B-zone..Of boredom,blog and blithe

Assorted quotes/jokes

2008-05-16T10:58:00.013+05:30

I have no clue why I wrote the following...But, coz it's been written, it's being deposited here as yet another post...this is just a compilation of some assorted thoughts that ran through my mind...

If only I ruin my own life,
I will get a chance to know what it takes to strive for betterment

There's no light at the end of the tunnel..
There's light inside it only that it's invisible

Come in...the door is open....
there's none inside though.....

I cut my hand with a blunt knife

My legs are aching...I badly need a jog...

Thnk got it was an apple..had it been a coconut, I would not know why I don't fly...

Cooking is a pain not just coz u need to clean up the mess, but also have to eat up the same !!

I rolled over the lawn, climbed through the pipes and jumped over the balcony to sneak in through the back door into the bedroom to find someone missing on the bed.....Well..it's not wat u think..........tat s me...i locked myself outta the house

Man to grl:
Just as I realised I love you, I also realised I love a lotta other grls..

The sexiest things are not wat you see but what you don't....gross ??? nope....read again...u r bound to get a whole new definition..

A: Dude, I told ya I don't like to play indoor games....
B: Lets take the chess board to the lawn

Child :I flunked the Math test making a 10/10...
Dad: How's that ??
Child:I left the other 90 questions unattended...

I am training hard to watch the marathon.

I ran the whole distance to find out I was running in the wrong direction..

2 friends meet after a long time:
A:My doctor says I suffer from schizophrenia
B: Oh you are married...when did that happen ?

A:The water in the beach is freezing cold...
B:Take a dip before it freezes..

Kanava !!

2007-12-11T19:03:00.001+05:30

Changing days !!

2007-10-09T17:42:00.000+05:30

The transition is discernible. The rapport has diminished. Eloquences have turned trivial and suddenly there is a sullen feeling of gloom that’s disconcerting.

The feeling is that of a son who suddenly discovers that his young little sibling is the first child and that he was fostered. Much to his exasperation he is suddenly unable to bear the distance that grows large by the day between his memories and realism, for things shall never be the same from there on.

Here he is at the crossroads of life, carrying the memories of a sidekick who grew in stature and importance at the speed of light only to fall flat to leave him crest fallen. Like the foster son, he has become a subject of dereliction and restricted to perfunctory greetings. It’s as much fathomable to him as it is to her. But, as much as he wishes to get back to what they were, the alter ego wants to hamper this.

From being a pillar of strength, he has been reduced to being a matter of despise. For how long he may have to masquerade his emotions is something time can tell. But for now, the good times are gone for the bad and he's left stranded with only memories to ruminate.

The parting has left an excruciating mark in his heart and an indelible impact on his mind. The days of turbulence are there to stay unless he sheds his ego and surrenders his superciliousness to the extent of seeking amnesty for gaffe. But, just as the mind prepares to strike harmony, his mind is spated with fears of not getting reciprocated..Is it prepared to face further insult to the maim that has already been caused ? For now, the agony stays as the mind strives for tranquility...

Sachin "slumber"kar

2007-10-08T18:11:00.000+05:30

Today's match could have easily provided an occasion when one Man could have won the Man of the match award irrespective of the result of the match- "SACHIN TENDULKAR"

If India won:

MOM for the 79 runs that he somehow managed to scrape.

If Aus won:

MOM was contributing as many dot balls as he did to AUS team.

Thankfully, better sense prevailed and Dhoni won it eventually.

Wake up Sachin. Hopes is bowling with so much of hope of getting a wicket while bowling to you..It's a shame to the reputation of a man who not so long ago was hailed as the next best thing after the DON !!!

Senthazham Poovil- Non Karaoke

2007-10-07T09:57:00.000+05:30

Raja Raja Chozhan

2007-10-07T09:22:00.000+05:30

Please bear with an unsophisticated recording and a not so gr8 mike :)

Muzipost !!

2007-10-06T12:10:00.000+05:30

Poor Indian Voter

2007-09-24T14:45:00.000+05:30

Well...Dont look for the traditional bashing of politicians and empathy for the Indian voter in this post.

The Indian voter under the scanner in this post is THAT Indian voter who brings delight to the affluent mobile and telecom co's by spending hundreds or even thousands for voting for any television poll..

Now, For long this has been an issue I've vehimently fulminated to a lot of my friends. But, the stats about Indian Idol has just pushed me into penning down my reservations against sms/online voting in the form of a post here.

An estimated 7 crore votes had been registered merely to decide the one winner among the two finalists. Now, taking into consideration the votes that would have got registered during the preliminary stages of the poll, I can safely place the number of votes to be somewhere close to be 30k crores. With each of those messages costing atleast 2 Rs, the poor Indian voter is much to his ignorance contributing 60 crores to the wealth of the telecos. What this shows is an apparent lack of prudence among the Indian public. Now, My agony is not in the fact that telecos and in turn the people who run those comps are minting money, but that the 60 crores could have easily been spent on a variety of welfare activities. Over here, I've only taken into account the amount People would have spent to make the Indian Idol a success.. Now, if we do take into consideration all those tv shows that require the poor Indian television viewer to vote, We can reach an astronomical figure that would probably be equal to the turnover of any of those major telecos..We are in effect generating as much wealth as it would be required to turn the fortunes of all the districts of Jharkhand on it's head.

For long, we kept blaming the politicians for any lack of growth,opportunity and failure in the machinery. But, isn't it a cardinal sin to be pointing our finger at someone without bothering to introspect?

While on one side of it is the huge financial drain that goes unnoticed in the form of voting, on the other hand is the credibility of the results of these very polls. Now, 99.9% of the people who vote are likely to be voters who do not specialize in any form of music. Well, to get judgemental over any particular issue, one needs to be expert at the same. It's quite similar to a layman on the streets talking to Cnn Ibn about how Dravid should captain a side or play a cover drive. I just cant avoid laughing when I see any of those comments from those blokes who reckon that they know a lot but in reality know nothing. The same thing is applicable to Indian Idol or a Super singer (telecast in Tamil channel "Star Vijay"). Why dont we allow the Udit Narayans and Unni krishnans do the job that they are so good at doing ? Why have judges in the first place if a brainless common man's vote is what is going to make all the difference ? It's hightime the junta thought it out and respond to this issue by refraining from messaging. This will slowly put an end to this problem by way of telecos slowly withdrawing their sponsorships from such events.

One of those most glaring incidents of such ridiculous polls in recent memory has actually been on the International stage when a website was created to help people cast votes for the selection of the next seven wonders. And with no surprises 'Great wall" AND "Taj Mahal" registered the maximum number of votes. Isn't it a foregone conclusion that these wonders from the two most populous countries of the world will win it hands down. Should a thing as significant and monumental as the "wonders of the world" be left for selection on the basis of gross prejudices show by the people from these very countries ? Would a common man know more than an Archaeologist, Geologist or a historian to decide upon the seven wonders. It's a shame that the world is still blind to this transparent problem of money being swindled by the rich and the powerful..

Wake up India...rather Wake up Indians

When do I complete ????

2007-08-26T23:44:00.000+05:30

Here's the list of books to read and have no clue when I 'll get to the bottom of this list :( :

[Now by blogging am just setting a reminder for myself] :

1. Couplehood by "Paul Reiser"

2. Beyond good and evil by "Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche"

3. Gone with the wind by "Margaret mitchell"

4. Shantharam by "Gregory Roberts"

5. Cosmic dance by "Joyce rupp"

6. Things fall apart by "Chinus achebe"

7. Stumbling on happiness "Malcolm gladwell"

8. The curious incident of the dog in the night time by "Mark Haddon"

9. Bombay to Beijing by bicycle( a travelogue) by Russell McGilton

10. Losing my virginity by "Richard Branson" (Autobio)

11. When in Rome

12. Tuesdays with Morrie by "Mitch Albom"

More Audio !!

2007-08-03T13:03:00.001+05:30

First Audio !!!

2007-08-01T14:53:00.000+05:30

Thanks Nithya for getting me into this !!

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

2007-06-28T19:08:00.001+05:30

Just got back from office and much to my surprise and shock, ma roomie is on a "sleepathon" here at home. But for those ephemeral periods of awakened state, to close the door, when the last guy left for office in the morning and to open it, when the first guy returned back home, his eyes haven't opened for the past 20 hours. We are eagerly waiting for him to complete his sleepathon tomorrow morning, if at all he wishes to get back to work tomorrow atleast :)

And yeah, Guess which company he works for ??? Tats one heck of a contest..aint it???

clue: Apply u'r thoughts :)

Random facts !!!

2007-06-27T21:04:00.000+05:30

I've been tagged and by whom, by two of those souls that follow ma blog more regularly than I :)

Copy paste stuff from Geeman's blog:

I have to post 8 random facts about myself and tag 8 more to follow suit...Not having made tat many frnds on the blogosphere , I restrict myself to a fewer number , who shall help in extending the thread. I shall post about those few ppl in the next post.

8 Random facts about myself:

1. I have this worst habit of putting my head down on the handle on the bike and dozing off at heavily congested signals and the honking from the vehicles would wake me up indicating the signal turning green.

2.A more recent annoyance to ma roomies has been my effortless attempt at playing some really jarring sequence of chords in the name of learning guitar.

3.A secret flirt is hidden in me, hidden even to S :)...Thnks Raaga for the "S" idea and quite coincidentally it's applicable to me :)

4.I hate sify broadband connection and it s such a pleasure to get profane to those happless customer care souls

5.I just realised I can fall off from the treadmill too, while working out.This despite having been doing it for a long time :)

6."Corporate comedy" is a possible title to my book that will be later made into a movie starring Rahul bose :) ... Dont ask me when though :)

7. Talking comes so fluently and can brag about being able to push conversations with even the least known people who wish to kill time and yeah, My team mates are still wondering how I made a job here as they think, it's impossible for someone to gauge anything that I say esp at the speed at which I speak. My answers in the interview may not hav made sense :)

8.Lastly, why I blog is a reason best known to none including myself. Please let me know if u could infer anything frm my blog as to why I blog :)

Sleep blogging !!

2007-06-11T14:59:00.000+05:30

Uff..

Monday noons when am already fighting the blues and struggling to motivate myself to do anything productive at work, am also at the height of frustration owing to the dorm being full..There seems to be an unstated, implicit fight among us for those 4 beds in the dorm. It's hightime that ma company had an application in place (in the intranet)to reserve beds or check the status, with ofcourse a few restrictions:

1.No person shall be entitled to make more than one reservation at any given instant of time.

2.One bed shall always be reserved for the sick.

3.No more than 3 hours of reservation should be allowed for anyone.

Most importantly, the dorm has to expand..Companies expand in numbers but not in terms of the number of beds in the dorm :(

Nocturnal Nightmare !!

2007-05-08T12:56:00.001+05:30

You make me feel dizzy
you force me crash early,
you arise when the sun sets,
leave at the sight of it.

The tighter I hold you,
the lighter I feel.

Whisky to rum,
workloads to Managers,
nemesis to girlfriends,
traffic to pollution,
arise u do,
from any of these.

Many a sacrifice I make,
Television to laptop,
Romance to books,
nothing to your pleasure.

I sleep in pain,
as you wait in brain,
for the god of brightness,
to embrace you.

Is he your consort?
Makes me think..
As he heads west,
for the rest,
you seek company,
Male or female,
nil is pardoned.

Am only happy,
You take turns,
and not haunt one,
for too long.

You are a pain,
a short lived pain,
with eternal presence.

Sun's headache,
is everyone's ache.
Sun in the morning,
Sons(of god) in the night.
you eat our heads.

May Sun not banish,
his painful wife,
to free the world from this strife,
that leaves the world at every rise(sun).

But, wishes remains wishes
With late night headaches,
the battle continues...

Swap !!

2007-05-07T11:27:00.000+05:30

Smooth as silk was your caress,
remarkably long was your duress,
it's such a pity,
am having to let go of you,
for there's someone else in my heart.

Makes me more soft,
caresses me more gently,
hurts me very little,
but,
just comes at a heavy price.

That wouldn't matter,
for her sheer poise at work,
is worth the penny I pay.

