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.

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.

time with friend

"There isn’t much better in this life than finding a way to spend a few hours in conversation with people you respect and love. You have to carve this time out of your life because you aren’t really living without it." [quote]

It's always pleasure to spend time with a good friend; I spent few minutes with my friend today. And I am so happy I did so.

khoda-hafiz iran!

I am back. And no more return trips.

If you ask me whether I am missing Iran, I guess yes, a bit. Specially my last few days in Iran were too good and memorable. I'll definitely miss all the good people I used to know there; oh-so-gorgeous colleague Setareh, very-kind-and-helpful driver Rahim, Mr. Perfect mountaineering guide Mohammad, & everyone!!

More of mountainside stories of Iran later.

btw, Bangalore isn't bad either. Feeling fully at home.

kurai onrum illai

I don't know much about Carnatic music. But I love music, in any form of it. That way I enjoy Carnatic music too; just the thing is that I don't know rather-boring technical info about it. I don't know why on earth there is this belief that Carnatic music is a 'class' thingy and one should have raaga-taaLa knowledge to enjoy it.

Now that the cynicism part is done, here is the story. I love this song called 'kurai onrum illai' by MS Subbulakshmi. It has got superb lyrics by Rajaji. Singer is telling Lord Vishnu that she doesn't have any kurai (korathe in Kannada, I don't know the English term for this, someone pls tell me), but then going on telling Him that he's not seen in front of her eyes.

I don't remember how I came to know about this song, many be thru one of my tamilian friends. I'd heard that MS' biography is titled 'kurai onrum illai', after this song. I also know that the term 'marai' in this song means 'veda'.

Listen to the song here.

Oh well, the song is in Raagamaalika, n Aadi taaLa. See, even I've become expert.

Add on: while you are the there, you might want to listen to JagadOddharana by Purandaradasaru. Usually classical singers are accused of tampering the lyrics to fit into the aalaapas n stuff, but MS does this Kannada song properly. Check out the way she pronounces '...uddhaarana' after long 'jagadO...'. Well, that's why she is a legend.

lesson learnt: yellow isn’t dirty

I never used to like yellow, n always say ‘dirty yellow’; I don’t say that any more. Not after my trek on Friday. Fall colors were fantastic.

Eleven of us (including guide Mohammad n his wife Arezoo) started from Tehran early in the morning. After taking breakfast break on the way, we reached Taleghan village at around 9.30 am. That was the starting point for our trek. We had to cross the pass to reach the valley which was on the other side. Climb took some 3 hrs I guess, I did reasonably well this time. Descent to the other side was easy, but the funny thing was as the climate was rainy, wet mud was sticking to our boots. It made the shoes heavy, n few girls has bit of tough time there.

Soon we reached the valley n lo!! There was a stream flowing n on both side s of the stream were trees standing tall beautifully, as if someone had painted them with diverse colors! We took snack-n-photography break, n then started walking alongside the stream, feasting our eyes with lovely fall colors.

It was drizzling, cloudy; n there was background music of thunders for this lovely drama. The pro photographers in the group were waiting to catch the lightning in their cams. There was bit of snowfall too. On the way we saw many wild cherry trees & plucked cherries. There were walnut trees too. After reaching Hasanjoon village (our destination) we headed back to Tehran.

The group was very good. There were 2 or 3 pro photographers who’d come to capture fall pictures. There were students too. There was a journalist, who had done a linguistic course in Germany. We had nice chat about lots of things while the bus was moving in snail’s pace, thanks to the heavy traffic on the highway. We spoke about languages, Iran, India, n what not.

I got reminded of the song Veni mentioned in her blog recently - ಆ ಮೇರು ಈ ಮೇರು ಆಸೆಯ ಹೂ ತೇರು… ತುಂಬೈತೆ ಕಣ್ಣಾ ಎಷ್ಟೊಂದು ಬಣ್ಣಾ!!

Because of the hide-n-seek of rain n sun, we got to see rainbow for sometime. In Farsi, rainbow is ‘rangeen kamUn’ which means ‘colorful arch’. Isn’t it similar to our ‘kaamanabillu’?

It was a good trek. And yes, I like yellow now.

Fantastic photograghs by Oshin D. Zakarian. They really are photographs, not paintings.