Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Walking through 2008

Just a day left for this year to complete and I just felt like recollecting and logging some of my unforgettable moments/thoughts lived over this year. Difficult for me to judge if 2008 was good, bad or fun filled for me. As this year was kind of roller coaster for me with varieties of intuitions in my mind.

Going back to first month of 2008, I remember my short fabulous trip with my family to various temples before sending off my brother leaving to Muscat at the Chennai airport. Oh! Just can’t believe that a year has passed by since then... and then I was gifted with my Pleasure end of the month and I was just flying flying and even now having lots of Pleasure with my Pleasure.

Back in town starting with regular I was thinking how I should further fair well in my career. Leaving it aside, stepped into the second month February where in I had 2 wonderful Birthday celebrations of my best friends! I can never erase those 2 days of my life. 2 parties, week after week with my best friends! But then I also had a depressing day when I lost my favorite Sony Ericson…along which I lost some of the best videos and pictures… That was a terrible day…for me..and I still remember how much I wept, and then how my mom and dad consoled me…

I was all fine then and then as mentioned above the next day was rocking with such a lovely birthday celebration of my best leader ever cum friend! Whole day was just too good..

Moving further, I was back with my thoughts of progressing further well in my career. That was when I realized where I was, how I have to cope up with various difficulties. With the best thoughts from my leader I was able to gain lot of positive thoughts by getting the habit of reading books. As advised by my lead I read through various books. Never thought letters can be so powerful and started sharing the same with lot many friends. That could be viewed as a crazy phase of reading. Especially I was addicted towards reading and explaining it to my friends all time.

Amidst this, just to relax got an opportunity to even help little kids at tent schools in need of education. Two, 3 weeks went further visiting the kids and helping them but unfortunately could not continue longer… and then a wonderful trip on a weekend with my friends to Nandhi hills…Even if asked now I can narrate every single wonderful moment we had that day!! Then…

Came the phase of tackling emotions. 2 of my friends were departing, my team was almost broken into pieces and it was very difficult for me to continue with my routine. Oops that was again terrible, I was almost depressed. Yet again it was my lead who taught me how to align our mind and keep forging ahead and at the same time not to miss enjoying every single moment of life.

So next couple of months I was back on track in my routine with my new team, had fun in a team outing and so on.

Then yet another crazy phase of feeling lonely….One of my close uncles expired suddenly, that was very shocking….May be less work too in office was driving me crazy, Simply I used to get depressed feel very lonely, nostalgic and cry, cry cry for unknown reasons…and it was my wonderful aunt who luckily happened to visit my place, helped me in gaining my positive vibrations back. Had another fun filled unforgettable vacation with my family and cousins…

Hectic work followed a month after due to my new responsibilities and my shifting to a new house; I just had time to speak to my parents and colleagues at office. Learnt many new things at workplace and even while setting up a new house.

And then another month passed by taking through another ride in the tide of friendship and strange feelings. Friends were gaining so much of importance in my life, I never thought which would happen…when I still remember the first days of my college life where I was just telling myself I am just happy with my family..but now I strongly say nooooooo…My friends are also equally important and make a great ingredient in recipe of my life as that of my family…

Now when I look back at all these thought, I feel so good and happy for year 2008 to leave me with these good learning experiences. At the end or may be as resolution for the coming year I would just say I would like “stay as what I am” and keep spreading happiness all over with my best!

Short and strong thought before I end my line for this year “B +ve” forever!!

Happy New year!!

Cheers,

Akshatha

Friday, November 14, 2008

Battle of Bays

Hiho… The crazy lazy mind is back again with a short narration on the battle that was held just a couple of days back….

With the hectic days passing by with loads of work my mind was hungry for some kind of entertainment...and yes it was the right time for a short celebration on the eve of 10th birthday of our organization…. As a part of it we had a competition titled the “Battle of Bays”

The title itself was very enriching for my mind. Immediately a short appreciation passes across this mind for the guys who chose the title..Good one…At least I was ready for the battle along with me team… After a days thought I wrote a mail to drive my team for the battle and that was a good drive.. Super cool team came up with many ideas….. Following which a short meeting request went out to my team mates..just the request was small but the meeting was itself fun filled and long than expected..End of it we were ready with the masterplans made with the mixture of our ideas and also some of the ideas gathered from our friends and colleagues gathered round the globe….The plan was to make a Time 10nel(tunnel) inside which we planned to depict the achievements/growth of the company over the past 10 years. Our team was futher divided into team of 2 each and the various tasks were distributed…

Everybody knew their task and had to execute it very fast and smartly without dirturbing the regular office work…. My day was little too exciting..suddenly I get a call from my old Pal with a note saying we are meeting in the evening..I was just lost…because I was meeting my pal after 14 years, along with it I had to do some preparations for the battle…

As against the title lazy mind my mind was more active organized the tasks very well and executed them perfectly… Then at night around 10..we get a SMS from our manager that reads “Battle lines are drawn…make sure you complete your finishing touches by 9..30 a.m the next day” …that gave a futhere push to us for the battle…..after meeting my pal and buying the necessary items I reached my house by 10.30 p.m..then follows the fast dinner with my Room mate and finally around 11.30 started with the decorative preparations or some small art works I had to had… My roomie was so sweet that she helped me until 1.00 a.m for making a Flag with the logo of our company and a hand cutting to signify the 10 year completion…..My eyes had to stay online uptil 2.30 a.m…

Winning or losing was not a matter, the crazy mind was so hungry for entertainment that I was in office with all my decorative stuff by 7.15 a.m in office..As we get dressed with new dress on our birthday…my company was no less…it was adorned with beautiful flowers and that was a lovely treat for my eyes early morning…I went ahead to my bay…on the was I saw a completely decorated bay..where in we had to just start..and I could not spot even one from my team..we had less time…

With little disappointment I thought I would wait for my team to join and until then do my regular office work..I connected to my outlook just to get shocked and see that my manager is down with fever…I lost interest..it was 8.00 still none of them were available…but even then this crazy mind wanted to fighting in the battle…

May be I was impatient…slowly my team mates started coming one by one and started showing what all they brought for decorating the bay…Then we started when it was nice to see our neighboring team also murmuring and decorating their bay…we were just left with 1.5 hours but were most tensed waiting for our tunnel team which was less very cool and only turned up at 9.00 and the judges were supposed to come at 9.30…It was 9.15 and just then the poles for making the tunnel were rooted in the bottles around the corners…

It was 9.30 and the bay was very clumsy with people on the floor preparing the charts, blowing baloons and the decorative items very just scattered around…That scene was very funny..If the judges had turned on time then we would have been in a embarrassing situation…lucky were we…Time was running by , and all of us in a hurry weree just trying to set up everything fine as soon as possible and yes We set our plan right and complete by 10.45 right on time of judges visit…Those moments were very cool….

