Reflections of mind

Sorry for the break

2010-11-06T09:50:00.001Z

Are we not used seeing this slide, many times in those days when we had our Doordarshan TV programmes in India long back? Do I sound old?

Now that we have so many private channels, if you wonder what does the title of this post mean, then it shows clearly you should be very young and must be in teens, or if you are old enough and had lived in India then you should have been a book worm who never bothered to watch Black and white television, in which they used to telecast programmes starting from 6:00 p.m and whenever there was interruption due to technical reasons the first slide that appeared in the Television in black and white was ‘Sorry for the break’.

Now to cut the story short, I have been having tremendous busy activities for the past few months which were keeping me away from blogging.

Did I have a blogger’s block? No...not at all. I wanted to blog about one thousand things. Every time when I experienced something strange I wanted to blog about that experience. Blogging is a wonderful thing and I would never get tired about it. Nowadays I work far from home, and have become a “weekend family man”. Kids have grown up and need frequent attention. My health reminds me that I am getting older as well. I am not trying to be daft. I happened to see some pictures of old family friends. I found many of them have become old. You never realise that you are also getting old unless you see others of your age. I am not moaning here. I am quite enjoying each and every millionth of second in my life. Then why did I not blog all these days? I keep questioning myself.

Can I blame the facebook?

Can I blame the school network which is keeping me very alive?

Can I blame my change in jobs?

Can I blame my aged mother’s health?

Can I blame my teenage son who is drawing more attention?

Can I blame my stressed wife who needs help at least in the weekend?

OK... no blame on anyone. Now that I have decided to blog what should I blog about? I had so much to convey to my fellow bloggers every day, every minute, every second. But , let me think about something which I am facing at this moment. Should I have to blog about the South Indian looking couple who are sitting opposite to me while I am travelling from London, and are yet to smile, or even avoiding eye to eye contact? I have tried smiling, trying to keep an eye to eye contact at least more than a dozen times. But I could not succeed.

Do I need to blog about how an asian origin mother who was struggling with her young child in the pram to get into the train at London Euston, and all the passengers in their own world trying to get into the train and grab a seat. Thanks to my father’s genes, I had to rush from my seat leaving my new laptop,ipod and other valuable possessions avoiding mishap with all those people rushing into the compartment and extended help to the gentle lady who was relieved on seeing me...What a satisfaction and sense of happiness!

Now getting back to the couple who are sitting opposite to me....

Yes I made it.... I smiled and smiled. Smile is contagious and at last the gentleman smiled. I started talking to him...

“Hello..”

He says “Hello”.

“How far are you upto?”

“Coventry..”

“Did you visit London just for the day?”

“Yes”

“Did you have a good time?”

“Yes..it was good”

“If you do not mind, where did you go?”

“All usual places...”

“Hmmm... So you need to start work again...”

“Oh..no..I don’t need to. I have come to visit my friends....”

“Oh..really...where are you from originally?”

“India”

“Oh..really...where in India...South...”

“Yes..Bangalore.”

“Oh...Bangalore...nice to know... So you speak Kannada..”

“I speak almost all the South Indian languages...”

“So...you know Telugu,Tamil, Malayalam... well..”

“Yes... I do...”

“Do you know Tamil well?”

“Yes....”

“Aiyo...super... I am a pukka Madras pettai boy...”

“appadiya”

“How about her”

“She is my friend’s wife and took me to London”

“Oh..what is her mother tongue?”

“Tamil as well..”

“Hello..”

He tells her about me and she smiles at me.

As the conversation gets slowly about everything, I realise the train is fast approaching Coventry. The train officer announces the same. They become happier on hearing I speak the same language.

I exchange names and other details. They leave the compartment with a huge smile on their face.

I am sure they will talk about this meeting to their friends who live in UK.

At least their friend will smile and make the initiative when they see another friendly guy in their future journey.

I think people are people wherever they live and they should learn every day.

Please register your comments so that I do not say “Sorry for break” again.

Well done England!

2010-05-17T21:53:00.006+01:00

My first ever cricket test match which I witnessed in my life was played between England and India in 1972 at Chepauk, India. I was so impressed with the way English men played. My Dad had told me so much about Cricket and especially English cricket. He had lots of books on Cricket and that too on England and the players.

I learnt cricket was found in England. It was full of excitement when the first world cup was played long back in 1974. I was a small boy and was at my cousin’s place. I had few cousins who were elder to me and listening to radio commentary. There was no TV telecast in Chennai, India during those days. We listened to BBC and the radio waves played havoc during crucial times. All of my cousins did their little technology bit by twisting the antenna and changing the position of the transistor.

Since it was played in England, I was under the opinion that England may win the cup since all conditions may favour them. But West Indies won it. From then whenever England were playing a semi-final or final, I wished them to win. But it never happened.

After migrating here to England, I have watched few matches and unfortunately witnessed them losing. I had a doubt whether they would ever win it?
My dream came true yesterday.

On knowing that I was not having the right cable connection I phoned up my operator and arranged for the channel. Just half an hour before the match I found that the match was likely to be shown in a different channel and not as advised by the service desk of the cable operator. So hurriedly I called them and they could not guarantee to connect within ten minutes. They told me it may take anytime between 10 minutes to 24 hours. I had no choice and closed my eyes and was silent for next few minutes. Everyone in our family felt that the clock was moving very slow. My mom started telling my kids how ladies at home had to prepare various food for their men who used to leave early in the morning to reserve seats at the stadium.

I played my TV remote hoping that they would have connected our set top box. It was ready and we brought Barbados straight into our living room. We were delighted to watch from the toss. It was nice to know that England won the toss and elected to field. There was a wicket in the very first over and our house became noisy with my son and me dancing before the Television. Again there was another wicket in the second over and it was celebration in our living room. When there was one more wicket in the third over, it was electrifying. England never slipped and they were on the rampage. English bowlers contained the Aussies very well.

Again when England started their batting it was a great delight to watch them. I have never seen such a marvellous English side. It was a team performance.

I have always admired the Aussies for their professionalism. I have witnessed the famous tie match between Australia and India played at Chepauk, India. As a young boy I have admired Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Waugh brothers, Alan Border, Kim Hughes and many more.

But having settled in England now, I realise how important and serious a match against Aussies is played. Aussies are arch rivals of English cricket team and every match are played with the same vigour as it is played between India and Pakistan in the sub-continent.

At last it was our day! England outclassed the Aussies in every department of the game yesterday. I am glad that England has won. This will be a morale boost. From now, they should plan well to get to the top on all formats of the game.

Well done England! You deserve this. Keep flying high!

Observation

2010-03-14T21:49:00.022Z

I like to observe minute things in life. Yesterday, I decided to go for a long walk towards the country side. Since I wanted to be on my own, taking photos, stopping where I want to, and do whatever I felt without any hindrance, I decided to leave the family. After walking out of the house, I felt very cold. Since it was supposed to be bit sunny, I mistook that it would be warm too. I wanted to spend not less than 5 hours outdoors. After walking few minutes from the house, entered a pub and decided to have some snacks or bites and a drink before I start my long walk.

As I went and sat in a corner, I started observing the people around me. Two ladies with a baby arrived and sat next to my table. There were few people in other tables. It was a typical Saturday afternoon mood. Normally on these afternoons people walk in a relaxed mood and order for food and drink and keep gossiping and then spend some time. These two ladies were expecting some more and were texting. After few minutes another two more arrived with cute kids. I realised that it should be one of the kid's birthday meeting. Every other person had a gift in their hand. Finally the birthday boy came with his mom too. There were totally six ladies and finally one lady came hurriedly and brought a big bag of blown baloons. The kids were excited. As gifts were exchanged the other kids were anxious to see the gifts. Atlast another lady came with a kid. That is when something happened for which I laughed. The birthday boy in a loud voice asked "What is the gift you have brought for me?". When the boy started opening the wrapper, other kids were looking at it with anxiety. The elders also wanted to have a look, but were keeping their eyes to their side. Though this was going on for sometime, when I had a look around, I noticed something else. Somewhere on the wall, between two bricks someone had struck a chewing gum sweet. It was so exact between the bricks. I am sure the person who must have done it should have been thinking about something or must have been in a deep conversation and while doing so, must have just placed it there. I went and asked permission for a picture and took it just for my blog readers.

After finishing my food, I started walking. Before I started walking, I wanted to note down how many people whom I meet are trying to be friendly and how many people try to make eye contacts, and atleast smile. Within few yards I saw a man and his son doing some gardening work in front of their house. On seeing me with my camera on my shoulder he said "Wow..... are you after pictures. It is a lovely day.. If you walk further you can come across a canal and it will be lovely there." I thanked him and had a conversation for few minutes. He talked about his younger days when he had interest on photography. He must be of my age now. But he sounded to be old. Anyhow I was happy that someone wished and talked with me for a while. As I walked further I came across Daffodils shooting up. These are the ones which announce us the arrival of spring. I have always wondered how nature acts on its own. We have planted few at our backyard few months before and they are also shooting up now. But these ones were very tempting and I could not refrain myself without clicking it. I went near and knelt down and took a close up. I felt so happy on clicking. The pleasure you get at these small things cannot be measured. I looked down the road and it was very beautiful. I clicked the road ahead and then walked towards the canal. Normally this weekend I started my walk at a place where I used to finish my walk. This is just to see the same place at a different time in different light. The sun light was beautiful. I cannot explain it. Please see the picture.

As I started walking, it was nice to listen to the chirping of birds, alongwith sounds of vehicles at far, and with the sound of wind. I closed my eyes for few seconds and listened to only the sound. It was great. I found the sound of wind similar to what I have heard when I used to sit at Mahabalipuram Beach for hours together in my younger days. The only difference is the sound of water splashing on the rocks were missing. I saw few joggers now and then, and none failed to say 'Thanks' since I made way for them. At far I saw four ladies walking opposite towards me. I tried to check eye contact with them and they never bothered to make eye contacts. I have always found runners, cyclists and trekkers to be friendly than some other kind of people. I found few strange things. Some of the barks of bushes had numbers on them. I wondered whether they could be some land mark for someone. Then I found some human faces made on the barks which were lying on the side. Even my kids wonder who would have done it. It is still nice to see such things. I took plenty of pictures. I found one gentleman relaxing and fishing. I enquired whether he was lucky and he said "No". He had been there for more than 2 hours and he could not get even one fish. This was the second person with whom I had conversation. After a while I came across a dog (Cocker spaniel) and his owner. The dog was very friendly and had a quick chat with the owner. Believe me or not! I was still walking when I found him returning after few minutes. I was so much involved in enjoying the nature. It was wonderful to see some ducks landing on the water. It looked as if they arrived to give me company. They dived and swam beautifully. By this time, I realised the sun was slowly setting. I had to walk few more miles to reach home. For few miles I could not see anybody but observed few things. This week I did not want to take pictures of any litter. I had a look at those places where I found litter last weekend. I could not see them except one plastic bottle.

I halted at few places and took deep breath. I found something which looked like a tool used for some farming purpose. It must be there for long time. Few boats were docked on the canal and I was able to see people inside. I saw some Rail fencing which reminded me of my younger days in Korattur. One of my Uncle lived in Korattur, Chennai and we used to visit them for holidays. Their house was closer to the station and we always went and clinged on to those rail fences and watched those trains. We as kids had fun in counting the bogies and it was awesome sight to see Brindavan express passing the station at great speed. We liked the goods trains and were proud in saying bye to the 'Guard'. We also counted each and every carriage which were of great fun. After seeing this rail fence, I started walking slowly thinking about those younger days and smiled to myself.

As I was closer to my destination I paused and looked at the spectacular sunlight which was falling on certain area. The dark clouds were rushing. I knew it may rain shortly. But it was a fantastic scene to have dark clouds on one side and bright sun light on the other side. At younger days we have enjoyed those beautiful scenes. Flock of birds used to fly at a great speed. We used to get some dampened earth smell in the air. We used to run home hoping that it may rain, and we may not go to school next day. Keeping this in mind, I walked faster after packing my camera.

As I entered home, my daughter asked me "Did you run Daddy...You seem to be gasping..". I said "Yes" and smiled at her.

Are today's kids missing something?

Let us keep our earth clean!

2010-03-07T10:50:00.017Z

Life is more hectic when we hit middle age. This is the time our parents become older and our kids get into their teens. We need to be a balancing factor between them and act as a stabilising factor. Again we need to concentrate on our profession, career and other responsibilities. It is very challenging to keep going forward. This is a gentle excuse for keeping away from blogging.

In order to have a good family time, and some relaxation we go for long walks as a family during the weekend. We get some personal time with the kids and we use this time to share their feelings and experiences.

Yesterday, when we started walking we decided to count the litters strewn around by some morons of the society who do not care about anything on the earth and keep littering the public places. When I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland I was very much impressed by the way Edinburgh city council took care in keeping the city clean. The Edinburgh city council had a huge advertisement painted saying "Edinburgh's not an Ash tray". Once I saw this lorry, while going to work, I took my camera from my bag which I always carried and clicked the picture.

Many years before, when I was travelling along with my niece in a Taxi in Chennai, India, I threw a choclate wrapper without my conscience. Though my niece was very young, she asked me "Uncle, how can you do that? I did not expect a person like you to do that?". That is it. Her question hit me like a hammer on my head. From then I decided not even to throw a tiny bit of anything irresponsibly and litter. I have been keeping this up for many years until today, and I shall never do that as long as I have my sense in my remaining part of my life. On the contrary, I try to pick up the litter thrown by others at places and situations where it was possible. Once when I got into a tube in London, I noticed hundreds of notices lying on the floor in a compartment. While I picked them up sincerely, I could notice few of the passengers watching me. Once I finished picking, and kept them together to throw it in the bin, I saw only one passenger who did eye contact and smiled.

During our family walk, we decided to count on the litters. Within ten minutes of walking my son said that the count had crossed 100. I have clicked few of them. He said that he stopped one of his friend throwing an empty crisp packet on the road and showed his packet where he had put his own to be thrown into the nearest bin. His friend was impressed and did the same it seems.

Even at work and some hotel, I see notices displayed to avoid spitting the chewing gums on the urinals. But some morons, ignore these and still carry on their disgusting act.

If you happen to read this, and you do litter the earth, may I request you please to consider throwing it in the proper bin/recycle centre than littering our beautiful earth.

Yes, let us do our bit to keep the earth clean.

2010-01-14T07:50:00.002Z

Wish you all a happy 'PONGAL'.

Note:- Pongal is a 'Farmers Festival' celebrated in Tamil Nadu, India.

Absent Mindedness

2009-11-23T22:47:00.003Z

Life is hectic. I can keep adding 1001 excuses for my absence here. I want to start a begining today. I thought of publishing a picture that I took few weeks before during weekend walk. I shall write more about my walk in my future posts.

While I was busy capturing something else, I saw this sun glass left by someone. It reminded me about how we as human being tend to forget when our mind is occupied with something else. As soon as I saw the sunglass, my mind started thinking about the owner. If that person happened to be like me, definitely he/she may come back to the same place looking for the glass. I did not want to touch it. I left it hoping that the owner may come and take it.

Since this reminded me of some unfinished job, I clicked this picture. Whenever I keep seeing this picture it reminds me of absentmindedness.

From childhood I make it a point to keep account of the things I carry along with me. Once I missed a pair of Gloves, which I placed it in my coat pocket. Since the bus arrived I picked up my baggages and boarded the bus. After buying the ticket I realised that my hand gloves were missing. I knew that I was wearing until I reached the bus stop. I knew that it should have fallen from my coat pocket. So, I got down in the next stop, and walked back with all the baggages to the next bus stop. As I started nearing the bus stop, my heart was beating fast. I was sure that it will be there. Yes... they were lying there. Lucky pair of Gloves. This happened in Edinburgh last year.

My daughter returned from school last friday with a great disappointment. She called me and informed that she missed her new purse while coming back from school. I knew how she would have felt. She cried over the phone. After I reached home, I took her by walk to her school. Since street lights were on, it was not difficult to see inspite of darkness. We searched the entire road. We could not find her purse and I asked her to remember. She said that she wore her coat only after hearing the school bell. I said she must have dropped it or it should fallen from her coats when she hurried from school. She was not convinced.

Now, few hours before after I returned from work she came and hugged me and said that she got her purse back. Her teacher found it on the floor and had kept it safe. She was so happy since she had her lucky chain inside the purse. The chain is less than a pound and so the purse. It is not the money that matters for children. It is all about their possession. They do not like to lose their favourite possession.

She has gone to bed happily. Kids are a pleasure and for them it is a different world. I peeped into her bed. She is sleeping peacefully with her hands tightly holding the purse.

Neighbours - Part III

2009-08-26T23:55:00.006+01:00

Life is so boring sometimes. You cannot live it all alone. You face imminent problems when you migrate to a different world from one corner of the world. You bring in your culture, and need to understand the new culture and mould and adapt the new one. Many years before we were longing for nice neighbours in the place where we lived.

Every morning I used to see an old lady coming down from a flat above us and doing some social work like moving the bin, and picking up litter around the flats. It was a strange sight in the western world. I thought she was different. The waste bin for all those who lived in the flats was a huge one. She was very old and frail. But she did not bother to push it and bring it back to its old position. The bin men do not place the empty bin in the proper place due to shortage of time. This lady promptly appeared and placed it back. She did this every week when the bin men arrived.

I thought she must be a good neighbour and introduced myself and the family. She introduced herself as ‘Rene’. When I invited her to my house she visited us without any hesitation. I felt as though I knew her for many years. We do not get this feeling with everyone we meet in life.

One day the bin men arrived and took our bin. I could not find Rene. So I rushed out and pushed the bin to its right place. I realised how difficult she must have felt every week when she did that job. Later when I returned back in the evening from work, she asked me politely whether it was me who did her job for which I had to say ‘Yes’. She thanked me politely and said that she had been to some relative’s place and was surprised to see the bin in the right place and wondered who would have done it since no one else apart from her had ever done it in the neighbourhood. She had been living in that neighbourhood for more than twenty years. She guessed probably it should have been me and she was right.

