"Bookless in Baghdad"

The title of my blog post refers to the name of a Book whose author is Mr.Shashi Tharoor. Currently Mr. Tharror is the Minister of External Affairs in India. He was earlier part of the United Nations. It was a rumor earlier that he would likely be heading the United Nations. But, it did not turn to his favour, his colleague Mr. Ban ki Moon became the UN Secretary General. So, Mr. Tharror returned back to his hometown which is Kerala, India and stood for elections in the capital of Kerala. Kerala is the state with almost 100% literacy. People knowing his capability has willingly cast their votes to him. It so happened that none of the candidates who has stood in Tvm for election earlier has ever got votes more that 1 lakh and 30 thousand. Now, its time for him to show how good he can serve the people who has voted him.

Apart from being an official in UN, he is intrested in writing. He has written few books whose count I do not have. But, I would like to tell about the book I read. Its a non-fiction book, its a collection of all the reviews and the columns that he had contributed to the Newspapers. The book has nothing much to tell about the land Bhagdad, there was a mention of it only in two pages where in he encountered citizens in Baghdad who are book lovers selling their owned books for cheap price in order to survive.

In all the chapters I have come across many new things that I was not aware about. He has completely changed the illusion of US that I had in mind. Initially the chapters are about few famous authors whom he is the regular reader of. It has opened the pandora's box for me with all the famous writers and what their writing is about .

I have made the list of the authors whom Mr.Tharoor has referred in the book and I am targeting to know the authors, meaning to pull them out of their grave. Here is the list of authors

Richmal Crompton - 'William'
Rudyard Kipling
- Kim- The wind done gone
Margaret Mitchell- Gone with the wind
P.G.Wodehouse- Carry On-Jeeves- Sam the sudden- Leave it to Psmith- The heart of the goof
Malcom Muggeridge- Something beautiful for God- Chronicles of wasted time
Roy Jenkins - Biography of Winston Churchill
Le Carre- The night manager- The secret piligrim- Our game- The tailor of Panama
Alexander Pushkin ( Russian)- The captain's daughter- Boris Godenov- The negro of Peter the great
Pablo Neruda (Chiliean)- Twenty love poems and songs of despair- Elementary Odes- Conto general
( Postman - film based on him)
Nirad Chaudhuri- Autobiographer of an unknown Indian
R.K.Narayan- The grandmothers tales

Earlier I used to go to the library and select book from from the set which is kept aside as read by others. Today I picked the book whose author is P H Wodehouse, there were only 8 books of his in the library and and do you believe the book that I borrowed "The eighteen carat kid and other stories" was first borrowed by someone in the year 1987.

Socializing

Today as I was relaxing in my flexible chair in office, I got a invitation from a friend to meet him at his desk . It's not a practice to get an invitation from someone who is sitting 3 bays away from me. Curious what the occasion is, we (along with the others who got the call)  gathered at his desk, he was actually distributing sweets to few selected colleagues ( whom he thinks that he is close or it could be otherwise) . It was a gathering where we were discussing the reason behind distribution of the sweets - he informed that he passed his PMP certification and was overwhelmed to share the happiness with his colleagues. We felt happy for him and we exchanged thought's about the exam and resources that he felt helpful. It was a very nice social gathering.

The reason I am emphasising on such a small instance which usually happens every time is because this is not the style which is followed on our floor often. Colleagues who want to announce the extraordinary happening to them, would just hand over the sweets to the Admin ( who is known by all) and provides the reason and she broadcast to the floor mentioning about the treat and the reason. The next minute, there is a flood of employees flocking round her desk, just grabs the sweets and turns back to their desk. Very few of them know the exact reason for the sweet distribution and when asked if they are aware of the reason, their reply would be that they saw a mail with the subject "Sweets" from the admin. Where is a concept of socializing here? Its like something free is kept at one location and people hang around to hop on it without knowing the reason behind it.

I feel that there is a plunge in the graph of trust as I find many people around me just speaking to one another for the reason that that they are the key member required for their routine work. It's very obvious on their face when they take the strain to move the muscles in their face to give a simple smile. The work life is become too professional that everyone has a reason behind so called 'help' that they do and is completely ignored if there is no expectation from one another.

Practical Test!!

I was busy with the cleaning activity at my home when I saw my son scouting on the floor. Wondering what he is about to do next I went near him. He looked at me pointing a cockroach on the floor and showing the same in his book that he had put beside him. He is pointing and indicating me that cockroach on the floor looks similar to the one in the book. The cockroach was in a bad shape and was struggling to turn so it could run. I think my son had a plan of dissecting it, which I did when I was in my college days. 

So, he is crossing his milestone activity as per calender quite soon. Good. But, I do question how a 2 year old kid grow up to start comparing things around . Its the beautiful mind you see..As always I took a snap of it. The Photo makes me smile.

How Crazy can I be!!

