To live a life

To live a life,

do we have to fight

every day

with whatever life

 throws up !

Do we have to bend,

 to buck,

& then bounce back

 from all miseries,

that keep on hovering unrelentingly,

from all directions fathomable?

To live a life,

Can’t we take

 a deep dive ,

and rise up elsewhere?

New surroundings,

new place,

where weakness won’t be exposed,

 in a hurry,

and even when

 they are exposed,

may be we can go

 for yet another dive !

Image Courtesy:  www.dustincox.us

A Rendezvous with Charlie Chaplin

I was part of an audit team and we were camped at a Hotel in Dehradun during Nov-Dec 2012.  We were 2 Executives (I was one of them), 1 Asst. Manager and 1 Audit Manager, all sharing a double bed room.  We were not complaining as most of the rooms falling in our budget were booked in advance because of some VIP marriage and also during this time it was very cold in Dehradun, so foursome was not a crowd.

As there was only 1 bathroom attached, we had to time our rising up from bed.  When I woke up in the morning, it was already 6:30, and the other executive was up and watching TV, I guess it was some Tamil/Telugu Action Movie.  As I got up and moved out of bed, the executive watching TV left the chair and rushed to the bathroom, exclaiming that he would be out in 10 minutes.  For want of anything better to do, I took the remote control and started surfing channels.

 As someone who quit watching TV long time back, I have my sympathies for the current generation of TV viewers.  It is really tough for one to select, chose and view when there are thousands of options being bombarded from all directions; daily soaps, reality shows, sports, movies, news channels, fashion channels, music channels, all vying for one’s eyeballs.

Finally, I zeroed in on Children’s channel, Pogo I suppose, it was showing Charlie Chaplin’s movie.  You know, Charlie, always the unemployed tramp, is newly employed at a factory. 

THE SCENE:  The owner of the factory is not happy with the productivity and wants everyone to work more and increase productivity.  Charlie Chaplin is very much eager to prove himself at his new job, his job is on the conveyer belt and all he has to do is just hammer in a screw into a metal plate.  When everybody goes for break, Charlie Chaplin continues with his hammering and upsets the conveyor belt.  In the meantime, the cleaning women comes and asks Charlie to step aside.  While the cleaning women is bent and mopping the floor, Charlie who is now hammering every protruding object like a manic as he cannot stop his hand, spots a button on the woman’s butt, which looks like a screw waiting to be hit, finally he gives in and hits her with the hammer on the butt and the lady chases him around the factory for his (mis)deed.

I was laughing like a mad man while all this was going on.  The Assist. Manager woke up because of my laughing, wondering what the hullabaloo was all about? I pointed to the screen as I could not talk and I was breathless with all the laughing.  The other executive meanwhile came out of the bathroom and exclaimed, “Hey, you still watch all this stuff?”  It was sort of an accusation, after all weren't all of us grownups?

I immediately made a lunge towards the bathroom.  Fifteen minutes afterwards I stepped out into a different room, a room which was livelier, cheerful, and full of camaraderie.  My executive colleague was all dressed up and ready, sitting in the chair and laughing like a man possessed, giving him company were our Assist manager, sitting on the edge of the bed and Audit manager, still cuddled up in the bed with the blanket on.

THE SCENE:  The Owner of the company has bought some new machine which can feed the workers, so

that company can save time on the lunch break.  The person chosen as the volunteer for this is, yes, you must have guessed it, our dear Charlie Chaplin.  His grimaces while the machine is forcing food down his throat, then rubbing his face with napkin, again making him drink something,  is such that it is very difficult for any normal being not to laugh.

What brought this incident back to my mind was the FB status on my friend’s time line, which said, if you can still laugh watching Tom and Jerry, then it means life has been kind to you!

 While I have never had problems laughing while watching Tom & Jerry, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, perhaps the three of my colleagues, never had the chance or time or inclination to check out on these.  However, when chance came on a cold morning in December in Dehradun, none of them were found wanting!

 Thank you Charlie Chaplin,  Tom & Jerry, Laurel & Hardy for always bringing the kid out of us, and thank you Richa for your wonderful time line post, which brought this memory to the fore.
).

Rich Dad Poor Dad

I would have studied higher

And landed my dream job

I would not have struggled this much

I am telling you with a sob,

Things would not have been,

This much bad

If and if only I had a rich dad!

