DHASU - I LOVE YOU!

"Don't play with the remote da. Only if you break it and when it is not there you will understand its importance" shouted my mom. I just smiled. i dono if i will miss my remote when it is not

there. But i am missing one person who is not with me in India now. & that's my cousin sister sudha, who we fondly call dhasu :-)

When i came to chennai 7 years back, she was waiting for me at the bus stand and lead me to her house. A small 10 minute walk. At that time I never knew she is not just leading my way

to the house, but she is gonna lead me in my life as well.

Honestly speaking, we were not that close initially i.e. during my school days. Those times the relationship was more of a sense of liking and respect than liking and love. I used to project

a goody goody boy image in school days. She used to appreciate me for my marks, make fun of my walking style, my mannerisms, my acting in school skits etc.. I went to a village near

pudukottai with her (the first time i was out somewhere without my parents) and i still remember the way she took care of me and my cousin.

When i came to chennai for Engineering counseling, I remember her waiting for me to come out of the hall. My relatives were waiting to congratulate me. She started running towards me

and i just narrowly escaped from getting caught in her arms, went passed her and hugged my cousin. Her only reaction was a smile. From then on to today for all the mischief i have done

to her, her only reaction is that cute innocent smile :-).

'Ivan padikara mariyae theriyala yae (it does not look like he is studying)' - this is how my uncle makes fun of me. When ever he does that my cousins will join with him and make fun of

me. First in queue to make fun of me will be dhasu. But when ever my mom comes home to pay me and uncle a visit, she will ask me how i am studying? before I start answering, my sister

used to reply- ' All through his school days, he studied on his own. It s no different here. He is doing well'.

Not that she supports me in everything i do. If i do something wrong, she treats me with a scorn. I had(ve) the habit of reading magazines while eating. She tried to change this habit

many a time but i dint relent. I have always thought i must leave this habit for my sister & aunt but sorry dhasu some things cant change :-)

One highlight of my college period was that was the first time I cried like a kid. Yup. My sister was given a wrong injection by a doctor and she started gasping for breath. She lost control

of her eyes and hands. I was petrified to say the least. But, gaining strength we took her to a doctor. He gave some injections and my sister turned normal. After 45 minutes of all this

ordeal, i came of out of the hospital and started crying. Not a masculine water-in-the-eye weeping. But kiddish water-running-from-the-eye crying. I waste my tears only to people who i

love. She is one of them :-) The comedy is I prayed to lord vishnu that i will come to a temple of his, once a month for the next year.I kept up my promise & visited the temple for the

next three years not just one :)

When my uncle expired and my sister was the only bread winner of the family, i proposed that i move to the hostel. It was not surprising that they dint allow me to do that. But what was

more startling was the way my sis and cousin kutti, laughed at the idea. I can still visualise the moment. In the bed room, my mother/dad said to both of them 'Bharath will move to hostel

soon' and both of them just laughed at it and said 'He has been with us all through. & He will be with us all through!'. If at all i can pick 5 best moments of my life, this one has to be right

there.

I have never seen her differentiating me and Kutti. Right from the b'day gift she gives, to the happiness she gets on our success, she has never differentiated us. i even say this to her ' If

Kutti and I are same in all respects, then give me a share of uncle's property' :-) No. They have not given me a share of the family property. But they have always given me a share of

their happiness :)

My campus placement was a bigger fun. You might have seen parents accompanying their wards during the placement time. For me my sister came to college. I was not well- down with

fever and dysentry. Like a touch-up girl in cinema, she was with me all the time, making fun of me, cheering me and forcing me to drink gluconD at all possible occasion. I did not get

through that interview ( Unlucky CTS ) but i still was happy. B'cos that day I did not get a job that sustains my living, but i got her love that sustains every life :) Two days later i got

placed. (Unlucky Infy) :)

Then uncle's family moved to bangalore( second & final time I cried) - Sister got married (faced some problems as it was a love marriage) - and she moved out of india temporarily now.

But all the while, i have never felt she has left me. Some how or other she keeps poking me & i am loving it :)

I got a new mobile an hour back. The dealer offered to take my old mobile for 600 rupees. That mobile was a b'day gift given by my sister. I politely declined his offer. The old mobile will continue to be with me.Only i know its worth :-)

Dhasu, When u have read till this line, i know u will be more surprised than happier. "Is this written by Bharath, the one who fights with me all the time?".. ya even I am surprised for

writing something emotional- that too about you. But i shamefully accept this- 'Dhasu I love you' :)

PS : Thanks to two people who made me write this post:

1. Sangeetha, a friend of mine in great lakes. Only when talking to her about my sister, i realized how much i miss my sister.

2. TNEB, whose power cut made me sit down and write this, which i was procrastinating for a long time :)

My IIO report..

