As Sanjay stood up ..

When in the womb, you really have no degree of freedom
Entering this world, you have discovered the first degree

When you start to crawl, the second dimension has come
As you rise to stand erect, you have just grown to see 3-D

So go grab this thing called Life, like a toy to play
Now only the sky is the limit, feisty little Sanjay!

A Pattern from a Paatti.

There was once a little boy aged about 9 or 10, who loved to be a little different from the rest. He absolutely loved the company of other little boys and enjoyed playing sports with them, but was also interested to learn some tricks, tips and trades from the alien species - the girls !

Forever curious to learn simple recipies from his mom, competing to try cross-stich from his sister , he wondered why should the girls have a few skills of their own, which no boy tries to learn. Why do the boys and men conveniently avoid learning some very interesting things,
labelling them as 'Pombalainga samaachaaram"(Ladies stuff) ?

With these thoughts, he sat with his paternal grandmother to learn a quintessential Indian-Ladies'art of drawing 'Kolam' - intricate geometric patterns with dotted references and connecting lines, forming a beautiful design, usually adorning the floor near the entrance of a
typical Indian home. Before he could run away to play cricket with his gang of friends, his 'Nainamma' taught him amongst others, a very simple but elegant Kolam called the Idhayakkamalam (Lotus of Hearts), and told him in a rather serious tone that its important that this auspicious kolam, which had the power to bring prosperity to a household, should not be
stepped on when its on the floor. 

Years passed, and so did stages of life. We had just moved in to an apartment in a high floor, with easy view of the open skies. When my wife declared that she is going to try drawing a kolam with rice-dough on occasion of Karthikai Deepam, I volunteered to enrich her knowledge of kolams :-)

Today, an almost perfect (!) Idhayakkamalam can be found at the entrance of my apartment.
A family tradition that was 'ladies stuff', got passed on to Gen-Next by once-a-little-boy.
I snapped pics as my wife created it, and skipped over the kolam to avoid smudging it.
And Mrs.Varadhambal Rajabather smiled from above, seeing her lovely old kolam yet again !

Impulsive Career Options

It just happens like that. I suddenly had this overpowering desire to work for an advertising company ! I walked over to my friend's desk and shared this thought, and he didnt ridicule anything (he is quite used to such impulses !).

He pushed towards me a small unassuming pocket sized Little Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus * Wordpower guide lying on his desk and told me - "Advertise this ! Gimme a caption. "

It took me by surprise, and I thought for a minute..

"No Iphone would give you the joy of flipping over the pages to find the
meaning of 'life'.

He smiled.

30 seconds later..

"Works even in dimly lit conditions without ever needing a battery"

His look told me that if he had owned an advertising agency, I would have stood a good chance !

An attempt to re-present a great mind.

அன்ன சத்திரம் ஆயிரம் வைத்தல்
ஆலயம்பதி னாயிரம் நாட்டல்,
பின்ன ருள்ள தருமங்கள் யாவும்
பெயர்வி ளங்கி யொளிர நிறுத்தல்
அன்ன யாவினும் புண்ணியம் கோடி
ஆங்கோர் ஏழைக் கெழுத்தறி வித்தல். 

- பாரதி

---------------------------

One could build a thousand centres to feed

Carry out many more honourable deeds

Consecrate a million temples to as many gods

And uphold charity with all that he has got.

But what could be nobler than sowing the seed

of Education, for those who are in need ?

      -Bharathiyaar 

Please visit for more info 

http://sites.google.com/site/ezhutheni/

Antimemorable

Yesterday we watched this offbeat movie by the Coen Brothers - "O Brother, where art thou?". It starred George Clooney along with 2 other blokes and their adventures with a whole bunch of weird characters darting in and out of the screen and the screenplay. The actors were not unearthly - they were just strange humans with unpredictable behaviour.

Clooney's character who is perpetually obsessed with his hair and hair-creams, has this interesting ability to sustain a conversation but only after replacing all the simple words with the most complex synonyms that one may find in a Thesaurus.

After watching about 80% of the movie I began to realise that I might have seen bit and parts of this movie maybe a year ago. And when the movie was about to end, I realised that I have already seen the whole movie , but I still could not remember the next scene. That alone makes this movie unique - The memories of good movies are etched in our minds, while we love to forget the deplorable ones. But this movie was not too bad , yet it was impossible to remember the scenes and storyine because it feels like you saw this movie in some past life.

This post is primarily to remind myself that I have watched the film and even commented on it - just in case I were to write another review after watching the same movie another time in the not too distant future !

Ominous, dark, threatening and laden with Hope.

Do you ever look for the dark clouds in the silver lining ?

I used to in my school days. Even now when I see dark clouds forming in the horizon or when its overcast, I feel a powerful surge of hope, because of the many years of anticipation . But why ?

