Quo Vadis?

  How do you make a marriage work? I was asked something close to this recently and it made me think a little, I got my thoughts together and realised though it's not path breaking maybe it can be shared, so let's hit the post. Well there may be many answers to the above question but the most important word is work. It needs a lot of work and any slack will have its consequences and it needs both the parties of the marriage to work hard and sometimes even harder to make it work. Few tips to follow along the way: Acceptance: you married your spouse for who he/ she IS and not who he / she, you want to become. If this acceptance is not there; then it is going to be a very bumpy ride. Remember the spouse IS always the better half. Giving: giving and taking is business and has no business in marriage. In marriage its all about giving till it hurts without expecting anything in return and when it hurts give some more. Reconcile: fights in a marriage are expected however it is imperat...

If you are from Chennai and unless you are living under a rock you would have heard of the unfortunate suicide of a young school girl, a teenager in her Class 12 at her home. This news hit me very hard probably because I was part of a few conversations where the topic was about the multiple tuitions and coaching classes today’s school kids take up to crack the elusive IIT or NEET exams. When I hear the schedule of some kids I wonder if they have any time to live? Don’t get me wrong, I know that these schedules are carefully planned by the parents with the best interests of their children at heart. These coaching classes are expensive and nearly push some parents deep into debt. From the break of dawn to late in the night the student is on a tight schedule monitored by the parents and before you know it childhood passes them by in a blur. When I remember my childhood so many years ago, I did have my extra tuition classes that were default if you take the Sciences group in Class 11 ...

 Why do I celebrate Onam? So the festival of Onam passed by recently and I was asked why did we celebrate Onam since we are not Keralites? Some even asked me you are not Hindu, why are you celebrating Onam? Before I answer these questions, I pondered about how we celebrate festivals and that inspired this post. There are some broad heads under which we celebrate festivals and here I am being generic and this has nothing to do with religion or region. Let me begin: 1.Family: If you had tried booking a train ticket on IRCTC or any flight tickets before a festival the chances of you being highly disappointed are quite high. Why is this? Because the essence of festivals is to be home with the family, though there are some who choose to travel on festivals, for many a festival is a time to be home with the family and loved ones. 2. Friends: We have heard friends like family and for some friends are family, so friends are an integral part of festivals. You look forward to connect or reco...

  I prefer the window seat in flights because I like to watch the sights during the take off and landing each time. Every time I fly into Meenambakkam there is a special feeling that never fails. The feeling of coming home; to a city that has my heart. Madras, how I love you and get exasperated with you in the same moment. I am sure that I am not alone with this feeling and after two decades or so of being Chennai I miss the Madras of old. Change is constant and the city has changed, some of the famous gems of the past have been obliterated completely like the Moore Market while some struggle on in changed or limited avatars like Spencers Plaza and some have transformed into unrecognizable creations like the OMR. When I have visitors on work and if it is a first time I ask them if they have any interests in their free time and when they hear the options that I throw at them they are amazed. From shopping, to food, to cultural experiences, spiritual experiences, nature spots and...

  I watched Jailer yesterday and strangely my mind went back to Annaathe and I found that there are not too many dissimilarities in the two. For starters both are helmed by super star fan boys and who brought their adulation to the silver screen with varying levels of success. Secondly both movies can be clearly separated into two halves and both halves were significantly different. There are also few others I picked up so listing below my score card for the same.   1.       Title Both movies revolve around their titles and Annaathe was easier to understand, a local big man is called such and it is prevalent throughout the movie. In Jailer it comes to the fore only in a small and actually weak flash back. Annaathe – 1 Jailer – 0   2.      Family relationship bond Both movies were built on a family connect. Despite the cringe daughter age sister and the melodrama, the brother sister bonding was the high light of th...