The ‘Ahh!’ feeling of satisfaction

Ever had one of those days at the end of which you feel like you have gotten quite a lot accomplished? The feeling of 'Ahh!' Satisfaction. The feeling of having done something substantial and concrete. I had one of those days today.

It started out with a nice long walk with Archie (my little (?) Golden Retriever). Then the usual morning chores of reading the newspaper(s), getting ready etc. After which I set out to do the one thing that I had been mentally debating on, for the last few weeks. I went and put down the deposit on my education – Finally! A course in Animation.

I have for the last 10 years of my life been awestruck by animation & animators. Have been off and on contemplating on learning the art. For various reasons kept putting it off for another day in the future. Today I took the first step towards actually realizing the dream of being able to create and contribute towards that art form. I walked down to the institute of my choice (Choose I did! after several searches, tours of the centers and speaking to faculty) and put down my down payment for the Diploma that I am going to earn by the end of the next 13 months. Classes start 2^nd November.

Interestingly I am going to be the oldest student in the class. This industry accepts people schooled in animation right after their 10^th Standard. So I am pretty much going to be amongst a bunch of 16-20 year olds learning the art. And Boy oh boy am I looking forward to that. Such a refreshing change to be back in a classroom (am getting an identity card and library card :D). Got my joining course material (Text Books, drawing sheets, pencils, eraser and a sharpener!!!).

The next thing I did today after coming back from my animation enrollment is walk up to the Music School and enroll myself into a guitar class. My good ol bro had already presented me my first guitar the first day of my self- employment. After some ground research narrowed in on some weekend classes. Today was my first guitar class. I started from the basics of understanding the types of guitars, to parts of a guitar and learnt techniques on how to hold a guitar. Was also taught on how to begin to strum it. Such a refreshing feeling.

The day ended with some fruitful business discussions (I cannot forget that I'm now on my own and need to starting earning a living soon J). The last I checked my pedometer it showed 9kms and some 600Kcal burnt. So while accomplishing all this I also got my fair bit of exercise for the day by walking around everywhere.

I call this a good day. A day of new beginnings. A day full of the 'Ahh – I got quite a bit done' feeling J.

Sigh! How hopelessly romantic!

Browsing TV channels in the evening and I stopped at Star Movies. As I screened through I realized 'Pretty Woman' was on air. This was probably the 100^th time I was watching this movie …but I could not resist sitting and watching the remaining scenes of the movie all over again.

This movie was released way back in 1990. At that point I think I was still just entering my teens. Was in my 6^th or 7^th grade (think it was definitely the 7^th standard since at that point Hollywood movies found their way into the Indian cinema halls way later than they were released abroad) . It was one of the first romantic movies I was exposed to at that stage of my life. There were hush hush discussions about this movie at school. Around the home circles at that time I used to hang around my brother and his friends (more like follow him around like a lost puppy much to his dislike!). All of them being a good 6-9 years older than I was – obviously had a lot more to talk about this movie. And boys being boys they thought all that romantic stuff was hogwash. But watch it – they definitely did. There was talk of the lovely background scores (Pretty Woman, Must Have been love, et al) eternally hummable melodies.

Even today as I watched the movie (knowing almost every inch of the film). My heart still beat faster when Richard Gere decides at the very end to make it a fairytale ending for Julia Roberts. I know I could watch this movie many more times without getting bored. It's just not this movie. Many other such romantic flicks I have the same soft corner for. Fairytale endings and romantic interludes…sigh!! J

There is a very apt dialogue at the end of the movie. It says 'welcome to Hollywood. The land of dreams. Some dreams come true some don't. But welcome to the land of dreams.'

Ain't hope and optimism what run this world J. Almost every aspect of it!

