The Funnier Side - Part 4

The Fan, the enemy

No one can come between me and you,

No one can do us apart,

My love towards you is strong enough to hold on to each other for atleast 2 more births.

No conflicts, no misunderstanding, no distractions, not even in-laws can kick a crack on the wall.

The only thing that can push us apart is death......and Fan!

Yes, that bloody Fan! I have rarely come across a couple who both like either Fan on or Fan off.

This eternal conflict, every single night:

"I can't sleep without the Fan"

"My nose gets blocked, turn it off"

"You get under the blanket, I need it airy"

"I don't want to get under a blanket, it gets stuffy"

"I can't take all those neighbour's noises and dogs barking, I can't sleep without the sound of the fan"

Where is the end to this? Has anyone found a solution?

Reunion Intro

Hello there,

Let me introduce you to Me. Wait, should I introduce you to Today's Me, or yesterday's Me?

You don't even know today's Me, let me re-introduce you to yesterday's Me.

Damn, I don't know yesterday's Me properly, I don't remember him much.

But whom am I introducing confused Me to? Today's You or Yesterday's You?

I don't know Today's You, and my memory fails Me remembering yesterday's You!

Let's try again...introducing the Yesterday's Me to the Today's You, through Today's Me's Eyes to Yesterday's You's memories.

Waking up!

I start the day with the most painful, unpleasant, depressing process - waking up!

I have never woken up fresh, bright, happy, energized, nor do I know anyone who does so.

The process of opening the eyes with great difficulty, forcing myself out of the bed, and those 15 minutes on the commode are the most excruciating activities that I start the day with. As age is catching up, the add-on of back pain is an icing on the cake.

I don't know how the school/college/office going crowd manage to beat this morning blues every single day of their lives, who cannot afford to miss even a minute after the alarm rings!

I have only seen small infants wake up happy, with a wide smile on their face!

And yet they become active only after the mother gives them love, warmth, cuddle and comfort them.

The Middle Seat

I very rarely get an Aisle seat or a Window seat in the Flight, it's always that torturous middle seat - can't stretch the legs, can't keep the hands on arm rest, can't peacefully doze off.

And on that rare day when I got the Window seat, a woman seated in the Middle seat asked "Can I take the Window seat?"

Now the dilemma - the nice me reminds me of: respect for woman, culture, upbringing, being courteous. Ofcourse I will be thanked, She and people around will think good of me, wish me well, and my preferred persona stands out.

While all these was running in my mind in those 5 seconds of thinking, I settled for the response "Sorry, I will prefer to sit in my seat"!

Idly Vs Dosa

A gang of 15+ enroute to a trip, stopped at a Hotel for breakfast.

For some, the obvious choice was Idli-Vada, for some Masala Dosa was their first pick, and for few it was a dilemma between the two!

These two iconic South Indian delicacies have stood the test of times with no clear winner in the battle of popularity!

It surely is a personal choice, with both being close to heart for us South Indians. Both have their legacy, both are versatile, it's an emotion to eat Idli or a Dosa silently in a corner, savouring the taste.

My wife being a huge fan of Idlis, is never confused. She can have idlis for breakfast and every other meal.

While my Mom is a Dosa lover and orders as a special treat, Idly being the daily breakfast choice.

The statistics also says both are equally popular. Swiggy has delivered over 30 Million Idli orders last year, while Masala Dosas were also around the same number, with no clear winner.

The Old Me

Have I grown old? Or have I gotten old?

I refuse to grow old!

It just feels like yesterday that I went to school, unmindful, carefree, deriving happiness in all stupid, silly things in life.

Both body and mind now says I have gotten old.

I have gotten so old that I prefer to do nothing on weekends,

From 5 Rotis & a Fried Rice at a Dhabha, to 1 Soup and curd rice at a fine dine,

I am fine with my receding hairline, but the fading memory of my childhood days troubles me more.

It's yet another weekend, and then will come yet another week, and the cycle goes on.

I don't know when responsibility, stress, struggles, debts, diabetes, B.P, investments took over fun, laughter, holidays.

I am tired of being matured, an expert, I was happy being stupid, careless, guilt free. I want those days of sleeping like a Child, I want to yell at my mind "Can you shut the F.... up and lemme sleep, stop thinking!"

