The prodigious thingummyjig!

A cool dude once drew a line of comparison between Batman and Iron Man where the former is weighed down by the secret he is living as a superhero where people knew him only as Bruce Wayne, whereas the latter was extravagant in his exhibition to the world that he indeed was Tony Stark who is the Iron Man. Though I personally hands-down venerate both of these ever- imperturbable super-heroes, the wise dude who quoted the comparison, has incepted a seed of thought in my idle brain for me to deliberate.

Drawing the analogy from the above comparison, I am now convinced that when you have a phone that you and the world thinks is the best creation ever made by Mankind, would you not want to brag and be known? Yes, like Tony Stark. Okay so now pops up the question “What kind of phone will make me do that?” That, buddy is indeed a composite issue. Let me unravel it for you.

A “smart phone” is similar to a super-hero. It sees what you and I cannot see, it does things you and I cannot do. Yes, just like the ASUS Zenphone. Admit it, it is “smart”, else we wouldn’t label it so. So what’s special about my phone? It has the eye of an eagle in its 1000 Mega Pixel camera. It is as fast as Zeus’ thunderbolt, that you would feel the earth scurrying here and there at the mere stroke of the water-proof impenetrable shield it dons, with your finger. It has the voodoo-ism of reading your thoughts (no, no! only thoughts YOU WANT IT to read) and prepares itself for an everyday with you. It is your virtual personal assistant (I said VIRTUAL!) with schedules, meetings, handy typewriter and this is the best part- it organizes your power nap in the ten minutes of breathing time you get. It organizes gifts for occasions because it has drilled all your important “dates” and occasions, right through it’s’ memory spot. It is your personal yoga teacher, a Jackie Chan replica when it comes to your self-defense training sessions. It has a “Night vision scout” to enable you to try to be the superhero that it already is. The “nonchalant mode” enables you to do a manual override of establishing your supremacy of being a homo sapien, over the thingamabob that was created.  You know, I could go on, but having said so far, it would be so cheeky on my part to let my pride linger and continue gloating. So I’m going to give myself a justified break and let you explore my gizmo by yourself.

All Hail the prodigious contraption!

I’m all enthused in writing this piece of work for the contest announced by ASUS India and powered by IndiBlogger. 

The Catalyst to Do Right

For years together, I have been wanting to change someone's life in a really beneficial way, to impact them positively so that absorbing their happiness, it somehow makes you feel that you are not a bad person after all. Those are the times when those little droplets from your eyes waiting to break free when you realise you are genuinely and unfeignedly happy about something. However we just are always unable to be that little difference in a person's life, simply because we are absorbed in our little bubble with our own petty squabbles. Well, I'm no exception. Today though, however trivial my contribution is, I want to be able to be the effect of a cause worth sharing with you. Until today, I honestly had not heard of a town called Megma, situated amidst the breathtaking landscape of the Indo-Nepal border, however when I got to learn about it, I felt the need to change my perspective and probably yours too.

We are all victims of social media and this being the hour of the Elections in our country where we see around us photographs of inkmarked index- fingers having to prove the right exercised through the click of a button. Don't you however think that somewhere we are getting slack on our duty when we jolly well exercise our right? We idolize the west, right from their sense of clothing, their food, to their sitcoms, to their achievements. We stare in awe at their proficiency and literacy but have we ever "righted" something that we have always done wrong- to always set ourselves a few milestones back? The bridge to closing the gaps on the milestones, my friends as we know is good ol' Education. It is a roughed up and beaten word over centuries where now it is regarded nothing but a figment of CAT scores, expertise in Quantum physics or prowess in IFRS. Education in its true sense is a guiding light to let us see, understand, analyse and interpret this world with tools we sharpen our brains and bodies with. Most importantly, it is that catalyst, that aid, that positive vibe in another's life. We discuss politics, we discuss economies, but do we ever discuss the children in Megma who climb hills and cross boulders by foot en route their 2 Km journey to school? We see these videos of children everyday, so much that we turn a blind-eye against them. We are always superficial, but once we get to the bottom of it, the reality will hit us hard when we least expect it. These children though barren of infrastructure, of blackboards that were "black once upon a time", (as quoted by their beloved principal), of creaky tables and shaky benches, still wear the broadest of smiles in their quest to learn something new at school everyday whereas we are spoilt, pampered and sick to the thought of going to school in fancy SUVs having packed mouthwatering lunches in hot boxes. These children like those in Megma are not underprivileged. We simply chose not to give them that privilege. We constantly gloat the contributions we make to the different charities, not to forget the S.80 G exemption of the Income Tax Act that we get along with it. Don't you think it's time to ask ourselves what we derive from these "reimbursements"?

