Shortstories Vish

Bounce back. My old house needed painting and civil work. I was enquiring my neighbor and they suggested the name of a known person who was working as a caretaker in the adjacent compound. His wife was working as a house help in our house for quite a long time. Somehow we got his son's contact. After the inquiry, his son told me that my father is doing painting jobs now. Earlier he was addicted to alcohol. Nowadays he is doing civil and painting works. I am also supporting my family by doing tinkering work. The next day, the caretaker  met us and said  I can undertake this civil and painting work.  Also, he added, in between, I lost my track and never saved money for my children. Now I wanted to work, earn, and save money. He showed us the photos of his painting work. The way he presented himself, instead of pleading and gaining sympathy, made us engage him for this work. We had a second thought about his bad habits and once he revealed his inner urge to contribute...

Airport new food trends. Today I saw a news item about the menu in our domestic airports served during this COVID. My memory gone  back to my village days. Two south Indian items. Rasam and Curd rice. Both are must in any south Indian food. Both take less time to prepare but provides instant energy. The preparation differs state to state, district to district, town to town, home to home. My mother used to tell me the rasam prepared by her mother is different from what the in-laws family follows. A lot of variants, mixers, combinations are available. It is served hot always and goes with papad, dry vegetable smoothly and can be consumed like soup. Today we use more ingredients, garlic, pepper, ginger, cumin seeds to increase our immunity. Then comes curd rice. In our childhood, we used to eat the rice soaked in water a day before and morning it will added with curd,  along pickle called vadumangai (small mango ).In my school life, I was throughout a  frontbenc...

Back Log Grooming Human always wants to excel in their own preferred, interested areas once exposed. Not all their aspirations are fulfilled but remain in their subconscious mind. Wish to share about three such areas thought of. During the age of 12, want to pursue music but could not afford to buy an instrument that I was practicing. During my 10h std, I wanted to join NCC and was rejected as I was very short , lean. During my college life, wanted to express things by writing or through public speaking. Due to commitments of Job, social responsibilities was not able to pursue the above  in full potential. The past three months, a blessing in disguise, utilized this golden opportunity to meet my earlier life goals and aspirations. The subconscious mind allowed me to groom myself, that is Music (Vocal Singing), physical fitness (yoga postures and breathing ) and story writing (LI Short stories ) Everyone had dreams but could not pursue Everyone attempted their best. Agre...

Adi Thallupadi - Deep Discounts -70% This Tamil month called Aadi, starting from 16th July to 17 th August very famous for two reasons for Tamilians. Aadi Perukku commonly known as the Aadi monsoon festival. The festival pays tribute to water's life-sustaining properties. For the blessing of mankind with peace, prosperity, and happiness, nature worship in the form of Amman (Mother Goddess )deities are organized to shower Nature’s bountiful grace on human beings. The second one Adi thallupadi. Deep discounts are offered by retailers of Tamilnadu, an annual end of season sale kind of. This was started one of the textile retail showrooms in midtown and the same spread like fire across  Jewellery, consumer durables, etc. Normally one can witness heavy rush during this whole month but due to this pandemic, the business was totally affected and the retail giants came up with innovative methods. Using online video, customers can choose the sarees,churidhars, and other dress items...

Traditional school plus Homeschool The Current online model of teaching  forced everyone to revisit the homeschooling. Also this is an ideal time  to debate ,discuss and arrive at a consensus for betterment of the young,vibrant student community . Screen time of the students became prominent nowadays more than teaching the course  content itself . Pl go through the news item appeared in newspaper daily . That means the effective way of teaching in a classroom kind of experience ,a long way to go during this pandemic. Now if the coaching time by teachers reduces, then parents will have to shell more time and energy . Almost take the role equal to the classroom teachers . This almost fall in line with the home schooling concept of education . Sharing two articles on the same . One shares the  experience and other one  pros and cons . After going through the both news items,my take Traditional school Issue . Justification to syllabus by teachers may not...

