Century is to Sachin ..

"And that is the reason why this victory is great, because different players have made contributions to the win." - Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin may have different reasons to be happy when he added each century to his score sheet. I am not an ardent cricket fan who sets auto refresh for the score page in browser for 5 minutes,yet refreshes the page in 2 minutes biting nails. Also, I have stopped watching matches (regularly) long ago (may be after the 1999 world cup). And my cricket interest limits to knowing Dhoni and sreesanth. Hence I don't have a topic to discuss in usual groups gatherings where the first question would surely be "whats the score?"..

So, what am I supposed to write about Sachin then? :-) Well,the number 100 has its own charm :-)

I installed a stats counter to the blog on April 16th. I just wanted to know which entries got more reads. Initially it was a flop because I knew exactly who would visit and read. All my readers were personally intimated when I made the first two-three entries around.

The stats today shows a number 100 (within these 2 weeks). And, I have my own reasons to be happy. :-) Yes, Thanks to all of you who encourage me to write more.

Trust..

Long time back, I had an argument with someone in Poornam. The argument was that I declared, "we shouldn't trust people easily, especially guys..". [No offense meant, please]. I was just meaning that we shouldn't trust a person until we know him/her very well for a considerable time.

The poem below was written during the argument. Just had a chance to remember it yesterday, dug it out and here it is : [ the language is kind of sluggish. May be I will modify it a bit when I get time and republish]

Why does man have to fear
The coming and going dangers??

It's that the man is eager
to ensure the safety first.
That's why he takes shelter
when it is thundering heavily.
The same time he searches shades
when the sun burns him by the heat.

But when the sun shines its glee
and birds chirp on the tree
The man is there to see all
and enjoy the joyous time.
Never does he want to do this,
where he may hurt by that.

The love is the sun of his life
which can burn him by choice.
If there is trust with love,
it's like the sun in spring
If there is trust missing
the love burns him for sure.

For his on safety he will first,
take an umbrella of non-trust
and he choose to walk in the sun
and see the world around.
When he sees the spring around,
and a sun that don't hurt
he will surely throw of his shade
and jump to the sun of spring
where there is happy and trust
and love and joy live together.

Happiest Moment..

"What was your happiest moment in Poornam?" - My Queenie Aunty's fruit salad had only just came. The question was from Amar, while we were sitting in the Koder House, Fort Cochi on the Easter Day. We, means Amar, Sangeetha, Sojish, Visakh and I. "Well.. hmmm.. Amar, I was always happy with Poornam, except the occasional frustrations..". Having consoled atleast myself with an answer, I went back to my fruit salad. Being not a person who would give in easily, Amar persisted in - "Still, think of it .. What was your happiest moment in Poornam". "err.. I haven't given it such a considerable thought till now".

I thought about it. However hard I tried, I didn't find the happiest moment. Not because there isn't any, but, there are many.

If I list down the moments here, those who don't know me will get bored because it would not be a point of interest for them. And those who are close to me, will again get bored, because those are the stories which they already know.

Anyway, looking back, there is a 22 (or 21? Not sure) year old girl sitting in front of an interview panel. The basic question was, "how would you be able to manage your family and work together after you get married, especially after having kids too". Being as reckless for the age , pat went the answer, "I can appoint an aaya for the kids". The picture then zooms into a paper, in which she was asked to write down the syntax of the socket function, which she had used many times in her final year project. And, on a close-up view, the paper showed only "socket( , , ).. (scratching head) what was the parameters by the way..". Anyway, by whatever destiny in store for her, she got through .. [the photo on top is the beautiful building she entered and started her career from].

And its been 2 years + 6 months since that interview was conducted.

Within these time duration, she has learned many things about life, and has come a lot way from the quiet , yet noisy kid who passed out of MES Engineering college in 2003. Also, she has learned that "appointing an aaya" is not a solution to balance famliy and work (though she is not yet married).

Being happy with life is always relative. That too, when it comes to work, we are in the midst of comparisons always. For me, while working in Poornam, questions vary from -

1. How much do you get there?
2. How much do you earn compared to your "this" friend, or "that"?
3. Why don't you go to a "big" company like Infosys, or Wipro?
4. It's been two years right? No plans for jumping company?
5. Why don't you go to B'lore or Chennai and try for a job?

If you have a solid, logical answer which satisfies your heart for each of these, you will be happy. The answer needn't satisfy the person who posed the question. Because, mostly he wouldn't be asking it for an accurate answer [assuming its not your parents].