Our short tunnel was finally up for the judges to pave their way into it and see the achievements…that was just for 5 mins but we took about 180 mintues to make it look so beautiful….but I was little disappointed to hear a comment saying its kinda “ghost house” as we had used black garbage bag to ge t the feel of tunnel…But still there were many other visitors into our tunnel and really appreciated work and ideas…
We also went around various bays to check about our competitior ideas…They were really awesome… when I could just feel that apart from software engineers there wers also awesome interior decorators…. Big team had amazed the visitors of their Bays…

All in all it was great fun and a different day against the hectic official tie ups to our PCs…I was so damn tired that I rushed home early from office and had a deep long sleep in the evening.
Cheers,
Akshatha

Monday, October 6, 2008

Magical Dreams

Dreams – something driven by mind? If yes then how? About what ? What is it… these are the questions running in my mind for couple of days now. I checked out the meaning of dream in my dictionary and I got various meanings for it like vision, nightmare, delusion, day dream and so on… For me it looks very magical. Some times it is funny, sometimes scary and sometimes ambiguous. I get up in the morning and I wonder what was I dreaming. Sometimes I do not even remember them.

Over the past 3 nights I had 3 different long run dreams and everyday morning I just got used to sharing the same with my room mate and think about it. I always see a relation for at least one character or the object that I would have come across the previous day.

And I wonder the shifts in location or environment that come in my dreams. May be my mind alters it the way it wants it to be or what?? Such questions remain unanswered..

Sharing few of my dreams here…

When I was in my childhood days, suddenly early at the dawn, my parents woke at my continuous laugh.. they found me laughing in the sleep, and they tried to wake me up I was telling them please don’t disturb and I went on and on…That was a funny dream where I dreamt of a fat singer playing with me run and catch in the sea shore and suddenly he stamps on the grease and falls down… Just imagine a great singer playing run and catch in the sea shore with a small kid..So weird and funny…

Next..during my days in hostel, I used to collect change for my uncle which helps him giving change to the customers of his medical shop.. this dream went to such heights that one day I saw myself begging in the train compartments for change in the train… after that I stopped collecting change ;-) …
My Final year project was a nightmare to me..I always used to dream that the B.E degrees of mine and my projects are with held for not submitting the project on time and this news is published in newspaper.....
And now recently in last couple of day I saw few nightmares where I saw my friend committing suicide but then my mind saves my friend alive in spite of terrible suicidal attempts as it always wishes for the living of my pal….Sometimes I even wake up at the end of the scary dream but after getting up the impact would be low ..or I would stay calm wondering what happened…

Sometimes people about whom I chat round the corner would also turn up in my dream wearing the armor of self characters… I then share the same with them and laugh very much..
Another funny adventurous dream to share.. Being a sensitive and also bold and catching spot of my favorite celebrities in TV or the urge to meet them made my mind draft a funny adventurous dream where in I was abducted to a lonely island unknowingly from my office….when I am abducted..the location of the island is something different…and then being sensitive..I get scared to see strange smugglers in Arabic costume and then being a little bold I think how to escape and then I see one of the film actress who was shooting in the island…and I ask her for help to drop me to my office…I show my ID and then when she gives lift I catch sight of various other favorite celebrities of mine and I am impressed very much… Then since I have to know the way to my office back from island and my mind knows all the routes of my native place it changes the location to my native place…. Then since it is my native..My mom comes into picture suddenly..and then I tell her about my so played “Adventurous – journey” and suddenly I show her two Wallets, a smaller one and a bigger one that was threatened and handed over to me my one of the lady smugglers in the island…Nevertheless I am happy with the wallet..and the design f the one same as that I had got for my birthday.. Was the lay smuggler my manager?? I do not know, but may be mind drafted it keeping my manager in mind as I was handed over a gift voucher my her on the eve of my birthday…

Strange but looks magical or like a fantasy for me… I do know why they say Dream high and achieve your goals but here I see that what ever I have seen or experienced is captured in my dream…I do have thought about various ambitions of mine but never ever they splurged in my dreams… So what is it??? Still in surprise for me…
Akshatha

Monday, September 1, 2008

Toss the Feathers


Quite some time back I got to glimpse at a video song on one of my cousin’s PC. The song titled “Toss the feathers”. The video was just an instrumental music being played by 3 beautiful young ladies. One with a flute, second one playing a simple drum and another violin. The video lasted for a span of 3 minutes but within that short time the ladies played a soothing music so beautifully, that I felt as if some beautiful feathers were flying around me. I was amazed looking at the skills of young beauties.

Additionally recently when I was loading my iPod with some old songs for my dad to listen I heard a song that was hovering over the theme of living the life like a free bird.

It was few of those lines from that song and this video that flashed in my mind as perfect analogies for today’s power of Women.

The song goes like this

“Live like a bird flying freely high in the Sky

Dance like the beautiful tidal waves in the Ocean

Speak out all your rights enjoy your freedom”


Education has proven as such a splendid gift for us that Women of today are making their headways in all domains. No more women are bound within the 4 walls as in olden days.


Couples of lines further made me feel how well the women keep up their duties.

“Wind that keeps gusting around us, like the Sea water never boils even after being under the heat of Sun, like the time that never flies away from us, like the feeling of love that is unforgettable”

So are the professional women today, although they go out for work in the morning/night they never forgot to be a good mother, wife, sister and perform all the work back home.


Women of today are prepared for taking up any challenge be it in personal life or public life.. To tell a very recent instance it is totally a women crew that took an aircraft on 28th July from Chennai to Singapore


Lastly,


“Mother plays a major role in the origin of a new life,

The syllables and languages form the main parts of speech

Hunger is something that is inseparable from day to day life”

So is the significance of Women in all aspects of life.

It was a time that women had to depend on men for each and every one of their needs. But times have changed by. We see women have stepped in every walk of life right from ploughing to managing a space craft as a cosmonaut. Singapore. Women having come out of all the social hindrances are flying in beautiful colors to play the role of a Mother to a President

They have proved themselves successful professionals in all walks of life.

Women have progressed in all ways and as clipped in the video song they can be tossed in any province as beautiful feathers!

Yes! It is definitely the right time to celebrate the flight of the free birds!

Cheers,

Akshatha

Monday, August 25, 2008

A day out with my team

Here I am with an exciting post on my team outbound that I had with my team on Friday. As usual a mail came in from our manager to all of us with the subject highlighting the team outbound request. With all the curiosity I opened the mail to check out the location. It was a resort with many sports facilities. That did not excite me much. Although the meeting request came a week before nothing much was planned.

This was my first team outbound and I had heard lots from my friends about that as an exciting experience. Since some of my old friends were not present I was bit gloomy hence did not get excited too to participate in it.

Keeping aside all those gloomy thoughts I thought to plan something exciting from my side to make our trip interesting and exciting..That also went in vain as I was profoundly loaded with my training sessions and work. At last the day came, our count dropped from 15 to 11 due to some sudden sickness leaves and personal commitments. Still we proceeded. 11 of us into the Swaraj Mazda…. Within few mins we started playing dumbsharats .. We had formed 2 teams one team had to enact a movie name and the other team had to find it out. The resort was 30 mins away from our office….the fun began then…I came to know how good my vocabulary was. I could not even follow the meaning of a English movie name..I passed my chance to my team mate..It went on..and then when it passed to the opponent team it was ever Manager who took the chance of acting..it was fun..we reached the resort and we had to stop the game….


At the reception there was a board that read “Welcome SAP Netweaver Production – Day out” and a person came serving a fruit punch as the welcome drink ;-) ..That welcome gave an immense pleasure and pride to me… Apart from our team we were also accompanied with a little guest who was very quiet initially and reserved. I dragged the little wonder to an aquarium to show fish and excite her. That was a great success…yes we got to hear to the little wonder, daughter of our manager and slowly she started moving around with us…..

