A special bond :)

As I was getting ready to come over to Italy for close to a year, to join Rajeev on his business trip my biggest concern was the much needed social support especially with our little Avani. In a non-English speaking place, with very few Indians my hopes were at minimum. The day before I boarded the flight Jeev told me about his colleague's family who were already there and had called us over for dinner the day we reach.

We met them at their place for dinner, husband wife and a young daughter . I was completely drained of energy after the long flight, but their hospitality made me feel perfectly at home. It was as if I knew them for ages and we chit-chatted in a very casual way. I could see that Avani too was very happy to have met them. That was a small beginning to a very special bond :)

Samta di went out of her way to be of help. She passed on her number the very next day and also came over to meet in a couple of days. I still remember what she told me that day..."Agar Avani zyada pareshaan kare, aur tumhe khaana pakane na de, toh ghar aa jaana, hum sab milke khaana khayenge" (If Avani's troubles you a lot and you don't get to cook lunch, do not worry, just join us, we can all eat together). This assurance was enough for me to know how genuine a person she is. Avani reminded her of Shreya as a kid in many ways, and she could empathize with me. Not stopping at that she has helped me in a lot of ways. Her cooking is par excellence and I have loved learning from her as well. Thank you Samta di, from the bottom of my heart :)

Shreya their daughter became Avani's favourite right from day one.. She has a magic spell on Avani, and Avani gazes at her with a fan-like admiration. In Shreya I have seen such maturity, humility and respect, very rare for her generation and age group. I have observed her as a guest at their place, as a host, while travelling together - I adore her for her values. Kudos to Sunil bhaiyya and Samta di on the upbringing they have given Shreya, Jeev and I have a lot to learn from the two of you. And little Avani has chosen a right Icon already is all I can say :)

It was about a month that I enjoyed their company, and it was time for them to leave for India. I had tears in my eyes when I bid them Good-Bye! I was going to miss everything about them both; their company, my chit-chat with Samta di ranging from parenting to cooking and with Shreya from bollywood, to fashion to her future plans. Most of all, my social support was gone. I had missed my parents (who were my rock support system back at home with Avani) a little less after coming over thanks to Samta di and Shreya.

We knew the bond was special and yes it continues to be. Thanks to the likes of WhatsApp and Skype we continue our chit chat across miles and international borders. I really wish we could spend more time together.

Thank you ...

Thank You... the most used but not always heartfelt, at times sarcastic too...
We had. Lesson in English in class X. Not sure if it is still part of the Maharashtra state syllabus. The very first chapter where the author thanks everyone from the shopkeeper who sells wares for money to his domestic help. This has remained with me, most of the credit goes to our English Prof. Prasad sir. Thank you sir am sure you would have influenced many lives...

Now that it has stayed...I don't really shy from saying thanks to anyone. Be it the rickshawala who charges the meter fare only or the domestic help as she picks up the newspaper for me on her way out of the house. Same is the case at work, at times my team members tell me it is our work, you don't have to thank. It is more of a habit now I guess.

But yes formalities aside I would have never done this for my family. Have I thanked Amma Achan for what I am today. My sister without whom I would have not realized my potential. My bestest friend and hubby jeev...for putting up with me and my tantrums from the time we have known each other...Kannettan for being that supportive elder brother and ye of course my niece Muthu who has been a mirror to me on more than one occasion....well these are the people who matter the most to me. Do I take them for granted? Will they feel bad if I thank them, coz a thank you is too formal...

Well formal or not I do wish to thank them all...from the bottom of my heart. Someday when they read this I hope it brings a smile on their faces and brightens their day :)

...greener...me!

I have been fortunate to have spent all my school vacation at my grand parents place right in the midst of nature in the villages of Kerala. It was on our last outing in Goa, when we stopped the bike just to look at the spread of green fields.  It was such a delight, a sea of green. I really loved that about Bangalore when I landed in this city in 2005. It was even more delightful coz I came from suburbs of Mumbai where a speck of green is a rare sight.

