Encounters of Life

Relationships

2011-02-05T05:09:00.000-08:00

When do we consider that we are successful in a specific relationship? Be it Father, Mother, Siblings or Spouse....?

There cannot be any relationship without a compromise. But when do we know that we are compromising too much? Where do you draw the line?
When do you know that the fights are too much? Is there a yard stick? 2 fights in a week is ok or not ok?
How will you know if YOU are doing justice to a relationship?
On the other hand how do you make the other person know that you are doing the best you can and they need to appreciate the effort even if the results are not favorable.
How will you stop being taken for granted?

If the strain in the relationship is obvious, like a dowry-harassment or a property fight or physical violence, the success of such relationships can be evaluated quite easily. But when things are subtle, when the results are not so obvious... how do you gauge?

Its new

2011-01-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

Yea. Its a brand new year. Last year was a breeze... Don't we say that every year though :)?

Let me start this year with some prayers

Give me more strength to balance home, work, college and my Son! Some days I feel as if I just should not get up from the bed! Give me more :)
Give me more patience. There are times when my patience is tested to the maximum extent. though by nature I do not burst out openly, it drains me from inside. I need to let go.
Help me accept that there will always be people who are not satisfied with you, no matter how much effort you put in to please them. Forget them. Move on.

- Life is like a white board. YOU decide how its going to be.

HAPPY NEW YEAR :)!

Rising all over again

2010-12-20T09:42:00.001-08:00

I know its been long and I won't bother about the details. I just did not post. Its as simple as that.

Initially I did not actually miss blogging. Infact it was peaceful for somedays. Not waiting for a comment for my post, not being curious about what other person might have posted.... no such thoughts running through my mind and it was all cool...

Until one day I realized blogging can be your best friend. You can dump ANY of your thoughts here without having to worry about how the other person might feel.

And so I am back. Not in the best of my moods today so won't say much. But will surely be more regular from now on :)

Pheromones

2009-10-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

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.

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!
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 :-)
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!
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.
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

2009-06-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-06-09T10:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-04T05:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-04-03T05:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-01-16T06:00:00.001-08:00

- 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?

2009-01-05T02:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-06-26T04:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

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 ...

2008-05-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-24T03:13:00.000-07:00

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.

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...)
Khamosh Raat will also be special for the same above said reasons.
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!
Both of us love Bryan Adams songs and we play them in full blast when we drive down to Mysore
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?

2007-10-17T03:25:00.000-07:00

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

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).
Expected to provide a boost to the economic and industrial development of coastal Tamil Nadu
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.

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.
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!
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?
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.
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?

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.
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.
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?)
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 :

and so on...

Will somebody love me please?

2007-10-04T04:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

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.

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 :-)
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*.
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….
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….
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 ;-)

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.

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.

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!

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

Alliance Invited ...

2007-09-24T02:00:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I do not mean any offense to anyone. Post to be read on a lighter note.

Came across this “Alliance Invited” ad recently. Some portions of it, which I want to highlight, are here.

The would-be groom…

- Should be Vadama Iyer (preferably from Chennai) – Any area specifications also? I personally don’t like caste based searches, leave alone sub-caste. But then will just give this a go, seeing the ideology behind it being that the girl’s parents hope that even the guy is also born and brought up in a similar environment so that the compatibility is higher. What the heck! will just give in ;-)

- Has to be masters or PHD – In “anything” will do? And how does having degrees qualify the guy to be a good husband material?

- Should be simple caring and jovial kind of guy – Are there any guys at all who are like this?

- Should not have any bad habits. - It is implicit that they mean smoking & drinking. I wonder why they ignored to mention past girlfriends…? I also feel picking your nose in public is also bad habit. So should the guy not do that also?

- Should not be living with Parents – Now what did those poor parents do even before marriage?

- Should not have pets at home – What a dog or a cat (the usual pets) can/will do to the new bride... anyway!

- Annual income should be greater than 6 lakhs – Aww that was very generous and thankfully a comparatively low/feasible expectation.

- Preferably should be the only born. 1 sibling is still OK. – *Ahem*

- Should be willing to relocate to girls' choice of location – I always thought location preferences could be “worked-out”? Quiet a demanding criterion isn’t it?

- Should be fair tall and handsome. – what ever happened to TDH? Specially the “D” part! With all these men’s fairness creams also in the market, I don’t have words for TDHs…

- Should have gone onsite and should have more opportunities in the future – well… this has always been a standard “request” from the brides side huh? “NRI” son-in-law is a matter of pride. Gives ample scope for show-off in front of neighbors!

Pheee Pheee Stop Stop!

2007-09-17T03:39:00.000-07:00

I got a speeding ticket in India. In Bangalore (OK near Bangalore)... can you believe this?

It happened 2 weeks back. I was driving down to Mysore from Bangalore and bhang! in the middle of the road I am stopped by a cop with a cane ready to hit my car!

I get down to see if they are stopping me for some drug trafficking or something (exaggeration huh?)...

But alas! he says "madam neevu thumba fast aagi oodistheera!".. Well 65kmph is "very fast" in India (at least in Karnataka). The speed limit was 50kmph on a state highway :((( There was a board it seems .. I didn't even see that!

I made it a point to see that while coming back.. and believe me it was half worn out already.. couldn't even make out the lettering.

There goes 300rs. BUT I was happy :) no shark has not gone crazy.. I was happy the police had speed guns and stuff.. that they could "record" who went at what speed and also their number plates and stuff. They didn't give a sheepish smile and ask for 200rs without bill. I got a proper bill. I was let out in 5 mins without any hassles. India is progressing after all....

Milestone reached.

2007-09-05T23:36:00.000-07:00

And that was my 100th post! Congrats shark.. you made it! You made it!
OK enough of exaggeration. I know it’s not a big thing. But I have seen bloggers write such kind of self congratulatory posts … so I guess it’s the in-thing now.
I have also made my point.

Thank you readers, for reading my blog… not so thanks to those who read but don’t comment on my posts :P. No thanks at all for those who don’t read my blog! (hah! As if they will come to know about this… anyways!). Lots of thanks to those who regularly visit my blog and also comment on every post… thanku thanku *bows*.

Illige blogprachaaravu mukthaayavaayithu. Namaskara!

Law Lessons

2007-09-04T01:41:00.000-07:00

So when did shark get an L.L.B you might be wondering after seeing the title..? Let me correct it. Its in-law lessons :-)! After 7 months of marriage and living with in-laws here’s some Gyan for future daughter in-laws…

Mothers are simply blindly in love with their sons ;-) The sooner you accept it the better marital life you will have. Whatever the son asks for he gets it. If P asks for coffee/tea even 100 times in a day, his mom will make it for him... and that too with a smile on her face :-) I wonder if I will do that even for my son without cribbing about it :-/. Sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable seeing a grown up man being pampered that way :P I wonder why mothers don’t do the same for their daughters? My SILs come to our house... but they cook and clean and help… never have I seen them being pampered by my mil ;-)
Never display your love for your husband in front of them physically. First of all they are older generation people and don’t approve of physical display of affection even inside the house. Second of all, such gestures cause instant insecurity that the other woman enjoys more closeness with my son types.
Accept it. She knows the best about her son. What he likes to eat, when he wants to go out etc.., as wives, we naturally tend to force our taste on our husbands. I mean, I like having healthy breakfast... like cornflakes and fruit... things like that. But P is not brought up that way; he likes to have rice (lemon rice, puliyogare etc) for breakfast, which I consider very heavy. When we were living together without our in-laws I used to force my “health-food” on him… poor P. But now his mom just knows what to make for him and makes it... and of course scores 100s of brownie points ;-)
Never “tell” what your husband has asked for you to do. Simply do it. Else it will get done faster by your mil... and more points for her :P. Just to cite an example, last Sunday P wanted to have oil bath and asked me to massage his hair with oil. I kept the oil on the stove for warming and told my mil to switch it off in 2 mins, as I had to use the bathroom. By the time I came back she had already started massaging. There goes my much-dreamed-about romantic oil massage experience ;-).
Praise her as much as possible. My mil is a fantastic cook... I simply adore her cooking. But she can’t make north Indian dishes... that’s my forte *ahem*. But the moment I make something different, she says “Oh this is very easy, I can also make it from next time”… So I tell her, “No amma, I will only make these things. If you make these things also fantastically, then I will be left with nothing to be called my own”... she is very happy that I have accepted her as the Mistress of the Kitchen :)
They will and always will talk about children. Listen to them, smile and say yes. That’s it. Even if you have other plans. It was just 3 months since we were married, but the whole family (including my side) couldn’t stop asking “so when will the good news come”.. I am like aaaarrrrgggghh! Why can’t it be left to us to decide? Is having a child the very next step after marriage?
Most of all set the expectations right the first time. No need to go on an impressing spree in the beginning and then start cribbing that you can’t live up to it. Every small thing matters.

Wearing slippers at home. Not many elders approve of it, but I get cracked feet if I don’t… so I made it clear in the beginning that they will have to please excuse me for this.
I don’t wake up “early” on weekends. I am totally zapped by the end of the week... (You have seen my schedule here!) I need to catch up on sleep over the weekends. Now everybody at home have late breakfast on weekends (Since it’s my cooking time over the weekends :-))
Cooking: I offered to cook, but I can cook only in the night as that’s when I get time. But since my mil stays at home, she prefers to make fresh food in the morning... which is fine with me. But then I can’t help her in the kitchen... and this she knows.
Make your priorities clear: Like, I give lot of importance to my career. Just make it clear to them, lest they expect something which you won’t be able to fulfill.

Last but not the least, treat them just like your parents. After all, you don’t agree with everything what your parents say... but you still live with them lovingly. It’s the same way here; just that there are little more differences because of obviously different upbringing. The key is, just say yes the first time, then make your point and say no if you feel like. They will always take it better than a big no in the beginning itself.

Happy wooing your in-laws ;-)

Tit Bit Updates

2007-08-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

Its fifteen minutes since I came to the bus stop. Usually there is a bus every 5 minutes, but looks like its holiday for bus drivers... and that too must be a common occasion. Whatever! Finally 2 buses come together to the location and they stop. I walk over and climb the first bus. Some people decide to take the next bus, for whatever reason. One particular girl is still undecided. First or second? She moves two steps towards the first bus and then decides second one is better (maybe there is a window seat available?)
She goes towards the second one, but driver starts off… so she walks back to towards the first one, but by then this driver has also started off. Generally these drivers wait if they a see a person coming and this has happened many times with me only. But for some strange reason he doesn’t want to wait today. He also moves on. This girl has now missed both the buses… For a moment I thought she was waiting for someone… so maybe she didn’t take either of the buses. But guess what? An auto comes to a screeching halt in front of our bus after 3 stops… and who gets out? Lo and behold! The same girl… At last she decided to take the first bus after all! :-)

I arrive at my sil’s(Sister-In-Law) place at 9 in the night. It is almost 2 weeks since I saw her kids. Just as I step into her room, the younger one who is just over 6 months old, starts goo-gooing and smiles heartily at me. I go a little near to him, and he raises his hand as if asking me to pick him up. I oblige… my pleasure sweetheart !:-)
Ah then the display of affection starts… he drools all over me... he holds my hair and brings my face near to him... and starts licking me on my face… oh my!my! cute little darling might have mistook me for his mom… but then the pleasure was all mine!
I had always heard “jealousy thy name is woman”, but it’s different in this case. The elder one who is also a boy is now jealous, that I am holding his brother and so happy with him. He insists on playing with me then and there! Well OK, so the playing starts, he wants to box with me, he wants to show all his toys and I am supposed to play all of them at once ;-) So we start off... he is now super man (equipped with his superman t-shirt and all) and he wants to climb over me! He does it even when his mom is asking him not to. Then it was time for bed, and he insists that I tell him a story… I do and he sleeps with a smile on his face… Ah! The simple pleasures of life…

And most of all P will be back in 3 days time. Yippee! I had never missed him so much before in my life. It was always the other way round ;-) I was out on long onsite trips and he was in India. His trips were always very short; max 3 weeks. But the sad part is he will go back again after 2 weeks for another 3 months. Booo hoooo…..

Last week was emotionally taxing. One of my aunt with whom I thought I was very close with didn’t invite me for a function at her home. I think I know the reason, but I am surprised that strong relationships break for silliest of reasons! People rather prefer to hold grudge that mend the break. I tried my best... but then if people don’t want to hold the tie I am not the one who is going to force it.

Mini-shark (my sister) will be visiting India this month. Awww I have missed her terribly. She will be here just for a week to attend our cousins wedding, but just the thought of seeing her and sharing so many things with her makes me jump with joy. Phone and email just cannot give that personal touch.

Of Nightmares and SweetDreams

2007-07-25T02:54:00.000-07:00

These are some of my night time memories, often repeated. I know there are people out there who can conjure up some meaning out of this, but I don’t want to know… what if it says something bad. Ok I am paranoid about knowing the future. I like to take life as it comes. Anyway read on… as the tradition goes bad things first.

Nightmares:

I am in a public place and suddenly my legs fail me... I am no longer able to walk, people don’t come for help. I start crawling on the floor, and my clothes start tearing. I am afraid I will go nude before I reach home… but the dream “always” stops at this point.
I get up and see myself sleeping (which means I am dead?)
2 or 3 of my dead relatives are mix-and-matched, like body of one with head of other etc and they come and sit and talk with me …brrrrrrrr
I come inside the house and see shadows moving all around the house, and suddenly the whole house becomes completely dark; again I always get up at this point drenched in sweat and feeling terribly scared!

Sweet/Funny Dreams:

Sri Satya Sai Baba of Shirdi comes out of the picture (which I have in the pooja room) and gives me a dAswALa flower.
I am running in a yellow flower field (remember DDLJ?) and I am extremely happy about something.
I am on a stage speaking something, and 1000s of people are cheering me.
I go to buy milk, the milkman is milking the cow there and as soon as I reach there pista flavored milk starts coming from the cow ;-)
My aunt comes to our house wearing a noodle strap top and a mini skirt (FYI, she is very fat and not exactly the good looking types). No offense meant but she does look real funny... I can’t help it ;-)
I am some 10 years old and I hide my father’s glasses. He can’t see a thing so me and my sis sit and watch TV on “mute”… lol! (My father wears specks, but he can definitely manage without them. And oh ya! TV was absolutely forbidden during our school days except for the 9pm DD News :-)) – It’s been a million years since I was 10, but still this dream doesn’t seem to leave me.
My mom is being chased by a robber, and instead of running on the road, she is into hurdle race, jumping over our neighbors’ compound walls!
My cousin gets up one morning only to find all her hair eaten by a bunch of rats (She is a sweet cousin of mine, but keeps boasting of her long thick black curly hair… dreaming this might be my revenge ;-) )

The news that pain me

2007-07-23T01:28:00.000-07:00

I had dreams of one day becoming a “Dr”. Initially it was the MBBS doctor, but since that has not worked out, I thought I will do a PhD at least someday. But now I have dropped that idea! If a person like Shilpa Shetty gets a doctorate, I just don’t want to be in that circle anymore!!!!!
Are you a female? You are useless… If I know your gender before birth I will kill you; else I will utilize you only for physical pleasures (household work and sex) and all I finally want is “male” kids from you!
He is going away… The “Intellectual” man, the children’s man, the intelligent face of our nation, the scientist, the rational thinker... Mr. President, Dr. Abdul Kalam. Goodbye with a heavy heart...
Mafia’s associates are “free” and are out in the open. She walks out free even though she had “fake-passports”! And all Monica Bedi had to give was Rs25, 000 as bail amount. What is that amount to her... peanuts?
Women have to walk naked on the street to get “attention”, for what? For people to wake up and “listen” to their dowry harassment stories.

I can go on and on… my mood is anyway spoilt, don’t want to do the same for you guys, so THE END.

