An instance when my presence of mind did not desert me!

Am I ready to blog about this week’s theme, ‘An instance when my presence of mind did not desert me’

I have been thinking about it for the past one week since the theme was announced. I remembered a few incidents which made me feel happy. Happy, because mostly my presence of mind has not deserted me. I instantly thought how it would have been, if the theme was about how my presence of mind had deserted me.

The incident that I am narrating here is one which I will never forget. The presence of mind that I had exhibited that day is not something that I get to do every day.

I was then working as the Principal of an engineering college. I think that it was the first graduation day and college day that I was conducting as the principal of that institution. As a part of the celebrations, since our new library block was coming up, it was decided to have the inauguration of the library building along with the graduation day.

Like in all cases, the building was handed over to us only a day before the inauguration and somebody suggested that it would be nice if we could shift all the books from the existing library to the new block.  There were more than 10,000 books and it would have needed me hours of hard work and labour to shift even one-third of them.

I had the librarian and a few faculty members shift the books from the morning itself. By lunch, we must have shifted about 1,500 books. It was after lunch that I had this idea. I called a few Heads of Departments and some faculty members and told them my plan. It was to cancel the classes that afternoon.

I decided to form a human chain from the existing library to the new library block, right up to the book racks, consisting of about 150 to 200 students. I asked the students to pass the books by hand. I had about 10 faculty members to ensure that there was no pilferage of books.

When I found that this idea was successful, I immediately asked other classes to be cancelled and in about three to four hours, I was able to transfer all the 10,000 books to the new library.

There was some resentment among the students thinking that I was trying to save the money. But when I went to the class after the celebrations thanking each and every student for making the inauguration a success with their help, there was genuine happiness in their faces.  They knew that they had helped in accomplishing such a mammoth task.

I think this is one incident which each of the student present that day will never forget in their life and neither will I.

How Internet changed my world

 Am I ready to blog about “How internet changed my world?” I would not have even thought of this blog name if it was not for the internet. 

When was I attracted to the internet? Not in the early days though. 

I started off with a Hotmail account maybe in the early years of the internet. I remember my uncle buying a book about Internet and its use for me for 100 rupees in 1998.Not that I read much. It was around the same time my father in law gave me a laptop to use. I don’t think we got an internet at home till around 2001.

I was very slow to make use of internet. I must have been having a hotmail account, which was created by my wife, for more than 10 years. I have mail written by my wife when she visited the US in 2003 and a record of her stay for more than 2-3 months and I keep refreshing my memories reading them.

Hotmail account was followed by a yahoo mail account created by a PhD scholar for me, because it was considered to be good and fast to store lot of literature review material collected from the net.

When I was doing my PhD, internet was an important tool. It was easy to search for papers. My guide always used to tell me how difficult it was to collect research articles when he was doing PhD. Those days in the absence of computers, writing everything on paper was so difficult. When I wrote my thesis, I realised how much easier my life was because of computers and internet. I could write what ever came to my mind just the way I do today and edit by cutting, copying and pasting. Imagine doing all this on white paper.

I always tell my students that all that they have to do is google and you will have the answer immediately. A luxury which we never had as students. Such beautiful power point presentations, animations.....

I have become so addicted to the computer or a laptop for the past 15 years that I have forgotten how to write. I find it extremely difficult to write and an irony it is, that I have so many pens.

When did I get into facebook? I don’t remember but the credit must go to the spouse for getting me a facebook account I guess. It is a wonderful tool to connect with friends. I did find my college mates through this. What more do I need? The spouse ensured that I had a blog and along with that, a g-mail account and a chance to rediscover my capabilities in writing.

And finally, all of you who read this blog? You would never have come into my life, if not for the internet. Makes me think of the song Dorakunna ituvanti seva?

What about all the banking services, e-ticketing services and other features that internet offers us? Is there an ending to how Internet changed my world ?

Thanks Internet for making our lives so easy, interesting and communicative.

Obsessed with any song / music / thoughts

Am I ready to blog about this week’s theme, “Any song/ music / thoughts you are obsessed with.”

This theme set me off thinking whether I am obsessed with anything at all, forget music. It kept me thinking for almost four days and I still cannot think of any obsession I have. I asked my wife if I was obsessed with anything and Pat came the reply, “You are obsessed with all your little little ailments, niggles, pains etc.” Nothing positive at all, from her point of view. 

Watching Tennis and Cricket has been an obsession with me and I was fanatic about Indian players, but with age, I have mellowed down. I don’t root for individuals anymore. I love good matches and very rarely do I have favorites for a particular game. This gives me freedom to enjoy the game thoroughly and not worry about my blood pressure. Obsessions about buying pens are something which I have still not come out of.    I have so many of them and the moment I get into a mall, I still walk towards a stationary store.

