On Contours and Culture

The other day, I was seated in the aisle of a city bus adjoining a rustic middle-aged man in the window. In front of us were two college guys. The guy in the window started spitting out intermittently. Though annoyed by this indecency, I didnt react.My neighbor called the guy and told " Why are you spitting like this ? I am coming from the farms but I know how to react in a public place". The guy couldn't speak anything and avoided reply only to avoid an altercation. He stared at my neighbor even when getting down.

This induced a train of thoughts in me. Just like the chemical detergents which cleanse our vessels but corrodes them gradually, I feel the modern education in its quest to eradicate superstition and ignorance from the society has also instilled arrogance and selfishness in its members.

The Most Eligible Bachelor forever……..

If you are approaching or on or slightly after the threshold age of bachelorhood still not showing the green-signal for the bridal hunt, it will rain Ideas and Opinions about the rosy things in a married life thanks to the contributors in a variety of forms ranging from the vegetable-seller on the street to your own crony.

I have managed to consolidate a ready-made arsenal of answers that are thrown randomly according to situations and characters for the single question - “When are you going to marry?” .Sometimes just a smile to evade an argument or to get rid of a respected figure, “Definitely not today” to induce a chuckle, “The Process has begun” to give the other a transient relief, “Very soon” which makes the other fantasizing the would-not-be party.

The mere smell of your desire to be single might immediately pop out one of the following Top 10 questions.

1. “Who will look after you when you become old?”

2. “Do you have any physical problem?”

3. “Do you have/had an affair?”

4. “Why don’t you allow your parents to fulfill their ultimate responsibility?”

5. “Will your parents not wish to play with your kids?”

6. “Are you going to become a Sanyasi?”

7. “You don’t want your family lineage to keep going?” (If you are the only progeny)

8. “Is it not going against nature by staying single?”

9. “What will happen if the desire to marry descends on you when you become 40+?”

10. “What will you do if you repent on your decision later on?”

I was puzzled by the outlook which even the most successful wedded ones own when it comes to marriage which had become synonymous with security, lineage, and production of off-springs. Is marriage a premium for the nursing assistance cover in your sun-set days? If that is a given, who can explain the raison d’etre of the scores of Old-age homes? Should spiritual ambitions, broken relationships or ailments be the sole reason behind one’s solitude? The Pedigree theory fails as my family is not a mauryan dynasty which might loose its glory with the dearth of a direct political heir and my kids would only be a humble contribution to the already saturated Indian population. They are toys which grannies and grandpas adore playing in their second childhood but these toys have an entertaining life-span of just a year or two till they get attracted to playmates of their age. One can reverse the decision to remain single even at the age of 50+ (?) but can it be done with equal convenience if one is married?

I can share a secret now. I would really become like Rahul Dravid’s XI with the doosra which nobody had bowled till now to my luck - “Don’t you think you need someone to share your life plus all its contents?” I will not be able to quote Books or Profession or Hobby as a replacement to a human companion.

Is Companionship a long-forgotten meaning or yet-to-evolve philosophy behind marriage?

Creative Imaginations

When i took this shot , i want to give it a title "A lost way".
But my friend Ajai http://pilgrimhawk.blogspot.com asked me "What if some one had got wings ?" . !!!!!!!!!

U cannot forget what u study

In the above couplet, thiruvalluvar gives another interesting fact about education. The Learning of a person in one birth comes with him upto seven births (will v b humans in all our births ? ). When looking at child prodigies, people with extrordinary powers, people with abnormal expertise in some field, i think this couplet cud b right .

Does it mean work does not stop with this birth and u continue from the place that u ve left in the next birth ? and Expertise is the result of continous toil in different births ?

Amazing to think !!!!!!

A Teacher Vs. A Doctor

One day when i went to my doctor, he asked me wht am i doing . I said, I am teaching. He said that itz good i am teaching and itz the noblest profession in this world. I told him that i dont agree with him coz i believe medicine is the noblest profession in this universe. A person can stay alive illiterate and ignorant but not without medical care.He agreed with my opinion but said "The person who taught me medicine is also a teacher"

Funny Definitions

As a teacher, I have read many funny definitions and answers in the answer sheets of students in exams. But this list of definitions which came through an SMS is really interesting and thought-provoking

Nurse : A person who wakes u up to give u sleeping pills

Life Insurance : A contract that keeps u poor all ur life so that u can die rich

Marriage : A contract in which a boy loses his bachelor's degree n girl gets her master's degree

Executive : A Person who go goes from his air-conditioned office in an air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned gym to sweat out

College : A place where the lessons are copied from the notes of the teacher to the notes of the student neither entering the teacher's head nor the student' s head

A Funny Message

This funny message , sent by one of my friends (SMS) made me laugh for a long time

If some says "U r kind-hearted" , b modest.
If some says "U r intelligent", b calm.
If some says "U r good", dont get excited.
But if someone says "U r beautiful", dont b patient. Give them nicely.
There is a limit for joking.

Knowledge does not come but springs

Like thousands of people in this universe, I always find Thirukkural(The 1330 couplets by Thiruvalluvar written in Sanga Tamil) relevant even in the present scenario, the so-called SCIENTIFIC, MODERN world.

I find the above couplet highly interesting and different from popular view on education

In this couplet, thiruvalluvar says , Knowledge is something which springs from inside (like a well in which water springs in the quantity proportionate to our toil) and not something which comes from outside (from sources of information) as the popular opinion goes.

I feel Knowledge is always hidden inside u. The information is a tool to bring it out.

A crazy observation

One of my friends told me that he has observed something which is very much peculiar with software professionals. He says the following are the conditions to identify easily an IT guy while traveling or in a public place

1. T-shirt and Jeans (Only branded)
2. Listening to music in a walkman or talking continuously in his mobile (Not minding people around him or people who come to talk to him)
3. Carrying magazines like PCQuest, Digit or Dataquest

The Last and the most important thing without which his attire will not be complete is

4. Mineral Water (or Packaged Drinking water as it is called now) - only branded ones like Aquafina or kinley or Bisleri

I too started observing and the last one tallies very much

Software guys please excuse

Stress IT

Yesterday when i was having a leisure Sunday chat(in the net) with one of my friends , we had a discussion on the reasons behind the stressful life of an IT professional.

I asked him a question which I m pondering over in the recent years.

Life is stressful in the IT world because of which of the following reasons :

1) Poor (Time or Project) Management
2) Unbearable Work Load on each employee (or "associate" as they are associated with in some companies)
3) Extreme Rat Race (Between companies or between associates)

He told me itz bcoz of all of these in the order 2,3 and 1.

Unbearable work load - coz of the famous age-old management philosophy "the person who works more will get more work and 9to5 workers can celebrate life and work"

Extreme rat race even betn associates

Unpredictable twists and turns in the project which cannot be managed beyond some extent - IT manages u instead.

Strange!!!!

Prayer to GOD

Any Beginining in Indian Tradition begins with a Prayer.

What is Prayer ?

Is it for seeking the blessings of God ?
Is it for demanding anything / Thanksgiving for something ?
Is it a business or Is it a way of meditation ?

Whatever it may be , my concept of God is totally different.
I would not say itz my concept.

How can I say something about something Which I ve never seen or heard or smelt or touched or felt or experienced ?

I would say among all the concepts which i ve read and heard, this one seems to agreeable for me.

Of all the names (thousands and thousands) given to the god, I find this one interesting . Its a word in Tamil "Kadavul" literally meaning "Be Inside" (Kada (Be) + Ul (Inside)).

I am inside ME

I am Here

Mike Testing....1....2....3..... R u hearing ?
Give me some more time to come out