Varun.Sweet little kid. Let us invoke the learner in us. Let us learn from everywhere. A small story. In my apartment floor, there are 6 flats., that consists of families speaking different languages. Telugu Kannada Bengali Badaga (one of the languages of Nilagiri hills belt) Tamil -2 families. A cute 2+ age, a little boy named  Varun of one of the Telugu speaking family visits all of us daily. He identifies the small things and repeats what we say. Suppose we ask him, show us the Buddha statue in Tamil and he understands and take us there. He may be playing and running inside  around for 15 minutes  or so, interacts with us in Tamil sometimes .we are also recollecting our Hyderabad days and try our little Telugu also. Similarly, he moves to all the other flats almost equally and in particular,  he spends most of the time with little elder children  of a Kannada speaking family . Varun's father told us that he sometimes uses some typical words pi...

Meditation series -Part 4 (The fourth and final post of this series.) Silence transforms one to the infinite state of spirituality. True meditation is also called abide in silence. The border tea shop is the boundary in which we have access to one's own country. Also called The line of control The demarcation The boundary limits Apply to both the parties. Everyone respects their border. You may wonder, is this relevant to meditation. Yes. Centuries ago we the human planted seeds and watered it till now. Yes.Religion. Every religion is like the border. Every religion is like the sea has got a coast. Every religion is based upon doctrine beliefs  and principles Every religion has got thousand of documents for interpretation of truth. Every religion produced great seers Every religion leads us to the path of righteousness. Like all rivers will merge into the Ocean All religions will merge in Spirituality. Whether you are an atheist or theist one can dissolve in ...

Marriages on Mobile Vans Innovative ideas by TN event managers. As big and small marriage halls are closed during these days, an event manager in TN has thought of an innovative concept. In Tamilnadu, most of the marriage happens in big marriage halls. One day rent is itself runs into lakhs. Parents spend a lot on food, decoration, etc for the fun-filled event. Yesterday, I read an article about a  Marriage conducted on a temporary decorated platform. And the decorator says, Why can't we have to take the decorated hall itself to the designated places instead of celebrating in a house like mobIle ATM or Mobile Banks etc? They have erected  full stage set up and carried to the marriage venue itself so that  the restricted 50 plus persons can have a great experience and feel of a marriage hall. The  writer in me...imagined... This marriage hall set instead of keeping at  a fixed place and can be kept in the transport van itself . Advantages. This decorat...

Delhi to Chennai train memories. A distance of 210O km Two trains. Tamilnadu express - 30 hrs G.T. 36 hrs Yes, I might have traveled more than 20 times between 1982 to 1990. The ticket booking process itself takes hours Morning at 8, if you are in the queue, then it may take 3 to 4  hrs minimum to clear 10 people ahead of you sometimes. As it was on a manual booking process two separate tickets were issued. One for the seat.One for the birth. A mini-trial journey kind of, completed at the booking counter itself. Tamilnadu Express was the fastest train at that time ..1983 .. later ran at a reduced speed .only limited stops. outside food was not allowed. But G.T got a lot of stops and we cross four states and enjoy the local food, in addition to hawkers who sell bhelpuri, groundnuts, seasonal fruits, etc. To mention a few. 1.UP -  Agra .Sweet  - Peta 2.MP -Bhopal - Matka chai.. Jilebi etc . 2 Maharashtra - Nagpur -Oranges&grapes 4.AP - Warangal, and Vi...

Gift from the vibrant Metro Mumbai. After serving 23 years in different places Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad got transferred  to Mumbai Lifeline of  Mumbai as everyone knows yes it is ..suburban electric trains. Used to travel from Churchgate station to Dadar in the mornings. Once you step out, you absorb mass crowd's  rythm  and move briskly . At the age of 43, it was a little tough initially but after three months I got into the groove. After six months, my office gave me a laptop and I am forced to carry home. During train travel, I felt ,get in and get out itself a big task for me, so thinking of Laptop, I switched over to the bus travel, the only issue was traffic jams and waiting time at the bus stop. One day I shared with my friend and he was laughing. Me. Hi I need to commute with   laptop safely and that's my concern Friend.Hi .i understand. For the six months, you traveled and got  habituated .now only addition is the laptop .ok ...

