How many self motivated people do you know? 2,3,5,10,20. Good. I am actually going to tell you a story of 2 highly self motivated people I have known. There are plenty others too but these two always stand out for me because they made it look very simple.
M is my best friend's best friend. She is this beautiful Punjabi girl who anybody would want to look at twice. She was quite a svelte. And the beauty of it was she could say "Kuttey kamine" with amazing ease. You wouldn't know how to react to a girl like her say that. We would be giggling all the way home trying to just say it loud and yapping about the reactions she got. No, that was not the motivation bit story. That is still coming. Her father had a paralytic attack when she was in school. She had a younger sister and brother. She and her sister took tutions and scrambled through school fees and all that was needed. They would do all kind of odd jobs to get through their education. M is a doctor, she works with kids with speech and hearing disabilities. She worked part time at some hospitals to get through her medical college fees. She latter moved to Bahrain, helped her brother complete his engineering and then moved to the US to study further. 2-3 part time jobs a day with your regular college and studies, could make anybody feel like a victim of bad circumstances. But not M. She just enjoyed everything she did. Because of the fact that she had to do odd part time jobs to keep the money coming in, she never stopped enjoying life. She would go for odd concerts, plays, movies, anything that caught her fancy. I & my BF(best friend) met her once at 9pm on my way back home. We were dead tired after just that one job we were doing. She was coming back after her college, from where she had taken the local to an another suburb, tutored some kids, then travelled to the next station, changed into a Saree at about 7 and helped around with some product exhibition/roadshow. She had so much to tell us. All I & the BF had to say was "bl**dy code wasn't working". After alighting from the train at 9:30pm we would then walk to the nearest coffee shop and yap another 30 mins over espresso. Gossip, bitch and laugh. Her enthusiasm was just contagious. Inspite of the baggages life gave her, she was totally at peace with it. Absolutely no victim hood stuff. I haven't spoken to her in atleast 7-8 years but She is a constant reminder of how one can make lemonade when life throws lemons at you. She totally rocks.
J taught me C, a computer language. Absolutely brilliant and very lively. Infact his enthusiasm use to tire us out. He lost his father when he was very young. He studied in a vernacular medium school. His mom was a teacher in his school. When he got admission into his engineering college, he did not know how he would pay the fees since he had just enough money for a year's fee accumulated by taking tutions and some odd jobs at TOI(I think). He did 4 years of engineering in double the time by taking breaks after each year to accumulate money for the next years fees. Job at the computer institute where I met him was one such odd jobs. He refused a couple of high paying offers to only pick stuff(VLSI) he wanted to work on. He appeared weird to us then when we were all just doing our graduation and trying to get a hold of what we want. What we wanted was simple anyway - a job that pays. He moved a couple of companies and then moved to the US. Today has a couple of patents to his credit on Chip design or something like that(I mean some totally intelligent stuff). I had lost a year in college and was totally depressed. My parents weren't talking to me. He kept telling to just utilize the time to do something. How does it matter 10 years down the line how many years did I loose. He totally inspired.
Lessons I have learnt long long back, thanks to these people, it doesn't pay to playing the victim. Rise above it. You have one life. Love it and live it. No self-pity please.
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Monday, October 16, 2006
The art of EmailId creation
Disclaimer: Any names, emailids mentioned below are fictional and the
resemblence is mere coincidence ;)
Off late with some considerable amount of time on hand, when I get forwards
that offers nothing new in them and in most probablitlity its the same fwd
I got in 2002, 2004-jun, 2004-dec, 2005...and now again, so these days,
time is spent reading emailids than the fwds themselves, i.e, to who all is this mail fwded to ...then keep searching for familiar names, long lost friends etc etc. Then shoot a mail to one of those long lost ones and tell them long stories about how I rang them umpteen times and never got a response ...you never pick up....oh how
mean of you ...oh is 98324324 not your number? ... thatz not even 9
digits...oh sorry .....and so on.
While this is on, I started reflecting on the art of email creation on
various sites which was evident in the mailids present on the fwd list.
Most times the best emailids like your fullname, name_surname are all taken
and the suggestions they give you are with some random number looks even
more pathetic. I believe ...
According to me, the most boring people create email ids using their first & last names like e.g sunitathomas, komala_priya_krish_anand_viswanathan(I
dont know if that length is possible)
Some geeks who play the 'I am not plain jane' try NOT to give away everything but still maintain the identity hidden like and_math(something to do with and gates & maths) or ro_jo(the one who cries) from which its very difficult to know what exactly is the name.
