wow factor

!!WOW!!- FACTOR

Saroj, my friend called out her teenage daughter Amrita, to go for an evening walk in the park nearby their house. In no time there were at least eight questions by the little one. Amrita wanted to know whether there was any WOW FACTOR!! in the park. Saroj was little surprised about the kid’s expectation. Why should one try to look for a wow factor everywhere that too in a park!!  She took a pause and was thinking for logical answers to fit wow factor. Amrita was quick enough to give an explanation for the same. Ma, everybody in today’s times especially my generation look for a wow! factor. It has become an important entity in our life. Infact, you taught me to look for it. There has to be a WOW factor everywhere. It need not be of the level of 5 star hotels. It can range from a visit to a zoo, a fashion show, shopping mall or even a Sunday buffet. Dear Saroj was totally confused and wondered about the clarity in the demand of her daughter. She was eager to meet me to share her new found WF(wow factor) We were debating for a long time about the importance of WF in our life. Very interesting things came out by the end of our discussion.

WF influence people in many ways. Looking back, even I look for WF in my daily routine. A slight change in daily life with pleasant surprises here and there adds wings to life even if it a for a temporary phase. I am sure one can dance for a few moments if he/she gets to hear good morning from their own family members once in a while. The same family members say good morning at least twenty times to their friends/bosses/colleagues within an hour of their getting up.

Wow factor automatically pops up when you are told to just chill and not do a single job for the day. A well dressed salad and soup served to you when you are lazing in the lawn has to be followed by WF either to the God or the family member who wanted you to feel good.

I embark on WF when there is a change of place, environment, people and their attitude (for good)new discoveries and quality time given by my friends to me. There is a WF if I am successful in reading doctor’s handwritten (sorry doctors!, not all are bad) prescription and get the right medicine from pharmacy!! You must have sighed with WF when you saw politicians and VIPs reaching venue at right time.

Nature, the ultimate healer facilitates so much for WF. It is just that we take something for granted. Sunrise and sunset from any hill station or a seafront has to send the signal of WF.  Seasons, Colours, music, sweet talks, genuine care, mission to make a difference in somebody’s life register WF as one of the key factor which keep us going.

Simple surprise gifts or parties call for WF elevates the existence of an individual. It feels more wanted, respected and loved.  Generation of today is taught to look for this factor. I agree with saroj’s daughter. She said it aloud. I guess we keep it ourselves and grumble.

I see WF as two sides of a coin. One to creat WF to somebody whom we care. Other, to receive it in the same spirit. Natural attitude and smile(both are free of cost)of my neighbors, colleagues, people who matter to me and do not really matter to me make me feel that I can bank on this world for it is full of WF. More I see WF, more is sense it makes to life. I see the same life through a different frame.  The second one is to receive. This is nothing less than a magical tonic which can bring about drastic changes in our regular mindset.  Finally, it is just one simple and sensible action that brings about WOW factor in every deed that we do. I can bring a rainbow in my life at my will. WOW is my latest asset. How’s that!!

sau putravathi bhava!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 SAU PUTRAVATHI BHAVA

 That day was a special day for Namita and her daughter Nisha. It was Nisha’s first day in the college. Both were exited. They did a bit of shopping for her first day.  Only difference was that it was Nisha’s  first day of teaching. Namita was all exited that her little daughter was going to teach in the college. She was eagerly waiting for her daughter.

Nisha comes back home and makes just one statement. Ma! I got 25 kids today. They are going to give me 75 more kids with in a week’s time. SoI am targeted to get  100 kids altogether.  Namilta is puzzeled. R..Are.. you sure you went to the r..right college?  Did I hear that you get 100 k..kids altogether. Namita was expecting a very different experience like her interaction with students, teachers, lively atmosphere and the feel at the canteen -heart of campus from her daughter.  Pouring coffee from the kettle, Nisha confirmed that whatever she said was absolutely correct. She is yet to explore the canteen part as a teacher. Nisha told her mom that college atmosphere has undergone a sea change.  There was a long pause.

 I guess they both remembered that one small incidence over which they talked for hours together. Namita and Nisha, like any other mom and daughter used to have bitter argument about the famous blessing “Sau Putravathi Bhava”. They used to ponder over the blessing and it’s actual possibility. Today , this little girl Nisha who is in twenties is already  blessed with 25 kids, that too on the first of college and 75 to be added very soon.

