Occlumens Chronicle

Half Past Four is the Time :)

2011-10-26T16:34:00.000+05:30

Half filled Sudokus
Half written stories
Lost thoughts
Half hearted Okays
Half eaten chocolates

I used to hate them once upon a time. But life, as it happens to be the most tolerant teacher EVER, time and again, teaches me one of its most valuable lessons - this time to appreciate the beauty of incompletion, which has some scope to lead to perfection. (Exception - Chocolates of course! It's either all or nothing!) And that's a disclaimer. Who would want mere incompletion ?

A world full of perfectionists, theories and idealism would have been a great place to live in! However, familiarity would slowly breed the obvious - contempt. And again, the world would have sucked, as it does now. So what is the point?

That's one part of it. Starting from the scratch to build what you perceive to be a perfect world around you is a feat in itself. But to untangle the existing mess and build your perfect world takes a lot of virtues, most of which a Homo sapien can trade off with some other creature for good riddance.

Take that half-filled Sudoku which turned out to be a sour-grape for instance. The visible incorrigible mess is too much to take. The invisible sour-grape mindset is even worse! Any whirlwind that you have been caught into, is as good as this half-filled Sudoku. Take it or not! Nothing can beat the pleasure of giving this world an evil, wicked grin once you sort out the debris yourself. After all, I cannot think of a more polite way to show the finger to whatever put you into the whirlwind for whatsoever reasons.

So the next time you see a half-filled Sudoku, smile.. For the evil grin is just a mile away :)

P.S. : I thought I can make a short story with some anonymous Superpower telling a tale to convey this (You know, the Paulo Coelho way). But then, Superpowers are not the only ones who are bestowed with the rights to convey messages. Are they ?

P.P.S. : 3 months of blogger's block and Whoosh!! Blogspot throws a different interface that *obviously* looks like WP packed into G+ ! Neat! Ha! Everything happens for a reason, as always :)

P.P.P.S : If the post looks incomplete, don't bother. It's still not time for me to let out an evil grin ;)

Opinions

2011-08-01T15:46:00.003+05:30

There is something and few variants of it that people must know. It would make the world a much better place to live in.

1) A ==> B:
One's opinions are quite precious (atleast to oneself!) . So do not go about telling it to each and everyone unless it is absolutely necessary (which roughly translates to when you are really really asked for them).

2) !B ==> !A :
Keep giving your opinions over and over, and wait.. did I say valuable ?? Not anymore!

3) A==>B DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN B==>A :
Just because you were successful in keeping your opinions to yourselves doesn't mean it is precious or worth considering in the first place.

Simple logic is all it takes!!

*P*E*A*C*E****O*U*T*

The Grand Comeback :P

2011-07-17T16:30:00.004+05:30

Ok fine! The Super star is back.(2.0 as many of his ardent fans claim) Rana shooting will resume in a few days. And all of us will eventually go to any extents to get the first day first show tickets to watch this man perform his magic again . Hypes! Hooplas!! Hypes! Hooplas! Everywhere... But then..

Before that... Wait! Did I say man? I know I will rot in hell for making such a statement :P Isn't he a phenomenon? Oh! Yes! That he is! If anything, phenomenon would be an understatement. What else can you call someone who has a gamut (in every sense of the word) of people following, adoring, worshiping (and what-not-ing) him ? On one side, there are bomb blasts that question the very building stone of the nation. And down south, there are people who rejoice the comeback of an old man because he fought sickness. Does phenomenon now sound like an understatement ? It better do.

We have all had friends and family who at one point or the other had been sick, whom we care for. Hasn't this man got much more attention than all our kith and kin put together ? The debate is not about whether he deserves so much attention.

Like the existing madness was not enough, the media, as shrewd as it can get, grasps the fact that a vast number of them are spellbound by one man's cast. And whoa!! Here is some news that can increase their TRP ratings by leaps and bounds. One trifle news! Spread the joy and let more people be happy! May the madness spread around.

As much as I am amazed by how one man's recovery (Again man?? What's with me :( ???? ) can bring enormous joy to quite a large number of people, I am pissed off by their stupidity too. No seriously! How many of them were jobless enough ( count the reporters and the black cats out ;) ) to go pay a visit to the airport just to get a glimpse of him ? (Check this page to get an idea) Various temples were flooded with some special prayers for this man. Social Networking is safely out of question. And take a look at the poster below. It is bloody self-explanatory

Phew!! I wish that each and everyone of them realize that the very fact that he is a superstar, does not make him immortal.

I have nothing against Thalaivar. Given that I am also one of his first-day-first-show types fans, it would be sham to claim the opposite. It is just that I fail to see a point when his fans exaggerate his stardom to levels beyond imagination. If at all 'Thalaivar' is that great person, whom we all perceive him to be, he would not see a point either :) *P*E*A*C*E*

I Don't Know! Somebody Enlighten Me!

2011-06-04T12:37:00.000+05:30

Everyone wants a time machine at some point of time in their life. No wonder, LP and CP have a HUGE (that's real huge) fan following. If you did not get the connection, chuck it. The post is not about them anyway!And why would most of them want a time-machine? Oh! Wait! I forgot! To rectify the mistakes of the past, Undo the done, choose what was not chosen, NOT choose what was. Blah! Blah! Blah!

Well! Most of these people want to be somewhere out there in the SIXTH dimension. Elsewhere, doing something else ! Making a wish eh ? Nice! It better be a sensible one(Disclaimer : It was 2011 when I wrote this post :P ) Oh no no! Fantasies are good dear Cinderella Men and Cinderella Women (Uhmm! Why doesn't that sound wierd to me?) . But not always! Seriously if I get a time machine, I wouldn't waste my time in undoing, undoing , undoing things till a point where my life crashes and flashes a blue-screen. Of course life is as screwed as Windows.Wasn't it obvious?

Which puts forth another question - Why exactly would we want to rectify mistakes ? There can be infinite answers to that question. They all boil down to one thing luckily. To have some control on our lives, universe and a few other things AND consequently be happy.

Now the first part - Why would we want to exercise control over everything? What's with this never-ending thirst for power doing in this goal-driven culture? Everyone has power! So I want one too. Isn't it as simple a kid wanting a toy because others have it ? But yea, what we want is a wee bit complicated. Control is an illusion in itself. What looks like being under control might actually sound stupid to the one next to you. Sample this : As a part of exercising this illusion, you keep doing something. One out of the 10 others who see you doing this would definitely sit back, relax and give you a look - a look, that is synonymous with 'I know what you are doing and I know what the consequences will be. But go ahead! Do it yourself and get to know it' on a normal (non-power-thirsty) bright Saturday. Now guess who has the control :P ? Even if no Homo sapien (Duh! For the 99th time Spell Checker, it is not Homo Sapien, it is Homo sapien. Seriously, do you even know taxonomy?) does it, there is another illusion that casts that look on your thirst to an illusion. You know what I mean ;) ! Now again, guess who has the control :P ?

It is, indeed, easier said than done. To resist ourselves from wanting more control, more power and hence some amount of orderliness. What we fail to see is the Superpower's way of killing time. (S)He sees to it that your craving for orderliness, ultimately leads everyone (or a majority) to the exact opposite - chaos. That would never strike us when we are craving for control. Would it? And even if it does, one would never want to admit it or even consider it. Would one? A loud no, plainly because, when you have power, when you have things under control, it gives you some sort of pleasure - a fiendish one if I might add. It's a mind-thing.Why so? Well! Read the title of this post ;)

Letting go!! Going with the wind!!As much as these phrases have a loser touch in them, they are words to live by. Their only shortcoming being, you will never get to know the chaos that you had caused had you disturbed the equilibrium that the universe is already progressing towards. And yes. That would include the havoc that you might have caused by throwing away a pencil with full-fledged anger. Leave alone the butterfly effect. One negative action (heart-ruled people, read emotion) has the power to devastate all the nice little things built by 1000 positive ones. You would never know. Unless someone from a clandestine organisation makes a brilliant invention to perceive the sixth dimension without any difficulty and Dan Brown starts making money out of it :P But trust me, You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. (Or probably, trust Max Ehrmann, for those lines are his)

With all its sham drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Live on. Or rather, be a free spirit. That's the only way to die when you are alive.

Cheers

Sindhu

A Day without Spectacles! I won't Call it a Day

2011-04-11T23:12:00.001+05:30

Ok! Those of you who have seen me in person, might have also noticed that I was never to be seen without my spectacles.(Exception - when there is something steaming hot and if the heat is 'attacking' my specs!). Others - Now you know :) With that forenote, here goes something that I was musing over, over a power failure. Aaahhh... The magic that the absence of Internet and music can do ! For one, it did help a Bangalore-living, excitement-lacking, yet cheerful software engineer (there is a whole lot of them out here ) put on her writing hat AGAIN!

During one of those early days of December, one of my friends asked, "Can you manage without your spectacles?" Positive thinking got the better of my reasoning prowess and I said, "Yea. I can manage to see anything within 5-10 feet without my spectacles." Outright BAD assumption! Here is the fact. I don't know. I have never tried. Until one fine day, I came close to hitting myself on the back of my head and all that was damaged was my spectacles. Quite honestly, I did not realize the worth of my Black Metallica half rimmed specs till then. I wanted a replacement of lens, which would take 24 hours.

Ok. 24 hours without specs. (Conveniently, I had left the spare lens back home). And this is how it went.

It all started at roughly 8 00 P.M. on a Thursday evening.

Hour 1: Tomorrow fully?? I think I can manage.But without a lappie? It's ok. Well! No books too. Ohhh kayyy.. I can still listen to music, talk to my friends or do something like that. It's ok! I think I can manage. Uhm!! Tomorrow is a Friday?? Not a Saturday!?!??!?! Hmph! Err... Office?? How long can I survive staring at the lappie? Lemme try at home.