The creative group gets their kick by adding adjectives, verbs,birth dates
to their names like lazyjames, sexysam, smirkykap, amitatwork, rysaindian, nyve1214 or aminuk or imfun or blackrioruzy or even the self-imposing iamurfriend@xyz.com. Therez also the ones which can make a conversation difficult like
A: I will write to you, Your email id?
B: mailarvind@xyz.com
A: ok, got it, arvind@xyz.com right?
B: No, mailarvind@xyz.com
A: yeah yeah I will mail you
or
A: That was fun, how about I mail you next time
B: sure, writetome@abc.com
A: ok, abc? what site is that?anyway, ur email id?
B: writetome
A: yeah but your id
B: writetome
A: you mean snail mail?
B: who snail?
and so on
Then there is the 'I am single, ready to mingle' groups, the ones who do not want to give away anything in their emailid, generally used for bride/groom search or for chatroom searches, some samples of these could be bridesearch, f22delhi,
catchmeifyoucan and I am sure there are more entertaining ones as well
There is also the lovey-dovey emailids, the Iandmy wife or Iandmyhubby email-ids. A couple of years back, ok maybe a decade back(pretty old now..cough..cough) I also thought it was very cute but not any more. Recently I happened to see a mail from one of my ex-boses as "Sunil & Priya" where the email id still is sunil@xyz.com. This Sunil & Priya should be in their early 50's if not late and now I know there are quite of few of you who while reading this are thinking,oh, how chweeeeeeeet and are already dreaming about you having an emailid with your spouse's name as if thatz an exotic get-away in the maldives. At the risk of sounding unromanctic & insensitive, I see a few good reason why people have these ids, One (totally beaten), Guys, my spouse knows my password, Secondly, yelling out aloud, guys this is accessible to my spouse so pls dont send prohibitable content here and the day the password has been changed go change your name back to "SunilOnly" or create a new mailid and send it around.
This could be taken to a new level and make your email ids your name
plates, write to Mr&MrsSinha@xyz.com or take it an another step further
Mr&MrsSinha@2sukhwanicamppune.com ..uh so should i snail mail or email or
throw mail
Would be very unkind if I dont mention the "you half and half me" here.
They are they ones who will cut names of spouses & self into halves and put them togather. Now, this concept was totally driven by the malayalis of Kerala where they name their child in that manner pitilessly.A classic example would be of a girl named shitty bcoz her mom was shija and dad Itty(yeah, thatz a christian name) and obviously they didnt know what shitty meant too.
All said and done, in my opinion your emailid gives a sneak preview into your personality.
resemblence is mere coincidence ;)
Off late with some considerable amount of time on hand, when I get forwards
that offers nothing new in them and in most probablitlity its the same fwd
I got in 2002, 2004-jun, 2004-dec, 2005...and now again, so these days,
time is spent reading emailids than the fwds themselves, i.e, to who all is this mail fwded to ...then keep searching for familiar names, long lost friends etc etc. Then shoot a mail to one of those long lost ones and tell them long stories about how I rang them umpteen times and never got a response ...you never pick up....oh how
mean of you ...oh is 98324324 not your number? ... thatz not even 9
digits...oh sorry .....and so on.
While this is on, I started reflecting on the art of email creation on
various sites which was evident in the mailids present on the fwd list.
Most times the best emailids like your fullname, name_surname are all taken
and the suggestions they give you are with some random number looks even
more pathetic. I believe ...
According to me, the most boring people create email ids using their first & last names like e.g sunitathomas, komala_priya_krish_anand_viswanathan(I
dont know if that length is possible)
Some geeks who play the 'I am not plain jane' try NOT to give away everything but still maintain the identity hidden like and_math(something to do with and gates & maths) or ro_jo(the one who cries) from which its very difficult to know what exactly is the name.
The creative group gets their kick by adding adjectives, verbs,birth dates
to their names like lazyjames, sexysam, smirkykap, amitatwork, rysaindian, nyve1214 or aminuk or imfun or blackrioruzy or even the self-imposing iamurfriend@xyz.com. Therez also the ones which can make a conversation difficult like
A: I will write to you, Your email id?
B: mailarvind@xyz.com
A: ok, got it, arvind@xyz.com right?
B: No, mailarvind@xyz.com
A: yeah yeah I will mail you
or
A: That was fun, how about I mail you next time
B: sure, writetome@abc.com
A: ok, abc? what site is that?anyway, ur email id?
B: writetome
A: yeah but your id
B: writetome
A: you mean snail mail?
