Vagabond

That was another tough day for all of us in the hostel; the examinations would start the next day. Unusually, all the hostelers were in their room, glued to their text books and notes at 6:30 pm in the evening.

Myself and Chandru braved out of the hostel as if there was nothing unusual to happen the next day, unmindful of the exams, to the nearby Lioness Club that was in a lane just behind our hostel in Eranakulam.

At the Lioness club, there was a presentation by those team members who had returned from their Expedition to Antarctica recently. The delegates included Scientists from National Institute of Oceanography, two Naval Officers and one Geophysicist from Geophysical Institute.

The lights were off and the documentary film show started. It showed the Ice filled terrains of Antarctica. The team which camped in Antarctica gave a name to their camp site as 'Dakshin Gangotri'.

Whilst the show was on, a member of the delegation was narrating their experience of Antarctica as to how difficult it was to manage the cold climate during their stay and what was their routine and the diet they had, etc,. Also they showed their only neighbors with whom they could be friendly with, showing those Penguins on the screen, which merrily flapped their wings and jumped about here and there.

I learnt, for the first time, that the penguins cannot fly and they had enjoyed our southern delicacy, "upma", the method of preparation was researched and prepared by The Food Research Institute, Mysore, specially for this Antarctic Expedition!

As we were engrossed in the meeting, somebody from behind vigorously patted my shoulder saying, 'hey subu... onga appa vandhirukaardaa' meaning, my father has arrived at the hostel... Which I couldn't just believe and so I ‘phooed’ him away by saying, "kathai vidathe da"... meaning 'don't lie'!

"Promise! Your father is sitting in my room and swore that he will declare you as a vagabond, if you don’t turn up within 15 minutes!"

This response from him made me immediately realize that my father was indeed around there, as he is the only person in this world that I know who would use the word ‘vagabond’!

Excusing with Chandru, I left the venue immediately and reached the hostel to see my father sitting in my study chair, giving a suspicious look as to why I went to Ladies Club and that too at night!

I have just returned after my emergency trip to Chennai and during my stay, my friend called me up after seeing ‘The Hindu’, “Hey Vagabond, sorry to hear about your Dad!”

Yes, the inevitable had happened; my father peacefully passed away on 3rd November, 2011.

Growth issues

Every day, in the morning, the first thing I would do is to see my weight in the weighing scale. Well, the day when I think I have reduced my weight, the scale would show higher reading than expected! I wanted to reach below the 80 kgs mark. To achieve that, I started on a regime of fast walking and also bought an 'abs reduction' special exercise chair from a mall from Dubai.

Now, with a renewed confidence of controlling my weight at my will, I decided to do an experiment. I went for 45 minutes fast walking and, thereafter, I had a lighter dinner than usual, thinking that the next day I would reach below 80 kg mark. But to my utter disappointment, after all the exercises, the scale read 83 kg as against the previous reading of 81 kg!

Recently, I was going through the exchange rate of Indian Rupee against Dhiram. Strangely I found a correlation to my weight! I found 1000 rupees equaling 83dhs! I was biding time to see that Rupee value would become weaker against Dhiram, so that I can transfer some money. I kept a benchmark level of INR1000 to go below 80dhs, so that I can transfer some money back home. I waited and waited for this to happen, like I was craving for my weight reduction.

Believe me; both my weight as well as the exchange rate never met my expectations for the past several months.

Well, I am planning to have a sumptuous dinner tonight and to head for the bank tomorrow, skipping the weighing machine and ignoring the growth issues!

Driving crazy

It is 3 years since I landed in Shajah. In whole of UAE, Sharjah is supposed to be topping the list of emirates wherein getting a Driving License is considered most difficult and uphill task!

Initially, I sort of, pooh poohed those who were telling this to me. I felt that it would be just a cake walk for me, especially when I had the experience of driving vehicles for over 20 years, having obtained the license 20 years ago in home country, and also with blemish less track record.

On my first "Kacha"test, my RTA inspector hesitated for a while whether to clear me or not and finally told me that word "talim". When I looked up in disappointment, he told those words, "Next time, I will pass you, Insha Allah"!