Hour 2 : Disaster is not the word,even with all the exercises that Auroville taught me. And all these days, I thought I was devoid of tear glands. Where did that bunch of rolling tear like droplets come from? Damn! Was I this hopeless without my specs? I wish I had known this earlier. Can I avoid being in my workplace tomorrow? If so, I can still survive at office. Not possible! I wasn't sure how exactly I could keep myself occupied for a calculated 6-8 hours at office AWAY from my lappie. Fine.. Finish off the next day's work now and then BUNK!! Connect from home :D

Hour 3 : What do I do after bunking office in this booth-bungalow (Yes! My room looks like one!) ? (Read Hour 1 again ;) )

Hour 4 : Take a full look at the room. I can figure out the chair from it's outline. That switchboard at the far corner has 3 switches right? Why does it look like two to me? I was able to figure out that this was four and that this was two and this of course was one (To me all the fingers looked alike :D) from a pretty decent distance. Ok! That's it ! I have had enough for the day. I am retiring to bed.

Hours 5- 11 : Easily spent. Slumberville.

Hours 11-12: A day without specs well started :D Well begun, as they say, is half done. And yes, it was half done. Breakfast and music kept me going.

Hour 12-13 : This was the danger period. May be, I should go to office! Connecting from home doesn't sound like a great idea given the slow Wi-Fi connection here. I still have time to get ready too. The switchboard caught my eye again. Ok! May be it is a bad idea. Office lappie was staring at me now. How difficult can it be after all? May be I should. It was Friday. And you spent one entire hour without specs yesternight to finish off things. So, chuck the idea of going to office, JUST for today. FINE!!!! Lemme just not think about it.

Hour 14 : Drench yourself with some hot water followed by some good meeshic. Shaniyan pudicha playlisht. All you get is a situation song , in ways too many.

I wonder how, I wonder why
Yesterday you told me about the blue blue skies.
And all that I can see
Is just a yellow lemon tree.

Hour 15 : Walk! Given that the road was empty and that Bangalore could never get as hot as Chennai could, hopping around to get some fresh air sounded like a pretty decent option. Never have I appreciated the beauty of my neighborhood (Ok! I went a bit far! But any spot in Blore is still a neighborhood on some relative scale.. Hehe) with my proper FOUR eyes. And now, with just the two of the real ones, it was slightly difficult. I made a note of few places that I must get to see properly (You know what I mean).

Hour 16 : Ok.. Surviving 14 hours without lappie in itself is an achievement in itself for a netizen. So I decided to pat myself on my back by hunting to see what's going on in the office and the world. Uhmmm.. .All it took was a few minutes to figure out that it was a bad idea. My eyes were craving for my spectacles again. Squint! Does it work?? Not really! Rubbing my eyes. No!

Hour 17 : You know what I had figured out by now? When you are deprived of your routine AND your passions, you resort to do something real crazy and lemme tell you - It helps. By my standards, staying calm was something real crazy :D :D Well! So was closing my eyes and scribbling; something in that day's newspaper which turned out to be some spaghetti language and learning French via your smartphone.

Hour 18 : That's it. I am getting my specs back. I don't care even if it means a jobless wait for two hours there.

Hour 19 : That's it. I am getting my specs back. I don't care even if it means a jobless wait for an hour there.

Hour 20 : Words cannot express the 'beam' that my face was wearing when I got my spectacles back! No seriously. Very rarely do we realize the value of trivial things around us. A spare lens would have definitely put me in my routine and i could have just had a pretty normal day. But time and again, everything happens for a reason. If we cannot find one, we might very well fathom one, which I think I just did :)

It's an Adam AND Eve's World

2011-03-08T23:56:00.001+05:30

Well. First things first, the concept of a special day for women, actually bugs me, for the past few years. No seriously! Have you ever observed that people who are totally clueless usually talk like they know everything ? (Obviously enough, to cover up their being clueless). Now don't jump into conclusions. People who know everything also talk like they know everything ;) But back to the point, I think the way we celebrate Women's day off late is synonymous with this observation.

It is really cool that all the women and a few men (that's quite a good number of them) indeed realize how much yester-century's women have toiled to grab a fair chance in everything - right from a trivial freedom to vote to holding positions that require strong will power (That's where the umpteen list starts :) ) And bows to all the strong women who actually made this change possible.

But with the attitudinal shift that has brought about a really significant 'leap' in a woman's emancipation, I guess most of us tend to agree to the fact that a woman can indeed be treated a man's equal (Whether they are actually treated that way, is a question that does not have a clear Yes or No.Not yet at least )

So, with the dawn of 2000, Women's day has become more of a day to celebrate our victories in gaining a louder say in the society, as opposed to being a reminder of our 'escape' from a male-dominated planet, as it once was. But are we doing that right? Aren't we, by proclaiming out loud that we are no more the weaker sex, reminding others that we had once been and also send a notion that we are capable of being one again ;) ? (which is exactly the part that bugs me)

What does every self-proclaimed feminist want from the society, in particular, from the stronger sex? To be treated equally(That expectation in turn sounds kind of weird to me. Why are women even craving for acceptance from everyone around?)And how on earth do they expect to be treated equally when they call a day for themselves and do nothing significant on that day? . And no!! Getting chocolates and fluffy soft toys don't sound really significant to me.

Let's take a second and look at it from a guy's perspective too. Today, a guy is getting used to the fact (Did he really welcome the change? Let's not go there ;) ), that a woman could actually compete with him in anything and even worse, she could prove to be a real tough competition or a better companion -- a fact that might have scared his father. Given that his has been the only race that has been influential in 'most things societal' , since the days of Adam, it must be a real difficult task for him to share that space with someone he had perceived to be weak. And blaming him for something that is heavily influenced by his genes is just lame. Womenfolk, can at the least see to it that they ensure that Adam's great grandsons are actually comfortable sharing that space. And dear Eve's descendant --> chocolates, balloons, toys and flowers, no matter how cute they are, send a wrong notion to women themselves. We seem to conveniently forget something - we have just gained some space in the society. We have to go a long way in retaining it, since deep down, everyone knows that we deserve it. And again, we have just gained some space. It is not even equal space. There are still a bunch of people out there who raise their eyebrows when a woman talks sports, or at times, when they do something that requires common sense (Am not sure which idiot comfortably named talking sense, a guy's thing!!). And it will be a 365 day ordeal to constantly prove ourselves. One March 8, per year will simply not do the magic. And attaching too much importance to treating a woman special, implies that we might simply be the weaker sex that everyone claims us to be.

Which means all those reservations in local trains and the parliament for women,as a starter, must not be there in the first place. (Like my cuz stated on her take on 'eve-ism' here, I am not talking about kickboxing or arm-wrestling either ;) )
which - in turn - means those eyebrow raising rate must be reduced to, well, zero.
which in turn means male chauvinism, sexual discrimination and dinosaurs get to share something in common tomorrow - being extinct :)

Hmmm!! Maybe it is hightime women took exchanging women's day wishes to the next step. Like I said, all that is left is to see to it that tomorrow's youth can actually realize that being equals to one another (who knows, there might be more than 2 genders in the years to come ;) ) is no big deal at all --- a fact that scares their fathers and mothers and others.

-Sindhu

When Was the Last Time You...

2011-02-09T22:49:00.001+05:30

Slept with your spectacles on?
Wrote things in a plain white paper with a real pen? (Since I said plain white, application forms do not count)
Had a hearty laugh?
Cried out loud?
Talked to your best friend in person?
Got to realize that someone indeed remembers your birthday (the non-social-networking-way, needless to say)?
Experienced déjà vu?
Experienced goosebumps?
Felt hopeless?
Were beaming in pride?
Got an adrenaline rush?
Gave a genuine smile to a companion?
Had a sip of hot tea sitting at the end of an open terrace?
Climbed a tree?
Lucid-dreamt?
Survived a full day without cellphone and its apparent benefits?
Were just yourself?
Solved a problem in Math?
Crossed the rails while the train was at your vicinity? (and fast approaching you )
Had pani-puri?
Had a near-death experience?
Held your dad's hand tightly while walking in a crowd?
Were on a roller-coaster?
Bathroom-sang?
Enjoyed a power-cut, the darkness and the little candle flame?
Watched a friend suffer and felt like a cripple for not being able to help?
Danced while no one was watching?
Appreciated the beauty of a safety pin (or anything less trivial or insignificant)?
Made a wish?
Felt a "Phew!! Finally!!" moment?
Helped a stranger?
Opposed something that everyone else agreed to?
Were appreciated by someone whom you respect/value a lot?
Clapped your hands (like a kid)?
Felt embarrassed?
Were happy for a decision that you made?

The point of this post --> Most (if not all) of these do not happen frequently in our lives and given the could-have-been-better-lives that most of us are living, it doesn't hurt to look back once in a while to see that life has indeed been fair to us in a way which we cannot comprehend.

That's the point and I've made it (Aahhhh!! The bliss of talking to the point and hence keeping up a new year resolution. Oh! That reminds me of 2 more things!!)

37. Kept up a resolution for quite a while? (Usually it is supposed to be a year long! Or wait.. Is it?)
38. Broke a resolution and smiled to yourself for doing the same ;) ?

To Moms (And Dads), With Love (And Amusement)

2011-01-30T21:29:00.001+05:30

Throughout this post, you can interchange gender unless the scene is really really gender specific. As in, Mom implies mom and dad. Girl implies girl or guy! So does guy. And this is a complete 'sirf-southie-middle-class-family-types' post. Disclaimer done :)

Scene : Girl(or guy) brings home a bunch of friends. And the bunch has both guys and girls (well.. I don't think people are comfortable with bringing their transgender friends (if any ;) ) to their home. Not all! Not yet !! )

And the reactions from parents:

Reaction 1 :
   Food, snacks and coffee. The more you refuse, the more you get. Hospitality and middle-class-moms are inseparable phenomena! Papa mostly says a hi and goes to his room with a newspaper.

Reaction 2 :
    Staunch disapproval (Ok! This is not the current timeframe reaction. A decade or two back maybe). Wait! Were you even thinking of bringing home a bunch of guys AND girls back then?

