Kaleidoscope of thoughts

Women Inspirers

2011-09-21T17:42:00.001+05:30

I guess I am a feminist as I am inspired by the powerful women who have been and are around in this world of ours. Whoever knows me also know that I devour books like crazy but what they would not have realized would be that I am someone who read/invariably select books where the mainly women are strong and inspirational.

I take as my role model women who have carved a niche in history with their inspirational lives, one of my first role model came to me by accident you can say. Our school had organized a book fair and I was given money to pick up book by my Mom. I went through the entire collection the fair had and finally selected a book on the life of the first women doctor- Elizabeth Blackwell- an autobiography on her life. A woman who was so determined that she wanted to become a doctor she did not think it was impossible instead she strived towards it with determination and hard work in an age and society that deemed women were supposed to learn to be good daughters, wives, mothers and hostess and nothing more.

The second role model was Noor Inayat Khan the first female radio operator to enter occupied France to aid the French resistance. I don’t exactly remember where I picked up her autobiography-Spy Princess- The life of Noor Inayat Khan but this was a book on another inspirational woman who like Elizabeth was determined to do what she wanted to even in adverse conditions. Hers story was of how a demure and innocent looking women was brave and did her bit in the war against Nazi’s.

My next 2 role models has come into my life very recently, and came to me through articles I read in the paper, The Hindu to be exact. One was an article by Navin Chawla on a woman who is known world over and is an inspiration to many- Mother Theresa. Later on I realized that he has written an autobiography on her and coincidentally on the same day as I read the article was able to pick her autobiography from the book fair organized in our office J. I am still reading the book and am not even half way through it but I have able to identify the same traits of resilience and determination that I found while reading the autobiographies of Elizabeth and Noor.

They are strong individuals who are sure of what they want in life and are determined to achieve it pushing past hurdles that are thrown in their way. They dream big and are hell bent on seeing to it that it is realized. I sometimes wish that I had that kind of strength of character and big dreams to realize.

I know I told that there are 2 more roles models and I have just mentioned Mother Theresa. My next source of inspiration came to me through another article I read in The Hindu. It was an article written by her that I liked, I had already read the book written by her which won her the Booker prize during my college days (I think you must have by now guessed whom I talking about), and got me to search for other articles by her on the net- Arundhati Roy. I found her to be one of the sane voices amidst the insanity that surged the country last week- the massive protest against corruption- Jan Lokpal Bill. And I liked her article as it had the same questions and view which I myself had and would have asked. I also loved the interview she gave to CNN- IBN on the massive protest that took place last week against corruption to Sagarika Ghose. I find her brave and to strongly voice on many of the serious issues that the world is facing today and has no qualms on writing them out in strongly worded articles or speaking it out loud.

I rather not be ANNA

2011-09-21T17:30:00.005+05:30

The write up by Arundati Roy in Hindu, the only sane voice I felt that resounded in all that tamasha of Janlok Pal Bill. Her article echoes a lot of the questions I wanted to ask. So here is the article for you to read.

While his means maybe Gandhian, his demands are certainly not.

If what we're watching on TV is indeed a revolution, then it has to be one of the more embarrassing and unintelligible ones of recent times. For now, whatever questions you may have about the Jan Lokpal Bill, here are the answers you're likely to get: tick the box — (a) Vande Mataram (b) Bharat Mata ki Jai (c) India is Anna, Anna is India (d) Jai Hind.
For completely different reasons, and in completely different ways, you could say that the Maoists and the Jan Lokpal Bill have one thing in common — they both seek the overthrow of the Indian State. One working from the bottom up, by means of an armed struggle, waged by a largely adivasi army, made up of the poorest of the poor. The other, from the top down, by means of a bloodless Gandhian coup, led by a freshly minted saint, and an army of largely urban, and certainly better off people. (In this one, the Government collaborates by doing everything it possibly can to overthrow itself.)
In April 2011, a few days into Anna Hazare's first “fast unto death,” searching for some way of distracting attention from the massive corruption scams which had battered its credibility, the Government invited Team Anna, the brand name chosen by this “civil society” group, to be part of a joint drafting committee for a new anti-corruption law. A few months down the line it abandoned that effort and tabled its own bill in Parliament, a bill so flawed that it was impossible to take seriously.
Then, on August 16th, the morning of his second “fast unto death,” before he had begun his fast or committed any legal offence, Anna Hazare was arrested and jailed. The struggle for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill now coalesced into a struggle for the right to protest, the struggle for democracy itself. Within hours of this ‘Second Freedom Struggle,' Anna was released. Cannily, he refused to leave prison, but remained in Tihar jail as an honoured guest, where he began a fast, demanding the right to fast in a public place. For three days, while crowds and television vans gathered outside, members of Team Anna whizzed in and out of the high security prison, carrying out his video messages, to be broadcast on national TV on all channels. (Which other person would be granted this luxury?) Meanwhile 250 employees of the Municipal Commission of Delhi, 15 trucks, and six earth movers worked around the clock to ready the slushy Ramlila grounds for the grand weekend spectacle. Now, waited upon hand and foot, watched over by chanting crowds and crane-mounted cameras, attended to by India's most expensive doctors, the third phase of Anna's fast to the death has begun. “From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India is One,” the TV anchors tell us.
While his means may be Gandhian, Anna Hazare's demands are certainly not. Contrary to Gandhiji's ideas about the decentralisation of power, the Jan Lokpal Bill is a draconian, anti-corruption law, in which a panel of carefully chosen people will administer a giant bureaucracy, with thousands of employees, with the power to police everybody from the Prime Minister, the judiciary, members of Parliament, and all of the bureaucracy, down to the lowest government official. The Lokpal will have the powers of investigation, surveillance, and prosecution. Except for the fact that it won't have its own prisons, it will function as an independent administration, meant to counter the bloated, unaccountable, corrupt one that we already have. Two oligarchies, instead of just one.

Whether it works or not depends on how we view corruption. Is corruption just a matter of legality, of financial irregularity and bribery, or is it the currency of a social transaction in an egregiously unequal society, in which power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller minority? Imagine, for example, a city of shopping malls, on whose streets hawking has been banned. A hawker pays the local beat cop and the man from the municipality a small bribe to break the law and sell her wares to those who cannot afford the prices in the malls. Is that such a terrible thing? In future will she have to pay the Lokpal representative too? Does the solution to the problems faced by ordinary people lie in addressing the structural inequality, or in creating yet another power structure that people will have to defer to?

Meanwhile the props and the choreography, the aggressive nationalism and flag waving of Anna's Revolution are all borrowed, from the anti-reservation protests, the world-cup victory parade, and the celebration of the nuclear tests. They signal to us that if we do not support The Fast, we are not ‘true Indians.' The 24-hour channels have decided that there is no other news in the country worth reporting.

‘The Fast' of course doesn't mean Irom Sharmila's fast that has lasted for more than ten years (she's being force fed now) against the AFSPA, which allows soldiers in Manipur to kill merely on suspicion. It does not mean the relay hunger fast that is going on right now by ten thousand villagers in Koodankulam protesting against the nuclear power plant. ‘The People' does not mean the Manipuris who support Irom Sharmila's fast. Nor does it mean the thousands who are facing down armed policemen and mining mafias in Jagatsinghpur, or Kalinganagar, or Niyamgiri, or Bastar, or Jaitapur. Nor do we mean the victims of the Bhopal gas leak, or the people displaced by dams in the Narmada Valley. Nor do we mean the farmers in NOIDA, or Pune or Haryana or elsewhere in the country, resisting the takeover of the land.

‘The People' only means the audience that has gathered to watch the spectacle of a 74-year-old man threatening to starve himself to death if his Jan Lokpal Bill is not tabled and passed by Parliament. ‘The People' are the tens of thousands who have been miraculously multiplied into millions by our TV channels, like Christ multiplied the fishes and loaves to feed the hungry. “A billion voices have spoken,” we're told. “India is Anna.”

Who is he really, this new saint, this Voice of the People? Oddly enough we've heard him say nothing about things of urgent concern. Nothing about the farmer's suicides in his neighbourhood, or about Operation Green Hunt further away. Nothing about Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, nothing about Posco, about farmer's agitations or the blight of SEZs. He doesn't seem to have a view about the Government's plans to deploy the Indian Army in the forests of Central India.
He does however support Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and has praised the ‘development model' of Gujarat's Chief Minister who oversaw the 2002 pogrom against Muslims. (Anna withdrew that statement after a public outcry, but presumably not his admiration.)

Despite the din, sober journalists have gone about doing what journalists do. We now have the back-story about Anna's old relationship with the RSS. We have heard from Mukul Sharma who has studied Anna's village community in Ralegan Siddhi, where there have been no Gram Panchayat or Co-operative society elections in the last 25 years. We know about Anna's attitude to ‘harijans': “It was Mahatma Gandhi's vision that every village should have one chamar, one sunar, one kumhar and so on. They should all do their work according to their role and occupation, and in this way, a village will be self-dependant. This is what we are practicing in Ralegan Siddhi.” Is it surprising that members of Team Anna have also been associated with Youth for Equality, the anti-reservation (pro-“merit”) movement? The campaign is being handled by people who run a clutch of generously funded NGOs whose donors include Coca-Cola and the Lehman Brothers. Kabir, run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, key figures in Team Anna, has received $400,000 from the Ford Foundation in the last three years. Among contributors to the India Against Corruption campaign there are Indian companies and foundations that own aluminum plants, build ports and SEZs, and run Real Estate businesses and are closely connected to politicians who run financial empires that run into thousands of crores of rupees. Some of them are currently being investigated for corruption and other crimes. Why are they all so enthusiastic?

Remember the campaign for the Jan Lokpal Bill gathered steam around the same time as embarrassing revelations by Wikileaks and a series of scams, including the 2G spectrum scam, broke, in which major corporations, senior journalists, and government ministers and politicians from the Congress as well as the BJP seem to have colluded in various ways as hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees were being siphoned off from the public exchequer. For the first time in years, journalist-lobbyists were disgraced and it seemed as if some major Captains of Corporate India could actually end up in prison. Perfect timing for a people's anti-corruption agitation. Or was it?

At a time when the State is withdrawing from its traditional duties and Corporations and NGOs are taking over government functions (water supply, electricity, transport, telecommunication, mining, health, education); at a time when the terrifying power and reach of the corporate owned media is trying to control the public imagination, one would think that these institutions — the corporations, the media, and NGOs — would be included in the jurisdiction of a Lokpal bill. Instead, the proposed bill leaves them out completely.

Now, by shouting louder than everyone else, by pushing a campaign that is hammering away at the theme of evil politicians and government corruption, they have very cleverly let themselves off the hook. Worse, by demonising only the Government they have built themselves a pulpit from which to call for the further withdrawal of the State from the public sphere and for a second round of reforms — more privatisation, more access to public infrastructure and India's natural resources. It may not be long before Corporate Corruption is made legal and renamed a Lobbying Fee. Will the 830 million people living on Rs.20 a day really benefit from the strengthening of a set of policies that is impoverishing them and driving this country to civil war?

This awful crisis has been forged out of the utter failure of India's representative democracy, in which the legislatures are made up of criminals and millionaire politicians who have ceased to represent its people. In which not a single democratic institution is accessible to ordinary people. Do not be fooled by the flag waving. We're watching India being carved up in war for suzerainty that is as deadly as any battle being waged by the warlords of Afghanistan, only with much, much more at stake.

LOST!!!

2011-02-05T21:39:00.004+05:30

It is almost a year since I have blogged, and seemed to have lost my way in this perpetual journey of life...

When and how did I lose my way……. Not really sure…. but what I am sure of is I no longer am the person I was before.

Do you think I would find my way back in this journey called life?

Would I gather round the happiness and dreams that I once had....Would I go searching for it? Or will I let just let it go….

Would I find my way back or continue along this lonely path....

Womens Reservation- The debate

2010-05-08T21:26:00.005+05:30

Women reservation bill was tabled and passed in the Rajya Sabha around a month or two ago and it was a major topic of discussion all around. One such discussion happened at office over coffee and one of my colleague voiced that he resented the bill and smugly asked that women allege that they want to be equal to men then why the need for reservation?

A question I am sure in the minds of many of the opposite gender.

Why reservation when you demand equality? Reservation do not exist in developed countries like the US, UK or Australia then why here in India?

Well I support the reservation and am firm advocator of equal rights for both.

In our country reservation is to help the down trodden, the socially and educationally backward in the society and I feel no one fits that bill better than women.

In our country womens struggle for survival starts from the moment she is conceived. If she is lucky enough then she gets to see this beautiful world as we all do or else her fight perpetually ends in the safe haven of womb itself. Coming into this world is not an end to her fight rather it is just a start. After birth starts her fight for survival, education, equality, honor, making her choices in life.

You might argue that it does not hold true in today’s India where people are educated and we read reports of women having achieved a lot.But I will have to disagree and say that it is still the same in most parts of our country. Yes there are a lot written about and we feel that a lot is happening in the right direction but that is for a very small percentage representing the humanity called women.

There are villages in India where it is difficult to find a single female offspring. They are either aborted or killed soon after birth. It is justified by the archaic village panchayats. How else could you justify the skewed sex ratio’s that are reported by the census and various other reports?

