New blog

Amazed by my own capacity to create kaDis (PJs), I have created a new blog exclusively for kaDis. Here is the link to the new blog. Please check it out. I have started creating kaDis in Kannada, Sanskrit and English too. So, non-Tamilians too can enjoy some of my kaDis.

Have a nice time reading my other blog too.

KaDis

Inspired by one professor in our institute whom we call as Mama, and who is known for his "KaDis" (PJs), i have started creating my own KaDis. Here are the ones i created over the last couple of weeks. Meanwhile, I thank my friends here who have helped me create these kaDis.(Note: Most of these KaDis are based on Tamil. I will try my hand at English and Kannada later but for the present it is mainly Tamil although the first two can be understood by others too)

1) Which is the vegetable which can produce music?

Ans: Drumstick

2) Which are animals which are unpleasant to hear?

Ans: Dogs because they are "Naays" (Noise)

3) Why do cows always have mouth ulcers?

Ans: Because they have "PuNNaakku" (for food)

4) There is no necessity for any one to wear a tie in this world. Why?

Ans: Because "ChaTTai"laye "Tai" (Tie) irukkaradunaala tie pOTTuKKavENDiyadillai.

5) If you sweat in your foot, then it will be silver in colour. Why?

Ans: Sweat is nothing but a kind of juice (Rasam). So sweat from your foot (Paadam) is Paadarasam (mercury) which is silver in colour.

6) Ideally vehicles in this world should not have any shape or size. Why?

Ans: Vehicles are "VanDi"(1-d). Hence, no shape or size, but only length.

7) If there are fights in the world, then the world will become dark (not metaphorically but literally i.e. there won't be light anywhere). why?

Ans: Fights are "SaNDais"(Sun dies). If sun dies there won't be any light anywhere.

8) Two friends meet in a restaurant after a long time. Just before parting, the first one asks the other "Do you know my address?". The second one in stead of answering him just looks at his face and examines it keenly. Why?

Ans: Because he wanted to know his "Muga vari" (Line in his face)

9) Which is the vegetable which asks you "when did you get hurt?"?

Ans: "Vengaayam" (When Kaayam?)

10) Which is the vegetable which is never stationary?

Ans: Cabbage - It is "KOs" (Goes). so never is stationary.

(Ennadaa naraiya kaDi vegetable mElaiye kekkaren paakkareLaa, aamam eppOdum saappaaTTa patthidaan thinking)

11) If you use a handkerchief, it means your hand is short. Why?

Ans: Because handkerchief is "KaikuTTai"

12) Every one in this world suffers with a headache. Why?

Ans: Because every one has only one head - Head "Ek"

13) A man with a small ear enjoys rolling on the ground. Why?

Ans: Rolling means "Kutti KarNam" and KarNam in Sanskrit means Ear. kuttikarNam= small ear.

14) Yet again a vegetable kaDi. All vegetables in this world should have been black. Why?

Ans: Because they are "Kari" kaays.

15)A musical PJ. If a person sings the swaras of a Dhaivata Varjya Raga (A ragam which does not have Dha in it), it means he is thirsty. How?

Ans: When he sings the swaras of such a raga, he will sing "Pani Pani". Hence, he is thirsty.

16)A person is travelling in a ship for months. He is so seasick that he desperately wants to see the shore. Since he didn't know when they would reach the shore, he calls out to one attendant in the ship and asks him something to which the attendant immediately goes in and brings him a bowl of sugar. What did he ask?

Ans: He asks "Sir, karai" (Sarkarai) eppo varum?

17)Actually south India should have been in the north. Why?

Ans: YEnnaa south Indiala daan vaDai kaDaikkum. adunaala idu "vaDa" naaDu.

18)Which is the city where you will get red ghee?

Ans: Chennai (Chen nei - red ghee)

19) Once, I was walking on the road and I found a man cutting a tree. It was a horribly hot afternoon and this man was sweating like a pig. I went to him and asked him one question to which he got really wild and slapped me. What did I ask him?

Ans: Nee veTTi daane!

Presently, this is my state. I am totally veTTi writing such kaDis. And surely will continue to be veTTi.

To be continued......

