Silenced !

I have been silent for a while now. Not blogging for days together. I am rather silenced ! Not because I am not getting any meaty topic. It's just because I found better things to do in life !

Doesn't it happen quite often to us ? We become silent in one area when we find something more interesting in another? Or just get silenced for some reason or other ?

Since I had struggled all the time to excel in IT field, let me start by giving you a funny incident that silenced my much talkative friend, Ravi. Ravi used to impress upon our boss by giving all details as how good a code to be written whenever he got a chance. Pitchai, the boss had a great opinion about him also. Pitchai, one fine day decided to test our programs, as how good we met those specifications. Who else, he straight away came to Ravi's desk. Ravi started explaining the functionality of program currently written by him which was a report that would list all the items from inventory, all non-moving items, basically useless ones. After patiently hearing him, Pitchai decided to test the program. Pitchai did a "Run" of the program- the list displayed on the screen making Ravi numb. The list appeared on the screen like this - "Pitchai-1, Pitchai-2, Pitchai-3....Pitchai-n !!!!Even Pitchai became silent after that, went back to his room without testing other's programs. To avoid any more embarrassments!!!.

Festival in our temple at home town (TTD Kochi ) got over a few weeks back, I could not attend it this time.  But I can still visualize the scene for "sambradan" ( samaradhana ) serving feast to all folks equally. People will sit on the floor in the temple premises, thousands of them. Banana leaves will be spread in front of them. Healthier guys will start serving items one after another. People are supposed to start eating only at the same time - to achieve this goal a  single loud "firecracker" ( Khodno in Konkani) will be fired. What else to do for the people as it would easily take a good 20 minutes to get the serving completed to all, they would just talk. Men would have talked this time only about the prospect of who would become the next "sure-PM" of India, while ladies would have talked about every thing under the sun except  politics/elections. If I say it would have been a noisy environment it will be an understatement. Then this 500 decibels "Khodno" will go off. It will be pin-drop silence from that moment onwards. All would be busy eating quickly to finish and wait for the next "Khodno" which would indicate end of "sambradan" and time to go home.

We made "pathrodo" yesterday, rather my wife made it. Pathrodo is loved by one and all Konkani person, it is a delicacy for us. It is made of "Thera-paan" (a variety of arbi leaves ).

Thera-paan had silenced my aunt once. She was returning from her relative's place, where this thera-paan was abundant. She stuffed it full in a bag nicely, with out showing a bit outside, as people belonging to other communities would laugh at us for eating this strange stuff ! She had to get into a jam packed KSRTC bus. And the inevitable happened. Somebody declared that she lost her gold chain. Conductor just ordered the driver to take the bus to the next police station. Cops started frisking one after another and my aunt's (with bag full of Thera-paan)  turn came up. She was so silent in two counts, one - she did not know Malayalam that well, though she was a master in Konkani language. Two - she was so embarrassed to open the bag and show those green goodies inside ! The more she hesitated to open her bag, the more it made the cops believe that she was the one who had flicked the gold chain. Little did they know that my aunt valued these Thera-paan much more than that stupid yellow metal ! Of course finally she had to pour out those green leaves much to the amusement of the cops and other co-passengers !

Coming back to the pathrodo at home yesterday. Though I have never prepared it my self, I think I know how to make it. Let me attempt to give the recipe  First clean all the leaves well, slice off all those thick veins carefully without tearing the leaves. Make a batter grinding together rice, coconut, chillies, bit of haldi and hingu, salt and with another important ingredient "karmbal" ( I do not know how to  explain this sour fruit, it is a smaller version of star fruit, abundant in Kerala where konkanis are also abundant. Don't worry if you don't know what it is, replace it with tamarind. but do not forget this ingredient for heaven's sake ! ) Spread one leaf and apply this batter thinly. Place another leaf on top of it and repeat the process till around 15 leaves are placed one after another. Roll it nicely to make a cylindrical "lolo". Steam cook that "lolo" like you cook idlies for solid one hour. Pathrodo is ready. It looked like as below at home yesterday !

Pathrodo "Lolo" s 

It looked nice and was delicious too. It made all of us silent for a long while lingering it's taste in our mouths. But if those ingredients, especially the sour one is not adequately put, then it will again make you silent - this time for the whole day, giving that itching sensation inside your mouth with no choice but to bear it, silently !!!

Those who are a bit adventurous, please try out this recipe. And let me know which way you silenced the people !

Arbi leaves 

Who listens ?

I am a little upset today. Because of both of my thumbs. The left one was  grossly dirtied by that merciless election officer. Last week he made maximum use of my broad thumb to pour as much ink as possible, just because my much thinner forefinger was used for similar purpose a few months back for some other  elections.

