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!

Hinduism

Somebody once said Hinduism is not a religion; it is a way of life. While searching for the meaning of Soundarya Lahiri I came across some verses. I am amazed how such simple texts have such profound meaning. Most of the slokas have very simple meaning, simple enough for a common man to understand and yet for one who wants to dig into it, he can find numerous interpretations and deep philosophical meaning.

My personal favorite has always been

“ Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti”.

Simply translated it just means “Let everybody in the world be happy. Let Peace prevail”. Now that’s obvious, all of us want each other to be happy. But look into it deeper, it says “loka samastha”… everybody in the world, no geographical boundaries, no religious boundaries, no ethnic boundaries, no language boundaries…. Only a person with a pure heart without any tinge of hatred against anybody can wish that. If only every one of us thought this way wouldn’t this world be a beautiful place?

I like another one from the Isopanishad

“isavasyam idam sarvam

yat kinca jagatyam jagat

tena tyaktena bhunjitha

ma grdhah kasya svid dhanam”

Direct Translation: “Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong”.

Can anything be simpler than that? Accept what is yours; do not accept what is not yours. Nowhere has it said that you will rot in hell if you don’t do this or that. Everything is self controlled. Knowingly or unknowingly if you do take something which is not yours, you will somehow have to give it away. With this there is no “fear” factor. Everything is controlled by him and he will lead us to realization.

Though I don’t deny that entry level Hinduism is filled with superstitions and blind beliefs, once you come out of that circle and start thinking independently you will realize it’s the most democratic way of finding God. You go find God however you feel like. Like a treasure hunt. Each clue will lead you to the next level. I don’t see any other religion giving so much of freedom. Maybe because of this depth, this level of maturity in the religion has helped us survive even after decades of influence by other religions and constant efforts to convert us all.

An American colleague once asked me ‘How do I convert to Hinduism”. I said just start thinking independently and freely. You can be a Hindu even if you pray to Jesus everyday.

Human Nature

Human nature is sure weird. Come to think of it I don't even know if its weird or confusing or straightforward (as human psychologists claim) or whatever...

Case1: My mom, a few years back had a slip disc and that troubles her every now and then. But you should have seen her during my sis's wedding. Everything was perfectly managed and her energy levels were on an all time high. Warnings from any number of family members to take care of herself fell on deaf ears. The very next day after the wedding her pains bounced back ;-). I know that people rise up to the situation and she also had to do it as it was her own daughters wedding and all that.... so are all ailments just in our mind? Can we overcome just anything and everything just by being strong in our mind?

Case2: Unfortunately my mom-in-law met with an accident recently and her left hand little finger had to be amputed. She also has a fracture in her wrist and so has a cast on her left hand. She is able to use only her right hand for now. But this has made her over sensitive. She insists on doing work with her one hand. If somebody offers to help she gets upset. My sister-in-law is home to help her take bath and all... but if she tries to overdo the helping part, she gets back immediately. She not only wants to do her own work, but also wants to do other house hold work. She used to completely manage the kicthen before and so now not being able to do that must have hurt her confidence really bad. Also I noticed one more thing. The moment people become too "sympathetic" she gets defensive. P and me tried to tell this subtely to my sister-in-laws not to greive about the bad thing that has happened in front of my mil. But then can't blame them as well... its their mother and they can't see that she is suffering, tries to help her as much as they can and inturn get scoldings ;-)
Now this is also a case of mind game. Empathysing with her physical pain, I can't help but feel that this "insecurity" and all is just again in her mind.

Case3: P. My most fav character for analysis. Its almost 9 years since I know him, but even now I can't predict how he will react in certain situations. He reacts in totally different ways for the same situation/condition on different days. Like for example, the other day I mentioned I was feeling very tired becasue of all this extra work (office, college, home and ofcourse P), he was very sympathetic... said that this is all temporary and from the next day he even got up with me at 5:30 in the morning to help me in the kitchen. Now thats a starightforward reaction from a caring husband. But then hold on.. thats not the end of the story. On last friday, I had to skip breakfast as I got late for college and had to rush. We were celebrating "Paksha" on that day in our house so when I came back from college in the afternoon there were guests at home, so couldn't have lunch also on time.. finally when I had lunch at 4pm I felt really really tired and had to sleep off for a few minutes to be able to walk again. That evening when I told that it happened this way, he shouted back at me saying he can't help it if I don't have food on time. He is not to be blamed. He cannot spoon feed me all the time and all that..... All I expected from him this time also was the same old reaction you know... just say that "oho... did it happen like that? make sure you get up 20 mins early from next time and eat breakfast..". That's it, nothing more, nothing less. But no, all I get is shoutings...
What should we call this. People behave differently in different situations is completely understandable, but why do people behave so differently for same situations?

