very difficult to stop and talk again especially when you are talking about emotional pain
Avoiding difficult matters
Letting emotion –laden words throw us out of tune
Wasting the differential between speech, speed and thought speed
Being under stress. Stress is universally proportional to listening quality
Do not hesitate to talk, question or check out when you feel there is something amiss and child abuse could be taking place, because you fear what if you are wrong. There is no harm in being sure that everything is alright. Please protect innocent children from the trauma of abuse whenever you can... it is our duty to protect the children and their right to be safe and protected…
Children are to be loved and protected .. NOT ABUSED!
Stop Child Abuse..
Child abuse is one of the meanest and most heinous crime taking place in our society. We often read in papers, about the sexual assault mercilessly being committed on children as young as 3 years or less. Thus when we talk about child abuse a picture of a dead, severely hurt or crying child comes to our mind. But, this is not always the case; since, more often the abuse is well hidden and carried out for years never to be discovered. We need to watch out for this worst kind of social evil which exists among us, wake up from being passive spectators, try to intervene and help whenever possible to eradicate this evil permanently from our society. We need live in denial that such things do not happen in our cultural society. To bring about change, first awareness and then acceptance about child abuse is very important.
Why Children?
Child abuse takes place often since children are vulnerable. Again we can say that children are vulnerable due to three different reasons. 1) Physically they are small and incapable of defending themselves 2) Psychologically they are ingrained that they should be good to elders and obey them. In addition they are made to follow the false belief that elders are always right. 3) They are gullible as they do not have knowledge about sex. They do not understand they are being abused at times. Moreover, if the Pedophile is cunning, he/she can mislead them to believe it is game, secret or sadly their own fault.
Change From Normal Behavior
In normal course an adult tries to protect the child, due to the inbuilt paternal and maternal instinct, which is important for survival of any speicies. But sometimes due to some psychological or emotional abnormality an adult may resort to abuse the child. Often it would be an easy outlet for their lust, anger, frustration or any other negativity rooted in them.
Different forms of child abuse Abuse of children can be classified into 3 categories. 1) Verbal abuse 2) Physical abuse 3) Sexual abuse
Stop Child Verbal Abuse....
Verbal abuse: - The child is ridiculed and emotionally hurt by using words which are not to be said. Usually this abuse is carried on in the name of disciplining children. Every now and then we find a perfect target in a child to vent out our prejudices; frustration, anger, disappointments etc. In some cases it is carried on with actual bad intentions where a person may in fact hate the child for some reason. Verbal abuse can be done by anybody like mother, father, aunt, neighbor, teacher or any other person who is responsible for protecting the child.
The emotional impact of verbal abuse is quite strong and at times it leaves emotional trauma to the level of sexual abuse.
Physical abuse: - This is usually carried on by the people who believe in capital punishment (again in the name of discipline). Hitting the child, makes a person feel that they are in control of the situation and in position of authority. Often parents beat children because they feel it is a channel to vent out their frustrations. Some parents or teachers may not have skills that are required to handle a child with extra energy, inquisitive mind or a tinge of naughtiness. Their lack of knowledge and ability in handling the child will lead them to the easy way out by meeting out capital punishment. Physical abuse only gets momentary unwilling compliance from children. Constant physical abuse can push the child to become more stubborn and obstinate.Sexual Abuse : This is very dreaded word because verbal and physical abuse do not cause as much emotional trauma as sexual abuse.
·According to survey 40-70%girls are victims of sexual abuse in India. A large number of molesters are respected elders like uncles cousins etc.
Molesters can be in relationship like. 1) Male abuser to male child 2) Male abuser to female child 3) Female abuser to female child 4) Female abuser to male child
One of the most prominent misconceptions the society has is that it has to protect the girls as boys are often safe from being abused. When we usually doubt something could be amiss when a man shows interest in a girl child, we often tend to ignore it when the child concerned is male. It is important to note that men tend to abuse male child, scarring their psyche forever quite often.
Sexually Abusing a girl child scars her for life
Of all forms of abuse, the male abuser to female child incidents are highest and it leaves maximum emotional trauma. It leaves long term effect on the individuality of the child. She may grow up fearing men, hating touch, avoiding happiness and suffering from feeling of shame, guilt and unworthiness. Often they may feel they are sinners and indulge in self punishment.