Don't know when it changed from being taken care to taking care.. don't know if I have grown old or if I have gotten old!

How was the food today?

While every home will have fussy in-laws, husbands cribbing and being particular of what they eat...be it texture of Dosa, crispiness of Rotti, no.of layers in Chapati, how much should a rice be boiled, how much should a vegetable be cooked, how much should a Papad be fried, the amount of salt, spicyness, oily and the list goes on...

I sometimes really wonder how people could give so much undue importance to the daily food they eat.

For me, it's just food, it is important to eat and move on to next activities. Most of the time, I don't even know what I am eating (content, vegetable used), if it's even tasty or not.

My wife has this habit which I find weird and irritating most of the times. Everyday during Lunch hour, she messages "How was food today?" I am like "it was food and I ate!!"

She expects appreciation every single day for the daily food she prepares. I understand the expectation of feedback if she prepared something special, but not for the everyday, regular meal.

She says even for the daily meals, she takes a lot of efforts and she hears "nah, not good" in a flash....on the same lines, she expects me to say "it's nice" everyday!

Is the problem with her expectations or my ignorance and disinterest in food or my inability to appreciate?

Do you guys say "it's nice" every single day?

Traits Budget

After every fiscal Budget Govt announces, we all get anxious to see what went up, what went down.

Similarly, with every passing year, we need to introspect which of our traits changed.

If we have to make a list of items that went up and those going down, like how News Channels do on the Budget Day:

- Length of Farts

- Gyan talks

- Logic applicability

- Intolerance

- Funny quotient of the same Jokes we used to laugh at

- The feeling of "Something is wrong, I think I am having a Heart attack"

- Emotional Intelligence

- Restlessness

- Sensitivity towards other's emotions

- Over valuing our problems

- Panic attacks, anxiety

- Self Pride

- Over thinking & Over analysing

A Memory called MSS

What's sweeter than a union, is a reunion.

Reunion - where no one gets left behind or forgotten.

Call us friends, call us family, call it a clan, call it a tribe, we are MSS'ites

By

Murali Murthy

A small initiative by Lakshmi and Ashwin to get few old buddies together soon became a wild fire, and most of us boarded the ship, that was all set to sail through memories and good old MSS days.

Mahila Seva Samaja - First school for most of us, a place where we first got our exposure, learning, friendship, that groomed and chiseled us all and played it's part in what we are today.

A school that had vast play grounds and we boys were beyond thrilled to make best use of it. The school also made the best use of the ground, encouraged and organized many sports including Cricket, Kho Kho, Volley Ball...

The Cricket Match between A & B section was the most memorable events and epic of all.

Each of us have our own memories and connect with MSS. But the most nostalgic memories all of us have in common are: Chikki shop, Laalis, Chur chand, "school made" leather cork balls, paper ball cricket..First rank Malini, Dwiji's fancy cycle, Ramya-Sowmya, the pure taste of clear water from the tank filled with paachi. Usha miss, Saroja miss, Vatsala Miss, Manjula Ma'am.

The innocent love interests.

And our sisters studying in the same school was more of a torture, as every small incident, mischief and summons were sent to our sisters. And they didn't leave such a golden opportunity to further escalate at home and got sadistic pleasure while we were being yelled by our parents.

Though we all had a reunion in mind, we just wanted to get to know, get comfortable with everyone and reconnect.

We started off sharing our little, feeble memories of MSS days, sharing then and now pictures. Most of us were always glued to the group. So much so, that our Spouses started to frown that we are always on the school group!

Some of us continued to be in touch even after school that has bloomed into friendship for life.

It was December, and some of them were coming to Bangalore for holidays, the timing was perfect to plan a reunion.

While the main event was still taking shape, building up to the reunion, smaller groups started catching up.

With lot of coordination, repetitive discussions, we could all finally agree on 24 Dec 2023 as the date for a reunion.

Once the date was decided, Ashwin & Kavitha quickly took charge and some of us contributed to plan the meet elaborately.

Deciding the theme, menu, billing, activities all were brainstormed and thought through.

As the D Day was nearing, the excitement & anticipation was obvious, all were eager to meet up, after over 3 decades.

Technically friends, practically strangers.

