Can't-think-of-one syndrome - VI

Today I rode to office in my new bike :-) I am yet to get my head gear.
Inshah allah, the roads were free and I dint bump into a single vehicle!!

But you should ask me how the day went...I had to drag it along , the hours just wont move!!Off-late,itz been issue-filled weeks,not a single day goes by without an issue.The networks go down , services die and jobs abend just when there are nt enough people to handle.With the gloomy day and torrential showers, work is the last thing that comes to my mind.

In cribbing I find solace;
Imagination set me free.

Yesterday, Mr.M reminded me of the 50 things I wanted to do in my life time.I had come up with the list when I was in my college.Guess it is time to revisit it and consider my priorities.

May be I ll share them here when I make time to type them out.

Over tea Karthik hinted on how to find one's passion , the two questions the one needs to ask oneself:
->If you know you are gonna die soon, what would you be doing?
My answer: Call up friends, eat, listen to my favourite numbers, read books, go for a long drive, lie down in my bed and day-dream, trek, play scrabble, TT, dance, walk along the beach, watch a sun-rise, snow-bowl( Actually , I was closing my eyes trying to come up with things I want to do and the very thought that I am gonna die makes my heart thump !!) and finally I ll tell myself ,"Gurl, you ve had all the fun and now its time".

->If money was nt a criteria, what is the interest you would pursue?
My answer: Start an ad agency / fashion-design unit/HR consultancy/counselling center/a creche or a kinder-garden.

Know what, I just cant get any more specific with my answers.I want to do a thousand things !!!Fickle...sometimes I think thatz what I am ...enthused by a spark and blued by a shade of dark.

Can anyone figure out what my passion is?

'The tragedy of Macbeth ' - A joy unto me

"Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!"
-Lady Macbeth

I had wanted to put down this quote for a real long time.There is something intriguing about it that brings it back to my mind quite often.May be it is to do with the depth of the character, Lady Macbeth , the way the tragedy has been plotted or the narration of Macbeth by my english teacher ...we saw the characters come alive.

In our 10th class, we had the 'Macbeth' play as written by Shakespeare.It was part of our curriculum and we were required memorize the verses.English classes were fun..we played Macbeth, Duncan, Banquo et al!I still enjoy recollecting some parts of that.

There is this strange beauty in Lady Macbeth , that makes me like her despite her evil intentions.She is so full of love;she is ambitious.She is gentle at heart but dares to take a life.She wins over her dream ; but reality fails her.The love and desperateness that drive her to her success are the self same that sink her.
She fights a lonely battle with herself, within herself and makes her worthy of my sympathies.A beautiful characterization ... one of my favourite.

And a greater joy was to reminisce the classes with like-minded-friends.Nimmi ,a very special friend of mine who fills my days with great 'enthu', knows the entire play of 'Romeo and Juliet'(as written by Shakepeare)by-heart!

Talking about those days brings smiles onto my face.

Memories remain.

And it ran happily ever after...

When I started out, I had told myself that no specifics about my job or projects will go into this blog.

But now something happened and I just cant help sharing it here in my blog.

The project I was working for past 5-6 months came to an official close today and it was one of the pilot projects on SCRUM methodology.

On the onset , we were all whimpering and whining about the new process and the very many meetings happen on a daily basis.But today , everything and everybody made sense.Nothing we cribbed over came to my mind.It seemed like a perfect ending.
Mostly it was the team...I was part of a great team , which made the long hours of work pleasant and work a pleasure.

Every project comes to close, goes live , with or without bugs.What makes a project memorable , more than the technical challenges and logic and business significance , is the rapport,camaraderie and the team-spirit that runs-through.

I am happy I was there , then.

Hoping the project will run fine for long.

Hope the fairy tale continues...

Can't-think-of-one syndrome - V

After another bout of viral infection, I feel too bored to fall sick again.The month that just went by , I had lousy cards to play.Two viral infections, incessant cold attacks, a sprain, acid reflex ...quite a medley and the sporadic production calls to fuel it all.

But..this month kicked off on a real hi:-)

First, I got my new bike , owing to my altruistic nature.I think I can keep the toll at bay , staying behind 2 wheels.Considering my driving expertise , a single wheel (the one they keep rolling with a stick) would be safer!!
Itz all to do with my weird imaginations....just when I drive down a fly-over , I 'll get these eccentric questions onto my frontal: "What if I forgot driving?", "What if I let go of the control?"...and I ll be all wobbles.And then, I am too lazy to keep directions....or may be pre-occupied!!