We, my literate friends are all bigots in one way or the other. We buy fancy houses, hoard the Jaguars and the Mercedes to be counted "in class" and we constantly do a cost-benefit analysis for every small thing we chance upon. We always think it is somebody else's problem, somebody else's worry, somebody else's trouble and we go on our path not giving a second thought about it. These children from Megma need the infrastructure and support from us. We are looked upon to illuminate their lives, to help them in whatever little way we can. It is important that we live up to it.

We have come across this proverb "Give a man a fish, and you'll
feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you've fed him for a lifetime." Teachers are the backbone of any country. They are selfless and undeterring from their paths of providing for our younger generation. Mr. Chandrakumar Pradhan and Ms. Neela are prime examples of the quality of love, support and their undying passion to teach these young minds. It is not common that one comes across a person saying he wants to teach children free of cost for the rest of his life. It is considered bizarre in today's world that one is so selfless. In reality, all of us cannot be selfless, but what we can do is abet him in fulfilling his dream. A half story impacts you, a complete, fulfilled happy story changes you.


All we can do is, be the catalyst and help them, to let us be the change.


This is my small role towards my attempt to do right, initiated by Tata Capital through its Half Stories- The Journey of Doing Right, knit together by IndiBlogger.

So u think you are a big screw up? Join the club!

Did u just de-activate your facebook account because u are totally sick of seeing other people’s perfect faces who have their own friends and celebrate their perfect life when you feel yours is totally rotting?

Those are the times when you feel like a total screw up because 1. There is no one beside you  when you need them around, and number 2. Your own friends treat you like a child on whom it’s their moral responsibility to advice and kill you with it when all you wanna do is find a shoulder and cry. Just cry. What we need is to be told a lie that ‘Shush. Everything will be fine’. Sometimes all of us need that little lie when we are down but we just don’t get to hear it. Just listen and let them rant. All of us are different, no doubt and often we end up asking ourselves, "Why should I always be the weak meek one? Why can’t I hide stuff like you people do and pretend nothing affects you guys and everything is so perfect in your lives." The problem lies here- "Everybody else always has somebody else, whereas I got only you." That’s why you don’t know the pain of loneliness or the pang of emptiness. 

The brain is a wonderful creation. It knows when and for what to warn you. When somebody hurt you in the past and the incident shows signs of repetition with another person, it recoils and warns you. It’s the logical adult while your heart rushes forward like the immature teenager despite various attempts by the adult to warn and uproot memories from the hurt and the buried past. In those cases, listening to your wise brain (which most of us don't) will be the most sensible way out. Sometimes all you wanna do is cry and just cry and let the tears fall freely when I read beautiful quotes that mirror my feelings, emotions, turmoil and the fact that it so perfectly coincides with my life. I go through my phone to find some solace in the beautiful cherished moments we have all shared with everyone. After I do, I realise how things have changed and I wish I hadn’t spent the time re-reading the conversations, unable to cope with the change. Exactly! That’s the problem. Change! All of us need to get used to change. But the question is how? We never know that things are going to turn wary when they are actually going on perfectly. Things may not entirely always be your fault, but leaving you disraught and messed up.

So some pointers to take forward?

1)      Never get too attached to anyone. For eg. Your best friend. He/ She may be the sweetest thing ever. Taking you out when u have had a hard day. Talking to you for hours together over phone. Getting screwed for that from their parents. Giving you their all. Remember though, they have a life too and they can't fulfill what you need when you need them the most. So never expect too much. It probably only will lead to disappointment. Detachment is the key! Initially pathetic to even take a step forward, but if you have mastered it, then the world is yours.

    2)    Learn to love yourself. I know that in most cases, that is the hardest part. We have become people, so used to admiring and living the lives of others that we fail to accept and realise the beauty and the essence in our own. We have been lost and left amidst a void you don’t know where to begin. So, belief is of the essence. It is supremely important to believe, love, trust and care for yourself.

