Sunday, April 3, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Life is a pre-paid mobile !
Life is a pre-paid mobile !
I experienced this fact many times in my life. I keep getting this analogy in my mind again and again. Many people might argue that I am a pessimist. But this fact cannot be ruled out just like that. Every one's life is a like a prepaid mobile with some fixed currency. It is a beautiful mobile with full of SMSs, calls.. incoming calls..outgoing calls only as long as this currency lasts. But interesting part of this fact is that, we will never know how much GOD has loaded in our mobile nor how much is available balance!
We only think that we have been loaded with infinite currency and we spend it senselessly. The very feeling of infinite currency does not allow us to think straight. We do many wrong things..we expect unrealistic things from others.. we yell at each other.. we get angry.. we stop talking to each other, we don’t care for relations.. we just take people for granted. We might even forget to think even other person has ONLY some fixed currency.
All in all, our view on life or perspective on life is not just real. We just take our life for granted. That diminishes our thinking in some or other way. What could have been a careful usage of currency, turns out to be a lavish spending.
Currency here refers to our life time and its beautiful moments and days. At times, apart from spending our own currency, we may end up spending currency of others too.
The no. of days in our life is finite and beautiful moments even more limited. I keep telling all the people I know about this. I still remember when I was working for Syntel, I used to tell all my team mates (Suyash, Muniesh, Priya, Swati, Avanish, Shriveni, Rajesh and many others..) that I am going to complete 10000 days in my life on so and so date! They used to laugh at me saying "stupid fellow, he even calculates how many days he has been alive"!.
Knowingly or unknowingly I used to do such calculations. But today when I look back, I feel this perspective is so true..! We only have so many days and moments in life. Life is so uncertain! A very well performing Senior Project Manager, happy family man may die suddenly die in an accident tomorrow. A top most executive or a top most company , a fitness freak might collapse at the entrance of his gym on a fine morning...an honest govt official might get kidnapped or even killed the next day. We just don’t know what is there in store.
My sincere request to my friends, colleagues, family and all those people whom I know is that, please do not waste your currency, do not spoil a beautiful today for unnecessary reasons. Every day , every is precious for everyone. Live every day and every moment to the fullest and make it more beautiful for you and for others. One fine day when I am in last days, I should be proud and satisfied that I have lived my life correctly to the best possible extent, spent my currency sensibly, I did not waste any of my currency or that of others.
To be little more realistic, even with the best possible equations today, with the best possible health and social conditions, I think I can live up to another 6000 to 7000 days at the most. That way if you see, I guess I have already completed more than 70% of journey. What remains is just only about 28 to 30 % journey. Yaane, only so much currency is available now in my mobile..! I want to ensure that I give my best and this remaining currency is spent sensibly, to give my best to life always, make it more meaningful for me and every co-passenger of my life.
This view of mine may seem to be very negative and pessimistic to others. But this is what keeps me going. I will never take life for granted. Life is very precious for me. I have only so many moments in life. This realization and enlightenment helps me always to give my best in anything I do .I feel satisfied with that. I have tried to apply this realistic view in my life wherever possible . It has worked also.
I don’t know whether I was able to successfully convey and pass on this perspective on life to all of you. But that’s what I believe in always. Coincidentally my mobile connection is also a prepaid connection ! J
Recently I watched one beautiful Hindi movie "Dasvidaaniya", I felt this movie is very close to my thoughts and has been able to convey the message correctly. This is not a lolly-polly , NRI hero and India Heroin kind of movie. It is a very simple, real yet beautiful little movie. The central character of the movie has been essayed extremely well by Vinay Pathak. In the first half at place, you might find it little boring, but it picks up pace in the second half.
It made me really sit back and think and introspect about my own life. It could be due to the fact that I watched it all alone. Watching this movie all alone has been one of the memorable experiences recently for me.
I am not a great book reader, but I believe some movies like this one convey the theme more effectively what many books could not convey in hundreds of pages. If you find time, please watch this movie. It is worth giving a try.
For more details on the movie, please check the following URLs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasvidaniya
Thanks for your time and patience in reading this blog!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
SMS Etiquettes we must follow.
I went through some of the SMSs sent by some young IT professionals. I made some observations on the same that the SMSs sent by them are not exactly in line with what the corporate world expects.
We need to aware of some of the SMS Etiquettes while writing to anyone.
I am sharing some of the best practices to be followed while writing any SMS.
I sincerely hope this list will help our young IT professionals to a great extent in their careers and personal lives.
SMS Etiquettes we must follow.
1. Please note the casual tone used in the SMS always diminishes the strength and meaning of the message. Never forget this point.
2. Common courtesy rules always apply. You need to respect every one and their profession whenever you are mentioning some ones name in SMS.
3. Please be very aware of your tone in the message. It is extremely difficult to discern tone in text messages, just as in e-mail. What seems to you to be a completely innocuous message may be grossly misinterpreted by the recipient, causing certain discomfort if not irreparable harm.
4. Using SMS Slangs in your messages is good only with your friends and within close circle and NOT for official communication.
6. Don't expect everyone to know the lingo of the SMS.
7. But you must discontinue this habit as soon as you enter professional colleges. None of the institutions and corporate organizations encourage or respect such language.
8. You need to be very clear and formal with your superiors, colleagues, customers and people with whom you are talking for the first time in your messages.
9. Whenever you are writing to any of your elders, please address them properly, respect their age and be very clear in messages.
10. Use words like ‘Please ‘, ‘Kindly’ wherever necessary. Your SMS should reflect the way you interact with them outside.
11. Words like ‘Hey’ , 'gotta', 'donno', 'kinda'..or ” Ok..? “ can easily cause more damage to your reputation and relation with any person.
12. You need NOT be ‘cool’ with anyone. You need to be decent, clear, formal and pass the message in most effective way without causing any offense to others.
