Thursday, September 10, 2009

Uthamans Onam-09

Onam is a great something for Malayalees wherever they are. The main Onam day is special for its feast. Uthaman, like any other Malayalee was excited to celebrate it in a big way and decided to eat out in a posh Mallu mess somewhere near the 80-feet road at Indira nagar.

He knew that cursing himself for being at this ooru was of no use and has a real positive attitude towards life. He was not at all jealous about his friends being in Kerala leaving him alone at the posh apartment in the Domlur market.

It was not quite surprising that he decided to have a thechu kuli or ritualistic bath before his lunch, as kuli is a very important item for any Kerala festival. Today he had decided even on which songs he should sing while taking bath.He started with the much old Onam song “Maveli naadu vanidumkaala’’…slowly it changed to "oru muraai vanthu parthaya" and so on and so forth….meanwhile he applied the traditional Medimix soap to wherever possible.. ..So, to sum it up, he had a rich and authentic bath and felt that he was at home after several years

Time was 1.20 pm and all Mallu mess's in Bangalore were kach-ing pappadams…the fragrance of Avilyal and Sambar flew into the posh bathroom and Uthaman took a deep breath and said “bhesh”

Uthaman was in a hurry, all the 56 dishes of the meal splashed into his brain in a fraction of a second.

Alas-the Door! It is closed for ever out of excitement.

He was patient for a few minutes, attempted all the 108 tricks he knew. Sorry said the door :(

After two hours of remorseless attempt, he says ‘I did the right thing, I started yelling’. Sadly by that time all Malayalees in Bangalore had almost finished their afternoon nap after their superb meal.

Today, Uthaman is a proud Malayalee. He could manage the crisis in a matter of 4 hours. He could speak the right Hindi at the right time at the right place. Though you can relate this to the 4 Ps of Marketing, this event has much more impact, as this was a game of do or die for a human soul.

“I did the right thing; he reiterates; if I had not yelled the right Hindi, I would have ended my life there….. Onam will come and go, but life is only once”

Reporters were eager to know how Uthaman who knew little Hindi could speak to his neighbor through the tiny window he had in the bathroom.

“My Hindi was so good at that point” says he

“Bhaiyya, mein Bathroom ke anthar Ghoos gaya, Bachavo Bachavo” I yelled this mantra for an hour and that helped; Uthaman said reporters after the narrow escape.

After the incident ,Hindi Vidvan shri Madan Gupta congratulated Uthaman for the right language he used during the crisis to attract people...

However Uthamans Onam 09 ended in Style!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Mother, we will miss you!




At the feet of Lord Parthasaradhy who dwells on the banks of Pamba in Aranmula,Kerala, Louba lived for decades. Her entire life was dedicated to Aatam and other traditional art and cultural forms of Kerala . Spirited by Guru Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, she gave up her personal life at the young age of 24 in 1968 ;understanding and promoting the great art forms ranging from mural paintings to Kalari to different dance forms esp. Aatam.



She pioneered the Vijnana Kala Vedi in 1976 and after 32 years of selfless service the school is being closed today.The goodness of her school was not in commercializing these arts but enriching them by taking back them to its original forms and ethnicity.So this is a sad day.


Louba Schild will be returning back to France to take care of her Mother. Just before leaving Aranmula, the press asked her many questions. Her answers were memoranda of her love for Kerala and Mother Bharath. She hopes to be reborn in this great land. This is my land, I don’t have any other land, she says. Louba gives a call to the young generation of Kerala to really understand the richness of their tradition and says foreigners can only enjoy but thou are the real inheritors. All these art forms are in your blood. Try to understand it. Your culture is not known by the coconuts you have, but by its depth, Louba remarked.

Dear Louba, hope you will come back to Kerala one day. The tiny bamboos on Pamba to the chundan vallams , your friends, your students and above all Kathakali will call you back one day. I hope


vous souhaitons un beau voyage

Namaskaram.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

The diary

After making a terrible nonsense prediction, I was off and away from blogging for sometime now. I don’t want to say something like IBNs Rajdeep said,I' knew that UPA is going to get such a superb majority ;x xxx had told me this, but i didn’t say it on air'.For me,it was rather an unexpected defeat for Advanji.

