Rambling

Fireworks Championship at Muscat

2010-12-14T20:26:00.006+04:00

I am absconding from this area for no reason..so just to break, i will do a pic blog..

The Ruler of Oman has completed 40 years after he took charge. So there has been huge celebrations around the country. He should go into the world books as one of the finest ruler, the world has come across. Though Oman is not known much to the outside world, those expats who have lived here would vouch for the fact that this is the best place to live among the gulf countries.

As part of the celebration, World Fireworks Championship is taking place. Got a camera , placed myself at a vantage point near beach side at 6.30 pm for the 8 pm show. Later came to know that the timings was shifted to 10 pm, may be avoid the traffic snarl that been taking place because of fireworks..so had to leave and took pics from a place not great for taking photos..

The below fireworks was from Zambelli - USA

Thoughts for the week

2010-10-27T09:40:00.003+04:00

1. Mahesh Bhupathi's recent claim for tax deduction of Rs 28 Lacs paid to his father as repayment for what he spent on mahesh training...---its good SC has rejected..Most probably if it was allowed , then i am sure there would be 1000s of businessman claiming deduction as money paid to father...

In India, its fathers duty to raise a son and what Mahesh did was mean to me....He can argue , see i was honest..i could take various ways to avoid tax..still, like we say Corporate should have social responsibility towards society..as individuals i think we should not shyaway from paying taxes...

Though i dont pay tax now..i was happy to pay tax so long i was earning in India...

2. Men are cheat..Men are promiscuous....We hear it often....I dont deny these...But for every act there is a woman also being involved na...By the way this thought surfaced once again after reading this report..In UK men have 11 sexual partners on an average and women 7....My doubt which has surfaced after reading this ..then it should be women who are more promiscuous than men? how? for one man - there are 11 women but for one woman - there are only 7 men....considering the women ratio is less than men ie say 960 women per 1000 men....

My conclusion - on the population men should be less promiscuous..say 60 % men and 75% women are promiscuous.

Though this seems not logical...can any statistician explain me - does my theory hold good?

3. We generally lack civic sense and when i see these from educated people..it boils my blood....in a recent visit to the school for some competition , parents who were waiting for the kids were drinking juice , coffee etc ..after drinking,they just kept the disposable cups etc near the chairs..what prevents them to take it and throw in the dust bin kept a few yards away....hmm

Pics - Contd

2010-09-19T13:24:00.002+04:00

Pics- Kenya trip

2010-09-19T13:12:00.003+04:00

Lion not bothered by the visitors

Masai Old man - nice place to safeguard his Pan powder

Wildebeest fell prey to its predators

Thoughts for the week

2010-09-15T09:53:00.007+04:00

1. Had been to Kenya, wildlife safari ( Masai Mara, Lake Nakura and Aberdale National Reserve) during these holidays. The great rift valley was breathtaking. I loved the vast land of grasslands.

2. Our aim was to see the Wildebeest migration... I had earlier planned to visit during July, but my travel agent conveyed it is better to go in September. When i went there, i was told that the migration started in July.. Anyway no dejection, since we saw huge herds ( say in thousands) walking in a line . That was a awesome sight....the only charm in this migration is the crossing of the Mara River and the predators waiting for them....we could not see that..may be GOD Willing some time in future i wish to see ...

you can go through these links for more details...

http://wildebeestmigration.blogspot.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildebeest

3. It will be difficult to believe from now onwards that Lions, Cheetah, Elephants, Rhino are ferocious animals. We saw almost all of them in touching distance. The only animal we could not see properly is Leopard. The lion came towards our vehicle and passed as if we did not exist...

4. Visit to Masai tribal village is part of the tour.( you have to shell US$ 20 per person). Well i feel some of them are working in nearby lodges. I am quite impressed with their english. Infact i felt they spoke better english than most of the Indians ( inc me) I felt we have to send Mulayam and Laloo to these places and see how english education is imparted. ( Since UP and Bihar have always claimed the education in english is difficult)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasai_people

5. The only downside (or the major) of this trip is that my Digi cam broke. In the sense, the knob which is used to click broke and we found difficult to take pic thereafter. But managed a bit. We had to use the handycam for pictures too and the pic withhandycam are not that great. Will try to post some later...

6. We crossed the equator during this journey. At the equator the guides showed this experiment of Coriolis effect. Water was poured in a can which has a hole in the center. so that the water flows. A match stick was placed in the water. When the jar was in southern hemisphere the match stick rotated anti clock wise and when the jar was placed in northern hemisphere the match stick rotated clock wise. when it is kept on the line of equator it was still..oh GOD all this in 30 feet distance...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect

7. Just came to know that the forthcoming release of Rajni Film, Enthiran Trailer has been released in theatres for a price of RS 70 per ticket?...oh my GOD , this shows the desperation level on one side and the marketing guys who want to cash in each and every opportunity on the other side... who is to blame?

If you are a wildlife lover, then kenya is a must visit place....

Thoughts for the week

2010-09-07T11:29:00.004+04:00

1. How many days holiday? how many days holiday? This was one thing in everybody mind at the start of the week..yes we are going to get holidays from 11-14 ie saturday to tuesday ..and with the weekend it is just one day to work in 9 days...Some generous companies declare 15th as a holiday to make it 9 days straight...

The advantage of working in GULF countries , you get one month paid leave and if you are fortunate to work in Oman..yes you get additional Holidays like these....2 to 3 times in a year....

Am i sounding rosy ? no not always...everybody is not fortunate....there are many shit companies ( run by our fellow country men) .....

On the other side is the life of lower class workers....who work 365 days in a year...yes 365 days.....the only happiness they get to see is the overtime hours because of more holidays...Oh my GOD, getting up throughout the year at 6 to go for work without a single day off in a year ....i still wonder , what drives them....MONEY MONEY MONEY....Unfortunately we cant put VALUE to the things they miss in life..family life, sex etc etc....

2. Games Shows--another form of gambling....when people enter the gambling den if i can put that way, minds operate at a different level...Deal or NO Deal show.....one box left with RS 500 and Rs 50lacs on the board..The banker offered RS 17,50,000..dont you think any prudent person would have taken 17.50 lacs and left the show...no this contestant did not do that....and took home Rs 500....

Yes our mind dont operate rationally when we go these stages.....

On the same note this game show ---MOMENT OF TRUTH----oh GOD what motivates these people to come to this show? to earn money by conveying your dark secrets in life and on top of it you see them open their dark secrets and still end up nothing..MISERABLE..even if they take money, can they enjoy..i know for sure the family life is going to ROCK....

A contestant won US $ 100k by admitting he cheated his wife and he said i will take this.and GOD knows what he went through and decided to go next level and lost..in the end took home US $ 25k....lot of similar stories...

These people dont get the money or family life later...

i still wonder what drives them to participate in these shows...

On the other side, what drives us to see these shows....oh yes there is always an added pleasure in indulgence of sin at least at those moments and terrible feeling thereafter...AND KNOWING WHO DOES WHAT , kindles our pleasure ?

3. We get to see sensational headlines and when you read the report , you will understand that the headlines is just to lure you to read..In today's TOI web page--headlines - Kavithas husband charged for RAPE....when you read the report it says the maid has given a complaint that he is harassing for sexual favours....hmm

How on earth we can stop this non sense...

4. Doping issue..the latest CWG doping issue....i hate hypocritical things..is there anyone out there who believe that athletes, weightlifters etc dont take performance enhancing drugs...it is just most of them are smart to stop at the right time before major games...

Wish you all Ganesh Chaturthi and Ramadan Mubarak....

Thoughts for the week

2010-09-01T15:48:00.004+04:00

1. Bad week for cricket lovers. The administrators have to pay a price for not punishing the guilty when this problem surfaced. I am keeping my fingers crossed and unless scotland yard police nails the culprit, it will become the same old story...

2. Bad week for Indian Badminton fans too. I think we should leave Saina alone. Too much pressure is not going to help her out.

3. Hope Sania brings good news this week by reaching pre quarters in US Open...

4. AP Judges copying in exams....GOD, Save our country...

5. I am with the increase in salaries of MP...I would even suggest a bit more ...
Well this an age of Kali Yuga....Read a news item, Imam in saudi closed the mosque for not being paid his dues in the month of Ramdan...so nothing comes for free....lets pay more and ask for accountability..

6. Same goes with our poor souls in Administrative Services, PSU etc....SBI Coming under Fortune 500 pays its Chairman, Rs 27 Lacs pa..what a pity.....

7. Elin divorced Tiger...ha how can anybody expect elin to live together..i find TIger Woods behaviour strange expecting her to stay..may be save the money? anyway i have to write about infidelity separately...

Have a Nice week end and Happy Janmashtami..

Thoughts for the week...

2010-08-25T09:59:00.003+04:00

1. I am in the habit of reading two to three books at the same time , an extension of habit from my college days...i read two three subjects in a day..morning one, afternoon one and evening one....

I read mostly non fiction, since in fiction i could not upgrade myself from beginner level of reading Jeffrey Archer, John Grisham types..

The present books i am into..Art of Choosing - Shenna Iyengar, Fish in the sea is not Thirsty- OSHO, Difficulty of being Good - Gurcharan Das.

2. Again i am accused by my family members , i dont finish reading the entire book...Sometime back i read a statistics that ....% of people dont read the entire book they buy...

3. The books which i discarded after reading less than 10%---World is Flat - friedman?, Rainbow Six -Tom Clancy , The rise and the fall of third reich - i will try to read this later...

4. G*NIce column in friday suppliment of Gulf News has a good following going by the letters to the editor column.....though i dont fall into this category....but after going through his column on relationship last week, i also fall into that....after the rise in price of gulf news i stopped buying gulf news on fridays...last friday i bought one..may be i have to resume buying..

5. Suddenly realised that there are 4-5 beer cans lying in the refrigerator with aug expiry..have to gulp that or else will drain in my wifes hair...( for those ladies who dont know, washing your hair with beer is good for your hair- try it out if you havent done earlier..i know the smell is horrible)

6. Our GOvt fiasco on Anand---my only point is you raise any number of questions? but that should have been resolved before the event..why are we so inefficient...

7. I subscribe to the view of raising salaries to MP...otherwise only rich can afford to be MPs...and unless we pay more for our MPs, how can we expect accountability....

Thoughts for the week....

2010-08-18T10:28:00.005+04:00

1. My daughter realised that Tooth Fairy does not exist for real....going through transition..but still she wants her wish....36 colour pencil Faber castel....

2. Corruption news does not excite people any longer...but good to see Times Now and NDTV fighting each other what they have unearthed...

3. Fed up seeing the no ball controversy taking up so much space in newschannels.. In future i see separate news channel for each section...

4. Any day i am for print media...for one thing i would like mumbai is for the no of print edition...specially afternoon papers...

5. i think since the newspapers only own most of the internet media, the content is not user friendly....i feel there eyes and money are in print media only...Is there any internet news media which does not own print edition?

6. Its Ramadan time..reduced working hours ( exception service sector, i pity them ).....somehow i dont enjoy this period, except for the holiday it brings at the end....

7. Received in FW mail about a software developed by Indian Co where one of the secret question for password protection was - name of the boy/girl you kissed first....times are changing...

Parenting

2010-07-03T11:45:00.004+04:00

Today when i went home for lunch, my daughter asked..appa ( daddy) in that movie Rajneeti..Ajay Devgan will be born before marriage na....( ie outside wedlock)

I was in a shock expecting , is she going to ask how babies come before marriage?

