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Last week I met my cousin's daughter. She is 3 years old. A typical girl who has loads to talk about. I was asking her about her friends at school and we were communicating in Hindi. She was describing about a girl. At one point she couldn't find the right word for pig tails, but she had to continue. Can u imagine what she did? She sweetly declared that she will continue the talk in Malayalam( one more Indian language) and so she did! I was amazed. She is a classic example of perfect communication. We all were like that. But as we grow up, communication is given a different meaning all together. It's not about conveying thoughts, but more about language, being politically correct and also a smart way of presenting the same thing in different manner to different audience!!! **************************************** Next instance was when I gifted a toy car to my cousin's son. He played with it for a while and then came to me with the toy and loads of questions. I wa

If I ask you to imagine a person whom you would covet with the title 'The Mother of all Engineers', what attributes do you think that person should have? --know computers and mobile operations --have logical thinking --communication --ability to foresee any event --organise and plan --estimate and negotiate --questions and gets to the root Above mentioned were generic. And expected from any engineer. But for the title to hold good, more attributes are needed. --ability to judge based on size, location, dimensions-- Mix of Architect n Civil (engg) --quick fixes to any wiring-- Electrical n electronic engg --easy with fuzzy logic--what if washing machine breaks down? --knows about machines and usage and quick fixes -- mech engg --hands on hammer, screwdriver, driller So the key ingredients from major streams. Do you think missed out IT? Anyone knowing computers is an IT engg. I'm one myself;) Oh this title in addition requires one more attribute... A good IQ a

As a child I was quite fascinated with frilly frocks and whenever got time used to day dream of a room filled with colorful frocks. As I grew up frocks changes to books ,a tree house, chocolate shower. I used to be the character I read. Loved to be the smart Nancy Drew. At times I used to get sufficient time to dream and when I was back to the real world, I used to feel refreshed. My teens were filled with day dreams of me travelling to far off places. Again it was peaceful when i was back from my dreamland! All of a sudden I  was considered as an adult and I seldom got the free time to just lie down and travel into my world. If I managed to get time and was caught by someone, then there used to be a series of questions and advice. Then came a point where I stopped these mini rendezvous. Life had become monotonous.... Last week I met this sweet little girl in metro who started talking animatedly about how Doraemon came to her room and took her out and about Chota Bheem an

Go to any part of the world, you won't find a more interesting place than a ladies rest room. Well...we women have such a power that we can make any place interesting! So you may ask what's so interesting about it? Let me try writing this. But its something one should experience ;) The first thing you see when you enter a ladies rest room is a number of mirrors and a good lighting. Every morning you will find beauties silently talking to these mirrors 'Mirror mirror on the wall.....' You don't need to go to fashion week.. various poses and all sort of cosmetics can be found. Believe me...a ladies bag is no less than a Pandora's box. It is also a place which is at par with 'Page 3'. You will get to hear so many stories. Right from changing the diaper to weird topic like can pasta be mixed with sambar to make a frozen version of it!! (I'm indeed exaggerating). There is one 'know-it-all' in this group who will start all her

When one of the best authors churns out his thoughts where fiction is mixed with history and also has a philosophical angle, we get a book which is an absolute page Turner! Again I will go by the attributes my review would be based on: Language: Impeccable is the word. Story and Pace: It's like a watching a movie where you can't wait for the suspense to unfold. You feel what the characters feel. Emotions, courage, power everything is demonstrated beautifully. There was one point I was questioning the need for exploring Hastinapur angle, but in the end I did get my answer. Pace of the story rarely slows down. One gets to witness various events, starting from India's Independence to the Mumbai attack. Political angle given to characters gives an opportunity to the readers to have a glimpse of India's political change, right from Indira Gandhi's time to Modi's. It is indeed a point to think on how GK(bookish one) can rather be taught in a story fo

