you know you're getting old when..

I read this interesting post by fellow Toastmaster Ramya, which gives you a check-list to find out if you're getting old. Those of you who are in mid/late twenties can relate to this a lot.

She writes:

There are a few startling moments when you reckon that you are getting old in the face of this earth..

- when your friends are only talking abt their spouses and
children
- when 'Economic Times' starts making a lot of sense

Read the complete list here.

While reading this, I made a rather-pleasant(?!) discovery about myself. Economic Times doesn't make any sense to me yet. And I'm not even bothered about home loans, budget, and recipes. This must mean I am young :)

Or am I an over-grown, mentally not-grown kid?

ತೇಜಸ್ಸು ಅನವರತ ಜೀವಂತ

"ಕುವೆಂಪು ಅವರ ಅತ್ಯುತ್ತಮ ಕೃತಿ ಯಾವುದು?" ಅಂತ ಖ್ಯಾತ ಸಾಹಿತಿಯೊಬ್ಬರನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿದಾಗ "ಪೂರ್ಣಚಂದ್ರ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ" ಅಂತ ಉತ್ತರ ಕೊಟ್ರಂತೆ. ತಮಾಷೆ ಅನ್ಸಿದ್ರೂ ಈ ಉತ್ತರ ಒಪ್ಪಬಹುದಾದ್ದೇ; ಹಾಗಂತ ಎಲ್ಲ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ ಅಭಿಮಾನಿಗಳಿಗೂ ಅನ್ನಿಸಿರುತ್ತದೆ.

ನಾನು ಓದಿದ ಮೊದಲ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ ಕೃತಿ ’ಪರಿಸರದ ಕತೆ’, ಅದೂ ತುಂಬಾ ಹಿಂದೆ, ಪ್ರೈಮರಿ ಸ್ಕೂಲಿನಲ್ಲಿದ್ದಾಗ. ಆದರೂ ಸುಸ್ಮಿತ ಮತ್ತು ಹಕ್ಕಿಮರಿ, ಕಿವಿ, ಮಾನೀಟರ್, ಶ್ರೀರಾಮ್.. ಎಲ್ಲಾ ನಿನ್ನೆ ತಾನೇ ಪರಿಚಯವಾದವ್ರ ಹಾಗೆ ನೆನಪಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಉಳಿದಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಮುಂದೆ ಒಂದೊಂದಾಗಿ ಅವರ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳನ್ನು ಓದುತ್ತಾ ಹೋದಹಾಗೆ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ ಒಂದು ಹೊಸಾ ಲೋಕವನ್ನೆ ನನ್ನ ಮುಂದೆ ತೆರೆದಿಟ್ಟಿದ್ದರು. ಪರಿಸರ, ಪ್ರಕೃತಿ, ಮತ್ತು ಕನ್ನಡ ಓದು ಇಷ್ಟವಾಗುವ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ ಇಷ್ಟವಾಗಿಯೇ ಇರುತ್ತಾರೆ.

ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಬರಹಗಳಷ್ಟೇ interesting ಮನುಷ್ಯ. ನಿನ್ನೆ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯೊಂದರ ಪುರವಣಿ ಲೇಖನದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಬ್ಬರು ಬರೆದಿದ್ದರು, ಅವರು ತೇಜಸ್ವಿಯವರನ್ನು ಭೇಟಿ ಮಾಡಿದಾಗ ’ಏನು ಬರೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದೀರಿ?’ ಅಂತ ಕೇಳಿದರಂತೆ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ ’ಯಾವಾಗಲೂ ಯಾಕಯ್ಯಾ ಬರೀತಾ ಇರ್ಬೇಕು?’ ಅಂತ ಮರುಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಹಾಕಿದ್ರಂತೆ. He lived by his own rules.

toastmasters speech - 2

This is the second speech I did at Toastmasters club. Though my speech didn't strictly adhere to the guidelines which said 'Organise your speech', it was quite well-received.

