Madhumitha's Blog

As my feet touched the earth below, getting off the Pajero all I though off in that moment was "SHOPPING". It was like a sport. Every other day, surrounded by oceans of new clothes, shoes, toys, books and what not. Pure bliss to feel soft silk scarf, inhale the sweet smell of perfume in The Body Shop and to turn the pages of a new book. The possibilities were endless. I was in love. Love with the idea of shopping. The moment I was in a mall, all my worries disappeared. I remember drooling over a piece of jewelry or longing for that beautiful black stilettos. But all that was in the past. Now shopping seems more of a mundane task to be done. It seems as bothersome as getting up in a Sunday morning during exam. From being a compulsive shopper to a person who thinks that is a necessity, it has been a great transition. When I turn around and look at the past, I wonder, want was it that made me happy then that is lost now. I remember those days in Sea ...

Since I have not been doing much lately I began to ponder, why we all chase after something always. As humans we tend to long for what we do not have. I used to think that it is a disease from with few suffer (including me), however recent findings indicate otherwise. Why is it difficult to follow certain rules and norms? Why is it that we love and long for certain things so much and after attaining it, suddenly it seems less desire worthy (spare me I am seriously suffering dearth of words). So what is this battle between your brain and heart. Some might think that this post is utterly mindless and yet others might be smiling and nodding their pretty heads in approval. But the fact is evident and up the face. Haven't we all wondered why we rationally choose a better love life or career option yet look back at the past with a deep sigh. Do we actually miss it? Rationally speaking we made a better choice didn't we? Yet our heart is never at peace ...

All my life I have been an outsider. The person who is not from around here. I was born in Mayiladuthurai, a beautiful temple town. But most of my life was spent in Chennai. Sounds normal doesn't it? But my identity is commonly mistaken. Here goes my tale, where I am always wrongly understood. When I was doing My first standard I went to Saudi Arabia. The first time flying experience is something I will never forget. In Saudi Arabian I was the unwanted and looked down upon Indian. Within the Indian community in that country I was a Madrasi. I have always been marveled at the term Madarasi. All people who belong to the 4 south Indian states are MADRASI for others above those 4 states. I was fooled to the point in which I assumed that it was a state and not a city(I was only 8 years old and my grades in geography were never great). When I came back to India, the story didn't end. I had impeccable English flowing off my lips and not so good Tami...

So what actually happens after we die? I bet that most of you out there would have pondered about this atleast once. Well most of us are satisfied with the imagination of floating in clouds. But don't you think that there must be more significance to death than just floating around clouds with a harp in white clothes?!? Well Albom surely thinks that there is more to it. The previous book of his was rather very moving. I expected the same out of this book. I was shocked, pleasantly. This book is a beautiful journey which is neither to dramatic for the emotionally shy and nor to dry for those with feelings. This is a story of Eddie a 83 year old man who works in an amusement park as a maintenance guy. He dies in an attempt to save a little girl from an accident. After his death he meets 5 people. These people have in someway or another affected his life. I have always believed that lives are interwoven into a beautiful net. Ever action one performs will have a profound effec...

For long I have always started writing on this topic but stopped mid way and shoved it under the carpet. But I feel the urge to write about it today. To be a girl in India is a perfect example of oxymoron. It is said that our nation respects women and worships them. The sad fact is that none of it is true. I am not here to accuse all the good men out there with no concern over them what so ever. At the same time I want to shed light over the under belly of this glorification of status of women in India. Recently there are many articles about liberation of women in Middle east. Well, lets face an honest question: Are women in middle east the ONLY ones who are suppressed? Cross your heart and tell the truth. How many women here can say that they enjoy equal rights at home and society. Most women don't feel safe when they travel alone even in day. Though women are economically liberated it all comes with a cost. Whether we acknowledge i...

