Heaven on earth

One such place where I experienced heaven on earth was Lake Tahoe bordering Nevada and California. Its a large freshwater alpine lake known for its water clarity. The lake is surrounded by snowy sierra Nevada mountains. That was the first time I was seeing a place with snow everywhere. A white blanket of snow on the streets, decorating the pine trees. Roofs and window sills of houses bordered with thick layer of snow. All this while I thought such scenes were only creative imagination of man but woho..no one can beat nature at its creative and beautiful best.

There was not a single creature or humans on the lake shore. We actually managed to sneak into it. The sunlight falling on snow capped mountains and the lake scattered the light and my eye could not take in the bluish tinge and sparkling silver.

I stood there facing the lake, the mountains and gazed at them, my senses could not get enough ot the wonder; the blue clear water, the distant mountains, the thick snow bed, the freshness in the air....

All I did was to thank the almighty for giving me this wonderful chance to experience the power of nature. How blessed I was. What more do I ask Him? I got the chance to experience heaven while standing firm on earth....

Was there any need??

Few of us from various teams at work were selected to undergo a training regarding a new technology at work. The trainer was an American who had specially flown down from US and this was his first trip to Bangalore.
We witnessed a funny incident during the first day of our training. One of the participant was late for the training. He came in when we had our first break after about 2 hours of the class.
He was trying to get an idea of what was explained and what he missed. He interacted with others and all seemed normal.
The session started again and as it was an interactive one, people were free to interrupt and ask queries and discuss. This gentleman had a query and it resulted in a discussion with the trainer. What was queer here was this man until now spoke his normal language, but as he started talking to the American trainer, he started putting up an accent. everyone could sense his fake accent and it was too much for people to digest. This went on throughout the morning session. People shared their queer expressions as this guy started talking. All he wanted to talk in his newly acquired fake American accent and steal people's attention even though he had no point to make.
The unusual observation was he talked normal outside training during lunch break. It was only at class that he got transformed to an American....split personality huh??
This continued through out the day and as we were getting used to our Mr. Big, our trainer quoted an example of Lamborghini to support a statement that he was talking about. Phut!!!! here goes Mr Big again, this time with a question - "What is it that you told?" in his unusual accent. Ohhhooooo...the entire class burst out laughing. All this while, this man spoke and poked his nose into every statement that the trainer made as if he knew the world and now he asks what was a Lamborghini? It was not that all had to know what a Lamborghini was. It was just that he created too much hype as if he knew everything and anything.
Coming back, the trainer was patient, (he knew how to handle things well) and enlightened our man that Lamborghini was earlier an Italian tractor manufacturing company, which also manufactures sports car and is now a subsidy of German luxury car manufacturer Audi. Our gentleman, without battling an eyelid said thus - "Oh, is that so. I have never heard of Lamborghini. I know only HMT and Mahindra tractors" - well still with his newly acquired fake accent.
WAS THIS ALL NEEDED?

How I wish I could find the boy.....

Its been a while since I blogged. This particular incident occur ed about 2 months back. It was early May when I and my friend went out to finish off my tasks on a Saturday morning. We were walking on the street, when all of a sudden were interrupted by a boy. He was well dressed, aged about 15 years. He persuaded us to buy "magic ruler" that he was selling. The ruler was a flexible plastic which could be worn around the wrist as a bracelet. It also had 3D images on it.
We didn't need a ruler, and I said I don't want it. He persuaded us to buy and I thought no harm in buying one. He quoted Rs 20, which was at least 5 times the actual price. This time I definitely did not want to shell out 20 Rs for a ruler which I would never use.
I said I did not want it. He then revealed that he was selling the ruler for Rs 20 so that he can earn some money to pay his school expenses. I asked him few more details and I learnt that he would soon be joining class 10, he was trying to save much for his school fees and books during his vacation. He sounded sincere, yet I was doubtful. But his one reason of education was enough for me to buy a ruler. I paid him Rs 20 and bought the magic ruler. He went on his way.
I started discussing with my friend about the boy and his reason. I wanted to know if he was genuine and didn't cook up a story. I recalled how I struggled to complete my education. I remember all I wanted from my parents was that they spend on my education and nothing else.
The times I used to cry when they were not in a situation to pay my tuition fees on time and how I was made to stand out of the examination hall as my tuition fees were due. After much discussions, I would be let in only to lose 215-20 minutes of time and yet emerge topper..
Now that I was in having a good job and earning enough, I told my friend that I wanted to talk to the boy further. I wanted to help him financially if he was truly in need of help for his education. We would have talked maybe for 10 mins, I told her I wanted to go back to the place where we met the boy. We re-traced our path. I went to the spot to find him nowhere in sight. Both of us roamed around, to shops nearby, a park and neighbouring streets hoping to find him..Alas he was gone...How I wished I could track him down....I was disappointed...guilty that my mind didn't react fast enough........

Kuruvi

Naaah....this is not about Vijay's latest flick. But about kuruvis..aka Sparrows. Common house sparrows. Few years back when the city still retained its old charm, one could see these sparrows; incessant chirps flying around, feeding on grains, seeds...How lovely these birds were. When I was very young, the sparrows would be the source of entertainment. I would beg my mama to spare few grains of rice. When she gave me some, I used to put them on the window sill and watch the sparrows have their field day. Now where have all the sparrows gone??? :-(

What do you always wanted to do?