I would have ventured into trading

Grand plans I do have

Work tirelessly to see my trade thriving

And make people just rave

But this never happened

Business never I did

Capital was never forthcoming

Lenders weren’t ever stupid

But credit I wouldn’t have needed

And I don’t think I am mad,

If and only if I had a rich dad

I would have built myself a castle

In castle I would dwell

My life would have been regal

It all rings a bell

But then you know,

 It’s a tale which is sad,  

After all am a poor man’s son

A’int one with rich dad

I caught my old man

One day napping by the tree

Gave him a wake up

And asked him why he

Couldn't create an empire

Of business for me

Nor let me study higher

So that I could be

A big hot shot

Or at least a honcho for sure

Why he did not do these

I wanted to hear

He looked into my eyes

And then looked straight ahead

Perhaps there was a valid reason

Stored in his head

Had many dreams,

Perhaps even more than you,

Have my son,

I too wanted to live fully

And to have all the fun

But then those were just dreams

And dreams, they do fade

As we grow older

As we become sane

And there is one more reason

Which I did not tell before

You see my father, your granddad

Wasn't a rich man after all!

Twinny

I have always known that dogs are loving, and over the years I have made some wonderful four legged friends.  Loyalty and faithfulness is the hallmark of this great animal and humanity would be greatly enriched if we were to borrow a little of this trait from this “animal”.  Teary eyed, I have read James Herriot’s Dog Stories many a times, but it was Twinny who gave me a real life glimpse of how much love a dog has for its master.  

Twinny was not my dog and the name was given by my mother who has a name for all the animals that she feeds.   Twinny was from a house nearby ours and looked to be of mixed ancestry, somebody up in her family tree was a dachshund and thus she too had a dachshund look, albeit a desi one.   We started seeing her regularly only after she was fully grown up. 

Twinny was in fact picked up from some place at the insistence of the young boy of the family, who was enamored by her cute looks.  Once Twinny started growing up, her cuteness diminished and the young master was not interested anymore.   So, they just kicked her out one day, and the young master got a new pup (this time male).   It was at this time that we started seeing Twinny loitering around our back gate and also along the road and pavements and at other nearby places.   My mother found striking similarity between our dog Spotty and Twinny and this is how Twinny got her name.

 Her old owners, especially the kids, would not allow her anywhere in our neighborhood, perhaps it hurt their pride, or maybe they thought Twinny would somehow sneak in and hurt their new dog, I don’t know what their reason was.  They did not allow her to eat peacefully in front of our gate.  The boy would come on his bicycle and create such a ruckus that poor Twinny would run for cover, but she was smart enough to come back once the idiot was gone.  My sister caught the boy red handed in the act once and scolded him hard, after that we did not see him doing anything like that.

One day, there was nobody at home, and I saw Twinny standing at the back gate.   I took out what mom had kept for Twinny, opened the gate, and placed it down there.   Twinny was initially not comfortable taking from my hands but perhaps hunger made her overcame her shyness and in no time she was gorging over the food.   I knew my duty did not finish with just giving her food, I had to make sure she ate it without any hindrance , so I just came inside my compound, closed the gate, and, stood there  with my head resting on the boundary wall.  I could see Twinny eating her food, she was clearly enjoying the rice and fish when suddenly I felt she was getting alert.  I could see a twitch of her ear and from the corner of the eye, I saw a movement.  Twinny’s old owners lived around 100 m away from my home, just across a curvy turn and it was at this turn that I saw the master of the house walking in our direction.  He was perhaps going for his evening walk.   As he came nearer, Twinny left her food, sat erect and to my surprise and astonishment started moving her tail.  The tail movement culminated in a wag, but the old gentleman did not look in our direction and went straight along his path.  I, who was the sole witness of this incident, was moved beyond words.   

There she was, a small, feeble, now living on the street, dog, who after being pampered for a while, was suddenly left on her own, but who still remembered the love she once got from her owners and thereby would wag her tail….it did not matter to her that the person to whom she wagged her tail, did not pet her, did not look at her, or even may have hurt her.  That is the love a dog has for its owner.

My advice for people is that dog is not a toy, to be thrown out after use is over.  He or she is like a junior family member, one who needs our love, attention, and care.  Loving back and being faithful and loyal is somewhat of a default setting for this four legged “animal”.  So please if you are not interested in keeping it like a family member, then please don’t adopt, and once you have decided to go for the adoption, please please never abandon !!!

