Pheromones

I didn't even remember this word. A chance encounter triggered memories.

The first time I heard this word was when I was listening to a lecture in my college where the 'guest lecturer' was explaining how to control 'female pests' in tea/coffee plantation!

His idea was simple. Create synthetic pheromones thingy. Female pests will be attracted. Grab them, kill them.

I said wow! Then asked him "What about male pests?". For that he said, "What can males alone do if we kill all the females?". Hooofff! These research fellas really know it all!

Thank You

Sometimes people touch your heart very unexpectedly. Here is a note of thanks to all those people whom I don’t know at all. But they surely make this world a better place to live.

1. N Krishnan in Madurai. In these days when people refuse to even look after their own parents, here is a guy who feeds mentally ill people on the streets of Madurai and that too three times a day! How can you ever say thanks to this guy? No amount of praise is enough. All I could do was shed those tears of joy. As the elders say, its because of such people that we have rain and harvest still in this world!
2. All those municipal corporation workers who clean/repair our drains. It’s a thankless job to say the least. Not to mention what meager salaries they get for doing such a job. Just imagine how our homes would be without them… so a BIG thank you to all of them for keeping our homes mess free in an indirect way :-)
3. Traffic policemen: We work in air conditioned offices… if not that atleast an office with a fan, sitting at one place and yet crib about job non-satisfaction, lesser amenities and what not… Just imagine the conditions which these guys work day in and day out. Dust all around, people not heeding to their instructions.. how frustrating can life be? A little note of thanks to all the traffic policemen!
4. Construction Workers: Most of the big time builders boast of big and successful projects. But ultimately each brick is laid by an anonymous construction worker. Here is a note of thanks to all those who have toiled in rain and shine for making our lives comfortable.
5. Scientists: Imagine how our world would be without those lives saving inventions. Be it in medical field or even home appliances field for that matter… our lives are much more comfortable, safer and luxurious because of these inventions. A BIG thanks to one and all who made this possible.

Well, the list can go on and on, so let me put a stop to it and say a general thanks to all of those people who have made this world a better place to live!

P.S: There is no point in telling where I was all these days. Let me put it straight.. I was plain lazy! So lets get to the posts right away.

My Favorite Quotes

• Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO, What a Ride' – Anon
• "Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change." - Jesse Jackson
• Love: It is a short word, easy to spell, difficult to define, impossible to live without – Anon
• Success is something when we get what we want and happiness lies in wanting what we get – Anon
• Life is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. – Anon
• If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. – Anon
• A conclusion is a place where you got tired of thinking. – Anon
• Love may be blind, but marriage is a real eye-opener. – Anon
• Success always occurs in private and failure in full view. – Anon
• 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot. – Anon
• If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments. – Anon
• There are some things which money can’t buy.. for everything else there is MasterCard!

New Blog and other things.

Well, I know it’s been some time and most of you have been waiting for some updates about my son, but I have to confess I have become a lazy bum!
It would be wrong if I say I didn’t get time because of my son … (touch wood) he has been a very good boy till now. He doesn’t get cranky at all, and sleeps well during the night which is a blessing I am sure many mothers would agree. I have just been plain lazy. Being in mom’s house doesn’t help either. You get to order around and get pampered all at the same time ;-)
Now that two months are over since my son was born I have decided to wake up finally. Have to get back to not-being-lazy mode soon.

I have decided to start a separate blog to write about my son. Want to keep this one general. So here it is. It’s not too difficult to guess that updates on the other blog will be more than here ;-) but still I would want to keep this one to write about my general feelings and comments on happenings around me.

I have been reading reports of racism in Australia. I do agree that those have to be condemned and the Aussie police have to really wake up and take appropriate measures. But I cant stop myself but ask the question.. we raise all hue and cry when “others” (read foreigners) discriminate us, but don’t we do the same? We may not attack and kill but I am sure our “treatment” is no less traumatic. How many tourists have had a “safe” and “deceit-less” trip to India? Mysore boasts of quite a few foreign students. Palestinians, Africans, Chinese etc.., Ask them how many times they have been teased in public not only in their college campus but in general on road, in busses etc.
How can we ever forget our “casteism”? Isn’t it racism with a different name? Forget about inter-caste marriages, that’s a different topic altogether. But let us just look at our daily lives. How many of us allow maids to come inside the kitchen? How many of us readily eat in our neighbor’s house if they are of a different caste? I can go on and on... but I am sure you get the point. So before pointing fingers at other countries, let us first look at ourselves. First clean your house before dusting your neighbor’s house! I am sure there is no less “groupism/favoritism/casteism” in our own universities. Have we even given a thought to it? I am sure we would be the biggest market for fairness creams. What with our obsession to be fair. How many dark girls get good grooms easily? I think we better clean our house first before trying to clean our neighbor’s house! (I have to mention a kannada saying here “Avara yelili heggaNa biddidru pakkada yele noNa Odisdranthe!”).

