Network pressure

This is not a Tamil post. So non-Tamil folks can definitely dive in!

I love you!
Appadina enna mean panre?
Adellam enaku theriaadhu…aana I love you!

For the 22nd time I was absorbed by the simplicity and beauty of Manirathnam’s Alaipayude…. When suddenly…. Danny Elfman disturbed my concentration with his Mission impossible theme! Oops my cell phone was screaming. Should have had it in silent mode!

They always find the perfect time to call me, don’t they? It was my friend from the other room under the same roof! “Barath b@##@#! Reduce the god damn volume. I’m trying to read Indiaglitz!”…I thought I never had roomies!

Screen rolls back with background music: 1 year ago is typed on the screen letter by letter.

The same person was screaming at me, “Where the hell were you…! I was trying to reach you from the morning to tell something…get yourself a cell phone man! Anyways Raji is engaged!”

“Who is Raji?” I did not have a clue.

“Grrrr… I thought you knew her…ot@#... totally forgot. Anyways what were you doing?”

“I was watching Alaipayude” undisturbed!

Screen comes towards you with background music: This time Present day is typed on screen letter by letter.

I answered him with one of my infamous fingers!

WTH! Technology sucks! It was great then, when none had cell phones. It took me four and odd years to succumb to those network pressures that were increasing along the life progression! And now this is associated with the horrendous disadvantages such as people’s expectations to call-returns, their ability to track you down, development of hatred for answering calls in public etc. Gone are those days, when am not the one to check if it is my cell phone when someone else’s is ringing in a public place. Gone are those days, when I prefer to stay alone, I felt alone. I am not complaining. I love the advantages, but sometimes the disadvantages annoy me! And then the reasoning side puts the awaken dude inside me to sleep!

Cell phones are already on their way to be used as credit cards (Nytimes article needs subscription) , and now progressing towards digital wallets and none know what more to come!?

Well, what do I hate? Loud ring tones that have a wonderful way of embarrassing its owner in public and make a whole bunch look if it’s their fone. Patriots who answer even credit card calls during a personal conversation. Surfacial Satans who calls you from the visual level to check if they are seeing the one they think they are seeing. Supporters of the amazing fone-family development, where they do everything, except you know what! For some, it would be in their top 5 best birth control methods! And I haven’t even talked about its ability to be one of the top reasons for road accidents. The list goes on!

Public hatred

I do use it to call people and appreciate/annoy them. But I definitely would prefer to stay away from “let’s share some useless info” clan. Well, in a device, if you don’t have the control to stop doing something that you hate, you might as well disown it.

So, what do I love? The control that we have in the form of a digital command to avoid all the above. Commands like ignore, silent mode, power off etc. The way we can choose ourselves to be connected to people no matter where a situation pushes us to. For its ability to cause an accident as well as save you from dying. Well, you are welcome to add to this!

Really, What do we used to do?

Anyways, Cell phones are becoming like Gods. Some love it. Some hate it. Some save it. Some smash it. But only a few avoid it. Well, I am sorry to say that I am not one of the few. But at the same time, I am not sad to be part of the lot which has it! Sure it does feel nice to see that we are a part of the group that knows to use it sensibly!!

Positive Energy!

Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed but can be transformed from one kind to another, sounds familiar? If it does, then your attention was partially or completely slaved for a while in your early physics/thermodynamics development. Anyways, no worries! This is definitely not a Me Myself and Thermodynamics post, so you can proceed further! The law holds good or even better for invisible non-physical/thermodynamic energies as well. In the case of positive energies that we carry, it remains to be contagious and as a matter of fact increases with contribution! Well….What I’m trying to say here is Positive attitude pays!

This is a not a self-help post and I’m no one to preach! All am doing here is thinking loud and expressing my perceptions on positivities.

My best friend always plans and opts to be in constant vicinity of what he calls the positive energy circle! Couldn’t complain much on him being closer to the nucleus in the people-orbit (You will have to read this understand what I mean here) since it indirectly compliments me! Positive attitude and positive people provides him the excitement and energy that he wants to extract and utilize at no body’s expense. Well the fact that positive energy increases with contributions explains it.

Well, on the other hand, one of my brother’s multiple personalities will take the crap out of me if my first answer to any of his questions is a “NO”. It’s always the case! According to him, a No or a Negative response is associated with a quitting or a failing attitude. If I can’t find his wallet I am not supposed to say “its not there”, instead I would have to say “it might be here somewhere else”. It has been working with him and I don’t see a change coming in the near future! Well, for some it is the case. People tend to fear the negative energy more than they love positive energy.

