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A girl child lesson

An article by Kiran Bedi in 'The Columnist'.
Read it here.

I owe to my Mother

Yesterday I saw this quote on one of the cars: "Everything I am, or hope to be, I owe to my mother." "How true it is.
On googling, I found many such related wordings.

"All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother." -- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers." -- Jewish proverb

"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." -- Lin Yutang

"The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness." -- Honore' de Balzac (1799-1850)

"My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her." -- George Washington (1732-1799)

"By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class." -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1907- )

"The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom." -- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

"Youth fades; love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)

"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life." -- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." --Author Unknown

Cisco Telepresence Magic

Lufthansa - A video coach flying bus

Till date I have traveled to US four times. And, all the times I had to travel by Lufthansa!

I consider myself very unfortunate. I have heard from many people about the service provided by other airlines. If you compare other airlines [Singapore, Emirates, Air France, Jet, Thai, ..]..I believe Lufthansa is the worst. Lufthansa is bad in terms of the facilities/amenities they provide and worst is their service.

If you would look at the lack of facilities in Economy class [I have not seen other airlines myself], I can say the following points:

1. The toilet is too small. There is no enough space for standing also.
   
2. There are no individual TVs. There is a common TV for a set of around 15-20 passengers
3. TV is too small for viewing by many passengers.
   
4. The audio system is quite bad.
5. Chair push-back and head rest is one of the worst. Even buses are much comfortable.
6. There is no foot rest.
7. My worst experience with the on-board TV was when I had to sit in the first row of the economy class. The TV is placed just about the door on the pathway. And, the first row starts immediately after the door. So, from the first row, u can't see anything. And, if you try to see, you will be left with nothing other than neck pain. Even first row/bench tickets in cinema theaters are much better.
8. The food [veggie] is not good. It will be very oily and sometimes uncooked or half-cooked.
   

My worst experience with air-hostess was when I asked for a glass of juice and she told me that I can myself go to the storage area and take.

Six Flags over Georgia

11-Aug-2007
Georgia, US

I had reached Atlanta last week. My colleagues who were already there in Atlanta had purchased tickets to Six Flags over Georgia. Scientific Atlanta (the company I work for) had a picnic deal to the place for $5. The normal ticket price is around $55 (excluding food and parking). The deal that they had got was including parking and food! These guys had not got a ticket for me. So, I was very sad. I had always wanted to visit one of the Six flags in US, since it is known that they have the most scariest rides!

So, I asked my team mate (American) to try and get a ticket for me. Hurray! I got it! [for $0]

We had breakfast at hotel and started our day. The place is around 35 miles from our hotel. Reached there by around 9. The place was not crowded. That day the forecast was a record-high temperature. May be, that is the reason for a lesser crowd. Finally, we were at the entrance of Six Flags.





I went to and enjoyed almost all the rides. Most of them were roller coaster types. I would like to go for more scary rides. I want to try a ride similar to bungee jumping, but we were late. Should surely try it some other time.

Even Americans don't keep the place clean!!!

Normally, we see that most of the places in US is very clean. Any foreign country, for that matter. They keep the environment very clean. They don't litter things here and there. At least, to whatever I had seen or heard so far, I had this notion about Americans.

I had been to Six Flags over Georgia this weekend and was shocked to see that when people were waiting in the queue to go for some rides, they had stuck chewing gums on the trees, bill boards etc. It looks really yuck!

I managed to take a picture of a board which reads 'Please help keep the park beautiful".....



Those are cents stuck over chewing gums!!!

Can't we change for good???

I am currently in Atlanta. Here, me and my colleagues are staying in a hotel, Marriott Residence Inn. The hotel is 5 miles from our office. Hotel offers free pick-up and drop service to the work place. Shuttle timings are supposed to be 8 AM and 6 PM, which seems to be reasonable. It takes 10-15 minutes for travel.

There are some people (including me) who get ready a little before the actual time, so that no one gets delayed because of us. But, there are people, who come for breakfast at or after 8 AM and then leisurely have breakfast and then start from the hotel. Will they not realize that they are wasting everyone's time?

