A poet's dream

Kavi Pratap Singh was a very worried man. He distinctly remembered the raja's words--"Ten days from now, in the glory of the full moon light, you will present to the court, the poems and couplets describing the beauty of Princess Indrani, the third daughter of Maharaja Kamnath Singhji. The Maharaja himself would grace the occasion and so would the princess. I entrust upon your young shoulders, the mighty task of impressing the Maharaja and the princess with your oratory skills. And remember.... failing in your duties would be a personal insult to me and to the Maharaja".

It was natural for the raja to ask Kavi Pratap to present the couplets, for his fame in the arts was matched only by the fame of the Maharaja himself. But today, Kavi was tensed and distraught. For it was the 9th day and not even a word had been written. He could see himself getting diminished in the eyes of the Maharaja like the dying candle light on the table. The candle was casting dark shadows of Kavi on the walls, and somewhere in the darkness of the shadow, he saw his future. Bleak and pale. He could see the shame coming. The shame of not able to live up to the raja's expectations. The shame that the raja would face, because, the best poet in his kingdom could not write about the beauty of Indrani--the raja's heartthrob. Who knows, the Maharaja might even reject the raja's proposal--for who would like to send their daughter to a land devoid of any art and artist? Kavi scribbled something on the paper:

Thee not knows when god gave us this boon.......
When he shone your brightness on this soil as the moon........

He instantly crumpled the parchment and threw it away. What was happening to him? Where was the spark in him that had made him write great epics? He remembered those times, when he used to compete with great poets from far away lands. When wit and beauty of verse were his companions. Those days seemed hazy today. Today, all he could see was shame and failure. He grabbed the pot of madira and gulped it. He felt the sweetness, but, only in his throat, not in the heart. He needed an inspiration and he was devoid of one today. Why today, ever since Kamini, his loved one, had passed away to the nether world, he had lost all happiness. Life was merely an existence, waiting for the day he could join her. He looked around him, and saw all the filth and the parchment pieces. It reflected his sorry state of being. All those parchments that could have been the greatest poem ever written about love and beauty were lying torn apart. Much like his inner self. He was exhausted. His hands were paining and his head was throbbing. His face, which once used to radiate confidence and intellect, was unshaven and haggard today. He had not slept for five nights now and he knew that if he did not do something tonight, there might be no night tomorrow. His aching body cried for him to take rest. "Sleep for sometime. Maybe you would feel refreshed enough to write something, when you wake up". To fight this anxiety and depression, he decided to listen to his body for sometime.

And what a sleep that was. As soon as he fell asleep, he dreamt of Kamini. He dreamt of his soul leaving his body and saw his body lying in the bed, lifeless. He was being transported to some far-off place. he was flying with the birds, high up in the sky. Soon, he was higher. He could see the moon and the sun. He could see other stars, and, gradually he felt one with them. It was a strange feeling. The kind of feeling that he used to get when he was with Kamini. The sensation, where distances simply evaporated and beauty was all that he could see. He flew higher and this feeling disappeared. Suddenly, he was afraid. Where had all the stars gone? Where was everybody? Why was he alone? Instantly, as if to answer his questions, he saw Kamini. First his eyes couldn't take her beauty and they wriggled in pain. She was radiating a golden hue. She was like the sun itself, brightening every object surrounding it. He had not seen anything as beautiful as the pearls around her neck. Each looking like the moon itself. Her golden brown hair had been let loose and shone like the sunrays filtering through the clouds at dusk. There was something divine and pristine about the beauty of her face, that mere mortals like him could not comprehend. She didn’t speak, but, their minds spoke.

"No, this is not the nether world, dear. Though death visits everybody, it has not visited you today. You still have a lot to achieve in your world. Of what purpose would be your existence, if you didn't help two hearts beat in unison? Give the raja, the poetry that he wants and enjoy the pleasure of helping someone to reach out to their loved one."

"But I can't write. My heart is no more a heart. It is but a black stone which radiates only despair. I will only bring shame to the whole kingdom."

"Nah, my dearest. Love cleanses everything on its path. Our love will cleanse your heart too. Come let us go to your world ".

With this they started flying down again, and at the next instant, they were in Kavi's house. Together they talked and thought and wrote about love. The words kept flowing and the inkpot never ran dry. Kavi had never felt such content. The content of true love. Of being with your loved one. The content of knowing that there's a heart out there, which beats for you. After ages, he felt happy. The happiness of knowing that one's work would unite two lovers. Soon, the poetry was done, and it was time for Kamini to go. Kavi wanted her to stay with him, in this house, in this world, but, he knew that this world was not her's anymore.

