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மாயை! - ‘சவால் சிறுகதை-2011’

2011-10-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

இக்கதையில் வரும் கதாபாத்திரங்கள், சம்பவங்கள் அனைத்தும் கற்பனையே

இன்று : காலை 9.30 மணி

"டேய் கார்த்திக், சீக்கிரமா கிளம்புடா, ஏற்கனவே லேட் ஆயிடுச்சி, இப்போ போய் பென் டிரைவ் தேடிட்டு இருக்கியே"... என்று அலறினாள் வாசலில் நின்ற ப்ரியா. "ஒரு நிமிஷம் டா... கிடைச்சிருச்சி" என்று சொல்லிக்கொண்டே வெளியே

வந்தான் கார்த்திக். இருவரும் காரை நோக்கி விரைந்து வந்தபின்.. "டேய் கார்த்திக், உன் ஞாபக மறதிக்கு ஒரு அளவே இல்லாம போச்சு டா, இன்னிக்கு மீடிங்க்கு வரப்போற எல்லாருமே தலை தெறிக்க ஓட போறாங்க பாரேன்" என்று நமட்டு சிரிப்புடன் கூறினாள். ஒன்றும் விளங்காதவனாய் புருவத்தை உயர்த்தி எ

ன்ன என்று அவளை உற்று நோக்கினான்... "இப்போ சொல்ல மாட்டேன், ஆபிஸ் போனதும் சொல்றேன் டா" என்று துள்ளி ஓடி, ஓட்டுனர் இருக்கையில் அமர்ந்து வண்டியை துவக்கினாள்.

"எனக்கு மட்டும் தான் ஞாபக மறதியா?... உனக்கும் கூடத்தான், நேற்று நடந்ததை மறந்துட்டியா?"... என்றவனிடம்

"அதேன்னவோடா, உன்னோட பேசிட்டு உன் ரூம்ல இருந்து போறப்ப எதையோ மறந்துட்டு போறா மாதிரி ஒரு உணர்வு".. என்று கூறி அழகாய் புன்னகைத்தாள்...

சிறிது நேரம் மௌனித்து துவங்கிய பயணத்தில் "

என்னமோ தெரியலடி இப்போல்லாம் நீ என்னை ரொம்பவே ரசிக்கிற ப்ரியா... இந்த தருணங்கள் எனக்கு ரொம்ப புடிச்சிருக்கு" என்று கூறி கொண்டே மௌனத்தை கலைத்து பண்பலை கூவியின் பொத்தானை அழுத்தி

னான்... "கோகுலத்து கண்ணா கண்ணா, சீதை இவள் தானா".. என்ற பாட்டை கேட்டதும்...

"ப்ரியா!... கோகுலம்ன்னு கேட்டதும் ஞாபகம் வருது!, இன்னிக்கு கோகுல் வருவானில்ல?"... என்றவனிடம்...

"உன்னோட ரெண்டு கேள்விக்கும் ஒரே பதில் தான், ஆமா" என்றாள்...

"ரெண்டாவது கேள்வியா?.. நான் ஒன்னு

தானே கேட்டேன்" என்ற கார்த்திக்கின் தலை கோதி கண் சிமிட்டி, "இதுக்குதாண்டா உன்னை ரொம்பவே ரசிக்கிறேன்" என்று புன்னகைத்தாள்.

சிறிது நேரத்தில் "விளையாடு மங்காத்தா... விடமாட்டா எங்காத்தா" என்று அவளது அலைபேசி அடிக்கவே, அதை ஆன் செய்து "சொல்லுங்க விஷ்ணு".. என்றாள். மறுமுனையில் பேசியது என்ன என்று தெரியவில்ல. பதிலுக்கு இவள் ஆமா, படிச்சேன், புரிஞ்சுது...... சார் மேடம் எல்லாம் சரிதான்.....அங்கேதான் போறோம், கார்த்திக் என்னோட தான் வரார் . நான் வண்டி ஓட்டிட்டு இருக்கேன் அப்புறம் கூப்பிடுறேனே" என்றாள்.

"யாரு?" - என்றான்

"விஷ்ணு" என்றவள், "இன்னிக்கு ஏன் மீடிங்க்கு வர்றவங்க ஓடிபோவாங்கன்னு சொன்னேன் தெரியுமா?".

"ஆமா, கேக்க மறந்துட்டேன், ஏன் ஓடி

போவாங்க?" என்றவனிடம்

"கார்த்திக் உன் ஜிப்பை போடு டா"... என்று கூறி உரக்க சிரித்தாள்...

"ஆனாலும் நீ அநியாத்துக்கு தல ரசிகைடி.. இந்த பாட்டை ரிங் டோனா வேற யார் போன்லையும் நான் கேட்டதில்லை" என்று கூறிக்

கொண்டே எதுவுமே நடக்காதது போலவே அவனும் ஜிப்பை சரி செய்து முடிக்கவும் வண்டி அலுவலகத்திற்கு வந்து நின்றது.

இன்று - காலை 10.45 மணி

உள்ளே நுழைந்தவர்கள், நுழைவு வாயிலில் தங்கள் கைரேகைகளை பதித்து முன்னால் நடந்தனர்.

"ராகுல், கோகுல் வந்தாச்சா?"...என்று கேட்டுக்கொண்டே ப்ரியா தனது இருக்கையில் அமர்தாள்.

"என்ன ப்ரியா இது, நீங்க ரெண்டு பெரும் இவ்ளோ லேட்டாவா வர்றது?"..

"கோகுல் இன்னும் வரலை. அவன் எப்போதுமே லேட்டாதான் வர்றான்.. சரி நாம மீட்டிங்க்கு போகலாம்" என்று கூறி பக்கத்துக்கு அறைக்கு சென்றனர்.

அறையில் நுழைந்ததும், இரண்டு அந்நிய நாட்டு நண்பர்கள் அவர்களை புன்னகையுடன் வரவேற்றனர்.

"கார்த்திக், கோகுலுக்கு ஒரு போன் பண்ணி கோட் மெசேஜ் பண்ண சொல்லு" என்று காதில் கிசு கிசுத்தாள் ப்ரியா. கார்த்திக் அதற்கு தலையசைத்து தனது கைபேசியை தட்டி விட்டான். இந்நேரத்தில் ராகுல் அந்நிய நாட்டு நண்பர்களுடன் காதில் ஏதோ செய்தி பரிமாறிக்கொண்டு இருவரையும் நோக்கி விரைந்து வந்தான்.

"கார்த்திக், உனக்கே தெரியும் இது எவ்ளோ முக்கியமான ப்ராஜக்ட்ன்னு, நம்ம கிளைன்ட் வெயிட் பண்ணிட்டு இருக்காங்க, கோகு

ல் இன்னும் வரலை, கோட் இல்லன்னா நாம இவங்களுக்கு டெமோ காட்ட முடியாது. இந்த ப்ராஜக்ட் போச்சுன்னா உன் வேலை போச்சு".

அமைதியாய், கையிலிருந்த கைபேசி அதிர்வை உணர்து அதில் வந்த குறுஞ்செய்தியை படித்து விட்டு...."கோட் வந்துருச்சு ராகுல்.. கோகுல் மெசேஜ் அனுப்பிட்டான்" என்று சொல்லி தனது மடி கணினியை செயலூட்டினா

ன்.

ராகுல் மனதிற்குள் மகிழ்ச்சியுடன், முகத்தில் பரபரப்பை காட்டினான்... சிறிது நேரத்தில் கணினியில் அந்நிய நாட்டு நபர்களுக்கு கார்த்திக் டெமோ காண்பித்து முடித்தான்... ராகுலுக்கு ஒன்றும் விளங்கவில்லை ஆயினும் வெளிக்காட்டி கொள்ளாமல் கார்த்திக்கை பாராட்டி விட்டு தனது இருக்கைக்கு விரைந்தான்.

இன்று மதியம் 1.30 மணி

கார்த்திக்கின் அறையில் கோகுலும் அமர்ந்

திருந்தான்... "எப்போதும் மெயில் அனுப்புற விஷ்ணு நேற்று சீட்டு வச்சிட்டு போனப்பவே சந்தேகமா இருந்துச்சு கார்த்திக், நீ நேற்று மாலை 7 மணிக்கு போன் பண்ணி சொன்னப்போ நம்பவே முடியலை.. இப்போ புரியுது." என்று கோகுல் கூற...

"சரி அதான் பிளானை காலி பண்ணிட்டோமே அப்புறம் என்ன... வேலையை பார்ப்போம்" என்று கோகுலை கழற்றி விட்டான்.

நேற்று மாலை 3.30 மணி

தனது மேஜையிலுள்ள காகிதங்களை அகற்றயில், ஒரு நீல நிற பையில் கீழே விழுந்தது, அதிலிருந்து இரண்டு துண்டு சீட்டுகள் வெளியில் விழுந்தன. அதனை எடுத்து பிரித்து படிக்கலானான்.. ஒன்றில் எழுதி இருந்தது... "Mr. கோகுல் S W H2 6F - இதுதான் குறியீடு. கவனம் - விஷ்ணு" எனவும் இன்னொன்றில், "Sir, எஸ். பி. கோகுலிடம் நான் தவறான குறியீட்டைதான் கொடுத்திருக்கிறேன் கவலைவேண்டாம். - விஷ்ணு" என்றும் எழுதி இருந்ததன் அர்த்தம் விளங்குவதர்க்குள்.... "விளையாடு மங்காத்தா, விடமாட்ட எங்காத்தா" என்று போன் சில காகிதங்களினடியில் அலறியது. எடுத்த பொழுது "Vishnu Informer calling" என்று தெரிந்தது

யுரேகா ஓட்டம் 2011

2011-10-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

அக்டோபர் 2ஆம் தியதி டில்லியில், டைம்ஸ் ஆப் இந்திய நாளிதளால் இந்நிறுவனத்திற்கு "Social Impact Award" கிடைத்தது குறிப்பிட தக்கது. மேலும் இந்த விருதை தமிழகத்திலுள்ள நெர்குனபட்டு என்ற கிராமத்தை சேர்ந்த அஸ்வினி என்கிற பெண் பெற்றுக்கொண்டார். அஸ்வினி 4ஆம் வகுப்பில் தமிழ் வாசிக்க தெரியாமால் தடுமாறிய ஒரு குழந்தை. இவரது தந்தை வீட்டை விட்டு வெளியேறிவிட்டார் மற்றும் தாயார் மன நலம் குன்றியவர். 4ஆம் வகுப்பில் இவரால் வாசிக்க இயலாததைக்கண்டு யுரேகா கல்வி இயக்கத்தினர், பகுதி நேர வகுப்பில் சேர்த்தனர்.. தற்போது 11ஆம் வகுப்பு படிக்கும் அஸ்வினி ஒரு கவிஞர். தன்னம்பிக்கையும் தைரியமும் உள்ள ஒரு புதுமை பெண். இதுபோல் ஆயிரமாயில் அஸ்வினிகள் யுரேகா கல்வி இயக்கத்தின் மூலம் பயனுருகின்றனர். இதற்க்கு நீங்களும் உதவி புரியலாம்.

ஒவ்வொரு வருடமும் நவம்பர் மாதம் 14ஆம் தியதி குழந்தைகள் தினமாக கொண்டாடப்படுகின்றது.. குழந்தைகள் தினத்தினை முன்னிட்டு யுரேகா கல்வி இயக்கம் இரண்டாவது ஆண்டாக சென்னை மரினாவில் "யுரேகா ஓட்டம்" நடத்தவுள்ளது .

தமிழ்நாட்டில் அனைத்து குழந்தைகளுக்கும் தரமான கல்வி கிடைக்க வேண்டுமென்பதர்க்காகவும், தற்போதய கல்வி நிலையை மக்களுக்கு எடுத்து சொல்வதற்காகவும் இந்த ஓட்டம் நடைபெற உள்ளது. யுரேகா கல்வி இயக்கம் தனது பணியை தற்போது தமிழகத்தில் 1000 கிராமங்களில் செய்து வருகிறது. ஒவ்வொரு கிராமத்திலும் மாலை நேர வகுப்புகள் மூலம் குழந்தைகளுக்கு தரமான கல்வியினை அளித்து வருகிறது. உங்களை மற்றும் என்னைப்போல தன்னார்வ தொண்டாளர்களின் உதவியுடன் கல்வி மட்டுமல்லாது ஆரோக்கியம், மற்றும் ஒருமித்த கிராம வளர்ச்சி பணிகளை செய்ய துவங்கி உள்ளது. இன்னும் சில வருடங்களில் 1000 மாதிரி கிராமங்களை உருவாக்குவதை இலக்காக கொண்டு செயல்பட்டு வருகிறோம்.

இந்த யுரேகா ஓட்டத்தில் பங்கு கொள்ளுங்கள்... நீங்களும் யுரேகா கல்வி இயக்கத்திற்கு உங்கள் ஆதரவை அளியுங்கள்..

நாள் : நவம்பர் 12, 2011

இடம் : சென்னை மரினா கடற்கரை,

துவக்கம் : காந்தி சிலை அருகில்

நேரம் : காலை மணி 6.30

வலைத்தளத்தில் பதிவிட - http://www.eurekachild.org/run2011/

முகநூலில் உங்கள் வரவை பதிந்திட - https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=231319860256166

உங்களால் உங்கள் நண்பர்களிடதோ அல்லது உங்கள் அலுவலகத்திலோ பதிவு சீட்டை விற்க முடிந்தால் பதிவு சீட்டுகளை பெற அணுகவும் - செல்வா - 9790951652 , volunteer@aidindia.in

முகநூலில் பின்தொடர - https://www.facebook.com/EurekaChildFoundation

கல்வி அளியுங்கள்!!!

2011-07-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

கேடில் விழுச்செல்வம் கல்வி ஒருவர்க்கு

மாடல்ல மற்றை யவை

என்று உவந்தருளிய வள்ளுவர் பிறந்த நாட்டில் வாழும் ஏழை குழந்தைகள் அனைவருக்கும் கல்வி புகட்டும் பொருட்டு பல அரசு பள்ளிகள் இயங்கி வருகின்றன. ஆனால் அவ்வரசு பள்ளிகளில் பயிலும் அணைத்து குழந்தைகளுக்கும் தரமான கல்வி கிடைக்கின்றதா என்று ஆராய்ந்தால் குறைவே. இதற்கு பல காரணங்களை நம்மால் கூற இயன்றாலும் பாதிக்க படுவதென்னவோ ஏழை குழந்தைகள் தான்.

இவ்வாறு கல்வி முழுவதுமாக கெடைக்க பெறாத ஏழை குழந்தைகளுக்கு கல்வி கிடைக்க பெறுவதற்காக இயங்கும் ஒரு அமைப்பு யூரேகா கல்வி இயக்கம். இவ்வியக்கம் உங்களையும், என்னையும் போல் படித்து நல்ல வேலையில் அமர்ந்துள்ள சில நல்லுள்ளம் கொண்டவர்களின் மனதில் உதித்தது. இவர்களில் பலர் ஐ.ஐ.டி, பிட்ஸ் போன்ற கல்லூரிகளில் படித்து, நல்ல பணியிலும் இருந்தனர். இவ்விக்கள் ஆரம்பிக்கும் பொருட்டு அவர்களது வேலைகளை துறந்து பொது பணிகளில், அதுவும் கல்வி தரத்தை உயர்த்தும் பணியில் தங்களை ஈடுபடுத்திக்கொண்டனர். இவர்களது இடைவிடாத உழைப்பாலும், ஆராய்ச்சியாலும் பல எளிய வகை கல்வி சாதனங்களை உருவாக்கினர். பின்னர் இச்சாதனங்களை கிராமங்களில் உள்ள குழந்தைகளிடம் கொண்டு சென்றனர். மேலும் இச்சாதனங்கள் அனைவருக்கும் பயன்பட வேண்டுமென கருதி மிக குறைந்த பொருட்செலவில் அவற்றை உருவாக்கினர்.

கடந்த பதினைந்து வருடமாக கல்வியில் சேவை செய்து வரும் இவர்கள் தற்போது தமிழ் நாட்டில் ஆயிரம் கிராமங்களில் பணி புரிகின்றனர். இந்த ஆயிரம் கிராமங்களில் ஒரு கிராமத்திற்கு சராசரியாக 75 குழந்தைகளுக்கு கல்வி புகட்டுகின்றனர். இதை யூரேகா சுப்பர் கிட்ஸ் என்னும் ப்ரோக்ராம் மூலம் செய்து வருகின்றனர். இவர்களது பயிற்சி முக்கியமாக அரசு பள்ளிகளுக்கு செல்லும் குழந்தைகளுக்கு மிகவும் உதவியாக இருக்கும் பொருட்டு வடிவமைக்க பட்டுள்ளது. ஒவ்வொரு கிராமத்திலும் இரண்டு அல்லது மூன்று ஆசிரியர்களை தேர்ந்து எடுக்கிறார்கள். அவ்வாசிரியர்கள் பகுதி நேரமாகவோ, முழு நேரமாகவோ இந்த பயிற்சி மைய்யங்களில் பங்கு கொள்ளல்லாம்.மேலும் பத்தாவது அல்லது பன்னிரெண்டாவது வகுப்பு படித்து வேலை தேடும் மாணவர்களோ அல்லது மாணவிகளோ இருந்தால் அவர்களுக்கு முக்கியத்துவம் அளித்து வாய்ப்பு அளிக்கின்றனர். இம்மாதிரி தேர்வு செய்யப்பட்ட ஆசிரியர்களுக்கு மாதம் தோறும் பயிற்சி அளிக்கப்படுகின்றது. மேலும் வகுப்பில் அவர்கள் உபயோகிக்க பாட நூல்கள் மற்றும் பல வகையான கலந்துரையாடும் முறை கொண்ட கல்வி பயிற்சி அளிக்கும் சாதனங்களும் அளிக்கப்படுகின்றன. இவர்கள் தினமும் மாலை நான்கு மணி முதல் ஏழு மணி வரை கிராமங்களில் உள்ள குழந்தைகளை, பொதுவான ஒரு இடத்தில் சேர்த்து அங்கு வகுப்புகளை நடத்துகின்றனர். நாளடைவில் பெற்றோர்கள் தங்கள் குழந்தைகளின் முன்னேற்றத்தை கண்டு அவர்களும் இப்பொழுது இயக்கத்தில் பங்கு கொள்ள ஆரம்பித்துள்ளனர்.

நான் இவ்வியக்கதுடன் கடந்த எட்டு வருடமான தன்னார்வ தொண்டாளனாய் உள்ளேன். கடந்த ஆண்டு யூரேகா கல்வி இயக்கம் தோற்றுவித்த "adopt a village" என்னும் திட்டம் மூலம், எந்த ஒரு தனி நபரும் இவ்வியக்கம் நடத்தி வரும் சேவைக்கு உதவ வழி வகுத்து. இதன் மூலம் ஒருவர் ஒரு கிராமத்தில் ஓராண்டுக்கு ஆகும் செலவை ஏற்று 75 குழந்தைகளுக்கு கல்வி அளிக்கலாம். நான் 2 கிராமங்களை தத்தெடுதுள்ளேன். இரண்டு நாட்களுக்கு முன் மூன்று கிராமங்களுக்கு சென்று அங்குள்ள மையங்கள் எவ்வாறு இயங்குகின்றன என கண்காணிக்க சென்றேன். அங்குள்ள ஆசிரியர்கள் காட்டும் ஆர்வமும், ஆவர்களது பயிற்சி முறைகளும் மெய்சிலிர்க்க வைத்தன.மேலும் இவ்வாசிரியர்கள் வெறும் 600 ரூபாயில் இருந்து 1000 ருபாய் மட்டுமே ஊதியமாக பெறுகிறார்கள். மேலும் சில பெற்றோர்கள் என்னிடம் வந்து இந்த கல்வி மையங்களை மேலும் பல கிராமங்களில் தொடங்கி சேவை செய்யுங்கள் என்றும் அன்போடு வேண்டிக்கொண்டார்கள். என்னால் இயன்ற வரை ஒரு தன்னார்வ தொண்டாளனாய் முடிந்த வரை சேவை செய்து வருகிறேன் மேலும் 2 கிராமங்களை தத்தெடுதுள்ளேன்... இதை மற்றவர்களிடம் எடுத்துரைப்பதன் மூலம் மேலும் பலர் எவ்வியக்கதிர்க்கு உதவ முன் வருவர் என்று எண்ணுகிறேன்!...

எங்களை பற்றி மேலும் அறிய இனைய முகவரியான http://aidindia.in அல்லது http://eureka.aidindia.in . மேலும் விபரங்களுக்கு என்னை மின்னஞ்சல் மூலம் தொடர்பு கொள்ளலாம் aid.selva@gmail.com , என்னுடைய கைபேசி எண் 9790951652

A lie

2011-06-19T01:37:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: All the Characters and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

"Your kind attention please!, this is the final boarding call for the passengers travelling in Air India flight AI 540 to New Delhi, I repeat.. AI 540 to New Delhi. Passengers are requested to proceed for boarding through Gate No 7 on the first floor"....

"Priya darling!, our flight is ready to departure, lets move"... told Karthik to his 8 year old child Priya.

"What is departure daddy?"... asked Priya.

"Departure means to start from the place"... told Karthik and both moved from there.

After receiving the welcome smile from the hostess, he moved forward and was waiting for the passengers in front of him to clear the way. He then moved towards his seat forward and placed the bags on the top after pulling out a book to read and settled in the allotted seats 12 A and B. After making himself comfortable he turned to Priya and said her to tie her belt and helped her through the process.

"You sit in the window seat all the time, I will be sitting there while we return pa".. cribbed Priya. He then nodded his head and said an yes to her and opened his book.

"Karthik!"... the voice of Priya took him by surprise when he raised his head from the book and to notice Priya standing in front of her. He didn't even imagine he would come across her. It was 4 years since they met. After such a long time she is now the co-passenger with him in the aisle seat.

"Do you know this aunty dad?"... questioned Priya to her father and he nodded his head to say an Yes. "How are you Priya?"....he then looked at Priya and asked, then he leaned into his child's ear and whispered " This is the Priya aunty whose story I have been telling you all the time".

Both were so much embarrassed to be together there after the take off and the little girl could sense that. She then intended to break the silence between them and looked up to Priya and said "Aunty my name is also Priya!, and my daddy never lies to me!". Karthik was so much surprised to see his daughter being so smart but he didn't expressed it out. He just caressed his daughters head and smiled at her.

After a few more moments of silence Priya decided to break the silence and she turned to them and questioned "Am I so good Karthik?".... and to surprise even before Karthik responded his daughter answered, "Aunty this seems to be a dialog from the old tamil movie Vinnaithandi Varuvaya, probably for a change you should have asked my dad Are you that good Karthik?" and laughed after it.

Priya's expression showed that she was impressed with the little girl and she said "You talk very smartly dear!" and caressed her. "Didn't your mom come with you?" questioned Priya and the little girl looked up to Karthik when he responded "She is already there in Delhi and we will be coming back together".

"I wanted to meet her Karthik".. said Priya and he answered "Sure. Do come home some time". The little girl now got up and went out to the loo.

"When did you adopt her Karthik?" asked Priya

"The processing took 2 years, now she is with us for the past 1.5 years?" again there was a little bit of silence in the air and the silence made Karthik sense some question is on due for him. She knew that he is never going to ask her anything. "I'm glad to see you so happy Karthik".... her mind spoke to herself, but the silence continued.

"Why don't you lie to your daughter Priya?".. suddenly she threw a question to Karthik. His mind read "how do females are bold enough to ask whatever they want to and why all the females want answer for every question of theirs?".... he raised his head and nodded on to her to just give a simple plain smile to her. There are some things for which silence is the best answer rather than explaining with millions of words and in fact she is the one who make Karthik realize that. So he knew that she would understand. And he as she understood that she exclaimed "The one who is named as Priya is always smart isn't it?".

While walking out from the Indira Gandhi International airport T3, she said "I'll definitely come to visit your home some day Karthik", "take care da Priya sweet heart, see you soon" and walked to board her taxi.

Once she departed the young child seeing her dad, "The one lie you said about mom today holds much more value than the always said truth pa!". He just hugged her and kissed her head!.

"What if the aunty comes home pa, what will we then tell about mom?" asked the child for which he smiled and told her "She will not come da Priya!" and walked towards his taxi.

The sweetness of many a stories lies in it's bitter ending!....

ஒரு பொய்

2011-06-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

இக்கதையில் வரும் கதாபாத்திரங்கள், சம்பவங்கள் அனைத்தும் கற்பனையே

பயணிகளின் கனிவான கவனத்திற்கு, சென்னையிலிருந்து டெல்லி செல்லும் ஏர் இந்தியா விமானம் AI 540 தற்போது புறப்பட தயாராக உள்ளது. இவ்விமானத்தில் பயணிக்கும் பயணிகள் அனைவரும் வாயில் எண் 7 வழியாக விமானம் நோக்கி செல்லவும்.

"ப்ரியா செல்லம், நம்ம flight வந்தாச்சு... வா போகலாம்".... தனது 8 வயது மகளை அழைத்தான் கார்த்திக்.

"அப்பா, வாயில்ன்னா என்னப்பா?"... அப்பாவியாய் கேட்ட மகளிடம்... "வாசல் டா கண்ணா"... என்று கூறி புறப்பட்டான்.

விமான பணிப்பெண்ணுக்கு வணக்கம் சொல்லிவிட்டு தனது முன்னால் செல்பவர் வழிவிடும் வரை நின்று பின் தனது இருக்காய் நோக்கி சென்றான். 12 A, B இருக்கையில் அமர்ந்ததும், "ப்ரியா, belt மாட்டிக்கோடா" என்று அவளுக்கு பெல்டை மாட்டிவிட்டான்.

"எப்பபாத்தாலும் ஜன்னல் சீட்ல நீயே உக்கார்ரப்பா.. திரும்ப வரும்போது நான் உக்காருவேன்"... சண்டையிட்ட ப்ரியாவிடம் "சரி டா".. என்று சொல்லி தனது புத்தகத்தை திறந்து படிக்கலானான்.

"கார்த்திக்!"... ப்ரியாவின் குரல் கேட்டு நிமிர்தவனுக்கு அதிர்ச்சி.... நினைத்துக்கூட பார்க்கவில்லை மீண்டும் ப்ரியாவை சந்திப்பான் என்று.... 4 ஆண்டுகள் பின் இன்று விமானத்தில் அவன் இருக்கைக்கு அருகில்.

"அப்பா உனக்கு இந்த ஆண்டியை தெரியுமா?"... ப்ரியா கேட்டாள்.... தெரியும் என தலையசைத்துவிட்டு.... அவளை நோக்கி.... "எப்படி இருக்கீங்க ப்ரியா?" என்று மட்டும் கேட்டுவிட்டு, தனது மகளை நோக்கி... "இவங்க பேர்தான் ப்ரியா.. அப்பா உனக்கு கதை சொல்லுவேன் இல்லயா... அந்த ஆண்ட்டி இவங்கதான்".... என்று அவள் காதில் மெல்லியதாய் கூறினான்.