I felt that it would be just a matter of another test and thereafter one final assessment, then I would have in my hands, that beautiful piece of plastic card which would be precious than other credit cards snuggled away in my wallet!

Since then, and strangely enough, I have been giving "Kacha" tests for five more times without luck and, not had the chance of meeting the same RTA inspector who had made that promise.

When you fail once, the next time around you change the style of driving from defensive to offensive and vice versa or, adapt a submissive style. Last test was on 26th February, when I went with a resolve that I will just go and drive without even blinking for a moment that there is an Inspector by your side.

When came my turn, I simply pulled out my car from the parked position on the side of the road from inside the yellow line, and the moment he signaled me to go faster, I started racing faster and faster and in the process, overtook a trailer by the fast lane and came back to the right side. He then made me to take a right turn and one more right turn, before finally instructing me to park on the road side.
I saw to it that I parked the car exactly as per the copy book style that my instructor had told me during the training.

Back at the RTA driving school when we reached with the 4th candidate, the inspector signaled 3 of us as having passed.

I never felt happier when I got promoted in my previous job or when I got a baby or even when I got married!

The inspector came and handed over me the slip with the "Pass" stamp. I thanked him and before leaving the place, I gave a glance at him, when I was pleasantly surprised to see the very same person who said to me those words, " Next time, I will pass you, Insha Allah"!

Impromptu....

Impromptu is an attempt to render a song or a speech without any preparation or referring to any text or written script.

Thesaurus explains the word impromptu as something Spoken, performed, or composed with little or no preparation or forethought: ad-lib, extemporaneous, extemporary, extempore, improvised, offhand, snap, spur-of-the-moment, unrehearsed. Informal, off-the-cuff.

Most of us would get in to a situation when you are asked to say a few words in front of a gathering, a formal or informal group.

I observe that in earlier days, i.e. prior to the invasion of internet and computers, impromptu speeches were quite common and people were not uncomfortable doing it. But now with social networking sites making people glued to their seats in front of lap tops/computers, the changes in life style have almost made them recluse and not ready for such adventures like addressing a gathering. Even if pushed to make a speech, they make awkward attempt and fail to impress the crowd.

Impromptu is also a wonderful word as it can be used as an adjective, adverb or even noun! Impromptu means improvisation. Therefore, a person attempting it should have creativity. But to say that creativity can be only with a select few and not with all is simply wrong. Every one can make an impromptu, with a little bit of effort.

We have heard lot of folklores which are nothing but impromptus! Something which happens on its own without any special preparation, pre-meditation or prodding can be termed as impromptu. In a way, the revolution that happened in Egypt is also an impromptu!

My own attempts at impromptus have been fairly good but there were occasions when I could not make a free flowing speech as well. I have now learned to use a technique whereby if the topic is not really a comfortable one, dwell around it by frankly admitting my lack of knowledge, in a self-deprecating way, to make it interesting!

Well, the topic I chose to write was not prompted by anybody or pre-planned but popped up simply like the word itself, an "Impromptu"!

Myna Musings

There was a function to felicitate the Director-producer of the new sensational Tamil movie, Myna, at the Ajman Royal Palace Hotel. The meeting was hurriedly conducted, inviting only a few members of Humor club.


The director had come to Dubai for the screening of the movie at the 7th International film festival-DIFF2010.

Before the meeting, I was interacting with the director Prabu Solomon about his journey to success. He was quite philosophical in saying that 'successes don't come by luck but only earned by the dint of hard work'. If one has to wait for luck to favor then it is almost impossible to achieve success.

He also pointed out the habit of many people who would fall into a trap of superstitions and beliefs about the influence of celestial forces. They would not take up any venture during such 'bad period', fearing that they will fail.

Talking about the movie, he said that the main reason for the success was the choice of location and, the cast who are new faces, synchronising very well with the local charactors. He was quick to add that the beautiful locations of the movie worked out to be the 'second hero' of the movie, which was so refreshing and never picturised by other cinematographers.

My journalist friend was probing the director very enthusiastically. I whispered into his ears that he could bag a grand-father role in his next film, whilst I may settle for a slightly inferior role of, say Hero's....... father!

