Arise awake when you know

When life reaches crossroads,
when deeds of the past become old and plain,
when life takes dull shades and sluggish modes
then you know it is time to prove again.

When life presents with no qualms,
when the spirits are low and damp,
and, when there is not enough to fill your palms,
then you know its time to pick your lamp.

When achieved heights melt away with time,
when accolades become things of the past
when gained merits wash away with time
then you know it is time, again, to relive the past.

When your life is not a trouble for your foes
when your life is now a thing of mock and fun,
when your life is now of success throes
then you know life has to move and run.

When hard to come are words of praise,
then you know, you cannot let life slip beyond,
when, with your every word eyebrows raise,
then you know you cannot live, letting it slip beyond.

When you know life could be different,
then you know to tread different mosses.
When you wish things be different,
then you know to choose thorns not roses.

When your stay is unwelcome and long,
then you know it is time to fight another of fights.
When, not are these heights you still have to throng,
then you know it is time to scale another of heights.

Now you know where the commons flood.
Now you know this is not your path.
Now you know to spill sweat and blood.
Now you know to change your path.

And, when you know...
Arise awake and change your path.

Change your path and,
fear not the wailing fate,
fear not the warning gong,
fear not the flood and spate,
And fear not a thing but right and wrong.

Arise, awake and stand up tall,
and the skies would kiss your hand.
Arise, awake and run this land,
and the earth would brace your fall.

Arise, awake and baffle the foes.
Arise, awake and befriend the seas.
Arise, awake and bemuse the woes.
Arise, awake and belittle the peaks.

Arise, awake and rest not till the wall is breached.
Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.


This is my tribute to Swami Vivekananda , who caught the sleeping lion of a nation by its mane and goaded it towards dawn of enlightenment.

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Pup, PJ and Love

Love as addressed in this post would mean not just the one that appears on a Valentine's day greeting card. When I say
love in this post, I mean paternal, maternal, fraternal and all other forms of it that are known to exist.
So, why suddenly I have to write about kinds of love? You will know it sooner than later.
Love amongst human beings does not come for free. Love begets love. Beautiful isn't it? But when somebody returns your love along with it come the expectations. It is after all human, you cannot find fault with anybody. You only expect things from friends and not foes. And, very obviously you rub your opinions on your loved ones and not strangers. But, here is where the struggle starts and love spells its own doom from then on. Expectations clash with expectations and reasoning takes a back seat. The words of "why don't you listen to me" or "why can't you do it this way" come in. To showcase their love , people start narrating the account of all their good doings. For example, parents say: look my child I have worked so hard only for you. I did this only to make you happy and now you do not listen to me? And a wife says to her husband: I slogged and cooked for you, I washed your clothes , waited on you and this how you treat me? The husband replies: I struggled all my life to make you happy, worked over time to buy you a costly sari, cut my spending to buy you jewelry and now you say all this to me. You see , the ledgers and records of spending and slogging being opened up all at once, don't you? I see that you have noticed it only now, but I managed to do it much earlier .

Dawned with the realization that love amongst human beings becomes “ give and take ” when last comes to last , I sought refuge in animals. Again, I am not Menaka Gandhi or Amala( for those who do not know who she is, she is an ex-south Indian actress, who just like me found animals better) to set up organizations and run after animals. Forget about setting up an organization, I did not even buy a pet dog; you know my income is so low and I cannot force a dog to be vegetarian owing to my shallow pockets. Everything comes with a cost and so does a pet dog. But I wanted love for free, so I poured my love on to a street dog . It wasn't a dog completely it was a month old puppy in fact. I wanted to tell the puppy that I loved it. How do I do it? Would I buy a greeting and a white rose and say "I love you"? You know: different people - different needs.
You feel you heard this before? Then next time you switch on the TV watch the HSBC add carefully. What I am coming around to say is, it is a give and take policy but only the terms and conditions vary. I wanted love and the dog wanted biscuits.
So I bought Tiger biscuits, the cheapest available in the market. Ironical isn't it Tiger biscuits become dog biscuits. I called this puppy of my street and crush ed a biscuit and watch ed as it ate . It ate the one whole biscuit and wagged its tail. See, It started showing signs of love, cheap isn't it- love for a couple of biscuits. How easy it would have been if girls did not ask all those things they ask for and settled for a couple of biscuits like this cute little doggy. But, i t is a design time decision and you cannot change girls at run time, so let it be. I fed the pup again, I had a whole packet with me and had no intention of eating these biscuits myself, so I fed it with all my heart. It consumed five biscuits and still wanted more. Being a novice with dogs, I was surprised at its ravishing appetite. I could never imagine a puppy eating like this and could not see justice in the expression "gluttonous pig".I fed the pup another biscuit and called it a day fearing the little one's digestive capabilities.

