I am Back......My first blog from my motherland............rather..mother system........And as expected, I am back to my routene of Eating sleeping and lazing.been thinking of writing again....not that I lack topics, its that I lack the right time and mood.
SO I thought I would start again with one of those 'been on my mind from eons' thoughts.
And the topic kind of faded in to my fish memory and struck back again recently.....I get this flash thoughts ( my thought equivalents of flash floods) when I am driving alone.
One of my most satisfying activities is to observe people. Especially the hustle bustle in the morning.and let my thoughts run wild and get some wierd interpretations.
The early morning flow of people, the flow of ambitions, the flow of thoughts at work, aspirations in making.....the flow of life....jeevana vaahini.It makes me feel soo much at peace with myself, makes me feel I am part of a huge universe.
I always wonder if I am being too positive about the life around me....may be there are grim issues of Global Warming and Economic inequalities which jeopardize the existence of this very flow of life.......And this thought was even more relevent in the times of mass hysteria caused due to the recent bomb blasts everywhere.What kind of human can be so cruel to take away life of people who do not anything to do with his passion.Even if they do, what right does he have to take something which he can never give back....life
IS the world becoming cruel, is this the end of HUMANITY?
The first thought that comes to my mind when I think of 'Where is this world going'..is the 'Prophecy' by none other than Socraties (the Philosopher with my wrong spellling). He apparently told his companion that the world is going to end because the students no more respect thier teachers, the children do not respect their elders and so on so forth....that was way back in the BC's. The world did produce a lot of students who not only respected the teachers but revered them.The world did move on, so did the life.
World always had a dark side and a bright one.
For every greed of Ravana, there was a Rama.For every Barbaric Gladiator, there was a Kind Emporer......for every famine , there is a beautiful meadow in making....for every Asoka, there is a Budhha ......for every flood, there was a sunny day......Greed, poverty, disease, War, injustice, corruption,instability, contentment, compassion, Kindness, beauty, hope,honesty, Faith........always show thier faces, all at a time.They exist together.
because they are all born in the same place....the human brain
until the mankind exists, these thoughts,the passions, the compassions will rule the world........
for every extremist trying to stifle the society, there is an Amte breathing life in to it...........and it happened in the past, it ishappening now, and I am sure it wil happen in the future.
Its always a cycle, its always in motion.
I read recently that when the Creator created this world, he made the elements, the earth, the skies, the animals , plants, mountains, Oceans and Human beings.but he forgot to create death.
the animals reproduced and filled the entire earth........the very harmony created due to the creation was disrupted. every animal was fighting for existance and there was total Chaos.The earth was bursting with unbridled life.....then the creator realised his mistake.( User acceptence testing-UAT Bug)Then he created death...
because without death...there is no meaning to life
in the same way, in order to appreciate the beauty of life, there will be the dark sides of it....cruelty, injustice, greed etc.........like they say....in orde to appreciate light, we have to see darkness..........the definition of light is to talk about darkness and the definition of darkness is to talk about light.........and there is always light..........like the light we see every morning.......heralding a new day , a new beginning, a new chance........
I dont think I am advocating 'ignore ' things around you and juss move on and accept all the brutality as a 'part of life'.What I think is that instead of seeing ONLY the darker side, we HAVe to learn to look around for light...........for light is hope and to start a day with hope.
Hope that we will do our bit to be the tiny light against the darkness around........
Yeh junoon hai tou hai, yeh sukoon hai tou hai...Khoobsoorat hai jee lene deh..........Yeh Lamha Filhaal Jee lene de........
because this is .........Life in Process
Monday, October 6, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
And They Lived Happily Ever After.....
Tada Tadan.........
I completed the project and this is my first day of 'pipeline' stories. the time after you comlpete a project and you keep hearing from your delivery manager ' I have something for you in the pipeline'
Somebody gotta handle those valves of the pipelines better.........I just see only pipelines....where is the fliud in it?
Its just the first day and I am already getting emotional....I will get used to this in a week.......
---------
Another Tadan Tadan....
This is a new background music...I started this blog in december 2008....and I got the next project within 3 hours of my release from the earlier one...and There was no looking back....
worked all of feb, without any break, got only 3 weekends in whole of 5 months.....what more can I ask for...btw, this project is over too (dated 15 May2009 Circa) and tomorrow is my go live and I have a small break because the UAT is done ...monday on..I am in the new project and the cycle goes on....
Anyways........I did not have any new topics to write, but like I said before, this is straight from the 'Draft' stack.
This issue again, has been long forgotten........as a part of the growing ritual........its been dumped in to the deepest of memory blackholes.........I am glad it survived and got back in to the memorylanes......
This realisation stuck me when I consiously 'Noted' that I am watching this movie ' Enchanted' for the Nth time and I still want to watch it a million more times.Then I started finding a pattern...I am watching the ' Pride and Prejudice' BBC version of 6 CD's ( each last 90 minutes).....almost all the weekends when I get an off...and then I realised I started liking 'Oswald' and 'Winnie the Pooh'......and suddenly....like a flash of lightening....my memory lanes got lit up.....I could see the way to my lost world...............
Well............its about my long lost world...........I wouldnt say I lived in it, but I loved it..............The Fairytale world...........
I am really thankful for my friend ( aka Soumya..the mills and boons stuff) to help me revisit these wonderful memories.....I donno when it actually struck me, but now when I sit down and think, I have realised one thing for sure.,...I started liking these mushy romantics n fairy tales now...I never had a particular inclination after my childhood..but now....given a situation...I am more likely to see a mushy romantic movie....over a reality show......
( I suddenly recalled a new blog topic which stuck me a week ago...and I forgot all about it....now that I started writing...I remember whats it about....its about my Adoloscence.....the phase that I never had..bingo....'Draft mode')
so........the actual topic....
the first thought which comes to my mind when I hear about Fairytales is the TV serial I watched when I was a Kid. Some English Serial, every sunday afternoon, and yes, on our very own doordarshan.
Its a Pity I cant recall the name, but it was all about fairytales...
I can vaguely remember a story where one guy plants a seed and it grows high in to the heavens and in to the fairy land and how he finds his lady love and all that.
When I used to watch those kind of shows, I would transcend in to a new fairy tale world and all this 'Outside' world would'nt matter.
I would vicariously feel the sweetness and simplicity of the world.....no complexities...no plots...no bad...even if there is some bad...its juss 'bad'...its not the cruelty. like the basic color, the bad here is always basic human tendency. so I would not call this as bad...i would call it a tendency...Greed, Anger, Jealousy . 'bad' would be the worse forms of the same tendency...some thing like corruption, rage or hatred..
So this world is simple....and sweet and always ends up in a 'Happily Ever after ' sequence.
for a world of make belief, it gives a sence of simplicity, happinesss and faith...of beliving that everything DOES end up as happily ever after. of the belief that everything is simple, that everything has a reason, and everyone is a friend.
another of my favourite is 'Winnie the Poo'....I cant recall ANY episode which went beyond a normal day in a human....no 'Save the world from aliens' series....no fights.....no actions
its juss the normal life.....
Poo is hungry, so piglet gets him honey...
the Bunny plats carrots and the tiger( forgot the character's name) jumps around and ruins his field. ( The bunny does not shoot him for that audacity.....the bunny always has something so sweet....the tiger will never do that again)
I just wonder if the guys who script these stories , live a life like that........I mean...imagine you have to write a simple sentence in the above situation...its not rage, its not anger...it has to be handled and it has to be understood by the guy whos reading....above all, should sound real......
I thought of some thing which I can say, but I cant think of what to say in this situation....
Well..you can only get the thought, when ...well...your life is 'Simple'....do these guys have a simple life like this....well....I need to meet the guy who writes 'Calvin and Hobbes'
so that simplicity is what makes me love this world....Poo invites everyone for a party and is tensed about how to handle it..and to make everyone happy...end of the day, everyone is happy
and so is the reader/viewer
It might be a fake sence of comfort and happiness (sorry to use the word fake...the word I hate the most...but I am tryingto see the situation from the other angle).
End of the day, the cartoon strip does end....the fairytale story does end....and after the 'happily Ever after ' ending....the Channel might show you abused kids , some Nithari cases..or something so Ghostly....you cant believe you belong to a animal society...forget about a human world..
May be the world defintely isnt that simple
may be it is JUST a STORY.............May be it is......
but for that moment...I am in that world....for that scene.....I love the passion.....for that character...I love the innocence...for that moment, I am a part of that world....and I live in that world....and maybe I will think simple...may be I will just believe that life CAN be that simple...MAY BE I will percolate some of that simplicity in to teh real world..........
May be....I am juss living in a shell..........
but come to think of it.....what if we take things a l ittle lightly...atleast try doing it.....be a funny character for some time......and think of things that can be said ina simple way..in a worse situation.......if you live in that make belief world...may be one day...you might become Winne the pooh...........
But trust me...I reallyw ant to meet these guys who create these comic strips...not the political strips....thier life is far easier....
but the winnie the pooh and the Calvin and Hobbes guys( I cant recall such famous stuff in Indian litreture..somehow we aer more serious guys...Malgudi days is a closest contender...but its not that fairytale..Chandamama is second.....but somehow the way it is handled....the reader already in a state of mind that its a story.......we need something which does not sound like a story....some fairytale......May be my lack of intelligence and poor knowledge is uanble to see beyond these...I dont know if such stuff exists in Indian litreture)
and until then..think of a simple sentence for a situation where someone ruined you carrot filed...and you have to sound your sweetest best........
.........and they lived happily ever after.........
