Our Grandmother

A plethora of beautiful women around the world

From abundant races, faiths, religions and nationalities

Yet none could tantamount to her angelic self – our grandmother

 

Unruffled by the hustle of the modern world

Tranquil to the difficulties that plagued her and her loved ones

She painted a placid face reassuring faith in everyone’s lives- our grandmother

 

A poignant personality challenged by physical barriers of age

Yet unfazed at an intellectual level

She would intently listen to the episodes of life narrated by her loved ones

   And through her laconic replies make us realize a plentitude of love 

      – our grandmother

                                                                               

         -In loving memory of my great grandmother

Joie de vivre

The joy of living at times or honestly most times is circumvented, a few times in genuine struggle and at most times obscurely by trivialities. However I sincerely concede to the truth that these become trivialities only with time and age. Today evening I decided to slow the pace down a bit and retrospect on some long lost parts of my life aided by good Rahman/Ilyaraja music. This relaxed evening happened to be the “eureka” timeframe for me to identify these trivialities and celebrate this very joy called life.  

School seems like it was eons ago and its strange how I have grown fond of something I used to detest for a long time. During kindergarten the very sight of PSBB T.P road would nauseate and propel me to throw up all over my white uniform every Monday morning. How much ever it may have disgusted my parents then and you now, it brings a broad smile on my face as I think about it. Strange are the things that bring joy in each stage of life!

Come middle school and there starts the constant never ending love hate relationship between boys and girls. We know for a fact that we cannot live without each other in the class yet we do pretend to ignore each other into oblivion! The meaningless connections or if can use the word “rumor” between specific students (Of course boys and girls!) does not make life any better. While this might have been the most immature acts on the face of the planet one cannot deny the secret insatiable happiness he/of course she derives while thinking about this today. In case you do not let me be clear I DO! Again strange are the things that bring joy in each stage of life!

 College happens and there comes the whole “independent/ romantic/cool/yada yada” person out of the blue. The cat whiskers have been removed, well combed hair has been purposely disheveled and new clothes are induced with prominent tears at the most inappropriate junctures etc. not to mention the whole new set of vocabulary. Change to the extent that you believe that there is another Obama around the corner! This being in complete contrast to the person that is during graduation years later, devoid of the “cool” image and constantly discussing future prospects showcases the fragile “independent/cool/romantic” nature of college life. However the yearning to leave college and lead an adventurous life abroad replaced by a yearning to get back to those “cool” college years now envisages the happiness that it brings to life. (Am sure everyone agrees on this!. If not life has really been a bitch to you!)

The commonality which arises when thinking of these stages is a strange yet rationale longing for the past when surprisingly at each stage of life I have felt the next would be better and have been wanting to move on quickly. This evening has made me realize the joy that each stage of life brings forth and irrespective of the maturity or coolness quotient involved, each stage is priceless. Last but not least if you feel that you wasted ten minutes of your time reading this when you have a zillion things to run behind tomorrow, let me say it for you yet again “At times life can be a bitch!”

The art of living??

At this very moment in my life, I have a good education, great family and friends, decent success professionally and enough money to be happy. Yet there seems to be something missing not only in my life but all over the world. In this advanced “tech savvy diplomatic” world let us step back and see human relationships today. While the top business schools churn out MBA’s by the second, people everywhere talk about the importance of so called “networking” and developing “high quality relationships”. As fancy as these buzz words may sound, either I have never understood these terms properly or majority of the world is turning a blind eye to the truth. I have had great relationships with friends/relatives in my life and I am grateful to them always, but I have also had lot of them who are here for a purpose (Don blame them, that’s the way of the world). Glib dishonest talk, ability to party well and be successful professionally is an asset to these people. I am no perfectionist, I have had my share of mistakes and will repent them for the rest of my life but importantly I want to be true to my conscious at the end of the day. The art of choosing people or “friends” as it is called for different selfish purposes in life seems to shake the very basis of relationships. It is comparable to choosing the appropriate animal in the slaughter house .Relationships are formed today on the basis of status, money and an air of artificialness. I have had friends who have stayed the same through my lifetime and friends who flock in and out depending on the weather and the latter seem to increase exponentially as I travel through this journey of life. It startles me that people in today’s world are more ashamed of not being prosperous and having average or bad looks. Dishonesty with themselves and the society seems to be the way with majority of the world and if one can master this art, he/she will conquer this world.

