Nav's Corner

At the cross roads..

2010-04-26T06:16:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I was forced to reflect on what I really want to do in life ? A big lifestyle change was the trigger. After having a baby, I was off from work for more than a year. My going back to work meant day care for LP. What feel like teething issues now, then, felt like mammoth problems. LP was not getting on well in the nursery, she was also suddenly exposed to a host of infections, it was getting really difficult for R to mange his busy schedule at work and do the extra lot of driving. I was working part-time, still, it was very very difficult to concentrate on work – especially, when I knew LP was not happy at the day care. On top of that, the weather was possibly the worst we had ever seen, typical!

So, there I was, feeling miserable and torn between two sides. There were so many unanswered questions hovering in my mind: when I was at work, I could not concentrate and kept thinking about how my one-year-old daughter would be faring with a total bunch of strangers.

What if they do not take care of her properly ?

What if something went wrong ?

At that minute, some trivial tasks at work would come into focus and make me feel – “While my little baby might not be getting changed and fed well, this is not what I really want to do!” . The fact that there might be inane and boring tasks in every possible profession escaped my rational thought. I was feeling extremely guilty and miserable wherever I was. When I had to rush home early from work, I was feeling guilty of not being able to do justice to my job. Thoughts had started along the lines of leaving my job all together, but, I was unsure of that too.

If, I quit my job in such a down market, what are the chances of getting one when I really wanted ?

If, I stay at home, will I feel miserable and lost?

Most importantly, can we afford it ?

During this time period, I was searching the internet on ways to find a job that can be done from home, while I take care of LP. I was also in deep thought about what I really wanted to do in life. I do enjoy my current job, but more than often, I feel, "I am destined to do something else.."

Has the Indian education system and peer pressure landed me, where I shouldn’t have landed?

Why do these concerned and unconcerned people keep ramming their thoughts about the best possible career down our throats ?

Am I just part of a flock of sheep which crossed the pond somehow, but, did not know why it crossed ?

Even if we assume, the career I have chosen is right for me, I still wish, I had done much better in it. There were so many things I could have done better, there were so many decisions I could have done with, there was so much of hard work I could have put into – but, fortunately or unfortunately, I cannot change the past..So, may be, better late than never, I should start thinking about what I can change about my future ..

While life gets mundane, there are certain things I enjoy doing. So, I claim these to be my hobbies - reading, cooking and writing.

Can I turn one of these into a profession ?
Am I, good enough to do so ?
If, I did, will I enjoy them the same way as I do now ?

All these questions and no plausible answers..

PS: At those cross-roads and what felt like intense pressure to do the right thing, I was on the verge to call it quits on my current job. However, R stopped me from doing so, he gave me the confidence that we will somehow pull it through. And we still are pulling through.. We moved LP to a different nursery, it is much further and out of the way for us (means a lot more driving for R until I get the driving license, a different post on that later). On the plus side, LP loves her new nursery. Touch wood. So, am back at my current job, just going with the tide and not pressuring my brain for any sensible thoughts..!

The early days

2009-11-09T07:55:00.000-08:00

It is amazing how soon you forget things .. The first time I saw and held my lil’ one is still fresh in my memory but everything else is a haze. Right, trying to remember now..the first memory apparently goes back to very long nights when we used to struggle to remain awake :D. During the first three months there was not a single hour on the clock that we didn’t see. Some days she would wake up at midnight, some days at 1pm some days at 2pm and so on. Getting to a routine was a far-cry. It took her the first few days to get adjusted to the light and all the surroundings which were obviously quite different when she was in the darkness of the womb. Meanwhile, friends and family poured in their wishes and enquiries in every possible mode. Some called, some sent messages over internet, some visited and some sent cards and gifts by snail mail. We had organised a small party on the 28^th day which went well in spite of my clumsiness and last minute preparation.

Soon my father had to go back to India as he had to attend his law classes and more importantly prepare for the elections. He was going to canvass from this party. He was quite sad to leave his new found love (that is of course LP) and it also meant he had to be away from my mother (this was a first in decades) . But he was also happy to get back to his routine and it was a bit suffocating to stay cooped up in the house because of the winter. After he left, my mother was around to help us for another two months. She would take care of the cooking, the housework and take turns on looking after the baby and we used to take care of the things she could not handle. Soon though, she had to leave too, mainly because of her job commitments. It was such a great help to have her around, but I hardly realised that until she left. It was quite difficult in the initial days after she left but we somehow started to manage things.

LP was very quiet in her initial days, she would just lie down and smile at us. People suggested to be careful as soon as she entered her 3^rd month, they said she could start rolling over anytime now. So, our cautions rose and we started putting pillows beside her every time she was on the family bed and kept a watchful eye on her almost all the time. She would lift her legs high up in the air and wiggle them but that’s about it. It was great fun to watch her, she was super-attracted to the lights, wherever we went she would choose a favourite light on the ceiling and kept staring at it. It was not just the lights but anything which came into focus for those lil’ eyes, she would stare at them for quite a long time.. It is amazing to see how the lil’ life starts to take in all the surroundings..

Autumn blues..

2009-10-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

I can see this beautiful tree through my bedroom window, don’t know which one it is but soon it’s going to succumb to nature. Already, there are more yellow leaves than the green ones. Soon all of them will be gone from my window-view and I will be staring at a skelton which was a plush green tree in summer. It is such an irony that people wear more clothes to protect themselves from winter while some of these trees become bare..

Few days ago, I saw a kid outside the Shrewsbury information centre having such great fun with the autumn leaves which fell to the ground. He was making the best of the crispy, rustly dryness of the leaves. How I wished to do the same..revoke the light-heartedness of my childhood.

Ah, it’s 4pm and seems like the golden rays of the sun put a new light to the tree’s yellow. It has a strange aura now, the kind which materialises just before sunset. It is telling me to mentally prepare for the season with shortened days & artificial lights. Here comes winter...

Our dream come true..

2009-10-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

We did the shopping, arranged tickets and visa for my parents, hired a cleaner to deep clean the house and hubby rolled his sleeves for some serious DIY job and re-did the family bathroom. I was off from my work end of November, my parents arrived on 3rd of December. I was very excited to see them, and really really wanted to show them around the town at least and introduce them to all the logistics around here. My due date was December 18th, but fate had something else in store. I went into labour on 7th morning, it could be because I was quite active around that time or because of the long ride to the airport. Am going to spare much of all the details here, keeping in mind the diverse readers here. Anyway, after a long labour, our little princess (going to call her LP on this blog) was born in the early hours of December 8th. The moment she was put in my arms, I forgot all the pain and trauma. Hubby was relieved, thrilled and speechless for more than a while. We both were exhausted and in a total awe with the tiny little bundle who was in fact a dream come true. We just kept telling ourselves that we are now the parents of this tiny bundle with those ten little toes and ten little fingers.. Hubby went away to convey the news to family and friends and I was just sore and sleepless. After he came back, we were shifted to the general ward and hubby went off home to get some sleep and bring back my parents with him during the visiting hours. I couldn’t get any shut-eye, and kept looking and feeling my darling over and over. There were other new moms in the ward and their babies kept crying often and on. My LP just slept and slept.. After what seemed like ages hubby and parents came to visit. Mom and Dad although jet-lagged were thrilled to see their first grand-child. After the first day, what seemed like a miracle slowly started becoming a reality. The fight to keep ourselves awake and feed her/change her became the sole motive in the lives of all four of us.

Pati, Patni and the desperate parents ???

2009-10-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

What kind of parents would want to see their babies in such torturous shows? Are they so desperate to get their children on television? And what kind of a show is it? I could hardly watch it for 5 minutes and the entertainment value seemed to be 0% with a constantly whining baby. The so-called celebrity couples, I could just puke on them (especially this lady) and NDTV imagine for telecasting such a ridiculous programme..

The Expecting Phase

2009-10-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

When we found out that we are expecting a new addition to the family, it was like a dream come true. We were excited but very very anxious. There were some complications, so family advised to keep it a hush-hush thing until I am through the first trimester. In-laws were here with us, which helped a lot, as I was supposed to only potter around and not to do any heavy work. The concerned family that I have, wouldn’t let me step down the bed/sofa. Felt nice to have such caring and affectionate family, but I was also getting very restless and bored. Was trying to read all the pregnancy related books and material but was extremely tired and nauseous. It wasn’t very bad, but I was relieved when I hit the 12 week mark. It took almost that long to digest the fact that we are going to be parents soon, in-charge of a tiny new being who will monopolise our lives ;-)

Comparatively, second trimester was a breeze. It was just a bit weird at work, considering the fact that I had not shared the news with many people. I was feeling conscious that people are staring at my growing belly or eyeing my double-size lunch box, ha ha.. There were no other complications, but hay-fever and dental problems cropped up. I couldn’t take the regular medicines so it was quite a feat to tackle those.

Third trimester rolled on and I was growing bigger and bigger. Lots of preparation was pending, parents were coming down to help, so we had to arrange for their visa and tickets, then there was the baby shopping to do and also get the house ready to welcome the little one.

Meanwhile hubby had to fly to US for a week-long conference. Normally I would have jumped up to the chance and gone with him but I was in a state where it was not advisable to fly, so had to let it go. But, where would I stay? Hubby said a big no-no to staying alone and I was wary too, so off I went to stay with a friend and her cute little daughter. Coincidentally friend’s husband was also on an out-of-town training, so it was just us ladies. Travelling to work was tedious ( am thankful to the colleague who helped) and was missing hubby but it was nice to spend time with the friend and get to know her better. It was an absolute delight to play with her little daughter.