My worry is more with my right thumb though. It is swollen, paining and a bit numb. The reason ? - I developed this habit of scrolling up and down the FB and Twitter pages on my 5.5 inch mobile phone screen, quite frequently, as and when I am free ! For a change I listened to my wife, applied "Systaflem" gel, instead of good-old, stale, time tested Iodex ointment. This particular gel does wonders - once you apply it, the actual pain gets overshadowed by that strong burning sensation that the gel generates ! Until the next coat is due in an hour's time !

Let me stop paining you more with this and get into some serious stuff. Yesterday, while I was using my right thumb extensively, to scroll down and down the FB pages, going through those numerous implicit and explicit "likes" by my FB friends, suddenly I got a brilliant idea that I had to share by updating my status. I searched  for that "Status/Photo/Check-in" bar ( 3 important things in my life - in FB or outside FB ), but alas, the status bar was missing. The very thought of missing that bar made me forget what I wanted to share. With no other choice, I scrolled down deep further to see more and more uninteresting posts, including many of mine as well !! The moment I stopped scrolling down and scrolled up once, that magic status bar appeared at the bottom of the screen with full glow, inviting me to update my status ! As usual, let me "over-interpret" the psychology behind this user interface design - "See/listen/observe completely to what others are saying before even thinking of sharing/acting on something new.

When talking about right thumb, I am reminded of Eklavya. Who lost his right thumb as he had to give it to Drona as "gurudakshina". He had to pay that penalty for keenly listening, observing and learning the techniques from Drona from a hide-out place !

Now thinking of Drona himself, he faltered once while listening. It proved fatal for him. Had Dhrona, who was the teacher for both Pandavas and Kauravas, listened completely and carefully to what Yudhishtra told during the Mahabharata war, the war would have ended differently ! As ever truthful Yudhishtra told "Ashwathama died"  loudly in the war front, Dhrona thought it was his son who died whose name was Ashwathama. And Dhrona lost his concentration, Arjuna managed to kill him. Yudhishtra, had announced the death of an elephant by same name Ashwathama. He actually  completed the sentence "Ashwathama died, the elephant" - but in a low voice that "the elephant" part, which Drona failed to hear.
`
My colleague Murthy used to call me over phone asking  "What's up". With full enthusiasm I used to explain what all new initiatives I had been doing to improve my unit performance, employee productivity, billing, customer satisfaction and what not. Thinking he would reciprocate. After listening to all that, Murthy would just hang up saying "thank you". He was a good, complete listener !! Those "what's up" calls continued for a few more times, before I could realize what was actually happening,  Murthy was listening carefully each time only to his benefit. Then onwards, whenever I heard "what's up" from Murthy I started talking about dry weather in Rameswaram or flood situation at Moosamari or political situation at Baluchistan or increased poultry production in Bali. Nothing official about it.

So, you need to talk also to listen from others ! "Kuch paane keliye kuch dena bhi padthaa hei" !

Then there is my friend Parasu, repeat listener. With absolutely no impact on him. Every time he meets me he will have one direct question such as "Do you think I should buy a house?". Being my pet topic I would give him a big "bhashan" on investments - equity, mutual funds, real estate, term deposits, post office savings, chit funds etc. Like a school kid Parasu will listen to all my stories and will nod his head convincingly, as if he was going to buy a house the very next week. But nothing will happen. No change what so ever in his pre-determined savings habits. Parasu will meet me after a few weeks with the same question with one additional word "Do you think I should buy a house now?". To listen to my stories all over again. He will continue this question till my stories match with what he actually wants to listen !

Yesterday morning I was listening to old Malayalam songs in Youtube. Not because I recently got an unlimited wifi connection from BSNL. Not because I enjoy songs that much. It was because I was having breakfast, that too much disliked Poha ! This technique I picked up from those good old restaurants in Kerala. They would play loud music through the radio, irrespective of the food that they provide would taste good or not. People would tend to forget the "distaste" of the food in that catchy music ! Yes, there are advantages of making people listen too.

After all this discussion on good listening practices, I still strongly feel there is a merit in listening. Otherwise so many people would not have advised me on this repeatedly. Every time when I talk to somebody, I try to tell this to him and more forcefully to myself also  -  "you need to listen more". Who listens that ?

Hunches and expectations

Who does not want to attend a wedding? That too after a long time. That too at home town. To meet people whom one hadn't met for years. To meet people whom one does not wish to meet otherwise ! But surely to meet two happiest people, the bride and the groom.

I set off there one day earlier. To attend the wedding end to end. In this scorching summer !

I had a hunch that it would be very difficult to get train tickets, as it was festival season. So kept an alert/alarm on my mobile to book the tickets online the opening day of reservations. I was so happy that I managed to get book tickets, two lower berths in that "UML" (UPPER, MIDDLE, LOWER nothing IT about this ! ) scheme of things!

