Hi world, I'm back again from a break of over 5 months...I think it's taking me this long to get back to blogging coz I've been coping with the loss of a loved one. For some reason, my last post in May 2010 was about my f-i-l. It's now 4.5 months since he's departed and I think today I felt the urge to finally come here and blog. I'd often think about blogging and then didn't find the energy to actually pen a few lines....until today. Mmm...so where do I begin? The eternal question! So much has happened since then.....when you get into the 'survival mode,' little else matters than just living...and seeing through each day. Reminds me of a hymn that we were taught when I was in school.

One day at a time sweet Jesus That's all I'm asking from you. Just give me the strength To do everyday what I have to do. Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus And tomorrow may never be mine. Lord help me today, show me the way

One day at a time.

C u then, world....as I go from one day to the next...and I'll hopefully be back with greater vim and vigor!!

SITUATION!!

This is a poem that my f-i-l composed today (May 16, 2010) at about 7 p.m. (IST)

SITUATION!

All the people were concerned
about his ill health
And they just visited
one by one
according to their convenience.

The pity is one said,
"You don't worry. Everything
will be alright."
The other one said,
"He'll be cured in two or three days."
Another one said,
"Because I have come, you'll get sleep;
don't worry."

All these things
I finally found out
were only a "formality blessing"!

by L.V. Raghavan
(88 years old young)

IN THE WINTER OF LIFE

Hullo world, need to let you know stuff that's been happening in my life. Most of it has to do with my f-i-l. He's become a 4-year-old. I love him more than ever now!!! Every little bit of improvement in his health brings so much good cheer to us!! When there's a setback, we pray and keep our hopes up and become like worker ants...scurrying around to figure out what we can do to make him better. Today, we introduced him to food supplements...in the morning, we'd almost given up hopes and now this remarkable turnaround. It's about 4:30 in the evening (IST) and he suddenly sat up and did a 'wicked' display of 'yaaru mahimothavaru.' Apparently, this is a Kannada dialog from a mythological story where Arjuna and his son Abhimanyu are trying to outdo each other in archery...and the poem talks about who's the superior one, etc. My f-i-l took us down memory lane to when he was in the 8th standard and there was an Education Inspector who was the Chief Guest for a Recitation Competition. Apparently, my f-i-l gave his name by mistake and then got extremely nervous about the whole thing...read on....There was this other student named Ranganna who literally 'sang' the poem, with gestures and histrionics. And then when Raghavan (my f-i-l) was asked to recite the poem, he just said it like he was saying a multiplication table...in a monotonous, expressionless manner. And we all can now guess who got the first prize - Ranganna of course!!! In my f-i-l's own words: 'Baddi maga, no one told me that I had to say it with expressions...just because that fellow used gestures, he got the first prize!!!' So, yeah, that cheered us all to no end...will keep you posted.

Crisis Management

Crisis management: that's what happened majorly in my life this week. Kids will forever be kids....our kid is the same...had a huge last-minute challenge sitting 5000 miles away and we had to troubleshoot from here, India....is that crazy or what!

Mmmhmm...so multiple people got into action...there was an office assistant running around; there was my bro and me running around..there was hubby dear running around....all in different directions, getting paper work done, getting cash flow in...and viola....'all's well that ends well.' What a nightmarish 24 hours...never wanna go up that path again. But yeah, in a way, I think it did some real 'character building' in our kid. And we learned so much about crisis management: it calls for coordination, it calls for charting the critical path, it calls for tons of communication and updating; having a solid circle of influence - to move papers and officials and every thing else that matter - and most important of all, crisis management requires an 'umbrella view' - the uncanny ability to look down from the top and see the entire happenings - great place to be provided it's the right time, not during an emergency...you sort of become a 'fly' with a 360-degree vision....ability to look around and see everything as a macro, connected whole.

I'm glad India & Pakistan have started talking again...thanks to the SAARC summit...I think that's what's missing in this world...people don't 'talk' enough to each other...if we could just sit and 'talk,' I think everyone will be more at peace....I can think right now of two relationships: one at work and one in the family - both needs just good old-fashioned 'talking' but it won't happen that easily, thanks to our super-egos and the 'what-ifs.'

Got to go now...I've a someone special peering over my shoulders at this and that breaks my line of thought. Love you world!!

And I specially love my SON!!

life's musings

Geez, can't believe I so 'regularly irregular' with my blogging!! You know, it's funny...before I began to blog, I thought I'd have so much stuff to share...and now that I do have a blog, I don't blog at all...contradictions galore!!

