Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Friends



 Am I ready to blog about the theme for week 50:  Friends :

 

What is a friend ?  These are some of the definitions, I found on the internet, divided into 4 categories.
A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.
A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement.

What is my definition for a friend ? A friend is a person who does not expect anything in return and is always with you when you need them. A person who follows your activities closely without rebuking you too much, is supportive of you most of the times.
And, this is particularly true for all those married people because they do not appreciate these qualities in their spouses.

Do I have friends ? Not many in the first category. A person whom one knows, likes and trusts. It is very difficult to trust people. From the innumerable stories I hear, I just cant fathom how people whom you trust so much end up cheating you, both friends and relatives. The people whom I consider my close friends are people whom I trust completely. Just a few people with whom I have shared my feelings about everything.They are your back bone in life whether you see them everyday or not.  I am a person of very few words. I talk very little. I take a very long time to get used to a person. If and when that chemistry clicks, I become very close to them.  Otherwise, I don’t talk much.

The second category, whom one knows and is an acquaintance. I have thousands of acquaintances and I just wish them and get on with my job. They come into our lives for a particular period of time and after that, they don’t mean much. Many of them drift away while a few of them keep in touch. I have a few of them who wish me on my birthday and don’t keep in touch with me otherwise. I still appreciate them.

The third category of people whom we meet for a cause. I met a couple of people when I went to Kanpur for doing a workshop. I spent 15 days there. One of them, I met on the train to Kanpur. He did not know hindi at all. As the train moved into North India, he needed a translator. And for the next 15 days, he was so close to me, because he needed somebody to help him with the language. The moment we got back to Tamil Nadu, his need for me just evaporated. These are people who fall into this category. People who will make use of you till their needs are met.

Finally, about the virtual friends that I have, who belong to the 4th category. I don’t chat much and I don’t befriend people so easily on facebook either. There are more than 100 friend requests in my facebook account and I am very choosy about allowing them acces to my space.

About the people in our 52 week group, there were more than 75 in the begining and it has dwindled down now. I don’t think that excepting a few, the others will keep in touch with me. Wishing every one of them the very best in life.

A thought provoking topic, which made me respond immediately. Friends and friendship is the essence of life. The spouse is an example. She has so many friends and my God, I have seen her chat with her friends on and on and on and on... There was one occasion when I did not even understand from where she got the energy to chat through the night!

She always says that I don’t have friends and I don’t know their value.  Maybe. But I am happy with my set of friends.
Happy friendship.

Thursday, 5 December 2013

What is in a name?



Am I ready to blog about the theme for week 46:  
What names (men's and women's) do you like best? Why?

What is in a name?

Nothing at all. It is only an identity. I am one of those types who do not remember names at all. I have had thousands of students and there is no way I can remember their names. I remember many of their faces very distinctly but I struggle with their names. May be because of so many students, I have gradually been attuned not to have favourite names.

There are many people who name their children with alphabets A, B, C so that their names are the first ones on the roll call. Does that matter? There are many who name their children without even knowing the meaning of it. Fancy names are a norm today. Goldwater is a name which is offbeat for me.

Names which are easier to be spelt and pronounced are the ones I like. There are some names which I used to have trouble while taking the attendance in college. And students would laugh at that. Many people take attendance by the numbers but I always used to call the names and pronounce them as right as possible.

What are the names I like the best? Akhila, my favourite neice, Ashwitha, Bhoodevi (sometimes the teachers make fun of this name calling the student moodevi if she is a dullard), Latha, Sravanthi and Vidya. And for boys, Anand, Balaji, Krishna,Venkatesh etc. The reason for this is either because they are God’s names, or I like the meaning or they are my favourtie people’s names.

Sunday, 1 December 2013

My very own enterprise



Am I ready to blog about the theme for week 20:  What would you name your enterprise and why?

I was ready from the day the post was announced. It is only that it has taken so many months for me to post. 

I was always interested in publishing a couple of text books, the first time I came very close to doing it was in 1998. And from that day, I have always wanted my enterprise to be named as SRAMA Enteprise. 

Srama in telugu means hard work. And from my perspective, Sra stands for Sravanthi and ma stands for Mahesh. I am not sure when or whether this enterprise will ever publish a text book written by me. 

Who knows what is in store for us?