A man amidst men

This morning in my local daily I was perusing an article which revealed a specific man's greatness about whom i have read multiple times over years now.He imbibed in me the visual of how ideal can a man actually be.This specific write-up throws light on some extreme loyalty & might sound ridiculously inapplicable in the century that we live.Humourous but mildly thought provoking was this amplified extract on a man amidst men.

' After killing Ravana, Lord Rama is resting on a rock. He notices a shadow approaching him. He realises that the shadow is that of a woman. He does not lift His eyes to see who it is, for, Lord Rama never looks at any woman other than Sita. As the shadow nears Him, Lord Rama pulls His feet up, and sits with His legs folded. This is to avoid even the shadow of the unknown woman touching His feet. So careful is He that none other than His wife should touch Him.

The shadow is then seen to recede. Lord Rama wonders who it is, who had come so close to Him and had yet retreated. So He enquires who the person is.

The shadow is that of Mandodari, and she discloses who she is. Lord Rama asks her why she is there. She says she heard that Ravana was killed in battle. Ravana had been a king who had struck fear in the hearts of his enemies. Everyone believed him to be invincible. And yet, he had been killed by someone. She had come to the battlefield to look at the man who killed her husband. She wanted to know what quality He had that her husband did not have. Lord Rama then asks her whether she found what that quality was. Mandodari says she has found that quality. Lord Rama is particular that even the shadow of a woman other than his wife should not touch Him. Ravana, on the other hand, was willing to sacrifice so many lives in his attempt at making another man's wife his. Therein lies the difference. That one quality of Lord Rama has led to His victory, says Mandodari.

Ravana's sin had been so heinous that he had been slain. There was right on the side of Lord Rama. And He was an exception among men. There may be men outwardly loyal to their wives, but their thoughts may go astray.

Lord Rama was the one whose thoughts and words never went astray. When Sita is lost, and Lord Rama sees Her jewels strewn about, He mentions each piece of jewellery and laments the loss of His wife. To Lord Rama, Sita is irreplaceable.'

A puzzling correlation

Am not sure if sri Kempe Gowda & sir Thomas Stamford Raffles would ever agree with all the puzzling correlation am trying to make here between the cities they were associated with,if they both were alive today : ).Kempe Gowda whom i believe to be the modern architect of the city where I live currently lacked a greater visualization in terms of even laying the building blocks of this surprise city's infrastructure.Yes,itz Bangalore that am referring to.On the other hand sir Thomas Stamford Raffles spotted lion city's potential as a strategic trading post for Southeast Asia way back in 1819.May be at this point you might just be thinking, I shouldn't have visited city 2 from city1 in the first place.But that wasn't in my hands.

After i visited Lion City way back in 2006,being popularly referred as a city-state, my mind drew this analogy from no where.Both Bangalore & Singapore flaunts almost the same geographically inhabitant area of 709.5 square kms & 710.2 square kms respectively & a population of approximately 50,000,00 people each.Both are equally growing & inviting cities to people across the world on many fronts.

With the above 3 strikingly similar facts between these two cities,after my first return trip i asked some responsible fellow folks around me why was Lion City such a heaven & Bangalore such a broken city ?.Lion city is a beautiful example of an organised city in the world.Where as Bangalore can be listed right against it for such an in disciplined Infrastructure Management stuff.When i say Bangalore, i inturn refer to any other similar Indian city.Step in to both once & you wouldn't disagree with me in any regard.After all what do i mean by referring a place outside my country as heaven ?

#1 -The city's Airport was stunning in terms of how it functioned,how it was built & especially the way it was maintained.Above all the time they took to add a new terminal & make it full functional without any hassel to the public.
#2 - You look for a mode of transport to reach ur destination in the city.The way in which all the public mode of transport functions,the way the people operate them & how affordable is it to people matters a lot.Above all the wholesome experience of commuting by a public mode of trasport.
#3-The roads,not one but everyroad was well laid without any pothole,all spick & span,well organised routing from one point to another with sufficient number of transport services.Though there are many to list,let me stop with these here.

Initially it was very easy to prompt this question.In someway till today it is to me.In course of time i realised this is no objective question which can be replied in one word or a statement.I do understand today that an enormous amount of reasons go in to making all the indifferences that exists.Ok but can i ask Having identified the problem or rather the reason behind the strikingly dissimilar situation with some strikingly similar fundamental factors,why can't we do an error correction or whatz stopping us from doing this error correction at this point ? .This time my folks were allowed to answer short & to the point.

My Dad -My child,Rome was not built in a day.Similarly itz not an easy task to rearrange the already existing infrastructure of a fully functional city like Bangalore.
My Mentor - We don't have a very civilized population who can co-operate effectively even if such a plan is chalked out to implement.
My Friend -Until we uproot corruption in a country like India,we shouldn't be dreaming about things u said.
My Manager - All that you are expecting to happen are happening here as well but on a micro level that you don't feel the change.
My Cousin -If we have powerful leaders consistently,such planning & execution is highly possible even with less time.
My Landlord-Execution of an effective micro administrative design should help ma.
My TeamMate -Y don't you relocate to ur heaven to do much better things in life.
My Neighbour -'A place for everything,everything in itz place'.In the case of our country,since there was no place for everthing then, now we don't have place for anything new.

This time too,all suggestions & solutions seemed to be right but when are we going to jumpstart to change things around ? Or rather should i be asking Don't we really intend to change things at all? At the end i realised that i was trying to correlate a puzzle here. While all i could do was just a simple correlation rather than itz complex cracking : (

The Divine Biryani

When in Bangalore,perpetually all sunday mornings are the same.A streak of sunlight concentratedly need a focus on my face, penetrating the window panes.Like a focussed laser beam from it's source to accomplish it's mission of moving me out of bed.After which I step out in snail's pace,reach down to sip my tea & enjoy SundayTimes along with it's supplements as one big feasty bunch to the brain.Mostly it's me & trav(the heavy petted dog i ever know) in the drawing room till noon.

By this time Uncle & Aunty would arrive from church to briskly begin a cerimonious preparation of a lovely recipe -the divine biryani,our usual menu on sunday afternoons.I would get back to my room to enjoy another short nap until a millon $ worth fiest gets ready.I always use to think during this hour that if i were to consume the same menu outside somewhere i would have to burn atleast a small hole in my pocket on my targeted 'No cash days'.A good biryani in a good place to eat costs alteast 150 - 200 rs.But i don't pay anything extra to consume this week after week.And the acoustics of the whole house where i stay was accidentally well designed that no conversation at any corner of the house is left unheard at every other potential corner inside the house.So i don't discuss these strategic reasons behind staying at home on a sunday afternoon with anyone over the phone.

On a serious note,not every hand in the kitchen can churn out that perfect biryani.Only very few has the talent & here i certify her as one.According to me she is one of the best biryani makers in the world.She creates magic with her prefected culinary skills blending only the essential ingredients one by one with atmost love n care.The end product is an aromatic,attractive & a ready to feast 10/10 biriyani by when my hunger pangs effectively get to work.Uncle contributes his share by preparing a flawless raita with selective vegetables sliced in specific manner,salts & spices in specific quantity & liquids in specific measures.I consume atleast 500 kilo calories more than allowed on sundays.After this scrumptious meal, i take another nap relishing this flawless food served to me. No doubt this is one my guilty pleasure in life but i know some day i need to fight out with all these excess calories.

