Dew

It was quite a sight to see cheerful people in the flight to Chennai from Muscat yesterday. After a long time I heard this kind of non-stop chatter and talk. For those who know me, it is not difficult to believe that I love to talk. The announcement said that we have landed at Chennai Airport and there was a huge round of applause and whistles.. It was the first time I have ever heard so much noise in a flight.. So also the first time I was home-bound on an International flight too. The set of students who were all cheered up, were graduates from a specific US-based university. They had to fly back to India from Muscat for a reason I won't know. As soon as we landed, there were non-stop applause, whistles and cheers. Noise - first time in a long time for me. It was easy to smile. Then, there was the immigration counter where I was stamped an entry to my own country. The Tamil translation of the word immigration made more sense than the English dictionary meaning. You are basically ...

This post is about a recent wisdom piece that I got from a poetry by my friend. Thanks Nithya . You can find the poetry here: http://musicalmyst.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post.html The poetry may not have anything to do with what I got from it, but there are some words in this poem that drive a lot of meaning into your mind. And here is what I got from the third line: What is happening today - a fact - may seem like a dream; [ Expression : Oh! I dont believe this!!! - exclamation here] What happened earlier in life - fact of the past - may seem like a dream too ..[ Expression: Can't stop thinking that there was a time when....!!! nostalgic fond smile here] There are a lot of situations - incidents and accidents - in life that make life as interesting or seemingly as uninteresting as it is. On any given day, there may be times when we are unable to believe that something is happening as if its a dream - so quick, unexpected, pleasant, and calm. ( Unpleasant dreams are called as N...

This is a long pending post... It is about life in Muscat. May not be single post, but then I will try to write what I have seen and known so far in small snippets. And the category will be Muscat Daily. All thanks to my friend and fellow blogger SG at http://sowmyagopal.blogspot.com who reminded me about this post. If you know me well, you would have guessed that my explorations, thoughts and experiences generally are on my blog as immediate as immediate can mean.. latest by a week's time. These days, I dont get to make much time in my mind for my blog. So, as and when I do, you'll see more up-to date posts. Muscat, the captial of Oman is said to be one of the most scenic places in the Arabian land. Most of the scenic beauty during the day is contributed by the various colored mountains and beautifully paved roads here. The scenic beauty at night is lights.. If you get out of your house at night, all you get to see is lights and lights and lights everywhere. The lanes are wel...

The Good God must be a super-good artist... At least that's what the scenic mountains on the way to Alhuta Caves conveyed to us. I never knew that mountains with all shades of brown without a single speck of green, can be so beautiful until I came to Muscat. I get to see a mountain range when I look out the window of my house, but never really took time to analyze them more than a quick look in the morning, noon, evening and night. I love the border color the sunshine of the day gives to this mountain range. Here are some selected snaps of the mountains that caught our eyes over the two hour drive to the Caves. The time of the day defines the shadow on the mountains and the contrast it renders to the original brown color. The clear sky adds an extra touch finishing touch to the scenic portrait. On a close-up you can see a lot of shades of brown, orange, yellow, and blue and green. The Alhuta museum clarifies the colors to be mineral-rich rocks that are believed to have been formed ...

There is an age and time for spending a lot of energy on studies... And a baby aged six months need not be forced to hurry and worry and study the english alphabet. There is a particular advertisement in one of the regional channels that says, " In the world today, even the KG admission demands that your child attends an interview. If you want your child to surprise the interviewers, buy this early learning package that will help your child do very well in the English Language which is very important for today's education." The versions of the advt. go ahead and promise that your five year old can comfortably read an english book, if introduced to this learning programme as early as six months of coming into this beautiful world. That is the point which caught my attention... Why hurry up and force a baby into reading alphabets? Why worry about your child's KG class interview? If a school is unable to understand your child's ablity to grasp new things with some s...

I am writing this post for an obvious reason - I am beginning to lose my temper more than before. I have decided to redefine its shape. A quick and focussed look within the inner-self uncovered a certain simple truth: If you have had a pattern of keeping your inner peace and have changed it in the recent past, then it affects your temper. Go back to the same pattern if possible. For an alternate and permanent solution, a quick research on the internet brought me to this link. h ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scIvvDZDQzI All that mattered for me was I never took time out to keep my calm over the last few months and this point got registered this morning. Following this video reassures me that I can get back control on my temper. Help yourself, when no help seems to be around and get back to shape in your mind.