Music has had its effect on me. I have had my share of songs which I loved and used to hum, decades ago. Balamurali’s Tillana in Kadanakuthuhala, Nimbe hennina hudigi banthu nodu from Premaloka in Kannada which was  Juhi Chawla’s first movie and Maine Pyaar kiya’s title song are the one’s which come to my mind immediately. Of the recent past, the songs from the Telugu film, Annamayya have lingered in my mind for quite some time. Somehow, I never had a craze for English music but I loved Fred Astaire’s movies, with wonderful dance and music.

This post makes me realize that my obsessions are all muted and in a way I think I am lucky that it is so. Hope that it stays so too !

If I won a hundred thousand rupees

Am I ready to blog about this week’s theme, “Suppose you won a lottery of a hundred thousand rupees, how would you like to spend it ?”

If I had won a lakh of rupees in a lottery, how would I spend it? An interesting question!

What would my shopping list contain? It cannot contain cars which I am very fond of. Maybe it would have been there if I had won Rs 25 lakh. 

My list would certainly have a diamond ring, some nice pens, maybe some watches, a smart phone, some shirts, a camera and maybe another pair of sunglasses. It is very materialistic. Is it not ?

But do I need them? That is a question which is very difficult to answer. Even if I win a lottery, it is a very difficult question to answer. 

I know that I do not need them. But that is human mind. You will still want them.

I have many, many shirts. Since I have not changed much, I still have shirts which I bought when I was in college as a student. I don’t part that easily with my clothes. So my cupboard is full of them. 

I love pens and the number of expensive pens I have, I am not sure whether I am using them even once in three months. What purpose does it serve to buy so many of them? I know I am wrong, but I still end up buying them when I see something different.

What about watches? It is fascinating to see the number of watches on display and I end up buying a lot of them. I know a few of my friends who don’t wear watches any more because they have mobile phones to refer to for the time.

Diamond rings also fascinate me. Oh, the different designs that you get! I can’t get over them.

I had this habit of buying lottery tickets when I was in college. I would buy five tickets for Rs 5, of the Karnataka State Lottery, which had a weekly draw, for about a year or so. I did win some money. The most I got was Rs 100 or so a couple of times, and I would win the cheaper denominations of Rs 5 and  Rs 10 a little more often. 

Maybe I should try all over again and hopefully win, at least Rs 1 lakh and buy these that I have mentioned, whether I need them or not.

How I embarrassed myself?

Am I ready to blog about this week’s theme, “How I embarrassed myself?”

I guess I am ready, after all the reading and thinking, to decide how I embarrassed myself.

The very fact that I had to think so much about embarrassing incidents is in itself embarrassing.

If I tell you that I had to spend half an hour to google what are embarrassing moments, can you think of anything more embarrassing than that?

The biggest problem that I have today, as I grow old is that I do not remember many things. And that in itself is embarrassing. Isn’t it?

I had to rake my brains to remember some embarrassing moments and I have come up with a few anecdotes.

Forgetting the name of the person you have met more than once: This has to be my favorite. I just cannot remember names. With the number of students and faculty members I have known over the years, I get to see quite a few passed out students in malls, restaurants and other places. I get their names wrong, departments wrong. I don’t mind that, because the students recognize me, come and wish me but I do feel embarrassed that I don’t remember their names.

Playing cards on the computer:  I love playing cards on the computer at work and I have felt embarrassed a few times when somebody walks in suddenly into my room, over the years.

Nodding during a conversation:   For the past few years, I have been telling everybody that I am hard of hearing and have been requesting them to talk loudly. People continue to talk to me very softly.  Nodding during such conversations and pretending that I understand what they are talking is very embarrassing.

Locking yourself out of your car:  It is a very embarrassing moment and this has happened to me a couple of times. I give you the liberty of imagining what a nerve wracking experience it is, to get a duplicate key and to contend with the disgusted faces of the other passengers.

My mother always enjoys recollecting embarrassing moments and laughs at them. And here are two of my favorites. My mother was walking to a temple in her village along with two of her sisters on a road which was very slushy during the rains. One of her sisters slipped and fell on the road. The other one was chiding this sister how she could fall down at the age of 40 plus and cannot walk carefully. And after a few minutes, she slipped and fell down too. My mother could not stop laughing for years after that. Luckily she did not fall.

Another incident is about how kids embarrass us. When my mother had some relatives visiting her, she asked them to stay for lunch. As courtesy, the visitor said, no we have to go. Promptly her grand daughter who was about 5 years old blurted out, Grandma, you told mother that we would eat in this aunt’s house.

It is always nice, recollecting embarrassing moments at other’s expense. Isn’t it?