Would have been nice to have this in India too.

Today morning, I got this email from my colleague in Japan.

________________________________________________________
Sub : Japanese spring holiday season

Biju-san,

Japanese spring holiday season begin. Our office is closed from today to May 11.
I will check the email occasionally.

Regards,
Hiroshi.
________________________________________________________

That's a long closure of 11 days. 11 days of no work, no emails, no deadlines etc.
Time to spend with family and loved ones. Time to relax and recharge your batteries.

All I could do was envy him. And wonder why we do not have something on these lines
in India. The Europeans (and most American organisations too) have the long year-end
vacation of around 10 days that starts just before Christmas and ends with the New Year.

In India, you have to fall in either of 2 categories to get a long vacation. Actually a much
longer vacation than even what is mentioned above. You need to be either a student or
a teacher in a school/college to be able to enjoy an almost 2-month vacation every year.
One of the things I envy my 2 sisters and brother-in-law for, as the 3 of them are teachers.

It would actually be nice to have this kind of closed vacation for organisations too. Maybe
the Indian companies could align their holidays with those of the countries that they do
business with or where they have their headquarters. In my case, we are an American
company and I guess it would make sense to have our annual closure around the same
time that they have theirs - Christmas to New Year.

Oh, yeah. If wishes were horses, ......

The scowl doesn't suit you, girl.

Due to the way we do things at a set time daily, we come across some people on a daily
basis and due to the regular occurence of the event, it is inevitable that we notice them.
Since I prefer to avoid rush-hour traffic, I ensure that I am at work by 9AM and just in
time for breakfast to be served in the pantry. At that time, there are a few colleagues
who drop in for breakfast on all workdays.

One's a Mallu guy who is not an employee, but working on a short assignment here. And
then there are two women colleagues who bring breakfast from home, but eat it in the
pantry because they leave from home too early to have breakfast.

One of them is a young girl and currently the rage among the male crowd in office due to
being attractive (what else?), young & last but not the least due to having a great figure.
The other colleague must be in her late twenties, married & just had a baby few months
ago. While both these women have really cute smiles, what separates the latter from the
former is that she always has a smile on her face. So much that I have initially wondered whether her face is like that.

Until today morning, I have never seen her without a smile playing on her lips. Whether
she is talking to someone or just working at her PC, the smile is always there. I would
wonder what she must be thinking to have a smile on her lips perpetually. Maybe about
her newborn kid or something good happening at work (our organisation had handed out
hefty raises inspite of the recession) or something else.

So, it was suprise to me when today morning she walked into the pantry minus the usual
smile. Infact she was wearing a scowl. Not only did it not suit her, it seemed so removed
from what I had associated about her. Since we work in different teams and never had
the chance to interact, it would be really odd if I just walked over and enquired about the
scowl on her face. Inspite of the curiousity that was killing me.

So, I dismissed that option & started wondering why this radical change - maybe a fight
with her husband or some issue with her in-laws or something at work (a good raise alone
does not make for happy working environment for many people) etc. Anyway, whatever
be the reason, I hope she gets rid of that scowl soon because not only does it not suit her,
but she looks better her usual way with a smile playing on her lips.

I envy people who always smile or can laugh even for small things. I can't even manage a
smile for a photograph, let alone go around with a perpetual smile. So, if any of you reading
this are the smiling type, keep doing it inspite of any temporary problems that you might
be facing. Recession, slow-down not withstanding, all problems can be solved and not worth
walking around with a scowl.

Beauty treatments that cost you serious bucks in the city, come for free here.

I was at Kerala last weekend after a long gap of 3 weekends that I skipped, because my wife
and son were at Chennai for a long vacation around the Easter holidays. One 'ritual' that we
follow on all weekends that I am at Kerala is for the 3 of us to take off on my wife's Scooty &
try to explore a new place in the neighborhood.