From then onwards we became great friends. She was in her early 80’s then. I heard from other neighbours that she was a lovely person and a great social worker for the neighbourhood. Our family shared many things with her. After sometime she became very close with our family. Since my daughter was a baby, she was there every afternoon to help my wife in taking care of the baby, while my wife cooked food in the kitchen. She taught rhymes to my daughter and played with her for a while. Sometimes when I had time I visited her and discussed the history. She recalled the world war times and it was very interesting to know lots of news from her. She said that she grew up as an orphan in an orphanage along with her sister. Though her son lived in the next street she did not bother to live with them and wanted to be independent.

Once when my family was away from me, she gave me good company and support. I went to her flat whenever I felt bored. We had lots of discussions. She was like my mother consoling me when I missed my children. Whenever I went on holidays I used to visit her and take her blessings. She hugged me and kissed me and wished me good luck. As soon as we returned we used to visit her again and she was full of joy.

Once we decided to take her out for lunch and we approached her. She happily agreed and came along with us. She has accompanied my wife and children for long walks to park. Whenever we approached her for help she was there to help us. I have heard the same about her from all my neighbours. My children loved her very much. When we had to move to a different town, we felt sad and kids felt bad to bid good bye. Every year during my kid’s birthdays she was there early morning at doors and dropped her greetings card with few currencies as gift for my children. She used to come silently and drop it in the letter box and used to disappear even before we rushed to see.

We used to talk over phone after moving towns. She updated us with the latest news in the neighbourhood. I felt overjoyed when I got a job in the same place after many years. My family was very keen that I should meet her as soon as I joined. After couple of days, I walked in to the old resident and knocked on her doors. I did not get any response. I thought probably she may be having her nap. Again after couple of weeks I visited and knocked the doors. There was no response. So, I knocked on other neighbours. They informed me that she does not live anymore and due to arthritis and certain illness, she had preferred to live with her son’s family. Nobody was able to tell me her son’s address. I knocked on another familiar neighbour and she said that she would get Rene’s new address from someone else who is known to them.

Few weeks passed by. I became very busy with my work and did not have time to visit again. Few months rolled by. During lunchtime, when I visited a Town centre, I met another old neighbour. We enquired each other’s welfare and discussed about other neighbours. I thought probably she may know about Rene’s son’s address and I enquired her. She dropped a bomb. She said that Rene passed away just few weeks before. I could not believe it. She said that she met her son and daughter-in-law just few weeks before in the Town centre and they told her about Rene’s demise.

I was shocked the whole day. I could not be very productive at work. I came home and shared the news with my family. My children and wife were very disappointed. We were about to visit her once I established contacts. All of my family members were in tears. My children remembered all the good deeds. My wife remembered how helpful and nice she had been throughout our difficult days. Once I fell sick and we waited for the medical results. We were deeply worried and my wife cried. Rene came home and consoled us and said that everything will be negative and I will be alright. Within few days when my medical results were negative we went to her and shared the good news. She was like our mother and blessed us. She always smiled and was there for anyone with difficulties. She has received lots of awards from the local council, and other departments for all her good things. Believe me or not! Though the council used to clean all the neighbourhood she used to have her own day of cleaning. She has always kept the place neat and tidy.

I could not believe this news. So, during one of my lunchtime I walked towards those flats. I went and stood at each and every other corner where we met for the first time, where we smiled at each other, where we pushed the bin to its place, where we plucked the weeds, where we picked small pebbles and rubbish, and so on. I knew I was watched by few for my eccentric behaviour. There were lots of new neighbours and one of them was worried with my behaviour. I stood still at every other place thinking about ‘Rene’. In order to clear the neighbour’s suspicion, I introduced myself and talked about Rene. They gave me more information about her. They agreed she was a lovable person and felt pity for me.

I started walking back to office.

When I was about to turn at the end of the road, I turned back whether ‘Rene’ would smile.

She smiled at me...

Rene you will live forever with us. You have captured our heart. I shall follow all that you taught me and I shall leave them with my kids.

Rene I promise you!

Neighbours - Part II

2009-08-06T21:59:00.007+01:00

If a child could be brought up with nice manners and habits then it could lead to so many advantages when they grow big. Bringing them up well not only depends on the parents, it is also important to have a good neighbourhood. One of my neighbours had a special child called Murali. Murali was elder to us. He could not speak well. Though he was fully grown and huge he preferred to be with kids. He liked calling me ‘H..A..A...N...U’ in his own way. As a child I started thinking very seriously and started showing more concern towards others because of him. Though he was a disabled person, he taught me indirectly that there are different kinds of human beings in this world. He laughed and smiled from the other side of compound wall when we used to play in our house. Whenever the ball or ring fell in his house he was there to pick it up and throw it back to us happily.

Every day he looked forward for us. Even while we were studying he used to stop by the compound wall and call me “H...A...A..N..U” (His way of calling ‘Balu’ which was my pet name). He would not move until I acknowledged him. Sometimes if we were studying seriously we would not notice him. But he used to remain there for minutes and will move happily only after we acknowledge his greetings. His mother Shankunthala Aunty was a bold lady. Though she had four daughters, Murali was her only son. Unfortunately he was born disabled and she showed lots of courage in bringing him up.

The compound wall was less than three feet. Whenever Murali was upset, he jumped over the compound wall and came into our house. We were small kids and he was very huge. Any visitor who used to come to our house was scared for the first time on seeing him. But later on after knowing him they became comfortable. My sister and self used to recite slokas everyday in the evening after finishing our play. As we started reciting Murali would jump the wall and come and sit next to us. He had peculiar habits which we were used to. But he was a harmless soul. Now after having grown, I think he was really a special person. He must have liked us so much that he was there to sit next to us every evening when we were reciting slokas.

Every time he wore something new he used to stand behind the wall and shout ‘H..A...N...U’. When we wondered Sakunthala aunty was there to explain that it was his birthday and he wanted to show his new dresses to us. He was afraid of ‘Gudu Gudu Paandi’ (the terryifying look sooth sayer who used to visit every house in the early morning with an odd instrument in his hand which made sounds like Gudu..Gudu...). Murali was also afraid of darkness. Whenever there was power cut and the lights were off he used to scream loudly. We were used to it and were never scared. As soon as the power resumed he used to clap loudly as well.

Every evening Aunty used to talk about her day’s experiences to my mom and she sought our help for few things. I remember her husband. He was an ex-serviceman who had served in Military. He had so much of love and affection on Murali. Uncle had plenty of books in his library and used to lend me during my holidays. I remember having read “Dr.Jekyl and Mr.Hyde”. He used to ask questions once we finished reading the book. As kids, this motivated us to read those books well. One night when he went to his toilet, Murali screamed so loudly and we rushed to see Uncle lying flat on the floor. He had collapsed and Murali who was waiting for his Dad had realised the untoward incident. For his knowledge he realised that his Dad was not normal and something had happened to him. He cried loudly. Aunty who was in some other room rushed. We felt afraid and Murali was holding his father’s head on his lap and screamed ‘H..A..N..U..’ and showed his dad. All neighbours rushed and sent message to Doctor. Some neighbours felt that the pulse had gone down. Murali’s father had a massive heart attack and had passed away even before the Doctor arrived. Murali was uncontrollable.

After his father’s death, he was dull for few days. Probably his father’s death affected him a lot. I knew how painful it is to lose a father since I had lost my father just few years before then. Whenever he saw me behind the compound wall, he cried for few seconds. Though he should have been 30 by then, we treated him as a kid. He made us realise many things in life. Aunty was always courageous and though her daughters requested her to move to their house she refused and remained on her own. She always worried about him. She often used to say that she wanted to see Murali’s life end before her life would end.

Years rolled by. We sold our property and moved homes. After my son grew a little, I visited my old neighbourhood. Savithiri Aunty was there who introduced us to our new occupants and took us around. I stood before the coconut tree which I had planted and watered regularly when I was a kid. My sister and myself were allotted two small coconut saplings in our younger days by our Dad to take care. He had told us that one day when the tree grows big I would have grown and may think about the old days. When I stood there before the tree I was emotional. I looked at the one watered and taken care by my sisters. All the treesl had grown huge and had plenty of Coconuts.

We went to Murali’s house. Aunty was there to receive us. Murali had become old. He was bed ridden. He could not be active as he was in his younger days. Aunty asked Murali whether he could recognise me. He got up from his bed and said “H..A..N..U..”. I was on tears. I am on tears even now when I type this line. I sat next to him. He was terribly sick and Aunty had grown old too. I stroked him gently and he felt so happy. My son was afraid. I showed my son to Murali. Looking at my son, he spontaneously replied “P..A..A..P..A..... H...A...N..U... P..A...A..P...A” (meaning ‘Child’). I had to leave with a heavy heart wishing Aunty good health.
Last visit when I made to India, I visited their house and was disappointed that aunty had become very old and moved to the City to live with her daughters. She could not take care of herself and so her daughters had taken both of them. I did not have time to find their address and visit them.

Very recently when I established contacts with another neighbour they informed me that Sakunthala aunty has passed away. I felt sad for the news and silently mourned for her soul to rest in peace. I heard that Murali has also become very sick. He is a lovely human, a pure soul.
As a neighbour who had grown spending wonderful days I wish Murali recovers soon and live with a good health. I am very positive that I will be able to meet him again and spend few moments.

He had taught me so many things indirectly about life.

The way you make me feel

2009-07-08T22:06:00.002+01:00

Few months before, as I was driving back home there was news about Michael Jackson’s concert in London in the local FM. I heard that the tickets were sold out within few hours. On hearing this news, it seems Michael shed tears. He was overwhelmed with the response.

Very few people who are born on this earth could have everything in life. Michael was one among few to be popular, kind, charismatic. His death was a rude shock to me just like for any other music fan in this world.

I have few of his collections as DVD and whenever we wanted to cheer up, we used to sit as a whole family and watch his DVD. It was a real ‘Thriller’ for my kids. Once when it is over, my son used to revolve round like MJ or try a moon walk. This is what called as ‘inspiration’.
Today sadly we watched his memorial service. I must admit that I was on tears when I heard the speeches of few speakers like Brooke Shield. Finally Michael’s daughter Paris made me feel sad by saying “Daddy I love you so much”. Any affectionate dad in this world would have felt emotional on seeing the young girl sobbing. I could understand how the girl would have felt on losing her father at young age. It reminded me of my father’s death when I was 11.

Michael Jackson was a wonderful singer. I have listened to his music countless times. Every time I listened to his music it brought me energy. He will live with us forever.

Neighbours - Part 1

2009-06-05T23:33:00.004+01:00

One of my colleagues had put his house on sale few years back. On casually having a chat, I learnt he had horrible neighbours which forced him to sell his house and move to a new locality. I have never had this problem since my younger days.

Few months before, I contacted one of my ex-neighbour who lives far away in India, and talked to everyone in their family. It was nostalgic. I plunged into more sorrow when I heard the plight of my other neighbours. Two of my ex-neighbours are no more. I heard both of them passed away recently. I felt very sad for the next few days.

Mrs.Savithri was a very hard working lady. I remember seeing her working always. After sending off her husband and daughter she used to indulge in cleaning her garden. She had a liking towards trees. She never liked cutting down any branches of her trees. She had two neem trees in front of their house. She had a very huge Badam tree in between our houses. She had many more trees at her back yard. It was a great sight to watch her sweeping all the dry leaves and cleaning her garden. I grew up in observing the way she used to water her garden. Once she finishes her gardening, she used to do shopping on her own and return. She was so helpful and I remember my mom leaving me under her care whenever she went out for shopping. I still remember the way she used to compliment my mom for bringing me up well. Once when I grew up as a young boy, she hesitated to talk to me. It is a typical nature of ladies from country side. She always had respect for the way I was brought up and I found it many times.

Once I was involved in an accident, and when one of my colleagues when to convey it to her, I was told that she was in tears. After all she had seen me growing up from childhood, and could not bear the sad news. It seems she was very much relieved on hearing nothing untoward had happened to me. There had been days when she was upset with us. We sometimes earned her anger when we requested to cut few branches of her trees which were protruding into our house and causing hindrance for growth of small plants in our house. She loved her trees so much and she never liked to cut the branches. I appreciate her thought. She was not well educated. But I recollect her love towards pets and trees. Few years before when I made a visit to India, she proudly introduced me to people who currently live in our old house. She took me around and showed me all her trees. She had gone down a lot and when I enquired about her health she did not respond. We had a chat for few minutes and her husband also joined in our conversation. I still remember the smile on their faces when we talked about our old days. She was a lovely lady who really cared for nature and animals.

I still remember the day when her husband retired. He was very sad on his retirement day. I was in my early 20’s. I went to their house and consoled him. He felt very emotional and was almost on tears. I gave lecture like an old and wise man. They liked it and they both listened to me. The next day she told my mom that my matured talk refreshed their mind and gave more confidence to both of them.

She always brought in some hot news that happened in the town. She was very religious and had pictures of all the Hindu gods, well framed and hanged on the walls. She worshipped them for few hours every day.

She did not like hurting even snakes. Since our house was on a country side, we used to see lots of snakes. She was familiar with different types of snakes, and my mom used to seek her help in identifying snakes. I wanted to kill poisonous snakes, and she prevented me from killing them, and taught me at my young age not to kill snakes. She told us that snakes are harmless, and will never cause any harm unless they felt danger for their life.

I still remember her usual conversations with my mom, held while standing between the fences of our houses. The last time I visited her, she told me that she did not want to move towards the city. I know that she loved her trees and nature. I am glad at least that she lived in a place which she loved so much until her last breath. I was told that her husband is being persuaded by their daughter to move to their home in City and he is reluctant to do so. I know his mind.

They both were a lovely couple.

They were one of my good neighbours.

Life and death

2009-05-29T22:19:00.008+01:00

Everyone who is born have to die. This is law of universe. The way you die is very important. Some die peacefully after having done their responsibilities in their life. Some die without their knowledge. Some die with their knowledge. Some die due to chronic disease. Some die of accidents. Very few die to certain other reasons.

For the past few months it is disheartening to know of innocent civilians who have been dying due to only one reason in Srilanka. The reason is for belonging to one sector in this world, and for speaking one language i.e., Tamil.

I am not going to justify who is right? But as a human and a person who would love to live life full, I feel pathetic for anyone who has to die for no fault of them. During every war there are unprecedented deaths. Let it be World wars, or any war; certain deaths of innocent civilians do bring anyone to sorrow. In the recent war between the Srilankan army and the rebels there have been lot of deaths on both sides. Though the real statistics may not be revealed, the innocent civilian deaths in this war cannot be hidden which is a bare fact during guerrilla wars. My heart bleeds on knowing the death of young children, women, Old people, & young men on both sides. Many nights I go to bed hoping for an early solution. It was heart rendering to see few videos where young children were wounded, and children seeing their Mom dying, and everyone in the family crying while seeing their Dad (the bread winner dying). It is very disheartening to see many people dead in the bunkers, with their parts of their bodies lying next to them.

I still think that human beings have not fully matured and behave without difference between Animal and human. We do have science which helps in discovering so many good things for the survival of human being. We still have certain things which help in destroying the same human being. Unfortunately during wars, the science is helping on the destruction side.

I hate wars, and my heart bleeds on seeing these deaths of innocent lives of both sides. I am sure there must be lots of relatives of both sides who have been living abroad and must be feeling distressed on hearing the loss of their kith and kin. I deeply mourn for those deaths of innocents.

I wish the conflict ends soon and some neutral parties intervene and bring peace for both sides.

After all life is very short and sweet and it is not worth to die in bunkers. I mourn along with all the parents who would have lost lives of their children. I mourn along with all the children who lost their parents in the war. I mourn along with every family who have lost their dear ones on both the sides. I see only the human whether they are military or rebel. Nothing is achieved at the end of the war except the loss of lives on both sides.

When I lived in London, I had acquaintance with few Srilankan Tamils through whom I heard first hand information about the genocide happening in their country. One day I was invited for a Christmas party hosted by a Srilankan Tamil family. The invitation was only for few close family friends and relatives. It was going on well and we were introduced to everyone who was present. There was good music, food and dance. One couple were so happy and were so active. They were my friend’s best friends. My friends who were Srilankan Tamils introduced their best friends. On talking to them I found they were not Tamils and they were Sinhalese. It was so nice to hear. The Sinhalese couple mingled with us very well.

Again recently I came across another Srilankan Tamil couple. One of the male was very keen in recommending his friend’s wife for a job. Being inquisitive, I enquired whether they were related to each other. But this couple said that they were just friends and they were Sinhalese.

My question is when an ordinary individual could behave so well with each other, without minding their religion, colour and creed, language in a different soil how does hatred develop between communities at their home which lead to killing and war.

Is this all politics? Who inflicts hatred on others? Few politicians for power, votes and popularity develop hatred among people and live on others.

Both sides have had enough. War and Violence cannot bring peace on earth.

After all the gods Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Krishna did not preach hatred and wanted everyone to love each other. I would wish everyone stops hatred and preach love and learn to love each other. May peace prevail throughout the world and people love each other.

I remember beautiful pictures of Srilanka, which I have admired during my young days. I wish everyone shed their difference of opinon and a new life starts for all those who are living there.

Life is very short and sweet! Live and let others live!

Cycling memories

2009-05-10T09:28:00.007+01:00

During childhood we dream to learn few things. I always feel that it was nice to have struggled in younger days; otherwise I would not have had many dreams. Again the pleasure of dreaming is equalled when you achieve them personally.

One of such dream was to learn cycling and own a bicycle. Bicycles are poor man’s transport even today in third world countries. I have grown up seeing few people owning their bicycle with great pride. All my neighbours had bicycles and it was a great sight to watch them wave to their family and pedalling off. We lived in a place where we had a car factory and most of my neighbours worked in that factory. In those days, mopeds were not popular and bicycles were affordable.

If Natarajan Uncle had a full chainguard, and a yellow cloth covered on his head light, my neighbour Jayaram Uncle wiped and cleaned it every week end. The way they took care of their cycles impressed me a lot. After putting the cycle on stand, they used to pedal and see the rear wheel rotating and clean the rim. As a kid, I always stood near my neighbours when they were cleaning their bicycle. I used to question at every stage why they were doing it. They did explain everything with so much of patience. After completing their cleaning and oiling when they pedalled for a test drive, I used to lip smack and wonder. A smile from me and a dream to grow big and own a bicycle got instilled in my mind.

