Taare Zameen Par

Who needs drama? This was my reaction when my dear friends A and H suggested 'Taare Zameen Par' movie for a team outing on a Friday evening. Tearjerkers on a Friday evening - what has this world come to? Hmmm - Despite my dear friend V's tagging me to blog, I have been avoiding it and laziness is definitely not the cause. Shall we say reluctance? Whatever it is I hope I give sometime each month for blogging :) Well coming back to the Friday movie, I was devising all plans to give an excuse to avoid it and I am glad that my plans went futile.

As a young dad (Oh yeah! I have a 2 month old who is ‘igooing’ and ‘agahhing’ right now) I was told TZP is a movie must for the parents to watch. So off I went to see my first movie in Mayajaal. The movie is all about a boy Ishaan Awasthi, who knows not to write hat as h-a-t - he writes with an h inverted or the t is replaced with its mirror image! Alphabets - English or Hindi - are always Greek and Latin to him. They are all symbols, which just confuses him to an extent that he fails in his third grade. What's even more miserable is that his own dad does not understand his problem. If there are better words for uncaring - do tell me, for that is how his teachers are to him. With little solace from his big bro and his sweet mom, Ishaan passes his pitiful life that is filled with black and white - An irony as he uses bright colors to paint - painting beyond perfection considering his age. Infact the movie starts with his own paintings at the background as the titles are being displayed - the painting he has drawn in his bedroom wall.

Failing to attack the right problem, Ishaan’s dad puts him in a boarding school where he becomes more introverted. Progression is perhaps the last word this poor kid with dyslexia could ever be aware of - until he meets his Seraph who takes him from darkness and shows the ray of light - the light that makes his life colorful. Nikumbh the teacher for special children joins the boarding school as an art teacher and incorporates astute methods to teach Ishaan who inturn learns to write h, t and thus proper English thru painting, clay modeling, and big boards and develops his motor skills through computer games and building blocks. And in the grand art competition finale, his painting wins and is published as the cover page for that year's school magazine.

The whole movie is colorful as was aptly told by my friend S after coming out of the cine hall. If I were to list the top scenes in the movie (Oh we are approaching new year and the top n list fever has caught me too), I would say these: The differently abled children perform in the Tulips Day - the annual day for the school for special children where Nikumbh works and as soon as the show gets over, the children and their parents run and hug each other. The entire episode is a guaranteed tearjerker. The next scene would be - Ishaan is curious to know what his mentor has painted in the art competition. When he gets to know that it was his self-portrait that Nikumbh has painted (And mind you this has its potpourri of colors), his small eyes are filled with tears - and so is ours.

Well many thanks to my dear friend H who patiently translated the dialogues every now and then! And thanks to A and H who were the main reason to compel me to come to the movie. Needless to say the drive back in the 9pm office bus to home sweet home with M, A and J was equally fun filled!

With More Thoughts...

Maasil Veenayum…

From my reluctance in learning my own mother tongue there was this transition to a person who started to love Tamil literature. Thanks to my 10th grade teacher who was infact the sole reason for me to love Tamil. Infact I dropped the idea of continuing to read Tamil in my 11th grade when I learnt my favorite teacher would not be handling it and ended up learning French! That was the time subjects were chosen out of sheer love and respect for the teachers.

There was this poem about Lord Shiva in Tamil prose and it is a general procedure that poems in the prose section need not be known by heart. Yet 'Maasil Veenayum' enticed me so much that I landed up telling that even today in front of the Lord. Its a small and sweet poem comparing Lord Shiva’s blessings with the best of few categories like the Veena amongst musical instruments, the gentle evening breeze and few others.

Coming on to the second poem of this blog, this one is very famous among Tamil movie goers as this was sung with the sweetest melody in one of Rajni's famous movie. 'Kuniththa Puruvamum' depicts the beauty of Lord Shiva and the fact being, a male poet talking about the Lord's beauty is unique of its kind and more unique is that the poet wants rebirth after rebirth just to enjoy the Lord's beauty.

There are thousands more to write about those poets and their works. It’s good to realize that I am aware of a few of them and enjoy reciting them!

With More Thoughts...

The Others

For an early to bed early to raise person like me, the concept of watching movies late in the night, forgetting and beating sleep is something little short of achievement. Exaggerated though it may sound, giving up a sound sleep for the sake of watching a movie had never been my cup of tea. Nevertheless, the concept started in the US of A and it all began I think with the movie 'The Others' - a suspense thriller which describes the concept of others from such a different perspective that just makes you awe at it.

Well - The Others - So how many times in a day - hmmm - a day is probably way too altruistic - in a week let’s say - do we think about the others? There is no rating of individuals in this blog based on the number you come up with - Its just to make us wonder - Is our selfless quotient satisfactory to our own self?