My dear presto,
thanks for the service,
rather, thanks for the shave,
I got a mach3 now !!!

Kaju ka ghulam ???

2007-05-02T11:04:00.000+05:30

Wots with Delhites and Kaju sweets ? Almost every delhite frnd in these past 4 years of my corporate life has offered me "Kaju cake" on returning from a jaunt to their home town. Today is yet another day of Kaju delight. Start the day or rather the week (in my case) with Kaju....

Ooooops....Mustn't forget to gym today :)

Sunny fears and "Mosqui"mares !!

2007-04-15T12:38:00.000+05:30

Every drop from my face,
tells me a story,
gives me a warning,
makes me prepared,
reduces me to being nonchalant,
day after is tougher than this day

but I still go ahead,
into the bus and zroom it leaves.

Dawn breaks
and am still not shaken.
How is that possible ?
I keep wondering
As I step out,
find the answer,
in the pool of water.

Yeah, it has rained.
No no, may be not, it has poured.
May be am lucky.
lucky to survive the heat.

God's been kind.
kind enough to cool me,
had not come to expect this,
but happy to receive this.

But what of those man eaters ?
Are they still around?
yet to fathom,
wait for their arrival
sun leaves,
I see them coming,
but so does dad,with a repeller.

But he's going out.
why go out ?
surprisin I thought,
sensible, I realised.

next few minutes,
there were a few repellers,
inside and outside.

And yeah, it makes the difference.
the man eaters are stopped at the fence
the kings dont face the threat
the guards take guard
in the battle that ensues,
the kings hav a good sleep.

ohh..my, God's been kind this time,
but would he be every other time ?
be it whatever,
Bangalore to coimbatore,
my journey continues......

Lacto Hunt !!!

2007-02-11T21:55:00.000+05:30

From Biscuits to chips, Rice to Vegtables, Snoodles to sauce, toothpaste to Vcd/dvd's, We had purchased it all, in view of the Karnataka bandh toms. The Busy IT hub will be seen devoid of automobiles on the road. From buses to Autos, Call taxis to office shuttles, none of these would hit the road toms as normal life would come to an abnormal standstill. Huh !! So much for water !!! But, the idea of Bandh has never really impressed me as a protest that will have some positive repurcussions. What is it they achieve by inflicting pain upon themselves in the name of bandh. The country knows enough about the kind of Linguistic solidarity You guys have and it s a shame they have the effrontery to flaunt it. To all those who drive such a shutdown, F**k off. It's such a pity that the ignorance of the farmers and the masses is being taken for a ride. It's such a financial drain for the residents of this very state on account of bandh and those few who are instrumental in the bandh lack common sense in every possible way causing damage to those many who lack power in every possible way..

So, as We took to streets an hour back to get all required groceries for toms, We discovered that Milk was missing from the list of items that we had purchased. As I motored through every possible road in BTM layout in search of Milk, We were received with sarcastic/mocking/ridiculing/pitiable smiles in different shops. If one so cold bloodedly joked "come tomorrow"(Huh !! very funny), one other so effortlessly nodded his head to suggest he doesnt have milk, even before we asked for it...Gawd, sure, ther must hav been hundreds who returned home Milkless..In one other shop, one of the customers said "why do ya think I am smoking here? " to suggest he s smoking his frustration out, on not getting Milk anywhere. In one other shop when we enquired for "paalu" (Milk in tamil), the kinda weird smile spoke a lot "Why do ya think there s a bandh toms, only to inflict some pain to all you tams here" ....Gawddddd.....Ma roomie goes on to joke "Bangaloril thamizhaga ilagyargalukku Paal kattupadu"(Dearth of Milk for tam youngsters in blr)...Now that will be one of those most sought after headlines for a tam newspaper article :-)....huh, so much for milk...Just as we gave up, we managed couple of "good life" Milk Tetra packs. Some consolation finally :-)... Tomorrow is gonna be one helluva holiday for everyone including the roads, bikes, cars and yeah this part of earth's crust beneath karnataka :-)....Check out couple of days later for Post bandh updates !!

The Great Indian Middle class !!!

2007-01-27T23:51:00.000+05:30

Recently, I got to witness a chat show on "CNN Ibn" on the Indian middle class. Personalities from various fields had shared their views on what they thought of the Indian middle class. I've tried to compile a few lines here based on the way I perceive the Indian Middle class:

1.They may very well earn over 30 lakhs per annum, but would still prefer to be called the "Middle class"

2.Its that class which does buy a car to showcase it's status to the rest of the society, but still doesn't use it enough on account of rising fuel prices.

3.It's the class that talks more about politics without caring to vote in elections.

4.It is a class that firmly believes in the professional education and secure income. Innovation is strictly forbidden unless someone has already been successful trying something new.

5.It is a class that boasts of American education for their sons and hunts for Nri's for their daughters.

6.It's a class that is both satisfied and desirous at the same time.

7.It's a class that still bargains for that one rupee more that the vegetable vendor may be asking for.

8.It's a class that buys a mobile phone, but still relies heavily on office phones and missed calls .

9.It's a class that's circumspect about attending parties thrown by friends owing to fear of reciprocation.

10.It s a class that prefers to booze at home,than waste money at an expensive pub.

11.It's a class that still parks it's vehicle at a friend's place, rather than paying those 5 bucks as Parking charges.

12.It's a class that cribs a lot about bad driving on the road and drives on the platforms.

13.It's a class that wishes to see the Hero and heroine get married in movies but turn red faced if their sons/daughters were to propose a love marriage.

14.It's a class that still takes more pride in their ward working in Infosys than in Microsoft.

15.It's a class that still takes more pride in their ward graduating from Stanford than from IIm's.

Nightmarish Night !!

2007-01-26T10:37:00.000+05:30

An ordeal that's become an order of the weekends. More so on weekends, adjoining a public holiday on a friday or a Monday. An ephemeral mass exodus happens out of Bangalore as every lane leads to the railway station or the bus stand. Bangalore's infrastructural woes were back to haunt me last night and it was arguably my toughest day on the road.

I was culpable of yielding to my passion for table tennis, as I kept playing on and on, hoping to get back home quickly and head off to the Rly.station from there in a Rick. I was to be wrong. My ability to maneuver the vehicle through the roads didnt come handy as I was stranded at different places on my way back home. I finally reached home 15 minutes later than I hoped to. Least did I know then that those 15 minutes were going to be crucial.

It was 8:45 when I reached the BTM main road and I was bewildered to notice the big jam on the lane leading to the city(Rly.stn). I kinda sensed I was in for a big test. Test of patience and test of stamina too. Why stamina ? I could sense u guys smirking over this, wondering if the Rick was gonna carry me or if I was gonna carry the rick, to be worried about the stamina. The reason I said that is I've seen such jams before and I knew precisely what I had to do as you would see further down this post.

It was 9.00 pm and still no Autorickshaw was game for a trip to the station and even if they did, it came at a heavy cost of over 150 bucks, definitely more than double the cost that I would incur otherwise. I could feel the trepidation in my legs and frantically tried to recollect if there was any friend of mine who was there in the city for the weekend and give me a ride till the station. There were a few who came to my mind, but they were all staying too far to be of too much of help. Frustration compounded and in the meantime found a Gentleman working with Wipro, for company. He was not in any hurry though,since his train was only at 10:45, 45 mins after mine. Finally, one auto conceded to take us to the station, at 1.5 times the metre cost. It was well over 10 minutes and the auto had not even gone past BTM main road, which is not even half a km from where I took the rick. Meantime I enquire the autowalah if he would take me the Blr cantonment station, where the train was gonna reach some 10 mins after it departs from the city rly stn and much to my disappointment, he doesnt agree and I stuck to my instinct and decided to carry on in the same auto, rather than get down and look for another auto to cantonment, which may again take those 25 mins that it took for me to get this Rick. In another 15 mins, we had crossed BTM and from thereon for the next 5 kms, the driver took the vehicle through unseen, hardly thronged roads and in no time I had reached the Lalbagh gate.. I take a sigh of relief , when my friend Vasu (Gentleman who travelled along) warns me of the impending danger in the form of jams some 3 kms ahead of the station. And yeah, he was right and that circle is were it's usually clogged until all trains leaving Bangalore would have left. I slip into bad mood again. 5 minutes later, we were there at that very spot and just as we expected, there were vehicles all over, all the way till the station. For the next 10 mins, the Auto crawled through the lane. I had to take a call and decided to run down the lane to the station. The station was a good 2-2.5 kms away and running was the only choice I had to catch the train. I paid what I thought would be half the cost of the journey to Vasu and bid him a bye. With a travel bag hanging on my back and the laptop on one shoulder, I setout on a mission- "Mission Majestic" and I had roughly 10 minutes to accomplish the mission. I kept running right on the main road like a Man who walks blindfolded on a highway and still does not get runover. Midway, the traffic started moving a little and I hitched a ride on a Tvs suzuki. It went for a few yards and I get down from the bike thanking that fella and start running again. Yet again, there is a clearance and I hitch a ride in one other bike and this time he takes me very close to the Majestic bus stand, not so far from the station. I effortlessly jump over a road divider that was chest high. As I get to one side of the road, one of my legs is accidentally inserted into my laptop bag's holder and I stumble over it. Even then I make a last ditch atempt at preventing my lappy from any damage, least worried about my own fall. Least deterred by the fall, I take the big stairway leading to a pedesrian bridge that connects the bus stand and station. Half way through that bridge, I run out of steam and also hope. It was already 10 pm and the train could be leaving anytime. I restrict myself to a fast walk and finally the station is visible. I alight from the bridge, standing on the other side of the station. Taking the subway could be time consuming. Hence I decide to jump over yet another road divider. This time, an even bigger one. ah, it pains as I saunter through the station gates and make enquiries about the platform to a porter, not intending to waste time looking at the display. Platform 3 he says and I sped to the overbridge to get there. From the bridge, I try to see if the train had gone. Gawddd, I dont see a train there :-(..My mind starts going haywire and just as I am about to fall dejected, I also notice a hugeeeeeeee crowd on the platform. I slowly approach one and ask "Coimbatore Express" ? "Yeah, it's expected" he says.
Gawd, the train s late and as much as I thanked god for this, I also blamed him for not letting me know of this delay. "Testing times dont last, but determined Men do" I suddenly get reminded of this thought, as I wipe off the sweat from my face to look more presentable to the girls in the station..Ah, I never change :-)

Guru - Review !!!

2007-01-24T12:16:00.000+05:30

It was a Maniratnam movie and I was not gonna wait for the weekend to watch it. One day of less contribution at work and I was off to the Multiplex with couple of other colleagues to watch the movie. Having to wait for the show to begin, for over one and a half hours did not seem that big a pain. The excitement and anticipation of watching a new(Mani) movie was good enough to kill any frustration that I had to go through.

Despite being an ardent Mani fan, I've tried being a just judge, making a conscious attempt to avoid any gross prejudices and not just give blindly rave reviews :-)

"Idhar gaon"- Gujarat...starts the movie and from then starts an experience of 2.5 hrs that keeps the audience enraptured. Maniratnam, the taskmaster was once again in the thick of things, like in his earlier movies. The background score and the cinematography were most definitely the departments that are likely to enthrall audiences in the intial few minutes. Rajeev Menon and Rahman have been true and loyal sons to a highly respected godfather in Maniratnam. It's so unbelievable how Mani extracts the best out of the best.

The movie moves on as the Hero travels places from Gujarat to turkey as an ambitious boy and returns back as a youth after a few years of toiling in Turkey, to setup his own "bijhness". Abhishek Bachchan has been flawless and natural in his rustic accent and full marks to his commitment. It's paid him rich dividents. He marries his frnd's sister(Ash) for the huge investment that his frnd promises to make in his ambitious business plans. The couple head towards Mumbai along with the "bil in frnd". Tough time beckons the trio in Mumbai and 'Guru'(AB) is quite adept at overcoming small hiccups to setup his cloth business there. His frnd, a more naive and dumb fella, remaining a silent spectator of all this. Guru finds help from Mithun(editor of a Newspaper) to setup his store. How he grows from here, to owning the biggest company in India is the crux of the story. Meanwhile, his deceitful means to earn profit bring severe criticism from Mithun, who urges Madhavan(a reporter) to unveil Guru's true colour to the public. From buy back of shares to hoodwinking the customs from payin requisite import duty, Guru does it all and does it so smartly and effectively. Notwithstanding the severe flaking he receives from Mithun and his newspaper, Guru is unperturbed and grows to reach the pinnacle of success.

