Surprises

Yesterday morning when I was walking towards the office, I found a 50 Rs note on the side of the track, next to the line of bushes. I thought of putting it in some welfare fund that we have in the office but just before reaching I saw a couple of ladies clearing the area near the plants and it struck me that the way the note was folded, it could be one of theirs. I left a couple of them and went to the third one and I had just started, "this note was fallen there, if it is any of yours..." when she lapped it up, showed me her shirt pocket saying it fell from there and went back to work. I could only think what happy coincidence it was.

Does it happen to you that every time you watch a certain movie on TV from the same point? It's happened to me so many times. I flip the channels and come to a movie to find that it is at the same point as I watched it last time. Some deja vu feeling that is! So it has happened that I have missed the beginning of quite a few movies but the fact that I have not bothered to watch them on DVD shows that I didn't miss much I guess.

Ponting has announced his retirement and I'm going to miss him. With the retirement of Warne, Murali, McGrath, Dravid, Lakshman  and now Ponting, I'm feeling that an excellent chapter in cricket is coming to an end. Hope he goes out on a high note, doing very well in his last match. So must many be hoping around the world.

I got my IT-refund credited within two weeks!! Last time I had a refund was a decade ago and they had taken an year to send me a cheque. This was a real pleasant surprise.

Got connected the linked-in way to SB and PM, two of the best people I know. But after clicking on the 'Connect' button, I've got caught in 'it's-been-so-long-will-they-really-write' sort of hesitation to proceed further. I think I'll still try.

Rule of Inaction

Our cities are giving so much indication of anarchy than any governance these days. Starting from reckless driving on the road and greedy auto-drivers, we have stinking lanes, dirty and neglected roads, illegal constructions, unchecked construction of temples anywhere and everywhere, thefts and murders of helpless people, people going on rampage and damaging public and private property, assaults on people by goons, gangwars and killings in the broad daylight and I don't know what else. And Bangalore seems to stand out as the perfect example for all these things. In some of these cases, things get noticed by the authorities only after enough people complain about it or a TV channel focuses the camera there and sometimes not even after that. In some other cases, say in the case of an illegal temple or construction, most people are scared to complain at all and if some of the braver ones go ahead and do it, they find the authorities scared too; scared of the mob so that they would give all sorts of excuses not to do anything about it unless probably a court gives an order or something. I mean, if people supposed to be in control of things behave like that, where should the common man get confidence from? I don't think anybody who gets any position of power, however small that may be, has any vision of doing his duty nowadays. All they want to do is making money. My only hope is that Rajnish Goel is different and will at least set some things right while he is the head of BBMP. Now it also reminds me that I need to go to their local office tomorrow to complain about a drainage nearby. They will direct me to BWSSB but they also have some work unfinished there.

Thanks to the brisk and massive construction work going on nearby, there is ample dust all around the place and however black I polish my shoes, by the time I reach office they look as if I haven't touched them for ages. When you stand in the lift, people invariably look at others' shoes and I wonder if I'm creating an impression of being the laziest person. Actually, I'm not even taking the dirty track around the lake anymore; one rainy day by sheer lack of choice, I landed at the backgate and found a world I had never seen before. Then I walk all the way to the other end along the pavement, giving a total bye to the lake which is not yet 'purified'. In the process, I even found that Samsung Lake had a name given to it by our forefathers. Seems at the right time because recently realized that Samsung had shifted base elsewhere!

Work is being quite hectic and we are all still waiting for the 20-odd 20-somethings to learn the functionality and give us some confidence.Very few have shown the inclination to learn the module and all that most want to do is work on java as if that is the ultimate 'job-satisfaction'! I don't even see the basic aptitude or sincerity in many! Boys are marginally better than girls may be because they don't have the distraction of going to the restroom thrice a day to deck themselves up. If only they had half the enthusiasm that they invest in facebook for work, all of us would've been a happier lot. As I can see, most have come here only for a foothold in the industry and will not stick around for long. I guess their generation is different after all and we should stop expecting engineers to be interested in banking the way we were and instead train commerce guys to use our software which is hardly a big deal.

I uploaded a couple of P's old and new photos on facebook yesterday and he's amused by the alacrity with which they have been liked, especially by some of his college friends who saw his face after ages.

The Aftermath

The streets have finally fallen silent. But the tell-tale signs of the blasts are everywhere - lifeless forms of Lakshmis, Jumbos and others smaller and bigger specimens lying in heaps now indicating the amount of money that went up in smoke!!

My grandmother's death-anniversary today and my mother left for her place yesterday. She had asked me to give her some money for some ritual there and I was glad I could do something for her for once. But no. The idiot that I am, I totally forgot that she was going and ended up coming home only after she left! Felt like kicking myself, really.