Onions and Tomatoes

Never gave much attention to Onions and Tomatoes although they are the most important ingredients in every day diet. There was a politician in Tamil Nadu who would use the word 'Vengayam', meaning Onion, as a cliche in his speaches. This word is also used to tease or to be-little anyone or any matter, including Onion!

On the other hand, tomatoes are used to show public anger if the speaker goes astray in his speaches! There is a famous tomatoe festival celebrated in Spain every year,in which public make merry by taking bath in 'tomato slurry' and throwing tomatoes all over the town!

Tomatoes and onions are popular crops found in most of the kitchen gardens. Whilst the desi variety of tomatoes are almost extinct nowadays, the desi variety of onions have taken a prestigious place in the hearts of connoiseurs and culinary experts!

Why suddenly the prices of these vegetables have shot the roof in India is a raging debate and a hot media attention now. Maharashtra is the major Onion producer in India. There is a small town on the way to Goa, which is the capital of Onion wholesale trade. I hope readers would identify and respond about this onion capital in their comments. Sometime back, I had an opportunity to visit this town on a business visit(not for wholesale purchase of Onions!).

At that time I came to know from a local that the richest in town are those Onion wholesale traders. They procure onions directly from farmers and hoard it until it is'right time' to sell. They control onion prices and make unbelievable profits!

When I hear the news about the soaring prices of Onions, I am convinced that the households will switch over to 'Jain' preparations,i.e total ban of Onions from their every day menu!


Needless to mention that Onions have become highly potent now, in that one can get tears from the mere feel or thought of it rather than from the peel of it!

Leaks are inevitable!

The mini shower in the toilet was leaking. I called the plumber who fixed it with a new Shower head. After a week it again started leaking. This time the plumber changed the leaking one with a plastic shower head he had as a spare.

I think it is time for leaks. The shower started leaking again. This time the leak was profound like the wikileak!

In a movie, a comedian undergoes a surgeory after receiving an accidental electric shock. As a side effect of the operation, he gets a strange power in that he can actually read what is going on in the minds of others!

With this strange powers he meets people who are actually scheming within whilst they put up a friendly disposition with others. His exposures of people give some hillarious moments.

Like knowing the timing of ones end, if all of us can unravel the minds of others, it will become too difficult to have a peaceful social life!

In the days of Vikramatitya, a courtisan complained about a poor man of being intimate with her in his dreams for which she demanded 1000 gold coins as fee! This complaint she made based on the information she received through her cronies who over heard the private utterances of this poor man. The court ruled that it is enough the poor man pays her in his subsequent dream!

Way back in 88, a young and pretty woman officer joined our office. It was quite refreshing time that we got along so well to the envious eyes of others in the office! A concerned and caring staff member told me to stop being close to her, citing the rumors floating in the office.
I told him that we cannot stop people from carrying tales or rumors as we have no control over what others think and,in the same manner, they may even spread rumors about others. Within a month he came running to me complaining about the new rumors going around, linking him and a typist!

Well, leaks are the results of curious minds and spurious materials! So I have come to this conclusion that rumors, gossips and leaks are inevitable!

Please adjust your seat to upright position!

Whilst on board an aircraft, you are asked to remain seated with your seat belt fastened in upright position, during takeoff and landing. Once the warning light is switched to green, passengers can take off their seat belts, though it is safer to remain seated with seat belts fastened all through the journey.

Very few people continue to travel with the seat belts on and in upright position.

In our day to day life, there is no such messages but a small section of society are always found to be in upright position. There is an old saying that rains shower in order to please that one person who is upright and in the process entire society gets benefited!

Why is it that we find honesty and integrity is becoming a rare commodity? what should we do to make honesty and integrity a way of life? People tend to follow the paths frequently used by others. Even children follow by observing their environment. We need to have cleaner environment for healthy society.

Day in and day out we are seeing new campaigns introduced to protect the planet and the interests of the world like, poverty alleviation,Sustained development, green and clean campaign, campaigns against pollution of air,water and earth, Food adulteration, protection of animal species and numerous campaigns to control various deseases.


We need to have campaign with educational interventions that will become a movement and eventually lead to clean society. Although the path to achieving this will be a long one like the poverty alleviation campaign, considering its huge impact it will have on our society and the world at large, this campaign for clean society should be kick-started.

