Thin lines...

It is said that there is a very thin line between certain two closely placed aspects on the life line...sometimes it is very hard to really demarcate the two. Some of them I gathered are :

• Think and Worry
• Stress and Tension
• Competition and Rivalry
• Criticism and Jealousy

When you read these terms separately you are sure of their definition. When you put in a careful thought, you really are not sure of the aspect you are referring to at any point in time...

Not clear ?

• Try to figure out if you are stressed or tensed?
• Try to identify if you are thinking or worrying?
• Try to see if you are competing with something/someone or do you have a rivalry situation?
• Are you trying to be a critic or are you being jealous?

Honestly, it is difficult to tell... Give it some thought.. If we manage to keep these two aspects separate, am sure all our professional and personal lives will improve for good.

Use the web reference or any dictionary reference to find the word meaning, but connect with yourself to find out if you can clearly distinguish these thoughts....

This is one of my recently gained insights.

Outlook in Life...

Yes, right... I am talking about Outlook... the role of Microsoft Outlook in work life..

Yesterday when someone asked me, if I would be available on Thursday morning for a discussion, it took me a while to realise that I had no idea whatsoever of my appointments on Thursday.... I had to rush to my desk to look at my Outlook calendar to say "I am free on Thursday morning"...

I sat back thinking about this... Its never happened with me... I am known to remember my appointments, phone numbers, task lists, email ids and of course birthdays....I once used to argue with people that if you prioritize 'People', you cant really forget these things...what's happening now?

Outlook is everything at work....
You have a task to finish, enter it in Outlook..
You have a birthday wish to send, mark it in Outlook...
You need a contact number, look it up in Outlook...
You want to see a message from a friend, check your Outlook...
You want to write to a friend, compose it in Outlook.....
You have to meet someone, save it in Outlook...
You have a discussion, etch it in Outlook and send invites to people....
You have to store some information, scribble it in a draft and keep it as long as you want...
You want to remind someone of something, flag a follow-up on Outlook....

So, everything.. just about everything that you need to do, is dependent on Microsoft Outlook.. The Outlook, kind of, defines how much people are working these days...

Every day....

• An over-flowing mail box with two emails from friends, one of which is usually a forward and the other is a "hello, how are you? Long time.. no see/hear.. what's up?" email....
• An Outlook calendar with back-to-back meeting appointments, some of them important, some of them name-sakes, some of them which are usually bound to get cancelled/postponed and some of them which can be skipped....all of which are usually accepted most of the times...
• A task list which usually runs to lengths....
• Reminders that pop-up as the system clock ticks by each day....

Without these, life at work is not complete...

What if one day, just one day, for some reason unknown, Outlook stops working in companies all over the world... ????

No emails, No notifications, No reminders, No phone calls, No meetings : No one knows the task list, No one has any clue about meetings, No one has any phone number recorded anywhere else, No one has any information on what happened to all the work that they finished...

If Nothing of this happens, there is practically NOTHING that happens at work desk in a software company... so also, I guess everyone will be on a paid holiday, much more relaxed and will use the native super computer - that is, the BRAIN much more..... Life at work will change for the better.. :-)
I also am tempted to mention:

May be, the "whatever" council/body/committee will declare "Outlook day" where Microsoft Outlook will not be functional in their offices.... I have to admit that there will be an email flood across the world saying : " Tomorrow Outlook will not be functional. Please take proactive measures and send all emails that you would need to send tomorrow by End of the Calendar day ( 23 hours 59 minutes) tonight. Request you to ensure that your business does not get affected. Have a happy "Outlook Day". Thank you for your cooperation. Best regards. "

And one will end up thinking " Why on earth do I have to put up with this ? Just do away with this Outlook free day and I'll be better off with my own mails, task lists, calendars and contact lists and spend less of my brain.....:-)

All said, it is Outlook that makes my life at work better, just because, the moment I come inside office, my brain instructs me to open my mail box.. Now that my brain is tuned to Outlook, I guess, I salute Microsoft for its Noble work as I am plunging into the whirlpool of emails today..... :-)