Why villages? There are a great sections in our cities that have a stigma attached to girl child. Be it by aborting them, abandoning them after birth, depriving them of education, prohibiting them from joining work and much much more.

Yes there is a slow and definite change in the mindsets happening today but to discard what was being followed from centuries will take time.

Reservation of women in the parliament is a small step in the direction to help women achieve the equality she demands. These women elected and representing the millions of women in the country would see to it that laws and rules are passed that would invariably help the women get better opportunities. Better education, nutrition, living conditions and much much more.

In countries like US, UK and Australia where there is no discrimination for being a girl child and where every opportunity is rightfully given to her there is no need for reservation but in a country like India where there is discrimination everywhere she turns, reservation is a necessity till she can stand shoulder to shoulder with man and demand for equality.

'The Book'

2010-03-27T08:56:00.000+05:30

I have already written about the two persons who inspired me or were the reason for me to start blogging. Today I am going to talk about a person who inspires me to continue writing it and whose one question for sure whenever I give him a call is whether I have posted any new entries?

His name is Vikas Verma and he is a friend I got at my stint with Satyam in Hyderabad. He is also the one who inspired me to write the blog titled ‘consequences of marriage’. He was one of the boyfriends whose initial confusion after marriage was directly seen by me and inspired me to write it. :D

These days in addition to asking about new entries he also asks whether I have started to write ‘The Book’. He believes that I could very well write a book and would be successful in it. For that faith of his in my writing I have promised him that if and when I write a book it would be dedicated to him. It is as a gratitude for his belief in my writing a belief I do not have in me.

I have forever dreamed of writing a book, I do not know if I will but when I have a friend who believes and pushes me to it I am sure I might end up writing one in future.

The better part of this deal is that I am assured of having 100 copies of my book being sold. He has taken it up to himself to sell a 100 copies of the book that I write and hence would be the first book in the history of mankind to have sold a 100 copies even before the author started writing it (imagine a smiley with a sheepish smile here).

Vikas this entry is for you and the book when I write it would also be dedicated to you. For the faith that you have in my writing and in turn for the faith you have in me. Thank you. :)

Avatar- Watch it for the message

2010-03-20T20:10:00.000+05:30

Watched the highest grossing movie of all time Avatar and loved the underlying idea in the movie of living in tune with nature. Life existing in such a way that the balance in nature is not disturbed. That was something our ancestors did, living in balance with nature, taking from her only that which could be replenished by her.

I also admired the heights of his imagination where he digitally created a home away from home. The beauty, splendor and detail with which he created its flora and fauna is amazing.

But what I prized the most was the way Na’vi and Pandora coexisted. It is similar to the relation man and nature had ages ago when man worshipped nature and took from her bounty and gave back to her. In today’s world it is actually a message to stop the atrocities that man is committing against nature. Man do not realize that in his greed for money he is slowly killing himself and destroying a place we all call home.

If our ancestor were as greedy as we are now we wouldn’t have had all the beauty that we see around us. The high price of this unscrupulous destruction is going to be paid by us and the future. We have already started paying for the plundering with the rising temperature, diminishing water levels, natural disasters and many of the changes we see in Mother Nature.

Destroying that what we received as a blessing from the creator is easy but do keep in mind that we are killing ourselves and the generation to come by our actions and greed.

Met Remy!!!

2010-03-20T20:08:00.001+05:30

I saw Remy the other day in Mumbai on my way to office, no not the electric shock received hair styled one whom I have mentioned in the first ever article written by me in school but Remy of the Ratatouille fame. Remy, you know, the rat that played the protagonist in the Disney movie ‘Ratatouille’ yes I saw him. Now you might ask how I am so sure that it is Remy itself. Well I will tell you how?

I saw him during the busy, rush filled morning office hours with vehicles jumping signal and all across there is a sense of urgency to get to destinations fast. And here he was waiting to cross the big intersection beneath the flyover where vehicles ply to and fro to four directions and more in addition to the multitude of people on the street running and walking in rush.

He first scurried across the road to beneath the flyover across the zebra line bordering the vehicles awaiting the light to turn green. Then he jumped the signal to cross diagonally across the road dodging and scurrying unscathed between the wheels of bus, car, truck, and in between the running and hurrying feet of people to safely reach the other side of the rode.

Once he reached the other side of the road he hopped onto a rickshaw awaiting green light at that end of the road and carried on to his next adventure.

Who other than Remy would be so adept to the ways of living in the city. He who has lived in Paris wouldn’t find the hustle and bustle of Mumbai a great challenge. :D

Loss due to technology

2010-03-18T21:57:00.002+05:30

A thought crossed my mind the other day that with the rate at which technological progress and advancements are happening. Wouldn’t our future generations miss on some of the beautiful experiences we have had as kids?

I still fondly remember the summer vacations of my childhood. The 2 months of summer vacation divided between my paternal and maternal ancestral houses in Kerala when we came down from Mumbai. It was a time when all of us aunts, uncles and cousin would have a ball of a time walking around in the lush greenery surrounding the house. Splashing and bathing in the pond or the river, plucking ripe cashew from the cashew trees, picking fallen nutmeg, mangoes, guavas and the endless amount of fruits that doted the house. Running behind chicks which were specially hatched for our arrival by my maternal grandmother timing them in such a way that they would have hatched just the day we reached or would hatch within a day or two after our arrival. There were so many endless activities that beheld our attention in the months that invariably flew off fast. Even though there was no TV in both these places it was never missed or for a fact thought about at all during the stay.

But when our kids have their summer vacation what would be kind of experience they would have? The experiences they would have would be of watching TV, playing games on the computer, surfing the net. Wouldn’t they miss on all the amazing memories that we created on the wonderful experience that we had in the 2 special months every year of our life?

Would they get to have a vacation where they would be one with nature? Just walk around and play in nature’s bounty, play with free flowing, pure water, get unabashedly drenched in the rain, feed the cow and its young, run around behind the chicks, hunt for and pick warm eggs once the hen start clucking after having laid it.

I don’t know! But I have a gut feeling that they won’t. We have missed on many a wonderful experience that our parents have had during their childhood. Though the cycle of life might let our kids grow in an age where technology is far progressed from what we had in our childhood, they would be missing out on a lot of the real life experiences which we as their parents had when technology had not advanced this much.

Table for one

2010-03-01T20:56:00.005+05:30

Here is another article that I came across in the net and liked . Hope you guys also like it :)

How often do you get to be girl, uninterrupted in the city? If you're hanging out after work, it is work colleagues, friends or significant others. If it's a movie, it involves finding out who is available and willing.

If it's going dancing, it's how much critical mass do you have, really? If you are traveling, someone always wants to know what you do, where you work, whether you are married or single. If you go to the beauty salon to get pampered, they want to know where you cut your hair or get your pedicure.

If you're waiting to board a flight, there's a nosey parker in the next seat. So it's not very often that you have alone time really, not even when you retire to your nest, as there is always someone competing for that remote, that favourite couch, that precious hour in the bath, that copy of Time magazine.

Not surprising why the sight of a woman on her own in a cafe like bistro, deli or wine bar is increasingly a common one these days. And it's not about whether these women are single.
These are basically women with hectic lives, jobs, bosses, colleagues, husbands, boyfriends, socialite evenings and plenty of friends. They're not lonely losers, they're confident women marking out 'me' time.

Advertising copywriter Savita Nair is one such woman; a self-confessed "restless soul" who desperately needs time alone, even if just to collect or organise her thoughts. She admits that people find it weird that she is married and yet enjoys going out alone occasionally. "Most of the men I know act disappointed. 'But why couldn't you call us?' The women of course assume you are depressed or sad if they hear about it. And the next day I'll get a call from one of my girlfriends to ask, Babe, are you okay?'It's as though the only reason you seek aloneness is because you are depressed," she says.

Nair has been a resident of three cities - Pune, Delhi and Mumbai - in the last 10 years, and finds Mumbai most conducive to a woman one her own. Second-best, she says, is Pune. The first has the advantage of excellent public transport, while the latter is a two-wheeler paradise, where every woman has wheels of her own. "But I would never venture out alone in Delhi-I am totally put off by the north-Indian male mindset which typically assumes that if you are alone, you are easy

. Also, Delhi sucks in terms of public transport, and women are safe only in very high-end places, and not in mid-level ones," she adds. Then there is this thing about 'the look' that people at adjacent tables sometimes give you. "It is harder in your twenties, but if you keep at it, you learn to ignore it by your thirties, says Nair.

" She adds that she'd prefer her own company to being tied down "to some utterly superficial conversation that she is not looking for." Her idea of places to hang out alone is quite clear.
"Any place that is restful, doesn't have loud music, kids or teenyboppers, but is not necessarily as clinical as a library." She is most happy with a glass of wine, a pasta or salad, a book and herself.

Another reason why she chooses to go out alone many times, she says, is that she enjoys eclectic eating experiences but most of her friends don't. "So I might as well go alone instead of waiting for the right company," says Nair.

Prachi Jain, art director with an advertising agency, says she needs to be left alone from time to time, to recover from the madness of her advertising life, and find the peace and quiet that is hard to come by in the city. Jain finds the cafe culture most conducive to leisurely reading and coffee.

A Delhite who moved to Mumbai a few years ago, and is now married to a Mumbaikar, she remarks that 'the look' is a good barometer of the difference in the two cities' attitude to women on their own. "In Mumbai, someone might just give you a cursory glance and move on.
But in Delhi, the staring is more persistent, more questioning," she says. She also feels that lounges and bars are totally out of bounds for a girl alone in Delhi, but quite acceptable in Mumbai.

"Women do go out to cafes alone in Delhi, but since the crowd tends to be more boisterous and loud at cafes, there's no peace anyway," she adds. And then there is Sonya Dutta Chowdhury, a freelance writer and mother of three, whose 'me' time is mostly wedged in-between various errands.

She calls herself " a coffee-and-muffin kind of person," and finds it boring to order lunch alone. She usually has her days full, balancing writing, the husband, maids and her daughters. Eating out alone gives her the alone time she most looks forward to. "I deserve it," Chowdhury says. Occasionally she also goes out just to think and write. "I've spent many productive hours with coffee, muffins and my laptop at Brio, my neighbourhood cafe," says Chowdhury.

She agrees that doing this in Mumbai is much easier than her hometown, Delhi. "Here, no one bothers you, unless of course you go to some specialty restaurant and look like a bit of an oddball. In Delhi, men somehow haven't yet learnt to leave you alone," she adds.

Chowdhury got used to going solo since her stint in the US, though her friends here wonder how she does it.

Still, it takes a lot for most women to be out there alone. Gourmet chef and food writer Karen Anand, for one, confesses she is not comfortable with the thought. "I don't eat out alone in India. I might when I'm traveling abroad, but even then I order in my room, and that's not the same thing.

It's different in, say, Europe where you essentially eat out to 'eat the meal' she says. Rajashree Khalap, an adventurous animal activist who often travels alone to sanctuaries and wild-life reserves, also admits she is uncomfortable eating out alone. "I'm not a foodie, and at the most, I might stop for a cup of hot chocolate somewhere, but that's it," she says.

Will this article make any difference to women still hesitant about sitting at a table for one, afraid of being labelled lonely losers? I hope so.

What I can tell you, from my own experience, is: try it once and you'll be hooked for life.

Assisi - Adieu !

2010-03-01T20:43:00.004+05:30

First ever article that was written by me.... it was for the school magazine :D

June 1st 1995 - I entered into the Assisi Campus with my Mother and Sister. There were lots of unfamiliar faces all around me and a great hustle and bustle as parents and children rushed about looking for their respective classes. Yes, you've guessed it - that was my first day at Assisi. I looked with trepidation into this ocean of unfamiliarity..... There, next to a pillar stood a girl of my age. We walked in that direction and introduced ourselves. I came to know that her name was Neethu Jaleel and she too had joined in Class VI. Together, we walked into the Class marked "VI" which was on the first floor....

It was full of students who all seemed to know each other very well. We sat on the first bench; the only one left unoccupied. Two benches behind a boy wearing spectacles with weird hair standing all up straight as though it had received an electric shock, was busy chatting away to all those around him, thereby setting up a hilarious mood in the class room. Later, I came to know that he was called Remy.

Days, months, years flew by intercepted by exams, holidays, new friendships, quarrels, new comers and partings....seven years later, here I am at good old Assisi suddenly faced with a threatening reality of it being my last year here. Of course, I am no longer the lost young girl I was. The class I look upon is filled with my friends, who over the years have grown very dear to me. And Remy was still there with his hair looking weirder still and his blabbering continuing nonstop, inevitably succeeding in sending his listeners to sleep. There are many new faces and also many missing. I and my friend are about to leave Assisi and all of a sudden we realize how hard it is going to be for us to separate from the big Assisian Family we have become so much a part of.

We will leave Assisi as students with better personality, talents and a sense of individuality. Thank you, Assisi, for every thing you have done for us. I am not sure enough whether I am ready to step out into the new world and I think that the same goes for the others too. Our teachers who have led us through the complicated maze of Life so far, would not be there any longer to advise or protect. Nor will my friends be there to lend a comforting shoulder to sob on in times of distress.

