5 things I learned this week (Part 6)

This won’t take long. I was far too preoccupied, with making the itinerary of shifting houses, planning how my life here will be after my best friend leaves this town in another 3 days and trying not to go all nostalgic, that I forgot about this post.

Nostalgia is a phenomenon, something if not for which, people like me would have nothing to write about. The recollection of memories seems to make words and sentences materialize within us. Sometimes, these memories make more than an impression of words. This week I’m going to write about 5 memories that have instilled in me a few habits, some of which I would be happy if you also made a habit of.

So, let's begin, shall we.

Did you know…

1. …that you shouldn’t touch the idol or the structure that houses the idol at a temple?

This piece of information comes from my uncle. He passed on this habit to me some 7-8 years ago. The reasoning behind this is that the GOD is in meditation, and if we defer into his area of meditation, he won’t be too pleased about it.

2. …that no matter what you are feeling – happy, sad, angry or dull – you should always walk proud?

As a 15 year old walking home from the bus stop after school, you are entitled to will away your time in the trivial. I was doing likewise one day back in 2004. An old man was whitewashing this fence outside the mosque near our place. I just stood 5 feet behind him, and watched him mix the stuff. Feeling my prying eyes, he turned around. I was gearing up for him to confront me, but he smiled at me, and gave me an advice which I’ve tried to follow always.

“What is you height? 6 foot? Then, why are you stooping. Stand tall always. No matter what you are doing, puff your chest out and hold your head high.”

3. …that even if you are going to sleep, you should just freshen up and groom yourself?

There’s a saying from where I come from.

“Chathu kidannallum chamanju kidakkannam”

For those of you who don’t know Malayalam, it means “Look good even if you are lying dead.” And one of my older cousins actually took this saying a little too much to his heart. He was staying over at our place some 6 years back, and we were about to go to sleep after a lot of banter. While the rest of us retired to our beds, I saw him freshen up, go in front of the mirror, and then started combing his hair. I asked him why he did that. He gave me this saying in reply and this advice  for a habit.

4. …that there’s a trick to look like you know something about the quality of vegetables & fruits, when you’re buying them?

This piece of valuable information comes from a person us gurgaon-ites call “The Tank”. How he got that name is worthy enough to be a separate blogpost by itself. But more than that incident, it was this dialogue from him that has etched itself into my memory and catalogue of habits.

“There is a very simple trick if you want to look knowledgeable while buying fruits or vegetables. Ask the shopkeeper to give you say, 1 kg of tomatoes. As soon as he puts 4-5 tomatoes in the basket, ask him to stop in an animated manner. Then take 2 tomatoes from the set he has picked out and make it look like you are searching it for defects. After that, say that these tomatoes are bad, and ask him to put them back, completely ignoring his protests. And TADA!! You’ve become a Veggie genius in the eyes of those around you. It’s that simple.”

5. ...that you should always make sure that you are not the last one to reply, when you are in a virtual conversation with a girl?

This tidy bit of advice comes from my friend, Chaithin. He was never able to give me a thoroughly convincing explanation, but he was pretty damn sure of its validity from his experiences. He always encouraged me from not pushing the “Send” button, saying that it will be a vain attempt to prolong a conversation.

But, for better or for worse, this isn’t one habit I follow. I have my own rule regarding this, and that is that I should send the last message. I’ve even termed it as a disorder – lmop – last message-o-philia. ;)

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And before I end this post, a HUGE shout out to the single most influential person I’ve had in the past three years.

Mr.Alok Nido. I wish you all the best in your forthcoming endeavors as an Engineer at Mangalore Refineries. You have been to me the big brother I never wanted, and the irritating friend I could have lived without. Thank you for all your advices that have back fired on me.

But most importantly, thank you for not killing me, in spite of all the troubles I’ve caused you.

And if you think that this is my BIG FAREWELL POST to you, you’re mistaken, it’s coming soon. :P

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That’s it for today.

Have a great weekend people!!!