Wonder what my superiors think of their email boxes?? :-) May be : Behind every manager's success there is people, attitude, and of course Outlook. :-)

IT Highway

This morning, when I was commuting to office in the company-provided deluxe bus ( High platform, Cushioned Chairs, Comfortable leg-space, Air conditioned, the local FM radio channel ) I was curious to see how much longer my bus has to wait in the heavy traffic. So I stood up and gave a quick glance to see that the road was completely packed with buses like the one I was travelling in. There were a few cars, quite a number of city cabs, a very few bikes and a few maxi cabs. No cycles or pedestrians in this part of the city at this particular time of the day, as you just cannot expect to wade your way by a bike or walk, through the very heavy, heavy-vehicle traffic.

I was glad that I don't drive a car - as in this city's traffic, you would be one among the rare herd of people who love to drive to work in an office that is out of the city - and certainly am not the kind.

I also noticed that people in most of the cabs, cars and buses dozed off... I wont blame them for it as they probably wake up very early to take the bus to office at 6:45A.M and catch up on the lost sleep in the bus. But coming to think of it, where is the morning freshness, where is the morning briskness, where is the morning speed and efficiency that we have all been taught so much in school?

While I was still wondering about the missing early morning enthusiasm in most of us, - thanks to IT life - my bus reached my office and it was time to get down the bus and get into the wonderful office space that I have. I get down the bus and didn't fail to notice the slow walk and dull faces and extremely slow paced ID swipes... I try not to question.. but can't help at times...

Why is the speed so low?
Is it traffic? Is it work? Is it life style? Is it practice? Is it home life? Is it chilling out? Is it relaxed mind state? Is it weather? Is it the I-don't-care attitude? Is it I-don't-have-life-outside-work nature? Is it plain boredom?

As a contrast, if you look at people working in other sectors, there seems to be a better briskness expressed, among the very fewer luxuries that their work life has to offer them. There is no plush office space, there is no transport, if at all there is, there is definitely no AC transport, there is no flexible working hours, there is no Friday evening excuse, there is no.. let's just say, a lot of other things..

I have no clue what fits into the description of a very slow IT professional with all the luxuries.. But I surely know that IT highway today got me thinking...and that this kind of pace is not good for the supposed-to-be young and energetic crowd.

Gulab Jamoon in Bangalore

I know you picked up this topic because you love Gulab jamoon or are curious to know what this post is all about....

Last Saturday, I was in a shopping mall in Bangalore. After a two-hour long roam, my friend and I decided to eat at the food court. We chose the juice and dessert corner and placed orders.
While I was still waiting for the sugar cane juice that I ordered, I was scanning the display shelves. It is a nice past time if you are the kind who will appreciate decor.

Wall papers with fruits and cake pictures, glass shelves with fruits made out of wax, a display shelf with lots of freshly baked cakes and some sweets....I stopped right there... it was not just another sweet.... it was my favorite Gulab Jamoon.... :-)

For people who do not know about Gulab Jamoon, it is an Indian sweet which at its best, is brownish red in color, soaked in Sugar Syrup, very soft to bite into, and tastes very sweet usually. It takes about an hour to make 30 pieces of this sweet and costs INR 6:00 to INR 10:00 in any restaurant or a shop that sells sweets. Google can help you better on this reference..

I love Gulab Jamoons... There is no limit to the number I eat at a time and there is no definite time of the day or night when it comes to tasting Jamoons.

For a minute, I was tempted to buy, though I knew it for a fact that among the other things that I have ordered that evening, this sweet would add too many calories and it may not go well with the rest of the items... While I was still thinking, I happened to glance at the price of the sweet. It was Rs.49( seven times!!!!!!! more than the usual price)...

I picked up my sugar cane juice, sat down at a fair distance from the shelf and pondered about the cost and the fact that many of the customers were willing to pay that high a price for a sweet that can cost upto 20 rupees at the maximum.

