After a long time... and yes relations still are complicated!

I know, this title does'nt make sense! Well can't think of any right now, to be frank, this is the first time that I have written a title first and then the post, so if there seems a disconnect between the title and the post, you know from where that's coming.
Enough of the disclaimers... I have been away from the blog for so long, I was scared I might end up forgetting how to find it! Well, with a kid around, things are not easy, and whenever you do find some tiny bit of free time, you tend to sleep...this is the story of most new parents nowadays... sleep deprived parent... I must add ... It just makes me wonder how my mom took care of us when we were babies or toddlers for that matter... whew!
That brings me to another topic, Why are we so judgemental about everything, more so if there is a girl/woman involved. First of all, till things are not outright heroic, we tend to assume, that's simple .... everyone does it. I mean I never fully understood the complexities of being a mom and raising a kid, till I had one. I regret many of my outbursts targeted at my mom now... I mean most of the mom's are our punching bags... stressbusters. Dad's furious, boss is irritating, work pressure... study tension... you could take it all out on mom... But did we ever stop and think, how does she release her stress... and yes when she does try by getting irritating or edgy... we blame it on the age gap and tend to say ' Oh mom's are so nagging!'
If a wedding is called off, people so easily and quickly judge that it must be the girl's fault. I mean if the girl calls it off , then it is ; 'she must adjust' If the boy calls it off, then there must be some problem with the girl.
It could have been a mutual decision... or even if it was not, who are we to expect them to follow our belief's and thoughts. Are'nt they told enough to know what's good for them! Why this sudden outburst of soceital commitment and lessons in rightous behaviour?
The society was formed so that humans could live safely and lead a life free of chaos. Sadly, today society itself is one of the dangers. Be it honour killings, dowry deaths or plain mental torture of the 'log kya kahenge' phenomenon. If only we could ponder more before we talk and behave, things could be so different.

Something that I learnt today..

While waiting in a hospital today for a general checkup, a small girl of 7-8 years entered the corridor. She had a sweet smile and giggled at anything, just like a normal 7-8 year old girl would. On her way in, she acknowledged a nurse and had some small talk with the receptionist.

Her father, trying to catch up with her as she glided across the foyer, looked so happy playing her simple game. Everything was so normal and usual about her… except for the mask on her face.

She had a pale green mask on her face; as she entered the waiting room, she transformed into a mature girl who sat quietly in one of the empty chairs while her father fussed about her food. As a doctor passed, she jovially wished the doctor ‘Good morning madam… How have u been’. The doctor smiled back and they exchanged pleasantries. She looked so calm and serene, as the doctor said ‘Come let’s have your check-up done’ and took her to the Oncology department.

My heart ached to see her go in. Many thought crossed my mind. She is barely 8… she hardly even understands the gravity of the situation… It must have been so painful for her & her family. I do not know her, but unknowingly I said a silent prayer for her. The next minute I found cajoling myself to believe that she had been treated and is perfectly alright now.. she must be safe now… She must have just come for a post treatment checkup and everything must have returned to normalcy in her life… It must have been something really small…

I know she will be fine. Nowadays, cancer is not perceived as critically dangerous. Most of the patients can be and are treated everyday all over the world. If detected at an early stage, patients are cured fully and never have to bother about it ever again…

Yet, I don’t know why I felt like writing about her… A simple girl in a green uniform, who I will never know… yet who left a lasting impression on me. She taught me today, ‘everything can be overcome… its just the way you approach it that matters’!

Straight out of a realty show- in the middle of a mundane office week!

Nowadays I take a bus home. As I ran and hopped into a bus yesterday, still congratulating myself to have managed to get it just in time, I realized, for some reason heavens were smiling down at me – a nearly vacant bus that too during peak office hours, is nothing short of a blessing!

I made myself comfortable in one of the seats and by the next two stops, the bus was full to its capacity. While I was staring out of the window listlessly, I suddenly hear a voice- a booming voice from one of the front seats. I thought to myself – must be one of those mobile quarrels and continued to amuse myself with the varied shaped that passed by my window.