Anyway, everything was slowly falling into place and we were getting ready for the big day. But deep in my heart I was scared and kept telling myself everything will be fine...

Where does time go ?

2009-10-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

Wow! It is October 2009 and I have a very faint memory of last seeing the blogger dashboard (more than a year ago). In all these months I did not blog, I would have felt the itch-to-write more than a few times, but there was simply no time or opportunity to do so. Actually, life has been so eventful, every moment was worth blogging, so I decided it is best to sit back, relax and enjoy :)

I am now journeying through one of the most enjoyable and beautiful phases of life – Motherhood. Soon, it is going to be an year since our little princess came into our lives. Actually, if we count the pregnancy months, it will be even longer. I have lost the count of days, I keep forgetting what date and day it is, more so because I am off on maternity leave,. Alas, where does the time go?

First, it was the anxiety and thrill of pregnancy, then, it was the pain and relief of the Miracle called birth, next it was pure awe, new found joy and sheer exhaustion of being a new parent. Beautiful moments and new challenges followed on when she was 3-6 months old, after that, it was the much awaited, exciting but a hectic trip to India. Now, we are back in UK in the pre-toddler phase where not just activity but hyper-activity seems to be the key phrase. Will delve on each of these phases in detail..soon!

PS: Blogger looks so out-of-date, time to move-on to a newer look, hopefully sometime soon.

What do I like to read?

2008-03-18T05:32:00.000-07:00

Recently whenever the subject of reading came up, different people have asked me what kind of books I read. My current answer to them is "Well, I do not do science-fiction or fantasy, nor thrillers and investigative novels, no romance, no chick-lit, absolutely no-horror, not complete autobiographies, but books that are somewhat close to real lives". The answer is getting quite long as I am unable to coin a phrase to describe the kind of books I like to read.

Like I said in this post, I love to get a peek into people's lives of may be a certain locality or time. But that is not all about it. Occasionally, I have picked booker winners, although I hate to say that I chose only the authors who are award winners. I am sure there are unrecognized brilliant authors too. So, can someone please help me ? These are the last 10 books I have enjoyed:

The Kite Runner
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Shantaram
The Inheritance of Loss
Catch-22
Memoirs of Geisha
Angela's Ashes
The Clockwork Orange
Family Matters
Life of Pi

Taare Zameen Par : Movie Review

2008-02-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

I had caught glimpses of this movie on the TV and heard about it from a few friends. Found a website and were all set to watch it online, but the print was not easy on our eyes. So, my better half promised we would watch it in the theatre. Few weekends ago, we DID and it was totally worth it. Although it is a little late in the day, I cannot stop myself from writing about this movie.

Before I saw Taare Zameen Par, I thought it is about a special kid. Only after watching the movie, I understood the real meaning of its by-line "Every child is special". If you have not seen this movie and are under the assumption that it is a kids’ movie, beat it. It is a movie featured on kids and an 8-year-old plays the lead role, but Taare Zameen Par is a must watch for all the educators, parents and parents-to-be.

The protagonist, Ishaan Avasti(played by Darsheel Safary) is the younger child in a middle class family based in Mumbai. Other than Ishaan, his family consists of a loving mother, a pedantic father and an overachiever elder brother. Ishaan is a different kid, he has trouble reading and writing but he understands colours and animals very well. He is also an excellent painter. After several mishaps and bad feedback from his school, Ishaan's parents decide to put him in a boarding school, even if it is a bit over their budget. Ishaan is unhappy with the decision; his mother and elder brother sympathise with him but father seems unaffected. The boarding school doesn't bring any life changing difference in Ishaan's performance and rather drives him to go into a shell. When everything seems very bleak, a new temporary art teacher, Ram Shanker Nikumbh (played by Aamir Khan) enters the scene in the second half of the movie. This new art teacher has a different perception of educating children because of his own experiences and a genuine sensitivity towards every child's different needs & interests.

Ishaan's daily encounters with his parents & teachers, who are extremely unhappy with his performance in the class and exams, make us all sympathetic towards him while watching him on the screen. But when it comes to real life, how many people can act differently and notice what is actually going wrong? Something like what Nikumbh does in the second half! The movie is more than a lesson to the viewers on how to understand and tend to a dyslexic child.
Taare Zameen Par has done enough justice to match reality of an average middle class family in India. I was relieved that this masterpiece gives a different treatment to the stereotypical characters we come across in the real life. I was also relieved the movie was not "yet another depiction of", how a poor child suffers due to the ill-treatment of the society and negligence of his parents.

This movie is also a teaser for the whole education system of India. It does not take a genius to see that the Indian education system is not the most practical system in this world. Nikumbh challenges the school principal and Ishaan's parents with some intriguing (but totally right) questions. He does provide some solutions but, I like the way, he left these quite open-ended. No single movie can single-handedly address all such issues.

Many scenes were brilliantly composed. These scenes had a rare, but right, blend of creativity and poignance, which moved me intensely. For instance:

The first scene where Ishaan captures a fish from the dirty gutter and gives it a home in his Aquarium.
The scene, which aptly portrays how the everyday rat-race takes over our lives. In contrast, Ishaan bunks school for a day and becomes an onlooker on 'the road'. When he confesses to his elder brother on the same night, the later rightly admonishes Ishaan for his guts. I agree, it is dangerous, but how many of us get such an experience at all. It’s a boon to have a protective parent, I totally agree, but we should not oversee the fact that an open mind to provide children with an extent of 'freedom of choice' is equally important.
The breathtaking views from the Panchgani boarding school left me awestruck.
Not much words are used in the scene where a simple action of showing the flip book to Ishaan reveals that his new art teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh cared enough about him to visit the former's house.
The last few scenes left me completely teary eyed. You have to watch it to experience it.

I very much liked the way this movie relays some great messages through the art teacher, Nikumbh. In the first part you see a child doing certain things, which are not considered normal. It is shown that the child is well cared for and given special attention by his family. The boy, however, poses a big problem to his parents by not being able to 'perform' to the right standards. In the second part of the movie, you come to know why Ishaan actually does what he does and what the people concerned (parents, teachers, siblings & friends) fail to see beyond the symptoms of the 'said' under-performance.

Darsheel Safary did a tremendous job at bringing us the character of Ishaan Avasti. Hope this genius child actor gets more such opportunities and treats us with more of his talent. Amole Gupte & his wife Deepa Bhatia should be acclaimed for coming up with such a great story, doing all the research and groundwork. It looks like their contributions in the form of creative direction, editing, etc were substantial for this film to be well-received by the audience. Writer-Producer clashes or whatever, Aamir Khan deserves more than a remarkable award as the debut director of this movie. He definitely deserves brownie points for bringing us 'the artistic work of Amole and Deepa', in full colours by donning three different caps at a single time - producer, director and actor.

Whispers: Short fiction contest at Jason's

2008-02-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

Story tellers! Go over to Jason's site, if you are interested in dabbling with fiction. It was fun participating in his previous contests. Last day for submission is 11:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 27th (Eastern Time, United States).

New Gadget to 'kindle' your reading hobby

2007-11-22T13:07:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon this newsweek article today through the del.icio.us popular list. Amazing! The moment you feel that you have seen the most cutting-edge technology, something new springs up. An e-Reader. Now that I have read about "the future of reading", somehow it seems like this was inevitable. How could I not see it coming ? The newsweek article was lengthy but, I had all my eyes/ears up for it.From the article I quote,

"Technology," computer pioneer Alan Kay once said, "is anything that was invented after you were born." So it's not surprising, when making mental lists of the most whiz-bangy technological creations in our lives, that we may overlook an object that is superbly designed, wickedly functional, infinitely useful and beloved more passionately than any gadget in a Best Buy: the book. It is a more reliable storage device than a hard disk drive, and it sports a killer user interface. (No instruction manual or "For Dummies" guide needed.) And, it is instant-on and requires no batteries. Many people think it is so perfect an invention that it can't be improved upon, and react with indignation at any implication to the contrary.

Yes - "the book", we take it for granted, don't we ? Also all the zillion number of other objects which evolved with each and every tiny step of mankind. Recently, we have been keenly watching the TV show "Dragon's Den". It makes me aware that so many people come up with so many ideas and only a few click with the right match of creativity, market research, sales perception, everyday user-friendliness and the luck factor. Those are the umpteen number of things we see/use in our daily lives. And here we are - the rest of us- who just use them and carry on with our mundane lives as though we have had a hard day. Going back to the topic of reading, I had mused a few blog posts ago, that the paper and pen we are using today might be extinct soon. Turned out that even before I conceived that idea in my brain someone had already put that on their agenda.

Whatever it is, an e-Reader seems like the next generation's BOOK. For a moment I thought it wouldn't work but, when I see the synonymous effect of email with respect to snail mail, it is inevitable that such gadgets (if not Kindle) will someday, surely replace our traditional books.The future generation will never know the experience of our paper & print culture, the same way we cannot imagine how it was to dip a feather in the ink and write on a scroll. Hmm, it will take a few life times to understand and enjoy the depths and lengths of the evolution of each object in its creation.