Love content

Two good thoughts I got recently I would like to share here. One is "Do not love people for their good qualities but in spite of their negative ones" and an extension to it is "The more the negative qualities you find in a person, the more you should love him". As i reflected upon these, I got a vague understanding as to why and how one must try to follow this.

According to my understanding, love is the greatest postive force in this world. Every one in this world undoubtedly seeks love and wants to be loved because every one is able to understand love as a soothing force. Hence, in many places we come across sayings like "God is Love" and "Love is God", etc. Although love is something which is undefinable by words, crudely I would define it as the absence of all negative qualities like prejudices, hatred, jealousies, greed, suspicions, desires, and many more. Also, the "love content" (the amount of love) in one can be measured in terms of the amount of positive qualities one has in oneself. (Although love is not measurable, I am trying hereby to make it a measurable quantity so that it becomes easier for our understanding) The greater the positive qualities one possesses, the greater the love he has in himself.

As a human being, every one has positive and negative qualities. There is no person in this world who is totally negative. It is only the percentage of positive and negative qualities that varies between people. Since every one has some amount of positive qualities in oneself, he is still lovable. Most of us love people for their good qualities. But once we come across their negative aspects, we start to develop grudges and prejudices against them forgetting the positive aspects they have. So, the first lesson is, whenever we come across the negative qualities, we must develop the capacity to neglect them and see only the positive ones. Thus, automatically love will develop and we will be able to love one in spite of one's negative attributes.

Now, with more and more interaction with a particular person, we get to know more and more of his negative tendencies. Since, he has more negative tendencies in himself, the love content in him is quite low. He is not able to love himself and others fully, yet, because he is a human being, he seeks love. But the others, unable to put up with his negative qualities, start disliking him. As a result, he is in a state where his love content is low and there are not many people to supply love to him. Thus, his negativities tend to increase. At this juncture, if we are able to understand him and supply enough of love to him, there is a possibility that the love transmitted can slowly develop positive qualities in him because love can create only positive qualities. Once positive qualities start increasing, the love content in him increases and he will able to experience the love from inside.

But there is a difficulty in dealing with such people. If they are prejudiced against us, then how much ever we try to love them, they will never be able to receive it. Why? Because love cannot enter into the area of prejudice. The best way to deal with such people is just to keep away from them because the love we supply might be misunderstood and the prejudices they have against us might increase. But in spite of the prejudices people have against us, we must realise that they are developing prejudices because they don't have enough love content in themselves and hence, we must continue to love them.

How much we are able to put these things into practice depends on the love content we have in ourselves. The greater the love content, easier it is to practice all the above mentioned conditions. But in this world, where the supply of love from outside is temporary and insufficient, how to increase the love content we have in ourselves? This is left to the reader to think about and answer.

Blabberomania

People who have known me for quite some time surely know that I am a major blabberer and enjoy doing so and take pride in blabbering. (what a fool! I want to stop this). But when I look back when and why I started blabbering, I realise that this tendency is not my own but has been inherited (any one who has been in with me in my house for a day will know even my father's blabbers) and possibly started when I was really very young.

The first ever blabber I remember is my having started of calling a potato as Kunti for God knows what reason. And this word I used for quite some time. Funnily the blabbers don't last long and there are newer and newer nonsensical sounds that I keep finding and sticking on to. To this list are words like Kunti, Manga, Mangala, Goojigo, Bolu, Erumai, etc( not in chronological order) and the latest one has been amme murukku Ne which got reduced to amme Mu. Even today I use this and I myself dont know what motivates me to use such words. Apart from these there was one such period when I used to use "naan" ( meaning I) about half a dozen times every time I wanted to say I and this used to irritate my mother to the fullest extent possible.

I also have this tremendous ability to create names for people which don't make any sense. And the names just pop out in my head spontaneously as I call my brother as Gomman, and my mother as Bambu and my father as Jola Bijangi(this was his coinage) and all the three have absolutely no meaning.

Moreover, as I was young, I used to change the lyrics of songs to the maximum extent possible which made absolutely no sense. One such song was Poove Sempoove Un vaasam varum and I used to sing it as "ANDaaTTam ANDaaTTam BaTEvaa Challenge" and the only word which is meaningful here is challenge. Where the hell did I get these words? There are so many which I can go on adding to my list.