Sadly, the voice was too loud for anybody to concentrate on anything other than the conversation. He was speaking in Kannada, with a voice modulation that imitated Rajkumar (the famous Karnataka actor) and the style of his talk and hand movements resembled that of Rajnikant! Now when such eminent actors are entertaining you, what else can be intriguing enough than eves dropping on that conversation – correction listening to the rendition. The voice was loud enough to be heard in the next bus on a busy Tuesday evening, so technically it cannot be eves dropping!

Well coming back to the conversation- I must say it was quite amusing, especially when the speaker is not sitting next to you. He started with claims of being as pure as a dove and was visibly hurt with someone calling him a thief! He also said when he could handle thousands with ease why would he bother with a few hundreds… and on and on.

First, I thought this whole rendition was directed to the passenger next to him, and hence I assumed that they must have been traveling together. After some more talk circling around this so-called ‘great Indian robbery’ he suddenly offered the passenger sitting next to him, coffee at ‘Café Coffee day’ that was located somewhere completely off the bus route! Do you realize the predicament of the guy, who as I realize now, was equally baffled as I was about the whole scenario.

His distant dream of having a short nap on the journey back home been cruelly crushed by some unknown passenger, who wanted him to listen to his sob story. By the time, his destination had come and he had prepped up to the idea of having some piping hot food and watch TV, the poor guy was being stopped and asked to alight the bus with some unknown person (obviously a drunkard) way off his house route.

The person finally lost his patience, got agitated and a little scared. He started shouting at the drunkard while calling the conductor. I expected this to be straight out of MTV bakra and inc. I expected a hidden camera to come out, the drunkard smiling and explaining the plot while removing his wig and everybody clapping and smiling…. Sadly none of this happened. The poor person, got down the bus shouting at the drunkard and ran for his life the moment he got hold of his belongings. The drunkard also being asked to alight, our bus moved on…

No lights, no camera and no Bakra – this was life, weirder than illusions!

You can’t be fine till you spend a bomb!

I had the misfortune of visiting a BIG hospital for a trivial thing. The fact is that as we don’t know many small clinics around my place we resort to the one that’s closest.
Well when we went there we just needed an appointment to come in later and meet the doc, however these multistory, multi-specialty hospitals don’t seem to work that way.

The moment we asked if there was an appointment available for today the lady at the enquiry desk promptly asked us to fill in a form! I thought she didn’t hear me and I said I would do all that however I am in a rush right now and it would be great if she could tell me if I could have an appointment. She said “ The doctor's in from 9 to 7.30pm”

Oh what the heck, a form might not take a long time, so I filled it and gave it to her. Cling goes the printer and I am asked to shell out Rs 400! I always thought I pay the doc after he’s checked me! Apparently this is another of those things that these BIG hospitals don’t seem to follow!

She said I could see the doc on the second floor. Well now that I had paid, I thought it wouldn’t do much harm if I visited him immediately. Check-up’s don’t take more than 10-15 min isn’t it! However the moment we reached the said place I realized this was A BIG mistake and before I could overcome the claustrophobic feeling and take to my heels I had been sucked into the whirlpool!

There were swarms of people waiting for a check-up. The waiting people, the harried receptionist and the nurses running in and out gave me an impression of a wedding! The receptionists looked like the frenzied parents of the girl who were not sure if they should be welcoming the guests, taking care of them, looking after their daughter, listening to the pundit or shouting at the caterer!

The patients seemed as clueless as me. I knew I still had time to run away when the receptionist asked me to hand over my file. I hadn’t spent 10 minutes in that hospital and I already had a file! My doctor for many years who has a clinic just down the road in Pune doesn’t seem to have a shred of paper with my name on it and yet knows my complete history which he magically seems to recall whenever I visit him! Well I gave the file and she obediently handed it over to some other person. Then someone came and asked me to enter a room on the right.

Oh fine, lets just get done with this. This isn’t much of an ordeal… Tch Tch… too much too soon...I was about to realize. There was a junior doc there, who fired me with rapid fire questions, with no option to think or ask questions. Hmm...and I always thought docs were there to resolve our queries and calm our fears! Then she asked me to go to the room on the left ‘we need to check your weight’. Obediently I entered and found nobody there, but a sad looking weighing scale as if in its last few days pleading that it can’t handle anymore weight! I assumed we were to weigh ourselves and inform the doctor but the weighing scale didn’t seem to be working.