I must also mention about the political scenario we have right now. I was at a loss for words when Mr.Karunanidhi was so bent upon getting cabinet births for all his family members! It was a mockery of democracy to say the least. I wonder when people of TN will ever realize that this man is in the game only for personal reasons. For that matter I wonder who is clean after all. I am sure we won’t even get enough candidates to count in our fingers! But at the same time, I am optimistic that things are going to change. I can see the change in attitude for most of the people from “I don’t care” to “I can do something for a start.. i.e vote”. Also I can see that there are more young faces (though it does not rule out corruption) who I hope will bring about some change.

On a totally different note, I wonder when people will ever be “satisfied”. I am sometimes at loss for words or expression when people expect things which are totally uncalled for. Suppose A was never talking with B, the moment A talks to B, B “expects” A to talk nicely. A talks nicely, then the expectation is that A tells everything to B and so on... it’s a never ending expectation-cycle if I can call it that! Why can’t B be satisfied that A is on talking terms? The situation gets more complex when there is C and D to mix up the mind of B! Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!

Now, to end the post on a bright note… I am finally slowly getting back to shape, after being shapeless for almost a year ;-)! Though this does not mean I am thin even in a remote way... but atleast I am getting back to my normal (read original) weight :-)

Rain Rain

Its that time of the year when you have to carry an umbrella wherever you go. You can never say when the rain gods will smile on us!These first showers apart from being extremely romantic brings back fond memories

• During school days, it invariably started raining at 4:30pm and we used to blissfully go back home completely drenched!
• Power cuts are inevitable during rain… this was story telling time to my sister mostly movie stories…standing near the window and staring at the rain.
• This is the time of the year when all the noses start running and hankies are liberally stolen in school!
• Rain during college days called for bike rides! No amount of persuasion from parents made us wear any raincoats or carry any umbrellas.
• Suddenly samosa, churmuri and masala puri tasted all the more yummy!
• The most dreaded thing was always making sure that our books did not get wet!

This rainy season also has some typical characteristics

• Most of the wedding receptions go either empty or people turn up very late “after” the rain and hence the party goes on almost till midnight
• If your house has a big portico in front, you would end up entertaining atleast 2 or 3 people every evening who would have come to take shelter from the “sudden” rain.
• Walking on a road after a rainy evening is a treat to your nose… every house smells of either pakoda or bonda or some other rainy-delicacy!
• Not to forget the horrible traffic jams. You are struck somewhere in the middle of nowhere for hours!
• Its also time for your slippers to go to the cobbler every now and then ;-)
• Not to forget the viral infections. Most of the doc shops are full during this time of the year.

Whether its something good or bad this season sure is specially romantic. To all rain lovers.. happy rainy days!

I got promoted

April 7th. I still can't believe it. When he came out of me I felt as though my whole body was sucked out of air... and then he was in my arms.. my bundle of joy... but still I can't believe that he was inside me all these 9 months and I am his "mommy" now! Wow! This feeling is amazing! For a person who can't keep her mouth shut for more than 2 minutes.. I was at loss for words. Some say that the bonding does not happen instantaneously.. specially when the baby looks all ugly (which is true to a certain extent.. what with all that fluid on him. The whole body is also kind of bloated because of water content. The head it shaped really sharp. and so on!) as soon as it is born. But I felt the connection immediately.. I don't know how!

My days have now become shorter and nights have become longer. All I do from morning till night is snooze-feed-clean. Please note "sleep" word does not exist anymore and it's only snooze. Sometimes it does get very tiring and frustrating as well. I think this is why people go to their mom's place after child birth. Its easy to shout/scream at moms than at mils. My mom gets a dose from me every now and then for very small things like a cloth was not provided on time, or water is too hot or whatever! Poor her!
Coming to my son (haven't named him yet).. he looks almost like his dad according to all my husband's family members and he looks just like me according to my family members. So there you go! He has been very quiet till now. Even when its feeding time he makes some small "unhuh" noises and just looks at me intently... I think he is saving all the crying for the coming months!
ok. gotta go now. I have just one more hour break.. let me snooze a bit. More later!