Pleasure thy name is Music

2007-07-20T03:48:00.000-07:00

Was listening to this song today after a very long time.. and I am simply bowled all over again by the simple yet deep meaning lyrics. I am sure it sends anyone who reads this; or better who listens to this song into a deep trance.

Song Name: Mokshamu Galada
Composer: Saint Tyagaraja
Raaga: Saramathi
Thala: Adi

mokshamu galadA bhuvilo
jeevana mukthulu gAni vAralaku

sAkshAthkAra nee sadbhakthi
sangitajnAna vihinulaku

prANAnala samyOgamu valla
praNava nAdamu sapthasvaramulai baraga
vINA vAdana loludau Sivamano
vidha merugaru, thyAgarAja vinutha

And the translation (to the best of my knowledge) goes something like this…

Is salvation (moksha) conferred on anyone in this world?
or is it attainable only to realized souls ?

Is salvation (sAkshAthkAra) attainable without true devotion in you?
can a music-illiterate realize you?

Without life (prANA) and fire (Anala)
there is no Omkara (praNava)
From Omkara, the seven notes (sapthasvara) of divine music emerge
Lord Shiva derives indescribable pleasure from playing viNa
Is salvation obtainable to those who are not able to perceive this?

Basically Sri Tyagaraja is trying to tell us that we can attain salvation through Music. Isn’t it amazing to see the powers of Music? Be it any form, any kind. It’s left to the person to “vibrate” with any kind of music that matches his frequency.
I have myself experienced this amazing power...

I feel energized to start a new task when I hear something in nAta rAga.

When I am sad, I listen to varALi rAga, and each and every time tears flow down my eyes and makes my heart light.

Nothing puts me in an upbeat mood more than the rAga kadanakuthUhala.

kalyaNi and bhairavi are evergreen and can be listened to any time.. anywhere

I can go on and on…..

For me it is Carnatic Music, but some may feel the same with movie songs or even hard rock. Music is music... be it classical or pop or jazz or whatever. As long as you have felt it... you are blessed. Salvation is very near.

If any of you have not experienced this power of music.. then you are missing something really beautiful… just go and immerse yourself in this ocean of divine pleasure

Can I have 36 hours in a day please?

2007-07-13T02:41:00.000-07:00

As boring as it may sound, here's my itinerary of an average day

6:00am : Wake up - with great difficulty and sheer willpower of course!

6:20am to 7:30am : Daily activities, Make coffee, Read Newspaper, Get ready, Do Pooja, Leave to office (The initial 20 mins is for actually getting up ;-))

8:45am : Reach office, have breakfast at the desk itself and get to work...

12:00pm to 1:00pm : Lunch

1:00pm to 1:30pm : Time pass, like blogging or checking forwards etc...

1:30pm to 5:15pm : Work again in full swing, with an in between coffee at the desk. Leave for home

6:45pm to 7:30pm : Reach home, have coffee, freshen up and relax for sometime.

7:30pm to 8:30pm : Study time. I have some certifications/entrance exams lined up :(

8:30pm to 9:30pm : Prepare (basically heat sambar;already prepared by my mil, and make chapathis) and have dinner

9:30pm to 10:30pm : Serial time :) and some chit chats with in-laws during breaks ;-)

10:30pm to 11:00pm : Prepare for the next day (wash my tiffin, iron clothes etc)

11:00pm to 12:30pm : Study some more... the last 20 minutes is just falling asleep, but trying to be awake and read something else will feel guilty the next day.

Now that you have seen the schedule, I still have LOT many things which I would want to do, but just don't have the time for it. Some of them being,

Social Work (Involve myself in the activities of an orphanage or an old age home)
Practice music/ play veena (I feel ashamed sometimes that I have almost lost my touch!)
Go to dance (Bharathanatyam) class
Do some painting (I was very interested in this in my school days.. but after that have hardly had time for it)
Call up old friends (Except for very few with whom I interact regularly, I hardly keep in touch with old friends...che..che..)
Visit my cousins (Some of them are very young, and I would love to spend some time with them.. but where, pray tell me where is the time?)
Go for some concerts (Ah! It's almost ages since I drowned myself in some good carnatic music concert)
Read some good books, religious and philosophical (Somehow I do read novels during my bus journey to office :).. long live traffic jams!)
Experiment some good recipes (ya.. I am very fond of cooking... as long as there are people to eat them ;-))
Play some games (me and my sis used to play badminton/Chess/Carom etc in the good old days.. now?)

*sigh* I know! I know! you will tell me.. what are weekends for?... Here's what it is for

Shopping - The necessities like groceries and other house hold articles... and sometimes if there is a necessity to shop for personal stuff like dress or shoes... some function on the way. Gone are the days when I used to shop just for fun... ah! the bliss of bachelor life :)
Cleaning the house - This takes away most of the time! But I love it :)
Urgent or mandatory visits - Have to give something to somebody, someday had a baby, somebody is ill, some function, kind of visits.
Studying and oil bath activities :)

So there you go.. weekends go faster than the weekdays, even before you realise it's over :(

In the midst of all this, questions have subtly started coming in about my plans of starting a family... hello! *knock* *knock* Where is the time? "IF" I can feed my children "while" I am studying, if I can play with them while I am cooking, If I can make them to do homework while I am cleaning and closing the kitchen for the day, if I can help them with their school project work while I am in office... they can come and be a part of my life anytime ;-) But, till I get this great multitasking ability... kids.. you have to wait...

As much as I LOVE kids... I also want to give 100% of myself to them... so till I can do that, they can't make an entry.

OR oh ya.. if I can have 36 hours in a day....

P.S: If only some of my relatives could read this blog ;-)

Our Rashtrapatni ji?

2007-07-03T23:01:00.000-07:00

Pratibha Patil became a celebrity overnight when the UPA alliance proposed her as a presidential candidate. Before this nobody even knew that she existed!

Anyway all said and done she was proposed for the first citizen post. One thing which did irritate me was the “woman” tag that she had. The newspapers started boasting of first woman president and all that. It set me thinking, is it important to have a woman as our president or is it more important to have a capable person out there irrespective of their gender?

To some extent I have to agree that the President of India does not have as much power in his hands as compared to that of the Prime Minister. But still, it is THE most respectable post. Is it not then the responsibility of the parliamentarians to choose a capable candidate?

I have nothing against Prathibha Patil, but can she ever be compared with the intellectual Mr.Kalam? This looks more like yet another move from Ms.Gandhi, so that she can remote control this post also! If we remember the Office-of-Profit bill faced much resistance from Mr.Kalam and irked Ms.Gandhi to an extent. All this looks like Ms.Patil is expected to be another pawn in the hands of that Italian woman, to make things come more “her-way”.

Lets have a look at Ms.Patil’s resume

The bank which she had set up for the so called welfare of women “Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank”, had it’s license revoked in 2003 for misappropriation of funds.
It is believed that she falsely testified as a witness to protect her brother in a murder case.
The factory “Sant Muktabai Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana” of which she is the founder directory failed to repay a bank loan and was sealed in Jan 2007.
She claims to have had a communion with a dead guru.

These are only some of her achievements which I am aware of, who knows how many more are there.
The point I want to make is, is she a good successor to Kalam? He who was so respected for his intellectual thoughts… and she who is already full of controversies!
Alas! We do have to agree that if we look at our parliament today, we will not even find one clean (as in without allegations) man/woman, but this woman just didn’t strike the cord for a presidential candidate.

Wish “we” could elect our president!

SE with PM

2007-06-21T03:31:00.001-07:00

What the SE (Software Engineer) might be doing with PM (Police Man)

Guess the company has fired him. With nowhere to go and no money to invest he is doing consulting job on the footpath.
It's xxx company that has run out of space after hiring too many people. This guy is from that company sitting outside the campus and working.
This is another HCL guy who was supposed to go abroad on a “Life Sciences” project … He is telling the policeman how they built the traffic management system! (remember the ad?)
Maybe an IT Engineer who cannot afford high rents in the city
The techie is sending a reply to client…..(very urgent u know! so he sat down as soon as he got a call)
Hes telling the policeman, “look at these dots here?? , those are the policemen supposed to be managing the traffic, u see this rogue dot here? That’s you” !
He is showing the scanned copy of driving license to the cop. His vehicle is parked behind due to traffic (Atlas Cycle).
He is booking the tickets for "Sivaji" the boss as soon as the website opened. He has booked for 2 tickets
Techie is playing solitaire and is thinking about his next move. Policeman is trying to help him for this.
OR...

Scene 1
The man standing is the offender..
“No lamp in the cycle”. Traffic police caught him and kept him behind the pole (bar). Cycle was seized.

Scene 2
Stop a techie (commuter) and enquire about laptop, wifi, Airtel/Reliance/Tata data card. Logon-to Karnataka traffic authority website and lodge a compliant, which will be sent to the offender.

Scene 3
The website sends an acknowledgement as SMS to the cop.
Meanwhile offender calls his wife and narrated the story and she is on the way.

Scene 4....

Courtesy: Lots of people ;-)

in-law... in-home

2007-06-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

Finally I am getting to live with my in-laws. Since P is in Europe on official trip, my in-laws decided to move in sooner than planned earlier just to avoid me staying alone.
I feel guilty, because for me they had to virtually “abandon” their home town to come and stay with me. I told them that I am used to living alone… but now that I am their bahu, it’s their responsibility to look after me it seems. Choo chweeet (you guys don’t even dare to put nazar!)
I thought my blog will have some spicy stuff from now on, some saas-bahu dramas… but alas! No such thing readers, my saas is as docile as you get them. She gets up earlier than me and makes me breakfast and packs lunch… dinner is ready by the time I get home (no nazars pleeease!!!)
I have thrown the weighing machine out of the window. I am scared to even step on it. With all this eating and not doing any work at home, you can imagine the consequences.
The only issue at hand is to keep my mil from getting bored. With no friends or relatives nearby, being new to the city so not confident enough to roam around on her own… she is virtually under house arrest. My fil somehow manages with short walks around and things like that.
To somehow balance the situation, I have now ended up discussing all the serials with her :-). She watches as many as possible during the day and tells me the story when I get back home… well as long as it keeps her happy I am game for story telling!

Foot note on a lighter Note : A poem (not original of course!)

He didn't like the curry
And he didn't like my cake.
He said my biscuits were too hard...
Not like his mother used to make.
I didn't prepare the coffee right
He didn't like the stew,
I didn't mend his socks
The way his mother used to do.
I pondered for an answer
I was looking for a clue.
Isn't there anything I could do
To match his mothers shoe
Then I smiled as I saw light
One thing I could definitely do
I turned around and slapped him tight...
Like his mother used to do!!!!!

Advice needed

2007-06-04T02:43:00.000-07:00

I have a maid in my house. She has 2 children, boys. One is in 9Th class and the other in 8Th class.

It's new academic year for them, and they study in good schools (which is nice). The cost of purchasing books for each of them for the year is around 1200rs. They have to buy this in the school itself.

My maid is a very nice woman. Always has a smile on her face and does whatever work I ask her to do without grunting or anything. She somehow found the money to get books for her elder son and he started going to school from today. But she is yet to get books for her second son, so obviously he is missing a week or two of his school because of this.

The problem: I want to help. She has not asked me for any money. Not even as a loan. But I feel like buying the books for the second son. But, she is just 2 months old in my house and I must confess I don't know her very well and all. And I don't want her to take undue advantage of my help. I am not expecting money in return, but I don't want her to expect I will help always.

So what do I do?

Exam results are here… Suicides are here too…!!!!

2007-05-30T04:12:00.000-07:00

Come April-May, most of the boards declare the results of the exams conducted for the year. The newspapers are filled with photos of toppers, best performing schools, inspiring stories etc. BUT you cannot miss other news items also along with these, especially those of suicide reports. Last one week I have seen on an average 2 suicide incidents reported every day! I wonder how many more happened un-noticed.

Some common reasons for these cases:

Extreme Case: He/She failed the board exam. (So what! I know it’s not a fantastic news but there is always a next time. It’s not the end of the road anyway.)
Sad Case: He/She didn’t score “as expected”, meaning got less marks. (Now, pray tell me what in life happens as we expect? We expect lots of things, but things don’t always happen our way... learn to face defeats my dear boys and girls…)
Sadder Case: He/She didn’t meet the expectations of “others”. (This is the real killer. Why can’t all these “others” just shut up and mind their own business instead of comparing one child’s results with all his/her elder cousins/nephews/neighbors whatnots!)
Surprising Case: He did well. Secured 91%… in fact is the school topper but still committed suicide! (Surprised? Read this).

What do we make out from this? Whatever the reasons might be, but a common underlining factor is insecurity. These children need help. Who else but from their own kith and kin!

This is an appeal to all the parents out there who have their children writing board exams in the near future. Please, please and pretty please give strength to your children. I agree it is required to make them study and work hard and all that.. but set your own and their expectations low. Make them realize that exam is not the end of the world. If not this, then something else… You can either make them or break them. Choose what you want finally, your son/daughter or a fantastic score card?

May the souls of all these children rest in peace!

Footnote: I am simply bowled over by the %ages achieved by the students who have fared well…. 99% aggregate in a board exam? Simply beyond my imagination! One of my cousins got 88% and had to run from pillar to post to get a seat in some good PUC college L Is 88% a bad percentage..? I thought it was distinction…. It seems the cut off in these colleges are 94%... can you believe that?

Did you know?

2007-05-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

The muscles in your heart have the strength to shoot your blood 10 meters in the air?
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump. (as if they can even if they try to!)
The body’s strongest muscle is our tongue (specially for a woman I think ;-))
Statistically, people are more afraid of spiders than they are of dying (for me it's cockroaches any day!)
All polar bears are left handed
Crocodiles cannot stick out their tongue (how will they then mock at each other- I wonder!)
Butterflies taste with their feet.
A cockroach can live 9 days without it’s head. It only dies because it cannot eat. (Bah! Why is it born in the first place!)
A duck’s quack has no echo, and nobody knows why (wow! that's definitely interesting.)
Each King on playing cards represent a King in real history:
Spades: King David.
Clubs: Alexander The Great.
Hearts: Charlemagne.
Diamonds: Julius Cesar.
It is impossible to sneeze with your eye’s open. (Reminds me of one of the calvin strips, where he tries to bust his head off by sneezing with his nose closed.. he..he..)
Multiplying 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 (Note: The result is first 1 to 9 and then reverse 9 to 1. In case you haven't noticed dumbo!)
Starfish have no brains (who needs them anyways)
A statue in a park with a soldier on a horse with it’s 2 feet in the air means the soldier died in combat. If the horse has only 1 foot in the air, the soldier died of injuries from combat. If the horse has all 4 feet on the ground, the soldier died of natural causes.
Mosquitoes have teeth.
Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark. (Ah! Tell me about it....)
The word "cemetery" comes from the Greek "koimetirion" which means dormitory (he..he..)
When the English settlers landed in Australia, they noticed a strange animal that jumped extremely high and far. They asked the aboriginal people using body language and signs trying to ask them about this animal. They responded with ’’Kan Ghu Ru’’ the English then adopted the word kangaroo. What the aboriginal people were really trying to say was‘’we don’t understand you’’, ‘’ Kan Ghu Ru’’. (Ah! The English were always dumb :-P)

Beardy Misery

2007-05-17T22:37:00.000-07:00

I am fed up trying to get P shave his beard regularly! What's with you guys? What's so difficult in shaving a simple beard? I have tried every known technique to get him shave his stupid beard regularly, but till now not one has been successful! He shaves only when he wants to!!!

Below are some of our conversations. My "requests" followed by his responses (denials) in italics.

