k.a.n.k., and related thoughts

I watched KANK in TV recently, having missed it when got released. Many people had told me that it was a bad movie. But it was not all that bad, it’s an okay movie if u ask me. It should have been edited better; it got dragging at times.

Well, I am not doing a review of the movie. What held my interest is the subject of the movie. I thought it was interesting subject.

Relationships are most important part of life (I am talking generally, not the kind of relationship Dev & Maya had ;-)). Because we like being with people; we don’t like being alone; we are social animals; we love to be loved.

Basically relationships make us happier, or we think so. But many times we end up being in relationships just for the sake of it. Why? Every time we enter into any sort of relationship we hope that it’s going to be a great one. We may not think the same way after sometime though. Because we all keep changing; our requirements, and our specifications change by time too. I feel we need to do periodical reviews of relationships we have. I have this habit of going thru my phonebook once-in-a-while, and I delete the numbers I don’t require. I know it’s a bad example, but I feel we need to do something similar when it comes to our relationships. It might not be easy & simple if the relationship is something like marriage. But we can always do it in boy-girl relationships, and in friendships. You don’t get to choose your family, your enemies, and your boss. But you get to choose all other relationships you are going to have; and you get to keep them or throw them as you like. What’s the point in keeping an uncomfortable relationship, when the basic purpose of relationship is to make u happier?

On a same-yet-different viewpoint, relationships are not one-time process. We need to work on them every day to keep them alive. If your relationship fails, it’s 50% fault of yours. It’s your failure if you decide to throw a relationship off the window. We always tend to blame the ‘other person’; but remember, the ‘other person’ is going to blame you just the same.

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Coming back to KANK, they have portrayed that the couples were different from each other, their interests didn’t match; and that’s the reason their marriages didn’t work. I don't agree with that. People can have good relationship in spite of being ‘different’. It’s just that you need to give enough space for the other person to breathe his/her own air.

I also thought that Preity Zinta’s character was painted a bit of gray, which was not required. Being career-oriented is not bad, specially when your husband is unemployed.

toastmasters speech - 1

I just thought of putting my toastmaster speeches here. So here is the first one of the series, which is called 'Icebreaker'; all you need to talk about is 'yourself' in this speech. I like the title of this speech, I don't know how I got that idea!

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Thursday Blues

It’s a nice Thursday morning, a beautiful day, the clock is almost hitting 9 o’ clock, and the world is all up and about. But, there is this one person who is away from all the action, enjoying the sweeter-than-sugar late-morning sleep!!!!

This person is an ardent disciple of Oscar Wilde who said “action is the refuge of people who have nothing whatsoever to do”.

And this is me.

Today I am going to share with you a little bit about myself.

Well, it’s a bad world, it doesn’t allow me to be Oscar Wilde’s disciple, so I need to push myself up from the bed and head towards office where I work as a Technical Writer. Technical writer? What’s that? That’s the usual question I face when I introduce myself as a technical writer. Let me tell you what a technical writer does. They say it’s a sad thing that we don’t come to this earth with instruction manuals. Fortunately all the other things we use in day-to-day in life come with instruction manuals. The people who write those manuals are technical writers. And that’s what I am.

The next question often is - ‘what have you studied to become a technical writer?’ Let me tell you, writing doesn’t need any qualification other than to be interested in things around you. As someone said, writing is turning one’s worst moments into money.

Having said that, yes, I too have gone to schools and colleges - more out of my parents’ interest than my own. School was nice; it’s college where the problems began. I enrolled into math’s, physics, and chemistry much against my interests.

February 1996 ---- PUC board exams ahead ----- Wills world cup in India ---- being the kind of cricket fan that I am, I watched ALL the matches. Result: I failed in Physics. My family didn’t want me to waste a year, so I was enrolled into a computer diploma course. Surprisingly, I did well in that course, which earns me a living today!