Day two begins, I come back from office , and have the pup with a wagging tail, wait at the front gate. I understand what it needs, after all what love is ? Isn't it all about understanding each other? The day two ends with me feeding the rest of the Tiger biscuit packet to this darling dog. A week passed by and each day of the week I fed it tiger biscuits , tiger biscuits , tiger biscuits and nothing else ( Believe me, I am not Tiger biscuits brand ambassador) . On the 8th day of this love affair, I returned home from office proudly with tiger biscuits in my hand to find my waiting pup. I brought out a piece of newspaper on to the street to serve biscuits to my pup. You see , dining etiquette is must to stay healthy and as a mature adult who understands the complex concept of what love is, I was aware of this fact and so fed my pup,each day, on a sheet of paper and not on roads. So cool and nice of me isn't it? That day as soon as the pup saw the biscuits, its wagging tail stopped doing its duty and I watched in stunned silence. The pup came forward, sniffed at the biscuits, realizing that even the brand did not change showed me its butt and walked away! My plea to call it back on to the dinner table failed. I walked into my room with my own tail between my legs( I don't have a tail, this expression means I failed at something miserably , hmm). I let the day pass and the next day after much thought into the dog's act of denial, I decided to change the brand of biscuits. As it was raining heavily I returned home little late than usual with sunfeast brand. When I came home I did not see my pup( now it became “ m y” with 4 packets of biscuit in 8 days time , this is humanity - being possessive). The pup’s absence did not worry me as the previous night's incident was fresh on my mind . As I was looking around for any signs of my pup I heard faint , dog - like screams at a distance away from my home . When I went over I found my pup lying in the bushes. I was shocked . Then neither did I understand what really happened n o r did I dare to touch the pup because I never touched a pet dog, let alone a unkempt street dog. When I went home to drop my bag and see what could be done, my friend informed me that the pup was run over by a scooter and he did not have any means to help it. I could feel my throat drying up and stood helpless. After exploring all the possible avenues , the existence of Blue Cross society flashed across my mind and immediately I called up the blue cross for help. The attendee said the ambulance would be there in an hour. Meanwhile, for first aid I went around the area to find vets. It was late into the evening so most of them were not available and the one available said he did not have equipment at his home. Time was limping instead of zooming by as it usual ly does on a Friday night. What troubled me the most was the pup was hardly 2 months old and I did not think it would make it through owing to the nature of injuries. I felt like suing the blue cross for the delay but of course I did not. After repeated calls , at the end of three hours wait, an ambulance arrived and I was a relieved man when the dog was taken away, alive, to the animal husbandry. See how love of living things comes with expectation and worry. Firstly, pup’s expectation of feeding it with what it liked and secondly my worry of any danger to the pup.

I did not like this kind of love either because it is not free. Now, I resolved to love stones that don't set expectations, love leaves that do not cry when run over by scooter, and, lastly love any inanimate object that does not return my love and stays as it is whether or not I love it . One side Love - only love that is for free, unconditional and universal - is the best way to stay in love.

PS: Just in case if you find an animal in distress please report at http://bluecrossofindia.org/, HelpLine: +91-9962 800 800, Chennai Ph No:044-2235 4959(immediate action). Despite all the idiosyncrasies, we are still humans aren't we?

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Taj Mahal in my hands

...that is how my romance with wisdom teeth ended.Before I tell you about the end I should tell you how it really began. It was a fifth standard class room.The lecture was on general science and the topic was "TEETH". I was one of the students in the class. The teacher told us that human beings had 32 teeth and dogs had 42 teeth.As soon as I heard the number of teeth I started counting the teeth present in my mouth. This was an exciting exercise because never it occurred to me that I could count my teeth till then. The exercise told me that my mouth bore only 28 of them and I was worried about the missing four. Before I was driven away by any crazy thought the teacher told me that young boys only have 28 teeth and the rest four are called wisdom teeth which grow in teens as a mark of maturity. And also these teeth will not grow in everybody and now are vestigial organs. This confused me, if they do not show up in everybody then why are they counted to make number of teeth 32? Was it not completely subjective? Well, I passed my fifth standard science paper marking the number of teeth in human beings as 32 and anticipating to have both wisdom and wisdom teeth.
I would jump several years from my grade five for the sake of wisdom teeth. Now, it was my pre-university classroom. I could feel pain in my upper left jaw. When I tried to locate the source of pain, it led me to upper-left gum space after the molars. I rolled my tongue over and felt a hard bone like thing still covered by gum. I used my tongue to press hard at it and the pain made me feel good. It was not the eruption of wisdom teeth that excited me. I always found excitement or enjoyment in a little physical pain. Pain in the mouth gum and pain after forcefully removing a small part of right-leg-second-toe nail being some of them. I felt the pain good and repeatedly pressed my tongue against it for sheer pleasure of feeling the pain. All the while I did not notice that I was being observed by the lecturer in the classroom and the end result was I was thrown out of the class. I never really minded because,after the expulsion, I had all the time for myself to poke at my painful gum. I did it all day and increased the pressure with which I pressed my gum by nightfall. So, what happened? In the morning pain grew to unbearable levels and I had to stay away from classroom. On the evening of that day I could feel a tooth like thing forcing its way out of the gum, realized that it was wisdom teeth and felt intelligent foolishly. Foolish because I always thought wisdom teeth gives intelligence.
In a weeks time I had a full grown wisdom teeth that made my teeth count 29. Perhaps after just one week of time my right upper gum started paining and this time I was careful enough not to trouble the trouble. As a result my second encounter with wisdom tooth was a peaceful one. Two wisdom teeth and I now jump into my graduation. Half wisdom is more dangerous than having no wisdom that is a fact and I set on to prove it once again. So how did I manage to do it ? Ha .. I fell in love. Isn't it the a dangerous thing to fall in love? But I had support. As if to allay my fears about aftermaths of falling in love and declare its support, my lower left gum started showing signs. Supporter of my love, the left Wisdom tooth struggled for space with the molars,and the molars said "look mister we already are jam packed we cannot accommodate you, so please stay away and find other ways to convey that falling in love is symbol of wisdom not foolishness". The tooth twisted and turned and grew in an angle into my cheeks. And, meanwhile its partner the wisdom tooth in lower right jaw is too happy with the girl i had chosen and decided to bestow the status of complete wisdom upon me.So it started showing up. But this time it was met with force and had become meso-angular. That is, it had taken a 90 degree turn and grew towards the molars.
Then, I had 2 sets of teeth. One full grown set and the other half grown to purely signify my wisdom: wisdom of love. Three years into my love life, these half grown symbols of love started giving me trouble. Not of course in my love life. They wanted more space. Whenever I ate food the left wisdom tooth bit my cheek skin, occasionally leading to bruises, and the right wisdom tooth held pieces of food in its crevices. I bore with these symbols of my love for an year. But the left had become aggressive on my left cheek and the right had become greedier. I had decided to get rid of Taj Mahal of my mouth and went to a dentist to get this job done. The dentist suggested me to go ahead with the extraction of left tooth first. The first one that corroborated my decision of falling in love and I heeded to the advice, because this was the pioneer and the most troublesome of the two lower wisdom tooth. The exercise of tooth removal was painful, both physically which is obvious and psychologically because it was my Taj Mahal. The painful exercise went on for a quarter short of an hour with the dentist removing the white marble to leave a stitched cavity in my mouth.
Today, after a week long medication, the sutures were removed and I get to hold my Taj Mahal, a Taj Mahal bathed in acid and preserved in brine by the dentist who made me undergo and went on to understand the pain. Whatever, I miss you my Taj.

