The Best Investment

It's almost a week since the IPL started and it's been going on pretty well, considering all the kind of trouble the organizing went through. Probably we expected matches to have a better pace and nail biting finishes, which were not that very visble in the matches that have passed. But yesterday's game had something that caught our attention. It was a tie between Rajasthan Royals(RR) and Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) and the super over was bashed out by the RRs. The match could have been taken off by the KKR, provided Dada had hung around for a few more balls. But what flashes across my mind is the 'Shane Warne Magic'.

The 'Shane Warne Magic' was very much visible when the RR won the IPL 2008. They started off as a very naive team without much hype and slowly and steadily traveled through the tournament and made it to the final when most of didn't expect they would. There were moments when Shane warne proved to be a great captain. The encouragement given to the team and his compassionate nature were obvious reasons for that victory.

Coming back to yesterday's game, it was noticeable that this great captain was encouraging young Kamran Khan through out the game. Especially, his idea of giving him the chance to bowl the super over was amazingly daring. This reminded me about the T20 world cup when Dhoni was forced to give the chance of bowling the last over to inexperienced Joginder Sharma who hadn't had a great day. However they won the game excitingly when Sreeshant came from no where and took the catch.

Everybody is aware of Shane Warne's capability and strength as an experienced bowler, inspite of which he gave the opportunity to a raw bowler. The possible reasons I could think off are as below.

1. Probably Shane Warne has seen some kind of potential in him.
2. It was worth taking the risk as this one over would install tremendous confidence in that young boy to go forward with his cricketing career. (Shane Warne is capable of keeping up his confidence level even if they had lost the match.)
3. May be he knew that Yousef Pathan was capable of scoring to fetch the score even if something goes wrong from the young guy's inexperience.
4. Good team leaders always help to get the team and the team members going and not the self.

Whatever be the reason, the last point mentioned above is something that all team leaders, teachers and managers have to consider in their day to day work life.

This action provoked my thoughts on a lesson that I had read in my tenth class. It was titled as 'The Best Investment I Ever Made'. It was about a doctor who claims that the best investement he ever made was helping a vexed patient who had tried to commit suicide with a meagre amount of money. The doctor meets the man after years and is delighted to know how that meagre amount was utilized in a manner that helped him lead the rest of his life.

I am a hard core supporter of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for the obvious reason that I have spent most of my life in TamilNadu. If it's not CSK, I would prefer the Royal Challengers(RCB) to take the cup home, as my favourite cricketer belongs to this team. After watching the game yesterday, I will be happy to see the RRs winning the cup again as well. After all, it is worth his captaincy.

Two Days Full Of Fun

It was a Saturday evening. The idiot box was screaming in full volume with two spectators in the room. The first spectator interrupted “All the seniors would have started by now. It’s too hard to miss out.” The second spectator would have thought “This is the nth time she is saying this.” Yes, my cousin could understand how much I missed the two day extravaganza. This was the first time I missed it in the last 9 years.

Every year, our music school Gurus chose a weekend during the month of June and July, to conduct a two day event called ‘Santhoshi Matha Vidyalaya Musical Evening’. This is the most awaited event for most of the students of Santhoshi Matha Vidyalaya. Every student in the Vidyalaya is given a chance to perform (vocal or Mridhangam or both) on the stage in front of hundreds of people. The amount of effort put into this program is incredible. The practice sessions start early during the month of April or even earlier for students coming from other cities or states or countries. The preparations start a week earlier.

Most of the students have been associated with the vidyalaya for a long term. Hence we are part of the Vidyalaya, even though we might be residing in different parts of the world. We try to get our leaves planned accordingly if possible. The last time I took part as a singer was in June 2004 when I had taken up my first job. Since then I have been attending the function every year and participating in a few background activities. We look forward to this day for several reasons. One, we get an opportunity to refresh our memories with all our favourite songs we have learnt/heard. Two, it’s an opportunity to meet old friends. Above all it’s a pleasure to coordinate/work with our Gurus who are the masters behind the entire show. They see it as an opportunity to boost the confidence of every single student.

Talking about our Gurus, I have to mention a few words about them. This couple care for every student in the way parents take care of their children. The moment we enter the music class, we tend to forget all other things in the world. Their prayers and comforting words drive us towards goodness always. The attention they give to every individual is really amazing.