Leaving my politics apart, I have been traveling in and out of Bangalore and is having a wonderful time with my darling, the Indian Railways on weekends. As my house renovation is at its final stage and i have been fighting with people over ideas and implementations, weekdays have become hectic between carpenters, painters, electricians and my lord, my client. Because my client is sweet; I am surviving without bad injuries like Sreesanth.

Ah! Its monsoon again and its time for the nano, I mean Poppy nano. Meanwhile I ate a lot of mangoes this year with Pineapple and Mangosteen too. All from my garden itself . Meanwhile I have never told you that I am a madambi, I dont know its exact translation; but could be something like "poor man with low livelihood but rich material prosperity". I am that. Actually my whole family is that.

From Monday morning till Friday night, I eat junk and is predominantly someone with high metropolitan eating habits. As and when Saturday dawns I am the one with the highest Olive index, meaning a premium orgainc species. Amma would be ready withTapioca and chutney and recently with a lot of Jackfruit puzukku (boiled raw jackfruit).Then may be a Thiruvathira puzukku (translation is the same :)) with cheembu, kachil and chena (cant'translate,but they are roots of supreme quality).Then in between i have Mangoes and Pine apples and many other fruits. So its kind of a organic weekends.

So things are a bit under control; I mean Health. On a different note, I read a lot during the last few months and I started writing a book myself. I cant say whether it will ever get published; but the fact is that though it doesn’t gets published, it will remain a dairy of a tiny human being lived little time in the life of this universe.Again,it will only remain for little time.My dairy.May be to an unnoticed decay.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Tag

I tagged myself just because I thought this can break my silence!

LAST TIMES…

1. Last beverage: Coffee
2. Last phone call: Friend Jermy Cho
3. Last text message: from BJP
4. Last song you listened to: Thumbi Vaa (Olangal, 1982)
5. Last time you cried: ….in 2002.

HAVE YOU EVER...
6. Dated someone twice: No
7. Been cheated on? : No
8. Kissed someone & regretted it? No regrets
9. Lost someone special? Kind of dead! Yes
10. Been depressed? Yes!
11. Been drunk and threw up? No

LIST FOUR FAVORITE COLORS:
12. Saffron
13.Light Green
14. White
15. Blue

FIRSTS :
16. Made new friends: Yes
17. Fallen out of love: No
18. Laughed until you cried: NO, I have laughed until I have slept
19. Met someone who changed you: Yes-transformed me
20. Found out who your true friends were: I Always knew
21. Found out someone was talking about you: Yes.... a lot in the ladies hostel

HAVE YOU:
22. Kissed anyone on your friend's list: No, I think kissing is not that easy
23.How many people on your friends list do you know in real life: I didn’t understand which friends list! If it is blog I really don’t know anyone so closely.I am addicted to thoughts and dreams than in people.
24. How many kids do you want to have: Three
25. Do you have any pets: I had a Cat, Piyush. He died of cancer at a very young age.I was depressed and didn’t go to school for many days.
26. Do you want to change your name: I have a long name and that is nice.
27. What did you do for your last birthday: I didn’t really bother. I love to say that “last week was my birthday” .But I blog on my birthdays usually
28.What time did you wake up today: 6 am .It was my neighbor’s “Grahapravesh” and there were Poojas going on
29. What were you doing at midnight last night: Yesterday I slept early
30. Name something you CANNOT wait for: After reading Mohanlals “rithumarmaram” last week, I feel like going to Mookambika once again
31. Last time you saw your father: 14th April, Vishu.
32. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life: be more careful about my belongings
33. Most visited web page: Company’s webmail

