'I Cannot remember my mother'- Touching Poem

Back in my school days we had wonderful poems in our syllabus.Hindi or English,the selected poems were excellent.Some of them left a lasting impression on my mind.And they keep popping up in my mind from time to time.'The solitary reaper', 'The Highwayman','The Brook','The road not taken' ,'Stopping by woods on a snowy evening' were some of my favorites.A million thanks to the people responsible for choosing these poems as part of our syllabus.Event though I don't remember the whole content of the poem some lines I don't think I will ever forget.
'Alone she reaps and alone she cuts' from Solitary Reaper
'For men may come and men go but I go on forever' from The Brook
'Two roads diverged in the woods and I took the less traveled by' from The Road not Taken
are some of the examples.
    Here for this post I would like to talk about one of the most touching and heart rending poems that I have ever read.'I cannot remember my mother' is a poem that will make your eyes moist.The whole poem is as follows

I CANNOT remember my mother,

only sometime in the midst of my play

a tune seems to hover over my playthings,

the tune of some song that she used to hum while rocking my cradle.

I cannot remember my mother,

but when in the early autumn morning

the smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air,

the scent of the morning service in the temple comes to me as the

scent of my mother.

I cannot remember my mother,

only when from my bedroom window I send my eyes into the blue of

the distant sky,

I feel that the stillness of my mother's gaze on my face

has spread all over the sky.

Back in my school when I first read it I couldn't understand the poem.I had this habit of reading all the lessons and poems from my textbook at the start of the school year itself.So by myself I couldn't grasp the meaning of this poem.I made fun of the author thinking how can he not remember his mother.When our teacher explained this I got something but the process of realization of true meaning is best when it is self made.As the years passed by my rereading this gave me deeper meanings.The way the author remembers vaguely only three things the tune of his mother,the scent of his mother and the gaze of his mother.Beautiful! Those descriptions are just beautiful.No amount of plain writing can make the same impact as those lines make.
Of the three the third one is the most deep in my opinion.The author has only impressions of his mother as a child.When he looks at the blue sky he likens the sky to the gaze of his mother on his face.Touching! Those lines send a electric shiver down my whole body whenever I read them. To tell the truth it has turned my eyes moist a few times.
   I have a close friend who has lost her mother at a young age and when for the first time she told me about it,the lines of this poem were running in my mind and I could feel her pain.For the first time I could see what it is to not have a mother.The longing,the vague memories and the pain can crush a person.The last lines of the poem offers a hope that mother has gone nowhere but is above and is always watching over you.
   For all those who have lost your mother may god give you strength.

Can you offer your seat?

Picture this-
Co Ed College.A meeting of 120 students.The boys have come in first.There aren't enough seats for everyone and some have been left standing.Enter girls.They are only 16 in number compared to the 100 boys.Some girls make room for themselves by sitting on the tables at the far end of the class.Two of them have been left standing.You would expect some guy to get up and offer his chair to them.But that doesn't happen.They stand there for an hour like that.

Why do boys do this is beyond me.The above incident is not the first time it happened at my college I saw many other examples.There should be a mutual and healthy respect amongst boys and girls which I find lacking.A simple act of giving up your chair for a girl won't make you lose anything instead it makes you more of a man.Someone rightly said "the mark of a civilization is how it treats its women''.When I tell the same thing to the people around me all I get is the usual crap.

'Anything going on between you guys'? 'wink' 'wink'
'bahut fikar hai bhai' 'kuch khass baat hai kya?' (you are very much concerned about them.any thing special huh?')

I leave them asking just this question.I just tell people to imagine that if their sister or mother or friend was standing like that for hours and other people around her just went about their way without helping her,would that make them happy?

Now coming back to the incident.I was sitting at the other diagonal end of the crowded class and there was no way of helping them from my place.I just sent a message to a boy near them and he was kind enough to adjust with his friends and give up one chair.The girls shared that chair and were visibly relieved.But i was guilty of not doing it earlier. I was just hoping that someone else would do it but nobody did and I learnt my lesson.Never hesitate.Not for an hour at least.

