Waiting to end the wait

As infant, all the time went in  

waiting for milk , nap , or cuddle.

As toddler, every day went by

waiting for the next pizza day.

In my boyhood, the days rolled by

waiting for the holiday breaks.

As a teenger, the day blossomed

waiting for the ladylove at the corridor

As a fresh grad, everyday passed by

waiting for the interview calls.

As an employee, the efforts went wasted

waiting for incentives.

As a husband, every moment of the daylight went

waiting for the nightlight.

As a father, the most exciting days constitute

waiting for the baby to be born

As a middle-aged man, the days flew by

waiting for some good rest

As a retiree, the days staggered to move

waiting for the kids to settle down

As a grandfather, the time almost froze while

waiting for the grandchild’s vacation.

As an accomplished man, after all the waiting done,

waiting for the wait to end!!

Strike the Balance

Speed is style;

slowness is safe.
Speed is thrilling;
slowness is bland.
Speed impairs insight;
slowness comprehends consequences.
Speed enhances audacity;

Slowness impedes enhancements.

Not too slow; Not too fast;

chose the best and strike it right!!

Eternal Elixir

It never gives complete satisfaction
Full moon over the wavy waters;
Striking Cool breeze in the running bus;
Fireworks across the city skyline.

It never gives enough contentment
Time with innocent infant;
Serial lamps in the quiet night;
Favorite drink in the open sky;
Seeing through the eyes of the loved ones
that you are the elixir of their life;
It never gives any quantifiable pleasure
but the addictive tranquility and craving
Life gets more exciting and absolutely relevant
having trapped in few such circular dependencies

Vibrations of Vishnu Sahasranamam

It is gloomy afternoon on first day of the week Monday. There is no mood to complete the goal; no energy to drive the mind for the purpose. But there was a small (divinely) drive to initiate a good change hence I started the Vishnu Sahasranamam from one of the online sites. I resorted singing some of the (just some of the...) lines which usually excites me. Ofcourse, I did continue the work toggling to hear the sahasranamam in background.


Little flashback on my encounters with Vishnu Sahasranamam:

The very first encounter(that I could remember) was when I was pregnant. My mother kept emphasizing on (at least) hearing it. She used to recite her routine recitals when I am around. Prior to those initial exposure(of just hearing), Sahasranamam  would just mean the delicious Prasadham for me.When I moved to US, Vishnu Sahasranamam book accompanied me. But Abhinav and me used to hear lot of Carnatic and devotional songs(Courtesy: YouTube) during our years of lovely days of bonding. We never did plunge into that Sea of Vishnu's namam though.

After a brief vacation, We were invited to Vishnu Sahasranamam Parayanam at Uma & Jeyaraj's home. There was this gang of our Tamil friends who assemble in one of their houses every weekend for recitals followed by Potluck. That day was my first effort to recite the Sahasranamam completely. As obvious, I was not great but I liked the experience which urged for more concentration. We decided to join the weekly recital sessions for the comfort of known people; good prospect of Abhinav's playtime; delicious food and the relaxation that it gave. (not in any particular order ;-) ). We managed to attend enough recitals (at various friend's place) for me to read the quotes fluently (with the notes). It helped me recover from my various sickness I was recovering from. It did change my perspective (of course, positively) on cooking.

It was not even a week from the day we organised sahasranamam at our place, I got a job and we moved to Parsippany. Vishnu Sahasranamam not just gives spiritual satisfaction.
Though we missed our usual gang, our friends in Parsippany did not let us miss the Sahasranamam recitals. We had couple of College friends in Parsippany who were ready to start a sahasranamam group in Parsippany. This group slowly expanded to few more families. Nevertheless, the gang was small enough to experiment on singing aloud confidently.

Immaterial of the mood of my day; state of my health; place of recital, Vishnu Sahasranamam has never failed to boost my energy levels. I have grown matured; risen strong; revived my chords and reborn shedding my inhibitions after my association with the Vishnu Sahasranamam. I find myself active and lively after every recital of sahasranamam. But the simple  question keeps arising...

How does that small script(ok..little larger one) give such a reverberation?

