Doctors everywhere!

Consultation, diagnosis, test, report analysis, consultaion again, medication/surgery is 'to-be' done by a single doctor. If you do your consultation with doctor 1 and unfortunately had to give blood test to doctor 2 in a different place using the prescription given by doctor 1; thats the end of it!

Doctors do not have healthy relationships with their counterparts in the industry. They envy other doctors and also do not give up easily with them. A doctor will never accept something good about another doctor. Even if there is one single medicine to cure a disease that is recommended by a doctor, another one who looks at the prescription ends up saying 'who on earth gave you these medicines'. He adds up saying, 'I recommend you stop this current medication and start up fresh with what I suggest'. Damn! I pity the patients around the globe.
The same happens with 'Tests'. Blood test, urine test; no matter what is required for you to be taken there is a lot of confusion in healthcare industry. If Doctor 1 suggests, you got to give urine samples 5 times a day for a single test; Doctor 2 suggests, just 1 sample of your urine before breakfast would be sufficient for all necessary diagonosis. Crazy! Not just individual doctors, even the medications differs from country to country. With so many types of medications like Alopathy, Homeopathy, Siddha, Ayurveda; people in India are totally confused which one to stick on with; as all of them seem to cure their ailments either partially or totally.

Health care costs are sky high here in the US. General consultation costs at least $50 (roughly Rs.2500). I recently bought a pack of medicine which had 2 tablets in it and the cost of it was $40 (roughly Rs.2000); which is, a single tablet in Indian terms costs Rs.1000. There was a time when 4 people including me had buffet lunch in a star hotel in Chennai which had cost us Rs.1000. Now I understand why parents in India wanted their children to take up medicine as their career after 12Th grade. That's one field which does not have any recession!

**Don't forget to look at today's 'health tip' (right side)!

09/09/09

Notepads, scrapbooks, excel sheets, word documents would have flashed these fancy calendar dates 01/01/01, 02/02/02 and so on...,in the past 8 years... But the next time will have to be the 1st 12 years of 21st century(well, don't ask me if we are already in 21st century. I meant the CC of the CCYY being 21). This century has three more years to celebrate this little fun (10/10/10, 11/11/11 and 12/12/12), while we are on 09/09/09. Oops, I guess I am messing up somewhere. Let me sit and think.............................

No one knows how 01/01/3001 is going to be or even if the earth would still be there. But we are here today to celebrate these fancy dates.

New Year Day?

For me the year started off with a working day! While returning home that day, I had a chat with a friend of mine which went like this;

Me : Shyam, for sure this traffic is going to take another hour for us to reach our place. ECR (East Coast Road in Chennai) is flooded with vehicles. Look at this, even the temple zone is jammed with traffic.
Shyam: People are trying to pour their devotion on a single day. Check out tomorrow, this temple will be deserted.
Me: Actually one can debate whether to celebrate January 1st as the New Year Day or not.
Shyam: Who asked us to? Why celebrate January 1st as New Year Day? Why not April 14Th for that matter?
Me: Come on! Then we in India will have too many New Year's Day.One for Tamils, one for Malayalees, one for Telagites and so on....
Shyam:It was just because Englishmen invaded us, we celebrate this day as the New Year Day. Its according to the English calendar. Imagine, if they had not invaded India we would not even be speaking English for that matter. They imparted the language too into us.
Me: If Britain had not invaded India, and have not imparted English in us, then India would definitely have not been like Japan, for that matter; wherein people speak at least a common language- Japanese. Indians would have ended up speaking Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati and what not....
Shyam: Yeah, also Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and so on....Each state would have fought for their own language and would have divided India like what happened to the European countries. Each state in India would have been a separate country by now.

The conversation just came on our way , just like that; and ended as we approached our destinations.But the topic was wandering in my mind for sometime.A controversial thought to start with.

Shhh....No politics here!!!

I happened to visit a village near vellore where in few of the homes had no proper electricity, no proper food; water was contaminated, and more. But one thing which I could see in almost all the homes was a small television with "Tamil Nadu Arasal Vazhanga Pattadhu" written in blue. And every home had a cable connection with a few channels in which Kalaignar TV was compulsorily present.