Mrs and I think a lot about these and in fact have decided on giving it to the needy and the poor atleast on occasions like anniversaries, birthdays and functions. Very recently we had invited 2 poor boys for lunch who were staying in a Mutt and studying for lunch. Amma's lunch was as usual at her best and we were so happy to see the boys having a wonderful lunch.

Not a long time back, I had received this forward from a good friend of mine - AJ's forward this time had a story that touched my heart. Here is the concise version of it. A holy man wanted to know how Heaven and Hell looked like and God was more than happy to show him. The Lord first took him to Hell - It had a large round table, in the middle of which was a
large pot of stew, which smelled delicious. The people sitting around it were thin and sickly.

They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms & each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew & take a spoonful. But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. Now they went to Heaven and it was much similar to Hell - the table, the delicious food, people holding long handle spoons - longer than their arms - but they were all healthy and happy.

The Lord said - 'People at heaven have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'

With More Thoughts...

Smart Ads

How much can you attract a mass of people in a matter of just thirty seconds? Now is seconds ever counted as a time slot? Nevertheless, isn’t that the time they give for the ads? Well yes - thirty seconds is all that these guys need to capture our attention and then to fall in love and finally shell out dollars and cents to buy the product. Ads are becoming smarter and more enjoyable nowadays - Hmmm - there are those which you might have wished that you had never seen, but this blog is all about their opposites – the smart ads.

A man runs fast and his friends are somewhere behind and we know not from where they are yelling and they say 'Man he has not even got the card out of his pocket - he is not going to make it'. The guy who is running uses his card in the Chase ATM and gets some money and runs back and gets into the car where his other mates were booing at him - He just withdrew those money from the 'most efficient' chase ATM before the signal turned to green!

And here is this girl calling her mom from the City of Lights - er - rather the Sin City - Vegas and says 'Guess what mom - Me and Mark are in Vegas' and the mom says 'So you are not going to get married Jen?' and Jen replies something and her poor poor mom is not able to hear her - poor connection, you see and so she becomes hysterical and shouts 'Jennifer, don’t make the same mistake that I made!' - And here is her daughter saying that it’s just a fun trip - just that we all, including Jenni's mom never hears it - So if you want a reliable communication go for XYZ.

Well there is this Tahitian dream ad from Wells Fargo for smart savings and the list goes on. One of my aunt even went from Brand S to Brand A only because of its good advertising campaign. Yet another aspect of advertising that always attracted me was the advertising slogans - Philips - Lets make things better and better still is 'Gods own country' - Kerala. Now who could not be attracted?

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The Runaway Jury

It has been a long time - a considerably long time since I had read a novel with such ardent interest. Way back in the time when I was a Sidney Sheldon fanatic, I had read novels without the need of food or sleep. Quite recently I came across such a novel - a novel that was a page turner. Though I did eat and sleep in between, the two evenings that I happened to read this novel was not marked with any other activities. It was the evenings when I was reading 'Runaway Jury' by the lawyer turned author John Grisham.

A couple of days before I started this novel, I was loitering in the Valley Fair Mall with the sheer intention of window shopping. As always, just like most window shopping turns out to be an actual shopping for me, this proved to be far from making an exception. I entered this lone book store in the mall for the first time and I was browsing thru the interesting section of old collections they had had. And then I saw it - And it just occurred that I hit the jackpot - a cart full of books and each book was valued for just a dollar.

Readers Digest comes up with a special edition that has a collection of condensed books that are considered to be the best novels. Although condensed, the book gave an impression that I did not miss a single plot. So there were 4 wonderful gems packed under one roof - with glossy cover, it even had a book mark attached with the cover that can be torn and used! How thoughtful! The first gem was The Runaway Jury.

The most heart warming part of this novel was the rational behind which a man and a woman (Easter and Marlee) decides to turn sides in a judgment and when explained by this woman, it just hits you back emotionally. It is a thriller no doubt from the beginning (which is something that I earned for ever since I nailed completing Sheldons works) but the root cause with which the thrill came attached with, made this novel a must read. Now with a author on board, I am all tied up to complete his works.

With More Thoughts...

The Boot Camp

Vitamins, Anti Oxidants, Diet, Body Mass Index and Whey Proteins are no longer throttled to the vocabulary of medical students, doctors or dieticians - The time has come - The time when every Tom, Dick and Harry have started to know the importance and significance of these words in their life. The time when high calorie consumption have fallen into those verboten arenas and is looked up as sin. It’s the time when treadmills in combination with MP3 players have become one of the favorite electronic equipments and has been voted as Made for each other.