Food.. no matter how much we want to convince ourselves saying that "Food is part of life and not life itself" and that "we eat to live and not live to eat"... most of us cannot eat anything that is not up to a certain tasty standard. There are some clickable expressions that you'll get to see around in the house if the food tastes 'not-so-good'. There is an inherent sense of satisfaction and happiness if what we make turns out to be close to the taste standards that our folks at home expect. For a long time I thought that some people are great cooks.. but until I got around to keep my own kitchen, I didnt realize that almost anyone and everyone with some interest in cooking + knowledge of few formulae can cook well. From my minimal experience here are some generic observations: NORTH INDIAN: Almost all dishes have one of these items to add to the cholestrol and of course taste and flavor too: Ghee, Butter, Paneer, Yoghurt. Coriander leaves are used for...

Quick note: Divine is my new section. This post does not advocate any specific religion. It is just an observation and is best read with a generic and open mind. If you don't have belief in God, you are better off not reading any posts under the label: Divine. I am not sorry, but I must say that any comment that is offending any religion or the Divine will not be published. On the Television, there was this scene. There were a number of uniformed young boys. From their attire and surrounding it seemed that they were at the residential school of the olden days - Gurukul. It is believed that in Gurukul mode of education, the students were taught all the arts and sciences that one needs to know in life, in a span of seven or ten years time. One of the children was saying that his Lord, the supreme power, Vishnu is everywhere and anything in the world is possible for him. To prove his point, he walked up to the nearest flowering shrub and plucked a part of the stem. He challenged the r...

Just watched this movie called Notebook, a Malayalam movie. I am well past the teen age, so I guess I am able to understand a lot about this movie, so much so that I am tempted to write about it immediately. There are a lot of analysis points here and there in the movie that the schools and parents and the students need to notice. As I write this post, I will try to mark the analysis points within brackets for you to figure out yourself. The story is about three girls studying in the Eleventh Grade[ Analysis point ], in a convent school [ Analysis point] based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Pooja, Seara and Sridevi. The three friends have good grades, have a lot of fun and mostly importantly be together all the time[ Analysis point]. Seara's parents are legally separated and she has little interest to go home. Pooja lost her father very early in life and lives with her mother in the same place. Sridevi's parents live in Kerala. Sridevi and Seara spend their second Saturday school h...

Just noticed that this is the hundredth article of this year 2010 on my blog.. and is also my first travel post. We had recently been to this place called Salalah and I thought it is an interesting travel to share with the blogger world. You'll find a lot of articles and write-ups online about this, so what I am giving here is only an outline of what captivated our eyes and head during the trip. Salalah, the oasis of Arabia is a coastal town in the country of Oman. The lush green lawns, shrubs, trees, coconut groves and banana plantations you see definitely makes you double-check if you are in the God's own Country- Kerala, India. Salalah is on the foot hills of the Dhofar mountain range. This mountain range is said to be lush green during the " Khareef " or rainy season. Khareef lasts from June to September. The scenic beauty of the place makes it a major tourist attraction even in the off-season period. November temperature goes up to 32 degrees during the day and d...

We always take things for granted.. and life has its own way of teaching us the lesson of valuing every single thing that we have.. We were almost done with shopping for groceries that evening... In the hypermarket that seemingly spreads to acres ( at 9:45P.M when you are hungry and have lost all energy to take that next step forward, even a market seems so vast!!!) I rushed towards the vegetables section to look for curry leaves. I have been missing it a lot since I came to this city. In the last two shopping trips I had not looked at the right counter I guess... I had never found curry leaves.. My kitchen and the 'would-have-been-excellent-with-a-garnish of curry leaves' dishes have been missing curry leaves.. Although most of us search for the leaves in the plate and take time to heap them all aside, our cooking is not complete without that touch of curry leaves... When I searched all the racks in the green leafy section of the market, I found little packets neatly price ta...

