Don't take driving personally!

I think some people take driving personally. They just keep speeding up irrespective of the road and traffic conditions. When they have to wait at traffic signal, only the vehicle in the front can stop them and definitely not the red signal. They use 'horn'so much that probably they want to be the first in the que on the road, beginning of which is unknown. And if the vehicles come in their way are driven by the opposite gender, their way of taking it personally increases exponentially. 

What for? Fun, passion, ignorance, or whatever it is!

Its alright to maintain optimum speed. Its alright to wait for a few seconds at the traffic signal. Its alright to let the horn take rest and be in the que, even if its long and anyway its never ending. Its alright to allow fellow vehicles to pass by, even if they are driven by the opposite gender. 

Don't take driving personally. You may think that you have good control. But life's control is in no one's hands. Whatever can happen will happen. Drive safe!

Efforts do not go wasted... Take Home #433

Efforts do not go wasted unless you ignore using your experience while connecting the dots. Be attentive and make most out of your very own experience. Because, one's own experience is the best experience. 

Blue skies... Pic of the day #10

Blue skies always amaze me. The beyond is not understood but from the way it appears, it inspires me to believe that there is 'beyond' to everything. There is more to everything than the piece of what we know, than the bit of what we understand. 

This understanding of mine makes me take none for granted. Neither the good nor the bad. Neither the happier times nor the tougher times. Neither the smiles nor the tears. None of them lasts longer. None of then lasts forever. Life is full of happenings and all these happen either one after the other or when situation is further bad, all happen together, so that you would not know what to express, what to cry for and what to smile for! 

The understanding of mine about the blue skies makes me believe in the unbelievable. What we believe is usually what we have seen happening sometime in the past. Also, what we believe is what we think will happen sometime in future. To believe something from past is nothing special but to believe that something can happen in future is an attitude which is linked to the basic idea of believing in the beyond! Believing in the space where anything can happen, and hoping that what we need happens. This is absolutely special! 

So, that's the analogy. Keeping it aside for a moment, the picture is taken couple of days back when the blue skies returned amidst the rainy season. For few moments only though! I could capture one of them. This is not one of the best monsoon seasons in the country and here in Pune. Although the rains are sufficient enough to make the landscapes look green and hence call us for trips, they are definitely not sufficient to serve the purposes of farmers, home makers and multiple other needs. Hoping to see the rains coming back with bang, soon.

Blue skies inspire but they depress too when they appear at wrong time! So better they go away, for now, and come back for the beautiful winter.  

Managing people... Take Home #432

Managing people appears to have come by birth to certain managers not because it actually has come by birth, but because over a period of time within themselves they developed the qualities of understanding and valuing people around them, their employees majorly, irrespective of the strengths and weaknesses of each person. People must be understood and valued to get succeeded in a manager's role. 

Egg Omelet... Pic of the day #9

"Egg omelet" has always been my favorite food item. Most of the times it helps me in finishing my meal with a curry that's not of my interest. In childhood I used to eat very selectively. I could not eat each and every curry. Omelet used to be the companion of mine to finish the meal and hence to escape the angry looks of my elders! But once I started cooking myself, I've started liking almost all dishes. After all, I cook them and I must eat. But that's just half a reason. The other half, what I feel right, is that the purchase and handling I do of the vegetables make me get attached to them and eventually I like the curry I make.  Still, there are some favorites and some are tough choices, may be for health purpose etc. To survive such curries, I go for Omelet. Of course, that's not the only reason to go for Omelet though! 

I remember the following very much. This is one of the best memories of mine from my hostel days. When I was in intermediate hostel, parents were allowed on Sundays. They could come and meet their kids, could get some eatables, could take them out though not on all Sundays etc. My mom used to get me home made Dosa and Omelet. Every time I think of this, my eyes become teary. Needless to say what's happening in my eyes at this very moment as I write this! I used to skip the breakfast, which used to be 'Tomato bath'. I used to wait on my toes for my parents as well as for the eatables they would get. So, Omelet was an obvious item that used to be there almost every time! Although I liked the hot omelet, the cooler one too used to satisfy me to the core. 

