My Reflections

Philosophy of the day

2008-02-05T02:11:00.001-05:00

The search never ends.
Time ends.

Summertime during winter

2008-02-03T14:30:00.000-05:00

Hurray, Idol is back. And as per Simon (and what I have seen through the auditions), the level of talent is pretty high this year compared to last year. So, Tuesday and Wednesday nights are going to be fun. I am rooting for a guy winning it this time. Girls have dominated Idol enough, so lets go guys! Lets see if we get someone like an Aiken or a Daughtry out of this season.

Anyway, I was going through some of the past Idol performances and this one stands out by far. Fantasia has sung it so well that I am humming this song enough these days for my roomie to ask me to stop. Read the following comment Randy style: "Yo Yo man, Yo Yo! If there was any doubt in my mind as to why people made you the idol, it all went out with that performance. That was de bomb!"

The lyrics for this song is damn good to get a mention on my blog:

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

But till that morning
There's a'nothing can harm you
With daddy and mamma standing by

(Source: stlyrics.com)

And here is me welcoming Season 7 with a beautiful rendition of this song by our ex-American Idol,Fantasia Barrino.

How to lose your identity and get it back!

2008-02-01T16:47:00.000-05:00

You have got to enjoy certain things in life,no matter the situation it puts you in. There are the times when unusual patterns emerge in life and one such time is when I travel by air. The first time I came to the U.S, bombs were discovered on the aircrafts at the London airport. This time when I went back to India for the break, the day I was travelling, Ms.Bhutto was assasinated. My mom got freaked out when they announced that my flight was late (though she didn't realise it was by 20 mins). So, I expected something or other would have happened when I came back to the U.S again. Expected serious faces and tightened security measures at the JFK airport. When I disembarked, I was surprised to see a very quiet immigration and customs area. Guess ours was the only flight that landed that Monday afternoon. Ok,just when you think one flight journey has been completed where there was no drama, it happens.

I clear the customs and immigration, pickup my luggage, board the air train to the Jamaica station. I pick up a train schedule and want to put it in my backpack and thats when I realise, its GONE! Among other things, the backpack contained my passport, I-20, laptop, cellphone and the key to my apartment(thats worth more than $150 now if you happen to lose it). Now, I am a just a noone who has no identity whatsover in this country. Pretty scary, huh!

Good thing about the U.S and especially about New Yorkers is, they are very friendly and helpful. I talked to the lady at the ticket counter and also the lady whose job is to usher the people who arrive at the Jamaica station with where to stay,what ticket to buy etc.They just get the colour of the bag from me and what kind of bag it was(thats all they asked for. Nothing about the contents) and call the authorities at the JFK on the walkie talkie. Technology comes to the use as well. They just press the emergency button and you can communicate to the person at the other end. Yours truly had left the bag on the air train terminal at the airport. Someone had picked it and kept it safe and they all were expecting me to contact. The lady allows me to board the air train for free now. I go back to the airport again and there is someone waiting there just for me so that he can hand the bag over. 'Ah, the laptop bag, huh?',the man asks me.He also said that he was expecting me to return in the next train itself and get the bag back but I realised it a good 30-45 min since I left it at the airport. Those were few scary moments of my life. I don't even know whats the procedure to get a new passport here, to get a visa, new I-20. Probably, that would have meant I go back to India again. I don't know how I would have done that without a passport. On top of that I would have lost my cellphone and my laptop. In the end, everything was intact in that bag, Red and 'black' bag. Emphasis on black because, everyone who helped me to get my bag back were all African Americans: The lady at the reservation counter at Jamaica, the lady who was the usher at the Jamaica station and the man waiting at JFK with my bag.

Phew, that ends the story of one more 'incident' filled air trip!

Save me

2007-08-26T02:03:00.000-04:00

from watching reality TV shows. I know that it's all drama,well scripted and all bullshit and nonsense. But, that is what making people watch them, isnt it? Search for a singing superstar, dancer, director, producer, comedian, model,chef, bride, bridegroom, lover, princess, a date. Does this end somewhere!? And how do you stay away from them?

I-Day addiction

2007-08-15T00:03:00.000-04:00

My independence day addiction is this

Next, Lata Mangeshkar in the making? May be! Very strong and powerful voice.I bet the best of the best singers in India could not have performed this song like how Poonam performed it all in one go! One of the best performances on a reality music show I have seen so far. Yesterday night,was listening to this song until my ears started paining and finally gave them rest around 4.15 AM. Very innocent and humble person with a touching life story. Hope she becomes a great playback singer of India.

The other interesting thing about this performance(atleast for me) was that the Vande Mataram song actually has more lyrics to it than the four or five lines of it which I had known. Never knew that the song was published in a book called Anandmatha and the Vande Mataram I have known all these years was the one which the Congress approved in 1905. After all these years, Wiki told me more about what is my 'national' song.

Humming a patriotic song on the I-day, for a change!

Vande Mataram Vande Mataram Vande Mataram Vande Mataram

Shit happens ?

2007-08-13T00:45:00.000-04:00

Those were the words spoken to a friend over the phone , around 4 AM on a cold Jersey morning. It was more of like a consolation. As the call ended, a thought came to the mind as to whether shit happens all the times or just gets created by ourseleves most of the times which we are not ready to accept and acknowledge.

Coriander

2007-07-27T00:38:00.000-04:00

What a secret ingredient it is, to your cooking! My rajma never tasted like what it tasted this time when I added coriander leaves. Hmmmmmmmmm. Wah! Still, relishing the taste.

Accent Turnons

2007-07-20T04:09:00.000-04:00

So, I have this friend, all right? He used to tell me that he gets turned on by women with British accent. What!? I never thought so, until now. I just finished watching Victoria Beckham on TV. It was a show called "Victoria Beckham coming to America" : what hardships the woman has to go through to move her family to the U.S. She has just three weeks to search for a house, get a driver's license, learn ways to avoid papparazi, get her husband a gift, learn how to pitch a baseball, find a manicurist,mingle with the high society women in LA. Yeah, terrible hardships the lady has to go through. In spite of all that, I could hear my friend singing in my ears "I told you so!". What is with that accent, huh? Simple things in life which we never notice!

Grand Slam Tennis, baby!

2007-07-14T04:22:00.000-04:00

After watching tennis on TV for over 15+ years, finally, finally, yours truly would be watching Grand Slam tennis live from a stadium. That's right baby. I am going to Flusing Meadows, Arthur Ashe Stadium for watching Men's Singles Quarterfinals of this year's US Open on September 6. Yahooooo!

Without any rain dealys or early round upsets or injuries or withdrawals, I would see Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play live before my eyes. Am very excited and looking forward to it.

As a side story, I started playing tennis today. I sucked, that is alright, first day first show. Planning to continue it over the summer. Man, never thought a tennis court was this big. I don't know how these guys and gals cover it. Amazing!

And talking about shows, to end the day, watched this horrible horrible movie called "Transformers". Alien robots saving earth shit. Bad advice. Don't ever watch the movie unless you like those kind of movies. They dragged the movie so much and two and a half hours of bullcrap. Was like modern Lord of the Rings, some cube instead of a ring to be destroyed. First english movie in the US in a theatre and it sucked!

Anyway, let me remember yesterday for tennis. Once again, yahooooo!

My latest sitcom addiction

2007-06-24T02:19:00.000-04:00

And the award goes to

House of Payne. It is damn hilarious. After a long time, I laughed a hell lot while watching a sitcom. Can't wait to see the next episode.

Does 'Idol' mean anymore what it means?

2007-05-17T21:02:00.000-04:00

Well, I would have never started watching 'American Idol' had it not been for Sanjaya. It was casual browsing of google news that lead me into this 17 year old kid who has been making news waves all over America.He was, at one time more popular(for good and bad reasons) among people than Hillary Clinton, running for the presidential polls! Ok, why is he making all the news, thanks to America's (so called) number one television show, the one and only 'AMERICAN IDOL'.

So, what is American Idol? I assumed that it was a singing competition where over 100000 hopefuls audition every year and finally after over months of gruelling competition and ordeal, a winner is declared and 'people of America' choose their Idol. Well, I think I am not sure if I can believe the last part of that last statement anymore after what happened yesterday night, for I am writing this post in a state of utter shock and disappointment.

Melinda,Melinda, Melinda.True to Simon's words, she is one heck of a singer.Such a powerful voice she has. She can make people cry, laugh,dance and go Wow over her performance. Not only did she gave Diana Ross goose bumps, whenever I listen to her rendition of 'There will come a day', I get them too. I cant even say how good I felt when she sang 'I believe in you and me', the Whitney Houston song.Super, out of this world! If you think well those are slow ballad and opera type songs, what about 'Trouble is a woman' which is so full of fun anf makes me feel like dancing,and one of my favourites of hers: the Bon Jovi song 'Have a Nice Day'. I dont even have a count of how many times I listened to her rocking that song!And how many get invitation from Bon Jovi to join his band? She was the only one who was consistently good all through out, be it 'Sway' : where I thought the voice was so sassy and sexy, same with 'I've got Rhythm' and 'Nutbush City Limits' . How many times have I seen Simon clap his hands and applauding, like he did for Melinda for 'I believe in you and me'. The thing that I like a lot about Melinda is she puts her soul into a song, she interprets the lyrics of the song and sings with a feeling which it carries, take for example, 'As long as he needs me' . Her rendition of 'My funny Valentine' was considered the best performance ever on Idol. This she performed even before she made into the Top 12. She has been consistent all through the season, week after week, I was just waiting to see what she is going to sing every week.

This is a singing competition and you are looking for an Idol, someone who you can look upto and say, well I want to be a singer like him/her one day and there was no other better left in Season 6 than her. Agreed, Jordin is a good singer. I absolutely loved Jordin's 'Broken Wing' and 'I who have nothing' but in comparison to Melinda, Jordin is not a better singer.I agree that Jordin was the perfect number 2 this season. The thing that I am not able to digest is people chose Blake over Melinda!!! Common man, give me a break. I was reading over few user comments and there was one which said, Melinda makes Blake to look like a cartoon character. Yeah, that is the true difference between the two. If she had lost it to two good singers, I would not have complained.

I still cannot understand it. I mean, I am still trying to figure out whether America really voted her off or was it because the producers of Idol thought she was not marketable enough for their records? At this point, I am more inclined towards the latter. I am not sure anymore that our votes actually count. I tried voting for Melinda tuesday night, the line would always be busy and I would never get it through, the '06' line of hers. So, was this all pre-planned? Just because Jordin is 17 and Blake is appealing to young teenage girls, you take a true singing talent which you are 'supposed' to be finding, out of the competition!? This is disgusting.She was never in the bottom 2 or 3, a clear favourite to win. Everyone thought so. Even yesterday, just before the results, on E!, every bookie was betting that she is the next Idol. Is it her fault that she is older to Jordin and Blake, and all you want was to produce records which young teens can enjoy? Or, Is it that or people of this country have a weird taste for singing and singers?

I have not watched previous seasons of Idol, but have been told that this is not the first time Idol is doing something like this. Read that Chris Daughtry was voted off from the final four when he was arguably the best singer in Season 5. I watched him on youtube and boy, he was too good. One more contestant for whom I have seen Simon clap and applaud for his 'What a wonderful world'. Everyone was shocked last year when he was voted off like what I am today seeing Melinda go.

Look, I have never heard English and if you tell my friends back home that I am talking about Bon Jovi, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston or Diana Ross, they might laugh at you. The good thing about Idol was it made me listen to different type of music which I was never used to listening. At the bottom of my heart, I think that I am a singer and that is why I am pissed off at Melinda's elimination. The bigger question I am asking through this post is, has real talent lost its value in this world? If that is the case,it doesnt matter how good you are in what you do, someone not as talented as you would always find their way to top before you and you might never even make it.

I had plans. My semester was over finally yesterday evening. I would see Melinda make it to the finals and next week, I should have enjoyed three more songs from her before seeing her getting crowned as the American Idol. It is never going to be that way! Jordin vs Blake. I wont even watch it. For that matter, there is no point in watching Idol anymore.

Still,there are some positive things I get out of last night. After all, Idol is nothing but a reality show.Like every other reality show, everything is pre-determined,fixed, there is nothing 'real' to it. If I have to remain sane, I should stop watching all of these reality TV shows.They are very artificial,rehearsed and phony. Their only aim is to make money and keep the ratings up. Second,Chris, though eliminated from the final four last year, till today, remains the highest earning American Idol artist outside the top 2 finishers. I hope and pray the same for Melinda. You would always be my idol Melinda. You are a star already and hope you have great things happening in your life!

What are you saying, Steven Spielberg is starting a reality show on FOX next week searching for America's next top film maker? Get out!

Nice birthday celebration to remember

2007-03-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

Nice birthday to remember. Everything went perfect.The cake, the bumps. Then "the mix" my friends here poured on me (The smell of eggs still on me after taking bath for two times from the time they did it). And the best part of it, they made me dance. They knew that I would sing song after song if am asked to. So, apparently prior preparation had gone into deciding which songs I should dance to. Well, initially I did the usual "You know I dont know to dance. I can't do it" stuff. Then, for a change, I started showing enthu. I did not really know that time what I was doing, but who cares! The idea was simple: My friends would choose a song on laptop and play it on the laptop. I should watch it and make the same moves. Boy, it was hilarious. The songs ranged from Chiru to Shakira to Omkaara. Bet all of them had a nice time watching me dance and shake my hips like shakira. Who cares how I danced, my friends all enjoyed and I enjoyed it with them. My dance videos,hmm, very high demand for them. Mail me,shall send them across.

Thanks to all of you for wishing me over mail,orkut and by calling. It was a very very nice birthday celebration to remember.May be the last of my college life. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Was talking to my dad now and he was asking me whether I am scared now as I turned 25.I told him why should I be ? Everyone turns 25 at some point in life.Dont know what he meant by that. May be that I should start being more responsible and mature, is that what he meant? May be.Lets see how the year unfolds. Signing off, as of now, in a very happy mood.

Me

Back from my hiatus

2007-01-31T03:15:00.000-05:00

Hmm,
I have not forgotten the user name and password after all. That is a good sign. So many times over the past few months, I had very strong urges to write (rather ramble and complain most of the times) but I resisted all the temptations. Partly because, am lazy to write. Partly because, I pretend to be busy. Anyway, thanks to all of those who are expecting posts on this url and all those who keep asking me to blog. I assure that I would return back to active blogging in the near future. How near, I am not sure.

I was listening to this song from 'Punnagai Mannan' and somehow these lines moved me a lot.

Sila Pookkal Dhaane Malargindradhu
Pala Pookkal Yeno Udhirgindradhu
Badhil Yenna Kooru
Poovum Naanum Veru

May be reflecting my current mood. And what a voice to back it up with all the emotions.Super! That is what has made me finally break my hiatus on this site, folks!

Anyway, the idea is to keep you people guessing about why these lines here. Until next time, bye everyone!

Good,Bad and (definitely not) Ugly

2006-06-30T05:30:00.000-04:00

Last day at the first job! I am happy for so many reasons now and sad for many other reasons as well. I am not going to write a big sentimental post now.Definitely do not have time for that. Am lazy to do important things!So, finally end rushing things up. What to do, that is the way it has been always!Hope I get time in the near future. Would love to come back with a lengthy post. Long time since I wrote one!

Confessions of a happy mind

2006-05-21T09:05:00.000-04:00

This is it Jike. Finally we are here.Writing this 100th post in a very happy mood :)

Everyone loves him. He is the star. He is the centre of all attractions.He is adored by parents,friends,colleagues and relatives alike. Where did one find such a person who can be so nice and good is a debate in itself. He regales, he makes us laugh, he inspires, he motivates, he shouts, he scolds, he beats, he talks, he sings,he dances,he plays,he drives,he works,he loves, he does everything. How one can do so many things to so many people at the same time, I was,am,would always wonder. He is someone to be proud of.Sometimes I feel like every second of his life is doubly precious not for him, but for others surrounding him, for, we all fight for each and every second of his life,to be just with him. That is enough for me atleast. Nothing more is needed in my life. The happiness I get by spending few minutes with him is more than any other happiness I would ever get in my life. I long for it. I yearn for those special moments with him. I pray that I get a better bargain this time,a better chunk of time from his life each and every time I meet him.I would never forget those special moments. Sometimes, he forgets. I do not. The moments of joy, the moments of sadness, the moments when we fought, the moments when we cried, the moments he consoled me, the moments I consoled him, they all stay afresh im my memory and I do not do any magic to keep them with me. May be because, it is him. He, so special, and he, so magical. He, who gives a special meaning to my life. He who again and again emphasises why life is worth living for. He who is always a role model for so many people. I always wanted to be like him.No matter how hard I try, I cannot be him. I used to be jealous. I always wanted him for me and no one else. How immature can a mind be! Now, I realise how foolish I had been. He is not someone who can be kept with one person alone. He is the source of comfort and happiness to millions in this world. Now, I am enjoying the feeling I get by sharing him with others and this feeling is also so great. Is there anything about him that can be bad? No, not at all! It cannot be. I can just be thankful that I have had a chance to meet him and revel in those special mooments we spent and would spend together.

He is Onida Poison LCD TV. Neighbour's envy. Owner's pride!

Smile, a(n) (n)ever lasting smile

2006-05-04T03:31:00.000-04:00

Let's face it. When it comes to making first contacts, we suck, suck big time.Unless its someone you know, like your friend or your neighbour, why I should I even bother to talk to someone, unless he/she is introduced by someone whom both of us know. Get what am saying?

I have a code submission today, my boss is behind my ass. I fought with my wife today yet again, day by day,she's turning out to be a monster whom I can't tolerate. Kids, they are a big pain man, you know. Always whining,complaining and crying.Boss,give me a break! Gold prices are shooting to a rockety space. LPG and fuel prices are going to get increased once again, God, what's happening to this country!?. Would India win today's cricket match and would Mr.X score a century today so that his batting average increases by 0.1 and beats Mr.Y's avearge? I have so many things to fret about and you want me to ask my neighbour in the bus whether he is doing fine or not!?

The English teacher used to say: "It's sad to note that we follow so many unwanted things from the west but not good things like how to greet people in public, how to behave in a public place when we meet total strangers.".She used to say that that's what makes a good impression of you, the first impression. People can gauge to a certain extent,how well mannered, you are. Yeah, Mam, we take only the things which suit us and we ignore the rest.

Like the other day, I was in this ATM with my relative(The ATM was over-packed of course.What do you expect on a weekend, huh? And it's an unwritten rule that if you have two vending machines, one would be not working or out of cash. On that day though, both were working.Surprising!).Anyway, there was this guy who wanted a lot of money and the denominations available were only 100's on that machine towards the left. I wanted a huge amount as well and this security guard said that the machine on the left had 1000's. So we were standing in the queue and the guy I talked about earlier, he started taking a lot of time. Obviously people behind were getting restless. I turned around and there was this girl(yeah, she was beautiful, but that doesn't matter here) and she smiled at me. What that smile meant, I knew and she knew that I understood what her smile meant: What a bad luck that we got stuck behind this man who's spending ages before the machine. Those words were not exchanged between us, but that little smile, that suggested it all. Immediately, my relative nudges me from the side and asks me: "Do you know that girl?". I shrug off my shoulders and say, "No, I don't". Then my relative asks me: "Then, why is she smiling at you?".

I didn't bother to explain the reason. That smile was enough for me to start a small conversation with her and we talked and talked(We had our man before the machine still !!!). By the way, he turned out to be good guy, huh. Not only he blasted the security for misleading us regarding the denominations, he also apologised to everyone in the queue for making us wait.How many times do we see someone do that? I want my money, I would take whatever time I want, why do I have to apologise to someone waiting because of me. Thats what we get most of the times. How does that apology matter, one might ask. You still waited for a long time, isn't it?. Well, apart from the fact that I got a chance to talk to a beautiful girl, it leaves us with a good impression on him isn't it? We get to know that you understand that we had a problem because of you and when you acknowledge the fact, we might even forget what we went through because of you and there is peace and there is amicability.

Small things you do,small faults of yours which you acknowledge, a smile, a sorry is what goes a long way to solve and even prevent big issues. And when would people understand that? I am not going to bet on that.

Heard from a colleague...

2006-04-10T04:48:00.000-04:00

"There are things that are priceless in this world. And I am least bothered about them."

Family on Wheels

2006-03-16T02:47:00.000-05:00

Read about them here. And this is their website.Its in French. But yeah, as an étudiant of French language, I should be reading it and understanding it myself. Its a source of knowledge for me.

Anyway, I also had the wonderful oppurtunity to interact with them personally.In fact,all of us in the class did.They were present in our French class one day.We had asked them questions, which they would answer in French of course(thanks to our French teacher) and we would try hard,scratch our heads to comprehend what they said.But, thats ok. Its the part of the learning process.

They showed us their vehicle and how they manage to eat,bath,drink,read,drive,sleep,play in that vehicle. We all loved this family very much.Somepoint or other in our life, many of us wanted to tour the world like them. The kids are so sweet. They are just six, they are twins and they dont understand any other language other than French.So it was fun trying to converse with them with the little French we know. The parents would speak English,rather I should say, manage somehow to speak English. But they said that language has never been a problem for them so far. Whatever English they know, they manage with that.The parents have a strong belief that the world, the voyage would teach their kids more than what a classroom would do and they have been travelling since May 2005.In fact the guy quit his well paying job in Europe and started this voyage.

For those who are bored with their mundane life, here is an example in this family, about pursuing what you like to do in life rather than pursuing what you have to do or forced to do or do not want to do.Message from these guys is simple: Follow your passions in your life truthfully.Ultimately thats what is going to make you happy. The rest all, doesnt matter much!

For you, my love

2006-03-07T07:31:00.000-05:00

Person whom I have seen till yesterday evening,out of nowhere,takes an exigency leave today and gets married. Am flabbergasted. Things love does to a person!

Five Point Someone

2006-02-15T08:34:00.000-05:00

Good book.Especially, if your college life had been as messy as that of Hari,Alok and Ryan, you may enjoy it more while trying to relate their experiences to that of your own.You may scold and curse yourself for screwing up what is arguably the best four or five years of your life.Its all about how you react to the newly acquired freedom in the college.Alok says this:(Beautiful lines,I may not exactly reproduce, but its somthing like this): "I have been the topper all throughout my entire school life. I have not seen anything other than first rank in my school. What has happened to me here in college?". Well, a good question.You are living in this protective environment with your parents to support, take care, constantly remind you of your life's goals, correct you and bring you back to the track if you digress from your goals,while you are at your school. You come out of that secure life and you are put in a college, where you have absolute freedom to choose and do anything you wish to. You can do things which your parents have always warned you about, you can do things which you have always fancied about in your school and in the process of doing that do you take care that college life is not affected?

Well, if you think about it, its all about getting mature. There are people who handle this situation better.They know exactly what they want out of their life and nothing, not even this newly acquired freedom would deter them from attaining what they wish.They work constantly towards their goals and be successful in their life. And there are people who make a complete mess out of it,they either dont know what they want out of life or they get carried away from the newly acquired freedom and put themselves in a tough situation. In my opinion, there are more people in the second category than the first. Life does takes a long time in teaching few people their best lessons. 'Five Point Someone' is about three IITians of this type,whose mediocre grades come across everything in their life and how it ruins their friendship, health,love,trust etc. Nice book to read.Go grab it.

I have a question to the readers of this post: Where do you get information about the latest best sellers among the books?. I never came across this title until a week back and when I said that I am reading this book, people just seem to know the existence of this book.("Aah, that one,how do you find it?"."Hey,it was published way back in 2004!!") Its a worse situation to be in when you are ignorant of things happening around you. And I dont want to be in that place a lot many times. So if you can throw some light on that, I would be thankful.

One night @ the call center

2006-02-10T04:42:00.000-05:00

The first thing few of my friends asked me when I said that I am doing a 'Fluency in English' training was that whether I intend to join a call center. I had to shrug them off saying that I am not learning some fake American accent but just trying to learn to speak good neutral English, which I am pretty sure that almost 95% of the English learnt Indian population does not know how to speak.Anyway,I pity these nocturnal creatures aka Call Center Agents who have to bear this accent torture('T' is pronounced in four different ways by Americans) and I pity them more after reading the book.If you are wondering which book, refer to the subject line of the post.Thats the name of a book.No,I did not experiment my newly acquired 'accent' at any call center and hence I am not going to talk about my experiences at one such places.Came across this title while generally browsing through an edition of 'India Today' where it was mentioned that this book was at the top of the charts.So I wanted to try it out.

Most of us do not even care about such a class of people living amongst us, which the author, Chetan Bhagat too echoes in the prologue of the book. The book talks about the experiences of six call center employees on one night when they apparently receive a call from God himself. Each of them have some problem or other that had engulfed their life, they also have some common problems to tackle with and this call they receive changes their life for better forever.

Call center job is something that attracts people of different ages and varied profile and the author aptly captures that. Apart from young unmarried guys and girls,you have as one of the main characters, a married woman who attends to all household chores and to her mother-in-law all through the day and works all through the night at the call center. You have an old man who served the country in Military(hes called 'Military Uncle' by his team members) and he is ignored by his son and daughter-in-law.And they all have an evil and stupid boss to tackle as well. The book in good measure talks about having such bosses with their so-called MBA terms.Chetan actually highlights in bold letters the typical managerial terms these bosses use(he calls it 'Managenese') and it is great fun reading these terms.You would actually relate the terms to your workplace.If not from your manager,atleast others use them as well in your workplace. Chetan then talks about how these managers take all the credit for something you sweated like hell for many months.They also suck your self-confidence out as you become a sycophant in the fear of losing your job and gradually become a big loser in life.He also portrays the situation where they all face lay off at their company and we get to know how ineffective bosses are one of the reasons for such a situation and what the employees in the story did to save their jobs.

The book talks about many other things. Relationships in the making and also in the breaking.We actually get wonderful insights from the author regarding the typical reactions of women who are in a relationship or women who are considering about a relationship.We get to know what some actions of women actually mean and why do they do it.For a guy who has never been in a relationship with a woman before,this a bounty.So,guys who want to get a girlfriend and guys who have a girlfriend may check them out.You would find them useful as you get to know when you need to be careful.Also guys who have been dumped already, may correlate their experiences with the one you find it in the book.

Chetan also touches upon specific problems pertaining to call center employees.Starting from the racial slurs forced upon them by their customers to having a social status crisis.He beautifully explains the latter through the flash back he takes us through,of different dates the two characters:Shyam and Priyanka have had for the last one year. He gives the flash back as five different parts,that is, one year back to this night, 9 months back to this night etc.As we get to four months back to this night, we get to know that one of the reasons Shyam and Priyanka have to split was because Priyanka's mom doesnt think being a call center agent is a well settled job.We also get to know about the pressure on call center employees to handle more calls. Everything about their call handling is noted: average time to handle one call(there is a target to be acieved here) to the politeness and the way the calls are handled.

And with all these things happening around in the book, Chetan also blends patriotism and a bit of spiritualism in it. He is strongly against America and the Americans.He portrays America as a nation succumbed to fear and majority of Americans as dumbasses with their mind not working at all.He talks about how the rest of smart Americans take advantage of people at a cell center in India by paying them less and extracting huge amount of work at weird hours of the night.He explains why the youth in this country still take up the job with so many negative factors around it.Though Chetan narrates the whole story through Shyam, and though I identify myself with Shyam a lot(may be I am 60% Shyam and 40% Vroom),I liked the character of Vroom more (yeah,thats how Varun Malhotra is called at the call center by his team mates).Vroom is the main protagonist of the book and he makes you laugh like hell as well with his sense of humor.One thing is sure,majority of the dialogues in this book is comical, you would laugh a lot. And in between that we have other things:couples split,bad boss,anti-America,job cuts,patriotism,new relationships,husbands cheat,cheaters,God calls! Whew! Thats too much and all these happen in one night.

The message out of this book is following your dream. Its about self-confidence,prioritizing your goals,meeting failures with courage and not fear about unimportant things in life.At the end, felt like reading Rang De Basanti through a book.And like RDB, people might not like the way it all ended. Man, how many movies and books would be read on the same topic and the same message being told in a similar fashion.At one stage you are going to say: "What the heck!How many more people have started with the same idea?".And the thing about God calling these guys in the night: Well, Chetan tries to rationalise that in the epilogue and he explains why its good to have God in our life. May be readers might not like this part of the story,which otherwise seems so real and rational.But, what the heck, the story is topping the fiction charts and in a fiction God can of course call you on your mobile!I read the book in a true Call Center fashion. I started it around 8.30 in the night and when I finished it at 1.52 AM to be perfect(This I have to, because call center guys are so particular about telling time, they tell it to the exact minute).So around five and a half hours of nonstop reading to start and complete the book.Considering the fact that I am a slow reader, thats quite an achievement in itself!

Do I recommend others to read it? Yes, I would, for the plot and for the comedy in it. But yeah,you may not appreciate certain things like God calling you on the mobile or as I said earlier you may get bored with movies and books already on 'patriotism and following your goals' being narrated in a similar fashion.After all in the end,its your call to take the call or not!

