All that starts well need not end well !!!

Until recently, December has always been my favourite month... because i got married to the best person in december 2000 and every year, this month just takes me back to those sweet and lovely moments. this december too, started with all those lovely feelings and i even bought a small coral pendant to mark the completion of 11 wonderfull years... but the last week has been stressfull... one of my relatives suddenly had an illness which turned to be a nightmare... until now, even after a long operation and sincere prayers, he continues to be critically ill.... i have used the lines of Shakespeare earlier..." when sorrows come, they come in Battalions" . . . but this time i realised even more sincerely than ever that the tough time he had been going through.... not the best moment or month to remember ...

Shocking!!!

As we were returning by car from bangalore, we were just coming out of the elevated road and waiting for our turn to show the pass, we just saw a young woman coming out of the car, taking her young son in her hands and just crossed the divider of the road and walked out on the opposition side back towards bangalore.... initially i thought she is helping her 5 year old kid for a loo as she was climbing the divider... but realised she is upset with something inside and going on her way .... we could see the person seated in the driving seat trying his mobile and we assumed he is trying to call her . . . we were three inside and we just said now he will take a u turn once the pass is checked and will go back to take her....

as we completed our turn and he completed his turn on his lane, we could see him taking a u turn ... we were just wondering what could have happenned and the discussion went on like who could be wrong....

unfortunately as we all are men, could not think from a woman's perspective . . . though i tried to defend her action by saying, it is very difficult for a woman to walk down with a boy in a public place in the dark evening of 7.30, where anything could have happenned, a passing two wheeler could hit her as she was crossing the road emotionally..... i could still not believe things like this can happen between couples who look well educated . . .

where is this leading to? is it because young people lack patience? is it because they are too self confident among themself that they can survive without each other?? is it because they do not have enough time together to discuss their likes and dislikes?... is it just one among so many cases that are happenning every day??

what can force a young woman to walk out with a kid on a late dark evening without worrying about anything????

They are Wonderfull Days !!

i was in Avinashi to attend my Grand Father's younger Brother's 79th birthday completion and beginning of 80th year... only the first circle and close family members were invited and every one attended with great zeal and passion... The Avinashi house brought back wonderfull moments of my childhood where we use to stay for 7 days during the Avinashi Ther ( Car Festival )... this younger grandpa was really young some 30 years back and use to give us lot of Nongu ( palm tree fruit ).. we have to show him that we have skilfully eaten them using our fingers and only when he is convinced that we have done a good job he will give the next one.. ( should really appreciate his patience for sitting so long with kids ) along with us, neighbourhood children too will come and play. the week long, or some times it will go upto two weeks, car festival has shrunk to just 3 days these days and for my kids it is a history...

Guru Sakshath Para Brahmam !!

what ever i am today, i owe it to all who tutored me at every stage of my life... though it would be very very difficult to name them i just felt sharing some of the blessings by my school and college teachers and professors will be an attempt to thank them on the Teacher's Day !!!

Mr.Soman M.Sc., B.Ed.( Bishop Ubagarasamy Higher secondary school - Tiruppur )

One of the best mathematics teachers i have seen in my life who not only thought me mathematics but educated me how to enjoy maths... he showed great interest in making me a top scorer in my higher secondary level but to his disappointment i came 6th in the school though scored school first in the other two subjects except mathematics... after my usual after the exam meeting, he listened to my exam issues and said confidently i would score 181/200 and when i got the marklist it was exactly 181. . . when i decided to do akshrabyasam for my first daughter i wanted to have it done from him and we informed him just the previous night that we will come with our daughter... when we entered his house, he was preparing for his grand daughter's akshrabyasam... but immediately asked my daughter to sit and started saying being a mathematics teacher i would start with numbers rather than alphabets... He loved mathematics so much and i will always remember his saying, " Learning is an art. from known to unknown, easy to difficult "

Mr.Mohandass M.Com., M.Ed.,( Bishop Ubagarasamy Higher secondary school - Tiruppur )


My accountancy teacher in Higher secondary...he believed i can top score and loved teaching me everything and every time i scored centum he looked at me with passion and pushed me to do more... my accountancy exam was the easiest one and against his suggestions i started answering all the questions without choice and when i came out of the hall and said to him he got wild and said i missed a golden opportunity of scoring centum... to his greatest disappointment and to my shock i got only 195 . . in my later years when i was looking for college admission when all the admissions were over, he wrote a letter to me.... he had written, " instead of colleges looking for student like you, it is a pity you are running behind colleges for admission " .... after almost 18 years of my schooling, when i was standing in a railway station, he just saw me came to me and put his arm around my shoulders and asked me how are you sriram.... a great teacher with love and passion on his subject and care and affection with students like me...

