Living these days....

(Supposed to be a part of my previous post on Negligence, but didnt want that post to be real long, or we would neglect reading ;-) )

Living has become so expensive and so luxurious these days (but the expenses are easily met coz of the luxury). We cant just live without plastic, simple, who has the time to wash and maintain cloth bags when plastic covers can simply be used and disposed. Who can sit and wash plates and glasses after a group dinner when we can simply use plastic plates and throw them away. Luxurious living is so easy these days, actually just a click away (pun intended!!! ) Gone are the days of healthy and active living. Now, "live every moment" is what we say, so we work like hell, party like hell and that's made easier with instant foods, actually instant living. There's just everything that is brought to our hands. The other day, I went to the supermarket to see a lady's bag containing - instant noodles (just two minutes), milk powder (available for days together, there is no more pain of buying milk everyday and boiling it and curdling it for there was instant curd too in the bag), an aerated drink bottle (difficult to prepare fruit juices at home and what's readily available and what's just refreshing is this), bread and that freshly cut vegetables in a plastic bag (oops, it is such a pain buying vegetables from the market and cutting them and cooking and all that), readymade chappathis (hey, they are fresh and healthy) and two minute instant channa mix. Oops!! life's so easier these days, I dont have to move a muscle of mine. Sitting in front of the computer, sitting in front of the TV, chatting with people and roaming out is all that I do and I can still lead a comfortable life. Health complications?? no way!! I buy only health food , it may be instant, but it is so healthy. Common, why strain myself when I have everything right here, right now.. Alright, but health complications in future due to the way of living??? Hey, the medical technology is so advanced these days and I have earned all the money to spend, after all it is my health and am definitely conscious.. This seems to be the prevailing attitude. Phew!!!!!!!!

NEGLIGENCE

Let me start with the most interesting and unforgettable incident. The results of our Higher Secondary Board Examinations were released. I had scored just 158 out of 200 in English. I was so shocked and so were my teachers, friends and family as English and Tamil were my most favourite subjects and I’v given a consistent good performance. My English teacher asked me to apply for retotalling and I did so for we were damn sure that I deserve more for I had written the paper so well. I got the telegram later saying that my marks had increased. We went to the DPI to collect the marksheet and we were again shocked to find an increase of just ten marks. Earlier I had scored 94 in English I and 64 in English II and to my knowledge my English II paper was perfect. As I was about to sign the elaborated mark sheet maintained by the DPI, I had the greatest shock. My English II mark was 64 only, but my English I paper had 104 marks. That was 104 out of 100 (the marksheet given to the students contains only the consolidated marks, so that is 168 out of 200). When I asked the officer, all that he said was "You are going to do Engineering right? You have applied for retotalling in Physics also and there's no increase. So just be happy with whatever you have got in your English, sign and leave the place.” These people have the responsibility of bringing justice to the entire student community for our future lies definitely on our board examination marks too. And the catch, my teacher said that she had spoken to one of the officials (as soon as the results were announced) about my marks, that I had applied for retotalling and that they should look into my paper for they would then know that the valuation was wrong. So, our guess is that this person would have simply said, "Hey, give ten marks for this candidate" without even looking into the paper and there was my 104 for 100. Could such people behave so stupidly and so irresponsibly? My teacher's intention had actually turned into a blind recommendation. Her intention was to bring to their notice that neither the valuation nor the cross checking is done properly and she felt so bad at such an outcome, the extent of irresponsibility. But sometimes, it is our mistake also. I was shocked and angry and damn disappointed about the stupidity and I knew that it would be of no use complaining. But I still feel bad that I had not raised the issue to the concerned. So that's negligence on my part for I had neglected reporting and correcting what I call a crime. And, how many of us know students who had omitted questions (covered in Syllabus) and still obtained a centum.

Take the railways. We had booked first class tickets once to Tirupathi for there were no tickets available in the general class. We were actually not interested for we knew that it is not worth paying so much for a three-hour journey. Anyways, we had to go then. We were shocked to see that even the reserved compartments were heavily crowded. In a place where just eight people can sit, there were easily fifteen. We were imagining the fate of the people who had taken pains to reserve, what use? We couldn't have been more shocked to see six people in the the first class coupe which we had booked. And just for your information, the coupe can have just four people (we were four) and before we could go there were six and two were fast asleep on the berths. When asked, we came to know that they were railway employees, some returning home after work and some travelling to Arakkonam and Tirupathi with their families. When we demanded them to vacate, all that they said was they would be getting down in Arakkonam and that this happens usually. They simply paid no attention to our complaints. And the worst part of the journey was, the TT never came, probably he should have known that such things generally happen. We waited for the TT till Arakkonam, he never came and finally we managed to prevent the next bunch of people getting into the coupe. Well, if we could travel so comfortably without tickets, why take all the pain of booking and spending so much.