Further, I have this capacity to associate objects and shapes with sounds. (Inherited from father). For example, the way I had named autorickshaws and buses in Chennai. According to me, there were four autorickshaws Bi (prounounced as the bi in birth), Ke ( as in can), O ( as the sound of the letter) and O Kundi. Now, what do they mean? The Bi auto was the front engine auto, the Ke auto was the rear engine auto and the naming was done based on the way the rear of the auto looked like. The former looked convex and the latter looked concave. (If you cannot understand how the names are related to these two attributes surely you don't have my sense of blabbering). And the other two kinds O and O Kundi, I found only in my native place Tirunelveli. Both these were front engine autos and their front portion looked like the tamil O to me. (How? Don't ask me) and the O Kundi was because it had a bulge at its rear and it looked like the butt of the auto and hence the name. Similarly, I had named the Chennai buses as JoNDai, Tap(pronounced similar to tub) and Ee and all of them just like the above were sounds associated with the shapes.

Furthermore, I had developed my own style of speaking Tamil and the first one I developed was the "Avan Bhaashai"( He language). According to the rules of this language, there is no first and second person and all names of people must be avoided, only the relation should be mentioned. This language was started by him during his seventh. He and he were the first two to use this. Slowly, this language spread to him. Now, as he,he and he kept on speaking this language, his and his mother and his mother too used to get very much pained. The funniest part was mostly, he could not understand what he spoke and he could not understand what he spoke. Ultimately, he would understand something which he wished and he would understand some other thing which he liked. Finally, he and he themselves got so pained by his language that he and he suddenly decided not to use it thenafter.

Then recently, I developed the 'Nee Bhaashai" (You language). According to this language, there is no first person and the first person is referred to as the second person and any third person is referred to as a relation of the second person or by his name. Did you get what I said? Let me explain with an example. Assume a hypothetical conversation between my mother and me.

I: unakku chaadam pODu (ninage anna haaku)
Mom: addaan pOTTiNDirukkEnE (ade haakoNDideenallaa)
I: ayyo ongammakkudaan saadam pottirukka, aanaa onakku? (nim taayige anna haakidya, aadre ninage?)
Mom: engamma inga engada irukka? (nan taayi illello idaare?)
I: addaan ongamma on munnaadi daane okkaandinDirukkaa ! ( ade nin taayi nin mundene kootiddaaLallaa! )
Mom: !!!! (Basically totally bulbs)

This fellow who you are seeing here is the craziest ass ever. He doesn't know what he speaks and keeps blabbering all the time. But he is making some conscious efforts to cut down on his blabber. But the fun involved in blabbering and making people bulb is what that makes him to continue. After all, this blabber is not something which makes his mind and heart heavy, in fact makes him laugh and people around him laugh. So, he will continue but not to the extent to which it was earlier. Oh Shit. Again the He language.

Girls' thinking

As I was discussing with my brother about various things, a thought that came about was "How do girls think about certain issues?". As my interaction with girls is so horribly limited, I wasn't sure how to answer this. And the answer he gave was simple.

"If there is an issue and if you think in a particular manner, and then if you are able to think exactly the opposite way, that is how a girl would think".

What an amazing statement! I guess it is true in a majority of cases.

Krishna JanmaashTami

Tomorrow is Krishna JanmaashTami and when I think about how it is being celebrated, I just feel it is a total mockery of the entire purpose or sometimes even wonder whether there is any purpose in celebrating it all.

12-13 years back, when I was a kid of about the age of 6, on the day of JanmaashTami, as usual my mother had drawn those small feet out of Kola maavu ( Rangoli Hittu) all the way from the door of the house to the Pooja room. Innocently, when the kid went to her and asked why she had made those feet, she told him just like any other mother would have that Lord Krishna would be coming home and this was the path he would take from the door to the Pooja room. The innocent kid then didn't realise that it was just an imagination but believed in his mother totally. He ran about in the verandah for an hour and kept asking his mother when Krishna would come and she kept telling he would be coming soon. The poor mother couldn't tell the child the truth. But when his mother called him for having food, he burst out crying and was so adamant that he said he wouldn't eat until Krishna came. But I don't remember how his mother convinced him, but probably she managed to convince him and made him have his food.