Yes, that is an adapted quote: A quote from the cover pages of one of the student hand book that I bought last year said: We will either find a way or make one. Very inspiring!!! I recently moved out of corporate and presently looking for freelance assignments online. Never been a freelancer before so was fiddling with the mouse, clicking some links on the Google search results.. I am amazed at the multitude of job openings available in the market from individuals, small scale business owners and large scale companies. Some of the jobs are too surprising!!! Like, write a thank you card and you get paid!!! This one made me click the link.. not to consider taking up the job but to see why someone wants to employ people to write thanks.. It means the employer is so keen on sending thanks and that there are too many thanks cards to be written and so is willing to employ someone. The link indeed had this job description!!.. Then there are a lot of other assignments that offer jobs for peopl...

I have not been really thinking much or observing much on generic stuff over the last four months, which is why, I guess I am unable to post a lot on my blog like before.. Now, as I gear up again as usual on blogger, I decided to give a closer look at the very familiar blogger window.. And there... I saw the Stats links. Surprise!!! May be it has been there all along and I have not seen... Like they say, Its always there, we just don't see it... and the it here refers to blessings in life - trivial or great. Obviously my next step is to click the link... The next surprise is what the stats show - I have visitors from Netherlands and Turkey and Russia as well. Blogger network is interwoven, I know, so some other search page or blog site might have brought them to my blog, but I am happy all the same. It is exciting and rewarding to see that people read ( or may be just visit) what you write.. Another reason to continue blogging - a unique way of sharing what you think and own your...

... and your home gets sweeter each moment. A lot about making a neat little home depends on the mind set that needs to really get settled in one's head. Marriage brought the word home-making into the limelight in my mind that already is like an over-crowded city market with varied thoughts on a hundred different things in the world...Oh, yes, I am this person who has some opinion on everything under the sun... just like most others who are like me. And home-making got tossed into my mind one fine September morning... That's when I had the first real feel of the responsibility of home-making, although I was doing my bit at home with my parents. Home-making involves too many things and I cannot list all: That was realization number ONE for me. House keeping ( which in itself can be a whole new blog, in my opinion...) Cooking Health watch - Physical, Spiritual, Emotional, Intellectual, and Financial is a short, seemingly all-encompassing list..( may be I stopped the list too shor...

Dear Readers, I am beginning to write a new section today, on this blog on home-making which is presently my area of interest. You'll see varied thoughts - some basic, some analytical, some skilled, some others seemingly useful, and some of them totally pointless - and totally my view of things, as usual. I didnt know that there was so much involved in this highly responsible, very delicate, and time consuming practice of life. Now, that I have begun to practice the skill, thought it best to write, share, learn about it, along the way. If you have a constructive criticism on any of these posts, do write a comment. Would make my day and help me learn home-making better. I am not giving any specific attention to writing style here, but then, all attention to the richness of lessons that home-making can provide. Keep reading and help me improve this skill of home-making that has been the best inherent skill of women, worldwide. Best, Dew

Its scorching hot outside. I just switched the air conditioner on and sat down in front of this computer. I am hearing the trucks screeching to a halt outside. Constantly there is some construction work happening in this neighbourhood. Tempted to give another look, I look out the window of this room to see a lot of workers with their safety hats on, hard at work on the road constructions and building construction. And here, I am sitting in an AC room and generally relaxing after the regular routine work at home. Someone comes online and asks: How is the temperature in Muscat? And I am at a loss to answer this question. To me, the temperature inside the house will be at the level which I set. Presently, it is 20 degrees. I cannot say, ' The climate is very hot'. Can I? What difference does the temperature outside make to me when I am gifted to sit in an air-conditioned room and write this post? Wonder if anyone would stop to ask these poor construction workers what the temperatu...

It just happens, whether you like it or not, want it or not, accept it or not. Its quite natural for change to take you off-guard. Change can be welcoming if it is given some time to sink in. Change is often overwhelming, but it usually is manageable with time. Change and Time are the best pals. Change happens with time. Change rules over you in the beginning, but in course of time, you can rule over the change by an acceptance attitude. Change is the best thing that can happen to you at any point of time. Change always happens for the better, although the betterment does not surface immediately. Every change small or big, has the same level of impact most often. Change takes time to enter into your emotional self. You are better off accepting change than fighting it. On any change, there is always an alternative; Accept it and smile anyway. Change is the only thing that keeps anything and everything in the world going, the way it is.