Reaction 1A :
Following reaction 1, mom secretly thinks, 'Well! Bringing girls is ok. But who are those guys? And which among these could be the guy whom Mrs. Sharma spotted our daughter with? May be that red shirt - He seems to be the more jovial and loud type. Or could it be this Anup guy? I have seen his number in her mobile. And why is that plain t-shirt guy very silent? That's weird. Wait! I am just imagining things. How can my daughter, of all be like that ? (Ask them to define 'that'! They simply can't. That good souls that they are. But more on it later) .They all seem to be having a good time. They might never get back these times.' That's what mom THINKS. But she says, "Would you like to have more dosas Anup?" And poor Anup could never know what auntie had been thinking, because she had been smiling all the time.

Reaction 1B:
   Momma ensures that the son is not around and tells dad, "Listen ji! Our son is having fun with all his friends. That's ok! But it is also YOUR duty to tell YOUR son that he should not give room to unnecessary rumors. That might spoil his future." To which dad thinks, 'Of course! He now becomes MY son. I was wondering where is YOUR son who brought home his basketball trophies.'

   Sometime later, Dad indeed tells the son, the same set of words that mom asked him to., the lazy guy he is ! (Engayoooo partha scene mathiri illa ;) ? )

Reaction 1C:
    Everything is cool and fine and nice. But after many many days, out of the blue, mom ends up reacting like 1A. And it is pretty much the same thought. (The way she could remember minute things - Aha!! We do have something to learn from her!) And there is a very heavy chance that this is followed by reaction 1B.

On a slightly off-track note, you are better off , if you bring your bunch of friends home once, so that you limit the spectrum of imagination of your parents from the endless horizons to the shores of a sea ;)

Ok! Now that the scene is explained, here goes the actual letter to make some justice to the title :

Dear Moms and Dads,
We do understand that whenever you spot us with a friend from the opposite sex, you are just not completely at ease with it, and you can still approve of it (sometimes because you have no choice, sometimes because you want to be this cool parent and most times because you really do believe us, by which we mean that you were the ones who raised us up and you just could not have done a mistake in that job of yours). You do know that we are not capable of bringing home a total stranger and declaring him or her as anything more than a best friend. We know that you do! And most times, the only thing that scares you is the fact that a certain Mrs. Sharma who lives a few blocks away from our home might end up spreading false rumors about your precious kid to everyone and that could hurt everything (right from the nice little things that we have between us, to the forte of self-respect that you have built for yourself over the past few years) . And even if you are comfortable with all my new friends around, there is still going to be this 0.001 % of fear about who might take advantage of YOUR child.

Ok, now! Here is the fact : We do not bring our friends to put you into that 'scary-zone'. It's just that they happen to be our friends.

And now, here is the secret : Though we did not scare (All right! Not exactly 'scare') you intentionally, we do enjoy the fact that you are indeed not comfortable with it, in a very eerie way though. Whenever we blurt out something like, 'No way! My mom(or dad) is not like that' over the phone a bit loudly, we enjoy imagining that slight *Aghast* reaction that you give at our back. We really do enjoy the fact that you are caring every bit for us, like you did when we were so tiny that we could fit into your palms. And we are very well aware of the fact that twenty years back, you made a resolution that you will be your kid's best friend, unlike your dad or mom. And guess what? We are also making resolutions for our kids and thirty years down the line, we will also come to know that it is all easier said than done. And that is when we would be able to realize that you had actually struggled a lot more to keep up with your resolution, for which we are already adoring and admiring you. So sleep at peace every night, and may that unknown Mrs Sharma not fill your dreams :)

Love,
Your kids (The same ones whom you simply refuse to see as grown-ups at any point of your life! )

Kutty Post

2011-01-01T10:24:00.003+05:30

Dear Vijay TV,
Please spare those junior super singers/dancers/actors and let them have a better childhood.

Thank You

Manmadhan Ambu - Not a review :D

2010-12-26T20:47:00.004+05:30

This one is not a proper review purely because it is a Kamal-Crazy-Mohan-combo fan doing the post-mortem of the movie and I had instinctively assumed that Crazy is there for sure! MY bad!!

First things first, I am not sure if I must sue or thank those who claimed the movie to be just average. Sue part - Cmon! It was pure fun. Thank part - I did not have much expectations which made the movie all the more fun. More specifically, though it is a bit difficult to resist, No comparison with Panchathandhiram !! If you are a (Tamil) movie buff, repeat this to yourself 10 times, out loud, before getting into the theater.

The genre is comedy and you know that right? So stop pondering over the logic for sometime !! Most of the parts did have their fair share of logic though. And the cast was brilliant. Everyone has done justice to their roles and Kamal was not the only one whose presence was felt. As a matter of fact, I think Sangeetha was awesome! That was one heck of a role and she had rocked throughout the movie. Many supporting actors have also been awesome (Usha Udup!! Maa!! Tussi great ho :P )

'Neela vaanam' picturisation speaks volumes of the team's creativity. A 5-minute song sequence describing a whole lifetime is typical Tamil cinema. But giving the entire sequence in reverse is typical Kamal cinema.

My personal favorite was the screenplay in the first half. And what happened in the second half? It was dwindling between 'ohh k' and 'good'. May be because, the movie loses the importance to comedy in the second part, which is diametrically opposite the way, comedy sky-rocketed in Panchathandiram in the second half. (Oh Cmon!! With Kamal-KSR-Crazy combo (No Crazy!! Sigh!!), what do you expect my left brain to be? A lifeless gargoyle?)

Locations --> Well! Venice, Barcelona and Paris are picturesque enough and I don't think the camera did any magic in accentuating its beauty. (No! I've never been to these places so far. Still PC Sreeram / Neerav Shah might just have done a better job!) It did make look Kodaikanal , the cruise and Trisha much better though.

There was one major 'restriction' that might terribly hamper this movie's returns though. It is strictly strictly strictly for multiplex audience. Ok! Lemme rephrase - It demands a certain amount of concentration for it is definitely not a brainless comedy. By the time you end up being in splits for one scene, you might have missed the 'fun element' in the next minute, leave alone the next scene. And what makes it worse, the timing is so spot -on that it is best when watched in a multiplex(or theater :P ) with good acoustics. The fun part could be complete only then.

Speaking of sounds, what has gotten into DSP? Some good piece of music and background scores, though few sounded like flicks. But that's ok. Neelavanam and the so-called-deleted song (Thank you Youtube) were simply too good. And the first song -- *Glees* -- Like Kamal and Maddy were not enough! That was the first and may be the only surprise element in the movie, which I am sure is not going to stay that way for long.

Somewhere in the second half though, I began wondering, 'Where the hell is Crazy Mohan?' and Boom! Just in time, there comes the Crazy-style-climax and of course, few scenes before that. And one scene that was absolutely Crazy (I so badly wish it was a capital C) - The one where Trisha tells Kamal, Neenga sema kat.. tayama kalyanam agirukkanum!

Maddy was the next best to Sangeetha and Kamal (in order - yes!). No. I had tightly shut down the Maddy fan in me. Scenes where he was drunk are the highlights while watching the movie, except for the fact that it becomes a bit too much towards the end (I told you - The Maddy fan is tightly shut!). And that is exactly when, Crazy-style-climax comes to the rescue of the movie, with an interesting last 15 mins (I repeat - Watch atleast the last 15 mins in a good theater)

And that little kiddo - Vish - reflects tomorrow's youth. I have done my level best to not reveal all the characters since, that might be too much of a spoiler. (Well! Not for the story part, but for the fun part)

Verdict?? What verdict? All I wanted was two plus hours of laughter therapy and I had it. KSR's way of saying 'Ask! And thou shalt recieve' ?? But still, watch it as many times as you want. But ensure that you are with a nice bunch of friends passing around junk food or with family members passing around yummy snacks and filter coffee (Well! you know what I mean ;) ). The movie will be definitely worth the time spent.

P.S. : Modified slightly after getting to know that there was no Crazy Mohan in the team. But, there was definitely a Crazy-influence throughout the movie. Like I said, it was just that his absence was clearly felt in the second part of the movie.

What's in a name?

2010-12-15T17:27:00.009+05:30

She was five years old. Brought up in a small town, she was equally fascinated by her uncle's city - the ever busy Chennai and her granny's village - the breathtakingly beautiful Thiruvidaimaruthur. This time, there she was, spending her summer holidays, with all her cousins, uncles, aunties, thaathaas, paatis and one kolluthaatha.

There were loads of people to meet, even more temples and parks to visit, and the best part - all the more new games to learn, to teach and to play. Holidays were fun indeed. One noon, all her 'folks' assembled for lunch, an everyday routine. All, except her dad.

In case you don't know, kids are known for their grasping power. They can grasp almost anything. Fortunately or unfortunately, she had grasped her paatti's way of calling her son, who fortunately or unfortunately again, happened to be her dad.

Her voice hit a decibel, that was slightly more than what could be reached by a five-year-old and there she went, saying, "Dei Raama!! Seekramaa vaada" (Hey Ramaa! Come soon!!)

All that the rest of the family heard after that, was the sound of a tight slap.

(Let's take a break here)

Again, a note for Tamil(or any other Indian language) challenged. English is a very simple language. For one, you never get to struggle to get the right word to address someone. It's just you, he, she, they for almost everyone. But hey! In Tamil, there is:

vaanga if you want to address someone whom you respect or whom you MUST respect or who claims respect from you
vaa for people who do not expect respect or people who fall into the not-so-close friends or similar age group category
vaada-vaadi for the more intimate ones

Needless to say, this bloody multitude of addressing people in Indian languages has had its own fair share in complicating many relationships. All right!! Let's not go there!! For now, it did not spare a dad-daughter relationship either ;) Ha.. Now you know, why English is the preferred medium of communication in many places.

(Back from the break)

An eerie silence that gave more room to the echo that followed the 'Slap' was all that you missed during the break. Shocked, stumped and puzzled, she cried out loud, "Paati!! Amma enna adichittaaaaaa !!" (Nanny!! Momma slapped me!!) , holding her blood-flushed cheeks with her left hand

"Appava peru solli kuptathu pathaadhunu vaada veraya? Neenga summa irungamma! Ithellam molailaye killanum. Illena, pinnadi, appanaye thooki saptruvaa" (You call daddy by his name. Moreover you call him vaadaa. Yada Yada Yada)

"Nethikki (hic hic....) paati kuptappo mattum (hic hic..) summa irundha.. Pomma!! Bad Amma!!" She managed to blurt out those words intact, fighting the tears that were rolling down her cheeks all the way through her long, green silk skirt.