P, why don't you take a shave today: "No ma, it's not grown enough, I will surely do it tomorrow"
(Next day) It's already 6:45 we have to leave in another 20 minutes and you have to take a shave P, why don't you get up?: "Oh come on! from when did a shave become more important than my blissful sleep? I need rest, I had a tiring day yesterday."
(2 days later) P, I think today you HAVE TO take a shave, see I didn't bother you yesterday also... please sweetheart (notice the "maska" words...) do it na : "Dear, tomorrow it's Saturday.. weekend. Who will see me over the weekend except you? So why do you worry.. will do it once and for all on Sunday so that I can go fresh on Monday. Please..."
(Come Monday again) Will you do it today at least? (no maska now... a little irritated actually) : "Oh! Didn't I tell you? My colleagues told me I look good with a beard, so I have decided I will keep it after all!" (My reaction: what!!! who are those morons who thinks a beard looks anything other than dirty...grrrrr)
(That evening) You know what P, nothing turns me ON more than a clean shave face.... (This is the max I can do.. hoping for some positive results) : "Why didn't you tell me this before... will surely do it tomorrow **sweet smile**!!" (Ah! you may think I am a very happy woman after that.... fat chance! notice the word "tomorrow"... and tomorrow never comes...!!!)

Yesterday, one of my old friends called after a long time and he suggested we have lunch/dinner sometime together. He is also recently married. I mention this to P, and guess what he says "Ah! That guy, his wife is very beautiful, let me know in advance when we are going out together.. I will take a shave that day." *ahem* well! At least now I know what is the incentive for the much needed shave!!!!!

Celebrating Life and Death

2007-04-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

Before last week a family of 7 died in a road accident. They were distant relatives of P. We went to express our condolences to them at night. The scene was horrifying to say the least.

I had not seen a dead body in my life until the day of my Pati’s sad demise. The scene is still etched in my memory. The way they bought the “body” into the house, and when I touched my Pati, she was all hard and life less… For the first time in my life I got scared of touching her! That was 10 years ago.

Yesterday’s memory will also remain forever. People who die in accidents die horribly. Bodies crushed… parts not recognizable…. I had only heard of these things before. Saw it yesterday. Having a soft heart doesn’t help the situation either! The surviving members of the family were inconsolable! Loosing just one member at a time itself is horrible… just imagine loosing 7 at a time. I don’t know them... so I was just a mute spectator, but though I was not emotionally attached to them at all... I could not control my tears. I don’t even know the names of who have died, but I cried with their family. I just could not help it.

Came home quite late and as expected had to take head bath and wash all the clothes which we were wearing. Finally settled down to sleep… since we had just taken bath at that time... sleep was still far away. So P and I started discussing about life in general.

Isn’t it quite surprising that we never realize that we can get a “call” anytime? But still we fight to be here. We fight for petty things.

Daughter In-Law fights with Mother In-Law to have more control of her husband (what will she do with it? When he or for that matter she is “gone”?)
Siblings fight for money from their parents. Will they take it when they go?
We work day in and out to save money and build a new house and make it as comfortable as possible with all the amenities. Just to be gone without anything one day?
People murder other people if they face failures in love or business. Will they take their partners be it business or personal along with them when they go?
When people die “suddenly” they would not have even said a proper “bye” to their near and dear ones. But when they are alive they don’t have time to say “Hi” to the same near and dear ones. How ironical!

Having thought about all this we realized we are not celebrating the God given “life” to the full extent. We should thank God for every single day he gives us and live it the fullest.

LIVE LIFE LOVE LIFE… who knows when we have to let go?

I am bored

2007-04-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

Yes. I am! I want something interesting to happen in my life. I know I know I am being greedy out here... but lets just accept it I am greedy!

I am badly missing my sister. She is in Australia right now and I have no female company in the house.

P has been extremely busy these days with his work and invariably comes home late.

We go to Mysore in the weekends to my in-laws place. But then, my in-laws don't let me do any work and so I sit around the house all day long with absolutely nothing to do! While P blissfully goes off to meet his friends.

Work is good, but unfortunately my whole team is in an another office and I sit all alone in a cabin and just do my work! I hate this! I need teams to work with.. it is more fun!

How I wish mini-shark was here! We could go for some window shopping or we could watch some movies at home.. or simply gossip about all our family members ;-) Aaaaaaaa why did she have to go! grrrrrr

Moral Policing: Just ban/ don't implement anything against "Indian" values.

2007-04-03T03:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, it’s long time since I wrote post. Being a married working woman is not an easy job you see :-) There are lots of perks to it too. Just the thought that someone is waiting only for me at home makes me smile and go home. Anyway that’s not the subject of the post.

It started with Madhya Pradesh, followed by Karnataka, and now even Maharashtra seems to think on the same lines. AND THE STUPIDITY CONTINUES…

Basic question: Why are we being so hypocritical? What is there to “hide” in this? These kids will anyway come to know about it through TV and Internet. Why ban the “legal” means of communication?
Denial: For heavens sake, grow up :-) What makes these people think that the kids won’t indulge in it if it is not taught in school? Infact curiosity will lead to more dangerous situations!
Biological Vs Moral: Somebody wise said, “Half Knowledge is more dangerous than no knowledge at all.” Why don’t we teach our kids the “complete” process? Let us for the time being, forget about the morality aspect of it. It’s always debatable. And there are parents who will/should take care about teaching proper moral values to the kids. Let the school just teach the biological aspect of it.
Safety: Most of the children, who indulge in such activities for whatever reasons, fun, money or any other thing, have no clue about safe sex practices. So AIDS and other STDs are spreading like wild fire! Isn’t it more prudent to tell our children about the safe-practices so that they don’t expose them-selves to danger?
Prevent Abuse: We have heard of many cases, where the children don’t even realize that they are being sexually exploited. This is because they have very little knowledge about these things. How will a small child know what parts of the body can be touched and what are really private and not be encroached upon?
Alternatives: They say yoga should be taught in place of sex education. It upholds Indian values more it seems! Why should yoga be an “alternative”? Why can’t yoga be a part of the curriculum along with sex education? Lets accept some basic facts here, teenage children are by nature distracted … you make them meditate, they will meditate about something else altogether! We are asking teenage children to control their minds and urges when we haven’t been successful in making grown up men and women to do the same?

Besides, I think even if the political parties play their stupid politics, the parents should take the onus and give some basic awareness to their children, with child molesters lurking around just about everywhere; we owe this to our children and school goers.

Let sex education begin at home. Let’s keep our children safe.

Today a Bandit, tomorrow a MP

2007-03-23T03:18:00.000-07:00

As far as my limited knowledge of constitution and it's rules and regulations goes, I don't think anybody with "proven criminal" background can contest elections, be it state or centre.

Then what are we seeing here?

First it was the famous Poolan Devi, now this one called Seema Parihar! Isn't this unconstitutional?

I don't deny the famous but often mis-used "innocent until proven guilty" phrase. But these are people who made movies out of their life stories where they openly proclaim that they have been dacoits/looters/bandits and here they are becoming MPs to rule us, to become the face of the nation, to become one of the makers of Modern-India :(

I am not being heartless. These people have gone through a lot in their lives. They have been misused, exploited which may have influenced them to take the law in their hands. I am not denying that part. As part of a responsible society, it's our duty to rehabilitate them and give them a good life. But a Lok Sabha seat? Isn't that too much to ask for?

Let us give them site/house, monthly pension and maybe a job also, if they are qualified enough to do it. But give them the reigns of power to rule our country?

So, today I become a bandit.. commit n number of crimes. Looting, killing .. you name it. Tomorrow I come up with a sad story of my life.. and make a movie out of it (with the looted money of course!) and day after tomorrow I get a Lok Sabha seat?

To answer the above question myself.. YES!

When I fell on the road

2007-03-13T22:28:00.000-07:00

It was already 8:30am. I was 1 and half hours late. I generally leave home at 7 in the morning to office. Today I had overslept and here I was, running on the road to catch the last bus. If I miss this one, I will either have to take an auto upto BTM to catch our office bus, or take a city bus all the way till e-city. I hate both the options. The BTS buses specially going towards Hosur are filled with JP* men. Auto guys act too smart and demand extra because they know I am in a hurry, and want to make most out of this situation. I never give even 1 rupee extra to the auto guys, knowing very well that most of them would have already rigged the meter and so always end up fighting with them. I don't mind fighting as long as I have the time to do it ;-).

Anyway, all that apart and coming back to my running... I was some 50 mts behind the bus. This stop is the starting point for the bus, so it was parked on the side of the road. Suddenly I heard the driver start the engine so I ran.. and then... lo and behold! I fell on the footpath (maybe I tripped on a stone.. but it's quite obvious that I didn't notice it!).

Here I am lying on the footpath, my left knee badly hurt... and a passerby instead of helping me up says "yen madam noodkondu nadibaarda" (translation: what madam... can't you see and walk?").

The left knee was not very hurting... but his words hurt me. Have we become so materialised and impassionate that we can't even empathise with other people?

Anyway, I was late.. so I just got up and ran again to get into the bus. Not a very nice way to start the day.

* JP = Jhollu Party. This can be very well understood by Kannada speaking folks. For the benefit of others, a loose translation will be "A person who stares at you with saliva dripping from his mouth!"

P.S: I was NOT wearing heels.

Lizzy...Doggy...Raamy

2007-03-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

The big fat Indian wedding:

With the famous Liz and Arun’s marriage, India itseems now has become a favorite destination for weddings. Welcome all you colorless (read white) people. Welcome to the world of something more than elephants and snake charmers. Welcome to the land of Palaces.

Though I want to appreciate the tourism industry’s effort in promoting India as a wedding destination, I can’t help but laugh at them! Ok first step is achieved. We have had enough publicity with this one marriage and hello! He was a billionaire (or whatever super duper rich is called) and he could afford such a grand affair. But can everybody afford this kind of grandeur? What if a normal white (with little more money than us of course) wants to marry in India? The situation will be something like this:

Welcome at the airport: Stinking bathrooms. Customs officials trying ooze every possible dime out of you in the process of “checking”. Every other person starting from the airport luggage help to the domestic help in the bathroom expecting some “tip” from you.
Taxi: If you are not forewarned about these rouges and you end up taking a non-pre paid taxi. God bless you!
Hotel: Odd stares from anybody and everybody. Hotel staff, other visitors or simply just someone passing by. After all you are “white thing” ;-). Even the supposedly 5 star hotels have horrible tubs. You see maintenance of these hotels depends on people like you. You should visit more often and give generous tips and we will do everything we can to tidy up the place (not to mention people!).
Local travel: It does not matter if you have a travel agent or not. Everybody will churn out as much money from you as possible. Let God be with you when you specially travel in the famous Autos. Take care of your backs… you might not see them again!
Tourist places: Less said the better. Just carry lots of money that’s all!
Portraying our culture and tradition: Confusion is the word. Let’s accept it. We ourselves hardly know anything about our tradition, why teach somebody else who can hardly relate to it. From my own personal experience I can say, 10 people say 10 different things about something that has to be done traditionally!

I am NOT trying to be un-patriotic here. Neither am I trying to defame our beautiful country, but there is something called as “accepting-the-facts”. Why simply paint an overdone beautiful picture of “Incredible-India” when all we are cable of giving is cheating and run for their money? Nothing much can be done about the attitude of the locals but atleast the tourism dept can put some processes in place which will reduce this day-light cheating to some extent. That’s all I am asking. Enough of making incredible-videos please do some ground work also. For heaven’s sake clean up Agra the land of THE TAJ-MAHAL!

The now famous Dog-Menace in Bangalore:

Some dogs are no longer man’s best friends. They are now man-eaters or more specifically children eaters! It’s disheartening to see daily reports of young children being torn to pieces alive by these ferocious dogs. So, the municipal corporation has finally woken up and has started taking “measures” to curb this menace. Solution: KILL THEM ALL!I agree the dog houses are full and have no space to accommodate more dogs. But kill them all? Why, just because we are the “superior” species? Is killing solution at all? Common sense tells no! Today you kill 100 and tomorrow 200 of them will be born again. Instead put some long term solutions in place.

Undeniably the first step: Clean up the city! Have regular garbage collection in place and proper garbage dumping mechanisms in place
Close all those illegal meat shops. And “educate” the legal ones about proper waste disposal.
Have “regular” sterilization camps for the dogs in the city.
Catch the stray ones “regularly” and send them to dog shelters and put them up for adoption after proper treatments.

But does anybody want to even look in this direction? Kill a few 1000 of them now and silence the residents for the time being and their job is done. Maybe after a year or so when such killings happen again, they will do the same thing again! After all, this entire world is only ours right? We have every right to kill every other living species if we can’t find a way to live with them! (The last sentence is true even with humans, just murder or rape them if you can’t live with them. Simple!)

Silence Please:

What is all this undue-attention and some 100s of reviews for this movie called “Nishabd”? I am tired of reading endless debates on whether such a relationship is ethical or un-ethical? Why should AB (of all people) do such kind of roles when the whole nation will blindly follow him (even if he falls into a well) ;-)? For heaven’s sake leave the old man alone. He is bored of doing some stereo type roles (that’s bound to happen if you are doing the same thing for 50 odd years!). So he is happy being sexy-Sam (KANK) or Vijay (Nishabd). Atleast now there is no Rekha type’s character with whom he can be linked to and his (perfect) wife will walk out on him ;-) (He is too old for any woman that’s another matter).
First, let’s accept it. What Ramu has shown in Nishabd is nothing new. Nothing new at all. All these still happen in the name of “arranged” marriages in villages where a 40 year old man marries a 12 year old girl. I am not joking; our househelp in Mysore got her daughter married like this only, though we tried our best to stop it! And that girl is the 3rd wife to that obsessed old man! So are we talking something called “bold” in this movie? Sorry Ramu, we have done this all before you and are bored of it too!

P.S: Will be back with some more “exciting” stories of my married-life. Yes! Finally I am seeing some changes. Lots of it infact! Will be back tomorrow (hopefully). Till then ciao!

P.P.S: I am in love with this song “Anisuthide Yaake Indu” from the movie “Mungaaru Male”. I listen to this song every single day atleast 25 times!

Marriage and there after...

2007-02-27T00:44:00.000-08:00

Marriage

I can hardly feel any difference. This maybe because I know P and his family for quite a long time now. Che! This is the side effect of a love marriage! There is nothing "new".... OK somethings are very new but I will not write about them *ahem*!

Initially my in-laws were supposed to stay with us. But now, my sil has delivered a baby boy and hence they are taking her to Mysore for few months. So I get to stay with P alone for few months and torture him as much as I want to!

Our new house is simply too big for me now! I have to come running from the kitchen every time I hear SRKs voice on the TV to the drawing room... Yes, this will help me loose some weight .. which is the ONLY good thing about it.

For the first time employed a maid for house hold work. She seems to be a little too free around the house. No shying business at all.... should learn to control her a little bit atleast. Any pointers?

Yappa! Reading the above lines, I look like a complete housewife material... oh my God! Somebody find the missing "miss" Shark.... now I can see only "Mrs" P........

Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd.

What did you expect? I will write the movie review in between my marital story? No Chance :)

For the first time got to actually "stay" with P and realised, there is lot more to him than what I have understood in the past 7 years! ufff who can understand men!
He simply hates Ghee..... and we were in those parts of India where Ghee is the staple diet ;-) So I could see poor P make a poorer face every time we had to have something to eat!
He is simply overly generous! what with 50 or 100 Rs tips every time we get a room service. Was he trying to show off in front of me of all the people?
Every time we had to travel to a different place in the car, we invariably had a fight. Why you may ask? I love to sleep while travelling and he obviously hates that. But tell me my dear friends, how long can you keep conversing with a person? I would finish telling my part of the stories for the day and promptly go to sleep.... he would neither tell stories nor let me sleep... isn't this unfair?
Ah! This is the best part. We were in Shimla, skiing and guess who fell 3 times? That was P!! and I didn't fall even once though this was my first try at it :-D
I was the better champion in horse riding also... I am not patting my own back, but P was sitting on it as if he was sitting on a bed of thorns.... and after a long ride of 1 and half hours he could barely walk properly!
But then even though I scored so many points in the other categories, he is simply the best in photography. He took some amazing pictures of me and mother nature and I was at my horrible best while taking pictures of him...
Come Manali, we were promised the "best" by the travel agent (obviously) but we ended up in a resort which didn't even have a room heater and the temperature was -5 degrees!!!
Agra was a dream. Taj Mahal is simply unbelievable! Even though we were standing right in front of it, we could not believe our own eyes. The beauty of it is simply mind blowing! But unfortunately Agra as a city is at it's dirtiest best! If that this is the way we treat the city which houses one of the 7 wonders of the world, then God only should save us... really!
World record - We did shopping in Delhi for almost 15 people of both our families in a matter of 3 hours. Wah Shark Wah!