Sri Kovai Mani (Mridhangam - our Guru), Myself, Smt Parvathi Mani (Our Guru), My brother Sriraj and Smt Krishnaveni (Violin)

Now coming back to the extravaganza, we spend two days completely in the hall. We start with Ganapathy homam on the Saturday morning, followed by lunch. Early in the evening the tiny tots capture the stage. As the evening progresses, people who have come from other cities get their chance. At the end, there is a great dinner. The second day again starts with a small prayer followed by a special Layanayam (This part of the programme normally steals the entire show). Again the tiny tots start the evening session, followed by the most awaited seniors (experienced and talented singers and mridhangists). The two day event comes to an end with a superb dinner followed by ice-cream. (Singers eating ice cream together is not a very common sight. It is actually prohibited for the rest 364 days.)

Not a single person will have the mind to leave the place or get back to work. Normally When we go back, our minds are still listening to the tunes and beats.

p.s:- Recreation is something that we need to get our minds away from normal life and relax. Fun and enjoyment is something we experience when we are involved in something that we like. This is the best way of recreation I have experienced. The energy gained in this event lasts longer and makes me wait for the next year to come.

Height Of Irritation

@5.50 AM
I peeped out of my blanket to look at the clock. I didn’t want to get out of the bed for two reasons. First of all, I wished I hadn’t another tough day to face. Two, there was less than an hour for me to leave for work. I jumped out of the bed, brushed my teeth and then sat on my bed sipping my coffee thinking of the day ahead.

@6.10 AM
I realized, I had about 30 minutes to get ready and I was still sipping my coffee. I sprang out and rushed to have a quick shower.

@6.40 AM
I picked up my shirt only to find that it was not washed properly. I picked up another and found that as dirty as the first one. The third time I pulled out a printed shirt, wore it quickly , went into the kitchen picked up an apple from the refrigerator, then sprayed some perfume and ran down to find my bus waiting for me. I got into it and sat quietly thinking, “Why did I make it to the bus just like every other day?”

@7.30 AM
I was on my desk switching on the dumb PC and sipping my tea. Being the last day of the week, I had no wish to take up new tasks, just wanted to finish off my pending tasks. I had one big item on the list, not a very interesting one to be done on a Thursday. I browsed through my emails and found one of the jobs done the previous day was questioned (not rejected though). “Oops, why does this happen only to me?”

@8 AM
I had replied to my emails by this time, including the “questioned” job. Then I walked across to my friend’s desk to check if we could sit together at 11 AM to finish of the big pending task and he was more than happy to do that with me. I got back to my seat to find one unread email on my Gmail Inbox. It was from my brother. I could guess that it was about an issue that was bothering both of us for the last week. We exchanged about ten emails. (Chat applications are disabled in office. So this is our way of chatting.) Yes, the issue is still not resolved. “I don’t feel like working today. When will the day end? I want to go home and sleep”

@10.15 AM
By now, I had completed couple of adhoc jobs and looked at the bottom right corner on my PC and was startled. “I am late for the meeting by 15 minutes already.” I slipped 2 pieces of apple into my mouth and picked up the required docs and ran to the basement only to find that none of the attendees were there and the meeting had been postponed. “At the least, allow me to do my work.”

@11 AM
After greeting all my colleagues in the basement, I went back to my desk to find that I had about 20 emails to read. There was one email that again deteriorated the working mood. It was intended to four other people in the department though and served as a warning for the rest of us. “Not just me. Others have had a bad day as well”

@12 PM
As I sat glancing at the email, there rose a voice beside me. “Swathi, there is an issue with the release that we made day before yesterday. I don’t know how you want to term it, issue or problem or serious .......” When he completed his narration, I said “It’s a disaster.” We both walked into his manager’s room first and then into my manager’s room to explain the situation, before they could jump on us. While I walked back to my desk, I thought “Why the hell is all this happening to me, that too on a Thursday. What about the job that was planned to finish today”

@5 PM
We sat testing the solution for the disastrous problem after I had taken a short 15 minute break. It was far beyond the working hours and almost everybody had gone home. We were a group of six people still sitting tied up. It happened so that all of them were at my desk for a break. As we started discussing the current state of affairs, we burst out laughing. Here is a group of irritated people laughing their heart out. All that I discovered is that every other person is as irritated as I am, though for different reasons.