Learning life lessons from a Common man. Born and brought up in Tamilnadu and Tamil being my mother tongue, my brother insisted me to learn  Hindi as it was a must to survive once I go out of Tamilnadu. Started learning part-time from 8th std and after 3 years of hard work, passed up to the 5th level offered by Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha. Know to write and read but speaking fluently was the missing element. I joined my first training assignment for a job in Pune and picked up the spoken format very well. Later got posted in Delhi. Complete dejavu experience. Started loving the language the most spoken in India. During that time, my brother got transferred to Chandigarh. Jan 1983, peak winter, I traveled by bus to Chandigarh. Landed in the bus stand and took a cycle rickshaw. Just asked the rickshaw man, Kaise hain app? (How r u ?) Kya halchal hai? ( How is life going on ?) He started telling his story and was talking over 20 mts and finally came to my brother's hous...

E-Learning Series -part 4 Request you to go through the video. Augmented Reality is used to help teachers reach out to students properly with visuals. Yes a tech enabler for improving  teaching methods If you closely watch, the teacher is using technology and wants to cover the syllabus. Teacher-Sudents-books-syllabus followed by technology. The underlying principle is technology comes as an aid but not to replace books and its contents. It shows the way the teacher further helps students to gain knowledge. Computers and Gadgets can be an enabler to address the nonclassroom sessions. Never assume to replace or come near the traditional way of teaching because the human brain can only understand the other human brain that too growing ones. That is the level of grasping power. Differs from person to person. Teachers Students Books Curriculum Teaching methods Plus computer-aided lessons Technology can contribute to nonclassrooms either online or offline meeting the abo...

Stay connected to your roots Practice basics always Daily. Even 15 minutes would suffice but without fail. Please go through the video from One of the greatest singer Aruna Sairam. She is an Indian classical vocalist. She is a recipient of the Padma Shri award from the Government of India. During my 100 plus days of practicing Carnatic music, I never missed my 30 mts of basics. Of course Yes after seeing this video, I made it a point to continue with more interest, dedication, and passion. The important point is here to convey all, even though one may belong to any arts, science, tech or any subject one has to continuously practice the basic things and that what the topic headlines. Stay connected to roots. To say a few. The tree grows - Strong roots The river flow -Drawn from its source The food we eat - Proper cooking Roots are the fundamental building blocks Our growth also depends on this. If you are already following, please share your experiences. Ending with tw...

Safety for children - Using the internet. The enclosed picture got two hidden meanings. The feeding bottle which the child is using must have been sterlised, cleaned by baby's mother .you all agree with me. What do I mean? Similarly, you need to clean your computer, mobile device caches, clear browsing history, etc. Again you all agree. Thanks. Yes going to share some little two cents. Let's begin the main topic. Yes the buzz word, the current decade of digitalization cascading effect. Internet security precisely called cybersecurity. This post aims to cover this subject from an end user point of view in simple terms. Coming to the second point of the pic. Yes the child, out of innocence,  unaware of external threats shares a lot of information. 1. To prevent this, the flirst child should check first'  available after four-letter HTTP. Then those sites without '' s "  need to be blocked cked or need not be accessed. Most safe .https Unsafest one...

Group Studies -Unforgettable moments. During our final year semester exam, we three friends used to study together by night . Our usual pattern. After our dinner, assemble at the beach by 9.30 pm.It was a small, beautiful beach well lit.You guessed it right .It belongs to a lovely place Pondicherry. The luxury of fresh air, the illuminated place was not available in our homes .We selected that sweet spot. Luckily no much distraction like mobile phones, TV shows except that time  movies to some extent. Two solid hours and around 11.30 pm, the usual policemen patrolling by night will tell us, dear thanbingala  (Brothers) leave this place by 12. That's the maximum time we can spend there. Then we pedal to the nearby tea shop where hot masala milk will be sold till midnight. We will have that hot cup and discuss the next day's day time preperations also and disperse. Sometime our friend who owns a cinema hall will invite us for the night show. Watch good ,comedy movies...

