Elementary, my dear Watson….

Boredom… This is something I face everyday of my professional life. From the lack of interesting things to do, boredom in my case has come to lack of anything to do(sometimes)…! I sit in office day after day….wondering where I went wrong…choosing my company or my profession.. Maybe I should have stuck to writing as a career option, or teaching which was once my dream job 

I used to think I was the only person with this problem… then I realized to my dismay (and a kinda impish satisfaction) that most of the people around me in office are sailing in the same boat. I then began to study the various techniques people employ to overcome this “everyday” problem.

There are some masters in this art of dealing with boredom. Many of them deceive themselves, making their minds believe that they are actually busy. They do things like scrolling their inboxes many times…refreshing it…reading old useless mails multiple times…playing sudoku…taking one hour to compose a single line mail…trying to compose the mail in which they update the week’s activities(no activities done.. but u need to boost the manager’s ego that his project is doing something great)

I have even heard many employees say, “I was very busy today, lotsa forwarded mails to read…”

So what do I do to overcome this problem and leverage this opportunity to make my time fruitful? What can anyone possibly do to ward off the danger that an idle mind heralds?

I discovered that blogging is quite a good way of bringing out our creativity and in some cases, letting out some steam too. Definitely better than pointlessly chatting about the latest gossip with your team mate.

Sometimes.. only when I blogged, I discovered that I really had an opinion about that issue…that I really had such kinda vocabulary… that I was able to spin off a blog entry so quickly..

That is when I discovered the fact that whatever we do very well, is the one on which we have spent the greatest time. A lazy person will always be lazy, unless he starts doing something and spends more and more time being active. If you sleep for 12 hours a day… you will be an expert in sleeping. If you spend 5 hours a day practicing dance, it will show in your performance.

It is the simple phenomenon which all of us just brush away with “Oh that is so simple. We know this since kindergarten”. What we do not realize is that all the greatest concepts on earth are SIMPLE.

Is nt that what the greatest detective and one of the sharpest minds in the literary world often used to say while explaining his seemingly impossible deductions of apparently complex cases?
“Elementary, my dear Watson”

Friendships – Do We Have Time for Them Today?

Time is the most precious commodity nowadays. Strangely, it is the only commodity in the possession of every human being in perfectly equal quantities, irrespective of his social status or any other humanly devised taxonomical term. In the age of globalization, when people get paid for devoting their time for any particular task, do we have time for people?

One day you get a call….”Hi…how are you…Remember me?”

Now that is quite a dangerous question… You have been in this situation before and you know it’s a deadly trap.. If it is one of your long forgotten cousins – you had better camouflage your poor memory by humming a hawing and keeping up a small general talk until mother arrives in the scene to take charge of the phone and at least save you by telling out aloud the name of the person at the other end. Then you sigh and forcefully take the phone from her and say.. ”Oh Satish… How is your girl friend da…Sumi right? You still have to give me a five star chocolate as I did not tell your dad about her the other day.. It has been 5 years since you got married to her!” (As if you knew all along that it was Satish to whom you were giving details like the exact altitude and dimensions of the clouds today)

But there is one breed of people and the memories linked with them that one shall never forget… Even the little tug of war you had with the bunny rabbit toy in LKG… The way you both had tried to bury your fallen milk tooth in the school ground… The exact number of idlis he took from your tiffin box during Chemistry class in the tenth standard…. The chalk pieces you threw at each other… The hours you waited for the result of the semester exam… The cups of coffee.. The movies… The teachers you had made fun of.. The classes you bunked for a nice afternoon siesta…

Is there not one huge archive of memories that seems to evade any new age memory ruiner like job stress or marital problems or the omnipresent traffic.. Don’t those memories always bring a smile to your lips when you reminisce about them… Don’t you leave out everything and rush to the hospital when you hear that your friend has met with an accident…? Don’t you plan your leave to attend your best friend’s wedding? Don’t you pray (albeit hurriedly) for your friend too when you stand before the gods every morning in your pooja room? Don’t her triumphs make you proud? Don’t you think of your friend when you get news about something she is desperately in need of…? Don’t you pick up the phone just to listen to her voice when you feel down?

Well…. Did anyone just say that people do not have time for anybody these days?

I say, we always have time, for those who matter, for those who care, for those people whom we care about.

Blood ties - we have none.

We dont always have fun

We are not colleagues

We dont meet up all days

We do argue

confide and giggle

We think things through

We laugh and we tickle

We are there for each other

Now and forever!

My dear friend,

Let us be the same

Till the end!

Let them fall…..

One of the games I have seen children play is blowing air near floating feathers – to keep them floating. How beautiful and graceful it is to watch the light and cute feathers gently rock left and right like a small boat on waves….. How our heart goes out to the pretty thing….. We blow air to keep it floating. After a period of time we tire of pushing air out of our system forcefully….. Did anyone ask us to keep the feather suspended in air? Did it request your breath? Did it say it did not like the comfort of lying down on mother Earth?

A feather or anything similar that obeys the law of gravity like leaves, dandelion, dust, raindrops or even a ball, is bound to fall down. And let me assure you, they do not mind it! Indeed they want it!

What is the point of trying to do something to change something which you know does not need to change? Or what is the point in holding on to something that you have to let go, in the name of silly sentiments? Why should you exert yourself for something that does not require your effort?

