Manya's Blog!

  There are yellow primroses for sale in the market. I have made a note to get some on Wednesday. My postage-sized front garden has been a disappointment. I wasn't expecting much from it as it only gets a few minutes of afternoon sun. The yellow pansies, which tempted me with their large, bright yellow faces, only gave me small flowerheads, riddled with holes.   I guess there is a bug eating them. I tried feeding the pansies and wallflowers. The wallflowers responded with branching, shiny leaves, but the pansies were still unhappy. I'm going to put yellow primroses between the plants. So much for my strip of soil bordering the carpark.  My urns in the back garden, in full view of my dining table, were lovely with white cyclamen, but most were killed by our few days of snow, a rarity here in East Anglia. Crocuses, which had been planted in deeper layers in the urns, gradually replaced them, but for some reason, one urn was full of bright yellow crocusses two wee...

  2026! I've just written the New Year date on a cheque!  -Yes!  I am old-fashioned and still using them! As my letters are typed these days, there is scarcely any need to write a date. I find it hard to remember which day it is! Sundays, Fridays, and bin collection days are the only days I must remember.  I do use memory aids, like the paper calendar I scribble notes on, as it sits on my kitchen worktop, and on phone and computer apps. They kindly remind me of birthdays, festivals, and appointments in India and England.  The world clock is a boon for me as I get and send lots of messages to India with a four, or five-and-a-half-hour time difference.  It is very bad manners to forget and wake someone up in the night.  I write shopping lists, and invariably forget to take them with me! However, if I have counted the items, it does help me to make a new mental list. Sometimes, I remember what the word began with, and have to go through the alphabet, to t...

The  Christmas celebrations at Awaas Seva Sadan began with board games competitions, a walking event and these were followed by party games on Christmas Day.  Two weeks of competition heats culminated in a Prize giving on Christmas Day evening. Staff  Sports Day was on Boxing Day.        Being strictly vegetarian and non-alcoholic, there was fruit juice made from grapes.  We even had eggless Christmas cake for those who did not eat eggs. Christmas at Prem Nivas with our HIV children was concerts, decorations, carols, a nativity play, and a huge party with all the Children under Brighter Future's umbrella, followed by a picnic in the park, and fun and games in the sea at Visakapatnam. 

 I am so pleased to tell you that I am now an 'indie author'!  And I have sold 57 books!   A month or two ago, I had no idea what "indie" meant. Now I know it stands for 'independent'!  'Independent' in this case, means not supported for editing, proofreading, marketing, advice, etc. No one to hold your hand!  Recently, however, Amazon, through its USA site, has been offering these specialist services to authors, including me, as bundles from £500 to £5000. AI offered its services too, but I declined, saying that I wanted to write my book myself!   I am, however, personally very independent, usually referred to as 'stubborn', not through choice, but by necessity.   My family had been bombed out when they were living in Ilford, east of London. Mummy, my brother, 2-year-old Richard, and I were out posting a letter when the 'doodlebug' went through our house in August 1941. I was four.  Mummy and Daddy rescued a couple of rugs, a sideb...

  IN 1991  After making myself a bike out of two half bikes, bought at the Police auction of bikes found in the river, hanging on railings, and generally discarded, I taught myself how to use the gears and started riding to work in Cambridge. I was introduced to 'Sunday bike rides' by a friend and started practicing to ride further than the five miles to work.  I would practice cycling round the villages I found on an Ordnance Survey map, and I cycled to work the long-way round, which involved a hill or two.   By the end of the summer, I had done four 'rides' for national charities and raised £400 for Help the Aged, the World Wildlife Fund, British Heart, and Oxfam.    Emboldened, and always up for a challenge, I entered the 1992 London to Cambridge 'event' - a properly organised affair, going by train to the start in London, signing in, lining up at a start line, and with marshals to point out the route at road junctions.    I pedalled along...