When I think about the way it is celebrated, it makes me laugh. What a whole lot of imagination!
But as a young boy, I used to await this festival because it was one festival on which we made a lot of eatables like cheedai, murukku, taTTai, thE~ngozhal, and a whole variety of sweets. Just imagine this. We put all this rangoli and say child Krishna is coming and make these eatables, which cannot even be chewed by him. And we also decide the way in which Krishna has to come into our house. We don't want him to come by the balcony or the bathroom. We want him to enter only through the main door. If Krishna had entered our house on JanmaashTami, he should have stayed with us and we needn't have to invite him every year. Then why do we celebrate it every year? When and why did he go away? Then shouldn't there be a day we should mourn for his departure. You can keep on asking such questions for ever and no one will be able to answer. All these festivals are really for us having fun and there is no Godliness or God involved in it. We want a day to have fun and we have fun in the name of God. I would say just enjoy on some random day, make sweets and have fun. Why involve God in your enjoyment?

Yet, JanmaashTami is an important festival because it is the birthday of the Yuga Purusha. Those who are sincere in their approach towards God Realisation will surely be blessed by the Yuga Purusha. But for the others, it is another day for enjoyment amidst the stressful days.

WYMM

This is one of the most shocking incidents of my life. This occurred when I was probably studying in the seventh standard.

Then, I was travelling to school by an auto rickshaw. In my apartment, there lived a small girl by name Geethu, who was then studying in LKG in Cluny Convent Girls School. She was a highly irritating kid who used to shout at every one and invariably every one in the auto was pissed off by her behaviour. I and a group of my auto-mates then enjoyed teasing this girl and make her cry. And by the time we reached home, we used to console her and do something so that she would go home with a smile on her face. And this girl as far as I knew hated me to the core.

One fine day, when I was playing with my friends in the ground next to my apartments, this girl calls out to me. I was irritated when she called me because I was very much involved in playing the game. And she slowly comes to me and shouts in front of every one, "Will you marry me?" and runs away. I was for a moment totally shocked and didn't understand what was going on. Obviously at that age, one wouldn't really know what marriage was (As if I knew what marriage meant but surely was better than the kid)and I realised she probably learnt it from the TV . But the impact was long. My cousins and my friends started teasing me and they named me as WYMM. I used to get irritated initially when they called me thus but later on I just accepted the way they called me and soon they stopped it. Yet, this incident still remains afresh in my memory.

Thoughts

I have been criticised quite a few times for preaching a lot and not practising whatever I preach. And I myself find apparent contradictions between what I say and how I behave and talk. Last night when I thought over it, I got an answer to these, an answer which convinced me.

We keep getting thoughts in our minds always, most of which are about our day to day activities, our worries, our problems, our desires, etc. But in between these thoughts we do get some positive ones, those which are very profound and those that could change our life. Now when I get such thoughts, I consider it a kind of realisation and these thoughts guide me towards betterment as a human being. When I get such thoughts, I reflect over them and see how I can put them into practice. These thoughts are not only got by my own effort but also got from being with people who are always positive. They influence my thoughts a great deal. Now, when I try to put these thoughts into practice, there are naturally certain difficulties. The ego doesn't co-operate and it acts as a hindrance. When I begin to practise and experience the benefit a little, I understand that such thoughts are really powerful and they can change one's life. But I wouldn't obviously have reached a stage of perfection in putting such thoughts to practice. Meanwhile since such thoughts are noble, I feel like sharing them with some close people so that they might also enjoy the benefits of putting such thoughts to practice. Why should they wait for me to attain a state of perfection before they put them into practice? Probably the others can practise much more easily than me because their ego might co-operate. But when they see me talk about these thoughts, they find contradictions between what I say and the way I behave and are driven away by the very thought itself. They start to believe that such thoughts are very ideal and cannot be practised by anyone. They might probably even think that these thoughts are not applicable to people like them and are applicable only to Mahatmas. Thus my entire attempt to make them understand that it would be better if we practise living in a particular manner becomes futile. Unfortunately, we don't realise that Mahatmas are not born but are made. Only a common man becomes a Mahatma. The only thing one needs to do is to put in some practice.

