Thank God for the weekends!
Even if it is only 1.5 days :(

Of Mice and Men...

Probably one of the very few novels that got very close to captivating my heart was this one. I don’t know if any human being could possibly get past it without having to shed a tear or two. It has a wonderful beginning, middle and an end that dwells into your soul spiritually cleansing you while doing so. Too bad I was not able to yet get my hands on the unabridged version. (I am also still looking for “Grapes of Wrath”) If I don’t find them by the end of this year I probably would read it up on Google books.

The plot revolves around the journey of two men - one not so wise. It ain’t anything like the motorcycle diaries. Ah… but what is a movie in comparison to a book?
At the end John Steinbeck's does not do justice to his characters but he has an extremely effective way of making them very much a part of your life.

I read it when I was very young. I still remember every detail

You SHOULD read it

Sailing on….

After three days at the FOSSed conference I got back to work to find a whole lot of stuff piled up for me to finish. So I guess I’ll have to put in a few more hours to draw to a close thing that perhaps could have been done without had I had the resources around to be slightly more efficient than myself.

Well this isn’t pressure at all. Pressure was what I had to face may be say in my former work place…. Where night or day did not make any difference and deadlines were dead lines. But for me – happiness is more of a journey than a destination… a state of mind perhaps to which stress is an interference so I had choices and like most of the other people around I chose to do what makes me happy. Sometimes I miss the challenges – especially because I miss the courage that comes out of it. May be that there’s a lot that I am losing but there is also immeasurable gains from the loss in sort of a eerie way. Being busy keeps me happy because it doesn’t give me time to worry about things that are botherations in some way to almost all human kind.

Invariably life goes on… We sail along the seas of life that constantly keep throwing us about…. clutching on hard to the oars hoping that we’ll get to some great destination somewhere... and also in the meantime anticipating a future that looks probably almost invisible to us….!

The ∆ of life

At 20

The world opens its arms

Welcoming the knowledge

Smiling at the stupidity

Thoughts, emotions, hobbies and dreams

flooding through the windows

Like the morning sun

The choices are wide

Limitless bravery

Countless contradictions

Divine bliss

At 40

Life is running out fast

Spinning around

Quick make the bucks

Save for the morrow

A song, a book, a comedy and a home

The family person

And the fearless soul

At 60

The world that turned upside down

Turns right up again

Priceless and invaluable, the memories of yesterday

The wisdom, the illnesses, the grey hair

A sunset, a walk, a smile and a little cheer

A crying grandchild

A garden to love

The green of the home

The silence of the heart

31 March 2005

The difference between disease and work is that the former has an end

The softer issues – true or not?

I believe that no matter how advanced technology gets there is still some warmth in seeing someone say “Dear ‘name’” rather than saying ‘hey’ and ‘hello’ and ‘hi’. Hearing your name both orally and in letters makes you feel special and important.

You get sick of Chinese food if you eat it too often.

No matter how hard your heart is you will be greatly affected by seeing a child who is hurt or in some sort of pain.

On a hot day there’s nothing more soothing than a cold shower.

It feels good to talk to about your troubles with someone you trust

Eating out every once in a while makes you happy

You know about all the bad aspects of marriage yet you can’t wait to experience it

No matter how much something is not concerned with you, if its falls under one of your topics of interest there is always something that you can contribute to it.

The most decent looking gentlemen are sometimes the worst perverts

You might not want to accept it but you are very selective about your friends and clothes.

You like singing even if you are really bad at it.

You like traveling around the world but you’re so happy to get back to SL

You speak badly of your fellow citizens but you are thrilled when you meet people from your country abroad

Deal with the problem… not with the person

It doesn’t take much time…

To collect the dirt in a bag in your car and to throw it in a bin when you get to your destination.

To wash your sterilized milk bottles before returning it to your grocer.

To tell your friends to do the same when you to talk to them

To signal a thank you to the driver who stopped his vehicle for you to turn

To smile at the person who is not your friend

To drop a mail that is not a forward to an old friend or relative

To buy a packet of naphthalene balls from a person who is trying hard not to steal or beg

To feed a stray cat occasionally

To help the cashier with your things

To hold the door for somebody with a big bag

To say ‘no’ to a polythene bag that you know you will be throwing away soon

To have fruit juices or mineral water instead of coke.

What’s nice and what’s not?

What’s nice?

You come to understand that it’s not a perfect world with a perfect life so you put up with the ups and downs.

When the choices are limited you choose the lesser of the two evils

You perform

You smile at somebody even though you’re in a bad mood

You remember someone’s birthday

You are honest no matter how hard it is to be

You request rather than command

You feel good about yourself

You deal with the problem

You make the best use of the time you have

You are willing to ‘learn’

You have something to think about

What’s not?

People that you trust let you down

You wake up not wanting to live another day

You’re told around by people you have no regard for

Nobody asks you whether you are happy

You have something to worry about

You don’t have enough sleep

There is something that you have to do but you really can’t get yourself to do it

You take your anger out on people who have nothing to do with it

You have more enemies than friends

You have no time

If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain

New Year Cheer

It feels good to be back at work after a week’s vacation. I thought I would finally be getting my license in the last week of 2005 but we ended up moving house and as usual lots of things don’t end up the way you think they would.