Undoubtedly, my intermediate days are the worst days I would rate as. The hostel life in a corporate educational institution cannot be explained in one post, may be I will write about it in detail sometime later. For now, Omelet is the topic and the above is what I've to say! The below picture is of the last Omelet I ate, i.e. couple of days back! 

'Jenga' - Pic of the day #8

Playing indoors is as important as playing outdoors. While the outdoor games help in physical movements of the body for its coordination with mind, the indoor games help in building the mind to counter back the psychological attacks of the opponents. There used to be many indoor games in our childhood that we know them by their names in our local languages and most of them were mind games and few of them were of entertainment type. Some were played in leisure hours and some could even be played when there was a boring class going on. While outdoor games used to bring a lot of audience, the indoor games used to fail in attracting the onlookers, not all though and 'Caroms' being the best example. But both tempt the players to think that they should win and the game be over soon! 

To celebrate the last Pongal festival, we had been to our home town for family meet. I saw the kids in our family, the next generation, playing a game with wooden blocks. Almost all generations and ages of family members were keenly observing the ongoing game. Never before I saw some indoor game gripping up to that level. I moved closely to the kids and started observing what the game was about. It was being played with wooden blocks placed in a pillar kind of shape. The photo shown here gives the description.

The name of the game is "Jenga".  One of our uncles brought it for kids from US. Only then I came to know that there such a game! An interesting one indeed. Further details of the game you may look on the internet. But what I've inferred from that incident is as following. "Jenga" brings lot of excitement to the game as the mistake of one player or rather the loss of one player brings down the complete structure well brought together by all the players. Every player, even though its not his chance now, tempts to help the other player who's to play next. that's just to make sure that number of levels of the blocks all of them have put together grow endlessly. End is always there in every game, so as in this game too. But the excitement builds up exponentially for each level that increases. Everyone gets the applauds for each step. A team can be seen even though the players are competing individually. That's interesting and kids learn a lot of things and especially about belonging to a team even though there is a competition among them. Not all games can teach this very important lesson or rather the realization!  

Now we've bought one set of this game at home and we keep playing it in free time. The picture of the highest level that we could reach so far is shown below! Hoping to beat ourselves soon! 

One more proof... Take Home #431

Even after putting a lot and believably enough efforts, some issues just stay unresolved! 

Be determined to solve a long standing issue and you will be stunned to see new ideas coming your way, either from your within or from the people whom you contact upon the issue.

This is one more proof to remind us that "life is full of possibilities". 

Nothing can stay unresolved forever! 

Win the best!

Dream big.

Think aloud.

Work more.

Win the best!

Learn to be realistic!

Rather than asking filmmakers to be realistic, better we all learn to differentiate the reality and fantasy; kids must be taught the same too. Doing that not just helps in correlating films with real life, but also helps in understanding many characters we meet in day to day life, especially those who fantasize everything and take advantage in multiple ways.

If it's understood that a two hour movie can have huge impact on kids, it must also be understood that, being there around them for a life time, you can impact them too positively, and must impact larger than what a movie can do! 

Being proactive... Take Home #430

Proactiveness is appreciated always, when one performs his own job being proactive, but not every time one performs someone else's job being 'proactive'. 

Count back timer... Pic of the day #7

It was back in early 1990's I remember watching television for the first time. We did not have TV in our home then so I along with mom used to go to our neighbor's house. Mom often tells me that I used to watch TV through my fingers as most of the scenes used to fear me back then. She also tells that I used to seat myself back side of her and used to play all myself while she along with another aunty continued to watch TV. After few years, we bought a black and white TV. I remember preparing myself to watch the movie on every Sunday evening. That was probably the only movie I used to watch in a week. I also remember my grand ma watching 'Chandrakanta' serial on Sunday morning. The usage of TV was so low that I could remember more of what I heard or watched.