How often have you come across situations when you are looking for some advice or suggestion and it surprisingly comes immediately from some unexpected source? Or you are looking for some support and it seems to just land right there next to you, in some form or the other? At the Mumbai airport, I was wiping off the uncontrollable tears.I didn't like to admit ( still don't like to ) that I was totally out of composure when I had just about two hours to take-off from India. I was repeatedly trying to tell myself that its just going to be okay in a while, but absolutely no relief from the tears. After the umpteen formalities ( Oh,yes, there were not too many procedures, but amidst a heavy heart and tear-filled eyes, every single check-in formality at the airport just seemed to add stress... )I was taking the escalator to the waiting area when I casually looked up. There, on the wall was a huge advertisement board talking about an LG product. I don't recall the product that wa...

It is not that I am seeing an array of cleaning agents for the first time in a supermarket, but this is definitely the first time I am giving this stack a good look. I was just getting used to the idea of cleaning up and constant cleaning up required in any household. As I was walking past the numerous stacks with dozen different varieties of cleaning aids and liquids for a hundred different purposes, I was wondering if half of people's lifetime is actually spent in washing, scouring,cleaning and clearing up of dust, stains, and dirt. In the next minute, my doubt was clarified. There was this little kid busy mopping the floor with the brand new mop he picked up from his mother's shopping crate. You should have seen the sincerity with which the mopping was happening on the already spic and span floor. My judgement says the child would definitely not be more than two years old. Trust me, I would not have held the mop so professionally. A lot of us adults stopped, looked and...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Welcome to the Sultanate of Oman. That was the in-flight announcement that brought me back to senses from my non-stop wonder about the clouds inside and outside. I smiled..... Ever since my first ever air travel experience, the one thing that I cant stop wondering about is the beauty of the clouds, no matter where I am headed. I usually try to classify the clouds I see,but this time I was occupied in my own world of thoughts. Thinking back, the clouds I saw, as I landed, should have been Cirrus. How does it matter anyways? My thoughts were cloudy. It was a very funny feeling within, and I am still unable to classify it three days later as I write this post. I had left Mumbai,India two hours earlier. It was a rainy day in Mumbai. Within me, multiple versions of myself started reacting all at once, resulting in a heavier down pour of emotions, a little too heavy for me to take. Little did I realize when I woke up that the end of the day would see me in a different country altogether and ...

Yes, stumbled... not on a rock or stone or road, but when I kept flicking on the T.V remote after a very long time. I rarely tune into television, but as long as I was in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Tamil songs kept wafting in the air every day whenever I go out and wherever I go. So, almost always I was auto informed of what's happening in the Tamil film industry. Also, there was a Tamil television channel that used to relay some nice music. I really love the language. When I moved to Bangalore, chances of Tamil songs were lesser than it was earlier. Computer and blogging and working and friends and phone became my circle, with very less time for television or movies. The reviews that you might have read would prove that I am not too much into movies, but in my circle, I own the highest record of watching movies in theatres which is about five or six movies in a year. As for songs or regular T.V shows, I didn't have much chance, so completely lost touch. Over the last three months, I...

Hello people, As most of you might have noticed, I have not been writing for a little over one whole month, which has never happened in a long time. I was occupied with some personal whirlwind of pleasant events in my life, that is seeing a magical and dramatic change in my thought flow and composure. So, had kept aside my computer for a while. Many a time during this period of absence, I did come across a lot of instances ( Oh yes, lot is definitely under-stated, I am tempted to say) that are definitely worth writing about. Not sure, if I may be able to pull off a full-length write-up on the observations dated earlier last month, but then can surely say, you are in for a lot of ramble reading on whatever comes up on my mind, present or past, in the next to next posts. Keep reading and posting your comments. Regards, Dew

There is a neat little school by the river; Where the palm trees keep swaying in summer; Where birds keep chirping the whole live long day.... That's how our School Song began. We used to sing this song every Monday morning. I wanted to meet some of my school teachers yesterday. Set out to the school that has contributed significantly to my overall development. There was a familiar wave of excitement that I have felt the last time I stepped inside the portals of the school. I felt at least ten years younger... Note the at least!!!! :) I don't know if a land surveyor or a supervisor would have looked around the place with such an interest... My eyes automatically scanned the school ground from one corner to another. My school has three grounds and while I was in school, it seemed very long stretch to cover and we used to feel very lazy to walk the entire stretch to attend classes. Yesterday, I had to roam the entire school stretch at least three times and I never felt the stretc...