P.S: have noticed that I analyse things a bit too much, like the above paragraph. I can't just move on thinking that yes people behave like this and that's the be all and end all. I always end up analysing anything and everything. Any tried and tested way to stop this tendency?

Run Run.. While you can

Last three months have been hectic to say the least. MBA at an “elite” institution has its disadvantages. My house is in a mess. My book (of the novels kind) reading has taken back seat. My hobbies (of what little was left) have no time. I don’t remember the last time I took an oil bath. On the whole, my life is in a mess :-). Last weekend marked the end of first term. One step (out of 10) closer to the black cap….

Mini-shark got married and I could devote only 5 days of my precious time for the wedding preparations which included attending the wedding as well… Couldn’t attend the second reception which happened in Chennai coz I had the term exams on the same day.

Looking back, is this what I asked for? Of course there are advantages. In mini-sharks wedding half the attention was on me… not only for being the bride’s sister but for also doing MBA from so-and-so institution ;-) Apart from this false attention, the learning is good. The way I look at things are different now. I never could understand one single word in my company’s annual report. But now I can decipher almost everything and also give suggestions… if only they asked for it ;-)

Strategy has helped me understand each company’s or its industry’s position. I know which business is attractive and which is risky. Though one might argue a lot of people can do this without a degree, I can substantiate my answers and not just base it on intuition :-)

Economics has taught me why the oil market behaves the way it does. Why the local dentist sometimes makes more money than an established dental clinic.

There is no doubt that it’s good what I am doing, after all its burning a whole in my pocket and it better be worth it!

I can’t help but wonder about the whole process of higher education. No doubt it makes us better intellectuals. Note the word “intellectuals”… that’s it. Not better human beings.

Even at this level,

- People lie about how they fared badly in the exams… but the scores say a different story!

- During class discussions each one is trying to snub the other and make a point himself/herself. It’s as if the world will come to an end if I didn’t make my point.

- People still hide their assignments till the last moment.

*Sigh* and I thought “Vidya dadaaathi vinayam”. Frankly I don’t see any difference in the behavioral part from what I saw in middle school to what I see now.

So these degrees sure help you earn money. You can now easily interact with fellow intellectuals. You can now write papers on global issues and can now advise one or two (those who care to listen) about the +ves and –ves of their decision and blah blah blah.

BUT, do these degrees in any way help you make this world a better place to live in? My over imaginative mind can’t help but think… If 50 years down the line when everyone in this world can afford higher education, will this world become a place where everyone is trying to snub the other, where each day is a competition, each one is trying to outdo the other… it’s a scary thought!

This reminds me… somewhere I read “The unfortunate part about the rat race is that at the end of the race, even the winner is a RAT...” How true!!!

Hello? Can you hear me?

There is "strike" trend these days.... For any problem, all we hear is that people are on the streets protesting about something or the other. Usually its the general public that suffers. Whether the strikers achieve their objective or not is case specific, the inconvenience caused in-general to everybody cannot go unnoticed. Few examples:

• Punjabis halted rail transport in Punjab to protest against the firings in Mumbai.
• Mandya farmers are famous for blocking the Bangalore-Mysore road for any small/medium/large problem.
• Gujrars halted trains, burnt buildings, attacked officials etc, to get reservation.
• The farmers had to come on roads to ask for fertilizers and one even got killed in the process! (I personally believe that this was politically motivated, but never mind that).
  

What does this mean? For me it means two things; one, we as Indians have generally become very aggressive overnight. For everything we come on the road and fight. We simply don't believe in getting justice the right/legal way at all. Two, the governing body (state, center whatever) has become so deaf that they won't hear us unless we come and shout on the streets. Or the red tape is so much, even if there is justice given after some 100 years it is absolutely useless simply because justice delayed is justice denied.