Why do I like Korean Movies?

People have often asked me why I like Korean dramas and movies so much.Before I answer that question in this blog post,let me go over my story about how I discovered them and come to like it so much.
         This whole post is straight from my heart and you may find it a bit naive but let me tell you this is my story of how I felt and how I received the movies.You may or may not agree with my observations but the circumstances around the whole thing shaped my thinking and my liking.So here goes.
         One fine day during my third year of Engineering,my brother handed me two Korean movies,namely 'A moment to Remember' and 'My Sassy Girl'.The former had my now favourite actress,'Son Ye Jin'.I am always open to experimenting and used to watch other languages movies sometimes.Having watched a couple of Iranian movies recently and finding them interesting,I thought why not try these Korean movies now.At that time my internal exams were going on. In spite of that I watched the movies.Though the latter movie was very famous not only in South Korea but also in the whole of Asia,I liked the former better.
Lets talk about it here.Its a touching and emotionally moving story about how a young couple's happy marriage is turned upside down when the wife is diagnosed with Alzhemiers. Its a great movie with fine performances and a moving storyline.Those who have seen the movie may point out the number of clichés the movie had but even then the use of those clichés was effective and it moved me a lot.The story had beautiful chemistry between the leads and the whole story was clean,unlike many western movies
Generally I am very much affected by intense movies,they make me think about the movie and its issues for days to an end.This happened with this film too.I couldn't concentrate on my studies for the next three days.Also when I strongly feel about something I tend to do anything related to it.I think what I can do about it to make the feeling go away.I really wanted to help that woman or anybody with Alzhemiers. Now this may look naive but I resolved to do two things from then onwards,watch more Korean movies and the other of forming a club to do whatever social work I could do.The latter idea only grew bigger with time.From then onwards I went on to watch hundreds of K-movies and a handful of dramas and I don't regret my time spent on watching them.
     One day I was dining with my friends in a hotel and I told them about my new found love for Korean movies and extolled them to watch the same.They then questioned me as what I saw in them that I loved them so much.I replied that I simply love the romance and also that I learnt so much from them.One of my friends then asked me to explain one point.All I could say was that I gained a new perspective of life.At that time that was all I could think of,further discussion was interrupted by the arrival of more friends and the discussion meandered off to other topics.At that time the only movies that came to my mind were 'A moment to Remember','The Classic,and 'Failan' and I based my answer on them.
That was the conversation that led to my thinking about the whole thing and that resulted in this post.
        Now you could argue that similar movies from Hollywood could have inspired me too,but the thing is they did not. There is something about the pure and simple romance of the Korean movies that is just mesmerising.Its not for nothing that Korean movies are appreciated worldwide for their romances.Two things that struck a chord with me are,one as I said before their pure,simple and clean romance and point two is that their culture and tradition matches with that of India's. To cite an example the way they give respect to elders.The way they have separate names for calling elder brother(oppa) and elder sister(unni) and there are many other examples.They give importance to their culture the way Indians also do.This forms the core of my liking them.
           These days some of my friends and my sister are onto Korean movies and she even calls me oppa sometimes.We call our grandfather as Harabhushi (among ourselves and not in front of him) after we heard that word in that wonderful drama 'Heartstrings'.I formed and joined some on line clubs for discussing Korean dramas and movies and will continue to encourage other people to watch them.

Letter to the Student Body of my college.

This was a letter i wrote to the students representatives of my college,Jindal Institute of Power Technology.They were the body formed to look after the progress of the placements of the students.I wrote the following letter or rather an article to suggest some activities to improve ourselves.


To


Students Representatives,JIPT


Guys I have a few suggestions and have written this rather long letter to list out the suggestions as well as to provide advantages of their implementation. I am more comfortable with the written form of communication,so this letter.Please take the time to read.

And I have written this in the manner of an article.Not exactly a letter.


So the 'You' here is addressed to nobody in particular.


For anybody to succeed in anything a person should first identify what he needs to accomplish.Let us take For example a person aspiring to become a good racer.The first and the most basic thing he needs to do is pass the driving license test.Here his goal is passing that test.At this point of time all his resources should be spent on preparing for the test.