அவள் இருக்கையில் அமர்ந்த பின்னும் நெகிழ்ச்சியில் இருவராலும் எதவும் பேசிக்கொள்ள இயலாததை உணரந்தவளாய் அந்த சிறுமி, ப்ரியாவை நோக்கி... "ஆண்ட்டி, என் பேர் கூட ப்ரியா தான், அப்புறம் எங்க அப்பா என்கிட்ட பொய் செல்லவே மாட்டார்"... அவ்வளவு ஸ்மார்டா பேசுகின்ற தன் பெண்ணை பார்த்து ஆச்சர்யத்தில் திளைத்தும் வெளிகொணராமல் புன்னகை உதிர்த்து தனது மகளின் தலை கோதினான்.

சில நிமிட மௌனத்தின் பின், அவளே மௌனத்தை உடைத்தாள்.

"நான் என்ன அவ்ளோ நல்லவளா கார்த்திக்?"... நெகிழ்ச்சியில் அவள் கேட்க்க, இவன் பதில் கூறும் முன், அவனது மகள் முந்திக்கொண்டு "ஆண்ட்டி இந்த dialog விண்ணைத்தாண்டி வருவாயா படத்துலையே கேட்டாங்க.. நீங்க ஒரு changeக்கு, நீங்க என்ன அவ்ளோ நல்லவரா கார்திக்ன்னு கேட்டிருக்கலாமே?"... என்று கூறி சிரித்தாள்.

"நீ ரொம்ப ஸ்மார்ட்டா பேசரடி".. என்று சிறுமியின் தலை தழுவி.... "உங்கம்மா வரலையா?" என்று கேட்டாள்... சிறுமி நிமிர்ந்து கார்த்திக்கை பார்க்க..."அவங்க already போய்ட்டாங்க.. திரும்பி வரும்போது ஒண்ணா வருவோம்".. என்றான்.

"நான் அவங்களை பார்க்கணுமே கார்த்திக்?".... கேட்டவளிடம் "கண்டிப்பா, ஒரு நாள் வீட்டுக்கு வாங்க"... என்று கூறினான்.

"அப்பா நான் bathroom போயிட்டு வர்றேன்"...என்று சொல்லி ப்ரியா அங்கிருந்து அகன்றாள்

"எப்போ adopt பண்ணீங்க கார்த்திக்?"....

"Processing 2 வருஷம் ஆச்சு, இப்போ எங்களோட வந்து 1.5 வருஷம் ஆச்சு"...

மீண்டும் மௌனம் நிலவ.... "நீங்க சந்தோஷமா இருக்கறத பார்க்க சந்தோஷமா இருக்கு"... மனதுக்குள் கூரியவளாய்... நீங்க ப்ரியாகிட்ட ஏன் பொய் சொல்றதில்லன்னு கேட்டாள்...

அதெப்படி பெண்கள் மட்டும் தங்கள் எல்லா கேள்விக்கும் விடை தேடுகிறார்கள்?... அதுமட்டுமல்லாது எந்த கேள்வியை வேண்டுமானாலும் கேட்டு விடுகிறார்கள்... என்று நினைத்துக்கொண்டே சிறிதாய் ஒரு புன்னகை மட்டும் உதிர்த்து மௌனத்தை பதிலாய் தந்தான்.... சில விஷயங்களை சொல்லி புரியவைப்பதை விட சொல்லாமல் புரியவைக்க கற்றுகொடுத்த குருவே அவள்தான்!.... புரிந்து கொண்டவளாய் மேலும் தொடராமல் "ப்ரியான்னு பேர் வச்சிட்டாலே ஸ்மார்ட் ஆயிடறாங்கல்ல"... என்று கூறி புன்னகைத்தாள்....

டெல்லி விமான நிலையத்திலிருந்து வெளியில் வந்ததும், "கண்டிப்பா ஒரு நாள் உங்க வீட்டுக்கு வர்றேன் கார்த்திக்" "take care டா குட்டி "... என்று சின்ன பெண்ணிடம் கூறிவிட்டு விடைபெற்றாள்.

அவள் சென்றதும் கார்த்திக்கிடம் சிறுமி "அப்பா இதுவரைக்கும் நீங்க ப்ரியாகிட்ட சொன்ன உண்மைகளை விட இன்னிக்கு நீங்க அம்மா இருக்காங்கன்னு சொன்ன பொய் ரொம்ப ரொம்ப உயர்ந்ததுப்பா".... என்று சொல்ல.... அவளை அணைத்து முத்தமிட்டான்.

"அவங்க வீட்டுக்கு வந்தா என்னப்பா பண்றது?".. என்று அறியாமல் கேட்ட சிறுமியிடம்... "அவங்க வரமாட்டாங்க டா".... என்று சொல்லி நடக்கலானான்.

பல கதைகளின் இனிமையை உணர்வதற்கு அதன் கசப்பான முடிவுகளே காரணம்...

Oosal

2011-04-21T08:28:00.001-07:00

My first attempt to make a short film of my story. I couldn't add title card and the subtitle track. The editing might not be that perfect as well. Trying to learn the tricks :). Please feel free to comment / give feedback on the same. Exploring film making!. Special thanks to Shalia Vijaya Raja and his wife Shyamala.

I'm-patient

2011-02-28T09:52:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: All the Characters and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

27^th December , Monday, 10.40 hours

Mr. Karthik has been adjusted as the criminal in this case as he had accepted the convict of the murder. The final hearing of this case will happen now on 7^thJanuary, 2011.

24^th December , Friday, 17.50 hours

Karthik was just moving out of the car parking towards the lift, while Priya rang up…. “Karthik, I have to go on a week long business trip to Mumbai!. Can you just pack my bags as I’ll have to rush out. Just ring me once you reach upstairs, I’ll guide you through”. She hung up before Karthik could tell her about what had happened. He was still confused what he had decided was right or not. He just walked past to the lift when the security called him. “Sir, you haven’t checked your pigeon hole”. He was also kind enough to collect the couple of letters from it for him.

24^th December , Friday, 18.15 hours

“This is why I love you so much Karthik, you are a darling” said Priya on the phone as soon as Karthik completed the packing. “Priya listen, I have something serious to discuss about with you!...”

24^th December, Friday, 16.40 hours

“Karthik, we didn’t expect this from you. The blunder you’ve made has made the companies shares go down. We are at an all time low and it will take several months for us to build up our reputation back!, Considering the contribution you’ve made to our company, we haven’t fired you yet but don’t let your concentrations go down and be careful in whatever you do from here on. You may go now” yelled Vimal at Karthik….

Karthik knew that Vimal could have sorted this out prior, but Vimal wanted Karthik to commit this and take advantage over him. So many similar incidents with Vimal and Karthik decided that he is going to do this as he can’t bear any more. Vimal could gather what’s running on Karthik’s mind but somewhere his jealousy was jumping in the air!.

24^th December , Friday, 18.45 hours

Priya could sense Karthik’s anger and she was shocked to hear what Kathik had just told her. “Karthik you are not going to do anything like this O.K.. Listen!, I’m going to reach home in 30 mins. We will then talk and figure it out but forget this Karthik!”.. Priya hung up. Karthik just kept the phone aside and picked up the letters that he had collected. Credit Card bills and then a personalized cover for Priya.

24^th December , Friday, 22.30 hours

It was a very chilly night with dense fog around. The policemen were taking Karthik. He had called the police station and informed about the murder. There was just a bit of unwary situation among the neighbors.

24^th December, Friday 22.10 hours

“Why did you do this Mr. Karthik?” Questioned the police man.

He gave the personalized cover which had a letter stating “Priya, we decided to leave town today but I am sorry that I can’t do this to my family. I am not going to run away with you. I still love you so much and take good care of yourself! – Love, Raghav”.

Inspector looks into the letter and sarcastically smiles at Karthik and says. “Mr. Karthik, this letter is addressed to Miss. Priya, flat number 19 B and yours is 19 D. Someone might have posted it wrongly in your pigeon hole, You could have held your nerves”.

“I just slapped Priya and didn’t know that she’ll badly crash on to the wall and….”Karthik couldn’t speak further.

Thought for Food!

2011-02-09T21:54:00.000-08:00

Had thought of writing this earlier as well but yesterday’s news of Superme Court’s direction to Food Safety & Standards authority made me write this now http://bit.ly/hmCzE . I remember we used to play cricket on the streets. When a team bats first one / two member of the team will be the umpire as the other team has to field. And we all know how faithful the umpire’s would be. The only consoling part in that was both the team had a chance to have their turns of doing the referral part. The point of including agents from food industry in the scientific panels in fact looked very similar to the way we used to appoint the umpire!. It’s glad news that our esteemed SC brought this up.

I have been quite observing the advertisement industry over a period of time, I get to see tons of new advertisements basically targeting the minds of children and parents, repetitively arguing on health and nutrition and emphasizing their product fulfill / is the solution to anyone’s need!. We have earlier seen a company makes a food product and the other company produces another one as a competition to this and they advertise both are the best and so on… but now a day’s the same company makes multiple food products and educates us on nutrition and health and that too at the end states that this has been certified by Indian Medical Association, Indian Doctor’s Council. As per these advertisement and the doctors recommendations at the end of the advertisement, my basic mind analyzes and feels that a child between the age of 4 and 8 can survive with 2 glasses of complain / horlicks / boost / _________ [fill in the drink which you likeJ] and 2 biscuits made by HLL / ITC / P&G / Britannia / __________ [fill in your favorite company] as they contain all the essential proteins, vitamins, minerals and nutritions.

This is a serious threat!, where they produce false information [false certified information to be precise]. Children after watching these advertisements start to endorse a brand over a period of time. [I’d argue that we should not let children watch all these, but how many of the parents take care of that] Most of the food products don’t reveal their product information at all and seriously there are no ways in our country to access those. I have never understood what does permitted colors, permitted favors or permitted edible oil means?. We can still go ahead and say that we trust these companies make food products for the benefit of improving children health and nutrition, but none of their histories add values to it!. We’ve heard stories of violation of act on every possible industry.

There used to be a chapter of lesson on our school books on food adulteration, which some where helped us to understand the hidden logics of making profit. We used to [at least I] be aware and catch if any of our food being adulterated by local vendors because they packed things in front of us. Now there is no ways for me or you to know how things are made. Now all we know is two glasses of milk is equivalent to one packet of milk bikis. Thanda matlab coca cola… and so on!...

Overall what I could gather is during my childhood days, most of the food products were a luxury and over a period of time these have now being advertised as a need!. All I could now gather is a statement of a friend in her status “Why would anyone advertise a product which is a need!”. With the SC’s decision on suggesting an umpire who doesn’t belong to the same team which is playing, we could just hope that the regulations will be not just benefiting the multi nationals!.

Customer (don't) Care!

2011-01-26T23:48:00.000-08:00

Have been pondering to yell out on this topic for quite a while... in the name of customer care, I've experienced nothing other than harassment. I think majority of you would agree with me in this... I have many such incidents out of which I'd take a couple of them here for the discussion. Incidentally, this is my first post this year and I had no intentions to crib in the beginning of the year :D. And yes after a very long time I am penning an non-fiction as well :).

I use yatra.com to book my flight tickets for travel. Unfortunately while filling the booking details and before confirming the payment I forgot to uncheck the box which had an option of taking travel insurance. A couple of days later I received a call from TATA AIG insurance guys referring to my earlier travel insurance and said that as a very beloved customer of them and the chosen one among a lot they’d like to offer me a one year long medical insurance for which they’ll debit x amount and the insurance claim is y amount etc., etc., I politely refused. I got calls again for 6-7 times from different set of people briefing about all the blah blah’s of the policy and all my answers has been a “NO”. Finally another representative calls me telling “Thank you for choosing TATA AIG insurance sir.. these these are the benefits of the policy” I liked only one statement of the complete conversation which was “Sir in case after receiving the policy document if you are not satisfied with the policy you can call our customer care and cancel the same and a processing fees of Rs. 99/- will be charged and the policy will be canceled”. A week later I got the policy document. I called their customer care where in I got through an executive who was supposed to help me out. I explained him the complete process I went through and explained him that I want to cancel the policy which I received. My god!.. it started there. He was very adamant with me to know what the reason for me to cancel it was!. I politely said him that I do not need it, the executive who was supposed to cancel it immediately then ate my 4 hours to explain me the benefits of the policy and was almost fighting with me to make me realize that I will be stupid if I let this policy go. After hearing him through all the way I again emphasized that please cancel this!...one hell of a day it was!....

I have a Max New York Life insurance policy with me, which was offered by an executive who visited my office randomly. He was in desperate need of a customer and to my fault I was looking to get a policy for me. After all the formalities my policy document came and I became the “esteemed” customer of MNYL. I had a few query with my policy which I had to clarify and I was ringing the guy who got me the policy. The guy picks up the phone and answers me, sir I am now not with MNYL, I have changed my job and I am currently with Birla Sun Life, if you have some time, I can get you a wonderful policy with many benefits sir. The one offered by MNYL to you doesn’t have benefit at all sir.. the same guy when he sold me the other policy said this is the best available policy on the market sir.... however the stupidity lies within me who didn’t research before I went for it some how got in touch with MNYL office and asked my query. I was shuttled between 17 different executives on phone before finally someone agreeing to meet me. The executive came to me, had a cup of coffee and when I asked him about the query he had no clue about the policy!... and the point to be noted is before he left my office he did offer me the “best policy in the market available”!...

I also have bitter experience with Airtel customer care always. I had to activate call diverting facility in my mobile sometime ago where in I need to pay to be on the waiting for several minutes before an executive attends it who take me through a step by step procedure after following which the process didn’t happen. Before identify some mistake that happened at their end they’ll make me loose my patience, increase my blood pressure and make me realize that I am an idiot sitting here without knowing how to follow a simple procedure instructed by their so called executive.

Similarly, I can elaborate many such incidents with the customer care of LG, Whirlpool, Samsung etc., etc.,The most disgusting part is many of the executives are generally clueless about the solutions they have to offer., I can hardly remember happy moments with customer care!...

I had to buy a pump in the very popular Chawri bazar market....“Sir ji!.. yeh pump le lo ji.. Hum gurantee dete hain 3 saal ki!”... Which fails the very next day, take it back to the shop he smiles and replies...”ab pump hai ji, har pump thodi theek hote hain.. ab yeh hi lo ji 3 saal se jyaada chalnewali bhi hai.. ek do peice ise ho jaate hai baaki motor ki mein gurantee deta hoon... uski pankhi thoot gaya tho mein kuch nahi kar sakta”.... the only thing I could feel is whether it is local, international or telemarketing...“the word guarantee has no guarantee here”

The best possible thing I am doing now is to stop complaining and be happy with whatever I’ve got!.

Your attention please!....

2010-12-23T01:23:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: All the Characters and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

New Delhi : 22nd December, 2010 , 17.20 hours

"Your kind attention please!, this is the final boarding call for the passengers travelling in Indian Airlines flight IC-810 to Mumbai, I repeat.. IC-810 to Mumbai. Passengers are requested to proceed for boarding through Gate No 22A"....

Priya just was through her security check and was waiting for her bag to pass through the x-ray clearance. She picked it to look for her mobile. It read a text from Karthik.. "Yes.. i'd be in the meeting at Taj till 9.30.. will talk to you after that!... miss you :)".

Believe me... Priya was literally flying even before she boarded her flight!.. she could never imagine that she would give Karthik such a surprise and she just remembered that morning conversation with Karthik.. "I know it's is our anniversary Karthik, but this business deal is never going to come again, Sunita will never give us time again and you understand that!... moreover we'll be soon together in the next couple of days and we've got an entire evening for us together next week!"....

She could really appreciate the forced smiling "good evening madam!" uttered by the pretty old lady air hostess for the first time :D... to add more height to her flight came the text from Sunita which read her company would be happy to meet Priya the next week as they were looking forward to work with them!....

When the lights were dimmed for take off Priya just closed her eyes to remember the afternoon...

New Delhi : 22nd December, 2010, 15.15 hours

Arvind was little bit nervous as the time kept running as he had to leave by 3.30 p.m. He picked his phone and rang Priya. When connected Priya said I'll be there in 2 minutes and she did.

A smile, hand shake and a hello were exchanged... "You were late by 17 minutes Priya!"..

"I'm sorry Arvind.. we can extend this meeting till 4.00 and I'm sure that you'll get this deal!".. said Priya....

"Thank you so much but I have to leave by 3.30, I'll let the offer go"... replied Arvind with a smile

"You look like my father's age!...Would you mind if I ask you what important work you have letting off a million dollor business Mr. Arvind".

"I need to have tea in my home at 4.00 miss Priya!...".. smiled Arvind

Mumbai : 22nd December, 2010, 21.30 hours

"Excuse me sir... your champagne!" relinquished the waiter to Karthik.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't order it"... said Karthik polietly holding the champagne which had a tagline which read please reach La Patisserie.

It was pretty unusal sight for Karthik when he was nearing it as all the lights were off. The moment he stepped in all the lights glittered with Priya on front with a bunch of flowers surrounded by their friends!...

"Happy Anniversary Karthik!"... smiled Priya... two drops of tears and a moment of silence followed by a warm hug summarized it all....

"how come Priya?..." exclaimed Karthik...

New Delhi, 22nd December 2010, 15.33 hours

Priya was puzzeled like what this man is talking... sitting in one of the cities best coffee outlet he is talking about having tea at home... weired she thought... Arvind could read it on her face... without letting her complicate more on her thoughts Arvind interupted "beta!, I need to have the tea with my wife....she is a patient who don't remember anyone around her.. not even me as her husband... and if I don't be there at 4 she'll be missing her tea.."

"Since?".. questioned Priya... "just last 3 years"... replied Arvind...

"Sorry again if you don't mind she is not going to recognize you as her husband, then why you should be there?..." puzzled Priya

"right... she doesn't recognize me as her husband but I still do... and attention is all what love needs isn't it?'....

Priya went blank. It's so very true that love can dig out anything from you!... Priya realized :).

It happened!....

2010-12-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: All the Characters and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

September 6, 2009... 08.00 hours

It was on a chilly morning on that drizzling day!... I could realize a vibration in my entire body not because of the chillness that creeped. I held up the marriage invitation card on the table and held it firmly.... I never beleived this day would come... tears rolled out even withut my permission when a drop fell on "Priya weds.....

May 9, 2005

That was my first day but the classes had began a week before. After a couple of formalities, a bloke guided me through to my classes... it could hardly be an hour since I stepped into the campus but i had heared guys talking about Priya every here and there. I must admit that I was vehement to see her... I had a habit of visualizing someone whenever I hear a name... I wished Priya to be the one I imagined off.... as I walk the corridor, to my surprise, the sketch in my mind crossed me!.. a moment when my senses stopped... I couldn't stop gazeing her... she noticed me as I could sense her weirdness as her eyes went shrinking down looking at me.

"Priya?"... I asked!... her eye lids closed in an ultra slow motion synchrosided with a nod of her head held me to cloud nine!....

September 6, 2009... 08.15 hours

I could feel the scenes happening just now in my world... how can one forget!.. the hinderence to my memory accumalation came in when someone knocked the door and said..."Get ready soon Karthick!"...."Ya!, 10 more mins"... replied me.... I could hear the harmony happening downstairs where the marriage is...

Decemeber 2, 2005

We were closer. She was almost the only friend I had. We shared a special cohession and I was on top of her priority friend.

“Karthik…call me daily, we'll be in touch” wispered her. “

"It's just a month break Priya!... it'll zip through!"....

Thanks to the sms packages.... there were hundreds exchanged on a day!.... anxiousness creeped when there was a delayed reply!... overall I could conclude that she is the one for me!....

Jan 2, 2006

"It's good to see you Karthik".....

September 6.2009... 08.25 hours

I was dressed well when I walked downstairs, a couple of friends who were our batchmates surrounded me when I went forward as majority of the crowd diverted their attention towards us..... with so much of nerveousness creeping up I reached Priya....

"It's goo to see you Karthik"... she hasn't chaged at all

May 4, 2006

"Priya!.. it's time for me to admit this... I think you know this... I am in love with you!".... She realized I stammered when telling this... that exposed the little bit of hesitation I had...

“I never expected this from you Karthik… and that was why you were special for me”... I could sense more from her eyes... I realized that it wasn't the right time to engage the conversation further. Breaking the silence, she spelled "We had something special between us, but I couldn't give it a name, I'd like to be as it is.. It was beautiful...hope you understand me better"....

That was the first night when she didn't receive a reply for her Good Night message!...

September 6, 2009... 08.35 hours

I was the one in this world who could read Priya's eyes... those two drops lingering to drench her cheeks were triggering a couple of drops in mine.... All I could do is to proudly smile on her and turn towards the photographer.

April 30, 2007

"I'll miss you a lot Karthick.... I cant forget the moments we lived together...You've been there as what you were and I feel there will be no one else who could have done this... I had observed you swolling your emotions at times when you want to express....I think I am in love with you too... not now... since the day you realized it!... I donno whether that feeling is called love...I don't know what I want and what I need to do... all I knew is my parents will never allow this!....she shattered. It was a new feeling…

There was a moment of silence…When in love I've always felt silence is a wonderful language to speak… but for the first time it was hurting equivalently and it was hurting both!.....

September 6, 2000... 09.10 hours...

It was the time when the drops from both of our eyes rolled off, when finally Priya held hand of mine!.. all the two year long struggled to convience our parents have paid off!... today we were able to begin a new life which we dreamt for... It happened!....

please provide your feedback on the story!.. thanks...

Linger!.....

2010-11-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: All the Characters and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The same standard message tone of Nokia, Karthik wished that people had some other better job than sending good morning messages this early. Yet that tone didn’t stop him getting deeper into his dreams. “Why does the two hour sleep between 6.00 and 8.00 in the morning always finish in seconds!....” woke up Karthik with a question. The very first thing he did was like all of us do.. look for the phone… 4 messages received it read… without having patience to open up and read so many(?) messages he threw it back on the bed rushed to bathroom. As usual he was the first to occupy that and he had a reason for it. Everyone in his flat knew it.

They were 4 together since their collage days. Normally people are not that fortunate to be together even after their study days… they were a few odd lucky ones. Post breakfast Karthik got back to his phone to read out the message.. The inbox took quite some time than usual to open… too many messages in smaller space [need to change the phone asap.. his mind read a couple of times before his inbox opened]. He didn’t know that it was a little pause before a surprise which was waiting for him. When the inbox opened he couldn’t believe his eyes when he read Priya’s name and the message said “Good Morning!.. Lets meet up today around 10.00 over a cup of coffee at my office”. He just smiled within himself thinking GM messages too can be interesting!

The rest of his flat mates predicted its going to rain today and they were all smiles for him…. The room was 4 times multiplied by joy, it has been 3 years of wait for this for Karthik.. as mentioned earlier, his routine is to leave home by 9.00to reach Priya’s office and wait there to see her. He had tried several times to approach her but never let the guard. With his contacts he could gather her email address, phone number, fb, orkut, twitter id’s and you name it he’s got it… it has been always one way communication from his end and here he has got a reply…. A meet which he has been looking for such a long time… finally perseverance paid!... There was a celebration on due that night…

The clock was ticking 11.00 and Karthik came out with a smile… he knew its going to happen, his confidence in him!.. He picked his phone and texted J to his friends… that summarizes the story for them…. Before he could again hear the standard message tone, it was his favorite song on his phone. Priya calling read the display….

“hello Karthik!, just to say that I was really bowled out by what you said and seriously still awe stuck!... I don’t have words to describe but you were just too awesome… I think you did not deserve the 3 year long wait… however that time might have made you even better!...

I am so happy to have you as my assistant director…. We’ll be shooting from next month on my next project and once it’s through, you are requested to do the story you narrated to me under my production!”…

With pleasure Priya!…. said Karthik!....

Ring!

2010-10-21T01:05:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: All the Characters and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Today, 06.30 hours….

“I thought you’ve got me something yesterday… for the first time I think I guessed wrong”…. said Malini sipping her coffee…. With an expression of is it?... Arvind walks in to fetch his bag….. seeing Arvind wearing a sarcastic smile and bag in his hand Malini realizes her guess wasn’t wrong!....

“This is cheating!... I guessed right… show me what’s it!”….

Yesterday, 10.30 hours

Arvind was so happy that day, he was all geared up when he left house. Malini could sense his happiness when she signed him off at the door….. She just signaled him with her eyes questioning what the history behind the happiness is?…. He responded with a nod of nothing with his head…. They are happily married middle class couple, who’ve been living in this same rented cluster since their marriage. Its 20 years since they held hand together… their bond is stronger than what fevicol claims to be!...

Malini text’s him…. “My intuition says I am going to get something today :P…”

“You’ve gone mad :D [as usual]”… read the reply.

With lots of smile on face that day went off at the rate of escape velocity, it was that evening which he was anticipating the long day. In fact when the dusk feathered out, he could sense his nerves stringing like guitar and the turbulence of the blood… generally people feel butterflies flying in the stomach but he could feel all the varieties of birds flying there.

Yesterday, 12.30 hours

Karthik was waiting at the canteen entrance for Priya… She arrives in the next couple of minutes when both walk in… Priya’s face read that she wasn’t in good mood at all. Karthik though reacted as if he didn’t sense it.

“Where is Shalini… your pet?”… asked Karthik

“Don’t talk about her now… btw we’ll be completing one year of our relationship tomorrow… what do you plan to give me?”… puzzled Priya.

“Surprise!... “said Karthik….

“I’ll be happy if I get an ear ring!.. I am looking one for long”… smiled Priya!...

“Can I refuse something you ask for… will get it by the evening for you!”…

A couple of hours ago….

“Priya!, I don’t feel that Karthik is a person to hang out with… there are so many news about him in the college including theft of our madam’s ear ring”…

“Do you believe in that Shalini?.... if yes then I won’t believe you!... responded Priya….

Yesterday, 18. 30 hours….

Karthik and a couple of his friends were following Arvind for the past one hour… they board the same bus and Karthik sits adjacent seat to Arvind. His friends in the crowd eventually diverts Arvind’s attention and meanwhile Karthik executes his plan!... he elegantly removes the box from Arvind’s bag!. Arvind was already so very happy and was literally on cloud nine so he didn’t realize anything going around him!. All he thought was not to surprise Malini in the evening as she had a guess on this and he was planning to reveal this tomorrow morning!...

Yesterday, 19.30 hours….

Arvind reaches home and keeps the bag in the almirah… generally he keeps that on the table… Malini raising her eyebrow and questioning why so late?... Arvind smiles and responds… “You know about the traffic these days… I was caught up in the bus”. Malini was expecting something to come out of his bag but ended in getting nothing. Arvind was filled with ecstasy to see Malini disappointed.. but he didn’t react!....

Priya jumps with joy to see a brand new golden ear ring… she was more happy that it was not the one of madam’s which was lost…. She was fuming on Shalini even more now!... She thought of firing her tomorrow at the college in front of Karthik…. She reaches home.. keeps the box in the bag… and went to her room to start her usual conversation with Karthik on phone!....

Today, 06.40 hours…

Arvind pulls out the box and shows her the ear ring he got it for her which she wished to get a year back!......

