Reflections

My memories go back to the Excitement, happiness, togetherness, mixed emotions that I experienced a year back. Work was very hectic and it spared me only the weekends to talk to my parents and sister leisurely. My cousin sister called me frequently to know that I am doing well and assuring that my family was always there for me at all times. My cousin brother called me and used to guide me for anything that I wanted. My aunt and uncle talked to me regularly to make me feel better that I was not alone here. I was eagerly waiting to go to India to see my family members. When I was in India, I hardly had 3 days to be with my loving family. Amidst all the preparations that was going on at home at that time, I had very less time to be with my parents, sister, cousins, aunt, uncle and the little princess in my family. I asked my mom to feed me food every chance that I got. I was awake most of the times despite the jetlag, to spend time with my family. I loved my cousin sister who feed me breakfast. I loved the carrot halwa that my sister made with so much of love. I cherished every moment when I was in India. With dark, bright and beautiful mehandi on my hands, I came here with my husband.

Little did I realize that I have spent couple of years here. With a smiling note and cherishing all the moments that happened this year, I look forward for a new year.

While growing up I was a complan girl and was told by my parents that coffee was not good for kids. I was not a big fan of complan. During my childhood, daily in the morning I pretended to sleep even when I woke up early in the morning only to procrastinate drinking a cup of complan. However I overcame this feeling when complan mango shake was introduced. huh it was a big relief !
The yellow colored cup with a fancy sipper for complan mango shake was a good marketing magic to attract the kids then.

Slowly I started drinking 1 cup of coffee in the morning. But I always knew my limits and I also never liked drinking it more than once. When I got a chance to be part of Isha Yoga’s inner engineering program, I learnt that caffeine randomly activates our nervous system in the morning. Since I liked the program, I also had a great respect for whatever that was taught and followed it until 3 months before. But unfortunately the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, while sipping it with lot of enjoyment has made me feel extra energetic and has become indispensable component in my life now.

Most of the days I drink 2 cups of coffee. When I start my work in the morning, the first thing I do is to get a cup of coffee without which I feel my desk is empty.

I am afraid that I would become addicted to coffee and would become an
“avid coffee drinker” :(

Philosophy ?

For a while now, I have been having a lot of philosophical thoughts. My perspective towards many things has been very philosophical. I could also say living and believing practicality. Sometimes the result of extensive thinking has even lead to confused thinking.

I have this habit of looking back about how a particular day was a year back and get thrilled of all the events that take place in the due course. Today when I look back, I am very convinced that today is a gift compared to the day it was a year back. This might also be the result of thinking that everyday is a gift.

One thing that I have been wondering about life is, things that we want to happen are the ones that happen at a later point of time when we least expect them to happen. By then we get tired of dreaming and move on. Usually our mind starts to think “why did this not happen at the time we want them to happen...?” Well how nice it would be to get things at the time when we want them. The timely gift always gives immense pleasure and is also very memorable.But we know the fact that things don't happen at the time we want and when they happen at the time that we don’t want, we get mad. I have an answer for every question that arises within me. “Probably everything that happens has a good reason behind it”.

One other thing that I wonder is, there would have been times in our life when we would have missed to enjoy very small things. Those are the things that we gain interest at a later point of time and then we feel bad for having missed it before. For instance most of us are very cautious about our food habits and would have avoided eating many food stuffs. Unfortunately we gain interest when we don’t get them to eat anymore :(
I remember the days when I haven’t showed any interest in eating. Now I really miss boiled sweet potato, boiled peanuts, vazhappoo, vazhathandu, palakottai sambar(jackfruit seeds), ladies finger. We don’t realize the value of anything until we have and miss them like hell when we don’t have them. That’s life I guess!
So now, I relish everything that I have and enjoy everyday.

By having a lot of practical and philosophical discussions within myself, I realize that my perception towards life has changed a lot. When I get a feeling that I am being fooled or taken for granted or when people irritate me, I have an answer to put down my fuming feelings. I just cannot tolerate at those times but I tell to myself that it matters more what I think about myself rather than what others do. Well, most of the times this has a very good effect cuz this attitude helps me to refrain from reacting for most of the situations. According to me response to a stimulus triggers the effect to be more and this forms a chain reaction.

I am not sure why I started writing about this.

Am I confused ? May be Yes or may be No.

Am I very practical ? May be Yes or may be No.

The power of good deeds

A poor wood-cutter was on his way home, after a long, hard day’s work in the forest. On his head he carried a big bundle of wood – the fruit of his toil.

On the lonely forest track that evening, he saw a tapasvi, a holy man, coming towards him. Courteously, he stepped aside to let the holy man pass.

“Drop the bundle down!” the holy man said to the wood cutter.

Astonished, as well as puzzled, the poor man did as he was told.

“Untie the knot!” came the next instruction.

Lo and behold! As the bundle was untied, a deadly, venomous snake came out of the logs. The wood-cutter shrieked with fear and horror at the sight of the snake but it crept away quietly into the undergrowth and disappeared.

Still shaking with fright, the wood-cutter fell at the feet of the holy man.

“Master!” he exclaimed, “You saved my life!”

“You are mistaken,” replied the holy man quietly. “Tell me, did you perform a good deed today?”

“Alas master! All day long I worked hard cutting wood! It is not for humble ones like me to perform good deeds,” replied the wood cutter.

“Think again,” urged the holy man. “You must have done something special today!”

The man’s eyes widened in remembrance. “O master! I grew hungry and I sat down to eat my meal. I had two rotis with me. As I began to eat, a poor man came by. He told me he had not eaten for the last two days – poor soul! I shared one of my rotis with him. Apart from this, I have performed no good deed at all!”

