Yes, the cliched wishes for yet another new year.
The sole purpose of this post is to record what I am doing as the year 2009 dawns ... I was trying to remember what I was doing this time last year and for the life of me, I just couldnot !
So the new year is here - am sitting on my bed, laptop on lap typing this while my son is curled up next to me and sound asleep, unaffected by the noise of the crackers being burst outside.
Sometime back, I sent SMSes to all near and dear ones wishing them for the new year. Then I sent out a few e-cards to close friends and a nice lovey-dovey card to my Hubby.
My mobile has run out of charge, so no incoming calls. I think I need to introspect on the year gone by ...
So what am I going to do now is switch off the system and lie down ... and
introspect ... in my dreams ! ( pun intended )
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Paranoia
When the terror attacks happened in Mumbai on Nov 26th , I wondered what was the terrorist's goal ? what were they trying to achieve by killing innocent people ?
After about a month , I have slowly started to realise the impact ... they are not called 'Terror'-ists for nothing , their aim is to create panic, instill fear in the minds of people and they are slowing getting there , they are succeeding ! I say this, because my own perspective of strangers has changed now.
My first feeling is distrust ..."Well, who knows .. about this person ? " Can I safely trust the milkman, newspaper boy, gardener, LPG gas delivery guy, electrician, plumber, vegetable vendor, courier guy ... he may just be another live bomb, ready to explode any moment.
When we recently faced network issues in office and came to know it was because of some fiber cuts under the sea - my first thought was ' is it a terrorist act??' I don't know how a terrorist would gain anything by blowing up some cables underneath the sea, other than killing some precious sea creatures , but you never know ! Am I becoming paranoid ??
The answer is YES and its just not me ... its a whole country taken hostage by fear.
After about a month , I have slowly started to realise the impact ... they are not called 'Terror'-ists for nothing , their aim is to create panic, instill fear in the minds of people and they are slowing getting there , they are succeeding ! I say this, because my own perspective of strangers has changed now.
My first feeling is distrust ..."Well, who knows .. about this person ? " Can I safely trust the milkman, newspaper boy, gardener, LPG gas delivery guy, electrician, plumber, vegetable vendor, courier guy ... he may just be another live bomb, ready to explode any moment.
When we recently faced network issues in office and came to know it was because of some fiber cuts under the sea - my first thought was ' is it a terrorist act??' I don't know how a terrorist would gain anything by blowing up some cables underneath the sea, other than killing some precious sea creatures , but you never know ! Am I becoming paranoid ??
The answer is YES and its just not me ... its a whole country taken hostage by fear.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Celebrate without cell
Boarded an auto in a hurry today morning, as I usually do and had travelled about half-way to office, when I remembered something. Quickly searched my handbag to realise ("Oh shit" I exclaimed and the autodriver turned back) I had forgotten my mobile phone at home.
Forgetting mobile means I cannot contact people as I have stopped remembering phone numbers - its a self-created handicap , so everytime this happens I feel like myself.
So yeah, coming back to the subject, first thing I did when I got to office was , to write a mail to all and sundry saying I had no mobile with me , so they can either try to reach me on the extension or be damned ( not exactly that, but something to that effect). And the day proceeded ...
After nearly 12 hours at work, when I again got into an auto it dawned on me that a lot of things got done today - thanks to the absence of my mobile. I also use my mobile as a watch, so without having a device in hand to check time every 5 min or so , it felt like I was in timeless space ... and it felt great , it felt like relief , like freedom ! can you imagine the amount of pressure we put on ourselves to go faster than the tic-tocs of the clock.
I had once been to a trek and there , wearing a watch was strictly prohibited , for obvious reasons - they wanted people to enjoy instead of getting worried about what time it was and wondering what they would be busy with, if they weren't trekking.
So I have this brilliant stress-buster idea - why don't we have one day of the working week as watch-free and another as mobile-free ?