May be this is how the calculation was done:
Pro-rated cost of Air-Condition in the mall + Pro-rated cost of the glazed glass name plate stating "Gulab Jamoon"+ Pro-rated cost of refrigerator display shelf + Pro-rated cost of maintenance of the sweet corner+ Pro-rated making charges + Pro-rated cost of the bright lamp in the display shelf that made the Jamoon look truly attractive + Cost of the actual Jamoon = Rs. 49!!!!!

May be, just may be this is how the cost Math was done, otherwise, I don't see any other work- around to arrive at this huge number for my favorite Gulab Jamoon.

The joy of satisfaction.........

I chanced to visit a village (About 100 km from the city) recently. When I was about to leave, I asked if there is any transport from the village to the nearest town from where I can take another bus to go to the city. The villager was very helpful in directing me to the bus station. There was no bus shelter as such, but from the crowd there, I guessed it should be the bus station.

The villager went on to tell me about the "nice school" ( the only school there), the "main hospital" ( the only health clinic in the village where nurses were always available and doctors come in at a definite time), the regular buses, the future plans to have a doctor's office and house after the ongoing temple construction ( One Crore budget) gets over, and that the village will soon become a town.

The sparkle in his eyes, when he said this, showed how much he loved the place and how satisfied he is in the current promise that the future holds, for the village and its residents. They all were permanent residents, though the children of the households are currently settled in cities and some, even out of India.

The villagers had their own mini vegetable garden and every house had a well. For their shopping needs they took the bus to the nearest town. The bus plies between the town and the village, every two or three hours. So they are very happy to say that they have a means of transport to reach the town. They have a school that had teachers teaching all days and a hospital which as the villager put it, is the best, one could trust for treatments.

I stood there amazed..... It is said, Ignorance is Bliss.. I did not know the context, nor do I want to Google for it now, because I think I understood the context now....

We live in cities where every lane has a school, every cross road has a hospital and every second lane has a bus stop.We people know so much about what is happening in the world today and we know the ways and means to improve our knowledge, which makes it difficult for us to stay contented and happy.

This villager did not know or is ignorant about the scientific, economic, and social advances outside his own village. So he is not aware of the benefits or qualms that they bring in. Thus he is a happy man.. :-)

The urbanite knows all that he wants, knows the advantages and the 'not-so-good' aspects of the socio-economic-scientific advances, knows that he needs to grow and keep growing, but does not know all that he has. The villager lives a contented life as long as he is alive as he does not know that there is more to what he thinks he has.... it is a bliss that he is ignorant..

When I was still thinking, my watch showed 10:15A.M and the bus came in, just at the promised right time. Not even a minute's delay.. You should have seen the pride of happiness in the villager's eyes!!! that went on to say " That's about the punctuality in my village "... :)

I am not advocating rural life, but I surely would say, it is good to visit these places whenever chance permits, to see what life is like in a village and feel glad for our gifts and learn to be happy from a villager.

My Hand Bag

I didn't know that my handbag was my major support when I am all by myself, till I faced a bomb threat at work and I walked out without carrying my bag....

All the time, all books and magazines have quotes and proverbs that state:You would not know the worth of things till you lose them... True, I never realised what all my hand bag meant to me, till I had to part with it for more than two days....

It had my tickets, the cash, the desk keys, my cupboard keys, my address book among many other things that made my hand bag more of a sack instead of the mere brown, unassuming, leather finished resin hand bag.

I didn't have much to do that evening when I was wading my way, wait a minute.. when the auto I boarded to reach the bus station that evening.... was wading its way through the oceanic traffic. Am so used to hugging my hand bag wherever I go, for the last few years. It was the first time when i am travelling alone, I did not have my hand bag... The bag i borrowed served the purpose of holding my freshly printed e-ticket and the generously lent out money.. still it was never the same....I realised for the umpteenth time that i have nothing called "Presence of Mind" to carry my hand bag with me.

