To close or not to close..

For the past couple of days there has been a lot of hullabaloo on the general bandh declared in Chennai on Oct 1..The bandh apparently was to speed up the Sethusamudram project..
Well the minute the bandh was declared opposition parties and public filed Public interest Litigations in the court..Drama took a new turn when the High court did not stay the bandh however ordered that transport and common mans life not be disrupted..

Now what was this.. is it a bandh or not.. businessmen and finance people thrown in a fix.. for the second time this year(March 31 st was also a bandh if i remember correct) , their account closing plans are messed up...
when a couple of days back I told a friend of mine about the Bandh.. without even a breather he said.. "Oh my god whats going to happen to the stock take for the Quarter end!!"
Ask anyone if there is a closure or not..and they'd say "well we are not sure"

And today ..well there was what hindi movies will say"Kahani mein twist"The supreme court in a special sunday hearing, "stayed the bandh"
And promptly the party staging the bandh decided to go on a day long hunger strike, now in protest of the stay order!!!!

And while a new drama unfolds from the dying embers of the bandh, I've decided am safer staying put at home on Oct 1st!!

Surprise..or uh oh.. phuss...

I wonder why sometimes things don't happen like you think they should..How should I react when I plan to surprise a person and the plans go all topsy turvy.How should I feel when I have done something small maybe with an intention to make a friend or a loved one smile and I keep searching for the smile.... Should I be dejected..or should I just shrug it off and say bah.. better luck next time..

Mine is always a mixed bag of emotions.. sometimes I've shrugged it off..sometimes I've just been plain dejected.

I remember the time when when once a bunch of my friends and me..decided to throw a surprise party for another of our friends(lets call him X) at his house in Guduvanchery.We had arranged everything with his mom, and had the timing also executed to the finest detail..his mom had to send him away on some errand, while we wait at his house for him to come back..and go surrrrrprise!!!...
We caught a bus from Chennai and traveled all the way to Guduvancheri just to be able to see the expression on X's face..But our plans were not to be.. X was sent on an errand for sure, but he decided to come to the shop next to the bus stop.. so who spots us searching for the house.. oh yeah X... our expression was worth a picture then !!!

And then there was this time in my sisters wedding.. I had decided to compile an album of photographs and gift it to her as a surprise.. photos since her childhood to marriage..handpicked by me from various collections across the whole set of my relatives...
But bam.. just before i was going to give it.. someone blew the surprise....

There have been wonderful surprises I have been able to pull off too.. which I fondly remember..Like when I visited my closest friend before her wedding when she was least expecting me to come.. Her dad , mom , everyone had help me pull of the surprise..I can never forget the expression she had on her face when she saw me...:) love u R:)

But bah.. whatever.. whether it bombed or not.. lemme keep trying to be more goofy than ever in my surprises ;)

Read Read Read..

How does one best read? what are the minimum things needed to study well..If i were asked that I'd say a Desk a chair and good lighting.. plus of course the books!!!
Is it better to study in the house.. or outside.. in a library.. a reading hall perhaps?

I am a month away from my exams...My institute has a nice reading hall which i like to go to.. I had stopped going there for some months and was sitting at home and studying, but now i have resumed going there... and somehow i like the feeling..

Why the reading hall i keep thinking.. Its not group studies I am looking for..My need is more of "company" to study..I get a lot of confidence when i see more people study around me.. Time and again people have asked me what is that you lack at home? a lovely desk.., a nice room.. peaceful atmosphere. The best one can ask for.. and I'm not denying that.Yes at home I do have the best comforts..Then why the reading hall..

Sometimes I've even been reminded that as an whenI do other courses later in life i cant expect to take a break and study in a reading hall.. Yes i do agree.I cant say I can study only in the reading hall.. that would be incorrect..I can study even at home, as effective as my studies would be at the hall. In the couple of months i kept away from the reading hall..thats exactly what i realized. And thats why I enjoy the place more now..

All through school I had exams, in fact I don't remember being scared of exams.... until I reached the "board" exams.. where the fear crept in slowly.
Then college.. again there were exams.. the commonality was that in both places i knew a bunch of students rather a whole class or more of students giving the exams around the same time as me. That company I was seeking existed around me in my friends circle and in classrooms.

And now that kind of "company"- of many people just studying for the same exam.. no discussions between them, just sitting together in the hall and studying..Thats what my reading hall gives me ;)

Blog the stress away!!