Though we were seeing most of them after 33 years, there was no dearth of warmth around.

We couldn't recognise most of them, we didn't know many by name, yet each of us felt we knew each other well.

It was warmth, warmth and warmth...we could connect to each other just like that...shredded inhibitions within few minutes and engaged in some deep discussions.

It was a pleasant and diversified mix of people in varied professions. Unlike typical majority IT crowd, each of us had completely different career, path, industry and expertise starting from farming to entrepreneurship to professors to IT, making it an interesting catch up.

The reunion was indeed a Gala time, we laughed our hearts out, we smiled, we hugged, we cheered, we partied, we posed, relived our youthful days.

We hope there are more such reunions and this reconnect leads to some good friendship & bonding.

It will be interesting to see if future reunions will have same energy, vibes and excitement

The Poet in me - 5

ಸಪ್ತ ಸಾಗರದಾಚೆ ಎಲ್ಲೊ

I am trying you,

I am prying you,

I am loving you,

I am protecting you,

I am seeing you.

I care for you,

I pray for you,

I fight for you,

I am there for you.

I am losing you,

Hope am not failing you.

Don't change, if you do, you will kill me slowly, painfully, brutally.

I have an empty house, that I want you to fill,

I am losing my identity, I want you to give me a name,

My heart is broken, I want you to stitch it,

I am waiting for you somewhere far, by the beach, ಸಪ್ತ ಸಾಗರದಾಚೆ ಎಲ್ಲೊ...

The sense in the nonsense

The nonsense is making sense, the senseless is meaningful, the falsettos sounds perfect, the faults are becoming perfection, Latin & Greek is sounding like English.

I see dumbness in your intelligence, and creativity in your dumbness.

I hear music when you talk, and ridiculous when you sing.

You see garbage in my writing, I hear buffoonery when you read.

The unseen wounds and unheard silence

The unseen wounds, I choose to heal in silence.

The inner pains, I choose to endure in loneliness.

The unexplainable struggles, I choose to fight within.

The baggage I carry, I choose to hold on and not let go.

The untold stories, I choose to share when I overcome.

Do you have the patience to hear my story?

Do you have the time to put balm to my wounds?

Do you care for my pains?

The day you let me go, I will stop holding on to you.

I am used to the chaos in my heart and mind, sometimes I wonder if struggling is life or am yet to start living.

PS: I am perfectly alright, life is good, these are just postulations.

The Happy Roots

I spread my roots and plant myself where I exist,

My branches seems happy, but my roots aren't,

If hiccups really mean someone far is thinking of you, something is calling you,

Why am I even far away from it,

I wish I could easily unplant and replant myself at my will,

I know I will leave a scar if I unplant myself,

But I want both my branches and roots to be happy.

Eye for an eye, Love for Kindness

Is Forgiveness for an apology?

Is Forgiveness because we need a closure?

Is Forgiveness because of our willingness to let go?

Or is it to show you are just well raised!

Not everyone is someone's cup of tea, but you will surely be some round of Shooter for sure.

I will give you my kindness,

I will let you win,

I will make you smile,

I will put you on a pedestal,

In return, give me peace, show me God, be my music, give me hope, show me the way, take this load off me.

Unshackling you

How do I unshackle you?

Do I unshackle you with my Love Or with a knife?

Or do I free you from my Love?

I was the one tied you up all this while, I only realized now,

I see you shackled in my Love,

Had you told me earlier that my Love is suffocating, I would have let you go, let you live, let you love, let you free, let you fly.

Here you go, I free you from my love, from my shackles. Fly high, away from me, back to your tree.

Know when you are unwelcomed

What I have that you don't have,

What I do that you can't do,

I read between the lines,

I hear the unsaid words,

I say the unheard things,

I feel the pain behind that smile,

I also suffer that pain you are suffering,

I hear the chaos in your silence,

I hear the tremors in your mind when you are standing still.

I am not a mind reader,

I don't judge everyone I meet,

But I have the common sense and presence of mind to know and sense when it's odd, when its awkward, when I am unwelcome.

Howdy Saddler's Cafe

 Howdy Saddler's Cafe 

By

Murali Murthy 

Peace is always beautiful.

Peace is a state of mind that each of us achieve & feel at different places, in different ways.