Note: I wrote this in 30 minutes...no revision..no continuity of thought...but I wnated to write.....sorry for the lack of continuity....may be the beauty of my thought is lost....but I wanted to put my thought on paper.............
Friday, September 19, 2008
Grey Outside - Black Inside
I know, I am getting hyper about this blog thing.....everyone did that, juss that they did it eons ago.....and I see all those avid bloggers lost steam and got bored of it and their blogs are neglected ruins of once glorious past. I am afraid I wd become that too..because once I am back home...I would get in to this'Complacent mode' and would settle to a routine with no such activities like writing n all.It will be 'Buying Vegetables' 'Visiting relatives' 'Paying Bills' 'Municipal Office''tenent'.Mundane life you see...
So I am trying to write as much as I can, before I get back to that mode.the things I always wanted to write about, and seek opinions.and see if I what I think is OK.
This thought has been in my mind from the time when I was 16 ( just two years ago)...thoseRebel years....I have mellowed down, changed and matured (note , its juss in TWO years ONLY)...
but this is still an issue with me. I have an argument over this with my dad even now, and I cant understand why he cant understand what I understand of this issue.( I make simple sentences, I told you in my earlier blogs)
Its about respecting people ......
.ok , let me make the problem statement more objective and clear....
'Its about respecting people who are older to you'
I know, I have been bought up on this cardinal rule of 'Respect your elders'. the etiquette and all.
not to interrupt, not to question back....
Now my problem here is....well.......every word of it
What do you mean by Respect.
What do you mean by Elder.
the problem here is, this has been the norm from the beginning of the Indian society, so its like a million year old philosophy. I am a immature newbee tryin to challenge something established. they would have come to a conclusion about this, after a lot of time.
but I think my issue with it is :
one, like I said , the very definition of it and
Two: TheRelevance in the present world( my world is IT world...I am the frog in the IT well)
Are we respecting the AGE or are we respecting the Experience...Even if we ARE respecting age, I think the forefathers 'Assumed' that with time, people willgain WISDOM.. along with age..How many of the 'Grey Haired' Gentlemen ( somehow gray haired women seem OK-personal prespective) behave and act like they have grey material INSIDE their grey exterior.
I have a million examples of oldies who are light years from the basic suvival wisdom, but the most recent example is what I am going to refer.
I know these two guys.One has got an experience of 17 years and the other has some 15 years.One is 42 year old andthe other is 45 year old.45 year old happens to be the subordinate ( such word does notexist in the Saaftware world) of the 42 year old guy.And they work together and have this enormous egos fit for a Roman Emporer.They argue about everything and what ever Mr X says, Y straight away says the opposite. they have opposite views on everything....even if they change sides, they will still end up having opposite sides....juss for the Heck of it..OK that cat and mouse game is normal everywhere.......everyone does it...
But my concern is.. they stupidly argue about silly things and vehemently try to prove each other silly and above all, they do it before me. I just do not understand why they dont realisethat I am almost half their age (18 ) and they are losing thier respect.Why cant they behave.
Worse Still they ask me for justice.....I am the Monkey between the fightingcats.
The worst part is, recently Mr 42 suddenly fell ill and his condition worsened.he asked Mr 45 to borrow some medicines and sprays from me.Mr 45 comes to my room talks about mundane things and goes back and I get in to the cab unaware that Mr 42 fell ill and is serious pain.
I see he is in severe pain, not his general constipated look.
I ask him whats wrong, and he is shocked.....He asks me 'Dint Mr 45 tell you?' .I was like 'What'
Mr 42 tells me the story and says he had sent Mr 45 to get the medicines I have in my First Aid Kit.I look at Mr 45 and he juss says 'I forgot it'.I mean its as stupid as saying 'I forgot eating' after you come out of a restaurent.
And some time later, when I find Mr 45 free and Mr 42 not in the near vicinity....I ask him'Why dint you tell me Mr 42 is in such pain".
The answer is as powerful as 'I have a dream'.Just that it showed the ugly face of human thought.
He said 'Mr 42 has been irritating me from the day 1 I am with him, he dos not respect me for my age, he makes fun of me, he had been acting very smart and bl abla bla....SO he should go throught the pain, because he disrespected ME'....and this is my way of taking revenge...accha huva saale ko....nahi tou mereko kitna sataya ( he must go thru the pianbecause he troubled me)".Dont ask me why anyone should respet this guy after you hear wordslike this from him.the issue here is... not respecting because of not getting respected FOR AGE.
and this is the way to express 'disrespect' ..
NOW....the last time I heard anything like this from a human being is in my Kindergharten.Its not that the Kids were cruel, but they had not enough IQ/EQ or enoughunderstanding of what exactly they mean by a certain word or sentence.The common being 'Aaj maths teacher ko heart attack aajana chahiye....Saala Physics teacherke haath pair tooth jaane chahiye, nahi tou mereko claas ke samne maara....and all.(Mathsteacher shd get a heart attack...physics teacher should lose his arms n limbs because hebeat me before the classroom).If all my prayers were answered , my maths teacher should geta fatal heart attack every morning, the first class of the day when he asked for homeworks.
But this man, has got a college going kid and a professionally qualified, SAAFWARE guy ( we are supposed to be the cool guys...all made up n fake attitudes.BINGO I just got anothertopic....How the saaftware guys say something and what they mean and how we evolved over theyears to fake brilliant etiquette, write and say polite things but mean obnoxious things)
I was so taken aback ...what kind of emotional quotient are we talking when a 45 year old cannot differentiate his personal and professional life......of adhering to the basic human duty to help someone in distress...could not isolate passion from compassion........
With such low emotional quotions he cannot differentiate and keep different emotional baggage in different compartments.......his ability to judge is lost.
the circuit fails to get a correct reaction for a particular stimuls,circuit fails because it does not understand which value to get from the same column....query errors because there are multiple records in the same row.OK for the lowly non saaftware guys, it means
Stimulus A----react and do Plan A, feeling involved 'A'
Stimulus B----react and do plan B, feeling B
This is how our congnitive skills are wired wehn we grow ( the problem is, some people refuse to grow up and hence the lack of reactions)-----I know....this is all mytheory....but isnt there a 'Stimulus action' theory in psychology.......of how a human childlearns .......whateverin
the above case, if you have very low EQ, you would store Plan A, Plan B and Plan N in the same location.so when you face stimulus A....your poorly connected grey cells cannot bring ONE reaction...because it cannot figureout which value to pick......so it just picks some junkvalue, and you act like nuts like mr 45 did....Data Corruption Issue.
WHY does someone have a low EQ like that.........I Am no psychology guy, but I did learn that it is because of the environmental factors...Parents, Teachers..Friends...Community....
Wait wait wait, before you start cursing the parents for inculcating 'Not so defined' reactions based on a set of 'Values'...we have to think in the other perspective........
Everyone would get a minimum dose form the environment.....we did hear those 'MORAL' stories all throught the childhood.We had a 'Moral' period at school, I juss remembered.I cant recall what we did in the class...it was time to lot of mischief without gettingcaught...that is, IF I GO TO SCHOOL.
the problem is with HONING the emotional quotient.of honing our reactions, of widening our reactions to a particular situation(Stimulus)...of arriving at a best reaction and sticking to it......of constantly revising it( read those moral stories all over again).How do we get a chance? we have to be blessed to be in situations which are trying, which are unique.does not mean you create one such situation for urself, you might never face one either....but juss listening to someone who was in a trying situation, his reaction to it, how he came out if and his value system.
Thats what our Fathers, mothers, Gadhiji's and Sisters are for....to get inspired....to learn from their stimulus reaction...and RESPECT them for that......
Remember my Issue On 'Elders'--if I am convincing enough... it obviously does not make sense to respect someone just based on age..
Issue two: Respect
Here is it, How do we show respect to someone....you know all the conventional ways, dont ya...I still find it very odd when these NorthIndian Guys bend soo 'Casually' and ACT like they are touching the elders feet ( no offence meant).but it jus looks so plastic, juss so cursory and fleeting..that almost all of us forgot why is it done.....( We south indians dont even do that cursory bend anymore..I know...but I do a complete bend,on special occations like birthday and festivals).DO we really 'Mean' anything by doing something like that.Do we really say 'Thanks for whatever you are to me' 'Thanks for all the sacrifices for me' first of all 'Thanks for getting me on to earth'. 'You are inspiring'.........I am not sure if I think it that way when I touch someone's feet......excluding my family, I dint touch the feet of anyone who have been inspiring....whatta pity.some of them are not on earth...but I keep touching the feet of lotta people who are not worth it.......I am being sooo double standard guy......one side Iam 'SHOWING' respect and I do not respect them.....
In my terms, my way of 'Showing' respect is when you get inspired by someone...when you findsomething good about them, a little change it bought in your life......I would show my respect to someone by 'Being' them. by thinking like him, by honing myreactions to react the same way he did............
May be we need different ways of 'Respecting' Gandhiji's and Mother Theresa's.OK..Garlands are beautiful and I love to do that, but may be we need to 'Show respect' by trying to be them.they would feel respected if Mr x wants to do the same things that they did .Dont you thinkyou would feel great if someone comes to you and says ' I did it because I saw you doingit'.
In other words, they buy a T shirt because they saw it on you and they bought it becausethey thougth u have a good taste..........
cmon, u wd be flattered, wdnt you?
Same logic...........may be wee need to learn newer ways of 'Showing respect'......and
we ALSO need to redefine ways of 'FEELING RESPECTED'. by stopping to think your kids respectyou because they touched your feet. By being responsible , so the kids learn to respect youfor that.....
for me, If I give a cup of coffe to my dad, its respecting him........
