అంకురం - hopefully for a better tomorrow

ఎవరో ఒకరు ఎపుడో అపుడు 
నడవరా ముందుగా అటో ఇటో ఎటో వైపు 
మొదటి వాడు ఎప్పుడూ ఒక్కడే మరి 
మొదటి అడుగు ఎప్పుడూ ఒంటరే మరి 
వెనుకవచ్చు వాళ్ళకు బాట అయినది  

Arvind Kejriwal - proud of you! You have won the big battle, setting huge expectations for fellow countrymen. You have a long road ahead, try to stay centre left, but don't resurrect freebies and unsustainable populist schemes. As you strongly believe what India needs is governance by improving efficiency, cutting down the red-tape and restraining babu-shahi, definitely hoping for better tomorrow.

What an engrossing test match

Who would say test cricket is boring after watching cricket today? What an engrossing match of test cricket, completely drained with exhaustion watching the match on television, I can only imagine what it would be like in the middle. The match went all the way to the last ball, which everyone thought was in India's kitty for 3 days now. Full credit to South Africa, unfortunate to see them not hitting the winning runs after such a herculean batting effort. Had it not been for MS's captaincy India would have surrendered the match. It's a pity we don't encourage our fast bowlers and do not provide them with enough support, the three fast bowlers were completely drained at the end of the match having bowled 60+ overs each. Hopefully with the Tendulkar mania ending, we start respecting bowlers and prepare sportive pitches at home, at least to begin with for domestic games.

After a very long time, spent the entire weekend at home waiting to watch and watching it fully sitting on the couch only to get up for dinner and toilet breaks. Loved it !

A harsh reminder - am I doing anything?

Courtesy : New York Times
Inequality, Indian Style

"A rich man builds a 27-story house for his family in a nation of 1.2 billion people where more than a quarter of them — or roughly the U.S. population — lives on less than two bucks a day."

" impunity of politicians cutting sweet deals for themselves and walking off with suitcases of cash, the greed-is-good top 1 percent, the lousy infrastructure and inadequate schools, the first-world privatized services for the rich and substandard public service for the rest, the blindness of privilege"

"A booming India of rising middle-class fortunes had parted company with a bigger one still mired in distress, and without any real debate India, like much of the world, had embraced Margaret Thatcher’s “There is no such thing as society” as a prevailing idea."

Harsh reminder to Indians like me, living abroad leading a good life, wanting to do something, but never take the first step.

Dabble in poetry - mini attempt

A cat that is not domestic
Belongs to the wild, but majestic

No animal can dare a howl
When the tiger is on the prowl

No one is big in front of him
Revel if you have met him

The nimble paws with awesome force
Pounce on the prey in a planned course

When he kneels down with his mighty limbs
Await to see the awesome force they unleash

Of all the creatures created by God
Tiger must be the one that made him proud

Division of Andhra - డామిట్ కథ అడ్డంగా తిరిగింది !

Courtesy : The Hindu

Bird in hand, now two in the bush - The Hindu

What subtleties of dharma explain the short-termism that has come to define a historic decision related to the future of a State? Even the Partition of India was planned with greater care by a colonial government than this haphazard and utterly insensitive handling of the division of a premier State of the Union. Managed to catch hold off the actual excerpt from the original novel.

The author of the article quotes "Kanya sulkam" to make his point on Indians' reference to dharma, which we often resort to when it is convenient. 

విజయ దశమి శుభాకాంక్షలు

అమ్మల గన్న యమ్మ ముగురమ్మల మూలపుటమ్మ చాల
పెద్దమ్మ సురారులమ్మ కడుపారెడి పుచ్చిన యమ్మ దన్ను
లో నమ్మిన వేల్పుటమ్మల మనమ్ముల నుండేడి యమ్మదుర్గ
మా యమ్మ కృపాబ్ధి నిచ్చుట మహత్వ కవిత్వ పటుత్వ సంపదల్
 

Flower view - Aspiration to reality in 2014

Patience as a virtue

Mastering any form of art requires loads of patience, which is no longer seen as a virtue - in this age of 3-D printing, computer aided animation, research means copying from internet, computer aided music composition etc. Wonder where we are heading with the instant gratification seeking Gen Y, who are seeing patience as a frustrating waste of time rather than a virtue necessary for success. 