Similarly when we think about becoming a Power plant engineer we need to first get a job in a power plant.And for that every company hires you on based on your performance in some certain tests.Now every company has its own set of exams.Some have a written test and then a group discussion and then an interview,while some have only written and then interview,while some others have only interview.The most common is the written and interview one.So now our aim or what i would like to call 'Clear and Present Goal' is to pass the written test and the interview.When it comes to written test again there are a number of patterns companies follow.Some have aptitude,some don't but every test has technical questions(obviously).Written test is pretty much straight forward.You have certain aptitude skill and certain technical skill.If what you have is greater that what the test is asking you pass the test.And if you don't, you won't pass the test.Nothing complex about it.


(From here let me remind you whatever i am going to write is purely my opinion.You are free to disagree.)


Interview


When it comes to interview so many people fail not because they don't have the required technical skills but because they lack in other equally important skills.My point of contention here is that not many people pay attention to things like communication and body language.These I believe are equally important in your chances of getting selected.What I am trying to say here is that we should pay attention to other details too, apart from technical stuff.


One more thing is that when you lack a certain thing in you or you have a problem with a certain thing.The first thing to do is ACKNOWLEDGE the problem! You have to identify the problem and then acknowledge that 'yes I have a problem with this and I need to solve this.Then comes the rectification part.Rectification part is easier than acknowledging part I tell you ! People are there to help you but unless you recognize the problem and tell someone the problem there's nothing you or the other people can about it.So the thing here is lets have some activities wherein we can improve our communications skill.Activities which involve talking and discussing.These things improve us in a whole manner.


As you know there are two kinds of,say, mind.One is the conscious mind and the other the sub conscious.


Conscious mind works when you prepare for the interview reading books,discussing etc.It gives you certain knowledge.But this knowledge while you take it out to show the person in front of you,you do it with the help of the Sub conscious mind.You talk in a certain manner,you gesture with your hands in a certain manner,you maintain your eye contact,the manner of your sitting,the posture etc.All this is governed by the sub conscious. This develops by not reading about it.It has to be


1-given importance


2- practiced


For some people it comes naturally they don't have to put in much effort in that area.But for some it gets really difficult to get going.But everyone has to practice it.Only then you can master it.



The kind of activities I mentioned above improve your communication skills,(the obvious one) some other things it will improve are


1-how to disagree politely with anyone


2-how to sit properly


3-when to maintain eye contact and when to break it.


4-how to answer a question.


Let me give you an example.when somebody asks you a question like


'how was the Ironman movie?' you don't answer him with 'that batman movie was awesome' neither will you answer by starting from the first frame in the movie and continue till the lst frame.By the time you consume 2 mins the listener will have lost interest.so keeping it relevant to the question and keeping it short is the mantra.This is one of the many things we can together learn when we get together for the activities.


1- Group Discussions


2- Talks


3- Ppts with simple pics and videos


4- Mock interviews among ourselves.


5- Sharing of expertise or let me say, knowledge. A person maybe good in a particular field or topic or area.We can tell that person to share it with the rest of us.Like,one time in front of a small group, a person talks about pumps,another talks about transformers yet another about communication skills,yet another about English etc.The person who is talking on the stage is not an expert in that area,but compared to the rest of us he has better knowledge in that particular area.


With my views and rather with this long letter I hope I made my points clear. Now the onus lies on you guys to decide if we go ahead with this.If you made it till here thanks for the patience! :-)

Reading on and on and on!

