Neeleshwaram days..

We moved to another place as Achan got transferred. I moved to another school. In the new school, I was really into games and sports. I used to skip my tiffin so that I could play during that time also. So it was more or less same in the new school as well.

Then we moved again to Koyilandy. I really loved being there. This time it was coz Mom was pregnant. I don’t know they explained it to me but the easiest way is to tell me that new baby is going to come to this world. I was really excited as I was going to get one more person to play with. I wanted a baby boy so that I could play cricket with him. Everyone asked me whom I want to have and I told everyone that I want a baby boy.

On Dec 30th we got a call from hospital informing us of the arrival of the new born baby and it was a baby girl. I think ever one except me wanted to have the baby to be a girl and God answered their prayer. I think I might have felt sad when I heard the news but little did we know that the little princess was going to charm life of all of us.

I really wanted to hold the baby and play with her but little did I know that I was not supposed to play with her at that time. I wanted the baby to grow faster so that I could play with her. I didn’t know that baby will take time to grow up.

My little sister was very sweet and cute. Since she was the first baby girl in my Mom’s family, she was always given a special treatment in the entire family. I really liked it as my little princess was getting all the love. I used to sit with her but when baby started to cry I was also very sad. Many a times I also started to cry when baby started to cry.

We moved to another place afterwards, this time it was to Neeleshwaram,near Kasargode. It was one of northern most part of Kerala. People over there were also quite different the people I had met till date. The language they used was much different from the Malayalam that I had heard till date. The influence of Kannada was too much in their Malayalam.

I don’t remember the exact name of the place in which we were staying at that time but I have faint thoughts of our neighbours. There was school master and his family staying quite close to us. How many kids did master had? I don’t remember the exact number but I guess there were 3 of them. All of them were much elder to me maybe 15-18 years to elder to me. So I was a very small boy compared to them, I was around 5 by then.

There was another neighbour who used to have small shop in front of their house. Aunty used to look after the shop and uncle was an auto-rickshaw driver. They had 2 boys who were maybe 5-7 years elder to me. So I used to play with them during my school days.

There was another neighbour who was staying on the left side of our house. Uncle used to be the ‘Velichappaatu’ in the nearby temple. I was not able to find the correct English word for ‘Velichappaatu’. He also used to do the cleaning work of the outside of nearby houses. The reason why I used to remember them quite well is coz of one incident. One day uncle was doing cleaning of one of the nearby ground. By mistake, he injured a snake and it seems the snake bite him. He fell unconscious and was taken to the hospital. Later that day, we heard that uncle passed away. I heard Amma saying that snake was not a poisonous snake. But then how did Uncle passed away? I was not able to find answer to that question then. Later Amma told me that uncle’s father had also died coz of snake bite. So he was afraid and he died of heart attack when he knew that a snake bite him.

I was asked to look after Kingini one day when Amma was doing some work at home. Kingini fell down from bed when I was playing with her. She started crying and I started crying even louder. Amma was all at sea as she was not able to stop both of us from crying.

There are few other people also whom I remember. One is our maid who used to come to our place every day morning. She also used to take me to school in the morning. During the lunch time, she used to bring lunch to me. All the others used to take the food which they brought from home. They used to take the lunch from the lunch box that they used to bring. I was always different from the rest J. I used to take lunch in the plate which she used to bring for me.

Last person whom I remember during the school days is the Principal of the school.I think her name was Swarnam. We were family friends and I always had that freedom with her. So I always used to run to her if I had any issues with anyone by-passing teachers. So there also I was special. She always used to tell Amma about the complaints that I used to bring to her notice.

More to come about my school days in the coming posts..

Nursery Time

I still remember how my day used to start when my parents decided to put me in nursery school. They decided to put me in nursery school when I was not even 3 years. Was it coz they were finding it too difficult to manage me at that young age?I wont find fault with them coz I was not easiest of the baby to manage at home.

"When it will be 12:30?", this was question with which I used to wake up when I was a kid? Any guess whats so special about 12:30. It was the time at which my classes ended when I was in nursery. So I was always longing for 12:30 every morning. That will sum uo my love for mursey school. The name of school was Eden School. Teachers were mainly Anglo-Indians. I do not remember many teachers who taught me at school at that time but how can I forget Mary Teacher.