Now, by half time, the art direction in the movie had also flatterred me. It deserves a big applause for having taken the audiences 50 years back with sheer brilliance.

No Mani movie goes without a famous line and to me, the one dialogue just before the interval, when AB tells Madhavan "Guru bhai kho jeetna hai tho Guru bhai bhanke, magar Gurubhai ek hee hai" was the pick of the lot.. Rahman's BG score "Gurubhai gurubhai" during such scenes cause goosebumps all over the body.

As the movie draws to an end, One can't stop wondering about Mani's immaculate ability to blend fiction with true life(Dhirubhai) with such exemplary portrayals. He's proven to the country yet again why he's so special, incomparable and unparallelled. His portrayal of a bed room romance between AB and Aishwarya Rai deserves a special mention as it had the Maniratnam stamp all over it. One can't avoid seeing glimpses of Mani's earlier movie scenes in this one.

AB in his old getup has tried to imitate Kamalhassan in "Nayagan". The scene where Ash and AB are lying down on the floor perpendicular to each other with their heads together, reminds me so much of a scene from Iruvar, where PrakashRaj and Tabu would be in similar positions.

As for the actors, AB was peerless, Ash was a major disappointment more with the way she looked than with her acting. Guys, We've got to digest the fact that ageing is very much applicable to the lovely ladies of tinseldom too :-). Mithun was good and couldnt have done any better. Madhavan does justice to his small role and plays it to perfection.

Now, to the most important section that Mani bashers would enjoy. A few glitches that I thought could have either been avoided or made better.

1.Vidya Balan's character had no significance in the movie and they could have easily done away with those portions and also the unwarranted liplock between maddy and Vidya. Commercialisation of movie must have been the only notion behind having that scene.

2.A song that follows right after the interval was out of place and didn't serve for anythin but stretch the length of the film

3.Mani with his exceptional screenplay generates a huge air of expectation for a fitting climax. I get more keen when AB satirically says "Is din khe liye bachake rakha tha" on wanting to speak during the public hearing a few hours before judgement on the cases against him, after having refused to speak on all previous private hearings. But, the climax did not sound convincing enough. It was more a brief narration of the entire film(his life) by AB to the counsel of judges, which is nothing more than stating the obvious to the audience.

The theme of the story is this: In a country where every proposal goes through a high degree of red tape bureaucracy, nepotism, bribery and poor governance, it seems all too fair if someone manages not just his own success but the successs of all his shareholders too, even if some basic guidelines are bypassed in the process.

Overall, a great picture and yet another Mani classic to watch out for !! Dont miss it.

"Ice idlis"

2007-01-22T13:41:00.000+05:30

Murphy's law played havoc with ma breakfast today. Extremely ravenous, I rode the bike as fast as possible to get to the office cafeteria at the earliest. The earlier I reach, the more are the choices I would hav for b'fast.

But, Choices is all that I had...Despite finding parathas and pongal, I settled for our very own idlis, completely oblivious of it's hardness. It didnt take much time for me to discover that I had made a wrong choice coz, I had to break the idlis to pieces rather than slice it in order to consume. It didnt end there. I kept ruminating the first piece for minutes and had to take so much of pain to swallow it. Had never seen idlis as frozen as this ever before. The next level of hardness would have definitely resulted in eerie noises when People consume it.

I asked the guy at the counter if the idli was straight out of the refrigerator. Owing to his lack of understanding of any of the Indian languages and English, I left it at that without bothering to bother him too much with what may sound like greek and latin to him :-)

As I am typing, am just reminded of the name tat my bro gave for the idlis that he got to eat in Nellore rly stn a decade back "Beerangee idli"...Funny names, pathetic food and poor consumers !!

Black or White

2007-01-21T11:43:00.000+05:30

It's not any review for a Michael Jackson song, but a more serious debate that I intend to discuss here :-)..

Lazy Sunday Morning and as I was scanning through the channels in quick succession, a debating show in "Vijay TV" caught my attention, where a heated argument was going on between two sets of People over which of the two colours was superior-Black or white?

Sounds like a very old argument and a never ending one too. India in particular is likely to witness such heated debates for eternity. Reason being the co existence of People from both sides in handsome numbers. Not that, you wouldn't see blacks in western countries, but any public discussion over Colour of the skin shall only be looked upon as racial discrimination and hence no such discussion is likely to take place. Whereas, in Africa the blacks so overwhelmingly outnumber the Whites that such a discussion can only turn out to be irrelevant.

There was a huge representation from the student community on either sides. The general opinion among those who spoke for white was that fair people are best looking anyday and "fair is beautiful" and the black people were disproving their hyppothesis claiming that the other side was predisposed with the thought that white was beautiful and were claiming that white should be treated as a mere colour and not looked upon as something beautiful. They were vociferously arguing in support of the face that s masked by these very colours and it s the face that matters if at all beauty is what is the deciding factor in choosing a guy/girl and more importantly the beauty of the face doesnt matter as much as the beauty of the heart. These were pretty much arguments on the expected lines.

Before I write on, It's just dawned upon me why not have my gf complete the rest of this blog with her own opinion and yeah that s precisely what I did and here's what she s got to say about it:

"Let’s forget about homosapiens and talk about non living things. Black is more sexy! I got this new cell phone of mine which is all back and got a bit of silver in it and I bet it wouldn’t look any better if it were of any other color. All these latest hi-fi electronic gadgets come out in black color, take your stereo system, laptops, ipods, cars and mp3players and so on because black is more classy and sophisticated. Its very comfy buying stuff in black color, you really don’t have to bother about it getting dirty, lets say your eating and something spills on your black cell phone, you don have to bother, wipe it and it’ll be as good as new, but if u had a white one you would see yourself cribbing . (For a neatness freak like me it does matter)

Another point of view would be that the color black is a bad omen. My mom hates me getting black stuff, be it anything. she doesn’t even like me wearing a black bindi. Sometimes when I crib about things not working out for me she blames it on the color black. Poor color, it would cry if it were a living entity. Black outfits blossom with sex appeal. Jennifer Anniston looks hot in black outfits doesn’t she? Black clothes suits all kinds of complexion, dark, fair, tan, brown any shade, they wouldn’t look bad on you. But I bet a person with a dark complexion wouldn’t want to dress in white, vice versa is very much possible and black looks awesome on people with fair complexion. But well why do people wear black when they have to attend a mourning ceremony, you don’t need to look hot then do you? I know Americans can get so dumb at times.Now don’t start smirking. We Indians aren’t getting any better. We say “FAIR IS BEAUTIFUL”, but wear white clothes when we have to mourn and widows have to put up with that damn white color all their lives or at least they had to years ago. We can have an analogy here, people worship Krishna and they consider ashtami (day when Krishna was born or something like that) as an inauspicious day, so do you actually wish that he wasn’t born at all?.

About people's complexion, Id any day check out a guy who has a nice tan or the tall, dark and handsome kind rather than white lizards (ok!!! all the fair people in the world no offense, but that’s how I refer to you guys). I have always thought that guys should look dark or rather not fair (at least Indians). A male of a darker complexion is definitely more male or masculine or whatever. I cant seem to keep count of the number of times I would have commented “OH gawd, that chap looks so much like a female…uh uh….he looks so fair”. Id probably say “Fair is beautiful, black is sexy and hot as for the female community is concerned and as for males am all eyes only for the TALL DARK AND HANDSOME category."[ Nandita das being a classic example of a black damsel. She's such a dusky seductress. Who doesnt love Nandita das? To me she's more of a seductress than a beauty] :-) "

Its not surprising that she said this given the fact that I am not fair :-)

Now her opinion has jus brought with it an intriguing question. Why are guys not as tolerant as grls r towards a not so fair guy. This has been a thought thats been lingering in my mind for quite some time now. While we do see a lotta grls falling for the "not so fair" looking guys, there isnt any vice versa for this. Guys tend to be more obsessed about color than girls. Now what's the reason for this? why aren't guys finding black attractive to the extent that girls do..I dont hav an answer for now? Comments welcome !!

Being Raja !!!

2007-01-19T14:50:00.001+05:30

Do less and less work and still hope for the rest of the world to believe I am a workaholic

Take bath for fewer minutes by normal human standards and still boast of the fragrance from ma body !!

Make less and less calls to my gf and still make her believe phone calls are not parameters to measure intensity of love

Talk a lot and lot in meetings and still hope for them to believe I also work

Make the most sarcastic comments possible and still hope for the other person to believe that there is nothing wrong between us.

Sleep to glory on weekends and still hope to make my friends believe I hate wasting time in the form of sleep

Turn down my colleague's request to go out for lunch in the name of being busy, but secretly hoping to taste better food outside.

To wear each T shirt once in a while and hope that it still looks new to my colleagues every time I wear them.

Spend thousands on mobile bills and weekend movies and still hope for my parents to believe I am economical !!

To go once in a bluemoon to the gym and still claim to have reduced weight by virtue of gymming regularly

To write not so good poems and still hope for my buds to acknowledge it as exceptional :-)

To flunk CAT with consummate ease and still blame it on Juniper/work for the debacle.

To write all this crap in my blog and still hope for the readers to not get furious and pour in their comments.

Labels: Fiction [hehehe :) LOL]

End of the day !!!

2007-01-18T20:28:00.000+05:30

Back home after a really tiring ride from office. I've grown sick and tired of having to motor through these immeasurably populated and incorrigibly congested roads in Bangalore.

My legs are aching and there is an unprecedented wish to work from home toms. May be I ll work from home toms if I dont feel any better in the morning. My roomie has already ordered for food from a small time door delivery Mess here and that saves the time wasted in going out for food and more importantly I wouldnt be exhausting myself even more by going out for food.

15kms distance between office and home is taking it's toll on me and there is a growing penchant for shifting to anywhere closer to my office. But, it doesn't seem likely, what with having got so used to this part of Bangalore and the company of friends/roomies here.Even my house owner seems to know that. As he says "I always contact Raja over any issues only coz he's been the first occupant of this house and since then lotta ppl have come and gone, but he's been there and I am sure he'll be here for a while. Only that, I get confused over who r the other guys stayin in the house" ..Not surprised that he said this..None of the first occupants of the house apart from me are still around and even those who came later on have left and I am still here as though Bangalore is where my future is. Who knows ?? May be my house owner is right? I dont see the day coming when I would have left this place for the good !!

As I am typing,the Gentleman running the Mess is here with the food. Really hungry..shall get down with devouring :-)

What we want !!

2007-01-18T17:52:00.000+05:30

Nods her head in disapproval,
twists her hip to evade,
moves her legs to escape,
and finally, one piece of magic,
doesnt move it all,
not even her eyes,
but definitely her heart
thats a child's heart.
A heart that melts for humour
humour in toons.
Tom does what Man cant
Jerry helps in what we want

What is it that we want?

Food for thought?
no, it s food for her
my cute little niece !!

gulps it like never before
glued to the Tv she is
glued to her mouth are we

one sigh of relief !!
ah, no food on the plate :-)

Introspection !!

2007-01-17T19:08:00.000+05:30

In a bay of loneliness,
reminiscing the past,
brooding over mistakes,
solicitous about the future.

As I gaze at those white ceilings,
reeling under influence of thoughts,
I realise solitude is a medicine
a medicine for instant peace
and eternal happiness to a wounded soul

But what it offers is not what we take
Eternal may be wat it offers
ephemeral is what we take
there is a longing,a longing for eternal solitude

but why?
why me?

May be I have an answer
An answer that remains concealed
An answer I hate
An answer I fail to accept

zealously jealous over what I am not
Fail to see the outside world
A world, jealous over me

do i get over it?
but how ?
like this !

Preamble of a different sort !!!

2007-01-16T16:26:00.000+05:30

Relationships are as complex as a a covalent bond resulting out of umpteen complex atoms. There isn't any generic guideline that helps in People sustaining a mature and long standing
relationship, be it with a friend or with a person one is committed to.

Expectation quotient is a variable that varies from a value as low as zero to higher lakhs in case of romantic relationships. Mathematically, there would be a progressive or linear increase in
expectation quotient with a corresponding decrease in understanding quotient. Seperations and splitups happen not because the individuals involved are absolutely bad in terms of certain characteristics, but are relatively bad in the view of the other person.

There are two ways to liberate oneself from the worry of splitups:

1.Either to reach the threshold of understanding before getting serious over a relationship

2.To learn to lessen expectations after getting into a relationship.

While the former looks more applicable to Men, the latter though applicable to Women, is probably not being practised by Women to the extent that it should be. One of my friends among girls recently had a squabble with me over a minor expectation that she had from me which resulted in a lotta yelling and finally a strained friendship. Now, no point in brooding over it when all the damage has been already done. It's not without reason that there is a thought "It's better to be careful than be sorry".

Media Mockery !!

2007-01-08T10:36:00.001+05:30

Cairo says "Nayantara is such a beautiful place to be in". This was a phrase in the Bangalore times edition of Times of India couple of days back. Any one to whom it makes sense deserves to be crowned the oaf of the Millenium. Now, Where exactly does Times of India stand in comparison to other Indian News Papers?Now, this in my opinion is an irrelevant comparison as Times of India has proven to be more of a tabloid than a NewsPaper. Hence, the comparison should ideally be with a Playboy or a cosmo.But,here again they fall horribly short of meeting the expectations of the kind of audience that these Magazines have. For a front page in the Supplementary to have as gross a mistake as the one mentioned above talks volumes of the subliminal standards that Times of India has set.
How often would you have seen an Aishwarya Rai or a Super Model or a Sania Mirza on the front page?What are these People doing on the front page? They should either be part of Page 3 or pages related to their specific fields. Carlos Moya was featured a couple of days back with an Afghan Model. Poor Moya despite being as talented as he is, finds himself on the front page, courtesy an Afghan beauty.By having a damsel in the front page, is Times of India hoping to lure People into buying their Papers. Does that mean they are fine with their Audience treating their paper as something other than a Newspaper. It beats the purpose of running a NewsPaper then. If Money bethe sole intention behind running a Newspaper, they may as well choose some other profitable business to invest their money in lieu of depraving the pristinity of India Print media.
One glance through any Times of India edition and you save the money spent on Playboy stuff. For long,I ve cribbed about the kind of Newspapers that get published in Tamil. They are either politically biased or are run for a larger section of Masses who are more interested in gossips than news. Now, thats precisely what a "kumudham" magazine does in tamil nadu, then why run a NewsPaper ?
Bangalore showed me that even English Newspapers can stand as dirty what with Times of India being a few notches ahead in publishing Masala stories. More agonizing is that they can make celebrities out of ordinary talents to a degree that the talent gets saturated in it's grooming stages. Sania Mirza standing out as the biggest disappointment of the decade after all the hype and hoopla that she received in her initial years. Now, Times of India even went to the extent of having sania edit their front page as a Guest editor. They made a serious mockery of such an esteemed position by having a least deserving person do that job. Shame on them. The golden days of Indian print media shall return only when they cease to exist.

Male Mobile !!

2007-01-03T14:37:00.000+05:30

Ever really wondered why the Hutch Network often follows you but seldom reaches you late in the evenings. I just figured out what could possibly be the reason behind this. Now this is no Rocket science but just keen observation from a curious onlooker.

How may times would you have spotted the girl on the road holding a phone on one hand as soon she alights from the office shuttle as she walks back home..

Now that simply isnt something thats an unique trait among a few girls but a characteristic that you would get to see with most of those girls who've got the other guy.

There are 2 ways of looking at this phenomenon. For this, We need to consider two different cases. One being Girls who stay away from parents and the other being Girls who stay with them.

Let's take the former first. Now girls unlike guys seek a lot of privacy and hate intrusion. Their tolerance to friends poking their nose into personal affairs is much lower than that of
guys. Hence, in an attempt to avoid such babbles from their roomies, they make full utilization of the time that is taken to walk back home. Now ,the reason that they dont talk while in the shuttle is anyone's guess. The noise on the road just doesnt allow them to. The roads connecting their houses to main roads hence becomes an obvious choice.

Now, in the latter case, there's nothing much to elaborate. For Ppl who keep their relationships clandestine from their buds, exposing it to parents is a far cry..

Disclaimer: Girls who dont exhibit this characteristic may take serious exception to this. This is precisely the reason, I've mentioned Most girls and not all !!!

"POI"eddddddddddddd

2006-12-25T18:30:00.000+05:30

Ther r ways to kill time and bring oneself out of boredom, but I chose what was to be a disastrous way to kill time by deciding to watch a movie called "Poi" ..Ufff...Did I call it a movie?? It was worse than any of those Tv soaps that my Mum would be interested in.

It aint new to jack up expectations for a movie and take the audience for a wild ride through their extremely unrealistic whims and fancies, distressing satires and soporific dialogues. This movie tops my list as one of this kind. That it was from a much hyped director called Balachander talks volumes about the kind of cinema industry that we have. He could hav as well stopped with mentoring actors like rajni, kamal , prakash raj etc with his movies in 70's and 80's. It's disgusting to note that he still lives in the 70's and is only repeating his family dramas in variegated forms. In an era where a movie like Dhoom 2 is creating waves among the junta, Mr. Balachander needs to wake up and stand up to this level of competition and hone his directorial skills to match a few of his younger contemporaries.

For how long are we going to have movies with utterly jobless youths falling in love with lovely ladies . This movie is yet another run of the mill tam movie with a similar theme. It was after a long time that I had no option but to walk out of the theatre some 10 minutes after the interval. It had been such an emotional and financial drain :-(. Movie tickets in multiplexes do come with a price. The movie did make me take a resolution of not to venture into watching a movie without hearing the reviews, atleast in a multiplex.

Every alternate scene in the movie showcases Balachander as an imaginative figure who talks to the hero giving him tips to woo a girl and that impairs the tempo of the movie to the extent of feeling a gross hatred for the Man called "Balachander". For someone whose claimed to be the best in the art of extracting good performances, Balachander comes across as a highly unimpressive septagenarian with a white beard , with an accent that I had grown sick of. How often have I seen him speak like that, be it a movie or a serial. Add to that, the foul language that he uses to berate the hero everytime he flounders in his attempt to woo the girl just piles up the misery. A while later Prakashraj joins the party as one more imaginative character whose eloquence is only with Balachander. Prakashraj personifies destiny and presents a monstrous smile with no sound everytime there is a twist in the movie. Now fate is supposedly the villain in the movie. Balachander has used a sick white backdrop for all these scenes featuring him and prakashraj to distinguish the fictitious scenes of a fiction called "Poi"...Since the days of sridevi, in every movie of Balachander, there was an uncanny knack of projecting the heroine's eyes in an effort to convey a lot thru the eyes of the heroine. But, there's a limit to that and I guess there has already been an overdose of that in his previous movies and sadly there is more to it in this movie.

And this man does have a fascination for Hindi. The Heroine and one other trivial character using hindi words in the most unfashionable way is bound to create disgust among public. Words like "Ullu ka patta" are just not going to reach out to the audience as anything special and it will only help in this movie going down the history of tamil movies as one of the worst movies to have hit the screens.

The only positive if any about the movie, are it's songs. But then, You dont watch a movie for it's songs. I've been hearing to them on ma ipod for over two months now. The actors in the movie are beyond my scope of criticism. They are all too new to be criticized too soon.

I surely did need a cup of coffee after watching a sop like this. I started my enquiries on what is the climax of the movie to the guy at the coffee stall in the theatre. Much to my surprise and shock, he said the protaganists of the movie die..hahahah tats food for thought indeed. Until 10 mins after interval, they had not even started loving each other and finally end up ending their lives for each other...Funny....Silly old Man Balachander...It s hightime he contemplated retirement..

Magic of vathakuzhambhu

2006-11-16T15:22:00.000+05:30

Fed up would be an understatement to describe my inclination towards the consumption of rotis, paneer et all. No wonder why choms are called so !! For all the hatred I had for idlis, dosas, vatha kuzhambu stuffs until before 3 yrs, when I used to stay with parents, I deserved to suffer...Now I long for any of those traditional tam food that I once detested !! Vatha kuzhambhu has all of a sudden become nectar and pongal and dosas the ambrosia for life....

The longing has been so phenomenal that I am taking a vatha kuzhambhu bottle along for lunch..More so humiliating is the fact that it was actually purchased by a colleague of mine and I hav become a major consumer of a product I dont own..But, I dont think, this in anyway is going stop me from using it. There's an unprecedented longing for Mom's food. A longing that s likely to remain for a long long time !!!

As much as I stay away from Lasagne, I love to eat vadagiri !!!

As much as I hate rotis, I love the smell of Masala dosas

As much as I hate the Pulav, I love the traditional vathakuzhammbhu !!

A kfc, Mcdonalds, Bombay post or an Indijoe does not please me to the extent that Adyar anandha bhavan does :-)

Diurnal notoriety and smooth criminals

2006-11-01T00:02:00.000+05:30

Bangalore’s public are increasingly becoming victims of their own silly mistakes that prove to be very costly and have a disastrous impact on their financial well being.

A robbery in a Bangalore residence is becoming as unbelievable as a scene straight out of a bollywood flick. But, thanks to the ever tiring techies, as everyday passes, one gets to hear new thefts, new modus operandi and the day seems to be far when this would have stopped.

On Diwali day, a good frnd of mine finds one of his credit cards to be missing. But, by the time he calls up to suspend operations on that card, the card had already been swiped for 50k. How it happened is yet another case of extended sleep that bachelors tend to have, leaving the doors open. But, what is noteworthy in this theft is the modus operandi. The thief didn’t care to take anything apart from that one credit card, among all other cards and even left the wallet where it was. The end result was that it had already been some 3-4 hours before my frnd realized that he was missing one of his cards. This is definitely a lesson to all those plastic card maestros on why not to have many cards. If my frnd can end up in big soup, despite having fewer cards, one wonders what would have been the plight of people with umpteen cards, had such a misery dawned upon them..Food for thought ?aint it…

Criminals r getting smarter and it s high time the public are upto it.

It may not be long before such a robbery hits the Indian scenes in the form of a movie..May be it helps in enlightening people of what they can expect and how careful they need to be…

Reminiscing 49/4

2006-09-05T14:09:00.000+05:30

Screaming out loudly "Mama Vandachu" , I trigger a resonance in the house and rush to the door in anticipation of one of my uncles who would just be returning from the office.
On his entry, I poke my hands through his pockets in anticipation of some goodies..May be a dairy milk or a pack of nutties.This would be a scene from most of my summer vacation trips to my Maternal grandpa's place in Madras...

49/4 Icf East colony was more like a second home to me and a place that's probably the reason behind my liking for Madras as a city..

The sound of the Bell from the tricycle of the "Kulfi wala" , apprising the kids of the colony that he's back to business that night, is still fresh in my memory..

The huge window in the hall through which I used to peep out to see kids of my age play and dance in joy, elderly people go for late evening/night strolls and the youngsters just gather at one corner of the road to babble out their time..

For long, My Uncles, all of whom were bachelors then and my grandparents kept me under this impression that the person who rides through the streets every night with a pot covered with a red coloured cloth was infact selling "Puliyogare" and not kulfi.. Being a very gullible kid that I was, I used to fall a prey to their fallacies.

No wonder My Mom was very much the phenomenon behind my folks deluding me..She would just not allow her kid to have a kulfi from a road side vendor...That s not salubrious..

Being the only grandchild of the house then, I was very much a darling of the house and that I still enjoy that much of love inspite of all my uncles getting married off and some new kids arriving in the family, speaks volumes of how much I was loved in the family..

Anyway, lemme not digress..More on "One night at 49/4"...I would have just come back from a visit to the type writing institute, where my grandpa used to be an instructor. Until before a few years my grandpa was riding a bicycle...It was this very cycle in which he used to take me to the type writing institute..Man O Man, He had the patience to commute in a bicycle for close to 50 years of his life..