The holy man blessed the poor wood-cutter.

“Brother,” he said, ‘today, you were to die of this snake. But your good deed has saved you from death, and blessed you with a new lease of life!”

Change in Homepage?

The look and feel of the Google homepage has been changed since yesterday. Did you notice the elongated search box and the keywords that we enter are in bigger font size?

When I first saw the page, it appeared as though it had a UI defect. I was under the impression that some developer had missed to apply style sheet and deployed it into production server when he was half asleep.

Later I realized that it was a ‘CHANGE’.

I don’t like it. :(

Sweet Spot

Few days back I had a technical discussion with my developer and the client on one of the critical projects that I am working for currently. My developer (hereafter referred to as ‘SA’) is a very sincere person who always aims for quality deliverable and also puts the best effort to meet deadlines. My client is a very systematic person who works in early bird schedule. So a technical discussion in the night is obviously an irritating thing for him. Unfortunately the discussion exceeded the scheduled time and SA was not convinced with the discussion. The more he was trying to clarify, the client was becoming impatient. Unexpectedly the discussion was not very fruitful.

I spoke to my SA immediately after the call and explained to him that it was right to focus on the client’s needs rather than giving a best solution for long term when the client is ready to rework after a while. I understood SA’s intentions that he wants to give a best solution rather than thinking short term solution.

A few days back I had another discussion with my supervisor. We were talking about different resources who report to me. He commented about SA that it was very tough to work with him and there were few people who haven’t preferred to work with this person. Hence he was trying to find out if I faced a similar situation. I said my relationship with my team is absolutely fine and I am satisfied with SA’s work too.

The point that my supervisor conveyed to me was, sometimes people become unhappy when the person works beyond what is expected. It was the same problem with SA. He worked so passionately that he doesn’t deliver until he is satisfied with the quality.
I said that was the quality that I was very impressed about SA and I am fine with that.

This lead to a discussion on one of the articles my CEO had written about ‘Sweet Spot’.

Here is a Venn diagram that shows the sweet spot:

The highlighted region is the sweet spot.
A- refers to company
B- refers to Personal Interests of an employee
C- refers to employee’s strengths

Sweet spot is defined as a region which helps an individual grow along with the organization's growth. A person has to have the caliber to do something; the one that interests him and is expected by the company showcases him as a talented person.

Having strengths but no interest; having interest but struggling to do a task; having interest and strengths but doesn’t meet the company’s needs are 3 combinations that make a person unsuccessful.

In the case of SA, he has high caliber and interest but most of the times doesn’t meet the expectation set by the company/client, rather exceeds them resulting in dissatisfaction.

I defended SA because I have never let down any of those who have worked with me so far. I know the fact about sweet spot but did not completely agree with my supervisor because I have been in similar situations before.

This discussion reminded me of 2 incidents in my life.

Incident 1:I had a very tough time before I found my best first job. I applied for a job position for one of the telecom giants based out of madras. There were 8000 candidates who had applied for the same job position. After having attended many interviews and knowing the time that it was a recession, I had very less expectations when I went to the aptitude test. I did my best and was very happy to know that I cleared the test. I then had a technical assessment which covered almost all the areas of engineering concepts. I was delighted to hear the results that I passed the test. Immediately there were 2 technical discussions on the same day. I was little bit nervous but slowly my expectations and confidence were building very fast. Both the interviews went on very well and I was waiting to hear the results again. Imagine the mental state of a person who had to hold the breath several times on the same day. I was informed that I cleared the interviews as well.

From the 8000 that appeared for the selection process, only 42 were selected after the technical discussions. After a weeks time, there was a HR interview and I got to know from sources that they were going to select only 35 of us. My interview went on well. I was very sure that I would be selected. But to my dismay I was told that I was one among the 7 who were rejected. Also the HR added to the point that those who were rejected don’t mean that they are not capable but their strengths does not fit in the company’s expectations J

Oh what a diplomatic way of conveying! Isn’t it? But that moment was very hard to digest and I was dejected. It took me at least a week’s time to think about the next step. But that was when I realized that there is going to be some other time in my life when my strengths would be recognized by someone else.

My thinking was true. I continued to put in my effort and was offered 2 jobs from leading companies at the same time.

Incident 2: There was a time when I used to work for a very critical project in my company. We had very odd working hours. Some of us used to work crazily and hardly had time to sleep. My superior was a person who was never satisfied with the work delivered. He was always a person who pointed out the scope for improvement. Sometimes when there was a delay in best of intentions to deliver quality product, it was often mistook as deliberate delay to let my superior down. How disgusting!

Soon after that project was completed, I moved onto a different team. Surprisingly for the same amount of effort that I had put earlier, I was appreciated at least once in a day. How funny life was!

My grandpa thought me a very important lesson to me. Tough times in a person’s life are inevitable. One has to suffer and get through those times. But when one continues to do good they will be rewarded the best during one’s best times…..wondering why? Its for the best deeds accumulated.

The lesson that life thought me many times was continued effort, good thought and good work will be appreciated one day or the other and I firmly believe it till day.

I also believe this holds good for many situations and relationships in our life.

So coming back to the original point, I planned to send appreciations for SA because one of the tasks that he had worked was highly appreciated by the client.

Pippa's song

The last time when I posted, I forgot to include these lines from Pippa's song by Robert Browning.

God does everything for a reason and we realise it later.well, there is a lot to be written here but I am not very good in expressing. Here you go and its self explanatory.

