Joy is back

…and how! I fell out of my gymming routine when my daughter moved to a new school where her reporting time is 6.45am. Going to Gym at 7, ensuring a meaningful workout and trying to get to work on time became a bit of a pain. It’s been a year and half since I have reconciled to the fact that morning walk is the only form of exercise that I could offer my body. But then, one doesn’t take things seriously that cost nothing.

While I was convincing myself that I was doing that best I could in the time available, I was missing my personal trainer Joy, who used to beat the hell out of me. I guess personal trainers are a unique species who get paid to get (some real, physical) work done from their employers. To cut the long story short, effective today he has resumed training me that too in my drawing room. Muscle ache is back and some ligaments are threatening to tear but it feels good!

Happy 2009, et al...

First of all, wish you all a fantastic 2009! In terms of expectation vs. actual, 2009 will turn out to be a great year, is my theory. For this to work, please continue to keep your expectations muted.

Yesterday was Niyoshi's birthday. Can't believe she is stepping into her teens. I am both amused and nervous about this whole phase of life that is just unfolding. Hopefully I would be an empathetic and sensible mother.

Times of India Lakshminarayana Global Musical festival, annual musical concert of Dr.L.subramaniam (violin maestro), was a treat to watch at NCPA. Wife Kavita Krishnamurti and children Ambi and Bindu added soul to the rendition. However, the whole concert reached a high with Leipzig philharmonic orchestra.

I bought a Wii for daughter recently. This is a technological advancement that promotes physical activity. It's extremely addictive and a great stress buster. I played tennis till my shoulders hurt. Am lovin' it!

Interminable journey

I went home last weekend to attend a family gathering. I had not informed folks back home and gave them all a surprise. I messaged Suri to pick me up from the airport; but he probably thought I was pulling a fast one and decided to let it pass. Chennai is safe, the cabbies are friendly and (damn) it’s my hometown.

It was wonderful to be with family, my aging father, my chatty sisters, happy brother and all my nieces and nephews. My trip was very short; reached there Saturday late evening and left on Sunday evening. There was a family lunch on Sunday and frankly nobody was expecting me; but I wanted to be there and so I did.

After a sumptuous lunch, lot of gossiping and bit of rest, I said my “byes” to family, five hours ahead of my flights’ scheduled departure. I jumped into a cab and set off to TVK Nagar (North Madras) where I spent the first twenty years of my life. It was wonderful to drive (or be driven) thro’ the roads of my childhood. I figured our (once) family jeweler (Mitalal) has moved into a bigger outlet, tea stall across my primary school still intact there, languishing Pugayilai Nadar (the guy chewing tobacco) shop, who was our grocer, 5-Star hairdressers (men’s saloon) where my dad used to take me for a “bob” cut when I was very little, bus terminus where, as a teenager I met and chatted with friends while waiting for my bus and Pillayar Kovil (Ganesh temple)…. that’s unquestionably my most favorite place.

Varasidhi Vinayagar Shiva Vishnu Aalayam, it used to be known as. I visited that temple every single day, to pray, thank, to crib, brood, reflect, to meet friends and to offer 108 rounds around the temple. My trips to the temple were packed with hopes; hoping for better marks, hoping for fights to end, hoping for a better life, hoping for arrival of my knight in shining armor just as I stepped out of the temple (am not joking). I wish I had met my old buddies that day who could relate to my nostalgia, but unfortunately didn’t. It was time to get back to the real world!

Too little, too late?

A little over a decade ago, when Niyoshi was born and I had no support system around in Mumbai, my mum came to my rescue. She left Chennai, her husband (my dad), all her other kids and grandkids behind so that she could take care of my newborn while I pursued my career. Sun TV and my daughter were her world. I was busy working; she had no other relatives here and she had language barrier. These things didn’t unsettle her in a bit. She was kind, patient and more than anything happy to be babysitting her youngest granddaughter. All the 5 years that she was here I never remember thanking her for giving her time and love exclusively to my daughter and me. After she was gone (not from Mumbai but also from our lives), I spent many nights silently crying for not having told her how proud and grateful I was to have her as my mother.