It has been almost a month now, since Sarah replaced Megan to take up the position of our new gym instructor. And from day one we knew the fun will continue and so it did - in the form of two different classes that I attend - one being the Core Strength Related Exercises and the other The Boot Camp. Both these classes have their uniqueness - one involves in strength, stretch, lesser cardio and more muscle toning, while the other involves hard core cardio and believe it or not, cardio had never been this much fun.
As I said, the Boot Camp deals with cardio and our instructor comes with a whole load of innovative ideas that keeps the heart pumping up! I have been in a class of four, six and even two and depending on the number of participants; our instructor on the fly comes up with the apt interesting segments - which is what makes Boot Camp special. The segment varies each week and since variety being the spice of life, these aberrations prove to be fun.

The relay is my most favorite segment, where say if there are four people - each person stands in the corner of the room. One person starts to sprint lengthwise, and as long as the person sprints, the other three do their activities - one might be skipping, one might be doing squats and one might be even jogging in the same place! Each one gets the chance to dash and by the time the cycle completes - you would be aching for some rest!

Such activity loaded team exercises are the best form of exercises. With comments passing by, the instructor boosting the spirits – there is nothing like a group exercise and you get to know a different group of people who have atleast one thing in common with us – Exercise and Fitness. Anyone would get bored to do a treadmill all alone day after day! With ‘Ice Ice Baby’ banging in the background, I am getting ready for my 3PM Boot Camp on Wednesdays.

With More Thoughts...

Dinner in Deutschland

Dinner together is a concept that many families would love to incorporate in their home sweet home. It’s probably the time the family can sit and talk and enjoy their togetherness. For me it was not the dinner together - rather it was the breakfast together concept in the weekends. This trend continued after my marriage and there we were - mom, dad, Mrs. and self - enjoying the food and chatting.

The concept of having food together is something that I really love. It should obviously be implemented without switching on the idiot box for sure. Weeknights are never suitable for this dinner together concept. We all land up coming at different time and it’s so amazing even if two out of four people in a house have dinner together during the weekdays.

The dinner together concepts are being advertised in the televisions here at the US of A and dinner discussion ideas are being published in the website http://www.togetherfordinner.com/ - Communicating and spending time with the people we love is vital - I have known kids who tell their dads never speak with them as he is out working all the time. Despite the fact that the dads work for the welfare of the kids, it is also essential for him to spend time with the family - and dinner time and post dinner walk are those apt time for those lively conversations.

Very recently by friends Shruthi and Ram celebrated their paper anniversary and Karthik and I invited them for lunch - So for the first time during my stay as a 'Bachelor Again' in the US of A, we had guests for lunch and this lunch together was fun. We had spread all the dishes around us and we passed them from one end to another and ate to our stomach's satisfaction. If such a small get together could bring so much fun, then dinner with near and dear would definitely be heaven.

With More Thoughts...

Mail Etiquettes

In the tech savvy world that we live, long forgotten and gone are those days when we wrote letters in those yellow or green post cards! Dear or Respected Sir/Madam and Yours Faithfully are buried deep down in the core of the earth. 'The postman always rings twice' - happens to be a film and probably happens only in the films. The garish red post box has become a piece of rarity.

But along with these are also gone those etiquettes of letter writing? Are there no prescripts for the electronic mails? Or should we ever care or follow one, if it existed in the first place? Well, let’s take an example. There was this lady who had some issue with her newly bought Digi Cam and had e-mailed her young cousin whose cognizance in the field of electronics is - shall we say the 'Any problem solver'? So this cousin of hers mailed back the reason for her issue as well as the solution ending his emails with HTH and then With Love.

Our lady with the issue who was no short than intelligent herself understood the underlying cause for her problem as well as the solution and fixed her Digi Cam - however she had that nagging abbreviation HTH lingering in her mind - so nagging that she mailed her cousin especially to know what is HTH! Well - Hope that Helps was not helpful after all for our lady! Current day conversations, chats and less formal emails have become more like short hand - making them more and more cryptic.

In all likelihood email etiquettes are needed only when the desired parties are so nit picky about it. The rest of the world can live with cousins and the lady with issues by communicating with HTH, BRB, B4 or NE1. And if you are not way too eager to live behind the bars, probably you should be the cyber law abiding email writer too!

I still remember some of the very last letters that I had written, when I was in college and email was not that popular. I had written to my first cousin who was in the US of A - I think about 3 to 4 full pages of the function of her parent’s 25th wedding anniversary which took place at Chennai. I had written her every single conversation that we had had that day - despite the fact that the news reached her by phone the same day, I took all the effort to put it in black and white and mailed her. Well it just made me a happy man. Etiquettes or not, writing long mails/emails have always been my cup of tea!

With More Thoughts...

