The Great Indian Middle class !!!

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 !!

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 !!!

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"

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

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 !!!

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 !!!

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 !!

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 !!

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 !!!

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 !!

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 !!

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

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

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

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

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 !!

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

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

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 !!!

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 ??

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 :-)