Hurrah! Improvement it is :)

My blog is now over 5 years old. Like I may have mentioned at some point earlier – this blog was inspired by one of my favorite cousins. While I cribbed to him one sunny afternoon way back in the summer of 2005 about how boring and monotonous life had gotten to be – the wise old guy advised me (on chat – since he had already sailed out to the faraway lands a long time ago) to occupy my mind by starting my own blog. He said – 'write about the things that interest you the most- anything, everything. Am sure something will come out of it'. I listened to him alright and got myself an account, a title and space and the first few words but that's where the interest ended then. So there it was – 1 post in 2005, the next one in 2008 (I do take my time don't I? It's amazing I remembered the log in name and password to this thing for that long!!) 5 posts in 2009 (some improvement!) and …………..hold your breath – 9 posts (including this one!) in 2010. Wow! And the year is yet to end with another 2 + months to go.

I have to confess though that there were a few more posts in between made during some emotional ups and downs which I chose to delete. I used to often wonder even if anyone ever read my blog. I have one little cousin brother who has listed himself as my follower. This blog is practically my online thought keeper. For awhile I had debated linking it up to my facebook account. The anonymity of it all was something I had gotten used to. I put it on for awhile and then pulled it down. Then currently it's linked on to facebook again. It's this way because I chose it to be.

In the last 5 years my blog stats tells me that it has had over 122 page views from different parts of the globe (with just one listed followerJ)pat pat!! I had not expected even one. Mind you thanks to google analytics, I do not track my own visits.

I intend to write – readers or not. I am liking this phase. Call it a wee bit narcissistic if you please. It's good to come back and read what you thought of at that point and time!

It's after all my online thought keeper. My Queendom. Currently being shared with the world at large.


 

To Belong or not to belong is always the question ain’t it?

I have now been self employed (Do note that I don’t want to use the word unemployed at any point and time J) for almost a week and a half. At this point I cannot help but be reminded of the time that I began my career . We were a bunch of fresh graduates who were campus recruited by a company that sponsored us for a full time PGDBA. From the first day inspite of being students we were recruited as employees and then sent out to study. Completed the course and joined back the company full time after two years. I felt totally and completely one with the company, its values, the culture et al. Whenever someone asked me questions about where I worked, pat was my reply – I belong to BOSCH. These statements of mine were instantaneous, total impromptu responses. It was neither due to a poor vocabulary nor was it wrong English. It plain and simple was heart speak. I said so because I believed so. The weight of the word ‘belong’ was reemphasized when one of my batchmates and colleagues very promptly starting correcting me everytime I said this. He thought I was being ridiculous to be saying ‘Belong’. He would almost always correct me by saying –“ Sharvani. You do NOT BELONG to any company. You are not some property to belong to a company or for that matter anyone. You only work for or work with companies. Why don’t you understand!”

Technically he was right. No arguments on that front. But the point is – I never did understand. Even after BOSCH I have always rightfully belonged myself to every company I have worked for. If I don’t belong – I pretty much don’t function. Be it work, or everything else with life. Belonging fully and giving it all you got is what me is all about! So when I say ‘I belong’ I mean it. Else you will find me out of there in no time at all.

Am at that stage of my career right now where I belong to myself! Now the question is “To belong or not to belong”. Its going to be fun finding out J

Make a difference and How!

This weekend for me was a really Refreshing & Rejuvenating  one. Refreshing and rejuvenating for my mind and being.

Spent the entire Saturday with intellectuals and the real ‘movers and shakers’ of our society. People who have stopped cribbing about the lack of governance and political situations and decided to ‘Make a difference’ in their own small and big ways.  

For me the greatest realization came from the fact that I have a choice– I can either continue to crib about the  Kalmadis , XYZs of the world pocketing my hard earned tax paid monies and not actually be able to ‘do’ anything about it OR take on small doable activities and begin to make a difference. Thereby reducing your dependence on Government to bring about a change – though clichéd ‘being the change that you want to see’.

Did you know that there are these small changes you can bring about yourself which if you can get 10 other people to follow –and they in turn get 10 more..too..would  bring about this huge domino effect of change? Some of these changes are real simple..

•           Get Aerators installed into your taps and showers at home. Inexpensive and simple to install, low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators can reduce your home water consumption as much as 50%, and reduce your energy cost of heating the water also by as much as 50%.

Did you know for the BWSSB – it costs close to Rs.44 per kilolitre to get the clean water to your homes, and we pay just Rs.6 per kilolitre. Can you imagine the deficit and loss that they are incurring? And there are so many homes that let their sumps and water tanks overrun with water overflowing all over the place. Maybe its true – we pay too less an amount for this utility for us to realize the worth of it. The solution might be in charging us what it costs them.