"Do not be sad, dearest. For we shall meet again, and, when we meet again, we would be together till the end of eternity."

With this, she left and Kavi woke up. It was already morning, and, the sunrays were filtering through the half-closed window. He felt a sense of happiness after ages. What a wonderful dream it had been. Now he was ready to write the poems. He was ready to face the court. Tonight would be his night, when his verses would help the raja win over his love's heart. He got up and went to the desk, to start writing, but, the poem had already been written. He read and the verses rhymed and reverberated with love. He was speechless. His mouth went dry, and all he could mutter was

"Thank you, oh angel with the golden radiance. Thank you, kamini."

My 4th speech at Toastmasters

The purpouse of the 4th speech is to use simple & small sentences, rhetorics, quotes, similies & metaphors,etc.

Good afternoon everyone. Today, I am going to talk about my best friend Suresh. Actually all of us here have met him at least once. At least once, we have lived his life too. Infact, we are living his life right now. If you are wondering who he is, let me give a clue.

He doesn't have a face. He doesn't have an identity except a series of numbers called as an employee id and another series of words called as project name. If you are still not sure who our friend is, then just look around yourself. You will find him everywhere. Our friend Suresh is a software engineer in a multinational company.

A few years back, our friend joined an engineering college. Why did he join an engineering college? Of course because, that's what everyone does, isn't it? Become a doctor or an engineer. The four years spent at the engineering college were hellish for Suresh. He didn't like what he studied. What he liked he couldn't study. Our friend wanted to study history. He wanted to study about the great kings. The Ashokas and the king Arthurs. He wanted to study about the great battles. The battles at Waterloo and at Plassey. "But what would you do after studying that?" his father had asked, and, Suresh had no answer. So, quietly and obediently, stifling his inner longings, Suresh studied engineering. He studied about balls rolling and the forces acting on it, and, about how to represent figures in two dimensions from front and top, and, about how Sodium and Chlorine reacted to form salt, and, about how to use integration and differentiation.

He of course excelled in engineering too. For he was judged on his ability to remember things, not, on his ability to love and cherish things. When he reached the third year of engineering, one day his father asked him. "Son, what do you want to do now? Do you want to do an MBA or MS? Or do you want to do an MTech? Or do you want to work?", and, Suresh had no idea. What he actually wanted to do was study history. Study about the great revolutions that took place. Study about how our fore-fathers fought for independence. He replied, "Dad, I want to study about the independence movement. I want to understand the values that make this country unique. I want to go and see the temples and mosques and churches and Buddhist monasteries, that make-up this country's culture". His dad laughed and said "You can do all that once you have earned sufficiently and have retired. Why don't you join the IT industry? Kumar uncle's son Arvind works in a software company. He earns so much. He has so much respect in society", and, so Suresh ended up attending the interview of the first IT company that stepped in his college campus.

"Where do you see yourself five years down the line?" they asked him in the interview. He wanted to reply "I see myself sitting in the British Council Library, reading about Troy and the Spartans and the Athenians. I see myself as a professor, teaching students about the Chinese and the Ming dynasty. I see myself as a torch spreading the light of knowledge and banishing darkness", but, he replied "Five years from now, I should be leading a team of motivated individuals, who are passionate about their work, and who would work as a team to effectively deliver on services without any compromises on quality", and, of course he got selected, because, that is what everybody wants to hear. Isn't it? He finished his engineering and joined the company. He had a training where, 300 more clueless engineers like him were huddled in a nice, big conference hall and given lectures about the company's Vision, mission and values. He was told to be proud of the fact that he was a member of a fifty thousand strong family. He could only compare this family to the 2nd world war Russian army. Big and respected. Respected not for quality, but, for quantity. With passing days, the boredom in the lectures only increased, for they would teach about Java - the programming language that was changing the world, and, he wanted to learn about the history of the Java volcano in Indonesia.

Just when Suresh thought that he could bear it no more, the training ended, and he was told to go to Chennai. Suresh wanted to come here, to Hyderabad, so that he could see the shield, seal and jewels of the Nizam. So that he could see the beauty of the Gloconda fort. He wanted to understand more about how the Hyderabad princely state joined India, but, reluctantly, he had to agree to go to Chennai, because, he had no other option. Well that was two years back. Yesterday, I was talking to him, and he was telling that he was doing some Java development work now, which would seem like a great job to most people, but, that he was not happy. "Why?" I asked him. He replied that, he doesn't see any challenge in his work. "I mean, I do some real development work. My boss is happy with my work. My client is happy too, but, I find it mundane." He also said that he was planning to go for higher studies, do an MBA to climb up the proverbial corporate ladder. "But what about your passion for history?" I asked him. He had no answer. The passion was still burning in his heart, but, he had become too busy working for material comforts in his life, that the passion was just that - a passion, deep inside and nothing else.