Time flew by. She grew up and life had so many surprises for her right from the teenage transformations, college exposure, first cycle, first bike, first day in college, first crush, first award, free time in hostel, birthday bashes, birthday bumps, placement treats, first love, first breakup, farewells, first trip outdoors, first time in a city, culture clashes - You name it. She has experienced it.

And then came along the much awaited first day at job, shortly followed by the first salary day, first treat and so on. Given the fact that she was from a small town, she had already had way too many things that she was awe-struck with. And this went to an extent where surprises do not surprise her anymore at an age as early as 22.

She was all too ready to tackle the workplace and to disprove the fact that 'influence' might have played a H-U-G-E role in her recruitment. 7 months down the line, her 3rd level boss had called for a meeting(Duh!) with all the developers and so it happened.

People were discussing on and on and on.

"Excuse me!" She raised her hand. "I have a point to make.. Err.. Sir"

"Call me Ram!", That was her boss's boss's boss who incidentally happened to be her Dad. On that disproving part, she had gone to an extent where her colleagues had once commented about her dad to her this - "Ram!! People say he is good at so many things. But I am sure he is the best when it comes to giving that Just-Do-It-I-Say look. Oohh ~~ Reminds me of Quick Gun Murugan I say". Now she knew that it was more than a joke, well definitely not a joke.

"Ok.... (Brief pause) Ram!" She did go about making her point eventually. But then, the piercing and giggling looks of her colleagues were slowly dissolved by the image of a five year old (this time in a white top and black formal trousers as against that long green silk skirt) who was crying out to herself , "Paatti!! Amma enna adichittaaa!!"

-Sindhu

A Little Sweet, A Little Sour

2010-12-10T21:23:00.003+05:30

2005 - July 28 - 7:00 a.m. – Some bus stand, TN, India :

Screeeeeeeeech!! The bus came to a jolt at Tambaram and Vandhana got down, staring at her watch. 7:00 A.M. Plenty of time to grab a coffee and a quick breakfast too. She walked towards the nearby hotel. It was pretty decent. She ended up having a light breakfast. 7:20. Ample time to reach college from here. Half awake, she stepped out of the hotel to enjoy Chennai morning which was supposed to be less hot when compared to the rest of the day.

"Ka!! Mittai vaangikkonga ka! Mittai vaangikkonga ka!!", (Didi !! Please get these candies didi) was all that she heard, once she came out of the hotel. Absent-minded, Vandhana started observing the 'mittaai' and the puny little girl who sold the 'mittaai'.

The girl looked like any other under-fed girl who sells something to earn her bread; dressed in rags with that desperate wait for a dawn in her life, evident in her eyes. The 'mittaai' was actually an assortment of some multi-colored, sugar-coated jeera packed into a plastic, yellow spherical container with a brown cap, which looked like a miniature version of Vandhana’s favorite flavor of ball ice-cream- butterscotch.

Probably, that was the reason why she chose to buy it that day.

“Evlo?” (How much?)

“5 rupees ka”. Vandhana’s eyebrows curled slightly. So did her lips. Did she hear Rupees as against the usual rooba?

“Seri! 4 kudu!” (Oh k! Gimme four)

“Thank You ka.” With that, the remnant slumber vanished from her eyes. With a smile, she asked that puny little girl, “Padikriya?” (So, you are studying?)

“Ama ka! Fourth Standard” She was beaming with pride.

“Un perenna?” (What's your name?)

“Uma!” She did not bother to ask the rest of the questions that were supposed to follow. Which school? What do you wanna be in future? The answers for all those questions were evident in that girl’s eyes. Very much!

When her mobile yelled 7:30, Vandhana quickly pulled off the twenty ‘rupees’ from her purse and abruptly left, not forgetting to turn around and wave a friendly bye to Uma.

Same day - 11:30 a.m.- Some college hostel, TN, India:

“Oh by the way girls”, Vandhana exclaimed to her roomies. The girls were back to their hostel rooms since the fourth hour was supposedly free for reasons that only God knows. “I bought these in the morning from roadside. I think it should be at the least edible”, said Vandhana pulling out the mittaais. “ I think that girl is studying. Our petty contribution for her studies”.

“Hmmm!!”, Nazreen, one of her roomies exclaimed, “ may be, you should make these petty contributions on our behalf everytime, you stop by there”.

“Heyyy!! Mazhai mazhai!!”, one of the girls outside was crying out loud.

And the four girls were on their feet to get their clothes that were drying in the open terrace. And none of them heard Vandhana murmur, “May be, I should”. Not even Vandhana did.

2 years and around 14 travels to and fro. With few more friends who knew Vandhana well enough, four grew to nine. Almost every time, Vandhana made it a point to get those mittaais and Uma grew so familiar with Vandhana akka. One fine January, Vandhana sensed that Uma’s face was giving a *glee* look, while she was buying those mittais. Time explains everything. Or so they say! April explained Vandhana that she had somehow contributed to Uma’s exam fees. What she was not aware of was the fact that little Uma had seen to it that she had ruled out the exam fees barricade for THAT year - one of the umpteen, pointless, yet (unfortunately enough) practical reasons that her parents were trying to furnish to prevent Uma from continuing her studies (which was a mere sixth standard as against the usual *Higher studies*). After that Vandhana somehow never saw Uma, but everytime, she looked at the empty, yellow, spherical container with a brown cap (which she did preserve), she remembered a girl who yearned to live

2013 – January 23rd - 12:00 P.M. - The hall of a simple 2BHK at Bangalore, India:

Vandhana knew that she was too young to complain and crib about life. The fear for future was just a passing cloud. So was the uncertainty about almost everything. She kept telling herself every other day. Someone once said that whenever you feel low, always remember that you were once a sperm that outsmarted the rest. Well! Vandhana could not be really sure about something that she did not know. But she could be sure of one thing – she had knowingly or unknowingly influenced someone’s life -- very positively. She was staring at that empty, mitaai container, with a ray of hope that she had seen 7 years back in a puny little girl’s eyes. A smile spread across her face.

2031 – March 25th – 8:00 A.M. – In LA, at the headquarters of Cameron Enterprises that spoke volumes of Vandhana’s success as a real estate developer:

Vandhana’s subordinate had just returned from India, where they had just acquired a massive plot for Cameroon Enterprises’ next project. Apparently, everyone’s desk was filled with souvenirs from India and Vandhana’s had a box of some famous brand of Indian chocolates. She was getting ready for a conference with few venture capitalists. Hectic day! Still, she was smiling at that empty 'mittaai' container. Little did she notice that the plain container that she was holding was a less tempting version of the chocolates at her desk – Chocolates with some Indian ingredients and cream wrapped in crushed golden covers with a brown wrapper around, that made the chocolates look even more tempting. And that the brand name’s logo on the top of the wrapper was similar to a ring that never left Vandhana’s right hand.

8257 miles away, a successful entrepreneur who runs an Indian gift store, with its own specialized Desi gifts for foreigners to take back to their motherland (who once used to be a puny little girl) remembers that hand, almost everytime, with an elated sense of gratitude.
-Sindhu

Genuine Smiles :)

2010-11-29T23:17:00.000+05:30

When you are getting drenched in a heavy rain, that auto driver who takes you all the way home (though it is just 50 steps away) and refuses to take money from you(He doesn't even wait, saying 'It's ok! I don't need money!!'). He instead leaves abruptly, with a smile, not even giving you enough time to thank him.
When you are waving a friend goodbye, that little girl (who sells plastic bangles in a very busy part of the city) for a split second thinks that the bye was intended for her and waves back a loud bye. You wave her a bye too like any human would and she sports a smile that you do when you acquire a new friend.
That old uncle who takes his dog for a walk and sees to it that his 'Champ' does not prevent others from enjoying their morning walk.
That girl who sees that you desparately need to get ahead of others in queue and gives you the much needed way.
When all of a sudden, you remember that when you were a kid, you strongly believed that if Tom can fly using self-made wings, then so can you.
Those friends who always ask you to message/call once you reach home.
When you are surging with confidence or a sense of achievement, those few moments that you spend recollecting the days you felt completely lost and hopeless.
When you look at little souvenirs or momentos that you recieved from people who mean a lot to you.(A more special case, a gift from your first crush! But that does not make your other souvenirs any less special)
When you read and re-read a slam book :)
Deja-vu / History repeats itself moments
Old photographs.
That little 2 and a half year old, in the far corner of the street who yells a 'Tataaa' everyday, even (read especially) on days when you are actually getting late to office, despite the fact that you are a stranger to him.
Visiting your hometown/birthplace after life takes you to so many other places.

Aha! A little smile is always a great feeling, even though it gives a hint of madness to people around you. After all, life bestows upon you enough moments to experience and enjoy. Huge achievements indeed matter in life. But over the long run, it is these little moments that we are going to cherish forever and ironically enough, most times, these little moments come from total strangers or people whom you know (or talk to) the least , which makes it a bit more special :)

BBC's list of 100 books

2010-11-27T15:01:00.001+05:30

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other potential book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens --- I hafta read this, for some board exam!! Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book !!
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom -- Read this one whenever I feel like reading it!
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (English)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

And I tag my usual bloggie pals : Somsie, Prithi and Raji ;)

A Negative

2010-10-24T23:27:00.003+05:30

Arjun woke up cursing weekends like a typical bored software engineer (which he is). Why wouldn't he be? 24 hour is a really long bunch of hours to kill, for anyone, let alone an engineer (need I add the 'software' prefix?). And off he goes, killing the first 10 hours of the day, by shamelessly trying to push himself back to Slumberville, though Slumberville had chased him out of its 'gang' 3 hours back. I did say shamelessly. Didn't I?