Whenever you go out, atleast one person would ask you, "where are you going?". My father used to tell the story of Balan Nair in my village. He always answered such a question with, "just to Bombay only". The questioner would blink his eyes twice and open his mouth. If some onlooker questioned Balan Nair about the genuineness of the answer (because he would be "going to Bombay", in his natural "mundu" and shirt which he wore during work, which happen to be masonry), Balan Nair would reply, "He didn't ask the question to know where I am going...".

For people in Kerala, job and marriage of children etc are just topics to ignite a discussion whether it is a wedding party, or a funeral function. :-)

The above questions are only from around. Among colleagues and friends, it would always be more critical questions, like "Am I doing the work which aids my career on a long-term view?", "Or, where will I stand in 5 years from now?", which are, to be frank, extremely logical. Yet again, here also, the "Balan Nair Effect" persists. If you feel atleast a tinge of hopelessness in your answers when you hear these questions, you can't remain happy anymore. Either find an answer which satisfies your heart or cease to be happy :-)

Coming back to Amar's question, which now ultimately takes me to Robert Frost.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Head of the fountain of Happiness..

"This is a happy world if we clean the head of the fountain of happiness within us"..

I got these words as mail from the famous malayalam writer C Radhakrishnan.

The discussion was about how to keep ourselves at our best. In his novel "Ullil Ullathu" (Roughly translated as "what's inside"), he relates the technique of cleaning the slate. Think of our mind as a slate, sit, relax, breathe hard and try cleaning the slate for a second.

"We gather a lot of junk as we live on, mentally as well as physically. House cleaning takes care of the one kind whereas the other accumulates to boggle us down. Just clean it and the difference is obvious" - his words again.

I am not here for reviewing the book. But read it, if you are a malayali, who knows malayalam language. (I don't know if it's been translated to any other language yet).

It entertains all those who are close to science - A strong philosophy of how all lives in this universe has their own way of "being together". And, how we can make ourselves better by improving our self. And, how each life in the universe interact with the other through "pulses". At same time, its a thriller too, which makes it enjoyable to all classes.

If you are interested in the science of it only, rather than a novel, you can read it here - Stuff and Style of Universe

Doing what you Love..

Chakky has already written on the topic Do only what you love!! And I don't want an argument with him on that, because he is very good at arguing. He could have taken up LLB as well, if it was not for Engineering. :)

Anyway, this is not the same. :-)

During our talk today, Visakh just remembered that he has a blog of his own. Regarding a train journey (first half of his blog), I share exactly the same feelings with him. However, there is one feeling which he hasn't expressed in his writing, but one which I enjoy a lot. I asked Visakh to try a guess. And this is the list he gave me.
1. FOOODD!!
2. The pulling of wind on your clothes?
3. The rhythm?
4. The wait for the eventual destination? That every second leads you towards where you wanna get so anxiously?

Atlast, he admitted his failure and I reveal the great secret here!!
Sitting on the door steps of the train :-D

Well, I am not joking. There are craziest things we can do in life which, on executing, others might stare at you. During a train journey, it can be sitting at the door step with legs outside and enjoy the wind and the rhythm of the movement.

Once I started doing this by putting my legs out of the train and was preparing to sit comfortably, when an old lady near me thought that I was going to jump out of the train. She shouted at me and all the people in the train started staring at me as if I were a suicidal maniac.

In Visakh's words (slightly edited by me): "people choose to live in templates.. Walk along beaten tracks.. Take only the pleasures that is promised along the track.. And they are wary of people who are not like them.. They don't know how to deal with them and predict them.. Those that cant be predicted is a possible hazard.."

There are still crazier stuffs which, on seeing, can make your Grand ma's eyes bulge. :-)

White water Rafting
Chakky started it off, as a suggestion towards our shift change outing. An alternative to the regular destination (Moonnar). Here is how he canvassed people for it. Anyway, the pics speak for themselves.


"Just an hour's drive from Kochi and you are on the last stretches of Kerala's famed River Periyar, winding down its long journey through the Western Ghats. Just the perfect setting for an adventure experience shooting the rapids of the Periyar. What makes any whitewater experience so compelling, so satisfying, and so incredibly exhilarating? It's for real! No video game or amusement park ride can compare to this primal adventure.