Mendicancy, New Ishtyle

2006-02-09T05:05:00.000-05:00

Should have been a good piece for 'Just for laugh, Gags'.I am even forced to think whether a hidden camera was there at the bus stop. A woman with a wooden basket, nothing unusual so far, except that in this case, the basket had a living snake.It was funny to watch people's reaction as the woman went on asking for alms.Thinking about it, its a nice way to threaten people, isnt it? 'You dont throw me a rupee or two, I would throw the snake at you'. Few people dropped coins out of fear.Fear of the snake that might rise anytime out of the basket,fear of getting bitten to death did the trick with a few atleast.Very few things work well with people like how 'Fear of Death' works.

Few were still reluctant: Nothing would stir my resolution of not giving anything to a begging person, not even a snake. They just gave a look at the snake, and the next moment motioned the woman to go away.They had nothing,nothing at all, to offer her. As I met the snake's eyes,I could feel a tinge of fear rising inside, but it was lying like a sadhu inside the basket, without any movement, unaware of what is happening around, unaware that its' mistress is using him/her as a means of making money,not through some snake show,but by begging.Had it known that, would it bite the mistress out of shame and for the indignity caused?

I was watching the people still. One person asked the woman with the basket to go to the other side of the road and start begging.Though he was afraid of the snake,he did not want to offer her anything. One person pointed his finger towards another guy so as to mean that the second guy, his friend, would give her the money.The second guy was caught unaware. Trembling after seeing the snake, he dropped the coin with his hands still shaking. The best laughing moment for the onlookers came when the woman went to these two girls. I think those girls should be in their PUC or in college. We expected them to scream, but they did not. But they closed their mouths like how a newly crowned "Miss Universe" would do and were of course shaking inside. They quickly walked away from the woman with their mouths still closed. It was fun watching this sight.

But,it's a depressing sight to see people who are hale and healthy(like our woman here) begging. People who otherwise could make a living out of any other work but not begging. May be they are:
a) lazy to work or
b) they could not get what they wanted and not ready to pursue for something else or
c) they tried every other option before resorting to this.

Sad sight. This case, it was more of a scary sight rather than sad.But people are adamant,isnt it?We have to appreciate their will power here.Do whatever you may want, threaten me with a snake if you like to,you would get nothing out of me.Ah,my bus arrived then and I left the bus stop after a nice little period of fun,scare and sadness.

Rang De Basanti

2006-02-06T06:58:00.000-05:00

Note: Spoiler ahead. You may want to skip this post until you watch the movie 'Rang De Basanti'

I think we watch these types of movies:
a) The one we have to watch for the heck of it. Example, Harry Potter films or Lord of the Rings films. We have read the books, we liked it and we would want to see how well its picturised. I can also add any Johar or Chopra movie. The other day my colleague remarked: We know that it would be a SRK starrer and there would be bundle of emotions and aimed at nothing but making people cry. We know what to expect, but we still watch them.
b) The one where we leave our mind out of the theatre for a rental, watch the movie for two and a half hours, come out of theatre and take back our mind. Example: Movies of the type Thirumalai, Thirupaachi(any Vijay starrer for that matter) and Aaru. Two and a half hours of non-stop nonsense.
c) The one that really leaves an everlasting effect on us. It might be a comedy or a tragedy. It might be preachy, sentimental or 'dishoom dishoom'. But something about the movie strikes a cord with each of us and these are the movies in which we search when asked to make to make the list of all time favourites.I would put Rang De Basanti(RDB) in that list of mine.

Where do I start? Ok,before going to the film, from the music. Listened to all the songs only once before watching the movie. Didnt like any of them. Told my brother(who incidentally hears them all atleast 10 times a day these days) that the music isnt that good. 'Roo baa roo' song was little ok, but rest,not good, didnt like it. He said thats so typical of Rehman that you dont like them when you hear them for the first time and asked me to hear them a couple of times more. I wouldnt listen to my brother, obviously. I never watched any of the trailors, and had absolutely no expectations out of the movie.I had no idea about the theme or storyline.I only knew that Aamir Khan was there. And Madhavan in a small role.Some MIG 21 controversy around the movie. Soha Ali Khan was there("Is she Saif's sister?"."Yes, she is". "Oh, Achcha, didnt know that either.").I did hear from few people who watched it before me as to how they felt about it and thanks to them, none of them revealed the story line to me.

"Its a different kind of film. The first half is too good. Second half equally bad"

"The songs are too good. Picturised well. Aamir Khan has acted very well. Overall, I did not like the movie, as I think what happens in the second half is way too impractical".

And there was this person who called me up late in the night and said this:"You would fall love with this movie. I loved it so so much. You should watch it definitely".

I lost count as to how many times that person told "I fell love with the movie" in a span of 11 minutes call that we had.I told that person at the end of the call that I would watch the movie and tell whether I also fell in love with RDB or not.

Read the last line of 'The Hindu' review as well. It said "Go and watch the movie for sure".I know I would.RDB has become the topic of discussion in Indian blogdom as well.Bloghopping lead me to many Indian blogs where RDB review/discussion was a sureshot post to find out. So that ends my pre-RDB experience.

It was a 1 o'clock show in the afternoon and I was having lunch till 12.55 pm. Never have I ran to a cinema theatre like what I did for RDB. Didnt want to miss a single dialogue with the mixed response I had for the movie.Had to cover a distance of more than 200 to 300 meter within 5 minutes I had and thats not easy job for a fat person like me who seldom exercises. Panting heavily, entered the theatre at 1.02 PM, and Thank God the movie had not started yet. Just as I entered the UTV banner flashed on the screen. Still panting and scrambling, found the seat at last and sat.Now to the movie!

The first half was amazing. It was hilarious. Starting from the auditions Sue has to "Yeh tho Hindi Boliti hai yaar"(That was too good from Aamir, isnt it? Not to mention, we had rowdy girls at the theatre who would scream as loudly as they can: "We love you DJJJJJJJJJJ" ).The screenplay was amazing. I think that was the greatest strength of the movie.And we didnt have complete songs picturised in the movie. I liked that. Some perople dont.Common guys, we had something different. People are used to hearing the whole of the songs in the movie and may not like this. But I did. And songs were not forced into the movie. They all mingled wonderfully well with the story and with the scenes. They were more of a BGM than songs.I liked the way the songs were picturised.

The theme of the movie was so relevant. And the youth in the movie represent the typical Indian youth and their mentality towards patriotism.Its a pity that what a foreigner appreciates about Indian history and freedom struggle, we people rarely care.For example, Bhagath Singh and his group fasted for more than 100 days in prison demanding paper,pen and newspaper for they were political prisoners. John Mckinley says this in his diary that never ever before in a freedom struggle has the world seen grit and determination like what he saw in these young guys.(Its a beautiful scene in RDB. This prisoner guy goes to Mckinley and the British expects him to break down finally. But he goes and taps his bowl with the tumbler and Siddarth would give a naughty,mocking laugh at the British. Wonderful acting Sid!).

While we also laugh along the initial dialogues of Aamir and Co. towards freedom, India etc, thats the first time RDB makes us think about our leaders of the past.As the movie progresses and as the characters change, I felt the same change inside me which the characters undergo. But that happens with every other movie of the genre of RDB, isnt it? We watch the movie, get inspired, think about what the movie wants to convey, do something or not do anything about it and after sometime we completely forget the film and things return back to the old ways. But in my case, even after two days of watching RDB, I am still having the 'RDB hangover'. The first few hours after watching the movie was too bad, I couldnt think anything apart from what the movie wanted to say, but the 'movie effect' lasts only for those initial few hours usually, but in case of RDB, the thing has kept on coming back to me again and again. That means RDB has made an effect with respect to me atleast! I hope I do something about what you wanted people of this country to do RDB crew.You were amazing!

Now to the actors and acting. Great acting. Aamir was too good with his comedy and with sentiments equally. That scene where he breaks down to Sue over the dinner table was very well done. Aamir, hats off to you. Another person whom I think would play a major role in Bollywood after RDB is Siddarth. Great job Sid,didnt know that you could act this well.All others, I dont know all their names, Atul, Soha and group, great job done. You all lived your characters.

Next to music.I change my stand completely on this. The music feels too good to hear now, especially 'Luka Chuppi'.God damn it, a person has died and you open the song with a guitar sequence, where have we seen something like that in an Indian movie song!?It would be a typical sad song or with grand moms in their 70's and 80's wailing and screaming, but you see something so different here. And the guitar is followed by the sequence thats typical of a Lori song, amazing to hear the song now. One of the reasons I would wish to see RDB again is 'Luka Chuppi'.(The other reason being the dialogues. I couldnt follow them at few places, especially the Punjabi dialogues for I dont know Punjabi :(.I missed a few jokes as well because of this. So next time, I would like to follow the dialogues in a better way)Waheeda Rehman and her expressions in 'Luka Chuppi', amazing, she has lived her character as well. Guitar feels so good in 'Roo baa roo" song as well. 'Khalbali' and 'Paatshaala' songs rock and the latter's lyrics are too good and funny if you concentrate. Today, I have been hearing only RDB at work :)

Next to the feeling "How many more times would we see story of Bhagath Singh, Azad and et al on a movie screen?". I have never watched a Bhagath Singh movie before, but I dont think that matters.I think RDB's main intention was not to tell that story, it was just used to co-relate the situation that existed some 90 years back and what it is today and how a group of young people responded in the same way as what those guys did 90 years back.We had people fighting for Freedom with Ahimsa, and also with guns. Today, cant someone fight against corruption with guns?For people who havent seen any Bhagath Singh movie, we might appreciate both parts, others would appreciate what these guys do in RDB.

And to the famous criticism about RDB that the climax was sloppy, I think there is nothing wrong with the climax. Initially, I also got a feeling that we are having an over exaggerated climax, but after thinking over it for some time, I feel that nothing was wrong with that. It has happened in this country isnt it? We lost a Prime Minister in this country in a similar fashion because a section of people thought what the PM did was totally outrageous and seeked a revenge. If it can happen to a PM, why not to a defence minister? I think that when you lose a person whos so close to you in a way that happened to Maddy in RDB,your mind might think in a similar fashion and you might do the same thing. But, do I ask you to do the same thing? No, am not. But whats potrayed in RDB can very well happen or is happening already; many people might be forced to take a similar path to seek injustice and revenge and the message of RDB is to just prevent something from that happening to this country. Few people even say that no one would kill college students like that. I ask you,why wont anyone do that? You barge into AIR with guns and take control of it, make an announcement that you have killed the defence minister, why wont anyone not think that you are from a terrorist organisation? Of course, you would be shot dead like those five guys. Nothing wrong with the climax, I believe.Totally acceptable, to me atleast!

One more great thing about RDB is that it is not preachy. It doesnt have long and lengthy sentimental dialogues. It conveys the message through a lot of comedy and entertainment.Thats what would make it a great movie and a 'must watch' movie.And to people who feel that the message RDB wanted to potray is not clear, here it is, its crystal clear through this dialogue of RDB. I might not repeat it verbatim, but the gist is this:"There are two kinds of people who live in this world, one who see things happening bad around them, take no notice of it, live with it and keep moving on. And there is this other kind which takes the responsibilty of changing things in the world on their shoulders and lead their life fulfilling these tasks which they have set themselves".

While you think about it as to which category you are in and what are you going to about it(if at all you want to do something to about), let me go and make a phone call to certain someone that I indeed have fallen in love with Rang De Basanti.

Bosun and Putty

2006-02-03T06:45:00.000-05:00

Those are my words of the week. I have been doing Deccan Herald Crosswords these days religiously, for almost two months now. I do it on all weekdays,Monday to Friday.I am so passionate about it and there is this urge to complete the crossword everyday. It has proven to be a good exercise. I do the Easy Crossword, not the Cryptic one. This habit started due to my English teacher, and Thanks to her. As a part of the Fluency course, she insisted that we do this everyday, an exercise to improve the vocabulary.Apart from words, we get to know many things like places,animals,plants,rivers,wine varieties,army ranks, etc...

This week came across this clue:Petty Officer(5). Initially considered them as two seperate words:Petty and Officer. So was thinking on the lines of an officer who's petty. Was breaking my head and couldnt get an answer. Then found out that I need to consider the words together:'Petty Officer' is a rank in the navy. Went through the navy insignia of U.S,U.K,NATO and what not and still no answer to the clue. Finally, took the crude way of solving.Going through the dictionary for five letter words with second letter as O, 4th and 5th as U and N respectively and got BOSUN. Almost an hour's fight for this word.

Yesterday, it was the same with PUTTY.The clue was Stiff Paste(5). I had got the first two letters as P and U.And the fourth letter was initially wrong for me. Got it as 'I', while it should have been a 'T'.So after much of brain racking and back tracking, got the answer changed for the word that was causing the 'I' to be there where it should have been a 'T' and finally, got you PUTTY.The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear PUTTY is the utility software which we are so familiar of. Now I know what PUTTY can also mean.I almost gave up on this yesterday, but somehow pulled it off. Now you all know how much hardwork I do at the office!

Anyway,if you havent noticed it yet, I started compiling the words I learn from everyday's crossword and am updating my word blog everyday. This, I have started from Feb 1. I am planning to do it on all weekdays as long as I solve the Deccan crossword and as long as I have enthu to post the words on the blog. As with everything else,things start off well, slowly the enthu goes down and completely disappears one day. Lets see how long this goes on. There might be some common words in the daily list as well, like USHER for example, from yesterday. I know what the word means, but when I was solving the crossword,the word didnt strike my mind when I saw the clue:Guide (5), and I knew that the second letter of the answer was 'S'. So I am compiling those words as well, I mean the words which are so common but dont strike your mind when it matters!

Roger,Rs. 20 I lost and etc...

2006-01-30T05:58:00.000-05:00

I think in everybody's life, we come across some person (or persons if we are lucky), of whom we become an avid fan of. Fan to such an extent that we start doing things which in normal situations we wont do.Things which, when we look back makes us wonder why we did it in the first place.We feel adrenaline rush.We feel emotions which we never feel for anyone or anything else.(No,am not talking about love).Take Roger Federer in my case. Australian Open 2006, 4th round singles match:Roger Federer vs Tommy Haas. I went around saying that this is a tougher test for Roger(Haas having beaten him few weeks back in an exhibition match). Roger won the first two sets 6-4 6-0. People ,who expected a tough match, started vacating Rod Laver Arena. I was not following the scores for the first two sets. When I came back to office, I saw the scoreline and was happy.Not that bad as what I expected, huh! And then, it all started going wrong for Roger. Haas won the third and the fourth 3-6 and 4-6. Then, my hands started shivering. My legs and hands went cold. No, Federer cant lose this. How can he? The fifth set went too close initially and then the Swiss Master delivered it when it mattered the most. He went on to win the last four games and the set 6-2 and the match. What a relief!

Next came the QF against Nikolay Davydenko.Frankly speaking, I thought Haas was a tougher opponent than Nikolay Davydenko. I predicted a safe passage to the final for Roger where he would fight it against David Nalbandian.But no, I was proved wrong. The Russian won the second set and what an action in that third set. My heart beat would have never been that fast like what it was during that third set. Roger serving 5-6 down. 15-40 and two set points to be saved.And he did that.In the tie breaker, Roger was down 3-6. Three more set points saved. Again down 6-7, one more set point saved. Finally he got a set point at 8-7 and Roger converts. What a relief, once again!

Thats the greatest thing about these great players. They dont break down when they are down and deliver the most when it matters. After Sampras, I think its only Roger who rarely shows any emotion on court.He would be cruising easily to a win:No emotion. Bad line calls. Just a look at the line, and he would just walk off. He would be a set and a break down. No emotion. No frustration. And thats one of his greater strengths. He never loses his composure.He never questions his abilities. Never thinks that he is going to lose a match. What a self confidence! I have never seen anyone save 6 set points and win a set like what Roger did that day. And to add more to that, I had to cut short my sojourn to Chennai(thanks to CAS) to come back and see the finals yesterday.I cant miss to see Roger lifting the cup, can I?

Again in the finals, he lost the first set, was down a break in the second, two points in the third game of the second set when he could have been double break down. Did he lose his cool? No. Mr.Cool is Mr.Hot when it matters. Again 6-5 second set and Baghdatis was serving to force a tie break. Was up 40-0 on his serve and Federer broke his serve from there to win the set 7-5.He did not stop there, did he?Won 11 games in a row, and before Baghdatis could figure out what was happening,we were in the fourth set, Federer up 3-0.Amazing to watch you play Federer. And his acceptance speech after lifting the cup is something we would remember not for what he said, but for what he did not say.Roger Federer can cry! Thats news to me. Finally some emotion from him."Its all coming out now", he said. I think we need a role model like Federer. People say that we have never got a World Number One who is so much approachable to fans off court like Roger.He maintains low profile unlike some other tennis players who spend more time endorsing different brands than playing tennis. How many television ads do we see Roger in?I havent seen any. I like things like this and I like his dominance in Men's tennis.I wish he wins a Grand Slam this year. Wimbledon and US Open should be of no problem to him.May the Sorcerer cast some spell on Roland Garros and win the French this time somehow. I would like to see that happen this year.

Lets compare men's tennis and women's tennis over the last few years. Starting from 2004, out of the 9 Grand Slams so far, we have got 8 different champions for Women's Singles while Federer has won 6 out the 9! And no woman has won more than one grand slam in a single year, while Roger won 3 in 2004 and 2 in 2005.Amazing stuff. I like Roger to break Sampras' record of 14 and set a new Grand Slam record which would be very difficult to break for any other person in the future. Talking about Women's tennis, there is no one dominating over there. The No: 1 spot dangling like never before. It was great to watch Steffi- Seles battle in the 90's. We lack something like that now. Women's tennis produces so many Ova's every year, but no one is dominating like Navrotilova.And players are plagued by injuries like never before. Aus Open has tradionally had many players pull out.But never have I witnessed a singles' champion who has won three out of her seven matches 'cos of retirement. And that too, two of them were during her semifinal and the final.

I think players are stressed out more these days because of more number of tournaments.Lindsay remarked last year that after the US Open when they normally expect to play the year ending WTA Tour Championship and rest, they instead have so many other tournaments in between and that stresses them a lot. Many of the players cant afford to miss them because, the competition at the top is too tough.Look at this. This was the situation at Aus Open 2006. Lindsay lost the No 1 spot after her QF loss.After that, if Clijsters wins her QF against Hingis, she is the new No 1. If Clijsters loses the match and if Mauresmo wins the Open, then Mauresmo is the new No 1.It is that difficult to stay No 1 in Women's tennis these days. And there is so much of power play into women's tennis these days. Gone are the days when there was grace, poise and elegance which we saw in 80's and 90's. Its power, power and more power and that means you are drained a lot and you dont stay fit for tournaments.

If its that difficult at the top for women, then think about the situation below rank 30.I want to talk about Sania Mirza here.It is good that we have found a sportsperson apart from a cricketer who gets the whole nation chanting and praying(Though I sincerely doubt that many young men in India are after Sania for a reason different altogether and not her tennis).So, when she was up against Michaella Krajicek,who was ranked below her, I was confident that Sania would win.I bet twenty rupees on her that she would win. I was up at 5.30 AM to watch her play and what an appalling display from her. She doesnt know to serve(This is a fact everyone knows) and to add to that, she didnt even know to keep the ball in play. Everything was going either out of the court or directly into the net. It seems, her forehand is her strength. I wont say so after seeing that match and her opponent played intelligently, knowing how weak her forehand is. After losing that twenty rupees, I decided that I wont bet on Sania, ever in my life again. It was funny to hear Amritraj's comments during the match. So much was his expectation out of the match that even before Krajicek's ball goes long, he would cry that its 'Out' only to find the ball land in. And right after Sania lost the match, they showed this Club HP Ad, where she plays the violin and the three guys say "Sania Mirza ko violin bajaana nahin aatha". I was saying to myself: "Sania Mirza ko pehle tennis khelna nahin aatha". It was funny to watch the Ad right after her loss.I was laughing all over it.

I have heard people say this:There is not much of difference in points between players who are ranked between 30-50 in women's tour. Its all seperated by a difference of ten or twenty points. So its no big deal in getting ranked 32 or 52. If I am 52 and you are 32 and we both enter a tournament. I enter the third round and you lose in the first, then I may well become 32 and you would drop down to 52.So, if Sania Mirza can break into top 15, then I would agree that shes a better player. Atleast there is a huge difference of points between the top 15 say, and the rest. As long as Sania is entering so many tournaments and gets into 2nd and 3rd rounds, she would be swaying between ranks 30-50 depending upon where she loses. She needs to go beyond the intial rounds. She needs to improve her serve. She needs to learn to be patient and keep the ball in play. All the power play and going for corners and lines is Ok. But that cant be done on every ball, you see. You cant hit a down the line winner or cross court winner on every ball you get. You need to be intelligent, adaptive and patient Sania. Then you would become a better player and I want you to become one.

Bye 2005, Welcome 2006

2005-12-30T03:25:00.000-05:00

2005. Looking back at it, here is what I wanted to do at the beginning of the year:

So what plans for 2005? Hmm. Lemme think..
1) Have to be serious abt higher studies and by the end of 2005, this plan should get executed successfully.
2) Hmmm. Towards the end of 2004, started taking care of physical health by going to gym.. Should continue that and must be regular..."Commitment" is the word here...
3) Should learn swimming..
4) Should get my DL done...
5) Should learn atleast one foreign language...Why? Just like that!

Ok, enough.. I myself am not sure how much of the above i would be able to complete successfully.
But if 1) is taken care of properly, I would win the award for "Happiest Person 2005".

Now, at the end the year, do I get the award? Yes, sure. I am happy that Item number 1) was taken care of very well. I am satisfied with the progress I made over there.I thank everyone who have helped me with this. Thanks, guys and gals.

What about 2,3,4 and 5? Well,huuh,ummm, I score a perfect zero over there. And thats what I carry over to 2006 now.

What else happened in 2005? Travelling, I did a lot. Kochi, Hogenekkal,Madurai,Hampi,Mysore,Mantralaya,Delhi,Pilani.I went around a lot of places. Was also the year when the mighty RSAS got split :( and I started living alone. Living alone had its own +es and -es. I have experienced both and started adjusting to it.

Succumbed to a new disease called 'Bloghopping' this year. Its a good plague actually. When you feel completely bored and have nothing else to do, browsing through blogs kills time better(!?) than anything else. It was also the Blogdom where I met a few good people this year. First it was Poornima. What do I write about her! One person who never ceases to amaze me. Am not the only one whos a fan of her writing, see her blog for yourself.The list simply grows everyday. One thing that she can do better than many of us is writing. She has promised that if she writes a book in the future, I am going to get the first copy of it signed by her. Have not met her personally yet. Wish that happens in 2006.

Next, Kalaivani Ramea Kubendran. Oops, what a big name.For those who dont know it,'Ramea' is pronounced as in 'Raamiyaah'.Then why her name is not Kalaivani Raamiyaah instead!?.I better dont talk about her name. :) Tatoonies. What do I say about it? How many fan following this lady from LA had, many of us know. It all went till having a "Rasigar Mandram" (Fan Club) for her.Hilarious posts of her made many laugh,laugh and laugh and one post of her was getting forwarded all around the world.Good thing about Poornima and Kalai is that they both have apt pictures for most of their posts. The former googles it up and the later draws them up on her own. Sad that Tatoonies got deleted. One of my wishes in 2006 is that let Tatoonies be back on the blogdom.

Next, Prabhu Krishnamoorthy aka Ferrari. This guy is simply amazing. When my mood is really off, when I am very much frustrated at work, I read his "He-She" posts everytime these days. Wonderful! That changes my mood altogether. I havent tried contacting him, aah, hes in Bangalore only, hope to meet you Prabhu in 2006. I also started writing in Tamil this year after a long time. Thanks to Narayanan, Hariprasad(Ethiri) and Adengappa. They had encouraged me then apart from others I already know.I havent got time to keep in touch with these people.Shall do it in 2K6. And hope to continue making new good friends like these people, in 2006.

What else happened in 2005 in and around me? My uncle got married, brother passed out of college,two of my friends made into IIMs,one went to Germany for his MS. Hmmm, I have to mention about one more person with whom I have a war of words literally, every time when we speak/chat. Meet Mr.Vishnuprasad Ramachandran,Graduate Student, Stanford University. Actually, I have to mention this, he helped me a lot with my goal 1) for this year.So I thank him for that. But, that does not mean that I am going to stop fighting with him. Why do we fight? Just like that, for no obvious reasons. I think that I can play with words and pull down his legs better and he thinks he is the best in this business. So we would continue doing this in 2006.

I have also made a few good friends at work this year. Hope to make more in 2006. At the very end of the year, I have started listening to English music, thanks to my new English teacher. I would write about her and my English class learnings, may be somewhere in the next few posts. I also have to tell Jike about "The Man who sells me Porn". He is a very good friend I made this year.I would try doing that as well in the coming posts. And Jike, its his first birthday tomorrow.I wont be here to wish him when he turns 1. So, here we go:
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Jike
Happy Birthday to you

Plans for 2K6? 2,3,4 and 5 above should be enough. I am confused between French and German when it comes to plan 5. Anybody who can help me with that? And if things go well as I expect it to be, I would be doing a similar post next year from a different time zone. Happy New Year, everybody. Hope it turns out to be a prosperous one for all of you.

113 Hearts

2005-12-20T07:21:00.000-05:00

'Chandramukhi Praanasakhi' is the only movie in Kannada so far which I would have watched completely. I liked it, especially the climax. Not that I understand Kannada completely: I can read and write in Kannada, but I cant converse fluently in Kannada yet. At the time when I watched this picture, some three years ago, my Kannada knowledge was poorer than what it is now, but I was atleast able to get the gist of the movie(that is possible in any Indian movie, you say!? I agree).

Music was good in this movie and there is this beautiful song where the word "Manasu" gets repeated so many times. I was asked to count it when I was watching the movie. I failed then. After three years, got the same song at a net cafe while generally exploring the machine I was browsing. Now that I felt immensely bored and vetti at work, decided would do the counting. I checked the count by playing the song four times.Three out of four times got the same number. My colleague said that the next step in the testing process would be cross-verification. i.e search for the song lyrics and confirm the count. Searched it on the web, could find the song but not the lyrics. So decided that I would make one if its not there. So here is the song lyrics. Now, I finished the testing process. My count was right.

Download and hear the song when you get time. Nice song. I dont understand the lyrics completely,but it sounds good though.

Yeah, now you can sing along with the lyrics I have written.

Song: Manase O Manase
Film: Chandramukhi Praanasakhi(Kannada)
Singers: Chitra and Badri Prasad

Manase o manase enthaa manase
Manase yeley manase
Manase o manase enthaa manase
Manase ola manase
Manasinalli yaava manasidhey
Yaava manasigey nee manasu maadidhey
Manasilladha manasinindha manasu maadi madhura manasigeyey
Manasukottu manasanne maraithu bittaya
Manasukottu manasolagey kulithu bittaya
Manase o manase enthaa manase
Manase yeley manase

O manase, ondhu manasala eradu manasu ella manasa niyamaa
O manase, eradu haalu manasalondhey manasu idhdharey premaa
Manasaako prethi manasikku manasothiruvaa
Yeley manasu yela manasina manaseralla
Nela manasu nija manasi naaladha manasaa
Husi manasu antha manasena manasinalla
Manasey manasey hasi hasi manasey
Manasu ondhu manasirou, manasinaa
Thirugu manasigu marugu manasidhey
Bharadha manasigu karugu manasidhey
Mayi manasale manasidharey manasu manasa hididha bittareyey
Ummala manasa seethorumolu keladhu manasu
Manasello manasu maadu manasaa manasuu
Manase o manase

O manase, manasu manasalidhdhareney alli manashaanthi
O manase, manasu manasa keli manasu kottari manasaakshi
Manasaare manasittu haduva manasu
Manasoorey yagodhu manasikku gothu
Manasidharey maargaantha heluva manasu
Mannisuva manasalli manasida hothu
Manasey manasey bisi bisi manasey
Manasu ondhu manasirou, manasinaa
Thumula manasigu komala manasidhey
Thodhalu manasigu mridhula manasidhey
Manasiche manasa olagey manaswechey manasa horageyey
Maanspoorthi manasa poorthi iruvudhey manasu
Manasello manasu maadu manasaa manasuu
Manase o manase
Manase yeley manase
Manase ola manase

Naughty or Nasty?

2005-12-01T02:13:00.000-05:00

Long time since I gave a T-quote to Jike. This time it comes from my colleague who saw it on a guy's T-shirt. Actually, it is a statement rather than a quote. I am accepting that I have been what my fellow tamilians would call a 'pazham' when it comes to matters like these, and my knowledge is not that good. Seems like this is a famous sequence of numbers which has got extended on this guy's T-shirt.(Like a corollary to a theorem!?) So if you are able to get it without reading the explanation section, then your knowledge in this matter is good, otherwise, join my club. Here we go, this is the sequence:

172214

Got it? Are you giving it a "Huh, such a buildup for such a silly thing?" look? Or are you trying to find some weird relationship like 17 + 5 = 22 and 22 - 8 = 14, like that? Unable to make sense out of it?