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Mouth and Brain - A Visit ( Part 2)

Note: I would recommend you to read the short intro at, An Introduction, before you read this post

The smaller mouths sit together and start wondering: what do we do ?
Brains tend to be very conscious and shy when alone. Mouths very well knew this fact and this awareness pushed them deeper into abyss. As they were wondering thus, an Intelligent Mouth stands out and blares aloud "Rather than making a single Brain speak, which will definitely result in stuttering, let us identify a group".
Crowd( of Mouths) : Yes, Yes,No, Yes, No.....
Amongst the assembled Mouths most of them scream "Yes" and the other "No". After all what can Mouths do? they agree or argue( both the actions without giving a thought)
Intelligent Mouth(tries to put forth a case) : The group would be confident enough to speak rather than a single Brain.
Another Mouth( from the crowd) : How will you chose the group?
Intelligent Mouth: We will divide the Brains into teams and conduct a competition.
Another Mouth : Ok, will Brains agree to this?
Intelligent Mouth: We will promise awards to the best team and also offer recognition before the White Mouths
Another Mouth: Even after this will they be ready to speak before those glaring white Mouths.
Intelligent Mouth: Now, shut up and stop thinking.Behave like a Mouth. I will pull the Brains
With this Mouths keep mum and end the turbulence of thought there and then.
As soon as the intelligent wash-once Mouth utters the word "award" Brains start budging and when hey hear the word recognition they take the bait. Brains dream of recognition and never get one and that too recognition before alien Mouths sounded more than marvelous. Our intelligent Mouth explains the scheme of things to select the best group of Brains to present before the wash-twice urbane Mouths.Brains marshal all their energies, form groups as suggested by our intelligent Mouth and start practicing to talk but words are hard to come by. Even if they come they are sporadic. In this sporadic splashes of words Brains chose a group which is a little better than rest of the groups.This group, trained by small wash-once Mouths perform before the loud Mouths, but these Brain's talkative best is no where near a Loud Mouths drunken drool. Needless to say, Brains fail. Now, small Mouths are burning under the stare of louder and larger Mouths. The larger mouths make their Mouth even larger to swallow the smaller Mouths. Before something fatal happens an old veteran Brain comes with a performance enhancement idea, you could even call it an optimization. The veteran suggests the young inexperienced Brains to wear masks and give their performance and reasons out saying that Brains feel secure when their identity is not revealed. How correct after all it is Mouths' job to crave for identity and not Brains. Brains are better left anonymous .Even this optimization does not yield satisfactory results. All the Mouths small and larger start to worry alike. All turn to the veteran Brain which is famous for dishing out Mouths and Brains from ditch. Our hero the old Bains suggests to drop the very idea of performance and warns of consequences.But Mouths do not bother for the Brain and ask our intelligent Mouth what could be done.
intelligent Mouth( visibly irritated): Let this scumbags invite those white swines to the dinner.
Another Mouth: No not a sentence we want the Brains to perform a drama as we initially thought.
Brains listen attentively to the conversation for their interest to learn words
intelligent Mouth: What shit of a drama? If anything goes wrong we are all f*****.
Other mouths have no choice and agree. The Mouths come up with the sentence of "Dinner is ready. We cooked a duck for you. You also have white wine to drink". And, this stays final till the moment Brains utter the words.
The destined day arrives. The wash-once Mouths, large and small, together invite the wash-twice Mouths and ask for a few words.But the whitish Mouths sit down only after they drain their tongues of the last bit of moisture. The wash-once Mouths applaud the aliens' eloquence and at the same time beam with exuberance to surprise these urbans. It is time for Mouths to eat and time for Brains to invite them. Needless to say the group of talkative Brains feel out of place before the aliens. Their practice to speak failed them with their memories . Brains forget what they have to speak. One starts stammering followed by the other.In their struggle to recollect Brains put words in wrong places and make up the words they have forgotten, with the words they have heard the wash-once Mouths used. And they turn to the whitish wash-twice Mouths and shout in union.We have **cked a duck for you and you white SWINE also have to drink. The readers know what would follow, but still I would tell you, people saw the wash-twice Mouths chasing the indigenous Mouths and Brains to gulp them for the matter of honor.