Belated Celebrations

Wonder why are we celebrating a world cup match which we won some 25 years ago! I mean come on... do we ever celebrate a scientific discovery done yesterday like this? There is a diamond studded bat on auction and the proceedings of which will go to the players! I wonder why? They are all stinkingly rich anyways. If at least the proceedings went to charity it was ok.
They won the world cup match.. very well and good. You congratulate them "then"... all the more well and good. You shower them with goodies... and do whatever. But celebrating it after 25 years sounds very funny and "cheap". Its as if we cannot win anymore so we might as well celebrate "one" that we won some eons ago!
I love the game.. but I hate the people in the game. Its becoming suffocatingly crickety these days!!!

Back to 3 Bs

As I had mentioned earlier in one of my posts, I am now back to "part-time" college. Today was the first day and it felt amazingly refreshing to be back with Books, Benches and Breaks :)
Living upto my reputation (my BE friends would know this) I reached the first class of first day "right-on-time". Meaning 2 mins past 8am when the classes had started at 8 am ;-)
Today being the first day I guess the prof let me in, but I fear his previous reputation says otherwise.
The hand outs were given.. some two huge books of case-studies. I wonder who really has the time and most of all patience to prepare all these :-/ Anyway that aside we are assigned "designated places" in the class. Apparently there is some weightage for class participation and it helps the profs if we sit in the same place everyday. Now this arrangement is done in alphabetical order... che! didn't get a chance to six next to that hunk! I thought like in school they would make the seating arrangements according to our height.. and was hoping against hope that I would get to sit next to him... (though conventionally a guy of my height wouldn't qualify to be a hunk. but what the hell! he is good looking!) alas! the profs thought otherwise.
So shark felt nice opening the crisp new books... writing down notes and keeping the additional books in the niche under the table.
The only thing I didn't like about my class was as usual the "over-smart/know-it-all" guys. Seriously pray tell me where do they come from? Today was the "first" day in accounts class... the prof is not even done with his own introduction.. and there is this guy who already starts asking questions after proudly declaring he already read the first two chapters... bah! The prof gave him a fitting reply "the first lesson of being a good manager is to learn to be patient!". Suits him! This breed of people will be there everywhere.. now they also have the advantage of being "experienced" *sigh*.

One more quite interesting part was that I did not feel sleepy in any of the class. I felt hungry though! The class gets over by 1pm.. and my system is programmed to eat lunch everyday at 12... so 1 hour delay was too much... stomachy.. get used to it now!
The "interesting" part in this is that I didn't sleep properly yesterday night; courtesy night show of "Dashavathaaram". Is that a movie in the first place? I went with such great expectations seeing all the rave reviews that it had got... and what did I get in return? 3 hours of complete torture! If I could describe this movie in one line "Its a self obsessed kamal + Tamizh fanatic movie". Imagine the whole world somehow knows Tamizh......bah!

Kannada is IN

Have you ever noticed? The number of Kannada songs played in the FM radio stations has dramatically increased. Before fever 104 was playing mostly Hindi and some English songs, but slowly it turned the Kannada way. The RJs started speaking in Kannada and the number of Kannada songs increased. Radio city has suddenly changed its face, from the past 1 month or so its mostly playing Kannada songs as against an hour of Kannada program. I wonder what triggered this change. I read somewhere that Radio Mirchi (which was incidentally one of the first channels to becomes pro-Kannada) wooed most of the listeners its way because of the Kannada flavour. I feel except for few parts of Bangalore where there is huge population of cosmopolitan crowd... hardly anybody else would listen to Hindi and English songs. Also off late the Kannada movie industry has suddenly woken up; as though it was just in deep slumber like kumbhakarana... the movies are better, the songs are even better; It has even managed to attract the biggies from bollywood.

Though I am proud of the fact that Kannada movie industry is doing so good... This pushing of Kannada through your nose is tad getting too much. I love the new songs no doubt about it.. but I can't hear the same song thrice in a span of 2 hours. If you tune into any station between 5:30 and 8:30 in the evening (at least that's when I listen to radio) you can hear the same old songs... "Jinke marina", "ninindale", "mugaaru maleye"... etc etc.., How much ever you like a song how many times can you hear it in a day?

When a protective hand abuses you ...