I was not. So was my colleague. Poor chaps we are. Lets go to the explanation section now.

Explanation: It is very simple. Read the numbers in "Our Raashtriyabaasha" aka Hindi and read it with spaces between them 1 7 2 2 14 and it would all make sense now. If you know Hindi, you would get it, if you do not know Hindi, ask me, shall tell you. Exercise caution if you are asking someone else who knows Hindi.They might not like you at all after you ask them this.Also, looks like 1722 is a famous number sequence that everyone knows! Is it? I wasnt aware of that!

The way you take this:Naughty or Nasty depends upon you. Some might like the way the statement is concealed in a number sequence and appreciate the way it has been done. Some might feel like going and hitting this guy, what the hell is he doing, wearing this in a public place for everyone to see! Certainly some newspapers,get a chance, would have a picture of this T-shirt and say "Look where the country is heading to!".

For most of the people the numbers wont make sense, so lets forget them. I dont understand what is the need for someone to sport a T-shirt with this statement.Yeah, now that I have seen and understood it,what do you want me to do to you now? What is the intention behind the T-shirt? Come to you and say, "Hey,Congrats. How did it go?". I definitely dont wanna do that. Or if I know you well, do I have to become proud of you and go around shouting in the streets "My friend(or whatever) has grown up big!". No,I wont do it either.Or you want people to envy you? If that is the case, definitely you are successful in your attempt man.I can imagine few reading it in the road and give a big sigh: "Haa, lucky guy!". True,few people would do that, lets not deny that fact.

For me, I would look it as a statement, I definitely appreciate the way the message was hidden and smile at the naughtiness.Yeah, if that was your intention, then with respect to me you succeeded my friend.But still I feel there is no need for someone to publicise and boast on something so intimate between two people(its not 2 in this case, thats agreed).May be it was sported just for fun,and it is not that we have not talked about sex openly in this country.We have been doing it both explicitly or in a polished way, one way or other. We gave Kamasutra to the world, what about the paintings at Khajuraho,and I have seen numerous temples all around India where there are statues depicting sexual acts explicitly(I have few snaps as well, if you want it, lemme know ;)...). Take my literature or my film songs: We always had an 'Aganaanooru' along with from 'Puranaanooru', Thirukkural had 'Inbathuppal' with it, and with respect to Tamil film songs, what Kannadasan said in a much polished manner that day, Vairamuthu and others today are saying explicitly, but the thing is, it was always said.I definitely enjoy it when its expressed in a subtle way. I would have appreciated the T-shirt much better if it had been some funny cartoon depicting the need for safe sex, but for this one, I smile at the creativity(!?), put it aside and move on!

A new blog!

2005-11-28T10:49:00.000-05:00

Started a new blog today. A tamil blog. The link is here. Why sudden enthu? Read a few tamil blogs in the last few weeks and felt like having one for myself. Initially I had posted that tamil post here in this blog, but it looked awkward, with both tamil and an english post side by side, so I decided I would create one seperately for the tamil blog.

It has been ages since I have written in Tamil and I have almost forgotten it. While it comes to choose between the 'na's or 'ra's or 'la's, I am struggling now. Which one should I use out of the two for this word!? Bad, very bad! May be it goes to show that you forget everything in this world (that includes your mother tongue as well) if you are not in a constant touch with that. Ok, now that I have started this, I want to continue writing in Tamil. One thing is, I found it very difficult to type in English and transliterate it to Tamil and post. I used this software called 'Baraha' and I am learning the ways as to how quickly I can type it out using shortcuts and all that. If anybody knows a better software than that or better way of doing this, let me know. People who already have Tamil blogs and reading this post, you might help me out. Of course, I need a freely downloadable software :D

Fatty, Smiling and Singing

2005-11-23T15:04:00.000-05:00

These were the two comments by two influential people in my life. Both their names start with S, both know me for some time now and I met both of them in two different places under different circumstances recently and both had to say this:
1. I have become fat
2. I have got a huge smile on my face like never they have seen in me before.

It is funny how people tell me this: "Hey dude,(aah, the wretched word again!) are you hitting the gym regularly these days?". How nice, indirect way of saying, "Hey idiot, why dont you do something about your body?". Few are direct though. They tell me face to face, better go to gym, otherwise you would start looking bad. What can I do? I cant control eating a lot. I accept, I eat a lot and I dont exercise. Hmm, sometime I have to start gymming regularly.

And with respect to smile, I am happy from within and so it shows up on face. Nothing special about that. One of the S'es above even asked me whether it was because I got some 'chick' in my life now. I told S that may be I am happy 'cos I dont currently have one!

Anyways, these are some songs am absolutely mad at, right now.Listening to them many times these days. Giving a list here. You might have heard them all.In case you havent try them and tell me how did you like them:
1. Sindoori Aasmaan Hai from the hindi movie James
2. Sooraj Ki Kiranon from the hindi movie James

Man, Sonu Nigam's voice is like too good in these two songs and what a find in that female voice of Shweta Pandit. I am dying for these two songs. Absolutely slow songs and if you listen them back to back, you wont feel that they are two different songs.

3. Kanaa Kaanum Kaalangal from the tamil movie 7G Rainbow Colony
4. Lajjavathiyey from the tamil movie Four Students

These two songs, I agree are little old, but I started becoming mad at them recently.Feels great listening to them.

5. Poo Maalai Vaangi Vandhaan from the tamil movie Sindhu Bhairavi

An absolute classic. No matter how much ever hard I try, I dont come even to close to Jesudas while singing this one. I hope to reach his stage one day though!

High-Fives

2005-11-16T09:07:00.000-05:00

Ok, replies to the tag from CB and also from freeingmind. Here we go:

Five movies which I like the most

1. Page 3 (Hindi)
2. Black (Hindi)
3. Munnabhai MBBS (Hindi)
4. The Monster (English)
5. Cast Away (English)

Actually I have more to add. But then, the post is High-Fives!

Five things I can never live without

Oops. This question has made me think a lot.Cha,I can adjust to anything in life:If the food is bad,ok, I would eat whatever is there. No TV, no problem for me.No job, I am more than happy to sit idle. What can be done to me?I am thinking what I do everyday time and again that certain things have become integral part of me. After serious thinking, this is what the list came out to be:

1. Myself,hale,healthy and breathing. An obvious thing, but its important, you see

2. Vegetarian Food. I can eat anything you give me veg, even if its little bad in taste. But no non-veg please

3. Some sort of communication tool:It can be e-mail,messenger,telephone or mobile phone.I usually like to be connected to my family and friends.Even if thats not the case, I might use many of them to just pass time.Not that I need all of them, but atleast one of them

4. Worrying,thinking unnecessary things and spending time doing unimportant things. This is based on what I have been so far.I wish to remove this from the list one day though!

5. Singing,Songs and Music.Not that am a great singer or I listen to great variety of music, but I do sing within myself if I am doing nothing. I sing when am happy, I sing when am sad, all inside of me.No one might notice it.I like songs with good lyrics and I like analysing song lyrics.And I do listen to songs a lot.

Five most favourite celebrities

Aaah. Very few that I know and very few in that I admire.I give them all in five pairs.

1. Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, Formula 1 Drivers.
Most of them who know me, know that am a hardcore MS fan.Kimi might be a surprise to many.Effect of 2005 season.Suzuka 2005 is a race I would never forget in life.And now MS retires,I have someone whom I would support.

2. Sean Hayes and Megan Mullaly, actors.
For the uninitiated, Jack and Karen of the sitcom 'Will and Grace'.Best comedy actors on earth,according to me.

3. Asha Bhonsle and P.Suseela, singers, Indian Cinema.
How did they get the voice they have, is a mystery!God only knows...

4. Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf,tennis players. I am a huge fan of these two.

5. Adolf Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi,national leaders.
Seems like a paradox,but they have something in common.They were able to charge up the whole of the nation and fight for a cause which they believed in.One was successful and the other failed in his mission,but the thing is,it is amazing to note that, one man if he wishes to change the world around him, he can do it! I would like to read the autobiographies of these two someday in my life.

Five things I miss now

What I would say is we dont 'really' miss anything in life that because of that everything else stops and life comes to a standstill.What if you are staying away from family and friends? Do you miss them? Yes, but what is the effect on you? You feel sad, yes, but life goes on.So there is no point in missing anything in life.Again goes to the same old philosophy:If you miss something so badly in life and if its something attainable, you would do all possible things to achieve that thing.Also, you always know that you have to miss few things for a period of time in your life so that you grow higher,better and stronger.

Ok, stop being preachy.People who read this, know all these stuff.Come to the question. What do I miss? Yeah, if these things were there, I would feel a lot better, let me put it that way.But is that what is meant by missing? Hmm, lets not get into that question, but lets go to the answers

1.Parents and home food.

2.People to stay along with.Sometimes solitude can be so bad that it would drive you to do crazy things. You would start thinking all crap and do all crap.So I miss my friends who would have been excellent people to stay with.

3.College:The grades I missed and the assignments I didnt do and copied instead :).Might sound silly to many, but I mean it a lot.If I imagine the situation where things are not the way they are with respect to these and much better instead,I would have been a different person in a different world.

4.The trust, good will and good relations that I had broken with few people.I cant do much about it except think about it and curse myself for doing the same.I wish things would have stayed much better with them.

5.Strong will power, specific aim in life, dedication and continous effort in achieving that goal

Anyway,some of these things I cant change even I wish to. So no point cribbing about those.If I want some thing so badly and if thats achievable, I would have to get it. So let me stop it there.

Five things I plan to do in near future

Aaaah. Not the kind of person who would 'plan and execute' effectively. Planning, yeah, am good at it.The problem comes with execution. Anyway, the question is what have I planned?

1. To do higher studies abroad
2. To learn swimming
3. To get Driver's License
4. To re-join some other gym
5. To be happy,worry free,sincere towards my goals above

Last movie I borrowed to watch & still not given back

I am sincere with respect to this though. I return all of them promptly well before the deadline :)Chaos might say Ghajini,but that is either yours or your room mates' responsibility to return :)
(May be I shall make a seperate post on my CD renting episodes).

By the way,in the post of High-Fives, why did this question come up? Sambhar only knows!

Five books I love

1.The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
2.The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.
3.Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
4.Harry Potter collection of JK Rowling
5.Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Five people I pass this HIGH FIVES to

Hmm, after browsing little bit as to who has not yet been tagged in the list of blogs I read, I pass the baton to:
1.Venkat
2.Vishnu
3.Maharaj
4.Bhavani
5.Poornima

There are others as well who havent been tagged yet,but they hardly post, so I didnt bother tagging them.Let me see how many of these five continue the High-Fives thing.Guys and gals, do it if you get time and most importantly, if you want to!

Ok,me gonna take some rest from blog world and also from tag posts. Thats two in a day.Be back some time later. Till then,jike and others, have a good time.

Book[Tagg]ed - I

2005-11-16T03:22:00.000-05:00

Ok, This is the first of the tag posts. I was tagged on June 19 by Woodworm,these are my replies.Very late response, I know. Just was too lazy to write on it.

Anyways,Here we go:

Total Books I own:
If that meant non-academic books:Hmm. Very less. Say,less than 20. Even if it meant academic books, the answer remains the same.I used to take novels from Woodworm,his library was freely accessible to me and I miss it. I buy books very rarely.

Last books I bought:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin S.Sharma

Last book I read:
The Monk who sold his Ferrari

Currently reading:
Nothing. I have borrowed three books from my friends though:
Disgrace by JM Coetzee,
A Gateway to India by E.M.Forster
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Though started a bit on Disgrace,havnet continued it.The goal for me now is to finish these three next before buying or borrowing further.

Books that have had an impact on me:
1. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Amazing book.If I have to create too much of hype out here I would say this: I would rate this book to be my bible.The greatest thing about this book is its simplicity.Its very very simple and very very powerful.Kind of book that can change your life for better, forever. Ok,coming out of the hype thing,I loved the simple story of this spanish boy,Santiago,his dream and how he realises it.If you compare this book with The Monk who sold his Ferrari, you would clearly see the difference between the two.The goal of both the books is kind of same, but I found The Alchemist better because, it was not too preachy, didnt bother you with any principles or mantras. Agreed, its a fable,but the message was conveyed better.Loved it

2. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Definitely would go down as one of the favourite books for many who would have read it.The story was told in such a way that I couldnt figure out truth from fiction. Dan Brown does a lot of research before writing on a subject and also wants to be in the centre of controversies, I believe.What other impact did it have on me!? Yeah, I searched the web whether Jesus Christ indeed had a wife and a child or not, it also made me buy Angels and Demons and made me read Deception Point. Digital Fortress, I havent read it, I was adviced not to!

3.The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
I was told that the book would be damn depressing. Yes, it was, indeed.But I liked this one a lot.Leaves you with a heavy heart and makes you feel sad.Because I was able to identify myself with the central character many times that I liked it, I dont know, may be yes.

Apart from these three, yeah add these as well. I have reviewed these books already on the blog, so am not going too much into them

4. The Life of Pi - Yann Martel

5. Good Earth - Pearl S Buck

6. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

7. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
Good collection of short stories. Liked all of them except the one on that house.

Books that did not have any impact on me:
1. Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Guess I read it just for Namesake. Again was reviewed already in the blog.So skipping details.

2. Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie
I dont know,somebody explain me what is good about this novel, I found it very very boring.I was not able to appreciate it much.There are books like say, The God of Small Things, which I wont say was a great book, but atleast I didnt feel boring reading it. I was able to appreciate Ms.Roy's book if I see it from a child's point of view. But how much ever I look into Moor's Last Sigh, it doesnt make much sense to me.

Now, I have made this post as Part 1 of the series. I guess I would write a post like this every year once or if I am enthued enough at regular intervals and give my views on the books I have read in that period.

And I am not tagging anyone specifically in this post.Anyone whos reading this post, if they wish to write on the same lines, do write about the books you have read and what you liked,what you didnt like and leave me a note. I would read you.

Cb, your tag post next.Looks like Freeingmind has also tagged me on High Fives. So would write for you two and all those who might/have tagged me on High Fives

PS: Madam, if you reading this post, is it from The Alchemist that you got Maktub? I thought of you when I came across the word :)

She sang!

2005-11-13T07:26:00.000-05:00

I moved towards her cabin, slowly and steadily and gave her door a gentle knock. She turned towards the door as I entered her room. There she was,in a green sari,no major changes around her.The first thing I asked her was that whether she recognised me(I least expected her to, for she meets so many people like me in her everyday life).She said that I have grown large(thats her polite way of saying that I have become fat!?),that I have become darker than before and I have got this huge smile on my face which she has not seen before and then she said that if she is not mistaken, I am... she uttered my name,bang on target the first time,without any hesitation or even a second of thinking. I was amazed,stupefied and whatever word you can think of for getting amazed, think of it. I didnt expect that from her.I told her that she was too good at that and that I never thought she would remember me by my name.

Then we started talking.She was the kind of person whom anyone would easily get friendly with. The conversation went into so many different things. We talked about the place as such, how it has changed so much infrastructure wise, but not much other wise.People have not changed much, I saw the same old faces mostly,but yeah few of them,we miss."This is not a place where changes are possible so easily", she said.But yeah,I have seen her drive a Bajaj Chetak before, I now see her driving a car.She says that, it helps her a lot as she travels a lot to the places nearby. She admitted that the number of four wheelers and two wheelers have increased in the place apart from the mobile phones. We talked about her husband, her two kids, got lost while admiring the sketches drawn by one of her kids.She would then tell me about the students these days, how bold and self-managing they are, compared to the timid faces of us she used to see long back. She says that students these days have become so smart and they dont need much of their help. And that smile on her face is something I would never forget. I am a big fan of her smile.The thirty minute talk I would have had with her after some years now,is something that I would definitely cherish.

She sang(as always)
I listened to her(as always)
We talked, we laughed,exchanged stories(as always)
Then we departed(as always)
Only to meet some other day(as always)

Ping Pong, Ding Dong, Sing Song

2005-10-28T09:01:00.000-04:00

Played Table Tennis (TT) after a long long time.Not that am good at any game on this earth, there are many games where i suck big time,example, I dont like cricket, I cant play video games, but TT is something, where I would say I am Ok. Not too good, not bad either. Last time I played which I remember, should have been way back at college, that is like good two and a half years back! TT after such a long time! And I was too good this time. Would have played some eight games and won all of them. You would say jike, that my opponenets would have been too weak, not the case either. I would say both of them would be at the same level as mine. Few games went close, but many games I thrashed them and it felt good.

Look at me(or for that matter many of the working class today). Physical exercise 0%. Stress 200%(Oh no, not that much of work stress for me, that was a generic scenario). Dont know how long our body would take this routine. People becoming fat day by day and getting all sorts of diseaes so early in life! But on the other side, I would tell you one more thing jike. They opened this gym at office recently and its a good hit. There are so many people who joined it.But dont know how many are regular(Managers of course, would be).But the thing is, people have realised the need of some sort of physical exercise in the present day work culture and thats a good thing. For me, no, I cant be regular or sincere towards these things, I would start it and enthu would go away soon. But, TT after so much time, body sweating hard, and winning games, it all felt good.And people, if you understand that your physical health is in a ding-dong situation,and do something about it, it would be great.

So what about sing song, you ask? Hmm, the other day I went to a Spa Lounge here. I dont drink, I dont smoke, I am single, so what was I doing there? Good question. Actually it was a Halloween party and it was a fund raising party for the kids of Asha and 'Dream a Dream', one more charitable organisation.When did people start celebrating Halloween in India!? Good question again jike and I dont know the answer! I did not and still dont have any idea of what halloween is supposed to be, and what i expected out of the party was to meet some kids and spend some time with them and have dinner and come back and what I got was completely different. It was all high class people over there and foreigners, people drinking, smoking(the shirt i wore still smells of cigarette) and after some time dancing! Initially it was all boring out there,but after some time we all got into the mood. No idea what freaking music or song was played by the DJ,but who the hell cares, all you have to do is dance and thats enjoyment, mind you. For a person who has never been to a pub, this was quiet an experience. "Did you dance?", you ask jike and my answer would be, "I tried to". Good thing was, met a few people from my college over there and it was nice talking to them after a long time. But the place, I tell you, was not something I have seen in my life before!

Anyway, am gonna be away for some time now, Happy Diwali to all who are reading this.Have a lot of travelling in front of me. Would tell about that later.

Message in the paint ?

2005-10-27T09:13:00.000-04:00

Ever noticed KSRTC buses where the 'Ladies' seats are painted in red, with a woman's face on it and other seats painted in green?
Government's way of saying "Stay away from danger!"?

Wow!

2005-10-22T09:56:00.000-04:00

I have a Nokia 6610 model and thanks to my colleague, installed the Nokia PC Suite for my model and it has been wow ever since. This is one of the many reasons why Nokia phones are damn good.

First had to explore my BIOS and had to enable the Infrared port on my laptop. Then, of course you have to enable the Infrared service on your mobile. Once that is done, you can do whatever you want like transferring files, contacts, music, create ringtones, create wallpapers and what not! Have been transferring some cool snaps from my laptop to my cell phone.

Also, i could send SMSes from my laptop and read SMSes from my laptop without even touching my cell phone!

Try it out with your Nokia model. You would enjoy this.

When memories can be erased...

2005-10-19T02:35:00.000-04:00

Yesterday night,saw a very good movie after some time: Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind.Now, I know where the Tamil movie: "Aa Aaah" was inspired from. Not that SJ Surya has copied it scene by scene, but yeah the central idea is same. But the Tamil movie, the director had the memories wear blue apparels so that audience dont get confused, but here in English, there is nothing like that. Thats what makes the movie more interesting to watch:which one is the memory and which one is the real. Initially, it was difficult for me to find that out, but later as the movie went on, it was simple.One thing which of course you can use to distinguish is Kate Winslet's hair colour: the memories are all red,and in the present she has the hair dyed in blue colour. Was surpised to see Jim Carrey in a serious role, and crying! But it all made sense later as to why he was chosen, when he has to act like a child.

Was able to understand nothing with the initial scenes as to whats going on with this movie. Later,at the end, when the first few scenes of the film get repeated again, it all made sense as to why those scenes were there in the first place. Very interesting theme, where the memories fight hard to make two people unite.If you can make yourself comfortable with the idea that science has advanced to such a stage that it can selectively erase certain memories which you wish to forget, then do watch the movie. Otherwise, you would call this movie a crap.Hmm, who knows a day may come when we can selectively erase our memories(People do suffer from various forms of amnesia, especially our politicians! )

Overall, movie worth a watch.I liked it.

Lunch Table Musings

2005-10-18T04:30:00.000-04:00

"Customer ke paas paisa hota hai,
Dhimaak nahin hota"

(Customers have money with them, but they dont have a mind.)

Though we all know it, we cannot escape from it. No use complaining about it.

I feel sorry for my team mate, SD at this point of time. Pity him, for he has to unnecessarily go through this process of Knowledge Transfer which most of the times we know is nothing but a total waste of time(my personal expeience atleast!). Read some 10 documents, attend some two or three KT sessions and you are done. Now, you have obtained the necessary 'knowledge' on the project and there you are, good to go! It doesnt matter how long the person who is giving KT has worked on the project, or if at all he has some knowledge on the project, a KT is to be there. No use in complaining, I know, just wanted to record SD in my diary.

May be I would be reading this post years later and would think of what SD has done to me and thank him every time I read this post.Thats the idea behind the post.

@SD:Yeah,even if its an excel application, it needs to be supported. Why? Customer Satisfaction, dear! My first thanks to you through this post. How many times I would end up thanking you, I dont know.

The voice of a stranger

2005-10-11T02:29:00.000-04:00

braggadocio \brag-uh-DOH-see-oh; -shee-oh; -shoh\, noun:
1. A braggart.
2. Empty boasting.
3. A swaggering, cocky manner.

Reference

22:30
The clothes I have soaked for washing on Friday night are still there. The bucket is almost full. Its Monday and I have not even cared to wash them. Thanks to the rain, even if I had hung them up for drying, they would not have dried.. I finally decide, I should wash them. 48 hours in the bucket and my clothes wanted to be free from bondage. I start picking them up one by one and releasing them from the water jail

22:43
My cell phone starts ringing. I leave my clothes in the bathroom and see how it is that is calling me this time. Hmm. Exactly the kind of person who would be calling me at this time of the night. Cant blame her as well. She is used to this type of work hours. Poor girl. Sometimes she goes to work at 9 AM and doesnt return home till 11 PM. Our conversations have always been after 10 PM these days. I pick up the phone and after the usual Hi's, How are you doing?, she says this to me.

"Now, close your eyes. Imagine X is in front of you"

This X is another friend of mine and this silly girl thinks I am in love with her.
I ask her,
"Why are you asking me to do this?".
"Do you remember the K.R.Vijaya song?".
"Yeah, Unnai Kaanaadha Kannum Kannalla. I do remember it vaguely, I guess. Long time since I have sung that song.".
"Can you sing it for me now?. I forgot the second stanza.".
"Not sure if I remember it completely, but I would make a try".
"Wait. Start it once I ask you to do so".
"Ok, as you say so"

Now, she is one of the two girls who ask to me sing and she likes this song very much in particular.It was a beauty from Kannadasan. Nothing like hearing P.Suseela back it up with her golden voice.

"Now, you can start".

"Unnai Kaanaadha Kannum Kannalla
Unnai Ennaadha Nenjum Nenjalla
Nee Sollaadha Sollum Sollalla
Nee Ilaamal Naanum Naanalla
Nee Ilaamal Naanum Naanalla

Ingu Nee Oru Paadhi, Naan Oru Paadhi
Idhil Yaar Pirindhaalum Vedanai Paadhi
Ingu Nee Oru Paadhi, Naan Oru Paadhi
Idhil Yaar Pirindhaalum Vedanai Paadhi
Kaalangal Maarum Kaatchigal Maarum
Kaadhalin Munne Neeyum Naanum Veralla

Unnai Kaanaadha Kannum Kannalla
Unnai Ennaadha Nenjum Nenjalla
Nee Sollaadha Sollum Sollalla
Nee Ilaamal Naanum Naanalla
Nee Ilaamal Naanum Naanalla"

"Hey, actually there are three stanzas to the song"
"But you always used to sing only two of them to me!"
"Yeah, i found out this extra one. Let me sing that"

"Yen Meniyil Unnai Pillayai Poley
Naan Vaari Anaippen Aasaiyinaaley"

"Uhhh, i forgot the rest of the stanza!"
"Hmm, its OK"
"Anyway, let me complete the last stanza for you"

"Oru Deivam Illaamal Kovilum Illai
Oru Kovililaamal Deepamum Illai
Oru Deivam Illaamal Kovilum Illai
Oru Kovililaamal Deepamum Illai
Nee Endhan Kovil, Naan Andha Deepam
Deivathin Munne Neeyum Naanum Veralla

Unnai Kaanaadha Kannum Kannalla
Unnai Ennaadha Nenjum Nenjalla
Nee Sollaadha Sollum Sollalla
Nee Ilaamal Naanum Naanalla
Nee Ilaamal Naanum Naanalla"

This is where I like Kannadasan a lot. Poetry, of course, is for you to interpret the way you like to. And this is how I interpret it. The previous stanza ended like:Kaadhalin Munne Neeyum Naanum Veralla. And the next stanza ended like:Deivathin Munne Neeyum Naanum Veralla. Thats Kannadasan's way of saying pure love you have for someone is the God.We dont need any other God on the earth. Not that am getting senti, but thats how I interpret it.And who else can sing it better than P.Suseela. Man, what a voice she had. The best! Anyway, back to the conversation.

"Hey that was damn good. You sang really superb. Your voice was great. I have someone here with me. I had put the phone on speaker and we were both listening to you singing. He wants to talk to you as well. Here, speak to him.He is a malayalee and doesnt know Tamil.So talk in English"

Wow! So i was singing to a stranger as well.That was a bit of surprise for me.

"Hai"
"Hai"
"You sang very well. Your voice is too good"
"Thanks. So did you understand a word of what I sang?"
"No, but music doesnt have any language!"
"Philosophy, huh?"
"No, yaar. Your voice is real good. Why dont you go and compete with SP?"
"SP?"
"SPB, SP Balasubramaniam"

Now, I was overwhelmed. This was going little too much. I dont know till now, whether he trully meant what he said or was it because my friend was besides him?

"Anyway, take care, good night.bye"
"Bye? I thought i was not done with my friend!"

Then my friend picked it up and she started praising me. I told her that I knew that my voice was good at a microphone and this was something I knew. Seems like they were coming in the bus back home and while they were talking, the conversation went into the topic of music and she liked this song and started singing it. Forgot the last stanza and thought would call me up and make me sing. The conversation went on and we hung up and I went back to my clothes.

23:04
I call her again. She has just entered her house.

"Hey, know what? I just remembered the stanza which I had forgotten. And I want to sing it for you"
"Yeah, go ahead"
"Whats happening? I hear a lot of disturbance around. You have switched on the TV?
"No, not me. Its the neighbours."
"So loud that even I can hear it here over the phone! Anyway, here it is:

"Yen Meniyil Unnai Pillayai Poley
Naan Vaari Anaippen Aasaiyinaaley
Nee Tharuvaayo Naan Tharuveno
Yaar Thandha Podhum Neeyum Naanum Veralla"

"I didnt hear the last two lines properly. Could you repeat them?"
"Nee Tharuvaayo Naan Tharuveno
Yaar Thandha Podhum Neeyum Naanum Veralla

Unnai Kaanaadha Kannum Kannalla
Unnai Ennaadha Nenjum Nenjalla
Nee Sollaadha Sollum Sollalla
Nee Ilaamal Naanum Naanalla
Nee Ilaamal Naanum Naanalla"

Great song. One of my favourites of P.Suseela. Even SPB whom the guy asked me to compete with, I have heard him once say like:"Lot of people say Suseela mam is the Lata Mangeskhar of South India. I beg to defer. For me Suseela mam is the best singer I have ever sung with. Lataji should called as P.Suseela of North India". Now, I dont know whether he meant it or not, or he said it for the heck of saying it, but for me she is the best along with Asha Bhonsle.

"So whom did you think of while singing that you were feeling so much when you were singing this song?"
"There is no one like that. Anyway, its late. You wouldnt have had dinner. Eat and sleep"
"I dont know. I am tired. I might sleep without dinner as well!"
"Whatever! Take care and good night"
"Good night"

This was a good experience. Getting praised from a friend's colleague and my friend planned it as a surprise for me as well, Felt good. Thank you sweetheart for making me sing.

