JUVENILE JOY

Rubber trees testimony to the etched annals of herald
Staying lost in flight, looking back at 
Souvenirs saved, unleashed at free will
Turning pages of memories captured in mind

Endless giggles, games and gossip
Tucked away, the tricks, teases and truants
Tomfoolery complementing pedantic times
Chronicles from epic pages of book lore

A panoramic view of poems, prose and plays
Kindling adventure, glee and rhapsody
Sprints to arts class with hot pursuits
A regatta of patterns riot by young Picassos

Resonating sounds with sticks of hockey
Reverberating in tandem with bugles and drums
Solutions, dilute and concentrated in test tubes and beakers
Sophomores trembling at master with properties of substance

Living organisms in petri dishes with a genius guru
Dates with Mughals, Cholas and Colonial Raj
History brought alive by luminaries
Mapping the world, exploring Stalagtites and Aurora Borealis

Meter rules, energy and motion thrust upon stupid blocks of wood
Instilling Civic sense and a method in madness
Figures, lines, tangents ,solids and planes
Numbers and symbols, precise and accurate with our Pythagoras

Alter ego, buddy, sidekick, all with sobriquets and epithets
Outstanding companions of fun and frolic romping with mirth
Clowning and merry making in sheer nonsense
Pals and cronies dancing and singing to hearts content....

Oh....Take me there again , I do reminisce the juvenile joy!

                                Dedicated to the class of '85 of Udyogamandal school,FACT township 
                                                                                       Kochi, Kerala

                                               Ad nauseum

It was a lazy day that came my way , on a Sunday- the twitterati, facebookers and whatsappers had shut themselves out after the nocturnal ‘carniball’ over the Rio cup and my word feud friends had also vanished without a trace. Adding insult to injury was the lacklustre lunch , the monotony of the mundane was simply unbearable. And to make matters worse, I hit the button on the remote and the LCD crackled to life. After several inglorious minutes of channel hunting akin to scavengers rummaging the garbage, I settled on the match highlights – after all I had to keep up with the Joneses on the greatest show on the planet , at least to engage myself in conversation with the rest of the football frenzy household.
But the deluge of commercials before the Latin wizardry and tiki taka,  took the wind out of my sails. What perfect timing to air the advertisement on toilet cleaning agents, here I was looking for some masala to pep up the food on the platter, but what I got was the nauseating looming visuals of the lady in white coat bending down to the deplorable level of touching the toilet basin to prove her point and do justice to the crores she was earning for endorsing the product. All I could do was take my eyes away and say “yuck” aloud which was grossly misunderstood for the food , by my loving critics!
I have seen shoes being hurled at prominent politicians, and this celebrated list includes our very own Chiddu saar, by frustrated citizens but it was sickening to see a man throwing his shoe at the hapless yet formidable insect , the cockroach ! The well aimed throw, putting many an Olympian to shame did find the target and creature flipped over. The people for ethical treatment to insects would have gone for the thrower’s throat for this dastardly act but for the humane act of the husband and wife duo who were trying to revive the creature by sprinkling drops of water on it. But the insect activists’ joy was short lived as the voice over in the commercial says “now how can the dead cockroach which had eaten the poison product kill other scores of its friends when they come in contact with it?” Genocide” cried the people , anyway the product is living upto its name ‘hit’!!

I am still trying to figure out the connection between a chewing gum and the sequence of slides showing a ugly man transforming into a toothless blond with a Lasith Malinga hairdo. If only my eyes were “zip locked” instead of the mouth .....to avoid the trauma of watching such a ludicrous ad!

Next in the line of repulsive ones, is the plethora of commercials for  deodorant sprays , well this goes on to prove that the skunks pervading our planet is only directly proportional! Scantily clad models heading towards the water hole to party all night are enticed by the odour and they swarm, slither and self indulge much to the discomfort of the custodians of moral rights who squirm in their couches and are left “axed”!