I am touching on a very sensitive topic today. It was the shock of my life when I came to know that one of the girls I know has been sexually abused from a long time... when she was as young as 12. I am still trying to come to terms with the news. I know her family very well. They are very cultured and very well-to-do kind of family. She is hardly 16 now... and the culprit is none other than her own grand father. Yes the one she used to adorably call as "Thaatha". She is scared to death now to be in the house alone with that man. Initially she had not realised what has been happening to her. She thought he was just being "nice" to her. When the "niceness" crossed the limits she knew something was wrong. The man (I hate to call him even that. I would prefer to use the B word for him!!!!) threatened her that if she ever told this to her parents he will get them divorced. Being in a naive age she believed him. She shut her mouth. But this obviously affected her studies... pray tell me who can study well in such a state of mind? But then she had to bear the brunt this time as well... her parents scolded her for not studying properly. She started getting seizures.
She finally poured all her vows to me today. It is beyond my imagination that such a thing can happen in such a close proximity. I have somehow managed to convince her to focus on studies and try to avoid this man as much as possible. She has finally told her father about it a month back when her grandpa was visiting her uncle. Have to see now whether her father will let his father come home again and stay with them even after knowing everything or will he not.
I am trying to solve this to the best of my ability. I hope she gets the strength and confidence to come out of it and make a nice life for herself.
I wish the man rots in hell!

I am back!

Finally after a long self imposed hiatus... I am back! Basically had been very busy with lots of things happening around, a series of exams, project pressures.. the same old stuff.

Well, so now I am finally back to the blogging world. I know none of you have missed me or anything... but I missed this virtual world.

As the wise men say.. let the show re-begin.

Some updates just to keep you all informed:

- mini-shark is getting married in another 4 months. (Pavan you had your chance.. .missed it!)

- I am finally going to pursue higher studies... after really trying n number of times ;-)

- Married life is as lively as ever with the number of fights increasing exponentially ... ;-)

- Work was pretty hectic till the last week. Finally getting a breather now. Will resume the same old hectic schedule in another 2 weeks when another release comes along.

- Too many social gatherings and parties happening around.

Well that's the update in short for the previous 6 months. Will be back again soon

Song Tag

Shruthi tagged me. A song tag. It took me a while to do this because it took me that much time to decide on the "one song" that is "our" song. The catch words here are "one" and "our".
As I have told a million times now (my regular readers will kill me if I say it again... pavan and s.b even have a contract for the same *sigh*) P and I are kind of opposites.
So moral of the story? It's impossible for me and P to have just one song as ours. He has some songs which he feels suits us and I have my own opinion (I try my best not to be partial with SRK songs). Here's the list.

1. The first song which P dedicated to me was Yaroon Dosti Badi Hi Haseen Hain. It was a kind of first date when we went to a small snack counter and he gave me the cassette as a gift. This will definitely be a special song for me and for him too (ah! some similarity...)
2. Khamosh Raat will also be special for the same above said reasons.
3. There is one song which both of like a lot and *surprise* it happens to be a SRK song; And that's none other than Suraj Hua Maddham He likes it so much that it's been his mobile caller tune for almost a year now!
   
4. Both of us love Bryan Adams songs and we play them in full blast when we drive down to Mysore
5. But one song which I can proudly say as our song is the Shaan version of One Love! **I hope P agrees with this though ;-) **

Ok that's it. Let me now get back to listening "my songs" !

where are we headed?

I thought I was dreaming. In the dream, P actually asked me to write a blog post! Yes the same P who rarely reads my blog that I sometimes have to tell him myself to please read where there are some references of him. By the way he wants me to write about Ram Sethu and even provided me with related links!! Thanks P, and here is the much awaited post.

I purposely didn’t want to write about it. I strongly believed that it had nothing to do with Ram or Hinduism. It was plain dirty politics. I was convinced I was right. My theory: MK is sure that congress will not be in power next term. He wanted to be out of the alliance, yet did not know how to say bye. (He has not seen Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna itseems!)So he played this game. Yes he invited a lot of trouble. But indirectly it’s the central govt that’s facing the storm. They can neither publicly denounce him and his comments nor can they openly go ahead with Sethusamduram Project. Congress is doomed which is what MK also wanted.

Things turned a little sour when he (as foolish as he is) made some stupid uncalled-for statements.