   3)     Let go. I had mentioned not to get attached to anyone, but letting go is a harder and a more pain-staking process which calls for enormous will power, a strong focussed and obedient mind. Most of us let the minds do the thinking for us, which lead to total disasters because we never think. We simply react! When we fall, it is us to get up. You could be supported, but it is YOU, your will, your body and your organs that will respond to the fall or the pull back up on to your legs. That indeed is the toughest part, but having succeeded in doing that, you are invincible.

   4)     Do some serious damage control. Never leave any relationship sour, it would just turn bitterer than you ever thought of. The pain and the cringe you experience when you think of something or someone is a strong indicator that you still haven’t done anything to treat the situation right. Either you are wallowing in self-pity or obsessed with your ego or you simply haven’t moved a rat’s ass bit of yourself to mend the broken bridge and the rift only widens with the force of the current. Shedding a bit of ego will never hurt you, you could in fact win an entire relationship back! Fought with your best friend and whether the fault was either on your side or not, go and get him/ her back. When you take up initiative and own up to your doings or simply being forgiving and burying the hatchet will take you miles in the relationship. It is always a mystery to me and I ponder over how people cannot even talk to each other after several decades, by which the entire point of the argument would have been lost. So, buck up your courage and patch up. Getting back is the mantra!!

These things may look so absurd and so taut. Nevertheless, give it a second thought and you will see the sense in it. Several things are so simple and it is we who complicate it. If you think you are a screw up, it is because you have set a benchmark for yourself and aren't reconciling to the fact that you are you and you cannot compare and contrast yourself to the rest of the world. The irony is, we all think we are screw ups when we compare ourselves with everybody else. Why? The reason being, nobody is perfect! Remember that you are awesome, choosing to ignore what people say. Accept criticism and act on healthy criticism, at the same time let inaction not bog you down. Everything seems strange at first, familiarity with something offers that security and comfort. Grab that familiar aura and grab yourself back. Love yourself, I know I do :) 

-The Phoenix

Flab back in vogue!! :) :)

You know that feeling? That ravenous tantalizing aroma of sizzling brownies, with a generous helping of hot and silky glazed chocolate sauce. That inexplicable sensation when the crust of the samosa strokes the insides of the cavern of your mouth leaving a trail on your lips. That enigma of the last ooze of the jalebi trolling down your chin which u whip up and lick with your tongue and, you know you have tasted heaven. The aroma of the Dum Biriyani, a personal favourite, cooked to perfection for hours together, that I could wait for hours to get a mouthful. The textures of the masala packed with vegetables and the softness of the rice, and with one mouthful down, you are drowned in an aura of sheer happiness. Yes! Happiness! What the hugs cannot do, what words cannot soothe you, the parotta and the dainty coconut kurma accomplish and you, have no idea what more they can. The joy that you get when you have your favourite Pasta cooked to perfection with the choicest of cheeses, olives and sundried tomatoes so much that you just want to lick the sauce off your plate, pardoning the glares your way and the bemused waiter at your table waiting for you to mop the sauce off your hands and order dessert, until you give him that sheepish smile and order desssseeerrrrttt!!

The ecstasy that you derive from a hearty meal is uncomparable, somehow delight, exhilaration, glee, bliss, contentment, joy, and all of its synonyms in one compound package. While the world is obsessed with slim stick figures and spidery long legs, they are simply people who can’t relish food in all its abundance for crying out loud’s sake! Do people really think eating just fruits and vegetables cooked rare or al dante get them to their healthy lifestyle? Healthy lifestyle is eat what you want, be happy and pass on that happiness! Curves have been around for as long as zero-flab has been, but somehow the world took to the latter. I have however seen and observed more exquisiteness and loveliness in curves and being a little round never really hurts. If it makes you happy to eat, just eat. You have no idea how much you are complicating yourself by curbing what your body wants. As its owner, it’s your duty to deliver it. Non-gheed aalo parathas, un-creamed coffee, raw carrots and other veggies, I know they are supposedly healthy to your body, but is your mind satiated with it? I was on a diet, eating “right” eight months into 2012, I had passed the test of the last six months without rice and lost nearly 23 kilograms of myself and turned unrecognizable, that I constantly glimpsed at the ‘before-after’ pictures. By the time I was through with it, and found a new me, I was desperately craving for all the potato curry, the appalam and  the full meals I had missed. However, to my own disappointment, I had grown conscious of what I ate and every time I ate, I would feel guilty, which was never a problem earlier because all that mattered then was to eat to my heart’s full! I, however wanted to indulge and savour my knocked-out tastebuds and I sprung back into action and resumed my trademark foodaholicism. And then, obviously as a result of which I have gained a bit of (more) flesh. Like DUH! I still try to “cleanse” my system at times and try to lose a couple more pounds, but I realized when I am actually happy and that is when I have that full brownie all to myself, those creamy pastries, the sensual sponge choco truffle, that Dum Biriyani I can’t stop eating and that deep fried Kachori I realize I can’t live without.