We were given with Cricket bat, Tennis rackets and many more….. There was a beautiful pool swimming pool but I had forgotten to get my swim suit and I felt extremely bad and sad for my bad memory. Immediately we started off of with a cricket match. The team was split into “Lagaan” and “Chak De SAP”. We were 4 gals and 6 boys but were equally distributed. The match started….Our team won the batting but owing to less number of players we had to do fielding for our opponent as well ;-)…. Rajnish did the opening with Susu…. Rajnish was batting well…after few runs it was Sus’s turn. He hit and run…it was the time for the first wicket yes..I caught the ball immediately threw to the bowler and we had a run out…Sus went to susu ;-) ..The game went on with lot of energy from all…First match our team Lagaan won..and then we departed for lunch..


During our lunch it started raining, the climate was good we all were enjoying the lunch..our little girly started speaking more…naming all the vegetables one by one that she found on her plate. Although we never got introduced to her she started giving names to all of by the color of our dress. It was very nice to see that innocence.


Nice climate, nice food, we almost felt like taking a short nap but then we moved on with indoor games. Some of us played table tennis and few others carom and so on. Then after a while once the rain stopped, we moved out to play tennis, badminton. For the first time ever I tried to place tennis..I hit with the racket..oops the tennis ball was flying high like anything…We had to run so much..Then we had a call for evening tea…the hospitality of the resort was so good that they served the tea/snacks at the tennis court beside the lawn..It was a good feeling to sit in the lawn and have a hot sip of coffee amidst the cool climate…… Following our tea we began with our next game “Passing the parcel”. One of the members was playing and pausing the music and the member whoever held the parcel at the pause of the music had to say some truth or dare to perform some challenging actions…That was of great fun, one of the member had to converse with the ladies of the resort who were doing some cutting/cleaning work at the lawn and find out their names… And then one of them had to sing a song in different language that was unknown to them and another one rolling on the lawn like monkey…. Time swifted again..still no mood to return back home… Had another cricket match following which there was some joke session…All of them shared a couple of jokes or some funny incidents that had taken place in their life….We never thought that even with a small crew of 10 people we would enjoy so much.


It was around 7 p.m and we had to have the dinner and move on…but one last thing we thought we will enjoy was the dance floor….Soon a dance floor was arranged and I was shocked to see Salman khan, Hrithik roshan…great actors/dancers within Netweaver Production team…oops…what an energy even after discharging so much in the criket ground, tennis court and so on…The Disc player was testing our patience..when we start to dance it used to get stuck and stop playing music and when we were idle it use to sing well J but still all of us managed to have fun and finally pushed ourselves around 8.30 for dinner…..

At last during the dinner it was very nice to hear from each about the joyous experience they had over the entire day and we thanked our manager for arranging such a wonderful day out.

All the fun looked as if it finished within a fraction of a second…….. Good that we had a weekend following which we could rest and come to office with a clear mind and work effectively!

All in all the one day outbound was rocking!!

Cheers,

Akshatha

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Celebration of Women

My manager posted our team a mail yesterday. The subject stated “Celebration of women” and the mail was sent only to female colleagues of my team. The body of the mail subjected an opportunity for us to write a small article that show-cased the beauty or the power of women. Since these days I let my thoughts flow in my blog, immediately I had an impulse within myself to carve up my pride as a woman.

Owing to less time I surfed through some of the surveys online to check how happy or proud a woman was about being a woman. There was one article titled “Hear us roar”. I was speechless at the title itself. The article began with a beautiful analogy between women and the lioness as follows:

Although the lion is often called the King of the Jungle, lion society is actually ruled by its females. Lionesses are the ones primarily responsible for providing sustenance for their entire pride. She is a natural leader.

Just 3 to 4 lines but my mind could map them with the current lifestyle of woman.
Those days, are no more when woman were meant just for household works or bestowed with the suit of sole helper or a kind of slave for men. Woman was completely dependant on man for all the needs. For the old generations that have always seen male gender as the one that is honored or endorsed to go to school, work, girls are still the ones meant to be caged inside the four walls of a house. I still hear my grand parents, mumbling that females are not meant for studying more or working at office and on and on. It was during the ancient generation that the woman was completely portrayed as sole caretaker and helper, who is not allowed or entitled for any freedom.

We are lucky today; women have come out of such barriers or inequalities and are now exploring the world and flying in beautiful colors in all the fields. Right from the base role of Mother up to a president, women have walked around various characters in the theater of life.

Having entered my professional life for quiet some period now, I feel contented for being so independent and able to manage myself well at home and office. It’s almost 4 years now since I have stepped out of my house and there was hardly any time I ever felt ok! This task cannot be done by a woman…and that I cannot do it on my own. As the famous adage says “Where there is a will there is a way”….It’s very true and Woman of today are so much daring and willing for any task. When I was with my parents I used to see my Dad or brother run around for all the work….Now the scene is different…..

Woman rock at all stages of life. They come into the world as beautiful little daughters’, to grow up to pretty girls, and then transform into Wife. Now a day before or even in parallel to the segment of Wife, women have established themselves as successful professionals in various fields. Then comes the most beautiful phase of life for women – yes she wears the armor of Mother and then aunt, grandmother so on.

Presently when I see my little sister and few friends playing the beautiful role of Mother, working in nice firm, being so independent and managing both their work in office and at home I am pleased. I feel so proud for being a woman.

To summarize as stated above “Woman is a natural leader”. When hunting, each lioness plays to her strengths. Woman adjusts her individual role in the hunt depending on the prey to ensure capture for the pride. She can adapt to suit the task at hand. Like a lioness nurses any cub, indiscriminate of whether that cub is her own Women are the one who will give with the greater good in mind and can adorn themselves with any armor at any time as required.

Certainly it is the right time for celebration of Woman and we women must definitely realize the significance of Woman power and empower them self more with all the freedom/female more they have now and sustain as the best creation of almighty ever.
Cheers,
Akshatha


Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Parks - Major recreational area


When I looked for the meaning of this word in English I got various meanings and I felt all were perfect and really reflected my understanding about parks, at various ages of my life. I can quote two of the familiar meaning for it, one the “Playground” and other the “Recreational area”.
If we go and ask a kid of 5th or 6th standard what does he/she understand by the word park , the output would be playground and yes that is what even I felt when I was in my school days….
But the same question if we pose to our parent or the elders these days or even youngsters the result would be recreational area. And yes I agree to the same now…
These days my life has become so monotonous that I wake up by 6 or 7 push myself to office by 8 and back home by 9 cook, eat and sleep… same procedure follows for the next 5 weekdays and the weekend is there again the monotonous procedure takes a different face of washing clothes, cleaning the house or hanging out the friends. Rarely I rest at home or divert my mind for different set of activities. Last weekend I tried to change it, in doing so I landed up going for walk in the evening in a park near my house…. I was there only for about 25 mins but yet I was fascinated by the beauty of nature, and also by the amount of tranquility it provided to my mind. Marvelous!
I saw different set of people in the park. To list out few here…
  • There were group of friends having a sort of get together
  • Young married couple with their baby, eating some fruits
  • Two kids playing with a throw ball
  • Young lovers
  • Young boys and gals jogging/walking
  • One boy and a gal, doing a combine study or preparing for some exam
  • Set of middle aged ladies having a chat
  • Some young guys eying the beautiful gals ;-)
  • One old man talking to his handicapped or mentally retarded grandson
  • Few people doing some exercise, few of them meditating and so on

And amongst all me taking a cool evening walk with nice music soothing my ears and my eyes noticing all the minute things possible…. When I saw so many people inning the parks I really felt it was a beautiful recreational area and it served its purpose very well…….. All the ones who were in the park enjoyed the beauty of the nature and also could feel some rest for their minds which is usually very tired over the weekdays…
There were few other set of people selling flowers, some snacks, and some play items for small kids etc outside the park.
It was past 25 mins since I started with my walk and it was the closing time of the park..I had to push out forcefully… As the synonym of park points to recreational area..I really felt it was so… I could see the reflection of the word recreation in each of the individual’s face inside the park…..


