Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category

A Song and a Kind Word

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

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We met by chance 5 years ago – it feels like I’ve known you forever.
To sing and praise was your life. You always brought joy along.
Life is fleeting, you said. But, I thought you’d be around writing songs forever.

You were the irreverent saint I knew.

 

The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always a tomorrow. Today I am blessed. — Maya Angelou

“Isis death has been a lesson in the shortness of life and the importance of giving each moment the best tail wagging possible. Sometimes we learn the value of unconditional love only when it is gone. Isis died of a heart attack. Isis is in the past and will never be back. We have only one life to live to the fullest every moment.”

“…one person has to love first da, if the other likes being loved unconditionally by the person loving him or her, the relationship has hope.”

 ”Just felt like dropping you a line to tell you that you are precious. “

You always had A song and a kind word.
Rest in peace, my dear friend. You will be missed.

Arul Ta’fxkz Baliah - http://www.tafxkz.info/

Two Colors

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

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When I was beginning to wonder what’s going on, someone came by and said “…thanks to you”. Thank You, my friend! You didn’t know what that meant to me this quiet day.

In my life – A teeny weeny moment

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Left work at 7:30pm – and was in the cab heading home. While we were waiting at the exit to get out of our little campus, there was a pretty little sight that lifted up my spirits. You see, I haven’t been all that well of late. As I wearily waited for the half hour ride home, hoping we don’t get stuck in massive traffic, I saw this nice mango tree we’ve got in front of our building – a branch full of flowers lit by the floodlight beneath it…. just like a Christmas tree full of stars :)

Peaks

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

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They forget they see only the peaks

Assumptions

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Headset on?  Listening to music

Eyes closed? Sleeping

Meeting? Busy

Slim? Weak

G? Loadsa money

SLR? Great photos

Analytics? Complicated

Got any to add?

My holiday calendar

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

While we are all busy looking back over the year gone by, here’s my holiday calendar for 2009. I finally (!) got the confirmed list of holidays for 2009 :) And couldn’t wait to see how 2009 holiday scenario would be… the best bet is end of September :) I will be updating this as the days go by and let’s see what this looks like at the end of 2009! Did I survive, where did I go and how much of India did I see…

 

@ Pranav, thanks for the idea of marking travels on calendar – I didn’t realise the extent of 2008 travel until I did that :)

PS: If you didn’t know, you can share and/or embed your Google Calendar

The Valkyries

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

And each man kills the thing he loves,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword.
(The Valkyries)

What do you think?

That odd moment!

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

I hear the rain and soon the power goes off. Dark. Quiet. I hear the rain a lot clearer, the thunder too! The lightning is brighter – no artificial light to pollute the scene. I stand at the door and watch – the rain I can hear but not see, the lightning I see but can’t hear, the buildings bright at a distance, the neon lights burning atop the building on the main road, the headlight odd vehicle lighting up the street below, the headlights of vehicles on another road leave designs on another wall…

…just another night to go, and I’d be gone…the building would get taller, the lights brighter…

10 years ago…

Monday, August 25th, 2008

… CMC, Vellore was a part of life

…I sat watch over someone dear – I got to know what it’s like when you just can’t do anything to make things better :(

…I finished school – got out with 84%

… It was my first month in college

… I travelled long distance alone, for the first time!

… I didn’t have an email address :O [crazy, but true!]

…I don’t remember spending time online at all!

That’s the year of 1998!

Two things prompted this post – one, I found the Visitor card used in CMC and, two, I’d written Aug 22, 98 in my Bible [most probably, the day I got it!]


So, what were you doing?

What’s official about a language?

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

When a language which is the primary tongue of 30% of the nation is made the “national language,” you are gonna have to face the 70% – After moving to Hyderabad, I get reactions ranging from polite, curious questions to ridicule when I ask people to stick to English.

Well, for some of us, learning Hindi is not a choice – for others, Hindi is not a choice. Yes, I grew up in places where you heard Hindi only on Doordarshan (nowadays, cable TV too) and where schools offered just two languages – Tamil, English. Even in schools that offered a third language, it was French (because it was easy?) or another Dravidian language.

Yes, I know that isn’t great – but, you know, I didn’t get to set the rules when I was in school. It isn’t bad at work – though, people tend to assume you know Hindi! I think the first time I had a problem big-time was when I went out for a trip with this group – and they were speaking in Telugu/Hindi. Well, there was at least one person who took the time and effort to speak to me (in English) – may his tribe increase. The sad part, though, was that most of them didn’t care – and, worse, at least one person knew that my Hindi isn’t fluent!

In fact, it was worse than being out on the road. Do you know why? Because, when a conductor, bus driver, or shopkeeper realises that I don’t know the language, they try their best to use the simplest of words and use English if they know. Also, I am not trying to build relationships there – I manage to get what I want and I will get going. However, when you go out as a group, you are trying to get to know them – where language matters all the more.

After such an experience, quite naturally, I spoke about it to a couple of people and got some suggestions, including reply in Tamil :P   – now, that’s gonna be fun!

The other day, when I couldn’t sleep, I was searching for more information on India and the languages in this country. Not surprisingly:

“Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 21 other official languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanscrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu” [source]

So, the next time you think of saying “Arre, national language – how can you not know?” – ask yourself if you are a hockey player.

Got it?