Warm winter

An unexpected mild winter is embracing Minnesotans this year. God, I love surprises, and special thanks for this one:) Although my mother quips that she would love to experience snow. It definitely is worth an experience once. ONCE. There is the catch. The calming effect the snow white tears of the sky, has on people is to such extent that could cause one to admire it for hours together. Albeit from a warm place :) I don't intend to hurt people's feelings. I tried to convince myself to enjoy winter sports. Snow tubing to skiing - tried it all. Snow tubing is my favorite , if I had to pick one. If you can ignore the freezing behind, the rush it gives you is quite something.

All that said, Minnesota wouldn't be itself , if it did not have dark 4:00 PMs, bunch of rather heavily bundled up school kids waiting for school bus, bustling malls turning into walking trails, coffee clad hands every street or so. It is just the way it works.

As I am writing this, I am telling myself, to write more often. It almost seems like my brain is clouded with thoughts none of them I am able to verbalize. Write more you got it? finger at me (copywright : Tamil comedian Vadivelu) :P

From Me to You

Your touch that melts my heart
The fruit that you, for me,so thoughtfully put in the cart
Your breath that warms me in deadly winters
Your companionship that embraces when sharing appetizers
Our fights and make ups
Our vacuuming and washing cups
The last 48 hours have been my toughest
Seeing you this moment became my happiest!

N2N

As the Minnesota sun embraced me on a bright Saturday morning, I prepared to embark on a musical journey with Mrs Nirmala Rajasekar. I was New to Nadharasa school. Yet not new to Carnatic music. Not new to being amongst avid listeners , singers and musicians who speak that language. Just another music class, my mind told me, as I started my bright and sparkling Honda Fit.

Entering through the backyard, I found myself in a room full of music lovers, parents and children alike. And Mrs Nirmala with a calmness and warmth that was refreshing from other teachers I have had in my past. My friend had warned me about Nadharasa's ways. Commitment, sincerity were qualities that every student had to have in great quantities. And the willingness to learn and acquire as much of knowledge as possible. Yes of course. This is what every teacher expects I had thought.

Within a few minutes I discovered how wrong I was. Nirmala showed us a bunch of assignments that the students had turned in. I was surprised and in awe of how a teacher set expectations and drove her students to achieve them. The class began, students half my age were listening intently to each word she spoke. Slowly and before I could realize, I was drawn into it too. I did not realize how 3 hours passed by. Then it dawned upon me, it was not because she was tough, but because she was so committed to imparting education, that the students stay put for hours together. Each one wanted to be like her and strived to be so. This included me.

Just when I sighed wondering how I would reach such heights, Nirmala said - It is doable. If I can do it, you can do it too. Those words seemed like a red bull drink to me. My hopes rose and I continued to learn trying very hard not to enjoy her music. After all, how can you concentrate on learning when you have someone dissolving you in their music? Hard. Very hard indeed. Here and there, we applauded to right answers, thus developing great camaraderie for one another, sans age difference. A 6 year old girl corrected my Triputa thalam.It brought tears to my eyes.


Happiness, laughter, learning, encouragement, appreciation and cookies. We had it all. The day had such an impact on me that I dreamt about going to class that night. Indeed one of the most unforgettable days in my life. I am proud to be a Nadharasa student!

Nirmala Rajasekar - http://www.nirmalarajasekar.com/

Differences

I have long been wanting to write this. I have heard many people claiming themselves to be "perfectionists". While I laud their courage to come out in the open with such a declaration, I also wonder - what is being "perfect"? Is it not subjective? A seven year old can consider his piece of art perfect, but his mother is sure to find faults. An architect may find his blue plan perfect, but the owner is sure to ask for a change or two!

I feel strongly that there does not exist "The Ultimate Perfection". It varies , rather varies widely. According to one's taste, to one's imagination, to one's desire. The ideology of perfection is similar to that of beauty. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. In the same coin, what about "Right & Wrong"? Is it really as simple as White or Black? If we were to break this world into molecules I would definetely conclude that there are more Grey molecules than white or black.

I think a little deeper as to why . Why does man have to be confused? Why can't there just be two ways of doing things - right and wrong? Why can't the impalpable be binary in this digitized world? It seems to boil down to the fact that god created man. He did not stop there. He created millions of variations of man. Not one , but millions and millions of variations that would seem greek and latin to Srinivasa Ramanujam. Not one's thoughts are exactly the same the other. Not one does look /behave exactly the same as the other.

God, if you are hearing/reading this - why did you this? Wouldn't world have been a better place to live if everyone thought alike? Everyone behaved alike? Why couldn't you have made xerox copies of your creation? As I am writing this, it almost seems like God is whispering in my ear... (or may be my rational mind) if everything were the same - how would love, hatred, jealousy, poverty, laughter, sorrow, happiness, fear ... or THE WORLD EXIST?

Abrupt ending

Yet another time, I recently drowned myself in "moving out chores" . My, my what a task.
Suddenly I was forced to realize how disorganized my life was, you cant find the packing tape, you cant find your scissors, your tooth brush, your coffee what! Not that I was ashamed - whatever happens, I am what I am. Although it would have helped to a have been a bit more disciplined.