I am referring about a Korean show called "Boys over flowers", I am crazy about watching it. It was broadcasted by the KBS World channel and since a couple of months they have stopped the service through DTH in India because they could not renew their contract with the Indian counterparts due so some financial reason. Not sure of the specifics. Initially when I started to watch it, it was shows about their culture and food. The best part was that it had English sub tittles. Later on I caught up with watching few drama's telecasted, it was nice. I was found of seeing the handsome young sweet looking men and women in the drama's. When I became a regular viewer the broadcast stopped. Then on I was hunting on the net to know what had happened. I got to know the address of Authority who takes decision on such matters and I even wrote a personal letter to him. That was a different thing that I did after a long time (was only e-Mailing people but not posting letter to them) . I took that extra effort in this case. I also e-mailed the same person. There seems to be no change in their decision until now. My first work after coming home is to check if that channel is showing up. Unfortunately no.

Thanks to the Internet, I can watch those episodes online, but its not as same as watching in the television. The same could be downloaded as well, but those are huge files, do not want to do it. Now I am planning to buy it on the net, that's when someone within me is knocking and asking me what the hell is wrong with me. How could I be so taken away with few comedy episodes. My answer to this is that few small things make me happy and If its affordable to buy that happiness i should go ahead. I still have not made up my mind, but I have a convincing answer with me. I sometimes feel that I would get the DVD of those drama's as a gift!!!! Tooo much.

Comparision of two Generations.

Here I am with my son at Dominoz'. Its a dull weather and we just left our house in the hope that in the next 15min it would not rain and we would reach the Pizza center without getting wet. They have launched a new combo offer and we were excited to try it. I had a Pizza until I was satisfied and I am looking at my son, who is holding the pizza slice carefully in his hands and wondering which is the good part to eat. I compare myself to him at his age, the concept of Pizza never existed then. There was only the icecream which was kids favourite and I remember 'Dairy Milk' Chocolates were the famous chocolates, later it was followed with Nestle chocolates, I was also found of Esclairs Lolipops. Cornflakes also did not exist then. All we had was Cakes and Icecream and Popcorns. Popcorns are still famous. My Parents would take us monthly to the chat center and we would enjoy the fast food, but now my son enjoy the Air Condition at Dominoz and loves the ambience. I wonder how the next generation will be. Few snaps that I took when he was enjoying his pizza is here with.

Visit to the Native - Volume 2

I had a great vacation last week and I am very anxious to write it down. I believe my blogs will be my sweet memory after many years pass by. Now, my Vacation was at my Native. I know that I have written lot about my native in my previous blogs, but what I felt this time was very different. I had the best experience when I faced the ocean and when I went sailing in the boat for about 2 hours in the nearby river.

The beach that I visited is the Kapil beach, though not crowded, could anticipate a large crowd in the coming years when I saw Leela group resort construction happening nearby. The beach was very clean and silent. The voice of the waves was overwhelming. I stood carrying my son to wet my legs and when we found a big wave seeming to gulp us we would run away. He would laugh out loud. It was the his first experience, he was enjoying it.

Very house in my place will surely have a river flowing by at least 2 kilometers away from their house. So, I went to explore the river by my husbands house. It is summer and I did not expect the river to gush with water, but I did have a great sight of natures beauty.

I also visited Kiloor and the Anathapuram Temple. It was a wonderful experience. The shrine at the Ananthapur temple is made differently. The guide there told that the shrine was made of 64 ayurvedic items. They prepared the skeleton with small braches of a tree that is considered very holy and on that the body parts was molded . There is a 64 year old crocodile in the lake surrounding the temple, which comes out during the feeding time. The temple is surrounded by water, it was a very good view. There is cave found and its said that this cave will lead to the Padmanabha Temple which is at Trivandrum, miles away from this location.

The reason that I had been was to fulfill my Grandmother wish - it was that ones I had a kid a Thulabaram would be done at the Mundol Temple of the Mother and kid. Unfortunately she is no more, but we wanted to fulfill what she said. Finally after 2 years we booked THE day for the auspicious occasion which happened during this summer. For those who do not know what it means - Basically, we are bribing (that is what I feel) the God telling that you do this for me and I will donate Rice ( could be anything other substance) which weighs greater than ones weight to the temple. When my Grandmother thought about this she did not mention with what substance, it was a problem. But, you do find solution for such issues in our place. They see something called "Rashi", done by the Astrologer, he would confirm telling what substance did the passed away person intend to use for Thulabaram. I felt if funny... What we actually do is, we sit on one plank of a big balance and on the other plank rice is placed until it weighs more than mine and my son's weight. It is told that the person sitting in the balance should be having good thoughts. Just before one sits in the balance, one should immerse in the temple's lake and come wet and sit. This is to tell that he/she is purified. In my case, the lake was dried out, do not know if its acceptable. LOL. There are stories that even when 100kg rice was kept for one person some time back, the balance did not move, because he was not pure at heart. There is another person who has done Thulabaram in Gold, Oh my God!!! It should be the temples lucky day. Unfortunately, I could not take a snap during THE moment, may be next time...