Positive energy is important. It’s been the case from our ancient ages. If you think, from the Hindu perspective that is precisely the reason why the so called Man of the house has to witness the Woman of the house right before he leaves home for work, in some sense she blankets her positive energy for him to carry for the rest of the day! Let me not get religious here. In any case, positive energies are a part of us without our knowledge from the early days. How important is it to stay positive and share that energy?

…….The medical field is now beginning to acknowledge that the attitude of the patient has a very large impact on how fast that patient heals or even on whether he/she survives a certain procedure. As another example, how many of us know someone who, when entering a room, seems to "light up" the room? Or vice versa, someone who has the ability to throw a damper on a festive atmosphere, just by their appearance in the room? These are all examples of how positive and negative energy extends far past our use of it…….

Well, a hypothetical situation. A wins something, B loses something. A wants to share this feeling with B. Comes to meet B to witness him/her cribbing the hell of out him/herself even before A accumulating the positive energy! Options that A has

1.A leaves without telling about the victory
2.A shoulders B and make him/her feel comfortable
3.Completes 2 and shares his/her happiness on the victory that makes B feel better

There are definitely more than three options for this particular scenario, but at this point lets stick on to this!

A little bit of math here,

Assumptions:

A and B are concerned with two different scenarios
Other’s victory is good news for both and directly results in increase in energy
The total energy = Energy available for transfer! Not necessarily the sum of the individual energies!

1st option: Total energy = A(positive) + B(negative): Results in decrease in energy!
2nd option: Total energy= A(positive) + B(zero): Results in no change
3rd option: Total energy= A(positive) + B(positive): Results in increase in energy

Do you think the math is right here? It appears so! But actually I have neglected the fact the A loses energy because of B’s loss. Well, from the above description, it is wonderfully framed that the 3rd option is the best and henceforth supporting the positive aspects of positive energy sharing syndrome! This doesn’t necessarily mean that I corroborate the attitude of amplifying self, in sorry state of affairs!

I could have done this with less math or complications. Nevertheless if you are reading this, you got past the worst part of the post!

One cannot expect the life to unfold the way they want it to be, but can always shape the attitude to be positive no matter what life offers us to learn. All the more, the crux of my problems post! Well, the results that we achieve when we carry this aura of positive energy along with us are amazing and most of the time are directly visible. Well, it also comes with its own disadvantages. It is highly necessary to choose the way you transfer this positive energy avoiding any possible misinterpretations such as self-amplification! It is also important to know and understand the disadvantages of negative energy and the ways to convert them to positive forms by reasoning.

Well, I read the post after I wrote it, and I feel it flirts well within the definitions and differences of positive energy and positive attitude. As I understand that the latter is a subset of the former and could also directly result in the increase of total energy, I safely proclaim that it isn’t a sin to flirt...between the two!

What if? - I

I saw Minority Report the other day. Still struggling to understand why was I postponing this. Well, creativity was at its best. The concept of Precrime was an almost impossible visualization that was excellently written as a short story by Philip K. Dick and incredibly directed by Spielberg. It got me thinking, how people could develop something like that? Well, may be they keep asking a lot of questions to themselves and end up improvising the answers! And most of the questions could definetly be of “What if?” types. ....And henceforth a new series! I’m calling it as the "What if?" series. This series will be full of unrealistic circumstances, relatively, and would progress towards delivering “what if this was like that?” answers and it’s following sequential progressions. Well, I hope this doesn’t turn out to be as serious as the kinds that Outlookindia comes up with. On the other hand I wud also have some serious kinds now and then!

Normally, I would not post something like this, but WTH sometimes we have to be different.

So, what if one of the most appreciated comforts of the MAN kind is no longer available for men. How would that be? I started this as a story but then realised it would be too long a read, hence .... What would be the to-do list for men if them getting pregnant is a normal phenomenon?

