The Musing Mind

My darling (only) daughter took her class X CBSE board exams and successfully completed them on March 26, 2012. Now it was my duty to find her a good pastime until her school reopens and she moves into class XI. Usually in the CBSE system schools reopen after a brief break in the academic session, roughly around the mid-month of April and close for summer vacations in mid-May. Since she is moving from class X to class XI where you expect new students to join and some old ones to leave for other boards or junior colleges, we presumed that not much activity will take place in school during this period of April-May. After a bit of research we came to a discussion point that she should explore learning of a foreign language in this summer break. Since there are no such facilities in the place we live (Jodhpur), the nearest and convenient place for her would be Ahmedabad where she can be put up in my uncle's place. We found out that the Alliance Francaise centre at Ahmedabad runs Frenc...

It has been quite some time that I have written anything. Today I was browsing through Flipkart.com , my personal favourite site for books and gadgets (lately). My very first book, a fall out from my Ph.D. thesis was listed there too!! I like that! Who would not? That makes it more easily available in India. Well, I never planned to go global with my publication, but thanks to LAP Lambert for their proposal. The book was published in November 2010. Back then, I informed some of my knowns informally about that and it is also listed on globally most popular site Amazon.com . Whoa! What's more? It's on Barnes & Noble too!! When I turn back and review the kind of time it was, from 2004 to 2009.........sigh! Many people around the world do research and I was not doing something extraordinary. Yet, I can say, it has been a very eventful and learning period. Not just academically but that period marked growth of a professional, a person, a human being! I met some very i...

I (we) had been riding under and over chaotic situations for quite sometime now. Not uncommon! Everybody does. In  fact I had been racking my brain as to how to plan for so many events, responsibilities and commitments in life so that I (we) do not end up crashing into pecuniary problems or demeaning situations. I was checking through all kinds of opportunities for earning, saving and investing etc. I am not a wise shopper. Nor am I a big spendthrift. I may perhaps figure-out somewhere in between these two. Despite having a decent job and a reasonably decent pecuniary footing, I still feel insecure. Comes naturally to females, I guess! While engrossed in the interplay of such thoughts and regular office work during hot climes of April, my colleague brought me in the freshly arrived bunch of magazines for the month. As a regular practice I browsed through the magazines and chose Reader's Digest for a detailed reading. In that issue, an article by David Hochman particularly caught m...

Day one: It was Sunday night and we were feeling sort of bored after my aunt left for her home after a reasonably long stay. We are very much attached to their family. Naturally her departure created a kind of void soon after she boarded a bus to Ahmedabad, where she lives. We all went to see her off as the bus stop was next to our house and dragged ourselves back after bidding her adieu. As we reached back home, my husband suggested we watch the classic Telugu movie that he brought from his Vizag trip. I coaxed and encouraged my daughter also to watch the movie. She is in grade X and unfortunately due to the places we stayed owing to our jobs, we could not make her to learn reading/writing in her mother tongue, Telugu. She can communicate well though, but cannot understand traditional/old Telugu. As for me, I must have watched this movie a dozen times since my childhood. I quickly narrated the synopsis of the movie to my daughter and assured her of great enjoyment. Thankfully she agre...

My mother is on visit to my place. She is here for a week. Yesterday, I thought of showing her a Telugu movie, so that, in this hot summer (Jodhpur is scorchy already), we can all relax under the luxury of the ac and savour some delicacies made by my mom. 'Having fun' while watching that movie was ofcourse high on agenda, however, the Indo-Pak cricket semifinal was unmissable though! However, to my utter dismay I figured out that I had misplaced that favourite Telugu movie CD. Now what? I was determined to show [or see ;)] that movie. I put the movie on download and went back to watch the match. The computer took its own sweet time to oblige my request, but it did. The movie was in .rm format i.e., real media format. That means I can watch it only on a PC. Sigh! Then? I saved the movie onto a flash drive and tried to connect my laptop to my LCD TV and also external speakers as the original sound quality was poor :( I did not find the appropriate connecter. Sigh again! What ne...

Wishing a very Happy International Women's day to all those wonderful and glorious women and little girls on this earth, and specially wishing those men who respect and care for women!! As per Encyclopaedia Britannica , IWD (8th of March) was instituted for honouring the achievements of women and promoting women’s rights. A national holiday in numerous countries, it has been sponsored by the United Nations (UN) since 1975. Remembering the women power, starting from our epics and puranas, viz., Savitri, Sita, Draupadi, Ahalya, Tara, Radha, Mandodari, Sulochana, Mata Anasuya, to Florence Nightingale, Helen Keller, Sister Nivedita, Mother Teresa, Anandi Gopal, Sarojini Naidu, Durgabai Deshmukh, Rani Lakshmibai, Razia Sultan, Kiran Bedi, Bacchendri Pal, Madame Curie, Shakuntala Devi, the list is endless. Each one of us can make a difference because we can do anything we put our mind to ... we can swim the deepest ocean, and climb the highest peak, be a doctor or fly a plane, w...

పలుకే బంగారమాయేనా, కోదండ పాణీ!! పలుకే బంగారమాయె, పిలచీన పలుకవేమి? కలలో నీ నామస్మరణ మరువ చక్కని తండ్రీ!! What soulful rendition of Kancherla Gopanna aka Bhadrachala Ramadasu, a simple yet profound devotee of Lord Shree Rama. Having listened to this devotional, emotional song, I feel as though I, you, everyone of us at some point of time or the other communicate our feelings to God in this way (this is not the exact translation or meaning of the song, for meaning and lyrics of the song, click here ) ... Oh lord of my fate, why don't you talk to me? Why don't you answer my questions? How can I forget you though I appear to have forgotten you amidst my worldly life? Who else will talk to me and soothe me when I am in pain? Who else will answer all my queries? How can I poor chap afford if your word/response becomes as costly as gold? More soon :)