The voice from above

Lightening.. thunder.. an angel.. and then a voice "Son.............."

What I heard was nothing close to thunder, at the best it sounded like an old coffee machine.. for a second I thought my overworked laptop was uttering its final words of pain before an inevitable death.. it has been giving out noices like an old Diesel engine boat since the past few weeks.. Panick attack..wait.. no, it's not my laptop..

The sound is coming from above.. and then a voice spoke "Attention".. There comes my gaurdian angel.. may be the Archangel himself.. I glanced across the room.. there's this figure standing with a white robe on.. angel in a white robe.. no wings.. no.. no.. it's not an angel.. it's DD..and she is wearing a white jacket.. then there's Chris standing, but he doesn't look like an Angel..

Confused; I looked at DD.. She said "Fire Alarm".. The voice from above said "We have detected an issue on the 16th floor. Please stand by for further instructions"..

I sensed the opportunity, looked at DD, pointed to the client who was running out with a red base ball hat on his head, and said "we should get ready for evacuation.. take only your most precious belongings.."
DD took it very seriously, almost swallowed her burger, removed her shoes, put on her sneakers and I think even did some warm up; some basic pushups and situps; for running down 30 floors..

Manish put on his jacket, got dressed up and looked very happy for an early smoke break.. Before we could rejoice much the voice said again "The problem has been investigated.. You can now return to your seats.."

There goes my unanticipated break.. and I have a client meeting in an hour, havent finished even half of my prep..

I deserve this, I did play the role of a devil this weekend; except that I didnt have horns and a three pronged tail..

Somebody asked me today "How can I avoid disappointment?". I told him "Dream, but don't base your dreams on what others will do". I sounded like a Mahatma, dude, I am good!!
But I also said "Sometimes disappointment is a good price to pay for the thrill a dream can give you"

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I have a feeling that I am going to get some threatening messages for some of my comments above.. :D

Fast and feast

One of the things I love about this country is the All day breakfast joints. Remain hungry till afternoon and headout to one of those places to feast on eggs, bacon, sausages, pan cakes, waffles etc.. Its sort of become my routine since the past 2.5 years or so I have been here - I call it the fast and feast routine..

Today I went out for brunch with a friend who is basically from Palestine. He recently got engaged to his Canadian girlfriend and has been apparently getting some fire from his parents for getting engaged to a non Muslim. The guy is pretty confident of getting through this phase, and I am pretty sure he will get through it. After all they look so perfect together, nobody can deny that for a long time.

I have had multiple friends who faced similar situations. The latest was a friend from Kerala. He had met this girl from North India, and had decided to spend his life with her. Sounds simple - guy meets girl, gets convinced she's the one, gets married, lives happily ever after.. But not so simple when you bring community and tradition into the picture. He is from the South, speaks Malayalam, eats Southern cousine, born into a Brahmin family (Brahmins are supposedly the uppermost caste in Hinduism, traditionally the ones who are authorized to become priests). The girl is from the North, speaks Hindi, digs Northern food and born into a different caste which is supposedly lower than Brahmins; not that it mattered to him or any of his friends. His parents although were willing to accept, were worried that he might become a loner in their community, it took a lot of persuasion to make up their mind. They got married about 5 months back and the last I heard everyone is happy. Afterall, Hinduism does say that life originated from the sound "Om" and Brahma is the creator of all things.. So why should caste really matter?

I can't help but to remember my most controversial involvement in a similar situation. Back at the University, I had a lot of friends, but I was in particular close to 4 of my friends, just because we stayed pretty close to each other. A guy from my course, and 2 guys and a girl doing their MBA. We used to hangout all the time, it was quite a contradicting group when it came to personal beliefs - 2 of the guys including the guy from my course were Pentecostal christians (if you haven't seen a Pentecostal Christian try talking to one of them, they almost had a fire in their belly when it comes to their beliefs, another guy a strong Catholic, the girl born to Christian-Hindu parents had been raised a Hindu and me the ex-communist turned practicalist, still confused about spiritual beliefs.. Though I did not agree to a lot of things they did or said, I was quite impressed with their passion; this ultimately led me to studying the bible and participating in a lot of those all congregation discussions.. That was also the beginning of my general interest in studying about religion - I ended up reading a lot on other religions like Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism etc.. etc..