Mary Teacher was my class teacher when I was in LKG. I never liked to see my mother leaving the school after dropping me. So once she was trying to leave me, I will start crying in school. So my teacher used to tell me to stop crying and pacify me. My class used to start with Mary Teacher's class. So she used to try to pacify me when I was crying. One day it was not working well and she was not able to pacify me. I think she lost her temper and she beat me with a small stick. U know what I did, I beat her back with my slate. That might have pained her also. So when Amma came to school, Mary Teacher told about this incident to Amma. No prizes for guessing what happened next.

When I was a baby..

Hi,

I was just thinking of going backward..Around 29 years back from this year..

The year 1980, that was the year when I was born. I was born on 21:18, June 16th at Koyilandy. According to malayalam calendar it was 2-Midhunam 1155. It was a monday, the day which I have always hated in my life from my school days. It was after saturday and sunday, our weekly holidays. Monday mornings were always tough for me as I did not like to go school those days. Now also,it remains the same. Instead of going to school, it is going to office that makes me distressed these days.

I dont remember much about my Pre-School days. Few things that I know are from what others told about me. But knowing what I am now, I think what they have told me is no exaggeration at all.

As a baby I used to cry a lot when I was hungry. When my mom used to feed me, I used to take milk till my little stomach was 100% full. Once that I was done, I was a happy boy. Then I will vomit a little before going to sleep. Did I used to sleep long, I dont remember nor anyone told me about it. Then after six months or so, I think my mom understood that I needed something more to fill me. So they moved to Cerelac which was the common baby food at that point of time. My mom used to tell that I used to finish one tin of cerelac in one week.So,no point in blaming me that I'm a foodie now,right? My parents should've thought of it while giving me cerelac and letting me finish one bottle in 7 days..:-) I couldn't say No then,right?? These things, I dont remember but I heard about this from almost everyone who used to be with me when I was a baby. I get great pleasure when all my relatives tell that my Adi is exaclty like what I used be when I was a baby!!So I try to understand more about me and how I used to behave as a baby by looking at my own baby.

I was very stubborn as a baby.(Not that I'm less stubborn now). Dad used to hold me when I was small boy, say around 1.5-3 yrs. I dont think I was a light boy then. So when dad used to get tired after holiding ,me for some time, he will try to keep me down and ask me to start walking. But you know, what I used to do?I will be standing the road without taking a step forward. My poor dad, will come back and take me again even if he was tired or his hands were paining. But I dont think I have inherited t that quality from my dad. If Adi's also going to be like me only then I'm going to have a to have a tough time with him. Maybe, I will also become a very patiant dad. U never know,right?

I remember I used to love biscuits a lot when I was a small boy. My parents used to keep a pack of biscuits near to my bed which I used to take in the morning.Did I take it after brushing or was it without brushing?I dont remember. But I have that thing in my mind now also.My love for biscuits.

My summer holidays

One of my favorite places in this world is Koyilandy.

I'm basically from Kollam (Koyilandy), which is 25kms away from Calicut.Since Achan was working in Moolamattom during my school days, we used to go to Kollam for all the vacations.

How many vacations did we have during the school days- Vacation for Onam, X'Mas, Summer Holidays etc etc. So whenever we had long holidays, we used to go to Kollam.I was always dying to go to Kollam for all the vacations. What all was missing in Moolamattom was there in Kollam. I am a kind of person who loves listening to stories and epics. So whenever I was there at Kollam I used to hear lots of stories from my grandma and many old people from my mom's family. I really loved going to temples at Kollam and there were 5 temples around our house at Kollam. Another important thing at Kollam was very big library that we had at home. I dont remeber what kinds of books that I loved as a kid, it has to be fiction. I also remember hearing stories from Mahabharatha in Amar Chitra Katha. Those books were really popular at that time. So most of my time at Kollam was spend listening to stories and going to temples. I am still the very same person at heart. Love going to temples, talking with elder people and listening to stories.