As a kid I loved to water plants see them grow, eagerly wait for them to flower. Though we did not have the luxury of a garden, those few pots in the balcony were good enough. The credit for my green thoughts definitely goes to my mother. She has had a minuscule vegetable garden right in our balcony, with no hybrid seeds or manure for her aid. My father too loves the garden stint whenever we get back to Kerala.

The kitchen garden hierarchy(few pots in our balcony) continues at our tiny home as I boast of farm fresh pudina in the chutney at the dinner table :). I am proud to have harvested(as if it were acres of farm land vs. my humble plastic pot) pudina week after week, grown 1 tomato and a few curry leaves, along with Aloe Vera, Curry leaves and Tulsi. Well the credit for all the yield goes to my dear hubby, who takes care of my plants in my absence and never forgets to mention his contribution to any visitor at my farm :P

I hope to keep my garden dream alive...and my hands green, and yes if you need an Aloe Vera sapling I am more than happy to give you one :)

Volvo ride....

Time and again my lethargy overpowers me to miss the morning shuttle and get some extra sleep for 60 more minutes. This leaves me with no option but to take the Volvo from HAL rather than waiting for the late morning shuttle which is only at 10:30. If I reach HAL before 9, I am usually lucky to skip a few buses and take the next less crowded bus.

Most of us from IT make full use of this service. We also make a few assumptions one being, my laptop bag is a new part of my body. I am sorry to say most of us move into a crowded bus, right through the fellow passengers without realizing the damage this new body part does to others. Can we please have the courtesy of taking the bag off the shoulder just to avoid dashing others with it?
Next observation is applicable to both IT and non-IT population alike. "I can’t live without my phone". Even as we board and alight from the bus we show no hurry in finishing the call and caring about our own safety. Well this is just limited to one’s own safety. The other day I saw a lady speaking her way to glory on her mobile and standing right near the front door, when the bus was not full with ample standing space. The driver’s view of the mirror was blocked thanks to this mobile speaker, who did not pay heed to anything that the driver said. Finally she was too irritated and asked the driver “aapko koi problem hai?”

One day the Volvo had a breakdown close to Marathahalli. The conductor was really helpful and told us that we could use the same ticket in the next bus, he stopped a bus for us and made sure we were not charged again. The same day the new bus conductor stopped way before SAP, and when I asked him if the bus wouldn’t stop ahead, he asked me if I wanted a drop inside office...both sides of BMTC staff on the same day.

Yet another day I got into the Volvo, without having the exact fare in hand. I usually bully Jeev into giving me 30 bucks change for the Volvo or the closest denomination 50. This conductor was really rude and asked me to get off the bus at the next stop if I don’t have the change. I said ok and started to dig my wallet for all the coins that I had. I managed to mine 26 Rs from my wallet and showed the whole bunch of coins to the conductor saying I am short of 4 Rs. I am not sure if he was assured that I really don’t have change or just had a mood swing, he agreed to accept the 500 Rupee note instead.

Most of my experiences have been good though, and I appreciate the courtesy shown by the staff especially to people who don’t speak the local language. And now that I know tit-bits of Kannada..even an “eshtu” and “next stop AECS aaa” does help…and so did “Same ticket use madakke agutha?” the day the bus had a breakdown. And am sure what we give is what we get back, let us be polite to them. After all they are providng us with a great service... 

random...

