A Guide to Social Networking Etiquettes

A recent market research on the trends in leveraging social networking for marketing by corporates emphasised the power of Generation S and how it had made email (Generation E) look so passé. After all, you now have one platform where Gen E can not only mail but also several other things under the sun.

As someone who took up to social networking at its stages of infancy and seen it the way as its evolved today, these could be few tricks of the trade which can help you hold your own in the virtual world:-

• Never hang up a chat session abruptly without bidding bye – Online chat is as good as a f2f chat and need not necessarily be discourteous.
• Say BRB, only if you really mean it.
• Never tag people in pics without their consent – after all, even a monkey would want to be well dressed out if its parading before a group of friends :P
• Never add your boss to your network – u don’t want to be caught holidaying whilst your leave application says u r unwell!
• Never over do the acronyms part – the world was not created knowing words like ROFLMAO, IKWYM, CWTCU, etc..and they do not form part of the  Oxford English Dictionary as well. And, hey, it is NOT COOL.
• Yes, there are Sister’s Week, Brother’s Week, Son’s Week, Daughter’s Week, even Daughters-in-Law’s Week. And yes, there are Cancer Patients Week. I am fairly successful in being a good daughter/sister. I am also fairly sensitive towards patients who are struck with such fatal diseases and prefer doing my bit discreetly. I know of several of my friends who do so, too. Please do not bombard our walls reminding us of these. Do your bit without proclaiming the same to the world.
• If you are copy pasting, please acknowledge. Do not plagiarise.
• If you use it purely for tp ing....err, time passing, do so only with people who have spare time to pass, don’t bother the busy ones unless they too have the time to pass!!..;)
• Wish even those friends whose birthdays do not come as standard alerts through FB/ Google Calendar – Now, THAT would really mean something!

                                                        ******

P.S. : Sorry SK, the 4^th point is not meant for u, and no I do not employ this particular trick...:D! 

சென்னையில் நான்....

மொட்டை மாடியில் விடியர் காலையில், முருகன் கோவில் மணி ......

'The Hindu' வின் செய்திகள் மற்றும் Metro Plus.......

அம்மா தரும் பில்ட்டர் காபி .....

ரேடியோ மிர்ச்சி RJக்களின் விடிகாலை வெட்டி மொக்கை :p.....

அதில் வரும் சூப்பர் சூப்பரான 1980s இளையராஜா பாடல்கள்....(முக்கியமா 'நீங்க நான் ராஜா சார்' நிகழ்ச்சி...)

எனது scootyயில் விர்ர்ரென்று பறக்கும் பொழுது உணரும் பறவை போன்ற அந்த சுதந்திரம்.....

கல்லூரி நண்பர்களுடன் Coffee worldடிலும் Qwikysசிலும் மற்ற பல பல coffee shopகளிலும்  பொழுது கழிக்கும் தருணங்கள்....... 

நான் வாழ்ந்த வளர்ந்த இடங்களையும் தெருக்களையும் கடைகளையும் வாஞ்சையுடன் சென்று பார்க்கும் ஆவல்....

கபாலீஸ்வரரையும் பார்த்தசாரதியையும் சென்று வணங்கி அருகிலுள்ள உலகே மெச்சும் Marina கடற்கரையில் காலாற செல்லும் வேளைகள்....

விடிய விடிய அம்மாவுடனும் தங்கையுடனும் அடிக்கும் அரட்டை கச்சேரி...... 

விமானத்திலிருந்து இறங்கியது முதல் திரும்பி போகின்ற அந்த நொடி வரை என் சொந்த ஊர் காற்றை சுவாசத்தில் உள்ளேந்தி தேக்கி வைக்க எண்ணும் என் உள்ளம்....

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.......இவை அத்தனையும் கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சமாகவும் திடமாகவும் எனக்கு நினைவுப்படுத்தின, ......என் வாழ்வில் நான் எதை சாதிக்க எதை இழக்கிறேன் என்று......!

The Fear Factor

A recent office picnic to Kolad was planned out to be an adventurous one – we deliberately kept it that way and did not want it to be yet another of those pose-at-the-various-points-in-a-hill station-and-return-back kind of a thing. And Voila, several of the to-do activities in my bucket list - river rafting, rapelling, rock climbing, burma bridge got knocked off at one go. But, the experience also brought back those age-old, scary memories of the past. Memories of fear of several things, people, activities, that engulfed me as a kid and since then till date!