Once during my summer holidays I had been to a village where my cousin was living with her in-laws in a joint family. That was my best summer holiday because I learnt cycling. Rangu Anna (my cousin’s brother-in-law) who was a bachelor then, had all the patience to teach me cycling. Every morning he made me to sit on the cycle and came running behind the cycle holding it. It was an hour every morning and I picked up the balance within few days. Oh.. What a great feeling it was! After few days, he would hold the cycle and let me get on to it and then wait for me to turn the cycle and come back to him. I returned back home from holidays and wanted to continue cycling. The only friend who had a cycle and was able to pedal them was Shekhar. They were doing milk business and he took his cycle everyday to pour milk at every house in the neighbourhood. I used to run along with him when he pedalled his cycle and enjoyed seeing him cycling with those milk cans. He was a ‘Hercules’ for us since he was able to do many things like a ‘hero’. My interest on cycling increased and so I started liking all my neighbours who owned a bicycle.

So every weekend went to my neighbour’s house and Jayaram Uncle was a very kind person. I used to ask him whether he needed my help to go for shopping, since he offered his bicycle too. I took care of his bicycle like my own and handled it carefully. Whenever I felt like cycling, he was there to offer. Nobody other than me would have felt sad when they had to move house.

My other neighbours were very strict and did not bother to lend their cycle. One of my friends found a new person Ramu Uncle, who had a new cycle and was very kind enough to lend his cycle to even go until the next town. Though I knew him personally, I felt awkward to ask him. But he talked with me one day and said that I can take his bicycle to help his wife getting provisions, and as well as help my mother too. He was kind enough to lend his bicycle.

Another gentleman by name Chakravarthi Iyengar, was also a kind person. He never used his bicycle and was always ready to lend us his cycle and happily received us whenever we went to his house. I was finally able to get my own bicycle only at the age of 18. It was a great moment. A dream that was coming true on that day. I was so excited and pedalled all the 15 miles from the shop to my house on the very first day. I possessed it with so much of pride. I brought in all the techniques I learnt from my neighbours in maintaining it.

Once when my son became 4, I wanted to teach him to ride a bicycle. It is always better to teach kids when they are young. Though my son learnt it from me when he was less than 5, last summer I taught my daughter who was eager to learn.

She learnt it within hours and without any injury. Though she fell down after few days while doing some trick, she was the quickest learner. Nowadays it has become a routine to take the kids for long cycling especially during the weekends.

However, I really doubt whether my kids relish their bikes the same way as me because of the way they handle. There is always a pleasure in dreaming for something and getting it.

Nowadays kids dream for very expensive things and their happiness and spirit dies sooner they get it. Even last weekend when my kids took their bikes, I was laughing to myself thinking about my younger days and they all wondered why I was smiling and looking lost!

How can I explain them all the joy? It may not sound great for them because they have heard it from me lot of times.

I bet those younger days are the best!

Good wishes and hope...

2009-01-25T21:49:00.008Z

‘Hope’ is a four letter magic word. I think every human being in this world live with this. What else could be better?

I am not very happy with the way last year rolled out.

During my train journeys I met lots of people. Though I spoke with many, I could remember only few. One old lady who was sitting next to me during one of my journeys, discussed the current affairs of the world. She felt very sad about wars. She told me that she had lost four people in her family in wars. The recent being one of her nephew in Afghanistan. I had a very interesting conversation with her. I have never met someone in my life that had lost so many in a family during war. She shared few of her stories with me. I felt very heavy. That made me to think. How many of the political leaders have lost their kith and kin in war? Why can’t wars be avoided? Why man is using science for war? According to me nobody wins a war. Why there is so much of hatred among human beings? What is it all for? How sad it is to lose someone dear and near to us? Imagine the plight of Dads who are serving in wars. Imagine the plight of young boys who have a dream to live. Imagine the plight of everyone who is involved in war. What an uncertainty?

The wars result in losses. Loss of life is a major concern. Even those who claim to have won a war have to lose many lives. Can we get them back? No we cannot. Can any political leader bring happiness to those innocent victims. No they cannot.

One more year in history has gone. We are seeing lots of destructions, happening. Mumbai incidents are still fresh in mind. The TV news of Gaza, Srilanka, and some parts of Africa is still echoing in our ears. But after all these, the only hope is a new leader who has sworn in as president of United States. Hope Obama brings in peace to the world. The whole world is hoping for something good to happen.

I am one among the billions who are wishing that the new, young and energetic, Charismatic leader will do something to bring peace to the entire world.

Let us ‘Hope’. Welcome Obama, and wish you good luck.

The pictures published in this post were taken during two different occasions. The first one was taken from the train. It was a sun rise. The second one was taken from the plane. It was a sunset. Thanks to the lady who was sitting near the window and co-operated with me while I shot the picture from the plane. She asked about my camera and I was proud to explain. She listened happily and complimented me, about the picture and the camera.

Let us Unite and teach

2008-11-30T11:06:00.003Z

We were on a night out in a pub, and watching the local channel. After attending few, the bar tender switched the news channel. We were shocked to know the news. I could not understand the velocity then.

After coming home sought the internet to know more and was deeply shocked. From this morning I have been sitting in front of the laptop, and trying to know more and more about all the incidents that have happened. Though it is slightly relieved now, after hearing that the commandos have taken control of all the places, my heart goes to the families of those who were killed, the brave officers, police constables, fire brigades, hotel staff, guests, press and the public.

I was almost on tears when I read news about Hermant Karkare, Major Unnikrishnan and many more names whom I do not remember immediately. The videos of Hermant karkare wearing his bullet proof coat and walking with other officers into the hotel is going to remain in my mind for ever. The same way the sight of Major Unnikrishnan relatives receiving his body is heart rendering. This is only to name few whom I saw. My whole family felt very sad on reading the news about many foreigners who were present there for various reasons. It was more disheartening to know that some westerners who loved visiting India were targeted, especially the American who was killed along with his daughter.

After all what did the perpetrators achieve? What was their motive? They are ordinary individuals, who could not think. They were highly motivated and have behaved like a machine. Their purpose was to instil fear among public and civilians. This time they have targeted five star hotels to scare the foreigners and just jeopardise the economy development. If they have had any demands, they could have taken few hostages and started a dialogue. They did not. Their leaders did not have any. What all they wanted to do is to create instability for the fast developing economy, create a disparity among the two neighbours who have started understanding each other recently. It is time now for the Global village, to join together and start thinking strategies globally. Just like the same way as G20 joined together to discuss the credit crunch, global warming and etc., tackling terrorism should be given top priority. Today, it was Mumbai. Tomorrow it could be somewhere else in the world. Let all the countries unite and take measures.

Time has come for all the conflict to end. The aim of terrorism is to instigate the hatred. All these are made by man. So if we need to give them back we should stop pointing fingers at others and work towards a common goal.

Time has come for leaders to change their strategies. Let there be difference in Language, soil, religion, culture, habits. But there should not be any difference in handling these terrorist.
They should be replied in their own language. Let us all unite in teaching them lesson. Life is too wonderful to die in this manner. Even a terrorist who was captured had expressed that he wanted to live.

After all even those gunned men’s mothers would not have wished their kids to destroy simple human beings when they grow. I am sure no mother would have sent her son or wished him good luck for such unscrupulous act.

Every other Government should discuss positively to curb these acts. All parties in each country should give top priority in uniting themselves against these acts, and give their heart and soul in combating terrorism. Let all the nations work together in destroying the roots of such network. Let us preach the world to love than to hate.

If we want to teach those perpetrators a lesson, let every good act continue. Let us not stop the trading, business, sports just for these rowdies. Let us tell them, that, if that is what they wanted, they cannot have it.

If there is a rose there will be a bee who will be attracted to suck the honey. We cannot be afraid of the bees and not have roses. We should have more roses and keep away the bees.
We should have lots of garden of roses for our future generation.

Autumn

2008-11-21T21:49:00.006Z

After finishing my last spoon of Wheat bran and Oats breakfast, I washed my bowl and left the kitchen. Once again checked all my belongings and slammed the door and started walking towards the bus stop. As usual, I switched on my i-pod. KJ Yesudas was singing “Madhubhan Khusboo”. I looked around and found that the leaves on the trees have changed their colours and have fallen too. I realised that autumn is going to end. I remember my mother saying “Whatever happens, the time will not wait. What has to happen will happen”.

Yes, on seeing the tree near my house, I realised that the leaves have changed from green to different colours. In fact, most of the leaves have fallen. I realised that I had taken a picture of the same tree few months ago (see picture 1). I opened my bag and took another picture of the present tree(see picture 2). In the meanwhile, diesel and petrol prices have gone up. The banks have run into loss. The world economy had changed. Credit crunch has almost hit every part of the world. New president has been elected in US of A. Indians have beaten Australians in Cricket. So...what...who bothers.... The seasons do not wait....

After all they need to do their duty.

Autumn is going to end and winter is already in.

Nature does not wait for anything.

Evidence

2008-11-20T21:42:00.005Z

After being inside closed doors for few hours I decided to have a walk during the lunch hours.

I came out of my office and looked around. It should have rained few minutes before. It was very pleasant and I walked to my favourite park near my work place. There were very few people. The joggers were jogging and there were lots of evidence for the recent rain. Some little birds were trying to shake their feathers and fly. There was a kind of smell coming from the ground. Whenever the birds shook the tree branches, water remaining on the leaves sprinkled on me. I was looking for fresh evidence for the rain and looked around. Then this water droplets on the benches caught my eyes. I decided to click them for evidence. Evidence of the rain. It looks like they were just waiting for the photograph. I smiled and took the picture. A couple who came behind me kept looking at the bench and must have wondered about what I was focusing on.

I walked back having got evidence now. After all we need evidence for everything in this world. Nobody believes anything without any evidence.

Learn to love and let others live!

2008-11-15T19:53:00.004Z

Recently came across a video clipping of law students clash in Chennai, India. I was disturbed very much. I never thought there could be so much of hatred among students studying in same college. Believe me or not! After seeing the video clips I could not do anything for more than one hour. Though I saw this video two days before, the video is still fresh in my mind.

The cause of the incident is based on difference of opinion on a poster issue among different caste/community students. What a shame! A group of policemen were watching the whole incident standing outside the premises of the college. One student got trapped near the gate and he was beaten with logs and some other materials. It was worst than any of the violent fight scenes in a Tamil movie. This appears to be a barbaric act. What else I could say!

Only this has been in my mind for the past two days. Can there be so much of animosity among fellow students? Is the future safe in the hands of such young would be lawyers? How are they going to protect the society with their education? On trying to know more about this, I came to know this sort of rivalry and fights exist between the students especially in the state. Why? Certain reports say that the management and police were aware about this already. Due to difference of opinion in printing a poster for some celebrations that was held in the College, a batch of students got agitated.

From where did such young graduates get such a motivation to brutally man handle their friends? There is something wrong somewhere. The three students who were beaten are still fighting for their life. There should be some background behind this incident. Those who were beaten belong to ordinary family. The state has recently started drawing attention worldwide for its technological parks and outsourcing. How could the Government keep quite? They have just suspended the Police officer and the Principal. Everyone was blaming police for being a silent spectator to the whole incident. But there had been incidents in the past of demanding action on Police, since they entered the premises to solve issues among students. I strongly feel that there should be lots of politics behind all this.

While I was walking during my lunch hour, I came across this flock of birds as seen in the picture. What a great unity? What a skill in flying as a pattern? They were doing great acrobatics without any communication support from ground. It was wonderful to keep watching them. I think we human beings have to learn a lot from animals.

Dear young students, please learn from your surroundings. Learn from other creatures that exist in this world. Please shed all your difference of opinions and respect each other. I am sure all those who were involved must be repenting now. Please think well and do not allow politics amongst yourselves. Learn to love each other. Everyone’s life is precious. Life is not to hate each other and kill each other. Give meaning to your education and raise a step above than what you are!

Fear of Death

2008-10-22T20:32:00.002+01:00

The bus was fully loaded. I got into the bus and started moving inside. As the conductor was keen on accomodating more passengers, he was keeping on shouting to move. I almost went near the driver’s seat. This was a private bus running in the suburbs of Chennai. The conductors were paid commission according to the sales.

I looked around. It was very crowded. There were huge baskets near the gear box and the driver yelled at those villagers who had kept them. They moved it a bit and in the newly found space another villager went and sat. Loud music was being played. It was another latest hit (those days) by Ilaiyaraja. It was hot and humid morning. You cannot expect the people around to have used the world class perfumes. Since it was morning the sweat smell of people around was bearable. It was interesting to hear the driver and conductor’s comment at each and every stop. There were funny characters doing their own comics. After all villagers are very innocent. There was a level crossing and the gates at level crossing went down. The bus stopped at the gates.

I kept observing the people around and it all happened suddenly. The villager before me suddenly started showing some signs of pain on his body. He closed is eyes and started making gestures. He could not speak. He started beating his chest. I noticed this, and started enquiring the man calmly. Slowly everyone started noticing and were offering their own treatments. I looked for symptoms of heart attack. I asked him, one by one and the man constantly said that he felt a kind of blockage in his chest. Suddenly a lady offered her water bottle and other passengers asked him to have it slowly. He started showing little improvement. Again he started beating his chest and I requested him not to do it.

The railway gates opened and I requested the driver to stop in the nearby town so that he could be attended. The patient started getting scared. He thought he is going to die and started crying. He was not ready to listen to me. He wanted to rush to see his family before he could breathe last. I listened to all his symptoms and was not sure whether it was heart attack. Since the bus was full of villagers, they all thought he is very serious and carried him to a Doctor in the next stop. I could see him improving within those 10 minutes. He said he was better before getting off the bus and thanked me for all the comfort. I wished him to recover soon. I could remember the fear on his face for those few minutes. Since I had very important job to be done, and there were sufficient people to take care of him, I continued my journey. After a week or so, I travelled by the same bus and the same gentleman was there smiling. He came and held both of my hands and thanked me for all the help offered. He said that he went to Doctor immediately, and it was nothing but some kind of Gastric problem. After this I used to see him very frequently in the same area and he became alright. But I could not forget those fearful moments he had. Fear of death!

When I was in my early teens, I was attending a function in a local temple. It was dark and we were doing some service to the devotees. Suddenly I felt something biting my legs and shook my legs so hard and there was a Scorpion. My friends found it in dark and screamed. They immediately killed it and each started screaming something. Sekar, my childhood friend, who was exposed to all these creatures due to his farming background, immediately said that if it had bitten me I may be in danger. On hearing those words I started feeling bad and felt that I was losing my senses. I could hear all the friends screaming. I requested to be taken home and wanted to see my mother. Since each one were telling something, I thought I will die soon. I was given first aid and some elderly gentleman who was in the temple, saw the bitten place on my foot and said that the Scorpion had just started to climb my foot and I had kicked my leg immediately. He was my saviour since he said that I need not worry and will be alright soon. Still I wanted to rush home and see my family. Those fearful moments ! I experienced the fear of death.

Years have rolled by. Now I have experienced quite a lot in life. This has given so much of maturity. Still being in the mid-life this fear is trying to conquer the mind now and then. Fear of death! Will I die soon? What should I do quickly if I know some symptoms? I am not afraid. But cannot be brave to face it.

I started analysing death and why we are afraid of death?

It is purely insecurity of mind and thoughts. Everyone who is born has to die one day. But we think that we should be allowed to fulfill certain responsibilities in life and live in full and see every other happening . Life is never full. So why should we be afraid? Death can come to anyone.

This morning when the flight was taking off ( For the past few weeks I have been travelling by flights instead of Train. Believe me or not! The flight tickets are cheaper than the train sometimes and so I have booked them in advance!) I felt some heart burning sensation. I remembered the villager and his sufferings whom I have seen atleast 25 years before. Laughed to myself! Stroked my chest and realised that I did not have proper sleep last night. Still it was gloomy and closed my eyes and kep listening to all the announcements. Looked through the windows and saw the milky clouds. Wondered how funny it would be if I could see some people walking in the clouds clad in heavenly dresses as seen in old devotional Indian films.

The pilot announced that there may be severe turbulence and informed us about the usual stuff. Suddenly the plane started jerking. Everyone became aware about the jerks. I felt that I was travelling by a local corporation lorry in Chennai. It was so noisy and everyone were laughing. I wished that the laughter remains as laughter and does not turn into screamings. Suddenly the Air-hostess rushed to one lady, and helped her in changing the seat. I held the seat before me tightly. I felt like I was swinging. In such situations, nobody has any control except the pilot. I realised what a responsible job it is! After few more minutes of cradle journey, it calmed down.
Once the plane touched the ground everyone were relieved.

I laughed to myself and walked away and looked back.

The plane was remaining there and was getting ready for the next journey.

Care for the aged

2008-10-05T05:23:00.002+01:00

It was a usual routine and hectic day at work. Just at the end of the day when we had finished I turned around and had a casual chat with my colleague. I asked him whether he was going out on the evening, or just go home. He replied that he had to go and visit his father who was affected with Alzheimier and lives in an old age care home. He said that he was feeling guilty of not having visited him since few months. This colleague is of middle age and very considerate. Whatever he said further really made me to think very seriously. He said that his father cannot recognise him and it is so pathetic to see his father just giving a look if introduced. What an irony! He narrated that as he visits the home with a cake, pie and fruits, one of the staff will take him to his father and introduce him. His father would just look at him and does not speak anything. He does not have any memory and keeps looking somewhere. Oh.. My god after ‘R’ told me about this, I went home and this was in my mind for the next few days.

Being a weekend I called some relatives back in India and few enquiries about their welfare, and the ageing elders. I was surprised to know that one of my relative is 100 this year and is quite healthy and able to carry on her daily duties. They live in a village. I also heard about few other elders who had a fall, who had a fracture and their regular narrations.

My mom who is in her high 70’s, lives with me. I have to keep telling my kids how active she was in her younger days, and they need to adjust living with her pace. They do understand.

We keep talking about the facilities we have in western world for the elders and the infrastructure in developing countries. Every time I talk about this, I could only think of very old people, who had come to me for help when I lived in Chennai suburbs. There was an old lady who was my neighbour and whenever she could not find an Auto, she used to come and stand in front of our gate and ask me a lift. She was so old and heavy, I used to struggle to give her a lift on my Enfield bullet, since the seats were raised and I was more worried about her safety. She used to hold my shoulders so tight it used to be a hindrance for me to ride my bike. I have experienced the plight of old people if they do not have anybody to take care.

