jayantiblogshere

A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. I did not say this. It was Irina Dunn, a student at Sydney university who scribbled this on the back of the toilet doors when she was a student in the 70's. And then it got Viral like that kolaveri  thing...  Actually there was nothing original about it. She merely paraphrased the philosopher who said, “ Man Needs God like Fish needs a bicycle”. I cannot say much about the  philosopher, But trust me Irina Dunn was Soooooooooo…. wrong … because A woman needs a man to kill cockroaches that mysteriously creep up at the kitchen sink… A woman needs a man to change fused light bulbs…  A woman needs a man to drive her around and lug the groceries… A woman needs a man to make babies …  A woman needs a man to lift the heavy baggage off the carousel at the arrival lounge in airports… The list could have been endless … only until Men invented powerful pest control and annihilated the en...

  We lived in harmony on these beaches and hills with plenty of neighbours all of different backgrounds. Our forefathers and their forefathers always lived here. We had plenty to eat, breed and thrive.  A few years ago this greedy fellow came from the city and decided to build a resort on  our land so that he could get all those city dwellers over here during the weekends to watch us and get entertained. That way he could make lot more money than he already had.      Just that would have been okay.  It did not stop with just one greedy fellow.  Other fellows followed him and before we knew it, they built a chain of resorts all over.  That is when ... Koel lost her nest along with her little ones when the trees were cut to make a sea-facing luxury suite for the resort. Koel the cuckoo Nagina mourns almost every day seeing one or the other member of her family  getting killed. Nagina the vi...

A couple of weeks ago I chanced upon this article ' A house for Mr. Nilekani' and this one on Alan Turing in the Times of India. I was amazed at the research the author Anvar Alikhan   had done on Turing. Having been professionally raised in this industry my humble research interest ( a very personal one) is in the area of chronicling small but significant people who make a living on the periphery of the Information technology industry.  I have been interested to study the Indian connections, in the world of computers.      My interest in Turing was kindled when I was gaping in awe at the Turing machine at the Computer History museum near Palo Alto a couple of years ago. In 2012 we went on a sort of Pilgrimage tour to the original Silicon valley in California. We did a road trip from San francisco to LA visiting the headquarters of Google, Linkedin, Yahoo, Intel, Facebook and all others that are dotted down the line leading to the relatively ...

A florist who holds the contract for maintaining the potted plants that are strewn across in our air-conditioned cubicle jungle, keeps these flower arrangements  in the reception, board room, meeting rooms and a small one in my office everyday.   I settle in for my day that day, I take one look at this unusual flower arrangement on my table and I instinctively know that whoever arranged it, did it with love and poured out their heart and soul into it.   The flower arrangement also brought a smile and brightened the day of many a soul who walked into my office that day. I made my enquiries and found out that the normal housekeeping guy who arranges the flowers at our office was on leave this week. As I set out to find out the soul that injected this loveshot into our day that day,  I discover Varalakshmi - The Janitor who is chronicled in this feature of unusual occupations. This post is a part of  Write Over the Weeke...

Unusual occupations - The Janitor On a cool and calm morning in the year 1994,  a young bride arrived by train at the Whitefield railway station with a suitcase and  huge bag piled up with her belongings from Hassan with eyes filled with wonder and a heart filled with trepidation and hope. She trailed behind her newly wed husband and walked a couple of miles along the coconut groves, mango and tamarind orchards  till they reached the Out-house of colonel’s farmhouse. Her husband worked as the caretaker of the lovely farmhouse adjoining the 25 acre farm  that surrounded the house. On weekdays it was a quiet existence for Varalakshmi and her husband, as they worked on the farm, caring for the  tamarind trees and coconut groves, watering the money plants, crotons, and numerous species of exotic flowers that she had never seen at her parent’s home in Hassan.  The flowers were picture perfect and  bloomed consistently and brightly in various colours, ...

Rachna works as a content writer for a Fortune 50 Multinational media company. It was the job she got in the campus placement soon after she completed her course in Journalism and mass communication. It was one of the high profile placements in her college for that year which paid a handsome salary.  Of course, her work involved long working hours but there is always a trade off that you need to make especially when you are young, ambitious and all raring to go. She did smell a tinge of jealousy in her classmates after she got her offer. After all not everyone landed such jobs with high profile brands when they graduated from a relativelyy unknown, tier 3 college like hers.   It has been a couple of years since she started off.  Everyday was a new learning for her.   Her highly sophisticated colleagues opened up a new world for her.   She was an important member of a team that designed and wrote the website contents for a diverse set of customers who...

In the last week of December and the first week of January when the temperatures dip and it gets pleasantly nippy, ' Benda Kalu Ooru '  comes alive with the Avare Bele – Mela and lives upto its tradition that gave it its name more than two centuries ago.   Benda kalu ooru – The town of Boiled beans, founded by Kempagowda a couple of centuries back has come a long, indeed a very long way to becoming the Anglicized Bangalore and now a confused and ever changing Bengaluru. Around this time every year, Sir Vishveshwariah’s neighbourhood  celebrates the Avare kalu festival at the food street in V V Puram in South Bangalore.  Surrounded by umpteen Vaishnavaite temples, the otherwise non-descript street adjacent to Sajjan Rao circle comes alive and is a treat for street food lovers.  Vasavi condiments the main merchant over there with a small shop on the street, brings the festival of Avare beans by doling out different recipes and dishes based on the ci...