Keep Walking!

Short version: Vishnu has won an award for participating in a Tamil competition conducted by the Australian Society of Graduate Tamils (ASoGT) ( https://www.tamilcompetition.org/ ). Many thanks to ASoGT and  Thaai Tamil School Inc  for helping Vishnu learn Tamil. In a world where winners only are celebrated, participation itself is a big win when it comes to bilingual learning. Long version: "Appa, I don't think I will get a prize!" Vishnu said it to me after seeing few of his peers recited a Tamil poem flawlessly in the  Australian Society of Graduate Tamils ( ASoGT) annual literary competition. Growing in an English environment, Vishnu took weeks to memorise and practise the recital, performed it bravely with his low-pitched voice, standing in front of a panel of 5 judges and 30+ spectators. There were many students who put in great efforts and recited the poem fearlessly in a high-pitched, oratory style that made Vishnu think his performance was n...

I read the story of how Godfreys, the Australian vaccum retailer shop is competing with Dyson . Here's our first-hand story of experiencing Godfrey's customer service. Whenever I decide to buy some thing, I list down our needs first, then go shopping for a product that would fulfill our needs. ​For the first time, I was obsessed with a brand i.e., Dyson, the vaccum cleaner brand (cordless, light-weight, long stick, 15 minutes non-stop(!) vaccuming). Their marketing department has done a great job promoting it as a tehno-marvel and creates the illusion that it is the best vaccum cleaner ever made in the universe. As we developed a allergic reaction to dust ( only after coming to Australia ) from carpets and the cheap vaccum cleaners did not help much, we decided to buy the best powerful vaccum cleaner to clean our house. We set aside some money over few months and went shopping. We (wife and I) went to a big, white goods shop to buy the Dyson vaccum cleaner. It was about...

Having a reliable car that doesn't give up on you at critical moments is a blessing, I say. By luck or some blessing, my cars always have been reliable at least to get me out of trouble. I bought my first car, which was a 1995 Mitsubishi Magna v6 for $2000 just after I got my driving license in Hamilton, Victoria. My housemate kindly agreed to travel with me by bus to help me choose a car in a second-hand car yard in Ballarat. With a limited budget, we narrowed down to a small, red (eye candy) car and a Mitsubishi Magna v6. We chose the shiny light blue Magna as it mechanically sounded better than the eye-candy, red car. In 2009, I was told that you would need to pay at least $5000 to get a decent, second-hand car in Victoria. We drove the car back and I felt good to drive and it had more power to the cars that I drove during my driving lessons. In this Magna, I learnt to drive without anyone overseeing me. Before getting this car, I used a mountain bicycle (push-bike or a ...

Marriage does more good to you. Trust me. Go and get married if you are single. If you are married, stop wasting your time reading this and start a conversation with your life partner to improve your relationship. Marriage is your lifeline. OK, I can only speak from my own experience. Having a loving life partner beside you reduces your burden at least by half. Be it work or worries, they get halved where as the happiness and wellness get doubled. After marriage, I discovered my own strengths which I can use to the maximum and shortcomings which I needed to eliminate. This is the one of the biggest positives that I can take after one year of marriage. When I was single, life seemed easy. I was free to what I wanted to do. I could go out anytime and come home anytime. There was no need to inform anyone. I had many things to do and goals to achieve and I had all the time in the world. When you have "all the time" in the world, you know what happens. Yes, we can relax a wh...

When I moved from Melbourne to this new town called Gympie in Queensland, I knew no one. I had known only few of my office colleagues whom I met during the interview. Having just returned from a crowded family holiday in India, no wonder I felt alone. I was undergoing a dilemma whether I had made the 'right move' to come to the 'right place'. I found a small unit house, locked myself and spent my time either watching movies or browsing the Internet until my neighbour knocked my door one day. My neighbour was standing at the door with a basket of goodies that had tea, sugar, noodles and rice. I thought he was delivering it to a wrong address. He smiled and said, "This is my way of welcoming you to the neighbourhood, mate. Enjoy yourself". Whenever I returned from office, he would catch hold of me for a few small talks on what he did on that day and ask me few questions on what I did at work. After those chats, after a few days, things started improving. I st...

4 stages of blogging Stage 1. When you start a personal blog, you would want to blog everything that you see, hear and read. After all, you have started your own Persnal Media. Stage 2: When you gain an audience, you dont know what your audience wants. You think twice before you start to write something. You don't want to look stupid for writing such a silly post. Stage 3: Social applications take up most of your sharing / bookmark type of posts. It looks like it is hard to write anything other than your own life. Stage 4: You haven't written anything in your blog for a looooooong time. Now, you have learnt the art of blogging. ----0---- On the other day, I was talking to an Indian who told me about the Japanese style of outsourcing. When negotiating for a deal, it seems that the Japanese would want to achieve these three things from their business partners: 1. Products/ Services of highest quality 2. Lowest price gurantee and 3. Quickest ...

Some time ago, a mother punished her five year old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and she became even more upset when the child used the gold paper to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her mother the next morning and then said, 'This is for you, Momma.' The mother was embarrassed by her earlier over reaction, but her anger flared again when she opened the box and found it was empty. She spoke to her daughter in a harsh manner. 'Don't you know, young lady, when you give someone a present there's supposed to be something inside the package?' She had tears in her eyes and said, 'Oh, Momma, it's not empty! I blew kisses into it until it was full.' The mother was crushed. She fell on her knees and put her arms around her little girl, and she begged her forgiveness for her thoughtless anger. An accident took the life of the child only a short ...