Dew

Yes, you are reading it correct. Summer camps have become more of a business, a business that capitalizes on the parents' craze to make sure that their kids learn all that there is, in the world within a span of five days/seven days/ten days/fifteen days/one month/two months; That is how summer camps are slotted. kids' peer pressure mind states; Everyone in the play group attends one camp or the other, so its very difficult to convince a child that its okay 'not' to attend a camp. parents' spending power on 'everything' and 'nothing', sometimes even without thinking once; leave alone the idea of "Think twice before you act". I am not saying Summer camps are bad. In fact, I think it is a nice way to know a lot of people, to know how to mingle with people you do not know, to learn good (sometimes bad, but that can be handled at home) habits/behaviour, to learn something new and to make the summer vacation a little fruitful. What I think is no...

ஏழ்மையிலும் நேர்மை கோபத்திலும் பொறுமை தோல்வியிலும் விடாமுயற்சி நம்பிக்கையின்மையிலும் தைரியம் தரித்திரத்திலும் பரோபகாரம் என் பாட்டியிடம் இருந்து படித்த நினைவு. இன்றைய கால கட்டத்தில் நாம் மிக வேகமாக சொல்லும் ஒரு வார்த்தை 'முடியாது'. இந்த வரிகள் சொல்லும் ஒரே உண்மை : உன்னால் முடிந்த வரை ஒவ்வொரு விஷயத்திலும் கவனம் செலுத்து. முக்கியமான விஷயங்கள் : நேர்மை, பொறுமை,விடாமுயற்சி,தைரியம், மற்றும் பரோபகாரம் என்பன. இவை எல்லாவற்றிற்கும் முடியாது என்று மொத்தமாய் ஒரு வார்த்தையில் கூறி முடிக்க கூடாது. இதுவே கருத்து.

And then complain that the rate of thefts have increased in town. Every other lane in Bangalore has a software company. My office is housed in one of the popular Technology parks and there are at least six such Technology parks on the same road. ( In Bangalore, a technology park is a complex - of tall multi-storey buildings with multi-level car parks and a lot of garden space, and pavements - where a lot of companies who can afford the high-priced rent, have their offices. Most of these companies are software companies.) This means at a given bus stop you can see ten people boarding the same bus to different companies on this road. Every morning, the first thing that you notice on every office-goer is the identity card. With the tag around the neck, you can say which software company the person is working with. One step further, you could even say if this person is waiting for the same bus as you. Once inside the bus, most of the times, you get to read the name of the person. In some...

Over a phone call, I heard the scores of one of the cricket matches. According to my friend, the team that lost, was supposed to have 'Lost in Style'. I took an instant liking to the phrase - Lost in Style. Heard about life style, dress style, and such common place references to 'style' before but as for 'lost in style', this was the first time. I had thought I'll mention this in my blog, but totally forgot until I heard an incident in a high school, which nailed the importance of being able to 'lose in style' and 'take it well 'too. 'Lost in style' means to be able to give your best effort at something; coming close to victory/success and still being unable to make it. Though, it might not bring the same joy that position one brings in any competition or attempt, it does bring a feeling of satisfaction that you've given your best. Although, a miss, you'd have 'lost in style'. English advocates might give a different u...

Usually, I never spend a lot of my morning hours watching T.V, but this morning I had about five minutes before I started off to work and decided to watch whatever was going on in the television. These are the shots : An old couple with happy and peaceful look exchange genuine and caring smiles. They are taking a walk; She holds a tree trunk and stops mid-way. The old man tries to lift her. His back aches and he is unable to bear the pain; she clutches his shoulder, so he does not falter. Each of them is reading a book sitting next to each other in their living room; They hold hands, as they talk about what they read. She is dusting a photo frame and smiles when she sees that the picture was taken on their wedding day. He comes over and is very nostalgic about it. Till this point, there is no dialogue... The old man asks, more as an after-thought, "When we got married we didn't have anything with us. Did we?" and she smiles and says " Nothing, just the Trust". T...

I watched this Malayalam movie called Sufi Paranja Katha.I really do not know how to review this movie, but I wanted to put across my observations any way. The beginning of the movie increases your curiosity about the story line and I guess sets very high expectations. Since a majority of my readers are not Malayalees, I think, I will attempt to write out the story line. I still do not know if I have got the logic of the movie correct, but let me try. The movie begins on a beautiful sea shore on a bright morning. The waves lashing on the shore gives you the feeling that the sea has a very big role to play in the story. A young writer is in town for the first time and meets this old man who starts narrating the life history of the renowned lady in the town. The whole movie is a flash back and I expected a lot of tears in the movie. Thankfully, the director spared us all from tears and contributed to some amount of confusion. Karthyaayani, fondly known as Karthi was the little princess o...

Not that I expected that I will write this post today.... It came as a completely random thought yesterday on my mind. Just why are people so obsessive about being a perfectionist in one thing or the other in life.. While I admit that it is important to strive to live with a certain level of discipline and routine and perfection and policy and principle, I am just not able to understand why some people do not know to take it easy. Of course, as I write this post, I recall how many times I have been in the same place too.. So, now that I am writing this post you must understand that I have come out of that high-level of perfection for my own good. This post is a general thought process on being a perfectionist. The first time I heard this word was when I was in college. One of the seniors in my hostel corridor was literally yelling about a professor who irritates the class by his perfectionism. I did not understand, but did not want to add a little more oil to the already burning fire i...