I can never judge when to start from home to reach any place in Bangalore city, if I am going by rick, all thanks to the rising number of vehicles in this garden city and the ricksha-walas of the world who never seem to like the place where I wish to go. That day I started from home at 6:30 to reach Infantry Roan in time for my Visa appointment at 8. Guess what, my 4th attempt for the rick worked for me, and I managed to reach the Visa office at 7:00.
Now that I have an hour to go, I sit gazing at the pigeons enjoying the morning sun. I spotted this naughty pigeon...guess a he trying to woo a pigeon..I like to believe this was a she :) Soon enough there was a perfect filmy triange...and I could imagine the 3 dancing to "Mujhse shaadi karogi.."...blame it on my joblessness at that hour of the day, my thoughts had no breaks :) I even felt their walk was so well synchronized that even Saroj Khan would have been inspired by them.
Some words of Dr. Phatak crossed my mind, about nature being the greatest engineer. Have you imagined the power required if a pump were to pull water to the height of a coconut tree...nature does it effortlessly, we call it capillary action.
I see a convention centre from the window, and this takes me to Kiran's wedding. I know our gang would have had a great time there...I missed it guys.
Its time for my appointment and a much needed break to my random thoughts...

...listening to Dr. Phatak - a thought provoking experience!!!

IIT is reason enough for me to get excited, moreover this time it was a professor from IIT Powai talking to us at the keynote of DKOM - Developer KickOff Meeting. IIT Powai reminds me of the Mathematics workshop we attended there, while doing TY BSc, those days my only aim in life was to pursue MSc. Mathematics at IIT...well that can be a blog in itself...as of now the focus is the keynote by Dr. Phatak.

He had around 98 slides each with a few words, and trust me each slide was thought provoking. He started off with the dream each of us have about getting a good degree, decent job, a house , joy and happiness et all.. and continued on to the dream most of us envision for India. He had some very interesting anecdotes that kept us gripped to the session that went on for more than 60 minutes. One of them was about this paper set at IIT for electrical engineering. There seemed to be a problem which Dr Deepak and another professor were not able to solve, and thus went to Professor Mukherjee who had set the paper. Professor Mukherjee told them that this problem was part of a research paper and had not been solved for 10 years. He thought that the batch was intelligent enough to solve them. The very confidence of Professor Mukherjee on his batch was enough for the students to host a "Milk Shake" party, which is one of most desired celebrations for the hostelites.

Simple facts stated by him like, most of us learn our mother tongue and another language (thanks to the cosmo culture of today) in the age group of 2 to 4. At this age all of us were alike. It is the grooming afterwards that has a great impact on the way we proceed in life. He continued to say a teacher is an institution created by mankind as we don't transfer our knowledge through heredity. Today the institution is powerful but not the teacher. While at this prestigious institution the teacher continues to be empowered. The teacher has all the rights to set syllabus as well as the question paper and his/her decision is the final one. Best part is that IITians are proud of this fact...perhaps thats what is the most striking feature of an IITian. The learning is wholesome and not restricted to the typical syllabus. Well there are my thoughts and Dr Phatak did not endorse IIT.

He also pointed out our way of partitioning knowledge the way we have in our educational system.
We in IT often don't show the urge to understand problems relevant to other areas like biotechnology, physics or chemistry. A simple question that he asked was ...does a problem come with a tag...I am a PHYSICS PROBLEM?? ...no a problem is a problem and we need a solution...there are no boundaries in problem solving.

The satisfaction of attempting 10 difficult problems and getting a solution to just 1 or may be none is much higher, along with the learning, as compared to that of solving 10 easy problems.
Simple facts of life all woven to tell us that we need to continue learning. Face the problems and attempt to solve them. Never let the desire to learn stop....

I salute this great teacher...and hope to learn and more importantly implement what he shared with us.

Blog Action Day

Have you heard about this before?

Let me tell you more on this.
Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking a global discussion and driving collective action.

This year the topic is Water. To read more on this visit: http://blogactionday.change.org/

Get your blog registered to contribute to this. Lets do our bit to help this cause!

Motivation is an outcome of frustration…

Motivation is an outcome of frustration…do these words strike a chord with you? Unless you are frustrated about a pressing issue, and really wish to solve this,you would not be motivated enough to come with a promising solution.

Dr. Harish Hande, the founder of Selco, was here to share his experience with us. These were few of his statements, that left most of us in the audience thinking even after the sound of the claps subsided after his session.