Once I was walking in Mount road, Chennai and saw a very old man trying to get into a crowded bus. The conductor did not even bother and gave the whistle. The old man fell down which I was watching from distance. I rushed to him and held him on my lap and comforted him. Thank god he did not have any injury. I cautioned him to be safe, and travel by a less crowded bus.

There are millions and millions of elders living in such a state in under developed countries. Their kith and kin abandon them, and some keep them just for their pensions or little money. In that way the Governments of developed country need to be praised. There is utmost care and attention for elders. Every place should have a ramp for wheel chair access. We have disabled parking space in super markets. There are care homes which take care of old people. These care homes are sponsored by Government. Some of them are run privately.

Every train and bus has facilities to carry wheel chair people. One day I took my mom in her wheel chair, just to see the care shown in local buses. As soon as the bus driver notices the elder in wheel chair, he get down from his seat and unfolds the stairs which helps in taking them safely inside. Then the same way, before we get down he gets down from his seat and helps in taking them out. The Doctor’s clinics, shopping centres and every other public place have preferences for disabled people. Mobility scooters are familiar ones, in which the elders can sit and keep driving it. It is operated by battery and the pavements facilitate the elders to go freely. I live in a place which consists of lots of elders and it is nice to see them going around in their mobility scooters independently. They can shop as well while driving the mobility scooters into the shops. The supermarkets are built spaciously to help them shop on their own. Nobody think of their disability as a negative thought, and keep moving on their life. The local councils have transport facility. Every day if elders preferred going to the shops they can give a call to this facility, who will send van to such elders house to pick them up and take them around for shopping. It is absolutely free and the elders can make use of it.

Living with an elderly person is not a very easy thing. There are plenty of advantages and disadvantages. They become almost kids on getting old. They keep telling the same innumerable times. They have their own habits and want to live the same way. They are reluctant to accept the changes. My mom realises the benefits and care given in this country. If the politicians of the under developed world and developing world consider a little for elders and develop schemes to benefit them it will make wonders for such deserving people.

After all everyone has to become old. It is a different life then. I hope the under developed world keeps this in mind and follows the developed world in this matter.

Lunch Time photo

2008-09-27T21:09:00.011+01:00

As I was walking around during my lunch hours, I came across few scenes. This one was strange. The guy inside the Vehicle was relaxing during his lunch break.

We live in this world, observe many things and enjoy them as well. Many cities have so much of life and we need to learn a lot from everyday's life in every town. In UK, I have observed in many public places, Gardens, walk paths there are few benches for people to relax. Though at many places the local council has provided them, there are few places where even the public have donated these benches in memory of certain things. While Iwas walking along a patway I saw atleast around 20 benches. Many of them were donated by men in memory of their dear wife, daughters in memory of their mothers, women in memory of their husbands, some clubs on occasion of their annual days. But I could hardly see any donated by sons in memory of their parents.

Mixture of thoughts

2008-09-03T21:35:00.006+01:00

Sometimes certain thoughts flash into my mind. I get a weird feeling whether it is only me who think like this or would there be someone else who thinks the same way.

I would like to share few of my thoughts.

1) What is life all about? We are born, we grow, educate and earn, marry, rear children. We see many good and bad on the way. We get experienced and notice that world is changing. We try to compare the old and new days, generation, habits, music, culture and etc. Why? Is it all just the human way?

2) I feel of late, many people are turning to be selfish. Let it be your friends or relatives. Everyone cares only for their next. If there is a flood in Andhra Pradesh, a friend of mine calls me to know whether my relatives in Andhra Pradesh are fine. If there is an earthquake in Gujarat, relatives of mine are worried about my relatives who live in Gujarat. Why does ‘Me’ ‘My’ come first? Few years before when there was an earthquake in Gujarat, a relative of mine called me to know whether I have called my other relative in Gujarat and enquired their welfare. For me the concern is about everyone who lives in Gujarat. I did not call my relative. There was enormous pressure from other relatives on me. Finally before I made a decision to call, my relative from Gujarat called me and said not to worry.

3) During my recent journey I happened to meet a student who is originally from Iran, but studying in UK. He started responding to my smile and within few minutes we started exchanging lots of news. Out of all the information he shared, I was impressed by one. It seems when he was ready to start off to UK, his parents advised him to be careful in choosing friends and if at all he wanted to have a close friend they advised him to have from India rather from any other place. He asked whether I was surprised by this and I said ‘yes’. It seems Iranians, have high esteem on Indians.

4) I came across few people who shared their personal problems. It did not seem a problem for me at all. I made it very clear to those persons that it is only the way they perceive things. Many of us draw a circle and try to live within that circle without thinking anything out of the circle. The greatest drawback is our incapability in trying to put ourselves in other’s shoes and think. I feel many misunderstandings may not happen, if either of the parties could think that way. I would say few are incapable in trying to think from other’s shoes. The best way to overcome a problem is to think from different angles and draw a solution.

5) I have two other professionals sharing the house with me. On conversing with them, and also after experiencing with lots of youngsters, I feel that many of them in their early and late twenties are committing themselves into lots of long term financial commitments. I strongly feel they are not content with what they have, and get entangled into these sorts of investment trap. I could understand they are into too much of futuristic plans, but are not enjoying their presence. I recall my younger days in early twenties and late twenties time. We had our set of friends, we were not very rich, did have family commitments, but enjoyed our life to the full. I know an Indian couple, who always keep talking about ‘Money, Money’. In spite of both of them earning they moan a lot. According to them, because I do not moan they think I am very rich whereas on the contrary it is opposite. I just try to live happily and not worry too much about the future. That is my way of living. Everything will happen.

If one door closes, another door will open. I remember reading this quote somewhere “As soon as a child is born, he/she had his food ready in his/her mother’s breast.” So everything will happen for our good. There is no point in worrying too much and lose the precious present.

6) One of my close relative impressed me by one of his habit. He has stopped consuming milk. The reason was very impressive but difficult to follow. He explained how man, for his needs have domesticated animals. By nature a Cow secretes milk after giving birth to their younger ones. Man separates the young one and takes all those milk for his use. Many methods are being followed. I remember in my younger days, the milk man used to bring cows in front of houses to milk their cows and distribute milk. This was in India. I doubt whether this practice still exists. They used to allow the calf to suck the milk and then tie the calf to a nearby pole and allow the cow to lick the calf and he used to start milking the cow. My relative‘s explanation that no mother would like to be separated from their younger ones was very thought provocative. I would like to think a lot on this point.

7) Then we had discussion about recycling. We talked about plastic. I came across a Victorian life book. It seems in those days in Britain, people carried their cutleries wherever they went. Thinking about it now, it is so nice. Instead of using the plastic spoons, forks, I think this is a good idea. I remember many of my older relatives did the same and my mom till today would like to eat in her own plate and carry wherever she goes. Nowadays I feel very bad to use plastic covers, and we keep it a point to carry bags instead of taking their plastic carry bags. In case, if we happen to take it, we are trying our best to recycle them. The thoughtful supermarkets do accept their old plastic carry bags and take them to recycle them. It is high time that all should think very seriously about this. The reason for publishing this in my post is to see how many of the readers of this post, cares about this. I will be glad to know your views.

Note:- The pictures published in this post is of a park which is closer to my work. I walk here in the lunch time and take a break. The atmosphere is fantastic and I used to feel out of the world.

Weekend Photo

2008-08-31T10:01:00.003+01:00

I was just standing in the bus stop having travelled 4 hours by train. After having waited for 50 minutes and clicking few shots I noticed there was another 10 minutes for my bus arrival. Suddenly I saw a funny scene. A lady was walking with her dog dressed in under garment. There was not a single person who could hide their smile and in a shortwhile, the entire crowd were watching this wherever she walked with the dog. There were weekend revellers who were laughing loud on seeing this. I took my camera to click. But everytime I was ready to click there was hindrance. I looked at the clock and there was 5 minutes left for my bus. Though the lady was walking on the other side of the road, I just thought I could still manage to run close and click them. So I decided to catch them. But they were walking fast and there was traffic hindrance and I could not cross immediately. Keeping an eye on them I went walking on my side hoping that I will be able to catch them. My target was to walk for few minutes until my next bus stop, since I thought of giving up after that. But within seconds I found that my bus was approaching. Alas! I was in between the two bus stops and realised that I may miss the bus even if I run faster than Carl Lewis. So decided to click the dog and went behind them and somehow met them at a close range. I clicked him happily.

I knew that my next bus was only after another one hour. But still the thought of making others laugh through this picture made me to feel happy and did not mind spending another one hour at the bus stop. Where there is a will there is a way. I did not feel bored at all. I managed to spend another one hour happily observing people and surroundings.

Transport services

2008-08-28T22:42:00.010+01:00

Transportation and road networks are back bone for a nation. Most of the developed countries have wonderful transportation. The developing countries should try to emulate few good things from these places. Here in UK, we have wonderful public transportation. Still, there are few hues and cries. I had relatives and friends last month from US and they hailed the public transport system. Especially in bigger towns the night services are wonderful. The buses are kept clean. Every bus stop has a boarding as you see in the picture. It tells you the exact time of arrival of a bus. That helps a lot. Many times it has helped me to know about my next service.

Sometimes if there is no train services between two junctions, the railways arrange coach services to take you to the next junction and your journey continues after being dropped by the coaches at the cost of railway. This is being informed to you while you buy your tickets and board the train. So no hassles. It is a pleasure to travel by public transport in UK.

But I also need to mention the attitude of irresponsible citizens. It is really disheartening to note that few litter the public places. We do have appeals to keep them tidy and not keep their feet on the seats. I hate the public keeping their feet on the seats. Inspite of displays, I still see sometimes public keeping their feet on the seats.

In the mornings, most of the buses in big cities offer newspapers to public which are free. That is another good thing that needs to be mentioned. Those newspapers are second to none. They carry all local and international news. In major cities, apart from buses, they are available at major railway stations, and we do see people distributing them in big cities in the mornings and evenings.

Another important feature of these public transports are their staff. They are always courteous, with great manners. They seem to enjoy their job. They do know how to treat the odd customers, but still they remain calm and polite. Hats off to them! Once when there was disrupted rail services between two junctions, we were taken by a coach and once the coach reached the destination all passengers were in a hurry to pick their luggages and catch their trains. I did not mind getting delayed. I went back and thanked the coach driver who drove us safely and for the pleasant journey. He accepted my compliments with a smile.

I walked keeping my head high for having thanked someone for their wonderful service. There is nothing wrong in praising and thanking someone for what they did.

Festival season

2008-08-22T06:41:00.016+01:00

The word ‘Festival’ brings us many memories. I have been wishing to attend a festival since long time. Luckily last week I had a chance. Due to work and business, I could not go to a particular event. But one evening I had a chance to walk around the area, and witnessed lots of road shows and it was a great evening.

Edinburgh festivals were started in 1947, during the post war to “provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit’. I came to know that it holds the world record for the largest arts festival in the world. Though I could not personally witness any special program, I see everyday the grand atmosphere that prevails in this town. Lots of comedy shows, stand up comedies, plays, musical shows, and art shows are happening around the town. I have tried my best to present some good pictures taken during a walk around the town.

Last weekend Train journey

2008-08-13T00:10:00.004+01:00

I look forward for something entertaining every week. I have mentioned earlier, that I hate people who are dumb and those who immerse themselves into some book. So, while getting inside the compartment I was looking around and found there was a family with three kids and I thought that my journey will be excellent and settled in my seat. One of the kid was very curious and started attracting me. She was quite smart. I later learnt that she was just two years old. Two ladies were handling the three kids. They were speaking some language like Urdu and after few minutes I came to know that it was Turkish. There were two young girls who were seated opposite to those Turkish speaking ladies. These young girls were also speaking some language other than English. As the ticket examiner was passing by, these girls called him and explained that their seats were double booked and claimed that they possessed reservation for the same seats, as those ladies with the kids. The ticket examiner had a serious look for few minutes and left saying that he will be back. After he left, I asked them whether they checked it properly and vouched that it was not possible. They confidently replied 'yes'. I again asked them to verify whether it was the same coach since I have never come across such an experience in my train journeys in this country. They said circastically that even the Ticket examiner has checked it and has agreed and has gone to find a solution. This reminded me of a joke.

Many years before, a friend of mine witnessed this. He was travelling to Delhi from Madras. There were two people arguing over a seat. Each were claiming that they had reservation for the same seat. My friend who could not tolerate their arguments, intervened and checked their tickets and found that one of them had to travel only the next day since he had booked it for the next day. So, he has not checked his properly and was trying to travel on the wrong day. I thought about this incident and laughed.

After an hour or so, the destination place for the ladies with the kids arrived and they got down. I had to bid 'bye' to the kids who entertained me. In this new station, a Gentleman with his two daughters got into the same seat and the girls said the same reason. I again added that the seats have been double booked by mistake and the Ticket examiner knew about it and has not got back to them. After few minutes, there was a new Ticket examiner. As he approached us, the Gentleman showed his tickets and argued that his daughter need to be seated in the same seat and wondered how such errors could happen? The ticket examiner checked the tickets of those two girls again, and scrutinised for few minutes and agreed that the ticket seat numbers were right, but the girls were travelling by the wrong trains. It seems there were two different trains more or less at the same time, and the girls being new have got into the wrong train without bothering whether it was the same train they need to travel. They had to put a funny face and vacate the seat. That was a great experience for a passenger like me.

At last.....

2008-08-11T07:56:00.002+01:00

It has taken 27 years for a country like India to strike gold in Olympics. Last time it was the hockey team in 1980 under the captaincy of Baskaran. She has been striving hard and keeping the pace in many other fields. But not in Olympics. First my hearty congratulations to Abhinav Bindra for striking gold. It should be the individual’s great talent and determination which should have brought him so far.

Having grown up in a country like India, I know how difficult it is to come up to that level. When the whole country follows Cricket as a religion, it is a shame that other sporting activities are not given the due importance. I congratulate Abhinav for carrying on whatever he was doing, overcoming obstacles and winning the gold in Olympics. I am sure he is going to be a household name in India. Let many youngsters from many other developing countries follow his footstep in achieving success.

Weekend journey

2008-08-06T23:54:00.007+01:00

Life is rolling on. For the past two months I have been travelling in the weekends. Long train journeys. This time no pencil sketches. I enjoy the wonderful sceneries on both sides. I wish we had trains like we used to have in India with the windows opened so we could take more pictures. It is really picturesque. Sometimes while I walk to the pantry car and look at people, and wonder those who travel without watching those sceneries. I can understand for those who had been travelling often, it would have been regular. But I feel like waking up those who are closing the eyes and having a nap, and those who listen to ipods and close their eyes too.

On my way, the train crosses beautiful counties which joins the West midlands and the North. The train runs in the West coast and it is so beautiful. Shropshire is beautiful, and so Lancashire, and the places around the Lake District. I wish one day I visit those beautiful countryside which I see during my journey. Being a person, who takes life as it comes, and one who enjoy the positive side, I think this change has brought more other side of myself. Sometimes, it is causing deep trouble in my mind. Oh... god, will the future generation see this green in their life. What are we going to leave for them, the plastics and much worse concrete lands. Already, I feel that my kids are not having what I had in my life. It has changed a lot. I have discussed about this with people of different origin, lands and the thoughts are the same. Recently I travelled with a gentle lady who was living in a island with just hundreds of people. She was explaining me the difference between their island which is one among the North Western Isles of UK, and the towns of UK. Wow! On hearing her narration I wish I visit their place once. Such places are going to be rare. I wish all the developed countries stop developing and concentrate and help the world in preserving the green and help the third world countries to achieve the same. I think this should be done on war footing manner.

First let us stop all the wars. Enough said and written everywhere. Let us please live in peace!

Just like that

2008-08-05T23:09:00.008+01:00

Everything happened suddenly. Job change, place change, family worries, and future all came together and blew me away. It took some time for me to stabilise myself and I am back now. Sorry to be away. I missed blogging and reading others blogs. I have just started and slowly getting back to normal. Whether I like it again or not, I have become a weekender again. Meaning, Weekend Dad, Weekend Husband and Weekend Son for my family members. I spend more than ten hours travelling by train. Wonderful experience. For the past few months, I must have met a lots of people, from different countries. I look forward everyweek end, not that I could be with my family, also because I can travel and meet lots of new people.

I have plenty of ideas to bring in to my blog. I shall do them one by one. Sorry once again and assure you that I shall blog as in the past my travelling experiences.

The pictures you see in this post were all taken where I live during the week now. Any guess?

Please do comment. I assure you that I will be regular and shall read everyone of your post and comment.
I need to say that I have been reading few of your posts regularly but have not commented. I missed you all!

Sorry for the break!

2008-05-05T00:28:00.006+01:00

I remember this ‘Sorry for the break’ slide which was shown quite often, in those days when Doordarshan had just started. I knew I was away from blogging for quite long. Earlier I used to at least read other blogs. But recently I could not even do it regularly. I have been undergoing too many things from last December. One after another, there had been few blows personally. My aged mother fell sick on Christmas day. That shook me a lot. I had never seen her falling sick, like that, in my life. She was losing conscious, confidence and started blabbering. She was bedridden and I had to perform nursing duties in the night. She felt embarrassed and I just realized how many nights she would have done those to me and my sisters, as a mother. It was just for two days, but I could not take it easily. Finally it was diagnosed as a Virus which swept the country.

The New Year came and it has not been very good with me so far. The only good thing that has been keeping me cheerful and happy is the senior school classmates group which was formed recently. It is such a wonderful thing and mails from my old friends who studied with me from 6th standard to 12th standard have been a great source of renewed happiness. The unity is shaping up very well and we could establish contacts with more than 40 of our old classmates who studied together 30 years before. Some of my friends in Chennai were kind enough to organize a get together recently. We decided to honour our old teachers. We planned it very well and took lots of photos and video as well. I became very emotional on seeing my old teachers in the video. Most of them spoke high about us, and said that nobody had hosted a meeting like that. Some teachers were old and I could not believe it. Some teachers were emotional and their voice choked during their speeches. The oldest teacher was 78 and her hands were trembling. Our best teacher too became emotional during his speech and said that he was happy to see that they have achieved, for what they worked. I could only envy my teachers. What a noble profession it is! I am sure that teaching is one of the jobs, which could give a great satisfaction.