He then tries to take things as slowly as possible. Now now !! Wait!! We are talking about 'THINGS' - real mundane things - like brushing the teeth, making your toast (Oh k! Forgive that non-Desi version. read toast as filter kaapi/dosa, chai/chapati), newspaper (the most boring of all the time-killers invented), stroll on the empty road and many such 'things'.

I am not getting into the knitty-gritty details of all the other things that Arjun did to kill the 24 hours, that he had. Every weekend was the same. After noon pizzas were cold and he did not bother to take a shower until it was close to four or five in the evening. And the rest of the day went in Facebooking!

That day, Arjun, vowed to make a difference to his usually mundane weekend. So far no luck ;) While Arjun was completely aware of this very fact, he did try his level best. It was just that there was nothing, that could actually make a difference. He did not count girlfriend for a difference (the smart guy that he is ;) ). Sticking to his routine, Arjun opened those gates of that virtual world that actually connects everyone now (Yeah! Right! Facebook was just one of the rooms in that monstrous villa that everyone calls Internet, with Google being the huge drawing hall). Little did Arjun know that the difference was indeed awaiting him there in the otherwise pointless status updates of most of his friends.

One status read, "Emergency : 5 units of A-ve blood required for 12 consecutive days for a friend who met with an accident, now admitted at Dilawar Hopsital - Contact Person : Mr. Gupta, Phone number : 9610212345. Pass it on to your friends. Please don't ignore. This might save a life."

Arjun did not want to just copy/paste that message. Striving to make THE difference, he called up his friend whose blood group was A negative. What follows is the conversation between Arjun and his equally bored friend, Yousuf.

Arjun : Dude! Can you come with me to Dilawar Hospital? There's an emergency. A certain Mr. Gupta or his relative, needs A negative. Can you?
Yousuf : Well... I think I can. I will get ready in sometime. Gimme the details yaar.
Arjun : Wait! Will send you the link. (10 seconds later) Done!!
Yousuf : Got it!! But Arjun! I've never made a blood donation before. And I dunno what it takes mahn!
Arjun : All it takes is humanity yaar. Listen.. You ok with it right? I really don't wanna force you into this. If you are not willing to donate your blood, I ..
Yousuf : No.. No No! Nothing of that sort !! Ok! I will get ready for my first blood donation man. Am glad that am being part of saving someone's life. You get your bike here. Let's go to this hospital, wherever it is and do what we can.
Arjun : Well! I am glad too! Get ready! I will be there in another half an hour.
(Half an hour later. At Yousuf's place)
Arjun : So! Let's go! Yousuf. You ok?
Yousuf : Arjun.. Well.. Err...
Arjun : Are you hesitating? Yeah right!! (with that sarcastic warmth in his tone) What did you trade your principles or values for in half an hour? Fear? Selfishness?
Yousuf : Will you just stop for a sec. I called up this Mr. Gupta.
Arjun : And you got scared. Huh?
Yousuf : I said, 'Shut up!'. He wanted the blood for his 6 year old son. Wanted - like 7 months back. Unfortunately, they did not get enough units of them,and the boy died.
Arjun : WHAT?
Yousuf : Yeah! You heard me! And the worst part, he is getting phone calls almost every 2nd day from people all over the city, coming forward to donate blood. Can you just imagine how much of pain, this Mr. Gupta must be going through now? Like the loss of his son's life was not enough!!

What followed was a deep, eerie silence of two people who wanted to make a difference. Well! What they tried tobe was, just being human. The next part of their weekend, was just the same routine, with a heavy heart. May be, that was one hell of a difference.

So folks, whoever you are, if you are reading this and if you come across such forwards, think twice before your emotions reign you, when it comes to a humanitarian act, ESPECIALLY when it comes to a humanitarian act. You never know, that person whose life you are trying to save, might just be fit enough to be amused by those messages begging to save his/her life that are forwarded infinite times a day or might just not exist. In either case, it doesn't take you any closer to THAT HUMAN whom you strive to be. It is natural to act impulsively when it comes to such sensitive issues. Watch out! Sometimes, even humanity can hurt! And at other times, even what is not said (or forwarded) can make a difference :)

ஜாமெட்ரி பாக்ஸ்

2010-10-10T22:11:00.000+05:30

அபிநயா:
"ஏண்டி!! கொஞ்சமாவது பொறுப்பு இருக்கா? ஒரு சாமான் வாங்கி கொடுத்தா அதை பத்திரமா பார்த்துக்கலாமில்ல? ", ன்னு அம்மா திட்டிக்கிட்டே இருந்தாங்க.

"நான் பாக்ஸ எடுத்து வெளில வெச்சிட்டு தண்ணி குடிக்க தாம்மா போனேன். திரும்பி வந்து பார்த்தால் ஜாமெட்ரி பாக்ஸ காணும் . 'மிஸ்' கூட எக்ஸாம் முடிஞ்சி எல்லார் பேகையும் செக் பண்ணினாங்க. கெடைக்கவே இல்ல. நாளைக்கு   மாத்ஸ் செகண்ட் பேப்பர் பா. அதுக்கும் கண்டிப்பா வேற பாக்ஸ் வேணும்பா. இல்லேன்னா சுகந்தி டீச்சர் திட்டுவாங்க."

"ஆமா!! இதுக்கு மட்டும் ஒடனே அப்பா கிட்ட போய்டு. சும்மா எப்..."

"ப்ச்!! ஏன் கொழந்தைய போட்டு திட்டிக்கிட்டே இருக்கே? அவ என்ன தெரிஞ்சா தொலைச்சா?", ன்னு அப்பா சொல்லலைனா நான் அங்கேயே அழுதிருப்பேன். "பொறுப்பெல்லாம் அவளுக்கு தானா வரும். இத போய் பெருசு படுத்திக்கிட்டு!! பாரு! இப்பவே அவ கண்ல கொளம் கட்டியிருக்கு. உனக்கு ஜாமெட்ரி பாக்ஸ் தானடா வேணும். அப்பா ராத்திரி போய் வாங்கிண்டு வரேன். இனிமே தொலைக்காம பார்த்துக்கோ. என்ன?" இது அப்பா :) :)

அப்ரோமும் அம்மா விடாம திட்டிக்கிட்டு இருந்தாங்க. எனக்கும் ஜாமெட்ரி பாக்ஸ் தொலைஞ்சு போனதுல ரொம்ப வருத்தம் தான். ஆனா நான் என்ன தெரிஞ்சா தொலைச்சேன்?

ஆனாலும் நைட்டு தூங்க போறதுக்கு முன்னாடி ப்ரே பண்ணினேன், 'என் ஜாமெட்ரி பாக்ஸ எடுத்தவ எனக்கு அத திருப்பி கொடுத்திடனும்'ன்னு . ஏனோ first timeஆ, என் உலகமே இருண்டு போன மாதிரி ஒரு பயம். சுகந்தி டீச்சர் திட்டுனா அப்டிதான் இருக்கும்னு எல்லாரும் சொல்லிருக்காங்க. அதனாலதானோ என்னவோ? தெரில!! 8 மணிக்கு அப்பா போய் புது ஜாமெட்ரி பாக்ஸ் வாங்கிட்டு வந்தாரே. அப்போ தான் எனக்கு கொஞ்சம் தைரியம் வந்தது !!

சாரதா:
"கண்ணு! புதுசா சாமேட்ரி பாக்ஸ் கேட்டேல்லே? அத அம்மா நாளைக்கு எப்பிடியாவது வாங்கி குடுத்திடறேன்" ன்னு அம்மா சொன்னாங்க.
"வேணாம்மா! நான் இன்னைக்கு 'க்யூ'வில நிக்கும் போது ஜன்னல் கிட்டக்க ஒரு ஜாமெட்ரி பாக்ஸ் பார்த்தேன். லக்கி பாக்ஸ் மா. பரீட்சை நல்லா பண்ணினேன் இன்னிக்கி". ஏனோ அது வேற ஒருதவங்கள்துன்னு எனக்கு தோணவே இல்ல அப்போ. ஆனா என்ன பண்றது! எனக்கு வரவே வராத கணக்கெல்லாம் இன்னிக்கி சூப்பரா வந்ததே!! எனக்கு அத திருப்பி கொடுக்கவே மனசில்ல. சரி! யாராவது கேட்டால் பார்த்துக்கலாம்னு விட்டுட்டேன்.

ஆனால் அதுக்கப்றோம் அந்த ஜாமெட்ரி பாக்ஸ என்னிக்கி பார்த்தாலும் எனக்கு கஷ்டமா இருந்தது. ரெண்டு மாசம் கழிச்சி, annual exam வந்தது. கணக்கு!! பரீட்சை முடிய இன்னும் ஒரு மணி நேரம் இருந்தது. என் பின்னாடி இருந்த 'B section ' abinaya என் பேப்பரையே பார்த்துட்டு இருந்தாள். நான் திரும்பி பார்த்தேன்.

"என்ன நடக்குது இங்க? ரெண்டு பேரும் அவங்கவங்க பேப்பர பார்க்காம என்ன பண்ணிக்கிட்டு இருக்கீங்க?". அந்த சோடாபுட்டி சரோஜா மிஸ்ஸ எனக்கு புடிக்கவே புடிக்காது. எப்போ பார்த்தாலும் என்ன திட்டும்.

"இல்ல மிஸ். இவ என் பேப்பரையே பார்த்திட்டு இருக்காள். அதனாலதா...", அதுக்குள்ளே அபிநயா,

"இல்ல மிஸ்! இல்ல மிஸ். அவள் வெச்சிருக்றது 2 months முன்னாடி தொலஞ்சு போன என்னோட ஜாமெட்ரி பாக்ஸ் மிஸ். நீங்க வேணும்னா பாருங்க. அதுல 'N A' ன்னு என்னோட initials போட்ருக்கும் ."