Selco India is a social enterprise that provides sustainable energy solutions and services to under-served households and businesses. Their products have helped solve the problems of flower pickers of Ahmadabad, to the silk worm farmers.

Dr. Hande’s passionate approach is truly amazing. He drives inspiration out of real life problems faced by people who fall in the lowest strata of our economic society. Example: A vegetable vendor can borrow 1000 Rs, at the start of the day at an interest rate of 10%, pay 50 Rs as rent for the cart and 15 Rs for the light, have dynamic pricing throughout the day, and yet survive. Yes, here it’s a matter of survival rather than earning
profits. Dr. Hande works not for charity but to enable such daily decision makers in their business.

Their service policy, is to provide service within 24 hours. He recalls one such incident,where the customer called to thank him for the service done within 24 hours. The machine stopped functioning around Wednesday evening, a complaint was registered Thursday morning,and as per their SLA, it was serviced by Friday morning, but the customer being dependent on
the machine for her daily wages, her kids had to stay hungry for a day. If I can quote Dr. Harish, people donate computers to village schools, without checking if they have electricity.

All in all a punch packed speech that left most of us speechless.

...little drops of joy..

remember the coke ad..little drops of joy!

Its actually those little things that make you smile and feel happy. When I came to Bangalore, I was miles away from home, and would mostly miss my parents. I started finding joy in the smallest of things. Seeing a butterfly inside office campus made me happy. I have learnt a big lesson this way...as of now I can think of so many small things that have made a big difference and made me happy.

I have taken an interest in cooking, only coz Jeev is a foodie, and its hard to get a compliment from him. The days when he says the food is good, I am on Cloud 9. As I go to work listening to Prithvi on Radio One, if he happens to play one of my favourite songs...my day is made. While doing a routine tidying of my wardrobe, if I come across some money that I had long forgotten...I feel I have won a lottery. My joy knew no bounds, when I casually remarked I feel like having ice-cream while we were at Jeev's house, and Jeev's dad went ahead to order ice-cream for me :). I am crazy about mangoes and about mom's cofee too, and dad would bring this for me when he would come to meet me at Pune..all the way from Ambernath...this brings tears of joy to my eyes...how thoughtful of them to do all this for me.

This list is really big...

The first showers, the sound of koel, the huge trees on airport road, seeing an aircraft take off at the hal airport on my way to work, passing by Maratahalli bridge without having to wait for a signal,seeing the weighing machine show a sign of improvement...woow it makes me happy to recollect all these happy moments as well...


Another funda I like to share, when you are in the most horrible mood, recall one of your most happy moments. Nothing can pep your soul any better.

I hope someone is reading and this makes her mood better.

...so annoying!!

Honkeria: a disease very common in Bangalore, they are spotted at most of the traffic signals especially when the signal is RED.
Biggest of all on my list of annoying things as of now are the honking drivers at traffic signals. I guess they just love to add to the chaos at the signals. When I see a red signal, what is the reason behind continuous honking? I sometimes feel the one who honks tries to provoke the one ahead of him to jump the signal…might be a close relative of the mamu at that signal…who gets to fine this signal jumper 

“I will call my Lift” syndrome: I come to work as many of by other colleagues do by 8, by taking the company shuttle. Now this also means that most of the days I wait for the lift with some colleagues. One thing that I have always noticed, if I am the first to reach the lift lobby and have pressed for the lift to come down, the person who comes next seems to have a prestige issue in taking the same lift as me, and rushes to press the other lift. It is as if to tell me, “Sorry, I won’t travel in the cab booked by you?” I have not been able to reason this behaviour till date. I am partially relieved to know that this happens with others as well  . It is further more annoying, to see the lift doors open at floors 4,3,2,1 with no one at those floors as I rush down from 5th floor in the evening, to take my evening shuttle. This too is the result of the same behaviour.

