Free ya vidu maame

A few months back I was sitting in Saravana bhava , (Ashok nagar) with an " affordable" friend . It is indeed a place where all the veggies go, no matter how many times they get bored. And most of the traders carry on their business ,many a time loudly, over a cup of coffee and ruin the aura like a boss.

As usual I kept observing human behaviour before they served food. Chuck the phonewala youth, looking at the kids can make you smile.Next to my table were two guys in formal clothes persuading someone in his sixties , sitting opposite to them. That sixty year old someone was in full white clothing bedecked with gold . He looked like a modern day Egyptian Pharoah .The guys were trading shares it seemed. I will mention him as Tutankhamen. 

Guy: Sir , you are our most important client. We will make sure this never happens again.

Tut : Dai ( in whispers and he was admonishing them with his index finger )

Guy: I am sorry Sir. It was just a confusion sir. No money has been lost.

Tut : Sipping the coffee like a villain.

Guy: Sir , sir ... There wont be a problem for you at all sir. Forgive us.

Tut: Do you know who I am? How rich I am? With whom you are messing with? 

[ Slams the table with the fragile golden hands ] . 

Suddenly we were experiencing the Vishwaroopam. Volume goes from level Manmohan Singh to Arnab Goswami .His tone was disturbing. A baby started crying. The situation became intense. He kept making calls and tried to shout his maximum. The waiter was waiting at the corner of the room , peeping at the table, too frightened to give the bill. 

As my concentration shifted to the Paneer dosa brought to my table , I realized that my childhood was based on a lie. Money can make a life comfortable. It can buy you a coffee from Saravana Bhava and doesn't let you taste a drop of it . Such a bitch it is. Success gives money and money will not give you happiness. Not all the time.

And the rich part of the city is full of inflated egos in inflated bodies. When will people find happiness in forgiving others ? It takes a minute to forgive someone who realises his mistake and feels sorry for it. From electric trains , hotels, college and workplaces , if we impart the simple principle of " free ya vidu maame " , we can actually devote time for experiencing other wonderful things everyday.

We all are humans. I am another you. When we choose to destroy our egos and choose to be simple , we can perform with our complete potential and enjoy the present far better. Look at Yanni or ARR , look at Sachin , look how Thalaivar Rajnikanth chose to live. 

Stop spending time for talking about the emotions of the people whom you don't care . And the people who you love , forgive them for their mistakes like your mother did to you. Let us live like the kid we were once. We certainly miss doing all the stuffs we did happily at age ten. Everything was so simple by then. We were uncorrupted by our egos and were happy for no reason. 

Life is amazingly fast . When you see people fight with silly emotions and egos , move a step back and observe human behaviour. Trust me , it is fun to observe when compared to rolling in the mud with them. Or simply move on . 

Like my thala Mark Twain said , 'Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.'

Found this on the internet. Sums up everything . 

~Raja

P.S : Too much philosophy in one read? Free ya vidunga. 

Chennai Vaasi

After living in Chennai for a year and observing people from Electric trains to Saravana Bhava , I wish to write what I loved and what I despised about the Chennaiites. 

Well, Chennai has become a mini-USA when we compare it with the diversity of people living here.The proportion of indigenous Chennai vaasis appears to be small and majority of them will be second generation dudes whose grandfathers might have settled here for bread. 

From magnificent temples and churches , show off shopping malls, theatres , libraries and the second longest beach , what makes the city beautiful is its people , while some of them are actually living.

Chennai's definition differs when you shift from a place to another , like Tambaram to T.Nagar to Adyar then to Thiruvanmiyur etcetera. From ambience , to attitude, to lifestyle and the sea breeze. I am yet to roam more around this lovely city, maybe after Agni Natchathiram fry.