Of late, I have been finding that the life around me is getting more mechanical. It looks like the world is heading somewhere. I hardly find people who are relaxed. Even if I want to be cool and relaxed, the entire society around is pushing us towards something. I could see this like a race.

The other day I took a break from work and walked towards a canal. I walked many miles on a sunny day and found few more (handful) like me. I stopped here and there to have a chat. Few did greet back, and few were on their own. But I understood that there are people like me too. Beautiful streak of light passing through thick forest, and reflecting on that water was a great treat for my eyes. Again, there were only few to enjoy the scenery. While walking I found an Over bridge and the sound of traffic was driving me mad. I just thought for a moment how life is contradictory on each side. Life under the bridge had a beautiful canal which took us to a different world than the life above the bridge. I started walking further until I became tired. I thought I should visit another day with a camera.

A long walk like this on the bank of a canal, surrounded by tall trees and green bushes gives so much of happiness. I think wherever we live; there must be two kinds of places. Take a break from the normal routine from everything and have a long walk. It is a great relief for the stressful life. At one particular spot, I saw a beautiful lush green play field and a footballer on his own running and kicking the ball. I stood behind a tree and watched him for few minutes. He went on and on without stopping. It looked as though he was angry with the ball. It was fun to see the ball and the players’ leg in constant touch.

Though it was tempting, due to the sudden change in weather condition I had to rush back. Even after coming home, I was remaining silent. My family was wondering!

It would have been different if I had taken them too. I am sure I would have enjoyed with my family but I would not have been able to observe that much. I think being solitude for few minutes everyday, will help everyone.

The reality is it is difficult to be alone! It is mad, mad, world.. And it is driving us fast. Where are we heading to?

Mother today & Mother-in-law tomorrow

2008-02-26T12:47:00.001Z

One of my friend was excited that his mother was about to come the next evening. Casually when I visited his house the next day, he introduced his mother and she was tired of travelling. So, I chose another day to have a chat with her. I visited her the next day and had a long chat with her. This kindled my thoughts to write a post about mothers.

For long I had been thinking of the modern Desi mothers and their multi roles. Some of my cousins have become mothers and in-laws too.

In our society and culture mother has a prominent role. Though today’s father too are different to the fathers of yester years, mothers are more closer to their kids and the kids expect their mothers to be with them on the most needed time. But having a closer look at the mothers it is really wonderful to know so many in-built qualities.

Especially if the mothers have daughters, the love cannot be explained. Just like Fathers being role model for their sons, mothers are role model for their daughters. Some mothers go a bit more than their limits, in trying to dominate in all the affairs of their daughters and in-laws too. Though that is not the topic now, I was trying to appreciate the positive side of the role of mothers.

Just as the alliance clicks, and daughter gets married Mother’s passport is being taken care. She prepares herself for the long queue before the consulates and gets her Visa stamped. I do agree that there is nothing equivalent than the love and care of a mother. But who cares about the mother? Nowadays, desi girls seldom think that their mother is also a human and expect her to be a god made machine who can do everything for them. I closely observed few mothers who come abroad and it is amazing to see their skills. Even though they have come here, they still keep in touch with their left ones in home country, and keep giving the necessary care and instructions on daily or weekly basis. The people back home go to the extent of asking the so called mother regarding location of Ginger paste in the kitchen too when required.

It is really amazing to know the multi-talent of the mothers. Everything is fine with them except that they are too devoted to anything they take. One of my cousin’s wife who came to help her daughter-in-law for the delivery, did not show any interest in going out or visiting places and hardly went around. She was so dedicated to her daughter-in-law and the child, I had to force her and take her around. There was also another one who came to help her daughter-in-law but showed lesser interest after coming here, and was busy shopping around and was preparing a parallel list to be shipped to her daughter’s place in India. Both were so contradictory. On the whole, they never dream anything for themselves, and keep helping always their family, their kith and kin.

Few come out of their town, and just freak out here. They just want to get out of their routine and teach their dominating counter-part a lesson. Some male counterparts are too advanced. Either they do not allow their wives to leave abroad, or also travel with them and come here and trouble their wives here too. An interesting fact was I visited another friend’s parents where I could not find any difference between the ways the mother was treated. The gentleman who was retired did keep demanding everything fresh even in a cold country like here. I know a friend’s mother, who troubled him to take to a South Indian restaurant to have Masala Dosai. While travelling within London just because she was scared to use the escalators, my friend had to take all the trouble to contact the station authorities to stop the escalator and make his mom climb through safely.

One of my ex-colleague who was also my neighbour brought his aged parents from India. His father being a normal male chauvinistic person did not bother to take her along with his bachelor son wherever they went. Whenever she was alone, she called me (who just lived a floor above them) over phone and used to chat very innocently. I was glad to make her happy at least those times, and she wanted someone to hear her village stories. She was so innocent and whenever I visited their house, she thrilled me with her hospitality.

Some modern mothers are so intelligent that they come here and grasp many things quickly. We do see them in public places and social places. Some do come and stay here and help the younger ones, and rush back home like a busy bee. Some never stop helping others.

To quote something humorous, my age old mother looked at the new Dish washer for a long time and it made me to wonder whether she was cursing it for sharing even a little job of hers being taken away.

Whatever said, Mothers suit every role and they can do it well. Hats off to all mothers! I wish more women from India see the outside world than being inside the kitchen.

Please Stop those Superstitions!

2008-01-28T14:31:00.000Z

We are living in electronic world where the digital and electronics are dominating. Though man has come off jungle, and started living in cities he still carries many things of the past.

I was just watching a private television of South India last weekend, in which there was news about a superstition being followed in a village called ‘Kudiyirrupu’ near ‘Neyveli’ in Tamilnadu, India. The freak superstition was girls lesser than 10 years old were let by their parents to be beaten by a whip in public by a man, and the girls are dancing in an eccentric way, by letting their hair falling on their faces and dancing like they were mad. This practice has started since few years and according to one of the girl’s mother, every parent is coming forward to let their daughter undergo this cane beating and it is getting popular. The superstition is after this ‘Sacred Ceremony’ the village gets lots of rain, and makes the village fertile.

Few seconds of such clippings, brings so much of anger on people like us. I really pity those beautiful innocent children who fall prey to this. Being a father of a girl of 6 years old, I could only feel ashamed for talking the same language what those brainless people speak.

Will not any good hearted Women’s welfare association stop this kind of ceremonies happening in a state which boasts of bringing the Information technology into their cities.

It is high time if few ‘Manbu migus’ (Ministers) who say that they are working hard to uplift poor people, discourage people doing such foolish acts, by imposing certain strict laws in their assemblies and Parliament.

We are in 21st Century and do not belong to those ‘STONE AGES’.

Bring Peace on Earth!

2008-01-15T15:56:00.000Z

Many things have been happening personally. As I had mentioned in my earlier post we did set a group for all our classmates and we had contacted around 30+ so far. We could get email contacts for 25 and have formed a yahoo group. It is a great experience in trying to know each other, reviving the contacts, and trying to keep us together. It is not easy to keep the same momentum which we had 30 years before. But still all of us are trying to recall the old stories, the funny incidents, the laughter and the naughtiness of each one of us. Some of them is remembering each and every incident like the way we were dressed on a particular day and bringing them impeccably. Some have transformed so much and some are remaining the same. It is very difficult to retain the same composure since lots of factors influence our characters. Especially the better half, children, parents, job and the social responsibilities does not allow being what you were during the school days. Amidst all these, my old classmates in Chennai, India were able to organise a day’s get together and more than 20+ assembled for the day. One of them was very kind enough to be present for the occasion and flew from Dubai, and few more from different states in India. They did have a good time and visited the teacher at his house and presented him a small gift and exchanged pleasant memories. The teacher in turn gifted each one of my classmates with a Hero fountain pen. The thought of a fountain pen for a ball point pen was that he presumed that few may throw away once they could not get the proper refill. There was a small write up about our classmates meet in the supplementary of ‘The Hindu’ as well.

Till date I have been very busy in keeping in touch with my friends and the thought of my blog and my blog readers brought me back to blogging.I have been missing many of you all these days which I do not want to continue. I also wanted to wish everyone on the arrival of New Year.

Another year has come. So many things have happened. There are talks all around about the global warming. There are concerns about economies. There are talks about the latest Nano car, dreadful diseases, security concerns, terrorism threats, Aussies cricket and so on.

Honestly my concern is all about the common man and the future generations. It is really very sad to know about the happenings in Kenya and Pakistan. Iraq is yet to get back to normalcy. There was a crisis among the Tamils in Malaysia too. Though it all appears to have been sorted out, probably it looks like a temporary one. We still hear stories from Sri Lanka. There should be parents who had lost their children in those wars, and humans who lost their friends, brothers, sisters. I wish that the world changes into a no-war zone and peace prevails all over the earth and the human beings become more human and be concerned for the fellow humans.

Why cannot the world ban wars and terrors and take more initiative in respecting each one’s belief and continue peacefully?

Will my prayer be heard one day?

I know it would be the same prayer by millions of people all over the world.

Dear Political leaders please realise this and give us back the peace.

Please! Please! Please!

Technology Helps

2007-11-24T07:03:00.000Z

In day to day’s life we come across changes in Technologies. Though there had been talks about certain disadvantages of technologies I have been experiencing few advantages for the past few years. Does technology lead to destruction? That is debatable. We can say yes/no. That is not my point here now. I wish to share how it has helped me in the last few days.

After a row of meetings at work, I went to my seat to have my lunch. Casually browsed my emails and saw a mail with a funny mail id. Fearing it to be suspicious I thought for a while. The subject was not as one of those dodgy mails. So I opened it up and was excited, thrilled, etc..etc. It was from nobody than one of my class mate who had studied almost 30 years before in my high school. It was an invitation to few classmates for a meeting in Chennai. Though I could not attend I just responded. We had very few email ids in the group. Then we suggested to have a common group and started a group.

Believe me or not! Within a couple of weeks, we could collect more than 20 email contacts of our classmates who are spread over every corner of this world. The past two weeks had been very busy receiving few phone calls every evening from one of them. One of my class mates was kind enough to sing few favourite hits for everyone at home. He called us from Dubai. Suddenly another friend forwarded the contact of our favourite school teacher. He said that the teacher has an email id and is very receptive to students, though he is retired now (naturally!). Guys started phoning him up as well.

Due to the time difference I could not call him in the week days. I sent him a mail in advance during the weekday and called him on a Saturday. I woke up very early as early as 2.45 a.m. on a Saturday. I called him and just said my name. He recollected every minute detail about me. I was just flabbergasted. We went on and on. We exchanged our wishes. I conveyed my sincere apologies for not able to contact him all these days. He replied, that he was very delighted that at least few of us have recalled after 30 years of school life. He felt a great sense of satisfaction that he could contribute something good for the society and felt very happy that students who studied under him are well placed and leading a good and great life.

He said
“Last week was a special week in my retired life for I received a few calls from my students that is 1976-78 batch to whom I was the class teacher in the gallery class. Remembering the teacher at your age of 40 plus and that too after a gap of 30 years is quite unimaginable. I was filled with emotions when I heard the voices followed by their e-mails and it gave me a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment for which God has created me. It is really gratifying to note that majority of the students of that gallery class are well placed and well settled in life and they remember their teacher who has contributed a little for their betterment.

I thank all of you for this lovable gesture which I cannot very easily forget. Now I am retired and God has given me a peaceful retired life. I love to meet you all and share the pleasant experiences and moments we had in 1976-78 at Corley. Joys are doubled and sorrows are diminished when shared. If you happen to visit Chennai do call me and feel free to visit me.

My warmest Greetings once again and I would definitely remember you and your family in my daily personal prayer for I know that more things are wrought in prayer than the world dreams of.”

All these days I have been feeling guilty for not having contacted my teachers who had brought me to this stage. But last week I had my greatest satisfaction in my life for conveying thanks to our old teacher. Now, within 2 weeks we could establish contacts with 24 of our old class mates, and the joy brought over exchanging e-mails, calls, news, and photos is unexplainable. Each one of us remembering our childhood acts and even the words, nicknames, fights, jokes and exchanging them when our kids are in our teens is great. The highlight was one of our classmate sent a group photo of our class taken in the year 1973 and there had been flurry of emails amounting to more than 200 within a couple of weeks. We laughed at ourselves for how we looked and how much of hair each of us has lost. We have changed in shape, looks. But while talking about the school days we all are same. Till today none of our old classmate has declined to meet or be in touch with our group when approached. That is the spirit!

Now you know why I appreciate the technology and why I was missing in the blog world for the past few weeks. Hope to get back to blogging and you can see my comments again in your posts. All these were possible just at a click distance.

Children and Fear

2007-11-07T12:45:00.000Z

The freedom of life is to live without fear. Our mind is conditioned from childhood towards fear. When I grew up in India, we feared for everything at school. Some may argue that fear brings discipline in a child. But certainly not!

I remember my school days, when we feared for everything. I read about a nasty incident today. This has happened in Ahmedabad, India. A student came to school late, and the standard punishment was to run 5 times around the school ground. The school kicks off at 7 A.M. and the boy who was late collapsed when he started running. There is a report saying that the boy had congenial heart problem. Still I honestly think that this kind of punishment should not exist. Here in UK, they make the children to undergo detention. If they are late they will be detained half an hour back in the evening or another day. I would not say that it is the best but in no way it harms the child. If such kind of death had happened in a developed country the school authorities will be taken to task. I read the Police is looking for a complaint from the parents, to take action against the school. We should wait and see with what is going to happen. I could only sympathise with the parents for the loss of their lovely child. At the same time, such parents should go against the school authorities, and this should open the eyes of many others who fall in the same group.

The same punishment existed during my school days 30 years before. I hated my PE teacher taking control of latecomers. I would have been late only once or twice in my school life. We were asked to do some physical exertions like holding ears criss-cross by hands and do squats. There was discrimination in those punishments too. But what did they achieve? They made us to be more afraid.

There had been age hold tradition of instilling fear on child’s mind. I remember days when my nieces visited us for holidays and we were in teens. My brother-in-law, who is a Doctor, always insisted that they should not be scared. I got the parenting technique when I was just in my teens and it worked very well. Then, we looked back into our childhood days and realised the importance of bringing a child brave and explaining them the consequence.

Fear causes anxiety in children. Fear deprives them from thinking creatively. The fear of being beaten, punished, makes children to become coward in their life. As a parent of 2 children, I have found it very successful in being positive. Children are bound to do mischief and mistakes. Children need to be children. At the same time, they should know their limits. Punishments should be there. But they should be in such a way; it does not hurt them physically, emotionally and mentally. My nieces were brought up without fear and this has helped them a lot in their life so far.

My aged mother does not agree with my ideas and principles and feels that I am giving too much of liberty to kids. During our childhood we were not allowed to give any explanation and were just asked to follow what was being said. Thanks to creative thinking I could overcome all the fear in myself. At one stage in my life, I have thrown the fear and started realising of being conscious to ourselves.

Children are the best gift to us. They should be handled in a nice and simple manner. Some of the parents compare their children and keep talking about all the negative things of their children to other parents and friends. They should bear in mind the way they behave with their children. It is really funny to hear few parents’ comments. I have seen a lot of parents expecting their child to be a readymade piece with all they wish. They need to realise that children cannot be all-in-one readymade doll. They need to be moulded and it requires lots of patience in bringing up good children.

Fear cannot prevent the negative things. It may be deceptive. It may look like it is producing the best result, but indirectly it harms the personality. It is age old technique. In present world it will not work. Children may pretend to be afraid, but you gain nothing than hatred from them. This may have adverse affect and parents may have to pay a huge penalty for their behaviours.
So those who are dealing with children, please wake up! Teach them right. Tell them the consequences. Please be in detail and try to deal them with patience. It is difficult. They may repeat the same negative behaviour. But teach them gently and do not lose your patience. Keep explaining them straightforward. It will fetch you the result. Please do not spank or terrorise them with punishment and fear. This will not work.

A local gentle man

2007-10-30T13:07:00.000Z

It was a perfect English summer day. I was walking back from work on a fine evening. I love walking not only because it helps me in spending calories, also because I can observe more things that are happening around me. I like observing. I like to watch and look at things in a different way. Sometimes it is a bit scary to walk through tunnels or sub-ways where there is fewer crowds. It is not exaggeration to say that in UK. Many skulls are broken only in the undergrounds by disturbed youths. So though there was this subway near a ring road, I preferred to cross the road on top than using the subway. Just after crossing, I noticed him. Only few people are so impressive, attractive to be looked again. I looked back at him. I stopped and looked seriously at him.

He was very old. He was wearing Torn clothes. He had a long beard and was picking up rubbish on the road. He was to himself. I stopped and asked him whether he was alright and he did not bother about me. He did not look around and was just doing his job. I wondered at him and his clothes. I did not expect someone to be so poorly dressed in UK. I walked few steps and looked back at him. He did not bother about me and sat on the side road pavement and gazed at the traffic on the ring road.

I saw him few times at distance and sometime very close. He had never bothered or cared to look back at anyone. Then there was news about him in the local newspaper. He was called as Fred and lived near the ring road, inside a tent donated by the local council. It seems he has been there for at least 30 years living like that near ring road. I could only wonder how he could withstand the cold temperature and live in such a tent for so many years.

After reading more about him in the local newspaper, I became more interested about him. Once when I was walking closer to the tent, I saw him sweeping the place around his tent. He kept the place around him very clean. He hardly spoke to anyone. I read the news about him to my children. My daughter who is of 6 years old was very much moved and asked me why not bring him home, so that we could offer shelter. I was almost on tears when she told this. My kids wanted to look at the old gentleman and I promised that I shall take them one day to show him.

I cannot fulfil their promise. I knew this yesterday from the local newspaper. Fred had died. This was a great shock to everyone who lives in the town. He was respected by many people who live in this town. Few months before he became a great hit in the internet when someone set up a website for him, and there were thousands of visitors from all over the world who visited his site.

He was offered houses and benefits many times by the local council and he refused them. He did not want to live in a house. It seems he was born in Poland and held as a prisoner during the world war. For more news about him you can read http://www.expressandstar.com/2007/10/30/fred-takes-mystery-to-the-grave/
.