I had been criticized for always being on the sad side of weight for long, but people turned around when they saw what I had pulled off (quite literally) and bewilderingly, showered me with compliments. I have been to Pizza Hut for a friend’s birthday dinner and sat around sipping a single glass of lemonade through the two hours where I could inhale the wafting whiff of Garlic bread and CHEESE! I had tested every ounce of self -control I had, but watching all my friends hogging on the prime dishes at the most renowned restaurants, right in front of my eyes, though made me resolute, made me gloomy. And then, I understood what meant my life, but what was consuming me. Bingeing is never something you forget! I love food! I realized that, I re-discovered myself to balance how to satisfy my body’s crave for health and my mind’s gratification for the world’s finest food by simply choosing to be conscious (sadly, obviously). Happy fooding, folks!! J J

"Where is my school?"

                                                       
                                                       

"Where is my school???"

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”- Nelson Mandela.

India being a democratic provides for right of every single child to be educated and utilize the education constructively. However, given the economic backdrop of India, the existence of most schools in towns is a sphinx. There are various government -run schools dilapidated and battered, despite which the young hearts wish to pursue their education.

My friend Vignesh Gopalakrishnan (GV) and I happened to enter into a discussion regarding the system of education here in India where kids fight over whether Vidya Mandir beat PSBB in the inter-school Basketball tournament or which school gets to host the Reverberations when nearly 60% of the students in the country side go to school just to utilize the mid-day free meal scheme.

Background

At this point, GV interjected and gave me an insight into something I had been talking only theoretically all this while. He had paid a long-due visit his village Vilagam in the Chidambaram Taluk (Cuddalore district) and was deeply disturbed at the state of the school and while on his way back home, he had a proposal in mind. He sought to return something to his village, and having studied for years together at Singapore where he had enjoyed infrastructural facilities at its pinnacle, he was distraught at the sight of the education in his motherland. Hence, he has been all the more insistent in taking up the expansion projects of the school. He gave me a brief on the background and as to what he has in mind.

His father, namely Mr. M. Gopalakrishnan Iyer and his brothers decided to donate their family land as they realized the sad state of affairs in their hometown three years back. In their younger days, they had difficulty in studying beyond 5^th standard and had to either move out to their relatives house or walk miles to study. This was an acceptable state of affairs for a young India on the verge of building its infrastructure and reaching out to the villages. However, exactly 50 years later nothing seems to have changed in this place. This situation sparked the idea of donating their land to the Government for the functioning of the Higher Secondary school (Grades 6 to 10) which has been operational since 2010.

Current Situation - Problem

In the current school, owing to the lack of space where there are only three classrooms for nearly 300 students, the children wait outside whilst waiting for their turn for the classes which are conducted inside the classrooms.

 In some situations, classes are conducted outside the classrooms under the scorching sun. On a discussion he had with the Headmaster of the school, a resolute man in his fifties, who has been highly instrumental in building and running this school, is highly oriented towards expanding the school and enhancing the children’s education. The head master firmly believes that providing a more structured and constructive means of education will ensure the regular stream of students, if not for which most children either trudge miles to go to the next village or altogether discontinue their education.

The Government provides all the necessary amenities such as books, notebooks, uniforms and food. The headmaster has committed that he shall ensure that this aid be made available to the students, regularly, post expansion as well.

