moral policing in chennai

-the shift key is still not working, so please forgive the casing-

is there a limit to moral policing ?.
In Chennai, for the past three days, in the deccan chronicle, we have been reading that all night parties that are being conducted in the farm houses around the east coast road, have been subject to raids from the police.

These parties are being conducted with prior permission from the police department and are mostly attended by the techies who work in the various information technology companies.

These are attended by both men and women and are becoming an easy target for the police to make money. These police guys, conduct raids, confiscate foreign liquor, and photograph the people using the cameras on their mobile phones. Some pictures given to local news papers, with news that women have been found drunk in less clothes lolling around the swimming pool and so on.
All this in the name of upholding / protecting the tamil culture.
I was surprised to read this.

The may be times when there are some dirty ugly parties too , but I guess only adults who are old enough to make their own choices attend these parties. I don’t want to dwell on the issues of moral right and wrong.

Why should the police consider themselves protectors of the culture?
Their department is corrupted to the core. May be the one among the most corrupted in the world. Every one takes bribes… from the lowest ranking official to the highest. Personally I have seen a traffic policeman take a bribe from a speeding motorist. power corrupts and absolute powers corrupts absolutely.
Any woman in her right sense would never walk in to the police station to complain about anything. that’s the level of trust we have in the police. Yesterday too in the paper, there was an article where a girl who was taken into custody, was assaulted by the police inspector in charge.

So much for the moral policing ! ! !

Christmas Tree

We put up the Christmas tree at home last week. I did not have time to transfer the picture, hence didn’t put it up. We bought it last week. It’s a lovely tree and most of all Tarun baby is very happy about it.

Chris Mother Chris Child

Christmas time in office, and we are playing the Chris Mother Chris Child game.All those who
wanted to participate gave our names, and all the names were put into a pouch and we picked
up one name from the lot.
The Rules go like this: You are not to reveal yourself to your Chris child. To keep it a
suspense till the 21st. You are to get gifts for your Chris child, if possible, every day
starting from the 12th to the 21st, the last day of the game.On the 21st you are to get a grand gift for your Chris mom and one for your Chris child.We will have the gift exchange event on the 21st.
We can use our collegues to carry gifts to our Chris child, over a promise of secrecy.
Some of us dont even even know if ours is a Pa or a Ma.
The organizing team has also created a group id to which the Chris Children can mail and
thank their Chris Ma / Pa .


Samples of the Thank You mails :
Thank you for the gift and the card mom.... it was gr8 :)
Christmom/ dad, Thank you so much for your cute gifts.
hey chris ma thank u chooooooooooooooo much for the beautiful GIFT's...........
Thank U Chris Mom for presenting me chocs( My favrte One) & key
chain.that smiley key chain was awesome.Tks a lot ;))))
Hey Chris Ma/Pa ...Thank u so much for the yummy cake !!!!
Chris Parent --- Your gifts were awesome .. Thanks a bunch .. The teddy bear was huggly
wuggly cute !!!! :-)


And coming to myself
I gave my Chris child a pack of choclates
From my Chris mom, i got a pair of pretty earrings. Coincidence was that it perfectly
matched the clotes i wore
My friend / collegue has gone out of town, and i adopted his Chris child and bought him a Choclate Trouffle.
My friend will be back next week, so till then i am the parent :-)
I courired 5 gifts to various Chris children of Various Chris ma 's / pa's
Its great fun.No matter the size or cost of the gift, the joy one has when giving and receiving is awesome!!!
Joy to the World and God Bless Us All ....

Endae Keralam, Ethra Sundaram

On the fourth of this month, i happened to watch the Malayalam news on the Asianet channel and believe me, i was shocked.
The political party and the party workers belonging to the K Karunakaran faction, was holding a meeting. Suddenly the party workers of the party that K Muralidharan belongs to, barged in and started assaulting everyone and every thing in sight. Humans, mikes, tube lights, chairs, tables. Even the press and cameras were not spared. Father Karunakaran, a veteran Congress man, and son Muralidharan also belonging to the Congress party, and the battle never stops.
I was shocked to see a woman clad in a white sari, along with a group of men, beating up a youth from the other party.
Father and son against each other politically and the end result is that it puts the political ideologies to shame. Gods Own Country, indeed !!!!!!!!!!

