Fat pay = Happy life?

Just after giving my resignation at my workplace, I happened to meet an interesting person from a reputed company. He and had visited our company to educate us regarding certain latest developments. He had an in-depth technical knowledge in his field of study, and I, along with a few other friends, was easily impressed. This person, we decided, was excellent. He knew all that was required and could present the matters so well. During a short break, we were chatting along, and he congratulated me on my new job.

“So, fat salary, huh?” he said. He was both fatty and chatty.

“Not really. My pay will be only marginally higher. Of course, it appears that there are better prospects for growth out there, financially. Also, I’m happier with the nature of work I’m being offered there. I’m hoping for a better job satisfaction… It’ll also give me more time with my family” I said, fingers crossed.

“Ha ha! Job satisfaction can be attained only with a fat salary, what else? “

“Well, like see, you speak so well on your subject… That can happen only if you have a liking to it. That certainly makes your work more interesting, doesn’t it?”

“No way! I speak well because I get paid for speaking well. If I would get paid better for something else, I’ll jump on it! My job demands that I stay away from my wife and daughter for at least 20 days a month. (Observing the concern on my face), Oh, you’ll say I’m losing out something, but you see, I’m gaining more than I’m losing. Wife sometimes cribs about not giving her sufficient time, daughter is too young to do that. But, you see, I can take care of all their needs. They are happy, so I’m happy. I was offered a job near my place with a lesser pay, and my wife wanted me to take it up, but no way. I’ll never compromise with the needs of my family.”

He would have rattled on, it appeared, but we had to get back to work. Damn, I had so many questions to ask him. Anyway, he was quite clear about his priority. FAT SALARY. He did not seem to be a person who would accept that there were needs other than those that money could offer to his family.

Ah, I certainly don’t mean to underestimate the importance of the green papers, but then, there’s much more to life, and the value of spending some time with family cannot be undermined! This reminded me of a little story I read sometime back. I’m not sure about the source, though.

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.SON: “Daddy, may I ask you a question?”
DAD: “Yeah sure, what is it?” replied the man.
SON: “Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD: “That’s none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.
SON: “I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD: “If you must know, I make $ 20.00 an hour.”“Oh,” the little boy replied, with his head down. Looking up, he said, “Daddy, may I please borrow $10?”The father was furious, “If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior.” The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? 

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.“Are you asleep, son?” He asked.“No daddy, I’m awake,” replied the boy. “I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,”said the man. “It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here’s the $10 you asked for.”The little boy sat straight up, smiling. “Oh, thank you daddy!” He yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father. “Why do you want more money if you already have some?” the father grumbled.“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied.“Daddy, I have $20 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”

Yaaay!

Oh, relieved and happy at last! I had been trying hard because this was something I wanted… Now after getting through the written tests and the interview, I’m into a new job! Have a short time to wind up with the old one… I’ll be missing this place, and I guess I am a bit apprehensive about the new place, but I’ll be fine. After all, finally I’ve got into something after my heart… So, here I go, ta la la la la!

Will catch up… After a short break

Now, I can’t tell you the duration of the break, could vary from a fortnight to a month, not more than that. With certain changes going on in my workplace, hectic schedules at home with my little one, other commitments I’m left with very less time for blogging. Hmm… lame excuses, you’ll say, but it’s true. Also, what happens is, when I do log on, I find so many interesting blogs that reading them seems more rewarding!

Ok, for time being, I’ll leave you with this. There are good deal of puzzles that I receive on my mail, here’s a link to one of them. It’s one among the mind reader stuff; Do check out if you enjoy them and haven’t stumbled on this one.

My pick – Enid Blyton

Just musing… Rowling & Blyton… both women writers, both wrote for children (and were read by all)…

I like any book that keeps me hooked, and Harry Potter did keep me hooked. But was it just quality writing that got her to the top, or was it the media hype? Thanks to Bloomsberry, it seems they even projected her as a male author initially, so that young boys would not get pissed off!

Yes, Potter’s popularity has made any human being oblivious to the muggle world an illiterate. (By the way, I just read Rowling was going to write some “who dunnit” stuff, would love to read that!) But give me a choice between Rowling and Blyton, my first pick would be Blyton.

Her best sellers being the famous five series and secret seven series (though I personally preferred the mystery series, also called the five find-outer series), there was something about the way she wrote, that made me drown into the book, literally live the book, every single page of it.  My mom would supply dinner at my table; seizing the opportune moment I would not nag her cooking. (Oh, she’s an excellent cook, but I loved nagging her!) I would not know if I ate less or more. And then when I finished the book, my five senses still functioning abnormally, with just the recent memory functioning at it’s best, I would recollect moments of the fantasy world Blyton had taken me into.

