Slices of my daily life

at some people for their sheer inability to see what they are. There is this poor guy who is ambitious but lacks focus and isn’t steady or loyal. He also has no opinions of his own. All are formed based on hearsay. He avoids clarity in communication. He has no inkling of all this. गुळाच्या ढेपेला कश्या मुंग्या येतात न, तसा हा जातो जिथे जिथे काही 'मोठ' घडताना दिसेल। पण त्याच्या लक्षात येत नाही की लोकांना त्याच्यापेक्षा जास्त समजत। किम्मत करतात लोक त्याची। मला हसूच येत ! बिच्चारा ! It sounds mean, but I know that he will pay for his stupidity and it really makes me laugh to think about it. I laugh when I see when he thinks he has manipulated people or situations when actually, people are just being kind or patient. Poor poor dear. I can only laugh :))))))

That’s how I am feeling right now. Dull, exceptionally slow and most of all, terribly sleepy ! I’ve felt like this all day and have pestered L with my constant declarations of, “I’m so sleepy, I want to go home !”. The last week went by in a flurry of tending to the needs of the auditors. The weekend was even more hectic, but enjoyable. I saw 2 movies…both Marathi, one long-overdue and one on the day of its first presentation in Pune. Harishchandrachi Factory is the movie I absolutely loved. It is based on the life of the father of Indian Motion Pictures, Dadasaheb Phalke. I can’t believe that a biopic has been made so entertaining and enjoyable and fun ! There is not as much as a squeak about how its maker was a visionary, how great he was or any such thing. There was no ‘agenda’. It is a film with a heart. It reflects the genuine spirit, the lightness, the passion that he had. The makers of this film seem to have the same genuineness, lightness and passion and thus it reached out to ...

The other day a friend of mine rightly remarked about me…I get caught in the moment. I am 100% present where I am at that moment, but once I am elsewhere, there I am ! What she meant was I don’t touch base with my people as often as I should. I agree totally. It is not as if I don’t think of them. I think of them all the time. I am apparently yet to realise that thinking about people doesn’t equate to communicating with them. My people, my family and my friends, all my loved ones are very important to me. If I so much as sense the smallest problem in the relationship, I get affected in a disproportionately big way. If my people are in problems, I am upset. I love to help my people and feel very frustrated in situations where I can’t. I am sure many of my dear ones think that I don’t feel for them. I have regretted this habit often, but seemingly not enough for me to change my ways. I am trying to make amends…I don’t want to be taught this lesson in a harsh way ! I want to get to the po...

Recently, commissioned by the Director of a company, P executed a professional assignment for this company. When he raised his invoice, it included his professional fees, reimbursement of some expenses he had made on their behalf and conveyance expenses. The concerned people in Accounts Department called and told him that they would be rounding off conveyance to a higher amount. P protested and said that he wanted the exact amount and not more. They didn’t listen. Then, as the payment cheque came, P discovered that they had deducted tax on reimbursement and conveyance. So, later, the tax deduction certificate will show the wrong amount. That is not how we choose to operate. We want everything to be transparent, above board and precise. So P got in touch with them and pointed out the discrepancy giving exact details of how the calculation ought to be. To this, they corrected their calculations and it turns out that they have paid a couple of hundred Rupees less to P. The way the concern...

It is a day of reconnections...with people and places. Three days ago a long lost penpal sent me an email...and some more emails yesterday and some more today. She has apparently had a difficult life so far is trying to rebuild it. I wrote to her today. It was a strange feeling. My mind is thinking back to how we became penpals and the journey so far. Now that she has access to email, we will be far more regular and build many memories that we didn't back then. A colleague is going on a vacation in the UK. He leaves for UK tomorrow. We were just discussing the logistics and my mind went back to last year when I went there and a flood of memories came rushing to my mind. I am so missing each and everything about UK ! It was by and far the best vacation I have ever had. The mind is now spinning at warp speed with thoughts about reconnecting with lost friends and people.