Oh yes, there are so many places in just a 2-3 km radius of my home that I never even knew existed. We even 'discovered' an island in the neighbourhood - ofcourse a post on that still remains in my mindspace, with the snaps resting on my laptop, yet to make an appearance
here in cyberspace. Hopefully will do it soon if work permits - since I took on an additional
project at work, it has been crazy at work - have been living in the office on most days.

Yesterday, it had been kinda hot all day and after a short afternoon siesta, we thought the
best thing would be to take a dip in the river, instead of roaming around on the bike. Since
my son loves it and I also enjoy the coolness of the water, we went to the usual spot near
my friend's home for 30 minutes of water-fun.

I have been bringing my son to the river since he was just 6 months old and even then while lying in my arms on the water surface, he would instinctively paddle his feet. I would wonder
how he would do this instinctively (he being too young then to understand even if I asked him
to do), while it was such a big task to make my nieces do the same, when I was trying to teach them swimming.

A picture of me holding my son while he splashes around in the river :


Ofcourse now that he is older, he does not want my arms holding him and wants me to just
leave him alone in the water, which I cannot do because while he thinks the river is just a
bigger version of his bath-tub at home, the fact is that it is much more dangerous. So, inspite
of him trying his best to remove my hands off him, I ensure that he is safe.

When my nieces are around, we usually venture a little away from the shore, given that they
are taller. But with my son, it is enough that we stay just a metre or so away from the bank of the river. So I sit on the powdery sand in the river with water till my waist, while the water
level is enough for my son to play yet be safe.

I can see schools of small fishes roaming around freely - they are called Yettai / Mushi in the
local language. I guess the English nomenclature would be 'catfish'. It looks very easy to catch them with your bare hands, but when you do try, they slip away easily. I have once caught a bigger version of this fish with a fishing rod.

A picture I got from the net which has the closest resemblance to the fish I mentioned above,
though have to admit that the small ones I see are more muddy in color than yellow. But the
bigger one I caught was yellow in color - so maybe a color transformation takes place when
they mature.



As I sit there in around 1 feet deep water, watching my son thrash around in the water, I feel something nip at my legs. It's these small fish that are pecking away at my feet. Usually they target dead skin on your feet or any open bruises. I had an almost-fully-recovered bruise on
my leg due to shoe-bite & forgot that I should have covered it with a band-aid before entering the river. Ofcourse, it is too late, because the fish have pecked the bruise open.

I am reminded of the 'Fish pedicure' that's offered by some beauty parlours (wellness centres)
in Chennai. They basically have a big bowl of water with fish in it & you put your legs in it for
30-60 minutes. The fish peck away at your dead skin and supposedly make your feet skin younger. Don't know how much they charge for it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they charged anything between 500 & 1000 bucks for this pedicure, depending on how upscale the centre is.

And back home, all you need to do is sit in the water and let the fish do the work for free. Just ensure that you do not have any bruises on your legs. Next time around, I should bring along
a chair so that my wife can sit on the shore and have a pedicure done, while me and my son
thrash around in the water.

That time of the year. Again.

It's that time of the year in Chennai when the sun is burning down ferociously, making humans,
animals & plants feel like they are being deep fried. I have seen around 20 Chennai summers,
but every time it feels like a new experience.

February onwards itself, we Chennai-ites start bracing ourselves for the 'hot-oven' experience.
Mentally we try to get prepared for the deep-frying, but when it actually hits us, it seems like
it never was so hot before and this is the first time summer was so hot. Ofcourse we I.T. guys are lucky that we work in air-conditioned environs and do not have to face the harsh weather.

Usually I reach office before the sun gets into hi-temp mode, even if it means sacrificing sleep.
But today, I dozed off after hitting the snooze button on the alarm and thus ended up leaving
home only at 9:30AM, which is a double whammy because apart from it being very hot, it is
rush hour and my commute that normally takes 45mins becomes almost double that. And to
top it, I was commuting by bike today, which means no air-conditioning.