Month1:Mark the dates – sessions (we might call it like that) skipped once!
Month2:Approximately, same time of the month mark again – sessions skipped twice! Oh god this might be it!
Month3:Pregnancy tests - human chorionic gonadotropin or pregnancy hormone detection! If you get the device turned black, you are on it. If it stays white you are not! No pink or blue or any other colors involved!
Month4:Call people back home to convey the information if you stay overseas. If you don’t stay overseas, they will get to know when they get to know
Month5:Be prepared. You can’t help/irritate your wife anymore, especially in lifting the lightest possible things. Don’t climb stairs and don’t use elevators. Shift your house to the ground floor. If the infant kicks a lot from inside, kick back!
Month6:Start thinking of applying paternity leave from the 7th month. Stop watching movies. You will have nothing to do in few weeks, so save them! Throw all your shirts and trousers, you can’t use them anymore for the rest of your life.
Month 7:Pester the in-laws. Bring your wife’s parents if you stay overseas. If you don’t live overseas, fix someone to help and don’t inform your wife’s parents that you are pregnant. Postpone applying paternity leave for the 8th month.
Month 8:Now you can’t cook. So forget eating good food! Forget to apply paternity leave. Stop playing real street Cricket! Stick on to your X-box
Month 9:Stop kicking back the infant who is kicking from inside. Now he/she is shrewd enough to differentiate between the father’s and mother’s kick. Apply paternity leave!
Month 10:Sit back and relax! Don’t think about the complications of the process. There is no concept of normal delivery in a male pregnancy! Remember, the world will be revolving around someone else for the rest of your life!

Apparently there is a lot of research going on male pregnancy! Well, on the other hand Mr.G gave birth to these from the anti-men communities!

• There'd be a cure for stretch marks
• Natural childbirth would become obsolete
• Morning sickness would rank as the nation's number one health problem
• All methods of birth control would be improved to 100% effectiveness
• Children would be kept in the hospital until they were toilet trained
• Men would be eager to talk about commitment
• They wouldn't think twins were quite so cute
• Fathers would demand that their sons be home from dates by 10 pm
• Men could use their briefcases as diaper bags
• They'd have to stop saying, "I'm afraid I'll drop him."
• Paternity suits would be a line of clothes
• They'd stay in bed for the entire nine months (10 in our case)
• Menus at most restaurants would list ice cream and pickles as an entree'

The answers for the previous post are here in the comments section!

Movie Quotes - Guess 'em

I love Time. It’s never biased, waits for none and never quits. Past week has been quite lazy and busy. So, apologies for staying low and breathing less on the blogosphere. It calls for a less serious post.

This is my second one on the movie quotes. The first one drew some audience and was 7 months ago. It was unlike Time, predominantly biased on language and the concept. I have tried to stay away from such in this post. Tamil movie quotes (in Tanglish) are also included this time. So, here you go, guess these movie quotes. In your comments list them as E1 or E2 for the English ones and T1 or T2 for the Tamil ones.

Donot google it or see the comments section before guessing. You might spoil the fun of it!

Disclaimer: On the Tamil quotes, Mr. & Mrs. Google were not able to find any database dedicated to the South Indian cinema quotes and henceforth I trusted my memory. So if my line and length are not the way it’s supposed to be, you are welcome to suggest some corrections.

English

1. ...the things that people in love do to each other, they remember. And if they stay together, it's not because they forget. It's because they forgive.
2. .....you've never looked at a woman and been truly vulnerable. Known that someone could kill you with a look. That someone could rescue you from grief. That God had put an angel on Earth just for you. And you wouldn't know how it felt to be her angel.
3. . . . you could call it a "communal farm," I suppose. But we've all come to the same conclusion - our Gita, the Muslim's Koran or your Bible - it's always the simple things that catch your breath - "Love thy neighbor as thyself" - not always practiced - but it's something we Hindus could learn a lot from.
4. Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating
5. My father once said to me that you don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you.
6. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst.
7. People want leadership. And in the absence of genuine leadership, they will listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership, Mr. President. They're so thirsty for it, they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

Tamil ( in Tanglish)

1. Paathu welai sei. Paatha udnai welai seiyaade
2. Podhuva ambalinga modalla thappa mudivu edupaanga, aana anda anubavathla adhuku appram sariya mudivu edupaanga. Aaana pombalinga appadi illainga, modaliye sariyana mudivu than edupaaanga aana appram adhu sariya thaan iurkumnnu nenachi thappu thappa mudivu edupaanga
3. Ganesan! Naan unga ponna kalyanam panika aasai padren. Amudhava thatha eduka virupa padren. Modaluku unga sammadham wenum mathaddhuku unga kei ezhuthu.
4. Naan RRRRomba artist sir...!
5. Namaku oruthara pidhiruchi naa, avanga enna senjaalum pidika arabichuidum. Ade maadri namaku oruthara pidikama poiduchi na, avanga evlo naladhu senjaalum adhu pidikaaadhu
6. Adutha vela sothuku vazhi illama irundhirukaya? vaangina kadana thirumbi kuduka mudiyaama ungamma serupadi vaangaradha paathirukaya? padikavendiya vayasula naadagathula vesham potirukaya? unnakenna appa headmaster govt sambalam, tamil kathukuduthutaaru pesara
7. …Okay!...Othukaren… Unna modal thadava pathadhulende enaku pidichindhudhu..naan kaamchikala. Inime mariachi projanam illa. Kalayanam panikalam!! Inilendhu correcta oru maaasathula kalyanam panikalam.