5 things I learned this week (Part 5)

I've been accused, IN PUBLIC, for being something everyone is.

Selfish.

I know that it is not technically a crime, but it's still looked down upon by society as a part of its moral ethic. This is all, with utter disregard to the fact that selfishness exists in every part and act in the society - from when the North Korean Supreme Commander decides to go drop some bombs on the other side of the wall to when I decide to write something unselfish in my blog for a change.

I'm going to take up the baton of unselfishness and sacrifice, from two young men, who came to my house last sunday morning. They were trying to raise funds for HelpAge India for providing financial support to widows in the dry months of this years summer.

We are a lot who earn quite a handful these days. But I won't ask you to put your money just like that. I've realised from my facebook sojourn that the value of something increases, if you are aware that you could have done something else with it. I know you didn't understand that. So, let me put it into action.

I'm going to donate some amount of money to a charity at the end of this month. And that amount will be the sum of all the junk food I WON'T EAT this month. This includes Dominoes, MCD's, KFC, Pizza Hut and all. It's been just two days into this month, and I already have 194 rupees set aside for this fund from a pizza that I didnt order.

So, on May 31st, when I finally deposit the amount, I'll know that I'm not giving cos I've got the money to spare, but because I sacrificed a little bit of my happiness so that I can help someone.

So finally, let me finish with this loooooooooooong prologue, and get on with the business. If you haven't guessed by now, this week's post will be themed on charity - on how you can donate to honourable causes online - from your laptop, from your phone - no matter where you are currently placing your lazy ass on. :P

Did you know...

1. ...that you can donate online to HelpAge India?

Unless you find a way to get yourself killed before you hit senility, you are gonna grow old. And you can't be sure that you'll be in a good place then. So, get some good karma on your side, and donate to help the aged population in India by donating online at

http://www.helpageindia.org/donate.html


2. ...that you can donate online to UNICEF?

I bet you don't remember the expansion of UNICEF. :P

It is United Nation International Child Emergency Fund. (I only got Emergency wrong)

Well, they allow you to contribute to them online at

https://www.supportunicefindia.org/Donation/SupportUS.aspx

3. ...that you can donate online to Wikipedia?

We all know what we'll say when our kids ask us to help them with their homework. "Look in Wikipedia"

Why not? That is exactly what we are doing now, whether it is to know what the Large Hadron Collider is looking for, or whether Charlie Sheen actually married a porn star. And since, wiki hasn't sold off its soul to advertisements (YET), they need us to support them so that they can continue to serve us. Donate whatever you can at 

https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:FundraiserLandingPage&country=IN&uselang=en&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_source=donate&utm_campaign=C13_en.wikipedia.org

4. ...that you can donate online to CRY?

It's not like there should be another reason to cry for us, the spoilt children of the new generation, but this is not about giving your money away and letting your tear ducts show their capacity to pump water.
CRY is actually Child Rights and You is one among the many organizations fighting for the rights of children everywhere, and you can support them by donating online at

http://www.cry.org/apps/donation.aspx

5. ...that you can donate online to many charitable causes on giveindia.org?

Among all the online charity donation websites that I went through for this blog, giveindia.org is perhaps what I'll describe as the most unique. It sort of works as middle man between supply and demand. Demand, as in sponsoring a slum child's education for a year, or providing monthly rations for a poor family, or rehabilitating a widow. Supply, as in providing a platform for souls like us to part with our surplus money, so that the demand is met. You can choose the cause and donate at will at

http://www.giveindia.org/

That wraps up the 5 things for this week. But before I go, let me leave you with a thought I hold dear to my heart.

"The happiness of giving is multiplied in knowing that somebody is receiving what you sacrificed."

That's all folks..
Happy Weekend!!!

5 things I learned this week (Part 4)

Another week cruises by, and we are here again, as I recount to you 5 things I learned this week. This is sadly not going to be themed like last week, but like the earlier hotch-potch versions. So, let's begin in earnest, shall we??