With so much of joy and cheer!.. She just hugged Arvind and loudly cheered… “Priya!, come here… finally your dad fulfills my wish by getting this ear ring!”…..

Pseudo Existence

2010-08-13T01:53:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: All the Characters and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

August 2008, some where in Delhi…

Aravind picked up his phone. It was Sheela his new colleague.

“Hey babe!... I just got a bit late….I’m just on my way… will be there in 15 mins… see ya! at Barista”.

August 2006, some where in Delhi….

Barista in Aravind’s life!!! He never imagined that he’ll be there a day to have a cup of coffee. A couple of years back he didn’t even know such a shop existed. He belong to a village whose name is not even familiar with people of adjacent district. It had a total population of less than a dozen thousand people and only two schools and a college. After his degree he got posted in Delhi. Life changed drastically for him.According to him initially Barista was a place where people just gathered to kill both time and money. Eventually it became a routine. That’s the place where he finds comfortable to converse with his only friend Priya. She happened to be from a village but her appearance and language was complete cosmopolitan. She’s got acquainted to the culture and the set up so fast as she always aspired to be one among them. Somehow Priya found Aravind a very nice guy and they both share the same cubical. That’s how they got to know each other.

Aravind never had conversed in English since his new position at this company. As they are an US based multinational it was essential that he learn to converse. Obviously Priya had a vital role to teach him a lot. Probably that brought both of them quite often.Aravind neither read English literature nor had the habit of watching English movies. All he knew was Jurassic Park and Titanic were the greatest of English films ever made. As per his understanding most of the English channels were meant only for adults.

Suddenly a voice interrupted his thought

“Sir, what would you like to have?”….the waiter asked.

Cuppuchino [that’s how he pronounced cappuccino]– One cup please… replied he.

“Your order will take 5 minutes sir”… said the waiter and left.

Priya reached a couple of minutes before the coffee. He was waiting her for the past 15 mins.. kept wondering why people in these cities don’t keep up their time. Aravind understood that she was a bit irritated from her reaction. People in cities often get irritated and don’t know to express it as well was his perception. Priya’s action did confirm that on quite a few occasions. He didn’t feel like asking her why she was late. Before asking her why she was irritated, he smiled on her. He could understand she had to put in a lot of effort to reply back to him with a smile.

She said a 'hi' to him, but it seemed to him that it could have been better if she didn’t say it…. He observes this with most of the people, a meaning less hi and a valueless smile in reply….
Aravind just initiated it “What happened Priya.. you seem to be so tensed”

“haan Aravind, yahan pe saala bahut saare ise ass holes aaur shameless bas****s hai jinko public place mein kaise behave karna hai yeh maloom nahi. [Yes Aravind, there are a lot of such ass holes, shameless bas****s who doesn’t know how to behave in public.]You know they were speaking some rude words so loudly”

Aravind just looked around and noticed that people around them were staring him and Priya. He just wondered if assholes and bas****s were so pleasing to hear…..

Just to divert her from thinking on this Aravind just asked Priya to look at the adjacent table where a couple of English girls were sipping their coffee.

“Look at them Priya, they look very cute in authentic Indian Salwar”

“Shut up Aravind!, I wear dress as per my choice and please don’t tell me that I am westernized and wear such clothes and all”… shouted at her.

Aravind had to shut up but he wondered that he should have just said that they were looking cute and shouldn't have mentioned the authentic wardrobe.

She suddenly sneezed and said ‘Sorry, Excuse me’…

He thought what big mistake she committed to say that….When there was no ethics in her earlier reactions… He quite couldn’t adjust to these things. Something kept pestering him inside.

The waiter turned out with the bill. He paid Rs. 170 for their coffee and took an auto to drop her back home. He thought that the money he spent this evening was his total family expenditure for a week. He never thought that he could lead such a life. He was a bit uncomfortable with all these things.

August 2008, some where in Delhi…

After reaching home that night, Sheela took her dairy and started to write her day. When she closed it she could feel a layer of tears on her eyes. She took a facial tissue to wipe her face and went to bed.

Something’s are not that simple as they are actually stated.....

Yet another love story

2010-08-02T01:21:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: All the Characters and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

2nd of July 2009, 10.30 hours

I am Arvind, Founder of Malini group of companies. Our life had been so beautiful till date. At the age of 55, I have got everything I needed in my life at the right time. After 30 years of marriage I never thought of waiting to hear the court ordering my divorce with Malini. In the next 30 minutes we will officially be parted. It all happens with time.

I and Malini met in a conference. The very first eye contact with her ensured something. That was proved in the next two months when we agreed to get married. We both went against our home to choose each other but we were damn sure of what we want from each other and why we want to be with each other. No looking backs. We both were the best friends to each other as we lived much like friends and less like a husband and wife normally does. Malini never had complaints for anything and that’s the only thing I could complain about her as well. We were blessed with Priya our only daughter in a couple of years. She is now 26 and married to Karthik. They both must be here in a while during the hearing.

2nd of July 2009, 11.00 hours

He was a very young judge and might be into his early 30’s. The way he had observed this case so far really amazed me. It was good to see young people taking up interesting profession these days and handling with elegance. After a few interrogations with me and Malini, he then gave his hearing.

This is a unique case which this court would have seen where a 55 year old husband and 53 year old wife appealing for a divorce quoting that they have an opinion difference with each other. The court respect their views and rules that “Under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, a husband and wife can file a mutual divorce only when they have lived apart for at least a year. The couple must jointly mention about their inability to continue the marital relationship due to some unavoidable circumstances. Both the sides must voluntarily agree to dissolve the marriage”. The court would also appreciate if the couple reconsiders the marriage given the fact that they’ve lived together for 30 years.

Malini and I have already decided upon how to stay apart as our lawyers had earlier confirmed us the court’s procedures. She was very confident and acknowledged with a smile in her eyes when we parted off. I can never forget this.

2nd of July 2010, 11.00 hours

Malini and Priya were sitting adjacent to me and Karthik. It’s the D-day. We saw each other only twice in the last year. It was unbelievable for me that I could lead a life without Malini. I suppose she too would have felt the same. Priya came to me. She and Karthik had done a lot of efforts to make me a Malini meet. We were firm on our stands. Priya knew us, she had seen us adamant. With tears in her eyes all she could tell me was “Dad!, me and Karthik were supposed to part away with a mutual understanding when you and Mom appealed for the divorce. All I could say is I’ve learned Karthik a lot more than when we were in love in the last one year trying to re-unite you and Mom. I had seen you and mom in love for each other all the days and have desired a life like that. Possibly that’s the reason why I would have choose to part away from Karthick. I still couldn’t figure out the reason for you and mom parting off dad!”

Malini quietly replied, “Thankfully you have learned it yourself than we teaching you!. I and your dad didn’t want you to get separated from Karthik. You wouldn’t have understood the pain of divorce and we couldn’t have a better opportunity to bring you both together, rather we chose to live apart from each other for a year. Love is not just what you feel for each other. Love is what she being a he for him and he being a she for her!..

An Abducted Mind

2010-05-18T01:53:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: All the Characters and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

15th June, 1998 Monday, 06.00 hours
Shekar was still lying in his bed but others weren’t aware that he was no more. It was another hot Monday morning. Shekar was a brat in the house, he was very less educated, in his early 20s and did nothing to earn his bread and butter thus he wasn’t useful in any way to the house.

15th June, 1998 Monday, 07.00 hours
Priya, Shekar's sister kicks him in his ass to get him off the bed and notices some unusual changes in him. She gets really scared when she realizes that Shekar is no more. Crowd gathers [people within the house] to witness Shekar's body without a heart beat! Hardly any tears burst but, the death was still a mystery for a few. Talks between people were that Shekar had committed suicide. Shekar's mother was willing to believe that it could be suicide, but couldn’t believe that her son would have the guts to do it. Priya could remember her mother screaming at Shekar a couple of month's back that she would kill him one day if he remains the way he is. Priya could smell doubt; however she was also convinced that it could be a suicide as Shekar's loan had sky rocketed in the past couple of weeks among his brat gang. Vivek [Priya’s husband] too was shocked and he was worried that Karthick [their 11 year old son] must not get to know this. He prepared his school bag and sent him early that day. Priya’s only source of worry was, the golden ornaments which she had lent him a couple of days back.

15th June, 1998 Monday, 11.00 hours
There was police in the house. Since the town was a small and everyone knew each other, the policemen were very polite in their inquiry. They took the body away for postmortem.

19th June, 1998 Friday, 12.00 hours
The report was clear that, local pesticide consumed last night mixed with carbonated beverage led to the death. The doctors also gave a separate paper to the police, whispering something. The doctors whispered that they could trace out sperm content in the inner wear of victim. As the victim of suicide didn't leave any note / letter it was still a mystery for police as to why the suicide was committed. They could only believe that this could be a murder. Police were able to trace out the pesticide bottle from the rack where the farm land materials were kept. They were also able to trace out the empty soda bottle kept in the kitchen. The police suspected it to be a murder. Suspicion was on Shekar's mother and a couple of his friends. Priya was a bit happy that she could get her ornaments back or at least some hint on where they are from the police inquiry.

25th June, 1998 Thursday 15.00 hours
Policemen met Vivek, to give back a few of Priya’s ornaments which were deposited with a pal of Shekar. Vivek verified the same and handed it over to Priya. She asked the police men with an exclamation, “How did you get these? Was my brother’s death a murder?” The policemen replied “Can’t tell anything as of now, the inquiry is on”. They speak to Vivek for a couple of minutes and get to know that Priya, Vivek and Karthik had been living since their marriage in the same house with Shekar. Shekar’s mother and her sister were the other occupants.

25th June, 1998 Thursday 15.45 hours
Policemen meet Karthik outside his school while he is walking back home. Karthik starts to weep as one of the policeman picks him up to talk. The policeman smile at Karthik and offers a chocolate to him saying that there is nothing to fear or worry. They ask Karthik about what happened that day. Karthik with fear and tears in his eyes confesses the following....

14th June, 1998 Sunday 20.30 hours
Shekar calls Karthik to buy him a soda. Karthik buys soda from the petty shop opposite their house and then before offering it to Shekar he goes to the room where the farm materials are kept and adds a couple of drops of the pesticide kept there. Shekar drinks the soda and goes to sleep.

25th June, 1998 16.30 hours
The policemen drops Karthik at his home and also inform the people in house that after inquiry it was found that Shekar’s death was a suicide and the case has been closed. They again smile at Karthik and leave the spot.

During the inquiry with the petty shop guy [after seeing the empty soda bottle] the police could identify that Karthik bought it on 14^th evening and became the suspect. After the conversation with Karthik they confirm it but when they interrogated the child to know why he did this they were shocked to know that Karthik was a victim of child abuse by Shekar every now and then. Karthik was very ashamed of it and embarrassed to discuss this with his parents. Police were able to believe Karthik based on the information they had gathered about Shekar from his friends and also the postmortem report from the doctor.

She!

2010-05-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

She is sweet in the world of taste,
She is serene in the world so haste!

She is crescent in the entire space,
She is the aura of the flowery haze!

She is breeze in the world of wind,
She mean love in the solicitous mind!

She is the peace in the world of violence,
She hauls up a bunch of silence!

She is the silence in the world of words,
She takes us through the gleaming fords!

She is my Mom! :) and I love her a lot!

Shiksha Adhoori V [Education Incomplete V]

2010-04-15T00:02:00.000-07:00

Compared with the rest of my posts on Shiksha Adhoori series this is on a different note. This has a few interpretations extrapolated from my point of view which might be wrong. However I'd strongly like to make a point on profit driven corporate way of working.

A couple of days back I got an opportunity to attend Independent People's Tribunal at constitution club here at Delhi. The issues addressed were land acquisition, resource grab and operation green hunts. It was a 3 day program where there were people from Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Orissa and other affected area to share their experiences. I however got a chance to attend the session on the issues faced by people at Jharkhand. The session started with a movie called The Iron is Hot. The movie actually talks about the problems faced by the village [or in fact most of the villages around Jharkhand] because of the coal / steel plants over there. On a critical note on the movie it tries to summarize that all the industry / plant around the area are the problem creators, including land acquisition, health problem and pollution of the environment which is very true!. It was actually disturbing to see the movie and listen to the people.
One could see powders and particles from the plant everywhere. As a Chemical Engineer, I feel very much disturbed that the contribution from us has been very less [mostly negligible] to overcome such problems. In a portion of the movie a person talks about the dust [not the normal ones which is present in the air around us] particles getting released to the atmosphere because of the failure of dust collection instruments like cyclone, bag filter and ESP's. I work with a world renowned Professor who has a 30+ years of expertise in powder science and particle technology. He has done a lot of industrial projects across the country and has also implemented cyclone separators which have an efficiency of 99.7 %. In the world today we talk about cyclone which can collect nano dust. Here in the movie we are told that these dust particles are not collected because the technology is not available.
Now let’s see actually if the technology is available why it's not implemented. It's because of the way Economy has been taught to the people. We are always taught to have profit driven models. However we were not taught ethics. I had a course on Economy during my Diploma days. I seldom learned anything out of that course and recently a couple of our friends were having a conversation on Capitalism. I could recall the things I learned in the course and could somehow relate those. It actually teaches "where should one start an industry?". A place where the raw materials are abundantly available, other resources are cheaper [including human resources], a river / water source near by, easily accessible by road / rail / air and sea [preferably] and also a place where the product could be sold easily. It also teaches to make things which would create need. Ultimately the crux of the story is to make the processing cost as cheap as possible so that one could earn the maximum margin of profit out of it.
Now with this kind of economics let’s come back to the current industry which we are talking about. They have to collect dust coming out of the plant and for the same they would need a cyclone. The 99% efficiency cyclone is generally available at a very high price and an alternative locally fabricated one is available 100 times cheaper [in fact even more cheaper] than the efficient one. Industry would obviously try and reduce the capital cost so that they have more profit and install the local make. That cyclone can only operate to its capacity and trust me any instrument which is not properly studied, will not fulfill its need. This is one common case with a lot of industries [small and big scale] in India. There is a huge gap of Industry - Academics interaction as well. Unless we bridge the gap this is tend to fail. Majorly most of the plants pay more attention to economy and less attention to technology. Once the attention shifts to technology, automatically economy would boom up!...
Closing the plant is not the solution to the problem.. it's making it function on a proper way using technology... that would be the solution... don't know if our economists would pay attention to this as well!...

Blended in Love

2010-03-25T04:26:00.000-07:00

All the Characters, Incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters in living or dead is pure coincidence. Readers please try to imagine the situation with your own pleasing colors and visuals.. it would sound interesting.

Venice, 10th September, 2009
Arvind and Malini just landed at Venice. They were so much excited and enthralled to meet their daughter in law about whom they've only read in the mails and seen in photos. It has been three years since Vinay got married to her. They never thought that they'd be this eager to meet her and travel down to Europe to meet her. They never thought that they'd be able to accept her in to their family. Malini could just visualize those moments which she used to read in Vinay's mail.

New Delhi, 8th July, 2006
That house always smells happy, the reason being the people's charmness. Arvind, Malini and their daughter were having a fantastic phase of life. 19.30 hours always made the phone ring when they chit chat with Vinay. This was one another such day. Malini was speechless after the conversation. Arvind couldn't accept the fact that his son married that very day. Everything was fine till now but suddenly a love marriage and that too with a girl of different caste and region. Unacceptable!. Malini and Arvind could say nothing but to tell their son not to turn back to them.

Venice, 6th June, 2006
Floating in a boat in the floating city is bliss. Vinay who've just arrived there couldn't resist riding in the boat in the entire evening. He would have thought to extend the ride to late evening to have a view of the full moon that night. Being a music student one can't ask for a better situation to think of than this. When the moon starting to shine its silver rays on the sea, the golden sun shivered its glaze on the water. Up in the air comes a soothing violin sound which enriched the situation further. He turned towards the place where the sound came from and all her could observe is another boat which had a beautiful girl dressed in a lavender color suit tuning the violin as the moon grows up!. Being a music student himself he overwrought "Yaman Kalyani" with a very loud voice towards her. She just stared at him strangely towards him and moved on!. The great girl mentality- he thinks when she stares like that. That night when he reaches back and analyzes the raaga he realizes it was Bhairavi and not Yaman. As it was the evening time he was quickly drawn towards Yaman he shouted.
The next day when he goes to meet his Professor under whom he is supposed to learn music he gets to see her. She gets introduced to him by the Professor as his disciple. He apologizes to her for misunderstanding Bhairavi to Yaman. She laughs and shares that she had this in mind the last night about him - The great guy mentality. It's all in a matter of a few minutes they get to know each other. Music being their common interest there are a lot to share among them. She lives alone as her parents pass away and she possesses her passion! - music. She is simple and that is so special in her. She finds a wonderful person within Vinay vice versa. The endless boat ride on the canals of Venice would now celebrate this wonderful pair's chemistry!.
The next full moon night had brought them so close where they had nothing hidden from each other. She plays "Mohanam" a raaga used to express love!. He could read it in her eyes and so did she!. No words spoken. With silence creeping up and the breeze blowing they both could hear only "Mohanam" even when the violin was on the side.
"It's a girl thing and you understand it Vinay"...
"Sure let’s get married tomorrow"... replied he.
The next day Venice saw one of the beautiful marriages ever happened in the earth. There was only bride and the groom in the ceremony and it happend!.

New Delhi, 8th July, 2006
Vinay tries to convince his parents but they just were not ready to hear anything. All he wanted was their blessings but they cursed her!. It was his father who was so upset and blamed her for changing Vinay's mind!. That was the end.

Venice, 10th September, 2009
Arvind and Malini were received by Siddharth, Vinay's friend at the airport. He was surprised to see them to see Vinay's wife. Malini starts to tell him the mails Vinay used to send to them day to day about their life since they stopped talking to him. He sends them a picture a day with a detailed write up of their day to day activity. Arvind says after reading those he feels like he is in his late 20's. There is so much of love on their day to day life and Malini exclaims that she now wonders the entire Venice now floats on love and not on water. Siddharth is just awestruck!.... he has no words and remains speechless. After a moment of silence Arvind confesses that he shouldn't have cursed her. Also just to apologize to this they were not making a surprise visit. [The day to day mails are a part of the original screenplay and not available in this synopsis :P].

It was a 2 bedroom Villa which was named after her situated in a peaceful lane of Venice. Arvind and Malini enter home. Speechless Vinay on seeing them here gave a warm hug to receive them in. Filled with eagerness in their eyes, then get in to the drawing room to find a huge wall with a painting of their beautiful daughter in law. The rest of the three walls were painted with light lavender color and had one photo frame each of both being together. They could hear the sound of violin which was melting through the air.

Siddharth and Vinay were standing outside and after a couple of minutes Arvind and Malini after searching and not finding her came out which a question on their expressions to Vinay. Siddharth with tears in his eyes could say them that "She is no more!". It all happened in an accident she met the same day of her marriage.

Vinay just stops him and intervenes to his parents saying.... no more?... no I wouldn't agree... "She is no more for all of you!.. She is Much more for me!".. didn't you read my life with her all these days through my mails?.. I am still living with her and would live long with her!. She is blended in me and my music!.... I am blended in her love!.

Show love when needed

2010-03-10T03:14:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: This article is not to hurt anyone who is in to teaching children. It’s purely the author’s view to express his thoughts on the same.

With that disclaimer, I think this article could trigger a controversy and hence lead to a discussion there after. I would appreciate if that happens because I always feel discussions are healthier means of taking / moving things forward. As we all know major of the AID NCR volunteers are in to teaching children in some or the other projects. Excellent thing to do as a volunteer and I admire those who are able to do so because I myself understood that teaching the children at projects are one of the most difficult jobs to do in the earth.

These volunteers deserve a millions of pat on their back for taking up that task. However I’m quite taken aback with my recent observations at a few of the classes which I have attended in the projects [specifically at Prayas, where I visit often]. Most of the volunteers who teach there / interact with the children use a higher tone to control the children in the class. They warn them, scold them and for a matter of punishing them event send them back from the class. I agree that children are prone to commit mistakes and are even mischievous but the kind of treatment which should have been from the volunteers must in turn be more of love and affection.
People can suddenly throw a question on me saying that you never thought in a class and how come you can question us / suggest us to do this and that. I have never thought and also whenever I used to teach I have always made it a point that I take care that the child is not felt humiliated [may be a wrong word] in front of others. I can imagine what they would feel if they are suddenly scolded / sent away from the class in front of others. We all have experienced such situations in our schools and that’s why we all hate [if not all most of us] our schooling system. These were some of our discussion topics earlier as well but somehow we all are busy in our lives and don’t have time to discuss these days.
One can argue then what should I do if a child disturbs my class, should I appreciate that by showing more affection to him / her. Obviously “Yes”. A classic example I could quote is Anuj wrote a long time back about a child who used to disturb the class at Aashayein and how he made him co-operate with the class. How many of us who are teaching children try to learn about child psychology. Not essentially all and we don’t feel like we should know all that. It’s just that we want to teach them to grow and they get good marks in their school.
Please consider this a sincere request from me to re-consider the way the children are treated in the class. I admire every one of you for the way you guys spend time for the enlistment of the project and people associated with that. Only request is that we can do it in a better way. I know people of Prayas well so I wasn’t hesitant to quote them in the example :P… however my disclaimer is applicable for volunteers of all the projects :D.
One more simple suggestion I could make at this point is that people working with children should put in an effort to learn about child psychology. There are many books written by John Holt and others who have put in a lot of efforts to understand children. The pick of them are Children Fail and How Children Learn. I have a copy of these books and I shall be happy to share if any one wants to read them. Escape from Childhood is another must read for not only volunteers or people who are into teaching but for anyone who would be a parent. These are some nice concepts which would help to bring up our children in a really better manner. The other one shown here is also an interesting read :).

Come and get soaked in Romance

2010-03-04T20:50:00.000-08:00

As soon as the title card starts to float in the water, you get carried away to set yourself float in the air. There are so many girls in the world…Why in the Earth did I fall in love with Jessie?... confesses the protagonist Karthik in the very first frame at Jessie’s marriage. From there are you are showered with romance for the next 150 minutes. It’s pure and pure romance at its best.

I sincerely admire the director who crafts almost all his films by narration. You are hearing to someone’s story with visuals in it. The colors are pleasing and appealing so that you get lost in the frame and watch it as if it’s happening around you. It’s almost more than seven decades that Indian screen is seeing Love and Romance. More than a million films would have spoken it through different virtues. Still a story of two hearts and minds hold its very own value because of the rhythm notched to it. It’s just about hitting the right string in the right spot at right time to bring out the touching magical music. Karthik falls for Jessie at the first sight [Why would not he]. His perception of love doesn’t come after fixing something in mind... It would one day come and hit you and turn your world upside down and that happens when he see Jessie.
A couple of more glimpses and consequences make him come closer to her being a tenant in her house. One fine day he finds her in his home and there begins the first conversation. She is a year older to him and has an ultimately different way of up bringing from what he has been. He aspires to become a film maker and she has so far seen 5 movies in her entire span of life that too without her fathers knowledge. Another day he suddenly confess in front of her that he’s in love with her in all of a sudden. She leaves him blank!. The conversations are apt at places with not more than a line each. The other thing which takes you in is the presence of the lead pair on screen. You find them everywhere. She leaves to Allepey and he follows her. He searches for her all around and find her in a church on a Sunday noon. He apologies for his confession of love and she agrees [with a disappointment if you notice carefully]. They decide to be friends and continue with that. The consequences that follow are simply poetic. She replies [Unnoda paarvayala avanga ennai parkalayo ennavo] “May be they haven’t looked me through your eye” when he asks her that there might have been a lot of guys who would have proposed her. Ah!.. This is class with a smooth background score.
The dilemma of Jessie to chose if she want or don’t is so very clear to both. Generally in love stories you find the hero trying to impress the heroin and vice versa. Here right from the place where he confesses his love to her, they both know what they want and you find no scene where both try to impress each other. They both are what they are and simply do what they do. She informally intimate that she likes it but she doesn’t need it. She feels that there is Love but it is not. At a point you feel like Slapping Jessie on face and ask what the hell you need. She agrees later in a part where she doesn’t know what she wants and that’s the problem at all.
There are so much of expressions in body language, silence and conversations through eyes between the pair which in a conversation you are told about the Chemistry between them. Both the character stands as a painting in front of you. Even after her family comes to know about the issue they handle it practically and sensibly. There is humor sprinkled all across the film which keeps you light in the air. Generally in movies we are shown that the girl is either locked in a room or her father beats her etc., etc., Tamil cinema has grown up and thanks to people like Gautam. Finally she stand up to her love and break out during the day of her marriage [that is the time when our Karthik gets to know she’s in love madly as he is]. The scene post interval where both meet up the night is just a virtual poetry. You just can’t stop admiring the conversation when she breaks for him. You simply nod to these lines when she says “Karthik, you are one awesome guy” and he replies “You are one awesome woman Jessie”. They are made for each other. The romance is simple and that’s why it’s so sweet. To express romance you might not need pages of dialogues... It’s just the body language which is more than enough and when you have A. R. Rahman to score the back ground what else one need. However here comes a song and I don’t find words to praise Thamarai. The language Tamil must owe a lot to her. From where the earth does she digs such words from the language which everyone uses in day to day life but realizing its impact.
The most interesting part is the place where the movie ends where Kathik and Jessie come together and you feel happy!.. Karthik the director of the film ends it there. It’s simply narrated that this happens in a movie and not in the real life when Jessie walks away asking Karthik [naan enna avlo nallavala Karthik?] “Am I such a good girl, Karthik?”. You too feel that the end of Karthik’s movie should have been the end to this story as well.
I couldn’t remember any other Tamil movie [for the fact even Hindi movie] in recent times which has so much of romance in it and made an impact on me. All I could remember is Kadhalukku Mariyaadai [Respect for Love] which came a decade ago. Gautam has crafted a masterpiece. It’s another virtual poem of him!. Hats off!....
I am sure that I would watch this many more times.... come and get soaked in romance!....

This ain't pleasing...