I have loads of respect for the Almighty and I truly believe in Him. Many people and 'Products' take advantage of this belief to sell their products. It was recently that I realized why we call Him The Omnipresent One. I was cleaning the kitchen ( you know how messy a job it is!!). Cleaning up the shelves and the top of the shelves is something I hate! What do you expect from a 4'11" person (me) to do while cleaning? A jump and a hop with the broom and whoooshhh...falls all the dust and dirt(mostly on me). No chairs or slabs are made that make the top-most shelf accessible! Injustice I say#$%&*& In one such jump, I was bombarded with lots of papers, colored ones, black and whites. I took a closer look and found out it was the Papadam's(papad) cover. It was raining Gods! The covers had Ayyapa, Lakshmi, Ganesha.... My first reaction was why the hell was this piled up all these days(or months or years)!!??? Next was of guilt..after all I had used a broom to

Menaka's Choice by Kavita Kane - A must read! I have g iven the verdict but would love to dwell into the details. Some of the criteria to measure the quality: - Language : Simple and beautiful. Very nicely 'uncomplicated' language! Some of the quotes are so real that one will be able to relate to it. - Story : Different aspect has been given to the already known story. One does know who Menaka is, but so many interconnected stories have been told. Vasu and Menaka's relation, Rambha's behavior are some of the less known stories. - Characters: Menaka is not the typical seductress, she is much stronger. Be it her love for Vasu or her motherly feelings for Pramadavara, one will be able to relate. She is shown as beauty with brains. Her strength will engulf you. Her sacrifices will make one love her Vishwamitra - his determination will engulf the reader. His love for Menaka in the later half is also infectious but beautiful. Rambha's and Vasu's plight will

The Story of Mr.M Once there was a Mr.M who had a happy simple family. Who managed to live ,smile, talk to his wife and neighhbours, play with his kids. One day, he starting brooding on some questions like -'What does he need from life?', ' Is he content and happy?'. For the second question -NO. Mr.M was happy, coz a NO meant he wanted more. He went back to the first question. Did a lot of study and observation and came up with a Pyramid describing the needs. -- Base had Physiological needs - Which he had --Next layer was Safety - He had the basic level, but needed more money to satisfy this layer --Further up was Love and Belonging - His family loved him, but he wanted to take them out on vacation. What about neighbors? Oh they had a better car --- Mr. M was more discontent now. -- Answer to this layer --- More Money!! --Esteem being the next --He was respected for his nature, but he wanted to be known for his achievements. M

How would you feel, if suddenly a guy comes and blows heavily on your face??? God knows what was the last thing he had. What if it was raw onions??!!  (Yuck!!!). Why did he do that at the first place? May be he wanted your number or he wanted to impress you. This was the thought that came to me while watching a tooth paste ad. So the creative team would have thought that the dude in the ad would be ready with his 'use it anytime' tooth paste!! This blog of mine is dedicated to such mindless ads. Next is, if one wants to be successful and generous and show his power, he has to eat pan masala. So what's the logical connection? Also does it mean that all the wealthy and famous people are Gutkha addicts? Or vice versa guthka addicts are secret millionaires! One more thing I fail to understand is why do cars have hot gals seductively moving around!! One of the famous  men's deo ad shows beautiful fingers hovering over the deo can. Toilet pots have women in t

According to a survey, around 70% of the new year resolutions revolve around weight lose and dieting. And almost 90% of this category breaks the commitment. Why does this happen? In our everyday life we tend to make so many commitments, but how many of them do we actually stick to? For e.g., I made a few commitments to myself like I will learn new song every week, go back to learning Sanskrit, write blogs regularly, go for walk and a few more. Writing blog and going on evening walk are the two things which I'm still doing(although with some breaks). I took myself as my case study and found that it takes effort to get something into habit. You need to do that one thing regularly, till it becomes a part of the everyday schedule. Even interest or craze for something doesn't help. You need to take out time for that one activity. Stephen Covey says it takes thirty days to convert an activity to habit. These thirty days you need to face the acid test of avoiding procrastination a