The Motorcycle Diaries - WY 2 - Part 2

Part 1 is here

Now that the not-so-typical-Hindi-movie-triangle is all set with Aravindan, Monal and my self as the vertices, we were looking forward to understand who she was attracted to! Aravindan, a true believer of fate and destiny presumed that his single life is all set to crash, with a single glimpse from her. On the other hand a voice popped on me saying “we had a whole lot running ahead of us”!

We planned to leave Gangothri before they start, just to negate the skeptical father-eyes! Waiting on the end of the road, on their van to start, the butterflies started to resurface!!

1920 hrs - A block away from Gangothri!

“Pathetic! Hopeless…and what else in the word that can describe my state now. I never thought I would wait for someone… like this on the road!” I was pissed on the way I was treating life!

“Machi! lets wait and see! May be there is more in store!”, Aravindan was defining perseverance

As the van passed us, we were back, tailgating, exactly at the blind spot staying away from her father’s vision! The van took us all the way to a Lloyd’s road apartment. She signaled us to wait there...Now that we were outside her apartment, we expected her to return with a usual walk or terrace-outing excuse, for exchanging numbers or at least for a coffee. After 20 minutes of nail biting walks across the apartment, we gave up!

There were no signs of her coming back! We decided to return another day and continue the adventure.

1955 hrs – My place, Mylapore!

We did not converse for the next 15 minutes! By then, silence was the best answer for all the questions that were popping up defying gravity!

With just a nod, I looked at him and asked if he is up for it!

He started my Lakshmi and told me to drive it!

2030 hrs – Outside her apartment!

I wanted to earn something for the hours spent on stupidity. The gut master woke up again! I went to the watchman and as usual started to talk crap in the intention of getting her apartment number! While Aravindan was waiting on the other side of the road expecting her to peep out and regulate steam!

B: Watchman, I forgot monals apartment number, do you know what it is?
W: Monal? No. There is no one called Monal here!
B: No Watchman, I remember coming here last time! Her father has a white Maruthi van, TMP 8073. The car was right beside the watchman’s living roof, so I just looked at the number and told him.
W: No. None in this apartment has a Maruthi van. Even this one is some guest’s vehicle.

It stuck me! I realized that she did not signal us to tell about her apartment. Instead she wanted us to wait for her to comeback! As for Aravindan, it took much lesser time, than what he spent on Boyles Law, to understand the situation!

There we were, at the end of the road waiting for her van to pass on!

2130 hrs – The bunk shop

As the Rasnas started to quench our ordinary thirst, we saw the van passing us! In few minutes, we saw Monal looking for us! The amount of love or lust or whatever she had on her eyes as she was looking for us is unquantifiable.

Looking at this, I told Aravindan “Man! If we can produce such amount of curiosity and the byproducts without a single word! How would it be if we were to talk to her?”

He looked at me and said! “Machi, Monal is looking for both of us so desperately, just because we did not utter a single word. The moment you or I deliver a word, she would be running across the city...so shut your *&*%$*&…and make sure she sees us!”

We came out the blind spot and provided the much awaited darshan for our beloved girl! It was bliss to see the achievement on her face. It sure does feel good when you are a part of any girl’s happiness. Be it a girl on road or the girl of your dreams/reality. It makes a world of difference to understand and share the feeling of completeness!

While my mind was in Rome, dancing with Monal along with Aravindan’s lighting effects, the possessive Lakshmi almost ran in to my could-have-been father-in-law’s van. My reflexes helped in swaying away from an almost accident but did nothing in dodging the father’s eye. The moment he saw me falling apart, he placed me well from Gangothri. By then all the previous scenes came back to him like the M.Night Shyamalan’s footage, helping him to correlate and understand that am the Ghost from the beginning!

2145 hrs – Finale

Without realizing the seriousness of the father-eye, we were following the van through the roads of Missapettai market, in the vicinity of my dear old Gill Adarsh, all the while signaling Monal to come out once she gets in to our future property, her home!

The van stopped in a Triplicane street. I guess it’s near Big Street or Sidoge lane! If am not wrong, it was a Sunday night, and hence the street was almost empty…! As the van stopped in front of us, atleast 100 feet, we drove slowly and to make that eye contact. The moment she saw us, she ran all the way to the top floor and signaled something from the window.

By then we did not have time to wait and understand what was going on! So we passed her house took a left and parked Lakshmi.