P.S: all said and done, my eyes are stealthily peeping at the right bottom corner of this screen ... so its now time to shutdown and sleep.
Forgetting mobile means I cannot contact people as I have stopped remembering phone numbers - its a self-created handicap , so everytime this happens I feel like myself.
So yeah, coming back to the subject, first thing I did when I got to office was , to write a mail to all and sundry saying I had no mobile with me , so they can either try to reach me on the extension or be damned ( not exactly that, but something to that effect). And the day proceeded ...
After nearly 12 hours at work, when I again got into an auto it dawned on me that a lot of things got done today - thanks to the absence of my mobile. I also use my mobile as a watch, so without having a device in hand to check time every 5 min or so , it felt like I was in timeless space ... and it felt great , it felt like relief , like freedom ! can you imagine the amount of pressure we put on ourselves to go faster than the tic-tocs of the clock.
I had once been to a trek and there , wearing a watch was strictly prohibited , for obvious reasons - they wanted people to enjoy instead of getting worried about what time it was and wondering what they would be busy with, if they weren't trekking.
So I have this brilliant stress-buster idea - why don't we have one day of the working week as watch-free and another as mobile-free ?
P.S: all said and done, my eyes are stealthily peeping at the right bottom corner of this screen ... so its now time to shutdown and sleep.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Mediocrity rules !
What makes us accept 'average or below-average' anything ??
We, who elect mediocre governments, watch mediocre issues raised by mediocre media, read mediocre articles, nominate mediocre movies for awards, push mediocre artists to stardom, listen and vote ( with mobiles with mediocre range and service ) for mediocre singers on scores of music programmes on TV that are presided by mediocre judges, get mediocre education to get into mediocre jobs of mediocre companies, travel on mediocre roads and vehicles, buy mediocre stuff , have mediocre happiness in mediocre relationships, make mediocre houses with mediocre income, lead mediocre lives and bring up mediocre children ... and the 'mediocre' cycle continues till eternity.
Jonathan Livington Seagull says " Heaven is not space, heaven is not time, heaven is being perfect", but how far before we reach that heaven ? A question for each one of us to ask ourselves.
PS: By the way, thanks for reading this mediocre post.
We, who elect mediocre governments, watch mediocre issues raised by mediocre media, read mediocre articles, nominate mediocre movies for awards, push mediocre artists to stardom, listen and vote ( with mobiles with mediocre range and service ) for mediocre singers on scores of music programmes on TV that are presided by mediocre judges, get mediocre education to get into mediocre jobs of mediocre companies, travel on mediocre roads and vehicles, buy mediocre stuff , have mediocre happiness in mediocre relationships, make mediocre houses with mediocre income, lead mediocre lives and bring up mediocre children ... and the 'mediocre' cycle continues till eternity.
Jonathan Livington Seagull says " Heaven is not space, heaven is not time, heaven is being perfect", but how far before we reach that heaven ? A question for each one of us to ask ourselves.
PS: By the way, thanks for reading this mediocre post.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Mentally prepared ? huh ?!!
When I was pregnant , I once casually said to a friend that the baby-to-be gives a woman nine long months to MENTALLY PREPARE herself for motherhood ... and I thought I was quite well prepared , until my son came to exist !
What I was prepared for , or thought I was ... was long sleepless nights, a whole lot of crying and wailing and frequent nappy changing. What I was not prepared for was seven long months of sleepless nights and still going strong , less of crying and more of demanding with his ever-charming smile , endless energy to tear paper or clang steel vessels on the floor , absolute hooligan and perfect gentleman bundled into one small creature ruling the house and everyone in it.