I had been to watch The Jungle Book for two main reasons. Firstly, it was one series we the 90s kids used to watch on DD1 and secondly it was in 3D! But the watch turned into a experience. So many learnings, so many layers and so many thoughts. There would have been multiple reviews written about this movie, but I haven't read a single one(I will read them later). I'm not gonna write a movie review for sure, but have tried to relate the characters to our lives. Mowgli, our hero is damn smart and the attributes one can learn from him are questioning and adaptability. He questions Bageera on everything, life also wants us to be like that. Seek and you shall get! Life does throw surprises. Like Mowgli was forced to move from one place to another. We need to be open to life's challenges. Survival of the fittest!   Raksha and Akela - Typical parents! Not everyone will be protective or ready to sacrifice kinds and not everyone is worth such an act. One should be aware a

Technology is growing exponentially and so has the numbers of gadgets. I recently went to my mom's place and the first thing she did was check my bags. So I had this heavy backpack, which she calls as 'Pandora's Box'. List of items that I had with reasons (Mom's always demand a reason ;)) - Laptop - For official work - Tab - To do some work on the run and to watch movies - Kindle - To read Books - Andriod mobile - Of course to take calls - Power Bank - To Charge mobile on the run - Pen Drive - If I need to take any backup There were two more things which made her laugh  - Good Old Nokia Handset (Battery doesn't drain down easily)  - A notepad (I mean paperback, in case I need to write something)                                                                                                       Along with the said things came their respective cables(which my mom calls as Spider web). It took her almost half a day to understand why

The latest Airtel ad is something which has caught my attention. Few months back the famous 4G girl who popped from just anywhere to promote the Product had suddenly become omnipresent! The ads were getting monotonous and one of my cousins mocked saying that 4g mobiles could download only 'Rockstar'( coz all the ads showed just that movie's name). We thought it was just us, but many like us had started hating the ad and the young lady sounded irritating ( no offense). And then few weeks back some new set of ads were launched. The girl is shown in a remote location and declares that she is on vacation so no '4g yak yak'.Suddenly a villager is shown using airtel 4g and the girl goes 'not again'!!! The ad brought a smile on my face. Product is the same with the same front face, but different perspective. It is also made known to the world that they are aware of the audiences' irritation. The girl and the ad are famous yet again(in a good way)! There are m

One of my favorite Spanish Quotes 'Que Sera Sera' means 'what will be, will be'. This quote is so true. I may sound a bit philosophical but wanted to write this for quite some time now. There is a lot being said about being positive, dreaming and attracting what one wants,about not being broken on not getting what one wants. So many books are being sold on such topics and no doubts they make sense. Out of experience, I have realized that the base behind every advice is that what has to happen, will happen. One can't stop it. But one needs to accept what has happened and act accordingly. When a book talks about attracting what you want (say a bungalow), one can't just sit and keep dreaming. Actions need to be according to the intended goal. In achieving the said goal, we are sure to encounter a lot of obstacles. Beauty lies in facing them and planning the next steps. The world is actually a classroom, with each one being your peer and life is a very tough t

Being a part of corporate culture can have a lot of impact on your daily life. Some of the common ones being using swipe card at home's entrance or at metros. But today I realised that office culture is more deeply rooted. I had been to a temple. I have a belief that one can actually talk to the Almighty, just like talking to a friend. So I sat infront of God, closed my eyes and started my conversation. I organised my discussion (the way Appraisals are planned). Thanked Him for all the good things (start on positive note- Check). Then I mentioned the problems and issues in life (areas of improvement- Check). Then on the 'what ifs' in my life (Uncertainty and how they could have been handled- Check). Thank 'God' , there was no scope for reverse feedback and asking for expectations!! By now I had forgotten that I was in a temple and Praying to the Omnipresent God. Next I started setting targets on the solutions I needed. But how would God know what to do first? So