WHAT'S YOUR :
34. Name: :) Eash
35. Nicknames: Ummm... vasu, Kannan, puttalu, kinnappi..
36. Zodiac sign: Taurus.
37. Male or female or transgender: Male
38. Elementary: Seventh day Adventist School
39. Colleges: St. Berchman’s, Bhavans,NSS,DCS
40. Hair color: Black
41. Long or short: short
42. Height: almost 6
43. Do you have a crush on someone? Yes ....one bomb in office
44. Ever been in love? Yes
45. Piercings? Going to pierce my ears. “Karnavedham“ was supposed to be on the 27th but postponed as this is my Birthday month. But I wont be wearing any ornament
46. Tattoos? No
47. Righty or lefty: Righty
48. First surgery: Not yet...
49. First piercing: Not yet.
50. First best friend: Praveen.. He is in Dubai now.
51. First sport you loved: Football.
52. First pet : Dhathri, our cow!
53. First vacation: Mysore-Bangaore-Ooty .We used to go every year with students from my Fathers College.
54. First concert: Carnatic music concert on “Aarattu” day in our Temple
55. First crush : Vijayakashmi, she was a classical dancer. my class mate and friend. This was at 4th or 5th standard.
56. Eating: Nothing right now
57. Drinking: Nothing now
58. I'm about to: post this on my blog
59. Listening to: no song right now
60. Waiting for: nothing but sleep

YOUR FUTURE:
61. Want kids? Yes, of course
62. Want to get married? Not really, sometimes yes. But I am not sure
63. Careers in mind? Want to speak in the Indian Parliament one day

WHICH IS BETTER WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX?
64. Lips or eyes: Eyes
65. Hugs or kisses: Hug and look into her eyes and then kiss…I think I like both
66. Shorter or taller: Shorter… see, I want to lead the show!its always good to have an arieal view of her eyes..(amn't I sounding romantic??)
67. Older or Younger: younger
68. Romantic or spontaneous: Romantic and romantic
69. Nice stomach or nice arms: Nice stomach and long fingers
70. Sensitive or loud: Sensitive…not loud please!
71. Hook-up or relationship: Relationship
72. Trouble maker or hesitant: Hesitant…(question number 72 is horrible I should tell you, who wants a trouble maker?)

HAVE YOU EVER :
73. Kissed a stranger: Yes, but it was not part of sex
74. Lost glasses/contacts: no...its one of the things that I have not lost(fingers crossed)
76. Broken some one's heart: Yes I did
77. Had your own heart broken: It broke and it joined itself back
78. Been arrested: Twice…
79. Turned someone down: Yess
80. Cried when someone died: Yes, but no one saw
81. Liked a friend that is a girl? Yes-I made that mistake


DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
81. Yourself: Yes... Vey much
82. Miracles: can happen
83. God: Yes
84. Love at first sight: No
85. Heaven: Yes there is heaven in each heart
86. Santa Claus: who made this tag…what is there to believe in him! if it is gifting someone ,I am ok to receive them
87. Kiss on the first date? I am sure this question is made by some one so utopian…I cant kiss a girl so fast
88. Angels: I don’t know...I heard there is an Angel in the UK.
89. Devils: Ya I took this tag from a devil

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:
90. Is there one person you want to be with right now? Yes I want to be with someone whom I miss a lot
91. Had more than one boyfriend/girlfriend at one time? So silly!
92. Wanted to kill someone ever? Yes I wish I could have killed many people
93. Among you blog mates, whom would you like to kiss? Appa! what question is this.. kiss-kiss kiss(dear bloggers, please send your photos as I haven’t seen any of you so keenly that I can decide on this. Male bloggers; please keep away)
94. Committed a blunder and regretted later? Yes 100s of blunders…after that I don’t really bother about the outcome
95. Wanted to steal you friend's boyfriend / girlfriend? : Hehehe …My friends have girl friends who are worst than them. So I am quite happy about not stealing them.