Office Acronym's

I could not restrain myself, from putting this up...

An acronym thats used most commonly at our office is 'OOO' which stands for Out Of Office.
This is used across at all levels, when person leaves office during ''official working time'', which is 9 AM to 6 PM.
A mail is sent to all the concerned, with 'OOO' in the subject and an 'eom' (End of Message).

A few samples
OOO - after 1pm today - REACHABLE ON MOBILE (eom)
OOO after 5.00 PM today (EOM)
OOO for an hour and will be back to office - EOM
OOO from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM -- Reachable on Mobile ----- EOM
OOO from 3:00 PM today
OOO on 03/08/2007 and 03/09/2007.

Now you get the concept ???
This 'OOO' by itself sounds funny, and two of my crazy friends added to it....

OOO - Out of office (Sounds sensible ??? )
OOS - Out of seat (Alright)
OOSFL - Out of seat for a long time (Now thats going too much)
OOSFA - Out of seat for ages (Whoa !!! )
OOP - Out of project (reading fwds, wasting time) (Hee Hee Hee !!!)
OOW - Out of work (project completed, sitting pretty trying to spend time) (Isnt that nice??)
OOWWC - Out of work warming chair (Aaah Bliss !!)
OOSBM - Out of seat, bothering Manager !!! (LOL)
OFL - Out for Lunch (Nice)
OOM - Out Of Mind (Thats whats happens sometimes, right!!)
OTHO - Out tearing hair out (Rolling On the Floor Laughing)
OOO - NCB - Out of Office - Not Coming Back (:D)
OOOP - Out of Office Partying (Hehehe .. Thats welcome !!)

Dressing Up - Is it for Yourself or for the Others?

One day, at office we had quite a discussion on whether we dress up for ourselves or we dress up for others. My say was that - its for ourselves. We feel good about ourselves if we dress well. Three of my collegues / friends / neighborhood cubicle dwellers- were of the opinion that it was for the others. They even came up with '' Eat for Yourself and Dress for Others''. Well i still differ.
You dress up to feel good about yourself. Who would'nt like compliments from someone?
Reminded me of one incident...
It was Oct 18, 2006. It was my birthday. I was wearing a Calcutta cotton saree, and i thought i looked good. That morning, i still remember, George and me had an argument. It all started with a statement, that he would not be able to pick me up in the evening. Then we used to live with my in laws, and their house was quite a distance from my office. On my Birthday, the thought of bargaining rates with an autorickshaw driver in the evening and so on, depressed me so much.
He was dropping me at office, by bike. We stopped at a signal, next to an autorickshaw, when a lady (I guess an office goer) from inside looked up at me and said ''You are looking very nice''. I was shocked, because in India,its unlikely that a stranger compliments you. That person, whom i would not recognize the next time i see her, lifted up my spirit and i felt so good about my self. She made my day !!
Actually in the evening, George did come to pick me up :-)

Family - Pictures - George, Anooja, Tarun

The Family

Me

Tarun
Fav Photo 1
Fav Photo 2
Fav Photo 3

Weight Worries

Hii Anooja… Uve gained so much weight
You look like an aunty
You need to exercise
You need to loose weight
Hey can you not go on a diet
You can end up with diabetes and other problems
Just imagine, at this rate how you would look in another few years
Are you second time pregnant?
Your face is nice, but loose some weight, would make you look nice
Loosing weight would boost your confidence
Your feet will not be able to take the weight
Loose weight, you will feel good about it
Hey you know what, only fat people can make jokes about themselves on their fat.. and laugh, and that means they are not confident..
No mam we dont have the size.(and a stupid grin)..(This happens only when i go out to shop with my husband, George)
At a school friend's wedding - whom i had not seen for 10 years, my ''friend'' the bride, at the reception '' Hey you have gained so much weight, you look very auntish '' (in presence of George)
I am fed up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May be i am just finding excuses
I work 9 hours + a day, run a house, have a little fellow who is 2 yrs and 3 monthsI just cant seem to have the time
I need to sleep too...

