Looking for some SOCKS

Not the ones to wear.. but to narrate

Let me start from the beginning..

The pandemic lockdowns have meant that kids need to stay more indoors.

That implies that we need more creative ways to engage them.

And, let me tell you, that engaging grand kids is not easy.. that too, remotely.

Increased social awareness these days and the desire to be or be seen as - politically correct pretty much makes all stories that our generation grew up on, unacceptable.

Let me share some samples of the dilemmas that I go through these days

Take the Little red riding hood

• should we call the wolf 'big and bad'
• should the wolf eat the grandmother
• should the wolf be killed at the end of the story
• etc etc etc

Or Goldilocks

• is it ok to just walk into someone's house, just because nobody is there
• is it ok to eat / break things without asking someone, when the soup was hot or warm - implying that it was made recently and the family might have stepped away briefly
• etc etc etc

Or stories from our mythology

• who are demons
• what about some who tease girls and save who save 
• or those cursed for misbehavior with others
• how to picture kings who kill to expand their kingdom

Or from fables

• being cunning - or is it being smarter than others
• about unreasonable people in power
• should we talk of fairies and other fantasies or be only realistic [and drab]

Or stories such as Enid Blyton

• how do we justify stereotypes of home makers or girls, where some stories have such explicit labeling
• or an adventurous girl characterized as a tomboy

Even in writing this, had to think a lot to use positive sounding words, maybe with a negative prefix and not a negative word, so that this post and maybe blog itself, be labeled as not acceptable by a runaway AI algorithm..

So, what is SOCKS - that is my classification of SOcially Correct Kids Stories

if you know such stories or have references, please share.

Its only words..

This post was inspired by a post called world of words, by a good friend, Neelu.

I wanted to respond to his post, as a comment, but then, suddenly, words started flowing that it felt longer than a typical response and so decided to write this post.

Stories related to words - and words in stories - have always fascinated me.

One of my favorite columns - long before blogs became popular, was a column called 'On Language' by William Safire on New York Times.

While I could find a reference to his book online, NYT could not find words to describe him.. or his column.. as all I got was

Anyway - getting back to some recent words and names that I found amusing..

A company claiming to reimagining emails is called hey

or another that is into video broadcasting is called mmhmm ... yes, that is the spelling..

When I started podcasting, one word that I found interesting was an outro..

An intro was understandable. an outro.. that is the end piece!

on similar lines, while i know don as a verb - to put on clothes etc, did not know that doff was the opposite.

while on and off are opposites, what would 'd' mean?

and the search for names of people sometimes is also very interesting and entertaining.

the most bizarre name was how Elon Musk named his kid.. X Æ A-12

to know how to pronounce this, read this article

I remember one joke from an old tamil drama - when asked to suggest a name for a baby that would easily get into one's ears [this sounds much simpler and elegant in Tamil], the suggestion was a 'kucchi' or a twig, that one might use to clean one's ears

What is the most amusing name or word you have come across?

It is not only me...

A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the last 3 odd years..

There are many others things that have also been odd in this period.

Some personal priorities that were unanticipated..

and, more recently, the pandemic..

When i heard that google failed to renew the blogspot dot in domain and some squatter has it.. i was worried that all the content was lost

Fortunately, the dot com is still available and what i also noticed is that except for one of the blogs that I follow, most others have not been updated for years.. many more than my break

There have also been some other things that have been consuming my time.

One, that I am quite happy about - is a podcast that I launched about 2 years ago.

About to touch a hundred episodes, with 2 co-hosts who also have been contributing significantly - it feels good to capture experiences that may otherwise not be documented and hence lost to the future generations

Talking of generations, I recently participated in a podcasters conference -- of course online -- and was pleasantly moved by the acknowledgement that almost every speaker mentioned that went something like this 

We pay our respects to the Elders past, present and emerging.

 As elders - I guess I can gracefully accept that I am getting into that band :-) - we talk about letting future generations have a better world, than what we were born into, or, at least, as good an environment that we enjoyed in our childhood.

Monsoon evening, May 2020 - Bengaluru

Generational knowledge that has not been formally codified is also one aspect that needs to be made available. Sort of a pay it forward initiative.

The podcast Software People Stories attempts to capture experiential stories of what worked and sometimes, what did not, in the words of people who have been there, done that.

That is not to say that they all have decades of experience. We have had some who have started there careers just a few years ago.

With the new interest in podcasting, I am also exposed to more data on podcasting - possibly leading to a confirmation bias - that the whole world is not only listening to podcasts..

raising a question on whether blogs still hold any interest

Anyway, thought that I will revisit this medium also.. not sure if any readers from the past are still there, subscribed!

p.s. in case you were wondering what the picture has to do with this post..

nothing really - i wanted to include some picture and picked one from my archive..

on second thoughts.. maybe this indicates that every cloud has a silver lining

Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Happy

The first week of Online Yoga

A little late to get started -- or catchup, rather with the first week lessons on Online Yoga!
The first video yoga session - about an hour - was a little overwhelming. With a few of the postures - particularly leg raising, will take me some more time to do comfortably

I liked the mix of asanas, breathing and mindfulness in the practices this week.
As I started late, not sure how much of the journaling / record keeping I can do in this week for the 5 breath watches..

Looking forward to more to come

Glimpses of Haridwar

Recently, had an opportunity to visit, or rather transit via Haridwar.
While there were many good sights and great people I came across, including a rural school [where the kids taught us the importance of personal hygiene and water purification as well as sang us some rhymes and songs], a Self Help Group of Women, who has just been home makers, now aspiring to set up a dry leaf based plate making unit among other projects, a couple of things were interesting, when seen in person.

The Thomson canal – aka the Ganges canal, build by a British Engineer Thomson – who was also instrumental in setting up the Civil Engineering department at Roorkee – that had portions that were actually at 2 levels..
  You can see the canal flowing at the lower level [somewhat west to east]
and another [with no water] at the higher level [north east to southwest]
Another interesting observation was at the Har Ki Pauri, which is one of the famous Ghats on the Ganges.  Water had been let out after an annual break, when the Ghats are desilted and the shrines also appeared freshly painted.
 
It was a full moon day – Sharad Poornima – and we reached there just when the Aarti had got over.

the crowds slowly moved out.
. and we could go near the water

Many people did some pooja and let lamps float on the river..

in this very short visit. also touched Rishikesh, for a brief overnight stay – checked in late evening, when it was dark and checked out the next morning before sunrise..
Even in that short drive, could see that every other building seemed to be a Yoga center!
Maybe that was an indirect influence to my enrolling in the #YogaMOOC!
so, no pictures.. only a recording of the roar of the Ganges..