Thursday, December 29, 2011

New Year in Water?


THANE - a "very severe" category cyclone is expected to hit land on the morning of 30th between Nagapatinam and Chennai bringing in widespread rains in entire South India, especially Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Storms touching 125 kmph expected to hit the coastal areas of these areas. Prayers that the cyclone weakens and that there is no loss of life.


Pic Courtesy: IMD

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Sibling: The Best Relation One Can Own

Life is full of events - events that make us strong, events that make us weak, events that change our perspective, events that are special, events that change our personality and so on. I thought I would share few events in my life that moulded me or helped me to widen my views and logic.

I would like to start with an incident that happened when I was in my early teens. Till my XI standard I was a strict brother. I was nicknamed "Mahout" by my sister, Sandhya (who is three years younger to me), for my rough attitude and mercilessness towards her. I often misunderstood that elder brothers are supposed to keep a distance from their siblings and should establish their dictatorship. Sounds very illogical and stupid right but that were how I was. I guess since I have never seen good siblings’ relationship but had witnessed more of rivalry, I had nurtured myself with such narrow-mindedness.

My mom often used to say that whenever she leaves me and my sis at home and goes out for shopping, she by default had to consider purchasing Band-Aid for the bruises and scratches that we would have succeeded in contributing to each other. If blood relation has a different meaning as the one who injures other and ensures that blood is coming out of it, then we would perfectly fit that definition.

One day I was having severe headache and the noise around added to my misery, thus resulting in uneven BP. At this point, my mom was away and I had an argument with my sis. This developed in physical assault and we started hurting each other. My physical condition made me more arrogant and aggressive and I hurt my sis a lot more than any one would have ever hurt their sibling. I still regret for my deed that day. Even today I remember her crying with intense pain and anger. I also remember my first experience with BP where the entire vision around me was shrinking and narrowing down into darkness. 

Though I was not that affected by my barbaric reaction immediately, one event that followed it made me bow my head down with shamefulness in front of my own conscious. It was my first experience of mutual respect and acceptance towards sibling by my friend Praveen Antony. Praveen Antony was a very jovial and fun loving person. Generally there will be three slabs in schools, the studious, the backbenchers and the neutral. I belonged to the third category and my sis the first (probably that too should have added fuel to the fire ;-)). Right from my fifth standard when I joined the school, we had the same batch till X. Praveen Antony joined us during IXth or Xth, I don't remember exactly when but he was such a friendly and humorous character that everyone liked him. His nature brought all the three slabs under one roof of friendship, such was his persona and I had great regards for him.

Another friend of mine, Manu, had a library run by his mom. One day, during our XI, we went to borrow books from his library. While few were checking books like Hardy Boys and Agatha Christie, Praveen was looking for the Mills & Boons. We started teasing him and pulling his leg for his eagerness to read romantic books. He very coolly said that he is searching the book for his sister who was just a year younger to him. Hearing this, I don't know how much others were shocked, I was taken back. A brother selecting a romantic book for his sis was out of my zone and indigestible. I was keen and asked him, how can you do this? He as always was very cool and replied that, "After an age, just like how I grew, my sister too would have grown. Just like how I know all the good and bad, she also knows. So it is meaningless to hide the truth but rather apt to accept and respect it." I felt as if someone slapped me on my face.

Praveen's words and maturity started haunting me and I felt how silly I had been all these years. There was an instantaneous change in me and I started accepting my sister as part of my life, not as a sister alone but as my best friend. The whole dimension changed. Growing up I did commit few mistakes after that but never as intense as I had during the yesteryears. Thanks to that event that I realized the value of intelligence over instinct. I also migrated from the illogical world of dictating to the logical and pleasant universe of love, care and affection.

Not everyone will get a person like Praveen Antony to display the value of good sibling relationship. Nor does any sibling relationship need to go through so much of agitation and pain for so many years which deserves to be colored with beautiful events and memories. I guess it would be apt if parents could make their kids understand value of loving each other and erase the mentality of competition. Today, my sis, Sandhya, is the best sis and friend combo that I am blessed with and I always regret missing out on those wonderful years of growing up. Accept your relation as they are and enjoy every moment, life will be a beautiful story unwinding to the tune of happiness, fun, fulfillment and completeness. For people who are committing the same mistake that I did, think again please!!!

SATHISH N

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

A Special Day in my Life

Recently there was a topic on a talk show about celebrating the dear one's special days. There were points raised like things look too artificial, things seems to be done for the sake of doing, public disturbance and so on. The counterpoint raised by people who supported it said these things are done to make people realise how special they are, make them happy and excited, an expression of care and likewise. On this particular topic I was on the neutral side, as I supported surprises but without much noise and fanfare.

I work in the night shift away from all the heavy traffic jams, tiring travels and reckless rides of the day. On November 29th, I was on my routine and busy with the day's work. By around 11:45 PM or so I started feeling hungry and was pestering my friend Sinoj to go to the canteen. He was busy with some work and was delaying things. With my stomach grumbling, questioning me if I am going to feed it or not, I decided to cool it down with some water. At this point, my Manager, Ranjith, enquired me about a report that I had mailed him a day back. We logged into my system and discussed on the report. Ranjith suggested certain logics and asked to do some analysis based on that.