Hackers -Beware A famous hindi sing opening words . Yeh joh Public hai sab janthi hain . Means you are literally exposed as the  common man knows everything . A related incident came to my mind. After completing  week long  family trip to Malaysia and Singapore ,we were about to board a return flight at Malaysia airport . I logged into a common computer was checking my personal mail .My family reminded me that the  boarding started and let us move . I forgot to log out and closed only the browser screen and left . After landing in India, Next day i got a call from my ex collegue that your mail account has been hacked and immediately change the password . The content everyone knows.The fraudster has sent a mail as below to all the contacts . Dear friends,i am stranded in abroad . my passport and wallet stolen,please help me .Soon will share my bank account . To my shock,one of my college friend has  responded and asked for the bank account Then i ale...

Curiosity. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." -- Albert Einstein 1993. While working in telecom operations we used to manually process voice call data via spreadsheets . A management trainee joined our team and he was well versed with software Visual basic . We swung into action to get our manual job automated . SW was developed  in a desired format as suggested by the teams . My job was to privide daily raw data and cross check the final output . A sort of validation check. As software development was new to me,i raised lot of questions out of curiosity and understood the building blocks . After few years,I was asked to support a Six Sigma project and this time the same statistics need to be processed in a different way .I recollected my earlier stint with SW , got an internal developer to complete this task . This time ,I gave the complete picture and requirements to the internal developer and we together successfully comp...

Identify and Train deserving Candidates. I recall one real incident during my professional life. During my telecom PSU role, we used to train Graduate apprentice trainees deputed by GOI for a one-year duration. We around 6 engineers belonging  to mid 30's ,were working in a mainframe computer supplied by the one of major telecom OEM  that handles international voice traffic. We had a one such trainee who  used to ask  lot of questions, interact and learn. After six months, the trainee asked us can I join the 24/7 operation team. We told him you can come early and leave late after taking permission from authorities . He used to come at seven AM and leave at 9 PM.The shift engineers trained him thoroughly with the operation. Seeing his potential, we six engineers wanted  to do something that can fetch him a good career. Every week we took a turn and further trained him in all the  aspects of the mainframe  computers Coincidentally during his tra...

Guest Lecture.Few takeaways. Real-life experience. I had an opportunity to share my thoughts with a B school in Chennai. Topic.Business process Re-Engineering. Started with a day to day process. Followed by everyone For vehicle traffic, in Our country India, Keep Left For pedestrians to cross the road follow Zebra crossing. While walking, always walk in the opposite direction, face traffic Professor re-checking the total marks of your answer sheet. Immediately everyone clapped. I stopped my slide show for 10 mts and then started calling four of the students and asked them to share about their known processes followed. Everyone contributed and we gave a good round of applause to all the students. Then I slowly resumed my presentation business process and completed it with a Q and A session involving the students. During the lunch, I asked HOD about the first cut review and feedback of my session. He told me student interaction was the highlight and involving them at the r...

A king in disguise wanted to know the people's mind share at work spot. First meets a fisherman. He says very early we set out and in the deep sea, we row our boat with a folk song that keeps them going. Then a sculptor. My hands are always paining, still continue to chisel till I get a beautifully carved stone. Absorbed in the rhythmic chisel sound always. Then ask a cook. After a few hours of preparation, we start cooking. The aroma gives us relaxing moments. King  goes to a teacher conveys all the above .can you make a story out of it and conclude it properly. The teacher is famous for sharing stories daily. Ok I got it teacher says Come with me, let us listen from their wards. He calls the three students. T.Do you ask your father about their work anytime, especially at night? S.No sir. Our mother has told us, never  remind them of their work area. They should get good sleep and be fresh the next day. So we share your daily story with them. T: Today no story.the...