A Religion Called India

I was born in northern part of India, but my parents were from South of India, or to put it generically, were Madrasis.  My life began in a small town in Bihar.  For the first 3-4 years of my life, my outside contact apart from my parents were neighbors and their kids, so the childhood gibberish that I spoke did not sound anything like Malayalam, it was Bihari. 

I was a Bihari by birth, and acted like one too.  However, there were times in my school life, when I felt uncomfortable or out of place.  I could not laugh like a possessed buffoon on hearing Madrasi jokes.  The sleeping Madrasi in me perhaps added to this discomfort.

Time flew, after completing my higher secondary, I had to leave my birth place and settle down in my native place in Kerala.  So, now I was in the place where I actually belonged, but bigger surprise was in store for me.  It was only after I joined a college that I realized that there was no trace of either a Madrasi or a Malayali in me.  The Malayalam which I spoke did not resemble to what others in my class spoke, I did not resemble the traditional Malayali and somebody said I resembled Lalu Prasad Yadav too.  Thus all pretensions about being a Madrasi were thrown out of the window on the first day itself.

The important question now was….Who was I?

((Flash Back: 1984-1985…I am studying in a Prestigious Convent School in UKG class.  I am new and have made 3 friends,  Chandan, Abeed, and Gaurav.   Chandan asks me a question, are you a Hindu? I tell him I am an Indian.  Chandan says no, that is not correct, he gives me an example, “See I am Hindu, Abeed is Muslim, and Gaurav is Hindu, so you must be either Hindu or Muslim.”  I feel bad as I do not fall into either group, but I keep on parroting “Indian” Religion.  After school hours, I ask mother, whether I am Hindu or Muslim, she asks me what I feel I am, I tell her I am an Indian.  She tells me that is the correct answer and that Indian is the grandest of all religions.  I am very happy that what I told the other day in class is correct and double happy because it is the grandest of all.  Next day, I go to school, as a proud Indian and proclaim my Indian Religion to ignorant masses there.))

That was 27-28 years ago.  A lot has changed, I have grown up, have been working for near about a decade, have traveled across the length and breadth of India, and have interactions with people from all over India and from Asia and Middle Eastern Countries.  From these interactions, I have come to appreciate the idea behind the foundations of my country, a country where people from different faith can live together under one national identity, where they can practice their faith without any kind of restrictions from state, where they can live a life of religion or be an atheist.  It takes men of vision and character to visualize such an idea.  Thank you Bapu, Bhagat Singh Ji, Subash Chandra Bose ji, and countless other nameless heroes for giving us this wonderful gift of Independence.

  Let us take this idea, this vision forward, let us take our country to the very pinnacle of human achievement, let us be ……………..INDIANS…

Jai Hind

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO ALL  

Mogambo Kush Hua

Watching the movies from 90s, I was amazed at the wonderful screen presence of eternal baddie,Mr. Amrish Puri.  Whether it be a Mogambo (Mr. India), a Shera (Loha), a Bhairo Baba (Nagina), he was terrific and excellent in all of them.  With the wacko hairdo, attire, and diction, he would instill fear in us (jab mein chota tha).  His never say die attitude would give him the strength to crawl out of that bottomless pit and stab our hero from behind.  His drive, passion, and dedication to get the job done were, sorry to say, not shared by his subordinates and thereby in the end, he would have to bow down before the hero.  Although, if you look at it seriously, it was not his failure alone, it was the failure of his organization, or the syndicate which he was running.....

Apparently, this staple diet of Bollywood movies in the late 90s, has many parallels in the real world.....there are many Mogambos out there, who are running one man show.  The CEO is the final word in all the matters and all the decisions.  Take out the CEO from the equation and there is no organization.

Come to think of it, if you have watched Mr. India, you must be knowing Mogambo's Assistant Managers.....M/s Daga and Teja.  Had Daga and Teja been more proactive, Mr. India could have been stopped in his tracks, but the problem with Mogambo like people is that they don't want proactive people under them for the fear that they may one day be upstaged by these people.  Thus sycophancy rules and in the end, Mr. India comes up triumphant....

  
On a serious note, Mogambo's plans were never really defeated, as he wanted to feed people of India substandard ration, he wanted people to fight in the name of religion, caste, he wanted people fragmented and not united, and the list is quite long and sadly, I would have to tick most of the boxes....