We have a word of advice for our juniors, i.e., Enjoy your school days at Assisi to the fullest, in the best way possible, so that at the end of all you may look back with fond memories. Teachers we are really going to Miss you. Though we have not often said this to you, we take this opportunity to say "we love you very much and thank you" for all that you have done for us. Please don't forget us, the famous trouble-makers and remember us in your prayers as we step out from under your protective shadows into the big, wide and strange world before us.
Sweet Adieu, assisi.................!!!

Nobody understands me..

2009-10-06T19:43:00.005+05:30

This a blog written by by Vibhore Gupta on 22 Dec 2008 on MSN India I loved it and have put it up here. Hope you guys too like it.

There is one statement I’ve heard more often than any other, that statement is, “Nobody understands me”. To be honest I am not at all surprised by the frequency of this statement, the reason being, it is the tendency of human beings to stay a little secretive. Understanding a person depends more on the steps taken by the person himself as compared to the steps taken by the people around him. After all, it is me who will decide whom I want to keep inside my circle of trust and whom I want to keep outside of it.

Understanding a person does not mean doing or saying something which will please the person concerned. Those who have narrow ideology they have a tendency to please everyone around them. But a true friend of mine will be one who will recognize my long term gains. It’s very simple to be understood by someone, all we need to do is speak our heart with someone whom we feel to be trustworthy enough. We all love our families and to be honest though we love them a lot but we cannot share everything with them. It’s not that they will not understand, it’s just that our culture prevents us from doing so.

I think there are two categories of people who say, “Nobody understands me”. First category consists of fools and second category consists of again two kinds of people, one, who are betrayed by life at every step of this journey called life and second, who are lost in their own thoughts.

I don’t think it would be an effective utilization of time if we start discussing the category of fools.

So lets just jump to the other category, people who are betrayed by luck and circumstances; these people form an iron cladding around themselves, these people don’t want anybody’s help but they are ready to help others. These people are as hard as rock from inside but as soft as cotton from outside. I believe they even start hating emotions but the catch is hate itself is an emotion.

Recently, I had a conversation with a girl who is qualified to be put into this category. She says that she is the best friend of her every friend but she does not appreciate somebody’s helping attitude towards her, I think I should replace the word appreciate by hate in the previous sentence. I don’t know her even a bit but I know that something has happened in the past; something has shaken her from top to bottom. She has had losses; she has had setbacks but she stood against the tides.

When we have had failures, setbacks, losses, then we tend to become numb towards emotions. We think, “I am used to it now”. And this is exactly the statement which takes us away from our friends when we need them. We rely on ourselves way too much that we tend to forget the existence of others, and in this process we start hurting our friends and one day we are left all alone. People are all around us but we have come so far from them that now even if we try to call them all we hear is our own voice. I don’t know how to phrase my emotions here, I've been on that road, I’ve walked down that isle and I know there’s lot of loneliness on that road, there’s a lot of hatred on that isle.

I am not trying to show sympathy to anyone nor am I trying to change the thought process of someone, but if someone can get back on the lines of sharing his sorrows than I think this post will achieve its purpose. I know these people strive on the policy, “Happiness is for 'us' but sorrow is for 'me' ”. This policy leads to a lot of respect but even lot more loneliness.

Now, comes the second kind of people, the people who are lost among their thoughts and the realities of life. The problem with these kinds of people is that the actions of these people are affected by the thoughts of others. They are full of negativity, they picture themselves as a person who has all weaknesses and no strengths. They don’t think about it too often but if somebody tells them, "you think you are great", "why do you behave like this?". These words kill the self confidence of these kinds of people. The irony is that these people are surrounded by negative thoughts yet people around them think that these people are natural egoists. People think they are arrogant and are more interested in themselves and they don’t care about the people around. But believe me, they care about the people around them more then they care about themselves. But honestly, what I believe is that these people should believe in themselves more than others. Believing and caring are two different words, they should learn to go with the flow of life.

After all, every wants to be special but for that, one should know how to believe in his dreams. There is no beginning or end of this circle called life and we should know when to start running around it, it doesn’t matter if we don’t know how to walk.

I don’t know how to end this post so I’ll just put my pen down, but hey! I’m not using a pen. :-)

Troublesome trio Gen next!

2009-10-05T08:39:00.002+05:30

Well I know I haven’t penned for a long time about the troublesome trio. I had written in my earlier post that Neets had got married.

I guess the next generation of the troublesome trio is in the making. Neets was the first one to start on the next generation. Well I guess it is because she is still the only one amongst us to have entered matrimony. She had a baby girl on the 3rd of October and thereby I hope starts the next generation of the trio. It was while watching the movie Wake up Sid that Mariya and I got the call. Though I was watching the only sad scene in the movie I was smiling to myself in the theatre. I just cannot wait for it to be December so that I can see that little angel. And to think I got back to Mumbai from Cochin just last week.

Pssst… when I had seen a very pregnant Neets last week I had predicted to Mariya that Neets was sure to have a baby girl. Well looks like I was bang right.

Water

2009-07-20T19:24:00.004+05:30

I never get tired of watching the rain fall and also writing about and since it is the monsoon here in India it is the second write up on rain pretty soon. After a long time I got to see the rains of Kerala and it is as beautiful as I remembered it to be. When the rains come down in torrents it is as though the grass in the fields and the trees are waving their hands and dancing in happiness.

They are nodding their little rain drenched heads and opening their tiny hands to welcome and hold as much water in them as they can. Mother earth becomes one big river starting off with the small rivulets, those then joining the bigger rivulet. Eventually all of it flowing into the canals and the rivers which get filled up leading it to overflow from the boundaries set up by man. It is as though all of nature’s element are in their naughtiest moods and are back to their childhood days with the coming of the monsoons.

I don’t know if you have noticed but babies are attracted to water and I am sure their main loved activity of the day would be when they are given a bath as they get to play in the water. Because the rest of the time the bathroom are locked and the bucket and mugs are kept empty by the parents knowing very well that the babies would not miss an opportunity to play in water.

What is it about water in the form of the still water in the pond or the flowing water in the rivers or the rain drops that fall that attracts us to it. It brings about calmness to our souls and gives us peace. It even attracts the babies to it. All of us love splashing away in the rivers and sea and also love drenching in the rain. It attracts not only the babies but also us towards it.

I had my hearts fill of splashing in the puddles and small rivulets of water when in Kochi but it is only in kochi that I splash away to my heart’s content because I know that it just pure rain water and not water from the gutter mixed with rain water as seen in other cities.

Sunday Evening blues

2009-06-08T10:48:00.003+05:30

I do not know if others experience it but I suffer from Sunday evening blues. Yes, and it started quiet young since childhood actually.

It started during school days on the thoughts about the next day and normally even after having completed the home work and assignments I used to have this depressing fearful feeling in me which I absolutely detest .

Later on when I ended up in Bangalore in the hostel it just would not leave me alone but got a bit better over the years as my roommates and friends used to end up talking or doing something which used to take away my mind from this. But it used to surface once in a while when I used to see the sunset and the cloudy Sunday evenings during monsoons.

Now that I am working the feeling should have gone away since I do not have assignment and project for submission. But no I am not cured of it even now; I hate it when I get my Sunday blues. I end up feeling all alone and a totally bad depressed feeling. Essentially making me feel that after the Sunday morning it just goes on to being Monday mornings...taking away the Sunday evenings in between...

Rains

2009-06-08T10:11:00.002+05:30

Opening up of the heaven is what I would describe the rains and the monsoon season to be. It brings out the romantic and the nostalgic moods in a person (personal experience). When I see the darkened and cloudy day in anticipation of the rain it just brings a queer but feel good ache in my heart. It brings back all the nostalgic memories from childhood and over the years that I fondly like to remember. It is also when I feel like penning down or blogging.

I do not know the reason why I feel so related to the rains and the monsoons. It could be because the day and time I was born it was raining heavily as my Mom recalls. I feel myself being re energized when I see the droplets of water falling in such torrents on to mother earth.

I have always played in the first rains of the monsoon during childhood. Seeing the rains today I wanted to play like during the old days but did not as I did not have anyone to accompany me in this feat here in Hyderabad. But I will drench myself in the rain once before the end of this monsoon season. :)

The greatest blessing of being born a woman

2009-03-10T15:10:00.003+05:30

The miracle of carrying a new life within you and bringing it into this world is the greatest blessing a woman has. The experience of those nine months is something every woman looks forward to and I guess would never be forgotten after experiencing it.

The joy of knowing that you are carrying inside you a new life and that now you are not one but two. 2 of my friends from school are expecting and they say how the baby kicks since their 6th and 7th months of pregnancy. The period when our whole personality changes when we start eating thinks which we hated before just because the life which we carry inside loves it. How our disposition changes to some of what the baby would have. We start loving some particular scents which we never knew existed before.

How we can know even before the baby is born if the baby is going to be a late or early sleeper or riser. My aunt while she was expecting my cousin brother would tell that he used to be up and active till after midnight and used to get up late in the morning sometimes getting her into panic as he used to not move until 11 in the morning. When my cousin was born this was what he continued to be a late sleeper and a late riser.

I am yet to experience this miracle which I have been looking forward to. The miracle of carrying and giving life, it is something which I count as the greatest blessing that God can ever bestow upon a human being and he blessed only us women to do this miracle. One of the reasons I feel lucky to be born a woman.

Splendours of the sun

2009-03-10T14:39:00.001+05:30

The rising sun is synonymous to a bindi adorning the forehead of a married Hindu woman enhancing her beauty and making her feel complete.

The rising sun is like a reddish orange glowing bindi adorning the white summer morning sky which has just risen from its slumber. Yet to reach its fiery best and shoot arrows of fire down on earth, the time when we can match eye to eye with the sun. A spectacle if to be seen we have to rise early.

The beauty of the rising sun is different from that of a setting sun. The setting sun is much more beautiful and is more splendorous as it wants us to never forget it and wants us to wait eagerly for it to rise again the next day. The setting sun casts it spell on the moving waters and the whole of the land glowing at its best till the last rays ebbs out for the night. The colors that a setting sun splashes out on earth are numerous spreading across the expanse of the whole sky layered from top till bottom.

The smell of life

2009-03-10T11:45:00.003+05:30

The smell of mother earth when she receives the first drops of rain after the parched summer months is the best scent in the world. It is a smell that can be enjoyed only for a short time and only when there are the first showers.

It is a smell of joy, of hope, of longing, of new life, when these droplets touch earth she is so happy that you can literally feel her dancing with joy and that is when this beautiful scent arises. She has been longing for these showers for a long time and when it hits her it gives her the hope of starting life anew on her. All the plant and living creatures that are her children will now thrive. New buds will come forth and earth would turn green and young again. She won’t look all dusty, parched and lifeless it is the time of rebirth and starting life anew for mother earth.

It is my favourite scent in the world a scent for which I too wait like mother earth just longing for it through the dry dreary months. I dance out with joy like the peacock when I see the black cloud rolling in and know that finally my long wait for this unique smell has come to an end. I too like mother earth feel it in my senses when the first drops touch earth and the scent just rises up. A scent most divine the scent of joy, hope, longing and new life.

Consequences of marriage

2009-03-06T12:49:00.002+05:30

Some of my good friends both guys and gals have taken the plunge and have started on the bend in road, “marriage”. And it is wonderful to find that there is pattern that is common existing to all of them. 3 of my girl friends (don’t get me wrong friends who are girls is all that this means) and 2 of my boyfriends (same applies here guys who are my friends).

My girlfriends have quit their jobs and moved to Mumbai, Bangalore and US where their better half are employed. All 3 of them have taken it as their life’s mission to excel in the world of culinary art. As they have quit their job and are now endowed with the name of housewife till the time they find themselves another job in the cities they have migrated to, their major source of entertainment is that of cooking. I guess they are trying to prove the saying that “The way to mans heart is through the stomach”. Well I think this activity would ensure one thing, them getting into shape with out having to hit the gym :)

Well with regard to my boyfriends they seem to have achieved greater levels of maturity in matter of days. One of them is in the process of setting up his house from scratch and the effect of this effort on him has terrified the rest of us into taking this step in life. They seem to be suddenly entrusted with responsibilities and rudely awakened to a life they never thought would happen to them.

Let her be

2009-03-02T11:42:00.007+05:30

This is an article which appeared in the Sunday Times in O-Zone on 1 March 09 and wanted to share it. It has striken a cord with me and my friend, I guess it is the best descrption of what I am feeling right now on the subject.

How do you know who is the right man for you, was the plaintive question a colleague, Ritu, just entering her 30’s asked the other day. Under pressure from her parents to get married within the year, she despaired of finding the right guy and dreaded ending up with the wrong one.

Actually, how do you know who’s right or wrong for you? Surprisingly one finds more women than men debating this question. You hardly ever come across a man scared of being hitched up with the wrong woman. Or at least not one who openly expresses this fear. Women are more commitment phobic these days. It used to be a man’s problem, but today many women don’t get into matrimony for fear of getting attached to the wrong partner. What goes on in a girl’s mind when she is seriously considering the ‘M’ question?

Shilpa, a professional who is unmarried at 32, says, “What holds me back is the fear that a man I like may be pretending to be somebody quite different from what he really is; how is one to know? It’s one thing to enjoy a cup of coffee with a guy and quite another to commit the next 40-45 years of your life to him!” She doesn’t feel as paranoid about striking a new friendship or getting a new job. “Well, of course not,” she says, you can always walk away from a friend or a job; the emotional commitment isn’t so high, but not so from a husband and a family!”

