This Happens only in India :-P

• The share auto wallahs (SAW) in Chennai are a fierce and possessive lot. The mid point between home to work is a very popular spot to catch shareautos and you see a lot of the SAWs standing beside their vehicles, inviting people to get in. If a fellow SAW comes in late and does not stand in the correct spot in the line, he is liable to get slapped or his vehicle kicked and passengers who try to get into the late SAW's vehicle will be stopped and asked to go to a different vehicle.

          Having given you an idea of how it is, today morning my shareauto stopped at the mid way point and another SAW started screaming at my SAW and came running to .. I don't know.. maybe scream some more or slap him. My SAW calmly waited until the other SAW came near him and told him - " Don't threaten me and don't even think of slapping me, My last case is still pending and I have just come back from the police station, I would hate to go back again". Needless to say the other guy could not back track fast enough.
We were all staring at the man.. not knowing how to react and if we wanted to travel in the vehicle at all. After reaching office, when the SAW asked for a little more than is usual, you may be sure that not one of us some much as peeped a protest :-)

•  Saw this advertisement behind some 10 buses at least today. I first saw Paul Dinakaran's (the popular christian evangelist) foto on the ad poster and the words "exam" and thought maybe he is calling for the masses to write some exam on christianity. It was only on looking again, I saw he was calling the people to come for an exam prayer meet. What with the final exams just around the corner.  Wonder if there are any special pooja's and prayers at the temples and mosques too?

          As my colleague was saying -  "My son has become very playful and my wife is very anxious about his marks. The last exams he came third in his class and its most distressing". His 4 yr old son is in LKG (People need to get a life.. seriously!)

• Was reading this old RS' blog and was reminded of an incident at my last work place. My Manager, a male neanderthal,  called up a newly married female reportee and told her that if she did not wear her mangal sutra everyday to work, her annual appraisal rating might suffer. Needless to say I had some choice words to tell  him, which he ignored, of course. The gal quit soon after.  
• This was also the same guy who told me in very strong words, that a wife should NEVER call her husband by name, because the husband is after all a MALE and his maleness should be respected. :-) And that would probably be the time I almost puked on him.

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The Aunties

I've read many posts and articles about the power of the Aunties. You know the Know-it-all busybodies.
But one should not be fooled by the name. This group has both men and women in it. The male aunties, sneaky creatures that they are, act in the background in lighting a fire under the female aunties.

I had forgotten how annoying they are.They have an expert opinion on everything from the music we listen, to our work, to how we lead our lives. grrr!
By some great power of the universe I do not have many aunties in my close relations and friends.

But met one couple today. The female aunty had a host of know-it-all questions, but thankfully I didn't have to answer since she already had the answers to all her questions and all I had to smile and bear.
The male aunty had a host of equally inquisitive and extremely private questions but he wanted my answers and kept staring at me until I started feeling just like I was under a microscope.My bland stare was not very effective.

Then the nosy parkers started asking questions about my family. There is a line that I definitely do not allow any one to cross.
Well! I am proud to say I was rather impressive in my imitation of the aunties in asking about their family skeletons, in turn.

Hehehe! They could not get away from me fast enough.

Would it not be great to be in a place where everyone minds their own business?

Fatal 2011

While I was saddened to hear the death of Shammi Kapoor, I was not so for Dev Anand. Not because I don't like him or anything, but because I have always thought of the man as omnipotent and it has not yet sunk in that he is actually no more.

Both of them had the never say die attitude and an abundance of charm to go with it.

Does it strike any of you that the last quarter of 2011 has been fatal to Indian artists?

Dev Anand (Actor)

Shammi Kapoor (Actor)

Ustad Sultan Khan (Sarangi player)

Har Gobind Khorana (Biochemist Nobel Laureate.. not an artist but still popular)

Bhupen Hazarika (Singer)

Jagjit Singh (Ghazal Singer)

I've named only a few people I am familiar with. But you can find a much more detailed list here

The Lizard prediction

Was sitting and chatting with my dad in the veranda. Apparently sitting right under the tube-light is a perfect target for lizards to fall on you.
Needless to say one darned slimy creepy lizard jumped on my right ear to slither down my neck.. by which time I had brought the house down and pushed it off.
Well! after I finished hopping and shuddering, I went running to scrub my ears n neck while my cuz went running to fetch the almanac.

