Love you Bai

I had a dream, a bizarre one ( all dreams are), a greeny neighbourhood, a big house we stay in, (Looked more like Kharaghpur house ) an old friendly neighbour who always greets with a smile and keeps talking, a cage full of parrots with the chirping sound, big rangoli... one fine morning we wake up to see bai.. with her usual small briefcase standing .. she comes in and says "vaanchn othen mee..kasa ki deva baalla dela uttun evungalen"Everyone flocks around her, talk a lot about some developments here and there and finally I go ..to tell some personal development that happened in my life.. give her a big hug and start crying, everyone ( my sisters- appu, meenu and nuni)try to calm me butI keep crying and crying only to find that there is no house , no bai, no neighbours but just the tear in my eyes.

and I get up to put this post..

This has been a long time due and given my urge to procrastinate things this never happened till I get a dream that makes me hop from my bed to sit down blogging...

We lost Bai last August, somehow I had never thought she will leave us. I thought for her amazing will power no disease or disorder could do her any harm..just a year ago I had seen her fight for her life and recover in record time after a deadly Angio, sheerly by her will power.

A very delicate but a bold soul who battled all alone for the last 30 years, she was always there as a pillar for guidance, a moral support to everyone and will go all the way to help in spite of her old age and limitations.

Bai and I always shared a special affection for each other. Pathu maatha bandam we used to call it...

Love you and Miss you bai!!!

Happy retired life maa....

When someone asked what my parents were doing, my reply would be "My dad is manager in IOB and mom is in Income Tax". Somehow I always had a sense of pride when I told about my parents position and especially my mom's position. Mothers seem to be the ambassadors of "sacrifice" in any home and amma is no exception. She is getting VR from Income tax today. I am very sure she is going through this with a very heavy heart.

From the best of my knowledge and memory I have seen all her decisions were in best interests of "us". She always put her own behind. Thats why when she could have retired as an Assistant commissioner of Income Tax( What would have been a perfect icing on the cake for an illustrious career), she is giving her career an abrupt end because she feels her services are more requred for us than the government.

From day 1 she has been running around for the family.When her interests lied in teaching she had to take a government job to meet the financial problems the family faced.Followed by that as the family grew she couldnt really give herself a break in teaching and continued. We as family kept moving places along with appa's and amma's transfers.Wherever she went she kept her two key values of honesty and integrity with her , the key reason why she is very popular among all the higher officials and assessees. Though she did a wonderful job she always had a sense of fear to do the right things the right way and that helped her in striving for perfection in whatever she did.

Managing dual responsibilities in Vellore and Chennai and doing incredibly well all on her own , travelling to raids with perfect ease and confidence, serving notices to strangers.. ah you name a difficulty and she has faced it with ease.

In her career in IT that spanned a memorable 30 years she made a lot of friends across offices, across geographies and bonded with them so well. She mentored the young when they came new into a govt office and was also a good guide in making them take both career and personal decisions.

She has never hesitated to learn anything new, from moving from literature to taxation to changes in taxation methods to learning and adapting to software tools and took changes that came her way with right spirit and attitude and did full justice to what was expected of her.

Everytime I went into Income tax office and utterred your name I was shrilled with the respect you got from everyone there. In a self-centered world that we live in its very difficult to earn people and you have done it with ease and thats truly because of your big heart.

I am sure ma.. though you found it difficult to cope with some of the demanding bosses and some of the non-cooperative subordinates you loved your job, and I understand what you are going through when you are dropping it off and again proved yourself to be an epitome of love and sacrifice.

You have given a lot to us all ma... you fought and got yourself transferred to all the places we all had to go, you compromised on lot of your work stuff for our health and our well being , now again this decision is in our best interests.. enough ma... its time for us to give you back atleast a millionth of what you have showered on us unconditionally.

This post is just for you.. Just to tell you that we are all very very proud of you. Love you ma..

Cost cutting time!!!!!

With all corporates adopting various cost cutting processes and the economy taking one of its worst slides ever , we are in a state of "Cash is King!!". In such a situation managing an household is equally challenging. With me being a new entrant to the state of "kudumbastan" and having been brought up to live more luxurious living, the following are some stiff measures that I have decided to adopt to save myself a few penny :) [ Note : These are just guidelines for me to follow and not an advise to anyone.. as usual documenting it here :) ]

1. Keep Swipes away!! - Fallen pray to one of the most stupidest marketing techniques, I had once been forced to say an "Yes" to a credit card vendor and since then the tight coupling had started. The freedom(so-called) provided by these cards has put me too into the vicious circle of swipe in temptation, puzzled as how to pay it back convert to an emi , realize the loss incurred in paying in intsallments suddenly and again pay back somehow and again swipe and the circle goes on... Hence no room for temptations anymore. First oath I take is to STOP swiping the card completely. Anything to be bought buy with "actual cash" (or debit card may be) and not with the virtual money that this CC provides.
2. chennai trips!! - For the homesick boy that I am , getting used to these unplanned trips to hometown has become more than a habit to me ( and now for us). Firstly because the trip is unplanned you don't get tickets and hence its either a tatkal or by bus (volvo :P) -- the costlier ones. The ric journey to and from stations in both the cities - thanks to the location of my residences in both , the auto cost is equal to (if not more ) than the normal train fare from Bangalore to chennai. So the measures on this front..
   • Reduce the trips to chennai ( decide based on need say an important wedding to attend etc)
   • Plan it well so that we get tickets in train
   • Difficult, but still try and use public transport as much as possible
   • More importantly use debit ( and not credit) cards to book your tickets
3. Multiplex culture!! The multiplex culture has impacted majority of youth and I am no exception. Picking up some of the most ordinary flicks, booking tickets online( again swipe :D ) , popcorn plus pepsi during interval ( I cannot settle for anything less than a Jumbo-combo you see :))) and again after the flick a dinner( italian, swiss, continental... !!) to finish things off adding some extra fat to the tummy and some extra debt to be cleared in next CC bill ( or another flexi pay -- emi option may be??) . The measure is to cut on the multiplex cost, confine oneself to the DVDs and reduce the trips to multiplex immensely.
4. Communication Kills!! Its essential we have communication skills but the modern day cost of communication kills!!. The measure is to cut down on vetti chat calls, forwarding of jokes, setting of hello/caller tunes. Use phone only for communicating. Be precise and convey what is required and cut down on time of the calls. Opt for the basic packages when it comes to internet connections , when broadband packages were offerred I was particular about the high speed conns( 2 Mbps, unlimited download etc) ,simple reason being I should be able to connect remotely from home and work :P , but obviously for the lazy boy that I am I rarely do that. And when I do it can be done with a low speed connection.
5. Walk : Both for health and for pocket its always good to walk. Always prefer walking to vehicle when the distance is walkable , atleast the environment will have few ppms of CO less :)
6. Provisions, vegetables and Milk: Would never have been applicable to me 4 months back , but now these three are the most incurred expenses. The measure is to buy vegetables and provisions in bulk( provisions once a month and vegetable once for a week may be) . Buy vegetables from vegetable market , it should work both cost effective and qualitative. And get a milk card or coupon for milk may be..

Apart from these the usual ones that apply to everyone switch off lights, geysers etc when not in use... blah blah.... but ultimately let me see if I can be left with some cash in hand at the end of the day!!!