Well, Shark aka Mrs P is now back!!!

Finally the details about the "Wonderful thing"...

2007-02-05T02:55:00.000-08:00

I know! I have been going on and on about "something-wonderful" in few of my previous posts :) Finally it's time to announce it, though I am sure most of you have guessed it already!

After a 7 year long wait, I am finally getting married to P! The D-Day is 9th February 2007. I am not sure how happy he is, but I am at least on top of the moon :) or do the kids these days say something like ninth cloud? whatever!

Thinking about it, my life is going to change completely!

I can no longer come and go to office as and when I like it. What with family responsibilities and all that stuff!
I can no longer have Maggi for dinner! P hates it! So I will have to cook something at least for him... :(
Once my in-laws join us then it's total bliss :) My mom-in-law loves to cook and I love her cooking, so... you can imagine the rest ;-)
I (think) I will have to take "permission" and all... if I have to go somewhere, like out-of-station kinds... oh my!
I have heard from my married (read experienced) cousins that husbands are extremely sensitive. E.g: In my mom's house, if my mood is off for no particular reason, all I have to do is tell my mom not to disturb me for few hours and I can brood/ sulk/ read a book or do whatever in my room and nobody bothers. BUT it seems husbands are not like that, they will think any mood-off is caused by them! (which is very sweet...) and will try to rectify the situation, when it is not required to do so :). Well.... I will have to learn to live with it!
The worst of all... I will now have to share my bathroom with a man! This is one place where I spend a lot of time and love decorating it the "female" way.... now I can't overdo it! For now I will adjust, but once we have our own house, I will make sure I have my own separate bathroom :)

The list can go on and on, but I think it's better to continue it after some real experiences :)

P.S: If you are in Bangalore, and would like to attend the great shark's wedding... mail me, and I will send you the invite with pleasure ;-)

I live in a different world ....

2007-01-29T04:06:00.000-08:00

My daily routine: Home-->Office-->Home. I live in an apartment luxuriously. I get to have 3 meals a day. Actually any number I want… but then I restrict myself to 3. I can “choose” what I want to eat each time. I crib a lot about the taste of it and the contents of it… ah! I can never be satisfied!

I buy clothes as and when I want to, I do not wait for a festival or any “occasion”. My mother had warned me when I was living with my parents that she would kick me out of the house if one more set of clothes come in the house. But now that I live separately I don’t have anybody threatening me. P sometimes tries... but then he fails. He ends up buying more for me!

On weekdays, I travel luxuriously in my company bus. It’s a challenge to find new novels every week to read in the bus! So I end up reading anything and everything that comes to the market. On weekends, I travel to Mysore again luxuriously in P’s car. Or “struggle” and go in the Volvo busses, if P decides not to come. Ah! The AC is sometimes so high in these Volvo busses! And why can’t they put some nice movies? It’s always some old flop movies. When I am paying 160 bucks for the ticket, the least I deserve is a nice new movie na?

Ha! Looking at the above picture, I seem to be like a pampered girl. But then I share my own set of difficulties.

I have to wake up early in the morning! Atleast by 6:30, so that I can get ready, eat breakfast, pack lunch and leave to office by 8 max
I have unhealthy deadlines to meet in my project. Though not always... but there is always something or the other which needs to be done “yesterday”.
I have to endure my father’s advice every weekend, about how to save more money and not spend it like how I do it. He has been trying for 5 years now… but he has not achieved much in changing me! So every weekend I have to think of a “valid” excuse to tell him as to why am I spending so much….
And my mother is no way less… she is bent on making me a social animal. What with the 100s of visits that I am supposed to do. That “they” will feel bad if I don’t visit them. “They” will think that I have become headstrong after so many foreign trips!

Ah… see I don’t lead a luxurious life either. But I live in a “different” world than these people.

The video has really left me thinking. Have we progressed at all? It’s no wonder that these people are Brahmin haters. If I was treated the way they are being treated... I would have reacted in the same way as they do!

I live in a closed world. I do not see such discrimination around me. We have a house maid, and yes she is not allowed inside the kitchen. That is only because she would not have had bath before cleaning all our houses. But we give her food in the same dishes that we have food. So I thought times have changed and people are accepting other people more easily. But NO!

Dalit children in schools are not allowed to sit together with other children. So all the fight that Gandhi and Ambedkar did was just a waste of time?
They are not allowed to have food in the same plates as the upper castes. But then wait! They can wash the plates of upper castes and that does not make the upper castes any impure.
Inter community marriages are a big NO NO. You can even get killed if you do any such foolish thing.
The dalits are not only exploited by the upper castes, but they are also exploited by their “own” other classes. One is considered more superior than other! A toilet cleaner is definitely inferior as compared to a cobbler.

I think the situation is “better” in the big cities. But how many big cities do we have in India? The rural India still remains the same old caste divided communities, trying to find one reason or the other to fight against each other! People suffer day in and day out to get 2 square meals a day… and here I am fussing about more salt in today’s daal or half cooked rice!

I know it’s unfair to compare us. Some of us are more fortunate to have had parents who have given us good education and comforts. While some of us are not so fortunate. Just because there are millions out in the world without food... does not mean I should starve myself too. After all, each morsel of food that I eat is also hard earned.

But I can’t help myself feeling guilty when I sit in an AC room and generally blog about issues when I am not doing anything to help them. While on the other side of the world people don’t even know that there is something called this world.. where I live in. A different world. A comfortable world. A world filled with pleasure and happiness!
Thank you God, for giving me this wonderful life.

Update: The “wonderful thing” which I mentioned in my previous post has to wait due to some unavoidable circumstances :( Nevertheless the details will be up here as soon as things get confirmed!

TV, Me and SRK

2007-01-18T00:18:00.000-08:00

You knew I would write about this. Didn’t you?
Ah! I have become so predictable… time for a change I guess. Anyway for the time being I will continue to be boringly predictable.

Is banning TV channels/programs the solution to uphold morality?

With the recent ban on AXN, I am sure lots of adults are cursing the government. After all they say, we are adults and we know what to see and what not to see. Who is the government to decide that?

First of all, why ban it now? The show has been aired for 3 years now. So whatever damage was feared has already happened.
This show was aired after 11pm, which I feel is a reasonable bargain. Most of such shows are aired after 11 so that only adults can watch and not children.
If on top of that your children are watching it, this is not the channels fault. It is gross negligence on the part of parents.
Moral policing can be acceptable from a govt body/person as long as that govt body/person is sticking to morals in the first place. When we see day light looting in front of our eyes by the same person, and he comes up with such a rule for a TV channel citing morality all we can do is boo him out!
OK, for a moment lets agree that they are doing it for our own good. Then why have they left out fTV? What about all the cabaret numbers in the movies which are shown day in and day out? What about all the females clad in skimpy clothes in the name of designer stuff being VJs and DJs? Why not ban them all? Why only AXN?

I can’t help but think, they are expecting huge money from AXN and that’s why all this natak. I am sure these people are least bothered about morality and stuff like that!

At this point in time, something wonderful is happening in my life. I am very excited. Details will be out soon.

SRK to host KBC

Why can’t people stop comparing? Why everything Shah Rukh Khan does have to be compared with Amitabh Bachchan? Amitabh is a legend. Obviously nobody can match him, not even his own son. Then where is SRK? But why deny a fair chance and an objective feedback to an actor just because he is doing some things which Amitabh did?
I am sick and tired of these endless comparisons!
But then as the saying goes “A mango tree with the maximum fruits attracts maximum stones”. So SRK will have to bear with all these stones

Am I really a vegetarian?

2007-01-09T02:45:00.000-08:00

The usual topic of debate right? I was always defensive about me being a vegetarian. I would give 101 reasons as to why eating plant is vegetarianism and eating animals is non-vegetarianism. But this time, I did a serious retrospection within myself... and here are my findings.

CURD: The one thing which I cannot live without. No meal is complete without curd-rice. But isn't curd full of yeast? A micro-organism?
Mushroom: Though I have no idea how to cook it and all.. and have hardly cooked at home. I like to eat it when I go out for dinner. But mushroom is classified as fungi. Another micro-organism.
Egg: Though I agree it's not considered "purely-vegetarian" if you eat egg. After all it's chicken in the making. But my father being very orthodox didn't object us to eating it. On top of that, forget about eating directly. Even if I can avoid it, how about all those nice yummy cakes and pastries? Don't they have chicken-in-the-making?
Bread: Again, it's formed by yeast. So should I stop eating all bakery products?
Milk: Who can live without it? Actually the milk we drink is not meant for us, it is meant for the calf. But we still take it. So aren't we indirectly hurting the animal? So should I just stop having all dairy products?
Plants: The good old dialog, "plants have life" too. So is it OK if I kill one form of life but not other?
Medicines: They are direct killers. The so called anti-biotic. The things which kill bacteria and virus. So is that OK? Or is it also a sin and I should stop taking medicines?

My point is not veg vs non-veg. My point is people associating religion with it. Pronouncing that eating meat is equivalent to sin.

I very well understand from Hindu mythology point of view. All our gods and goddesses have one or the other animal as their vehicles. We worship these gods and goddesses along with their "vaahanaas" and hence it is difficult for us to kill and eat them. It's as though we are killing a part of our God.

But, I am against the definition of vegetarianism = sanctity. I think veg or non-veg is just a classification. One group is plant-eating and the other group is animal-eating. No one is higher or lower than the other.

P.S: I am a strict vegetarian. But recently I found that some kinds of cheese (specially used in Pizzas in USA) have cow's gelatin. As that is supposed to make it more cheese-like. After knowing this, I am forced to think... what about the countless Pizzas I had already savoured? Indirectly I have had a piece of our sacred animal. Will I even get a place in hell? Or will I be banished from hell too????????

It is that time of the year...

2006-12-29T02:12:00.000-08:00

When all around you, you see:

Happy faces. Smiles all over.

Greeting everybody you come across with "Happy New Year".
Making New Year celebration plans including the "eve".

All the hotels are booked in the city and you are struggling hard to accomudate guests.

Every other person you see is planning for something or the other.. outing with family, chilling out with friends, booze parties at home... you name it.

Decorations everywhere. Home, Office, Shopping complexes, even streets.

Endless discounts and new-year-offers.

New Year resolutions made one after the other. How many are kept is another story altogether.

All in all, it's party time folks! Celebrate!

May this year make all your dreams come true. Here's wishing you all a Wonderful, Happy and Prosperous New Year 2007!.

They are Highly Insensitive Vermins - But... Am I Denounced Sinful?

2006-12-21T02:57:00.000-08:00

I am a young boy studying in school. I am 4 years old. Everyday when I go to school, I get weird stares from everybody. Nobody sits with me. Not even Ramu, who is the best boy in school and is friends with even the watchman. He is always smiling and talking in class, but he is upset with me. I don’t know why. He does not talk to me anymore.
Everything was nice and beautiful when I joined school, I had friends. I played with them all the time. We drew pictures together. We had lunch together. But something changed when my teacher got to know about my mom, dad and me. We are a nice family like any other. My mom and dad are nice, they buy me whatever I ask for. But strangely they can’t buy me friends. Neither do they have friends. We never visit anyone, nor does anybody visit us. Not that we are bored with ourselves, we have the TV and video games, but we sure could use some company from time to time.
My mom says I have to get used to living alone. She says we have been cursed with something. I ask God everyday if I have done something wrong, but I don’t get any answer.
My mom silently cries sometime in the Pooja room or in the bed room. My dad is sometimes engrossed in deep thought. I don’t know what they are so sad about, but I think they also miss friends like me.
Now my mom says I can’t go to school any more. I like going to school, it is so much fun. I cried, and she cried with me, but insists I can’t go there anymore.
WHY? Why me?

I am sure these were the thoughts in the young boy’s mind when he was sent home from school. After all he was HIV infected. The dreaded infection!
This infection incidentally is more dreaded because of its “cause” rather than it’s “effect”.
I had a friend, who was doing her masters in social work, and she happened to do some research on AIDS patients and yes, it is traumatic. Especially when the patient is in the last stages, it is impossible to even look at them. They will have acute infections in their private parts and a simple thing as going to the loo is a traumatic exercise.
But then, isn’t any disease traumatic? What about Cancer? What about TB? In all these cases the patients die a slow and painful death. But why this terrible discrimination only against AIDS? Is it only because it is transmitted sexually? The answer is YES.

First and foremost, let us clear some myths about this disease:

HIV infection does not necessarily mean AIDS. HIV +ve simply mean you have the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Just like any other infection, if this is also treated in the very initial stages of infection, chances of NOT getting AIDS are high. But then we must also note here that most of the patients who are HIV +ve contact AIDS at some point or the other simply because the initial infection went un-noticed.
HIV infection (or even for that matter AIDS) is NOT transmitted just like that thru air. It does not affect if you sit in the same class and study together. (Only lice and common cold get transmitted that way!)
It’s NOT a person’s fault if he is infected. People catch so many infections and he/she has caught this one. It is as simple as that. And for heaven’s sake it is definitely not the fault of a 4 year old kid!!

What can we do to stop this discrimination?

EDUCATE: Start from schools. Educate the children as well as the parents about the infection. Its causes, its effects and the myths/stigma surrounding it.
Promote usage of condoms. Make it available in colleges and universities and educate people about it.
Advertise. With the power the media has today, it can do wonders. Tell more and more people about it. Knowledge is virtue. But half knowledge is dangerous. People now think of only the sexual part of AIDS. Hence the treatment is also the same. It's time to remove that mental block.

Incidentally, a little away from the topic, I feel us Indians are major hypocrites. When it comes to population we are the second largest in the world. When it comes to AIDS, we are the epicenter of the epidemic. We gave the world Kamasutra. I think we are the only culture who glorifies sex (what with the “first night” preparations and all). BUT when it comes to talking about sex… SHHHHhhhhhhhh. That is something which is not to be talked about!!! Why this treatment? By not talking about it and making it a stigma we are indirectly giving more importance to it. But at the same time, since the education level is so low and the awareness about safe sex practices is almost nil … it is not a surprise that we are in such a situation today.

Having said all this, I don’t think even education will solve everything. I don’t know how my parents would react if they came to know that I was close friends with a girl who is HIV infected. Though at present I am not sure how they would react, but I can tell for sure that they will definitely not be very happy about it.

So what is the solution? Let us, from our generation at least make an effort to accept these people as a part of our society. It would be too idealistic to say we will eradicate AIDS. This is kind of too far fetched, as there is no cure/vaccine for it as yet!Till some brilliant people find something about it, let us join hands together and educate our fellow country men and women about the disease and let us make this world a better place to live for the already suffering.

P.S: Reasons for this post:

1. This Link

and

2. Pavan's request.

I am back... yahoooo!!!!

2006-12-14T21:34:00.000-08:00

I am back in India. My home.

I had realised this before also.. when I lived in Germany for sometime, that no matter what all problems we have, no matter how dirty our country looks as compared to the developed countries, no matter all you get as "welcome" at the airport are dirty stares from men around, no matter the first thing you do after getting out of the airport is fight with the auto/taxi guy for the fare, this is MY country. All said and done, I belong here. I feel more at home.

