Barking dogs and curry plants

A joke my dad would tell us (which I did not understand for a long time as a kid)...

Two men are standing at the gate outside a house, where there is a dog in plain sight.
Man 1: Look the dog is barking loudly. Don't you know the saying "Barking dogs Seldom Bite!". Open the gate and go in!
Man 2: You know that, I know that. Does the dog know that?

Something similar happened in our house recently. We have been taking care of a "curry leaf" plant for the last six months. Prior to this plant, we had three curry plants (all about 3-4 inches tall) which were brought all the way from Houston, Texas. After taking care of those plants for a full three years (shuttling it indoors in the nights and in winter to avoid killing them when temperatures go below 60F!), we managed to grow them to a full 4-5 inches! Not kidding you here. Do not know the magic formula for growing a curry plant.

The latest plant has grown a full 2 inches in six months and that is refreshing. We water the plant sparingly, don't put anymore tea leaves into the pot, give it a dash of Miracle grow, etc. etc. The plant gets better treatment than the people, fishes in the house. Even Jr. and the little one remind the adults to keep the plant in the sun during the day and bring it inside the house during the night.

San came to the kitchen this morning beaming. She was also humming some tunes. On questioning her, it came to light that she had been singing to the most pampered person in the house, the curry plant!

She had heard that singing to plants makes them grow better. My response was "You know that and I know that, but does the plant know that?"

Then I thought "Oh my god, she is singing in aba-swaram! (off key). What if the plant does hear her song and wilt or die?" and went on to find out that I had been thinking aloud!

Let us just say that the comment was not received very well and lot of amends had to be made!

Did I tell you that I am married to a nightingale?

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Tie up loose ends..

There is a phrase in Tamizh "mottai thalaikkum muzhangaalukkum mudichchu podaadhey" which literally translated means "don't tie a knot between your tonsured head and your ankles"

This could have been our wise sages saying "don't have your head up your @$$" in a nice politically correct way or there is some other cryptic reference. They must have been wise sages, because a tonsured head should be way better than a head full of hair, for said purpose. This phrase is used by granny's to convey the message "Don't try to link unrelated things!" and used by me to say "Don't insult Karl Pearson and his correlation coefficient!".

Now what loose ends is this post going to tie up? Nostalgia, IT, people and perceptions.

Why? Well, a comment on the previous post, a followup comment and an analysis of the comment by s.b., that is why!

Nostalgia for me has always been associated with something more than just reminescing or flashbacks. Often times it puts things in a different perspective. Reminds me of (oh oh! there we go again!) a short story we had as part of our Non-Detailed Text book (NDT as we used to call it). It was "The Pepper Tree" by Dal Stevens(either I do not know the correct spelling for the author or it is not a popular story because Google does not give me a link!).

In this story, the author goes back to his childhood home, only to find that the huge pepper tree that he remembered as a child is nothing impresive when he is a grown man! Can personally relate to this. The high compound wall from which I fell and got eight stitches as a child was all of 3 1/2 feet tall. I kind of felt stupid when showing it to the family on our last India trip!

Now for another nostalgic event involving IT People. My friend Suresh was visiting Boston for a conference. He was in a suburban train station where there was only one other person, another desi. Here is the conversation (as narrated to me by Suresh after his trip, as much as I can remember)

2nd Desi Dude : Sir, neenga endha Platform? (Sir, which Platform are you?)
Confused Suresh : Sir, there is only two Platforms here. One to go that way, one to go this way. I am going to Boston.
2nd Desi Dude : I mean which Platform do you work on?
Confused Suresh : What makes you think I work for the Platform? Do I look like a transit railway employee? I am a chemical Engineer!
2nd Desi Dude: Sorry Sir. I thought you were also IT!

This was 1997 or 1996 (don't remember) and it was an okay icebreaker between two Desi's to ask "Which platform?" and expect an answer like "windows" or "linux" or god knows what those Platforms are! Chemical and Materials Engineers would of course have a lightbulb moment. Still remember rolling on the ground laughing when he came back and narrated this. There were so many Desi IT dudes who descended in those years that they would generalize any Desi in the US to be an IT dude!!

Today, the IT sector in general seems to be getting a brunt of abuse by Desi's. All problems are to be traced back to the IT people! This reminds me of Raj's post on finding the right scapegoat and making it stick. That reminds me of .......

When I was a small boy we would hear on the radio, auto rickshaw mounted election campaign loudspeakers, stuff like "we will eliminate the forward caste. Down with the Brahmins." etc. etc. If you are from a lower middle class Brahmin family, you do start wondering what all the fuss is about. It was fashionable in the (A, AIA, B, BIA, C, CIA, etc. etc.. )D(M)K parties to do at least some Brahmin bashing as a forward to any election speech.

Today it is customary for people to indulge in IT bashing along similar lines.

In any case, "I am not IT people" was to tell folks that I am a materials engineer and not a software person and therefore not qualified to represent the views of "IT people".

As for IT being blamed for everything, well, Raj's post puts that in perspective. You might have to squint a little and read it to catch the perspective, but it is there!

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A ring of nostalgia

If and when I get to travel down memory lane, it is usually a few years down the past to before the kid, or before the kids, or at the most to, just before getting married.

Some more internal statistizing(?) shows, that your truly tends to go down 5-6 years down at most under normal circumstances and rarely past a decade when some deep emotional disturbance happens. Extreme elation or depression seem to open some strange doors in the brain which are otherwise collecting cobwebs and the rare flashback happens!

The fact that most of what we see in our daily life seems to dwell increasingly on the present, be it the blogosphere, SUN TV (old movies from our childhood are a rarity), the lack of other TV channels at home, books (Kite runner appealed so much, mainly because it brought back memories of the late seventies!) and things that connect to the past are few and far between are possible reasons.

Imagine my surprise then on watching this Tamizh movie at home called "Kannum Kannum", I find myself going down memory lane, not 5-6 years, not 10 years but a full 30! The movie was different, with good acting performances but ended up being too long. Would definitely recommend a watch with a nice DVD remote that can Fast forward with subtitles on and the sound still playing! What the movie lacked, it made up by connecting a few critical neurons in my head!

This family in the movie, was playing "ring ball" on a large terrace! Tell me people, when was the last time you played "ring ball" or "ring" or "ring toss", as we used to call it? A simple, almost solid white rubber toroid, light enough to be tossed around and caught, but heavy enough to hold traction with your fingers? The texture of a ball, the feel of a frizbee, a unisex sport for all family?

Drifted into the past effortlessly, after watching that scene. So many great memories of playing "ring" as a child with my brother, sister, aunts, kids we had hardly met in houses we rented. Even caught glimpses of the faces of some of those kids while dreaming with my eyes open.

Do they even sell these rings anymore? If they do, going to ask MIL to get one for the kids, (okay, okay, it is really for me!) when she comes back here.

Time to open up more doors inside my head and create some new ones inside the kids heads so they can dream a few decades from now!

"Ring" toss anyone?

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