I missed my bag...

If my bag were to speak, I wonder if it will cry out loud : Don't over stuff me with things!!!!

I loaded it with keys some of which are just old key chains now, bills that recorded my expenses, my address book that is my appointed record keeper of phone numbers and addresses, books that will either be a gift to me or my gift to someone, note pads that had a lot of scribbles that meant so much only to me, post-it notes that remind me of my to-do list when my memory wants to take a vacation,my cash that keeps me company when I am in an auto mostly, my travel tickets that are my prized possessions every time I go home, my health care easy reach essentials that helps one and all around me, my cell phone that defines me among my folks, and to add to all these, there are always one or two of the "once-in-a-while" residents in my hand bag : Water bottle, eatables, some courier that I had to post, some greeting card that I have to hunt a postal stamp for since the last week, some gift that I had to give someone, a passport size photo or two that I had taken year before last and forgot to paste on some form or other, my phone bills that are never "light" and some papers that I stuff in my bag for later reading on subject, writing, fashion and new phone service provider's advertisement( in my attempt to reduce phone bills :)

I had wanted to be methodical about my hand bag load.. but it just doesn't work well between us.. me and my hand bag.. we are fine this way :) I travelled light the other day when I had left my bag behind, but was a little too bothered about my bag more than any thing else that evening.. may be because, no one else would offer to carry all my possessions just like my brown resin hand bag :)

Just do your best!!!!!!

Well, I heard this from my grandma almost always as a kid....

Next, from my parents and sister always....

From my thoughtful friends who say this when they see me all hypertensive at work....

From my managers who say this when they recruit me....

All quotation books have this....
All fiction books prove this....
All non-fiction books speak this....

A few years ago, I remember stopping by a road side board that said:

Even if your job is to sweep roads, do it in the best possible manner that no one else can excel you....- Sir Visweswarayya.

Close to the sign-board, there was a young man sweeping the dried leaves off the road. Noticed that he was doing a flawless job of sweeping... He probably does not even know that his kind of work ( literal sense here ) was being appreciated in the nearest sign-post. I just walked off amazed at the sincerity and sincerely and quietly wished him well and that he lands up in a nice job in life....Didn't have the mind back then to appreciate him out loud, which i should have, I realise now.

"Just do your best!!!" got registered in my mind I would say and is one point that I find myself drawn to.

And from that day on, I really try hard to do a good job of sweeping whenever I had chanced to sweep the floor in my house. :) :) It is quite a tough job on its own and needs its own experience :)

The essence is that every job,whether it requires literacy or no, experience or no, is considered elite or no, is highly paid or no, definitely requires the "Just do your best!!!" attitude... :)

On Sharing

It was a very early on a bright Sunday morning when we started out on a long drive. All of us at home enjoy this kind of long drives and we have fun talking about everything under the sun.


It was a little different this time as both me and my sister did not want to eat outside. We had packed lunch from home and had planned to have food at one of the fields beside a tube well.

It was well past lunch time that we finally managed to find a lush green field.After Appa spoke to the farmer,we all took our huge picnic bag and walked towards the tube well in single file... We have never walked in a field and wanted to make sure we don't disturb the work that was happening there. An old farmer remarked to Appa, " It is sometimes important for us to let our children know that rice does not grow on trees ".. It sounded an interesting comment and slightly degrading all the same, given that all of us had a flair for Botany.. "The comment was a casual passer-by comment and never intended on us" - I reassured myself.

We were very grateful to the farmers for letting us spend quite a lot of time on their fields. After a lot of playing, eating, and conscious effort to ward of the sleep that the gentle cool breeze induced in us, we finally decided to drive ahead.... We carried back an almost empty bag, except a few biscuit packets.

As we walked back, we saw a group of tired farmers and an old lady with a tea pot +a few stainless steel cups. I looked at my watch to see it was 4:00 in the evening and their tea time... Wondered how long will their work day extend to... As we crossed the clan, we smiled at them and they invited us for tea. I looked at the tea pot. It was just enough for the group, but they still offered. We politely declined saying we were too full from a late lunch we just had....

