2 things to remember when being enviro friendly

2 things that shocked the environmentally conscious me:

1. Biodegradable is not necessarily good - I always thought that buying the biodegradable bag was being conscious about the environment. Turns out most land fills dont have oxygen and water that are required for biodegrading to happen. Biodegradable items should head straight to your compost, otherwise you rather not use it.

2. Cotton cultivation uses the world's largest amounts of pesticides - A specific type of pesticide for cotton also pollutes a lot of the ground water. There are genetically modified types of cotton seeds being used as well, but apparently after a few years, pest resistance decreases and we go back to square one. Damn, cotton was my favourite type of fabric.

SOLUTION: Bring on the composting and organic cotton!

Exit Permit for newborn at FRRO Chennai

Exit Permit for newborn at FRRO Chennai

My baby was born on January 08 in Chennai. I had planned to travel out with him to Australia on March 14. I had 2 months and a bit, to complete his paperwork.  It took 2 weeks for us to get his birth certificate (with a bribe). Australian Citizenship by descent for my baby took about two weeks.  My baby's Australian passport arrived in 10 days. 

All I was left to do, by March 2nd, was to get the exit permit from the Indian authorities. I work in a Consulate and we advise our customers that exit permits could take up to three days, so I was feeling relatively confident that I had lots of time.

As the exit permit process had gone online since the start of the year (2018), I didn't have to go into the office to commence the process. All I had to do was crreate an account, complete the necessary forms and uploade my baby's documents. All this was pretty self explanatory and a reasonably tech savvy person can navigate through it with ease.

However, after this, there is barely any information online on what happens. The only message I got was to wait for further instructions. I waited two days before I heard that they required further documents - this was communicated via sms and email. Once I uploaded the further documents, I was asked to wait again. The next day, I was again requested for a further document whcih I dutifully submitted, but wondered why they had not asked it the first time. The following day (4 days after my initial submission) as I had not heard anything, I decided to physically visit the office to fastrack things. I should mention; they did have a help line number, but that was always busy.

As I was getting ready to leave for the office, I receive a notification to proceed to pay online. Unfortunately, the page hangs during the payment. I login in again and it tells me that the payment is successful.  I also receive a message from my bank that the payment was successful. But then there is no information as to what to do next on the portal.  I decide to go into the office on Friday. 

At the office - The front office staff, make me wait a few minutes, and inform me athat they have not received the payment on their system and ask me to speak to the technical staff. The officer takes my details and asks me to come in the afternoon. He promises to call and update when I explain that I have a newborn and its difficult to come back and forth.  When I return in the afternoon after not getting any calls,  another officer officer is sitting there and I realise nothing has been done.  He explains it is a technical issue being resolved in Delhi and asks me to wait.  Although his answer is not promising, another officer in the room assures me that if the technical problem is not resolved, they can do my exit permit manually in an emergency (which is the day before I travel). I could see that the officers were just coming to grips with the online platform, and were learning from each issue -unfortunately I was the guinea pig.

Susrprisingly though,  on Sunday, I receive a call from an officer informing me that my payment  shows as succesful  on their system and they ask me to come in on Monday to collect the permit - they explain that sometimes there is a lag between the payment and it reflecting on the system. I go to the office on Monday midday, hoping to pick up the permit. However, the front office staff tell me that another online request for further docs will be sent  (travel ticket)  and once I submit it,  the exit permit would be ready in the aftwrnoon at 4pm.  I do as requested and wonder again why they didnt ask for the travel itineraey at the foreset and why they couldn't have things ready without me urging them.

However my resentment turns into relief, at 4pm, when the officers dutifully hand me the exit permit - I spent less than 5 minutes signing and collecting the permit.The other good thing was, my baby did not need to attend - although they gave confusing advice about this.

Overall, I think the online innovation is good -theoritically it should save you from sitting and waiting in government offices. But, practically it took nearly 7 days for me to get my baby's exit pernit and 4 visits to the office. It was also frustrating that the online portal does not give any information on what happens at each stage and how long we should normally wait for a response.  

My advice: Allow as much time as possible if applying for an exit permit - especially in these early days of the online portal being rolled out.

Swathi's love rejection

A tragedy worse than the death of Swathi, is the reason behind it. A young man went to the extent of murdering a girl who rejected his proposal and degraded him. Perhaps, a rejection in itself was probably sufficient to ignite a killing instinct in this psychotic man. However, it could also be that it was the fact that Swathi has cited his career, income, lack of education as a reason to reject him and verbally abused him for having such thoughts.

