Stimulating the Right Brain

A week back, I asked a colleague to explain something to me. As he started to explain, I felt sleepy and yawned several times.I hurried through the tutorial session and noddded my head for every thing spoken and quickly came out of his cabin. Later that night, I had to painfully go though the materials all by myself. I felt that 03:00 pm was wrong time to ask a doubt as my stomach was full after heavy lunch. The next day i scheduled a meeting with him at 5:00 p.m.. Again the same problem. This time I pulled all my energy to focus on what he was saying and just yawned 3-4 times. I understood 70% and the rest was absorbed by my subconscious mind as I was in sleepy state.
I thought, anytime after lunch is not very ideal time for meetings that require my attention. I felt that my attention span decreases as day progresses, so I decided to schedule such meetings in mornings.Next time, I scheduled a meeting at 8:30 am, and I felt very uncomfortable. Donno why? May be I did not have breakfast?
And day before yesterday, we had a meeting at 10:00am. Again, 10 mins after he started to explain, I yawned and could not pay attention. Does the 2 idlis that I had to break the night long fast make me feel drowsy?....

Someone told me that stimulating right brain, would help me to increase the attention span and Music is one way to do that.
Yesterday,I resorted to the musical advice ….I dusted the my harmonium and played it for a while, caring the least for my neighbours…..ah! In betweeen I was so excited by the swaras..i started to sing myself…..ahem…no no no... not to sing..just chanted some swaras ..
Sa Sa Re Re Ga Ga ……Da Pa Da Ne Sa…..

Hmmm…Shailu was first person to recognise me talents…..She came running to me and said..
"anna ..Evn I want to do this…"
Me : do this?..do what
Shailu :like what u do
Me :NO ..evn I donno to sing...
I hurriedly packed my harmonium ……just sent her home and got ready to office….now Mr.X changed large portions of my code and came down to my cubicle to explain the changes….Even before he began, I yawned......I told him "okay " for everything….May be …..I just could not handle his voice….or may be I don’t have aptitude to Listen….. And evening I went home….there were pool of children waiting for me ….and Shailu shouted "Bhagavadhar mama has come" ……and all the other kidoos came in and asked me to help them practice singing ..

These days….evry mornign I am woken up by these tiny tortures .. I play harmonium to match their yelling ……And now! My brain is certainly simulated…..both right 'n left......

