Dew

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 ...

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 , 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 ...

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...

'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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

There is only so much you can do on anything. What you must, you will do anyway. Anything beyond that is a sure way to loss of sleep, increased blood pressure and decreased peace of mind. For those who believe in, " You can do almost everything", I must say, it is a nice thought and great to practice, but within the stretchable limits. Do what you can and what you must, to an extent that your mind, body, and time will permit. [ It is surely important to validate if your limit is because you are lazy or have been too busy. If you are limiting yourself because you are lazy, you alone can help yourself.] Never limit your mind on its dreams and aspirations, but when you put them into action, just remember the feasibility limits as on date. You cannot think of building a house on Moon, when you have not even managed to buy a square foot of land, in the most remote real estate zone in your village. It is important not to lose focus on your immediate needs and short term plans in l...

The only law that rules the world : Murphy's law is the only law that does not go wrong.[ If you find it difficult to follow; I am just trying to say that Murphy's law is the only law that works correct ]. For those who forgot ( conveniently forgot or have been blissfully unaware of Murphy's law ) Murphy's law states that : If anything can go wrong, it surely will. Thanks to the gtalk conversation that I had sometime ago with a friend. I was marvelled at the fact that something went wrong so predictably at the right time.. And the response from my friend was what you read above, on ' The only law that rules the world '. Of course this is not a pessimistic view point, just a little too realistic than you want to accept. If we accept, we save some visits to our doctor. If we don't, our doctor will tell us the same thing...but in context with our health.[ I am sure you don't want to imagine your doctor saying: "I am doing all I can to help your hea...