Dew

Bangalore Express : Salem Train station. I was on my way back from Coimbatore to Bangalore last weekend. The train stopped at Salem junction. A joyous group of smart, bright, and enthusiastic school kids jostled into our train wagon. Their T-shirts read something about confidence. It was good to see the smiles and hear the non-stop chatter and school level jargon. The noisy environment brought a lot of cheer to every passenger in the train train wagon. There were a group of young men, aged 28 - 30, managing the whole group. As the train started, these young men were roaming with reservation list, and accommodating the kids in different compartments. One smart nine-year old got a seat next to mine. It was such a joy to see his face for all of us, in the compartment - A fresher who just got a job, an old lady easily 60+, two middle-aged gentle men, two smart young women. Since there was no one in his age group, the child didn't seem very comfortable in our company. So I started a con...

We've all heard this I am sure.. I am not able to place exactly when, but sometime in the last three or four years, I had forgotten or lost the art of handling the not-so-pleasant remarks that happens once in a while, on the personal or professional front. Yesterday was a hundred percent Murphy's law day for me. To help you recall, Murphy's law goes like this : If anything can go wrong, it surely will. So, my temper was at its peak and was spoiling my work day, big time. I spoke to a very good friend of mine who clearly got the idea that I was in the worst of temper. Today, I had this interesting meeting with a junior friend J ( J for junior), arranged by this good friend. Here's what I gathered in my one hour conversation with J: - Keep calm. If something goes out of your control, it does. - Embrace positivity all the time. - Do something about the problem at hand. - To get convinced about something, is a choice that you make. - To get influenced is again a choice. - G...

In a few cities in South India, there are Villas leased out to old people who are too old to take care of themselves or whose children are far away from them or who have no children to lean on. In one of those villas, I had this chance to meet an old couple over the weekend. It was a bright summer afternoon. The walkway had a lot of lovely flowers and plants that gives the feel-good factor you miss often in crowded and noisy cities. I stopped near every plant to take in the wonder of nature in all its beauty. It was a very small house maintained very well, given that the old man was 90 and his wife, 85 years of age. Indian hospitality was still at its peak, but given that we already had accepted a lunch invite, we agreed to have lime juice. The old man is hard of hearing, but has a hearing aid on and asks you a lot of questions, his words so full of Life. After ten minutes, he excused himself from the conversation saying he was tired and retired back to his recliner, put on some nice...

If you are expecting some philosophical content here, no, that's not what I want to say. Languages have always interested me, but I have not really taken efforts to analyze them more than needed. Today, at work, I had this doubt on usage of the words Oversee and Overlook. Look means See Now, append the word look to both these words. Overlook means to neglect. In effect, not bothered. Oversee means to supervise. In effect, too bothered. Logically, Look and see are meanings. Look = See Overlook and Oversee are opposites. Overlook X Oversee But why? Note: If you are wondering about the time I have at work, to wonder so much about the words usage, let me clarify, that being a technical writer involves bothering about such word issues also, apart from other logical and practical language issues.

This is something I can never imagine... May be it is true, because, everywhere, everyone seems to agree with this point, except a few like me, who think 'Talking is a gift that is to be cherished and used to its fullest potential'. I may not completely agree with the 'Talk less' word any day, but I must say that the T-shirt quote I read recently made me think : The T- Shirt said : Talk less than what you know. I had to walk a good fifteen minutes to reach my destination, and this quote clung on to my head. I liked it because, it didn't stop at Talk less. It says, Talk less than you know.. This way, you can get a chance to listen to what others might have to say about the same point, you may not been seen as a person with a 'Know all' attitude, you will have a chance to weigh the other person's mood or response before you make it good or worse and you can take time to take calculated risk with words. There is a popular quote saying : Words and eggs are ...

Yeah, right... this is about rushing on Bangalore roads.. if this raised a question on your mind or brought a smile, then you surely must be a resident of Bangalore or have travelled to this city on business or vacation, or have had the chance to drive or ride on the Bangalore roads sometime in the past.. Past means, say two years time... I have always observed that the evening prior to a weekend in this city sees all roads packed. I travel to my home town on Friday evenings mostly. Almost always, I end up being the second last person to board the bus from the bus station. You must note that there is always at least one person for whom the bus waits for a few minutes. As 'All roads lead to Rome', in Bangalore, on a Friday evening, it will seem that 'All roads lead to the Railway Station or the bus station'. In my case, it has always been that every other vehicle on the road that gets signalled on every other cross road in Bangalore, will have at least one huge bag indic...