If new motherhood was one tough phase to be dealt with , the next one was to be able to get back to work ... and my seasoned thinking led me to think seven months was long enough to 'mentally prepare' myself for it. If you are thinking am now prepared well enough , you bet ! :)
What I was prepared for , or thought I was ... was long sleepless nights, a whole lot of crying and wailing and frequent nappy changing. What I was not prepared for was seven long months of sleepless nights and still going strong , less of crying and more of demanding with his ever-charming smile , endless energy to tear paper or clang steel vessels on the floor , absolute hooligan and perfect gentleman bundled into one small creature ruling the house and everyone in it.
If new motherhood was one tough phase to be dealt with , the next one was to be able to get back to work ... and my seasoned thinking led me to think seven months was long enough to 'mentally prepare' myself for it. If you are thinking am now prepared well enough , you bet ! :)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Feedback matters !
My last blog ' Old age haunts ' evoked this response from my favourite lecturer in college, currently residing in US -
"Neenu aaji ajjara kathe barediddu tumba vasthava jothege naanu kaledukonda bhava avarisithu. koodale nanna ammanige phone maadide. You are gr8. Munduvaresu ..."
which roughly translates to " Your story about old poeple rings true , it brought about a feeling of loss in me, so I called up my mother immediately. You are great. Continue writing ..."
This means a lot to me ! Am not just happy about being appreciated but also of being capable of touching someone's life, of making a difference somewhere , somehow ... Thanks for the feedback. Can I also urge other readers to post comments so am encouraged to take up more issues.
"Neenu aaji ajjara kathe barediddu tumba vasthava jothege naanu kaledukonda bhava avarisithu. koodale nanna ammanige phone maadide. You are gr8. Munduvaresu ..."
which roughly translates to " Your story about old poeple rings true , it brought about a feeling of loss in me, so I called up my mother immediately. You are great. Continue writing ..."
This means a lot to me ! Am not just happy about being appreciated but also of being capable of touching someone's life, of making a difference somewhere , somehow ... Thanks for the feedback. Can I also urge other readers to post comments so am encouraged to take up more issues.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Old Age haunts
Birthday after birthday, the anxiety mounts ... as age advances, so does worry.
What if I end up with chronic cough, weak knees, bad back, toothless mouth
etc etc - amidst all this and more who really cares about a few wrinkles ??
Jokes apart , there are a lot of aged people in my near circle for whom life is not easy; and its not just health problems that bother them.
The feeling of being isolated , neglected , uncared for, unrespected is all too common ....
The common story is of sons seeking greener pastures , or daughters being married off to far-off places leaving the parents to fend for themselves. I get to talk to old parents of my friends living here more often than the friends themselves. That's the way things have come to be, it is of little use blaming anybody. But it is the time when the elderly are probably feeling the most vulnerable. The changing dynamics of family in India has deprived the old of their only support system.
Most grandparents I know are not well-educated, are not economically independent and hence are totally dependent on their children and/or grandchildren. If this is one side of the coin, the other side has educated but still-in-the-wild senior citizens struggling to come to terms with the era of internet, ATMs and mobiles. It does not seem like a big deal to handle a mobile phone, use an ATM card or send an e-mail until you start teaching that to a sexagenarian or septuagenarian !
Recently, one of my mom's elder relative visited with a bundle of papers and a worried look. Her late husband had deposited some money in a private firm. She had received a letter saying she had to send back the deposit certificate to the firm to claim the amount. As she did not know English, my mom read out the letter and explained, but that was not the end of it, she was still finding it hard to decide what to do as she did not know what a certificate looked like, where to look for it, where/whom to send it to ... in short, she was clueless - pitiable situation indeed! If this is the condition of a fairly sensible senior citizen living alone in a metro city, it is even hard to imagine the plight of her less fortunate illiterate rural cousins.
What if I end up with chronic cough, weak knees, bad back, toothless mouth
etc etc - amidst all this and more who really cares about a few wrinkles ??
Jokes apart , there are a lot of aged people in my near circle for whom life is not easy; and its not just health problems that bother them.
The feeling of being isolated , neglected , uncared for, unrespected is all too common ....
