Quo Vadis?

You walk into a party and the person next to you smells of Hugo Boss but you like Sauvage, you actually cannot stand Boss, what will you do? Remember you do not know the person well, nor do you have any care for his well-being. It is just that you are sure that your Sauvage is always superior to his Boss. Would you then… -           Probably go and tell him have you tried Sauvage? Or why don’t you try Sauvage because of its merits? -           Probably gift him a bottle of Sauvage for an upcoming event so that he can try it for himself and see the benefits? -       Probably call people together and say everyone smell his Boss and my Sauvage and tell everyone which is better? It better be Sauvage. -           Probably go and tell him, you will not wear Boss because you think that Boss is not good and more importantly Boss offends you? -   ...

On a day when we have moved up to third place in the Global Hall of Infamy, when some experts are claiming that the virus is airborne and masks may be needed indoors, we have started Unlock 2.0 In the absence of a viable cure and the highly suspect efficiency of the upcoming vaccines that are to be launched on Independence Day the only option seems to be locking up but it is not possible as it is now about the real type of survival, the fight to put food on the table. COVID then will have to take second place only. The news in Chennai right now is that the traffic is heavy and people are back to work with a vengeance. The heart goes out to all the professionals whose professions have disappeared overnight with little chance of resuming in the old formats. Bookmyshow for instance is now trying hard to sell me tickets to so many events including some happening from people’s homes. Personally I feel we should accept the situation for what it is and with that acceptance we...

We are on the first of July, we are on the thresh hold of what is being called as Unlock 2. Since we know what this innocuous and actually silly term means let us jump into the post. The world has changed, we have changed. The changes will continue.  These days a video channel on YouTube fascinates me, called Living Big in a Tiny House the videos inspire me. The host and presenter is quite likeable and though his lines are so predictable there seems to be some genuine emotions in what he says. In one of the videos he also shared about his climb up to the top from a struggling actor to an Influencer on YouTube with over 3 million followers and making it a full time profession along with his wife / partner. The channel focuses on people who have built small homes on trailers and have downsized their lives to fit into these tiny homes. Most of these home owners decided to give up their old lives and downsized to basic essentials with few possessions. They also changed ...

We have heard normal is boring and yet here we are after more than 90 days being locked down hoping for a normal. In all probability the new normal will not be boring but can be terrifying. What is scary is the collateral damage that this pandemic has inflicted on us. Loss of jobs, pay cuts aside, there is the loss of livelihoods of the hidden population who are invisible to the common eye. I remember the pain on the face of the iron man, (not the Marvel one) in a normal week he would be carrying a large bundle of clothes for ironing but now there are no clothes to be ironed. His smiling face could not mask the resigned acceptance of possibly hungry days ahead. This lockdown has shown us how much of our time, energy and resources we used to spend on non-essentials and how we can survive fairly well without them. This lockdown has also taught us that communication networks and devices are essentials and in many homes, one device is just not enough. India may have more mobil...

“do it quickly.” ..“When you are done, don’t linger.”..  “Wash your hands afterward”.. If you were wondering what those instructions were for, it is for the most underrated, feel-good human connection that the coronavirus put the kibosh on with its social distancing ways. But if it's some hug therapy you are really yearning for, an aerosol scientist  The New York Times  spoke to has a way. Wear a mask. Hug outdoors. Try to avoid touching the other person’s body or clothes with your face and your mask. Don’t hug someone who is coughing or has other symptoms. The above is reproduced from an online article and it made me wonder if things will ever be normal again. There is something magical about a hug and there is some merit in what Munna Bhai or Vasool Raja said in their movies, it can be a treatment. Some searching online will tell you that oxytocin levels rise when we   hug, touch, or even sit close to someone, it's associated with happiness. A UCLA s...