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My opinion about "opinion"

World is impressionistic , i mean ,it is made of opinions.Opinion is as sticky as an overused bubble gum.People have opinions which in turn make people, build them and assess them.And this is a vicious cycle where in it opinion sticks and stinks the world all over.
Don't believe me ? i will tell u how.
Success and failure are relative agreed ?? percentile is something that measures life, is it not the case?If some one throws a compliment you are elated and if the same someone belittles you ,you are deflated.Does it starts at school?No, much earlier than that with parents and continues all along through to the "final destination".You are victimized by an opinion and your opinions victimize many more in the process of living.
A child tries to please his parents, as a student one tries to meet the benchmark set by the teachers; as a consort- the demands of the better half;as a follower- the goals envisioned by the leader; and as a leader- the expectations of the followers, failing to meet which one is "opined" a failure. Remember one is "opined"/"termed" as a failure .
Why ,in any case, why should one be made a victim of a silly,sick, insignificant and some of the times a pessimistic emotional consequence - called an opinion?
And believe me opinions are farce illusions and are good for nothing.They mean don't measure up to us we will rate u bad ; "please us ,flatter us ,lick ... us ,....us... to be called a successful man"
No wonder greatest of the artists and scientists who acted against the inertia of the society were condemned in their life time only to be commended by the next generation..
PS:Perception is an individual problem please don't make this a global one by sticking a useless opinion on anyone's head who happens to meet u by a chance called life.

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Love - As a lasting relation

"This is not my compilation. Found it interesting hence made my blog a place holder after editing it." - Sree PJ

It’s an eye opener for all who have their own philosophies of life and life partners. Hope this clears the mist and at the end of it, you should ask yourself a small question and the answer would flash in front of your eyes. ☺
During a seminar, a woman asked,” How do I know if I am with the right person?” the author then noticed that there was a large man sitting next to her so he said, “It depends. Is that your partner?” In all seriousness, she answered “How do you know?” Let me answer this question because the chances are good that it’s weighing on your mind replied the author. Here’s the answer.
Every relationship has a cycle...In the beginning you fall in love with your partner; you anticipate their calls, want their touch, and like their idiosyncrasies. Falling in love wasn’t hard. In fact, it was a completely natural and spontaneous experience. You didn’t have to DO anything. That’s why it’s called “falling” in love.
People in love sometimes say, “I was swept of my feet.” Picture the expression. It implies that you were just standing, doing nothing and then something happened TO YOU. Falling in love is a passive and spontaneous experience. But after a few months or years of being together, the euphoria of love fades. It’s a natural cycle of EVERY relationship. Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse’s idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts. The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship; you will notice a dramatic difference between the passionate initial stages when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent phases. At this point, you and/or your partner might start asking, “Am I with the right person?” And as you reflect on the euphoria of the love you once had, you may begin to desire begin the cycle all over again with someone else. This is when relationships hit rock bottom.
The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it’s learning to love the person you found. People blame their partners for their dissatisfaction and look outside for fulfillment. Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and sizes. Infidelity is the most common. But sometimes people turn to work, a hobby, a friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances. But the answer to this dilemma does NOT lie outside your relationship. It lies within it. I’m not saying that you couldn’t fall in love with someone else. You could. And TEMPORARILY you’d feel better. But you’d be in the same situation a few years later. Because (listen carefully to this): The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it’s learning to love the person you found.
SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. You have to work on it day in and day out. It takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it demands WISDOM. You have to know WHAT TO DO to make it work. Make no mistake about it. Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific things you can do (with or without your partner). Just as there are physical laws of the universe (such as gravity), there are also laws for relationships. If you know and apply these laws, the results are predictable. Love is therefore a “decision”. Not just a feeling.
Remember this always: God determines who walks into your life. It is up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let GO!!

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Mouth and Brain - A Visit ( Part 1)

Note: I would recommend you to read the short intro at, An Introduction, before you read this post

Mouths that wash themselves once a day were visited by Mouths which are intelligent enough to wash themselves twice a day. Don't ask me why. i told you right these are intelligent Mouths and they are aware of the fact that Mouths stink. So they disinfect themselves twice a day once after they get up from sleep and other time just before going to sleep. In a way you can call these glistening white Mouths "urbane" and "non-indigenous".
Preparations were on for perhaps a month now to receive wash-twice Mouths. Smaller wash-once Mouths were joined by bigger and louder wash-once Mouths.The Month turned into a week and now you could see Mouths everywhere.I wonder how all of a sudden so many Mouths came into a being but who am I to wonder it happened and so it remains. Brains were left out of this hungama but somehow they got a wind of it from a loose Mouth. First they were happy that they were left out of this would be fish market, what else would happen when louder and bigger Mouths are joined by cleaner and cleared Mouths? Obvious isn't it. But slowly the Brains started feeling that they were being denied the meat. Brains brooded and brooded over again. Few intelligent Brains tried to convince the others that "this is not their kind of thing and it is better if Brains stay out of it" but as you know good advice always falls on a deaf ear and when, even among those who think, majority behave foolish there is nothing minority, who have their thoughts in place, could do. All that the minority could do was to stay clear.Loud and Large Wash-once Mouths, noticing the enthusiasm of the Brains, decided to cash on it. These big Wash-Once Mouths ordered the smaller Wash-once Mouths to tame the Brains into speaking, speaking without a stammer or a stutter.Would it be possible for a Brain designed to be dumb to do this ? If it really happens wouldn't it be amazing?And, by pulling of this near impossible fete our Wash-once Mouths wanted to flaunt their skills before the visiting, Intelligent-Brush-twice Mouths. Well let us see how it turns out.