Then she continued and asked what is the name of the actress who acted as his mother...I was relieved ...I realised too, when kids grow up, they know to avoid controversial topics....

Thinking about my old days, most us learned through movies how babies come ( either thru rape scenes or thru the first nite of marriage...( though for a long time i was under the impression that babies come just through hugging)

We have managed so far to keep my daughter away from rape scenes in movies...

Some time last week this was the conversation she had with her mother. she asked does boy friend kiss girl friend? ( effect of Hannah Montana) . Yes in western cultures it is allowed. In Indian Cultures they kiss after marriage...But i never saw you kissing appa ( daddy)...Only in western cultures they do in public..we dont do in public Oh ic....

The main intentioon of this post are not the above. How to make our kid confident and tackle negative forces is the issue here...

One of our friend frequently pulls up kid and acts in a negative wave..in the sense he tries to create a situation where one kid hates or jealous of the other..his intentions may be noble, like he wants to know how kids react.....this is the incident which irked me recently...mykid is going to summercamp- dance class...so in gettogethers whoever goes to this class dance and show what they have learnt...this guy puts marks and say you are 1, 2nd etc...without any basis...this dont happen once , but recurring....my daughter was very upset ....

The problem with my daughter is eventhough she is above average in most of the things, her body language does not show......Just opposite of Dunning and Krugger efefct -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

I can go and tell my friend please stop this attitude of yours..but protecting our child is not a good idea..whereas we have to teach our child in overcoming these..since we cant always protect our child 100% of the time....

Thankfully we are out of India , otherwise i know my kid would be in constant comparison with her cousins etc etc...We all would have suffered this comparison when we are young...

Well next time, if this is going to happen i am thinking of conveying this to my friend that play a positive role and not a negative role....hmm.

May be i will rant on other related topics...The word F***. One cant imagine it is no more a taboo word...i was exposed to my college days and we use it only inside the four walls...

Now when i go to my colony park....every fifth word i hear is F***. and it is uttered so loudly...

Yesterday TOI carried a report stating 90% of teens (rather school boys) think premarital sex is ok. Best part 76% of boys..when you have high percentage of respondent of Boys, one can expect more percentage to these type of questions...I always have aversion to statistics..in more ways itis biased...These reports bring depression to me, hey why did i born 30 yrs later...on a serious note, i feel sex should not happen on peer pressure or as a means to get out of the virgin status as it is no longer fashionable....

Girlie thing - tagged by IHM

2010-06-30T15:04:00.003+04:00

IHM has tagged as a man what things you do which normally woman do......

Well a woman would be proud to say, hey these are the manly things which they do..but i am not sure it is the other way around.....

Let me anyway list my things which i consider things woman do more...

I exclude perfumes, since in gulf it is a common item used by both genders...

Coming to the girlie thing - well you can see me in BODYSHOP....how many times you see a man in bodyshop? well i like bathing...people around me tell that i take more time to bath than women of the house....and i love to use different flavours of shower gel....right now i have almonds, sea minerals, Coconut and ...combinations....
There is no brand loyalty...i try all..but my favourites are bodyshop and st.ives..

In addition i use body scrup...the present flavour is Olive...and my favourite soap is also Olive soap...

Plus weekely once face mask - current one is corn....

and i have stopped these days to immerse myself in bathtub every weekend with lot of perfumes...because to conserve water...hmm

Going back to my younger days, though we used to play Gilli thanda..we used to play this game pandi...i am not sure it is played in north..it is like box of squares, where you have to throw stones and jump on it etc...

what else? if anything comes to my mind, then i will edit...

Language

2010-06-28T11:20:00.002+04:00

The next controversial topic next to religion in India is Language.

During our last gettogether the scene became ugly because of language. Why south indians dont accept Hindi as a national language?

I keep reminding my friends, Hindi is the official language of India and not a National Language. Then the immediate argument goes like, majority of Indians speak Hindi. I tell them when you say National , it denotes the identity of a country. i give this example, can we say the national religion of India is HIndu? we cant say, as India belongs to everybody- Hindus, Christians, Muslims, sikhs etc etc....

Personally i dont have anything against Hindi....but we all oppose when it is imposed..

There is a wrong notion that only south indian states oppose...yes it is a political issue. Now Maharashtra has started...even i see this opposition in Gujarat , Bengal etc...

NorthIndian States somehow or other finds difficult to teach English and finds comfortable to transact most of the things in HIndi. Considering this imagine how difficult it could be for others to learn, regional language, english and top of it Hindi also.....

Now CM of TN again raised the issue of Tamil being made official language of Madras High Court. The demand made initially in 2006 and Bengal followed suit. The SC rejected stating this will make transfer of judges difficult. Means only those who know regional language can be made judge in that state. But on theother side, HC of UP, MR , Rajasthan are conducted in Hindi...and its ok if that makes people who dont know Hindi cant become judges in these HC.

The south feels why cant we make English as a common integration language and NOrth feels why should alien language be made an integration language.

The three language formula has also been a failure. In the sense, many opt for french, spanish, sanskrit, arabic, urdu as third language and defeats the purpose that south learns hindi and north learns one language of south...

I think Alagiri , the Minister dont attend parliament since he his comfortable in Tamil only... and his request to speak in Tamil has been rejected. I know if everybody wants to speak in thier owm langauge in parliament it will be a chaos....

what is the remedy? to me there is no remedy and we have to endure this disease.

The problem of language is mainly to transact the business of Govts..otherwise we dont bother much...the present day scenario is we dont learn even our mother tongue..it is english , english only....

And at the end of the party we thought if two highly educated people was almost involved with a bad verbal language and almost took the fight physically, then how easy it could be for politicians to ignite the fire on emotional issues among the illiterate....

Do we need Religion?

2010-06-23T10:19:00.003+04:00

This is the thing which is going on in mind these days?

Do we need Religion? Do we need Gita, Bible , Koran etc to lead a pure life?

In my previous post, i have mentioned do we treat other human beings humanely? well to rephrase here- do we treat other castes or people belonging to other religion humanely?

To me personally i dont thing anybody need Gita, Bible, Koran etc to lead a pure life...

I am NOT an Atheist....what purpose than religion or GOD serve to me? ...

If we read personality development books, most say if you are confident you can win this world....it looks a very simple thing ...but why we most of us lack that....

I feel religion fills this..being religious makes us confident, pure etc.....but the day when it starts to being a reason for hatred it looses value....i feel this is what which is happenning now...

i am reading this book persently, Life of Pi....the main character prays in temple, church and mosque...

well in my youth ( by the way i am still in my youth?) when i faced tough situation, i even thought of going to temple , church and mosque to pray , since i dont want to load one GOD more..hmm

I wish one day we shed all our inhibition and dont relate to one religion...

I wish a day will come where all of us will follow this routine

Wednesday - visit buddist temple
Thu- Hindu temple
Friday- Mosque
Sat- Jewish
Sun- Church
MOnday and tuesday..work day.....

WOW only two days to work in a week..i think we all will agree to this...hmm

Moral responsibility

2010-06-12T17:12:00.005+04:00

One name which comes across frequently in news these days is Anderson....My first thoughts, why are people behind him? if there is an accident in Reliance petrochemical factory, will mukesh ambani be put behind bars? can this be justified?

so to know more, i read this link...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

After reading this article everybody will realise, what a grave mistake we have committed in letting Anderson go.....

Without going through what we have been hearing ........my only point is,

The government is equally to be blamed for this accident.....Definitely under factories act, there would be inspection clause for these types of hazardous factories. As usual it allowed the Union Carbide mgmt to run the show with poor state of affairs...

What the government has done to clean the contaminated area... MY GOD after 25 yrs we are talking about Tata proposal to clean up the site? Is India so poor that we cant do this for the sake of our people?

Still we are talking about sabotage theory for the accident .....was there no investigation which came to any conclusion?

And after reading articles on BGT, we will all agree , how pathetically the govt has handled the entire episode.....

Moral responsibility is to me today is nothing but an instrument to find a scapegoat...

We have to pity ourselves for the helpless situation we are into...otherwise i don't know what to say...

How humane we are ?

2010-05-31T12:17:00.004+04:00

Looking back i realise i havent wrote a single post in 2010.....

does it convey that 2010 has not started well for me....may be yes and no....

On the positive side.......promotion, shifted to better colony etc.. .negative...trying hard to LET GO , some things...as a result feeling Blank...

Thinking Hard - Got one life, am i living to acheive full happiness? etc etc etc...may be i am in 40s syndrome...

Coming to the point---one major aircrash, Train Crash and road accidents....

lot of things running on my mind consequently to these accidents......

Just thinking about families , who have lost their bread winner...their lives are never going to be the same again....which reminds me a fact, how important for a female to be independent...suddenly a huge responsibility to shoulder a family..can she maintain the same std of living....though atleast those who die in aircrash get more compensation...inequality staring even in death...Insurance is one aspect which i have mentioned in one of my earlier posts....coming to the point, yes it is very important for females to be independent in every respect financially etc etc....but in reality it may not be possible....

People belonging to various faiths have died in these accidents....Fact is all of them have reduced to ashes together.....

is there a heaven / hell seperately for Iyer, iyengar, Chettair, Jhat, Catholic, Protestant, Shia, Sunny etc etc...or the heaven/hell is divided with regions too?
can anybody say...

When everybody in the end will be reduced to ashes, why so much hatred between us based on faith?

Which brings me to a question, why we humans dont treat all other humans with same yardstick? Tamilian heart goes out to tamils living at srilanka more than anybody....sufferings in palestine affects some sections of society....
am i going to react same for two seperate incidents killing 10 in temple and mosque?

why the connection is not between human to human?

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-12-31T13:57:00.000+04:00

I WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR....

Rants....

2009-12-29T23:21:00.004+04:00

When we open Newspapers daily, we come across so many tragedies..but some of the news i came across was heart breaking to me....

two weeks back there was widespread rains here...around 10 -15 death when their vehicle were swept away....WADI is very common....WADI to put it simply is dry riverbed...when there are rains, it is deceptive and by fault if you drive your car into these wadi, the chances of car drowning is high....that way a Bangladeshi woman living here for past 20 yrs lost her husband..she is survived by son and daughters in teens..well now she may be forced to go out of here...she does not even have money for the funeral...social orgn collecting money..

Second was even more heart rendering.....wife and kids landed in dubai to celebrate Christmas with the husband who is staying at abu dhabi....the husband never came to the airport to pick them up..they waited for one day at the airport to receive the news that the husband was killed ina accident when he was on his way to airport...

What important thing which brought to my mind is the importance of INSURANCE....99% of the people dont take insurance properly....they take mostly as tax saving instrument...or as a saving instrument.....the main point one has to look in taking insurance...in the event of my death will the insurance money sustain the std of living of the remaining members of the family?

many take endowment policy for say 5 lacs and pay a premium of say 35 to 40 thousand..well since the premium mainly depends upon the age you enter, it is better to enter early...does 5 lacs is enough ? no way...atleast 50 lacs for a middle class....atleast to sustain in the short term... many cite high premium....well insurance agents never advertise term policies much....here the premium is less and if you survive you dont get back any money....well you cant have the cake and eat it too..which is better - to pay 25k premium for 50 lacs or 36K for 5 lacs..well no doubt in the second case you get back your money if you survive..but insurance is not a saving instrument....

well my family is out of town..feeling bored and ended up seeing this play tv..which is coming in Zee etc after 12 IST..since we are 90 minutes behind it is 10.30 pm...i could not believe..are we so dump? yes i am sure these people are taking us for a ride.....it goes like this..you have to identify the person in the picture...4 minutes given..in that yu have to sms jeeto to a number..sms cost rs 10...then at the end of 4 minutes they will cal anyone person..he has to give answer...if he gives wrong answer then another 3 minutes given...till the correct answer is given...

oh my GOD...i felt people are made to give wrong answers.....two days back sharuk khan kid photo was shown..and there were 9 wrong answers....by giving wrong answers you are increasing the time for the same question to boost your revenue...

and today see this photo..can anyone go wrong ? the answer received were, ayub khan, KK menon , bobby deol....this prog is real heights...

