Small Town Girl

Was watching the news last night. It had the most outrageous and mind blowing scoop ever!! It talked about some female who supposedly remembers 2 of her previous births. She’s a doctor in this birth and it seems, she could remember all details of her previous births right from childhood. Her “current” parents took her to her 1st house. (GOD this sure is getting complicated) and she recognised everything and everyone. Eventually she even managed to convince all the members of the “old” family that she indeed had been Bindiya, by disclosing details only she would have known.

In her next birth, (2nd one), she happened to have been born in a remote village which is currently in Bangladesh. No one could take her there now for obvious reasons. In this particular birth she had been born to a Bengali Brahmin family. She remembers Assamese folklore from that era! In *this* birth she died as a 9 year old girl in a car accident. The only thing done was that police records were verified and it was confirmed that there indeed had been such an incident on so n so date.

Now comes the even more complicated bit, her “current” birth relationships and how ppl handle this supernatural streak. (Gives *me* the jitters!) Her current husband was told of her “sixth sense” before marriage and also informed that she still frequents her “previous” maika and sasural! The husband in true Indian tradition was only overjoyed to get such a rare life partner

So now the doctor has umpteen no. of relationships to maintain. Imagine having to handle all the complications and pressures of your previous lives as well as of this life! Our creator must have had a reason for us to not remember our past lives. The human brain is a pretty complex thing. The news report showed just a 1 minute comment from a doctor on the scientific aspect of the whole reincarnation thing. The doc acknowledged that only 1/3rd of the brain is used in us mortals (shame!) and the other “subconscious” part probably stores/records events and memories. But what she definitely missed was that the human brain, a physical entity gets destroyed after someone’s death. How is it ever possible to retain all that info?! Lot of complex things happening behind the scene…

- reincarnated appu O_o
*winks*

Recently one of my friends sent me a 30 second video by CEO of Coca Cola – Mr. Bryan Dyson, which is like a story – “Imagine life as a game in which you are judging some five balls in the air. You name them – Work, Family, Health, Friends & Spirit and you’re keeping all of these balls in the air. You will soon understand that Work is a rubber ball and if you drop, it will bounce back! But the other four balls – Family, Health, Friends & Spirit are made of glass! If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it.”

Very good thought, indeed! Moral or crux of the story is – give time to other four balls, apart from Work! I had earlier also received a speech by Narayanmurthy on the same line. I even remember Dhirubhai Ambani having said that ‘anybody who works after six is a duffer’…

My only reservation is that, it would have been simply great if Bryan had said it when he started his career, may be as an apprentice or Narayanmurthy had said it, when he started Infosys with a few friends or Dhirubhai, when he was a gas station attendant in Aden!

Make no mistake – it is not a sarcastic statement but the stark reality of life according to me, and that is why I believe in the idiom – “There are no gains without pains”… Because, somebody will have to pay for somebody’s lunch!

Now, if I rename the five balls as mentioned by Bryan to five human senses and add one more ball called Money, then I remember a very famous quote by Somerset Maugham – “Money is like a sixth sense – and you can’t make use of the other five, without it!”

So, moral of the story is – “Be nice to people till you make a million and thereafter, people will be nice to you” (and your statements will also be used as Quotes!). Till such time, don’t get frustrated and work hard (not hardly) with the same concentration and vigil, singing the song – “arre bhaiya - aal izz well...” lol

God said, “Let there be light”. And then man said “Let there never be darkness”. Thus came the inverters, generators and the 100% power backups that we have in today’s world. Some days back I made a trip down memory lane when there was a power outage. On a side note, I must mention that the power outages in Kochi were so frequent few years back that I would love permanently living in the present & future instead of making frequent trips down memory lane. Thankfully power cuts did not bother much since I also happened to have that contraption called the inverter. But on this particular night I made the trip down memory lane since suddenly there came a power cut and I had to resort to the “not-so-universal-anymore-stuff” – candles. I don’t even have candles at home. Luckily, with dad’s birthday just gone past, and with age beginning to fast forward as they show in movies – pages of a calendar flipping past before you can say D for December – I had lots of teeny weeny candles to spare. I lit those up and then it was time to go back to … childhood.

Power outages were very frequent in childhood. And when they happened, they were a delight. It usually meant good quality time for the whole family. Things like the summer heat or the buzzing mosquitoes would be a nuisance but then who cares when one can have so much fun. Some of the things that we did during such times include
- playing with the candle flame by passing a finger through it.
- playing with the wax that trickles down and making shapes out of it.
- making the wax trickle down with ones bare fingers. It’s great fun because one could make finger imprints.
- playing shadow games with ones hands.
- making eerie noises and scaring others.
- playing guessing games.
- relating ghost stories.
- remembering old anecdotes as the whole family bursts with laughter.
- antakshri.
- general chit chat with family, amounting to quality time spent.
- inventing new games to be played for the next power outage.

As part of growing up, the frequency of power outages decreased and certain areas of interest (during such times) changed. For eg. With time I also became interested in studying the structure of a flame (O_o). The games kept getting more innovative. Watching the stars and the night sky when the power is not there, is something everyone should do because the street lights don’t hamper the view and on a clear night one can see proper constellations.