•  Switch off (the main switch) – better still unplug your systems when not in use. Your computer , your television (we all love using our remote controls and leave our sets on the standby mode don’t we? We do too!), your music systems, microwaves, mixers, etc… You will end up conserving close to 25% of your energy consumption at home.
•   Segregate your home waste. Recycle plastics and paper, compost wet waste and kitchen waste and you will realize that what you end up sending to the landfills will be just 10% of what you sending out today.
•  Say NO to plastic bags. If you begin to say NO and get a few more like minded educated souls to do so – then gradually the ‘need’ for the same will get diminished (though might start small – will lead to a revolution)
•  Use only CFLs and do away with all the incandescent lamps at home (atleast only use the CFL ones). Love the Minister for Energy Shobha Karandlaje – if only she can pull through her recent announcement of making Karnataka free from incandescent lamps.  They estimating a power saving close to 400MW (Karnataka today has a power shortage of 1000MW)
•  There are substitutes available for the harmful detergents and chemicals we use today to clean our homes. These are easy to make at home. Begin to use these so that the water that we throw out everyday post use – can be safer for the environment.  http://www.dailydump.org/harmless_home

These are just a few of the ‘to do’ things. There are plenty more of such. These are no great discoveries. Like I said it was more of a realization / enlightenment. It’s not the first time it’s being talked about, its not the first time I have heard about it either. But it’s more about putting these into action. For me it was an important lesson learnt. I guess the motivation came from interacting with people who have made these -energy and environment conservation methods a way of life.  Making a difference and HOW!

Dog Poop!!

You must be thinking she is off her rocker to be writing about dog poop… but take a moment to think of what the poor doggies must be going through – their poop is a topic of conversation on National media, on social networking sites…where not!! Have you not noticed this off late?

If you are dog owner, who takes his or her dearie for a walk either in the morning or evening you will be able to empathise and appreciate this note – else you will be the one thinking ‘she is off her rocker’.  

If you are a responsible dog owner in Bangalore – you are always on the vigil when you are on that walk…looking over your shoulder and all around while the fella decides to poop. You try you best to find a place that’s less visited, is secluded, has enough grass and soil to help the poop degrade et al….but sometimes when a fella has to go he has to go…So at times you find yourself tugging at that leash just to make sure he poops in a place that you think is more appropriate than he does….funny sight to imagine? Trust me – most of us doggie people go through this on a daily basis…

After all this effort that you take – you are still subjected to whole load of abuses from people all around. You are the vamps and villains of the piece. People who do not own dogs sometimes do not understand that it’s a biological need for these gods’s gift to mankind too. It’s ironical that these abuses are from the same people who throw out tons of garbage onto the roadsides and pollute the environment. I am not justifying the doggie poop on the roadside – but then its bio degradeable – Plastic is not!! And you have an option of segregating waste and doing the right thing – but the poor doggies do not have an alternative. They are not allowed into parks, they are not allowed into playgrounds..all they have are the roadsides. There are no designated pet walk areas – then what is an average pet owner supposed to do? Poor little doggies….as if its not enough to be subjected to the humiliation of your owner watching where and how you poop –now the added attention of the entire neighbourhood. Everyone seems to want to have a say in where he poops!!

Coming back to the discussions of doggie poop in media…I recently read an article in Bangalore Mirror about a woman being verbally and physically abused by her neighbours just because her dogs poop when they are on a walk??? Poor woman. I can totally empathise with her agony.

 And then of course all that talk about doggie poop in the CWG stadium, on the beds et al also inspired me to write about it…there seems to be so much talk about it. It’s getting national media attention but then we have no remedies. We have great acceptance and empathy towards construction kids and slum kids sitting down on the pavements and relieving themselves, we have great tolerance towards the mounds of garbage that gets collected at every roadside leading to extreme unhygienic conditions let alone environmental hazards but dog poop – sorry! That is something we have a zero tolerance for…even if the poor tame fella is relieving himself in the most nondescript of places….