I expected older people than me in the coach who would invariably request me to exchange their upper berth for my coveted lower berth. I was right. As I settled down in my seat, an old couple entered announcing loudly "what to do, we got only upper berth due to this last minute booking !" I tried not to make any eye contact with those pleading ones as much as possible, looking "nothing" outside the window. But in one weak moment, the senior citizen managed to get my attention and asked the inevitable " Is it possible to exchange my upper berth with your lower one?" I told him it may not be possible as I needed to get some "nice" hot breeze from outside as the train entered  more and more into Tamil Nadu/Kerala. I asked him to check with the TTE for a swap.

TTE never appeared as there were more number people in the coach with no reservation or even ticket compared to we - the minority. To my relief the old man managed to get a swap from somebody else before I had to offer him my berth seeing him struggling to enter and keep his 6+ foot body straight on the 5.5 feet long side upper berth - by bending his neck and legs to 90 degrees !

I had to stamp a few people to enter the toilet - the western style - the only western thing in the coach -  as people had started sleeping at the entrance, spreading old as well as new newspapers. I knew I would have some "interesting" graffiti to read on the walls of the toilet. I was not disappointed. Apart from the usual ones, this one was new. Comparing a man who can provide a thing to clean the toilet Vs a man who can provide another thing to bring in fragrance in the toilet - election time, they have to appear there too !!

I had a hunch that the train would be late. To my relief it was late by just half an hour. To a greater relief to my call-taxi driver who had been waiting at the station for more than an hour !

"How many times you had come here, you never visited our place ?",  my aunt complained loudly in the wedding hall. As if I had visited houses of all the other 900 people in that auditorium ! "You put on some weight", "you lost some weight", "your appearance have changed - good one, continue like this" these were the usual comments I heard liberally. Which I told to others also, more liberally.

While attending a function in a far away place from home or work, it is common to receive a phone call from one of my friends or relatives. To inform me about some "not that good" news for me. Hearing which I can just feel sad and panic, with nothing else possible for me to do. Yes, there was a call like that this time too. Luckily I had not stored that alternate number of that person, did not pick up that emergency call. So I came to know about that failed attempt to inform  me "not that good" news only later. By that time good part of the wedding was over ! Including lunch with 40+ items spread. I had eaten three times more quantity than I originally decided I would eat in my strict diet regime !! Still with a disappointment that I could not do enough justice to many of my favorite dishes and desserts.

I returned home safe with many more of my hunches becoming reality. Meeting many more of my expectations. Yes, we need to have hunches, we need to have expectations. To make it highly interesting - also to reduce the impact of last minute surprises - whether it's a journey or life itself !

Guess what ?

Guess what ? I saw a lady walking out of the park as I completed my first round of walking in the park. You may wonder what is so special about it. It happens to me every other day. But this one was different. I could guess seeing from behind from her that I know her. More importantly, there was some thing written at the back on her trousers. The word "guess" in small English alphabets, "boldly". As she walked, the "g" at the left and "s" at the right extreme elegantly moved up and down, alternatively. Let me not describe or criticize this more. After all in this free world everybody has the freedom to express - wherever, whenever  and whatever ! At least that innocent action of hers helped me to choose a topic for discussion today !!

Yesterday was Vishu festival. When we were young nephews and nieces, a lots of them,  our as many uncles used to give us "Vishu kaineetam" (tips) early in the morning on Vishu day. We used to guess whether it would be a 10 paise or 25 paise coins. Now those uncles keep guessing as where these nephews have gone and where those tiny coins vanished. And I guess the nephews/nieces of those days have become uncles/aunts of  one or two nephews/nieces who do not enjoy such small tips!

I strongly feel that my habit of guessing will never end.

When I was a small child, I used to guess what would be special for the breakfast that day, Idli or Dosa !

As I grew up, academics caught up. I always used to guess how much I will score in the exams. Especially those subjects like "social studies" which I hated to study. I used to compute and recompute the possible marks for the essay type questions to arrive at a guesstimate after each exam to my satisfaction level. And I would guess more when I used to get those unexpectedly low marks.

Then I became a "handsome" youth, the guess was more on what type of girl I would get as my life partner. Kept guessing what would be her likes and dislikes. After so many years of marriage, all I do  is - keep guessing ! I am sure my wife is in a much similar state, no need for me to guess in this case !!

My professional life kept me guessing through out. When would I get my next promotion? When would I get a decent pay hike? I used to see in the news paper that industry can expect up to 15% pay hike that year. Till the pay hike is announced for me, I used to guess that I would get 14.99% if not the whole 15%. Once I come to know my hike, that its in single digits - my focus on guessing will shift to looking at those a very few happy faces around me who would have got double digits hikes !!

After all this continuous guessing   in life, is it going to stop now? Never.  Now I am guessing as how long I will live on this earth and what will I do after that !!

While these tough guesses do always baffle my mind, I should thank my "morning" friend for helping me in easing a bit. By inscribing nice, apt words on her track suit. I wish that "g" and "s" continue to happily swing up and down for her. For ever !

