Are you unlucky? Think again!

Lately, one thing that I’ve noticed while having any sort of communication with most of my friends is that something else or the other bothers them so much in life or they think so, that they end up concluding- “I am so unlucky and my life is Screwed!”. For some, the issue might be their present job (Boring, low paid job) or the lack of it. (The world has still not come to terms with the Sub-Prime economic crisis). And for some it’s the uncertainty about their future, their marriage and some even crib about their past, their childhood and the hardships that they had to face etc. Well, my take on it is that, I feel worrying drains your today of all the much needed energy that you require to make that difference in your life and thus it will do no good for your future.

But like most ‘mere mortals’, I also used to crib about a lot of things: as a kid, as a teenager and even now. My mom used to be the patient listener giving all the advice and strength and support and after that no matter how bad I felt before, I would have no negative feelings after that. In fact, none for only some time though after that.

But why? No matter how many Dale Carnegie books one reads or the Art of Living classes one attend, man still does not seem to know ‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living’. Man at the end of the day wants everything in the world and wants everything to be perfect. In other words: Man is Greedy. Period! Hunger is good, while Gluttony is not. In other words, it’s healthy to be ambitious but one can’t say the same thing for being greedy.

One should try our level best to attain our goals. If things don’t happen the way that you wanted it to be, don’t be sad. Don’t deny your present of its color and energy because of unnecessary worries and frustration. Work Hard and enjoy life. Thank god and feel blessed to be on this earth. We can remain sad about n number of things in life. It would do you no good than to increase that blood pressure of yours, add those extra white hairs and the sad wrinkles. And before even you know, you would have already become an ol Granny/grandpa adjusting those dentures in your mouth and squinting those eyes, just to see and realize how beautiful the world that they live in is.

I miss my previous P.G: My current address is ‘Village inside a metro’

It’s a fine Monday morning. I woke up today with mixed feelings. I am indeed happy that I took ample of rest on Sunday but at the same time sad that I didn’t go out to have fun. I don’t remember even a single weekend wherein I have stayed indoors, for all the happenings malls, restaurants and other hangout places where only a stone’s throw away distance from my previous P.G and I dint have to think twice or thrice before deciding to get out and having fun. It always happened in an ad-hoc manner, as I knew no matter how late it would be, I could make it back home safely in the night. My place was in the heart of the city near Brigade/M.G road Bangalore: Richmond Town to be exact.

Now when I am sitting down to pen down my thoughts about my current place of stay, I am more than frustrated about this new development in my life. It’s funny but it’s always the case that we badly start missing things we had, only after parting with it. For instance, I don’t remember even a single day that I hadn’t complained about the P.G that I was previously staying at. Except for the construction work at the entrance and the small poorly lit lane connecting the P.G to the main road, everything else about that place now looks perfect. ‘Picture perfect’ surprisingly!! But at that time I was waiting to jump out of it and I always used to complain about the maid’s cleanliness n laziness, the cook’s culinary skills or rather the lack of it, the owner’s indifference on top of a bout of other complaints. At least in comparison with the new ‘organized’ P.G facility that I have landed myself in, the previous place seem like heaven. I used to pay only 4500 for a two sharing accommodation with unlimited wifi in the heart of the city earlier, while now I have to pay a whopping 7000 for a similar facility and that too in a ruddy jungle which is miles away from civilization. And what do I get for free with that? – Tonnes of cockroaches. So many of them that even the Pest control team doesn’t seem to have a solution for exterminating them! Sounds like an FBI mission? I think even they’d go Bonkers trying to wipe out the species from my room. Boy, they are intelligent, annoying and hard to eliminate. For these creatures, ‘Baygon’ is like perfume and Naphthalene balls like ‘Pedas’. Thus one could say I have shifted my stay from a room meant only for humans to one which is an example of a perfect ecosystem. So ‘romantic’ to say – “Man becoming one with nature and living in ‘Harmony’ with it”. Grrr… It does good only to write poems which school students will later find traumatic studying and end up cursing you for having written!!!
And just when I think about getting out of this mess by going out for a movie or something I realize that the nearest movie theatre is only a ‘few’ kilometers away. More than the distance, it is the lack of enough public transport facility that’s the issue. In fact on Saturday while returning from the city in the night, I had to take an auto, and then a Tata Sumo cab, and then a bus and finally ended the ‘very adventurous’ voyage with an expensive auto ride. Phew!! Although I can technically say that “I am staying and working in Bangalore-The happening metro”, I wonder if I am staying in a village. Maybe the accessibility of a village is much better than this location which is in fact near the IT hub area. The very worry about how I’d get back to this part of the city or rather this village in the night, thus leaves me with no option but to romance with those tentacles all through the day!:-(