Love for a person comes naturally. It is not based on social standing, income or caste. In the same way, when you reject someone’s love, spare some thought to the fact that they are a human being. Don’t destroy their confidence, don’t degrade them, and don’t abuse them. Politely reject. Don’t put them down for not having enough education, money, or status. Think about it. How insulting would it be and how frustrated would they feel that it is material things that are standing in the way of love. Of course it doesn’t justify murder. But, it isn’t right either. When rejecting a love proposal, give reasons based on why you can’t love that person. Don’t give reasons why that person is not of a lovable material.

My miscarriage liberated me

It made me respect all the women who give birth. All the women who abort their child. All the women who try to become pregnant. All the women who have a miscarriage.

My miscarriage taught me the capabilities of my body. It taught me how to appreciate my resilient body. It awakened me to how much we don’t know. I don’t know why my miscarriage happened.

I was able to own and be more confident in my skin and body. Parts of your body that no one would see, were witnessed by many. There’s no place left for shyness. It also made me salute the doctors and nurses. They do a great job, seeing you at your worst and still smiling.

My miscarriage proved to me that drugs have played a key part in women’s liberation.

 I work in the health industry regulating drugs. The money mindedness of the pharmaceutical sector made me anti-drugs. I would resist taking drugs at all cost. But, only after giving birth to a still born did I understand that drugs have made life so much easier, especially for women.

The amount of women who would have died from child birth has been greatly reduced because of drugs. Without drugs, I could not have given birth to a 5 month still born without surgery. The pain that I felt was also greatly reduced because of drugs.

I am so lucky to have been born in this age and era where drugs are available. What would women in my situation have done 200years ago? 

Why say 'sorry' when you don't need to?

I haven't blogged in ages. Perhaps full time work got the better of me. Or living out of home, got me occupied.

Anyways, I have a message to convey. This is why I am now blogging.

This morning, I walked into my boss's office. As I always do, when interrupting my extremely busy boss, I said 'Sorry [boss's name], can I speak to you'. My boss stopped me and said, 'you do not need to apologise to speak to me. Just say my name and ask if you can speak'.

I agreed. But I also reflected on it. As a person, I probably apologise and say sorry way too often. If someone says excuseme, I would reply 'sorry', and then move out of the way. If some one told me to do something differently, I would say 'sorry', and follow their instructions.

In many social circumstances, by way of politeness we have accustomed ourselves to say sorry. It is actually not necessary. By apologising, we are agreeing that we are in the wrong and conveying our repentence for a past action.

Thinking about it, why on earth would I apologise to my boss to ask her something, when I have to do it anyway. Am I apologising for the interruption, but I am not really sorry.

When we overuse a word, the word loses its significance. One such word is "sorry". Use it sparingly but at the right occasions. It and you will be valued more.

Apologise only when you truly mean it and need it. There are other words in the English vocab. 

Interview Experience

And in the midst of job searching;
Here a few interview questions that I got asked for a Volunteering position at a Community Legal Centre. The thing that was unique about the interview was the fact that they told me that this 'wasn't an interview, but just a chat'.

Tell me about yourself.

What attribute would you require as a volunteer?

What makes someone vulnerable and disadvantaged?

What are the most important skills you can use in this firm?

Have you ever been involved in policy development?

What steps do you take to do legal research?

What are your interests outside university?

Doyou have any questions?

That's all I can recall. I'm sure there were a couple of more questions.
I'm not sure if I did well. Personally I think I did really bad. But I got the position! :D

Wonderful Quotes for a Greyish Day

Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Don't Ever Stop Dreaming Your Dreams

Don't ever be reluctant
to show your feelings when
you're happy, give in to it.
When you're not, live with it.

Don't ever be afraid to
try to make things better,
you might be surprised at the results.

Don't ever take the weight of the
world on your shoulders.
Don't ever feel threatened by the future,
take life one day at a time.

Don't ever feel guilty about the past,
what's done is done.
Learn from mistakes you might have made.

Don't ever feel that you are alone,
there is always somebody there
for you to reach out to.

Don't ever forget that you can achieve
so many of the things you can imagine ...
It's not as hard as it seems.

Don't ever stop loving,
don't ever stop believing,
don't ever stop dreaming your dreams

---------------------------------------------------

Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense."


-- Thomas A. Bennett

Ra-One Bad

Firstly and foremost,

1. Tamilians are not idiotic and clumsy.

2. 'Konjam' is very different from 'Condom'

3. Even if we eat with our hands, we eat decently and do not put curd in our noodles.

4. 'Haiyoo' is not said after every single sentence.