I am not advocating people to be crude and blunt and disparage diplomacy in any form but just to think whether their “diplomatic networking” is genuine. Tamil poet Bharathi rightly said “Nenjam Porkavillaye intha nillai katta manitharai kandu vital” (The heart bleeds at the sight of such dishonest/ glib human beings). If these artificial and dishonest acts award success in a person’s life, can it be cherished? Does it mean that being honest to one’s conscious and the world, helping people without hidden intentions and not valuing people by materialistic features, is merely restricted to primary school lessons? . Irrespective of numerous success stories, excuses given for such behavior and different interpretations of dishonesty, the inner conscious will always know the truth!

A wet day...

After reading the title any guesses what this post would be about??... If you thought it was just another rainy day, I wish so too. It all began perfectly with the irritating alarm going off in the morning at 6 AM & me getting ready for office wishing that Austin would be Madras considering the fact that there would be nice dosas instead of the debilitating cereals and Dell would be PSBB (my school in Madras) where be it harsh sunshine/rain/normality, holidays would be declared!


I just dropped off Harish at his office (my roomie) and was heading to my office. In my efforts to be western I carry Citrus green tea (they are my weapon against the cokes which people drink at work) to office. Austin FM plays some awesome songs and my car system started blaring numb from Linkin Park. All excited about the music and the chick who was driving the BMW parallel to me I carelessly opened my green tea only to have it all on pants. This happened when i had nearly reached office and I had to rush to my cubicle for a 8:30 meeting. I took my laptop bag and kept it like an abdomen guard covering my wet pants and walked as fast as possible to my place with people staring at me as if they were in a strip club. Well then god knows the excitement i would have generated on exposing the wet pants.

Following my fabulous entry into the building, a hour passed by peacefully before it was time to get wet again. I wanted to drink water and walked to the water fountain where I carelessly stood a lit bit close while drinking water. Well if you think that was bad, thats not the worst part as I did not realize that there were small multiple drops of water all around my groin area. If people were not watching me, I was all ready to attract attention as I decided to exchange some pleasantries with my colleague. He not only laughed loud enough for the people in the entire row of cubicles to peak out but also made sure that everyone was well informed that Prashanth did not know how to pee.

I decided not drink water or even go anywhere near it for the rest of the day. I was reminded of the tamil comedian Vivek's "thanilla gandam" scene where he fears water due to misfortune!. It was late afternoon and time for my all important project review with a senior person in the organization. We met in a team room and I was all anxious to hear about the outcome of my project from him. Well he had more than that to convey to me. In my excitement I sat on a chair which had some sticky drink & food particles on it (generally these rooms are used for team lunches). Good thing about it was that he had a really good laugh and was relaxed for the meeting. Apart from the fact that he liked my project, he also had a new recommendation to purchase diapers for me. (looking at my pants).

That was enough for the day or was it?. I was so frustrated that I walked out of the building to go home without covering the food stain in the back and only thought about it when my friend en quired at the parking lot whether stains in back of the pant made me proud. I ended the day thinking whether not wearing a pant to office would generate the same excitement as this wet pants day. These thoughts made me laugh at home despite the fact that i was disgruntled through the day and I thought i would pen it down for you to laugh!!

Always an Indian...

Certain things never change in Life.... There is a tamil proverb "Thottil palakam sudu kaadu varai"... Those pure hindi pandits before you start to curse me, it means most habits formed at the cradle linger with you till death. The habits I have developed in India seem to be like congenital diseases that will never fade away despite being in so called Land of "Hope and Opportunity". Despite the fact that even Americans would be rolling with laughter in the present economic condition on seeing such a term, lets assume that the land does still have hope because I have invested heavily here :).