I leave it open to all of you to add urs...

holiday@home

Imagine a week of doing nothing, just eat and sleep...and relax... catch up on reading, watch a bit of tv..and to top it all you are with your parents..ya spending so much time with them is a luxury, if you are married and stay out of our home town for work...the only sad part of this holiday was that Jeev was not with me :(

I had the whole day to sleep, yet my body clock woke me up by max 7:30...this is early going by my standards here in bangalore :) I did not have to hurry for the shuttle...but relax with amma-made kaapi (coffee). Breakfast to dinner was all truly naadan (desi in malayalam). I enjoyed eating puttu, avial, ada, moru curry,murungya kaya sambar,(drumstick sambar) chakka(jackfruit), manga(mango)...Does this make you wonder if I was deprived of all of this for all the while...no not really, but if the food is cooked over an addupu (Chulha), and the fruits,vegetables come from the backyard...they have to taste divine.. I missed my sister the most while eating jackfruit, and gossiping with moma ;)

If I managed to get some time off eating, I could wander in the backyard, pluck mangoes, do a bit of gardening..play with the cats (Shankaran and Sundari)...evenings were even better, seeing the rain as you sip hot tea. I even managed to get wet a little...and Amma fussed over me like a baby. I was her papa again, and achan too pampered his paputty to the core.


The only reason why I wanted to come back was you Jeev! How I wish we could have spent this time together...

Who are you wearing tonight?

I read an article with the same title, in yesterdays TOI. I assumed, this was about wearing an Armani or a Versace for a party ...but no..this was an article dedicated to arm candy. Ya, that's what they call a beautiful woman, who accompanies a distinguished celebrity for a function or social gathering.

The feminist in me finds it difficult to find this in a leading daily, close to the heels of celebrating Women's Day. Now this makes me think more about the power of arm candy.

Well no doubt that KKR is doing better than the previous 2 seasons this year at IPL.
Does all the credit go their new brand ambassador? Bangalore's own playboy defies his age with the same formula as well. As also mentioned in the report, who would not want heads to turn when you walk into a party, the reason being your persona or the beauty next to you hardly matters.

Is the whole talk about female empowerment only limited to reservations and quotas? Is the women herself not responsible for this to an extent. Or do they feel proud to be flaunted by others? I had only heard of the Saas bahu stuff being refered to as Woman's biggest enemy is another woman. In this case I would say she is her own enemy.

I do not mean to insult any profession or celebrity here, I simply fail to understand what respecting a woman is all about, rather does it even exist?

A step closer...few steps together

It was all over a phone call that our journey together took off. Its been a while, and my sincere thanks to Reliance Communication and their night talk time, that kept us going, almost zeroing the miles between us.

We only wished to be together and finally the day dawned, and we tied the knot on 17th August 2009. Here were two friends now husband and wife. Its different to be in love, and to live together. Its much more fun and adventure. Even though I have known him for so long, its a different jeev today.

So far it was only my dad, who was protective about me. While my dad was here, I was overjoyed to be protected by both of them :) It truly takes you to cloud 9.

We slowly started setting up our nest. He became an excellent salesman to sell me the idea of a Samsung LCD over a Sony Bravia. Then came the basic furniture, curtains and so on. I like glass.. his choice is wood, I like metal.. he still loves wood...I love bright curtains, he the sober ones..the list is long. As they say opposites attract.

The journey has just began, and as we cross every station together...a step closer...few steps together

the 'elitest' of them all...

I have come across a lot of people at work...but the bunch of our elite group at office...are much more than colleagues. We share a lot, not just our 8-7 routine at office. I am glad to be friends with such elite people.

Though we call ourselves elite...we are a bit towards the uncivilized side. All of 'elites' group do mean a bit extra to me, plus I have a special corner for some of them.

I have a special friend, who cares more about the rest of the world than herself. She will laugh the most when she is in utmost pain. I cannot call it a previlege, but having spent a lot of time with her, I have also seen the weaker side of her emotion. And for an emotional disaster that I am, I feel a total failure that I have hardly been able to comfort her. I am glad to see her happy now. I miss the times when we could do a lot of b**g about office together :) Now you know who I am talking about.