Today's edition of Hindu had an article on stress busters.. Blogging was one method suggested there.(main focus was the IT Co techies)

Being just a few weeks old in the bloggers world, it got me thinking. "Is Blogging a stress buster?"..
Well a part of me would say yes. It gives me an avenue to share my thoughts on practically anything. It makes me widen my thought horizons i'd say.. cos now when i look at something ..even a small picture or a news item, i think.."ooh can i blog on that" "or thats an interesting thing to blog on". In some small way it helps me connect with people as well.. cos in the busy world, in spite of a mobile phone and email being at a snap of a finger reach.. those unending.. sometimes meaningless conversations with friends have got lost somewhere.

But again I think the number of blogs in my case will be inversely proportional to the hours I spend in front of the comp :)I'd probably push blogging to just the weekends ..
Beats me how an IT company person can even suggest spending more hours in front of the computer(for blogging) as a probable "stress buster"

Flip side of blogging that I have experienced..

1)I have become more dependent on the system for silly things like spelling checks. There was a time when I would check and double check for spelling errors in any of my articles for the school magazine etc.. lest my English teacher catches me on errors..

2)Writing on paper has become very very less..those few letters , few greeting cards I got couple of years back have given way to emails and e-cards.I agree they are more convenient but the personal touch gets lost somewhere in the whole deal ;)

3) The few occasions where I do get to write (sometimes forced to !!) like in exams..I have to be doubly cautious not to use "ur" instead of "your" or "gr8" instead of "great".. Aargh the " speed of typing" factor in sms's and chat sessions have really spoilt me ;)

But on the whole..given the flips and the ups.... right now... I simply Looooooooove blogging ;)

Howzzat!!!

Just a few weeks back we finished doing a bit of modification to the interiors at my place.
there was a little bit of sanmica and wood left which tempted me into some craft ideas..

My friend T :) gave me this lovely post card collection. I don't think i can ever send them to anyone as postcards.. (psst..they are too nice to part with ), so I decided i'll display them on my desk.
Pity.. i dint find any photo frame in my house in that size..:( eureka!!! i got it.. took a bit of sanmica and converted the box the postcards are in into a Photo frame ;) howzzat!!!
Now changing the picture daily is so so easy ;)





A photo frame for both portrait and landscape cards!!!! yipppeee

Sheer boredom got me set on the other task.. I found some old invitation cards and pictures which i thought i can convert to bookmarks..dint have any cardboard for the base. No points for guessing what i used as base!!!!!! Bingo!!!sanmica !! so there I have some lovely bookmarks!!

Victory victory to thee

The most brilliant victory for India.

With team India setting a 158 as target for the final match with Pakistan, the Pakistan inning was sure going to be nail biting.

Sadly the requirement of the set top box to view matches made me miss seeing it live by the second ;)

But thanks to all the internet sites like Cricinfo.com and aol.in for giving simulated match views with the transmission delay just being by a ball or two..

I followed every ball on the net with script commentary on the internet

The simulation module reminded me of a cloth cricket game I played as a kid with plastic players ;)

A grand victory :)

A sunday morning drive

Yesterday morning my family decided to visit an ancient temple about 40 kms from Chennai.

We left early in the morning so that we could enjoy the drive and assumed that the traffic would not be too much either, it being a Sunday.

But we were in for a surprise..

There was maddening traffic at 6 AM in fact I’d have needed some re assurance that it was indeed a Sunday. People breaking red signals.. the apparent reasoning always given to me is “duh..its 6 in the morning.. who bothers about traffic light then ;)”

Well well, text book knowledge always taught me what the little red ,green and amber lights meant. ;) but “me” is a minority in this big bad world of driving ;)

The next breaker for our wonderful journey was the flyover construction work that’s happening on one of the busiest junctions in Chennai. Every person is eagerly waiting for the flyover to be constructed. I’ve even drawn lovely images on my mind of how those roads will be once the flyovers are finished.

Some flyovers in Delhi have given me that “lasting impression” feel.. All that have come up in the past 4 or 5 years have completely changed the face of the city. Am hoping Chennai Kathipara flyover is as state of art once its through

Anyways after the bumpy ride through the construction site and more bumpy rides through the “not so much of a city” roads beyond the airport, we finally reached a stretch of nice peaceful drive. So peaceful, that, I managed to doze off for a couple of minutes.

After almost an hour we passed a “suburb” (if I may call it that) of Chennai , Tambaram.

I realized only then that several of my friends travel almost daily to Tambaram through the very same roads I just traveled by and not at an early hour of 6 but at peak “office hours”

In fact one of my colleagues’ has traveled for every day of 3 years of his training from a town further away ,almost near the temple I went to visit , using variety of transport being buses , trains and auto rickshaws.

But on reaching this small village where the temple was, my spirits rose. Old houses, the smell of pure mud, little green hillocks. It was divine. It washed off all the weariness the drive had brought about.