B: Aravinda, lets park the vehicle here and walk there!
A: Machi are u sure there is not going to be any problems!?

My search for the answers resulted in silence, as we decided to give a couple of mins before we start walking towards her house. The early hide-and-seek games helped us! Peeping from behind the walls, I made sure that her father was not in the vicinity of our adventure!

We both walked all the way on the other side of the road. After a couple of to and fro walks, we both stopped right in front of her house…on the pavement on the opposite side. Trying to look for the answers for the past 3 and odd hours spent. Faint lights, Empty Street, Triplicane smell…I was hoping it to be short! I had no clue of what was I going to do if she was out then.

She was right there! Smiled at us and said something from the top floor window! May be the pressure difference that was caused by our parallel duets in Ooty hill station, we were not able to hear a single word!! The lights were not helping us either. Without our knowledge we were in the middle of the road, trying to get near her so that we can hear or see what she was trying to say!

As we stepped in closer, we heard her whispering “Papa…Neeche!” or something like that! For a moment, I thought, Mother you were right, I should have learnt Hindi.

I smiled at her and said, “No... Hindi” Made sure she understood it completely by enacting it!

She signaled something and pointed down.

As my pupils went down! I saw her father…who was in a hurry trying to unlock the door! For a fraction of a second, I looked at Aravindan. We both knew that it was not the right place to think about the next plan of action. We both started to sprint! As I was running, I realized Aravindan was not with me, I looked back. He was running in the opposite direction!

I was running towards my Lakshmi, while he was running towards nowhere, hoping for me to join him at some point of his life! Lucky-me, the father was chasing Aravindan!...I came running to my Scooty as I witnessed her, saying “that’s the difference between true love and lust! Look at me I am waiting on you...I set you free, you are now back to me to save yourself”

I started my Lakshmi and drove all the way, taking the back roads looking for Aravindan. With some luck he was running towards the direction I was trying to get to! The old father was quite athletic as he was still running behind Aravindan few feet away from catching him! The few seconds we wasted on spacing our posteriors on the life savior…got him closer by few inches. By the time I was accelerating Lakshmi, he had his fingers on Aravindan’s shirt….Lakshmi did quite well on anticipating it and acted pretty strong to escape from the grab.

The nice father screamed at us... relating my kith and kin to his fantasies, when we turned around and said “No ...Hindi”

It took a while for us to get back to our senses! I dropped him home, laughed for quite a while and got back to my sleep hoping to see the dreams ahead!

Even today when I go back home, I talk about this to Aravindan. Sometimes we even drive by that place to see if she recognizes us. But never had we got a chance to see her and complete our existence. Quite often she does popup like this in my memory and says “I was a part of your stupidity”

The Motor Cycle Diaries! - WY 2

Motor Cycle Diaries!

This is my Second on the Wonder Years Series - The Motorcycle Diaries

Statutory Warning or Exciting news: This is not one of my ideality posts.

Place: Madras

Time: Sometime during the year 1997

I haven’t seen the movie The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) yet. But I heard it’s pretty good. Anyways, I have my own Motor Cycle Diaries in the making! My stories are not really the motorcycle kinds but somewhere in the same vicinity though! Well, out with it! I have to drive that girly TVS Scooty almost all the time! It’s because that most of the time I lose those cold fights (for Hero Honda) with my dear brother who easily clears it based on the seniority factors.

Well, every single person in Madras (I prefer it over Chennai) would have done this. The motorcycle love stories. The ones that live short in reality but stay long in memory. The ones that give you butterflies and leave you brain dead. The Manirathnam kinds. There are quite a lot of varieties in these stories. The Annanagar-to-Alwarpet kinds, the ones that ends up in traffic violation and ‘Mama’ools etc.. This one is quite on the same category, but a little different, as it lasted a little longer! 3 hrs and 25 mins precisely!

By the way, this is not a dream in a dream stunt I am trying to pull. The narration describes the events exactly as happened with a little bit of flavor!

1835 hrs - Chennai Kaliappa Hospital Signal

I was driving my Lakshmi (TVS Scooty) along with Aravindan.

The best part about the Madras girls is their looks! Not the way they dress, but the real looks and stares. The way they exchange the glares, which stays for a fraction of a second, with that controlling smile is priceless. The beauty of it is that most of the time the eye to eye will be perfectly timed. In this case it was different. I was at the signal bored on waiting, started to tap the break levers with my restless fingers.

God heard me!

Just like in the Tamil movies, a wonderfully ornamented hand peeped out of the window of a white Maruthi van behind us to respond to the taps! Well, my rear view mirror was perfectly loyal to its boss and captured the response faster than the thought!