E For Extreme

Watching Animal Planet has become almost an established custom in the house at BentWood Apartment, just like my dinner at half past eight. Being a newbie to the animal planet, my roommate suggested few programs which I started to watch with him rather with some reluctance. Very soon reluctance transformed into predilection that was so strong that I happened to watch this program regularly - even when I was home alone!

The program that I watch is the one which is all about the extreme nature of animals - extreme animals are discussed in the top 10 countdown vogue. The top 10 noise makers, fashion disasters, transformers and a whole variety of topic makes this program a worthy past time! 'Extreme Animals' emphatically keeps us guessing the top spot animals and in the event of which we learn a lot about them.

The most recent episode aired was the top 10 transformers where animals that transform itself into various shapes and forms during their life cycle were discussed. As any young science student could tell the butterflies' presence in such a countdown (From eggs to caterpillars to pupas and finally the fly!), the top spot was a totally mind-blowing parasite which takes about 5 to 6 various forms from its birth to death! Now who could have ever known about that!

The most intriguing part of these programs is how did people ever come to learn about them in the first place? The 30 minutes is filled with innumerable information and makes you wonder in awe at the work of these researchers! Besides these researchers there are people who understand the animals themselves and thereby provide invaluable information – people like Steve Irwin – the crocodile man for example who was considered to be the walking epitome for empathizing animals, no wonder was loved by the whole world.

With More Thoughts...

Pasta It Is

The currently rather ill famed Lindsey Lohan starred in this wonderful movie when she was young. The advertisement to this movie would have this line - 'What's better than one Lindsey Lohan? Two Lindsey Lohans!' - Well atleast in this movie's perspective it was damn true as the ebullient twins try to reunite their divorced parents by switching their places. So what's the movie 'Parent Trap' got to do with Pasta? 'Pasta It Is' - is my much loved line in this movie when Dennis Quaid utters to his wife when he meets her after a long time. What an introduction to Pasta!

I had always wanted to eat good pasta, however never had that chance - until recently. It was during our road trip to the City of Angels that I happened to devour this food item. We were in Marie Callenders’ and I was as usual frantically searching for a vegan food in the menu card that my waitress gave me. After pondering and deliberating for quite a long time (and with hunger in the corner it seemed eternity), I found that there was nothing in the menu card that I could order. So I decided to get the help of my waitress to choose the food for me and she was kind enough to suggest the vegetarian pasta! And I heard myself saying out loud - 'Pasta it is...'

Besides serving our tasty buds pasta makes an excellent choice for healthy food as it is grain based. The beauty of pasta is that it comes in a variety of shapes from the simple string shaped ones to the decorative fancy shapes like Farfalle and Rotelle. My love for pasta infact started after my acquaintance with the television personalities 'Giada De Laurentiis' and 'Marie' of Everybody Loves Raymond. Giada's Italian Cookery shows and Marie's most popular dish in the soap - Lasagna (pronouced - La-san-ya), paved way for my love affair with pasta!

So the vegetarian pasta that my waitress served en route to Los Angeles, was indeed delicious. With a wonderful spread of lightly sautéed broccoli, baby carrots, tomatoes, the entire main course was just yummy. For a bill just under $10 for each person, the lunch was well its worth and having had my pasta, needless to say I was in cloud nine!

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Oryctolagus cuniculus And The Like

It looks like the hangover of Binomial Nomenclature still continues - No wonder the title of this blog is the biological name for a European Rabbit! Yes, yes, yes - this blog is all about our Animal Planet! Probably my wife would just love this blog, she being a fervent animal lover and supporter! Probably she is the apt candidate for taking up the role of the Head of SPCA!

Something out of normal happened at our office today. An aberration that I just loved. One of my friends had brought 2 leverets (well the young ones of rabbits are called so) - they were like 3 months old cuties. One was dark in color and the other a white one with streaks of brown! She had put them in a relatively big box in which these two guys were happily sitting. Rabbits are those gregarious mammals which are more active during dawn and dusk - Animal lovers would call it with one word - 'Crepuscular'.

My dear ex manager Jithesh forced me to part my baby carrot that I had got for lunch and well - definitely not with so much reluctance, I took it out and dropped it in the cardboard box. Much much to my happiness, the darker one started to gnaw it - Infact I thought it was hungry when I saw it gnawing the cardboard itself! So an act of philanthropy - er - directed to a rabbit though! It was quite an experience to touch them and to see them jumping in that little space. I had never been that close with a rabbit and it brought out the child (perhaps the animal lover?) in me.

So then while we were driving back home, we were having this discussion about pets and which pet would be easy to maintain, would live considerably longer and there were so many points that we went through. From fishes to dogs, parrots to love birds, there were a whole lot of options, but the thing is, one should really have the time and love to spare for these pets. In this hurried world that we live, its good to see some people who do care for animals. One of my friends mom used to say that more than two of her own daughters, she loved her dog and indeed the dog was treated royally in her house!

