Gifts

Not so long ago, the gift one could give to someone on a birthday was nothing more than a clock, watch or a pen. Nowadays a lot of options are available when one has to give a gift. The photo studios play a major part in creating these gifts. After the apperance of mobile phones and digi cams with a high quality camera in it, the number of hard copy photos taken by people has come down, and most dont take at all. They are shows to others on mobile phones or computer screens and shared to others through facebook, whatsapp or pintrest.

Now these studios print these photos on stuff that we have never imagined earlier like ceramic cups, tiles, engraved on wood and these items are presented as gifts. A couple of years back we happily received such a gift of our family photo engraved on a wood, and I was surprised to see such a gift. It was ordered through internet and was directly delivered to us.

Lots of collages were also given as gifts. When I first heard this word "collage", I wasnt sure what it was as it rhymed with both "college" and "collegue". When I saw that, got to know that it was a sequence of printed photos, printed mostly on a A4 size print sheet. But nowadays these phots are also printed on so many stuff like ceramic, tile, wood and glass. Some of them also have a clock embedded on it.

Though my friend had the habit of giving gifts to her friends earlier, I was not much into it. But now I am also receiving many gifts from loved ones in my close circle. I think soon I will also be part of this gifting culture.





- Pavala. 

Another Vinayaka Chathurthi

After coming to Chennai, observed that the Ganesh/Vinayaka chathurthi is celebrated in a grand manner here. Until then, it was just a holiday for me. Also nowadays lot of special programmes, including new movies are telecasted on that day. This time we celebrated in the morning itself, as it was a holiday for me, and I didn't want to spend the whole day in preparing for the celebrations. The rest of the day, we can do something else or we can spend time with family, and with Pillaiar's blessings, it worked out indeed.

I am amazed by the speed at which my friend works these days in preparing for these events, single-handedly. This time my little friend Deepak also helped her. Dhanesh also pitched in then and there. Our celebrations were over before 10 o' clock. Then we saw TV for sometime. Though we watched for around 30 mts, the movie "Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga" was enjoyable, as always. This time we missed the Pattimandram, and I didn't worry for it, as over the years, it became a very boring program on the TV, with the same set of people telling almost the same thing again and again. Then we went around for rounds in bike, and the kind Vinayaka took care of our lunch too ;-).

Took complete rest in the afternoon and the rest of the day just flew away.

This time was happy to know that both Dhanu and Deepu understood that its "Pillayar Sami's Birthday" :-).

- Pavala.

Ramanan - The Weather Man

The earliest memories of me seeing Mr. Ramanan - The Weather Man of Tamil Nadu - dates back to my high-school days. A simple-man, with a small mustache, in white shirt(most of his shirts looked white in our Black & White TV), sitting behind a table. A few computers - two to three in number - that belonged to our grand-fathers generations would be there, facing the camera, in front of him. Unlike these days, there were not many cameras in front of him, but only the DD's. No mikes too. Once the camera rolls, he will bend forward and look into those computer monitors, which makes one to wonder if that is the first time he is seeing those monitors for the day. He will pause for a few moments, when one is supposed to assume that he is thinking and analyzing the data, mostly black & white images of clouds floating over the map of India. Then he will look into the camera and tell his prediction, which most of the time will be exactly opposite to what is going to happen. For example, when he says if its going to rain heavily for the next two days, people got used to interpret that as that the sky is going to be clear and no rain will be there. On the other hand, if he says that the weather will be good and there wont be any rain for the next days, one can safely assume that its going to rain heavily for the next two days. But in those days the government and the authorities didn't go to the extreme of declaring leave for schools and collages, since they too appeared to follow the well-established interpretation of Mr. Ramanan's weather forecasts.

At times the prediction given by my grand-father, just by seeing the sky used to be somewhat accurate than the prediction of Mr. Ramanan and his metrological department.

All of a sudden, after I grew up into adulthood, I saw a colorful Ramanan in Sun TV (By this time we had switched to a Colour TV). In the mean time, Mr. Ramanan has completed a doctoral research and has become Dr. Ramanan (so, lets also change from Mr. Ramanan to Dr. Ramanan). His cute little mustache was also gone. So many mikes in front of him, based on which one can also assume that there should also be many cameras in front of him. The computers in front of him were missing.  But at times, we could see him standing in front of a big TV that displays clouds over the a world map and Dr. Ramanan explaining how the wind is formed and how it is expected to travel. Having seen his predictions from my childhood, I never worried about them and sometimes have planned and executed beautiful outings in pleasant climates, when he said that we can expect a heavy downpour for the next two days. But now there is a big change - the government and the authorities seemed to believe whatever he said, and are going to the extreme of declaring holidays whenever he said that there is going to be a heavy downpour. May be, with improved technology, his predictions are somewhat close to that of my grand-father's.

Move forward a couple of years... I receive memes about Dr. Ramanan!!! Looks like he has become the favorite darling of school and college students, since he is pivotal in prompting the regulators to declare holidays, sometimes up to 2 weeks at a stretch!!!

Some of the memes below...

And here is the ultimate one :-)  (which made me to laugh continueously for 5 minutes while having tea in our office cafeteria, which made others around me to assume that I have gone mad...)

The Ultimate Champion

Yesterday it was sports day in Deepu's school. He was in Monkey-banana race. When the race started, some bananas, made out of chart-papers were made to hang half-way on the racing track, on a rope with the help of clips, similar to how we dry clothes with clips.

The race started and Deepak reached the bananas first, and removed the clip, took the banana, but he went on to place the clip in the same place -  as before - in the meantime, others ran and won. He moved only after placing the clip back in its place and happily continued with the race to completion. He lost the race.

But we understood that he emerged as the overall champion for the day when his Principal told in her thank you speech that "... its not only about winning... I don't know how many of you noticed... in the Monkey-banana race, there was one little boy, who tried to place the clip back in its place... was nice to see that... and it is also this responsibility and the overall personality that I wish to in-culminate in the children... ". As a proud father I listened to her words with utmost happiness...

- SPGR.

Hurdles of Writing

When I read the early days of writers, I can understand that they all have done some common things. They wrote a lot in the early days, not minding the content or quality or the intrusions or obstructions or objections. According to one famous writer, he wrote on anything that he fancied, not minding about others opinion on them. Another writer says that he is very adamant that he wont allow others to dictate what he should or what he should not write. He just writes.

While reading the contents or stories of some of the yesteryear's writers, we feel that they are so advanced and liberal in their thoughts and that their family members are so privileged and lucky to have them in their family. Seldom it gets revealed that in reality it is not so. I remember a recent interview by writer Sujatha's wife about how atrocious he used to be in home and how he used to influence and control her in all the possible ways.

For many a years I was writing without any intrusions or objections. But its not so anymore. Mainly because other than me no one read my articles or posts for so many years. But no so anymore. I am still not sure if many are reading my posts, but from the hit-counter I can safely assume that many are browsing(at-least) though my posts.

I may succumb to it in future, but at the moment, nothing can stop me from the hobby that I have voluntarily chosen. I will go on in-spite of the intrusions or objections, though I may try to accommodate them as far as I can. Also another thing that became clear now is that my writing as a hobby has moved on to the next stage :-).

- SPGR.