Only silver lining was a quick break mid-way to catch up with an old friend, but that again did
not turn out as expected, leaving me more mad. It is in such times that I seriously start
thinking of moving out of Chennai and starting something new (even if it is small) in Kerala.
Not that Kerala is the epitome of good weather, but atleast it is not as bad as Chennai and also
there are the occasional showers which cool up the place. Don't know when this dream of mine
will ever materialise.

For us in Chennai, maybe we can take consolation in the fact that even Bangalare, the metro
with great weather round the year is roasting currently. It is so bad that my friend who has
been in Bangalore for 10 years has ordered 2 air-conditioners for her home. If a few years
ago, you even mentioned Bangalore and air-conditioner in the same sentence, you would have
had people laughing at you. Guess, we are seeing Global Warming at play.

Here's someone who dreams cars. And I thought loving and living cars was great.

11PM - Tue, 14/Apr/09 :
Have just returned from a busy day at work and had a quick dinner with my wife. My son
stayed up till 10PM waiting for me, but slept off after that. For a kid who hits the bed at 8PM
or so, 10PM is already too late. Had planned to be home atleast by 9PM so that I could spend some time with him, but as usual some last minute stuff needed to be attended to.

Anyway, since it is April and with Chennai in summer mode, it is sultry even at night. So I
decide to take a quick shower. Halfway through the shower, the power goes off & the whole neighborhood is plunged in darkness. Inspite of its faults, one good thing about Chennai was
the reliability as far as electric supply was concerned. In my 2 decades here, power failures
have been very rare and even in those rare instances, it is restored quickly.

This is so unlike Kerala, where apart from the announced load-shedding of 30 minutes daily,
there are atleast 2-3 suprise power cuts, lasting for a few hours. Ofcourse in the last year or
so, even Tamilnadu has been facing power shortage and they have had to resort to planned
load-shedding in Chennai & other places.

My wife was reading the newspaper when the lights went off. I verbally guide her to where
my phone is so that it's display can be used as a light source for her to get candles & matches.
As I finish my shower and get to the bedroom, she already has a candle lighted. I know that
in a few minutes my son will get uncomfortable with the cool air of the airconditioner being absent and start crying. So, I fan him with a magazine.

I assure my wife that power will come back soon, but even after 10 minutes there is no sign
of it returning. Every few minutes I fan my son with the magazine so that his sleep is not interrupted, with my wife asking,"How long will you keep fanning him ? All night?"

When I almost gave up hope of a good sleep that night, the power comes on. As I tell my wife, "See, this is because of good-hearted people like me..", the power goes off again, as if proving
me wrong about me being good-hearted. My wife has the last laugh here.

Again, it is back to sultry weather and to add to the discomfort, some mosquitoes are buzzing around. WhileI cannot sleep with mosquitoes around (I need to kill them all before I hit the
bed), my wife has no such issues and she is soon asleep. I lay awake thinking of various things - my Uncle who passed away yesterday, the void his loss would leave for his family, some stuff
at work etc - and in between remember to fan my son.

My thoughts are broken by my son stirring in his sleep. He turns over in his sleep and talks in his sleep.I have heard him talking in his sleep earlier also, but could not make out the words. Now that his speech has improved a lot & become more legible, I can hear the 2 words clearly. He says "Baleno car".

In the evening, I had talked to him over the phone and told him that after I return from work, we will go out in the Baleno. I wonder if he was dreaming about this in his sleep and thus his uttering these 2 words. Now this truly is a car mad kid. I know that most boys are from a very young age crazy about cars & bikes, just like baby girls are crazy about dolls. But this guy is on
a different plane altogether. If I were to compile all the words he says in a day & rate them on which he says most, I think the list would look something like "Baleno car", "Tittu car", apart from the other most used ones like 'biju pappa' & 'neena mummi'. 'Tittu' is how he pronounces "Swift' and on the road, he can identify a Swift when he sees one. Ofcourse, when it comes to Baleno, any car with a boot is a Baleno as far as he is concerned.

