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Showing posts from 2009

When not to say Good Morning!!!!!!!

This post has been picked up by Bangalore mirror dated 31st December 2009 This morning, I woke up to hear the sad news about the actor, Dr. Vishnuvardhan's demise. Always when a child is born, you feel great and when a life is lost, there is an unsettled, unknown feeling of sorrow, whether or not you know the person. The clock doesn't stop anyway. I had my work day ahead, so, I stepped out of my room with a cup of tea as usual, to watch TV. Usually some music is on, mostly devotional. Today, there was a news channel that was telecasting ( is still telecasting, as I write this post three hours later ) the proceedings at the actor's house. There were a lot of people around, grieving over the loss. There was this telephonic condolence talk that was also being relayed. A caller who seems to be a great fan of the actor starts off his condolence note with a 'Good Morning'!!!!!. How can you say Good morning when it has not been a very good morning for most fans and near a

Marathahalli Ring Road needs some attention

Yes, if it sounds like a newspaper headline, so be it.. One evening, I was on my way back from work on a Volvo bus. Just the previous night, I had gone through this wonderful piece of work: http://themadmuggle.blogspot.com/2009/07/chicken-that-never-crossed-road.html An article worth your time and effort. So, it was easy to imagine the chicken trying to cross Marathahalli Ring road. If it ever did, it would be on CNN-IBN Flash news. The ring road is quite wide; a two way road, each has got two lanes ( or is it three? shall check today); then there is a lay-bye area sort of a road on both sides, used by two wheelers and pedestrians to reach the side roads on the ring road. So, if you set out from a side road to cross over to the other side, you will have to cross four stretches. Do not talk about pedestrian crossing here. Between two signals on this road where you see the Zebra crossing lines, the distance is at least ten minute walk. There are times when you need to cross the road and

Dec 26th 2009 - Five years later on Bay of Bengal

We were on Christmas vacation; on a mini-tour of the places of historic importance with my cousin's family. Day before yesterday, the 26th of December 2009, Afternoon 2:00P.M; Poompuhar Beach, Near Nagapattnam, Tamil Nadu. I stood on the rocks that blocked the waves of the ocean from the shore and enjoyed the sea breeze. In a moment, for some vague reason, that I am unable to place, my mind went back to the same day, four years ago, on Bay of Bengal. It was the Tsunami day, 26th December 2005. I took a careful notice of the waves now and sensed that they were quite violent. My home town is on the Bay of Bengal coastline and my house is around 10 km away from the beach. The beach in my home town is THE major attraction and we have no count of the number of times we have accompanied our guests to the beach. To me, the beach is a great place to spend time with people, where we get to meet old friends... where you get to see diamond sparkles in crystal clear water on a sunny morning...

Merry Christmas 2009

Hello People, Christmas Greetings to all of you. I wish you and your family Merry Christmas and a very happy holiday season. Enjoy the moment!!! :) Smile, Dew :)

On Photographs

I was searching for some work artifact ( yes, my work related old references are called artifacts) and stumbled upon a folder with some of my pictures, old and new. Although I am always for hard copy photographs and photo albums, of late, we have all shifted to soft copies mostly. When I ran a slide show of the pictures, few thoughts came up: A photograph's clarity is directly proportional to the camera used. The thought flow in your mind just before someone clicked a picture of you, also defines how beautiful you look. The traffic, the climate, the travel, and the peaceful good night's sleep - All these define your actual look. Good, Bad, Ugly - Its all photo technique, some natural and some artificial. If you are going by looks, a photograph is a bad idea. It is usually valid only as on the day it is taken. Photographs in the mind, hard disk or photo album are excellent keep sakes and records of fond thoughts. Photographs can teach you time travel, to the past mostly. Photogr

Wedding

I recently attended two wedding functions; This was after a very long gap, so I guess wedding observations are taking some space on my blog. What I am writing here is not what I noticed in these two wedding functions, but my general observations in Indian weddings. India knows to celebrate weddings. Applause.. Wedding is a very special occasion - The beginning of a life-long relationship that is the pivot of a happy family tree. There are extremely grand weddings (You cannot spot the color of the girl's saree, count the number of items on the lunch menu, and can never give your gift without having to wait for an hour in the queue to meet the couple), and moderately grand weddings ( You can tell the saree color, you can manage to taste most of the items on your plate, and can meet the couple fairly quick to greet them). The South Indian Tamil weddings mostly fall into one of these categories. At a South Indian Tamil wedding you will see/face all these: Bright colored silk sarees. Bu

Auto or Gift??