Well it is too old fashioned to write about such utopian thoughts! Let me lighten the mood by giving an excerpt from a haiku poem, translated from Tamil, which goes like this:

'I watched my young maid clean up my house with her swift and lovely movements. She made the hall spick and span but my mind corrupted!'

Let us adjust our seats to upright positions!

Action in Inaction

Take a train and settle down in your berth. Now sleep well till your destination is reached, without any need for any action from your side! Should I say that this is an example of your action in inaction? Your action is to reach the planned destination yet you accomplish it without any action on your part,once you have boarded the train!

Well. In work situation, taking decision in matters would require both action and inaction. In some matters the best solution is to leave it without any action from your end! For example, some vexatious matters which will become troublesome if you attempt to deal with it.

But inaction when action is demanded by the situation would invite liability due to negligence. For example, you know a toddler is about to trip over a parapet wall from your arm's distance. If you fail to act to prevent the toddler from tripping, then you are clearly negligent. This is what is known as the principle of liability. A liability can arise due to lack of duty of care. Here one should see if there is a duty of care that is required to be fullfilled by a person. A differently-abled person is not expected to have the same duty of care that is required in such situation as against a normal person.

Some people think that best way to avoid any trouble is to simply desist taking any decision. People in sensitive offices are often found to resort to inaction, for fear of courting trouble!

Height of inaction is to ignore something happening under your own nose that would bring serious consequences for the institution itself, say your home or office or any public utility. It is like walking off ignoring a dangerious material found on your way, unmindful of the harm it would cause to the society.

We all read from news nowadays that how those found to have resorted to inaction is being seriously questioned than those who have found to have taken wrong action!

Although it would be challenging to differentiate and decide on action or inaction, one must do due diligence by bearing in mind the duty of care expected on oneself.

So readers it is needless to say that even inaction is actionable!

Rebooting the 'Robot'

Sometimes you just don't have an urge to do what you wanted to do!

I saw this movie 'Endhiran' at Concord cinema on 7th October. I wanted to write a review immediately but desisted from doing so for fear of an adverse impact on the collections at box offices!

Now that the box offices have more than reaped their quota, I can jolly well write the review, without worrying a legal action!

Majority of unmarried girls would love this movie for one reason! Yes; there is now an option of falling in love with a machine than experiencing the same predicament of their mothers who have married 'living things' that seldom emote!

Older women will regret for having aged, but there is a solace in that mature Robots may come up for sale soon.

The story goes like this. One scientist, obsessed in artificial intelligence, creates a Robot which can actually emote and fall in love. Poor scientist did not realize that his fiancée, who is the most beautiful woman on the Earth, can fall in love with his creation! The scientist was so passionate with his work, whilst the robot quickly wins the heart of the Beauty.

Now the Beauty is bit confused, if she has to marry the un-interesting character or the new found 'vibrant'lover, the Robot!

The Scientist out of sheer jealousy dumps the Robot in a dumping yard only to be picked up by a rogue Scientist, who not only gives it fresh life, but also injects a villainous mind using a RED CHIP!

Now the new avatar, the Robot which has developed a fatal attraction for his master's GF, sets out on a blitzkrieg pursuit of its love!

Suddenly for some inexplicable reason, the Beauty realizes that machine is after all a machine and switches her loyalty back to the Scientist. Rogue Robot abducts the Beauty like a Super Ravan!

By switching off the electricity, Robot demon was made to loose its vigor and some how, the Scientist removes the RED CHIP from its abdomen.

Beauty now reunites with the Scientist to live boringly ever after!

Enjoyed Ash dancing with young 'llama at machu picchu' at Kilimanjaro! Robot Rajini is better than the Scientist Rajini! In the next film, Rajini can be replaced by Endhiran! Appears that story of the movie was a teamwork-hap hazard!

You can watch the movie so that 'art and money' goes to Kalanidhi!

H A P P Y D E E P A V A L I to Blog friends!

Beaming sense of humor

Last friday I had been to the Emirates Humor Club's 22nd meet. The new talk show plan unveiled by the Humor Club made me think why not I put these topics to a wider audience so as to propagate this Humor epidemic!