And then there is this programme in a Tamil Music cahnnel..which say we will play your favorite...as soon as the caller conveys his favorite the song starts...how is this possible, unless you are asked to convey the song they are going to play...

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2009-12-24T12:56:00.003+04:00

WISHING YOU ALL " MERRY CHRISTMAS ".

Oman Part 2

2009-12-03T09:57:00.010+04:00

I am just back from a trip to Musandum Peninsula which is near UAE border. Since it is easily accessible by road from UAE, just one hour drive from RAS Al Khayma, this place is visited more by UAE nationals than people of Oman.

BY road it takes 7-8 hrs from Muscat. So tourist fly. But for the last one year ferry service is being operated from Muscat to Musandum region. it takes 5 hours. We took the feery service .Nice comfortable journey. It is one of the fastest ferry in the world. It travels at a speed of 90 kms per hour.( converted from knots)

What is special about Musandum Peninsula? Well it is called the Norway of GCC. Because of the Fjords. Though with snow capped mountains, the fjords of Norway would be more lovely.

Dolphin is another attraction here.They come very close to the Dhow and travel alongwith the dhow. We could see around 10-15. But normally one could see many more.

We enjoyed the Dhow cruise very much. They stop for an hour for swimming and snorkelling. Oh i should learn swimming to enjoy these activities..

Thereafter went to a mountain safari. i was told that these mountains were under sea once upon a time. they showed the fossils of star fish. again the views were picturesque.

Below are some pics ...

Ferry

could you locate the fossil of star fish?

Holidays, EID Mubarak and some rant

2009-11-25T15:45:00.002+04:00

From tomorrow it is holiday for EID. Next working day..5th December.

EID Mubarak for all those who celebrate EID.

Normally even though i don't write posts, i read others blog regularly. But for the last two weeks i haven't done that also.

I recently read a statement by Aamir Khan that he did not allow his kid of 11 yrs to watch Gajini because of violence. After reading that i just got angry. Since my daughter is very much affected after seeing this film. we used to leave our daughter alone at home, when she is having holiday. But after seeing this film, she refused. Now she is bit ok. But she is still afraid to see any kinda violent movie.

I take full responsibility in taking my daughter to the movie. I generally dont see any tamil movie because of violence. When i heard this is a remake of tamil movie , initially i was not interested. I took a chance.hmm

When i see Aamir Khan taking up many social issues, i want to ask him this. When he has stopped his kid to watch this movie, does he not have a moral responsibility to caution the general public. Yes in daily life we are forced to have double standards..for example i may me honest in my personal life, but when it comes to official, i can be corrupt to get an order....i felt Aamir also behaved in the same fashion. I felt he should have given a warning to parents. This again proves, most of the actors are heroes in reel life and not in real life.

Oman Part 1

2009-11-05T11:48:00.009+04:00

Though it is there in my mind for a long time to write about Muscat, i felt moreso after posting pictures of Greece. So may be i will start posting pictures of Muscat which is the capital city of Oman.

When the consultant called me to attend an interview of a company from Muscat, i had no clue where Muscat is? Then i came to know there is a country called Oman and Muscat is the capital of Oman. So i ended up at Muscat 4 yrs back....

The initial days were terrible...I could see more cars than human beings..the tyre sound would be ringing in my ears for a long time..i survived those days....

The place is wonderful. I was told this is the second cleanest city in the world. This country is made up of beaches ( long coast line), mountains, wadis, desert, Dates and lot of adventure spots. ( water falls too?)

More importantly the people of Oman are very hospitable unlike other Gulf countries. Lot of Indians especially Gujaratis are here for the past 100 years. you can see some Indians almost part of the local population with their own business here.
Because of them you find two temples here. Krishna and Siva Temples are here. The pooja items are sold by local population outside the temples. This explains the unity between communities. Inside four walls you are free to follow your activities. You name any community orgn, you will find a branch here. From Balavikas to art of living to Thirupavai class to Thiruvambavai class you dont miss anything...

This is a very laid back town..we had nine continuous holiday last month...this month another set of nine holidays coming up...

Anyone who lived here, will find it difficult to leave this place....

i will start posting some pictures from now onwards...

These are the pictures taken from the terrace of my house..click the pictures for a better view.

Admiration..failure..society

2009-10-28T19:39:00.004+04:00

Well after writing my previous blog, i remembered this blog which i wrote in yahoo360 in 2007...this can be regarded as one of my failures...i felt if i was bit proactive, may be i could have saved one life.....here is that blog.....

I had mentioned in my previous blog on No 3.. ie Three persons I will invite for dinner.. One set of people was Vaishnavi and Vandana. Who are they? Well they are the founders of Banyan, a charitable orgn that takes care of destitute women.

May be in early 90s I read an article about them in a local magazine. From then I am following their progress through newspaper, magazines etc. These two women who were college going students at that time, one day when they are standing at a bus stop saw a woman ( mental illness) with no proper dress wandering on the roads. This scene really affected them and thought why this should happen to that woman. They thought that no woman should face this situation and had an idea to start an orgn to take care of these type of women. This was how the orgn Banyan started.

The lives of these woman changed overnight. Coming from a affluent family, studying in a prestigious college , these women would have progressed in life in a wealthy background. What they choose to do is to try to contribute to the society. To know more u can see their website www.thebanyan.org

I really admire them for what they are doing. Just that day in a bus stop has changed their life 360 degrees. At the most what I would have done in that situation is pity /sympathy or write a blog and forget… I thought when I earn, I should help this orgn. I think I did contribute a small amount when I started earning. Here after coming to Gulf, a small amount I gave from my bonus. A small satisfaction.

Though their orgn is just 12 kms away , I never went there. But a chance to go there happened in 2000. Why?

I grew up in the same locality from my birth. There was a family consisting of one boy and three girls elder to the boy lived down the street. The eldest girl at her later stage became mentally ill.

What happened to her…. Again flash back… Mother dies when they are young. When the girls completed their studies , the next step was to get married. I didn’t know the exact reason… The second girl married ahead of her elder sister. Then father dies. Last girl gets the job in his father office. Gets married. The eldest sister in a good job lives with her brother. She makes her brother study. The eldest sister seems to be rude and hence dont liked by many. Well I feel the first mistake the family made was not to get her married. I feel this rejection was in her mind. My mother and her colleague tried to get her married , but to no avail. The brother completed study, gets a job and got married, went alone. Now the eldest sister lives alone. Next turning point she resigns her job. Lives alone… Slowly she becomes ill. The house she lives was a separate house and has good value. Other sisters and brother wants to sell the house and share the money. The eldest against that. She wanders in the road. After knowing them for so long, she comes to eat food to my house , temple , etc etc. After some days, my mother used to just keep the food outside. ( just like how we keep for dogs?)

I was working at Gujarat, and these were the scenes I see when I come on leave. I thought I should do something and that was how I went to Banyan. The first time I went there. They were put up in a small house and informed that they will be moving to a bigger place, courtesy the Govt which gave them land and other donors. They told that I should bring her on a Tuesday evening when the doctor comes. So I informed the sisters about this orgn and told them we will take her. We arranged a cab , but the sister didn’t come and so we tried to take her. But we could not succeed. She refused to come. So I went to banyan again and conveyed the situation and asked them to take her forcibly. They said, when a woman has got no relatives, they can do … but in this case .. they cant. I went back to work and thought may be next leave we will try.

But after some months ,I got a call that the woman died. ( unnatural cause.. don’t ask me the exact cause)

I used to think, may be if I was proactive a bit earlier, may be she would have survived. Plus what our society was doing all these days. The neighbours, my family etc etc. every body has got no time to take care of themselves, their problems. To attend somebody’s problem is out of place. It is a personal failure for me.

When I think of banyan , this incident comes to my mind. Hey two girls, you are responsible for many success stories.. Keep up your good work

Do we care for others life?

2009-10-25T20:29:00.003+04:00

This is my rant today...i wanted to speak out this for long....but after reading the article in TOI, which is reproduced below, i cant wait even a minute to rant....

In the recent past there has been various accidents which claimed many lives....fire at cracker godown, Thekady boat accident, recent train accident...each claiming its own share of lives...

Which brings back the question, how much we care for others life?...Frankly there are not many ( including me)...Why is this? Is this because of the population and n number of people we see...generally if we kill ants, we dont feel for it..since there are such a lot of them..if some ants dies what is the big deal...Is this huge population we see makes us disconnected ? In my experience i find, we as a society for various reasons are very insensitive to others feelings...I wish it changes...

Coming back to the person in the below mentioned article...was he not taken care because he did not belong to the local population? poor chap atleast if he had displayed his religious identity , people belonging to his religion would have helped..( this is another sorry state of affairs, were our emotions are dependent on the similiarity exhibited by the other person)

When we heard that the a person of Indian origin bagged the Nobel Prize for ...... the whole of India erupted..more so by people from TN, since he belonged to that State.Well coming from chennai, i feel very bad about the below incident....we dont want nobel prizes...What we need is NOBLE MINDS in our people, to see such incidents dont recur.

I want to add a small point here, till date i could not digest the fact that any medico legal case example, accident victim will not be attended unless some forms are filled...Let the politicians be corrupt etc etc..atleast i wish they care to protect the lives of citizens...

Thrown out, man dies at hosp gate

A Selvaraj | TNN

Chennai: A 45-year-old man who suffered an injury on his left leg bled to death at the gates of the Government General Hospital, the biggest government hospital in the state, on Thursday. With no relatives to look after him, the shabbily dressed man, with a plaster on his leg, had been lying under the scorching sun for nearly 20 days, waiting for the attention of the doctors. Finally, he was taken inside the hospital — not to a ward, but the mortuary.
The man, who people in the vicinity said spoke Hindi, was allegedly thrown out of the hospital 20 days ago. “I saw the hospital staff dump him on the pavement more than 20 days ago. No one cared for him. He survived on food given to him by beggars. He often cried in pain,’’ Gomathi, a private conservancy worker told TOI. She witnessed the dying moments of the man.
On Thursday, when this reporter tried to speak to him, he just muttered: “naam (name) Sudhir.’’ When attempts to admit him to the hospital proved futile, Udavum Karangal, an NGO, was called. “We took him in an ambulance, but he died. His body has been handed over to the mortuary for autopsy,’’ said NGO founder Vidyakar.
Hospital authorities said it wasn’t uncommon to turn away or force patients out of beds when they had no relatives to help. “This patient had no one to attend to him. He had a simple fracture that had to be kept clean. In our hospital, these are not done by nurses. Relatives help a patient in keeping clean. We are also short-staffed and sometimes minor dressing is done by patients. Moreover, we are not a palliative care centre,’’ said a senior administrator.
Government General Hospital dean J Mohanasundaram said: “I am not aware of the case and not sure if he was expelled from the hospital.”

Which sounds better to you?

2009-10-18T20:42:00.006+04:00

The sound of our voice heard by others are different from what we hear ourselves....