No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office - George Bernard Shaw

Inside some of us is a thin person struggling to get out, but they can usually be sedated with a few pieces of chocolate cake-Author Unknown

If nature had intended our skeletons to be visible it would have put them on the outside of our bodies. ~Elmer Rice

I keep trying to lose weight... but it keeps finding me! ~Author Unknown

I'm allergic to food. Every time I eat it breaks out into fat. ~Jennifer Greene Duncan

You can't lose weight by talking about it. You have to keep your mouth shut. ~Author Unknown

Dieting is not a piece of cake. ~Author Unknown

Don't go out of your weigh to please anyone but yourself. ~Author Unknown

Toys and Safety

I happened to read an article on children's toys and its safety, and it got me thinking... Around the world, especially the US, Australia, Europe...there are so many regulations and restrictions on the kinds of chemicals used in making a toy. In India, there are no such things. If there are, then, the common man is not aware of this. We see so many toys being sold - from posh shops to hawkers, which i dont think adhere to any safety standards. The Indian market is flooded with Chinese toys. Every thing and anything, is Made in China. If China can supply inferior products to countries like the US and Australia, which have strict regulations, its quite scary to think of what they export to India, where there are no such regualtions; where 80 % of the population does not know what it is ment by product recall.

Thinking of such things gives me the creeps. My son Tarun, who is 2 years and 3 months old, plays with so many of the Made in China toys. Scary !!!!!

My ICICI Bank Credit Card

ICICI and me…
A pathetic relationship story that goes on and on ……
One day, I got a call on my mobile asking me whether I needed a Platinum Card (credit cards are of the category - silver, gold and platinum)from ICICI. The credit limit was 90 thousand. I never had a credit card, and thought this was a good chance. I got the card and lived happily for 3 months...

Well, on Saturday (3/11/07), I received an SMS that my credit card had been used to make an internet payment through the indiaideas.com site for Rs.2000 /-

On Saturday morning, I had a chalazion removed from my left eye, and my eye was all patched up. I was at home that day and was nowhere near the computer. Browsing was next to impossible, given my condition that day.

Then i called up the ICICI toll free number that was listed at the back of the card
The call answered by Abhinav
Gave him the details of the issue and also informed him that i had not lost my card and that the card was with me
He told me that i might have given my card details to someone
I guess they should understand that now a days people are aware of such things and would not divulge such info to anyone
For all i know, this card is just 3 months old and had swiped it at a very few establishments.
Customer is at fault was the attitude !!!
I guess its very easy for any one at a merchant establishment to gain the information from the card .
He just has to memorize the 3 digit CVD (Card Verification Digits) number at the back of the card, as the the 16 digit card number would be there in the bill; and use it where ever.

He also told me useless info like the merchant is in Mumbai and so on
Well, then he told me that the card was blocked and the conversation went on in circles, with him telling me that i have to wait for 1 day to raise a dispute and so on.(Sounded like i had to file a police complaint and had to wait for a court order :-))
Then i asked to be put to somebody senior and then i spoke to the Manager, Niranjan
He too told me the same thing and told me to wait for a day
Then on Sunday, i spoke to Priya
Well of no use again ...
she told me that the merchant can claim anytime in 20 days and so on
and that i had to keep checking, if he claimed.
I guess she thought that i didn't have anything else to do in life besides checking if the merchant had claimed
I am really not confident about the way ICICI works, as Niranjan should have told me on Saturday about the 20 day period. No one seems to know the process too well.

ICICI Bank, please take care of your customers, just costly advertising and catchy phrases '' Hum Hai Na'' doesn’t mean customer care.

