Monday, May 26, 2008

Why i named my blog "Curd rice..." as if somebody cares to know about it after all

Hmm...Ever been to Andhra or to remote villages in Andhra. Do you know what they eat during hot summer days either as a breakfast or for lunch. No guesses and the question is too cliched as it is giving away the obvious answer. Yes. Perugannamlo Avakaya...Ahaaaa.....Tastey Tastu......Slurp Slurp..my mouth is watering as i am writing this and i can see the same in your facial expressions..Geeeee...Clever AAHHH Sravan!!!! Well...Enuf of the self glorification. Curds gives a cooling and a calming effect(and also what our science text books preach-pencilin) while the Avakaya serves to cater to our taste buds. Allow me to say "Amma,Andhra,Avakaya marchipolemu"(well i dont have an Anjali as Tarun did in Nuvve Nuvve). 'So whats ur point Sravan, you mean to say that your blog should also serve as a cooling and calming agent bringing a couple of chuckles while serving the interest buds of the reader'(agian glorifying myself and please again allow me to do so as it is MY BLOG!!!). Hmmm....I dont know how good or bad I am at writing. Pardon me for my grammar mistakes(well here it is-read grammatical mistakes,adjective baba) or anything offensive i have written unintendedly...Official disclaimer!!! Anyways...I have so many ideas but too lazy to write it down and post. Much more lazy(with a capital L) to write on a paper and then copy it to the computer at my liesure(if you may seem to suggest me, because the idea of my liesure is sleeping or reading or talking-in short no physical work as writing or typing). I promise you i will try to post AFAP-as frequently as possible with my own idea of a Frequency!!! HEHEHEHE......

Bangalore traffic teaches you patience

Hmmm...Well talk about Bangalore to Bangloreans(or they themselves will bring it up-favourite topic) you will hear incessant frets about how horrible the traffic is, how long one takes to cross a road(trust me even crossing a road also takes time waiting for the vehicles to clear off and sometimes you suddenly find yourself stranded in the centre of the road with vehicles passing in front of you and behind you almost grazing you as if you are a part of the unexisting divider-human dividers i guess), how longingly you wait for the signal to turn green(meanwhile revisiting your kindergarten age by relearning the numbers backwards..120 119...111 secs more-SUCK!!!) and finding yourself again stopping at the same damned red signal(it looks like you will never move beyond this crossing while you can learn the numbers you have missed earlier-backwards ofcourse...). Very true. The red signal has a unfair advantage over the green signal and thanks to innumerable vehicles before you who take thier own sweet time to kick start their snoozing vehicles before budging inch by inch. In this melee you see some over enthusiastic drivers trying to overtake you at the snail speeds(Schumis of the slow racing) sometimes giving an anatomical beauty spot to your vehicle(a horrible scratch or a cute dimple sorry bump-priety zinta istyle) on any side of your car(depending on which side the rogue vehicle is). Sometimes they move on being(or pretending to be more precise)unmindful to or ignorant/brilliantly innnocent(good actors) about what mark they have left behind. I guess these people have taken the maxim "Leave your trail or mark behind" too seriously. Sometimes few people(caught red-handedly) flash foolish smiles and lift thier hands in I-couldnt-help-it-boss-That-sucker-beside-me-was-coming-too-close-to-me kinda look and move ahead unrepentful. Well i have also given some helpless looks to the drivers of few vehicles which i almost grazed. But you dont have time to get down and pick up a fight and you should suffer in silence(giving an angry scornful look is all you can do) and divert your mind to the CD that is playing or to the non stop chatter and songs on the FM. Ignorance is bliss. These FM dudes are semi-helpful folks, in the sense they give you prior information that so and so road is jammed and you will be screwed up if you take that way. Sometimes it proves useless because either you are already on that road or there is no other way because of the one-ways. "Where there is a road there is a one-way". And these auto wallas. Given the slightest gap or a mere sense of it, they figure out ingenious ways to squeeze into it. While the bikers are as usual trying to sneak in thorough whatever crevices they find in the jam. These guys-autowallahs and bikers are adept at giving your car a beauty streak. And in turn they give you angry looks as to why-cant-you-give-me-some-space-i-am-going-to-take-my-ias-exam-and-its-my-last-chance kinda expression. Somehow the traffic moves on and people start honking as they wade through the traffic as if i-want-to-win-the-race-to-get-past-the-signal YOU-LAZY-BUM-MOVE-ASIDE. This is a crude snapshot of the absolute reality. Have patience Machcha!!! My patience threshold has increased a lot and hope yours too will be increased once you ride on bangalore roads. Dont loose your cool and increase your BP. Increase your patience instead and resign yourself to being held up in a jam while you listen to the FM chatter or your favourite song or even catch a nap and wake up at the sound of a blaring horn...POOOYYYYYYY POM POYYYYY:-)

Pay Rent

Yesterday i went to Swamy's Ashram for Darshan. Bhajans were going on when we entered the Ashram. It was a pleasant experience. We waited for a couple of hours singing bhajans. A person next to me was singing whatever he could make sense of what he heard composing his own lyrics with a passion. Though at first i felt a little tinge of scorn for killing such beautiful words but then it dawned to me that he was immersed in the bhajan and was better than few other people who werent singing anything at all. Swamy came and i could catch a very distant glimpse of Divine Incarnate(i dont care what you people think or not). Well then a former Vice Chancellor of the excellent Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning gave a discourse. One thing he mentioned was in today's world people dont care about their parents while they ought to because they owe their existence to them. Well then he goes on to say you should rever your mother. "She provided you accomodation for 9 months. And you are obliged to pay the rent". Thats why they are called parents. Amusing observation but with deep significance. Your mother bore you while your limbs and body was taking shape and brought you in this world with life. And now here you are reading what I have written with your eyes and your whole body sitting in front of a computer and thinking with your brain. We should be indeed indebted to our parents for giving us life and bringing us up as to what we are today. We ought to take care of them and be loving to them. The word indebted is too soft a word, to describe the feeling one should have towards his/her parents.
The Vice Chancellor who delivered the discourse is an alumni of IISC.

One more thing he talked about was "Knowledge without compassion is inhuman and compassion without knowledge is ineffective". We see the world moving forward with many technological advances. Well they are making us lives easier but killing humanity in return. Just making our death easier. He talked about how todays technology without a human touch has led to impending calamities like global warming and environmental destruction. Its not enuf to a good engineer. Technical know how is required while Love for your fellow beings is necessary. The atom bomb is one of the cliched examples and you can find many more around you. Coming to compassion without knowledge is ineffective. Look around yourself and show compassion towards people or beings who deserve it. We should have the knowledge and intellect to choose where to chanellize our compassion. I may be too vauge in my statements but still looking for the deeper significance.