Yesterday I was annoyed by the repeated prompts from Google about running out of the free combined space of my Google accounts. So I went about on an aggressive deleting spree and found that I did not even scratch the surface. What puzzled me was the amount of mails and files that I had deleted which was a part of my life for over many years did not even make any impact to the total memory consumed. All these days of the lockdown there is a massive cleaning exercise at homes where everything that comes from outside be it man or material are cleaned before anything else happens. Mercifully in Chennai the drought is yet to hit despite the many hand washing, baths, and objects washing being done every day everywhere. Usually after any cleaning the waste is let out carefully or casually depending on what we use or how much we care for ourselves and the other. Surgical waste should be incinerated, likewise the masks we use should be safely discarded if we want everyone to be spared...

The first of June means so many things: -           For the last three years this was the day, dada left us after a fatal road accident -        For much longer it was the start of my birthday month, not that it made a difference but it reminded me that I am getting older -         For school students till this year, this was the warning that school will open in a day or two after the long summer vacation -       For much of my work life in this job, this was the day when I will get my appraisal and whatever that came along with it -           For many this June is the start of what people are calling Unlock 1.0 -           For many it is a milestone of the uncertainty that lies ahead because whichever way you look at it, the government has fail...

Lessons from the lockdown Stay home: the lock down has forced many to stay home and we may have mixed feelings about it. Some love it; some hate it; if you read the papers today some are dying in an attempt to reach home. The story of the goods train running over exhausted migrants trying to go home has now been overlapped by at least three road accidents where vehicles carrying these people have met with fatal accidents, worse some callous motorists have run down migrants going home. Many religions teach that home is the end to the journey of life and many yearn to go home. Yet there are some who are unhappy to be home for various reasons starting from livelihood issues to boredom. Only a person who cannot understand or refuses to understand that staying home is not possible to all will say that he is bored of it. The migrants may not have homes nearby, there are others who are at the forefront of the pandemic who leave their homes daily in fear and isolate themselve...

Lessons from the lockdown: Plan B – meaning an alternative strategy. The lock down has been all about Plan B, from home work to Work from Home. Today with the absence of domestic help most of the work that was outsourced including cooking is being done at home, non- cooks are learning and managing with all the available help online. Home haircuts are becoming common and so are home work outs.  In short we have found out ways to do things differently from how we used to and that throws up a few challenges. The other day as we went shopping we drove around to find shops selling vegetables that were not crowded and found one shop that was selling vegetables that had opened newly. This shop was selling fruit juices and snacks earlier but with the lockdown and the prohibitively high shop rent the shop keeper changed to being a shop keeper. The fact that the shop keeper risked his health to procure vegetables and sell it to make a living made me reflect. Today pay cuts, ...

Lessons from the lockdown: Self- awareness: the dictionary meaning of this term is –“ conscious knowledge of one's own character and feelings”. This lockdown has ensured that people have become a better or worse person than before. People have discovered hidden potential, skills, talents, the goodness in them, the humanity in them, the self-sufficiency in them, the contentment in them. Sadly this lockdown has also brought out the animal, the monster, the low life in some who proved that the idle mind is a devil’s workshop. Work from home has had many spin offs, from spending more time with and for the family despite the work, it also showed that the work at home needs to be given enough priority for the well-being of all. Gender roles are being redefined: wholly, partially or not all depending on where one falls in the range mentioned in the earlier paragraph. Personally the biggest wake-up call for me is the realization that a lot of my time, energy and money ...

So the season of Advent has started, despite all the commercial trappings and merry making it is also a good time of preparation. Many Christian homes are painted and cleaned in time and the decorations are pulled out from the attic. The star goes up along with the tree and Christmas music starts playing regularly. The ladies get busy with the sweet preparation which used to be an event in itself, preparing the ingredients and making the sweets, storing them away in dry containers for Christmas day. As a child I remember wandering around when mum used to make murukkus, achappams, adhirasams among others sneaking in a bite or two and taking the broken pieces for snack time. The smells will be divine and then the baking will start, which will make the house smell like pastry heaven. Back then buying from stores was not even an option unlike today when a lot of the sweets are outsourced. Christmas Day usually was all about waking up early despite the late night service and taking...