Prof.Joseph Xavier M.Com., M.Ed., M.Phil., ( St.Joseph's College - Trichy )

It was first year for all students and interestingly first year of college profession for this fantastic man who was very open, cordial, caring , very very humble man with a great interest to teach... he use to teach accountancy to us in many ways.... when i was going through tough times in my college days he is one of the wonderfull human beings who showed care, affection and assured me of myself... imbibed confidence and in his special lecture to us on the last day said, " there are many wonderfull students here to whom without naming i request not to join any job immediately out of compulsion, but try and win this world with more hard work and attempt to make it to the next level " . . . i was not sure if he meant me in that list, but i joined an immediate job... when i invited him for my marriage, he called me on my marriage day and said it is his viva voce day for Doctorate and hence wished me over phone... a man who taught me how to be simple and polite.... ( though i feel i have not learnt yet ) ....

Prof. Lourdhusamy M.Com., M.Phil., ( St.Joseph's College - Trichy )

when i was just wondering if i will be able to win the hearts of an accounts professor with my knowledge i came across this wonderfull professor who had great knowledge in the subject and with authenticity taught us Advanced Accountancy... he said if we are about to do C.A., in the later years he assured, do this paper with passion and C.A. will be yours.... these words motivated me a lot and the results of the accountancy paper, turned the entire class to me with raised eyebrows... from then on the confidence was back and i enjoyed his special smile a look of acknowledgement and when everyone use to be afraid of going near to him, i was allowed by himself to question him and argue with him.... to this day, i owe it to him for all the confidence he had given to me in Advanced Accountancy.... though i never had the opportunity of testing my skills in C.A., or I.C.W.A., i never doubted my ability because of him....

Masilamani and Bharathi

these two persons where more than my seniors in my profession and i worked in a company for 11 years and the entire period was with them ( though mr.bharathi passed away in my 7th year with the company on a fatefull day of 23rd june 2000 ) these two people looked after me as their young friend or brother or son..... they taught me everything i have now in apparel industry and they encouraged me to visit europe alone and i will always remember those glorious days i was associated with them...

in the meanwhile i have come across other wonderfull persons in the form of nice friends, affectionate relatives, caring first circles, i keep learning from all and my children have now become my teachers and eye openers !!! May God Bless all of them !!

Morning walks with Ananya !!

i look forward to sundays where my younger daughter try to get up and join me for a short walk . . . to ensure i walk atleast for 10 - 15 minutes, i use to go by walk to buy milk pockets and daily paper and Ananya ( my younger one aged four and half ) will get up and join me for the walk. . . on one such wonderfull morning we walked to collect our milk pockets and from there we turned to proceed to a paper vendor . . . when we crossed an apartment, an empty swing was going up and down as i noticed a young boy jumped out of the swing and ran inside the apartment on his mother's call... Ananya did not notice the boy's movement and suddenly she saw, the empty swing going up and down... she commented with a little scary voice, " appa, enna ithu, Aanantha purathu veedu - la varra mathir swing thaniya aaduthu??" she referred to a movie which showed the swing moving up and down due to the presence of ghost!!.... i laughed out loudly and explained to her that a boy just jumped out of the swing and ran in....after we collected the paper, we were walking back to home in a different path...as we crossed a house talking on so many things, an elderly women standing near the gate asked, " ennamma, nayam balama irukke!!? ", and asked, " un peru enna?? " .. ananya replied and the old grandma could not hear properly, she asked, enna, saranya va??.. As ananya's voice could not give the grandma a clear idea, i interrupted and said, ANANYA !! ... as we walked out, ananya asked, " appa, why this patti is asking every time my name and that too wrongly?? " !!!... as we were nearing our street, we crossed the Dalmatian dog house... the house which had a Dalmatian dog... there were 3 street dogs in front of the house . . on looking at them ananya asked, " appa, intha 3 dogum, Dalmatian doga pakka wait pannutha?"... throughout the walk, it was full of interesting questions and answers and the morning mood was very relaxed after that... as we reached home, i just thought can i take her for some more walk in another area... but my enthusiasm to share these things with my wife, pushed me into our apartment and we all had a wonderfull beginning of a very nice sunday !!!

SCRABBLE - the word power game

i could not recollect what made us to start playing SCRABBLE.... it began one evening, me, my wife and my 9 year old daughter started playing it... to our surprise, our daughter introduced some words we have not come across and also explained the meaning of it...Like every parent, we were excited by her vocabulory and from then on, the word power game occupied an important list in our to do list.. On rare occassions she outscored us and our excitement grew more and more !! the younger one, yet to complete 5, was given an option to select letters she liked so that she can form the words she knew...that will be like a preliminary game and she too seems to enjoy !! as days go by, i just regret, why dont we have a similar game in our mother tongue ( Tamil ) !!

Oh !! it is Saturday !!!

the weekly H.O.D meetings scheduled on saturday - post lunch makes me nervous most of the times. either i am ill prepared for it or i just wonder what type of questions i will have to answer !! it is almost 8 such meetings after i joined this new company and only now i am feeling atleast 50% confident . . . Hope i will be able to handle it much better in the coming weeks !! have a very nice week end !!