That's not anymore the case as on date. I watch too much a stuff and fail to remember even thirty percent of it. In the earlier days of serials, especially in Telugu channels, the advertisements used to be telecasted for more than sixty percent of the total time of the serial schedule. We literally used to wait for the serial to come in between the advertisements. But thanks to the recent rule passed by the government. In a thirty minutes serial, now its must that the serial be telecasted for at least twenty minutes. That's a great relief. 

The above picture is taken while I was watching a serial in Colors channel. On the top left corner, they display the timer counting back from one minute fifty nine seconds. That's really useful and it prepares me for the next couple minutes. That also enables us to switch over to other channels instead of worrying about missing some portion of the serial and hence making us helpless to stick to one channel only or change back the channel and check every now and then! 

Well, that's it about this picture. That's the pic of the day for today!

Never do so... Take Home #429

Never describe anyone by their limitations. Limitations are not mistakes, after all. 

Learn how to say... Take Home #428

In making what you say as important, how you say it matters. Along with thinking well about what to say, learn how to say it too!  

Just a thought!

Either your have to fake your emotions or make an unbeatable logical sense to get people on your side. As you think that most of the people are busy faking, this is the best time for you to start developing your logical thinking power and communication skill so that you can make a perfect sense for the people around you and hence you can take them along! 

PS: This post is for all those who think that except them everyone else around is faking it! 

Apartment culture... Pic of the day #6

There was a multi-storied building in our town. Frankly, I do not remember if it had five or how many levels. But it was the tallest building in our town when I was around eleven years old. The moment I came to know about that building, I along with some friends visited it. We did not step inside but waited outside and just had a look at it. I was so excited to see that, so were my friends. Having visited the then capital of Andhra Pradesh, also the present capital of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, a couple of times by then, I was aware that there were many buildings in the towns. But this was the first one I saw in our home town and also the first one that excited me so much. At that time, I never though I would ever get to see a further more taller building in my life. 

The below shown is one of the tallest apartments I've seen in Pune. Our office bus takes the road next to this apartment every day morning. I always look at it and wonder, how come! How come the balcony is so small! How come there are so many levels! How come the building is so tall yet so lean! How will it sustain the earth quakes! How this and how that and so on. As I think about all these points, our bus passes the buildings and something else occupies my mind! 

The apartment culture has become so common these days that kids are born and brought up in there. Of course, they actual take birth in hospitals though! Parents are buying the apartment before they even plan for the kid and for that kid, that's the home-sweet-home. The kids in the other apartments of the same society are the first friends, firstly for the fact that they all stay in the same society and secondly, they might also share the same play school. Their lives continue in those apartments unless there is a change! They might or might not get to know where their parents lived once, how their home looked like, unless the parents are enough punctual in visiting their homes in regular intervals. Pity, but can't do much about it too!

I personally like an independent house. But that comes with a huge price, to pay which one needs to spend more time earning and less time spending. Both are not of my type! Well, life always moves around priorities! Let me see how it goes!

Traffic sense... Pic of the day #5

Although driving can be learnt and done by anyone, having traffic sense is not everyone's piece of cake as on date. Traffic sense, in a technical way means knowing the traffic rules, and in a logical way it means to have some commonsense. Although everyone needs to have the commonsense, a biker needs one kind of it, a car drive needs another kind of it, a bus drives needs to have some other and the heavy truck driver needs to have completely different type of commonsense. But unfortunately, people fail to adopt different driving rules while driving different vehicles.

Today morning while I was on my way to office in the office bus, I saw three big vehicles making a triangle at the middle of a four road junction. Below is the pic taken at the same time through the window next to me. Hence the bus itself is not being seen in the picture. Hope that's understood. 

Three of the drivers entered the center of the road at the same time knowing that the other two vehicles are approaching as well. Anyone of them could have made it differently by stopping back. But unfortunately none did that. All three came in the center of the junction in a triangle manner and started telling each other to go back. Nonsense! What would have happened if they did not brake at the right time? Fatal and can't imagine it anymore. 