Look before you kiss

2005-10-04T01:35:00.000-04:00

Ok. For this post, I thank my friend Venkat for the amount of research he has put into this. (Seems like he did an extensive research for more than one hour to get this particular link. Kudos to you ;) ). Before we proceed, lets read this post from his blog. You can see some snaps from a private party in Chennai. And for those who cant read Tamil, I translate it here and my comments now and then in Italics:

The headlines was this: Is this what is called equal rights?(Hey, where did that come from?Why are u pulling equal rights into this? Why do u have this notion that women cannot and most importantly 'should not' booze? This party has nothing to do with women's liberation or equal rights)

The caption under the snaps translate into:
a) Snaps from the Weekend celebrations held in Chennai last week.
b) Probably a reference to the Horlicks ad, it points to the woman whos having beer

And the article below reads this: Dont think that this woman is having some cool drinks in some shop down ur street. She is having foreign 'sarakku' aka booze only. (Hey, what difference does it make, be it a local 'sarakku' or foreign 'sarakku'?. And then he says something which is even more irritating). Because, a glass is not enough for her, she is gulping down the whole bottle.(How stupid! So, would the reporter be happy if she had drunk the whole bottle in 10 glasses instead, say? She is drinking, Ok, and what difference does it make if its straight from the bottle, or if its taken in a glass? And then he says that this happened in Park Hotel chennai after a fashion show. And that instead of the regular cat walk, people, who came in pairs started drinking and started their 'leelas'. Then he says a funny thing, which makes me laugh a lot. Listen to this.)

In this age, when married couple hesitate and feel shy to walk in 'public' with their hand-in-hand, (and thats what our culture is), there is this culture of people driniking, kissing and hugging in public which is getting spread.(Hey, which age are u in? Married couple hesitating to hold hands in public? Somebody stop me from laughing)

(And then comes the attack. Now he has to blame it all on someone right? So he says this:).The Police Commissioner had promised that such 'obscene' fashion shows wont happen in Chennai. But, 'everyday' in star hotels, such 'obscene' fashion shows keep on happening. Just because, they are high class society people, is police hesitating to take actions against them?

Ok, there ends the article. Police did seem to take some action.And I did a bit of searching myself, and I found this interesting post on someone's blog. I liked this guy's idea of getting licence to kiss someone. That was a real good post.

All i can say is this: I heard that this reporter gate crashed into the party. If thats the case, what was this guy doing there? And look at the snaps he has taken and from the 'angles' in which he has taken few snaps. Now, see the snaps and tell me, who is perverted more, is it the reporter or the people in the party? Dear, film heroines wear much less dress these days, you wait days and weeks to get their interviews and put their snaps in every possible page so that ur newspaper sells big, and you call this lewd? This guy wanted some sensational news and the paper is blowing it out of proportion. And police, cant sit quiet right? They have to show that they did something about it. So they cancel the rights to the hotel, try to arrest the girls in picture and they have taken action, u see.

If its a private party, its none of your business to peek in and take snaps like this and publish it. If that is the case, I guess the concerned people should sue this newspaper. And what if this happens in public? Honestly, I dont mind it. Its none of your business if a guy and girl kiss in the public. In what way, does it affect you? Or how does that concern you?Tell me honestly, dont you imagine yourself doing it, atleast I do! I see people doing it in public, and you may call me perverted, I dont care, I dont mind doing it either(I wont have the courage to do it,and I might not do it at all in my life,that is a different story altogether!But I dont mind). So, dear newspaper, please, stop doing this shit. Instead of wasting time on these things, try to do something real useful for the public. I would definitely appreciate your efforts on that.But newspapers, TV and media live on sensational news. And you got one definitely in this.

At this moment, I am...

2005-10-02T17:07:00.000-04:00

a) Scared
b) Bored
c) Amazed
d) Hopeful
e) Happy
and most of all
f) Awake!

In Search of Tum(s)

2005-09-22T05:24:00.000-04:00

Lamhon Ki Guzaarish Hai Yeh Paas Aa Jaaye
Hum... Hum Tum...
Tum... Hum Tum...

Song: Saanson Ko Saanson Mein Dalne Do Zara
Movie: Hum Tum

Lines with a deep meaning, depending upon how you interpret it,of course... And that my friends, is what is happening around me, right now.

Of Kids,Trains,Planes and Pleasure

2005-09-09T05:34:00.000-04:00

What pleasure do people get by seeing areoplanes and helicopters land and take off? You may say that these things are for kids:I used to run a kilometre to see Cholan Express go by near the rail track our home when I was six, seven.That was a routine thing during summer holidays. 8.30 AM and we know we had to run. The signal near our house was one of the lasts before the train enters Tanjore station and it was a fascinating sight for me as a kid to watch this signal. There would be a small bridge and after that the signal. It was the old type of signal, mind you, not the electric one with red, yellow and green lights. It was the one which had a hand painted in red and with a white stripe painted near the end. It used to give huge pleasure everytime when I used to see this hand signal down for it indicated the train was about to come anytime. Myself and my brother used to keep our ears on the rail track and keep listening. The track would start vibrating and the sound from the track would say it all. The train is approaching us fast. And when the train does pass by, we would start counting the bogeys of the train. It was easy to keep count of passenger trains, but for trains which carried goods, it would be difficult, we would be lost in the world of numbers. After the train passes, we would check with each other that the count was correct or not. And still I love trains, travelling in trains. They fascinate me still, no matter how many times I have travelled in trains, a train journey is something I always look forward to.

How about other adults? Are they like me? Actually yeah.My grandmother at 80+ would still not miss seeing a single aeroplane that flies above our home(My cousin calls her,"Aeroplane Paati").That day I went for this meeting with my manager and he, who has travelled so many times to many parts of the world tells me this: "I was coming to our office in a car and saw this Srilankan Airlines flight landing man. How huge was the flight and I was side by side with this plane. I was on the road and it was on the runway,and it was a great sight man". Yeah, to have your office right behind the airport, what else you can expect to see every now and then. But everyday I come to office in the bus, everytime when I pass through the road thats parallel to the plane's runway, I would see many pairs of eyes looking eagerly at the runway. Doesnt make a difference, be it a 5 year old girl or 60 year old man. All of them want to see a plane land or a plane take off.And that list includes yours truly as well.And I can clearly see the disappointment in their eyes when they cant see a copter on the helipad or a plane on the runway. It is amazing to see how an aeroplane could bring out the child in us! If you look at it, do you look that eagerly at every bus that passes by, I dont atleast! May be when it comes to a plane, the fascination comes because most of us cant afford to travel by a plane in this country. Bus, anytime I can travel man. That can be a reason as well. Look at this way. Why do many people support an underdog during a tennis match say, over the favourite? Thats because most of us associate ourselves and identify ourselves more with the underdog than with the favourite.And when we see this underdog fighting with the favourite, we get this vicarious pleasure as if 'we' are fighting and we enjoy that feeling. Same with the planes may be. I know I cant afford to travel in that. But I definitely would like to see it land and take off and see someone else travelling, and when many people would look at it, there would be mixed feelings of hope(that I would travel one day),pity(at my inability to travel by that)and with longing and yearing to travel by that.

Nostradamus vs Me

2005-08-25T01:25:00.000-04:00

This was me prophecising on June 11 2005.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, dude is a person who is, a dud from the east, I can say, because the definition of dude, applies mainly to easterners in the west.
So, dont be surprised, if you get a crossword clue someday which says:

Across:8: Fellow: Useless one from the Oriental(4).

You now know what is the answer to that clue.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And here is The Hindu Crossword, 8380

Look for 15 Across(I said 8 Across, but thats OK, I guess)

And here is the solution to the same.

Do you stumble?

2005-08-18T05:54:00.000-04:00

If not, please do it from here

Easy to use and very useful. Thanks to my colleague for introducing me to it.

Mon, Mol, Mother, Memories and God

2005-08-12T07:26:00.000-04:00

It was a cloudy night at Bangalore. Windy night as well .Lightening. Rain 'God' threatening. But no rain."It rains only in those places where good people are there", my friend would say. One more night with my 'regular dinner' partner. One more night when time had to be killed over the dinner table. Table, can I call it a table!?

"Man, I am reading 'History Of God'", my dinner partner would say."It is about how the idea of God and religion evolved" and he would mention few religions, whose name I dont remember exactly now. I have a poor memory these days. If I finish reading a book today, ask me two weeks later, I may faintly recollect only the main characters. After one month, I might just remember the main plot. It just amazes me, when I hear people talk about books they have read years back. It just means that either
a) The book would have deeply affected them that they remember most of it, or
b) They generally have a good retentive power and so would have retained most, if not all of it, or
c) They must have liked the book and reread it many times.

"So what are you reading now!?", he would ask me now. And I would mention the name of the book.And I would tell him that I am halfway through it and am gonna continue reading the rest after the dinner. Then he would tell me, "It is one of the amazing books I have ever read man, and it left me crying. It was deeply moving. When I first got the book, my friends told me to read the last chapter of the book first. I read it. It was about sex. Then, I read the whole book from the beginning and now when I read the last chapter again, the feeling was so different from what I had got reading the same before.Amazing man, amazing.."

There you go. Now, I know what to expect of the last chapter. Its about two people having passionate sex. So what use in reading it further. Why to spend more time on it now!? These are not really small things.All I know is there is sex at the end!

But, for me, Paradise Pickles and Preserves was more puzzling. She talked vaguely about so many things. There was a sister returning home after a long time. A brother Re-returned. Their dead mother. And there was a God. There was an evil, 'baby' grand aunt obsessed to televison set, there was a cook,and there was a dead child. Too many loose ends. Too much of confusion. Straight oposite to what my partner said, I read the first chapter after finishing the whole book and then it made sense then!

The story was not that great. Then whats a great story, dont ask me. All I know is there is sex at the end!There is a divorced mother. Twins from seperate zygotes.Mother suffering from asthma and also getting humiliated at her mother's house after her divorce. Arrival of the twins' cousin from England, the cousin dies in a mishap, mother feels the need for a man in her life(she thinks that wud change her life's fortunes and she could escape the miserable position she is at her mother's place), and this relation she has with her carpenter ruins Him, her, her kids and the whole family. Thats the gist of the 340 page novel in few lines.

Now, what makes it beautiful is the way in which she has presented it. Certain lines,words, things and phrases('die-able viable age' for example), she would use again,again and again,and everytime we see those lines,words,things and phrases again,again and again, one might admire her for the knack of using those lines,words,things and phrases and the way they fit into the context appropriately.One thing that she has done intelligently is the story is said both from what happened in the past and whats currently happening. That makes it easy for her to use those lines, words, things and phrases again,again and again. There are many small 'small' things which you can really enjoy while reading it, like the baby watch which shows ten-to-two and when she uses this this fact repeatedly, subtle way in which she expresses her views about communist party, Naomi Ipe writing "I love you" everyday in her diary in remembrance of her unreciprocated love,Pappachi's moth and the influence it had on other family members: these are the 'small things' which make the novel a very good read.

The chapter headings are funny and different, like 'Cochin Kangaroos'(who the hell expects them there!?), they are mystic and compelling, like 'The Crossing', 'A few hours later'.(Let me finish this chapter before I sleep today) I guess more than the story, the way of presenting it would have been a key factor for the novel's success. Again, it has every element to make people cry: there is a dying divorced mother, there are twins getting seperated early in their lives, and more than that it has a dying God. But I didnt cry at the end. All I know is there is sex at the end!

Interesting. I dont remember how I was when I was 7, what I did when I was 7. I only know the place where I lived, but even the house I lived, I have forgotten how it looks. I faintly remember the face of my neighbours, and I remember very few names of the friends I used to have then. But, Rahel and Estha do remember Ayemenem a lot.And thats 'cos what happened at the age of 7 would transfer their lives forever.

Everything can change in a day!

Wealthy Words

2005-07-11T07:07:00.000-04:00

Read this in the Guardian

The first five Potter books have now sold more than 265m copies in 200 countries and been translated into 62 languages. They contain 717,800 words - making Rowling's earnings about £1,393 per word.

Thats like every "word" of a Harry Potter book has earned Rowling more than a lakh in Indian Rupees. Are you in the queue waiting for the half blood prince!?

Turn 13 Controversy

2005-06-20T08:39:00.000-04:00

Wow! Second post of the day and this one too is on Sports. And I felt like writing this because something unique happened yesterday which the sport has never ever witnessed in its history and I just wanted to record the same in my blog and also let my views on this controversy which would be debated for a long time.

Turn 13 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the centre of all the controversy, those unique turns, 12 and 13 of this circuit,which you travel at around 200 miles per hour for a duration of around 20 seconds(this is a curved oval part of the circuit ) and once you reach the start finish straight, you still carry the same speed until you break late for the turn 1. So literally for more than 30 seconds, you are inside a car which is travelling at more than 300 kmph.Scaring !? And how about doing this for 73 times on a race day? Ready for it? I wont have the courage to do it even in my dreams. What happens when you take the turn 13 is that the whole stress shifts to the left rear tyre and makes it vulnerable to wear and that is where the controversy lies.

Indy circuit has a lot of history behind it. It is the second oldest track on a F1 calendar. Though F1 came to Indy only in 2000, other forms of racing have been going on since early 1900's.What happened exactly was our dear Ralf hit the wall at turn 13, literally at the same place like what he did last year at a speed of more than 200 mph. Last year, he was out of action for months, but good news this time, he was fine, but wont be able to race for this race atleast. Though replaced by Ricardo Zonta, the replacement also had his share of bad luck. He also crashed like ralf because of tyre failure.Michelin supplies tyres to 14 out of 20 drivers, and after the double accidents that happened on friday,michelin were unable to identify the reason for the failures exactly. They felt the current setup of tyres might not last the race completely and it was dangerous to race with this tyre setup.

Now, comes the first question. Why didnt Michelin bring the right set of tyres for the race? The regulations introduced this year clearly states that you have to have the same set of tyres for the entire race weekend,you cannot change the tyres during the pit stops of a race, so they know that they have to get the tyre setup right. And they have been doing it perfectly well for the first 8 races of the season so far: all the first 8 races of the season have been won by a michelin runner. There were even speculations that ferraris on bridgestone tyres are suffering a great deal because of their tyre package, bridgestone seem to get it all wrong for a race: to find tyres that would last the race distance since you cant change it in between. Number of times we have heard Rubens and Narain this season saying that they were running conservatively to preserve the tyres. So it was always michelin who got it all right. What happened this time? Indy is not a new track for them. They have been racing for 5 years now and in fact Mika Hakkinen in his michelin run mclaren had won there once. So its not that the circuit is new for them. They know how it is. So how could they make the mistake at the first place. Of course, they should have had backup tyres and tyres for all possible conditions and surfaces and why did they miss on it? Formula 1 is such an advanced sport in terms of science and technlogy and how could michelin not have simulated all the race conditions and get a suitable tyre for the teams?

Ok, I am agreeing that we all make mistakes and I can forgive michelin for that.How can you ask to introduce a new chicane just because you failed to provide the correct set of tyres? Bridgestone has done a good work in getting correct set of tyres for the race and why should ferrari agree to that proposal? It is totally unfair.This is what Rubens had to say regarding this at the post race conference, which is true: "I mean, if I had changed one of the corners in Bahrain, my tire would have finished, it wouldn't be in such a problem and I probably would have finished even on the podium. So why would we have to agree to that? People think, okay, you put in a chicane, but we haven't tested with that chicane so that could have been even more dangerous. If you take a different line and people spin to the other side, crash into the side wall, how can we do it? It's silly."

Also, taking turn 13 at low speed is a stupid idea as well. You have been accustomed to taking it at a high speed until qualifiers and suddenly to take it at a low speed is nonsense. Also, the guys who raced, proved that the corner as such is not unsafe, all the six of them finished the race without any accident. So I dont agree to the statement that the corner was dangerous in the first place. And, I am disappointed by the rules of F1 as such: Why is this new rule that you cant change in the tyres during the race? If that had not been the case, it would have all become so simple for everyone. Everybody would have been able to change their tyres in between if they seem to be wearing out. Some rules like these are too stupid. May be FIA can think abt it.

And what about moral ethics? Seeing so many teams retire, shouldnt ferrari also declined to race? Ha ha ha. why should they? They have done everything right this time atleast and F1 has become so competitive that every single point you score is very important. So why should ferrari throw it all away? They have been getting it all wrong for 8 times now. Then there was no complaint.You were all enjoying it. Now if you get it wrong and they get it right this time, why should they suffer for something wrong with you?

Whatever the argument be, at the end of it, there was not a single person who could do something that would be aggreable to all the teams. Everybody seemed to be right in their own way, it is really sad that there was not a single person to get them all to a compromise. The sport suffered because of it and so were the thousands of fans who came down to watch something which they can watch only once every year. This incident has put a big '?' over the future of the sport in US and I sincerely hope that things like this dont repeat ever. But US Grand Prix 2005 would go down in F1 history as one of the black days for the sport.Hope it all changes in Magny Cours, which incidentally is the home grand prix for Michelin!

It is that time of the year

2005-06-20T06:13:00.000-04:00

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Play suspended".

We would hear that a lot during the next fortnight where we would definitely see this guy Alan Mills holding the microphone and continuously watching the sky, with a hope that "Lord, let it not rain heavily today".(He cant ask for "Lord, let it not rain", thats overambitious, but he might be lucky on few days though)

So, action shifts to the most famous lawns of the world, once again to SW 19, London today. I have been watching tennis for more than 15 years now: my memory stretches back to the good old DD days, when we never used to get DD metro at our home and whenever DD-1 used to broadcast its daily news in the night, 8.30pm - 9pm in Tamil and 9pm -9.30pm in English, when our hearts used to palpitate, "Oh, God, who would have won Steffi or Seles?".. "Damn it, why do the four metros alone get this DD-2?"

Though we have four grand slams, not many of them care about the Aussie and the US open. There is something magical about Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Its these two that fascinates people a lot. And may be for differernt reasons: the french tests your endurance, stamina and patience. It takes really a lot of these qualities to become a winner of Parisian clay.

But, Wimbledon...It is that time of the year, (two weeks after the french open as always), when we have this limited grass court season. It is that time of the year, when we would see Spanish players(males specifically) would get mysterious shoulder injuries and pull out of 'The Championships'. It is that time of the year when Serena Williams would seriously think about her tennis. It is that time of the year when 'Henman Hill' would be bustling with hysterical people,hoping that their hero would win atleast this year and simultaneously,It is that time of the year when British newspapers would carry the headlines "Why Henman cannot win at Wimbledon". It is that time of the year when we would have mindboggling truth revealed by few players: "Grass is for cows to eat". And more importantly, It is that time of the year when more than a century old tradition would sketch one more beautiful episode on the grass.

Wimbledon is all about tradition: starting from the first match on the Centre Court which would always feature the defending champion of the 'Gentlemen singles', to even the way in which matches are scheduled and the time they are scheduled: It is unique. Second tuesday always the 'Ladies Qtr Finals' day,Second wednesday Qtr finals for men and so on with semis and finals: Its always scheduled the same way every year(what happens actually is left to the rain gods). Dress code has to be maintained strictly: Only whites. The way ball boys and ball girls pass the balls to other side is itself a pleasant sight to watch.Compare the same to that of US open and you would see how it all sucks at Newyork. I guess Wimbledon would be the only grand slam still where doubles event for men is still played as best of five sets. No where else you can find the same.

But, yeah, the most important thing about Wimbledon is the surface itself. Agility is the word. How quick can you move,how quick you can respond, how good are your reflexes. I was watching yesterday on TV a Bjorg-Mcenroe final at Wimbledon, what a match that was!It is really sad that we are losing a breed of tennis players - serve and volleyers I mean. We have very few left: Henman, who else? Anybody?Atleast I cant think of anyone among men, you can say Federer would adapt himself to the surface and do the same, but among women, forget it.The last I saw was Jana Novotna.

And now to My pick for this year's Championships: Among men, no doubt, definitely I am going for Federer, I guess he is the most accomplished player out there and when asked whats his top priority for this year, he said, "To defend my Wimbledon title and to keep my top ranking". Thats something he has won for two years now, and he wants to emulate Sampras' record of seven titles and he is very serious about it. And of course, he has lost twice this year at the semifinal stage at a Grand slam and so he would be more than desperate to win here. I guess he would be less threatened here.

Among women: This is what Serena Williams remembers from Sharapova's victory speech after accepting the trophy last year(I am recalling whatever I could remember)."I know you like to have this trophy.But I like it very much as well. I am going to keep this trophy away from you for one year atleast". And Serena cant wait to avenge that defeat last year to the russian.She does not like to lose and particularly at Wimbledon. I am going to stick with Serena this time.

Interesting fact is: Serena, Henin and Sharapova are in the same half of the draw.Sharapova is scheduled to meet Henin at the quarters and Serena in the semis. I guess even if serena falters, it is gonna be Henin or Sharapova who is gonna win this time. And my choices are in this order
1. Serena
2. Justine Henin Hardenne
3. Sharapova

What happens actually: Time would tell in two weeks. Well, leave you with the most famous lines of Rudyard Kipling written for the players before their entrance to the Centre Court at Wimbledon:

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same

Actually, I found the whole of the poem here. Check it out.

Whats up 'dude'?

2005-06-11T02:45:00.000-04:00

I dont know why, but I don't seem to like this word - dude. Everytime, I hear something like:
"Duuuuuuuuuude, how are you doing?"
"Dude, whats up?"
"Dude, lets go for lunch"

I feel little irritated. I seem to be ok with maams, machi, machchan,(Mera Des Mahaan) but a big NO to dude. Apart, from being a slang, for a guy, fellow, what else does this four letter word, mean? Merriam gave me these answers

Dude : refers to a person who is a dandy - that is a person who takes excessive care for his dress, look and appearance.

Dude: refers to the person who is a city dweller unfamiliar with life on the range; especially : an Easterner in the West - that means a person who feels out of his place.

So, my aversion for the word, I can supplement with above definitions. But, yeah, I thought a little bit more about this word. If dude is a slang, 'dud' is also a slang and what does dud mean?

Dud: A person who is a failure, ineffectual.

So, dude is a person who is, a dud from the east, I can say, because the definition of dude, applies mainly to easterners in the west. So, dont be surprised, if you get a crossword clue someday which says:

Across:
8: Fellow: Useless one from the Oriental(4).

You now know what is the answer to that clue. So next time when you are in a cross continental conference call and its a monday evening for you and monday morning there and if somene asks you, "Dude, how was your weekend?", one of the possible ways you can interpret that question is : "Hey, useless fellow,(I know you would not have done anything good or achieved anything great), how the hell did you spend your weekend?"

No wonder, I dont like this word...

Blocked

2005-06-07T01:19:00.000-04:00

Junta,
I dont know why, but YM has been blocked at work since last thursday. I would be available on MSN though, whenever am free. Of course, Skype is there. My Skype ID is my firstname_lastname, same as that of MSN.

Would let you all know when I am back to 'the beautiful world'

Click Click Click

2005-06-06T02:07:00.000-04:00

The little queen from Liege smiled - the final battle was won easily after all
The young king from Manacor 'left' his stamp firmly-sanguine one remember!
As the crowning ceremony happened at the Chatrier, everything everywhere was getting smeared in red.
Alas, the skies opened up heavily at the IS valley,
And I was getting fascinated by the series of double entendres thrown at me
As things ended happily and 'final'ly at Louvre - Was that a coincidence?
The 'Beautiful King' (thanks to the Greek legacy) fed his subjects 'happily',
When the temporary silence was broken at last and in the way I wanted it to happen.
How? Why? Dont as me those questions. The answer is silly and stupid, I am aware of that!

Bilo'job'ey

2005-05-31T01:12:00.000-04:00

First few lines of one of Kannadaasan's greatest philosophical songs I have heard: (Mistakes,if any,let me know)

Paramasivan kazhuthil irundhu paambu kettadhu,"Garudaa Sowkiyamaa?"
"Irukkum Idhadhil Irundhu Kondaal Ellorum Sowkiyamey", Garudan Sonnadhu,
Adhile Arththam Ulladhu.

Haaa... Beautiful lines...Conveying so many things and making more sense to me right now!

Sudoku

2005-05-18T06:13:00.000-04:00

Read in yesterday's newspaper about this Japanese puzzle game, which has become a craze with people in the United Kingdom.Learn about the game here.Thought would try my hand at it. I went here and I am trying to solve today's sudoku and after breaking my head for some time now, I have passed the task to my colleague. Sudoku should be a good time pass when you are really feeling bored and want to kill time.

Genius Quote

2005-05-16T01:44:00.000-04:00

"It is attitude and not aptitude that makes me reach the altitude."
- Ms.Jesika Hasmukh Haria, Sixth Class Student from Mumbai on being asked what makes her a tough competitor at the India Child Genius competition. Boy, that was close to a tongue twister for me! Saw her this weekend on TV reach the grand finale of the competition.

Watch the programme on Star World 9pm every Sunday night. Real good one. The toughness of the questions and the easiness in which these kids between 10-12 years of age answer them, its amazing to watch.

Oops, in my curiousity,minutes back,I just found out who won the title. The story of the person who won it was a real inspiring one!

Haiku: I like u

2005-05-09T03:08:00.000-04:00

Read these in a Tamizh weekly and liked them:

Raavanan Thothathil
Vilaindhadhu
Seethapazham

Kaadharuge Mattum
Ketkum Katcheri
Kosu

Things at Work: Part 4 - Chath Gir Gaya

2005-05-06T02:24:00.000-04:00

Scary thing happened today morning now. The false ceiling, along with the concrete on the floor in which I am seated collapsed and almost 20 to 30%of the east wing(I sit in the west wing) came under this destruction. I saw security guys running here and there shouting,"Switch off the A/C and all electric connections". I didnt pay any attention to any of these and was glued to my monitor, where on Sametime, I was chatting with someone in the second floor(mine is ground floor). And this happened:

Him: we will use the new overrides
Him: after the tests. that one has a bit less of logging
Me: are we having the overrides? or are you going to provide?
Him: its in the vishy folder
Me: do i apply it now?
Him: no. wait
Me: fine
Him: is ur ead safe
Him: head
Me: ?
Him: i hear the roof is fallind
Him: on the ground floor
Him: huge chunks of concrete
Me: oh
Me: i didnt know that
Me: its all OK here
Him: look around, near the facitlities section i think
Me: let me see
Me: yeah.. they are asking us all to move to food court
Me: i am vacating my WS now
Him: oh man
Him: u there?

Then, what else? We all vacated our respective work stations, had this as a reason for one more round of morning tea.We were told that as a precaution, they are gonna remove false ceiling from whole of the floor.

People started joking around:
"Man, this is the best way to lay off people!"
"Hey,shall I wear helmet and work?May be I would be safe then"

Facilities, HR etal were busy calling the constructor and shouting at them. Ours is a brand new facility, mind you, not even 3 months old. And still construction work is going on in many parts of the building. Just brings me back to these questions:
a)How much safe are the buildings? With the way in which Bangalore is exploding with concrete buildings everywhere, the builders are just trying to finish off the stuff fast and move to another building. Good thing is that, there was no one injured today at our work place because that portion was vacated just days back and people moved to a different floor, but its definitely not the case at many other places.Yeah, I have read/heard and seen many reports of buildings poorly constructed collapsing now and then.
b)Isnt there someone to check, test and certify that, "Yeah, we have tested this construction and everything has been done properly"?And shouldnt we be moving to a place only after making ourselves sure of this? I guess there should be something like that, but we are ignoring these important stuff because we are in haste.This is more important than test thats done on anything, like fridge, iron box, washing machine etc etc.We do buy things with ISI marks and if there is a sticker that says "Tested OK", we are more confident to buy that product. What about the buildings we live/work?Arent we missing something on our part?

Whatever it is, many of us would be staring at the ceiling from now on, every now and then, just to make sure that we are safe!

... of the weekend

2005-04-25T01:42:00.000-04:00

Synopsis of the weekend: 3 day weekend - friday: general ghoting- 4 hours sleep skipping lunch- met old PG mates- McDonalds treat - second time Chandramukhi (still it was good)- lota phone calls

saturday: time waste in the morning- home alone with roomies at work - Anbe Vaa- sort of wing reunion- 8 of us met and had dinner together - Thanks to the person who came down from Germany

sunday- shopping for no reason, just like that - San Marino GP 2005

Movie of the weekend: I would give this to Anbe Vaa.Enjoyed every bit of it. MGR was too good with his comedy, never thought of him as a good comedian. Liked that part of him a lot. MGR- Naagesh combo rocked. Look how many songs TMS and P.Susheela have immortalised through this movie alone!:

a) Pudhiya Vaanam, Pudhiya Bhoomi, Engum Panimazhai Pozhigiradhu
b) Love Birds Love Birds, Thakka Dhimi Thaa Endra Thaalathil Vaa
c) Naan Paarthadhile Aval Oruthiyai Thaan Nalla Azhagi Enben
d) Raajaavin Paarvai Raaniyin Pakkam

Felt good singing with them all these great great songs as I was watching it.

