Work maladies...

For all the hardwork and labour that is invested, we finally receive an acknowledgement from work stating, “Yes, you may now be eligible for a raise coupled with promotion.”

“Wow!” is the feeling within...

Lo and behold, hang on... with a disclaimer in fine print though!

“So beware” is the warning heard all around

Nevertheless, we are all excited to don our new hats with a new episode unfolding in work life.

We certainly expect to do something different rather than merely wearing a tag of designation; yet the moment is not opportune, and shunned, our views are!

Soon we rest our feet on ground, again back to the ugly mundane!

Glad on one count nonetheless, this deceptive misery makes for some good prose to write about!!

Life...so simple

There's life in everything around us, regardless of its stature...
As I go into a state of brown study, a state of nothingness post office,
Am back home and I realise, the fishes in our little aquarium  are starving...
The lights are soon on, and I take their food to feed them.
"Usha, one is dead", says my husband...!
"No it's not...!" I reply in a sigh of disbelief!
I had to bring myself back to terms and understand that we only have 3 out of the 4 fishes in the tank.
This may sound quite trivial and insignificant, yet there is a lot more to things than it meets the eye.
It is this realization and rationale that sets one apart and emerge stronger in life.
There is life brimming in every tiny thing around us, let's embrace it...and enjoy every moment before we say "Oh I missed that moment, I am too old for it now...!"

Freedom....do we have it yet?

At the wake of the 67^th year of so-called independence, we Indians seem to be living in a falsified sense of freedom. Freedom we for sure have from the British tyranny, nonetheless, in reality, we are not free. Independence could be anything ranging from the right to express/talk/information to another country’s rule over us. The latter has superficially, or at least to a large extent has reduced, nevertheless, we as a nation seem to have trouble with the right to express/talk/information.

                                It starts from expressing our views openly, people live with fear to post/tweet their thoughts/opinions online. Movies/Cinema have always been a great medium of entertainment/reformation. There are numerous movies that have been raised to cult status. It is sad to note that in a country so diverse in its culture as ours, we still face issues with the right to expression! We have all the time to dispute a filmmaker’s views and ban movies from being released, in stead, we’d rather spend time productively by looking into issues that are concerning, that are the need of the hour. Eg., rising onion/vegetable prices, downfall of the Indian rupee, women’s safety which is a perrenial issu, et al!

                            Now that’s not all...Freedom of expression is a cause for concern even in homes&work environment. Supression of thoughts is prevalent in most families; regardless of any gender. The simplest example begins with that of the stress and competition that students undergo. Peer and parental pressure make them choose courses which are not of their interest; this is one of the reasons we produce many  aimless MBA and engineering grads!

                        Work environment is a different ballgame altogether, whistleblowers are a universal threat, more so in an Indian corporate house.The feudal system has been eradicated, says who?! The so-called modern corporates/MNCs continue to practise it quite subtly, in the dress of diplomacy! You would have a so-called foreign client you would need to surrender to, completely, as they mean business at the end of the day! Thus we end up dancing to their tunes...!

                          With all these concerns looming large, one cannot a 100% vouch the fact that we are in free India now. It is time we wake up to the fact that there are actually, “miles to go before we sleep...!”***

***The phrase “Miles to go before we sleep”- Courtesy-Robert Frost.

Solitude

Synonyms to solitude are near to zero.Loneliness does not even come close to the word Solitude; for it could also be negatively impacting. Solitude on the other hand is a rare gem that one would love to treasure. Joys of solitude are aplenty... It could simply be a few minutes spent in absolute peace ally by oneself; and would still feel like aeons spent, amidst all the family and corporate madness, rat race, survival of the fittest et al.  

                        Solitude is a healthy drug that would prove to work wonders on you! All of us seem to have been caught in a gamut of "familiarity breeding contempt", we do not seemingly know how to free ourselves off the labyrinth! If there is truly some law called "the law of diminishing marginal utility" applicable to objects and actions, why can't the same be extended and applied to people as well? As in, why don't people understand the fact that regardless of how closely knit your ties are with another person, that individual still has a life, mind, brain and heart of his own that he/she could use to survive? Most of the clashes sprout when one's personal space and individuality is attacked. If one just takes a simple decision of understanding each one's freedom, half the troubled relationships could be saved. First, one needs to be convinced that he/she is an individual by himself/herself,  barring all societal mores that he/she is influenced by. If this is cracked, my dear friends, life could be simpler and easier, given the fact that a problem-free life happens only in the ideal world! So go hunt for those fun-filled solitary moments and unleash yourself! Most of all, never ever regret anything you do; quoting Dr.Seuss here- "Be who you are and say what you feel like because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind!"