This wonderful beauty of nature really offers good relaxation, more healthy inputs that has attracted a good crowd these days towards park. It’s really astounding to see young people including small kids jogging in the park thinking about keeping their health intact, maintaining a healthy personality and so on…. which was not the case in past times where whenever the parents talk to the young generation regarding walk or exercise they used to crib and sit quiet at home….

I was very happy to spot many parks almost one in each lane in the beautiful Garden city and feel very thankful to the municipality who give a major hand in keeping them clean and maintain them.

Hope whoever reads this blog will realize the significance of parks and as another meaning of Park (stop for a while) indicates, if they take some time to park their mind in the Parks they can definitely feel the crux of my post.

At last to conclude with I feel that with the growing traffic and pollution the Garden city, definitely Parks are very important and definitely be a major recreational area for all the people staying in the city.

Cheers,
Akshatha





Thursday, June 19, 2008

My Experience away from my home

It’s been around 8 years until today that I have been away from my house. I just can’t imagine how fast the time has flown leaving vivid experiences with me.

I still remember the words uttered by my uncle as soon as I was out of my schooling. “That’s it Akshatha, no more you a permanent resident of your house, you will also visit your house like any other guests”. I had opposed it and could not agree to that point at that time. But now I feel yes, I have been adorned with the guest attire for the past 8 years. Today I have almost spent 8 years away from my house and still wandering amidst my house here, office, weekend hang outs with friends etc…

In my opinion this has been a wonderful chance or opportunity that has paved way for me to learn many valuable things in the journey of life. Today I would journal those experiences here which I feel are worth sharing and I am sure many would agree to my experiences:

Normally parents are very scared to let their kids stay away from them, fearing they would end up in some wrong road. I feel after a certain age it is ok to let the kids stay away and learn from their experiences. Parents can always have an eye on their children and advice if they redundantly commit some mistakes…Self learning or self experience is always the best teacher I feel…This was the case with me….. Although I was out of home after my schooling, I was given with all the freedom, but was closely monitored and directed by parents…

4 years I spent my days in hostel when I first got the chance of handling expenses…My dad used to credit money monthly for my expenses and I had to manage them carefully…. Next I met different set of people, learned how to mingle/adjust with them…. And then came the lesson of organize… I had to manage the things I required daily, like washing clothes on my own, keeping my place clean, getting accustomed to any kind of food and so on…When I was at home I used to have certain restriction with the vegetables/food I used to take…but you are away from home you come to know the value of money, home food J etc….. Additionally you develop some responsibility for self…Over these years when you understand the value of each amenity required to live a beautiful life..you tend to study well or open your eyes and look out for good career opportunities… These push needn’t come from the parents, it will automatically come into ourselves when we are let alone to come up on our own…. If the parents habituate their kids with spoon feeding out of over affection then it might end up in trouble when the children grow up and are suddenly made to take responsibilities.... These responsible thinking will come gradually out of self learning........

So I was out of my college as a nice graduate though I did not end up in any good campus placements… Then started the job hunt…. I was jobless for few months..Luckily I had my bro who was additionally supporting me along with my parents… Now I enter a new city in search of my job…. Everything looks very new and complicated at the beginning… Since my bro use to go for work and was busy with his professional life..I had to get myself comfortable with the new world…

I can’t sit at home 24 hours throughout…had to step out at least twice a day for food or some kinda mental refreshment and mainly visit companies, drop the resume and attend interviews..This when I crossed the chapters of communication, confidence etc… I learnt to roam around in buses on my own (which was not the case before..i.e my dad or uncle used to care for all such matter), communicate with various strangers and look out/aspire for what I wanted… this phase kinda taught me to become more independent or even I can say it made me understand the significance of being independent…

Next comes the episode of professional experience and I am still learning there…. It is when I became completely independent after finding a job…. This is a great experience..at the initial phase you feel very nice..Money starts flowing in your hand and you start having fun with friends, you feel like presenting gifts to your loved ones.. You feel great doing it…. After a period of time here again you get to learn to have control over your expenses, valuing people and so on….. Additionally you get an exposure as to how to align your behavior in a professional, respectful ways. We get to meet various high executives and learn how to present yourself…….

Although this journey away from home leaves behind many good experiences, it can be worse if it is not carefully understood or watched by the elders. It can sometime addict an individual to isolation. Having an independent house, and having learnt to manage everything independently sometime we might lose thought of our family…This could be possible…. As you become busy moving around house-office-hang outs, you get less time to think about your family… The focus at this time until we settle properly would be just to keep jumping high and high in the ladder of career, and keeping forging ahead in the quest of our achievements….

It was the case with me for past few months when I had hectic work in the office….I was unable to spend time with my family members and kind of bothered my parents… So this time I got the chance to go through the chapter of time management and learn how to mange and do my work effectively and so on…

At last this ongoing journey away from my home has given me nice fruitful lessons, aligned my thinking, and built more confidence. Overall it has been a joyous experience….

That’s all for today!

Cheers,

Akshatha

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

What I learnt from an Awe inspiring Leader

The day dawned as usual at 6.30 a.m yesterday and I rushed as quickly as possible to my aunts house....We had ethnic day planned in our team and had to wear a saree, for which my aunt had to help me.......

A mail comes to my inbox with the subject "Party" and I feel very sad looking at that. You might be shocked for a moment why to feel sad at the word "PARTY" rather than getting filled with excitement. Yes I was sad because it was a send off party for my awe inspiring leader who has always been guiding me and indirectly teaching me lot of good qualities via his action and way of working.

My whole team gathered at the CCD for the party.. I also joined in and was trying to have a hot sip of Capacuinno. In the next span of 20 minutes all the team members settled down with their hot/cold drinks and then started the hero of the party with his inspiring talk sharing his good/bad experience he had over the long stay in the current team. The talk went on for about 15 minutes, following which my manager and few other members shared few of their experience with our hero of the day. I was so overwhelmed by the inspiring talk that even I felt very responsible to say few words about the great person.