During hostel life in Chennai, the areas of interest changed yet again. We did have power cuts there too (thanks to Mr. JPR). Singing, guitar sessions, Antakshri across floors (with girls being locked inside respective rooms), shadow dances by holding a candle against a bed sheet, calling spirits on the Ouija board; entered the “interesting things to do list”. (Not to forget the lights game played between the girls and boys hostels.. oh yes Sathyabama was a jail but we sure had lot of fun.. In fact hostel is one of the things that I miss the most about SIST)

Now the situation is different. Seamless integration of devices like the inverter, doesn’t even let one know when the power is out. My mother’s favourite quote is “It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness”. It certainly needs to be changed with today’s times because there isn’t any darkness anymore. I need to concentrate really hard to recollect the last time the power was out and I had a great time the way I have had some years back. One of my senior architects was relating an incident at his house where his inverter wasn’t working and a power outage happened. Both his daughters aged 5 and 2 screamed like anything and got absolutely terrified. He in turn got quite shaken up and got the inverter rectified the first thing next morning. It certainly makes me realise that there are already some people in this country who have never seen absolute darkness. How they will be able to deal with the fear of the dark is another thing altogether, but what they are really missing out on is something that can never be compensated. Tsk.

Yes i have been busy lately with all the GATE exam preparations and office and times have been rough. But this weekend has broken all the records. Now i know i never wanted to post my rant on my blog but i am so darn frustrated with things happening around that this is my last resort of venting my agitations. *sighs* Okay first up.. I want to mention that i am traveling to Chennai tomorrow to meet a very important person in my life and that's the only thing motivating me. Due to the holiday week on i.e mahashivratri, second Saturday and Sunday, there is a heavy rush for the train tickets and all my attempts of getting one have gone in vain (this includes the tatkal ticket too). And this is making me quite frustrated which included not being able to concentrate on tomorrows exam. Suddenly i feel like not writing anymore. Other stories are due. Will update here soon. :/

1. Wrote on paper with a pen, instead of typing on a keyboard, cell phone et al. Especially in hindi. I was quite stumped (for words or rather characters literally) when I recently tried writing in hindi! (Quite a disturbing reality)

2. Rode a bicycle. An actual one. Not an Exercycle. I really want to ride one again... but Kochi doesn’t allow me the same for various reasons. I haven’t done this since first year of college.

3. Went for a picnic. A proper lunch basket picnic. I think it was last in my teenage (I was in class X) that I had one like that!

4. Roughed up a guy. It’s been a year. The first time and the last time (so far). I still can’t get over the fact that I actually did it! He was one of those road side eve teasers who got a shock that someone actually retaliated. And he was alone; I guess that’s what gave me the guts.

5. Touched my keyboard (I mean my Casio – the piano). Am slowly but surely taking out time for this activity.

6. Did some calligraphy. Last time was in school.

7. Sang while taking a shower. Or even took the transistor in for listening to some music while bathing.. It’s a great combo. One should try it. ‘Bathroom bliss’ makes for a nice post.

8. Got my hair chopped ultra short. Last time I did that was in class 12th. Before that I did it in class 7th. Both times, the salon female asked me at least 5-6 times if I was sure. The time I was in 7th, my mom kept the tresses with her, thinking they could be used for an artificial plait or bun. The hair colour didn’t match

9. Wore a Sari. The last time I wore it was on some family wedding. Am not very comfy with saris yet. For some reason, ppl expect a female who gets married to suddenly transform herself and start wearing saris instead of western or even Indian suits. Mera number tab aayega.

10. Visited my school and the classes. I want to and I don’t want to. I want to because I miss it and I know it’s a nostalgic trip down memory lane. I don’t want to because I know it would have changed altogether. It would actually disillusion me and all the nice memories that I have abt the place would go in the trash bin.

11. Got into a swimming pool. It’s been *really* long. River, sea, Ocean yes. But swimming pool, no. I was in class 6th, when I last made my attempt at swimming. Could never learn it. In spite of the fact that I went speed boating last year to overcome my fear of water.

12. Got a leech latch on to me. (That was a tongue twister). It’s been almost 14 yrs now. I was in Rapargadh (Kutch, Gujarat). That place is infested with leeches, snakes, frogs and all kind of creepy things you would rather stay away from. Add stepped on elephant shit to this.

13. Played Housie / tambola! Used to get to play it often in my childhood and surprisingly I used to be lucky too.

14. Went to a ball. Last was in Katari Bagh (at the naval base here in Cochin) – The Navy ball and that too with a friend’s family.

15. Close-danced on a slow number. For that matter I can’t seem to remember when I did that last.. Did I even do it.. Maybe with my soft pillow.

16. Did Origami. Gosh! I have forgotten all the small little things I used to make. Even a boat that every school kid knows how to make when the rains come. I used to make real good paper frogs that actually used to hop when you press their rear.

17. Witnessed a thief getting caught red handed. A pretty shaking-you-through-and-through situation when one starts imagining the consequences. Happened in Chennai when we (me and chinnu) were staying in a small room in the karpagam gardens at bessy. It was the middle of the night and we were obv sleeping. That guy was an amateur, and somehow chins realised that there was someone in the room. Suddenly when he was about to pick up some stuff, she caught him red handed n we screamed n called the landlord. Phew.. One scary experience and I don’t want it repeating again. or rather theft repeating again.

18. Made two plaits. I stopped making them after I chopped my hair in class 12th. But I guess I’ll do that someday for the school girlish fun.

19. Visited a mosque. Well I Went to a mosque with seniors & classmates once when I was in college. Went to Haji Ali at Mumbai during NASA 06 (to be precise).

20. Have been jotting down this stuff. Better get back to other things. :P :D