Hero of the weekend: Ha ha. The king is back. Even though he didnt take the top step of the podium, coming from 13th on grid to 2nd was an achievement indeed. And lost by just 0.215 of a second. Call me a monomaniac, I dont bother. It was great fun watching the 'Michael Magic' working once again. And to see him get past Jenson at Variante Alta is something I would remember for a long time now.

Sad Face of the weekend: I normally dont do this, I usually feel happy about it, but yesterday, felt sad to see Kimi retire. He did everything right, fastest in both qualifying, on pole, was leading the spaniard comfortably in the race and suddenly, retires! Poor Kimi!

Lucky and Star of the weekend: Who else, except for our championship leader, Fernando Alonso and lucky, for the reason stated above! But, I appreciate the way alonso blocked and shut the door on schumi whenever he tried to get past, during those last 10 laps of the race.These are the indications of the heir to the throne which Michael has to vacate one day anyway! And mathematics would say, under the hypothetical situation that Schumi wins all the races from now, and Alonso finishes second to him all the time, it would still take 13 races for schumi to catch alonso and 14 races hence to get past alonso.(And the number of races left now for the year is 15). Thats the enormous lead alonso has built up now. But, in this totally unpredictable game, anything can happen. This heart still wants schumi to win the 8th title, but its going to be really difficult for him to do that this time. Lemme wait and watch.

A good Evening Snacks Combo

2005-04-21T00:04:00.000-04:00

Top Ramen MUG Smoodles(Spicy Vegetable) + Pineapple Cream Biscuits

The Chandramukhi episode

2005-04-18T02:36:00.000-04:00

Its not fair that I keep complaining about it all the time!Afterall, it is 'Namma Bangalooru' city. So I should be telling about things that makes me feel good at this place. One such thing is: I can see all the latest Tamizh movies eventhough am staying away from TN. I can never fancy my chances of getting tickets to a Super Star movie within four days of its release.But,We, that is me and PnPn(that is how his colleagues at his previous workplace used to call him sometimes), wanted to go to Chandramukhi desperately. For Pnpn, he said that he had been a great Super Star fan himself, so its as expected. And for me, who is not so crazy about Super Star, I just wanted a change from the drab weekend it was turning out. And boy o boy, we did get tickets for the Fourth Day Fourth Show!

We had no idea about the movie, what was it all about. In TN, before release of every super star movie, there is always euphoria surrounding it, and so much of expectations. But, I have not heard any song from the movie, never did I watch a single trailor of the movie and I was not even aware of the heroine's name. "Machi. You should watch a movie like this da. With no idea about the story. Then only its fun", pnpn would tell me. Yeah, and it would be more fun to watch it in an 'enthu' theatre with enthu people all around you instead of watching it in a Multiplex, where you know how the crowd would behave. "There is no use watching thalaivar movie in a Multiplex", I would say to which pnpn would agree. So we would start calling all the 'enthu' theatres one by one yesterday morning. And both of us would get the same reply. "Only night show available. Every other show house full". We always avoid night shows on Sunday. That is because, it becomes real late when we come back home and it would have a direct impact on the work Monday morning. So when all other oppurtunities dried out, pnpn would call Innovative Multiplex (what to do? we have to see the movie today!). And telebooking was available and to our surprise we got tickets easily."Six o'clock, show", pnpn would confirm,"Yeah for four people. My name and contact number, please note it down". "Ask him if its the Tamil version, you never know. it might be a dubbed version", I would warn him. "Yeah its the Tamil version. And your tele booking number is 67, please quote this number. And come by 5.30, thats half an hour before the show", would be the reply. At this time, we were both more than happy to get the tickets. Pnpn was jumping with joy. "Machi. It should be like this da. I should be given so many options like 4.30, 6, 7.30, 9 o'clock shows and I should be picking the one which I wish". I just listened. We both had no idea of what was really in store for us when we were at the Multiplex at 5.20 PM . More on that later. Now back to Super star and Chandramukhi.

What do you typically expect from a Super Star movie these days?. I listed all the things that came into my mind and Chandramukhi proved me wrong in most of the things, for:

- The movie title was not that of what character Rajni plays

- There was no 'punch' dialogue in the movie, which has become an integral part of Rajni movie

- Rajni was not at all showing any style for which hes so famous for, except for may be tossing the gum in the intro scene

- It was not all the way Rajni show from the first scene till the last scene. In fact Rajni didnt appear at all for a good length of the movie

- There were no spiritual discourses

4:55 PM. we started and reached the Multiplex by 5.20 PM. The first surprise came at the Advance Booking counter. When we got our tickets, it was mentioned, "Screen 3: 7.30 PM". Now the hero of he day, pnpn would start fighting with the theatre management, "We did tele booking at 10.00 AM and we were told that we had tickets for 6.00 PM show and what does this all mean?". For all the queries we posed, we would get the same answer. "Sir. Tickets are all sold out for 6 PM show". After our repeated shouts we would be told that the guy at the tele-booking counter had sold more than what he was supposed to sell for the tele-booking quota. "But thats not our fault. You should have known it before confirming it for us". We realised that this was going no where and got the tickets and started planning the next 2 hours. In the mean time, SunD and Sujam had come to join us,(Woodworm could not come though he wanted to see the movie). I proposed Pool. We have started liking playing pool a lot, so all agreed, but the table wont be free till 6.30! So without nothing to do, we roamed around Marathahalli and when we came back to pool table, next kela was in the offering: Pool table was not free. Instead we had the snooker table alone free. Ok, me, pnpn and SunD agreed that we would play Snooker this time, though we dont have experience playing snooker. 9 ball pool was much easier and snooker with so many reds and balls of all sorts of colours, baap re baap! We started at 6.30 and I have to admit, we were pathetic! Doubts started lingering as to whether we would finish one table atleast or not!? I am OK sorts when I have to play it soft and gentle, I can do delicate cuts properly, but when it comes to hitting hard from the other side of the table, I am pathetic boss! I am ! I guess thats the aspect which I have to concentrate on, from now on. But, it was all about pnpn day, isnt it? He won here as well ! I wont forget the pace with which he hit the cue ball and the pink ball disappeared into the pocket in no time! We just had time to finish one board and it was 7.25 PM

We enter the theatre and the next kela awaits us: Screen 3, they dont show Chandramukhi at 7.30. Only at Screen 2 and 4, we have a 7.30 show. Ha ha..Does that mean we have to wait for 1.30 hours more? No way! We barged into the counter and the fight started again. I mean, how can these people get so stupid, yaar? The people who come to watch can get confused with Screen names, but how can the theatre management get confused? We demanded seats for us NOW. We cant wait for 1.30 hours more! What nonsense? And yeah, our shouting did have an effect. We got our tickets changed to Screen 4, C row, 12 - 15. I wonder, if its all house full, how can this guy suddenly find place for 4 people in a new screen? May be he would have reserved it for some VIPs, who knows? Anyway, by this time it was 7.40 PM and we started moving fast towards our Screen 4. Thankfully, the movie hadnt started. We all got seated.And from now its all about the movie...

Trisha would welcome us all to the movie on behalf of Tata Indicom. ("Oh my God! Is she in the picture as well? How stupid of me in not knowing that?"). But I bet, Tata Indicom might in all possibilities, conduct a competition of sort in TN to count the number of times their boards appear in the movie. Countless, I would say. Every now and then one would appear. Rajni's intro scene,where his fans would in all possibility show aarthi, shower flowers and what not, was not that dramatic to the likes of Baatshaa, no pumpkins shattered, it was just fine for me. The story of the movie, I was told was that of a Mallu movie and I sort of remembered the Mallu movie name. I guessed that this was the movie that won Shobhana her National Award. And my guess turned right. Though I havent seen the original Mallu version, I would like to see it though. I am stopping it here wrt story of the movie goes for the benefit of those who havent seen the movie yet, but reading this post.

As far as Rajni goes, I felt that his voice has changed a lot man. May be his age is reflecting on him? Remember the old MGR movies, the ones he did after he was shot in his throat. You remember that voice of MGR? The same I could see in Rajni's voice here.Poor chap! And as far as comedy is concerned, Vadivelu - Rajni combo has worked remarkably well. Have seen Rajni doing it with Goundamani and Senthil so many times... Good to see his comedy work with Vadivelu as well. They have rocked! Good job done and there are lot of lewd jokes in the offering as well.Dont miss on those.

Heroine: I found out her name only when the titles flashed. Good homely face. All of us liked her. But should she be called the heroine 'cos she gets to romance Rajni is a debatable question. Jothika has performed remarkably well. Kudos to you Jo, you steal the show. Two characters who were majorly wasted I felt was : a) Vijayakumar and b) If my guess is right, 'Chemmeen' Sheela. As far as Music goes, "Repeatu.." song is solely for Rajni fans I guess. There would be requests in TN for this song to be repeated so many times again and again, I am sure. "Kokku para para, Kozhi para para" was one other song. Not that impressive.. The pick of the songs for me would be "Athindhom". That song made me hum for some time and of course one more good song was "Raa Raa". And if you know Telugu, it would be a good advantage while watching this movie, but its not a must though as those Telugu dialogues get told in Tamizh as well. One place where i thought it has not changed much from a typical Rajni movie, were in the song lyrics. Man, with all those preachy stuff: "Believe in your self. If you work hard, nothing can stop you" stuff. And all those, "I am here, because of you all people" stuff. But nothing with a political tone though, as far as I noticed the lyrics.And as far as action goes, there are not much of fights in the movie, only 2 and that too the one at the later part of the movie could have been avoided.

It was little strange to expect a thriller movie from Rajni and I was totally taken by surprise. And I imagine how it would have been in the Mallu original version, it would have been even more better! But I guess Rajni had learnt from his mistakes of Baba and how it flopped and concentrated more on a good story and forgot all other unnecessary stuff. It was good to see Rajni back as a villain as well in the movie. Rajni was the hero, he was the comedian and he played a villain's part as well and he has excelled in all the three categories and especially the villain part. Reminded me of the old villain roles he played and Man, hes good when it comes to those roles. And one thing we would laugh at again and again was at Prabhu. Watch out for the dialogue in the later stages of the movie, "Enna Kashtam daa idhu", or "Enna karumam daa idhu". Mind you it is a very serious scene and he says it sadly banging his hands against his head. But the way he said it, made me and pnpn laugh and laugh

In short, Chandramukhi is a very good family entertainer.. People would definitely like it and its surely gonna run for more than 100 days successfully. Good to see Rajni back and back with a bang. Both me and pnpn didnt bother spending 120 rupees on the movie, we felt like it was worth it. If you get a chance, do go and see it. Cant you hear Chandramukhi beckoning you to the theatre? Hear her: "Raa Raa. Sarasukku Raa Raa".

At the end, I thought Trisha would re-appear and ask us how the movie was, ask to come back again and also ask us if we had taken a Tata Indicom connection yet!? But sadly, those didnt happen. Yet, went out of the Multiplex with a sense of happiness after watching a good entertaining movie, even after what we had to do to get the tickets. And who says people dont shout and whistle inside a Multiplex? When it comes to a Rajni movie, things can become really different.

Things at Work: Part 3 - The Credit Card Menace

2005-04-15T03:48:00.000-04:00

Everybody has experienced/is experiencing this at work and hence mine wont be a different story, but yeah,the way it happened is different. Am talking about the Credit Card Menace and the literally unstoppable telephone calls we get day after day. "One year free credit card, sir". "Sir, ours is a life time free credit card sir". "These are the blah blah benefits of getting our credit card, sir. Please take it up sir".

These days, I have stopped picking up my desk telephone unless am not sure as to whos calling me up, because 95/100 chances are that it is from a credit card company.Thanks to the Caller ID facility, their number gets flashed and helps me a lot.Its even worse when they call you on your mobile and disturb you. God, how do they get our numbers? One day, wife of my colleague who sits next to me came over and that time, the desk phone of mine started ringing and I didnt pick it up. It kept on ringing for a minute and still, I didnt pick it up. She must have thought I was a crazy person and she gave me this look, "Are you nuts?". Then i told her that it must have been from some credit card company and I didnt wanna answer the same. Then her husband, my colleague would tell us, "Yeah man, once this guy from this credit card company called up and I refused to take up his card. Then he started pleading : Sir, please take this card. If you do not take it, I am going to miss my target for this month, so you have to take it sir"

Ooh! That was close to a threat! Anyway, there are different ways in which people handle this issue: Some would pick up the phone, say NO straight away, some may hear all the information about all the plans and benefits from the credit card guy and finally say a big NO,and some may start blasting at the person for disturbing them at work hours. But what I did that day was different from the above.

My desk phone number ends with 39.So on that day, i got a call when was working. I saw the number getting flashed and grew suspicious that it is from a credit card company. So I didnt pick it up. After few secs, the call went to the number ending with 40. My colleague picked it up and after ten secs, I heard him saying "No, sorry. I have one already and I am not interested". So I could be more sure that the same guy who called me seconds back, called my colleague next. Once he hung up, in few seconds, the phone on the next desk, ending with number 41, started ringing. The desk was empty as that person was away. I told my colleague @ 40, "Lemme go and look. I suspect it to be the same credit card guy" and Bingo! I was right. I came back and told my colleague @ 40, "Yup. I am right. I guess this guy got one of our office numbers somehow and is calling each extension by adding one to the extension.". And just as I finished saying this, the phone with extension ending 41 started ringing. And both of us didnt care to look at the number this time. We know from whom the call was and started lauging at it. And still when I think about it, I laugh, laugh a lot!

To the (possible) future sidees...

2005-04-14T02:22:00.000-04:00

April 09 2005:
I want to remember this day for these two people

And I am trying to say it all in my own weird way, bear with me:

You C-Motta. Congrats for officially being conferred the title of K(M)otta. But I know you would always B-Motta for all of us.

And for the Old One, I would tell it in the way he wont probably like it hearing:

Congrats for beating everyone in the one shot qualifying and grabbing the pole position. You have all the chances in the whole wide world for ending up as the race winner. All the very best.

I am not trying to yap around here, the point is, these two have crafted this out wonderfully and I am just acknowledging and am appreciating the same and wishing the very best for the two (possible) future sidees.

Heard from the Old One that its gonna be our college crowd out there this time. So hope you two enjoy the stay as well apart from doing what you are good doing at!

April 09 2005:
I would remember this day for these two people

Language Problem

2005-04-13T10:07:00.000-04:00

Ten days back, when I was standing in the queue to pay my Electricity Bill for the previous month, there was this girl standing before me in the queue. Should be in her mid-twenties.Should be living mostly alone for when i sneaked and looked into her E-Bill from the back, I saw that the number of units havent gone into Slab 3(should be scarcely using the electric facilities,I wonder how ours always slips into Slab 3,but my house owner has a big part to play with that,which is a different story altogether!).

Anyway, she was from North and knew nothing in Kannada. As we went close and close to the counter, I also saw that in her bill there was this Arrears Column where it was written 296. So she goes to the counter and tells the man at the counter in Hindi that 296 is there in this arrears column and she had apparently paid the bill last month as well and that was a mistake in the bill

Now, I dont know whether the man at the counter knew Hindi or not, but atleast I expected him to reply her back in English.If he doesnt know anything other than Kannada then its fine. But atleast he should have tried something so that this girl understands what he says!As expected, he started in Kannada and this girl didnt understand anything out of it ofcourse, and she started arguing in Hindi with that person. Now there was a old man standing between me and her in the queue and he translated it for her in Hindi from Kannnada

"Aap ke paas previous month kaa receipt hai?".

Poor girl, she had misplaced it and replied that she doesnt have one. Then this old man would tell her in Hindi that there is no way the guys at the counter could verify that she has paid her previous bill. And the old man also said that she needs to go to the main office at J.P.Nagar to verify this.The poor girl just nodded and went. Not sure if she paid her arrears or not!

Thats exactly one of the problems with Bangalore... The majority of people here are from North, Andhra, Kerala and mainly from Tamil Nadu...Ask any auto driver and he would tell you the exact statistics of people from each state. Of course we manage with Hindi with auto rickshaws, hotels and many other places, but what do we do in Govt organisations like the one above? Of course, in many situations people would be helpful, but there are some cases like this as well. One more thing: If you want to travel in BMTC buses, you should be knowing Kannada, my friends. Its OK if its the regular route which you travel daily, you would know the route number, but if its a new route, better do all prelim enquiries regarding the route numbers for, everything would be written in Kannada in the bus boards and there would be Kannada numerals. Thank God, they atlease have Roman Numerals above that. But if everything else is Kannada around that, its of no use, isnt it? Yeah, you can ask the people who are travelling already in the bus, before boarding one, but chances are high that he/she might not know it as well. My point is: Why are the bus boards in Bangalore, the IT capital of India, Silicon Valley of India and what not, does have anything written in them in English?

An interesting news I read in the newspaper last year: People were complaining that the bus boards are hard to decipher.So what BMTC decided was they would send two people from BMTC to different states across the country. All expenses including the stay, travel and food would be that of BMTC and the work for these two people is to find out whether in these states,for the government run buses, are the bus routes written in both the state regional language as well as in English.The paper also said that a simple thing that could be done by making a single phone call is being made an expensive tour! And if someone had been to other states, the boards would have changed, but yeah, they are the same still.

Language: Man invented thing to communicate. Whats the use in having so many languages in this country when I dont get what you are saying and you dont understand a word of mine! People sometimes deliberately play with others, I tell you.

Like, the other day, I was going back home from work. I already told you the number of buses in Bangalore are less and people are surviving because of Sumos and Matador Vans. So i was in one such Sumo and it stopped near this bus stop. And there was this lady standing there. And the driver of the Sumo yelled, "Banashankari! Banashankari!". And to this the lady says in English,"How far is Majestic or Shivaji Nagar from this place? ". The driver starts getting irritated now. Why is she asking this when she knows that the Sumo isnt going there? He, I guess is not that good with his English, but still he tries whatever he could in English (and its a not so pretty woman as well, but still its a woman standing outside), "Madam, but this goes to Banashankari".
Now the lady continues in her English: "You know! Its very late and dark. I am getting really scared standing out here."The driver whatever he understood, am not clear, replies " Madam. Drop you in JP Nagar 1st Phase..You can go to Majestic or Shivaji Nagar from there. Lots of buses from there."... And NOW, the lady replies in Kannada,"Illindhu JP Nagara Yeshtu Kodu Beku?". For those who didnt get it, she was asking how much she should pay for dropping her off at JP Nagar. The driver says 5 rupees,but his Madam wont board the Sumo, so he shuts the door and starts moving ahead. After going some distance, he said to his companion "If this woman knew Kannada, why was she doing all these non-sense? She could have talked with me in Kannada and why was she wasting my time!?"I was sitting at the back happily enjoying at whatever he was shouting at her.

One more thing with language is that when you know that the other person doesnt understand what you speak, you can use that to shout at him/her with all possible foul words. Like what happened at the hospital other day. There were these Bengali girls and this nurse. The Bengali girls suddenly come to this nurse and started shouting at her in English. "We had this appointment at 9 AM. Now its like 11 AM and we havent seen the doctor yet. And the surgery that was supposed to happen, didnt happen yet".The nurse would initially tell them in English to calm down. "The doctors are not free, Madam. Also, there are a lot of procedures to be followed. Your case file had to come, then you have to pay cash at these counters, etc.. etc.."The girls would some back little stroger."There is no one working here with any responsibility in this hospital. We had to go to some other place as well. Whats going on here!?"... Now this would agitate the poor nurse. I mean, i understand the girls' concern.But its a damn hospital. You never know how long a doctor is gonna take for the patients who went before you. And yeah,you cant do away yet with the procedures which the nurse explained! So if you are going to the hospital, you have to expect these things. Sometimes you might be lucky, sometimes not! Anyway, back to my point, once the nurse got agitated,she started using Kannada now shouting at them, which those girls didnt get ofcourse. And she would tell the story to every other nurse in the department while those two were with the doctor.

One more way I can think now of where Language can be used to an individual's favour is by these criminals and politicians and big shots when a case is filed finally against them.How many times have we seen this! The case would be filed in some other state where they would be charged with the crime and there would a 1000, 2000 page chargesheet and what these people would say to delay the case is: "Its not in my mother tongue. I dont understand a word of it. You guys are trying to fool me. Translate it to my mother tongue". And three to four months would just pass away in doing the same!!

Why didnt we have a single language in this country, Jike? For that matter, why dont we have a single language for the world?"Do we have to really pride ourselves in saying India has more than 800 odd languages being spoken?, Unity In Diversity,blah. blah.blah". I ask you "So what?" .Whats the use in having so many languages? At last it all boils down to Hindi or English. English: One thing which we have to thank Britishers, they ruled whole of the world one day and made us all talk with the outside world in a common language and it has what made me today to talk to you.Imagine the situation where a Bengali would know only Bengali, a Gujarathi would know only Gujarathi and a Tamilian would know only Tamil!How would these three talk if they have to?. Yeah, yeah big leaders would have translators when they have political meetings,but who would be the translator for you and me?

One more thing, have you observed? I have atleast observed it with construction workers and other small vendors, office boys and shop keepers here. Their Kannada would be damn good eventhough they are not from this state. You can hardly make it out that they are from North or other Southern states. How come something which a highly educated person who works in a big MNC could not accomplish is accomplished by a woman who has never seen to school in her entire life and has been doing nothing but carry bricks to a building construction?

Necessity? You and me can somehow manage most of the time with our British given English and hamaara rashtrabhaasha Hindi, but they cant! It all boils down to this thing:If you are going out of your city/state or whatever, its you, who has to get accustomed to the world you are entering into.(Its your problem, you entered an alien world,I didnt ask you to come here, so you learn the way the communication has to be done here! Thats Ok.But the same can be applicable to you as well. You might have to come to my city one day, my dear!). It would take some time for me to get accustomed, right? I am just angry at the fact that when I am trying to do it, others in that alien world should appreciate my effort and till the time I learn their way, they can provide some sort of help, if they can. When thats not there, thats when I feel pissed off!

Anyway,Did I tell you Jike that the guy at the E-Bill counter refused to pay me back my change although I saw that he did have the change with him and when I pointed the same to him, he was still muttering something in his language which I could not understand and hence I could not reply and had to leave without my three ruppes back !

Lost In Translation

2005-04-12T05:37:00.000-04:00

Got this as a forwarded mail from my team mate and all of us in the team are laughing our heads out after reading these. Thought would share with you people as well. May be this would be a good prelude to my next post. Here is how the mail goes:

Haven't you always wondered how "Americanisms" would sound like if they were translated literally into hindi?

Have a nice day!
* Achcha din lo!

What's up?
*Uppar kya hai?

You're kidding!
*Tum bachcha bana rahe ho!

Don't kid me!
* Mera bachcha mut banaao!

Yo, baby! What's up?
* Beti Yo, uppar kya hai?

Cool man!
* Thandaa aadmi!

Don't mess with me, dude.
* Mere saath gandagee mat karo, ek hustee.

Check this out, man!
* Iskee chaanbeen karo, aadmi!

She's so fine!
* Woh itnee bedaag hai!

Listen buddy, that chick's mine, okay!?
* Suno dost, woh choozaa mera hai, theek?

Hey good looking; what's cooking?
* Arree haseenaa; kyaa pakaa rahee ho?

Are you nuts?
* Kya aap akhrot hain?

Son of a gun.
* Bachcha bandook ka.

And the best one is.....

How do you do?
* Kaise karte ho?

After an interlude...

2005-04-12T03:42:00.000-04:00

Dadz back and what kept me away from you:

a) Work: Ha ha ha...
b) The message I have been receiving for so long which didnt allow me to write:

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.Please contact the server administrator, support@blogger.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Have been thinking: What keeps a father away from his son, in real life scenario? Few things I can think of:
a) Son is studying at some other city/state/country
b) Son is working at some other city/state/country other than that of his father
c) Son is taking a vacation or is on a trip to some other city/state/country other than that of his father or vice versa
d) Worse Case: Father and Son are fighting over something, no longer speak with each other and so they stay away from each other!
e) Worst Case: Father is dead or the Son is dead.

But my case doesnt fit to any of these: I could not talk with my e-son because of some server problem which I have been facing since last Friday.. Interesting... I guess I should add that to the real life scenario as well. I mean anyway, we are living in an age where VOIP phone is your boss, dictates what your deadline is and decides how your day is gonna be... Anyway, many of us arent staying with our family and we spend may be 10- 15% of 365 days(thats too big an estimate) of the year with them? Telephones, e-mails, IMs are what 'trying' to bridge the gap... So why dont I add it to the list:

f) Server problem with the e-mail or IM service provider.(or) Problem with telephone line

Who knows? Somewhere in some part of the world as I am typing this post, two dads might be talking like this:
Dad 1: "Know what? XYZ mail service was down today. Was expecting a mail from my daughter. Could not check it today. "

Dad 2: "Is it?. I tried logging into the GHI messenger and damn it, some problem. I gave correct user name and password. But could not login. So I missed my weekly Voice Conference with my two sons".

Funny world, we are in... Anyway, have lots to tell my son.. Hope I get the time this week and hope there are no more server problems

Million Dollar Baby

2005-04-04T02:17:00.000-04:00

Hmm. If you see my room mate's Oscar checklist here, you would see that they both have done a very good job in compiling the list, for 'Million Dollar Baby' would satisfy almost everything in the list. Good job, roomies!

For me, it was OK sorta movie. Not too good, not too bad either. I mean, have seen movies of this type before, so nothing unusal. Now, would I have voted for MDB, had I been in the Academy list of voters?

1. The movie as such - Not sure. May be MDB would have been the best among the lot this time around. None of the 5 movies had been a mega hit like that of Titanic, or LOTR, so may be thats y, MDB got the majority of votes!? I'm guessing here.
2. Clint Eastwood - Huh, OK. Not a bad choice for the Best Director. He has acted very well as well and he was great with his comedy
3. Hillary Swank - Shes known for these types of roles, isnt it? Boys Don't Cry and MDB now. Yeah, she was good. Not close to Charlize Theron in The Monster last time around though. But may be she worked on her physique a lot to fit the role and good performance as well in few scenes.
4. Morgan Freeman - Yes, definitely yes. He was too good. No doubt about that.

Things at Work: Part 2 - Cost Cuts

2005-03-29T04:46:00.000-05:00

Skype has been the talk point @ work today. The idea is to cut the telephone costs between the team members, the calls that are made through Company mobiles.All of us in the team have been asked to have our Skype account by our manager. Should say its working good. Since voice chat through YM or other messengers have been blocked @ work, this would prove useful to many of us. The voice clarity is good and interface is also OK. Try it out yourself and you might as well like it.Discussion went around today in the team as to how they can block YM voice chat and why they wont be able to block Skype and yeah one of my team mate was having a voice chat with another team mate of mine at Kansas for about 1 1/2 hours and both were enjoying it much, should say.

To H: Thought we would do our Wing Voice Conference through Skype, but only 4 people + host can do a voice conference through Skype. May be some other Internet Telephony system can be of use to us. As such, Yahoo is blocked for some of our wingies, so we might try switching to something like Skype. Am not sure whether stuff like Skype might be blocked somewhere else as well.

Anyway, the conference as such isn't happening for some time now, may be someone should bring the initial enthu back first before thinking of stuff like these....

Two Two to Two Three

2005-03-28T03:33:00.000-05:00

The transition has been very silent one. First time in my life I was there in a 3 BHK house all alone with no one except my laptop and my own solitude as the only company as the clock struck 12 in the night.Something that was different from the last 5 or 6 years, except for 2003 when it was bcos of me I was alone in my hostel room at 12 AM.Thats a different story to explain why am little(or rather more!?) crazy, I am not gonna go into that story now anyway!

I am gonna miss this 22 badly and I am never gonna meet this 22 again in my life which makes me little sad. For one more year, I have got a new companion now to live with: 23, wherever I go, 23 would follow me for a year now.Hazaar application forms I might(and I want to) fill with 23, but this 22 is gone forever for me, I mean one of the 22's that was so dear to me.A very magical number indeed, 22.

Things to be happy about: My parents were there with me last weekend, and for one more year, I am fortunate and happy that I am wearing on this day what they got me to wear for this day. And I expect so many good things to come my way when this 23 guy is around with me.Lets see how much of that comes true.

The wishes started pouring in from the morning from parents, friends and colleagues at work.Thanks to all who remembered and wished me on this day, thanks to all those who would be wishing me on this day or later.And for those who forgot my day, its OK, not a big deal. Try to remember it from next time.

riot, a novel

2005-03-28T02:37:00.000-05:00

Amazing, Wonderful, Simply Superb. I would run short of words if I had to describe this novel(The truth is I dont know those words, ha ha ha. More on Truth later in the post).If you havent read this novel yet, please get your copy today and read it. That would be my recommendation. I liked everything about the novel, starting from the way the novel has been presented: in a different style which I havent seen in any other novel I have read so far.

Shashi Tharoor has handled one of the most sensitive issues of post-independence India so well. The book gave me so many facts about India,Hinduism and the issue based on which the novel is written. And the beauty about the novel is the climax. Even thats different.Nope. I am not gonna say whats special and different about the climax, of course, for the sake of those who havent read it.