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Catch 22 - My Story

THE catch in THE CATCH-22, Yeah it is a part of my story!

Can there be anything Subjective without any covert or overt objective? Could there be anything that is devoid of human perception and emotion? Bull's eye- can words mirror the thoughts without any distortions? I know the answer would be resonating NO's in succession and as a consequence I take a tangent and end up arguing that right - wrong are majority-minority stands in the stated order .
Oh!!! yes coming back to the point where I took a tangent, i have a colored perception about myself- which will very well differ from everyone else. Nevertheless here I embark on the 'serious-est' mission of putting the 'serious-est' thoughts in this space and
Here we go for the Roller-Coaster...
I dance down the memory lane,in my mind's eye, over the heaped sands of time into the labyrinths of thoughts.
Lo!!! nostalgia it is.
A blinding storm at rim of the eye clears the dunes,
And what remains is my evocative past.
My present,I am stuck here for ever, is an ephemeral eternity between the past and the future.
I think of the past when depressed and dream about my future when elated.
I ride the tide or hit the rocks.
I love it or I hate it.
I do it or I don't.
I am the best or I am ...
Everything with me is an either or.
Yes, I am true comp. science grad.
For me life is binary , a big 1 or a big 0 - for sure nothing in between.
PJ-THINKING ALOUD
I am a rational thinker and a lazy rascal.
Biologically speaking my brain works in tandem and rest of the organs answer need of the hour.
And also,
I am a staunch devotee of art who believes that artists should be left alone to all their weirdness.Leave them for what they are and time will reflect their sanity in tomorrow's society, else hang them today only to realize the gravity of their ideologies tomorrow,to formulate scientific theories with their ideas the day after and to worship their idols ever after.
Are you bored reading my profile? Don't complain- it is a perception. Are you entertained? - don't bother me- it is again a perception.
You mind it or you do not mind, either way i am not minding what ever you are minding.
Ha Ha; I hope you got the catch ...
The Catch in THE CATCH-22.

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Money and Society

Taking public transport for intra-city commutes is an excellent way to have time for oneself provided you have a seat to be seated. I realized this only yesterday.
It was 4 in the afternoon and I boarded a bus to reach Velachery. The conductor asked me where I wanted to go and gave a printed ticket to me. As I was exchanging money for the ticket a thought entered my mind "what would have happened if I did not have money to buy a ticket, would I be denied a travel on the bus? Should taking public transport be a privilege of people who have money to buy the ticket?" I put the ticket safely in my pocket conscious of the fact that there will be a checking squad waiting at the Velachery bus station and sit down to muse on this strange thought.
Should people without money be denied locomotion? Money - I start to explore the origin and motive of money. How does one make money? One makes money when he does work. Society through an employer pays money as a token of benefit it derived from him. There are other ways, if you are a business man you are paid for making something available for the society and if you are service provider you are paid for providing with a service. This is necessarily the philosophy behind money. Nevertheless there are other ways of acquiring money - I say "acquiring" because it is not "earning" in the following cases. One can still steal, appropriate or cheat people to fill his pockets. But this does not happen with out a price. The price is respect in the society and its interest is a tag of criminal attached by people around if it is petty issue and by law in all the other crimes of considerable magnitude.With this we have finished discussing about the ethical issues involved in work but is everybody who does some beneficial work or the other respected by the society equally? How is the compensation decided for a piece of work? Is everybody equally rewarded for the same amount of work? The first question would leads us to the concept of "dignity of labor". A scavenger who helps you to keep your washrooms clean does not get the same respect as your plumber who fixes the taps in the same washroom, why? A farm labor who works 12 hours a day manages bare minimum wages but a software engineer( I am one of them) who works the same 12 hours earns disproportionate amount of money and wants more, why? A man in the farm earns more money than a woman who works along with him for the same 12 hours. A person, having the same experience in years, coming from a different company and doing the same work gets paid more than the incumbent employee, why? As I try to figure out why, the bus arrives at Velachery bus station and I am pulled out of my thoughts with the driver slamming on the brakes. I understand one thing before I alight the bus, money is not all that bad. However controversial money might be it is a token of your worthiness that society issues.But money should not be a motive in itself, it should be a by product.