God sends gifts in various forms.... Hey wait... This is not a spiritual post, but one that tells you how my faith in God worked for me, as it always has :) The 5th of December was a very important day for me, because I had a paper presentation in a writer's meet. The presentation was important for a lot of reasons: One, I have not taken the stage for about 10 plus years now. Two, I cannot keep it short when I talk ( or write, to be honest) and I had just eight minutes to say all I wanted to say on the topic. Three, I am talking about a subject that everyone knows, so I cannot afford to make mistakes. Four, my stage fear is very popular with me and my circle of friends. Five, the audience will have a lot of new comers to the field and I have the responsibility of setting a good example. The presentation was scheduled at 8:30 A.M and I set out promptly at 7:20A.M. I had estimated about 10 minutes to hire an auto to the venue and about forty minutes of travel. Even if the traffic is

Aaja Nachle....Be in the moment

I got a chance to attend this writer's conference in Bangalore last week. The entertainment evening had this wonderful fusion dance number by two pretty and smart young ladies... or I'd just say the girls whose dance cast a spell on the audience....'Aaja Nachle' was one song.... the others I don't recall, as I am not very good at remembering cine bits ( music, stories and characters inclusive). What I definitely remember is that the music notes of the three songs were fused very well and the dance steps were in complete agreement. So, what makes this dance so special that it called for a post on my blog? This girl Ms.Damsel forgot that it was the stage and she is performing before a crowd of 500 plus people; she went into a new world where she was with the context of the song, her expressions perfect with the lyrics of the song, and her steps so gracefully tuned for the dance... She lived in the moment; the entire stage, the audience, her costume and the next step.

Clearing the clutter in the attic

I agree that the title of this post is the same as this blog space by SG. This post does not have to do anything with the cited blogspace. Today, when we were talking about transferring archived emails from one computer to another, I realized that as much as the best-selling stories,self-improvement books, and motivational talks discuss about living and being in the "Present", the corporate world insists on the "Past". For those who are clueless about software and hardware industry, let me tell you, anything to do with Storage is the word of the day.. Just about anything and everything needs to be stored in the computerized age. This blog post would not show up if it is not stored. Hail Storage!!!. While there could be functional and operational and process-oriented reasons behind the idea of storing all your emails for as long as you work in an organization, often, I must admit that most emails that you read once, do not have to be opened ever again in your life.

Splash on Complexity

- That which you call 'Complex' only seems complicated. - Every complex task eventually gets accomplished. - Yesterday's complexities always seem lighter than those in the present. - Today will clearly be tomorrow's yesterday or simpler still..... Tomorrow, Today will be 'Yesterday' - Often man complicates life, like the previous sentence. - It is good to acknowledge complexities, but never let them stress your mind. - If it does not seem complex, you may not put in your best. - If it is complicated, it is surely an interesting challenge to take up. - What seems complex to you may have been as complex to your neighbour, just that you do not know what really happened. - Mechanical and Construction Engineering drawings seem extremely complex to me.... as complex as my Computer science seems to them. - The word 'Complex' stands meaningless, the minute you begin to understand it. - When you accomplish a complex task, the sense of contentment you feel is imm

WFH - Work From Home

This post has been published on Bangalore Mirror dated 7th December 2009 Working from Home has become very common in corporates these days. Workplaces are looking to reduce cost involved in space and power. More and more offices are making this option available to the employees whose physical presence is not really required to get the work done. These people who permanently work from home are called 'Remote Workers' although I do not like the term much. I often realize that when I work from home ( very rare days) I work much more than I do at office. So, there must be a better term as I don't want anyone to register 'Remote worker' as 'Remotely working..'. I chanced to have a conversation with a colleague who works from her home office. Surely, this sounds better than a remote worker. We were discussing about the idea of working from home in general. Here are what I captured and later realized: When you work from home, work is always at the back of your mind