Mostly, I have seen that Americans are punctual. One day, few of us had got ready and were waiting for others to come. Driver (an American) waited for 5 minutes and then asked if we can start. We told let's wait for 5 more minutes, since some more people have to come. He kept on asking every five minutes and we kept on saying another 5 more minutes. Obviously, he got pissed off. And, he left the place. By around 8.35 or so, everyone got ready, but, he had left. He made us wait for some time. When we called him, he told wait for 5 minutes in a sarcastic tone. I won't say there was anything wrong in what he did. Even after that these people did not realize that it was their mistake, but in turn they were cursing him. The driver asked about our work timing. One person replied 9 AM. It was already 8.55. So, he told, anyways you will be late to work, so I will come after 30 minutes. Even then, no one realized.

The worst part was the next day. Few of us had got ready by 8 AM. Then only did we come to know that the defaulters (who normally come late) have changed the shuttle timing to 8.30 AM. That was really heights. Even for a single second they did not think about discussing with others and then deciding. They had decided all by themselves.

If the timing is 8AM, how can they change it without getting everyone's consent?

Now, the next heights is, after all this has happened, they come for breakfast at 8.45AM!!!

Can anything be done about them to change this? My solution would be: don't wait for them. Let the shuttle leave on time. But, don't know if every one will agree to that.

Be good to India..It will become the best place on Earth

Way back in 2005, this happened when I was waiting in the immigration counter at Chennai Airport.

I was returning from Chicago, en route Frankfurt. All the travelers from the flight were walking down and were trying to fit ourselves in one of the queues. This is only airport where we can see that people have spit on the walls!!!! There were 3 long queues for Indians, one queue for Foreign nationals and one for physically challenged and elderly people. And, there was no one to regulate the queue. May be the authorities thought that if people can regulate themselves and remain disciplined in other foreign countries, they will remain so in India as well. But, that is very rare to happen!!!

In the queue I was standing there was a mother and son. The son seems to working in US for a very long time and had taken his mom along with for site-seeing. And, they are now returning to India for a vacation. After some time, the mother notices that in the adjacent queue, there was a gap between two people standing in the queue. The second of these two people was looking somewhere else. Since, that was a shorter queue, that lady sneaked in between those two people. The son was watching this and told his Mom: "If you were in US you would not have done like this. You would have stood in the queue...But, now here in India, why are you doing like this. Let's stand in the queue...." To this Mom replied: "Arey! Be an Indian in India!!! You also come here, that guy will not say anything. "

After this, you know what happened, the Son had also moved to the other queue!!!!

Is this what is termed as being Indian???

It is in the hands of we people to redefine the meaning of being an Indian.

Who can make India a Developed Country? - YOU and ME

Got this forward from one of my friends.....

* The President of India DR. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam 's Speech in Hyderabad . *

Why is the media here so negative?
Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?
We are the first in milk production.
We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.
We are the second largest producer of wheat.
We are the second largest producer of rice.
Look at Dr. Sudarshan , he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters. I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It wa s his inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things?
We want foreign T. Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology.

Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India . For her, you and I will have to build this developed India . You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation. Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.

Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours.
YOU say that our government is inefficient.
YOU say that our laws are too old.
YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.
YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke,
The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.
YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.

YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?
Take a person on his way to Singapore . Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity... In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai . YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah . YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds ( Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.'YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, 'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.' YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand .
Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston ??? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?
Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay , Mr. Tinaikar , had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said. 'And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan . Will the Indian citizen do that here?' He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.

This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone fore go my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system?

What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away.

Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England . When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great
deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J. F.
Kennedy 's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....

'ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA
AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA
WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY'

Lets do what India needs from us.

Forward this mail to each Indian for a change instead of sending Jokes or junk mails.

Thank you,

Dr. Abdul Kalaam

Live your Life

En ularalgal...