People grow but refuse to grow out of certain habits. One such a odd habit of the Gen X(For the non-marketing guys that's people born in the period 1965-1977) is clinging to feelings of devotion to one's parent. I have always pitted this generation. They are stuck between two polar generations. Gen Xer's generally have a lot of stress and confusion in regard to their list of do's and don't. The baby boomers(Birth year 1946-1964) were more traditional and had well defined rules. They expected devotion from their children. The Gen X fulfilled this expectation of the previous generation and grew up with the same belief system as the baby boomers. But there is a twist in the tale. There came the sense of "Individualism" and with it the Gen X people's belief system was shattered by the one and only Gen Y (Birth year 1977-1994). Gen X was sadly caught in-between and unwilling to change. You cannot teach an old dog new tricks. They feel tha...

Where shall I begin and where shall I end. I must  first thank Rajesh for suggesting this book. It was truly mind blowing. For those who have been in Vineeth Swaroop's class: "This book is like 132 page one on one discussion with VS himself about God and what not!" I have always been a fan of Scott Adams cartoon "Dilbert". This is Scott at his best. I do not know how to comment on this book for I feel belittled in front of it. I would suggest that all of you must read it. But it comes with a warning, do brush up on your knowledge in probability, astronomy, history and everything else. This book is no joy ride but take you into another state of consciousness. I am a person who is never felt short of words. There are two things that made me feel so this month: Questions by the one and only VS in accounts class and when i am currently trying to describe this book. One might wonder why on earth did I begin a book review when I am certainly out of words to descr...

"Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius We all have dreams, of what we must become in the future. When we were young, most of us wanted to be doctors or teachers and well, even rock stars. But as we grow our ambitions also change. When we dig deep and think the main reason for this shift, most probably the reason would be influence. As we grow we take to people and things based on the social circle we belong to. When we seriously analyse this issue it has 2 facets: Herd mentality Living up to dad’s dream Let us look into both the causes. The reasons are very common and often spoke of but rarely has anyone applied thought into it. Herd mentality is inevitable side effect of being a Social Animal . When there is a crowd in a restaurant we tend to assume that the food they offer is delicious. But the reason might as well be poor operations in the restaurant. We believe that if there are many people following something then it...

There are few books that touch your heart, and they become a part of you for ever. I want to surrender to the author for handling this subject so beautifully. For the mis-fortunate who have not read the book yet here's a briefing: This is a story of a man named Chick @ Charles Benetto is man who is like most others. He was always embarrassed of the woman who loved him the most: Mom. He chose to be dad's son. We all make decisions but, the repercussions that they have on us will unfold only with time.  Sadly, Chick's decision was to end his life. He took that decision because he was a former baseball player who's career had a downward graph, he lost money in his business, hated his job, separated from his wife and was unwanted by his daughter even on her wedding day. He tries to kill himself but ends up meeting his mother at some point between life and death. His mother passed away 8 years before his suicide attempt. But he got to spend a d...

I cannot find a word short of “miracle” to describe what one month of yoga has done to me. Like every other person in 20’s, I too believed that yoga is for the old and jobless. I was more interested in the intellectual part of spirituality. I was shying away from experiencing peace within me. But I left all inhibitions and threw away my preconceived notions. At most times all of us have opinions about everything even before we know what it is. It took a lot of convincing and acceptance to throw my notions about yoga. My very first session of yoga was 2 fort nights ago. It felt divine. I am a huge fan of discourses by Osho. I have read a lot of his work. Every time there was an emphasis on experience of God through yoga and meditation. I never took it seriously. It was always the intellectual side that fascinated me the most.   I can still remember as if it is all happening now in the present how it felt to stretch every muscle of my body. The sad part is most of my muscles were...

After months of preparation and planning, I am in Mumbai at last. It all still feels like a dream. I still feel that I am going to get back home in some time. The only thing I could see from the aircraft were buildings and more buildings. This city is full of people, rich poor ugly beautiful old and young. The roads are always full of vehicles. The life line of this city seems to be the railways! The whole city is divided into east and west by the railway.The rains are so nice! It comes went it desires. Everyone has an umbrella of various size color and pattern. The population here is just too dense. I don't remember seeing any individual houses. But Mumbai has its own spirit! Hope that I fall in love with it soon.