Solution

There is however, a way out. Given the same land, there is additional space for construction of a few more classrooms.

However, the expansion plans have been paused due to paucity in financing the same. The projected amount of inflow required for this project is estimated at Rs. 1 Lakh INR (USD 2000). This amount represents the amount of caution deposit that is required to be paid by the village to the Government of Tamil Nadu, as a result of which the entire funding thereon will be taken care by the Government.  This could result in the erection of an edifice as similar to those of the Government schools in bigger towns.

With this, GV took a deep breath and told me “We’ll make this happen. No matter what. I am more determined than ever.” We really intend this to happen and if you believe that this cause is noble and worthy of your donation, please reach out to us at vigneshgopalakrishnan@yahoo.co.in and to all those Facebookers, do a search for Vignesh Gopalakrishnan  or on Linkedin and drop a message. We would sincerely thank every one of you and we will post a receipt of the funds in this blog.

FAQ:

Post this brainstorming and upon strategizing the course of action, something struck us and this was something that had to be thought through- Transparency in Fund management. Hence, we proposed to have this FAQ and the relevant solutions to cast more light upon this project.

1.      

             Q: I am really interested in contributing to this project. How do I go about it?

A:  You can reach Vignesh Gopalakrishnan via mail or FB or LinkedIn and take it from there.

2.      Q: How should I satisfy myself that the funds actually reach the project and how transparent is your dealing?

A: This is a major road block GV and I discovered while discussing this initiative. As this is done on a one time transfer (at least at the moment) we can get the receipt of the total funds transfer and post it in this blog. This will be done once the required amount is generated and sent out. We expect to get this done within a month at the most.

3.      Q: Will you be able to provide us a receipt for the funds contributed?

A: Unfortunately as this initiative is done by an individual, we won’t be able to provide receipts for individual contributions. However once the final transfer is done, the receipt from the school will be posted in this space.

However to acknowledge the receipt of the money, the names of the contributors will be posted here and maintained.

Reference: The first photo in the blog has been lifted from the internet using Google's search engine.

We promised to post the receipts in this blog. A ton of thank you's would never suffice. The contributors are as follows:

1.  Mr. Vivek Seetharaman- 100 SGD
2.  Mrs. Nirmala Ramdas and Ms. Shwetha Ramdas- INR 10,000
3.  Mr. R. Aravind- USD 500
4.  Mr. Ananthanarayanan- INR 5,000
5.  Mr. Karthik Arun- 50 SGD
6.  Mr. Varun Nagarajan- 100 SGD
7.  Mr. Roshan- 100 SGD
8.  Ms. Chandini- 100 SGD
9.  Mr. B.R. Venkatesh- INR 3,000
10.Mr. Mani Rajagopalan- INR 25,000

Net funds received: A little more than 1 Lakh INR :) (Most of it used towards the school registration and the remaining used for the repairs and reconstruction of the building)

All good deeds end even better. Take a look at the progress of the school and the outcome of the fund utilisation. :) A mere thank you  to all of you would never suffice:) 

Dude! Watch your step!

I turn the ignition on after fumbling for the keys and check my watch. 9.11. Sigh! Five minutes late again (comparing it to the time I left home yesterday morning which was five minutes later compared to the day before). There are a thousand things that are currently running in my mind aside of turning on the Bluetooth in my phone to sync the songs through the BT Audio in my car. The most prominent thought being the chaotic traffic I have to wade through to reach my client’s place, which is a good 12 kilometers from my abode.

I get off the slope running down my house and onto the main road, honking all the way through the five centimeters where the garbage is getting cleaned with the garbage van parked right outside the gate, mindless cyclists and pedestrians crossing blissfully while chattering over their handheld devices, whatever they may be. Upon my successful haul onto the main road, I weave through and find a place to park my drive sandwiched between two autos parked angularly in a V-shape formation in front of me. I can’t really differentiate between Obtuse and Acute and it’s like telling me what’s the difference between a crow and a sparrow. I wouldn’t really bother. The signal turns green and there is absolute pandemonium. That sheer brilliance of steel packed in a Range Rover you admired, parked diagonally right across the puny little thing that you drive suddenly swerves to the left, leaving you right in the middle. Having followed all the rules namely, indicator blinking left, your parked car on the extreme left lane indicating that you are going to turn left and the very fact that you need to turn only either left or right because there is no straight permissible, you would expect to see some discipline from the others as well. Sorry to disappoint you. You are infallibly wrong. As I turn to my left (finally!!) with 5 seconds to spare in a 90 second signal where you are one of the first five vehicles parked (that is the extent of mayhem on the road), you enter the road to be encountered by a tourist taxi Indica charging at you at 60 kmph in that narrow stretch of pot-holed Government property. You somehow apply your brakes and pray that your ABS (Anti-lock braking system) for which you paid an extra 50 grand and settled for the top end model somehow serves the purpose.

