Thanksgiving

Nothing beats a good food for a thanksgiving. Not necessarily for a thanksgiving, but for every occasion I guess. Every ritual and ceremony from birth to death accompanies a feast in any part of the world. That too in India nothing beats a thali food. Although pizzas, pastas, burgers and other fast foods have come into picture a thali food is always a delight.

We as our custom perform a ritual every year for our dead father or mother. My dad used to do the ritual for his mom and dad. The ritual is a type of thanksgiving for our parents for raising us and also has a emotional attachment as like asking forgiveness for our mistakes done when they were alive. It takes about 3-4 hours. There is a short and shorter version also available for the same which will get over in just 20-30 mins time. But, in the either case food has a role. In the shorter version, 2 of poor fellowmen are given food for the day. The longer version also has the same with some pujas attached to it. My dad opts for the original longer version (He should have been a bad son I guess. LOL…JFL) He is the 7th child in the family. Huh! (My grand dad is great). Although the remaining 6 might not be present for the ritual, whoever is able to make it does or they accompany. All my dad’s siblings join him on that day.

That day we have our food only after the ritual is over. My stomach would feel the hunger much before the ritual starts. No way! Even if my dead grand dad would excuse me, my dad would never allow me to eat. I would be lying in the kitchen and my mom would laugh at me. Aunts would offer something to eat fresh but their brother, my dad would give a furious look at them. And alas, the moment of end would arrive and I will be the first to keep my hand in the food. Believe me; even with that much hunger I cannot finish the whole meal. It would have varieties of dishes spread over in a banana leaf and those are available only on that particular day. Uhhhh!!!…. The feast remains in my eyes!

Rama and Krishna missing

Accidentally happened to see new versions of Ramayana and Mahabharata in television. Somehow, couldn’t find the charm of the epics in those. Probably I feel the actors aren’t doing justice to the roles, especially the lead ones. I remember Ramanand Sagar’s and B R Chopra’s version of the same getting aired in Doordarshan which had made people involved into them. I would believe that was how it had been live years ago. Such were the actors’ performance and I have heard the actors would show such discipline while performing. The lead actor in the role of Rama and Krishna were Aryan and Nitish. They never committed to any other roles while these episodes were on. So, people would relate these actors as real Rama and Krishna. On the whole, it was a thoroughly religious time in homes whenever these episodes went on air.

The present versions lack those. The actors are visible in pubs and when you see them in the roles of Rama and Krishna, the passionate gods for crores….; it just drives crazy in head. I thank God that there are no new versions on the life history of Jesus Christ or Allah.

Champions

Phelps is definitely a phenomenon. 2008 Olympic game has made him a champion.

Abhinav is also a proud champion. 2008 Olympic game has made him a champion.

So are many others in different walks of life becoming winners. While reading about the Olympic medal winners I happened to read something about champions which was very much true.

Champions are not made at the event/big game. They are made in the quiet hours, during the practice times, while they are silently preparing, stretching, sacrificing and dreaming.

A factual fact it is. And it means that you and me are also are champions in life. How many times would have we silently prepared, sacrificed things and we still keep on dreaming. We are too champions in our own league .

Phelps is someone living in the other part of the world. Abhinav lives in the other region of our country. But even if we don’t know them personally, their achievement inspires and makes us proud.

There is a champion who is in his attempt to enter into the Guiness in my office studio. I know him, he is my friend. It makes me feel elevated when I know that he is attempting a Guinness record. He is RJ Dheena. He already has a record for him and on has started his way to break his own in the BIG 92.7 FM studio, Chennai.

Let’s wish him ALL THE VERY BEST!! Its gr8 to hear that someone whom we know very well is attempting to get his/her name in the Guinness books right!? It certainly urges us too achieve.

22 August

This day will be one of the d-days’ for techies like me. For a simple reason that iPhone is getting released in India. Apple is always a pioneer in inventions and not less to say, all the ‘i’ products are of exceptional brilliance executed. More than that the iPhone comes with 3G features loaded in it. India has just framed its 3G policy.