A simple ancient temple. One could feel the ancient history in the walls , the floor, the architecture. Everything about the temple spelt “history” .

Close by was another old temple which was our next stop. Atop a hillock it was beautiful too.

After sitting and enjoying the peace these temples spelt out we got back into the car for out “bumpy” slow ride back home

Back through the same traffic and same thoughts ,with more appreciation to all those who do the journey everyday.

Its playtime folks

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” Indeed it does...

I cant imagine what I would have done if I dint have that 40 minutes of “Games” period in school or the 15 minutes of lunch break where id gobble up the food and rush to the overcrowded ground to play.

Hmm... 15 minutes looks like a really short time for food and play... oh my I think I should have enrolled myself in some game show for “ speed eating “ but I’d have fierce competition from all my schoolmates.. we all managed to eat n play in those 15 precious minutes.

In school I enjoyed the games period a lot. Dressed in a smart white skirt (such a relief from the daily checkered gray), I enjoyed playing Kho Kho and badminton and volleyball.

Id wait for the occasional time when couple of us girls will be allowed to be part of the football team with the guys or play rough dodge ball with participation from the boys too.(the girly version would be slow soft balls and with guys it was all about speed and attack!)

Sometime in high school I enrolled myself to be part of the badminton, Kho kho and athletics teams so that I could find a valid reason to shirk away from the “normal” (read sitting and yapping) period majority of the girls liked in my class.

The 15 minute lunch break would only be for running the length of the ground just searching for friends. And when u found people… trrring the bell would sound. Day after day the same exercise was repeated. J Never once did it strike anyone to just wait at a common point after food gobbling ;)

In the evening, I’d wait for the clock to strike 5 to tell my mom I am going to play in the colony.

Never ending sessions of hide n seek would start in the colony, where the thrill of choosing the “den” (seeker) and the searching and then calling out the name of the person you found. Oh the excitement was unimaginable. Specially when u find someone whose name u cant recallJ... (with me muttering every name that I can think of hoping that I guessed the right name against all odds ;) - I can like make an episode of a tele- serial with just those expressions… J

Or a game of Pitthu(where 7 marble stones are lined up like a pyramid and one team rebuilds it while a chaser stops them from doing it) We were supposed to shout Pitthu after reassembling the whole thing :) and I still remember my neighbor shouting “pencil box” in the nail biting finish it was going to get ;) ((Wonder what Pitthu is called in other languages, coz I see people in Chennai playing it too))

I remember the rainy days when we’d play in each others houses some board games or dining “Table Tennis”.

In high school it was going around in the cycle that took up most of my “playtime”

Holidays in Chennai were fun too.. I’d play with the Frisbee and the “ring” (I don’t what its called) at my grandparents place with my cousin. And holidays in Delhi were cycling, more cycling and walking with friends ;)

Slowly I outgrew the fixed playtime I had. It became more of a sneak playtime between works that happened in later years ;)

Like in college, I remember how me n my friend in the pretext of “joint studies” did sessions of “our own game of squash” with a crazy ball and a plain obstruction free and nail free wall in my drawing room ;)(Till my mom figured out that the wall was all dirty because of tiny dots made by the dirty ball!! And banned the game !) And many sessions of book cricket at her place (we replaced the bat with a book!)

And now I’m confined to desk games between studies.. a round on the Rubik’s cube or a little bit of time with the stress ball to soothe my fingers etc etc…

Anything for playtime now ;)

Ratatouille

Finally I saw the movie yesterday.. One of the cutest movies I have seen in a couple of months. I am like my friend says in a small way “obsessed” with rats... and Remy, was oh so cute…

Yesterday after seeing the movie I was at my peak of obsession.. associating everything with rats. .recalling scenes of movies which had rats/mice…OMG

Even though I admit I find rats as much a pest as anyone else does.. but something makes me find them cute . I’m reminded of “Jerry” every time I see a little brown mouse.

But trust me If I see one suddenly I’ll surely jump and shriek, ;) but once satisfied that it cannot eat me away.. I’ll probably feel safer and peek at where its hiding.

Craziest I think I have done is trying to click a picture of a rat I caught…J Dint know they were camera shy ;)

raindrops..

It is beautiful now. A light shower of rain turned the weather upside down. It is not hot anymore and I can smell wet mud all over. Can see little drops of water on the leaves, from my window. Aah. It is so refreshing.

I still have to experience going to the beach when it’s raining. Yes that’s one thing that I think will be purely divine, to see raindrops merging with the vast ocean…

Hmmmm what else ;)

Phrases I tend to repeat after every three sentences or so in a conversation.. be it telephonic or chat..