My Mom and grandma would be busy in the kitchen..My third uncle used to be busy studying in one room..He was a model of Perseverance.My dad still quotes his life as an example of how not to get flinched by failures and push hard for success. The eldest of all uncles jocularly used to remark that he would not be surprised if the chair my third uncle occupied while studying gets damaged due to extensive usage..Such was the intensity with which he used to study. He's now a fellow in CA,ICWA and CS...

The 2 youngest of my uncles were what I was until a few years back in college..Friends, road corner meet up's, late night chats was almost a regular feature those days..They used to storm into the house as late as at 12 o clock and have their dinner..Not speaking a word in return to grandma and Mom s railing, they used to go on serving food for themselves and hit the sack in silence...If this was the case inside the house, on those occasions when I used to go out of the house looking for my Uncles, who ll be standing at the end of the road along with their friends, I enjoyed staying late outside the house..Carrying a cricket bat along, I always used to find my uncle or his friends coming forward to bowl a few balls at me,under the brightness of the light coming from the big lamp post at the end of the road...Flood lights had just embraced the world of cricket then and I was already experiencing it.

It would have already been 12 when My mom would start pestering me to sleep...Sleeping so late meant that I would invariably wake up after every other person had woken up..Most often, I would find myself being awakened by the "Divya prabhandham" that starts playing in the Music system..As much as I hated it in my childhood, I realised the essence of the prabhandham as I grew old..No wonder it symbolises the faith of an Iyengar household !!

If Paupers were Hailed as Kings !!

2006-09-04T14:31:00.000+05:30

courtesy: http://arvind-iyer.blogspot.com

A Pastoral jaunt, a holy experience and a House warming ceremony- Part I

2006-08-28T12:17:00.000+05:30

Very reluctantly, I obliged to My Dad's suggestion to go down to Madurai for the Weekend that just passed. It might have well been an order had I turned down my Dad's suggestion :-)

The reason behind my nonchalance was that I ve never enjoyed those one or two trips I ve made to south Tamil nadu as a kid..Those trips had created such an impact that it was the first time in 13 years that I was going south of Trichy...

I cited reasons like heat, cleanliness etc to avoid the trip..But My Dad was not gonna budge and he kept insisting that I make the trip... I wish I could give him that more authentic and valid reason behind My reluctance :-)

The trip did happen and I took a A/c Volvo bus from Bangalore.. Li'll did I realise then that A/c was not gonna be on inside the bus...It took me very few minutes to get bugged with the comfort in the bus...Add to that, the old tam songs that were playing in the video were loud enough to drive me crazy...Wondering if there would be any serious objection from any of the fellow passengers, I went ahead and asked the cleaner to reduce the volume and thankfully no one objected..May be, it was bothering every one else too :-)..May be, I could have asked them to switch it off..

Adding fuel to the fire of frustration was the speed at which the bus was driven by the driver who looked to be a sexagenarian.... To me, it seemed, his legs were more often on the brake than on the accelerator :-(....It was 4.45 am in the early hours of saturday that the Bus had stopped at some place..I just opened my eyes and thought of getting down from the bus to get a feel of fresh air..I searched frantically for my sandals that I had left beneath my seat..Found one, but the other was missing...Much to my disgust, I found that the other one was under the foot of the guy sitting next to me...obviously, that guy had mistaken My sandals to be his in sleep...Just as I got down from the bus, I enquired with a person standing there as to how much time would it take to reach Madurai, oblivious of where the bus was currently...His answer stopped my breath for a while...He said 3-4 hours....It was then I realised that the six hours journey made till then had taken the Bus to Salem, which is supposedly a 3 hour drive from Bangalore....I am gonna feel scared everytime I see a old/tonsured guy at the driver's seat in the bus journeys I make in the future :-(......A farmer might comment "My bullock cart would run faster than this Bus"....

It was 8.45 am and there was still no sign of approaching any city/town....Just the Advertisement boards read Madurai...Atleast those boards brought back life to a shattered soul that I was :-)...9 o clock and I was there at the Madurain Bust stand..My Maternal grandpa eagerly waiting to receive or rather pick me up from there...At 71, My grandpa has more energy and patience than what I possess..He infact works at this age cozz he intends to be self sustaining, thereby also engaging in some work...He clocks 12 hours at office...More than What I do at this age...People of yesteryears are Men to be saluted...

Reached My Uncle s place and I was happy to note that it was a nice li'll residential area unlike the roads that took me there :-)..It was my first visit to this maternal uncle s place in 13 yrs and it took a house warming ceremony on a weekend to take me ther again :-)...The ceremony was to happen the next day and I was eager to catch up with lost sleep...

But, that was not to be...The rest of the folks including my Parents( who had come down frm cbe) were all geared up for a trip to the temple town of Srivilliputhur...The place that gave the world a great female saint called "Andal" who eventually married the lord himself !! This is my grandpa s native place apart from being a predominant vaishnav shrine....It took a while for the tired legs to actually stand up, carry the body along and head towards the bathroom for a shower.....I dressed up in a dhothi for the trip...I have enjoyed wearin dhothis on auspicious occasions and on trips to temples. I was helped by one of my Uncles in casting the caste mark on my forehead...

All set and we stepped out to take the tempo traveller waiting just outside the house...1.5 hours passed and We were there at Srivilliputhur....Much to my delight the temple was less crowded and my hope of having a good darshan got some life to it...As soon as we got down we were told by somebody there that we needed to visit the "Ranganatha" deity there at the earliest so that we get a darshan before the "sannidhi" (Lord's sanctum) is closed...This was the deity that Andal had adored during her times and was completely devoted to...Lord came down to marry her and in memory of that, the main deity in the temple has Andal and the lord in "Thiru kalyana" kolam (Together as a couple).....

The darshan at Ranganatha temple was one of the best I had and given my affinity towards Ranganatha, I was bound to enjoy the darshan....got to have the closest possible look at the God hoping for his blessings and a list of wishes to be fulfilled....Just as we turned our backs to the deity and walked towards the exit point of the sanctum, I noticed my dad completely absorbed in a conversation with the purohit at the sanctum....My Dad was waving hands frantically at me asking me to come over to the sanctum again...Wondering what could be the reason, I strolled towards the sanctum...It was then I found out that the purohit there is a person my dad knew so well and one whom he was meeting after more than a decade...The customary enquiries about each other's welfare went for a while before my dad introduced me to him as his son who used to work with Infy and is currently working with Juniper....Even before My dad could complete his sentence, the learned Purohit jumped the gun by sayin "Good good good"...I am quite sure he didnt hear my dad say Juniper.....huh...If this be the way that My dad 's gonna introduce me to his friends, then 10 years down the lane, he may have to carry a notepad to recite the companies I would have worked in a sequential order :-)...Infy's popularity is still a big problem to me :-)

May Ganesha bless our Routers !!!

2006-08-25T16:33:00.000+05:30

Friday dressing is usually trendy, casual and colourful..But today was not to be a day of casual dressing..A mail asking all juniperites to come in traditional attire was received yesterday.Just that, it was not well received by my brain..It somehow got off my head..

Just as I entered the office, I spotted someone in a kurta and at that very instant the mail flashed in my mind. I might not have felt bad about not having worn it, had it not been for a Hawaian Shirt I was wearing. On a day when a lot of other people were gonna be in Kurthas, I wore what should probably be the most casual attire for guys :-(

Slowly, as I walked towards my cube, much to my relief I found a lot of guys in jeans-Tshirt combo.

The reason behind asking Employees to come in ethnic dresses was that Ganesh Pooja was being celebrated in advance here...

How does a headline like this sound :

"JUNIPER ADVANCES GANESH CHATHURTHI"

Anyway, this was not any Nasdaq crash or a bullish run for Juniper to make news..So, the headline does not serve any purpose but for adding spice to this blog

12 o clock was the time that the pooja was gonna kick off and a reminder mail was there in our inboxes to make sure that We all get blessed by the lord..

It was 12 and there was Prasad who was nudging me from behind saying "chal chal chal, pooja ka time ho gaya"...A few minutes passed and I was there in the cafeteria where the pooja was taking place.. Lot of People in traditional attire...Could spot more sarees than Kurthas...Guys probably are more hesistant towards wearing ethnic dresses. I was looking out for Prasad and there he was in one corner..His remark that I wear a short kurtha on almost every other day and not this day, made me feel ignominious of having such a volatile memory :-(

Saree gave a very pleasing and gentle look to the ladies and I was impressed with the dressing sense of almost all the ladies in attendance, with one of the Hr's dressing standing out among all..To me, she was the best dressed of all .... Pooja started and the customary "Ganpathi bappa moriya" was shouted a couple of times and there I was standing in a queue to have a closer look at the Ganesha idol and offer my Prayers to the lord...On my way back, I was treated to a few delicacies in the name of prasad....Even before I could swallow the first bite, Prasad had almost finished a major portion of the sweet that was given to me, which I had asked him to hold for a few seconds until I put on my shoes again...Few seconds were probably not enough for him to consume the sweet completely :-)....Calling him "Kameene", I just started walking towards the door as I spotted this female who was looking drop dead gorgeous in her costume..Not that she didnt look good on other days :-)....Aneway, all that I could do was to get admired, astonished and go spell bound or even drool over her...After all, this is the case when I bump into any good looking girl :-)

Back at the desk, I found a mail from one of the HR's that was supposed to test our Spiritual quotient...It was Ganesha trivia and the person who gives maximum number of correct answers was to be given a prize..
Mythological quiz was always something I considered myself to be good at..Just that it was pertaining to Lord Ganesha...I would have probably preferred anything on Lord Vishnu...Am surprised why there was not any such quiz leading to Krishna Janmashtami :-)..."That s gross prejudice" I told myself :-)

Pinning hopes on my Mythological intellect, I attempted the quiz and with a few discussions with fellow team members and a lot of googling, I was ready with the answers in 10 mins time...The results are awaited :-)...Lemme see if Ganesha's blessing is with me or someone else :-)

Nuptial knot - A filial obligation ??

2006-08-17T17:29:00.000+05:30

Back from a long weekend and as I hit the sack in an attempt to sleep, I knew I had enough to blog based on what I came across over these past four days.

My Uncle and his family had come on a trip to Blr and Mys and I was pleased a punch to accompany them to various places..It was a fun filled trip in Mys after which we reached Blr...Mys trip blogging laterz...

It's such a strange thing that in Hindu families, to have contacts with someone beyond the immediate paternal and maternal relations seems almost impossible...
For someone who has seen second cousins and distant relatives only in Marriages and other functions, this was a rather new experience. My uncle insisted on meeting a few of his cousins here in Bangalore and what followed was quite dramatic...

Due to lack of acquaintance, I was initially very much reluctant to go to their houses, but finally decided to accompany them...Thought I ll make them feel happy that Jana's son dropped in to visit them and thereby also make my dad proud :-).. That brings me to this very interesting topic on how I get introduced to long lost relatives at marriages...The introduction has always been with My Mom or dad as reference...Charu's son/ Janardanan's son...For some reason, I hav always been introducing myself as Charu s son on most occassions, not coz I hate my dad, but Coz there s a stronger affinity with Mom...

The first thoughts to flash in my mind on talking to those second cousins and my Dad's cousins were definitely related to how iyengarish were these iyengar folks of mine. I could definitely see a big difference in their approach to life from how it is in my immediate family and relatives. I could spot broad mindedness in terms of tolerance to love marriages in almost everyone..My sis funnily remarked them to have a small national integration built in their families. All that seems ridiculous and uniyengarish to my uncle, aunt and my sis. I am not sure why I am not able to see them as anything bad..

My views over these past few years have gone through a lot of transitions(may be for the good) and I reckon I am far more broad minded than what I was a few years back...

My family as a whole takes so much pride in claiming that Children and grandchildren of my late grand father shall never attempt to do anything that would be against the wishes of the family and in anyway be detrimental to the good reputation that the family enjoys in the society..All that is fine.But, is marrying someone of my choice such a big crime ? Would I lose the liberty of claiming to hail from this family just on account of marrying some one of my choice ?? How can someone who s loved the family as much as I have, be outcast if I were to marry a Woman I may love ?