I was too emotional I guess for I cut my lines down to just 2 to 3 covering my learnings and the inspirations I drove from him. When we all departed from CCD wishing him good luck I felt very incomplete for not having shared the good thoughts completely. It is when our blogspot flashed in my mind and I immediately decided it was the right place to preserve the wonderful qualities I picked from such an awe inspiring leader. To start with the title of my post...

awe inspiring --> which means impressive, Fascinative why?? Whenever I read any personality development book or any motivative books, it was this personality that flashed in my mind when my eyes passed throug impressive lines.

Next jotting down the piece of advice or principle shared by him during the farewell talk.....

Whenever it comes to your growth keep the following in your mind and work:

1. Trust --> Trust your people around
2. Solve the current problem and then only leave for the next task or leave for the day
3. There is no enemy for you within your own world

Now..what I had picked up or observed when I worked with our hero:

  • Always enjoy the work you do, if you don't enjoy then inform your higher level and demand for more work rather than sitting idle
  • Ask questions if you do not understand anything
  • Keep yourself updated with the more details of the work around you. Always helps
  • Build good rapport with the people you support and work with
  • Be active and show all your capabilities at work
  • Read more books (Best ever energy boosting tonic I had)
  • Work while you work, enjoy while you enjoy
  • Do everything to the fullest
  • Plan and act at it fiercely to achieve your future goals
  • Try to learn or get anything out of whatever you come across in your daily life be it a movie (Watch "The Shawshank Redemption" if possible) or a person you talk with. There will be at least one good or bad thing you can learn. If it is good one learn to implement it and if it bad try to cut it off from you
  • Feel responsible for all the work you do
  • Be bold (assertive) and just shoot
  • Finally make yourself comfortable for others to such an extent that people should crave or long for your come back (There is one Thirukural in Tamil that portrays the same meaning i.e. "A good teacher talks sweetly, enjoys, teaches his disciples in such a way that when it's time for leave the disciples crave for his come back --> "Uuavapath Thalaikudiya Ulla Pirithal Anaithe Pulavar Thozhil") I can clearly whole heartedly attribute this to our hero here:
Now that it is time for his adieu we feel very sad for losing such a classic leader.

Last but not least, All these were never orated by the great person to me, Just his actions have reflected in the lines here. A big salute to him and I thank God at this point in time for having given me a chance to come across such a wonderful personality in my life....

Additionally it gives so much pride for me to write about this person himself in my blog who actually gave a drive/thought to me to start with this blogging activity!

Blogging rocks and Hats off to you Bathra!!


Cheers,
Akshatha


Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Small wonders and their Cherishable Notorious acts

I was watching the movie "Salam Namaste" when I saw Saif Ali Khan saying...oooooooops..I hate kids and I was so irritated at that thought of his towards kids.... But did not know the same would some times slip in to our mind as well when kids get naughtier and naughtier, as well when they become more inquisitive........

Yes....surprisingly that thought crossed even my mind when my neighbors kids getting on top of my head with several questions...I questioned myself how could I think so.... Sometimes it is very irritating for us to listen to the queries of small wonders but to tell the truth even though we get irritated at the point time when they question us we really admire/have fun with their questions at a later point in time.. So was the case with me.......

I was very tired and kinda feeling low when day when the kids living in my compound barged into my house and started with their questions... All of a sudden I started having fun with them and told they were my mini friends and gave them juice/chips, and had a small party with them..... That's it... I became a part of their gang.. and they always I played with them ;-).. They started looking at me at their standard meaning...I was also considered as a kid of their age to play around with them....

That became little tough for me.... whenever these kids here my voice or see when I am entering my house they immediately rush along with me into my house and start.....That goes on and on.... Answering them I just got to feel how I used to pester my parents with similar questions....

If you think of them now you really feel like laughing and sometimes little embarrassing too....

Not only this incident..but another incident when I went to teach some kids in a tent school I got to watch their notorious activities...innocent cute little answers... behaviors etc.....

One of the kids was asked to write 12 on board and the little kid wrote 21...when asked to read 94 , the small wonder read it as 49..... I was very poor at Maths, and the way I used to mutiply when asked to divide, getting repeatedly taught by my mom was what came into my mind at that point of time...

and then I tried to teach a small boy how to write Spell/write Dog...and when I tried to do so...The Boy replied saying I don't know..I replied..no problem..I told him to write D O G and then asked him to say DOG but he said D-O-G....

I said that's fine. Now say DOG, spell it and write it again.... But the reply was D-O-G and not DOG..... If I say D-O-G the boy writes but when I say DOG together he just looks at me and keeps wondering ... D-O-G is D-O-G and not DOG ;-( ...I tried my best... it was D-O-G..Could not get the boy say DOG together.... Kids are so innocent..... And always fun...

Cheers,
Akshatha




Friday, May 23, 2008

Motivation

I saw a small video on Motivation this morning..It was s small video but the message was very clear and nice.... It goes over a small story as follows:

There lived a lamb beautifully coated with fur all around its body on a hilly mountain.It used to dance dance and show off and feel extremely happy whenever it used to see its beautiful mirror image in the water. The neighbors living around the small fishes in the pond, snakes around used to enjoy its dance and join the dance. Life was very beautiful.

One day a truck comes to their place. The man out of the truck hauls away the lamb and shaves out all the fur and drops him back bare and naked in its place when all his neighbors start laughing and criticizing him on his new looks.

It starts raining and when the lamb sees its bare image in the rainy water, it gets broken down and stops dancing feels very depressed for having lost its beauty and just slides calmly near a rock. Stops dancing and feels very low.

Then up and around the slope came a Jackal caused a pause and checked out the gloomy lamb and asked . Hey dude! why are yo so sad?

And the lamb replied in a very low voice... Hey I used to be so handsome with my shiny fur around and I used to show them off with my beautiful dance. But one day a man came and dumped me naked like this...and all my friends started started laughing at me and they I look ridiculous funny and pink.....

The Jackal replied...so what if you are pink...you still have a kick...pink or purple does not matter.....Sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down.....When you are down..just look around..you have a body, you have long legs...you have your head in place and your body is complete....

So just tap you leg down and bounce around...bound and rebound up the hill and you can reach the heights and sometimes even reach great heights and near the sky if you give it a try.....

The lamb realizes this..gives this a try, trembles once or twice and then finally just bounds up and up around the hill..all the neighbors join the dance and the lamb is happy again. The days go by ...the man as usual dumps back the lamb naked..but it does not matter..the lamb learns to live with it...bound and rebounds and is stays happy with its friends all around....

That was very touching video.... I felt the same with my case...When I was upset and feeling low like the lamb..my friend crossed me as the jackal..and motivated the same way as we saw here.....

Sharing a similar short message here:

"Never worry for the delay in success compared to others because construction of a "Pyramid" takes more time than the ordinary building"

So Never get depressed...there are lot of opportunities around..Just open your eyes..look around..give it a try and you can reach great heights........

That's all for today... I dedicate this to my friend ;-)

Akshatha

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Tent Schools

So...Back after few busy days...I feel so glad.... All these days over my busy times, one matter used to keep clinging around my mind since the time I visited a TENT school in Bangalore, near the airport road... What is this TENT school? The same question popped up even to me when I heard about this for the first time from my friend.....

My dad always wished that I became a doctor and served the poor free of cost. But that never happened. Still my dad used to serve the needy as much as possible from his side. I always wished to be like my dad but never got into action really to do it........

