Wednesday, April 06, 2011

 

Study shows dishwashing...

... >br>
can be therapeutic. This is my study, and the effect on me. So, not a statistically significant sample, of course. Good results none-the-less. I’m not kidding, not fooling… Sent to my "friends list" on Apr 1st 2011...posting to this blog site now...

Dear friends, Ever since we moved into this new flat in Sobha Magolia - a 3 bedroom flat in the 2nd floor of a 19 storey tall building, I have not had a maid! What a difficult thing to live without here in Bangalore city - for that matter in any city or town big or small in India. Saving on maid salary but paying for drinking water which we need to buy here!

So, since I don't have this angel anymore come in to help out with all the difficult household chores, we have become the "do-it-yourself" people - my husband and me. The daughter works only when constantly goaded. And, I have lost weight - so some people have observed - not the scale in our weighing machine that shows in "lbs" which we need to divide by 2.24 to find the data in KGs. Doing the math could increase some grey cells...

improve memory I suppose :) … >br> The dishes need to get done - can't put it off like we so often do with cleaning and mopping of the floors - that can wait! So, I've actually begun to like standing out there in the open balcony next to the kitchen and scrubbing and cleaning the dishes.

It's calm and gently that I do the dishes on good days, and hard and vigorously on those days that I want to relieve some stress - stress of work, or any other thing like the commute, the traffic, the weather - it's getting unusually sweltering here in Bangalore- the garden city which once was - and now becoming the city that's being dug up all over to make way for the “metro” that is soon to arrive - the "soon" that cannot be quantified...city dwellers have been in the waiting for over a decade now I hear. OK, so back to my dishwashing chore - not a chore anymore - it's become a therapy of sorts! There is always a good feeling of cleaning out something. Cleansing is always good - be it the dishes, the floors, the body, the soul...



In the evening time there are hordes of little children playing down there. I can see some other children along with maids/moms/babysitters at the swings, sea-saws and slides on the far end. The noise and laughter of the children is quite soothing, actually. And the tennis court is always busy - so many batches of children, signed up for classes. I wonder how he does these marathon sessions. He and his assistant are very familiar faces for me - but I'm sure they have no clue that I watch them everyday! This was the time I used to talk to my neighbor - on how her day was, what was cooked in the house, how her vacation plans were coming along and what mischief her little twin boys were upto. She had told me about her trip to Goa to her sister's place and had got me a nice pack of cashewnuts when she came back. How nice of her I thought. She does have a maid, but not for doing her dishes which she does herself. Maybe she finds it therapeutic too, I have not asked her.

Now, I can't ask, cause they have covered their balcony with opaque glass and we don't see each other in the balcony anymore. I miss seeing her smiling face but bump into her on occasions in the elevator or elsewhere in the building. We could go to each other's house to chat, but who has time for that leisurely conversation over a cup of tea or coffee in this day and age? …

Just outside the compound wall of this flat complex is a very densely populated neighbourhood of Independent/individual homes. This is a very middle-class or lower neighborhood and I notice that large families live in those small little homes. A couple of women are constantly on the terrace drying clothes, sweeping the floor (doing dishes maybe – but I can’t see that far from my balcony). Kids are playing around overlooking this tennis court and perhaps watching kids in this neighbourhood doing their tennis lessons.

There are at least 3 mosques around these flats, so we constantly hear the Islamic call to prayer, recited by the muezzin at the prescribed times of the day. The call happens five times a day, from the minaret, that I can see from the balcony. I hear this loud and clear while I'm out there washing the dishes. But, of course, we hear the call all over the house loud and clear, we can set our clocks, not needing an alarm for a 5 am wakeup. …

That dishwashing time, is time to myself, to reflect, to rejoice, to calm down, to enjoy the voices of children and see them playing haplessly, to watch the ladies on the terrace on the other side go about their daily chores, to look at the rising sun, enjoy the cool evening breeze, glance at the moon and the stars and get very important house work done. What a joy! It's a good feeling!! -Sri Lakshmi/Cheema

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Friday, June 11, 2010

 

Graffiti gives way to Gifted Art


It’s a Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike(BBMP), effort - keep the art and artists alive!