For me, Peace is in the roots, back to the nature, close to the nature, by the nature.

We urban creatures living in this urban jungle, need frequent dose of "peace meal", to be sane!

Relaxation can be good quality time with family, good laughter with friends, good food, calm and peaceful environment amidst a natural habitat.

If this is your definition of Peaceful time and relaxation, then a private farm off Kanakapura Road, is your destination!

It's not a Resort, it's not a Homestay, but a private Farm that houses a Cafe, Horse stable, a Horse Riding Training academy - Stallions Valley School Of Lifestyle.

Zohar is a passionate man with lots of energy and an extremely friendly host.

We were a group of 7 friends, and he was a perfect host. He gave us a private space and was accommodative of all our demanding requests.

Zohar owns this Saddler's Cafe in a 6+ Acres of farm which is raw and rustic, and animal friendly. The guests are welcomed by his warm smile and friendly hug, and a detailed walk through of the Farm. He passionately introduces us to all the Horses and their behavior.

It was interesting to note such a place existed, and many youngsters are interested to learn Horse riding.

Zohar is also a fitness freak, a black belt, deep sea diver, into calisthenics and what not. He is a 2nd Gen entrepreneur and this unique interest in Horses.

The Saddler's Cafe is a chic yet humble place to hang out, sit and chat with friends for a whole day.

Loads of fun activities, including Cricket, Badminton, board games, Speakers n Mike for some group fun, Shooting with Air Guns, and few games to relive our childhood days: Caterpillar and Buguri!

We had a great time at this place. Easy, relaxing, private party place. As you spend more time here, you get a feeling that you own it, a feeling of belonging sets in.

Again, thanks to Neena Pereira for yet another worthy recommendation.

Finding Inner Peace, for Dummies

Finding Inner Peace, for Dummies

By

Murali Murthy

I feel the daily irritants are killing me more, than anything else.

It could be the errant and unruly drivers in the traffic, indisciplined citizens, lawlessness, unrestrained behaviour, reckless people, noisy neighbours, politicians, Governance, corrupt mindset, intolerance, oblivious to humanity, hatred, venomous tongue and toxic minds.

And the co-killer: Occupational stress, working under extreme pressure situations, frustrating outcomes, lone battles, demanding and draining.

All these stress and anxiety ends up altering the temperament and behavioral changes, leading to displaying wrong emotions, impulsive expressions, even with the loved ones.

Ofcourse one solution to wipe out all problems is to go solitude, away from city life and work life. Back to simplicity, back to the nature, back to the roots, back to the basics.

While that looks far fetched, what's the intermediate solution?

To insulate myself from the irritants and not to let it consume me, my character, my persona and my temperament, the philosophical suggestion I will get is "Don't let them bother you, ignore the irritants that's not in your control"

Err, Thanks for the tip, but how!!??

What would ideally help me? Is it councelling or spirituality?

Either of them might help in training me to ignore the problems around, and in the typical voice "Calm your mind, calm your senses and focus on your goals, do not fret over things you cannot control. Find inner peace, dwell into yourself, find yourself".

All these sounds funny, and I think I myself can come up with all these gyan. People just want to hear such gyan from others to push themselves. Probably because of the stressful life we all lead, such new age godmen, inner peace factories have mushroomed in the last decade, capitalising on the weak minds.

The question still remains...how do I find peace?

Spirituality still could be the answer.

Does such inner peace factories really help, who basically takes bits and pieces of our Vedas, Scriptures, Bhagavatha, package it with good English, add Yoga, and a pinch of meditation classes, the recipe is ready!

What if I choose to find answers in my own root dharma? In my case Madhwa Philosophy.

The problem there is it's way too technical, academic. Everyone in this domain, I find them busy with the procedures, rituals and practices. The blind following of procedural aspects will actually scare away dummies like me from God and spirituality. Especially when someone like me who treats God like a Friend and the first thing I say when I see my favourite God is "Hey Buddy".

A visit to holy sites surely inspires, rejuvenates and calms the mind - only as long as am there. Once back to the grind, nothing changes.

Probably, I am my own doctor, I am my own philosopher. I need to yell at myself, when I am done frowning at others.