These are intriguing questions that have haunted me for years and despite some open discussions with the family, I never ever managed to find a solution to this problem. That I came across a phenomenal difference in the approach of my second cousins has probably rekindled this entire debate within myself to a degree that I decided to vent my queries in the form of a blog.

I am as devoted to the lord as much as any other Iyengar, even if not as religious as a few.

I am as much an iyengar as anyone else, even if not as conservative as a few.

I am as much a vegetarian and teetotaller as any other pristine iyengar, even if I consume cakes.

I have a cross thread unlike most of my second cousins who had long back lost their faith in being what they are..

Society is such a strange word these days..Families are more obsessed about pleasing the society than getting their children married. As much as they hate the society they live in, they also pay more attention to it than what is required. Everytime, I bring up this discussion with My Mom seeking a rationale behind their stand, they dont say anything but this "The society is gonna hold the family with huge disregard if someone from the family were to anything that s unethical by caste and religion".

They make what is probably a society for the third person.. This is the truth. But, They only seem to think of a society that constitutes other people. They often forget that they are an integral part of it and have as much liberty and freedom to define their own boundaries. Some one who sets up to do something uncommon may as well be looked upon by the society as unethical, but the bottomline is that the very person will be seen by the future as someone who set a precedence. A precedence that may be looked upon as a classical example of social liberation.

Conservative living is like a capsule that we only bother to consume, not bothering to know what are the ingredients. The only difference is that while a capsule more often than not has a positive effect on the body, this capsule called conservativeness is a slow poison and a self inflicted incurable disease...

This apart, there s something that s always common in almost every family reunion. A discussion on the nuptial guys and gals in the family as little bit of match making goes on..It was no different past weekend when My second cousin was interested in knowing from my Aunty if I would be ready for marriage and was bent upon getting me into a nuptial knot with his maternal uncle's daughter. He was supporting his stand suggesting that well settled guys are getting married early these days and it would not be a bad time for me to get married...It s not the first time that this girl s name has been taken by my distant relatives as a prospective alliance for me. This time though, My Aunt seemed to show some interest in it and was asking if they would wait for a few more years.. It baffled me and through me off guard.. It s not even taking hours to decide upon marriages these days..I was clear on my stand of having no idea of even thinking about a marriage in the near future. Uff, I have already grown sick of the whole concept of horoscopes, match making etc etc and the days ahead are probably gonne be tougher as I grow old :-)

Hilarious !!!!

2006-07-24T12:52:00.000+05:30

Winners of the "I Look Like My Dog" Contest

courtesy: stumbleupon.com

Dormant to Terror !!!

2006-07-19T11:20:00.000+05:30

Sounds of Horror they are
Scenes of Panic they are
Times of Distress they are
Periods of frustration they are

Hard it is to digest
Weird it is to digest

Killing of Mankind
Weeping of Mankind
Mourning of Mankind

Threaten they do the terrorists
Act they dont on the terrorists

How long we lived it is indelible
How long we ll live it is inscrutable

Temporize do We, exihibiting timidity
Rise dont We, inhibiting audacity

Yell we do at the gun men
yell we should at the top men

Spirited are we to rise to normalcy
Spirited not to fight the cowardly

Parlance they give to the world
nonchalance they show to the people

Patience we lose in being patient
Tensions we gain in being patient

May the day arise,
When independence shall not just be spelled
But shall also be felt

Reluctant Worker and the Enthusiastic dreamer !!!

2006-07-17T15:32:00.000+05:30

As the world around her travels,
Her world still sleeps

As the world around her works,
Her world's getting over blues

Castles are built in our dreams
flyovers are built in her dreams

Dream she does, not just at home
No wonder she's seeking work from home

Shuttle is always early for her
late is she always for the shuttle

fan of the dorm
dorm is the second home...

Rest is she always bereft of
"Rest" is she always depressed of

Inspiration !!!

2006-07-17T11:42:00.000+05:30

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?" The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

This story teaches two lessons:

1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.

2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them.

Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross your path. The power of words... it is sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way. Anyone can speak words that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in difficult times. Special is the individual who will take the time to encourage another.

Flyovers...

2006-07-14T10:36:00.000+05:30

Not certainly a plane that helps us fly
But most certainly is it called a fly over

Strive We do for as many of it
thrive we cant with as few of it

Stand do they symbolising Indian infrastructure
banned are they until opened by Indian chief minister

Decades we take to design one
Generations we take to construct one

They are what we wanted for eternity
they are what we get in senility

Legacy they are to our grandchildren
legacy they are we failed to inherit

[This poem s dedicated to Bangalore city and it s patient Junta]

Frustration quotient !!!

2006-07-13T16:53:00.000+05:30

Now this is how the tenure of a techie in any damn comp ends :-)

One last mail to trusted frnz/colleagues goes this way:

Hey all,

It gives me great relief to flee from this Project at xxx where I have wasted the last n years loitering on this project. I sincerely want to express my deep unexpressed feelings (hatred, disgust, rancor, frustration, malice..) towards my PM whose useless suggestions, ignorance, and continual cribbing has given this project its current distorted shape. Every long and vague discussions with him had left me more confused shattering my fragile fundamentals. I will also like to extend my disgust to those who have unnecessarily showed undue interest in this project by poking their noses and hammering suggestions in areas which did not in any way concern them. Their destructive criticism and sardonic and superfluous remarks coupled with shabby grammar are greatly depreciated. Lastly I would like to thank all my friends for helping me to endure through this catastrophe. Do keep in touch guys!

Worst Regards,
A battered Team Member Soul

Copying this for usage elsewhere is strictly discouraged/prohibited !!!

Thats creativity at it's best !!!

2006-07-11T16:05:00.000+05:30

This AD for a sleeping pill(Man dozing off while setting the alarm) won an award at Cannes Ad fest :-)

The Early morning conundrum !!!!

2006-07-10T11:18:00.000+05:30

Over these past few days, An algorithm to decide upon how to commute to office seems to run on my mind just as i get off the bed....No wonder, possessing a bike s driven me all the more slothful...Add to that the kind of frenzy that the soccer world cup seems to have stirred, I dont see myself hitting the sack before 1 o clock and that s the last thin that i would hav wanted to do in order to take the only office shuttle at 7.45 am in the morning.....

Now, wat s the problem in opting out of the shuttle service and deciding upon going by bike??? Not many, but there are a few gud enough reasons to refrain from commuting by bike..

Firstly, it s got to be the reluctance towards going through the pain of driving through the highly congested/ jam prone roads of bangalore city...With evey place seeming doubly farther than it actually is(thanks to the traffic jams and the resulting time loss), more and more people are thinking on the lines of either shifting to houses closer to office or atleast commute by office shuttle, which allows them to dilute the pain of jams by browsing through pages of their favourite books or by getting absorbed in the music of their choice, as a driver(shuttle) bears the brunt for having chosen a profession that sucks big time in Bangalore...

Be it Suchi of Radio mirchi fame in chennai or Vasanthi of Radio city in blr, their immense popularity is in no less way related to early morning jams across these cities..

I realised the biggest pain on account of traffic jam last week, when I rode home after having worked out heavily inthe Gym and the night turned out to be a nightmare to me...My knees failed to respond...My eyes were drooping....My back was inflexible and head was giddy....Cant attribute anything but the 1 hr drive from office as the foremost reason behind these aches.....

Secondly, Bangalore is a kind of city where it starts pouring cats and dogs from no where. Over these 3 years of mystay in Bangalore, I had realised that it doesnt necessarily need to be monsoon time to see rain in bangalore.Rain triggers total fiasco on the roads...My colleagues say they hav experienced 3 hour journeys from office on rainy days.Rain makes it even more difficult to ride a bike...Biting time by being inside the shuttle is anyday better than having to maneuver a bike on these water clogged roads...
It reminds me of the very funny thing that one of my ex colleagues used to do...He used to commute by bike to office.The time he used to leave office was neither governed by work in office nor by his personal commitments back home,but by his self assessment of the clouds at around 5'o clock in the evening..Over the years, he had probably acquired a very special talent of predicting the possibility of rains to precision, just by looking at the clouds. No wonder I am missing the services of such a Gentleman here :-)

Thirdly, Bangalore traffic may soon earn a dubious reputation of bettering the temperament of bangaloreans, just by having them toil hard on the road, highly watchful of the vehicles around and completely absorbed in the world of driving for hours together until reaching the destination....There have been countless occasions when My feet hav been so close to being run over by the adjacent vehicle...This morning, for over 20 minutes as I was crawling through a traffic plagued area in first gear, the"dupatta" of the female driving next to me was brushing my knees atleast a couple of times..That s how close are the vehicles near by....People here are craving for space, but the rate at which the human/vehicle density is growing, even breathing space seems unlikely in years to come :-)...

One of the most pleasant places to live in the whole of India is turning into a living hell...Climate s probably the onlything that s holding back the people here...If that were to change, I would not be here to write one more blog on this once lovely place called Bangalore !!!

Destiny brings them together !!!

2006-07-05T11:50:00.000+05:30

Frndship can happen anywhere, anytime....This blog is dedicated to those 5 frnz of mine who hav become my frnz purely by virtue of having the same destiny as I- meeting/bumping into each other by sheer coincidence...

If My joblessness just after my final semester Engineering exams brought a frnd, my joblessness after quitting my first job, brought another.....I shall never regret for having wiled out time during these 2 phases, for it gave me a few memories to cherish, to blog and may b script a novel sometime in the future...Now, dont b surprised at that wish...Wat u r about to read is as dramatic as a novel, as exhillarating as any movie and as interesting as our own life :-)

That all of this happened post college has definitely made me convinced that I hav left college for the gud :-)

Now....I require immesurable time to write on each of these events that led to making a new friend, building a new relationship and sustaining it....Time being a huge constraint, I am putting off the start of this topic to the next blog....

Keep visitin, cozzzz this one in all likelihood will be my best blog :-)

The problem of being ME :-)

2006-06-29T10:44:00.000+05:30

Gawd....Cant believe it was sept'2005 when i last wrote a blog...the other 2 posts after tht jus being cut n paste stuff :-)

hav no clue wat pushed me to write after such a long time, but here i am with my first writeup in over 10 months :-).....i Certainly don hav a clue on wat to write......though I hav a gut feeling that my spontaneity will help me get ther...am in a strange quandary here..my heart says there's a lot to write on..but i am only finding myself jus struggle to get on with writin wat shud also b a gud read not jus for me but for the rest who r readin it....is that me who s struggling for topic/words to write?? gawd...i cant allow this to happen...so here goes the writeup

I hav been thru a huge transition over these past 10 months and the most important of all of them is the fact that I am not typing this from inside the Cisco development centre in Infosys...First job change is as special as the first job....wat to expect and wat not to expect ?? new companions, new boss.....was extremely circumspect abt all this...but therein lies the exposure and no doubt it helps me mature as a professional....

With no element of doubt, I can say it s been a very smooth transition...hardly felt the pinch of working for a new organization and I ve thoroughly enjoyed these few months in my new organization.....My love for Computer Networks has grown by leaps and bounds and the work here is demanding enough to hav me go thru books, config guides, manuals and wat not...Now that s a total shift from how it was in infy, where my reading was more out of interest than out of purpose :-)......