Is it the bonding with the friends that creates the vibration? - I have felt energised even during my solo recitals - REASONING REJECTED
Is it the name of God that creates the positive vibration?   - This reasoning would not please an atheist. I am 200% sure Sahasranamam would create good mood irrespective of beliefs.  - REJECTED
Is the pschology in us that believes that it definitely creates positive vibration? - This cannot be true. The vibrations hit me even before I started believing in it. - REJECTED.
Does the phonetic rhymes ring the same oscillatory chime with the blood flow rate(heart beat rate)? - I tend to believe in this science. I surely follow Hinduism. But I would prefer some reasoning.

Can someone help me?

 

Married (Indian) Son's unsent Letter

Dear Mom/Dad,

I have grown up. I have a family. That does not mean I am not still part of “our” family.  I have wife who considers our  family as hers and forgotten about her own parents and siblings. I have beautiful daughter and handsome son. Above all, I am 35 now.  Do you remember what you used to do when you were 35. You were one of seven/four/five and your world was not as competitive as mine; Still you made your decisions, plotted your plans and executed them with ease. Then why cannot I? I do not say stop mending with me. I just say believe me.

My son is 5 now. He has mind of his own. I discipline him yet I give his freedom to think and express. It is not because I am good parent but because I am good believer. I believe in myself and hence believe in my kid. Truth and trust build wonderful relationships. May be you trust me, may be you believe but I have no clues of understanding it. Talking about understanding, every relationship is blossomed and watered into a big healthy tree only in mutual understanding and trust. Not by mere authority or power. I get down into my son’s World, speak his own language to find a space in his World and his heart. I have given him freedom to discuss everything and also instincts to his brain to decide good/bad. He does think before doing things (in his small World which would be keep expanding exponentially)  he knows I would dislike. He does that diligently every time because he needs a place in my World and my life forever. He values my relationship more than anything as we have been truthful to each other always.

 I know the question in your mind(cos I understand you).  Why give freedom to kids when they should be under your control? Why even at the age of 5?Correct?What if my grandparents had that idea about parenting? What If I do that to your grand kids? Then why do that only to me? To answer the age factor, the relationships needs to be attended, appreciated and maintained regularly from the day 1. It cannot happen out of nothing; more importantly not out of mere usage of Power. Even for Boss-subordinate relationship, it has to be mutual to bring the best out of the both.

I have made sincere efforts to please you.I have always been thriving a place in your World. Please give me a place in your World. Hope this thrive ends when you read this letter or when you see your grandchildren give the best to the World.

 

Love,

Your Son who always dislike your authoritarian parenting.  

 

Wagonville adventure

The story takes place in Wagonville , a beautiful town near the valley. “Four special friends”, that’s how people in the town referred them for the care and loyalty they expressed over each other.

  

Bikey is youngest of the gang. He loves adventure and likes to keep himself clean.

Casey is sedan family car ailing from the same neighbourhood as Bikey. She is soft-spoken and very structured person.

Casey is actually close friend of Bikey's brother John. John is Police car while Bikey is Police bike.And they lived near the woods.

John is very meticulous officer who loves to spend his spare time with his friends and family.

Shiny is their friend from downtown. She is grand daughter of a very famous movie star and moved into the town for the sake of peace from Media.

They loved to play together in ground

Hang out for dinner

love to go to movie theatre together

 

 

They loved spending time together.

One windy evening, they were playing ball together when Rodey approched them. 

Rodey and his family moved into the town only a week back. Rodey's father took charge as Additional Chief scientist for the Wagonville township.

 

 

 

 

"Can I play with you?" asked Rodey.

"Sorry, we are friends..best friends.There is no room for one more person" said Bikey.

"May be, we should let him play with us. He also belongs here" said Casey

"Probably, we should" said John.

Before they finished discussing, Rodey rode away. Rodey was reserved, hot-headed yet intelligent. 

 

They had fun playing and forget about Rodey until the ball rolled to the town arch. As Bikey went to fetch it, he developed more conversation with Rodey and got bashed by Rodey for all the anger he was holding to himself.

Everyone arrived at the arch since Bikey was taking time to come back. They had intensive arguements and Rodey felt for physically attacking Bikey. Rodey apologizes and asks the group for the doctors house.