Women's day has gone and so have the special discounts and offers. But women are same. Unaffected. I had written a few words for all of us and on our Womenhood. Sharing the same with the world now. I stand tall today inspite of all the responsibilities I shoulder. Nothing can stoop me and nothing can stop me. I hold the distinction of being written about as a beautiful and petite being and also as an ugly and strong being. And it is true. Be it then or be in now. Way back, I was responsible for running the family with the support of my partner. Now and in years to come, I'm just getting better at it. Over the years, I have become stronger, more beautiful and a better multi tasker. Life has never been easy for us, but I strive to make beautiful. At times, the world questions me, points fingers at me and raises eye brows. But I'm unpurturbed. I'm Wise!! Let the World be warned that my Silence is not my weakness. Infact, it is my Resilience. History holds th

I was recollecting some of the stories we were taught in school. There were many good ones. But two of them fascinated me. One was about a boy who was on a ship with his father standing on the deck. The father had to go down and had instructed his son to not come down till he is called for. The sea a stuck by sudden storm and the boy stands on the deck holding on to the railings. But does not move from his place. The Strom gets stronger, but the boy is undeterred. Finally the boy gets lost in the storm but stuck to his father's words. The moral we were taught was to be like the boy and listen to our parents come what may.(Really??!!) The other story was about a great personality, who was careful about the everything he used and never wasted a thing. Once he was in darkness and had to light a candle. He stuck a match and it went off immediately. He felt responsible for wasting the match and preferred being in dark rather than wasting one more. Moral: Do not waste anything

While commuting to office, suddenly all the vehicles slowed down and then everything stopped. One of us got down to check the reason and we realized that there was a 'Work in Progress(WIP)' board to get the road in better shape. This made me think if life too had WIP phase? Do we realise and slow down? Life has become so fast and demanding that we hardly have time to wait. Every now and then life does warn us, it seeks our attention in various ways. One way is when we are stuck by an illness. WIP board stares at us and expects us to slow down. But no, we hardly pay attention. We pop up medicines and off we go. It does have its own repercussions. We end up becoming like the road which is built in a hurry and pretty soon get the pot holes back. Kids these days are sent to school at a pretty early age. Not that it's bad, but is the foundation strong enough? Every day in a child's life has the WIP moment. But we hardly wait. Not just individuals, every relationship als

I have been in existence, Forever and ever. I have seen it all, I'm unstoppable like a river. I know what happiness is, And I know what is misery. I'm not the one to fall, I can unravel life's mystery. I'm the petite girl, You would want to hold. Watch it! Hurt me, You will see my side untold. I can make you smile, And I can cry with you. I'm like the sunshine, And I'm like the dew. I'm the Kali, Oh so fierce. I'm also the calm Sita, Whom you revere. I'm the one about whom, A lot is said and written. Praise me or Criticize me, I am Proud to be a WOMAN!!! Regards, Srilekh

I was travelling in metro when a kid caught my attention. She was discussing about the 'tensions' in her life. I got interested. The kid was about 13 years old. Nicely dressed with a sweet demeanor. I started Evesdropping. What all could be the tensions of a teenager. She had a concern that internet at their home was slow, which reduced the pace of her project. Her rival would be submitting her project in a week's time. Next was that almost all her friends owned smart phones (she termed it as hi-fi :)), where as her parents never allowed her to play with their phones for more than an hour in a day. Next was about her upcoming birthday party. She wished to have a grand party and wanted to wear a short skirt. There were few more things. But I loved the way her mother handled it. She was all ears for her daughter and the kid felt happy about being heard. She was opening up. The mother never said No for any of the demands, instead she discussed on whys and whats. I was take