Now let me go back a bit and take you through my childhood days. I come from a small beautiful village in Udupi district in Karnataka. We were a big family of 9 - my parents my 6 elder sisters and me. We made our living in agriculture and my parents were able to attend to just our needs, not our wants. But if I can explain my childhood in words, it was “just damn good!” We had cows at home, and it was rule that kids had to take the cows out for grazing. We used to roam in fields and forests, play nice games, pluck and eat all those delicious nameless fruits, steal tender coconuts from neighbors’ trees. I have never eaten anything tastier in my life than those stolen coconuts! It was during these carefree childhood days that I developed interest in nature and wildlife.

Even now I venture into forests to learn about nature and wildlife. I go trekking often. It was a magical moment when I encountered a herd of elephants from very close distance in a recent trek at Bandipur wildlife sanctuary!

My other great passion is reading. I read at least 2 hours a day, I start reading by 11 pm and go on till the wee hours of the night. My late-morning sleeping schedule is thus well-justified!!

I read almost everything: Sidney Sheldon, Bernard Shaw, Jim Corbett, R K Narayan, and of course, a big list of Kannada writers… There are very few things which interest me enough to get up and go out. A comfortable couch, an engrossing book, and a hot cup of coffee - that’s heaven for me!

I am a typical Piscean. Lazy, kind, procrastinating, sensitive, unworldly, weak-willed, affectionate, intuitive, introvert.. all the good and bad of fish – is what I am.

I adore simple pleasures. Just a song by my favorite singer on the radio or a smile by a cute kid in a passing car does wonders to my day at work. Small things matter to me. I believe that life is all about stopping for a while and smelling the roses!

Well, that is all about my present and past. What about my future? I - don’t plan anything; I believe - life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans. I don’t dream big; but yes, I do dream of owning a library at home and driving a Reva car of my own. I also dream of taking a trip to Amazon forests.

Let me tell you all a small story. “Ignorance is bliss”, they say. I agree with that. When I was 10 years old, I was bitten by a highly poisonous cobra. I fought death for 2 and half days. According to the doctors, the only reason I survived was that I didn’t have mental breakdown after the snake bite. Generally in snakebite cases, people die more of fear rather than the venom. Being a kid, I was so innocent and ignorant of the dangers of snakebite that I wasn’t scared and that blissful ignorance brought me back to life…

Life.. what’s it? Is it a reason to indulge in ignorance? Or is it an opportunity to learn? Well I have learnt only one thing about my life so far... “it goes on”!

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I did this speech way back in October 2005. I have changed quite a bit since then; in fact I am even amazed with that!

at loss of words in a wordy world

Well, I can talk about Toastmasters like every other toastmaster does – a forum which was founded by Mr. Smedley in the US long back; a communication skills development community; emphasizes on public speaking; improves your wholesome personality; helps you to develop self-confidence... so on & on & on...

The point is you don’t need a toastmaster to tell you all these things; you can google it for yourself.

Is that all? No. It has got something magical, which is beyond words. I truly truly feel good about being a toastmaster. And that’s what matters the most to me . It might be things I get to do, or people I get to meet at the Toastmasters club I belong to. I'm lovin' it. (No McD, only Smedleys)

'later'..

.. that's what I think whenever I got to do something. Procrastination is in my blood. I am a piscean, and we are known to be lazy and procrastinating.

It's taking over my life from me. I don't seem to be doing anything other than drinking coffee.

Just when i realised this and thought about getting things done out of me, I read this post titled 'I'll just get the file out'. Pretty impressive, inspiring, and simple technic to follow.

I did my Toastmasters speech last week after ages. It was nice to break the break and get in to some act. Oh, I don't believe I haven't written about Toastmasters here yet!!!

ps: I found out that there is an orkut community called 'Procrastination'. Anyways, I don't think much posting happens there, all the members of that community will be thinking 'later' when it comes to posting :-)

pps: ವಿಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನದಲ್ಲಿ ಜೋಶಿಯವರು procrastination ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಬಹಳ ಹಿಂದೆಯೇ ಬರೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಲಿಂಕ್ ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ.