Seshadri's Musings

Amar Chitra Katha – this was one of the most popular words in my dictionary, while growing up!  For those of you, I assume it can be counted on our fingertips, the people who have not heard of this wonderful series of illustrated books, this series is really a Pandora box of everything that you need to know about India in simple English language!! Later on, I came to know the true meaning of the series name, Amar Chitra Katha – Immortal Picture Story or Immortal Captivating Story.  The entire series run into more than 400 books or titles.  The first publication of Indian stories came from 1969 onwards and was labelled as Issue No 11.  Earlier in 1967, they had reproduced western fairy tales from Issue No 1 to 10.   I am happy to state that I own all the Amar Chitra Katha’s, except 18 titles, which I cannot find even with Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) publishers.  Some issues I paid extra bucks as I purchased them in eBay and Amazon as they are not available anywhere.  A couple of them

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.  Excellent quote by Joseph Addison.  I am somewhat lazy and try to do exercise whenever the laziness allows me.  But I follow the first part of the quote diligently!!  Reading keeps your brain working and ensures that even though your body might not look young (due to not exercising), your brain definitely would be!! I have been an avid reader since my childhood.  Gorging on Amar Chitra Kathas, Tintin, Asterix, Bahadur, Mandrake, Phantom, Chacha Choudhry, Motu-Patlu in comics.  Perry Mason, Agatha Christie’s works, Sherlock Holmes, James Hadley Chase, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Enid Blyton’s 5 in novels.  I even started reading Robert Ludlum when I was in my 8 th standard.  I remember it was The Bourne Identity.  That was the first 300+ page novel that I had ever read!  I completed it non-stop in about 7-8 hours.  That was the first real page-turner book for me.  Over the years, I have taken up one author at a time and read all h

Most of the people in this world who have reached whatever position they are in right now, have reached there due to the hardship, love and affection shown by their parents.  Without these loving parents, it would have been a very difficult journey for them.  Now that the once-upon-a-time kids have become adults, it is imperative that their parents are shown the same courtesy, love and affection that their parents had bestowed upon them. Most of the time the elder parents will not ask what they want.  It is upto the kids to know what they want (or somehow let the parents speak about their wishes) and fulfil their requirements.  The things would feel very small, but the satisfaction that it provides to the parents is enormous.  Taking care of these small things go a long way to ensure that the elder parents don’t feel alone in their old age and feel part of the family at all times. The elder parents have not known any joy other than to ensure that their kids have a bright futu

Nowadays people are getting very busy with their lives with the social interaction, in person, reducing to a bare minimum or nil.  The only way such interaction is possible is the arrival of someone’s birthday or an anniversary, which facilitates the setting up of a party to meet and spend some quality time face-to-face.  Most of the times it is due to their kid’s birthday that they are able to meet people at all without talking about work 😊 The planning is usually done on the weekend before the birthday where you decide who all to invite.  Your friends, with or without kids, or only their kids, your kid’s current/past friends, his/her colony friends and school friends.  Once you arrive at a total, then you have to decide on the food.  Whether to prepare in-house or order from outside.  If the total number of eaters is going to be more than 10, it is better to order from outside.  You can either visit the restaurant and pick up the order or have them deliver it at your home at t

Nowadays we are dependent on our mobile phone so much that over a period of time its memory gets filled up.  When we are ready to video record an important function or a program, it suddenly says “memory full, please clear some memory” or other such messages.  Since we have to record the function, we end up deleting some videos or photos which we would have liked to keep!!  Just to ensure that such things do not happen, it is essential that we clean up the phone memory once a month.  This will be once a week for those who keep taking pictures or recording videos regularly!! I will write about the major heads under which the memory gets clogged: - a)     Pictures and Videos – Every month or week, attach your mobile device to your computer and transfer all the photos and videos to the computer.  Ensure that you delete these from your mobile phone after you have confirmed its availability in your computer.  After every six months or so, you can also view them in the computer and