There is nothing funny about it. These days every teaching faculty is blessed with at least 100 kids. They are directly responsible for the kid’s(college student) welfare.  A teacher requires to play multiple roll for each kid. Apart from teaching, she /he is supposed to know each kid, their social status, about their family background etc. Teacher keeps a record of her kids especially the medical one(which is on a high scale) She has to track their record outside college campus, adjust to the mood swings and set right broken relationship (if any)

It is well appreciated if teacher can give extra time outside the college campus also. Teacher is supposed to play the role of a liaison office between the student and their parents as well as between the student and management. Every month the teacher sends the reports of her students to the parents as well as management.

Coming to the point of ‘Sau Putravathi bhava’ meaning may you be blessed with hundred children, we can relate the blessing to be more apt for teachers in today’s scenario. Only difference is that they are blessed with boys and girls if it a co.ed. college an d only girls if the college is only for women.  A teacher spends an average of 8 to 10 hours on the allotted students. Concern about those kids is always the first priority. They are entertained at home also (some times with their parents) Their birthdays are important dates in a teachre’s calendar. I wonder in what way they are different from a teacher’s own children?

Namita and Nisha were so engrossed in the pause that they had be shaken to bring them back to our world. They were seeing new dimension of age old blessing. You need to treat all kids like your own. You need to understand their point of view like you try to understand your own children.  Think the best for them. Do not feel bad when they do not say bye to you at the time of leaving college. You did your best to make a good citizen and that is the beauty of a mother or rather a teacher.

Mrs. Srilakshmi swamy

hari sadu

H A R I S A D U

I managed to reach home the other day from my work place feeling very low. I did have a couple of encounters with known and unknown people. I could not figure out the reason whether I was physically exhausted or mentally drained. I also knew that I had to attend to many other jobs at home and I had to cheer myself up at the earliest. I decided to keep to myself for some time and watch TV for a while to elevate my mood. Casually I was flipping through channels and Lo!! I happen to see the same advertisement in at least five channels.  Your day can’t be better that this, I told and closed my eyes. What an advertisement to see when you are feeling so low in life. H for Hari..,A for A for Arr…R for Ras.. I for Id…

I started thinking of HARI SADUS I met in my life that day.  Probably they were six of them at different times. My thinking started going in a different track altogether. If a meet five Hari Sadus’s a day I met one hundred and fifty of the month and scores go beyond thousands in a year. Oh God ! Quite a huge number I thought. My imagination went wild and I started seeing only HARI S… whom I met. Just imagine! All of them standing in front of you and reminding you of the victory over your helplessness. The list was like the Bank manager, TC of railways, manager of airlines, the bosses, security guards at religious places, personal assistants and drivers of politicians, police personals, students who hit your car and damage their vehicle, and many more. I did not dare to open my eyes to see them. Am I surrounded by so many HARI S.. or they had to act in front of me was one thing that was not clear to me.

Suddenly I heard a thunder like sound around me as though some body is waking me up from a deep Trans. That was my inner mind asking me an explanation on how many times I had been HARI S…  M..mm.. mm..me! Yes you dear. Now that you have counted number of them in your life, better be truthful and come with number times you had been HARI S…

A confession box I am in, I thought. I started counting my role as HARI S…  as though I had been hypnotized to do so. I must have been a big time  Hari S… duing childhood days of children. At one point of time or the other I must have been the same with my husband and other family members. I must have been like that when I saw postmaster having tea instead of clearing my bill and I had only five minutes to reach my work place.

I..I do not remember being a Hari S… at my work place. Never the less, I too had crossed a score of thousands of tens.

Lord! What a day I thought. At the same time I started feeling good to pour in front of zero audience. I was feeling a bit better. I came out of trans and the first thing I wanted to do was reframe HARI SADU. H for humble, humorous, A for accommodative, R for reasonable and rewarding and I for I am with you all the time

about roots

ABOUT ROOTS

Back home, I am not able to sleep. Pin drop silence scares me. I am guided to think more about India, my parents, old age and I am really feeling lost. These were the words of Priya, a cousin of mine who came for a short visit to India. Her main purpose was to visit her old parents and in-laws. Ten days of her stay gave her so much to think that she is not able to sleep back home!!

She spent her first two days in adjusting to time zone, climate, visiting malls, eating home food and all that. Her parents had planned a nice outing for her for the next three days. Fully air-conditioned taxi could not make her feel wow about the whole trip. On the way, she appreciated some developments and at some points she took a deep breath to gulp in status of some places that remained the same even after 20 years. She spent two more days watching her parents getting busy with daily rotinue.  She sees them as two fairly heathy old couple doing their part of the jobs at fixed timings.  There were visited by their friends and relatives, some with prior intimation and some without it. She saw that her parents had time for themselves, immediate neighbors and even for those who visited on a very short notice. There was a constant activity round the clock. She observed that there was less of formality and more of how you can help others also to be independent.