@6 PM
Three of us got back to work, while the other three drove home. We quickly finished our testing. I completed the final documentation and sent the solution for implementation. My friend drove me back home as we discussed a dozen other things. When I reached, I felt lighter and had a better evening.

p.s:- There is nothing called a bad day. Perception matters a lot. Look around, you might feel better.

Jack Of All, Master Of None

What makes a person different from the rest of the world? There might be n number of factors that define a person. I strongly believe our hobbies contribute a lot in defining the uniqueness of a person. Hobbies help to bring out various dimensions of a person. Hobbies help in identifying our skill sets and field of interests. This is one reason why we all have a column in our resumes to mention our hobbies.

Every one of us might have a list of hobbies. To mention a few of mine (most of them short lived)

Dancing

I loved to dance. But I hated it when it came to attending tiresome classes and eventually ended up in discontinuing. Since then I had performed on so many stage shows under my mom's guidance. This was my first hobby and now its almost died off.

Singing

Initially I was forced into this. Though I was not so good at this as I was in dancing, it got quiet interesting as time passed by. I stopped attending classes after I became a software engineer. But I can still manage to sing a classical number at a family function or so.

Teaching

One interesting activity that kept me busy for hours....All about this, I had mentioned in my previous blog.

Versification

Inspired by a friend of mine, I took to writing poetry during my high school days. I do write one or to pieces occasionally.

Short Story writing

An activity that really requires a lot of creativity. For me this was easier than writing poetry.

Needle work and Embroidery

This was introduced as a subject in school when I was in class 5. Until class 4 it was drawing and painting, something I wasn't capable of doing. So this appealed more to me and I learnt it quickly. Making my own hand kerchiefs was more exciting to me than having a cartoon painted in my drawing book.

Crochet

After needle work it was crochet. I hated this until I really learnt the knack. Making hairbands, mats and caps from a bundle of wool was good enough to keep me engaged during my summer vacations.

Stamp collection

A very short lived hobby of mine. It was my cousin's idea and both of us started to create an album with some rare stamps. The album is still available in my cupboard at home.

Coin collection

Another short lived one. My dad handed over his collection of coins which I have safeguarded for some time and would occasionally add one or two coins to the collection. I believe this collection is also still preserved in my cupboard at home.

Post card Collection

Post card photos were a craze for some time. While travelling, we (my brother and me) used to purchase a set of photo post cards and have them labelled and arranged in an album.

Picture Albums

Yet another idea from my cousin. Collecting pictures based on different topics and pasting them on a A4 size notebook. It started with the Disney and cartoon stickers and went on to several topics related to science, sports and everything on earth.

Puzzle solving

There was a time when I used to look out for the puzzle section (I forgot the name) Saturday's Young world, a supplementary magazine to the "Hindu" newspaper. Working out Maths quizzes and puzzles are/were my favourite pass time. Recently its the Sudoku that's keeps me busy at times. Shakuntala Devi's puzzles are all time fascinating. Preparing for a PCM or IGSC scholarship exam was far more interesting than doing my regular coarse of homework.

Reading

I don't remember reading much during my school days except for the editions of Champak, Tinkle and Gokulam. I took up reading recently in order to avoid boredom when the Television set disappeared from my house in Chennai. I started with the Sherlock Holmes series and then with some of Sydney Sheldon, Arthur Hailey and Chetan Bhagath

Greeting Card Collection

Another favourite hobby of mine. Started with the collection of greetings I received for my birthday when I became 12. From then, I have been adding all kind of greeting cards to my collection.

Handicrafts

Am not very good at art. But I could manage making greeting cards, envelopes, shoe flowers, plastic garlands, etc....Some of these would come handy when it comes to the doll arrangement for Dashera (Navarathri).

Apart from all these, there are other things that caught my attention. I wanted to learn keyboard and Veena (I never succeeded). Window shopping is yet another activity that I used to kill my weekends in Chennai. Riding my bike was another activity I enjoy in order to kill my free evenings.

As every other child, indoor games were a major source of pass time during childhood. When the summer vacation began, we cousins used to spend a day to go out and shop on indoor games and sports material. Some of the indoor games that used to keep us seated for hours together were aggrevation, cards, Tell Me Quiz, Gold cup cricket, Brainvita, Business, Chinese checkers and Uno Cards. There was one fabulous but simple game with sea shells which our aunt taught us to play and we spent hours together on this. As far as outdoor games are concerned I don't remember playing anything other than skipping and Badminton. Occasionally, it used to hide and seek and Pande (a very old game where you hop into boxes drawn on the ground after throwing a stone on one of the boxes). Occasionally I used to go cycling along with friends and cousins.