I told Aravindan, about the girl who was responding to us. As expected he shifted from ground state to the excited state as soon as he understood what’s going on! We both adjusted the rear view mirror and made sure that we acknowledge the response! The face was yet to be seen though, but the response started to become more associated. She started to play with us, and pulled us inside the game which was catalyzed by the excitement!

After a couple of honks and shouts, I had to respond to the green light! Without any discussion we, Aravindan and myself, understood each other and decided to follow the Maruthi van!

The evening was set.

As we followed the van, we made sure that she knows that we are following her! After a few accelerations and coastings, she held her hands outside and pointed at a clothing place near the Alwarpet signal! (There were no flyovers then) Now that we made sure that she is not disturbed by the fact that we are following her, we just tailgated the van. The van drove all the way and stopped at a fast food joint! Gangothri!

1855 hrs Gangothri – Madras!

Mixed emotions. We were thoroughly confused and had absolutely no idea on how to proceed! The gut master inside us woke up and pulled us all the way inside the joint! I remembered her Salwar, so my eyes were looking for the colors of similar kind! Certainly did not do it at the expense of the other beauties around...After minutes of Random search, I locked my eyes on her!

She was eating some Dahi puri or something, who cared what she was eating, but I did not forget to lock my sight on the lips that sealed it. She made sure that her parents did not face us. BTW she had come with her parents and was doing every damn possible thing without their knowledge. Long live Madras guts! We shared glimpses and responded to the smiles! The butterflies went down all the way from hearts to the abdomen.

B: Aravinda...she is smiling at us!
A: Machi, are u sure…I think she is laughing at us!?

I wanted to have a good look at her! So from then I developed the habit of washing my hands after drinking Coke!

She was breathtaking! The smile was the first thing I noticed. She had this naughty smile on her lips that was screaming “I like you stalker” …the eyes were glowing with innocence, demotivating all my intentions of quitting!

I walked back and told Aravindan, “Machan! You have that luck factor da…how in the world do we end up with beauties all the time!?”

Aravindan had that look gleaming with pride and honor, as I said, “You never understands my sarcasm, do you!?...She is pathetic da mama!” Well, I always have this extra expectation, so I was certainly not accepting her falling short of it! She was! Everything but her eyes and smile was falling short of my expectations!

“Another word about Monal, you will be dead!” Aravindan was boiling!

“Who is Monal”, I had no clue.

“In Chidambaram (his home town) there is this Sate kutty (Maarvadi girl) I like, her name is Monal. This girl doesn’t look like her, but I think she is also a Marvaadi and I like her…so no matter what her real name is…she is Monal from now on!” Aravindan was on the roll, when my search for the words to respond had just begun!

Part 2 is here!

Complaints

"I don’t like the attitude of that person"

"I think he is so damn dirty and I don’t know how in the world he is going to cope without roomies"

"The boss extracts a lot form us. Give me a break! I am supposed to work for just 20 hrs a week"

"Look at the way they have typed their emails. How in the world they can be so damn unprofessional"

These are some of the sample complaints that we get to hear day-in and day-out. Both from the consciously non-idealistic-self as well as the hopefully-changing-world around us. Have we ever thought that may be we are thinking too much and wasting a whole lot of our time cribbing about something which isn’t worth the priceless time!

Complaints are something I hate to hear. I am sure that my acquaintances get to hear some from my side as well. After all I am still on a mission towards finding the path to ideality. As a matter of fact, I am doing it right now as we converse (not literally), cribbing about people who complain! We complain almost every hour of the day. For some of us, complaining has become habitual.

Why do we complain?

Think a little bit more on the instances we complain, why do we do it? The answer is that we tend to do go against nature! There is no point in fighting against it. Warriors are known for the battle they chose! Fight the fight that we can win! When we know that we cannot win we end up complaining!

Be it a thing or person or a circumstance, the beauty of nature is that it doesn’t hold on to your own laws of expectation always. It has its own way of expressing its preferences! When a person that we know (or atleast we think) is acting in a way defying the laws of expectations, we result in complaining! Forgetting the fact that it’s us in the first place framed the mindset of such a characterization and expecting the person to follow the pattern. It goes well with circumstances as well as things of any kind!

Can we ever quit and start enjoying those imperfections! Or at the least accept it as imperfections.