In life, often we take things and people for granted. We take our parents, our friends, our guardian angels, our spouses, children, education, opportunities etc. for granted. We don’t look at them as our blessings but take it as our rights. We seldom stop to count our blessings and imagine life without them. We run so fast that we never appreciate the present. We value our teachers much after we passed out of school, we are kinder to our kids when its time for them to leave home, we think of our parents a lot more after they are no more and we want to cling on to loved ones only after we feel threatened about the relationship.

I wonder why is that we don’t cherish the things while they still belong? Why is that paranoia the driver most of the time? Is this the basic animal instinct? If so, when would the part of brain that controls this, evolve?

Life in big city

I saw this a couple hundred meters before a traffic light in Oxfordshire. I found it amusing when I sighted it, but then I noticed some road repair work was being carried out between this board and the traffic light. My immediate thought was how many such boards will have to be installed in Bombay, if the authorities ever bothered about motorists and pedestrians.

Now don’t give me that “Don't ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. I am a tax payer and wonder from time to time, what this country is providing me in return. We have been a “developing nation” for far too long and wonder if / when would we get to the “developed” status.

I don’t want to sound like am complaining; but the feeling that how deprived we are in certain aspects of life, gets the better of me sometimes. I guess my state of frustration arises out of ever increasing prices (check out the recent inflation number) and depleting infrastructure. God Save us!!
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Some random thoughts

I was away for a couple of weeks; nice way to connect to one self and one's thoughts. Some random ones from the recent past.

We almost always fail to realize the worth of something or somebody while they still belong. Fear of loss or paranoia – is this what makes life interesting? If otherwise, one is either too complacent or doesn’t care.

I find today’s children are more sure and open about themselves and less pretentious.

There are some countries which are fifty years ahead of us and I wonder if we would ever catch up.

It’s interesting to know perception of some of my friends about me – bossy, selfish (know my priority) and nagging. “If you see yourself as a reflection in the eyes of others all they have to do is blink and you cease to exist”. I love you guys but I am at peace with myself.

I want to get away for a week just by myself to catch up on reading.

For now, I am back!

Teri maa ki….

Apologies for my foul language. But fortunately or unfortunately that is the subject of this post.

Work place, traffic, cricket ground (pun intended), fashionable night clubs, wherever you are, if you tune your ears to it, you can drench yourself in the rain of verbal abuse. Swearing is a quick way to release stress or so it’s perceived. Stress levels have increased, taking the number and frequency of usage of “gaalis” (bad words) proportionately higher. One of the lean days at work, post lunch, I took a stroll around my office complex. Men and women of all sizes, age and shape were hanging out, chatting, smoking, and having “cutting-chai” taking the noise level to a different decibel. A lady pouting her face told this male colleague of hers “f*** off b****** ”. Her male colleague retorted with mock anger, “don’t insult my mum” and the entire gang that was hanging out with them laughed oblivious to the surrounding.

I see that guys’ point. I have no issue with people swearing. Each of us has our own way of de-stressing. My question is why is it always the maa, behan and woman-related words? Ok agreed, there are also a few abusive words (if you squeeze your brain hard) that are male oriented, but they are relatively few in comparison with the recognition women get in this department. It just freaks me out to know that this injustice to male community is uniform across all languages. When you want to vent your frustration and the subject is a woman you use the term “bitch”; but when the subject in question is a man it never is as simple and straight as “dog”. You get the drift, right? I don’t mean to sound like a feminist, but this discrimination is hard to miss.

Why couldn’t Harbhajan use the term “Tera Baap ka…”? Probably that really was Andrew Symonds’s point. Tendulkar was nice enough to explain different contexts in which the term “maa” is used, including “Jai mata di”, but the damage was already done to Symonds’s mother.

The point I am making is, when you swear next time please be fair to men. Be innovative and when you manage, please share the same with me.