As I was looking on to the report and checking on the suggestions, our office boy, Shanmugam, told me that someone is waiting for me at the parking lot in a rickshaw with a Big Box that I am only supposed to collect. Surprised and shocked to hear it, I asked him not to kid and check properly as there can't be anyone asking for me at that time of the night. He returned for confirmation, while I continued with my analysis. Few minutes later Shanmugam returned saying that the person is waiting only for me. Doubled minded, I decided to join him and check out what is the matter. When we were about to move out, Shanmugam found that the Big Box was in our meeting room which was already collected by someone. Thinking that Shanmugam was wrongly updated, I decided to go back to my system and start working on the report.

Just few minutes into the report, my Manager called me to my mobile, asking to come to the conference room immediately. When I reached there I found that all the managers and supervisors were there with a box of sweets and a cake with good wishes on it. There was also a big box unopened, which Shanmugam had mentioned earlier. Everyone shook hands and wished me. Yes, it is 12 O' Clock and November 30th. So what is special about November 30th??? Years back, it was on that date I inhaled my first breath on mother earth. My friend Sinoj wished me with a tricky smile, which clearly revealed that he intentionally delayed from going out to have food.

Away from the normal practise, I was asked to light up a Nilavilakku (traditional lamp) which I liked so much; I guess it is Ranjith's suggestion. Even though it was a simple thing or a different format of lighting, I felt something special lighting it and seeing it glowing bright. After cuttting the cake that our team brought and celebrating, people started pulling my legs on the Big Box that was on the table. They confirmed that the Big Box was a gift for me from some unknown. When we opened it up, it was a very big cake, enough to be shared with all our departments. The cake was very cute with wordings "Happy Birthday Dear Sathish" on the upper half and the bottom half was fully decorated with Rose Flowers of different colors. It was looking so lovely and beautiful.

The only update that we got from the person who delivered the cake was, 'It is a Surprise for Sathish from CMS (my school) friends'. I was puzzled who on earth after so many years remembered my birthday and planned so much to give me a surprise. Mahesh is one person who is from CMS but since he knows that I don't like to be in the limelight, he will not push me into it. Everyone asked who is that special person and so on but I was in shock, surprise and happiness that someone had valued me so much. I was in cloud nine and could feel the stars around. My mind was totally blank and couldn't think too much. I just kept on staring at the cake mesmerized at the way my name was cherished over it and the decorations. Though, back of my mind, something started hinting me that this should be the handwork of my childhood friend, Ramya, but details like CMS friends and delivery at a place 100 kilometers away from where she is located at sharp 12 forced me to doubt my instinct. There were some messages from her wishing on my brithday and missed calls but since I was in the festive atmosphere, I couldn't read them or attend the call immediately. I tried reaching her after the celebration, but she didn't pick up, maybe she dozed off.

Ranjith suggested that we will celebrate it with our entire team. The team joined us and each and everyone wished me. We shared the gift with everyone in the office. Even after giving it to the entire office, we had enough to parcel for our office boy and security's family. I too took few to home to share it with mom and dad. I believe it was the first time in my life that so many people wished me on my Birthday. Also me cutting the cake had never been part of my personal agenda during birthday's, but now I had one shared with my entire second family (my team). Sinoj was very particular that I should find the person when I report to office the next day as people were pointing him. I was suggested to even call Mahesh at that time to get things cleared but being in the middle of the night, we controlled our eagerness.

By morning, the suspense was broken, it was the handwork of Ramya and Mahesh. They know each other well but never expected to bring out such teamwork. Ramya was the biggest support during my days of turmoil and helped me stand strong and recover fast. She wanted to celebrate this birthday as if it is my first. She had already presented me with some gifts which itself was a surprise but it seems she felt that it didn't give enough punch that she had wished for. She had called up Mahesh and they planned on this surprise cake gift. While I was pulling Sinoj to join to the canteen, she was guiding the person to deliver it on time. Being a long day, after ensuring that the gift had reached its destiny, she dozed off and that's the reason she didn't attend when I called her back.

It has been quite some days since this has happened, but I am still in the clouds. Feeling that you are special is something that one should experience by themselves. Few people believe that there is no need to express themselves, since affections needs to be felt, else it will be like marketing. I too belonged to the same category all these years but after this incident I have a totally different perspective. The amount of happiness, completeness, self confidence, and self respect that expressing oneself injects in the dear ones is boundless. Though we may have everyone, during tough days loneliness creeps in by itself but such expressions move life to a different plateau that the concept of loneliness will be always at bay. When I see some lovely friends and families, I always wonder how wonderful their special days would be but gets disappointed when they state it was same as any other (maybe all the day is a celebration for them and I have not grown to that level to understand it :-)).

More than the day, I believe it is an opportunity to express yourself to your dear one in a royal way how special they mean to you. I felt special and my heart is filled with happiness and wholeness for I have beautiful souls and hearts with me. No wonder the talk show had so many people supporting it and now I too fall into that list. Life is big, live it king sized. We run around the never satisfied materialistic things like money, property, luxury, power and other materials and do anything and everything to attain it even by forgetting to enjoy the basic reason of our existance, life and relation. I wish all the lovely people celebrate their relationship and enjoy it to the most instead of loosing life to miniscule things. I also wish everyone be blessed with dear ones with beautiful souls as I am blessed with, including the ones who call up on Dec. 6 and say it is your birthday today dude, not on Nov. 30, and let's celebrate it now :-)

SATHISH N