The Fear factor aside, the picnic itself was loads of fun. Yours truly was secretly feeling like an MTV Roadie and trying to overcome the evident F factor by diverting the mind onto more inspiring things like watching others perform tasks and joining in the fun to the extent possible.

The 12 km long river-rafting (Level 2 rapids) to begin with was just perfect for non-swimmers like me with frequent roller coasters of the raft and aqua splashes on us. We followed it up with attempts at rappelling which looked formidable before I had tried my hand at it and seemed surprisingly simple once I was done :D. Rock-climbing ensured that we all got into our tribal avatars and make it look like we were born as climbers and do it daily for a living. Next came the Burma Bridge which was walking on a high, loosened up, thin rope - quite literally! My mom, if she were around, would have typically commented – ‘what a kazha kooothadi velai’ :P. Personally, rafting was the most fun thing to have done. The experience of staying overnight in a tent house which opened out to lush green terrain was quite novel too!

Throughout the string of adventures that I was testing myself at, the F factor would keep peeping through often and reminding me that I aint no Jhansi Ki Rani after all – even the harness and other equipments tied on to us to protect from any mishaps were not of much help.  So much so that I had to resort to other modes of consolation like –

•  Look Aparna, even a 11 year old kid does it so fearlessly-so why can’t you?  
•  If its not today, U may never get this opportunity again and u would regret it for life.
•  You are almost done baby, its just one more activity to go.
•  If u do not try these to begin with, how are u going to even think of Sky diving and Scuba diving which u want to do some day in ur life.
•  Would’nt u want to flaunt such brave pics of yours to the 390 odd FB friends, imagine the high it would give..:D...

      .....

...and so on......

But, No, my mind – being its own – held on, and the F factor kept playing its role. Somewhere, mid way, I went into a self-introspection mode and started to think of all the sundry things that I was always phobic to in my life - Pets (Dogs n Cats alike), Lizards, Diwali crackers, Roller Coaster rides at a theme park as a kid, Water sports, In-flight turbulence, etc. Of course, there are more serious things that also scare me quite often – like losing my loved ones in life, breaking down in public and embarrassing myself, having to live in a world without the internet, and a few more. For all the brave and Independent girl that I claim to be, I even wondered whether it was very human to be afraid of certain things or is it just with me!....and further wondered if I would qualify for an award for the F factor..:p. My one-line bio which reads “girly plus gritty combo” is, indeed, very candidly written!

By the end of it, I did perform all but the jump-into-the-water-from-the-raft thingy, albeit with an initial bout of uneasiness which did vanish subsequently; and I must say I stretched my borders far above by my standards. Atleast, I had made a beginning.

What, then, should be the way forward – Well, last read in a Lonely Planet magazine, the rafting at Rishikesh had Level 5 rapids and if you haven’t sky dived at Kiwiland, u have’nt lived.

Game, any one????!!!????...:D

Kashi Yatra

 “Ganga Taranga Ramaneeya Jata Kalaapam, Gauree Nirantara Vibhooshita Vaamabhagam, Narayana Priyamananga Madapahaaram, Vaaraanasee Purapatim Bhaja Vishwanatham”

This was a trip where I realised what it was to live a dream. Not just mine but also of my parents’. Kashi is believed in the Hindu religion to be the kshetram where one washes off all their sins merely by visiting it. There is, I am told, no re-birth if one were to breathe his last in Kashi (aka Varanasi, Benares). A place immortalised in history for its sheer divinity, its significance to the Hindus can never be spelt out clearly to capture its full stature.  So commenced, our Kashi Yatra. The average age of the 9 member group that I was steering was on the higher side of 60s. After a bit of logistics issues in planning a trip for folks from two different cities, our yatra was finally on.

To begin with, we did the 3 most important temple visits  - Shri Vishwanatheshwarar (You may like to see this to understand the sanctity of this Jyotirlingam - Shri Vishwanathashtakam), Annapuraneshwari, Visalakshi and Kala Bhairavar - in the first 3 hours of our landing in this temple town of Varanasi. Temples about which I had been fed with stories since young were there right before my eyes...and I wanted to, if I could, halt the time machine for a few nano-seconds to take in the aura of the these age-old kshetrams that exist in planet Earth.