B: who snail?
and so on
Then there is the 'I am single, ready to mingle' groups, the ones who do not want to give away anything in their emailid, generally used for bride/groom search or for chatroom searches, some samples of these could be bridesearch, f22delhi,
catchmeifyoucan and I am sure there are more entertaining ones as well
There is also the lovey-dovey emailids, the Iandmy wife or Iandmyhubby email-ids. A couple of years back, ok maybe a decade back(pretty old now..cough..cough) I also thought it was very cute but not any more. Recently I happened to see a mail from one of my ex-boses as "Sunil & Priya" where the email id still is sunil@xyz.com. This Sunil & Priya should be in their early 50's if not late and now I know there are quite of few of you who while reading this are thinking,oh, how chweeeeeeeet and are already dreaming about you having an emailid with your spouse's name as if thatz an exotic get-away in the maldives. At the risk of sounding unromanctic & insensitive, I see a few good reason why people have these ids, One (totally beaten), Guys, my spouse knows my password, Secondly, yelling out aloud, guys this is accessible to my spouse so pls dont send prohibitable content here and the day the password has been changed go change your name back to "SunilOnly" or create a new mailid and send it around.
This could be taken to a new level and make your email ids your name
plates, write to Mr&MrsSinha@xyz.com or take it an another step further
Mr&MrsSinha@2sukhwanicamppune.com ..uh so should i snail mail or email or
throw mail
Would be very unkind if I dont mention the "you half and half me" here.
They are they ones who will cut names of spouses & self into halves and put them togather. Now, this concept was totally driven by the malayalis of Kerala where they name their child in that manner pitilessly.A classic example would be of a girl named shitty bcoz her mom was shija and dad Itty(yeah, thatz a christian name) and obviously they didnt know what shitty meant too.
All said and done, in my opinion your emailid gives a sneak preview into your personality.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Do you have a good snap??
Can you guess whoz this cute lady? Though there is lots to say about the lady in the snap but thatz not my reason for the blog. Its the snap.
Falstaff writes here:
"In all the fanfare about her achievement and the lessons we can learn from it, everyone, it seems to me, is overlooking a key variable. The ability to have good passport photographs taken. No seriously. Go look at that picture again. Notice the neat hair, the eyes open and intelligent looking, the natural smile, the ever so slight tilt of the head. Do you or anyone you know have a picture from your past where you look even half as human?"
Its "The Tilt of the head" that interested me. Photogenic is just Aishwarya and handful of people and the remaining like me always try their luck with tilted heads and crooked smiles with great backgrounds but never quite make it. As the above blogger says I dont have half a decent photograph of me but I do attempt at it regularly whenever I have to click one and the tilt happens naturally to me. "Smile please" and I will go ..tak ....10-20deg tilt and smile...click. So in most of my snaps except for the visa snaps (where they keep telling you ...thoda idhar...thoda aur...) I have a tilted head .... Thinking about it I have no idea why I tilt my head probably to get a sympathetic look but then thatz not why I am posing for a photograph, or then probably ....(blanks). I have no idea why I do it except for I do it every time someone tells me to say "cheese". So as evidence, my snap on the blog, TILTED.
Here is an another snap of us friends. You cannot see a single face clearly but due to different attributes you can always makeout who each one is. Now there are 2 of us tilted to glory and I know who the other one is, competing with my tilted head.
And if you havent guessed already, the cute lady above with the right tilt and close-up smile is Indra Nooyi.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Mails & Style
While I hear a lot about formal mail communication, the do's and dont's and how's and why's, is there a style of informal or casual or friendly mails. Guess you should hear the person when you read the mail.
I still have the letter writing book dad bought some 20-25 yrs back when he had to write official letters. I guess he used to write a lot of them bcoz his mails to me would look like this
Dear daughter Sunita,
I hope this letter meets you in good health. We received a call from your office regarding your tax deduction. I have made the following investments for the same
1) LIC - 10000
2) NIC - 30000
Do call home on saturday. Your Mummy is waiting for your call.
Your's Lovingly
Daddy
I have read and re-read this mail n times, everytime it makes me smile.I can imagine him dictating the letter to my sister and she typing obediently. Always to the point and with instructions to call home.The best being Dear daughter Sunita and Your's lovingly Daddy.
Herez an excerpt from a series of mails from one of my friends. Lets call him A. A is a levelheaded guy with a great sense of humour from Junagadh. He did carry a lot of Junagadh accent initially but ever since he married B and with mean friends like me around (who used to nag him for all he says in the typical junagadh style) and probably being in England has taken its toll on his ascent. But when A writes mails, I can actually feel, he talking to me in his style.
Mail1
Sunitaben,
naya mail id kaun bhejega ??
aur good news kya B ke liye hi tha ??
you didn't tell me anything...by the way ..are you my friend or B's !!!!
yeah meri biwi..uska toh koi accha friend nahi hai..toh meri hi friend churane pe lagi hai....