I have been to about a dozen cities in the world. Chennai has always been close to my heart in multiple levels. I enjoy travelling to new places but noting is as beautiful as Chennai. It has a certain vibration and positive feeling to it. Trust me I am not being biased in any sense. There is a list of reasons which made me fall in love compulsively with the city. First thing anyone would suggest tourist to visit in Chennai are the beaches. They are the prima donna of this virgin land. Kissable blue skies, endless limits of water which rubs ones feet and tonnes of shining sands. Pure heaven. There are so many temples in the city, in all possible shapes and sizes. The sweet sound of Tamil. The language has various forms and is very lovely. Personally I am not that good in the language. But people who can indeed speak it well are gifted and on the top of my admire list. Chennai is known for its heat. But it never kills anyone. I makes one shed liters of water. When there is...

This book was plain brilliance. A beautiful combination of fact and fiction. A low bow for Amish. The way the book is written is just too good. We all loved Dan Brown just because he was able to mix truth and fiction in the right proportions. Amish has the same talent. His imagination of what could have happened is so vivid and drawing. I was hooked to the book. The story starts where Shiva  is a tribal leader in Tibet. His tribe is constantly in war with neighboring tribe. The kingdom of Meluha sends a proposition to Shiva. They are ready to accept Shiva and his tribe into their well planned dynasty. This seemed as a good deal for Shiva. So he along with his people went to Meluha. Meluhans were Suryavanshis and there opponents were Chandravanshis. The Nagas were group of people who were deformed yet strong. They have evil intentions. They were astounded by the planning and perfection of the city. Even the bricks were made to size. There was uniformity in way o...

I hope that no one saw that terrible hindi movie Haunted. I first thought that I must not write about it. But couldn't resist it. The basic plot is that a piano teacher is i love with his student. Tries to attain her but at the end he gets killed by her. He haunts her as a ghost. She commits suicide to liberate herself from him but he traps even her soul. The whole idea seems so gross. A hero from todays time goes back to the past to fix the problem. There were so many glitches in the story. First the story was painfully long. They must have stopped it with them reaching the mosque. It got annoying after a point. I was more irritated than scared. The movie was on 3D but the effects were bad. Some scenes were scary and gave me the chills. Others were little annoying. The movie would have been better without 3D. I got up towards the end and walked away. The movie was like mental torture. I hope that I learnt my lesson hard. No more ghost movies. I just don't want to clog my ...

This was a book which was in some was very special. I would not say that this book rendered my life and was ground shaking but it gave me a glimpse of what life is for a sanyasin. I used to have a crazy idea that I can become a saint(when i was young not now though). I was amazed when I used to hear about austerity that the Indian monks upheld to become one with God. My idea about God has been very dynamic. I my young age I used to think that God did not exist. But then slowly I became a run in the mill devotee. As I grew up I got exposed to books and discourses by many enlightened people. I got to know that there are many ways to reach God. He's within us. All we have to do is connect with the divine in us. This book gave me a glimpse of how a life a sanyasin  would be. "Ma Devika Anand" wrote this book very modestly. I wonder how a woman from England ends up in India and forever in love with Osho. I have read books by him. I wish he lived longer so that I could have ...

I have no words to express how much I loved this book. I is just beautiful. I had fallen in love with the idea of living in Rome for at least a few months when I was a teenager. Recently I am into reading a lot of spiritual books in hope that I become as still as the mountains and as clear as rain water. Here Elizabeth(the writer) narrates her life story. How she had a bad divorce and hence to recuperate she travels to 3 most beautiful countries in the world: Italy, India and Indonesia. I don't know if it is just coincidence but all the 3 countries have I in it. She chooses to live 4 months in each country. I love the way that the book has been split up into 108 chapters. The prelude is called as 109th bead(very very nice). She mentions the importance of the chanting beads. Why they have 108 beads. Rosary came from the Indian monks. The last bead is used to denote the end of 108 beads. She gave each country 36 beads adding up to 108. I am so much in love with the book and the ...

