An Act of Kindness

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. - Ettiene De Grellet

I always think that an act of kindness is great. The act should be spontaneous without expecting any returns or rewards whatsoever. Thus, was very impressed when I came across this article on msn. Providing the means for educating somebody is an act of kindness. Kudos Mr.Sivakumar Reddy for providing a child with the most important gift - education. Congrats Sivaprasad for getting into the field of Medicine. Wishing you success in your studies and everything in life. The link to the full story.

http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandorav3/output/News/6607e267-1e9e-4d35-9457-61b2bb3a0465.aspx

One more link of interest in the same genre is http://www.actsofkindness.org/

Exam Results

My children's results are out and finally they are free birds for the rest of the summer. My elder son was apprehensive of his marks. He has scored well and so has my small one. So, their other activities have started. My elder son is very busy with his cricket practice. My second son has gone to my mom's place for the holidays. It reminds me of my childhood when we used to go to my native place to visit my grandparents. Those were one of the most enjoyable holidays ever. I still remember small things that use to make an impact on a child's mind. I remember the "goli" soda and the color soda which we used to have if you gave the shopkeeper a "copper" colored 20 paise or 10 paise coin. Ah! what bliss.

Going to the Cinema

I am very choosy about the films that I watch. I have a very good collection of old English and Hindi movies; planning to add a few more before the month is over. I recently watched two different kinds of movies - one an English classic and the other a Telugu devotional film. The English classic was the 2005 released "Pride and Prejudice". A very neat adaptation of the Jane Austen's novel. The photography was superb. I always thought that Elizabeth Bennett was a very dignified, intelligent girl whose intellectual prowess is what attracts the readers. The movie, a few instances, shows Elizabeth giggling! On the whole an excellent movie for Jane Austen's fans.

The other movie was "Sri Ramadasu" the story of a devotee of Lord Rama. What I liked about this movie was that it was a neat narration of the historical events. The songs (other than the songs by the composer himself) are good and rendered beautifully. I specially liked the song (Allah...) sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Vijay Yesudas picturised on Nagarjuna and his father ANR. http://www.raaga.com/channels/telugu/movie/A0000542.html

I watched both these in the theatre; the first with a friend and the second with my elder son. The experience was great because it was after a very long time that I was watching a movie on the big screen.

Credit Cards - Boon or bane of my existence

I considered getting a credit card after I was convinced by a very smooth glib tongue of a marketing guy. I eventually did get a few of these cards. Owning one is easy, using it is also very easy (and of course tempting), but paying gets tough. Currently they are the bane of my existence. A sophisticated way of getting into debt. I am racking my brains to solve this problem. One idea was to remove the temptation, cancel all cards and bingo you are free. Hey, what about emergencies? When this question arises, I remember my parents. They managed very well without these cards, so why can't I follow in their footsteps. So, am planning to cancel all the cards that I am holding.

Musings on the road

I am traversing through heavy traffic and getting frustrated with the bottleneck when I get stuck at a traffic signal. I need to reach my destination very quick for myriad reasons, so, step up the speed of my bike a notch to cut through the traffic. The next minute I see two or three motorbikes zooming past me in a blur and the rider of each wears an expression which caught my eye. One was grinning, the other just looked, another increased the speed. Why this reaction?

I had overtaken them at the signal, (me a lady overtaking them) they wanted to prove that they could do better than me. I have faced this situation so many times on the road that it has become a habit to notice the sudden bursts of speed, the cheeky grins (one guy did a thumbs up sign too to boot)etc. Probably it is a guy thing or an ego boost whatever, it makes riding very interesting on a scorching day. I neither race with these smart alecs nor do I slow down, I maintain the speed to reach my destination. I always wonder if these guys would do good at the Motor GP races.

Exam time; my children seem to be enjoying it; they don't seem to be reading, revising, learning. I pull them up and we sit down to learn (I don't know who is doing the teaching and who is learning), I put down a time table. I know they are not going to use it but it has become a yearly ritual. They learn their own way while I am climbing the walls in frustration. The only consolation is that at the end of the day they do score well.

It looks as if it is going to be the week of decisions. The other day my vet asked us to send our 8 month Labrador, Tuffy, to the training school situated on the East Coast Road. I was gung-ho about this even though I was apprehensive to part with him for a month. My children were already imparting instructions (at the clinic!) to Tuffy on the pros and cons. In all this confusion I heard the words "tight leash" and "cane", my antenna up and ready, listened to the vet describing the process of the training. He waxed lyrical on how the dog would be asked to kneel, stand etc. by pulling on the leash very tightly, his eyes would bulge, become red and how he would have a perpetual rasping sound in his throat during that period.

The first time to school is very difficult; my children had such forlorn expressions on their faces, I remember my younger one crying. He put out his chubby hands out of the class room window (it reminded me of Sanjeev Kumar's expression in the song "Khilona rooth kar...".) and was crying pitiously but I knew that the rest of the school experience would not be painful. In the case of Tuffy, it was the unknown I was worried about, I could not subject him to a painful process. Some of the questions that plague me are, what if this experience affects his equilibrium, what if he comes out of this as a very aggressive dog (he is a jolly good-fellow today, very friendly with everybody, probably would let a intruder in by his customary tail wagging), so many what ifs and no solution whatsoever. Has anybody sent their dog for training, please let me know.

I have put my foot down but my husband insists that it will be good for Tuffy. His going to school is still being decided while he is lazing around and enjoying; playing and frolicking as usual.