I admired his life for the way he has lived. It is rare to see someone who had lived in a very simple way in much advanced world. He was a true gentleman, and he was served food daily by the meal on wheels section of the local council. The lady who visited his tent had commented that she saw a shadow sometimes in his tent when she kept the plate and few times she had seen a hand taking the food. She had never heard a word except ‘Thank you’ sometimes. Only last week when someone had asked him whether he needed anything, he showed his torn trousers. He never said anything. But the next day, the person who had asked him got him a new trouser.

Fred I respect you and your feelings! I am not offended that you never said anything to me when I asked you whether you were alright.

You will be always remembered by me and my family Fred!

May your soul rest in peace!

Love your Mother Tongue

2007-10-15T13:57:00.000+01:00

Few weeks before I happened to meet a friend’s relative who had come from Australia. Probably the local friends thought that I should meet him and arranged a meeting in a local pub. I knew that the person, whom I had not met before, hailed from a small village near Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu and is settled in abroad for lesser years than the number of years he had lived in India. As soon as we met, he started conversing in English with a thick accent. I was already told that he has forgotten ‘Tamil’ and speaks only in English. I do not hate speaking another language. But how could someone forget their mother tongue? During our one hour talk he behaved as if he never knew ‘Tamil’ and replied in English for every other question asked in Tamil. He has moved out of the country only in his late 20’s and he should be in his late 30’s now. How could someone forget a language within 10 or maximum 15 years, and behave strangely whenever we spoke few words in ‘Tamil’. If the children are born in a different country, where their mother tongue is not spoken and if they behave like this it makes sense. We can at least understand that they are not used to it. But I could not tolerate this. Let the mother tongue be any language. I could not believe that someone could forget his mother tongue after few years. I spoke about this, to his relatives, who are my friends and they said he never gets chance to speak in his mother tongue. He is married to a foreigner and the chances of speaking in mother tongue became less. I am not convinced.

I met another family in London. They were originally from Sri Lanka. The parents who are of my age, mostly spoke with me in ‘Tamil’. Their English is unpardonable. I used to wonder how they are unable to speak good English, in spite of living in this country for more than 10 years. At the same time, it was funny to see their daughter who is in University, always spoke to me in English with a thick accent. Her parents talk to her in ‘Tamil’ and introduced me in ‘Tamil’, but she was constantly speaking in English. The reason I am mentioning about this is because, she cannot say that she does not have chance of hearing or speaking ‘Tamil’. She could very well speak at least few words in ‘Tamil’ but she was constantly speaking in English.

The manner is if you are in a group, speak in the most common language, which is understandable for everyone in the group. I maintain this always while I am in a group. If I happen to be with four Indians, out of which 2 are from different state, and one from Tamil Nadu, I still try to speak in English. In case, if the other ‘Tamilian’ does not speak English as fluently and if he tries speaking in ‘Tamil’ with me, I reply to him in Tamil, and then translate it immediately to the other persons in case if they could not understand it. This is just common sense and good manner.

But why don't people understand even this and cause embarrassment to others? A gentle advice to those people is, please avoid doing this. Imagine there are two Russian colleagues along with you and speaking in Russian. Will you not be offended? You may wonder what they are talking, while having you with them. Just put you in others shoes next time and try to speak the most common language which everyone speaks.

Also, I have found that people who live in India, especially Chennai (including my relatives) talking to me and my children only in English when we visit on holidays. Even though we reply back in pure local Tamil, they constantly speak in broken English which is very embarrassing. Why? Should they not understand that we could speak the common language well, and continue conversation in our mother tongue? Last week one of my relative spoke over phone and said none of us in our family have changed. Personally, people need to understand that just because someone lives far away from the home land he will change a lot. People are all the same everywhere in this world. There are people who would love to know about our Mother tongue.

I had a British colleague who always approached me to write in a piece of paper his name, or his wife’s name and children’s name in Tamil and carried back home to show his family. There was an Irish colleague who grabbed my Lunch box if she saw any Potato Curry in it. There are many English colleagues who have always wanted to visit my family for a Vegetarian Curry and Rice. I still remember few years before, one of my team leader sent a mail to everyone in our team (20 of us) asking to vote, for a local English restaurant, or my House food for the Christmas party and I think majority of them who had tasted my home food earlier opted to visit my house for the Vegetarian food. Thanks to few young English girls in my team, who were concerned whether my wife could make food for 20 of us, and later spoke to my Team leader to cancel that option fearing for causing unnecessary stress to my wife. So sweet of them!

So, be whatever you are. It is interesting to know other’s language, culture and food. Please do not feel inferior. After all everyone in this world have to breathe Oxygen, have red blood, and walk with their legs. Let us not feel inferior about ourselves.

Love your language whichever it is!

(N.B- I am not fanatic, but would love people to be what they are. Somebody may ask, why then I am not blogging in Tamil? English suits me because I could reach many who may not understand my mother tongue. I may start one in Tamil which is getting delayed.)

Moments in Life

2007-10-02T12:57:00.000+01:00

Last weekend while relaxing after a small DIY (Do it Yourself) work, I was sipping my black Tea, and was wondering about few things that happens to everyone in life. We all live and repeat the same kind of work throughout our life. I looked at my Old mom, and my thoughts were on her way of life. She does not travel, hardly comes outside, and lives within the house, and thanks to ‘Satellite’ Channels, she is able watch the young Tamil actor walking to the court for another hearing, Politicians in Tamil Nadu burning effigy along with their supporters, and women in Madras City being fooled by con men posing themselves as jewel polishers. So, I picked up conversation with her and we both were talking of ‘moments of our life’.

There are special moments in each one of our life. They are really great and we cherish over them again and again. It gives so much of pleasure and sadness as well when we think about them. Also the moments would have made us happy and sad. But still they are moments. I read in one of Osho’s (Rajneesh) books that everyone gets a glimpse of their best moments of life, like a fast forward just before they die. I do not know how far it is true. But I try to rewind my life and try to remember the past, and only the best moments come to mind.

The everlasting one was lighting pyre on my father’s dead body while I was just 11. I could not believe it and could not understand at that age. I thought it was not true. But while coming back from the burial ground, smiled at ‘Nedunchezian’ who stopped batting when he saw me walking back home. The next day when I walked back to the burial ground along with relatives, thought it could be a bad dream and my dad may sit and laugh at me. But realised the meaning of life, when I searched for copper coins among the ashes, and my ‘Periappa’ a retired school teacher, was talking about each bones found.

The first time when I went to Sabarimala after sixty days of fasting, and had a ‘Jyothi Darshan’ was a great moment. The same way the first time darshan of ‘Lord Balaji’ at Tirupathi was a great moment. Even last year while I was there, it was an action replay moment.

The first time when I had a darshan of the great saint of the Century “Sri Kanchi Kamakota peetam Chandrasekara Swamigal” else called as “ Periyavar” of Sanakarachariars is still before my eyes. I had felt the same when I had met saints like “Andavar” of Srimad Andavan Ashram, Srirangam. I think I met most of those great saints and poets during a “World Tamils Meet” held in Dasprakash Hotel, Egmore probably 30 years before.

One of my ex-colleague was the nephew of “Kirubananda Variar” and when there was a huge crowd waiting to have a glimpse of him in Mount Road my ex-colleague who spotted me pulled me out of the crowd and took me closer to him and introduced me. He blessed and asked to continue being good to all human beings. That was a great moment to receive blessings from such a great person.

The greatest moment in life was when the auspicious instruments were played, and when I tied ‘Thali’ (Mangalsutra) on my wife’s neck. I cannot explain the feeling. That is a great sense of belonging and to everyone’s surprise I started shedding tears, though wiped it quickly.

The next one was while waiting in the corridors of the maternity ward the whole night and when the nurse carried a baby wrapped in white towel and called my wife’s name. A nurse walking with a baby in a maternity ward became familiar since I had been seeing from the previous evening. So as soon as she called out the name, I rushed to know what it was all about, and she showed the baby and said “Look at your Dad”. I think she must have watched lots of movies. If any of you are bachelor and reading this, believe me, that is a great moment. Oh... dear! The way my son looked at me was marvellous. What a great moment it was! Felt so happy to see him. It is a great feeling and the same feelings repeated after the second arrival. This time my son was there to welcome his sister.

When my younger sister got married we all went to leave her in her in-laws house. After everyone left, I stayed back for few minutes since she wanted me to stay for a while. I too felt that she may feel bored and stayed back. But when I was about to leave, I could not resist tears which rolled on my cheeks. Her in-laws and all the ladies in the house became emotional.

I used to act in stage plays within our staff club with my erstwhile employer. Once we entered into a drama competition and I was given a consolation prize for my acting and received it from Director K.Balachander in Museum Theatre. It was a great moment.

I cannot forget my first day of shooting for a Tele Serial along with famous comedian ‘Vivek’and actor director ‘Ramesh Khanna’. That was a great experience. The whole crew was waiting. They explained my scene and dialogue. It was in ARS Gardens (Ambica & Radha Thottam) in Vadapalani. The scene was behind the bars in a prison. Yes... role was Kamanandha Swamigal. I was standing behind the lock up. This is the famous lock up which comes in every other Tamil movie. Every police station scene is shot there. We had couple of rehearsal and they came up very well. The first time when the director said ‘Light, Camera, Action’.. was a great moment.

Also, I cannot forget Vivek’s presence of mind and sense of humour. He has lots of talent and the best part was he respected every other colleagues. I met plenty of Cine stars during those shootings. It was an eighteen episodes or a bit more than that. My role was for 2 or 3 episodes and one of the episodes the story revolved around my character. As a climax I had to rape Vivek who was dressed as a girl in the serial. Vivek and Ramesh Khanna would call the police and I was arrested. More than the shooting audio dubbing was very challenging. The whole experience could be written in few posts. But the entire experience was memorable. Of course, those were the days when Sun TV was just becoming popular. Relatives and friends all over India called over phone to greet and it was a great moment. Probably if I had continued, who knows I would have been there in each and every serial that is being telecast now. Definitely I would have been in ‘Kolangal’ fighting with Abhi. Probably you would have hated my face. I had to stop acting only because I could not find a role, which suited my family. My Mother wanted me to act in serials like Ramayana and Mahabaratha, and that too roles like Lakshmana. My wife wanted me to act only in Serials where there were no ladies. My son wanted me to act as a ‘Super Man’ and he could not tolerate me being a bad man in the serial and getting arrested by police. I cannot forget my experiences in acting as a similar role of ‘Premananda Swami’.

I cannot forget the Audition test for news reader in Sun TV. It was nice to see myself reading a paragraph of news in plenty of TV’s kept opposite to me. I never heard anything after that.
For anyone, I bet flying across the borders first time would have been a great moment. I felt the same when I stepped out of the flight in France.

Moments involve hearing the news of Passing out exams, Interviews and it goes on and on. There are hundreds like these. How about yours?

Young World

2007-09-21T13:27:00.000+01:00

Last evening my daughter, who is 5 years old, went for a walk along with my neighbour’s daughters aged 16 and 15, along with their pup. The walk was supposed to be only for few minutes. We had a guest and we were deeply involved in a conversation. After a while, we realised it was getting darker and my daughter had not returned. We hid our anxiety and waited for our guest to leave. After he left, we hurried to our neighbour to know where the girls had gone. Our neighbour said that she would go in search of them and bring them back. Within few minutes they were back. Though there was no reason to be worried (I would not have if it had been 20 years before) but still there are many things that have been happening around to worry about this.

Everyone knew the famous case of Jessica Chapman and Holy wells. The two young girls went for a walk in a place called Soham in England on August 4, 2002 and they disappeared. The entire country was alerted. After few days their dresses were traced and Ian Huntley, a caretaker in their school was arrested. He had lured them with toys or his pet into his house. What happened later was history.

For the past few months a doctor couple who went on holiday to Portugal along with their children complained about Madeline their daughter that she was missing from her bedroom in the hotel where they stayed. The case is still going on and there had been a recent twist in the case. Though Portugal police could not find the child yet, it has been recently believed that the parents would have been part to the whole episode. It is widely believed that the parents would not have done any harm to their kid. The DNA of the child matches with those found in the taxi hired by the couple after they claimed about the girl. The couple have hired the car and were using it after that. It is believed that the couple could have done something to the child (unbelievable) and would have carried the child in the car after announcing that their child was missing. There is lot of speculation on both ends. Whatever let be the end, it is pitiable to hear about the happenings to innocent kids nowadays.

Many years before, while I was travelling in a local electric train between Tambaram and Madras Beach in first class, there were few children who got into the train. I tried to pick up conversation with them, and two boys who looked like brothers were reluctant to even look at me. Just out of inquisitiveness, when I enquired about their school the elder one glanced at his younger and was answering smartly. It took few minutes for me to realise that the elder one was growing suspicious about my questions. Though the younger one was responding to my gestures, I decided to stop my actions and got into reading the newspaper.

Once my relative who came from US brought lots of little toys and was busy in distributing it to unknown children in Madras. One day when he visited us, he asked me to bring in lots of kids home and we requested our Milkman, Dhobi, Gardener and Housemaid to bring their children. He was happily distributing those toys and pencils and tiny little things to those kids and the kids were very happy. He relished the pleasure of seeing those happy faces and said that he had not seen children becoming happy in western countries on being given even a teddy bear of 3 feet high. I agreed with him.

Considering the atmosphere that is prevailing today around the world (including countries like India) is it not safe for kids to be on their own without parental guidance? Is the world becoming a place to be worried for letting children play by themselves? Should they be deprived of certain things which we had in our early life? I have been looked suspicious many times when I wanted to smile at those innocent faces. This is not the same with most of the parents. Few parents do acknowledge when we smile at their cute kids.

Few weeks before, I came across few children sitting opposite to me in a local bus while their Mom was busy finishing off a sandwich. One of the kids was so naughty and was staring at me and just to ease the situation I showed few comic gesture. Suddenly he started showing back few too. It was enjoyable and the Mom suddenly said “Tom... Could you please stop showing faces?”

The child replied “He started it first.” and pointed his finger towards me.

Another day when I got into a bus, a cute little child started looking at my eyes. I was attracted so much of the child’s sharp eyes, I smiled at him. The child smiled back at me and shouted...”Hey... Daddy... Mom... look... Daddy” and showed his finger at me.

The whole bus roared into laughter and the mom replied “He is not your Dad. He is just a man...Keep quiet. Dad has gone to work”.

I removed my eyes from the kid.

I wanted to talk about this incident to my family at dinner. Just before while I was about to start the topic, there was talk about an Old man whom our family had met few days before. My son said “I hate him. Something in me tells that he could be a paedophile...”

I am still laughing over it.

Friendship and Promise

2007-09-19T13:44:00.000+01:00

Last weekend after taking my family out for shopping, we got into the local bus to return home. As we got into the bus, and were settling down to our seats, we saw two old ladies who asked whether we live in such and such place. One of them kept looking at my teen age son and asked us whether he is our son. I replied ‘Yes’ with a slight hesitation. She said “Oh... he is a lovely lad “. She continued “The other day I was walking with my shopping bags and he came and offered help. I have never come across a teenager offering help in this country so far. I was very glad about it “. As parents we felt very happy. We had moved just few weeks before and our son never told us anything about it. I was very glad about these comments and felt proud of him.

This reminded me of an Old gentle lady next to our house when we moved into a new house, 20 years before. Any part of this world, it is easy to make friendship with Old people and kids. Probably they are the ones who have time and are innocent with their experience and inexperience. We had just moved in and I smiled at this young girl of 5 or 6 years. She invited me to her house and her Grandma was the only one in the house. Her parents had gone to work and her elder sister to school. This Grandma immediately offered me a lemon juice and became a good friend. She started treating me like her grandson and told me that I resemble her grandson as well.

From that day, we became good neighbours and our family became closer to them. I was a bachelor then. The Grandma took me for granted and sought my help during any time when she felt difficult. Years rolled and we became very close. One day she took a promise from me. I could not avoid it. She liked me so much that she wanted me to be one among the four people to carry her dead body to the burial ground when she died. It was difficult to promise, but I promised. Years rolled and I was constantly in touch with them. She became very close to our family. I made it a point to keep enquiring about her health whenever I had to travel out of place. Suddenly one day I received the bad news. She died somewhere and her body was brought in. I could not control tears rolling on my cheek when I had to lift her body. The burial ground was at a quite distance from their house. Many people were taking turns in the other 3 positions. Lot of them offered me to handover to them. I refused. I carried her until the burial ground with a heavy heart. She often talked about this promise whenever she met me. It was personal between both of us. So, though at times I felt a bit difficult while carrying, I continued without resting my shoulders.

While we were returning few of those who came to the graveyard were talking about the weight of the Grandma’s body and how they felt difficult to carry her. Suddenly one pointed out to me and said “This gentleman is so strong. He never allowed anyone of us to exchange or take his position”. I did not want to tell anything to them. I just smiled and said that I was very close to her and just wanted to do it myself.

Even today I feel satisfied that I could satisfy my ‘Grandma’ friend. That was one of the best promise I kept for my friend.

Last week I felt happy, that my son is doing the right job.

Radio & TV Quiz shows

2007-09-18T13:24:00.000+01:00

In one of his audio blog recently Narayanan Venkitu had mentioned about the funny answers in a TV quiz in US. Sometimes it is shocking to know people who appear in a TV quiz programme do not know even few basics. Few years before there was a programme in a private channel in Tamil and the famous comedian SV Sekar was conducting the Telephone quiz. For a basic and easy question the viewer wanted a clue and SVS said that giving a clue for that question is equivalent to telling the answer. It was so simple and it made me to laugh a lot. I started watching it regularly just for the sense of humour of SVS. Some people used to admit that they were not sound in general knowledge and hand over the phone to a kid in their house. Recently one of my colleagues sent a mail about the way it is answered in few local FM’s and TV programmes here.

BEG, BORROW OR STEAL (BBC2)
Jamie Theakston: Where do you think Cambridge University is?
Contestant: Geography isn't my strong point.
Theakston: There's a clue in the title.
Contestant: Leicester.

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE (BBC2)
Jeremy Paxman: What is another name for 'cherrypickers' and'cheesemongers'?
Contestant: Homosexuals.
Paxman: No. They're regiments in the British Army who will be very upsetwith you.

THE WEAKEST LINK (BBC2)
Anne Robinson: Oscar Wilde, Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Archer have allwritten books about their experiences in what: prison, or the ConservativeParty?
Contestant: The Conservative Party.

