The past 5 days were spent in chennai in my wife's home. One day was utilised to go to MGM along with my wife Beena and her 2 close friends. Though we had enough fun, it was limited because of the small group. The original plan was to include atleast 4 to 5 more friends of hers, but due to their schedules, they couldnt make it.
MGM wasnt as exciting as i had expected it to be. The rides arent well maintained anymore. Its one of the oldest theme parks of chennai. The maintenance isnt up to the mark, and i was told by my friends that some unfortunate accidents had taken place, due to their maintenance problem. This was evident from the loss of crowd that we encountered. It could be partly also because of the time of the year. Everybody is having exams, who are in school, and that should be one factor for the lessened crowd there.
On the way to MGM, I and Beena went to Nithya Kalyaneswari temple, which is just a stone's throw from MGM. She had been to the temple before marriage, to seek blessings of god to find a groom. It did materialise as prayed for, and she wanted to pay her obeisance to the god and also thank from the heart. Also there was one garland, which had already dried beyong recognition, which was to the re-placed at one of the tree's in the temple complex. This garland was originally worn by Beena, while she had earlier made the trip to the temple before marriage. Strong belief in the efficacy of this temple, could be gauged by the large number of young and not so young unmarried people visiting this particular temple.
Though I am not a regular temple going person, to give my wife company i had to go. She says we have another thanks giving visit to be completed soon, to another temple which is 4 hours drive from chennai. For now that trip is kept hanging fire. Today i returned to bangalore in the afternoon. Since my elder sister and her child are currently in bangalore, i am having a jolly good time. My neice is just 15 months old, and there is not a moment boring at home. She is quite outdoor a person like me. Always points her hand towards the verandah of our home and asks us to take her out for a walk, ofcourse she likes being carried while we walk.
While in Chennai, i watched a movie named Arundhathi. Its only 10 days back that i knew that the lead role of that movie was played by one of my friend's younger sister anushka. I wanted to check her mettle, and i should say she did a wonderful work in the movie. I did recomment this movie to some of my friends, whom i met. Though re-incarnation is the main plot of the movie, the screen play was done well, and worth the time i spent watching the movie. So much for now, i shall come back soon with more musings.
Saturday 28 March, 2009
Thursday 12 March, 2009
My strong little sister
My younger sister who is almost 5 years my junior, we call her sumi. Her full name is sumitha, but she hates being called by her full name by close people. She was my play mate all through my childhood notwithstanding the age difference. For her age, she was little taller during her studying years. That ofcourse gave her more physical strength in comparison to her peers.
During our school days, our friends had got interested in checking who had the strongest arm. The only way to do this was by arranging an amateur arm wrestling competition. For my age, i think i had beat my juniors, but that was on the expected lines. Among same age peers, two guys namely mani and thyagaraj emerged the strongest. My sister who was 2 to 3 years younger to these guys challenged them. Thyagaraj who was the eldest came forward to defeat my sister. After the bout, he didnt know where to hide his face, because sumi had conclusively defeated him. All the kids in the block started hooting and teasing him for failing to a girl in the matter of strength. Sumi was beaming from ear to ear and had a great story to share with my parents.
She also learnt cycling at a young age and even trained another of our friends 2 years elder to her. While she was in 10th standard, i tried to teach her riding a scooter which my dad owned. It was the heaviest scooter during those times i.e. lamby. Within few minutes of training she had almost got everything right, and then i decided to give it to her for a solo ride. She didnt go very far and the school children were approaching in hordes from the opposite side, and to avoid them, she careened to her left and fell. That was the end for her riding for the next two years.
When she was in 12th standard, i wanted her to try riding once again. This time on yezdi. My parents were shaking their heads a big NO emphasisingly. I was not the one to listen. Within 2 hrs i should say, she learned to tame the meanest beast among the bikes of that day. As years passed, she became less assertive and mellow over the years. The killer instinct is alive in her, but she lets it lie low these days, i guess.
During our school days, our friends had got interested in checking who had the strongest arm. The only way to do this was by arranging an amateur arm wrestling competition. For my age, i think i had beat my juniors, but that was on the expected lines. Among same age peers, two guys namely mani and thyagaraj emerged the strongest. My sister who was 2 to 3 years younger to these guys challenged them. Thyagaraj who was the eldest came forward to defeat my sister. After the bout, he didnt know where to hide his face, because sumi had conclusively defeated him. All the kids in the block started hooting and teasing him for failing to a girl in the matter of strength. Sumi was beaming from ear to ear and had a great story to share with my parents.