K. enough.. I am starting to sound like a theologist.. let me get back to what I was talking about.. Towards the end of the first year, she accepted Christianity and started going to the Pentecostal church and started hanging out a lot more with the guy from my course. We all knew something was happening, but didn't know for sure. A lot of things happened which I don't want to share, but they had this strong feelings for each other and felt what they thought as a soul level connection. Thinking back I'd have to agree, they looked so wonderful together and by that I just don't mean physically, they were emotionally compatible, shared similar interests, shared the same passion. Its a weird situation sometimes when friends fall in love, to add to that she was actually about a year elder than him. I guess that was pretty tough on them. Having such a feeling for one of your best friends, knowing the family differences - his father being a pastor and her father being a business man - diverse backgrounds and the perceived restriction that a man has to be elder than his woman. They went through a lot of pain before admitting their feelings to each other. I was probably the first one they broke this news to. The months followed were very dramatic, but somehow I had this conviction that they were meant to be together.. I was the Best Man at their wedding. They have a 3 year old son today. They still have their parents, their siblings and all their loved ones - very much a family..

Since my brunch meeting, I have been thinking about them; haven't really seen them in the past 4.5 years. May be, it is time to catch up, it is time to meet their son; after all, I did/still do care for them and they did care for me. And I have always been proud of them for following their convictions..

My barber says I will have a good life

Friday morning - As I was getting ready for work, I realized I had to apply a li'l extra gel on my hair - just a li'l bit extra to make sure that nobody calls me a "Big Head". Ernie (yup, Ernest Cheng) used to do that when I was in Toronto, "How's it going big head?".. On the positive side, I thought thats another way of saying "You are intelligent". But he actually thought my head was larger in proportion than the rest of body.. whatever..
So after lunch, I decided to go to the Asian lady who runs a hair salon ground floor. Think she is basically from Vietnam or something.. Anyways a very talkative woman, in the 15+ minutes I was there, I got a snapshot of her entire life, the men who courted her, her ex-husband, her daughter, the men who still tries to hit at her etc.. etc.. She washed my hair and had hardly patted my hair dry when she decided to show me some pics.. She ran to the drawer, and I am sitting there with water drops streaming down my face.. For some reason, I didn't want to interrupt her. She was having her own happy moment showing me all those pics, why would I want to disrupt that..
She then looked at my hands and said "You have very nice hands". "Thanks" I said still wondering whatever that comment meant.. She went on and on "You have very nice teeth, white and shining". Oh yeah!! I have been using Aquafresh white and shine.. "You are nice.. You are a gentleman".. She went to talk about her loneliness and how she appreciates nice friends etc.. etc.. Dude, I think she is hitting on me :D.. I have to find another salon.. She ended our conversation by saying "Those with nice hands and nice teeth will have a very prosperous and good life".. Ooh.. I am so happening.. Few years ago a friend of mine created a computer jaathagam for me.. A jaathagam is based on traditional Indian astrology and sort of gives a snapshot of your entire life, I mean the key trends.. Not that I am into it, but didn't want to disappoint him.. It said something about me having a "Gajakesari yoga".. In short it means that I will own an elephant, well not literally, but in the past rich families always had an elephant. Money baby, money, I am all for it, bring it on..

Evening I ended up in a pub close to my place, I have been visiting that place almost every Friday, pretty old place, gives me the feeling of a country bar.. I was sitting there and having my beer, when an elderly gentleman called Woody came to me and introduced himself. Then I got introduced to his entire circle of friends - Byron, Alex, Lloyd.. Most of them have been here since the 1950s..So, there I was hanging out with them hearing all their adventure stories with the untamed wild and the rapids.. I didnt want to drink too much, but then gave in to the temptation of getting another one. As I was ordering Woody says to the waitress "Thats damn right.. He is having another one and I am paying for it". I told him "You really don/t have to do that".. and he threatens me "I am the Sheriff of this bar. Don't argue with me".. Ok Sheriff, as you command.. Later the pub owner, Gordon came to us, my next drink was on him.. I am still so moving here..
As I walked back home I felt guilty about the 4 pints that I had. When I was in Halifax, Nick challenged me to a get fit routine; I have been religiously working out since then and is definitely seeing good results.. I promised myself "I am going to run an extra 30 mins tomorrow".. Though not quite upto my promise, almost managed to run about 45 mins, brutal, I hate that sort of hardwork..
Today evening I went for African drumming lessons, I think the drum is called "Jambe".. Contrary to Indian drums which is played mostly using fingers, this one was like "Bam.. Bam".. It was so much fun..I think I am going to continue doing this.. Did I ever tell you my failed attempt with the Tabla? That was probably about 15 years ago.. Learning Tabla needs a lot of discipline and patience, teen me didn't have much patience, I dropped out after about 6 months or so.. After that my drumming encounters were mostly on the college desks and plastic buckets back at the hostel.. Oh that was so much fun.. Imagine 10-15 guys jamming with almost anything they could treat as an instrument.. Those nice college days..