And my final issue in the whole thing....so do we have to only respect the elders?I already told you........the basis of respect is not having grey material OUTSIDE the head,its having grey material INSIDE the head.And I know a lot of people who have a lot of it, and are younger to me.I have a lot of people in this' younger than me' who are inspiring.Its a really wonderful to feel inspired by them but its little difficult to respect them for that.But I started honing this skill from my engineering, when I met a lot of such people....they showed me wonderful acts of compassion, courage, smartness in the times of challenge and stress.
All that I can say is that its insulting yourselves if we do not respect people just because they are younger.
And my FINAL Issue ( I knowI already told that before).How relevent is the 'definiton' of showing respect. of not 'questioning back' 'not inturrupting'
I have these guys who started working when I was born, some of them in 50's .and I work with them.They are almost my dad's age.They are learning things along with me, they have a lot of experience, but they have to learn new things.and when it comes to learning new things, we both are on the same platform.and both of us are not expereinced in this sense.So you respect him for his past professional experience and in some cases, for his grey cells and grit.
the very fact that he pushed himself in to a completely new field, working with such young crowd, taking orders and exchanging views.. its inspiring....Being able to 'Choose' such change, Accepting it and trying to match the wavelenghts of people half his age.......the effort is commendable.
But me, brought up on years of 'respect your elders' doses....find it difficult to deal with these guys.Its difficult for me to stop them and ask questions.Saying no is a lot more difficult.I cant help it, but I wil teach my kids to be prepared for such situations.
I finally end the Post......
So its not always 'Respect' and 'Elders' .....its 'Inspiration' and 'Grey cells'.
And no one can respect you more than you yourself
So I am trying to write as much as I can, before I get back to that mode.the things I always wanted to write about, and seek opinions.and see if I what I think is OK.
This thought has been in my mind from the time when I was 16 ( just two years ago)...thoseRebel years....I have mellowed down, changed and matured (note , its juss in TWO years ONLY)...
but this is still an issue with me. I have an argument over this with my dad even now, and I cant understand why he cant understand what I understand of this issue.( I make simple sentences, I told you in my earlier blogs)
Its about respecting people ......
.ok , let me make the problem statement more objective and clear....
'Its about respecting people who are older to you'
I know, I have been bought up on this cardinal rule of 'Respect your elders'. the etiquette and all.
not to interrupt, not to question back....
Now my problem here is....well.......every word of it
What do you mean by Respect.
What do you mean by Elder.
the problem here is, this has been the norm from the beginning of the Indian society, so its like a million year old philosophy. I am a immature newbee tryin to challenge something established. they would have come to a conclusion about this, after a lot of time.
but I think my issue with it is :
one, like I said , the very definition of it and
Two: TheRelevance in the present world( my world is IT world...I am the frog in the IT well)
Are we respecting the AGE or are we respecting the Experience...Even if we ARE respecting age, I think the forefathers 'Assumed' that with time, people willgain WISDOM.. along with age..How many of the 'Grey Haired' Gentlemen ( somehow gray haired women seem OK-personal prespective) behave and act like they have grey material INSIDE their grey exterior.
I have a million examples of oldies who are light years from the basic suvival wisdom, but the most recent example is what I am going to refer.
I know these two guys.One has got an experience of 17 years and the other has some 15 years.One is 42 year old andthe other is 45 year old.45 year old happens to be the subordinate ( such word does notexist in the Saaftware world) of the 42 year old guy.And they work together and have this enormous egos fit for a Roman Emporer.They argue about everything and what ever Mr X says, Y straight away says the opposite. they have opposite views on everything....even if they change sides, they will still end up having opposite sides....juss for the Heck of it..OK that cat and mouse game is normal everywhere.......everyone does it...
But my concern is.. they stupidly argue about silly things and vehemently try to prove each other silly and above all, they do it before me. I just do not understand why they dont realisethat I am almost half their age (18 ) and they are losing thier respect.Why cant they behave.
Worse Still they ask me for justice.....I am the Monkey between the fightingcats.
The worst part is, recently Mr 42 suddenly fell ill and his condition worsened.he asked Mr 45 to borrow some medicines and sprays from me.Mr 45 comes to my room talks about mundane things and goes back and I get in to the cab unaware that Mr 42 fell ill and is serious pain.
I see he is in severe pain, not his general constipated look.
I ask him whats wrong, and he is shocked.....He asks me 'Dint Mr 45 tell you?' .I was like 'What'
Mr 42 tells me the story and says he had sent Mr 45 to get the medicines I have in my First Aid Kit.I look at Mr 45 and he juss says 'I forgot it'.I mean its as stupid as saying 'I forgot eating' after you come out of a restaurent.
And some time later, when I find Mr 45 free and Mr 42 not in the near vicinity....I ask him'Why dint you tell me Mr 42 is in such pain".
The answer is as powerful as 'I have a dream'.Just that it showed the ugly face of human thought.
He said 'Mr 42 has been irritating me from the day 1 I am with him, he dos not respect me for my age, he makes fun of me, he had been acting very smart and bl abla bla....SO he should go throught the pain, because he disrespected ME'....and this is my way of taking revenge...accha huva saale ko....nahi tou mereko kitna sataya ( he must go thru the pianbecause he troubled me)".Dont ask me why anyone should respet this guy after you hear wordslike this from him.the issue here is... not respecting because of not getting respected FOR AGE.
and this is the way to express 'disrespect' ..
NOW....the last time I heard anything like this from a human being is in my Kindergharten.Its not that the Kids were cruel, but they had not enough IQ/EQ or enoughunderstanding of what exactly they mean by a certain word or sentence.The common being 'Aaj maths teacher ko heart attack aajana chahiye....Saala Physics teacherke haath pair tooth jaane chahiye, nahi tou mereko claas ke samne maara....and all.(Mathsteacher shd get a heart attack...physics teacher should lose his arms n limbs because hebeat me before the classroom).If all my prayers were answered , my maths teacher should geta fatal heart attack every morning, the first class of the day when he asked for homeworks.
But this man, has got a college going kid and a professionally qualified, SAAFWARE guy ( we are supposed to be the cool guys...all made up n fake attitudes.BINGO I just got anothertopic....How the saaftware guys say something and what they mean and how we evolved over theyears to fake brilliant etiquette, write and say polite things but mean obnoxious things)
I was so taken aback ...what kind of emotional quotient are we talking when a 45 year old cannot differentiate his personal and professional life......of adhering to the basic human duty to help someone in distress...could not isolate passion from compassion........
With such low emotional quotions he cannot differentiate and keep different emotional baggage in different compartments.......his ability to judge is lost.
the circuit fails to get a correct reaction for a particular stimuls,circuit fails because it does not understand which value to get from the same column....query errors because there are multiple records in the same row.OK for the lowly non saaftware guys, it means
Stimulus A----react and do Plan A, feeling involved 'A'
Stimulus B----react and do plan B, feeling B
This is how our congnitive skills are wired wehn we grow ( the problem is, some people refuse to grow up and hence the lack of reactions)-----I know....this is all mytheory....but isnt there a 'Stimulus action' theory in psychology.......of how a human childlearns .......whateverin
the above case, if you have very low EQ, you would store Plan A, Plan B and Plan N in the same location.so when you face stimulus A....your poorly connected grey cells cannot bring ONE reaction...because it cannot figureout which value to pick......so it just picks some junkvalue, and you act like nuts like mr 45 did....Data Corruption Issue.
WHY does someone have a low EQ like that.........I Am no psychology guy, but I did learn that it is because of the environmental factors...Parents, Teachers..Friends...Community....
Wait wait wait, before you start cursing the parents for inculcating 'Not so defined' reactions based on a set of 'Values'...we have to think in the other perspective........
Everyone would get a minimum dose form the environment.....we did hear those 'MORAL' stories all throught the childhood.We had a 'Moral' period at school, I juss remembered.I cant recall what we did in the class...it was time to lot of mischief without gettingcaught...that is, IF I GO TO SCHOOL.
the problem is with HONING the emotional quotient.of honing our reactions, of widening our reactions to a particular situation(Stimulus)...of arriving at a best reaction and sticking to it......of constantly revising it( read those moral stories all over again).How do we get a chance? we have to be blessed to be in situations which are trying, which are unique.does not mean you create one such situation for urself, you might never face one either....but juss listening to someone who was in a trying situation, his reaction to it, how he came out if and his value system.
Thats what our Fathers, mothers, Gadhiji's and Sisters are for....to get inspired....to learn from their stimulus reaction...and RESPECT them for that......
Remember my Issue On 'Elders'--if I am convincing enough... it obviously does not make sense to respect someone just based on age..
Issue two: Respect
Here is it, How do we show respect to someone....you know all the conventional ways, dont ya...I still find it very odd when these NorthIndian Guys bend soo 'Casually' and ACT like they are touching the elders feet ( no offence meant).but it jus looks so plastic, juss so cursory and fleeting..that almost all of us forgot why is it done.....( We south indians dont even do that cursory bend anymore..I know...but I do a complete bend,on special occations like birthday and festivals).DO we really 'Mean' anything by doing something like that.Do we really say 'Thanks for whatever you are to me' 'Thanks for all the sacrifices for me' first of all 'Thanks for getting me on to earth'. 'You are inspiring'.........I am not sure if I think it that way when I touch someone's feet......excluding my family, I dint touch the feet of anyone who have been inspiring....whatta pity.some of them are not on earth...but I keep touching the feet of lotta people who are not worth it.......I am being sooo double standard guy......one side Iam 'SHOWING' respect and I do not respect them.....