In Bangalore city, one can take a “Virtual Tour” of most all places in Karnataka – neigh this one is not an electronic tour - it’s all the “writing (painting) on the wall”!

The city is being ripped apart – old giving way to the new as if it were. What with a frenzy of tree cutting and digging up of main thoroughfares and beautiful broad tree-lined roads for the elusive but “soon to-arrive” and much awaited “Metro” – it’s going to solve all our traffic woes they say!

2 Pics: Artistic backdrops – footpaths - oblivious pedestrians

Every time I go around the city and see the pictures that adorn the walls around building and parks and bridges and underpasses, I’m reminded of the Graffiti episode described in the Malcolm Gladwell’shttp://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/) Bestseller book “Tipping point” http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/index.html). On one of the pages, he describes how the New York (subway/trains would get cleaned of graffiti on each trip, each and every time … and how… slowly crime kept reducing and how the city became a cleaner and bit safer, ultimately

3 Pics: Walls – with paper posters – they continue to tear down those posters, appeal to the public to “Stick No Bills”, paint the walls white and then begin to adorn them – creativity unleashed!







3 Pics: More “city walls” being covered with art …

Graffiti /Street Art has a charm of its own…

I’ve been clicking photos on my rides around the city – during my general commute from here to there and everywhere.

Aside:

[ It seemed to have became a “Topical” thing – this news about the dying art of painting posters and such I mean. A few weeks back, I read an article titled “Pop Art - Bollywood’s Real Poster Boys” in May 22nd, Sat MINT newspaper:

This article, reminded of the “Vanishing art of painting Bollywood posters”: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/the-vanishing-art-of-painting-bollywood-posters/53047-19.html

In yonder years, artists actually painted film posters – no prints. Here’s a “film pater” collage I found on the WWW: http://www.mediascape.ac.nz/cms/uploads/images/diversity/Collage.jpg

And a site with “Vintage Bollywood Movie Poster Collection 591 Posters” - Nostalgic!

http://www.yeeeeee.com/2008/11/08/vintage-bollywood-movie-poster-collection-591-posters/

End Aside

This is more of a picture blog. I’ve loaded it with pics I took in the past few months – captions tell the tale…

2 Pics: Old wall getting ready for the painting…


1 Pic: A green auto and the lake pictured on one of the underpasses…




Other new cities (New Delhi?) – may be a different “actual” place from the “old” city. But new Bangalore is the same real estate – 100s or 1000’s time the price – land is gold – and being converted at an unbelievable and unfathomable pace to a newness that is to be discussed and debated --- no more green – no more rain – no more water – but lots of colour, lots of chaos and a another world!









Others have written about this topic too - Wall Paints Beautifying Bangalore

http://mohanbn.com/blog/wall-paints-beautifying-bangalore

...

Last but not the least I’d like to share the “Graffiti” on my own office cubical wall. Not necessarily inspired by the walls of Bangalore city but more with an effort to personalize my space, I covered the walls of my cube with memorabilia. Much like the real walls around the city, my cube got slowly filled up – with not an inch of space! Here are some of those pics…

The clean plain grey wall that I covered, colored and cluttered --- transformed over a period of time … To the patch-work


Walls of my cube – with amateur kid’s art work (my child’s :) ) and personal pics…, my collectibles…

My office wall… with greeting cards, a certificate...

The volunteer wall I call it ... and the desk with so much stuff - flyers, posters from so many NGOs doing yeoman service in the city!


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Yet Another Manic Monday...

…or should I say just a “Medley of Myriad Thoughts and Events” Monday?

Note: This is an old mail/episode I described - sent to my "friends list" on Thur. Mar 4th, 2010 - later forwarded to "more friends" on a Fri with title changed to "TGIF - Thank God It's Friday..."

.....