Reading is my passion and here is my story about it. It all started at a young age when I started reading Tinkle Comics.I don't remember who gave us(my elder brother and a younger sister) our first copy of Tinkle comics.Maybe it was our father or maybe it was my aunt.Whoever it was we were hooked on to it.In the later years both my dad and aunt bought us a number of comics.But My dad was the one sole person who influenced us to dig more into this reading.He told us countless stories from the novels he read and these stories were wonderful and as a kid they fascinated me a lot.This slowly developed in me an urge to start reading novels and all this culminated in one fateful day when I borrowed from our awesome school's library in my seventh standard, my first novel 'King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table' from the truly 'Great Illustrated Classics'.The book was great and the tales of ancient knights interested me and I rushed back to library to take my second novel,HG wells' 'The Time Machine'.This was the start of a truly memorable period of my life when I borrowed one book after another.I completed the whole 'Great illustrated classics' series soon.
Now I was well and truly hooked and one book followed another.As I grew up I found new authors and new books.In my 9th class I read 'The Da Vinci Code' which helped me bag the first prize in the Best Reader Contest which was held annually in our school.This started an uninterrupted phase when I bagged the first prize for four consecutive years till I passed out of my junior college in my 12th.
On the way I read books of many authors some of whom are Alistair Maclean,Micheal Crichton,Robert Ludlom and Frederick Forsyth.The names mentioned are also my favorite ones.
Every now and then a book comes along and it influences you in different ways. 'The Da Vinci code' was one for me,then two months back I read 'The Fountain Head' by Ayn Rand.most of it,I admit,went above my head but nevertheless it proved to be an interesting read.The philospohy of the different characters with their actions were something completely new to me and it started a chain reaction to read books of a different kind. Iam following this new thought and I am in the lookout for new books to read.

My Favorite Novel-Icon by Frederick Forsyth.
Favorite Author- Frederick Forsyth
Favorite Horror Authors- Algernon Blackwood and Ambrose Bierce

Me,Myself and me again!

This is my first post in my fourth blog and this post is going to be all about me.I used to avoid these 'about me' sections but here I am not going to hold back.Let me warn you that I am going to indulge myself here and this might become a tad bit boring for the reader,in the off chance that somebody does read this.So apologies.So,with my warning note and without further ado,here it is.

My Educational Background.
Right now I am pursuing my PG in Thermal Power Plant Technology in Jindal Institute of Power Plant Technology in Raigarh,Chhattisgarh.
I have a BE in Mechanical Engineering and got my BE from Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology,Hyderabad which is affiliated to Osmania University,Hyderabad.
I am happy to write that at the point of my writing this i have been placed in Jindal Power Limited.My job will start from september next year.

Now,getting down to the real or main part of this post.
I love reading books and travelling.These two are my greatest passions.Apart from these two anything related to History,Adventure,International Politics,Heritage Buildings,charity and a little bit of Geography catches my interest now and then.And oh,i nearly forgot I am a HUGE, HUGE fan of Korean Movies.

Coming to Travelling, I am interested in adventure travel,history inclined travel and nature travel.'The more unpredictable a trip becomes, the more fun it is',is what I believe.I have been to many places in India and many remote but interesting places in Andhra Pradesh.I have many travel plans for the future and hope to complete them all.

The kind of music I listen to- Trance,Kpop,old hindi songs,electronic and the usual movie songs.
Movies- Mostly English.Sometimes hindi and nowadays Korean too with an odd Iranian,Tamil,Kannad,French,swedish and Telugu thrown in.

I write four blogs, one on Heritage of Hyderabad,one on my travels,one about our group of friends and the last is the one in which I am posting this.

My biggest achievement taking into account all the factors, is being the Captain of the winning team in the All India Quiz Contest held at Youth Festival of Atomic Energy Central Schools (the branch of this school where I studied was in Manuguru.It has branches all over India).That was a big day in my life and it changed many things for me.My other achievements of which I am quite proud of are
-winning the Best Reader award given to us in our school,for four consecutive years.From my 9th to 12th.
-Starting a magazine and becoming its Editor while in College.
-Starting a Students' Activity Club.
-Starting a club with my friends and schoolmates for pursuing our hobbies.

Some of the titles my friends and acquaintances have given me are,this is right from my childhood, 'Role Model' 'Mr perfect' 'Mr Adventurous 'the initiator''Walking Encyclopedia 'Master Shifu''Mr Cool'and also 'the old man' I don't take all of this too seriously but I am human and it feels good when somebody calls you these,apart from that 'old man' of course.

There you go! I have let go of everything now! Feels good!
My facebook profile-http://www.facebook.com/razzaqfccf