 It saves you in the nick of time, after getting a disgusted look from him for no err of yours, and from the third gear you are back to the first and in this process, you break a sweat, release the clutch too fast and the ignition turns off. By the time you recover from all this tamasha and move a little more forward, an auto plunges into the main road from another narrow street from nowhere and lands right in front of you and moves at 20 kmph looking for ‘savaari’ translated as looking for people, for him to carry on his carrying business.

  

You successfully dodge him and land at another signal, thankfully ten minutes from all that fiasco. Ten minutes of a little more honking, braking, flooring, bull-dozing the two wheelers, getting bull-dozed by buses, participating in sans- trophy races before crashing on a speed-breaker and hurting the underbelly of your precious little drive.

Finally, ten minutes away from work you are held up at a signal that stretches to about 200 meters and encompasses vehicles of all shapes, sizes and designs possible. That is the stretch when you get to see a Bentley Mulsanne while an auto attempts to kiss it with its half broken headlight which is a 4x4 itself and where you see a Mini Cooper S standing behind a TVS 50 with its driver cum owner all padded up with headgear et all waiting for that change in the signal post to green from red to boom into his maximum speed of 40 kmph.

 As I turn right, with the indicator blinking right, a character of pure genius overtakes me on the right

and cuts me in the front and turns left and that is plausible only by a dude with two more loafers sitting behind him, giving me that condescending look because he is apparently cool for two reasons 1. He made me stop in my tracks, not because he is dashingly killingly handsome (Oh Please!) and 2. He has that ‘Cool dude’ factor for having flouted the rules and for some unfathomable reason that he must have known the driver of the MLA’s secretary’s aunt’s neighbor’s servant.

As you finally turn your car onto the driveway, one patti would spring up from nowhere inches before your car’s bonnet like a suicide bomber and make u brake just by a show of hand. You have to oblige to that frail woman and not honk or give her a dirty stare as you are suddenly reminded of your great grandmother and think what you would do if she were alive and in the same situation as this patti. Pah!

While at the signal, you would get a myriad of entertainment. From office-going aunties wearing socks on their hands to prevent from getting tanned, to bunches of college and school students, holding hands and chatting all the way, texting and crossing the road, oblivious to the attention they are drawing towards themselves. You can spot these guys who are probably stick figures wearing clothes to accentuate the gravitational effect, who ride massively huge beasts like the Kawasaki Ninja, Honda CBR and Yamahas (which are brilliantly fast vehicles). When they pass by you after the signal, they are inconspicuous by then and sometimes you wonder whether they are holding on to the handlebars just to hold themselves lest they should be gone with the wind. However the best of the lot are always the well-built Iyer mamas with a kudumi returning from a homam, wearing huge pattais with their madisaar maami sitting behind them, in a Yamaha Fazer. That is by far the best thing you would have ever noticed. A sheer contrast of cultures, though hilariously funny, is the truth and a trend that’s growing big.

This has been my experience on most of the days I drive (which is 7 out of 7). The disheartening sight of people mindlessly crossing the roads while engrossed in their own world over their phones, absolutely reckless driving and carelessly defying the rules as if to scoff at them for their existence. It is high time we, as souls who exist and survive to LIVE our lives in this amazing country, started aping the west in lane discipline and traffic sense as well and not just live-in relationships and Gucci bags. Cleanliness begins with oneself. So does discipline. With the significant rise in the traffic population, it is essential for every road user to be aware of his roles and responsibilities. It is urged that every organization educate its employees and come down heavily upon those who disregard the rules and the set-up in frame. It is absolutely necessary that the Government organizes camps especially for Auto-drivers (includes share autos who are a tad worse), for in my sight they seem to be the most careless and recklessly ruthless road users who still are the very few sects who imbibe the age old Caveat Emptor (Customer is King). If the rider wishes to stop in the middle of the road, so will he stop there, not attempting to be slightly bothered at the disturbance caused to at least a hundred vehicles behind his’.

