Reflections

 I always look forward to the month of December / Margazhi every year. There are several good things about this time of the year. There is less activity on the work side because of the holiday season, Chennai music season is in full swing and one gets to hear several good concerts and taste great traditional food and the weather is at its best in Chennai. While all this adds some serenity, Margazhi by itself is a divine month because Lord Krishna himself has said that in months he is Margazhi! And what is Margazhi without Andal and Thiruppavai. I have been Chanting Thiruppavai daily for years now but it is always a special feeling chanting Thiruppavai in Margazhi and ending with the day's pasuram. Listening to discourses makes the expereinced surreal and this year I came across some interesting explanations linking Thiruppavai verses to Ramayanam. Thiruppavai is supposed to be the essence of all Vedas and is a clear guide on Saranagathi, how to surrender to God and attain salvation...

As part of my work, I deal a lot with Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies. For them building and maintaining Brand Loyalty is very important. Most of us might be using a particular brand soap or household item for years because it was used by our parents or introduced to us by someone we trust.  I used to cross a TCS office on the way to school and I remember by mother telling me that TATA is a trusted company who have now got into something to do with computers and the people coming out of this office seem to be very smart. Maybe this is one reason I have continued with the same company for 27 + years! Today the world is so competitive that we check prices across apps and across brands, look at ratings for the products and go for whichever is cheap and best! This is true for work life as well. Almost 10 years back one of my friends told me that one should not stick to the same company for more than 3 to 4 years! I laughed at him at that point but what he said seems to be reall...

  I have been wanting to start learning divya prabandham again for the last few days. Maybe it is because I was at a temple earlier this week, where I recited few pasurams after a long time. Or it could also be because it is the time of Anadhyana kaalam, when there is a restriction on reciting pasurams. I remember Thi. Janakiraman’s novel ( I think it is “Amma Vandhaal”) starting with how one has an uncontrollable urge to read something only on Saraswathi pooja, even if it is an insignificant piece of paper used to pack some thing like a tooth powder! “Prohibition creates the desire it was intended to curb” This is a quote by Mark Twain. Don’t restrictions always intensify the desire to act? What do you think?!

Haircut is not only a time for reflection given the long stare at the mirror, It is also a time to hear some old songs which feature in channels that I never switch on these days. What used to take 6 songs easily with ads and waiting time now gets done in 3 songs. So it is not only me! At this rate barbers are going to be out of business soon!  😀 Coming back to the songs, it was Sridevi's songs today all by one music director. Was wondering how only the songs alone continue to rema in young.. We all know how Sridevi looks now inspite of all the surgeries and Botox, but the music doesn't need all that. What great compositions! Do I need to tell the music director's name?   Perai Sollavaa? Adhu nyaayam aaguma?!   😀

Took this picture at the marina today morning. Among many things was reminded of Kalki's description in the beginning of one of the chapters. Followed up subseq uently with a google search and was able to get the text! From Ponniyin Selvan, Volume 3 Chapter 9 பொழுது புலர்ந்தது, கருநிற அழகியான இரவெனும் தேவி உலக நாயகனை விட்டுப் பிரிய மனமின்றிப் பிரிந்து செல்ல நேர்ந்தது. நாயகனைத் தழுவியிருந்த அவளுடைய கரங்கள் இலேசாகக் கழன்று விழுந்தன. வாழ்க்கையிலே கடைசி முத்தம் கொடுப்பவளைப் போல் கொடுத்து விட்டு இரவெனும் தேவி இன்னும் தயங்கி நின்றாள். “மாலையில் மறுபடியும் சந்திப்போம். நாலு ஜாம நேரந்தானே இந்தப் பிரிவு? சந்தோஷமாகப் போய்வா!” என்றது உலகம். இரவு தயங்கித் தயங்கி உலகத்தைத் திரும்பித் திரும்பிப் பார்த்துக் கொண்டு சென்றது. உள்ளத்திலே அன்பில்லாத கள்ளக் காதலனைப் போல் இரவு பிரிந்து சென்றதும் உலகம் மகிழ்ச்சியினால் சிலிர்த்தது. “ஆகா; விடுதலை!” என்று ஆயிரமாயிரம் பறவை இனங்கள் பாடிக் களித்தன. மரங்களிலும், செடிகளிலும் மொட்டுக்கள் வெடித்து மலர்ந்தன. எங்கிருந்தோ வண்டுகள் மந்தை மந்தையாக வந்து இதழ் வி...

Standing in attention for the National anthem after several years made me feel like a kid .. Same setting, same "Old" secretary speech and the usual programmes.. I almost found myself on the way to the queue for laddus, till I saw my little girl rushing towards me in her guides dress .. The teacher at the exit however still insisted that I take a sweet.  The laddu is now a Perk:-)Alas things have changed!

