taking a break...

I am currently on tenterhooks in anticipation of my trip to Chennai. Praying hard that I dont get a heart attack ;). Never felt this way before. Joyish , Rita pray hard that I keep my cool and dont get into self inflicted stress and misery. I know what my problem is. It is so difficult to get some work done from someone whom you are not confident with. Hoping aadi gets to see the beach. I am sure he will enjoy the over night train ride.

Will be back soon....

Race ..to where?

After Jodha Akbar my hopes on hindi movie increased and I agreed to go for Race with Mahesha and Aadi. Aadi was expecting some great car chases and started asking for the cars from scene 1. He was temporarily satisfied when he saw some horses race, but not for long.

While I was still trying to figure out what the movie was about, I asked Mahesha about the newspaper rating and he said it was 31/2 stars. So I kept my hopes alive. The movie had everything that seems to sell nowadays with our crowd. I dont remember a single song that I may hum after the movie. With skin show abondon, I realised it was time I do not bring aadi to A rated movies.

He was bored that there were too many songs ..after vantage point the previous day the contrast effect was evident on all three of us. Both movies has twists in the tale but in Race I wasnt sure even sure if I wanted to sit till the end. Why glorify crime to this extent. Just because the movie is set outside India doesnt mean they can glorify crime & show that police officers are easy to bribe and insurance money is up for cheating.

I guess somewhere the director or producer or somebody was feeling responsible. They could not tell that the elder brother was ready to kill the younger one and they inserted a dialog saying I never planted any bomb on his car and he got killed himself blah blah blah...guess they needed a saving grace somewhere. Just because hollywood movies like oceans 11 glorify crime does not mean we do movies like Race, where there is no class.

Thankfully aadi got a bit of car chase at the end of the movie. He was confused if he liked the movie or not. But I am sure this movie will sell. But people like me will be wondering in the theatre what did they expect from such a movie...Moral of the story...crime and skin sell here.

Holi day...

Happy Holi to one and all....

I have never had a better holi or a holiday than yesterday.I should express my heartfelt thanks to Diya & her parents. Aadi loved drenching himself in color and I cud let him do that without me getting annoyed about the colors. I dont like playing holi, but dint want aadi to stop having fun. He was amused at the water filled ballons, loved the pitchkaari and the pink roughe on his cheeks.

Dhaval's tea was excellent. I have one more source to help better my culinary skills. Rita you can also setup a chai ka dhukan if IT industry has problems :)...or may be that multi floored mall of yours can have a floor for food court with Dhaval's outlet. But, guess no icecreams will be available on that floor for customers...The King size Banana chocolate fudge was yummy...

I have never filled my tummy so full in a single day, Dosa, icecreams and coffee, tender coconut, popcorn and ohhh...my stomoch is hurting just by listing all the stuff. I need to run, run and run to burn the calories. May be I will keep it as a souvienir of the trip.

And Mahesha & I thoroughly loved the movie, the long drive, the company and everthing...A perfect holiday...

The sound of silence

For last two days I have been going to bed pretty late...The slight drizzle thatz been on has made the Bangalore weather beautiful. Not too much sun and not too much cold. The perfect Bangalore weather. Something I always love at Bangalore. Normally when I am working late I have my TV on for company but yesterday I had not; with the fan off and no major sound around I heard the silence, the absolute silence of night.

I just steped out to see the night sky from my balcony. At 1 am... it was fantastic. With the moon right on top of my head, couple of clouds moving away in a hurry to find their friends and a big night bird / bat flying in the sky to get some fruits, the 3 bright stars near the moon ... It was a almost perfect night, except I was reminded that I stayed in a city when I heard a water pump motor buzzing somewhere and the street lights filling the streets with their yellow beams to compete with cool white light from the moon.

On the whole I was struck by the beauty of the night sky. I was reminded of the other long due little something I wanted to do. I need to get a telescope soon...I see that my son also loves to know all about the planets, I guess the night sky is something I and my son can explore togther...and also hear the sound of silence.

Story Time - Quality Time

There is one thing that has become better since I quit my job, that is the "Quality time" that I and my son spend with each other. I know Ranjani hates this phrase. But I still want to use it ;). The time I spend with aadi goes in doing similar things as before , but the Quality has improved a lot. Like normal kids Aadi hates the Home Work time and loooves story time. He is eager to go to bed as he can listen to some crap that I spin everyday.

Thanks to Saffron tree I get leeds for my own stories. I have this starting trouble on my story line and Saffron tree helps me with a beginning. My son had heard my version of Tops and Bottoms, The relatives came and some others. I spice it up to his taste as there are no visuals for him from the book.