There needs to be a tightening on the provision of licenses issued to such drivers and nobody has the right to put the life of another in peril. It is really disturbing to see accidents day in and day out due to the sheer spoof of the entire system of regulations meant to be followed. I re-take the pledge I have taken all these years. “I shall drive and use the road (even while not driving) sensibly and learn to keep my ear, brain and eyes open and shall strive constantly to ensure that I cause the least disturbance to fellow road –users”. I would urge every single one of you to take this pledge and adopt it as part of your routine for you, will see that the rate of accidents plummet and then co-existing in absolute harmony will turn out to be a reality.

I am now two minutes away from office. One cyclist vigorously cycling on the wrong side swerves and enacts to me a vintage Bombay Circus stunt. He scrambles across the median and lands one centimeter away from me, scratches my bonnet with his Lance Armstrong skills and says to a bewildered me, scrunching his face, “Yen maa. Vootla solltu vantiya??”

References:

Photos: Photos have been lifted from the internet, and one blog in particular - http://chennairoads.wordpress.com/category/chaos/ 

Why on earth should I wear a saree for my wedding?

I have somehow always posed this question to myself and the ROW (Rest of the world) and somehow I have always been reprimanded for the harmless little question threatening to rock the very fundamentals of the “tradition” and “value systems” of a cult. Again, let me ask you the same damn question. Why should I wear a saree for my wedding? Those six (or in some phenomenally varied cult cases, nine) yards of silk spewn around me like I were a spindle across which the thread bobs and chokes to make me suffocate on my own wedding? Well, I did hear a mouthful when I asked the same question back home. So I thought I could safely ask you.

Yeah yeah I know traditions are meant to be followed. “Tradition”, the very genesis symbolizes this which I picked up from Wiki “A tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes (like lawyer wigs or military officer spurs), but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings. Traditions can persist and evolve for thousands of years—the word "tradition" itself derives from the Latin tradere or traderer literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping.” Ah! Wiki is a savior. Just because something was a way of life doesn’t mean it has to be necessarily followed. That’s what it says right? Ask anybody (in fact ask yourselves). Would you still trot around in a bear flesh or raw tiger skin (unless you are vying at an exquisite piece of overpriced Gucci or a Prada) just because it was how the “tradition” was way back then? Definitely not. Anyway, coming back to the topic. Jeez this seems hard. You know this is the problem. I have heard so many pros about draping a saree and the very fact that am questioning this seems so quizzical, like am trying to be rebellious for the sake of it. And worst of all, I can’t really think much. When I was just attempting to write this piece of section, I happened to ask a few friends for a few pointers. All of them. Every single one of them said “Oh God Sarees are the in thing”, “Name one girl who isn’t hot when she is draped in a saree” “Sarees are so in vogue” and finally “Dude what is wrong with you?” The traitors! Anyway, the thing is Sarees are not my thing. I was born a girl but reared as a boy. Jumping walls, playing GI Joe, trading WWF Cards, being besties with guys has been the story of my life. So yeah. It is creepy to imagine myself in a long straight piece of cloth knotted and tied with the aid of more cloth in the most uncomfortable of places is something that is going to be a bit of a situation for me when my getting married seems to be a little bit of a bigger shock. Somehow, probably due to all the westernization I became this weird you may say but to quote myself in French, “C’est moi” (That’s me!)

I sure hope that there are a few of you who would rather get married happily in a pair of Levis’ Denim replacing Devagiri and embrace Reebok rather than Raw Silk. For all those who prefer a Khakhi over Kanjivaram and simple tees over Sabyasachi (Damn! I can’t even get to pronounce half the types), try crying out to your bosses (aka elders at home). It’s high time we learn to respect what we want and “Evolve” as a race which respects it’s space and learns to adopt certain new practices as we strive to achieve a balance. Unless we ask for it, unless we cry for our independence we wouldn’t get it.
Saree for my wedding? Well. Hope not :)