In female abuser to male child, the child is always involved in some play and so doesn't realize he has been abused because there is no pain and no force involved with the act. He doesn't even know he is being exploited sexually due to unawareness about sexual exploitation. But when the realization comes, he may enter into the guilt feeling that he was too sex oriented because he enjoyed sex very early in life. That will make him conscious of his feeling of sex. Even normal tendencies may cause guilt that he is different from others.
The female abuser to female child again uses the same tricks where the child is fooled and does not realize what is actually happening.
How to protect a child
·Communication: - Talk to the child about where she/he has been. Who they played with. How they played. Keep in mind that you should not to make the communication interrogative.
·Teach vocabulary: - teach them how to say what they have to. Increase vocabulary as they grow up. Let them know that they have every right to refuse to do something they are uncomfortable with, even if it is their own parents telling them to do it.
·Respect the child and let the child respect himself/herself.
·Discuss potential abusers and abusive patterns. Teach them the difference between the right touch and the wrong touch and also that it is ok to feel uncomfortable and let the person know about it.
·Be aware of movements. Keep track of as to where the child is spending his/her time. Who they were with, what they did etc
·Build self esteem: - a child with low self esteem becomes a potential victim.
·Remove loneliness. The lonely child is also more vulnerable.
·Tell how to protect. Encourage to shout and scream when someone tried to harm her/him. You can conduct exercises teaching the children to shout. Assure them that they will be protected and not blamed for doing so. Possible behavior pattern of abused child.
·Showing too much maturity for age
·Withdrawal from peer group, becoming a loner
·Lack of usual activities
·Using very adult like words
·Showing undue fear of places, situations, people etc
·Self punishment
·Guilt feeling
Every so often the abuser will be clever enough to instill the feeling of guilt and fear in the child. He/she may convince the child that they are also equally responsible for what happened. They were willing and happy because they never protested etc.
Do not hesitate to talk, question or check out when you feel there is something amiss and child abuse could be taking place, because you fear what if you are wrong. There is no harm in being sure that everything is alright. Please protect innocent children from the trauma of abuse whenever you can... it is our duty to protect the children and their right to be safe and protected…
Behind the smile... A scene from the backstage of the boxing ring.. LOL
I told her that she did not know whether the man was willing to marry the woman who had discussed the differences and problems that may arise out of this bond after marriage. May be he had seen my point and changed. I know if those were the days of mobile she would have picked it up for confirmation. We did not have telephones back then and the concerned person was in Byndoor, where as we were in Bangalore. I tried to quickly get out of the mess I had got into. I told mommy that may be he changed his mind and we should end the discussion there.
Mommy was never a person to let go of an opportunity. She knew I loved to study astrophysics and how much I loved watching stars. Once I got admission, there was no way she could lure me into marriage and if marriage would happen then it would not be with the one she had chosen. So this was her time and she held to it with whatever she had. She told me that she knew he would come in and confirm with her that he was still willing to marry me.
Me: When?
Mommy: Soon
Me: No I need a day.
Mommy: In a month
Me:That is too much of time Mommy. Be specific
Mommy: Ok. Three days. Do you agree now?
Me: I need a time too
Mommy: Ok. 11 a.m. Now you have got the odds favoring you tremendously. So if I win you need to agree to do what I say.
My mommy was an ordinary house wife and I swear she had no visionary powers. So I told her the promise will be held for its word until the third day and after that she has to let go of it. She agreed. I made her promise that no telegrams should be sent. ( it suddenly struck me that they would send some telegram with weird message of someone’s death etc). She agreed. I told her third day 11.00 am was the dead line. She agreed. If the husband supposed to be did not arrive by then and confirm his consent I would never be stopped from studying astrophysics ever. She agreed.
WHEW!!! I had got myself out the mess quickly enough. My mother had not heard from her chosen one for 3 months and there was no chance that he would suddenly land in when she wanted. So I went back to my books and started studying for the exams which were going on. I had done two of them and 4 remained. I forgot all about the bet.