Not all secrets in this world are shared with us but yes they have been generous enough to share this out of earth recipe with me: ) along with some hands-on as well.I feel so blessed to be consuming this divine preparation for more than half a decade now.If u are feeling so J of me lemme tell u that soon am going to miss all of it : ((

..... over a cup of coffee

Nalluswamy was mildly thrilled to find himself dig out a fact sitting in CM's office that Monday morning.He realised that it would be more than a fact even to his immediate boss.Thankfully it was not CM to the city where he belonged.He carefully analysed all the supporting evidence of his discovery to confirm his finding.Yes,he was just right.His finding was a fact that money collected from a certain insignificant source which was supposed to be deposited in the CM's Relief Fund promptly wasn't reaching the fund from the time CM took position in his territory.The sum was 77,000,00 INR.It wasn't a small money atleast to common man like Nallu.

Nallu was a man in mid fifties who worked for the governmentof india.It was a matter of great pride to him.More so was his nature of work.He was in a decent designation few steps below the top notches in his office, who enjoyed the power & responsibility to identify & unearth the invisible revenue to be falling in to the Indian Govt's pocket from every potentially possible source in his country.Just that it happened to be a CM's office this week.

By the time Nallu decided to take this to his Boss's notice it was noon hours after a scrumptious lunch arranged by the CM's folks.He thought to himself that his drive to the union territory from his Chennai home that early morning was fruitful in someway.So he didn't mind his insomniacs & extra body pain at that age.He rang his boss who was positioned in their head quarters office in Chennai keeping in mind the political battle they might have to face later.

Boss-Tell me Nallu,howz it going there.Did U & ur team have lunch ?
Nallu-Yes sir,things have been fine.There is a finding here on Day1 itself.
Boss- Mmm...looks like you made a big catch there which might invite us some trouble.
Nallu- In a way ur guess is right sir.
Boss- Nallu let ur effort not go waste.Make an entry in our record,inform them as well.Dig for more & get back to office this friday with all ur findings.Let me pull in our Big boss by then.
Nallu- Alright sir.

Nallu disconnected the phone & got back to more action along with his team mates.Folks at CM's office are no less in sniffing things out.By end of day 3,CM's folks had devised their mitigation plan.So they seemed to be super cool.In spite of their loyalty & proving their worth to their parent org time & again,Nallu & team weren't so cheerful this time.But they did their job as ever.

By Thursday,all entries were recorded,report sent to head quarters.A copy of it left with the concerned officials at CM's office as well.Nallu & team wound up their work & headed back home the same evening after a pleading session by the officials at CM's office to drop their findings reach the head quarters.This wasn't new neither to Nallu nor to his team mates.They undergo this pleading session at almost every empire where they dig out some unpleasant facts worth huge sums.But this really wasn't,Nallu said to himself.

Nallu wasn't enjoying a great health at his age.So was more than pleased to spend first half of the next day at his home sipping his self made health drink watching his favourite NDTV Profit channel.At around 12 noon,his boss rang him up to inform about his inevitable presence at a confidential meeting at 3.30 pm at the head quarter office.He obliged to his Boss's words and decide to make his presence felt at the meeting.

Nallu reached office sharp by 3.30 pm & realised that the so called confidential meeting was already in progress without his inevitable presence.So he decided to wait until he was called.Finally at around 4.30pm his immediate Boss slipped out of the enclosure to look for his presence if any.When he spotted Nallu,he invited him in.

All that Nallu could make out was, literally over a single cup of coffee with his Boss & Big Boss hardly for an hour,2 high ranked officials who had flown from CM's office at the union territory to chennai,helped drop the findings of Mr Nallu & his team.In reality Nallu's presence did not matter to anyone there.Neither did his finding.Nallu was a pragmatic man after all.So it wasn't any shock or something to him.Infact he takes ample learning from situations like these.To update him on the case,he enquired his boss later that night as what was their point across table to drop this finding since a sum of 77,000,00 shouldn't have been a big amount to be paid back by the CM's office, in Nallu's point of view.

Oh yes,his boss cheered him up saying 'Nallu it wasn't the money which was the cause of concern here.But the CM's image.A case like this might show him on the bad light & he cannot afford to tamper with his image at this point when he is already in position in his office.So me & our Big Boss were requested by them on be-half of the CM itself.So Nallu we couldn't do much on this.I was just reading that lands around CM's office are available at rates much affordable by me.In case tomorrow either me or you happen to buy some plots there, registration and other formalities can be done without much hassel Nallu.Lemme know if u have any such plans'.

Nallu now dropped the call muttering 'A lot can happen over a cup of coffee'.

The Intoxicating Proposals

To me a proposal was meant to be made by a man to a women and i have been just tired of seeing it all my life until one romantic saturday evening i stepped out to watch this movie 'New York' starring John Abi & Ms Kaif.In one of the scenes unexpectedly,kaif kneels down with a bunch of red carnations and tries to surprise Jhon but as per the screenplay Jhon was supposed to ignore that with some sad expression & some other heavy feelings in the heart.So did he.But it hurt a little when kaif was not taken seriously at that point on screen.But was refreshing from the usual stuff.I went home little intoxicated replaying that scene on my mind screen than the other stunning visuals in the movie.

Months passed by & there i was again on some saturday evening with part III of Poniyin Selvan, a historic novel written by a fantabulous tamil author Kalki.With my hands gripping the book tightly & eyes racing past every line on the storybook,a beautiful turning point in the story left me intoxicated the second time.Kundavai,the king's daughter, damsel with an IQ much above her age who is projected as a responsible female from the royal family suddenly stretches her hand to the smart & handsome vandhiyadevan, a dude who is just a messenger from her elder brother stranded in the basement prison inside their palace.She gives her hand to vandhiyadevan who holds it and says 'Man this hand which you are holding now will never ever be given to another in my lifetime and if i reach such a circumstance, i would rather die than live'.Page #842 which contains this proposal stuff left me sweetly intoxicated for a minute.I thought ... Man this story expected to have happened in deep south india nearly 1600 years back educates me that a damsel though from a royal family was capable of proposing out to a man of her choice at just the perfectly apt time in the story.

I agree i was influenced by the above two incidents but never did i imagine in the wildest of my dreams that shortly the following thing would ever happen in my life.

It was a bright sunday morning.And a bunch of 25 odd people where advancing downhill from the mountainous slopes of chickmagalur.Inside the bus were me and most of my teammates on our way back to Bangalore after a day's outing.We knew itz going to be a full day drive on that sunday morning before hitting Bangalore.Folks suggested that we continue to play our 'Truth or Dare' game which we discontinued the previous night.The baton passed was a 1.5 litre pepsi bottle with about 2 ounce of pepsi left inside.The first bakra that morning was me ... and i had to face the whole team to choose between either 'Truth' or 'Dare'.

After hearing all the awful truths the previous night, i opted to dare by uttering the D word.So did i.Vijay z electrifying brain shot me a daring scenario.He wanted me to propose someone in that bus to prove that.What a sad situation i thought to myself.Most of the guys in my lovely team are this bacchaa log visibly younger to me.Proposing someone from that gang would hurt me on some grounds later.The only other category consisted of guys either already engaged or to be married anytime or already married.There wasn't much of choice barring the driver & the chotu with him.But the whole idea was to prove myself daring.Just thought for a minute,what can be more daring than proposing our Big Boss?.It had two purposes in fact.One - I would straight away prove myself daring without an iota of doubt.Second was that if I propose our Big B,nobody in the team would be daring enough any time later to pull my leg on this.Had it been somebody else it would have been like me digging my own grave along with whomever i had picked to propose, that morning.With the intention to save two lives from being bullied in the office for the rest of the days, i had to shortlist our Big B.