"Exam முடிச்சிட்டு ரெண்டு பேரும் போய் பிரின்சிபல பாருங்க." ன்னு என்ன பார்த்து மொறச்சிக்கிட்டே சொன்னாங்க. சொன்னேனில்ல! அவங்களுக்கு என்ன புடிக்காதுன்னு. எனக்கு ரொம்ப பயமா இருந்தது.  ஏனோ first timeஆ, என் உலகமே இருண்டு போன மாதிரி ஒரு பயம். Exam எழுதவே முடியல அதுக்கும் மேல.

அபிநயா:
'அந்த King Lear போட்ட பாக்ஸ் என்னோடது தான். இன்னிக்கி எப்டியாவது அத திருப்பி வாங்கிடனும். பிரின்சிபால் கிட்ட போகணுமே. van அது வரைக்கும் நிக்காதே!!'

சாரதா:
'அபிநயா வேற நேரா மிஸ் கிட்ட சொல்லிட்டா. நான் ஒண்ணும் திருடல. இது எனக்கு கெடைச்ச லக்கி பாக்ஸ். அவ்ளோதான்! சரி!! Answer sheet அ குடுத்துட்டு வெளில இருக்கலாம். அபிநயா கிட்ட பேசி பார்போம். ஒரு 10 mark கேள்வி இன்னும் பாக்கி இருக்கே. பரவால்ல. போனா போகுது!!'

அபிநயா:
   'ப்ச்!! போய்டாளே!!இப்போ என்ன பண்றது?' வேக வேகமா வேக வேகமா எழுதி முடிச்சிட்டு வெளில வந்தேன். 'போச்சு!! ஏன் பாக்ஸ் போச்சு! அது என்னோட பாக்ஸ். அவ எப்படி...'

'அபி!!', சாரதாவின் குரல். தயங்கி தயங்கி ஏன் கிட்ட வந்தாள். 'எங்க என் பாக்ஸ்? எனக்கது வேணும்னு சொல்லணும் போல தோணிச்சு. அதுக்குள்ளே அவளே என் பாக்ஸ திருப்பி குடுத்திட்டா'

20 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு பின்னர், அபிநயாவிற்கு சாரதாவைப் பற்றிய நினைவிருந்தது. சாரதாவிற்கும்தான். தத்தம் உலகினை first time இருளச் செய்தவர்களாக. ஆனால், இருவருக்குமே உண்மையில் அவர்களது 'உலகினை first time இருளசெய்ததன்' காரணியான ஜாமெட்ரி பாக்ஸ் நினைவில் இல்லை!

A Walk to Remember

2010-09-30T20:58:00.002+05:30

Weekend mornings are the best when they start at around 9 a.m. Or so I thought. Well!! I was (luckily) proven wrong! All thanks to Lincy :)

An early morning (well, not too early, but early enough), a neatly maintained park, with a huge clear pool of water, AND on top of all these, drizzles that reach the earth at a regular pace, with no sign of the sun being out, with the hustle and bustle of Bangalore actually at your eyesight and despite that you are still safely away from its unwelcome impacts. That was Sankey park for you.

While the Adigas' in 18th Cross, Malleswaram was already swarming with its loyal foodie fans from Malleswaram, quite close to it, was this clandestine, yet popular Sankey that I am talking about. It was definitely one of the most beautiful areas where you might want to witness a morning, with all its beauty. Simple, clean, this place easily accommodates all those morning walkers. And the best part about this place - the 'Don't Cut Me' placards around trees that were saving the last remains of greenery in Bangalore, and the little kids who prefer mere running around to real jogging. (You should have seen this little kid in the black sweaters that day! Trying to resist his temptation to sway his hands around, forcing himself to keep his little fists close to his chest, trying real hard to take measured fast paces as against the teeter-totter that he was used to. He looked fettered while his brother taught him real jogging. Kids are a bliss to watch !! But curbing their ‘freedom’ – that part is not ) 2 hours of walk should be real easy there since, the pavement is also well maintained, and it’s really comfortable. And to add to it, there are these little kids to old uncles who ‘gossip’ (Ha... They do all the gossiping and end up blaming women! Phew! Talk about gender discrimination!!)

All rightey!! I give up ! It’s difficult to harness all of nature’s beauty into words. So go ahead and check out Sankey for yourself ! But I can give a shot to the man-made ones. And that precisely is what I am going to do now. Well! That was partly a reason, why I wanted to walk in Sankey that morning. Given that it was in Malleswaram, I thought it was high time, I tried the much-hyped CTR Benne Masal Dosa.

I had no clue as to where it was. Nor did Lincy. We ended up asking one of the gate-keepers of Sankey. And according to him, it was a ‘Go straight and then turn left’ (That folks, is the Desi equivalent of ‘I don’t know’ ;) ) But he assured us that that was the route and we had no choice but to believe him. By the way, the location of CTR was not the only thing that I was clueless about. What the hell was ‘benne’? I could only try the simple translation trick that I knew for almost a year.

StringBuffer tamilEquiv = someKannadaWord;
tamilEquiv.replace(‘b’,’v’);
return tamilEquiv;

Venne? Butter? Definitely! Maybe!! But hey ! Apparently I turned out to be right! As I got to know from Lincy later on, it was indeed butter.

Oh k!! So where was I ? Outside Sankey Tank. No seriously. Watchman number two did not have a clue either.I tried expanding CTR on Lincy's suggestion. Much to our dismay, all we got back was a , 'Tiffin bekha?? Illi ondhu idhi. Alli ondhu idhi!!' Yeah! Right! And we went about asking an English speaking, Kannadiga guy for the directions. (Updated on request: Yes! The guy was good-looking)Yo! We got the right route this time.

After walking past few crosses, few 'mundhe hogi's, and one (close to) haunted houses, was the 'Eureka' moment awaiting us. CTR, aka Shri Sagar :) :) What welcomed me was a bunch of what Vivek would call 'jilebiya puzhinju potta mathiri' matters ;) Like it matters ! I already knew, what I had to order. So there goes.. Benne masal dosa ondhu, coffee ondhu.

Now! Be warned! If you are looking for ambience, soothing instrumentals in the background, buffet, feedback forms, four-wheeler parking and finger bowls, CTR is definitely not what you want. Oops! Are you this simple guy who goes to a restaurant to taste something edible? Then you are in :)

It has just been renewed to accommodate more customers. The waiters are friendly and they don't address you , 'Sir', 'Mayym', or 'Madam-Sir'. But those are just about the restaurant. Not about their 'creation' ;)

After a 5 minute wait came our precious benne masal dosa. Wait! Aren't the one in restaurants supposed to be bigger?? What is this? My mom's dosas are of the same size. My dosas are of the same size. -2 points from 0 :( Mummy! I want bigger dosas.

But the cribbing hardly lasted. One gulp of the dosa and I was mouthshut. Awryt! A typical Chennai foodie, who is so used to Saravana Bhavan will still want to claim that the sambhar was sweet and the masal had some excess garlic. No it did not! Such claims will be made by people who eat the dosa and masal separately. Take a piece of the dosa, with the masal AND the benne on top of it, it is just perfect. As good as my mom's dosas. The plain dosa as such was really good. And as I looked around, all dosas were the same size blended with the same content and for the first time, I saw these Malleswaram foodies in action. There are people who claim that it gets much more attention than it deserves. That I dunno. But I am yet to hear someone say that the dosa is NOT good. Few gulps and I was done. Watte breakfast. And I was specifically asked to have some coffee after that. Now I am no particular fan of this bitter drug, but still, it perfectly complimented the excessively good taste of this CTR special dish.

No wonder it survives around 45 years as almost an uncrowned champion of dosas in Blore. While we walked down, there was one board that said, "Ice-creams and juices coming soon". But somehow, by now, I am sure as hell that the one particular dish that would be in constant demand would be the one that was not advertised anywhere in CTR - the one that I had just then.

P.S. : I did make a promise - to blog about this Benne Masal Dosa, before the taste fades away from my tongue. Apparently, I had kept up with that part of the promise :)

What's in a Southie Name!

2010-09-29T18:58:00.001+05:30

Vodaofone Woman with a Fake American Accent : May I take your name M'am?
Me    : Oh ! Yeah!! Sure! Sindhuja Vijayaraghavan.
VWWAFAA : Sindhuja what?
Me                : *Phew!! Ok!* It's Vijayaraghavan
VWWAFAA : Err.. What?
Me    : Ok.. It's V-I (This was not the first time after all!)
VWWAFAA : V-I
Me                : J-A
VWWAFAA : J-A
Me                : Y-A
VWWAFAA : Y-A
Me                : R-A
VWWAFAA : Smirking.. R-A
Me                : (What's your bloody name? Something like Ayyampettai Arivudainambi Kaliyaperumaal Indra, right ?? Then you don't have any bloody right to smirk at MY PAPA's name! Helllooooo.. It's MY dad alright?!?!) G-H-A
VWWAFAA : G-H-A (She finds it difficult to breathe!)
Me                : V-A-N
VWWAFAA : V-A-N. Is that all M'am? (With the audible sarcasm!)
Me                : Strange that you haven't stumbled upon this name, despite being a south Indian.
VWWAFAA : Sorry M'am! I actually hail from.....
Me                : *Born in Uganda! Studied in Pondicherry!!*.. Yea.. Whatever
VWWAFAA : Awryt Ms. Sindhuja Vraavan
Me               : *Adipaavi, vidiya vidiya kadhai kettuttu, seethaikku raavanan sithappa va?* No That's ok.. If you cannot get it right, I can understand.

VWWAFAA : Err.. Sorry M'am, if I had offended you.
Me                : That's all right!

The point is this : It's really stupid when people act like they find it difficult to pronounce a bunch of names, just to send a subtle hint of pride on their faked-up accent. Helloo.. In case you did not know, Obama can pronounce 'Gandhi', the right way. So No thanks! We are not really interested in figuring out if your faked-up accent is anywhere close to the original one.

P.S. : 10 mins after the conversation was over :

Appa(over fone) : Hellooo
Me : Appa!! First, pera mathungappa! Uyire edukraanga ;)

(Never just) Let go

2010-09-09T20:16:00.000+05:30

Ha. . .People learn to let go! Don't they? Hmm.. I very much doubt it. (Hold on ! Before you trigger your imaginations, we are most definitely not talking serious relationships here, by any chance!) We are just talking about the silly little things that we cling on to!