The year's at the spring,

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hill-side's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in his Heaven --All's right with the world!

Random Post

1. For a while now, I have been thinking about this. Why do people always want the one that they don’t have? I am not an exception….But the moment I am disappointed about something, I also realize that I have grown up and am matured enough to digest the fact that mom had always thought me in my journey so far “unakkum keezhe ullavar kodi, ninaithu pathu nimmadhi naadu”.

2. Why are some people hypocrites? It feels sick when I could read minds and categorize some people as hypocrites. I have seen some of those in my workplace.

3. I watched a wonderful movie “Abhiyum naanum”.My sister told me that she liked it.
The relationship between a father and a daughter has been wonderfully brought out in the movie.

4. Why do people render service to the society and take pictures when they help the needy? Is it telling everyone that their service needs to be recognized? Whom are they making happy? Do they get pleasure in serving the needy or feel happy when others talk about their helping nature? I am confused.
I know many who do great things and never talk about it.

I hate to see pictures in newsletters of foundations those help the needy.


5. I finished reading a book. I literally hated the story. The woman in the story was very indecisive and I hated the way she dealt the situations.

6. I had an informal meeting with my previous manager few days before. She always liked talking to me and felt bad for not having me in her team. She is the only woman in her team and she misses me. Every time when she talks to me, I am reminded of MK. That reminds me how MK never wanted to loose me but she always respected what I wanted.

5 star *****

Do you remember this old tamil advertisement for 5 star?
I was reminded of the 5 star advertisements….


It’s like this…….A girl tries to become a pop singer and fails miserably every time. The song goes like this…

Asaigal nirasai anadhe
Kanavum kai nazhuvi ponadhe
Nambikkai tharum manadhile
Oru pudhuvazhi udayam anadhe
Kai patruvom star ai sadippom viraivil vaa……..
Kai patruvom star ai sadippom viraivil vaa……..

As the song goes, she eats a five star to gain confidence and we see a pop singer on the screen :)For the past few days I have been searching this ad in you tube……
By now you know what the search result was… :(

No ad…No five star :(

God’s in his heaven, All’s right with the world

One of my very best friends used to tell me, one should have pure thoughts on a Monday morning and the entire week depends on how one experiences Monday. I don’t believe much in these kinds of sentiments. Every day is special to me. There were times when I wore same colored clothes almost the entire week. Some of them have asked me, “is that your lucky color?” Well I believed when I wore a dress of my choice and liking, I was more confident. But I have this inadvertent love for dates. I am working on it to overcome.

When I was up this morning, unfortunately I was not sure how my day is going to be. Although I was identified as “The Woman” in an organization I had worked previously, that is the smilie I wish to be one today.

I had 4 tasks to be deployed and they were expected to go live in a week’s time. All of them were critical ones. I was appreciated for some of the tasks that were fabulously carried out so far. But I was also criticized that out of many things that go wrong, 2 of the 4 tasks require some more effort. I did not get a “GO” from the business and hence we put them on hold.

I was not unhappy or dejected. I was just tired.

I have this very senior colleague in my office who is a blind motivator for me. She does the testing for most of the code my team develops. She asks numerous questions and is sometimes confused too. I just walk over to her place for the respect I have for her age and explain her patiently. Sometimes when I have other priorities, there can be no other person in my office to understand me better than her. Today I had to ask something to her and I was relieved to get a timely help. All that I could say her was “Thanks”.

She replied me back…I am moved with your patience to help me out every time. There is not a single time when you have said “No”.

I was happy.

God’s in his heaven, All’s right with the world.

Google Profile?

Web 2.0 refers to what is perceived as a second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, User-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications. Examples include social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups and folksonomies.

Although the term suggests a new version of WWW, it does not have any up gradations to technical specifications whereas gives a new tilt to the way end users utilize the web.

Got to Wiki for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

Now, do you wonder why am I writing a post on web 2.0 here? The answer is pretty simple. As usual I was exploring one of the features of Google. As a google adherent, I thought of sharing information about Google Profile.

In the current day, we have so many social networking sites bumping each other. LinkedIn is one such site with a different outlook to the SNS .Its a “Professional SNS”.
It’s a place where one can put their professional information there by floating ones information in the WWW.

Orkut on the other hand is a “Personal SNS” with a similar motive.

Today majority of the people ranging from school going kids to elderly people have got them registered in Orkut, LinkedIn, youtube, Picassa, reader, blogger, facebook & so on..

We know most of these products are under the very big umbrella called Google. Now what is different about Google Profile then?

Google Profile can be logged in with the usual gmail account and is built on the “Web 2.0” concept. It’s basically a place where one can register to have public presence. If someone wants to track a person on the web and the person being tracked has a google profile created, everything becomes pretty simple. It has link to all the google products and shows all of those where the logged in member has registered with.

Most of us log into any google related products with the same id. We don’t maintain different ids for different products when they always popularize the product with the fact that one can login if h/she has a gmail account. Thus the web 2.0 concept emerges.

For example, when a person logs into google profile with the gmail id, it shows their blog links, you tube membership details, presence in picassa, any journal membership, orkut, facebook and twitter and so on.


In the past when you did a “Vanity Search” ( if you wanted to be listed in search results for your own name), it would not have showed up the results as expected and often you needed your own website. However in April, Google has started giving Profiles a prominent placement in search results. If you set up an online profile with Google, a person looking for you online will be able to find you more easily. Google will let you know if they need more information before having your profile listed in search results.