And then, there was this other time , I was happily humming,smiling and driving ( I was nt emulating anyone!!) that I lost sight of the red .The crazier part was that I gave myself a pat for not jeering at the person who I presumed violated the rules!

Yesterday was my first ride alone...to Landmark and back.I forgot the way back and a cherub of a friend came to my rescue , escorting me to my way back home.Be on the look out for him...he is a rapper in making :)

Jokes apart, I am seriously working on keeping my imagination at bay while driving.

Secondly,after so many years that I dint keep count, I finally got myself a Scrabble board !

Thanks a bunch Herr , for my first game of scrabble :-)

And all you noble souls I know , I invite you over for a game of scrabble.
NOTE: Mandates: patience, generous heart, score-keeping

A new-age professional's survival kit

I was looking at my life and that of folks who sail trhe professional boat with me and when i questioned what are our lives made of,these are the things that blaringly struck me:

* mails (especially the appealing forwards) ,if in S/W
* A camera mobile with pictures we seldom transfer
* Minimum 1 meeting per day
* Wednesday itches (intensity subject to variation)
* Minimum 3 cups of coffee per day
* An average of 3 personal calls per day
* Minimum 2 team lunches per month
* One team building/outing per month.
* Treats for the most inconsequential of reasons.
* Hang-outs with friends over the weekends
* A lucrative pay at the end of the month
* An yearly appraisal to crib / conference over
* Intermittent trips to onsite/campus recruitment
* Occasional pangs of loneliness echoing from the hollow of our lives.

Hippocratian Science is sick :-(

Hippocrates, The father of medicine , laid down the Hippocratic Oath ,as ethical guidelines.

Taking this oath is a rite, as one steps into practicing medicine and it remains so.
When will the medicos give life to it?

Or if making wealth is all these games are about, there are more lucrative jobs.Why mess with medicine , putting priceless lives at stake?

When would this change?Where would it start?

Questions currently pounding my brain:
Why are drugs banned in other countries not banned in India?

How should one choose a doctor or a medical institution?

How are details of banned drugs communicated to the practitioners?

Where does one find details of banned drugs?

Is there any governing authority for periodic inspection of hospitals?

Which one?

So many tablets in front me,
in all shapes and colours I see.
Which one do I gobble,
I just go by "hitsy, bitsy,hobble".

Can't-think-of-one syndrome - IV

I feel light.I m neither happy nor sad.My day is overflowing with chores and I m on my toes.Still, I feel like I have so much time!!!I ll pick up the half-read book that lies under my pillow.Its titled 'Intimacy' , penned by Osho.Osho and I share the same birthday :)

These days, say, for the past one week, I m enjoying a peculiar calm within and a cheer unperturbed by the mundane issues.And for me cheer translates into chirpy.

Over this weekend, I had a great realization :House-keeping is real tough job :-( Keeping an eye on the door, answering calls, keeping count of the number of cooker whistles , not letting the curry charr,dhobi, maid, instructions,paper, milk-man, fixing the menu without repetition (reaal tough brain work...the considerations and criteria to keep) , waterboy , not letting the motor overflow,folding clothes, listing and replenishing exhausted groceries ....gosh ...I need a breather!!!!

Until now, I dint know my house-hold was filled with sooo much action!!!I ve never done any of the chores at home...before stepping into married life.Its always been crisp ironed dresses, warm food and fresh sheets on my bed I ve seen.Probably I was oblivious to the fact that someone was actually running the show...making life easy for me!!

Now, with so much change happening, I continue to surprise myself day-in and day-out!!!My turn to make lives easy for my folks.I give myself a pat for the not-so-bad home-maker I ve blossomed into :-)

Keeping my fingers-crossed that I sustain this spirit through the week.

My humble salutations goes out to all those beautiful home-makers,who with their unspoken ,often-undermined efforts, make lives easy at their house-holds.They sure are domestic angels who make things work and make it seem like magic !!!

A thought

I think aloud:
" The loudest of laughters has the saddest of stories to tell."

Pluto is no longer a planet!!!

The last couple of weeks work had kept me really busy...well partly so.
Rest my laziness :-)
Many things I wanted to blog and slipped ...includes:
->The confused AVCD(America-visited confused Desi) family that we visited.
->How diplomacy can actually tighten the noose (and get work done)
->Chennai 's B' Day

Now that they have slipped and away...I ll vent out my views on declaring Pluto , a non-planet and a Trans-Neptunian Object" (TNO).

