Overflow

When it comes to helping others, there is a pinch of sympathy in everyone's heart that triggers us to service the needy. We have seen in the past were people all over the world have come forward to aid countries that are affected by any natural calamity such as earthquake, flood , tsunami or drought. Many NGO'S and celebrities extend their hand to support people during disasters. People like me would offer valuable monetary donations or offer bags of rice/dhal/old clothes etc.

Our house was occupied with loads of old clothes and we gals decided to give our attires to our distant relatives, who were in a dire need for such things. We spotted the closest donation box and rolled our cart to dump all the clothes bag. We tried opening the lid many times and it kept shutting. We didn't know the reason why we couldn't open the lid of the donation box. I just peeped in to find what was wrong and found that the box was overloaded with bags of clothes and shoes. We were glad to know that there are many like us who were ready to service others. At the same time we were also bit disappointed, as we couldn't place our package in the box. We had no choice but to place the bag near the donation box. We took a snap of our bag and finally left the place.


We should be "Thankful to God" for what we have in life and for what we can do for others.

Miss U

She calls me BOSS, in a second she pulls me down and as time passes she starts to fight with me. I had to say my last bye to my little beautiful friend. We had our last hug and kiss this evening. Sometimes she talks like a granny and sometimes like an innocent kiddo. When I am with her I feel my age is reduced to four years. Her giggles make me forget about everything in this world. She is very interested to pair with me for the ballroom dance. We dance in front of everybody like a newly wed couple in the marriage party. This cute friend of mine is a symbol of guts and fashion. Will be missing her from tomorrow.

On Track

I am quite satisfied that someone has heard my voice about being transparent in everything. All the things that are happening on each day makes me feel that I am on the right track, now I am very confident about my future and my varied honest thinking. Friends usually comment that I think a lot and sometimes silly about small things, but my thinking match with many great personalities in the world is what I figured out over course of time. And now I have also learnt to step over and to ignore crappy people on my carrier path. Modest yet steady changes are starting in my life from this day.

Vishnu

Finally we completed watching "Paa" movie today. We have been watching this picture for the past three days and were never able to see the ending part as something else always took a high priority. This movie makes you think about few basic things such as why algebra, why politicians wear white dress, why parents kill creativity in children and why round and round etc. Though unrealistic the whole movie definitely conveys a strong feeling that any kid has for his/her father. One interesting character in this movie is Vishnu. Auro's (played by Amitabh Bachchan) friend, Vishnu is a typical school boy who has loads of complaints about teachers and parents for pushing him hard to study. His jovial conversations with Auro are very commendable. Vishnu's talk with Auro over phone is absolutely funny. Vishnu describes about his dad and his feelings of how he is totally unrelated with his father's nature. Vishnu’s grudge makes me recall few of my childhood memories. More than the visionary politician Amol, brilliant Auro, lovable doctor mother Vidhya and chill granny Bum, it is Vishnu who makes the whole movie bright and enjoyable.

Noticeable

We always want to be observed when we do good and right things, but quite often it goes unnoticed. There are many occasions when we would have done something wrong for the first time but it comes to limelight immediately. I did something very noticeable to my friends and clients today.

Bachelor Life

We visited three of our friend’s house. Of which two were married couples and other two were bachelors. First we visited the bachelors house, the atmosphere was filled with laughter and fun. I didn't know how we managed to spend 30-40 minutes in their house. We were teasing and pulling everyone’s leg in the group. Later we visited two of our married friends in two different buildings, "My GOD" complete silence and none of us knew what to talk and spending 5-10 minutes was a tough task. We talked formally and absolutely lacked to display those bachelor mischiefs to our married friends. Bachelor life is undoubtedly one of the coolest phase that anyone can enjoy in their life.