Amrita, a colleague who at 36, is yet to tie the knot, says, “My fears stem from a lot of ‘what ifs’... it’s like you want to know or sort out issues before you actually marry, later will be too late! Is he a cribber? Is he honest? Does he have a sense of integrity? What if I end up tied to a man who is a big bore!”

When Hillary Clinton was asked how she knew that Bill Clinton was her one true love, she replied, “How does anybody know about love? If you can describe it, you may not fully be experiencing it.....My husband is my best friend. We have an endless conversation...we never get bored.”

A lady bureaucrat, Pooja, now happily married with a daughter, recalls how determined she was to satisfy the “inner romantic” within her. “I had to find ‘Mr Right’; the only other option, which didn’t seem too bad either, was to stay unmarried. I could support myself, my time and space were my own; what did I need a man for except perhaps for companionship and to enhance the quality of a life I already led?”

“It had to be someone who shared a general sense of compatibility with me, someone who enjoyed and could share what I wanted of my life. He had to share my value system and be a man I could respect; or at least someone I couldn’t just dismiss; someone who was not unintelligent...”

Note the way the selection process became one of elimination rather than selection for Pooja. She wanted an intelligent guy, but would have been happy with one who was “not unintelligent.” A guy she could respect, or at least, as she put it, someone she “couldn’t just dismiss.”

Sometimes the choice becomes easier by first eliminating what you just will not accept in a life companion rather than looking for the qualities you want. For instance, if you are clear you will not be able to respect a guy with a squeaky voice, or a man who finds it difficult to smile, or someone who drinks or smokes, those are the things to watch out for and clarify first, and the rest follows.

Coming back to how does one know, most women who have met their destined men, insist that you just know. “It’s a feeling,” Pooja tries to explain. When she did meet her soul mate, she describes it as “a gentle feeling...he was bright and fun loving. I knew men... I had enough friends and batch mates...but what was most appealing about my husband was that he was one of the few men I met who gave me this feeling of space...I could be Pooja around him!”

And really, this is what most women are seeking in their men today; just the opportunity to remain themselves. Agrees Ritu, “I want the freedom to keep doing what I love — reading, writing, composing poems. I don’t want someone to clamp me or my aspirations. I want a deep companionship, where we can enjoy the same things together. I want friendship, and passion — for each other yes, but that fizzles out, so passion for the same things in life...” Is that too much to ask for? To just let a woman be herself?

Alone in the teeming crowd

2009-02-22T20:05:00.002+05:30

Have you ever experienced this feeling of being all alone in this world with no one to turn to and there is no place you get that contentment and peace that you are looking for. When you are choked up till your throat and you just want to get a shoulder or an arm into which you can fall into and cry your heart out. And when you thought that you would get it from one of hundreds that are milling around in the crowd but nobody seems to even look into your direction and does not even seem to notice your distress that’s when you get the feeling of being ‘Alone in the teeming crowd’ .

This feeling makes you want to run to the ends of the world from the teeming crowd……. A place no man exists ……from all these people but you can’t you tied up with ropes and can’t move. Your choked up tears are threatening to break the barrier that has it contained but yet not one person in the crowd is extending that hand. It is really hard to hold onto your sanity at these moments.

These are moments when you get to really know the crowd that are swarming around you because you had always believed that this crowd cares for you and will always stand by you through thick or through thin but it seems like it never was that way.
It was always meant to be that you would be ‘Alone in the teeming crowd’

Life in Hyderbad

2009-02-20T19:15:00.002+05:30

I have already written my experience of the first job has been very different from what most of my batch mates have experienced. My first thought, when I had joined the project that I am into now, was that I am going to quit and go sit at home. But my experience of the 1 year and more has made me realize that how shortsighted I was because I wouldn’t trade this time I have spent here with anything else how much ever enticing it might look or seem.

The friendship that blossomed here within the group that I got into is so strong that they are the extended family who look out for and take care of you here. The friendship and the time I spend here is making me wary of taking the next step in life because if I take it I am going to lose this and I really don’t want to lose this but want enjoy this as long as it lasts. I had heard a lot about the politics that is there in an office but then I never experienced that here instead it was like an extension of the life at college where we used to work together as a group in the assignments given to us. This could be because of the reason that the whole groups of us were fresher from MBA colleges and this was our first jobs and first project. And we were lucky enough to have Mckinsey consultants on this project who guided us in the work we did and incorporated in us their work culture which is so much different from the work culture seen in our country.

So instead of rivalry amongst us there blossomed a friendship which has been something which is really great. Now we are like the characters of the famous TV serial FRIENDS but of course without the romance angle that is present in the serial. :P

Missing Exams

2008-12-21T00:08:00.000+05:30

I had never thought that I would miss my exam days so much after I finish my studies. When my younger sis said that she was having her exams that’s when all the melancholy memories of my exam days comes back to me. The study leaves before the exams when I used to sit and stare into the notes and dream on. Then the guilt feeling at the end of the day that I have wasted one whole study holiday doing nothing but dreaming off and with the definite resolution in my mind that the next day would be different with me definitely studying the whole day. Study holidays also was the time when I used to have three square meals a day, cleaned up my room, had long luxurious baths, went off for long evening walks.

But then it all remains the same till the day before the exam when all of sudden the mind gets sharper and all things read gets into the mind. It is like the brain has taken a definite turn in one day and amount of thing you can remember and understand becomes tremendous. The day before the exam I will be seen eating, sleeping and drinking the notes for the exam, it is really a sight to see the girls would all have their notes with them when they come down to the mess to have dinner or breakfast and they would be seen studying from the notes and simultaneously eating their food. We do multitasking from quiet a young age I should say. The wardens are happy on the day of exams as the mess hall has pin drop silence during these day as compared to other days when we make such a racket that it can be heard on the fourth floor in our rooms when the mess hall is located in the basement.

Another thing that I miss of the exam days is the precious five extra minutes of sleep when I hit the snooze button on the phone. During exams it used to be just 2 or 3 hours of sleep. There are days when we feel that you have got it all in hand and can afford another half an hour more of sleep Oh!! That half an hour of sleep and the quality of sleep is something I haven’t enjoyed yet after having completed my studies

Then there are the guys whom we have to wake up at odd times like 11 in the night, 12 in the night because they feel like sleeping for an hour or two while studying and the next day before entering the exam hall there is this plea “Hey please tell me what is the most important portion for today’s exam as I have not learned a word as I slept of too soon”

Then there is the last day of the exams when you have plans to just sleep so as to compensate for the past 10 to 15 days that you haven’t slept but somehow sleep evades you. You feel so wide awake and so excited about the fact that exams are over that no matter how hard you try, sleep never comes. The end of the exam makes up for all the silence that was enjoyed by the warden as it is not only in the mess but the whole hostel would be in an uproar and when the silence bell rings the level of din doesn’t decrease by any level and hence there would be an additional 2 or 3 bells rung so as to bring to the note of the hostel inmates. This is the day when the warden just gives up on going on rounds to pick on people from room as she would definitely end with the hostel as none would be in their room but be seen lurking the corridor and the veranda’s

These memories want me to go back to the student days but the memory of getting back the papers I could relive by excluding that part. :)

Hostel

2008-12-21T00:06:00.000+05:30

I have made all my good friends through my stay in the hostel, life in the hostel opens up the whole new family away from home. The friends you make here are for life and they are there for you all through. I have lived in 2 different hostels in my 5 years of college life. The kind of friendship and relationship you have with your roommates and hostel mates is very deep and they know you really well. They have been with you through your up and downs in life and they too are going through pretty much the same turbulences that you are facing.

Hostel life also makes you become really independent and take care of yourself as you don’t have your parents or guardian by your side guiding your way. You make your own decisions and gain or lose from it. I can definitely say that I became the person that I am today only through my experience of being in the hostel. Student life in itself is fun and staying in a hostel only adds to the memories.

When in hostel in Bangalore there used to be the rules that there was silence hour from 9’O clock every night where we had to be our in our respective room and not seen in any of the other rooms. Till 9’O clock none of us feel like talking or going to the other rooms but as soon as the bell rings indicating the start of the silence hour that’s when you want to visit the other rooms across the hall or even another floor. There have been many instances when I have been caught by the warden in other room during the silence hour and there been times when I have hid behind doors, cupboard and underneath beds just to avoid getting caught.

Hostel also helped me in my academics when there is an exam approaching the whole hostel gets into the exam mode and you naturally get attuned to it. So when in hostel we study hard and party harder.

Now that I have finished my tryst with hostel I am missing it a lot. Though initially I was sad and was in the belief that being away from home and staying in the hostel was the worst predicament that could ever happen to a person it is only now when I look back to my life in the hostel that I come to know that God had planned the greatest life I could live. He had added all the spices of life in proportion so that when I look back in life I come to know that it was the most perfect way I could have lived and it couldn’t have been any better.

Moon

2008-10-10T23:44:00.003+05:30

The moon has always intrigued me especially when it is a full moon; it is as though there is some magnetic power which pulls me to it. Whenever there is a full moon I would be found lurking in the terrace for hours just gazing at the moon. During my childhood days in Kerala on days of full moon I used to slip out to the terrace during midnight just to gaze at the moon. There is a mystic power attached to the moon which just mesmerizes those who gaze at it and you never get tired of gazing at the moon. The time just flies when you admire the beauty of it.
The most wonderful spectacle is to see the light of the moon getting dispersed in the thin veil of cloud that passes it. It is magical and heavenly and a treat to the eyes, something which you would never forget. I was lucky enough to see this on Christmas Eve I was at my Dads ancestral home which is on top of a mountain and the moon looks bigger from this altitude. And I guess there was a thin veil of cloud because the sky above suddenly had four or five big rings around the moon and it was supernatural. A spectacle which cannot be explained in words and cannot be replicated by man thus reaffirming the fact there is a greater power up there who knows to make all things beautiful for his people.
Moon has been something on which writer and poet have written lots about and it is like a mystery which we all want to know about. All around the world people have different stories attached to the moon. In the Chinese mythology it said that there is a white hare living on the moon according to the Hindu mythology the moon is a store house of elixir from which the Gods drink thereby leading to the phasing of the moon. Many more myths are attached to the moon from the different cultures across the world showing that moon has been intriguing mankind from ancient times.

Circus...Play of Poverty

2008-10-09T16:23:00.000+05:30

On the insistence of my friends I agreed to watch the circus which was running in the grounds near to where we stay. I have been to the circus when I was a kid and I have not enjoyed the act then as well.

Because of the ban imposed by Maneka Gandhi on the use animals in circus the whole of the acts for two and a half hour is put up by humans since there is no activist who speaks for this species yet. The only animals that were used in the act were dogs, horses canary and elephants. What I felt most depressing is the fact that almost 90 to 95% of the acts are done by young girls who are barely 18. And many of the daring stunts which usually get our hearts thumping hard into our chest are done with little or no precautionary measures. And what do these girls get in return for the work that they do very minimal I should guess and I am sure they do get lots of harsh words and severe beating if nothing else.

This act made me wonder in India there is a law against child labor. Would these innocent girls be covered under this law?

The lives of these girls are really pathetic these girls go on touring with the circus and hence not getting the opportunity to study. Even if they want to do something else in life they won’t be able to do anything decent as they know nothing more that these acts that they learned in here. The life of the people who work in circus is a virtual circle as I see it those who are part of the circus troupe more or less marry within the troupe and their children in turn become part of the act put up by the troupe and this circle goes on and on. What is most depressing is the poverty that can be seen and felt when we go to the circus the condition of the humans and animals are pitiable the props they use are old, the dresses that they have to wear is dismal all in all there is very sad feel to the whole act and atmosphere.

A very depressed me was what got out from the circus feeling sad and useless of not being able to do anything to better the condition of these girls and these people in whole.

Mother Nature

2008-10-09T16:18:00.003+05:30

The marvels of Mother Nature show the handiwork of God the Almighty. When the last rays of the setting sun peeps in through the cloud cover it is a spectacle which shows the great hands of God at work. When these rays fall onto the still water there is twilight like mystical effect that is seen. Everything in nature is original, innovative, breath taking and a treat to the eye. Mother Nature is the original innovator in the universe and what man can do is to only replicate what we see in nature.

The best thing about nature is that it is a treat to the senses that is the eyes, ears, nose so on. If we are atop a cloud touching mountain peak the feel that we have when we are there is unique as we are enveloped by the mist on all sides and we won’t be able to see the person right next to us. I was fortunate enough to have experienced this when we went atop Rajamalai which is home to the Nilgiri Tahr near Munnar in Kerala. Just after climbing atop mist started descending on us and what we could do was to wait for the mist to lift and go. Truly speaking it is an experience of a life time a feel which is never going to be forgotten till I die.

Another spectacle of Mother Nature was seen when I visited Yercaud which is a hill station near to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. Here what I saw was play of sunlight through the clouds on the Coimbatore town that is spread down as a valley below the peaks of Yercaud. The day we visited there were bits of rain cloud and the scene of the sunlight streaming through the small gaps in these rain clouds cannot be explained in words.

I have always felt that beautiful spectacles like these can never be captured by any camera or video and can never be replicated. Also if we don’t see these at those specific moments of time we wont be able to see it again because changes in nature happen very fast what we see one moment might not be there the next moment as the effect of light and the wind changes within minutes or rather seconds.