So asked one of my peer the other day while we were discussing our interests while coming back from lunch. That question threw me off-guard. We were never really very close; we shared a professional relationship. He being project manager of a product that I was involved as a partner member. Yeah....what did I always wanted to do? Apart from the routine work; which of course feeds my stomach.
I hesitated a bit in replying, I was not sure if I must share what I always wanted to do. It was my passion. Hmm...after keeping mum for a couple of seconds, I told "I wanted to sing". This answer took him by surprise; not sure if he expected this answer from me. I have always been seen as a serious person with no passion for other things.
He paused and collected himself and expressed "Oh really!". Then followed the usual Q&A session. Have you learnt music? Carnatic or light-music? Whats your taste? What is stopping you from pursuing now? I answered all his questions. He was also interested in music. I told I do sing; people hearing me appreciate it but I was not sure if I were good or bad. It's an interest that I need to pursue.

He then told me an incident. It seems his wife also sings. He being a critic, commented on her raagams and expressed disappointment that she didn't do justice to the song. His wife gave him a piece of her mind. "You enjoy what you do as long as you don't analyze it. Once you have knowledge to analyze, then all you can see are flaws. I don't know raagas, swarams, but I enjoy when I sing. But since you have knowledge about them, you can see only flaws which stops you from enjoying"
Hmmmm...makes sense. I never really bothered asking anyone their comments whenever I croon, bray or whatever that can be called. OK let me call my crooning as "SINGING"; for my satisfaction. I enjoy to my heart's content when I sing.
Then my peer asked me to sing a couple of lines of "Yengaey yenathu kavithai...". Till then our chauffeur; Satish(oops...if satish ever reads my blog, he is sure gonna beat me up for calling him chauffeur) was quiet with his complete concentration on Bangalore's busy roads. But when my peer asked me to sing, Satish expressed concern. He told he wasn't prepared to take this punishment.
Satish and I used to go to work together when both of us were in California. We used to go out together sight-seeing and also to movies and dinners. Satish had enough of it. He had to put up with my singing for 3 months and he wasn't ready one more time.
Yeah, I told my peer that I had sore throat and was indeed coughing all the way. But he insisted. Ugh...muttered Satish. Much to his disappointment and my peer's excitement, I sang a couple of lines, my peer joined in too. He sang well, according to me.
I also sang a couple of more songs. I guess I was able to sing even with bad cough. Yuppie....we reached office, Satish was happy
Hmm...well Satish finally acknowledged that I SING well. Wow...I can sing...
I don't know what my peer felt. While parting, he told me "You should pursue; learn music. If you are so interested, you should consider quitting your job to learn music"..

Oh my God!!!!!! Quit my work. Oops...
But yes, I would pursue my passion; sometime in future. We all have something that we always want to do; but we don't pursue. Lack of time, work, family, pressure, stress, traffic, boss, fear, laziness.....The reasons can be endless. Hm....I hope to write about pursuing my passion sometime later.

A Black Squirrel

This was about 4 months back. It was mid-November; winter season when the sun sets by 5 PM and it gets darker within the next few minutes. I wrapped up my work and called a taxi to drop me back to my hotel.

The cabbie reached my office in 10 mins and I walk out to hop into the taxi to face the boring evening ahead. There's a redwood tree just outside the building entrance. Oh yeah I was in the Bay area of California. I must tell that its a quite new seasonal experience.

Last time while i was in CA, it was summer and it was amazing to see sun set only by 9 PM; this time; as my luck would have it; I got to visit during winter. The sun sets off by 5 PM. Extremes!! Oh yeah going from India, its a new experience.
Ohoo...am I deviating? Lemme get back. Yeah I was telling about the redwood tree. I walked out to reach my taxi and I saw a cute black squirrel. It was startled for a moment; dropped off the food it was holding in its tiny limbs; and scampered around as I passed a bit close to it. I was excited. I have never seen a black squirrel until now. This squirrel was a bit bigger than the Indian striped squirrel. It was completely black -glossy as if it just jumped out of a tub of varnish, no stripes on its back as the Indian squirrels. I managed to quickly take few snaps of the squirrel and this picture is one of my best shot ever. I was happy and all smiles; I saw a black squirrel for the first time and managed to get a very good picture of it.

My cabbie was smiling and enjoying my childish behaviour all this while. I used to see the squirrel everyday after this, generally during evenings. I later read that black squirrels are common in mid western North America.

Wings to my thoughts...

Phew!!!! I created this blog of mine about a year back. I stopped at that. I almost forgot abut this blog.
I have always wanted to pen down things that happen around me, things that influence me, makes me think about it for a moment.simple things like me smiling and waving a "Hi" to the dog that has made my street its world(oh yeah..I wish the dog everyday..I will write about this later) to serious and tough things I get to face.
Somehow I have always backed off from pouring out my thoughts, but why? Yaaawwwnn...same old lame omni-present reason. NO TIME, and coupled with this my fear..
Whatever.. there is a beginning at one point of time. And this is it. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. Ciao...