khalidimag

Time to give updates about the Bangaluru Maami, after the recent reunion of the Maamis held in Bangalore, which was the after-effect of the repeated hounding and emotional blackmailing by Bangalore Maami (BM), insisting on paying a visit to her city. The Chennai Maami (CM) had no other way out than to arrange for her train tickets to Bangalore somehow, inspite of knowing that some of her other good friends staying in Bangalore won’t be there on that particular weekend she had planned the trip. So, this trip was a tribute by CM to BM for all the great Maamiship they share! CM landed on Sat, early morning; got picked by her uncle and was ready to follow the schedule prepared and narrated by BM, last evening (after lots of heated discussions between the Maamis, which was part and parcel of the Maamiship). So, the great Milaap happened in the afternoon, when the rain God was showering his blessings upon us. Preceding this was another round of confusion and blame game when CM couldn’t figur...

The Madrasi Maami from now on will be called the Mumbaiya Maami. She has been forced to transfer to Mumbai by her employer. Although she is quite thankful to her employer and God for not having snatched away her job, she is still a gloomy soul. Only after these 6 months in Chennai, she was kind of slowly settling down when suddenly her boss (cum best friend in office) broke this news to her. He himself seemed to have taken aback when last night he received this dreadful SMS from his boss asking if one of his team mates (either me or the AVP) could go to Mumbai. I got a real shock. Lot of thoughts started originating – shall I leave my job, go to Delhi and find a job there; shall I refuse to go; shall I contact some friends/seniors to help me find a job. But the first thing I ended up doing was telling my father about it. He further put forth various questions that I was not interested in answering at that point in time. I was quite disturbed as all my plans went down the drains – learn...

The never-ending dreams will remain within me forever. They grow rapidly and intensely. Wherever I go, they take me into a virtual world and compel me to live there. I get traversed into this land of unlimited possibilities. I feel the power within to conquer the world. I develop immense confidence to fuel my aspirations. I feel free to do whatever I want, rising beyond all limitations. However, I keep falling into this trap of monotony that throws me back to the so-called real world. Am reading Freud’s ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ these days. Quite a phenomenal book! According to the author, dreams are a medium of wish fulfillment and have a definite purpose. Based on his patients’ clinical case history, he has identified a logical way to interpret dreams and to trace the ulterior motive behind them. However, complications arise when the dreams turn abstract. This happens because these desires are deeply sown into the minds and hence come out in weird forms. Also, there can be more than...

I am waiting for you, I am waiting for that one clue, One indication as God's signal to help me identify you. I look for you in friends, I try to find you amongst strangers, I struggle locating you in my dream, I am full of apprehension for the future to seem. Tried imaging your face, Failed finding your trace. Frustrated with this state, Think of surrendering it to fate. You will be my savior, The one to scare away my darkest fear. Its time to free me, To revive me, to salvage me.

This was one of those instances when I was in a damn confused state of mind. Guess everybody goes through such a phase sometime or the other! "I am again facing a trial. One more time I am being blamed for being inconsiderate. And the one who is blaming me is none other than my own self. It is difficult to maintain the right balance of emotions and rational sense in your judgements and decision making (atleast I havn't been able to identify the right mix). When I give more importance to my personal relationships, I get abandoned. Then when I decide to move ahead and try to build a new support system for myself, I am held guilty for being selfish and insensitive. I was lucky enough to get the taste of love but am not fortunate enough to have a lifelong stock of the same. I guess it is the nature's rule. You get one thing and lose the other. What keeps me alive and going is my faith that whatever happens, happens for good."

So began the preparations for the mega-event called Marriage to be held on the auspicious day of 15th Dec. Right from the purchase of sarees and blouse material for relatives to buying jewellery for the bride, the girl's mother wanted to get completely involved in everything (to the extent of overstraining herself and falling sick!). Even I accompanied her in her shopping spree on some occasions and was amazed to see her expertise and bargaining skills put to use for buying good quality stuff at a cheaper rate. And I must say that it requires lot of patience to roam around in the market to see what all choices are available before you make the final purchase decision. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and at the same time felt at ease to realize that I wasn't the bride! In the jewellery shop, I couldn't differentiate between earrings and 'metti' (toe-ring, also called 'bichua' in hindi). My cousin was disinterested most of the times in what was going arou...

I was wondering if we could just peep into one of our Maamis' lifestyle. How about the one living in Chennai? As I had mentioned in the last entry, she is experiencing lot of value addition in terms of learning about the Tam Bram culture and rituals. The experience became all the more enriching as she is located at the epicentre of all the family functions, i.e., her Periamma's place. Moreover, her cousin's marriage has also been fixed, which made her witness what all goes behind making preparations for a Tam Bram's marriage. Let us take it from the beginning. It all started 4-5 months back when Ms.D's cousin's profile was created on TamilMatrimony.com. The cousin was about to complete her M.Sc in food and nutrition. She was brilliant in academics and also received a scholarship from her college. She was dreaming about working as a researcher and going for higher studies when suddenly her world just turned upside down. Her parents made it quite clear that due to...