The first time i heard properly my voice was when i first recorded an event in a handycam....frankly it was horrible...and felt hey is this the way my voice sounds to others..no..no...i know voice is one of the turn ons...which i dont have....

and when i asked a few people most of them told, they liked what they hear themselves....

so how about you? which voice of yours you like? is there somebody who is of the opinion that both sounds similiar?

HAPPY DIWALI

2009-10-17T12:13:00.001+04:00

Wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous Diwali.

Pictures taken during our trip

2009-09-27T12:30:00.007+04:00

Here are some of the pictures we took during our trip.

This is the Theatre of Dionysus Eleutherus. This is still used for some very important concerts.

Another view of Parthenon.

A closer look at the corinth column.

View of Acropolis from Temple of Zeus

View of Temple of Zeus from Acropolis

Ganesha and Nataraja idols displayed at antiquity shop

This was a place used to keep the treasury at DELPHI. It was built to commemorate the victory at the battle of Marathon. Marathon is a place which is 25 miles away from Athens. When the Greek won the Battle of Marthon, a person ran from marathon to athens to convey the victory. He died of exhaustion immediately after conveying the message. The running race started as a dedication to the person who ran the distance to convey the message. - please correct me, if i am wrong.

This is rock which the priest hold/sit when delivering the ORACLE. It seems Kings before any major event like battle, etc used to come here and get the prediction from the priest.

Stray Dogs of Athens.

Monastery of St Paul at Aegina Island

Temple of Aegina at Aegina Island.

View of Poros Island

Rock formations at Meteora.This is a geological wonder. I feel this place is breathtaking. i could not capture the exact beauty through my lens. These rocks are formed due to earthquake, weathering of water of sea. On top of the rocks monastries are there. It is said that monks retreated to these rocks because of turkish occupation. These monastries have played an important part to keep the religion of Greek Orthodox alive. 90 % of the greek population belong to this religion.

Erotica is part of greek history i believe. Like our Kama sutra. One such picture at a Hotel Lobby.

Athens Trip

2009-09-26T14:48:00.008+04:00

Frankly i havent been on a proper vacation till now. I felt it is high time, i start exploring India and the rest of the world. We decided this year to visit any country at any cost. Suddenly H1N1 seemed to foil our plans. But it has reached a stage where we have to live with it by taking precautions. So took a chance and decided to visit any place, leaving south east asia and countries which celebrate EID( because of crowd).

The ideal first destination for anyone in gulf is Egypt. However,out of the blue, decided to visit Greece. Frankly i do not know anything about Greece except for Greek Mythology. When i started to google, found intereting facts about athens and the islands surrounding Athens. Since Greece is vast, decided to see bits and pieces of Greece made a plan accordingly. To visit islands through one day cruise and a two day tour to delphi ( the navel of earth ) and Meteora ( monastries on top of rocks). and the balance two days to roam in Athens.

We went alone and so bit tensed and in the end it all went well....

You can go through the links at the botom to know more about Acropolis of Athens, Delphi and Meteora

This is our first stop, Temple of Zeus...

View of Parthenon or Temple of Athena at Acropolis, Athens...

Will upload rest of the pictures later....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis_of_Athens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteora

Happy Navarathri Festival , Dussehra and EID Mubarak - Holiday Mood

2009-09-16T15:09:00.005+04:00

Well its holiday mood here now...

Govt declares holiday for both public and private sector. All the companies have to compulsorily follow the same. If any companies for any reason like essential activities etc work on these days, then they have to give compensatory off to employees or over time.

So we are now having holidays from 20 to 24 for EID. 25th being friday is automatic off. Another rule, if any holiday falls on a normal holiday of a particular company, then that company should provide compensatory off. Like my company is normally closed on Thu and Friday. Since 24 happens to be thursday, we will get one compensatory off....our company has decided to declare 19 as comp-off for 24th.

So my next working day is on 26th.

So i am on a holiday mood......

something i am planning...Will let you all know what i did during the holidays.....

Wishing you all Happy Dussehra, Navarathri Festival and Eid Mubarak....

I' ve come to realise

2009-09-14T16:42:00.003+04:00

1. I've come to realise that my chest-size ... ..after seeing mathew hayden bare chest..oh GOD .bought one chest expander....

2. I've come to realize that my job ... is very important for my overall happiness in life

3. I've come to realize that when I'm driving ... I dont feel like stopping.

4. I've come to realize that I need .... healthy body and mind, to love with passion, to learn new things all the time.

5. I've come to realize that I have lost .... all that is not important.

6. I've come to realize that I hate it when .... when people dont listen to me, when i do silly mistakes.

7. I've come to realize that if I'm drunk .... going to spill lot of beans.

8. I've come to realize that money ... is a necessity.

9. I've come to realize that certain people .....accept them for what they are.

10. I've come to realize that I'll always....be nice and friendly.

11. I've come to realize that my sibling(s) ..... i could have interacted with them more.

12. I've come to realize that my mom ..... is responsible for where i am today.

13. I've come to realize that my cell phone ....one thing i hate the most.

14. I've come to realize that when I woke up this morning....today is monday

15. I've come to realize that last night before I went to sleep...will India win today.

16. I've come to realize that right now I am thinking...
that there is so much to do, yet I am bored...

17. I've come to realize that my dad......most contented person.

18. I've come to realize that when I get on to blogging...
I get to know a lot of people from all walks of life, from different corners of the world, and I learn stuff that I would never have learn't. ( modified)

19. I've Come to realize that today....is just another day.

20. I've come to realize that tonight...i will google a lot about destination holidays.

21. I've come to realize that tomorrow....is just another happy day.

22. I've come to realize that I really want to..... run and complete marathon

23. I've come to realize that the person who is most likely to re-post this is......someone who is as bored as I am.

24. I've come to realize that life.....is What we choose to make it. ( copied)

25. I've come to realize that this weekend...going to be hectic, planning for my holdiays ( EID)

26. I've realized the best music to listen to when I am upset...songs which are close to my heart.

27. I've come to realize that my friends...are jewels in the crown.

28. I've come to realize that this year.....is bit dull.

29. I've come to realize that my ex.....what does "ex" mean ?

30. I've come to realize that maybe I should....be more assertive, more clear what i want to be etc etc

31. I've come to realize that I love...to be jack of all trades.

32. I've come to realize that I don't understand...
Why certain people are the way they are but its still alright.

33. I've come to realize my past...has its up and down

34. I've come to realize that I'm totally terrified...of becoming forgetful

35. I've come to realize that my life......in my hands to make the best out of it.

Ramadhan Mubarak and Ganesh Chaturthi

2009-08-21T19:24:00.001+04:00

Wishing you all Ramadhan Mubarak and a Happy Ganesh Chaturthi....

Random Thoughts

2009-08-02T19:49:00.004+04:00

In one of my last post, i was telling about a seven year old girl conversation with mother about the pill.... It followed with my daughters query, which i had mentioned in my comment section...

Well in gulf almost everybody ( except UAE) have dish / tata sky connections...so what is prime time here is late night in India ..and so the kids are exposed to advts like i-pill etc...Another thing which parents here will realise is, that we cant separate kids life with ours...Frankly i am spending may be 10 times more with my kid then if i had been living in India...

Ok yesterday the conversation between my daughter and wife went like this..amma, in my school bus there was a debate..some told that AB is a gay..some others told no..i wife was shocked and asked , do you know what gay is...amma, are you testing me? did you not see Dostana? ...there ends the conversation.....school bus where students upto 12th travel, all kinda topics are discussed.

Another conversation i am reminded when she was 5..amma i like kevins cousin who has come from dubai.....amma if i marry him, do i have to go to dubai..yes..see i am married your father and i am come to muscat na..so if you marry him you have to go to dubai..ok , no problem i will go to dubai...then tell her..your first priority is studies ....then you can think of all that..kids are obsessed with one thing at a time...

Another one..what you will become when you grow..i will become housewife...i will study , then marry have kids and i will not go to work like you , leaving me.... for , working mother it is a constant struggle...and i motivate my wife, hey this will phase out ....

By the way swine flu is spreading here ..may be people have started to come back after vacations...well i was planning for a massage ..it has been a long time..my only post which does not have any comment was my post on massage...

i was about to book an appointment..then reminded, masseurs are from thailand...so i am not planning to have a massage for now....http://wind-rambling.blogspot.com/2008/11/massage.html

oh too many ramblings...i will better go and watch whom rakhi is going to marry?

Embarrassing / Funny moments

2009-07-30T20:03:00.004+04:00

I am feeling low and bored.....at these moments, i feel like i want to go for a long drive and tailgate somebody at 150....i really enjoy driving..i can be behind the steering wheel all through the day....even bumper to bumper traffic...well for now let me laugh at myself by writing my embarrassing moments....do you have any?

First the embarrassing moment which took place in December 2007 i think. Well on Vaikunda Ekadasi ( Vaishnavite festival equivalent to siva rathri ) early morning there is a ritual to see sorga vasal. You see the GOD first when the doors are opened. Frankly i am not a very religious person. I have never visited fearing crowd... Fortunately when i went to the temple the previous day, i saw in the notice board the programme for Vaikunda ekadasi like recitation of Vishnu Sahasranamam etc starting from Six o clock. So i told my wife we will go to the temple in the early morning and and see the GOD may be like sorga vasal. My wife reluctantly agreed. Since it is a matter of GOD she didnt refuse. So the next day early morning got up at 4.30 put the geyser and woke my family including my daughter and made her also to bath in that cold. temp is around 9-10 deg. Wife was in silk saree and daughter in pattu pavadai and we entered the temple at 5.50am. There was no sign of any activity.......... when i went to the notice board , i realised it was 6.00 PM and not 6 am? Then i had to listen , have u done anything in life correctly?

well here are some where i was only involved , so it can be termed as funny moments.

When i was young may be say 9 yrs, my cricket club conducted a dinner party at a hotel. I am not sure i have been to hotel before. After the dinner i was the last to leave. I was proud after coming out , since i thought i did a very responsible act. I gave the money to captain and said, captain you have left the money in the saucer itself....... thank god i noticed it.. take it... then he explained the concept of tips...

Again in a restaurant when i was a adult may be 22? i went to a posh restaurant when i went to outstation for audit... There after the dinner the waiter brought the finger bowl ( which i came to know later) . i thought i never ordered why he brought? anyway why to return back , may be it is good for digestion. so i drank thinking may be it is a lemon juice? hahahahha...

Again in a restaurant... this time at TGIF Delhi the menu was so Greek and Latin to me, that i ordered by showing the item...........

Well my Hindi was a laughing stock when i speak especially in a get together i thoroughly enjoy those moments. After Marriage however it improved little bit. In a dumb Charade, i was given the word Gareeb... i acted as a beggar thinking it was kareeb. Still i am not sure did i mention the proper words? i acted as a beggar when the word was near. Mm

When i visited my uncle place in ahmedabad , i saw a shop where it was written HOT DOG. when the asian games were held in seoul i read that the fav dish was dog. i remembered that and asked my cousin , are there lot of koreans here? she said no? then i asked why Hot dogs are sold here?

Random Thoughts

2009-07-28T11:39:00.003+04:00

A scene at my colleagues place

Mother helping her daughter aged 7 with her studies...hey you can get this word..PILL....child replies..mummy Thank GOD you did not take i-pill..otherwise i could not have born....
( for those who don't watch Indian Television, well the advt for i-pill ( post contraceptive tablet) features regularly these days.... thankfully she did not ask what abortion is..but anyway those days are near...