Do you know that there are predictions given in the almanac on what happens if a lizard falls on you.
Its falling on each part of ur body apparently has a distinct effect. (Oh! and I am to have a long life and good health)

Not only that, it contains a table which predicts what will happen when a lizard chirps,  facing each directions on each day of the week (also based on how many chirps).

Cute, Huh?! 

God's own pyrotechnics

When God decides to have some fun, She sure shows us mere mortals what pyrotechnics is all about.
Its raining here. Boy! is it raining! and that too along with all the accompaniments in their complete splendor.

Lightning tearing the skies open and wow! during the last thunder I could actually feel the ground under my feet vibrate.
You can almost smell and feel the sky getting reading to unleash the next bout.
It gives me the goosebumps witnessing all this fury. Its also very very exhilarating. :-)
Makes one realize how really small and insignificant one is in the grand scheme of things.

Anna Hazare's Triumph.. India's Triumph

Anna Hazare broke his 12 days fast on the 13th day (today) at around 10.30 AM or so after the UPA govt kind of agreed to his draft of the Lok Pal bill with conditions attached (see how many constraints I've to put in a simple sentence when I talk of our government taking any steps)

Anyways Anna's triumph is not that he got the government's consensus but the sheer amount of  unstinting support he got from across the country, nay across the whole world . We are talking about millions and millions of Indians.
Chennai, which is generally not known for coming out in masses to support many things, but we had people fasting right along with Anna right down my road, in a park.

This kind of mass approval was last seen probably before 1947 when we thronged out to fight for our independence against the British. While that was mostly an non-violent crowd too, there were still some leaders who were not against violence to gain the freedom.

But now for 12 whole days the entire country came to fight for their freedom from the UPA .. er.. from corruption in absolute peace. Not even when Anna was arrested was their any unrest.
 Some news channels were saying that there were a great deal of rowdy elements in the the Ram Lila grounds and violence was just waiting to erupt at any minute. But we never saw any evidence of it.
What a sight it was! I could not be more proud to be an Indian. :-)

Even better and better is that for the detractors, (sorry to say, some of whom are my own friends) who were saying nothing will happen and India will never improve and all that Bull Sh*t, this is a pie in the face. I am small enough to feel quite gleeful about it hehehe.

Ratnakaradhautapadam Himalyakirtitinim
Brahmarajarsiratnamdhyam vande Bharatamataram 

Meaning :

I pay my obeisance to mother Bharat, whose feet are being a washed by the ocean, who wears the mighty Himalaya as her crown, and who is exuberantly adorned with the gems of traditions set by Brahmarishis and Rajarishis.
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Bank Customer Help

I want a word with the person who named these people who attend the phones at the bank as customer "help" desk personnel. This is the conversation I had with a lady who called me on behalf of my bank to verify if my contact details were correct.

She: Hello, Mr. Sanjana ?
Me: No, But this is Ms. Sanjana
She: *Pauses for a minute* Yes, Mr. Sanjana, I am so and so from your bank and I am calling to verify if you contact details are correct
Me: Sighhhh! OK
She: Are u getting our mails and letters on time in the right address, Sir
Me: (Totally insulted by now) You have been talking to me for the few minutes now, Do I sound like Sir?
She: *Pauses again* Sorry Ma'am. Are getting our mails
Me: Yes. So tell me since you have my details in front of you, is my gender showing as Male in my profile?
She: No Ma'am
Me: So why do I get all mails from you guys addressed to me as Mister and why did you call me mister?
She: Sorry Ma'am please come to the nearest branch with your Foto ID proof to change your name to Ms
Me: What do u mean come to your branch? Can't you do it? and with ID proof? Can't your personnel look at a person and decide if they are a mister or Ms... especially considering their profile in the bank shows their correct gender already? and I don't want to change my name.. Just my salutation.
She: I totally understand ma'am. Sorry for the inconvenience. I am unable to edit any information in the system. You will have to go to your nearest branch.
Me: *Grumble* OK
She: And ma'am be sure to take an photo ID proof that has all personal information including your gender. *Hangs up*
Me: :-O
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CSA Awareness Month - April

Like the little squirrel who helped Ram build the bridge to Lanka, I think its only right that I put in my little bit towards this very worthy program that http://csaawarenessmonth.wordpress.com  has taken up.

The 2009 movie Achchamundu Achchamundu (There is fear, there is fear) deals with pedophiles. It forcefully brought out the issue into the lime light (at least for me). I was shocked to learn that every 7 minutes a child gets abused in India.

I know of women so abused at their tender ages whose whole lives have been ruined while the men responsible went their merry way and have never been punished. Felt anger at fate and just plain miserable at my helplessness.

My beautician once told me about this case another client of hers, a police woman, handled. This girl was found abused and dead, the morning of her third birthday. After intensive investigation the culprit was found to be the child's own uncle. He later confessed apparently saying that he was just not able to control himself, but was very sorry now.

But what was absolutely mind blowing to me was the reactions from the parents and family,

One family, though angry with the perpetrator, was unwilling to do anything about it, as it would cause social stigma. The another woman was happily married off to the abuser, despite his family knowing all about it  while the abused girl is still too traumatized to even come near any male.

Another family actually screamed at the child for talking nonsense and told her that it was all her imagination and that she should respect her elders, while she looked on helpless, with nowhere to turn, as the abuse continued for years.

It was a close relative or friend in both the cases. Some one familiar with the whole family and trusted.

I've seen and read enough about the physical and psychological trauma, to want to do everything in my means to never see it again in a child or adult. Especially when I think of the innocent, joyful and trusting eyes of my nephew and nieces and all my friends' children.*shudder*

I do not really have many ideas on how to be more aware and safe except some common sensical ones such as keep an eye on your child always, be sure to let the child know he/she can come to you for ANY issues and that you would believe them, teach them the Good Touch/ Bad Touch and be very wary of strangers around your children.

Its a great initiative and if even one more parent became more aware after having read this post, I am satisfied.

Hyderabadi trip

*Phew* Now that I have got the rant out of my system. I can tell you about the very eventful trip I went on, over the weekend.
A piece of sincere advice from a sun burnt, heat boiled person. Do NOT go to Hyderabad in March or later.

The forward trip, had us travelling with a lady going to see her school kid in Hyderabad and 2 men. We started discussing about places of interest in Chennai and moved on to Temples here and from there one of the men caught on and he was cribbing about how its not right for Hinduism to have more than one God when God is only one. Fun was had by all arguing about it.

They were allowing people to climb up the Charminar. Its very charming from up there, but you would probably be aching every where from the steep climb to enjoy it too much. The place is a shopppers paradise. Birla Mandir must have been nice too, but I was busy jumping around on the hot stones, trying to get on and off the temple.

Everyone must go to the Ramoji Film City atleast once. Its expensive, so might I suggest you go as soon as possible, before they increase the entry fee again. Despite the terrible heat (The hyderabadi citizens tell me its not really hot, just warm... *gak*) we still had fun, the shows, sets, bus tours are a must see.

Finally rounded off with Salar jung Museum, I enjoyed the European Paintings and Marble and Bronze statues section. The other stuff was OK. The musical clock which brings in scores of people was a disappointment to me. Well! Its good, but not sure if its worth the publicity it gets.

Oh! How could I forget the Lumbini Park and the trip down the Hussain Sagar Lake in the evening. I would love to hang out there with friends. Its softly lighted, nice cool breeze coming off the lake and a variety of restuarants with seats looking over the lake. Sigh!

Hmmm! Reading back what I have written, it looks like I have said mostly negative things, but not so. It was a really enjoyable trip. Will add fotos later.

Shareauto Tales

PSR has been telling me for sometime that I must write about my shareauto tales. The traffic gives me the heebie jeebies and hence I do not drive. That means public transport. Since taking a bus at the peak hour is not even worth mentioning and regular autos are way too expensive for daily travel, that leaves shareautos.

It gives me a chance to see the human race at its weirdest.

Before I tell you anything more, you really need to understand the concept of shareauto. Its a large auto or small van, where the people (mostly the IT ppl) are stuffed like salmon in a tin can. The drivers try to take in as many people as (in)humanly possible. Sometimes as many as 13-14 people travel in one auto. Idea is to make maximum money out of each trip.

=> To prove me wrong, just yesterday I noticed a poster in this romantic owned shareauto. It said "Valentines Day special - Couples can travel for free today". Sweet huh?! :-)

=>The other day. much to the irritation of the rest of us travellers, a drunk got in and promptly sat on a gal's lap. She squealed and moved away and got out ASAP. So now he was sitting between a lady and another guy. When the lady moved a bit forward to the window (probably coz of the smell next to her), the drunk fell on her. (I got kicked by him in the process and I was happy enough to crush his feet with my heels and aargh! the heels of my favourite pair of slippers broke and the man didn't even flinch. Though he removed his feet, I might as well have been a fly). Anyways after getting pushed off and threatened by the lady to take him to the police station, the man sat contentedly feeling himself up. So there we all were staring at him in disbelief. I can tell you there was a concerted rush to get out of the auto when it came to a stop.

=> Two young things, a gal and a guy were sitting in the back seat of the shareauto. We generally try to not let a 4th person sit, when 3 could sit more comfortably. But these YT all twined up together kept asking people to sit next to them. I was staring at them puzzled until i realised that it gave them a good reason to be pasted to each other. They were so entwined that the guy had to put his arm all around the girl, just to scratch his other arm.
Well! He has his arm around her shoulder and the rest as they is History. I should probably have averted my eyes .. Yeah right!!!! I sure had the satisfaction of seeing a rom-com movie until they got down one stop before me.

=> The softest hand that ever touched me was that of a 1.5 or so YO child. A lady got in with her school going kid and this child. Just a look at the kid and you could see he was a special child. He was attracted to my bright kurti sleeves and my handbag handle that kept moving with the autos movement.His hands were only as big as a newly born baby and so soft and tender. I let him play to his heart's content. But it hurt to think of the future in store for him and his family.

=> oh! The other day I got into this shareauto and I should have known better. Generally the seat next to the driver is occupied by men and there was a girl sitting there.It sent my antenna quivering but I was too sick to notice. As expected, it turned out to be the driver's girl friend and the auto kept getting stopped now and then, so they both could feed each other pop corn or coo at each other. By the time my stop came I was ready to break my laptop on both their heads.. sigh!!!

More to come...in meanwhile, feel free to add any experiences you might have had travelling.
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The Earth's concerns

It does my little heart good to be validated by a Nobel Laureate. Of course the author of this piece has written it much differently and put in a lot more effort than I have but we are getting to the same point.

The only harm that humans can do is to humans and other living creatures. But the Earth is a Survivor. (Unless of course it is possible to explode half the planet using one of those N-bombs, in which case, it will spiral out of its orbit and merge into the Sun).

When I wrote my old article, a friend commented that its not fair to think of saving the planet for a million years. Human time scale is only for a 1000 years or so. So if we can save the earth and its creatures for that time, some good might come out of it.

Being a great believer in the human will power, I know we are not going to save it for the next 10 years much less a 1000. Therefore is it not good to know that what ever harm we do today, atleast good ol' Earth is still gonna be there when we come back as a newer and hopefully better batch of creatures a million years later (Oh yes! I believe in reincarnation when it suits me :-D )

Below is an excerpt from the article By George Will. Be sure to check out the little video on the second page of the article.

"The cover of The American Scholar quarterly carries an impertinent assertion: “The Earth Doesn’t Care if You Drive a Hybrid.” The essay inside is titled “What the Earth Knows.” What it knows, according to Robert B. Laughlin, co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics, is this: What humans do to, and ostensibly for, the earth does not matter in the long run, and the long run is what matters to the earth. We must, Laughlin says, think about the earth’s past in terms of geologic time.
...
...
Damaging this old earth is, Laughlin says, “easier to imagine than it is to accomplish.” There have been mass volcanic explosions, meteor impacts, “and all manner of other abuses greater than anything people could inflict, and it’s still here. It’s a survivor.” [...]"

Octopus Hands… Keep Away

Note: Any Gentlemen who have not indulged in the below activities are obviously exempt.


Men, I do not understand and hence would like you to explain what pleasure you could possibly glean from pawing, poking, nudging and otherwise pushing yourself on unsuspecting, strange, definitely uninterested girls and women you meet on the roads, theaters, malls and most importantly public transport.

Surely you must know we hate it and you? Just as I surely know you couldn’t care less.
I thought it only right to let you know, if you are under any misapprehension, we DO NOT enjoy what you are doing.

When I was walking down the road and three of your ilk, walked right into me and I could not move away as they were blocking my path, I did not find it funny or enjoy it. I did not understand what made them give hi-fis and laugh hysterically. I was just disgusted.

When I was travelling in a share-auto and another of your ilk sitting right next to me, folded his arms I did not suspect him of any wrong doing. Until he used his folded hands to paw and poke at me.