Luckily my guardian angels came to my rescue - they have been for a long time now :) It even pained to see how meticulously my dad cut the tape to the right inch and pasted it with such perfection. It is one of those things you know - you want to inherit the great qualities of someone you admire, alas god trashes back saying you don't have it in you! But escapism apart, my greatest living example of a perfectionist, my source of inspiration of "putting -up-a brave face-during-toughest-of -times" is my father. With no doubt , more than half of Indian population is likely to cite one of their parents as their role models, or someone they look upto. It is nothing but the impact that they had on us at an early age that , during the course of years , manifests into a more profound and informed admiration of their achievements.

What is luck?

Success tastes sweeter after him. We combat with him everyday. We also become stronger as he becomes an integral part of our lives. Before puzzling the readers anymore, his name is "struggle". Now guys you would want to scoff at me for categorizing struggle as masculine. That's unintentional however.

Nothing comes easy. From a cup a caffeine at Starbucks to cracking the IAS. Nothing really comes easy. But does it ever deter us from trying? does it ever stop us from fighting? No. According to me, there are a lot of factors behind this relentless struggle to struggle with struggle. One, it is in our blood to do so. If man needs something, he does everything to get it. Now whether cosmos lends him a helping hand is a different issue altogether. Nevertheless, he tries. Two, as days pass by , his desire to achieve, to conquer, to enjoy, to seek happiness grows. It becomes the trigger to tireless effort.

Well, I dont wish to discuss how life is a struggle all the time, or how it is really survival of the fittest. This is something different, something more positive than hardships. Albeit man tries hard, there is a point of time when he is not able to push himself further. That is precisely the time, your desires turn to reality. I am not claiming this happens all the time. But with me, it has happened quite a few times. Its a great feeling when your reality embraces you rather than hit you hard , right? It was just another day at work, I was getting back home pretty late, and I was beat. Totally. I dragged myself to walk to the elevator. Usually there is a huge rush at the elevator, and it takes some time to get free again. So people rush to the elevator. But this time, it was beyond me.. as I dragged myself , I saw people running past me to get to the open elevator. My mind instructed me to run too, but my legs cheated on me. Succumbing to the circumstance, I decided to let go and wait for a couple more minutes to get on to the next coach. But to my surprise, someone in the lift was holding the lift open because she heard some footsteps. I was overjoyed. It may be a really small thing, but I tend to read into it a lot. I look for signs from God. The lady in the coach was God for me at that time. What do I call this, luck? Or coincidence? Or is coincidence happening at the opportune moment called luck? Or am I just over pondering ? I dint know. All I knew was , I was tired, and someone helped me.

Another incident that took me by surprise was, when me and my friend traveled to another city to do some shopping. I should admit, not only shopping, but also hogging at the great Saravana Bhavan. when I was in chennai, I used to consider it boring to eat at HSB. Ah and now!
We got off at the train station and realized to our dismay that it would be impossible to walk on highways! seriously, there was no pavement, we walked on a thin strip of edge on the sides of the road. To top this, we dint know the way to HSB. We walked through forest like places, small mountains, bed of stones and what not. Asking every person on the road the path to our destination. We would have walked atleast 1/2 a mile, when we reached a deserted mall building. Some shops were sealed, while others were closed. It was not a pretty sight at all! I began to moan and my friend was trying to quiten me , when we spotted "Hotel Saravana Bhavan" next to the sealed shops. I let out a cry of relief...it was joy as that of mountaineers reaching the peak of the mountain. The difference? Mountaineers know how to get there. But we did not. we just happened to land at the right place! Aint that great? And the rest is history.. we hogged...and hogged...and hogged...finally ended it with sweet pan.

Conclusion? sometimes god says to man : " my dear man, here is what you want . Enjoy! ". And he makes our day :)

This is New York City baby!

I love NYC : Apart from the fact that you find many T-shirts saying this, there is absolute truth in it. I love NYC and I can say this a zillion times to any human hailing from the West Coast. Alright , WC has great weather , and tonnes of other goodies.. but NYC is FUN. Nothing can beat it. Its also stress and whole load of other things which appear miniscular against the mammoth fun element. Truly the city that never sleeps, it has all kinds of people doing all kinds of things at all times. Anyone living in and around NYC would agree with me.
Out of all the never ending list of NYC s charms, what fascinates me, will continue to fascinate me is the energy of the people that walk on the streets. Just a very simple observation: At about 8.15 AM , observe the way people get to work, the pace at which they walk. Its fast. Really fast. Fast enough that you run a risk of being "run over" by another 2 legged creature. You are sure to be caught unawares when you discover that you walk at the same pace too! Time ticks faster in this lovely city. For people who enjoy fast lives, its a treat.
I was flipping through my notes from long ago when I found this poem that I wrote ,during a rather "interesting" class... :

Buzzling streets and flashing lights
Sweetened nuts and subway bites
Black, white, brown and red
Emily, Chang, Vishal and Fred
Thousand feet scurrying towards rat holes
Immortal trains , police patrols
A race that truly has no winner
A land of faster clocks, busier people that party harder
Money works and people dream pretty
Welcome to the "New York City"!

Have a great week ahead.