The obsession with us Indians, on the fair skin will never wane and so will the ads on fair skin creams, each one of them guaranteeing whitest shades of skin colour! The obvious choice of prefix for these bleaching agents is “fair” and only the suffix changes to suit the gender – ‘lovely’ for women and ‘handsome’ for men. These are gentle reminders of the dark ages of apartheid that we still live in!

My grocery purchases have never been influenced by these oft repeated and reinforced repulsive ads but always held a standard – a hurriedly prepared list with half the requirements given a glorious miss, I head towards the supermarket ( oops! it is the hypermarket store , these days)and end up buying the “most wanted” along with the “unwanted”  the latter  far out numbering the former ! The end result would be the bazaar running out on printing stationery due to the ultra long bill and a gaping hole in the wallet!!!

ASIDE.....But all the same I do stand and gape at the huge billboards of amul ads on busy traffic junctions oblivious of honking and polluting vehicles, to admire the creative caricature and the wonderful play of words...then it is “AD”diction and not “AD” nauseum!!!
          

  YENNES INFOTECH – A bestseller in the making.

When I stepped into the posh interiors of # 1 , Gokul arcade, a smart front officer warmly welcomed me assuming to be a prospective client. I stammered, stuttered and mumbled “Bharati”. She was a little taken aback at a stranger addressing her boss by the first name and that too without the customary prefix. Soon, I realised and said a little bit more boldly “I want to meet your director”.
    “Do you  have an appointment ma’am?” she asked me, gently flipping through the appointment ledger and scanning her eyes over the system
   I said – “She’s expecting me, tell her it’s Sunita.”
   In a jiffy, the tall vivacious director of Yennes Infotec (P) ltd , Bharati Saravanan strode into the reception lobby and I was mesmerized for a moment – here she was, my childhood buddy, in flesh and blood, reunited after so many years... ‘tomboy’ lass of yesteryears with whom I have spent the maximum time of my growing up years.
  I stifled a shout of excitement as scores of employees were neck deep in work. We hugged and she escorted me to her well kept, neat cubicle and I sat snugly admiring her directorial skills – orders flying, crisp and clear to her well groomed staff keeping a tab on the updates, pleasantly answering her clients for support, sales and service. I felt immensely proud of her and watched the lady in action as my mind traversed to the years of struggle she might have encountered on her way to stardom. Working shoulder to shoulder with her enterprising husband Mr.N.Saravanan, putting her resources of commerce, communication and class to excellent use, they toiled night and day. I am reminded of Sir Winston Churchill’s famous words “ Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” and the Yennes family never waned in their devotion and passion.
   As Yennes Infotec (P) Ltd celebrates two decades of business in Tally, I deem it a proud privilege to bask in their glory. Overcoming hurdles, barriers, obstacles are indeed part and parcel of growing up for an enterprise and patience, persistence and perseverance is an unbeatable combination for success.
  There are many yardsticks for measuring success, the prosperous termination of objectives and desires and undoubtedly topping the indices is a rosy balance sheet. The availability and quality of products and services, years of putting in valuable service, the number of employees on the roll call, their satisfaction and rewards, and so on, but prime among them is customer goodwill and appeasement! Yennes , over the years has committed itself to this motto and scaled every peak to make their customers “kings”! Innovation is the modern day mantra for success while at the same time retaining its originality and purpose . To prosper and flourish , in a highly competitive environment , one has to keep repositioning and reorienting itself to the ever changing world and its demands. Success is therefore an offshoot of adaptability and customising by conforming to set standards leading to change and metamorphosis! The key to staying alive and keeping the head well above the water is without doubt “customising solutions” in accordance with the clientele requirements and Yennes has done just that and each time raised its bar to unmatched levels.

      As Yennes Infotec (P) ltd strives towards excellence, moving from one milestone to another, achieving more laurels and accolades and expanding their business territory, I extend my hearty good wishes to the enterprising couple Saravanan and Bharati and the entire cast and crew to thrive and triumph and become a “bestseller”!

                                         Sunita Ramaswamy