Just them a nurse rushed in and did something to get it working and fired the next round of instructions! Had I been really sick, by now I would have fainted! But as might hearted as I am, I continued to undergo the ordeal while telling myself and trying to tell the docs that there is nothing so serious to be worrying about!

While we were awaiting in the corridor for the next round of instructions the harried receptionist asked a nurse in the next room ‘Could you jab quicker?’ there are many more to go! Weren’t hospitals supposed to be different than assembly line, especially if the tagline read ‘Inspired by Life’!

Finally I was asked to enter the room in the center where the elusive doctor existed. She saw (not checkup) me, my FILE and gave some vitamin tablet and off I go out! After about 2 hours of running around the doctors were finally convinced that it was nothing but a trivial allergic symptom. Oh well, wasn’t it that what I had been trying to tell from the moment I entered the damn hospital! Apparently it is not acceptable till it comes from the horse’s mouth!

Stardom at a cost

I kind of stumbled upon Amitabh Bacchan’s blog today. Well I was searching some stuff for my research and I ended up finding Amitabh’s blog. Now that I was on it, I decided to read a little and move on… However the Grand Opera’s image at the start of the post caught my eye. It was a grand and opulent theater..

You might say, what else would you expect in Paris but this place had an old world charm attached to it which instantly transported you to the world of ballets & musicals. An era when the affluent rich with long silk gowns and hand-held glasses donned the audience section!

Well, coming back to the blog as I read through, Amitji described the theater and all well. He also mentioned about a bunch of ladies who were chattering non-stop with pointed figures towards him. Obviously they recognized him and could not stop boasting about their knowledge of him. These are obviously not Amitabh’s words and if he reads them I am sure he wouldn’t approve of it. He is just too gracious and sophisticated for this.

But reading that made me think. We as audience take star’s privacy for granted. I mean he is an old man working non-stop with a hectic schedule. If he decides to take a short break, enjoy some time to himself or even pursue a hobby or watch a play, ballet or musical like any normal person, who are we to pounce on him and rob him off even that?

I mean imagine you sitting in a theater watching a movie and having a good time with your wife/husband and two rows away there is a person who knows you. That person doesn’t just stop at giving you a pleasant smile and acknowledging glace or sharing a few pleasantries but starts chatting non-stop with others about what an amazing person you are and how good your friendship is etc… Frankly wouldn’t you be irritated?

I agree that these people are in the glamour industry and almost everything they do is news, but is it right on our part to actually rob them off their meager privacy and family time too? After all we are all entitled to our short breaks, vacations with family, pursuing an hobby, taking off and watching a play/ concert that we wanted to see to badly… Why should they be treated any different?

Friends- the best part of life!

So many hands in 1 tiffin box.

So many friends on 1 bench

So many calls on 1 b’day night.

So many tears for 1little fight….

Friends are the best part of your life…

I got this message early morning and it innately brought a smile on my face! This was so true. School and college remain the best part of my life… and I guess for many this holds true. What makes them so memorable are our friends.

Even today while reading the message, end-number of images flashed before my eyes. Though I am not in touch with them on regular basis – except for the social networking sites, it doesn’t matter. They just seem so close.

I still remember the tiffin sharing days. The days when you invariably liked what your friend bought in his tiffin-box. The days when many hands in the tiffin box never bothered you. These small things were an involuntary part of our existence at some point of time.

Even today I can vividly remember the numerous hilarious incidents, our favourite pastimes, incessant chatter, the stupid fights and countless days that we spent together, while I can’t remember a single day from my so-called professional and fast-paced existence to save my life! (apart from promotions and salary hikes, ofcourse!)

School and college life has a fervor and effervescent tapestry that makes it so cherished. Where else could you participate in interschool/collage games & cultural events with your friends. Chatter and spend long hours with each other while doing nothing. Go to competitions, just to cheer your friends while you had no business hanging around there?

Or when else could you gate-crash at a friends place or call them all over to your place and have a blast. Mid-night calls on their b’days or just take off for trips and treks in the monsoon. Party in meager pocket money. When else could you plan things in a giffy and doing anything was no BIG DEAL as long as your friends were along.