Free fall that cured my pain

I did not like Sunil that much. This was when I was  in the primary school. Sunil was my classmate. You must be thinking that Sunil might have been rude to me. No, he didn't know what rudeness meant, sweet fellow. Was he bigger than me and hence used to bully me, no - we were equally anemic. Was he better than me in studies, no - he never used to get double digits. Yes, surely, my problem was not with him but with Bharati teacher, his mother ! I used to hate her !!

To my bad luck, Bharati teacher had to pass through my house to reach her home after returning from school. And she would invariably stop by and tell my mom "do you know what "Sundar" did in school today?" As if the state government had instructed the teachers to do this service also, to better groom their disciples. I would have been happy if those daily updates were good things about me like - he completed his work in time, he meticulously noted down the names of all those kids who spoke loudly when he was asked to monitor the class in her absence, he never went out and played with those other non-studious kids during interval in the near-by paddy field (my soiled shirt and trousers would well indicate that, but then I could tell some other story to my parents ! ) etc.

There were many updates from Bharati teacher, but this one I would never forget.

I used to get stomach pain on a daily basis. That too in the evenings, after returning from school. I was sure it was not because the very thought of prospect of Bharati teacher updating once more for the day ! I didn't know the cause. My parents couldn't make out either. I was given ginger juice for a few days. I was given "Ashtachoornam" that Ayurveda powder made out of 8 ingredients for a few days. Stopped heavy, oily food. But no respite, the pain continued to be at such levels even I could not hide it from my parents to avoid those bitter and pungent remedies. Then one day,  thanks to the very Bharati teacher, the reason behind my pain came to limelight, in a painful way !

Those days, in government school, there was a US aid program called "CARE". Do not ask me the expansion of it, I didn't care that acronym then. I don't think it is relevant even now. What that program used to do was to provide free "broken wheat" to the poor children in the schools.  "Uppuma" out of that broken wheat would  be "under-cooked" at the school, many a times by the seniors in the school itself. Because the designated cook would invariably be absent in most of the days. The strong aroma of that "uppuma" would instantly make my home lunch tasteless, laboriously prepared by mom and cautiously carried by me. I used to join that group stealthily at the kitchen like shed, at back of the school , to eat that uppuma as much I could, after throwing away my home lunch in the dust-bin ! But that day I could not hide. I had a taken a rather full mouth and about to chew, Bharati teacher appeared in front of me from no where. She just stared at me.  I immediately knew what would be the evening news headlines for the day and what would be after effects of it.

Sunil, - in case you had forgotten about him by now - Bharati teacher's son  - wanted to accompany me as usual while returning home. I disliked him much more that day, I did not even bother to join him. I was rushing home alone,  thinking of various means of getting prepared to face heavy onslaught that day. I was quickly climbing down those stone steps connecting the elevated main road and the approach road to my house. Exactly half way through on the 8th step I slipped and fell down. I didn't remember any thing till late in the evening. I still do remember a few things I realized or made me realized,  when I regained consciousness.

Two important teeth in the front row were damaged, one was protruding outside that had to be extracted soon. There were quite a few bruises on my forehead. My upper lip was swollen like a baloon. I had been taken to near by "Menon's" nursing home to dress up the wounds and administer a few injections, good that I fell unconscious. Bharati teacher visited me and she could not resist the temptation of updating  my new eating habit to my parents even after seeing my pathetic condition. The cause of my mysterious stomach pain was understood well by me and others ! The dictum was made clear to me - no more "CARE" uppuma, no ginger juice or even Ashtachoornam !!

A few takeaways from this uppuma incident and the "free fall" there after.

• Never dislike somebody unnecessarily. The cause of dislike may origin from something related to him but he may not be part of it at all. I could have spared that poor Sunil !

• Too much a worried condition can invite accidents, including free falls

• Things can reshape in a better away, even after getting damaged badly - my teeth !

• Certain food will smell good, taste good -  but it may give me stomach ache especially if it is not cooked properly or it is not meant for me, or if I am not used to it.

However, I continued to enjoy group lunches with those friends. I did enjoy every moment of it. I continued to join them for lunch in that shed, but taking food from my own tiffin box from home !!!

Changing priorities

There were days I used to eagerly look forward to watch a movie. That too in a theater. No proper flooring in the theater, just sand spread on the ground, front bench ticket for a meager 50 paise, language no bar - Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil or even a Telugu "purana" movie will do, ending with comedy or tragedy or even  with no proper ending - any thing will do. Going and sitting in that environment itself was thrilling for me. Once my uncle took me for Rajesh Khanna starrer "Haathi Mera Saathi" in "Star" theater, one of the best in town. To our bad luck by the time we reached the ticket counter, that merciless fellow shut the window saying "houseful". That shut my hopes of watching that elephant with equally "huge"  Rajesh Khanna those days. I started crying, my uncle did not know what to do. He had to take me to another Hindi movie to another near-by theater "Royal" talkies. Those benches there were empty for obvious reason, some "ugly" hero had acted in that movie with no elephant around. My uncle would have slept through the whole show, though I watched every scene with so much of interest.