Well, its now supper time for me – Got to think about the menu!

With More Thoughts…

Pedaling to the Past

Cycling - A fitness instructor would tell how good an aerobics and cardio exercise it is. A pre-teen or teenager would tell how fun it is to do this with friends. The romantic couple in a hill station would think of going a round in it. Most of those beach side residents (Oh! lucky them!) would do this every morning diligently. It is also something that a person forgets about and gets nostalgic some day and ends up writing in a blog! Huh! - Pity that I fell into this last category.

So how did this door to the past suddenly opened today? I was as usual sitting on the back seat of the Toyota Corolla that my friend was driving and in this signal near our office, I saw this guy riding this cycle of his - in the hot sun ofcourse (Oh man Salt Lake is hot - literally hot. But my friends at Nevada might just choke me up for saying Salt Lake is hot - You should visit Vegas this time of the year - you will hate it for all the heat that the Sun gives this place). Well hot or not, it was rather a sight to see how happily that guy was riding his bike! It’s not such a rare scene here - I see them everyday as a matter of fact, but as I said suddenly it opened this door to my past and there I saw myself riding my cycle too.

The first cycling lesson that I got was in Mumbai with the help of my uncle in his spacious Ghatkopar West Apartment - And then I became cycle insane. Commuting to school was by my BSA SLR and oh I so much loved it. Loved what? The cycle, the ride, the school - all of them! The return journey from school was even more fun as a group of us would ride our bikes together in the small Arcot road - thereby blocking the whole traffic on one side. Oh! Were we that rustic? You bet!

So I still do this stationary cycling some times in the gym - though it brings me no such excitement as the past. I was infact thinking as to why should I not buy a bicycle and go a couple of rounds in it when I get back in Chennai! Well crazy it may sound - but it’s actually something that would be good. Riding slowly in the night with the wife in the calm streets when the cool breezy air moves your hair away from your forehead! Well - so much imagination!

Here is a little tasty piece of information that I garnered from Google - A Danish study in 2000 concluded that cycling to work was linked to a 40% reduction in mortality rate; this included all causes of death, including road deaths! How good it is? Is cycling discussion ever complete without the mention of Tour De France and Lance Armstrong – the winner of the most prestigious cycling race for seven consecutive times and that he achieved this feat after being treated for testicular cancer? Well – now the discussion is complete!

With More Thoughts...

When Sex Is No Longer The Taboo Word

Since when was sex discussed like any other normal topic and was not just a topic of discussion between the lovers or the spouses? Or when did sex become a topic to discuss not just as a matter of salacious interest but as part of life, combining with its associated health, progeny and necessity? Even to this date is sex talk, the topic friends reserve to discuss about their escapades, their imagination, their philandery and a plenty of other things? So when did sex talk jumped out of the verboten arena?

Atleast to me it was post my marriage or rather near my marriage time, this talk escaped from all its boundaries and became a topic of normal discussion. When I heard the discussions about other people talking about sexual health, the good frequency of sex a couple should have, the dos and don’ts during and after sex for hygiene, happiness and a wonderful feeling of intimacy, the family planning techniques - I felt this is a must to discuss topic and it is a critical topic to know atleast when you are ready for marriage. I agree teens today know a lot about sex and sexual health - however when it comes to the phase where you are lawfully eligible to have sex, it is with utmost dedication that you need to remember and follow those things that you know.

To my surprise the little gyan that I had indeed came to enlighten one of my friends a little. How much ever you know about it, there is this difference that you feel and that better perspective that you get when discussing a topic with a person who has had an experience in it. The urge to know about sex more clearly and to get an advice is probably the factor that made sex a topic to discuss without embarrassment. When the embarrassment is shredded out, taboo is no longer in vicinity.

Parents have started realizing that sex education is equally important as is the knowledge that their child should know about drugs, alcohol or smoking. Well atleast you got to talk if you want to avoid sexual abuse or teenage pregnancies or for that matter of fact to prevent STDs. Taboo or not they would educate a person the right and the wrong and the implications of doing the wrong. Well - Sex is no longer the taboo word...

With More Thoughts...

The Binomial Nomenclature

Would it have been easier had we been a non - human being and been just an animal or a plant? One thing that might cause less worry if we were would have been the decision to name one's child! Well its not that complicated or anything like that - it is just that a whole lot people are to be satisfied with a name. Well er - Hmmm - probably satisfying people is complicated after all! After reconsidering and thinking more, complexity is rather an understatement. Well here is why it is.