My reply to Mail1:
arre i write to you................ B will complain .... and then u will also complain ki B is complaining karke........
If I write to her ...... then also u complain
so if i write to her the complains are less u see so that works best :p
Mail2
ha toh..important news muje bolane ka..aur time pass baatein B ko bolane ka..
by the way we didn't know that you have joined XYZ..le yeah to dono main se kisiko pata nahi hai...aab bataao
meri life toh aur bakwas ho gayi hai...aaj kaal croydon ja raha hun..(project transition)
cambridge se london kings cross...
london kings cross se victoria
victoria se croydon....yeah total 3 trains..takes around 2.5 hrs including some sprinting to catch the trains...
aur NCS ka toh pata nahi kya hone wala hai..mera project manager MUNIM jaisa hai...claim ke waqt bahut pange karata hai...aaj hi argument ho gaya...(jaise mein to croydon meri sasural jaata hun....saala 4 pound ke liye bhi rota hai..kya mere jaisa aadami 4 pound ka lunch bhi nahi kar sakata)...
mera uske saath aisa sab chalta hi raheta hai...aur baad mein bolata hai...A tum garam ho jate ho.... :)
And all I have to say to 'A & the likes' is I enjoy reading your mails bcoz they make me smile :).
And Reshma no prizes for guessing who AB are :).
I still have the letter writing book dad bought some 20-25 yrs back when he had to write official letters. I guess he used to write a lot of them bcoz his mails to me would look like this
Dear daughter Sunita,
I hope this letter meets you in good health. We received a call from your office regarding your tax deduction. I have made the following investments for the same
1) LIC - 10000
2) NIC - 30000
Do call home on saturday. Your Mummy is waiting for your call.
Your's Lovingly
Daddy
I have read and re-read this mail n times, everytime it makes me smile.I can imagine him dictating the letter to my sister and she typing obediently. Always to the point and with instructions to call home.The best being Dear daughter Sunita and Your's lovingly Daddy.
Herez an excerpt from a series of mails from one of my friends. Lets call him A. A is a levelheaded guy with a great sense of humour from Junagadh. He did carry a lot of Junagadh accent initially but ever since he married B and with mean friends like me around (who used to nag him for all he says in the typical junagadh style) and probably being in England has taken its toll on his ascent. But when A writes mails, I can actually feel, he talking to me in his style.
Mail1
Sunitaben,
naya mail id kaun bhejega ??
aur good news kya B ke liye hi tha ??
you didn't tell me anything...by the way ..are you my friend or B's !!!!
yeah meri biwi..uska toh koi accha friend nahi hai..toh meri hi friend churane pe lagi hai....
My reply to Mail1:
arre i write to you................ B will complain .... and then u will also complain ki B is complaining karke........
If I write to her ...... then also u complain
so if i write to her the complains are less u see so that works best :p
Mail2
ha toh..important news muje bolane ka..aur time pass baatein B ko bolane ka..
by the way we didn't know that you have joined XYZ..le yeah to dono main se kisiko pata nahi hai...aab bataao
meri life toh aur bakwas ho gayi hai...aaj kaal croydon ja raha hun..(project transition)
cambridge se london kings cross...
london kings cross se victoria
victoria se croydon....yeah total 3 trains..takes around 2.5 hrs including some sprinting to catch the trains...
aur NCS ka toh pata nahi kya hone wala hai..mera project manager MUNIM jaisa hai...claim ke waqt bahut pange karata hai...aaj hi argument ho gaya...(jaise mein to croydon meri sasural jaata hun....saala 4 pound ke liye bhi rota hai..kya mere jaisa aadami 4 pound ka lunch bhi nahi kar sakata)...
mera uske saath aisa sab chalta hi raheta hai...aur baad mein bolata hai...A tum garam ho jate ho.... :)
And all I have to say to 'A & the likes' is I enjoy reading your mails bcoz they make me smile :).
And Reshma no prizes for guessing who AB are :).