Yesterday was the best, I din know where to start (as usual) and aadi is learning about names in his school. So we started of saying "ondhu oorali ondhu hudaga idha" (There was a boy in a town) and I dint know what to name that boy and called him dumbu dimbu dumbo. My son caught me immediately and said dumbo is a bad word and forced me to drop it from the name. Then we slowly moved to a paddy field and from there I had a choice to go either into "Alice in wonderland" or into "Wizard of Oz". I chose the later and my son went laughing to the bed, He loves scare crow and Tin Man and also all the vegetables I added to the story. I donno if the original wud have made him laugh so much. We learnt a lot about vegetables :).

And the best part is I can wake up my son in the morning by reminding him the story from previous night and he is out of the bed in a Jiffy. No more struggles to pull him from the bed. Its a win win for both of us. Our time together has indeed become quality time.

Changing Times

The last few years I have seen this place change from bad to good to great. The first time I visited here, I hated it. Those were the days when I used to love the "quite" Indira Nagar. I came here to visit a relative and the main road was nothing but a mud road and all colored RED. With lot of slush from the rain, the place was a mess. By the time we reached this place all my energy was drained.

To top it as a newly wed I had to be put on a forceful smile all the time. I was feeling like a fish out of water. Slowly Banglore has changed and today being on the road for 2 to 2.5 hrs a day is normal. We bangaloreans are a brave lot. We have learnt how to enjoy the traffic (we get to use it as an excuse evertime we are late for meetings :) ) and love the crowded malls....

We know how to catch a good seat in the McDonald or Transit or the KFC and get a bite of the fav snack. Watch the fantasitic first day shows in the multiplex. With limited recreation we have become quite innovative.

The Best of the lot is coffee shops. Our favourite family hangout is the crossword book shop on Residency Road. All three of us love it for different reasons. Aadi loves it the most for the Coffee Day attached to it. He even calls the place as coffee day book shop. He loves the Croissants there..yummy. Mahesha ofcourse loves the place for books & the coffee to go with it and I like the place for its ambience. A nice way to get lost in the books & music.

This weekend I just stepped out of my house and what I get to see is a nicely decked up new Cafe Coffee Day outlet, just 2 minutes walk from my house. I was thrilled. Not that i am a great coffee buff. But having a cafe coffee day, means a lot.
1. We need not brave the traffic to go to a decent hang out
2. Mahesha can get his cappuccino when ever he needs one
3. My son would be thrilled to have his fav coffee day next door.

And the most important of all, it shows "my part of the city" has arrived and it is not that sleepy place with muddy roads.

I am loving this place, more than ever.

Attitudes

Today has been bad from the start. In a way it started late last night. I tried booking an appointment online and it was not getting completed. Tried several times and failed, same story this morning. I was getting impatient. Calling up the help desk dint help either and I was asked to visit their office.

In between I was tracking the staus of another transaction I am doing and that is also flagged red. I lost my cool. Then I checked one of my grades that got released today and was totally disappointed. With this mindset I left to infantry road to get help for online appointment. My frustration was reaching its peak and I kept repeating to myself to keep cool. The help I could get on reaching the infantry road office is that they cant help and I should visit a cyber cafe to complete my transaction. It blew my fuse.

Now I was waiting to pounce on anyone who I can..so it was the autowala and the cybercafe lady. I kept reminding it is no fault of theirs and it was just destiny. Finally at the cyber cafe my appointment got done & I felt marginally better. Then came the train booking...another fiasco. My money has been deducted but no ticket. I decided it was heights and I need someone to vent it out. The only one I could think of was my mom. Someone I can always bank on.

I felt much better after our talk and then decided to give a break to everything and went for a nap. When I woke up I had regained my senses and thought I need to get control of the situation, I cant loose a beautiful day on these silly things. So I have drawn an action plan to take care of my pending issues and move on.

I guess life is as bad or as good depending on our attitude towards it. If we cant take control of a situation mentally it takes control on us. I am reminded of a story I once read in chandamama as a kid.

Karna was Krishna's favourite even though he took to the side of the Pandavas in reality. Yudhishtra & Arjuna were not happy about this. They asked Krishna why he liked Karna better. He told them it was because of his attitue, his virtue and the large heart with which he served the needy. Arjuna was not convinced. So Krishna turned two mountains into mountain of gold and asked arjuna to distribute it before sunset to anyone who needs. It was late in the evening when Krishna met Arjuna and he had hardly distributed any, as he was busy digging it into portions and distrbuting it to people who came by.

Krishna asked Karna to do the same task and two men came across to Karna asking help and he distributed each one a mountain. And lo in a second the task was DONE!