Lets start off with every desi guy's hot topic. Any guesses??.. If your thinking about the hot blondes, bullseye!!!. If not your too committed in your present relationship or congrats your just undergoing some hormonal changes :D... Despite all these beautiful blonde women, who you really want to flirt with who are in abundance around you, the eye always searches for the one off desi chick starkly portraying the Indian in her. (Just as we are!). From a personal perspective, my eyes seem to really light up even more when I see a Tamil girl. Hopefully i did not anger any beautiful north Indians reading this and I hope even harder that the Tamil girls reading this get very impressed :P.

Warning : This example could be disgusting.

I always thought when in India, Americans are really smart until I realized how painful it is to wipe your butt with paper. I regret this so much to the extent that when I went back home this summer, the most happiness I derived was from the fact was that I was going to use water. Again the Indian just came out of the box.! Some of you might disagree with this at the outset, but lets face it "Water in the Ass rocks'. I guess I have disgusted you now if not in the first instance.

I enjoy the American Burgers & Pizzas but any chance to eat out and my heart is already thinking about the hot Dosas and delicious Biriyani. It does look fancy to eat with various gadgets placed around your plate but there is undeniable pleasure that the Indian gets from not only using his hand to eat but the licking which follows post the eating process.

Confident that I have given enough examples to all the Indians living outside the country, that irrespective of dollars earnt, number of countries visited, cuisines tasted and number of blondes you have dated the "Indian" shall eventually come out. Jai Hind :).

The Dream continues...

Sometime later, I arrived at the temporary accommodation provided to me. The host invited me in and continued to do his work. The close room displayed stark reality and stabbed me causing a burst of discomfort. I had arrived at a new beautiful place, with a new culture, pleasant weather and polite people. Its strange how all the adjectives seemed positive and still could cause discomfort...
Groceries, washing vessels,cooking,laundary,exams,part time jobs and assignments soon became a perpetual part of my life soon. I realized that there were lot of hardships to go through to live a dream.There were eminent cultural and literary differences which led to a comedy of errors. Differences in usage of words concerned with telephone symbols lead me to make an international call (calling cards are the best way) burning a hole in my pocket. A costly mistake indeed!!. My tryst with errors continued with my inability to differentiate between toilet papers and kitchen towels.

The learning continues....


Kanavu Meipada Vendum (Dreams should come true)...

Glimpses into the american dream

It was a rainy Saturday Evening and not only was the weather damp so was my mind. Damp, from the storm of conflict between an urge to take a job in India or to pursue a journey to the so called land of opportunity (USA). Obvious from the present that I chose the latter. These were followed by a year of performing the rituals of Gre, Toefl and a gruelling visa interview. A mixture of hardwork and to be candid some luck lead me to the doors of UMICH. After numerous consulting sessions with random people 4th august 2007 was slated as the auspicious date to leave.
External conditions did not provide the best possible start to the dream. However I have always believed that the pursuit to happiness has always been within reach irrespective of the environment. The school reunion, get together at places of friends remain the only consoling events in the prelude to the journey.Inquisitiveness to be polite, lead me to learn a few german words to greet the airhostess on board the plane. This however proved to be disastrous as the airhostess extended my greeting to a concentrated german conversation and I had no option but to confess my limited or scarce exposure to her language!!
After a tiring flight , I reached tired but enthusiastic at Detroit. Array of people at the immigration made me wonder whether I would ever be allowed into the country. After a glib talk with the customs officer convincing him that I was not possesed by Indian tastes to have possesion of Indian spices, I set foot on American soil.Least did i expect , that my interest in learning about different cultures and people from different walks of life would be ignited many folds by this very peregrination.



To be continued...

Kanavu Meipada Vendum (Dreams should come true)..