Musings

It is a common scene in the various social or official circles. Someone is leaving your office, locality, home for better prospects (or otherwise!) and there is this sudden demand for that person. Words of praise flow in which have been absent for so many years of togetherness. Gifts are exchanged or given; contact addresses are exchanged (no matter the next moment it is not to be found) and invariably there is an unknown, unheard of sentiment which chokes many a throat and in some overflowing–with-emotion cases wets many a shoulder. I always wonder where all these are hidden when the person is physically present in our life. Why do we mask our feelings or worse why display something which is not exactly what we feel? If it is the second case it is a total hypocritical display and less said the better but what really intrigues me is the first case. Is it that we expect people to be always available at our beck and call and hence think they have a permanent availability for us? It is li...

I had a colleague who was so used to the comfort of traveling in crowded trains and buses (pun intended) that he found the idea of a car drive unnerving! Such was his comfort level in the crammed modes of transportation that the idea of spending time all by himself in a less crowded car was totally unpalatable. Aah! The cozy comfort zone!!! Set patterns of reactions (or inactions!) gets me thinking of the sense of security we derive by conforming to the same behavioural mould we have got ourselves in to. We as human beings simply love to recreate old stories again and again and refuse to think of creating a new history so very often. For seven long years (yes in IT 7 years is long) I worked in a company because of the known work, good friends comfort of being “one” with the system. All along totally oblivious on how I was lagging in terms of monetary benefits or lagging on technology advancements It was not until I changed jobs (only because the company shut doors!) that I realized...

Firstly I thank my stars and fellow drivers on the road that I am still alive to write my experiences of insane driving in India . I have learnt a lot of things most of them coming from inner voice and some due to the outer noise. Nevertheless it has been interesting and I would love to share them with you all my fellow sufferers (in Hindi HUM SAFAR) of this bumpy yet interesting drive of life. So put on your driving belts and here we go… Tip no 1: Live in the present Looking too hard at the road ahead or often looking at the rear view mirror may often catch you unawares by a small obstacle near by (read pedestrians, bikes, bicycles). This translates to us seeing the distant future with a telescope or reliving the past so much that we do not enjoy the present moment. Use mirrors (soul searching?) only to detect mistakes made in the past to avoid them again. Tip no 2: Be a good follower to be a good leader Very often we are either irritated by the ...

This morning was a great relief when I opened the cupboard to select clothes for the day: reason, I had jettisoned many of the clothes yesterday which left me with very less choice. Having a wide range of choice is supposed to be a sign of prosperity but for the many I know including your's truly it is a sign of complex mental exercise with the end result not always desirable! I recall quiet times spent in a little English village which had hourly fixed timings for trains and buses and life was so peaceful and predictable. There were no hassles of boarding the 9:02 am train or the 9:07 am train. With no alternatives in hand everything fell in place :-) When I see parents today pampering their children with so many choices be it food, clothes, games and they in turn being so firm in their own right I feel funny. Having " Bournvita" for one day would mean inviting hell in the house because "Milo" is not available. Going for shopping or eating out or cooki...

It took a swiss ball in the gymnasium to teach me one of the greatest truths of life..It is all about finding the right balance and then enjoying the game. After struggling initially for couple of times for the right equilibrium, once I got it the rest of the exercises were sheer joy, ofcourse entwined with pain :) Reflecting on this philosophy I realized all the past 12 years or more I have spent in pumping time for career and little or no time to other aspects of life like fitness or even simple things like taking a walk in the sun, totally a lop sided balance. Now for some time that I am the master of my time and not the time sheets at office or the client's mercy, I realize there is so much joy to simple things in life. Being able to give more than 2 hours for fitness seems to be a dream in the corporate world, now that I am able to do it it is a dream come true. Yet, it is a lop sided balance with the financial and career aspect needing attention. By god's grace I belo...

Last couple of weeks have been a wonderful insight on how we as human beings always reach out to something not native to us. I happened to be at a "annual ball" of one of the defence services recently and saw many ladies dressed in the "best of the west" attire and dancing away to the latest hip hop numbers. As always I came back amazed at the way our Indian women have adapted to the west. Dramatically opposite has been the sight at the many music concerts happening at full glory at Chennai in December. Invariably there would be a bunch of non-Indians dressed in the "best of India" listening intently to the raaga alapana or clapping enthusiastically to a good Bharatnatyam piece. The sight of Kalakshetra the college dedicated to fine arts was the icing on the cake though! At a Bharatnatyam recital all the front rows were occupied by non-Indians who are either pursuing some form of Indian art or just plain admirers of it. It was heartening as well as a tad ...

A recent article by Shashi Tharoor on the growing disparity in India has set me thinking on how we can bridge this gap. Mr. Tharoor talks of India being a land of paradoxes and there is a lot of truth in his observation. When I look at new railway tracks of the MRT at Chennai, it feels good to see progress..at the same time when you look down from the train, it is so heartening to see swamps of water and hutments all around the dirty water. Ironical as it may seem, the growth of the overhead rail (for the people who can afford) is really at the cost of the people down below living in such conditions. On the other hand, no matter how accommodating you appear to the people below the poverty line they mostly seem to get the better of you. I listen to my maid's many excuses for not coming to work on a regular basis only to see her happily taking advantage of the time off. Regular "extraas" like grains / clothes given out of compassion soon appear in the " should have...