The basic traffic sense and the road sense shall be tested while giving the licenses. We all know how licences are given! I'm not saying that every license is given that way, but mostly so as we all can see. Also, only giving licenses in a fair manner does not help it. One must take up the responsibility while driving. One must own up the consequences whatever happen because of him or her. One must be disciplined enough to give it a thought sincerely. All these cannot be taught by keeping rules by the RTOs. This must be part of the basic education. There was a time when driving was not so pursued by everyone. Still I remember there used to be a lesson in social studies about traffic rules. But now the time has changed. And along with the rules, the kids must be taught of the traffic sense too, I mean they must be made thoughtful about it and hence they will become sensitive about it when they have to practically use the knowledge. Hope to see it bettering up. 

Make it tough... Take Home #427

Talk as less as possible about your strengths and weaknesses. And hence make the game tough for your opponents. 

One thing. If one of your strengths is a person, let him or her know that and acknowledge it in open forums. But be as concise and apt as possible. 

Experience and the capability... Take Home #426

While working on resolving the critical issues, experience mainly assists you in making you capable to be able to look at the issue from different perspectives and understand the behaviours of people by being in their shoes. Experience is not meant here in terms of the number of years one spends in the related industry, but the involvement with which one works in as many projects as he or she can. 

Birthday Cake... Pic of the day #4

The following is what I remember about my birthday celebration from my childhood days. My grand-ma used to prepare the birthday cake for me in the cake-oven on the day before my birthday. Having head bath used to be one of the first routines on the day of my birthday after waking up. Getting ready, wearing new dress, making up the hair would follow. Distributing the orange colored chocolates in school is still in my eyes; two chocolates to each I think. Also, my grand-ma used to arrange cake, chocolates, biscuits and few other items in few plates/bowls. I had to go to each of the neighbor's house and give them the plat/bowl with the stuff.  Then they would convey birthday wishes. I also used to go to my mom's school. In the evening, I used to get dressed up again. Mom would put a gold neckless around my neck. Even though I did not like wearing gold ornaments in my childhood, on this particular day I remember wearing without much resistance. My grand-pa would take me to a photo studio to take a picture of mine. I still have some of those photos in my albums. When I look at them, I find myself becoming taller year by year and a shy person too year by year to stand in front of the camera and give a pose. 

So that's how it used to be. Once I joined hostel for further studies after my SSC, there was no one to insist me to celebrate the birthday by cutting cake or distributing chocolates etc. I was not myself interested in doing so, hence I simply skipped the celebration of my first year's birthday away from home. But in my second year of Intermediate, after having taken many a chocolates from many a friends on their respective birthdays, I decided myself to distribute to them too. That was the first birthday ever that I was willingly doing the distribution. Later in the engineering, for the first time ever I came across people celebrating birthdays by cutting the cake bought from bakery and that too in the mid of the night. Thanks to the friends who celebrated my birthday too few times during my graduation and post-graduation.

The above picture is showcasing the birthday cakes that I've cut in office. The cake headers have been preserved by me. For few years they were put plugged on the board at my desk and now they are kept in my desk. Simply wanted to avoid facing the fact that I'm becoming older and older at this one desk itself! With time, my perspective toward the birthday celebration has changed too.  I like celebrating now, not like a bash though! Thanks to my friends, family and especially Yamini, my cousin, for making my birthdays memorable. I like being wished by hundreds of friends and family members on my day. Face book ensures these days that the day is remembered by many a friends and Whats App makes sure that my family members wish me on my birthday through the family group we have created. I'm simply alright with the celebration, whatever is the form it comes to me, irrespective of not being able to realize its core importance. I mean the importance of celebrating it. One more thing that I want to tell is that I do not like friends applying either the chocolate or the cream on my face. Be it the chocolate or a cherry or the cream, that shall go into stomach as far as I'm concerned. It should not go wasted mainly, after all chocolate can not be wasted! Also, I feel like while applying it on your face, some of the frustrations of your friends coming out in the form of cake onto your face!