It’s obvious that 3G will turn around our way of living. It is told that a 3G enabled phone works in the background when you are sleeping. For eg: It searches and suggests you the best feasible route from one place to another within the city which has less traffic while you are sleeping. Interesting isn’t it!! Just wait for the day…

It couldn’t be better

Friendship day again and messages were pouring in. Although I don’t like the formality of sending messages marking the occasion, I was replying to all who had greeted me. The whole bunch of 10 days went on an enjoying spree with friends pouring in from all over India.

Working till 9 PM, roaming in the streets and dinner around 12 in the night, sleeping at 2 or 3 AM, again waking up again at 8:30 the same day and starting to work was the schedule for the past 10 days. Yeah it was tiring and hectic but with friends around I guess it did justice to a perfect friendship day and week long celebration. It was not a friendship day, I would call this as friendship festival which comes very rare in lifetime

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!??

Honest Film Making

I was dragged to sit in a 45 minutes session with film maker Mahesh Bhatt. All I knew about him is that he is straight forward. What he spoke in the session was true, but I was unable to decide his words and deeds going along. I don’t bother about that too. That meeting did not actually make a difference except me being away from my desk for 45 minutes without any disturbance. It was unusual to hear about honesty, the real self and stuff like that from a film maker. I have heard it before from the ace director in South India – Maniratnam. I am a huge fan of his work – a huge fan to the extent that I was standing in front of his office for a week after my post graduation wanting to become his assistant.

Back to the topic:- I had felt unusual on what the film makers had to do with honesty. Honesty is not the lead character in the movie alone not getting hurt jumping from an altitude while others die. It is not even only incorporating these. Honesty should be in the script. If a scene is written, the consequences should follow rather than getting landed in a fiction. There are very few honest film makers in the industry and Maniratnam is definitely one of them. His message is clear. He says “You have to fight to attain peace in this world”. That’s a very true statement from him. Gandhiji fought for freedom. The aim was to attain peace and freedom, but it was fought. “Fighting with optimism makes the difference” is the message he has tried to convey in his movies like Roja, Bombay, Thalapathi, Saathiya and Guru. Each one of these was a feast for the senses. They were honest scripts with good imagination.

My question is why do we feel reluctant to act knowing they are true? Why do film makers make and release a movie which they themselves know will not be liked by their fans. Why do they stuff fiction and unnecessary elements in their movies? Twining fiction with a real story is good imagination, but why do the film makers don’t understand that it had to be told in a crisp and short manner? Why an actor does don different roles knowing very well that it will create a bad image for him?

Joke சோக்கு...

One day Lord Shiva decided to visit the earth and try some alcohol. So he changed his get-up and went to a bar and asked the bartender: "What all do u have?".

Bartender:"We have whisky, rum, vodka, gin, beer etc, etc." Lord Shiva: "Let's try whisky first; give me 5 bottles of whisky".

After having 5 bottles of whisky, Lord shiva decided to try Rum.

Bartender was shocked:" Who is this man, after having 5 bottles of whisky, he is still on his feet"..

After having 5 bottles of Rum, Lord Shiva decided to have beer.

After having 40 bottles of beer, he asked the bartender for Gin.

Bartender couldn't stop himself asking him: "Sir, who are you?? I have seen people getting drunk after having 4 glasses of whisky, and you've almost had 50 bottles and you are still on your feet, who are you?"

Lord Shiva: "Kulanthaai… Naaan thaan siva perumaaan"
Bartender: Thoda... Ippo thhaaan mappu yeri irukku!!!

Monsoon

Monsoon has started in this city and I hear that rains are here to stay for the next 4 months. Rains here are not like how it used to be in the city where I lived earlier. This city seems to stand still when it pours and I have noticed it in the past 4 days. 2 days after the season started there was a message in my mobile that the highway road in front of the airport had caved in and traffic was moving slowly. I wonder what kind of road has been laid in front of airport!!! Huh…yeah...it’s going to be tough in the coming days…I am locked up by the rain in the apartment just viewing through windows: the grey sky pouring down. The brat in me asks “How about swimming now?”

Being Optimistic!

Work is very hectic combined with stress and pressure. Every minute there is something or the other from someone related and unrelated to my profile calling up and asking for reports/to report. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon and I was late for lunch. Working hard with hunger without breakfast really hurts the stomach. There was one more colleague of mine coming in after I had finished. I exclaimed with sadness “You are too late for lunch today!?” and he replied back “No. I am early for dinner” and continued “It’s all on how we take things Rajaram! Let’s be optimistic…”

I wonder whether that’s being optimistic or absurdity!