13. Remember composing an SMS while you're in a face-to-face conversation with someone is just about as rude as taking a voice call.
14. Don't get upset if you don't get a reply. Before you text someone and get frustrated at the lack of a response, be sure that they're familiar with how to use the service, and that their carrier will accept messages from yours.
15. Be conscientious of others' schedules. Don't assume that because you are awake, working, not busy, or sober that the person you're texting is as well. Many a pleasant slumber have been interrupted by recurring "beep-beep...beep-beeps" of messages.
16. Remember that SMS is informal. SMS should NOT be used for formal invitations or to dump your girlfriend or boyfriend!
17. Don't SMS while you're driving. Talking on the phone is bad enough. You won't know what hit you - or what you hit - if you are pounding out a message on your keyboard.
18. Remember that SMS can always be traced.
19. If it's immediate, make a voice call. If you can't get through and your text message is ignored, there's probably a good reason. There are still some times when people don't even have a thumb free to respond.
20. Remember that your phone does have an off button. There are very, very few things in the world that absolutely cannot wait.
21. There is no agreed-upon maximum number of text messages you can send to someone in a certain period without becoming a pest or a source of dread.
22. How often you can safely text someone depends on how close you are with that person, the importance of the information you are conveying, and the timing of the texts.
23. A good rule of thumb is to consider how many times you would be comfortable calling the same person in a day.
24. Think of each text conversation as a phone call and ask yourself whether you are imposing on the other person.
25. Reconsider that texted marriage proposal. When it comes to texting, the medium truly is the message.
26. It is almost never appropriate to conduct important conversations about relationships, major life events, or critical work issues via text message, where the conversation invariably comes off as flippant.
27. Pick up the phone, or use e-mail to engage in a more thoughtful discussion. Never break up with someone via text. Ever!
We need to aware of some of the SMS Etiquettes while writing to anyone.
I am sharing some of the best practices to be followed while writing any SMS.
I sincerely hope this list will help our young IT professionals to a great extent in their careers and personal lives.
SMS Etiquettes we must follow.
1. Please note the casual tone used in the SMS always diminishes the strength and meaning of the message. Never forget this point.
2. Common courtesy rules always apply. You need to respect every one and their profession whenever you are mentioning some ones name in SMS.
3. Please be very aware of your tone in the message. It is extremely difficult to discern tone in text messages, just as in e-mail. What seems to you to be a completely innocuous message may be grossly misinterpreted by the recipient, causing certain discomfort if not irreparable harm.
4. Using SMS Slangs in your messages is good only with your friends and within close circle and NOT for official communication.
6. Don't expect everyone to know the lingo of the SMS.
7. But you must discontinue this habit as soon as you enter professional colleges. None of the institutions and corporate organizations encourage or respect such language.
8. You need to be very clear and formal with your superiors, colleagues, customers and people with whom you are talking for the first time in your messages.
9. Whenever you are writing to any of your elders, please address them properly, respect their age and be very clear in messages.
10. Use words like ‘Please ‘, ‘Kindly’ wherever necessary. Your SMS should reflect the way you interact with them outside.
11. Words like ‘Hey’ , 'gotta', 'donno', 'kinda'..or ” Ok..? “ can easily cause more damage to your reputation and relation with any person.
12. You need NOT be ‘cool’ with anyone. You need to be decent, clear, formal and pass the message in most effective way without causing any offense to others.
13. Remember composing an SMS while you're in a face-to-face conversation with someone is just about as rude as taking a voice call.
14. Don't get upset if you don't get a reply. Before you text someone and get frustrated at the lack of a response, be sure that they're familiar with how to use the service, and that their carrier will accept messages from yours.
15. Be conscientious of others' schedules. Don't assume that because you are awake, working, not busy, or sober that the person you're texting is as well. Many a pleasant slumber have been interrupted by recurring "beep-beep...beep-beeps" of messages.
16. Remember that SMS is informal. SMS should NOT be used for formal invitations or to dump your girlfriend or boyfriend!
17. Don't SMS while you're driving. Talking on the phone is bad enough. You won't know what hit you - or what you hit - if you are pounding out a message on your keyboard.
18. Remember that SMS can always be traced.
19. If it's immediate, make a voice call. If you can't get through and your text message is ignored, there's probably a good reason. There are still some times when people don't even have a thumb free to respond.
20. Remember that your phone does have an off button. There are very, very few things in the world that absolutely cannot wait.
21. There is no agreed-upon maximum number of text messages you can send to someone in a certain period without becoming a pest or a source of dread.
22. How often you can safely text someone depends on how close you are with that person, the importance of the information you are conveying, and the timing of the texts.
23. A good rule of thumb is to consider how many times you would be comfortable calling the same person in a day.
24. Think of each text conversation as a phone call and ask yourself whether you are imposing on the other person.
25. Reconsider that texted marriage proposal. When it comes to texting, the medium truly is the message.
26. It is almost never appropriate to conduct important conversations about relationships, major life events, or critical work issues via text message, where the conversation invariably comes off as flippant.
27. Pick up the phone, or use e-mail to engage in a more thoughtful discussion. Never break up with someone via text. Ever!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
My Mobile Story..!
Today I actually lost my mobile when I was going to my office via BDA 6th phase road from Kanakapura road on my Active Honda in the morning..! I realized it only after going for about 2 Kms and reaching JSS college junction.
Then started the panic search operation…! I just did not know what to do.It fell somewhere on road. May be some vehicle would have gone on top of that.and crushed the mobile.
It was a 7K NOKIA mobile, I could not afford this loss at this time. I felt very bad.
I just went back on my way and muttered few words to a youth standing on road waiting for his bus.”Bla... blaa... I lost my mobile. Did you see any where?”.. Poor chap.. He did not know.. But he was a good guy.. He immediately called my number from his mobile and tried reaching the same.