On Monday evening I came home after consulting the doctor for a heavy fever of 102.6 degrees F. Shankar was helping a lot. I was feeling very hungry and he gave me "4 Britannia Milk Bikis" biscuits. I had taken a bite.
Everthing started now.... I started telling that this is not "Britannia Milk Bikis" biscuits". It will have the word "Britania" or "Milk Bikis" written on the center of the biscuit. This was having a checked design. This is not that biscuit..I started blabbering all this and strated crying. HE thought I was joking till he saw tears flowing down my cheek.
After this he took 1 biscuit from me. So, again I started crying for that. But, by then i realized what I was doing and started laughing at myself.
Now, everytime I see that biscuit, I cant control my laughter.

மாதா பிதா குரு தெய்வம்.

One good thing I realized today is -

Our society/cuture/tradition/religion/caste or whatever u call it, has not always been the one with a male-domincated thinking. There was one instance, they told --

"மாதா பிதா குரு தெய்வம்."

A mother does everything that she can (or) even more than what she can, for her kid, what we call by a very simple term "nuturing the kid". But, who takes all the pride et.al..."THE MAN" but he actually is just "a man".

Is he called a father, because he is the kid's mother's wife? What else has he done as being a father? He can be called a father only if he has done at least a little bit of what the mother has done. A financial helper, who can buy rice and dhall for the mother to cook is not all that is required.

Only if the father is able to instill a fwwling that I am your second mother, the kid wil cherish the relationship and feel the coziness of the relationship.

Their presence must be felt in their absence also.

Even after a person grows up, he must be able to appreciate the efforts put by his/her parents in bringing him/her up.

Whether u r elated (or) sedated, the people u remember at that moment are the one's who have really made you to what you are today.

At this moment, I remember Amma, Appa and Shankar (no specific order). I can remember a little of Meera (my niece) too!

I wrote this when i was having heavy fever and feeling very lonely at home... :)

PS: Only today I realized that "Matha Pitha Guru Deivam" is a very popular adage in Tamil language. Somehow, I had a thought that it was in Sanskrit.

See this link: "Matha Pitha Guru Deivam" is a very popular adage in Tamil language. This means the greatest "Truth" is the mother (Matha) who gives entry to this world by giving birth to us. Next comes father (Pitha) , because it is the mother who knows the truth about the father and she points us to the father. The father then takes us to the teacher (Guru) and it is the guru who then points us to God (Deivam). Here God represent the "Our Real Self".

QOTD - 3-Jul-07

I am only one. But I am still one. I cannot do everything. But still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything; Let me not refuse to do the something that I can —Edward Everett Hale

ரயில் கவிதை

நான் விரும்பும் பலர் என்னை மறக்க நினைத்தாலும்;
என்னை விரும்பும் சிலரை நான் நினைக்க மறப்பதில்லை!!!

For those who don't understand Tamil, here is the translation:

Even if the people I like, intend to forget me;

I will not forget to think of the people who like me!!!

All is bad; that starts bad...

July 1, 2007......My Birthday

Me and Shankar planned for a trip to Auroville and Pondy. A very eventful day, though nothing was accomplished....

To start the day, we got up quite early at 7 or so..not so bad...prepared rice/sambar/idli (breakfast and for us to pack for the trip)/chutney powder.....then we planned to prepare coconut burfi... To do all this it took some time... i know, we should have planned properly.. we wanted to leave from home by 9-9.30, but, by the time we started from home it was 10.30 and we went to Koyambedu to take a bus to Pondy. The next bus to Pondy (ECR route) was jus about to start..so we got in..The bus started at 11.

In the bus, there was one group of around 10 people..making full commotion and disturbing everyone in the bus by shouting...One elderly person (thaatha) was sitting alone in a 3 seater..and these guys entered and 3 of them wanted to sit together...had they asked thaatha politely to give them this seat and to move to an another empty, he would have surely done that..but, these guys were calling him names, they we calling him as perusu and were treating him with full disrespect. So, he didn't open his mouth and he didn't move from that place also. I liked the was thaatha responded..but, these guys kept on calling names and to maintain his own self-respect or whatever, he moved to another seat.