Needless to say,it was Praveen.My all time favourite in the team.But Praveen was married for good & was 'The Big B' for us though he never flaunted his powerful designation anywhere,anytime.I didn't want to drag this D situation for long.He was just diagonally opposite to me,sat hugged with his bag examining his leg space seriously.Honestly i had no clue whom everyone around where guessing.But to me at that minute it couldn't have been anyone else other than him.So before i was just ready for it, Sindhu handed me a bunch of hand picked mini wild pink carnations,for an effective proposal.

With all eyes set on me,my heart racing speedier than normal,there i was hearing the most sweetly intoxicating words from my own self.I heard myself utter 'I love you Praveen' while handing over the mini bunch to him.People just around were hugely thrilled.Unfortunately due to ineffective acoustics inside the bus downhill,people behind couldn't hear me.On hearing the disappointed souls demand 'once more',the proposed man clarified saying 'She made a statement'.In a defensive tone I followed him with 'I said I love u Praveen'.This episode ended with a huge sweet uproar from behind.Finally after all the fun & frolic we reached Bangalore that night.

Next morning i bunked office to catch some great sleep.But those 4 words spilled from my mouth the previous day kept resonating almost the whole day with a huge disbelief.By evening I found myself back to normal .The very next day,while i splashed some water on my face to ward off sleepiness at work,Preethi recollected the sunday morning incident to me and i found her to be equally intoxicated even after 2 days.And i remember Ani pulled my leg on that insignificant incident at least for the next few weeks.A month after this incident i happened to be in conversation with Vijay on some other stuff.Out of our context he recalled to me the same incident.Thatz when it hit me.Mmm .... what an intoxicating proposal it was !

Cross Country Race

Neither am i new to bangalore nor is it my mistake to go on a cross country race from one end of this broken city to another during peak traffic hours.I should have really checked on the following to know if this city was really for me.After being employed in the same city at a walkable distance from home,destiny deviced my destination to be the Global Village campus on Mysore road.If you are just asking me where do i live,oh ya itz almost the other corner of the same city.I just live a stone's throws away from the HAL airport.Mmm.. the distance pretty much would be around 28KMS one way.To the outside world I live in the silicion city of India.But only would i know how poor is this city where i dwell on many fronts.And now letz hold a magnifying glass on the city's Transport Network & Facility if am generous enough to use these words for the kind of transport ways the city flaunts.

Letz assume my watch reads 6.45PM which is when I choicelessly step out of the GV campus on Mysore road to reach the old Airport.What happens next should be falling in any of the following possibilities.

P1:Office Shuttle-If I prefer to generously pay a whopping 1400 bucks to my parent company towards transportation,the headache is all theirs to make me reach home.But a huge idle time will have to be shelled out from my pocket.The driver will try his best to drive the bus as his F1 vehicle only until Gopalan Mall on Mysore Road.I should be patient enough to see my watch tick,minute by minute until 7.30 PM at this junction.By 7.45 PM the bus could manage to inch towards corporation circle.From here,the driver has the flexibility to actually take 2 different routes.

1-Drive in straight adjacent to dense cubbon park hitting MG rd at the end.

2-Drive across Vittal Mallya Road & get clogged in Richmond Circle.

However I could land in a hickup if I take route1 due to the chaos on MG Road due to the much anticipated Metro construction.So unless I happen to be a perfect personification of patience,am sure I wouldn't want to do that.Route2 is a little long route compared to the former.But then there isn't much choice if I atleast want to see myself moving block by block towards home.But like a famous saying All roads leads to Rome- whichever way I go I have to hit ASC centre which is where officially the HAL Airport Road begins.From there a little more minutes of patience will actually help me seeing the HAL Aiport on your right.I even bet a blank cheque with you that it can't be earlier than 8.20 PM during a peak traffic hour.

If you are asking me what will i do if my bus breaks down half way through.I promise I wouldn't get stranded by any means.I can fall as a prey to the autowallas anytime to reach my destination but can't expect to save my back for all the stunts they try on the speedbreakers & potholes on the pathetic city roads.Or all the missed gyming hours could be made use in pushing the bus for a restart along with my other commuters.Itz fun at times.Personally lemme tell you this isn't a bad mode of transport at all.

P2:Own Transport - CAR,Two wheeler - If I prefer to see my money vaporise than shelling out a huge sum on the company's shuttle,am sure i will fall in to this category.I wouldn't be having any fun on riding my vehicle atleast this far amidst the other chocking chariots on the arterial roads of bangalore.But lemme tell you,few more routes unfold once i hit corporation circle.I could actually deviate via SP Road & some how save few micro minutes before hitting UB city.And hence forth also I could drive straight till old madras road & cut across the new indranagar flyover to reach my old airport.If my personal vehicle,be it car or a 2 wheeler fails in the middle of the road,mypiece of advice would be to leave it there once for all and keep marching towards the nearest public transport stop.By godz grace if all goes well,I could prove myself as a green driver by allowing a pillion rider to hitch hike on me.Be it a car,handful of vehicle less souls travelling via my neighbourhood can be helped.But i should be prepared to reach home not earlier than 8.30PM.Again depending on my driving skills it might be another plus or minus 20 minutes.

Since no one have any opportunity to drive @ a speed more than 25-30 km/h the possibility of rash driving accidents are almost nil during these peak hours in a city like these.The irony of all i feel is that to reach mysore which is 3 hrs from Bangalore a friend of mine takes around 2.5 hrs which is sometimes the same time i take to reach my home in the same city.Howz that ?

P3:Public Transport- I must really be a least lucky soul if my mode of transport is going to be this.Apart from the fact that I cannot afford to travel by any other costlier mode of transport for a stretch of 28 kms,I have other resons to see myself at this least lucky position.If I or anyone above 5feet 5 inch happen to get a seat,the leg room will leave you feeling cursed.If you don't get a seat to sit,the travel experience will be even more worse.The conductors in this city are publicly given license to squeeze themselves amidst all possible female passengers of their choice as a means of pleasure and as a means of serving their duty.If there are any decent male passegers near me then I can expect to travel with some peace of mind until my destination.If you stars aren't aligned in a good positions for the day on the sky above,then I might actually end up having a really exhausting and a bad day cursing myself for reasons more than one.But there is a choice that I can make here.If there is a volvo service running across atleast half my destination,i can relax.Since only decent people board volvo in bangalore and that i haven't seen any volvo breaking down until now.Leg space is really ample even for the XL souls.The possibility of depending on BMTC or volvo arises out of another reason which i fell prey twice in these 2.5 years.Missing my office shuttle or cancellation of office shuttle or if my shuttle refuses to take the route that i travel, on any particular day.

If you are asking me the reason behind possibility of cancellation or shuttle refusing to take my route,there are valid reason for these i tell u.If a popular demigod celebrity is kiddnapped,or may be dies, this can truely happen to anyone.Also if the private cab associations decide to go in for a strike,as a helpless middleclass citizen,I or anyone can expect the same.For a small sum of money that I shell out for my commutation via the public transport,city's transport body gives me oppurtunity to practise patience under few nonsense situations as well.Possibility of stranding half way through a public transport cannot be totally ignored.But the good thing is i can manage to travel in another bus which comes the same way with just an autograph of the conductor.When i will reach home can never be guaranteed.Since there are few factors influencing it like the arrival of the bus.And again arrival of bus depends on whether or not is the driver in mood to drive the bus.Even if he does,the bus must be a good working condition for a good start.Even if the bus starts & arrivesmy pickup point there is no guarantee that it would have ample space for me to step in.Am not kidding.It really happens here.Last thing i would like to highlight abt the public transport in this city would be the fact that if someone wants to travel from point A ->B,one might actually have to reach point C which most of the time isn't on the way from A ->B.You will really be taken for a ride.This will speak for all the transport network planning done here in all the past years.