Luckily the stranger at the other end, took the call and responded saying “He is near Gnanakshi School”! My new friend even accompanied me to search the phone as I did not have a spare mobile. We were going towards NICE highway.. did not know where is this school.
We asked few people and got to know that it is in opposite direction and then started driving towards school. My Honda was already in running in reserve!! When we went there, the stranger was not there, we called him again, he responded after few calls and said “ He is in Rajarajeshwari temple”! Wow..! That was again 3 more Kms! I got little suspicious thinking whether he is fooling me. But there was no other way, I had to believe him.
We again drove there and started waiting there at the main gate, the stranger was not at all responding to the calls..! All this while I was already treating the savior guy like a good old chaddi dost..! We convinced ourselves that he is taking darshanam of GODDESS and would not recieve the calls.
Our saviour guy told me “…….. maklu sir… sumne mosa maadtare.. mobile kodalla.. sumne odaadistare.. “ etc., (Idiots sir.. they simply keep giving different locations details and don’t return the mobile.. we will be cheated ..etc ) .But he was genuinely trying to help me trace the mobile.
I was standing in front of the main gate of Rajarajeshwari temple watching the GOD, praying hard to get back my mobile. We were frantically calling my mobile number assuming that if someone is going out of gate it will ring in their hands!! Nothing worked, the stranger was not at all taking the calls..!
Then I went to a nearby public booth and started calling. 3.. 4..5.. calls …No reply at all! I was slowly losing hope. In fact I was caluclating the depreciated value of my mobile after 2 years of usage. Then at last the stranger answered the 6th call and said “ He is coming out of temple and is wearing white shirt..!”
As said, he returned within next 5 minutes , a gentleman almost of my age, returned the mobile without any fuss and smiled at us. Luckily by grace of GOD… he was really a good person did not try to cheat me. I thanked him and Rajarajeshwari with FULL emotions on my face!! But forgot to ask his name as he moved on.
Then I took our savior guy out and had to drop him where I picked him. I asked him “Shall we have tea..? “. He denied. I took him to the place where I picked him.. He said he is in some trouble and in need of money to go to Mysore and asked for Rs.150/-. Without second question, I gave him the money and dropped him near BGS hospital so that he can go to Mysore.
Before leaving.. he asked me.. “Sir.. yaavudaadaroo ondu olle job idre kodsi.. I am tenth pass.. I will do any job..” I agreed and thanked him again and departed.
His name is Santosh… My savior in tracking the mobile for non-stop 90 minutes on my Activa Honda and driving around 8-9 Kms..! For those moments he looked like a whole world to me.
I was actually lucky for the first time in life. Both these guys were good. Otherwise anything could have happened..!
An unknown pillion rider can even stab you from back for the laptop I had or the stranger who got the mobile could have switched it off and removed the SIM or the mobile itself could have come under a vehicle and got crushed.
GOD is great.. for the first time in life, I got something back which I lost! More than , the savior and stranger actually reassured my hope on life and belief in people. Thanks to both of them!
Then started the panic search operation…! I just did not know what to do.It fell somewhere on road. May be some vehicle would have gone on top of that.and crushed the mobile.
It was a 7K NOKIA mobile, I could not afford this loss at this time. I felt very bad.
I just went back on my way and muttered few words to a youth standing on road waiting for his bus.”Bla... blaa... I lost my mobile. Did you see any where?”.. Poor chap.. He did not know.. But he was a good guy.. He immediately called my number from his mobile and tried reaching the same.
Luckily the stranger at the other end, took the call and responded saying “He is near Gnanakshi School”! My new friend even accompanied me to search the phone as I did not have a spare mobile. We were going towards NICE highway.. did not know where is this school.
We asked few people and got to know that it is in opposite direction and then started driving towards school. My Honda was already in running in reserve!! When we went there, the stranger was not there, we called him again, he responded after few calls and said “ He is in Rajarajeshwari temple”! Wow..! That was again 3 more Kms! I got little suspicious thinking whether he is fooling me. But there was no other way, I had to believe him.
We again drove there and started waiting there at the main gate, the stranger was not at all responding to the calls..! All this while I was already treating the savior guy like a good old chaddi dost..! We convinced ourselves that he is taking darshanam of GODDESS and would not recieve the calls.
Our saviour guy told me “…….. maklu sir… sumne mosa maadtare.. mobile kodalla.. sumne odaadistare.. “ etc., (Idiots sir.. they simply keep giving different locations details and don’t return the mobile.. we will be cheated ..etc ) .But he was genuinely trying to help me trace the mobile.
I was standing in front of the main gate of Rajarajeshwari temple watching the GOD, praying hard to get back my mobile. We were frantically calling my mobile number assuming that if someone is going out of gate it will ring in their hands!! Nothing worked, the stranger was not at all taking the calls..!
Then I went to a nearby public booth and started calling. 3.. 4..5.. calls …No reply at all! I was slowly losing hope. In fact I was caluclating the depreciated value of my mobile after 2 years of usage. Then at last the stranger answered the 6th call and said “ He is coming out of temple and is wearing white shirt..!”
As said, he returned within next 5 minutes , a gentleman almost of my age, returned the mobile without any fuss and smiled at us. Luckily by grace of GOD… he was really a good person did not try to cheat me. I thanked him and Rajarajeshwari with FULL emotions on my face!! But forgot to ask his name as he moved on.
Then I took our savior guy out and had to drop him where I picked him. I asked him “Shall we have tea..? “. He denied. I took him to the place where I picked him.. He said he is in some trouble and in need of money to go to Mysore and asked for Rs.150/-. Without second question, I gave him the money and dropped him near BGS hospital so that he can go to Mysore.