The common story is of sons seeking greener pastures , or daughters being married off to far-off places leaving the parents to fend for themselves. I get to talk to old parents of my friends living here more often than the friends themselves. That's the way things have come to be, it is of little use blaming anybody. But it is the time when the elderly are probably feeling the most vulnerable. The changing dynamics of family in India has deprived the old of their only support system.
Most grandparents I know are not well-educated, are not economically independent and hence are totally dependent on their children and/or grandchildren. If this is one side of the coin, the other side has educated but still-in-the-wild senior citizens struggling to come to terms with the era of internet, ATMs and mobiles. It does not seem like a big deal to handle a mobile phone, use an ATM card or send an e-mail until you start teaching that to a sexagenarian or septuagenarian !
Recently, one of my mom's elder relative visited with a bundle of papers and a worried look. Her late husband had deposited some money in a private firm. She had received a letter saying she had to send back the deposit certificate to the firm to claim the amount. As she did not know English, my mom read out the letter and explained, but that was not the end of it, she was still finding it hard to decide what to do as she did not know what a certificate looked like, where to look for it, where/whom to send it to ... in short, she was clueless - pitiable situation indeed! If this is the condition of a fairly sensible senior citizen living alone in a metro city, it is even hard to imagine the plight of her less fortunate illiterate rural cousins.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Relationships - now and how !
Some thoughts just beg to be written ... here's one such.
In the 'Health' Supplement of 'Week' magazine , Nov 2007, Jerry Pinto wrote about the way the current generation treats friendship and love - the entire article is hilarious of course , but more important - it holds an unsympathetic mirror to the world we live in now.
Since I cannot type the entire article ( laziness being one of the reasons ) , I'll type out how he concludes - " ... We have turned love into a marketing game. We market ourselves on Orkut. We play who-has-more-friends with Facebook. We judge ourselves by the number of hits on our blogs. We have turned love and friendship into a numbers game. When the numbers don't pan out, there's always a way to doctor the figures. Get a techie to write a programme that will hit your blog once every 15 minutes. Use an old photograph on your web page. Massage the message, manage the image, igonre the disappoint. And when things don't work, there's divorce. What fun everyone's having."
What I read a few months back simply refused to be forgotten ... so to start with, I removed the click-counter on my blog.
In the 'Health' Supplement of 'Week' magazine , Nov 2007, Jerry Pinto wrote about the way the current generation treats friendship and love - the entire article is hilarious of course , but more important - it holds an unsympathetic mirror to the world we live in now.
Since I cannot type the entire article ( laziness being one of the reasons ) , I'll type out how he concludes - " ... We have turned love into a marketing game. We market ourselves on Orkut. We play who-has-more-friends with Facebook. We judge ourselves by the number of hits on our blogs. We have turned love and friendship into a numbers game. When the numbers don't pan out, there's always a way to doctor the figures. Get a techie to write a programme that will hit your blog once every 15 minutes. Use an old photograph on your web page. Massage the message, manage the image, igonre the disappoint. And when things don't work, there's divorce. What fun everyone's having."
What I read a few months back simply refused to be forgotten ... so to start with, I removed the click-counter on my blog.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Make-over !
Its the age of make-overs ... old buildings are demolished to be replaced by flashy multi-storeys, roads are dug up to make way for fly-overs and underpasses, actresses my mom's age are undergoing plastic surgeries and botoxing themselves to look young , heroes are sweating it out in gyms to show-off their six-packs, old movies are rehashed with special effects ( oopsy, my list is becoming so Bollywoodish! ) ... everything comes with a new look these days ... mostly, old wine in new bottle , but what the heck, some change is anytime better than no change !
So for the new year, I have changed the template of my blog ... no flashy stuff here , just a ' little change' , " kyunki log change maangte hain ! " :)
So for the new year, I have changed the template of my blog ... no flashy stuff here , just a ' little change' , " kyunki log change maangte hain ! " :)
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