The talk show topics are as follows:-

Sense of humor refines family life
sense of humor helps professional life
sense of humor is simply recreational

The participants are to take up one topic and impress the audience with their arguments humourously.

All the above statements are real facts and are very useful, if we practice them for increasing the overall happiness quotient. Like the Butan king's campaign for Gross National Happiness, if we all follow the above three humor statements, one can really achieve overall happiness.

For that simple reason, a famous poet had advocated the practice of humor even in adversity i.e., to laugh it out whenever somebody is in trouble, to be able to surmount such difficulty.

Humor requires a little bit of effort on the part of oneself. That is what the sense of humor is all about. Whilst humor is everywhere, we need to discern it to enjoy the same.

There are several people who refuse to get amused over any issue! such people radiate a sense of glum and seriousness around them and also vitiating the entire atmosphere.

How many marriages have happened through letters of love, for the sheer humor content despite the bad grammer!

A person who is humorous not only himself happy but also propagates the happiness all around them by creating an 'aura' of happiness to all!

Like the quality of mercy, the sense of humor is also doubly blessed; it blesseth the one who transmits it and the one who receives it too!

So friends, shall we start beaming our sense of Humor every where?

There is somebody ahead of you!

What if Newton did not find the law of gravity? What if the epic of Ramayana was not written?

Well if Newton had not made the findings of gravity, somebody else would have found it, depriving a chance for Subu!

How many versions of Ramayana(substitute for any other work like dictionery!) have been written so far? Can any one say that some of the ideas are unique and no one else could have generated those ideas?

Well for those who generate ideas, such ideas are thought to be unique only unless they themselves find those ideas to be already in existence.

Some simple ideas can be very useful in finding solutions to complex issues. I remember reading an English Lesson titled "Little Things". The story explains how ignoring small details, would result in great losses. Read these words which explains the result of failure to attend to a minor probleum:


For want of a nail a horseshoe was lost,
for want of a horseshoe a horse went lame,
for want of a horse a rider never got through,
for want of a rider a message never arrived,
for want of a message an army was never sent,
for want of an army a battle was lost,
for want of a battle a war was lost,
for want of a war a kingdom fell,


And all this happened for want of a nail!.

It is true that one should not ignore a potentially serious problem that may result 'a stich in time can save nine' kind of issues.

Recently, I returned from Mumbai to Dubai. In order to easily identify my checked baggage from a distance when it is put on the baggage bay, I used a 'unique' idea of tying a red ribbons to my bags.

Waiting for my two checked bags at the bay, I found a gentleman who was also travelling along with me looking out for his bag. Now I spotted one bag with ribbon tied approaching me. Before I could reach, the gentleman picked it up and left the aerodrome immediately!

I kept wondering if my bag was, by mistake, carried away by him, while I was waiting for the other bag with red ribbon. The small bag with red ribbon arrived but the bigger one was missing. Now I was almost certain that the other one must have been carried away by that gentleman.

When I was almost lost hope, there came my bag similingyu with red ribbon! Joyfully I collected it and approached the green channel exit.


Well, you may get some ideas which may look unique but be aware that there is somebody ahead of you to have visted there!

Namesake!

Have you ever felt the need to have a different name in place of your given name? May be you are different. But during my childhood, suddenly I developed an urge to change my name!

One day, I went to a Tamil movie, along with my siblings.
The movie was euphemistically named'Vietnam Veedu' to signify a family having endless skirmishes. That was perhaps taken during the time of Vietnam war. The daughter of the protagonist would fall in love with a fellow student by name 'Ramani'. She will surreptitiously make phone call(those days telephones are kept in pedestal!)to him. When father passes by, she will switch over to loud conversation addressing the person as her girl colleague, using Tamil phrases in feminine gender, like 'podi Ramani.. vaadi Ramani...!

Back from the movie, my brothers started taunting me by frequently calling out.. 'vaadi Ramani... podi Ramani'! Now I began to hate my name and blame my parents for that as to why they kept such a ridiculous name!

My mother would pacify me saying that the name denotes beauty and suitable for both boy and girl but particularly more suitable for boys! She would also elaborate as to how much thought was given in choosing the name for me!