We proceeded subsequently on a 2 hour drive to Allahabad which is yet another traditional city known for its grandeur and holy rivers. Main attractions during our one day stay at Allahabad were the dip in the Holy Sangam (Triveni Sangamam, a confluence of River Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati). It was followed by a Shraddh ritual which was performed at the Mutt in Allahabad by my father for our generations of fore-fathers – it is believed that the primary purpose behind a Kashi Yatra is to ensure that our pitrus (fore-fathers) are pleased enough to rest their souls in peace – these rituals were continued at Varanasi and Gaya as well, which where subsequent destinations in our yatra.

Varanasi, the City of Lights, is as diverse and intense as one could imagine. The narrow lanes out here with the bustling crowd going around in cycle-rickshaws, shop sellers with an early start to their days giving out flowers and garlands to the devotees, pundits/brahmin priests accompanying clients to mutts, the cows which are a symbol of holiness gifting heaps of dungs, and its milk, generously to the localites – they are all quite a sight to behold. There are 64 ghats along the Ganges in the city of Varanasi (a city which has got its name since it is located between rivers Varuna and Assi). Our program in this city had begun with a boating expedition along the Holy Ganges. We halted at 5 of these 64 ghats which are considered more significant than the rest, where appa and amma had to recite the mantrams and offer pindam. These were performed on two mornings which meant double opportunities for us to take a dip in the Holy Ganges. 

The most impressive of all is the Manikarnika Ghat which is believed to be the place where Lord Vishnu dug a pit with his Chakra and filled it with his sweat during his penances. While Lord Shiva was watching Lord Vishnu at that time, it is believed that the latter's earring ("manikarnika") fell into the pit. Mythology also goes that to keep Lord Shiva by her side always, Goddess Parvati hid her earrings and asked him to find them, saying that they were lost in the Ganges - her idea behind the lie was that Lord Shiva would then stay, searching forever for the lost earrings. It is also believed that whenever a body gets cremated at the Manikarnika Ghat, Lord Shiva asks the soul whether it has seen the earrings. Another version which is believed is that Lord Shiva himself recites the Taraka Mantra (“Rama”) in the ears of the dead to enable crossing over from the cycle of birth and death to immortal hood. This ghat is loaded with several pyres and at any given point of time, you atleast notice 5 to 6 bodies ready and being queued up for cremation. After witnessing the continuous and never ending dead bodies and funerals at this place, never before had a life - and death - seemed so small and tiny for me. The rich, the poor, the king of Benares, the local paanwala, the merchant, the service professional, god knows who else - in the end, they are all, quite literally, in this city, at the same platform. Rightly said Shri Adi Shankaracharya in Bhaja Govindam which goes like this –

“ Punarapi jananam punarapi maranam,Punarapi janani jatare sayanam,

Iha samsaare khalu dusthare,Krupayaa pare pahi murare”

-          [Again and again one is born, and again and again one dies, and again and again one sleeps in the mother’s womb, help me to cross, this limitless sea of Life, which is uncrossable, my Lord]

Matters of life and death apart, we had other locales to take our breath (and in my case, hunger too) away. The spiritual fervour that the daily, hour-long, Ganga Aarti commands is unmatched. It is, indeed, by all means, a different world out there. The other places which we visited included the Holy Sarnath where Lord Buddha preached his first sermons, Tulsi Manas Mandir where Saint Tulsidas wrote the Ramacharitamanasa, Benares Hindu University, etc. Of course, I was ably assisted in my attempt to explore the city by our Chauffeur (Mr. Dilip) who also managed to ensure that I sneak a tiny 15 minute gap to take me to the oldest and most famous Bina Chaat Bhandaar in Varanasi for a hit @ the Alu Tamatar Chaat and Pani Puri – not to forget the endless kulhads of Benarasi Lassi Bhandaars which he took us to...:).

Next was Part 3 of the Shraddh rituals which was to be performed at Gaya. The drive from Varanasi to Gaya (a good 4.5 hours long drive) was in itself an experience. We kind of exited Uttar Pradesh, touched the borders of Jharkand and entered Bihar, touching 3 states in a span of 4 hours..:D. Our first visit in this region was to the Mahabodhi Mahaveera temple in Bodh Gaya which houses the holy Bodhi tree which is where Lord Buddha is believed to have achieved enlightenment. Bodh Gaya, mostly inhabited by Srilankan/Thai tourists/nationals, looked less like India and more like some overseas Buddhist nation – their kinds of schools, shops, clinics, crowd, administration prevail; there is nothing quite Indian about this place other than the poorer locals who beg for a living!!