Do you want to take a look to see a profile looks like? Search for Tim O'Reilly( web 2.0 guru) on the web.

Read for more details:
http://seodenver.com/2009/05/20/how-to-create-a-google-profile-and-manage-your-online-reputation/

I was very excited to learn about web 2.0 a year and a half back. But when I realized the concept in real-time, I have my own thoughts reserved for this.

I was analyzing the pros and cons of Google profile. I don’t want to discuss about it here as it might be a very good topic in a technical forum.

Although I jotted out many points, my question is still open.” Is Profile a boon or a bane?”

Power Outage

Couple of days before, at work…..
I was starring at the monitor without moving anywhere as if I was glued to the chair. I was trying to open some document and all of a sudden the mouse stopped working. The computer got disconnected from the network. All the lights were turned off.
I realized it was a “Power outage”. After coming to the US, it was the first time I encountered a power outage.

Ah…….Probably it was a time to take break :)

Some of my coworkers started heading to their home. I was wondering what next to do?

But this brought a kind of happiness in everyone’s face as though no one is compelled to work anymore.

In school and college days it was really fun when an unexpected holiday was declared. Especially the bombs scare kind of rumors. I remember running to the play ground once during a bomb scare in the school.

Will a similar thing happen today? When I cannot afford to take a day off, it’s ok to expect a leave announcement.
Such was a kind of thought running through my mind and unfortunately everything resumed in 15 minutes.

रेशम

वो लोग रेशमी कपड़े पहनते हैं

बोलते हैं कि वो अमीर हैं

वो समझ्तें हैं कि अमीर्पनका नमूना रेशम है

मन्दिर मे भगवान को धूम धाम से सजाते हैं

अगर्बती का मतलब इस मतलबी दुनिया में खो गया है

लोग समझ्तें हैं कि रेशमी कपडों में भगवान् की कीर्ती बद्थी है

रेशम की कीमत अनमोल है

लेकिन लोग माया के वश में हें

क्या रेशम कभी कफ़न बन सकता है?

कफ़न हमेशा सफ़ेद ही है

वह दुःख का नमूना है

For Hindi Aspirants, the poem means :

Everything in this world has its own significance. One cannot replace the otherones value.

A silk cloth cannot be used as a shroud.

Also this means ones value is not influenced by the others value. Our greatness lies in the quality of our inner self. For example, god is a supreme power.He is not a supreme power because of how we decorate him or what we offer to him.

उदार

किरण जब ऊपर पड्त्ती है

आहिस्ता आलस उतारकर खिलती हैं ये नन्हे कलियाँ

फ़िर मुस्कुराती हैं फूल बनके

अपने दैनिक जीवन की सोच थोडी भी नही है

चारों तरफ़ खुश्बू फैलाकर हमको खुशी दिलाती हैं

इस स्वार्थी दुनिया में एक दिन की खुशी देकर स्वर्गीय बन जाती हैं

क्या ये सारे फूल हरि के लिए हार बनती हैं ?

आपस में हर एक फूल तड्पती हैं

एक दिन की परियां , हरि के गले में जब चड्ती हैं, तब उनका जन्मदिन है

क्या इन सबको वो मौका मिलता है ?

फ़िर भी खिलती हैं, हिलती हैं , खुशृबू फैलाती हैं, मुर्झाती भी हैं

The Garbage Truck

I read this story very recently. Sometimes we know very clearly what to practice in our life. But we fail to do it due to circumstances. However, we get reminded of them when we read such stories or articles. Here is a very nice story.

How often do we let other people's emotions affect our mood? Do we let a
terrible driver, or a rude comment ruin our day?

The mark of a spiritual aspirant is how quickly we can ‘regain our focus’ on
what is important. One man learnt this experience while he was in a New
York City cab. Here's what happened.

He was traveling in a taxi, on his way to Grand Central Station. All of a
sudden, without warning, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in
front of them. The taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded and missed the
other car's back end by inches.

Then, the driver in the other car, who nearly caused a huge accident,
whipped his head around and started abusing the taxi driver. So did the
companion sitting next to him! One would have thought that it should have
been the other way round!!!

But the taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. The startled passenger
sitting in the taxi said, "Why did you take it so easy? The guys almost
caused your car to crash and send us to hospital!"

The taxi driver laughed and then related what he called, "The Law of The
Garbage Truck."

"Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of rubbish,
filled with frustration, bursting with anger, and packed with
disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And
if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump it all
on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and
move on. You'll be glad you did. I assure you.”

The passenger started thinking how regularly he let garbage trucks run right
over him? And how frequently he took his own garbage and spread it onto
other people, at work, at home, or on the streets? It was that day he
promised to himself, "I'm not going to do it anymore. Enough is enough!"

Over time he learnt how to distinguish when a "Garbage Truck" was coming to
dump all over him. He noticed the junk they were carrying and prepared
himself to avoid it all being unloaded onto him. Like the taxi driver, he
did not make it a personal thing; he just smiled or waved or wished them or
did all of these and moved on!!!

We generally get disturbed on reacting to situations, to people’s opinions that we don’t like. Don’t we? Also we have an aversion to a rude comment, those who tease us, those who underestimate us, those who gossip about us and lot more.
A few years back, I started incorporating “The Law of Garbage truck”. I ensured that I don’t let anyone’s negative thoughts influence me. Generally we forget what to do when we have many more challenging situations and that’s what happened to me. I forgot totally about this law. I was reminded of this law sometime during last year.

I know a person who keeps smiling always. When someone talks rudely, he just doesn’t react. He says it’s our duty to keep our heart as beautiful like a flower and we need to try all possible ways for that.