Often, stress is a habit. Stress can be permanent if we do not want to get rid of it. Let's not get used to living with stress. Let's seek BetterHelp ! Stress is no more than a concept in mechanics, if we want to keep it that way. It is possible to deal with stress, but you have to make time to work on it. Society causes more stress than your self, but in the end you are the only one to be blamed. Stress is directly proportional to perfectionism. It is just okay to be imperfect. Nobody cares anyway. Life need not be as perfect as you have carved it to be. Let's learn to accommodate minor differences and minimize stress. Ego and stress live happily ever after. Blood pressure, diabetics and heart aches are direct gifts of stress.

Everyone is busy... That's a known truth, which is why I can never get used to the word in my vocabulary. I have taken a break from work now and I am sharing some responsibilities at home this week. I just decided this morning, that I will take care of everything at home today. Everything just meant cooking and clearing up to me. And what with all the time I have with me, I was sure I could finish everything forenoon and spend time doing nothing at all :) Meetings and deadlines and time lines and discussions and communications and management were all really associated to office in my mind.. Yes, we all know implicitly that a home has all of these going on all the time, but there is no rule or a board room that decides and dictates these things and the most interesting part is emails don't rule your life each morning like they do at work.. So, these terms don't get explicitly acknowledged or understood by people like me who have spent seven working years in front of a compu...

There are a number of opinions floating around in the state about the International Tamil Conference, being held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. I was not too keen on commenting about it. I always believe that there are people who surely know what they are doing and what they are getting into. Often, we may not be in a position to understand why they are doing what they are. So, although I had my own view points about this conference, rather about the large scale spending that is happening in the state for this conference, I chose not to comment. This morning, I heard an old lady remark : Wonder if someone can take me straight to the conference venue to meet the Chief Minister. I would ask him what is the significance of this conference and the money splurged in it, to the villages in Tamil Nadu where they have to run for about a kilometer's distance to fetch a pail of water. Apparently, last week there was a T.V programme that showed the plight of a specific village in Tamil Nad...

There is so much happening around me. Our house and home is getting ready for a very festive occasion in the family. My mind has been super-busy. Last night, I almost nodded off to sleep when my phone beeped. A very devoted citizen of the cell phone world, that I am, I picked up to see that one of my good friends was getting admitted in the hospital for her first delivery. Amazing, how this one news keeps me thrilled and excited and concerned every time, in the last so many years. I called her up, wished her well and slept off hoping that I would see the message about her new born this morning. As of this post, which is about eleven hours after the message, she is still in the hospital waiting for her baby. And so am I. Amidst all the thoughts running on my head, this one thought about the to-be born baby and my friend keeps me too occupied. Said a silent prayer when my phone beeped again. This message was from another friend who just got into the hospital for her first delivery too. C...

You never know how responsible you can be until you are put in a situation. Responsibility is an off-shoot of commitment and sincerity. If there is no responsibility, there is no sense of satisfaction. It is good to take responsibility for all your actions and words, else it will transform into a blame game which is often very unpleasant on the relationships. Nobody else is responsible for what is happening, except yourself. If your child has to be responsible, take the responsibility yourself first. It is possible to be responsible and still be relaxed. It is good to be responsible for the happiness of your loved ones, because that is all there is in life at any given point in time. If you want to cut down on our monstrous ego levels, just try to be responsible for one person's happiness, at least once in a day. Things just happen, and you only assume responsibility most of the times. Responsibility is a big word; Its good to play it well for a happy living. You cannot avoid respo...

Dear Readers, Hope this post finds you in the best of your health and cheers :-) I may not be able to write in the regular frequency for a few months from now. I am slightly occupied with life's present personal action-packed season. All is well,but just that I wont be able to blog as often as I used to for the next three months. Will keep posting on and off though. I wish you all very well and hope you keep that beautiful smile of yours on, no matter what. Best wishes, Keep smiling, Dew

Most of the tropical India is tiding through scorching heat of the summer and I am writing about spring here. :-) During a conversation with a friend yesterday, I heard this line: Spring comes once a year. How true!!! Well, its not that I am hearing about seasons for the first time, but then there was a zen moment when I understood that we cannot expect everything to go on the way it is. Suddenly, some proverbs and sayings made total sense: Nothing lasts forever, not even your troubles This will also pass through There is always a time for everything Looks like, nature has all the laws of life painted clearly. It seems that it has answers to all questions that our restless minds raise all the time. Its just that we need to learn to connect with nature to understand the norms of life... The sea, the breeze, the mountain, the seasons, the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, the wind, the brook, the stream, the sand, the tree, the bird, the cloud, the rain, the flower, the grass - All of t...