Anywayz… at the new place are lotsa good things and lotsa bad things among which is no more ADSL. So good bye to that and a lot of other things including how much I have been taking for granted the little things that our parents do for us. I miss home so much and no doubt they feel the vacuum of my absence – specially my father whose ears I would fill with my voice from the time he arrives home till he goes to bed.

On the other hand moving out on our own means having to learn lots of new things like remembering to close the main door before going to bed. A fun and joyful experience of setting up all on your own, from managing finances to grocery shopping to what more I don’t know...

I hope that whatever awaits me this year would be good in some way or the other and that we are all able to give and to get more to and from society than we did in the past year.

Silence speaks

You can never understand a friends words If you cannot understand his silence

It just is too much

Too much boredom

Too much Dan Brown

Too much depression

Too much to think about

Too much frustration

Too much hatred

Too much freedom

Too much of nothing to do

Too much time wasted

Too much chaos

Too much insecurity

Too much nonsense

Too many fools

The Greater Gifts

The gift of love

The gift of honesty

The gift of freedom

The gift of knowledge

The gift of purity

The gift of conversation

The gift of sunshine

The gift of curiosity

The gift of bliss

The gift of wisdom

The gift of choice

The gift of light

The gift of life

That’s how it goes

Sometimes they tell you that the more you deal with your troubles the stronger you get every time you pull through one of them. There are those days that everything at work goes all wrong and you go home thinking it’s finally over and then a whole new set of things start going wrong for you. Things so bad… that make you question the reason for your existence.

And of course there are those other times, where life just seems to be a bed of roses and now tired and weary, I’m longing for some sun and a few more things…

The height of belief

Whatever the problem is, IT has a solution for it!

Slavery to the colonial culture

I have met or seen rather, a very few courageous people who have the nerve to stand up against the rest. In case you’re still thinking what I’m on about it’s once again to the topic of attire. Why shirt? Tie? And belt? Why not our traditional clothes? (not to mention the fact that most people tend to find it unspeakably uncomfortable) Would it mean disrespect to someone if you did wear clothes from a different - am I to say ‘your own’ - culture? What can possibly be so wrong about that?

The Indians on the other hand have my regard. They maintain their traditional costumes at least at special occasions and what’s better is that they are proud of it. Them, living in a foreign land will not necessarily prevent them not dressing up in the clothes which are not worn by the majority.

If only we could stop being so chicken…

How important is outward appearance?

These books that are written with the purpose of motivating another individual by those who consider themselves motivated people never really got around doing any good to me. I can never be motivated by some stupid saying or an article or anything that tries to play with your emotions using the weapon of words. Sometimes these are just about speeding up the growth process.

Coming back to the topic… eh what was it now? Oh outward appearance? Dress? clothes? Attire? Hairstyle? Can we touch on accent? How much does it really contribute to the person you are?

Ok so this is how I see it. If you are leading people at the lower level you need to look pleasant enough to do it. Smartly dressed. Hair neatly combed. Polite. And all that following but see if your leading people who will be convinced more by the person you are than your outward appearance you really don’t have to give a damn about what you look like. First impressions matter and people fight hard to make their first mark but once they get their and prove themselves to the rest, outward appearance really becomes a secondary necessity because people respect you for who you are and not what you wear or look like. So for those freaks who put dress before themselves let me say that you can’t get away just being well dressed and it a takes a lot more to leave your footprints behind.

Case closed!

That’s just the way things are. Accept it or die!

Most people tend to “assume” things because other people don’t open up enough!

Makkah and Madina

Haj is the fifth and most expensive pillar of Islam and therefore is compulsory only for those who can afford it. Umrah on the other hand is Sunnah – meaning not compulsory. I spent one April holiday at Makkah for Umrah. It was a very different and interesting experience. Although we had to keep reminding each other that it was no fun ride but pilgrimage, the whole tour was like refreshing the soul and the mind. And who says that pilgrimage cannot be made fun?

The Ka’bah at Makkah was a lot larger than what I imagined it to be. It took us an average of about 20 minutes to go around it seven times and this depended entirely on the crowd that was there. It was nice to actually see what we were facing when we prayed back at home for decades. I didn’t really like the native people much…. but there, you could find almost all kinds of people – the black, the white and the in between. Some were crippled and some were kings. Never seen a large crowd as that before. There were no differences in the uniform or the performance. It was the same for all. Two pieces of unstitched white fabric for men’s attire and women - covered fully except for face and hands. Children cried while the mothers were in prayer. The trip from Makkah to Madina was long and lovely although most parts of it were dry and covered by camel. Madina was much more beautiful. The weather was cool and almost as peaceful and as calm as the people there – a significant difference from Makkah. Dialog roaming doesn’t work there by the way. The food was great. Mutton was the most common meat. There were plenty of books. You can’t take pictures inside the mosque. (In fact you can’t do that it any mosque). The Zam Zam water was always in plenty. We practically lived on it

Somehow I want to go there again. It’s like I didn’t have enough of it. It wasn’t a very long stay. People always keep recalling their experience there. You probably would never face anything like it anywhere else in the world. Most people, this month, are also flying there for Umrah. Sometimes the total crowd exceeds two million. The little city of Makkah although not as highly developed as the rest of the country, does an excellent job of managing this crowd each year. Hopefully I should be able to see my next visit coming, not very far away, Insha Allah.