Friendships in general........

Memory of my first friend goes back to days when I was hardly 3. There was Jebin chettan and Mithun..my neighbours who were my playmates to play on mud and with blocks. I also faintly remember a swing my dad had tied to one of the trees and we three taking turns to swing.
After we shifted to a new place, again my then neighbours Alex and Ammu....became my friends....Then it was followed by many as we progressed through classes in school and then in college.
In school, we have one big advantage in building friendships - you have the same set of people in each year(Unless your parents had transferable jobs, well mine didnt..so i kinda did all my schooling in one single school) and your friendships have time to grow and mature...You start off with just friends to play games and fight, to forming your own groups later on, to taking credit and feeling on top of cloud nine to have a best best friend, then later you become a little more mature and realise that there is much more responsibilites to maintaining a friendship like trust and care.
The next big change comes when we leave school and join college. By this time we have a good ability to realise with which people we gel well...and with whom we dont..we form friendships based on our comfort levels...we are much more maturer and we accept all people who are good to us as our friends..The concept of best friends starts diminishing and the concept of close friends come in.
From college to Job, is again a change. Initially you have your friends from college also in the same work place..you add on more friends to the existing group as days go by and everything looks just like college...but no...we are wrong. In a few months we find our close gang of friends being shifted to many other work locations for new projects or for personal reasons(like marriage, higher studies etc). Initially you wont feel the change so much..but as one by one your friends starts moving on..you realize that change is inevitable. I am right now at this point in my life where I have many friends but the span of togetherness is probably just a few months. Afterwords you just cant be sure where you will be or where she/he will be.We are stil gonna be in touch with occasional mails and calls...but togetherness is only once in a while...
As you look back to school,college and workplace, school is the place which gives you the maximum amount of time for your frienships and these are friends who has actually seen you grow..College gives a little lesser time than school, but this is the time you make the most closest of friends..this is the time you actualy realise the importance of a friend as she /he sees you through your age of questions and doubts and confusions.Workplace is a place where you meet the maximum number of different people, and yes i agree we do make some very close friends out here also(well, i have) but this is where you can consider friendhsip as a basket which is never empty but...one which is always filled with different flavours as time goes by and none of the flavours are going to be in the basket for a very long time...
In my opinion, friendship is of one kind...and the basic rules apply to all friendships..
Whatever stage we are in..there is nothing that can fill the need of a friend.....and first and formost...You are your best friend...:)

A Talent indeed....

Well, today the account for which i was working for hosted a small get together with the senior manager who was supposed to come and speak to us and answer our questions. Usually i am not very interested in such meetings as most of the talks would be boring and esp when u have lots to code you just feel..its not a good idea to go and listen to the same old stuff..Neverthles..i just went.

We were all seated, and the senior manager walked in. Its the first time i am hearing him speak.
Right from the first word he spoke..till the end..i was never bored!. I mean may be its the way he spoke with little bit of humour, with the wits cracked, the 'right to the point' sentenses..,that made me observe the way he spoke. The way he formed his sentenses with the right words of the right clarity was amazing..the same things were not repeated and everything had a touch of humour. Somehow the discussion was very lively.

It is a very big talent to communicate effectively and also to make the listner enjoy while he listens:). I mean i would call him a true leader because of his communication skills...apart from the wide knowledge he has on the subject:)...

'Dont judge a book by its cover'

To reach my uncle's house in chennai, we have to follow a narrow road which has slums on its one side and temple, shops etc on the other side. And in between these there are wider roads that will take you to apartment blocks. I do pass through this road whenever i walk down to my bus stop. And the sight of the slums was not exactly very pleasant for me. I even wonder how people live in those tough conditions, in such tiny space. And it looks all crammed, and so i try not to look that direction as i walk.

For some personal reasons, i wanted to meet an old brahmin couple and one of my uncle's acquaintances helped us in finding this couple. It so happened that they stayed in the slum.
A set of houses in the slum had a common gate. As i walked through the gate i was totally surprised by what i was experiencing. I had expected to experience bad odour, dirty lanes, dirty water flowing etc.But what i found was neat lanes, nice agarbathi or smell of cooking food. I mean when u actualy look the houses had bad and broken floors and walls with paint peeling off..We reached this old couple's home and i must say, they have kept the house so clean inspite of all the short comings of their living environment.

There was one cot with no bed on it. 3-4 plastic chairs, buckets and a shelf with god's pictures and another room where i guess they hanged clothes. There was nothing like a kitchen or bathroom- or rather i guess i didnt see these from where i was sitting. But the neat and tidy house actualy give u a very warm feeling to heart.

I am almost into 600 pages of 'Shantaram' by Gregory David Roberts and there is a section in the story describing his life in the slum and it seemed like i was experiencing something directly from what was written in the book.....

The thaata(old brahmin grandpa) and the patti(grandmom) were there. The taatha was has lost one of his legs and he hardly speaks. But the paatti had a wide smile and she talks a lot. They offered nice warm tea and was very happy that we visited them. We took leave after a while.

It was a very pleasant experience and one that opened my eyes to see the 'world of people in slums' through a different angle.

'Dont judge a book by its cover'

Easiest Upperi!!!

'Upperi' is the mallu name for the dry side dish which we have for lunch along with rice. Its also named 'Poriyal', 'Thoran' etc etc. Well I thought i should try out something today.
And this is what i did...

Ingredients:
1.Carrots-3
2.Potato-2
3.Cabbage-1/2 piece
4.Onion-2

Cut 1,2,3,and 4 into small slices.
a. Heat oil in pan, add mustard seeds.
b. Add sliced ingredients 1,2,3 and 4 along with 'karuveppila'(dont know the english name for this)
c. Add corainder powder(1 tspn),chilli powder(1 tspn), turmeric(a little) and Salt(to taste)
d. Add a little water and allow it to boil(Close the pan and wait)

After a while, chck if the vegetables are cooked and then serve with rice:)

This hardly takes 15 minutes!!!
This is not a great dish...but just thought it would inspire people like me to start cooking at least:).

Please Note: I have done some cooking when i was in Shanghai....So i am no novice here:)(But still equivalent to novice)