But today we are too busy to enjoy and see this marvels we have to take a vacation to some hill station to see these spectacles. For this I envy my grandparents who are lucky enough to see this every day of their life. My Dads ancestral home where my grandparents live is atop a mountain and the front view we have is the neighboring mountains. It is a vision to see the mountains to be hidden by mist which looks as though the cloud has come down and enveloped the mountain when there is heavy rain and how that lifts up after the rain is over. On the other hand my Moms ancestral home has another kind of natural beauty to it. They have paddy fields and streams in the backyard and the number of various birds and small animals that you can spot here is countless. There is calmness which is experienced by me when I go to both my grandparent’s place which just soothes the mind and relieve me of all the stress that I have. The greenery that is seen here is more than enough to relieve us of any stress that we have

Onam

2008-09-13T12:38:00.000+05:30

Onam bring in a lot of memories, the floral carpet competition, the song competition, at school.

In school we used to have the floral carpet competition and it used to be between the respective houses. It was a grand affair during those days a lot of things had to be planned and decided like the design, the amount of flower that need to purchased, for the floral carpet. There used to be an allotted time period within which the floral carpet had to be made and only a specific number of people were allowed to be there in the auditorium when the floral carpet was being made. The teams had to make sure that only the allotted number was there in the auditorium near the floral carpet or else the team would get negative marking.

Oh it was so much of fun getting up early in morning and getting ready in ‘Pattu pavada and blouse’ the traditional attire worn by girls in Kerala. The tension filled moments before the prizes were announced. I can still remember the first floral carpet made by me during school and the prize won for it. It was Sherly madam who was our house mistress and she was very competitive in these things and made sure that her house won the entire event taking place at school and get the overall trophy at the end of the year.

In college also there are great memories with regard to onam during my graduation in Bangalore the malayalees in college used to celebrate onam buy wearing the traditional saree and having floral carpets put in the corridors. During my Post Graduation in Kochi we used to wear the traditional saree. Then there used to be some competitions and also the ‘Sadhya’

On the day of onam all my uncles, aunts and cousins used to get together and used to celebrate onam. The uncles and all of us cousins used to be preparing the floral carpet at home and all the aunties used to busy in the kitchen preparing the Sadhya. It is a joyous occasion with loads of laughter and fun in the house. This year I am in Hyderabad far away from the warmth and colors of Onam and I missing home Kerala a lot :(

Atlas Shrugged

2008-09-13T12:32:00.002+05:30

Atlas shrugged is an exceptional book written by Ayn Rand where people who do exceptional work are credited. The story revolves around the central character of Dagny Taggart who is the Vice President of Taggart Transcontinental and how she does everything in her ability to save the railroad been taken over by the looters and become extinct.

The beauty of this book lies in the fact that there are many characters in this book whom we look up to like Francisco‘d Anconia, Hank Rearden, Ellis Wyatt etc who have this exceptional characteristic to them that we fall in love with these characters. But the best loved character in this book is John Galt who is really the protagonist of the book in a way. The character has been portrayed in such a flawless manner that we expect people to have these characteristic in them. The brilliance, the arrogance, and the attitude it is like a gem in the pool of human characteristics.

The philosophy advocated by Ayn Rand in her books is the fact that only those who do honest innovative work in this world need to live and prosper. Her books fountainhead and atlas shrugged are as tribute to the great mind s and character in human race. People like Howard Roark, Dagny Taggart, John Galt, Francisco’d Anconia are not seen in the real world but people hope that they do.

Saree

2008-08-27T13:16:00.001+05:30

Saree nine yards of clothes which can be draped to such perfection that we often wonder how they do it….

The elegance achieved by the women when they adorn this attire is not found in any other attire worn by them. There is a class and sensuality that exudes from a person after wearing the saree. Saree in an attire which is worn by everyone in our country old and young, rich and poor, North, East, West or South of our country. It is worn in different styles in the different states in our country according to the traditions of that state and the religions. It is worn during festivals and important occasions in one’s life like wedding etc and also daily by millions of women in our country. How much ever sophisticated an Indian woman might be they wear this at least once in their lifetime.

Earlier saree was the only attire among women in our country and over the years the prominence of this attire has decreased with the introduction of salwar khameez and other western forms of attire. Today wearing of a saree by the young Indian women is considered special and they often look forward to the first time that they will be able to tie the saree and it is worth the anticipation.

The draping of the Saree can be an occasion in itself for first timer because getting the nine yard of silk or cotton draped around your body would require more than one helping hand and long hour of one’s day. In addition there is the absence of that comfortable feel which is often found while wearing other attires.

Saree, a traditional attire which is embraced by even the youth of our country, an attire which exudes elegance and sensuality. An attire which is synonymous to our motherland India.

Maternal Instincts

2008-08-26T13:14:00.000+05:30

Maternal instincts a feeling which every girl is inborn with I guess, don’t we see two year olds mothering their younger sibling or the dolls that are their playmates. An adaptation of this feeling is seen when the little girls play house having their own imaginary houses and family with kids. Girls love pampering and taking care of the stray kittens, puppies and other helpless young creatures found in the neighborhood.

These angels when they grow up this instinct in them also grow and you can see college girls cooing and cuddling over the kids in their own extended families or over the ones in the neighborhood or even the ones they see in the malls or cinema halls.

From personal experience if said, when Mariya and I go out for shopping we always spot the kids in the malls and go crazy on them. Another place where we normally go crazy over kids is when we go to the church if there is a baby in the vicinity of where we are seated, then the mass that day is dedicated to watching that baby, no prayers flow out from hearts to the Lord on that day.

When we see a kid fall we miss out on a heart beat or our heart reaches up to our throat, also the natural instinct of bending forward to avoid the kid from falling even though we would be no where within the reach of the child. A reaction I guess by almost every woman on this planet world. When we see a baby or a kid cry it tears our heart and our only instinct is to pick up that little bundle and hold it close to our heart and make it feel safe in our bosom.

The sweetest, purest and most powerful feeling in this world…………………

Friendship Day....

2008-08-18T21:14:00.002+05:30

Friendship day during school reminds me of Neet, Mariya and myself weeks before friendship day making friendship bands with wool of different colors. The weekend gathering at trinity corner used to be avoided when friendship day used to be near. Instead we used to sit at our home with our bundle of wool trying out different patterns in the bands being created by us.

On friendship day Neet used to come home in the morning to go to church along with us as was usual on Sunday’s and be the first one always to tie us the friendship band as Mariya and I always forgot about it. I still don’t know how both Mariya and I used to forget that it was friendship day and how every single year Neet used to be the first one to tie it on both our hands.

The whole week after the friendship day used to be celebrated as friendship week at school and for the whole week friendship band used to be tied across. And the bands were not removed until the end of the week .There was also the process of counting as to how many band each of us had got and who had got the most number of bands?

The person who suffered the most during this week had to be my Mom, who in addition to getting us ready for school had the additional job of tying the friendship bands on each of our hands...... :)

Sweet Solo!!!!

2008-07-22T11:28:00.015+05:30

This is an article which came in the 'Times of India' Hyderabad edition dated 13th July 08. The subject 'Loner' is one which I relate to very much and hence I wanted to share this article with the rest of you. :)

"I’m 13 now, don’t you think it’s time I got my own apartment dad?” is a teaser from a film currently running on a prime time movie channel. Walk in alone to a restaurant, and the maitre d will ask, “Table for one, Maa’m?” without batting an eyelid. As Oprah Winfrey once put it, “Nobody’s manufacturing any more space. I’ll take every bit I can get”. Loners echo the sentiment.

People across age groups and professions are finding their invaluable sense of personal space, urging them to live on their own at regular intervals. Space issues are cropping up within homes, and children are moving out even in the same city. High-rises are getting higher, cities more crowded, and suburbs stretching to their outer limits, as the great Indian Individual marks his personal territory.

Delhi-ite comedian Vir Das now lives in Mumbai. “I have an apartment slightly bigger than my body. Thanks to my work profile, I always see crowds around me. Hence, I need solitude back home. Here I don’t need to perform. I am just myself, doing what I want to do.” Self-indulgence does not necessarily make you a bad person. “On the contrary, I have become more disciplined, caring and responsible. But the best part is that I have begun to discover myself. Self-revelation has its own high.” Das is 29 and a new-age Loner. But you don’t have to be single to be a Loner. Successful online art dealer Aporajita Pal Mukerji has been living on her own for at least 20 days a month for the past 13 years. Her husband, a marketing professional, is out of town for the most part. But she wouldn’t barter it for anything else. “I love the time I have to myself. I work out, read books, connect with my friends… I know couples who have separate bedrooms and bathrooms too,” says Mukerji.

The trend has gone from joint families to nuclear ones; from nuclear families to Loners. And Loners are no longer stereotypical sad, isolated individuals who can’t make friends. Many are in healthy relationships, have bustling social lives, are part of clubs in their neighborhoods, and are constantly in touch with their families back home. Look at the girl or guy next to you in the train or bus. Prod a little and you’ll find a Loner.

The Loner is financially responsible and independent. Paying guests, rentals, and hostels are as much in demand as family homes. Actress Neena Gupta explains “financial empowerment is walking the talk when it comes to enjoying the option of living alone.” Those who’ve caught on to the expensive ways of the city have wisely invested in suburban apartments.
Spiritual teacher Neena Dandekar points out that “the urge to find one’s little nest is seen even among today’s teenagers. It’s easier to do away with the curfews parents impose.”

The Loner is also keenly focused on ambition and career, migrating to build the demographic with a dipping age-profile. “Now more people are flocking to different places at an impressionable age to study or work, which has given a whole new definition to the concept of happy loners,” says creative entrepreneur Preeti Vyas Patel. Rising incomes have allowed personal space to unfold. Spaces for family and for self; personal studios for creative artists, two-car homes, and separate vacations are not rare. Connecting with one’s self is all-important. Singer Sonu Niigaam feels his best indulgences happen during a long flight. “I read, watch movies, create melodies…” And he has a future vision of peace, he says. “When I turn 54, I’ll live alone in the middle of a forest, by the sea, or on a mountain, meditating or farming!”
Consultant psychiatrist at Mumbai’s Jaslok hospital, Shamsah Sonawalla says “Living alone out of choice can actually rejuvenate one’s mind, discipline one’s self and makes one very attractive to others as he/she is perceived to be self-reliant.”

The Loner is also not a stop-gap to living a complete life. Banker Arindom Chatterjee is happily married and a successful professional. Yet, he is most content when he steals few hours of solitude every weekend. “I either go for a long drive or curl up in bed and read or listen to my favorite song. I insist on this personal space as this is the best way I unwind,” says Chatterjee.

Even senior citizens like Arati Gupta, who has the option of moving in with her son and daughter-in-law, prefers to live alone in Delhi. “I share a beautiful relationship with my family, but I prefer my me-time. I gave up a high-profile job to enjoy things one talks of doing someday. Three years later, I have yet to ask myself if I’ve felt lonely. I live by the motto — ‘Enjoy life, employ life, it flits away and will not stay’. I plan my activities such that each action is satisfying. I travel to my ‘wish-list places’. I enjoy being with my grand-daughter. At home, I’m comfortable with my music, books, internet, friends and above all, my fitness routine.”

The Loner lives in her own space. Alone, but no longer lonely. She has found her own space, her calling, her self.

Hugs

2008-07-18T16:00:00.006+05:30

Hug an expression of love, a way of greeting among humans and many other living creatures. Common sights of greeting in the western countries but do so in India it is considered to be a taboo. A hug, a touch among friends is considered real taboo and not often seen in our country except maybe in the metros where now a day it is becoming kind of ok.

During my days in Bangalore I got to know how much these hugs from friends help. All of us staying at the hostel used to miss home big time and when one of us used to feel low and homesick a hug from friends helped a lot to go on forward with our lives.

A touch from our fellow being is something which is required by every human being, it is something which means lots in his/her life. It is often read that a baby needs to touched and cuddled so as to make it fell more secure and protected and so as to help bond with the people around it. And I believe it is not only when we are babies that we require it but also as we grow older we require it or we crave for it but we are not aware of it.

When one of our loved ones is sad or has been affected by a tragedy and has broken down the best way to console is to just hold that person close and tight thereby letting him/her know that you are there for him/ her through their tough times. No amount of consoling word would be more comfort to that person than the hug you give during their time of sadness.

Hug an expression of love, care and support so very important in human lives, an expression which says much more than words, an expression which makes us feel whole.

Friendz

2008-07-18T16:00:00.003+05:30

‘Friends’ a sweet name given by someone to the greatest relationship that can exist between 2 people. ‘Friends’ you have them by your side wherever you go and whenever you need them. They become more important to you than any other relations that you have, they will be there for you during your times of sorrow and distress, they lend you their shoulder when you cry, they are there during your days of happiness, and they multiply your joys in ways unknown to you. There is some way known only to them to make the ordinary days most special for you. Friends come to know you better than your own parents and in some cases more than we know ourselves. They know what hurts you and see to it that you avoid those things that hurt you.

