28/7

அடாது மழை விடாது பெய்தாலும்
விடாது தன் கடமையை செய்ய
அடாது புறப்பட்ட என்னை படாது
படுத்தி விட்டது இம்மழை! படாது
படுத்தி விட்டது இம்மழை!

--புலம்பல் சித்தர் இராசாராம்

I had seen in news that people in this city are scared of 26/7 as that was the date; the city became paralytic due to heavy rains two years back. (It has become a fashion now – 26/7, 9/11 and so on…)

So obviously, with something to chew on, media reported that people were haunted by 26/7. What a story to chew on! On 26/7, there was a message from Met Dept. saying “Intermittent rain or thundershowers with possibility of heavy to very heavy rains in parts of city and suburbs”. The cloud was dark at 12 noon before I read this message. After reading the message I looked at the cloud elevating my head at 90 degrees. Alas! The cloud got cleared and there was sunshine. Met dept could be the best astrologers. But, they have studied science. That night it started to rain and did not stop for 2 days. It was a very good rain.

28/7 – the rains did not stop. I had no interest to stay home too. Half drenched, reached office and was working curiously. There was a mail permitting for early pack up due to the rains getting heavy and water logging in the roads.

I was feeling good about the rains pouring and got scared about reaching home too. Man holes were brimming with water. Few out of those were throwing out water as like a fountain throws. Water was splashing from both the sides in the auto rickshaw. If I had drenched half by rain, the remaining got drenched by the splashes. At one point the auto rickshaw stopped and had to take another one. Althrough the way, its 2 stroke engine was screaming dorrr tak tak... dorr tak tak…tak tak dorrrr... Driver was cribbing “eh kya baarish hai yaar…itna pani road pe…” I couldn’t help him to continue the conversation. All I wanted that time was hot bhajji, pakoda and chai. Hmmmm...

Finally, reached home after a long time and then was this another surprise. The cloud got cleared again and it stopped raining. Huh!!

அடாது மழை விடாது பெய்தாலும்

விடாது தன் கடமையை செய்ய

அடாது புறப்பட்ட என்னை படாது

படுத்தி விட்டது இம்மழை! படாது

படுத்தி விட்டது இம்மழை!

I see the clouds outside now. It’s getting dark and drizzling...

Some times, some lyrics of songs will get reminded in the head just like that. Without any reason, irrespective of the situation around, it keeps on playing in the background of our mind.

One such song which is playing right now in me has these lyrics;

ஒரே கனா என் வாழ்விலே... அதை நெஞ்சினில் வைத்திருக்கேன்
கனா மெய்யாகும் நாள் வரை உயிர் கையில் வைத்திருப்பேன்
வானே என் மேலே சாய்ந்தாலுமே நான் மீண்டு தாங்குவேன்
நீ என்னை கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சினால் நிலாவை வாங்குவேன்

and it means;

One dream is seeded in my heart
I shall hold on my breathe till it’s realized
I shall stand up again even if the sky falls on me
And I shall tame the sky if you love me a little…

This is from the title track of the movie Guru. Wanna Listen!?

p.s: kindly excuse for the incorrectness in the translation

Opinions differ

I had a new picture of mine shot with coolers, uploaded in Gmail and Skype. Obviously, as it was mine, I thought it as cool. That’s my opinion. There was another: “You look like captain of blind men association”. Pretty upset! Uh! There were others too: “You look like a rock star”, “You look cool”. Well fine, good enough to rise up.

Same way, each and every thing in life has multiple opinions. They may not be the same and they don’t need to be too. I write this with an opinion to share my opinion about opinions with the reader and there might be readers who might have an opinion that I write scrap.

My opinion is, wasting 24 hrs for a travel is not worth it, instead I would spend double the money and reduce the travel time by 20 hrs. My parents’ opinion is to travel peacefully 24 hrs out of everything rather than spending double the money.

My opinion about a song is that it’s a feel good, gives a soothe feel when down and I kept that as my caller tune. There were more people who copied the tune from me. Opinion did not differ on this. There are also people who felt my previous tune better than the current one.

The restaurant which was decided for dinner had different disagreed opinions amongst us and we had to choose a new place and got our taste sense spoiled. The previous place which had different opinions would surely have been better. Differences in our views and no view too hurted us that night.

These are examples on simple things in my life. There would be similar ones in yours too. It doesn’t matter whether we have a good or a bad opinion about something, but it does matter on how we communicate, understand, accept and action them. Hope our opinions don’t differ on this. Anyways, what I think on is how these opinions shape around to make decisions in our life and my opinion now is that I leave the thinking to you. Yeah, I understand and accept your opinion that I have to stop with this here…

Baap Ka Beta: Ek gaun mein Ek Kisaan...

Lagaan

Last year I was trying my best to file tax returns online. Many said that it wouldn’t work out. I wanted to prove them wrong and was hanging on to the IT website for over a week. For me, if I would do it I would feel as if I have achieved something and also, I always like to give a try to the undoable (pls don’t look for the word in the dictionary). My self learning process started on it as usual. In fact that was when I learnt about the nuances of tax and filing them using ITR-1. Last date was close and without any option left, I had to fill up the ITR-1 form by hand and stand in the long queue to submit them. Still, I was restless and hunted to find out what went wrong and how in the online process. Alas!! I found out. It was a silly thing. The system I was using did not have the updated version of Acrobat reader and as a result the form did not get saved properly and did not get uploaded in the site. If the reader would have been updated, I could have overcome the pessimists. We tend to overlook small things while aiming for BIG!

I have filed my returns online this year. It took just 10 minutes including filling up the form. I just remembered how it happened last year!!

Naked brain

An intriguing topic…isn’t it!? It’s about how our brain is exposed to many on a daily basis. Somewhere in the post, you will also note the amount of area vacant in my brain.

No need to explain that the brain is the central processing unit of our body which sends signals for action. Can it be believed that our brain inside the skull is read and exposed to external sources!? Marketers use brain scans to grab attention of consumers. A simple online test can tell your personality, a suitably job and even find a perfect date for you. Technology advances swiftly that you can control anything anywhere and everything is exposed. From sex of the baby while in mothers womb to erasing part of memory in the brain, everything inside and outside is read and exposed by technology. What is the extent to which it can carry on? Is it a good sign or a bad sign?

There are AI, bio and nano technology in practice. A nano technology empowered costume can control the temperature of your body. The same can be used to control your EI as well. Few decades back, a common man would have not thought about the background of his emotions with people. Today we talk about stress, pressure, love, lust and things like that. We understand everything in detail, know their causes and sometimes take precautionary measures too. Some call this as learning. When you know about the causes of your actions then you have learnt about yourself, but if others read the same, aren’t you getting exposed!??