1 month back when I was having a small chat with my friend I came to know about these tent schools and felt it's the right time to splurge in some action.... With my initial understanding that TENT Schools were something like orphanage I decided to donate something from my side. But I was always waiting for my dad's consent here.... I began to get into deeper chat with my friend regarding the same and was very particular in extending my support only after understanding if the organization/school was really lacking support.....
So thinking more about it and after discussing with my Dad..I contributed some amount to my friend... My Friend who was solely working for this bought a Book Rack for the TENT school and asked if I could join him while he hands it over.... I was elated and immediately joined him over a weekend.......

That was the day! I was so happy for really waking up early on a Saturday morning and visiting that school..... That was the first time I heard about TENT school from my friend....It took an hour for us to reach the school and I had a very nice chat with my friend when I came to know more about the TENT Schools.. So here I go with my understanding about the same.....

TENT Schools aim at supporting the children spread/brought up in Slums, mostly for the kids of the laborers involved in construction works. What happens here is the laborers keep shifting their place wherever they get to involve in building construction contracts that spread for a span of minimum 1 or 2 years. During that period they live in a small slum nearby the workplace. Once the construction gets over they shift to different place..In this way they do not have a consistent place to live and consequence the children are not assured of getting literate. What ever they earn is just enough to pass their daily living.... consequence of being illiterate the children will be ignored in the society, cheated by some frauds, their living becomes difficult....

Therefore the concept of TENT Schools surrounds around educating the slum kids to whatever extent possible with the limited period of time. So that at least the kids know how to read and write and thus can escape from ignorance, getting cheated/fooled.

Not only education, Tent schools also try to support with food/shelter based on the amount of support they get from the society..... All these are done free of cost...

This sounded very good to me and when I visited the school I was shocked to hear that the land for the new school was donated by a great person..I do not remember the name....

But the part of pity here is...due to less support there are just one or 2 teachers to manage a set of 30 to 50 kids...and due to lack of infrastructural support, few kids although eligible for higher studies still sit in a single class and read the same thing again and again..........

I was moved very much when I saw kid running towards my friend calling anna...with a very cute smile on its face...the single teacher there conveyed her thanks to me...and I got back to my office after that......

Red india foundation is one such support for TENT schools....and till date it has organized free dental camps, book donation camps etc for the slum kids....

I felt so good visiting that school and feel very responsible to support such kids.... We all party lot with our friends, I guess once in a while during our free time we can even definitely try to involve in such support activities.......

More information about Red India can be found here:
http://www.readindiafoundation.org/

If some way this post has instilled some thought in the mind of the readers to take out some time and involve themselves in such social activities, I feel very happy and satisfied here.

Cheers,
Akshatha







Thursday, April 3, 2008

Why boys should have all the fun!!

I t was Sunday.... As against the usual late morning I woke up early, fully charged up to play badminton..........Within a fraction of second that just sinked down and due to the unavailability of a partner I had to switch back to the regular Lazy sunday mode.....Having nothing to do..went back to sleep and then at 9.20 beeps by cell....sadly I woke up...

after lazing around for few minutes...got ready and left to my friend's hostel........... sunday was showing up very lazy to me...again as my friend was not ready..had to kill time by lazing around in my friend's bed.... But was not aware at that point of time that all the energy saved in the morning was just waiting to get exhausted in the evening.......

After moving around to the places near by in hostel..again got back to Hostel..with no further plans.. Than came another call...which led to the long ride... My friend had to visit her Father...but since it was late in the evening, with the clouds darkening up , throwing mild drops of water we decided to take a ride with my pleasure...

with the initial curiosity for a long ride and having got fed up with the routine life...I and my friend just got kicked off at 4.45 in the evening...

Although we had a vague idea of the route to our destination,we were more confident to reach in faster and be back early....than getting troubled by the bus journey.... Here I share our crazy and a kinda adventurous trip shedding some lights on what we need to think for a safe travel....

Being a newbie to the heavy traffic...I was completely dependent on my friend for the first half of the way.....Commands were flowing right..left...no no...straight...oh..my God...lot of confusions...finally we end up in a main road...waiting for the Signal to turn Green..wondering to go straight..right..left..or ?? ..which was very crazy..

Ok within another fraction of second we decide to go straight..when we discover that we ended up in opposite direction in one way and trying to go in the wrong direction...

Frightened by the opposite vehicles.....comes another command from my friend...Right please.....in my mind ...is a right turn allowed??...no don't take risk..turn..and then we see the traffic police..and then..oh no...escape..for having come in the wrong direction......and we end up landing in a dirty pool of water on the roads....messing up the at the first part of the journey itself.....

--> It is very important to know the road signals properly, roads etc..before starting off to mingle with the regular heavy traffic....

But still, both of us being crazy, in spite of ditching my friend in a pool of dirty water...trying to escape from the idiotic situation...we were just laughing and moving further.....

--> It's very wrong to have serious/jovial talks while on the vehicle....could have lead to accidents.... Mild talks are fine..but not crazy talks/funs....

Moving ahead...somehow managed to cover the first quarter of the journey with less difficulty....

then begins our real test...No idea about the next quarter of the journey..just a confidence in mind saying.." we can make it man"....

so met our first Auto consultant..sir...how do we got to this place?? and then starts the beautiful explanation...with 2 3 options...i.e we were told 2 different ways....Our face could easily read the level of understanding....and he ended up in summarizing a easiest way.....

Wow..that was a long straight road..and we swifted happily....again..went on and on....and then came another twist..where we were confused again...how to proceed with the journey..but as before...after consulting the people on road, being on the road for about 1.5 hours somehow we reached the final destination .....

Had a nice chat for the next span of 30 mins....and started back with our return...it was around 6.45 p.m in the evening and it was getting darker....... Now our condition was still worse...While coming somehow we reached..as it was not dark..we could guess our own route..but now..we were left with no choice..but to have a firm confidence and forge ahead...

I was little worried with calculation of reaching time ever second...also was tensed if someone from would try to reach me on my cell........

During this journey back..we had to cross some railway crossing..oh man..I and my fried were just starring at each other thinking where we have landed....wondering if we were in a city....

Then goes the train..the gates open..and after crossing the road..we find the road is closed..and we have to take a different route..nooooooo....we approached another stranger..he inquires about our destination and just says follow me......

A voice know whispers in my mind..how dare he asks us t follow him...hmmmm..and when I see the stranger sliding inside a deserted dark lane I just ignore his words..and move away.... then struglle again.....asking some other person..and when we landed up entering the same deserted dark lane...and then murmers my friend...Hey gal..u should have quietly followed that stranger..and there wouldn't have been any problem..at least till the first destination.....n we could have proceeded further ;-)..now that crazy mind also slowly whispers the same thing....


Then with the same old procedure..asking the same auto drivers we were going on.with lotsa traffic..it was tiresome...then we tried following the buses as well..but to our despair..we were always ending up with wrong assumptions..regarding where the bus was headed to... we had lost our to such an extent that even when one of our colleagues called us on the phone asking if he could come on road and help us..we did not have any clue as to tell where we were for him to spot and come...and it was 8.45..luckily we landed at my house...and then I see about 20 missed calls from home..and my uncle visiting me at home..oh my God..I just went crazy....