I need to customise my own spirituality, I need to guide myself, I need to find my own way.

What do you do to find inner peace?

Life Experiences - 1

How much to share

As I sat in an Ola Auto yesterday night, I found the Driver to be very sophisticated and spoke good English.

With no prompt from me, he started sharing everything about himself starting from how he works as HR and drives Auto part time, how much he earns, his salary, the EMIs, his Cibil score.

I am still wondering why did he share so much. For tips? For Networking?

How much do we Share, How much should we share?

We are responsible for the information we reveal to our friends, strangers, relatives.

How much I share is probably determined by how I want others to perceive me.

It also depends on my character, or by choice of either being a Private person or a Social person.

Thanks to Social Media, we probably don't even know how much we are sharing.

Perspective from this end

I stood at the edge of two coach joint inside a Metro train,

The other coach was jumping vigorously,

Saw people moving and swaying, but me and people in this coach were comparatively stable.

I took few steps to cross the coach joint and stood in the other coach.

Now I found people were moving and swaying and jumping in the coach I was previously standing!

The perspective changed based on where I stood and watched.

I wouldn't elaborate on what I was implying this on, but I leave it to your imagination and scenarios to see things in perspective.

The Austere life of our parents

The generation gap is natural and understandable, considering the upbringing and social ecosystem of each era.

As I see, one of the key difference between us and our parent's generation, is the mindset when it comes to money matters and lifestyle.

Not that they didn't have money, but they believed in leading a austere life.

Irrespective of their financial status, they were "Poor in their mind".

Irrespective of our financial status, we are "Rich in our mind".

Just one petty example: when the LPG Cylinder was 200, they marked the date on it with a chalk and calculated and monitored the usage each month.

When the LPG Cylinder is 1000+ now, we just place the order whenever it gets over!

The Grown Ups!

I wonder if everyone feels the same way I feel, that it's too much of an ask to be a grown up!

Being an Adult, comes with it's own perks though. We need not get up every single day and goto school on the clock, and keep proving the same formulas and theories already proved.

But those month long Summer holidays are the breaks we really wish we can have now.

Whenever I see a small child or an infant, I keep wondering what would be running in their minds, or would it just be blank. We adults have constant thoughts running, either planning or worrying on something.

A child is pushed to give good and equal time for studies, sports, entertainment, eating and sleeping! As an adult though we have the freedom and flexibility to do what we want, we just can't!

That Service Road entry

A huge traffic pile up on a Highway, with KMs of vehicles ahead and behind.

There is a small break to enter the Service road which seems empty. But you don't know if it connects the highway ahead, and you are new to the highway, unaware of this road. Hardly one or two vehicles are entering the service road, but you don't know where they are heading.

I hesitantly took the plunge and Bingo! I literally saved myself atleast 15 minutes of ordeal in the traffic, and could connect back to the highway, much ahead!

What do I make out of this use case! Is it being explorative? Is it being impatient? Or the ones continuing to safely wait, are just sheeps following the larger population? I found it to be a very interesting social, human behavioral observation!

Counrty Roads

A drive through the country roads is always the best, satisfying part of the journey. The view of the standing crops, greenery, the landscapes gives such a soul satisfying feeling and makes the heart happy.

And when these country roads run through villages, men and women sitting idle under the tree shades, outside their homes, the discussion among those sitting inside the car always has a topic "What do the people in the village do? They are so calm, idle, and just sitting there all day!".

Knowing that they would have done their job in their fields and farming related activities, still wondering how one can sit idle like that.

The problem is with our benchmarking. We think being busy, making work our sole purpose of life, being stressed out all the time, living in artificiality is the way of life.

We are probably just jealous of their life!

Blinded

During a routine eye checkup, I was made to close my eyes and sit for half an hour, with some eye drops loaded into my eyes.

It was a strange 30 minutes, I was practically blind. What I did observe was my hearing ability magically enhanced. Even the minutest of sounds and voices were clearly heard, Every conversation from far was heard.

Another example of how beautiful our body and mechanisms are designed. It improvises, adapts, compensates, heals & self learns.

Whatever logic we put in creating an AI/ML system, it cannot beat human intelligence and the human body, end of the day AI is just a set of pre-programmed commands, and programmed to add more scenarios as they occur.