BEACON RADIO (WOLVERHAMPTON)
DJ Mark: For 10 Pounds, what is the nationality of the Pope?
Ruth from Rowley Regis: I think I know that one. Is it Jewish?

THE WEAKEST LINK
Anne Robinson: In traffic, what 'J' is where two roads meet?
Contestant: Jool carriageway?

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
Bamber Gascoigne: What was Gandhi's first name?
Contestant: Goosey, goosey?

GWR FM (Bristol)
Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963?
Contestant: I don't know, I wasn't watching it then.

PHIL WOOD SHOW (BBC RADIO MANCHESTER)
Phil: What's 11 squared?
Contestant: I don't know.
Phil: I'll give you a clue. It's two ones with a two in the middle.
Contestant: Is it five?

RICHARD AND JUDYQ:
Which American actor is married to Nicole Kidman?
A: Forrest Gump.

RICHARD AND JUDY
Leslie: On which street did Sherlock Holmes live?
Contestant: Er . . .
Leslie: He makes bread .. .
Contestant: Er . . .
Leslie: He makes cakes .. .
Contestant: Kipling Street?

MAGIC 52 (NORTHEAST ENGLAND)
Presenter: In what year was President Kennedy assassinated?
Contestant: Erm .. .
Presenter: Well, let's put it this way - he didn't see 1964.
Contestant: 1965?

SIMPLY THE BEST (ITV)
Phil Tufnell: How many Olympic Games have been held?
Contestant: Six.
Tufnell: Higher!
Contestant: Five.

LINCS FM PHONE-IN
Presenter: Which is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world?
Contestant: Barcelona.
Presenter: I was really after the name of a country.
Contestant: I'm sorry, I don't know the names of any countries in Spain.

RADIO 1 EARLY MORNING SHOWPresenter: How many toes would three people have in total?
Contestant: 23.

NOTTS AND CROSSES QUIZ (BBC RADIO NOTTINGHAM)
Jeff Owen: In which country is Mount Everest?
Contestant (long pause): Er, it's not in Scotland, is it?

THE MICK GIRDLER SHOW (BBC RADIO SOLENT)
Girdler: I'm looking for an island in the Atlantic whose name includes the letter 'e'.
Contestant: Ghana.
Girdler: No, listen. It's an island in the Atlantic Ocean.
Contestant: New Zealand.

NATIONAL LOTTERY (BBC1)
Question: What is the world's largest continent?
Contestant: The Pacific

JAMES O'BRIEN SHOW (LBC)O'
Brien: How many kings of England have been called Henry?
Contestant: Er, well, I know there was a Henry the Eighth ... er. ..er . . . three?

NATIONAL LOTTERY
Eamonn Holmes: There are three states of matter: solid, liquid and what?
Contestant: Jelly.

STEVE PENK BREAKFAST SHOW (VIRGIN RADIO)
Steve Penk: What is the name of the French-speaking Canadian state?
Contestant: America? Portugal? Canada? Mexico? Italy? Spain?

CHRIS SEARLE SHOW (BBC RADIO BRISTOL)
Searle: In which European country is Mount Etna?
Caller: Japan.
Searle: I did say which European country, so in case you didn't hear that,I can let you try again.
Caller: Er . . . Mexico?

PAUL WAPPAT (BBC RADIO NEWCASTLE)
Paul Wappat: How long did the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel last?
Contestant (after long pause): Fourteen days.

NOTTS AND CROSSES QUIZ
Jeff Owen: Where did the D-Day landings take place?
Contestant (after pause): Pearl Harbor?

DARYL DENHAM'S DRIVETIME (VIRGIN RADIO)
Daryl Denham: In which country would you spend shekels?
Contestant: Holland?
Denham: Try the next letter of the alphabet.
Contestant: Iceland? Ireland?
Denham (helpfully): It's a bad line. Did you say Israel?
Contestant: No.

PHIL WOOD SHOW (BBC GMR)
Wood: What 'K' could be described as the Islamic Bible?
Contestant: Er . . .
Wood: It's got two syllables . . . Kor . . .
Contestant: Blimey?
Wood: Ha ha ha ha, no. The past participle of run . . ..
Contestant: (Silence)
Wood: OK, try it another way. Today I run, yesterday I . . .
Contestant: Walked?

THE VAULT
Melanie Sykes: What is the name given to the condition where the sufferercan fall asleep at any time?
Contestant: Nostalgic.

STEVE WRIGHT IN THE AFTERNOON (BBC RADIO 2)
Wright: Johnny Weissmuller died on this day. Which jungle-swingingcharacter clad only in a loincloth did he play?
Contestant: Jesus.

Art of listening

2007-09-17T13:20:00.000+01:00

Every human being is born with talents. Few need to develop skills in which they are lacking. The most important is listening to others. We fail to realise how important listening is. In today’s fast food world people do not have time. At the same time, I honestly believe that if little time is spent in listening to others, most of the problems that exist between humans will vanish. Especially listening with relationship, siblings, friends, and colleagues is an art.

I have lots of friends. In general, I would like to listen and talk as well. There is nothing like having a good company for conversing, especially during travelling or while being at home. Only certain people are very good in talking, and certain people are good at listening. People who are good in one can try to develop the other one which they are not good. There are few who could listen for hours together. It is really interesting to talk something useful to such people. Listening is very essential to excel in any field. Once when I had been in marketing, I had a nice boss who always listened to his colleagues, especially to those who worked under him. After hearing to our talk, he used to pass his views. We felt very happy with him especially when he listened to our grievances. It was immaterial to analyse whether he fulfilled our demands or not, but he showed interest in listening. This earned a lot of respect for him.

Listening helps us to improve other skills automatically. By being a good listener, we are able to analyse the problem. Then we discuss again the issue that is before our hand, and draw few strategies and try to solve the problem. If we are not good listeners, we hardly solve the problems and leave them unattended. People think they waste time in listening to others. Actually, it is the other way which it works. Spending a little more time in listening avoids time being spent unnecessarily in evolving plans those are not required.

I had few junior colleagues who were always hasty in doing things. They always thought that they knew everything from birth. They never wanted to listen to a detailed conversation. I came to know later that they learnt by experience. I wish some of my elder relatives are still alive. One of my relative was very good in general knowledge and English literature. On his own interest he developed his knowledge on Homeopathy and was a Doctor for his village. He had so much of knowledge on lots of subjects; it was great to listen to him. When we visited his village, it was a treat for our ears.

Sometimes, I motivate my children to talk and try to know things from their side. It is a great feeling to listen to children. I have admired them for their innocent way of expressions. During our school days, we had moral studies classes. Storytelling and listening was encouraged. I do not know whether they have this nowadays. It is a great feeling to see the expressions while listening. Most of the religions have preachers. It is also a great art to preach something. As a young boy, I have listened to lots of religious discourses. Since I studied in a Christian school, I have listened to lots of Bible discourses. We had been taken back by many of those preachers. There are few stories which are very fresh in our mind, because of such good lecturers. They had done a very good influence on our lives. Even today indirectly I am influenced by such good speakers. We had heard many Hindu religious discourses in our younger days. Bagavathars like Needamangalam Krishnamurthy Sasthrigal, Jayaram Sastrigal, Yembar Vijayaraghavachariar, Kirubananda Variar, were those few gifted scholars to whom I had listened in my younger days. I cannot forget lectures of Jiddu Krishnamurthy in Adyar. I personally think, my earlier days of listening to such great people has helped me a lot in my life.

Last week my son and I went for a long walk. We met an old couple waiting for a bus. I just picked up conversation. I found lots of medals on the gentleman’s coat. Just out of inquisitiveness I enquired about those medals and we found a great smile on the couple’s faces. He started talking about his experiences in Army. He went in detail about each medal. What a surprise! One of the medals was given to him by Winston Churchill. He was a world war veteran and he was thrilled to talk about his experiences. His wife said that her husband was 85 and she intervened to help him when he ran short of few names. Probably the conversation went on for 10 minutes and we both listened to them with patience. After a while on seeing the gentleman getting exhausted, we thanked him and walked away. My son realised how much we learnt within those ten minutes.

There was a great speaker in Tamil Literature called “Silamboli Su. Chellappan”. I do not know how many of my blog readers would have heard his speeches. I still remember his quotes during one of his speech to youngsters. “Young man, please do not try to become independent before 18. If you could be disciplined until 18, then you can be independent after 18. But if you try to be independent before 18, then you will be forced to be disciplined and dependent after 18”. We were a bunch of youngsters who listened to his speech then. I have seen it practically in my life. I see many of them who were on their own too early in their life without listening to others. We know where they are now.

We do not lose anything by listening. This is another art which is fading now.

Art of writing

2007-09-06T13:48:00.000+01:00

A child gets fascinated with little things. They have fascination towards moving things, noisy, colourful and so on. The first few months when they are in bed they are attracted towards colours, movements and sound. Once they start sitting, they want to touch and feel. Once they start moving they want to grab, and their mind and hand coordination activities starts. That is really fun. They grab a pen, pencil or chalk and start scribbling on floors. They get quickly attracted towards this art.

From Childhood days, I was attracted towards pencils and chalks. There were days I used to sleep with chalks next to me. I remember having scribbled few drawings on the floor with a piece of chalk I had next to my pillow. WOW! Those wonderful days! Also, it is during childhood we get attracted towards few teachers. I cannot forget my primary school teachers Mr.James and Miss Shyamala (then) who impressed me with their beautiful handwriting. I developed a great interest in writing neatly from them. They repeatedly used to say, that to have a good handwriting you should use pencil a lot and switch over to fountain pens only in senior schools. My headmaster also was strict about it. Even last week when one of my colleague was impressed by my handwriting I just wanted to thank my primary school teachers Mr.James and Miss Shyamala. Probably they must have retired by now. I owe a lot to them. Because of good handwriting, I wanted to write a lot. Even today, I would love to write on a piece of paper what I think before putting it into action. Then as we grew into our teens, we got a sudden interest with our cousins who were living far away and then started writing letters. I still possess few letters written by my cousins during childhood days.

Writing is a great art. Let it be in any form. Just last evening while lying down on my ease chair and enjoying a cool breeze and warm sunshine at the back of my new house, memories rolled over. One of my friends had sent me a forward which was about the old and younger generation. The younger generation boasts about the technology from man landing on moon till the nano technology and blames the old of talking about those days. The old man appreciates for all that are new and asks the youngster what they have left for the future? It was a wonderful piece of forward sent by my friend Gideon from US. True! I pity at this generation. They are missing a plenty of things but from their angle certain things seems to be fine.

Last week I saw couple of youngsters walking with their latest electronic diary/phone/palm top computer or whatever it is and scribbling something with a plastic stick. I could only take a deep breath. Are we going to lose this art of writing? I still hold lots of small pieces of papers scribbled with particulars inside my wallet. Once in a while after reading them I destroy them. I started using digital diary in early 90’s and after losing valid data thrice, threw it away and never rely on them. I still have diaries (not digital though) and write with my hand. I doubt my kids. They are already into the electronic stuff. Anytime it gives a great pleasure, when you receive a handwritten letter or greetings.

But honestly how many of us have the habit of writing nowadays?

Is this art going to die?

Is the skill going to be developed only to excel in their school or University level?

Even at certain levels there are other kind of optional questions which require just a tick. Are they not going to miss the art of writing? Are they not going to miss the joy of seeing grandma or grandpa’s lovely handwriting on a piece of paper? Will writing become a talk of the past? My last hand written letter was few years before. I read somewhere that within another 50 years, those who could write will be rare and they will be looked at amazingly. Will someone discover it after 50 years and start a revolution? We could argue that we save papers and help deforestation and all the green stuff.

I remember one of my relative in the hospital bed who was constantly looking at one of the greeting card and a letter written by his brother from far away land, and the joy it brought him. I am sure that millions across the world will agree to this. Again, this is one of those which we may lose as the years roll by.

(It is a shame that I could only type this on a computer, even for initial draft. Where are we heading?)

Sketches during Journeys

2007-08-17T09:47:00.000+01:00

For the past weeks I am really blessed and meeting quite interesting people during my journeys. One night I had a British couple sitting opposite to me. I never mind to start the conversation and opened up and found that they were returning after viewing a stage performance in London. They were from a country side and occasionally travel to London to see good stage performances. They were busy reading books and I started sketching. Unless you talk to someone you never know many things about them. It was interesting to know that the Gentleman had been to India through job, and had stayed in places like Bangalore, Cochin for few months. Our journey was quite interesting and we never realised the length of the journey.
Last month few people at my work had given resignation and while going in detail about their new jobs, it was pleasant to know from my present boss, that his new company may send him frequently to Chennai for training. He was very happy about it. Though he had visited once Jaipur for holidays, he was excited to know about Chennai. The great joke of this is on talking detail, he was surprised when I said that ‘Chennai’ and ‘Madras’ are the same. He laughed and said that it was nice talking about it to me, since he had couple of friends in Madras, and was worrying that he has not heard about Chennai. To some extent, some of them are familiar with ‘Mumbai’ and ‘Bombay’. Even during one of our meetings yesterday, there was some reference about ‘Shennai’. I thought it was a different place, by the way pronounced by someone who addressed the meeting. Within few minutes I realised what she was talking about. Will our ‘Manbumigus’ assure us that they will not change the names anymore.
My son picked up the pictures of Marlon Brando and Rowan Atkinson and wanted me to try sketching both of them last week. I have always admired MB’s acting. I have seen most of Tamil Actors imitating Marlon Brando’s favourite action of scratching the centre of head. I have seen Kamal, Radha Ravi, even Anandh Raj in some or other movie. I presume the sketch has come a bit closer. Prakash Raj is another good actor. He does not imitate anyone and has its own style. I think it was a bit tough to draw near his nose.
For long time I was a great fan of Kapil. It was nice to read an interview in one of the National Newspaper recently. I preserved the picture for my train journey and tried my hand with Kapil. He had been such a great all rounder. Kapil you rocked us those days! Somehow I became very nostalgic after having drawn Kapil. Once I reached my destination, the Taxi was waiting to pick me up. I started convesing with the driver and found that he was of Jamaican origin. On knowing that he had knowledge of cricket, we started conversing about famous Jamaican cricketers like Courtney Walsh, Joel Garner and I think of late it is Shivnarain Chanderpaul. We exchanged lots of past glory. I was surprised when he said that he always admired Farookh Engineer, and Bishen Bedi. There were talks about Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes. Believe me or not! We were so engrossed he did not bother to move after dropping me and was still talking about old cricket days at least for few minutes after I got down. The best of that night was when he mentioned about a six hit by Viv Richards off Bob Willis last ball of a match. Viv Richards pretended as if he was walking with the bat under his arms and suddenly hit the ball for a six. Oh..dear.. we both wondered about it, and he parted away after both of us complimenting each other on the past cricket remembrances.
The good and sad news is my family may be joining me for good next week and my weekend journeys may come to an end.

That is Life! Isn't it?

2007-08-10T13:18:00.000+01:00

I have been going through plenty of hardships this week. It was always my habit to believe people. In 1987, when I went to buy a two wheeler for the first time, which was a ‘Yezdi Classic 2’, innocently asked the mechanic in the showroom to test it well? Many of my friends gave me many tips. One of my friend said that we need to talk as if we knew everything so that we are not fooled. I did not worry too much. I thought honesty will always play an important role. I asked the mechanic to do a good job for me, and told him that I was getting it only on loan, and I cannot afford for any major repair immediately. Until I bought my motorcycle, I did not realise there is a huge expense in the name of petrol. My first experience of giving a hundred rupee note for few litres of petrol is unexplainable. I think it was less than Rs.10/- then. It was hard to believe that the motor vehicle runs on petrol and we need to pay every time you want it. If I think about it today I could only laugh.

Later when I bought a Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle, I was more experienced and the financial status was better than before. But honestly believing quality had not faded.

The same did happen when I wanted to buy a piece of land, and I completed the transaction of deciding, buying a piece of land within 3 days and finished buying it. I have always believed what the seller said!

Now, I am in the process of relocating my family and undergoing a great amount of stress in buying a house. In UK, there is not much of a difference between the monthly rent and the monthly repayment towards mortgage. Probably if you could afford to pay another few hundred pounds depending on the value of your mortgage, it all works the same. I thought everyone would be gentle, and behaved according to my instinct. Only yesterday, I came to know 90 percent of them involved in the transaction are trying to play their little game on an innocent person like me. When I was born in this world, I started believing everyone. My parents taught me good, and I still follow it. But why do others keep fooling around. This is really disheartening.

I am not a guy who wants to complicate things. I want to be straightforward and have been glad to meet many straightforward persons in my life. I do not want to tell lies and hide things. I believe in calling a spade a spade and get away from such people. But why do all wrong things happen to only people of good thoughts!

I sought admission for my child in a normal good school and we have been denied. He is in an important year. But I know many people who have lied of their residence, and have given some false addresses and sought admission. They were all given admissions as they wanted. But when I want to give genuinely, my residential address is being doubted. There are inspections and enquiries. Though I have given my original address, the authorities believe it is not compelling for them to consider for some other vague reason. I have appealed against their decision. Why should this again happen for someone who is true?

Is being true something to be punished?

I am failing to understanding the reality. What do I need to teach my kids? Do I need to teach to be true or change according to the world? Can’t I teach the same what my parents taught me. Where is the world heading to? For being true, we are laughed at our back. Someone known to me commented at my back that I am not smart.

Again in my current rented house, we started losing many facilities but still paying the same rent. The electric shower is not working, there are innumerable other problems. The landlord is keeping on saying that she had not met a wonderful tenant like me. I am tolerant and want to adjust believing that she has financial problems. But she owns few more houses and this is her business. Why do people mistake our good thoughts and try to behave silly? Where am I heading to? I am losing strength to fight against such people.

I will be glad if you could share your experiences and thoughts through my comments section.

Am I not seeing the world properly or do I need to be ‘smart’ really?

That is life. Isn’t it?

Peyarai Kettaley Athiruthu Illai!!!