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
A Collage of thoughts
The Brave Hearts…
On my long drive from home to office and back I meet these brave hearts all over.... makes me wonder what the hell are they doing here. I am refering to the cyclists. They have this amazing courage & guts. My whole drive consists of 3 activities
1. Look for buses
2. If behind them.... get ahead of them
3. If ahead of them, drive as fast as you can so that you don’t see them in your rear view mirror anymore
While at these few hidden tasks, look out for potholes hidden by these monstrous vehicles when they are ahead of you and when they are behind you, keep your eyes open for those potholes that pop in from no where when you are driving like a maniac escaping the monsters. Once you are used to these, driving gets boring ... there has to be some thrill to the drive (isn’t that the reason why I started driving) so we have these cyclist who seem to think anywhere the cycle can get in is a road and anywhere their cycles can turn.... they can too... so what if they are on the left and wanna got right or vice-versa. Whatever happens it’s never their fault and they always manage to shout, start a bout (if they are lucky) & get the money to almost buy a bicycle. He gets to hammer the motorist and also gets the public's sympathy. If David is in the crowd and if David isn’t the culprit.... man you r lucky, be assured David will get him a fair deal (maybe a row house & a Skoda).
David...
That reminds me.... David is leaving Pune. Y/d was his last day in office. We finished lunch today in 15 mins straight and back to our desks so that gives me the time to write this :). David has a Skoda (so what if its just a story). He also has a Alto (which we almost thought was just a story) David has a weakness for the weak argument. David can argue about anything...doesn’t matter what he believes in and what he doesn’t. Most of the times he is arguing about things even he doesn’t agree to nor care ..........sometimes he himself must be loosing track ...so do I have a SKODA? David's very helpful :). He treated us so I have no problems in saying that. He thinks he speaks better Malayalam than me.... ha! Thatz what he thinks. David, you are a gem of a person and we'll miss all the freebies (lunch dinner movies and potlucks) & "do you have a problem with that" looks, pls be nice to me(s) and the expert advices and of course I am going to miss hearing the car on the tree fairy tale (for the nth time)... It’s just a year that I have been hearing this story almost every second day (My hubby is gonna be curious about this one…. will tell you).
A Year .........
It’s a year since we moved to our new house today. My dad planned and furnished it all by himself. We love it and love it even more when we hear people say "Its a beautiful house" and we love it the best when we are returning home. Mom complains about the leaking water tap, about the rainwater getting in when the windows are left open ... but I am going to just smile at her. I can see dad beam with pride. A Year .... we have so many memories already of this one. This one is so special of all the houses we have shifted. There is peace at last. And we pray, may it reign always.
On my long drive from home to office and back I meet these brave hearts all over.... makes me wonder what the hell are they doing here. I am refering to the cyclists. They have this amazing courage & guts. My whole drive consists of 3 activities
1. Look for buses
2. If behind them.... get ahead of them
3. If ahead of them, drive as fast as you can so that you don’t see them in your rear view mirror anymore
While at these few hidden tasks, look out for potholes hidden by these monstrous vehicles when they are ahead of you and when they are behind you, keep your eyes open for those potholes that pop in from no where when you are driving like a maniac escaping the monsters. Once you are used to these, driving gets boring ... there has to be some thrill to the drive (isn’t that the reason why I started driving) so we have these cyclist who seem to think anywhere the cycle can get in is a road and anywhere their cycles can turn.... they can too... so what if they are on the left and wanna got right or vice-versa. Whatever happens it’s never their fault and they always manage to shout, start a bout (if they are lucky) & get the money to almost buy a bicycle. He gets to hammer the motorist and also gets the public's sympathy. If David is in the crowd and if David isn’t the culprit.... man you r lucky, be assured David will get him a fair deal (maybe a row house & a Skoda).
David...
That reminds me.... David is leaving Pune. Y/d was his last day in office. We finished lunch today in 15 mins straight and back to our desks so that gives me the time to write this :). David has a Skoda (so what if its just a story). He also has a Alto (which we almost thought was just a story) David has a weakness for the weak argument. David can argue about anything...doesn’t matter what he believes in and what he doesn’t. Most of the times he is arguing about things even he doesn’t agree to nor care ..........sometimes he himself must be loosing track ...so do I have a SKODA? David's very helpful :). He treated us so I have no problems in saying that. He thinks he speaks better Malayalam than me.... ha! Thatz what he thinks. David, you are a gem of a person and we'll miss all the freebies (lunch dinner movies and potlucks) & "do you have a problem with that" looks, pls be nice to me(s) and the expert advices and of course I am going to miss hearing the car on the tree fairy tale (for the nth time)... It’s just a year that I have been hearing this story almost every second day (My hubby is gonna be curious about this one…. will tell you).
A Year .........
It’s a year since we moved to our new house today. My dad planned and furnished it all by himself. We love it and love it even more when we hear people say "Its a beautiful house" and we love it the best when we are returning home. Mom complains about the leaking water tap, about the rainwater getting in when the windows are left open ... but I am going to just smile at her. I can see dad beam with pride. A Year .... we have so many memories already of this one. This one is so special of all the houses we have shifted. There is peace at last. And we pray, may it reign always.
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