Take 123

In the news channels, we see a lot of people opining on various things. It can be from Indo Pak relationships to the price of safety pins.
When I see this, I am reminded of an incident that happened quite some time back. This incident happened 6 years back. There was a company where I worked for a month. This company was a partnership firm and one of the partners was a politician’s son. (My mom was the most relieved when I quit the company, as she always imagined that politician’s sons were no good – but actually, this fellow was a decent person)
Well, one day, there was an India Pakistan match. There was a reporter from a popular channel, with the camera and crew. No names, as this person is a very popular politician now. This persons father and the partner’s father belonged to the same political party.
Well, they made us stand at various locations in the office (for it to look like they were actually interviewing people, from a lot of offices) and speak on Indo Pak unity. You won’t believe it; they took two of the employees to the beach, and interviewed them there, to again give the interview the appearance of mass coverage. I was shocked at this kind of journalism. Then, I was very excited about appearing on TV. But as soon as I saw the telecast, I was kind of ashamed; that I had participated in such a staging, duping the mass.
So even now, when I see people giving opinions and so on, I am reminded of this.
So much for responsible journalism !!!

My Ammachi

This time, when I went to Kerala for a vacation and visited my Ammachi (grandmother), I thought that I should write about her. She was widowed at 32, and still managed to raise her 6 daughters well.
She is close to 80 now and is a reader of the Malayala Manorama newspaper for the past 60 years. Lives all by herself, with a maid for company. She still wears beautiful starched neriyathu and white white chatta and mundu. She has very severe arthritis of her left knee, and the right too is not too good. With the latest feavers affecting Kerala, she had an attack of Chikunguniya. This has left her all the more in pain.
She was a part of the Asharayathu family, Thumbamon. She got married when she was 13, and my grandfather 17. After marriage she went back to her house and then went to live with my grandfather when she was 17.
She was pregnant with her sixth child, 3 months gone, when my grandfather died of a snake bite. She was 32 with 5 daughters and pregnant and all alone.
They sold off the land they had and moved to another place. She had the financial support from my grandfather’s brothers and that’s it. She had 6 beautiful daughters (the genes I say they inherited from her) and had to ward off men, drunken men, old men, young men..all men , all the time.
She is a very very strong woman. Single handedly she looked after her 6 daughters and looked after her land. Many a times she had driven off drunken men off her property. Such strength I have never seen in anyone I know of. My mother says that the men in the area were scared of her. She would never be scared to pick up the vetukathi (a big knife) and be after the men who tried to trouble her daughters. Such courage, my Ammachi had. Never have there been any rumors of affairs or activities of any sort, about her or her daughters, which is quite a surprise in our country, when a woman lives all alone with daughters.
She is still a very strong person, with very strong opinions and principals. Since all these years of her life, she has been the sole decision maker, she gets irritated if any one advises her to go and live with her daughters :-) . She says she is capable of taking care of her self. She is the most courageous and strongest woman I have ever met. Her endurance and her way of life…. A sad story this may be, but, a very strong one.

Titleless

Long since I wrote
Each time I see something worth blogging about, I compose it in my mind…
But don’t have the time to put it down.

Veggie

Being a vegeterian does not make you a superior peorson.Its just the way your life is.And by the way, you are missing out on a lot of things...
The other day when at a training program, we were divided into groups and asked to do some
stupid activity. Soon our topic went on to restaurants. We were speaking about a malaysian restaurant and the food they served. I was of the opinion that they serve the best fish paratha, when suddenly the guy i was talking to said ''yuck..i dont know all that and i dont care''..i was surprised at the reaction.
Please, grow up people.Understand that people are different and different people have different habits and cultures.
We Syrian Christians, even have non vegetarian items for breakfask.. appam mutta curry, appam beef stew...and so on..
Do not put up a show like you are the child of a greater God..Vegeterianism is your way of life and not mine....

Fast Track to Nowhere

Yesterday George had to go to the Airport and we had booked for a call taxi - Fast Track - to pick him up at 9.45 PM. The flight was scheduled for take-off at 11.15 PM. When i called up to check the status at 9.40 PM, the fellw there told me that the booking status showed cancelled. I was shocked. It was pouring cats and dogs and there was no way he could go to the airport by bike. No autos were also willing to come in the torrents. The nearby travels' too didnt have cars. Finally, he took our car and left it at an uncles place close to the airport and then that uncle(he is close to 70 years of age) dropped him at the airport. If not for him, he would not have been able to make it. So much for the call taxi, which never even came.