Then our life did not revolve around, appraisals, promotions, salary hikes, office grapevine or things life maid’s not coming, husbands busy, kids not well, no money, no holiday etc. Now things are complicated (or we have made them to be) and with fewer friends coming along, its even more difficult to ease out.

All I can say is… “Thank God I collected some amazing and truly wonderful friends on the way. They really make your life much easier in this crazy maze of life”

Babbling away...

I have been feeling bottled up for some time, bored with no enthusiasm to do anything whatsoever. It is frustrating at times to be listlessly doing the routine stuff week after week. Nothing seems to affect you…and then suddenly, late Friday evening, I get a message that I have an off the next day! Imagine getting an off when you were just getting ready for another grueling day at work.

Oh boy, my joy knew no bounds! It was like finding money in your jean pocket when you were totally broke. It was like being invited for a banquet when you felt you would die of hunger! A little over exaggerated, but this very well summarizes my joy! I had no clue of what I would do, but was just blissful.

I still haven’t figured out, what exactly made me so joyous and what did I do with my sudden found time. But whatever it was, the fact that my rant is not about my maid’s sudden disappearance or about the dumb movie that I saw or about the water/electricity bills, costly veggies and groceries or any other general humdrum of managing a house, it sure worked.

The dosage of blissful mirth, untroubled lazing around and living without agenda sure worked for me, having pulled me out of the deep swirling shallows of boredom and plugged existence.

A tragedy long forgotten….

Yesterday I skimmed through a book based on the Bhopal gas tragedy. The images in the book were shot by Raghu Rai and the copy was written by a senior journalist who had covered the Bhopal gas tragedy extensively. Well I must attribute this as one of the perks of working under a famous photographer as otherwise I don’t think I would have been able to lay my hands on it.

The tag line read “ Portrait of a corporate crime”. What followed were tragic images , all black and white… all narrating a tale… a tale of disaster… a tale of never-ending suffering …a tale of annihilation. Leafing through the pages and reading the blurbs made blood churn towards the apathy shown by Union Carbide and the Indian government. Who was to be blamed? The corporate as they did not comply with the safety measures, illegally stored large quantities of highly volatile gases or the corrupt government that gave them the courage to flout all rules? Or our ‘chalta hai’ and fatalist attitude ?

The preface recounted the 1984 tragedy. How the leak was triggered during the routine maintenance check and how it complicated due to absence of safety measures and then quickly manifested due to the callous attitude of the corporate and their inefficiency in informing the police and local administration at the earliest. A dangerous monster was unleashed that night on a town of more than 2 lakh residents that engulfed the city, its people and left in its wake daunting memories. For the survivors this was the beginning of a long struggle. Struggle for compensation, struggle for survival, struggle for a dignified life all which remain elusive till date.

In Raghu Rai’s words "What I saw was to change my life. It was an unprecedented scene of chaos. What startled me most was the silence of death. Thousands of people had already died, thousands more than those who died in the 11 September attack on the World Trade Centre. I vowed then and there to continue my work, to do all I could to show the world what happens to people when corporations are not held liable for their operations, when they are allowed to cut costs and safety standards when they operate abroad."

To date, 20,000 have died from gas exposure and the effects are now extending into the next generation. 1,50,000 of the survivors are chronically ill and communities are drinking contaminated groundwater because Dow has still not cleaned up the dangerous chemicals Union Carbide left behind. After almost 24 years they are still living the nightmare that started on the night of 2/3 Dec 1984.

I could do nothing more than say a silent prayer with tearful eyes and hope they find peace and dignity atleast now.

Ganapati Bappa Morya…

The resounding chants of Ganapati Bappa Morya, the taal, dhol, pataka and the miravnuk… None of this during the Ganapati…

Before anybody launches a huge protest, I am talking about Bangalore. Well needless to say I miss the fun and the exuberance attached to this festival. The joy and the anticipation with which people await Ganapati’s arrival. Its more like welcoming a dear guest home and ensuring his stay is extremely comfortable and happy. When I was a part of all this, sometimes I felt it was too noisy and unnecessary, now devoid of it I cant imagine the festival!

Me and nik decided to celebrate ganapati at home this time. We didn’t actually go to the extent of getting the idol home, but did an elaborate ‘pooja’ complete with aartis and ‘Ganapati Bappa Morya, Mangalmurti morya’ chants. We actually went shopping for the pooja items after office.