శ్రీ రామ నవమి శుభాకాంక్షలు

నల్లనివాడు ! పద్మ నయనంబులవాడు ! మహాశుగంబులన్ 
విల్లును దాల్చువాడు !  గడు విప్పగు వక్షమువాడు ! మేలు పై 
జల్లెడివాడు ! నిక్కిన భుజంబులవాడు ! యశంబు దిక్కులం 
జల్లెడివాడు ! నైన రఘుసత్తముడీవుత మా కభీష్టముల్ 

-  పోతన 

The way we consumed sport

These days, I suppose, kids would just have their smartphones on the desk and watch the game on mute (but do they have enough focus to keep them occupied with just one thing is debatable though!), but we had to hide a transistor radio somewhere it could still get reception and then pass earphone cables up our sleeves, listening with head propped on hand on desk. Whenever a wicket falls or a boundary scored the way it used to get communicated across the class by sign language and whispers with suppressed emotions and the subsequent commotion creating suspicion in lecturer's mind (though some lecturers openly asked for the score sometimes knowing fully well what is transpiring).What makes sport memorable is often less the action itself than the way in which we consumed it.

విజయ నామ సంవత్సర ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు

Good deeds go unnoticed

Unfortunately incidents which are negative in nature are what make the news, and too often good deeds go unnoticed! If you mention it to a Singaporean that you are planning on a driving holiday in Malaysia, you immediately hear about words of caution and stories of what had happened to someone they know of, such as, mugging, car accessories being stolen, people being stopped on highways etc. While some of them may be true, but people fail to mention any kind deeds they encounter. I would like to mention one such good deed by a kind gentleman who has helped my family when our car's mud guard has broken off and was precariously hanging off the front wheel. While it is none of his business, he cared to stop to enquire about our situation. While I was sceptical  he did not even bother to ask if we require his help, checked with a local mechanic on phone and took us to the workshop. He explained the situation to the mechanic in Malay and waited while the car was getting repaired. Though I was happy that the car was getting fixed waiting for couple of hundred Ringitts to be charged. The mud guard was patched in no time and we were only charged 15 MYR, the gentleman even helped us to find our way to the hotel we booked for the night, with his daughter riding on his bike as pillion. Sincere thanks to the nameless gentleman who taught me a lesson "small deeds done are better than great deeds planned". 

Room to read

Had the extraordinary privilege of meeting this man, receive a personally signed copy of his new book "Creating Room to Read" and most importantly listen to him today. What an inspirational personality he is, a man of abundant energy and full of enthusiasm. The passion with which he delivers his speech, the confidence and the courage he exudes and the conviction he portrays to make a difference in the lives of millions of underprivileged children across the world by acting as an agent of change makes one wonder, what if the world produces a few hundred individuals like him, what would it be like? Hats off Mr.John Wood ! You made my day, I loved the word - "butt kicking educated women".

Spread the word to end the word

Courtesy : NY Times Editorial

People can be thoughtless and cruel, or well-meaning, and never know the damage their words can do. The campaign is about inclusion. History is full of stories of people from outside who fought their way in. To those with intellectual disabilities, it sometimes seems the battle is just at the beginning, when little victories — like an end to insults — are hugely important.

“Retarded” and “retard” today are variations on a slur. Young people especially like it: as a weapon of derision, it does the job. It’s sharp, with an assaultive potency that words like “moron” and “idiot” lost sometime in the days of black-and-white TV.

The first two limbs of Yoga - Yama (one's ethical standards and sense of integrity) and Niyama (self-discipline) - which are foundational in nature, prescribe how one should conduct oneself for a meaningful and purposeful life (the path to the enlightenment is much farther). People die, but words remain forever - very true. To me, one of my biggest regret is passing comments/remarks disparaging in nature once in a while unable to apply self control - the above lines from the editorial are eye-opening in nature. Before reading this editorial, I was explaining to my daughter the same exact content yesterday, when she used this R-word against her brother.

Be the change you want to see in others - yes, I will control my tongue.

Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them

While clichés have an argumentative simplicity, they often hide a lot. For, language can often make a mockery of meaning when we become too lazy and fail to get under ready-made explanations with which we stereotype fellow human beings. (Courtesy: Nirmal Shekar, Hindu correspondent on cricket)

Though the context the above words were said was different, but what a fantastic way to put it. We try to simplify - the species with the most complex personality, known as "Homo Sapiens" by stereotyping. Also often, we lead our life thinking about, how others are leading their life or what they are thinking of us - ending up as "emotional wrecks". At the same time one need not turn to be a stoic or attain nirvana, but an attempt in that direction would certainly make one's life less miserable.

తాత గారి ఇల్లు

I know my sadness is purely selfish. But it means losing the house my grand parents built brick by brick saving literally in paise (pennies). This is the place where we all grew up, have so many fond memories of it. However infrequently I go there, it is the place on earth that feels like home to me, the place I'll always love to go back to. I've been harbouring the idea that someday, when this whole crazy adventure is over running after money, I would at some point be nine ten year old again, sitting around my grand mother while she serves dinner to the family. But we don't have a choice, like all good things it has to end too.

Happy New Year 2013

May the new year be a healthy, safe and fulfilling one to one and all. Best wishes to near and dear!