Before leaving.. he asked me.. “Sir.. yaavudaadaroo ondu olle job idre kodsi.. I am tenth pass.. I will do any job..” I agreed and thanked him again and departed.
His name is Santosh… My savior in tracking the mobile for non-stop 90 minutes on my Activa Honda and driving around 8-9 Kms..! For those moments he looked like a whole world to me.
I was actually lucky for the first time in life. Both these guys were good. Otherwise anything could have happened..!
An unknown pillion rider can even stab you from back for the laptop I had or the stranger who got the mobile could have switched it off and removed the SIM or the mobile itself could have come under a vehicle and got crushed.
GOD is great.. for the first time in life, I got something back which I lost! More than , the savior and stranger actually reassured my hope on life and belief in people. Thanks to both of them!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Once in a while.. for a change…!
It has been quite a long time since I blogged or wrote any article. Although many of my friends had asked or rather questioned me on the same I just could not (key-in..?) pen down any of my thoughts. I was little scared now on whether I will lose all my writing skills if I don’t act in time. I decided I will definitely write something this weekend why chumma listen something from someone..? (Chumma - means simply in Tamil).
Circa 2008 December! One fine evening there was some discussion going on in my house with close friends on 'awareness on our health', 'maintaining good diet', 'Walking, Running, Walkathon and Marathon etc., all high-end stuff for an ordinary soul like me you know..! But after some time I could not resist myself and I too boasted of doing something great in this space aka Indian Politicians. I declared or rather took bhishma pratigya that I will one day definitely make walking a regular pratice.Like a joshful project manager I even published my project execution strategy to the loving audience.
Hey stop... Before we can go any further, we need a flash back here to understand my PES(Project Execution Strategy). I live in southern part of Bangalore in JP Nagar 9th Phase close to Anjanapura. This is about 10 Kms from Jayanagar, 7 Kms from Banashankari temple and about 18 Kms from Majestic. I have never walked more thank 2 Kms at a stretch in last 2 years. Last time I actually walked was somewhere in June 2007 with my family in Central Park, New York and places around the same. It was an exhaustive walk since morning about 10 Kms in all. I am fit and fine (not a 6 Pack definitely, I am a sweet ‘Family Pack’ as my friend Ashoka puts it!) and have not undergone any major surgeries so far. I have the confidence that I can walk up to 50 Kms in a day (This just a gut feel, does not involve any WBS or FP analysis.).Why did not walk for so long is because of my laziness...! (Can I really walk that distance??!!)
Accordingly my strategy for walkathon would be...I would try walking on some weekend till Banashankari Temple from home which is about 7 kms... and then further enhance my confidence by increasing the distance...and one find day I will walk 50 Kms in a day.
With every one of you onto same page, let us get back to present! June -09! I and my close ones had almost forgotten about my promise of walking long back. But an opportunity came down this weekend knocking on my doors. Last week, I had given my car for servicing and had to commute to office by my two wheeler. So when I took delivery of the vehicle, I had both two wheeler and car in my office on a single day. Taking home both the vehicles to home on the same day was a challenge or I may have to come on weekend to office to get my Activa Honda. More over there is no direct bus service to west campus from my locality. But our idea man Yashavanth made my life simple and gave a suggestion our colleague Nithin had come to office without his bike. It would be better if he takes the Honda home. It is easy to pick that up from him as he stays in Jayanagar. I readily agreed and passed on the keys to Nithin. He drove home my Honda and I left for my place in my newly serviced car.
Came Saturday and I had to pick up my Honda from Nithin. This is the opportunity where in I felt I can execute my plan of walking for 10 Kms.But would every one appreciate and support my idea really..? No idea. So I just told my wife and kids that I am going to Jayanagar to pick the two wheeler and will be back in 2-3 Hrs. My wife gave a long list of grocery to be brought and my kids said "Appaji, bring some majaa katt from Jayanagar". That means I have to bring some surprise for them. Majaa katt is a kannada word quite frequently used in North Karnataka region. It means 'something interesting’ or 'some surprise'. I have successfully added this word to the vocabulary of Neha and Moksha, the loving kids of my friends Shobha and Gangadhar who live in New Jersey, US for last 18 years. Whenever I visit them, the kids welcome me saying "Mummy, look, majaa katt uncle has come to meet us! ".
It was 6 minutes past 9 in the morning. The cloudy Weather, very rare in recent days, was just more than ideal for a walk. Temperature was around a cool cucumber 20-25 degree centigrades.I stepped out of my house and started off towards Jayanagar. I had my projected estimates to cover approximately 6 Kms per hour. I kept myself a safe target of 2 Hrs to reach Nithin's house.
Ours is an extension area and no BMTC buses come inside the layout. I took about 4 minutes to come out of the layout and reach nearest bus stop. This is the main road, which got recently tarred and now drainage is being constructed. One could see the mud dug out of drainage and all the construction material lying on the road. There was no foot path because of this reason. Children and elders have to be more careful in night times to avoid these big drainages. I
I walked a little further and reached next speed breaker. I remembered that my car and two wheeler never pass smoothly over this speed breaker. I got to know the reason now. This was not a scientifically laid speed breakers, but a raw unused electric pole, placed across the road. From there I could see one such customized speed breaker within a distance of 100 mtrs. Someone told me the people in this locality do not want any vehicles to ply on this road and have put up these speed breakers. There were lots of kids running around and playing on the road. Actually I avoid this stretch when coming by car. There is a school on the left side and you can always see two trucks parked there. It is very narrow lane to drive. Within distance I could see one more official BMPP speed breaker. So in all there were three within 100 mtrs. But as you know BMTC busses don’t care for any one. All the buses ply on this main road only and children have to manage on their own. So far so good! Nothing major has happened in last 5 years. People are still safe.