Dear friends,

… Well, meant to send this on the Monday before last, and it’s already the Thu – 1.5 weeks later…

It’s been a while since I sent out my last narrative - nearly two months ago (and that was just my NY greeting and all). 62 days (to be precise!) have just whizzed by, and I felt the urge to send out another of my “group mails”. So, here goes…

The Friday before last (on Feb 19th), I took home two laptops from work. Well, after 4 years of working here (yes, this past Feb 26th was 4 years since I joined NetApp!), I finally got a new laptop J It was a “refresh” from the IBM ThinkPad model T44 to the T400 from Lenovo (what with the Chinese in-roads and all that sort of thing – IBM selling off this “ThinkPad” to Lenovo)! A hundred times the model #, with some order of magnitudes of (CPU) power and space (more GBs!) I guess. I had so much data on my disk that I thought I’d complete my data transfer to the new machine over the weekend – hence the heavy load back home on Friday (Feb 19th) and back to work on Monday morning (Feb 22nd), even with an aching shoulder L . It was not needed, but I did it anyway – carrying that stuff back and forth I mean. Could have just used the 8GB pen drive I bought at the P3 Store (Paper Print Pens) store in EGL SW park and transferred my data the easy way!

Well, this past Monday morning (Feb 22nd), I did not want to walk any extra or stand in the bus with that heavy load. So, I took an auto from Koramangala where my husband drops me off each morning (for me to venture to work – the remaining 2.1 km of our 14 km morning commute). I continue to commute by the bus and auto. But, just as Murphy’s law would have it, I lost my badge on the road and had to go look for it. This was amidst peak hour heavy traffic on the Intermediate Ring road – which has to be experienced – cannot be explained. A picture will not capture the commotion either (it’s a calling for a U-tube video post). Anyway, I don’t have a pic or video to show (of that bumper-to-bumper traffic) but just wanted to say that I crossed that road twice that morning, to look for my badge (I held so safely for 4 years). But, it was confirmed lost (as I could not find it) so, first thing on this “manic” Monday was to get a new badge. Luckily, I still had the access card so could enter the building alright (things are never all bad).

Aside: One Link to U-tube video of another B’lore traffic road

That was nice – getting a new badge I mean. They got me a new one in a jiffy! What with the new technology and all – a picture ID plastic card in seconds! Impressive!! Same picture and all, but no coffee stains or anything else for that matter – very clean J Also, the string around my neck – got a new one of that too. My old one said “Network Appliance” – that was an old name of our company. About two years ago – we changed our logo from a sort of complicated “moving disks” to the “simple” inverted U – Gateway symbol, inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris – T’was a huge branding campaign and all. Name was NetApp for short and then became officially “NetApp”.

Aside: About the old logo and the new one…by our founder David Hitz

Anyway, on this Monday morning – I had a new laptop, a new badge – same work – like old wine (pickle?) in a new bottle (jar?)? Even the smallest changes (like a new badge) is a “new” feeling – nice! Changes !! They are constant in today’s world – so much so, that Monday morning (Feb 22nd), there was mail from our company President saying that we just added “Adaptability” to our core values J

NetApp was the #1 Great Places To Work (GPTW) in the US last year (slipped to 7th this year), and the core values of this GPTW are:

1. Trust and Integrity

2. Simplicity

3. Adaptability (the new one that just got added) -- We are an organization that embraces change to create competitive advantage. We are focused on remaining agile, flexible, and nimble to thrive in an evolving business environment

4. Teamwork and Synergy

5. Go Beyond

6. Get Things Done!

Coming back to my heavy backpack – with 2 laptops in it and me lugging it along, despite my bad back and shoulder pain… and crossing that 100 feet wide Intermediate ring road twice… finally I reached the office. What a relief and a safe haven too - from the heat, dust, noise and chaotic morning traffic! Ah cool air-conditioning spaces, familiar cubicles…

About crossing that road each morn – one always holds one’s life and breath while doing this daily ordeal. When a car/auto/bus/lorry/motorbike sees a pedestrian crossing… they have to speed up and give us the scare. No right of way for the person on the foot! While I, along with a horde of other “IT” professionals wait for several minutes waiting for the traffic to ease, I somehow always thing of the Wordsworth Poem “Daffodils

I especially remember the verse:

“They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”

…Of course, it’s not the pretty flowers in the meadows… it’s this never ending line of Motorbikes and Cars and Buses and Auto Rickshaws (that ubiquitous 3 wheeler – that can navigate through any little crevices it seems with it’s noisy putt-putt sound and rickety ride...) .