Restless Dawn - Short fiction contest

2007-11-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

Jason is organising another short fiction contest, this time the theme is Restless Dawn. My entry to the contest can be found here..

Email etiquette

2007-11-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

I am sure many of us follow some unwritten etiquette while using email at work. I am also sure that there are many people who are very unprofessional and awkward at their emails -even at work. However, you might be relieved to hear that I am not going to dwell on that. This etiquette is just limited to personal emails. Every now and then, I receive certain emails that are quite annoying; sometimes they are from very close friends. So close that if they were anywhere nearby, I could have twisted their ears and set them straight :oP If you want to stop annoying me or start annoying me, read the following and make necessary amends. That's about it.

The first rule of emailing: start by addressing the receiver properly. You can write "Hi," or "Hello," without personating the receiver if and only if you are writing to someone without a name, e.g. an organisation's helpdesk email account. Even in that case you can say 'Dear Sir/Madam' or whatever appropriate locale specifics. But, if you know you are emailing 'Joe Bloggs' start with 'Hello Joe' or 'Dear Joe', am sure that might make Joe's day :) am not kidding.

Subject: It is there for a purpose. If you are emailing for a specific reason like sharing your contact information put "Contact Details" in the subject. Won't hurt, really! In fact, imagine the receiver decides to send you a birthday gift and starts searching his/her emails for your contact information. The subject might come to help you receive the birthday gift in time.

When you are replying to an email please read it patiently and take into account what the sender has written; the information they are trying to convey to you and those that are in the form of questions. When they mention "I have switched jobs, now I am a circus clown, enjoying it very much" , acknowledge with a "Hearty Congratulations" or whatever is appropriate. When they ask you questions like "What are your plans for this Easter vacation" reply back saying ,"We are going to have a house full of guests" or whatever. I mean these are the basics of any email conversation, even a primary school kid probably knows that.

I am not saying one-liners are not OK. Especially, if you are having a chat kind of conversation with a friend, you would want to leave out all the nitty-gritty stuff which, can be assumed - like the addressing and signing off part. Also, I prefer one-liners to "no-replies".

When you are replying to an email make sure whether you want to 'Reply All' or Reply just to the sender. This happens a lot in the case of e-groups, the reply goes to everyone in the group.

When sending an email to large number of people it is prudent to bcc (blind copy) every one's name especially if it is not a specific group of people who know each other.

Never ever send an email to everyone in your contacts list without checking all the addressees. One of my acquaintances used to send irrelevant forwards to everyone on her contact list including some 'ContactUs' email ids for jobsites (e.g info@naukri.com).

The SMS or telegraphic language - please keep it to a minimal usage. It might shower you the gift of convenience and give you a nerdy reputation. However, no email service charges you for the number of letters you are using. Some of the shortcuts like 'u' instead of 'you' and 'r' instead of 'are' are quite common and known to many, but, if you have a spare minute, use the expanded word instead.

Spell check, please.

A forwarded email is a monster. Sometimes, I dread the thought of opening it, esp. when it is from a particular sender who is quite adept at wrecking my nerves especially when sending forwards. Wait a minute, I have never ever received a personal email from them, it has always been nasty forwarded emails with hardly one or two good ones.

In the case of those so-called entertaining forwards, kindly delete all the trailing email ids and junk like header/footer information before you forward on to other people. If you do not do so, the purpose is beaten. There are very less people who will have the right mind and time to search out the actual content. Take a moment to delete all the unnecessary information, keep only the relevant content and send it on. If you do not have the time to do so, why forward ?

Those chain emails, ignore them. Especially the ones which shower you with ill-luck if you do not forward it to 100 other people within the next 5 minutes. Silly they are, don't you think ? I do respect peoples' right to believe in things quite blindly, but why do it by troubling others with our own spam ?

Email attachments: Use them selectively. If you would like to share something you found on the internet do not copy-paste the whole thing into an email. If the sender has the facility to just follow a link and see it on the internet just as you did, send only the permalink. Similarly, if you want to send pictures to multiple people, upload them to a photo sharing website(cannot vouch for how secure they are) and send a link to everyone instead of cramping every one's mailboxes.

After reading through whatever I have just written, I feel, I sound like Miss.Truss of Eats, Shoots and Leaves. . Never mind, hope I got my point across. Happy Emailing..

A trip to the neck of woods: Little Ness

2007-09-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, while we were planning our easter vacation, we talked about how nice it would be to visit the country side rather than a touristy city/town (as we usually do). A little bit of research on the internet, few phone calls later, I found the perfect place. Since, I was limited in the driving department, did not want to hassle R with driving too far. The place was, literally, in the neck of the woods - a quiet country side farm house, at least that is what the pictures and the listing on the internet said.

We started off sevenish in the evening, the rain still fighting like an undettered soldier. Just minutes away from our destination, at a road fork, we went off in the wrong direction . Guess, I just grabbed a few words, from our host's directions (like 'white', 'pigeon', 'pub' 'cottage'). So, we ended up in front of a white cottage, a really old dubious looking house. The house was facing the road, no drive way, and looked eerily vacant. As my nerves were chilling, I stepped on to the porch and rang the bell, spotting the cobwebs all over the roof. After a couple of minutes, I phoned our host, desperately hoping that this is not the place we booked . To my great relief, she confirmed that we were, infact, at the wrong place and directed us to our destination. She even came out and stood in front of the entrance, in spite of the irritating rain (sweet gesture).That very moment, I felt re-assured our choice was not wrong, even if we had to shake ourselves a bit to squeeze the car inside the tiny driveway.

Pleasantaries later, the lady showed us to our room and answered our queries on where to go to eat, etc. It was not just a room, we also had a cosy sitting area with a few steps leading to even cosier ensuite bed room. Freshly plucked flowers, antique furniture and my most favorite figurines from 'The Leonardo Collection' gave us a very beautiful feeling. The portable 11 inch tv looked so out-of-place. Instead of routinely switching it on, we opened the windows to get a view of farm animals grazing near by. Our next predicament was to find a place to eat. Even if the landlady had given us the directions, we had to reverse the car out and drive through the country road. We fared well though, ending up in the Sky hotel of Nescliffe, which turned into none other than a Chinese place(R's favorite). I was happy too, because I could custom order my favorite - Thai veg green curry. An absolutely delicious meal later, we were waiting for the bill and quite unexpectedly, our attendant brought us a fresh fruit platter. Freshly sliced melons with some grapes, it was an absolute delight after such a sumptuous meal and totally unpaid for :) Aww.. the joys of being in a countryside!

Next day was another dream come true.. waking up to the sounds of cock-a-doodle-doo, literally. Just about six hours of sleep, but still we felt fully recharged. It was amazing to be up and ready by 8am on a Saturday. Some appetising English breakfast with the usual stuff like eggs, toast, baked beans and bacon (for R), we also discovered this delicious cereal made of oats, barley and hazelnut. After breakfast our landlady quickly showed us the farm and we clicked these pics..

Paid for the stay in cash and started off to vist the Adcote School for girls (once a stately home) and then headed to the food festival of Oswestry. Pics from the food festival!

It would have been nice if it were not raining on the Friday, but hey, we got to experience a typical Shropshire countryside in a typical English weather.

-I did freak out just a little when we had to drive on the narrow country road, which was hardly enough for one car, kept praying that we will not encounter any oncoming vehicles.

-Getting back to the farm house after our dinner at the village hotel/restaurant. It was pitch dark, raining and the road seemed to be leading into deep and deeper woods. Having the GPS didn't help much, the only thing that did was R's direction sense and accidental memory of spotting a white car near our destination.

Recycling: Doing our bit

2007-08-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

-First major achievement for us is: minimising the number of plastic bags. We usually buy our groceries from Tesco, so, I had bought a reusable bag from them for 48p. I make it a point to keep this bag in the car and take it everytime we go grocery shopping. On top of the reusable bag we tend to take one/two plastic bags for the frozen stuff ('coz that makes the bag wet n' messy) However, I make sure that I recycle most of these bags. This saves me the trouble of storing/discarding all these difficult-to-manage plastic bags and guess helps the environment a little bit. Other than this, when I go on an odd & unplanned shopping trip - I tell 'No' for a shopping bag, if I already have one that can accomodate what I purchased.

- We have been religiously separating all the rubbish and filling the kerbside box with all paper, cans, cardboard, glass bottles, etc.

- Growing some vegetables - We have started growing some tomatoes and herbs. More on this in a different post. We have not yet reaped the fruit yet, but, I am hoping our carbon footprint has definitely reduced with this..

I am now a member of the local freecycler's group through which, we recently got some top soil and bricks for the garden . There are lot of things at home that we no longer use and I am planning to post these off to someone who can benefit from them. Also, when our green bin was overflowing, we had made use of the community recycling centre to dispose off the wood and garden waste a few weeks ago.

We have been getting to work fairly early these days, so I do not have the overwhelming guilt to rush to my seat. I now take the three flights of stairs as opposed to the elevator/lift..

I have tried to spread the awareness of recycling to my group of friends ..

I still have to work on :
- Carrying a reusable bag at all times and getting the carry bag count to a minimal.
- Minimising food waste & Utilising leftovers
- Minimising the use of paper towels in kitchen - I just cannot resist using them
- Spend less time in front of the computer and tv (yeah right!)