Doctors have become such an important part of our lives, that we are controlled by the them and medicines. How many of us can claim that we have not been to a doctor for the past 6months? Not many can say so. If you are one of them, then you do have grand parents at home. I remember some cases from my family, where my grandma had the solutions. But noone heeded, coz she was not a certified practitioner! Once a cousin of mine had eye problem and she was planning to visit the doc. My granny suggested her simple exercises which can be done as part of daily routine. She asked my cousin to clean dal or rice using a sieve and to draw Rangoli which would require bending. But my cousin ignored and went to the doc. In the evening what do we see, she had picked up some small pebbles and marbles and had thrown them on the ground and was picking them one by one!! This was the exercise which the doc suggested. How different was it from what granny said? More over she had paid Rs.800 to get this a

14-Feb-2016. It's Valentines Day yet again. As I sit and watch TV, I'm taken back to my childhood. The days of innocence. If you liked someone, it was enough that you are able to see that person every day. There was no need to convey your feelings. If, fortunately, the feelings are reciprocated, even then it was enough that you see and talk to that person. For most of my friends in similar situation, it was the same case. Then SRK happened. He made love more cute. But even then, it was all about silent glances, simple smiles and simple talks. Holding hand was a taboo. Next came Friendship band craze. So all the 'love lorn' people took a back step and learnt to make Friends with their Crushes, before taking the next step. Again thanks to SRK!! So our love guru, then taught our generation the next major lesson -Valentines Day. And that you have to gift a Chocolate and a Red rose and may be a cute card( cards were mostly avoided since one can't take it home). Noth

Rabindranath Tagore's short stories are very famous. I'm currently reading one such set. In one of the stories, he mentions about a boy whose grand mother tells him stories. And these stories began with the standard 'Once upon a time there was a King', and the kid used to enjoy the story. But, Tagore has rightly pointed out in the story that the future generation is not an easy to be fooled one. Stories cannot be just 'spun' the way they used to be. If one begins with 'Once upon a time there was a King' , questions would be popped up. Which year, what was the name of the King, What is the new name of the Kingdom he used to have and many more. Neither can your story have a Castle of Chocolates and Ice creams, coz the kids know that buildings are made of Brick, Cement, Mortar..Blah blah.. I grew up on my granny's stories and some of those stories, I try to pass on to the kids in my family. Once I was telling a story about a boy, who ate a poisonous

I just completed reading The Namesake by Jhuma Lahiri. A very nicely written book. Relations are portrayed beautifully. But what caught my attention was the concept behind nick names. In North India its common to have Nick names like monu,sonu, guddi, etc. In South India, you may have multiple names, but all the names will be meaningful ones. For e.g., Sita is the name given by elders, in school she will be Gayatri. But in Bengalis, it is a custom to have a bhalo naam and a daak naam. Bhalo naam is the formal name by which one would be known in school or college or office. Daak naam is the pet name ones family keeps. Selecting this pet name in itself is a task. And these names are weird, Bulty, Rumi, Budi and so on. But there lies a deeper meaning to this tradition. These names are meant to make one realize that life is not always serious, life is not just about struggle, life is not just about running for survival. Life at times is just for one self. Life is sweet cute and meanin

Story of my Origin - born Tamilian, celebrated my first birthday in Kerala, spent rest of 15 years in NCR, next 9 years were spent in Karnataka, married to a Malayali and back to NCR. This not only makes me multi cultured, but also multilingual. I'm good with Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi. So are my parents. Now this capability has also landed us many a times in a funny situation. To state some of them, when my mother had just began learning Hindi, she used to goto super market and ask for Moti(pearl) instead of Methi. My granny had a great broken Hindi vocabulary. Once she went on a rikshaw and udhar jao was the only words she used in giving directions, every now and then poking rikshaw puller's back. Granny dear's Hindi was responsible for driving away 3 of our maids. My dad till date has a confusion on 'main, hum,tu,aap'. Once a colleague of his asked him where their boss was, my dad being an expert in Hindi (or so he thought) said hum aagaye ,pa