Early morning, I realized I had to make the ‘Panchamruth’ and I forgot the ingredients. Well this called for quick action and the obvious was an SOS call to my mom, but she wouldn’t answer! I mean in time of need… what worse can you expect? After some more quick calls, it was my aunt who saved the day! After the elaborate pooja, modaks and lunch…we still felt there was something missing.

And then I realized it was not just the ritual but the joy, the bonding with which people celebrate this festival that made the difference. The 10 days are filled with fun. Small things like singing aarti at the neighbours house, coz they have the ganesha idol at home is looked forward to. Apart from relatives visiting each other, and mouth watering modaks, the bigger attraction is the ‘dekhave’. The various decorations and acts that are set-up by the Ganapati mandals. I vividly remember the excitement with which we awaited going out to see the decorations. Roaming on the streets far into the night, trying to catch a glimpse of all the mandal ganapatis and their acts on the way, with just a quick halt for some mid-night snacks that’s dished out relentlessly at every corner.

And then finally the ‘Visarjan’, when people finally bid adieu to their beloved god, followed by the chants of ‘Pudhchya varshi laukar ya’ i.e come again early, next year. The procession is equally zestful, with varied decorations, rangolis, flowers and mirthful atmosphere everywhere. Oh well, now you know how much I missed all the excitement.

Nevertheless, I am always at peace when this festival arrives. It could be blind-faith, it could be just the exuberance attached to the festival. Whatever it is, it truly heals me, helps me overcome my fears, my sorrows and almost always leaves me with a positive effect…all I can say is ‘Ganapati Bappa Morya, Mangal murti moray!’

Food for thought...... some random lines

Was reading ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ by Al gore. There is an image in the book. On a black full spread sheet there is a tiny dot in the middle. The description reads “Earth as captured from space”

It made me think - Earth is such a tiny thing in this vast universe and we are a miniscule part of it, yet we have created and manifested so many problems for ourselves even in that tiny space! We have even been successful in wrecking the lives of many innocent animals and plants, who don’t even have a say or an option to retaliate against what we have been doing to this Earth.

Apart from this mess that we are already in, we fight between ourselves over borders, religion, caste, colour etc. Even on an individual front there is a daily battle – battle for survival. We are marred by competition, ego, self-pity, jealousy, greed, hatred etc. All this only to try and create supremacy in this minute space?

Now I am not on a spiritual or self-discovery trip. Nor am I making any attempt to say that I am devoid of all this! Yet some recent experiences just reinstated the feeling of life being unpredictable, unexpected and sometimes cruel. Hence I couldn’t help but laugh when I realized that we spend the whole life conquering something and at the end of if, when you see the big picture you realize it just doesn’t make a difference. Then why harness so much of ill-faith and hatred when at the next moment you could be gone without a trace!

By trying to make our and others life simple and spreading peace and compassion we would have atleast left behind some happy and cherished memories… This need not be at the world level, as an individual this can be practiced at least within family inturn creating a ripple effect!

Our adventure hiking

Our latest trip was a hike, close to Bangalore. The area was close to Muthadi village and we were supposed to hike along the Cauvery river bank to Doddamakali fishing camp. This was going to be exciting as we were 11 people and all of us had come to know each other just recently.

After a discussion of 4-5 days all the details were fixed, a special mention to the efforts put in by some of the enthusiast who had chalked out every single detail that might be needed and done the necessary arrangements. Finally the D-day arrived and we were ready by 6 to leave. The vehicle after picking up all the members headed for Mutadi by 7. The journey was enjoyable as we started playing the usual antakshari and stuff. It vaporized the journey fatigue.

As we neared the forest base, a deer suddenly appeared and it crossed the road in just one swift leap as we were coming close by! The agileness with which the deer leaped, its beautiful skin, the long antelope, the slender legs… this is one incident I would never forget. Nature’s beauty in action

Once we reached the starting point our real adventure started. To start with, the forest official there said the area had been cordoned off and we could not go till the Doddamakali fishing camp. To top it, he dampened our spirits by saying there was a rough elephant on loose! Hearing this we were petrified- imagine encountering a wild elephant with just a stick to defend yourself!