A kind lady offered us tea as we came from far far away(from Chennai). As I was waiting for it, a small kid came home from school, threw his bag and grabbed the remote control. He tuned to 'Kalaignar Music' (am not sure about the name of the channel) and started dancing for Chimpoo's 'Kutti pisase' song. Heights!

I asked him when he will do his homework. He gave me a list of TV programs after which he said he will eat and sleep and will do homework the next day morning. This is 'India Tomorrow' (at least in villages) for us. But one appreciable aspect was every family had a 'TV' of their own and the ladies had some entertainment rather than gossipping with neighbours all time.

How is it to be a mother of a girl child?

On the day of delivery,her prayers are to the maximum.As they say,its rebirth for a woman.But what actually is her prayer to god?Is it for a safe and non-problematic delivery or for a boy child?Well, people will definitely debate with me if I say that, as these days modern Mother-To-Be are 'OK' with any child, be it a boy or a girl.

Recently I had a chat with a woman who was a Mother-To-Be , she says her prayers are for a boy child.I was very curious in knowing the reason.She said, "I don't want my child to face the problems I faced in life".I replied back saying "Lady! come on, a child has to be either a girl or a guy.Why restrict one gender? It was Adam and Eve and destiny was, Eve had to face the consequences, no matter what." Am I right? I didn't want to disappoint her or to prove her prayers were wrong by talking more.But I felt bad thinking what if every woman thinks like this?

Last minute rush-up (December month)

2008-My first post this year! Let it be about 'the last few days'!

Do you postpone things to the 11Th hour and struggle at that moment? Well, I do! I do a lot of postponement and I admit I do multitasking in the 11Th hour. A lot of time goes waste thinking whether to do it or not, how to do it, what will be the consequences etc (merely speaking planning consumes a lot of time while actual implementation has to be rushed up).One good example is I never eat the whole day and finally stuff a lot of food compensating for the whole day! (I know you never expected such an example :-)).

If we give it a serious thought and look at the events (exclusively bad) that had taken place in the last week of December, that's called real postponement or last minute rush-up. No one expected Benazir's death during the year end. What about Tsunami? Well, that's god's postponement. Maybe god decided of a Tsunami in 2004 and kept postponing it till last week of the year.

The Thread!

//It denotes that one who wear the sacred thread should be pure in his thought, word and deed.//

A person I know replied for this saying, absolutely not necessary; and removed his thread. The explanation he gave for this was, "A person who wears it is not all that great. Why should a thread differentiate me from others? Let the world consider me equally from now on..."

Three cheers for him (for thinking uniquely and rightly) on behalf of me and my blog!!!

Wine shop!

The intensity of crowd at various shops fluctuate for various seasons...

Diwali/Festivals-Cracker shop, Saree houses are overloaded.

Start of academic year-Book and stationary stores are fully packed.

Religious occasions/auspicious days- Flower business go up. Valentine's day-Crowd at 'Gift' shops.

But if there is one shop which is always packed with people at any season and for no reason at any time of a day is the Wine shop (at least here in Chennai).

Are so many people addicted to alcohol? Occasionally consuming it sounds OK, but getting addicted to it needs a second thought. A man under poverty line becoming irresponsible and getting addicted to alcohol will lose a lot.

A search from a website says...

• Advantages: Better cardiovascular health, Improved blood vessel function, Value in religious systems, Social interactions at low to moderate use levels

• Disadvantages: Fetal alcohol syndrome, Driving related problems and violence, Alcoholism, Increased risk for various diseases (Many types of cancer), Interaction with several medications, even OTC drugs

Ahem Ahem! Our men are great!

Related to my previous post (September 19Th 20-20 - Dhoni and Men!)

