Be Positive!

My Colleague and Friend - Sadiq said "Please don't write blogs any more" in a witty manner, as I was leaving office; and here I am! writing another blog.  From the time he said "Don't WRITE", my mind actually started framing what to write next.

It reminds me of a speech by the Great Dr. Abdul Kalam where he explains that the mind has a very difficult time processing a negative image. He says that you cant visualise "not doing" something. The only way to properly visualize not doing something is to actually find a word for what you want to do and visualise that.

I have experienced that this is very true. I used to take tuitions for students of 6th to 9th standard. When I used to instruct my students "DONT MAKE NOISE", they made so much irresistable noise. Then, I decided to instruct "Keep quite", and it actually worked well. The same thing happenned when I used to play Volley ball in school days; The more my friends shouted "Don't drop the ball", the more likely, I used to drop the ball.. This happens because the brain first imagines "Dropping" and then tries to tell it not to do what it just imagined. Had they said, "Hit the ball hard" the result might have been quite different...

Be Postive, talk positive and positive things will come to you.. What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.

Politics -- Its all about Money!!!

With more than 700 million voters, India is the world’s largest democracy. However, it is far from being an ideal democracy.

Today, GHMC Elections were held (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation); a holiday for many. I was having my weekly off. 
One of the political leader (contestant in GHMC) is near to my place and hence, there was much "Khalbali" around. From the past one week or more, there was this great fuss of campaigning. Increasingly, campaigns are becoming more like full-fledged entertainment events. Folk dances, songs and folk rhythms are drawing huge numbers to the campaigns. But, we have suffered through a lot of irritating noise pollution from the double storied digital sound systems the whole week. I have personally never been much interested in politics and I wonder, how does this campaigning add value to people at large? But, its making huge impact on the crowds who never ever think about the proportion of money poured in to organise these campaigns. I'm sure the money spent on such things can make a village become self- sufficient in its water and food needs at least.

Coming back to the E-Day, the street was comparatively quite silent. The past few days, the Telangana songs of begging for vote were intolerable. I was busy in having my breakfast @ 11. am. Someone knocked the door... "Sowjanya, Aunty here", a voice came from outside. "Oh, Namaste Aunty", I welcomed. "So, are you going to vote today?", She inquired with a beautiful smile. Hesitatingly and a bit with shame, I said "No, I don't have voter ID for Hyderabad. I have it for Delhi....". "Actually i didnt get much time to register for that", I started explaining; trying to show that I am a good citizen and I know my duties, but I'm too busy for these duties. She said "No Problem, I came for that only. You can vote without a voter ID. Do vote for Mr.X of our colony. Everything will be taken care". I was shocked and exclaimed "You mean a False vote????". She said, "Yes, dear! and that won't be a problem, Many are doing that and I will accompany you. Many others who are not having voter's ID will go". I said "No, I'm not interested in doing so", with a firm voice this time. She went off with an angry face saying " It's not a compulsion, Your wish! I just thought you'll be happy to vote. Many girls and boys of your age are voting". She didn't say that some of them are being paid to vote, which I sensed.

I just wonder how many such false bogus votes have reached the ballot box! Today's politics is all about division on the basis of caste, religion and most importantly Money & advertising their brand, the symbol of their party! To achieve this new definition of politics, political parties have started appointing advertising companies to do their brand-building exercise. It is the job of advertising agencies to 'brand' parties and make pitches for them which are worth crores of rupees. Thousands of SMSes are being circulated, asking individual voters to register. The money velocity is so high that it is impossible for an ordinary citizen to even try and understand it. Where is the transparency and accountability of the Indian political system, starting from the grass root level to local level going up to state and national level???


The thoughts kind of disappointed me and it happens every time we see crime, corruption and any such negative thing. What the common people merely could do is "Stay away from it and Play safe". And, as they say "It's easier to wear a slipper than to carpet the whole earth"

Rewards & Memories

I was waiting for my name to be announced, so that I may reach the stage and take the certificate. My Team Lead sent a message in the Morning "Please be there in RNR Town-hall at 6 PM. You will get certificate of recognition. Venue: Shilpa Kala Vedica, Hi-Tech City". I was there sharp at 6 PM; though i was not much in mood to attend the function. I could see some of my project mates and we gave gestures of welcome. Some cultural programmes were held. The evening started with an inspiring "Being One" Presentation, followed by MD's speech, the accomplishments our company has  achieved. Then a dance show and a Pop Band - Everything was done by associates and was quite impressive. Finally, the time of distributing rewards came. My name was announced after a few others.. "Sowjanya Chaganti" - I hurried up to the stage to collect my certificate. Shook hands with our MD, then a kodak moment!!! 

