Happy Birthday! :)

I have a good news here: My blog has finished 3 years of existence. And this is the 224th post in 3 years and 3 days. Doesn’t that mean 75 posts in a year? WOW! :)

Hats off to me! Give me a round of grand applause! :) … Louder… still louder! :)

Signing off, Sands.

The Thin Line

They, three police officers, got out of the train – one female officer and two male officers. Walking towards the escalator, the two male officers ushered the lady officer to the escalator, thereby giving her the chance to go first.

I wasn’t close to them. But I am sure that they would have said “after you” to her. Well, she refused to accept their chivalry. But they were sure that they wanted her to go first and she happily got in the escalator first and the other two followed.

Nice, isn’t it?

Women are to be treated equal. But a bit of chivalry is always good. It is actually treating women as first among equals.

But the nice thing which is chivalry is separated from chauvinism by a thin line. Sometimes, being nice is taken in the wrong sense. My dear lady readers, please don’t take it offensive if someone is being nice to you.

Just accept the nicety and be happy about it. For a simple thing, the fair sex seem to enjoy the acts of having the doors opened, having the groceries carried etc. much more than men enjoy it.  And most men are happy about treating the ladies nicely. (Well, when I say *most*, I am talking about most of the men I know – including myself).

And after all, being treated as lesser beings for ages, now perhaps women should enjoy a bit of chivalry.

Well, that doesn’t mean that they should be silent against chauvinism. Beware of the thin line which separates good and bad. Raise your voice when required. Fortunately, men are becoming more understandable and reasonable! :) (no reason to raise your voice then.)

By the way, all of you know the story of that picture – right? (well, nowadays men won’t do that, but would happily carry you ;) )

Well, as a matter of fact, in my department (institute), we are all men and we always compete to open the doors for each other and let others pass. You see, we are nice to all. And a bit more nice to women.

Well, that small incident is the trigger for the whole post. Isn’t it nice? that I can develop a small thread to a long post? I am becoming a good blogger! :)

Signing off, Sands.

Violets – mine and yours

What I actually intent to write is about “Blues” – mine and yours. But I guessed that such a title might not get enough attraction for the traditional genre sense in which people write “blues”. So, now since you are here, let’s replace violet with blue.

The question is “Are they the same thing – my blue and your blue?” – This is a philosophical question which cannot be answered? Well, the very same thing which I and you call blue might be seen different by us. It could even be someone else’s yellow/red/green. 

Well, if you are confused, just feel free to think I am crazy! (and may accept your failure to grasp abstract things and come back for my next post).

So, having laid the foundation problem, let’s go to the next level.

The thing is, I want to know how Malayalam sounds to someone who doesn’t know Malayalam. One thing which I know about German, which no other German person knows, is that “I know how it sounds to a non-German”. (What a great discovery! isn’t it?) :)

Well, I know this about English too – especially by watching all those late evening HBO/Star/AXN movies – without understanding even a single word.

I was wondering whether there is any method to forget Malayalam for a few days and listen to others and feel how it sounds (and then remember it again).

I told a German friend about this “A native speaker’s WANT to know, how his language sounds to a non-native speaker?”.

To my question “How do you feel listening to my language?”, he answered quickly – “Bewildered”. :) [nothing can beat it.. right?]

Now when I expand this little problem to a higher level, it changes as below. Most of the English songs are fast numbers for me (and I believe that it is true for most of you who are not native English speakers). But would that be the same with native English speakers?

Or is it that Indian songs are inherently slower?

And if those songs are not too fast paced for them, would they find most of the Indian songs, which I find not-so-fast to be very slow?

Or since they don’t know the languages in which the songs are written, would they find the songs faster than the English songs which are slow to them, but fast to me?

Well, if you are not confused till this point, you do deserve a piece of cake. Feel free. You have earned it. :)

If you have good answers to my questions, please tell me. Otherwise, write your name down and I shall inform you when I find the answers.

Signing off, Sands.

PS: My plan was to write some mundane thing. But turned out to be this. *g*.

PPS: Nothing special about Malayalam or Indian songs. Just that they happen to be my language and default music repertoire. Had I been Chinese, it would have been Chinese language and songs.

Exceedingly Excited

That is my status now. I cannot say what makes me so excited now. But I am like that for the past few hours.