In my terms, my way of 'Showing' respect is when you get inspired by someone...when you findsomething good about them, a little change it bought in your life......I would show my respect to someone by 'Being' them. by thinking like him, by honing myreactions to react the same way he did............
May be we need different ways of 'Respecting' Gandhiji's and Mother Theresa's.OK..Garlands are beautiful and I love to do that, but may be we need to 'Show respect' by trying to be them.they would feel respected if Mr x wants to do the same things that they did .Dont you thinkyou would feel great if someone comes to you and says ' I did it because I saw you doingit'.
In other words, they buy a T shirt because they saw it on you and they bought it becausethey thougth u have a good taste..........
cmon, u wd be flattered, wdnt you?
Same logic...........may be wee need to learn newer ways of 'Showing respect'......and
we ALSO need to redefine ways of 'FEELING RESPECTED'. by stopping to think your kids respectyou because they touched your feet. By being responsible , so the kids learn to respect youfor that.....
for me, If I give a cup of coffe to my dad, its respecting him........
And my final issue in the whole thing....so do we have to only respect the elders?I already told you........the basis of respect is not having grey material OUTSIDE the head,its having grey material INSIDE the head.And I know a lot of people who have a lot of it, and are younger to me.I have a lot of people in this' younger than me' who are inspiring.Its a really wonderful to feel inspired by them but its little difficult to respect them for that.But I started honing this skill from my engineering, when I met a lot of such people....they showed me wonderful acts of compassion, courage, smartness in the times of challenge and stress.
All that I can say is that its insulting yourselves if we do not respect people just because they are younger.
And my FINAL Issue ( I knowI already told that before).How relevent is the 'definiton' of showing respect. of not 'questioning back' 'not inturrupting'
I have these guys who started working when I was born, some of them in 50's .and I work with them.They are almost my dad's age.They are learning things along with me, they have a lot of experience, but they have to learn new things.and when it comes to learning new things, we both are on the same platform.and both of us are not expereinced in this sense.So you respect him for his past professional experience and in some cases, for his grey cells and grit.
the very fact that he pushed himself in to a completely new field, working with such young crowd, taking orders and exchanging views.. its inspiring....Being able to 'Choose' such change, Accepting it and trying to match the wavelenghts of people half his age.......the effort is commendable.
But me, brought up on years of 'respect your elders' doses....find it difficult to deal with these guys.Its difficult for me to stop them and ask questions.Saying no is a lot more difficult.I cant help it, but I wil teach my kids to be prepared for such situations.
I finally end the Post......
So its not always 'Respect' and 'Elders' .....its 'Inspiration' and 'Grey cells'.
And no one can respect you more than you yourself
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
My New Found Love
This is one of those 'make up some numbers' post.
I am serious about this topic too, only that I dint think too much on this thought.
Its just one fleeting thought, for one fleeting read.
If you already read my first blog....( If you havent, I recommend reading it first, because I do not like questions in between the lecture.My strategy is, to make sure each blog has some reference from the old, so you WILL have to go back to the old blogs.)
Related Story:
When I used to prepare for my exams during my engineering, this is how a typical session would look like.....
The reading will start at chapter 11, lesson one and para 5 that is 11.1.5.....then it will discuss some topic and ask us to refer 9.3.5 .....Then I used to go back to 9.3.5.......half way thru the paragraph....it wd say....Refer to 5.3.13......and there I go...........its like playing snakes and ladders....I never ended up reading any chapter completelyy......
Moral: You have to read my other blogs too, how ever painful they are....)
soo....like u already know from my first blog, I am in this God Forbidden place and am tryin to find ways of spending surplus time.....if any ,during the weekends.good news is, my client is making us work during the weekends too, till late night, so I am happy I have less time to spend.
Even when I am at home, I am not a very Avid TV guy..I watch, no no, I see TV sometimes, but all the times, I end up browsing each of the channel for a micro second ( or how much ever time it takes for the eye to capture the image and the time my grey cells take to process the image) and move on to the next.After Iam done with the available channels, the process starts all over again.My dad thinks its some kind os psychosomatic disorder, but I think its basically wrong with the programs on TV.if they cannot hold the attention of a normal TV viewer, what kinda stuf are they making.
Even in those weak moments where you are too lazy to press the buttons on the remote to change the channel...........when you graciously sympathise and acknowledge the psychological pressure the rest of the family goes through, due to the 'frequent' change in the channels..........and decide to stick to one channel...........there u get
those annoying useless Ads...........
Also, I am not those 'English Serial' guys either.I never even knew there were some English 'Seasons' like Friends et al.and even if I did bump on some during those browsing sessions, I used to hate them for the un natural and unwanted laughs in the background.
some how I feel those background laughs are an insult to the Human intellect.Do they think the only animal which laughs, does not know how and when to laugh......... c mon, I am too intelligent for those 'induced' laughs.
Besides, I never understood what they spoke........so the remote chance of really laughing at a genuine joke is gone..
I did majority of my schooling in Government schools, we never spoke English .........and Its like we are from Telugu Medium School.
It used to be very difficult for me to make a single sentence in english, forget about speaking one.I had this huge complex and I never spoke in english until my class 10.and somewhere down the lane.............I could speak....HAHAHA whatta irony.
( How I improved my English and I finally got over the complex is one post.. and my dad's english proficiency and his SUnday afternoon 'Wren and Martin' English classes is another Post....Tada taadaan......)
So...where am I.........
I was giving a 'Brief' background of my TV skills, My hatred for the English serials.On the contrary, my partner in crime is brought up on huge doses of Mills and Boons and Friends.
(My hatred for reading is another blog....OMG....I am getting addicted)
She always insted that I should try to watch them atleast once.but my hatred was over powering, so I nver saw any of the 'Seasons'.She has the CD's from the Season one....
coming to THE TOPIC of the post.......MY NEW FOUND LOVE.......
so here I am, with my previous prejudices, the present predicaments and some spare time......
During the TV Viewing sesion, I happened to settle on one serial with all good looking women.
and I could understand the language....tada tadan.........its English....I have to tell you , I have a very high IQ levels.I also get some mexican channels here, so beautiful women alwyas does not mean u will understand what they talk.It can be mexican too....like who is interested in their talk....I know.....
SO i was watching this programme and I slowly was getting in to the groove.I vaguely remember seeing the gurl who was in majority of the scenes, or atleast her voice is at the background.it was Sarah Jessica Parker ( and they say Gollapalli Venkata Phanindra is long ). What ever she said made so much logic and sense.so I got more interested. and ofcourse there was a lotta skin show, so it was purrfect for a dinner watch.
and suddenly the Advs. and when it was back, It showed the name of the serial
Tada tadannnnnnnnnn..........Flassssshhhhhhhhh
Sex and the City.............I was watching one of those glorified and oft discussed....' did u see the latest season' ( I am obsessed with this word season, donno why) serials. I always had this complex when this 'City bred' folks talked about 'Friends' 'Mills and Boons' 'Dan Brown' 'Perry Mason' stuff. and here I was, doing something they talked about.
I suddenly felt proud that I could not only understand English, but am viewing the glorified serial. It was almost a filmy achievement.
And YOU KNOW WHAT!!....I Genuinely liked it.
Come to think of it, how many serials can keep the attention of a viewer like me, by talking about the same thing over and over.
OK , I dont know abou the the city part of it, but the serial is all about sex.
I mean, how many times , how many episodes can you pull off, talking about sex EVERYTIME.
Yes I agree it is very magnetic topic, but if a have to tell a story on a daily basis, talking about the mundane life.....its gotta be difficult.
Its not done alll day!!
I gotten in love with the serial because of the very fact that they talk about sex everytime, but never end up making it vulger or boring
Sarah Jessica parker( Donno what they call her at home) does narrate it well, but the thought proces, her train of thoughts.....or so very mundane, relevant( for an average American Woman) and entertaining.
Man!!.....forget about who's the target audience.....The Script writer must be God.....I just admire him.( I still dont know who it is).Because a novel converted to a daily soap is no mean task. and a novel converted to daily serial, which entertains............is OK. and a novel converted in to daily serial which entertains BIG time and becomes a rage.........is commendable and outrageously wonderful
and it entertains big time,catches your attention and makes sense without saturating with Sex or sounding obscene...........
Now thats what I call 'entertainement' , and hence my new found love......
HURRAY!!..........I learnt to end a post properly and without abrupt thoughts.
Congratulations to me.........clap clap clap
I am serious about this topic too, only that I dint think too much on this thought.
Its just one fleeting thought, for one fleeting read.
If you already read my first blog....( If you havent, I recommend reading it first, because I do not like questions in between the lecture.My strategy is, to make sure each blog has some reference from the old, so you WILL have to go back to the old blogs.)
Related Story:
When I used to prepare for my exams during my engineering, this is how a typical session would look like.....
The reading will start at chapter 11, lesson one and para 5 that is 11.1.5.....then it will discuss some topic and ask us to refer 9.3.5 .....Then I used to go back to 9.3.5.......half way thru the paragraph....it wd say....Refer to 5.3.13......and there I go...........its like playing snakes and ladders....I never ended up reading any chapter completelyy......
Moral: You have to read my other blogs too, how ever painful they are....)
soo....like u already know from my first blog, I am in this God Forbidden place and am tryin to find ways of spending surplus time.....if any ,during the weekends.good news is, my client is making us work during the weekends too, till late night, so I am happy I have less time to spend.