I wish supermarkets like ASDA and TESCO start giving the option of 'paper bags' as many stores do in the States
I wish someone introduces/exports the Jute bags we use in India for shopping, they are just amazing, I am planning to bring one when I go back home this time.
I wish store managers and people who work in a store don't give strange looks when I tell them, "I do not need a bag" .

With all things to be considered house keeping is getting more and more complex. I bow down to all those efficient home makers who keep their family happy, healthy, hygenic, economical and still work good to their conscious..My public apologies if I ever under-estimated the planning and intellegince required to manage a household.

The art of writing

2007-08-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

I curl my fingers to point the pen in between my thumb and index finger, rest the base of my palm on the table and scribble. Yes, scribble! I cannot write anymore, only scribble. In the past decade, my hand-writing has gone to dogs to say the least. Last time when I sent a letter home, my parents were flabbergasted to look at how my hand-writing has deteriorated. In the past, one thing they were and even I was definitely proud of - my handwriting. In school, our English teacher taught us hand writing in 7th std. All of us were given four ruled notebooks custom-made to improve hand writing and he taught us the boundaries of each letter in the alphabet. How the long of 'h' should go till the top-most line and how the tail of 'g' dragged till the bottom line and the other letters strictly stayed in between the second and third lines. You might not believe this, but most of my classmates fell into his handwriting spell and cultivated (almost) a look-alike handwriting. Thanks to TGK sir, I had improved from a writing, which needed a microscope - to something that is visible to the naked eye and authoritatively good hand-writing. In our pre-computer era, people used to ask me to write messages/addresses on cards or write announcements on the notice board. Most of my classmates wrote in my autograph that they really admire my handwriting.

However, since the time I have become a keyboard slave, things have changed. My hand invariably hurts whenever I have to write more than a few words. More than often, it takes me a while to understand what I had written earlier. If I have a really nice pen/pencil and I have ample time & patience to write what I want to, then the writing is bearable. I wish someone imposes on me 'Write a page everyday' assignment and I get back my old hand-writing. I dread the thought that pens and pencils might one day become totally obsolete :(

PS: Apparently today is international left handers' day. Did not know before that such a day exists. It is interesting to know how minorities like left-handers struggle with day to day tasks and how this club is helping them overcome it.

Listening past-time

2007-08-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

Ever seen anyone sitting in front of their workstation, tapping their feet or their hand rhythmically and trying hard not to be too obvious. That's me these days. R (my better half) got me the new Sony Ericsson w850i and am overwhelmed with the number of great features it has; best feature being the radio. Guess, I am making the most of it. It has a walkman, too, just loaded my all-time favorites but, I usually end up listening to the radio for an hour or so after lunch. It is fun and although some of the things covered on this show sound quite trivial, I get to see how people are similar in their daily madness. I also get to keep abreast of the news, traffic, weather and they play a good selection of songs as well. These songs are best to listen to while writing some code and when I need to concentrate to shut the noise of the outside world..

Need to..

2007-08-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

I need to update my blog more often. I also need to be organised more often. Every time, I look at a consistently organised person, I cringe and feel why I cannot do that, but then I return to my lazy-self. Postponing the important but non-urgent tasks (quadrant 2 from Stephen Covey's First things first) has become the norm of my life. I am good at making lists, I make lists for all kinds of different things and keep recording remainders. But the irony is that I do them in many different places, some are in my work calendar, some are in my pocket dairy, some are in my mobile phone and some on hundred different post-it notes. It is the same case with my writing. I start writing about different topics and keep saving them to continue some other time. They are scattered all over the place in different word files on different computers and different mails. Hoping to sort this out soon..

Halo: Short fiction contest

2007-08-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here is my entry to Jason's short fiction contest. Today is the last day for submission, 11pm EST, so hurry up if you want to send an entry.

Fresh air

It had just stopped raining. The clouds started to clear out and the sun was about to set. Nina strolled her way through the pavement and approached the edge of the road. Scattered earthworms lay everywhere on the pavement, most of them half crushed by the pedestrians, rest just glad to be alive. She got on to a pathway leading into the woodlands. First, it was just a few trees but then it was getting quite dense. She kept strolling until she abruptly reached a small clearing and stopped in her tracks to observe the surroundings. Mystified by the bunch of pine trees that rose around her, she dreamily pulled a twig out of a fallen branch and made random impressions on the ground. Her lips broke into a smile. Sun rays were beaming through the canopy and penetrating their last chances into the rain drops that discreetly remained on the grass. Birds were hustling back to their nests. The smell of moist earth lingered still very fresh in the air. Nina wished this moment would not seize.

"Hope you all enjoyed the transformation to the most serene place in your mind. Now you can all open your eyes!” With the instructor’s voice, Nina came back to reality of 50 other people squatted on their yoga mats around her. A deep breathing exercise later, she made her way out to the tube station and into the humdrums of her daily life.

Picture Courtesy: Jason Evans

The Mango Season: Book Review

2007-07-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

Priya Rao - the protagonist of this novel, returns to her hometown - Hyderabad, India (ok! city), to visit her family, after living seven years in the States. Her prime motive of the visit is to persuade her parents & the extended family to her decision on marrying a non-Indian. Fights, arguments, whining, ego-clashes and some of family politics later, she seems to have done it. A few well-written recipes are thrown-in here and there. The typical masala of middle-classy marital affairs and relationships seems to be the main feature of this book. Although, thankfully, this time the readers are spared any extra- marital affairs.

More than often, Priya Rao comes out as a rebellious child. Yes, at 27 years of age, she still seems a child - always in disagreement with not just her parents, but with anything Indian. Everyone in the story seems to be stereotyped as very narrow-minded. Even Priya herself seems to be very shallow, not able to understand the dearth of an Indian parent and yet producing sarcasm about it. I think it is quite important to read books that introduce us to a culture we are not familiar with. At the same time, it is also quite important to read a story, which is set in a place you can relate to. Even if I disliked this book, I do not regret reading it, because I learnt a few things:

For the first time ever, I knew – what makes me dislike a story ? Now, I have a clearer picture of the sort of things I would like to avoid, if and when I write a story.
Why I should not interpret and get prejudiced about a culture or a set of people, based on a single book? Of course, I shouldn’t, but reading this book, gives me more reason not to do so.
Throwing in some recipes and typing out emails does contribute to the number of pages in the book, but not to the quality itself.
I should cut short my expectations before reading any book.

I am almost tempted to allege that ‘The Mango season’ appeared to me more like "Amulya's memoir with some added spice", than any kind of fiction. I came across her biography on her website and follow her blog, so could not help picturing her as "Priya Rao" in the book. Before reading the book, the title made me expect some nostalgia. I thought I would be transformed back into my childhood. But, all my expectations to feel the familiar air of Hyderabad fell apart, except for some phrases she had scattered in the book just for the sake of it. Look out for the italicised words- Tank bund, Minerva, Osmania and Monda Market.. Please do not read it if you want to know anything about Hyderabad or Mangoes. Read it if you enjoy cheesy novels.

Angela's Ashes: Book Review

2007-07-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

A very touching read where the reader suffers through the narration about the author Frank McCourt’s childhood. The poverty pictured in this Pulitzer-winning-memoir is very heart wrenching; the survival of a family amidst dirty rags, lack of food, illness and infections, an alcoholic father and children who appear and disappear. Frank McCourt starts his tale by introducing how his Irish parents meet each other in America, leading us into his birth and also his parents' wedding. After Frank's birth his family grows by the head-count, but shrinks monetarily, while his father thrives on alcoholism, instead of making their ends meet. The tragic death of their little sister shatters Frank’s mother-Angela, and deteriorates her health. But other than whining and blaming her husband - Malachy, Angela does not seem to take any drastic measures to better her family. With such hopeless parents, Frank's maternal relatives intervene and arrange the whole family to be shipped back to Ireland. They first stop at his paternal grandparents’ place where they spend a day. Next day they briefly visit Dublin en-route to Limerick (Angela's place). The family tehn arrives at and settles in the slums of Limerick. Frank articulates for us, all the hardships they go through, deaths in the family and the misdeeds of his parents. He also gives the reader a sneak- peek into his growing mind, his adaptability to the circumstances and yet an undying hope to lead a better life.

Angela’s ashes made me think of how people are afflicted with poverty - sometimes by their own actions and sometimes by sheer chance. Even if it is for a moment, this book compels the reader with humility towards what they already possess. The book gave me a good glimpse into the Irish culture and religion. I have seen directly/indirectly how poverty prevails in India, read stories and saw movies about poverty in some developing/under-developed countries; but, I always wondered, how it is in the Western countries. I also got this book from the library, but am going to return it back; it is too much of sadness I can take at the moment. Have to put it off until I am ready for another gutsy read. BTW, the only thing I could not understand was the ending of the book. Since it is a memoir, I did not expect it to have a framed plot & ending, however, I could not understand what the author wanted to convey about his future.

Image Source: http://www.impawards.com/1999/angelas_ashes.html

Family Matters: Book Review

2007-06-19T01:35:00.000-07:00

It took me a long time to finish this book esp. because it is such a heavy read. Also, my in-laws were visiting at that time, so we were quite busy.

The only reason I managed to get some reading done was because, I watched less television during that time.

