Would you guys believe me if I told you that I lost my precious Motorola T720 mobile phone on Saturday ? Uh, some co-incidence after the previous post. Anyways, I have no hopes of getting that back. And whoever stole it, hope he finds it useful. I know he will, he has flicked the charging unit as well! :-)

A simple conversation about losing cell phones that ended on a philosophical note.

My dad once lost his mobile instrument when his bike collided head long onto another. The mobile had obviously slipped out of his pocket and he noticeed its loss after he was back home, by when it was late evening. We set out in the dark with no hopes whatsoever of recovering the phone. The instrument would by then be run over by a car or truck or some passer-by must have pocketed it, we thought. But when we reached the spot, we spotted the mobile instantly, the spotting made easy by the the mobile skin which was a bright metallic silver.

On another occasion, my brother left his mobile in the office and returned home. He called one of his friends, Karthik (who was also his roomie) to fetch it from his desk. Karthik checked up the desk to find the phone missing on my brother's desk. My brother had lost it somewhere between office and home. He searched the roads between office and home. It was in vain. He contacted the Admin authorities to report the loss of his mobile. His mobile number was instantly disabled to prevent misuse in the event of the mobile landing in wrong hands. He lost all hope and went out shopping for a new mobile over the long weekend. He had decided on the model to buy and postponed the purchase to Monday evening. When he reached office on Monday morning, his boss questioned him - 'So, I was trying to reach you but you seemed to have switched off your mobile'. My brother replied - 'Oh Praveen, I had misplaced my mobile. Am yet to get a new one'. To my brother's astonishment, Praveen pulled out my brother's mobile instrument from his pocket. Well, between the time Karthik checked for the mobile on my brother's desk and the time my brother left office, Praveen had spotted the mobile lying attended and had taken it for safe keeping.

In both cases, we realised that the hopes of getting the phone back was lost completely. But we were pleasantly surprised. Like I read somewhere, disappointment comes only to those who make an appointment with the future. But why does life have this uncanny way of surprising us when we just dont expect it. Because we would then realise its significance better ?

Space wizards are running through a bad patch, uh.

With the Columbia accident, the MARS mission not quite on expected lines, Spirit Rover missing the best sites on Mars, and abandoning of the most productive Hubble Telescope for safety reasons, its been tough times all the way.

But Bush is upbeat with his new space plan for a return to the Moon and missions to Mars. He's sayin - "We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this: Human beings are headed into the cosmos."

A beautiful bhogi morning. The bus cruised through, vying with the sun to penetrate through the blanket of smog that had enveloped the city today. It was so beautiful, so poetic, so amazing. Don't ask me what was so amazing about smog, but watching the receding smog, I couldnt help but wonder how such simple things make us so happy, liven our spirit, cheer our mood and make our day. A new dress, a lemon tea, fresh jasmine flowers, a peppy movie song in the morning, a Ravalgaon 'orange' toffee, this blinding fog...these are some of those simple things. Wish life was made only of just these simple things. And nothing else.

Why do we leave behind our passionate dreams and start pursuing shining goals ?

Somewhere between exam crunching and job searching, I lost the trail of my passion - teaching. Since childhood, I had this irresistible liking for the profession of teaching and the beacons of the profession - my teachers. My passion was so strong that when I was in school, my grandpa had a blackboard made at home and there was a monthly ration of color chalks. I used to love chalk pieces and the very smell of them used to thrill me. And to confess, I used to love the taste of chalk too. Next, I was fascinated by red-ink pens and always had one Red Reynolds with me to 'correct' my rough-note-books. You know, this habit has actually hung on - yeah, I still have a red pen (though not a Reynolds) in my hand-bag and love writing with it. I had even decided the hair-do and the printed silks that I would wear when I become a teacher. So much. All these are the remnant memories of the passion that had been.

I still love teaching and meticulously prepare before imparting training sessions in my current profession. Well, Powerpoint presentations and color-chalks-n-charts are poles apart, but thats the closest I could get to my passion. Just like the chalks, the smell of spirit from marker pens thrill me. And I swear, I have never tasted them...

Oh, I have become such an infrequent blogger. Tch tch. Okie, let me resolve to blog more regularly this year. Ok, with the resolution in place now, let me blog on our visit to the CITF - Chennai International Trade Fair, last Saturday at The Chennai Trade Center at Nandambakkam. At the outset, it a was pretty well organised and professional fair. There were stalls for everything right from clothes, jewellery and medicinal products to cars, computers and off-the-trade-track - spirituality. Sangeethas were the caterers, with a decent make-shift kinda restaurant in the Trade Center campus. There were vendors who were selling large appalams(paapads) called Delhi Appalams. The entire Trade Center was tastefully decorated with serial lamps. There were crowds of people, haggling, chatting, enquiring and in general having a great time shopping.

Now, having got a feel of how the environ was, here are some conversations that we heard/saw -

Visitor to Delhi Appalam stall - Evvalavu paa oru Delhi appalam ?
Stall Owner Selling Delhi Appalams - 15 rupees sir...
Visitor to Delhi Appalam stall - enna paa, Delhi appalam vilai kettaaa, nee Delhi pora vilaiya sollara ?
Stall Owner Selling Delhi Appalams - **mutters some usual chennai abuses**
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Visitor to Areca Products stall - Enna ?
Stall Owner Selling Areca Products - Donnai...:-)
(The stall actually sells containers and small cups made of dried tree products, which are known in Tamil as 'Donnai'.)
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Visitor to a Computer CD Stall (pointing to an educational CD called Gurupad) - What is this CD ?
Stall owner - Tutorial CD called GuruPad
Visitor (a very impressed father of a son) - hey, my son's name is also Guru. He is there (pointing frantically at the son), can u see, can u see ? (Obviously, he was hyperly excited that there was a CD with his son's name).
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Maybe the jokes above are PJs (poor jokes). If they are, well then I guess I enjoy PJs. It was fun watching people, their different ways, the light Chennai humour and nakkal all through the fair. It was another typical Chennai place to hang around. I think I should stop ranting on and on about Chennai like this. My blog is turning out to be too regional :-). But what the heck, Chennai is the best. After NY.