Sometimes even simple things make you uncomfortable .. An unknown security at the office entry gate recognizing you with a smile and letting you in without asking for an ID card. The guy at the Pantry making coffee exactly the way you want without a word exchanged. Senior citizens on their morning work noticing you and acknowledging with a friendly nod. Finding yourself in an auditorium waiting for a concert to start and noticing that you are the only one in the audience with all teeth left. When most of your friends, that too the ones slightly younger than you, start talking about midlife crisis on social networking sites. Realizing that something you strongly like (like a movie) is neither to the taste of your daughter nor that of your father. Sometimes even simple things make you uncomfortable.

The daily sheet calendar had the image of the man with the white turban, bright eyes and a big moustache. Subramanya Bharathi, a phenomenon that changed Tamil literature was born on this day 130 years ago.I don't have enough mastery over the language be it English or Tamil to talk about Bharathi and his genius. However I couldn't resist writing about him today I have never been to Ettayapuram but I have visualized it. There are several times I have woken up from a dream thinking I am in Ettayapuram. Maybe I will go there one day and visit the birth place of a genius who has ignored during his lifetime, who has maybe still not got the recognition he deserves but has left an everlasting impact on Tamil and Tamilians. Maybe he has become so much an integral part of Tamil and Tamilians that he doesn't need to be recognised separately? There are poets who have sung about nature, those who wrote for social causes, people who specialized in writing about religion and those w...

Back to blogger after some years. I did import whatever I had written in facebook during this period, mostly Poems. Life is similar to a game of chess. The rules are always defined by some unknown stranger. Everyone wants to be a king and thinks he can move in all directions. There is always someone above who treats him like a pawn and moves him in only one direction. King or Pawn how does it matter? The rules are already set and the control is always with someone else!

Life is all about living in the present. The past is always a comfort zone where one can hide. The future is something most of mankind cannot comprehend. Then how does one stay as fresh as a flower or the cool breeze or a spring? How does one carry on with changing generations, changing tastes, changing cultures? Life is all about unlearning what one has learnt,learning what one has not learnt. Life is all about undoing what one has done, doing what one has not done. Life is all about accepting change. Life is all about staying abreast with what is current. Life is all about living in the present ..

I seemed to have caught Lord Shiva in an uncomfortable caricature like position. I am no cartoonist, so I thought I will describe what I saw. It appeared like he was trying to dance. Parvathy who had occupied half his body seemed to have decided not to cooperate. The third eye was open but it had lost fire. Ganga seemed to have changed course and was focussed on the lord immersing him in a shower. Maybe that had extinguished all the emanating flames from the third eye. The snake appeared to have lost itself enjoying the much awaited shower and was unknowingly strangling the lord slightly in his excitement. In my daze I forgot to take stock of the number of his hands but all of them seemed occupied somehow or the other. Just as I was trying to conclude that Lord Shiva seemed to be trying to balance too many things without making any compromise, I was startled by an irritating loud noise. Shiva vanished just as he had come and there I was on my bed. I got up thinking of the strange dream...

Logging back into blogger after ages. I found this note saved in my drafts. I don't know why I started it and I don't know what to do with it. I thought of calling this note incomplete but then stopped short for I realized I didn't know what is complete! I leave it to you to decide. I entered a maze several years back. I have come a long way and now there is no going back. The burden of my mistakes has grown over the years. Lost opportunities, missed paths which could have taken me there earlier.. there are X marks all over the place! Ah but it is not over yet! I still have time to get there and I want to make each day count.

There are two reports of hooliganism around the 60th Republic day of India Violence in a Mangalore pub against women by a group called Ram Sena http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090081377&ch=633686650503048750 Violence in Nashik by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) against North Indians in a school celebration http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090081498&ch=633686661721816250 While the big question remains as to whether our politicians will give up their fear for votes and take a stand on such religious outfits, who take law in their hands and do moral policing in the name of religion and tradition, I have another question which was triggered by a response from one of the Mangalore police officers to the media. How does the media come to know of these things and arrive at the scene prompt with their video cameras and shoot all these incidents unattacked? While the media is focussed on creating scoops out of such incidents and public...

It has been raining for the past few days here. Rain always reminds of a few fond memories. Some happy moments that I have got embedded in my mind and associated with rain maybe in the subconcious mind. My attempts as a child to make a paper boat float on the water collected on the road outside, futile attempts I should say but all the same fulfilling and unforgettable. A cold rainy day in Bangalore in the 1980's spent visting all the parks that Bangalore is famous for, amazed at the beauty of the vast greenery around. A joyous ride on a rickshaw along the marina beach on a windy day, protected by a plastic sheet hanging from the top but yet fully drenched, returning to home early because of a cyclone warning. What a wonderful feeling it is, as a child, to return early from school, that too unexpectedly. Rain also reminds me of one particular place, a city that I have visited quite often, Belfast. Belfast greets me with rain almost everytime. I have seen several people associate ra...