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An Introduction

This ought to be the first post in this column but it is weird that after doing 3 posts on Mouth and Brain, I am giving an an introduction. Better late than never.
Mouth - The Manager and Brain - The blue collared worker, work for Sree( that is me). Mouth only talks, eats food and throws Sree into trouble with its drunken blabber very often. To provide inputs to the Mouth when it speaks, Sree has recruited a Brain. Brain is supposedly the dumb think tank of Sree. But by course of experience Mouth is the Boss.
Now, about the MB Highway. MB Highway fully expands to "Mouth and Brain Highway- The IT way". This is a quick link section for all the Mouth and Brain events and provides readers with a quick access to Mouth and Brain posts which might be in midst of my many other general posts .I am atoning for my sin of not doing first thing first by listing this post before all the other posts in the column.Also, please note that the posts in the column move bottom up with latest post on the top.

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Mouth and Brain - what becomes what

Note: I would recommend you to read the short intro at, An Introduction, before you read this post

Into the 10th day of its inception my blog has earned a comment and also a follower. I feel encouraged, who wouldn't be? I begin the days blog with a thank you note to the critic and the follower.
It is post recession time and we are recruiting. That is not the only reason, of course, Mouth's stupidity has gone from bad to worse. Mouth is now as bad as a mad, drunken and mortally hurt monkey with the strength of a bull. Mad monkey with a bull's strength and Dolby Digital output. Simply put Mouth lost all its cognitive capabilities and talking sh** to everybody. This is earning trouble for Sree. Then, what did Sree do? he followed his Brain's suggestion and recruited more Brains to harness this Mouth. Why can't he do away with the Mouth instead of recruiting more Brains? You know- experience - Mouth has a lot of experience. It was there right through with Sree. It grew with Sree, takes food which Brain earns and talks for Sree. For these functions Sree has to pay for its stupidity with sympathy. With sympathy for stupidity ? Ridiculous isn't it ? But very true, Mouths cannot "move" or "change". Once they are there with a body they are there for life.Nobody knows that what Sree has for the Mouth is sympathy. Even our intelligent Brains are unaware of this fact. Brains think and talk among themselves about the privileges the Mouth enjoys. I have heard Brains saying " How beautiful it must have been to be a Mouth- talk something all day, read out reports and cascade information to Brains ". Even more dangerous, I heard Brains saying" I wish I were a Mouth doing nothing but to sit, asking Brains to think, work and prepare reports which I could present ". What a fatal thought, the very idea of a Brain transforming into a Mouth sends shrills down my spine.
Brains, Brains that do not change bodies, over time become lazy and old enough to earn Sree's sympathy. Sree does not throw out old Brains, with a loyalty tag pinned to their shoulders he makes them Mouths -Mouths to boss over young Brains. These young Brains in turn would become Mouths under the veteran Mouths. And at the current rate Sree will certainly have 20 Mouths by the time he is 60.
Some facts about Mouths :
1. Resources consumed by 1 average aged Mouth can be used to run 3 young gem of a Brains
2. N Number of Mouths put together do work of 1 mouth because all the Mouths, 1 to N, do the same piece of work to be N*100% sure
3. After all this still Mouths talk about resource utilization and bore brains to death.
What a waste of resources to have 20 Mouths, isn't it ?
When I state these facts to Sree he says " I am growing big so is the number of Mouths" and calls me a stupid for thinking thus.Hmm, you would shortly know who is who. Will you keep an old erratic monitor out of sympathy and add processors to compensate? If your processor becomes old and stops working will you make it your monitor? Will a computer ever have 20 monitors?
I hope you got the analogy.Sree, it is time you grow up. Don't add resources and change their roles just like that. Understand?

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Man Vs Wild - Who is wilder?

What am I going to write about today ? I did not think about it while driving my way home from office nor did I get any thoughts over my dinner. All my thoughts today were occupied by J2EE, integration Server, Portal server and SCJP Exam Certification guide. Let me cogitate, let me coax my brain into throwing something out, don't worry it will not be a Brain and Mouth exercise as my creative faculties are on a leave today. Then what? After enough persuasions I see a faint thought dangling in my mind. I stop typing to let the thought brighten up and now it is as bright and as appealing as a setting December sun.
TV remote, suffering under my fingers and caught in a bear like clasp of my hand pleads the TV for help - please show up something that interests this demon, what else could it do? The appeal is not entirely lost. I see a stag tied to a tree and a man struggling with it. Then I get to see the snowy backdrop. It is not snowy it is as white as anything could be. I am amused, I wonder what this man is doing here with no life around except for the stag and a few trees with no traces of leaves or any other thing that would signify that they are not dead. The scene turns gory, with a pocket knife the man starts cutting through the wool of the stag but he does not stop at the wool. The man pierces the outer skin of the stag and tears it apart. Now, I realize this Man Vs Wild periodical and this man is trying to survive in this land of snow and sleet. He put his hand through the slit and moves it around in the stags body searching for something. He smirks when his hand feels what he is looking for, pulls it out and holds the stags heart before the camera. The stag's heart is bigger in size than an oversize human head I have ever seen. I compare it with the size of my fist which allegedly ( alleged by science ) is the size of my heart and wonder why I have a small heart. Before I could reason out the man starts chewing the lower bottom of the heart and sucks the dripping blood. I am not worried about what he does through the rest of the episode- he waddles nude through a ice cold stream, digs a trench in ice covers it with leaves and sleeps under them and survives, he jumps off a 3oft ice bluff. What I am worried about is the camera man who is shooting this episode. Would this blood sucking, uncooked heart eating animal of a man let alone the camera man if he is short of food. Not using camera man as food or as any other commodity must have been a part of the contract signed with Discovery channel !!!