P4:Private cabs/3 wheeler - If money isn't a big deal for me,I will be a privileged customer to all these folks.False meter,demanding a whopping sum in addition to the actual price & a concept called 1 1/2 are things one needs to learn.Quite expensive but hassle free travel.But it terms of time this mode of transport is a no exception like the above.If you are a female traveller,better to be careful with the private cab drivers since the city is quite famous for crimes wrt this gender.Good thing however here is that if this transport fails on the road due to a puncture or a bad working condition of the vehicle,one might have to worry very less since the driver will make alternate arrangements or least expected to.I need not ideally worry about the route since the private vehicle drivers know each & every gully in the city of bang if there is a major hurdle on the way.Relatively I can save time if all goes well. If you think all this is enough for you to faint right away ,hold on i have some pleasant things in store.

P5:Copter Service - I always wish i belonged to the elite group of citizens who can afford more than what is essential for anything and everything in life.Not in all aspects though but the passion to own a copter is still alive in me.At least every alternate fortnight, if i get a free pickup or drop by a copter from HAL hanger to GV & back home,i will still be grateful to god.Hmm .. though itz one big never to come true dream,just visualize me boarding a beautiful black bird waiting for me near coffeeday junction in GV campus.Say I board it at the same assumed time 6.45 pm every evening.With the blades chopping heavily for few minutes i am sure I would reach HAL Hanger by 7PM.From there itz a matter of 6 minutes by walk to my home.How wonderful would that be.

P6:Awaiting Metro - For the hoping against hope souls,in a matter of few years this could just be their life line as well apart from the city's.But then itz just an anticipation.I am really skeptical about boarding the metro peacefully after seeing a video showing how easy it is to board a metro train in a country like china.Time will be a saving factor though.But from where to where is a big Q.To reach home from the metro station might really need to be worked out.Money spent in metro commutation should be worth it.Connectivity across all the places with in the city will be an ongoing project for another 2-3 decades i presume.

P7:Ferry Service - I am one soul who tend to visualize the impossible.Here is the impossible for your visual.If there comes a govt in Karnataka who sincerely takes an initiative in cleaning up the polluted rivers running across bang within a fixed deadline & if it is successful then from global village campus right next to ccd all I need to do is get down to the cleansed river and just reach nayandhahalli circle probably on the aromatic waters of bangalore.That will no doubt be a pollution free & one of the most pleasant mode of transport.Cost though am not sure at this point.Safety might also be of concern if itz going to be an open ferry.

If I find myself not wanting to opt any of the above options,I still have a single way left.Like working from home,I can actually choose to live from office.That will save a lot of money,free net/phone connection,video conferencing,AC,hot water,food at any time & will save a lot of rent money and opens a huge possibility to be productive at work .May be I should think again before making a new choice of work place.

Tiny Tykes

I wept that day miserably exhausting myself.It was my day 1 @ kindergarden.There was this huge & heavy feeling in my tiny self.As if people around have done injustice by walking me to an unfamiliar place called school.May be my tiny instincts knew they were snapping me from holidaying in life for many years to follow.I just didn't spoil my own day but mom's,dad's my kg tutor's & that poor school aayya's.Puddle of tears,red eyes,running nose & that wet handki are still fresh in my memory chip.It probably took a month or more to get acquainted to all those new unplesant faces around.That was me 24 years back.A month ago,my neighbour's 3 year old neice came upstairs to visit my mom to fetch her blessings the day before she was starting her KG classes.To that tiny tot my mom shot a Q.

Mom How did you know that you should do this?

Kiddo I have seen people doing it before starting something new.

Mom Oh aren't you scared to go to school?You cannot eat and play all the time there.Miss will be very strict and watching you all the time.Are you ok with it ?

Kiddo Am bored seeing my mom & dad all the time now.I am waiting to see some new faces & a place to go everyday.

A week later, just to check if all went well with the kid,mom dropped by.

Mom Hi honey,have you started going to school?.How are u liking it.I mean ur school,ur miss & your friends ?

Kiddo I like everything abt this school except one thing with an inverted smiley gesture facing the floor.

Mom Whtz that child.Can i know ?

Kiddo My new friend.He weeps all the time and it spoils my mood as well u know.

I have spent time with this kid during many of my trips.She must be just 3 now.She likes to do only things of her choice like selectively watching cartoon network,eating chicken kababs every night,wearing only soft fabric clothes.She is just cool about letting you know if you look good to her eyes.Once she came to me and said in a loving gesture'You look very pretty.I like you very much.Will you come to my house and stay with me?'.What a sweet offer & a priceless compliment from a kid of that age.Did i really know how to compliment someone at that very age ?.I did like all the pleasant looking faces at that age.But the element of complimenting others wasn't existing in my tiny self.Did i really bother or knew to tell my mom that some frilled frocks were actually pricking me inside though they made me look bright n bubbly.What ever was dressed on me was me.Whatever was given to eat was eaten by me.I never knew when to watch TV and when not to.Ofcourse am not trying to compare my dull head with some smart whizkid.

This kid really prompted me to observe kids of the same age.The next kid in the list was my collegue's.She leaves the kid in the day care centre inside my work campus.This kid loves to sing and one fine morning a beautiful sight struck me.My friend was holding her kidz hand and looking around wondering what to do.This kid was holding a bright coloured flower along it's long stem,half squatted,smiling brightly and happily singing to that flower.On revealing that beautiful sight that i witnessed tht morning to her,she told me that her son is interested in singing and that he frames his own lyrics sometimes and fits them in to an existing tune.How intelligent ? She also revealed to me that there are kids @ the day care who speak different languages to different people & responds in the correct language to people around.If only the mapping for all this is done in the brain correctly,i believe this is possible.Kids at day care are all less than 3.

Direct from the womb they all evolve really smart,knowing what they want and what they don't want,happy and bold unlike a kid like me of my generation :(

Runaway tips for dummies

Deep irony behind the following writeup might be the fact that itz by a perfect dummy who never got chance to run even a little away from home for any good reason in life.But that doesn't disqualify me to publish my valuable tips to other dummies who wish to graduate on how to runaway from their homes without messing it all up.

My disclaimer would be that though this might not serve you dummies out there as one detailed comprehensive runaway guide,i promise you will get some rich insights,tips & stimulants to think out of the box by the time you reach end of this tip guide.To put it in a nutshell, this will be a quick jump start guide to inspire if you have already kick started the thought process of running away from home ditching your parents.

Before we begin with the tips & tricks,if you would like to know why on earth am I taking pains to draft content on such a risky & adventurous topic,lemme take the pleasure of revealing a true fact to you prestigious readers at this point in time.After being a successful co-mastermind behind a high risky and a high adventurous runaway plan which succeeded beyond it's probability to succeed,I believed penning down my rich insights on such a subject could prove beneficial to few other potential couples.

As any other author i also would like to begin by dedicating my quick guide to 2 dummies.My heart felt thanks to them who blindly trusted me and my instincts to the best of their knowledge on such a valuable aspect in their lives.All tips,tricks,post wedding plans listed below are actually drawn from my meticulous planning experience in uniting this couple.