Most of my class mates and colleagues would call me subu! Some call me P.S, using my initials. My mother would get annoyed whenever someone calls me'subu', although I started liking the substitute name 'subu'!

But the fact remains, even the name 'subu' is an acronym for Subulakshmi!

I tend to get carried away by some names until I find that name also used in both genders.. like the name 'Prassanna', after the famous cricketer, until one day I heard someone calling out the name, Prassanna, when a nice looking girl responded!

Of course, names should not be obnoxious or ridiculous that the person bearing the name would hesitate to get himself introduced.

One day I met a colleague accompanying a foreigner. I got myself introduced to him and in return, he murmured his name to me. Confused, when I asked him again, he repeated his name as,'Titman'. After hearing the name, I realised why he murmured!

There is a custom in South in that, if repeatedly miscarriages happen, the family would keep some funny or obnoxious sounding name so that the child would survive to live longer.

Once somebody gave me a compliment, 'Sir, you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger!' Not knowing the greatness of that name, it sounded to me something like 'Arnackayar', which in Tamil denotes a string tied to waist!

Care and due diligence is required while choosing names for our children. For the younger daughter, we poured over various books on baby names and engaged in discussions well before, so that we could get the birth certificate mentioning the name. This we did because, we had to struggle to get a revised birth certificate for elder one, as the original we obtained, at the time of birth, was without mentioning name.

All said and done, both my children are found using fancy names for their email ids and user names!

Therefore, dear readers, think a lot and take care for NAMESAKE!

Spare the Sparrows

Suddenly I started wondering, 'when did I last saw sparrows?'

'Was it about 10 to 15 years ago?'

House Sparrows, Passer Domesticus, were quite commonly sighted in our surroundings as easily as the crows, but now they appear to have vanished in the thin air.

As a child I used to admire these chirping birds coming in hoards but always seen in pairs. You will find a pair in which slightly bigger one with well defined contours of black and brown shade would represent the male gender.

Many times I have noticed them making nest within a day. I have even gingerly lifted the young one when I was so exited by the warmth and delicate feeling inside the palm!

One day I was engrossed in work keeping the window open. Suddenly I heard a 'thud, in the room. 'Oh..shuck'.. a sparrow which entered the room through the window got hit by the fan blade and fell dead. I felt so bad.

Keeping the window closed would be the only way to prevent the birds from entering.. but keeping the window closed was not possible as the room was not air conditioned. Even as I was wondering how to prevent recurrence, there was another 'thud'. Alas! There lay his companion dead...

But, there after, there was no such instance even though the windows were kept open. I have heard about birds committing suicides in hoards. Sparrows live in pairs and they are too attached with each other.

There is a song which talks about a forlorn male bird committing suicide by deliberately hitting against the stem of Rose, after its love bird dies in an accident. I do not 'pooh pooh' the song any more. Yes; sadly enough, the second 'thud' proved the truth in the song.

All this thought come to my mind, after reading a news about release of a Stamp by India Posts on this endangered species of House 'sparrows'.

WE ALL HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT AND PRESERVE BIO DIVERSITY.

If we don't attempt to do, then time is not too far when we can only see such lovely species in philatelist collections and audio-visual archives.

SHALL WE TAKE A PLEDGE TO PROTECT THE PLANTS AND ANIMAL SPECIES FROM EXTINCTION?

Mumbai and Dubai!

I came to Mumbai in the year 1994. One evening I went to a restaurant at Church gate, Mumbai. I spotted a known face having snacks at another corner. Quickly we could recognise each other. "Hi! Kannan when did you come from the US?" Kannan is a relative, who went to US several years ago. That was a surprise meeting which made our families come closer.


On a busy evening, whilst crossing the Foot over Bridge, in one of the suburban stations, I met an old acquaintance. Ignoring the fast moving human wave, I called out his name. The quick conversation facilitated our follow up phone calls and meetings.

Recently, I received an SMS that Mr PM has taken up a job in UAE, with a local contact number. I was surprised and delighted! Mr. PM was my colleague on my first posting way back in 1988, at a small town in India. More than just working together, we were living in the same compound in the official quarters. I was the only bachelor in the staff quarters and enjoyed the courtesies and hospitality of other two families living there.

