Kudos to the dolphin savers

Faith was reinforced in the goodness of the human kind when I watched this video.  With news of the dwindling number of tigers, killing of elephants and the dwindling of forests that protect and nurture wild animals, this one is welcome news.  It just goes on to prove what we can do to coexist with nature.  Actually, what little we need to do but what happiness we will receive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekmMD8oYtJ0&feature=player_embedded

Watch this video of beach-goers in Brazil help the stranded dolphins.  I guess we are returning a favour.  You must have read stories of dolphins helping fishermen and people at sea.  What good you do goes around.

Joy Mukherjee - in memory

It was long long ago - long before cable TV with its long string of channels came in.  That was the age of Doordarshan.  One of the good things about DD was that you got to watch a lot of Hindi movies - old hindi movies.  That was one of the luxuries we had in our school days.

One of my favourite actors of that time was Joy Mukherjee.  Reason is of course obvious - he was joy to watch. Tall, young and pretty good looking.  And Joy and Sadhana - they made a great team on screen.  Sadhana is my all time favourite.  Her eyes - they took your breath away.

It is sad to hear that he passed away.  The good part is, he will continue to live in our memory.  He will be remembered for his movies.  I will remember him for some of the songs that I keep humming to this day, the lyrics of course forgotten, but the face of the actor very much in mind.

Some of the songs I remember him for are : Bahut Shukiriya,  Bade Miya Deewane, Lakhon hain nigah mein  zindagi ki raah mein(with a guitar that he does not use in the song),   Bandha par war Tham Lo Jigar.  

Deeksha, Me and her Playmates

This is (or was, she has changed in the past few months) one of Deeksha's favourite games when I go to Chennai.  She introduces me to all of her friends - her playmates.  And I am supposed to hold on to all of them at the same time till she is satisfied.  Then she takes them back and places them in the cupboard.  

This has happened everytime I have been there and have wondered what runs in her mind when she does this.  Anyways, I let her do it happily as it makes me happy to see her introducing her toys and being so interested. She has a name for all her toys, which I with my poor memory can't remember.  She repeats them patiently for me in case I make a mistake.

You can see Tweety an Betty.  The others, I don't remember again.  By the way, she bathes them in rotation and keeps them healthy and fresh.  Hats off to that.  She does take good care of her friends.

When lawmakers become lawbreakers

Found these photos in my cellphone(they were taken a few months back).  Took them when I found violations,  meaning to send it the then commissioner who was doing a good job bringing traffic sense into people.  However, people in his own force abandoned it.  

This was taken at R.S. Puram.  The police van was parked right under the 'No Parking' sign.

This one was again taken at R.S. Puram in front of Nilgiris.  I couldn't take it better, as the policeman noticed me taking snaps and started walking up.  And I am not a lawyer or a media person who can stand up to them.

All this at a time, when charging and towing was happening in full swing, for the common man ofcourse.  Why is it that lawmakers so easily become lawbreakers. 

Today we are back to our old ways after the change of guard.  Law enforcement is at its weakest.  Example ::   Just come to the signal near CMC on Avinashi Road.  There are umpteen two wheelers who come down the bridge instead of taking the U-turn at Thanneerpandal Junction and coming down towards CMC.  The policeman or woman allows them to cut across from the wrong side without as much as a word.  Another example ::  Take any 'No Parking' signboard.  And you will find a vehicle parked right under it.

Yum!

Something I cooked up one sunday !  Why is it that sometimes I am in my elements and sometimes, I am not. Sometimes I cook something amazing and on others, it falls flat.  

Onam 2011

The first Onam together after a four year hiatus got me wondering what design to put for the Onam pookalam.  Finally, on my sister's advice we tried something different.  This is how it looked in the end.  Arun pooled in with his ideas of placing the green and was my edupidi(poor him).  He trimmed and destalked the flowers to do the pookalam.

Making the Onam sadhya(lunch) and putting the flowers, it took me six hours.  I am slow I have to accept.

Not a Dry Leaf

At first, I thought it was a dry leaf.  Then realized, it was alive and kicking.  It was a mantis.  Green, I have seen, not brown and not one so big.  - From the archive collection titled 'Univ. of Hyderabad'.

Politics should be defamilized !

Yes, I am trying to coin a new term.  Defamilized !

Businesses run for profit.  The motive is known, side-effects understood. You have an entire family of doctors.  Those days, such families used to run good hospitals with the sole objective of learning.  I remember my parents speaking of one such family in Trichy.  The father and sons would sit around a table, treating patients, poor and sick from morning till midnight, with just breaks for breakfast, lunch and tea.  They run it in the same fashion the last time I went there.  Yes, it looked like what you would call a government hospital.  But let me tell you.  Those doctors were what you would call 'close to God' for many, poor and moneyless.