Even when I am at home, I am not a very Avid TV guy..I watch, no no, I see TV sometimes, but all the times, I end up browsing each of the channel for a micro second ( or how much ever time it takes for the eye to capture the image and the time my grey cells take to process the image) and move on to the next.After Iam done with the available channels, the process starts all over again.My dad thinks its some kind os psychosomatic disorder, but I think its basically wrong with the programs on TV.if they cannot hold the attention of a normal TV viewer, what kinda stuf are they making.
Even in those weak moments where you are too lazy to press the buttons on the remote to change the channel...........when you graciously sympathise and acknowledge the psychological pressure the rest of the family goes through, due to the 'frequent' change in the channels..........and decide to stick to one channel...........there u get
those annoying useless Ads...........
Also, I am not those 'English Serial' guys either.I never even knew there were some English 'Seasons' like Friends et al.and even if I did bump on some during those browsing sessions, I used to hate them for the un natural and unwanted laughs in the background.
some how I feel those background laughs are an insult to the Human intellect.Do they think the only animal which laughs, does not know how and when to laugh......... c mon, I am too intelligent for those 'induced' laughs.
Besides, I never understood what they spoke........so the remote chance of really laughing at a genuine joke is gone..
I did majority of my schooling in Government schools, we never spoke English .........and Its like we are from Telugu Medium School.
It used to be very difficult for me to make a single sentence in english, forget about speaking one.I had this huge complex and I never spoke in english until my class 10.and somewhere down the lane.............I could speak....HAHAHA whatta irony.
( How I improved my English and I finally got over the complex is one post.. and my dad's english proficiency and his SUnday afternoon 'Wren and Martin' English classes is another Post....Tada taadaan......)
So...where am I.........
I was giving a 'Brief' background of my TV skills, My hatred for the English serials.On the contrary, my partner in crime is brought up on huge doses of Mills and Boons and Friends.
(My hatred for reading is another blog....OMG....I am getting addicted)
She always insted that I should try to watch them atleast once.but my hatred was over powering, so I nver saw any of the 'Seasons'.She has the CD's from the Season one....
coming to THE TOPIC of the post.......MY NEW FOUND LOVE.......
so here I am, with my previous prejudices, the present predicaments and some spare time......
During the TV Viewing sesion, I happened to settle on one serial with all good looking women.
and I could understand the language....tada tadan.........its English....I have to tell you , I have a very high IQ levels.I also get some mexican channels here, so beautiful women alwyas does not mean u will understand what they talk.It can be mexican too....like who is interested in their talk....I know.....
SO i was watching this programme and I slowly was getting in to the groove.I vaguely remember seeing the gurl who was in majority of the scenes, or atleast her voice is at the background.it was Sarah Jessica Parker ( and they say Gollapalli Venkata Phanindra is long ). What ever she said made so much logic and sense.so I got more interested. and ofcourse there was a lotta skin show, so it was purrfect for a dinner watch.
and suddenly the Advs. and when it was back, It showed the name of the serial
Tada tadannnnnnnnnn..........Flassssshhhhhhhhh
Sex and the City.............I was watching one of those glorified and oft discussed....' did u see the latest season' ( I am obsessed with this word season, donno why) serials. I always had this complex when this 'City bred' folks talked about 'Friends' 'Mills and Boons' 'Dan Brown' 'Perry Mason' stuff. and here I was, doing something they talked about.
I suddenly felt proud that I could not only understand English, but am viewing the glorified serial. It was almost a filmy achievement.
And YOU KNOW WHAT!!....I Genuinely liked it.
Come to think of it, how many serials can keep the attention of a viewer like me, by talking about the same thing over and over.
OK , I dont know abou the the city part of it, but the serial is all about sex.
I mean, how many times , how many episodes can you pull off, talking about sex EVERYTIME.
Yes I agree it is very magnetic topic, but if a have to tell a story on a daily basis, talking about the mundane life.....its gotta be difficult.
Its not done alll day!!
I gotten in love with the serial because of the very fact that they talk about sex everytime, but never end up making it vulger or boring
Sarah Jessica parker( Donno what they call her at home) does narrate it well, but the thought proces, her train of thoughts.....or so very mundane, relevant( for an average American Woman) and entertaining.
Man!!.....forget about who's the target audience.....The Script writer must be God.....I just admire him.( I still dont know who it is).Because a novel converted to a daily soap is no mean task. and a novel converted to daily serial, which entertains............is OK. and a novel converted in to daily serial which entertains BIG time and becomes a rage.........is commendable and outrageously wonderful
and it entertains big time,catches your attention and makes sense without saturating with Sex or sounding obscene...........
Now thats what I call 'entertainement' , and hence my new found love......
HURRAY!!..........I learnt to end a post properly and without abrupt thoughts.
Congratulations to me.........clap clap clap
Oka Kala ...Karigi Poyindi
For the people who can read telugu.....
very old one that I wrote a long time back, but good for a quick new post....
ఒక పూబాల చిరునవ్వుని, శిశిరం చిదిమేసింది
ఒక వెలుగు రేఖ ని అంధకారం బంధించింది
ఒక ఊహని నిజం నేలకీడ్చింది
ఒక ముత్యపు చిప్పని సముద్రం తోసేసింది
ఒక తుషార బిందువు తూరుపు తుఫానుకి బలి అయ్యింది
గుండె గూడులో ఊపిరి పోస్కుంటున్న ఒక మాట, పెదవి దాట కుండా శ్వాస విడిచింది
మాటల కి అందని ఆనందాన్ని, నిశ్శబ్దం మింగేసింది
ఒక కవి కావ్యం, కలం లోనే కాలిపోయింది
ఒక శిల్పి జీవం, రాయి లోనే ఖైదు అయ్యింది
ఏల్లలు లేని ఆనందానికి,జీవితం గిరి గీసింది
ఒక కల ....కరిగి పోయింది
very old one that I wrote a long time back, but good for a quick new post....
ఒక పూబాల చిరునవ్వుని, శిశిరం చిదిమేసింది
ఒక వెలుగు రేఖ ని అంధకారం బంధించింది
ఒక ఊహని నిజం నేలకీడ్చింది
ఒక ముత్యపు చిప్పని సముద్రం తోసేసింది
ఒక తుషార బిందువు తూరుపు తుఫానుకి బలి అయ్యింది
గుండె గూడులో ఊపిరి పోస్కుంటున్న ఒక మాట, పెదవి దాట కుండా శ్వాస విడిచింది
మాటల కి అందని ఆనందాన్ని, నిశ్శబ్దం మింగేసింది
ఒక కవి కావ్యం, కలం లోనే కాలిపోయింది
ఒక శిల్పి జీవం, రాయి లోనే ఖైదు అయ్యింది
ఏల్లలు లేని ఆనందానికి,జీవితం గిరి గీసింది
ఒక కల ....కరిగి పోయింది
Sunday, September 7, 2008
The Inspiring Old Man in Air India Fight
I am back again!!
I know, the 'Bang' is missing....but I arrived...
This was to be my second post after my very first official blog 'Ganapati Pooja' , not that it is the most momentous post I have always wanted to write.
This was second in the chronological order.
Like I already discussed in my earlier blogs ( you remember my strategy..dont you?) I was looking for some logic for arriving at the topics to be written in the blog.
is it the most memorable memories of my life
my defining moments...
or the things that I am most passionate about.....
most unromantic logic was to go about chronologically, the definition 'Online Diary'
and would trace back ma life....but I heard a feeble voice from with in, cursing my lack of creativity...so I decided I wd first write the headings of the posts that I want to publish....save them in the draft mode....and ACTUALLY write about it when I felt like it....
So I have some 10 topics already in draft mode........
About this post, it is about one of the most touching and thought provoking event that occured in the recent past........
I was in this Air India Flight, travelling from Delhi to this place.
Now, I have to tell you about my Air India Experience.My comparison is with my earlier travel with Cathey Pacific.
I get in to this Air India flight, filled with Indians, esp Sardars. my earlier Travel had very few Indians in the flight and I was trying to feel home with those few souls.but here, it WAS home.
so after the seat belt sign goes off, everyone juss gets up.not that they have some thing urgent...but because they switched the seat belt light off.
and this lady gets up, and limps her way out in the Aisle.
I just thought it must be one of those 'Tamil Paatti ' visiting her kids.And was sympathising with the enormous effort she is making to just visit her kids/grand kids. Majority of these flights from India will have these old parents visiting their kids, and I am always awed by the patience and amount of stress they take.I feel very tired and stressed with that no movement, little food, juss sleep sessions.and if you are a vegetarian with no drinking ' skills' all that u can do is to sleep.
and they way they glide thru it, makes me feel ashamed of myself.
so the paatti ( Tamil for Grand mother...if some foreigner reads this) gets up, goes in to one of those pantries. 'Must be some special request' I thought.
and BANG....
she comes out with a tray!!!
SHE IS THE AIR HOSTESS!!!!!!
It juss took the entire travel for me to digest the fact that she IS a air hostess.
All my life I had this ''ILLUSION' that all the air hostess are sexy young ladies. c mon that Adi Godrej's wife is a air hostess.....and King fisher...it was hard to learn the reality...
and there comes, the whole fleet of 'Crew' emerged out of the curtains.I had a tough time differentiating which one is the curtain, and which one is a piece of cloth on the 'Crew'.
the 'Guy' crew was no less. They were wearing soiled, unpressed, ill fitting clothes.bald old n all.