We waved them a "Bye" and walked further on. All of us stopped to look at the next person in the file, and we kind of knew that we all had the same thought in mind..

"Their hospitality is amazing and whats more amazing is the fact that they had very little to offer and still they did, with all their heart." We gave the group a few biscuit packets that we wished would "make their tea time" that day.

Back in the car, all of us sat dazed and still are impressed beyond words with the attitude they showed towards us, strangers...

Could not help contrast this with our urban behavior: We would not let any stranger in first... leave alone extend an invitation to join us for tea... They don't have much and are not bothered about sharing whatever little they have...

We have money and we would not be left without anything if the wealth gets lost or stolen... We are still are worried.. Sad, we have to do this because of the growing crime scenes in the world... is one reason we can give. So forget strangers.....Are we open to share as much or little with close folks???

I am what I am

I am what I am...

That's a saying I read on a girl's shirt when I walked out of a movie theatre feeling just that way :) This girl zipped off on her bike as the signal turned Green. :)

As the signal for the pedestrians turned 'Red', my train of thoughts from the movie was also interrupted by this T-shirt quote. While waiting to cross the road, I pondered over the saying :

I am what I am...

It says a lot of things.

Taking the words to be true to the very letter and the meaning of it.....:

The subject, in this case the T-shirt owner, is a very confident person. She does not care what you think about her. She knows she is right, pretty well, and that is all she cares about. She is all about the person you see right in front of you and she has nothing to hide away from or hide from you.

I liked this shirt partly because of the saying, and partly because of the winning look, the girl who wore it, had portrayed in her eyes. :)

It is said, Attires contribute to your elegance and confidence.. Just like this T-shirt. :) Whoever has designed this, knows the tact of words and the impact it can have on people.

Strangers or Saviors?

As dusk sets in, whether the birds fly back to their nests or no, it starts raining heavily in Bangalore... So you kind of need to step out of the office space to the balcony to see the weather outside before you leave work...

Yesterday, after I double-checked the weather and kind of was sure that it was just a drizzle outside, I stepped out.. Unusually there was too much of traffic deadlocks on the road..... At least ten autos refused to come to the place I wanted to reach. In all the time that I was waiting there, I saw more and more people walking, waiting for auto, waiting for cab, waiting for bus, but no one really could get anywhere....I wanted to know if there is any major problem lest I get caught in the maze and find it difficult to get home. I was still closer to office and could take a refuge in the office portals instead of struggling on the road.... I approached another girl who seemed to have given up on the crowd and the non availability of a vehicle to get to where ever she wanted to.. So asked her "What's happening?, Any idea.....?" From her report, I learnt that there was some function in a nearby church and that there is a complete traffic block. There would be no autos or buses plying to most places in Bangalore for at least a few hours from then.

Fantastic.. That was the right piece of information you need when you need to rush home, and the sky is deciding between drizzle, rain and heavy downpour. I had to get home to take the most needed rest as my brain's charge was running out. Needed to recharge my mind with a good night's sleep. While I was still deciding my next move, I involuntarily looked at my watch.. It said, 7:15.P.M, which meant I had been struggling for the last half an hour and the dusk had long turned into dark... :)

Further down the road, I saw a bus stop with lesser crowd.. So thought I'd move closer to it. There was another girl, much younger than I waiting for a bus. She came over and told me that there would not be buses from where we were standing. I didn't quite understand what she was doing there till I noticed that she was expecting a baby in a month or two and did not want to take a risk getting caught in the crowd. I got concerned about her getting back home and asked her where she wanted to go. Her place happened to be closer to mine and so we decided to take an auto rickshaw when we find one. We chose to walk to the nearest junction to board an auto.