However advanced the other countries maybe, however comfortable your life maybe there, you are always an outsider, a potential immigrant, you are always a foreigner.

Yes. I am extremely delighted about coming back home, but at the same time I was extremely dissapointed at the Delhi airport. If that is the welcome our country's capital gives to the visitors then God help us! It was far from being even "satisfactory"! Atleast I expected much more from our capital's international airport! The loo was in a bad state! with toilet paper all around.. with water running from the taps.. with a strong smell! Yukkkk! All this is when the cleaning lady is just sitting there looking at each coming passenger and expecting them to give her some money.. for what? I didn't understand though! She gives a sheepish smile when you are coming out.. and acts as though she is helping you with the luggage.. the help which I don't need because I have a trolley with me.. just so that I will give her some money! If she had atleast kept the loo spic and span I would have whole heartedly given some money!

The customs officials... shabby clothes, wrinkled and dirty, undone hair ... I know that 2 in the morning is not a good time, but come on! they are at work and they are supposed to be presentable. And what will somebody loose if they smile at each person they are checking?

I think we as Indians lack some basic courtesies! A smile at a passerby, a response when asked for, a thank you once in a while...
Interestingly we are the best hosts when somebody visits our home.. we take care of them so well.. we go out of our way to accomudate them and show them around.

I think, it's time to realise that India as a country is our home too.. an extended home!

Bangalore gave me a much better welcome! The loo was cleaner and the airport also has a kind of sophisticated look. Thank god for that! I also noticed that the situation in Hosur road has imporved drastically! With that useless drainage cannals closed, and the road widenened.. the commute is not as dreadful as I imagined it to be!

Even with all this "yet-to-be-done".. I loved

1. The aroma of bakery (this I surely missed in USA)
2. The sound of suprabhatham early in the morning from a near by temple.
3. The shoutings of the vegetable vendor on the road
4. The early morning coffee aroma... ahhhh bliss.
5. and most of all it's so cheap to have a cellphone here! I don't have to wait till 9 in the night to call people ;-)

P.S: It looks like nobody missed me while I was away.. no messsages asking where I was and all that... If you guys hadn't noticed I was away for almost 15 days :(
I think you can atleast send some nice and warm welcome messages!

Crocodile Crocodile.. which color do you want?

2006-12-01T22:56:00.000-08:00

Do we remember this game which we used to play when we were kids? If I was in Arkansas at that time, I would have never lost to the crocodile!
Yes, it is still not CA-trip story telling time. I just have one more story to tell. After that CA news is all yours :)
2 weeks back we drove to Arkansas to see the fall colors. You name the color it was there!
Day 1: Started early in the morning. Had rented a mini-van, 7 seater. Drove it in full josh :)Texas, where I live is a very dry state. There is not much vegetation. But as we were nearing the end of Texas we could see a lot of vegetation and some fall colors here and there too.
I will not go into each and every detail, it's going to get too boring to read. Some interesting points

One of my friend had got his parents also on the trip. Travelling/staying with them for 2 days made me realise it's not easy to travel with our parents.

When I was in Germany, I knew for sure that my parents wouldn't be comfortable there. But I had thought that in USA they will be comfortable. I can make them come here sometime... But this trip made me realise a LOT of things.

Food will be a major problem. My parents being extremely orthodox, I am sure they won't eat even in the Indian restaurants here as they serve non-veg too.

They will not eat bread and stuff, so places like subway is also ruled out. So where do I take them to eat? I will have to make 100s of chapathi's from home and take it. That's all.

Restrooms will be another problem, them being not used to the western toilet.

So, though it was a bitter realisation. My parents won't enjoy if they come here :(

That is me feeling sorry for my parents. I don't know how my parents would react after coming to a foreign country. I am sure my father will take it well as he has been to Russia and parts of Europe before. My mom is very sporty so she will also take it well.. at least that's what I hope so.

But my friend (lets call him Dh) Dh's parents are a little too much in awe of America. Sometimes it would becoming embarrassing even for Dh, when they would "touch" a cute kid. Or times when they would openly bad-mouth India... :(.

Anyway all that aside, here are some snaps.. they will tell you much more than my long paragraphs..;-)

Roll over the cursor on the photos and you can see my labels for them.

Paati.. I miss you!

2006-11-29T21:33:00.000-08:00

She was a woman... full of love, patience and lots of courage. Her childhood was very good. Born to a rich family, she enjoyed every bit of it. She used to secretly like her cousin.. he was a handsome young man... Her joy knew no bounds when he also felt the same and proposed marriage. They were a loving couple. She used to dress up every single evening before he came home... She cooked for him, gave him 6 wonderful children, took wonderful care of his parents. She was the perfect wife. He was a perfect husband. They were a perfect couple. Alas! the world is not perfect... so her world fell apart when he suddenly died of heart attack.

She did not breakdown. After all, she had a HUGE responsibility on her head. Taking care of 6 children, with no income of your own is a hard task. His business partner took advantage of the situation and ate away all the money. Her parents were already dead and the wealth was already distributed among the sons... who obviously refused to give anything to her.,. when she needed it. It's another matter that she never asked for it. But they never offered to help either.

As any Indian woman would do, she sold all her jewels and managed to educate all of her children and sustained the family as well. That sure is some wealth management! Her children understood the situation and joined jobs as soon as they could. Sometimes the family went without food for days.. but never once did they go to anybody asking for help. They managed on their own. It was one mother and 6 children, all for themselves. But not once did she loose her smile nor her temper in all these difficult situations. She was a woman of substance. She managed to marry all of them off to good respectable families. Doesn't she deserve an applause for this task! I am sure she does... If only she could hear me applauding her...

My day never went without seeing her. She was everything for me! I refused to be with my parents! I wanted to be with her always! Since both of my parents were working.. they used to leave me in her house... And I refused to go back with them in the evening when they came to pick me up! NO!

"I have a stomach ache today... I can;t sit in the scooter with that.. I will stay back here...!"

"I am feeling very sleepy now.. can;t ride all the way back home like that.. I will sleep here only today!".

These were my alibis to be with her. Yes I loved her more than I loved my parents. She was my grandmother.. my paati... my love... my everything.

I never used to let my mom touch my hair... it was always to be plaited by paati. All my school books had labels written by my paati. She had a beautiful handwriting... even though she had studied only till 10th class.. her English was flawless. Her Tamizh and Kannada were perfect! She was my tutor at home. My homework was never complete without her nod of approval.

I still remember those wonderful evenings after school... when she used to make coffee and bajji for me.. and we used have our little chat. We exchanged stories.. we went vegetable shopping... we went to visit houses.. we were the best of friends! She taught me how to make koodbale, chakkuli etc.

I still remember the warm feeling of sleeping next to her in the night. The way she used to hug me and put me to sleep... the way she used to tell me stories... she snored sometimes, and I used to make fun of her for that.. she laughed it off... but was concerned if my sleep was disturbed because of her snoring.... why can't i hear the snoring now! I promise paati.. it's not at all disturbing.. it's in fact nice... very nice....

She used to stand near the gate and wait for me to come from school... the smile on her face when she saw me in the corner of the road is unforgettable. So where is that smile now? where is she now?

She took me with her when she went to visit any of her relatives. She bragged about me so much... that I did this and that.. and that I was cute and adorable.... and she always bought chocolates from me after these visits... or ice cream on the way back... who will buy me all these now?

The one above all of us... the supreme God can sometimes be very cruel. Something happened to her. She fell unconscious one day in the bathroom... and there was blood all over. We rushed her to the hospital.. and yes we were late. She was in the last stages of uterus cancer.

That is when I started seeing the other side of her. The smile was slowly fading away. The chemotherapy was eating her from inside. She suffered all night.. the snores were replaced with subtle cries of pain... She was reduced to the thickness of a stick. But she smiled in the day... If I took her fruits.. she would make me eat them first.. because you see I was a growing kid and needed it!

When I was a kid.. she used to bathe me every day. Now it was my turn.. she could not take bath all by herself.. and she let no one other than me to do the job.. I was happy that she chose me... but at the same time I just could not stand the sight of her.. so sick and so fragile... and yes.. the dreaded word... so dying..... I would finish the job as soon as I could and run away to the room to cry my heart out. God! why did you do this to her?

I prayed to God every single day to end her sufferings.. but how was I to know that he would end it by taking her away...

It was early in the morning. I had just brushed my teeth and was having coffee... a call came from the hospital.. it was my mom. She spoke something over the phone with my uncle.. and my uncle just put the phone down and sat on the floor..staring at nothing. Death of your mother is not an easy news to digest. I knew from the looks of it what had happened... but didn't believe it. How could she do this to me? How can she leave me? Does she not know that my life is incomplete without her?

They brought the body to the house.... I fell unconscious... I could not see her that way! No this was not her... this was not my paati. I cried.. and cried.. and cried.. did she listen at all? Why can;t she just get up and come and hug me? I kissed her goodbye anyway... She was as hard as a rock... I put rice in her mouth.. I bid her farewell... after all what am I in front of God's will?

She left me exactly 10 years ago.... I HATE ekaadashi in the month of November! And it is tomorrow! This day of the month took away my paati.... took away my love.. my everything!

American Football

2006-11-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

It seems I am back to blogging after all. People will have to wait a little bit more to hear about my vacation details. In a gist.. it was AWESOME! I will write in detail about each and every day.. be ready for some long, really long posts... till then, lets have some fun with the ball.

This is about football. The American one where there is no "foot" involved in the game with the ball.

I went to watch a high school football game some 3 weeks back. I would have sworn it was a world cup match thingy if I hadn't known before that it was just a high school game. The arrangements, the glamour... you had to see it to believe it.

First they introduced each and every player on the team. There will be at least 60 players on each side. Only 11 can play at a time, they keep rotating people, after all it's a very physical game. Each player was accompanied by his family.

After the gala introductions, the game started. Some things I learned about the game.

Physical power is EVERYTHING in the game. People fall over each other, trip each other, beat up each other also!

It's like cricket in India, it's a religion in America.

The supporters/audience of each of the sides are seated on the respective sides of the stadium. No mixture allowed.

Girls wear something called "mums" around their necks. These are basically presented by their boy friends who would have asked them for prom dance the next evening. These things costs no less than $100! These mums carry the respective boy-friends' name.

It's a family event.

America is a RICH country. The band, the cheerleaders, the dress for them, the band instruments ranging from drums to saxophones, the media coverage... all for a high school game.

During half time, there will be some recreational activities like band playing, cheerleading performance, some music etc.., Some photos and some shark's words to go with them.

My Team : Black-Panther - Band Troupe

The other team : Wild cats - Cheer leading team - They were really very impressive.

The wild-cat band team along with cheer leaders. Please note the short skirts ;-)

My team, performing. Co-ordination at it's best. They would all lift their legs at the same time and to the exact same height... super!

Ok, last but not the least ... some players in action. Couldn't catch too much of the play on camera. One, because I was trying really hard to understand the game and had no time for taking pictures. My camera does not have some fantastic zoom... so even if some pictures were taken, they were far away shots with not much clarity about what's happening out there :)

Update: Sojourner asked as to who won finally. Do I even have to mention? It was MY team... the BLACK-PANTHERS :-D

Vacation time...

2006-11-17T22:03:00.000-08:00

I will be off to LA tomorrow for a 9 day trip :) I have heard a lot about the west coast of America, going to experience it!
This weekend is gambling time... you guessed it right! I will be in Vegas.
3 days in LA.. then I will be off to San Fransisco. Golden bridge, Downtown wait till I come there!

I am very excited! Needless to say I will be off blogging.. till then Ciao!

Uravugal Pirinthaalum, Ninaivugal maraivadhillai

2006-11-15T21:19:00.000-08:00

A & S - As far back as I can remember. My first childhood buddies. Have played endless house-house, teacher-teacher, ice-pice etc etc..,
S Rao - L.K.G to 7th Std. The most beautiful girl in my class. Also the most intelligent girl. There was always a compitition between us for the 1st rank.
V - 5th Std to 7Std. Extremely orthodox. She used to do ekadashi upvaasam at that young age itself! That too without even drinking a drop of water! Interestingly she was the one who "educated" me about girl-boy things ;-). There used to be one guy in my class who used to say sorry to me every 2 minutes. I used to wonder what's wrong with him. She was the one told me that he is actually "line-marofying" me!
S - 7th Std. She was the new girl in class. Never actually talked to her all year. But at the end of the year there was a medical check up, both of us were standing in the queue for around 2 hours. That's when we became friends. Kept in touch for 2 more years. But later lost touch :( She was extremely clean (did I just say CLEAN...*ahem*). She always smelt very good.
M - 8th Std. She was a quiet girl and my first high school friend. We didn't remain friends for long though. I don't know why. Now I can't seem to remember what cut us off?
P & J - My best high school friends. We used to hang out together all the time :) I am still in touch with P, but not with J anymore.
D, G, M and A - P.U.C friends. We bunked classes almost all the time ;-) We used to go watch movies, eat churmuri, or just laze around in one of our houses when all of us were broke :). I am now only in touch with M.

So, what I came to say was... we make lots of friends. Some keep up. Some don't. We keep in touch with some, some not. But I don't think we ever forget them. They always stay in our memory forever.

Friends may depart, but memories never.

Auctioning INDIA... Unbelievable prices…. Any takers?

2006-11-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

Bidding starts… 500 million dollars for INDIA, base price. 500m ONE, 500m TWO 500m THREE…… It appears as if there are no takers! Howz that possible? After all we are the land of elephants (and they are heavy and expensive). We are the land of snake charmers… if we are capable of taming a snake we can achieve anything right?
We are the land of brainy computer engineers, though it’s another matter that most of them are currently outside India. But come on… the resource pool is here. So why are there no takers?
Ah, I get it. Nobody wants a “complete” package. Everyone is interested in bits and pieces.

After re-consideration, bidding starts again.

10 million dollars for Kashmir… 10m ONE…10m TWO **bhang** (sound of a gun shot). The bidder is killed by a militant. For the fear of getting shot everybody agrees that Kashmir will go to Pakisthan. No cost…free… as a token of “friendship”!

5 million dollars for Arunachal Pradesh… 5m ONE… 5m TWO… wait! Wait! A Chinese representative comes to the dais. “Arunachal Pradesh was an integral part of China from the beginning, how can you even sell it now? It belongs to us. Period.If we don’t get this, we won’t send anymore Made in China goods to India.”
For the fear of not having plates to eat, mobile phones to talk, bed to sleep (all products made in China).. people give Au.P off to China as a token of “Thanks” for providing us with cheap house hold goods.

100 million dollars for Bangalore… Forget it, the bidding won’t even start. If Bangalore is not handed over to the US, then all those lakhs and lakhs of ABCDs will be sent back in 10 days… oh my God! That would be disastrous. Who will marry them if they are not in America? Ok, Given. Bangalore sold!

100 million dollars for Mumbai (or was it Bombay?)… **bhang** **bhang** **bhang**!! The underworld goons won’t let anybody else sell Bombay. They have already sold it to some Dubai Sheiks!

Chennai – LTTE all over it… it’s difficult to even set a price for it as it is no longer in our control.

So, that’s it. INDIA sold in parts to all the interested parties. After all we are a peace loving secular nation. Who cares if parts of it are ruled by different nations? Who cares if someone invades us? Who cares if someone claims some part of us as theirs? They are free to take whatever they want. It’s available for general public!

Do you think I am weaving a sarcastically funny story here? Wait and watch, this will happen really for sure. With the kind of apathetic administration that we have… this day is not very far off. With people like Abu Salem ready to contest elections, with people who are in power bothered only about vote banks and not the welfare of the nation, with leaders who are too scared to take any aggressive decisions, with terrorists being pardoned, with rapists and murderers let go scot-free, what more can we expect?

Hey Bhagwaan… is din ko dekhne se pehle mujhe uthaa lo!!!