Aur Bata -with my Hindi speaking friends
Apparum..Vera enna - For Tam friends
Then... What else.... -for all the English conversations

Sometimes the same sentence in different language combinations, features in the same conversation!!!

Gosh I really need to find interesting fillers for conversations ;) Help me ;)

Strange things that make my heart swing ;)

Ok so all of us have some activities which can help us loosen up.. lift our spirits.. it could be anything.. Listening to nice songs.. or jus thinking about the nice things in the past....
these are some of mine....

1)Washing dishes
The idea of soap and water together is just so relieving.. One "chore" that i can do with joy is dishes.One can become a child while playing with soap water.. and music and Dishes is like icing on the cake.. thanks to MP3 players i don't have to lug a heavy walk man anymore ;)

2) Assembling furniture
Yup..I get a lot of joy in putting pieces of furniture together.Its gives me a feeling as if I made the piece of furniture.. It will take hours and a lot of patience but nothing will stop me from doing the task ;) Knock down furniture rocks!

3) Shifting things around the house
I don't like to keep big things around the house.. I like vast spaces.. and with less things..moving them around changing their positions is easy. Keeping something in a different place gives such a new look to the room ,and change is good too :)

4)Dabbling with old electronic items
Pull out the tool kit and check the stuff.. clean it from inside..see if its working.. It could be anything..an old iron box or an electric kettle anything with screws and complex machinery inside ;) I find that a very interesting job ;) I would have been a mechanic or a handy person in some electricians shop had they not told me I have study Physics to do that ;)

5)Cleaning, De cluttering and organizing.
When I need a change.. i do just that.. clean my cupboard, table , dressing table even the files on my computer..Bring out all the stuff.. and re arrange.. Everything feels fresh after that.I love to arrange old books that I want to keep in nice small bundles. Tie them up and store them away.

6)Moving houses.
To most this is the worst task.. I have quite enjoyed "shifting" in the past.Its like mystery unraveling itself..discovery of articles, old letters or small things from the past that one can live all over again.
Plus shifting lets me do all my favorite things at once ;)

hmm .. so thats my list of things that I can do to de stress... this i apart from the" normal" activities like going for a stroll, listening to music, lazing etc etc (wink)

Co existence..

Almost all the recognized professions have a code of ethics they prescribe. Behavior of the professional is defined in such a code.. Should there be a code of ethics for the society at large. and if there is one..am adding it to my wish list to read ;)

I studied a subject called moral science all through school.. I'm sure all my elders studied it in some form or another. Is moral science just a subject in school? Isn't is supposed to bring in virtues like punctuality, civic sense, concern for others,honesty, cleanliness within a person for life??
Have people really forgotten to co exist and live with other humans?

I remember how in Delhi in my huge "colonies" (as we used to call our apartments) ,of few hundred families, i'd greet everyone with a smile.
Evening walks and games with friends would have fillers in the form of
Namaste aunty/uncle - for my hindi speaking neighbors and
Namaskaram Mama/Mami - for all my Tam neighbors

and here in Chennai..in a flat of just 8 families, I have hardly interacted with anyone. The only time everyone meets is to fight over problems of water in the apartments/ sewage or seepage...
I was in a bit of shock when i moved here..cos for the first time when i greet someone..i get no response...shocking..

Why is a simple gesture lacking..arent we taught to greet everyone with a smile?Is is just for few marks that we study moral science.?

Ouch...

Ouch to me was always a word used to express sudden pain... but I got to know today that as a noun.."ouch" is a clasp, brooch or buckle used as an ornament!!!
:)

Dinner and Dining Tables

Since whenever I can remember back from , dinners for me at home have always been at the dining table.. The one meal that the whole family will sit together and eat.. and unknown to me the dining table probably became the most important piece of furniture at my house..

Only when I ponder do I realize the many houses where dinner time is not exactly family time.. where members of the family eat alone or couple of them eat together with a loud TV screeching in the background .Am happy that what was forced on me as a rule when I was little ,has grown on me such such that I can appreciate how many things that half an hour of dinner time at the table has taught me.

Some very basic things being
To neatly lay a table... Its so important to lay the table nice and proper. And where we learn presentation of reports, assignments and even exam papers.. presentation on a dining table... hmmmm.. seems more an "English" concept ;)

Basic table manners.. not to leave when people are eating. Not to talk with the mouth full..To ask when something needs to be passed across the table..these things grow on one only when one is used to doing it daily..And in some of my official tours I noticed that such simple things lacked in many.