* * * *
A hiss in the neighborhood

Picture this. Early September day in a village where the monsoon was just over and the lush green paddy fields are swaying to the soft breeze. A small lil’ girl is running amidst those fields. How does it sound? Beautiful right? But this picture doesn’t remain beautiful for long. The shadow of death was looming large over this beautiful picture.

The girl, obviously unaware, steps into the territory of a creature, which was also a resident of that beautiful place. She sets her foot on or near a deadly cobra, which was passing by, and gets bitten.

That bite.. I cannot forget it! Well, I’m still alive!! I was the fortunate one to stare death in its eyes, say hi, and come back... of course with little help from doctors and the ventilator for 2 days.

Well, ‘once bitten by snake, one is scared at mere sight of a rope all his life’ – goes a Chinese proverb. But I was, and I am an exception to that saying. I somehow developed interest in snakes, and started learning more about them.

But, many… are not like me. They have a fear for snakes. Many of us are scared, by just the thought of snakes.

Why? Why are we scared of snakes? .. The fear is rooted in lack of accurate information. Once we are equipped with a little knowledge and understanding of these beautiful, interesting, and inoffensive creatures we will find that there is nothing left to fear.

Snakes are the most modern of reptiles; they are believed to exist during the time of dinosaurs. Snakes are the finest examples of theory of evolution. Their anatomy is such that they can swim at seas, climb trees, crawl in land, and tunnel beneath dirt and sand. They have an important role to play in our ecosystems. They have evolved a great deal to survive - be it adjusting their anatomy, developing infrared heat sensors to find prey, or developing venom to defend themselves from their prey. In short, snakes are incredibly successful, unique and remarkable animals, well deserving of our respect and admiration.

But, for centuries, snakes have figured infamously in the religions, customs, and the folklore. To early humans, snakes might have seemed magical and almost supernatural. Anything, which looks different, is scary for us. Added to that snakes could cause sickness or death just with a single bite. A science fiction writer couldn’t have asked for a better model, so it is not surprising that snakes feature in fictions and myths.

Well, I called snakes ‘inoffensive’, you might not agree with that. Because they bite!!! Yes they do, but let’s try to know a bit about it. There are at about 2500 species of snakes in our planet; among them only 450 species are venomous, and among those 450, only 250 species have venom, which can kill human beings. Lighting kills more people per year than snakebites!! And I am not even talking about Bangalore’s roads!!

Why snakes bite? They bite for 2 reasons – 1. To defend themselves from threats. 2. To get food. When a snake bites a human being it’s mostly for the first reason. Snake is as scared as you when you encounter it; they know that man is most dangerous animal!! And let me tell you, SNAKES DON’T CHASE AND BITE. There is no snake, which can move faster than a human being. I know what you are thinking now – about those Nagin movies!! Well, I can only say any work of fiction is only for entertainment! In the world of fiction snakes can recognize people, remember them for years, and they take grudge on them. But the science proves that snakes have very underdeveloped brains, their learning capacity is very low, and all they can think of is their survival.

One fine day a snake decides ‘Husna is my enemy I need to go bite her’. No matter wherever she is – in college, at home, at party, or may be she’s hiding in a toastmaster’s meeting. The sole purpose of that snake’s life is to bite Husna. Well, this is fiction. Reality is Husna may get a snakebite when she ventures out in a snake’s territory unknowingly, and pose thereat to snake’s life; even in that case snake will try to flee at the mere sight of Husna, and it may bite her only at what-it-thinks unavoidable situation.

Well, we are scared by a mere sight of a snake - be it venomous or not. Some say they look very mean. What gives them the mean look? Their eyes and that forked tongue. The eyes of snakes look mean because they don’t have eyelashes. Instead they have a thin skin covering on their permanently open eyes. And the forked tongue is not actually a tongue, it’s sensory organ thru which they can smell the surroundings. Snakes have very bad hearing and vision. They poorly try to make up for it by having a smelling organ and their ability to sense the movement of other creatures thru vibrations of earth. Snake charming, which is popular in India, is actually a fake show put up by the charmer. Snake would definitely listen to brand new album of Shakira instead of that boring instrument if it could listen to music!

