jayantiblogshere

     Z- Zest for life. Mobile musings - the theme for this A to Z challenge features a blog with a picture clicked by me on my mobile phone  When I signed up for the A to Z challenge I knew exactly what I would write about for the letter Z. The rest I was clueless. Eventually now that I have made it through all other alphabets, It is only apt that the last post in this A to Z challenge should be  about a person whose Zest for life humbles me.  Waseem gets a little irritated when he is being put on a pedestal although I must say he handles it with amazing grace when people especially strangers do that ever so often with him. Therefore, instead of writing in third person, I asked Waseem if he would be the guest blogger for this post. This post is an extract from his speech at our Toastmaster’s club . At the cost of sounding pompous, let me say this. I edited, tempered  and mentored him for this speech. Therefore a wee bit of...

Y -  The 'Y' factor  - YOGA : Mobile musings - the theme for this A to Z challenge features a blog with a picture clicked by me on my mobile phone  One of the best things that happened to me last year was a Yoga vacation to Sivananda Ashram in Madurai, India. I had been yearning to go their Ashrams for a long time. The floods in Uttarkashi last year ruled out going to their Uttarkashi ashram. Moreover Madurai was just hop-skip and jump from Salem where I go on work almost every month.    That is how I ended up in Madurai for a Yoga vacation for 15 days to spruce up my Yoga Practice. It was the most relaxing and enjoyable vacation  that I have ever had. As they say when the student is ready the teacher will appear.  My first attempts at Shirasasana ( the Head stand) were clumsy and I was not sure if I was meant to learn it. With my teacher, Shaju’s patience and encouragement , I have kind of gotten over the fear of falling ...

X – The  X factor   Mobile musings - the theme for this A to Z challenge features a blog with pictures clicked by me on my mobile phone X is a very depressing letter. Not because it is a challenging letter to write something for the A to Z challenge.  For those of us who battle the bulge, every now and then, know what it feels like to pick up those dreaded ‘XXXXXXXXXL size clothes when you have to go to shop. Picture courtesy : Google Free images  I was never the slim and trim one.  As a child I was called the chubby one. It was very sweet and cute to be chubby in those days. All those babies who had 'Farex' formula food were supposed to be chubby.  I guess that is when it all started. Amma in her enthusiasm to stock up empty tins of  Farex emptied them out on me in the name of healthy formula food. They called it the supplement. She took it literally. I was fattened up on Farex, it was like the desert after the main m...

V- Vote Mobile musings - the theme for this A to Z challenge features a blog with pictures clicked by me on my mobile phone The elections to the lower house of parliament are on, all over India. I must confess I did not vote this election.  I am away from my home where I am registered as a voter.  Had I been around I would have definitely voted.  In the coming years, very similar to the concept of ATM or cash machines, we should have a system of voting from anywhere within or outside the country. Voting ink* Picture clicked on Blackberry curve ,  After voting in May 2013 ( * For the benefit of my non -Indian Readers - in India every voter who casts his vote is marked with an ink on his / her index finger as a mark of having voted. The special ink takes about a week to disappear. This is necessary because as the largest democracy of the world, India is notorious for some highly undemocratic activities like Booth capturing, voting on fal...

U - Ugly Indian Mobile musings - the theme for this A to Z challenge features a blog with pictures clicked by me on my mobile phone Greenery Mockery  BEML layout, Bangalore India Picture shot on Blacberry curve June 2012 There really is no shame in admitting this. Civic sense is not the Forte of us Indians.  While the interiors of our houses are neat and clean and  aesthetically designed,  the ugly Indian does not think twice before spitting on the road  or throwing out trash ( recycling and garbage segregation are concepts that we turn a deaf ear to).  It is not about the Indians residing India. Indians includes our not so friendly neighbours  (those who shall not be named) as well.   And the wide diaspora of us and them that is spread out all over the world. Source : Google free images For example in an otherwise clean and disciplined city of London, Civic sense and lane discipline plunge as you head in...

Mobile musings - the theme for this A to Z challenge features a blog with a picture clicked by me on my mobile phone I just got my annual car insurance renewed online. So this derserves another post  dedicated to the Alphabet T- Tendulkar. Read on to know more     All the Tendulkar Fans I grew up becoming a Tendulkar fan. I am not a cricket buff, nor have I followed cricket or Tendulkar as fanatically as so many others of my generation  have. But if you live, work with and are surrounded by Tendulkar fanatics, no matter how disinterested you are, you tend to fall into the groove. For the benefit of the uninitiated Sachin Tendulkar is an Indian Cricket player. More about him over here.  This blog post is about All the Tendulkar fans.    If there is one thing that is universally appealing about Sachin Tendulkar, it is his down to earth simplicity, his reverence for the game of cricket, the ease with which he carried o...

Mobile musings - the theme for this A to Z challenge features a blog with a picture clicked by me on my mobile phone T –  Thennang kuruthu On a sultry afternoon, walking along the East Mada street adjacent to the Magnificient Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple,  looking for a Saree shop that would sell the authentic Madurai Sungudi sarees is when I stumped upon this delicacy.  It was sad to note after looking around, that Madurai’s very own Sungudi  Sarees in their original design and form are almost extinct. Even the government owned co-optex store in Madurai that is supposed  to encourage small scale industries and local weave, stocks something that is a more fashionable hybrid variety of the Madurai Sungudi variety that I have only memories of grandmothers wearing them in the sweltering heat of the summer months. Anyway I digress. Thenang kuruthu Picture shot on iphone 4S Location : Madurai, India August 2013 Thenang kuru...

  S- 'Swadeshi' comes a full circle    Mobile musings - the theme for this A to Z challenge features a blog with pictures clicked by me on my mobile phone An ad promoting Local banking on a Tube station in London says thus :  Five questions you should ask your bank : Does your bank operate right across Britain and nowhere else ?  Does your bank serve only local people and local businessmen and not big corporations ? Does your Bank refuse to gamble your money in overseas speculations? Does your bank say not to using its customers money to fund investment banking ?  Does your bank use every penny of customer deposit to serve other customers ?      Go Local Picture shot on Panasonic DMZ London, March 2014.  If the answer to all this is YES thank you for banking with TSB  If not maybe it is a time for change.    A hundred years after  Gandhi  may have stood on this station...

Mobile musings - the theme for this A to Z  challenge features a blog with pictures clicked by me on my mobile phone. R - Reflections, Rainbows and Railways  R - Rainbows If we look at life in black and white we would miss the colors of the rainbow. Rainbow Guildford, England March 2014 Picture shot on Nokia 520  Rainbow Guildford, England March 2014 Picture shot on Nokia 520  R for Reflections It is in complete stillness and silence that we can see the reflection of what is magnificient yet so mundane to our lives.  Neyyar Dam, Kerala, India   April 2014 Picture shot on DMZ panasonic  Neyyar Dam, Kerala, India April 2014 Picture shot on DMZ panasonic R for Railways R is also for Recycle .  I am re- publishing one of my old blogs on Indian Railways, that I think is one of my all time favorite blog posts. Sadly it did not receive too many hits.  J R - Railways. ( Indian Ral...