Tip#1-Foot Gear A good pair of gripping shoes with lace tied tightly is a must even to run those few steps effectively from your house to board any hired cab or bike or bus whatever be your chosen mode to escape home.Your otherwise regular high heel has the capability of landing you directly on a hospital bed & your strapped sandals could strand u by toppling both you and ur plans, all in a minute.So make sure you actually have a good pair of foot gear in working conditions during those auspiciously daring runway minutes.Mmm .. I can hear you appreciating me on this well thought tip #1.Thanks anyways : )

Tip#2-Transportation All you need to get united with your sweet heart is not even a pair of strong legs to run but a hired cab in good running conditions.This is my first recommended mode of transport if you have a long distance to cover.The shortest route from the runaway point to ur first planned destination must be well known.If not you, atleast the driver must be with good clarity of thought and route.A good bike will also do the trick.If itz a local runaway,then your bike must be serviced priorly,tyres filled with air & tank filled with sufficient petrol.Above all either you or ur partner must be in the perfect state of mind to drive well once you hit the main road.Since for most it is expected to be the first runaway experience,itz recommended that you don't drive.If people at home are absolutely not skeptical and highly hopeless in tracing your master plan,then boarding a local metro transport leisurely could be the cheapest and the best for you.

Tip#3-Rest&Sleep The person who has the necessity to take ample rest and sleep prior to this adventurous exercise should be your driver since he/she needs to drive you back the entire stretch during your journey towards your first planned destination.In addition you could also rest and sleep so that you don't screw the meticulous master plan from your side.And the same can be followed by your partner as well so that things go smooth as planned in a clear state of mind.A good rest& sleep will provide you this.

Tip#4-Communication Carry your mobile,just to communicate with your partner in case of any last minute confusion in the plan.But remember to remove the SIM card immediately after you leave home.I believe you know why?.Your current location can be traced with the nearest tower from which mobile device picks up the signal.Leaving a trace would be the most foolish thing in this situation.And more so you don't want to receive any calls from kith & kin on that number at least for those immediate few hours.what do u say ?

Tip#5-Runaway Note After performing the most daring act in ur life,you wouldn't want to keep your parents guessing foolishly that u had just vanished to some friend's house or to some shopping mall near by.I know to let them know your daring act,isn't that easy in spite of your success behind ditching them.If you are highly confused as what to write in the runaway note to your parents,stop worrying i say.An SMS to your dad/mom after few minutes of quitting the house will do.It need not be so elaborate,remember it is an Short Messaging Service anyway.

Tip#6-Things to carry Just before your clandestine runway plan if you are skeptical on what to carry & what not to,here are few handy tried and tested pointers.A good max fresh toothpaste and an old toothbrush should be on top of your list amidst other things.Next comes ur passport,certificates,debit card.If you can organise all these in a neat file or a folder well in advance,it is a good practise.Ur facewash,deo and a pair of dress with some clean & soft under wears along with a comb is the most recommended.The contents listed above are tried and tested.If you are asking me abt the under wear ... lemme explain.The very next day you will be grieving to the peak for all the family values you practised all these years.Your new underwear has the power to alleviate your grief to the extent it can help.If you had already let your imagination fire by now,gosh am not responsible in anyway.If you want to be extra careful sufficient eatables with the choice of your soft drink can be included in the list.Soft drinks are mainly to wash down all the multiplied sorrows.

Tip#7-Emotional Intelligence Have you heard of it before?If u haven't itz just fine .. because this is what you got to ideally practise once you have done the most daring act in ur life and still can't believe it for urself that you have just done it.Just be practical and go with the flow in life.Don't let a whirl pool spin inside ur brain soaking all the past incidents or ur past life ,even for a minute.I know itz the most difficult thing to practise but believe me itz the need of hour.Even if your IQ had been an all time low,you can fare well in EQ under such exceptional circumstances.Believe me it works sometime.

Tip#8-Star Connections After all,the whole runaway ,meticulous planning & implementation should be rewarding for the rest of your life.For this,it's better to pass on your birth details & horoscope if any through any of your trustable friends and make sure that your astral combinations with ur partner are in perfect sync with each other just to avoid the possibility of some strong skewed lines at some corner of your birth chart screwing up the whole thing.I believe you are slowly gripping the fact that i was a pretty good co-master mind.

Tip#9-Place to Stay Make arrangements for a clandestine stay at least for the next day or next few days/weeks.Choose a clandestine destination,u know, a place where your will be in-laws just can't take even a wild guess.And to take ample rest after all the emotional trauma that you both had undergone.U deserve it,i tell you.

Tip#10-Family Bonding Just the day or the night previous to runaway,make sure you bond well with the entire family.Meet all ur local friends,relatives,elders in the family,take their silent blessings by dropping a safety pin near their foot etc with silent prayers for ur forthcoming plan to succeed.After all without elderly blessings,whatz the big deal to start a brand new life.Isn't it ?

Tip#11-RTI If you are wondering what this Real Time Implementer is,let me reveal.After all the grand master plan & logistics in place, the person who z got to quit home with all the essential things packed skipping the glance of every possibly existing member in the family on time in a perfect state of mind is equivalent to a rocket launch from earth to the targeted celestial destination.In fact the work of masterminds comes to light only if the RTI doesn't lets you down at the right minute.Even by any chance if you get caught, the consequences are unimaginably huge.So in this case you have the responsibility to get this right at the very first time.Isn't it ?.So as an RTI u got to mentally visualize this runaway act everyday at least for a week,do a forward,rewind,pause and frame the sequences correctly in the brain for a strong positive outlook on the mission.

Tip #12-License Procurement Finally a single ceremony that will make ur runaway act meaningful is this license procurement.I mean getting ur tie-up registered by signing in appropriate fields in designated forms in the presence of a sub registrar @ his office as per supreme court.Catch hold of a lawyer who can help you with this.I came to know that there are full time lawyers whose survival depends only on runaway couples dying to procure license asap in a clandestine way. And needless to say you need to collect two of ur buddies who will sign for the purpose of proof.Again make sure they are ur true friends.You can't be careless by inviting friends who have had some serious crush on ur partner at some point in time.Just in case ur foe in the name of a friend is accompanying you,your chance of signing in the correct fields might be slim.So take care : -).Feel free to bribe these full time couple uniting lawyers.After all, thatz their only source of income.Thatz it.You are almost done in making the whole runaway project a huge success.What more ?.Make sure you live the rest of your life without having to run, even to catch a bus.Thanks for allowing me to help & inspire you just in case if you have read this crap till the end.

Password Day

In our times,the whole calender year appears encroached & a kind of crowded to my eyes with almost all 365 days marked with 'U' day,'Me' day & the 'gay' day without sparing a single day free.Most of which obnoxiously sound silly days to me like,u know what I mean.Considering my pathetically past poor experiences in managing all my passwords in life i was happy to come across the password day of my life which was indeed quite a relieving day,I declare.

In an attempt to keep in touch with interesting buddies,old pals & secretly store few personal things,like every teenager on earth,I too opened a personal mail account which demanded a secret key to the free lock in the name of a password.So I framed my favourite string of characters (mmm ... should i reveal it ?Mm ... i don't see any harm here) 'chocopie' as password which otherwise might have been my own name,if my parents had thoughts of consulting me during my naming ceremony.

