Messaging Woes...

Please...

1. Reply promptly to invites. Wouldn't you like that for you when you invite others?
2. Respond promptly to messages. A lot of times your response decides what I will do with my time or resources. Your delay in response can cause unnecessary inconveniences that can be avoided.
3. Understand that no one likes to be another's Plan D. If you cannot make me a priority, I understand, but do not make me feel used.
4. I can see that you have read my message...don't think you can fly under the radar and reply 3 days after and say that you had not read my message before...tsk tsk tsk.
5. NO is a totally acceptable response to an invite or a request. If you cannot handle it, you need to do some introspection. I should not be afraid to say to NO to you because you are psychologically bullying me into doing what you want. This is the worst feeling in a relationship and can cause irreparable damage.
6. Even if you want to say NO to something I am asking, please do so promptly. I will try and keep check on my emotions and deal with it in a mature way. But it always helps for me to hear the rejection now than later.
7. Try to not make plans and then dump me. I understand unstoppable circumstances. I have done the same...and I get it. Sucks to be on both sides.
8. Oh! and please do not read emotions in my simple statements or messages. I will express my mood with emoticons. I am known to abuse their usage...so you will know how I am feeling at any given time. 
9. And yes, this post is totally factual and any resemblance to sarcasm or frustration is purely coincidental. 
10. And no, this post is not directed at any one person but to all my interaction on Whatsapp with my many friends individually and in groups. So, if you think this is all about you, I am sorry to disappoint you. It is not always all about you but maybe one or two things do apply to you :P (see...Emoticon use :P)
11. Oh! and I have done a lot of the above as well...I am on the mend now, hopefully you will head that way too...Respect and be Respected.

In the days and age of Whatsapp, I can really see who is doing what...almost...not stalking at all...nope! But really, I can see who got my message and if you read it or not. I want to keep my friendships clean and clear with no hard feelings and looks like Whatsapp might cause a few dents here and there...

A Messaging ART

Picnic!!!

All of us in our school uniforms lined up at the pick up location for our school bus. We were going on a picnic. Which meant two things, one, you have no regular classes, two, a day with friends gallivanting through some park, dam, or some random place the school has chosen. Most importantly, no school.

There was always a nice lunch and snacks packed. We carried water bottle which always seemed to run out before lunch time and we were ready to head out and see Mukamboo dam for the fourth time. It did not matter as long as we were going somewhere. I am sure we went to other places but for some reason all I can remember is the dam. Kallanai was another dam we went to. It was always fun. The parks, the picnic lunch and the bus drive singing songs.

Thirty some years later, life has come a full circle. In a few weeks time, I will be escorting my daughter and her classmates to their Field Trip. This will be her first official school picnic and I am more excited than her.

Last night, when I went to bed, I started to see the images of me holding hands with a teacher-chosen partner walking through the gardens in Mukamboo or Kallanai. I don't know why the teachers taught that having a girl and boy hold hands would make them talk less, the logic was flawed and it never worked.

One image led to another and I remembered the picnics I went with my parents and their various clubs to different parts of Trichy. I am sure if I go back now, it will not be the same, but in my minds eye, all I can see is Green. That was the color of the Cauvery Delta. It was either green with paddy, banana plantation, mango orchards or just trees through which a green river would wind its way around. Every year, a little bit of the green was lost to houses, commercial or institutional. They could never win the fights...farmers never won.

Then, the mind wandered over to Plano, ranches that are now houses. You can still drive by and see a small ranch surviving putting a smile in your heart but at the end of the road you will see the unmistakable "For Sale/Lease" sign. It makes me sad, though I am one of those who bought a house in the once-ranch area. I pray that my daughter would see a lot of what I have instead of reading about them on wikipedia or text books. Oh Well...

Then of course, I fell fast asleep. It was too much thinking...deep and circuitous. Started somewhere and ended in a totally different situation.

Love
ART