Only when we started walking, I realised the foolishness.. It was rainy and dark. The roads were slippery and I was kind of worried about the girl walking beside me. I prayed that we get to spot an auto at the earliest, so I do not have to take the tension of this girl struggling in the walk way, as much as me.. her struggle being more than mine and my mind's tensed state more than hers.


In a minute's time, I remembered that I had bought cream biscuits that evening. Now, I was unsure if she can have them and if there existed a rule of some sort that pregnant women cannot have cream biscuits.... She was very hungry and she decided to break rules. She took one biscuit while I finished almost the rest of the pack..

We saw a restless auto on one of the traffic signals... It seemed to me like the times when we have all hated to obey the teacher, but still bound by some unseen rope, we all eventually have listened to the teacher... The auto driver looked like one of them. The passenger got tired of waiting at the signal and hopped out of the auto. We managed to get into the auto paying a little extra than it usually takes for us to reach...Still, the extra money didn't really matter as we were too glad to have got a vehicle to go home...

It was 9:15 when the auto dropped her off on the way to my house and as we waved each other bye, I began to wonder... "Is she a stranger or savior? "

Am still wondering .... Were we Strangers to each other or Saviors? If you know Bangalore and what it means to struggle on a dark, rainy evening without a vehicle, without connectivity on your mobile, without knowing the language , you would find yourself wondering too.... :) Strangers or Saviors......... :) :) or probably " A Strange Savior..... " :) God bless her... :)

Loud Silence

Loud Silence............

Most of the literary worshippers would have heard this word. We all feel it once in a while.

Was waiting for an auto, on the pavement just outside my office yesterday. It seemed that everyone in the city decided to set out for an outing at the same time. For a really far stretch, all I could see was vehicles and vehicles and vehicles....

At this point, when I looked at one of the motorists and then the next and then a car driver and then a lot of pedestrians who were waiting to cross the road, the word 'Loud silence' popped into my mind...

.................not without a reason.. They all seemed lost in thought....could be work, could be home, could be the traffic, could be their folks, could be money, could be just about anything... but definitely the silence in their eyes didn't show happiness. Amidst all the noises, you could see that there was a silence which seemed to be talking too loud.....

To put a positive note to it, I also thought " may be their parents have asked them to take care on the roads and be careful on the ride or drive "... :) still, I surely know that the silence was louder than the horn of the auto which had thankfully stopped right next to me.. I hopped in and looked at the same pavement where I stood.

May be an onlooker would feel the same 'Loud silence' in me too from the pavement.... I was not talking... I was quiet... I was staring at particularly nothing... just quiet as I can't talk to myself.. and my phone was not ringing and even if it does, there is no way I am going to be able to hear as the traffic horns were too loud...

As an after thought... It struck ........... that ..........

It could have been just the plain annoyance over the unmanageable traffic and the limited choice that they had, which forced the silence in people :) :) :)

Native language trick!!!

There is a specific stretch of road on the Bangalore - Pondicherry route which is yet to be called a 'road' in all senses.....You would never believe it is part of one of the Bangalore highways. So many speed bumps, so uneven, so dark are few points I can recall because, I cross this stretch usually just after mid-night and after this point, I lose my sleep usually...

With nothing better to do, most of the passengers would just close tired eyes and try to sleep, which is what I was doing during my last Friday night's journey too....this state is when you know what is happening around you but you are not completely awake and you hate to be disturbed.. at least , with me it is like this....

Suddenly my bus comes to a jolty stop and I woke up with a start, so did most others... Looking out of the window we could see a truck parked in a very unlikely angle from the road and was headed in a direction opposite to ours.. More heads peered out of the windows to clearly see that it was not an accident. The truck driver was blocking our way.

The truck was seemingly trying to park in a 'Truck Lay-by' area and did not notice our bus. When he did, he was trying to avoid a major accident... Our driver knew only Kannada and the Truck driver knew only Tamil. The cleaner of the truck took this opportunity to have fun in the middle of the night. His point is that our bus has to back its way from the route and give way to the truck which carried important goods. The driver's take was that his bus was loaded with people and people are more important than the materialistic stuff...

