CREAM Verse 15.2

 "A Mother’s Counsel to Her Daughter, India"

O daughter of mine, with a soul so vast,
Your story is written in struggles past.
Yet let me remind you, as you stand tall,
Of the hands that built you, and those that let you fall.

From diverse faiths, brave hearts arose,
To break the shackles and challenge foes.
Azad spoke of unity, in word and deed,
Ghaffar Khan sowed peace, a noble creed.

Ambedkar dreamed of a nation of rights,
Where caste and creed would lose their fights.
Rani Gaidinliu stood firm, her spirit aflame,
And Begum Rokeya uplifted women’s name.

But not all chose this righteous road,
Some sought comfort in a colonial code.
Rulers and Diwans, with titles in hand,
Bowed to the empire, betrayed their land.

Raghunath’s deals, Sapru’s peace,
Showed how ambition can make courage cease.
Zamindars thrived on their people’s pain,
While patriots toiled for freedom’s gain.

So, listen, my child, to this truth I sing,
No faith or title can make a king.
It’s the deeds of a soul, the love it can show,
That make a nation’s spirit grow.
-Subu Asksubu

Cream Verse 6.0

 Elegy for Dr. Manmohan Singh

(The Silent Sage of Our Times)

Beneath the skies, where silence speaks,
Lies a man whose strength never peaks.
No roaring chants, no beating drum,
Yet his wisdom shone brighter than the sun.

A scholar first, the nation’s pride,
From Gah to Delhi, a humble guide.
An economist, calm, with a steady gaze,
Who steered a ship through turbulent haze.

No saffron cloaks, no theatrical flair,
No hollow boasts that fill the air.
While some screamed slogans to claim the day,
He whispered reforms that paved the way.

A Vishwaguru? He wore no crown.
His work, not words, earned renown.
In Urdu, his early lessons found,
Yet he mastered tongues where wisdom’s bound.

1991, a crisis brewed,
Manmohan’s pen turned chaos to food.
No viral speeches, no political memes,
Just quiet deeds that built strong dreams.

In life, he taught us to strive for grace,
To serve the world, not chase the race.
In death, his silence speaks even more,
A sage we revere, whose soul we adore.

Now let the galleries fill with noise,
Let men of pomp display their toys.
Manmohan rests, his work complete,
The quiet reformer, humility’s feat.

So here’s to the man who silently won,
Without a crown, yet second to none.
In his shadow, the loud may thrive,
But it’s his legacy that will survive.
                                -Subu asksubu

This Onam is Special

Who will not be happy if his or her birthday is celebrated by about 50 million people?

Onam is celebrated to mark the‎ arrival of harvested paddy/rice into the granary of each and every house, known in Malayalam as "illam nira". 

On that day one has to pamper oneself with a feast or " Onam Sadhya", even if required to sell one's property for the purpose!  Thus goes the encouragingly said words,"Kanam vittu Onam unnam", in Malayalam !

Yesterday, I went to the nearby -Manama- Store, wading through the thronging crowd and bought a traditional "Mundu"  and a packet of sweets sourced from home country, made of plantain and jaggery for celebrating the Onam.

I also bought grated coconut, gray gourd('elavavan')‎ and other ingredients required to make a traditional Kerala dish"Olan" to test my culinary skills and the tolerance level of my guests who would visit me on the day of Onam!

When I realized that this year Onam festival falls on Seventh September, my feeling of 'Dejavu' has no bounds as it is my birth day too!

My warm "Asamsaghal" to millions of brothers and sisters celebrating Onam festival!

 

Grape free diet!

The recent protest following the G rape of a 23 year old girl in a moving bus has shaken the conscience of the whole nation.  Similar stories are reported almost every day and, at the same time,old pending cases are keenly followed up in news channels.  This disturbing trend of crime against women is creating stress in the minds of people, more so amongst those parents having girl children, like me.

What is the remedy?  like what we hear from the protesters... is it enough we have strong laws to punish the guilty of crime by handing out most stringent punishment so that it will send out signals to potential criminals as a deterrent?

But who are the potential criminals and who are potential victims?  On a larger perspective you can consider every woman a potential victim whereas every man can make a potential criminal!   Watching the news channels who are carrying out debates, one comes to a conclusion that this issue is not very simple to address.  The word Rape is generally gender biased to connote sexual abuse against women.  We all know that abuse is not just gender specific.