When call taxi operations in chennai started off, they were good and always on time and cosidered superior to the autos.But now, they are so unreliable, and we are forced to travel by the autos. The modus operandi of the taxi drivers too are similar to the auto drivers. If one is not aware about the place, then the taxi drivers too take you around the city. In the end, its the kilometers you pay for. Furthermore the disvantage is that, unlike autos, you cannot fix a fare and start..becoz its the meter that matters in the end.

My ICICI Experience.. Part 2

My association with ICICI, I guess is never good. Some time back (actually a long time back), I had written an exam conducted by the bank.
Didn’t hear from them for months. Then one day, a lady called me up from Mumbai. She informed me that I had an interview the next day at their Santhome branch. I asked her about the position offered and the department. She told me that it was for a mid mgt position and that they would decide about it later and all that. I was really excited. The next day, I went to the bank. The receptionist told me to go to the 3 rd floor and wait. I was to meet a lady named Jennifer. Well when I went up, I saw two people already waiting. There was no one to guide us. There were two training rooms on that floor and there was a training going on in one. We sat there and waited and waited while our numbers grew and grew. Finally after half an hour, we met a person from the HR (His English was very bad, and so were his people skills). Anyway, he took us to the other training room and gave us a psychometric test. We then gave him our resumes and the test paper. We waited for some more time and then two people came and asked us to be sent in one by one to another small room.
The interview had finally started, and we had spent a total of 2 ½ hours there. Well when I was called in, I was met by a very stylish lady and a silent looking guy. She had an interview sheet with her, and more than listening to me answering, she was filling up the sheet. So much for effective communication. And she made the HR guy look like he had a lot of people skills in comparison. She told me that the job is for the branch office and that I might get placed anywhere. I will be the staff at the counter and the average working hours will be 10-12 hours. God, what do they think? This she told me, in spite of the fact that I told her that I had a baby. Unlike others, she didn’t even ask how old the baby was; for this staying back business. Then she told me that I would have to do over the counter sales of the insurance and all other crap ICICI sells. I told her that I would not be too keen.
I was so so surprised about the interview. It was so badly conducted. In a nutshell, this was the worst interview I had ever attended. So much for the dramatic “ Hum Hai Na.’’

My ICICI Experience

I had booked for a Hero Honda Pleasure on Akshya Trithya day (not that I believe in good luck and stuff, for it is turning out to be a very bad experience), paid 18000+/- as advance and filled in an application for a two wheeler loan from ICICI bank. When I went to give in the originals to the representative from the bank, he asked me for a statement of accounts; and that’s when trouble started….
As I never receive these statements, I called up the call center on 23rd of April and requested for a statement of accounts. I got a confirmation message on my mobile that it had been dispatched on the 24th and would take 7 days to reach me. It never reached me.
I called up ICICI on 7th May, spoke to one lady named Vibudhi- Complaint # 24437129. She promised to revert the next day, and she never did.
Next I called up on 15th May and spoke to Mani. She said the courier has been dispatched and that she will give me the number of the courier agent and that I could call up and trace it. And you know what?? ''Madam, we do not have Chennai numbers, can I give you any other city’s number, where you can call up and trace?'' God, where are their brains? To think that I will make an STD to call up some courier company.
Then I asked to be transferred to her '' superior''.. Spoke to the Service Manager Vishanth – Complaint # ZC5143435. He promised to call the next day. He too never did.
When I called him on 16th May and asked as to why he didn’t call, he said ‘’ I just could not call’’.. So much for being the manager…
He told me that that the courier was dispatched twice and that he sent another one the day I spoke to him.. a sum total of three. I then asked if he could not trace it.. and you wont believe the reply '' That’s a totally different department and you have to speak to them, I cant check'' I thought bureaucracy was existing only in the government offices. He then gave me another complaint # SR24865438 and told me to go collect the statement from a nearby bank, and that he would waive off the charges (Charity after the bureaucracy). Its all ended where it started.. I wanted a statement sent, just because I didn’t have time to go to the bank
My salary gets credited here, and this is the only reason for continuing this stupid relationship :-(
Believe me; I still haven’t got the statement, and my two wheeler is waiting.
And I wish someone from ICICI reads this…

The Kiss - An Issue ??