Our friends Suresh is a very dedicated and hard-working man, mind you. I am sure he will succeed in whatever endeavor he takes up. He will succeed. He will earn well. He will have a lot of respect in society, but, would he be happy?

This is the normal career path that most of us follow. Study something because everybody does that, join an industry because, society respects it, manage people because, that is the established sign of success, but, deep down inside, are we happy? When we retire, would we look at our lives with content and happiness, or would we think that our children should not suffer the fate that we suffered, so, let us "guide" them in finding the right career. I think, we all need to look at the Suresh in ourselves and see if the path we are taking is leading us to where we want to go or not. So, let us all think and contemplate and see if we are taking our life to places, or is it society and people's opinions that is doing that job?

My 3rd speech at Toastmasters

Gave it long time back (read "a couple of months"), and have been thinking of posting it also for a long time. Finally doing it today.


The main idea of the 3rd speech is to "get to the point" wherein the speech is supposed to have one central idea and multiple supporting ideas.

Good Afternoon everyone. I am Krishnan Subramanian. Let me start off by taking a quick poll. A couple of questions.

1. How many of you cross the Cyber Towers signal (Cyber Towers is a famous landmark in Hyderabad) while coming to office? (Almost everybody raised their hands)

2. How many of you have seen small children begging near that signal? (Almost everybody raised their hands)

3. How many of you feel that instead of begging, the children should be studying in school and should be playing with other children in the evenings? Basically, how many of you feel that they should have a life better that what they are having right now? (Almost everybody raised their hands)

When so many of us feel that those children should be having a better life, then why are those children still begging on the streets?

That is because, all we do is give lip service. We all agree that those children should have a better life, but, none of us are ready to actually go and do something about it. Ladies and gentleman, today, for my speech, I don't have any speech topic. All I want to do is give instances where we indulge in lip service, and, all I want you to do is, think about it.

So, what can we do for the children? The first and most natural thing thought that comes to our mind is - "give them some money to alleviate them from this poverty". But, do u think that it is money that they need? Can't they get that from begging too? Do you think that the money would actually go into their pockets? Giving money is the easiest thing to do, but, what they actually need is compassion and love. They need to feel that - "yes, there is somebody out there who cares for us", and, how do you do that? Go and talk to them. Make them feel like a normal individual. Stop avoiding them. Convince them that begging wouldn't help them in the long run. Help them join a good child welfare institution, where somebody would love them. If you do this today, so that they can stand on their own legs tomorrow, then you have truly alleviated them from poverty and misery.

One of the core values in TCS states - "respect for individual". Now, we all respect individuality, don't we? We all respect every individual's ideas. We all respect an individual's contribution in a team, but, do we equally respect all individuals? I mean, do we treat our team-mates as respectfully as we treat our managers? To take it further, do we give equal respect to our manager and to the boy who cleans the floors here in TCS? In restaurants, do we treat the waiters respectfully? Is it because, they are providing us a service and so we are superior to them. If that is the case, then just think how we would feel if our clients treated us the way we treat waiters and cleaners? Is it that the waiters and cleaners cannot influence our lives in a negative way, so they can be treated as inferior to us? So what I am trying to say is that we need to treat every individual respectfully in letter and spirit. In terms of respect, there should be no difference between a big shot in our company and a lowly placed person.

Well, I could keep on talking about such instances from our day-to-day life where we indulge in lip service, but, what I am asking you to do is - THINK. From now on, think before every action you take, think before every action that you decide not to take, think before every sentence you utter, think about your feelings, think about your emotions, and follow what your conscience says. Thank you.

Reached 500

I reached a small milestone today with my 500th scrap in Orkut. I still remember that time when I had joined Orkut(my friend Jayram had invited me). I was wondering at that time if anybody would bother to scrap me(cos, in my friend circle, I am really not known to be a very social person),but, in the course of the last 500 scraps, I have not only reached out to a lot of my class-mates and friends, but, have also found some friends with whom I have had almost no contact for more that 10 years. I also made many new friends and fans(27 as of last count), and am really looking forward to my 1000th scrap.

Do check out my earlier post on why I like Orkut.