Like this the conversation went on and on and finally after about 20 minutes, a guy in the bus who was not aware of this story, walked out of the bus in a disturbed mood.... saying... "Ego clash in the middle of the night!!!!!"

While the cleaner of the truck and the driver of the bus were busy arguing whose vehicle was carrying more important load, this guy walks up to the driver and talks in Kannada and then walks over to the truck and speaks to the truck guy in Tamil and solves the issue in minutes....
:)

You should have seen the magic of language in the middle of no-where at that hour of the night..
:) In minutes the bus was back on the track heading to Pondicherry and the truck was backing off its way to the 'Truck layby' area.

Later when asked the guy told us.. I just told them both in their own languages " Take it easy boss, leave way please "... :) and it solved the problem in seconds...

Shivaji Nagaram

Second week in bangalore....It was Friday evening. I was walking my way to the bus stop as usual...

The bus stop was unusually crowded and I asked for the auto rickshaw driver there to drop me to where I was headed.He said a flat No and would not even stop for a second. Then came the next stream of autos and everytime I stopped one, I had to either hear a "No" or "Nahi" or "Illai" or "Ledhu" or "Hogathilla".....

Finally as it was getting very late, I started walking to the nearest bus station , Shivaji nagar terminus, where I was sure I would find a bus to reach home.

Five minutes of musing about where is the crowd beside me heading to, why is every Muslim more prayerful than me, what is the point in being dressed in white to attend a prayer meeting, and i realised that i was also in white salwar kameez that day.... coincidentally... and that I seemed to be walking at the tail end of a procession....

Now, since school, i have hated processions whatever be the cause of the procession. To me always, processions meant protest and i am not very much for it...

So, without any idea of the scenario there, I had accidentally gotten myself into a major procession. Thanks to whoever was responsible for the construction of roads in those days...I quickly had the presence of mind to step on to the pavement. I would have stood there watching the procession for about a few minutes when I realised that I should be heading home fast.

I quickened my pace when i slipped on to something that felt warm on my toes. I looked down to see ash all over and remains of something still red hot. I did not waste a second trying to figure out what it was , all i could conclude was that something is or was or would be seriously wrong....

Dropped the idea of bus and took an immediate left.. God knows where this left turn was heading toward... I started walking fast..( one of the very few times when you walk fast in bangalore i guess.. to me it was the first time i was walking fast in say fifteen days' time... :)

I saw autos that were properly lined up on both sides of the road and to me it seemed like I was a top star receiving 'Guard of Honor'. Never would you have seen autos so neatly parked with equal space between each of them. At the moment, this observation should have been of least priority in my mind, but then, sometimes your mind notices intricacies in the most serious moments... and mine did.

I walked on and the five-minute walk seemed to be taking very long before the road hit a bylane where a police constable was trying to regulate the traffic. I walked up to him and told in all languages I knew,that I wanted to reach a specific area in the city. He simply said, 'Walk over to the main road and take a bus'. What he did'nt know was I had taken an hour to reach this place from the same main road that he was talking about. End of day, except getting home safe, nothing else was on my mind, but surely I was not going to go over to the main road again.....

Finally, a lady officer stopped her auto and I hopped in to reach home without any problem.
:)

As I write this, news channels are flashing news on the probable riot this evening related to the Kauveri water tribunal....... I hope people don't burn things this time.... and care for lives and understand that water is a natural resource and not a point to be debated on...

Well, there is always the proverb.. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.. i want to hope for the best but i am not prepared to handle the worst... I wish Bengalooru tides through this verdict without any noise.

Dance class in Bengalooru

Bengalooru city buses....

It was a traffic signal...Not even a bus stop. My friend who was accompanying me to the bus stop suddenly yelled and in a minute I was pushed into a bus that had just come to a halt near us. She waved a 'Bye' and asked me to give her a call or message when I reached the place I was supposed to go. She is the same girl who thought I would get 'Lost' in Bangalore. :)

This city traffic had no value for any one's time, so I asked my friend to drop me off at a bus stop and promised to inform her when I reach wherever I had to reach.