We can agree or disagree about what Karna did, but his attitute sets him a class apart...

IF

This is a poem that I always loved...I think it more relvant than ever to me and many of my friends...

found this @ http://www.swarthmore.edu/~apreset1/docs/if.html

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


--Rudyard Kipling

My lost dollar

I used to love my langauage classes during school days. Both English and Tamil. Especially the poetry sections. Not the grammer, like any other 'normal' student. The english text book was put together in such a way that both English Medium and Tamil Medium students can learn it without much of a challenge.

There are few lessons that I still remember from my middle school days. One of them that left a deep mark in me was titled 'My lost dollar', if memory servers right, it was taken from the works of Stephen Leacock.

The story is in first person and it is all about ONE dollar. Our hero has lent a dollar to his friend to pay for taxi, as he travelles to some other place and he expects that his friend to return this. He receives a letter from friend on his arrival to the new place. Now our hero is all eager to get back his One dollar and sees 100 mentioned in the letter..but only about the temperature in this new place. Once the friend returns he continues to think that he should get back that one dollar. But this doesnt happen and he is sure to remember his friend for his life, if not for anything but for the lost dollar. The narration was really funny and I loved this lesson.

Time to time this short story pops up in my mind. When I borrow money and I forget for long, and if my friends remind me... I keep thinking if my friends would remember me as a person to whom they lost x rupees..i hate that thought..nay i dont want to be tagged that way :).

Then there is another place when I get to remember this. When I feel I am cheated ..."trivial but important to me". Oflate this has been happening to me too often.

Recently, my doodh wala ran away leaving 160 rupees worth of milk coupons which are no use now...it feels like lost dollar , actually lost 4 dollars. Then my iron-wala dint return change and he owed me 60 rupees. I was left with the pain of my lost dollar and also had to hunt for alternate iron-wala.

Another one happened two years back. I remember that kid who used to give Jasmine flowers daily and he stopped coming one day & owes me 40 bucks. I keep wondering where he disappered, what bothers me more is a remote possibility that he ran away from the house with the money he took from me. If that were true...my lost dollar is his mom's lost dreams. Hope it is only my nt mare.

The list goes on the 25 rupees a autowala owes me. A ten pound I got cheated in UK souvenier shop, a pen I lost in a train...all these make me think of my lost dollar.

Trivial but important. So next time you borrow remember to return...you never know how you have been tagged.

Happy Women's Day

Hello Ladies,

Happy Womens day to each one of you. With 364 days marked as non womens day (== Men's days??), we get this one day to stop and think where our lives are headed towards. Thinking about where I am headed towards...it is filled with uncertainintiy but I am loving it. Being my own king (ouch!! I mean my own queen) is good. Doing the little things that I always wanted to do is great.

Coming back to the topic I donno if womans day means Man Vs Woman, can woman do what men do and vice versa. I strongly belive that men and women can "almost" do what the other gender can do...men can take care of babies, they can cook...women can be the bread winner of a family. Ofcourse a lot of conditioning and acceptance from the society is important and hope these spl days bring about those changes required.

Every family has n things to do to keep them together warm & cosy. If the man and the woman dont agree to the n things and how, who will get these done then there is no family. No peace and all trouble starts. As they say charity begins at home I also think war & peace begin at home.

Ok...enuf of gyaan,,, I wud have loved to have a get together and a lunch or dinner with you guys...lets plan it better next time..happy womens day to Joyish, g3, r1, su, diya's mom, sooraj's mom, nisha's mom, mil, paddhu, muthu and all other ladies who I have met and not met.

ENJOY MAADI!!

Chandramukhi

I never understood this...why do guys call the face of his beloved as chandramukhi (face like the moon). when I see a moon on an average it is dark for most of the parts, even on a full moon day I can see lots of spots on the moon...So I guess guys are quite truthful....

When ever I travel I enjoy the comforts of the hotel room except one thing. Those magnifying mirrors which can blow up and show every single pore in your face. Never figred out why they had kept them, I was normally tired by the time I reached the hotel after day long meetings and the gaint pours was all I needed to remind me that I need a break.

Recently, I got some new tubelights fitted in our house and all of a sudden I am able to see my face in a great detail...got reminded that I am over due for my visit to the parlor. The whole face reminds me of a battle ground . Jodha Akbar could have been shot better had they studied my face.

Now I know why candle light dinners are quite romantic. You get to see the outer beauty as all blemishes vanish under candle light. Thats the only thing I can like about candle light dinner. Otherwise it is an extremely difficult in those dim lights to figure out if I am eating something that is possibly still crawling.

I truly feel like a chandramukhi - waiting for my candle light dinner.