The fact that her books still sell over a million copies every year shows… I have a lot of company!

Famous Fathers

Father of Arithmetic                                 - Aryabhata

Father of Scientific methodology               - Aristotle

Father of Computing                                - Charles Babbage

Father of Grammar                                  - Panini

Father of Taxonomy                                 - Carolus Linnaeus

Father of Genetics                                   - Gregor Mendel

Father of Calculus                                    - Issac Newton

Father of Geometry                                  - Euclid

Father of Numbers                                   - Pythagoras

Father of Psychoanalysis                           - Sigmund Freud

Father of Surgery                                     - Sushrutha

 

Not an exhaustive source of information – this is not a text book, of course. What I want to know is, is there a mother of any field of study? I browsed wiki, and the title there did say “List of people known as father or mother of something”, but my eyes failed to hit upon anything significant!

Snail-mail… Forgotten forever?

I always told my friends, “I prefer snail-mail to e-mail”, and there were for sure at least three amongst them who felt the same. Yet, though we are in touch, it’s through e-mail, not through snail-mail. Snail-mail is almost obsolete these days, barring certain official documents that do pop up sometimes.

Hmmm… Snail mail… Rings a bell? Nope? The postmaster would ring, those days! Snail mail: The general delivery mail, s-mail, surface mail – whatever term you’d like to use.

Oh, I do love e-mails. In this hectic life, e-mails are a lot easier, simpler. Hit the send button and your mail reaches your pal in a jiffy!  If there’s a really nice picture you loved, or a piece of info that you found useful, you can easily forward it to hundreds.

Yet, there are times when I get nostalgic… One of my friends used to write “Guess who?!” on the back of the envelope, trying in vain to disguise her neat handwriting. And I would retort, “Forget it, you dim-wit, you could type it or get it written from someone else, but I’d know, anyway!”

Ah, there are e-cards with lovely animations, lovely e-invitations too. As part of my quotidian custom, I preserve them, but their worth seem kind of subdued compared to the collection of my old greeting cards.

Sigh. I have to come out is. After all, one cannot be reminiscent forever. Also, it’s not fair blaming the innovations in technology, enjoying the benefits of the same!

Note: This post being just about letters, I’m excluding the webcam and other gadgets that add to the utility of e-mail.

Blogger’s Block

That’s right! Barely started, and nothing in this entire world is inspiring me to think of a single line to write, except for this “blogger’s block”. I first thought that I had coined this term (yeah, he he), my limited vocabulary sentient of only “writer’s block”. And then google showed me 61,000 websites with the term! Someone said, “Every blogger goes through it.” Is that true?

I came across a post on “How to overcome Blogger’s block.” by Amit. And this picture he has uploaded from blaugh.com! Ha ha! Made me feel a lot better!

From my kiddy’s vocabulary

Translating my little one’s magical word to a neighbour who turned to me with a question mark on her face, I asked her what her child’s version of the same word was. Got me thinking, each child’s self-framed language is unique. I’m sure all mothers (ok, also fathers, granddads, grandmas etc) enjoy this lovely phase, where the entire family starts conversing in the kiddy’s language, even while he/she’s not around!

They do have an unpredictable shelf life, though. The child soon replaces his/her magical word with the more commonplace, actually right word. Sometimes I wish my son had not got hold of the right word so soon!

There are people who teach babies babyish words, i.e., easy short forms. The way I love it is to spell a word as it is to my little one, and then follow his version of the same. Un coding and understanding a little one’s language can be very interesting, easy at times, confusing at times, but thoroughly enjoyable throughout.

From my kiddo’s vocabulary… there are “easy level” words, like TT for TV, “Nee nee” for Neeru (Water), “Cheeyu” for “See you”, “Ned” for “Red”, “Boo” for “Blue”. (Oh, he loves to say Boo, so he goes on, boo boo boo boo)

And then there are reverse words (usually easy too, these are just fun!), like “Meenama” (It used to be Meena maama earlier) for “Vimaana” (Aeroplane), Pacchali for Chappali (Slippers), dammu for maddu (medicine). I’ve heard most of these from a lot of other kids as well; guess babies have some kind of telepathic understanding in this regard.

