CLOSE FRIENDS

Close friendships are usually formed during student days either at school or college. There is a constant and regular interaction between students which helps to form close friendships. It is more difficult to form close friendships during the working days due to increased responsibilities. There is also less interaction with the colleagues. Moreover adults usually find it difficult to form close friendships compared to young people.

M.K. SIGNATURE

M.K.Signature, Kollam

BUYING TIME

Time can be bought. People buy time. We buy time when we pay others to do our work. Or when we buy a machine that would do our work for us. When someone or a machine does our work, we free some time for ourselves. We have bought that time which can be used to do something else or to just relax. For example, we can hire a driver to drive for us and the time saved can be used for some other work or we can just relax during the drive. Using some modern home appliances also saves us time. So buying some modern home appliances is like buying time.

U9 FITNESS

U9 Fitness

SPEAKING AND LISTENING

I once read a book which had a chapter on conversation. During a conversation we either speak or listen. It says listening is more powerful than speaking. When we speak we are saying something that we already know and we are giving out information that is available with us. We are also allowing others to collect information about us. When we listen we may learn about things that we did not know and we can also collect information about other people. So it is better to speak less and listen more during a conversation. When we let others speak more we can get to know their views and opinions. We may also improve our knowledge. When we speak less others will get little from us.

BIKER

Biker, Anjilli Road, Kollam

MONDAY MADNESS

I was at a factory in North India for training during the end of 1983. I met an Engineer there who had just returned from USA. He had a Master’s Degree from USA and had worked there for 8 years. He was a helpful person. Since I was new there, he introduced me to some restaurants. He invited me home for Christmas and told me that he understands the importance of the day since he had spent many years in USA. One day, he told me that a person can succeed by hard work in USA but in India hard work alone would not be enough. He said that in India one would need to be cunning too.

On Saturday, the Production Manager assigned him some work to be completed by Monday. He forgot about it. When the Production Manager asked him about it on Monday, he looked at me and asked me whether I had completed the work. He was pretending that he had assigned the work to me, in order to evade the blame. The Production Manager looked at me and left without saying anything. He knew it was not work assigned to me. Later, when the Engineer was sitting next to me, I noticed that he looked disturbed. I think he was feeling guilty for trying to put the blame on me for his mistake. He looked at me and said ‘Monday Madness’.

TRIVANDRUM AIRPORT

KERALA FLOODS 2018

When the floods began children were happy. Schools were closed. They could play in the rain and water. As the rain started to increase in intensity the floods became more widespread and water levels began rising causing damage to farms and houses. Dams were almost full. Water had to be released from the dams which added to the problem. More than 300 people died in the floods. Many wild animals would have died too.

Some people were stranded on roof tops. Power supply was cut off in most places. Without electricity, life became difficult even for those not affected by the floods. Their only means of communication is the mobile phone which needs to be charged. Rescue teams from the army helped to get people to the safety of relief camps which were set up by the state government. Local fishermen came in their boats to lend a helping hand.

Some houses were swept away due to landslides. Some were under water.  As the floods recede and people go back to their houses they will find most of their belongings damaged by the dirty water. Cleaning up will require a lot of effort. Most of the household appliances will have to be replaced. Meanwhile people have been warned about the potential spread of waterborne diseases and advised to take precautions. Most parts of Kollam district, where I live, were not really affected by the floods. So, I was fortunate to have escaped the ordeal. All I saw was some puddles around my house.

THAILAND CAVE RESCUE

When I first heard the news about some boys trapped in a cave in Thailand I was not so interested. I thought it was a small incident. I did not expect a cave to be so deep. Only later did I know that the boys were several kilometers deep inside the cave. They had gone deeper to avoid the water flooding the cave due to the heavy monsoon rains. When divers located them and the boys were shown smiling on TV, I felt more concerned about their safety. Now there were faces to relate to. Those boys had survived without food for about two weeks and had to drink water from melted ice. Yet they were smiling.

 

Divers had a difficult task bringing the boys out safely. Some parts of the cave were very narrow and only one person could go through at one time. Fast flowing muddy waters made visibility low and there were sharp rocks that added to their woes. The boys did not know diving and their oxygen tank had to be carried by a diver. The boys were sedated so that they would not panic under water. Divers from Thailand and some foreign countries were involved in the rescue attempt. Sadly, one Thai diver died in the rescue attempt. Within a few days divers brought out all the boys and their coach safely. It was inspiring.