Then I have two more special people to talk about, One a cool guy and another a loving sister. The Cool guy is also a perfect gentleman that I have ever met. While sporting one of the AC/DC Teez..and a goatie..he never forgets to pray before eating food , offers a helping hand to an elderly gentleman who is waiting to cross the road, entertains us on all our trips with his melodies...a perfect combination of values and 'dudetude'..my own term to personify his coolness. The loving sister..ya she invites you home, so that you dont feel lonely on a festive day. She keeps giving you all that advice and tips...and is a perfect example of a person with a work-life balance. Best are the times when she keeps aside 'being the elder sister', and is upto mischief more than her own son's.

Then come the Tom and Jerry. Jerry is our 'Miss Attitute'...her designer jhola, and 'You shall go ..I shall come' never cease to entertain us. Leaving aside all the vanities, she is a jem of a person, strongest amonst all of us, a fighter to the core. I have learnt a lot from her. Tom...is a sweet friend, with a passport..er I mean airport. That was a slip of tongue over lunch, and we still tease him with the same...He is a sport to all our mischief, and even did 'the dare' in the same spirit. He doesn't show off his knowledge at work, and has given a patient ear to all my stupid queries.

Well how can I forget our very own Pandit, to whom I still owe a silver cow. and thats what you have to pay for all your sins. His wit and humour, keep us roaring at the lunch table. No wonder colleagues from other teams feel we are the happiest team, very few know the actual secrets of us being happy at work!

If all of the people work were to be like this... I would not want to come back home at all.

Celebs day or Mommies day?

Last Sunday was time for yet another marketing fad to strike all of us. It was Mothers day. They day to express your love and affection to your mom. Gift her diamonds, designer sarees, gold, platinum and the list was endless. Right from the online store to order photo prints to the local boutique, everyone had an offer. I felt a little guilty for a second, do I not love my mom enough? I did not buy any of these to gift her. My moms biggest asset being her simplicity, she was so happy when I called her to wish a "Happy Mothers Day!". It also coincided with her birthday.

I was at my friends place that morning. We were both glancing at the Sunday Times, to get a feel of the so called Sunday. The entire edition had loads of pictures of mommies and their kids. Guess what! they were all known faces. Public figures, be it a model, an actress, a netas mom or an abhinetas mom. They were all smiling and all their kids had great messages to tell them. My friends was furious at this. She said, are only these, whom we always find in the media spotlight, the only moms worthy of all this attention and hype. What about our moms. Dont they deserve a salute for all that they have done.

Well our moms might not contribute enuogh reading material to the leading dailes. But we do care for them and mean much more to us than all of the celeb mommies put together. If not for them would we ever exist on the surface of the earth.

My mom has been my best buddy,my teacher and all that I ever wanted. I can crack a joke with her and discuss the most serious issue as well. I still remember, while I was preparing for my T.Y BSc exams, the world cup fever was on. She would feel bad that I had to miss all those matches live on T.V, as I would be drowned in my books. She would stay awake till late, only to give me company, and would give me all the match updates every 15 mins :).

Whenever in need, all I have to do is call her and speak my heart out. Coz I know she is closer to God than I am, and her prayers are always answered. We gossip almost everyday on phone, and dad has to often interrupt, to remind us that Graham Bell's invention is for much better use than gossip.

You the best Amma! Every day is your day!

in the name of A Name

One of my friends was blessed with a baby girl last month. For a while all were busy checking if the baby and the mother were doing good, who did the baby resemble most...was the baby crying at night et all. After all the usual pleasantries came the herculean task of finding a nice name for the baby.