What does one talk about...go from general to specific? Yeah, I think I'll do that....what's with the IPL mess? Firstly, I don't real care for the game as such. I've tried a lot to enjoy it but I don't...that the awful truth. Secondly, the IPL kinda creates a lot of intrusion....I wonder if someone's doing a study of how many marriages break up because of cricket...I mean because of spouses being cricket fans...my own spouse is a die-hard cricket buff, and if he's gonna watch every other match over a month and a half (which is the duration of the IPL), there's not much happening in our relationship....not to mention the fact that the TV being on means I get to sleep later than usual!! Plus, don't forget we have the Tri-series, the World T20, India playing every other cricketing nation, geez...it's such an overdose of cricket and I am certain that half the people in this country have stopped talking big time coz that's what happens every time there's been a match telecast. What's with us, anyway....I know that for Indians, cricket is a religion but taking it to such heights is crazy.....not to mention the rot within....it's such sleaze and I think unravelling the IPL will be like untying knots that might take forever and quite impossible too.

On untying knots, I did quite a bit of it myself over the last week...in terms of whether I want to do deeper spiritual exploration...and I think somewhere I realized that I'm not ready for it as yet and have given up the aspiration...well, not given up but sort of put it on the backburner. It was quite confusing and stressful to make the decision, but I am glad I've reached a decision.

And talking about decision making, I am neck-deep in de Bono's theory of TO-LO-SO-PO-GO. So, off I'll go now and continue to look at more ideas on 'creative thinking.' Well, that's what the IPL managing team did - a whole lot of creative thinking.

Ooh, everything seems tied in and connected in this particular post.

excitement in the new financial year

Had a planning meeting yesterday at work...quite fruitful, I must say. Well, planning is all fine...the implementation and course correction is what we've really to take care of. As Mary Poppins would say: "A thing well begun is half done." So, I'm hoping that our planning is half the work done. We plan to make posters of the plan and put it up for the BD team so they can constantly use it to check the progress of business: course correction will hopefully be much easier with this sort of display.
On a different note, I think my English has really degenerated.....thanks to the three days that I spent onsite with a trainee group earlier this week. My grammar is all over the place, my spellings are messed up, and I appear all the time confused about correct usage. Well, this really shows that the group you work with has tremendous and often times, subconscious/unconscious influence on you - in terms of language, thinking, behavior..the works!
I am as usual waiting for my chief motivator - Ratnamma with her cup of coffee post lunch - it kind of wakes me up and puts me back on track...so until then, will continue to pretend that I'm lazing somewhere in Kerala, amidst coconut palms, backwaters, and silent boats.

Culture and tradition

Oops, three months and it's like I've disappeared from the face of the earth. I guess I just had a ball all this time, what with my son visiting us for a whole 3 months, and business picking up, and so much other stuff happening at home....didn't think it mattered whether I blogged or not.

Our American associate is here, today, and as usual, we talk a lot about the cross-cultural differences between Indian and American cultures. Mmm, I'm travelling on work next week and I am quite excited that I'll be meeting a bunch of young people and interacting with them over three days....something I'm looking forward to.

Oh, I wonder what the significance of 'poonal' is in today's world? For those who don't know what it is, it's the equivalent of the Jewish bar mitzvah...a sort of 'coming of age' ceremony that all Hindu Brahmin boys go through. At the end of the rituals, he begins to wear a thread across his left shoulder and down to his right waist....in a sort of diagonal manner.

Well, coming back to the actual ceremonies, is it to show off their son or their or is it blind adherence to tradition? In olden days, it made sense to do all this for it had multiple objectives - it was done at a tender age of 7 or 8 when the young boy was deemed fit to begin his academics. So, he had to go and stay with his teacher for years before he graduated. The thread also was a constant reminder to the boy that he is now in the 'brahmachari' stage....a phase in life when hormones can rage and yet you remain sober and level headed. The thread also reminded him that all the women he met were his mothers. It kept his ego down coz he had to now beg everyday for his food - 'bhavathi bhikshaam dehi' - in Sanskrit, it means 'Mother, give me some bhiksha (food).' This is really poignant but in today's world, I just think it's hypocritical or just letting the world know that you are a (fake) traditionalist.

Anyways, the recent one in our family kinda gave me an opportunity to meet up with a lot of my clan and have some yummy traditional food.

Oh, the Nithyananda affair's sort of shaken me up quite a bit.....what on earth was he thinking when he behaved the way he did...I'm just appalled by it all and really dunno whom to trust - the media or the godman!!

Gotta go now...will hopefully blog more frequently going forward.