I called up and invited him to come over to my place, which he, readily obliged. We had a great time recounting the entire events happend in our lives since 1990.

It is amazing to note that both Mumbai and Dubai has a striking similarity of facilitating rare encounters of old friends!

Don't you think there should be more than just the alphabets that are common to both Mumbai and Dubai!

Fitness for survival

Of late, I have stopped doing exercise. I could realise this only when I made a comment during a conversation with a new acquaintance. Yes, as usual, I had been to the Humor club meet last Friday. I met a gentleman, who came back to his seat, after sharing some interesting incidents and personal experiences with the audience.

I praised him on his talk and got myself introduced. During the conversation, I observed that life in UAE is quite unique as people are habituated to controlled environment, ....and, one has to do regular excercise....blah..blah.., otherwise, it would be difficult to remain in shape!

When I learnt that he worked for a fitness company, I realised my genius in explaining about the importance of fitness to an expert in the field!

I started going to Gym after the first visit of my family in UAE. The idea dawned on my mind when my daughter taunted me about my sign of prosperity. Recently, when my family was here for 40 days, I skipped my Gym sessions, on the pretext of giving company to them.

The gap of over one month had its effect on me. Again my daughter, before leaving for Mumbai, gave a nice punch on my paunch, to dig at my fickle minded approach to fitness.

This week I mustered up my wits and renewed my Gym membership.

On my first day of resuming the session, the instructor was happy to receive me and guide me, saying that I should slowly get back to the original program, without being impatient. He also explained about the new value added program of a free session for members on Self-defence techniques!

I started fantasizing that I would not only be fit, but would really become fighting fit! At this moment, he distracted me and asked, 'did you do the abs exercise?', giving an impish look at my rich looking 'breadbasket'!

Even when I answered him with a firm, 'I did do the abs exercise', I secretly vowed that one day, I would achieve a 'washboard' like abs!

Well, in UAE, even on controlled diet, one can put on weight. This is mainly due to lack of physical activity and sweating. The only way to ensure regular physical activity, other than for those blue colored work force, is to join a fitness club.
And mind you, I am not owning a FITNESS CLUB myself!

Yes; who doesn't want to be fit, if not FIGHTING FIT?

Darwin theory says, 'Survival of the fittest'. I would say that the relevance of the theory is in maintaining the fitness for survival!

Charity needs no clarity

That was during my college days. I was managing with the fixed quota of money transferred by my father each month to meet the hostel & college expenses.

One day, when I went to the town, a visibly perturbed man approached me saying that he had lost all his money to a pickpocket. He went on to explain that he came from a far off place on some mission, when this misfortune happened and, he did not have any friends in the town to look for help. He appeared too genuine to me.

Moved by his plight, I offered him the Bus fare and a little extra to take care of one time meal. When I moved on, an old lady approached from nowhere and muttered to me, to the effect, ‘’you are too naive”! When I returned after an hour, I found the same fellow hanging out there, smoking an expensive brand of cigarette and holding a full pack on his other hand!


The story repeated again. A man came to office with a similar story, but promised me that he would return the money once he reaches back to his place. He carefully noted down my address before leaving. This time, I defied my colleagues who dissuaded me from helping. Well, that was the last I saw him!


Recently there was another instance, here at Sharjah, One afternoon, a car came and halted near me at Rolla. The man at the driver’s seat asked me for direction to City Center, saying that he had come all the way from Oman. There was a girl child in the back seat. He asked the child to greet me and went on to say that he needed some money to feed the child and for the expenses for his return. I gave him 20 dhs and went to office. At office, my colleague narrated the same story about a person of similar description approaching him a day before!

I have had several such instances of helping people in need. Among them, a few may not deserved it. But should I stop helping people, just to ensure that I am not cheated?


The joy of giving is something one can never achieve when receiving help from others. In my view, the sheer joy of giving would be sufficient to ignore such instances of cheating by a few undeserving characters.

Here remember the words of Shakespeare, who said:

‘The quality of mercy is not strained;
it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes’.