Temples and the loudspeakers -- belief that loudspeakers mean celebrative seasons, but the loudspeaker blares on most of the days in a year. Makes one wonder if they celebrate seasons or create seasons to celebrate. Temples are supposed to be a silent place of worship, a place of peace, but even temples these days are more commercial. But hey, don't you know the fact -- the bhakti has increased, there is more of devotion and they are devising ways for God Himself to hear the devotion (oops, should that be feel and not hear...well, we are talking about loudspeakers, so "hear" is the word)

Take political meetings. The loudspeakers (for shouting out the filthy words one knows) and the road blocks. Simple concept, shouldnt these politicians have the common sense that they should not cause inconvenience to the public, the people because of who they survive? It is pathetic to see our money being lavishly spent on the cut outs, the hoardings, the stages and the electricity (if it is a big meeting, then the lights are on during the day time too, extra brightness???) Result : power cuts even in the hottest seasons. Extremely pathetic!!

ottest season -- ozone warning. Too many flats being constructed in places that were green. Cant help the construction of flats due to the massively increasing population, but what about the deforestation. How nice it is whenever we enter areas filled with trees and how nice would it be if every such area is like that? hmmm...pulamba dhaan mudiyum. Deforestation, plastic covers everywhere, inorganic wastes, industrial dumps, huh!! where are we heading?

Negligence is the word that occured to me when writing and it seemed apt too. Neglecting one's responsibilities, be it the wrong doer or the victim. The victim neglects his responsibility to correct or complain effectively, but the victim's situation is understandable. In a world of threat and money power, one would prefer adjusting and accepting rather than complaining and correcting. There have been times when we have complained, but do we see any action being taken?? Influence matters, you see and the concerned officials have other useful work to do, they cant waste their time and life and ambition taking actions on the complaints from the public. So, what use complaining is what has set in. But there are still some officials whose focus remains on executing their duties and promises towards the society and they still remain reliable. So, let us not be negligent.

Thank You Card from a kid!!!!

Had written this for my friend. It was his wedding and he wanted a simple Thank You card to be given to the people who attended the wedding. And guess what, he wanted the card from his four-year old niece. So here'z what I composed....

It’s my maama’s wedding and how nice he is
Beside my maami, who is going to be his.
I am their niece, jus four years old,
A simple Thank you card is what I now hold.

Thanks to all our dear and near,
It's so nice to have you here,
To see you Bless this lovely pair
And wish them a life of joy and care.

Cho chweet!!!!

Adding on to the post below on kids!!!!! I jus love this!!!

kIdSsssssssssssss.......

We were on a treat to “Unnale Unnale” sometime back. Some were bugged and some watched the movie for a time pass. At a stage when people started getting really bored, this happened. There was a point when the heroine wanted to meet the hero and apologise. When she came to meet the hero, a kid behind us remarked, “Ippo I am sorry nu solla pora illa??” (The heroine is now gonna say, “Am sorry” right?). The entire crowd burst into laughter. Cho chweet kid!!!!

Kids are just terribly sweet. Once my kutti cousin had come home and my sis prepared Peas pulao for him. Later, my sis started reading and clarified with dad regarding the Power of Attorney . They both were talking so much about the Power of Attorney that when she came back for lunch and served Peas pulao to my cousin, he just exclaimed, “The power of pattaani!!”. (pattani in Tamil means Peas).

This cousin (whom I was talking about in the previous instance) was always our victim, esp. coz he was the youngest among us and the only boy :P. He was attending Abacus classes and one day, as we were going out in auto, we started asking him about the classes. A small boy, he’d generally put a big scene and as usual he said that he can add and subtract any two digit numbers within seconds. So we started with what is 47-29, 83-42, 64-18 and so on. He would use his fingers, do some calculation and give the right answers within seconds (we weren’t checking much for we took more time :P ). Finally, we asked him what is 98-97, he accidentally calculated that too using his fingers and then exclaimed 1 just to see us bursting into a loud and heavy laughter. He found the driver laughing too and started fighting and showing his face and all that. Whenever we meet him, we ask him what’s 98-97 only to see him grow red.

This happened as soon as this boy started riding a bicycle. He saw his elder sister and her friends walking along the road. He wanted to show off and he shouted “Hoodibabaaaa!!!!!” letting both his hands high up in the air. There was a big pit and you should have realised by now what would have happened J. The girls started giggling, filmy types eh??

We had a neighbour who had two kids and both of them were damn sweet and attached, they used to spend all their time at our place. I remember takin the younger one (he should have been four years old then) in my two-wheeler. I was so worried about him sitting behind and kept telling him to hold on to me tightly. He knew that I was worried and whenever I raised the speed, he would leave both his hands, hold them freely up in the air and shout “Sagiye!!” in the typical Madhavan style in the song “Pachai Nirame” and I will have to stop my vehicle then, only to see him laughing. This kept happening throughout the drive.