Sach ka Samna - Moment of Truth..

Again a television programme...reality show..whatever said and done..we all love reality shows..i am no exception..my fav among all is , So you think you can dance?
In this programme i find an anomaly..they say you can win one crore....but i feel the producers can doctor the questions..in the sense since the questions are already asked with polygraph beforehand..they know what is right and wrong..so they are going to definitely ask the wrong ones..i think that's how Urvashi Dholakia lost at the last question of 10 lac stage....so if you want to win one crore , you have to tell the truth, rather polygraph machine has to say that what you are saying is truth , for all the questions they ask..otherwise no body can win One Crore...

Raffles

Well Ramadhan is near..so the raffles have started...any shopping place you go , they give coupons for minimum purchase amount and you get a chance to win a say Four Wheel Drive...this time the most fav place is giving Nissan 4*4 Armadda...so every time you go to shopping and you see the vehicle...hey will i be lucky this time to get you...

by the way in this part of the world, it is raffles , raffles all around the year..specially the banks...if you keep a minimum balance say OMR 1,000 ( one rial is 2.60 US $) you stand to win say OMR 10,000 to OMR 500,000 as bumper..it is a huge money...and destiny will be changed..almost all the banks run through such raffles ( well all are interest free deposits)...so everybody ends up having accounts in all the banks....i am no exception..in spite of the fact that expat stand to win these rarely ....

In my younger days, i used to say to my father who had the habit of buying lottery tickets..papa i would rather prefer to ride a bicycle bought on my own earnings then to drive a car bought on lottery money...well Life has come a full circle....

Men are like... ( copied from somewhere)

1.Men are like* Laxatives*. They irritate the crap out of you.
2. Men are like* Bananas*. The older they get, the less firm they are.
3. Men are like* Weather*. Nothing can be done to change them.
4. Men are like *Blenders.* You need One, but you're not quite sure why.
5. Men are like *Chocolate Bars*. Sweet, smooth, & they usually head right for your hips.
6. Men are like *Commercials*. You can't believe a word they say.
7. Men are like* Department Stores*. Their clothes are always 1/2 off!
8. Men are like* Government Bonds*. They take soooooooo long to mature.
9. Men are like* Mascara*. They usually run at the first sign of emotion.
10. Men are like* Popcorn*. They satisfy you, but only for a little while.
11. Men are like* Snowstorms*. You never know when they're coming, how many inches you'll get or how long it will last.
12. Men are like *Lava Lamps*. Fun to look at, but not very bright.
13. Men are like *Parking Spots.* All the good ones are taken, the rest are handicapped.

personally i have to agree with No 8.. ( hey they are talking about mental maturity na?)

What If?

2009-07-06T11:34:00.003+04:00

Deeps knocked me and woke me from my slumber..i hate to use the word busy.....even if i dont write here, i dont fail to visit the blogs..but for the last 10 days somehow i didnt do that also...wish i am regular not only in reading blogs , but also writing...

i wanted to write about shiney ' episode..more of Rape...
anyway for the moment ..i am copying and pasting my earlier blog which i wrote on June 30, 2007 ..which has got some relevance...

On wednesday i was reading priya's blog serious of what if ? questions. For my share i also asked my query in a lighter vain. Well i never expected i would be at the receiving end on thursay with the same what if? query posed to me. What goes around, comes around?

Well the owner of the query is none other than my WIFE. On thursday night, ( an ideal week end nite , with kids away ) she posed me with this question. What if a woman falls on you for a sex- will you have sex with her?

I have to give the background why she asked this? well in her line of profession she meets unfaithful husbands ( if i can put it that way) may be 10 in a month. for the last three or four months, she used to grumble why men are like this. if the wife goes away for a month , why they stray? i usually avoid such conversation because no where it will end. i will just simply say, in this world all kinds of people exist and since you are in that profession you are meeting such people. Unless such people dont exist how u can earn? thay way i will end the topic. i know sometimes, those questions are indirectly aimed at me to ensure oh u are not that type of guy.

Plus she always dont like movies such as Silsila, Abiman etc. I used to ask , r u feeling insecure ? she just reply i dont like such stories.

Well coming to my answer what i told. I told see it depends upon the situation one at. If the advance is for a permanent relationship , then it is no straighaway. Well if it is for a one nite stand, then i said it is 50-50 depending on the state of mind. Well this was my immediate answer. Like any wife she would haveloved to hear no not at all. Well i also would have loved to tell like that. But for the fact which i mentioned inmy previous blog - about the curiosity i had to have sex with one another woman, just to find out how it will be? which i refrained because of guilty conscious and aids.

Hearing that 50-50, she was not happy and asked when we shut our doors to men compleetly, how could have a open mind. she added may be you dont love me that much. i remained silent. I said well it is always difficult to answer hypothetical questions and it is better we think about crossing the bridge when we come to the point of bridge.

Well it was difficult nite to sleep and had a self introspection. The same question if it was posed before marriage it would have been reverse, no for one nite stand and yes for a permanent relationship. These thoughts have arisen before marriage. Well i was pure for a unknown girl future girl who will come to my life.. but after she came why this change.... frankly i dont have a single answer..for the fact that both good and bad exist within ourself and before i was more successful in overcoming bad thoughts? well as they say MIND is like a monkey.

I said to my wife which i read in one of the blogs here, see " A woman wants all her needs to be satisfied by one man whereas a man wants all the women in this world to satisfy his one need".

i was also thinking how sanjiv kumar would have reacted to this in his movie..patti patni aur ... he would have started jumping how the hell u could think about me like this... i am so pure etc...his wife would have felt guilty in questioning him...mm

The next morning i told my wife, i was happy yesterday that you thought someone might fall for me. i never thought i was so handsome......

Are we really happy to share other's happiness?

2009-05-07T17:48:00.006+04:00

Some months back, my daughter mentioned, I always feel happy and express when my friends say about any event that made them happy. But they dont show the same excitement as she does when she says some thing that made her happy. ...hmm i frankly dont know what to say....

Kids , when they get prize wants the whole world to know...My daughter won the first prize for poster competition recently. When she went to mothers office, this was the reaction..After waiting for 5 minutes, she went like these..uncle/aunty..my mother didnt tell you? i got the first prize..she was expecting the moment they saw her, they will congratulate her..hmm.my daughter scolded her mother later, why you didnt tell them...

coming to the topic..when she went to my neighbour place with her mother....aunty i got first prize in poster competition...neighbour replied, my daughter also got prize etc etc....may be she would have congratulated and then proceeded...

this was the best of all, which made me to blog...in the music class as usual my daughter had mentioned..so one of her friends mother enquired like this..hey it seems she has won for poster making..did she make the poster from house? ( does it imply there was some help from parents) no the competition was held at school for 2 hours....ok did she knew what she was to draw..we replied yes, they have already given the topic.... ok..then you have given ideas....yes we gave....is she going for drawing class?..yes she is going for drawing class....oh that why....( now that mother is happy that since she went to drawing class she got prize)

Do all the mother s or parents take it as a competition between them for the excellence kids show?

To me comparison is the worst thing to do ? To me there are some who are above, and some who are below...there ends the matter..

I took some lessons from above....i really dont know how i reacted when kids told me that they had excelled in something...but from now on i know i have to really feel happy to make them good....and moreover to stop saying that my kid has also done the same...

Fate , Destiny etc etc

2009-04-25T12:29:00.002+04:00

Coming back after a long time...busy with work..no mood to write..lot of excuses i can find...

Last week when i read the death of a guy because of a fall during bungee jumping..my thoughts wandered...sometimes how death invites? As per the original plan , the group this guy was into had no plans for bungee jumping. They heard suddenly , changed plans and went to this adventure...Is this fate? In my mother tongue, it is called "Vidhi" . I remember when i was young, if somebody states fate ie vidhi he was looked down and branded person with excuses.

But somehow i feel, fate plays in our lives...If i accept this, am i lenient on the safety features adopted by the Adventure Company. Had the safety feature's was followed, would this person have died in any other way? .....Similiar incident recently was the death of a 9 year old boy trying to imitate the stunt performed at Roadies show...So, did death invited these people? I dont have any answer...

Similarly some people escape miraculously ..say for instance, i read a news report , that a women survived a bullet hit which went through the forehead and passed her head and came out..still she survived...

These days i believe more in fate / destiny etc etc

Confused ..Contd

2009-03-28T12:22:00.004+04:00

When i wrote the blog http://wind-rambling.blogspot.com/2009/02/confused.html confused, never thought i would become so confused...added to this is to buy at the best price, since the price variations are too much at different shops...

Since i could not find a single mobile to my taste, i decided i will buy an ipod and retain my present mobile...next question nano or touch screen.....decided touch screen.....then 8 gb 0r 16 gb...went for 16 gb....then old model or new model..which is better.....in india only new model is available..here most of the places old model....added to this old model is costly than new model? why...then came prices..is it cheaper in India or dubai or muscat? In india at landmark it cost 25K , in other places 17K....then finally decided i will buy here itself and after a long wait went for new model touch screen 16gb....

my wait is finally over...

now i am getting comments, you cud have gone for iphone..chodo i am not ready topay that much...hmm..

Eluding Motherhood?

2009-03-22T13:53:00.004+04:00

Today is mother's day. I came to know that in UK they celebrate today and in USA they celebrate during May. I dont know what is the funda?

I hate the word busy, these days i am tied to work....so just copying the blog which i wrote during last year , Mother's day.

When I learned about this incident, I thought of writing with the title abortion vs mercy ending of life. With Mother’s Day around, I thought I would write later covering related issues.
Well the issue here is about Women for whom motherhood has eluded and for Women who are desperately trying not to fall in the above category.

It is difficult for us to realise the emotional turmoil these people go thru in their lives.
First about the incident, a woman had two miscarriages and the third was also not successful ( I don’t know the exact reason ) and now for the fourth time she has conceived. The above would have taken her many years. She is in her 12th week. That is the stage when things are starting to look brighter. ( Oh my GOD, I stopped at this point to sign some cheques – see PS for what it is ). You know what happened, she had boils so she came to the doctor. The first thing the Doctors are taught is that they should not be emotional seeing the patients. In this case, doctor could not hide the emotions, because what the women got was chicken pox. The doctor conveyed she didn’t sleep the previous nite, thinking how she can tell this to her patient. She definetly didn’t want to? Mm what to do? So the patient was advised to consult her gynae on this.
Without doubt gynae will tell to abort. Because there is 5 % chance that the baby will be born with abnormalities one cant even imagine? Will anyone prepared to face that agony? So the best option is abort.

I don’t know what she had decided.

But my question is, can an alternative be thought. We all know the travails the woman had undergone. If this was her first pregnancy, no problem. She would have faced lot of trauma earlier. If it is aborted, she may even end up trying to conceive etc etc.

My ideal solution would be , continue the pregnancy , since the negative factor is 5% only. If it comes good, everybody is happy. If not ? why don’t we consider Mercy ending of life? Well here I am not saying that the baby born is only with mental retardation, the baby can be born with lot of complexities in addition to mental retardation, ie no legs, no hands, small hands, small legs, one cant imagine… that is the reason why I am suggesting this way out?

May be I am cruel with this way of thinking. There is no harm when u do the same effect 6 months before, one can say it is cells only, after nine months it become s life?

Why I suggest this ? well all these woman go a lot of trauma one cant imagine. Since motherhood is such a status, a woman can only say, I don’t know anything.

