Oh Brother

There's this species called brother. 

Someone who is "always there". 

(Of course to get him on the phone sometimes is a task ,because  he's already always on his office phone!)

I've come to realize over the years that the relationship I've shared with my brother is taken for granted...  by me. 

I got to ride his new motorbike.... And got just a stare when I fell off it and pushed it back home. 

Allowing me to try my skills at hair styling on him with a haircut that ended up like a crew cut gone wrong.

Letting me mess up a tee shirt by scribbling on it with paint and then gifting it to him .... Expecting him to wear it. Which of course he did. 

Happiness is when years later, I realize he still has the tee shirt.

Taking me to a movie that I wanted to watch sacrificing his evening out at the chaupati with his friends. 

Being a rather shy and arrogant kid growing up, looking back, it helped me speak to people ,whether it was taking me out with his friends ( only at times) when they went out to eat countless plates of chaat followed by ice cream. 

When I thought I was grown up, I've called him and cried over what I considered was financial troubles. 

Or what I thought was my decision to get married!

Or about the job interview I attended. 

There's never been a time when he seems less interested in what I am saying. 

Even at times when I advise him!

....Or at least I think so. 

If you get him on the phone, first thing he wants to know is "all okay?"

If you ask him to taste a piece of cake you baked it's "all fine". 

Guess the patience and tolerance is built in over years of leading "the pack". A pack we fondly call "4 piece cake club"!

Picture this / January 2016

Gift yourself happiness daily.
Let there be light.

Next New dozen 2016

Reminders for every day.

Looking forward to each day.

• More new movies, some for laughs and some laughable!
• Make resolutions to be broken and bent
• make resolutions to keep , and be proud of
• Spring forward towards summer in a few months.
• Cozy up for the next few winter weeks
• Be happy for the saplings that will eagerly surface
• Enjoy hot chocolate looking forward to summer nights
• Another 12 months of sky gazing 
• Strength for every day, friends for all seasons.
• People with same wavelength , Otherwise patience to respect the difference in options
• More travel plans, more time to implement, better finances to indulge
• More books to read 
• More cuisines to try
• More places to explore
• More reasons to believe
• More power to overcome fears
• More baking
• More patience to be respectful
• Lesser triggers of anger

 Celebrate every day in the next  dozen of months 

Picture this / December 2015

Wiki says ...

"Weather is a chaotic system that is readily modified by small changes to the environment.." 

Is weather more chaotic than the human mind?

It's about time

Time stands still. Yet waits for no one.

Time is the only healer. Yet there are times you wished some moments never happened. 

Memories of time to cherish clouded by moments that choke you. 

Time can not heal all.  Time can only crowd the memory.  

Manusharellarum onnupole

Onam, is the state festival of Kerala, a southern Indian state.

The story goes that Vamana (a disguised Lord Vishnu) visited the king and asked for land as much as three paces of his feet. Granted the wish, Vishnu/Vamana grows in size to conquer the Heaven in one footstep and Earth in another.
Mahabali, true to his word, then offers himself for Vamana to step on as the third footstep.
Thus, King Mahabali is sent down to the heaven like "Underworld".

The festival celebrates the visit of the Asura King Mahabali's visit to his kingdom and people.One of the festivals, that has survived the modern times, the song often sung during Onam still holds good for any well governed state:
"Maveli nadu vaneedum kalam,
manusharellarum onnupole"

Meaning
"When Maveli ruled the land,
All the people were equal."


Quick lowdown on the names of the 10 days of Onam, that my aunt refuses to believe that I am even aware of.... being a non resident Keralite !

Day 1 ATHAM
Day 2 CHITHIRA
Day 3 CHODHI
Day 4 VISHAKAM
Day 5 ANIZHAM
Day 6 THRIKETA
Day 7 MOOLAM
Day 8 POORADAM
Day 9 UTHRADAM
Day 10 THIRUVONAM

The hangover day after Thiruvonam is called Avittom, marks the preparations for King Mahabali's ascension to heavens.




Moral  - The good get downtrodden and are few & far in between. But remembered nevertheless !

HAPPY ONAM

Courtesy - The WWW.

