Dew

I smiled because for the first time I could identify a car as 'Ford' without trying to read the front or the rear of the car. Years of practice automatically drew my eyes to the front of the car to read the make, but from the Volvo seat where I sat, my eyes stopped at the lovely dress I could see. The lady's dress sense was excellent. Sometimes, we cannot help applauding some people's dress sense. Then, attention shift again; the hands that drove the car seemed a little unsure.. I looked around.. Obviously, Bangalore peak hour traffic. Its difficult to be sure, but I always believe drivers do not have an excuse to lose focus.- Ever. As my bus moved forward, I finally got to see the face of this best-dressed lady with the unsure driving sense . One quick look and you could say that she was very disturbed. Her eyes showed restlessness and her hands were quivering a little, the car was snailing its way and also looked a little less majestic ( driver's hold determines t...

I was still thinking of the unusually pathetic taste of the Channa Masala side dish, as I was putting away my used plate. Wondering how easy or difficult it can be to spoil such a nice dish. " Yeah, File A is fine.. but unless the script 'whatever' had taken 'whatsoever' parameter into consideration at the time it gets invoked....." the noise seemed to fade now, because I was rushing out of the zone and from these dangerously workaholic people. When you are at the cafe discuss everything other than work, please...... I wanted to yell!!!!! Made me quickly jot down a few traits that I have noticed in the past those can be stamped: "Unmistakably Corporate". My observations are limited to IT corporates only, as my work experience is limited to IT industry: After the first five minutes of any casual meeting, a topic about technology starts. Almost always there is the office identity card in the bag, whether it is a casual evening outing or a party. Laptop...

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. - Newton's third law of motion. Recall your Newton's laws lesson from Class Seven Physics Book. I think this is one law that drives not only two forces but also life. He must have done quite a lot of research and analysis into why he said what he said, but then don't you think a lot in life is governed by this principle? We tend to react to people, situations,events based on what faces us or how we perceive them. The reaction can be good, better, best , bad, worse or worst based on how good or bad that event, person, or situation made you feel. Makes me wonder if Newton was a Physicist or a Practical Philosopher.

... in my mind, for the last few days. Yesterday, I was in a car with one of my nieces. One of her favorite dance numbers was the background music as I was talking non-stop as usual about something. The child gave me this 'Oh..Please....' look and said, " Chitthi, I want to listen to this song, please.." For the first time, that request seemed sensible to me. I stopped talking till the song got over. Later yesterday evening, when I had some quiet time for myself, I debated silence in my mind. Oh yes, if you are quiet, it does not mean you are silent. I was not talking but worse still, was debating silence in my head. Debates can cause stress and talks relieve you of stress. Its amazing how both these involve the same talking on a different stage with a different mind set. After a varied levels of arguments in my mind, as on date I can conclude that: Being Quiet is important when: - writing an exam. - in a pointless argument. - uttering one word can cause disastrous t...

IPL and cricketers and politicians and politics and movie stars and fan clubs and cricket lovers..... Volcanic ashes and airports and travel reschedules and never-ending waits and missing appointments.... Accusations and trials and sentences and law points.... Elections and votes and seats and promises and social welfare talks.... Earth Day and Global Warming and Weather forecast and traffic jams..... Exams and tests and admissions and marks and vacations and summer camps and troubled parents..... So much is happening around and much more is telecast as prime time news each minute on the media. Whatever happens, there is always a whole list of things to take care of in our personal lives... wonder why and how we spend so much time and energy worrying more than we should, about the rest of the worldly happenings, whether or not it is of some importance and relevance to us and our community... If at all we happen to hear something relevant to us and our community, most often there is no ...

Yesterday morning there were quite a few delays. It was late when I reached the bus stop. I waited at the bus stop for over ten minutes and decided to hop on to the Airport local that is a little expensive to travel in, than the usual buses. I wondered for a minute, why I was paying a little extra for this ticket, but then the cool conditioned air and a comfortable window seat and a nice Hindi melody made me smile. The girl sitting beside me was all covered in black overalls, per her faith, except her eyes. Her eyes looked pretty and was forever searching for something around. Although I was tempted to know if I could help her with something, I decided to keep quiet. These days I offer help only when asked for. Don't know how this change happened, but that is what has been happening for quite sometime now. I turned to the road and started humming the tune of the song. My world of musical notes was disturbed when I heard the noisy struggle of a plastic cover nearby. I turned to see ...

I was having a quiet breakfast in the nearest eatery this morning. A chatter that seemed distant, slowly became more audible and sounded very close. Eda, Can you ask for *Dosas please? m.. you sit here, I'll come soon. I felt compelled to turn and look around to place the voice to the face. A very cute little girl ( my guess is three or two years old..) was sitting on a chair trying to keep her hands on the table which she cannot even reach. She clearly was enjoying herself in this busy eatery where a lot of people were asking for a lot of things across the service counter. Her Dad took her preference of *Dosas and walked over to the counter too. This kid was staring at nothing in particular ( that's what I thought) and suddenly yelled: Eda, can you order for *Pani puris too?? Her dad looked around and waved a 'yes' with his hand and had to confirm it once again with a nod. I turned back to my plate and continued eating with my ears still perked up for the next statemen...