Of Criminal Lawyers and Child Labour and Motherly Love

2006-11-14T22:02:00.000-08:00

Criminal Lawyer:

What makes a person take the side of a criminal? Is it money? Is it just plain professionalism? Is it the urge to do something wild?
I know, a criminal is not one until proven so. Agreed. Also, as a constitutional right, everybody has to get a fair trial, be it a criminal or a poor person, or an influential person. I understand the legality of it. But as a lawyer, if you “know” that somebody has committed a crime (be it small or big), what makes you take the side of them and “fight” to free them?
I know in this materialistic world of complex laws, human rights, media attention, money, power and whatever else you can think of, it is too much to expect everybody to be righteous. But isn’t there something called as moral-conscience? A quiet inner voice which talks to you in the middle of the night?
How can a person sell his soul for money or fame? In comparison to people who sell their souls, people who sell their bodies for money are so much better!

Child Labour:

Today is children’s day. A happy Children’s day to all those millions of children out there in the world. Child labour, as we all know and understand and accept is a bad thing. That clearly shows how backward the society is where it expects a child to work and earn bread for the family. The government (for a change) did something good by banning it. We all also know that this law is in place for as long as we can remember, but unfortunately have not been followed strictly. Now I suppose there will be periodic checks and offenders will be severely prosecuted. This is a good move, but is it in the right direction?
I am all against child labour, but what are we achieving by just taking off their means of bread? The child does get free education and food in school, but what about his/her family?
The situation is not as simple as it meets the eye. Poverty leads to lots of misery. Do I even need to say that? These children work hard to fend not only for themselves but also for their family. If they are off the work, what next?
As I said before, it is a good move but in a bad direction. You cannot just expect to implement the law overnight. The grass root problem has to be looked into.
Provide them part time education. Set maximum hour of work that they can do and rest of the time let them go to school. In that way they are able to do both. And believe me once one generation is educated and has a good job, I am sure they will put their children in schools voluntarily. Provide alternative employment for their family members. Or even give some monetary compensation to such families.
Unfortunately all these measures can be put in place if and only if somebody high up there and every single person below him feels from the bottom of his/her heart for the betterment of the underprivileged children of our country. If it is just again the same old story of vote bank politics and other selfish interests, nothing can save us. Not even God!
God also helps only those who can help or atleast try to attempt to help themselves :)

Motherly Love:

In all this misery around us, there is also Love, plenty of it. Came across this beautiful article in Bellur’s blog

http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/01-11-2006/85322-coma-0

That is called mother’s love. That is called the most powerful strength in this whole world. That is Love. Pure unconditional Love. That kind of love can be given only by a mother and nobody else.

Neil OH Neil ...

2006-11-07T14:54:00.000-08:00

Neil Armstrong was the first man who set foot on the moon. (OK. I know you all know about it, just making it clear who am I talking about...).
Undoubtedly he is one of those "special" men whose words are etched in gold. Here are some tit-bits about him :) These are NOT true stuff, just some rumors which were around. Maybe some of you have read it before, but I read it for the first time today. So here it goes ...

Immediately after Neil Armstrong uttered his famous "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind" quote during the historic first moon landing, he added the cryptic phrase, "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky!". Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut. However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs. Not until over twenty-five years later did Armstrong reveal that Mr. Gorsky was a former neighbor, whose wife had proclaimed that she would give him oral sex "when the kid next door walks on the moon."
On 21 July at 5:56, the first man, Neil Armstrong, stepped onto the surface of the Moon, after which he was joined by Edwin Aldrin. The astronauts, wearing space suits with automatic life-support systems strapped to their backs, inspected the ship from the outside, set up a television camera, deployed scientific instruments on the Moon’s surface, and collected approximately 22 kg of moon surface samples. They brought to the Moon five medals with the images of deceased astronauts: Yuri Gagarin, Vladimir Komarov, Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White, and Roger B. Chaffee.
Armstrong and his two fellow astronauts, Aldrin and Collins, saw an object on the Moon’s horizon, which looked like an open book, and then they heard some mysterious “music.” They reported this back to Earth. At first, no one on Earth believed them: how could there be a book on the Moon and music in airless space? But the “music” was also heard on Earth over the radio transmission, and the “book” was photographed.
…..
In February 1983, fourteen years after his flight to the Moon, Astronaut Neil Armstrong went to Egypt to participate in a scientific conference. During the meeting, the azan sounded. Armstrong, sitting in the presidium, went pale and asked: “What is that music?” Surprised by the astronaut’s behavior, participants explained that it was the Muslim call to prayer. “That voice. That’s what I heard when I first stepped on the Moon, hearing it is giving me goose bumps!… O Allah! I found You not on Earth, but on the Moon!… I stepped onto the Moon without praying, but now I will pray, you can consider me a Muslim.” So the first person to walk on the Moon, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, became a Muslim.

I know I am in America when...

2006-11-06T19:08:00.000-08:00

I jump with joy when I see a 2 wheeler! The other day I saw one which looked almost exactly like our scooty pep! I miss my kinetic... :(
No dinner party without drinks.
8 am meetings in the office.
6 pm, have to really search for "people" in office.
60 mph is slow! Zoom past in 80 mph speed sometimes.. and feel happy that you escaped mamas ;-)
The winter sets in, you can see lots of desi women in chudidar and sneakers.
You make coffee in a microwave.
You have the cooler ON in summer and heater ON in winter. - Cotton dresses and woollen sweaters would do in India though.
Men at work discuss about bed-performance of their girlfriends over lunch.
There are no all-vegetarian restuarants. Maybe you can find a udipi cafe here and there sometimes, that too in big cities.
People value their personal time. If you have to attend your child's school function, you can take a day off from work stating the same reason. And nobody is going to deny permission.
Men (who are married) accept to work over the weekend ONLY after getting their wife's consent.
A child stops crying the moment you put an empty nipple in its mouth. - Try doing that to a desi kid, it will throw that back at your face!
A major weekend outing is a movie + lunch/dinner at an Indian restuarant.
The office is completely empty by 3 pm on a friday.
Anybody and everybody you come across in the street asks you "Hi, How are you doing?". But not one waits for an answer ;-)
and only in America, yes ONLY here... Pakistani's and Indians live in such great harmony, it's hard to believe that we are actually fighting wars out there in our own countries.

Enjoy the Dance....

2006-11-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

P.S: This poem was supposed to have been written by a terminally ill young girl in New York. At this moment I don't know who the author is, if any one of you know please do tell me.

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day on the fly?
When you ask How are you?Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed...
With the next hundred choresRunning through your head?

You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child, We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste, Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die...
Cause you never had time to call and say,"Hi"?

You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....Thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

What a noble idea!

2006-10-31T14:40:00.000-08:00

Mahak is suffering from a life threatening illness. His days are numbered. His only wish was to become a police officer one day and punish all badmaash people!

His wish was indeed granted.

It's incidents like this, which make you believe that the world is after all not such a bad place. There is hope...lots of it!

When preachings are misleading.... doomsday is near

2006-10-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

I had decided that I will not write anything AGAINST men and FOR women. Basically because, I was tired of it on one side and I was also sure that this is not going to help. Even the so called educated men who read such things take it offensively. Not my blog in particular, but in other blogs I have seen people getting all worked up because some person is supporting for the rights of women.
Does fighting for the rights of women brand you as a feminist? If all women were treated on par with men in all areas would there be any feminists at all? Is fighting for someone’s rights wrong?
The blogosphere is full of feminist blogs. I have visited atleast 100 of them myself. Though some people are over exaggerating, most of them are speaking the truth. If the truth is unpleasant for some section of the society then so be it!
These days we are hearing more and more of this men vs women debate. Why you may ask? Some have even given me the answers that “Ah! These days women have started earning, and just because they do, they think they are great and treat men with contempt!”
NO. A very big NO. It’s not ONLY because we have money, it’s because we have a voice too… and we have the right of opinion and yes we have a choice! Today women are more independent.
I agree completely, that no family is complete without a man. True, very true…. What I am saying is that it is not complete even without a woman.
Things have changed a lot today. But then, only in some sections of society. Men have become more understanding. They understand that if they are tired after coming back from work and can’t cook, their wives are also equally tired after coming back from work (if not more) and cannot cook as well. So the Darshini’s are flourishing ;-). Men do help around in the house for cleaning, shopping and cooking. I really appreciate such Men. It’s not that Men are good only if they cook… it’s just that they have the attitude to help. That’s what makes them good. Hats off to such men!
I have a cousin brother who is pathetic at cooking, so his area of expertise is cutting vegetables and washing dishes :). See, it’s the thought that counts!
P also falls in this category :). He is even more nice, when I am cooking, he sits in the kitchen and chats with me… instead of just watching TV or something. My sister infact blissfully watches TV ;-). Such small gestures, and it makes a lot of difference.

There are such men on this beautiful earth, there are also men like Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali!!!!

He claims that he was misquoted and stuff… but still in whatever context he said these sentences, he sure is wrong! Terribly wrong!

First and foremost… a woman’s attire is her choice! However revealing it is or however lucrative it is… it is NOT A LICENSE for rape! Just because a woman is not dressed properly, does not give any man any right to rape her!

His comments and my comments to his comments!

Women who did not wear a hijab (head dress) were like "uncovered meat". – Oh really? Actually on second thoughts I think it’s a perfect comparison. After all women are meant to be devoured right? Bhah!
I unreservedly apologize to any woman who is offended by my comments. I had only intended to protect women's honour. – Oh I see. Who are YOU to protect our honor? And honor is kept intact by covering your head? Can somebody enlighten this poor ignorant soul as to what “attractiveness” is there in the head? Men don’t have head is it? I have seen so many men who have real nice hair and are very attractive just because of that. So they don’t have to do anything to protect their honor?
The sermon was targeted against men and women who engaged in extra-marital sex and did so through alluring types of clothes. – What each person does with his/her married life is left to that particular individual. There is no hard and fast rule as to what is the “cause” for such things. And please, clothes don’t come anywhere near the cause. K, for a second, lets assume that a woman is doing the dare devil act and alluring people (read married men) into her jaal. She is characterless. What are these men then? Who go behind her? Full of Character? There are lots of distractions around us. Is it our responsibility to overcome the distractions or is for the distractions to disappear? Simple logic, when we study for exams, WE are supposed to concentrate on studies and not watch TV. Do the TV channels stop airing programs? Somebody please knock some sense into this person’s head!
If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside... and the cats come and eat it... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat? – Cats are ANIMALS. Are men animals too? Food and Women are the same?
Sheikh Hilali also condemned women who swayed suggestively and wore make-up, implying they attracted sexual assault. – Why doesn’t he publish a rule book? “Do’s and Don’ts of an honorable woman”!?
Then you get a judge without mercy... and gives you 65 years – He was implying for men who get punished for their act! So what is the expectation pray tell me… let him go scot-free? So that he can assume that women in general are public property and he can use them as much as he wants? If you ask me, rape convicts should be given death penalty! No mercy at all!

If he was some XYZ I wouldn’t have even bothered to read about him. But he is a religious leader, a man whose words mean something to people. A man whose preaching’s are followed by his community. A man who is a representative of his community. A man of such caliber, and such words!! Disappointed!!

So what message does this give? Is it OK to rape somebody as long as that person is dressed badly? Whether a woman is dressed badly or for that matter not dressed at all, it’s not anybody’s business to go ahead and rape her! Mind your own business Mr.Raper!

He is not realising that there is something more to this issue than just woman rights. He is a religious leader, the world will look at that religion in the wrong way! Not everybody knows what that religion is all about, what such people say gives people an idea as to what that religion preaches. First of all that religion is in the news for all wrong reasons and the whole world is looking at it with jaundiced eyes, and people like him are not helping at all in improving the image! May God put some sense in to him..,

Some this and some that

2006-10-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

It's long since I wrote anything. I think I am obsessed with blogging now! I have always been this way, if something interests me, then I get so addicted to it...it really takes a lot of effort to get me out of it. Oh I digress.

DON:

Last weekend started blissfully. What more could I ask for than to start a weekend with an out and out SRK movie? Man, is he se*y...**drool** (I don't want our government to block blogspot again... and hence the words are written with *s!). First of all, people who will start saying that this movie is nothing as compared to the original and stuff...please...STOP! Stop comparing for a second and just see this movie as any other movie... and I am sure you will like it. All said and done, Amitabh Bachchan cannot be replaced. That's why he is a legend!

But at the same time, this new DON is beautifully made. It's fast paced with good looking women and extremely talented man to lead them all.. ;-). The little twist in the story is a real nice surprise. Just when you think that you know the story because you have seen the previous Don, you are pleasantly surprised.

But, Kareena is a disappointment. First of all she didn't do justice to the role. But most of all what happened to her perfect hour glass figure?!!

All in all it was a fantastic film... SRK is not Amitabh Bachchan, he is DON!

Saturday was Diwali celebrations at home and neighborhood :) Lighted lamps all over the house, at least we can do that if not burst crackers! Cooked yummy food at home and stuffed ourselves till we could not take even one rice grain more!

Sunday was shopping time :) That too precious gem shopping. Ah! What more can a girl ask for? As expected I became greedy and bought lots of stuff... but not only for myself, to all my cousins and aunts back in India (See I am not that selfish also it seems!)

Monday: Some major issues got clarified at work. Life is really happy for this shark. Just when the ocean is peaceful and beautiful and calm and serene... out comes a big wave and upsets it all.

The big wave is the news paper and it comes with lots of unpleasant news!

Rs 3 for compensation.

What was he thinking when he sanctioned this amount? That he was being outrageously generous? Rs 3? For heaven's sake what can you buy with that amount? A kg of rice costs at least 11rs. And a drought hit farmer is supposed to lead his life and support his family with 3 rs? I don't know whether to laugh or cry for this!

Social Awareness

I think it's high time we stop treating special people around us with something more than curious looks. They don't need our compassion, they don't even need special attention. They just need some nice treatment. Treat them like normal people. And what were those officials doing that too in airport? Trying to hold him against boarding the plane because he "can-be" dangerous to other people? I will tell you what is more dangerous - Women with as little clothes as possible on their body, so none of the males around have sense as to what's happening around them. Or some people who have absolute no mobile manners and shout at the top of their voice without caring a hoot about their surroundings! Those are dangerous people not the autistic people!

K sleep is taking over me and I don't know what more to write.. that's it zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Remembering Shakthi

2006-10-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

He was brown, well built with bright eyes, always energetic, sometimes ferocious. He protected females around him as if they were his own. He was the KING in the house. He got the first morsel of food. He didn't even sniff yesterday's food, rejected it outright!
Children were sometimes scared of him... sometimes wonder at him, sometimes talked to him. Very few times played with him though.
He was our first family dog. A proud Alsatian. Our Shakthi.
My periyappa (Uncle) had 3 dogs. Shakthi, Rani and Pavan. Interestingly the three of them were aptly named though we had no idea how they would turn out to be after they grew up. We bought them as very small puppies.
Shakthi was all manly and clearly the leader of the group. Everybody used to be scared of him. He would listen to only my periyappa and nobody else!
Rani was as womanly as a dog can get. AH! You should have seen her walk.. what gait! what grace! She was a Pomeranian. Always had sparkling white fur. Licked and cleaned herself almost every now and then. She is the only dog till now I have seen who never used to stink! Nopes not even a little bit.
Pavan, true to his name was never stationary! We really had tough time feeding him. He would eat one morsel and run around the house for at least 4 rounds ;-) He was also a Pomeranian and madly in love with Rani. We have had 12 puppies from them :). He never used to eat until Rani was fed. He would howl and cry when Rani was giving birth to puppies.
Generally during the mating season, lots of stray dogs used to come for Rani.. after all she was very attractive ;-). Though Pavan was hero types, he was extremely terrified of other dogs. He would just run as fast as he can from there into the house. It was always Shakthi who came to her rescue. One big bark from him.... all the other dogs would just run away with tails tucked behind their legs!
I used to study in Bangalore, but used to go to my periyappa's house in Mysore for summer holidays. 2 full months of pure fun with my cousins and these dogs! We adored them... we never used to go to the park in the evening without taking them. We refused to go to anybody's house or any function, lest we loose those few hours of playing with these dogs.