Therefore, law should address the violation of individual liberty by any aggressor so that the abused can get justice.

But preventive action is something which is very difficult to establish unless widespread awareness and social awakening is achieved.

When you hear about the weird responses and utterings of so called eminent persons in society, we are staring at the dogmatic mindsets that are plaguing us.  Some one said that it is not unusual of grown up women to get sexually abused! Recently, a high ranking official who is in a position of a law keeper drew flaks for his views to the effect that 'the quality of rape is twice blessed- it blesseth the giver as well as the receiver in equal pleasure'!

One minister opined that girl children should wear protective over coats and travel in 'girls only' school buses... What if the masquerader is to be encountered in elsewhere than en route to school or home?

The society in which we live needs reforms!  Although man has reformed a lot, the fringe elements needs to be educated about civilized behavior!  Instead of blaming the opinions raised by few well meaning but old fashioned members of society, let us try to engage all those possible measures which will, eventually eliminate this abusing behavior of criminals.  They include:-

• Strong laws that will not only be on paper but will be enforced  against those perpetrators, who may try to dodge the process of law
• The severity and certainty of punishment to the guilty to be publicized to nook and corners of the Nation so that no one feign ignorance about existence of such law
• Have a citizen code of conduct for the nation with citizen charter-  What the country is expected to do to citizens and what role citizens are expected to play for ensuring civilised society
•  Change the education system to include moral education and social responsibility in the syllabus
• Use the ministry of communication to convey the message-Encourage TV and Cinema to bring out socially useful stories rather than populist TRP based shows... and, so on!

Well.the list goes endless and one really gets exhausted by the shear enormity of the issue!  Is there no solution in sight?   Should we have to give up this attempt before we even effectively grapple with it?  What is the real remedy?

There is an old film song which declares in resignation that, 'it is impossible to reform a thief unless himself decides to reform!'.    Since logically every man is a potential violator and every woman a potential victim, notwithstanding the suggested measures, only solution to this problem is to have a resolve or undertaking by every man that 'I will not commit this crime' and, although a bit too far fetched, every woman to take a resolve that ' I will not become a victim'!

As an advocate of this theory, I have taken this resolve myself, and as a symbolic act, I have removed 'Grapes' from my diet as it contains the word I detest the most nowadays!

Customer delight

It started raining.  Flight no AI 950 was on the tarmac awaiting signal from the Air-traffic control for take off. I had settled in my seat 1A with only 4 passengers in the Business Class.  Unmindful of the safety announcement, I was making phone call to someone, whom I failed to contact despite having spent the entire 35 days of my vacation. May be to improve the customer friendly image, nobody insisted me to switch off my mobile in the middle of my conversation.

Expectedly, the leader of cabin crew was one Mrs SR ,an approaching a senior citizen, although she looked much younger to me, may be by the way she had carried herself.

Being the leader of the crew, she was in charge of inflight service for the Business Class.   Barely I switched off my mobile when the flight was speeding on the run way and took off swiftly.  Somehow I felt that the take off was very quick and unusual. I thought the captain would have gone for a quick take off in view of the wet runway due to rains.

Mrs S.R went to the public address system and announced, "dear passengers, in a few minutes from now, the popular tamil movie "KO" will be played.... and especially for those who enjoy tamil movies, please take pleasure in watching the same..  the head set is kept behind the seat pouch in front of you..."

Some how the system played truant and failed to start... She tried to remove the DVD and placed it again but it failed to start..
With an apologetic tone, she came again on the public address system saying.."well there appears to be some problem, we beg your pardon for not able to play the movie.. you may however watch other programs from our inflight Entertainment system.."

I gave a mischievous look to her.

Mrs SR greeted me and asked me if I would like to try some hot drink.  "hot drink? ok .. can I have some Red Bull"?.....
"Oh sorry sir" she regretted that 'Chennai sector does not serve Red Bull like the Mumbai sector which is run by Air India whereas Chennai is handled by the erstwhile Indian Airlines'.

When she asked me an alternate choice of a drink, I thought for a while and said "well, can I have some fresh juice"?