This was suggested recently by one of my colleagues, to have a, let's say, a smoother working environment. Let's forget the work part of it and apply it to the life part of it, if at all it's possible. Let go!! That part is easy, but for what (I think) he really meant, that is Easier said than done! I'm wondering, how many of us will be totally ready to let go of things they are fond of? Totally is the keyword here. Something that you don't to do whole-heartedly will only add up to your already corrupt soul. You do something and you are really not happy about it. More so, you do it just because you did not have an option. How good does reality sound?

Well! I am not against this 'letting go' concept. It takes enough guts to let go. But it takes a matured mind and a well trained soul to let go whole heartedly. Sample this : You wanted to do your own business. You even give it a shot and it is not really the cakewalk that you thought. And there is that good old pressure from people, who are so used to a comfort zone (Need I tell you, how they relate to you? For crying out loud, they are called parents !!) and they want you to be one too. One of the most common weapons they use, "You might not get a bride/groom if you don't get into the oh-so-safe-herd of software engineers" and for practical reasons they are forced to, well, let go. (Why not give up? I am coming to it). That was just a sample. Take anything that sounds closer to reality to you!

I could only see 3 different reactions to this and before I jump into them, they all have one thing in common:

Depp* down, they still want to convert their dream into a reality.

Now the reactions:

Those set of people, who very badly want a second chance or a time machine. People who just let go - The possibles (I call them possibles, because there is a greater probability that many of them fit into this category)
And of course there are those who can make their second chance.People who very well know that life does not change in a 5-minute song sequence. These kind of people, have actually let go, but they come back with a bang, more like a prancing stallion. Well! Isn't that really cool? They are 'The Impossibles' (Ok! Not in the literal sense, but in a real positive sense; they are rarity after all)
And then there are these people, who let go - whole heartedly. Sorry to repeat it over and over. But you know, it is not as easy as it sounds. Not that these people do not think about it. But they shut up and move on. This is the most important part of it. Beware, moving on and being happy with what you have are two different things. And I am not even talking about the latter. These people are beyond the possibles and the impossibles. Like I said, it takes a well-trained soul to do it. They are the Possimpibles!

Life hardly gives us what we want out of it. Since the Superpower keeps him(/her)self busy by disposing all that we propose, humans need to keep themselves equally busy by chasing those dreams or sometimes, bigger ones. There is no point in just waiting for a miracle and cursing the unfairness of the world. You chase something and you end up only getting nothing. That is most definitely not the way to be. You either get that something, or end up getting everything, After all, nothing and everything is Possimpible :) In short, letting go is not healthy. It's not the way to be either. But letting go whole-heartedly or coming back is.

*Spelling mistake was intentional. Pirates of the Carribean 4 is 3D! That might have sounded like a totally irrelevant note, had it not been for the spelling mistake. Hehe :)

Evergreen Memoirs

2010-09-05T18:04:00.002+05:30

You guessed it! This is about how good school days were (are). College days were fun and eye-opening in ways too many. No second questions about that. But, school wins hands down when it comes to many other factors.

I started out, the foundation of my 'career' with the most crucial interview of my life - The LKG interview!! I was interviewed by Sister Rose. By the time she was done, I ended up asking her questions ;) 'Where are my chocolates? I saw the others who came out having chocolates in their hands. Where is mine Sister?' (I ended up getting two) And the next 14 years were the smoothest in my life. Building um strong. Basement um strong !

Cluny has seen us ever since the days we found it hard to talk in English, which was an imposed rule on us. Or even worse, when students used to mix a generous amount of Tamil verbatim to frame, what they thought were, proper English sentences (Sample these : 1) Hey girl! Stop kiLLing me! ==> kiLLing was supposed to be pinching and not murdering. 2) Slipper beatings!!) Cluny has patiently put up with our unintentional bad-usage of the language(And it still does). Coming to think of it, it was those silly little mistakes that carved most Clunians into what they are today.

And then of course, she witnessed the transformations from pinafores to salwar-kameez with skirts doing the intermediate part. The first days of 6th Standard and 9th Standard used to be fun, to watch people in a new costume. But somehow in college or workplaces,a different costume or a new haircut or any other experimentation of sorts is something that we are all pretty much used to, and nothing is really FUN about it. There comes more pressing things in life and these things hence take a back-seat. Cluny also had the typical elements that you see in all schools. But again, it was special to Clunians.

Lines of hymns that we had sung (read shouted) without knowing the meaning for the first few days and then losing interest just to end up with lip-singing over the last few years,
Lunch time being the best time of the day in the sense that it gave us an opportunity to catch up with our mummieeee or daddiieee initially or to talk about nothings later on, with people of our age. (Now I know, where this entire generation gap thing started !)
Report cards that all the Ranchos, Silencers and Farhaans dreaded/loathed unanimously.
The bell sound at the end of every period and the final one, especially.
As the fate deciding 10th and 12th standards creeped in, the little breaks that we get between the so called special classes and the normal hours.
Kid-to-teen transformations.
Novena prayers in Std X and XII
March-past and drill days
Lily, Daffodils, Prim Rose, Blue Bells (Thanks to Krithika for getting the fourth one :))
Jawahar, St. Pauls ;) Well ! What's life without a little bit of competition? And for those with siblings from other schools, ESPECIALLY brothers, the Clunian spirit dives deep into their souls for the obvious reasons :P

And what made Cluny special was this : The teachers. I am not sure, if someone could list down all the professors who handled various subjects to them, but I guess, even when we are in the mid-forties, we could list all the names of at the least our class teachers. Every teacher was special in her own way. And enlisting each of them with their best qualities will be an enduring task. And besides, the most powerful of the words are those that are unsaid. So I chose, not to go on and on about it. Ten to one bet, that none of them are social networking. So I am not sure if it is going to reach them at all. True! Maybe, Cluny did not give the world a Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (so far) But hey! That does not make our teachers any less special. After all, they will remain our 'Miss' who taught us this, that and everything for ages to come.

When I come to think of it, Sister Rose is the Mother Superior of Cluny as I type this. And the last time I went to school I was able to meet only her in the evening. Maybe, that's how life goes one full circle in its own way. And that was the first and last time(so far) I saw Cluny in an evening, well past sunset that is. She looked gorgeous as always :)

Green being the color of our hearts, I somehow couldn't resist myself from finishing this post with the words that had been reigning us since the days we knew ourselves - the first part being what we all strive to be forever and the second part of it being the state that we (well! most of us at least) are in now - Loyal & Cheerful :)

An impromptu vacation = BAD IDEA

2010-08-11T11:57:00.014+05:30

That was the lesson learnt. And what taught me the lesson was a movie called 'Knight and Day'. This is not a review. Because it's full of spoilers anyway ;) SPOILER ALERT cum DISCLAIMER done. I can only figure out that this plot is the same as some 1970s eastman-color tamil movie. Still can't figure out the right movie. Now the story:

There was Roy Muller

who accidentally meets June Havens

twice in an airport. (No duet!! We are watching an Englipich padam)

In comes the ABC officer (Oh! Sorry! CBI officer... Oops! Sorry again! Engleech padam. FBI agent Fitzgerald ;))

who doesn't give Havens enough time to fathom the fact that she is going to fall head over heels in love with the mysterious Muller, who 'saves' her from anonymous villains, when she voluntarily runs into troubles. But then, this is 2010, heroines finally have six senses. So, unlike Saroja Devi, who is so fragile that she faints with a 'screaaaaam' on seeing a bad guy with a big mole and a well polished knife, Diaz has to be drugged all too often for Muller to show off his skills as a hero. Back to the story, ABC officer harasses Havens akka and Muller uncle again comes for her rescue with the tagline, 'Ei Bhaskhar! Mariyaadhaiyaaga avalai vittu vidu' missing though. But heroines still don't use their 6 senses. So Havens is perplexed. Is Muller a bad guy? Should she believe the ABC officer?

By the time she comes to a conclusion, more gun fights, more smoke, more poor graphics creep in and Muller takes Havens to a safe place with him.

((Ithaan andha safe place! But the island in the movie is too good. Maybe, one reason to watch the movie))

After enough knock-outs and watching the beautiful Havens sleep(Stop stop! No duet here too!!), Muller decides to confess the truth to June. He seems to guard a certain 'vilai-mathippillatha porul' (For the Tamil challenged - it means 'something precious')

and the heroine immediately grasps its value (or claims so). Again this being a 2010 English movie, 'vilai madippillatha porul' is too vague a term. So, the director splashes in some 10th Standard Thermodynamics, gives it a weird, not-so-easy-to-pronounce name, having made up his mind, that, our 'vilai-madippillatha-porul' must have 'Z' in it and vowels must be replaced by not so frequently used letters in English. But it all boils down to the 'vilai-madippillatha-porul' at the end. Its rightful owner also joins them and they escape. Yaarterndu nu laam ketka kudathu. Summa padatha paarungappa.

Meanwhile, few chota mota villains who are essentially dons also chase em. How did they find out their secret hideout? Well! That's the essential role that the heroine has to play in almost every second movie.

Havens is drugged again and the trio escapes and Havens wakes up to ask, 'Naan enga irukken?' Muller hides the rightful owner and the stupid heroine behind the rock, to go handle the enemies himself. Meanwhile, Havens is kidnapped by Don thatha and the rightful owner, by the ABC officer.

As it happens, ABC aapeecer is the bad man in good guy's boots. So Muller has to save the heroine and then the rightful owner (Priorities. Duh!!). But ABC aapeecer escapes with the 'vilai-madippillatha-porul'. But the rightful owner reveals that it is nothing more than the perfectly cut rock candies that his granny used to feed him, while he was a kiddo. And then Aal izz well!!

There were few things that differentiated an old tamil movie from 'Knight and Day'. Whether they worked to the latter's advantage or not is best left to the viewer's decision.

1) Eastman color
2) A side line of comedy usually played by veterans like Nagesh or Cho. Ramaswamy
3) 'Tent kottai intravel murukku'
4) An imdb entry.
5) The century and the language in which 'Knight and Day' was released.