Gaya, which is the place where appa concluded his third phase of his Shraddh rituals, amazed me for more reasons than one. A place so remote and interior, situated in a not so developed state, which does not have power for most parts of the day, where cows and pigs and mosquitoes and flies co-exist in equal numbers with humans, where an 8 year old kid and a 85 year old patti perform domestic chores for a living without a care for their age or health, where poverty is at its peak from whatever I have seen in other belts of the country, is also the city that is considered so sacred by Hindus all across the universe as a place they MUST visit atleast once in their life time. Indeed, some questions cannot be answered even by Google and Wikipedia!! My mom tells me that the Shraddh rituals and the Pind daan performed here command so much sanctity that even the annual rituals performed elsewhere in individual families are considered to be only a representative sample of the sanctity that is associated with Gaya Shraddham.

The yatra did have a fair share of down sides as well. We constantly encountered pundits and their agents/sub-agents whose sole aim seemed to be to leverage on the emotional chord of the ones who come here for spiritual reasons and make money out of us. And as for teaching lessons on cleanliness to localites in Varanasi, I perhaps did not know where to draw the line. The duel I had with a couple of localites on seeing them spit paans in the Ganges is still fresh before my eyes. The Ganges and the other holy rivers are indeed open washrooms for folks who wash themselves and their clothes there alongwith washing off their sins.

But, I must admit, these appeared frivolous before the larger purpose of peace and contentment that we could feel in ourselves. It has only been a week since I returned – and I already am raring to go there sometime again – I simply cannot wait to re-visit. Such is the place... and so was my trip. :))

LWD 2011

Circa October 2007, my memories when my Maruti Swift had arrived are ever green.  After buying a brand new vehicle, I was even so scared to take it out and drive in the jammed peak hour highway traffic to reach my office which is just about 15 kms away from home. Comparing that to the Lavasa Women’s Drive (LWD 2011), I have indeed come a long way. Thanks to VT, who was instrumental in motivating me in coming out of the shell and start vrooming in the roads – sometimes, even I am (and probably he is, too) amazed at myself at the progress I have made in pursuing my passion for full-throttle driving!

So, came the rally day. To be chosen as one of the short-listed participants was itself no small task, considering the number of contestants. I was obviously over the moon (or should I say geared up..:D) when I knew that I was on for the rally. Firstly, to convince my mom that it was a rally and not a race was something. Knowing my temperament, it was no surprise that she was feeling edgy when she came to know that I was participating in it. Be that as it may, and after a series of last minute glitches due to a change of partner and consequent anxious moments , I was on, all set to be flagged off in the early hours of 27^th Feb, 2011.

I and Maninder (my navigator/team mate) reached the assembling point dot on time and took in the atmosphere as much as we could. Around 350 plus cars from Mumbai, another 200 approx from Pune, we all had just a single point agenda – Destination Lavasa. Several cars, all decked up in varying colourful avatars, with posters, sketches and designs on them, conveying a message which their respective drivers/navigators wanted to communicate. The entire event was conducted in a truly professional manner - well spelt out rules and regulations and a clear adherence to the same. Cars were flagged off from 7.00 am onwards on rally day by a few celebs. Each of us were given a route card and time chart just a minute before being flagged off. We were to go through the route given in the map to us with a halt at the Time Controls (TCs) at various points on the way. We were also required to stick to the speed and time restrictions – reaching a TC before time meant penalised severely in the net tally of points.

In our case, in our typical over-enthu spirits, we simply went zip zapping from the minute we were flagged off. By the time we realised we had missed the initial TC near the starting point itself, we were almost on the outskirts of Mumbai. And following yet another decked up LWD rally car was our second folly – little did we realise that odd and even numbered cars were given different route maps. :P :D. This adventure was at Khopoli, just about the end of Mumbai-Pune express way. Instead of taking a halt at the Food Mall in the highway, we went exploring places interior in Khopoli and Pen, and as a result took nice 40 mts. to get back on track!!. By now, it was fairly clear that we had atleast missed 2 of the marshals/TCs. That was the realisation! Remembering damn very well that we would not get a rank if we’d missed the route, we decided to throw all caution to winds and drive @ a speed that was worthy of a NH drive J. Personally, I enjoyed the hair pin bends and the hilly terrain - things that are non-existent in my typical home-office-home drive.