How unfair?!!!
Lets say, I spent 5kb of my memory to know about the 'Planet Pluto' , that itz the ninth and the smallest and ...So many stuff that added-up including the stress of spelling it right with my small brain(well, then, I should have been in my 2nd or 3rd class and my brain would have been relatively small that 'bluto' was 'pluto'or 'plato' for that matter ), the time I vained to learn something that is wrong, while I should have played heartily,the spankings et all!!!
All that and the huge populus that suffered the same as me , so much memory , so much time, so much struggle all in vain!!
Though there are those like the kind-hearted Brian Marsden, head of the IAU's Minor Planet Center,as quoted in a press release:
"There is no plan to 'downgrade' or 'demote' Pluto. It will stay as a planet." ,

on behalf of the victimized lot,to prevent any such further damage,I m proposing that we should wait to learn until they finally froze the facts.What ye say ? ;-)

P.S: The last statement is such a long one, the second time I read through what I had put down , I took a while to comprehend!

A wish I wish

The very many times I was hurt,
the very many times you made me feel dumb,
the very many times you treated me like dirt,
like I had void for my brains,
the very many times you tramped over me...
I cannot keep count.
I was busy drawing a smile on my face,
painting my cheeks as if they blushed in joy,
keeping my eyes wide as in earnest attention.
I turn my brains off and you are the happiest.
Though your words made perfect non-sense to me,
I listened to you,agreed that I was wrong and
that you knew things.
when all I wished to tell you were just three words:
"Go to hell".
All wishes dont come true.

What personality type am I?

As I was hoppin thru blogs I hit ">here and just got drifted into asking myself the question: "Who am I?".

You Are An ENFP

The Inspirer You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends. You are also unconventional, irreverant, and unimpressed by authority and rules. Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives. You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're quite the storyteller! You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist.

What's Your Personality Type?

On turning 59.

Today my country is turning 59...59 and still young.And I m celebrating it eating mysorepaagu and murukku :-)

I owe my freedom (most of it), my murukku , the free country I live in and the many other stuff that comes along, to all those martyrs of the country, known and unknown.My way of thanking...chip-in in my own small way.

Today, Google had put up a pretty cool logo and I was happy lookin at it.Check out Google ...today!!!

All these days..well I ll rather put it as most of the days , work kept me busy and the rest of them, my laziness.If you ask me if I had something sensible to blog I would say , "No".Mabbe itz the writers' block...I can call myself a writer can't I?

Free India ...I love you :-)

Now that I have nothing sensible to blog , itz better that I sign off here wishing you all Indians "A very Happy Independence Day!!"

And to all those ardent cheedai-ists and murukko-maniacs , "Happy Krishna Jayanthi!!".

On IT

Yesterday,I got to file my income tax returns.Kudos to the IT department , they had put up a real good show in place.Evrything was good...the help-desk, service, seating arrangement, food stalls, aeration et all...

Whilst the IT department is making things work at the employee level, puppeting the business class to pay taxes has been far from reach .Who would bell the fattened cats??I m playing an inquisitive on-looker here :-)

A thought on marriage

Over tea, Karthik shared this thought and I thought it meant so much sense as to put it down here (ofcourse with my own improvising ).

Dont marry someone for the beauty's sake.
With time, beauty fades.
Dont marry someone for intellect's sake.
With time, you may not feel as good enough.
Dont marry someone for the money.
With time, money may not seem all that important.
Dont marry someone because one is quick-witted.
With time, quick-wits may not seem all that impressive.
Dont marry someone because one seems not-all-that-bad.
With time that can head towards the gorges.
Dont marry someone because you have a time-crunch.
With time, you might feel you could ve waited for eternity.
Dont marry someone because you dont want to hurt someone.
With time, someone would have moved on.
Dont marry someone because you have everything else on your list checked.
With time, you ll know marriage is not just another task to be done with.
Dont marry someone to settle down.
With time, you ll know marriage is not about settling down , but about starting-off.
Dont marry someone because he/she will get you your dreams.
With time, you ll discover that everyone has their own dreams.

If there is so compelling a reason, that you want to marry someone ,
let that reason be so strong that it can stand the test of time, space and adversity.

When you are left with nothing else in this world,
that someone should suffice.

That is how strong your reason should be.