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3 Idiots

This in fact is supposed to be a continuation of my post on Jan 3rd as yesterday was occupied by a Mouth and Brain episode. Partly it would not be because I am writing about Amir Khan starer 3 idiots and partly it would be because I saw this movie on 3rd of January.
If I have to say about this movie in a line then it would be Theme of Tare Zameen Par + Munna Bhai style of making + glimpses of Range De Basanti stuffed into Five point someone's frame, of course with decent screen play. Simple isn't it ? Let me explain. All through the movie one would hear the words of 'race' and 'passion'. Amir Khan was a teacher in the other movie teaching children and preaching parents about these words, but in this movie he is a student preaching teachers and fellows about these words. Also I should not fail to note that in this movie Amir goes about saying "All is well" just as Sanjay Dutt went about saying "Jadhoo ki Zappi". The scene when Sharman Joshi gets hospitalized in this movie evokes memories of Munna Bhai MBBS. The cast and freakishness spray a Range De Basanti effect across the frames. The scenes picked up from Five point someone are prominent enough to circle them out.
The movie seems redundant as the old theme of forcing children( adolescents this time) into what they do not like seeps in whenever Amir gets a chance. Overall, the first half of the movie is entertaining and the second half bores people with the idea of making Amir's character win over his foes and friends being clearly perceptible. Entertaining mood of the story slowly fades into a routine, hero-wins-all, theme during the last 20 minutes. Bomman Irani is worth the money as usual and plays a perfect imitable character. Omi Vaidya, who plays a revenge seeking take-by- heart book worm is quite impressive. Madhavan and Sharman play their part and manage to throw audience into peels of laughter across the movie's duration ( no taking away credit from Amir and others).
To sum it up all, the movie comes under the category of one time watchable and having said that what surprises me is the collections it had at the box office. I wonder if it is Chetan's propel to Amir's star image which made this movie go the extra mile to cross Ghajini in terms of first weekends collection. It could after all be the reason for this Actor-Writer row and you never know!

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Mouth meet Brain move - Ha Ha

Note: I would recommend you to read the short intro at, An Introduction, before you read this post

Mouths are born only to speak and Brains are born to be dumb. Mouths whenever they feel bored assemble the Brains for a meeting. Brains, though least interested in the meetings cannot voice their concern because firstly because they are dumb and secondly they are afraid that they will be denied food which comes into the body through Mouths.There might be many questions here, like, can the Mouths really stop food from reaching the Brains? Brains argue yes because Mouths can refuse to take any food, but little they know that if this happens the body dies and brainy brains are always transplanted to another body and in exceptional cases can become display pieces in museums. Brains find it difficult to digest the thought of moving to another body, and they say they are loyal to the body and cannot move out of it which has given them food for so long. But there are brains which really move out into another body. We are not interested in Brain-Body relationship so let us leave it and go to the Brain and Mouth encounters.
Coming back to the meetings now.
Mouths call for meetings and disturb the functioning Brains. In these encounters Mouths talk about every incident in the name of updates. They gather irrelevant pieces of information and make it more irrelevant. Brains get bored in the due course and doze off to sleep in the middle of such encounters. To wake up the Brains one dynamic Mouth cracks a banal joke which reeks like a fermented banana peel. The other Mouths laugh their guts out for the 10th time in ten consecutive meetings because Mouths do not have storage to store information and every day they are as fresh as day one. But poor brains they know that they have been listening to the same joke for over a decade now and give a smirk of these-fellows-never-change. This smirk is considered a mark of success and Mouths go on and on till his wagging tongue goes dry. One mouth goes dry and the other begins. This goes on and on till the neighborhood is as dry as a desert with not a drop of water.
After all this "drunken" ( I meant water drunk) ramblings, the Brains are asked to ask questions. Can they? There will be a blessed few which could. And, when Brains ask questions they are bound to be logical, because logic is what Brains thrive on. Mouths dodge the questions with tact, they use all their proficiency and come up with the words like " not at this point of time", "we can take this up offline", " we are considering this ", " we do not have sufficient information". When a question shoots up that cannot be shot down with any of these phrases the true nature of the Mouths come out. The guarded diplomacy degrades into phrases of "If I buy a dog who wears the collar", " If I employ a driver who decides the salary", " If I stop eating who will suffer".
Brains understand and record for the umpteenth time that "Mouths are like this", and some go ahead and wish for a transplant - a change into another body. A simple meeting has its hazardous consequences which Mouths will never understand, will they? Now I hope you understood the title!!!