Again, she felt bad that she could not fulfill my request as there was no fresh juices in the flight kitchen.  With a sudden glow in her face she asked me, " would you like to have some fresh lemon juice, only if you can give me some 10 minutes to make it.."?

I said yes to her.

After about 5 minutes, an young steward came to me with Lemon Juice mixed with sugar salt and little pepper in it.

I drank it.   It was quite nice and refreshing.

Later on, after I have taken my veg meal, Mrs SR came to me and confessed that for a moment she did not know what to offer when I asked for fresh juice and that she caught up with an idea that she could use the lemon that was available in the flight kitchen on that day.

I felt special & delighted with the serving of lemon juice, although my expectation of  juice was from other fruits!   The reason for my elated feeling could be because, no one else was getting so much attention on that day...

My mind was thinking about the new mantra about 'customer delight' in marketing parlance.. about which even I used to goad my marketing guys!

Well today, I got the answer as to how you can achieve customer delight...

Yes!  Customer delight happens when you exhibit service beyond the call of duty!

Man who knew too much!

My spectacle had broken during my recent visit to Chennai.  Since this happened at the fag end of my holiday, I did not have the time to repair it or buy a new one.   After returning I was planning to buy a new frame and fix the spectacles.

I visited an opticals shop near Rolla.  The shop keeper was alone with no other customers in the shop.  I showed him my spectacles in its broken condition.  One side arm had broken from the corner of the spectacle with the metallic edge still attached to the glass corner.  The shop keeper took the spectacle, examined it and removed the metal piece from the corner and asked me "why don't you repair it instead of buying a new frame?"

" I can solder it for 40dh if you are ok with it or else, you may go for a new frame which will cost you heavily".

 I thought for a moment, when he went on to say that if you buy a new frame I will get only 20 dh margin but you will spend a lot of money;  whereas I can nicely solder it  and you can avoid spending too much money..."

Although not convinced fully by his idea that it can be soldered, I said "yes" to him.  He told me to come next day evening, when he will keep it ready for collection.

I asked his name and noted on the visiting card that he gave me and before leaving and in return I told him my name.  He immediately observed, "oh Subramaniam? the name does not have good vibrations!"  Although a bit taken aback by this observation, I asked him,"do you know astrology... can you tell about some body from his name"?

To this he said in Hindi,"Everything I can foresee"..  I left the place by muttering ".. oh you must be great"

When I called him next day evening, he said that the technician has not yet finished the job and that I can collect the same from the shop the day after at 10 am.

I called up the shop next day when his assistant took the phone.  He told me that the technician has returned the spectacle saying that it cannot be soldered, and that I can collect it from the shop in 'as is' condition!

When I went to collect the spectacle in the evening the same person was there who handed out the spectacle to me quietly.

Collecting the same, I gave a passing remark to him saying that no one can foresee every thing!

In love with chaos

Just returned from vacation.  Yes it was over one month this time & full of action.  We had to shift our base from Mumbai to Chennai and did not feel as to how the time flied past!

Mumbai has some orderliness in a state of disorderly growth!  Chennai is different.  Chennai is chaotic!  Driving a vehicle, I would stick to the lane discipline only to look stupid among other road users.  The other day we had hired a taxi and the taxi driver happened to be one who had worked in Gulf.  He was narrating his experience as to how he was caught and jailed for jumping red signal, whereas in Chennai people tend to stop only when the green signal flashes!

I observed  traffic in Chennai to be interestingly notorious!  All two way roads have become 'no way' and one way roads have become 'all ways'!

Initially I was getting frustrated but soon became used to it and even started loving it!  May be in a place where petrol is expensive than any edible oil, after all, you should only thank that you can just turn your vehicle anywhere and everywhere to head for your destination, no matter if there is a signal or it is a way or no way!

The other day, on TV education show, some one was explaining what  entropy is, which is known to represent a degree of disorder or randomness.  Any fluid will flow faster from one place to another where entropy is more.

So also, we moved from Mumbai to Chennai which is having high degree of entropy only to find ourselves in love with chaos!

S.M.I.L.E!

/syndicated article/

You know that Smile is just an expression of Happiness; but do you know that SMILE is becoming a foundation of Happiness?

Yes, we are bringing fresh SMILE in everyone’s lips.

Social Meet Induce Laughing Environment….

