Good morning friends and wish you all a very Happy Weekend!!
Today being the very first blog for our TMC UK alumni association, as I am sat here trying to write , I had to pause first for a few moments of active mindfulness. This was in order to focus on what I am feeling right now as the overwhelming thought of this being the first blog seemed to have an enormity about it.
I realised that it was a profound wave of gratitude that I was feeling above all else. Gratitude for friends who made this possible and meaningful , gratitude for the busy work week, the relaxed weekend and the blessing of a beautiful life with friends and family and everything within that which makes it matter and helps us add life to years and not just years to life!!
All of us work hard over the week days and look forwards eagerly to the arrival of the weekend to relax and unwind. As we move up in life, the things that excite us become fewer and fewer. The excitement that we feel on a weekend morning however is something that gets stronger as the years pass in my feeling especially for those of us in the UK where our social and family plans all revolve around the weekend.
Just as placebo therapy works effectively in many instances as we know , a simple happy memory or thought similar to the simple thought of the arrival of weekend heralded by a Fridayevening for some and Saturday morning for others like me, helps exert a positive and therapeutic placebo effect on our minds and helps us cope so much better through the pressures and intensity of the working week.
As this is a blog for the TMC alumni association website, the mind cannot stop reminiscing the weekends in the college hostel all those years ago at TMC as I am sat here on the window seat of my study in scenic Lancashire sipping a lovely hot cup of sweet milky coffee, a treat reserved specially for weekends – both the sweet and the milky being the treats as opposed to my usual placid green tea on week days!!
The hostel mess, the mess boys who served us always with such good cheer and respect despite their often shabby dishevelled looks, the special Sunday roast Dosais in unlimited numbers with masala, across both ladies and men’s hostels alike, the appetite of glorious youth which allowed us to indulge in these simple pleasures of life in a totally guilt free manner unlike the present day calorie counting diet plans, visitors from men’s hostel to ladies hostel, the evening walks to YUVA coffee shop or the first gate temples, the excitement of the short trip to the Periyakoil, or extra special treat at Sathars or Bhilal with friends or one of the other restaurants in the city centre are all some of the happy thoughts and memory glimpses that come rushing to the fore. And yet again every thought and memory fills me with gratitude for having had the opportunity to experience all that and for the greatest blessing of friends with whom one could share all those memories.
As I savour the last few sips of the sweet milky coffee of the weekend, could not help but think fondly about the Degree filter coffee back home served in stainless steel Dabara Tumbler, which is any day in my view “The King of all coffees” !! However much you try to convince yourself that you have found a close match in the special exotic coffee beans from Jamaica or Columbia that you order online through Amazon and mill fresh in the super expensive coffee maker, must confess that they all pale in comparison to the King!! Gratitude for the last drop and for the drops of memories that it evokes and the wonderful opportunity to share it with friends who can understand what you are thinking and trying to say.
An Attitude of Gratitude turns even an ordinary moment to an extraordinary one as I have just realised!!
Catch up again soon and have a wonderful weekend all!!
Uma
Dr Uma Krishnamoorthy
1984 TMC Batch