Picture this / March-April 2015

"In the practise of tolerance, ones enemy is the best teacher."          - Dalai Lama

 "Tolerance is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength."           - Dalai Lama

Ham and Her

Him : Whiskey ,Nine , Whiskey, Kilo , Over
Her: (....Silence...) Dinner is ready da. Lets eat.
Imagining the white ambassador car speeding away, and the policeman speaking into his walkie talkie " White ambassador, Registration TN5479, on the Ham Highway. BEEF up the security"

Imagination courtesy : Movies (Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi movies)

Her: HAM as much as you like "BEEF"-fore it gets banned.
Him: Zulu, India....
Her: The Zulu tribe is a very ancient one Honey. We Indians are way ahead.
Her: Progressive in our thinking , liberated....
Him : Bravo , Juliet, India....
Her: Ya, Brave men and women...Some men more brave than required. But we will have security "BEEF"ed up for the safety of women. Now that no ones watching the documentary that will incite violence. There is only goodness in the media.
The nation doesn't want to know. We are blinded by the India shining on our faces.
Him: OVER and OUT

No right No wrong

Borrowing a few lines of lyrics from the very famous Frozen song "Let It go" for the current events in India:


As the leader has cries of "Make in India", the Aero show has a good display across the skies in Namma Bengaluru:
"
I am one with the wind and sky
.........
"
While the other "gripping" issue being roasted before the summer sets in, the makers of AIB thinking:
"I don't care
what they're going to say
Let it go , Let it go....
"

The women, on realising that nothing much is being done towards women safety or empowerment say : "Let it go.."
The criminals who know they can break or not even bother about the consequences say : "Let it go.."
The politicians who wait for the next vote bank gathering speeches, treating such issues as trivial say : "Let it go.."


The fervour the government to slash electricity bills for Delhi cannot supersede the safety of the citizens.
The CCTV cameras that refused to set up towards a safer city, only needed a very famous visit to come up overnight and watch over the city.
How a woman has uncertain fears during every day of a normal life. How nice if these lines are true:
" It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me,
I'm free!
"

Experiments with Truth

Truth about truth


If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

--Mark Twain

The truth needs so little rehearsal.

--Barbara Kingsolver

Medical profession and care

Sitting in front of the ICU , waiting for continuous news on my father's condition which was fluctuating over the past two days I noticed a sudden rush of activity around.

Activity with noise, cries and many voices and more footsteps.I went in till the entrance door of the ICU and inquired with a bystander on the cause of the chaos.

Was told that some members of the family of the hospitals Managing Director had met with an accident. 

I totally sympathize and understand what the family would go through.Just that this medical "care" is missing while treating all patients alike.

When normally a medical lab technician task takes time, here within no time most of the departments were in attendance. Saw the X-Ray department people, "ayammas", admin,pharmacy, off-duty and on-duty nurses....The entire staff to summarise was in attendance.

The fervour and concern that was displayed by the staff was something that I noticed totally missing through all these days of my waiting in wards and in front of the ICU. 

Why aren't all patients treated with half this sensitivity and concern?

Aren't all the others too loved ones of someone or the other?

The only hope I saw was in the form of a couple of male nurses who came out and spoke to the other patients family outside. They were true angels of care who make us want to keep the faith.

My double star

In observational astronomy, a double star is a pair of stars that appear close to each other in the sky as seen from Earth when viewed through an optical telescope.

This can happen either because the pair forms a binary star, i.e., gravitationally bound to each other in a mutual orbit , or because it is an optical double, a chance alignment of two stars in the sky that lie at different distances.

The weekend viewing of a double star was for me more surreal and less scientific.
It gave me a feeling of the two most important people of my life watching over me. The two I owe my life to , literally also... 

Here's a picture of a double star Albireo that I got after a search on www.  This was the double star that I chanced upon in the clear night sky through the telescope at the observatory.

The “head” of the constellation Cygnus, the Swan, Albireo is a beautiful stellar pair, notable because it shows a striking amount of color — one star glows with a deep, yellow hue, while the other appears as a brilliant blue.  

Courtesy: www images

Listen here

Came across this quote that rings so true:

Gift

The race called "Parent":

With the strength of the mountain, warmth of the summer sun, calm of the quiet sea, generous as nature, they teach us


Patience
    Trust
        Time
            Love
                Pride
                    Joy

 

Metamorphosis

Wondering aloud. ....
Do people change? Or situations change? Or just time ? All or none?