My daughter shook me up while I was snoring. While I was sitting comfortably in "Shankar Nag Chitramandira" on MG Road. Others were watching one of those "Harry Potter" movies while I was sleeping. I thought it was time for popcorn and coke. To my disappointment I still saw those weird animals and human beings on the screen. I went back to my sleep. Yes, my priorities have changed. I am no more interested in watching movies in a theater. For that matter I struggle hard to watch part of a movie on any screen at home.

That "Bismillah"  hotel manager used to give a dirty look at me when ever I used to go and stand in front of the hotel. He had every reason to do so. There were delicious vadas and other fried items nicely displayed in that glass almara at the front itself. A lean fellow, 12 years of age,  seemed to be starving for days together, staring at those nice food items, can raise a doubt or two in anybody's mind. That too in the afternoon during lunch time. Little he knew that I had rushed there and stood in front of his hotel to hear the afternoon news in his loud, tall and broad radio - even not bothering to take my lunch during that break. To know whether GR Viswanath and Farookh Engineer managed to take the final day of that cricket match to a draw in Australia ! I knew only what scores meant, did not have a clue as how one used to bowl or bat, forget about a little advanced things like square cuts and googlies ! On holidays, I used to listen to cricket commentary at home in that expensive valve radio by Philips. To hear from commentators like Suresh Surayya who were more excited than the players themselves. That too tapping gently and at times harshly on the left upper side of that monstrous radio. In between overs to enable that fellow to receive signals properly. That was the level of craze for my cricket those days.

Now the story is different. Whether Chris Gayle hits sixer for every other ball, whether he dances in "gannam" style". Whether those ladies - who do not know the game of cricket like many others in the stadium - jump up and down cheering for fours and sixers. Whether MS Dhoni coolly wins or loses for India. I am not able to watch two overs continuously on the screen at home, forget about going and sitting in that crowd. I would take a break in between and impatiently look forward to those final two overs of the match.

There were days when I had coded round the clock to complete the interface between mainframe and CNC machines. Now I am not interested to spend even five minutes to write a simple piece of code to display "hello world" on the screen.

These are just a few examples. I had developed and then lost interest in many such things as time progressed.

Does that mean I lost interest in every other thing in life ? Getting ready to attain the "nirvana" state? The answer is a big no. I still enjoy food at Adiga's Restaurant as I used to at SriKrishna Cafe in my town, till the last bite. I still enjoy driving not only on highways after paying hefty tolls, but also on those narrow lanes of Shivaji nagar by honking continuously. I continue to read to know the new technology trends.There are many such items which are routine, but I still enjoy.

Haven't I developed interest in new things? Many.  I started watching stock market, do my own research not to lose much money there ! I experiment some new recipes in the kitchen. Of late my interest is in looking continuously at  FB or Twitter to know what is happening around. To continuously post, like, comment, share, follow and what not. I am not sure how long these would last before I jump into newer and totally different things.

Yes, it is quite natural that my priorities will change in time due to various reasons. I might lose interest in some. I might develop interest in some. I will forcefully continue to show interest in some.

But, it is important for me to pursue one or two key interests relentlessly, passionately, come what may happen. And try to stay fully focused on those throughout. That will help me say  - yes, I am happier.

White Angels

Going for annual health check up is a nightmare for me. Not because I am over worried that they will find something not required in my body. Or something they will not find that is very much required in my body. I am paranoid about the process of taking the blood sample for doing the necessary tests, that too on an empty stomach. I always wondered why those intelligent people have not developed an all inclusive test to detect every thing by a simple urine test. I don't have to depend on anybody to provide the sample then !

Since I need to go early in the morning for that fasting test, the nurses will invariably will be trainees. It's true here too, experienced people always take time to arrive. It all will start well. The beautiful young lady nurse will tap my left hand gently then switch to my right hand which I thoroughly enjoy. Then the problem starts. My veins are not visible, I have a feeling that my body is designed with a few thick blood vessels closer to my bones and not many thin ones on the outer surface. And I have this unique problem. I get anxious - not because it will pain me, not because I will lose a few mls of blood. It is just the very thought of complications involved makes me uncomfortable. The more time it takes to extract the blood, the more I will sweat. I may collapse also. Unfortunately, going late to the lab till the experienced nurse comes in is not an option for me. With an empty stomach I may collapse even much before seeing a nurse or a needle!

I thought of a few options. Asked the doc itself whether there are any medicines that can make my blood vessels more visible to less experienced people. Sadly there are none. I ate lots of reddish beetroots, plenty of them previos day, hoping that blood inside my veins will glow more to make them more visible, no luck. I stopped my two wheeler 1.5kms away from the lab and pushed that heavy vehicle till the lab to increase my blood cicrulation and thereby swelling those thin veins, but in vain !!! I closed my eyes and meditated, focussing only on a imaginary burning candle, while the nurse trying to poke the needle and commenting - "a few drops came out and stopped I don't know what is wrong I need to find another vein!! " . By that not only I stopped imaginng the burning candle, the burning in my stomach just increased and needed a few glasses of water to quench that fire and compensate for the amount of sweat that soaked my body. Sadly, adminstering a general anaesthasia would be an over kill to overcome this sensation that kills me.