ASSOCIATE WITH SOMETHING YOU WEAR :
96. White: Shirt
97. Black: Shoes
98. Red: Kurtha
99. Pink: Chaddi (Now, please don’t start sending me this:)

100. Posting this as 100 Truths? Almost Yes. :)(those kissing parts were confusing! and pink chaddi was not true...i dont have one in that colour.)

Please feel free to take this up anyone,please!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Recruiting "Change"

Each soul is potentially divine
-Swami Vivekananda.

One of the greatest threats in modern management is the limitation in identifying human capacity. Recently I heard an interviewer saying "I interviewed an idiot in the morning". I am surprised the way one person analyses the capability of another person in just a few questions. The biggest dilemma of modern management is its weakness to see the potentialities of human beings beyond the so called "skill sets". Managers find it difficult to find the proper candidates for their roles.Most of the time the perceptions of interviewers go wrong. Companies find it invariably impossible to comply to recruit the deserving candidate to the deserving role.We shouldnt ignore the fact that enormous amount of money is involved in recruiting and maintaining candidates with improper skill sets.


Here is the importance of transformation. Transformation,a state of Change, isn’t just through motivation . Here is where a manager needs to posses higher Transformational Quotient (TQ). The higher the TQ, the better. Top-level management needs to make sure that there are Mangers with higher TQ at the middle level. It is the lower level of management,where the bigger teams are, so the middle level managers, should and will, find it extremely difficult to manage teams with lesser set of desired skills.

Now, what is TQ?


"Jalamabhyasa yogena
Shylanaam karuthe ksheyam
Karkashanam mridu sparsham
Kimabhyasanna sadhyathe"


-A saying in Samskritham quotes, "water with its perseverant and continuous touch, converts hard rocks silky, People with harsh intentions; with "soft touch" can thus be transformed to better human beings. TQ is higher with people who have that soft touch that never aims at immediate results.


One of the recent readings that inspired me was Coelho's "Eleven minutes" where Maria, a prostitute in search of "Personal light” interested me. Here when I say about personal light, I mean the uniqueness in people, their capacity and core competence; which may or may not match the desired skill sets for the role they handle. It is the potential and passion they posses, the capacity of which could lead them for a better career, may be in a different role. TQ is higher with people who search personal light in others.

A person with higher TQ is often a scientist.He experiments his people with permutations and combinations of roles.He is one who believes in probability and chance.He is a psychologist who can read minds.He is often driven by change.One thing that suddenly clicks my mind is the O-effect that shook the world recently.Politics hardly varies its manifestations across continents, but the general mood that Obama created in the States, lifted people across the world. We shouldn’t forget that Change was the most important and strategic catch of his campaign. Probably Change was the biggest idea that sold in 2008.That was because each human being thrives for change though he may not exactly know how the change that will happen may look like. From Krishna to Marx, social engineers understood the capacity of this word, Change. Change is a choice but, like what Gandhi said, be the change, to see the change. A person with higher TQ conceives the impossible and inevitable change, way and far, before the team sees and goes through it. However the change could be bilateral. Mangers with higher TQ must also be ready to be the change themselves.


TQ is an important aspect of change management. A successful manager tries and succeeds in transforming his team to the desired skill sets by identifying the divinity in people.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A&A and their experiment on me

Irrespective of the space left for any food in stomach, if I happen to hear a Kacheri at 1 Pm, I smile, smear my nose, feel sleepy and thrive for my lunch. That is the positive reinforcement Akashavani and my Amma(A&A) has created on me.

Amma would be preparing lunch and I would be lazily lying on the bed for the lunch call, Akashavani would be on and after Pradeshika Varthakal(Regional news), it would be time for the Kacheri …That is exactly around 1 pm. Ammas Pulisseri Kaduku varakkal and Pappadam kaachal would be going on in full swing in the kitchen which is few meters away from my bed…my appetite slowly slips down to a nap….Raagas squeeze into my ears down to my heart…

Now what happens to me many years later is called Operand Conditioning in behavioral sciences.
Their experiment is a success
But is this a disease now?