This Thing Called Life

This Thing called LIFE-
It amazes me, amazes me so often,
It manipulates time to tell me stories;
stories I never envisaged,
to tell me about trials, who is fairly real.
I realized at a point that a few who lingered,
always had a reason, condition.
Only few tarried along with no stipulation.
This world is a fantasy and will continue to be...
They are all simply passing stances...
For once tell me squarely,
I have no time to waste on this,
I have more to do,
more to love,
more to jive and still more to celebrate,
and yeah, more to LIVE, lot more.............

Carrying Her Own Burden in Her Own Way

"God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight." - Reggie White

All these thoughts were  stirred up by a particular lady. Now, it was pure coincidence that I got to see it.  Under usual circumstances I would have been in office at that time of the hour. Well yeah, things were different that day, and I was traveling. Please do not mistake me, not traveling to fulfill any official errand, traveling back home after a rather short day in office.

Two minutes after starting, I noticed this lady biker in front of me. She was dragging a burden, a full sack, probably of garbage, that her bike must have picked up unknowingly from any of those huge open garbage bins in Chennai. People all along on the road were calling out to her. She probably thought they were trying to hit on her :P. Finally somebody had the courage  to block the lady's way and tell her that her bike was carrying the waste collecting truck's burden. Well, she promptly gave up on it, left the burden midway to be either scattered all over by passing vehicles, or to be spotted by the garbage collecting truck. Any which way, her bike's shoulder, or rather rear was finally freed of some burden. If she had carried it any longer it would probably have put her life in danger, could have easily turned her bike over if it had got stuck up in something on the road.

It was just a sight, but I was wondering whether I was made audience to this sight so that I understood the events in my life better. You need not be carrying any garbage burden that you pick on your way. If at some point you realize that it was not meant for you, you are supposed to be abandoning it, so that the one who actually deserves it, gets to carry it. Why ever carry somebody else's burden and slow down your own life? Well, sometimes it feels good to help people carry their burden, but again, only those who deserve it. And as for the weight of the burden, that unknown superpower out there probably knows your limits. So just keep hoping that he will give you only as much as you can manage to carry. 

Have a good day people, and yeah, a great life too.

Forget About Fussy Kids...Who's Fussy Now??

A moment of silence for the child fraternity of today. However more sick could life ever get for these tiny tots? It amazes me when I hear people discussing about sending their two year olds for pre KG admission coaching. Common, there ought to be limits, parents.

Actually the saga begins way before the child is born and continues until it produces a successor. And Alas! the vicious circle continues. Here are some of the most common issues faced.

How to name the kid?

The latest trend is, choose a name that begins with any of the first few alphabets in English. Why so? So that the kid comes first, at least in the attendance register, if not anywhere else?? Again a whole lot of excuses being given for the same, the most common being, “My child’s turn will come early enough everywhere. Why take a risk by waiting too long. You never know how the resources can run out anytime, the situations/environment/a person’s behavior can change any time.” And when these poor kids grow up, they curse themselves for being first in the list. But thanks to some intelligent people, they are here to make everyone happy (or is it sad? Whatever!). Anyways most teachers and professors go by random number generation or similar methods these days. Hence, sorry to say, that logic for choosing names stands defeated.  

Who will look after the kid?

Well, doesn’t help these days if only one person in the family is working, especially in case of a middle class family. Then what to do with the kid? Either send him/her to your parents (poor parents must have had enough of it bringing you up, and now in this old age, here comes an even tougher task). The second choice being, if a babysitter is affordable, go for it. Else send the kid to a day care. Fair enough.” You only understand the intricacies of the issue after you become a parent.” So, no comments. And yeah, forgot about the worst case, what if the mother and father are working in two different cities? Again some of the earlier options might work, provided the child does not get to see either his/her father or mother for a pretty long period. No comments again, but just one polite question. Why make all this money that you will get to enjoy only in the grave? And FYKI, you do not really get to enjoy anything in there. Stay together with the kids. It will cost you very little compared to what mode of payment you might have to use otherwise.

What if you decide to have a second kid?

God save the poor soul, whoever that may be. 

What about the kid’s schooling?

The million dollar question that gets parents debating every now and then. Some schools do that, some do this, some make kids cocky, some make them pakka studious, while some have the infrastructure. It could be a varied mix of the abovementioned too. Wonder whether there exist anymore schools that could simply make sure that the child would grow up to be a normal, sensible human being, who is wise enough to imbibe the appropriate information at appropriate stages or moments of his/her life. But I wonder how, I wonder why? When there is a bandwagon of parents sending their kids to particular schools for all the wrong reasons, why go back to the good old school systems? Why keep best of the past and add to it the best of the present? Nobody even cares.