At this wild time of change, every one is engaged in a rat race in search of a secured future. We tend to lose the habit of smiling in our maddening day to day milieu. We are inclined to bury our good emotions and niceties in our day to day chores and worries.

Accumulating concepts and ideas will make you an intelligent person, but to be a cool person, you must sport a colorful, magical curve below your nose that will have positive impact on others.

What is the Anatomy of smile? A smile is an index of happiness like face as the index of mind!

A Smile is a wireless modem, connects this world wonderfully, winning invaluable status to the mankind. Like a flower, the contour of your smile can quietly "make a difference" in the life of another person!

Every moment in life is so meaningful and immensely worthwhile.

Start your day with a Smile; you will observe the goodness of your smile coming back to you throughout the day!

A Smile is more powerful than a positive push. It creates a world of optimism and hope.

Try to give a genuine smile at an angry customer by offering him your attention and care and see the result! The angry customer would turn out to be your best client forever.

Yes; a single smile gives double benefit- once to the giver and again to the receiver, in equal measure.

That is why we have now re-invented S.M.I.L.E for you to socialize, Meet, Induce Laughter for pure Environment!

There are thousands of languages in this world, but we want to speak just one language that is understood by all, with our SMILE!

YES! SMILE IS YOUR LANGUAGE…

Come, join, and be a part of this S.M.I.L.E movement!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note: the above article is to announce the introduction of new format of Emirates Humor Club being kickstarted on 23/3/2012. For more information, tune to 89.5 fm or www........

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New year resolution!

Come new year; every one of us make some resolutions in mind to follow them throughout the ensuing year. In all sincerity we make a good start by following those resolutions but only to find sooner or later that each and every resolution is diluted and faded out from our minds.

But the new year brings them all to our mind only to renew them as fresh resolutions for the next year!

Why is it that we are not able to carry out all those resolutions and achieve 100% compliance promises we have made to our own selves?

I have following suggestions regarding choice of resolutions:

• 
  

Viral fever good!

Gone are the days when you dread a viral. Yes; now it is some thing you expect to happen every now and then when you browse internet!

Short videos uploaded in youtube is viewed by millions within a few hours of its uploading and you say that material has gone viral!

The recent happening is one which no one would have missed.. Yes; I am referring to a half hearted hotch- potch song sung by an actor of south India during the development of a track in a studio. The song became so popular that if you do not know the song, you are treated as a new born!

At least 100 versions have been doing rounds in the internet in various languages. In one of the versions, a cartoon creature is singing the song!

When I heard that song, I realized it to be a poorer version of an old and popular song of yonder years. If only Social networking sites were there during that time, then all those songs which are going viral would have not even enjoy an ephemeral status.

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.

Diwali Dreams

Have you ever found out the reasons for any one becoming a Super star from a simple actor? One striking difference that comes to my mind is that Super stars are immensely popular with children.

Now, talking about the festivals of India, there is no need to scratch one’s head to identify the most popular festival, that is one and only Deepavali or Diwali!

We can never get back those childhood days when, we would celebrate one Diwali and immediately look forward to celebrate the next one in greater fervor.

Those were the days when we

· Take pride in bursting crackers well before dawn

· Crave to accumulate the shreds of crackers in front of our houses to show to others that ours was bigger celebration!

· Deliver more variety of sweets to the neighbors to prove that point again!

· Wear those ready made dresses with such patterns that no one else could be spotted wearing it!

· Even after all the crackers are used up, try to make improvised ones from the failed crackers from the debris!

· Show the burns as a proof of the adventurous style in celebrating Diwali!

Now after crossing the middle age, when social activists talk about various hazards involved in using fire works and also the plight of children employed in the industry, we tend to think deeply for and against celebrating Diwali.

Religious and mythological reasons, notwithstanding, Diwali is no more to be treated as a festival but a social movement that brings in a host of benefits to the society.

Well readers, if you agree with the above statement, I am sure, you can expect your bonus very soon!

H A P P Y D I W A L I

Action in inaction(Remix!)

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 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!

Sibling Jealousy

The other day I was watching a program dealing with the topic of sibling rivalry. The host was encouraging the participants who are siblings made to sit against each other. Most of the speakers were complaining that they do not receive the same apreciation or sympathy that the other person was receiving from the family given any similar situation and responses they exhibit.