She also learnt cycling at a young age and even trained another of our friends 2 years elder to her. While she was in 10th standard, i tried to teach her riding a scooter which my dad owned. It was the heaviest scooter during those times i.e. lamby. Within few minutes of training she had almost got everything right, and then i decided to give it to her for a solo ride. She didnt go very far and the school children were approaching in hordes from the opposite side, and to avoid them, she careened to her left and fell. That was the end for her riding for the next two years.
When she was in 12th standard, i wanted her to try riding once again. This time on yezdi. My parents were shaking their heads a big NO emphasisingly. I was not the one to listen. Within 2 hrs i should say, she learned to tame the meanest beast among the bikes of that day. As years passed, she became less assertive and mellow over the years. The killer instinct is alive in her, but she lets it lie low these days, i guess.
Tuesday 10 March, 2009
Time Management
I have fought many times with my wife over the issue of time management. She does extremely well in her office and everyone is satisfied. But when it comes to deal with me, she finds me a hard task master. May be it’s because of my 15 years of lifestyle in the Indian air force. I just believe in achieving things. There sure will be many obstacles, and anyone can give any number of reasons for not finishing the things in schedule. The other set of people just conquer their goals offsetting every obstacle that’s in their way.
In the services, the boss is god. If he desires something, it gets achieved. Sometimes he doesn’t even ask if there was any difficulty in the process. Only the person who carried out his command knows the difficulty. When there are serious problems, the boss excepts you to achieve his goal, and thereafter tell that these were the issues. May be in future he will clear the way for you, when a similar task is designated.
My friend from Bangalore once called me and said if I knew anyone in pune. I asked why he needed to know. He told me that he needed to get admission in to a business school and there was only 3-4 days left for the last date of submission of application form. I understood the seriousness of it. In my knowledge, I had a chatfriend from pune. I called her up and asked me to do a favour. She was in her office already. Once everything was explained she said she will do the needful. She went to the institute, bought the application form and couriered it to my friend, whom she never knew. My friend got the form in 2 days and he submitted it. The mission was accomplished.
In hindsight, I could have told, I don’t have a reliable friend in pune. The fact of the matter is I never even paid my friend in pune before hand. I asked her account number and the money got deposited in her account by my friend in Bangalore. Will plays a big role in managing our affairs, and that’s all there is to it.
In the services, the boss is god. If he desires something, it gets achieved. Sometimes he doesn’t even ask if there was any difficulty in the process. Only the person who carried out his command knows the difficulty. When there are serious problems, the boss excepts you to achieve his goal, and thereafter tell that these were the issues. May be in future he will clear the way for you, when a similar task is designated.
My friend from Bangalore once called me and said if I knew anyone in pune. I asked why he needed to know. He told me that he needed to get admission in to a business school and there was only 3-4 days left for the last date of submission of application form. I understood the seriousness of it. In my knowledge, I had a chatfriend from pune. I called her up and asked me to do a favour. She was in her office already. Once everything was explained she said she will do the needful. She went to the institute, bought the application form and couriered it to my friend, whom she never knew. My friend got the form in 2 days and he submitted it. The mission was accomplished.
In hindsight, I could have told, I don’t have a reliable friend in pune. The fact of the matter is I never even paid my friend in pune before hand. I asked her account number and the money got deposited in her account by my friend in Bangalore. Will plays a big role in managing our affairs, and that’s all there is to it.
Saturday 7 March, 2009
Can you define Friendship?
I read on a guy's T-shirt today, something written about friendship. These were the first two sentences. "Friendship is like war. Its easy to start but difficult to end..............". Before I could read fully, the guy had walked across and had his back showing towards me.
The word "Friendship", I believe, is the most abused by most of us. I would define Friendship in just one word, i.e. COMMITMENT and that too in capital letters. Many words can be prefixed to this word and one example could be the word UNCONDITIONAL. Yet how many of us can feel proud to have real friends or be one.
One not so fine day, some years back, I found myself in deep trouble; and the condition prevailed for few days. Only one friend turned up and stood with me. I felt absolutely unbelievable that so many of my friends could just turn the other side. I still didn't lose hope on this magnanimous word "Freindship", the reason I shall give in the next paragraph, though I lost hope on many of my so called friends.