I need one too

Yesterday a friend of mine was talking about some stalking problems she has had in the past and it occurred to me, "Wow,What a wonderful idea!! And a wonderful position to be in. being stalked by someone.. sort of like a mini Celebrity status"

I said "that's so cool. I wish I had one."
She replied "I think everybody should have one"

I think stalking should be encouraged worldwide.. My brain is full of ideas now..
1) Start a company called International Stalking Corporation
2) Create a worldwide database of experienced stalkers, amateur stalkers, wanna-be-stalkers
3) Categorize all stalkers by their behavioural classification - more like the chicken wings options - mild, hot, suicidal
4) Market my stalker database to potential stalkees.
5) Become the founder of a stalker-stalkee rights activists group..
6) Lobby to make stalking an international pride event
7) Lobby for a ruling of 1 year of mandatory stalking for everyone immediately after school (imagine stalking a hot girl and telling her "I can't do anything about this.. It is mandated by the government.." )
8) Gradually rise to become the supreme leader of a stalker-stalkee cult
9) Become the President of America
10) Take over the world

or
9) Become a billionaire
10) Travel around the world in my own private yatch, or may be I could buy a ship and randomly get people to go on a cruise with me..

I have not made up my mind yet, but what a brilliant idea? Like my own ten steps to success, I should give a call to Stephen Covey.
....

Yup, you guessed it right.. I am crazy.. I slept late yesterday and woke up very early this morning
Why late? How could I sleep when all the CSI Miami folks were getting royally screwed..Horatio was being framed in a murder. Somebody shot Wolfe near the eye using a nail gun (with the half penetrated nail literally popping out of his eyeline). Eric is about to lose his job for caring about his dying sister. And to add to my grief - she is gorgeous and she is dying, what a waste!! Beautiful girls should never die and never should they be single.. It is a terrible waste of human talent

I am not a big fan of CSI, neither do I watch it regularly.. but yesterday was super dramatic and they were showing about 5 episodes back to back..

And then today I had to get up at 5:00 am, had to get into a meeting at 7:00 am and had to be in the office at 6:00 for the prep... Can you imagine a meeting at 7:00 am? I never got up so early even for my University exams.. I hate people who schedule meetings before 8.. Yeah, You heard it right. All you selfish predators - I hate you!! You took more than an hour off my most precious sleep time.. 3-6 am is the time when I sleep really deep.. But, regardless of that, it was a very productive day

I feel happy in general - may be it is because days have become more productive, or may be because a happy soul just brushed past me.. Feels good.. Life is good again..

Oh! I forgot, we also executed the first 100% remote fusion exercise in the company's history today. Technology is absolutely brilliant sometimes. We had participants from 5 different locations - Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Boston and Houston. Pretty impressive, eh?

My two heroes

For some reason I have been thinking about these two personal heroes. None of them are alive - nevertheless they continue to be my heroes.

The first one most definitely is my maternal great grand father. - the same person who built the home where I grew up most part of my younger days. He used to travel frequently to his other farm lands, but weekends he was always at home. He continued that lifestyle until he was about 85 years old. The remaining 10 years of his life, he was mostly home suffering from Parkinsons, I'd already moved out to stay with my parents by that time.

A great man who commanded respect from everyone he met. He was well educated for someone of his time - a farmer, a banker, a firm practicing Christian (btw, unlike most people think, Christianity came to India almost 2000 years back). My great grand mother used to tell some of his stories. Kerala was divided into 4 different small kingdoms, India was mostly under British control, but the British were lenient enough not to attack these kingdoms, but maintained diplomatic control over these regions. My great grand father was from the kingdom of Kochi while my great grandmother from the kingdom of Travancore. He had to frequently travel across the border to take care of the farming lands there. Bullock carts or boats were the major form of transportation. He'd have to cross this jungle which was infamous for robbers. He always used to carry a walking stick which had a long sharp sword inside - well armed and well equipped it was sort of a caravan whenever he crossed the border.