Though we make a lot of friends over the course of our life not all are friends made for life only some of the special ones are for life. They would be there for you always just a phone call away any time that you want them. Some of them are with you only for a little time and then you leave them and they leave you behind and go ahead with life. And in our walk of life memory brings in them back to us and we remember them fondly like a sweet chapter that we love to revisit again and again. Always wondering what they would be doing now and how they have fared in the journey called life. :)

Speed! It thrills but kills.....

2008-07-08T10:30:00.003+05:30

Speed thrills but kills a phrase often seen on the highways asking us to slow down on the highways. But speed does give the thrill which makes us forget that it might also lead to our death if not careful.

I love zooming on my Honda Activa through the highways in Kochi. It is a great stress reliever for me and I did not realize how much I missed the rides on my Activa until I rode it two weeks back after a gap of 6 to 7 months when I had gone down to Kochi for a few days. It is so exhilarating to zoom on it through the highways in Kochi as road are clear and congestion free and we can go up to an 80kmph for sure and need not go below a 60kmph for a major portion of our rides.

While on the Activa I love the wind blowing against me, sneaking my way through the huge traffic blocks, the stress ebbing out of me with the increasing speed ohhh!!! I just love this and more. I consider myself more a bike lover than a car lover as I just love the rides taken on the bikes be it a pillion ride on the bikes or just simply ridding it.

While doing my MBA whenever I felt bored at hostel I used to sneak out with my Activa for long rides through the seaport airport road (which is wide straight stretch which joins the airport to the seaport for transporting the cargo fast and smooth) as it did never saw much traffic. Zooming through this road was and still is one my favorite pastimes whenever I get the time to do it on my vacations in Kerala.

The Activa I think is the best gift given to me by my parents. The independence and freedom experienced while riding it cannot be explained. It surely is exhilarating to just zoom on it. :)

Three Mistakes of my Life

2008-07-07T12:23:00.002+05:30

“Three Mistakes of My Life” a book by Chetan Bagat who is famous for his earlier works ‘Five Point Someone’ and ‘One Night at a Call Center’. This story is based on the three childhood friends Govind, Omi and Ishaan and how the communal riots that happened in Gujarat affect their lives forever.

The other major thread that runs through the entire story is cricket, how the passion for cricket affects their lives in a major way. Another protagonist in this book is the little boy, the cricket genius Ali an indirect reason for the crack in the friendship between the three and also indirectly a reason for the death of one of them during that fateful night. The story gives an insight into the communal tension that persists in Gujarat and also how it is flared up by the political parties for their own benefits.

I personally like the first book by Chetan Bagat ‘Five Point Someone’ which was great I have also liked the latest book by him ‘Three Mistakes of My Life’ though we ponder which the third mistake……is

Girls of Riyadh

2008-07-01T13:00:00.001+05:30

This is a book written by Rajaa Alsanea about her four friends who belong to Riyadh’s elite class. The girls are in their early 20s and the book shows how they struggle to live a life of their own in a society where male dominates their decisions and how love blinds them in their path of life.

The story revolves around the lives of Gumrah, Sadeem, Michelle and Lamees their struggle at the age of marriage to find true love and hold onto it. The story depicts how the girls learn from their past mistakes in love. The story gives a glimpse of how the girls find it difficult to breathe and live a life which many of us take for granted. A better description of the lives women in such countries is depicted in the book “The Princess”.

Heights to conquer .........

2008-06-27T11:06:00.004+05:30

I am on my way to Yercaud from Kochi, a trip with my family. On my way after the district of Palghat (Kerala) almost entering into the State of Tamil Nadu I see what I am guessing is the Western Ghats.

These peaks touching the clouds get me thinking as to whether it is possible for man to conquer these peaks and if anyone has made these lofty peaks their home. Just to know if there are any who have conquered it and made it into home I would travel up there to know this thus making me either the first one to reach it or one among the many who have already reached it and made it their home.

Man has conquered all possible peaks on earth; men have scaled the tallest peak in the world the Mt. Everest time and again so what is the Western Ghats for them. When I see these peaks which are always engulfed in the clouds it makes me want to conquer these lofty peaks and stand enveloped in the cloud giving me the feel of being on top and out of this world.

One of the many marvels of Mother Nature. :)

Future....

2008-06-12T14:22:00.000+05:30

What does my future hold for me? Where would this life of mine lead me to? These questions often go through my mind and I am sure this is something that goes through the mind of many of you as well. We are confident when we have the knowledge of what is going to happen? The routine that we have if we go through the same path we are fine with it. When some major change happens in our life we are not so sure how to go about it. The unknown and the uncertainty of life bring about a feeling of fear in our minds. This uncertainty about the future may be reason why the astrologers and palm readers are successful as they claim that they can predict the future. An insight into the unknown future a sneak peak into the unknown this what they all claim to do and that is something most of us want to know.

Though most of us claim not to actually believe the zodiac forecast that come in the newspapers we all go through it just to know what is in store for us. The uncertainty and vagueness of future is what makes life all this exciting. The turns that future takes both planned and unplanned are what make it so interesting and worth going on. I am sure there have been certain periods in our life when it has been really difficult to move on through a few hours or days because of what awaits us at the end of those few hours or days.

Diary

2008-06-12T14:20:00.001+05:30

I don’t know how many of you have tried keeping a diary or writing one. I used to write a diary continuously for a few years when I was in school and college. It is really helpful when you feel all alone and lost among your loved ones. The diary helped me go through the painful days in Bangalore (pursuing my degree) when I was too homesick. Writing a diary helps us to get a clear direction when we are facing a dilemma in life because as we write down on a paper our mind opens up and what we would have never told out aloud comes out in paper.

The diary is the best friend you can have as it listen to you patiently the only drawback being that this friend never speaks back to you which can get on your nerves sometimes (personal experience). My personal experience of writing a diary has been great I would still love to keep a diary given I have the time to write into it. Even today when I am depressed or in a dilemma writing it down on a piece of paper not necessarily in a diary has proved beneficial in those frame of mind.

Another benefit of the diary is that we can revisit the memories that we must have long forgotten. You revisit the things that you did, you revisit the frame of mind you had on that particular day 5 or 6 years back it is magical. When I go through my diary I go back to the days of fun I had at school the outings and the small incidents at school or college that I have long forgotten but when read through brings back those vivid memory.

The diary also help us in analyzing our own behavior when I go through my old diaries I find certain characteristics about myself which I am not aware of. I feel as though I am rediscovering myself when I go through the diary.

My grandfather (Dad’s Dad) has been writing diaries almost his whole lifetime and that too daily. He is over 95 years of age and still continues to keep a dairy. When we the grandchildren get together we often sneak into his old diaries to confirm birthdays of aunt uncles and other relatives.

The best known diary all around the world is a diary by a young German girl Anne Frank who died during the reign of the Nazi’s but she still continues to live through her diary. Her diary is a best seller which has been converted into many languages and is read by millions it is known as “Anne Frank - Diary of a Young Girl”.

The Wedding!!!!!!

2008-06-12T13:55:00.004+05:30

This is a book by Nicholas Sparks which depicts how Wilson and Jane rediscover the love that they had for each after 30 years of marriage. The book shows how couples tend to move away from each other over the years of their married life and when the kids that have kept them going move out how it affects their relationship. The story is written as a first person narration by Wilson as to how he acknowledges his mistakes over the course of his married life.

The story deals with how he is trying to win back the trust, love and affection of his wife and in a way his kids. What I liked about the book was that Wilson is admitting that it was his mistake that has lead to such a state for the way their relationship has turned out. He is the one making the extra effort to bring back the romance into their life which had gone away.

Also what I like is the story of Noah depicted in the sidelines which is story not believable by many of how Allie found a way to come back to him as she had promised. To know why that storyline is important it is best if you read 'The Notebook' also by Nicholas Sparks which depicts the love story of Noah and Allie. Like all other books by Nicholas Sparks this one also has a sweetness to it. Another thing that I have noticed in his books is that he always depicts the love story from the eye of a man as to how they see a relationship.

Marriage

2008-05-22T12:16:00.009+05:30

'Marriage' a word that bring nightmare into the life of most of the girls. The nightmare starts the moment the parents decide that their little girls have grown up and need has to be married of. Then starts the most complicated process of finding the guy for which parents depend on the broker and the endless myriad of family relatives and nowadays the internet as well.

The first phase consist of the girls being dressed up and get her snap taken, no snap taken is good enough as there would be some flaw or the other in these. A perfect snap never comes out and then when the eligible guys details comes in the girl is asked to make a decision which is often not wholeheartedly supported by the whole of the family. Either the Mom does not feel he is the correct one or the Dad or the siblings who have greater decision making power than they have ever had. This is a period during which a girls fights the most with her parents and when they feel they are not understood by any at all. What I don’t understand is how in the world is the girl going to decide who among the lot is best to become her life partner. On what parameter do we come to this conclusion after all it is a question of sharing our whole life with that person!!!

Then is the tradition of sashaying the girl before the proposed guy, his parents, and relatives which is a ritual in our country. The girl is the one who has suffer in this as she is the one being scrutinized and questioned during this entire ritual and the amount of mental trauma she goes through when finally the proposed guy rejects the girl for reasons like not being fair enough even though she must be as fair as the model in the fairness ad. Enough to get your self esteem low. I know that you would say that you need not take all those seriously and personally but how much ever you say that, they are after all human being and it would affect these gentle souls in a way or the other.

I am still in awe with my friend who got married recently going through this traditional method followed in our country. All I want to know from them is how did they know that he was The Right Guy or the Prince Charming?

Weirdoes I met in my job :)

2008-05-16T11:11:00.006+05:30

My experience of first job has been quite different from what many of my classmates are experiencing in their first job and I am happy about that. The atmosphere at office is not very different from my days at college. The project into which I was mapped into was one where there were 17 of us management graduates freshly out of college. And since we are all operating from the client location the pressures of the real office is not present here. We enjoy working in between the loads of fun we have at office.

The weirdoes that I got to meet here are many and I will describe a few of them. The first weirdo is VJ whose only aim in life is eating. For him life is all about eating he is never full even though he has had a full chicken biriyani along with the starter like Nan and chicken. He considers himself as a bad eater as he finishes the last among the lot. He learned the art of speaking Hindi only after joining this project and now considers himself to be the guru making new word and new meaning to the already rich language. An example of his addition to this language is 'Jaane ki kona hain' which simply means 'I am hungry' this proves my points that he is passionate about food and start talking to him any language it will ultimately lead to food.

The next weirdo whom I met was Nishi, the first person in my life whom I have seen who can laugh non stop for half an hour straight and I am not exaggerating when I say this. He can talk nonsense for hours and can start of with his laughter at the drop of a pin. Talking about Nishi alone when talking about weirdoes would be left incomplete if the partner in crime is not mentioned and that is Viks. Viks was the original Hindi guru before VJ took over his position, Viks attains the position of weirdo only when he is around with Nishi when both of these get together it is laughter riot for the rest of us here in office sometimes getting us in doubts as to who is the crazy one those two or the rest of us around.

Though I have named them weirdoes they are great people to have as friends and they are the reason why my experience at work has become so memorable, fun filled, lovely and definitely different from what my classmates are experiencing in their first job. I am sure not many of us are lucky enough to have such a fun filled start in our career and I consider myself really lucky in this aspect :)

By the river Piedra I sat down and wept

2008-05-14T12:58:00.013+05:30

This is a book by the famous author Paulo Coelho, in this book he has brought out the relationship between two people in a beautiful way. In this book he has given an insight into the devotion to the Goddess that is the Virgin Mary and it's lost prominence over the years.

The story revolves around the love of two childhood sweethearts who are meeting after many years. The story through Pilar shows how a little faith can help people find themselves when they are lost in their ways in life.

The style of writing by Coelho is not liked by many I too have only liked only two of his books from his collection so far one is 'By the river Piedra I sat down and wept' and the other is 'The Alchemist'.

Inspired

2008-05-12T11:50:00.004+05:30

I was just thinking the other day that who are the persons who inspired me to start writing or blogging.... and I felt that two persons in my life are the reason for this blog.

The first inspiration being my uncle (Mom's younger brother) Rev. Dr. Fr. Joy, while he was getting his doctorate from Rome I used to write letters to him giving him detailed description about the happenings at home. After reading my letters he was the one who said that I had the makings of a writer and that in future I might end up being a great author. This encouragement from him was an inspiration for me ......way back in my mind even today I have this dream of writing a book which would be much loved by everyone.

The second person, the reason for me to start blogging is Ash my best friend, the period during which you finish college and wait for the joining into the job is a period when we go mad because you are missing college and all the actions and fun of college and want to get involved into something just to keep you going. As my date of joining got postponed I was literally going crazy with nothing interesting to do. That was when she advised me to start blogging as this would help me get engaged in something I would love. And she persisted in telling me this until I started this blog. I am not exactly sure how she knew that I would love this but then sometimes I feel that she knows me better than I know myself. And for this I am ever thankful to her.

My Uncle has been an inspiration to writing as such and my best friend has been the reason for starting this blog. Both in their own ways knowing that this is something I would love doing

Love

2008-04-24T18:17:00.011+05:30

LOVE.........a word that gets me thinking.....this I feel is a word which has many meanings to it. In the different phases and relations in life it takes a different meaning or to word it differently this emotion takes different forms or faces in our lifetime.