Oh Yes, I love being called Aunty by my friends' children. I do not accept any other way of addressing me, except of course my name. I insisted that my friend introduces me as 'Deepa Aunty' to her six year old daughter. As is usually the case with me and children together at any given moment, any given time of the day, it did take the child a while to know that she can actually make friends with me. We spoke about her school, hobbies, interests, achievements, friends.. yes, that is a huge list of topics that only a child can talk to you at the first sight. It is sad to note that as we grow older, we lose this habit of candid talking.. Wonder how? Wonder why?? While I was still marvelling at the very idea of 'being a child', she ran off to fetch a paper and pencil and then found a quiet corner for herself, set rules that no one in the house should try to read her work for the next few minutes. Her sister stood beside her anyway.. Brought smiles immediately as I could...

Bangalore heat was scorching yesterday afternoon. No complaints because it was our choice to step out at Noon on a Summer day. With that said, it is definitely surprising to get out of office to be greeted by cool rain drops on your face. Sometimes we don't know what we are missing when we are lost in work within the closed air-conditioned office buildings. We have all missed the beautiful scene outside. I was glad I got out in time to experience the rest of the weather marvel. Cool rain drops on my face... I loved it, but then just because I was carrying an umbrella and just because I knew for a fact that getting wet in the first rains of the summer can take me to a doctor's clinic instead of home, I opened my umbrella... I took in all the beauty of the flowers and bushes in my office campus. They all seemed to be as happy as I was about the rains. There was a slight warmth in the air ( refer a science text to see why, don't ask me please...) that was nice. The clouds were...

Summer rains in Bangalore have started. My friend had stepped out for a quiet morning walk and came across this lovely nest in her garden. The rains must have been too harsh for the nest and it had fallen off the tree. On a closer look, it was a Kite's nest. I understood her description like this: Long strong twigs were placed neatly at the bottom. Then twigs of similar strength were placed over the base twigs in an angle and order which only the Kites knew how. This whole arrangement made a casing. Inside the casing, coconut shell's fibre was placed to make it a soft cushion at the base. The whole nest seemed to have been done in a very carefully thought-out engineering design. Made us wonder : Who taught the Kites ( for that matter any bird) to make a nest? Imagine the kind of effort involved to find the right twigs and fibres and transport it to the same tree ( in a forest where five trees of the same kind are seen, I am not sure, if I would be able to spot the right tree a...

Watched a movie that had this lovely scene about simple pleasures - Admiring the moon rise, Dancing in the rain and playing with little children... The twosome were trying to escape the gangsters who were literally after their lives; still it was nice that the director had this segment of them enjoying the simple pleasures in life. Whatever be the situation, after the first shock or anger or anxiety or horror of it fades a little and you have life to get on with, it is these simple things that give you a chance to smile and generally forget the nightmarish thoughts for few moments. I think it is important to habitually make time to cherish and enjoy simple pleasures in life - enjoying an ice cream candy, watching the moonrise, making a sand castle with a child, smiling when you see a child, feeling the wind on your face with closed eyes, listening to soft music when you cook or eat, dancing in the rain... the list can go on... Do not forget the simple pleasures in the mad rush of life...

In life, always pray for Right Decisions at the Right Time and Right People at the Right Places. - Staple thought This is an extrapolation of the quote my father always says : Pray for right decisions at the right time. Sometime in the recent past, I realized it is also right people at the right places who add value to life.

When a cold rain droplet touched me today, it seemed to say 'Chill Maadi '. We hear this often in Bangalore : Chill Maadi ... means Just Chill. It is better to practise taking things easy, because taking things too serious is not going to resolve the problem anyway. This thought is worth a soft-board staple at your work desk or dinner table at home.

There is a quote that we've all heard : Work while you work and Play while you play. The movie ended when the hidden love was finally found and everyone was generally happy that the director let the pair be happy at the end of the story. When I stood up to leave, a bright rectangular frame of light caught me. I took another step closer and saw that it was from a laptop screen. I could see this casual software engineer with a laptop displaying programming codes and he was on the phone talking to someone about the code. Unbelievable!!! Saturday afternoon. Multiplex theatre. Bangalore City. After a long time, a nice Tamil movie in town. Wonder why he brought his laptop to the theatre?? May be he was planning to go to office from the theatre, but that should be after the movie, why keep the laptop open and look into the complex code when in a movie theatre?? When I told this to my friend, she said, "I saw the laptop right from Scene One in the movie.... I just don't understand...

Never underestimate the power of positivity. There is no superlative or relativity for few words in life; Optimism is one of them. There is no less optimistic view or more optimistic view or most optimistic view; Optimistic simply stands as strong as it is. If you can believe, you can achieve it too. Working backwards from the success platform, an achiever is first a believer; a believer is a dreamer. Start dreaming of yourself in a success platform. Negativity does not resolve anything........ so even if it seems pointless to stay positive, why not stay close to the positive notion of things? At least, you save your mental health. Positivity is the first seed that you need to sow to see a possibility or opportunity. There is a lot of difference between the word 'wrong' and 'incorrect'. 'Wrong' rules out the allowance to learn and 'Incorrect' encourages to learn what is correct. No one can encourage you to win, if you do not allow positive words to sink...

I was away on a week-long vacation and see that so much has happened in my blogger world. On my blogger watch window, I see that some books have been reviewed, some nice pictures posted, some interesting notes listed, some new publications, some poetry, some short stories, and of course, some people have posted comments on my latest posts too. One week of me not writing anything at all is so unbelievable according to me. One week of not opening my email box has not happened in a long time. In this one week, I realized that my world of emails, phone calls, people, and work have been playing an integral role in my life. I happened to be the silent spectator ( Trust me on that, I really was a silent spectator for a while day before yesterday... ) watching a group of old people's happy and cheerful greetings to each other. They did not carry a mobile phone;they didn't know anything about Internet or email; they met only in gatherings; they needed someones support to help them sit o...