But our mind is like a coin that has two sides. We can take conscious effort to practice good things. But isn’t it tough to remain the same always? When I do that I get a feeling, am I trying to clone “Mother Theresa”? Also it gives a feeling of being fooled. No……I don’t want to do that. I just want to remain the way I am.
That’s when we forcefully unlearn.

We can practice all good things and we can do it only till the threshold. Once that’s reached, we just can’t bear things and we react. No harm in it. Sometimes we need to let the world know what we are and who we are.

Shouldn’t we?

राह

राह में बटमार दूर निकलने लगे

तमन्ना पुरी होने जैसे लग रही थी

लेकिन राही की छाया डूबने लगा

तब महसूस हुआ कि राह का दीप बुजने लगा है

For hindi aspirants, the poem means:

"When the tough gets going, the going gets tough" and thats life and we need to face it.

Feast

This is a very nice song.... It has lot of ingredients to it...Waterfall, forest, birds chirping, rabbit.........
One can enjoy the song on mute...Music is a bonus to it and its all the more mesmerizing.
When i see the song it rejuvenates my cells...I wish I were in that place and relax for few days.




Some of my favorite verses from the song are:

salithu poanaen manidhanaay irundhu

parakka vaendum paravaiyaay thirindhu thirindhu

parandhu parandhu

uppu kadaloadu maegham urpathi aanaalum

uppu thanneerai maegham oru poadhum sindhaadhu

malaiyil vizhundhaalum sooriyan marithu poavathillai

nilavukku oliyootti thannai neettithu kolgiradheymaegh

amaay naanum maaraenoaadhan maenmai kunangal kaanbaeno

sooriyan poal avai maaraenoa en jothiyil ulagai aalvaeno

jananam maranam theriyaa vannam naanum mazhai thuli aavaenoa

When I see this song, this reminds me the beautiful adirampalli & wayanad falls :)

Enjoy the Song! :)

It’s going to be close to a year since I moved out from OC. Today I was reminded of my friends M, S, R & B. It’s hard to make friends like these four. My stay in S’s house was great. It was a pleasant surprise today when B called me. Those were the critical days when I had to face things, when I missed my family a lot and these people were blessing in disguise. I should say god sent.

Who will take a day off to take care when someone needs attention? M was very kind enough to do that. S called me at frequent intervals to know if I had breakfast, lunch etc…Evening when she was back from office, she would give me a big glass of orange juice…ensures I eat my dinner properly…B cooked dal rice for us. He had damp eyes when he was at S’s place. The entire team came to S’s place.

S wanted to spend time with me till I was there with her. I know she felt every moment was precious. All of them came to the airport when I left…Till I went to the security check, SL, Su, S, M and lot others took pictures.. S gave me a lovely rose before I left home and wanted me to hold it till I boarded the flight.. Su wanted me to have the flower that she gave me…….

Nice friends and lively were those days with them.

जीवन का राज़

परियों की रानी बोलती है

दीवार में चुप चुप के जीवन का आध्यात्मिक राज़ बोलती है

जीवन में सब कुछ क्षण भंगुर है

कल की आयु आज के चैन में है

किसी ने पूछा नही, किसी ने सुना नही, किसी ने समझा नही

आख़िर अन्तिम साँस लपेटे हुए ऊपर का भी मेहमान बनके चलते हैं

आंखों में आँसू पोंछ्के वो फ़िर से बोलती है

आज एक अनमोल रत्न है

यही है जीवन का आध्यात्मिक

Airtel Super Singer Grand Finals Part I

I was shocked to see the results on Monday. One among the five finalists was eliminated. I was not happy to hear that Prasanna & Ranjini had a difference of 8000+ votes’.

It was excruciating to digest the fact that Ranjini was eliminated. I am not biased because she is my colleague. There were so many aspects that I liked about Ranjini…
She sang almost all the genres and her versatility were applauded by everybody until the finals.
I really don’t understand how the public cast vote?? Or was it an internal politics played to retain Prasanna or Renu? Probably people count appearance as a factor while deciding?
Or luck constitutes 10% of victory?

Ranjini parted with a happy note though. She was confident enough to tell everybody that she would be into playback singing some day. Lastly she sang “mayya mayya” from the film Guru.

What a bold attempt it was to sing that song!

Doodle Winner 2009

Doodle 4 Google contest was held this year around the intriguing theme "What I Wish for the World."
Christin Engelberth, a sixth grader at Bernard Harris Middle School in San Antonio, Texas has won the Doodle 4 Google contest this year. She titled her doodle “A New Beginning”.
I remember voting for this title. Did I???
I think yes. Because when I first saw this doodle, it reminded me Darwin’s “Theory of Evolution”.
But christin created this doodle to express her wish that "out of the current crisis, discoveries will be found to help the Earth prosper once more."

When I read the title, the child in me had this thought …..Hey I have drawn enough on this slate…
Ok..lemme erase everything and make fresh drawings..:)
Isn't it nice?

I was unwell for the past 2 days. I myself could not understand what was happening within me. Usually when I was unwell, mom asked me so many times”kanna enna ma achu?” I used to hug my mom when I was not okay. So she knows immediately that I am not okay. She knows that I am not a better person in explaining the discomforts and so she would ask all the symptoms like a doctor. Sometimes from the love that she has given me I have even forgotten the next day that I was unwell. Especially when I get to work I forget to eat even if she had asked me to eat any medicines. She used to call me and ensured that I ate everything properly and asked plenty of times if I was okay.
Now, when I am very far away from my beloved mom, sometimes it’s very hard to explain things over the phone. Whenever I have felt low, my sister cracked jokes and made me laugh. Many things like this remind me many instances where mom, dad & darling sis have taken care of me like a princess. I miss them a lot.

