Coffee Room Banter

That's just a term-the beverage could be tea, which it is more often in my case. But it's not the beverage, it's the banter that is the focus here. We underestimate the power of socialisation, methinks. It needs effort. You can always have tea in isolation-doesn't taste the same. You can watch inane stuff on TV and comment about it, joke about it, or have a serious discussion about the world's problems and solve most of them in the course of one morning -or afternoon. I have done it many times over!!

The tea break relaxes you like nothing else, when you are busy working on something or thinking- we in academics need to do a lot of the second, and it can be hard work, though some think it's vella-giri ( an Indian term for fooling around, wasting time).

Therefore, I recommend a tea break as a restorative, if you are doing something serious, once in a couple of hours. Of course, after a break-up, it's even more important- just kidding!

The Earth Quakes

An earthquake is extremely unpredictable in its magnitude and the distance it covers in various forms-like a tsunami, for instance. In December 2004, just as we were concluding an alumni batch meet, we heard of the tsunami that reached coastal Tamilnadu and caused huge damage. It had originated in Indonesia then.

The Himalayas are said to be sitting on a fault line-potential quake zone- and the earthquake yesterday seemed to prove that, as did an earlier one in Uttarakhand a few years ago. Some countries like Japan have got used to earthquakes, and seem better prepared than the rest to tackle it. We still seem indifferent, as typically, we value a life less than the advanced countries such as the U.S. or Japan.

While we need to reach out to those in distress, we can also take some preventive steps, like providing housing that is structurally safe to as many people as possible-not through doles, but through work that pays for it.

This government seems proactive on aiding those in trouble, as it showed in Yemen recently, and that's a welcome change from the past. Hope we get more proactive in preventing disasters too.