You must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss...~ Herman Hupfeld

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.~ Ingrid Bergman

Is not a kiss the very autograph of love?~ Henry Finck

A kiss can be a comma, a question mark or an exclamation point.~ Mistinguett

a peach is a peach, a plum is a plum, a kiss ain't a kiss without some tongue... so open up your mouthand close your eyes, and give your tongue some exercise...~ Diesel

Shabana Azmi, Nelson Mandela, Shilpa Shetty , Richard Gere, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad .......Does that ring a bell? Well its all about kissing :-)This morning, i saw the newspaper (Deccan Chronicle), and i was surprised by the front page news.... President of Iran admonished and the whole Islamic community angry with him... All because, he kissed his teacher's gloved hand on Teachers Day. The sin is that he kissed a woman in public and that it is against Islamic law to kiss someone unrelated to you. This is not considering the fact that his teacher is a very old woman, may be as old as your grandmother, and was his first grade teacher. The issue is that it is against the Islamic Sharia - whatever that is.I am not against any rules and laws and i respect all religions. But this incident has hit the world press, and even our Indian paper(s) have thought that its big and published it in the front page. So much for display of affection...From where i come from, Kerala's Syrian Christian community, its not a sin to kiss someone. Passionate kissing in public, though is forbidden :-). Its Ok to kiss and say good bye.Its not a kiss, lip on cheek, rather a cheek to cheek. We still call my grandmother who is touching 80, '' Umma Specialist '' which translates as " Kiss Specialist ''. All of us get kissed when we go to visit her. Be it when meeting her or saying goodbye to her. Most of the grandmother age, aunty age people - related/ non related in Kerala, i know of, kiss us all when we meet and part.
Not to be left out, we have a desi version of everything. Our very own Shilpa Shetty incident. So much of focus has gone into the incident, that it had sidelined all other major events of the country. People who dont participate in any socially useful meetings were seen to display mass protests, burn effigies and shout slogans. Please, we have better things to do in life. Instead of focussing on Shilpa and Richard, lets look at what we can do to bring people together to work against the evils that are dominating our society. And dear media, we are fed up of sensational news, models clothes falling off during catwalk, shilpa crying in Britian during the Big Brother show, shilpa getting kissed...We like better NEWS..Please give us a breaaaaaaaaaaak.

Appraisal - A Gripe

Are appraisals meant to motivate you or are they meant to make you feel that you haven’t been doing much at all? Just sitting around in office, drinking coffee, and warming your chair?
Appraisals are an assessment of what you have done. But then it should also focus on what you will be doing till the next appraisal.
The focus has to be on how best you have done your work, and not on some weird data that you cannot comprehend, and which would be difficult for even your appraiser to comprehend after a few days. Also please do consider the many many days you have stretched and stayed back to complete tasks. Its something I have done for my company, no personal benefits, and also that the company doesn’t pay me for overtime.
It’s actually very difficult for women to balance both career and family. I am not saying that it’s not possible, but I believe it’s very difficult. When there is a question about which takes precedence – family or your job, it’s obviously family (at least for a majority of the women folk, from where I come from).
The women have to balance both office and home. Work, work, work in office, go back home and find a host of things waiting for you; family stuff, babies, food to be cooked, clothes to be folded, guests… and trust me its one hell of a balancing act.
And coming back to appraisals please let it not be about crap data, learning curves, blatant blaming and the whole exercise, an intolerable gyaan session, about what you could have done. And please don’t show favoritisms. Do accept that people are different and we tend to work differently. She/ He may not be good at something I am good at and vice-versa.
I don’t need rewards, but please dont hold back on recognitions ….
Let me not continue to feel - enda deivamae, inganae oru jeevithamo !!!!