I tried and it’s quite possible in sometimes. The way I chose to betray my complaining syndrome is to practice the "Blame it on myself" strategy! Take Cricket for example, I tried to stop cribbing about the pitch quality on low-kept balls. Started paying more attention on covering the wickets and play those drives and punches ruling out the impossible penetrations! I stopped cribbing about the quality of vegetarian food that I get in the hangouts across the bible-belt and started to enjoy those fresh vegetables and salads with those different dressings followed by those late night curd-rice-stints!

For a moment, think from the other perspective. Why the person would behave in such a way…or why did the situation unfolded in a particular way and why aren’t we accepting it. It’s reasoning! Living forward and learning backward! Possessing whatever you wanted in life is not always an easy thing to achieve, at the same time accepting and appreciating whatever you possess is an art! (Guess I am an arranged-marriage material)

On the other hand if you fail to complain about/acknowledge your own imperfections, you would never propagate towards achieving the unachievable! The idealistic case! Complaining about yourself to yourself is something that everyone needs to practice along with the obvious of amusements of enjoying the progressions that you gain from the earlier complaints!

Positive perception is ideality, reaching it is like realizing God or understanding self. One cannot achieve it easily. At the same time, if we can acknowledge the fact that "all we need is just that positive perception" to enjoy those imperfections which are strangled with the distributed beauties, the thorns become invisible and all you see is just those rose petals peeping in with a great smile!

New Student Emails!

Throw some sensible ones!!

Apologies for the promptness in delaying the posts that were not supposed to be delayed but to be prompt! It’s been more than week since I posted anything interesting! May be I was partially motivated and directed towards research and development! Now that the advisor-factor has been negotiated through the scheduled weekly meetings, I can start thinking away from the thermodynamic spectrum with the dell pad thought-production systems! The past week was hectic with cricket tournament followed by the sweet victory and hence the delay is justified!

Anyways, I started to write something on Responsibility and it occurred to me that it would be too heavy a thought to transfer and hence here am with something lighter ….

We have this phenomenal way of trusting our standards and presuming it to be high. I have done this all through my life and failed miserably at times. Especially through electronic communications! Sending emails to someone with subject “check out the attachment” and forgetting to attach it in the first place. Signing “Lots of Love” to a professional email! Things like that pops up every now and then, but the frequency curve hopefully goes down, especially when you claim to have developed the so-called “professionalism” and have that reputation (false) to protect!

If you are a graduate student here in the States, I’m sure you would acknowledge this post! Most of the Indian grad students here would have to contact strangers far across, electronically, to know the status of the assistantships, living style et al. No matter how much time the pre-existing graduate students have already spent on clarifying everything on the association website, it takes lots of courage and little less brains for the new students to ask those questions that would make you ponder, “Did I ask these kinds of questions?” Ironically, I had to be connected through these communications! Here are some of those email communications that I still have in my inbox! I haven’t changed a single word from those emails I received except for those identity revelations!

hi bharat,
u got my VISA today.......

A little less attention to detail changes the whole meaning!, u and I are always closer together in a keypad!! We can always look back as we read again before clicking that send button!

I am a guy from Hyderabad so can you suggest any shops to get the clothing that you suggested in the link of the Indian association.... Please wish me luck as i am going for my VISA on 19th....

I was rolling on the floor for this! This guy assumed that I was from Hyderabad….well I have this weird last name which motivated him… BBrao…does it sound Hyderbadi?! Apparently it did for him!

Dear annaya, (Some start to make relationships!)
I would like to know which of the following I need to buy in INDIA. 1. sweaters 2. wind cheaters 3. blazer/ suit 4. scarf/ muffler 5. woolen gloves 6. monkey cap (ROTFL :)) 7. rugs / blankets 8. comforters 9. umbrella , torch , college bag 10.rice & dals 11.alarm clock 12.razor blades 13.tiffin box And a few more Questions. are pirated CD's like Songs or software written allowed.

To be really frank, my dad was a bit nervous in sending me there since I am his only child (eklautha beta)
My dad says he is happy about someone from India being there he was extremely pleased.

Would it ever occur to them that somneone on the other side is not asking for any details! Unnecessary details are always a turnoff! I used to get emails addressing me …Hello Barath Sir, Hello Prof. Barath, Pranam Barathji assuming that the president of an organization is always an old man like S.D. Sharma. The funny part is that most of the people who email me like this are much older than I was.

Well, everyone makes mistakes. But one should never forget to step ahead and learn something out of it! In one of my early correspondences to a grad student, I signed the email with “Love”. The student was kind enough to thrash me with that “don’t try to act weird/smart” response! From then, I always pay that little more attention when I am finishing up an electronic communication.