Hanging On...

She looked so much like a lady, but she was so much like a child.

A devil when she held me close, an angel when she smiled.

She always held it deep inside, but somehow I always knew

She's go away when the grass turned green

And the sky turned baby blue.



And baby blue was the color of her eyes.

Baby blue like the Colorado skies.

Like a breath of spring, she came and left,

And I still don't know why,

So here's to you and whoever holds my baby blue now on.



She brought colors to my life that my eyes had never touched.

And when she taught me how to care, I never cared so much.

I try not to think of her, but I fall asleep and do,

And drift off where the grass is green and the sky is baby blue.



And baby blue was the color of her eyes.

Baby blue like the Colorado skies.

Like a breath of spring, she came and left.



Like a breath of spring, she came and left,

And I still don't know why,

So here's to you and whoever holds my baby blue now on.

To you and whoever holds my baby blue now on.

Small but BIG

After longing to own a personal player and with the money saved over months, a walkman is purchased. The model is not available in India and makes it an exclusive one among the other players around. People spend time to investigate the functions of the player and suddenly one fine day the software is corrupted. The files don’t play, songs swap with each other and the player becomes an un-functional device.

It’s sad that a newly bought player after long time goes dysfunctional. It had helped out to burst time and the songs have helped a lot in coming out of tense/stress situations. Suddenly without the player playing it makes feel like one hand is lost. It needs to be serviced.

But, the warranty is not applicable in India. Service cost has to be paid. It’s an unknown cost. There are several other commitments for the money in hand. A thought of sending it back the place of purchase is also there. But there is no one flying to take it. An attempt to repair it is also done but it got failed fearing the costs. Missing the player for a long time and after a wait of over 2 months, it is decided to make it function at any cost.

It is taken to a specialist and had to be examined for over half an hour. Cost based on time spent is calculated, minimum service cost is added to it and total approximate cost is calculated in advance before hearing the big shot.

The player is checked well on its functions and taken into custody. A form is filled on the customer details and card is taken out to be swiped as there is no cash. The card is given in the counter and the girl across the counter poses a “What is this for?” look.

A service bill is asked for the payment and the answer for it comes as “No Bill”. A question rises on how come an authorized service center cannot give a bill for the money to be paid and then comes the reply “You need not pay for this”. Oh! Uh!!

Stop, Watch and Go

Sometimes, somewhere, even in our very busy schedules we tend to notice vital advice from unknown sources. The traffic signal is a classic example. Whatever may be the speed we are driving, the vehicle has to be stopped when it’s red. Red denotes danger. Only when we encounter ourselves with danger or trouble we stop and look into / seek advices. I am not an alien to it. I have a stock of advices with me which I haven’t listened over the years, probably from the day I began to remember.

Some of them were actually mean, some which couldn’t be followed, some not followed (with a purpose) and some completely out of scope. There are also a few which are so true and stays in the brain.

It is last day for one of my many colleagues resigning their jobs. She had written a farewell mail which had the below lines.

Life is too short to wake up with regrets. Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the one's who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it!!

I have no explanations for these simple and straight words from her other than to just hold them in thoughts. Certainly, these words are not the ones to be kept in stock, but to be followed! Also, there is also a fear of losing time or reaching the destination late when traffic rules are followed. Now, it’s all about taking risk to go forward. After all it involves greater risks to achieve great things which we need in life.

Shocking News!

Few things in life affect us positively or negatively at least for few minutes and fade away. There will be no valid reason for us to feel the shock, yet we feel it.

One such news about one of my favorite place in the nation – Madras is that the Woodlands Drive-In has been closed down. That’s a place which madras population will never forget. It’s a place of solitude for most of the people. For sure, your mind will relax going there however the stress is.

I recollect many meetings, decision making sessions, brain storming sessions all happening in that place and people flock to meet & greet. This place located in the heart of the city is full of green and spread over a vast area for over 50 years. More than the food, the ambience is what regular visitors like me are going to miss.

Definitely sad and shocking news to hear!!!!

இஞ்சி இடுப்பழகி...மஞ்ச செவப்பழகி!