But one thing is for sure... this road is always bustling with lot of activities and one can walk down on this road freely even at 11AM in the night. Now I had reached glass factory where road becomes quite wider and easy to drive. But there is a blind curve and most of the vehicles come at very high speed. There is no good foot path. It is quite dangerous for the vehicles in both the directions and even more so for a pedestrian. After a walk of about 20 minutes I had covered close to 1.8 Kms and reached Harinagar cross.
This is Harinagar bus stop and one can see a classical combination of Bangalore bus stops here. A Travel/tourist ticket booking shop, a bakery, a darshini, a STD/ISD, A xerox shop and a Temple. You must be wondering whether we missed one special thing here. If you glance on your right towards Kohinoor road, you can very well see a bar and restaurant, just next to the densely populated residential layout! Wow this bus stop is a complete package in one place. J
I proceeded further and noticed that Konanakunte has grown by leaps and bounds during recent years. It was not the same locality some years back. If you recall the history Konanakunte was a distant village from Bangalore. When late prime Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated way back in 1991, the assassinates Sivarasan and gang had taken refuge in this village. Karnataka and Tamilnadu police and Indian CBI were on man hunt to trace this gang. At the end, in a major commando operation, they were all surrounded and got killed or rather surrendered to Cyanide. The name Konanakunte came up on the pages of world media overnight.
When I bought a site in this locality, my close friends used to exclaim "Oh that place ... where Sivarasan was hiding himself"! Now much water has flown under the bridge and many would have even forgotten the history. But out of curiosity I was looking for the house that house where they were hiding and I could not succeed. But later I found a news report in Times of India saying that the owner of that house tried hard to re-rent that house after commando operation and no one really came up. At last he got fed up, and changed the appearance of the house, renovated most of the parts and began living there with his family.
People’s interest on this history invoked recently when a Kannada movie by name 'Cyanide' on this subject was released. It was a runaway hit. I would recommend you have it in your DVD collection. Good one! For the moment, it was time for me to feel proud that I am living in a locality with some historical importance! :)
I was enjoying my walking, watching people, vehicles, surroundings and thinking for myself and traversing the journey. People say they get bored very easily when they are alone. I would not agree with that. You can wear your thinking cap when you are lonely. This is the time when you need to work on your personality and give finer touches to it. You are like a student who is out on a trip to explore most of the interesting things in the world.
GOD is great! Each person in this world is unique. It is a trait just to watch these wonderful creations from distance, then go to them, talk to them and study them and their personality and get close to them. Even cities are no different from them. Each city offers something unique. And I thoroughly enjoy this City exploration hobby. I have been to few good cities in India and my experiences have been wonderful. I was in Madurai (Tamilnadu) in 2005-06 for close to 4 months. I did not have too many friends there. Language was a barrier, but being alone I explored the city (Of course by walk!) and thoroughly enjoyed my stay there. I will write about that some other time.
I had now covered 3.5 Kms of distance and the time was 9:42AM, it is now Konanakunte cross where you will hit our state highway Bangalore - Kanakapura Road. I paused for while at the traffic signal and gazed at an auto coming from Banashankari side was taking left turn towards Konanakunte. I saw a man in the back seat holding few bamboo sticks and one dome like structure stretched outside the window. This is quite a familiar scene on Bangalore roads. It seems someone was dead in the locality and that passenger was actually carrying all the necessary accessories required for final procession of the dead person. This structure usually made of bamboo is used for carrying the deceased person till the graveyard during the funeral. The structure is called vimaan or Imaan. It is a box like structure based on four long bamboo sticks to lift it and a spherical dome structure on top of it. The deceased will be placed inside this structure in a sitting position. If you watch from a distance, it looks like a mini temple
Four persons will be carrying the vimaan on their shoulders till they reach the destination i.e. rudrabhoomi or graveyard. They might change on rotation as and when they get tired. This vimaan is used in particular communities like Lingayat and others and not all. As soon the person dies, the elders in the community/locality get together and begin the process of last rites. Whatever may be the position in which person dies, the body, legs and hands are folded and adjusted so that the person is in a sitting position like meditation/padmasana position. This is done so that the deceased can be made to sit inside Vimaan without any issues. If you delay further the dead body stiffens and hands and legs cannot be folded. It is very important activity.
In Bangalore people actually create this bamboo structure after the person dies. In north Karnataka and other district places there community Mutts which have dedicated wooden Vimaan, fitted with required accessories always available for peoples usage. These vimaans will be rented out to people whenever someone dies and returned to mutts after the procedure is completed. In Bamboo structures, the neck of the deceased is tied with a soft cloth to the vimaan so that the body does not move or fall off on face during procession. But in wooden Vimaan , there are ready made nuts and bolts which will be used for this purpose. Vimaan is decorated with flowers and utmost care is taken it to make it look good because this is the last journey of that person.
Hmmmm..Did we deviate somewhere..? No.. ! Wherever there is hyperlink, we have to click that and see what is there..? That was good piece of information on Vimaan. Now let us come back to main hyperlink. Before that let me cross the road..OOooo…OOhhohooo… so many vehicles man! They just don’t have patience! Ok.. At last I did..!
Now I am on the main Kananakapura road heading towards Banashankari Temple from Konanakunte.
(To be continued..!)
Circa 2008 December! One fine evening there was some discussion going on in my house with close friends on 'awareness on our health', 'maintaining good diet', 'Walking, Running, Walkathon and Marathon etc., all high-end stuff for an ordinary soul like me you know..! But after some time I could not resist myself and I too boasted of doing something great in this space aka Indian Politicians. I declared or rather took bhishma pratigya that I will one day definitely make walking a regular pratice.Like a joshful project manager I even published my project execution strategy to the loving audience.