Did you know...

1. ...that interest rates on loaned money in developed nations is less than 5 percent??

I found the following explanation and found it to be satisfactory. Tell me what you think about it.

"India is a developing economy which requires more funds for the investment purposes, so Government looks at more savings by Public. When more interest rate is offered by the RBI to Commercial banks and Commercial banks to Public, then Public will be interested to deposit their money in the banks and hence more savings. When banks offer higher interest rate for the deposits by the public(say 9%), then the same banks lend money(loans) to the people at higher interest rate (say 10% to 12%, comparatively more than interest on deposits). The same is even applcable to the developed economies. But, those countries are having enough funds so they'll not pay more interest on the deposits like in India. And in contrast they'll not charge more interest on the loans also like in India."

2. ...that Gurgaon without malls is like life without maals?

You can't find a decent apartment in Gurgaon without searching for months. You won't find the normal city restaurants in Gurgaon. You can't have electricity and water at all times in Gurgaon. But drop a coin, let it roll, follow it, and there is more chance of you arriving at the entrance to a mall than not.

All jokes aside, Gurgaon has malls - a lot of them. The MG Road here has some 10-15 malls on both sides of the road in a 2 km stretch, a few of them only finished partly. But when my parents told me that Kerala's Cochin had the largest mall in India, I had to accept defeat.

3. ...that the "MG" in MG road in Gurgaon is not for Mahatma Gandhi?

Indeed not. MG road in Gurgaon is the road that connects Mehrauli in South Delhi to Gurgaon city. And the M and G in the road initials stand for the name of the end points of the road, not for the father of the nation, as is the case in other cities.

4. ...that today marks the sixth month since I tore my right ankle ligaments?

Doctors said that it would take 6-12 months to heal completely. I'm still waiting for that to happen. I tore mine while doing a turn on the ball while I was playing football. It might seem complicated, but it actually was me stopping the ball with my right foot, and trying to turn a 180 degree. I heard 2 "tick tick" sounds, and fell down in a heap of pain. Bad things happen to you just like that. But the eternal optimist in me wants to believe that the Grade II ankle sprain, and the 2 weeks of enforced rest, saved me from some bigger trouble.

P.S. I started playing football again, 3 months after this injury.

5. ...that today is also the that shall be know as the day my designation reached the level of my qualification?

If you didn't know, I'm an Engineer by qualification. And today, after nearly 2 years and 10 months after qualifying as an Engineer, I got my second promotion at work which made me, from Assistant Engineer, an Engineer.

If you fancy another read, yesterday I wrote about what's there in my wallet, which you can read at 

http://husemeplz.blogspot.in/2013/04/whats-in-your-wallet.html

That's all from me for today.

Have a great weekend.

What's in your wallet...

I dropped my wallet today as I was trying to put it away after coming home from work. It's not that out of the ordinary from me, as I tend to drop anything that is droppable. But after dropping it, I spent the next hour going through the contents of it, reminiscing about the story of how it got there.

You can say a lot about a man from the things he carries in his wallet. Well here are the list of things you would find in mine, from the bizarre to the quaint.

1. 1 photo of Saibaba of Shirdi. It has been the custom at my home to keep a photo of Baba in any new bag/wallet. You'll find one in the suitcase I travel with, and also in my laptop bag.
2. Some notes. sometimes notes of 100; maybe 500; but you can always be sure of finding the 10s and 20s.
3. 2 Debit Cards and 1 credit card. This has to be the minimum requirement these days I think. If you want a quote on the maximum, my neighbour at office has at least 3 debit cards and 8 credit cards. It would be hard to beat that number.
4. My other cards, including visiting cards, metro card, privilege cards, insurance cards, driving license, etc.
5. Some 6-8 passport size photos.
6. One small Indian Flag, which a lady duped me into buying for 100 rupees saying the money was for orphans.
7. A parking ticket from "Sreekumar" theatre, from when I saw a movie there the last time I was at Trivandrum.
8. A feather from a duckling I had as a pet in 2006. I know that it is weird, but I carry it around with me like a good luck charm.
9. A Re.1 coin, minted in 1997, which was given to me by my grandfather.