Mostly in a dancing mood – jumping around with one leg. Watching/Listening to those fast beat tamil songs in which the hero and heroine dance in Europe (Switzerland)…

Very romantic mood – just that the perfect person is not with me right now! :(

Could it be the coming 4 days (Easter Holidays) which is getting me excited? I don’t think so.

Why should I look for the reason to enjoy the wonderful mood? I have to just enjoy it. :)

So, here is a picture of the Easter bunny standing on my bed. You see? I have a white bed sheet with flower embroidery. And the laptop was pouring out tamil songs while I was taking the picture. 

Signing off, Sands.

Dying Plants and New Soil (D+)

In some of my earlier posts, I had shown the pictures of my office. I shall put the one picture here as well.

The plants you see here are slowly dying. It is now a long time since they have been taking all the nutrients they need from the very same soil in which they stand and now the soil in those pots must be good for nothing – with no nutrients left.

I cannot deny that there was some carelessness from my side too. I cannot claim to have been watering them really regularly. And they were more or less avoided during the times of my absence (especially the 6 weeks during Oct-Dec last year).

So, now the spring is here and the time to change the soil has come. But, when I think of the prospect of changing the soil, I am a bit reluctant. The main reason is that I have to buy the soil for it. Buying soil is something which I am not really able to accept.  (no, it’s not the price)

Coming from a village in Kerala, I have always played and have had as much soil as I have ever wanted. I cannot bring myself to be paying for soil. Is feels as if I have to pay for some fundamental right.

It is something like paying for you own mom’s love. Well, I accept the difference between a village in Kerala and a metropolitan city in Germany; and finally I am ready to buy new soil for my plants. 

I have found a soil-sack in the supermarket – 30 litres (mostly compost). I shall buy a sack.

I shall buy a little more soil than I would need for those plants in my office. I have always wanted to have a good rose at home. I shall buy a huge pot and plant a red-rose this year.

I am not good at watering the plants regularly – but I shall keep it alive and see it flowering.

Signing off, Sands.

PS: Why am I getting a feeling that this post is boring? (Perhaps because it actually is boring) :) .. That’s why I gave the grade D+ for the post (look at title) :)

A Quickie (which turned to a long one)

I had been to the city this evening – it was totally unplanned. The spring is officially here and the sun is out. So I went (in my T-shirt and shorts).

I stood there in front of the lions at Odeonsplatz and simply smiled, sang, whistled, laughed! Standing there again without a jacket – it was like a dream coming true. I looked to Leopold street and wanted to take a picture. Then I congratulated myself for deliberately leaving my camera and mobile phone. I shouldn’t have missed the enjoyment/beauty of that moment by clicking pictures.

I had been receiving reports from other parts of the country that the sun was spotted there and people in Munich were desperate to have a glimpse of ‘her’ (Sun is a lady in German). My emotions were running low – because of the prolonged winter and for the worry of sun having forgotten Munich ;) . 

Now everything is just fine and I am as energetic as one can be. Without being able to run or jump-around I still feel a bit handicapped though.

Well, so the thing is I went to the book-shop. This is already April and I wanted to have my share of books. March was a good month in terms of reading – I finished Wuthering heights (it deserves an whole post for itself), How would you move Mt. Fuji, The parenting book (about random 10 of the 21 tricks) and one-fourth of “Emperor's New Mind”.

But I picked no book today. The book I had wanted to buy wasn’t available – I had given one hour’s thought before deciding to buy it or not. And finally when I decided to, the book is not there. NOT THERE!

So I almost picked a book which I want to give someone. But then I would read that book (again) and I cannot give it as new/fresh. So kept it down. That person deserves it fresh and I want to give it new! :) So, I’ll buy it just before I meet her. 

And then I controlled my urge to buy some random book. I almost decided on Echolalias – but figured that it would be too philosophical for me and also I didn’t like the writing. (Too many brackets and quotes – (‘single quotes’, “double quotes”))

And then I walked in the sun for sometime and headed back home! :)

Signing off, Sands.

PS: Parents were angry at the English teacher, why? Because their children received a mere “C”. They said - “Our neighbours’ children have ‘C’ too but it’s fine, because they are ‘average’ children. But OUR child!?”.

PPS: Congrats to the smart fellow who landed in Google as an Intern. :)

PPPS: The post was meant to be a quickie…. but it just got long! :)