Another piece of information, the kid will lose nothing on missing a day’s class. Life is too long and the ocean of knowledge too vast. You don’t miss out on all of it in one day, neither do you get to gain it all in one day. So why fret? Take a chill pill Moms and Pops.

Yet another piece of info, please do not start training the kid for an Engineer or Doctor while still in the womb. Give them some free space where they will get to decide what they want to do. Do not decide right away that he/she would be the class topper, the university topper and the most appreciated employee/employer or whatever. Instead prepare them to take failures just as they do successes and let them feel the joy of emerging out with flying colors and having and giving their respective bests in life.

Which competition should my kid win?

Now what sort of a question is that? No matter what his/her talents or abilities, he/she is supposed to win every competition anywhere and everywhere and at anytime, even if it be held at stark midnight. How many kids are genuinely interested in what they do or rather, in what they are made to do? Is anyone even bothered? Hope somebody is, else these kids are gonna get hurt real bad someday.   

Now another moment of silence for all those parents who find all this total crap. But trust me, if the present trends catch on, we might someday need NGOs to vouch for cruelty against children. NGOs to please consider starting a new branch for the same. Being a child is so beautiful just like any other stage of life. Please do not douse the curiosity, the inquisitiveness and the enthusiasm. Let them enjoy every moment of what it means to be an innocent tot.Hoping for better times and a wonderful  new year. :)

Happenstance or Fighting Chance?

This time it took me real long to get back here. It was purely attributed to a dearth of topics. Life feels so usual once again. (:P). To start with, I am missing my sweet helL like anything, those long walks, friends, even those classes and assignments (one more tongue out smiley goes in to add effect to the last two cases) (:P).

To give you an idea of my present status of life, I came to Chennai this June end, joined TCS, work commenced pretty soon. 

During my last stint of one and a half years in Chennai I had fallen ill at least a thousand times. Every time the villains were "The Climate" and "The Hard Water". If there is any thing that makes me swear at this city at any point of time, it is one of these, climate obviously gaining prominence most of the time. The other day I was telling my friend how better the weather seems to have gotten now and she tells me,"Wait till next April-May, you will realize that nothing has really changed. It is just that you landed a bit lucky this time around. Hopefully this will not be the case  next year." Guess I could afford a transfer to some hill station or at least Bangalore before that.  

Thanks to the pollution, my already feeble voice has started waging World War ilk wars with my consciousness. How would it feel like when you are discussing serious stuff with someone and all of a sudden you cannot talk. Under natural circumstances the other person would think, "Oh! the poor thing is having a real tough time, her voice is breaking, she is going sentimental". Only I know that it would rather make me mental very soon.

And so all this lead me to the doctor once again. "Back to life", said Chennai to me. This time I was in no mood to give up. I kept going to office until I reached a stage where I could not even feel hungry anymore. I felt like I had contracted leprosy in my stomach or maybe, in that part of my brain which used to stimulate that feeling in my stomach. Again there was no giving up, why be pessimistic, it helps to be optimistic in such situations, "This might be the only way left to shed some pounds". So there went I, to office the next day. By afternoon I was blind, my eyes were shutting down in spite of genuine efforts and I could not even think of food and on my way back I was leaning on the wall of the auto. Had never felt more pathetic in my entire life. Half a day more without food, and then my friends decided that I had to go home somehow. Air tickets had reached a different level altogether and there was no way I could go home alone and there was no way I could tell my parents about my situation. 

A friend was going home that very same day. I got on the train with her, spoke to the ticket examiner. Seeing my situation he even forgot to fine me. By evening I was feeling much better. The thought that I am heading home and that there is nothing to worry about now kept me going.

My friend who had gone to sleep woke up in the middle of the night  looking really uncomfortable. She said she needed water badly. We had just finished that only bottle some time back. She started coughing and I started feeling sick again. We even considered asking any of the fellow travelers for water. Thankfully the train stopped at a station. It was 12 at night. There was no second thought, rushed out of the train only to find that the storekeeper was fast asleep. A stranger woke him up. Got a bottle of water, but the storekeeper had no change. I could almost visualize a "Jab We Met" scene by now. One more minute, and I did not even have the strength to raise my voice, forget about running behind the train. Anyways he was kind enough, gave me a discount and gave me that bottle of water. Anyone who had seen my friend take gulps would have wondered whether she was actually devouring amruth. 