It is usually said that one must enjoy the drive as much as the destination itself. So very apt in this case. Lavasa, honestly, is an over-hyped destination. Most of it, thanks to Mr. Jairam Ramesh’s ministry, is only work-in-progress. The thought of converting plain hills and nothing else to a self-contained township is definitely praise-worthy. But then, most of these are still at the stage of conception. Around 2011 women (drivers plus navigators plus co-participants seated at the rear) all assembled at one place, let their hair down for a couple of hours at destination Lavasa with some typically girly activities which the organisers had arranged over there – tattoo counters, hair braiding, flea market stalls, chaat counters and a rock band to make us groove.

After a bit of hanging out at the place and a sumptuous lunch at the convention hall, it was time to head home. What was interesting was that we noticed that a few rally cars were still on their way to the destination while we were already on our way back – little did we know that they were the wiser ones of the lot who, after missing their way en-route, had bothered to go back to the correct routes and got themselves marked by the TCs. 

For someone who had never crossed the limits of Thane before, I was indeed impressed with myself for clocking about 500+ kms in a day. Probably, the most critical lesson learnt in my inaugural attempt @ car rallies is that going through the correct route is more important than reaching the destination on time. It is a promise that we made to ourselves.

See you soon Lavasa, next time around – we will take the route that we are supposed to drive through!! J

Andaman Diaries

It was intended as a short ‘Leave Fare Concession’ break, after-all. My first thoughts on a holiday to the Andamans with parents was one of going there because thats the farthest you could go within India for the amount that I could get from my organisation :D. However, I was compelled to change my views when the travel researcher in me had taken over and I had begun looking up for places I could cover. Be it the 2 day stay in Port Blair or the 2 day hiatus that was Havelock, it was total bliss.

Port Blair, to begin with, was a visit to the several museums and shops to pick up local sea-shell based souvenirs for people back home. Well, that was not all. We did make it to the famous Cellular Jail (Kala Pani) which is now a National Memorial for all the right reasons – a place which would easily wake up the patriot in you. The visit to the prison was all the more relevant since we were there on the day India became a sovereign republic (26th Jan). The Light and Sound Show at the prison which has been conceptualised as the old Banyan tree over there explaining all the brutalities it had witnessed before its own eyes would move even a stern rock solid heart. Visits to the Corbyn’s Cove Beach (where we picked up some fabulous conches, sea shells and stones) and the Ross Island were memorable too. The latter is now under the control of the Indian Navy. I don’t remember seeing such several herds of deers freely running all around me ever before; and whats more we could feed them with our own hands!

Just when I thought that I had seen enough of aqua at Port Blair, came Havelock Island – a place so idyllic that it can only rightly be called Heaven. A small island village which was untouched by polluted roads and minds; where newspapers and magazines were a luxury and internet connectivity unheard of; where a single mobile network tower caters to the entire village, and the television cables would not be functional for most parts of the day. For someone from maddening metros like Chennai and Mumbai who thinks that the world comes to a standstill if I don’t have web connectivity 24*7, having to cycle for about 15 minutes to reach mobile tower even to just phone the car driver was indeed quite an experience. We fell in love with the endless mangroves and coconut trees and betelnut trees and had only the birds and a couple of local people from the resort for company. The days begin at about 9 am and end by 6 to 6.30 pm – and they don’t really give a damn for the night life thats absent for them!!

The beaches are as pristine as they can get. The Radha Nagar Beach was voted as the most pristine beach in Asia by the Times magazine, a couple of years back – deservedly so! The Kala Pathar Beach, Elephant Beach (where I attempted a li’l bit of snorkelling to experience arguably the best under-water life and coral reefs in the world) and the Vijaya Nagar Beach with some awesome sunrises/sunsets, white sand and several hues of endless aqua marine were a visual feast.

At the end of it all, we were truly and totally lost in the islands’ beauty - if only we could pause the time clock a li’l longer during those 4 days....:-).

A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Indeed!!