But altogether it was a very joyous, very funny journey with my best friend..... It was all just the fun that my friend offered me with her funny jokes..discovery of new back guard equipment..crazy talk all through..and my great great Pleasure....All in all...we had a splendid experience that boys used to have with their bikes........ With Pleasure again these days..... it is a perfect line ...Why only boys should have all the fun ;-)

Cheers,
Akshatha

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Thirukkural - Very nice thoughts

In continuation to my previous post on inspiring life I thought this time it is perfect to write few lines on my recent attraction "Thirukkural".

As I always loved reading thought provoking lines or cliches, I got recently pulled towards the great asset of Tamil literature "Thirukkural". It was Sunday, when I watched a program on TV and was shocked to see a north Indian, speak/praise about the wonderful lines written in the book "thirukkural" written by the great "Thiruvalluvar".

Following which I noted my Manager sharing very good thoughts from Thirukkural. Just listening to them and understanding the meaning of the same energies the mind like anything. Being brought up in Tamil Nadu, I felt little disappointed for having missed the chance of experiencing the Kurals during my childhood days.

Nevertheless I have started reading the same whenever I find time these days, and as usual when you feel the meaning of the 2 lines, it gives immense happiness to my heart and also induces some good, disciplined way in my way of living, thinking and more.

Reading itself is a very good habit, amongst such good habits, reading thoughtful books like "Thirukkural" and at least following few of the lines can bring magic in our life!

May be in future, once I am through with the book , I will definitely post a set of wonderful "Thirukkurals"!

There are around 1333 kurals in covering various aspects of life! I am so glad, at least now I came to know about it!!

Cheers,
Akshatha

Monday, March 10, 2008

Inspiring Life


Recently this picture caught my attention and I felt I should write down few lines on it in my blog. Often these days I come across people cribbing about boring life. Even I was moaning on the same some time back. Somehow I was lucky to have a friend who sends me good thoughts every day via SMS that fills up my mind with lots of positive energy and makes my day better.

There was one SMS that goes like this... "Leaves fall down from the trees and just keep flying or moving on the way the wind takes it" So be a wind and not the leaf. Take charge of your life and move on..don't wait for any body (luck or fate) to drive you and show you what is life.

This picture above is also one of that kind. I received this as a forward from my friend and in all these messages I could always infer the significance of self motivation,self confidence and a positive attitude required to feel the beauty of life.

I am very much inspired by life these days..hope this short post inspires many others about the beautiful life....

I thank my friend Puja for continuously sending me inspiring SMSs and happily dedicate this post to her ;-)

Cheers,
Akshatha


Saturday, March 8, 2008

Cast Away

Cast Away - Amazing Tom Hank's movie.... The movie just revolves around an island but at the end strongly enforces the thought of "Hope" and "continuous attempts" in the audience mind..... So was it for me....

Usually I write something and then I search a suitable title for my post but this time...Somehow I was inclined to choose the title first and then align my experience with the title....

In the movie, Tom Hank gets messed up with a storm in the ocean, somehow he tries hard to save his life and ends up in getting deserted all alone in a island where there is no sign of human beings.....no way of communication and so on... With whatever is found on the island Tom Hank makes his living and passes his days... and finally after a period of 4 to 5 years I guess..do not remember well...succeeds in his union with his family......

I was very much impressed by the movie.... During his isolation period he retrives lot of his hiddedn creativity that helps in his survival.... So if he had sat without any hope, idle then he would have died and that's it.... Instead of kiiling his life by being idle..he plays well with his thoughts and succeeds....

Similar is the case with the human mind.... I strongly believe in this thought "Idle mind is devil's workshop"....

Whenever I was idle I always ended up being lazy or thinking unwanted things, indirectly ruining my day.....
People around me spot as a very enthusiatic person..when i am in office...it's all fine...but when left alone...idle...the cliche used to show up it's face....

Addtionally I was strangled with some pre-defined thoughths that used to always boom up, wheneever my mind was idle paving a clean way to devastation of the day.

I saw a beautiful change in my performance as a repercussion of this realization. Thought about the "Cast Away" movie and tried to keep my mind occupied throughout. Pumped myself with good positive energy, planned my time well, and just kicked off with whateveri could think and do without wasting my time time by sitting idle.
Now I feel life is beautiful and enjoying it in a beautiful way is in our hand and Mind!

I sincerely thank my manager here who suggested me in watching this movie and sowed the thought of always taking some kind of learning or value from whatever worth comes across the eyes, by his thoughtful statements that he used to share during our happy lunch sessions!!

A proud feeling crosses my mind when I match myself in Tom's character in Cast away. I was Cast away by the idle mind but now I feel I have been successful like Tom in my union with the beautiful island of life ;-)!

Simple movie but great Thought!!

Akshatha





Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Incident where I could see a piece of humanity

I was just moved by a small incident that happened today when I was coming to office. It may not sound very great but somehow I could see a piece of Humanity in that act and was just astounded to still see people being so kind to strangers.

I woke up late and had to miss my office cab. Luckily got a direct bus and was thankful to almighty thinking I will not be so late. But the terrible bangalore did not smile at me ;-( .... my travel took longer than usual... I got a seat in the bus and I was somehow trying to enjoy my time on the way. With nice melodies I was just passing over the pages of the book "How Opal Mehta got kissed, got wild and got a life". My speed was good and I was taking pleasure of the commedy scenes portrayed beautifully in the book. In between was just looking around the people getting in and out of the bus. There was a lady sitting next to me. Suddenly I heard a sound and noticed that a lady in a hurry to get into the bus dropped her tiffin box and all the food spilled out in the bus. I felt sad for that lady. She got embarrassed and was trying to clean up the bus. To my astonishment the conductor of the bus did not scold her. And the lady was busy cleaning.

The lady who sat next to her was kind enough to hold her bag patiently and help until she cleaned the bus. I was just staring at the lady.... she cleaned up the floor of the bus and was trying to clean the box with the polythene cover she had. I was just thinking how she would manage to take the sticky box and what she would have for her lunch or ?? Meanwhile the benign lady next to me just handed over a big over and asked me to hand over it to the other lady. And I was shocked to see that..and happily handed over the poly bag when I could see a big smile crossing over the other lady's face who had dropped the food. She immediately said thanks to me and I directed it to the kind lady and do not why but I was very happy. I could just read from the smile of that lady..how helpful it was for her and thought for a while why it did not strike me to help her with a small poly bag that I had in my bag.......

However it was very surprising for me to see such kind people having patience to help strangers amidst the peak hour...... As against other days where I have seen people shouting amongst them in the crowded bus..this was very something nice and new......

I feel so good sharing this incident here and I can induce or spread a thought about humanity via this post I would feel very good! Bye for today!

Akshatha

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Significance of Family and Friends

After few engagements with my family here I am out to decant some thoughts that were just running round and round over my mind over the past few days. My mind is hovering over a very poignant phase these days. With my ears taking the pleasure of a soothing music at the background “Kehne ko Jasnee-eh-baharaa hai” from the movie “Jodha Akbar”, my heart is urged to dispense its experience with the 2 relationships Family and Friends. I have already written about these 2 relations individually but since I made it a point to let my day to day learning’s in my life in the blog, I got the urge to pen down the same with respect to balancing these 2 relations.