The Love that we feel towards our parents is totally different from the love we feel towards our siblings. The love we feel towards our friends is not the same we feel towards that special someone in our life. The beauty of this emotion is that it can be increased to such an extend so as to envelop all those people held dear by us over the years and also those new people whom we meet over the course of our life....

An emotion so strong that it makes man go to great depths just to prove the love towards a person......it sometimes give you those queer aches in your heart when you feel an avalanche of this emotion..........this ache in the heart maybe the reason why the pictorial representation of this great emotion is a heart.

Love I believe is the food for the soul.........an inspiration for us to stay alive and probing us to do greater things in life. Love a word......an emotion which has so many faces to it... which makes the world go round..... :)

Save the Girl child!!!!

2008-04-18T16:55:00.006+05:30

India was a country where the birth of a girl child was considered as the arrival of the goddess into the household. A country where women were respected and revered I am not sure when and where this country took the wrong turn and started considering this very gender that they revered as a shame and a disgrace. The birth of a baby girl led to the parents to be stigmatized in the society.

Empowerment of women and a change in this outlook against women would happen only through education, it is often seen that the illiterate women folk in the village are the ones who scheme against their daughter –in- laws and see to it that they are blamed and tortured in case their grandchildren turn out to be girls building up resentment in the minds of the coming generation against the girl child. If the literacy rate among women goes up then naturally the literacy rate as a whole would go up and this stigmatization against women would come down as a literate women would not want their kids to be illetrate and women who has knowledge would not stigmatize against the girl child.

Literacy would help in correcting the wrong notion of girl child being a burden to the family and not being useful in contributing to the family’s income. We can see that educated women are achieving great heights in every field they enter today. Now a day’s women who are well educated and getting employed are given the same pay as their counter parts. The reality that women too can earn as much as their counterparts if well educated would bring down the discrimination meted out to them and thus helps in the progress of the country.

All those who read this would say that this does not happen now and is a truth of the past, but I think no, still in those far flung villages in our country they still have this stigma attached against the girl child. Though I would say that over the years there has been a definite change in the outlook and there is still progress happening in this direction but for this to happen at a faster rate we need to see to it that the girl child is also educated along with the boys.

Ice age...Stoneage..... Evolution happening!!!

2008-04-17T12:29:00.006+05:30

Our QT ma'am from MBA class told us about a topic one of her ex student was doing research on; it was the shift in the behavior of men and women. She said that the researcher felt that women are taking on the characteristics which were earlier seen prominently among men and the men were changing in their behavior which was earlier akin to women.

The example she cited was the change in the way men wore colors like pink and pastels which were considered feminine and never used by men. They give more prominence to their appearance by visiting beauty parlor for manicures, pedicures facials and so on, so much so, that companies have come out with fairness creams exclusively for men. They also take active participation in taking care of the kids; they babysit them and are comfortable taking care of their kids even if their wife’s are not around.

In women she said they prefer black and darker shades to lighter color which were earlier considered feminine. Also earlier the fact of women working and earning was not there but today she says the women are keen on pursuing career making them sacrifice marriage and family. Earlier the women used to get married early at an age of 20 to 25 but today we see that women are not ready to settle down until they 30 and then also they think a lot before having a family because they feel that it will dampen their career aspiration which was the way men thought a few years back. The men on the other hand have settling down earlier in their life.

There was a recent article in the newspaper about the fact seen in the matrimonial sites, the article mentioned that they found that the marriageable age of men has come down with most of the men getting registered and married as young as 23- 25 . They also highlighted the fact that marriageable age of women has gone up they found the women registering to these site the age has gone up to 25 -30. The article also mentioned that they find that the women felt that marriage would curb their independence a feeling which was seen among men a few years back.

This has got me thinking if there has been a shift? Or has evolution brought about a change in the behavior of the genders. I feel this research is worth looking out for and I would be definitely looking forward to the findings.

Thulavarsham!!!!! Nature at her best

2008-04-09T15:23:00.013+05:30

I have stayed in three cities other than Kochi........Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore and in each of these cities have enjoyed the rains. But I miss wholeheartedly the beautiful rains of my home Kochi.

In Kerala it rain all around the year or almost all round the year and we actually have two seasons when we are assured of rains one starts with the opening of the schools in Kerala on June 1st (give or take a day or two) which is specific on drenching the kids on their opening day to school and the other is during the Thulamasam (a month according to the Malayalam calendar) around September-October and is named Thulavarsham.

I personally like these Thulavarsham showers as it has a special power to it…….it is nature in all her fury. The day begin as usual bright and sunny during Thulamasam.....it gets very hot by afternoon…. even though it is bright and sunny you could hear a thunder or two as though a remainder of what is in store further down the day. By mid afternoon the whole place darkens up with heavy black rain clouds it would be as dark as evening 6 by around 3 in the afternoon. The sky lightens up with the lightening the whole place echoes with the thunderbolt. The electricity office normally turns off the power before these thundershowers as a precautionary measure thus adding to the ambience. The power of the lightening is really known now when it is dark both outside and inside the home .

Though I am scared of the thunderbolt I love it…. the power, the fury I feel that this is when mother nature is at her best. The lightening and thunder would begin the evening performance the speedy winds would be added to this already powerful performance and the last addition would be the heavy lashing rains which is a treat to the eyes and is very soothing to the heart and soul. I realized the beauty of the rains in Kerala after I saw the rains in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

I can assure you that an experience of the thundershowers in Kerala is really worth it. Sipping hot coffee in the candle light at 4 in the evening with darkness all around…… the occasional lightening and thunderbolts……Oh how I want to enjoy once again this magnificent spectacle in Gods Own Country ....the moments we feel ourselves to be so insignificant before God and nature… :)

Weirdo....

2008-04-08T14:50:00.015+05:30

A favorite pastime one summer vacations among all of us kids in the colony was cycling, most of us had our individual cycles and used to cycle in full speed in the colony lane. The younger lot who did not have cycles used to play the traffic police giving direction to us and so on. This pastime ensured that none of the uncles or aunties in the colony could walk down or come out with their vehicles when we were on the cycling spree. Not so frequently our parents fed up of the racket made by us would allow us to go out on the road (that is beyond the colony lanes kind of the busier road). Eventually so as to aviod being nuisance we moved into the church grounds to cycle. The church is a very old one almost a 100 years old which has lots of spare ground filled with trees making it shady even during the peak afternoons thus it being transformed into our new cycling path.

One evening when we were cycling in the church grounds there came a guy who was passing through the church compounds, it is a shortcut used by many. He seeing us kids play came by and asked one of the younger ones as to where do we stay. Seeing that he was speaking to the younger ones all of us who were cycling came to where he was speaking. Neets younger sister Geet who has never said truth in her life till then informed us that the man was a drunkard who was not from the neighborhood and was asking them where we lived. She said she was scared and asked us not to tell the truth saying that he might come in the night and may rob us and go (idiots that we are we believed it). We said to him that all of us kids (round to 10 of us)belonged to two families living in an area far away from where we were playing and that we had come to a relatives place on the other side of the church. He started asking us our names and we made up names and told him and we watched him till he left the place and even trailed him to make sure he left that area. To tell you the truth we were scared and the rest of the evening was spend in discussing about the guy and what would have happened if we had told the truth.

We have church family get together every first Sundays evenings in one of the families houses. In one such church family get together soon after guess to our surprise whom we ran into? The same guy whom Geet had told was the drunkard and was from some faraway place. He was a new person to the neighborhood an advocate a new member to the church. And during the entire get together he gave us odd looks because we were calling each other different names (obviously we had given him wrong names) and we who belonged to another part of the city were being introduced as sons and daughters belonging to different families in the neighborhood. I am sure he would have been thinking whether he was weird or were the kids weird. I am sure the reason for this is Geet the liar. Even today when we see this guy in church or on the road we giggle among ourselves remembering the day we all had turned weirdoes :)

Anne of Green Gables

2008-04-04T10:42:00.009+05:30

This is a classic by L.M. Montgomery which is a favorite with people all over the globe. The beauty of this book is that young girls who read the story of Anne actually fall in love with Anne girl and taking example from the book try and imagine her as their playmate when they need one. The language of the book is simple and easy and that makes it endearing for the readers. This was a book I read during my school day from my school library.....later on I came to know that there are further series to this book which portrays the life of Anne further on... this lead to the quest of finding the remaining books in the series (thanks to internet and e-books free downloading) I got the full series through net and having read the entire series I feel it was worth the search. None of the books in the series is dearer to me than Anne of Green Gables but that does not mean that the rest of the books are not good .Maybe because I read green gables first when I was so young and became a favorite then it still holds the same place in my heart. One thing I am sure of is that if I have a daughter then Anne of Green Gables and it series is going to be one of the classics she is going to gifted sooner than later in her life. :)

Work life

2008-04-02T17:25:00.010+05:30

It has now been almost 6 month since I have joined work, all those images and dreams during college days about work and life as a whole has given way to bitter truth.

In my dream I saw myself as the highly popular marketing personality working for an FMCG company ideally located in Bangalore as it was the city in which I did my degree and fell in love with (this was seen before the campus placements took place) . This dream of working in FMCG Company came to a screeching halt as soon as I got placed in a software firm through campus placement.

According to the placement talks and presentations given by the company into which I got selected. The dream took a bit of a deviation to fit myself into the software scenario. I saw myself as the jet setting lady who markets software solutions to the potential clients who are located all over the country...working on my lappy at airports and client locations .......not being able to see my family for months on end nor being able to contact my friends as I would always be on the move.

This came to a complete screeching halt when I faced reality, the project I got after joining was not exactly of the dreams and imagination I had...... it certainly did not need me to market any of their products (as the are still just making it).........the beautiful city of Bangalore in which my dream was always set in ......... got transformed into Hyderabad.......the thought of the busy lady who do not see her family for month at end got transformed into virtually being home every weekend (happy about this dream going wrong)....... the client location did not spread across the country but got fixed to a state and city..... Hyderabad. So much for dreaming and coming back down to earth with a thud face down ...... ;) OUCH!!!!!! tat hurts :D

Drink and drive.....Early death

2008-03-06T14:43:00.009+05:30

This post is based on something I personally went through.... my roommates friend died in a bike accident the cause for which was drink and drive. My friend is still coming to terms to the fact of her friends death very painfully day by day....she still can't believe that she is not going to get a call from him or a message from him.....that she is not going to see him smile back to her ever again.....

Who stands to lose of your death in such instances where the blame for your death is solely upon you ...... you never once think of your father and mother who have loved you soo much whose every dream has been made on you.....you never think of your Mom who worries mad when you are down with just a fever or a cold what would go through her mind when she sees your lifeless body...nor do you think of your Dad who works day in and out just to be able to give you the best of everything in life.... what would be his state of mind when he see you broken before him...... ever thought of your brothers and sister who have only you to call their own how are they going to see you lying there .......you never once think of those friends who are going to be devastated when you are not going to be there for them...you never think about your wife and kids whose world revolves around you and for whom the world is you.

You for that one moment of happiness drink and in that state drunkenness you drive thinking you are the king and nothing is ever gonna happen to you but just round the corner one mistake just one mistake it takes away everything .... it cost your precious life.........the fact of which you might not even know but it is the rest of your loved ones who are going to be shattered ..they are the ones who are going to find it hard to accept that you are not going to walk back into their lives with your smiles and talks...that you are not to write back the scraps... you are not going to call back... you are not going to message back to them..... Please don't drink and drive....I would plead not to drink at all... because it is going to hurt all of whom you love and hold dear....also all those who love you....

Valentines day !!!

2008-02-13T16:17:00.013+05:30

Valentines Day!!!! A day highly commercialized by the card companies, soft toys and flower industry in the initial years. Today it is commercialized by any business or industry who is in any way directly or indirectly related to this day.....just yesterday I saw a Valentines Day special offer by Go Air giving special discounts if traveling with your partner....How is air travel and valentines day related? we would wonder........but there is the relation put up by Go Air.... travel with your loved one and get a discount on the second ticket purchased (still not able to get the connection between air travel and love)

Valentines day gained prominence in India mostly over the past 10 to 15 years and this can be attributed to the opening up of the Indian economy and the FDI flowing in. The day is so much commercialized today that there are write ups and offers for the day lined up even months before the D-day. It has influenced the young minds of India so much that we see little kids at school too celebrating the day spending stupendous amounts on buying gift for the ones they claim they love (rather early I would say to have found their soul mates in class 1). They start their Valentines day by buying flowers and chocolates (budget constraints) and move on to buying jewellery, electronic gadget, diamond and other expensive as they grow up.

Instead of it being just a day long celebration ...recent years show that it has turned into a weeklong celebration and I am sure not far away is the time when the whole month of February would be celebrated with offers and special discount for travel, food and clothing and anything which can be related to this day dedicated to Love.

I often wonder if any other Saint in Christianity has attained so much popularity around the world....and if any other day other than Christmas in Christianity has gained such popularity among all faiths around the world. Also wondering if any of those who celebrate this day with great splendor know that 14th of February is the feast of St. Valentine and we are actually celebrating his martyrdom for helping people who loved each other.

Valentines Day.....

2008-02-12T11:51:00.004+05:30

This is an entry which I have taken from the internet an entry by me regarding Valentines day will be posted shortly.

Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine's Day -- and its patron saint -- is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?

Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today.Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial -- which probably occurred around 270 A.D -- others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.