Anyway, any kind of celebration is good and must be enjoyed to the fullest. Hope many a memories of mine get accumulated on many a birthdays to come, seriously hopefully! 

Let your goals be larger than life and not greater!

Its good to be obsessed with our goals to an extent that they appear larger than life. But the obsession shall not exceed a level that goals appear greater than life!

Life is the greatest thing to have happened ever for a human being. Also, it's the most valuable thing every person perfectly possesses and completely owns. Work as harder as you can to achieve your goals but always go easy about goals and life. Live it fully and fulfill your responsibilities. Believe that you are there for something important. Always believe that you are yet to do that important thing. Be never done by the situations and circumstances. They are all part of life, and part of the way you choose to achieve your goals. Goals can change and along with them life changes too. There are many a examples of this. What we aim for might or might not be won by us. But we must be with a confidence that what comes our way will not be left undone. Going easy about a goal shall not mean that we leave trying. But it shall mean that we do our best with ease and the result will also be handled with the same ease.

Let your goals be larger than life and not greater. 

Performance and attitude... Take Home #425

Hard work might make you succeed. But what keeps you successful is your attitude towards the work you do. Winning is just the beginning. But to prove yourself, you have to keep giving your  best shots in all your attempts. And for that, you have to keep working both on your performance and attitude. Watch both of these carefully. Losing out on either of them can make the other look like NOTHING. 

Share your realizations... Take Home #424

Share your realizations with as many people as you can. Doing that not just feels good, it also does good to the ones who listen to you. Because, in life, time is limited. But the realizations are limitless. When you share your realizations with others, you contribute to the widened scope of the other person's amount of realization. After all, life is all about realizations and sharing them with people completes each realization.

Stationery... Pic of the day #3

Except for my first couple of years when as a kid I could not perceive things and can not recollect the moments as of now, my love for pens and stationery items is almost as old as me. I still become a kid when it comes to pens, pencils, erasers, sharpeners and so on. As I've grown now as a professional, sticky notes, markers, permanent markers, pins etc excite me to the core. Pens still are close to my heart. Every time I go for shopping, there can never be an end to it without roaming around the stationery corner be it in the Big Bazar or  Start Bazar or even if it's an Archies show room for that matter. Either I buy something or at least I make sure I touch something over there. I used to think that I was crazy about all that stuff. But I've realized that it's actually love. The love that's eternal. The more new stuff is getting introduced into the market the more my enthusiasm is increasing to use them. Of course, I cannot use all the stuff. But at least I use a maximum of all that I buy. 

When I joined Tata Motors, there was one thing that made me very happy. It was the welcome kit given by Tata Motors' HR team. It consisted of pen-pencil, pencil strands, cutter, pin machine, clips, rubber bands etc and all that stuff put into a plastic box. Along with that a bag was given too, although I never used it much. But, not the big and nice bag but the small stationery box made me very happy on the day of my joining. I've kept all that stuff all these years with me. It's been almost seven years now. I still have a few of them. And I'm going to keep this stuff with me as long as I can. After all, they are not just the stationery items anymore but the memories from a day of ultimate joy and the memories I shared with many a good friends of mine from the day of our joining.

Every time I look at the below items in my office desk, I feel nostalgic. I remember the good moments spent with the friends during my initial days of induction in Tata Motors. I feel good that these items are still with me and they keep my memories afresh. I usually do not give these things to anyone and even if I have to give, I make sure I get them back. So far, I've been successful in doing so. Hope I will continue to succeed in doing so. Also, I look forward for the introduction of hell lot of stationery item varieties into the market. I hope I will keep enjoying all of them. The joy they give me is immense, do not know why. Anyway, not knowing does not matter as long as I can enjoy them to the fullest. 