Okay, the bus inched its way forward and I realized that the signal turned 'Green'. I was at the foot board and if my bus hits just another speed breaker ,I was sure to fall off the bus. Oddly, I was bothered if I would get a clear space to land on the road if I fall off the last step of the bus. So many vehicles on the road all jamming the way....

When I was lost in this train of thoughts, I was shaken back to reality as the bus driver started yelling something in Kannada. I was not affected at all because, I did not get any word of what he was saying.. Still from the look on his face, I realized that what he was saying might be serious. I should have given some expression that i myself cannot define now...

Looking at my expression and the driver's face someone offered to help me with the translation. I learnt that i was obstructing the driver's view of the Rear View Mirror. So moved ahead... but wait.. where was the space to move...? Being a software engineer by qualification and a technical writer by profession, I put forward my left foot without thinking about the chances of finding a foot place. ( That's how the IT industry works .. They just go ahead with a bold move.. consequences will be analyzed in meetings ...or surveys that happen after the problem is over..) When I didn't find one foot space to keep my left foot, I decided to put it back to where my right foot was... Little did I realise that by this time, the bus had stopped at the next station and the next set of people had got into the bus. So, I could not find the place to put my right foot... I tried settling my tired left foot somewhere but couldn't find place at all. For you to imagine better, I was kind of learning dance steps on the foot board. :)

That was just to let you know what it was like to be on a city bus in Bangalore in the peak hours. I thought Chennai was the toughest when discussing local buses, but Bangalore at peak hours is just about the same...

As to what happened to my dance class that day, the session was brought to an abrupt halt when the bus stopped at the next station and I was pushed to a safe corner (??!!!??)by a good, old, fat lady's elbow.. :) I was glad all the same, because, I did not have to further struggle with balancing myself on one foot.

Coromandel Express - Conversation with the old man from Bihar

I was seated at the window seat of Coromandel Express bound for Chennai. It was 6.45 A.M and i had just boarded the train from Vizag at 4.45 A.M. It is very difficult for me to get a sound sleep during train journeys. The same must have been the case for the old man who was sleeping on the lower berth in the same compartment. He was looking around to find everyone sleeping except me. I was enjoying the scenic beauty around me. Practically in my own world of thoughts outside the box of life.... the kind of thoughts and joy you find when u are watching a 'manpasand' scenery...
Now if u notice, i have used a Hindi word.. it is because of the Conversation that the old man started off with me...

Some of the topics that we covered were My Job, Importance of Hindi, Tirupathi and Lord Balaji, Career, Salary, My wedding, My expectations about my life partner, Agriculture, Difficulty about studies and learning something, Eye hospitals, Chennai, mangoes, Andhra Pradesh, How easy or difficult it is to learn a language, Why tamil is not easy to grasp, and finally closed with "Dahej" or Dowry.....

He had been an agriculturist, couldnt let his daughters study college, as college education for a girl results in more "Dahej" which he couldnt afford, and about which this person feels bad till date.....

After this talk with him, i recalled for the umpteenth time, how lucky i am in every way.... Not many times we do realise how gifted we are... The conversation with this person helped me realise this...... I resolved never to complain about anything.... For i think we are all gifted to have more than this Old man's family.

The best part of the entire conversation was this : " Do your duty putting in the best of your interest and do not wait for reward... It will come to you when it has to. What you think is right may not be actually right and you never know tomorrow. There is a reason behind everything".

I have heard all of these many times and have some of it registered on my head, but then it was amazing to to hear it from a stranger who is not educated. In a group of 10 edcuated strangers, rarely people catch up a conversation....... Could be due to various reasons that i dont want to bring up here, but then, conversation is a gift that the Bihari Old man had, I would say, that most of us would have to learn from.....