Consistency

Yet another singles match in the late evening. My opponent looked very cool. I believe ours was the first match to start. In the first set I kept hitting on the doubles line and absolutely had no control at the start of the match. I have lost the habit of playing singles after mixed doubles USTA league. I am now more used to placing the balls in the tramlines. I gave many free points and finally got bit pressurized at the end of the match. My opponent had a consistent angled strokes and a strong volley. Every shot of hers were placed brilliantly. I really had a tough time covering the corners. I gave many straight rallies but her rallies were much tweaked. I found her to be a consistent cross court player. She had lots of hope and smile till the end of the match. My match was very thrilling and I loved playing against an opponent who had been associated with USTA for 10 years.

6th Sense

Might sound outdated for many but sixth sense technology is still a hot topic for me. I am planning to squander around this subject for a while. Check out Pranav's talk to get a basic idea about sixth sense technology from the following link:

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html

This guy also has very interesting thoughts on different fields; see the “I think” section from the following web page:

http://www.pranavmistry.com/

All Ez Well

I have been craving to watch the movie 3-Idiots. Being a fan of Amir Khan I can't definitely afford to miss watching his last movie in 2009. I was very mesmerized by his previous movies Laagan, Fanna, Rang De Basanti and Taare Zameen Par and had the same hope and expectations for 3-Idiots. The message of 3-Idiots movie is pretty simple, strive for excellence and not for success, don't do something under someone's pressure but do what you really love to do. Most of the Indian parents have the mentality to supercharge their kids to be either doctors or engineers but never even bother to ask if the kid has any interest in accomplishing their parent’s unfulfilled dreams. 3-Idiots is a flick of blind race to enter reputed colleges without a strong ground in fundamentals. Lot of scenes in 3-Idiots such as baby delivery scenes, college professor's rude behavior to the students are hard to believe and some are over exaggerated. Though the screenplay is not too good in many spots the message from the movie "All Ez Well" is just astounding.

Fitness

Doesn't matter if the temperature soars to 100 F or drops to 20 F, you can always find someone or the other jogging in the evening or morning. People here are very crazy about being fit. Even in 60's, people maintain their agility, shape and youth. Today was my last match in Fall/Winter USTA mixed doubles league but the lesson to keep oneself fit even when one grows old is something I learnt in this four month league. Most of the time I had underestimated the strength of my opponents who were old but I found them to have a better stamina than what I did. One can easily access gyms, swimming pools, tennis court, basket ball court etc in U.S. The thought to be fit and independent as one gets aged is something very adorable in U.S.

Real in Reel

For the last three days I have been pitching in to watch some new Tamil movie along with my roomies. I find lots of things haven’t changed at all in Tamil movies. Same old love stories fight scenes and vulgar comedies but pictured with different cast. Heroines are always shown wearing miniskirts and kind of topless shirts. But in real life you can never find a normal Chennai girl wearing such dresses to college or office. Most of the time one can not correlate Tamil movies with real life scenarios. What is shown in the big screen has absolutely no link with what happens in the tangible world. Though I have not watched many English movies but still felt the costumes worn by Hollywood actor and actress are the exact portrayal of what is worn by common people in U.S. One can see any normal American gal or woman in shorts and deep cut tops in U.S. Hollywood movies might have some exaggeration in terms of technology and storyline but as far as clothes are concern it is the exact replica of what people generally wear in U.S. Few scenes from one of the Tamil movies made me think that I was watching a English movie rather than a Tamil movie. Though movies are for fun and entertainment, it is high time Tamil directors and producers start taking into account the negative impact that they have created on the society and our rich culture rather than focusing on the profitability of their films.

Midnight oil

I loved today's evening meeting. I thought my manager fitted perfectly for his role today. He had a control over time, his speech had timely slots for wits and he had amazing messages to the entire group. His voice was loud and he also sounded very confident. From the beginning of his presentation I noticed he had tremendous trust in the team. I have never seen such an amount of curiosity in him to know his fellow mates. His presentation was very well organized. He had an open acceptance to one of the valid suggestion given by one of our friends. He was very clear about what he expected out of each one of us. He also stated how each one of us should take accountability in our jobs. There was a smooth transition between the manager's talk. After being a member of toastmasters for about a year, I now have the habit of counting the fillers when a speech is presented. I did count the number of "aa" and um's in the presentation.

