It's official!

Or nearly so... Abhi says there's nothing to be so excited about, that it's just a natural progression of the work I have been doing ever since I went freelance. But I can see that secret smile of his and I know he's just pulling my leg. I have just decided to extend my professional setup to a more-than-one-man-army. Going for a brand repositioning (I love management mumbo-jumbo) and calling my content solutions firm, DropCap. I went through a whole lot of names before I arrived at this one but I have been in love with drop caps for a lo...ng time.  I could go on for hours on the beauty of certain letters in certain fonts when seen in drop cap. But since that would result in my readers closing the browser window and vowing never to read me again, I shall desist!

Some more about my firm (Abhi says since it's s proprietary concern, I am supposed to only use certain words in relation with DropCap, like brand or firm. Which reminds me of an important marital tip, or a premarital one: Don't marry a CA if you can't take the legalese): Essentially DropCap will continue doing the services I am providing currently but it will have better backup support since I am hiring more people. Also, since I'll have people helping out, I'll be able to use some time to market my brand better. Have never marketed myself, by the way, and am a little jittery about this because singing paeans to myself isn't exactly my forte.

Wish me luck, guys! Oh, and I am looking for an editorial trainee. Fresh graduates with a flair for writing; no experience necessary. Will provide on-the-job training. If you are interested or know anyone who's interested, please send updated resumes to dropcapmedia@gmail.com. I also need a page designer/layout artiste. Some experience is preferred for this post (send all resumes to the same mail address). But this post, I need to fill up only in a month's time. The other one is URGENT!

What does it take to pursue a dream?

Drive, ambition, will power, resilience... a combo of all these and more? Almost all of us have a running-to-pages list of 'things to do before I die'. You may not have written it down but it's still in there. In your head or heart, as the case may be. Inevitably, the BIG ONE is somewhere in there too. Why do so many of us allow our passions to languish in the murky depths of our subconsciousness and never allow it to see light and some action, if you please? To dream and to do: God has given us human beings such a wonderful gift of taking conscious action! Wish more people would put their powers (however limited) to better use!

Forgive me pals

Changing my blog design every other day is definitely not a good idea, I know. Bear with me. It's just a phase. I think. Either I'll tire of this or my notebook will crash. Until then, no matter how weird this blog looks, keep reading please!

Readable?

Friends, are any of you having any readability problems with my blog? I think there are some issues with the new design. Didn't see a problem on my notebook but logged in from ToI today and half the post column was not readable.

Are any of you facing the same issues with my posts? Let me know.

Green and Selfish?Yes, says Prevention mag

I know I keep going on and on about being green even though eating green really isn't my forte. But there are lots of little bits we can do, like this slideshow tells us. Even if it's geared towards Americans, we too can take a tip or two!

13 (Sort-Of) Selfish Ways to Go Green - Prevention.com

Inspired by life!

As a kid, a cloud would move me to poetry. Those of you who are thinking dark poems aren't imagining the right kind of cloud. Growing up in Salalah, I was more moved by the puffy white types that drift against a clear, startlingly blue sky than the heavy, rain-laden ones that get the peacocks dancing and Meerabai pining for Krishna. And believe me, back then, all I wanted was to experience the other kind. I wanted tragedy, pain, tears, betrayal, all so that it would mould me into the kind of writer I was aspiring to be. I was quite sure even then that happy stories aren't the stuff of great literature.

I was rarely inspired by anything outside the natural world back then. Then I grew up, and I was rarely inspired at all. By then, I had discovered I had a way with words and I really didn't need inspiration to write well. Occasionally, I was inspired by great people but these were few and far between, and these people were mostly dead. No, I don't converse with the spirits, just had a phase of reading a lot of biographies of the greats.

Now I suddenly find myself inspired by real living people, my peers, people who work for me, my friends. I am especially thankful to all the wonderful bloggers out there (whose blogs I read regularly and those that I catch up with intermittently) who wield the pen, err the finger, with such grace that I can't sleep without going through my daily quota of blogs. So people, please keep putting up your thoughts online as much as possible... I may be addicted!

Today while chatting with a friend, I realised there was one person I have wanted to blog about ever since I met her. I call her a real hero. Her name is Rajani and I first met her when I launched a maid-hunt when I moved into my new apartment. She turned up at my door, dark, slim, sorta tough-looking. I was a little intimidated to say the least. It turned out that she couldn't help out at my place because she only took up part-time jobs that ranged between 1/2-2 hours a day. And she was already going to 7-8 houses a week! She promised to find someone for me.

In the meanwhile I found someone for the position but I was occasionally in touch with Rajani. She would come over and help with dishes and cleaning up when my maid went AWOL! I got to know her better and I was amazed that a woman who has gone through so much can still go about her work with a smile and a song and find the time to entertain my daughter in between.

Here's how an average day goes for Rajani: wake up at 5 am, make lunch for son (her other son lives with her sister in Fort Cochin), go to the temple, set off on the 3-km long walk to her first house, reach there by 8 am, finish the work there by 10 am and then wolf down the breakfast they set down for her, rush to her next house and the next and the next, until she wraps up by 3-4 pm, walk back home, have what's left of the lunch she made in the morning (remember she hasn't eaten and most times drunk anything since breakfast), finish the rest of her chores, watch some tv, babysit for a neighbour, counsel another neighbour with family problems and then hit the bed.

