Quo Vadis?

Do you know the time of your birth? Do you know if the time you were born was auspicious? If it was not, do you do you regret it? You skipped your meal because you were busy with work and by the time you decide to eat you notice that it is not the auspicious hour of the day. Do you starve? The doctor schedules a life- saving procedure on a loved one at a time when the calendar says is unsuitable. Do you reschedule? The job interview is in the middle of the inauspicious time of the day. Do you give it a miss? Do you breathe any less or any more during the “auspicious” or “inauspicious” parts of the day? Do you live different during the day despite the ebbs and flows of the good and “bad” times? If you answer “Yes” to any of these questions, I would like to know the reason why.   Time is the most expensive and perishable commodity in the world and why must people set apart time into good and bad? People these days cutting across faiths are checking the alman...

One thing that has never failed to amuse me is a blue tooth headset or ear piece if you prefer for mobile phones. This humble gadget has moved on from a simple communication accessory to a fashion accessory. You see men (usually) pairing it with anything and everything; anytime and every time. Not sure any other accessory has been so cool. Though you see people more likely to be using and wandering around animatedly conversing with the use of the ugly wires crisscrossing them the wire free version has its own set of admirers. These admirers love their ear pieces so much and attach so much value to it, they can be seldom seen without it, be it the theatre or the church.   As I had posted earlier about mobile etiquette or the lack of it in a great number of mobile users this combination of etiquette less user with a blue tooth head set can lead to some unpleasant instances. For instance in a hospital when someone promptly starts talking loudly apparently to himself before...

The security detail provided to some people who fall under various categories seems to be a cruel joke. A joke because the public are subjected to great hardships while the public servant is protected from potential threats which history would tell you never happened. It is simply incomprehensible that so much on man, machinery and time is spent on safeguarding one person without realistically assessing the risk that is attributed to this person. I have been one of many who have groaned, fumed and vented ire on a Very Very Important Person rushing around in a huge convoy of vehicles while Very Very ordinary persons like me are barricaded away or forced to make detours. It is even more disheartening to know that I have contributed to this gross waste of public money by paying my taxes on time. After all death is inevitable for all, what is the point of denying this? I do not have statistics but the number of VVIP dying from external causes read it as terrorist attack or a...

This post was in the back of my mind ever since I left the Centenary Hall of Madras University last Friday evening. The occasion was the 34 th convocation of Anna University and the chief guest was the CM.   The visit of the chief guest ensured that the security detail was a nightmare but this post is not entirely about that nightmare but something that made me think long and hard. There were 600 graduands (learnt this there) awaiting their degree that conferred the title of Doctor of Philosophy on them. The better half was one in that 600 and the only reason I ventured into the hall.   A Ph D is the culmination of a long period of study that not many take up for various reasons but the minimum time should be around twelve years of schooling, three years of undergraduate followed by two years of post-graduate study which will lead to five or so years of research before one becomes a doctor. So it is one long and usually rigorous process. You would expect that edu...

Three accidents on the highways involving Volvo buses and the resulting deaths have left me very worried. These buses are great for travel and ensure comfortable journeys especially when tickets on trains are not available but they are also veritable death traps as each of these accidents indicate. At the cost of sounding extremely monotonous I use the lines of master Oogway “there are no accidents”, these incidents are caused by driver error. When we fly on any airline the crew painstakingly go through the safety procedures and the emergency evacuation process while showing the nearest exists to the passengers. Usually many travellers ignore these demonstrations for various reasons which are an indicator of the indifference of our times. These safety measures are not explained in buses and this I would believe was the difference between people surviving and dying a fiery death. Volvo buses are usually air-conditioned and the engine is at the rear. The fuel tank I believe i...

There was a man who had an ass. If you are wondering what is the big deal with a man having an ass? The donkey was advancing in age. Now stop smiling and read on. Now the man used his ass to carry him to the market to sell firewood, as he was a good man he realized that his ass would not be able to carry much weight so when he rode the ass he kept his bundle of firewood on his head. PAUSE and hold that thought. CUT to another man, he was also a good man and since he did not have an ass, his donkey was replaced by his trusty two-wheeler. Now he did not sell fire wood but he worked on computers so he carried his tool of his trade, his laptop with him to his work place every day in his laptop bag and since his two wheeler was weak he carried it on his back. RESUME. Actually hold that thought again, some of you may take offense that there are only good men around so there was a good lady who also had an ass that went by the cute name of “Scooty” and she carr...