Paani Puri lessons

This post is not about the Paani Puri recipe. For those who don't know Paani Puri is a North-Indian chat item. Please google for the recipe and if you are in India, hop over to the nearest chat corner and have one plate of Paani Puri.. We were a group of six friends looking for a nice coffee shop after a very interesting afternoon. We saw a Paani Puri vendor on the way and one of us in the group suggested that we all taste this vendor's Paani Puri. I love Paani Puri, but had stopped taking Paani Puris anywhere outside. The scene around the vendor's Bamboo stall interested me. I decided to just take the Paani Puri with the confidence that shone on the vendor's face. He served at least 10 of us in one go.. The speed was unbelievable. Before you knew there was a Panni Puri in your hand... There were some people who wanted some specifics ( spice, sweet, plain etc.,) and the vendor grasped all the specifications and served us exactly the kind of Puris we wanted. There were p

Looking back at Hostel life....

Top reasons why a hostel life experience is very important: To be able to make friends with most people... To be able to say Good Bye to friends... To be able to sleep undisturbed with the lights on, the whole night... To be able to share a bar of a favorite chocolate with five others... To be able to take a quick bath... To be able to make a sandwich for a friend.. To be able to attend to an illness... To be able to break a bad news... To be able to rejoice at a peer success... To be able to appreciate a letter, phone call, or email... To be able to focus amidst heavy music and loud noise... To be able to crib about things and adjust with them, nevertheless... To be able to make someones day with a joke, gift, or an honest compliment... To be able to keep your stance, when you know it works you, no matter what any one says... To be able to know what does not work for you... To be able to love your neighbour despite all imperfections... To be able to understand the other person's p

What all can you save?

I spoke to a friend just now. Here are my thoughts soon after the conversation: We know of a Savings Bank account for money. We know of a Blood Bank that saves blood. We hear about saving interest rates on loans. Credit card banking offers some savings on purchases using specific credit cards. We try to take a definite road to save travel time. We constantly try to think about saving fuel. We hear advertisements stating: Save the Earth, Go Green . We see emails with the signature line: Save paper and environment. Print this only if you must . We think about saving electricity. We talk about rain water harvest which means to save rain water. We want to save our energy and so have a listening ear towards Yoga, Meditation and Health care. Technology has its own contributions for us to save time, effort, and our physical energy : All electronic items, software and automation around speak for this. The best of all and the often forgotten till December of every year is the leave balance acco
Over one crore new mobile connections in October 2009!!!!! That's from a news cast today in one of the papers. On Google search for "Mobile Phone Hazards", all you see is only scary threats listed. While you are wondering what would it be like without having a mobile, ( I still cant understand how I managed without a mobile five years ago!! !), there are more and more new models out in the market and more and more new users are joining the mobile phone user community. Cell phone companies continue to make profit. Same applies to most things.... Computer based jobs are increasingly advocated to cause a lot of health issues and yet there are not many non-computerised jobs in the world. Internet is a boon and also a paranoia kit. Smoking is bad, yet the cigarette company continues to be in business. Drinking is believed to be bad, yet the number of alcohol serving restaurants are increasing every day. Mobile phones are bad for health, they say, yet the number of new connecti

Waiting and watching and longing....

Yesterday evening scene close to my house: It was late evening, the street lights flooded the streets and the place looked painted in yellowish orange. I was enjoying the breeze, the soft drizzle, a melodious note on my ipod, rhyming my steps to the tune and walking my way home. The road had orange flowers all over. With the yellowish orange light on the pale brown pavement, the orange flowers looked perfect modern art to my eyes. I switched off my ipod as I saw two children rushing towards me and then suddenly stopping and then rushing back to their house's gate. An old man said, " This is someone else, your mother will come home in a while, go inside and play, it is already dark. " The children looked very disappointed that it was someone else and not their mother. I felt so sorry to see their disappointment. In Bangalore traffic, God knows where their mother is held up and here I was telling them, " Listen to your grandpa and go in, Your mom is on her way home..