//This time the Kiwis showed their stamina levels as the ball was raising heights. The same attempts for Indians went in vain as they could only raise it to certain extent and gift it to the Kiwis.//

Yesterday's match with the Englishmen has brought in a small correction in my perception towards our men-in-blue. We can't keep complaining them. Yuvi's six sixes in one go clearly proves our men are unpredictable. Party time for Yuvraj! Yet another record! Kudos, Yuvi!

I was actually thinking about the sixth six, what was running in his mind after he hit the fifth ball beyond the boundary line.

20-20 - Dhoni and Men!

I have never seen a match so 'fully'. I have never had patience to sit and watch a 6-7 hour match continuously listening to Mandira Bedi yapping in between, with her little knowledge about the game. This 20-20 series seems to be a nice idea for people like me who prefer everything short and sweet. I was glued to my seat last Sunday watching India play New Zealand. I have heard from most of my friends who believe superficially that; if they watch the match, India loses; if they move away from their seat, a wicket goes; if they utter a word, the ball goes to the boundary. I am not going to blame me for watching the match as India lost. I enjoyed watching it especially when the whole burden was on poor Sreesanth. Precisely a sportive spectator, I am.

Be it India or the opponent team, I enjoy watching the ball fly beyond the boundary line. This time the Kiwis showed their stamina levels as the ball was raising heights. The same attempts for Indians went in vain as they could only raise it to certain extent and gift it to the Kiwis. I thought our men's energy level could not match their meat and pork built stamina. As I was watching I discovered; that when it comes to fielding their men don't hesitate to fall on the ground to stop a ball going to boundary; whereas our men watch the ball go or to the maximum they run behind it. Cricket lovers reading this post don't search for me, I am a crazy cricket fan too! This guy Dhoni has got a lovely smile apart from his silky hair which attracted General Parvez and many others like me.

Good to know that 20-20 series might get included in Asian games and Olympics where Indian Cricket will get more popularity all over the world! While few of them feel importance to other games in Olympics might reduce once cricket is in.

Impact! Come and get confused!!!

I never had a slightest thought that it would be like this. But it actually is not that horrible. Still the intensity could have been a little lesser; for the impact it made had pschycological disturbances. When our mindset is pre-framed, sudden changes are not accepted into the framework and this drastically disturbs the physical and mental aspects.

Entities around tend to interfere deep into our emotions as they are bonded with us through the generic aspect called relationship. When the intensity of interference is more and most importantly worse we let lose our firmness towards rightness. It is when we feel our mind starts wandering without knowing which the right path is. These kinds of pschycological disturbances not only affect the current mindset but also the goodness we had planned for the near and far future.

We still can’t blame on the other entities as such, when we as a primary entity need to analyze if the effect could have been reduced when we had reacted to it differently; as that would help us the next time when we face it.

Phew.....!!!! not BL-5C

As the television screen was flashing "Nokia cautions users against 'exploding' batteries", not waiting a moment I grabbed my phone out of my bag and took the battery to check if it was under trouble.

During the process, dropped the mobile at least twice on the floor, went into deep thoughts listening to what the lady with the blazers was reading out on the television. Started asking myself,"Which mobile should I now go for? Too many new varieties have come in the market. Flip or slide, or the one with more pixels or the new one which no one has, at office?" As this is an unexpected investment I decided to cut down my shopping expenses this month. Like the Shrek's Donkey my mind kept on yapping within.

One of my friends who is a technology engineer never uses a mobile phone. She says she is fed up by the massive usage of it, these days. I call her the 'Lady Buddha' - sacrificing is not all that easy. After all mobile plays a vital role in every one's life. I still can't sacrifice my chocolate Feast(ice cream) and Ecstasy (dessert) when I am actually in the middle of vigorous dieting!!!

Romance at various Eras!

**Ray and Ann have fallen in love recently**

Love conversations at different Eras

Adam-Eve era - Entities together!
Ray: Ann, look at the stars above your head. How romantic they are?

Ann: Ray, would you get me one?

Ray (says to himself): Truly Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus!

Emperor's era – Entities apart, minds speak! Dove communication!
Ray: (Common man Ray admires Princess Ann from far off and says to himself) Wish I were Prince Charming. Look at the diamond jewelry on her neck. How do I convince her father?