Let us learn to let go of things that have to be let off….things which have to be let go, things which do not require us… things which hurt us when we try to hold them back….

Let the raindrops tumble down… Let the feathers float…. and also…. Let them fall….!

Am I alluding to something here? Let me let you think :-)

Monday Morning Blues

The dawn of the day that heralds the monotony of one more week of “Back to the same old routine”, traffic, “oops! Am late! “, “Where is my ID card, mother? “ and many more utterances of the average Indian…. The day that breaks the languor and leisure of the weekend….The day that is not especially liked by a majority of normal human beings who are not workaholics (and studyaholics or whatever those addicted to attending every single class in college are called  ) – No special prizes for guessing the answer – Monday - the first day among the five that separate one weekend from the next.

The major hurdles that one needs to manage are - the time one has to wake up is in the wee hours of the morning, before the sun greets the earth with his radiant smile.( One does not wake up with that kind of smile, for sure), the dynamics of the body has to be doubled up in speed, reflexes have to be faster and most unfortunate of all, one simply cannot afford to dilly – dally in the front porch and indulge in harmless and unproductive chitchat with one’s neighbours.

No haggling with the vegetable vendor… If he does not accept your terms of bargain – just give the lucky devil the amount he demands (this is what ladies like my mother do) otherwise just ignore the fellow (my grandmother’s technique) and go for the one next to him – he will definitely give in to you, having heard of your bargaining skills and the looks that you bestow upon less fortunate people like his colleague sitting near him the next time you pass by.

Prayer time? In the morning hours? Sure… But definitely not the kind of time you get to spend on holidays. No time to maintain the great rapport that you believe you had established with the almighty during the weekend. Of course a hurried mumbling of the few sacred verses that you know since childhood and a mental consolation “God will understand…He knows my schedule…after all, he intends it to be this way!” Of course my dear, God understands, completely.

Phone calls to friends and relatives just do not seem to be able to fit in within the weekday schedule and if indeed, you do manage to make a call, there is no guarantee that Vijaya mami at the other end has the time to spare…what with her kid’s homework and her husband who just returned from work, demanding coffee instantly.

There is no substitute for Monday. It is like an icebreaker for those fresh from a good Sunday night’s sleep. It enables you to imply the enormity or importance or gravity of a situation by likening the situation to a Monday morning. Everybody knows what I say is true… Are you all not nodding your heads in agreement while reading the statement? (Well, I am, at least nodding my head!) Can you not liken the expression of foreboding and fear and similar feelings that cannot be put in words, on the face of a ten year old when someone mentions casually, “Tomorrow is Monday” ?

I am sure many adults will now appreciate what R.K. Narayan sought to imply with the opening lines of his first novel – Swami and Friends … “It was Monday morning”.

True, the same weekend lag (like jetlag) will exist, if Tuesday were the first day among the weekdays. I totally agree with Shakespeare’s words, “What is in a name?”.
But the day after Sunday has always been and still is Monday, is it not…? And so we shall never be able to substitute with anything else, the phenomenon that the morning this day is famous for – Monday Morning Blues!

Who taught them???

"Grass is green

Blue is the sky

I love you

don't ask why!"

-says Tom to Jerry!!!

"Oh my oh my!

what a pretty visage....

If I had the money,

I would build you the Taj!"

The tiger boasts to the lamb!!!

"With wings of feather

I shall fly you to the heavans

Do not doubt me ever....

Eat you? Me?? Never!!"

sings the Eagle to the little Penguin!!!

What happened to the jungle?

What a change of heart?!

What caused the hunters to mingle

with the hunted? I know not!

"Silly little girl"

-That is the Chimpanzee

"They got it from your lot.

Humans,you call yourselves,is it not?"

"Yes!" I wonder aloud

"That sure does part the clouds"

A ray of comprehension

grabs my attention.

"You get it for free

We do not want money

(He He! We have other sources

Interest,credit cards-our lethal forces!)"

-Does it ring a bell?

The nation is our priority

We will handle any calamity

Service is our motto

This is not for the photo!

(But our schemes are for us,

Voters-forgive us

and do vote again,

We still have much to gain!)"

Don't we see them everyday?

Salesmen,politicians and many more

Lying is now a way of life

for our species.

But we do prosper

We think we are superior.

The foolishness of our acts

will strike us like an axe

when jungle creatures do the same.

Our eyes will reflect the shame.

Necessary evil

Confusion,doubt,dilemma-
Are they not present everywhere?
Brother,sister,papa or mama
these tidings,do they not share?

Necessary evil-I call these feelings
for they result in questions-
Our imagination sprouts wings
of colour, painting umpteen innovations.

All is well that ends well

The cool breeze stuns my skin
heralding the arrival of rain.
I am cold at first,
numbness comes next,
later I am craving for more!

The journey begins as an egg
and then a creepy worm...
Now - a still and lifeless form...
Lo and behold,there flutters out the butterfly!

From a meagre spring
to being a waterfall,
the river dodges rocks and boulders
surpassing and conquering all...
metamorphing into the mighty ocean!

Here I am - excited and bewildered
with responsibility and adulthood-
but faith and hope keep up my spirits
All is well and all is for good...