Typhoid, cooking and movies......:-)

My typhoid induced holidays are coming to an end.  The days were not easy to go by in the beginning, but once I got used to the lazy routine, it was fun.  As I gained strength, I started helping mother in kitchen (with dinner only) and in the process learned how to knead flour, make roti, make omlette, make fried masala noodles, alu ka bujiya, baigan ka bujiya etc.  I also watched around 50 movies and  have maintained an exclusive list of them.  Here they go;

ENGLISH:

1.  Toy story.  (already watched, just revising)

2.  Batman begins (same as above).

3.  The Dark Knight.

4.  Kung fu panda 2.

5.  The incredibles.

6.  Inception.

7.  The women in green.

8.  Catch me if you can.

9.  Tintin and the adventure of the Unicorn.

10.  Crouching tiger hidden dragon.

11.  Castle in the sky

12.  Wall E.

13.  Bourne Ultimatum.

14.  Saving Pvt. Ryan.

15.  Invictus.

HINDI:

1.  Hulchul.

2.  Yadoon ki baraat (watched as a kid)

3.  Hum Kisi se kum nahin.

4.  Kuch na kehna (a hrishikesh Mukherjee entertainer)

5.  Khoobsurat (same as above).

6.  Yuva.

7.  Swades.

8.  Dil se

9.  Dostana.

10.  Quyamat se Quyamat tak

11.  Jhankar Beats

12.  Dil Chahta hai

13.  Satte Pe satta.

14.  Don – the chase begins (1).

15.  Hungama.

16.  Rann.

17.  Kabul Express.

18.  Mr. & Mrs. Aiyyer.

19.  Arakshan.

MALAYALAM:

1.  Puchekye oru mookuthi.

2.  Shikar.

3.  Malarvadi Arts club.

4.  Nerakuttom.

5.  Apoorvaragam.

6.  Meleparambil Aanveedu.

7.  Bodyguard.

8.  Mayilattom.

9.  Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja.

10.  Chatambi Naadu.

11.  Manasil Akkare

12.  Marupuram.

13.  Rajamanikyam (revision)

14.  Kottara vetille Appukuttan.

15.  Ayilathe Adheham

16.  Delhi Wala Rajakumaran

TAMIL:

1.  Gilli.

Here are the stand-out movies….

ENGLISH:

Toy story:  Although I just watched the first part this time, the whole series is worth watching.  One of my favorites.

Batman begins and dark knight:  Again one of my all time favorites.

Kung fu panda 2:  Those who loved the first part would surely love this one.

Wall E:  The story of a lonely robot who yearns for company, one of the best animation movies from Pixar studios.

Bourne Ultimatum:  Although I have not watched Bourne supremacy (the second part of Bourne trilogy), but I feel it can’t be better than this one, the last in the series.  Matt Dammon stars as Jason Bourne, a super spy suffering from amnesia, who is racing against time to expose the CIA after being framed as a traitor.

Invictus:  Does a movie starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Dammon need any special reason to be watched? Morgan Freeman is playing Nelson Mandela and Matt Dammon as Francois Pienaar, the captain of the national rugby team.  This movie is based on a real story, the triumph of South African team in 1995 rugby world cup, despite the overwhelming odds against them and how Nelson Mandela uses sports as a medium to unite a country divided along the racial lines.   

HINDI:

Khoobsurat and Kissi se na kahna:  Typical Hrishikesh Mukherjii movies, light hearted comedies, ideal to watch with family.

Swades:  Liked the story, loved the heroine, ;-0

Jhankar Beats:  Hey why did I not see this movie earlier, a movie on friendship, music and marital life, a great watch, loved the chemistry between Sanjay Suri and Rahul Bose.

Dil Chahata Hai:  The Baap of all friendship movies, umpteen times I have watched this movie, and still do not shy away from viewing one more time.

Don chase begins:  For all those who have watched the original Don of Amitabh, you are in for a big big surprise as far as the story goes.

Rann:  Sometimes Ram Gopal Varma does seriously make movies and this one is proof of that, based on the liaison of media and politics, a good commentary on the times we live.

Kabul Express:  Two journalists foray into the war torn Afghanistan, the perils awaiting them are trigger happy Afghans, fanatic disbanded talibani soldiers, and last but not the least, American missiles.  I loved this movie, would surely club it among one of my favorites.  It does not look like a bollywood movie from any angle.