2010-02-21T02:33:00.000-08:00

India!... known for its culture, nature, heritage and above all for its hospitality has drawn in tourists throughout the world. India is a place which has it all in it. The people here are warm and welcoming. They are known to their treatment of guests and their gesture towards them. With all these known facts the tourism ministry has been able to play a decent part in generating revenue which is a considerable part in the upcoming Indian Economy. This has been our history and the most worrisome part is that what has been history would possibly remain history!. This is because of my observation / encounters I have faced at different places where I travel.
Being quite addicted to explore the country I chose to travel at least once in a month. I have traveled almost the length and breadth of the country (excluding north east so far :( ). India has been amazing for the kind of diversity it offers from place to place and to some extent within the same place itself. I have been always interested to listen to history of the local place wherever I visit and I interact a lot with the local people as well. Almost my experience with the local people has been very pleasing and cherish-able. What disturb me a lot are the local business people who try to almost rob (in the name of service) the visitors. They leave you almost with no other option available rather than spending a lot more of what you should have. There is always a bitter experience which accompanies me in my every travel.
It would be the local taxi driver or an auto driver, a person at tourist information center, travel guide and for the sake the hotel manager. In some places the local market people who sell crafts of the land. Most of them are desperate to earn and not only to earn but to earn as much as possible. They have lies flowing as of poetry out of their mouth. They are always focused on the money the tourists bring in and not the emotions which come with them. This has been a consistent bitter experience with me in my first couple of travel visits to different places. I then decided not to take such local people's help and avoided them. Thanks to the books, bloggers and also some great initiatives of tourism department of some of the state government. I prefer to walk / take local public transport at places and also avoid buying local crafts in the market. Somehow if I deeply think this ain't pleasing at all. I mostly travel alone and its possible for me to do the entire walk / travel alone in a public transport system, but for a person who has a family to take care off would obviously suffer and end up in spending more than what he / she should have. I myself have decided that I'll not visit a certain places here after such experiences :(.
The reason for me writing this now is also as a concerned citizen of our country and a resident of Delhi, I am worried about the upcoming common wealth games. 8 months from now Delhi will be celebrating its biggest events ever!. Are we prepared for it?. I am not worried about the undergoing constructions of the stadiums and the hotels but I am worried about the attitude of the people. Delhi'ets would agree that the amount of arrogance among the people has increased much. With upcoming BRT, low floor buses and metro trains the government is doing its part to improve the standard of Delhi [though I am upset that Delhi government is more considered to build its infrastructure to please the people who would come in and the reason for developing these were not to improve the standards of living of the residents of the city. However the ultimate beneficiaries being the residents, this a welcome move by the government]. Still the difference between the comfort level of people commuting in their private vehicles and the ones in public transport is far.
However my point of argument here in this post is not that and it's about the attitude and behavior of local business people like the autowala's, taxiwala's and also our beloved bus conductors. One in twenty autowalas agree to come by meter [how many TSR complaints can I file?]. You hardly find a metered taxi available near you. [Sorry boss!.. you are in the national capital so you should call up Meeru / Easy cabs to travel to maintain the dignity :(]. In fact we would have commuting options for an aam janta from airport to Noida [oh you don't know this.. why don't you take a private taxi.. who'll not issue you a bill.... it's much cheaper]. Above all the most irritating is the bus conductors who always asks for change and never tender them back. I have always prepared myself to keep change with me and unfortunately one day I couldn't carry change with me and that day I had to get down of the bus and take another... Where will all the change these guys get from my fellow passengers go?. Some conductors don't issue tickets [this has been the case with many conductors whose language and words from their mouth would make your day]. I have filed 7 TSR complaints in the last one month’s against such conductors but what's the use?. I can be more comfortable traveling in my bike but that ain't the option for the tourists who might come down!. There would be many first timers who would come to Delhi. I am worried that we would rather make that as their last visit as well. I am still wondering what we as Delhi'ets are going to do to help them out!..... I'd be happy to render my hand....

an accidental corelation!

2010-01-06T04:37:00.000-08:00

A long telephonic conversation with friends is always a moment to rejoice. When conversation becomes a debate its even more interesting and here is one such rejoiceable and interesting conversation with a friend of mine. After a couple of minutes of formally non formal chit chat the conversation diverted to the recently released movie Avatar. With all praises to the cast and crew of the film we got into a discussion on James Cameron’s imagination of how humans would end up the greenery of the existing world and look for Pandora in the year 2154. As humans we have been constantly exploiting the resources around us in an exponentially rocketing rate.
The movie is interestingly made on the thirst of corporatism where people just think, talk and live of money and not bothered about other emotions etc., The relationship quotient between the avatars and the nature has been highlighted so beautifully where everyone of us could related to the feelings communicated by a tree / a creature which seems destructive but extends such a lovely hand in need for the people of Pandora. Over all finally to have a happy happy ending Cameron might have ended saying that Avatars win over humans and send them back to the sky world from where they come. People applaud and say that’s right… The land and the place belong to them and humans should not have invaded. My friend called it a brilliant finish.
Our talk gradually moved towards the campaign AID has doing at Chhatisgarh along with a brief talk on fasting of Himanshu ji of VCA for the human rights. First of all when I began to describe it my friend had no clue of what exactly is happening at Chhatisgarh at all. Thanks to our national media who need to be given credit for the same. I began to elaborate him about the issues currently at Chhatisgarh. I briefed him that the tribal of Chhatisgarh are being hunted by the police men saying that they were naxals / people who encourage naxals. I also elaborated him entirely on the recent arrest of Kopa, charges the policemen are trying to file with people of VCA., destruction of VCA a couple of months ago etc., I also shared him about what exactly is going on with lives of people there. He still couldn’t connect to the issue completely and was reasonably confused with why the government would want to kill people.
Well thanks to Avatar which made me understand him the issue simple. Chhatisgarh is a land of enormous resource. I myself have been to Corba mines a couple of time to collect coal for my analysis. It’s a beautiful place with a mixture of green and black. Green above the land and black below. It also has abundant of other resources on which the industrial world and the corporate people want to capitalize on. Rehabilitation and resettlement was one possible option they had and tried it with a lot of villagers around. The corporate people at Chhatisgarh are like the money rich human’s from Avatar. They reach Pandora and these people reached Chhatisgarh.
They choose a couple of local people and appointed them as SPO’s [Special Police Officer’s] who were authorized to shoot naxals in the area. These SPO’s were working for the police officials and the corporate people. The movie shows a couple of people taking the souls of the avatars and mingling with people to understand their lives / cultures etc., The role of both are quite similar. The SPO’s gradually will evacuate people by threatening people failing which would lead to rape of women in the family and murder them. Adivasis keep on running in to the jungle. The analogy of how the entire military force make the residence tree of the avatars fall would fit in to how these SPO’s and police forces make the Adivasis run into the jungle. The greed of this corporate driven culture will never end and the story keeps on going. Government is doing an entire operation called Salwa Judum to kill people and grab land. Adivasi’s are tagged as naxals and are eradicated from their own land. People are made refugees in their own soil but the nature is listening to their prayers and seeing all these happen in front.
Hopefully now he was able to relate to the issue and understand it in a broader spectrum. He also said that he’ll spread the message across and contribute in some way to the campaign what we were doing. A whole hearted Thanks to James Cameron who made it simple to explain things in detail :).

Idhuvum Kadandhu Pogum

2009-12-29T02:17:00.000-08:00

Many a times there has been many up’s and down’s in life and I know this doesn’t happen only with me but with everyone. Every time when someone is upset the entire scenario around them changes and similarly when they are happy the scene around is different. When compared happiness at it’s extreme is better than sadness at it’s extreme but both are dangerous in their own way [hope everyone agrees… if not take this as just an opinion of mine. Handling situations of such is extremely difficult for anyone. I’ve also seen a few exceptional friends of mine who handle these with ease but have observed most of others failed. Let me tell you I am one among them who fail though I used to pretend that I’m not one.
Some time back home when I was watching a television along with my mom I got to listen to a veteran actor who is now researching on literature and philosophy. He was talking to a set of collage students and was telling them a story. I was really really impressed with the narration and the story and would like to share that this story has seriously made an impact on my approach towards various things from then on. The story goes as follows.
Once up on a time there was a king who was so nice and made sure that his people were not left out with any dissatisfaction. However he one day heard a news of a suicide in his country and was deeply hurt because of the same. He called all his ministers and counselors to deeply think about it and consult philosophers and come up with possible solution so that these things can be further avoided in his country.
His ministers and counselors came up with the result that a person becomes uncontrollable or thinks out of mind either he is in extreme sorrowfulness or extreme happiness, hence we need to find a way to control their emotions during the same. King then announced the country that whoever brings a solution to this will be rewarded with gold and diamonds. There were lot of people who came up with possible solution and after a long round of short listing the king was castled by an old man who had two tied rolls in his hand claiming that he can solve the problem with just 3 words written in each of the roll [one for happiness and the other for sorrow]. The king was enthused and wanted to know about what it is and asked the old man to disclose it. The old man replied that this should be read by the person who is undergoing either of the emotions so that it could be related and also refused to take any reward for the same. The king took the rolls and thanked the old man and kept the two rolls with him.
A couple of years later the king went unwell and was counting his last couple of days. He called his two sons and gave them the rolls and said that please use them if needed when anyone is experiencing through such phase… a couple of months later both the sons got into quarrel on who will become the successor to rule the country and fought for it. The younger one defeated the elder and sent him out of the nation. While doing so he with due respect to his father knew that his brother will be in deep sorrow and handed over one of the roll to his brother and kept one for himself as he was in extreme happiness.Both the brothers stood in front of each other and opened the rolls to read the 3 word phrase before they take any further decision on their life… The 3 word phrase which was written in that was “Idhuvum Kadandhu Pogum” [This too shall pass (in English it comes out to be a 4 word phrase :D] ]. It didn’t even take a minute for the brothers to come together and realize that whatever decision they would have taken before reading the same would be wrong…
This applies for every individual who goes through such a phase and remembering the phrase would help any one to overcome. I have personally experienced it a couple of times now and hope it would help in the future as well :)

Expressions!!!

2009-12-10T22:14:00.000-08:00

This is a recent commercial from Vodafone!..
The expressions from the lady is so pleasing as I conclude to say "Maja aa gaya" after the ad completes :). With a whole lot of expectations she express herself while serving her partner and when it didn't reciprocate as the way she expected she stirs the coffee in the mug with irritation and goes for a sip with anguish in her eyes. The husband now finally says it all in one single word "Maja aa gaya" where she slightly shakes her head to acknowledge and siliently smiles to convey "beta ab aa gaya line pe"....... Awww!.. she is so sweet!

Expressions!.. its realy power to you!

BMJ!

2009-12-10T01:03:00.000-08:00

One fine day I get to know that the GEAC have approved the commercial cultivation of Bt-Brinjal in India, by then thankfully I know what it was and I was worried about a millions of other Indians who didn’t know what exactly it is. With the GEAC approving it and scientists getting up to stand with them and celebrate the decision and newspaper editors talking about another Green Revolution and media praising the end of food crisis.. The forgotten part is the comman (Wo) man and his / her hungry stomach!.
There is a report which prepared by GEAC talks about the technicalities of the seed, the contents of the seed the nature of the protein and the amount of toxins in it, alpha, beta and gamma along with parts per million, gram per kilogram etc., etc.,. It doesn’t talk about any of the effects these alpa, beta and gamma would / might create. It’s disgusting that a regulatory body which should raise concerns keeping in mind the comman man have surrendered to corporate and raising concerns to save them. It’s a shame that the committee doesn’t get appropriate answers to the queries raised by eminent people like Pushpa Bhargava and other concerned NGO’s.
India a country known for its tradition, culture and more for its agriculture is now moving to modern western practice in all its initiatives. It’ll seriously reflect un-expected results if GM food is brought into cultivation without proper test, by then it will be too late to re-call. Let’s preserve it when available rather than crying after it gets destroyed.
There is a Rajasthani song which a friend sings which came into mind "Desh jaave bhaad mein tu mojh manataryo"

Pesa Nalla Time :)

2009-10-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

With a lot of Advertisements targeting children to sell their products, this one is refreshingly different with a pinch of romance added to it. For those who are not from the state of Tamil Nadu, it would be difficult to follow the content. It's a small conversation between a husband and wife, with husband requesting his wife to sit with him and he wants to share something with her. He keeps quite and with the cup of tea in the hand within 40 seconds the wife just gets tensed to know what he is going to say. Within moments she keeps on asking questions on one after the other while he keeps of dragging the time saying that I don't know how you will take this and finally she ends up at his earlier love affair and concluding that she knew that it would end up here. Sweet!.. still wanted to knowing it and clarify things she urges "Solli tholainga"..." [for the god's sake disclose it] and he reveals "I Love You".. Ah!!!... those tensed moments and kind of emotions spilled and exchanged.. It's invaluable and these two who acted in this advertisement has done full justice to it... 3 roses ending up with "perfect time to talk" has blended well with the emotion and the product which has a tag of "Niram, Suvai, Thidam" [Color, Taste and Strogness].... This one really stolen the heart

A Journey Unexpected!

2009-10-14T23:38:00.000-07:00

It has been more than 4 years now since I got introduced to AID. It all began at a walk on the shore between Callengute to Baga beach at Goa. Can’t believe it! Now that the walk could be a life changing one. There’s where I got introduced to AID. I used to volunteer with an organization during my college days [don’t want to mention the name of the organization]. I had a pretty bad experience during those days and that’s where I decided that I’ll not get associated with any organization from there on. That was the reason where I decided to go for the Tsunami relief work on my own for 10 days. After knowing AID and listen to its stories I decided to just meet and interact with the people and know the organization. I attended a CSH at Meera aunty’s house at AIIMS and there’s where I got to know AID as an organization. In my very first meet I heard Mr. Srinivasan sharing his experience at the Tsunami relief work at Chennai. He was an AID US volunteer who was at Delhi. Parichay was my next destination. Thanks to Anirban and Somen who were with me answering all my queries and solving all my problems in understanding the organization. After 6 odd months I got to know AID completely as an organization and almost after a year I got a chance to attend the conference at Chennai where I got to meet a lot of people who are participating in struggles [Sangharsh] and understood that Sewa and Nirmaan would not be possible without Sangharsh.. Till then I seriously had a question on the same and always criticized on the sameJ.

Not only on the views, AID has also helped in taking critical decisions in my life as well. It actually thought me the process of an alternate way of living and seeing / solving problems with a different note. I would say that AID got a third eye / vision into my life. I also got a lot of friends at AID who’ve been very valuable and have played crucial part in my life. I slowly started to integrate my life into AID by understanding and experiencing its concept. It has been a pleasant journey from there on. Though there are lot of distractions for young people at the age between 16 & 30, place like AID provides an opportunity to keep one self not only as a normal human but also promotes thyself to a better position. One thing I understood even before starting to volunteer and also learnt from AID is that volunteer with a sense of responsibility and not as something you want to feel good by doing something good. If you have the later part majorly dominating your thought you’d not be able to think on a bigger picture of what change is. Change yourself from the later to the prior. Be the change yourself!.... you along with a lot many more others can make a better world to life.

Emmossanal Atyachar!!!

2009-09-15T00:37:00.000-07:00

Hmmm...... I've been searching for an appropriate title for the content and the context of this blog.. Thanks to Dev D....... got me an appropriate one!. I started to write this somewhere in Dec 08… took quite long to tune it :P.
Generally, most of the relationships evolve on need basis apart from the friendship one gets in school life / college life with their classmates. I would rather replace the term evolve with made and if the replacement is right then it could be rephrased as relationships are made willingly / unwillingly [whichever is applicable] to fulfill a need. In the process, only a very few relationships tend to proceed with mutual willingness. Many tend to proceed with a drive / objective behind it. One more reason for getting into a drive based / objective based relationship which I think is that in our country most of the things get done with the help of love / affection people have for each other. I have noticed this many a times, a work which is pending for a month long will be done if someone so close to the person who need to complete the work rings and request for the same. Love does conquer but the disgusting fact is that there is a blend of fake ness conspiring with purity.
I’m a person who likes to go well with anyone I come across; I used to care for people [most of the people] who were around me. I felt that fulfilling their small wishes as a surprise would cheer them up and will remain ever in their memory. It doesn’t matter to me if people didn’t reciprocate because I generally don’t get deeply involved with many people. I’m very choosy when it comes to opening up with people. I only open up with someone who I respect, admire and look up to. For me, people are more important than anything else. I would literally do anything for those few people in my life.
These were my opinions and I used to strongly follow it, till I realized that I am the stupidest to keep doing things to people without expecting anything back. I came across a few situations where I realized that the people for whom I’ve been doing things have started to take me for granted :P , though I never worried about it as I gave the benefit of doubt and blindly trust people[I don’t want to quote the live example of what happened :)]. I’ve always been used to get things done [I realized this only after a few persons quoted things to me and explained]. I was really taken aback and there are a few things which I can’t tolerate, betrayal is one of them. I also learned that if there is real love / affection between people [in any relationship] then it should reciprocate. People say that Love is giving unconditionally; I’d restate that it is giving / getting conditionally.
I tried to change myself and also discovered that I’m what I have been and can’t be someone else I want to be but I can try and help out myself in choosing out the right people .
Got to read this in a status of a friend “Love people and use things instead of using people and loving things”. Very true!!!!.... We should avoid using people’s emotions!.

மழையோசை

2009-08-26T03:35:00.000-07:00

ஜில்லென்று வீசுகின்ற காற்றினிலே

மிதந்து வரும் மண்வாசனையில்

கண்கள் மூடி கனவில் சென்றேன்

கணங்களை மூடி கைகளை விரித்து

காற்றின் முன் கரைந்து நின்றேன்

இங்கும் அங்கும் விழுந்துளிகள்

புவியிலுள்ள இசயனைதும்

கலந்தெனது செவியில் சேர்க்க

ஓசையின்றி மெய்சிலிர்த்து

இதயத்துள் விழுங்குகின்றேன்

இம்மழையோசையை

Hindu Mothers and Imaginary Friends.

2009-08-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

I would like to invite you to take a poll on Hindu Mothers and Imaginary Friends.

This is an unscientific poll of people with Hindu mothers, to cross-check the "scientific conclusion" found in a 2009 publication concerning children and imaginary friends across cultures. The sentence in question: "Hindu mothers discourage them [imaginary friends] because they think the companions might be manifestations of past lives and that they may take over the life of the current soul."
You may take this poll if you have had or currently are a Hindu mother. Liberated fathers also welcome :-)

Source of quote to be disclosed along with poll results. Comments appreciated.

Sandalwood Dreams!

2009-08-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

The odor of the wind was never so pleasant!,
While I look on the creeping crescent!,
The mystical sounds that floats in the air!,
Jazzes the surrounding much more fair!.

The dusk in the hills piling on the thrills!,
The roads kept growing longer!,
The bonding flourish to be stronger!,
The shoulders brushing to the other!,
Brought the feel of dancing feather!,

The flips and flaps of her eye lid!,
Creating a violence in the silence!,
Nods replies to the unasked questions!,
The 3 mm smile adds a 3 million years life!,
I wish I have so you as my wife!.

When the breeze blowing mild!,
The thoughts going wild!,
While the hands held tight!,
The hearts go light!,
There came a gleam!,
Made me realize its a sandalwood dream!

Shiksha Adhoori IV [Education Incomplete IV]

2009-07-30T23:14:00.000-07:00

I've been contemplating to write on this topic for quite a long time, some how couldn't put it on papers... this argues about the way caste system is integrated into everyone's life through education. I remember in my younger days of school education in every book on the front page there will be a printed message of "untouchability is a crime", "untouchability is a sin". We also used to recite a few poems which discusses about the same context and most of us would still / ever remember these lines by Bharati "Jadhigal illayadi papa, kul thazhchi uyarchi sollal paavam" [which translates to "My dear!, There are no such thing called caste, it’s a sin to talk about disparity"]. Wonderful!... The year ends in the class reciting the same poem!. By then I had to move out of the school due to some economic crisis at my home. Looked for a transfer certificate and got it and now I wanted to enroll in a government / aided school there. There was a few schools short listed and finally one of it was zeroed in. When I went for admission we got to know that I was not entitled to get admission because I didn't carry a caste certificate with me which will prove that I am from a Backward Caste. I was not that aware of all these stuff that time and somehow my parents were able to manage the certificate and enroll me in the school.

Some where I got a chance to interact with the head master of the school to discuss about the scholarship which the government provided for students. I initially thought it was on merit basis but the head master threw me a question "What is your caste?". Probably with my knowledge he was the first person in my life who has asked me this question. Having read and studied about the lines mentioned above by Bharati [most of Bharati's such lines are aggressive and we were thought to read those with that sense of aggression], with the same amount of aggression I replied him saying that, Sir I've been taught "My dear!, There are no such thing called caste, its a sin to talk about disparity". Oh!.. I still remember the kind of force with the cane which sensed in my hands. I didn't feel bad about what I did but I actually felt bad that being a head master he should have appreciated the fact rather punishing. He also shouted that I would not be getting the scholarship at all. Some how as one of my relative was a teacher in the same school and after his intervention, I could manage to get the money.

I some how could not relate to the education on caste provided by our schools. At one place you teach caste and creed should be eliminated and at the other place you put on caste as the third field to be filled in every application form you issue. As per my understanding the disparity of humans in the earlier era came in to picture based up on the kind of occupation they did. Some how there were different culture that existed at different parts of the world which lead to even wider difference in their approach towards a certain system which brought in community and within a certain community everyone didn't have all the expertise integrated into them and there came the difference in approach to a given problem [which can be termed as the kind of work they do]. Based upon the utilization of presence of mind, muscle power, thought process etc., further the community had a certain term for identifying like minded people in the name of caste [I'm not good at history and these are purely my interpretations].

Later in the stages based up on the kind of work they do people were termed as untouchables as well by a certain set of "so called" elites of those period [some how I still couldn't understand how all these came] and in the modern era we people after hearing so much of history as well as philosophy started to / starting to move towards a caste / creed free world, but the schools which has the responsibilities to provide /educate the knowledge about why caste and creed came and why it should be eliminated is somehow incorporating the need and necessity as a priority to people [knowingly / unknowingly is a question]... This is what the reason why a lot of younger generation people [inspite things are far far better these days], come up in asking / talking about caste etc., as a primary need for existence. [I have no arguments here about the reservation system which the government has brought in.. will talk about that in a separate article]. For the above said I find the primary fault lies in the education system and the way it handles caste. Until we (try to) change that the education on caste will be always adhoora!

The Brinjal Festival!!!

2009-07-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

Some day on the month of June, when I was shopping at Chennai with my mom, I received a call from one of my friend / volunteer from Delhi and I was discussing about the POA of the Brinjal Festival proposed on July. After the conversation my Mom intervened to know what the conversation was about and I told her that we are planning to organize a "Brinjal Festival"... A wired look and with a strange voice she asked "Brinjal?"... didn't you get any other vegetable to celebrate?...

18th July @ 1.00 hours the car which we were traveling stopped before the flyover in front of Bikini Comma Place... Thanks to the service engineer who failed to put water and coolant in the radiator. After a brief stop we re-start and went for a while before it went off.... A couple of more stoppage took us to the Domestic Airport where I got down to locate a leading domestic air carriers cargo service to pick up a parcel which came from Bhubaneshwar and Rajiv and Sugandha went looking for a petrol pump where we thought we would get some solution... btw we went there to collect a cargo packet and unfortunately the packet which I wanted to collect did not have my name on it.... I got to know that these guys follow a whole lot of procedure and strictly stick to that before disbursing these packets.... after a fight for an hour I could some how prove that I'm the right person to collect the packet. When signing the documents, just for the security reasons that guy asked that what's there inside the packet and I replied... its Brinjal.... with the same wired look and a strange voice he responded "Brinjal?"...

I just thought myself, will this be the response with the people who would come to the Brinjal festival day?..... By the time thankfully with the help of a few people around the airport, these guys managed to cool down the radiator and we came back home around 3.30 in the morning.

Brinjal was never my favorite food but the opportunity to organize this festival as a part of Coalition for GM free India's run "I am No Lab Rat" campaign, built in the bridge between me and brinjal, by the time the event was supposed to start I had almost known a adequate part of brinjal and its history which helped me to respond to the media people who were there to cover the event. The interesting part of the entire festival was the way it could connect a common man to the diversities of brinjal and its tradition and also about the yet to be approved Genetically Modified brinjals, by this time most of the public have heard the name GM food and thanks to the response of Agriculture Ministry a couple of days before at the parliament session which made news just a couple of days before the festival.... but they didn't know by then that GM food is going to create so much of adverse health effects to them as well as there are alternate viable option of having food cultivation without switching to GM food.

Thanks to the volunteers who were able to run around and pull in more and more people and eventually when the day progressed there was always a buzz in the stall. We were able to display around 35 different diversities of Brinjal but to say in India there are more than 2000 varieties available..... When the day was over with our objective of generating mass awareness to the public some how got fulfilled. We pulled out a decent and nice event. I was winding up a poster which stated "Brinjal Dreams"... I don't know what brinjal dreams but I was dreaming brinjal for a weak long and I thought that at least today I won't have it :).

The response from the media to the event was quite decent and we had good coverage’s through wire service and also in some daily media. Look in the comment section for the links to the media coverage on the festival :).

Expressions Unlimitted II - A Relishing Journey!!!!

2009-06-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

I'm writing a long post indeed.... I seriously took a long time to write this and even longer time to chose a title. This is about the experience I had on our recent trip to Rishikesh on 11th and 12th April 2009.

I bet it can't get something better!, Yes to have 18 beautiful minds together on a relishing journey is something which doesn't happen all the time. I don't know about others but the entire trip for me began some 30 days before the original departure. I've been planning it and talking to various people in getting us a best deal and finalizing the head count of the gang. I seriously never thought about 18 numbers and I felt hardly our best shot would be with a max of 10 odd people. Thanks to the enthu shown by everyone around with the excitement building up though our mailing thread. Thanks to gmail :).

We started around 00:00 hours on 11th April on a tempo traveller with 15 people in it. As expected the air was filled with lyrics coming from different vocals and to precision on different languages as well. The Rishikesh highway is well known for its traffic and that night was no exception with an extended weekend ahead, the rush was there and the enthu kept on raising during drive with people opening up and starting to cut loose [generally settled batsmen / batswomen do it at crease]. To cut it in short every one was in their full form apart from a very few who had a very very hectic friday but Thanks to Aakanksha who kept a check of everyone's eyelid and never allowed anyone's to take a deep dip!. Chirag still kept on escaping her. It was amazing to see everyone getting better and better with every passing kilometre :). We stopped to fuel the vehicle after an hour drive and again stopped to fuel ourselves almost two hours later. The pakora's and chai were not at their best but it didn't seem like that though. After a small photo shoot session it was my advice to all to take a small nap as I felt the next day for us would be tiring and we need to save our energy for the same. Thankfully most of them agreed and left me with diver to keep the check of the drive. Thanks to the couple of selected songs in my mobile which kept me awake. I must admit that I kept admiring the moon [just the night before the full moon night] through out the way which was travelling with us on my window side to the left. I could manage till 6.00 in the morning and then requested to Rachit to take over from me and I took a back seat and went on to my dreams but very quickly Darshan disturbed my sleep with a Good Morning and that’s where I decided to wake everyone up with the silly Good Morning's.

Lots of plans were discussed and finally it was decided that we'll stop at Haridwar to have a holy dip in the river Ganges and then move on to Rishikesh. It was a very short stay at Haridwar but was with lot of happenings.. right from people standing in front of the public toilet which had a hell long queue, to full fill the morning duties.. to people rushing to looking for room on hourly basis.. it was all happening. Rajiv somehow managed to get a "dharamshala" which provided us accommodation on hourly basis which was a pretty decent one. We just refreshed ourselves and moved to take a dip in Ganges....