The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February -- Valentine's Day -- should be a day for romance. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.

According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)

Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum. The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap". Special thanks to American Greetings.

Summer vacations!!!!

2008-02-07T17:22:00.005+05:30

We three the "Troublesome Trio" had the best childhood days anybody could have dreamed of. Onam, Christmas and summer breaks were eagerly looked forward to.........the first reason being no classes and second being loads of fun and play in the colony. The Onam vacation was filled with days full of games.........some time putting up floral carpets in one of our houses. Christmas was dedicated to the choir practices for X'mas and New Year mass...hence mainly in the church and the rest of the time practicing these song so the X'mas vacation was dedicated to these.

The long lazy summer breaks were ones eagerly looked forward to.... getting up early so that we could play shuttle before it became too sunny......visiting the houses in the colony after that ...... climbing walls and mango trees ....... plucking the unripe mangoes and having them with salt on the terraces.... ripen mangoes when they were available. Lunch’s in one of the houses in the colony........cycling, small picnics in places near our colony....... pickle tasting sessions(Neets mom used to put delicious pickles and we saw to it that they did not last more a day or two) birthdays, evening get together .....Oh those carefree days when the only tension was when will we be called back home :)

There used to be lazy days as well when we used to end up sitting in one of our homes talking nineteen to a dozen and emptying the kitchen of the home we ended up being......

I still remember one of the vacation not long after we shifted into the colony all the kids in the colony were bored and hence came up with an idea of helping the aunties and uncles in the colony...... we planned to get the daily grocery what they required every day from the nearby supermarket... of course we expected a fees of Rs2 (cheap nah but think of it divided between like 5 of us) for every delivery made... the sweet uncles and aunties that they are they used to give us a daily order of milk and bread just to humor us... we even had this initiative named 'We Help'..... we who were lazy when our mom used to ask us to go for errands were ready to get grocery for the whole of the colony.....remembering those days brings a smile on my face ... what all we end up doing when we are kids.....

These vacations hold nostalgic memories of both happiness and sadness.......these are memories which are treasured in my heart and bring back a smile whenever remembered fondly.

Introduction to the Troublesome Trio

2008-01-16T17:42:00.004+05:30

I have added a new label 'troublesome trio' to the already existing labels. Now let me introduce you to the trio... first and the youngest is Mariya who also happens to be my sis who is three years younger to me....the second and the middle one is Neet who is two years younger to me... the third and the eldest of this trio is myself Anne...

We became friends when our family moved into the colony.... though we call it a colony it was not really designed to be a colony....... the manner in which the hous got constructed lead it to becoming a natural colony.....the straight lane leading into the colony led to the church compounds and from where it forked to the left and the right where they meet dead ends and thus the colony being created of closely knit group of ten families.... the three of us were ones who in age were similar with just an age gap of two or three years amongst us ..... the rest of the kids in the colony were either younger or elder to us.. and the remaining who were in our age slot were boys... added to this we were together as part of the choir....leading the three of us to getting together scheming plans against the rest of them ;)

Friday evening after class and weekends in the colony were fun... in the initial years when we had moved into the colony the people in the colony and believers going to the church had a hard time walking down our lane...... as we used to play cricket, football, rugby and all possible games and created great racket.... as we started going on to higher classes these game filled Fridays slowly turned out to more peaceful Fridays when the three of us would stand at the "Trinity corner" that is what we had named the point where the straight lane leading into the colony forked out into three.......the corner where it forked there is a lamp post which was christened as 'the Trinity Corner' by the three of us. It was these Friday and weekend meetings along with the choir practices that strengthened our bond

The three of us had our usual meeting at the Trinity corner till we, that is my family shifted back to Mumbai five years back :( Even today on Friday evening and weekends when I am free I long to go back to the old days and have our meetings at the Trinity corner where we used to talk for hours on end on God alone knows what all subjects......... and kept on talking there till our moms gave three warning until finally they had to come to literally drag us home :)

We have grown so close over the years that we feel that Neet is also my sis ....... so much so that when I went to Bangalore to pursue my degree I told my friends there that I have two sisters younger to me Neet and Mariya....... and it continued to be told like that till the day she got married :)

Christmas in Kochi after 5 years !!!!! :) :(

2008-01-10T17:35:00.004+05:30

Christmas of childhood in Kochi was the tension of whether we that is Neet, Mariya my sister and myself in the choir would be able to sing well or not for the midnight mass. The days preceding the day of Christmas after the school closes for Christmas vacation was spent in the church practicing for the choir on Christmas day midnight mass. The church would be a place of great activity with the youth members from the church setting up the crib, the Christmas tree and the light and audio arrangement for the nativity play which takes place during the mass. Christmas this time was a nostalgia of all these memories.... the choir practices where we had so much of fun, the thrill we got after having finished the mass and parishioners congratulating us on having sung well....the sipping of hot ginger tea at night before the mass so that our voices came out loud and clear...the sleepiness we had to fight off when the priest gave the sermons.....mostly it was the thrill we got when we sang the songs which we had been practicing for days and literally singing every waking moment till the Christmas mass.

This time too like old time Neet, Mariya and myself attended the mass together......just like the good old days the only difference being there was new set of young girls as part of the choir singing instead of the three of us. :) And we went and congratulated them after the mass as we knew that these would be the beautiful memories of Christmas for them in the years to come.

At times like these I always wonder why did I have to grow up..... :) :(

Thousand splendid suns!!!!!

2008-01-08T16:49:00.003+05:30

Thousand Splendid Suns is a book by Khaled Hosseini of two women in Afghanistan, the story shows the struggle that these two women face in their lives. The story flows through a time period when there is so much unrest happening in the country including the recent attack by the US on it after the 9/11 attacks. Thus making us relate to it in a better way.

The story is about Mariam and how her life changes when Laila enters into her life and finally how her life ends. The book is a reality which many unfortunate women have to go through in their marriage not only in Islamic countries but all over the world. But the vulnerability for these women lies in the fact that the laws in these countries too do not help them because they too are male oriented and are partial.

Though I had heard a lot about this book I still like the other novels mentioned below because I feel they have more reality towards it maybe because they are real life stories. This story is beautifully written and does depict the miseries faced by women in their marriage and the miseries of being born as a woman in an Islamic country.

The story is yet another window to the lives of women living in the Islamic countries. Other books which give similar overview of the lives of women in Islamic countries are Princess and its series by Jean Sassoon, also another good one is Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody.

Drinking!!!

2007-12-10T17:56:00.005+05:30

A favourite pass time among the men, should I also mention women (recent trends). Often I have wondered what benefit do they derive out of this pass time? None that I can think of but one which is not a benefit but comes to my mind is it will definitely help them reach the other world soon.

I think of the youngster who take up to drinking as 'COWARDS' .... Yeah you got me right cowards... I know it is an entirely different outlook to drinking but then I have my reasons.

One of the reasons is that it is a bad habit which in my books is similar to a person taking drugs. Secondly I think most of the youngster take to drinking just due to peer pressure. That is those who take to drinking from their college days. They are the cowards who are not brave enough to say no when their freinds pressurize them to drink. It is like the rest of the my freinds drink so I will look bad if i dont follow the crowd. They fear to be different and are not brave enough to say an absolute no to their freinds when they are forced into a habit which is as bad as taking drugs.

An absolutly weird reason I have heard for drinking is that it is to relieve stress and remove tension, I often wonder what about the rest of us who are also stressed in life and who do not have to opt drinking. Do we die of stress? I dont think so we have better ways to get rid of stress by spending time with the family, listening to soft music, reading books and loads more other activities.

Walk to remember

2007-11-06T14:43:00.002+05:30

'Walk to Rememeber' is a young and innocent love story written beautifully by Nicholas Sparks. Most of his works are love stories like The Notebook, A Bend in the road, Message in a Bottle, The Rescue so on.

What I liked about 'Walk to Remember' is that the story is about two young individuals Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan studying at Beaufort high school in North Carolina. The story is all about how two totally different people fall into true love.

This book provides the reader with an indirect message that is if you believe in God he will hear your prayers for sure. The story depicts the power of love and prayer as to how it can transform a person for good. But the best thing about the book is the innocence of Landon and Jamie and their love.

Like Nicholas Sparks mentions in the introduction of the book "first you will smile, and then you will cry --- don't say that you haven't been warned." It is a fair enough warning because when we read this warning we think as to whether the author has so much confidence in the book to put up such a warning. But true to to the warning that is what we end up doing when we read the book. First we smile and then we cry............

Adieu...

2007-10-20T20:42:00.001+05:30

I was leaving Kochi the city in Gods own country where I had spent some of my most cherished years of ma life......It was a nostaligic farewell as I was saying adieu to the beautiful city after having compeleted my studies and was goimg to enter the big bad world..... I was gonna start working.

I was leaving behind faces and people held dear over my course of 2 years of study here in Kochi.......But then the best thing about home is that it was always bids me adieu in its own special way and this time too it did bid me adieu in its special way.......with a Rainbow.... No it was not raining but as I was leaving for the airport between the cloud were visible two beautiful rainbows....

I was sad leaving my behind my friends but the rainbow felt for me as a beautiful reminder of the wonderful years I have spend in this wonderful city.

Way of life!!!

2007-07-28T23:13:00.001+05:30

Here I am waiting to join my job, sitting idle, wasting away precious time doing virtually nothing but then it is a phase of life. I am missing all my friends at college but then that is the way of life.

We are born into a family with whom we live for about 19 to 20 years after which we move out either for studies or after getting married. This is one of the saddest parting in ones life but then it is a way of life with almost everyone.

So is the case with our childhood friends as well as our school and college friends. They become an important part of our life and when the time of parting come we always wonder how we will lead on without them. We feel as though it will not be possible to go on without them the family, the friends but then we live on.

We go ahead making new friends and sometimes lucky enough to get one of our old friends to be part of our new job or place. But then that is the way of life with its ups and downs, the laughter and the tears the spices of life.

Our plans Vs Gods

2007-07-27T22:25:00.001+05:30

I had always planned or had always dreamed that my childhood playmate Neet would be one of my bridesmaid for my wedding. As I was the eldest among the three of us that is Neet, my sis Mariya and myself. We were childhood friends and had always done almost everything together and so leading to my dream of her being a bridesmaid as I was naturally going to be the first one to be married of.

But it seemed God certainly had other plans because Neet got married before me and to top it we , my sister and myself ,were not able to attend her wedding as we were out of town and could no way make it. The day of her wedding was one of the saddest and happiest days of my life. Sad because I was not there for her on that special day of hers. We had always simply assumed that each of us would be there for one other on such important days of our lives and also because it was not happening as I had planned ( so much for making plans). Happy because my dear childhood friend was getting married to someone she loved and was in a way getting her dream come true.

This proved that everything need not turn out as we plan or dream and that God certainly has the last say !!!!! (pssst... and I have not got married yet....)

Echoes

2007-07-27T22:03:00.001+05:30

I have just finished reading the book 'Echoes' by Danilelle Steel. I have read many of her works earlier but I liked this one very much because there was a certain maturity in her writing in this book unlike the others which I have read and have never found. Another one of her literary work which I have read and liked is 'Accidents' which has a similar genre of maturity to it.

Now that I think of both the stories I can see a similarity between the two that is both potray the emotions of women and the bond between mother and daughter. In Echoes she has potrayed the character of Ameada who is a strong , courageous, compassionate women and her mom Beata and their relationship. In Accident she has shown the relationship between a mother and daughter and how the determination and faith of a mother helps in bringing back her daughter from the coma state that her daughter had fallen into after an accident.

The boy who lived!!!

2007-07-23T21:27:00.001+05:30

The breaking news on CNN-IBN on the 21st of July 2007 "Harry Potter survives!!!". An event which saw people across countries all around the world waiting with baited breath to know. The fate of their hero 'Harry Potter' in what J.K. Rowling claim to be the last book in the Potter series. I was one of those fans eagerly awaiting to know the fate of the boy wizard like everyone else.

The last book is indeed what the fans were waiting for.It has the same effect as the rest of the preceding books in the series it has the thrills, the sadness, the nerve tingling suspence and much much more as any true Harry Potter fan would know.

It is indeed great to know that this book has lead to breaking many records and creating history with the amount of books being sold and also the box office collections on the movies based on these books. But what I think is the greatest achievement of the book and its author is the fact that she was able to bring back the reading habit among kids which had gone down greatly over the years.

A book which depicts that good always wins over the evil and that if you have faithful, loving and trusted freinds along with you crossing any hurdle how great it might look is going to be easy.

Thoughts!!!!

2007-07-23T21:12:00.002+05:30

Thoughts.... Ever given a thought what they actually are? They are sparks which eventually lead to great discoveries.....It is something which propels us into action.....thoughts really potray who we actually are....it is there within each one of us no matter where we are from....what age we are... what language we speak.These thoughts which get converted into dreams.... propel us into action.... they shape up our whole life....they lead us into great heights...and also sometimes into even greater falls.....but it is always there with us.History proves that these thoughts are the path way to almost all the major innovation in this world.. the thought that if we settle down and grow food in a systematic manner in nomadic days lead to the great civilizations then ......all the great things we see around are a result of these thoughts......thoughts....that little sparks within...so powerfull!!!Thoughts so powerfull!!!! They shape who we are and also the world around......So give it a Thought!!!!! ;)