At my auto-forum, we have a set of stickers available to be stuck on our cars and one of the stickers has the tagline "Love cars. Live cars". But here is someone who even dreams of cars.
I hope I am able to make it early home today evening, so that I can take him out for a drive
in his "Baleno car".

Not a Vishu I would like to remember.

Today is Vishu in Kerala and New Year's day (or Chittirai Thirunnal) in Tamilnadu. It is
supposed to be a day for good beginnnings - generally a day with good things associated
with it. Though it did not turn out that way for me.

At around 6AM today morning, my cellphone rang. A very unusual thing for my phone to
ring at that time of the day. I am sleeping with my son cuddled close to me. I drag myself
from the bed and irritatedly look at the number & see that it is my sister calling from Kerala.

I hide my irritation and take the call. My sister has called to inform me of the demise of one
of my paternal uncles (my Dad's first cousin). He died in his sleep last night. I knew that he
was not keeping well (kidney trouble) for the past few days and that he was hospitalised, but never thought it was serious enough to be fatal.

I don't know his exact age, but guess that he would have been in his late sixties. Not really
old enough to depart from this world, especially in this day and age, when medicine has
progressed to great heights.

By normal standards with which the world measures us, this uncle of mine did not really
achieve anything great in life. He did not amass wealth, neither did he build a big luxurious
home for himself & family. When I was growing up, he used to do business involving mining
and sale of sand used for constructing homes. But then a change in government policy made mining sand from the river bed illegal & that was the end of his venture. His daughter then supported the family with her earnings from the job in New Delhi. But he was known to
one-and-all as a good human being, which in my books rates much more than having
loads of cash or assets.

Every day, his routine involved a visit to the nearest main junction which is around 2 kms
from his home. Enroute, he would need to cross the Achenkoil river using the ferry service.
Since our home is located on the side of the road he takes, on most days he would drop in
to have a small chat or a cup of tea.

In the last few months, my son had added him to the list of people known to him and would address him as 'Appachan', which is a Mallu Christian way of addressing elderly people in
general or grandfathers specifically. I wondered whether my son will notice his absence - I
have no idea what goes on in that tiny mind.

He also left behind a son, who joined his elder sister in Delhi and even got a job there. But
then, due to reasons known only to him, he vanished for a decade or so and surfaced only recently - I had done a post on the son's return. The saving grace was the son being at his father's side during the latter's last days, taking care of him at the hospital.

While he never talked about it, I am sure that my uncle must have been overjoyed at his
son's return after such a long period and I think he would have left the world in peace with
that major worry gone.

Rest in peace, Uncle. I can still see you walking down the road in front of our house, smiling
at all the known faces, stopping to talk to acquaintances, chatting with my son, having a cup
of tea at our home etc. Memories that will remain with me for ever.

When kids turn adults and vice-versa...

For weekend after weekend for the past year & a half, my routine has been the same - get
onto a train to Kerala to spend time with my son. I avoid even feeble attempts at trying to calculate the amount I have paid to Indian Railways, because I know it would be substantial enough to give me a mild heart attack. But do I regret it ? Would I do it another way, if given another chance ?

No way. No amount of money can substitute for the happiness I get by spending time with
my son. Playing with him, talking to him, hear him talk, watch his naughty actions, take him swimming in the river, have him tag along for a fishing session etc etc. Each & every act of
mine while at Kerala depends upon the impact it will have on him. For eg., I just quit the odd night out with friends because I will miss him for those 2-3 hours.

While most of what he does and says is typical kiddy behaviour, we saw one behaviour which
has us all flummoxed. He is all excited when he comes to the station with my Dad to pick me
up. They usually park the car under the shade of a tree by the side of the road that runs along
the railway track. As I walk to the car, he would be standing on the front seat and can identify me from far and is all happy.