Now for the “difficult level” words. These can be understood easily if you have been present the first time the child coins this word, or someone who has been there informs you. Otherwise, you’ll have a tough time wracking your brains! My little one used to say “Anga” for song. When he felt sleepy, he would mutter, anga anga, which meant that I had to sing. Sometimes, the demand would be more specific, like “Tinku tinku”(Of course, “Twinkle twinkle”). One more was “Nammi” for curds or yogurt. I don’t know what made him name it so!

The other day he accidentally said “Dubbu” when I said “Muddu”. I echoed “Dubbu?!” and he burst out laughing. In seconds, he had the whole family laughing, emphatically pronouncing “dubbu” every now and then, before getting into another ripple of laughter.

One word we have not been able to decipher from his vocabulary is “Mini Dodia”. He comes up with the expression several times, but it was just impossible to relate it to anything or anyone. I don’t think we’ll know what it means. (Sigh!)

Need a break from your hectic schedule of life? Just try conversing with a tot. No matter how you feel, a word from a little one can never fail to arch your lips into a happy smile J

This one is for you, Shruthi…

Since I have already committed myself to write about her blog, thought I’d do that first. I came across her posts via a blog that appeared on Vijay Times. I haven’t read too many blogs, but for sure, I’ll continue to love this one! For one, her sense of humour keeps your eyes glued to your monitor, through some of the longish posts, without wanting to miss any word. Also, if you enjoy lucid writing with a touch of quality literature, do read hers. Err… I’m sounding if there are hundreds reading this one, helping out someone out there who really needs readership!  

Please, I don’t know her in person (or any blogger or writer, for that matter). So, there might be hundreds of others who write well, why am I writing about this one in particular? That’s because, it was while reading some of her posts that I decided to start blogging, after all.  There could be some personal reasons for my favouritism, though. It was amazingly easy for me to identify with her thoughts. Also, being the mother of a 2 yr-old, I find myself checking out baby, recollecting my own experiences, thinking, “Gosh, he’s growing fast!” “Ohh, he used to do that too!” 

I intend to post more about blogging in general (something I’m still learning), and about posts that I loved, in the blog category. Well, this is the first one. Keep the good work going, Shruthi, and don’t stop your rant! 

Obesity – Infectious?!

Now, here in today’s Deccan Herald we have some food for thought.  Obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus, researchers have reported on Wednesday. When one person gained weight, their close friends tended to gain weight, too.. … if one became obese, the other had a 171 per cent increased chance of becoming obese, too. The same effect seemed to occur for weight loss, the investigators say. But since most people were gaining, not losing, over the 32 years of the study, the result was an obesity epidemic.

…Friends are good for your overall health, he explains. So why not make friends with a thin person, he suggests, and let the thin person’s behaviour influence you and your obese friend?  

Back to the food (for thought, mind you!)

 Let’s assume you have a dear friend A, who is obese, or is putting on too much of weight these days. Now, being good hearted, you don’t want to lose A, but need some positive influence to shed off some extra ounces of weight, maybe influence your dear chum as well. You hunt for a skinny person and voila! Found B who is within your reach, is really skinny and is willing to be your friend.  

Kahani mein twist! Instead of you getting influenced by the skinny B, B starts getting influenced by both of you… and the result is sadly not what you had expected or had planned for L

Now what do you do? Abandon B and start hunting for another lean person? Damn my faulty memory – I forgot you were a good-hearted person. Okaay, guess the three of you go in search of another skinny person, hoping this time to find someone who is more determined to remain trim… (Ahem, Isn’t it much easier, time saving and rewarding for you yourself to remain determined, and make friends with whom you can share some psychological harmony?)

 I’m not saying that this research of over 32 years carries no meaning. The findings were actually interesting, sounded logical enough. It was only the bottom line that bothered me. Agreed, close friends, intimate relationships influence one other to a great extent. When your spouse starts putting on weight, it is only natural for you to feel thinner and relaxed, also possible for you to feel that an extra helping will not do much harm.  

So, instead of going in search of a lean figure to influence us, why can’t we persuade our own good selves? Say your very dear friend’s grammatically incorrect language has had a subconscious effect on you, and you’re not aware of it. Pray tell me, at least when the realization dawns on you, what do you do? Correct yourself, and correct your dear friend! Is it not possible to let this study itself be an eye opener, for us just be alert, and refuse to put on weight just because a close associate did?  

That said; please don’t tell me that any new friend you make will have to pass a “weighing balance test”, especially when you’re thinking of a cherished relationship. Otherwise we’ll have to re define friendship.