Everyone were with full of excitement as the warmness in the air kept increasing which added the desire to get into the water soon. With Rachit manning the camera to freeze a few moments almost most of us got into the Ganges.... There were a few attempts to cross the flowing river from one end of the ghat to the other with holding hands and in those a couple of attempts ended quite adventurous, but it was so funny as well!... A couple of minutes of masti inside the water and then we all moved on to change..... It was almost 09.00 hours in the morning and everyone was feeling hunger. Darshan guided us to "Mohan ji's" bhandar which is a famous one in the town... After seeing the crowd I thought it would be a better option if we stop by on a road side restro on our way to Rishikesh but then we decided to pack the food and carry away as we don't want to miss the flavour. A few of us quickly grabbed some Lassi with Jelabi and we moved on.

Thanks to the traffic and the crowd in that extended weekend our entire journey to Shivpuri took around two hours. We didn't get booking in the camp but we had booked a resort... All my worries on the way were that the resort should be worth the penny.... As soon as we reached the place and looked around the room, I got relaxed and felt that I could not have asked for a better place than this.... It was quite a location with small hills around with a small but cute lawn in front of it. Somehow we managed to arrange an old ball and a few of us started to play some cricket. Lots of plans again around the corner but we all decided to move out and trek.... We got to know that the riverside was 500 meters away from the resort and we need to walk downhill to reach the riverside..... A few of us were planning to leave there and comeback to see Ganga Aarti at Rishikesh... a few had some other plans.... Meanwhile Arun started his pagalpandi with spraying water on people and then Raj, Rachit, Darshan, Anant and others joined the fun. Anirban and Swati were sitting from the balcony and enjoying the entire show as if we all were entertaining them.

We all left the resort and started to walk toward the riverside.. Swati was the slowest among everyone with her sandal helping her to walk at a poor speed. We reached a bridge built across a small stream flowing towards its destiny "The Ganges". From there a few of us decided to climb up a small hill which was in front of us. A few decided to move down..... Finally me, Anant, Darshan, Rajat, Rajiv, Sugandha, Sunanda and Swati were in the troop who decided to climb up the hill. It was a very steep one with no path to climb but Rajiv was so enthused to climb it up.... After a few hesitations we all made our mind to climb. Anant and Rajat helped Swati who was not even ready to put her feet up and was happy with the book shelve bought along with her... After so much of compulsion and motivation from Rajiv she started to climb up. We didn't know where we were going to reach but all we knew is just to climb up the hill.. It looked as if it was simple one when we stood at the bottom... Our initial efforts were not painful and we were able to move up pretty comfortably. After a few meters Swati stopped and Anant and Rajat too stopped with her to make her comfortable. The rest 5 of us kept on climbing. Initially we were walking with 2 feet but a few meters above we started to crawl with 4 feet... There were lot of small broken stones which were rolling down. We had to take extreme care that one doesn't walk behind the other.... Darshan was very comfortable with the wooden stick he found and he climbed pretty fast as compared to others. I just took some suggestions from Darshan on how to climb and followed to his advice..... I climbed a few distance and waited for a while and then continued.. the same was with others... One thing which was so much admirable was the effort by the sisters Sugandha and Sunanda... they were not worried about anything and kept climbing with full of energy till the maximum possible distance. We might have reached around 3/4th of the distance and I felt that we should need to get back now. Darshan was fully enthused to climb up till the peek where he thought we might get some road..... I did not want to experiment as we were already at 16.00 hours and to reach back we need to find a new way for us. Darshan moved on to the side into the woods and helped me and Sunanda reach there from where we were planning to get down. Meanwhile Rajiv and Sugandha climbed a few more meters to get into the woods where they got stuck. I advised Darshan to just go there and help them out to reach us and I stopped at a place with Sunanda. It took almost more than 25 mins for them to reach us.. Meanwhile it was a pleasant stay at the top and has an aerial view of the River Ganges flowing in the curves of the foot hill...... For a moment I felt like will we ever get something like this to watch... As the sun got going down and the shadow got growing up, it was such a nice place to lie down and forgot your entire worries..... Once these people joined us we started to trek down back... Darshan was leading us and trying to find a way.... We were doing skiing on the broken stones to reach from one place to the other and we stopped with the help of the trees and plants... A couple of plants had thorns in it.... It took almost another hour for us to reach down. Sunanda was the first one along with Darshan to get down but unfortunately to our luck it was an Army camp where they were shouting at us to get back from where we came... We didn't bother to listen to them and kept on going down and finally they didn't have any other option other than let us get down....

A couple of more mins we were on the ground with smiling faces. It was really an adventurous task which would be remembered for the lifetime...... The sun by then had disappeared but still there was plenty of light. We just walked down on to the small stream which was flowing and took a small bath just to refresh ourselves from the tiredness we had...... one thing that came to mind by then is we've missed the Ganga Aarti.... We headed back to the resort and when we just were about to reach we observed a few of our mates playing cricket.... Sunanda suddenly commented on Rajiv "aapki tho sacchi mein fat gayi".......on seeing his half pants got torn by the stones........ par literally for a very few moments on the top "kisi ko bhi fat sakti thi"..... People started to scream about the evening tea and after half an hour of our request we got our Chai...... A few ordered maggi for themselves and ended up in tasting the worst ever maggi on the earth. A few had made some arrangement for Rum for themselves. There were two parallel sessions which was going on at the two sides of the lawn. One was more on intellectual topic and the other one was random bakwaas.. I choose bakwaas one... where people were discussing about Ghosts and their experience with them. It was good to have Vikas and Rakhee with us there and Sonia Singh also had joined by then. The best part of the entire bakwaas discussion was Anant's build up to threaten Sonia Surana at the end of a story..... the loo drama was awesome.. he deserve a special kudos...

By the time we were tired of the ghost stories our dinner was ready and it was really a very pleasing moment to have dinner with all... though we didn't have delicious food to add spice to the entire occasion but the presence of everyone made us forgot about the taste.... I was so tired and thought of skipping the bonfire session after the dinner but made my mind that we should not miss as these things happen once in lifetime. One could not imagine such an occasion where we have 18 beautiful people, who are not class mates, who are not college mates and who are not colleagues from an office... coming together in a middle of a jungle behind the resort surrounded by hills with full moon splashing its silver light on us. As soon as the temperature of the wood at the centre kept rising the golden flame added more scenic beauty to the silver light of the moon. Those were un-expressible moments....... Darshan coordinated the entire session with Vikas and Rakhee inaugurating with solo performance with vocal..... everyone were supposed to perform something or the other.... To everyone’s surprise most of us have got such a beautiful and the pick of the song was "Chudi Chamke" by Sonia Singh and the man of the match was Rajiv with his "Yeh Dil Deewana" song.... We had a session for about an hour long and thought of winding up as a few of us didn't sleep the previous night as well. We were also supposed to raft the next day. I thought I'll sleep to save my energy and a few more thought the same. A couple of people sat for a round of cards session at the balcony. I don't know what happened there.. I missed it :(.

The next morning thankfully I could get the Chai before everyone woke up and I started to knock at doors with the chai. Raj started his day with his Yoga....We all got ready to move on to the rafting session which everyone of us were looking forward to. After a few formalities we were taken to the Riverside where our instructors took a short lecture about what to do and what not to. As usual most of us didn't listen to him [that’s a habit in us which was developed right from our school days you know :P]. After a couple of minute long photo session we were divided into two teams of 9 each and sat on our boat and the journey began. We were introduced to the first rapid very soon at the start which was quite silent and we didn't have much to do but whatever little thing we did was not appreciated by our instructor and he was shouting on us to obey his commands..... After a few more distance we got one more rapid which was a bit violent than the previous in which we passed quite easily with all our rowers displaying their skills and talent. Our instructor gave a green to us to jump into the water and without delay most of us went in and Mann it was freezing cold inside. I got up to the raft in a while and tried to pull a few more but failed. Our instructor did the job. We then came across the Golf Course which was the wildest of all..... It was quite an experience there with me sitting at the centre without a pedal in hand along with the front rowers and suddenly to my right I observed Anant stopped pedalling as he was stuck with an injury in his finger. All I could do is just shout at him to row and suddenly he responded but by the time our raft got sidelined on the rock and it was not moving..... With so much of backward and forward pedalling and pushing the rock for a couple of minutes we were able to pull back ourselves into the mainstream and move forward. Again every one of us got into the water expect me.. This time I’ve learned the art of pulling up people on to the raft and I pulled up everyone on to the boat. We then headed toward the cliff jumping point.

I choose to sit on a rock from where I took snap of everyone in our troop who jumped the cliff which was just 25 ft height. When I jumped there was no one to click me :(. I had no fear while jumping as I've done it earlier as well... but to jump into Ganga and feel the sudden change in the temperature around your body is quite an experience.... A few of our group members tried it more than once. We then started to move towards the end point. After a couple of minutes of photography session and change we moved to Chottiwala at Rishikesh to have our lunch.

It was a crowded place which is so famous for its food and the food they served us stated the why people talk so much about Chottiwala. After our lunch we started back our journey to Delhi.......

P.S : I've missed many moments which are there.... but just to keep the article short [:P], I've skipped a lot... I didn't get much time at the trip to interact with a few.... but to all those wonderful people who made the entire trip so sweet and memorable.... I'm obliged!!!!!....... These are memories which will be releashed for ever and ever....... These are expressions which are unlimited!!!!!........

Creeping Mind!

2009-05-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

It was 6AM and yet another morning began. But somehow did not have the usual feel about it. I couldn't relate with the disturbed state of my mind [And please, I’d prefer not relate ‘heart’ to this :)]. I generally have a feel every morning that brings a fresh feel and but somehow though this morning was not that pleasant and deceived me of that feel. The first thing that came to mind was to make a tea, but then in the spark of the moment my mind counters, ’Why should I take tea now?....’

I picked up my mobile to SMS ‘Good Morning!’ to friends as usual but again stopped texting and thought "Chodo yaar!... ek din mera message nahi mila tho kya farak padnewala hai"; and I dropped the mobile and got up looking for the newspaper but couldn't locate it. Oh yes that was my mistake to look for it at the time I woke up. But the paper arrives on time.

Some random things bounced around in my mind with a philosophical bend of thought of ‘What is world?’, ‘what is life?’, ‘why are we living?’, ‘what will happen to the world [I mean the people surrounding me] without me?’. I walked towards the fridge. I like to have something sweet as soon as I wake up [sometimes even without brushing.. ‘theek hai yaar.. chalta hai!’ ] But weirdly though, I saw the sweet box and felt, ‘No I don't want to eat sweet now! How am I going to come over the contradiction which I have with the mindset? Will this solve the problem?’

The milk packet caught my eye; and I pulled it out and went to the kitchen. Sometimes I feel like the kitchen is one place where I feel relaxed during most of my tensed moments. The milk was boiling at a low flame but I was feeling much more heat, I could not understand why. And then, more contradictory thoughts flow through me - history, revolutions, and family.

Thanks to the message tone from my mobile which startled me out of my stray mind; I was back. It was a ‘Good Morning’ message! And unlike usual I couldn't really appreciate it. Probably, because I get it everyday! But then, I was able to appreciate it till the day before. ‘Should I immediately reply to it..... No, I'll not.. Does it really matter?’ I thought to myself. But then couldn't resist replying and succumbing to habit. I had to book a train ticket at 8.00 hours for someone. ‘Why should ‘I’ do it?....don't I have any other work in the world?’ was the thought that I then felt, but then again by force of habit I managed to login online and do it.

A quick shower and then the tea had taken of some space in mind and helped bring me out of the disarray which I was in. I got ready for office and I started the bike and was driving, but the disarray of thoughts and contradictions did not leave me. ‘Why am I cribbing so much today?’ I stopped the bike for a while at DND and then started again but still I couldn't over come the state. I know that I'm driving without holding my sense but had no option and finally, I reached IIT safely.

I felt bad today as I had not even returned a Good Morning to the coffee shop guy! I just gave 5 bucks for the coffee without even a smile on the face with some random things on my mind. Then, he replied, "Your balance Rs.5/- yesterday is with me!” and yes his smiling face just reminded me that I have to wish him... Good Morning! I responded and walked back to the department. While walking back to the department I stopped by the wind tunnel for a couple of minutes and finished off my coffee and went to lab. I don't know I just started to feel better!

Made a couple of calls to start the day's work and started a few experiments and my regular email stuffs! Pandey ji's ‘Good Morning!’ was louder today as he entered the lab from the other door. ‘Good Morning Pandey ji!’ was what came out within a microsecond with a smiling face towards him. "Chai Pilaoo.. bhookh lag rahi hai".... immediately I started to feel al my mastiness and my purana charecteristics back!!!!.. Yes I'm back........

Thought of articulating it immediately as I really enjoyed that 4 hours of disturbed phase!!!!!..........

P.S : There might be a few negative thoughts in the article but those were not intentional :).....

Piousness!

2009-04-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

23rd April, 2009

I could not have asked for a better day to post this blog :). This is completely a devotion to a divine relationship with my sister.. Before getting into the story.. A Very Happy Birthday Dearest Divya!!!!.....

It has been 25 years now.....believe me I could not have asked for a better sister :). I still remember the kinder garden days of ours... It was always a cat - mouse game at the house everyday for some or the other thing and eventually we end up in beating each other! [There was no TV at home and we didn't know about Tom and Jerry by then]. I would mostly end up losing the competition. I admire her tough fight towards anything. Unfortunately we were not in the same school when we were doing our elementary and she've always pointed that as the reason why she scores a bit lesser mark than me, but believe me the amount of time and efforts she puts into study is mind blowing. I was forced to sit with a book in my hand many a times because of this girl [though I never liked to sit and study and even when I sat I just simply keep imagining and day dreaming :)].

We got a chance to go together to school after we entered our secondary education.... Those must be some of the very beautiful days in our life... In fact that was the time when we got to know each other better and the most admirable part in this is we spoke [and still speak] a very little between us. I've always believed that if you love a person to such an extent, you'll automatically sense their mind and understand them even with out a word being exchanged.... that is why I always say silence is the best language to express love. With all these things we used to fight in the home and at the end of the day that was the only entertainment we had :). She've saved many a times from getting caught at home... at least she got a chance to express her love towards me but I never reflected anything for her those days....

It was the day when I left home to my diploma; I realized how much I miss her. I don't know how it all happened but the mutual respect / admiration / complementation for each other had almost "n" powered from there. The best of the emotions in every relationship remains still unexpressed and it always comes out when we are away / separated / miss the person. This is what I would quote after realizing it. I would also say that the relationship between the brother and sister is the best possible relationship in the world.

I always wanted her to do her higher studies and I used to suggest her to do her higher studies. I never forced her because I never want to take a decision about her life on my own as it completely belongs to her. I always have trusted her that whatever she chooses for her would be right and the best possible one [though my mother would disagree on this]. Finally due to some circumstances she chooses to do her higher studies [Engineering], though she never liked to study and is topping her college. I bet no one will have such an attitude and one would never feel that this girl could do such things [You've to see her and interact to believe]. It is all because of the love she has got for me and my mom. If I have something in my life which I can be proud of then it’s my sister :). I've so far never said a NO and would never say a NO for her [may it be whatever it is]. I think she knows this better than me :).

I seriously thought of drafting out a long [in fact thought of writing my longest] post for her but I'm running out of words and I'm already drenched with some layer of fluid over my retina.... Oh don't worry!.. This tastes "So Sweet"......

A Very Happy Birthday Sweetest Sister!,

With love,

Anna!.

Shiksha Adhoori III [Education Incomplete III)

2009-04-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

Thought of rejuvenating the Shiksha Adhoori series... For people who have not read the earlier posts on the same, please follow the link Shiksha Adhoori I , Shiksha Adhoori II . Though this post is no way related as a follow up of my earlier posts but some thoughts which reflects on the way how education is incomplete might be analogous and interesting to a few. When I was preparing to write this entry, interestingly I got to come across a random blog by a friend who've written about MORALITY, TRADITION AND SEXUALITY OF WOMEN in Indian community [I hope she wrote with Indian community as context] and after reading that all I could see was the fault in our education system which failed to incorporate the values of feminism.

We at today's world talk about women empowerment / equality in rights to the counter sex of ours, but have we seriously thought about where the biasing began from. I'm not a history student or follower of history but as far what I've read / understood is women held an equal importance of what men did in Vedic era [I might be wrong], but this changed with time... not going detailed into history, the system [as of I know] was functioning on the following basis in which men and women shared equal responsibilities out of which men took the responsibilities of earning food and shelter for a family and women took the equal responsibilities of managing the food and shelter earned by men, thus stuck at home. I don't find anything wrong in this system as both share their responsibilities mutually by doing all the necessary things for the household and running a family unless the decision made / taken has equal say from both, but eventually this concept has been misinterpreted as the men started to socially move out of home and explore more of the world than a women who was restricted by the responsibilities of her. [O.k... no more history.. coming to the topic].

Now.... after a few more generations we are here in this world to discuss about gender biasing etc., I never knew history or geography till I opened my book.... At home I knew that my mom cooks but I also knew that my mom went to job. Luckily my father was working as a cook in a hotel and I knew that father can also cook and wash vessels. I'm not sure if that was the status of every house. I didn't get to see a gender biasing at my home but always have felt that my father had the final say even though my mom equally argued and made a point all the time that her opinion does counts and sometimes win the argument as well. I never knew that the financial strength made her talk :).

But as far as I remember, my books have always reflected that mom does household work only but father does the rest... a few examples could be "Mom cooks food" and "Father reads news paper"..."Mom buys Vegetables" and "Father buys a car / TV”. Whatever. I always wonder will the vegetable seller refuse to sell vegetables if father goes to buy that. I also remember a few history lessons [though I used to hate history] discussing about the emperors and their queens, it always [at least 97 % of the time] reflects women as entertainment material to the men.

The friend in her blog mentions "Fidelity and purity of women is so associated with her sexuality and more over ‘virginity’. A girl is termed as the izzat, laaj (honour) of the family, as if fathers and brothers of the family are shame to the family".... very true.. This is what was taught as moral education in schools. Another simple examples would be in the sports ground... boys and girls have a physical education period where boys were allowed to play outdoor sports but girls weren't., even if they get a chance to play outdoor games they were supposed to play tennikoit and ball badminton as if they'll not be able to play hockey [The boys team was continuously champion for around 21 years in our district], who knows the girls might have excelled.

I don't see the system of education provides some solution / tend to eradicate the problem of gender biasing rather it is the base where the whole thing is brought up on a child's mind.... The system is sowing weeds on the minds rather than sowing seeds and trying to cut down after it gets grown up.

Shiksha Adhoori would continue.... share your experiences and views.

Seasons!

2009-04-07T01:53:00.000-07:00

This post is just a hypothetical thought of mine which has been running through for a few days!. It tries to associate an individual’s life [rather my life] with the way nature exists. We all know about the nature and its evolution and how it persists. The nature moves on with seasons!.... Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Not everyone enjoys all the season.
Out of all the most pleasing is Spring and Autumn. Like the nature, life has its own kind of seasons….. and a few of them are blissful, calamitous, depressed, frolicsome, vexation…etc., etc., The difference between the seasons of nature and life is, nature follows an invariable order of the changes in season but human’s doesn’t, nevertheless ours is a mixture of all. What I understand is anything in life exists for a certain period of time and eventually changes… it’s a kind of similarity between nature….
The period of blissfulness, frolicsome or merrier moments are something like the spring and autumn where we see everything around us beautiful, pleasant and appealing, rather the same thing given a depressed state would get related to a hot summer evening when person piles up all his frustration. There is epoch to every season may it be in nature or it is in life…. I’ve also observed mostly the transition phase is so dainty in both the cases if you are person who eulogize every moment may it be bliss or calamityJ. On an over enthusiastic note, I’d also quote out a few of the drizzling evenings that occurs suddenly on a hot summer day which is equivalent to a cherishing moment on the depressed phase. It has got its own aesthetics.
Sometimes I’ve also felt summers as an enjoyable season, I assume more people would agree with me [as I’m not quoting and example].. that is the phase when it’s tough and if one can establish himself / herself by tackling it ripens your thought and make more mature. [I compare the state of depression, vexation with summer]. As we always know that there would definitely be a change in season!, If there is a summer which goes on an autumn would follow on. Let’s enjoy all the seasons! J.
There is a movie in Tamil in which a father character advises his son, “Whatever happens life should move on!” I’d rephrase it “Whatever happens life should move on Happily!”….

P.S : Please feel free to criticize / appreciate the views expressed :).

Footprints!

2009-03-24T00:53:00.001-07:00

Exuberant friends!,
Exquisite evenings,
Ambrosial tea!,

Melancholy minds,

Juvenile characters,

Facetious talks,

Feckless imaginations,
Gone are the days!

Heritage smiles seen on Vintage photos,
Embosom!,

Probably this is what I'll be exclaiming when I turn 60! :D,

A dream come ture

2009-03-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

AID Delhi has been a part of my life for the last 4 odd years.... Through AID we've been able to imapct a huge change in many children's life, though we've been doing it quite effectively, I always thought that the children from different projects at different places of Delhi should come together sometime and have interaction / fun / learning / compete with each other..... though this idea was in mind from many months ago, but it came to execution only this January 25th, 2009. To add up the joy it was AID Delhi's 5th Birthday on 26th January. The day was with full of bliss with smiles every where.... rather than me speaking the video would tell you the entire story of what happend that day. Only special thing I would like to mention is we had lunch prepared from "Parichay Kitchen" which is livelihood generation program of one of our projects. It was an awesome lunch for 300 people.

Siksha Adhoori II [Education Incomplete II]

2009-03-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you read my with the same topic earlier ,If not read please do read it here at http://selvasword.blogspot.com/2008/09/siksha-adhoori-education-incomplete.html . These are just some more random thoughts on the way education is visioned among us. I'm not a John Holt to discuss practical proofs of alternate educational system or I'm not a educational activist who've worked a lot in developing alternate education, but as a victim of the current one or the conventional one which is believed to be the best, I have all rights to put my views / voice together. I was pretty disappointed to receive opinion from only one of my friend in my earlier writings which was on Education. Given the fact that quite a few friend of mine are into education, teaching et al., I expected more. Comments apart, lets get into the argument of the issue.....
I remember a conversation which I had with my mom when I was in my class 3rd or 4th [don't remember precisely]. I would briefly elaborate the crux of it. I used to sing [rather remember] most of the tamil movie songs and used to keep singing at home. On that day when I was studying a tamil poem from my book and was reciting the poem to mom. I made several mistakes and she stopped me to point out that I remember movie songs but not this tamil poem which only had 5 lines in it. Without much of a delay I said her that probably I'll remember these lines too if it was presented like a song with some music in it. All I could earn for the comment was an angry look and a few scoldings. Later I also got to hear a few of the songs from my books were composed in some movies / music album [thiruvasagam for eg] is recited by children without any flaws. I hope most of us agree to this fact, but still when we teach [at least I can comment this keeping in mind my fellow volunteers who teach], we still follow the old conventional methodology of black board teaching.
I might not be the right person to write the way of black board teaching is wrong as I don't do teaching myself. I have my reasons for not doing so, but when we are together working for a betterment [I particularly write these lines for my fellow volunteers at AID who are into teaching], what difference are we making in the system by ourselves which we [at least a few I have interacted with have felt] feel not worth it. At the end of the day we still are following the same black board teaching in which we tend to make the children sit in a line, listen to us, copy down what we write on the board, give them home work, shout at them if they talk to thier mates while we teach and also tend to ask them to leave the class or stand up in front of others. The only difference we make is to give some extra love and affection which we didn't get in our classrooms. Beleive me given a class of 80 odd children any teacher would not be able to provide that love and attention to every child. I again stress this that there may be questions araised on me saying that why don't you do it rather than writing?, but friends I have my own reasons for not doing it and to put it clear I don't want to teach seeing the conventional way followed.
I would definitely appreciate if the people who are teaching starts the experiment themself and observe the changes around. At the end of the day why is education?. To make a doctor? to make an engineer?, come on I believe 80 % of the engineers who are coming out with a degree don't know why they are engineers rather the insitution which produces the engineers doesn't know why they produce them. Rather I also get a question in my mind is Education a solution or a problem altogether?
All I could see is Education as a problem rather than a solution, I might not be albe to put this in words at this time as I'm not able to frame up my thoughts rightly with valid justifications but my post on Education would keep continuing and I'll discuss more. For the time being I request my fellow volunteers who teach to think and argue of why they should come off from conventional way of teaching. Meanwhile I'd also recommend people to have a watch at Sikshaantar's Schooling the World movie. My next visit is scheduled to Sikshaantar soon and I'll share my views after my trip there :).

P.S : All the views expressed are purely the authors thoughts and it has nothing offensive with anyothers. People who still appreciate conventional way of teaching is the best are surely welcome to put their arguments..... :). Lets debate!!!!

My date this Valentine's Day!!!!

2009-02-21T07:51:00.000-08:00

February 14, 2009

This was the first Valentine's day which I admit that I was in a complete bliss. It had a reason behind as my lifetime dream was almost getting fullfilled. That dawn was so early as I woke up at 04.00 hours. It was so exciting as I was looking forward to the date that day and to all the excitement the date was planned just 8 hours prior (speeddate :)). To add up the date was on AIR.... (Thanks to GO Air).... It was amazing sunny, clear morning and it was so pleasing to see her dressed in green and white...(these two colors go well with each other). At around 11.15 hours I landed at Srinagar, the paradise on earth (I would say a heaven on earth).... can someone ask for a better place to date???
Once I landed I could feel her deep in the breath, to say all my melancholy got perished in a moment after I started to feel her..... I really don't know if I'm right, but out of the languages I know (I at least know around 5 languages), the best language to express love is Silence. I was with full of expressions unlimited with a fresh lymph of blood starting to flow around we both were walking together to find a mode of transportation for ourselves with plenty of admiration for each other and somehow managed to get a local transport and moved to Gulmarg!.....
Hardly I might have got a chance to speak to her back at home though I meet her daily, see her and even admire, adore and draw inspiration, but never get time to talk to her and share the admiration... thanks to the hardcore workaholic me, who could realize how much I've missed her these days when she is there right next to me and though I have all these unlimited expressions for her but never expressed!..... probably people start to think everyday as valentine's day and once you start to float yourself with the feel that you are in love and obviously everything turns up side down..... You get to see smiling faces around you every time.... I remember some Tamil movie showing a few angels always comes around you and start to play violin if you are with her. Ah!... a classic hindi example would be Mein Hoon Na and to the heaven's sake I too had the same feeling there.
Gulmarg! and there she turned into her white dress!!!..... the purest white to say matching to her heart and to the core a devine beauty and was standing there with her arms wide spread with an unending smile. It was so pretty moment to cherish with her the whole day, laughing, walking, playing, skiing (in fact), running and falling and especially without speaking........

I again stress Silence is the best language I ever know to express love and in fact there was Expressions Unlimited the whole day...

Oh yeah I didn't mention the name with whom I dated with.... Her name is "Nature".... In face we all love her but we hardly might have dated with her or spoken with her... spend a day with her some time.. she is Awesome to talk with!!!.....

