Gifts and People

 

A sip of Mate, a drink popular in Argentina. Came from my friend Veronica, whom I met in Indore only a few months ago. It's a herb which you drink like you do green tea, in a specially crafted cup and a metal straw.

Greatest Gifts. Of course, people -friends, family who care- are the greatest gifts one can have. But has something gifted by somebody touched you? A book, a pen, a scarf? Or a Golf ball-ok, I have some memorable ones, like nice pics, cards, books, assorted sweets, golf balls and more than all these, great company at parties at home or outside- from several friends- among them, Anushka Mishra, Anusha Soni, Shantanu Verma, Nishka Rathi, Kedar Muley, Harshad Lunavat, Pallavi Bajpai, Abhinav Kamal, Padmapriya Janakiraman, Sunil Kataria, Abha Anagha Kulkarni, Tosha Dubey, Sheetal Garg, Meghana Khadilkar, Kanika Mhendiratta, Muthu Kumaran, Divya Singh, Ananya Nandi De, Bibhuti Dash, Veronica Thavonat (a beverage from Argentina, no less), Shatakshi Tripathi, Vandana Kumar, Prachi Jain, Siri Adi, Preeti Ravikiran, Shraddha Nigdikar, Smita Mohan, Jogeswari Peddi, Pratima Gaikwad, Prabhakar Valivati, Smita Singh Dabholkar, and so many more... also, because she complained about not being mentioned, Rimjhim Verma! Got a surprise message from Meenu Mynam too, whom I met a few months ago in Bangalore -she was visiting from the Gulf. That reminds me to to add Vidya TC and Swapna Gurijala who I met twice in Singapore in the last few years-both Kirloskar students of yore.

Labelling Things or People

 You want to sort stuff, like inventory or stock of items - in a store, warehouse, or anywhere else. Therefore you label them, or number them in some manner.

What about people? Tall, short, fat, thin, balding, blonde (a favourite in the US-we don't have that many blondes), standoffish, a show-off are some labels that we use to describe people. If it is by way of a description, accurate and not demeaning (except when warranted), it is an easy way to identify certain traits or attitudes in people. Introvert versus extrovert is a case in point. It is a generalisation, but could be used like shorthand to describe some qualities of a person. 

Labelling is not always a bad thing, like jargon. If both sides in a communication understand jargon, it makes for an easy conversation, or reading of an academic paper, for instance. But if used against unsuspecting recipients not on the same wavelength, education, background etc., it can hinder communication.

Also, adjectives need to survive. Their major use is in describing or labelling.

I Do What I Do

This is obvious, you may say. But Raghuram Rajan found it interesting enough to use as a book title. So there must be something in it. So I got thinking (always a dangerous thing for my blog readers)- and..voila, I listed out things that I do.

I do laundry (after all, this is a laundry list)

I eat, and don't cook- that way I get to criticise other people's cooking, rather than they criticising mine.

I travel, and expand my mind. Not sure if an infinite expansion is good for it or not..

I draw..conclusions from what I read and observe..otherwise I can't draw even to save my life.

I pontificate, but only to those who will listen-students don't have much of a choice...

I use tech tools according to my proclivities and convenience, otherwise shutting them up for good if I feel like it. You may not think so, but..

I blog because there's no editor telling me what to write and what not to..hope YOU won't, after this..