That's about it.

I know that this might be an abrupt end, but that's all for today.

See ya tomorrow.

5 things I learned this week (Part 3)

“Oh Shit!!!”

That is the thought that first enters my mind, when I look at the time and see that its 4pm on a Friday, and I still haven’t started on this week “5 things I learned”. But, like for anyone else working in a corporate world, a deadline is nothing new for me. I’m closing in on three years of work experience, and looking back, the whole “experience” has been about meeting the current deadline, and then the one after that..

It might seem sad if you think about it in a one-dimensional way – working like this is like dangling a carrot (salary) in front of a donkey (me) so that it keeps moving in the direction that the master (company) wants it to. But if you are someone like me who thinks that work is only the means to make your life better - something which you do for 8 hours a day so that you can enjoy the other 16 without a fear or tensions - then the one-dimensionality of earlier analogy is something you wouldn’t mind.

The first thing I promised myself, when I decided to take the “work your ass off” route over the “study your ass off” route, is that I would never determine or evaluate my life based on my work. I’ve always tried to ensure that the “experiences” at work, and the ensuing frustration, be never allowed to spill over the thin wall that separates our personal and professional lives. It hasn’t been easy – under valuation in contribution to project, over looked for benefits, post-dated increments that is barely sufficient – a lot of such factors has made me want to crack open that wall, but it has held strong till now, and hopefully, forever.

Anyways, time to end the digression and meet the deadline. I’m going to theme this week’s new knowledge on “Time”, and I’m going to confess that I’m going to use the twin sisters of Google and Wikipedia to make it happen. So here goes something…

Did you know…

1. ...that the time we usually refer to in the hh:mm:ss format (called the metric system) is not the only one?

There are other formats like the hexadecimal and decimal formats. The decimal format is easy to understand. Instead of saying that it is 4:30pm, we say it is 16.5 hours. The hexadecimal format is a lot more complicated. For those of you intent on reading more about it, here are the wiki links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal_time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time

2. ...that a one minute kiss burns 26 calories??

Now, there’s a way to burn off some fat in a sexy manner. Who’ll want to go to a gym if that is true? I say that cause you can’t believe half the stuff you read on the internet, and the other half are blatant lies.

Anyways, more of such quirky facts are available at http://www.did-you-knows.com/did-you-know-facts/time.php

3. ...that the name of the world's largest circulating weekly news magazine, with a readership of over 25 million, is related to today’s theme??

No points for guessing the name though. :P

An extra fact regarding TIME magazine is that they are said to possess a distinct writing style, attenuated by the use of inverted sentences. If you don’t know what inverted sentences are, let me give you an example. Only after reading this sentence did you become aware of the structure and usage of inverted sentences, ain’t it??

4. ...that “for every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned”??

Oh if only I knew that before, I wouldn’t have such a short time to meet my deadline. :D

Anyhow, such phrases including the word “time” are there in common usage. Here are a Top 10 such phrases complied on the internet...

http://www.theorderexpert.com/2012/08/12/top-10-list-10-time-phrases/

By the way, read through that, read points 4 and 5 twice, then have a sly, wry smile on your face, if you saw what I just saw... ;)

5. ...that I love the old style of English, where the usage of now defunct words and a now dormant style of sentence structure, made sure that everything that is written and said, is epic to say the least?

And here is a quote in that style, by Mr. Benjamin Franklin in “Poor Richard's Almanac” about time to end this week's proceedings on this post.

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of”

Have a great weekend!!!

P.S. Earlier today, I posted a completely random post, titled "A Random Post". It's about some random things you in life, and how it..... Why should I spoil the fun for you?? Go ahead and read the original post at http://husemeplz.blogspot.in/2013/04/a-random-post.html