A Train Journey to Madras -I

It was Thursday night 23:45 in Whitefield railway station. Waiting for Cauvery Express, i was nostalgically thinking of my past. Whitefield is a small suburb in outskirts of the city of boiled beans-Blore. The British built the small railway station located at the end of Whitefield. During the colonial regime, all trains from Blore to Madras would stop here briefly. But shortly after independence, Whitefield lost its charm as the predominantly British settlers left the place to rice farmers. Soon, it became a small village county away from the main city. The lush green Whitefield attracted people from Mysore and Madras state as holiday retreat. It was favorite picnic spot and bastion for the poor pensioners who could not afford to buy a house in Blore. We had a small bungalow in Whitefield. I always considered Whitefield as part of Blore city, tough people consider it as a far away picnic spot. Once as a kid, i went to a relative's house at Madras. A visitor there, started chatting with me and casually asked as to where i am from. I said "Blore". With a gleaming smile he further enquired "where in Blore?" , I quickly replied "Whitefield" ...and asked him if he knew Blore. with shrunken eyes he quipped "Whitefield? ..That isn’t Blore.. It's on the way to Blore." He was right, a 20km from downtown Blore would not be considered as part of city, yet, i could not accept his remark. I grew up in Whitefield enjoying being closer to nature till 1991. After that we shifted to Madras, a coastal city towards east of Blore. People would enquire me as to where i came from, and I would say Whitefield, Blore. They would remark "Oh! Whitefield, Its not Blore.... umm, a good place though". Soon the times changed. Madras was renamed as Chennai. I forgot Whitefield, and was busy with urbane life of Chennai and stayed there till i finished my college, in 2004. I got a masters degree in computer science and was hired by a software company located at Whitefield, Blore. By now, i heard a lot about Whitefield. About its IT parks, Call centers, BPO's and R&D centers of big multinational companies. I was quite eager to see a developed Whitefield, hoping that its really a part of Blore city. I was quite excited about this offer to work out of Blore and waited quite impatiently to get final orders from my company. And finally it happened. I boarded the Blore mail on 14th feburary,2005. This train left Madras at 22:45 and reached Blore at 5:00am, the next day. I asked the TTR (ticket collector) whether the train would go through Whitefield. He said, "Yea, but it does not stop." Next morning, at 5:05am, the train arrived at Blore Majestic station. I went to take an auto(taxi) to Whitefield and he charged me Rs300. "Ah! Bull shit!!. I paid Rs200 to come from Madras to Blore and you want me to pay Rs300 to go to a place with in Blore?". I tried in vain, to bargain with him and finally he said "Sir, Nobody would go to Whitefield, Its in the other world. We can do five trips within t he city and make more money. In fact 300 will put me in loss as i may not get anyone on trip back" Finally, I relented and took the taxi and paid him Rs300. I got down before my bungalow and was warmly received by a relative of mine. I had breakfast and took the car to go around and see the changes I heard about.I found that nothing had changed. The British style bungalows in the inner circle and outer circle area were quite intact. The Anglo Indian population, the Xavier’s Church, Churchill’s home, the Whitefield club, central lake and coconut farms… all are the same. The school i studied did not get any new coat of paint. As I came out of ECC road i got the glimpse of new Whitefield, which was hidden from old town by the canopy of trees that surrounded that area. I was mesmerized to see the International tech park standing as high as 100 feet, accompanied by other sky scrappers near by. The imposing Sathya Sai hospital looked like Mysore Palace. I thought the necessary transformation has set in. May be, sooner than later, Whitefield will be accepted as part of Blore. But that was not the case. People in my office would often, remark that commuting from Blore to Whitefield is very difficult. The vegetable vendor would say that he has to travel all the to Blore city and get the load to Whitefield. Once I booked my tickets to Madras from Blore Majestic and boarded the train at Whitefield. The TTR rebuked me and said that as I did not board with in Blore limits the ticket was sold to someone else. I had to really fight with him to get another ticket, and much to my dismay he refused to accept Whitefield as part of Blore. Ah! It hurt me so much and I thought railway people are so greedy and intolerant. Two weeks after this incident, On Sep 1st 20006, the Blore City municipality had announced that five adjoining municipalities near Blore will be annexed with Blore efective from Thrusday 21st september.And Mahadevpura municipality, in which Whitefield is part of is one of the five. I was totally excited and felt as tough i won the Nobel price. Today I am waiting at Whitefield station, again, to board the train to Madras. The train leaves Blore at 23:45pm and would soon reach Whitefield. This time I booked it from Whitefield. I booked it over the Internet and took print out of my ticket. As I was thinking about my past, the train pulled in. TTR opened doors of S10 compartment. As I tried to get in, he asked me for my tickets. I pulled out a sheet from my wallet and handed it to him. I moved towards my berth and found a old lady sleeping. I told TTR that I did not want to disturb a sleeping old women and that I would take some other seat. He carefully glanced through ticket and told that "First of all you don’t have a Valid ticket, then you can think abut donating your seat to some one else." I politely asked him what the matter was? And before he opened his mouth, I told him 'Now don’t tell me Whitefield is not part of Blore. This train is empty..even if u have given my tickets to someone else, I can take an alternate seat" He was surprised and said"I don’t care if u consider whitefield as part of Blore or not. The rule says that you cannot board the train without a valid ticket" I picked the ticket and looked at the date. It said Coach# S10 Berth# 42 Thrusday , 21st sep 2006 . I gave back the ticket telling that it was right one. He said this is ticket for the train that left Blore yesterday.I said, "Oh, that cant be, i booked this on wednesday for todays train" and before i could proceed further, he said "Gentleman, its already friday morning 00:30. This train starts from Blore at 23:45 and reaches Whitefield at 00:30. If you are booking from Whitefield, you should look for Friday morning 00:30 train. I was starring at him helplessly, and he finally said , "you see, you may be right that Whitefield is in Blore, but this ticket is not valid. " This time I happily paid Rs400 (Rs200 as fine for boarding train without valid ticket) and got a new ticket. At last, I found one guy, who agrees that Whitefield is indeed part of Blore.