The point I am trying to focus was on the assumed standards on standards! Setting high standards is fine, but gauging it is very important. High, low, small, big ...all these terms are relative to something. So it is when it comes to standards. If we assume to have set high standards for ourselves, then justify it! On what basis do we think that our standards are high? On instances when we communicate to a stranger whose standards are of no knowledge to us, it is important that we have to be really careful with the word transfer.

I remember this from one of those Steven Segal movies (guess its Under Siege 2) that I generally hate, “Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups”. Probably the only saner thing from the martial art master! Absolutely true! Assuming your assumptions to be right is as bad as it can get! So stay away from it and learn the art of electronic communications!

Superstitions

I was hoping to write this as a non-cricket post but anyways…I tried

Yesterday, I was engaged in those daily meaningless pre-game activities that I rumble upon every time before I get to the field! Completely superstitious, like slamming the door or having the collar loose and stuffs like that. Performance was never credited to these, but failures are always directed towards not following one of those activities.

Superstitions are part of anyone who believes in winning and has a slight inclination towards the thought that everything is connected to everything in ways unbeknown to us. But, there is a very thin line that separates sanity and superstitious beliefs. How far are we away from self-confidence and believe in those things that you don’t know for sure is connected to the outcome!

I still remember my school/college days, where I had to pencil my name before I see the first question in the question paper. If in someway I was forced to see the questions before the name rule, I end up writing the answers to my true caliber, which by the way SUCKS!! End up either losing a lot of marks because of my attention (lack of) to details or doing something weird that I usually don’t. May be I was flustered by the fact that I knew that I did not follow the usual. But the outcome is of very high importance that most of us dont have the luxury to be pragmatic and hence virtually forced to follow the protocols, which is framed by ourselves out of nowhere.

Supporters of superstitions are behind the theory that If something can be thought of (=is possible) and is not known (=proven or observed) yet - it is most probably due to the shortcomings of Science and not because it does not exist. Hence the motivation towards reasoning the saner varieties that we were told to do by grannies of the household, like the viboodhi to sleep to absorb those bad waters (or something like that). Today's superstition could well become tomorrow's Science provided with the right theoretical developments.

These beliefs are harmless as long as it’s not hurting anyone on the progress. At the same time one should not let it flirt with the self-confidence. If one let their superstitious belief propose to their self-confidence, the baby that they make together is not as strong as it is supposed to be.

On ending this on a lighter note today, in one of the advisor’s out-of-town days, I asked Mr.G to get me some of the international Cricket superstitions. Here we are with some interesting ones; I guess you would know most of them. You are welcome to add something that you know!

Sunny Gavaskar always used to ground his bat first before bringing his right foot into position, while taking guard.

Kapil Dev used to wear socks first to his left leg.

Dilip Vengsarkar, who took to captaincy in the late 1980s, never shaved during the five-day Test matches.

1983 World Cup: India was down in the dumps in game against Zimbabwe during the 1983 World Cup. Suddenly Kapil Dev began stroking the ball. The manager of the team Man Singh saw this and shouted instructions: "Nobody would move from his seat." Srikkanath was standing outside the dressing room on this cold, windy day, with a cup of coffee in his hand. And he didn't move for the next two hours or so! He wanted to go to the loo, but the entire team said: no! It stayed that way till Kapil walked back with a triumphant 175 not out. Not just Srikkanath but the entire team stood at the same spots. It was one of the greatest knocks in any form of cricket. The miracle happened and India went on to claim the World Cup.

Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar with all those big tons behind him also is the superstitious Tendulkar always wears his left pad first and when he was captain would not take off his kit till the innings was over!

Rahul Dravid, The Wall wears his right pad first as a matter of superstition.

Sanath Jayasurya, the big hitter from Sri Lanka always searches for something in his pocket while batting. Maybe it is a lucky charm. But it has certainly worked for Sanath, especially against India!

Steve Waugh used to carry a red handkerchief in his left pocket, which was given to him by his late grandfather. And then there was his battered baggy green cap that Waugh persisted with.

Md. Azharuddin’s "taabeez" always hung out when he came out to bat. No wonder then that Azhar slammed three straight Test tons against England apart from being one of the most prolific batsmen that India had ever produced.

The Bengal Tiger, Sourav Ganguly carries a photo of his guruji in his pocket when he is enters the field. It seems to have worked well in the past…does he still have his pockets!?

Remember that 10 wicket hall taken by Anil Kumble against Pakistan at the Feroze Shah Kotla? In that match as a superstition Sachin used to give Kumble's sweater and cap to the umpire before Anil was to bowl an over, and every time Sachin did it Kumble got a wicket in that very over.