That was an age when doctors, teachers and politicians got into it for the sheer joy of doing something good.  Doctors have changed, so have teachers.  But go to any hospital, and you would still find quite a few who follow those principles, who take time to smile and reassure you (I met one such yesterday - God Bless Him !).  Same with teachers.  But the place where people of this tribe have ceased to exist is politics. 

You find people who live out of a two room house standing for elections - oh ! wait.  Nothing wrong with that.  They have cutouts put up in various parts of the city with each huge cutout costing anywhere between 75K to 1L.  Ask them who gave them money for this and they will tell you well-wishers.  Now tell me, won't these well-wisher knock the door again for a wish when you win elections.  Another two months, and the person moves into a bungalow, and then he starts owning entire buildings and acres of land, moving around in a Mercedes. 

I am not telling that all politicians are like this.  I had a friend of mine whose mom won a local election by talking straight, assuring people of doing good and telling them politely that she did not have money to dole out for free.  And she won !!!!  That is what democracy is all about, isn't it.  Those are the stories that reassure you that yes, humanity and dignity still exist among the political lot.

And then I read in the paper yesterday 'Someone is ready to take the plunge if people want him to'.  People, which people - maybe people means just family.  In India, with political families, the entire family is into politics in some way or other.  When business fails, or becomes not so profitable, maybe politics looks assuring.  Maybe ! [Again, I am not telling all of them are like that].  But then, after looking at father-child-grandchild dynasties across the country and looking at how easily people connected get seats, and those who are new have to climb the steep ladder the hard way, it is time I think politics is 'Defamilized'.  Maybe, skip a generation atleast.  So that it does not become an occupation, for it is not a job, even like that of a doctor or teacher or engineer.  Politicians are those who fix the fate of a nation, who steer a country and given that our country is one billion, maybe a wide enough representation of families will help in diversity of views, of thought and of action.

Demotivating should be classified as a crime

Demotivation !  The mention of that word is demotivating.  So, you can imagine what happens when someone tries that with you repeatedly. 

It is a strong and cruel tool used by many people whom we see in our day to day life.  And those who have a strong tongue, a superiority complex or is a person in power uses it with so much ease.  They do it in so many ways :  try to talk you out of doing something, try to put you off, try to tell you that you are not good enough or that the task at hand is something that you cannot or do not have the capacity to handle.  And if all this does not work, then they start striking using means and ways that make you wonder how ? 

With young people especially, motivation is a strong force - which when used can bring wonders.  A little bit of the magic potion, and it makes people whom you could have initially thought inept, do amazing things.  They fly, soar and take paths others would have thought twice. 

So then, one can only imagine the destructive power of the opposite.  Just like the power of love to give and take, motivation has the power to build and destroy, looking at it from different sides.

It takes a person of exceptional courage and willpower to resist that force of demotivation.  Today, you talk to any person working in any field, and they find so many people ready to demotivate and so few to motivate.  Why are we becoming so negative, I wonder ?  Why is it that we (parents, teachers, friends, siblings, employers, employees, ............) try to demotivate people when it is so easy to motivate ?  Why is letting of negative energy so alluring ? 

Sometimes I think demotivating should be classified a crime.  Because it is deadly. It is deadlier than killing the body.   It kills the flame, the eagerness, the happiness, the very soul of a person.  It leaves the person in a state of vacuum.

A Potty Story !

I have not blogged in a long, long time. Not because there weren't topics to blog about - to think out aloud, to thrash. Given the goings on around, there was so much to argue, oppose and find a means to think objectively.

However, a conversation I had yesterday gave me a reason to get back. This was what happened :

I called up my sister, who picked up after a long long time. She had just then given a bath for my four and a half year old niece, which is a task by itself. As she spoke to me, she put on a dress for her. Just then, my niece said she wanted to go potty. I asked my sister if that wasn't unusual - didn't she go before her bath.

Given her vacation, madam has changed her schedule to suit her games and her system has gone wary. My niece was insisting that she was on the verge of going and rushing her mother. Asking her why this last moment hurry, she came out with these :

Conversation - 1:

(Family going out, and daughter asked to go potty so that there is no exceptional event inbetween the outing)

Mother : Deeksha, aren't you finished ?

Daughter : Mama, no !!

Mother : Finish up fast - time to go !