However looking at the kind of discussions these officials were having between them, some of the people in the group decided to go ahead as it was evident they were expecting some bribe or trying to extort money under the name of guide charges!

All of us decided to go ahead with our plan, however stay parallel to the road as much as possible - so no venturing into the deep! The moment we made a dash into the forest, the first things that greeted us were huge thorny creepers. All of us were tangled in some branch or the other and by the time we freed ourselves all of us were left with small bruises or scratches! We did have a tangled entry into the forest!

Next task was identifying the river flow, this was not too difficult. We could actually hear the river from far off. As we reached close to the bank, we found the river bank dotted with ‘Jamun trees’ and being true to the Panchatantra story of ‘Jamun tree monkey and the crocodile’ the monkeys and the crocs were not too far off. Two crocs were sun bathing on a small island in the middle of the river. Our first experience with wild life while in the forest- unaided! The waters were shallow and after an encounter with crocs at such a close distance nobody dared to step in the water- well atleast for the next 1hr....... continued*

* Click on the title for the remaining post

Our adventure hiking... continued

As we continued along the bank we were moving upstream and hence the water was gushing at an increased pace. Using the scientific knowledge that crocs don’t dwell in running water, many of the members in the group decided to take a dip. However they kept a watchful eye and ensured to remain close to the bank.

We on the other hand had a hearty snack while others had a splash. I was not too keen to jump in the water and then complete the trek in those drenched clothes! As it is walking after getting wet is too tough – walking while donning the wet clothes was out of question for me! :D

After this short break we continued on our path for the next 1 hr. Again we encountered some men- two or three of them forest officials, having a hearty meal close to the river. Some of them had come in a coracle. Seeing us one of them came and said, the area beyond this point is cordoned off. There have been some poacher sightings and there could be blasts in some time.

We were quite puzzled by these statements. Blasts to catch a poacher? Didn’t make sense! What was even more suspicious was that when we went to the place where they had been having food we found some carcass of a wild animal. Wonder who the poachers were? However seeing the officials and this being the second warning we decided not to test our luck beyond this and decided to have a quick bite before planning the next course of action. Some enthusiast in the group decided to take a detour and trek the hillock close by while we had the ‘Bhel’!

Now we had the ingredients and it was just a matter of mixing the stuff. As we laid out our unusual meal we had some uninvited guests too- the monkeys! Lots of them. Left with just 6 people we had to fend for ourselves. Basically, eat and keep the monkeys at bay at the same time!

The monkeys on their part acted as if this was ‘WAR’. They actually had their group divided into two parts and tried to attack the food from both ends! We wielded our sticks at them, but it didn’t make a difference to them. The smallest of monkeys shrieked at us – as if to say, ‘You guys come on our turf and assume you could have all the food while we stared!’ But we were not to be bogged down by this. The war for food began and we were actually protecting our food like we were a bunch of tribals! :P

Finally, we were victorious and hence we decided to leave some food for the monkeys to feast on! As it is, it was unlikely that they had ‘Bhel’ before! Also while we were lunching we did hear two blasts. Poachers or no poachers the blasts were enough to rattle us up and we decided to take the safe trip back! Fighting with monkeys is one thing, but imagine having to thread some dynamite field- no way, this was not even some reality show that expects participants to do such dumb things!

As we walked back the cherry on the icing happened. It rained cats and dogs while we huddled three in an umbrella! The weather was beautiful and the forest was suddenly in its full bloom. It was a treat to watch… just being there at that moment!

Is it 'childhood lost' for them...

It’s rainy season in India. Though it has not been raining enough to suffice that it’s a rainy season, it feels good!

The other day as I got ready to leave from office it started raining heavily. The first reaction while looking out of the window was - the drive back home is going to be messy and wet… as I waited in the lobby for the rains to subdued, I could see small water streams forming around and nostalgia hit me.

At various ages in life the rains had been responsible for bringing joy in my life. As a child I loved creating paper boats and derived great joy in seeing them stay afloat. We waited eagerly for the first rains and when they came … we friends got wet, splashed water and enjoyed to our hearts content.

In school, we found ways to miss (forget) the raincoat, cycled in the rains, drove through the puddles, splashing water every time we did that, ate hot bhajis and played football… Nothing changed in college, only the cycles were replaced by bikes and snack became a little more elaborate. And rainy season picnics became the hot pick!