A one year old baby. A few relatives had a get together one day and were having dinner seated in a big circle. She was crawling behind us and found my mom who was tying a similar-coloured saree as her mom. So she tried standing up, holding my mom (whose face she didn’t see), hugging her and caressing her. Slowly she peeped and looked into my mom's face (just like that). Man, you should’ve seen her expession then, it was the movie types, where at the first glance she didn’t realise, but the next second, she glanced at her again, her eyes grew big and she immediately moved away. We broke into a big laughter and she laughed with us too not knowing why :-) . And sometime back, my aunt and uncle had come over with this baby to our place. That day she saw our maid coming and washing the utensils in the balcony. The next day the maid came and smiled at the baby and she was shocked to see this baby show her hand to the utensils in the balcony directing the maid to go and wash them. Our maid was awestruck J. She said she will never forget it. J

There was a mason we knew and he had a real cute kid. The boy was around 5 years, he was cute and had a sharp, shrilled way of talking. His Tamil was terrific, the typical Madrasi language. He would shout “Yekkaaaaaaoo” to me and I would shout back “Call me Akka” and he would shout again, “Yekkaao inga vaayen”. He would turn to my mom and say “Aundy” and my mom would say “Dey, naan aandi innum aala da, aunty-nu koopdu” and he would come back the next day saying Aundy again. One day he shouted “Aundy , tea pathikkudhu aundy”, we later realised what he meant was that the tea was very hot. And lots more, the chap was the sweetest.. now he’d have become a big boy, we really miss him.

Am sure everybody would have splendid unforgettable experiences with kids, maybe you can share them here :-). In the meanwhile , let me check if I remember more...

Hayyo!!!!!

This happened last week, there was a Circular from our Flat Association (I have just moved in here after my wedding) that there will be a General Body Meeting addressing major and all issues of all the Flats on May 1st, Tuesday at 9:00 am. I was shocked to see a major meeting being held on a week day during office hours. I didnt sign the sheet and told the flat helper that I will consult with my husband and ask the Flat Secretary to reschedule the meeting to a convenient timing. He was a little reluctant about me not signing the sheet but went away. I spoke with my dad-in-law later that afternoon and as I was saying this, he suggested me writing down in that sheet itself that it will not be a convenient timing, rather than going and talking with the Secretary. And my husband came home and said that had it been him, he would have written it down that way. The next morning, the helper came again, I told him that I was going to write the details in the sheet, he kept asking me as to why I dont just sign, but then, why would I do that? Shouldn't I voice my opinion against a totally useless scheduling? I wrote in detail asking the Association to reschedule the meeting to a more convenient timing like late evenings during weekdays, or on Sundays and that we will not be able to attend this meeting and that we feel that there is no point in conducting such a meeting. I was glad that I had done a good job only to find my husband asking me later in the afternoon as to when the meeting was scheduled. He asked me after he got a call in which I heard him saying a SORRY and all that. I told him that it was on the 1st of May at 9:00 am , he asked me what is 1st of May and I realised that it was a holiday being May Day.. oops!!!! so that was a call from the Association asking us why we had issues when the meeting was being conducted on a holiday and why write behind and that they are getting into the official records.. well, but nobody realised that it was May day, probably becoz I stressed more on the fact that it was a Tuesday at an office hour ... And what more, I had written everything and signed "For Vivek" :P:P:P . Idhukkudhaan over-a unarchivasa pada koodadho :-(

P.S. : But how many of you actually observed the May 1st there? ;-)

Call it presence of mind?? :-)

This happened in my final year of Engineering. Time to start off with our projects and we had our 0th review (zeroth review?? sounds terribly crazy?? but that was how it was called). Each team had to come and give a presentation on the project that had been taken up. Premalatha and me had planned to automate the Attendance Management System (idhellaam oru project-a nu nariya per kettanga) and we were the fourth team to present. We were taken by shock when we saw the second team giving a presentation on "Leave Management System " (adhu mattum oru project-a?? ;-) ) . And when our turn came, as soon as I started giving my presentation, our HOD stopped me asking a valid question with a strict tone, "Looks like your team and Rajesh' team are doing the same project, tell me what's different about your project and then proceed with your presentation, if not, stop and take up some other project". Before I could realise, I found myself blurting "Sir, they concentrate on absence while we concentrate more on presence" just to see an outburst of laughter from everybody with a "Very Good, Very Good" from my HOD. But then, I saw the other team going red and I tried to soothe things saying "Well, we just touch leave system while they are analyzing it in detail" and had to stop to see my HOD still laughing.... :-)