“Raama is a fictional character and neither he nor his bridge ever existed”

“Was Raama a civil engineer to have built that bridge?”

…so on and so forth. I ignored these as well; one of his ever famous stupid comments against religion. (Particularly Hinduism because nobody has the guts to say anything against any other religion in this country)

Isn’t it ironical that neither the British rulers nor the Mughal emperors questioned the existence of Lord Ram? They were the so called foreigners, invaders who came to loot and destroy India. But our government is doing it. The very body which is supposed to protect us is questioning our beliefs itself!

I am not saying that everybody should believe in Ram and accept him as the supreme God, but we are a secular country right? Shouldn’t we respect each others beliefs?

Though I didn’t write about it, I was really intrigued. I wanted to find out more about this bridge. Just one NASA picture was not going to satisfy me.

If we just look at it with a religious eye, there are no second thoughts. You cannot just go and destroy a religious monument; Not only in our country, but in any country for that matter.

Let us keep the religious aspects aside for the time being, because there is no “debate” on that. I want to look at it scientifically.

The reasons given “for” the project are as below

1. Obtain a navigable sea route close to the coast, with a reduction in travel distance of more than 350 nautical miles (650 km) (for larger ships).
2. Expected to provide a boost to the economic and industrial development of coastal Tamil Nadu
3. Development of other ports can be done once this project is complete.
   

So, as clearly seen above, the main “aim” is to reduce travel distance and hence boost the coastal business.

Now, let us see why this project fails to achieve even the stated purpose.

1. The depth of the canal is proposed to be of 12 meters. This is “enough” only for small ships but not at all enough for larger ships (which is what they are aiming for). The larger ships need atleast 17 meters.
2. The time saved is just 2 hours. How much of a difference that makes in the naval world? This is because ships cannot travel at the same speed through the canal as they travel on open seas. Also there will be pilotage delay; meaning a pilot will board the ship at the entrance of the canal and get off at the exit to “guide” the ship thru the canal. We know how much time it takes for a ship to come to a complete stop and start again for the pilot to board and get down the ship…. So!
3. It’s not economical for the ships to pass thru the canal either. The pilotage costs are huge. Why would a shipping company pay those pilotage costs, when it can travel cheaper around SriLanka?
4. The canal is in shallow waters which is a high siltation and sedimentation area. There would be annual dredging costs to just maintain the canal.
5. Security. The coastal lines of this canal are till date in control of LTTE. What they would is unpredictable and hence risky.
   

It’s obvious that there are too many scientific reasons which seem quite obvious to even a common person like me, without any deep technical knowledge in this area which go against the proposed project. But still there is heavy pressure from the government to continue with the project. Why?

1. The dredging cost which I have talked about is a constant source of revenue to the dredging company. They have tied up with the govt to go ahead with this. More revenue for the company and hence more under the table revenue for the Govt.
   
2. MK wants his name to be etched in history (now it’s already done for all the wrong reasons anyway!) to be known as the man behind the Ram Sethu. This project was first conceived in early fifties; he will surely get the credit if it gets done in his tenure.
3. It’s a huge project and hence lots of employment opportunities to a very large number of people which inturn formulates into hefty contracts for some companies. (Any idea which companies and what contacts they have with MK?)
4. MK wants to send a strong message to his DMK community that he is anti religion and does not give importance for religious monuments (specially Hindu monuments because he has no guts to oppose other religions. Hinduism is a very easy and susceptible target.)

These are my imaginative reasons for them vouching so hard for the project. I might be right or wrong. There might be some other hidden agenda.

Interestingly here is a link which kind of proves that Ram Sethu is man made.

But at the end of the day, I am scared to see the path we are taking. Today it is one MK, but tomorrow there might be 100s of them. We have Muslim terrorists plotting to kill all of us, we have our own leaders against our religion… what more threat can we ask for?

Update:

References :

1. A Mythical Bridge to Voters
2. The Adam Bridge
3. The Nautical Details
4. Save Ram Sethu
5. The wiki story

and so on...

Will somebody love me please?