Time and Savings

How many times do we say that we do not have time for prayers, people, phone calls, emails, hobbies, and the list can go on.. Each of us has different reasons to give for not being able to do something and never have one reason why we must consider doing it... I think I have finally stumbled upon that one reason to do all that I would otherwise postpone saying 'No Time'. Last week, I chanced to read some points that gave me a very different picture about Time. We have about 1440 minutes in a day. Math : 24 * 60 = 1440. I wrote it out just in case you are trying to do a mental math on this. It is as clear as the calculation, that we have a whole 1440 minutes to do all that we want to do in a day.. With this thought, can you just spend a minute to check if you can spend five minutes each day in prayer, 20 minute for friends, 10 minutes to respond to missed calls and text messages, and say another fifteen minutes for music or exercise or some hobby? In all your spend time would st

Nature - naturally superior!!!!!!

அழகிய மலைச்சாரல் தூய வெள்ளை அருவி பச்சை பசேலென்ற நெல் வயல் இலவம் பஞ்சு போன்ற மேகம் நீல நிற அடி வானம் மெல்லிய மழை நீர் துளிகள் சில்லென்ற மென் காற்று இவை எல்லாவற்றையும் கண்களாலும் மனதாலும் படம் பிடிக்கின்ற கணங்கள் மிக அருமையான அனுபவம். நேற்று முன்தினம் சுற்றுலா சென்று இருந்தோம். வழியில் கண்ட காட்சிகளை தான் சுருக்கமாக கூற எத்தனித்தேன். சுருங்க சொன்னாலும் நிறைந்த மனதுடன் மீண்டும் என் அலுவலக எழுத்து வேலையை தொடருகிறேன். இயற்க்கை நான் நினைத்ததை விட பெரிய படைப்பு என்றும் மனித படைப்புகள் எல்லாம் சர்வ சாதாரணமானவை என்றும் தோன்றுகிறது, இன்று.

Need for Bangalore Daylight Savings Time??

I had never really gathered a complete picture of the Daylight Savings Time(DST) till I got to read this post by SG at : http://sowmyagopal.blogspot.com/2009/10/around-clock.html Thanks, SG. I had this email that American clock is 13.5 hours behind IST and our official meeting hours with our US counterparts will change accordingly. I did not bother much. Such messages are common twice a year in all IT companies. Day before yesterday, when I stepped out of office, it was a cloudy sky, but never thought that it will be pitch dark at 6:00P.M. I have waited for three days to see if I have to make this patentable proposition of having a DST declared for Bangalore and call it " The Bangalore Daylight Savings Time (BDST)". I don't wake up very early, so I do not know if it dawns early these days, but I must say night sky sets in very early these days - as early as 6:00P.M. Complimenting the dark skies is the heavy November downpour. I don't know what's with rains and tr

You are in the right place!!!!!

This was the opening statement in one of the presentations I happened to attend yesterday. So, what's the big deal about it and why would I even notice it?? Honestly, I was not too well to attend a presentation at that time of the day, but I still decided to be there because I believe that some postponed appointments never happen later.So, with that said, I must say I galloped my way in a city bus amidst all the Bangalore Metro construction work sites and rushed in only to see that I was exactly fifteen minutes early. [ I hate my late entry anywhere - coffee, meeting, wedding, or any appointment for that matter - and so for the first time I smiled. ..] I am in!!! I am in, on time and when I walk in, the first thing I notice is I am in the right place... That's what the slide being projected said. And I took a good notice of the words.. I read it over and over again, to let the message sink in. The feel-good factor in me was soaring up to sky-rocketing heights and I was very gla

You dont have to wait......