Her last destination was a two day visit to her in law’s place before she took off her to her home –USA. She was given a warm welcome by the maids who looked after the oldies. These oldies, over the years had come to terms that they cannot depend on their children for petty things. They were very comfortable with maids. In fact, they had more to share with them rather than the daughter-in-law who was a mere guest for a short time.

With all these mixed feelings, memories and a void in stomach, Priya boards the flight.  She has ample time to analyze her trip to India. She looks inwards for an answer. Lot of changes have taken place. Journey seems unending. She sees something like a motion picture. Life style of senior citizens keeps flashing in front of her screen.  She gets to see many more oldies whose children are abroad. It was like pages of book flipping on its own.

Senior citizens have adapted to changes. They have come to terms with ongoing system of working around them. Almost all of them have  stopped cribbing, they do not complain, do not have any demands and so on. With open arms they embraced many more things for survival. Their main focus is to remain happy and healthy for today. They want to be of some use to someone. Big smiles flash when someone gives them their time. All pains, loneliness and fear for future are forgotten.  All they require is the time and the precious time of their children. In return, they shower blessing and wish good for the entire human breed.  Thinking of roots is just natural for anybody. At a particular point of life, roots flash in a big way.  I feel that giving time to roots today is the bonus earned for tomorrow.

Mrs. S. L. swamy

lost identity

LOST IDENTITY

I could not take my eyes off the bold letters in the news paper. “India tops the list of hear t related diseases”.  Not a  good news, I thought. These days, India is making waves at global level. Hosting of common wealth games, Obama’s recent visit and winning some gold medals in Asian games is also very well understood. Even 2G scam, Adarsh scam can be reluctantly tolerated. Being on top of the list in the unhealthy reasons are really is definitely a cause of worry. It is not a good sign at all. I felt like whatever little we had, even that is lost. I guess, somewhere all of us are the players in this scam.

A developing country does look up to developed nations for guidance.  In the process of following their footsteps, we are blessed with an unusual package of deterioring health? A spine chilling effect is experienced when media and newspaper give statistical figures of hospitals across the country. Where is this leading to? What are we doing with ourselves?

I happen to travel by train for more than sixteen hours. Among other co-passengers, there was a well-to-do, fairly modern and charming couple in their forties. Their oversized bag of eateries could not be hidden from co passengers. It sent several questions in mind too. My mind started weaving possible stories behind the bag. I got an answer at lunch time. By then, they were talking to me in a very friendly manner.  Out, came a small medical kit followed by lunch boxes. Wife gave a shot of insulin to husband, in turn he popped four capsules in to her mouth. Their lunch box contained sandwiches of wheat bread, boiled vegetables, salad and flask of tea with sugar free packets.  Same kind of food packets were kept for dinner too.  I felt my mind telling me see dear, they have all the money to buy royal food but they are stuck with royal diseases. Age is no bar these days. Anything any can happen to any body at any time and you do need a reason for it. Hmmm! A sorry state indeed! You can very well understand if this was the case with sixty plus people.  Forty plus is that age when you kind of settled your children well in the school, given your quality time to family members and it is time to explore the world bit by bit.

Puzzled expression of my face forced the husband to talk about their personal life. The couple was techies by profession. Their job involved lots of touring, unusual timings, meeting the deadlines and so on. Initially they enjoyed every bit of it. Touring helped them explore the world, taste different foods, meet interesting people and so on. Back in the office, it was a 10-14 hour job. Hard work and enthusiasm definitely led both of them to higher position in a comparatively lesser span. They were basking the arena of top bosses and high profile society.

Husband’s company asked the couple to for annual medical checkup. It was just a routine work.  By evening the couple goes to collect the progress (I mean medical) report and see figures with stars in most of the tests (the figures were either below or above the range) Advanced tests confirmed the medical problems. Same day they were awarded the title of permanent patients with at least 3 ailments. 

Couple found it difficult to come to terms that they have to depend on those multicolored tablets for their survival. Medical kit and emergency number of doctors became permanent members of the luggage.  Touring job, which used to refresh them once upon a time became cumbersome and hectic.

This trip with me was on of those unavoidable ones. They are happy about one thing that they are still better off compared to their counterparts in the office. My eyes remained wide opened!!!! They said  that the survey is absolutely true. Only 2 out of ten could be healthy in forties!

I became restless. I wanted to go for directly for a medical check up from the station instead of going home. Just wanted to see which category I fall in to. I keep my fingers crossed!!

GOD WHERE ARE YOU

GOD!! WHERE ARE YOU? GOD!!