Enough on my blood "purana". What I actually wanted to discuss was about the dedicated service these nurses do to human race.  They do a great a job but many a times it is overlooked or ignored. I know recently a politician got into trouble for making a remark on "Mallu" nurses, though he made that remark much before he thought he would become a politician of that stature. It's a fact - most of the nurses know malayalam.  I have an advantage of knowing malayalam when I go to any hospital, I can easily convey my problems to them more effectively.

May be because of the social acceptibilty, we do see more ladies taking up this profession compared to gents. One area male population can strive to get equality.

We need to thank the acute shortage of nursing staff in developed and rich countries. There is a huge demand for these people there and many of our youngsters pursue nursing career for that one reason. Though they have to go through a tough time in early stages of their career here. They can get a good break, salary and working conditions, once they go there. It's good thing for country like India, more people can earn in dollar terms and send some money back home. It gives more and more opportunites for youngsters to take up this profession.

But then, the expereince is getting drained out here, every time. I always find a novice nurse struggling to take blood sample from my "non-veiny" hand which brings me to the verge of a collapse. That calls for need for modern and technolgy based rapid training for these young people.

I found this initiative quite promising in the TOI news paper today.

"Narayan Health has roped in IIT Madras and and alumni of National Institute of Design Ahamedabad and Chandigarh Art College to build a simulator through which nurses can practise tasks of post-operative cardiac care.  The project involves creating a mannequin that will react like a human being so that nurses can reduce errors while treating real patient". Excellent initiatve, even male nurses can practice.

 I hope more people will come forward with many traning aids even at a lesser scale as well. I will be the first person to donate voluntarily if somebody plans to develop a kit that trains a novice nurse to locate a vein quickly keeping her/his mouth shut.

Though all these training intiatives are taking place, I still feel the nurse community needs much more recognition and appreciation than what they get now. There is every possibility that one of those "white angels" would have been the first one on the earth who had seen you and me, taken good care of us,  when we were born - they definitey command more respect.

KLPD - Knowing Little of Potential Disappointment

The stage was set for a grand finale. No losses so far in the tournament. Fantastic semifinal victory. Captain giving a chance to score the final run and finish the match in style. My friend Ganesan too, not that big a fan of cricket, sharing that viral "Magnificent MSD" report on FB. What more needed for a cricket fan like me to get over-excited ! To sit and watch that final T20 match with both eyes open till the last ball of the 20th over. I did watch. India lost, that too without showing me how to play the 20th over, for that matter even the 19th over. Yes, this phenomenon happens - KLPD - Knowing Little of Potential Disappointment- that is in store for us. Especially when we are too excited in a state.

Am I not faced with this KLPD situation in the past ? Not once but many times. Let me elaborate one such instance which can be shared in this platform.

Those days, I was a poor software engineer. Had been working for a while, with no foreign trip. What an insult, I just could not bare that. People around me give party while going abroad. People give party when they are there. People give party once they return. Is there anything wrong in me wishing to throw such interesting  parties apart from writing all that uninteresting code which seldom works ?

Finally my day arrived. For a Japanese customer. "To study the requirement of a fully computerized system to optimize the public transport system" that single line scope at 50000 feet level was the scope of onsite study for me. I felt good. In such an "all-inclusive" scope statement. Even if I write "People need to go by walk and may avoid using the public transport system" with out even looking at any thing, it would be another punch-line in my study report.

Before zeroing down on me, our manpower allocation manager (mam) did a quick check of the people with the required skills. One of the requirements was to have knowledge in programming language ada. None of us knew about existence of such cruel language. But mam didn't give up. He used that powerful "grep" utility that will do a string search and provide the list of those documents that have the dubious presence of that string. "Eureka", he was so excited, he found 3 matches for the string ada. But then KLPD had to happen, those 3 documents had "Pravin kumar Reddy from Vijayawada, Sri ram ram venkata krishna from Vijayawada, Gantala chandika chirnajeevi raidu, again from Vijayawada ! So ultimately mam felt sorry for my sad state of affairs and decided to suggest my name to do that high-speed story.

Got my Japanese stamp done on my passport. Looking at those picture like words, I still believe they convey the meaning "yes this poor person needs a break and we approve his travel to Japan" ! I quickly learnt a few things as how to bow down and how to hold those chopsticks. Went to near-by fish stall and get used that smell of raw fish which was caught a few days back. I was nothing but excited.