OK, everyone would find this way of description obnoxious, I am feeling it too.
but I am writing this because of the way they treated people on flight
Example one : they had to announce something like 'Please wait' .after the English announcement is done, he was tryin to say the same thing in hindi. and without covering the mike he clarifies 'Arre, wiating ko hindi mein kya bolthe re'( Whats hindi for 'Waiting')....the tapori slang.....to the whole crowd.
now , what kind of professionalism is it when a guy who's been working in the same job for years together does not know hindi for 'wait'. He would use the word day in and day out.OK, count his frayed nerves, he has a hand to cover the mike....
When the rest of the world is going 'Katrina Kaif' with Polished language skills, the state airlines is this situation
Example two:
The old man besides me is done with one cup of coffee and after some time he decided to go for another.
he politely calls the 'Attendant' and asks for a cup of coffee, while returning the used cup.
Now this gurl (If I may say so) suddenly gets aggressive, and shouts' why did you put the tissue in the cup'?
She is bothered that she has to take out a new PLASTIC, DISPOSABLE cup for the second round of coffee...It was being so rude to a customer....inhuman to a old man....absolute unprofessional attitude
so I was amused with the aunties and uncles in the flight.but MAN, I should accept one thing....FOOD....it was continuous supply of good food, Indian to the core...filling and good
not much option in the liquor division though, but they do serve....only if you can dare to pick that glass from a 'Hostess' who looks like ur granny...it feels so awkward and all u can see is ur granny saying 'Ayyo ayyo'....
after the Frankfurt stop over, my co passenger changed
and I donno whats wrong with my travel stars........It is ALWAYS that I have a KID , who is never beyond 4 years , as my co passenger.Middle aged aunties glorifying their engg kids( why cant they carry them along?) Young married aunties with their 4 and below kids...IT never changed.....
This time it was oldies...the one on this side is a Catholic father working in California.Mallu from Kerela.From him , I understood the difference between a Pastor and a Father.then this new co passenger.
This guy was old again, dint seem like very easy guy.Very reserved and I thought his wave length did not match with mine.Somewhere during those silent ,monotonous hours, he started a conversation.
As usual, where am I going, what do I do , what did I study....
IT was my turn to ask questions.....
I said where in US?..........
His answer 'I am on a 21 day vacation, US tour'......now.....that was not a regular answer I expected.Like I said, I expected this guy to be visiting his kid in US.
Next Question : do u have anyone in the US who would receive you at the Airport.
answer NO
and what does he do for a living....He has a Gas agency.....the cooking gas, HP agency in a town near Guntur. Narsapuram, a very small town and not famous for anything.Juss one in million.
And the grace and etiquette with which he was speaking, was wonderful.HE sounded like a typical business tycoon on his business trip.but the way he dressed and his humble ways...never quite matched with a business tycoon.
and because I found it interesting, I keep shooting questions...
He is on a 21 day vacation at us, visiting every place across US.He is a 70 year old guy
3 kids, all gurls...all married.....all welll settled......
his wife has arthritis , so cant travel ...so he is alone.......
then he talks about his passion...Travelling...and showed his passport
If I were in a train, I wd have gone out near the door and tried containing the surprise....
HE had a Epitome Passport, with VISA s from God knows what countries...
And not like me and the scores of others, who travel on the work....thats all leisure roaming.....if there is some word called Global warming, this should be 'Global roaming'.
He started telling about the major attractions in each country, the people, the rules the norms, his favourite places in the world ( quite predictable, New Zealand and Switzerland) et al.
IT made a wonderful time pass, the pace at which he told..........like some old movie star, narrating his story....slowly sipping his wine( which he was doing)....
and suddenly it veered from his travel life to his personal life......He has this Gas agency which he started some 35 years ago.He did his graduation and wasn't interested in a job.using his connections, he got this dealership...
His father was a very rich guy and his brothers took up jobs unlike him.
He told me how they struggled to get a foothold in to almost non existent market.how he went to each and every door in the afternoons, when the lady of the house would be free to talk....how he explained each and every woman about natural gas
Apparently he used to arrange a free demo of how to cook on a LPG stove and how easy it is to cook without smoke.
and how he felt when none turned up to these demos.
of painstakingly clarifying that the gas cylinder will not burst, its made of very strong steel
Every time the users found a new risk involved...the biggest being death...so no one wanted to try the new way of cooking....
so it went on....his company went in to losses..year after year...
When he said how long that went....it almost sounded unreal.........
the company ran on losses for 14 years, Fourteen God damn years
and every year he lost, his father would give him money....his share in the property
so he was eroding his own wealth....and he had 3 girls..
imagine, in that age, 3 girls...he got them to good schools though.........
so the hardships apparently went on for 14 years....and he never abandoned his afternoon demos.slowly people started accepting his ideas..
and he could sell some connections...and it went on.......and the numbers slowly started increasing.......
and he never stopped having that personal touch with everyone of his customer........
Turn to 2008, he has more than a lakh customers and he makes two lakhs every month, post tax.......
HE employs some 20 odd people and all of them are insured and given salary as per labour laws.
you could have heard stories like this, but I never saw a person who survived it.
and above all, he apparently had a son too....he was born with congenital heart disease.....he needed specialized care and surgery, and this guy never had money....
He juss haplessly watched his only son die a silent death..............could not afford his surgery......no one to help....
Fourteen years, fourteen years of challenge, 14 years of struggle, 14 years of faith, of loss.....
It almost seemed impossible....how many can survive such hardships..........
he not only survived it, but triumphed over every hurdle he faced...
at times when one month of hectic schedule drives us to the edges of depression, 6 months of global financial crisis, jeopardizes our jobs and the related tension seems insurmountable, when smallest of issues become our 'to hell with it' frustrations........where are we
how are we taking life....when we are unable to see life beyond an year.................and live life on a edge as if its gonna end tomorrow........
Stressed to the core for the smallest of things , thinking about what would happen to the 'Future'.......
with such 'trained' emotional quotients and 'studied' perspectives........why cant we survive a night of darkness.......
which school of thought taught him to fight the situation, not losing hope, of having faith in himself. How did he get over the loss .......he sure must have and a perspective...a vision...
Despite all these, what made him pursue his passion of travel.its accepting life as it is...of looking beyond the moment........of accepting the past and inviting future...........its living life
What I could see from his story was to look beyond today........and accepting things.Of looking at things on a broader perspective..Life is not that short.......it might end anytime.........but its gonna be long until then.......
for what ever life throws at you, finding ways of living every moment of it is life..of making the best of now and think there is tomorrow is wonderful.......
Yes there is tomorrow
after every dark night, there is a sunny morning
after every long winter..there is wonderful spring time
After every fury of a volcano, there is fertile earth for recreation
and the cycle goes on, like it did from eons.......
I learned from him to look beyond the shorter spans of time, of having faith, of facing hardships with modesty, of accepting life...of having a purpose, of having a vision and fighting for it , of living a life and making the most of it......
I wish I never forget this episode ( looking forward to a psychology masters after I am 75)
If anyone needs this lesson, more than anybody else....it ME
I know, the 'Bang' is missing....but I arrived...
This was to be my second post after my very first official blog 'Ganapati Pooja' , not that it is the most momentous post I have always wanted to write.
This was second in the chronological order.
Like I already discussed in my earlier blogs ( you remember my strategy..dont you?) I was looking for some logic for arriving at the topics to be written in the blog.
is it the most memorable memories of my life
my defining moments...
or the things that I am most passionate about.....
most unromantic logic was to go about chronologically, the definition 'Online Diary'
and would trace back ma life....but I heard a feeble voice from with in, cursing my lack of creativity...so I decided I wd first write the headings of the posts that I want to publish....save them in the draft mode....and ACTUALLY write about it when I felt like it....
So I have some 10 topics already in draft mode........
About this post, it is about one of the most touching and thought provoking event that occured in the recent past........
I was in this Air India Flight, travelling from Delhi to this place.
Now, I have to tell you about my Air India Experience.My comparison is with my earlier travel with Cathey Pacific.
I get in to this Air India flight, filled with Indians, esp Sardars. my earlier Travel had very few Indians in the flight and I was trying to feel home with those few souls.but here, it WAS home.
so after the seat belt sign goes off, everyone juss gets up.not that they have some thing urgent...but because they switched the seat belt light off.
and this lady gets up, and limps her way out in the Aisle.
I just thought it must be one of those 'Tamil Paatti ' visiting her kids.And was sympathising with the enormous effort she is making to just visit her kids/grand kids. Majority of these flights from India will have these old parents visiting their kids, and I am always awed by the patience and amount of stress they take.I feel very tired and stressed with that no movement, little food, juss sleep sessions.and if you are a vegetarian with no drinking ' skills' all that u can do is to sleep.
and they way they glide thru it, makes me feel ashamed of myself.
so the paatti ( Tamil for Grand mother...if some foreigner reads this) gets up, goes in to one of those pantries. 'Must be some special request' I thought.
and BANG....
she comes out with a tray!!!
SHE IS THE AIR HOSTESS!!!!!!
It juss took the entire travel for me to digest the fact that she IS a air hostess.
All my life I had this ''ILLUSION' that all the air hostess are sexy young ladies. c mon that Adi Godrej's wife is a air hostess.....and King fisher...it was hard to learn the reality...
and there comes, the whole fleet of 'Crew' emerged out of the curtains.I had a tough time differentiating which one is the curtain, and which one is a piece of cloth on the 'Crew'.
the 'Guy' crew was no less. They were wearing soiled, unpressed, ill fitting clothes.bald old n all.
