Mundane Musings

Last week the news channels in India were agog with the news of Sachin Tendulkar moving into a new home. Apparently it cost him 39 crores in Indian rupees to buy it and almost as much in renovating it. So we are talking about a Rs 75 crore plus home! Well he is my favorite player , but all the same 75 crores for a house was a bit too much for me to digest. I mean 5 crores , 6 crores is also normal but 75? Is it really required? And what would be the yearly cost of maintaining all that? The Indian media is slowly going the British and the American way. All those guys ever used to talk about were the boooorrrring Beckhams. Hopefully they will not get into Sachin and Anjali's hairstyle and clothes!!!!Already they are behind Sakshi Dhoni's style of dressing. God alone knows what's next. Its like people dont care about meaningful news anymore. One of my favorite channels on TV is a German channel called DW TV. The programs are divided such that one hour in German is followed...

Since its introduction in the year 1994 this has been a memorable train journey for me. I am talking about this short train journey between Trichur and Guruvayur in Kerala, India. This is a journey that I undertake almost every year without exception Its 35 to 40 mins of pure lush greenery. Right after starting from the Gurvayur Station and the train moves a bit, we see the level cross from where we pray for one last time looking towards the East Nada of the Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple(of course we cant really see the temple from the level cross but still we try to crane our necks as if we can). But thereafter the greenery along the route transports you to your own imaginary world and then you forget all your worries and problems till you reach your destination. Of course thereafter in my case I have to catch a train to Chennai and then a flight to Dubai. But for that half an hour you dont think about city life or work or anything and just try to store these images somewhere in...

We spend a good portion of our life working and it's important to make sure that what we do is meaningful and fufilling. Regardless of your current job, take time to mull over whether what you're doing is what you want to be doing. If not, consider how to take another career path. You never know where you might end up! The above paragraph and umpteen other articles that I have read in books and internet articles have not helped my career much. I am still back to square one. I was a not-so-bad computer science engineer. Although I hated the job I was still respected in a society which churns out God knows how many software engineers every year. But I am still lacking one important factor essential to every person's career i.e LUCK. I know I have mentioned this before, but seriously I need this factor more than anything else now.This must be something running in my family. I mean my dad worked under a boss for more than 20 years. My dad had been a qualified chartered ...

My Annual Vacations are mostly an ordeal. Its a shuttle between the place I was brought up i.e. Chennai and the place I was born i.e. Kerala. Needless to say I hate vacations, but it is a neccessary evil that I have to do at least once every year if not more. My BP shoots up higher there than my normal working days in Dubai. Because there the tensions range from why so and so commented on me this way starting from you have grown so fat to when are you giving us good news and why did you change the job line from IT!!! Like they really cared a damn about me. They just had to ask questions that hurt me. The kind of questions that bring an expression on my face that is quite similar to that lady's in the nappy ad where she sees her baby boy sitting in a pool of his urine(I think it was huggies, not so sure though) when they are playing hide and seek. Anyways I know now that I will never be able to get into the marketing department of any company, because I have lived for five years wi...

My entire weekend was in front of the TV this time. I have watched Just Dance in three languages namely Hindi , Tamil and Malayalam. Believe me when I say that the tamil and malayalam versions of this program were hilarious. Rather than dubbing the program they should have just shown the subtitles in those respective languages. But no they dont do that. They make Farah and Vaibhavi speak in Malayalam and Tamil instead. But while even that was watchable, the worst part was the fake accent they gave to the contestants who had auditioned in London. It reminded one of the ab trimmer exercises in teleshopping where they have foreigners speak in tamil and malayalam. Speaking of the program itself, while watching it you are aware that there is immense talent in India. But then again most of them were doing locking, crumping , piping , whatever whatever. And everybody seems to have a lot of knowledge about them, But what about our bharatanatyam or our folk dances. A few dancers attempted ...

A couple of years ago, I was invited to address the Trivandrum Management Association on the subject “energizing Kerala”. I found that odd, because the only place in the world where Keralites seem to need energizing is Kerala. Look around the planet, and you see Keralites everywhere, working extremely hard, from menial jobs in the Gulf to professorships in the States, displaying their entrepreneurial energies and achieving remarkable successes. So what is it that holds them back here, in their home state? Is it resources, policies, attitudes, politics? All of the above? It’s always been a curious paradox that Keralites put in long hours in places like the Gulf, where they have earned a reputation for being hard-working and utterly reliable, while at home they are seen as indolent and strike-prone. Surely the same people couldn’t be so different in two different places? And yet they are – for one simple reason: the politicized environment at home. It’s a reputation that has come to h...

Recently read this interesting article in Bhavan's Journal. Its about people being happiest after they turn 80. Their lives are easier because they have taken care of everything by then, their children are looking after them. The proverbial rat race is over. You have more time for family and friends. No more politics to play (except for the ageing politicians in India of course). But otherwise life is generally the best in your 80's. I dont think I will live that long but I agree with the being happier part. Despite all her worries my grandmother is definitely happier than I am. I am all of 28 years old. I lost my dream job thanks to the recession and some other reasons. I have been trying since then to claw my way back into the job with no success. I dont have any kids of my own, though kids of other people somehow magically seem to get along with me. I am not getting any richer. I dont have anything new to celebrate about, I am trying my level best to lose weight and going ba...