Children, I've heard , have the undistorted understanding of things. What you see is what you get.  As we grow older, with various influences directly or indirectly,  there is a change. Analysis and situation and context is added to the simple thought.

With time , the thoughts and influences change and so does the pattern of life.
Difference of preferences are obvious between two persons 
This can b attributed to their personalities which again maybe influenced by their situations and surrounding and so on.
 

How about differences in preferences for the same person over a period of time? Also notable. Especially in cases where we hear

-" you used to like mango as a child , now what happened?"

- " you enjoyed rock music in school, now your stuck with jazz?"

-"before marriage you used to call me every hour, now you don't even have time to answer my calls":-/
 

And to all the above , the common factor is " look how you have changed". Sometimes change cannot be attributed to the one person who is supposed to have changed. It might be a combination of reasons :
Situations, priorities, context - these change with time and mostly as ones life progresses.


Still wondering aloud. ....
Do people change? Or situations change? Or just time ? All or none?

Picture this / July 2014

Celebrating Germany's victory in football, this month's pictures are from Berlin.

Here's the splendour of the Brandenburg Gate against the night sky:

One of the many other landmarks  in Berlin also include the Sony Center.

 

The Sony Center is  JAHN designed Sony sponsored building complex located at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany. It opened in 2000 and houses Sony's European headquarters.

This area, originally part of the No mans land of the Berlin wall, became the focus of attention after the fall of the Berlin wall.

 

Sony Center

Enormous dome structure of the Sony center

 

 

 

 

Eat Pray Eat

The caption for the post doesn't have a typo. It's intended "eat" second time and in that order.

In the places of worship, distribution of food is usually done regularly. Sometimes as customary and mostly commercial to "cater" to the visitors needs.

Different regions all over the world are becoming home away from home for Indians.
Needless to say,  places of worship such as temples are cropping up in many such places and becoming a common meeting and greeting place for families, neighbors, colleagues and friends.
So a quick talk over dosa and coffee or lunch of pulav and raitha would be perfect. What better place than a few feet away from the altar.
Not surprisingly,   the food court is usually as crowded as the area near the altar!

If on a weekend, one ends up little late and just at the closing time of the foodie's altar, then the almighty would understand that the devote is in fact in a puja right now...the "pet Puja".

:)

Bon Apetit

Glossary 
 "Pet" : Hindi word meaning Stomach
 "Puja" : Meaning prayer
 "Raitha" : Salad with cucumber as an accompaniment for pulav.


Image courtesy : www

   

Be Here Now

Live life today...Not yesterday , Not tomorrow.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life 

  - Charles Dickens

Picture This /June 2014

MURAL

Any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. 

Mural at Pontiac, Illinois

Mural at Quebec, Montreal

A distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.

There are many different styles and techniques. Best-known is probably fresco, the technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid lime plaster. This technique uses water soluble paints and the word  is derived from the Italian Adjective fresco meaning “fresh”.

In contrast to Fresco is a secco wall painting which is done on dry plaster (secco is "dry" in Italian).

Tempera painting is one of the oldest known methods in mural painting. In tempera, the pigments are bound in an albuminous medium such as egg yolk or egg white diluted in water.

Marouflage wall paintings are painted on large canvases, which are then attached to the wall.

Information collated from  : Wikipedia

Picture this : May 2014

Reef knot aka square knot, is a well known knots among scouts.

I came across this interesting display at the Comlara Park situated in Illinois.

 To support this picture I wanted to share, I took help of Wiki and found some interesting stuff about this simple "Knot". 

A reef knot is formed by tying a left-handed overhand knot and then a right-handed overhand knot, or vice versa. A common mnemonic for this procedure is "right over left; left over right", which is often appended with the rhyming suffix "... makes a knot both tidy and tight".

 The reef knot is at least between 4,000 and 9,000 years old.

 The name "reef knot"   originates from its common use to reef sails, that is to tie part of the sail down to decrease its effective surface area in strong winds.

Other uses of this simple knot can be traced to medicine in tying bandages.....known to the ancient Greeks as Hercules knot.

Used since ancient times to tie belts and sashes, a modern use in this manner includes tying the obi (or belt) of a martial arts keikogi.

A note of caution however that it is an insecure knot, unstable when jiggled, and is not suitable for supporting weight.