What is ‘Aachaaram’?

Caution: This blog is about certain people who consider themselves as ‘aachaaram’.  I am happy for this to be categorized cynical or sarcastic.  Those who have eaten puliyodarai and dhidhyonnam alongside McD stuff, please do not read this!

I have a friend who says he and his family are 'aachaaram' (pronounced aa-cha-rum).  To him aachaaram is, 'he and his family cannot take food cooked the previous night or preserved in fridge'.  As a matter of fact they do not even visit 'Pillaiyar koil' (Lord Ganesha’s abode) as the family considers it to be 'un-aachaaram' (opposite of 'aachaaram'). 

The real meaning of aachaaram is to do with bodily and spiritual cleanliness.  I find my friend and his family funny because they do not seem to have either!

When they are in the US, they keep previous day’s food in the fridge and eat, they eat frozen food and they eat at McD.  They blame McD because McD’s are the ones who make tasty (teasing) burgers and fries (fried alongside or sometimes in the same oil of the most aachaaramised beef (Gomatha) burger).

I agree that the world is full of controversies.  I know I will get criticized for my views.  But most people like me treat all Gods the same way, be it Lord Mahavishnu or Lord Shiva!

I know lot of ‘aachaaramised’ people will swarm and write all those evil things I do (or find fault in whatever I do!!).  But my question stays, "Is it an excuse for ‘aacharamised’ people not to be bodily or spiritually clean?"

puuuuuffffuuuuufffffff!

Glossary:

Aachaaram – Staying clean physically and spiritually

Aachaaramised – People cleansed by following certain principles and policy

Gomatha – synonymn for Cow

Puliyodarai – synonymn for tamarind rice

Dhidhyonnam – synonymn for Curd rice

Disclaimer:

All characters or objects or subjects or anything you can imagine related to this blog is considered purely fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons or objects or subjects, living or dead, is purely coincidental.  This blog is not in anyway meant to hurt anyone’s personal or religious feelings.

Made to Measure

Until the age of 15, I’ve always worn shirts or trousers tailored to fit. My mom will choose the pant and shirt bit(that is how they were called). Myself and my dad will go to the tailor shop to get them stitched. The tailor makes me stand still and runs the measuring tape around my neck, across my shoulders and along my arms. He then asks me what kind of cuff I like, the shape of the pocket, the collar, whether I needed a split along the sides of the shirt, but stitches the shirt according to what my father said!

Today, I came across Marks and Spencer website, where they do all these over the internet and deliver the shirt to your doorstep.

They make you choose a fabric, the collars, cuffs, pockets, plackets etc. Short sleeve saves you some money. In order to decide the fit they ask you for your height, weight, collar size that you normally use and your age. You can also add a monogram, with your initials or anything that is of 6 character length, to the chest or to the cuff.

You can choose to save your design mid-way through if you cannot decide on any of the above. At the end they show a summary of what you selected and save the design with a memorable name.

Ta da... your shirt is made to measure! At least, that is what they claim!!

Business Case = Neraya Poi

I am writing a business case to extend the contract of one of my team member. It needs to 'PASS' the first time itself. I have exaggerated the role. It has neraya poi, konjam unmai!

Thank you 2010. Welcome 2011!

Hellooooooww!  Wish you and yours a very happy and a prosperous new year!!

I am writing after really really long time.  2010 has been an exciting year.  It had more focus on my career than anything else.  It involved lot of travel, both business and personal.  Some decisions were made and some of them reversed!  Some targets achieved and some yet to be achieved.  Spent reasonable (good) time with family.  The last quarter of 2010 was very tiring due to work.

Hope the new year brings success and happiness to every one.  Have a great year ahead!

Note to the West!

I would like to draw the attention of westerners who outsource work to India, either to sleep peacefully or to make cost savings for their organizations or to go on holidays with their dear ones!

 The months, October and November are month of festivals in India.  Every week there will be lesser working hours than usual.  Sometimes the working hours are too less that people here do not find it worth travelling to work!  

So what is the message? The message is if you are planning your critical project activities in these months please do not do so.  Plan well and have them somewhat earlier in the months of August and September or have them after October. 

Well, it may sound weird, but you can try planning critical activities in these months to believe in what I just said!  The culture has changed everywhere, Indians also travel long distances to spend time with their families.  We also want to have holidays and festivals.  Good or bad, we copied this culture from you.

 

If you want to go with the tide, you are most welcome to celebrate Indian festivals with us like we celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving with you!!

East Vs West

Hellooow!  How are things?  I am writing after a very long time.  I am in India now and I work with customers from the western world.  We always contrast and compare the westerners culturally (perhaps they do it as well!).  I came across a website that was doing this contrasting between the east and west.  I have given some pictures ,that I liked, from the site.  These images do not represent my opinion though.

Blue is for Westerners and Red is for Asians.  Click on any of these images to visit the site and see the other pics. 

Punctuality

Waiting in Queue

Happy Virodhi Varusham

Happy Tamil New Year!  May this Virodhi varusham bring all happiness and prosperity to you. 

Well I just wanted to know how this new year is being celebrated by Tamils in other parts of the world. 

I came across this website which published its newsletter on the internet with almost all the details required to start a great new year!  I think this is the first one that I have seen to have the newsletter published on time and it carries enough details.  It is from Singapore and click here to access their newsletter.

I wish they publish this newsletter every month.  This has very interesting information.  It starts with a sacred utterance, calendar of events for the month, significance of the month with dates and the festivals in the month. 

Sivane Potri!