One interesting slide from his presentation was about the correlation among ambition, capability and discipline. His message gives me a green signal to drive towards my ambition by honing my capabilities with the right exertion of self discipline. He mentioned about burning the midnight oil to keep our goals vivid.

Undoubtedly his messages were a great take away for most of us.

Getting Warm

I saw a bright weather while stepping out of the office in the evening. I have a feeling winter is going to end soon. For a second I only felt like pulling out my tennis racquet and run towards the outdoor tennis court. Though I felt little warm today, I noticed that the snow hasn't melted completely and the temperature wasn't too favorable for me to play tennis in the open court. Hope spring starts soon for me to enjoy some open court tennis matches.

Bit off

I am not sure why I feel so gloomy today. My mood is bit off.

Valentine's Day

We were out for purchasing weekly grocers today. I have never hanged out much on Valentine's day so haven't got a taste of what exactly happens in the shops on this particular day. We saw plenty of valentine balloons sticking to the ceiling. Flower pots and soft toys were on sale. Greeting card section was bit packed with people. We heard a conversation between a 3-4 year boy and the sales women. The sales women wished the boy a "Happy Valentines Day" but the boy was very hesitant to wish her back, the lady grinned and said this day is just meant to convey how much we love the other person and that person needn't be just your girl friend. Kids here are very advanced in such matters. I really didn't know what he understood; he smirked and later waved a good bye to the lady.

I am strongly against Valentine's Day but the Sales woman message makes me to rethink about the importance of Valentine's Day.

MoA

Mall of America is the only spot that we gals like to visit quite often for window shopping. We love to visit MoA during Halloween and Christmas. Proud to say that I am living in the same state that has United State's second largest mall. It was little unplanned but all of sudden we decided to visit MoA after lunch. We missed our route in few spots but finally made it to MoA. While returning back home we got caught in the traffic. It is valentine's eve plus a weekend no good reason for such a heavy traffic. I believe everyone is visiting the mall to get the best present for their loved ones.

Acceptance to Change

It is usually recommended that we live life with little attachment as when we lose what we like the most it wouldn't affect us much. It is also advisable to live life without any expectations. It is very important to be flexible and adaptable to any given situation that life might churn us at one point of time. I learnt about flexibility when I was in 11th standard. I was very adamant to occupy the first bench right most corner seat during our tuition classes. I used to travel early just to block that seat. There was never a single day I missed to occupy that seat. When people pitched in late generally they used to push the first person on the rightmost corner to the left most corners. But I used to ask the later comers to get in and still managed to stick to the right most corner seat. Under any circumstances I had never left my seat to anyone. My math’s teacher kept noticing my action each day. One day she called me alone and said “Ashwini” you need to be flexible and need to get adjusted with the circumstances. When you ask people to get in, it disturbs the whole class and we land up wasting couple of minutes in settling down, change your mindset and believe that you can concentrate from any corner of the room. My math’s teacher lesson is still fresh in my mind, which made me to whole heartedly accept a new change in my life today.

Ice Hockey

In front of our apartment we have an ice skating rink, I have not tried ice skating in the last two winters so wanted to check if there was any possibility to skate in the nearby rink. I have been trying to visit the rink for the past four days and finally made it up today with my roommates. I expected to see people doing ice skating but I witnessed kids playing ice hockey. I saw the teams clash vigorously to snatch the puck, at last one of the team managed to hit a goal. It was very exciting to watch kids fall and skate in the hard ice.