Ice Cream... Pic of the day #2

Every time I think of Ice Cream I think of someone too. Something too. When I was a kid, I used to like ice cream very much. Especially the one that used to come in a long and sleek plastic cover. It used to be around twenty centimeters long and a centimeter and half wide. It used to have many a color shared. What I remember are it's white, orange and red shades. Orange one was my favorite. It used to cost 0.5 rupee if what I can recollect now is correct. I used to buy it from only one person. He was known as "Ice Cream Babu" in our village. He used to push his trolley van on the roads in which he used to get different types of ice creams, the long one as I said above, the cone ice cream, cup ice cream etc. Cone and cup ice creams were costlier, I think 5 rupees. So I used to take my favorite Orange stick. 

With time, I could afford to buy the cup and cone ice creams too. But I still feel that the happiness I felt with the orange stick one is the best. Also with time, I had to move away from Ice Creams. I was told by an ENT specialist that I had Sinusitis problem when in plus two that I would have to eat less ice creams and if I could avoid them for a while I should. I was very studious and wanted no hurdles to my studies because of health issues. I never looked back at ice creams again. I had almost avoided eating ice creams for thirteen years. 

Four years back I visited an ENT again. I told him that I had been told by an ENT earlier to avoid cool drinks and ice creams. Upon hearing that, this doctor told me an interesting thing. He said, that avoiding anything was not the solution. He told me "You will have to do exercise and build your resistance power in such a way that you can still eat an ice cream even when you are in Himalayas". Those words had their impact on me. I started doing exercise and slowly regained my interest to cold items. I started having cool drinks, that too almost after many years. However, somehow I could not touch Ice Creams.

The Yoga Kriya that I started doing an year back helped me in regaining my full confidence on myself regarding my health. I see a lot of positive change in my thinking and confidence in my health. I slowly regained my interest towards Ice Cream too. I'he enjoyed few of the flavors lately. The below one is the latest, today's picture. Enjoyed the sip and bite.Hope this saga continues! 

The Moon... Pic of the day #1

Moon light makes any place a beautiful sight. Scientifically, moon has a greater role in many a natural phenomenon occur on earth. As they say it and we can notice it too, moon has its effect on the tidal waves of the oceans. Some also claim that moon has its role on the monthly menstrual cycle of women. Being a woman, I can confirm this based on my experience so far, although there's a lot to go and realize still.  

I've grown up watching the moon so as many a people of my generation. In the open area in front of the house, laying down for a good night's sleep with the moon being right on top of me and in my line of sight is one of the best memories from my childhood days. There used to be power cuts which used to appear terrible in the then conditions, especially environmental. However the moon used to let me not to think too much about what was around me. The moon could keep me look up and forget everything else! And hence would give a real good night's sleep. 

Same is not the condition as on date. I can't lay down outside our apartment. Even if I manage to do so, I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the sight of the moon. And if I manage to get even that, I'm again not sure if the blazing lights in the town would let me enjoy the moon's flavor the way I did in my childhood. Most importantly, I might never be able to differentiate if the light that falls on me is of an artificial light or if it's of the moon!  

So fast is the time moving in the current generation and in the ongoing century that the speed of the moon's movement cannot anymore impact the lives of the people. Even if it does, it's almost limited to the tides of the oceans! Women also do not realize the impact of moon on the important cycle of their lives. I'm not saying that not any woman can do that. But the majority of the population do not. I started trying my best to be the one who enjoys moon to the fullest, who does not miss a chance to enjoy it to the fullest. In the recent days I've started liking to stare at moon, whatever the state of it on a given day. I've started allowing myself to sit  under the moon light, thanks to the big terrace on the top floor of our apartments. Believe me, this experience is absolutely blissful. It makes me feel so happy, so refreshing that I probably leave anything in its place to enjoy the sight of the moon. And if its' a full moon day, there comes the real taste of it. Awesome. Admirable. And can't wait to click it. And the below is the click of today's moon; just a day after the "Blue Moon" as they said it about the yesterday's moon! 

Thanks to the clear sky which came just for a while as if I was destined to take the above pic and as if it was giving me an idea to start this photography posts at my blog!