There is this so called custom in some families where the grand kids name (atleast part of one of its name) has to be the name of the grand father / grand mother. In some families it has to be the traditional family name. It will be common for all the males of that family. And there are rules for the male child even when you name him and I don’t know if its fortunate or not, some of these rules are not so applicable for the female child - well a concept that may bring high blood pressure in feminists!

To add more to the naming options, there are Nameology, Numerology and so many ologies to tell you which letter should the name start with, how many charaters should the name contain, how many e’s and how many a’s. And then the combination of how the first and last name would look like is yet another matter to consider. Does the combination sound too weird or too good? Will my mom’s second cousin’s aunt who lives in Far East approve the name? Complexity – as I said is an understatement.

Ok - so what is in a name? It is something that belongs to me and I do not use it so often but every other person who knows me, uses it - eh! An irony - for something that I own, which neither I use it that often nor given a chance for me to choose. I wonder how many of us have had a discussion of why we were named like this and got the reason behind it! If I plan for a good name for my child (it better be good!) let me also put on my thinking caps as to why I decided to keep that name - After all my child should be happy with the name that I give him!

Well as a tail piece and now being the Harry Potter season, here is one info that might interest us. Before publishing the first Harry Potter series, the publishers requested Joanne Rowling to just use her initials rather than to reveal her first name - so that the target audience of young boys would not be hesitant to buy a book written by a female author! Well, so here we have J K Rowling - probably if you knew you could become a billionaire and your name played quite a role in it, there may be many of us who might reconsider a name change!

With More Thoughts...

An Affair To Remember

Very recently I happened to read this article in internet - It was all about how expensive American weddings have become. It looks like the average American wedding costs upto a whooping 28,000 - yes all US Dollars! And its all for a 1 day event. Marriage has become a costly affair and wedding planners, I can see, are becoming richer and richer.

Not just they are costlier, they also tend to build a huge pressure for all organizers - financially, in planning and co-ordination and almost everything. I recently received a mail from an American friend of mine, who had been back from her 'vacation'. I presumed it was a vacation as I did not get back any replies from her for about a week and I asked her how her vacation was. She replied back stating that it was sort of a vacation and that she had been out visiting Vancouver for a family wedding. So it was not the type of 'vacation' to relax by any means! Very aptly said - marriages are no more a relaxing function.

I do agree that the grandeur, the number of events, the potpourri of dishes are all directly proportional to money. But does a marriage always have to be grand to be the best? And does marriages have to be the best in the first place? And what do people gain by having best marriages? Well - people differ and some would love to have such diamond and star studded marriage showing ostentatiously their money and power. They consider marriage an opportunity to show the success in their life. I think it just finally boils down to one purpose - 'Pretentious'.

Marriages are becoming equally unaffordable in India. An upper middle class marriage on a grand scale (thank goodness not an average scale!) costs about 22.5 K US dollars - Atleast few Indian marriages are 2 - 3 day events - but that's no excuse to spend 22.5 K! Well the reason again for all these grandeur remains the same - be it India or the US of A.

But there are few factors which I always consider, would make a marriage touching, lovable and more meaningful. In fact these factors give a feeling of fullness and satisfaction that a pricey marriage could not. Factors like contributions to the poor and needy on the day of the marriage. Be it dresses or food, they go to people who need it and you have the money spent in a philanthropic activity. An activity that would make your heart feel so light and peaceful. In fact the couple can personally visit the orphanage or the temple where free food/clothes can be distributed by the couple themselves.

Probably there are more to write about marriages - One more that I can think of now is 'Gifting In Marriages!' But I will save that for another blog...

With More Thoughts...

A Dream For Tahiti

A young lady in the office - In her cubicle, starts to remove her shoes and pulls out the bottom most drawer of her cabinet. The draw is filled with beach sand and is strewed with pebbles and shells - the look and feel of the beach environment. She then places her legs inside this draw and closes and eyes and thinks - rather imagines that she is in Tahiti - the place she is yearning to go and the vacation for which she is saving every single penny!

Now there are so many instances when we imagine too - and quite often in the recent past I have been into tasty food imagination! Though I prefer having my side dishes as salads for their affluence in vitamins, I do imagine they are those rich creamy, butter clad side dishes! Well – what’s the harm in it? I get my healthy food and the taste of the rich side dishes - although said easily here in this blog, I do admit that someday I do yearn for those rich side dishes - just like the dream for Tahiti.

I am pretty confident that this lady, who saves all her money for her Tahitian trip, would be all the more excited and thrilled when her dream comes true. There is definitely an added excitement when you save for something and then spend it for that special something when you get to that financial comfort level. Probably you might loose all that thrill if you had had all the things that you yearn for comes to you with no effort! When you get to that point where you have achieved your goal - be it your trip to Tahiti - just because of all your hard work and judicious finance, there is this sense of pride that comes as a bonus along with the feeling with joy, wonder and excitement.