Student community has a lot of complaints. They are young, energetic, have a lot of commitments. Their expressions are very natural. They need not have full control over their vocabulary. They just do not like two things as I know. First is the so called pravachan( I mean, do this and don’t do this) by parents and long lectures by teachers. Not that they are bad. They are very good to talk to, helping nature and many more adjectives can be added. Such group of students select college canteen to vent out their feeling by the end of the day. I happen to be silent observer and I present you the way they remembered God!

Lights, Camera, Action, sound!! Start………….

Note: I- means a set of boys and girls

First year students: Tomorrow I have three submissions. God, I confess that I did not do my homework, but you please help me & don’t leave my side during my classes. Do some miracles. Can’t you motivate my friends for a mass bunk… think of some thing God please, Try to understand me. I had so many jobs to do apart from these assignments. Fortunately I got a nice girl friend.(Keep this secret please. I am the last one among my friends to have a girlfriend) I had to watch 3 idiots with her to prove myself that I am an universal idiot. Next important task was to attend Sonu, my best friend’s birthday party. Tell me God how can I miss it? He was throwing a party in a nice restaurant with DJ and all that. I can’t give all these excuses to my teachers. God, I will not repeat this again. Leave your other jobs and be with me tomorrow so that I am given extension for submission of assignment.

Second year students: All I can remember is the way both sir and ma’m gave a dead line for assignment. That moment I thought that they kept their hearts at home. That is why they are not accepting any excuses. We have only 24 hours with us. How can they(teachers) be insensitive? Agreed, the assignments were given last week. We too have our schedule. Oh God!!! I don’t know what I am going to do. Last Week I was so busy. I had to watch two fashion shows. So what if I do not take part in the fashion show. I had to look good and be well dressed. So a visit to the beautician and boutique was a must. How could I finish my assignments? God, can you think of nice convincing plan please? Think of some emergency leave for teachers or can you send some body from ADCC for AUTOCAD demonstration? I will personally come visit you in the temple. Take care of me dear God. Do not let me down please!

Third year students: What a hectic day yaar. It was a never ending lecture. All I understood was that we have been given three days to submit the case study of the project. How can teachers be so ruthless? At least they should have asked us the dates. It is only two days left for valentine’s day. I have to organize so many things. Red roses for her(my sweet heart ha ha ha!) booking for a movie and dance party. A well laid plan is totally disturbed with pin up jury. God, this is not fair. I waited 364 days for this day I want you to help me at any cost. Get it cancelled for my sake please. Can you think of lecture by practicing architect, or  bring some body from Birla white or let other classmates convince the teachers for cancellation of jury. See, I am giving you ideas. Think about it and tell me. Don’t spoil my valentine’s day please.

Forth year students: Today’s classes were historical I must say. For a moment I though that today is the last day of the session.  They gave four assignment and time limit of 48 hours. What do they (teachers) think of themselves? Agreed, that a hint was given to us last week. God, seriously, we were too busy last week. Weddings in the family, shopping, relatives came from abroad plus irresponsible juniors. We had told them to help us. They gave a royal ditch to us. God, you are the only one who can take care of the situation. Please show some magic on the day of submission. Send our teachers for some training programme, keep them so busy that they give extension automatically. You can even think of sending them for a shot holiday or organize blood donation camp. I am sure one of these options is going to work. Sorry God I will not repeat this. Take good care of me.

Final year students: How boring the class was, I was so sleepy in the class. Only one thing got registered in my mind that we have to give the synopsis for thesis and seminar in the next18 hours. It appeared that all the teachers were just waiting for us so that they could impose somethings on us. I know only one thing that I have to design mental hospital. With in a day if I do not give synopsis, I will end up in mental hospital. God! Where am I landing? Yes it was told to us to keep all  these things ready in advance. We are also helpless. We are yet to come out of our training phase and we are loaded with synopsis assignment. I can’t risk for final submission. I have already booked 8 junoirs for my project. (thanks to increase in strength of college)  January and February are the most happening months. We have go for picnics, live rock concerts, cricket matches, handicraft exhibitions and  sa re ga ma Pa auditions and so on. All of them are time consuming. How can I think of aims and objectives of my project with so much of distraction? I admit that it is my mistake and I am sorry for that. 

God, I will have a straight dialogue with you. I am seriously steady with my classmate. I am managing that front also. Delay the sunrise tomorrow or go for unusual rains. You can think of  shortage of petrol, Maharashtra Bandh, or conduct a workshop in the college, motivate the teachers to play cricket or you can even think of campus interview. My reputation is at stake God. I hand over my self to you. Take care of my synopsis  and my teachers.

As the students finished their heart to heart talks they started walking towards parking lot. I too get up from my seat with the same question God!! Where are you? I am also waiting to see your miracles.

         Mrs. SRILAKSHMI SWAMY