When I was going thru a old file, I found one leave letter, please extend my leave, I am trying for a baby, Doctor says that I should me with my wife for three months continuously…. ( well in gulf u get leave for one month for every year of work and all these labourers etc don’t get family status, plus if u r working in interior ( desert ) whatever ur qualification u cant live with ur family in desert, but for higher qualified people they get better leave , ie one month leave for every one month of work or say every three months).

At some point of time, we could have come across people like these, and we all know the emotional suffering these people undergo. My heart goes out to all of them and I can say that we don’t get everything in life, so don’t worry and just carry on…

Well some tips, main reason for not conceiving in most cases is tension. Be relaxed and don’t worry that u r not conceiving. Oh I know how your mother in law will look when she knows that you have got periods. Her eyes will burn you ………., forget those..

Kits are available in the market to know your ovulation periods… make use of them…. In every cycle ovulation does not take place……… don’t cook during ovulation period…. The height of gas burner and the uterus are on the same height na……

I wish all women celebrate mother’s day.
Ps: When a cheque came for final settlement , I saw the reason. The letter states – Five years no offspring … so resigning…..I have to go back……

Discourse on Bhagavat Gita

2009-03-05T19:39:00.004+04:00

Last one week i attended a discourse on Bhagavat Gita by Swami Dayananda . Well i am not basically a spirtual person. Nevertheless, i believe that one has to experience everything. I have heard about this swami and i attended more out of curiosity. After attending this, i came to know more about Bhagavat Gita and the curiosity to learn more. Unfortunately or fortunately in Hinduism , there is no complusion to read scriptures etc. But i am happy atleast i know a little bit.
What this listening has done to me...for the last two years my mind is in agitating mode..in the sense, not accepting things happenning to me and wondering why things are not going my way...
Though i know one cant do much about things not in our control, but a strong desire for the same to achieve our want at any cost, puts our mind to problem..

I am now bit mentally prepared to accept things what they are and continue to strive.hmm

some messages on the board...

Parenting..

2009-03-03T20:51:00.002+04:00

Parenting is one of the hot topic in any gathering...last week there was a programme on parenting conducted by balavikas, the arm of satya sai baba..

It is an occasion to know, well we are not alone in facing the real challenges of parenting..almost everybody faces the same problem..

I believe in giving maximum freedom to my kid, when she grows up..i always felt more freedom will bring more responsibility...
bythe way this poem by Khalil Gibran on parenting says it all...
Khalil Gibran’s poem on children :

“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.”

Just a rant

2009-02-18T18:03:00.002+04:00

I usually get the following stick from my wife....do you think you are a tata/birla....

Well i told my friend who is coming from a tour to take a red wine from duty free ( without permit i cant buy from shops..in duty free it is allowed). Cost less than US $ 20 and made in france any brand...

he bought two costing US $ 30 each....an australian wine...heartland, directors cut....he clearly didnt follow my instruction...i got the slap...poor fellow he thought he is doing good to me by buying two....

my wife says u drink wine as a medicine and not for enjoyment...true, to some extent..wine is good for the heart ..i dont exceed the daily dosage limit..hmm

plus, he got two, atleast he cud have got two different brands...

ok tell me which is best in the medium category.. is it necessary to refrigerate after opening?

Unconditional Love...

2009-02-03T16:03:00.002+04:00

We often hear this phrase " Unconditional Love "....

My doubt is , can there be unconditional love?........my arguement goes like this..if love should be unconditional , i can love everybody....if i happen to choose someone i wanted to love, it means i like something in her....can that something be termed as conditional?

so where s the question of unconditional love?

Confused..

2009-02-02T13:41:00.003+04:00

I wrote in my last piece that i will postpone purchase of mobile...well i feel i cant do that anymore..earlier i thought i will get one ipod and a good mobile...now i felt i will take a mobile only ( bec of recession) which offers good music...

my mind refuses to go beyond NOkia.. so just seeing N95, 5800 music series and other E series..well since i never intend to browse in my mobile, i feel i will leave E series...

i am generally not a techno savy..so any suggestions please..any model..good one..no criteria for price?

or still anyone feels it is a good idea to have both i pod and mobile?

Recession...

2009-01-07T12:15:00.005+04:00

Sentiments all over is bad here...Recession, Job cuts, NO increments etc etc....

If you think i am bit late in talking these...Well Gulf Countries have started to feel the pinch off late....Dubai is worse these days...someone told me that around 2000 TCs were issued last month in Dubai schools....and since Oman is lagging behind , it is expected that Oman will start to face the heat in the coming months...

Incidentally my friend who has joined recently has been asked to leave....Though job cuts in lower level jobs is directly related to business, job cuts in managerial level is worry some....When i prepared the budget for 2009 , i conveyed to the management that they have to reduce the count by 40...

When i was in India, the most affected sector was Auto, export oriented sectors like garment etc.
Software i wont say , since only the new recruitments are stopped. At least the existing jobs are bit safe...Forget Satyam...

So the surrounding is gloomy....so we have to live in a shoe string budget in the coming days...

I am generally a spendthrift...so these are my plans...

1. From yesterday started to note down the expenses...
2. My major expenses is on phone..so to cut, i have bought the pc to phone card. which is illegal na?
3. Normally i use not less than two brands of shower gel ( One def - St Ives) , one for the morning and one for the evening...may be now i will use only one and that too sparingly and use soaps normally ..hmm
4. may be i will use the razor for longer time...
5. habit of buying juice cans when shopping..that has to stop...
6. stop drinking tea from McD...
7. Postpone buying LCDs or rather resist the temptation of low prices of LCD...
8. Thinking whether to postpone replacement of my mobile..

Any advice to save further?

Well already lost Rs 6 lacs in real estate ..apart from the usual losses in stock market..stock market is not a problem...somedays u gain and you lose someday....

Some GOOD Things about these recessions....
1. It re enforces contented living...
2. Employers can now breathe..since they cant be taken for a ride by employees by constant switchover..

Since everything has its own lifespan, this will continue for say at least 1year if not 2 yrs..so we will try to hard to keep ourselves float in these times...

Happy New Year..

2008-12-27T17:06:00.003+04:00

I wish you all a fun filled 2009...

I thought i will wish bit early , since i could not wish for Christmas because of travel...

Responsibilities of Fourth Estate...

2008-12-15T17:49:00.005+04:00

Well at the end of this blog i have reproduced the article published in TOI Chennai edition on 11thDec..

I get depression on reading such articles..though this blog is not about my depression, but the responsibilities the fourth estate should have towards the society.....

i will explain my depression which will drive my second point...hmm

When i go through articles like these......the average sex partner everybody has is 3.....life is more happy when they have sex with more than one person ( i think two months back i read)....i had my first sex at 15 etc etc.....why i get depression? after reading these, i ask myself....hey is it worthwhile to have just sex with one person only....i get depression more so because i was very particular that my first sex should be only with my wife...hmm because i thought that is the sacrosanct of any marriage....even when i go to a bar in mumbai during my visits, i insist my friends we go to a bar which does not have dance...i thought that may lead to the next stage....when i visited calcutta my friends somehow tried for a temp girl friends and succeeded..i didnt try that also...hmm

Ok here i am not talking like a old man....i know times are changing....now i dont think practically any women expects her husband to be a virgin ( i can use this term na, adding i dont think men can never change..they will still expect their wife to be virgin)

My point is this survey was undertaken in UK. Many will not read the fine print London in the beginning..plus daily telegraph ..may be a kolkatta paper...so those who are reading specially youngsters will think oh this is the norm today...so nothing wrong...when a 40 year old gets depression reading these, i am sure 20s will be encouraged....some may argue what is wrong....hmm

The point is those surveys are not pertaining to India and so why publish...i feel these are published for sensationalism...some may argue are these not happening in our society..definitely yes , but only a small percentage....so reading these we tend to believe the larger population is indulging and if we are not , then we are in minority ...

I wish that these so called National papers show some responsibilities in publishing these articles.

GENDER BENDER
‘Young women have more sexual partners than men’
London: It seems that girls do get on top of their partners when it comes to sex, for a study has found that young women share bed with more people than men. Researchers found that young women are more promiscuous than men and the average 21-year-old is notching up for nine sexual partners as compared to seven in case of males. They have based their findings on a survey of 2,000 people. The poll revealed that young women are twice as likely to cheat and more than 70% have had a one-night stand, the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday. In fact, according to the survey, one in four young women has slept with more than ten people, compared with one in five men who had done the same. What’s more interesting is that the survey found that few young women today hold to traditional views on sexual morality — just 1% of young women said they would want to get married before having sex, with the majority losing their virginity at the age of 16. “Our results show that after decades of lying back and thinking of England, today’s twenty-something women are taking control of their sex lives and getting what they want in bed,” said Lisa Smosarski, the editor of More, which commissioned the survey. PTI

Tagged by A...

2008-12-13T10:08:00.003+04:00

I was tagged by A..here goes my answers...

1. The age you will be in your next birthday : 41

2. A place you’d like to travel to: Antartica...on a practical note to lot of places..caribbean island, New Zealand, Switzerland, Japan, Alaska etc etc..

3. Your Favorite place: any dhaba in ahb - mumbai highway

4. Your favorite food/drink: Roti with any dish with paneer...drink - plain water

5. Your favorite pet: Not much of a pet person...may be aquarium...

6. Your favorite color combination : Being a person afflicted with red - green syndrome, it should be black and white only na

7. Your favorite piece of clothing: it should be birthday dress only...it is bliss to me...well somewhere in my late 20s i realised mind is so free in that...when i was with my room mate, i come out of my bathroom with towel...put my underwear...remove the towel and wear my pant..after my marriage when i came out of my bathroom and removed my towel before wearing underwear..my wife said a big no..so after marriage i removed my towel only after wearing the pant..hehehe a long answer?

8. Your all time favorite song: Words are only there to take your heart away - boyszone

9. Your favorite TV show: So you think you can dance..

10. Full name of your significant other:

11. The town in which you live in: Muscat

12. Your screen name/nickname: My real name is my screen name...dont have a pet name..

13. Your first job: Not worth it

14. Your Dream Job : To be a MD of a big company

15: Bad Habit you have: to me i dont have any....may be my wife may give a long list...not putting the cup in the sink, spilling while eating in sofa, scratching the head, not listening to others when they talk, etc etc

16. Your worst fear:Fear of Death

17. The one thing you’ll like to do before you die: i prefer to skip this question ..hmm

18. The first thing you’ll buy if you get $1,000,000: When i see all this lottery, i always thought riding a bicycle bought is our own earnings gives more pleasure than driving a car with any money which comes easily....hmm to be more realistic, i wish you give me the money and see for yourself what i buy..heheheeh

Do non living things have a gender?

2008-12-10T08:02:00.003+04:00

This is a blog stolen when i was at yahoo360..reproducing the same..dont know who was the originator...since it is good, i thought will share here also for people who havent come across this piece yet...

Do non-living things have a gender ? If so what it can be , a few guesses?
1) Ziploc Bags are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
2) Copiers are Female, because once turned off; it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
3) A Tire is Male, because it goes bald and it's often over-inflated.
4) A Hot Air Balloon is Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it, and of course, there's the hot air part.
5) Sponges are Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
6) A Web Page is Female because it's always getting hit on.
7) A Subway is Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
8) An Hour glass is Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.
9) A Hammer is Male, because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.
10) A Remote Control is Female. Ha! You thought it'd be male, didn't you? But consider this,-it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying!

EID MUBARAK

2008-12-09T09:00:00.001+04:00

EID MUBARAK for all those who are celebrating EID today.....