But, I would like to quote a few lines from the novel, though.First thing I would like to quote it solely for Subs and no one else.It remembered me of something between us and thought Subs might like it. But, hey am not accepting my defeat yet :) It just re-emphasises the explanation that I gave you that day.Yeah, laugh at me still, if you like to. I love that.

- I know you love me. I just don't know how much.
- I love you! Isn't that enough? I don't think it's possible to love anyone more than I love you.
- Those are just words. Words are just words until you act on them.
- I am acting on them. I'm with you, aren't I?
- Yes, but that's for now. You'll be gone in an hour, more or less. Back to your wife, your daughter.To a home you don't share with me.

('Lakshman and Priscilla', Page 214 of riot)

Second thing I would like to quote is for all of you. This is a very interesting story which Shashi tells and why am I stressing on this would be clear to those who have read the novel. For others, read it and then you might be able to appreciate this story better.

"Truth is elusive, subtle, many-sided. You know, Priscilla, there's an old Hindu story about Truth. It seems a brash young warrior sought the hand of a beautiful princess. Her father, the king, thought he was a bit too cocksure and callow.He decreed that the warrior could marry the princess after he had found Truth. So the warrior set out into the world ona quest for Truth. He went to temples and monasteries, to mountaintops where sages meditated, to remote forests where ascetics scourged themselves, but nowhere he could find Truth. Despairing one day and seeking shelter from a thunderstorm,he took refuge in a musty cave. There was an old crone there, a hag with matted hair and warts on her face, the skin hanging loose from her bony limbs, her teeth yellow and rotting, her breath malodorous. But as he spoke to her, with each question she answered, he realized he had come to the end of his journey: she was Truth. They spoke all night, and when the storm cleared, the warrior told her that he had fulfilled his quest.'Now I have found Truth', he said, 'what shall I tell them at the palace about you? The wizened old creature smiled.'Tell them,' she said,'tell them that I am young and beautiful'."

('from Lakshman's journal', Page 137 of riot)

Things at Work: Part 1-Voice It Out Loud

2005-03-24T02:14:00.000-05:00

When you are unhappy about any facility @ work, no harm in voicing your opinion against it, for its the place where you work and it becomes your duty as well to make sure everything is fine. Please dont get me wrong and think what kind of person is he,writing all these about his company. Mine is a great place to work: Very nice people I have met here. But there are some things that am sure is bad in every other company. Just that I have written about it and others dont, or others wish they dont have to. And am pretty sure manager or his manager isnt reading this, even if he is he wont bother! He would agree to whatever I am saying.

Like the last facility we were in, the lifts were too bad. There would be mails floating now and then: "Lifts: Do they really lift?". Complaints against how the lifts are being used by the construction workers for carrying bricks,stones and cement and what not. Likewise, the food @ work. Whenever we have a bash like stuff and when there are programs like small skit which we employees do, we never forget about the lunch thats served. Not that we are complaining just like that, we are complaining bcos something is too bad and its too bad for everyone uniform across the company.

Here is how it went in one of those skits. We are trying to interview a candidate for our company. The interview is like almost over.Almost like every other interview at the end:

Interviewer: So, do you have any questions you want to ask us?
Candidate: Sir, is there any medical test I have to take and show the results to the company?
Interviewer: No, no specific medical test requiered.But yes, you would be asked to just take our pantry lunch for one day. And thats it.Thats the medical test for you
Candidate: Ok, Sir, Thank you.

Now, when this part was done, we were clapping and laughing almost endlessly for we know how true it was.The effect of all these, you might ask? Well, now in our new facility now the HR has mailed us asking us to suggest the caterers which we found good: be it from some other company, or some party where we have attended. The news that we are going to get a new caterer is such a happy news to most of us here for sure.

Likewise, the other day myself and my team mate went to the Pantry for morning tea and usual chit chat. I found "Hot Chocolate" written besides one of the buttons. I was too tempted to have a cup of it. Wow! what a change from the usual tea and lemon tea. I pressed it with lots of enthusiasm only to find the cup filled with something I dont know how to describe. It was 15% chocolate powder and 85% hot water, I should say! I got irriated and commented to my team mate in a real loud voice "Hey, look at this. They say its Hot Chocolate and look at this. The sticker should have read Hot Water. It would have been of use to sick people atleast". My team mate started smiling and looked at the cup I had in my hand and he said, "Yeah Man, it looks so pathetic. I am sure it tastes very bad". "Real bad. Horrible", I said.

Then I realised and noticed that while we were talking guys from the Facility department were right there in a table at the back having their morning tea as well. I felt sorta odd standing there. I was wondering what to do now!? I looked at my team mate and both of us silently left the Pantry. Now, whats the effect of all these, you might ask again? Well, that day when I went for my evening tea this time, and what do I find? The sticker that read "Hot Chocolate" is missing from the Vending m/c and its missing till today. Wow, my voicing the opinion had some effect!

With that I end Part 1 of the series. Three day weekend. Have a nice time. My team mate just told me that its Holi this Saturday and we are busy making our Holi plans.Catch you on Monday.

Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...

2005-03-22T13:38:00.000-05:00

Ever since I saw Page 3, I was in hunt for this song and today finally the search came to an end , thanks to my team mate who had this song on his notebook. This song has everything in it to be called a great song: good tune, good lyrics and most importanty a very good voice to back it up. This would go down as one of my all time favourite songs. And the best line of the song for me which touched me a lot was "Kuch Bhi Ho Jaaye Yahaan, Bas Kush Rehna Hai", which she re-emphasises by singing it twice. One line that echoes the essence of the movie and most importantly the whole of the song echoes as such of the life most of us are living. And believe me, I have met so many people like what is being described in the song below. This song, I felt so close to my heart. Do listen to this song if you get it somewhere. You might as well like it.This time am not making any mistakes with the lyrics :) And I am writing it exactly the way its there in the song, with the exact number of repetititons. :)

Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...

Do Pal Milte Hain, Saath Saath Chalte Hain
Do Pal Milte Hain, Saath Saath Chalte Hain
Jab Mod Aaye Tho Bachke Nikalthe Hain
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...

Do Pal Milte Hain, Saath Saath Chalte Hain
Do Pal Milte Hain, Saath Saath Chalte Hain
Jab Mod Aaye Tho Bachke Nikalthe Hain
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...

Yahaan Sabhi Apne Hi Dun Mein Diwaane Hain
Yahaan Sabhi Apne Hi Dun Mein Diwaane Hain
Kare Wohi Jo Apna Dil Teek Maane Hain
Kaun Kisko Poochein, Kaun kisko Boley
Kaun Kisko Poochein, Kaun kisko Boley
Sabke Labon Par Apne Taraane Hain
Sabke Labon Par Apne Taraane Hain
Le Jaaye Naseeb Kisko Kahaan Pe
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...

Khwabon Ki Ye Duniya Hai, Khwabon Mein Hi Rehna Hai
Khwabon Ki Ye Duniya Hai, Khwabon Mein Hi Rehna Hai
Raheen Le Jaaye Jahaan, Sung Sung Chalna Hai
Waqt Ne Hamesha Yahaan Naye Khel Khele
Waqt Ne Hamesha Yahaan Naye Khel Khele
Kuch Bhi Ho Jaaye Yahaan, Bas Kush Rehna Hai
Kuch Bhi Ho Jaaye Yahaan, Bas Kush Rehna Hai
Manzil Lage Kareeb Sabko Yahaan Pe
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...

Do Pal Milte Hain, Saath Saath Chalte Hain
Do Pal Milte Hain, Saath Saath Chalte Hain
Jab Mod Aaye Tho Bachke Nikalthe Hain
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...

Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...

Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...
Kitne Ajeeb Rishte Hain Yahaan Pe...

I love being here with you

2005-03-22T01:52:00.000-05:00

Felt like singing this to Jike:

I love the rock...(Pa pam Pa Pam)
And what and all...(Pa pam Pa Pam)
With you there, there would never be a bore
'Cos I love being here with you

Singing in the shower, laughing 'bout the hour
Life is such an ease again
Love all kinds of weather, as long as we are together
I love to hear you say my name

I like with wine...(Pa pam Pa Pam)And fine cuisine...(Pa pam Pa Pam)
And candle light...I like the scene...
But baby if you know what I mean
I love being here with you!

(Pam pam Pa pa pam)

Thanks Z-English for the song. And forgive mistakes if any!

Namesake

2005-03-21T07:50:00.000-05:00

Now,this was the book that was bribed into our library: bribed for the sake of Lila and till now,the owner of this book hasnt come and claimed it back. Felt like reading it next and i finished it off real fast, thanks to less work. Mon - Fri, 5 nights is what it took me to complete this novel.

Also, this time, I read about the author a little more apart from whats there on the book.She looks cute and beautiful in few snaps. Check it out :) Somehow i felt the name Jhumpa funny: Rhymes with Champa, Tampa, Lumpa, ok ok m stopping here. Looking at her biography, feel she has transformed her life experiences into a novel and told it through Gogol n others.

As I was reading it, felt like I am doing it just for the title,reading it Namesake !, but yeah,wait till the last chapter of the novel, the final 20 pages and she turns it all around. I liked those pages. Nothing too great happens in the final pages though, but they are real touchy. Overall, its an OK read. Not too good, not bad either.

Good things about the novel: The central theme itself. Wow, a person has spun a yarn around name of a person. Sounds different, but Mission Accomplished. And then, the way she describes life of NRI's and all those ABCD's there, gives a totally different picture of America than what many of us think. USA is no good heaven!

Now, do I read Interprester of Maladies? Dont know, that was the one that gave her Pulitzer, so it should be better than this. But No, i wont, if shes gonna talk about the same subject there also. You tell me...

When two tifosis chat...

2005-03-18T07:20:00.000-05:00

Now what makes F1 special? Once, I had this argument with my Project Manager over this. He was looking at my monitor where the desktop background has been that of Michael Schumacher. He looked at it and asked me(as many of my friends ask),"Whats in this sport? 20 people going round the same track again and again?. Its boring". Now that irriated me a lot. I know he likes Cricket a lot.I asked a question back to him. "Whats there in Cricket? 3 sticks here and 3 sticks there. And the same 6 balls an over again and again and again. Isnt that more boring?". Now for this, he didnt have an answerthen and he doesnt have it till now. And still he remembers this incident very well.Though hes not my manager anymore,whenever he sees me, he asks me this first: "How are you Schumacher?" And if hes introducing me to anyone, he would always narrate this incident of us to that person.

Ha, F1. Why should people not be liking it? Take Cricket. The most boring game one can ever imagine. I dont know how people can watch that stuff for 5 days together yaar? Cmon! See F1. It gets over so fast. Not more than 1.30 hrs. And what makes is special? These guys who are driving are doing many things that a normal person(you, hopefully and me) are not doing.

a) They are risking their life knowing pretty well that the chances of they dying in a race is so high. And yet they race for thrill and fun. Imagine driving a car at more than 300 Kph continuosly. Wouldnt that feeling be so amazing? I want such thrills in life myself.

b) The greatest thing they are doing is they are racing against time. That is the most important thing that makes F1 so special. It might be silly for you to note the lap timings in qualifying and the race itself, but when I see it, it excites me when schumi shaves off even .1 of a second of the previous lap record. How many times in our lives we wud have raced against time and failed miserably?

For me life, to put it simply, is nothing but a race. Everyone of us is running a race, if you like it or not.You have no other option.We race against things we like to do, things we dont like to do, things that bring happiness to us, things that make us sad and most of all we race against time. And for that matter, in every project at work, we race against a deadline! The race starts at birth and the chequered flag is shown to each one of us by the great person above when we die. Its left to each and every one of us, how we race, this race of life.Happy people are those like that of Ferrari,Williams or Mclaren team: they have money,technology and knowledge to shape their race better. Poor people in this world are like Minardi team: they would have done better in their life had they had better conditions to race their life. So knowingly or unknowingly, every one of us is racing all our lives and so when it comes to F1, why should you be not liking it, huh?

The key difference between our life race and a F1 race is: In F1 race, the driver in front decides the time when the chequered flag is shown, but we cant do that to ourselves. How many times in life we would have thought: "If I had time for this, I should have done it better". "Hope I can go back in time and change this". But no, we always lose against time. Time always is the winner when it comes to us. But for a F1 driver, its not the case. He can beat time. He has that capability. And thats what makes him and the sport so special.

Now, having said that, I am atatching the chat conversation I had with my friend from college whos right now in Singapore. We have watched together so many races in our life at the college and this sunday he is fulfilling one of our college dreams: to watch a race live and to be specific, to watch schumi race live. I am happy for him. I would have wished i was there too, but i couldnt go. Now with this chat conversation, I answer what I promised H. Now, read two tifosi's chatting here. I have the whole of the conversation uncensored as it is with all the typos.

Him: Hi dude.. how'r u doing?
Me: oh yeah
Me: gr8
Me: hows u?
Him: nice.. yeh um doin great..
Me: singapore still?
Him: yup..
Him: finally gonna go meet Schumi in a coupla days.
Me: wow!
Him: watch me in teh podium..
Him: ;)
Me: sure
Me: r u serious?
Him: um going for the grand prix..
Me: sooper da
Him: yeh um really excited.. ferrari has gotto win
Me: u shud go for what happened at Melbourne
Me: yes rite
Him: after abt 9 years of tv.. i finally um goin for the real thing..
Me: sooper
Him: yeh thought i'll share it with my fellow schumi fan..
Him: :)
Me: u wud be goin on sat as well?
Him: nope.. sunday qualifying.. n race..
Me: oh ok
Him: ideal finsih would be Schum bari n narain..
Him: hehe
Me: nice dream
Him: yeh.. i hope one of them make it to the podium
Me: thats a fair ask
Me: it wud happen
Him: haha
Me: how much is the ticket? is it too expensive?
Him: not really.. mine's arnd 1200 odd indian bucks
Me: thats it?
Him: for a day.. which is probably the cheapaest
Him: grandstand tickets are much more expensice
Him: ive i mean
Him: i'll be the oppsite side of the grandstands.. witnessing the start-finish straight
Me: there s a back straight as well at Sepang
Him: yeh
Him: i wanna go to spa as well.. hehe that'll be sometime later..
Me: when u say grandstand: its the back straight?
Him: lemme check.. my map
Me: Spa.. yeah me too wanna go....
Me: may be Monaco as well
Him: yeh monaco's just good cause of the street circuit thingy
Him: but spa is my fav
Me: hmm
Me: i guess Grandstand shud be the start finish straight
Me: no?
Him: there are two straights in sepang
Me: rite
Him: making a narrow V
Me: yes
Him: I am in the oppsite side of one of them..
Me: oh ok
Me: lets see
Him: i might even run down the track n get arrested
Him: hehehe
Me: :)
Me: do that if schumi is not doing well... so that there wud be a safety car
Him: so u like this new system?
Me: :))
Him: yeh i wil surely do that
Me: new system? u mean the tyre regulation? or engine?
Him: both.. i think the tyre thing is bad..
Me: yeah
Him: no strategies now.. just plain refuelling
Me: what abt circuit like Spa.. where it can rain any moment
Me: if these guys were on dry
Me: they wud get fucked
Him: yeah i am hoping it rains on sunday.. that way.. schumi'll walk thru them all
Me: hows the weather?
Me: it shud be damn hot
Him: weather is always unpredictable.. at this part.. it can rain any time
Him: late afternoon
Me: oh ok
Me: u saw BAR doing the tactical thing at the end of last race?
Him: yeh that's a silly loophole
Me: i dont know what happened to schumi's car.. they had to change his engine!?
Me: thats strange
Me: usually it happens to bari
Him: schumi's car.. had an accident right..
Him: and therefore since he didn'tfinish the race.. they are obviosuly changing the engine to a newer one
Me: no
Him: u mean in the race?
Me: i was saying: they had to change for the aus gp itself
Me: yes
Him: ohh that..
Him: that was because he qualified.. 19th in the first qualifying
Him: cause of the rain..
Him: and the tiem was very bad..
Him: so there was no hope of improvement.. he decided to change the engine.. and take the 10 spaces back penalty
Me: but one good thing: have been used to see schumi win all the aus gp's .... its a different start this year
Me: but man! who expected fisichella win!?
Him: yeh i like it when ferrari do the chasing.. it's more interesting..
Me: rite
Me: me too
Him: Fisichella is this sloth kinda driver.. he just ahngs around.. and wins cause the conditions are too bad to overtake
Me: just like DC
Me: :))
Him: just liek coultharsd
Him: yeh
Me: bingo
Him: hehe
Me: idiot.. he finished 4th rite?
Him: yeh he had a g ood start n he finished 4th
Him: barrichelo on the other hadn drove very well.. so did alonso
Me: so how early did u get the tickets? a month early?
Him: yeh
Me: there wud have been a lota rush, rite?
Him: yeh.. i suppose so.. i got it pretty early thou..
Me: is someone accompanying u?
Him: yeh a few friends..
Me: how far is sepang from ur place?
Him: it's 69 Km from the city
Him: arnd an hour or so's drive..
Me: i guess the only tricky corner in sepang is turn 14(i guess)... the one that leads into the back straight..
Me: thats where junta does mistake
Me: hope to see narain do that a lot :))
Him: i hope they
Him: do
Me: if u are seated right in front of that... u shud be having a lota fun
Me: anyway... it wud be a great fun to see cars whizzling past at more than 300 Kph
Him: i am seated before turn 14..
Me: sooper da
Him: i mean.. turn 15
Me: u have got the best possible position
Him: the straight right.. between 14 and 15..
Him: i am towards 15..
Him: i can't see 14 i think
Him: i will be seeated where i can see turn 8 and 15..
Me: lets see in the map
Me: how long have been waiting for this!
Me: good that u r finally seeing our Hero
Me: !
Him: yeah raell real long
Him: wish u were here too.. we could've celebrated it ...
Me: yups
Me: i wud have got a big Ferrari flag
Me: just like what we see in Imola
Me: or at San Marino
Him: i think i'll go ot hte circuit n get one
Him: i hear the memorabilia are better in teh circuit
Me: if u have the flag, the chances of Star Sports spotting u is high! :)
Him: haha yeh it's like spotting a pin in a haystack
Me: sometimes they do da
Me: like
Me: just before the start
Me: when steve slater says
Me: welcome to rnd 2 of this years championship
Him: ohh ohh ohh.. the lights are going out now!!!
Him: too bad i'll miss his commentary..
Me: may be go and meet those guys if poss
Me: i mean chris and steve
Him: yeh i sure will try..
Him: i guess i won't be able to see the pitting
Me: i now can see where u are gonna sit
Him: i can see two parts of hte track... cauae there are no stands in between
Me: there guys wud be breaking down to gear 1 at the exit of the back straight
Him: the back straight n between turns 8 and 9
Me: right
Him: montoya is really quiet these days
Me: yup
Me: i guess last year barrichello had an accident at the exit of back straight
Me: so it shud be fun
Him: nice.. i'll be waiting for something to happen
Me: i was actually happy to c narain finish last race
Me: usually rookies dont
Him: yeh that is quite an achivement
Him: he made many errors thou.. but not bad..
Me: and he finished at a higher place than schumi in his first race :))
Him: hahaha yeh
Him: now that is an achivement
Me: rite
Me: seems like ferrari didnt do well at Fri practice
Him: that hardly matters ..
Me: seems a sauber has topped the sheet
Me: wow! this season, things are so strange!
Him: yeh ... mainly cause of the new rules
Him: they'll all even out as the season progresses.. reliability will be a big factor
Me: oh! in the map u sent.. they have marked the place where u sit, is it?
Him: yeah
Him: no no.. i have marked it
Me: k
Me: sepang is also regarded as the best circuit wrt facilities, right?
Him: yeh it is.. i've visited it before
Him: not during hte race..
Him: amazing pits..
Me: guess u have told me this b4
Him: yeah
Me: the grand stand is of the shape of some flower right?
Me: their national flower?
Him: yeah i think it's shaped like the pine leaves or something
Me: hmmm
Me: i didnt see last race's qualifying
Me: when is the sunday qualifying?
Me: how many hrs b4 the race?
Him: ohh .. sunday morning is teh second qualifying
Me: 2 hrs is it?
Him: there's a porche racing first
Him: qualifying at 1 pm
Him: race at 3
Him: yeh 2 hrs
Me: ok
Me: 3 in malaysia is what time here?
Him: 12:30
Him: pm
Me: ok
Me: ur brother isnt coming?
Him: he's in teh us.. he'll probably go for the indianapolis
Me: sooper da
Me: u guys rock
Me: wish there was an Indian GP
Him: yeah.. narain would be home fav.. Chennai grandprix..
Me: guess by that time it comes, schumi wud have retired :(
Him: yeah.. that's y i am happy .. causei think he'll retire this year.. or atleast by next year.
Me: and i didnt get a chance to see him race :((
Him: .. u can come down to the next malaysian grandprix
Him: i will be there in singapore i suppose
Me: yeah sure... ble always wanted to go to malaysian gp
Him: mmm..
Me: lets see if schumi is there next yr, we both wud try to come
Him: yeh do that.. it'll be graet
Me: hey
Me: send me the snaps once u r back from the race
Me: dont forget
Him: sure thing
Him: will do..
Me: guess am leaving now... hope to catch u sometime later...
Him: ok me's leavin too
Him: catch ya later..
Me: ok bye
Him: bye..

Newspaper or Nuisance paper?

2005-03-16T03:38:00.000-05:00

(This post is not for the Old One. Have discussed this with him yesterday night.So he can skip reading this if he wishes to)

Yesterday morning, I got myself ready to go out and pay my Telephone bill for last month. Thing has to be said about my mobile service provider though: They say 15th is the last day every month for paying the telephone bill, but the bill never reaches you before atleast 10th of every month. This time, I guess it should have come on 12th Saturday or on 13th Sunday(am not sure, I was out of station. Or had it come already and my house owner didnt give it to us early? No thats not the case either. I saw the postal stamp on the bill and it had been dispatched only on 10th March). And sometimes the bill doesnt reach the home at all. You have to just go and pay the bill quoting your mobile number and the SMS you get telling the Bill Amount.

Unusual thing about yesterday was that the boy who delivers newspaper at our home had delivered a different news paper than what we usually get. There in the first page the news was that employees of my mobile service providing company, employees of all the departments you can think of in their company, are going on a three day strike. March 15-17, for whole of the Karnataka region and hence all their services are going to get affected for three days.

What!? That means I am not gonna pay the bill on time. Means there is one more day I have to go to work late. And would they really disconnect me for not paying the bill on time? No, they cant do that. I would go on 18th promptly and pay the bill. If they are on strike for 3 days, then who wud be working there to cut my phone connection, ha ha ha...

Anyway, I have already told guys at work that I would be late that morning: I tell you when you are working with a team thats spread across the timezones, these things are really important,for these people in US would schedule their time based upon that. If I go and pay my telephone bill today, that means there wont be a conference call now in the morning. Arvind would have to mail whatever transition hes doing to me, and if i dont have a conference call, I wont be able to clarify any doubts that I might get(Alas, Arvind's mails are so damn clear. There wont be any doubts most of the time, but yeah, you never know, there might be things which we might have not considered in the code and you would come to know of it only when you run and test it). So if I am not paying my telephone bill today, that means I am gonna be late to office on some other day and one more day I have to inform at work that am gonna be late and one more day there wont be a conference call in the morning. So, thats the effect paying this bill has on me.

Since I have already told them that am gonna be late, I just want to go and try out at their office: may be they could have made some alternative arrangements so that the customers might pay the bill. Why dont i give it a shot? So I board the bus and reach their office and what do I see? There is nothing called strike there. The office is working completely to its full strength and I see a never seen Q to pay the bill(for its the last date to pay the same). I was really pissed off at the newspaper publishers.Good that I didnt pay heed to that news and took a chance.

Its not that big deal for me actually: I could have paid the bill later also. Three days wouldnt have mattered much to me at all.(Which company in this country is so prompt that they wud cut their services for a 3day due, huh?) But think of some serious issue which they could have a wrong information on.Like, last week there was a buzz at work. The same news paper had published that a Kashmiri militant organisation has planned to attack and blow off the buildings of one of the software company's premises here. Because of this report, there was unprecedented security all over the software companies here. Even our HR as a measure of caution had warned us about this report. But, people at work were wondering: "How is this possible, yaar?Why this software company that they are targeting out of all other big giants here.?But, hey, only this newspaper has published this news while no other newspaper company has got this news and published it.
Strange isnt it?"

Yeah, right, its strange. May be these news paper companies are focussed more on increasing their sales volumes than the actual news itself. It doesnt matter much to them whats being said and whats the impact on so many people reading them. Every now and then there would be an Ad in their newspaper where they would boast: "Hey, guys look here(and there would be a bar graph there). This is amount of copies which we have sold over last few months. And look at our competitors. Poor fellows. They cant match us, can they?".

Well yes, they cant match you in being so awful and stupid, thats what I can say.

The Good Earth

2005-03-15T09:25:00.000-05:00

This time the great one(rather would call him The Old One as he is the oldest in our group of friends and also this term is used by the author of this book a lot many times) himself gave me this book from the mini library and asked me to read the same. When I first got the book and flipped over the pages, I was excited to see so many photographs in it. "Hiyah! It has so many snaps in it". Snaps of Chinese men and women of 19th century,snaps of the author:Pearl S. Buck herself and photographs related to the incidents Pearl S. Buck narrates in the novel. The novel as such is very good. I liked it a lot. Story was good, fast moving and captivating that I finished it in 5 days. When I went to the mini library again yesterday night,the Old One asked me: "Are you done with The Good Earth?". I said "Yes". "How was the book?". "It was good. Liked it a lot".
So, lemme give my review to this book through the two main characters of the novel: Wang Lung and O-lan

Wang Lung: The hero of the novel. The author takes us through his life journey from his youth till his old age. What I saw through this character was that:
"Man is happy when he pays attention to whats more important to him in his life. Whenever he deviates from this, he suffers and theres no peace in his life."

This I would say is the gist of the novel.

Wang Lung is a person who is happy when hes with his good earth and when hes poor. But once he starts becoming rich and once his family starts to grow and when he starts paying attention to unimportant things like social status: what others are gonna think of him etc and he is unhappy , he tries to find peace in life and eternally hes bothered by so many troubles in his life one after another and till his old age he suffers, suffers and suffers in some way or other.

O-lan: The heroine of the novel reminds me of certain breed of people who are fast extinguishing from the face of this earth. These are the kind of people for whom their personal life doesnt matter at all and forever in their life they live for others: right from their birth till death. And people dont pay any attention to these people, for them, these people are like non-existent and their imporatnce is felt only when they leave us forever. Then we realise, how silently, without making any fuss of what they are doing, these people have been working marvels for us, but we never cared about them, never bothered whether they are happy or not, never even wondered what their needs are!

O-lan is one such woman, whom Wang Lung completely ignores most of his life and later he realises what a blunder he has done all through his life, but then it becomes too late for him. This post is a tribute from me to women like O-lan who these days are really difficult to be spotted on this earth. I am stopping here. Nothing more on the story of the book. Read it for yourself and let me know how you felt.

I have also learnt a word in Chinese: Nung in chinese means one whose wealth is from that of earth. The good thing about this book was that the author never deviated from the title a lot. Whatever she has told, it all revolved around the same thing: Earth and how it influences this Chinese farmer's life.

So what next? Now, from a Nobel Winner, I have moved on to a Pulitzer Winner. This time its not an American author, but its an Indian author, but shes female too. Pearl S.Buck moved from USA to China and this woman I guess has moved from India to USA. My first novel of hers as well. More on that later: hopefully sometime early next week, if this novel is also that good and I finish it off this weekend.

Food for Thought

2005-03-10T23:56:00.000-05:00

Don't marry Airtel woman .they say TOUCH TOMMORROW. Don't marry BSNL woman they have CONNECTIONS ALL OVER INDIA. Don't marry Hutch woman where ever u go THEIR NETWORK follows. Don't marry IDEA woman, an IDEA CAN CHANGE her life. So marry Reliance woman because buy one get another free

A wealthy God indeed...!

2005-03-10T02:40:00.000-05:00

A trip to Thirupathi after a long long time. Had forgotten the whole place.Mom reminded me that my last trip was 13 years back. Ooh! Who remembers stuff that happened 13 years ago!? Travel time was less than what me and my thatha expected. We started at 10 PM in the night and we were there at 3.30 AM banging the hotel room where my parents had already checked in.It was the first "Meet the Parents" act this year for me (its March already!). So naturally that meant none of us slept after that. There were stories to tell and stories to be heard. Updates to be given, updates to be heard. We were by the way there to witness the marriage of Lord Mr.Venkateswara with Ms.Sridevi and Ms.Bhoodevi. Kalyanautsavam happens everyday at Thirumala for Him. Lucky person!