And then I am back again...

Well, I have been pretty off the blog lately. One main reason is that it is blocked in office. And I hardly get time off office hours. Other reason is that I had too many things happening in my life and too little time to think and pen things down. I am back now and hopefully will stay!

The first thing I want to comment about is IPL. For once I am with the government. Come on.. what is IPL? A game? OK A multi billion dollar game... but more important than is our loksabha elections. I wonder what they would have lost had they held it a month later. The government for once was right. They couldn't probably give enough security to all the players and also manage the elections. On top of that it is Indian Premier League.. what was the hurry to conduct in a foreign land and make it easy for others to pin point and say that India couldn't manage security for a game. Its easy to point fingers at the Govt and say that they couldn't come back on time and promise that the security will be taken care off.. but then we all know how election times are... do we need to add more salt to all the chaos?

The second thing I wanted to comment about is the elections itself. Have you noticed that the majority of election violations are done by BJP candidates? Its becoming too obvious. I mean its common sense that the ruling party now is now really worried about retaining the power and hence will resort to any tactics to put black mark on the other party.. I just hope that the public is not blind. I am not for this party or that.. I would rather vote for a capable candidate than what party he belongs to.

The third thing I want to comment about is the obsession of housewives to serials. On an average my mil watches round 6 serials in a day.. just imagine! While I have no reason to complain, I am just amazed at the reach these serials have. At first sight I thought this is the best way to address social issues, as it has the widest reach and people follow these with so much interest. But then I was wrong, while it is acceptable in a serial to have an inter-caste marriage the same is not acceptable in the family. While it is ok in the serial for the son to live separately from his parents along with his wife due to compatibility issues, the same is frowned upon in the family. There goes human nature :)

Effects of Recession

- Most boring days at office. Ok, I am lucky that I have a job and all that but with most of the projects closing because clients have no money to give, it gets a tad boring to sit all day in office doing things totally worthless. Self motivation you may say… but you can’t do that every day and every night!

- Even people like P (my husband) have started going by bus to office ditching their beloved car… the sheer look at the credit card bills for fuel expenses must have forced him to do it. He just says it’s less strenuous... I know better! (as always)

- The grocery bills have doubled and the quantity halved. So is any other bill you can think of.

- The malls have a deserted look... whatever happened to the hip and happening crowd?

- The only word I hear everywhere I go is “Cost-cutting”… office, home … so much so even my maid has caught this word!

- I couldn’t believe that for the sankranthi festival people chose to give “one” banana along with yellu and kabbu… generally its two... so there you go!

- People used to leave their newspapers back in the bus after reading them… now I don’t see that happening. Maybe they are collecting them and giving to raddi wala for a few rupees.

- Dogs in my street have a starved look and it’s scary to go out at night. Looks like people are not giving them any leftovers!

I can go on and on… but I am myself depressed by this. Let me stop it here. Will think of something more lively to write next time.

who is better?

It has been said that “Manushya Januma” is the purest or ultimate form of life you can get through which (from your righteous living) you can attain “Moksha”. We have been brought up by giving various illustrations about how we can get an “animal” form in our next birth if we did something wrong.
- You would be born as a bed-bug in your next birth if you disturb someone’s sleep.
- Somebody had spoiled some family, and hence they are born as a cat in this birth
- If I keep some debt with you (not only monetary) I will be born as a dog in your house next time and I will repay your debt.

And so on... Whether these are superstitions are not is a separate debate. My point is not that. Are animals really less fortunate than humans? For a moment lets forget those animals which are captured by man and ill-treated; like the ones in circus and all. If we consider only that natural form of animals and re-ask the question… are we more fortunate than them?
Somehow I think differently. I feel they are more fortunate than us. They are satiated just by eating something and sleeping somewhere. But we? We need good food, we need a soft bed to sleep, we need people whom we love around us, we need money, we want this, we want that… not only greedy people; even the so called normal people need a lot more things than animals. If they don’t have them they die in misery. Whereas an animal unless dying of some disease (which we also do sometimes) never dies in misery. So how is an animal life less fortunate than a human life?

Animals don't nee to "think", which by itself is a major blessing if you ask me. They don't have to do future retirement plans, they don't even have to think about tomorrow. If they survive they do.. else they just go. But can we live like that? Never.

Hence I strongly believe that we humans are the most unfortunate because we can see/feel/think everything.

I had a neighbor in mysore, who used to feed their dog with dairy milk chocolates and kaju burfis. given a chance I would swap with snowy anytime!