Having grown up in a joint family in a small town I never knew about solitude, apparently did not realize the need for friends in my life. Even during my college days I was with my brother and cared well by my relatives. It was when my brother departed from me in college after his graduation, the ray of friendship started shining in my life. Last 2 years of the college just flew away loaded with remarkable fun with friends that could be treasured forever. Then came a phase when my mind felt very responsible. Until then it was just flying without any boundaries. I set out on the job hunt. Oh my God..Although the IT industry was booming up it was still difficult for me to find a job. So over that period I was just focused on getting a good job. Tough times passed slowly I got a job. I was then focused on improving technically well to settle down with a satisfactory job. And now having caught hold of a satisfactory job most of the time started passing by with getting in touch with new and old friends. Most of the times I was out with my friends or had my friends at home. Days went by. My inclination towards friendship went growing like anything. In the sense when my friends were not with me I used to feel very lonely, during which unable to experience the solitude I used to immediately call up home and bother my parents to come down and stay with me. In this way I used to miss my family as well and crave for a permanent stay with them.

Today I have my parents with me at home and my mind is confronting a different feeling. Apparently overwhelmed with the bonding both with family and friends, my mind is unable to balance both equally well. Most of my weekends these days are spent with my family and when I see my friends moving out with other friends, unable to meet them skids my mind to a different thought. Unable to spend time as before with friends makes me fanatic and divulges to strange thoughts. The peculiar thoughts were slowly taking charge of my usual behavior. Being a sensitive person and over caring person my thoughts/feeling were trying to dominate my friend’s thoughts, which could always endanger the relation. On the other hand my parents being in town close with me, there were few family bound restrictions or kind of extra attention/caring from my parent’s side that laid as some barricade for my usual hang outs with friends. If I broke those restrictions I felt I would hurt my parents and on the other hand if I was not out with my friends I was becoming violent hurting myself a lot. Consequence of this I portrayed myself as a sadistic person in front of my parents ultimately screwing their happiness and indirectly mine. In this way my mind was ping ponging between family and friends. However I was lucky to enough to take some piece of advice from my brother and my friend who helped me to come out of this painful phase and taught me to strike a good balance between Family and Friends.

Final realization is

  • Never let your mind get captured by unenthusiastic thoughts
  • Never try to dominate your friends thoughts knowingly or unknowingly
  • Be patient, think and discuss only the required stuffs with parents. By trying to be candid it is not necessary that you discuss everything with your parents, few things could also be shared with the siblings or friends. This will keep both parents and yourself happy
  • Never expect anything in return from your family or friends

It was this frightful solitude that showed me the value of these 2 relations and I am happy that I have been blessed with beautiful family and friends, and today I can compare them 2 my eyes, where in both are very essential and it is necessary to balance them well to see or live the beautiful life!

Cheers,

Akshatha

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Experience the bliss at Golden temple - Sripuram

I was out of my standard routine for a week in the first month of the year when I got a sudden opportunity to visit a beautiful place with my Family. My vacation was just planned for a kinda relaxation at my house and meeting some friends but amidst of it rooted out a plan for small trip of visiting some divine places. I was not so amused at it at the first sight..but yes…was happy to keep the smile on my parents face by accompanying them…and also was happy for myself accompanying my brother until he boarded his flight for his return back from his vacation….

So we started at around 8.00 p.m from my home town and we reached the first temple (Melmaruvathur Adiparashakthi - few kilometers away from chennai)by 6.30 in the morning. As soon as we got down I was just surprised to see the huge mass of devotees early at the dawn. We then managed to get ready by 7.30 offered our prayers and left by 11. When My cell rings for a welcome note from my Friend. Slowly a smile passes away my lips as usual due to my excitement.

Then the 1st day just pushed off. My dad and brother were busy with some official appointment s and my mom and aunt resting in the guest house and I busy meeting my friend.

The 2nd day dawned early at 2.30 a.m itself for us, as we had to see off my brother by 4.00 a.m at the airport. That day was very special for me. After my bro’s departure, I and my dad reached the guest house by 6.00 a.m. While I took a short nap, my mom, dad and aunt got ready and we set off to our next devotional destination (Katyayni temple ). My mom had read about this temple and was interested to take me there.

We moved to the main bus station in Chennai and started enquiring how to go to this place. To our surprise, not many people knew about this temple. Somehow we managed to get hold of a plan to reach the temple. We were not aware of the distance and never bothered also to think about the temple timings. We were lucky enough to trace (kind of adventurous visit) the temple by 11.45 and the temple usually closes by 12 noon and reopens at 2. If our travel had got delayed by 15 more min then we would have got disappointed as we did not have the time to wait until 2 and see the God.

It was a Devi temple amidst a small village (I don’t remember the name ), beautiful and there is a defined way to offer prayers to God. We offered our prayers and set off to the next temple.Uffff…I was tired by then..was feeling little bit feverish and was just waiting to get back home………

It was 4.00 and we reached the 3rd board of divine oasis. Even to this board we had to travel lot inside into a remote village. But it was worth a visit. It was a Golden temple at “Sripuram”. Goddess Narayani was worshipped there as an embodiment of Goddesses Lakshmi,Durga and Saraswathi.

To start with we had to leave our baggage, cell phones, sandals etc at a counter inside the temple. As usual we stood in the queue. I was thinking oh my god…when will this all get over…but still was curious to see the temple as It was completely built with Gold. I had just heard of the Golden temple at Amritsar, then came to know from my mom and Dad that this was newly built and they came to know about this via a article published in the news paper….I was gazing at mom to see her interest….

After about 30 mins we entered the main gate..oh my God..I just felt I am entering some heaven..I just checked myself whether I was alive or dead and that I am in the heaven..yes I have not seen heaven..but still the way I had seen it in some devotional movies….I had some imagination in my mind that the heaven would look like this and this matched exactly with my thoughts and I was so happy just at the entrance that my soul immediately felt some kind of peace inside it……..

Being a very emotional, sentimental personality I always had lot of confusions, problems in me..but as I was passing by my way to the centre peedam where the idol of Lord Narayani was placed, I was taken away by the surrounding environment. The temple was spread around acres of land….with beautiful arches until the main peedam…. We had to walk few kilometers inside the temple after passing through the main queue… The environment was so clean..the entire way was posted with beautiful message that would instill divinity into the human mind. The intensity of the message was so good that I did not leave even a single message that was posted throughout the way. Even my mom and dad were engrossed in reading them and exchanging more attractive ones with each of them. The main temple was built with Gold…oh my God our eyes had a beautiful treat that day and were just rejoicing them…. I felt very nice and blessed for having visited that temple. After an hour we were out and I immediately rang up my friend to share my happiness with her. The messages posted throughout the way were very inspiring and gave the meaning of what we saw around in the day-to-day life.

I at least felt rejuvenated after reading the messages there and was driven to adapt some discipline in my life. I was taken aback by the temple authorities for keeping the temple so clean and caring for the devotees in a well organized manner.

In my opinion people who have disbelief in the divine power and also the righteous paths must definitely visit this board of serenity, and soon can see a transformation in them.

My mind which was initially not so enthused about the divine trip was completely lost in thinking about the messages posted there and the temple, on our way back home.

Never miss an opportunity to visit the Golden temple at Sripuram –Vellore

Akshatha