My Country enters 60.

Independence day was yet another holiday with a 2 hour morning attendence at school. A chief guest, usually the school principal, would hoist the flag followed by the national anthem. There will be a small speech by the chief guest. Some time these chief guest were related to some freedom fighters. 90% of their speech contents would be a good revision for history exams...but tht 10% of unique story was certainly worth the visit to school......then comes the most awaited moment...Chocolate distribution....and then go home....This was my independence day routine till class XII. Then comes the college days. The vice chancellor was chief guest. The speeches were no big inspiration..but the my attendence was lot more a informed choice arisen out of maturity.....I wanted to be part of flag hoisting ceremony.....So I went to college...

Aside:
Attendence was never compulsary on independence day at school. Still most of the students were in school for flag hoisting ceremony.

The Shell Experience

It was thrusday evening, i was about to get back home and i realised tht i have to fill fuel in my bike. This time i went to a Shell outlet in the AECS layout. It had 12 counters in total. There was a seperate counter alloted for two wheelers. I entered the booth from wrong side and a security gaurd politely guided me to the right counter and told me the right side to enter the bunk. The employee at the counter, smiled at me and said "Namaste, Welcome to shell" . I was bit surprised to hear that and possibly did not even acknowledge his "namaste". I just opened my tank and signaled him to fill for Rs100. He looked into my eyes and said "Namaste" yet again..I was certainly bowled over by this repeated courteous greetings. This time i said 'aaann..namste namaste.. hundered rupees"

Shell employee (in kannada) : "sir you have to get down from the bike"
Me : Its okay, just fill it fast..

Shell employee made polite gestures with folded hand and said "sir please get down from bike, I cannot fill the tank otherwise."I got down from the bike and he told me to look at the LCD display screen that showed the initialzed values: zero against rupees, zero against the amout of fuel filled. He read that out loudly, saying sir please see Zero rupees, Zero literes and todays price is Rs55.45/lit. And finally he filled the fuel. I gave Rs100 and kick started the bike. Barely, i moved away from the counter, he shouted aloud "Sir ,Sir." I turned back and saw him approaching me with a bill. He smiled at me and said 'Sir please collect your bill".

I was surprised and thrilled to experience the american way of customer friendly treatment in our land. It was certainly a good refuelling experience. . In days ahead, when US retail chain open their shops, we can expect lot more of such customer friendly interactions...

Aside:
and finalllllllly the construction of over bridge at Marthahalli has entered into visible state.I could see some work going on.
This morning i saw a blog on gossip in NewYork, it was very nice..may be i shud start one for my town,..I will henceforth call my town as New York.

fundoo Gyaan on giving joy to others

This week and weekend had some mixed moods.Some nagging family problems got solved a lil bit. My younger brothers wife's father called him and spoke to him.They are muslims and did not approve the marriage. My S-I-L was worrried and got sick; and finally her mother spoke to her this week.There was huge sigh of releif tough the problems are not fully solved. Her mother is yet to approve the marriage. One of the monthly horosope newsletter predicted a new acquaintence this month by 16th and exactly on that day i got two pings thru orkut----Both were my old frienz...ah!I am not sure if it was a prediction accuracy. I get new pings once a while....hmm let it be as it is.....I had some mail exchange with this guy whom i shall address as "Peter". I was conversing with him and suddenly the topic moved towards "feeling guilty". hmm..peter told me something on this and quoted Swami on this context which i have pasted below

"....as an infant you used to move around naked all over the place. Are you ashamed of that now? No. Similarly, what you did before was alright for that time . But just as you would not keep walking around unclothed now as a grown up, you should amend your ways now as........."