I knew a guy named Suresh, who always struggled alongwith his younger brother to make ends meet. In his family, he had his mother & younger sister who needed constant medical attention. One fateful day, his younger sister passed away. The body was waiting to be cremated. Help wasn't coming from any quarter. I got to know about this few hours later. I immediately went and met Suresh, who was crying unconsolably and had got drunk heavily, as he didnt know what to do with his sister's body. I quickly arranged for a Hearse van, and gave him little sum of money to finish the last rites and also stayed with the bereaved family till everything was taken care of.
Few years back I met Suresh. I knew he was well settled by then. He had a job and also ran a business. He had got married too. He had cleared all his debt except one. He told me, "Joshi, I have enough money now and a flourishing business, and have cleared all my debt except one. And that's yours. I will not clear it, because, with money it cant be cleared". The words that enamanated straight from his heart almost brought tears to my eyes.
As long as these kind of thoughts are possible in the minds of people, the meaning of friendship will never change.
Thursday 5 March, 2009
The teenage butterflies
There are so many wonderful things that happened in our younger days. i too have one to share here, about my first feeling of love.
One day in the year 1991, a childhood friend who was also my neighbour told me that there's one beautiful girl who has joined work in our neighbourhood firm. I told him i have already had a cursory look, but havent had any close call to appreciate her beauty.
Next day or so, i kept a watch to see when she was leaving office. When i saw her leaving office, i too casually walked in the path and stealed a glance. My friend was right, she was beautiful, had feminine elegance in her gait and walk. Also she was well endowed, and didnt have any arrogance or attitude writ on her face. I felt like i liked her and wanted to become her friend.
Striking up a conversation was the biggest challenge. In my whole school life i never initiated a talk with any of the girls in my class. I kept watching this beautiful girl everyday both morning and evening. You will not believe, i just couldnt muster enough courage to even talk to her and already one year had passed and my love for her kept growing day after day.
During the holi festival, i was never short in having fun. On the day of the holi festival in 1992 i was already on the roads with my colony friends colouring anyone or everyone on the road. Suddenly i saw this girl walking towards us from the opposite side, going to her office. I told my friends to lay seige to her but not to put any colours. They just needed my approval and once she neared us she was mobbed. I politely asked my guys to spare this girl and they did. Some kind of a conversation got started with her by me. I could already feel the butterflies churning in my stomach.
Later i got many opportunities to talk to her, either while she was arriving to or leaving her office. We became good friends. It took more than 2 years for me to propose to her, and she was already working in a 5 star hotel by then. Though she remained a splendid friend during those 2 years, she never accepted my proposal. I had to accept her decision and move on with my life.
Those were wonderful memories and can never get erased.
One day in the year 1991, a childhood friend who was also my neighbour told me that there's one beautiful girl who has joined work in our neighbourhood firm. I told him i have already had a cursory look, but havent had any close call to appreciate her beauty.
Next day or so, i kept a watch to see when she was leaving office. When i saw her leaving office, i too casually walked in the path and stealed a glance. My friend was right, she was beautiful, had feminine elegance in her gait and walk. Also she was well endowed, and didnt have any arrogance or attitude writ on her face. I felt like i liked her and wanted to become her friend.
Striking up a conversation was the biggest challenge. In my whole school life i never initiated a talk with any of the girls in my class. I kept watching this beautiful girl everyday both morning and evening. You will not believe, i just couldnt muster enough courage to even talk to her and already one year had passed and my love for her kept growing day after day.
During the holi festival, i was never short in having fun. On the day of the holi festival in 1992 i was already on the roads with my colony friends colouring anyone or everyone on the road. Suddenly i saw this girl walking towards us from the opposite side, going to her office. I told my friends to lay seige to her but not to put any colours. They just needed my approval and once she neared us she was mobbed. I politely asked my guys to spare this girl and they did. Some kind of a conversation got started with her by me. I could already feel the butterflies churning in my stomach.
Later i got many opportunities to talk to her, either while she was arriving to or leaving her office. We became good friends. It took more than 2 years for me to propose to her, and she was already working in a 5 star hotel by then. Though she remained a splendid friend during those 2 years, she never accepted my proposal. I had to accept her decision and move on with my life.
Those were wonderful memories and can never get erased.
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