Charity or helping the needy is a practice that is praised by every Faith, the world over. This quality would never lose its purity, even if it goes to the benefit of a few undeserving. So let’s get the pleasure of giving to others, without bothering about our failure to recognize right beneficiary, lest we may lose the habit of giving!

Yes; charity needs no clarity!

Anger!

A famous poet and thinker said that one should learn to loose "temper" when injustice, apathy and atrocities are committed on innocents. But what about people who are always simmering with anger?

There was a man who went to gulf for earning a fortune for his family. He returns to his home after 15 long years. When he reaches home, it was past midnight. He looks through the window to find an young man of 20 years sleeping with his wife with his arms around her. The man becomes furious on seeing this sight. He removes a sword from the roof, kept hidden by him long ago, when a 'parchment paper'with some inscriptions props out with it. He reads out thus, "think before acting on haste"!

Now he realises that his son who was 5 years old when he left for the gulf, wouldbe turning twenty years. Wife now opens the door to see her husband with a sword. She spends no time in explaining how their little son has grown up to be an attractive young man now!

An old saying states that 'If some one wants to protect himself, he should first control his anger. Anger not only harms oneself, it will harm those 'kith and kins' as well.

Anger is lethal like a poison. That is the reason we find several instances of crimes committed in madness like the 'road rages', 'honour killings' etc

There are several sources wherein self-help tips available in plenty, giving various measures that one can take to control anger. No wonder the word Anger in English is close to the word Danger!

Can all of us now, get angery with ANGER?

Time Management

We had a group of hardworking boys during our college days. They were separate group who would not mingle with any one outside their ring. Always found under the roadside lamp-posts slogging out with thier text books and notes.

There was this other group of boys who were always seen at the "touring talkies" about one km away from the hostel giving their prompt attendance on every friday when a new movie was released.

When the term exam results come, it would be always those "touring talkies" boys who would score good marks, whereas those hardworking "lamp post" guys will carry those vetted papers sulkingly with their low score.

Again I could observe junior colleagues at work place who would stretch their work beyond office hours. Sometimes they carry work to home or come to office on weekends to office to finish the pending work.

Other set of people who stick to their office time and never seen in office on week ends are carrying work to their homes. Yet they finish their jobs silently and without any delay or pendancy!

Have you ever compared people who are in highly demanding jobs wherein one person is found to be always smiling and receptive of customers, whereas the other would pounce on all the callers and visitors?

Talking about Time Management, most of us believe that it is all about planning and managing your 24/7 effectively so that you can complete your work.

You can now go back to see whose success is great... those boys who toiled hard by sacrificing their dose of entertaiment or those from the "touring talkies" camp?

Well, Time management is not managing your time effectively; it is all about successful endeavours.

Yes! time management is about, Success that leaves no bad taste!

Sombre to Humor!

I had been to the monthly meeting of our Humor club, at the Apple International School, yesterday. Usually, I used to go prepared, but this time I did not make any preparation, as I was not planning to get on to the stage.

We reached the venue in the midst of the program with good gathering of audience already present. Suddenly, I was asked to come on to the stage to contribute. Thrown on to the stage, I stumbled upon an idea to talk about the impending Tamil and Malayalam New year and, tell some story of a poor poet of yonder years.

The poor poet goes to seek some favour from a descendant of a well known family of a philanthropist by singing several odes full of hyper boles.

The poet goes on singing one after another ode, but the expected gift was not forthcoming from the philanthropist. Finally,he gifts an elephant to the poet in praise of his works. Needless to say, this gift has come as a shock to the poor poet than a pleasant one.

Being very poor, he did not want to reveal the huge living creature he got as a gift, he uses punny language when his wife enquires to find what he got from singing praises on the philanthropist.

His wife takes other useful substitutes of the words he uses for indicating elephant and feels happy that his husband has earned something useful that will solve their woes. Finally, poet uses a word which has no other meaning than an elephant.

On hearing this, the poor poet's wife goes dumbstruck.

This I narrated to praise one of the poppular programs conducted in humor club in which witty and punny words are used.

The gathering instead of enjoying the underlying humor, went in a sombre mood, feeling for the poor poet and his family.

I had great difficulty in changing the Sombre mood back to Humor one, for which I had to use several tactics without much success!