Soon as a style statement I opened yet another free account with a leading search engine empire in the world.To make my life simple,i framed the same string of characters as pwd to this one as well.Then these chat engine interfaces,u know,they too ask for pwds for security purpose.Damn,I use the same chocopie,for these as well.

For some reason,one fine day a cousin of mine came to know about my chocopie and in a hurry i secretly edited my pwd as nochocopie.For the next few times,it used to throw me errors on typing my old 'chocopie'.But now itz all going good with my new 'nochocopie'

Being employed within the four firewalls of an Information Technology world,I necessarily had to reserve at least 2 blocks of space in my memory just to remember the following inevitable passwords in my life.

Early in the morning a pwd to unlock my locked computer,a password to open my mailbox,a password to connect to my client network,a password to open my mailbox provided by the client,a pwd to open my unix home directory,a password to access the problem tracking tool and yet another if you want to be part of the company's social networking site & flaunt your latest pictures.

If i have to book my train tickets, even the Indian Railways ask for a password.Then for having committed the sin of just hopping from one company to another,i landed up having accounts with 3 different private banks.The total count today stands as 4 money cards with one being a credit card among them.So the cc requires yet another password apart from remembering a 3 digit cvv number which has completely disappeared after swiping it sufficiently good enough for the digits to vanish.So the crammed space is left with no mercy but to remember these additional 3 digits.

Then the 3 remaining bank ATM cards demand me to religiously remember their 4 digit pin and a 8+ net banking password.While i believe i have listed all the inevitably existing passwords in my life,just wondering if i left anything to list.Oh ya on mom's request i did open 2 more for mom to keep in touch with her kids,friends & students.And i have the additional responsibility of remembering them as well, since she doesn't check her mails regularly & there is a vulnerability of her forgetting them.

With all these complicated accounts existing in a life like mine,if u are asking me why don't i synchronize all my passwords to one easy to remember string of characters like 'Ihatemypwds',lemme tell you, blessings like these never happen.The bank accounts,the comp at office & each & every pwd created on client's domain expect the account holders to change their passwords every quarter,month,fortnight & on account expiration date set.In a haste i simply append digits like 1,2 or even 123 to it or sometimes !@#$ & in between all the juggling that happens within those two blocks of reserved space in the brain,the dump gets badly corrupted,words jumbled most of the time & needless to say that the chances of recovery are quite slim.

And there are accounts which we all don't regularly visit but we do check them at crucial times,for example my Bank Account#1 which I bother to open only to see if interest on my Capital gets credited :).Though a joyous feeling on seeing extra money credited,possible only if i remember my password promptly.Otherwise am thrown a message in red bold letters saying something that i hate to see and have seen ample number of times by now.Though you might know what it is,lemme take the pleasure of revealing it to you one more time 'Ur pwd is locked'.Locked meaning it requires calling up a sequence of customer care guys,for a series of days sometimes months just to hear that we got to go in person and drop a form that is fully filled with all possible unimportant statistical data about my existence on earth.Due to some self refusal,I have not had access to so many accounts of mine for months or even years together.

There came a day in the recent past when,like a series of green signals glowing at all traffic signals giving way to reset some 6-7 passwords,pin and gain authentication back to all my inactive accounts on the same day without having to walk up to any outlet or fill any form and drop anywhere.I proudly declared such a day to be my password day and know what? I don't trust my 2 blocks of corrupted memory space anymore.I write them all in a mail and send it to my newly opened account on a free site called 'Remember your Passwords'.Oops .... what the hell was the password for that account ?

Storm in a teardrop

A tattered atlas,now in some abandoned shelf corner,referred way back in high school geography classes.Flipping through the first couple of pages,there it is on the right side,snapshots of our most treasured celestial object's sequential evolution across millions of years.Why the only single huge land mass exploded itself to drift apart in small & big fractions on the ocean bed tell us firmly,it was geography that paved way to all the history on earth.That very fact led us in to coining yet another inevitable word,Continent in its plural form & eventually its consequences. Today a child below 10 years might be fascinated if employed to put back each continent's jigsaw puzzle piece adjacent to one another just to see how they simply fit each other,elucidating the fact of oneness.

Until the latest remarkable evolution of our most treasured planet there ceased to exist the teardrop island which today hangs like a vestigial land to the Asian continent.Life sometimes is wonderful if some things ceased to exist.One such thing in my cease wish list would be this tear drop island appearing orphaned on the waters of earth right under the Indian foot.History tells me every single human life out there today flourished as a consequence of desired settlement for a pie of land within the tear drop island, innumerable centuries back. On further dig with my inquisitive shovel,I only find that they were all migrants from our Indian subcontinent & from nowhere else.Which just means all their roots trace back to our rich cultural, social & political heritage.Even if they refuse to acknowledge,it still is the embedded truth lying uncluttered in their deep selves.

Though the summary of Ceylon's ancient history sounds much like a fairy tale, it is much more than a horror flick right now.First landed an Indian king from a far India with his small army, followed by some Buddha bikshus & then the men from the near India.The far Indians transformed in to what they like to call themselves.The Sinhalese.Deriving a religion, language & custom of their own by borrowing it from every possible neighboring Indian state.The near Indians remained to be what they were.The Tamils.The crux of all the existing agony there today in a way seem to derive from chronological difference in each other’s arrival time.Since the far Indians were the initial inhabitants,they still believe that they hold an upper hand & hence the exploitation of the late comers.But late comers too agonized the former by waging wars at inappropriate times in the past,all standing as a stifling factor to the already fragile world peace, today.

But if you wish to take a close look from the time a demon ruled this island till the time tigers were finally traumatized,you will notice just like me,how finely destiny devices its own disaster plan,time & again,symbolizing the remarkably visible tear shape of this land in the lives of its inhabitants too.The divide between people became so bitter that it gradually became a land of twin tales.I simply wonder how history will unfold this double version events & interpretations to the world tomorrow.

Why the sleeping tigers were provoked in the first place, answers many similar ethnic conflict stories around the world.Like the most prevalent black& white divide in the Columbus discovered continent,in the tear drop island too,the Tamil sect was suppressed from the beginning denying their social & political rights as citizens.A fight for their basic rights began long time back paving way to multiple gangs of liberation tigers.One huge tiger swallowed the rest to emerge as a super tiger which claimed it to be the LTTE.Prabhakaran's pristine cause behind his tiny freedom fight picked up too many distracting controversial factors along its way and stood as a huge threat factory to the world in course of time.Once the wild cats tasted blood & flesh, basic goals seem to have forgotten.Civilians - the very word which addressed only the suffering Tamils faced threat from their own freedom fight heads, letting evaporate the very essence of a once focused goal.How many of us know what it means to live without peace, happiness, home, food, work & above all loved ones?.Particularly does the other pampered sect there know what it means to lose one’s identity & stand orphan in one’s own country?.

While all this is just one side of the story, let’s flash some light on the other side. Just to destroy an insignificant number(after all whose basic intrinsic intention was to fight for their sect’s safety & rights),will any democratic government play with the lives of millions of innocent people?.Should we blame the British government who followed a divide & rule policy by failing to include Lanka as an Indian province when the far away string of Andaman Islands came under our shelter?.Though all this is out of hands right now, at times it simply appears as reflection of a deep rooted hatred for their counterparts by the Sinhalese to destroy the Tamil sect completely.In the name of destroying the liberation tigers, they silently seem to have dwindled the count of innocent Tamils.