Boom shaka laka

A wall post on Facebook today by an old college friend read like this- “Boom Shaka Laka- I’ve gotten whacked on the head a million times by my mom for watching this!.. Apache Indian !”

I found this very amusing and I was spiraled down a path of nostalgia. I still remember the days when I used to remain glued in front of the CRT Television sets waiting for my favorite TV shows. During my early school days, people had no option to go by the age old adage-“Variety is the spice of life”, for the number of options for television watching was limited or rather it didn’t exist! The presence of the famous Doordarshan channel made life of the ‘common’ man not only ‘spicier’ (compared to the standards then though), but also made it a lot easier (compared to the standards now) because one didn’t have to fight with anybody for the remote and yes the fingers were spared from the constant need for application of pressure.

And so did Doordarshan ‘spice’ up my life too. The spiciest of all programs on DD was the weekend late night pop music show. You have no idea as to how much I used to look forward to this program. This used to greatly excite me and every weekend I would want to watch ‘Apache Indian’s Boom shaka Laka’ at any cost. Oh Boy! I was quiet a fan of his then.  The ubiquitous Usha Uthup was the other ‘pop sensation’ who ‘dazzled’ the Indian Audience before the ‘Baby Doll’ stormed the Indian pop scene with ‘Made in India’ and set an altogether new trend and brought ‘life’ in that industry. But for her times, I feel Usha Uthup was quiet different and ‘modern’, singing songs in westernized ways in a sort of a male voice, much against the popular norm. Yes, one could say she was a big name in the pop scene of India at one point of time. But I wonder how the gen X today, would have reacted to a female pop singer in a sari + huge bindi + tonnes of bangles and no skin show!!!! Hmmm….;-)

Some of the other programs I remember watching without fail as a child were the Ramayana and the Mahabharata series. Ah, how sad we siblings used to get if we missed it! The other favorites’ were the cartoons and the children’s shows like He-Man, Sigma and Malgudi Days.

Mr Yogi and Jaspal Bhatti’s Show were some of the Hindi programs I remember for the sheer joy of watching the actors doing funny things on TV and not exactly for the funny dialogues though, because I being from a non-Hindi speaking part of the country, my command in the language was less. And the Hindi lessons in school were also not of much help.

Being the only sister of two rumbustious brothers, I also had to put up with action serials like ‘The Knight Rider’ and ‘The Street Hawk’. How can anyone watch a serial like that? Only men have the answer to that!! Looking back I feel I could have done a lot more productive things in life rather than having to brave through the boring car stunts of our good ol ‘Baywatch Daddy’ in his tight skin hugging joker pants! But having being in a single digit figure of age, time and laziness was in plenty and yes less of regrets!

Life was so much simplified during those days. Looking back at how things have transformed over the years with respect to technology (DD->Cable TV->DTH) and the content (Recorded, less flashy content -> Real time, bold(A) content), one is amazed(at the former)/amazed+ shocked(at the latter) and is left to wonder- “What does the future have in the offering?”