Bashing of Politicians

2008-12-04T12:25:00.003+04:00

After the recent blasts, most of us bashed politicians...my point is are we better in anyway from them...they are not somebody who has fallen from the sky..these people are the same who came from the same society we also have comeup...

i wrote this in yahoo360 last year..reproduced below with some additions...

One of our major pastimes is bashing of politicians. I never do that, because i used to ponder , are we anyway different from him?
We always try to manipulate the system anywhere we go....
In my first job....... you are eligible II A/c fare during tours..... what we do..... we buy the ticket , take a xerox .. Claim the amount.....cancel the ticket , buy a second calss ticket and pocket the rest... oh the whole office knows...it is not illegal... these are small perks...
Similiarly for foreign tours employees are eligible for a particular amount per day towards travel expenses.. but all of them will give an undertaking that the entire amount has been spent..
Leave Travel amount... how many really go.... bogus bills.....
Medical reimbursement.... in my company , everybody made it a point that a particular amount has to be claimed as reimbursement.. doctors are there to give you false prescription for a cut.. medical stores are there to give a bill against which you can buy health drinks, toothpastes etc. now i know why these mdeical stores sell things which are not connected to medicine...
My ex company boss who is so great does not lock his phone when he is out of the office.. since at that time only manual exchange was there, no call details are available.. so when he is not there , everyone can imagine what would happen...
Officially as a policy we may prohibit employees taking bribes... but that does not prevent us from paying bribes to get the job.......Oh we are accountants and we know how to account and how to pay all these bribes.....
Similarly we have to try to plug the loopholes in law and save money for the company at the cost of the exchequer money.......in my short stinct at one company , i went to the sales tax office and paid 2lacs very coolly and saved 22 lacs for the company.. and who is the loser the govt ....
The CVs that software companies receive....how many of them genuine......
The next big threat corporates face are the internal scandals......

how many purchase officers one can show who dont get money? my friend got a wireless net connection and to save money he shares with his neighbour...
Like this one can add a lot many things...
The thing is we are all the same....... if somebody is very pure......well he has not got the opportunity to do, either for himself or for his company.....( talking about the majority here..)

so what is the solution..we all have to change for the better ....hmm..

Death

2008-11-29T07:51:00.004+04:00

After we come across or experience anything, we think we should write a blog on that.

One such experience i had in my flight when i was coming to chennai. But when i heard what happened at mumbai, my experience was minuscule when compared to what people in Taj, Trident and other similar places.

Though we say that death is certain..we never want that to happen...coming to my experience - chennai had severe downpour of rains...so when the flight was landing i could sense that the flight was swirling left to right..when the flight was inches down to land , it almost touched the earth and tookoff in a second...i dont know what would have happened had we landed.....the second attempt was also similar....then i was wondering why they are not diverting the flight to bangalore etc...is the fault in the aircraft? ..all thoughts went around...for the next one hour ..i was thinking this was the final moments....i was thinking is it really worthwhile to live for the future..savings money for old age.....leaving the present...oh i did not pay my premium on time ..etc etc...plus the chanting of GOD names...

finally the weather was ok, and the flight landed safely after an hour or so....you could hear a loud cheer and clap of hands from all the passengers...

Well the people caught in mumbai episode would have had harrowing experience....to die in such sudden way..i dont have any words to describe....

May be i take this experience to face life in a better way..rather than dwelling the mind on petty thoughts day in and day out..hmm the problem is after sometime..we are back to our daily routine..

at the end of the day we all have to count our blessings...

May the soul rest in peace of all those who died in mumbai episode...

Embarrassing / Funny Moments

2008-11-25T18:52:00.005+04:00

I will not be coming regularly for blogging for the next one month....

So i thought i will try to make you ( readers) laugh if possible.....enjoy...

Ha i saw some blogs on embarrassing moments underwent in my friends blog and some other blogs. May be i thought i will share mine too.

Well i think there are lot and lots in my case.. only thing is that i dont remember most of them. To me they are more funny then embarrassing. well everyone goes thruit isnt it?
First the embarrassing moment which took place last december i think. Well on Vaikunda Ekadasi ( Vaishnavite festival equivalent to siva rathri ) early morning there is a ritual to see sorga vasal. You see the GOD first when the doors are opened. Frankly i am not a very religious person. I have never visited fearing crowd... Fortunately when i went to the temple the previous day, i saw in the notice board the progamme for Vaikunda ekadasi like recitation of Vishnu Sahasranamam etc starting from Six o clock. So i told my wife we will go to the temple in the early morning and and see the GOD may be like sorga vasal. My wife reluctantly agreed. Since it is a matter of GOD she didnt refuse. So the next day early morning got up at 4.30 putthe geiser and woke my family including my daughter and made her also to bath in that cold. temp is around 9-10 deg. Wife wasin silk saree and daughter in pattu pavadai and we entered the temple at 5.50am. There was no sign of any activity.......... when i went to the notice board , i realised it was 6.00 PM and not 6 am? Then i had to listen , have u done anythingin life correctly?
well here are some where i was only involved , so it can be termed as funny moments.

When i was young may be say 9 yrs, my cricket club conducted a dinner party at a hotel. I am not sure i have been to hotel before. After the dinner i was the last to leave. I was proud after coming out , since i thought i did a very responsible act. I gave the money to captain and said, captain you have left the money in the saucer itself....... thank god i noticed it.. take it... then he explained the concept of tips...

Again in a restaraunt when i was a adult may be 22? i went to a posh restaraunt when i went to outstation for audit... There after the dinner the waiter brought the finger bowl ( whichi came to know later) . i thought i never ordered why he brought? anyway why to return back , may be it is good for digestion. so i drank thinking may be it is a lemon juice? hahahahha...

Again in a restaraunt... this time at TGIF Delhi the menu was so greek and latin to me, that i ordered by showing the item...........

Well my Hindi was a laughing stock when i speak especially in a gettogether i thoroughly enjoy those moments. After Marriage however it improved little bit. In a dumb Charade, iw as given the word Gareeb... i acted as a beggar thinking it was kareeb. Still i am not sure did i mention the proper words? i acted as a beggar when the word was near. mm

When i visited my uncle place in ahmedabad , i saw a shop where it was written HOT DOG. when the asian games were held in seoul i read that the fav dish was dog. i remembered that and asked my cousin , are there lot of koreans here? she said no? then i asked why Hot dogs are sold here?

Like these there are many............

An ounce of me

2008-11-25T18:41:00.003+04:00

A - Age & Ambition : Completed 40 and to retire by 55 and travel nook and corner of the world. GOD WILLING...
B - Band listening to right now: not a band…. Only Hindi and Tamil Songs
C-Career in future: Traveller
D – Day you will not forget : The day I first saw my daughter
E - Easiest person to talk to: Myself
F - Favorite song at the moment: Ovaru pookalamu solkerathe… From the Film Autograph.
Hame Thumse pyar kithuna....Last Christmas i gave you my heart..
G - Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms: I didn’t understand this?
H - Hometown: Chennai, India.
I - Instruments: Like to listen and not interested to learn
J - Job: Finance Professional
K - Kids: One , trying for the second for the last one year.
L - Longest car ride ever: looking forward to real long drive. At present just Muscat to Dubai May be 400 kms
M – Max speed driven in car / four wheel drive : 150/170
N - Number of siblings: Two
O - One wish: All of us speak in one language.
P - Phobia[s]: getting stuck in a elevator
Q - Favorite Quote: "This too will pass”
R - Reason(s) to smile: My family, friends etc etc
S - Song you sang last: Hame thumse pyar kithuna…
T - Time you get up: 6.30 am and on week end 7.30 to 8.00 am. Stopped sleeping till 10 am after the Gujarat earthquake.
U - Unknown fact about me: Short temper
V - Vegetable you hate: Nothing
W - Worst habit: there are many..
X - X-rays you've had: Chest.
Y- Yummy food: Idli and sambhar, Chapathi and dhall
Z - Zodiac sign: Aries

MASSAGE

2008-11-25T09:39:00.020+04:00

I was feeling dizzy when i got up from bed..may be its time for me to get a massage...

After coming to muscat the curiosity for experiencing massage increased after seeing lot of advts from Resort and spa's....When i came to know that my bosses and owner of the company ( local) regularly ( they can afford) get massage my interest to experience increased all the more. I was skeptical of the oil being used in massage. So that was a deterrent for me to go in for a massage.

Thankfully for my birthday , my wife gave a gift voucher for a massage from a leading spa. Because of my hesitation i almost waited till the last week of expiry of the gift voucher. When i called for an appointment, made sure no oil is used. Came to know that in Thai massage no oil is used.

So finally i was there for a massage. The lady told, you try little bit of oil. Somehow i said yes. It was a mixture of Thai and Swedish massage for one hour. Oh GOD it was painful for the first 15 minutes. Kneading the entire body...it requires lot of strength to do it...If someone thinks it is a soft touch, forget it...the whole session i was wondering why people undergo massage...once i turn back and saw her standing on me..oh GOD...I didnt dose off...now and then i was asking her from where she was ( from bangkok) ..how she learned massage..wanted to ensure she learned from a leading institute ..hehehehe...she said she is more into therapy and her sister specialises in relaxation..may be next time...

It was a good one hour of Thai massage...as i said i was feeling the pain....

My wife asked, how it was..i told her..for one hour she was all over me.....( well her friends were surprised how she gave a gift voucher like that....) Infact i was bit hesitant to go because even i dont allow my wife to touch some part of my body because of the tickling sensation ....i was wondering how i will manage the masseur touching..it so happened , i didnt feel anything..During the session i was just like a wood...well sex is in the mind than in the loins na..( did Gandhiji tell this?)

After three days of massage i felt very refreshing...I used to feel that my scalp is not getting proper blood circulation and so was feeling headache...I dont know was it a coincident..but after massage , it all went..i though i will make it a regular routine .say every month....my wife told you go to Sri Sri Ayurveda...because the masseur is male ( her friends have corrupted her mind)

i said ok i will try....two months back when i went to sharjah, i took a massage from where i stayed..it was good as usual..it was yoni yoni massage something...again my usual query..where from and how she learned..she is an Indonesian..it seems it is a family tradition..it was passed on from generation to generation....

It is a long time after that i didnt go for a massage...well i am off to India for a month long vacation....may be after i return i should ...i came to know that there is a himalayan stone massage for two hours..may be i should try that....let me see....saw VLCC advt also...aroma, blah blah etc..not particularly impressed with VLCC some how...

Lets see..

Those who read this..will urge them to try it out once .....

Eight random facts / habits

2008-11-24T15:21:00.003+04:00

Well certainly i am not sure i have the seven habits which Stephen Covey has stated. any way my list goes like this.

1. I have Red-Green Syndrome. Which means i can easily distinguish colours between blue, yellow and Red. If you ask me to identify which is blue and which is pink mm, i am not sure i wil be able to do that 100 %. I made it a point to convey this to my prospective bride. I did infact except the one who became my wife. Till today i could nt figure out how did i miss to convey. My wife always says, had i told this , she would not have married me 100%. Since the chance of colour blind if i had a son is almost 100% and in case of daughter then to her kids . All because of X & Y combinations.....

2. Fear of closed spaces especially lift. i always take the stairs when i come down even if itis a 6th floor. I pray even by any chance if i get stuck, i wish i have a good company... Similiarly fear of death comes and goes.. this is hindering me to learn swimming. i will still try to learn swimming.. let me see...