So where is this lady? The lady who dreamt of Tahiti and who imagined she was in Tahiti in her office cubicle with just a load of sand and sea shells? This happens to be an advertisement for Wells Fargo Bank - a pretty imaginative and interesting advertisement. Well, I think it is time for me to open some accounts in it - I too am dreaming of Tahiti... Someday Tahiti...

Well it would be too unfair to name a blog as Tahiti and not providing single information about it. Tahiti is the largest island of French Polynesia - Hmmm - if that's too much geography - probably this would help – It’s in the Pacific Ocean somewhere in between Australia and South America. Tahiti's major industry is Tourism and its one of the top places for vacations - be it honeymoon, a break from office work or a family affair!

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Origami

I was not sure when I became a fan of Origami. As such many of us would have had our share of origami - atleast by making paper boats and playing in the stagnated rain water! Oh yeah - we would create the smallest of all the boats and then the biggest giant boats would come - Wow - way back in past such small activities were enough to create joyous moments.

The adult mind of mine rather yearns to have new hobbies - hobbies that I could continue religiously. But atleast in the process of searching for new hobbies, I land up coming across a plethora of ideas and I do also learn a little about some of the interesting hobbies. Origami was one such favorite option of hobby for me. Though I do not try out a lot nor follow it sacredly, I took time to learn few origamies and tried a couple of papers objects that fascinated me.

Though the end product of the Tulip that I tried never matched the jpeg image in the walkthru online guide, I appreciated myself with a smug glow of self-congratulations! Well had I used the proper one side colored origami paper, my tulip would have looked even more beautiful. Not bad at all for a beginner. Now enough of self-appreciation and boasting. Here are some wonderful things that comes associated with the umbrella of Origami.

Storigami - This concept was my favorite. A storigami as the word tells you is you end making up an origami product by telling a story. Each fold of the origami is associated with a portion of the story. The sequence of folds involved now becomes part of the story, manking it easier to remember and a fun way to do. The storigami is born from our imagination - meaning, you can invent your own storigami to the origami that you prepare - making you remember the steps even if you are woken up in the middle of the night.

Just like many learning process - origami learning can also be divided into simple, inter and the advanced origamies depending upon the complexity of the folds involved. Well let me finish the blog with some historical updates - I had often thought Origami originated in Japan - much to my surprise it was originated in China and was carried over to Japan. The Chinese name was Zhe Zhi, however the Japanese name - Origami (Oru meaning fold and kami meaning paper in Japanese) became the famous catch phrase and here we are still using it - and there I was thinking the Japanese invented it! Well who ever found this - its a pretty interesting hobby to pursue!

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The ESPY Awards

It’s been quite some time I blogged and is it probably because I am running out of topic? Or is it sheer laziness to learn or find a topic itself? Whatever the case be, I found a topic worthy to blog. Most surprisingly this topic is regarding something that I never have interest. For people who know me well enough, they would have realized by this time that its going to be Sports!

And it so happened that on this late Sunday evening, when I was watching some 'had to see TV - else I have nothing to do' program! My roomie walked into the living room and he was browsing his favorite channels to see and suddenly this ESPY awards caught his eyes. ESPN - huh! that's one channel I never knew even existed - probably I would even call is YES-PEN instead of ESPN as 'Marie' would call in Everybody Loves Raymond.

ESPY awards is an award show that recognizes outstanding sports personalities - Best athlete, team, moment and so many other categories. Now I must tell you that - I am really a fan of watching award shows. So despite being an ESPN program, I sat straight, back all tall and lean. And I never thought I had watched an award show as good as this. There were 2 categories that touched my heart. One was the newly introduced award called Jimmy V award. Well this award went to a lady coach for her perseverance in sports - she was infact the person the whole team looked up as their role model. The reason - In her ongoing 65th year she had been identified for the 3rd time in her life for cancer and she fights the disease and makes the most of her life. Should I tell more for her perseverance?

Now if you asked who is this Jimmy V? He was yet another remarkable sports personality who died of cancer and founded the Jimmy V foundation for cancer research!

Now the other award was the Author Ashe award for 2 wonderful personalities who bring a change in people lives even today by teaching sports. Northern Ireland is a place notorious for the clashes between the Catholics and Protestants. Two men who were brought up in all this religious clashes found solace, safety and salvation in sports. They excelled every second they were playing - alas when they came out to the real world - they had to cope up with bloody wars. They both did not ask for much - they wanted their kith and kin to live in a world of peace - to walk in the road without the fear of being shot dead. This Catholic and Protestant did not engage themselves in such iniquitous activities - rather they came up with this brilliant idea of uniting fellow human beings disregard of their cast, creed, religion, color or race. And they chose sports as their medium of unification targeting the young generation hoping that playing together would also teach them to live together. Very aptly these 2 wonderful gentlemen were awarded the ESPY Author Ashe award.