The energy of Chennai vaasis fascinates me . In most of the cases they aren't the kind of people who sit inside the walls and look out of the windows . Let it be cricket , let it be Yanni , let it be a book fair , let it be a New year or a new movie , people always unite. They never hesitate to mingle. I have observed this "mingling" only during kovil thiruvila and all in my hometown. The united force of Chennai makkal is indeed spectacular. 

Chennai has been indeed influenced by the western world but it has not destroyed what had been existing already . Go to Sathyam or EA to find aimless teenagers trying their luck in being " da tight wear dude with trouser chick " or trouser dude and vice versa. Facepalms are never enough to make you feel better. Take a bus and spend an evening in Mylapore where you can find the kudumba paangu and an ideal Hindu locality with Malli poo plus paneer fragrance.

Two things make me pity the people. Actually the two kinds of people.

The hard toiling middle class , whose lives have been strictly routinised by the firms they are working for. The MNC's suck their lives by deceiving to give one. I never blame these people. I am proud of the struggle the parents put to raise their kids and to meet their expectations. And the amazing working mothers , who do twice the work than all the men. _/\_ . These guys may have a rigid life , but I just wish that they enjoy the nuances of life , everyday. The beauty of music. The colours of nature. Poetry. Art. Anything.  

And the egoistic , loathsome and despicable people who have either made money out of corruption or inherited . I dont mind about the showing off part , but still I pity them. I pity them for their characteristic apathy . 

They fail to recognize the dignity of labour. Not the posh cars or jewellery makes you qualified to slap a waiter in a restaurant. Whoever it may be , a plumber or an electrician , a cobbler or a waiter , an ice cream vendor or a cab driver , deep down we all are fucking humans. Try to respect people for who they are and not what they do.Period. 

 It is only the privileges , that has made your lives comfortable. Just think for a second when you see the kids on the road.  

Reference from the Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald 

"  In my younger and more venerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."

I pity the rich and the richest. I pity their inability to see what I see and enjoy what I do. The rich seem to exist while the working class survive . 

If you're wondering who actually tries to live in this city , Go to Marina on a New Year. 

One who tries to destroy his ego and understands that he is another human being ,

One who values life,emotions and can empathise,

One who can spend a few minutes with nature ,

One who doesn't hesitate to lend his hand to someone in need ,

One who finds happiness in forgiving,

Actually lives. 

And that would be the common makkal of Chennai. I have seen the rich beggar who blared the horns of his BMW while the auto driver in the front carries a person in his arms, fighting for life. These guys cannot and WILL NEVER know the essence of life. They will live and die in a Maya , comfortably. Nature maintains the good vs bad and happy vs sad equilibria beautifully in the singara chennai I have observed.

Pillayar Chuli

Having spent hours after every midnight on the web , for years, it has never struck me to write. 

I always believed that I will do when it was the right time.

After years I am in a confused or rather perplexed state in life. At 3 hours past midnight , with abnormal levels of hormones, I decided to write whatever popped in my mind. 

I am in a mysterious state. A mental " constipation " . Ahem. Eating bananas wont help me. 

Everything that goes in mind , gets tangled. And I believe writing what I read, I learn , I observe and I experience will help me and my mind get untangled and uncomplicated. I will be happy if it puts a smile on a web crawler's face and it helps me out of this :-/ state. 

My thoughts are not restricted to any particular plane or direction or topic. I write what I observe. 

People , who choose to read this blog , are free to comment and correct me whenever possible. I definitely wish to improve and learn. 

Getting inspired by an idea or a person is beautiful.

Inspiring someone is supreme.

I have started writing this blog after getting inspired by a person whose blogs have been one of the few sources of happiness these days and also because of the fact that have no idea what I am doing right now in college. It took a year for me to peep out of the routine and find that I have not been doing anything interesting . Writing has been sleeping peacefully in my to do list for a several years too. 

Et voila.

Hope to make you feel happy for spending some time here in this blog.

Starting with my favourite quote

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing" 

Walt Disney

~Raja.

( I am another you )