Adoption

2009-01-29T22:00:00.001-08:00

I’m not a father but still I have many children!... sounds crazy. I mean, I play a mentoring role of a father to some children whom I interact with. Lot of us do it and everyone loves to do it. I don’t know if I’m right, but the word Child has more energy than what e = mc2 has, probably Einstein failed to observe this. If the word child has such potential then imagine about the word Children… They multiply. I’ve been observing it for quite a long time at the projects which we do. [Courtesy AID Delhi http://delhi.aidindia.org]

We all used to listen to stories when we were young, and our ancestors use to tell us stories which have angles in it and with all exclamations listen to them. I always had a question that where these angles come from and how do they look like and the answer would be Angles are gifted by GOD but silly Selva still asks a question Don’t they have Mom and Dad and the reply would be yes their Mom and Dad both are :GOD”. Sweet isn’t it. When I was in school I heard about orphanage and children living there who didn’t have Mom and Dad with them and I always fantasized visiting there just was curious to relate how these angles looked like, whether they have white cloths around them with a feathery wings. Our comic writer’s imagination is so poor which gets intruded into the readers as well and we’ve always seen angels like that, may it be in comic books or in movie stories.

During my college days I got a chance to visit an orphanage [I used to call it as a temple as I feel angles live there]. I don’t know if my childhood fantasies still was in me or not but I swear I could see none other than angels [both the male and female versions. No gender discrimination : P] in front of my eyes. Why I call them angels is because they don’t know who they are and also don’t know who I am but only give a smile to me and other all the time and say that we are in the world to make others happy. I don’t know if the institution taught them this but I know that children speak from their heart and these are someone special.

I also explored about how many such institutions in India exist and got to know there are thousands. Then I also got to know that there is a process by which one can adopt a child. I was pretty impressed to know that there is a chance of adoption. I say it’s a chance for us but if we carefully read it, it’s a hope for the child a new world, where the child can explore more about love and affection for a father and mother. I decided there that I would adopt a child in my life. I’m not a person who gets emotional immediately, at the same time I’m not a person who sees relationships as professional, it takes time for me to get into emotional attachment with anything and once I get attached then there is no stopping and this is something I felt emotional very immediately, but later I realized that after adoption I should certainly tell the child about the history behind him / her, so that I fairly give an opportunity to him / her to choose his / her own life. I would like to play a role of a mentor and that doesn’t mean that I would not pour my fatherhood to the child. The definition of adoption could differ and have any meaning for individuals, but all it holds is a new ray of hope for the children which would make a difference to not only the child. So friends why don’t we all take the word forward and encourage adoption in and around us.

After all we live in India where we Adopt to live with every thing which we don’t like and are not happy with. [Should I quote example for this as well??, no offence meant :D], but the child adoption does make us happy!!!.. Let’s make a new world for us and for others.

The Plight of a Romance.......

2009-01-17T07:42:00.000-08:00

18th February 1996

That morning when I was very happy as I was getting ready to go to attend a seminar in my old school. I moved out of that school after my 5th standard to another one. It was so exciting to go back to those classrooms and the corridor's where we spent a convincing amount of time. Oh between, the seminar is the one which happens a couple of weeks before our hindi exam which is conducted by Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha. There are 8 exams in total at an interval of 6 months each so at the end of 4th year (i.e after completing the 8th exam), you'll be awarded a degree equivalent to bachalors degree in hindi literature. I was on to write my last exam by then and the name of it was Praveen Uttarard.

Generally we get to meet a lot of people from different places of the town (Ambasamudram and its near by area) with whom we interact once in 6 months :). We also have our tution mates and that exam I wrote without tution (I studied on my own). It was great fun once we reach the school when you roam around with your school mates (ya there were a few as well, who were writing other exams), ex tution mates, other people and discussing all the things in the world expect the seminar. I just went into the class room and I always prefer to sit very next to the window. The window in that class room is so wonderful. Its a huge window which was with grills and very outside the window you'll see a 20 m wide ground and classrooms on the other end of the ground as well. Suddenly the crowd started to disperse to their respective classroom and the ground was getting emptied and thats when I get to see a cute little girl wrapped up in a nice green salwar crossing the corridor and suddenly the bell rang and I realized that I'm awe struck. It was just a few seconds but I can still remember the grandeur feel at the plight of her walk. The next thing I tried was to get out of the class but to my bad luck the speaker of the seminar entered the room.

As soon as the session ended, it was the hunt again to know who she is and which class she is in and along with my friend with me it was not a difficult task. At the end of the 10 min break we could collect her name, and her address and her school name, but couldn't meet her or find see her at the break. I could just not resist myself from getting out of the next session as this was the first time in my life when I felt something for a girl, when I felt something like seeing some girl again and again. The sessions generally in the seminar are so irritating and that day it was even worse and thankfully we got to break for lunch. The first think I did was to walk out of the class as soon as the bell rang and peepp into the other classes for her. My friend too joined me between but couldn't find her. He said with a smile that she is in the class of Madhyama (2nd exam). I decided to attend the afternoon session there and went in a choosed a corner seat of the class.

After lunch when she entered the class again the bell rang (this generally happens in comic stories and later saw in a movie too)... but believe me it happened. She sat in a chair which was three rows in front to me and three columns left to me and was in a perfect diagonal to me. Thank God! said me and just started to stare into her. I could hear nothing in the hall during the session and I couldn't feel any color in the room apart from green..... The feel was like everyone else in the class are dancing around us. Thanks to tamil movies which made me comfortable when I was thinking like this. Finally the bell rang in such a quick time and the seminar ended.........

A lot more interesting things happened after this..... wait and watch (oops.. read) :)

A Page from an Album called D-51

2009-01-04T10:54:00.000-08:00

How do we feel if we get to see a beautiful bunch of different flowers wrapped in and smiles fresh on us!!..... Marvelous!!!!. D-51, is the bunch with five different flowers in it, yes living flowers which have more life time!, each of them having their own way of spreading around fragrance and smiles. I hope everyone who've known D-51 for sometime now would definitely agree to the above said fact. You get to see a lot of friends among yourselves who might be sharing their rooms, sharing their workspace, but you hardly get to see people sharing their lives. This garden has it!.

Just lets get into a small flashback.... a year ago... somewhere in the late December of 2007, I started to explore some crazy moments with Arun by traveling to Gurgaon from Noida to watch Jab We Met for the 7th time by catching a truck :D. Later I started to travel to Noida often to watch late night movies with Darshan and Arun, though movie viewing was not the primary reason which kept me meeting these guys. The primary reason being Prayas and its new shape which was getting to bud up. Those chill and freezing cold December nights were so pleasant when we guys used to walk down after our late night shows from spice. I used to get back to IIT where I stayed and one fine night, I was suggested by Arun and Darshan to stay with them.

I was then introduced to Chauhan and Rambo (seriously I got to know his name as Amit some 4 months back when I got a call from someone asking him on our landline phone :P). It all started there and I started to visit them frequently. We used to have a lot of non stop serious "bak-bak" session from AID to World Economy (though we had nothing interesting in it). Most of the talks would end with a lot of questions without any answer as well, but still the discussions kept on going. I started to literaly invade (yes thats the right word and to put it in Hindi "Kabja karna") this garden as I started to smell the essence of it. I had a very little of interaction with Chauhan and Rambo that time. I became a pseudo tenant of D-51.

Parvathi mata's aaloo parantha's were one more reason for me to invade the room on weekends. It was some merry moments which kept me going there again and again. One fine day as expected, Rambo called me and said "bhai bura mat maanna, Aunty is not feeling happy about you coming here and staying with us. tum aaya karo but kabhi kabhi". I don't know how others could have taken this statement but I felt that Rambo is true and he from his heart feels that I should keep coming to the room. The same day evening I again went back and stayed there and there was one more time when I was told the same lines mentioned above.

Chauhan and Rambo must have felt my need in the room it seems (:P... jhoote mat maarna yaaron).... they talked to our landlord and have officially made me as a member of D-51, but one thing which was put as the main agenda was AID and Prayas should not be put forward all the time at our room and it should not be made as a meeting point, but actually we used to have lot of AID and Prayas discussions in the room which makes Rambo and Chauhan boring but having no options left out.

The best part I enjoy in our garden D-51 is each one lives and shares every moment to others. May it be Rambo's IAS results , the children of prayas getting admitted to school, Chauhan's search for his girl friend, Arun's efforts to become more responsible or Darshan's frequent trip to Shimla (Darshan tum shimla baar baar kyun jaate ho?) and yes my endless look at the orkut profile :P, we all live those moments and are happy to share those moments. There might be hardly anything which we spare to share. This means that how much we care. I've always felt that with these guys around my wishes always getting fulfilled.

There are a lot more moments which would need separate articles in each to explain..... such as our frequent cake cutting!!!!.. beleive me the shop keeper at Defence Bakery, Defense Colony now knows tales of D-51., my cooking experiments etc., etc.,

Album is a thing which everyone would love to go through again and again. It just has those lovely photos which brings the memories just in front of us at every moment. That's the reason why I'd like to call the moments at D-51 as an Album..... (its also a garden) its just filled with wonderful and merrier moments throughout..... and I've shared a very few photos of that here....

Thanks Arun, Darshan, Chauhan and Rambo for decorating my album!!!!

hoping to share more merry pages here!!!!!

Colors

2008-12-29T06:25:00.001-08:00

Colors as we all know are of a wide range. Between what is color?, sorry there are a lot of people who give a lot of definition to it and I’m not interested in explaining / arguing which is the right one here as I’d like to take this article on a different note and this article doesn’t revolve around Chromatics. The one I liked as the definition of color is “Color is the visual perceptual property corresponding to human”. The interest of this article would revolve around the psychological perceptual stimulus of humans with their visual perceptual property…Oops I mean the color. This is purely from my personal perception and this interpretation doesn’t need to have any proof: P.

Major visual perception revolves around Red, Green and Yellow and the rest of the colors are a combination of these three including illusions. They way one sees them depends on the ratio of how these are blended with each other. Similarly the human psychological perception revolves around the good, bad and a makeshift balance which is the animal in everyone, it generally favors the good and also do the bad in certain circumstances which makes a person very similar to illusion. Different colors form with the different proportion of the three master colors and similarly different nature forms with the different proportion of these three psychological thoughts.

Generally everyone looks the color with the same visual perceptual property unless they are visually handicapped, but I always wondered why the one which looks pleasant to me looks very disturbing or unpleasant to others and vice versa. This is purely on the mindset or the way how we look at it and at the end all the colors are pleasant and colors add a lot of values in mind. This somehow conveys me that both these psychological and visual perception has a proportion in our brain.

Well we also have different kind of same colors, I mean by adjusting the brightness and contrast we get them and we name it differently and these brightness and contrast is added by the surroundings / the visibility and similarly in the psychological perception I would say the human tendency to justify himself / herself on good and bad is with their surroundings [I mean the people around them] and to a great extent I strongly argue this point. The brightness and contrast I discussed would relate to the ego and selflessness here. The ratio of this would be obviously in proportion with the way the fellow person’s perception if not initially, but with a certain amount of time.

If these brightness and contrast are set right on the node then all the colors are pleasant to everyone!

P.S : The views expressed in this article is purely of author's imagination and it might contradict with any of the theories and the author is not responsible for the same. :P

Dilli - meri jaan

2008-12-15T08:21:00.000-08:00

Thought to pen down a long ago... "Dilli" - meri jaan

Its five plus years for me in Dilli now...... I remember the first day of me stepping in Nizamuddin Railway station at 22.30 hours on a Chilly November 17, 2003.... I was not exposed to such chillness before and the mercury must have read around 17 deg C. Just with a help of a sweater and a shawl I found a 6 feet place in the second class waiting room to rest myself. I knew no one in Delhi at that time and I got a contact of an IIT PhD student from someone and I didn't want to disturb him at that late night. The next morning I got an auto that negotiated with me for a couple of minutes and agreed to take me to IIT at Rs. 70/- with three more persons along with me who wanted to go to Malviya Nagar. I was not a south Indian who knew nothing in Hindi but I was smart enough to argue at that point of time as I knew Hindi and was able to pretend that I'm not going to be an "ullo". But finally my dear auto wala made me "ullo" by making me sit in the front seat along by his side and the rest of the three persons at the back side and started to ride. 35 minutes later when they got down they paid 40 bucks to that guy and sitting in the front seat and getting exposed to the chillness I was freeze and when I saw them paying 40 bucks I was shocked to believe that I'm being cheated here. He made me sit in the back seat now and started to smoke even after my request to drop the beedi. I joined my duty the very same day. Got introduced to a set of colleagues and was staying with the PhD student for a couple of days. I started to hunt a room for me the second day and was successful on the fifth day. I could manage to pull out a single room without a kitchen & shared bathroom for a rent of Rs. 1500/- at Katwaria Sarai, very adjacent to IIT. After a week of residence in that room and the interaction with my colleagues, and my environment and people at Katwaria Sarai and their behavior and to add up all the chillness!!!!..... The only thing I could wish for is to quit my job and run back south!!!!.......

December brought more chillness and literally I had nothing to do at my job as it was winter vacations and I was killing my time and seriously the most disgusting moments of my life. I can't sit idle in a place for a while, I need to do some damn thing!, else I'll go mad. Thankful the semester started and I had an opportunity to interact with my first set of students. That brought me some change in the world where I had nothing to do. Honestly speaking everyday I was expecting 13.00 hours so that the heat transfer lab would start and I'll have some opportunity to interact with my students...... life started to change. New friends, in the form of my students who literally were now getting me exposed to dilli. I started to explore new places and started to go out with them. Generally we get to see south Indian students going out with south Indian people / friends in IIT. I also used to do the same, but by doing so I got to understand that my views of seeing people around was with a mind set of a south Indian [no offense meant to anyone], which clearly is a negative way of living. Now I decided to do it with an open minded thinking. Suddenly winters seamed so pleasant [month of February], the roads were blossoming with colorful flowers on both the side. Dilli started to make me think that she has something more in her :).

The culture and the lifestyle of Delhi'ites are something which I started to admire for. I started to roam around Delhi alone. I've explored a lot of markets, roads, centers, exhibitions alone and sometimes just by walking. This was just to get used to the lifestyle of people and to understand the local people and I used to interact with them. I had all my weekends with me where I had nothing to do..... I was happy at the summers because we are used to it. I roamed a lot and got to see a lot of places and people. Suddenly I started to feel that this place has something in it which I could relate to but I couldn't get what was that. The end of the year made that happen. I went on a trip to Goa with my students, where I got to know about AID.. And probably that was my New Year gift to say [a separate blog would come up briefing it up how it happened]. From there on I got to see a different Delhi..... Non stop journey and five years over by now... WOW!!!!...

Some so special things I would like to point out about our Dilli are.... Chandni Chowk ki galiyan, nai sadak ke stationary shops, Darya Ganj book market, Paranthe wali gali, Gol Gappes, lassi, chilly winter mornings, hot hot summers, Radio Mirchi RJ's, blue line busses and its conductors, mixed culture, different accent Hindi language, art and craft bazaars, Dilli Haat Momo"S, dance, drama, cultural activities, India Habitat center, and not to forget Dilli de kudiyaan :P. .... Dilli simply rocks in every aspect and its one city which makes you to get obsessed with her once you start to spread across.....

In simple terms Dilli ne mera "dil li"

Vaaranam Aayiram - A Visual Poem

2008-11-26T20:15:00.001-08:00

If you want to watch a visual poetry then go for “Varanam Aayiram”…. I’m pretty much disappointed with the media’s review on movie. If they expect a treatment of the earlier Gautam Menon movies and enter the hall then its obviously a shock for them as Gautam’s protagonist is going to tell a different story. If one can’t relate to the scenes happening there to their day to day life then I feel pathetic for the people. It’s a well etched out portrait of the father and son relationship and obviously Surya excels in both the roles.

To show a man with six packs abs as a 17 year old kid needs something like an extraordinary effort and man! To all our surprise Surya brings that out. The film talks about the life between an urban father and son, so the dialogues in English makes sense, but our media is on the higher note saying “Naduvil varum tamil vasanagal idhu tamil padam enbadhay ninaivootugiradhu” [The tamil dialogues in between the movie reminds us that we are watching a tamil movies]. Come on guys just peep into any of the urban families these days. You hardly get them talking in tamil [please note that I have a very high regard for our language].

It has power packed performance, from every single cast and a poetic experience throughout. If you love to sit on alone on an edge of a rock and enjoy just starring the elegance of nature for hours in woods, then this movie is of your genre. People talk about logic; come on let me know one place where there is no logic in the movie. A single frame where they show father Surya working in Kerala has a “Mathrubhumi” calendar hung behind them.[I’ve only seen such perfection in Kamal’s Hey Ram! Earlier]. If you expect something more than this then “Sorry”.

I didn’t have a father like what the character had!, I wish I could have such a father in my next birth [If at all I have any], and I could see myself [what I thought I’ll be when I become a father], in Krishan’s character and probably others might not have seen that.

I recommend this movie for every movie lovers, if at all we stop welcoming such movies, we’ll be forced to watch the run of the mill genre of moives again and again.

Chandryaan.... meri yaadein

2008-10-23T03:34:00.000-07:00

With Chandrayaan launch @ 06.10 hours, 22nd October 2008, I feel like looking back on the days at our Advanced Materials and Ceramics Division, INSTEF area, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO, Trivandrum where we guys were doing a lot of fun filled research on developing Ceramic material for Space Capsule Recovery Experiment, which was launched somewhere in the middle of 2007 and was first phase to this Chandrayaan and our preparation of Reusable Launch Vehicle. I joined as a trainee with lot of pride and felt honoured entering one of the premium research laboratories of our nation. The exotic location of our centre adds more value to the feel. It always feels like being wanted.
I must have been blessed to be a part of the entire work and believe me being a Chemical Engineer; I never knew that a Chemical Engineer can do so much of things. I got a few great colleagues and friends. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn a lot of things and I prepared myself to listen to people and do what they tell me to do. The very next day to my surprise, my scientist Mr. Ajith Nair discussed with me about why we are doing the project and told me whatever work have been done so far from the scrap. Man, believe me it’s a hell lot of work and complicated things and from the moment on wards my opinion towards the government research organizations took a new shape. The very next command which he gave to me was a sweet shock. He said “Do whatever you want, try whatever you like to, but please do keep documentation”. It was a jackpot to me.
I got introduced to a few more “Great” gentle men there. One thing is for sure, I’ve always been blessed to have wonderful people around me. Here too I got the same. There were a few skill men around with us to help us in fabricating or making whatever we needed. To add to all these things, our centre Head was always on tour and we had full freedom from our scientist and the assistants there. Our head was also a freely moving person but we used to have a lot of fear and respect for him. We called him by a pet name “Singam” [meaning LION] among us. Within a week time I understood that this is a base project for India’s entry into the elite group of countries who have Reusable Launch Vehicle or to simply call “Space Shuttle”. And if this experiment is successful then we’ll be in a position to make RLV’s on our own.
I will not discuss more on what work I did there as it comes under Official Secrecy Act and I am not supposed to disclose it. I remember we were allotted a new laboratory on a new building. We were preparing and arranging our experimental setup’s there and was making it ready for the inauguration. To our surprise VSSC Director was the guest who was coming to inaugurate and he was Dr. Madhavan Nair. I never imagined that a director would come to our lab for a visit. We did our best to make our laboratory look pleasing and we generally did that everyday.
As my scientist advised, I used to maintain the log book for the entire laboratory. In that I generally write whatever work we did the entire day in one note book and in the other one I used to name the samples and track it according to its movement in the lab with time. Apart from that we had a white board at the entrance where I label out the day’s work in the morning and after having a look at it everyone used to do their part accordingly. It gave a very systematic approach to the entire research as well and we were able to sort out things very quickly.
That day too, I wrote things as I use to do daily. We had another board inside our lab where I wrote the briefing of targets achieved by us. Suddenly when director saw the board, he stopped for a while to read it across and asked my scientist who wrote this? And he searched for me in the crowd and called me to introduce me. The director with a smile congratulated and said “You have a very good handwriting, Keep it up”. Our scientist also showed him the log book I maintained and the director was with all praise. Then he wished us all before he left.
This is an unforgettable thing now, as I can proudly say that I got appreciated by ISRO chiefJ. There are lot more fantasy and fairy tales from my ISRO labs which I would share later.

Flood Relief Work at Bihar..... An Experience

2008-09-23T04:36:00.000-07:00

First, I would like to mention that the flood in Bihar is not a normal flood at all. A river has shifted its course in this biggest ever disaster Bihar has seen. It needs a deeper understanding before thinking of any kind of relief or rehabilitation work.

I visited Bihar to understand those issues and what problems the people of Bihar are facing. In the media though there were news, which stated about the flood and the river shifting its course, I never was aware of the magnitude of the disaster. On the first day when I reached at Saharsa, I thought of visiting the Mega Camps which government has organized in and around Saharsa, The camp I visited had a population of about 2600 people in it where there were arrangements for food, medicine and shelter for the people. However, the people were not happy with the distribution and the way the camp operated, but still that was a well managed and properly arranged camp. I started to think about why there are many requirements, when the people are properly taken care in a shelter in the camps? I thought I might probably get the answer in the next couple of days in which I would be staying here and interacting with people. I interacted with Ranjana [women at the camp who had a story to tell about why she is here today? She lost her husband to the river. Likewise, there were many Ranjana’s and many more stories.

We on the next morning planned to conduct a medical camp at deep in the district where any NGO’s or the Government aid has not reached. We earlier identified the blocks and the panchayats we could possibly work together. That day we went to Kishanpur Panchayat along with 6 doctors [who were a part of Lion’s Club team] and a few more volunteers. The local volunteers took care of the arrangements of the camp at the village Bhajanpatti. We were exactly located on the bank of a place where we could only see water all around. Its one of the most affected areas through which the river was flowing earlier. Still the water over there was finding its way to drain down. The local volunteers took care of the responsibility of brining in people from the villages using the boat and local volunteers. When they went in the boat to bring in people then I understood that there are many of such villages spread all across the water, where still people are surviving. They are not in a state where they are willing to leave their village and move on to the camp. The reasons are the following.

A person who has his / her house at the village was finding very difficult to leave that place where they have cultivated and farmed.
The mega camps can only provide shelter for a particular amount of time and after that.
People who had their cattle over there were never moved out and they were more worried upon their cattle as that are the income generating source they have.
Most of people don’t even come to the mega camp, which would provide them a place to stay.

We checked more than 850 villagers that day at the camp. It covered 5 villages of Kishanpur Panchayat namely Surmaha, Pama, Kishanpur, Bhajanpatti and Paharpur.

The next day morning the doctor’s team left to Kanp for their medical camp and I went to Triveniganj area for relief material distribution, which we got with us and to interact with the local people. Our coordinator Rajesh guided us, and it was shocking to see the water flowing like a river on the agricultural land. The land where the water has recited is filled with sand and some lands were with water, which had a lot of algae and other things, which gave a bad smell. This is just the story of the villages on the banks of the flowing river. We reached a canal in which there was a stream of Kosi flowing earlier and with this flood the canal broke and the water went into all the villages on the left end of the canal. Fortunately Triveniganj town escaped from this. Most of the roads were broken and is filled with water and when we got down the canal we could see an ocean in front of us where some boats were operated.

I got to know that there are tents for about a stretch of 120 KM by the village people on the banks of the canal [both sides] who have came from the villages inside the current ocean. Kosi was flowing with lot of anger and current in front of them. The agricultural lands were filled with the silt spitted by Kosi. Army men were operating boats at shift basis to distribute relief materials brought by NGO’s deep into the village. There are a lot many people still in the villages deep in the areas that are trying to protect themselves from the flowing water. With water all around them for more than a month now, some are dieing because of the disease spread there. It’s really pathetic that the government relief materials have not even reached the people on the banks of the canal where people are starving for food. They rush whenever they see a truck or van running on the road imagining that they may get at least a pack of biscuit or a piece of bread. These two lac or more people on the bank have survived with the help of the local people and the army men who’ve rescued them from the village. They all are carrying a high hope that one day the water will recite and they’ll move back to their village, but the question is what will they do over there? There is no chance for agriculture at least for the next two years after the water recitation as the lands is with silt. The silt thickness is more than half a foot by now. Most of the cattle’s died / got carried away by the water. Those who have cattle’s in the village are finding difficult to feed them now as they are surrounded with water. Cattle’s are also dieing because of the diseases spreading.

It was hard for me to talk to the villagers there. They were so kind enough to ask for a cup of tea, though they were starving to death. I have no words to express the gesture they had for us, but I couldn’t find what I can do for them. They all have lost something or the other. They all were so normal with a whole lot of pain in them, which were visible only after we started to talk to them. Otherwise people will find them normal and don’t even realize that they’ve been affected. Millions of thanks to the NGO’s and volunteers who’ve and are trying to keep faith and hope in the people. It’s a shame on the government that they are helpless and pointing fingers on others for the entire disaster.

If something has to be done, it’s not just giving clothes or food or shelter to them temporarily, it’s the long time rehabilitation and livelihood back to them once the water gets recited.

I would also thank to the people of Bihar for being so kind. I had a different picture about them before I went there and now I have an entirely different picture for them. There is loads of respect from me for them.

நிஜம்

2008-09-08T23:57:00.000-07:00

விரைவில் வருகிறது....

Siksha Adhoori.... [Education Incomplete....]

2008-09-03T20:19:00.001-07:00

That morning he had a class test. He knew that he hadn’t prepared for it at all. He prayed to GOD that the teacher should not come to school so that the test automatically get cancelled which he knew that it had a very less probability. Still he made up his mind that he would go in and give the test and manage to see what happens after that. Suddenly something sparkled in his mind and he remembered the India Australia One Day match that day. Though he was aware that India would loose the match, but yet he couldn’t resist himself to choose for the match between his match v test contest. He also remembered the other day when he skipped the match for the test. He didn’t do the test well and because of that he was badly scolded by his teacher. He hated his routine tests every week. He decided to sit and watch the match. One of the most common reasons he had to take a leave was loose motion. That day also he did the same and took an off to the school and enjoyed the match. At the end of the day India lost as he predicted and also the teacher didn’t come to school. Alas!... the entire fun of the day went off…..

This is one page from my Diary and if I turn back the pages of my diaries I can find ‘n’ number of such stupid but interesting stories. I hope every reader here might have even more interesting stories to tell…. When deeply assessed the problem is not just the exam which I feared about, it is the post mortem which will happen after the exam which feared me…… some how I felt treacherous to myself at times. Without confusing too much I would straight away take you to the issue which I want to discuss here :) , it’s about the educational system followed in the school.

Generally there is a feel that children are mischievous and they can be made disciplined only by a proper way of bringing them up. This thought is there at both school and at the house, but many hardly fail to understand that children are children. They are supposed to do what they want to do and we have no right to stop them doing it. A child start to learn things from the very next day it comes on this earth. The child knows when to cry, when to laugh and to whom it should pass smile. When we are not the ones who introduce these senses to them, then why we try to teach them common sense [rather we should learn it now :P]. Now after the parents its time for the school….