Can't-think-of-one syndrome - IV

Sometimes with life , we want to move away from the life we lead and the people who know us really well.The reason is not hatred,disappointment,hurt or pain but just the longing to re-invent our self.Meeting or being with the same people over and again at certain point of time, places a restriction on what we can be or the very many possibilities to our living-self.

They have known you some way for a real long time that when you ve moved away from being the person you used to be , whether by choice to shrink or grow, they just cannot digest.This, though pleasant at certain instances as this, predominantly places a limitation on the person whom we actually grow out to be.

"In order that all men may be taught to speak truth,
it is necessary that all should learn to hear it. "
-Samuel Johnson

This is my quote for the day and what triggered me to think in this direction.

The key is to let go of the image we often create in our minds and fervently hang on to, and accept that which is real and changing.

Some where I read, "Knowledge is not power...but potential power."

A snap-shot of the day

Today,
I m in a crowd.
I m alone.

On being part-of-the-whole

As I started my day checking my mails...a mail from one brought smiles on my face.The one I m talking about is a friend from college and whatz between us I cannot categorize.It brings smiles on my face.There is the other kind you can count on at every odd time of life.But this one is different ...I know I cannot count on ...just not too much.Neither can I doubt , I m never meant a harm.I m wished the best of life.When I m happy I can expect smiles and when I m sad , sympathies.I can trust with my heart.That is that.

We are a bunch from college ... almost like-minded.In an awkwardly comfortable way, we have defined whatz between us.There is liking and comfort but none too much.Strangely, when space and time set us apart there is a tint of grey that sets in my days.Even in the many meaningless reasons we meet out for a treat , in the point-less ramblings ,the arguments-for-arguments-sake ,plain chatter , silly tiffs, trippings there seems to be a comfort.May be it is being part-of -the -whole, being a bunch, a sense of belonging that knits us together.Many times we think of taking this further...from a bunch to being a team...moving towards some place we can call our common destiny.But the thought remains a thought.

What we ve made until here and now , I dont know what we ve put in.I dont know what we take out.One thing I know is that, that which is there lets us walk our own way and is meant to stay.

On words

I wanted to write this down for a real long time...about words.Not about the ones that we let go.But about the ones that we drown in our hearts.Nothing can injure a relationship or derail life than unspoken words.

It does not happen in a day.Like viruses nibbling on the system's resources...silently , stealthily , day after day, they drink out the juices of life and leave the relationship porous and withering.

No...I m not talking about the over-hyped one-on-one talks that all those relationship-guides kick and scream about.I m talking about simple statements like "What took you so long to call? " , "I m scared", "I need help" , "I thought you would come", "I dint like what you did".

Speak out when you should.

Believe me ...for want of a question , a relationship was lost , a life got derailed.There would be lots more out there.

We are raised with the thought that being expressive is a sign of weakness and vulnerability.More so for guys."Be a man"...what a phrase?!In my terms,nothing is more unmanly to lock thoughts and emotions up .A blank straight face ,what a shame!The very many souls who dont profess their love are but left with a bruised heart and scribblings that they call poems.I know the world is infested with so many of them.This post is for them.

And then there are the others who are eternal sacrifiers...that is how they call themselves.They talk about how they bear the brunt by putting up with a strained relationship,how good they are to the other and how much they are hurt because of that.They are the most disastrous of all.They are neither good to themselves or the other.

Oft we think someway and spell out another, not in deception but many a times with a good intention of not hurting the person across.But then, that is when you are really far far away from the truth.The more you put away a thought , the more fiercely it haunts your days.Someday , some way it will find itz way out.

The best way to be good to someone is to tell them honestly what you feel.

If you can think something...you can speak it.

This is what I ask of you :
Be honest.First ,with yourself and then with the ones whom you dont want to hurt.Respect the fact that you have but one life to live and you deserve to be happy ...as much as the other does.

I ask of me the self-same.

You have an answer?

An ideal wife portrayed in sanskrit as:
"Roopekshu lakshmi,
karyeshu mantri,
karmeshu daasi,
bhojyeshu maatha,
shayaneshu veshya,
kshamaya dharitri" ,

which means

that as ideal wife is characterized as bearing the looks of Lakshmi (Hindu Goddess of wealth),a wise counsel in executing tasks,a devout servant in offering service, provides like a mother , a whore in bed and to top it all...is Mother Earth is patience.

If this is about an ideal-wife, what is it for a ideal-husband ?

Tough one ...there..hmm?

P.S: Thanks to pramod - I picked this quote from his orkut profile.