Ann: (Looks at Ray from the balcony of her palace) Wish I were born to a cobbler.

Ray: (makes hand gestures to Ann) Have you read the love note which i sent through the dove?

Ann: (makes hand gestures back to Ray) Oh! did u actually send a love note along with the dove you sent? Sorry, we all had a rich dove meal yesterday. I thought that was your gift!

Mid 19Th century – Entities apart, letter communication!
Ray: (writes a letter)

Dear Ann,

I first saw you,

The whole world looked new;

You smiled at me,

Nothing else I can see;

You said 'Hi',

Oh my!

I proposed you,

While I possessed only very few;

You still accepted,

I felt the whole world I defeated;

May I ask your hand?

For, I shall make your life grand.

Ann: (As she reads the letter her cheeks turn pink. Imaginary duet song in the snowy Himalayas)

After 1980's – Entities apart, telephonic conversation-Voice communication!
Ray : Darling Ann, I am thinking about you. Wish you were here. (speaks to himself "For her to pay for the party next week this much is enough!")

Ann: Ray, my Romeo. Won’t you appear before me like a superman? Please come and take me from here soon!

After 1990's – Entities apart, Email-communication!
Ray (through email): Hi Ann, we shall fix our marriage once our baby turns 1. Is that fine with you?

Ann (replies): Fine with me. Don't forget to invite our first child's school friends too (With a happy smiley :-))

After 30Th century - Entities apart. Entities together???
Ray: Hi Ann, do you want to see me now?
Ann: I would love to. (speaks to herself "Wont this guy spare me at least for today?")
Ray :( appears virtually in front of her)

This day this word!

Time for some philosophy...

I heard this saying today: "Contrast lies very closer**"

When 'X' is cutting onions, tears rolls down from her eyes. Looking at her 'Y' , has a loud laugh. Here lies the contrast. Cutting onions causes both laughter(action of happiness) as well as tears(action of sorrow).

One person's loss is another person's gain.

'A' is in love with a guy and wants to marry him.Her parents refuse the proposal and want their daughter to get married to a guy of their choice.Finally,she chooses to marry the guy of her choice.'A' is happy now, her parents are disappointed.Comfort and discomfort happens together and are closer to each other.

** courtesy: Pasupathinathan(PPN)

I enjoyed this- Sneeze it out!

Courtesy: http://ramforever.blogspot.com/ (Share Auto Predicament)

Situation in a share auto ( In Chennai, a share auto is a kind of car with the seats re-arranged and packed with at least 15 people wherein actually only 6-7 can sit comfortably) :

//This is when nature began to play its part and I had this urge to sneeze. If I sneezed then my body will surely move and will end up touching one of the women.// (you will understand it better when you read his narration-RAM in my bloggers list)

Explained in a funny way though, i feel there is no need to control your sneeze. Be it a boy or girl, or your project manager, or your father-in-law; sneeze it out when you actually feel like!

From NIMITZ

"The Nimitz reached Chennai, India on July 2nd 2007 as part of efforts to expand bilateral defense cooperation between India and United States. Sailors of the nuclear powered aircraft carrier participated in community work in Chennai during its station here.Nimitz left Indian shores on July 5,2007 along with the USS Pinckney and is headed towards Gulf."

They came, they helped, they conquered!The US sailors visited the Tsunami affected areas and helped the direct and indirect victims here.Renovating Tsunami affected homes,interacting with the kids,rendering financial help,cleaning the areas and more. Most of us would not have known that there existed such a place near Kanathur(ECR) with the affected people.

When people from some other country generously come to help the victims, shouldn't we think that we have failed to do our duties. Or will it be OK if we think they have brought a forgotten issue to the limelight.

But last week one of my colleagues had a contradictory notion that this has something to do with our prestige.

A little thing!

Cant resist myself posting this picture here. God's gift man!!! And you guys run behind Shriya and Asin.....

A year completed......

Last year same day i joined a new Unit in my company. And guess what, when i got a mail from the HR about this; for a moment i thought whether this was a prank played. Coz it was dated April 1st......