As of date, my pass times include listening to music and watching movies. Chatting and orkuting are others.

I am sure anyone who reads will have a list of the same size or may be a bit bigger one.

Teaching - A PASSION

To start "blogging", I had 2 topics in mind. Somehow, I decided to go with this subject.

Teaching - I had been into it right from my high school days until I completed my degree. I had never ever imagined myself as a teacher. Mathematics was my favourite subject in school and I presumed Accounts/commerce to play a major role in my career but ended up doing my engineering degree in Electronics and Communication and finally landed on a s/w job.

Now coming to the subject, I accidentally got involved into the so called 'divine profession'. Though not a full time job, I enjoyed every moment of it. I started by assisting my mom in teaching Mathematics for a group of high school students. Most of these students were my friends, juniors and neighbours. They got so much accustomed to my way of teaching that they requested me to continue coaching them for their board exams. Actually I had no idea to do that for I had just finished my board exams and felt that I was not mature enough to take up this responsibility. I was excited about it. But accepting this meant so much a commitment for me. Anyway it was to be under my mom's supervision and that made things a bit easy. The other factor was that I had known this group of students for years together. Yeah...that's how it all started and was not as tough as thought. The group came out with flying colours and so I continued with the next batch and the next and so on for about 6 years until I finished my college.

What was in it that really kept me involved for so long. One, I enjoyed spending time with different kind of students...their questions. I get to know a lot about different schools. I get to see different text books. In fact, I learnt a lot of concepts in Mathematics as a teacher than as a student. Things that I missed to understand in school, got clearer everyday. Answering questions meant learning more of my favourite subject.

Of course it helped me earn my pocket money. This in turn depicted me as a responsible person in the family and society. The one other benefit I derived from it was it kept me in touch with the subject and helped me attend all my aptitude tests for my job interviews with ease and comfort.

Above all these, was the sense of satisfaction. Sitting all night preparing model question papers, spending that extra time with the students to have them answered and evaluating their answer sheets are moments that I have enjoyed doing during those days. Day before exams I normally used to have short sessions with the students, picking up important topics/problems, suggesting ways of studying to boost up their confidence and providing tips on answering the examination paper. It often happened that one or few of them show up after they finish their exams and shout out of excitement, "Akka, the recurring deposit problem that you marked yesterday was on the question paper today." I always was the happiest person in the world at that moment.

Even more exciting is the day of the board exam results. I was never bothered about when my semester results were declared. But I used be the first person to log on to the Internet to check the board exam results with a list of register numbers in front of me. The feel of satisfaction I experienced when I found my student successful in my favourite subject has no bounds. It's hard to describe what I felt when I knew that one of my students secured a cent percent in one of the mathematics paper, though I haven't had a chance to meet her since then. The height of satisfaction is attained when parents call up to express their happiness and gratitude on the good job I had done through out the year (in some cases it's years together).

It's almost 5 years, since I am out of teaching and out of my hometown (since I got to work as a s/w engineer). Whenever I visit my hometown, I get a chance to see some of my students. Its a great feeling when they come up to me and wish me. It brings out my curiosity to know what they are up to.

I do keep in touch with some of them directly or indirectly get to know of them as I still have my brother staying in my hometown. Thanks to orkut for I receive occasional Hi's from some lovable students.

Today I cherish every moment I spent teaching and those fond memories will never perish, for it will be remembered all through my life. In fact I will be glad to take up teaching, if I get the chance and time.

What got me here?

Blogging is one very common word that I have been hearing for quiet sometime now. I was never attracted to this until I saw my bro posting some real good stuff. I used to do a lot of writing during my school days. As years passed by, its been diminishing and now I realize that I haven't done real justice to that.

While browsing through my bro's blog, sweet memories of one of my childhood friends flashed across my mind. She was a great writer during her school days and was the one who inspired me to write as well. I have always loved her poetry and short stories. I had a chance to meet her a few months ago when she enquired if I was still into writing. This was the first time during my recent past had I realized what I was doing to my writing skills.

So will try and post some of my thoughts as and when I get time.