The third day at 9.30 a.m.I remembered the bet and gave a knowing smile to my mother. My mother went about her everyday chores ignoring me. I reminded her that her opportunity to take advantage of my promise had gone to waste because of her big wish. She said she still had 90 minutes left. When a person travels from Byndoor to Bangalore, they reach there at around 7 a.m. in the morning and if late at 9 a.m. I reminded my mother of promise to allow me to study astrophysics and she said she never goes back on her word once she promises her children. I knew there had to be a catch somewhere but could not find anything amiss anywhere.
Lost in thought I did not see the clock hands move towards 11 a.m. I was sitting out in the verandah and studying, my mom was cooking and sister watching television when there was a knock on our door. I absent mindedly opened the door and was shocked as though I have seen a devil……….there stood the chosen one.
What? He asked
I did not say anything … silently walked into my room and looked up at the clock. It was showing less than 5 minutes to 11 a.m.
The picture reminds me of the boxers shaking hands before actual action starts.. LOL
From today I am starting few blog posts under the category .. Marriages are made in heaven. That is what my Mom told me. I will share some serious events, few funny events and jokes of my married life with you along with my big cultural shock within India which was greater than the one I had when I went to USA. Not everything was funny.. and when I look back on this important event I realize how different I was back then. This is going to be an open invitation for all of you to join the party.
Many say marriages are made in heaven….. some have added they are suffered on earth. I am not sure how the heavens are connected to this event but my Mom knew for sure. She knew right from the day I was 11 days old or so she said, that I should be marrying a certain boy who was running tiny errands for her then, when I grew up. She knew exactly he was the Mr. Right for me and we would be a successful pair. All the years I grew up she had visions, dreams, messages from supernatural etc telling her exactly this was right choice she had made. Not once did she waver from this decision As for me, the boy she choose was not bad, liked him but knew we had a grand canyon of difference between us and could not believe that opposites attract and love each other. I discussed this with the husband to be back then and he reported every word to my mother. I was supposed to learn something there but somehow it went right above my head. A court was held and my sister and Mother decided that I had gravely wronged the dear husband to be guy by telling him all the differences we had between us. I am still confused about this … but by then I had lost my brattiness that I had as a child and so listened to them. Actually I grew up thinking I have wronged my mother a lot, have been cause of her misery etc and decided I am going to make her happy. So as a teen I was not the brat I was as a kid and almost obeyed my mother on most of the things. Did my grandmother finally win the war? My mother kept telling me that I would give her a massive heart attack someday when as a kid I kept throwing tantrums after tantrums. One day doctors said her heart was weak and she should avoid stress. I may have gone through the guilt of feeliing may be I have contributed a great deal to it and so changed into a good obedient daughter gradually after that. The change was slow so that it would not give my mommy a real massive heart attack.. which a sudden one was sure to give. One fine day I was hovering around my mother being very lovey dovey and I did something very stupid for no reason. I asked my mom lovingly what I can do to please her. She made me promise her first before placing her wish … give up your desire to study astrophysics and marry the person I choose for you. Now I was thinking on terms of cooking something she liked, or doing a tough errand etc and never thought of such a big deal. Oh no!!!! I tried to back off but tears and all the emotional black mailing started after that. Unknowingly I had triggered something that would change my whole life.
Hi Friends, I am trying my luck with the Pepsi IndiBlogger of the Month contest. It is you who can make me win as the winner is going to be the one with highest number of comments. Please be generous.
Now the question If you were the game master, what challenge would you like to throw to Ranbir?
Answer: If I were the game master I would break the empty pepsi bottles and ask Ranbhir to do a Basanti of Sholay dance on it to reach his love…….. The song he has to sing would be a bit different though
Jab tak hai pyaas… main nachoonga…. (As long as I am thirsty I will dance)
Link for the original song… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfnMl40LeAo&feature=related
Finally at 2 p.m. we decided to get back home. We three started our walk back. I was very curious to look around and fell behind my sister and Sakku. Sakku was leading the way with my sister following and me following my sister. Finally we came to railway track and Sakku crossed it first then my sister got on the track. Now something terrible happened. It was time for the Brindavan Express to approach and it blared its horn. My sister suddenly froze on the track. Me and Sakku kept calling her name but she stood there staring in the direction of the train which was visible now. The trembling tracks and the blaring horn was scary as my sister was not able to move… suddenly I decided to intervene and pull her and held her hand .. unfortunately at the same time Sakku decided to do the same. We kept tugging my sister in the opposite direction for what looked like hours as the train fast approached us… I shouted at Sakku to let go, at the same time she shouted at me to let go.. Finally I do not know after how long that I decided to let go and my sister was pulled to the other side by Sakku. The force made all three of us fall on the opposite sides of the railway tracks and I felt the train engine brush past my dress or it could be fear induced imagination. We just stayed on our side of the tracks staring at it without making any effort to move or talk. Finally my sister shouted “were you two trying to kill me?”.