Aside: I read a nice narrative about the Bangalore Auto rickshaws – titled The ‘rick’ won’t let you down; go take a ride

It’s a piece by a regular columnist Shoba Narayan, from the MINT newspaper à E-Copy of the paper (MINT newspaper was launched in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal in 2007). I look forward to reading what Shoba has to say each week. I have begun to like writing style and seem to resonate very well to the choice of her topics too in the weekly editions of The Good Life

While in the auto that Monday morn, I was observing the traffic – all around. There was not much else to do – and I saw a magenta coloured car – a unique color I thought for a car – it was a pink and purple colour missed sort-of. Turned right and saw a young man on a bi-cycle in that crowd of automobiles – wearing the exact same colour shirt – how weird and then another guy with a pink and white stripes shirt and another one with purple and while stripes. I started seeing the colour purple all-around as if it were – was reminded of the Purple Store I once visited in San Antonio - we even still have a purple poodle my daughter bought there (Aside: The River Walk in the quaint town is something to remember forever). Often times, one looks for something and then sees a lot of it around – so it was with the colour pink/purple/magenta that morn for me – I suppose… I saw another complete purple car pass by and then saw a young girl cross the road with me. She had a nice comfortable kurtha – beautiful prints … and I noticed she had purple nail polish on her toes! Cool J

While in traffic – I started to think of beautiful scenes and pleasant things – some real, some imagined - like a lotus pond, fresh ocean spray and Gris Gris - the rustic rough and rocky beach in Mauritius ( I start my Mauritius travelogue with a mention of Gris Gris beach there), Sunsets from between the boulders and rocks in Cannon beach on the Oregon coast, fascinating clear blue waters of the stunning Crater lake in the National Park Southern Oregon (link), smell of gardenia flowers in our neighborhood Millennium park, dry-hot afternoon breeze and the smell of mud just before the rain showers … there is a word for that as I learnt from a old friend quite recently…petrichor (PET-ri-kuhr) noun à the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell

Switching thoughts… we were mandated to submit a nomination form at work (who’s to get your benefits/money when you are gone!), which I took care of on Monday. Momentarily, it forced me to think about death – so final… thoughts of “The End”.

On Monday, I heard about the sad demise of a wonderful person, the mother of a friend’s friend. She succumbed after some struggle, to burn injuries – an accident at home while cooking. It was very tragic indeed – how the end came so suddenly and all…

… Along that thought, tragedy struck this Tue, Feb 23rd…. Carlton towers on old airport road caught fire in the late afternoon. Cause is yet to be found but lots of building violations(emergency exits locked or inaccessible). Panic caused loss of 5 precious lives (mostly those who jumped to their death from the 5th floor). Many were hurt due to the smoke and falls due to poor visibility while escaping… From work, we frequented Indie Joes and Bombay Post restaurants. There is also the TGIF there. Information and picture about the fire was broadcast to the world within minutes – see one pic on Twitter à http://twitpic. com/14vs2a

It’s ironic that the new badge I had picked up on the Monday before last, had a small “Emergency Response Card” from our safety and security dept. There are special tips for exit during fire!

This past weekend got busy – in a pleasant sort of way. It was the “Brigade Bharat Sangeet Utsav 2010” at the MLR Convention Center in our neighborhood – a lovely 3 day music and dance extravaganza. (Fri 26 -28) See the jam packed schedule

Festival featured renowned artists – including:

· A late night performance by the Manganiyar Sufi group (of Nimbuda Nimbuda fame). Listen to their music – it’s full of life, relaxing and amazing

· Kathak dance couple Nirupama-Rajendra – stunning! They ended with a piece called “Rapshody in footwork” which transported us to a different plane. They run a school – Abhinava Dance Company, their Photo Gallery pics of their Repertoire are extra-ordinary

· Manasi Prasad’s rendition of Meera – she’s a dynamic young lady – accomplished in academics (Electronics Engineer and MBA from IIMB) and performing arts (classical vocalist and dancer!)

· RK Srikantan (he just turned 90 with a voice still very young and vibrant - song along with his son who is himself a senior) and Ravi Kiran on the Chitraveena

More details about the weekend experience in another narrative – another time.

Time is flying … ticking really fast…

It’s the week of the important CBSE board exams… Maya will be one among the 1.6 million students (1,601,646 to be exact – per a report) taking the exam. Also, it’s the last year for the CBSE 10th class exams – it’s being done away with! And another change – no marks – only grades will be awarded this year. So, changes galore!