Dark clouds - just meant one thing - possibility of sudden showers, possibly long enough to fill the storm-water drains, possibly flooding the low-lying roads and areas , possibly making transportation to school very difficult, and a holiday declared by school authorities in the last moment.

But these days, in this part of the world, the rains come like uninvited guests and nobody seems to bother. They call it 'bad weather' and just take out their umbrellas. They get along with their lives and certainly don't declare holidays for office-goers.. The storm water drains work perfectly and transportation works like clockwork..

No silver lining there !

Lost in Translation

Isn't it incredible that we still dont have the technology to automatically translate and understand any human language in spoken form in real-time, but have the money and infrastructure for projects like Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence(SETI)?

Given the colossal misunderstanding between people, cultures, religions and linguistic groups we rather focus on understanding human talk than alien talk !

Ni hao ma?

Fridays with Arun

Hi Dudes,
I have not got any mails this afternoon, except some spam. They say 'give and take' for stuff like respect, love, friendship... whatever.

I have just decided to send you this mail with the foolish optimism, that the favours will be returned. I kinda know that you are equally jobless, but pretending to be having the busiest time of your life on the eve of a long weekend.

So, you know what to do... just reply to this mail with some of your useless comments or suggestions and 'unhesitating' feedback to give me the temporary gratification of being important , busy and 'in the loop'.

Been reading too much Dilbert,
Arun

p.s: you may also choose to call me to a well deserved tea-break.

RemembmemeR

Found these quotes being displayed in the TV in the Bus under Inspirations -
- I will remember that other people's judgements is more about
them than about me.
- I will remember to jump and play over life's puddles.

Living an afterlife

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
--Anatole France

ILTIAC

A year ago -
Everything about you seemed very special
- I was so crazy about you

A year later-
Everyday you are my 'Life's Essentials'
- I will go crazy without you

Live and let dye.

My wife adds so much more colour to my monochrome life.
And so do her clothes when washed along my white shirts!!

Biasing potentials

My mood swings as a bachelor were like a sinusoid with average of zero -sometimes happy, sometimes depressed. Now the sinewave still continues but there is just enough positive DC bias applied on the mood signal, so that I seldom go negative.
--
ok, the above is for EEarthlings only.. the rest forget all attempts to understand it.

Earth's darkest Hour ? March 28 2009 - 8.30-9.30pm

So many advertisements, so many inspired conversations, so many associated thoughts of optimism/hopelessness... How did one idea capture so many people's imagination ? I have not read much about this event in news, but am here to report my own story.

I had marked 'Earth Hour' in my calender alarm, and planned to switch off not just the lights but the mains switch to maximise the power shutoff . Despite dangers of stuff ending up rotting in my fridge, I hoped the insulation would help for atleast an hour.

And what happened ?

Went outside to a visit to the temple at 7pm, almost forgot all about it till the alarm sounded near the altar. I felt rather glad that we had remembered to switch off all the lights before we left home, so we were actually celebrating 'Earth Hour' in absentia..

Visited a friends place, then had dinner in a restaurant, celebrated the good news of my sister's birth to a baby boy, returned home tired, slept fitfully, and woke up next morning -
-- to find that the adjacent room was unusually warm- I had forgotten to switch off the electric iron after using it the previous evening !!

A misstep of one man's stupidity,
But a giant leap for humanity !

Behold the miracle - Today

If Spring came but once in a century, instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake, and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change!
But now the silent succession suggests nothing but necessity.
To most men only the cessation of the miracle would be miraculous and the perpetual exercise of God's power seems less wonderful than its withdrawal would be.

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Heights of Eco-friendliness.

Caption for a plastic can to hold water in a western toilet -

"Love Nature. . . Hate Paper"

Reverse aging potion

I happened to be in a party where

      there were food and drink galore.

But it turned out to be little food,

      but alcoholic drinks - more and more.

Being a teetotaller, I could only watch

     as all that happened, to my utter dismay-

That the revellers tried to challenge each

     other's macho-ness in a nasty nasty play.

"Drink it bottoms-up if you are a man"-

     one of them did very loudly proclaim,

But the more they consumed, 

     the more juvenile they all became !

Not this time

Familiar are these waters and mild ripples on it
But this time, the lake fails to calm my heart.


Deserved attention the full moon would get,
But not now, when it just blends in the palette.


To listen to some insects in the forest at night,
No longer do I stop breathing for a minute.


The soothing joy of solitude is what I sought,
But with you in my arms, noone's going to miss it!

Fat Boy Swim

Weight gain thru fat accumulation may finally be useful..
fats/oils are lighter than water = less effort needed to swim and stay afloat..
This is based on personal experience..!

When bitten by the shutterbug..

... you will tend to close one of your perfectly functional eyes,
just to see the world like your camera would.

Happiness is ..

... being able to live in peace with one's own past, present and future.