5. Idly, dosai and sambar isn't the only identifiable south indian thing.

Ra one dminishes all hopes of even an average film. Untouching sentiments, sad humour by stereotyping tamils, and high expectations of action packed scenes ruined the experience. Even Chitti as Rajni on screen was not enough to connect songs and fights. The first 5minutes of the movie was probably enough to put you off the whole movie (What was the point of Prinyanka Chopra, and Sharuck motor biking, and etcetc...). If that wasn't enough, the train scene was an epic copy cat fail. Metaphorically, Ra-one, the movie, is as poweful as G-one trying to stop the train, and takes five minutes to do so, destroying the entire station.

In my opinion, the idea of a modern raavan, Ra-one and G - one (Jeevan) are the most historically dated characters that we have ever seen. A total miss.

ஜாதகமா ஜோக்கா

ஓர் இடத்தில் ஜாதகம் பொருத்தம் பார்த்தா ஏழு பொருத்தம். குரு உச்சிலே இருக்காரு அமோகமான பொருத்தம் என்கிறார்.
இன்னொருவர், அம்மா தாயே வேணாம், நாக தோஷமாம், இனைந்தால் சண்டை மட்டும் தான், மூன்றே மாததில் பிறிந்திடுவார்கள் என்கிறார்.
எது உண்மை, எது பொய். நடந்த பின் கூறுவார்கள். அந்த ஜோசியகாரர் சொல்வதை கேட்டிருகளாம் என்று.
மிகவும் பிடித்த வரன், பொருத்தம் இல்லையென்றால் 'வேர் எங்கையாவது பார்க்கலாமா ' என்று கேட்க தோன்றும் மனம்.
எதுக்கு அப்போ இந்த வீன் வேலை. நமக்கே தெரியுது, ஆளுக்கு ஆள் ஜாதகம் பொருத்தம் மாறுபடுது. நம்பிக்கை கொடுக்கிற மாதிரி ஒன்றும் இல்லையே இதில். இப்படி surety இல்லாத ஒர் விடயத்தை எதற்கு மெலும் மெலும் வளர்கனும்.

Engayum Epothum - A Reflection

Just saw engayum eppothum after multiple reccomendations.

Thus with expectations of a good movie, I watched and I should say it was worth the watch.

Some well crafted scenes. Two very different love stories, yet natural enough to believe. The scene of Anjali getting Jey to organi donate was classic.

But the best thing was the message at the end. It's good to see the quality of low budget movies improving drastically in recent times. From the fleets of 'kallori', 'thoonganakaram', 'angadi theru', 'myna', 'nadodikal', comes yet another impressive flick. Sufficient commercial aspects to sell the movie, yet interwoven with a message to the audience, to also fulfill the social responsibility of the movie maker.

What is lacking though is the strength of the message. The climax sends home the message that road accidents shouldn't happen as there are real people and families impacted by this. It attacks the problem at the point where its most likely to touch Indian people, i.e kinship and love. And I was touched. Tears.

But the fact that the director failed to mention causes or solutions to this problem is lacking. Fleetingly reasons such as high speed, negligent driving may have been indicated. But to drill home some reasons even more strongly would have been appreciated. Even a solution such as seatbelts would have been the icing on the cake.

But, as a start to the trend of mature movies, its amazing and much welcomed by me, 'an' audience who wants a message packed novel entertainer and whose sick and tired of the old masalas.

Uni Life - Not a reflection, but an analysis

What's spurred this particular blog post, a particular comment I received recently from an Imperial College student.

'I never had time for anything. All I did was study'

It's not the first time I heard this comment. The same comment phrased slightly differently was said from a deligent student in a university in Thiruchengodu, Tamil Nadu, India.

I don't know if the situation is different in Australia. My particular case might not be the best representative of an Australian student life. But I know Australians, even if they don't study a lot, sure do work a lot. They work so much, they don't have time for anything else either.

Doing a number of things makes you smarter at the way you do a number of things. You learn to squeeze 10 pages of reading into 10 minutes and not 20 minutes. You optimise time.

But there is a saturation point. Just like 10 pages can't be squeezed into 2minutes, overloading us with information, isn't going to get us smarter. This is what I criticise about the education system in some universities. Teach us the techniques to be smart learners, but don't feed us with information to the extent of making us machines that just grind the material, but don't really think for ourselves. How many of us would have thought 'If only I had the time, I would have done that' or 'I'll do it after exams, I just don't have time now'. The number of missed opportunities to discover ourselves.

Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Student Services and Amenities) Bill 2010

I think facilities at my university are just fine.
The government is just using another excuse to charge money from student's who already have a massive HECS debt hovering over their head.
Those who want sporting facilities etc should pay for it.
The opt in structure works just fine.
So many protests took away compulsory student unionism.
Let's not go back to it.