Mistry is a great writer and I think, he is a natural writer; the flow of his story is quite smooth and the language is beautifully simplistic. I think he has poignantly depicted the life of Nariman and his other family members. Having not met any Parsis or read about them before, The book was my first taste of Parsi culture. Its a bit difficult to outline the story because, the book is wrapping events around the members of a family. However, here is a rough outline:

Nariman Vakeel is an old man with a burdened past-life, living with his stepchildren. As his parents could not agree to an inter-faith wedding, he had to forego his lover to marry a widower. An unhappy past behind himself and the never-ending haunts from his ex-lover make his married life miserable. Later, Nariman looses both his wife and ex-lover. However, all these memories come back to him when he is old and desolate with Parkinson's disease & the pain of a broken leg confines him to the bed. His stepchildren are not too eager to nurse him and draft plans to send him away to his own daughter Roxana - who lives with her immediate family. Roxana 's husband - Yezad agrees, although, he is not happy about this arrangement as he earns a meagre salary just enough to support his wife and two sons. Rest is the story and dramatics of Nariman's ailments; what goes through Yezad's professional life and his encounter with the bullying Shivsena activists. Readers are rewarded with a promising end after all this suffering.

It is a beautifully and intricately sketched storyline and as an outsider I got a fine peek into the life of a middle class Parsi family in Mumbai. Mistry brilliantly portrayed all the characters. Jehangir - Yezad's younger son is my favorite. An account of Jehangir’s emotions throughout the above mentioned histrionics and his desperate measures to tackle them, is the part I enjoyed the most.

A Clockwork Orange: Book review

2007-06-18T07:55:00.001-07:00

I had seen this book on many popular lists but had no idea of what it was about. When I found this book in a second-hand bookshop I grabbed it. The first few pages were extremely repelling.
The language was completely beyond my understanding and I was chiding myself for reading a book about this irresponsible-youngster whose best past time is crime. I do not know what made me stick to it for few more pages, because once I had given up reading a similar kind - this American book. With A clockwork Orange though, the reason I stuck to it might have been the size, or just the hope that I will fall through the author's plot and start enjoying it. And I sure did. Using the context, my mind started translating the nadsat talk to plain English without much trouble. Story line is as follows:

The narrator Alex is the ringleader of a bunch of teenagers who commit bloodshed and violence for the sake of money and excitement. They rob, beat-up weaker people, innocent girls and in the course of these actions commit murders. Alex is the ringleader, but there is unrest in the group when others’ ideas of pilferage are not encouraged. During one of their regular misconducts, Alex gets trapped by his own gang members. He finds himself behind the bars, sentenced for fifteen years over the murder of an old lady. Then it is the prison life for young Alex and a turn of events makes him a victim of the Ludovico technique. A torture technique, which makes the criminal hate violence and crime. Rest of the story is what Alex goes through after being a victim of this horrifying technique..

The book is short but quite intense and gripping; a must read for people who are interested in criminal psychology. The place I live here in UK is very much infested with yobs and I have heard a lot of incidents that are similar to what the protagonist commits. A chilling but insightful piece of fiction.

Image Courtesy: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9145/aco.htm

Book tag - Contemporary Indian Authors

2007-05-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

There are good days and bad days. On a good day, I stumbled on Geet's blog, explored her world, found that she is an author of this book and left a comment. It was quite kind of her to not only respond to my comments but also tagging me. Thanx Geets, here goes the tag: I have added a few more to the original list. I have placed the books I have read in bold and the books I am wanting to to read in italics ..

1. The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri (started to read but had to let go the book, wanting to read ever since)
2. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy ()
3. An Equal Music - Vikram Seth ()
4. The Vine of Desire - Chitra Divakaruni ()
5. Mulligatawny Soup - Manorama Mathai (sounds like a good one)
6. The Burden of Foreknowledge - Jawahara Saidulla (would love to read since I visited the author's blog)
7. By the River Pampa I stood - Geeta Abraham Jose ( definitely want to esp. after stumbling on Geets blog)
8. My Story - Kamala Das
9. The Raj - Gita Mehta
10. Circumferences - Suma Josson (it transported me to my childhood, good book)
11. Mediocre but Arrogant - Abhijit Bhaduri
12. The Enigma of Arrival - V.S.Naipaul (read two other books of his, but not this one)
13. The Better Man - Anita Nair
14. Fault lines - Meena Alexander
15. The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (i hope she is a better author than her mother, sorry Anita!)
16. Fasting, Feasting - Anita Desai
17. Bookless in Baghdad - Shashi Tharoor
18. Train to Pakistan - Khushwant Singh (always wanted to read Khuswant Singh but never got around)
19. Difficult Daughters- Manju Kapur
20. Desirable Daughters- Bharati Mukherjee
21. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry (read Mistry's Family matters, will read him again when I am strong enough for another heart-wrenching story)
22. The Feast of Roses - Indu Sundaresan
23. Malgudi Days - R.K.Narayan (read it a long time ago!)
24. Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat
25. Anything for You, Ma'am - Tushar Raheja
26. The Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie (I started to read Rushdie's Midnight's children but did not seem to get the hang of it)
27. One hundred shades of white - Preeti Nair
28. Serving Crazy with Curry - Amulya Malladi
29. Selective Memories - Shobha De
30. A suitable Boy - Vikram Seth (Read it half way through, but had to return this lovely but bulky book)

Bhaswati and Shyam you are tagged..

My World of Books

2007-05-22T05:31:00.000-07:00

Was just wondering about the complex set of cultures in this world. It seems like every now and then I discover a new culture which, for me, never existed before.. First there was the culture of my home-town, then it expanded to my home state and then to the rest of diverse-India . Once I set my foot abroad, my perception of Western culture changed. I was pleasantly surprised to see how so many people are so starkly different. Mainly, three things introduced me to this world full of different cultures :reading books, meeting people and visiting places. I read a book, I talk to a person who can relate to the book and then I visit the place of the book's backdrop. In that sequence or not, some cultures unwind in front of me and expand my thoughts on people's lives in different corners of this world. That and also some movies and tv shows have introduced me to this person called: the Bengali, the Parsi, the Mumbaiite, the Italian, the Irish, the English, the American, and so on..

Of all the things that introduce me to the world of different cultures, one that is close to my heart is, books. Some authors do a great job at not just telling a story but weaving the story around, to give an insight into the lives of people in a certain locality and time. I have realized that I enjoy these kind of books more than the ones which deal with plain fantasy, murder mystery or science -fiction. I never get bored of the former kind. In the world of books that are getting released by minute, a clear distinction on what I like to read appears in front of me(which is subject to change). So what after reading these books ? Guess, I have also acquired a compulsion to maintain what I have read. It bothers me to think that the memories related to some of the books I have read in my formative years, have vanished into thin air. I love to -keep track of my memories. That is in fact one of the main reasons to scribble and scrawl here and there. So, by the means of my corner, I would like to mark the books I have read. If a book overwhelms me or I have too much time on my hands (unlikely, these days) I will write a full-fledged review on it - just like I did here and here. If not, I shall combine several reads into a single post and share the best/worst/memories related to each book. Hope my blog-readers (if any) will find it useful..

Short Fiction Contest: Endless Hour

2007-04-24T02:18:00.000-07:00

Photo Courtesy: Jason Evans

Jason Evans is running yet another wonderful contest . Less than two days left to submit your entry. Unlike everytime, I submitted mine, just in time; you can find it below and also here. Do not miss reading all the other beautifully crafted entries, as it is amazing how many different perspectives rise from a single picture.. Happy reading !!

The A-Class 170 swirled through to the end of the motorway and set-off towards the beautiful and picturesque little village of Ambleside. The views were breathtaking; the mountains rose and fell not so far away; greenery spread across to the horizons; sheep appeared as cute woolly buttons stuck to the grass; the curves and bends of the B-road were playing hide & seek with the nature's beautiful aura. Lake Windermere was shimmering with glow, inviting the young couple with open arms. A surprising number of pedestrians flooded the pavements. Little girls adorned with angelic smiles and colorful dresses seemed like butterflies in disguise. Infact, it appeared as though, nature's beauty brought-forth the best in everyone.

Conversely, Sheetal gasped, she leaned back into the passenger seat and closed her eyes. She could not believe herself; she had an unfortunate curse, which would not let her enjoy this un-ending beauty. How she wished, he had understood her better. As the same dirty picture flashed in front of her again and again, she flinched. Her mind played the devil with her and tortured her to death.

She insisted, she would finish the dirty pile of dishes, before they started off this morning. Poor Atul had only intended to miss the rush-hour traffic. If only, he knew his wife's compulsion for cleaning-up; he would have preferred getting stuck in the traffic, for a couple of hours, than to foil a beautiful weekend at the lakes.

Happy International Women's Day and Congratulations to Amma (Mother)!

2007-03-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

First of: Happy International Women's Day to all the women out there. A bit of history here about the International Women's day. It has been celebrated around the world on March 8th.