A Memorable conversation

Last evening, I had gone to pick up the violin artiste Shri. Shriramkumar - incidentally, it is the name got by putting my brother's and mine together - for the concert in the evening. Just as I reached his house by around 5:15, he was doing his aachamaneeyam, the last part of a Sandhyavandanam. (To all those people who don't know what aachamaneeyam is, it is supposed to be the mantra which helps you in purification. Whether it really helps or not is a matter which I don't want to delve into now). As soon as I saw this, I got a feeling this artiste was a typical orthodox Iyer following all the rituals systematically because Sandhyavandanam is supposed to be during the time of dusk or dawn and here is a man who is doing it at 5. He then invited me inside and asked me to take a seat. I just took a look around and found a lot of wall hangings, a number of them showing the awards that the artiste had won and a number of Gods' photos, a symbol of a typical orthodox family. And the walls were an eyesore amidst the beautiful photos. But I think that is the way a family with kids should like. The walls were full of pencil and crayon scribblings and one could barely recognise what could be the original colour of the wall.

Just as I was waiting for the artiste to get dressed up, I met this person who made those few minutes really memorable. He came up slowly to me and said, "sadaa chocolate daan (always with a chocolate)". The bright eyes, the naughtiness in his face and the way he said this to me really impressed me. Usually I don't approach kids and I keep mum, but this time I couldn't resist. I asked him what his name was and immediately came the reply, "Aditya". I then asked which class and in which school he was studying. He said that he was in LKG and studied in a school called ICK. Then there was no stopping this fellow. He was chattering all the way and I have never seen any kid who is so free with strangers. He came to me and asked me to type ICK on my mobile and confirmed what I had typed was the name of his school. He also told me that he was 4 years old and that his birthday was already over. I asked him when his birthday was to which he replied July 1st. I just went back in time and recollected how I was when I was 4-5 years old. I remember once when I was in UKG, I was so shy- a shyness that still I have not been able to get over - that I never distributed the sweets that I had taken on my birthday to school and took sweets back home and the following day, my mom had come with me to school and asked the teacher to make me distribute sweets. And here I find this kid who has such a level of confidence and no inhibitions whatsoever with strangers that any one would be attracted to him.

He then told me that the person who was sleeping on the sofa was his brother and gave details about him which I don't remember. Then he asked me, "unakku enna munnadiye theriyuma? (did you know me earlier?)" to which i answered "no". He then continued "annava? appava? ammava? thathava?" and a few other people and I kept answering "No". Then was this question which totally took me by surprise. "pinna yen inga vanda?"(Then why did you come here?). What a level of understanding the kid had! He probably thought that I knew some one in his house and hence had gone there. I was just thinking how to answer the question when his mother came and asked him to shut up and not to disturb me, as if I were disturbed. I just wished his mother had never come and he would continue talking something. Then he went inside and came out with a girl in school uniform who was about two years older than him. He even introduced this girl to me and told me that she was his cousin and that her name was Shubhalakshmi. He then came to me and told me,"ava innikku tennisukku pogala"(She didn't go to play tennis). I asked him why to which he replied,"paatha theriyala. innikku mazhai peyyaradu"(Don't you see. It is raining). Man, this kid was brilliant. Meanwhile his grandfather woke up from his afternoon nap and come out to the hall. I don't know from where this kid learnt the habit of introducing his people to others but one thing you don't find even elders doing. He told me that the person who came out was his thatha and said, "avarukku kaalla adipatturukku, adunaaladaan bandage pottirukkaa ( He has hurt himself in the leg and that is why they have put a bandage). Then he went inside while I was just recollecting the conversation with him.

A couple of minutes later he came out and told me that "naan ippo showerla kulikka poren. nee showerla kulicchirukkaya?"( Now i am going to take a shower. Have you taken a bath in a shower?) as he was gesturing to me how he would pour water all over his body and I realised he was referring to a hand shower to which I nodded. He left and a few minutes later his father, the artiste was ready and we were about to leave. He came running out nude and told me something which I didn't hear properly. As I saw him undressed, I just wished to be as shameless as he is and live a life of freedom, a freedom that the kid enjoyed. But from the present condition of introvertishness to a state of shamelessness is a long way. But if you have a fast transport, you can reach that condition very soon. And I know I have a fast medium but it is I who have to co-operate.