This girl is also a trained autorickshaw driver but her sons don't want her to drive an auto as they consider it unsafe for her; she is also trained in making a number of handicrafts but she has realised that making and selling a few handmade roses will not help her earn a living or fund her children's education. She only lived with her husband for a few years after marriage; he upped and left her, eventually marrying someone else. By sheer hard work, she has decked her home with every necessary urban comfort including a television, a fridge, a mixer-grinder, a washing machine (!) and the ubiquitous mobile phone. And the best part is that unlike most other Cochin maids who are plain sloppy or do the work with disdain, she works super-efficiently   and is polite, to boot! There's no dilly-dallying for Rajani; if she can't do a job, she admits it, if she commits to it, she'll make sure she delivers. This kind of work ethic is a rarity in Kerala, and quite refreshing when found!

Now tell me, does that sound too filmi to be true? Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction.

Friends from far and near

A couple of days ago, I received a message on Facebook from a college friend wondering why I wasn't putting up posts regularly. Am glad that my blog is garnering some attention.Thank you, Sheny!

Yesterday was a hectic Sunday, jam-packed with activities. Sometimes I am a lazy Sunday person but sometimes I just hate spending Sundays lounging at home. Yesterday we were planning a day-long outing at Oberon Mall but my contact at Make A Difference (MAD), Sumesh, rang me up in the morning to ask if I could come over and check out the summer camp where I was scheduled to speak on journalism some time this month. So Abhi, Ditu and I piled into the car and off we went to Palluruthy Snehabhavan, which takes in orphans, street children, kids from broken families and provides them with food, shelter and education. MAD is an NGO that helps out with underprivileged children, training them in English and computer skills. They also have a placement cell. Click here for more on MAD.

At the Sneha Bhavan, the children were thrilled to see Sumesh, and the boys greeted him boisterously. One young fellow came up and shook hands with us, too, saying 'Hello' and 'Welcome'. When we went into the office to speak to Fr Sunny who looks after the place, the kids came in too, pulling out chairs for us and giving us some candy. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least. Of course, they insisted on joining in on the conversation too and it soon got so noisy that Fr Sunny had to lovingly shoo them out. I was struck by the environment at the orphanage: the staff and the children were all happy and cordial.

We then went to the Don Bosco school where a theology student, Br Saji, had organised a month-long camp for children aged 10-15. He suggested that I make the class as interactive as possible to make sure the kids pay attention. And Sumesh warned me they may try to intimidate me which was just their way of checking my mettle. I have committed to a class on April 14: two hours in the afternoon. So if any of you have interesting interactive/group activity-based ideas on journalism, writing or simply on expressing creativity, do mail in or reply to my posts.

Am looking forward to hearing from a lot of my friends. Also, do let me know if you are interested in spending time with the kids, teaching them any skill or just providing some career guidance! It will be a great experience both for the kids and for you too!

We did go to Oberon Mall after all, and , as usual, were amazed at the readiness of Kochiites to spend on food. The Food Circle was crowded beyond endurance and we ended up sharing a table with a couple of young lovers (who, understandably, were not too thrilled about it). But we had to gobble our lunch and rush because the young fella sitting opposite us had a gulab jamun on his plate, and Ditu absolutely loves this syrupy sweet! She kept eyeing the gulab jamun and poking his plate until it got too embarrassing for all of us! :) Oh, she did get platefuls of gulab jamun at night though, at the housewarming do of a new neighbour!

In between the mall and dinner, we visited a dear friend and a former neighbour, who has been advised bed rest for discitis, an inflammation of the spine. Now, this is one person who has hardly ever taken any rest before and was always a busy bee, attending to the needs of her large family. She is a gregarious person whose life revolves around family and friends; these relationships mean everything to her and are a driving force for her life.

While there, one of the kids unwittingly spilled tea over my white tee shirt! I wiped it down with some water but my friend's mom wouldn't hear of me leaving the house like that. She rummaged in her cupboard for the brand new FabIndia kurta she had bought a few days back and forced me into it. When I sheepishly emerged from the bathroom in the kurta, Amma smiled radiantly and said, "Now you look so good. You have made me very happy by wearing this." So much joy in such a simple thing! Now I know where my friend gets her joie de vivre from! 

Try being content!

Is it so difficult to be happy? Sometimes it seems like the world is plotting against us to keep us in gloom, at others, we hatch imaginary plots in our head that give us a headache.... Happiness is such an elusive quality, it does seem like there's no catching it or keeping it. But is it really so hard to hold a little glow in your heart?

I have been on an experiment of sorts, an experiment to see if I can get out of the rut of being a crib often-cry often-rant often person to a laugh more-smile more-spread cheer kind of person. It seems to be working so far. Should I touch wood? It's a pleasant superstition indeed but I won't because I have recently figured out that all it takes is faith and willpower.

Faith in God, in yourself and in fellow human beings and a will made of, if not iron, at least something not too pliable. And I can proudly say 'I chose to'. I chose to be happy. I chose to work harder. I chose to laugh more. I chose to let go of the things that don't really matter. I chose to hold on tight to all that does. I chose to love my dear ones better in a manner they liked (the book Personality Plus helps). I chose to stop cribbing and start doing my bit. I chose to take my circumstances and turn them around. I chose to do it on my own terms, adjusted to fit in with family ideals and needs. I chose not to hold grudges. I chose to be more forgiving, to others and to myself. I chose to spend some alone time with 'me'. I chose to keep the relationships that mattered. And not worry not too much about those that didn't.

Nothing happened overnight. It is still a struggle each day. Following this path is easier said than done; it takes a conscious living of each moment. But it is all worth it. I see Abhi and Ditu smiling more, I see myself scowling less, I see myself lazing less and doing more and still finding time for myself (something I earlier thought was a contradiction in itself). I have realised that graceful self-denial is not all that bad sometimes. 

I haven't become a saint of sorts. I still have my weaknesses and my vices. But I am more tolerant of it all now. I have accepted my lot and am making the best of it. And it's given me the best excuse to put my every moment to good use! I feel like I am in a McDonald ad.... I'm lovin' it!