Life Knot

10th of some month some year back my parents got their knots tied. Don't know why I am missing my parents a lot for the past one week. Thought of dedicating today’s blog to them. To tell the truth from my parents wedding, I view marriage as a tie up between two people who have controversial opinion or mismatch in personal interest. Following is a gamut of differences between my parents:

One was a pure vegetarian and one is a lover of non-vegetarian food
One loves to cook and other hates being in kitchen
One is extremely studious and other is extraordinarily creative
One is health conscious and other admires consuming oily and spicy food
One has no rules to follow and other is completely driven by principles
One is punctual and other has no value for time
One worries a lot about everything in life and other is ultra cool
One is calculative and other is spendthrift

Besides the controversies my parents did have some commonalities such as:

both of them love to explore and learn new things
both are primarily attached to their parents and siblings
both are strong in their decisions
both of them are imbibed with "do not give up" attitude
both of them are very hyperactive in doing things which they love the most

As a kid I was bit confused whose path should I follow as I always had two choices in front of me. I was not clear whom should I satisfy my mother or my father. I always took advantage of one over the other based on the scenario say for example if I scored less in one subject I would take the signature from the most coolest member in my family. If I needed money for my college trip I would demand fund from the most generous parent. This way I kept my relationship strong between my parents.

I love both my parents equally for setting as an example of living together in spite of several conflicts. It is commonly said "A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband, while a man never worries about the future until he gets a wife". Not sure what my dad is worrying about and not sure what my mother stopped to bother, after their marriage. I am just hoping that both of them are only thinking of me now.

Hippy College

Wish I had graduated from New College in Florida. One of my clients was mentioning about the idiosyncratic educational system in New College. This college does not pass a student based on a credit or grade, but promotes student to the next level based on the in-depth knowledge that a student has attained in their area of interest during the course of study. New college has a very innovative method for education, it aims at making our basic and stake strong rather than aiming at high scores.

Reactions

First day in office after a hair cut. One of my clients stopped by, on seeing me he felt like laughing he controlled himself and he left after politely inquiring few project related queries from me. I too wanted to laugh along with him for having such a funniest cut. My friends didn't comment anything on my horrible hair cut instead they gave a sarcastic smile. My colleagues didn't react much to my hair cut, they only questioned what mess I have done with my hair, I had to explain my story to him and had to console myself. Apart from normal routine work I had to juggle with many support request today.

Undesirable Cut

I did a hair cut today. I wanted to try something new with my hair but never thought it would turn out to be so awful. I feel as if I am hairless now. I don't like this times hair cut. Anyway I have to go about with this one for the next 2-3 months.

No poles

Till yesterday night I was in a dilemma to choose between tennis and skiing. I wanted to step in both but I was little concern about my health, finally landed up with Skiing. I have heard a lot about aftermath of skiing but believe me if you know the techniques to ski, it is one of the most pleasurable winter sport. From my last year's skiing experience I had decided not to try steep hills until I got a hold of stopping and controlling the speed using the ski. I was lucky for attending the free session taken by Mr.Jason in the morning. He taught us about side and duck walks. He also tutored us how to ski without using poles, take turns and how to stop. One thing I definitely have to mention here is the involvement he had in his job. Any free sessions taken by a tutor in India will always end up saying if you want to learn more enroll with me and here goes my business card etc. In India free sessions are quite often considered one of the marketing strategies to attract large customers. Free sessions in India are considered to give a bite of the huge sum course, so that people after attending the session might get interested to join the course. But things are different in U.S, one can see peak amount of dedication combined with no monetary interest in such free lessons.

After the free lessons we were all set to ski on our own. I only focused on turns, as quite often I see people blocking the down slope and I land up falling or dashing them as I am not familiar with swift turns which could avoid such crashes. I had issues putting pressure on one leg and leaving the other one casually. Anyway later I stopped trying turns and only focused on skiing straight. There were two emergency cases in our skiing area. It frightened me a bit while trying for the second skiing level as I had a terrible experience of scratching my right eye at the same level. I tried only 3-4 times in the second level but skied several times in the first level. I am elated to say that I skied the whole day without using the poles.