STATE BANK OF INDIA

State Bank of India, Kollam

BOMBS

I used to think bombs caused widespread damage. I thought all bombs were somewhat like the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My only real experience with bombs was during my stay in Africa. There was a border conflict and sometimes aircraft would fly across the border and drop bombs. We would hear a loud sound and then see smoke rising from a distant place. I then realized that the usual bombs have an affect only on a limited area where the bomb falls. Moreover bombs are expensive. Most countries cannot afford to drop hundreds of bombs. They usually have only a small number of fighter aircraft which are also very expensive. Bombs are dropped on selected targets so that they are not wasted. Targets are carefully chosen to avoid civilians and property owned by friendly countries.

When the border conflict escalated into an all-out war I had to think of leaving and was staying at a hotel in the capital. One day I noticed an aircraft circling at high altitude. It was trying to avoid the anti-aircraft guns on the ground. Soon it flew down dropped a bomb and flew back up again. We heard a loud sound and saw smoke rising up. I did not know where the bomb fell. Most people thought the airport was bombed. I was worried because that would affect my plan to leave the country. I listened to the news and came to know that it was indeed the airport that was bombed. There were two sections at the airport. They had bombed the section used by the air force. The commercial section was not affected. They avoided the commercial section because there are airlines from several countries operating there and those countries may respond. I could fly out within a few days.

RIVERSIDE HOUSE

Riverside House, Alappuzha, Kerala

CARRYING A TABLE

My colleague who was staying nearby asked me if I would help him carry a table. I said 'of course' and followed him. I noticed he was walking hurriedly towards the table. He stood on one side of the table and was smiling. It was the less heavy side. So I had to carry the heavier side which had the drawers. I then realized why he was hurrying towards the table. I helped him carry the table. He thought he outsmarted me but I understood what kind of person he was.

ASTHAMUDI LAKE

Asthamudi Lake, Kollam

MY LAST FOOTBALL GAME

We were at a picnic when some of my friends decided to play a game of football. I have played football regularly as a child but never as an adult and thought I would give it a try. Most of them were young, in their twenties or thirties. Some were in their forties. I was the only one in my fifties. I could not run around like them so I decided to play a defenders role. Soon I was coming under attack because I was trying to stop them from scoring a goal. Some of them collided with me. At other times I got kicked in my leg. After the game I was aching all over. My legs hurt too. Later I saw some swelling in my leg. It must have been the spot where I got kicked. The pain and swelling lasted a few days. I then realised football is a very rough game and decided never to play it again. I thought about my childhood days when I played football regularly during the holidays at a school field nearby. Never once did I get hurt. Maybe, children’s kicks are not so powerful.

SUPREME SUPERMARKET

Supreme Supermarket, Asramam, Kollam

SIDEBURNS

In the early seventies it was cool to have sideburns. Many movie stars, sports stars and musicians had them. I wanted to have those groovy sideburns so badly, I would look into the mirror everyday hoping to see some hair growth on the sides of my face, only to be disappointed. Unfortunately  I was just into my teens and the hair on the sides was very sparse. It would take some more years for me to have the thick sideburns I was looking forward to. By the time I could really have those cool sideburns, it was not so cool anymore.

DR. ANISH MADHAVAN'S

Dr. Anish Madhavan's, Asramam, Kollam

MAN BEHIND

I was on a flight. A lady was sitting next to me. We were being served our food. I finished mine fast. I noticed she ate slowly and fell asleep before finishing hers. She must have been tired. A man behind us put his hand between our seats and reached for a fruit juice on her tray. He took it. I did not know what to do. Do I wake her up and tell her or do I confront the man. I decided to ignore it. After some time she woke up. I think she noticed that her fruit juice was missing but she did not say anything. Maybe the man behind was her friend and it was just a prank.

Dr. NAIR'S HOSPITAL

Dr.Nair's Hospital, Asramam, Kollam 

ON LEAVE

I was sitting in staff room when my colleague, a Sri Lankan national, walked in. I noticed she was dressed casually. She sat nearby and began looking into some exercise books. She was correcting some students work. A few minutes later the Supervisor approached her and told her to go to class. He thought she had forgotten that she had a class at that time. She looked at him and said ‘I am on leave today’. The Supervisor was surprised and left,probably to check if she was really on leave. I asked her what she was doing in the staff room, if she was on leave. She said she had come to correct some work she had given to the students and that she would be going home after that to take care of some other things. It was the first time I saw someone coming to the work place while on leave and choosing to do some work and at the same time refusing to do some other work.