Get ready, breakfast done, travel from Thirupathi to Thirumala through the ghat road. Thatha was amused (not satisfied and upset a lot) about the changes that had taken place over there. "In this place, which is empty now, there used to be a Mutt. There, there used to be a Mandapam.What happened to these people? Why have they destroyed these structures?". There were other old people who echoed his sentiments. Anyway, left our slippers outside (in an unguarded place, taking a lot of risk) and we were ready to join the queue.

Man, it has to be said: People's patience is best tested at Thirumala. Mom would now tell me the stories of my brother, how impatient he used to get in those never ending queues! But this time, we were special guests to His marriage(that means we had already paid Rs.750 for the Kalyanautsavam ticket and two people are allowed for one ticket and we had two tickets. There was Rs.2500 Kalyanautsavam ticket as well. The priest outside told us: "Dont worry. You people have paid so much. You would be given the treatment that money deserves"), and that means the queue time is going to be less for us. But, one thing needs to be told about Thirumala: The queues are organised and managed very well. So after many rounds of checking, we are now put into a gallery where all the people who had paid 750 would be seated. Of course, there was a seperate one for 2500. And the beauty is that the system is so systematic and its happening over and over again everyday that the people who are managing the crowd, exactly know when to let people inside the gallery, when to let the people out as they know the timings of things happening around exactly.

We joined the queue at around 9 AM. Went into this gallery at around 10. There we were sitting for half an hour and by the time we passed various stages of the Q and reached the Kalyana Mantapa it was like 11.30. Mom wasnt happy. It was my uncle who booked the tickets online (He told me he was lucky to get them, for they were all booked for next two years already) and she was of the feeling that we should have booked the 2500 one: for there would be something special done for them than 750. Money Speaks!

So in the Kalyanamantapa, the people with 2500 ticket sat in the front rows.Money Speaks! And i psyched up my mother that yeah the Sankalpam would be done for people who paid 2500 and not for us. She got tensed up."No, I wont accept this marriage ceremony then. If I am not doing the Sankalpam with your father today, we would wait, pay 2500 again and do this whole thing again". So we were sitting behind and after sometime the priest who does the marriage arrived and the chating of mantras all started. After sometime it was Sankalpam time and luckily after all 2500 tickets were done, yeah, much to the satisfaction of my mother, we were allowed to do the same as well.

Now, my Dad and thatha would open the money covers which others had given to them to offer in the Hundi. Thirumala is so different from all other temples in the world. How wealthy is this God and how wealthy is this temple!? I have seen so many other temples in India, ancient ones but in a ruined condition.It would be pathetic to watch such temples going to ruins. Have heard stories of priests in those temples finding it damn difficult to make both ends meet. But for Thirupathi Balaji, its all different story. Mom would say "Hey, he owes a lot of debt to Kubera. We are just paying the interest of the loan still. The original amount is still left". I would reply back: "How many generations are you going to say the same?". When i put a 5 rupee coin into that cover of Dad, i told my Mom "This is enough for Him. He is already very rich". I used to wonder: "Why cant these people do something to other temples I have talked about? Why cant they do something to renovate those temples? Why do you have to concentrate it all to this temple? Arent those Gods, Gods? What is so special about this person who lives among these seven hills?".

Look at the mentality of the priests over there. (The following, which am saying is not applicable only to Thirumala, but in general to most of the temples I have seen). When I went for the Sankalpam, I didnt have any money with me in my hand. The priest never cared about me. But, when my Dad was waving a 10 rupee note, the priest snatched it in a flash of a second, then asked my father, name, gothram and did all those good stuff. So where is the Bhakthi here? Its all money. If you pay, they would do anything for you. If not, nothing, literally nothing! I also used to wonder, why do we need these special entrance tickets within temples? Why should I pay to see Him? Is God accessible to only those with money and not for others? After the Kalyanautsavam was over, when we stood in the queue to worship the main deity, I was told that all other queues of people in General Q, 50 rupee Q would be blocked and the God would be exclusively available for people who have paid 2500 and 750. Now these people in General Q would have waited for hours (sometimes it goes to a day as well) and see what happens now.We the people who paid money, would have access to see Him and they have to wait till we leave!

We had a good darshan though thanks to most of the crowd that was blocked because of us. I was angry at Lord Mr.Balaji and when we were out outside after the darshan, we went to this Q for Prasadam. It was free prasadham, mind you, and the person who was distributing, was getting money from certain people and was giving them the prasadams rather than people in the Q. Now, after me, my thatha got angry and shouted at that person. See, this is what is happening everywhere! Money speaks. When we were finally out after all these to the unguarded place where we had left our footwears, know what? All the other three people with me had theirs safe and secure and only mine was lost. Mom and myself were looking over it all over, but no use! Yeah,Lord Mr.Balaji, so you have punished me for getting angry at you, huh!?, I thought. Such an instantaneous response, wow! I didnt expect. So I started walking bare foot. Was like 2.30 in the afternoon under hot sun. Yeah, go ahead Sir with your treatment to me for expressing an honest opinion to you. But, let me tell you people, on the contrary, I guess with those slippers of mine, I have left over something(which am not gonna tell u what) bad which I wanted out of me desperately but wasnt able to do so for a long time now and yeah I am feeling it for last 5 days. Then on my way back from Thirumala to Thirupathi I was thanking Lord Mr.Balaji for that. May be losing those slippers was a very good omen.Actually, he has done good to me for what I did to Him. I was thanking you then. Am thanking you still and I would be thanking you for this forever.

A Feel Good Song

2005-03-09T02:34:00.000-05:00

I dont know. Whenever I am reminiscing, thinking about something serious in life(Ha ha ha), whenever my mood is not Ok, this song somehow crosses my mind and after hearing this or singing this, everything seems to calm down. Whats this with this song? What is the message she is trying to convey here to me? I dont know. Like last sunday, was alone at my Thatha's and was thinking on something serious. After sometime got sick of it and switched on the FM and there she goes again:

Do lafzon ki hai, dil ki kahaani
Yaa hai mohabbat, yaa hai jawaani

Oh, Asha Bhonsle, what a mellifluos voice you have got that ties me down! Have heard many of your songs: old, new, but this one is special and its magical.

Dil ki baaton ka mathlab na poocho
Kuch aur mujse bas ab naa poocho
Jiske liye hai, duniya diwaani
Yaa hai mohabbat, yaa hai jawaani

Venice, the city that floats on water. How would it be like to live on a building that is on water? Shouldnt it be amazing! One of the cities I would like to visit before my life journey ends.

Yeh kashtiwaala, kya gaa rahaa tha
Koi isi pe yaad aa rahaa tha
Kisse puraane, yaadein puraani
Yaa hai mohabbat, yaa hai jawaani

May be this is what she is trying to tell me when I am down: Life is short. Make it sweet. Dont waste it by worrying too much on many things that are trivial. Focus on important things and be happy

Is zindagi ke, din kitne kam hain
Kitni hai kushiyaan, aur kitne gham hain
Lag jaa galey se, ruth hai suhaani
Yaa hai mohabbat, yaa hai jawaani

Not that this is the only song I keep humming all the time. There are many more, which I would talk about later if possible. For now, let me leave you with this feel good song from the movie The Great Gambler

Zindagi Ek Paheli

2005-03-08T01:49:00.000-05:00

I tried enough to keep you a secret Jike. I was not happy at all about you getting any sort of publicity.Why?The line of thought was that I become too sentimental and too personal with my posts and never I did I want any publicity to my miseries.I read what so many others write(has become a sort of addiction these days) and writing too has become an addiction for me.But I have refrained myself from commenting on any of these posts of others for the same reason as above. What I do is, ping that person concerned on IM and say something like this: "Hey, know what? That post of yours was too good." ."Your snaps are all looking good". "I too share your opinion on this".And all they would ask me back is "If you liked it so much, then why didnt you comment it there itself!?". Well, then I would start my story once again.I have even asked people who had link to my page from theirs to remove the same: All for hiding you from 'most' of the world.Now, yesterday, I found one more page that has an invitaion to visit you, my son, and I very well know the person whose page that was.So,on my way to work today, this was on my "To-do List" for today. Ask this person too to remove the link pointing to you.

Steven Spielberg: One of America's most acclaimed directors. Double time Oscar winner(guess thats the right info). There was this particular tele-serial which he produced. It was called 'Taken'. It had ten episodes in total: Story of aliens coming on to earth and people are taken away to their planet and some sort of research is done on them. The central character of Taken was a small girl, who gets conceived in an alien airship when both her parents are taken. Now after few years, the aliens come back to take her away forever. Now, this whole story is told through the eyes of this small child and she tells all funny good things. One thing i remember still from Taken is this(this the child says in her narration): "Life is all about asking questions and not knowing the answers. There would be many situations in your life, when for most of the questions you ask, you wont find an answer. But still, keep asking questions". This thought I liked it a lot. And what are these questions, i used to question. The greatest puzzle in everybody's life I think is to understand what you really are. So the questions you should be asking would be like: Who are you? What are you? Why are you? Why are you the way you are you? Are you OK with the way you are you?. If we find sincere and honest answers to these, then I guess Life becomes smooth.

I have been asking these questions so many times to myself and yeah what I found was I am weird. But yeah, who else is not weird on this earth? Everyone is weird in their own way. Nobody is perfect. Yeah, true that I tell about most of my miseries to you, now does that mean that all those who are reading it along with you are "the" happy chaps on this earth? No, definitely not. Just that they dont write it out publicly (Reminds me of this Tamil song from Padayappa, where our Superstar sings and asks us to point out who else apart from a child and a sage who are really happy on this earth). Ok,lets see, I get this link unlinked from this person as well.

Do I know, how many are reading this with you without my knowledge? I dont know.
Do I know, how many have linked to you? I dont know.
Do I know, whether a casual search on Google my some Mr. or Ms. XYZ from some corner of the earth on something else would end up listing you? I dont know.

So if there are so many "I dont know", is my purpose of keeping you secret is 'truly' satisfied? I dont kn...Stop.. Go to hell... What the heck am i trying to do? Shit. This is more crap than what I thought. Also remember Gerorge Truman telling this to William Truman on the day when he is awarded by his company for his achievements at work. He says something like this: "Will, I am happy that you are here. I know you are queer. But I love you my dear". Yes, thats it. Thats so true. If I am queer, am miserable,so are others with their own miseries hiding behind their back. And these people would love me for whatever I am.

PS:
1. For all those who were unhappy with me for not commenting: Yeah, I would definitely from now on. (Although am scared at reading some blogs where the level of intellect is so so high and sometimes I dont understand completely whats being said)
2. For all those whom I asked to unlink Jike from their page: Well, I dont know.Thanks for listening to me. I cant say, please put that back again. If you still wish to, yes go ahead. I dont mind anymore.

First Rushdie Experience

2005-03-07T02:26:00.000-05:00

It has taken me a real long time to finish my first Rushdie book(started right after Pi). RL started asking what is that I am doing with it for such a long time!? To be honest: I didnt like the book that much. It was so boring. Nothing great about the story as well. Not captivating at all... "If you dont like it, then why dont you throw it off and take another?". This was Ponp. I dont know. I didnt wanna leave it half way somehow. The Moors Last Sigh started off in a place very familiar to me (just as Pi started in Pondicherry): Mattancheri, the Synagogoe, Cochin Port.... Hmmm. The story of da Gama - Zogoiby family which travels from Cochin - Bombay and finally ending in Spain. I didnt understand what Rushdie wanted to say through the climax. One thing: everybody dies in the novel someway or other. Pam actually wanted me to start off with Midnight's Children, RL with The Ground Beneath Her Feet, but these two are apparently missing from RL's mini-library at RSAS HQ: a library to which I have free unlimited access and to most others access is denied and books given only after much consideration/threats/bribe/stealing.

I have been reading like 10 pages per day and that too yours truly had been going home pretty late these days in a 75% sleepy condition that I doze off right after 2 or 3 pages. May be thats what had caused the boredom and dislike. But one thing: I found Rushdie sahib's English damn good. If his vocabulary is rated on a scale of 10 at 9 say, mine would be 2 maximum. Am i gonna read Midnight's Children and The Ground Beneath Her Feet ? Definitely yes. May be I would like them.. Let you know once thats done.

The Return of the King

2005-03-04T05:23:00.000-05:00

Time is running so fast. Five months have gone past so fast. So, Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne, Australia would announce this sunday the return of the king to the racing arena once more. Welcome back: Michael Schumacher. All the very best for your 8th world title.

Hope this season is little interesting and other guys give schumi 'atleast' a little bit of fight. Hmm. An Indian is gonna drive a F1 car for the first time ever. Happy to see that. Hope people get involved here in something other than cricket.

Catch you later Jike. Have a good weekend. Mine is gonna be fantastic.

Strained Relationships...

2005-03-02T04:21:00.000-05:00

Amazing! Thats what I can say about it(No, not about the subject line). You guys would think I am crazy that I keep writing about it again and again and again. But, to be honest, I dont care what you think. If something is so good, I dont mind doing it again and again. Yesterday, got an answer to a question which I have been thinking for a long time now. Why was 'Will and Grace' named 'Will and Grace' afterall? Shouldnt it have been named 'Jack and Karen'? Arent these two stealing it all away from Will and Grace!? Yesterday, got the answer through Episode: 5.03 "The Kid Stays Out of the Picture". Time for Eric and Debra to steal away whatever accolades I have been giving so far to Sean and Megan. Especially, Eric. ("You took it all away Wilma".) And thats what i said was Amazing. Now this one episode, Eric and Debra showed why 'Will and Grace' has to be called 'Will and Grace'...I love these guys.

Now, why am i writing on 'Will and Grace' in paricular this time is that this episode made me think about the thing which one of my friends told me over the last weekend. Its all about a simple stuff that most of us forget to do and which leads us to the subject of this post. Now, what can be one of the reasons to create a strained relationship? How many times have we not openly told the other person that we are pissed off with something they did to us? This 'other person' can be anyone: be it a friend, a relative, parents, a neighbour. If you are not happy with something they are doing it to you, then tell it to them, right at that particular moment... Dont put it somewhere at the back of your head, for all you know, this would erupt as a volcano when later you have even a small difference of opinion with that person and change that into a verbal war, if possible a physical fight and finally in a strained relationship.

Now, look at Will and Grace. Best friends for 15 years right from their college days... Stay together, they know each one in and out, no secrets between them and consider this friendship more than anything on this earth. They decide to have a baby now, through AI(that is Artificial Insemination for you), cos Will is gay, Grace is straight and they both can have anything between them, except sex. And suddenly this handsome doctor, Leo, enters Grace's life, shes infatuated and want to wait and see how this relation develops into. She keeps this thing away from Will though(not intentional), but to her misfortune, Will finds this out. Now read along and see how this 'Big Fight' goes and how it ends.(Thanks to Rob once again for the transcript. Actually, you guys are lucky. He even has the video of this verbal war. You can very well see how well its acted out)

GRACE: I'm sorry. I was going to tell you. I started to tell you. And then you were so understanding. And then there were gifts and curled ribbons--

WILL: Grace, Grace, bottom line. Do you wanna have this baby with me, or not?

GRACE: You said I could have more time.

WILL: That was before I found out you were sneakin' around behind my back. If you wanna back outta this, back out now. I don't wanna have this conversation again in a month like we did with the cabinets. [MOCKING GRACE] "I like the nickel pulls. No, I like the brass pulls. Oh, no, I like the nickel pulls again." Make up your friggin' mind!

GRACE: So what you're saying is, if I don't do it tomorrow, you don't want to do it at all?

WILL: That's right, Grace. It's now or never.

GRACE: Well, if that's the case, I guess I have to go with never.

WILL: Oh, I can't believe this! This is only the most important thing we've ever done together, and you flake out on me? I don't know why that's surprising. You're a flake!

GRACE: I am not a flake!

WILL: Oh, please. The dinners you blow off, the dry cleaning you forget to pick up, the rent that's late every month, and it's always been this way, Grace. You skipped out on my law school graduation party before I cut the cake. That was a big deal.

GRACE: It was carrot cake! That's never a big deal!

WILL: But I always let it go, Grace, because it's not like we're making a baby or something. Except this time, we're making a baby!

GRACE: Yes, at the moment you say, the place you say, wearing the clothes you say. You are a control freak! All I asked for was one month, one month to see where this is going.

WILL: Oh, let me tell you where this is going. You'll end up hating him in three weeks, because--I don't know, he has a weird chest hair pattern, or he doesn't like watching E! Or he'll end up hating you, because you're too needy. Then you'll fall apart, I'll pick you up, and then, magically, you'll be ready to have a baby!

GRACE: Wow. So that's what you think of me. Look, I'm sorry that I met someone, 'cause I know how much you hate it when I'm happy.

WILL: Oh, that is such a load--

GRACE: Admit it. You're happiest when I'm miserable. I mean, come on. Isn't that our thing? Because then you don't have to look at how miserable you are.

WILL: Shut up, Grace!

GRACE: But I am not gonna be miserable for you. I am gonna try to be happy, and if you can't deal with that, then you are even more pathetic than I thought!

WILL: Get out of here.

GRACE: Go to hell!

WILL: I want you out of here in two weeks! You don't live here anymore.

And the story?
To Be Continued..................

Jams N Jammers

2005-03-01T04:27:00.000-05:00

The idea of having a flyover as we all would agree is to increase the road space and to reduce traffic. Never the case in bangalore. Take the case of the Jayadeva Hospital flyover which is like 2 minutes walk from my home. The flyover has ruined the place. It has done everything to increase the traffic jam there. Road that was 50-50 on both sides has now become like 80-20 and the side of the road where it has shrunk: right at the place where it begins to narrow down, there is a bus stop. Now, when one single bus stops there, thats it. A queue which can be hardly imagined, develops and people get struck. Take the example of Dairy Circle Flyover or Madiwala flyover. There have been instances where people are stranded on top of it for hours! And our own Jayadeva flyover and the Domlur flyover project are halted in between bcos the contractor now refuses to continue without pay hike. So who gets affected. We the people!

And these people take hell lot of time to complete a flyover. Jayadeva Cardiological Hospital was the worst affected. Many patients found it very difficult to reach the place 'cos the flyover construction made it so. Even doctors who had clinics nearby the flyover construction place had to move their clinic somewhere else! Now with a 'part' of the flyover over and open to public, I could see some relief. But God knows when the rest of it is gonna get over. Domlur Signal Flyover has been going on and on for years now! Who knows when it wud be over! Its hell to cross this signal during peak hours.

The effect: Pedestrians are affected. Two wheelers and sometimes autos too, now ride not on the road, but on the pedestrian footpath which they find it free when its a jam packed road on their right. Nothing is irritating to the pedestrians than the blaring horns we hear from these people when we are walking on the pedestrain path. But, cant blame those guys either. What to do!? Who knows how many of them are in a hurry!? Even am tempted to do the same when I am on a two-wheeler ride.

The main thing about Bangalore roads is that they are very narrow. People in the Garden City would have concentrated more on trees rather on the roads, when they would have constructed roads. I mean, Bangalore was once very cool, calm: was called 'Pensioner's Paradise'. Now, see with the advent of so many IT companies, its become a hell. The vehicle strength: both two and four wheelers is growing at an alarming pace. Now why is that? The number of bachelors in the city is high...Most of the IT companies have now constructed way outside the city and agreed that they have pick up and drop service: but with the timings under which we people operate doesnt match at all with those timings. Bus service as such in Bangalore is pretty bad: You can hardly spot a BMTC bus after 9 in the night.Compare this with Chennai, for example, we have lots of buses in the night, the roads are far wider than that of a bangalore.

Now, know a funny reason for increase in number of two wheelers? This guy, Mr.T, joined the company last year.The first thing he did after getting his first month sal was to get Pulsar 150. What do I see after couple of days? My school junior, shes riding with him sitting on the back. "His bike is too cool ya. It was so nice of him to give me a lift yesterday, u know". She might as well would have said to her colleagues. Are bikes the birthplace of modern day love stories? Hmm. How many couples I would have spotted on bikes, going arm and arm, --- and --- !. Anyway, that was just a thought that Guys want to show their girl friends that they have a bike which they can take their beloved for a jolly ride.. Not exactly, may be!?. In case of our Mr.T, I am sure, he has told me, his house was far far off, so he had no other go, but to get a bike!

So, what helps us the Common Man, then? Bangalore is saved 'cos of these private vehicles: Matador vans, the Tata Sumos and the company buses which operate here. When BMTC deserts you, these are always there to help you. Another thing which I have noticed thats creating jams are the traffic signals.. Many of the places you would find that right at the exit of a traffic signal, there is a bus stop. What happens 'cos of that? You wait for 5 mins to cross a signal. You cross it and again you stop immediately. Jam grows! And next major hindrance to commuters are the potholes. And with Bangalore, where it can rain on any given day of a year, imagine the situation.

Next big jammer for me, would be the people as such. I am talking about the situations where two people fight over an accident that was just averted. I mean, its fine when you block the traffic when there is an accident,that becomes necessary and of course unavoidable, but whats the point in harping on to the same point and trying to prove to the other party that he was the one who made the mistake and u r clear. You wont remember the other person's face in couple of hours and this incident would vanish from your memory forever. So why are you punishing other people for this stupid argumnet of yours!?

In short: Roads in bangalore are bad and narrow. Traffic sense among common people is poor. And most of the people who come to bangalore do not go out without complaining about the traffic. Now I dont know what to do to improve any of these, except that I know am suffering 'cos of it. Atleast i would leave you Jike with a T-Quote. This one saw on a guy near Marathahalli: "Women are like Elephants. Just look at them. Dont owe one"

Whats in store next?

2005-02-25T07:02:00.000-05:00

The thing about 'Will and Grace' is with every season, action seems to build up right at the end of a season. If you look at it, a 'story' as such develops only right at the end of every season. Season 4 ended yesterday and I am more than tempted to see how Season 5 is gonna open up.Have resisted so far on the website! 5 more hours before the suspense unfolds... As Jack had ended Season 4 aptly this way: "Watch out what happens next in the fall, when the new episode of.....".

Season 1 End: Jack, Rosario Marriage; Will and Grace decide to live seperate
Season 2 End: Jack, Rosario Divorce; Will flies to the Carribbean to overcome his feeling of guilt...
Season 3 End: Grace ends up with Nathan finally. Jack has dual surprises: He comes to know his 'real' father is dead and he himself is a father of a 12 yr old son!

And Season 4 End.....?

Who does Grace see on the horse? What did Karen do with the keys Lionel gave? Where did Will's baby making plans finally end? What happenes to Jack, did he pass in his auditions? Is he really called back for performing in the play?

Answers in around 5 hrs from now.... Till then agonising wait.... But I love this....

Page 3

2005-02-22T06:03:00.000-05:00

So, finally 'Page 3', huh? Here I am inside India's biggest theater, a 11-screen Multiplex: PVR Cinemas, Bangalore for watching this Hindi movie. Ticket Rate, alarming high: 130... There is even a screen where you need to pay 500 for a cinema! Thats the one with Bar attached, i guess! Hmmm... So after sending off Pam to Phoenix, we are here for our first experience at the PVR. Nothing great about the theater as such... Seats as same as what you get at the Innovative Multiplex, this one is overcharged, 'cos this one is in the center of the city and also inside the most famous mall of Bangalore!

The storyline is simple: Satire on the High Class Life of Mumbai.

As the director puts it:
"Jiski Chalthi Hai, Uski Gaand Mein Moombathi Jalthi Hai". I dare not to translate that one!

Page3 is all about the story of Madhavi, reporter in a newspaper of Mumbai and whose job is to collect articles for Page 3 of the newspaper: that is the page all about celebrities,their interviews, their party culture, blah. blah. blah...The page which, we the public are more interested in.(I remember we all looking into Page 2 of TOI during our college days) The director takes us through the film through her experiences with her friends, flat mates, her boss, her colleagues at work and of-course with the wide range of celebrities she meets in her life.

Beautiful portrayal of the empty and meaningless life these people live and upto what extent these people can get cheap to maintain their so called 'status' in the society. This may not be applicable to these high class people as the director portrays, but in general to everyone on this earth. Its not that something which we dont do and only these people do. Its just that we all do it in different magnitude and in our own way... The movie makes us (if not others, atleast made me think) of these blatant facts which lie all around us and giggling at us....

Nice 2 hour entertainment. Feel pity for this Madhavi girl... Her friends leave her, she is not able to tolerate with her boy friend for what he does to her , she gets fired from her job... Professional and Personal Life, everything gets screwed up for her. But yes, shes ready to fight and fight this time with the message: "You have to be in the system to clean the system". Felt that atleast the director shud have shown she getting married to Atul Kulkarni: I was told by Ponp and Sundi, "Hmmm. Thats the typical Indian mentality"... What can I do? have seen so many 3.30 hrs movie, with atleast 8, 9 songs.. .hero and heroine running around trees(that too trees of switzerland, not indian)... Movies with : "Rahul"... "Anjali"... "Rahul mein tumse bahut pyar karti hoon." ... "Anjali, mein tumhare bina jee nahi saktha"...

Page3 is not with any of this crap... Its short,crisp, and very much natural.... And its damn good too. Good to see people making movies like this and equally good to see people appreciating the effort.. I mean, the movie is still going "House Full"... We got the tickets only the third time we tried... Kudos, Madhur Bhandarkar....

Happy Birthday Dad...

2005-02-22T00:37:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to You...
Happy Birthday to You...
Happy Birthday dear Appa...
Happy Birthday to You...

Miscalculated Adventure

2005-02-21T10:14:00.000-05:00

"Which department do you have to go?"

"Dermatology, mam"

"Are you coming here for the first time?"

I should have said "No". But if i say that, I have to show the patient card, which I have lost! So, I say, "Yes. This is my first time here."

"Then, fill up this form".

"Yes Mam. Sure"

Lesson 1: When your Project Manager is not in town, this is the worst time for you. Thats when work piles up for you.

Arvind was out of town. Its a holiday in US today as well and I thought its a holiday for me as well here. He had already told me on Friday what needs to be done for today and it was not gonna take more than 2 hrs to finish that off. So I can finish off all other pending stuff today. This is how I left home today. Remember jike, I talked about the 'cracked heels' I had which was ruining my sleep all the night. (This was as late as my Kochi trip.. Go back in time line and see)... So that has developed into a 'hard rock' I should say. thatha was saying like, these are dead cells now. He was saying like get the treatment done for this before the infection spreads to whole of the body. So I thought, why not make a trip to hospital today!?

St.Johns Medical College and Hospital, Koramangala, Bangalore, is not new to me. The very name freaks out my mom even now, for this is where, her mom, my grandmom, breathed last. That was like 5 years ago. Mention the name to my mom even now, she would start shouting back at me. Anyway, for me, hospital, medicines are something I like. Weird!? Thats what I am... I like the smell of the hospital... I like taking medicines... So here I am in front of St.Johns once again...

Lesson 2: Dont let a disease or a symptom develop into a serious disease. Kill it before it kills you.

My mentality has been like, I wont tell anyone till it goes out of my hand. I wont speak a word, until its like: The disease has 'really' taken over me. So, I am on my way to the Dermatology dept. Call Number 1: "Hi. This is Rajiv. Can you come over to DS today? The code is not working. We need to debug and we need your help" DS is like 1hr from the new campus and I am not in office yet. I tell Rajiv that I shall be there in 1.5 hrs and go to see my doc.Who expects people in a Dermatology dept, anyway! The doc is gonna give some cream/ointment, its all gonna take few mins and I would be off.

Doc sees my leg and says: "Hmm. You have got a wart"

"A, what!?" ...."A, wart. No problem.. Do a cryo today. Come back after 10 days.. do a cryo again.. and lets see"... Now, doc, whats a wart? ... Then he explained: " There has been a severe viral infection. The virus has eaten all the skin and it has gone deep inside. So they would spray on the affected area. This is not gonna heal soon. You have to do it couplea times"

While he was talking: Call Number 2: "Hi this is Manoj from Austin... Guess Rajiv already talked to you... Just wanted to make sure we are on same page.. You should go to DS.. Work with the dev team and fix the bug and give me a status update by 9AM my time"....

Yeah, sure! This is what I wanted! Anyway, whatever this cryo is , wont take more time, wud it? They are just gonna spray and leave me.... So I see the sister, who asks me to make the payment. (A note on sisters: Dont know. Most of them 90% can i say, are mallus and are christians. Why is that!? Donno! )... So when I finally enter the "Mini Surgery" room of the Dermatology department, 1 hr is gone already! The doctor there, who has to do the cryo, sees my leg, is astonished by the level to which it has affected my feet, says, she cant do it. She asks me if I have time today, or I have to leave early: I say "Mam.. please... I have work...". She asks me to soak my leg for 30 mins and then only she can do it...

What! I call Rajiv and say I am gonna be late!. He says "You are already there at hospital... So we cant do anything at it.. But, come asap"... So i wait there while my legs are getting soaked in water... I get restless after some time. I ask the sister, if I can take my leg outa water.. She says "Procedure is going on. Wait!"... what procedure? I know only of Stored Procedure.... Finally after 40 mins of soaking, the sister, asks me to come in...