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BDay - My day

Well how to begin, should I adopt a Torantino style and narrate the events in a non-linear manner or should I take an animated route? Okay... on this day I will do it my own way.
After all the shopping I have done for 2 months I have decided I will not buy anything in the coming 6 months at least but, you see there is always a but butting in what ever I say, I went out on the evening of 2nd Jan to dine out with you-know-who. Unfortunately I had more time that what I needed for dining so... so what? I went window shopping for the 3 time this week.This time not to Megamart but to a different outlet. As soon as I went in I was awestruck, dumbstruck and thunderstruck to know that Espirit shirt was sold at as low a price as 550 bucks - 20% discount. You know I am good at profits and losses and percentages. With amazing speed I calculated the price to be 440 and despite all the advice I received I bought a shirt.
( wonder why I did not mention about this in my blog yesterday- I did mention and I was crying about this, rather covertly, all over my blog).
But today is not a day to cry because 24 years ago right on this date I declared my emergence to the people around and in a way to the world by tugging at the necklace of the doctor who helped my mother with me. Of course I cried aloud that day when the doctor did not let the chain go. The doctor called me a Demon( a rakshasa) for all I did,sad isn't it for a new born to be referred thus. Wait a minute, why am I talking about what happened 24 years ago. I will talk about today my 24th birth day. The day( at 12) started with a plum-cake cutting followed by a couple of phone calls and wished over Orkut. After we devoured the cake I filled my blog till 2 in the night and slept for the day. What12 'o'clock is to frens 6 o' clock is to family. I never get up from bed before 10 in the morning if it is a holiday, having said that my parents do know about this but expected me to be up at the least by 8 today and called me at 9. Needless to say I was still in bed and the first question my mom asked was " Do you remember that today is your birthday" and I said yes half asleep. Then she asked me if I was still in bed and I said " No " - A typical Johny Johny yes papa situation isn't it? Realizing it is time to get up I tore blankets away and emerged once again for the 25 th time on this date but today with a head ache because of sleeping late and raising early. I rushed through the ablutions to check gifts all from you-know-who. The first I set my hands on was a wallet, the second was a little unexpected a photo frame with a very relevant picture in it and the third was a stunner. The third pack contained 3 books one was Brida by Paul Coehelo, the next was Rosa by an author I haven't heard of and the third was The Last Mughal by William Darlymple. "The last Mughal" goes long way with me. Every time I go to a book shop I lay hands on it and will want to buy it but refrain from do it not because of the price but because I doubted if I could complete this book. I borrowed this book couple of years ago from my company's library and I returned the book reading only the first 45 pages of it. Then on this book has remained elusive. Now I get to lay hands on it and really happy about it. Thanks to you my beloved. The last was a fast track watch which wasn't a surprise as I guessed this the before day itself :).
I will save the rest of the day's events for tomorrow because after a long weekend it certainly would be an eventless day at office.

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Art of shopping - I am not boasting

I have been doing nothing for the past two months, in my free time, except for stepping in and stepping out of every decent clothe showroom to check the offers and spent close to 5k of Indian currency at various outlets.I buy clothes like hell and that is a known fact. Family and Friends, alike, wonder if I want to start a showroom of second hand clothes as a part time.
With no support from near and dear, I feel let down and I feel a need to justify, justify - rather to myself.
I would never want to buy clothes at their full price nor would I like to compromise on the brand or quality. These restrictions do not allow me to enjoy the freedom of buying clothes at will. So what do I? I shop every three months and rest of the time I do window shopping. I enjoy doing even this. There is every chance that you get good merchandise during such endeavors. This principle I realized pretty late in life, might be early for few. The first year I came to Chennai I was wanting to get some "newies" for my birthday. I went straight to the nearest shopping streets of Velachery, chose a shop, stepped in, called on the help boy and straight away selected what I thought I needed and moved out feeling okay. It would have been better if the matters ended there but they never did. After quite some days of my stint at this shop I happened to be at one of the other shopping centers, namely Spencers, in the city and found out that clothes of finer quality and better brand value were available at unbelievably low prices. I was shocked, then depressed and to fall out of this mental state of mind I tried to convince myself that every next thing is better that the previous. I fought a losing battle because I knew that I did a mistake.
I changed the way I shop. I stopped shopping for the occasion. I started shopping at will and wish in fact I started shopping only when I was satisfied both with the merchandise and the price. I did not find this troublesome or onerous as I always loved taking a look at new things.
But, there are several downsides in taking this approach to shopping. First this is highly addictive and window shopping can become your second nature and buying things your third. If you are not determined enough( or do not have some one around to hold you back) and have sufficient funds in hand you could end up making your place a warehouse. Second, if you have a girl friend you can bore her out of her skin, if just in case you girl finds this approach fascinating and adopts it God save you both, either you break over sartorial matters and if ever your relationship lasts you will be in want of money( I am a little lucky here). And the last effect is you could be termed girlish or Clothe warehouse. I tell you I have managed to stab myself with this triple headed spear and I am reeling under its nauseous unpleasant effect with my room becoming a unkempt hell- a place for mosquitoes and its larvae.It is time I take a wardrobe management course if there is one or buy DDT as a temporary solution.

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New year - Resolution Time

I have many thoughts coming into my mind when I drive, when I eat and when I do everything else but when, just when I sit down to put these thoughts on paper they evaporate and I turn blank. Nevertheless I will not relent from updating my blog any day - Resolution Number 1.
I will try and stop being satirical( when not needed :) ) - Resolution number 2.
I will be more responsible than yesterday- Number 3.
And after that I think I am perfect, so naturally the list of resolutions should end here but it does not because I suddenly see a worm beneath the veneer of perfection. I stare at it but it does not move. I put my finger through and tickle it, it does not stir. The worm looks dead and I start celebrating my perfection but now I see ripples in my perfection. The worm raises its dirty head and wags it tail. The worm of laziness has been spoiling my party and it did that again.
This wretch makes me sleep for long hours, makes me skip bath and breakfast, sometimes diseases me into procrastination, fails me at being regular with medication and worse forces me to be rash on roads putting me in mortal danger. It is time I strangle this worm to death and this should top the list of resolutions. The only way of ever doing this, I realize, is being determined and regular.

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