There are few words I hate so much, one such a word is "Stereotypes". Its fine to generalize and make assumptions on things and working methodologies but not about people. Its tough being a girl in India. The society forces so many rules on people. If we want to maintain a good image then we better follow the herd. This is such an emotional stress. Our heart desires for one thing and longs for it but the society calls it wrong. Mind you none of those desires might be legal but out of the society norms. The following are the top in the list of stereotypes that annoy me the most. I know that most people share that same emotions with me. So lets start :) Most people in Tamil Nadu think that Engineering is a must have degree. Throw a stone at some one and he/she is most probable an engineer. Other courses have taken a back seat and is looked down upon,  sparing medicine. This is a myth. Engineering is not for all. Most people as crazy enough to pay upto ...

I am a very vivid dreamer. I sleep about 6 to 8 hours a day and have dreams that are crystal clear when I get up. That is good and bad. Good because I get to laugh at my minds imagination which at times defy logic. Bad because it hurts me emotionally at times. Then there are dreams and places which show up too often. I have often wondered if its only me or most people suffer like me. I read up on some articles and found out that, most people do not remember their dreams and there are a few like me who do remember most of it. This is no boring post about why dreams come and so on. It is a post about 2 of my most funniest dreams. Considering the people, place and plot of the dream. Here begins your journey into my dream space. There are 2 stories. One really old I have put them up in the best way I can. So, here it goes: Dream 1: This is a dream that get quite too often. This is kind of weird. There is this tortuous road with greenery on both sides. I am in a car with my famil...

There are books which I can connect to and other that I can breath. Well,  Driftwood Summer belongs to the latter. It is a beautiful tale of how at times we try to run away from our mistakes to make them disappear, while all it needed was courage to accept the mistake to make it vanish. All of us have dark unsaid secrets and have done things in the past which haunt us till date. This book helped me understand that only way to overcome a heart ache or a mistake is to face it upfront. I liked the way that the chapters were named after that two lead characters: Maisy and Riley. It brought in two perspectives of the same story. I have a younger sister and I know the relationship that exists between sisters. There is lots of love, also ego and pride. At times there happens to be battles too. Here the two sisters fall for the same guy Mack. He happened to be Riley's(First child) best friend who used to come to Driftwood over the summer. Maisy(Middle child) being miss beautiful stole ...

I studied biology in my 12th with hopes of becoming a bio technologist somewhere down the line i don't know what happened but I took I.T. in SJCE. No one really expected that I would do that. Frankly I myself didn't expect that from me. When I sat in front of that computer screen for counseling in Anna University it just hit me. It might sound stupid or lame or just too romantic a decision for many. I lefts C.S.E. and took I.T.(Most people think that C.S.E. is better. God knows why!). Even the guy who was to allot the seat to me seemed quite confused. I don't know why i left Bio Tech in S.V.C.E. and took I.T. in SJCE. I think I will never understand. I tend to follow my heart that way I never regret cause I did something I love. I am rational at most time except when it come to main things in life like my career, my friends and where I study just follow my heart.  I do not know if I remember all that I learnt in the course. But college taught me a lot on life and acceptanc...

Somethings get locked up, We keep them so secure, They exist with u like saucer with a cup, We often forget where it went. But it never leaves, It always stays, and lurks, Even when it passes through sieves, We sow it in our mind. The more you push, The closer it comes, The more you avoid, The more you cannot forget! We think we threw in, But back it comes, In all its might and glory, To induce the grim in us. There is a secret to it, There is a trick, It is hard, But it will click. We cannot push it away, Then why not accept, And feel like ship in a quay, Away from the turbulent seas. For it is all in the mind to decide, What it wants, For what you want beside, Is what you will get.

For long I have wondered at nature’s miracle. How the actually cope with all this is a wonder, absolute miracle. Just imagine a life perennially on a median with sparse or no nourishment and exposed to the most harsh weather. Yet they live to the fullest. As I exclaimed: Just pure MAGIC. I think you got a grip of what I am talking about. None other that the humble plants on the road side and medians. They may be cut, slaughtered, refused of love and what not yet they give only love in return.   I have always imagined a parallel universe where plants and animals rule over man. What goes around comes around. We have ruled this planet for a long time and made a big mess of it. We are rather selfish when compared to the other animals and more benevolent plants. They keep giving so must love despite the cruelties we do to them. If we wonder why all this a superficial answer would be man is just too smart. He is the fittest and he will survive. But is that true? Dig in deeper and the an...