“ You were trying to kill yourself and we were trying to save you” I said, being angry that I was not appreciated for either trying to intervene and pull her nor for letting go when it was getting dangerous holding on. Sakku, the poor thing was in such a shock that she did not say anything but started crying so our attention was diverted to her. She was very sorry that she was very nearly responsible for getting her friend killed and she thought it was her fault inviting us to the fields.
I knew for sure that I would not take blame on myself like she did even if the fault was visible and Sakku shocked me with her way of thoughts. Anyway we consoled her. In the panic the poor Jirjeembe ( Pronounce-Jeer Jim Bay) had found its freedom and was nowhere to be seen. The match box lay empty there and I was very happy. NO! I did not let it free and I am sticking to what I said that day.
Finally it was decided that we should never let our parents know about the incident. A promise was made and kept forever until my sister who could never keep secrets told my mom about it few days later sending her into a panic frenzy. It was good she just told that she got scared on the railway tracks and could not cross over for sometime without mentioning the incident of me and Sakku pulling her from either side. My mom’s screams and wailing must have shut her up.
The incident would play up in my dreams where it would end in tragedy and that started disturbing me a lot. Whenever I heard the train pass by (we lived near to the railway tracks) I could feel it brush against my skirt etc. So I made effort to take the incident out of my mind and also promised never to give in to thoughtless panic ever in my life. With lot of effort finally I overcame the fear and the dreams stopped some time later. But since then I have not panicked much over any situation. The first thing I tell myself as my pulse picks up .. ‘stay calm’ and repeat it often. I learnt a big lesson that day that our life depended on the way we react to a situation and if not for proper thinking I could have lost my sister or may be all three of us would be dead. The price of panic was just too big to ignore it.
Paddy fields
(Note from a grown up Farida: Even to this day .. when my sister is no more, I have never overcome the fear the incident induced in me and I have never allowed panic to take over my senses ever after that. I have remained calm; when I saw a snake inside the house, got my hand stuck in car door, saw my younger sister catch fire, when my daughter slipped and fell down etc. No panic for me. I miss the panic feeling though. At times it is nice to squeal, ohhh ahhh and get scared and do weird things. I do that with lot of effort when it will be time for my husband to come back from gulf.. though my kids know I am acting it out they enjoy to see their Maa in a panic mode. )
Thank you verymuch Betty and Hitesh for your awards.. I know I have to announce few more but have no clue where I had seen them. Please if you see this send me a reminder. I love the awards. Life has been very hectic for the past few months and it is will be so until June 2nd when I finally finish with my last exam which is starting from May 3rd.
Betty has been a very good supporter and loving commenter on my blog. She is a very good friend to me and I feel lucky to have met her. When I was almost thinking of giving up blogging she came with her wonderful encouragement which made me stick to this wonderful hobby. You will be glad to be on her blog .. so do not miss Cut and Dry.
I got the Honest Scrap and Beautiful blogger award from her
Thank you Hitesh for your award. You have been a good new found blogging buddy. Hitesh writes wonderful reviews on films which is way better than the ones I see in news papers. He has made me watch few wonderful movies which I had missed. He recently stood 3rd in the contest held on Indivine. Visit him on The Way It Is.
He passed on to me a Star Award
As for the rules.. let us cut them to basics
1. Share 7 things about yourself that people don't already know.
2. Pass the award on to 7 blogger friends.
Seven things about myself that you may not know..
1) I have learned everything about computers and net from computers itself without anyone to guide me.. other than my brother who showed me to switch it on.
2) I used to be a great fan of WWE and F1 racing.
3) I have lost my panic somewhere in life and I miss it.