And yeah, we both did reach home the next morning. I am even back after my short vacation, or rather hibernation. A strong me is back in Chennai to face the pollution and the hard hearted-ness of the Chennai waters. Hope Chennai does not play games with me all over again. I hate it when someone teases my voice and hate it even more to apply for a leave selecting from the dropdown list the reason, "diarrhea, dysentery, vomiting, etc." Feels Yuck!! (:P). 

Disclaimer or epilogue or whatever: My condition was not that bad after all. Exaggeration was purely for the sake of sympathy. (:P)

The Li'l Birdie, the Music Unheard

Our regular guests made it this year too. April, that is the month they visit us every year. The lantern shaped hanging light in the front veranda, that is where they stay during their short visitation. They make themselves snug and cozy in their little space. I had often wondered how they made it without fail every year to the same spot in the same house. This year, when I was back from my convocation for my rather long vacation, there they were one warm afternoon, the red capped birdie family.

As always, they were littering our veranda with twigs and soft cushiony remnants, from god knows, which garbage can. Since Mom and Dad ardently believe in the sloka "athithi devo bhava", Dad did not care to complain about the guests being untidy and Mom did not bother to shoo them away while they made their own home in our house. So they began their yearly ritual of building their little neat nest in our hanging lamp. 

The rest of the processes were really fast. Before we even noticed the nest was ready, probably the eggs were also laid and the mother birdie was always seen in there, making sure her eggs were warm enough to be hatched in time. I had always wanted to see the eggs, but since the nest is always perched on the hanging light and since I am a bit too tall by general standards, I could never make it and I did not want to take a chance, considering the fact that hard luck is very well favoring me these days, why unnecessarily get jinxed and end up a one eyed damsel (:P). And hitherto the eggs remain unseen.

Sometimes it seemed as if my family was more eager in seeing the eggs hatched. The birdies were seen near the nest less frequently now. Then one day we realized why the birdie was not to be seen most of the day, there was a small newborn birdie in there who was probably a voracious eater, the frequent trips made by his family suggested so. But the little fellow looked real cute, his pink skin, tiny beak, but the voice chords were, I guess, yet to develop. This time there was only one new birdie.

After a couple of days, there he was, perched on the tube light just adjacent to his hanging home. We  couldn't simply stop admiring the young fellow. He looked even cuter that his parents and was sure,way fatter than either of them. At one point my strong eyes seemed to have lost focus after having watched the tiny being for so long. So I came back into the house, concentrated on other eye wasting tactics. Mom kept watching until the li'l birdie's parents were back home with his food and before she had even closed the door behind her, an eagle flew low and grabbed away our li'l guest. His parents simply kept watching. The eagle was almost ten times their size and maybe they knew that it was no point jostling someone who had already frozen his catch for the day. It was saddening, the news that Mummy brought. The small family never returned the rest of the day, looked like they had left for this year.

This was the first time our guests left unfulfilled. It felt bad. What if they left and never returned next year? My Dad always said that it could be the newborn birdies who came back the next year to visit us. Now the family has been bereaved. Looks like this will be the end of a long relationship. So true is the case of any relation, break that one binding force and there takes a plunge, the whole long chain into long lost history. 

Or to wind up on a different note, let us put it in Darwin's way, what happened with the birdie family was just a case of "Survival of the Fittest". That could be a coequally good lesson to me too, ready to dive back into the corporate world for a second round. Guess there would be many others too who could keep this one in the back of their multi-network entangled minds. And so the li'l birdie spread music unheard, sweeter than  that heard.    

Tag Hour

I was tagged on this by a dear friend Sharat a while back, actually pretty long back. Somehow I did not feel like doing it then, do not remember why.Well, now I feel like doing it and here it goes....

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER: Tees Mar Khan and I almost felt like killing myself thrice over. I should not have punished myself so hard. Well, after that I did watch a couple of good movies that I had downloaded from DC. I have this habit of downloading in bulk and then they just lie there, with no one to care for them. Since I am moving into the last few days at helL, I was in the process of cleaning up my hard disk so that I could fill it up with new stuff. And I happened to watch a couple of good movies in the process. One was 'The Prestige', by Christopher Nolan. That was an awesome movie. Then came across a Tamil movie, 'Unnaipol Oruvan'. Another good one. I have started liking Kamal Hassan even more after watching it, what an actor. Then 'Pursuit of Happiness' and there I am, liking Will Smith even more. Very rarely do movies get me to shed tears, this last one did. 

