Retirement

Retirement. . .
I remember my dad, though kept preparing himself for a retired life felt, he was too energetic to retire, on the day of his retirement. At the age of 58!
Yes, people are healthy, energetic and also matured and well experienced in their respective field.
But the mandatory rest, the labour laws enforce on the working class becomes necessary, at least in a country like India, where another set of young and energetic class is waiting for opportunities.
But how does it feel like retiring from the services at the age of 38?Does not sound great, if you think that this is the end of life.
If you think that this is an opportunity to reinvent yourself and bring back the real you in what you do, then retirement at 38 is pretty interesting!
That's what happened to me five years ago. That was a conscious decision to retire. Rather than going into reasons for such an early retirement, it will definitely be interesting, if I share what I did after that!
A single blog post is a very small space though.
On the first day, I listed all my interests.Reviewed what I was doing with them so for. Looked for avenues to pursue a few.
But there was an indirect pressure to keep up the last drawn pay even after retirement.
My first option was investment avenues. After allocating the major portion of the retirement benefits into safe investment schemes, I turned towards the capital market.
The accounting background gave me a fair idea about the markets. I played safe and more than making money, the way the markets behaved everyday really interest you. I was very cautious not to spend more than two hours a day. And the weekends were for learning.
I did a course in designing on the computers. The creative side in me also also fetched me name and rewards. During the spare time I made online cards and sent to all my friends and relatives. (To my ex-colleagues, especially to show them how I spend my time!)
The surfing of the Net, making question papers for the kids who appeared for the Board exams, helping out in their projects ( I bet, it is an enriching experience) - I mean for about 20 kids - not only makes you popular among the kids but also makes the parents look at you with a lot of respect (After all, you lessen their head ache to some extent)
The fourth is to play around with paper and pen! when you start writing, you really find a 'Gnanpeeth' awardee in you waiting to come out.
The fifth is really to give a shape to your thoughts and channelise them, you will find all your dreams come true.
There are a few more ways to keep yourself busy. Just get associated with a like-minded person. I mean with the one who just has the same fire in him / her exactly like you - You will forget that you have a career of 20 years ahead!
The list is longer than what you think it to be. And will interest you if only you also retire at 38!

Blessings on my birthday!

The elephant God comes to our home in various forms.
Yes, Ganeshji gets into our home in different shapes, sizes, forms and patterns. And, we have never shopped for an idol or a photo of Ganesha. All are gifted to us!
Even the 'clay Ganesha' which comes to our home on Vinayaka Chaturthi day never leaves our home. I would like to decorate them and place them in the Navaratri steps from next year!
Of all the idols, I love the one in the relaxing pose with a 'hand fan' and a book!
But this time, Ganesha came in on my birthday. In a totally different form.
Simple, yet beautiful form!
He landed up on my mobile phone! A friend of mine remembered my birthday and sent a greeting. No words, just a Ganesha. It brightened up my day!

Rasam - the essen(ce)tial south Indian dish

Rasam - this is one which is never omitted in the brunch menu of our family.
And through the week, we have different varieties of rasam. Sometimes, the same variety does not repeat even for a fortnight!
Rasam changes its 'avtar' to suit the accompanying vegetable of the day. If the cereals are used in the vegetable, the rasam goes without it. If it is a 'koottu', the rasam has the extra tangy taste. If the sambhar has a lot of cereals, the rasam becomes 'Mor rasam'
Only one type of rasam not made in our home is 'garlic rasam'. Somehow no one likes it and I have not prepared it in my life so for!
Just last week, I prepared a surprise 'mint rasam'. It got added to the existing varieties now!
I fried a small bunch of mint leaves with two green chillies and two tomatoes. And added the ground mixture of these to the boiling tamarind water with turmeric powder and salt. Added the cooked cereals. Completed it with the usual garnishing of mustard and asafoetida. Just add a few fresh mint leaves and it does wonders!
If anyone has a different variety of rasam, I would like to add to my cook-book!

Dream thinkpad!

This should be a dream come true for me!
For a simple call to work on a web project, the kids swamped! The strange part of it was that the call did not mention anything about the project in which the kids would be working! And the mail id did not have any name to address the mails to.
This made me think that the kids are just looking for something exciting to work on.
And yes, they all turned up for the meeting, in a small hall. The technical info kids had just amazed the professional designers. Their needs were very clear. The kids knew what they had to do at the end of the two hour meeting. Ideas started pouring in.
Next day, we got mails in the inbox, with new designs for web page, some content, some write ups, poems and of course some queries.
The logo - busy bee - had a brush in the hand first, then a pen and at the end of the discussions, it threw up all the instruments and started 'thinking'. The busy bee became a thinking bee!
Apt for the name - Log on to www.yocee.in and see for yourself what I am talking about!

Parade of dolls!

Navarathri has been my favourite festivals ever since my childhood days.
It was fun arranging the steps with tin boxes, cartons, newspapers, bricks and all things under the Sun. Those were the days we did not have ready made steps in slotted angles. We had seen the wooden steps with screws and padlocks, but.
The 'making' of the steps used to take a full day and we used to end up with placing a single 'Ganesha' idol in one of the steps just to carry over the rest of the steps to the next day.
Arranging the 'Dasavatharam' dolls always caused arguments. And the 'panchangam' was used to settle the issues - I mean the order in which they were to be placed. The 'marapachis' had the finest of the costumes made by me and my sister.
The happiest moments were dressing up in the evenings. I used to be a doll in the hands of my sister. She dressed me up with different accessories on all the nine days. Have you heard of 'tights' sari? It had an extra wrap after the pleats. With a short sling hand bag, I used to look like a foreigner in sari.
On some other day, the long plait was decorated with a pad of flower arrangements!
When I see young girls in traditional long skirts these days on such occasions, I say to myself - 'Hey, girls! There is much more than this simple pavadai during Navrathri!