What better day to talk about THE woman in my life, my mother. She has made us all proud by winning a gold medal for her Telugu Ph.D. At the age of 54, with wide responsibilities at work and home, she has achieved the Doctor of Philosophy Award in Telugu. Last week, she had received a gold medal through the hands of Andhra Pradesh Governor Sri. Rameshwar Thakur (hence the Chancellor of Universities state-wide). Her thesis topic can be roughly translated to, "Women's role in the novels related to Telangana Movement" (not the current one, but the one that happened during Nizam's rule). Her un-dying determination and dedication has always been an inspiration for all of us youngsters and more than sometimes we feel a bit ashamed of not spending our youthful energy in the most efficient way. I am just amazed at how many hats she can wear at the same time; a Head of the department, Staff representative, Vice Principal , incharge of the Open-University (which means working even on Sundays). She had to counter-balance all these by finishing her thesis in time before my wedding. She didnot let her professional life mar her role as a home-maker and a social activist. Always made us wonderful food, took care of the family and ever ready to extend help to her colleagues, friends and relatives. She is currently working to get the book published. Salute to Amma!

Picture and News Source: Vaartha Telugu Newspaper

More on International Women's Day:

"Colours of IWD" - Purple, green and white are the official international women's colors. Read on to find out where these originated from and what they represent.
The colors originated from the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), in the UK in 1908. The colors were said to represent:

White for purity in public as well as private life;
Purple for justice, dignity, self-reverence and self-respect (and representing the women's vote);
Green for hope and new life.

More recently, two changes have occurred:
The use of the color white has more recently been rejected as Purity is a controversial issue and attitudes towards the role of Purity from women differ greatly.
The introduction of the color gold representing a new dawn, has been commonly used to represent the second wave of feminism.
Source: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

Check out the following selection of links for quick, fun ways to support charities which help improve women's lives all over the world.

Visit the Breast Cancer site to provide a free mammogram to disadvantaged women in the US, simply by clicking a button. Early detection through screening in this way can help boost the five-year survival rate by 95 percent.

Click on the Hunger Site, to donate food to hungry people all over the world. With women making up nearly three-quarters of the world's poor, just one click could help save somebody's life.

Join the Amnesty International Virtual March Against Domestic Violence and garner support by guiding your figure through the streets. According to the World Health Organization, 70 percent of female murder victims were killed by their male partners.

Sign Oxfam's petition for more of the promised teachers and healthcare workers in developing countries. Somewhere in the world, one women dies in childbirth every minute and more than 70 percent of the world's poor are women, for whom education represents a real way out of poverty.

Father retires at 58 ...

2007-02-10T10:12:00.000-08:00

"Spandana" is the right word to describe him. Although it does not convey the depth of this telugu word, the closest meaning of spandana is "the act of responding". Some 30 odd people had spoken about him, everyone had a different story to tell, different relation/association with him but they all agreed on the single thing called "Spandana". When someone is in trouble, be it a friend or foe, he would respond. Even, if he cannot address the matter of trouble, he would be there to cajole them, worry along with them.. What has all this to do with my father's retirement as a Maths lecturer? Read on..

When my father started off as a Maths lecturer in the 70s, the education system was a bit different, the syllabus catered for the students was different, the students themselves were different. Mathematics is supposed to be one of the tough terrors in Andhra pradesh state syllabus, so students could not digest all the complexity of the theorems & the equations in an hour's class. As a bachelor he used to stay in a single room, where the students were welcome round the clock. They would come home after-hours to his tiny abode and clear any outstanding questions out of their minds; they would sit there for hours together, father not minding at all about their intrusion in his everyday life, learn mathematics and many other lessons of life. Even after he got married to my mother and moved to a bigger house, students didnot stop coming. There was a study room, a bit detached to the main house, where they persisted day in and day out. Mother would enquire the students if they had eaten or not. Since many of them stayed away from their parents , who lived in distant villages, she would sometimes share a curry or pickle she had made for us.

As it was destined, things changed, world embarked on the tutions era. Lecturers who taught in the colleges started taking paid-tuitions at home. They would revisit the whole syllabus, which was supposed to be properly delved in the classrooms. Slowly, attendance was thinning down in regular classes. Even the students who could not afford to pay much, started going to tuitions by somehow making their ends meet. Father didnot quite agree with the people , who took paid-tutions for the same students they were supposed to be teaching in the college. He was loosing interest in teaching a class of few odd students, who would turn up just for the sake of attendance. Politics and corruption have always been high in the AIDED College he was working. The management took every chance to make money out of the subsidies meant for the economically challenged students. Father could never turn a deaf ear to these corrupt activities, so he constantly questioned, sometimes brought such activities into the attention of law. He even helped some people who had backstabbed him earlier. Other than this, he was also involved in solving or just listening to a lot of issues, be it regarding property, marriage or exploitation. Every evening there would be at least 3-4 people sitting around him trying to narrate their issues, in our verandah.

Father bid goodbye to this place on 31st December

Father turned 58 this December, and he had to officially retire from his State Govt. paid service on 31st of Dec. The college management rejoiced and so did my father. He has been wishing for retirement; retirement from teaching; retirement from questioning the corruption and politics in running an AIDED college; retirement from being a part of education system he does not totally approve of. I was not sure how he would take it, because retirement is such an important milestone in one's life. Whatever it is, we family members decided to mark this occasion. All of us wanted to thank him, thank him for being the one he is: a patient listener; an avid thinker; a knowledgeable problem solver; but more than anything - he is a caretaker. We had a notable gathering of close family and friends, colleagues, well-wishers and ex-students. Some distinguished poets were invited as the honorary speakers on the occasion. Every one was fed a delicious lunch, while father was grandly felicitated. Everyone near and dear spoke about him, and I was awe-struck to learn some new things about my father. I was nervous if things will go right or not, but help was at hands everywhere. After many years, I took to the stage and spoke a few words (luckily the words had flown much fluidly than I thought). We all knew and acknowledged that the occasion was to mark his retirement from teaching; but not from his other vocation of serving people in trouble, and it stands true to this day.

PS: Sorry for the long post, but it is not easy to sum-up a person's life in a blog post; needless to say, there is much more to him than I wrote here.

Had I not searched Technorati for Nav's Corner, I would not have realised that this post was featured on BlogBharti. Many Thanks to folks at BlogBharti!

Welcome back!

2007-02-01T08:52:00.000-08:00

Another year and a month flew by! It was a busy year - 2006 and even busier month -Jan'07. I have been so busy that I have hardly noticed the transition of one year to another.

The last month of the year ususally brings-in a whirl of emotions in me. December is not just a festive season of bright red ribbons, green tall xmas trees, snowy white roads, chilly winters and tons of high caloric food. For me, it is also a bit of soul-searching, reminiscing, it is looking back with a perspective. The newspapers and other kinds of media start to publish a variety of themed-lists about notable events, notable people of the year etc. People get despaired thinking how quickly the year has ended, yet filled with lots of undying aspirations for the new-born year. I used to have a great craving to fill everyone's mailbox with happiness greetings. It was hand-made cards at one point of time, then it became store-bought readymade cards, then it was phone calls to friends and family, these days it is phone calls to close-by people, emails & blogposts to everyone you know, SMSs to the friends who are mobile-friendly. Technology has changed our everyday's lives, things are much more easier, but we badly miss that yesteryear's personal touch, don't we ? Anyways, before I digress totally, just want to admit that, this time, I have not been able to do much of reminiscing/celebrating/greeting freinds and family/ or making new year resolutions. But surprisingly, I have no regrets.

Sometime in early November, I had written my last blog post. As I was gliding through the past few months, going through some important milestones, many times it crossed my mind to drop a note in here. A tad of guilty consciousness was troubling me, almost similar to when one lovingly plants something and not necessarily nurtures it enough.. Well, hope it is not that bad, as I assume there is no loss of life in the case of blogging. One can always come back to regale and rejuvenate ..

Things have changed a lot since the last time I blogged..

We bought a house !!
I made a trip to India!
Father retired after 31 years of service as a Math Lecturer on 31st of Dec. It is a happy retirement and he has been looking forward to it.
Hubby has taken up a more challenging job and now we both work in the same department, but luckily not in the same team..
Younger Brother is about to start his career.
I have finally started orkutting after a lot of persuasion from my bro and a friend SS :) I have to admit, it is fun!

Will delve on all of these in detail... soon!

Energy Saving vs. Time

2006-11-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

My eager-self has been split into multiple personalities, just like the one in Sidney Sheldon's Tell me your Dreams, or for the more recent, Anniyan (Tamil Movie) types. One is a self-righteous, truly conscious, energy-saving-buff and the other an insensitive, sluggish brat who wants to put into use, all the extremities of the technology on hand.

My early morning exercise comes to an end; I take that one last step ahead. There! I finally reach the entrance to the building, where I work. Hmmmm.. Tough choice awaits my decision now, the rolling door vs. automatic door. The rolling door is too tricky; have to push that heavy set of diametrically crossed glass doors, hard enough to shove my petite-self into the building premises. The sluggish brat in me wins with not much ado; a small step, right enough for the sensor to be activated; split of a second later, subtle hissing sound of the motor inside the automatic door and a royal welcome. Ta-Dah! No trouble of switching things between my hands and pushing the heavy doors. I heave a sigh of relief and catch my breath, flash my security badge before forging ahead to loudly thump the elevator button.

Yeah very convenient, so far! Oh! Wait a minute! Someone seems to be grumbling somewhere? Yes, while the truly-conscious, energy-saving-buff is screaming at the top of its voice, "Go take the stairs, you lazy bum!", the brat in myself is totally ignoring, scoffing & grinning at the energy saving-buff. "God be with me!", I sigh and settle comfortably in the lift to take the flight up to the fourth floor. Lunch box in the fridge, huffing and puffing I reach my desk at work, relieved to notice that I had not shut down my workstation last night, before I left. I cannot wait another half-an-hour for my workstation to boot-up.