Everone agreed that they have to take Bikey to Dr. Semi-shield. He was internist and specialised in Psychiatry. Everyone loved to listen to his moral stories and liked to hang out with him. He had the charm of fixing the cars just with his words.He was the God father of the town.

"Oh God, What is wrong with Bikey?" asked Dr very concerned. Bikey is Dr. Sem-shield's pet kid. "Why is he limping with one tyre??"

He, infact loved all the four friends and admired their relationship and wished he could still play with them all the time instead spending his days in the mechanic shop fixing someone/

 

Everyone started shouting that Rodey is responsible for the whole thing. Doctor shouted back at everyone for being careless while playing and asked everyone to wait as he mended on Bikey's broken parts.

He take turns to speak to Rodey and friends team separately and advised them to play together.

 

 

 

 His point was "Everyone does mistake. But realizing it most important.". Also he comes from a good family clean and assured 

 

Rodey also admited that he didnot mean to do any harm to Bikey and it happened by accident. 

Doctor quoted Bruce Lee, the great martial artists words "Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them". Meanwhile Bikey also told that Rodey did not seem do it on purpose and he is feeling better now.

 

After few hestiation everbody accepted Rodey's apologies and accepted them in their gang.

Will the "four special friends" turn into "five fascinating friends" or will Rodey cause further trouble to the gang?? watch the space for updates

Reincarnation of ....?!?

Reincarnation of Jesus? Buddha? Anne Frank?

The title is way too evading from the real content. The blog is actually about the reincarnations of yesterday's not-so-good dinner or today's left-out lunch:-)
ha ha ha....Yeah...The blog is just about how I rendered some fine make-over to some of my left-out or not-so-good dishes!

Cooking for family of two is often cumbersome and time-consuming. Oh..wait.. let me justify
It makes not much sense (at least to me) to cook close to 1 hour a day and prepare something of quantity that should get over the same day. We can neither eat the same dish again nor throw it for that matter.

To obtain the trade-off between spending less-time in kitchen and make variety of dishes, I used to reincarnate some of my creations;-) :-)
There are days that I have spent more time in thinking about the procedure of reincarnations and preparing it than I would have spent in the kitchen otherwise. But the excitement and the fun that I got out of these experiments are  so high that I tend to miss my goal...the goal of  lazing around with kitchen work.


Rasam to Sambhar/Milagu Kulambu

Thakkalai Rasam can be made into sambhar with addition of Dhal and appropriate Vegatables.
Puli Rasam can also be added with vegetables made into Milagu kulambu...
Since we generally don't add pepper/Jeera into Sambhar it can be called "Pulila Kari". That is not imaginary dish. It exists in the reign of south indian/south tamilnadu cooking.

The type of Rasam that was made and the sambhar/kulambu that can be made is purely speculative. Tampering of the spices can be easily made according to your family taste. Welcome the Person who complains on bad tastes to Lab(kitchen) to test the dish on experiment. This way, the person is on limelight and can be conferred ownership on failures. If that kind of person at your home is you , I can guarantee you will never try this ;-)


Veg. Biryani/Pulao rice into Veg. Manchurian

Mash the left-over biryani or give a small grind in the mixer grinder without water.
Make the dumplings into ball of required size.
Use Corn flour(or corn flour + rice flour) mixture to cover and make the ball firm enough to be fried. Fry it in the hot pan for crispy dry veg Manchurian to be had as snack. It can also be gravy with the usual ginger+chilli sauté sauce

There are few more reincarnations that I perform which I think is obvious. Anyways listing few of them and hoping to add few more interesting experiments as I remember or as I perform new ones.

Left out Boiled/Cooked Vegetables curry (carrot/Potato/Cabbage/Beans/Corn or mixture of the same) made for south-indian lunch can be transferred into the following depending on the need of the day.