Hey stop... Before we can go any further, we need a flash back here to understand my PES(Project Execution Strategy). I live in southern part of Bangalore in JP Nagar 9th Phase close to Anjanapura. This is about 10 Kms from Jayanagar, 7 Kms from Banashankari temple and about 18 Kms from Majestic. I have never walked more thank 2 Kms at a stretch in last 2 years. Last time I actually walked was somewhere in June 2007 with my family in Central Park, New York and places around the same. It was an exhaustive walk since morning about 10 Kms in all. I am fit and fine (not a 6 Pack definitely, I am a sweet ‘Family Pack’ as my friend Ashoka puts it!) and have not undergone any major surgeries so far. I have the confidence that I can walk up to 50 Kms in a day (This just a gut feel, does not involve any WBS or FP analysis.).Why did not walk for so long is because of my laziness...! (Can I really walk that distance??!!)
Accordingly my strategy for walkathon would be...I would try walking on some weekend till Banashankari Temple from home which is about 7 kms... and then further enhance my confidence by increasing the distance...and one find day I will walk 50 Kms in a day.
With every one of you onto same page, let us get back to present! June -09! I and my close ones had almost forgotten about my promise of walking long back. But an opportunity came down this weekend knocking on my doors. Last week, I had given my car for servicing and had to commute to office by my two wheeler. So when I took delivery of the vehicle, I had both two wheeler and car in my office on a single day. Taking home both the vehicles to home on the same day was a challenge or I may have to come on weekend to office to get my Activa Honda. More over there is no direct bus service to west campus from my locality. But our idea man Yashavanth made my life simple and gave a suggestion our colleague Nithin had come to office without his bike. It would be better if he takes the Honda home. It is easy to pick that up from him as he stays in Jayanagar. I readily agreed and passed on the keys to Nithin. He drove home my Honda and I left for my place in my newly serviced car.
Came Saturday and I had to pick up my Honda from Nithin. This is the opportunity where in I felt I can execute my plan of walking for 10 Kms.But would every one appreciate and support my idea really..? No idea. So I just told my wife and kids that I am going to Jayanagar to pick the two wheeler and will be back in 2-3 Hrs. My wife gave a long list of grocery to be brought and my kids said "Appaji, bring some majaa katt from Jayanagar". That means I have to bring some surprise for them. Majaa katt is a kannada word quite frequently used in North Karnataka region. It means 'something interesting’ or 'some surprise'. I have successfully added this word to the vocabulary of Neha and Moksha, the loving kids of my friends Shobha and Gangadhar who live in New Jersey, US for last 18 years. Whenever I visit them, the kids welcome me saying "Mummy, look, majaa katt uncle has come to meet us! ".
It was 6 minutes past 9 in the morning. The cloudy Weather, very rare in recent days, was just more than ideal for a walk. Temperature was around a cool cucumber 20-25 degree centigrades.I stepped out of my house and started off towards Jayanagar. I had my projected estimates to cover approximately 6 Kms per hour. I kept myself a safe target of 2 Hrs to reach Nithin's house.
Ours is an extension area and no BMTC buses come inside the layout. I took about 4 minutes to come out of the layout and reach nearest bus stop. This is the main road, which got recently tarred and now drainage is being constructed. One could see the mud dug out of drainage and all the construction material lying on the road. There was no foot path because of this reason. Children and elders have to be more careful in night times to avoid these big drainages. I
I walked a little further and reached next speed breaker. I remembered that my car and two wheeler never pass smoothly over this speed breaker. I got to know the reason now. This was not a scientifically laid speed breakers, but a raw unused electric pole, placed across the road. From there I could see one such customized speed breaker within a distance of 100 mtrs. Someone told me the people in this locality do not want any vehicles to ply on this road and have put up these speed breakers. There were lots of kids running around and playing on the road. Actually I avoid this stretch when coming by car. There is a school on the left side and you can always see two trucks parked there. It is very narrow lane to drive. Within distance I could see one more official BMPP speed breaker. So in all there were three within 100 mtrs. But as you know BMTC busses don’t care for any one. All the buses ply on this main road only and children have to manage on their own. So far so good! Nothing major has happened in last 5 years. People are still safe.
But one thing is for sure... this road is always bustling with lot of activities and one can walk down on this road freely even at 11AM in the night. Now I had reached glass factory where road becomes quite wider and easy to drive. But there is a blind curve and most of the vehicles come at very high speed. There is no good foot path. It is quite dangerous for the vehicles in both the directions and even more so for a pedestrian. After a walk of about 20 minutes I had covered close to 1.8 Kms and reached Harinagar cross.
This is Harinagar bus stop and one can see a classical combination of Bangalore bus stops here. A Travel/tourist ticket booking shop, a bakery, a darshini, a STD/ISD, A xerox shop and a Temple. You must be wondering whether we missed one special thing here. If you glance on your right towards Kohinoor road, you can very well see a bar and restaurant, just next to the densely populated residential layout! Wow this bus stop is a complete package in one place. J
I proceeded further and noticed that Konanakunte has grown by leaps and bounds during recent years. It was not the same locality some years back. If you recall the history Konanakunte was a distant village from Bangalore. When late prime Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated way back in 1991, the assassinates Sivarasan and gang had taken refuge in this village. Karnataka and Tamilnadu police and Indian CBI were on man hunt to trace this gang. At the end, in a major commando operation, they were all surrounded and got killed or rather surrendered to Cyanide. The name Konanakunte came up on the pages of world media overnight.
When I bought a site in this locality, my close friends used to exclaim "Oh that place ... where Sivarasan was hiding himself"! Now much water has flown under the bridge and many would have even forgotten the history. But out of curiosity I was looking for the house that house where they were hiding and I could not succeed. But later I found a news report in Times of India saying that the owner of that house tried hard to re-rent that house after commando operation and no one really came up. At last he got fed up, and changed the appearance of the house, renovated most of the parts and began living there with his family.