My dad always called me princess….When I was living with my parents, my work place was very far away from our home. So usually it was like 8:30 P.M when I was back from work. I will be so tired that I get into the bedroom immediately and would lie down to get some rest. Dad always bought a big 1.5 litres bottle of Maaza and a packet of Lays to kill my unbearable hunger before I ate the dinner.

The other day when I went to buy groceries with my husband, he bought me a Maaza tetra pack. My eyes were full of tears and I was very happy when he told that he understands how much I missed my dad.

After Rain

A sudden rainfall.
Oddly the sound seemed more melancholy than menacing.
Plethora of thoughts surrounded by the sound.
Slowly the gentle breeze in the dawn was a sigh of relief.
The nature was at rest.
Everything was calm and clear – It was a peaceful solitude in the best way it can be!

God chooses a special angel for every child on this earth.
She sings songs for the child, tells the most beautiful and sweet words the child can hear.
She teaches how to speak with much patience and care.
She is the only one to defend even if it means risking her life!
She is the happiest person to see her child grow and rewarded.

I call my angel as “Mommy”.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Success is not what we take it to be

Recently I came across this article. I was very much impressed,especially the last story.
A very good read!

Everyone wants to be successful in life. But there are few who know the elements of success, the factors that go to build up success. Today, success is being confounded with making money, with amassing millions and billions. John D. Rockefeller was such a multimillionaire, to whom success did not bring him happiness. His biographer tells us that by the time Rockefeller was 53, his life was a wreck. He was the richest man in the world and yet he was miserable! He was sick – physically, mentally and emotionally. All his millions could not make him happy.

Rockefeller turned a new leaf. He stopped accumulating wealth, and began to give away his wealth. Thus was born the Rockefeller Foundation, which sponsors and supports education and medical care throughout the world. John Rockefeller re-wrote and re-defined the meaning of success for himself. Some people equate success with power and position. A fond mother said to me that her son had achieved success in life at the young age of 23. He had been appointed as the Managing Director of a large industrial concern. But a few days later, I heard that the young man was rude to his colleagues and unpopular with his workers; that he had a foul temper, and that he became a victim of gambling and drinking. Would you describe this young man as being successful?

Many of us tend to equate success with visible material acquisitions. There was a young woman who wore expensive clothes and diamond jewels; her handbag was stuffed with currency notes, she drove about in a Mercedes. Everyone agreed that she was indeed a woman who had achieved success in life. But then this young woman had problems too. She was one of the unhappiest women on earth. Her husband was constantly running after other women and paid no attention to her. Would you call this young woman successful?

Jay Gould, the American millionaire, amassed great wealth. But as he lay dying, he lamented, “I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth!” There is no happiness in wealth, but there is considerable wealth in the experience of happiness.

What is the definition of success? What is true success? I believe that true success is in some way or the other, related to inner happiness and peace of mind. It has been rightly said that if you lose your wealth, you lose but little. If you lose your health, you lose something. But, if you lose your peace of mind, you have lost everything!

Outer things, external achievements, are not the yardstick for success. Power, prestige, position, social influence, higher degrees awarded by universities – all these are outer things. They only touch the fringe of life; they don’t enter the depths within. A man may have all this, and yet he may be intellectually barren; he may be emotionally unbalanced, spiritually sterile. Would you call such a man successful?

What then, is success all about? One can define success as the ability to be happy and make others happy; the ability to love and be loved; the ability to remain in peaceful harmony with oneself, with those around you and with God’s cosmic laws.

Let me tell you the story of such a man, who achieved success in life.

You may have heard of Dunlop tyres. They were manufactured by George C. Dunlop. As a young man, Dunlop was far from wealthy. But he genuinely cared for an old woman, who was an invalid. She was confined to a wheel chair, and George would often propel the chair for her. He found she suffered severe jolting and discomfort, when steel rims of the wheel chair moved on rough terrain. He wanted to do something that would reduce her discomfort.

In those days, a new material was much talked about. People were beginning to marvel over its flexibility and softness. It was nothing but rubber! Dunlop took strands of rubber and wound them around the steel rims of the wheel chair and found that this smoothened considerably, the movements of the wheel, giving a great deal of comfort to his invalid friend. Thus began the story of Dunlop tyres – first designed to bring comfort to an invalid’s life, they made George Dunlop a wealthy man many times over!

This is what my turban master has said “If you can do anything, do some good to other” in Sri Sai Satcharitra, Ch X.

Past few weeks have been very busy at work. But I love my work so much and I do it with passion.
Though work week has been very busy most of the times, I desperately find time to do things that I like. Yesterday I got reminded of some of my school teachers. I remembered the wishes that my primary school teacher had sent for my marriage. She was a very nice person .Both my sister and I have visited her after she got retired and when she got settled in a different city.

When I think of her, there are few things that remind me about her. In schooldays she used to be a very strict person. May be she is one even now. She always showed a difference between bright and dull children. One of my classmate was a below average student. He was not mentally fit for various reasons in his life. (I meant “not mentally fit” and not mentally retarded). He was very slow in grasping things. During exams he had a very tough problem of forgetting what he read. Some of us felt bad for him and used to help him as much as we could. This teacher always scolded him, has thrown hard substances like stick over him and has many times has even told that he is fit for nothing. She has even abused him for his appearance and all those words of underestimating a person. This continued for almost 6 years. There was no sign of improvement neither from my classmate nor from the teacher’s attitude. When we were in 9th grade, my classmate was forced to leave the school and we never came to know what happened to him later.