Aside: About 700,000 students (699,129 to be exact) will take the of Class 12 CBSE board exams (per that report). Wonder what happens to the 900,000 of them after class 10 – some may go to other “boards” like state, vocational training etc., but that’s a large diff!

I decided to write this narrative and share these thoughts with you’ll the Monday before last, but already the next Monday is past and another Monday is upon us…

Have a great Friday and relaxed weekend! Best wishes!

-Sri Lakshmi (Cheema)

LINKS:

· P3 Stationary Store à https://www.p3india.com/store-locator.aspx

· Murphy’s Law à http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law

· Bangalore Traffic – Videos from U-Tube à http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cdUPOvSXOo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owJMU9uzqsQ

· About NetApp’s old logo and the new one…by our founder Dave Hitz à http://blogs.netapp.com/dave/2008/03/design-requirem.html

· Poem “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth à http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/WordsworthDaffodils.htm

· Shoba Narayan’s article about Bangalore autos à “The ‘rick’ won’t let you down; go take a ride” à http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/08221235/The-8216rick8217-won82.html

· MINT newspaper E-copy à http://epaper.livemint.com/

· About MINT Wikipedia à http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mint_(newspaper)

· The Good Life – A MINT column by Shoba Narayan - http://www.livemint.com/SectionPages/Narayan.aspx?NavId=88&NavsId=96

· The Purple Store in San Antonia, TX à http://www.primarilypurpletx.com/

· A Travelogue of my trip to Mauritius à http://sribloremusings.blogspot.com/2005/09/beautiful-mauritius.html

· From the web – Pic of Gris Gris beach in Mauritius à http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/436812

· From the web - Pics of Cannon Beach, Oregon http://images.google.co.in/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=cannon+beach+oregon&rlz=1R2SUNC_enIN368&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=zMaPS63ILsS-rAew49CaCw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=5&ved=0CB8QsAQwBA

· Pics from the web of Crater Lake – Oregon à http://images.google.co.in/images?hl=en&rlz=1R2SUNC_enIN368&q=crater+lake+oregon+pictures&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=WMiPS63jJdG3rAetmsSxCw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQsAQwAA

· Crater Lake National Park in Southern Oregon àhttp://www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm

· The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell - petrichor (PET-ri-kuhr) noun à http://wordsmith.org/words/petrichor.html

· Carlton Towers Bangalore old airport road à http://maps.google.co.in/maps/place?hl=en&source=hp&rlz=1R2SUNC_enIN368&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=carlton+towers+bangalore&fb=1&gl=in&hq=carlton+towers&hnear=bangalore&cid=18208510856133191231

· Indie Joes Restaurant in Carlton Towers à http://maps.google.co.in/maps/place?hl=en&source=hp&rlz=1R2SUNC_enIN368&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=indijoe+bangalore&fb=1&gl=in&hq=indijoe&hnear=bangalore&cid=4206826659955346829

· Bombay Post Restaurant à http://bangalore.burrp.com/listing/bombay-post_airport-road_bangalore_restaurant/178240831

· MLR Convention Center à http://www.brigadegroup.com/hospitality/convention_centre.html

· Brigade Bharat Sangeet Utsav 2010” at the MLR Convention Center in our neighborhood Fri 26 -28) Schedule à http://rasika.carnatica.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2921

· Manganiyar Sufi group Music group from Rajasthan (à http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganiar

· Kathak dance couple Nirupama-Rajendra –Abhinava Dance Company à http://www.abhinavadancecompany.com/pages/school.html. Their Photo Gallery à http://www.abhinavadancecompany.com/pages/gallery.html# and pics of their Repertoire à http://www.abhinavadancecompany.com/pages/repertoire.html

· Manasi Prasad - Dynamic young lady – accomplished in academics (Engineer and MBA from IIMB) and performing arts (classical vocalist and dancer!) à http://www.manasiprasad.in/

· CBSE 10th class exams 2010 à http://news.oneindia.in/2010/03/03/cbseexams-begin-class-10-students-to-be-assessed-ongra.html and http://sify.com/news/1-6-mn-students-to-sit-for-CBSE-exams-in-2010-news-National-kc0s4cegjhf.html


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