The job hunt phase was so intense. loads of calls, umpteen interviews happened over a period of 20-30 days...yeah, that was all that it took......i still cant believe that one Monday when i took four interviews on a single day, apart from contributing a li'll to work in office :-)...Now that s serious lack of dedication if one may call it that way, but that s the way this generation behaves..Loyalty is not human but a dog s job :-)
Not sure if tat was a record of any sort for most interviews by any person on a given day :-)...but, such was the intensity of the job search....Consultants/comps kept pestering me with calls and I had realised that I had come too far that my stint in Infy was soon gonna end....After 5 offers, 25 days of monumental effort in taking interviews(not sure if i ever realised the advantage of hands free as much as i would hav during the course of these interviews..i was certainly craving for one), the day had come....Ater repeated persuasions from managers, the unyielding guy that I am managed to make them yield to my request, the promise of immediate onsite to london/US notwithstanding... :-)....Quality of work and the supremacy of the company mattered most to me than a trip that gives me money and nothin else...Not that Money is unimportant, but I can get it anytime....Moreover, I wasnt leaving for peanuts either :-)

More than any1 else, the person whom i found the toughest to convince was my Mom..For a layman/every Indian parent, Infy s up ther in their mind as a demi god among companies :-)...To my Mom, leaving it was nothin less than a fatal mistake and she would for no reason digest my decision to relinquish a trip to california sometime this year...but, bein the sort of guy that i am, i never really cared for these tools of motivation called onsite...I would rather wait for a trip on purpose(may it take longer time) in my new comp :-)

Now....that's not the only transition....My mind has gone thru a transition too....After close to 2 1/2 years, I started thinking seriously about wat I intended to do in my final year of Engineering...I had locked my passion for MBA in one corner of my heart and never gave it a chance to haunt me for over 2.5 years...but, these past few months hav been tough....those dark days of failure in 2003 flashed in my dreams;Those days when i messed up CAT and blew up the chance of getting into xlri in the interview and was in a total disarray wondering wat next....

Infy was an alternative to feel secure...but, little did I know then that Infy would not be a stopgap phase, but a career shaping phase......

After years of work in IT, I have managed to surprise myself with the kind of passion and expertise that I have in the field of networks....somethin that I would have laughed off as a big joke, if someone had asked me about making a career in Networking some 3 years bak :-)

Wat I do, Where I work are all factors that are firmly taking me away from a passion that I had cherished for 10 years.....In comparison...A experience that s lasted these past 3 yrs can easily be superimposed by an ambition that s lived in my heart for over 10 years??? Thats a trillion dollar question that am tryin to answer every day,night,dream and wat not......

After all, life s never devoid of trade offs.....Ones who havent realised it r fewer !!

Wat hasnt changed is the significance that the phrase below has in my life....this was somethin that i told one of my buddies spontaneously and was just bemused at how precisely I had described my own life :-)

It goes this way.."wat i am is somethin i didnt want 2 b and wat i wanted to b is somethin that i am not"......................It has to b seen for how long this phrase is gonna b applicable..May b for life?? or may be not ??? :-)

Officially unofficial !!!!!!!!!

2005-09-26T18:44:00.000+05:30

Last night, a discussion about "Ways to converse" in Corporate circles popped up as I was chatting with My roomies and believe me, It was such an intense argument that each of us shared our frustration about the Medium of communication in corporate circles. I didn't have much to say on this because I was totally alien to the the kind of experiences that My roomies were sharing last night.

The discussion kicked off when We discussing about the prospects of one other Guy joining us in our house. That he was a malyali, made one of my roomies feel that he might feel alienated in a house where all of us speak Tamil. I raised a counter argument suggesting that it might not be a problem as all of us were courteous enough to converse in English if at all we have someone who does not understand the language amongst us.

This immediately prompted one of roomies to go blah blah over his experiences off late with a few of his team guys who were just not sensible enough to converse in English when he was amongst them.
[None apart from me knows Hindi in my House]
He was so emotionally conveying how much he had come to detest this senseless approach of a few guys around him. That they had conversed in Hindi even in team meetings was the height of ignorance. It was then that my other roomies also started echoing their views on this. I for some reason had never had a problem while conversing with my team guys. I feel Hindi has allowed me to get more close with the guys around, but it's fine until it's inside those demarcations that make a cube, provided every1 in the cube understands the language. I was shocked to hear from one other roomie that he was time and again being spoken to in Hindi, by people onsite in his team, irrespective of his conveying that he did not follow the language.
I was prompted to think that Hindi was being used as a cover up by people, who had started finding solace in Hindi, to hide their shortcomings in conversing in English. For all the emphasis and trumpet blowing that software companies do about the significance of English speaking skills, they were not managing to achieve that at all. These incidents are standing examples for this.
There have also been incidents where people get so used to conversing just in Hindi that they end up using one too many Hindi words while talking to the Client. That indeed sends a bad signal about the individual, the company and the future of that project's continuation in the company is at stake . It might seem a silly issue, but I guess it is of extreme significance in a world where one slip can cause a huge pit fall.
So much fuss is made about Interpersonal skills, cross cultural skills and wat not during the entire course of one's stint in a software company. All for nothing?? I guess not many have learnt their lessons !!!!!!!!!! It's high time that companies had a serious rethink over this issue and bring about certain measures that will curb people from being unofficial in official circles :-)

Tourists of the Home land !!!!!!!

2005-09-16T16:56:00.000+05:30

Such was the awe with which We were gazing at the beauty of our own campus today.

Infosys campus here is one of those biggest campuses around and it would never be required for one to travel from corner to other. Being in the same building that had ATM'S, Travels, Accounts, Finance and Food court next to the building, there has hardly been a necessity to go down to the other end of the campus, where a lot of developments were happening of late.

Today, I for some reason felt like going over to a new Food court at the other side that was started just a few months back and My colleagues accepted it momentarily.
Thus, We strolled towards the new food court there. On our way, My tech lead talked of seeing a stall in open space in that area, some time back, where people were having coffee. One of us had replied It was the CCD. My lead very shockingly replied "What has the CCD(Computer communication department of Infy) got to do with coffee." Well, Didn't his reply trigger a spontaneous outburst of Laughter, that took a while to stop. The reason was that CCD that we referred was "Cafe Coffee day". Yeah, That's the way we call it here....

A small deviation in here. I must say about my coffee drinking habit here. For a person who never touched Coffee for 20 yrs since birth, Coffee is now a part of day to day life. Yeah, Thanks to My team guys, I changed myself(still not sure whether for the Gud or Bad). Invariably,on most days, the lunch ends with a cup of Cappuccino( at the CCD stall closer to our building). We had even become such distinguished customers there that the sales Guy there used to provide me Cappuccino with Honey at no extra cost. I for sure was having a nice time.

Back to the topic on which this article is centered, We had reached the new food court. The variety of dishes in the thali was nothing different from what most of the other food courts serve. But, the quality of the dishes remained to be seen. The restaurant had a very unique architecture and semblance and I was told that it was a revolving Restaurant. Meaning, the roof can actually revolve. There were a series of steel girders and pillars erected from the ground to support the roof. It was not functional atleast for now. I am not sure if they are surely gonna make it a reality in the future. If that be the case, it will be yet another feather on the cap of Infosys, the tourist destination. It already is a place that's becoming a must see for all those visiting Bangalore. Surprisingly, The Development centre in Mysore is even better. It surely is a living heaven. Just wondering, if this is any trick for Employee retention, thereby lessening the Attrition :-) (Attrition is quite a strong word in corporate circles. There is a school of thought that firmly believes that the Quality of a company is not made up it's client base or quality of products, but by the Attrition ratio that prevails there.)

The Food fortunately was tastier and We found it much better than what we have been consuming for months now. At the back of our mind, We certainly knew that this was just an ephemeral delectation. Its such a common phenomenon when staying away from home. No food satiates our taste/Requirements in the longer run :-). The biryani was just too gud. My liking for Papads is so much that some 100 guys like me can actually empty the papads for the day in all the food courts. Though, I would initially bring that many papads, it will not even remain for a few seconds on my plate after I take it to the table. My colleagues will feed on most of them, leaving very few for me. That they don't even care to take papads, hoping that I will bring as many, is enuf evidence to how big a papad crisis I would be creating for all those hapless ones having late lunch :-):-). The sweet was "semiya payasam" and a few raised eyebrows over calling everything payasam down south and called that vermicelli. I was quick to add that it was "Payasam made of vermicelli". I had to convince them that Payasam was just a generic term and there are a variety of dimensions to the same dish based on it's ingredients. What prompted this question from one of my colleagues was that a sweet in liquid form was served yesterday as Onam special dish and was termed "Payasam". That today's vermicelli sweet(as he called it) was more of a semi solid paste caused aspersions over what is the true form of Payasam. Hmm, Now, I am confused too. what should be the true form?? To me whatever be it, it's just fine until it tastes good.

But, What we liked most about this Restaurant was that it was not one of those congested food courts of Infy. It was a food court devoid of queues and space constraint. And it had far more sophisticated tables and chairs, resembling the ones at posh Restaurants in heart of the city. We left the food court after having food, quite satisfied with the overall experience. Then, our attention diverted towards the basement of the same building. From outside, it looked like as though it was a sophisticated version of a tunnel, probably leading to Infy's BPO office 10kms away :-). We decided to explore it further. After all, We knew it would take months for us to come through that side anytime again :-). The Basement had a series of shop like demarcations. Airtel office, ICICI bank, Hair n beauty care saloon, all being part of it. The Beauty saloon is one of the latest additions to Infosys havens. The parlor was open and none in there except for a house keeping staff. We just peeped in to see what was all in there, in the parlor. Just as we were gazing at the interiors and equipments there, the house keeping lady told us, the parlor was a ladies one . Gawddd, Thank God nobody noticed us there. The parlor actually did have a board stating it was for Women, which we had overlooked. We were still having a college like experience in corporate :-).

After we got out of that, a huge Pyramid shaped building attracted our attention. It was the Infosys media centre. It had a small waterbed on both sides of the pathway leading to the entrance of the building. Water was seeping through small pores on the walls of the water bed to a gutter below, giving a feel of walking through a small time cascade on both sides. The Media centre was again empty except for a security Guy. The way we were gazing at it was such that the security guy came and told us that outsiders were not supposed to enter into the building :-). A strange question to a group of guys, among whom none was less than 2 yrs old in the company. But, that s the way we went about our exploration :-).

Our next destination was the CCD that I talked off in the beginning. Just like any other day, this day cannot end without a cup of coffee. It was just that it was a different CCD centre inside the campus. The seating arrangement here again was quite similar to the CCD's anywhere in blr city. The place was also a free smoking zone and it was just the right place for people who smoked. We could also spot a lot of chinkees there. A few new Foreign beauties just for a change, as compared to those that We get to see every other day ;) .

Thereafter, We proceeded towards our building to continue with the days' work and had realized that the walk worked out to be a gud work out in the end.

Thus came to an end, a lunch break that lasted close to 2 hours, and one that could cost Infy a few dollars in it's billing amount, ofcourse if we were to record it in our status reports. After all, there is a provision for it :-)

Unlike me !!!!!!

2005-09-06T17:08:00.000+05:30

Tired of being an Extrovert:

I am growing tired of having been an extrovert for years. Had spent years with a reputation/criticism(from a few) for being as much loquacious as I have been.

I have begun to suspect my own abilities to sound serious when It requires me to be serious. Over these past few years I ve only been finding myself get serious for wrong reasons and ridiculous squabbles over trivial issues. But, this is not the seriousness that I enjoy. I wish to possess the kind of seriousness that would command respect from the rest of the crowd that moves along with me. I can understand, I might not find people mingling with me as much in this avatar, if it were to happen. But, I really see myself to enjoy it.

By doing this, I am only gonna give time for myself. Friends, fun and masti will just be part of life, but will not be a compulsion, as the case has been over the past few years.

This wish comes out of a desire to see people around me relate me to those serious,sincere and dedicated characters. The way things are going now, I will always be one to have fun with or crack jokes with. But, I ll never sound or seem an intellect that I wish to become. I need silence and a "live for oneself" attitude to see myself conquering the heights of intellectuality in whatever I speak,do or write.

I wanna start listening to people's views, for which I had hardly given time with my urge to keep talking and the exceptionally fast language.

I want to extract wisdom from the rest of the crowd.

I want my observation sense to be sharpened. Silence will help it in no lesser way.

I want to give a break to people who have found difficulties in conversing or rather listening to a monologue from me.

I wanna spread humour and not originate it.

I wanna spend time reading/writing and not talking. I ve done enough of the latter that I have started to realize the true essence of the former.

I want shock the people I know with my new found obsession for silence and an introvert behavior.

I want people to take my views with as much seriousness as it shud be rather than being laughed off as being just another hilarious comment.

I wanna be a less taxing influence on people whom/whose views I wish to get changed.

I wish to accept people as they are and allow them to mould me, rather than being an influential force in causing transformations in them.