School is the place where children mentor’s themselves (I really mean it). I feel teachers should play a role in making the children mentor themselves rather than they play a mentor’s role. Most of our school education has routine classes where a teacher teaches a fixed curriculum and they never bother about what the child needs at all [A few exceptions are there but I’m talking about the majority]. What they all feel is if the child gets a mark of more than 90 in a subject, then his education has been wonderful and he is brilliant. No… that’s not at all the thing!!!!..There are much more….. I never see an open space for the children to express themselves. By children I mean a student studying in class KG - Class XII…… There is no open forum where he can talk or discuss about what he feels… We’ve always heard and seen teacher’s judge on the children who don’t pay attention to studies. We’ve really had a very few teacher’s with us who identifies what else interest that particular child.

For me education means not just learning a few subjects, it’s about imparting a moral value in a person where he / she develops himself / herself as a personality and make others reflect on them….. Our entire system of school has just compressed the life of a child into a classroom with four walls and a blackboard and yes not to forget the two hours in a week Physical Training period where we get to go beyond the bounded wall….. Every lecture was for one hour, where a few teacher’s were extremely supreme in making the children scare on them on their entry [usually people gets scared only on Villain’s entry on screen]. There were a few teachers’s who made their class a very pleasant space to be and a few made the children sleep as well…… Some of the teacher’s reflected their frustrations from home on the children….. All these makes a child to think a few things in the class [at lease I defend these points from my point of view only]…..

1. When will the recess bell ring…
2. When will the lunch period begin….
3. When will I reach back home….

I also remember we all used to stand up when the teacher comes in and when they walk out. It’s an honor which we pay to the people who are making us….. And it should come from the child’s heart, but in most of the cases our adoration came in on compulsion……

Teachers should be learners….. They should keep exploring the possibility of innovative and interesting things which interests children. Recently I got to meet a teacher who teaches class I in a school [name with held :)], and I was interacting with her on education and how school should be and what are the practices which we can bring in by innovative education etc. She was hearing all the stories….interestingly :). Finally I was sharing about some of the interesting books like John Holt’s Escape from Childhood, Instead of Education.. Books like Divaswapna, Tho-tho chan which shares about the introspectiveness of children and innovative education and learning. After hearing all these things she replied “I’m sorry, I might sound rude but I don’t want to read all these things and you are going over bored by advising me”. I was shell shocked and I really felt pity for those children who she’ll be teaching. If a teacher is not ready to learn about things which the children needs and can’t adjust to it then what will they do at the school? I just felt that the teacher is in fact seriously ruining a couple of futures.

Finally to conclude on, Today is teacher’s day but how many of us called back or wished our teacher’s who put in efforts to make us what we are today?..... Only a very few of us, wishes a very few of our teachers, nevertheless we wish all our friends on friendship day and on their birthdays too… We always have a habit of doing back things, and we call it as reciprocation, and in fact Newton’s third law too says every action has an equal and opposite reaction [though logically fits the discussion, but technically not], but have we ever reciprocated something for our teachers????...have we ever reached them back and thanked them???...... Then what is the education we got or what the education the system has given?. We all are a part of educated illiterate……. When we are educated illiterates then “hamaari Siksha hi adhoori” [our education is incomplete]……

एक अनुभव!!!

2008-08-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

This is the first article I wrote in Hindi almost a year and half back for Parichay's Newsletter :)

परिचय के साथ मेरे रिश्ते की उम्र अभी दो साल हो गई है! परिचय को जानना मेरी ज़िन्दगी का पहला मौका था जो मुझे कुछ बच्चों के पास ले गया! मैं इसके पहले भी कुछ सामाजिक कर्यों से जुडा हुआ था, लेखिन कहीं पर भी मैंने बच्चों के साथ काम नही किया था! इसीलिए पहली बार जब मैं परिचय गया थो मुझे बहुत अच्छा लगा और बहुत खुशी मिली! मैं उस दिन को अभी भी याद कर पार रहा हूँ जिस दिन सुबह हम लोग परिचय पहुंचे थे... पहले बार मैं बच्चों से मिला और विजय भैया से भी! मैं बच्चों को कुछ सिखाने के विचार से ही परिचय गया था, लेखिन वहां पहुँचने के बाद ही मुझे पता चला कि मैं बच्चों को कुछ सिखा नही सकता.. और उसी दिन यह भी पता चला कि मुझे इन बच्चो से बहुत कुछ सीखना है, ऐसा कुछ जो मुझे अब तक मेरी जिंदगी नही सिखा पाई! उस दिन से आज तक मैं परिचय कुछ सीखने के लिए ही जा रहा हूँ और वापस कुछ सीखकर ही आता हूँ, जो पिछले चौबीस सालों मैं पाठशाला और प्रयोगशाला ने नही सिखाया!
मैं बाल मनोविज्ञान नही जानता लेखिन यह कह सकता हूँ कि रानी, मोनी, सोना, हीरा, बुलबुल, तरुन्नुम और मोनू को शायद मैं अच्छी तरह से जानता हूँ! एन बच्चों मैं एक आग है जो हमेशा जलती रहती है! मैं इस आग कि तपिश को इनसे बात करते समय और कक्षा मैं सीखने के दौरान इनकी लगन को देखकर महसूस किया! जब मैं इन बच्चों से मिला था तो मुझे पता नही था कि इनमे से कही बच्चें अपने स्कूल मैं सबसे अच्छे नम्बर पर आते हैं! लेखिन उसी समय महसूस किया कि ये खुद को साबित कर सकते हैं, और बाद मैं पता चला कि ऐसा ही हो रहा है!
मोनी ने पूछने पर बताया कि वह डॉक्टर बनना चाहती है! मैं तो सिर्फ़ इतना जानता हूँ कि हमारे देश मे स्कूल में जाकार किसी पहली कक्षा के बच्चों से भी पूछो कि वह क्या बनना चाहते हैं तो जवाब मिलेगा कि वह या तो डॉक्टर, या फिर इंजिनियर बनना चाहता है, यह अलग बात है कि उसे डॉक्टर - इंजिनियर का मतलब नही पता होता! लेखिन जब मोनी ने मुझसे कहा थो मैं महसूस कर पाया की वह सब कुछ समझती है और समझकर ही कहती है! मैं सब लोगों से कहने चाहता हूँ की यह लड़खी एक दिन ज़रूर डॉक्टर बनेगी!
विजय भैया से मिलने के बाद मुझे ये लगा कि उन जैसा एक भी काम अगर हमारे गाँव मे शुरू कर दिया ना तो हमारे देश के हालात बदल जायेंगे! विजय भैया के बातें सुनने के लिए ही मैं काफ़ी बार परिचय गया हूँ! उनके विचारों सुनकर किसी भी आदमी के मन मैं अपने देश के लिए विशन आ जायेगा! मैं बच्चों और भैया को धन्यवाद् करना चाहता हूँ उन्होंने मेरे हिन्दी को टोलेरेट किया और उससे सुधरने मैं मेरी मदद भी कि! इसी कोशिश के चलते विजय भैया मुझसे हिन्दी में यह सब लिखवा कर सफल भी हो गए...और विजय भैया का मतलब ही है "सफलता"!

A Day with Bhopali's during their hunger strike

2008-08-18T22:45:00.000-07:00

We called for a Global Action Day on 28^th June, 2008 for the Bhopali’s sitting on indefinite hunger strike. We decided to call for solidarity fast that day with lot of people showing interest and enthusiasm. We decided to go to the dharna site at Jantar Mantar and sit with the bhopali’s the whole day. We managed to reach there by around 12.00 noon after a few work back home. I was on my second day of fast [I was having a 3 day fast from 27^th to 29^th].

As I’ve been going there regularly, now most of the people around recognize me. We sat around and soon more AID Delhi volunteers started to join us. Darshan, Kannan, Anand went to Sathyu and started to discuss with him. Later Abhinav and Anuradha joined them. I simply lay down and had a quick nap [to compensate my sleep for the last night]. Then I too joined the discussion there. I was slightly feeling some head ache due to my fast as I usually get head ache if proper food is not taken.

Around 12.30 we had media people around for a press conference and the children sitting at dharna announced to the press they would be now moving to prime minister’s house to hand over the hearts made by the school children of Delhi and by the Bhopal children’s as Prime Minister have lost his heart. They’ve made a large number of hearts and after the initial hiccups with the policemen they went along with the policemen and handed over the hearts at the P.M’s home.

After a couple of minutes when they came back, they were thrilled to explain every moment to Rachna and others about what happened there. Satabdi and Debamitro too joined us. Then we decided to wear pla-cards on our shoulders and sit on the truncation part of the road so that people who pass by can read the message. Me and Debamitro walked down and were preparing to sit, by then I got a call from Nitin saying that the children from Aashayen [one of our AID Delhi’s educational initiative] are here to make heart for the Prime Minister. The children from Bhopal explained them about the dharna and the issues and soon the children from Aashayen made heart for the P.M quickly and they left. We also had Nishant and Sherry joining us by then.

We were by then quite a number of volunteers there and started to have what is our stand an the issue?. Are we anti-DOW or are we looking for the clean up first?. Lot of questions rose from the volunteers and Shalini [Coordinator, SFB] joined us the discussion and we had a good brain storming on corporate accountability.

Finally we signed off in the evening around 6.00 and for lot of volunteers it was a life time experience to sit with the people who are on indefinite hunger strike. Our support for Bhopal and Bhopali’s will always remain the same.

Now it is the time when we are rejoicing victory of our struggle.......

Expressions Unlimitted!!!

2008-08-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

A Sorry for holding this post for such a long time

Was in a dilemma whether to post it or not, but as I’ve mentioned this entire blog would be based on my experiences and my journey, I’ve decided to post it.
I did my primary education in A.V.Rm.V Matriculation School, which was a co-ed school. I did my schooling till class V in it which actually molded this mud into Selva and as I was not able to afford the fees there my parents decided to move me to P.L.W.A Hr. Sec. School which was / is in Vickramasingapuram, a few kilometers away from Ambasamudram. It’s a very famous school in our Taluk which provides not only quality education but also quality human values [as per my personal observation]. It’s again a co-ed school but here the system doesn’t allow a boy to talk to a girl. There were strict rules that were followed with sever punishmentsJ, But still I was never hesitant / felt shy in talking to a girl as my experience in previous school was different. I was the shortest of the class and used to sit in front bench and once the interaction with the new faces started to develop, we mostly used to avoid / ignore talking to girls because there was no need for it and more over the system was also a bit responsible for it and above all the comments which would come from our other male counterpart was in mind.
It was a time when we moved to class 8. By the time I had a few of thick friends in the circle and I remember we 5 guys in a bench were named as “Panjapandavargal” [Five Pandavs], though the group started to split after class 7th because of the rearrangement in our seating. It’s almost the time when one gets into the real teen age. When everyone start to see the mirror and felt excited about budding mustache. I was not an exception on that. I always dreamt of having a mustache and feel so happy to see when it’s budding and also have felt jealous of fellow classmates who had more and a bit dense. Despite all these things, I was somehow never attracted towards girls.
That’s the time when she joined our class. She was fair, not so tall and with average built, but at that point of time she was just another girl in the class [at least for me]. One fine morning it was quite surprising to see the girl on the stage during an event and sing a western song. At that time western songs was something unheard and unusual to us [though we did study in an English medium school]. Though she was not at her best but was quite commendable. I was a bit eager to know her history by then and did found out too J [that’s human problem]. It was by then obvious that I wanted to develop a friendship with her [nothing else by that time], and wanted to interact. Suddenly when thinking of talking to her, I don’t know where the hell the shyness crept in and finally ended up in not even approaching her. I was very much excited about the all new expression in the face and mind which I conveyed to my bench mates [with whom one need to spend all the day]. Then started to glow the “dimaag ki batti”. Slowly I started to build a strategy to approach.
It was with a help of the local boy who used to interact with one of our class mate as she resides nearby his house [I was from Ambasamudram as I mentioned]. I first started to talk to that girl and slowly got in touch with her. She was not a localite and she also travels the same route which I travel. It’s all those general blah blah’s which started to build our friendship.
Those two years were in fact one of the best phases of life [Class VIIIth to Class Xth]. I don’t know what happened and how it happened but the truth is we really enjoyed our friendship [rather relationship, though nothing were in our minds], but at times people do talk something. It was all of a blushing situation at times but those were wonderful expressions. Within no time, we started to talk a lot [though officially in the school premises boys are not supposed to talk to girls], and express each to other in a special manner [might be infatuation, but I was sure it was not that and I didn’t have an idea of what she thought of it].
The most beautiful and highlight of the things are the glimpses which flashes every now and then from both the sides J and particularly when some boring class is going on [mostly being social science class, as he used to really kill us with his stories, but we enjoyed it a lot :D]. Not to forget, early in the morning once I enter into the class, the eyes search for her and once it spots her the head nods a “Good Morning!”, and when her eye nods and reply with a million dolor smile in the face, my day starts. [ I don’t know to name the feel and the expression, but those were with no limits and no ends, I also don’t know how does she felt about it]. I also remember a day when I went to her house and we chit chatted for about more than 6 hours [usually I never go to any of my friends house as my parents didn’t allow me to]. One of my class mate stayed very close to her house and used to ask what’s happening dude?, but it’s like nothing man!!!. We’ve shared almost a lot of talking together. I’ve also told her a lot of things which I didn’t share with some of my male counter parts. That doesn’t mean that I avoided / ignored them, but this was something special. I have great buddies on my male counterpart with whom I really enjoyed everything at school [it will be another special article which will come up soon].
After 10th I went on to join my Diploma in Chennai and almost lost contact with most of my friends and my family moved to Erode which is far away from Ambasamudram. I wrote a few letters when I was in college but somehow I never got a reply. She was an above average student and I thought she might do her engineering but she didn’t [I got to know this from a few of my friends]. I still had touch with a very few of my best pals in school and through them I started to gather most of my class mates. Thanks to the web and mail service providers. We started yahoo groups and Google groups for our childhood buddies and now are in touch with each other. Still I couldn’t find her. Tried her house number a couple of times…. Not in use……..

Still I don’t know what is that relationship… it was definitely more than friendship with Expressions Unlimited!!!!!

மார்கழி காலை

2008-07-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

சூரியன் உதிக்கும்முன்னே விழித்திடும் வீதி
பட்டையிட்டு பஜனை பாட புறப்படும் மக்கள்
சில்லென்ற காலையில் அம்மா கை காபி
குளிப்பதற்கு மிதமனை சூட்டில் பதமான வெந்நீர்

இல்லத்தின் முன்பு இடும் பூசணிப்பூ கோலம்......
பூஜையறை உள்ளிருந்து சாம்பிராணி வாசம்...
வீதியிலே நடக்கும் போது உணர்திடுவோம் சொர்க்கம்....

அதிகாலை கோவிலிலே ஒலிதிடும் மணிகள்
பெருமாள் கோவில் தயிர்சாத பிரசாதம்
சொர்க்கத்தில் வழியில் நடந்து வந்து அமிர்தம் உண்ட உணர்வு.......
வேறெங்கும் வருமா இப்படி ஒரு நினைவு?????

The people who rise before the sun

People who comes out to chant on the roads

Mummy's hand coffee on a chill morning

And a bucket of warm water at mild temperature to bath

The rangoli's in front of house with flowers on it

The essence of fragrance from the agarbati's at the houses

We feel heaven when we walk on the street

The early morning bells ringing from the temple

The curd rice prasatham from Perumal temple

Gives a feel of eating Amritam after walking through Heaven

Will I get such a thought if I live anywhere else????

प्रयास

2008-07-23T01:54:00.003-07:00

Please read this poem in Internet Explorer 6 + or Mozilla 3 + or Opera 9 + [else font problem occurs]

चलते चलते दो साल गुसार गए!
जानते नही आगे क्या होगा
इसी हालात में पहले भी थे!
तब भी जाने नही आगे क्या होगा

उन आंखों में सपना नही थे!
अब मैं मेरा सपना उनके आखों में देखने लगा!
उन दिलों में चाहत नही थी!
अब मेरे चाहतें को उन दिलों महसूस करने लगा!
उन दिमाग में विचारों नही थी!
अब मेरे विचारों से उनके विचारों मिलने लगा!
उस जिंदगी में कोई ख्वाहिश नही थी!
अब उन जिंदगी का कहीं सारे तात्पर्य होने लगा!

हम अब जान गएँ हमारी दक्षता!
और पता चल गया हमारा मकसद!
हमें चाहिए उनहे एक विकास!
और उसके लिए हम करते रहेंगे प्रयास!

A Story Untold

2008-06-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

All the Characters, Incidents potrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblence of the characters in living or dead is pure coincidence.

Vimala woke up that day early in the morning. Usually she wakes up at 4.00 so that she could finish her morning business before the entire community wakes up, usually all the women in the community does the same thing, but this day still woke up even earlier. That must be because of the noise that was coming from the huge vehicles that passed through her house. She just came out in eagerness to see what is happening around and found most of her company stood out. She didn’t know it was 2.00 in the morning as her house had no clock. There were conversations going on that approximately it could be 3.00 in the morning while some one loudly announced the time as 2.00. Vimala could see the frustration in everyone’s face and obviously on her’s too on the mirror. It was chill night with a freezing temperature of 2 degrees as per the prediction of weather reporters and it must be less than the predicted temperature as the community lives on the bank of Yamuna. Still she was wondering what why those vehicles passed around this early in the morning. The moon was shining like a diamond and the reflected rays from the roof of the closely packed houses served the purpose of streetlights which never glow.
Vimala walked out of her house and saw Sheena her neighbor.
“Arey Sheena!, tu bhi ut gayi?” [Hey Sheena! you too woke up]

“haan didi! voh kuch aawaz aayi thi na” [Yes Sister!, I heard the noise]

“chalo achca hai, mein soch rahi thi ki akele kaise jaaoon” [I was wondering how will I go alone]

“haan didi!, mein bhi chalti hoon, ab jaldi ut gayi tho…” [Yes Sister!, I’ll also join you, I’ve also woken up early…]

“didi paani le liya na?” [Sister, have you take water?]

“kyun?, jaa tho hain hum nadhi ke kinaare par” [Why?, aren’t we going to the river base?]

“nahi didi, nadhi ka paani mein haath rakha tho bhimari fhail jaayegi” [No Sister, We’ll be infected if we touch the river water].

Vimala gave a smile and both walked to the bank of the river and the conversation continued.

“Arey Sheena!, mujhe samaj mein nahi aa rahi hai ki yeh bada bada macheene kayku aayi, tujhe pata hai ka?” [Hey Sheena!, I was wondering why these big machines came here!. Do you know it?]

“hume ka pata didi, ho saktha hai colony mein paani ki tankee banana ke liye aaya ho” [How do I know sister!, probably it might have come for the construction of water tank in the colony]

“haan ho saktha hai” [ Yes its possible]

This was what the entire colony thought because they have fought with the government for a couple of months back for the same. The men at the community started to disperse when the clock read 8.00. They all were mostly rickshaw pullers, a few were working at the near by industry [plays a major role in polluting the river]. The women resumed their household business once the men were off. Vimala was so happy that day as she dreamt of avoiding walking a long distance to bring water to her house. She also went on to cook ‘kheer’ that day which is only made during festivals. In fact the same was the case with the other houses too.
Suddenly Vimla recognized Sheena running into her house. Sheena shouted

“didi, didi!, meine jo bana rahi thin a voh kheer jal gayi” [Sister, sister, the sweet dish I made burnt off].

“hey bhagwan, mein tho dar hi gayi thi”, [Oh God!, I really got scared]replied Vimala.

“bachaooo!... arey koi tho inhe rokho!!.... yeh kya ho raha hai!!!.... [Help!... Hey!, some one stop these guys!!... What the hell is happening here!!!...] they both heard these screaming and rushed out of their home.
Yes all these were happening there at their colony. No one knew or even thought about this. The machine which they thought in the morning which would fetch them water, was not turning out to be the Devil!. The things were thrown out and the vessels rolled on the road. Vimala felt that the machine that they were wondering as the one which came to fetch them water now turned out to take off their houses. Yes, the demolition operations were ‘ON’. Vimala couldn’t even think what she can do, within a flash she ran in back to the house and started to pack things of her new born baby into a bag. She didn’t even have more bags to pack the rest of the things.
People were screaming and running all around and slowly the news started to spread off that this operation is carried out because the government was planning to build a games village at the selected sight for the forthcoming common wealth games and this operation was carried out because of that. Vimala just ran out of the house with the bag and her child and found that the destruction machine was just a few meters away from her house. She just tried to join the other group of people and watch the rest. It took two more hours for them to do the complete operations.
“Silence” was the only language left over there at that time. Even the children didn’t cry. The dust particles which came from the destructed buildings were still in the air creating dusky atmosphere. The moisture in the air gave a darker look to the scene. People were just concentrating on re-locating their things here and there, trying to collect as many as possible.
Suddenly a vehicle rushes in with a huge noise and an announcement followed from that.

“Sarkar ne yahan par 2010 ki hone wale ‘common wealth games’ ke liye ek khel gaon banane ka soch rahe hain. Isliye aap sab logon ka ghar thoda gaya kyunki is jagah ko aap log kanoon ke khilaaf kabza kiye hain. Aap sab logon ko iske alawa delhike border ke paas doosra jaga diya jaayega. Jin logon ke paas apne pehchaan patr hai ve kal subah taluk office mein aake apne zameen ke kagazon le jaa sakthe hain”.

[The government is thinking to make a games village here for the upcoming commonwealth games in 2010. So your houses were abolished because you’ve occupied this land against the law and order. You all will get an alternate house allotted by the government somewhere in the border of Delhi. You are requested to come and collect the papers related to the house allotted to you from Taluk Office tomorrow. Houses will be allotted only for those who carry their identity cards]

“array , 10 saal ke baad hone wale khel ke liye ek gaon banane ke liye soch rahe hain, aur uske liye 10000 logon ka ghar thodenge, aur oopar se bolenge ki hamaara ghar kanoon ke khilaaf banaya gaya. Kya hamaara desh mein hum rehna kaanoon ki khilaaf hai”…. [The government thinks for making a games village for a game which is going to happen 10 years later and for doing that they will demolish houses of more than 10000 people and above all they will say that we are criminals as we have made our houses without permission. Is it a crime to live in our own country?] Uttered someone while dispersing.

Yes these people were forced to move out of the banks of Yamuna, the reason being Yamuna getting polluted. But no one can understand the pain they had that day. It will go on the books and records as an achievement of government on the process of the river cleaning [focused on the common wealth games village], but it will always remain as a black day for the people who left their life and livelihood there.

Few months later, they were moved to a new colony which had a house without roof, streets without road, street lights without electricity and taps without water.

“Sheena!, lagta hai ki ab phir se hume hamaari ladayi shuru karni padege” [Sheena!, it seems that we have to re-iterate our fight]…said Vimala.

“haan didi, yeh aapke liye theesri baar hogi!!: [Yes, sister exclaimed Sheena!]…

Six years later they have reached a state where their colony has got all the basic facilities. They also came to know that they have Right to Information Act now…They brought in all the facilities into the colony and it started to develop. Years rolled on.

Yet another early morning… Vimala woke up hearing the sound of a huge vehicle passing her house.

“Hey Bhagwan!!!!....phir se nahi!” [Oh God!!!!...not again!]

The Climax

2008-06-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

This is the continuation of
Why Can't I
Those tensed moments

So I request the readers to read the below mentioned articles before reading the current one. Else you'll not be able to understand and relate....

That night, when we were having dinner at Sakunthala International, I was feeling like somewhere in heaven seeing a scoop of vanilla ice-cream dressed with cherry on its head and with biscuit wings… [I couldn’t even realize that time that it’s happening to me, considering my family status]. I couldn’t feel like eating the chapattis too…. Just had lots of ice cream and we were traveling back to Ambasamudram. One of our seniors father had bought his car and we were traveling in it [Again traveling a car gives more pleasure, to be honest we called the car as PLEASURE CAR in our village].

It must be somewhere around 12.00 in the midnight when we landed and they dropped me in the bus stop from where I have to walk home alone and that night there was no power in the street. For a moment I thought should I ask them to drop me at my home but then I decided to take a walk. I had no fears but all I was worried about was the street dogs. I tried to divert my thinking and start to get thinking about the event…..

A few hours earlier, I could hear the claps in my ears…… the whole hall going on its hands…..

By the time I reached the stage the painting competition got over and everyone was eyeing on me. The performers who did the Monoact before me did a pathetic job by involving two or more characters in it and I was the only one who went on the stage alone to do mono act… There were two mikes available in a distance of three feet length and I decided to walk from one to another for two different characters….

I started of with a narration about my story and moved from one to another to portray the different roles….. It was flawless when I started and went on and I could even see the audience mesmerizing with my performance at the stage… [I always look into the eyes of the audience and have a good view of the entire auditorium whenever I perform. I believe that makes the people look at you other than paying attention somewhere else.].

Suddenly a dog barking and running towards me, gave a shock and in the darkness I couldn’t even see the dog but suddenly I bent down myself to pick up a stone and reacted quickly, pretending that I’m going to throw the stone on the dog. It ran away……..I was smart enough…. Again when I went back to the memories, I could hear the applauds of the audience.

That was the noise from the prize distribution ceremony for the monoact. The first prize goes to Rosemary Matriculation School and the second prize goes to “so and so school” and the third prize goes to “so and so school”……but what happened to my power packed performance?.. The mesmerizing act...

Yes it all happened because of the conflict I had in the climax…. I was so stupid to give a long pause before I deliver my dialogues in the last minutes because of the conflict I had in the climax and that long pause made me loose the event which was a two day preparation which could have ended with a great result.

While walking back to home I realized that, “I didn’t know that a dog will bark on me, but somehow I was smart enough to pick a stone and make it run, but I wasn’t smart enough at the climax to turn back the climax and deliver a dialogue what I wanted to”…. What would have happened if I didn’t take the stone?, the dog might have bitten? [Probably]… I realized its not only a hard work its also smart work some times work out…….

Everything happens for good and my loss in the event taught me this: D

Cutest Advertisement

2008-05-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

I remember those olden days when we used to skip TV channels [those DD days], when advertisement appears, but now a days things have changed. I'm prefering to watch advertisements than the program :D.... This particular AD has really stollen hearts.... and its charming enough

This advertisement reminds me the old school days when we used to share ink. I'm a great lover of Ink pens and I remember such kind of ink exchange between friends were common [might not be in an exam hall]..... The cute style of the guy with a hero pen lending ink and the charming smile and the stunning satisfied eyes of the girl, are really really soothening to the heart while watching.... I feel very very happy and enjoy myself whenever I see this AD..... The background music also has been scored good and it adds value to the Advertisement.

A really Cute and Charming Ad of times.....

நினைவு நல்லதாய் வேண்டும்

2008-05-05T02:13:00.000-07:00

பாடல்களில் எனக்கு பிடித்த வரிகளைப்பற்றி எழுத நினைத்தேன்..... அதில் முதலில் நினைவுக்கு வந்தது இதுவே....... இந்த பாடல் மனதில் உறுதி வேண்டும் திரைப்படத்தின் தலைப்பு பாடல்.......

மனதில் உறுதி வேண்டும்.....
வார்த்தையிலே இனிமை வேண்டும்......
நினைவு நல்லதாய் வேண்டும்......

இந்த வரிகளுடன் நான் "கனவு மெய்ப்பட வேண்டும்" என நினைத்தேன்........