The Ayodhya Ammo

After a long break, I am getting back to online rambling. The provocation is nothing but the much hyped “Ayodhya Verdict”. I was in a way happy because I got an unprecedented day off on the D-Day. It was indeed pleasant to snuggle under a pile of blankets and enjoy the holiday bliss on an otherwise working day. But what made the whole episode really annoying was because of the media. The way the media had given coverage to this issue was simply ridiculous. The day which began with lots of speculation as to what the verdict will be and the repercussions of the same on the ground, later turned into a ‘nail biting’ session around the later half of the afternoon as the court proceeding began. Some media houses even organized mini court rooms inside their studios and were analyzing the situation. The confidence with which speakers were giving out their opinions or rather their view of how the verdict must be made me wonder –“Where has the Indian penal code and the constitution, which lays down the laws and the rules, gone???”  Who needs the law book to pass verdicts!!! Like they say-“Empty vessels make a lot of noise”, so did they continue. The way some of the senior journalists were commenting on the judgment without even having the complete picture of the same was indeed disgusting. Such comments were instigating to say the least. These people were exhibiting such irresponsible journalism that we would be forced to raise questions on the freedom of the press? Luckily the verdict was such that it neither disappointed nor delighted any section. Much to everyone’s surprise the political parties as well as the religious bodies made sure that no instigating comments were made and thus did a commendable job in maintaining law and order. But it was the media houses that lost out on the ammunition because of such a ‘win-win’ or rather a ‘no win –no win’ settlement. (As described by most people, you may have a different take on it).

Yummy home made cake!

Me adorning the cake

I wish I were

I wish I were a soldier

Hiding in the bushes like a spider

With bombs and guns on my shoulder

Protecting the border

Scaling the icy peaks

Fueled by the energy of youth

Without any fear of falling

Into the deep valleys of Kargil

In this battle field

The hunter himself may get hunted

But fighting against the intruders

One feels like a true soldier

Inspired by those before me

Whose blood brought us freedom

I hereby pledge to preserve it

Till my very last breath

[ It was written by me when I was in school. I still remember the lines. ]

Come Theme 5 and suddenly I feel very jobless

Second year at my MBA college was an absolute mess. We had continuous classes every day of the week even on Sundays and there were even days when I had sessions starting from 9 in the morning to 9 in the night. Phew! I had never kept myself  this busy in life. To top it all the ‘generous’ faculty in here used to shower us with loads of assignments and surprise quizzes without giving any consideration to the fact that the course has been advanced by one week and the students are not even  getting a Sunday. In fact the life here was no better than that of the Nazi concentration camps. Maybe its an exaggeration but all I wanted to say was that life was too hectic and it literally drove me crazy. I didn’t even realize how fast days and nights passed by. Everything happened in a jiffy.

Then the much awaited breather- the ‘NGO project’ came up. It’s more like an academic term given for a two week unwinding and de-stressing session that you have at home. Or lets say the two weeks was a mixture of fun and work. The ratio of the two is subjective and its a contentious issue. So lets leave it at that.:-)

The two weeks of ‘holidays’ went very slowly for the first time in my life, courtesy the fast paced-mad theme 4 that we had just before that. Usually they say vacations gets over very quickly no matter how long they are. But this time that was not the case. I had a lot of time at hand  at home to relax and it did good because I was still reeling from the killing schedule we had at college.

Enter theme 5 and here I am sitting all jobless and spending lions share of the time inside the hostel or outside the campus and hardly  any time inside the classroom or in the library. The sudden change was kind of hard to digest and did not feel real for the first two days. Then I realized probably it was the crust position that we were in and the trough would soon arrive. And before you even realize, the honeymoon would have gotten over.

But for now, like me, majority of my classmates are having fun, checking out all the latest movies that are getting released and all the happening parties in Manipal. I already have the plans for the weekend laid down. The play-’The confessions of a dirty blonde’ is what I am most excited about. Its the first time that I am going to watch a comedy play. Hope its worth the time and money. Will update you guys about that in some time. Till then I am going to chill out and enjoy the fresh air and the Manipalness!