Mr. & Mrs. Aiyyer:  Story of a young Bengali Muslim youth and a conservative Tamil Brahmin married woman brought together by a rather sad turn of events.  The movie explores the human mind, actions, and dogmas beautifully.  What else can be expected from Aparna Sen?

MALAYALAM:

Puchekye oru mookuthi:  The movie on which Hindi movie Hangama is based, a laugh riot, especially towards the end.

Shikar:  A Mohan Lal thriller.

Malarwadi Arts club:  Friendship and music is a potent combination, this one is also good to watch.

Apoorvaragam:  I would say this movie came as a shocker, although towards the end, it took the clichéd route, still enjoyed it, (although will not view it a second time).

Jayaraman and Rajasenan (actor-director) have produced some good family movies and I liked all 4 movies that I watched i.e. Meleparambil Aanveedu, Kottara vetille Appukuttan, Ayilathe Adheham, Delhi Wala Rajakumaran.

TAMIL:

Although there are many good Tamil movies out there to watch, I could only spare time for Gilli, a typical Vijay entertainer, fun to watch.

Thus ended my movie watching spree at a score of 51.

Well, tomorrow I will be packing my bags and leaving for New Delhi, so I wont be that much active in blogosphere.  All the best to all the readers and have a wonderful 2012.

A long lost friend

School days were one of the best times of my life.  I have a lot of memories attached to the school where I studied from UKG to Std VI.  It was a convent school, one of the best in our district.  We had spacious buildings, big grounds, a zoo, and a well-stocked library.  I was someone who was more interested in the grounds and the library and so was my best pal Rohit.  We were voracious readers.  Our library used to lend us 1 novel for 1 week, we would read the alloted books in 1-2 days (usually Adventures of Hardy boys, Famous Five, Secret Seven) and then exchange and read each other’s books.  Both of us were also comics aficionados and used to read a lot of comics.  Rohit had in the meantime also cracked the entrance test for Sainik School, but could not make it to the final list because of eyesight issues.  With so much stories inside our head, we ventured into writing stories and making comics.  I must admit Rohit was very good in illustration, but my stories were better.  Both of us made wrote and illustrated comics separately, and exchanged and read it.  The pages for the comics came from our notebooks.  As they say, good things don’t last long, we had to part ways as our school was a girl’s high school and Std VI was the last time we studied together.

Today, I do not know where he is, what he looks like, what he is doing.  I don’t know whether we will share the same chemistry of school days if we ever meet, still my search for him in the virtual world continues.  I have a hunch that someday I might find his name in the opening or closing credits of a movie as a script writer or director and I won’t be surprised.

A bout of typhoid

Falling ill isn't something which we look forward to, especially once we are grown up, although during school days, it was an entirely different proposition.  I remember even sleeping with onion in my armpit as I had read somewhere that it would lead to high temperature in the morning, but alas I did not catch any cold or fever and had to go to school the next day ;)...

As I changed my profession, my line of work, and moved to Delhi, I knew I would be challenged, it would be more of an internal battle as I struggled to fight the sense of security that MT had put in me and tried to learn new skills entirely unrelated to my previous field.  The best things were the interactions I had with the various branch staffs and managers, some friends that I made along the way.  All this and also the feeling of having made it to the sector which at one point seemed like a mirage, gave me a great sense of satisfaction, but all this just burst like a bubble when I started getting the bouts of fever, high temperature of 104 started hampering my work and I was forced to take leaves as suddenly strength deserted my body.  My sleep was very disturbed during the nights and gradually I lost my appetite.  It was during this time that all the sense of achievement left me.  I started thinking how happy I was in my previous avatar, working from home, staying with mom and sister, how foolish decision it was to take the plunge when I was well set in a field.....you r a fool.....you r a fool.....these thoughts kept ringing in my mind especially after an episode of small miscommunication with my manager and incharge.....

The younger version of me would have just packed his bags and left for home, but deekay the current (shall i say the latest) version is a lot updated one and understands that life is always the same, but it is the perspective that colors our vision and makes us look at things in a colorful or dull way, and by God's grace the seniors who were there with me were very encouraging and supportive during this phase especially Deepu Sir, Saji Sir and Sudheer Sir who also happens to be my room mate.

To conclude, I would like to say....Delhi.........................I will be back......