The vacation that I was looking forward most was summer holidays. Reasons are very simple

1- its a 2 months holidays

2- Ultsavam at Sharikavu

3-Vishu and associated Vishukkaineettam (http://www.malayalifestivals.com/malayalifestivals/vishu/aboutvishu/)

4-No tension of exam results as schools just used to publish results and marks were not displayed

5-All my cousins used to be there

How can I forget our cricket matches played infront of our house!!There were four of us and at times we used to include my sister(Kingini) also for playing cricket. Since it was played in front of the house many times ball used to hit the newly painted walls and we have broken glasses also couple of times.Got scolding from grandpa for that.I still remember those days as if it happened yesterday.

Also there was a big pond behind our house.It is called Kollam Chira. Chira in malayalam is for Pond in English.(I think so). We used to go there in the evenings and in the mornings for taking bath. I was really afraid of going there and trying my hand and swimming. Since I was really afraid of deep water, I couldnt manage swimming. I really wanted to do swimming as I was fascinated by the sight of people swimming in Chira. Slowly all my cousins learned swimming and I was left alone. Though all of them tried to teach me swimming I was really afraid. Funny thing is I learned swimming from a pool in US when I was around 26.

Another thing that I have not told anyone till date is about the last exam before the summer exams. We used to wait for the last exam before the summer holiday. During those days, last set of questions used to essays. There used to be 2 essays which we had to write. But when I was really sure that I will get pass mark without attempting the last essay, I used to skip them. I used to run out of the class after giving the answer sheet and join others who were already out before me. They also skipped the last essay like me,I dont know.

Whats in store for us??

Another funny thought that I always have in my mind-'whats in store for us'

It would've been great if we were able to come with the answer for this simple question,right?But thats one question only God Almighty can answer. We human beings feel that we are special creature and we have a thinking brain, we have this, we have that etc etc. We think that we are the best and we act as if we are something special.

But still we dont know whats in store for us in the very next moment. We are always in the run for something and thinking of tomorrow we fail to 'live' today. Is tomorrows more important than todays?Most of the problems that we face today are because we are thinking of tomorrow and not today. We will do everything in our hand to make our life smooth for tomorrow but does it mean that we will have a better tomorrow. Who can guarantee us a better tomorrow? Some life insurance company are having a caption like that though I dont remember the exact name of the company.

In my life also, I was just another ordinary guy in my student life. I remember I was really hardworking in my school days as the getting good marks in 10th was considered to be the most

important thing at that point of time. So I got good marks for 10th but I lost my focus on studies after joining the college. The freedom that came with joining the college changed my mentality at that point of time. It had a bad effect on my studies as well. Things were more or less the same during my engineering as well. At that point of time,I was focussed on getting good marks but never had a idea of real world. So I got good marks in college but couldnt get into a good company. I think I was much focussed while doing my masters as I knew it was one last chance for me.

Luckily I got in to an IT Company. It was my dream at that point of time.I always dreamt of traveling abroad but never had an idea when it would happen.But u know what happened, I got my first onsite opportunity after around 8 months of my joining new company. I was not the best of the lot but might be one of the luckier guys.After that I lucky enough to travel around the world and see many places that I had dreamt of. So was it coz I always dreamt that to happen? I really dont know. If that is the case all the dreams should come true,right? It doesnt happen that way either. Then is it a combination of dream + luck +x + y + z? Might be true as long as we dont try to put in values to x, y and z.

Back to office

Hello,

I am back at Trivandrum after another good weekend at home..Will not be to go home this weekend as we are going to Sabarimala this weekend..

Nothing great happened today at office. It was just a normal day at office,not hectic..

Today I thought it might be difficult for me to take my car so I had lost my parking slip. So I thought it migh take some time to take car from parking place. But instead guys were really helpful when I told them that I had lost my slip. They just took the payment and let me dry away with my car. So I reached home on time and later slept for some time.

I love cricket like any other normal Indian and today it is a final between India and Sriltanka.By the time I reached home, Indian batting was almost over. Indians have scored well-319 in 5o overs.So I expect India to win. But Lankans were also batting quite well in the beginning. So U never know in cricket with Indians.