I remember the minute I walked out of my college hostel in May 2002. Apart from the fact that the whole idea of parting from the college hostel life was tough for my mind to take, what I recall till date, is the fact that I didn't know till the last day, that some people would miss me. The next time, it was when I made some friendships in my work places. Chance had it that I switched quite a number of jobs and so had to say good byes that many times. Although, I can say that the number of friends I could connect to in different work places were not as many as I had in college, it still was difficult to say Good Bye. With some people, I had a tough time battling with my emotions when I said Bye. With others, I didn't know that I would have made an impact that made it so difficult for them to let me go. The next Good bye memory was when I left a city to move to another. It was tough to see the 'Thank you, Come again' board that caught my eye when my bus moved out of the c...

Dress-up to attract respectful looks. Your dress defines you and defends you. The cost of your dress does not matter as much as the impression it gives about the cultured person in you. Its good to check your dress sense once in a while. In a crowd, its best to wear dress that is comfortable to every one's eyes. If how you wear a dress does not matter to you, then you must be willing to face consequences, often unpleasant. Dress sensibly as much as possible. I am ranting off like this because I chanced to see two improperly dressed pretty girls day before yesterday night. This is not the first time I see an improperly dressed young lady, but the first time when the girls behaved like there was no one else around. I wanted to write a whole post about this, but right now, I don't have the time to reword my language to fit my blog's principles. Some topics are very sensitive and the scene I saw about dress sense surely is one of them. Cant take a chance now when I am in a hurr...

I am definitely not talking about clicking the I'm feeling lucky button on the google search page. I was in the best of my cheers this morning when I set out to office. I wanted to wear Jasmine flowers that according to me would compliment my hair style today. You cannot get out early in the morning and expect Jasmine flowers just like that in a completely residential locality like the one I live in. I knew it well, so just kept aside the thought and continued my walk. Just when I shut my mind's non-stop questions on how to get Jasmine flowers at this time of the day, a flower vendor crossed my way. I stopped her and asked if she had Jasmine.. I have never seen any one's face brighten up so much, in a long time. She was very happy to uncover her bounty of fresh Jasmine flowers neatly woven into flower strands. I asked for some flowers and immediately pinned them on to my supposedly well-dressed hair. Every time, I wear Jasmine flowers, I can tell you that my feel-good facto...

Bangalore weather has been awesome since morning.. As I enjoyed my morning walk on my way to work, I wished that my folks in Tamilnadu also enjoyed some nice cool summer time.. I am having a super-good summer morning and was reminded of my last weekend summer morning in my home town in Tamil Nadu. It has been scorching hot and humid there; reports on the phone from friends confirmed the same. So, I felt it a little unfair that one part of my world was struggling to cope with the summer heat and I am singing my way to office accompanied by cool breeze in a clear bluish grey sky background. When I come in, my world changes and I am not too much of a news person. So, didn't have a clue about the rains in Chennai till my news-savvy colleagues started talking about it. Soon enough, I had a call from a friend in Chennai. When asked about the rains, he said " Yes, its raining. Laila has been troublesome.."... I didn't want to ask who Laila was.. I am generally good at interp...

The first greeting card from a school friend; The first bouquet of roses from a colleague; The first birthday surprise from a manager; The first day in college hostel; Each of these thoughts and a lot of such special thoughts can rewind your mind's film strip back to so many years of fond thoughts and memories. For the last few days I have been getting back in touch with a lot of my old friends from school, college and summer vacation play mates. Each meeting, each conversation, brings back a lot of thoughts and nice memories from the past. Honestly, nothing seems to have changed between the old friends and me except that we have all grown-up to be taller, stronger ( or weaker, at times) and more responsible. Earlier last week, I caught an old summer vacation play mate on the phone ( how I found out the number is beyond the scope of this post ) and before we knew we were discussing anything and everything under the sun... and when I finally hung up I realized that I had spoken to ...