I was his favorite (not surprising considering that I was the only kid around), sometimes I'd accompany him on his evening walks, it was more of a social walk and didn't have much of a "work out" value, he'd have lots of people coming and talking to him and I would pretend that I had a very important part in the decisions being made and the instructions being given out. Sometimes he would handover money to people, and he would always give the cash to me to handover.

Evenings he was particular about the long 1 hour prayer before dinner (ok, I have to agree, didn't quite like that part) Dinner time - I would always get the chance to sit next to him and at times on his lap. I was so proud that the same person who could terrorize the house with a slight change in his tone was actually feeding me at times. After dinner I would sit with him outside, looking at the stars while he told me stories - sometimes funny, sometimes fictional - he was never a character in those stories, and when I am almost asleep he would call Grandma to take me to my bed.

I was there by him during his final 2-3 days. He couldn't recognize anybody, was mostly in coma, but the morning of his death he was awake, he had a constant smile on his face, he was tired but he would touch affectionately anybody sitting next to him. He passed away that evening. The funeral was the biggest I'd ever seen. So many people - political figures, popular figures in the community, a number of bishops, lot of priests, etc.. I think at least one person from every household attended the funeral. I was so proud of him..

My second hero is my paternal grandfather. I didn't get a lot of chance to spend time with him and he wasn't always approachable as my maternal great grand father was but as I was growing up and learning more about him, my respect for him grew day by day. He and my maternal great grandfather were almost of the same age. My father was his sixth son, so his house was always full of kids, many of my cousins were almost the same age as I was and obviously I didn't get the undivided attention except for my mischievous nature and my reputation for getting in trouble.

He was a lawyer (or a Barrister as they used to call in those days). Becoming a lawyer during the pre-independence era was definitely an achievement. He began his practice in the early 1940s and was a great sympathizer of the freedom movement - I am still not sure whether he supported Gandhi's nonviolence theme or Subash Chandra Bose's way of the Indian National Army. But he was definitely daring and outspoken. Famous for his Hitler style moustache, can you imagine wielding a Hitler style moustache and walking into a pro-British court as a lawyer, that too during the Second World War era? It doesn't mean that he supported Hitler's Nazi ideology, but he most certainly viewed Hitler as a power who threatened British supremacy and treated enemy's enemy as a friend. He was the first in his community on many accounts - first lawyer from the community, first man to own a car, first man to have a telephone, a pretty successful lawyer, many of the lawyers who practiced under him went on to become judges, and he was also the lone successor of the vast areas of coconut/paddy farm lands, prawn farming fields, family operated business.

My father sometimes tell us - His pride was his biggest enemy. My grandpa did trust some wrong people, and of course did many things and gave up so much money to defend his pride, and on his death bed only had a fraction of his fortune.

Regardless, he was one heck of a man, my grandpa, my God Father and most definitely my hero.

Eastern Cowboy

"Eastern Cowboy".. My colleague remarked, he was glancing over my screen while I was googling for "Western Horse back riding lessons".
I asked him "So any places I can use to fulfill this desire?".
He said "Lots of them in the outskirts of the city. But winter may be the wrong time to pursue something like that".
Who cares its winter or summer? I feel like doing it and I want to do it.
I have always been passionate about horses, not a surprise since my favorite movies are historical movies with passionate men on horses, weilding their swords, fighting for what they believed in.. (not that I am blood thirsty or anything)

Come to think about it, in a way I was always a cowboy. For the most part of my younger days I grew up with my maternal grandparents at their house - access to a better school, relief to my parents who were struggling with the recent failure in my father's business. My maternal grandparents had this house in the middle of acres of agricultural land - paddy fields, coconut trees, aracnut trees, mango trees, jackfruit trees, cashew trees, guava trees,.. and lots and lots of them. Four generations living in the same big house which was older than my grandfather himself. My maternal great grand parents were still alive and in good condition, my grandparents who were still young if you were to draw parallel to western standards (my grandfather looked so young and handsome, he could get a dozen girlfriends in Canada), my mother's brother and sister were also staying in the same house and then me - the only kid in the family and centre of attention.. It was lovely.. And boy wasn't I something?, my aunt was a sprinter and it took all her talents to catch me and get me bathed every evening.. I had a special relationship with my great grandfather, but more on that later..

The long strip of coconut plantations were ideal for playing, and I would often get lots of kids to play with me, neighbors' kids and kids of those who used to labor in our farms.. If nobody else, I had the baby cows to play with. There were about 5-6 cows and 1-2 calves at any point.. I would have stacks of hay preserved from the past harvest season to jump into and swirl around..my grandmother would yell at me warning me against snakes, it really didn't bother me.. its a different thing that I would feel itchy all over my body during the night and my grandmother would patiently apply local herb medicine on my body..