Another Deepavali post about two groups of people who always leave me with mixed emotions. The first group of people are those for whom Deepavali or for that matter any other festival is just another day at work because their job does not permit them a holiday. Look around you the driver who takes you to your home town, the milk man who delivers milk rain or shine every day, the policeman who directs traffic and also keeps the city safe, the corporation sanitation teams who work to clean up the mess we leave behind, the list goes on. I happened to use the Deepavali holiday to complete the shopping for the month and we were fortunate to find one departmental store open where we completed our purchases. I noticed that the staff were dressed very nicely on that day and wished every shopper who came into the store. I asked the girl at the billing section if they had an early closing for the festival and why they were working on the day, she replied very sadly that they have on...

Happy Deepavali to everyone!   May the festival of lights spread love, joy, peace & prosperity in your lives. One experience that repeats itself every Deepavali is when you try to light a flower pot or an atom bomb gingerly, very gingerly and as you move away seeing the sputtering flame you wait eagerly for the fountain of sparks or a loud bank but then you get a fizzle, also called as a “boossu”.   Azhaguraja the Deepavali release starring Karthi with Santhanam and directed by Rajesh (with an impressive pedigree) is a big fizzle. A movie with the family especially with lots of kids in a drive in should have ensured a lot of fun and the premise of a Rajesh movie who with Santhanam had given two recent hits would have been the icing on the cake, unfortunately this cake ended up on our faces and told us that reputation does not matter much and past performance at the box office must be discounted before every movie. For a long time we were left scratching o...

I had posted about this earlier and I mentioned that the colour of my hand will probably be in the hands of my daughter and so far she has not noticed it. But others tend to notice. The other day as I was taking a lift along with the family the lift operator kept looking at me. I did not realize its significance till he tells the wife “Akka, anna has got a nice hair style, I like it”. This was a first and even before I could flash a triumphant look at D came the rejoinder “avar style thala madhiri irukku” in case you missed that it translates to “his style looks like head”.   Well it translates that way but it means that the hairstyle looks like that of an actor who goes by the title of “thala”. I suppose that is enough said on the topic. But I do take offense just because I trail a decade or so in age to “thala” does not mean that I follow his style. I started greying when I was 18 years old. I am nevertheless very happy that a public figure is not shying away from flau...

I may have posted on this but this behaviour warrants a repeat post so here goes. There is a saying never wash your dirty linen in public, today people tend to wash their, linen, undies and everything in public though unintentionally. And aiding them in this effort is the ubiquitous mobile phone and their lack of phone etiquette.  Many a time the relative peace of the moment is shattered by a domestic issue, errant client, missing consignment, truant school kid who happens to be on the other end of a loud and unsolicited conversation of which you are a part of no matter that you had no say in it. The loud conversation not withstanding you may also have to endure some furious gesticulation that aids the effect for the unseen other person. I have gently reminded my colleague a few times that if he were any louder his family in Nellore would have heard him without the cell phone and it made no effect to his decibel output except maybe for a brief moment to say sorry to me...

                 I enjoy    pepper filled crab soup when I have a cold, its efficacy to battle a common cold may be disputed but the effect it haves on me makes me overlook any naysayers. When we dine out usually people go for soups especially when it is leisure dining with or without some fried starters. This has become a dining custom usually throwing up interesting fractions like 1/2., 2/3, 3/5 etc. Sometimes I wonder if that is just an indicator of how much water to be added to it. Anyway soups and dining out seem to intricately linked to each other; the soups usually fall into the clear, thick and cloudy type. The cloudy ones are the ones that is usually corn flour and water, sometimes it may be difficult to go beyond the two. And before I forget there is the bright red tomato soup that sometimes reminds me of …well never mind. I have observed that once the soup lands on the ta...