One successful year with a wonderful team has completed. Hoping to work in more challenging projects.......

Curlzzzz......

Perhaps, everyone in this planet wants to look gorgeous. This fever prevails at all age groups, especially for the people in teens and post-teens. Each one wants to attract their opposite sex.In many cases people do not worry about the consequences when they take risks in changing their physical appearances. They call it the make-over.Starting from plastic surgery to making curls to the hair, everything is possible with the growing cosmetic technology.At times the urge of making one smarter than before creates adverse effects.Here is a narration of a similar incindent.

Maya, works for a private concern.She is not a beauty contest winner, but she knows to carry herself well.For many months she wanted to go for a make-over by doing some kind of treatment to her hair and face.One fine Sunday morning she went for a hair-cut at the nearby beauty saloon. She had a step cut for which she was charged 100 rupees. She came back home and had a bath.Now here comes the turning point.Her hair was wet and she wanted to try developing curls or twists or rolls to her hair. She never knew her villain was this yellow handled curl-comb! It was specially designed to make curls when used appropriately.

Brilliant Maya took a huge streak of hair in the front part of her head and rolled it over the comb.It was almost a bunch of hair. She gave a few minutes for the hair to adapt itself to the new shape. After a few minutes she tried taking the comb back, and to her surprise the comb got well settled in the hair. The entire bunch of hair got rolled to the comb in a random manner. Got threatened by it Maya tried pulling the hair of the comb. As she was not able to take even a single hair out of it , she tried making the hair slippery by putting shampoo in it. By this time the hair became more harder towards the comb and the bond became stronger.Maya now looked herself in the mirror. She got reminded by the witch in 'Hansel and Gratel'. Maya thought the only way to get rid of this danger was to make herself bald.

She immediately called up the beauty saloon for asking them tips. She heard a loud laugh from the other side of the phone, where the beauticians were having a nice fun time after hearing Maya's story. One among them wanted her to come over to the shop. Maya was embarrassed to leave her home. She had a comb attached on her front head with the handle protruding out. She rang up the auto guy. Once the auto came she covered her hair with a black duppatta such that no one finds her new make-over!She reached the saloon and gave the driver his money. He was wondering all the while if something was seriously wrong, as she was holding her duppatta with her right hand not letting it fall down. She ran inside the saloon and sat quietly till the other customers left the place.

It was finally her turn. The ladies had a tug of war with the hair streak.This was obviously a challenging case for them. They would never had met such a customer in their life. One among them thought this issue would definitely get them a Guinness record if they succeeded. Poor Maya was looking herself at the large mirror as the beauticians were playing with her hair.It took almost two hours for them to remove the entire bunch of hair from the comb. Though she lost a little bit of hair, she was happy that she gained most of them back. She thanked them and returned home with a sense of satisfaction. Will Maya ever go for a make-over again?

I was here!!!



A wonderful romantic place located in Madurai(Southern India) named 'Naicker Mahal'. One might have noticed the same in the movie 'Bombay' where the song 'Kannalane' was shot.

Pointers to reach here:
Once you reach Madurai there is a famous bus terminus named 'Maatu-Thavani' (as far as I know Maatu-cow's, Thavani-Half Saree. Am not aware of the history behind the name of this place). You got to be here.
From here you can take a direct bus.
Else you can take a bus from the famous 'Meenakshi Temple' zone.

They charge you 25 bucks as entrance fee. Extra charges for camera and video coverage.Its good to be here. The mahal is entirely built with pillars. The carvings depict the value of ancient Tamil Nadu.The ceiling wall which connects two pillars has miniature carvings which is an extra-ordinary masterpiece. The same is done for all the pillars. There is a wide open space in the center of the mahal. Before many hundred years this was were the common men were allowed to sit while the emperor sits on the stage. This place was usually meant for the discussions between the king and the common men.

A little bit of maintenance would help look the place new always. This has been a tourist spot in Madurai apart from the popular 'Meenakshi Temple'.