The other day I read in the papers that a father stabbed his son since the son disobeyed him and kept watching a cricket match. A grandson killed his grandmother since she refuses to give him money to buy liquor. A teacher beat up a student for some trivial offence and the student later died on the injuries sustained. Apparently it is now routine for rejected lovers to kill their objects of affection. These are extreme examples. There are so many instances where lives weren’t lost but there were disproportionately large reactions to, sometimes imagined, offences. These instances have increased exponentially in the last couple of years. Why is the threshold of tolerance sinking so low so quickly ? We are supposedly a tolerant people. Then what’s with the constantly on-edge tempers ? Why is there so little understanding of and empathy towards other people ? Have resources become so scarce, has peace of mind become so elusive, has life become so difficult to live, so complex to understand...

Since yesterday I’ve been longing for a holiday. I mean, normally every couple of days, each of us longs for a holiday, but it’s rarely specific. We keep saying that we’re longing for one and that’s about it. My longing is more specific since yesterday. I have searched the Internet for such locations that I know I may not be able to afford time or expense wise :) But I had a great time reading up about locations ranging from Dapoli to Sikkim :) I read about the history, geography, culture, food and logistics of all places. I love knowing about new places, people, food, clothes, culture. It has been great to know about all these diverse regions. It has also increased my yearning ! How quickly we get bored when conforming to a routine ! At least I do. So, reading up about these different locations and imagining about taking vacations there provides a temporary escape :) So, here’s a prayer that I’m sending up to the powers-that-be to facilitate my taking a vacation. “O Powers-that-be ! P...

M My dear dear friend Somebody who, I have always felt understands me really well and who I understand very well My teacher in some things and my student in some others Mirror of my sense of humour Somebody whose feelings I can sense at long distance Somebody about whom I’ve always felt protective Somebody who has given me great gifts…and not just the material ones Somebody who I’ve lent a shoulder and a helping hand to Somebody who I can tell when I find certain behaviour inappropriate or when it bothers and disturbs me and I can expect the same from Somebody with whom I have always felt totally connected This one’s for you We used to be aware of every trivial thing we did, said, felt and thought. Now we aren’t. Our day to day lives were intertwined to that extent. Now they aren’t. I used to think about it. A lot. It bothered me. We did have one ‘down’ in our journey which had had only had ‘ups’ till then. Even during that period I knew that this was nothing compared to what we have. ...

I was watching the movie “Jab We Met” yesterday on some channel. I’ve watched it before, but yesterday some moments in it struck me even more than before. They were so beautifully and subtly played by the actors. Really small but poignant moments…some that may even go unnoticed by many in the audience. Still, the actors worked at realising those moments. There are so many films and plays in which there are such beautiful moments created by the actors and directors. I appreciate this quality in an actor. Being one myself, I understand what it means to capture that moment. You have to truly sink into the character…become the character so to speak. It is not easy…it tests the limits of your belief. However, each such moment makes the film, the play more real, more believable, more true. It is like a small brush stroke in a painting. It may not stand out individually, but it makes the painting that much richer and meaningful by being in it. Many people, when they find out that I am involve...

A couple of people in office have been requesting me to conduct a basic course in French for them. For the longest time I kept fobbing them off. I know the routine. They feel like learning French. I begin teaching or I arrange for a tutor to come. They attend the first few classes and then their enthusiasm wanes. Very few actually complete the course or it has to be stopped for lack of attendance. So I kept avoiding it. But this group seems determined. So I had a word with my Boss and now we seem to be headed towards conducting a French conversation course. This time I am going about it in a more organised fashion. I plan to find out the purpose of this group in wanting to learn French. Accordingly I will design a course curriculum, plan a schedule, conduct classes and finally conduct an exam at the end of the course. I am excited with the thought of being in regular touch with French again. Only, this time, I am controlling my excitement since, if, for some reasons, this doesn’t work ...

I went off on the long weekend feeling happy. On Monday morning when I started my office computer, it was so exceptionally slow that I had to ask our System Administrator to take a look. While sorting out that problem, he insisted that we upgrade my system. Thereafter began a long and tedious journey, which, by initial estimates, was to complete in a couple of hours, but turned itself into an ordeal along the way and finally ended this evening, taking a record-breaking three working days to get my system upgraded, all software reinstalled and brought into working condition. Phew ! And ‘Phew !’ again…what a longwinded sentence :) The whole time I vacillated from euphoria of getting to sit on the extremely comfortable couch in the reception without fearing reprimand to depression due to withdrawal symptoms from lack of my daily dose of computer usage :) Look at the irony ! The long ‘weekend’ (of three days) was full of work. We cleaned up the house …and I mean really cleaned up. We are n...