But "n" number of bowing down by our sales guy in front of that ever smiling Japanese customer, it did not work. Seeing our credentials, especially seeing our expertise which detailed our vast experience in the transportation domain, - highlighting our meeting with one of the senior managers in KSRTC to understand their problems in canteen services - customer bowed down in front of our sales guy. Not facing him but looking totally in the opposite direction !! Again, KLPD for me, no foreign trip - but continue writing paras in plain English - otherwise known as COBOL.

After reading this blog till here, with lots of expectation and if you are in a state of  "Knowing  Little of Potential Disappointment" , then all I can say is - don't get disappointed. After all human race continues to exist just because of the fact we guys can come out of these severe disappointments and move on.

I want to be child-like

Don't I have the right to behave like a child even though I look slightly old, though its none of my fault ? As long as I enjoy it and do no harm to others. Why is that people often tell me "hey don't act like a child".

The other day I was having a soft-drink, of-course like a fully grown adult. In that cool bar. By decently putting the straw in that bottle and dragging slowly that colourful but extremely harmful liquid even for a child. It got fully finished in the bottle. But I was not finished yet ! I just pulled the straw out and dragged using the other end of the straw which had been on the far end of my mouth, deeply immersed in that holy water till then. I wanted to grab that last drop as well. "What will others think? don't behave like a child " My wife !

I read somewhere that removing mustache would give me an appearance of a kid. It might bring in "youngness" in me. I decided to try that out on that day. With that fresh look I reached office in time. Wanted to impress that beautiful Gayatri, young and beautiful secretary of my boss. Bosses were very lucky those days, of-course only the male ones ! Gayatri just looked at me and started laughing in a nasty way. "You look like a kid" !

"So I will not be able to see you on FB as frequently as before !" I commented to one of my friend's post in FB. This reaction from me was when I found tremendous joy of a child in his original post "Finally I managed to get my play-station connected to a power socket in India". He had just returned from US after a long stay there. He had suddenly become active in FB, like me, though I didn't have a reason to return from the US recently. "No no, the play-station is only for my kids " was his reply. As if only "adult" and serious things happen on FB !!!

Whatever people say, I love to be like a child. I want to be joyful. I want to be innocent. I want to be inquisitive. I want to be open and frank. I want to play like a child.

I always want to be a "child-like" kid of the old times, but definitely not like some of the new generation ones who behave much more like an adult - not because of their fault at all but because of the fault of those very adults who do not know how to behave to a child like a child.

Unfortunately those children can not read this post with out the help of the adults.

Reasonable complaints from my pals

I was returning home from the park. "Hey stupid man" I heard a feeble voice from behind. I looked back, did not find anybody. Then I realized that the voice came from my wallet, my sweet girl friend struggling inside my Jean's pocket. To give that bumpy look to one of my backs ! She continued "Just open me and look what all you have stuffed inside". I opened her with a purpose different from the usual one.

The wallet continued complaining :

"It's I who knows more than you how rich you are ! See those soiled ten rupee notes, older than you and me. Don't get too much excited by seeing that neat 500 rupee note, it could be a fake one. Four debit cards with pins of no use for you and others. Those two credit cards, for which nothing much to "credit" about, eventually debit has to happen. And that plastic card which authorizes you to drive erratically on any Indian "road like surface", the photograph one which can not be recognized even by yourself. I am fine with these things. But look at those another 20 items, which are of no use to you - just to quote a few of them, life membership card from some vague club where you don't intend to go there in this life time, acknowledgment slip from your banker for depositing a cheque for 3000 rupees that too 6 months back, credit cards which expired 2 years back. Please do something to reduce my weight. Don't drag me to court like those three air-hostess of India Airlines did the other day, for sacking them citing their overweight as the reason".

I closed her mouth assuring that I will do something today.

I entered my house and straight went to the kitchen to have a glass of water, started having that good habit off-late thanks to the nice, hot weather outside. The kitchen too was not in a happy mood at all. She started complaining :

"See what all you stuffed here. I can understand that huge fruit - papaya on a daily basis, the only fruit you can afford these days. I can understand those large number of tomatoes, you pretend it is more a fruit than a veggie and buy in large numbers as it costs less than 10 rupees/kg. But see those unnecessary things - two pressure cookers, which are not functional due to heavy and continuous "pressure" they faced for years. That water softener which gave you "hard" times whenever you tried to use it. Let me not go  on with the list, as that would reveal your "non-eating" habits more. Do some thing to clean up this mess, so that I don't look like that dirty Kerala mess on next street".

I promised her that all that she said is digested by me, something would happen soon.

I powered on my PC laptop. The story is no different there as well . She started  "See those documents. Stored redundantly with no idea as when you would open them. You had keyed in some confidential stuff and secured them with encryption using 32 digit passwords which even you can not remember now. When did you go last to that control panel and looked at those umpteen list of programs, most of them freeware which you don't need at all."