Few more dance shows played after that. I was waiting for the show to get over, so that I could go for dinner.. Dinner was good and I was accompanied by my Team Lead. "Oh, Its 10 A.M EST!! And we are having Core service meeting with Alex after half an hour;  we gotto go fast to join;", he said, trying to eat as fast as he could. I agreed. We finished up fast and ran to take cab back to office.

Reached office. A few associates congratulated me :) Attended the meeting and started working. I was in night shift, so continued till 6.30 AM in the morning. The whole night, I could hear just the tapping of my keyboard.

When coming back to hostel, I recalled what happened in RNR (I almost forgot about it in  work) .  I remembered something similar that happened a few years back, when I was in college. How similar it is.... is it really that similar???

Neha, Pranit, Meenu, Shalu, Venus, Ankit and myself were jumping with joy. Yes, that was our group! The extreme 7 Group. We all adjusted ourselves in Venus's indica (You can understand, how 7 people can fit in an Indica!!) and kept the music, singing with the CD track- as we moved from EDM (East Delhi Mall) to college. We were happy. The proud group of BCA batch, coz the three prize holders of BCA belonged to our group. Hip-Hip-Hurray!!! We already had our stomachs full with "Golgappas" round the corner of the college street. By the time we reached college, it was already 6.30 PM. My mom-dad also arrived to college for the ceremony. The "Rang-Peeth" was well decorated and our seniors hosting the occasion made it more beautiful. When our names were announced, our group was shouting and applauding with Joy. I touched feet of my parents and took the certificate from Director sir. My group was clapping as loud as they could. I gave the certificate to Mom-Dad. I could sense the happiness they were feeling.  Before leaving the college, we clapped for our success and discussed what we should do next day. 

Believe it or not, we enjoyed the whole week discussing the "Sammaan Samaroh", by imitating seniors, the way they sung...
I spent that day in cherishing the memories of my college days. Days when we used to play Dumb arts, when we used to spend the whole day in the garden, plucking the grass of the garden badly....Bunking the classes and chatting in cafeteria... when we spent whole nights in messaging each other before the day of internal exams and asking how much portion is left.... revising the important questions just before the exam.... the growing heartbeat before the announcement of the results. And the relief after hearing the results.... 

The memories made my day...

Someone rightly said:

"Memory is a child walking along a seashore.  You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things."  

The Three Musketeers & A BAT !!!

It was 11.30 PM. I just came from office, had my dinner and sat before my favourite laptop. Ranju was reading some book. Nishu was roaming in the corridor with her mobile. The night was unusually silent. We were busy with our own works and we were not talking much, which is generally very rare, when we are awake. Our room's door was open.

Suddennly a bat came inside our room............ "AAAAAAA!!!! MUMMMYYYYYYYYYYY", my reflex action broke the silence of the room. I jumped from my bed to Ranju's bed and covered myself completely with a blanket. For a minute no one understood, what was happenning. "Are yaar, itna kyun darti hai, kuch nahi karega wo", said the brave army man's brave daughter - Ranju, after a while. Nishu was outside the room itself --"Itna kyun chilla rahe ho, kuch nahi hoga", she said, from outside, daring not to enter the room :). I was still covered in blanket. "Wo gaya ki nahi.... O God... O God... ", I said. I could hear my heartbeats as loud as i could hear the flaps of the flying bat. "Switch off the Fan.... It may get hurt", I cried from inside the blanket. The bat was flying continously inside the room changing its proportion of height. By now, Brave Ranju was also quite afraid. "Switch off the fan...", I said again, though, I was nearest to the switchboard.. Before Ranju could follow my words "KADAAAK" - a sound came and it was silent again. "O nooo, i think it is hurt", i said, slowly coming out from the blanket.. Nishu peeped in from the window. Happy to see that it is not there, she came inside... "Where's bat, by the way??" Nishu asked. "Its hurt... It should have fallen somewhere in the room. We have to find it.", said ranju thoughtfully. " Han, otherwise, the room will stink by tomorrow", continued Nishu. I said 'Yes' in agreement and we started searching for it. Nishu found it and said "Its on your handbag". "Whose? Mine.. Noo", I said. "I cannot go towards it. It's but still alive....", i said. Ranju was kind enough to take the bat out along with the handbag. Poor bat was badly hurt. Few drops of blood were there on my hand bag.