Still cuddling my good old days - I drove through the various residential areas and I was surprised to see not a single child enjoying the rains. No children frolicking in the rains- no paper boats, no bhajis, no football and no laughter!

Is it that the children today are so busy competing at every level that they have no time to relish these simple joys? Is it that the society has made it mandatory that everybody should belong to a cult that thinks complex, thinks prosperity and thinks knowledge… there is no place for such simple and naive feelings?

I am amazed to see small children well versed in computers but not able to remember when was the last time they got their hands dirty in the mud. Now this can be argued that soiling hands in the mud does not help them be more learned but computers would help them get an edge over other children. But come to think of it, if children start doing what we as elders do all the time- compete in this rat-race, when do they ever enjoy being children? ... the joy that most of us have had – naturally as a part of growing up.

Back after my short break!

After my short but hectic break I am back. This time it was more to do with family commitment than office. Now that I have resumed work and run around doing my chores I wonder am I too being mechanical or robotic?

There are so many things that I want to do, there are so many causes that I want to fight for… but where’s the time? Or is it just a convenient alibi? Thanks to blogging I try to accomplish a few of my ideas though partially or in a very small way. But there are so many things I wish I could do

In my student life I participated in social activities or causes and always felt once I start earning I would be able to further these causes in a bigger way, but the sad part is now apart from giving donations I hardly do anything much!

Same goes with my traveling! Either I am too busy or on a leave crunch! My father-in-law started going round the world since he was 30 and today after 3 decades he still has to cover almost half the world! When and how would I do that?

I would love to spend more time with my family. Share the joys and sorrow. But I can hardly make it to meet them once in a while!

Is it the modern life, career aspirations, MONEY that is pulling me away from fulfilling my desires or is it something else… something like I am too lazy to get going and do all this :P

I really envy an ex-colleague of mine who had the guts to actually get up one fine morning and call it all quits. She then went ahead on a long travel plan and followed her heart! How many of us in this modern world can actually muster the courage to do this?

I was tagged... I was tagged

Well this was a surprise for me and as I was out vacationing had no clue about anything till yesterday!

To start off with I need to mention 6 quirky things about myself!

1. Love to play my music and dance while I cook. you know using the spoons and the pans as my partner!

2. Make faces while standing in front of the mirror.

3. Enact some movie dialogues when least expected. Like someone says sorry and I respond wioth some dramatic dialogue - drives people nuts!

4. Use a straw to drink a cold drink and blow air into it rather than sip the drink.

5. Read any historic/ancient stories or myths associated with a place and try solving those mysteries when there :P

6. I can never end a story. My stories go in circles and hence 'short story' is not my cup of tea (writing I must say!)

This was fun and I need to thank Maria for it! :D

Is politics entering the blogging arena?

We had just about managed to get over the celebrity blog fanfare, when the media zeroed in on another blog… and this time it was Lalu Yadav. The blog too, on its part started on a fiery note. Commenting on the Gujjar agitation, where he squarely blamed Vasundhara Raje for the loss that railways suffered. The papers and all other news channel carried the story as if it was the biggest event in the world.

After the matter subsided, I was curious to see how Lalu’s blog was faring and hence I hit the road on mission ‘Lalu blog hunting’ –going obviously the google way! To start off with, it was a little difficult to hunt the blog. Next, when I hit the hyperlink to my dismay I was greeted with a ‘down for updation’ page. This had nothing to do with Lalu I believe. I think he should have picked a better platform for blogging or if getting Lalu to create a blog was a marketing gimmick on the part of www.popcorn.com, they should have atleast had some state of art technology that need not be updated in such a crude manner.

However I stumbled upon an article in the economic times with insights on the state of Lalus blog and I must say it was hilarious! People had actually turned his blog into a railway complaint box. Well, what can I say? Had he stuck to the topic he knows best, handling railways, probably his blog would have served a better purpose and would have been much more meaningful than ending up as a sloppy political tool used to strike back at opponents.

This made me realize the effects if all our politicians go the blogging way -


The politicians would publish individual videos or vlogs, that address the nation

The morning ‘Parliament session’ would be off air. Instead it would be converted into podcats and distributed across internet.

Their comments section would be filled with blame and retaliation against each other.