Now, comes the worst part of it... Who do i get to do my cryo? A doctor trainee! A girl, who shud be in her final year of medical studies... I am the first person shes gonna do it, might be... I remember Grace now. Remember the 'Hospital Show', where Karen makes secret plan with the doc and makes a nurse trainee, Miss.Pittman, to take blood out of Grace, knowing that Grace is afraid of needle? Same situation here...

Lesson 3: Love your body and every part of your body. Body is the only companion you have got which is there with you from birth and it dies with you.

So, she takes a small knife and starts removing the skin from my heels. The virus had even made holes in my feet. I thought the fishes at Hoggenekkal have bittten them and removed them.... Now I know, who the real culprit is... The skin is dead skin basically, with no sensation at all. So there wont be any pain to the body. But as soon the knife goes deep inside and when it hits the 'living' skin and when the blood starts coming out, thats when the pain develops. So, she asks me now and then, "Is it paining?" ... I would say "No"... This goes on for some 20 minutes. Now that she has taken all of the dead skin, she now takes the spray and starts spraying inside the hole she has created in my leg.. Now, it definitely pains... The virus under direct attack! So she does that and puts the bandage on. Asks me not to wear shoes for 4 , 5 days.. Asks me to come back after 10 days for one more cryo. The senior dotor said that time I have to soak it for much longer time... This thing wont get cured very easily... I say a BIG yes to them and took off....

Bad day at work also.. News of my colleagues' death.... Servers where I was supposed to work went down and are not up still.. Network issues.... Bad Monday...

I told thatha of this adventure... He was happy that finally I did something to the 'wart'.. "But, dont tell this to your mother that you got a mini-surgery today... She would get psyched up"...

"Yes thatha, I know..."... Its also from St.Johns which I have got to remember! :)

Sad Day

2005-02-21T03:44:00.000-05:00

One of my colleagues passed away today. You can say Medical Field has developed hell a lot, but still there are things which a doctor cant comprehend. Take the example of this person. The thing about Consulting field is that you are required to travel to any part of the world, wherever your customer is. So, this person had to go to Taiwan for a project and after he came back from there, he developed a mysterious fever.. He goes to doctor, takes medication, the fever goes away. Since then, he used to get this fever regularly, and he used to take medicines for that, it used to recede, then after some time the same fever...

One fine day, the fever becomes worse... Gets admitted in a hospital and the doctors dont know what the problem is! They can just see that the lungs are not functioning properly and WBC count is getting less or rather, there is no production of WBC at all ... They consult doctors from US and even to them this is a mystery! The only thing that can be done is to inject blood of others where the WBC count is healthy and see if the condition improves. Last wednesday, i was one among the colleagues who had given blood for him, and he was fighting for his life in ICU and still the condition was the same.. And today, hes no more!

Survived by wife who had gone back home to deliver a child last week ! I dont know what to say!

Oops we got Kela again...

2005-02-18T01:47:00.000-05:00

Oops we got Kela again
He played with our hearts
We lost in the game
Oh, Baby Baby..

Oops, we thought, he was in love
Someone was sent from above
We were all that innocent!

So it turns out that the Vald gift was actually distributed in his office to all the employees of his division. We were so dumbo that we didnt notice his division name on the gift box, which he showed us all yesterday night!

I thought someone was making good progress in his life. But now, I am

Disappointed!

ValD... New Place...

2005-02-15T01:37:00.000-05:00

Same old discussion... This time with a friend of mine from the Opposite Sex! Whats up with Feb 14, huh? So whats up with Valentine's Day? Over hyped... Do you think a person who hadnt had a boy friend/girl friend would suddenly find one on Feb 14? Or a person who hasnt confessed his/her love for the whole of the year would suddenly find some courage on Feb 14 from nowhere? What crap? She was agreeing with me in totality till this point...What else can you expect from two people who are both single and uncommitted? And then i said: What would be the counter argument for this? Same as what Ashok gave for New Year... I told her the same thing.. Then she agreed with that too. She says I analyse things a lot.. And she got suspicious when i gave the counter argumnent that I have someone in my life.

No boss! No love-shove, girl friend stuff in my life so far... Anyway, got a different type of gift later in the night though, while i was chatting... Was told a simple fact about myself by my friend who has observed me a lot and knows about me a lot, about what I am and I have been thinking about it a lot since then. Should say i could associate every single sorrow of my life(is it turning out to be too dramatic) with this attitude of mine!... Now I am sorta clear and happy. I found out one little thing which I have to change in life to make my life better, and happier.. I really thank that friend of mine for this... This unexpected gift i got would go a long way in changing my life, i guess.

Talking about gifts: The biggest thing that happened yesterday was one out of the RSAS clan got a 'real' ValD gift and that person had a ValD dinner with his date yesterday night. No, am not revealing who the person is. It can be me, or any of the other three. Keep guessing...

And today we shifted to a new office... Though its really far outside the city, should say I am impressed with this place... Bigger WorkStation than the previous one, office bus to pick and drop you(and it didnt take much time to travel also, 35 mins to travel this huge distance, pretty good actually if you go by what Bangalore traffic is)... More conference rooms... Huge floors, good pantry and all good stuff..

So in this happy note where the mood is of ValD, i would leave you today with another T-shirt quote, am gonna call it T-Quote from now on:
"My Girl Friend wanted me to be more affectionate. So, now, I have two Girl Friends"

Guys are guys!

Happy Birthday Subbu

2005-02-14T23:40:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday dear Subbu
Happy Birthday To You...

And Thank God for bringing this person into my life.... I pray he stays in there with me forever.....No, this is not a "show off". This is a very sincere prayer to Him.

A trip to Hoggenekkal

2005-02-14T07:02:00.000-05:00

Different type of weekend. Made a trip to Hoggenekkal Falls on Saturday. When I say, made a trip, it was me, sundi, ponp and abha, of course. Abha did the whole stuff- i mean, getting information abt the place, what to see there, how to go there etc... He arranged for the transport too! We rented an ambassador car for the trip.

Hoggenekkal, roughly 160 kms away from Bangalore, famous place where so many South Indian films were/are being shot: When i told Arvind about this, he could even remember some MGR movies being shot there. As far as I know, Roja was shot there: we even saw the place where Madhubala sings "Chinna Chinna Aasai". The place is now called 'Cine Falls'. Indian was shot there, i can remember! Not an MGR film though! But, Arvind cant be wrong, may be i dont know much abt MGR movies...

Anyway, we feared whether there would be enough water as this is off-season, but in contrast to all our fears, there was Water, Water and Water everywhere... First time in my life went on a Parisal. The experience was great. Went through the same route which Mani Ratnam took for his film way back in 1992! Few more things Hoggenekkal is famous for: Booze, source of many accidents, the main reason which the boatman told us for people getting drowned. We could see it right in front of our face, No, i didnt mean someone getting drowned, i meant drunken guys trying silly thing from the Parisal. One more thing thats famous there is Fish, of course... Women were selling fried fish all over the place... Oops, all the four of us dont eat fish, and so we couldnt enjoy having one.

But, few things we really enjoyed are:

Me and abha had oil massage.First time in my life I had a massage.. Abha is still complaining of body ache
Staying so long in water for such a long time. Ponp and sundi even tried swimming. Arvind asked me if I did, but No, i dont know. Its one on my New Year Resolution guys, so hopefully yes, next time
Standing right underneath Cauvery approaching at you at a speed of a Formula 1 car. Man, my head still feels the effect. It is sorta very heavy. And the whole day yesterday, I slept, slept and slept, but still i could feel little pain inside the head. Such a force with which She approached us!
Having Saravana Bhavan breaky and dinner. We didnt have lunch at all.. We never felt like having in the first place
And of-course the chit-chat, singing inside the car and also while we were in the water! Man, it was fun...

Decision was made that there are gonna be frequent trips like this from now on. Lets see how it works out... And yesterday, I did nothing but eat, sleep, eat and sleep. May be bcos of tiredness, or water or the effect of the massage. Didnt i tell you my uncle is a very good cook? Had one of the best Vathalkozhambu of my life yesterday, slept, slept and slept and today, Here I am, back today in front of the Monitor!

3.14 and the List

2005-02-09T13:14:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was not only about BLACK. It was actually very good because, I had been reading a very good book: "The Life Of Pi". At first felt so nostalgic about it, for I had been residing in Pondicherry for some time and Petit Seminaire is where my brother gave his Class 12 exams from. "Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum"! .Very much true... Yann Martel amazes you with the description he gives you of animals! Where did he learn so much about animals. Anyway, wonderful book, amazing story line! I dont know what I would have done if i had been on the life boat of Tsimtsum with a hyena, zebra, urang utan, rat and a Bengal Tiger of course for my company. I wouldnt have survived even half-a-day. Hats off to you Piscine Molitor Patel.. No matter whether people believe your story or not, to survive more than 200 days alone in Pacific Ocean, is not an easy thing at all.. Shit! Thinking of it scares me like hell...

Just shows how much man can do if he has the grit and determination. As Martel puts it: "Man can accustom to anything he wishes to, even to killing!".. True, the situation is what turned a soft, vegetarian, 16 year old boy to survive in midst of all the suffereings of losing his family! So Pi Patel, gets added to my "Must See in Life" list. Let me see who and all I have so far:

1. Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes: Now, I have been like crazy about these two. The latest on them is: Have been watching "Mr.Sandman" clip again and again for so many times now and every time i laugh at it, just like the previous time. Never cease to amaze you, these two actors..
I have seen these two on TV, so, I know how they look like.

2. Arvind Ananthanarayan: Here is where things start getting interesting. This guy, my project manager for 9 months now, is nothing but a VOIP phone for me. Havent seen him, but yeah heard him and have heard him a lot. Great person, very good motivator, teacher, philosopher, guide....Seeing Arvind (rather hearing him), I came to a conclusion that people in this world can be this nice too to others. Nobody can beat him in this.

3. Pi Patel: Born in 1961, brought up in Pondicherry. Lone survivor of a Japanese ship which sank in Pacific in 1977. Resides currently in Canada, hopefully in Toronto. No idea how he looks like! But yes, embodiment of fighting spirit, grit and determination

4. If you think I have been crazy so far, hear this. Next on my list is a girl, or rather woman, whom I dont know who she is, where she is, whether she is!?. But i want to meet her desperately. Hold On. If you think, its the girl i am looking for to love, marry and all that crap, nope: you may be right with this guess 95% of the time, but not with me, misters and sisters. Ok. This girl is what I would have loved to be if I had born as a girl.Unfortunately that is not the case. So thats what makes her special. I have imagined her in my mind and thats it. Nothing more I know about her.

Thats where the list stops so far. May be more additions and hopefully some deletions, if am lucky, would come as my life journey continues....

BLACK Beauty

2005-02-09T12:42:00.000-05:00

Dont know how laziness is aware that it is a weekend and it creeps into you slowly, suddenly without making a whisper! How much ever you try to get up early on a weekend morning, no you wont! Suddenly a huge desire for your body to sleep, sleep and more sleep all around you. Effect: First day I missed gym for this month. Finally had to wake up to the calling bell announcing the arrival of our maid... Pam and Ponp were still sleeping. RL, out of station. So i was 'Room Alone' .By the way, jike, i stay with these 3 guys: all from my college, my wing!

Finally the wand that was used to cast a spell and wake us all up was our own maid: we(rather RL or Ponp, not sure) have named her Vellayamma! Dont know why!? So routine life on a sat morning. For a change had breaky. Lunch and both me and pam had to come to work for chota mota work. The beauty about us is: We try to spend as much time as possible in the weekend together, unless someone has work at office or someone is out of station. I go to thatha's sometimes...Sundi and Abha add on sometimes to this group of four. This is something I like a lot. Weekdays are difficult. We are in different shifts. Ponp leaves early, I leave late, Pam sometimes doesnt come back home at all ! Oof! We all make it up for it in the weekend.

So I had planned this weekend. I wanted to see 'BLACK' somehow. I have been hearing damn good reviews of this movie. I have to watch it, somehow! Ponp's idea was to have a game of pool. So decided that we wud go to Leela Palace, (ha ha, so close to my office), have few games of pool,have dinner and BLACK it out.. Sundi was to join us too. I was OK this time at pool. Last time, i didnt even know how to catch hold of the stick, this time though i lost to Ponp, i was happy. Sundi is interested in Fooseball a lot. So we had couple of games of that too! Wow! Award should be given to me for being the worst defender who makes the team size 3:1. I dont know how many self-goals i would have given to my opponents in the first game we played. But, yeah later i improved and became a good defender.

So now we have our regular Pizza dinner and then the problem starts. Pam says: "Do we have to see a movie now? I am in no mood for it. " What? What did u say? But, you always liked movies on Sat night. What happened now? Then it was Sundi's turn: "I have heard the story of BLACK. Not that good. So lets go home"... No, no,no,no,no,no.. I want this movie. I know Sunday would be difficult for us to go to a movie, if it has to be a movie this weekend, its gonna be now! Sundi:"Heard Page-3 is good. May be we can go for that!" . But I said: "We dont know the show times. And no idea if it was screened at the Multiplex. But yeah, no harm in checking out though!".. So ray of hope! It was decided that we would check it out and if Page 3 isnt there, then go home and see Fahrenheit 9/11... Who wants to see a documentary!

Oh my Kadavule! (Thanks to this tamil rap song from Thirupaachi).. Page3, yes was there.. And what kind of posters- Scandal, Seduction and Affairs... Seeing this, which bachelor wont wanna go to the movie!?. Now, the Page 3 gang included Sundi and Ponp. I was adamant. BLACK BLACK BLACK.. Hey, it was me how suggested Page 3 last weekend and all you guys turned it down that time. Now, its OK after seeing these posters, is it!? Bullshit.. No, its not gonna happen. They all gave reasons. Pam: "BLACK has Big B in the movie. How do you expect me to watch a movie which has him?"... Know the secret? All these guys have bikes and have to park it up, means I have to go and get tickets by the time they park! So, i go as a sweet boy, stand in the Q for BLACK. Ha ha!

I have almost reached the ticket vendor and Pam comes to me and says, change the lane: Stand in the Q for Page 3. No i didnt move... I got the tickets for BLACK... Those guys were really angry or may be upset at me. They even got the tickets from me, hoping to exchange in the Page 3 counter. Ha Ha. Now i got the good news: Page 3 sold out. Yipeeee. Not a single ticket left... I made a vow that BLACK is the last movie which i am suggesting and nothing after this... Thats how I had to convince them to watch the movie.

So, finally my struggle for BLACK ended and we entered the Screen 2 room.

I had a bit of an idea as to what the picture was. Read SLB's interview the day b4. Rani is deaf,blind and mute and Big B is her teacher who loses his complete memory.And this is an inspiration from Helen Keler's story. This was the background with which I entered the theater. Note about Rani: I always used to call her 'Moti' Rani, the fat one. Never ever regarded her as a good actress. So I didnt have much of expectations from her.

The film began with a tribute to Helen Keller.SLB introduces the Mcnally family. The setting of the story is in Himachal Pradesh; Simla and the period, I guess should be of the British. SLB introduces, Big B as Debraj Sahai, a person who has been teaching deaf and mute for over 30 yrs and also Michelle Mcnally, 8 year old girl, whos blind, deaf and mute. Though Michelle is loved a lot by her parents, she poses serious threats to her younger sister, Sarah and her parents are too worried. Paul, her father wants her to go to the asylum, but her mother wont accept to it. They finally want to try Debraj Sahai as the last resort to change Michelle, who a brat, so rude and uncontrollable!

Enters the teacher. I should say, what a wonderful set has been prepared for the movie. What else can you expect from SLB, anyway! He has taken atmost care to collect every small object that would reflect the time when this story is supposed to happen. And when the teacher enters, the parents find his ways of teaching very rude too! The first thing he wants Michelle to learn is to eat like a 'human' with a spoon, sitting on a chair. But shes the person, who has been allowed to do whatever she wishes to,and she wont eat the way he wants to. There starts the struggle. The teacher doesnt allow her near the dining table, beats her up and what Michelle can show back is anger! She doesnt like a stranger suddenly appearing out of no where and why should she change for his sake!? The girl, who has acted as young Michelle, Ayesha Kapoor, SLB says is from Pondicherry, has done a marvelous job. Cant imagine how a small girl like her can act like this! Imagine a deaf, mute and a blind girl! The only emotion she can show is that of anger and the way she has shown is too too good. I dont have words to describe it. She has a very good future in acting, I can definitely say that

So teacher is asked to leave, as the parents dont like him. And the next day, the father also leaves the town for 20 days and this is what the teacher wants. He somehow manages to convince the mother that he can manage to change Michelle in these 20 days and now starts his struggle! The whole room is changed. Objects are removed and new objects placed inside so that Michelle can touch, feel and associate them to a word. Also, no one else is allowed to enter the room. It has Michelle and her teacher. Think of it: How would you communicate to a eight year old girl who cant see, speak or hear!? Fingers, touch and feeling are the only ways to achieve it. So the teacher manages to make his student eat with a spoon properly, but no 20 days is too small a time for making her realise words and how to associate them to an object! Michelle still would associate spoon to a napkin!

The father arrives, surprised to see the teacher still there and asks him to leave! The teacher has no other go, he cant win over this tough guy, so he packs off. fyi: Michelle, by the way is afraid of water.. By the time, the teacher leaves, food is being served down, Michelle, free now from captivity, returns to the same old way of eating food. Teacher becomes angry and beats her and she in return throws a jug full of water on his face. Then the teacher drags her out, where its raining like hell and puts her inside a pool of water. She gets scared and as the teacher turns away from the pool, he realises that Michelle hasnt come out of water. He gets scared now. But to his surprise, Michelle, gets up and feels water with her hands and tries to say "Waaa". What did i hear just now!? "Waa". Then her teacher gets excited: he writes on her hand W-A-T-E-R. Then he moves her fingers to his lip which pronounces WATER. She replies back "Waa" . Thats it. He has succeeded his battle which he thought he lost after fighting for 20 days! He cries for her parents desperately. They come out running, with no idea as to what has happened. Michelle, runs all over the garden. She trips and falls: G-R-A-S-S.. She gets up and runs again.. F-L-O-W-E-R.. She goes and hugs Mrs.Mcnally. M-O-T-H-E-R. Then, F-A-T-H-E-R.(If my memory is right, the first word that Helen Keller learnt was also Water)

After that eventful day, Debraj spends 18 years of his life with her. Ayesha leaves and enters Rani Mukerji as Michelle. Now, Michelle is well versed in sign language, she can communicate well and her parents and her teacher are proud of her. From now the story goes on like: teacher wants her to graduate in arts, reading with other normal students. then is the struggle to get her a seat in a college, michelle would not be able to type fast in Braille and hence wont be able to complete any paper in the allotted time and she would fail year after year. Meanwhile, the director also shows, how Sarah feels of all the imporatnce being shown on michelle, she feels neglected by her parents. SLB shows the marriage ceremony of Sarah: though michelle knows there wont be any love, marriage in her life, she also feels like a normal woman and asks her teacher if he loves him and if yes, wants just one kiss from him. See, these are the beautiful aspects of this film: Even people whom we think are handicapped, they too have emotions in life, they want to be as happy as we are and they struggle all through their life for this.

Another interesting thing is: The teacher suffers from Alzheimer's disease! A disease where his memory goes down before him little by little and finally he doesnt remember anything at all .. And Michelle, after 12 years of struggle, at the age of 40, graduates! She wants to celebrate this with her teacher, but alas! He doesnt recognise her, in fact he doesnt know who he is in the first place! So begins Michelle's struggle now to bring back her teacher to normalcy...

Wonderful performances by everyone in the crew. As i said, I was impressed mostly by Ayesha, the little girl who plays Michelle. She is a very bright future prospect. So BLACK is a victory of struggle, grit and determination. Black is the colour of knowledge. BLACK suggests that 'Anger is a very good emotion which if turned into proper direction can do wonders'. Black is my favorite colour too(That explains the background in which this web page is set). In short, BLACK or Black, whatever it is, is Beautiful

12B

2005-02-05T07:45:00.000-05:00

One of the tamil movies I like a lot is 12B. A movie named after a bus route. The bus route which I myself have been through a lot and lot of times in my life: Vadapalani to Pattinapaakam. I can still remember the route: Vadapalani, Kamala Theatre, Ram Theatre, Kodambaakam, Panagal Park, Pondy Bazaar, Alwarpet, SIET college, Luz Corner- Mylapore and then you reach the Foreshore Estate, or in Tamil, Pattinapaakam. 12B used to be(and still is), one of the most famous bus routes of Chennai. The frequency of this bus route also is very high and no matter how many ever buses run, always you find crowd in almost all the buses.

Not surpising to see this bus route as the name of a film, for the whole of 'Kollywood' as its referred to, breathes in Vadapalani and the area surrounding it. The area is filled with movie stars, dance masters, directors, technicians and of course you have the famous AVM studio and Vijaya Vaahini Studio there among others. I used to study from a school that was right opposite to AVM studio. Though 12C(Vadapalani to Mylapore, those days, today its from Saaligramam to Mylapore) was my bus for transport between my home and my school, i would end up travelling in 12B, as the frequency of 12C was very little. My brother had to travel 2 more years than i travelled, so he has more experience with respect to this bus route!

So whats 12B, i mean the movie, is all about? It is the story of Sakthivel(Shyam in his debut picture, though you would hardly believe it) who is in love with Jo(Jyothika). So whats new in this picture , you might ask? Same old Indian movie stuff! Poor Guy, Rich Girl, love between the two, blah blah blah.. No, you are thoroughly mistaken! So, Sakthi has a mother who is terribly ill and hospitalised and our hero is badly in need of a job. So one fine day, he has an interview call and the bus he has to travel from his place to the Bank which has called him for the interview is 12B. And the interview is at 9AM(dont remember the time exactly).. Our hero goes to meet his Mom in the hospital and by the time he leaves the hospital, he has time just enough to catch the bus and reach the Bank for interview. Now, STOP.

The hero actually misses the bus and hence doesnt turn up for the interview. Typical movie so far, right? Now, the director introduces the twist.He says, from now on, imagine what would have happened in Sakthi's life had he boarded the 12B. So, from now on, there are two different tracks running in one movie: One, is the life of Sakthi who misses the bus, meets his friend whos a mechanic who helps him to get loan from the bank and start a business of his own. Another, is that of Sakthi who gets selected in the Bank, does a very good job there, meets the second heroine of the film(Simran) whos a widow and falls in love with Sakthi

Mind you, in both the tracks, Sakthi loves Jo. And to add to this, Jo has an uncle whos in love with her... Its just amazing how the director has scripted the screenplay for the movie and amazing to see how both these tracks culminate into a single climax! No, am not gonna reveal it, watch it for yourself and find it out...

I mean, i like the concept of having a 'real life' track and 'imaginary- what wud have happened if this had happened' track in the same movie. Also, one more thing i like about this movie are the songs... All are my favorites.. I mean, there are different types of songs: One, which you hear just because its being listened by all at that point of time. After some time, the next movie comes and you forget this. There are these other types of songs which stay in your memory forever and you listen to them again and again and again and enjoy it everytime. 12B is of this type. One song from 12B which has really touched my heart is "Poove Vaai Pesum Podhu". This is the only song in the movie which is picturised with Simran and this girl whos a widow, falls in love with this guy and she expresses her love for him through this song. The lyrics of this particular song is amazing and touchy

Nee Oru Paarvaiyaal Nerungi Vidu Ennai
Nee Oru Vaarthaiyaal Nirappi Vidu Ennai
Nesathinaal Ennai Kondru Vidu, Un
Nenjukkule Ennai Pudhaithu Vidu, En
Ninaivu Thondrinaal Thuli Neerai Sindhidu, En
Ninaivu Thondrinaal Thuli Neerai Sindhidu

If you understand Tamil, you would be able to appreciate how beautiful these lines are! I mean, one of the best lines through which a girl can propose to a man.

Now, why am I goin through all this with you now? Yesterday after i went back home after work, they showed this movie in the TV. Feb 14 is fast approaching and the guys and gals have already started celebrating. Movie treat for the Love Fest that is approaching....

Hail the Developers!

2005-02-03T10:08:00.000-05:00

Now, what I thought was gonna take one day has taken 3 days and still its not complete yet. Yeah, am talking abt the same script as the last time. And now, Arvind has added new twist to the requirements. Oh God! My heartfelt appreciation and salaam to all the developers out there! I mean, we consultants are like mediators. On one side we have our customers and and on another side we have the product development team and we just act as a bridge between the 2. Now, thats why i dont like it.Not anything useful, I think am doing between the two parties... I mean, there are people who just want to do this and they do it, but I dont wanna be one! Everytime, the product team says, "Hey we are gonna need 3 weeks to fix this issue", sometimes i think: "Why do these guys need so much time for such a simple task as this!?"... Boss, am totally wrong... I mean, these are the guys who 'develop' something and they are 'proud' owners of a product and what are 'we'? I am still trying to find out...

I dont know, may be once we go through a set of issues, may be development would also be boring.. I have few friends who are developers and they also say "Whats there in product dev?".. Same old bugs and same old ways of fixing it..I dont know.. once you know few types of logic, its just the syntax thats different among different languages!? Underlying concept should still be the same. Its just that i am expressing the same logic in some other fashion. But, if you go on giving explanation like this, what is that you would be liking to do in IT industry?Dev is boring. Consulting is boring... Hmm. sounds interesting question, isnt it? (Or am i blabbering too much?)... May be my knowledge is too less about it.. So lets drop it...

Interesting Quote i saw on a T-shirt couple of days back: "Your life depends upon what you dream in your life. So, go and sleep"

Now, hows that?

Double Mazaa

2005-01-31T10:18:00.000-05:00

Looks like a very good day today for me... Arvind asked me to do design for a new script that we need to develop for automating the testing process and he agreed to my design without any questions! Wow! It may sound silly for many, but for me this is the first time that a design by me was accepted without any modifications in the first shot itself... Arvind was confident that i could do the coding in a day.

And this script was the major work scheduled for this week. So if i finish it off by tomorrow or latest by wednesday, I am gonna be vetti for the rest of the week. Hurray! Leaving home as a happy person.

Dad

Happy B'day Gorgeous!

2005-01-31T04:20:00.000-05:00

Important lesson in life: Dont think too much about the past. If you do, then your present and future becomes a big ?... I dont know, this is something have to learn fast.. Sometimes, I think too much about my past, the happy memories of college life, sad feelings when i had disturbed a few, a lot, I dont know, I have to get out of this vicious circle somehow!

Anyway, yesterday(actually from day before yesterday night), had a visitor at RSAS HQ. Sundi was there. went to another enthu filled, illogical, tam movie: Thirupaachi. Typical Vijay stuff. go there with your brain kept inside a locker room, enjoy it, come back, and take your brain out of the locker room. Important thing to note: the vulgarity in the lyrics of the tam songs these days, its increasing like a tsunami wave! Not that i dont enjoy it :P, but dont know if it shud be OK with other audience! Hmm. So Safin has won the Aus Open title. Good. I dont know! Somehow, i dont seem to like Hewitt, for no reason! So am happy at the result...

Today, seems like Preity Zinta's birthday today. Was watching Soldier on the TV during lunch and lotsa SMSes kept pouring in for the beautiful woman.. Dont know if you like this one or not, this was one guy wishing her: 'Preity, know whats the difference between smile and your face? Smile looks good when its there on your face. But, your face looks good even without a smile!". Wow! Look at these fans! How do they think of stuff like these!? My brother is yet another hard core fan of her, his room at the college hostel, full of her posters. So, here is me wishing her Happy Birthday: "Preity, hum apne Dil Se kahte hain: Aapka Kya Kehna! Chori Chori Chupke Chupke aap hazaaron ke dil me aa gaye. Aapko Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega, woh hamesha aapko bahuth kush dekhna chaaahega. Happy Birthday Preity. Keep entertaining us with lotsa hit films and also with that gorgeous smile of yours"

Return of the Empress...

2005-01-29T08:35:00.000-05:00

Another Holiday! And another day at work... Woke up to a very good news: Return of Empress Serena to the tennis arena with a bang! Yes, she has won the Aus Open title.. actually switched on the TV when it was the third set and was surprised that it had gone into three sets.. i thot she wud win it hands down. later found that she had a back problem and had to be treated on court.. so that was what made her lose a set. scoreline: 2-6 6-3 6-0.

Had some training stuff to do at work and it all went fine.. Then, had a very fruitful discussion with a friend of mine for little more than two hours on IM. The discussion was mainly on my future plans and she had very good advices to offer...Feeling lot better now... Actually she was about to leave when it was 1:57 minutes of chat, for she had a dinner treat in the night.. I made her wait for atleast 3 more minutes so that we can celebrate 2 hrs of continuos chat :).. Yeah it sounds funny.. Long time since i chatted with someone for such a long time continuously and it was great...

Oops. Forgot that i came to office to prepare and send a report... Have to go back to it.. Bye son, catch u later...