There was a special bonding between periyappa and Shakthi. He used to eat only when he fed him. He never failed to accompany him for his morning and evening walks. Sometimes periyappa used to simply sit in the sit-out and keep patting Shakthi. It was as though they were having a secret conversation. Shakthi was very docile during such sessions.

The last day of the summer holidays were the worst... all of us used to cry, not willing to go back. We missed them so much. I wonder if they felt the same too? But we never knew. They were their normal self from the next day :) Maybe we were just some flying-friends to them.

Then came the bad times. My periyappa fell ill. Age was taking it's turn. He was very ill for almost 15 days and then he was in the hospital for some 3 days and he left us for his heavenly abode.

When he was ill, we noticed a drastic change in Shakthi. He stopped barking. He would just come and sit near my periyappa's cot. Just sit there for hours together. It was almost as if he sensed what was going to happen. He ate only what we gave to periyappa. Rave Ganji, buttermilk and some milk. He refused to eat the "normal" food. The ferocious Shakthi was now so down in the dumps, it was hard to even imagine for us.
Hospital days were unbearable for him. He could not see his master. He started crying, literally. He acted mad.. it was as if he was begging us to take him there. He would just keep licking my periyappa's walking stick and cry. It is believed that dogs generally don't cry as we humans do but they rather howl. But Shakthi cried, we could see tears in his eyes.....

The dreaded day came. Periyappa didn't come home alive. The moment Shakthi saw his masters body he knew what had happened. That was the end of all his "Shakthi". He wept with us. He mourned with us. He just didn't stop barking until we let him in the van to go to the crematorium. But that was the last bark we heard from him.

When he came back home, he was unusually silent. He refused food. Yes. He stopped eating. He would just sit in periyappa's room all day.

Periyappa was very orthodox and pious. He performed sandhyavandana 2 times a day in detail. As usual Shakthi was a companion to him. He would simply watch my periyappa do everything.

4 days after periyappa's death, Shakthi went to the pooja room and just sat there. He did not respond to any of our calls. Just ignored all of us. By 4pm he had left us, to join his master. It was really amazing (I know it's not the right word!) to see that! A dog who knew he would die, and went and sat in the pooja room to be one with God!

Soon after Rani got some disease, maybe because Shakthi was not there to protect her.... she died too... devastated by the loss of her, Pavan ran away from home one evening. A week later we found him dead in front of our gate! It was as though he could not live in the house which haunted him with memories of Rani and Shakthi, but came home faithfully to die.

This makes me think... Dogs have a lot of sixth sense. They bond with people more than how much we bond with each other.

I miss Shakthi.....

P.S: This post was inspired from I Failed The Don post by Kavi.

I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth

2006-10-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

I go to my next cubicle guy to clarify some issue and the first thing I get is a warm welcome smile **well.. that's nice** and then THAT follows with that **Not at all nice!**.
I get inside the car, start driving... No music on the radio. Some stupid commercials. So what do I do, try to strike a conversation with the guy sitting next to me. What I get in return? - THAT! Yuuucccckkkkk. It's a closed space, so it's all the more bad. I quickly open the window.
Home. Dinner time. Sit together to watch some show on TV or our good old Ramayana.. but guess what is more stronger than the aroma of my sambar? THAT2.
Weekend outing. Movie. Friend next to me (let me tell you she is extremely beautiful!), but the moment she turns towards me to comment on some scene, THAT is evident.

What is THAT and THAT2? THAT : Bad Breath , THAT2: Body Odor :)

I know! these are inevitable. When you sit long hours in front of the comp your mouth does get worse. And body odor is one thing which is there always! Yes., even in AC rooms. So my ranting is not against any person in particular... It's rather against those who don't take the hint ;-)

When somebody offers a mint, DO NOT refuse. Just take it in any case!
When somebody opens the window of the car even though the AC is on... don't say anything. Just let the fresh air get in.
Please, pretty please avoid onions for lunch. You can gorge as much as you want for dinner.
Use deodorants. It is made for people to USE. Preferably twice a day.
Wear clean clothes. It's not as if you have to wash them with your hands these days :)
Socks can be worn max for 2 days. That's it! Not a day more.

Oh! I do sound like a preaching-grandma! I guess I am getting worse by the day! My sis will refuse to let me inside our house when I go back to India if she sees this!

Does this have something to do with a working weekend?

Religion : Fashionable?

2006-10-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

As we all know this world has many main religions. Islam, Christianity, Jewish Religion, Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. There are other religions as well of course but these are more in the news I can say.

Of these, the two religions which are discussed for all wrong reasons are Islam and Hinduism.

Islam: It's anyone's knowledge why it is in the news for all wrong reasons. Some of the so-called jihadi's associate with it and the whole world considers Islam as dangerous. How wrong they are! Islam for one talks more about peace than any other religion. Also, polygamy which is legal in Muslims is interpreted all wrong.. In the actual scripts it is mandatory for Muslim men to have more than one wife. One "normal" wife, one "poor" wife and one "disabled" wife. How noble the thought was and what a mockery we have made of it in today's times!

Anyway this was not the intent of my post.

If there is another religion which is in the news for all wrong reasons, it is Hinduism. Why? For one, for it's so-called ridiculous customs, the orthodox principles. Have we seen any other religion being made fun of other than Hinduism? How we ridicule the poojaris who have a small pony in the back of the head while the rest of their head is shaven off? How we ridicule the way they tie their dhoti? How we ridicule the way Indian Hindu women dress...What with all their bindi, bangles and jewelry.

So what started all this? WE...We Hindus make fun of ourselves. So what more can you expect from an outsider?

This article here has what triggered the creation of this post. Religion is supposed to be "hip" huh? Is religion defined by the clothes you wear? Specially Hinduism preaches that it is not a religion, it is a way of life. Alas! None of us have understood the real value of it!

Why is that we always crave for recognition from the west? Aren't we happy with ourselves? Why should the west acknowledge Hinduism?

It seems wearing some religious symbols are "in style and in fashion"! Is that what they are meant to be? Are religious marks fashion symbols?

Just because Hinduism is liberal and gives you the freedom to practice however you want to, does not mean you can ridicule it.

I do not have anything against any religion. It is just a means to realize God... So you pray or do namaaz it's all one and the same. Ultimately you are asking HIM to release you from this worldly ordeals and be one with him.

It's one thing to be a believer or a non-believer. It's all together another thing to ridicule someone's faith!

People... Religion is not fashion! Neither is it supposed to be hip! It is supposed to be the way of life.

Taggy .... Looking back!

2006-10-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

It’s just 7 months since I started blogging (I know! I was way behind the IN people!). But now, I feel as if I have been blogging all my life :) Velu wanted me to retrospect so early… I will do it for his sake ;-)

1. Are you happy / satisfied with your blog, with its content and look?

Content wise YES! I am more than happy. If I say so myself, my posts are wide-ranged from chikki to women issues to philosophical thinking to just pure fun! Looks… naaahhh! There’s nothing that “I” have added to the looks of it! I want to make it more personal and me-kinds but haven’t really got the time :( damn! This software industry!
2. Does your family know about your blog?

Yes. Everyone knows. My mom, my sis, my fiancé. My father does not know, basically because he is not interested in my writing ;-) for him anything other than “The Hindu” is below-standard! I will show him one day if my blog gets a mention in the newspaper for being one of the most popular blogs…. Readers, do you get the hint? [;-)]
3. Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?

Initially yes. I felt so. But now NO. Before I used to think what will people think of me if I write this way or that way… but now I have realized my blog is my place. I will write whatever I feel like. All of them like my blog, atleast that’s what they say to me... I will believe them [;-)]
4. Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?

Oh yes! I have realized this amazing potential in putting your thoughts in writing. It makes you think again and the thought process flows! Amazing! Also, I have come across some wonderful blogs, which have made me see the world in a totally different angle! And oh! How can I forget the comments section, I guess that’s more important and thought provoking than the main post.
5. Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?

It’s mandatory for me to open the blogs of people who visit me. They deserve it :). But occasionally I blog hop too…time is more of a constraint here rather than anything else!
6. What does visitors counter mean to you? Do you care about putting it in your blog?

Oh! It means a lot to me. I don’t have a visitor count on my blog for display but I do track them through site meter. It makes me happy when I see so many people have visited my blog… :)
7. Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?

Yes. 100%. I have pictures of every one of them in my mind. Some of them I know personally so I have the real pictures, but for the others I have my own picture in the mind, sometimes some are related to cartoon characters. .. some are related to things.. and some are well… I will not tell [;-)].
8. Admit. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?Benefit?

I didn’t start blogging for a benefit. It’s just like your dairy, maybe after 20 years when I am all old and all… with grey hair and no teeth and wrinkled skin, I want to go back my memory lane through my blog. I want to show my children, this was how I was when I was young…. So is that a benefit? If a smile on my old face is… then yes!
9. Do you think that bloggers society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?

To some extent yes. It is isolated. I mean I don’t meet them personally anywhere outside this blog world. But then blog world itself has become a part of my life now :)
10. Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it’s a normal thing?

Criticism on a positive note, when genuine feedback is given is a normal thing. We all learn from our mistakes. But personal comments and abusive language is not acceptable! That’s annoying, but to be frank in the blog world I really don’t care!
11. Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?

Politics… the farther you stay from it, the safer you are. Basically I can’t relate to their way of thinking. So, their world is theirs and mine is mine!
12. Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?

I have not actually heard of any such incidents L either I am too new here or I am somewhere in Timbuktu to not know what’s happening out there! But yes it’s shocking! By the arrest you are taking away their freedom of expression…
13. Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?

I guess it will just lie there until blogger shuts down. K, in my will I leave the user name and password for it so that my children can just update my readers that I am dead and that’s the end of “Encounters of Life”. I would have encountered death then…. .
14. What do you like to hear? What’s the song you might like to put a link to in your blog?

Sorry, I can’t stop at ONE favorite song. I like different stuff for different moods… so,
Senti Mood:“Zindagi Kaisi hain paheli haayee… Kabhi tho hasaayee, kabhi ye rulaaye…” from the movie Anand.
Hip-Hop Mood: “Right Here Right Now” from Bluffmaster
Happy Mood: “I am the best.. I am the best…” from Phir-Bhi Dil Hain Hindustani
Sad Mood: “Surmayee Akhiyon Main…” from Sadma
Videsi Mood: “One-Love” from Blue.

P.S: With the 13th question, I am a bit worried now… will they have net connection in hell? I will die if they don’t have one! But wait a sec… I am already dead… *&^$#@#!!!!!

Bribing away....? And feeling very proud?

2006-10-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

Finally we (India) are on the top! Something to cheer about? Naaahhh!!!! India tops world bribery list!

What a shame! According to the report here we bribe even to get some international contracts! Forget about the internal goverment job bribing!

So, what next? We have reached the top.. now we continue to "stay" on top? I think for a change I am feeling it would have been better if we were NOT at the top.. even better if we were nowhere in the list!

Seriously thinking back, I feel our mentality is such. We bribe for almost everything! Remember the times when you bribed God to make you pass in the exams? The countless namaskaaras you did.. or 100 coconuts you gave to the temple? Bribing is basically IN, in our culture. Though these are harmless bribings, that's how the habit is cultivated!

I think it starts with when you are very young, "beta, if you sleep early now without throwing tantrums, I will take you to the big park tomorrow"! So now you realise? The cascading effect of it?

Che! What more can happen to make you feel so ashamed of yourself in front of others when your country's name is in the papers for all wrong reasons!

I do not say that there is no bribing or corruption in other countries, but definitely they are not like us!

I hate to agree now.. but yes! I have bribed so many times before for small work to get done "fast". My father had to get address change done on his license.. he tried in vain to get it done the "normal" way... waited for 3 months.. but NO! If one officer comes, the other does not.. and so on and so forth! Finally caught hold of some "known" person in RTO and gave him 200rs and lo and behold! Change done the next day!

K. Those are so called "big" stuff and that too at government offices. How about the 10rs kanike we give to the priest in the temple so that he does "extra" pooja from our side? How about the "glares" he gives if you don't give him that?

How about giving some left-overs to the vegetable vendor who comes in front of the house everyday? So that he gets "good" vegetables for you?

How about the chocolate you give to your children so that they don't go tell their grandparents how much you bitched about them in the room?.

So, my dear readers, lets do something from our end to end this disgarce... ok maybe it will take 10-20 years... but atleast sometime the stigma will go!

I pledge

I WILL NOT bribe God to begin with! He knows what's best for me... he will do it whether I ask for it or not. But yes prayer is a must. That's a way of showing my gratitude to him for giving me this wonderful life.
I WILL NOT bribe my children (when I have them) to do things for my sake. K, occasionally I will give them a "treat" if they do well in exams ;-)
I WILL NOT bribe in any government office. Will it take years to get the job done? I really don't care! You can always have a drivers license with the wrong address! who cares!

How many of you are willing to take this pledge with me?

A very earnest prayer...

2006-10-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

God,
Give me the intelligence to understand my man,
Give me the patience to take all his anger,
Make me flexible enough to adjust to all his mood swings,
Give me a big heart to love him with all his flaws,
Make me beautiful so that I can please him,
Make me a good cook so that I can feed him well...
Give me everything that makes HIM happy.

But....
DO NOT give me power (strength)
Lest I kill that fool!

P.S: To be taken on a lighter note. Just heard it on the radio and found it very funny. This is NOT to start a women vs man fight! I am tired of that now ;-)

Why do I feel this way?

2006-09-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Bloghopping today has left me feeling more sad and confused than relaxed and contented as I usually feel. Chanced on some audio blogs and could not help myself but admire at the amazing talent we have out there.

So, I should be happy that I got to listen to some amazing stuff, but why am I feeling depressed? Why am I feeling as if I have betrayed myself?

I am feeling I am in the wrong place! I should have been somewhere there too.... What am I doing with Java? I do not belong to the world of endless for-loops, countless if-else statements, unecessary customizations! oh God! what have I done to myself?

I should have been playing with swaras and thaalas. I should have been choreographing dance dramas!

Now when I look back, 15+ years of music and dance learnings have all gone down the drain! Why did I ever let it happen this way? The hands which were capable of playing raaga-thaana-pallavi on veena now can't even think of playing one full keerthane :(

Me, who could give 3 hour dance (Bharathanatyam) performances cannot even run for 30 minutes continously on the treadmill (yuck!! what a terrible comparison! Art to exercise!).

So what happened to the artist-me? She is lost. Lost in this mad mad world. I made a mistake. I should have never given it a "break", thinking that I could always get back to it!

I miss those days, when I used to get into a totally different world while playing Thyagaraja's compositions or Purandaradasa's devaranaamas endlessly on my veena. When I became Rukmini of Krishna on stage, or Sita of Raama or Shabari waiting for Raama, or Rukmini's mother helping her elope with Krishna ;-), or just a dancer emoting so many abhinayas on stage, dancing to the intricate choreography of my dance teacher. Damn! I miss it too much.

So should I just drop everything that I have and go after what I am "passionate" about? I wish I could do that! The problem is that I enjoy work too... I like being in this corporate world. I love my job. It's challenging, fruitful and nice.

So the big question still stays: "Am I in the right place?"

Married women Vs. Dressing sense

2006-09-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

What's with these married women? No, Seriously..? What happens to their dressing sense after marriage? Is it that you no longer have to impress anybody that you no longer care how you dress?

Yesterday I saw one woman in a desi store. Red Saree, a nice one at that. But... Wait, a green blouse to it! There was not even one dot of green anywhere in the saree. If it was just that, I would have left it there thinking she didn't exactly think about attire while coming for grocery shopping. But she wore a big blue earring and pink (a very bright one at that) lipstick. That shows she had actually put some effort in dressing up! But the result was bad to say the least.