The common man on the other hand would be able to post complaints on the blogs.

These piling complaints would then be aired on the news channel that would make a story on how inefficient our politicians are even in this internet age.

The NSO rankings on search engine would be aired on channels the way stock prices are shown. This would determine the popularity of the politicians

In the election season, online polls would be run on individual blogs to gauge the politicians popularity and check what people want in terms of roti, kapada makan so that politicians can continue to podcast their address with those promises.

The public at large would still be at the same point – viewing the blog story on news channel and wondering how does it help them ! :)

The morning philosophy…

The moment I stepped out of the house, I was struck by the wonderful weather! Rushing off to office in my usual way I had no time to ponder about the lovely weather and as I drove and became a part of the maddening Bangalore prime time traffic I cursed myself for not stopping and enjoying the little joys bestowed by life!

Well if you are living in a city and have a boring routine of office- home-office, you would immediately second my thoughts about enjoying lovely weather! Coming back to the point, as I was busy cursing myself and veering myself away from taking off on a long drive, I was engulfed by swarming herds of people who were driving to office.

It stuck me as very strange - all dressed in almost similar attire, including me. I was reminded of Star wars- war of the clones or something similar. I am actually not a big fan of Star wars. We were all geared up in jackets with laptop bags or sacks, helmets and some of us even carried lunch boxes. Most of them were couples who went to office together.

All were busy thinking just one thing- ‘How can I overtake the guy before me?’ All were struggling to ensure that not even an inch of road remains empty. Many were even multi-tasking, talking on the mobile, while riding the two- wheeler and overtaking the one before- all at the same time. All of them were in a hurry and wanted to be the first to get out of this traffic bottleneck!

I found it ridiculous that people enjoyed doing this senseless thing day in and day out but didn’t have a moment to enjoy the lovely weather, be pleasant and have a peaceful ride to office. Everybody looked as if they were being driven by an invisible remote control that seemed to be efficiently managing their time.

All said and done, I can’t deny the fact that after brief rumination on this matter, I had no better alternative but to join the party! Be a part of this maddening traffic and fight to be the first one as I inch forward through the traffic maze!

It saddened me that I was being a part of this robotic world where pennies seem to shine brighter than the stars and stress seems to be synonymous with a happy life! Just awaiting my long break that would carry me away from all this- to a bliss that allowed me to experience the little things that create nature! Nature- a theater where magic is created every moment!

My blog gets a fresh look

Finally was able to change the template of my blog! Had been thinking about it for a week, messed up the process yesterday and finally today …. It was a grand success!

I had wanted to move away from the usual stuff for some time now but as usual had no inkling on going about it! Then while surfing I stumbled upon this site that gave off free design templates. My joy knew no bounds :P As it is for me to design my own template would take another life if not more…so I will have to manage with such external support till maybe they come up with an idea where they do the coding part and I just place the components… somewhat like a blog. Otherwise where else would I have been voicing my opinions!

For now I am happy with the new look and grateful to sites like Finalsense whose foresight has come in handy for the zestful like me (now u realize how happy I am with the change, I actually wrote a whole post!)

I hope the internet bigwigs take my idea seriously and discover a way for people to personalize their templates. That would give a new arena for people like me to explore! Till then…. I am happy with the girl in the wind!

An organization with a difference!

The other day while watching the CNN-IBN news channel, I came across a feature covering an NGO in Surat, Gujarat. In a second I was about to dismiss the news as ‘just another organization’ and flip to another channel but something made me stay.

The NGO was working with street beggars. They roped in the beggars and made them work on tasks like vegetable farming. The beggars were paid a nominal amount daily for working in the farm and at the end of the cycle; they were to sell their produce in the market.

The profits made after selling such products were shared equally among the group. I liked the novel idea where the NGO just did not ask for donations, nor was there any ‘pity’ or ‘sorrow’ in their effort. They were empowering these people, many of whom had turned to begging after finding no other way to earn a living. The NGO didn’t make the beggars feel helpless or give them a gloomy picture. This was more of an effort to bestow on them their self-esteem and guide them to help themselves.

This concept has supported beggars who were actually interested in making a difference to their life and were not sure how to go about it. This is not something that I said though; it was from a transformed beggar himself!