Daughter : Mama, potty is not coming !

Mother : Only if you finish can we go !

Daughter : Mama, potty is sleeping. Let it sleep for some more time. We shall go.

Mother : No ! Only if you finish can you come. Else, mama and papa will have to go alone.

Daughter(heard from the other side of the door) : Potty, come out. Mama is calling. If you don't come out now, mama and papa will go out, leaving us alone at home. So, please come out fast !

I burst out laughing, at the same time wondering how a four year old could make up a conversation so effortlessly. Potty sleeping, so let it sleep for some more time !!!! And look at the articulation - not that

she was trying or not trying. It was the potty not making an effort.

Conversation - 2:

For Madam(my niece), nothing can disturb her games. Everything else, comes second. So, susu and potty can be postponed to the very last minute and is always done in such a hurry - in order to not waste a second of playtime.

So once, before she could remove her dress, susu started off and she couldn't do much. As my sister was mopping the floor with dettol, she offered this explanation. 

Daughter : Mama, I came as fast as I could. I told susu to wait a little but susu just didn't listen. I kept telling susu to wait but susu just didn't. What can I do mama. It is not my fault.

As if, she and her susu are part of two separate systems.......... I was amazed and at the same time laughed at her ingenuity and the workings of a little childs mind. It is amazing the stories they make up(even about susu and potty). And at that time, all I wanted to do, was hug her and kiss her for being just her...........

Rs.25 a day

The Planning Commission has submitted before the supreme court that an individual income of just Rs. 25 a day constitutes adequate “private expenditure on food, education and health.” This amount includes a monthly expenditure of Rs. 31 on rent and conveyance, Rs.18 on education, Rs. 25 on medicines and Rs. 36.50 on vegetables. 

Read:  http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2471104.ece

What does this mean ?  That if I earn 25/- a day (assuming 6 days per week for 4 weeks sums to Rs.600) then, I can lead a basic life that will provide me nutritional food, quality education and health.  Who is saying this ?  Have the people who say this tried it out for a day -  a week, forget a month.  Let's assume that basic things like rice, dhal, wheat, sugar... has been procured through the public distribution system.  Even then, if a human being needs to lead a healthy life, he needs to buy vegetables.  Given the cost of vegetables, maybe he will get one piece each - is that enough for a family.  Health - even if I go to a government hospital, I need to travel, but supplements to enable my health.  Education - assume I go to a government school.  So, even considering the above, will it suffice ?  

Looking at it another way, by what is said, a person in that level, can never aspire to something more, because he is not given a chance.  Given the condition of government schools, his/her children cannot aspire to an education that pulls them out of the situation.  The amount and quality of food does not enable a child or an adult to a decent health situation in normal times, forget the times when they are unwell.  

And the worst part is that it comes from the planning commission - which world are these people living in ?  Last week, I was listening to Prof. Kirti Trivedi's comment on MGNREGA.  Many people have the opinion that the NREGA is making people lazy by providing easy access to things.  100 days of work in a year for wages ranging from 100 to 120 a day comes to 10000 - 12000 a year.  All this for only one person in a family.  With this he/she has to provide for a family of 3,4,5,... That is not taken into consideration.  So, 10000 divided by an average of take father, mother, son, daughter-in-law and two children makes it 10000/6 = 1667 per person in a year.  He was right in saying that it is CRUEL to say that MGNREGA is making people lazy and giving them something easily or that it is enough. 

For someone living in poverty or on the fringes of poverty, how much is enough ? Who decides that and how ?

The planning commission today is thinking on the same lines.  Where do we turn to ?  How do they say that a person earning above Rs.25/- a day cannot be categorized under BPL especially given prices of things today.  Then, doesn't a human being need more for just basic existence ?  What about money to pay rent, buy clothes, for entertainment, to eat something different, for travel ?  Or do we think that they do not have the right for that ?

Why don't we have policy makers with a brain and a heart ?  Or is that too much to ask for ?

I am not disabled, I am just a double amputee

 "I am not disabled, I am just a double amputee".  This line by New Zealander Mark Inglis,  shows the mettle he is made of.  Another story of beating the odds - of being an inspiration.

http://www.samachar.com/ldquoI-am-not-disabled-just-a-double-amputeerdquo-lhscK1gigbd.html

Publish Post

Believe you can

There is need to believe you can do it - whatever it maybe.  Mike Powell shows how. 

http://www.rediff.com/sports/slide-show/slide-show-1-long-jump-world-record-holder-mike-powell-interview-bikash-mohapatra/20110705.htm