எவ்வளவு ஆழமான வரிகள்.... மனதில் உறுதி இருக்கையில் ஒருவரது குறிக்கோள் கூர்மையாக இருக்கும்.... அப்போது பல விஷயங்களை சிந்திக்க தோன்றாது.....அந்த ஒரு தருணத்தில்... வார்த்தைகளில் இனிமை காப்பது ஒருவரால் இயன்றால் அது மிகப்பெரிய செயல்...... தொடரும் நினைவு நல்லதாய் வேண்டும் என்ற வரியின் அர்த்தமும் அதுவே..... இம்மூன்றும் சேர்ந்த குணமுடைய ஒருவரின் கனவு மெய்ப்பட வேண்டுமென்பது எனதாசை.........

As per a few requests here goes the translation
I thought of writing my favorite lines from a few tamil movie songs and this one came to my mind as soon as I wanted to pendown. This song is the title song of the film "Manadhil Urudhi Vendum"...The song goes as....

"One need to have a strong heart....
One need to have polite and sweet words.....
One need to have clean and neat thoughts....."

What a deep writing...When we have a strong heart our mind will be sharper in achieving that and at that time its impossible to have sweet words and if a person can do that then its a great deed....even if he manages sweet and polite word the one following next is the toughest to do.... clean and neat thoughts.... If a person is able to do it and if someone is trying to do it, then their desires should come true is what my wishes are....

Life is Beautiful.......

2008-04-30T04:02:00.000-07:00

I’ve always talked and thought about this tag “Life is Beautiful….”…. without argument everyone [who reads this are well connected to net and stuff :P] agrees yes life is beautiful, but there are some more but’s to it before we conclude :D. Here the protagonist mainly see’s the entire thing from his point [i.e me], but also leaves an option open for the readers to look from their perspective, if the readers mindset tune in with the protagonist’s [i.e mine], then my life is easy [to make you understand].

We all started to go to school from the age of 3 years and odd months, from where we’ve been exploring world outside a few individuals whom we’ve come across. Till that time the few individuals must have treated us so sweetly and taken care of us with all the love and affection from the world as we might have meant the world to us. [O.k, I should shift and narrate the story from my view point :D]. Now I start to go to school, come across various set of other me’s [I mean like me of the same age and not the other categories :P], and we all started to sense a feel of loneliness among a crowd. Also not to forget the teachers here, who take intense care of the children of that age with the perseverance got from the entire world. Life seemed to be very difficult on the first few odd days to school, but after a couple of days when I forget to bring my pencil, some one lends me one to show care [if not the level my parent’s would’ve but enough to save me from the teacher at that point of time by lending the pencil]. A sweet little smile exchanged and I get a person who feels for me and whom I can feel for, the first stage of Friendship….. ran the days non stop from there till we bid off farewell some day. Life has been beautiful with them. The world has become bigger.

Same is the case when we moved to college or even to a new work place. I’ve always celebrated every moment of my life. I mean I really have celebrated. For me life has been so difficult right from the beginning. I’ll be putting down some of really critical phases of me a few months down here, but those difficulties have made “SELVA”. I’m what my life taught me. I’m what my life is. I have had excess of emotions like happiness, depression, anger, sentiment, binding, care, commitment from my early age. Above all Frustration is the feel which I love to. I’ve enjoyed my frustrations to the most. Only a very few [mostly my mom] have seen my frustration, but after every frustration I find a determination. Its usually with everyone I suppose, but frustration is beautiful.

At some stage most of the people start to live life with frustration….so obviously life becomes beautiful. [atleast for some period of life]. O.k…O.k… hold on… now me seeing life of mine from my point of view and describing it, some where I feel it illogic to say that “Life is Beautiful…..” as a general statement……someone said me once please add “my” to that tag….. I thought, felt and explored it…. Let’s take an example of a very poor girl’s life.

Amri… a girl who begs [she proudly says after earning some bugs, that I earned this much :D] at dilli haat hardly earns around Rs.50 per day [not the exact average], and out of that almost 98% goes to her household expense. I’ve been interacting with her for quite some time and she is so sweet and smart girl. One day I was enquiring with her why she is not attending the classes which we conduct for the children at dilli haat.

“Amri tum class kyun nahi aati?” [Amri, why are you not coming to classes?]

“mein nahi aaoongi bhaiya” [I’ll not come brother]

“kyun nahi aaoogi?” [Why you’ll not come?]

“mujhe padhna accha nahi lagta hai” [I don’t like to study]

“phir kya karma pasand hai tumhe?” [ then what do you like to do?]

“isa hi khelna hai” [I just want to play like this]

“agar abhi nahi padhogi tho kya hoga pata hai?” [Do you know what will happen if you don’t study now]

“nahi, lekhin padhne ke baad aap jaise hi banoongi na?” [No, but I’ll also become like you only after I study na?]

That’s it, everything packed in one answer. Can I enjoy what she does with all the education and stuff I’ve got?, probably I may do it like playing on the road but I’m not sure all my fellow beings would be doing it. Got a point clearly stacked [which I knew earlier too…but now to make it clear to you], money and education are not the solutions to the cheer in life. Amri could laugh and dance where Selva can’t do it. Amri can do whatever she wants which none of us can do it even though we want to do. Aren’t we all thinking on something like throwing off all the stuffs and just chilling out [On Amri’s language “Khelna hai”], but we are not able to do…… we’ve frustrations and we live with that and Amri doesn’t have frustrations and she lives with that. Probably Amri might not have known about the other so called comfort limits we people have, to justify herself that education is not important, but till the time she doesn’t compare things, her Life is Beautiful…..Once she starts to compare she’ll come into the frustration domain and frustration makes life beautiful……

So friends stop comparing, “Life is Beautiful…..” Live it we all have got only one :D

[Forced to cut short the article keeping readers patience in mind :D, will come up with a few more examples latter with some other name :P]

A Learner's Chapter

2008-04-24T01:01:00.000-07:00

Parichay is the first place where I stepped in on to the new world of volunteering. Not many of volunteer get a chance to start learning volunteering from Parichay. It was a fine morning when I, Somen and one more girl Priya met at IIT main gate to move to the project. It was one and half hour travel with the modes of bus, auto-rickshaw and cycle-rickshaw travel. Before reaching parichay itself I had a lot to learn from the road from bhajanpura to tukhmirpur. I could imagine and interpret the state of mind of the people at that place (though that was an imagination of an immature so called volunteer who was on his first sight visit).

After all the way of travel when we reached the building with a block of bricks arranged on the front and loads of bundles of paper wounded and kept aside on both sides of the entrance. There were children all around with namasthe bhaiya and namasthe didi…while we entered into the block. Man I thought Somen must be a hero here; he got such a reception which I’ve earlier seen only in Rajnikanth movies on screen, a live experience.

Once we stepped into the block on the left hand side we had / have a steep steps leading to the first floor…..I just imagined “Parichay is already on top”.

A quick little flashback……. Me, Somen and Anirban used to have dinner quite often and during our dinner we talk about Parichay, AID, Volunteering etc., etc., we used to talk a lot about Parichay, the children and bhaiya…. I from there on had an imagination of Parichay with two separate rooms on a ground beautifully decorated with lots of charts having a small garden in front of it. Both the rooms surrounded with a series of flower pots [this is not my mistake, movies have shown things like that :D].

Back to the situation, I started to realize that I’m realizingJ. [I mean the reality may be different from cinematic imagination]. Up we went, and walked on the corridor, passing the unfolded cots, the vessels waiting to be cleaned and the clothes just getting a bath. Vijay bhaiya was waiting there for us and with a warm welcome; we had an introduction with the children. I could remember, Monu, Tarannum, Moni, Heera and Sona were the people I recognized on my first visit. After a lot of talk, bhaiya said us you can go to the next room and teach the children.

I was a bit clueless on what to teach, but me as usual ready to take up the new challenge. Priya somehow managed to gather the children and start to teach them how to look at the watch / clock to read time. I start to interact to a few children and start to teach them English. I thought I’m smart enough to take English class and started with ‘A’. In came a question,

“bhaiya yeh ‘A’ kyun hai?....

I was just feeling like a air plucked balloon. Infact the children were smart enough to understand my feel and said “theek hai, aage batayiye”….

I went there to teach the children and I was taught by the children that I’m not prepared enough to do so, it was a great learning from them and infact if this might not have happened that day, my entire experience of volunteering might have been different. Even today I go to parichay to learn and not to teach [though some times I share a few of my knowledge with children, I never call that as teaching].

Trip to Gangotri..... Part 1

2008-04-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

It was a pleasant surprise to hear from Ravi that he has plans to visit me on his way to BITS, Pilani. When he reached, he also wanted me to make a plan for a 3 day trip to somewhere. I’m always on for a trip and journeys as I like to travel a lot. I always looked for an opportunity to explore Himalayas and river Ganga and this was a right time to execute it. We decided to go to Gangotri. It was early November when Delhi got into a pleasant weather and chillness spreading out across the northern parts of India. We planned to take a cab ride all the way. It all started 2^nd November, 2007 early morning 06.00.

Ravi, at school times was not this talkative, it was good fun to be with a school mate after such a long time and that too for three continues days without any other disturbances. The driver was so good to keep the pace of the vehicle not exceeding 80 kmph on the highway. After three hours of drive since we started, we thought of breaking for break fast. We came across a highway stoppage place called “Cheetal Grand”, which was too good with lots of food option, {like a food court in malls, with beautiful garden around. We grabbed sandwich and pakoras along with a map of Uttarakand. [It also had a book store :D]

A non-stop journey from there to Haridwar, and we decided to wash Ravi's sins in the holy Ganges. Ravi was there for the first time and I asked him to take bath so that he also can become [atleast try to become] like the "holy me" :D. I’ve already taken bath in Ganges for a couple of time earlier to increase its holiness :P. Ravi then wanted me too to take a dip so that its holiness will be enriched and I did. When we got back to our car, we had a shock to hear from the near by bhaiya as he said Gangotri is closed. I knew that Gangotri and its route would be closed for a couple of months during the winters and this was unexpected. As Ravi like me is open to take up challenges, we decided to go as far as possibleJ. I also had an alternate plan of River Rafting at Rishikesh and a quick trip to Dehradun if possible.

Past Rishikesh [we didn’t stop there as we decided to stop there when we get back], we started to drive up the hills as I started to enjoy the scenic view of the ranges. The feel you get when you sit on the front seat along by the driver, riding on a mountain, cannot be put on words. We were traveling at a pace of 25kmph, which I think is the optimum speed to drive at mountain range. We had a few stoppages to capture the views in camera [by doing it we lost the camera cover :( ]. By now we’ve passed a couple of valleys[couldn’t count exactly the numbers], and we observed a stream running alongside the road in the opposite direction of our travel. We again thought to break for lunch at around 15.00 hours and we had a delicious lunch along with an awesome tea [must be a herbal one], for Rs.45/- for three people.

We got back to business and started to travel back. I observed a village at every 5^th Kilometer. Terrace cultivation was at all the corners. Children going to school. Mobile phones all across. Cricket on road with ball made with cloth [I suppose]. But still they lead a different life with different culture and to term it simple “a difficult life”…..

The rest would follow soon……

A Cinempact

2008-04-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

I’ve always been a great lover of cinema and I have my own taste of selecting my favorite movies. I always feel that cinema is a tool which has the potential to tune ones mindset from one frequency to other and if a movie not only tunes, but if possible to set the change in frequency then its an achievement of the story teller. Khuda ke liye is of his genre, which has the capability of tuning and setting the views mindset and leaves you disturbed for quiet some time.

The movie unfolds beautifully without even words spoken, just like a flower. Right on the second scene you are taken into issues which are told delicately. If you keenly notice the movie unfolds the issues of communism, brain drain, gender bias, terrorism and racism. The thought process of two brothers which was same is then becoming contradictory with time is handled with great delicacy. The story has both the brothers as protagonists and moves from there to different parts of the globe which shows the poles in lifestyle. The lead lady has her eyes do the talking, particularly the scene when she comes to know that her father ditched her by separating her from her boyfriend and get her married to her cousin. The remote village without transportation and toilets which cause an impact on the viewers…

You have an educated young youth listening to a local Maulana Tahiri and that changes his life and on the other hand his family which is contradictory to the deeds but not the thoughts. A situation which needs to be handled impeccably. Maulana Tahiri’s words are soothing and convincing enough for anyone who is open to listen.

The elder brother moves to America following his dreams and joins a music school over there; on the other hand the younger one moves to a remote village in the border of Afghanistan to marry his cousin to save the holiness of his uncle’s family. The struggle of the girl to get out and escape from the village makes you pray for her and the scene when all her efforts go in vain, you’ll really have your hearts heavy. The color combination of bright scenes of the American life and the dark / brownish view of the village life adds more feel to the happenings.

Suddenly the director has some surprise for you when the elder brother’s life takes a change. Now if you carefully notice both the brother’s life which took different track, getting into serious trouble. Even though the contradictory minds and thoughts made them to choose their lives, they both suffer and struggle from normal life. On the other hand the fight back shown by both the leading ladies are commendable. After all these surprise you have Nasureenden Shah as Maulana Wali, who is a special package who gives new dimensions to the views on Islam.

Director Shoaib Mansoor succeeds in making you sit, relax and realize a flow of river in front of you. This will remain in one of my all time favorite movie.

The hours when I loved love

2008-04-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

It’s now 13^th April, 2008, 03 hours 35 minutes…..

Approximately 24 hours before……

Almost Delhi was deep into silence with its people fallen asleep. I was one among the millions of people who was enjoying sleep. I usually don’t get dream while sleeping. Even if I get dream, I used to forget it the next morning. Dream comes very rarely to me. Usually dream occurs when a person falls deep asleep and the images, thoughts and feelings are experienced through it. I also know that these images are caused because of the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) which happens when a person sleeps deep.

Yes.. This is one such dream I had, probably the best of my life….

I personally don’t have a very good opinion towards Love. I was / (and partly) am not convinced with the theory of Love etc., In fact to agree I’ve had a few infatuations during my school days [which lucky I was matured enough to identify those as infatuation], but never slided towards love.

Without blah blahing much let me straight away enter into the dream. It was fine morning when she came to me. She is a friend of mine.

“Selva, can I ask you one thing?’

“haan, poocho……”

“You should give me an answer straight away.”

“haan zaroor.. kya hua?”

“Will you be my boy friend?”

Some electric shock into the mind, even before understanding what was happening there, my mouth uttered.

“I must be blessed”.

I swear I never had / have such a feel for her in real and I really couldn’t understand what's going on there. Suddenly I realized something and asked her.

“What will happen to the orkut profile wali”.

“………………..” silence was the reply…

“It’s o.k… mein bhi aaur kitne saal wait karoonga” – I replied and I had one question in my mind but didn’t ask her. [That was about her boy friend].

Me, a couple of my friends along with her were on an outing.[I don’t know how days passes so quickly in the dreams…] I could remember it was a resort where there was a long lonely road in which we all were walking, laughing loudly. Suddenly a silence persists, she came along my side and we both were walking. [I could realize that I was too shy in my dream too :D]. My mind was thinking of holding her hands but I just couldn’t do it.

Suddenly I started to feel a warmth of softness in my hands as she grabbed mine and she looked into my eyes after holding my hands, those eyes were asking me, “you were thinking of holding it na?”. With the warmth of her hands on mine and her head resting on my shoulder, I just felt love for the first time :D. I realized that “Life is more than what I’m living now”. I usually keep saying that I fly in the air, but the truth is I was flying at the moment”….. Just started to love the love :P….

We both spoke a lot of silence, the beautiful poetic walk with just eyes doing the talk…. I wanted to break the silence and start to talk, start to share but again I was shy L . She was the one to break it…..

“Selva, yeah bataoo…. What happened to __________ [her boyfriends name]?.

I replied, “Mujhe kya pata”

“I know you won't even ask :) .....mein hi batati hoon…..lekhin ab nahi.. Dinner ke baad’.... I started to expect the dinner time.....

“Selva, get up and prepare the coffee da….” – my friend Giri’s voice.

“Giri you spoiled a wonderful dream”- I uttered and tried to recollect the dream.

The hangover of the dream existed for the next couple of hours with me thinking why such a dream came to me. The concept of the dream is entirely controversial and contradictory to my thought, but then it was a dream and none can help it out.

But those hours I spent in the dream was wonderful and it will stay as a memory for ever and ever…..

The Black and White Theory

2008-03-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

In response to my dear friend Arun’s statement on territories of comfort…..

Dude, in the first paragraph you’ve referred to me as the odd one and it was not only me it was everyone among them. In fact, I wasn’t comfortable mentioning the live example considering a few things in my mind, here again I go against what I think, as I mentioned about the protagonist himself / herself turning out to be antagonist being bound to a specific criteria.

The discussion of theory of evolution and territories of comfort was O.K but the entire discussion does not relate to what was mentioned earlier. I think the theory of ‘territories of comfort’ may be well suited to a discussion on competition, but the aforementioned article discussed emotions.

I have categorically pointed out a few things there about categorization and the process that leads to the protagonist becoming an antagonist. Here, I give a simple example to give a better understanding of my statements. There are two groups A and B [lets consider both are of same sex]. Usually the normal tendency of gelling with other colleagues would happen only amongst the cadres, which is again mostly based on the categorization theory¹ and very minimally the true care. I basically think the theory of evolution² is the core cause of the cadre mechanism. I hope everyone agrees.

The key point of discussion is a few of cadre A might / might not get in real / true care with a few of cadre B, but are restricted not to show it out even though they want to because of the categorization theory¹. I would term this a black and white theory of human psyche [as I left out the other darker sides in my earlier discussion], I’d only like to talk about the two kinds of dilemma which exist in deciding the individual’s way of living. Either to be with the cadre or to come out of it! The Black side is the one that tends to show the whiteness that is virtually presented without the confrontation, though the white side is focusing somewhere. The white side is the one with the pure idea of emphasizing a person's capacity for self-realization through reason getting to the other side by turning black.

And I was wondering about the extrapolation of the animal theory with humans. This is not about the physical or mental strength one has over the above and dominating because of that. The key point [in terms of cadre], an individual of cadre A wants to gel with an individual of cadre B but couldn’t do it because the rest of his colleagues would consider this as a defection to the other side and to avoid that, the individual cadre A who doesn’t want to gel with the rest of the cadre A is forced to do so, thus going against the odds of what really was his wish. I don’t understand where the chances of getting a girl comes from³.

I completely agree with the theory of territory of comfort³ but it’s nowhere related to the content of my article¹.

References

1.The other side of the coin is rusting…..Sunday, March 9^th 2008 http://selvasword.blogspot.com

2.Theory of Evolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_evolution

3.Territories of comfort & competition… Monday, March 24^th 2008 http://arunsaysthis.blogspot.com

The Other Side of the Coin is Rusting

2008-03-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

“We all are living our lives according to our wish” is what we claim but ideally none of us are having a life which we really wanted, but are having one which is purely driven by the standards / image we set among our self in a group of people. This particular blog tell about some of the darker side in the persona’s we usually come across. It might be a bit complicated to understand the entire theme of the write-up we have here but let me beg your pardon to tune your mindset to a level where you could feel that the writer is trying to fit you in somewhere or the other as a protagonist and the protagonist is also the antagonist.
You were told by the author that we are dealing with the darker side of a persona but please remember the darker side is not exactly the person’s psychological darkness [admitting a few of the readers might have and a few might not] but it’s purely the other dark side where one try to over come the original psychological thought process provokingly but not showing out because to maintain the image and the standards set by them among the others.
I’m also able to see the reader’s face shrinking out when reading these lines having a thought process in mind about what exactly this guy is willing to tell and conclude, wait dear one’s the article is still left out.
Whenever we have a couple of people coming together, we have a structure of having a differentiation among the people surrounded. The differentiation is basically categorized by a couple of general terms as age, gender, orientation [not the race], literacy, class and the economy of the protagonist.[Please note that every one in the group is a protagonist by himself]. While categorizing every protagonist want to show the ingenuity of theirs by which they make themselves an antagonist as per the author.
The desire to share a care and love is dependent on the categories we defined above but we all somehow have a feel that it should be and is independent. We call our self as independent but somehow or the other we have forced our self to wear a mask on us without or sometime with our knowledge and the mask I quote here is nothing other than our society to which we are bound to control our emotions, thoughts, and feelings. The society I mean is again the same couple of people who are surrounding us [including the protagonist]. The preference to those people / society is again categorized by the same above mentioned terms which altogether lead to tie the thought process entirely, leading to have a prospection which is ultimately different than what we wish to have.
This fact might be hard to digest but the ugly truth is that we never felt liberal towards the practical process of building / bonding a relationship with the category differentiation which we didn’t want to see, but our thought process might have entirely experienced of going ahead in having it. Just because the fear fact that the couple of people together might fit the protagonist to the differentiated category, the protagonist at one stage becomes an antagonist and refuses to agree the wish which was original.
This extremely ends up in showing the shining side of the coin [the protagonist] and ultimately ends up in hiding the other part[the antagonist]…. And please turn back and see… the other side of the coin is rusting………….

to be continued :)

Those tensed moments

2008-01-22T05:42:00.000-08:00

The next morning, I was asked to practice for the next day’s event at school and at home by myself. The situation in my house is different, where I could only correct myself while practicing. As per the author’s view; the story had an interesting climax wherein the protagonist turns over the teacher to the authorities. It was moralistic but personally, I was not in line with the climax.

Friday night, after the practice I went to bed as usual dreaming about how I would perform the next day. It was a district level event in which every school in the district would participate. Our school A.V.Rm.V is a renowned school in the district. Now we had a chance of pulling off something.

Saturday morning was a special day for a few of us participating in the event. We gathered at school and got to know that Gomathy Vasagam, one of the participants was down with a high heavy and would not be joining us. Shocking news for us, indeed! He was a contestant who would win without much ado. Jenil, my best pal was the next option to replace Gomathy and he was taken along.

We reached the venue. It was an auditorium that was located in the basement of the hotel “Sagunthala International”. The place was milling with crowds and we were all fired up about our performance and eagerly waited for the turn. Just then, it was announced that the mono-skit competition would take place around 3.30 p.m. I recall that Jenil’s event would be held parallel to mine (Jenil can correct me if I’m wrong).

Ms. Fathima, Ms. Kamala and Mr. Kasimariyappan were all accompanying us.

Some of our seniors were there too - to compete in other events. Among the three of us, Shanmugapriya had her event first where she sang an English song and did it pretty well. Tension was mounting gradually with the passage of time. We were sitting in a corner of the balcony and biting our nails. I skipped my meal that day thinking we would have our dinner soon. When Shanmugapriya came back from the stage she was confident that she had done it. In fact I too agree that she did pulled off quite a sterling performance and the audience’s applause was a testimony to the same. But it seemed it wasn’t good enough for the prize evaded her. I remember Rosemary’s Matriculation School at Tirunelveli bagging most of the prizes. I’d say that it was the name of the school that brought more prizes for the contestants than their own performance did.

Now what happened next and what did I do...coming up soon…..

Why Can't I

2008-01-11T03:04:00.000-08:00

I’m 25 years and a few odd days old today and people around me know how enthused I get taking up a new challenge. A few of my friends go on to create a new terminology called “Selvatism”, which they define as confident above confident or something…

to sum it up as squaring self confidence. The reason behind that is, I always say -

“ho jaayega” (can be done) to whatever task it is that I’m assigned. So let me brief you on where it all started.

I was not in the habit of writing a diary, so I’m not aware of the exact date and year of the scene which I’m going to narrate, but it was somewhere in class 4 so that roughly sums up to be 1992. I was not a brilliant student in school but was smart enough. I was the smallest in build and liked by every teacher for my smartness. I was blessed with some wonderful teachers and it was always fun going to school. The day in question was just another routine day at school. It was a Thursday and we were in class when Ms. Fathima, one of the teachers came in to announce something. She had a small discussion with Mr. Kasimariappan who was our Tamil teacher. My scores in Tamil had improved dramatically under his tutelage. Until then, my scores in Tamil read 45 or 50 out of hundred.

So, getting back to the incident, Ms. Fathima informed us that our school had decided to participate in the event “Kiddiwal 92” which was organized by R.M.K.V - a famous textile showroom of Tirunelveli, our district capital. A few students had already been selected to represent our school. However, there were a few more categories left out which required people. Gomathi Vasagam from our class, who was and is a wonderful artist I have ever come across, was selected for the drawing competition and Shanmugapriya Shyamala, a Srilankan Tamil from our class was selected for English poetry competition. Her mother was teaching Tamil in our school. One category left out was “Monoact” (A single person has to do different roles). When none volunteered for it, Fathima madam suddenly she looked at me and said

“Selva, I forgot about you. You can do this na?”

[For your kind information, I was one of the finest drama artists in my school and I performed two lead roles in two stage dramas in our school. The credit goes to the principal of course, for it was he who’d chosen me for the part.] The problem with me even in those days was that I couldn’t say No to anyone for anything that was in my capacity (it remains to this day!). So when Ms. Fathima, a person who I held in the highest esteem) asked me, out came the reply: “Yes”. I thought I would be quite able to perform well on stage if I put my mind to it (that I suppose was innately linked to my natural tendency to strive for perfection). The bombshell dropped when she informed me that the event was on the coming Saturday, which, in effect meant we only had two days to rehearse.

Once the class was over, my mind was solely thinking on the lines of the MonoAct and how would I do it. While I was thus deliberating, a simple thought struck me –

“Why can’t I?” Immediately, I rushed to Mr. Kasimariappan and Ms. Fathima. I asked them for details regarding my part and the dialogues.

Both of them said, “Selva, we need to work on that as we haven’t got any idea just yet. So please see us after lunch.”

Then came lunchtime and I rushed to them again. Mr. Kasimariappan was amazed to see me arrive bang on time and appreciated my eagerness, but again the dialogues weren’t prepared. Fathima madam requested me to come to her place in the evening to do the rehearsal. I went there and got two papers of dialogues which were in English. [I had butterflies in the stomach with thoughts like – “ Selva, you are out of the competition already…”] Again, I perked up thinking there was no reason I couldn’t and held my ground. I put in two hours of hard work at the rehearsal.

The premise of the act was that an old man traveling in a train loses his ticket and is caught by the TTE. A conversation ensues at the end of which, there’s a twist to the tale when the TTE realizes that the old man is none other than his teacher at school a long time ago. The protagonist’s dilemma as to whether he should turn in a ticket less passenger or shield his hapless mentor formed the climax of the drama.

It was an impressive story with a lot of scope to act and express as a young man vis-à-vis an old man. I was all geared to take it up as a challenge and give it my best shot. With this frame of mind, I started to rehearse. I got the right voice modulation to distinguish the characters clearly and toiled hard for two odd hours. Still, I was only able to completely rehearse about half the pages properly. Then it was too late and Ms. Fathima asked me to rehearse the rest by myself and be prepared on Saturday morning for the event.

That night…I must accept that I didn’t sleep as Selva, it was the TTE and the old man together rolled in the person who was going to bed. I usually murmur during my sleep and came to know from my mom the next morning that I kept on murmuring something that night…

What happened next would be followed in the next article.