Some quick and simple measures to improve the feel-good factor: 1. Smile when you see a baby, however occupied you are with your work or thoughts. 2. If something tastes nice, just say it. 3. Pray for someone other than yourself and see it work. 4. Spend at least a minute talking to old people or children each day. 5. Do not look at your watch at least one day in a week. 6. Allow yourself a break from your regular routine once in a while. 7. Say at least five 'Good morning' wishes every morning. 8. Read a quote every day and have your opinions on it. 9. Believe in any positive principle and stay close to it as much as you can.

When I opened my eyes this morning, I thought my mind was reeling off a lot of thoughts. The thought that these thoughts could make a whole newspaper made me smile :) An instance of Information Overload was my first impression. A newspaper according to me is usually characterized by small sized fonts and packed high-sounding words to convey simple subjects in a complex language; sometimes to make simple things complicated and to hype-up common place happenings. Wonder why some old men have this habit of reading a newspaper from cover to cover. Their knowledge level is extremely high, I know, but still, is it required to know so much something when peace and quiet is what man needs the most? I fail to understand. The story bits that talk facts are the ones that interest me. Ever since the first time I set my eyes on a newspaper I have never stopped wondering about how every bit of real estate in a news paper is packed to the borders with news.As a child, I had a strong dislike for close...

If it is not yours, do not take it was the first moral science lesson we all would have learnt in our early childhood. Here is an incident when this thought came back again. My friend had troubled look on her face day before yesterday. When asked what was bothering her, she said, she was unable to find her wallet. Now, we all know that Wallet almost equals to a hold-all to most people. It had some cash ( thankfully minimal), a credit card, a debit card and an Insurance card. Enough reason to trouble one's mind and face. In a crowded bus, where she remembered taking out her wallet last, there was no hope to be able to trace it, ever. Without much delay ( thanks to her commonsense quotient) she called up the bank and blocked the cards. When you lose something, you look and feel lost, more so, if it is your wallet; the most important, close to heart, best friend everywhere - because it has the cash and cards and also because it might be a gift from someone. This wallet was also a gi...

Yes, I am out of my mind.. Will be back in five minutes. - From a T-shirt I read recently in the bus stop. This quote made me smile and I hope it brought a smile on your face too. The next time you want to yell at someone with " Are you out of your mind??", just be prepared for one such response.

In school, I was one of these calm, studious, supposedly outstanding students who was very scared to stand in front of a class and talk for a minute. I used to avoid all extempore sessions and speech contests. Tamil was my second language. It must have been a boring afternoon for my Tamil teacher , I thought, when she asked how many of us wanted to participate in a Tamil Debate. These questions used to freak me a lot, because, my name was for some reason on the list all the time and I used to refuse any way. That afternoon, my teacher just came over and showed me the list of selected candidates. My name figured in there and to some people in life, you just cannot say 'No'. It could be because you love them, respect them, adore them, admire them, are afraid of their temper, or all of the above. To me it was clearly respect and the temper aspects. So, I had to say 'Yes' to talk on the stage. A lot of preparations followed. The team had one student from Class 8, Class 9, C...

Summer has begun early in Bangalore this year. It was a bright early summer morning.It was a crowded bus. I was thankful to have found a seat. Yes, the seat is important because it is difficult to travel for the next forty five minutes as a standee in a crowd of school kids, college students, office goers, the conductor who manages to walk around as if he is in a quiet garden enjoying a breeze. I think, till I get to do that role for an hour, I wont get the idea of elbowing my way through a hundred people approximately, in a crowded bus on a hot summer morning. [ As an aside, did you know that the maximum permissible capacity in a passenger bus is 50+ 20 standees?? and our buses squeeze in many more people than that??] This is totally out of range here, still could not help expressing it.... When I sat back to relax, I saw this bright ( she was wearing a white uniform and this attracts me any day) school student reading from a note book. Must be for an exam, I thought. I fell for her h...

March 1 was important because I finished six years in writing.... March 2 secured a rank in my professional diary because one of my writing-related articles got published in a news letter. I am still not out of the silent joy that these two thoughts bring me, when I see this award from Nishita : Thanks a tonne, Nishita . Today, I want to pass this on to my blogger friend SG at http://sowmyagopal.blogspot.com for her high-frequency blogging about varied experiences. She is just over a year old in blgospot and has contributed so much to her circle and her folks.

Last Friday, I had a chance to attend a meeting with a few teachers, students and technical writers. It had something to do with introducing technical writing in the universities and I went there just to know where the initiative was headed. One of the speakers holds the position of Vice President, Asia Pacific Region, in a renowned software organization. As always, I was not too keen on the designation of the speaker. The talk was casual and nice to listen to and he knew to keep the audience interested. I love to listen to interesting speeches, so I was enjoying the hour. Sometime mid-way he remarked about how he started off his career as a primary school teacher. My thoughts stopped right there. Suddenly, the designation seemed to shine bright on the stage. A primary school teacher has climbed up the corporate ladder in 38 years span of time. Although 38 years is a good period to achieve this position in a career ladder, I think to start off in teaching career and move up to VP of a ...

Happy 6th birthday to my writing experience. This day, in year 2004, I took a chance to join this new ( I had not heard of it till then, so it was new to me) field called 'Content Development' in a start-up company in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Now, a hard-core crazy computer programmer that I was, back in college, I could not even think of spending time writing anything except emails and letters. I have always loved writing letters and emails, but writing in any other form was something I could not relate to, until that February day when someone talked me into 'trying' to write technical stuff. I bought the idea because, I believe there is always a way to say things and this person put it forward very nicely to me : Just give it a shot, if you do not like it, walk out!! As simple as that!!!! And in this profession, you cannot stay if you don't like it. So, just take that chance for sometime, till you find a programming job that matches your interest. The next day,...