Fast-forward a week: I have now started to use the revolving door and shutdown my workstation every evening before I leave work. In the morning, I come back to re-boot, sit, catch a breath and regale until the Oracle-hogging workstation comes to life. It IS Energy-saving vs. the ever-so-precious time, but I can so very well use a few moments of blankety-blank before I embark on a productive day. After all, this is the least I could do after becoming aware of the Stern Review. Miles to go, before I can swap the breath-gasping, muscle-crunching, time consuming ascent of the stairs (bit of an exaggeration!) to the flight on energy sapping elevator (lift).

Weekend Reading: Fasting and Feasting

2006-11-01T07:14:00.000-08:00

What did you do this extra-hour weekend?

As the summer time ended, this weekend, we fell back an hour (Remember, "Spring forward, Fall back"). On Friday afternoon, I was wondering what I would be doing with the extra hour I get this weekend?

"Sleep zzzzzzzz" my brain responded undeniably.

"May be not!" my snobbish conscious-self howled at me, "You may read and make good use of the extra hour in your hand, remember how many weekends you have longed for an extra hour? Now that you have got one, you better make the most of it".

Things did not go as planned on Saturday, DH was down with cold, so we stayed at home most of the weekend. So I got myself busy, "Fasting and Feasting"! No, I did not really start fasting on Friday night and end up Feasting all of Sunday. I was just reading Anita Desai's Fasting and Feasting. After reading her book," The Zigzag way" and ending-up not liking much of the content and just the language, I badly wanted to change my opinions on her writing. Don’t ask me why? I just felt that she is a great author, but I am not reading the best of her works. So, as I mentioned in my review of the earlier mentioned book, I took up to "Fasting and Feasting".

This book is gentle, touching and a nice read. Although, parts of the story seemed very familiar, owing to our Indian cinema and my other literary picks. I enjoyed reading the first part, where the protagonist "Uma" is the victim of failed marriages in the greed of dowry. Uma is naïve, also adventurous-at-heart, but significantly limited by the domestication of her dictatorial and inseparable parents "MamaPapa". Uma has been serving her parents all her life and is always pining for the time alone at home, when her parents go away for club parties and social gatherings. Uma’s younger sister "Aruna" is portrayed as the smarter-materialistic sister who is married off and leading a pompous life in Bombay. "Arun" who is the protagonist of the smaller second part has been the privileged "boy" of the family since his childhood. Arun is persuasively sent off to the States for education, and lands up with the ‘Pattons’ during the summer term. The rest of the book is the ordeal of Arun getting used to the American lives and most importantly American food. As a reader of this book, one can first-handedly experience the revulsions and frustration Arun faces, posed by his relocation to the distant lands where the food is no good for his vegetarian needs.
The author did a great job in portraying the crudeness and reality of the simple lives of an Indian middle class family in a neutral pitch. The second part finely depicts the early-days perspective of a shy Indian Student in the States. (Can vouch that things have drastically changed now! Both in India and the States!) however, the author seems to draw a great parallel between two varied families one in the States and one in India, both wide apart in their cultural and food related life-styles, yet, when it comes to parenting and keeping the children happy, there seems to be a bewildering correlation between the two families.

Rating: 3 stars out of five
Highs: Language, Conciseness, Simplicity
Lows: Abrupt ending, Passionless, Not very thought provoking
Read another book from the same author? May be !

New Y! Mail

2006-10-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

I opened my mailbox this morning and was pleasantly surprised with the new look of Yahoo Mail. The new features, like the Preview Pane, new ways of moving mail messages between folders, deleting more than one message at a time, make it look more like Microsoft Outlook. The best part of the new version, I think is, the tabs on the top, which give views of Inbox vs. the general Yahoo News etc. How I wish I could incorporate all my favorite links (such as del.icio.us) in one such tab. And of course, the event organizer bar at the bottom takes away the trophy. Now, I can actually use the Calendar feature in Yahoo without having to go through umpteen clicks.

Yahoo mail, in general seems to have slowed down, but it does look lot more trendy now, and I am glad to have still stuck to Yahoo. When I created a Google mail account, a while ago, I was saddened by the thought that, my standard (Yahoo) mail is a bit old-fashioned and out-dated. However, I could not be bothered with updating all my umpteen number of friends & family, by sharing my new gmail address. Just for the heck of it, like a die-hard yahoo enthusiastic (yeah right! I do not care really), I stuck to it! Looks like my laziness and stubbornness in not taking any chances to miss emails, paid off and Yahoo after all got better. (I sometimes do seem to like the waging wars between these big firms; after all it is the customer who gets to eat the cake.)

Although, I am extremely unhappy about Yahoo spam control. It is absolutely pathetic. I find tons of messages, in my Bulk Mail folder everyday, and these heedless messages easily make into even my Inbox, many times. It is irritating to experience the excitement-kill, especially when you open your mailbox, see that there are a few Unread Messages; expecting some important email in the “Inbox”, you click on it, and an utterly useless spammer’s name would be grinning in your face. It can also happen the other way round: Some time ago, I had been collecting some useful website links and wanted to share them with my friends, so, I sent an email to a bunch of people, with all these links, and a Subject of “Some useful websites”. Just for fun, I happened to send a copy to myself too (the same email account) and guess what happened? This message directly made to my Bulk Mail Folder. Can’t Yahoo guys figure out the simple logic of:
IF “Sender of the Email” = “Owner of the Email” THEN “do not place in Bulk Mail Folder”;

Anyways, I am hoping the next version will take care of it (or may be not), while I will try and enjoy the new features in the current version. Way to go, Yahoo!

Monday Morning Philosophy

2006-10-10T04:31:00.000-07:00

Monday morning, going through the regular rituals of elevator talk, I popped this question to different colleagues of mine.
"How was your weekend?"
One lady replied, "I enjoyed every moment of it" and the other lady replied, "Arggh, I am so tired!"

Was a little surprised to hear both responses and went into my own conclusions. It should have been the first lady's 25th wedding anniversary and the second lady should be moving houses or organising a wedding :) There is no harm in running into wild thoughts. Although, I seriously kept wondering, "What will it take to say the same words as the first lady, honestly?" A whole weekend of perfect moments! Is there anytime in one's lives, which we think IS just perfect? Reminiscing or thinking back about a perfect day/weekend (happened in the past) is a different thing altogether. The key thing is "enjoying" and "knowing that you are enjoying"It is such a rarity to have that enjoyable experience when you truly take the pleasure in, without any fears and doubts. It could be a day, couple of days, week, month or a period of time, but each of those moments keep us all going..

Dear...

2006-08-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

The world was such a better place when you were around. Even though you didn’t talk to many people, you were omnipresent. Your innocent face, vivacious eyes, perky nose, long and slender hands, black and velvety hair, people might not term you beautiful just by looking at you. But when someone talked to you, associated with you, all your beauty swiveled out. You were so pure.., inside and out, never could anyone see a misty stain. Brilliant is an under-stated adjective to describe your brains. Your broad forehead and personified eyebrows always reflected a genuine inquisitiveness beyond the material nature of things. The richness, clothes, jewelry, festivilite glows never attracted you, they rather repelled you always, and so did the never ending chitchat and gossip. Even in the midst of 50 people one could you totally lost and brooding in your thought-filled world and suddenly there you were jumping up all chirpy and boisterous. You enjoyed playing with kids the most, while you yourself were a kid at heart. Just the same innocence and play-fullness as you had it 15 years ago. Music and books were your passion. But brooding on your thoughts was your life-seed. Yes, the world was a much a better place when you were around..

A Card every year

2006-08-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

She sends me a card every year,
Wonder how she watches over,
with her old age and disorder,
Days falling into months
and, months to one big year!

Everyday I was bathed and fed,
Taken care of whatever I need
In class, I excelled and she felt proud,
Oh! How I miss her smile so broad.

I loved her so much and so great
It made me cry when she left my sight.
Then, there came a day
When I no longer felt the same,
She went far and away,
Swallowing the guilt and shame
Shocked I was, and never went thither!

Yet, She sends me a card every year,
Inspite of her old age and disorder...

Llandudno

2006-08-10T15:35:00.000-07:00

Until two weeks ago, I was under the impression that all the beautiful places are too far from where I live ! But, I got rid of that impression, when we went to the beautiful sea-side town of Llandudno in North Wales. The combination of the mountains and the sea was simply breath taking. Everything felt so light and post-card perfect that I literally wished those moments to be frozen in time. But alas! We hadto come back by nightfall, to our quiet little town after the less than 2-hour drive.

We followed directions to the West Beach and while we drove around to find a parking space, all the cute looking shops were quite inviting. The roadside parking was full so we found ourselves a multi-storey car park in a near byshopping centre, with a steep pathway to get up the upper floors. All the lower floors were full so we were forced to go to the open top-floor, which was a blessing in disguise because the top-most floor had amazing views ofthe sea, the town and the mountainous landscape. We took some pictures and walked down to the Pebble Beach through the big Promenade.