Now the ritual that I mentioned is a strange one. The families where each of the children of the deceased is married to, should buy clothes for all the children. I mean, now my mother has seven siblings and each of the 8 families where their spouses come from, should buy clothes for my mother and her seven siblings because they have lost their parent!! This is on the occasion of the first anniversary only. Pappa says it is like congratulating them on successfully completing the tribulations of the first year - apart from the bereavement, they are not even supposed to celebrate any festival or any special occasion that year etc. It sounded like the 'hardship allowance' that we have!

My brother-in-law has had a second girl today and I know that everybody back home is very dejected. That is a place where dowry is only increasing by the day and unlike our places, parents of the girl cannot think of staying with the daughter unless they are rich and the daughter is staying with them with the resident son-in-law. So I've not seen even a single family with only two daughters - they will have at least four daughters and then only give up hopes on having a son. Now both my younger brothers-in-law have two daughters each and everybody is worried about the future already. Of course it's not that the kids are not taken good care of; they are the darlings of the household but in private, the elders sigh. But I do think 20 years is a long time and things will not be the same. Winds of change are already on, at least in terms of girls going out, studying and working subsequently.

Past, Present and the Future

V had asked me to bring our stamp collection from home and I must admit that possessiveness took hold of me for a moment when I was going through them. Being older than V, it was I who started the collection and I guess it was all because of Gajumaava who was in Indonesia then and used to write to us regularly. But there were many around me who had the same hobby and that created the competitive collection. There was my neighbour Poornakka who had a smaller collection but she had Jordan with her which I coveted badly. But my closest rival was my closest friend S and we literally did 'beg-borrow-steal' to outdo the other. Our primary sources were mostly Muslim boys and girls who invariably had some or the other relative in middle-east. Of course being a Christian, S also had relatives elsewhere and I was glad to have Indonesian and occasionally Malaysian stamps to offset that advantage. I think when we were small, we traded stamps for some other commodities but as we grew up, our classmates started parting with them willingly. But S and I used to be the monitors generally and the poor things would be in a dilemma as to not upset the other by giving a stamp to one of us. It would all be under-the-table transaction and the one who thought she alone got it would give proud meaningful smiles to the other. Irshad, Yasmeen, Rasheeda, Kenute....so many of them I should be thankful to for the collection we have made today.

I met one of my batchmates while at my place when I took his auto to return home from BCR. His face vaguely looked familiar but so do many in a small place like mine. But when I gave him money, he addressed me by name and asked me if I remembered him and I felt pathetic but I told him the truth. Actually most of the childhood faces have faded from my memory so forget the juniors and seniors, even my classmates I won't be able to recognise. Many used to be autodrivers but they've all vanished for the past 3-4 years. Many of my girlfriends were Muslims and now unless they hail me from inside their burkhas, there is no way I can find them. But after this incident, I got all confused and when I went to BCR the next day, gave a big smile to a guy standing next to me thinking he was my classmate sometime but he didn't seem to think so and returned only a half-smile. I think I will get into a controversy soon...

My daughter's horoscope is finally out. It seems she is going to be arrogant and irreligious among other things and we're trying hard to find some early signs. As of now, she seems to be only a cry-baby and quite attached to the photos and songs of God. One thing is for sure, she is going to be one tall girl.

Festival Time!

The smoke of DeepavaLi has filled the air all around. Look anywhere and you can't escape the noise, the smoke and of course their better cousin, the light. I'm scared to go out these two days anytime after 5 in the evening, not so much because of smoke as for the fear of stepping on a live bomb that the children and elders alike would've planted on the roads. Everybody wants their share of light and noise and after a while, even the beautiful stars that light up the sky in every hue begin to get on my nerves. My husband and son have gone upstairs to finish our couple of rockets and we ladies have kept ourselves to window-celebrations.

Office wore a deserted look yesterday and even the non-celebrating Malayalis had taken the occasion to have a 4-day holiday. Naturally the bugs also didn't stream in like other days and the ones remaining in the office had a much better time. One of our fellows will travel to Egypt next week or so and when we were talking about it, asked me if I never went abroad. I told him it was only once and he told me he thought I had lived in the USA for years! He only smiled and didn't explain the reasoning and I wonder what makes people have all these impressions.

My father is in his native place for DeepavaLi this time and even Chouti he celebrated there. He goes there at the drop of a hat as if he is making up for his younger days when he hardly visited.

My daughter is getting vociferous in her protests these days and milk and comb are in her bad books already. It is mandatory to sing her to sleep and she wants a new song every second day! I'm eternally grateful to 'Jhenkara' programme that used to be on radio every Sunday when we were kids. They used to sing the same song for 4 weeks and those very hummable songs have remained with me and are keeping my daughter happy till now.