Getting and Giving Compliments

 I got a few this last week or two. From different people, the common thing being that they were doctoral students, and faculty. One was a total stranger, Ananya Ghosh, and I had met her for the first time at a Doctoral Consortium-Colloquium- at XLRI. Anyway, the point is it felt good. 

Some of the actors involved- Prachi Jain, Akansh Khandelwal and Vartika Varyani with hubby in the second pic

At XLRI, Anjana Dharmani, who exchanged some compliments with me- she's a Ph.D. student in Marketing-above, second from right. 

Below, Ananya Ghosh, from St. Xavier's university Kolkata.

Giving compliments is an art, I think. Not everyone can do it. I try, and succeed at times in getting the message across. I enjoy giving them too. Usually brings a smile to the face of the recipient, and I like smiling faces much better than grumpy ones. That was my major complaint against denizens of Kerala when I lived there. They seemed unnecessarily grumpy! No idea why. Not so the Mallus I know from all my places of work, though. Many had a great smile too! I remember Sandhya Sajeev and Pooja Daniel from KIAMS, Harihar, for example. And  Vidya T.C. and Smita Mohan.

Dune Tunes

Dune Tunes

A dune has a life of its own
Wind gives it energy.
Here now, gone soon after,
Reappearing in a form anew

You can't create or destroy energy,
a wise man had said,
But when you have a dune around,
the same could be said of it

Seemingly destroyed, momentarily,
It rebuilds itself,
Somewhat like a soul..
Formless, timeless, eternal

If dunes were to sing,
what tunes would emerge?
What songs would be heard?
Of heroes, villains, or ordinary folk?

A dune can actually give
more than it receives,
and tune itself to play
the music you wish it to.