Sense of appreciating and valuing time..until recently it never struck me that all through my training I was prompt at reaching home not because my parents had put some curfew time for me but because as a practice we eat together and I know that there is someone waiting for me for dinner.

The dining table at my house has not only seen dinner times.. its also like our little collection point when we want to have general conversations, little games we play like word building when there is a power cut... evening tea time on Sundays.. and many more activities..

The table is not just a piece of furniture , its like an important link in my life ;)

The Sound of Music

Musique... Its enchanting ..
Music to me is special. its soothing, its rejuvenating.

I have a couple of musical albums.. It plays Lars's theme and Love story as I flip through the pages of the album..
What a wonderful thing to combine.. Photographs and lovely music.. wow. Memories in pictures and music that can help u float back to those days . I wish Picasa would allow me to add music to my albums..(now that most of my pictures are on online albums!)

Everyone associates songs to something particular, some to people , some to a time, some songs to nothing at all.. that is the beauty of music.

Numbers like Favorite things, So long farewell, Isn't it Loverly, Singing in the rain are dear to me cos they are so simple to sing:) I feel melodious when i just hum them..:)

I like to study with music..and some songs I relate to studies..

Some songs I've heard because of other people.. people who kind of understand what kind of songs i like and suggest nice songs..such numbers I relate to the people.

Some I like because it reminds me of my childhood when we used to sing these songs in the family ,sitting together waiting for dinner or when there was a power cut.Songs like Theres a Hole in the Bucket..by Harry Belafonte...

Some songs i like just for the feel...when one puts on ear phones and listen close, u can actually note different beats in each ear...the feel is amazing ;)

That is the Sound of Music to me ;)

Assumptions...

Assumptions ...so easy easy to make.. but can so complicate a simple issue.. It shifts ones focus off the issue sometimes..
Recently a friend of mine(Let me call her X) mailed me after a long time, she had indicated her official mail id for us to keep in touch.Her ID had a "3" just before the dot between her first name and the last name... and there comes "assumption"

Another friend of mine(Let me call him Y) just assumed that she had typed the "3" by mistake since it was just above the dot (look at your desktop keyboard, where the numeral keys are ,it will make sense!!) and concluded that it is a mistake.Y said it is a sign of carelessness on X's part to mis-spell her own email ID.
And now instead of being happy that X mailed us after such a long time, with a wonderful thought of reconnecting with her old friends concentration had moved to the infamous "3" in her ID!!

On one hand I appreciate Y for being so observant and actually being able to relate a dot and the 3 to the keyboard layout.. but then.. isn't this an assumption!! Maybe the ID is like that for no particular reason..(and sure enough that is the correct E-mail ID with an infamous 3 just before the dot!!)
It could have been any number.. but it had to be a 3 :)

Learning for me.. Never assume and form an opinion about someone.

Birthdays

"Happy birthday to you" just four words on that special day can bring a smile and lighten up ones day...!
Happy day indeed :)
Birthdays every year have been remarkable for me.

I remember days in primary school when i would start counting days much before "D day" before I could go to school in a brand new dress.. and have the whole school wish me in the morning assembly, distribute chocolates in the class..

In high school the morning assembly ritual was too embarrassing to accept, but went through it ;). The "colour dress" was too much to give up even in high school.. I mean what other chance will I get to wear a pretty frock when everyone else is in dull gray uniforms.:)

By the time i reached Ninth std.. moved to a phase of strict no to "colour dress" and was happier in my uniform.

Through college it was more a of a "treat" day for friends, Like any other day spent watching a movie [So now u what i mostly did in "college" (wink)] but lunch would be at an "expensive" Pizza Hut or a Nirulas (they have hot chocolate fudge i can give up my life for !!!)...

In Chennai it mostly meant meeting friends , one day when we would all leave office early in the evening just to meet the whole batch on a birthday:)

Birthdays mean growth .. and looking back yes indeed i have grown up. Each year has been special in its own way..

Simple moments I can cherish for life.. a day spent being happy.. I wish every day were a birthday..;)

Welcome me to the bloggers world!!

Long time since i wanted to create a blog.. finally am here ;)
As i was going through the simple steps to create the blog...popped the question...What do i name the blog???
Is the blog supposed to be a mirror of my thoughts .. or is it just a place where I'd probably be writing anything that comes to my mind..maybe my thoughts or something i just read somewhere and am pondering on..

I'd like mine to be more of a jumbled pot of thoughts... and hence the cauldron(at least its sounds better than "A jumbled Pot of thoughts" ).. and the magic.. don't know why;) always associate cauldrons to witches and sorcerers and Magic seemed apt..

So here i am making an attempt at blogging!