But the moment I open the car door, get in and take him in my arms, he goes all silent. His
face takes on a kind of silent & sad expression and he would not say even a word. And this
is the same kid who till I came, had been talking animatedly with my Dad. As my Dad drives
us home, he would just sit in my lap. I would kiss him all over and we indulge in a kind of
bonding exercise that over time has become a routine unique to us. I would hold his cheeks against mine and we would remain that way for many minutes. He would just stay stationary
all the time, with his face against mine.

In around 10 minutes we would reach home. He would still not talk anything, inspite of my
wife & Mom trying their best to make him talk. This lasts for another 10 minutes, after which
he would return to his usual happy, talkative self. Since we have no clue why he becomes so silent like this, we think it could be because after missing me for all of the week, he becomes speechless due to happiness on seeing me again. I guess his little heart is unable to make any sense of why I am there for 2 days and then vanish for the next 5 days.

And once I am there, the only time he will let me out of his sights is when he is sleeping. For every moment otherwise, he will keep me within range, which I guess is because he thinks
that I will vanish again if he lets me out of his sight. This does lead to situations where I have
to wait for him to sleep if I have to even do something as trivial as take a bath. Else, he would stand outside the bathroom & keep banging on the door and calling out my name, for which
he has 3 favourite variations. He started off by calling me "Biju", then based on my Mom's exhortation (a kid calling its parent by name wasn't acceptable to her, though I myself had
no issues about that) he graduated to "Biju pappa". And recently, he has added "Biju pappa-ji" also as a variant - though we have no idea where he picked up the 'ji' from.

While my arrival at Kerala is a happy occasion (atleast after the initial 20mins of his silence), farwells are getting tougher by the day. As he grows older, he understands that I am leaving
and starts making a big racket. So, for a few weeks, after reaching the station, I would have
my wife divert his attention, while I would move out of his sight & then my Dad would drive
off. Not entirely fool-proof, because he would make out my absence and start crying.

Later my Mom felt that this deception was not a good thing and it is better that I openly tell
him that I am leaving, give him a kiss and say 'Ta ta'. Her logic was that he is growing older
and understands things and it is better to be open with him. While I did not really think this would work, I did try it out for the last few weeks and to my surprise it worked just fine. For
a brief moment, I could see confusion/sadness on his face when I say my farewell & kiss him,
but then like a grown-up boy, his face would show understanding and he would say Ta-ta in return.

Ofcourse, I can't claim to be as brave as him after each farewell. As I board the train and for
the next hour or so, my thoughts are only about him and all my pretence of being an adult
who has control over his emotions just breaks and I cry inside, without any tears.

Overwhelming to know that people do remember you.

Another All Fools Day, which also happens to be my birthday. Another year gone by and the most worrying part is about your age being incremented by 1. Anyway, the consolation is that
I am not the only one who is growing older - unless you happen to be Benjamin Button, no one
is growing any younger. So..

It feels great to know that people take the effort to remember your birthday and call up or
sms you on your birthday. Apart from close family members who usually remember anyway,
I have had a varied bouquet of wishes this time.

An old colleague (we worked together some 8 years ago) & good friend called up from Japan.
Something he has been doing for years now. Really appreciate it, man.

Friends on my online auto-forum sms-ed their wishes & even created a thread on the forum.

My sister, her daughter Ann, Ann's cousins all got together around the phone and sang the
whole "Happy Birthday" routine. This truly was an experience for me. Thank you Ann, Susan,
Robin, Sangi, Manju et. al.

Since my birthday fell on a weekday this year, it meant I would not be home with my family.
So, my wife started the celebrations early on 30th March itself when I was home. On return
from work, she came with a chocolate cake. And if that was not surprising enough, she had a
gift for me too - a new mobile phone - something that I had been eyeing for a long time, but
in my typical style was avoiding purchase.

Ofcourse, I did not know that she had yet surprise gift lined up in my travel bag, which I
chanced upon only in the train to Chennai. A set of 3 novels by famous Malayalam authors.
While I prefer reading in English, in the recent past I had sort of developed a fascination for
Malayalam literature and thus these books made an apt gift.

Thanks, one and all. It feels great to know that you are in the thoughts of people.