You must have noticed that I have added AdSense to my blog recently. This is how adsense works. For every click made by a reader on the ads displayed, AdSense pays the person owning the blog a percentage of the amount that it gets from the partner companies. AdSense reminds me of a website called "pointclick.com". I am not sure if you have heard about it. It was one of those dot-com companies that came up when the internet was booming around year 2000 and crashed immediately in the dot-com crash. The concept was quite simple. You just had to register yourself in the website and after that for every click on the ads displayed in the website users would get 1 cent. The balance would be accumulated and the user had an option of either taking cash or spending the money on partner sites. If spent on purchasing products from partner sites like amazon each click would be worth 2 cents. The idea is very similar to AdSense. However AdSense is a lot more well thought out. Ads are disp...

Today is Martin Luther King day. I had the fortune of listening to Dr.King's famous speech "I have a dream today", courtesy youtube. This is definitely one of the landmark speeches in the history of mankind. This speech is credited to have prompted the 1964 civil rights act. You must listen to the way it is delivered and the choice of words. It is simply amazing. Dr.King for sure had a sense of his place in history. You can watch the video, which contains the full speech, here: I have a Dream speech America has come a long way from the time a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for refusing to move out of a seat in the section reserved for whites, in a Montgomery bus. That was the event in 1955 which triggered Dr.King's civil rights crusade. Nearly 54 years later an African American is less than 24 hours away from taking oath as President of America. King's dream has atleast been realised partially. America has come to a stage where people are not judged by th...

News about the Satyam fiasco is all over the place. Ramalinga Raju has given the media the much needed scoop after 26/11. Almost every news item and debate is around Satyam. At the same time Ramalinga Raju is cooling his heels in a jail, supposedly after refusing VIP treatment but using his political clout to keep away from the law. While the Satyam fiasco has come as a rude schock and raised questions on corporate governance in India and the credibility of Indian IT companies, I think it is good one way. It has given a chance to revisit the laws and put in measures to enforce regulation and compliance. After all while it is great to remind oneself of all the feathers in his cap and keep flying high, one also does need some thorns once in a while to prick and bring back to reality.

I was talking about J.Krishnamurthi's views on names and his poem in my earlier post. Here is the full poem: I have no name, I am as the fresh breeze of the mountains. I have no shelter; I am as the wandering waters. I have no sanctuary, like the dark gods; Nor am I in the shadow of deep temples. I have no sacred books; Nor am I well-seasoned in tradition. I am not in the incense Mounting on the high altars, Nor in the pomp of ceremonies. I am neither in the graven image, Nor in the rich chant of a melodious voice. I am not bound by theories, Nor corrupted by beliefs. I am not held in the bondage of religions, Nor in the pious agony of their priests. I am not entrapped by philosophies, Nor held in the power of their sects. I am neither low nor high, I am the worshipper and the worshipped. I am free. My song is the song of the river Calling for the open seas, Wandering, wandering, I am Life. I have no name, I am as the fresh breeze of the mountains. A beautiful poem in simple words...

I was reminded of Shelley today, though I have never read Shelley to a great extent. Don’t ask why.. I have told several times before that weekends do something strange to me. I read the poem “To a Skylark” again and again. This was perhaps the inspiration for Subramanya Bharathy ’s kuyil paattu. I don’t want to take away the beauty of Shelley’s words by giving my description but would just like to say that I am left with much the same feeling as Shelley himself in this poem where he says: Teach us, sprite or bird, What sweet thoughts are thine: I have never heard Praise of love or wine That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine. I will leave you with closing lines of this poem: We look before and after, And pine for what is not: Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. Yet if we could scorn Hate, and pride, and fear; If we were things born ...

I used to hate History in school. It was mainly because of the dull way in which it was taught to me, as merely a collection of events with more stress on memorising dates. Sometimes when you have bad teachers you end up hating the subject as well. My interest has suddenly turned to history now. Why should one study history, I wonder. Isn't history all about cold blooded murders in the name of war? Isn't history more about singing the glories of so called "heroes" who killed hundreds and thousands of innocents in the name of war? Well it is and it is no longer worth reading history just to show off ones ability to remember dates and events. I feel that history should be studied so that we are reminded of the barbarism that is still left in mankind inspite of the centuries gone by, to understand how one person's eccentricity or someone's selfish interests can send a nation to war . History should be studied so that we are reminded of the indifference that is so...