Sinhalese are the ones actually in the safe zone who didn't know what is it to be on the war front shedding blood & lives.Every day the black & white prints paint only the red blood story of those dreamt of a Tamil Elam.We neither found any thoughtful strategy been devised nor any concrete solutions put forward to rescue the suffering souls. International community's voice fell only on the deaf ears of the Lankan democrats.As an island nation, it preferred to nurture friendship & good relationship with countries across continents but failed to make peace with people within its own boundary.How strange is that?.The war has kept the country from development for more than a quarter century now.

If the time, attention & money the Lankan government spent in destroying lives of innocent people & in trying to destroy LTTE without a trace, be spent in giving equal rights to the Tamil sect & treat everyone like its own children, I don't see any reason for gangs like LTTE to have uprooted in the first place. Since they failed to do so, it paved way for a powerful gang to bud into an inevitable evil in their own soil.Prabhakaran’s is only a chapter in the red blood book of Sri Lankan history until now.In fact I believe the entire International community was distracted tactfully which kept us guessing how & when Prabhakaran’s life will end.Prabhakaran’s death was not the exact need of the hour to anyone.That might not even matter much to the million suffering souls.Restoring social & political rights to the Tamil sect & ensuring their safety & respect was the bottom line expectation from the Lankan government for over many decades now.

Better late than never.Even now this can be done, to prevent yet another big cat species evolve out of hatred for the Sinhalese.Few thoughtful & sensible government policies could easily spread harmony among people,painting back those lost colors in the lives of the existing ones.Will the Lankan govt give rights to the Tamil sect at least now?.Will Prabhakaran's dream of a Tamil Elam come true at least after his claimed & confirmed death?.If yes, what he couldn't achieve in his life time might stand materialized after a couple of bullets on his head.

Above all isn't it time the Lankans moved on in time and thought as a Sri Lankan nation rather than either a Sinhalese or Tamilian.If we Indians can think Indians first & then our Individual race, why is it not possible for them ?.Shall we simply ask an Indian child to gift our planet earth's jigsaw puzzle pack to the Sinhalese, to sit back and assemble them once to bring in a realization that all their bloodshed history could simply be traced back to a simple geographical phenomenon on earth.

Spratt

spratt..spratt..spratt.After a few more times of spratting up & down, all the split end locks were down there heading straight in to the dust bin. What remained was just another chopped coriander bunch but in black. Liking falling leaves, this seem to be the season of falling hairs. Quiz anyone whom you know & they have no hesitation in pouring out their cup of woes on it. The price for built up stress gets paid in terms of falling hairs, I thought.

One of my ex manager wore a wig, only as a full stop to all this I believe.Though it looked just like natural hair, am sure he must have coughed up a heavy sum on it.Since he commutes in my shuttle everyday, I find him most of the times stroking his artificial hair may be just to make sure it’s still in place amidst the speedy winds against which the bus plys.On days when he falls asleep in the shuttle, like a dry smudged paint brush, I find some hair streaks pointing horizontal from his head.Not many who travel in our shuttle are aware of this,though they might have had deep elements of doubt at times.Oh! then it needs some cautious attention all the time.Mm… sporting a wig wasn't that easy,I learnt.

A boy cut was also there in my options list.Though some day I would love to experiment on it at least once,it didn't seem to fit the bill for the time being.The option of a fully shaven head was the simplest of all but considering mommy as my high priority,I had to give up on that option too. So instead of sporting something that looked similar to a rat’s tail (though it wasn't exactly like that in my case) which sufficiently lacked volume, the best way to hide it seemed to go for short coriander bunch like, you know.

Believe it or not, I had plaited locks brushing much below my hips until my school days. In fact those days I was a big time cry babe watching my hair creeping down causing me nothing but trouble. Because it meant more time devoted to comb,plait ,wash & dry when there were too many other essential things to accomplish early in the morning. And needless to say, more oil & more shampoo for it’s nourishment. Still for mommy’s sake I let it creep. There hadn't been a single day without the crib & cry while brushing my long locks. A day came, when mom angrily agreed to chop it off till my shoulder length after a provoked arguement. And my dream of sporting a short cute hair came true.

After my haircut, all that people did to me was a taken aback look followed by hollowed eye expressions, which I hated to the core. So I made sure when I became a college kid, I sport a short hair from day 1,probably with just a handful of plaits reaching just below my shoulders. So during every semester break, I promptly take a scissors myself and chop off my black creeper preventing it creep down further. And those times I used to hear from my friends that they shelled a pretty money to get their hair cut done.'Lady, you go walk in to a haircut salon donating both your hair and a huge sum?', I would check. But never did I knew in those days, that a day would come, when I will head straight in to a hair salon to give my hair the blissful experience of having it caressed by some hair experts. Until I met one, I honestly did not have any high regard for this designation on earth.'What a ridiculous idea to have coined such titles - Hair experts.Are people so jobless to master the art of handling & experimenting on hair leaving all other things on earth'.That was my initial reaction to the term 'hair expert'.

Years after I started working,on some repeated suggestions from few interesting friends around that a layer cut would give me that renewed smart & sporty look, I went ahead and fixed an appointment with some expert in a nearby International branded hair salon. Being not so sure of all the clear do’s & don’ts before a haircut from a hi-fi salon like the one I was heading to, I neatly shampooed my hair the same morning & dried it one last time, knowing that all would have gone by evening. I headed straight in to the salon, observing all the showcased hair styling products. When I stepped in,I realised that both the existing hair experts were men. When I waited for my turn, one expert curiously quizzed me to finalize my chosen style of layer cut. When I was almost ready for the spratt session, he revealed to me that they cut hair only after washing it themselves. 'How strange ?' I felt. He then guided me towards a dim lit wash area. Comforted me on a sliding chair. Wrapped my shoulders with a warm towel. Took my hair by his side. And began to fondle it. That was the first time a guy was shampooing my hair.Let me tell you,next to mom, he was the one privileged to do so.When he gently stroked the scalp for the first time, my stomach churned a little, with the realisation of a strange guy washing my hair.He used three different shampoos from three colourful bottles.Soon aroma filled my nostrils inducing some pleasant feelings.Slowly I realised, that should have been the best hair wash my scalp must have ever witnessed.Not even a single strand got uprooted.I never saw him pull, squeeze or twist my hair any time during the wash.Every thing he did was too gentle on the hair.My hair must have thanked him that day for all the agony it underwent in my hands. Such a wonderful hair wash experience except for a mild pain on my neck for having rested it on an elevated surface during the wash.

Post hair wash session, he wrapped my damp hair in yet another soft towel.Reminiscing such a pleasant hair wash under a dim light from some angelic hands which failed to pull out even a single strand,I moved towards the dressing table.When I faced my image crowned in a huge white turban,the wide mirror facilitated me in watching his toolkit right behind.By then, his companion helped him sterilize all the accessories one by one. Meanwhile based on some input from my hair wash expert, he came near me to peel away my white turban and feel the texture of my hair.His avid love for my bunch of dead cells were undeniably visible. He was so passionate in feeling my hair.In fact he never looked at my face, which I felt was much pretty than what he was fiddling with.

Finally all was set to begin my haircut.Looked like expert #2 wished to cut my hair.They had exchanged some words when the combs were sterilized.He began with a simple spratt at the end.Then parted my hair in to at least 6-7 sections to give his best part by part.His keen concentration never spilled away from my hair.He was looking through every cut of his.And each spratt was so professional that I could feel the difference from the spratts in other local salons.It was full of spratts from side to side,up to down and sometimes here and there.In one way I was patiently battling against boredom while the expert was at work.All this time expert #1 was watching him & his strokes.Both were equally qualified to my eyes & equally passionate of their profession.I took my words back on hair experts in one of those silent minute.