until the next accident to repair a collapsed railing.... This is the address of the railing I am talking about: Krishnarajapuram Cable bridge, Near K.R Puram Railway Station, Bangalore. One day, sometime early this year, on my way to office, the usually over-crowded Old Madras Road beat its own records of the highest peak-hour traffic and lowest speed. I called up my manager and informed that I might be indefinitely late for work, due to a reason I have no clue about, and all I knew was that my bus stood still on the Old Madras Road. When the traffic finally started moving at a snail's pace ( of course, we were glad and thankful ) I looked out of the window to see a huge container truck toppled over. Thanks to the crane that moved the toppled truck to one side of the road, so a narrow one-lane passage was clear for the vehicles to inch their way through. From the bus, some eyes were transfixed on an angle just above eye level towards the railing of the cable over-bridge that we we

Hair loss, Mobile alerts and facts

It was a slow afternoon at work. I was trying to make some sense out of all the information that I had on a specific subject. My phone was not even in my thoughts. I was jotting down points, scrolling window panes on my desktop computer, switching between emails and applications, when there was a "Beep Beep".... once...[ Cant be my phone!!! Don't know why I was so confident!! !, but I had forgotten to silence my phone in the morning].. the second time, the same Beep seemed louder and then I looked around for my phone... The third Beep was too loud and I had to look at the most important message of the day: No more hair fall & Dandruff!! Get New Hair!! Buy XYZ oil Rs.1750, Free Head Massage, Guaranteed Result. No side effects. Call 121212121. And I was tempted to write back, " Yeah, right, No Results and Guaranteed side effects!!!!". I was irritated for a second and then immediately laughed out loud. Who is going to tell these people that any amount of hair

'Food' and food for thought

This article has been picked up by Bangalore mirror on November 2nd 2009. http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=others&do=/blogs/post/Food-and-food-for-thought.aspx I recently had to change two planes of the same airline company to reach Bangalore. On board the first plane, the flight attendant came over with a tray full of snacks. I did not want all of them and so told her I'd take only the Chat and Sweet. I told her to put away the vegetable burger. She said, "Take it ma'am, we will not be using it anytime again." So, I tried to explain "See, I don't want to eat a veg burger and I am telling you even before I take the tray from you. Just wanted to make sure that I don't want to waste it." She said," That's okay ma'am. You can just let it be and enjoy whatever you like to eat.". Of course, I knew that, but just wanted to be sure that we don't waste food because, just because it was a complimentary snack. I still do

Pazhassi Raja

Pazhassi Raja , an excellent snapshot into the freedom struggle in India, which dates back to 1796. Directed by Hariharan , the movie Pazhassi Raja speaks about the courage, patriotism, inner strength, loyalty, friendship, love, decency, family ties, art, perseverance, and commitment and much more niceties, native to olden and golden India.. The movie has been set in the eighteenth century time frame and the movie crew has taken its best care and attention to see that the set totally merges with the age old times. Not that we would have a clue if it really did, but then I must say careful research must have gone into the prevalent clothing, warfare, style, language, practices and manners of late 1790's. Pazhassi Raja was the only king who did not want to surrender to the British and accept their rule in Kerala's Talessery Fort which was part of Madras Presidency back in 1790s. He did not believe in the rule of British , who were mere traders of all the natural treasures

T-shirt Smiles

There are some things that you cannot miss or cannot escape your eyes. A black T-shirt with white letters scribbled across is definitely one such 'You-must-read-this' invite. Not that I need an invitation to read T-shirts.[ Bad habit?? I admit, don't tell me about it!!!! I think they write on T-shirts only so someone reads. I love to read T-shirt thoughts and I attribute this to my college times when I was volunteered into the T-shirt designing group. We had a day's time to come up with a design and thought on the class T-shirt. It was not accepted is a different story altogether, but I did enjoy every bit of the night out we spent sketching and re-sketching, writing and re-writing; hated every second of clearing up the paper-strewn floor the next morning...] That was a nostalgic thought that came to my head as I started this post. At the bus stop yesterday, I read this Black T-shirt : I'm the guy your mom warned you about!!! Super-cool presence of mind, I must sa