Why did I study LAW?

I often ask myself this question. In the five years I've studied law, why did I actually study it?
And now its popping up on job applications, that I actually need a proper answer.

But that aside, (cos we all know noone says the entire truth in job apps), why did I really study law?

Even if it was part marks, and being able to do it, I couldn't have entirely chosen the course on a whim. But thinking back, I can't place a particular dying reason for chosing the course I did.
I was never the ones who had my entire 10years of life planned out in advance. Seriously, I don't even know what I'm going to do tomorrow, let alone the next 10years!

But the intersting thing in choosing my course ,was that, whilst I chose it overnight, my interest in law (even if misplaced) arose well before that. I think it was in year 10. I remember scoring 20/20 on some pointless assignment about ourselves, and I remember writing 'I want to be a lawyer, becuase there is no retirement; Retirement for a lawyer is becoming a judge'. Ha what a comedy. What I didn't know then was, judge's retire as well. (I can't believe my health teacher bought it first of all).

But secondly that, aside from retirement, the law profession is one of the most overworked professions (which is another reason you have to really love what you do) . By fourth year I discovered this, cos law students didn't sleep much either. But aside from my misconceptions about law, even in those early mature days, I had dreams of wearing the black coat and standing in front of a judge and speaking. (even before i knew the different between a barrister and a lawyer). So that's probably what found me in a law course.

Plus the fact that I like solving problems. As a kid, I'd borrow all the lateral thinking puzzles in the library. I just loved them. 10years back though. I don't have that sort of time to sit and stretch my brain these days. (see too much education is bad, it restricts your thinking)

But the problem is, some law problems don't actually have solutions and I didn't have time to find one. For my science brain, there would always be a solution, a fixed solution. Something as neat as the chemical periodic table. University thrashed these ideologies. No clear answer was found even after 300 pages of judgement in the Mabo case.

I guess, I just kind of lost it at uni, with my noble ideas of law. I enjoyed the challenge as I always do. But it killed my enthusiasm. I was merely struggling to keep up. I merely applied the law as it existed. Why bother looking into 10 other judgements, I'll just copy what's in the study guide said. It was very mechanical and taxing . It was just so far away from the profession. I missed the notions of actually helping people. The people notion disappeared at uni. It was all text and heavy books that you bought with your entire life savings. I was feeling like how the public would portray a lawyer 'money hungry,' by the end of it all.

But hey law is about the people (or the corporations). But university showed me facts and figures (i.e the law), not how it impacted on the people. I needed to wait and see the practical side of things. Which the Jessup moot did. It was like this amazing close to real life problem, and in the 3 months of doing it, I though it was sooooooo real.! Two real countries bashing each other's throats out at the International Court of Justice. Now that was exciting! Not 13 weeks of lectures (not meaning to) but force feeding us knowledge so we could pass this exam paper in 3hours. When in actual fact, that could have been an A class moot topic in front of a judge.

I'm in the final 3 weeks of my law degree. I've discovered what I love about law. Helping REAL people figure out the law. Advocating on their behalf. I've discovered what sux about a law degree tooo (which is another blog). But I can't wait to enter the profession! SOME ONE OUT THERE PLEASE JUST LET ME THROUGH THE DOOR, YOU WONT REGRET IT. PLEASE JUST GIVE ME THAT FIRST JOB.

Stigma and Universities

It has to be more than a mere coincidence that every person I know who got a seasonal clerkship fails to get a priority placement in the law firm.

And I thought getting a seasonal was 80% guaranteeing you a graduate position.

I fail to understand why you won't be selected after, tireless efforts of working your arse of, chatting up staff, and even in some circumstances writing praise after praise of the firm in careers guides to help recruit to the firm even smarter people in future years.

I just fail to see the justice. Has it got anything to do with the name of uni? I wonder.

Logically it doesn't. Cos they did take us for seasonal clerkship position. But it still makes me ponder.

I love Chennai.
And i'm not a Chennaite.
But I love it.
There's something special about that city.
It has a the right mix of modernity and tradition.
It's an Indian city like no other.
A south Indian delight - Chennai.
Even amongst it searing temperatures and conjested roads, I am loving Chennai for its unique Indian city life.

Pure Happiness

You know that feeling when you get it.
"Or do you?"
The feeling of goodness. Altruistic?
"The stupid "goodness" Altruism, whateva."

