Quo Vadis?

“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...

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...

Life throws up some wonderful lessons when you least expect it and it is up to you to make use of these lessons. Today was an eye opener; it was not totally unexpected because this was something that was planned however life as I said will constantly surprise you. The Pope has asked for this year to be celebrated as the year of mercy, so small acts of mercy are encouraged by all as a part of our spiritual life. So an outreach programme was planned for the students between class 9-12 today and the chosen venue was Jeevodaya Cancer Hospice. This is a palliative care centre that takes care of those ravaged by cancer and have exhausted the curative options available in medicine and are counting their last days. The sisters from the congregation running this institution do their best to ease their pain and make their days comfortable. Since I was aware of the situation at the centre and I was part of the team that organized the activity I was prepared for meeting the inmates o...

As you wake up to the heavy rains and hear that schools & maybe colleges are closed you end up having mixed feelings. You are torn between sleeping in and bunking work or reluctantly dragging yourself out of bed not succumbing to the Monday rainy blues and skip work. In the middle of this dilemma spare a thought for those nameless people who ensure your day has begun well. I saw the newspaper boy completely drenched but carrying the newspapers worth 4 Rs each safely wrapped in plastic delivering it to homes. The milk has already been delivered before you opened your eyes and craved for your coffee. The conservancy staff who worked through the night managing the water and the weather to ensure that the roads are cleaner than the way you left it last night. Somebody has been up a little earlier and started working to ensure that the day has begun well for you, nearer home it could be mum or the better half who got up that little bit earlier to make that cuppa, the absence o...

These days the news is full of religious issues and where there is trouble in the world today there seems to be religion in the centre of it all. The refugee crises, the hostage taking of school girls, the burning of homes, large scale murders, rapes and everything else even mundane things like running a film school is affected by religion. It is very disheartening when something personal to an individual is important to another who is often unrelated and inconsequential to the individual. Why fight about religion? It is like small boys saying, “mine is bigger”. Big or small it is usually most useful only to the owner, is it not? When someone from a particular religion feels insecure with another religion and feels that the other religion must be eradicated so that his religion remains it must be a time to introspect. Why do different religions exist? I would believe that they exist to satisfy different needs and a person will choose to move from one to another if his needs ...