Finally, the ordeal was over. I took a breath of relief, and thanked Ranju.

After the whole episode, i just gave a thought -- What was that great reflex action for??? A small poor bat, lost its way and came inside our room. It was helpless.. What a timid person I'm.

I could have saved the life of bat, had i switched off the fan myself, coming out from fear!!! I was sad.

"Fear not for the future, weep not for the past", something inside me whispered... "I will try to follow, going forward", I said to myself.

Main aur meri Tanhayi

Mind was too distracted and restless; I was unable to concentrate on anything. Wasn't able to read or write or even to think something. Wanted to talk to someone. So many friends in chat list but was not interested to talk also... Ever experienced this - the book is open, you are reading something and so many thoughts are popping up that you are unable to understand the simplest of sentences. And, if you think, what thoughts are coming, you have no answer. Meditation helped in this situation. And, it helps you to analyse things better, in a calm way. After that by reading my spiritual Master's book, felt even more better...

When you fight with your best friend, for no big reason, your mood becomes upset. The blame game starts. “You started it first”, “NO, it’s YOU”. And when finally in the process of accusations, you come to know that unknowingly you have hurt your friend, that your friend’s happiness becomes sadness because of you, it becomes very painful for the heart. You have nothing to say but “sorry”. But, again “Why should I say sorry?” says ego.

The question is why do we fight in relationships? Why sometimes arguments seem to have no better end than silence...

Mr and Mrs Iyer

One of the movies I love to watch again and again is Mr & Mrs Iyer. I watched it again with my roomies yesterday. It is very nicely written and directed

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This lovely little movie called Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, involves a bus journey from the hills to the plains and a continuing train journey up to Calcutta, where a little young Tamil mother, Mrs. Iyer, with her son Santaanam is taken care of by a Muslim. Their bus is halted on the way because some Hindu has been killed in an accident, and the Hindus are up against the Muslims. They drag out everybody who is suspected of being a Muslim from the bus. A very old, gentle Muslim couple are slaughtered. But Mrs. Iyer saves this Muslim who is with her by saying, "He is my husband." At the start of the movie, she won't even touch the water that he gives, and in Tamil curses freely. But later on she asks for the bottle which he has put to his lips and drunk from and drinks it. Then, one particular moment, very tenderly photographed, they are almost about to kiss when somebody says, "Excuse me," and passes on. That moment of romance was broken. But it shows, what a little love, what a little care can do, because within this scope of a bus journey lasting perhaps ten hours, expanded into three days by much violence on the way, a young married girl with a baby could fall in love with a Muslim bachelor just because he took care of her, looked after the baby, put it to sleep; when she spilled milk, he brushed it off the floor, things like that.

Love is something we all speak about all the time, or most of the time, but about which we know nothing. Generally, Love among human beings is friendship, dependence, need and, at the most, affection. And affection is what we have between all of us—I mean whether it is brother and brother, sister and sister, husband and wife. And to call it love, and to expect what you cannot expect from affection is the most, shall we say, shattering experience in life, because we expect so much without knowing what to expect. And thereby resulting in break-ups. We have only affection; we have only need-based relationships. Everybody knows this; it is nothing new. And when we read about love, especially through poetry, and see it in the movies, we think we are missing something. You can ask any couple in the world whether they are happy. Very often, nobody will be able to answer, "Yes, we are." Unless they are very old, and have lived together fifty years, and all their desires, their needs have fallen off, and then "nothing but he and I remain".

Hyderabad - New begginings

To post my first blog over here, I had to give much thought. After so much of thinking, I thought; why not begin with the first diary I wrote, after I came to Hyderabad, that is some three years back. It was indeed a new chapter of my life - an independent life with full support of family and friends... sounds quite contrary??? Yes, An independent life with full support of family and friends!!