One thing which emerged from the discussions is that always we find one party is felt victimized due to the responses received from parent as against the other sibling who receives more attention, favouritism and partial treatment..

Arising out of the recent event of the fasting undertaken by Anna Hazare and the govt response, there was a talk show in one channel wherein they compared the govt response to a similar movement carried out by another activist, Irom Sharmila, for another cause for over 11 years and virtual indiferecene shown by the govt.

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!

children wither childhood

Recent news report disturbed me a lot. A 13 year old boy climbing a tree to pluck a fruit or two was shot down by a trigger happy fellow inside an army compound. Gone are the days that children can freely emulate squirrels, parrots or even monkeys wandering at will by jumping from one tree to the other and tasting each and every fruit in sight.

My own memories traveled down the lane recalling my childhood. I remember my school days when I would sneak out from the class after finishing the lunch, even when the class was in progress, to join the street urchins to go hunting each and every house for mangoes,chicoos, gooseberries and pomegranates. Of course, we would try our luck during the post lunch period when, in every household, the members would have retired for a siesta. On many occasions, hearing the noise of our stone throwing or shaking the trees, somebody would yell out of window, calling names. We would all take flight to another safer target. Never missed a single day will we return without our share of the fruity-booty!

Once during summer vacation we three brothers went to our granny's house at the native place in Kerala. In the back yard I climbed one coconut tree, after ensuring that was the shortest of all, and attempted to pluck a tender coconut. Seeing this, our neighbor threatened us that he will report the matter to Granny, which made us abort the attempt and runaway!

We had heard stories of Land lords catching errant boys and tying them on to the trees for hours and letting them off after a dose of warning and extracting profuse apologies, but never heard of anyone fatally attacking the children. To prevent animals from grazing the farm field, there are instances of farmers putting up barbed wires. Some farmers started electrifying the barbed fences, which raised wide condemnation from the animal lovers and also became illegal.

I had made a comment to one of my contemporaries that today's children never go out to play games, and outdoor games are slowly fading out from the minds of children. This may be because many parents do not allow children to play out in the open without an active supervision of an adult member of the family.

Can we just take this story of 13 year old boy as a stray exception of a child paying for being in his childhood or should we worry for this changing trend wherein we observe children wither childhood?

After all it is better to be safe than be sorry!

When losing is gaining!

Health concerns crop up frequently like a pop up message or some sms campaign! Driven by an urge to reduce weight, I started looking for ways and means to achieve that. Got myself enrolled in a gym closer to my house and started doing workouts for almost an year. Though the fitness appeared to have improved, the flab around the waist did not budge a bit. This I could realize whenever my boss tauntingly comments at me about my belligerent tummy!

One day I visited a client who is quite warm and friendly. When I was with him one of his office boys came with a glass kettle in which something was brewing! The office boy stooped towards me and inquired if I would have coffee or tea. I told him to bring tea without milk.

After he left the room, I was curios to know what was brewing in the kettle. My friendly client told me that it was Green tea specially sourced from a famous mall in Dubai. He went on to explain the qualities of green tea and what it will do to improve health and reduce weight. When I doubted its effect, he reasoned out by saying that even intake of mineral water can increase weight and that the anti oxidant properties of green tea, and other special ingredients contained in the particular brand would assure weight reduction.

Even then, I couldn't just believe that simply drinking green tea would reduce weight, seeing the person himself who is quite obese. But he quickly dispelled my disbelief by saying that he was once 120kg before hooked on to green tea and now he has come down to 110kg!


He elaborated how to prepare the green tea using the special glass kettle in which first tea is placed inside the mantle and, steaming hot water is gently poured to the level of mantle, which should be kept for 10 minutes. Now the tea is ready to be decanted in a tea cup and taken without adding milk or sugar.

Finally, I asked him a frank question as to 'why he did not offer Green Tea in the first place, was it because it was expensive?'

The reply from him surprised me.

He said that many of his friends whom he offered, initially did not like it, as it would taste like boiled water using’ Cow dung'!

Well, don’t you think, one would not mind some bitter medicine for achieving Good Health?

Service your memory!

The karaoke system I had bought from Gitex trade in Dubai was giving trouble. The internal microphone had a puncture in the cord and went blank on and off whenever my daughter was singing.
The cordless microphones were also not working properly due to frequency-feed back problem. Everytime we tried to use, the microphones were giving a high frequency noise that even owls and bats would not tolerate!