3. I always dream. I will be a good example - to convey it is not enough if u just dream and dreams without action is of no use. I always dreamt of appearing in the cover page of Business India. That is a distant dream now. May be atleast if i live here for a few more years , may be atleast in gulf business magazine. Insha allah.

4. Though at heart i like variety, but i stick to a particular thing / habit for long. Example i ate conflex for breakfast for almost 320 days in a year. If i go for a tour say for one month ( which i used to go long ago) i would eat in the same hotel for almost 25 days.

5. I tend to keep a serious face and people always have a opinion that i am very reserved.

6. I did love a girl and convey my thoughts, but she rejected.

7. At the age of 16-17 only i came to know how kids are conceived.Till that time i thought a severe hugging will make a women to conceive. hahhahahahhahah... My wife asked me , what u did in ur science class. i said may be i didnt go on that day and left that portion to study . hehhehehe..

8. Well i write one more, because i eight is my lucky number. 8 is ocnsidered to be unlucky in our place. even the Govt does not issue a plate number for vehicles totalling to eight since nobody likes. I did change my name slightly for numerological reason.

Caught between friends and wrong.....

2008-11-19T11:05:00.004+04:00

When i was going thru a comment section in I think that I think - so, I think that I am blog about experience in train between surat and ahd, i was reminded of my blog. so i am just copying and pasting..

Many times when you are with group of friends you may have to be part of an activity which is wrong....but you are forced to be a silent spectator.....i generally hate to be in such situations, but one cant really avoid.....sometimes i used to wonder am i too soft ? or not that bold to manipulate things in our favours..

What i refer here as wrong is petty things which are commonly done in our day to day activities...not the big ones..

Recently on a thursday ( holiday ) i had to go to the bank..so i requested my colleague to come with me so that he can be in the car with my daughter , while i finish my job.....when we went there , seeing the shade inreserved parking, he wanted to park the car...i said no yaar, we will park in open parking....he said no why to be under hot sun , i am there na..if somebody comes i will take the car out...No sooner i parked the car , security guy rushed in etc etc......generally want to avoid such things and here i am forced to listen to whatever the security fellow hurled at us ,because of my colleagues insistence......mm then i told him, but for people like us, you will not be required for this job na..hhehehehehehehe...

First of all why to be in that place.....i generally dont like people questioning me .....which means you should always be on the right side....Well last year when i went to book the tickets for dolphin watching came to know it was $ 40 for adults and $ 20 for kids below 5. my daughter was 4yrs and11 months..since she is taller i thought the boat agent may think i have lied...so i took a adult ticket for her also ....just to avoid any questioning.....Oh it is another matter the questioning one faces with out better halves....i cant really avoid that, whatever we do we are questioned na....she immediately told, see how many big kids will come with half ticket....mm they are always right..i found much bigger kids with half tickets....

Which brings me back to the question..sometimes we need to have thick skins atelast to do some small wrongs?

i remember these incidents...when i was working in bharuch ( between surat and baroda) along with our friends we will go to baroda during weekends....by the time we reach the station from office it will be 6 pm and karnavati express will come at around 6.15.. so if we stand in the queue to buy tickets we cant catch..if we stand in queue then we can go in passenger train....oh my friends will say, chaal yaar...kuch thenga agar ticket collector aya tho .....well the whole journey my heart beat will be over 100...mm...moreover when we get caught in such situations, they used to handle those situations well and come out by giving less bribe.... thats where i feel hey one should be bold enough to do all these things ....

well i can narrate many such incidents like these.....Do you have any?

Feminism

2008-11-15T14:43:00.007+04:00

I was tagged by Indian Home Maker on Feminism. I am not sure, i am qualified to talk on this...

Feminism - Feminism is defined as the belief of the political, social, and economic equality of women.

I am for one who believe in equality of mankind....i am pissed when i see people act superior because of the qualification, wealth they possess...I address the tea boy also ..aapp ..So it goes without saying it includes equality of gender. I have never thought women to be one step lesser mortal than us...If i see somebody who thinks low of women , i will send them to labour room to spend an hour or so..( if i continue it may look like a movie dialogue)

Coming to your next question...do young mothers should work? It is their individual choice..but what i could not digest was, people with professional qualification could not pursue their interest..

In this connection i am just copying ..paste my earlier blog from yahoo360.....i got lot of bricks as comment..i took positive...i agree it is your choice.... ( i will try to write something new on this later) Cooling their heels- i got lot of flaks for usage of this phrase..pl dont take literally..what i meant was not using their qualification....

Is Marriage a hindrance for career women?

In one of my blogs earlier, I have stated does marriage a stumbling block in women career..

I really get irritated when talented people sit at home cooling their heals..

Here I am going to take the life of people whom I have seen / heard….. I intend to take the life of my wife.. what more better example I will get na

I have always preferred marrying a person who was career oriented. That career not essentially money making one…. I have found in my experience that many bright people lost their way in marriage…..The common headlines I saw during my days were.. girls shine over the boys when it comes to 10 th std or 12 std results…. But afterwards if u see the entry in higher education those nos dropped….

My first decent job was at a industrial town….It is a cool job and the reputation is 90 % of those who enter don’t leave. But times were changing with lot of opportunities around. So the decision to marry a career oriented girl, when I was working at a small town was a hindrance. Since I was also looking for a change.. I used to mention in my profile, willing to change to a city.mm
In the same city I could have married a finance professional, since it was an industrial town. The first girl I saw was a ICWA… mm she rejected for whatever reason…The second girl I saw I married. She was a professional and wanted to do post graduation. She was highly talented, so I had a doubt..will she be really interested to marry.. so I called her before I went .. look ur profession on paper equals my profession, but instead of telling ur academic record is good, I put that my academic record is not that great.( later I realised that this fact didn’t register in her mind.hahhaa) She said ok. So I went , saw discussed… Main point of discussion other than normal things were.. yes I will support ur career and I will change the place where u get ur PG seat.

I came to know after marriage, whoever she met earlier were all insisting for a part time job… a job which will not affect the family. I was the first one to openly say that I will support .. mm Moreover she was afraid that she will end up marrying a short guy… I was tall and that made her happy. Why these women have craze for taller people.. is tom cruise a exception.. I am 177cms tall ,mm

After marriage I told her, hey u are so intelligent but u made one big mistake is to marry me… She will retaliate saying yes u also made the same mistake in marrying a girl who cannot look after u all the time…

The first sacrifice a girl forces to make is to find a groom who is adjustable in terms of allowing her to excel, place of work etc etc. Then the timing of marriage. If my wife was a boy he would have studied for some more time before marriage. All parents get jittery if their daughter crossed 24 and remain single?

After marriage she gave the exams and got a seat at chennai. When she called after counseling and mentioned the area of subject she got. It was not her preference.. I asked her to reject and write the next time. In competitive exams ½ marks mean a lot and with high reservations she does not want to take a chance. I was not happy in the sense, all the professors in her graduation mentioned that u have got a gifted hands…. Please take a subject in PG where she can use her hands… In fact all her friends mentioned the same thing. There she is forced to choose a area where the use of hands is less.

When I asked her why she took, the answer was….. I can take care my family… no emergency , no night shifts… I was sad that she didn’t choose a subject of her choice.
I could till date could not accept this fact … her talent not utilised …..
The next sacrifice is compromise your liking to a particular field…
Then I changed my job to the place of study and now we are here…

I can cite the example of my friends.. My colleague at my previous job married ( love marriage) .

His wife also a finance professional. Till date she is cooling her legs at home. Recently I wrote a letter hey ur son is now 6yrs and at least now I think she should take up a job. No reply…. I am not saying here that raising a family is no mean a big responsibility… I thought was why waste when u have done a big course…

There my another friend who struggled to finish the course and after her completion , now cooling her legs in another country…

Lot more are there.. similarly some are fortunate that after the kids grow up , they take their passion. This is possible in some areas like teaching etc.. not in every field…….

Taking my wife example again, if it was a man, he will spend time out of office for preparation of seminar, presenting papers etc.. whereas now she spends time for cooking.

Well we all know women s first priority is Family. When my daughter wakes up on Friday says, mom I miss u on thurdays. This appa is boring ma…When she hears that she wants to resign and spend the time with daughter… m what to do 9yrs of hard study will go waste…..

When I read from a lady in agony column saying that she is married for 20 yrs with two grown up kids… now her husband wants to leave her.. she asks is this the price she is getting for taking care of the family for 20 yrs? Sad to hear..

This is a subject where one can write 1000 pages of thesis….

I will conclude , yes .. marriage is a hindrance for excellence in career ( have realised from my own exp) but can be overcome by a good support system. The big question here is how many have them?

PS: well I am a big MCP, I don’t help in household chores. One thing I do is to fill the water bottle for my daughter and another if I can put it don’t insist on south Indian breakfast..idli dosa etc.. I always have ready made western breakfast, bread/conflex/oats, which i like more than idli. dosa...

Please note that I have spoken for women who are in career. I very well know that raising a family is a much bigger responsibility which u all homemakers are doing.

Charles Birthday today..

2008-11-14T12:54:00.001+04:00

I came to know that today is Prince Charles birthday..i wrote this blog in yahoo360 on Diana's death anniversary last year...reproducing below..

We all know Diana's 10th death anniversary is on Aug 31st. Well the first thing it comes to my mind when i read about anything on Diana is Charles ...In what way? i really dont like people who are like charles.... The whole world knew he was having a affair with camilla when he married Diana...then why did he marry Diana instead of Camilla? Loss of image? If so why he married later? These are the people who want the cake and eat it too...mm i feel angry about them when they dont show courage to accept openly their love...

Similarly there are others also...may be not exact...Our own AB...when everybody knows he was having an affair with an actress, why not accept it ? though one can argue it is a personal matter....i feel these are the people with no guts...and we all adore them....

ps: why i stopped in yahoo360...it was blocked here for sometime...after it was unblocked , the site is no more user friendly , most of them have migrated to other site or in parallel..but of all the blog sites, i like yahoo360..

NAIVE WOMAN

2008-11-13T19:46:00.000+04:00

This blog is about a particular question raised by a woman in agony aunt column in this fortnight issue of Women's Era.

I never miss an opportunity to read women's magazine when i get a chance. Started reading at a young age mainly to understand women's psychology. Well after marriage i realised that one can never understand them..hmm..more so so long PMS is there..( and this is permanent ..either it should be pre mens or post meno) ..hmm

coming to the point, i always wonder whether these questions appearing in agony aunt column are real..it is so juicy , somehow i felt it is the creation of the magazine. One such question i came across from a divorcee...she states she is separated from her husband and living alone..fell in love with a colleague brother...he promised to marry but they married secretly without public knowledge..they continued to have physical relationship etc...now this guy tells that his parents has seen a girl and he is planning to marry and he has proposes to the querist that they can continue the relations clandestinely.

GOSH...i wonder whether this woman is so naive....do we need a rocket science to know this persons intentions...well i come across regularly these kinds of queries in these magazines.....oh woman look for a man who is bold and true in his relations with you...

Looking back in college i used to hear this dialogue very frequently..hey if you need to pick a girl ( to put it decently - a girl friend) you need to wear nice shoes with jeans most importantly with a two wheeler....hmm does wealth attracts women?

well i am for one who likes stronger ( not in weight ) and bold women..i browsed this book in the book store..why men marry bitches...when i read some pages..it is written men like stronger women etc etc..i wish there are many out there...

ps: when i talk about bold men..i hate AB , prince charles for one reason...i had blogged about this in yahoo360..will copy paste later...