Oh no, not here too!!!

After my brief stint at Gurgaon, which was perpetually hot, Manipal came by as a relief. But the ‘heavy rain’ was doing its part to make sure our fun was limited. Thus expecting an equable climate, the escape to cochin during the pooja holidays was very much welcome. But my expectations were washed down the drains when I landed in Cochin only to find that here its not only perpetually damp but also dark and gloomy. One would loose the sense of time. As in I have to keep looking at the watch to reassure myself that it is not 8 in the night rather 1 in the afternoon. Your body clock which is used to following the routines based on the color of the sky outside, gets really confused and your system as a result goes for a toss.

This is the same thing that has been happening to me for the last two days. Wonder what I can do to reduce the effects that the color of the sky is having on my life. I had a lot of plans to shop and visit friends and family durig these two weeks. But looking at the darkness I dont feel like doing anything at all, let alone shopping and courtesy visits.

Mom says that Cochin was not this rainy before I came. It was really sunny and vibrant it seems. The same thing happened the last time I came down from Gurgaon.  I keep my legs on the ground and the rain comes pouring. Does it have anything to do with me? Why am I not able to enjoy the sunny, bright climate of Cochin whenever I come here. Why is the ‘climate god’ being so rude and unfair to me.

“  It’s Raining Men! Hallelujah!- It’s Raining Men! Amen!” ??????

‘DTMT’ and why these 4 letters give me the jitters!

DTMT??? What’s this mysterious word all about? D-T-M-T , the word which sounds a lot robotic is the short form given to one of our marketing course subject in college-’Distribution Management’. So what’s so scary about a subject!!! The subject is not scary per say but the faculty is.  The Prof whom we all very ‘lovingly’ call ‘Nutty’ is an absolute no nonsense guy. He had the reputation of being the harshest faculty around. Well, believe it or not, this is one subject which has made a vast majority of my batch mates go sleepless for nights together. Even those rumbustious souls who do not even give a damn for marks and good name, slog it out the whole night before each submission. The submission/assignment involves reading & analyzing huge cases with  plethora of numbers and tables. The amount of number crunching in these cases used to drive people crazy. Me too.  Sigh!

This leaves me to wonder if the use of coercive techniques at the post graduation level is fine or not? Is this the right way to teach? I would like to compare the techniques employed by the teacher in the novel ‘ To sir with love’ and the technique used by Military sergeants to ensure discipline. I believe that the use of coercive power is the last thing that anybody should do. Instead of the students ‘having’ to do an assignment or follow a rule, they should be ‘wanting’ to do it. And I believe that’s where the success or the actual power or the teaching prowess of the teacher lies.

It is better to be liked than being hated. But it is best to be respected!

I hate the Manipal rain!

Today I had class till 7.30 and I am dead tired. God alone knows how I survived through the continuous classes from 9 in the morning. This is what they call- ‘The B-School rigor’. But life moves on as usual. I have been invited for the Birthday treat of one of my friend. But the incessant rain and the powerful storm is dampening my spirit. Why does the rain have to play spoil sport especially on a day like today when my head is feeling heavy with all the lectures and feel like freaking out?

Manipal is known for its incessant rain during the monsoons as much as it is known for its educational institutions. The perpetual dampness in the surroundings has a damp effect on ones energy too. One has to have so much of will power to wake up early in the morning to go to college. One can only imagine how much enthusiasm we will have to go all the way to the city to ‘have fun’. So most of us end up spending lions share of our time inside the hostel.

I wish I were in a place where it rained enough to support agriculture etc but not to cause inconvenience to people especially youngsters like me. The perennial rain is a big turn off for anybody wishing to go out and have fun.

I pray that the rain goddess listens to our plea and confines the rain only in the night when all of us will be inside.