India is often called ‘the land of snakes’, true to our fame in the mythological and folklore stories. Snakes often appear as characters in Hindu mythology, and we even have a festival called nagpanchami on which people worship snakes. Well, we are not the only ones to worship snakes. People of Egypt do it too. But in the west, snake is considered as a symbol of evil; in the Bible, devil appears in the form of a snake and tempts Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Snake finds its place not only in Chinese mythology but also in Chinese recipes! Yes, in china snake meat is a delicacy; and in some far eastern countries snake meat and snakes blood is believed to have medicinal values!

Well, from temples to food platters, from bollywood’s Nagin to hollywood’s Anaconda... they are everywhere. True, they play devils in the world of fiction, but let’s get to reality and treat them as just fellow beings. A hiss in the neighborhood doesn’t mean that someone is out to get you. So when you see a snake chasing the poor heroine on screen next time, don’t hate the snake; hate the director!!

car car car..

I saw a BMW yesterday while getting back from work. I was thoroughly fascinated to see it, as BMWs are rare sight in Bangalore. I don’t even get to see Mercs too often.

This invoked my memories of Iran; we used to count the number of BMWs and Mercs we got to see during our trips to-n-fro office. I am bit of a car-freak, so I liked Iran’s roads where ample variety of cars was seen everyday. They have all the good models of European market. The main attraction was Toyota’s Land Cruiser model, which is called Prado. It seems only few celebrities in Mumbai have Land Cruisers.

They also have BMW bikes in Iran; they look simply awesome! One of the items in my to-do list there was to get a ride in BWM bike. It didn’t get fulfilled; because only police are authorized to use those bikes, aam junta can’t have high-end bikes there for some law-n-order issues.


* * * *

I'd read somewhere that one of our movie actors (I think it’s sunil shetty) gifted a BMW car to his girlfriend while proposing marriage, and said that BMW meant ‘be my wife’. Now, that’s a decent proposal. Can anyone reject such proposals? ;-)

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.

* * * *

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!

* * * *

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”!

* * * *

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.

book meme

It's been long time. Anything I say about it will be an excuse. I'm just lazing around. Got sort of comfortable about not blogging, and had to re-break the ice.

Saw this book meme in one of favorite blogger's archives. Thought it will be good (read: easy) post for now.

1. One book that changed your life?.
I have got inspired, learnt things from many books. But one I largely remember is 'Who moved my Cheese?'

2. One book that you have read more than once?
I've read many many books more than once. SLB's novels mainly, Murthy Rao's too. I can even read Sidney Sheldon's novels more than once!

3. One book you would want on a desert island?
May be I'll take Papillon so that I get inspired to escape from that island.

4. One book that made you laugh?
Many. Cant think of any titles now.

5. One book that made you cry?
again, many. Most of SLB's books, specially 'Parva'.

6. One book you wish had been written?
Ah.. not thought of any book that way. I'm just happy reading them.

7. One book you wish had never been written?
All those big fat text books; Physics n Maths text books mainly.

8. One book you are currently reading?
Scarlett, The sequel of 'Gone with the Wind'. This book was written by Alexandra Ripley in 1991. Generally the sequels are written by the same author, in a series. But in this case it's different (Gone with the Wind was written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936). But the charm of Scarlett O'Hara world continues in this book too.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?
Kite Runner, have heard a lot about it. Have also conned Subha to buy it for me :-)
Need to grab a copy of 'AvaraNa' before it disappears from the shelves. SLB books are famous/infamous for going out-of-print.

10. Tag 5 people to do the meme!
You are welcome to do it. Drop me a line and let me know if you do it.

woh kagaz ki kashti

"Yeh daulat bhi lelo,
yeh shoharat bhi lelo,
Bhale cheen lo mujhse meri jawani
Magar mujhko lautado bachpan ka saawan
Woh kagaz ki kashti, woh baarish ka paani."

I heard this ghazal by Jagjit Singh in the radio just now.

And this is my current mood too.