 
2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?: Not been reading any books for a while now. I have a whole stack that I had bought some time back. Sometimes the greed builds up so much and then after the initial rush, it just dies down for a while. Now I am into reading FB and Twitter posts. Special thanks to TOI for getting me hooked onto Twitter.

3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?: Many. It keeps changing. Business used to be a one time favorite. Chess has always been. Snake and ladder too. I still play these games when I go home.

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?: I guess there's nothing in particular. I read every thing that catches my eye and that could be caused by just about anything, a catchy caption on the cover page, or the cover page itself.

5. FAVORITE SMELLS?: The smell of wet earth during the rains, the smell of flowers in Mom's garden, the smell of home itself. Every time I get back home, I wonder how that smell never changes. Or maybe it is just a feeling. But I know that is the favorite on the list.
 
6. FAVORITE SOUND?: The sound of hearty laughter that springs directly from the stomach and even helps change my mood at times. It is best made by babies, as if born from their inherent innocence. And then the sound of anything that feels like music, the sound of the dancing rain, leaves rustling in the breeze, anything rhythmic and yea, not to forget. beautiful music, any kind, any mood.

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?: The feeling of loss, pain and regret. Every one would hate these, I know. For something unique, would be sight of a dog. I am really scared of dogs. I do think they are cute, but from a distance. As soon as they are within reachable distance, I loose all my cool.

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?: I wish I could sleep for five more minutes, and there goes the alarm into snooze. On a not so normal day, if it is something I am looking forward to, I will be all happy to wake up. In fact I might not even go to sleep. That is exactly what I do the night before I am to leave for home. On the other hand, If I already know that it is going to be a tough day, I might simply be more than happy to sleep through the day. ;)

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE? I used to like Seashells in Chennai a lot, not exactly a fast food place. It was a restaurant with a fast food attachment to it. Now, it could be any of those usual hangouts, KFC, Subway, etc, etc.

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? No clue. Too early to think about it, since I am still single and probably will not be even thinking of mingling any soon. I am happily single for now. But I do appreciate good names when I come across any, only that I forget them even faster.

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D...? Go around the world, but not in eighty days.

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST?: The last time I drove was when I was learning driving. Guess I will have to go back and retrain myself this vacation. I don't mind speed, but I prefer being careful nevertheless. Well, I had a cycle that I rode on, to school, and there were these two steep roads that I had to take every day. I used to love to let go free when the road was comparatively empty, but yea I am generally cautious.
 
13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?: Yuck question. I like my pillows by my side.

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?: Scary, of course. The only one I got to experience was here, in Lucknow. We were returning from a birthday party, in an auto, the road was under repair, the mud was being thrown upon our face by the storm, we all went blind and could scarcely breath and the driver had to finally stop and wait for a while until the storm got a bit calm. I felt bad for him, poor fellow, kept driving in spite of the mud blowing into his eyes and nose. 

15. WHAT WILL BE YOUR FIRST CAR?: Well the blogger who tagged me on this had modified the question for his convenience. I don't know what modification was made, so can I choose not to answer this one? Well, I really have no idea. I am yet undecided.  

16. FAVORITE DRINK? Lime juice, apple shake, but only if Mom makes them. Otherwise bournvita would be a safe choice. :P

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD..." : Would depend largely on my mood. I would generally prefer to talk (or rather listen) or hang out. If in helL, I would have loved to go on one of those evening walks, in solitude, just me, my music and helL sweet helL.

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI? No, I don't eat broccoli, then why eat the stems? Or was that question supposed to hint at something else. I have no idea.

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? Burgundi, I had actually tried it while in college, but failed miserably. Guess my Keralite hair is too adamant to go back on any of its typical characteristics.

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN. Born in Mumbai, lived in Thrissur for almost the entire part of my life until now, worked in Chennai, interned in Bangalore and for now in IIM Lucknow (I feel like calling it sweet helL again, maybe because of this feeling that my days here are counted).

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? No favorite sport as such. I do like to watch them when I have the company of people who like to watch them and get paranoid over it, please do not mistake this for sadistic pleasure. ;)

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.: This was probably the last post on his blog. I wish he reconsidered blogging, or to simply put it, writing. I think he has a flair for it.

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Nothing, I just checked under the bed for reassurance. :P

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN? : Yes, very much. I am in love with myself. I am my favorite (to make things clear, that was only a movie dialogue).

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL? : Depends, if I sleep in the afternoon, I can stay up all night, as is the case right now. I have a session at 7.45 am tomorrow. Wondering how I will pull myself together and get myself there and finally sit through it.

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP? : If this is regarding fried eggs, I like both, with a slightly overly preference for sunny side up.

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX? : Home sweet home

28. FAVORITE PIE? There is this snack in Kerala called 'ada' I don't know whether it can be classified under pies. But I can't think of any other pie right now and I am already hungry.

29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Chocolate

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST? I really have no clue. I feel that question was unnecessary. (njan mashinotam thudangiyitilla :P)

Early Bird NEED NOT Always Catch the Prey

Happy New Year to begin with. Well this post has nothing to do with my resolutions, neither is it a checklist of events for figuring out how bad or good 2010 had actually been. 

This happens to be the narration of a joint blunder that apparently proves that there could be exceptions when it comes to tried and tested proverbs too. It was some time towards the end of the last year and everyone at home was really excited about coming to Lucknow in March for probably one of their and my proudest moments of my life or their life or our life. Simply putting it, they were planning in advance the travel schedules and modes of travel to use, to get to Lucknow in March for my convocation.

That was when suddenly the players in the air travel sector decided to play a game of gamble to see if the government might just fall for their new proposal or rather it was their new call for a new card game with the government. They wanted permission to raise prices, not by bits and pieces, but they wanted it very much in the airline sector style, by a humongous amount (It is a way of asking for more in this sector, whether it be the ways of the pilots or the airhosts or any other person related to the airline sector by even the most svelte cord that ever existed on the face of the earth). That sounded a bit intimidating considering the fact that they are very good with playing with the airline fares even without any permissions. 

Finally after weighing the pros and cons the family decided that we better book our tickets right away, three months well in advance. when the prices were at their lowest best. So there I went ahead, locating the site which gave the lowest prices. Yatra.com made it through and we booked our tickets.  Thanks to the government, the price rise never happened as the airliners had wanted it to.

Now comes the part disproving the proverb. A couple of days back, we got a mail saying that the convo dates have been shifted by two days. Now slowly rang the alert bell in my head, my tickets!!! I disprove the proverb with enough evidences to support the action taken. The early bird did not catch the prey. It would also be fair enough to say that the prey caught the early bird instead.

Now it was the bird's turn to face the consequences. Then rang the second bell in my head (Thanks to the bells for their apt timings). The chief guest for the convo would be our Honorable Minister Mr Kapil Sibal. My father is an advocate and he had at times mentioned how much he would have liked it if we had  Mr. Kapil Sibal as the chief guest for our convo, Mr Kapil Sibal being one of those lawyers in the country who also plays an eminent role in running the country. Now this was a coincidence for the case of a lawyer and so I decided how to handle the situation. Anyways the proverb had already been disproved. It was time for some pacifying work to be done, even before the storm or the fire or whatever. This time I was trying to avoid the consequences of the idiom "Storm before the calm" :P (Why do I always have to link every incident of my life to an idiom or proverb or poem or quote. Well we will take up that for a separate post content.)

Yeah, so I was saying, I rang up my Dad and told him, not with so much of excitement, "Acha (means father in Malayalam), this time we have Kapil Sibal as the chief guest for our convo", and he was happy. Though momentary, only I knew that it would be so. Meanwhile I was still weighing the odds in my mind, "Should I tell him right away or when I call him next time?" So I went on about how lucky we are to have the minister, asked Dad whether he was happy with the news and then I broke the suspense and Dad is like, "OKie, that sounds interesting. Anyways Kapil Sibal is coming. The joy outweighs everything else". Well ,that sure  was  highly comforting. Then I give him the still worse information, like the increased fares, the cancellation charges charged by the airlines, to add up to that, the amount charged by yatra.com. He still sounded cool. That is what I like the most about my father, he never looses his cool.  

Those tasks done now I am still waiting for yatra.com to activate my cancellation button so that I can cancel my booked tickets. And look at the sweethearts there, they take 24 hours to activate a single button??? Another 72 working hours to refund the ticket amount. High time they learned something from IRCTC on this front. Hence to wrap up, the proverb stands confuted and I did not have to face the consequences of the idiom either. :P