As you drift through the river with its thick forested shores, the growing roar of the next rapid pierces the air. Anticipation mounts as your raft picks up speed and approaches the drop. You follow your experienced river guide just as he yells, "All forward!" There isn't time to think. You paddle forward, stroke after stroke, when suddenly you glance up just as a towering white wall of water crashes over the bow, you keep digging in as the raft peaks the next wave, rocking you back only to propel you forward once again as it thrusts downward in the next instance a roller coaster of excitement!
Programme 0800- Arrive at Bhoothathan kettu, the starting point. Briefing & familiarization with the equipment. Start the run.
1330 - End run. Depart.
Safety: All equipments are certified & of International standards & quality. The river guides have 10 years or more experience in guiding.


Eligibility: It is necessary that the participants do not suffer from heart ailments, hypertension & problems associated with the backbone.

Tariff: Rs 850 per person"

Ours was a group of very dynamic people. And, the trip was mixed with music and action. And even after 2 years I can just feel the helplessness of that rain in River Periyar without an umbrella with even not our hands to shield our head because we had to keep on rowing,

and the taste of those few bananas Sunjith had in his bag, when everyone started burning with hunger. The calmness of Periyar where we could even jump in and the roughness of rapids which needed all our strength to get over it.

Thoughts..

I wrote these thoughts on a different occassion. Anyway, on Amar's advise, I am posting this here so that I don't lose track of my write ups on a later stage. These are some of my childhood memories.

Festival time. I wore my new dress (green skirt and yellow top with a big golden button on the buckle), and went out with my friends. We used to visit all my friends' homes, and had sweets from there. With the maximum fuss and noise we could make, we moved along the road; me beaming in my new dress. The usual plan of action is to have sweets from one house, and that friend joins us to move to the next target and so on. From the gate of the 5th person, we called out for her. Her mom came out and told us that she was not coming that day. The noises subsided a bit, though it didn't stop. We asked why. She smiled and simply commented that she was a quarrelsome kid, and anyway invited us inside to have "payasam". Even after we entered the house, she didn't turn up. After much shouting from her mother, she came out wearing the oldest of her clothes. Her mom, again with a smile explained that her dad couldn't buy her a new dress. She was very sad and humiliated and she decided not to go out for the day. Choosing to wear the oldest of her dress was her way of protest. For the first time, I felt bad in my green dress.


I understood that, not having a new dress hurts, at times.

My mom had an acquaintance who used to visit our home so often. She was a jovial kind of person and I loved her visits very much. Her stories revolved around almost everything in our small place. She had a daughter of my age and she used to take my old clothes for her. In our place, English medium schools were not even heard of that time. All children studied in the same government primary school. And she happened to be my classmate. Later on, when she came wearing my old dress to school, my friends started asking me, "isn't it your dress?" I was not mature enough to understand the hurt feelings on the other end. Still, out of the embarrassment of admitting that we give away things (I don't still know why!) I used to deny the fact. After the first incident itself, she stopped wearing my dress.

Wearing other people's dress hurts, at times.

Children understand poverty in a different way from what elders do. But at some point, what we need to realise is, there are many things we can do to bring a smile on others.

"I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do." - Helen Keller

Kicking Off..

I am supposed to type in "this-is-my-first-blog I-dont-know-what-to-write". but I hate to admit both. Writing was always (or, still is?) my dream. Ever since I got out of the comic books, i think it was there.

My first story book was a bit heavy one, hard bound with a red cover.

The first story was about a chick and duckling. The story goes like this : the chick mimics all actions of the duckling with a perky "me too". And, then the duckling decided to go for a swim. Chick follows with the same "me too", but it was in for a surprise, swimming was not its cup of tea. And as every children's story ended, this one also said "and the chick learned a good lesson".

As is the trend around me, being a computer engineeer, and working in a Software Company with a special interest in Linux, I should have started with something technical. Somehow, I wanted to write about Robert Frost. And when it came out, it was the chick and duckling :-)

Mirra Ginsburg - I didn't know the author's name before. Now that I am connected to Internet, and I have Google at hand, it gave me the answer to the simple query "chick and duckling".

For children, stories are stories. But for grown-ups, they are all new lessons for re-read. Being a duckling has the obvious advantage of not drowning. The same is the case with being a chick who thinks before it follows something.

I don't know where I read these lines.

Be a Swift, and stay on the wing,
For heaven's sake, don't sit and sing.
For then you can be sure of your fate,
Locked in a cage, or served on a plate!

But that's it!!