Hello! Did you think that I am talking about some "aunt"? Nopes she was a young girl! In her 25 something.

If this was one off case then I would surely not bother writing a big blog about it and eat your head also... But NO, this is not a one off case.

I have my own aunts and cousins who are examples for this "AMD" (After Marriage Dressing) syndrome. They actually dress very nicely before marriage... But once the oath is taken gone are the good dresses and good accessories going with it.

I am not biased towards desi females. The so called well-dressed phirangi females are no better either... I thought wearing jeans above your waist with a belt and a straight cut was gone-with-the-wind kinds. But no, if you see anyone wearing jeans that way just stop her and ask her if she is married. You will not get a no for an answer.

I guess they also forget what is best to wear for their body structure. Tucking in the shirt when you have a large tummy is not exactly very appealing to the on-lookers eyes! Before anybody shouts at me for being insensitive and all that.. Please I am not saying everybody should and must have a hour glass figure! Please NO! I am just wondering why can't they wear appropriate clothes. That's all.

If they were like this from day one then fine, nothing more can be said about it. But if this happens only after marriage.. Then there must be some reason to it. Some reasons I can think of:

Once you find the man of your life, then that's it! No need to look nice to anybody else. I wonder though, is not required to look nice in front of the man of your life?
There is absolutely no time to think about dress and all... Give a break.. After all they are married... Marriage is a LOT of work.
I just don't care! Now that I am already married nobody will say " If you be like this, then nobody will marry you!" ;-)
There is more to life than appearance! - Though I feel that's the "first" thing anybody will notice about you.
Oh! My husband wants me to dress this way, he likes this combination so much you see. - What is he? Color blind?

That's all I can think of. Any more insightful comments are welcome specially from the married folk.

Surprisingly it's completely opposite with men! The "I care a damn" bachelor looks are replaced by nice fitting + clean + well-maintained clothes + clean shoes.

Wait a sec.. I think I got the answer, the wify is so busy taking care of her hubby that she forgets to take care of herself and keep up with the fashion trend of the day! That's it!. Period.

My Latest Crush...

2006-09-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

For all the ignorants like me.. he is Patrick Dempsey. I saw this picture by chance while reading this article. And MY! Is he HOT!!!
I almost skipped a heart beat when I first saw his picture. Isn't it amazing how some people attract you just by their looks.
If you (specially the girls) want to know more about him, you click right away here!

P.S: Shah Rukh Khan is still number 1 on the list though!

Eloped? Get locked!

2006-09-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

Reference:

Gist of the Link: Boy loves girl. Elopes with her. Parents find him. Lock him up till he gets "better" (after all marrying a woman of your choice is a sin!). That's a "normal" story in India.

So what am I blogging about here?

One, in the above incident the poor guy was locked up for 15 years!! Can you imagine that? He spent 15 years of his formative life in a single room without a toilet!
His mother claims : He was acting insane after we separated him..hence we locked him up! - Quite a valid reason to lock up somebody huh?
She also claims that she cleaned the room everyday, but he never assaulted her - what was he to do? kill his own mother?
No charges have been framed against the parents, becasue they could not find any criminal motive behind it! - Isn't spoiling somebody's life criminal enough? Denying a person of basic rights isn't criminal?

So what if they are his parents? I do not deny the fact that parents do a lot for their children, and hence it's childrens' duty to listen to them and heed to their wishes. But isn't there a limit for everything. Also, even if he did not listen to them and brought them "dis-credit" by running away.. does that give them the right to do this way?

What did they acheive from this? They separated him from that girl because they thought that he would not be happy with her (whatever might be the reasons). Now did they keep him happy?

This is not just a one off incident. I had a friend whose mother used to beat her left and right if she even "looked" at other "guys". The "other" guys were sometimes her cousins in a function!

Are our children our "commodity"? Just becasue we gave birth to them, does it give us the right to do "whatever" with them?

When we have any trouble... we first go to our parents... but in these cases, the parents themselves are the trouble makers.. where do such children go for help?

I broke a NAIL

2006-09-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Yes :( It all started with bowling last Friday. My first ball.. And it slipped my hand and broke the nail on my right hand thumb. The nail came off with a bit of skin too! It hurt like hell! But all was forgotten while enjoying the game. I had 2 perfect strikes :D

(P.S: I don't do bowling very regularly so 2 is a big number for me in a game!).

Thought it would end there.. But do things EVER go as I think it would?

I broke another one, this time middle finger while lifting my laptop bag! These laptops can get very heavy sometimes.. specially if is made by one company named DELL :P.

Another down...

Today! Yes today another one... booohoooooo Index finger this time.. While I was drying my hair!

I have decided. Out they go... All 5 of them today! (K got it! Remaining 3 :( )My right hand is jinxed.

Che.. All this just when I had planned to attend a function tomorrow night and even bought a brand new nailpolish for it!!!!

Cruel fate!

Calvin - The ULTIMATE kid!

2006-09-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

Doesn't HIS words sound perfect for today's situation? On one side with the advent of the so-called technology, we are spoiling the natural resources left and right! On the other hand every country that I know of is fighting with some other for some reason or other. I just hope as he says, the fighting will stop some day!!!!

God, Please let me have a son/daughter who thinks/acts just like Calvin... My life will be so very interesting...:D (Getting selfish huh? Well Yes! Anything... as long as I have a child like Calvin!).

Summers

2006-09-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

This post is in reply to this!

Thank God! The summer is finally gone. Am I happy? Yayyyhhh!!!!!

Don't have to wake up with sweat in your hair and smelling awful.
Finally you can wear all those full-sleeved tops. Sleevless stuff is a lot of work! (Girls will appreciate this more.. I know)
Romantic mood in the air.... mmmmm P.... I miss you.
No need to bother about a few extra pounds here are there.. those long jackets will hide everything ;-)
Even if you don't take bath... since you don't sweat so much you won't stink so much! (This is against my principles though! This is just to add a reply to the above post.)
The city looks beautiful (read clean)!!!! - wherever you see it is white. White is pure.. White stands for peace.. White is beautiful (again read clean!)
Moisturisers are so much better and smell so nice than those stupid sun screen lotions.. which are sticky to say the least (yuckkk)
Headache, well... you get that even if you stand in the sun for long! Pee-breaks - Now you can tell "truthfully" that you could work only for 6 hours a day instead of the usual 8 hours..;-) due to "natural" reasons!!!!
Gym... There is always something called evening, if early morning is tough! And you feel nice and warm after a workout... as against sweaty, tired and miserable during summers!
Now how is eating connected with weather? As long as you cook at home.. and re-heat everytime you eat.. it's bliss... Ahhh Sambar/Rasam rice is best eaten when it's boiling hot.. imagine doing that in summer...!!!!

Welcome Winter... welcome welcome.. I have been waiting for you!

What's the big deal?

2006-09-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

With all the hungaama going on about making Vande Mataram compulsory in schools, I wonder... Does it really matter? Does singing a song "define" how patriotic we are? I do not deny that it's a great song, with lots of history behind it.
Vande Mataram, in it's true sense was not a song. It was a "feeling". All our freedom fighters sang it in one voice. Nobody (at that time) even bothered if they were Hindu, Christian, Muslim , Sikh... They sang it for it's "spirit". How come it did not hurt their religious sentiments then?
Ok, lets assume that at "that" time, the only thing in their mind was "freedom" and didn't really bother about the intricacies of a song. But NOW.. Things are different, people "think" a lot.. (the MEDIA definitely adds on to the thinking!). So now they feel the song is inappropriate for Muslim beliefs. So be it! Let them not sing it!
When will we ever grow up? Doesn't the government (read Mr.Arjun Singh) doesn't have any better work to do? Don't they realize that making anything "compulsory" makes everybody want to rebel against it? Why this now? Don't they have anything else to think about? What about poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, education (oh yes! They took care of it with 50% reservation ;-)), female infant killings, goondaism, smuggling, drugs... Oh forget it! The list is endless.. But only to me! All HE can think about is how to rake up a controversy! He is bent upon dividing us! He is the modern age Shakuni. Grrrrrrr
I don't think anybody has to prove their patriotism by singing a song! I studied in a convent, and everyday we used to sing songs praising Jesus, did it make me any less Indian?
Ha!Ha! We boast our heart out saying we are secular.. blah! blah! And then we "enforce" things... Widening the already existing gap between different sects of people! God help him! God help our country!
Vande Mataram!

- A proud, but a very sad Indian!

The INDIAN Niagara...:) There you go!

2006-08-31T11:49:00.000-07:00

Jog Falls is situated amidst dense forests of Western Ghats. She is river Sharavathi, making the falls spectacular to watch specially when she is flowing full. Raja , Roarer , Rocket and Rani are how the four different falls are called. River Sharavathi then moves on and joins the Arabian Sea at Honnavar. Feast your eyes with this vedio...

I have been to this place before :) College trip! What fun it was.... We trecked all the way down to the bottom of the falls in the wee hours of the morning. And then I slipped on a rock which had algae and fell.. broke my back! Or so I thought! I could not move a muscle... And remember we still had to treck back all the way up. My friends used the push-pull technology to somehow get me back up there. My friend N pushed me from behind and L pulled me from the front..and we made all the way like that. Went to a hospital and took an x-ray, thank God! it was just a muscle pull and I had not broken anything :) By the way, L was holding my hand when I fell... so he felt guilty all thru the trip that he let me fall down! He used to line-marofy me ;-) This L thingy is a saga in itself... I will write about it sometime when I get time.
For all you lucky guys out there in India, time to plan the next vacation?

P.S: Thanks to Pavan! He told me "how" to put this video on the blog :)

Tip Tip Barsaa Paani.....

2006-08-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

YAYYYY!!!! It finally rained in this desert!

It started with severe lightning and thunderstorms yesterday afternoon. Out fire alarm started yelling... It's not used to this you know... It needs some burning HOT sun... Sudden lightning and thunderstorms are not acceptable... So it yelled, cried, screamed like a baby for a full 45 minutes!

My ears were gone for a toss after that. I tried in vain to stop it, but nopes! It just would not budge. It kept the fire department people busy for atleast 30 minutes before relenting!

That's all you can expect.. Now come on it's 105+ from the past 2 months and suddenly out of the blue it starts raining like that... Anybody will get scared and start crying... Yes! Including the fire alarm!

Today morning. Woke up for the first time in 4 months without sweat in my hair! I was infact feeling cozy and comfortable in my bed, thanks to a cool night :). The morning looked beautiful! My coffee actually became a little less warm when I stood in the balcony sipping it! Generally it becomes more hot ;-) That is at 7 in the morning!

Finally the umbrella which I had carried and come from India for emergency situations like this came into use ;-) Opened it and "stylishly" walked to the car holding it :D I felt so nice then... Though I feel stupid right now... ***blushes***...

My car was washed in the "car-wash" just last week. But then, some crows found it very attractive to put their "mark" on it just after the wash.. And so it was there all these 4 days.. But now after this rain.. Everything is gone! Actually now thinking back, the car looks much much cleaner now than after the car-wash thingy! Nothing to beat "natural-stuff" huh?

Was in full josh in office... Generally because of the excessive heat... It drains out all the energy in me.. And I feel so tired at office. But today.... I was so happy, cheerful, energetic.. Whatnot! I am amazed what a little shower can do to your day to day life....

So I know I am blabbering... But then I am happy... I am happy that it rained.. I am happy that I got drenched in the rain yesterday.. I am happy that I walked to office with an umbrella in hand... I am happy that I am happy...

Yes!Yes!Yes! It's still drizzling slightly.... God... Let this go on forever...:) Do I even need to mention that I love rains?

The then Mahishapuri... The now Mysore.

2006-08-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

One of my friends sent me this and I couldn't help smiling and agreeing with "each-and-every" sentence! Here it goes.

Mysore cannot be experienced in holidays or weekends. Like a creeper growing and encircling the staff, you have to live, and grow with Mysore to experience it. You have to be with the ajjis who have seen you from the time you were soooo small, where the maid who works in your house is your family maid, your ajji had "recruited" her mother.

Mysore is:

When you go on an evening walk, and the poojari of the Ram mandir, stops and chats with you, and moves on saying there is a pooja at 5 next morning.
When you walk a little ahead and the librarian says he has the latest copy of "Kasturi" or "Mayura".
When the milkman sees you on a walk, and delivers an extra half litre without being asked.
When you board a bus at the bus-stand and conductor-uncle gives you a ticket without asking.
When you collect little red 'gulganji' seeds on your way back home from KukkarahaLLi lake.
When you come by the Tippu express, and you find someone going in your direction to drop you off.
When elephants are marched in from the forests for Dussehra.
When you wait for your copy of "Star of Mysore". - That's an evening daily.
When the English movies are only at Rajkamal. Or Sterling.
When you look for your KEB uncle to book tickets at Woodlands.
When there are student body elections in Sarada-Vilas.
Mysore is the eternal SJCE-NIE feud.
When Jayciana is.
When you got your project report bound at Venkateshwara Binders in Saraswatipuram.
Having grape juice at RTO circle.
Buying vegetables at Agrahara.
Buying plantain leaves in NanjumaLige, savoring the aroma of the agarbatti factory behind.
Eating ice-creams at Penguin. - That was the first "all-icecream" joint in Mysore.
Eating dosa at Mylari Hotel.
Having biriyani early in the morning, near Philo's church.
Drinking sugarcane juice near kukkarahaLLI lake.
Munching corn-on-the-cob in the palace foreground.

Mysore is when I grew up in Mysore. My Mysore.
Mysore before :

GRS
Underbridge in front of Saraswatipuram Fire Brigade
Infosys
Ring-Road.

Those who grew up in that Mysore, will relate to me more than those who came to Mysore, to work for Infosys, or those who came to study, or those who think Mysore is a good place to invest, or those who think chilling out in Mysore is just CCD or Pizza Corner.

Oh, How they misunderstand my pretty home !!!

Found out now.. that the "original" author of this post is viky
He has commented here!

Thanks Viky! For transporting me back to nammooru...:) When I was reading this, I forgot that I was in Uncle Sam's Land..and was actually visualising each and every place you had mentioned there!

Yes! I have GREY MATTER... But it's a PAIN!

2006-08-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Whenever I used to complain to my mom about head ache, she used to say "don't worry, it will go in some time. Sleep for few minutes. By the way, if you have headache, it only proves that you have "head" and that's why it aches ;-)"

I now have a terrible head ache. This is bad, pathetic what not! It's been there from yesterday afternoon. It's complete 24 hours now and yet it has no idea of leaving my head. Somebody please tell me how to get rid of this?

Now that it's proven that I have a head... I don't want to prove it more... Please ache.. Please go!!!!!

I tried the below mentioned remedies- none worked, in case you are still wondering!

Had a HOT cup of STRONG coffee - This one has been tried and tested before, and it has 99% success rate!

Put 2 inches of Amruthanjan - The ad claims, the head ache will disappear in 5 mins. It's 24*60 minutes now. Still no clue of disappearing

Switched off my laptop (with great difficulty) and just stood in the balcony for the whole of the evening! - Texas is HOT! So it was not exactly very pleasant outside. But still endured it to prevent myself from going anywhere near my laptop or the Idiot Box (read TV)

Had hot water - first drank some, and then took bath also!

I generally wear glasses while working on the computer. But yesterday I wore it even while in a meeting - Thought the headache was because of eye-strain

Haven't listened to music for full 24 hours - This is the toughest part. But yes! I tried that as well

Took an advil - I am generally against taking medicines for small things. But this time it was unbearable, so at the 21st hour, took it. But it's full 3 hours after that and still the head ache is ON

Somebody please tell me.. Apart from cutting off my head, is there any other way to get rid of this pain! Innovative ideas that will make my life more interesting are welcome ;-)