2007-08-06T13:18:00.000+01:00

Few weekends before, on a Sunday evening, the local train was going very slow. I managed to reach London Liverpool street station and found that it was crowded than normal. I heard that few lines were closed. We had to wait on the Westbound platform for few minutes. I have never waited for a local train more than 2 or 3 minutes. But on that day, I waited for more than 15 minutes. Started getting worried that I may miss my train at London Euston. After getting down at Euston cross literally started running with my baggage, and rushed to my platform. This train again, was overcrowded. Somehow, I managed to get my favourite seat. Only one could sit opposite to me, and a young man with his Laptop arrived there. The train was getting crowded. I felt sorry for a lady who had to stand with her newly born baby in the pram. I offered her my next seat and she declined it. I knew that it could be difficult for her to be seated leaving the baby on the Pram. The train was overcrowded. I was wondering whether to open my sketch book or not. I opened my bag half heartedly. Then I found a Tamil Magazine and started turning the pages. My hands stopped on seeing our Super star photo of the famous Shivaji. Just thought of it and took my drawing kit. A fat old desi came and sat next to me. As I started to sketch the outline, an Old English man was enquiring whether anyone knew the latest score of the Test Match between India and England. When he passed me he stopped looking at the picture of Rajini. The young man opposite to me was often peeping into my sketch note.

Just when I was about to complete the picture I felt great. I found something unusual. I started observing it. The young man gave a last look. I could not hide anymore and openly showed him my drawing. He was stunned. He asked me who it was and said the drawing was fine. Why did everyone who were passing beside stop? Could it be the Charisma. My picture is not great. But the person whom I have drawn is a very interesting person.

If he had not tried, he would have been still employed with KSRTC and blowing his whistle. I appreciate his self confidence. He became the trend setter for many ordinary looking people to approach the Cineworld. I like his style and speed. I have enjoyed his old films. He is a down to earth personality. He has millions of fans and I am sure he will raise the South Indian Film Industry fame.

The heat here has started becoming unbearable and for so many other reasons, I wanted to shave my head. Just to give surprise to my kids, I shaved my head. Just to add humour to my post added the picture here.

Rajini fans, please pardon me if my drawing does not look like your thalaivar! Whatever it is

'Perai Kettaley Athiruthu Illai'.

I request the parents who read my blog not to use my picture to scare your kids for eating their food.

Finding Time for everything

2007-08-02T09:37:00.000+01:00

As life progresses it is becoming tougher to find time for everything. My memory goes back to Chennai where I had lived my major part of my life. We lived in suburbs and travelling to the City from suburbs like Tambaram itself was very tedious. I have seen ladies combing their hair, arranging the flowers in sequence, and eating their breakfast in Kanchipuram and Chingleput trains. If it was a Friday, we can hear ladies chanting slogas in Ladies compartment. Now the flash back ends. Here in United Kingdom, when I travel, I find most of the ladies concentrating on their make ups and hair do while travelling. It is so nice to see them doing it with their foldable mirrors in their hand bags. Also, there are few who open their sandwich boxes and start having their breakfasts. I was wondering how life and people are all the same, wherever they live.
My wife reminded me of some technician who visited home and was stuck in the kitchen looking at our typical pickles bottle. He raised his eyebrows on seeing the name on the Gongura pickle bottle. I read it once more. It was written as ‘Hibiscus Cannabinus’. I suddenly remembered this during one of my journey and started smiling. I did not bother whether anyone noticed.
During one of the Tram journeys in Manchester, I had a peculiar experience. Trams here, run on rails and stop in the Railway platforms. Suddenly at some point, they get into the town and start running on the roads. It is a great experience. One of these days, I was travelling in Manchester and realised that Old Trafford was on the way. Many times I have seen the station empty or just with one or two passengers. This time, I ensured to have a look at the ground. The cricket ground can be viewed from the Tram for few seconds, when the tram passes the station. If you get down to the station you can see the ground clearly. It was really great to have a glimpse of West Indies – England Test match. Some English bowler was walking towards his bowling end and I could see from the Tram, the crowd roaring and the batsman taking his position.I felt excited. I remember seeing such scenes while passing RKM grounds in TNagar, Marina Grounds in Triplicane. This was totally different. At the Old Trafford station the Tram got filled up. There were few English men near me in traditional hat and formal dresses. I asked them the score and they were equally excited about Panesar’s bowling. I had the same experience when I found 3 old gentlemen in London tubes discussing about Cricket. On that day, there was a friendly match between England and Brazil in the newly built Wembley stadium. These old men were surprised when I enquired them about the match they had witnessed. They were talking about a county match whom they had witnessed between Somerset and someone. When I started talking about Somerset side in those days when Botham and Viv Richards were playing they got excited. They did not expect this from me. They expressed it saying that when people of my age are rushing to Wembley it was surprising that I was not talking about Football and talking about Cricket of their younger days.
Since I spend most of my travelling in drawing and reading newspapers as well, these days it is interesting to get some freaky news. The latest news which was on headlines in the local newspapers was about a Bull with sacred status of a Hindu temple which was slaughtered because it had Bovine TB. It is believed Bovine TB could spread to other cattle in this area. The Bull belonged to a Hindu temple in West Wales and this was the reason for the news to be in headlines. There was a big hue and cry. None of the protesters were of Indian origin and most of them assembled in the Temple were non-Asian ethnicity. My point here is not whether it was right or wrong. While I was studying in school, there was a beef stall which was called as A-1 beef stall. Every day while passing through the beef stall, we used to see hundreds of cattle being brought in Lorries for slaughter. As kids we used to be interested to know what will happen to them. Some of my inquisitive friends used to peep through the coconut leaves thatch to look at those cows. I used to feel pity for them. On reading about this Shambo, I felt for those thousands of cattles, which were slaughtered not because of Bovine TB, but just for the meat.
Could you imagine drinkable water being sold for exorbitant price in a flood area? There were few traders who plunged into timely business of selling drinkable water in a flooded area. This did not happen in Assam or Bangladesh. This happened in UK in certain parts of Gloucestershire county. It was funny to read such thing happening in the western world. One of my colleagues could not reach home because of the breach in the roads and had to stay in a hotel to reach his home on the next day. Certain parts have been very badly affected and water has entered most of the houses and business establishments. All this is happening in summer. It is getting warmer in the winter and floods in summer. Thinking about the disasters it is really scary.
Of all these, the interesting part of last few weeks was a training which I attended. I was sent for training on First Aids by my employer. It was a very useful training for 4 days. The training was conducted by St.John’s Ambulance. Oh... my... what a great training it was. I have gained great confidence now. I can rush towards victims if I am nearby, and do major first aids like resuscitation, and retrieve the heart functioning stuff. There was a test on the last day, and we had live examples (though rubber toys of man size) to be done emergency first aids. I had four victims, one victim was not breathing, one had head injury, one had cut his fingers, and one had broken limb. Now, I am a qualified first aider. If I had known these 15 years before, I would have saved those 5 or 6 lives, which died before my eyes on road accidents and trains.
If possible I shall detail those basic techniques in my future posts.
I shall publish my drawing which brought in surprise from my fellow passengers last week in my next post. It is really exciting! Just wait until then!

Sketches so far

2007-07-25T23:18:00.000+01:00

It has become a routine nowadays to have my pencil and sketch book in my back pack, just like other essential stuff required for a journey. Every week it is a different experience. I keep some newspapers or magazines with me, to draw few interesting pictures. From the day one I entered UK and all these years I have not seen a paper without headlines about Beckham. He is one of the most popular sportsman in UK. Now that he has joined LA Galaxy in USA he was in the headlines again. This picture tempted me to draw Becks.

On 08 th July, when I looked for newspaper in my bag, I found few Tamil magazines. Poet Vairamuthu's picture in one of those magazines was really tempting me to try my hand.

There were lots of news about the outgoing PM Tony, and incoming Brown. One of the newspaper had published few photographs which showed how Tony is transforming into Brown. It was a very good thought of the photographer. I always admired Tony for his dynamic personality. His speeches are his pluspoints. The whole nation was eagerly waiting for Brown. He is unassumable right now. His face also drew my attention.

On 15 th July, I reached earlier for my train. I did not know what to do. Then I decided to open my sketch book in front of London Euston station. I sat quietly in one of those benches and started drawing the station. People were coming and going. Those two were standing for few minutes and chatting. Also the person on the bench was there for few minutes.

On the same evening while I was travelling the train stopped at Milton Keynes Central for few minutes. It could be hardly 2-3 minutes. I have drawn whatever I could see from my seat. The station was empty and this is how the station looks on a Sunday evening around 7.45 p.m.

I never worry if I do not carry any newspapers or magazines. In UK most of the commuters in public transports have the habit of leaving their newspapers on their seat, after they finish reading. So others who would like to read them can take them. In case, if I do not have any papers to read and draw, I look around to see whether there is any paper around. If not, sometimes I pick up the Virgin magazines and pick up few pictures. One of those is the picture of Yorkshire street with boat on the river and houses on one side. Also, the other man whom I have drawn with beard is from one of those magazines. I think he is an Italian and there was some article about him.

I do not need to say anything about Hillary Clinton. She was there in one of those papers on one day. Her picture was appealing. I enjoyed sketching that too.

Most of the times when people see me spreading my sketch book and pencil kit they become inquisitive. It is nice to see them becoming inquisitive about my activity. Few see from their sides and pretend as if they are not noticing me. But they do try to have a glimpse at my drawing when they move around. Few openly exclaim. Once a Jamaican girl asked me whether I could draw her. I politely said that I am not a great artist and she should not be offended if the picture does not resemble her. She kept quiet. Once two African boys who were sitting opposite were often looking at the pictures, during their conversation. Once when their stations arrived, they had a final look and said it has come out well.
On the whole, I enjoy every time I travel. Last week I met a lady who was very interesting. Only few have conversations during the journey. I pick up conversation easily. This lady, was so good. Though she often said that she was not highly educated, she had immense knowledge about many things. She must be over 60 and was returning back after visiting her daughter. She said that her daughter visits India very often. She was talking about the Indian culture and said that she was very fascinated to hear about it. It seems her daughter likes India so much and keeps visiting very often, through her job. She has few Gujarathi speaking friends and knew a little about India. We had convesation ranging from Indian Culture, Children, Problems in moving places and schools, etc. She said that her husband being a Jew, wishes more love spreads among fellow human beings. She said that inspite of being a Jew he likes Germans. We also had conversation about Gandhi and she said that it is a shame that he was killed by his own religious person. She said that she regards Indian origin people, for the reason they have come from the land where Gandhi was born. I felt really proud about Gandhi.

I am eagerly waiting for this Friday. I don't know who will be sitting next to me. Travelling does give lots of exposure.

I don't care even if the train is empty as long as I have my pencil and sketch book.

Next post you will know what I mean! I have drawn a very interesting personality! Guess who!

Man on Wheels

2007-07-13T14:15:00.000+01:00

Every one as a child would have dreamt of driving a car. Especially boys have the habit of taking anything in the form of round, and use it as steering and run on the road murmuring "Drrr.......r..........m...............................”. As a child even I have done it. It was a great thrill when I learnt to pedal a cycle. Same way, hours of learning to ride a motor cycle cannot be forgotten. I have also gone on driving classes in India and learned to drive a car which was really exciting. But the traffic rules and driving standards differ from country to country. I knew those were different standard and always wanted to learn it well.

After coming to UK, I did not intend to learn driving and never wanted to drive with a foreign license(Indian). It is illegal to drive and you should have obtained a International Driving Permit before arriving in UK. The vehicles are driven in a much disciplined manner and there are great driving standards maintained in western world. Few of my friends were eager to drive and though they were half baked, they still took the risk of driving. I never wanted to do that, because having not known 100 percent, you put others in risk. This I thought was unfair. Also, I was sick of being on heavy traffics, having been on road for fifteen years in India. I really wanted to peacefully use the common transport and walk, and cycle rather than rushing on the road. In countries like UK since the public transport is easily available, there was no pressure for me to learn driving. Also, my work was just at the end of the road, from my residence. Having lived few years, and the family growing big, we felt the need of a family vehicle and thus I entered into the process of learning to drive. We need to pass a theory test and a Hazard test together. Though the theory test proves your knowledge, the Hazard test is a skill on clicking the mouse. There will be 15 clippings, which comes one by one on clicking the mouse. A camera is being fixed on a car and the recording is done. So, when the clipping starts you will feel like you are driving the car. As you are going from the driver’s seat, there will be few hazards happening, and likely to happen on the road. So, when you are just approaching a hazard, you are supposed to click the mouse. If you could see the hazard at the right moment and click then you get a good score. Very first time I practised it at home, I could not score a pass mark. I tried two or three times and it was a great fun. Then my son got attracted to it and he scored higher marks than me. He did not know any of the traffic rules, but could score more marks. When I asked him tips, he suggested that it has to be treated like a Video game or Computer game. The problem with the hazard test is if you click too many times, you will not get any mark for identifying the hazard and you may have to go to the next clipping. We had to buy several CD’s to practise various kinds of hazard. The funniest part of this test is, even though as a driver, if you identify a hazard like a cyclist crossing a junction from a corner, it has been programmed in such a way, that you get mark only if the car reaches a particular place and you click the mouse. You should not click neither in advance, nor a second late. Being an experienced person, I used to see those hazards well in advance, and never scored mark for that, because of clicking in advance. The final day came and I cleared the Theory exam which is of very good standard. I heard that this Hazard perception test is not in USA. Only after passing your theory test, you will be allowed to take your practical test.

Now you need to learn the next skill. It is not very easy to pass a driving test in UK. I have heard just before the hazard perception test was introduced, most of the truck drivers were asked to take a practise test, and test the software and 70% of them failed. I wish they all should be asked to take a driving test nowadays in UK. I do not know how many of them would pass. The driving standard is very high. Many of my friends who have driven in USA, having come to UK have told me that the roads are very narrow and driving is not as easier as in USA. I do agree. There had been a lot of talk about the way practical driving tests are conducted in UK. I would say you need Good luck to pass your driving test. Even the last minute just before entering the driving test centre, you will be forced to make a mistake by the inexperienced driver ahead. Especially in London, it is so difficult, since there are lot of illegal drivers, and drivers with those international driving permit. Even if you are perfect, I do not know from where they come and cause problem while you take a test. They rush up and scare you when you take a three point turn, or a left corner reverse, and even if you do not make a mistake, they force you to make a mistake. Driving test is a real nightmare. However best you drive you never know. I have had many moments in the past having driven wonderfully during the test and waiting for the result from the Examiner’s mouth. The disappointment grows in large, when they point out some silly mistake. Those mistakes have a benefit of doubt. For example, waiting to let a car pass on the main road could be marked as ‘Undue Hesitation’. Once while I crossed a pedestrian crossing, there was an Old lady chatting with someone else busily and never showed any sign of crossing, but the examiner pressed the brake and said that I should have waited. If I had braked there were possibilities of him saying that I showed undue hesitation? If somebody in UK said that they have passed driving in their first attempt, they were merely lucky. (According to me they should be the luckiest person on the earth!).

OK! Why all this moaning! I was lucky enough just few weeks before to be qualified to drive on the roads of UK.

YES! I passed my driving test in UK (and fit enough to be a driving instructor which I will definitely do in the future). I am happy at last my driving skills are recognised. I owe the credit to all of my instructors who always believed my driving was of great standard, and it was most unfortunate for not having passed before. The excitement is only to know that if I had not done this time, I should have started from the scratch, since my theory pass was getting invalid the next week.

The above picture was sent by one of my colleague on hearing the news! It was captioned as 'Someone got a photo of Bal’s driving test' … LOL...I liked the sense of humour.

Last week sketches

2007-07-03T15:43:00.000+01:00

Last week was hectic and I did not know what to draw. So thought of reading a book and started reading 'Malgudi Days' . I was very impressed with the cartoon on the cover of the book. Immediately took my pencil and sketch book and tried to copy the same. That is what you see on this page. A lad hitting a ball with his Cricket bat, where the story and drawing were originally by RK brothers. I realised that it is not easy to draw something from someone's drawings. Though I have tried to draw similarly to what I found on the cover, I am sure that I was not perfect. After finishing it within few minutes, thought of drawing someone whom I could see live in the train. I found this gentleman of African Origin a bit attractive to be drawn. He was busy conversing with some friend. I scribbled him before he could realise that I was sketching him.

Anyhow, I was glad that I could finish drawing him too. I had an interesting incident last week while drawing. Let me narrate it in my next post.
If anyone of you had been to the Trade fair exhibitions, that is being held in Island grounds,Chennai (India), you would have seen some art students drawing portraits. I think it was in 1981 or 1982, I acted as a model to be drawn as a portrait. Do you know who drew me? It was nobody than Sabu Cyril. He was a student in Arts College of Madras then. I made a note of this name. I spoke with his teacher and took back the portrait he drew me. I think it should be still there in India in my house. I knew that the artist is going to become very popular. He was calm and quiet. He was so good with his hand. I was glad and excited when he became very popular with his talents in Art direction for movies. Drawing is really a great art!

Hidden skill

2007-06-23T08:42:00.000+01:00

Cartooning has been my favourite hobby from childhood days. My dad was associated with Stationery and Artist's materials business and used to bring home lots of brushes and different kinds of pencils. I always had a curiosity on using them. Once he gave me few of them and asked to draw. He was very impressed and encouraged. The sad part is he did not live long to encourage me. He had brought home sketches of him drawn by famous artists like Latha ( who used to draw for historical stories in leading Tamil magazine) and Raakee who used to draw cartoons for Thuqlaq cover in those days. I was impressed by it and started showing interest on them. I admired many cartoonists work and if I had to mention Mathan was my favourite. Few friends jointly were involved in making a manuscript magazine in younger days. I was given opportunity to draw cartoons in that magazine. That was a field which I was keen but never had an opportunity to develop further. Once I started blogging, I was inspired a lot by Arvindh's drawings. Due to that I bought few sketch pencils and decided to scribble a few while travelling.

If the above picture resembles George Michael then, I need to agree yes I tried drawing him. If you do not feel so, forget it. It was just a practise after many years. The drawings below are some people whom I came across while travelling. You cannot draw everyone especially cartoons. There are few who will be having certain features which you portrait easily. These two gentlemen are someone who travelled in my compartment and I drew without their knowledge. Glad that I have found a way to spend my time while travelling.

Thank you Arvind! I also need to thank Narayanan Venkitu a fellow blogger and childhood friend who has been encouraging me to sketch. We need motivation at all stages isn't it?

Probably based on your comments I shall produce more for you!