The above is just a wishlist !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WISH I COULD ACHIEVE THAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I decide to pen down the last line for this strange wishlist, It seems all too hypothetical and impossible to me. I guess I will only keep wishing all this to happen throughout my life. I really don't see myself getting there :-):-)

Bandipur part - II

2005-09-05T16:04:00.000+05:30

Just outside Bangalore, the Tempo stopped for fuelling the tank. Just as that was happening, We noticed a two wheeler's tyre getting burst, while pumping air into the tyres. The boy who pumped the air went pale. But, to his shock and to a greater extent our's too, the owner of the vehicle spoke not a word to the boy and silently pushed off considering the incident as just another accident. I am not sure how many of us would have done that. Atleast, I would have unleashed my anger on that boy and torn him into pieces. But, the damage had been done. No use in cribbing about it. The repair had to be done. The Two wheeler rider's attitude surprised me. But, I thought he was only giving himself enuf time to get the tyre changed. An argument with the bunk guys would have only caused further delay !!!!!!!! Even a person passing by on the road can teach us a lesson or two :-)

More funny was the desription given by one of my team members when he went on to categorize the boy as an "Amateur air filler". Sounds really funny. aint it??:-)

The tempo Moved on. Swades movie songs were playing. Until then, We never realised that We had not consumed anything for Break fast. We slowly started to feel the pinch though. The only thing that we could feed on was the biscuit packet that was kept for the child. It would sound strange and clumsy. But, We knew we'll soon come across a gud restaurant and we can get as many biscuit packets from there. But, for the moment we had to satiate our Hunger with biscuits. We wanted to have food at a lovely restaurant on Blr-Mys highway called "Kamat Lokurchi". This place is just after the famous "Ramghad" village of sholay fame. That was the place were a major part of the film was shot.

Some 1 hour later, We reached the restaurant. It was a lovely place to be in. The costumes worn by the waiters, The ambience of the restaurant and the type of dishes served..... We could feel the nativity that is truly characteristic of this part of the country, in all of them.

2 hours later, We had just gone past Mysore. Mysore is a place that will remain very close to my heart, for, that was the place where I spent the first four months of my career as a software professional. I can't resist sayin "Those were days........." whenever I am reminded of this wonderful city. But thats not the topic here. So, am moving on.

Just as we came closer to Bandipur, We found a subtle change in the climate and it was getting cloudy and the threat of rain was looming large. That would be the worst thing to happen when one goes for a wildlife safari. But, the climate was as pleasant as it gets. The resort we had booked was another 3 kms from the entry point for the sanctuary. Lots and lots of deers on the way .....and the serene location was a photographer's delight. The restaurant in the resort was kept open just for us. So, soon after check in, We proceeded towards the Restaurant. The food was simple and delicious too ..Not surprising this, After all We were paying a huge sum for our stay :-)

The next thing that caught our attention was the Swimming pool. Due to time constraint, We decided to suspend our decision to swim for the time being. After a quick walk around the picturesque resort, We moved on for the Jungle Safari. The type of vehicle chosen was the kind of vehicle that would allow us to move around inside the vehicle and give enuf room for videos and photography.

Just as we entered the forest, I could smell the unique fragrance/smell of a variety of rare flora that could hardly be seen outside. Most often, the focus in any Jungle safari is so much biased towards fauna that We tend to overlook the rich flora that we come across. The climate was really pleasant and cold and that made me enjoy the flora all the more. I might not be the right guy to be commenting on the kind of flora that I came across, but I am quite sure that I did come across a rare breed of them, that I ve never seen before in my life. The safari had lasted for 2 hours. It was a bumpy ride throughout that took us quite deep inside the forest and back out of it. Wild buffaloes, Deers, sambars, Wild squirrels, Kingfishers, peacocks were all over the place.But, the worry that we could not meet an Elephant or a Tiger loomed large in our minds. Considering the fact that the sanctuary boasts of 8500 Elephants, We sure must have been the hapless ones to have not seen an Elephant during the safari. But, overall the safari was a thoroughly enjoyable one. It was all the more enjoyable as I was visiting a forest as dense as that for the very first time.

The moment we were back, We set out to swim. It did seem a li'll crazy to us to be swimmming at 6.30 pm in that cold weather. We kept swimming for close to an hour and Gawd !!!!! Wasn't it getting reallly cold as time passed. It got cold enuf for us to decide against swimming further at 7.30 Pm. We changed over and followed it up with a display of our TT skills. TT needs some special mention here. For a person who had hardly touched TT bats before, I had come a long way in playing tt after joining Infy.

I can't forget my first time experience with TT during my 10th std, when I claimed to be knowing to play TT to my house captain(despite the fact that I had never touched it before :-) ) . Wat followed was a disastrous loss in my first doubles match to an average team. Wat was more disastrous was that We failed to score a point. That my house captain, who partnered me was a champion player, made me the sole culprit for the loss (which I was). My house captain was my big bro's classmate and forgave me for his sake . It s always a nice thing to have a few of u'r folks among the seniors in any institution :-)

But, post Infosys, My TT has got really better. I see myself as an aka Sania Mirza with TT. My winners will be as gud as it gets , but my unforced errors are a disgrace to even a person who plays against :-)

Just as TT started to tire us out, We proceeded for the camp fire. can't ask for more in a cold climate like that. We had a variety of cameras ranging from the lower end ones to the most sophisticated ones. So, it was time for every1 to put their cameras to test, as they tried capturing photographs of the camp fire.

Next to us was another group of foreigners seated, enjoying their campfire. As if to disprove one of my team member's comment "Bandipur mein bandhi hee nahee hai", We did have a few lovely looking grls in that group :-)

The campfire proceeded with lots of jokes and pranks among ourselves. It was time for dinner. We had taken our food items outside and started to have food around the campfire itself. Just as that was happening, Myself and Akash(One other team member) put forth our intentions of waking up early in the morning at 4 o clock and travel down the ooty main road, in tempo, in search of the wild elephants. After all, wat s a wildlife experience without a wild risk :-). People were supportive of the idea, but at the same time were also circumspect about it.

We enquired the Resort Manager and he sounded quite comfortable with the idea and lastly added in a very casual way(as if it was no isssue) that "Please dont press horn and shout inside the tempo or ride past the elephants if u come across any on the highway". I asked him why???? His reply left us pale " Well it's just that the elephants dont like that and might chase u down" Gawd, I was shocked and so were the rest of the guys in the team. He has told such a big thing with absolutely no signs of warning at all. After all, He is no stranger to this part of the country and for him, it is nothing adventurous. But for us, It surely was an adventure that We had never tried before. The next question that popped out from us was what was the likelihood of coming across elephants. He replied in a typically Malyali accent "Elephants are happy now(HeHeHe, I suppose u got the underlying meaning of this very polished statement) . They sure will come down to the highway. "

I was prepared to bite the bullet and made sure that every1 else was ready too. I had put a word to our Tempo driver also about it. Just as decided to bid Gud night for each other, in came another suggestion from the Resort manager asking why were we planning for 4 o clock in the morning. Late night would also be just as much the right time as early morning. Suddenly, People started thinking of going for it that night itself, that would atleast give us a break from waking up early on the next day morning. We immediately fixed our plan and decided to go out that night. Before that, My Pm wanted me to be doubly sure about the Driver's confidence level. When I approached our Driver, he, with a cigar in his mouth, replied in a slightly offhand and superiorly confident manner "Haan haan patha hai, haathi aathi hai, tho kyaaaaaaa???" That was a confident enuf answer for us. So, thus we set out for our wildest experience on the trip yet......But, U guys keep waiting for more updates :-)

A Weekend to Cherish !!!!!!!!!!

2005-08-30T23:00:00.000+05:30

I was just back from what's probably the first time, I had gone for an outing(not a party. Parties have been many though) with my Project members. Courtesy a very generous client :-). For long, We had been lamenting over the fact that We could never utilize the amount that our client kept sanctioning for project
parties. Off late, the worry was even more!!!!!!The client had recently approved of 2 project parties/outing per quarter. Though, our initial reaction to this was joyful, the very next moment, what struck us was how We were gonna make it. Because, every time We planned a trip, one of us would always have some engagements and will not be complying with the date suggested.

The responsibility of fixing up dates had always been entrusted on me by my team. Just as I was planning for a Dinner at Le Meridien, I was suggested by my PM that an outing would be a better option. We had spent enuf project parties in Restaurants having food. Why not something special this time. The idea was pretty much welcome. But, wat about the dates?? I had my own suspicions on whether an outing for a Weekend was feasible. But, I was to be wrong this time around. We did manage to fix up a weekend for that. The first time ever that it happened, since the day I got into this project. Andddd, the date was 27-28 of August. The place we chose was BANDIPUR.

There were 3 weeks left for that weekend when we unanimously decided on that Weekend. That gave us time to plan the trip well. I got in touch with a few Resorts and browsed quite a few sites assessing the pros and cons of each of these. That being a long weekend(Friday,26th aug being a holiday for a lot of people), the rush was huge. But, We did manage to get a few rooms booked in a resort called "Tusker trails". A tempo traveler had also been arranged for the same. The best part of this trip was that 3 out of the 9 members, part of the project were joining with their wives, with one of them having a kid, who's just over a year old.

It was a day before the journey(i.e 26th August), the travel plan had been conveyed to everyone. The Cab was supposed to leave from one of my team member's place at 6.30 AM. All of us had got back and were up early in the morning at 5-5.30, hoping to leave by 6.30.

But, that was not to be the case. We were waiting anxiously at our respective residences for the Cab. It was 6.50 and there were no signs of the Cab. I got in touch with the person who was supposed to board first, only to be informed that the Cab had not started from his place itself. Soon after, one other team member had called from Mysore junction to inform his arrival there. He was supposed to board the Cab from there. I pitied him, for the simple fact that, I knew that he would have to wait for atleast 30 more mins, even if I was to assume that I ll be taking the Cab in 5 minutes. But, what I didnt know then was that, the person who had to board first by himself would have to wait for an hour to board it. I was at the height of desperation. All my attempts at calling the travels went in vain as the travels guy was not picking up the call. Finally he did, and gave over the contact number of the driver. Just as I was beginning to get relieved, much to my distress, I found that the driver's mobile was switched off. That was like adding salt to the wound called frustration. After 10 mins, the Driver's mobile was ringing and I was given the information that He would reach the pick up spot in 10 more mins. At 7.30, the Cab started from the first pick up spot. It was 7.35 when I boarded it. By then, My PM had also boarded the Cab. Along with him was his wife and the person who boarded the Cab first.

Our next stop was at a posh Apartments in Jp Nagar. The first thing that one will get to see in that area is the number of Apartments there. There is a whole cloud of Apartments around that place. But, the road leading to that Apartment had one too many pothole to feel comfortable. After a bumpy ride for 5 mins, We reached the Apartments. Two team members with their families and one other colleague were supposed to board there. Just as We were supposed to leave from that place,I suddenly realised that We had forgotten to pick up one other person from a place just before mine. So, that meant travelling back for another 5 kms. All this while, I kept receiving messages and calls from the Guy who was waiting at a place 30 minutes away, at Mysore Road Junction. This time though, He was giving a gud news that one other team member has joined him. We were happy that atleast he is having some company to keep him engaged. Watching the traffic pass through, for hours will be highly agonising.

After picking up the one person We missed, The Cab headed towards Bandipur. On our way We picked up the two guys at the Mysore Road junction. It was around 9.00 Am when that happened. When one of those two said that they were in for some interrogation from a few cops who saw them standing at one place for a long time, We could not help control our laughter. The two guys were spirited enuf to take them with a light heart.

Thus started, our Journey towards Breathtaking Bandipur, A forest dense enuf to help a Brigand rule the forest for close to 20 years :-)...................

No doubt, We were heading towards Bandipur as frustrated souls. It had to be seen if the trip has enuf in store to make us forget the awful morning. Believe me, It did have all the ingredients that would make any trip a lovable,cherishable and enjoyable one.

Keep Visiting http://whizkid81.blogspot.com/ for the remaining and the most interesting part of the story........... Our stay at Bandipur