1. Puffs /Samosa (with its usual cover procedure)
2. Patties (by mashing+ rolling over corn flour + Rolling it down into desired shape + cook it over the pan.
3. Stuffed Parato
4. <xxx> Masala dosa(sprinkled over dosa batter)
5. <xxx> dosa ( Grind the vegetable well and mix it over the dosa batter itself)

Please note the clear difference between name of  4 and 5 ;-)

I am closing this blog not due to lack of notes for the topic but for the fear I can visualize in your eyes about your planned visit to my home and for the pity that you have already developed for Nambi and Abhinav ;-)

Evolving with the Radio-centric life

Mother (of 90s): Hey Where is my transistor(shorty for the transistor radio)?!? (almost screaming from Kitchen)

Daughter (peeping into her clothes rack shouts (literally) back): I am having it ...going to have my bath...so I am taking it inside....
Mother: That is my radio...give it back to me in Kitchen ...That's how I keep track of time......(she still is happy that her daughter has inherited the habit of listening to radios)

Now....2014

Son (very early in the morning): Where is your i-phone?!?

Mother (from the "same" kitchen): It is here only …what is the matter?
Son: I want to watch Rescuebots. GIVE ME THAT... (Of course in top of his voice)
Mother: (Shouts back if she has time or yields in if she has no time to spare for the combat): [mumbles to herself]...That's the only thing I have to track the time.....

The impact (positive/negative)  of the modern technologies pertaining to Apple, Inc related products is highly arguable. I am not getting more into that since it is out of the scope of this blog let ;-) 

Aim: I am taking few citations and common scenarios to illustrate that the Radio had/(possibly)has the great role in molding the successful person. Does that sound as a over-exaggeration??!?! I can justify with appropriate equations.

Some Quotes for RHS (Who is successful person?!?!?) : 

• Success isn't measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace. - Mike Ditka

- Inner peace (or peace of mind) refers to a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress.

• The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.- Robert Kiyosaki

- Radio helps you to handle disappointment as in reality.

• Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking. - Bernard Baruch

- Obviosuly you listen to Radio ;-) 

 

Ok, Lets map to the LHS and say hence proved...

• Hypothesis 1: Inner Peace

Consider

While you are studying for the most difficult exam of your life. Of course, with the radio in the background. You get a call from your friend that she overheard your teacher telling that question paper is very tough. You are distracted with the question "Can I finish reading the syllabus?” and the Radio announcer(RJ) says “The song for you to reflect your mood”

Option 1:  Peppy Song (e.g) : "Vetri midhu vetri vandhu yennai serum" (from the movie
Thedi vantha maappillai) Obviously, it strikes  your chords and get you to work harder…

 

Option 2:

What  if one of the saddest song is broadcasted in Radio: "Kanavu kanom valakai yaavum"(from the movie Neengal Kaettavai)  - What a timing?!?!

Do you shun away with your activities and get depressed?!?

 May be not!!! You are bound to be reactivated when you continue listening to the songs lyrics further till the pallavi…

“manithanae kadamaiyai indre 
seivathil thaane aanantham “ 

Even on the worst case; the next song or the next program is bound to rejuvenate your vibes with "your" kind of songs and get you to the restart your studying.

 Immaterial of you finish the syllabus, find the questions difficult; complete the exam with flying colours the song teaches you reality of living in few steps ;-) (If you bound to learn from it the easy way)

 Can I say “LHS=RHS”? Or we need more substantiations?!?

Inner Peace – keeping oneself strong in the face of stress = in terms of motivational songs and lyrics immediately or sooner enough.

• Hypothesis 2:  Handling disappointments

 Consider having a recorded CD of your very favorite songs; How long can we listen to just that?It is like a very planned, well settled life with no problems/issues.

 A transistor radio on the other hand is the replica of reality. One would not know
 What song is up next?!? What is up next in life?

One's favourite song? ...Happy “only-Good" moments

Or unheard song?!?...unexpected happenings

Whatever it may be, we “used to” listen to it as yet-another one….get-over the situation

How you handle disappointment along the way = Easy way to learn handling unexpected(positive/negative) things on the way = in terms of the suspense you have about the next song.As you could, it also gives the needed amount excitement to look forward for new adventures and things.

Listening more than talking = Radio “had” programs which gave lot of new informations which “was” worth listening.

I am not against today’s revolution in Radio industry. I am just convinced that the competition in the industry has kind of changed the way the Radio had influenced our living. We have predetermined set of songs we hear and re-hear.....rather we circle around the sequence of events we live and execute(this is not re-living)

I say “Hence Proved” J

any oppositions?!?! Pls comments