Light of the Lamp

Hi,        As the year 2015 whiffed past us, yet another year is ready to make a grand entry with all 'new everything'. All through evolution of mankind, no year has been clean or utopian and no year is going to be like that. Because man or mankind is never perfect and cannot be. Every year is  a cacophony of events, which include political, terrorist, natural disasters, change of Governments, never-ending atrocities on women and their desperate fight to compete with men, deaths or assassination of famous personalities, dirty display of wealth and power not just in our country, but all over the world. It is just pointless to say that then world was much better about 50 or 100 years back and now it has changed for worse. Every period or era has its own problems and the humankind has overcome and still struggles to overcome the challenges through the survival instinct. Why I changed from mankind to humankind is that women ARE included.       ...

Hi,       My long cherished dream to visit Napier museum and art gallery in my hometown finally got realized during my recent stay in Trivandrum. This museum was built during British rule in 19th century and designed by a British architect, Robert Chisholm. The museum, which is one of the star attractions of the city was built in a particular architectural style with Gothic roof and minarets. The ceilings are built in such a way to enable natural ventilation and air flow.                                          But it was not a star attraction for me when I was a child nor for my parents. The adjacent zoological park with lots of flora and fauna, and of course animals and birds, was visited many number of times. The museum is nothing but a building showcasing lifeless objects to drive us to sleep!! I do not have much memory of visiting and 'enjoying' our museum. ...

Friends,                       I always look forward to go to my hometown Trivandrum to be with my parents who are alone. The city of Trivandrum is less polluted, unspoilt (or 'townish' as my husband puts it) compared to the hustle and bustle of big cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru. The everyday life is not fast paced and stressful as in big cities , and so I feel one can lead a better quality of life there.                           As I moved to Bangalore after my wedding, the one thing I found which was conspicuously missing was our neighborhood friend, crow. I used to think that this black beauty is present in every corner waiting to have the scraps of the leftover food items. The nature's scavenger, as we learnt in schools, is not omnipresent in the city of now high-rise buildings, Bangalore.  That was when I realized that crows need trees to survive, bui...

Hi,           I still remember that day in my school when those attractive, yellow, lightweight '2-minute noodles' packets were distributed to each one of us by the sales people  telling us to give the packets to our moms and tell her to  prepare the tasty dish in 'just 2 minutes.' That is how Maggi forged into the Indian market about 30 years back promising the consumers especially children that you don't need to take all the time in the world to please your family with a tasty delicacy. Needless to say, this instant noodles instantly became not just a household name, but a member of every Indian family as it was reasonably priced. The concept then was totally new to the Indians most of them who did not know about the noodles other than the Chinese Egg noodles which was not very popular as it contained 'egg'. Maggi monopolized the Indian market and the name became synonymous with the '2-minute noodles'.             ...

  Hi friends,                              This is the third time I am posting photos of Lalbagh flower show. Every year this mega event is held twice in this huge botanical garden once around Independence day and the other one around the Republic day drawing the gargantuan crowds. These days, it is advisable to book a cab or go by bus to reach there as parking has become a big pain. The multitude of stalls showcasing various handicraft items, eatables, beauty products, herbal products is definitely an added attraction. This time, I wanted to concentrate more on colours and details of those stalls but we were short of time. Hence the few photos of the stalls below look to be captured in a hurry. I have encapsulated those few moments in various collages.                   If you observe the photo on the bottom right hand side (above col...

Hi,              What would be our reaction today if we hear that all famous nursery rhyme 'Rain, rain go away, come again another day' so that some child wants to play......My reaction then and even today is that "oh come on, don't drive away those rains which is nature's bounty!!! Kids can play after the rain stops on the fresh, bathed ground. And of course, today they have lots of options like video games, mobile games to be played endlessly. Will they care for those rains???                                                    Well, I have always been fond of rains from my childhood though scared of lightning & thunder. The summer rains in my hometown have always accompanied by blinding lightning & ear splitting thunders which have sent shivers down my spine and to hide under our cot till those thunder sounds re...

Hi friends,                   This is one area I have not ventured before. I am not an avid movie buff but not a movie hater. My husband is even less interested in movies, and so an occasional movie watch in a multiplex theatre itself is a big event for me. I keep watching a handful of movies that are close to my heart either in tv or in Youtube. But lately, I am inclined to watch more movies (and of course with those that have good reviews) whenever possible.                       We celebrated our wedding anniversary by watching a Tamil movie and dining out. To hear that a movie was named 'Kaaka muttai' (crow's egg) sounded odd!!But this was the one we decided to watch as to put in layman's words, 'running successfully for 4 weeks and a definite value for money'. We went for a show on a week day in a multiplex mall and the snacks we bought there cost us more that the tickets for the ...

Hi my friends,                        'I' am not going to write the review about the Tamil movie 'I' six months after its release. In these days of instant communication, a cat is not killed due to curiosity as it does not have to wait for a long time to know how the just released movie is faring in the box office. On the day of the release itself, a movie is celebrated or obituarised through the social media. If a matrimonial alliance of our friends or relatives is fixed, we do not need to wait till the day of the wedding to see how a groom/bride looks like. I have seen many a prospective boy/girl's in the facebook's friends' list before seeing them on the D-day. The social media and the likes have killed the natural 'curiosity' in us if not the cat. So much for the boon and bane of the current technology. Now, I wanted to write about 'I', but seemed to have deviated a little bit and touched curiosity!       ...

Hi dear friends,             As I start penning some lines in this space, I am saddened by the political turmoil that is happening in the Aam Aadmi Party. The common wo(man) elected him with a historical majority, that few parties can boast of, to give Arvind Kejriwal another chance to clean up the mess with his 'broom' in spite  of him getting down from the power after 49 days last year. But this broom, instead of collectively cleaning the political mess 'created' by other parties, doing more 'insweeping' which seems to threaten to wipe out this fledgling  party. It is with the ouster of Shri Prashant Bhushan & Shri Yogendra Yadav, who are the founding members along with Arvind Kejriwal, the face of the party looks ugly and a seems to have a bleak prospective. Shri Prashant Bhushan threatens to form a new party as he complained of the dictatorial attitude of Shri Kejriwal. What will be the future of this party how will they fulfill the prom...

Hi pals,                    Did you miss my posts recently? If there are handful of you who follow my blog closely, you may be wondering whether I am running out of topics! It is true to some extent. I am searching for topics to write. If writing was fully in my blood, I would be busy posting something every other day. But that is not so. I am a Jack of some trades if not all, and of course, master of none. If I focus on one thing, the other things do not happen. I would want to do a multitasking of all my interests or hobbies,but that is not happening as I hope it should. If I do a painting, my mind will be more focused on that one only. My other passion is singing and listening to music, and for some months I have been conducting classical music classes for children in my vicinity. As a first time teacher in that area, it does involve lot of preparation and relearning as getting back to basics. Carnatic music is an ocean in which I h...

                                                   OPINION  »  OPEN PAGE January 18, 2015 Updated: January 18, 2015 00:03 IST Lost and found: a tale of luck and equipoise School Improvement Plan ?  -  Facing challenges that are holding school back from reaching its goals www.schoolserv.in Ads by Google DEEPA NAGARAJ COMMENT     ·    PRINT    ·    T    T    in Share 4 TOPICS social issue people social issue Life’s lesson: think with equanimity while under stress, and do not act in a hurry Let me share an experience we had recently as a family, that taught us not only how to think rationally and with equanimity while under stress but also how not to act in a hurry when faced...