4) I love teaching
5) I am very much inspired by Mark Twain, Scott Peck, Einstein, Abdul Kalam etc
6) I married the exact opposite of myself... may be opposites do attract. LOL
7) The person I miss the most is my sister who I lost to breast cancer... Sigh!!!
Now to choose 7 bloggers to pass the awards on to...
As the sports made me come out of my silence my sister got to be friends with me again. She could not put up with a ‘gloom and doom is all mine’ look .. And as soon as it let go of me she was back as usual sharing my pranks and adventures.
One day we decided to visit the paddy and ragi fields in the village. One of her friend’s families owned a huge field where ragi and rice was grown. One Sunday we had our breakfast in a hurry and went over to the fields. My sister’s friend Sakku (short for Shakuntala) met us near the railway tracks. The fields looked like green ocean and we could never make out where the boundaries were drawn. But the farmers knew exactly where their fields began and warned us of trampling their crops as we walked by. I made a complaint we were not elephants and we all were chased by the old farmer.. we ran bursting out in loud guffaws and ran until we reached the field we were supposed to reach.. WHEW!!!!!
Some members from her family were already busy with work. There were no trees at all and I wondered where they took rest when they grew tired of work and sun. Sakku’s mother told me that they never grow tired of work and sun because they were made of hard mud or something like that which I had difficulty understanding because they looked exactly like us: made of flesh… Whatever, I decided that I did not want to spend the whole day where there was no shade at all.
First we had taste of fresh raw rice and ragi.. and amazingly they tasted good and so different from the food we eat. Then my sister and Sakku caught an insect she called Jeerjimbe which was green and very shiny. It measured around 2 cms and looked like this.
It lived on Avarekayi shrubs which bordered her fields. That was her gift of remembrance for my sister for the first visit to her fields. She had a match box with her in which put it carefully with one avarekayi leaf. My sister who hated bugs was for some reason was overjoyed at this gift but I whined in protest because I did not like confining the poor bug in a box. I always respected freedom and that meant freedom of bugs too. I only got back few glares and shhsshhh quite .. you are too small to talk big things kind of dialogues which I got too often. Sigh! I wandered around a lot in the fields all alone and once I shouted for help thinking I saw a snake which was just a climber created to deceive the poor me.
Finally it was time for lunch and everyone sat around in a circle in a clearing and the lunch was spread. To my horror it all looked like really hard mud rolled into balls no wonder the Mom had informed that they were not made of flesh like us..
The curry of avarekayi was smelling good but I had never seen a ragi mudde ever in my life and I did not want to eat it. My sister whispered or precisely hissed in my ears
“Wipe of that ‘I just saw a ghost’ look from your face. It is not going to eat you”.
“ I am not going to eat him either”
“It is not male”
Sakku’s mother who heard us whispering asked what happened and my sister sheepishly answered that ‘I’ did not know how to eat a ragi ball. I declared even she did not know how to eat it and got pinched by her.
“ I can’t imagine anyone not knowing how to eat a ragi ball. It is one of the most nutrient good food children can eat. All you have to do is break a piece of it and dip it in the curry and swallow the piece. Take care not to chew it. It will not be good if you chew it. This food is swallowed as whole”
Saying so she started to eat the lunch with her family. My sister was waiting for me to start and I was waiting for her to start. Finally my sister shivering a bit broke a piece of ragi ball and put it casually into her mouth. I followed her and did the same but even though I willed myself strongly not to chew it my mouth disobeyed my orders and chewed on the piece of ragi ball. Slowly it stuck around everywhere in my mouth and I had to role my tongue to clean it up and swallow it. To my horrific surprise I seemed to like the taste. My sister on the other hand did not seem to like it but tried to eat it with a smile to please her friend’s family. By the time I reached eating half the ragi ball I had been skilled in dipping it in curry and swallowing it without chewing and I relished the lunch. My struggling sister seemed to envy the way I could adapt to lunch of her friend’s family. I enjoyed my mastery of eating ragi ball as much as I enjoyed eating out in the fields under the small shade provided by some unknown tree.
After the lunch everyone spread there on the grass and had some rest and then got back to work. I could not rest and so ran about everywhere and was bitten by some stupid ants and hurt my knee by falling down on some cleverly hidden stone.