So that was my tryst with ESPN channel and it proved to be an awesome evening indeed! From time to time I might even tune in YESPEN and see what’s interesting in it too!

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The "Do It Yourself" Mantra

When you do something on your own, what is the first feeling that comes to you? Satisfaction? Happiness? Victorious? Well many people may feel many ways if they have done something on their own. There is some other feeling that would definitely add on every time you do something on your own. You have done it all by yourself without depending on the others. It is the feeling of independence, the feeling of freedom that boosts your confidence that gets added up when you do your stuff all by yourself.

Many a times I find the people of US of A being fiercely independent. They tend to do each and everything on their own. I have never seen people doing these chores for themselves in my home country. I come from a land where folks are available to wash your clothes, clean your vessels, your home and baby sit and what not. I do admit that there are such people here at the US of A. But the Utahns that I have seen do a lot of chores on their own.

Lets start from the basics - House cleaning, washing, ironing, groceries, babysitting - all these basic "ings" are definitely taken care by the family. Then a step above some people does gardening, roof and chimney cleaning all by themselves. Now lets go a step ahead - There are people who have their own small farms that they plough and grow vegetables, fruits and graze their cows. They have their own ducks, pigs, cats, dogs, lamas and what on earth animals to take care of. All these plus work is managed independently by them.

One such do it yourself guy that I am well aware of is my DBA - Database Administrator - He is not only the database admin for all our projects, he is a family man with wife and kids. He has his farm and has many animals, he builds his fence, his dog house, he cleans his houses' chimneys and does what not. He is probably so very independent! This "Do it yourself Mantra" is yet another factor to love the US of A.

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Basketball Diaries

Now that I have 2 room-mates, I am getting used to the things that occur normally in their (er - well now it’s our) house. One such normal thing that happens is watching basketball in the television. Yes, I do admit it is very normal - but I have never watched a basketball sports program in the TV before. Nor have I been a part of or rather even heard discussions about basketball.

I have realized that basketball is something that my roomies include in their mundane activity. With the National BasketBall Championship games on air now, its basketball that is in air, water, earth, sky and fire. It is very amusing and entertaining to watch the frenzied face of my friend when he speaks about basketball. And when ever he does, the topic proved to be "Greeker" than Greek

Speaking with my roomies has given me the basic gyan about basketball - basic and ample enough to write the following trivia!
1. 2 teams each of 5 players participate in this game
2. It’s played for 48 minutes divided equally into 4 quarters.
Thanks to wikipedia the game was founded and coined by Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian. He had incorporated the rules for this game from a Canadian children's game called "Duck on a Rock".

Well as for me besides the recent knowledge of basketball, I must admit I had enjoyed the game when it came out blended with action and drama in the form a wonderful Hollywood movie "Glory Road" - a movie that I watched mid air on route to the US of A from India. Until I moved into my new home in the Orion Way, Glory Road was the only entry in the basketball diary that I had!

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Beating Boredom

Not many common men do spend their leisure time usefully. Not that I blame them, as it is human nature to relax, kill time and laze when you get yourself off from work or a busy schedule. However it so happens that during this time of relaxation, we do come face to face, probably sometimes with what is called as boredom. Something that every individual comes across in his life.

My trigger to write this Blog is when my I learnt that a friend couple of mine went to a movie theater to watch a Japanese movie with English sub titles (The couple knew not J in Japanese) and that too it being a black and white war movie. I was thinking that it was boredom that led these people to watch a movie on a sunny evening. (Evenings have started to become sunny and hot here in salt lake and me dad back home in Chennai states that Chennai is equally getting hotter. Man - global warming is one serious stuff which you can think/talk about - atleast when you feel bored!)

On the same evening I found another couple friend of mine wandering thru the shops in the big shopping mall and I also found that they had not purchase anything - not even something to eat and roam about. So was it boredom that brought them to visit that place for the n millionth time? My Dad wants to just go somewhere else rather than spending time in the same old house of his in Chennai. Again Boredom.

Now I never have answers to people's boredom. Elderly, the youth, married, bachelor - everyone alike nowadays get bored easily and find it difficult to pass time even in their leisure. I would rather suggest that they try to find some interesting hobbies and see which one garners their interest and start trying them out. It might even turn out to be something that you can tell out and boast!

Some worthy hobbies that I came across are - collections (movies to buttons to stamps), reading, writing, visiting places, painting, teaching, learning new languages, painting, decorating, cooking, potluck organizing, chit chatting with your loved ones - Let me see how many of these are going to help me.

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