Scenario1: I got married at the age of 12. The next thing I knew I had 2 children, my two eyes. My whole life revolved around them. I did everything possible to make them feel comfortable. Did they need new pair of clothes? Or some shoes? There is a new brand of chocolate in the market; I should buy them for my children. My son wanted to try his hand in the film industry. My husband was dead against it. He said it is very risky and only school dropouts try it. But I fought with my husband to give our son a chance. Let him try his luck; I persisted. My husband was very angry, but I gave my son some money and he left for Mumbai. He is not anywhere near famous now… so you have guessed it right. He was NOT successful. But it took him almost 10 years to realize this. I kept sending money for his sustenance. He fell in love with a girl who finally made him realize the importance of having a stable job. She refused to marry him until he has one. He then completed his post graduation and found a good job. It took him another 5 years to settle down. I supported him all along; be it money or love or care... you name it. In the mean time I got my daughter married and she settled down. My husband was always busy with his work and though he cared a lot about all of us he would not spend too much time with us. I was the one who was always there for my children. I was so happy with them. Even though it was so much of a responsibility I never felt it as a “burden”. I looked after my son for 35 years and my daughter for 25 years. 35 years of my prime time… just for them.
My husband finally retired and we settled down in a small flat. We did not want to live with our son who now had a family of his own. Everything was just fine in it’s own place. Slowly my husband’s health started worsening. I was not so young any more, so we employed a nurse to look after him. The medical bills started getting fatter.. with none of our children willing to spend on it.. we decided to sell our flat. He died eventually leaving me all alone. Nobody was willing to give me a house for rent. I was old and it was dangerous they would say. Left with no choice I reluctantly asked my son. The answer was a firm NO. First he could not afford me (oh!), second he wanted privacy (a old woman in a corner of the house will be too much of a disturbance).
I lived with a neighbor for 45 days till I found an old age home which would take me.

I live here now. He does not even call once a week. I don’t hate him. But I often wonder is this justice? We take care of our children by giving everything we can to them. Can’t we expect 20% back from them? Is it too much to ask for 2 meals a day and a place to sleep?

Scenario 2: I used to live with my son and his family. We got along quite ok. There were no major hassles. My son got an onsite opportunity to go to USA for 3 months. He left me here saying he will be back soon. Its 2 years now and I have not heard from him. One of my relatives says he is in town and has purchased a big bungalow. I am still waiting for him to come and take me home….

Scenario 3: I don’t have a son. I thought I was lucky since I don’t have to suffer in the hands of a daughter-in-law. But last year, my daughter threw me out of my own house after I had written the entire property in her name. I was out on the street with just the clothes I had worn. I didn’t even have a single rupee. I don’t know why but I just walked to the railway station and sat there till the morning. A coolie saw me and must have somehow guessed my state. I told him my story, and he got me here. People here have time and again told me to complain against my daughter and get my wealth back. But I don’t want it. I have friends here; I have people who care for me here. I don’t even want to see her face again... not even in court.

“I” am a senior citizen; an unwanted burden on this earth. I worked till I dropped dead to bring up my children. Now, I just rot in a corner. I don’t need your money; I just need your love. Will you love me please?

These are NOT fictional stories. Every year on my Paati’s death anniversary, my mom goes to an old age home and sponsors a day’s meal for them. These are the stories which they tell her. They long for a touch… they crave for a hand which holds them. They cry if you give them something to eat. Some just sit in a corner and mourn without talking to anybody.

Oct 1st was world elders’ day. Is this what we want to give back to our parents who gave so much to us? Even if we don’t love them for whatever reasons, atleast lets not be inhuman. Let us be kind to them just as fellow human beings. Please…. Not everybody is lucky to have their parents alive for a long time… those of us who are lucky enough, let us thank God for it and let us try our best to keep them comfortable in the last days of their lives.

To Sirs and Madams (Miss’) with Love.

Disclaimer: This post is a little belated. But then as the wise men say “Better late than never!”.

I owe this to my teachers. Its Teachers Day month and it’s only appropriate if I thank each one of them who have touched my life in some way or the other. The list below is in chronological order and not in the order of importance... I would never be able to choose one from other.
This one is going to be a very long one... since there are so many to thank.

1. Amma: Mine and everybody’s first teacher. Our teacher at home. She taught me how to eat, sleep, play, talk... you name it. A BIG thanks to you Amma :-)
   
2. Paati: My grandmother. What my mother didn’t teach me, it was taught by my paati. I love you paati... wherever you are, thank you *hugs*.
   