There is definitely some meaning in calling themselves as hair experts.It means so much in a way since I cannot claim to have combed my hair without at least 1 strand in my hand.Soon expert #1 took over from the other to style it after my much awaited layer cut.That took another 20 minutes.At the end of which I couldn't believe if am I the one with such beautiful hair with some cute curls at the end.I never knew they could be styled that way.Each strand stood replenished with a bright shiny look.All I simply had to do at the end was to tie them back which looked awesome even without tying.

At the end out of some self admiration from the relfecting mirror, cheerfully I swiped my card for half a grand plus taxes for my most memorable hair cut.He inferred the output of his work from my expressions.I looked so different after my haircut.They definitely made a difference to people who walked in to their salon. Apart from singing their praises,I even recommend people to experiment their hair in the hands of some expert at least once in their life time. Believe me it’s worth it & more so you will love it. When I visited home after a week from then with my short cute cut, needless to say like any typical middle class Indian mom, my mommy also had the shock of her life.Infact her smile froze on seeing my coriander bunch cross her eyes. To add fuel to the fire she was very curious to know how much I shelled out for the left over fistful bunch. As a responsible daughter I just told her a plain white lie just to calm her nerves, u know ?

Life in a nutshell

Came across this lovely poem named 'Ithaca' written around a centrury back by a greek poet named Constantine P. Cavafy.

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find the things like that on your way
as long as you keep thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony.
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

A Mind <-> Body Acquaintance

If you are expecting some deep insights on mind or body wellness here,well I exactly don't promise that.But couldn't find a more appropriate heading for the wholesome experience that I had.The place was B&J clinic,Chennai.Stepping out of the elevator on floor 3,pleasant & a merry mood dissolves the mind almost instantaneously in good melodies that the radio spills.Though occasionally it sounds like maternity ward with some loud cries of nerve twists & muscle triggers,ambience was much pleasant to ask for more.There was an urge to go back everyday to get well soon.Such was the magic of that place, I still believe.It was in destiny to revisit bone,muscle & nerve connections in my body right there,in a whole new feel.Doctor visits,ejection of huge cash in to their treasure boxes,yet no satisfied results.Not uncommon these days,to hear from medically ignorant folks like us.Contrary to all this,I had an holistic experience there replenishing my mind,body & soul in the most simplest way from one of the best hands.

It was day 1.Honestly with no big hopes,I handed my OP card to a physio there.The problem identified was a block of bone needed a fix in to it's original slot which was found displaced mildly.Almost like a lorry off it's track slightly, he simplified.Though not from the medical stream,my knowledge of biology until class12 failed to kick start ,blocking me from visualizing how could this be done on my knee without a cut open kinds.The treatment was to happen for the subsequent weeks until recovery.

The physio got in to action from the very next day.He left me in astonishment each following day,leaving me spell bound watching him passionately fix my bone in it's slot at the same time educating me on the do's & don'ts of this eternally perishable body.I felt remarkable changes from day 3 itself,which is when our conversations began to voice our minds.I have had so many misconceptions about my own body in particular & human body in general in spite of my regular readings on health & fitness.Each day he enlightened me with some amazing actions & adaptations of human body.There is so much to do with the mind than with the body,he made me realise.He taught me the technique of applying mind during a body workout,the results of which were simply mind blowing.He told me once, a workout even with a slight distracted mind can end up targeting the wrong muscle in the body.So he would applaud for simple correct efforts,which was definitely an inspiration at every stage.He confirmed more than half the ortho surgeries happening in the city hospitals can easily be avoided if doctors believe in good physiotherapists.Unfortunately lack of confidence in the existence of good physios in some challenging cases & a strong belief in their own mastered surgical art adds up the count of ortho surgeries happening everyday,he opened up once.

The wish for a quick & steady recovery was more for this physio whose hands worked magic than me as a fearful patient, at times.Everyday he thoroughly enjoyed his play over delicate invisible objects like bones & joints with at most care,serious caution & his inherent passion.He made sure it's just not a physio - patient interaction.He enquired on the where abouts of each person on whom he worked his magic.He said it's a way to connect to his patients to heal them well.In that way our chemistry was just perfect,I felt.

Being open minded,willingness to help people, a sound knowledge in his profession, zest to fix injuries, urge to care with personalized attention & a wish to heal his patients didn't seem like ordinary qualities of this hand picked physio, by god, for my quick recovery.His was a telling tale of an upcoming physio who has a bright & a blessed future awaiting his door steps in the coming years. This three year experienced pro also showed everybody out there ,the way to go.Compliment him,he simply loves to pass on the credit to his co therapists for whom he has great admiration, in a humble self depreciating tone, recalling his journey from a suburb to city,at times.

The therapy employed simple everyday insignificant objects like bags,balls,bands & wands to strengthen & improve a specific part of the body in significant ways.What a stream of science,it made me wonder.Unlike the shabby delicate external wounds,physiotherapy is to do much with invisible internal injuries.Though no blood by sight,bones seem to be their core fight (oh,that's from the awe fully blunt poet inside me).

A world away from all this,being bitten by the herd syndrome for having chosen my profession, finally I was left with no choice but to ignore the benefits of a good conceptual weekly body workout and it's awesome benefits, all these years.My physio elucidated how important an occasional stretch is,what a simple resistant exercise can do,why deep breaths are essential & what sipping water frequently does, in an otherwise mundane,stress built life of a core IT Pro.Recently I read a health quote which said,those who cannot find time for regular fitness,will soon have to find time for illness.My piece of advice to my own self will be, to make time for fitness amidst importantly appearing unimportant activities.Having said that, only I know how difficult it is to find this small measure of time everyday to sync up the mind with body.

A lady about 75 years,whom i befriended while there gave me a piece of advice which was more than a thoughtful timely gift.She walked up to me one day quite cheerfully,with her replaced knees and said,'Remember my young lady,at any time in your life don't ever become flabby,which is the worst struggle against yourself '.Quite true ,for having battled against my flabs myself in the recent past years.In a random attempt I once imbibed, human soul as a complex manifestation of one's mind+body during a life time & beyond.In simplest way,a fit body together with an unclogged mind paves way to a pleasant soul.(No doubt the vice-versa is true as well, which I might rediscover & etch somewhere when I wander as a jobless soul) .Back to life,doesn't matter if you are a physio, a plumber or a programmer,relishing simple earthly joys in the mind, engulfed in one's healthy body is just priceless,I realized.Can there be a more blessing than this ?

Before the treatment ended,he brought my lorry back on track.Finally with my pain relieved & profession revealed, my physio taxed a bill of 6k for the whole bone mending & fixing program.But for having obtained value for every single penny I spent there,I had no regrets.But my physio had a slight sigh & a little big eye on the huge salaries that my entire community of cyber cooleys draw every month.In three fortnights,having spent time closely with my physio & few of his eminent subordinates,I only realised the amount of blessings banked by them for relieving millions of pains over multiple months,though they don't mint little extra money like us.On the contrary,being a couch potato all day long in some wrong body postures,consuming mindless cups of caffeine,building up the good for nothing stress & refusing to take even few deep breaths,I just wondered with all the money banked by us month after month,without much thought & time for either simple pleasures or some long term health & fitness plans,where are we seriously heading to?.I just had one thing to tell my sighing physio 'The grass is always greener on the other side', stretching my quadriceps, pondering the simple mind <->body experience that happened in me during our rendezvous.