My daughter began taunting me for buying a useless system. I started simmering and smoldering within. Angrily, traced the original purchase invoice from the file and dashed off to E Max, from whom I bought the system during the month of October at the E max stall at Gitex.

First we went to the service section where they collect the faulty items for warranty service. The guy at the counter advised us to meet a person at the Karaoke section who may be able to fix the problem and, in case he could not resolve the issue, then he would take it for repair service.

We met one Filipino guy who at first irked me with his remark that the warranty seal in one of the cordless microphones was broken, meaning that the warranty condition was affected. However, he started connecting it to one of the music systems. To my utter surprise, the cordless system behaved so obediently that he started testing it in different tones and made mocking noises! Then he explained to me patiently how to control the volume in the cordless system to avoid the frequency-feed back noises from arising.

We were so happy that the problem ended with such a simple solution that saved us from spending some extra money on buying internal microphones, as planned earlier, as an alternate solution.

Now the Filipino guy asked me if I can tell the name of the sales guy who sold the system at the Gitex. He also asked me if I tried to sing a song whilst buying. I replied that I sang a song but did not remember the sales guy and started to search for the name of salesman in the purchase bill. He asked me to read out the name from the left-hand top corner of the bill which read 'Marlo'

I thanked him for his service and asked his name when he flipped out his ID card which read "Marlo"!

I drove back home thinking that one needs to occasionally service the Memory too!

Sensing Home Science

Some of the best chefs in the world belong to the 'unfair' sex! Yet in many households male members are forbidden from entering the kitchen. After all no one wants a 'bull in a china shop'!

But here in UAE,may be due to the skewed demography, most of the kitchens are ruled by men!

That is how I acquired the kitchen kingdom for the last 3 years. Recently my wife went back after a short visit to Sharjah. She did not fail to notice the cluttered refrigerator and commented, 'why don't you de-frost it'?

Well, the very next day after she left, I promptly switched on the defrost button of the fridge, before leaving for office.

When I returned and reached for a cold drink,I could get some unsual smell from inside the fridge. On close examination, I found a dark liquid dripping from all over the trays, on the shelves, and inside door panel.

My detective brain started investigating it further. When I opened the freezer compartment, I found the entire frozen ice to have vanished but there lie an almost empty can of cola with its gaping lid. Now I could arrive at the scientific reason behind the whole episode.

I had left a can of coke bought from supermarket a month ago, inside the freezer compartment; may be to cool it faster. I had completely forgotten it. The ice got accumulated like a mound and totally covered it up. This was the reason for the comment from my wife before leaving Sharjah.

When I defrosted my fridge, the ice started melting. But when the outer ice melted away, the frozen can suddenly burst and the frozen cola erupted like like a volcano inside the fridge!

Science says, when water freezes, its volume increases by around 10%! The frozen ice around the can, earlier prevented the can from bursting, but eventually it happened when the surrounding ice melted away!

Kitchen science comes naturally to women where men fail miserably. My mother used to make a 'Rasam' (south indian soup variation!)using a vessel made of 'Lead'. She would caution everyone in home, not to keep the vessel directly in oven without some quantity of water in it. Unmindful of this, I tried to make some sweet dish, when my mom was away. The vessel started to melt immediately that I could not retrieve it from the oven. As a result, I had to hide myself under the cot, when my mother returned from her shopping!

Many scientific findings we learnt in classrooms are found to be used in day to day life, such as the litmus paper turning blue or red. This principle is widely used by womenfolk to welcome newly weds to their home, by mixing "haldi"(turmeric powder) with quick lime to make a red liquid, that is considered 'auspicious'!

Even today, you would find in villages, women folks dropping a golden ring, in a vessel of rice and water, to quickly separate stones from the grains whereby using the principle of increasing the difference of specific gravities between the solid and the liquid medium.

Now I understand why some universities have courses for "Home Science".

Well, even if you are not holding a degree in Home science, to enter the kitchen, you need some "Home sense"!


P.S:- I forgot to add the one more thing that happened:- the dosa flour kept in fridge fermented and bulged like a ball as shown in picture. I made a controlled explosion to open the same but still the dosa flour splashed all over and I had to do the clean up..