3. Nandini miss: My kindergarten teacher – I didn’t cry a single day to go to school. She was so motherly and cheerful! She was the one who facilitated my smooth transition from home to school….
   
4. Mani miss: My LKG and UKG teacher. Whenever I think of her, I remember Mother Theresa. She was just like that; so compassionate and caring. She used to roam around the school keeping us (students) in her waist… we used to eagerly wait for our turn to be carried by her around the school….
   
5. Primary School (1st to 4th class)
   
• Shyamala Miss: Not only did she teach us the normal subjects, she encouraged all of us to participate in all extra curricular activities.
  
• Puranthar Miss: She was extremely strict at times.. and yet extremely funny on other occasions. Our favorite past time would be to guess her mood ;-)
  
6. Middle School (5th to 7th class)
• Ramamani Miss: Our class teacher. The best anybody can have. She taught us everything; English, Science, Social Studies and Maths! She made sure we not only just finished our homework, but also understood each and every word of it.
• Skandavalli Miss: Our fashion teacher ;-) She was a fantastic science teacher, at the same time dressed immaculately. We girls used to admire her day in and day out. Our role model for looking good.
  
7. High School (8th to 10th)
   
• Miss Leena: The most beautiful woman I have seen till date. Our English teacher and extremely strict of course! She taught very well but at the same time her tests were very difficult.
  
• Miss Beena: Science teacher. She used to clear all our doubts with enthusiasm. I am sure she will remember me forever as the most doubt-asking girl in class ;-)
  
• Sister Cristella: Her smile, her charm, her energy. I was a kind of teachers-pet with her ;-)
  
• Miss Vasundara: Maths Teacher. Not a fantastic teacher, but a very good human being. We were family friends. Was always ready to help somebody in need.
  
• Miss Chandrika: Science teacher again. Known for her beautiful handwriting. She was kind of monotonous at time. She used to teach in a same leveled tone…. Afternoon classes were a challenge to stay awake ;-)
  
• Miss Sukanya: Taught Hindi. Though I never took Hindi. She was famous for her two plaits. The funniest part was she used to dye her hair only on the top. The line where she used to take the partition to form 2 plaits was still white ;-). The test books which she used to correct was full of red lines… not because the students would have made mistakes.. she used to read the answers by underlining them!
  
• Miss Srimathi: Sanskrit teacher. One of the most wonderful teachers I have had till date. Her lessons were a pleasure. Not one day was boring. Thank you miss! Because of you I am still fascinated by Sanskrit :-)!
  
• Sister Clarabella: Our Headmistress. THE sister! Known for her strictness at the same time fairness in treating her subjects. She managed the school fantastically.
8. P.U.C (11th and 12th):
   
• Sambashivayya Sir: The fantastic physics teacher. Even today his voice rings in my ears. The way he used to teach.. every single concept is in our blood. Seriously! The only danger from him was for the short people (first benchers).. if he got angry with “anybody” he would actually hit the person sitting in the first row! Poor people!
  
• GSS: Maths. Teaching and all was fine. He was good at it. But I remember him for other reasons! His son was in USA… yes THE USA. This son supposedly sent chalk (yes you heard it right! *chalk*) from America for his dear father to boast about it in front of his students! He made it a point that we never forget the generosity of his son and hence repeated it every time he got a new parcel from THE USA! Also he had two pet (I mean very very pet) students in our batch; PP and S. Whatever they said was “fantastic” and he wished they were his children. It simply got funnier by the day when he started taking “permission” from then to rub the board lol!!!!
  
• Sanskrit sir: I am extremely ashamed that I forgot his name. But I have not forgotten his lectures. It was fabulous to say the least. I have heard that people who had taken other languages used to come and sit in his class just to listen to him narrate Kalidasa’s “Abhijnana Sakuntalam “. Ah! Simply superb!
  
9. Engineering
   
   Most of the lecturers were good. But then in engineering colleges I guess friends influence you more than the teachers. I have very fond memories of our outings, group studies, etc etc etc. Will write a separate post on that sometime…

So all in all, Teachers, Thank you… Thank you for making me what I am today!

P.S: People like these really need some good teachers ;-)

1. Somebody please gift her, an Atlas!!

2. Killing is the only solution to all problems