The haircut

I miss the haircut I used to have during my Bihar days.  I used to frequent a shop of an uncle who knew my father and I was quite comfortable with this arrangement.  During haircutting, he will ask me about my dad, how his business was going, how my studies were going and so on.  After hair cutting, he would do a light massage of my head and neck too.  That was a long time back.  Now residing in Kerala, I wince every time I go out for haircut, why? Well receding hairline being the primary reason, as there is no difference in money charged for a fully-haired man, nouveau baldies, and baldies in making (like yours truly).   There is a secondary reason also for this wincing, which is lack of communication.  Mostly Tamil barbers are working in Kerala and Malayali barbers are an extinct species in here.  They may be cutting hair of sheikhs in gulf countries, but here in God's own country, we are dependent on barbers imported from TN and now even WB.  Being from out of state, they cannot usually do blah blah like a traditional old barber would have done.  They are polite and do work okay, but they keep mostly to themselves.  After a wait of 10 long years, on Sunday May 8, 2011, I came across a barber, who was a Malayali, it was not about being Malayali only, he actually did a good job with my hair too and he in fact solved one of my problems regarding the route to take for my interview the next day and the icing on the cake was the gentle massage he gave like the one barber uncle used to give me in those good old days......hmm....so let me enjoy the camaraderie with the new found barber as long as my hair permits.....;-)

DevD

The effect of x-mas began only after 26 December.  No work, which means all my plans go topsy-turvy, that may been the reason that I suddenly started to get a lost like feeling, like falling into a bottom less pit...for want of anything better to do, watched DevD on DVD, (aha, DevD and DVD, rhyming words) which I had purchased a long time back and I was transferred to a different world, brought back to the world of reality occasionally by Rinkie and by mom at one time.  There is a scene in DevD when Paro takes out Dev in a field and rips open his shirt, it was precisely during this scene that mom made her entry and asked which movie? I said Devdas, (my mistake), she said are you kidding, seeing the action taking place in front of her eyes, she has seen the older one with Dileep kumar and also Bhansali's with Shahrukh, and neither of them had paro mounting on top of Devdas (that also in a field) ...I was at loss of words to explain..at last I mumbled that it is a sort of retake of the story, set in contemporary times.


Coming back to the movie...enjoyed it, although like in the older version, this Dev is also a nincompoop, but it is his narcissistic tendencies that have been highlighted here neatly....paro is good and the debutant chanda is cool.  I loved the way some contemporary events have been interwoven into the storyline like MMS sex scandal and also the BMW incident.  The songs did not at any time look like intervening with the flow of the narrative and only added to the emotions.  The only glitch I could feel is in the ending, which felt like a bit sudden, but I don't object to the way it ended.  After all being the narcissist that he is, how could he let himself wither away for a girl.....

Municipal elections

Voted for the first time in Municipal elections....democracy at work at the grassroots. Four contenders for 1 post; 1 UDF, 1 LDF, 1 BJP backed independent and 1 independent who did not even bother visiting our home for canvassing (I heard that he is a candidate standing just for cutting into UDF votes)....our region is a congress stronghold so most probably UDF candidate should win........

The strange case of KSEB and BSNL

KSEB stands for Kerala State Electricity Board and BSNL is our national telephone company, former is a state govt concern and the latter is central govt concern. I had the (mis)fortune of dealing with them for the past few days and hopefully my ordeal is over as far as KSEB is concerned (i sincerely hope). For the past few days, it has been raining here and my house is the only one in our locality to suffer from frequent power interruptions. The problem is from the post and after a dozen calls to the KSEB office, the line man came did something in a jiffy and was gone.....hurray power back...but the joy is short lived as within 5-6 hours, again voltage starts fluctating and it ends with no power supply. This cycle has been going on for the past few days and today was the fourth occasion. Both we (me and mom) and the KSEB consumer complaint guy are bored and fed up of our frequent calls....after all doesn't familiarity breed contempt!! ....I am praying that this time, the supply will hold for at least a week....

BSNL on the other hand is not a that serious stuff, because all of us have mobile to rely on. The telephone guy comes and replaces the phone asks for a tip (not with us...mom complained about him once), the replacement phone lasts for approximately a month....

Although both BSNL and KSEB are companies serving the public, their level of service is pathetic. In case of BSNL, there are at least private telecom companies for a competition, but for KSEB.....no such competition exists and customers are without any options to chose from....