Mobile Menace

Mobile communication is something most of us Indians cannot live without now. Accepted that its one of the best things to happen. All fine. But then what about the fact that these companies actually sell our numbers to other companies, for us to be harassed by a number of callers ….. ‘’ Madam I am calling from ICICI bank / Citibank / SBI Cards (and what not)… and you number has been selected and you have been chosen to be one of our privileged customers, and have been allotted a personal loan’’.
These people trouble us all the time, any time of the day. Not to blame them, they have a mindset that the answer would be ‘’ no, not interested ‘’ . I guess of the 100 calls they make may be 1 person will be actually be interested. These calls are such a menace!!
So are the SMS’s. Free franchise, Brain Gym, Lose Weight… The list is endless. Try calling the number from where the SMS came, and you get to listen to the message that the mobile is switched off. Mobile companies offering free SMS services, is a major reason for this kind of advertising.
May be I can tolerate one or two calls from a bank or a few SMS’s. But when bombarded by SMS’s and calls, its natural to loose cool. Where are ethics? I don’t want to be disturbed means; I really don’t want to be disturbed. It doesn’t mean, please call later.

The English Language

Living in Chennai, we do come across a lot of people working in BPOs. Not to blame them, but sometimes its difficult to understand the ‘ English language’ the way they speak it. It could also be that we are used to hearing it differently. They seem to carry on with their accents even out of office. But then I guess people are people and not automations that you can turn on and turn off. To actually pretend to be a Rachel Anderson for 8-10/11/12 (?) hours and then to leave office to be Pavithra Vasudevan, is a very very difficult task.
English, not native to us, is taught to us differently at different points of life. I work as an instructional designer and I am required to write courses catering to the American audience. We have a person who teaches us how Americanize the way we write English. The spellings I learnt (its ‘learned’ in America!) are actually incorrect, and I have to unlearn what I learnt in school to write the courses I write. Analyse is Analyze, Colour is Color and a Jeweller is Jeweler. I wonder what I would teach my son :-)?
Talking about accents, I met a person last week, actually my husband’s friend/ colleague. He had a major accent and it was difficult for me to follow conversation. I had to ask my husband for clarification, when I didn’t understand. In total I felt like an ‘English Illiterate’. The incident reads funny:-), but actually, it was quite embarrassing. I was wondering, whether it was an English accent or an American accent and then I realized that it was a False accent :-).
People and their accents!!!.

born an original

You were born an original. Don't die a copy. ~John Mason

I was flipping through the pages of a book when I came across this statement. I liked the way it sounded and thought that I should put it up. It’s nice when people are themselves and don’t try to act, speak and behave like someone else. It’s boring to talk to such people. Be yourself... Its makes more sense to the world as well, as to you.

Share Autos in Chennai

Needless to say, share autos are a boon to travelers...but then the number of people forced into one auto is shocking. The norm is four, but the auto drivers actually fill up to 10 people. For the benefit of those who don’t know what a share auto is.... It’s an auto that’s slightly larger than the normal autos, and can accommodate 3 adults comfortably. You would wonder about the magical figure 10. Well, four people sit on the seat, four on the plank of wood fixed opposite the seat and one on either side of the driver. Also to note is that the driver is a little hesitant to take people who are a little heavy, because it would take up space and the auto would have to proceed one passenger less. The law permits only four passengers, but anyway, who’s bothered???
Bus services are bad, and everyone crams into the share auto, no ladies and gentlemen privileges... All are passengers and should '' adjust '' accordingly.

Everything, including your life, a precarious balance.

Life-Thoughts

It is not often you find people who can carry on a conversation, without getting stuck or without fumbling. Very few of them bother to keep themselves updated about the happenings around. I guess people have so much to do in office, that they can seem to find time to do anything else.they are so so busy, chasing their careers, chasing lives....
Enjoy life.. money comes and goes.. There is no point holding on to the money you have and leading a frugal life, and then way ahead in life, after age has progressed, to look back at the youth you didnt enjoy..
Lots of my friends have adviced me to get a home loan and get a flat and so on.... but then if i get one, i end up paying an EMI for the next twenty years of my life.. and in the end, would be the owner of a house, but the life i lead the twenty years
would not be the one i wanted.