How is it that gravity works against you when there is a gal sitting next to you? When the Share auto turned and everyone was tilting to one side, how is it that you tilt in the opposite side, where there was a girl sitting? Surely you could see the girl was trying her best to get out of your range? Surely you could see she was irritated and disgusted with you, atleast when she told you to move away in that freezing tone?
When the girl got out of the auto, just to get away from you, did you not understand it was not a bid to make you follow her? Did you really require another person to literally pound the idea into you?

If you cannot explain, then at least keep away. We just want to move around in peace and not wish you had been born in Middle east where your hands and other parts of anatomy would be severed for what you are doing
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It was Friday and I was planning all the goodies for the evening and weekend, when I get a message asking me to check my mail. I have a meeting until 7.30 in the evening and I have also been given some .. ok, loads of extra work. There went my good mood. Cursing and grumbling under my breath I get ready for work and come out of home and BAM. I literally walk out into this wall of Heat. High humidity and higher temperature. *Phew*

Miserable all around I sit in the share auto squeezed next to other equally miserable folks heading to their offices when I see this woman sitting on the platform. She has a baby, of perhaps a few months, lying on a rag next to her and she is gesticulating to someone.

Curious I peak out of the window and I see a little girl and a little boy with tin cans in their arms begging. The woman was directing the kids. The little girl, maybe 6 or 7 years old was clearly frightened to get down from the safety of the platform and get down amidst the huge vehicles waiting for the signal to fall. But at the screams from the woman, I could see her literally gritting her teeth in determination and getting down to walk in between the vehicles.

My auto-wallah meanwhile had started to scream at the woman, and he was being ignored by her and her kids as so much back ground noise.

A movement by my side caught my attention and I turned. It was the woman's 4th kid. A toddler , who had not yet mastered walking. She was trying hard to maintain her balance but was imitating her brother and sister perfectly. The child had not even learnt to walk yet but she had learnt to beg and to whine in that pathetic way of beggars.

I have never claimed to be a bleeding heart nor am I a very socio-aware person and I have surely seen kids beg before, so why did these children affect me so profoundly. I am not sure.

But I still had this weird cauldron of emotions bubbling inside me. Helplessness for not being able to do anything, gratitude, for but for a chance of birth, it could have been me on the other side seeing in, Anger and a lot more.

It’s really a frightening world out there. :-(

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Value of human life

Today morning my friend and I caught an auto to office, as usual. But what was not usual was that this auto-wallah did not even bargain, he asked for a nominal price and we got in.We had hardly gone a kilometer or so, when he got a call.

His wife had gone into labour and the baby was breach. The hospital was refusing to do anything until he paid them 6000 bucks.The man had been driving all day yesterday and all night too and still had earned only 3000 Rs. and the way the situation stood, he would probably be losing his wife and child.

The man could hardly drive, he was trembling and crying and screaming into the phone to somehow save his wife, even at the cost of the baby.

My friend and I gave him what money we had in our hand and asked him to go the hospital and told him not to worry and that our prayers were with him. (Trite, but thats what we could think of at that time)
Even at this time of crisis, the man was not willing to take charity. He promised to drive us for free next time he came that way.
He sounded so dejected and frightened, that his words are still sounding in my ears.

If my friend and I, who were only hearing his story as third parties, felt such sympathy, how can the hospital folks, actually, seeing the woman suffer not have an ounce of humanity? The sheer callousness of these people makes my blood boil and I am helpless to do anything about it.

The value of two lives is 3000 Rs a piece. hmph!

PS: I have been kicking myself. He wanted only another 3K. I could have stopped at an ATM and got him the money. It just didnt strike me at that time :-(

@ Lunch

This was the conversation that happened today at lunch between me and a lady who was my friend's friend. I had just been introduced to her about 20 minutes ago.

Lady: (Suddenly turning to me) Are you married?
Me: Hmm! No
Lady: Are you iyer or iyengar ?
Me: uh! why?
Lady: Would be interested in marrying my brother?
Me: ohhh! hmmm! Ahhh! How did you know I was a Brahmin?

After my extremely witty repartee, I changed the subject. :-D
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Women's day again

I keep telling myself not to get worked up about this day but end up ranting anyway.

Statistics shows that for every 1014 men there are 1000 Women in the world, we are talking about roughly 50-50%. So what is a complete half of the world's human population celebrating?
The few answers I have got so far are

1. Its a day for men to laugh about and wish that they had a men's day too
2. Its a day when a few channels show women oriented movies
3. Shops make great money
4. I waste time glaring at the mails I get (which thankfully have gone down in the years) wishing me a Happy Women's day.