The feeling you get when you happened to be the person who could offer the seat in the Tram.
"Stupid Old man, had to look at me, now I'll have to get up, and suffer this journey standing"
The type of contentedness you get as the random passer by who provided directions .
'll just tell him the way to look smart"
The sort of satisfaction you receive from cooking awesome food for friends and family.
"I have cooking skills, and I'm just paying you back for the $100 lunch at Grand Hyatt"
Holding the door open for the other guy in return for the thankyou.
"I'm patient enough to wait for you"
The sweetening emotions that overwhelm with the little heartwarming smiles.
"It would be rude otherwise, not to smile"
The ones that make life so worth living.
"Life's many painstaking formalities"
Natural things that help and make others happy.
"Make things so complicated"
They make you feel like a millionaire in a second.
"Make you feel jobless/stupid in less than a second"
Who said altruism existed? Its all a feedback system.
"I didn't, what's altruism"
Helping makes them happy, so I help to see them happy which of course by the turn of Karma makes me happy.
"Helping is only for my own gain. Hot guy/gal. Makes me look good. Otherwise not worth the effort"
If it didn't make them happy, or rather, didn't make me happy, why would I do it?
"I've not helping cos I feel good, okay, get it right?"

Women, whore, and polygamous marriages.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/lifestyle/others/malaysian-women-urge-wives-be-whores-bed-474
I've got mixed views.

I'm filled with distaste at polygamous marriages, especially when its only the man who can do it. (okay that came out the wrong way. I don't like polygamous marriages full stop. And its even worse that men only seem to get away with it. )
But to deal with such cases of polygamous marriage, and the urge to stray, the idea, as presented in the article, of women being a 'whore' in bed seems logical. Feed the hunger, and it stops.
Unfortunately, the hunger might not be satisfied fully, and hence if one has to stray, he does.
And as pointed out by the article, women already have so much responsibility - plus this? It may be unfair to place the burden of straying on women, when it's men committing the sin.
But, its still one strategy of many to try, to make the marriage work. After all, straying is going to ruin the marriage. So if the man can't be responsible, let the female take control, and entice him to stay in his own boundaries. I don't see that as women just being a sex toy.

Discrimination

Just when I thought discrimination didn't exist.
The age old prejudices, and biases crop up.
Not obvious of course, hidden beneath the veil of lifestle blah blah blah.
How will it ever let you move forward?

Google's Ideas

So Google thinks Facebook is competition?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/former-chief-eric-schmidt-admits-google-didnt-take-facebook-seriously/story-e6frgakx-1226067954921?from=public_rss

Amongst the big 4 of the net (Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon) why would any one of the 4 ever feel competition?
Seriously each has its own market share for different things.
Amazon - the no1 retailer online.
Facebook - the no1 socialiser online
Apple - the no1 user friendly app.
Google - the no1 search engine.

Why invent competition when there is none. Sure, 300million people are honked on to Facebook, but they are not going to give up Google for searching. If any weird attempt of copying Facebook occurs on Google, I'm not really sure if that's going to help them.

For starters, its going to turn me against the search engine. What your doing is smart, i.e, google books, google scholar. It's unique. Remember, even the little attempt at Google buzz was such a failure, so why muddle with things that are to be left to others?

If adds, and income is being attracted by Facebook, it seriously isn't a reason to panic. You still have the market share of users in search engines, and a lot of advertising income will still be generated that way.

So chillax and retain your personality GOOGLE. A little advise from a little person.
If anything Facebook, is the one to fear with all the law suits and controversies.

Those Times..

There are times when you have these massive butterflies somersaulting within you.
It is a sign....A sign you are sick with nervousness.
I'm treading every step slowly, anticipating something might be lurking in the corridor.
Should I be prepared to run?
Or make a dash for it anyway, that way I've got a head start...atleast.
The problem is, I don't know what I'm actually running from?
What if I ran for it, instead of away from it?
But I am sure it is there. The signs are all showing.
Hm, should I just confront it? Where are you, show yourself?
But, alas, I'm too of a coward for that. I'll wait for it to show itself, thinking and making myself falsely believe, that this is what true bravery is.
Oh, where is my Rajput sword? Phew, right beside me.
That's a comfort. If need be I can make a flee with it.
Haah, that would ensure I have the upper ground. Or would it really?
I guess I could never prove I had the sword, and the higher ground if I did run for it.
So running was never the solution.
I need to live through it, don't I? That's right!
I'm part of the making of history, not the missing pages.
My story is to be told in its entirety not stopped abruptly.
Hey, I'm better than you, cos I can endure this.
I don't need petrol to keep me running, I just need those butterflies to get lost.
In hindsight, its probably not gonna be so bad.

And, by the way, where did those butterflies go? Please don't come back again.
My thoughts lack the steadiness when your somersaulting.
So butterflies, listen, if Seethai can do it, I can do it.
What are little butterflies going to do to me?
That was not to be interpreted as a challenge, though.