OK, everyone would find this way of description obnoxious, I am feeling it too.
but I am writing this because of the way they treated people on flight
Example one : they had to announce something like 'Please wait' .after the English announcement is done, he was tryin to say the same thing in hindi. and without covering the mike he clarifies 'Arre, wiating ko hindi mein kya bolthe re'( Whats hindi for 'Waiting')....the tapori slang.....to the whole crowd.
now , what kind of professionalism is it when a guy who's been working in the same job for years together does not know hindi for 'wait'. He would use the word day in and day out.OK, count his frayed nerves, he has a hand to cover the mike....
When the rest of the world is going 'Katrina Kaif' with Polished language skills, the state airlines is this situation
Example two:
The old man besides me is done with one cup of coffee and after some time he decided to go for another.
he politely calls the 'Attendant' and asks for a cup of coffee, while returning the used cup.
Now this gurl (If I may say so) suddenly gets aggressive, and shouts' why did you put the tissue in the cup'?
She is bothered that she has to take out a new PLASTIC, DISPOSABLE cup for the second round of coffee...It was being so rude to a customer....inhuman to a old man....absolute unprofessional attitude
so I was amused with the aunties and uncles in the flight.but MAN, I should accept one thing....FOOD....it was continuous supply of good food, Indian to the core...filling and good
not much option in the liquor division though, but they do serve....only if you can dare to pick that glass from a 'Hostess' who looks like ur granny...it feels so awkward and all u can see is ur granny saying 'Ayyo ayyo'....
after the Frankfurt stop over, my co passenger changed
and I donno whats wrong with my travel stars........It is ALWAYS that I have a KID , who is never beyond 4 years , as my co passenger.Middle aged aunties glorifying their engg kids( why cant they carry them along?) Young married aunties with their 4 and below kids...IT never changed.....
This time it was oldies...the one on this side is a Catholic father working in California.Mallu from Kerela.From him , I understood the difference between a Pastor and a Father.then this new co passenger.
This guy was old again, dint seem like very easy guy.Very reserved and I thought his wave length did not match with mine.Somewhere during those silent ,monotonous hours, he started a conversation.
As usual, where am I going, what do I do , what did I study....
IT was my turn to ask questions.....
I said where in US?..........
His answer 'I am on a 21 day vacation, US tour'......now.....that was not a regular answer I expected.Like I said, I expected this guy to be visiting his kid in US.
Next Question : do u have anyone in the US who would receive you at the Airport.
answer NO
and what does he do for a living....He has a Gas agency.....the cooking gas, HP agency in a town near Guntur. Narsapuram, a very small town and not famous for anything.Juss one in million.
And the grace and etiquette with which he was speaking, was wonderful.HE sounded like a typical business tycoon on his business trip.but the way he dressed and his humble ways...never quite matched with a business tycoon.
and because I found it interesting, I keep shooting questions...
He is on a 21 day vacation at us, visiting every place across US.He is a 70 year old guy
3 kids, all gurls...all married.....all welll settled......
his wife has arthritis , so cant travel ...so he is alone.......
then he talks about his passion...Travelling...and showed his passport
If I were in a train, I wd have gone out near the door and tried containing the surprise....
HE had a Epitome Passport, with VISA s from God knows what countries...
And not like me and the scores of others, who travel on the work....thats all leisure roaming.....if there is some word called Global warming, this should be 'Global roaming'.
He started telling about the major attractions in each country, the people, the rules the norms, his favourite places in the world ( quite predictable, New Zealand and Switzerland) et al.
IT made a wonderful time pass, the pace at which he told..........like some old movie star, narrating his story....slowly sipping his wine( which he was doing)....
and suddenly it veered from his travel life to his personal life......He has this Gas agency which he started some 35 years ago.He did his graduation and wasn't interested in a job.using his connections, he got this dealership...
His father was a very rich guy and his brothers took up jobs unlike him.
He told me how they struggled to get a foothold in to almost non existent market.how he went to each and every door in the afternoons, when the lady of the house would be free to talk....how he explained each and every woman about natural gas
Apparently he used to arrange a free demo of how to cook on a LPG stove and how easy it is to cook without smoke.
and how he felt when none turned up to these demos.
of painstakingly clarifying that the gas cylinder will not burst, its made of very strong steel
Every time the users found a new risk involved...the biggest being death...so no one wanted to try the new way of cooking....
so it went on....his company went in to losses..year after year...
When he said how long that went....it almost sounded unreal.........
the company ran on losses for 14 years, Fourteen God damn years
and every year he lost, his father would give him money....his share in the property
so he was eroding his own wealth....and he had 3 girls..
imagine, in that age, 3 girls...he got them to good schools though.........
so the hardships apparently went on for 14 years....and he never abandoned his afternoon demos.slowly people started accepting his ideas..
and he could sell some connections...and it went on.......and the numbers slowly started increasing.......
and he never stopped having that personal touch with everyone of his customer........
Turn to 2008, he has more than a lakh customers and he makes two lakhs every month, post tax.......
HE employs some 20 odd people and all of them are insured and given salary as per labour laws.
you could have heard stories like this, but I never saw a person who survived it.
and above all, he apparently had a son too....he was born with congenital heart disease.....he needed specialized care and surgery, and this guy never had money....
He juss haplessly watched his only son die a silent death..............could not afford his surgery......no one to help....
Fourteen years, fourteen years of challenge, 14 years of struggle, 14 years of faith, of loss.....
It almost seemed impossible....how many can survive such hardships..........
he not only survived it, but triumphed over every hurdle he faced...
at times when one month of hectic schedule drives us to the edges of depression, 6 months of global financial crisis, jeopardizes our jobs and the related tension seems insurmountable, when smallest of issues become our 'to hell with it' frustrations........where are we
how are we taking life....when we are unable to see life beyond an year.................and live life on a edge as if its gonna end tomorrow........
Stressed to the core for the smallest of things , thinking about what would happen to the 'Future'.......
with such 'trained' emotional quotients and 'studied' perspectives........why cant we survive a night of darkness.......
which school of thought taught him to fight the situation, not losing hope, of having faith in himself. How did he get over the loss .......he sure must have and a perspective...a vision...
Despite all these, what made him pursue his passion of travel.its accepting life as it is...of looking beyond the moment........of accepting the past and inviting future...........its living life
What I could see from his story was to look beyond today........and accepting things.Of looking at things on a broader perspective..Life is not that short.......it might end anytime.........but its gonna be long until then.......
for what ever life throws at you, finding ways of living every moment of it is life..of making the best of now and think there is tomorrow is wonderful.......
Yes there is tomorrow
after every dark night, there is a sunny morning
after every long winter..there is wonderful spring time
After every fury of a volcano, there is fertile earth for recreation
and the cycle goes on, like it did from eons.......
I learned from him to look beyond the shorter spans of time, of having faith, of facing hardships with modesty, of accepting life...of having a purpose, of having a vision and fighting for it , of living a life and making the most of it......
I wish I never forget this episode ( looking forward to a psychology masters after I am 75)
If anyone needs this lesson, more than anybody else....it ME
Ganapati Pooja
VInayaka Chavithi, Ganesh Chaturthi , Ganpati Pooja...
My favourite festival.Because there are a lot of memories tied to it.Every year its special.Every Year its memorable.Every year its fun.
My way of unleashing my creative abilities(what ever they are).
The Making of Ganesha:
The story dates back to the time when I was at school.We were in a big house with two floors and two flats in each floor.There were four families in the house.One of the families was the Padmaja Akka family. Padmaja Akka, the youngest was the most active member.Her mother expired when she was young.She lived with her father and other sister.
That year she invited us to see her Ganapati.She made it herself.She made it out of Turmeric paste.I was so impressed with that, me and my brother wanted to make it too.
so began our mission.We had to find some clay first. we dug up some from teh back yard. not a very good quality, but some earth.And My brother started making the Ganesha.the project was audacious.With my constant 'Wowww it looks so good' approvals from the background...he did end up with a foot long Ganesha.I remember we made a standing ganesha.We sure found it very cute and beautiful.We had that Ganesha Worshipped in our mandir that year.My mom always let us do things we wanted and encouraged us.
so from then on, it became a ritual.My bro, as with everything else, would lose interest in it after the first time.THis was no exception.He never made another Ganesha ever.But I was hooked.
I loved the feeling of wet clay.the Mother earth and my interpretatons of the elephant God.
One time it was Ganapati with Siddhi and Buddhi, one time it was Ganapati on a Snake .One time it was Ganapathi with 4 heads.one time it was Lakshmi Ganapati.The Decoration took a new form every year.soem time it was the cheap color stones I took out of the finger rings.some times it was the shiney chips they use for embroidery.or the shiney silver, gold n pink powder.Making Ganehsa was always so much fun and fulfilling.
Four years at college, I always missed Vinayaka Chavithi AT home.but I had my ways to make it special.HOSTEL!!. we were a gang of people, majority from Maharashtra. they used to get Ganesha Idol from home when they came for the new semester starting August.
We created settigns and Pandals in the hostel recreation hall.it was 11 days of full fun and pooja (and impress gurls with our creative and Spiritual side of us).That was the only tiem gurls were allowed in to boys hostel.Ofcourse, only in to the recreation hall ;-).
We had the pooja for 11 long days and the Nimmarjan was ALWAYS SO MUCH FUN!!.We used to go to Awah devi.The Jhelam River and small springs....it was always good times.
The trasition was gradual.from the bubbly juniors playin in the water to the watchful seniors making sure the juniors dont wander too much in to the deep waters. College is always a wonderful series of good memories.I can write an epitome on it, I remember the days so vividly.