Most of us liked the teacher but we did not like the way she treated some of the classmates. So out of all the good deeds she did, this is one of her attitude that disturbed us.


Years later, one of my childhood friends happened to meet this so called dull, gullible classmate. She told me that he scored very good marks in his 12th grade and was pursuing his engineering. We were very glad to discuss about his effort to reach that point. It also reminded us of the teacher who had underestimated this person forever.

A teacher always scolds a student out of best interest for her students. But should not do that to the extent that one feels worthless in life.

I had a mathematics teacher who was a source of inspiration for most of the children. His approach of teaching was amazing. He made wonders by making a student score high marks who had struggled with mathematics for years.

He created a difference in many students life with his tremendous patience to ensure everybody understood the concepts. He was never tired of repeating.
I tried very hard to find whereabouts of my mathematics teacher. I came to know from one of my friends that he passed away.Till date I have only best things to remember about him.

Given a chance I would want to be like my mathematics teacher.
So far my attempt in teaching kids, training fresh grads has been very successful. But the opportunities for that are very narrow in my current work place.

Sometimes random memories like this and experiences from the past remind the old lessons learnt.

Today I read a short story that I have heard years before. Whenever I feel low, defeated or think I need that extra strength to overcome my shortcomings and achieve more, I get reminded of the message from this story.
Some of the nice things that I have learnt in my life so far are those that one should treasure for life long.

Here is the story:

Once a King called upon all of his wise men and asked them "Is there a
mantra or suggestion which works in every situation, in every circumstance,
in every place and in every time? Tell me is there any mantra?"

After a lengthy discussion, an old man suggested something which appealed to
all of them. They went to the king and gave him something written on paper.
But the condition was that king was not to see it out of curiosity. Only in
extreme danger, when the King finds himself alone and there seems to be no
way, only then he’ll have to see it. The King put the paper under his
Diamond ring.

After a few days, the neighbors attacked the Kingdom. It was a collective
surprise attack of the King’s enemies. King and his army fought bravely but
lost the battle. King had to flee on his horse. The enemies were following
him. He could hear many troops of horses following him and the noise was
coming closer and closer. Suddenly the King found himself standing at the
end of the road - that road was not going anywhere. Underneath there was a
rocky valley 1000 feet deep. The sound of enemy’s horses was approaching
fast. The King became restless.

Then suddenly he saw the Diamond ring shining in the sun, and he remembered
the message hidden in the ring. He opened the diamond and read the message.
The message was very small but very great. The message was – “This too will
pass."

The King read it. Again read it. Again & again he read it. Suddenly
something struck him- Yes! It too will pass. Only a few days ago, I was
enjoying my kingdom. I was the mightiest of all the Kings. Yet today, the
Kingdom and all the pleasure have gone. I am here trying to escape from
enemies. However when those days of luxuries have gone, this day of danger
too will pass. Calm come on his face. The revelation of the message had a
great effect on him. He relaxed and forgot about those following him.

After a few minutes he realized that the noise of the horses and the enemy
coming was receding. They moved into some other part of the mountains and
were not on his path. The King was very brave. He reorganized his army and
fought again. He defeated the enemy and regained his lost empire. For a
moment King said to himself," I am one of the bravest and greatest Kings. It
is not easy to defeat me..:

People were dancing and singing. With all the reception and celebration he
saw an ego emerging in him. Suddenly the Diamond of his ring flashed in the
sunlight and reminded him of the message. He opened it and read it again:
"This too will pass" He became silent. His face went through a total change
-from the egoist he moved to a state of utter humbleness.

“If this too is going to pass, it is not yours. The defeat was not yours,
the victory is not yours. You are just a watcher. Everything passes by. We
are witnessing all this. We are the perceiver. Life comes and goes.
Happiness comes and goes. Sorrow comes and goes.”

PS: There is nothing permanent in this world. Nothing is real. Everything is
an illusion. Every thing changes except the law of change. If there are
problems in the present, they too will pass away. Because nothing remains
forever. Joy and sorrow are the two faces of the same coin. They both will
pass away.

Few years back, I attended a yoga class and that helped me learn lot of things.
One of the lessons from that was “When there is an expectation out of something, there is a probability of disappointment”. I cannot lie that I stopped expecting. But my perception has definitely changed. Always when something expected happens I feel happy. But when it does not happen, I started believing that I have no gain out of it and never know what harm in it was.

I enjoyed reading this story after a long time and thought would share this with all the readers.

Nothing can be won on demand,
Everything has to naturally fall in place.

-smilie

Lyrics

This is a very nice song from a tamil film. I like this song a lot.
I like the second para especially.
Doesn’t it explain darwin’s theory (survival of the fittest)?? And I believe
Every individual has the caliber to survive.
Today I was listening to this song and thought would share the lyrics.

P.S: Click on the image for better clarity

A Poem Dedicated

मई यह कविता अपनी नानाजी के लिए समर्पित करती हूँ।
मई अपनी बचपन में बहुत सारी कविताओं के बारे में अपनी नानाजी से बातचीत किया करती थी।
उन अनमोल स्रुष्टियों में यह अति सुंदर और हमेशा याद दिलानेवाली कविता है।
smilie says:
हे भगवान्, कभी कभी मन चिंता में डूब जाती है यह सोचके की, तुम दयालु हो की नही?
मेरे नानाजी जैसे उन्मत्ता प्रेमियों को भी तुम बहुत सताये हो। क्या येही है तुम्हारी विधि?