Most of the work we do has a common attribute that it is both 'art n science'. But I learnt it post marriage that even cutting of vegetables involves art and science. Before marriage my visits to the land of vegetables and spices was limited to demanding mom to make something to satisfy my taste buds. Then there were some days when mom was not well, so me and dad took over her department. But instead of kitchen, it ended up becoming a laboratory with all sorts of combination of spices and vegetables. I guess instead of getting better, my mom must have felt insecure leaving her kingdom in hands of paupers. Cutting of vegetables was never a big deal for us. It was quick and we considered it to be a no brainer task. Post marriage my MIL asked me to cut vegetables. So here I was, cutting the vegetables. My MIL must have seen it more like slaughter. She saw my work and simply smiled and went back to work. Mothers are born teachers. My MIL is no different. She taught me that the

1-Jan-2016 New Year's eve. Our home was bustling with laughter and chit chat. Our cousins had come down and we were discussing good old days. Eldest of us started telling the kids (next gen) about how we used to celebrate New year during our childhood. In sometime, we had our dinner. The food tasted so good. Then we started playing charades and Antakshari . Every now and then someone would come up with an anecdote about someone in the family and it triggered a series of stories. It was nearing 12 and we were all sitting together singing some of our favorite songs. And then the countdown began. Party popper, cake, lights all set and then 'Happy New Year' in unison. Photo session, cake smearing and a bit of eating and then back to talking talking and talking. Everything was perfect and I was loving every moment of it. But there was something which was silently watching all this. Something which probably felt left out. And yes I'm happy we had ignored it. I had a Happy

I remember my childhood when in summers there was a specific time and duration for what we call 'power cut' in late evening. And that was time we all used to wait for. Our parents made sure we completed our homework by then, all their house hold work completed. When the moment came, lights went off everywhere. And an uproar of 'light gayiiiiii' was heard across. All the kids were out on the street. The only lights were candles at home, oil lit lamps at temples, moon and star shine. Hide and seek was best played like this. All the ladies used to gather and gossip, men used to discuss politics or office. Balconies and streets were filled with people. Everyone knew everyone. Teenage gangs played Antakshari and most of the time it was boys v/s girls version. If one was slightly more knowledgeable and wanted to show off, planets, stars, bikes were discussed. There were some days when we didn't go to play, but used to sit with mom dad and granny and listen to a story or

Great minds have said the following things "Life is a complete circle." ,"Karma is a full circle. You get back what you give". I have a prophesy - "Gifts also follow a full circle- at times you get back what you give. Most of the times, it is the gift which you find least useful" As you read this, many of you would be able to relate to the same. Some of you might have planned the Gift-Re-Cycle , while some of you would have been mere observers and some of the lucky ones amongst us would have been at the receiving end. Where we get back what we gave! We had a grand party last year, celebrating my uncle and aunt's 50th marriage Anniversary. The best part of such parties is the gift unwrapping ceremony. We added some masala to this ceremony. The entire family had to guess the name of the 'gifter' and the kind of relation they had with uncle n aunt. And so began the game. It all began nicely. Happy new, never-seen-earlier gifts, useful ones. Then

Yesterday I had been to my cousin's place who has a 2 years old daughter. It's interesting to see the way the kid has grown. Every day she has a new thing to learn. Now like every 'proud' parent, my cousin started to play the 'tell me who is this' game with the kid. The kid answered patiently and happily coz every answer was followed with applauds. An hour later, we had a new visitor. The neighborhood aunty. She re-started the 'tell me who is this' game. And the kid continued answering with a smile. This made me get into a kids shoe and think of what he/she might be thinking at each age. Let me start with age Zero to 1 year. My parents hug and kiss me, I absolutely love it. I feel wanted. But why do they not talk properly? 'Mela thota baby thoyega,ghummi dayega ' . What the hell!! I do understand the language. Anywayz next comes the uncle next door, I was happy the first time he came and got me a gift. But was followed by a 'lu lu lu lu'