The new borns dad had a name in mind, but was that of a pop singer. Up comes the first question, 'Hey do you want your baby to become a pop singer like her?'.Well whats the harm? Also were not all pop singers kids some day?. Then came in a few suggestions. Some were common, some so called old age names. They seem to remind you of old people. Well my pet name is 'Paapa -- meaning a baby' does that mean when I grow old you will change my pet name???

Numerology and stars were the next to come in. I did my part of googling for the right syllable to begin the name with based on the date of birth, Star, Rasi et all.
There was again a list of names some with S, See,Su, Sh, Go...and so on. Its interesting that we have names with most of the valid syllables. Imagine the amount of technology that has already been consumed for the first official document for a new born, her birth certificate. Software to compute her lucky number, her horroscope, the website with list of names that are suitable for her, emailing the list to her dad, and me writing a blog for this.

All in the name of A Name!

Disclaimer: I might end up doing the same things for my kid some day ;) after all anyone would want his/her kid to have a unique name and the best one too!

"Desire is the root cause of misery"

family fundas
poky relatives
false promises
friends and foes
your boss
nosy colleagues
noisy kids
complaining owner
sad roads
bad traffic
rising mercury
worsening economy

do they irk you? do they bother you?

here is a simple solution
STOP EXPECTING!! STOP DESIRING!!!**
as Lord Buddha wisely said,
"Desire is the root cause of misery"

**: this does not imply that you stop expecting your bonus/gifts/surprises ;). I was in a rotten mood as I wrote this and only wished to convey expect the downs to come in and take them as a challenge! Accept your mistakes and Be the change yourself.

Recession?

This was a mail forward, that I received yesterday! Thought of putting it up here.
This Story is about a man who once upon a time was selling Hotdogs by the roadside.
He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers.
He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio.
His eyes were weak, so he never watched television.
But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hotdogs.
He was smart enough to offer some attractive schemes to increase his sales.
His sales and profit went up.
He ordered more a more raw material and buns and use to sale more.
He recruited few more supporting staff to serve more customers.
He started offering home deliveries. Eventually he got himself a bigger and better stove.
As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from College, joined his father.

Then something strange happened.
The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?"
The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible.
The domestic situation is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad times."
The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, listened to the radio and watched TV.
He ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly.
So the next day onwards, the father cut down the his raw material order and buns, took down the colorful signboard,
removed all the special schemes he was offering to the customers and was no longer as enthusiastic.
He reduced his staff strength by giving layoffs.
Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hotdog stand.
And his sales started coming down rapidly, same is the profit.
The father said to his son, "Son, you were right".
"We are in the middle of a recession and crisis. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."

Moral of The Story: It's all in your MIND! And we actually FUEL this recession much more than we think we do!!!!!!!!!!!!


What can we take away from this story??

1. How many times we confuse intelligence with good judgment?

2. Choose your advisors carefully but use your own judgment

3. A person or an organization will survive forever, if they have the 5 Cs

* Character
* Commitment
* Conviction
* Courtesy
* Courage


The tragedy today is that there are many walking encyclopedias that are living failures.
The More practical and appropriate views on this economic recession is:
"This is the time to reunite together for any small or a big organization,
this is the time to motivate and retain people which are the biggest asset,
this is the time to show more commitments to the customers,
this is the time show values of our company to the world,
and this is the time to stand by our Nation".

Life is beautiful

Life is beautiful
a perfect hedge maze, honest and simple

is it I who makes it difficult
stressful, suffocating and hostile

family, friends and relatives
some more than friends...
the only love of mine

do they make me happy?
is happiness only a pretense?

what is it that I crave for?
why do I feel helpless?
am I the only one to be lonely?
am I the only sad one?

I wish to cry out aloud
and pour my heart out
is anyone listening?

I feel stuck in a whirlpool
Life is but so beautiful!

Punching!

I saw this punchline on a Sumo on my way to office...really dunno if they are an organization, a party ...the vehicle had loads of other stuff written all over it, but in Kannada.

Each One Teach One
Each One Watch One
Each One Catch One...Terrorist!