Standing on the pebble beach you cannot miss the sight of the blue-greyishbridge on the left hand side. It is built way into the sea, and seems like a few domes built on top of a diving platform. The pebbles looked beautiful with scattered algae and the endless silvery sea reminded us all about the nature's beautiful yet mysterious immensity in our lives. The cool (a little chilling) sea draught was not very welcome to some of us but we were ready to compromise with the exotic beauty we all were served with.

After strolling through the promenade we made our way to the bridge, at first not realising that we are standing on a wooden structure over the sea, a sensational frame of mind I should say. The bridge was a larger than life edifice encompassing some colourful amusement rides for children; small and cosy assorted gift shops; ice cream stalls, cafes, etc.

I fell in love with one particular cliff which ran parallel to the bridge, just a few yards away. The sight of it was so beautiful that I cannot express in words, have only seen such beauty on the screens or walls and was overwhelmed to experience that surreal moment transforming into reality.

Life of Pi: Book Review

2006-08-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

For me, Book reading is not just going through the words of someone, but to live through the whole experience of someone else. It happens so that the characters and ambiences portrayed in the book fuse with the surroundings and time I was reading the book. Sometimes the cover page of a certain old time read brings back the collage of images from the clothes I had on; the couch I sat on and so on..

I took this book to be my companion on my recent training trip to France. It is a different thing that the long days of work, socialising during meals and getting immersed in the exhausting beauty of rural France, did not really give me enough time to read and do justice to my leisure-mate. I managed to read some during the short flight and during hours of waiting in the airport on my way back. The book started off in a light tone (although the cover page excerpt gives an indication of the goriness involved in the novel) with Pi explaining the origin and dramatics of his name, "Piscine Molitor Patel". His father’s friend lovingly christened him after the renowned swimming pool’s name in Paris. The fun made by his fellow mates and the comical transgression of his name to "Pi" is a pleasure to read. Quoting one funny episode from the book, related to Pi’s name:

My name isn’t the end of the story about my name. When your name is Bob no one asks you "How do you spell that?" Not so with Piscine Molitor Patel. In my university days I visited Montreal once with some friends. It fell to me to order pizzas one night. I couldn’t bear to have yet another French speaker guffawing my name, so when the man on the phone asked. "Can I have your name?" I said, "I am who I am". Half an hour later two pizzas arrived for "Ian Hoolihan"

Pi’s pursuit of harmonious religious explorations and the insights about zoo animals(rather animals in general) are quite interesting. He explains animal psychology in general, underlining the facts about circus animals and zoo animals. The novel becomes quite intense after the first few pages when the family decides to relocate to Canada. Most of the zoo animals are sold off, but for various reasons few of the animals remain with the family to be migrated to Canada. So the family sets off in a ship called ‘Tsimtsum’. The author encapsulates Pi’s poignant voice during their departure as follows:

Chapter 35: We left Madras on June 21st, 1977, on the Panamanian- registered Japanese cargo ship Tsimtsum. Her officers were Japanese, her crew was Taiwanese, and she was large and impressive. On our last day in Pondicherry I said goodbye to Mamaji, Mr & Mr Kumar, to all my friends and even to many strangers. Mother was apparelled in her finest sari. Her long tress, artfully folded back and attached to the back of her head, was adorned with a garland of fresh jasmine flowers. She looked beautiful. And sad. For she was leaving India, India of the heart of monsoons, of rice fields and the Cauvery River, of coastlines and stone temples, of bullock carts and colourful trucks, of friends and known shopkeepers, of Nehru Street and Goubert Salai, of this and that, India so familiar to her and loved by her. While her men – I fancied myself one already,. Though I was only sixteen – were in a hurry to get going, were Winnipeggers at heart already, she lingered. The day before our departure she pointed at an itinerant cigarette vendor and earnestly asked, "Should we get a pack or two? "
Father replied "They have tobacco in Canada. And why do you want to buy cigarettes? We don’t smoke."
Yes, they have tobacco in Canada – but do they have Gold Flake cigarettes? Do they have Arun ice cream? Are bicycles Heroes ? Are the televisions Onidas? Are the cars Ambassadors? Are the bookshops Higginbothams? Such I suspect, were the questions that swirled in Mother’s mind as she contemplated buying cigarette.

An unseemly event makes Tsimtsum sink and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, an orang-utan and a Bengal tiger. All the animals perish except for the Bengal tiger (named as Richard Parker) and Pi himself. The rest of the story is how Pi survives the long gruelling journey in the Pacific with limited ration and the terror of sharing the lifeboat with a man-eating tiger, for several months. The length and description of the whole survival story is painstakingly profound which virtually transfers the reader to the middle of the ocean and experience the horrid nightmare the protagonist goes through.

Although, the heart wrenching narrative is worth winning lots of accolades, it does seem a bit too far-fetched. In the preface of the book, the author proclaims that his book is a transformation into words of a tale he heard from a man he came across in Pondicherry. I would be more than happy to read this story, imagining it is fictitious, but I have my own questions on the survival of 16 year old with "no prior training of animal control" (except that he has been an observant kid whose father has been a zoo-keeper), in a lifeboat stranded in the middle of the ocean with a lone Bengal tiger. Also, I felt Pi’s experiments with the tiger’s faeces were quite unnecessary. But again, it is a cast-away story, besides with a carnivorous animal on board, anything is possible :D

I have read the whole book keeping in mind that it is written by a South American writer and I could not help but appreciate how precisely and soulfully Yann Martel could capture the feelings and the cultural intricacies of South India and South Indians. There are some italicized excerpts in the book that so aptly portray the Indian-ness captured in the reel of words. Below are some snippets from the book that underscore this aspect:

Chapter 6: He is an excellent cook, His overheated house is always smelling of something delicious. His spice rack looks like an apothecary’s shop. When he opens his refrigerator or his cupboards, there are many brand names I don’t recognize; in fact I can’t even tell what language they’re in. We are in India, But he handles Western dishes equally well. He makes me the most zesty yet subtle macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had. And his vegetarian tacos are the envy of all Mexico.
Another Chapter: His house is a temple. In the entrance hall hangs a framed picture of Ganesha, he of the elephant head. He sits facing out – rosy coloured, pot bellied, crowned and smiling – three hands holding various objects the fourth held palm out in blessing and in greeting. He is the lord over comer of obstacles, the god of good luck, the god of wisdom, the patron of learning. Simpatico of the highest. He brings a smile to my lips. At his feet is an attentive rat. His vehicle. Because when Lord Ganesha travels, he travels atop a rat. On the wall opposite to the picture is a plain wooden Cross.
In the living room, on a table next to the sofa, there is a small framed picture of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, the flowers tumbling from her open mantle. Next to it is framed photo of the black-robed Kaaba holiest sanctum of Islam, surrounded by a ten-thousandfold swirl of the faithful. On the television set is a brass status of Shiva as Nataraja, the cosmic lord of the dance, who controls the motions of the universe and the flow of time. He dances on the demon of ignorance, his four arms held out in choreographic gesture, one foot on the demon’s back, the other lifted in the air. When Nataraja brings this foot down, they say time will stop. There is a shrine in the kitchen. It is set in a cupboard whose door he has replaced with a fretwork arch. The arch partly hides the yellow light bulb that in the evenings lights up in the shrine. Two pictures rest behind a small altar; Ganesha again, and in the centre, in a larger frame, smiling and blue-skinned, Krishna playing the flute. Both have smears of red and yellow powder on the glass over their foreheads. In a copper dish on the altar are three silver murtis, representations. He identifies them for me with a pointed finger; Lakshmi, Shakti, the mother goddess, in the form of Parvati; and Krishna this time as a playful baby crawling on all fours. In between the goddesses is a stone Shiva yoni linga, which looks like half an avocado with a phallic stump rising from its centre, Hindu symbol representing the male and female energies of the universe. To one side of the dish is a small conch shell set on a pedestal; to the other, a small silver handbell. Grains of rice lie about as well as a flower just beginning to wilt. Many of these items are anointed with dabs of yellow and red.
On the shelf below there are various articles of devotion; a small beaker full of water; a copper spoon; a lamp with a wick coiled in oil; sticks of incense; and small bowls full of yellow powder, red powder, grains of rice and lumps of sugar.
Pg 211: As the cartons of survival ration diminished, I reduced my intake till I was following instructions exactly, holding myself to only two biscuits every eight hours. I was continuously hungry. I thought about food obsessively. The less I had to eat, the larger became the portions I dreamed of. My fantasy meals grew to the size of India. A Ganges of dhal soup. Hot chapathis the size of Rajasthan. Bowls of rice as big as Uttar Pradesh. Sambars to flood all of Tamil Nadu. Ice cream heaped as high as the Himalayas.

The novel is rewarding in the notion that it has a happy ending, but after such a gruelling journey, it is well called for. I would give three and half stars to the book for, the simple but creative narration; drop dead philosophy covering the terrible times, funny facts about animals, navigation and remote islands; comical and clever twists all along the story. Read it if you enjoy any or all of these: India, animals, adventures, and miracles.

Hello and Welcome!

2006-07-21T04:40:00.000-07:00

Wandering mind.. Heedless Thoughts
Expressions in a place, Free form text
Satisfies the soul.. Helps to unwind..

As the time goes, you might find a variety of things in this little corner of mine. I would rather not define what this page might contain, because I want it to be as free flowing as it can be. Hoping to capture atleast some substance of what goes on in my mind and all the related (and unrelated) things I cross paths with. Enjoy Reading!