People’s interest on this history invoked recently when a Kannada movie by name 'Cyanide' on this subject was released. It was a runaway hit. I would recommend you have it in your DVD collection. Good one! For the moment, it was time for me to feel proud that I am living in a locality with some historical importance! :)
I was enjoying my walking, watching people, vehicles, surroundings and thinking for myself and traversing the journey. People say they get bored very easily when they are alone. I would not agree with that. You can wear your thinking cap when you are lonely. This is the time when you need to work on your personality and give finer touches to it. You are like a student who is out on a trip to explore most of the interesting things in the world.
GOD is great! Each person in this world is unique. It is a trait just to watch these wonderful creations from distance, then go to them, talk to them and study them and their personality and get close to them. Even cities are no different from them. Each city offers something unique. And I thoroughly enjoy this City exploration hobby. I have been to few good cities in India and my experiences have been wonderful. I was in Madurai (Tamilnadu) in 2005-06 for close to 4 months. I did not have too many friends there. Language was a barrier, but being alone I explored the city (Of course by walk!) and thoroughly enjoyed my stay there. I will write about that some other time.
I had now covered 3.5 Kms of distance and the time was 9:42AM, it is now Konanakunte cross where you will hit our state highway Bangalore - Kanakapura Road. I paused for while at the traffic signal and gazed at an auto coming from Banashankari side was taking left turn towards Konanakunte. I saw a man in the back seat holding few bamboo sticks and one dome like structure stretched outside the window. This is quite a familiar scene on Bangalore roads. It seems someone was dead in the locality and that passenger was actually carrying all the necessary accessories required for final procession of the dead person. This structure usually made of bamboo is used for carrying the deceased person till the graveyard during the funeral. The structure is called vimaan or Imaan. It is a box like structure based on four long bamboo sticks to lift it and a spherical dome structure on top of it. The deceased will be placed inside this structure in a sitting position. If you watch from a distance, it looks like a mini temple
Four persons will be carrying the vimaan on their shoulders till they reach the destination i.e. rudrabhoomi or graveyard. They might change on rotation as and when they get tired. This vimaan is used in particular communities like Lingayat and others and not all. As soon the person dies, the elders in the community/locality get together and begin the process of last rites. Whatever may be the position in which person dies, the body, legs and hands are folded and adjusted so that the person is in a sitting position like meditation/padmasana position. This is done so that the deceased can be made to sit inside Vimaan without any issues. If you delay further the dead body stiffens and hands and legs cannot be folded. It is very important activity.
In Bangalore people actually create this bamboo structure after the person dies. In north Karnataka and other district places there community Mutts which have dedicated wooden Vimaan, fitted with required accessories always available for peoples usage. These vimaans will be rented out to people whenever someone dies and returned to mutts after the procedure is completed. In Bamboo structures, the neck of the deceased is tied with a soft cloth to the vimaan so that the body does not move or fall off on face during procession. But in wooden Vimaan , there are ready made nuts and bolts which will be used for this purpose. Vimaan is decorated with flowers and utmost care is taken it to make it look good because this is the last journey of that person.
Hmmmm..Did we deviate somewhere..? No.. ! Wherever there is hyperlink, we have to click that and see what is there..? That was good piece of information on Vimaan. Now let us come back to main hyperlink. Before that let me cross the road..OOooo…OOhhohooo… so many vehicles man! They just don’t have patience! Ok.. At last I did..!
Now I am on the main Kananakapura road heading towards Banashankari Temple from Konanakunte.
(To be continued..!)
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
That haunting old role....
This thought of haunting old role is haunting me for last few months .. But some how I was not able to blog it down onto net so far.Before being hunted down completely I would like to omit all my thoughts here.
I feel amazed about the wonderful capabilities of human being at the same I love to explore the endless boundaries of human psyche, its creative nature and limitations.
Life looks like a play for me.. It is a series of different roles and different responsibilities that we play in our lives. Long long back I was a kid .. Then a school going boy.. Then a high-schooler and college guy and a professional graduate. An unemployed youth...an engineer. And so on.
If you see the pattern, every one has changed their roles over the time. But funny part of this role change is we don’t get know or realize when do we change our roles. May be we know , but are not very conscious about it. We just get into our new role even before we could realize it..
Scene-1
A daughter is brought up in a family for 25 years, she knows she is going to a new family as some one's wife. But she does not realize after marriage that she is playing a new role of wife. Very often she keeps comparing both the families and their culture. Very often there will be arguments. At the same even husband forgets that he is now some one's husband and thinks he is still the little cutie pie of his mother!
Adding to that mummy also forgets thinks her son is now some one else's husband also and we need to share the space equally. Both mummy and wife or husband and wife forget this fact and keep arguing/fighting unnecessarily.
Scene-2
Many of us have seen our dads work for some govt dept or bank for years together.. They become depressed when they retire and they don’t know what to do after that. They try cultivating new hobbies.. Struggle a lot to spend time.. Keep running for arranging alliances between relatives.. They suddenly start keeping in touch with relatives by attending all the functions. This phase continues for a while before the dads realize that they have to live with this new role.
Scene-3
Let us turn to our offices now. I have made mistakes many times by forgetting my current role. I forget delegating certain responsibilities and start doing them on my own. That way I may not be doing justice to my role. It has dual negative impact in that I am doing some one else's work and also I am not clear about my role and responsibilities in current role. Some where deep in my heart that old role will be haunting me and I will be pulled into that. Many of us in corporate life suffer with such syndrome.
I am just quoting 2-3 examples here, but in life, we see almost each and every one struggling with haunting old role and conflict with new role almost every day every minute.
The primary reason for this conflict is we are not willing to accept the changes so easily. When our mind is empty we try and look and crave for that much needed change. But when we get used to that change , we don’t want to change. So strange!