First Win

When I joined USTA last year my only intension was to enjoy tennis and not to bother much about winning or losing. I wanted a break from just to win mentality. I desired to try shots placement and have lots of fun while playing this sport. Initial few matches I lost every single match in mixed doubles just because I tried all possible shots which I have never tried before. Later I realized that I was not exemplifying as a good captain for the team. I tried my best to win at least for satisfying my doubles partner. My health in several matches didn't favor me much to win over the easy and straight forward opponents. As I have been suffering from constant cold and dry cough, I always felt weak and listless. In many matches I lost the confidence in myself for playing tennis so awfully, so was my team. As a captain I did face many challenges such as pairing up people and lining them for the USTA mixed doubles league. I had to ensure the partners were able to co-ordinate among themselves. I tried every strategy to ensure my team won but every match was an eye opener for us. Whenever my team lost a match I had to patiently listen to everyone for their comments saying "Ashwini" why didn't you team me with so and so and why not aim at winning at least 2 out of 3 matches, I have to stay tight lipped and reply back saying we will see next time.

I have been a captain before for other sports, but being a tennis captain is totally a different experience. I learned few good things from other team captain. I liked to play against few teams whereas few others annoyed me a little. There were few serious players in my team whose face expressions changed whenever they lost a match. I am extremely self motivated and love inspiring others. But I had no clue how to pump back the confidence level of my team members and gear them saying that still we have chances of moving from the last ranking to a better one. I had to console myself and my team saying that we are playing USTA for the first time and we are actually doing a great job. I had to filter out few suggestions and orders from the team members and had to find my own way to handle the members in equal manner.

Out of eight matches in fall/winter mixed doubles USTA league we lost 75% of the matches. Yesterday evening we had a resource crunch and had a hard time finding a replacement. I was not worrying much as at the worst case I thought of giving a bye to our opponent. Luckily one of my friends accepted to play and saved me from a complex scenario bit difficult to explain in words. My team today were very intense to win the match, but I never even dreamt that we would land up winning the three matches today. I can’t express how happy I feel now for seeing the improvement of my team. First win always has its significance and so does my team victory.

Different

I really loved the following speech that lasts for 2 mins 42 seconds.

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_weird_or_just_different.html

Lazy and Tired

I felt fagged today. I really wanted to skip my blog and go straight to bed.
I logged in my Gmail account and the following mail from Spark people put me back on track:

We commonly procrastinate or put off an activity altogether by saying "It will get done eventually" or "Someone else will do it." Wrong! Being lazy and not taking responsibility are wastes of time. Often the power for change is within us, but without our efforts things would fail or go awry. You cannot rely on help from others, only what your own two hands accomplish on their own. Hard work is a habit that needs constant attention. But be mindful that you are giving your full effort to a project. Apply yourself, value your time, and don't squander it hoping for help.

This day

I came to know that 2nd February is celebrated as World Wetland day (WWD). WWD spreads the awareness of wetlands and the importance of living organisms in wetlands.


This day is also celebrated for Groundhog in U.S and Canada. Groundhog Day is marked to forecast the onset of spring. End of gelid climate is known when Groundhog leaves the burrow for not seeing its own shadow.



In future we will have every day dedicated for something. Already we have father's day, mother's day, environmental day etc. just to keep alive every abolishing aspect in nature.

4 in 2

Today it started to snow after a week's time. Everything appeared white again with a glitter coat. In the evening we four gals decided to head to the near by shopping complex to buy trivial things. We got split in pairs and continued the whole purchasing activity with the same partner. We absolutely had no time constraints and did a leisure shopping on the first day of the week. We moved aisle to aisle and checked every item on the rack. We dumped everything we liked in the cart. Later we four gathered at a common spot to filter out things that were not worthy after hearing the views from others. Each of us had a bag to carry back home. I had a new shopping experience with an idyllic group.