Here's how the chapter started.

7th oct 2006: I was about to leave home, Mom, Siri, Friends and Delhi.. My heart was heavy. But no single drop of tear in my eyes. Everyone’s eyes were moist as they saw me leaving Delhi. We booked a taxi and went to airport.. On the way, no one spoke a word... Everyone was silent... Everyone smiling now and then.. Nothing else.. When we were about to enter the airport, everyone cried, except me... I thought what a heartless person am I... I was feeling sad.. but I was not crying.. May be I was more excited to travel by air than having the feeling that I'm leaving my home My First Flight As I entered the flight a very smart looking airhostess greeted us with a beautiful smile.. I didn’t get the window seat in my first travel by flight :( But outside scene was visible. As the plane was about to start, the airhostess showed some tips that we shd follow during the flight. The flight started and it was like as if i sat in a giant wheel... “that gurgling in the stomach"...slowly it went up and i could see the whole of Delhi.. Yamuna river looking like a non-linear thin line (as its shown in the physical map of India..).. We went up and up.. Out of the low pressure UP, I felt as if my ears are closed.. Then came the Himalayan mountains...Made of clouds(hehe).. I was on cloud nine (Satve aasmaan me rehna shayad ise hi kehte hain).. Within Just two hrs we had reached Hyderabad- The Hi-tech city as they say...Dad's office person came to receive us and help us go to Satyam Technology Centre... While moving along the roads of Hyd I actually felt no much difference in Delhi and Hyd as regards traffic and climate.. The only visible difference was that there were big Telugu movie postures... Anyhow we went to STC and found that there is no accommodation... We went to my uncle's House and from there we went to almost every relative’s house...

9th oct: This is one of the remarkable days of my life... I went to STC by a Satyam bus. Dad was not allowed to enter the office campus... Such a big office... Not even in my dreams I thought that it would be such big.. There were so many buildings, so many blocks... A long walk inside the campus... I was not getting anything... Where to go? Where’s my block?? Where’s my manager? I called my manager. He said “I'll be coming after 1.30p.m. Wait till then in ----- block"... beeep.. beeep ( He disconnected the call). “Which Block???”, I could not even ask this question.. There were so many blocks... As I stood alone there with fear, Siri's message peeped in my cell phone "Start ur day with new zeal, new hope, no tears, no fears.. Best of luck"... Tears rolled down my face and my new suits duppatta was almost wet- due to tears and some of which was also due to sweat... I didn’t know what to do... Dad called me up from the reception... He wanted to go back... I asked him to wait; I wanted to go with him... A long walk to reception... I did not know the path back to reception. With tears in my eyes, I asked some associates about the path to reception. They looked at me like an alien... Memories rushed like anything and I was feeling very alone.... Dad said that till 1.30 we shall take up a hostel... We went to "Navayuga Ladies hostel" .. its near market place.. Luks much like my own Dilshad Colony in Delhi... with so many shops in a row... (only difference as I said before was Telugu postures, and it was not a problem, as i know how to read and write Telugu).. After registering me in this hostel, we went back to STC. It’s too far.. One cant travel by corporation Bus... We booked an auto. I met my manager, finally... He looked full of attitude (Not his fault... the kind of work they do, I guess...) He didn’t let me speak... “Yes Sowjanya... So u are now in Hyd" He gave some forms to fill up... and asked me to leave his cabin... I didn’t spoke a single word except " Good afternoon sir".. But some other guys out there were kind enough and helped me in filling the forms... My hands print was taken (it was a formality)... I felt as if I’m a criminal and my finger prints along with hand prints are being taken.. I came back home (uncle's home)... It was the time I should leave for the hostel... The thought itself was bringing tears in my eyes. We went there... I arranged my luggage... There were some other Satyam trainees over there.. They were friendly... But as Dad was leaving the hostel... I can’t express what I was feeling!!!!!

My Father's elder brother - my "Peddanana garu" called me and said “Don’t cry. It’s a new journey. There is a lot of exposure to develop your personality and your SELF. God has given you a beautiful opportunity to expand yourself to the highest limit possible. And Family is always there for you. Science has made it so easy. A small device, can make you closer to your family... You are independent and you have full support."