What’s in a New Year….Read on

What’s in a New Year when every second is new?


Seconds change to minutes, minutes change to hours, hours to days, days to months and alas months to years and so on…!

With all pomp and ceremony we welcome the so called ‘new year.’

Resolutions have become a fashion statement

Counting down the minutes to the New Year is the in-thing

Each one is caught in frenzy and knows not how to welcome it

So lo and behold we have several commercial establishments selling and marketing their ideas and ‘help us’ celebrate the ‘new year!’

No doubt, wine and dine is their USP.

So all the party-heads and frenzied heads are buys partying away to glory in the name of welcoming the New Year.

We’re caught in a labyrinth until almost the end of the year and suddenly everything becomes clear to everyone and each one is busy taking big decisions, mostly short-lived!



If there’s a real reason to celebrate, one need not wait for a few seconds to transform into a year!

Every day is new, filled with newness…It is just that we don’t take notice of it and are ignorant about the inherent changes taking place in our day to day lives.

So let’s learn to first take notice of the simpler aspects of life and celebrate the beauty of life, the way it is, everyday…!

Hail Power-cuts!

As all the electrical equipments came to a grinding halt, my afternoon siesta had to cease too, after an inexplicable dream!
Still half asleep, my hand reached to the transistor to tune in to my favourite classical music programme on FM gold.
Lilting notes of the mandolin did I hear then...
Transporting me to a world of gay abandon!...
Amidst these groovy notes off the broadcast waves and sweaty sleeplessness, effort I put in to guess the raga of the song!!
Unsure was I as usual with guesses hovering around charukesi and hamsadhawani ...finally I settled down on Malayamarutham....!!
Nostalgia was the mood created eventually with a few drops of tears trickling down my cheeks...
I soon wait for the announcer to give out the name of the raga of the next song as I had already missed the first one which had left me guessing!
At such times of pleasant crisis, the announcer's piece of information is Supreme knowledge for amateurs like me!
Reach then did I to my Parker to scribble these ramblings on a piece of paper lying on the nearest table!
Now would love to sip in to a cup of caffeine...!
I'd love to savour every sip of my coffee with a relieved feeling of having managed to pen down something after quite a while!!!

Wishing myself a good evening ahead...! :-)

Penning down vs. Keying in…

With technology advancing day by day, no doubt, the Pen & Papyrus have been replaced by e-books and blogs. I-pads and smart phones have become the order of the day and sell like hot-cakes in the market and we have an upgraded version of every invention, almost daily! This has made life much simpler for most of the budding writers. As a matter-of-fact, the pros would certainly outnumber the cons if one is to compare penning down vs keying in for all practical purposes. As and when any thought strikes a writer’s mind, all he/she needs to do is, pull his i-pad out, and type it in! With blog sites like BlogSpot and social networking sites like Twitter, publishing of this ‘thought’ becomes even easier! No wonder, the word ‘tweet’ has come into existence! Even editing is made simpler when you go digital with your work, because of spell-check! The computer also provides you with different synonyms for a word with its look-up function, not to mention the grammar-check it offers too…! With all these factors in favor, anybody with a literary panache and a penchant for writing can definitely aspire to be a full-fledged writer.

Nevertheless, none of the afore mentioned benefits of e-writing can replace the joy of conventional writing… There is an immense sense of satisfaction when one picks his favorite pen and diary to pen down his thoughts. Coupled with this feeling comes a sense of originality and an unforgettable learning experience. For when one writes something in a piece of paper, he is challenged with spelling, grammar and punctuation as against their automated counterparts. Taking out one’s old dictionary or Thesaurus is the best way of learning new words, and when learnt this way, the learning by itself becomes an experience, thereby refreshing one’s repertoire of words. Testimony to all these facts is when you see one of your articles published in any newspaper or columns in tabloids, there is a sense of pride attached to it as against your work being published online!

Overall, with due credit to the latest technology, an amateur like me would advocate responsible usage of technology yet bearing in mind basics of conventional writing rather than being technology dependent even for a simple spell-check!