Monday Mornings - a new look

'Nothing happens by chance' is my latest belief. If ever, you have read me remarking otherwise in any of my blog posts, I don't recall and won't surely defend my earlier posts or opinions on it. May be I believed in chance earlier in life... My train tickets for the Diwali trip I had planned, did not get confirmed and I had to book a flight ticket to Bangalore. I had a fantastic Diwali and was heading back to Bangalore. As our air craft inclined ground-ward a little, indicating that we are landing in a while, I recalled that tomorrow was Monday and that meant my vacation was coming to a close. I don't know why, but this is always the case after every long holiday, even if I am looking forward to an exciting piece of work in office... While the pre mature Monday morning blues were setting in, I could not mistake the clearer images of the huge water puddles all over, as much as my small window view could permit. The recent floods in parts of Karnataka and Andhra c

If the blind lead the blind....

Its just fine.... If the blind lead the blind, its just fine... This evening, I was coming back from work in the city bus. At one bus stop, one family got into the bus - Father, Mother with a baby, and another man( later came to know that he was the uncle)with a little girl. In the whole clan, only the baby and the little girl could see. The others did not have the gift of eyesight. They conducted each other so well and I don't know what made me stand up instantly ( could be that I was stunned to note that they couldn't see the world and still had so perfectly conducted themselves into the now over-crowded bus ), but then I was glad that my common sense worked.[ Of course, you know that commonsense is not very common ]. I told the little girl to sit in my seat and she guided her uncle to the seat. He was all smiles. My attention shifted to the mother with the baby. She could not see the world. It is hard to believe that the husband and wife did not have the chance to see each o

Being nice vs. Education

This article appeared in Bangalore Mirror paper dated 16th October 2009. Here is the link : http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=others&do=/blogs/post/Being-nice-vs-vice.aspx She did not study.. She is a maid servant in three houses.. She is very prayerful.. She loves to talk.. She is always on time.. She takes her time to do the work, but does a spic and span job.. That was all I had known about this maid servant. Late afternoon today, when she walked in briskly as if it was just dawn, I was deciding whether or not to take a nap. I was trying to fight a headache. She asked me how I was doing and that its been a long time since we met. She asked about my folks back home, my work, and my plans for the evening. I gave her all the answers and returned the courtesy with enquiries from my side. I was getting ready to take that most-important late afternoon nap, when she suddenly remarked: You look very tired, I guess all of you girls with so much of education are only tiring y

Anytime, Anywhere, Any moment

Anything can happen to us anytime, anywhere, and at any moment. I was enjoying ( really enjoying!!!) my breakfast this morning. I casually looked up to see what NDTV had to say. The scene was a flooded house in Bellary, Karnataka as on October 1st. The news reporter was being shown around the place by the head of the family. Everyone else was crying out aloud. It was a sad scene. People who have been living a happy life till the deadline( it really was!!!) date were now in a sorry state that is not very easy to explain. Per the news, on this day, the mother was serving food to the eldest son; the waters gushed in, and the next thing they knew was something fell on the little boy's head and they had no way to save his life. His two younger sisters, and the parents are totally entangled in a maze of cluttered surroundings, flooded house, ruined belongings, grief from the loss of a loved one in the family, hunt for food, the children's health and safety.The next minute, the food i

Totally unexpected

The flash news today on NDTV read : The Chief Minister says that this flood is totally unexpected. Totally pointless statement in life according to me. Millions have been affected due to the floods in Andhra Pradesh, India over the last week's time frame. The impact is really huge. All these natural calamities are usually unexpected. If expected, then you would have been able to do something about it. If you can predict the calamity, you will still only be able to minimize the impact, but never be able to achieve a success rate of zero impact. If you spend sometime thinking about this, everything in life usually happens unexpectedly. If you are able to predict/expect everything, then for all you know, we may not value life for what it is to us. We all use this 'unexpected' word often. The other word for this is 'Surprise'. Surprises, pleasant or shocking are all 'Unexpected' and life is full of them. Routine surprises like the Sun rise and Sun set might ha