Like I already said, Vinayaka chavithi was always memorable at home.
If I have to label my childhood moemories, I can divide the whole time in to two
Phase one, from my kondergharten to primary school, in Vanasthalipuram
Phase two, Highschool (Class 5 to 9 ) in tirupati.
Class 10, Iam not sure if I can term that as childhood,so I categorize it under the 'Normative Years of my life'
the engineering as the 'Formative years of my life'.(I cant figureout which one is the first phase in human psychology..in all I juss realised there is world beyond my imaginery , fairytale world during class 10. and in in engineering, I knew me).
So, getting back to vanasthali puram.....I cant help but give a little intro about the place.
This is a locality, far away from the hustle bustle of Hyderabad.its 25 odd kilometers off the main city, on the vijayawada highway.
We moved to this place after I was born because my relatives stayed in Vanasthalipuram.
and my dad's office was in abids, not very far.
some of my very best and happy memories are tied with this place.
again, I am getting so much material for my blog.....its good to make ur mind think ...some times
I can write about Vanasthalipuram
I can Write about my Dogs
I can Write about Tirupai
I can write about my Class 10 and Gautami
I can write about my Crushlist
OMG!!
I can write about REC Hamirpur.....oowwwooww u r in for a huge torture...
Vanasthalipuram is all about the employees from the State secreteriat.All Government employees. NT rama rao had a housing colony built for them, hence its filled with those 9 to 5 government employees.
No wonder the life starts early and ends early too.
people know each other by name( they did, when I was young) knew whats the latest gossip, and above all, very very warm n social.
And as with a very content community, they were very religious.
and VInayaka Chavithi was one occassion they would show all their talents and skills.
There is this very old temple, 'Ganesh temple' in Vanasthalipuram.Its very very famous and its the first stop when you enter vanasthalipuram by bus.
The temple occupied only a fraction of the land it owned and the rest was used for community recreation ( read poojas and kinds).and during Vinayaka Chavithi, they used to screen 'Devotional' movies for the 11 days.( all the members of mechie fraternity, i AM talking about the devotional movies.not OUR kind of 'Devotional' Movies'.Vanasthalipuram is very conventional).
IT used to be talk of the town (it was a town in itself).Everyone kept a track of the next day's movies.
wrapped up chores so they can catch with some divine entertainment.but in all, more than the religious fervour, its human emotion that was evident every where. the socializing, meeting new people, bonding....'How are you?' was never so Genuine after that phase.
I can still feel the warmth of the Old lady who enquires about the developments in the family.
and the excitement with which middle aged women shared them, as if she were their own mother.
They juss know each other from such community meets.Vinayaka chavithi, Sravana Sukravaram( Andhra Version of Karva Chaut), Ugadi..
Mom had an aquaintance in almost every side street of the colony.
She has this amazing ability to find people from her home town, Eluru.you leave my mom on moon, she would find one soul there, who is from Eluru.
and My Grandmother , was her mother in this sense.she used to update the new members from Eluru at Vanasthalipuram everytime she wrote a letter to mom.SO mom had a lot of people to meet and updates to exchange.
Vanasthalipuram is developed by the Government and it was clusters of houses.the HUDA houses which were unromantically named 'A1' 'B1' and so on...A type quarters were single bedroom houses.B types are single but were bigger with lot of space around the house.C type were bigger with 2 bedrooms.and everyone in Vanasthalipuram had this horrific identity of these house numbers.
I still dont know the names of 'B50 Auntie' 'C74 Akka' ' A1 Uncle'.
We were in this house called B1, and we were called the 'B1 Family'. My 'Definition' childhood memories are attached to this house. Mom feeding us under the moon light.Dad playin with us in the mud.Mom learning to drive a scooter.Flying kites with dad .......Playing Cricket....gettong seriously hurt.....getting ourselves in to danger( I still remember I got my head in to the Iron creeper support, which arched above the main gate.We had this beautiful white rose creeper , makinga beautiful white arch with those bunch of roses.And THANK GOD dad was at home that day.I could take my head out of iron grill, and I was dangling in the air with my head in the arch...woww, I raised enuf noise that the whole colony was at my gate).Oh YES...I Can write another bolg on vanasthalipuram episodes.
NOW ..................if you forgot what this blog was all about...this is about my Vinayaka chaviti memories......HAHHAHA AHA..........do revisit my page plse.....
My very first memories of Vinayaka chavithi were in B1.I just started going to school and we setteld well in teh colony. Dad created this 'Picture perfect' family. A wife n a Husband, and their three lovely kids.and the first signs of becoming independent is...if you celebrate you own festivals, all by yourselves...withut going to your hometown. And like a responsible head of the family, all the onus of a successful festival lied on dad's 'Cool' shoulder.I said cool because, he never bothered until something is very very urgent.so on a Typical Vinayaka chavity, Dad , the 'DO it all by yourself' dude, would find a new problem to fix.scooter to be rehauled.some fence to be fixed.or the drain to be un clogged.
And mom is the exact opposite.....slightest action, she wd be hyper excited and tensed.so the Vinayaka chaviti mornings were and ARE ALWAYS hectic, with a lot of shoutings and 'You will never change' curses. and after my mom is done with all her energy and shouting..My dad wold start the decoration.he has a very good sense of beauty and is very creative and artistic.the problem is....when he starts the decoration when the rest of the world is about to complete thier pooja.so it goes on and then we would join him and help him.
one thing that always stayed like my dad's cool head and my moms hot temper, is my brother's endless mischiefs.This was one special episode.Dad, like all dad's on mother earth, has this tortourous humm....that would wake the dead out of their graves. once he starts....its almost some tantric chant session 'Le...Le..Le' (translated ... get up, get up get up).And my brother is the only person who can survive it the longest.and after comparing him with all available relatives from my mothers family...my dad would give up.And then my brother would wake up.then the pooja starts.( I cant recall anytime when it started before 12 noon, we used to get up by 5 AM ...).
Oh yeh, how did I forget to mention the patri....The 101 diffrent kinds of leaves that we need for pooja....I used to break atleast on complete tree's worth of green stuff to get my pooja leaves.
The Datura flower and the spiney nut.The Jilledu, I forgot the biological name.....the one that oozes milky liquid....and other leaves.It was my opportunity to do what I love the most.....to get lost in the beauty of mother nature....the smells of fresh green....to know how different leaves feel when you touch them....the intricacies of the wild flowers...the diversity of mother nature..........
One of the most memorable part of it....the Pooja itself.
dad has this wonderful way in which he tells things.his narration skills are wonderful.No one at home got them though.its very very wonderful to listen to a story from him.he will , for sure, take you in to the land of the fairytale.
and the way he does pooja and read the Ganesha story was also wonderful.I can still hear his voice 'Samanthaka mani tho kooda tana baalika aiyna Jambavathi ni icchenu'. I used to read the story throughout the day ...the same story again and again..............I found myself in the 'Dwapara Yuga' or see Parvathi making her little son out of 'Pindi'.I wish I never Grew up and learn to 'Reason' and to search for 'Logic'.
The pooja always moved on a fast track, because my dad could stand hunger and it became evident thru the end of the pooja.He cdnt read some lines, or cant read out loud anymore.
And then came the 'Our part' of pooja.
We used to keep all our note books and text books at Lord's feet....for a uninterrupted and glorious academic year.I dont know how honest we were with this par tof pooja, atleast my Academic life has never been 'Uninterrupted'.
OK, let me admit it.....I never went to school
Never found reason or logic.......
How much of the stufff that we learn in schooll, of the people we read about....learnt all that they 'Discovered' or 'Invented' in the school.I think they could do it sheerly because they never went to school
but my family never quite understood my logic.....and I had to do my MBA....
OK...back to pooja again...
If it was my mother who did all the shouting through out the first part of the day, it was my Dad's time for vengence, in the noon.My mom would alwyas try and clean the world up before she started cooking.and she wants to make a million things for the pooja.with absolutely no help , she struggled getting things done.Its almost like a count down.We start singing the mangala harathi, and I know whos the most tensed....my mom.
then my dad would ask for the naivedyam, the offerings.
almost all the times, there WILL be something which is 'Almost done'. and thats my dads chance to take his revenge
after series of shoutings and explanations, and some meek defence from my mom, the pooja would be done.
and my poor mom would do HER pooja after we are all done and ready to eat.
Woow, Lunch......a typical festive lunch and additional 'Undrallu and Allam Pacchadi'. Because God was not ready to share his 'Amrutam' with Mankind.....he left back some recipies so man knows how it tastes. This combo is one such recipe...
The eat sessions would go on till evening.
Evening session is special too.
thats the time to show off your Ganesha....your pooja mandap and your decoration skills.
There used to be this 'B49' auntie's son who was the eldest in our colony ( a college guy in his junior college....I think).He used to make this colourful and rotating 'Chakra' behind his Ganesha.
That was the attraction of the colony.
He used the motor that they use in the battery run toy trains.It was such a wonderful and exciting part of Vinayaka chaviti, year after year. we were all awed and it was nothing less than rocket science for us.
My bro , as usual , did try doing the same, but somehow we either made the 'Chakra' too heavy, or we could never connet the battery to the motor properly.But it was fun .........
Vinayaka Chaviti was lot of emotions...of triumph and disappointment , of awe and beauty....of faith and bonding.
Of looking forward to a new year....Of counting the blessings from the last..
Of knowing new people, of discovering new ways of bonding
of sense of being a family, a part of a community
festival of honing some organising skills, some social skills and connnecting with the Nature....
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