Well, I just thought of updating you about the current whereabouts of our dear Maamis. They are having fun in their respective domains of life (now that their individual worlds are separated and split wide open). Ms. S, the dominating one is enjoying her freedom in B’lore to the utmost level, with the late night walks and night-outs with her newly-made corporate friends of her own age group. Lucky Ms. S! On the other hand, Ms. D is struggling to adjust into the traditional mould of a Chennaite, getting used to wearing ‘bindis’, following the ‘early to bed, early to rise’ philosophy, and trying to grasp the intricacies of the rituals bred in the Tam Bram community. Given all this, both are completely into this career-oriented independent women mode, managing all their expenses wisely and making important decisions and choices in life. Coming to the interesting part, both are now ready to get into the unthinkable (for them) – love! The second year of college was somewhat eventful for bot...

I just completed a Google search on flirting. Well, quite an interesting and the most misunderstood topic I have ever come across. It is a process of social interaction through which one communicates one’s interest in another person to build a relationship, which can be taken to different levels, the farthest being that of a life partner. Quite apparently, it begins purely on the basis of the face value of a person. Gradually, depending upon the response one gets from the other side, other personality attributes of the person are also judged. The basic purpose is to fulfill the underlying sexual desires. It is interesting to note that all our judgments and opinions can somehow be traced back to our primal (animal) instincts, for that matter, even our actions and expressions used to attract the opposite sex are similar to the ones found amongst animals. What amuses me is the fact that behind the mask of all sophistication and civilized gestures, we are driven just by our sensual needs. ...

1. There are times when you just want to keep talking to yourself, away from the world around you that is full of sham. Then what could be better than penning down the thoughts before they get lost amongst the zillions that keep originating. How important is communication in our day-to-day routine? This was just what flashed across my mind today. I think its absence would simply mean living in vacuum which is practically impossible for us. We are in constant communication at all times, be it with others or self. What is evident is the communication with others, but the one that has more impact is the one with self. 2. Through Bhagwad Geeta Lord Krishna says, “I am the one who resides in each one of you, I am the driving force behind all your activities, I am the brain you are merely executors”. So, communication with self can be interpreted as talking to the God within you who exists in the form of the soul. In this era dominated by Science and its mystics, the idea of a single soul ch...

I don't know how many of you believe in sun signs and their influence on people's personality characteristics. As far as I am concerned, its a good time pass activity. But somehow when it comes to my own sun-sign, i.e., Libra, I find myself a true libran: lazy, indecisive, objective, capable of undertsanding others' perspective, etc. My hobbies also match up with the typical libran's hobbies like reading, music. Infact, my research on librans has helped me confront several revelations about myself. There have been occasions when I used to undergo a downswing of mood but never used to find the root cause behind the same. Even my friends used to complain about it. Now when I look back I can reason out that it was because of the non-suitable ambience (too crowded places or claustrophobic atmosphere) or some stress lingering at the back of my mind. And the funny part is I never realized it then. I don't know how logical or scientific is this theory of sun-signs as I hav...

Now that I am a miniscule piece of the corporatized part of the world, let me give you my point of view about it. Life takes a different form here. You have to be at your diplomatic best. Working in teams is a skill you need to learn. Communication is the key to your success at any level of managerial cadre. You will need one or two trustworthy people to share your problems and frustration with. Apart from work, you should have another area of interest on which you can have healthy discussions within your work group. If you don't get started with exercising, there are 100% chances of you suffering from obesity and other problems due to the sedentary nature of work. Work-life balance is a bull-shit which the HR people give to their employees to make them work harder. Work always comes before any damn thing. The company would be ruthless to anyone not performing up to the mark (infact there is no satisfactory performance, you can always do better!). Client is the God whom you have t...

Long time since I posted any of my thoughts. Didn't find time to key-in my thoughts, however, I did write some of them in my diary. Am in Chennai now. Well, last one month has been a nomadic life for me. I traveled a lot. Initially, it was a leisure trip down south which later turned out to be official. Let me tell you the whole story which may make it easier to understand. My MBA got over with the convocation ceremony on 18th March. After that I stayed there for one more week to bid farewell to my outstation friends. I knew that my joining would be sometime during the first week of May in Delhi. So, now I had a month's free time. Hence, planned a trip to the south of India to meet all my relatives (it had been 4 years since I had met them all). I left Delhi on 4th Apr with my father. The trip was really good, esp. for my father, as he was going out of station after a period of 12 years (approx.). I made a good friend during my train journey to Chennai in Rajdhani who was a def...

I want You to… Love me as much as you can. Let me feel your warmth and care. Show me the passion and desire in your eyes. Does your heart tell you to be with me forever? Do you feel this is the right thing to do? Am I your most precious possession? Can I be your closest friend? Please share with me whatever belongs to you. Change yourself for me. Make me feel special. Just whisper “I love you” into my ears. Let us celebrate the moments we have been together. Let us sit near the vast blue sea, me resting my head over your shoulder, and quietly watch the waves play. Can we sit underneath a majestic lush green tree, holding hands, over the dew-covered grass and feel the cool breeze taking us into the world of rest and peace? I want you to be my mother when I cry, my sibling when we fight, my father when I falter, my friend when I need to share my thoughts, and my husband when I need you to be. Be my soul-mate and know me better than what I know about myself. Tell me you will b...