This is a part of the report I submitted for my subject IIO. This is a little exaggerated but I enjoyed writing it. PS: this report got me 30/30 :)

Intelligently Interacting with Others

- What I learnt, if any :)




‘I’ here stands for a guy accumulating good and bad karma in the name of ‘Bharath Kumar B’. As I have to perform better in Great Lakes Institute of Management and empirical research suggests that groups bring the better out of an individual, I have been put in a group G2:7 and assigned a roll number 9222.






































My cover page, present above might look creative for some one. It may look satirical for some one. But frankly speaking the matter of fact is it is a testimony to the truth that this subject has created an impact on every one of us in the patriots’ batch. What is the impact? It’s simple. People who were talking cricket and movies are now discussing gita and yoga. “Don’t try to copy dude. You are accumulating bad karma”, “Don’t waste the food buddy. You will have a re birth”  - These are now common dialogues among patriots. Personally, what is that I have learnt through and at the end of the course? Well, these learning can be categorized into two.
1. Things I learnt based on the book and the course content
2. Things I learnt outside the course content but based on the happenings related to the class.

Here are a few learning that I got outside the course content based on my experience in class.

1: Never be prejudiced about things
Reason:
I got the books – ‘Bhagavad Gita’ and ‘Upanishad’. Then I got the course outline which said “In case you don’t come prepared to the class, your group will be given a ‘-2’ and you will be asked to leave the class”. I thought ‘asked to leave the class? This is too much. The professors are trying to boss over’. Then the calm looking Prof Venkat R Krishnan came to the class. With his innocent smile, he answered all the questions with impeccable finesse. For a handful of questions, he preferred not to answer directly and said ‘This you will learn in due course of time’. Other than that he answered all the questions with calm and patience. Is he a professor who is trying to boss over? NO. Never be prejudiced about things.

2: Don’t bluff
Reason:
While teaching the kata Upanishad in class, prof Venkat R Krishnan asked a guy to explain his understanding of ‘Nichiketa’ story. He said his version of the story where the only resemblance to the original story was the character name ‘Nichiketa’  and everything else was different. It was clear that he did not do the pre read and the professor said ‘While telling the story, you must presume that even I have read the story’. The class burst out laughing. The guy was neither given a ‘-2’ nor was asked to leave the class but it would have been better had he said that he did not read. Bluffing caused more shame than not answering.

3: Have an unflinching conviction in what you do
Reason:
“A son of a Brahmin is not a Brahmin. A son of a sudhra is not a sudhra”
“There is nothing wrong in committing suicide to renounce this body for a noble cause”
“Practice abstinence if you want to achieve greater heights”
These are the statements made by a professor to the group of students who have been told the opposite throughout their life or who have not given a thought about these. The only thing that can help a person in making such statements is the conviction in what he says. Translating this to marketing management terms it means “Only if you believe, you can sell”.

4: Be open for discussion
Reason:
This happened in our class during the discussion about rebirth. When the professor told us about the rebirth concept, a smart guy asked a question, “sir what if everything we are reading now about rebirth is false? Because we do not have any proof about these”? I felt this question made perfect sense. The professor replied ‘Just try out this option. There is no proof for the belief that there is no rebirth too. Because none of us know what happens after death. So let us believe in this now. Let us revisit this belief later, if required’. Yes. Simple! Be open for all view points. Be open for discussions.


5: Probabilities do not work always
Reason:
It was our first class in IIO. Pre read was ‘Introduction & universal religion’. I did some pre read. But I was very confident that we won’t be questioned in class, because it was the first class of our course. Even if we are questioned I assumed it won’t be me because the probability of me being asked was just 1/63. But in class Murphy’s Law was proved to me. From the attendance sheet, the professor read out the name ‘Bharath Kumar’ and asked “What is universal religion”? I managed to answer the question. But the learning is the logic of Probabilities doesn’t work always!

6: Data talks more than your words
Reason:
The core concept of the group dynamics part was very simple - Get data and let that talk. The subject had examples of a lot of empirical researches that quashed our basic assumptions about many issues. For example Milgram’s experiment demonstrated the impact of power which I grossly under estimated. The way to avoid this prejudice is by looking for data instead of forming opinions. In fact, this subject has made me question many assumptions in my day to day life as well.

7: Be an extrovert
Reason:
‘Babble effect’ says people who talk more are considered to be more involved in the group than others. A case study also shows that extroverts are happier than introverts. So the conclusion is simple- Be an extrovert to be liked by people and for you to like yourself more.

8: Strive for perfection, settle for excellence
Reason:
In spite of all the learning I have told above and listed below, I still have some open questions. Some of them are as follows: Why is group dynamics & Indian philosophy combined as a single course? How does that fit under the frame work ‘Intelligently interacting with others’? Why is that the Indian philosophy has not percolated to the masses if it so good? Since the group dynamics experiments are more foreign countries based, will they hold water in India?
But still, I am satisfied with this course and I feel you can’t get 100% in real life issues and there are bound to be some open questions. The point is ‘Do strive for perfection; But settle for excellence if you don’t get perfection’.

My First Blog

hi!!!!!

as a software engineer, i would like to test my blog, before deleivering it to the clients.

So here comes my test blog :-)