I just had my food and I'm not feeling sleepy.I'm still watching the match though I dont think I will watch till the end.Its quite boring here for me. I washed car after reaching home. Kept my black beauty Santro all shining. I like to keep my car neat and tidy. I like to do it myself most of the times.

Back to my Home Town

Yesterday being another Friday,it was a really happy day for me. Start of yet another weekend..

I am back to where I belong,my apna Calicut. The kind of happiness that I get when I'm here, I don't get from any other place. For me its a night travel from Trivandrum to Calicut. These two places are approximately 425kms apart. The distance might not be that high for a person living in US or Europe where trains might take only 2-3 hrs to travel this distance. But in our part, train normally takes around 9.5hrs to reach Calicut from Trivandrum. So I plan my travel well in advance and book a ticket for Train No 6347- Trivandrum-Mangalore Express. The train leaves Trivandrum at 8.45 pm and reaches Calicut at 6.15am. Normally they reach on time and are seldom late.So this is my plan for most of the Friday's. Main incentive of coming to Calicut these days in spending time with my new born baby Adithya. My wifey is also here now along with my parents. So that makes my travels very special.

So I reached here today morning around 6.15am in the station.Took a bus to my place in Calicut which is around 5kms away from railway station. Getting into a bus and getting a seat was not that difficult at that time. But that's not the case if the time is 8.30am or afterwards. Made a call to my dad, just to make sure that he will be there to pick me up from bus stop. My house is around 1km away from bus stop. Such a lazy fellow I'm, that I ask my dad to pick me up the bus stop.

My Saturday mornings are for spending time with my Adi. My mom and wife constantly remind me to brush me teeth and have bath before playing with my 2-month old Adi. But i don't it do it that way. The moment I am at home, I will keep my bag somewhere and go to Adi. Before he used to welcome me with his crying, but he has started to welcome me with his charming smile.All girls beware- smiling assassin is on his way!!

Then normally, being a foodie, I will be heading towards fish market. We malabaris (people living in Northern part of Kerala) just love have fish for lunch along with rice. I am no different.But not this time as I'm following a strict diet for a piligrimage. For going to Sabarimala (Famous Hindu Piligrimage place of Lord Ayyappa in Kerala) all are supposed to follow certain special diet and follow vritham. For details of vritham, please check the site- http://www.sabarimala.org/pilgrimagesteps.htm. As far as my food is considered, I'm supposed to a strict vegeterian. So no fish or meat this time for me. We are planning to go to Sabarimala on 18th-Sep-2009. Few of my friends will also be with me for going to Sabarimala.

Adi is growing up really fast. Though I'm at home for almost every weekend, every time I see him, I can see some change in him. But that's how babies are,right? How was I when I was a baby?I don't remember much of it and so I have to go by what my Achan (Dad) and Amma (Mom) says.:-)They say I was not the easiest of the baby to handle like my sister. I used to trouble them a lot and I was really a stubborn kid. Even now, I'm like that only though people who are very close to me knows that.So my boy's supposed to be like that only,right? Only other chance of him being very easy going baby (I meant not being stubborn) is, my wife should not stubborn at all. But,,,we both are actually really stubborn.Does it mean that we both fight a lot??Very true but they don't last long..That's why we are a very happy family..

First Post

This being my first post, I dont think I'm going to write much today..

But as my Blog Title says, this is my mind and my thoughts.So can I stop my thoughts for the first day.I dont know.

Now its 08.30PM, 10-Sep-2009. There might be something special about this day,right?Otherwise, why would I start, putting my thoughts into paper today..So today has to be a special day..

Just like anyother person working in IT industry, I am really happy to be back home from work..Not that we are doing anything great in office but 90% of people working in IT industry will be thinking in my way,I'm sure.

I have heard that many of my friends write blogs, but I have not put my hand into it. I dont know why I am doing it now.I got a link to create a blog from one of my friend's blog and I thought of creating it. I thought creation will take some time but it was so simple that I was able to create it in 2-3 minutes.

The language that I'm using here might be very simple language and not like any of the authors whose books I've read. But the difficult part is keeping it simple,right? It might be simple for me but might not be simple for anyone else. If thats the case, then I've failed. I would like to keep this as simple as possible.