Luckily in any organizations there will be many trainings , orientations programs and sessions to understand these changes and we some how if get along with the new changes a little later, if not immediately.. Life continues..
But irony of life is , no such training or sessions are given and you wont even a get a copy of org chart ppt presentation saying that your role has been changed. You just don’t know when and how that change occurs. Here there is no appraisal cycle. Increments. May be or may not be .. But there will be definitely role changes. Sudden role changes.. Good or bad.. High or low.. But there will be some!
Everything was going smooth in your family.. Suddenly dad passes away.. the family becomes more responsible and silent. You don’t know how to complete sisters marriage..You may be taking additional responsibilities.
Just one day of lose motion. Your husband is no more ! Your son is just two years old! Life gives a very cruel blow!
You are happily married and have a simple job in a govt organization. You both are expecting a child. But the kind GOD blesses you suddenly with triplets! You don’t know how to manage the new role with 'additional' responsibilities.
GOD many times even pulls out your sources of love, money and moral support in the form of losing one’s job, loved one’s and meeting with challenges. But it is all HIS way of cost cutting in life ! You still have to manage your role in that role in a most possible economic way.
It goes on and on...
Many of us, almost always get confused or shocked or lost or when such changes occur. We are still playing the old role and cannot accept the new role/change so easily for various reasons.
We just forget that a particular that incident happens to my friend can happen to me also.. A shock that occurred to my wife's friend can also occur in my life.
But if we think consciously and live the life for fullest and on just open terms, rather than complicating it with too many constraints and conditions, I believe we have the answers within ourselves. We should believe in the fact that' any thing can happen any time' and 'I should enjoy this very moment for myself and make it more meaningful and be ready for any role change any time'.
I guess only then there will be no surprises and that old role stops haunting us and life will be beautiful with conflicts.
Thanks for your time !
I feel amazed about the wonderful capabilities of human being at the same I love to explore the endless boundaries of human psyche, its creative nature and limitations.
Life looks like a play for me.. It is a series of different roles and different responsibilities that we play in our lives. Long long back I was a kid .. Then a school going boy.. Then a high-schooler and college guy and a professional graduate. An unemployed youth...an engineer. And so on.
If you see the pattern, every one has changed their roles over the time. But funny part of this role change is we don’t get know or realize when do we change our roles. May be we know , but are not very conscious about it. We just get into our new role even before we could realize it..
Scene-1
A daughter is brought up in a family for 25 years, she knows she is going to a new family as some one's wife. But she does not realize after marriage that she is playing a new role of wife. Very often she keeps comparing both the families and their culture. Very often there will be arguments. At the same even husband forgets that he is now some one's husband and thinks he is still the little cutie pie of his mother!
Adding to that mummy also forgets thinks her son is now some one else's husband also and we need to share the space equally. Both mummy and wife or husband and wife forget this fact and keep arguing/fighting unnecessarily.
Scene-2
Many of us have seen our dads work for some govt dept or bank for years together.. They become depressed when they retire and they don’t know what to do after that. They try cultivating new hobbies.. Struggle a lot to spend time.. Keep running for arranging alliances between relatives.. They suddenly start keeping in touch with relatives by attending all the functions. This phase continues for a while before the dads realize that they have to live with this new role.
Scene-3
Let us turn to our offices now. I have made mistakes many times by forgetting my current role. I forget delegating certain responsibilities and start doing them on my own. That way I may not be doing justice to my role. It has dual negative impact in that I am doing some one else's work and also I am not clear about my role and responsibilities in current role. Some where deep in my heart that old role will be haunting me and I will be pulled into that. Many of us in corporate life suffer with such syndrome.
I am just quoting 2-3 examples here, but in life, we see almost each and every one struggling with haunting old role and conflict with new role almost every day every minute.
The primary reason for this conflict is we are not willing to accept the changes so easily. When our mind is empty we try and look and crave for that much needed change. But when we get used to that change , we don’t want to change. So strange!
Luckily in any organizations there will be many trainings , orientations programs and sessions to understand these changes and we some how if get along with the new changes a little later, if not immediately.. Life continues..
But irony of life is , no such training or sessions are given and you wont even a get a copy of org chart ppt presentation saying that your role has been changed. You just don’t know when and how that change occurs. Here there is no appraisal cycle. Increments. May be or may not be .. But there will be definitely role changes. Sudden role changes.. Good or bad.. High or low.. But there will be some!
Everything was going smooth in your family.. Suddenly dad passes away.. the family becomes more responsible and silent. You don’t know how to complete sisters marriage..You may be taking additional responsibilities.
Just one day of lose motion. Your husband is no more ! Your son is just two years old! Life gives a very cruel blow!
You are happily married and have a simple job in a govt organization. You both are expecting a child. But the kind GOD blesses you suddenly with triplets! You don’t know how to manage the new role with 'additional' responsibilities.
GOD many times even pulls out your sources of love, money and moral support in the form of losing one’s job, loved one’s and meeting with challenges. But it is all HIS way of cost cutting in life ! You still have to manage your role in that role in a most possible economic way.
It goes on and on...
Many of us, almost always get confused or shocked or lost or when such changes occur. We are still playing the old role and cannot accept the new role/change so easily for various reasons.
We just forget that a particular that incident happens to my friend can happen to me also.. A shock that occurred to my wife's friend can also occur in my life.
But if we think consciously and live the life for fullest and on just open terms, rather than complicating it with too many constraints and conditions, I believe we have the answers within ourselves. We should believe in the fact that' any thing can happen any time' and 'I should enjoy this very moment for myself and make it more meaningful and be ready for any role change any time'.
I guess only then there will be no surprises and that old role stops haunting us and life will be beautiful with conflicts.
Thanks for your time !
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)