After this, in the bus they were about to put some movie. These guys started shouting that they wanted to see Shivaji - The Boss..The driver got irritated, switched off the TV and then started to drive. These guys kept on teasing the driver. Driver got fully tensed and was staring at these guys through the mirror...these guys started commenting about that too..so, the driver stopped the bus and shouted at these guys and he started the bus only after these guys stopped shouting. Driver was completely disturbed because of this. He was not able to concentrate on his driving...These guys were also angry that the driver was behaving like this. Some how, after some time the bus went on smoothly..

But, the bus was very slow..there was no traffic at all...We had asked the conductor to tell us when we reach Auroville and he forgot to inform us..he dropped us on the road, some kms away from that place. By the time we reached there, it was 3.30. Then, we enquired a shop keeper there on how to reach Auroville and there was one person (buying veg) and he offered us to drop us till Auroville bus stand in his Ambassador (for free!!!!)...he dint accept the money we offered also!!! We were suprised to see a person like that!!!

From there, we had to go 8kms inside to reach the place..we took an auto. After all this, we came to know that Auroville (Matr Mandir) is closed on Sunday Afternoons....Really don't understand the logic behind having the place closed on Sunday ANs, that will be ideal time for people from outside to come and visit the place...But, as such we went to a gallery there...it was very interesting...

Then, we reached Aurobindo Ashram, Pondy at 5 PM. Meditated for some time [a peaceful place indeed], started from there by around 5.30, got some books from the store there. When i reached Ashram, i had severe head-ache. After meditating for half an hour, I was feeling very fresh!

To get back to Chennai, there were many people waiting, but, no buses...so we got in to a bus that goes till Dindivanam. For that itself, it took 2 hours. Then, had dinner there, quite good...Then got a bus to Chennai. The road from Dindivan to Chennai is one of those best roads we can find, and it was quite a fast drive. But, some where on the highway there was a road block because of a truck that got broke down and stranded there. It took nearly an hour to cross that area.

The situation could have been handled much better. There were some traffic regulators standing there and trying to regulate the traffic. There was one bus, that was trying to over take the stranded truck but, he was not able to move any further, because of the traffic from opposite side. Had, we waited for a few minutes for the traffic from the opposite side to move first, then everyone could have saved a lot of time. Haste really makes waste! The so called traffic regulators could have just put up a board saying "Take Diversion" for the traffic from Dindivanam to Chennai. It could have made things easier and faster.

Finally we took 5 hours to reach Chennai!!!

A very hectic day indeed.

But, whatever we intended to do did not happen. So, we would plan one more trip to Auroville on a Saturday! For those who don't know about Auroville, it is a township created to develop/inculcate unity and humanity.

To find more details on Auroville, please click here.

Bus-kkul Mazhai

On a Rainy Friday Evening, I was traveling in a Chennai MTC bus - 19B from Thoraipakkam to Saidapet. That bus was one of the supposedly called deluxe buses. They have nice seats with lot of space between 2 seats. Dunno, if it for good or bad. The bus has good lighting with big windows and with nice window panes. Good holders on the railings at the top of the bus for the short people to hold on to. The bus will be really good on those sunny days giving air/breeze (though not fresh) ...

It started raining heavily when we reached near Tidel Park. It was raining, not just outside, but inside the bus also. In the last two rows of the bus it was pouring a lot. They were holding a umbrella inside the bus. It is a brand new deluxe bus, but look at the conditions. The glass pane at the top of the window was loose and had moved down, making way for the rain to enter the bus. They charge us with double the bus charges, but I guess they dont spend a single paisa for maintaining the bus conditions.

What is this?

Well, I have never had a feeling that I can write a lot..probably because, am a bit lazy when it comes to writing..I lack the patience to write the thoughts...I have a lot of thoughts running in my mind, but will normally find it difficult to express in writing...I don't express the exact flow of thoughts...

Let me take this blog as a training for me to start writing my thoughts..

All the very best, Jayashree!!!