Do you know that even the Indian Laws have unequal rules for women and men.
In a country that loves reservations, it has taken 14 years to pass a bill allowing 33% reservation for women in politics.

'Neeya Naana" (You or Me) a program telecast in Vijay TV discuss controversial topics and the topic that was discussed last week was "Women who earn more than their husband".

The husbands all make it plain that their wives should be atleast one step below them in everything or it is a danger to their manhood, self esteem, confidence and ego. A guy actually said that if his wife earns more than him then he cannot up his collar and call himself a man.

Another said that now his wife earns more he does, she would not leave her job when he orders her to. (ORDERS????)

One man feels that if a woman sits with her leg crossed when he is around, she shows disrespect.

In another episode the topic was "should wives work". The consensus was that if the woman can take care of her husband without him having any complaints, then she can go to work too. I can understanding taking care of a baby, why should you take care of your husband? Is he not old enough to take care of himself?

When married women in IT companies travel abroad, the comments that they and their husbands have to hear are totally unparliamentary.

Aw heck!! This is a country where married women cannot call their husbands by their name as that would be a disrespect to their manhood.

I feel like I am banging my head on a hard rock wall, everytime I write/think about this. My head hurts and the wall stays implacable.

I do not know the significance of this day to others, but to me the significance of the day/week is that I get to attend some good presentations by ladies in the know.

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Oh God!!!

Reading Acts of Faith again, put a bee in my bonnet. There is so much destruction and mayhem being done in the name of religion and god. How did it all come about? Did the stone man have a god? How did he decide; ok let me worship this tree, storm, sun, ocean, river or supreme being and I shall successfully hunt, mate and live to see another day.

As Calvin tells Hobbes (and I paraphrase), Who looked at a cow first and said lets squeeze this and drink whatever comes out of it" :-).

So where did it all start?

From what little I researched, the concept of religion budded in the Middle Paleolithic age ( about 60,000 years ago) when the Homo Neanderthals had just started living in tribes and bands and having social connections with each other. They did not want their dead to be forgotten and hence started burying them with grave goods. This, as Philip Lieberman suggests, is considered the earliest detectable forms of religious practice since it may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life”. The different rituals came in to being as a means of strengthening social bonding and group cohesion.


Then came the animal worship, though I was able to find lots of information on what animals were worshiped (funnily the animals that were worshipped were also sacrificed at their own altar) I was not able to find why they felt the necessity to worship them at all. What made them think, if I worship the bear, I will have good hunting season?

The upper Paleolithic and later the Neolithic showed an abundance of female imagery such as Venus figurines, which led some to believe that societies had a female-centered religion and a female-dominated society then. (I like that.. I surely do!!! :-)). It was during this time that humans started believing in polytheism or existence of many gods. (According to Vincent W. Fallio) by this time special rituals and ancestor worship were being used by the elites in the society to solidify control over their societies, by convincing their subjects that they possessed a link to the spirit world that also gave them control over the earthly realm.

This was handed down to the later Neolithic age, Bronze and Iron ages by when the religions , rituals and symbols were further trimmed down and become more specific to the regions. Sun, Moon, water, air and the planets started taking on mythical and religious significance. Great works of art and literature sprang from them until religions as we know them now evolved.

Basically what started as respect for the dead and an opportunity to bond with other members of the species has grown uncontrollably into a mega money making destructive machine that is running around the world amok.

While I have delusions of becoming agnostic when frustrated, my upbringing precludes me from that. Too, I have to say that I love my religion and my Gods, however they came in being. Sigh!! Just not their tendency to exacerbate fanatics and violence.

PS: Did you know that that Eve or the first woman (called Mitochondrial Eve) lived almost 50,000 - 80,000 years before Adam or the first man (called Y-chomosomal Adam). So we can trace back matrilineally much longer than patrilineally.

Note: Mitochondrial Eve is defined as the woman who is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor for all living humans. Passed down from mother to offspring, all mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in every living person is directly descended from hers. Mitochondrial Eve is the female counterpart of Y-chromosomal Adam, the patrilineal most recent common ancestor, although they lived thousands of years apart.