Here the poetess prays aloud to the almighty.The poetess describes that she does not know how to perform rituals. she is neither rich enough to give garlands to the god nor can sing sweet songs for him. She doesn't have anything to give in charity.She says oh god! accept my true devotion. All that I have is love for you and true devotion.

This is a wonderful poem written by subadra kumari chouhan. This is an all time favorite for me.This one is my grandpas favourite too. I remember he was seraching for this poem for a long time. When I first read it in school, I discussed with him about this. He wrote the poem legibly on a big paper and stuck it on a cardboard and hung in his room.Also he copied it to his diary and the diary was with him always with lot many things that he wrote in it. I saw the diary in his cupboard even in his death bed.

Miss you Grandpa.

Raffle tickets draw

Cardinals are going to play super bowl. People here are cheering them in all possible ways.
My work place is not an exception either. We got a mail that the dress code is relaxed till feb 1st. We are free enough to show up on jerseys or anything supporting cardinals and can hang posters in our cubes.

There was a barbeque lunch arranged today for celebrating the upcoming super bowl. There was this lottery event where they were selling raffle tickets. Prize money was declared for winners and few non-cash gifts for some. We have been getting emails for last few days….
All of a sudden, half an hour before the draw time, I planned to purchase a raffle ticket.
To my surprise, I won a cardinals pennant . :))

Note: For those of you who don't know about cardinals , here you go:

The Arizona Cardinals, founded in 1898 and a charter member of the National Football League, hold the distinction of being the oldest continuously run professional American football, club in the US.

Read wiki for more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Cardinals

Einstein Says...

“Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations. All this is put in your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to your children.”

Verses From BhagawadGita

कर्मन्येवाधिकरस्थे मा फलेषु कधाचन

मा करमा फल हेठुर्भु माथे संग्स्त्व कर्मणि

In English:

karmanye vadhikarasthe maa phaleshu kadhachana

maa karma phala hethurbhu mathe sangstva karmani

In English translation:

You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action। Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. - Lord Krishna says

Today, I read a status message in gtalk which precisely meant what was told in Gita by Lord Krishna. My mom has cheered me many times saying கடமையை செய் பலனை எதுர்பாக்கதே.

When we work with this attitude, it really helps us to reach horizons.

Airtel Super Singer - a music show

Airtel Super singer is a reality show hosted by Vijay TV (a popular tamil channel of Star network). A singing talent hunt for people of various age groups is conducted and every year a best singer is chosen and awarded “Super Singer” title.

I have been watching super singer 2008 from the beginning. The show is compered by the popular singer ‘Chinmayi’. When I say Chinmayi and if my memory servers right, around 8 years back I have had an opportunity to see Chinmayi singing in ‘Sarang’( A popular cultural event of IIT Madaras). It was when I saw the famous Srinivas even.

Coming back to Super singer….Currently after tough scrutiny in several rounds, top 7 singers have been selected by veterans like srinivas, sujatha, unni Krishnan, Anuradha Sriram.

All the 7 selected so far, have given stunning performances in various rounds. It also makes me very happy that one of the top 7 performers works for my organization.
Few months back, we traveled together almost daily. But haven’t had a chance to say a hello.

Renu, Ranjini, Ravi, Rohith, Prasanna, Vijay & Ajeesh are the contestants.

Out of these 7 contestants, Vijay and Ajeesh have very different voices. Some people like Renu, Ranjini have very beautiful voices by birth and I would say they are gifted.
But I have always felt that Vijay & Ajeesh differ in some ways from the others and deserve good things. In each episode I have observed how dedicated they are.

In the last episode, these two singers received the best singer of the episode title by the legends Chitra & Mano.
Ajeesh sang ‘kalyana then nila’ song with chitra who has received national award several times and the state government awards from all the states in southern zone.

Vijay sang ‘ayirathil naan oruvan’ with Mano from the film Iruvar. It is one of my favorite songs and I enjoyed listening to that song. In its original version, Mano has sung the song with full of energy, voice modulations to simulate the famous singer of 60’s, the one & only TMS.

According to me: dedication, passion for singing and continuous effort to be one among the top few people matters, more than winning the title. That’s what Ajeesh & Vijay had mentioned how they felt when they received the keyboard from Chitra & Mano for the best singer of the episode title. That showed how much passionate they were about singing and all that they focused was to give their best.

I was surprised to hear a rocking performance from Vijay in one of the previous episodes. I even wrote an article but did not post it then.……

My favorite Mahalakshmi Iyer rechristened him as Vijay ‘Adams’ and the striking performance was the fitting finale of the episode.
Man! His voice was just like Bryan Adams…. I felt I was listening to the original version of summer of 69….His attitude was too good. That’s what the judges had mentioned too.
The way he was tapping his toes when he sang “Those were the best days of my life” was too good..
No words to appreciate it…Simply superb!

For those who are interested to see him singing summer of 69, click on the below link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcCEGhrXGLI&feature=related

Enjoy listening!

A few words about Mano :

Mano is one of those singers who had a significant contribution to the film industry. There are few voices which are very famous among everyone and also they are remembered in many occasions. There are many contributions from the singer which are really enjoyable. For a long time he was treated as no more than a successful SPB clone. It was when he sang songs like shenbagame , mukkala, ayirathil naan oruvan which gave him a well deserved break.

-From a wanna be popular singer :))