I was just impressed with this quote and was kind of overwhelmed......evn b4 i cud digest some things he told, i got to know his driving philosophy in life.....'Be with others to give them joy and not to derive joy from their company.' I asked Plato on what he feels about the quote.....he said tht must one monk to do this....Its really difficult to follow..............oooops! too much to digest for the weekend.My mind keeps ruminating over his words again and again...absolutely no mood to work.

Aside:
Saturday was working day to compnsate for leave due to Rajkumars death. Ppl came at around 11:00 am and my manager told them to clean the Lab. We had luncheon at Radha Hometel.
I Went to subbu's house for dinner and got fully drenched on way back.
Saw some nasty football between Italy and USA..with three red cards and one self goal by Italy.
Some ppl in here are talking about my christian gal friend. Incidentally, I created a character by name "Jasmine Thomas" to show-off to Aasif that i have a Gal frind who is very beautiful and wud marry only if i get converted to christianity.

Aasif ---Fanaa!

I took a resolution loong back on updating the blog on regular basis. One ,it should improve my writting skills-something that never improved since school days.It will be really a great one to read all these things 20 years from now. hmmmmmmm....Let me make a attempt (count=1)

It was good week and weekend. Plato is leaving this weekend to Gurgaon. i had very nice time with him for a year and half.In the age of emails, chats and mobile fones, keeping in touch should not be a problem. I am not sure if each of us will be motivated to call the other on regular basis.Plato, Aasif and me met at Aaranyas, roof top. Aasif had same voice and accent. A Simley countenance and a typical Chennaite mindset about bangalore ----"Nothing is good in b'lore except for the climate." We recollected our school days with great joy. There is something very special with our class. Most of us were togather for just 2 years , IX and Xth, but we feel as tough we know each other for a very loong time. I always felt, the innovative English course that CBSE got in our IXth standard has a unifying effect on all of us. Those radio shows, group studies, comment on pictures, story completion....ah! all these made us work togather, kinnted us into one nice fabric.


I got up late on saturday morning,gave my bike for "servicing", picked it up at 5:00 and went to innovative multiplex with my frindz to see "Fanaa".Kajol was shown very beautifully in the movie, the story would have lot more thirilling effect on me but for the novel " The eye of the needle". The climax overlapped with one of few novel tht i read. Sunday we played cricket at Halli manne and I acquired body pains. I saw 'You have got Mail' starring Tom hanks and Mc Ryan in the noon! a wonderful movie that had vry soothing effect on my mind...I tried to participate on P9 jingle compostion, but ended in sleeping hte whole noon and good part of evening. Back home at 7:30 and had dinner at Chappati shop. Got two pills and slpet like log.

Aside
Very surprisingly this time the traffic at marthahalli was moving in meters/min as against inches/min.The quite roads in EPIP are getting more choked with cars and bikes frm the nearby Tech park's.

An Angel's Avoidable Anger ...

Recently, i came across a blog, the author of whom i know not......I usually read blogs of people whom i dont know and it has been my self imposed policy of not to post any comments.I donno why i left some comment in this blog, May b i was compelled to write a single word in praise of her fotos, but ended up typing some random thoughts tht precipitated in my mind then....as if the was not enough, i asked her to visit my blog to know my take on her post....hmmm..I am not sure about penning my thoughts clearly .....Hope it does not irritate her further....