Tid bits

=> Obama gets his nobel peace price errr... Prize. Why? I don't know. What did he do to help world peace or even US peace? I mean, other than a temperory seizure to bombing other countries? I Don't know.Now! what I would like to know is, what is the qualification to get a nobel prize? Money? power? Popularity or the lack of it? Coz I dont see the deserving getting it anyways.
(In case you people are interested this is what Nobel committee has to say about it http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/laureates/laureates-2009/announce-2009/ )

=> TN's grand old man to retire from Politics in June 2010... hehehe
Hmm! guess he wants his children to have a chance at looting the state too (what a nice father!). What ever his future plans I sure wish he would stop travelling around the city during the peak hours. Got caught in traffic for more than 45 minutes today morning coz he was going somewhere... Grrrr!

=> Saw a hoarding outside a shop today, reading "Buy 1 shoe and get 1 free" . Not sure if it is good marketing strategy or bad english, but I definitely plan to investigate.

=> I had quiche (remember my fascination with exotic food). It was very unhealthy and obviously very tasty :-) .. I am still not able to pronounce it right.

=> Andhra all set to break up into pieces! Setting a precedence, as next Karaikal starts demanding. Reminds you of the pre-british time when all the kings were busy in-fighting paving way for the british to sneak in? Wonder who is going to sneak in now or maybe we can outright sell India to someone... say italy???

Harassment at work

Are you being harassed at work? Do you even realize that you might be a victim of such harassment?

Let me ask you a few questions then…

=> Do you feel uneasy coming to office and meeting with your peers and boss?
=> Do you hate going out anywhere, even to a lunch, with them?
=> Do you feel like you have been trapped with no means out every time you come to work?
=> Do your peers or boss, make sexual based jokes and comment on women/ men’s physical attributes in mixed company, making you feel uncomfortable?
=> Do they tease you “with” other men/ women, at your work place, to the extent that you are not comfortable talking to that person even on official business, making your work life and efficiency suffer?
=> Do they use unparliamentary words that leave you feeling disgusted?
=> Do you have to worry about your clothes as you will be getting off colour comments on them?
=> Do they find nothing wrong with their behavior despite your telling them you are not amused by it?
=> Have you or your associates been penalized for complaining about this behavior?

These are just a paltry set of questions, but if your answer is YES to any/all of the above questions then you are being harassed at work place. And its time to take some action!
It is unethical, unprofessional and definitely illegal.

Why am I suddenly talking about this topic? I read this great book called “ Emotional Intelligence to Survive and Prosper – Coping with Toxic Managers, Subordinates… and other difficult people” By Roy H. Lubit, M.D., Ph.D.

Its only as I read this book that I realized some of the things I was feeling was not just unique to me, but an universal problem. Ironically, I didn’t even realize what I was facing until I read the book, thinking that I was just me who is feeling miserable.

Do you know that upto 50% women and 10-20% men are harassed at their work place.

Please put a stop to this. Its your right!

My foray into violence

Hmm!!! Can I call it a foray... not sure, but this is the first time I came eyeball to eyeball with violence.

I have written about how much violence disgusts, pains, shocks blah blah blah before. But for the first time it frightened me and I was not even directly involved.

I never realized how much the TV and News papers distances the happenings around the world until yesterday.

I was leaving for home in a metro bus listening to Jagjit Singh, when I realized some disturbance behind me. I was too immersed in my own thoughts to even turn and see.

The stage came and the TC got in to check our tickets when there was a shout and the sounds of a person getting hit. There was this guy being hit and kicked by three other guys. And the hitee was actually inciting them to hit him some more. Then the four guys got back into the bus and the hitee started loudly demanding that the bus be turned towards the nearest police station. When the conductor did not heed, he went straight to the driver and started pulling him off his seat.

Now another concerned traveler got into this foray and started pulling the hitee away. When he refused to listen, the traveler too started hitting the man.

By now my eyes started burning and I realized that I was watching the whole thing without blinking. So I blink, only to find that the hitee had pulled out a knife and was brandishing it in front of the traveler, threatening to stick it into him.
My God! Do things like this actually happen in real life???

The hitee was boasting that he had been to jail twice before for knifing someone and did not have any problems going once more and screaming at the traveler for hitting him.
And in another blink, the traveler had pulled the knife from the hitee and thrown the man out of the running bus. The hitee calmly got up, brushed himself and went away.

I was staring at the whole thing wide eyed, open mouthed and scared witless.

Trust me when I say, violence in real life is much more horrific and unrealistic than when seen through the TV. *phew*