Weird spellings - a pain

Just take a look at these few lines.

• hey.. i dunno bout dis blog
• wats wron wit da photo
• Ur r8
• yo der
  

These were scraps I got on my orkut account. Can you guess which language this is? It is supposed to be english. The only english word I find here is photo. Fortunately that person has not used foto. I don't know when and how such a craze for spellings started. When I first got into touch with e-mail and messengers, I really found extremely difficult to understand such sentences. But now I am able to cope up with these pathetic spellings. Yet, there have been numerous occasions when I have bulbed over what the other person is trying to tell. Example was yo der. I initially thought it was German. I couldn't understand it until that person told me that it meant "you there". How the hell am I supposed to understand it?

I suppose such spellings were being used to reduce the time to type. But frankly speaking, I really don't understand how such spellings improve your typing speed. Just take the example of you, how much longer is it going to take you to type a 'u' after 'yo'? Surely not more than a fraction of a second. Surely it would help you to reduce your time to type if long words were shortened but not for such small words. If you were such a horrible typist that you need to search for the letters, then chatting and orkutting is not your cup of tea and if you still wished to continue to do so, then it would make sense to use such spellings. On the other hand, even if you didn't know formal typing technique, if you spent time with a PC, your typing speed would have improved. Then why do you continue to use such spellings? Why do you want to kill english? The funniest part is that such people use unnecessary puncuations like some 4 or 5 '?' or ',' and unnecessary letters when they are not required. For example, I have seen people using okie for ok. Why the extra ie? It is really a mystery to me. I have not been able to understand the psychology of such people.

And the worst part is each one has his own convention. Some one types right as r8, someone else types ryt and an other types rite. I don't know why there are numbers between words. Crazy people. These spellings are not universal and people use it to their own whims and fancies. I am sure no one here would read a word by reading letter by letter. Then why use spellings like 'ur' which is pronounced by calling out each letter individually?

Sadly, it is so deep rooted in people's minds that such letters are being sometimes used even in formal circumstances. Forunately, I have not been caught into this mania of using weird spellings.

Why do I blog?

When I started blogging initially, I thought I should do it because it would help me improve my language. Whether it has helped me so far is a question I myself don't know the answer. But surely it has helped me to communicate in writing in a much better manner. But today when I think about why I want to blog, I get so many answers.

Firstly, it satisfies my ego. If I just wanted to improve my language I could always have started writing articles in a book or maintained a diary. Why should I blog and let my friends know that I am blogging? The 'I' called as Muthusubramanian wants people to read his blogs and wants to appreciate or criticise it. Whenever there is an appreciation, the 'I' is happy.

Secondly, it helps me express my views to my friends easily. Probably it would help them in understanding me better. (only probably. I don't know if it really helps. Only my friends need to tell me about this) There is also one more dimension to it. The 'I' expects people to comment because I also like to know what they feel about it by which I develop an understanding of what people think about a particular issue.

Thirdly, there is this small desire to tell about the system of meditation I practise and let people know that there is a system that exists which can help you realise the goal of human life in this very life itself. I want people to practise this system and enjoy its benefits. So far I haven't written anything about my system and I don't know whether I will write in the future too because I don't know what to write and how to write and where to begin. Surely this reason for my writing blogs is not as important as the others mentioned above.

Probably, if I find all this unnecessary, then suddenly I would stop blogging too. But for now I will continue.

Death - not a shock anymore

This week reminds me of the death anniversaries of two people whom I loved very much both of whom I called as Thatha although one of them was not my own grandfather. But to me he was much more than my own. He has not only moulded me but also has shown our entire family the right direction for life. It was probably divine will that made him spend his last 4 years in our house so that we learnt the purpose of life and do something for the soul in this very life.

