If....

I had chanced upon this beautiful poem a couple of years back and had totally forgotten about it. Read it again in "Bridget Jones". So here it is, "If" by Rudyard Kipling

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

to do or not to do....

The topics of conversation be it in the social, friends or family circle, seem to be drifting towards higher education, getting that coveted Master's degree. For some it has become essential to get a degree to change their line of work, MBA being the most common. For some others it is an MS degree preferably from a US university. And for people who cant move away from their homes/commitments, distance education seems to be the option.

I too had aspirations of having an MS degree from a US university. Even went as far as preparing for GRE exams and managed to get a decent score.
For me it was the experience of having studied in a different country, living independently which was the premise. The kind of course work, the radically different teaching approaches was what i wanted to experience. Of course i was also to gain from the "technical expertise" :)

Circumstances forced me to give this up and i can confidently say i am happy to have taken that decision.

Let me go on to enumerate the various options that i have and why it wouldn't suit me.

I don't see the point of distance education. I can never take it up full time i.e sitting at home and reading up pages of technical stuff. It isn't challenging enough for me. I can think of doing it part time. I cant handle the stress that would result from balancing deadlines at work, course work, projects and ofcourse domestic life. I would end up in a similar job in India that i now have, with only a slight increase in pay.

So what is the point of this rambling you ask? :) i see an increasing number of people around me doing their master's degree. And that leaves me wondering if i am missing out on something. Sheep mentality perhaps!

However i feel the reasons for me pursuing one now are not strong enough. It also feels like time is running out. But that nag of not doing anything about it keeps coming back.....

hmmm....

It was a dream i had last night. One of my friends was visiting me during Diwali at my place. Nothing strange about the dream. It was just that "my place" was really my parents place and not my in-laws place. Close to two years of marriage, my subconcious has difficulty calling the place where i live, home. Even though i saw it built brick by brick, was part of every decision that was made and decorated the place myself. I guess more than 25 years of calling something yours can't be changed. My parents house will always be MY home. :)

shopaholic?

At the new campus at work, there are splashes of motivational phrases and quotes every where!
One such was written on a curved wall when we were on a tour of the new office to check out the interiors. I could see only a part of the word which said "ALE!" written in bold uppercase letters .My brain immediately made a connection and i excitedly shouted out "SALE!".
On approaching the other side of the wall, I realized that word was "EXHALE!", much to the amusement of my colleagues.

Oh well! the point i am trying to make here is that its been ages and ages since i went on a shopping spree. And i am not even a person who waits for a sale to be put up. I hate shopping whenever there is a sale. It was quite sad to realize that I have been completely off the addiction because of lack of time :( :D

Old age bites back?

An after dinner stroll turned out to be quite eventful and saddening today.

Close by home there is a temple outside which sits a security guard every night.
As we approached the temple we saw of couple of people milling around an old man who seem to be fast asleep. Looking at this i thought maybe the old man had lost his way. Having lived all my life in the same locality i can recognize quite a few people in the neighborhood. Thinking that maybe i would help the old man reach home, we approached the people who were standing around him. Turned out that this person wasn't someone i know. The security then told us it looked like the old man had deliberately left home as he had some bottled water and bread with him. It was his way of preparation to fend for himself.
One of the neighbors had got a blanket for the old man and asked him who he was and if he had lost his way. The old man looked like he was from a respected and well to-do-family. Any question that was asked to the old man to place his whereabouts, met with the same answer "Gottilla" (I don't know).

This situation moved me to tears. We stood there for sometime looking at the old man sleeping on the cold stone slab. And we moved on. Apparently this was the second time in the week that such an incident happened by the temple.

I wonder why people are ill-treated as they get old. I agree that they become senile and child-like. All they ask is for food,shelter and some love and affection if you are generous enough. After all the sacrifices and hardships parents face to bring up their kids, is it too difficult to take care of them nicely during their old age? Isn't it every child's responsibility and every parent's right?

It also made me think, how selfish the society in general is. All we did was, show sympathy for the old man ,feel bad for him and just get on with our lives. But then, I am an average person, whose decisions are impacted by/impact others around me. Or maybe i am using it as an excuse.
I have new found respect for people who are into serving the society. It takes a lot of selflessness and compassion to reach out and help people and give them permanent solutions to their problems.
Maybe i will go back with some food tomorrow, if not help find a shelter for the old man, thats the least i can do, if he is still around.

Weekend Gateaway : Coonoor

After a 6 month hiatus we finally managed to getaway from Bangalore for the weekend.
After a lot of internet research by K, we chose Coonoor as that was the most easily accessible place by bus. Owing K's vision still not being clear, we chose not drive.

We took the overnight bus to Coonoor and landed there at 6 AM after a bumpy ride thanks to the last minute booking of the only remaining seats at the back. The place which we had booked is around 7 kms from the Coonoor town.
We were told to look for a place called "Bison Country" opposite the 7th milestone on the road. It was quite easy to locate contrary to some of the reviews that we read about people taking hours to locate the place.
It was the most amazing weekend in a long time that we had. There was no agenda...no places to visit and we were in no hurry to get anywhere!




Between eating sumptuous meals, catching naps we managed to go on long walks on roads that seem to lead nowhere or just sit at the balcony curled up with a book. We even threw darts and even played carrom. K managed to win every single time as my carron skills are rusty :D .




The silence was defeaning sometimes to us city dwellers. The only sounds we could hear were from the farms and the plant nurseries nearby. And ofcourse the incessant chirping of the birds. :)


The homestay itself is very pleasant. It has 2 suites called "hoofs" and "horns".
And 2 rooms called "Dens". The decor is tasteful, simple and sticks to the theme of wildlife :)






We also went on a 3 km walk through the Nilgiri forest to reach the Raliah dam. It was built in 1935 and supplies water to the town of Coonoor. We even managed to spot some Malabar Giant squirrels. I was only thankful we didnt encounter any bisons. Before we set out for the dam , the caretaker asked us not to worry about the bisons. He told us we could take pictures should we encounter bisons on our way!

Music for the soul!! :)

Pandit Ravishankar's Vedic Chants of India never fails to relax me when I am mentally exhausted.

Simple every day chants set to soothing music be it the Gayathri Mantra or Asathoma. Brings tranquility to mind in troubled times. :)

Here is Sarve Bhavanthu Sukhinaha :




Here is the entire set : http://www.rhapsody.com/ravi-shankar/chants-of-india