One fine morning, this pretty girl, comes out of her room and sees the misty morning fog in the garden lawns...Her sleep dissolves in the rising sun and sneaky fog... she decides to store this sceneray for posterity in her Camera, and also has shares these beautiful pics with others ...hmm..she has potrayed this heavenly morning mood in simple words and with stunning fotos. Later, she goes to school and translates her inspiration into some productive work at Lab. Our cindrella, then chose to enjoy the pleasent afternoon with her friendz in a Ice cream shop.hmmm...this lovely mood was smacked away by a lil message she recieves frm her boy friend tht gives a link to mischievous video ---it shows a man paying $200 to feel a Girls breast. Needless to say, our Alice in Wonderland becomes ...Raani Mangamma...She describes men as socially insensitive beings, purpose of their existence is to enjoy the carnal pleasures,hungry wolves hunting for women's flesh..bla bla bla..
there is certainly a grace in her expression of anger, .....I am pretty sure tht she has typed all these sentence in one go, like Sivaji Ganeshan Deliverling tht lengthy Dialogues in one breath, in the movie "Parashakthi"...She asks a series of Questions about men and their intentions/feelings as thy look at a women...thn she askes a typical cliche..."aren't u born with sisters? will u look at your mother like tht?" ..these are standard indian dialogues...I am very surprised tht this girl staying in the US for 4 years now has poured out her feelings in a very indian way (by this i mean pl satyed in US shud hve lil broader understanding of sex and soceity)..... I thought abt this at length in the weekeknd....this is a nagging problem tht i often come across....either frm my sister or my gal friendz ....I really dont hve a very convincing take on this, but i feel with great conviction tht "it has something to do with Women's mentality"....before i try to understand and analyse the situation...I confess that i really understand the nauseating experience of seeing such videos and being Indian women.....Any act of sexual provocation has to be condemed and in our society women seeem to face this problem more than men....In the quest to project the attrocities faced by thm, women tend to overdo things....It wud hve been a fine argument if she has just talked abt problems of sexual proovation..eveteasing etc etc..she streteched the argument way tooo far frm tht ...condemning Men as social beasts, hunting Women as their prey....ofcourse, she masked it all very nicely in the last sentence..."if u r not one of those men, I salute u" ...

Wat really pissed me off is her argument tht that Sex is just a mechanism for sustainence of man kind,...sex for any other reason is totally condemnable and not allowed......I cant really blame her for this...It has something to do with Hindu Soceity and their pooorly understood culture. It descibes tht the path to attain Nirvana shud be Devoid of Sex....
Personally, i feel sex is one more form of enjoyment...some ppl like to amass wealth, others like to accomplish....and some like our cindrella loves the beauty of nature...and in t he very same way there r ppl who like to hve sex.Western Socieity has really understood this concept...A women willing to sell her body is allowed to do so and Men can purchase this pleasure by paying the right amount...Some ppl accept this, while most of us consider this Blasphemous ...including me and i blame it largely on the way i was brought up....ofc ourse, i am trying to come out of these forced beliefs ...

I feel that "sex seeking" is not very symetrically distributed between genders.To explain this, let me pose the inverse problem!! what if i get video frm my frind(guy or gal) which shows a gal paying $200 to get feel of a man's flesh...
I wud consider tht as any other forward, ....certainly not get disturbed evn a bit... I am sure this is the case with most of the men. Why is this So? ...Is it tht women care lot more abt being virgin than men....if ye, why so?....possibly, the soceity has beeen very Patriachial....Men does not want their wives to think abt anyone else other than thmselves and women were very submissive....thy feel demeaned whn anyone other than husband appriciates thm...
< i hang this thread here, and complete it whn i bcome clear on my beliefs>

Body as Piece of Meat
if body has to b considered as piece of meat....thn why worry if someone smothers this meat...Sex is just a series of Elecro chemical reaction, feeble elctricity tht sparks very few neurons...expansion and contraction of muscles....why to get irritated or angered by this....hmmmm evn anger can be define tht way...okay i am not very articulate in wat i want to convey...its just tht "looking at body parts a piece of meat is usually done by some realised soul, like Budhha or Shankaracharya, who has realised the ultimate truth....anyother average human would certainly get tempted by 'body compositions" of opposite gender...

Evn our cindrella and her friend A has been in praise of Actor soorya....there wordings does not suggest me tht they were merely praising his artistic skills....Possibly a mild crush...hmmm..may not be...


Aside: Message to my sister:
Dont mistake me to b another Sex starved individual....I am trying to weed out all the beliefs,rituals and culture forced on me by "A Typical conservative Tamil Society"