But the most important thing is that when I remember these two people today, I don't feel anything. There is no sorrow that they are not there with me anymore. In fact, even when they died, I not only didn't cry, but never felt that suddenly there was a vacuum created in our family. I could easily accept the fact that their tenure in this particular body was over and so left it when the body could no longer sustain.

Nowadays, if some one tells me that some one dear to one has passed away, I don't know how to react. I don't feel like saying sorry to him because I don't feel anything for him. I just feel it happens in life and there is nothing really to worry and cry about it.

But I don't know how I would react if my own parents or some one really close to me died some day. I think I am developing the capacity to accept the reality easily without crying and carry on with my work without being affected much.

"The human body does not have a mouth"

Amidst my serious blogs, this is one of my usual blabbers. This is a the result of a discussion my brother and I had a few months back. If you see a 3rd class or 4th class text book and have a look at the parts of the human body, you will find "mouth" being marked. We have all learnt and accepted that mouth is a part of the body. But consider the following argument.

What do you call as the mouth? Mouth is not the lips, not the jaws, not the palate, not the teeth, not the tongue. Mouth is the "space" enclosed by the jaws. If mouth were to be just "space", then how can you call mouth as a part of the human body? It obviously does not belong to the human body. Thus, the statement "Human body does not have a mouth" is true. In fact it is true that no animal in this world has a mouth. Then what is the use of calling all the animals as "vaayillaa jeevan"(entities without a mouth. They are referred to thus because they cannot speak). A human too is a "vaayillaa jeevan", isn't he?

Friendship day

Friendship day. A day when people randomly wish one another and tie what is called a friendship band. Until today, I have never been able to understand why people celebrate such a day. What is the purpose of friendship's day? When I was young, I used to see people (especially girls) having lot of friendhip bands tied to the hands right from the wrist to the elbow and were really proud of it. I used to wonder if it never caused any itching sensation or make one's hand numb.

Some one, a few years back told me that you tie a friendship band so that your friendship lasts longer. What the hell man! How is a band going to make your friendship last longer? And one more person tells me that it is a day on which you make new friends. As if making friends is something like making laddu or jilebi. I really don't understand how any one can make friends on a particular day. Friendship has to grow with lot of interaction. Even by being together for years, we don't become good friends. We don't understand people. And here we are trying to make new friends on a single day. What a piece of nonsense. And if at all we could make friends in a day, why should we choose this day? You can do this on all days.

Anyway, for people who just want to enjoy their life, it is yet another day to freak out. For people like me, it is a day of no consequence. When I look from an other angle, it doesn't mind whether you celebrate it or not. Should everything you do have a purpose? Not necessarily. So you just celebrate for fun and try to be happy.

How to balance?

When I got up this morning, suddenly a doubt regarding relationships and the way to deal with people cropped up in my mind.

A few days back, I was discussing with one of my friends who said that one should live one's life without bothering much about what others think about him. One should not be really bothered if they are irritated with him or putting up with him. He should be really frank and speak out whatever he feels like. If at all the others do not like the way one behaves or talks, then it is their problem if they do not express and not his. This made a lot of sense to me then.

But today, the feeling I had is that living thus could be considered a bit insensitive or even callous. It is because you really do not care whether other is hurt by your behaviour or not. The other might not be in a position to tell you always that he is putting up with you because of a variety of reasons which you needn't know. He might be just putting up a friendly smile although inside he might be really pained.

On the other hand, I feel one should live in such a manner that it does not cause any sort of pain to others whatsoever physically or mentally. So, naturally you need to check the way you speak or behave with people around you. You should be able to judge what the others feel and think to a certain extent and behave accordingly and not just behave in a manner you feel is right. But living thus also has a problem of its own. Judgements you make are not always correct and by trying to judge you unknowingly sometimes start developing prejudices and pre-conceived notions against them. You start assuming things about what they would think if you behave in a particular manner. Thus, you not only are creating unnecessary prejudices but also are creating a weight in your own mind because you are not transparent.

Evidently, the two kinds of behaviour are contrasting but both make a lot of sense in terms of relationship. I feel one needs to have qualities of both in one's relationship. But where to draw the line is a mystery. At least I don't know to what extent I can be frank and to what extent I should go about judging people and behave accordingly. It is a mystery whose solution I hopefully will be able to find sometime.