I realised that at this rate the laptop may go on strike soon. I was about to open my table to pick up that back up DVD. The table started yelling " When are you going to clean up my inner parts ? Have you noticed what all is there in my drawers? See those countless CD/DVDs which are old and useless after losing all its memory. See those number of ball pens - naked, topless with balls exposed. See those old telephone bills which do not ring even a bell to you. See those shocking electricity bills from 2010. See that diary of year 2004 on which you wrote your name in the first page and then never wrote anything on that diary, for that matter any other diary after that !" He was furious.

I didn't dare to look at anything else today. My mobile phone, my wad robe - none. If I pick anything, I am going to hear complaints after complaints only.

I closed my eyes. Now my mind started complaining - "I am more complex. You don't know what my capacity is. You don't have any clue as how I store data. You don't have any control on how my memory is managed. Things are getting dumped on me, without knowing when and where it will be used.With no guarantee that something will be reproduced so accurately. Sadly you can not throw something out of me, like you decided to throw out from your wardrobe those undersized and over-sized T-shirts which you had bought at different stages of good part of your life. Moreover you stuff all negative things in to my memory. Don't I need to be a bit more positive ?"

Yes that's possible. That easy. All I have to do is fill up my mind with more and more positive things. To drive away all those negatives. Here is one place where "unlike poles repel".  I opened my eyes and then opened the newspaper. City news -  "Man chops student's wrist in trivial fight", "Family of seven set on fire in their sleep" !

I decided to close my eyes, positively ! I tried to close my mind as well !!

No "Ullu Banaving" today

April 01. All fools day. I didn't want to fool you, by not writing today !

It was fun  those days. Some prank or other will be played. To whom you know. By whom you know. People used to enjoy it. It was like a celebration, with out knowing what this day stands for. Asking somebody to rush to hospital as so and so met with in accident, offering soap pieces nicely cut wrapped in chocolate cover, Informing somebody there will be electricity power cut that day for 20 minutes - ideas to fool somebody were many.

But today we don't fool anybody purposefully. We are neither fooled by anybody intentionally. Do we need to ? Does anybody have to ?  Can we think of a hypothetical case that can make people believe?
Day in day out we are getting fooled, whether we like it or not.

I just got up in the morning with the news that there is no water in the sump. Little water in the overhead tank also. Fooled myself, by way of taking a "semi-dry" bath. News paper is not delivered, later realised it is because it was Ugaadi yesterday, nothing interesting to happen on new year day anyways.  Went out to bank to deposit a cheque, I do that "karma" once in a while these days! From a distance I could make out that there is no much rush. Yes, "Today Holiday", fool proof board is hanging infront of the bank. Yesterday was holiday, beginning of Kannada new year, today might be a holiday for the closing of extended financial year - to take stock of whom all they fooled and who all fooled them as well.

I would feel fooled today,  if I didn't get fooled more. I am sure more events to follow as day progresses.

I am yet to get over by yesterday's hang over. With my relative I had gone out for house hunting in Bangalore city, around Wilson garden area. For him to take one on rent. Seeing each house within  in his budget, I realised that I am living in heaven. Paying such huge amount of money, people are getting nicely fooled in those rental houses. A girl student, living alone in a 1BHK house, on the fifth floor. The whole building is erected like Kutub minar, on 30x30 ft area, where even ground floor itself must have been illegal as per corporation norms ! And one has to climb up those stairs, no lift in the building, through that 2 ft narrow stairs. I am sure there would be some sort of traffic arrangement to indicate that if somebody is using the stairs, others need to wait till he reaches the destination. Two people can not pass through that stairs at the same time. And that girl was fuming at the broker. It seems during rainy season, the water gets trapped on the open terrace happily goes into her house. Many items were damaged, including her PC laptop, as every thing is kept on the ground. Even if one wishes, he can not carry a table to that floor. Probably what ever furniture needed, would have been kept on top upfront, then the building would have constructed around those furniture after that.

I can go on writing what I saw about people getting fooled in the name of a house. I should mention this fellow, though. When broker knocked, he opened the door. There was no floor visible in that only hall he has. I presume he was sitting in the mattress kept in the middle of that 10X10 ft hall. All other things are laid down on the floor, so handy for him. Books, laptop, heap of clothes, corner pooja space with Anjenaya swamy, plastic bucket two of them, shoes and chappals in the other corner, Tortoise mosquito coil put out half way through in  rusty stand. I just put my head in to see around that hall. I felt presence of a little bit of air around - barely sufficient for one person to survive. I felt very bad, wanted to take a deep breath. But did not. I didn't dare to take a deep breath, if I had done that that poor fellow would have got suffocated.

I realised one thing. Finding a house for rent is not easy, it would take months together to get an ideal one, which satisfies most of my needs. But then, this one is very easy. Divide my house in to 10 or 12 units and try to give out for rent. With in a week all units will be occupied !

House is just an example. There are many ways one is getting fooled almost on a daily basis. Sadly, "April 01" lost all its significance ! To fool somebody on this day,  do the reverse - no fooling ! no "ullu banaving" is the idea,  at least today !