Calves are great to play with. A calf will start running few minutes after it is born. And the next few days it will be running most of the time. It was fun chasing it across the plantation, trying to catch it, wrestling with it, sometimes I would press my head against its head and challenge it for a head to head match, and it would most willingly comply..

Weekends, I was either playing or climbing trees.. Have you ever climbed a mango tree, plucked a ripe mango and eaten it while you are still on top of the tree? It is an incredible feeling, for that matter guavas or even cashew fruit..

Every month the coconut pluckers would come to pluck coconuts, and that was a big activity for 2 days, I would tag along making sure that I don't miss a minute, I would even have lunch with them - drinking rice soup and mango pickle using the folded leaf of a jackfruit tree.. oh that was so tasty after all that hardwork (agreed i never used to do any real work, but it was still physically demanding to shadow them at every point). They used to treat me like a little prince, often cutting me a ripe coconut full of sweet coconut water - my stomach used to be so full..

Summer was mostly the fruit season - we would have so much of mango, jackfruit, pineapple, that too so many varieties, we would have so much left even after giving to the neighbors and the cows and the squirrels and the birds that we would have to bury the left out pieces.. I think I only ate mangoes and jackfruit during the season. Summer was also the fishing season, there were ponds in the land which would be connected by small streams throughout the year. The streams will dry up during the summer and fishing in those ponds would start. My uncle and his cousins would come over on a weekend, they had a special technique of passing electricity into the pound, the fish will get paralysed for a few minutes, they would then cutoff the supply and jump in and collect as many fish as they can. The fish never dies and we would keep it for days in huge pots until its turn came to be cooked. There is this associated story about my cousin, he was holding back his pee for a long time and interestingly thought the pound would be a good place to relieve the pressure.. except that it had a live wire.. ofcourse the charge was very minimal and he survived with no long lasting damage(He now has a kid to prove that, you know what I mean?:D It was panicky initially, but as soon as we found out he was ok, every body were laughing their lungs off..

Harvest season was almost like a festival. Machines were not used as much. Morning of the first day of harvest season we would have about 10 - 15 people coming in who will basically pluck the paddy plants and organize them into small stacks. My great grandfather and grandfather would be around supervising and guess what, me too.. I always used to pretend that I am doing something very important.. A few days of plucking, we will have the courtyard full of stacks of plants, the grains still on them. Then they will start separating the grains from the plants using their foot, I was there every step of the way.. Once that's done a group will move to dry the stem so that they could get stacks and stacks of hay (for feeding the cows). Another group will start boiling the grain (Have you heard of boiled Kerala rice, you won't find it anywhere in North India, it is a special process of boiling before the shell is separated from the rice grain)..

Immediately after the harvest season is Onam, Kerala's most colorful festival. 10 days of festivities and holidays.. The place would be the most beautiful with lots of flowers blossoming all over.. My great grandfather always made it a point that we celebrate every Onam and I get the maximum out of every bit of celebration..

Once Onam is done, there is this man who came with a large herd of ducks and unleash them into the paddy field so that all those left over grains and worms could be eaten.. Then comes one of my favorite parts - my grandfather didn't favor tractors too much, probably because he had a regular person who would come in and plough the fields with his pair of bulls, he was old and I think he was doing this for my great grand father even before grandfather was born. I would be allowed to shadow him as well, I would jump into the mud and follow him as he ploughed the large fields..

Then came the cowdung treatment, we didn't use as many fertilizers, it was primarily dried cowdung that was used as a fertilizer - for some reason I preferred to watch :)

And then the sowing season and the planting season.. I didn't miss any of those, why would I? I was like a prince among those people and I always got what I wanted (well most of the time..)
Sometimes I do miss those days.. Last time I was there, I had a few visitors, the same people who once labored in my great grandpa's fields, they had become old.. It is customary for you to give away some money to each of them, and as I handed over the few bills they looked at me with gratitude, thanked me, some touched my hand with affection, some told me stories about my childhood and how they had to comply with my demands and I could see that the gratitude in their eyes changed to affection and love, some complained about their life and complained how the younger generation is not interested in cultivation and the old way of life.. There is practically no cultivation in those areas now, but how can I complain? I didn't stay back either.

Many of them are since dead, most will not make it to the next harvest season, but if they make it I am sure they will come to meet their little prince every time I am there..

Peace..