Long live the Indian Consumer.....

RIP Jyotish

Yesterday morning, Jyotish passed away.  It came as a shock to me.  He was a contemporary of mine, just recently married and also a to be father.  To say that I was close to him would be exaggeration.  On the contrary, I had only met him 5-6 times and talked to him once on phone, but those few moments were enough for me to get a glimpse of what lay beneath his mild and friendly demeanor.  He was a distant cousin of mine and like me was also born and brought up outside Kerala, but had been in Kerala for the past 7-8 years.  That his end came in a freak road accident also added to the sorrow.  He was hurrying up to catch the train on his bike, for which he overtook an auto, but could not see the bus coming from opposite side.  As a result of collision he was thrown on to the footpath where the back portion of his head struck (always used to wear helmet, but not on this fateful day) and I hear that he lay there for 25-30 minutes until the police arrived.  They took him to the nearest hospital, but it was too late by then.  I cannot really fathom the pain those who were really close to him have.  He was everybody's friend, everybody's well wisher, every body's helper.  His mother is devastated and so is his sister and wife.  We men are comparatively thought to be stronger, thats why I did not mention his brother and father.


RIP Jyotish, I do not have any words to describe what I feel when I think about you.

The road not taken

You must have read Robert Frost's beautiful poem, The Road Not Taken..even after such a long time of being written, the relevance of this poem has not diminished a bit.   At different points in time, we have come across this dilemma of choosing one path over the other and often end up with the lingering doubt whether the decision to travel on a specific path was correct or not....

MT happened to me like that only. I was waiting for my degree results when I saw an ad in paper for a company in Technopark, TVM, where they were taking in Business transcriptionist. Those waiting results can apply was added as a foot note and so I applied and thus began my journey, which eventually led me to medical transcription. The other path available was accountancy profession, but it was monetary wise unfeasible for me at that point in time and MT did solve my financial concerns.

Some times when I look back, I wonder if I had stuck with my accountancy studies, how would things have turned out to be?? The universe sitting where I am contemplating these thoughts would have not been there and a different world would have come to fore...would that have been better than the current one I inhabit? Well, that I do not think can be answered precisely....or can it?

Looking back i think it was a good decision considering my surroundings and situation.


Anyways, MT has blessed me with a gr8 friend and also lots of others friends, a skill to be proud of, and also a kichdi knowledge of medicine, and I hope i can make this path much more enjoyable and memorable than the other path that I would have taken.....;-)


A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles ~ Tim Cahill

Hooh Haah INDIA

"Sucess has many fathers, failure has no mother. " -Jarid Kitrak

Well this is what came to my mind after Indian Worldcup hopes ended and the blame game started. Poor Rahul Dravid, he did not deserve to be in this situation, his only problem was that he could not make his committment trickle to other members of the team.

Following four are my observations:

1. TEAM INDIA. The coach and captain were building a young team young for worldcup, (okay agreed they goofed up on pathan). When this young team started playing badly, why did not these gentlemen who are now shouting from every available rooftops standup and bat for the youngsters?

2. MEDIA. In the India versus Bangladesh match, while the Indian batters were being held by scruff of neck by Banglabowlers, there was an advertisement in TV (shown at the end of every over) in which a group of Indian cricketers who change into tigers while they step on to the field. The discrepancy was too large too ignore and it was like rubbing salts on the wounds of the already traumatised Indian fans. Why does the media portray cricketers as larger than life characters?

3. POLITICIANS. Ahem, well now we are getting quotable quotes from politicians cutting across partylines about bringing in youngblood in Indian Team. Well I do not know anything about politics, but still I feel that our cricketers have performed better than what these guys do in parliament. And also, what about brining in youngblood in politics too (patronizing ones own son or daughter is not what I mean by bringing in youngblood-giving chance to those who have the potential).

4. PUBLIC. The biggest lesson here is that exit from Worldcup is not the end of world and niether is cricket the only sport in the world. Morever cricketers in particular and sports star in general have a short shelf life, so they try to earn much as possible throughout their professional career through advertisement and endorsements. There is no point in damaging their property as they have not garnered it up through scams or illegal means. The best approach would be just ignore them, stop watching cricket(especially Indian cricket), there are many other less time consuming sports.

Well after having said all this, I am still thinking whether playing Pathan in place of Uthappa in that match against Sri Lanka would have made any difference? ;)