Well!! My brother right away dismissed the movie, while we started watching it with these lines, "I guess, Tom Cruise is becoming Dr. Vijay of Hollywood". Hmmm!! I guess it's high time I started taking his inputs seriously before settling down for a movie.

P.S. : Intha post parthuttu, evanavathu entha partkavathu copyright infringement/defamation nu vandeenga, bad words pottu thittiduven!! Be careful!

Inception - Few reflections

2010-07-21T19:27:00.005+05:30

1) The world we live in is also a dream. And it is not really as complicated as it sounds. How did you come here in the first place? Hmm! quite honestly, we never know that single point that triggered an entire sequence of dreams. But hey, neither do we know, the answer in reality, let alone dreams. Do we? We might hear it from the rest of the world as to how we used to be while we were kids. But do, HAVE those 'real' memories? I, for a fact, cannot even pinpoint the first day I felt my presence, my existence in this world. So, does it just mean that my life is just my (or maybe someone else's) dreams really? Possible!! {{ Ok! I will keep the rest of the points simple !! Pinky Swear!! }}

2)The world can never never work the 'IDEAL' way. It needn't be as simple and straightforward as a If A then B. You know, It's complicated :)

3) Life after death needn't necessarily mean 'soul-less'. As a matter of fact it might be full of soul (or may be not).

4) Our grip to reality is not mere 'pinching'. Not always. And that doesn't necessarily mean that it must be anything significant. Yin Yang :)

5) Over time, you would feel like letting it all go.

6) The world is pretty unpredictable because it is an illusion - A dream that is beautifully 'designed' by the Supernatural for the theists and some crazy guy for the atheists.

7) What we call a 'spark' that leads to a tumultuous (to you or others) series of events needn't necessarily boom out of nothing. Not always!

8) We have all the time in the world to do whatever we want. (Only if we realize it)

9) IF small g is 0 and not 9.8 metre per second square, a wisely planned explosion can still create something close to a free fall.

10) Reality might just be an illusion (Irony!!)

11) Our goals may be huge/ our life may take a full turn. But the means to it will be something really insignificant. Something as insignificant as a toy windmill ;) . Moral of the story : Little things matter a lot.

12) One nice kick and you wake up to reality.

13) The lines between the so-called-reality, dreams and afterlife are way too thin.

14) It doesn't take a philosopher/ a scientist to explain all these. And it needn't be preached necessarily. It just takes a brilliant story teller. (read Christopher Nolan). Nor does it take more than 2.5 hours to make it all sound interesting.

15) You can get away with making a complete fool of your audience and still win laurels from them.

16) Wives can be a pain in dreams as well :P

And more...

Inception - A brilliant concept that is knit into a flawless 2 - 2.5 hours of awe. Wait!! Flawless?? Well! May be there were loops in the plot. Like Mal knowing Adriane beforehand not being explained, the zero gravity not being propagated to the inner layers of dreams and Cobb claiming that one can control one's dreams , though he never does it anywhere in the movie. Or wait! Does he?

And that precisely is the point where Nolan wins hands down. The audience were really uncertain about themselves :) And I already know people who are convinced that they were dreaming while watching the movie. To make a little more sense, may be the movie was some one's dreams. And if that's the case (and I so badly wish that it is), we can dismiss all the loopholes in the movie claiming that these are mere dreams of someone. And dreams, as we all know, needn't follow the rationale. That being said, whose dreams are these? Or rather, when will we get to watch the sequel?

P.S. : This is NOT a review. Because, I've watched the movie only once :)

-Sindhu

Yes!! I can write short posts too!

2010-07-04T13:07:00.004+05:30

I HATE PEOPLE WHO TALK BEHIND ONE'S BACK.

The Runaway Bride

2010-06-03T20:14:00.003+05:30

Ok! Am writing this out of sheer fury.

Yesterday, I had an ethically tough day in office and my mind was full of enough negative thoughts. I thought it was hightime I took a break (hold it - not a vacation - just a 10 minute break for a change of mood). And voila!! The 12 o clock syndrome. I thought I might go have my lunch, concentrate on the food for a change, distract myself for sometime and then come back. Guess what? I made the wrong choice of distraction. There are few idiot-walls (well! TVs that are part-plasma in nature) in my cafetaria and I chose to sit near the one that was telecasting the news. Not that I wanted to analyze and debate about politics. I just found the news title interesting (which, incidentally happens to be the title of the post). In case it was not obvious, it was about a woman, who ditched her fiance in the dias. Now, that's not news. That's commercial cinema.

But, the guy's reaction was. He sued her and that became news !!

Am I against the guy's reaction? A Loud and clear No

Am I going to discriminate guys and girls now and claim the latter to be better? Yes and No. Yes for the first part and no for the second ;)

Was that the part that actually made me furious?
Heck no!

As a matter of fact, I totally second the guy's decision. A really smart move, I would say. Of course, he would have felt cheated and he would want vengeance. And he shall of course have it. May be out of the same sheer fury, he might have sued her. I totally don't have a problem with that. And I am not going to support the woman, just because, she belongs to the same so-called-supreme-and-saintly-sex as mine.
I even liked one part of the way, he justified his action. Got the catch? The other part was the one, that sort of pissed me off. But the nice part first.

"If I had done the same thing, the law would have punished me. Why should she not be punished? Just because, she is a woman? I felt hurt and cheated too. Let the law be equal to both!"

Very true! Oh! Ditched fiance! Very true! When we talk about equal rights (Or wait! Is it still 33 %? ), we should by all means talk about equal duties or rather, equal punishments in your case, though you put it as equal law. Fair enough! Just because you are a guy and because you are capable of putting up a brave face, doesn't mean you cannot feel bad. And more than a girl Vs guy thing, it is more of a mistake. And no mistake must go unpunished. You've got all the rights to punish la belle dame sans merci.(Nalla vela! John Keats uyiroda illa ;)) And like I told you - because I kinda liked your justification, I am really not angry about this part.

But that which was unsaid must be explored too. What was it again? If you had done the same thing to her, the law would have punished you, by all means. Correct. But that would have come at the expense of the girl being portrayed as an unlucky lass and it would have become a bad omen and in the past decade, it would have been even worse. She might never get to be in the dias again. But what did you get in the same scenario? A little bit of limelight, and a section in a boring 12 o clock news and may be quite a few other lucrative offers from other desparate-wannabe-brides, maybe. THe scales are not exactly balanced as you claim. I was pissed off because, you casually overlooked these facts, when you made a statement like that . I was pissed off because, the media-framers have never taken this point while 'making' this news. (Yes! In the corner of my heart, I do believe that this news was cooked up. Just cooked up. Ans that's one another reason why I was pissed off ;)). Probably, a neutral point of view was the missing element in this news and that was the one that accelerated my fury.

Now that I have vented it all out, I guess it's hightime I told you how I finally got to distract myself to get going for the rest of the day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBHmqdjrlCI .Did not get to see the video. But the song was more than enough. My last resort to cheer myself up! Anyday! Anytime :) Especially 3:47 through 4:19

The music, the lyric, the theme, the ARR-PrabuDeva-Rajeev Menon jadoo - This song is just movie-perfect!

The Raindrop Spaketh

2010-05-30T21:05:00.012+05:30

It’s time. It’s time to dive deep into that big ball of blue and green and many other colours. And it’s time to bid goodbye to my friends. Well! Not a gang of 5 or 10. There are thousands and thousands of us and even more. We will all go fall into that gigantic sphere(They call it Earth) in another few seconds. We all chose our own paths and hence our destiny. The choices were abundant for us. And isn’t it a bliss to have choices in the first place? And we DO make decisions. After all, we are different from the rest in the sense that we have umpteen second chances (Feel the irony?), save a few, who voluntarily fall into the mouths of oysters only to end up getting imprisoned into the necks of the wives of those elite people, or the jewel boxes of the same wives.

And then there are these sorcerer friends of mine who fall into those beautiful lakes and play dirty tricks during sunrise on that poor greedy little dog who wants the non-existent bone too. But I know, they are rightfully punished by the thirsty stork who is not scared of his own graceful reflection, and they end up quenching his thirst by sunset.

And then there are Bully Joe and his boys, who usually join Ben, The Tantrum Throwing Wind and together, they uproot trees, destroy the rectilinear abodes of the creatures that live on our plaything. Those creatures (I think, they are called Homo sapiens or, wait, is it humans? Well! Whatever!!) are quite strange. They pride themselves for the senses that they are bestowed with, but do you know what they call Ugly Ben, Bully Joe and the rest? They use graceful names like Laila, Velma and Katrina to call these guys. Yuck!

And me? I fight! I fight the only constraint that is imposed upon me – To reach our plaything soon. I delay it as much as possible. I fall on mountain peaks and refuse to slide down. I know that I am destined to fall there someday. But hey! That’s all that you can impose on me. You gave me the constraints. Now I shall have my choices. I will reach that huge orb one day. You decided the ‘where’ part. Leave the ‘when’ part to me. For I AM THE LITTLE JACK WHO FIGHTS – who lives the life of a great warrior. I was clinging on to a small leaf tightly and am miraculously close to the land. One of Ugly Ben’s boys tried to tear me away from the leaf. But I will not give up. Well! Not yet at least!

I do know that I will fall. I will fail in this game for my faceless opponents are mightier and stronger than I am. But that’s just today. And I will not fail, without even giving it a try. And even if I fall, I will go up into the vast clouds again and try from the alpha. For I do know that one day, I will win this game. And that’s all I know. And all that I need to!

P.S. : In case it was not evident from the simple tone of the post, you are supposed to assume that the narrator (the raindrop) is just a kiddo ;)

SHE be the one

2010-04-09T22:05:00.005+05:30

She thinks:

'I am dying! I know!!', I was thinking to myself. 'Why does this girl still want to care for me? What is the purpose of my existence anymore? Why should she fight the Grim Reaper for me? Just because, I had protected her and nurtured her inside me, for ten months? Just because, I gave her the liberty to grow up into what she is today. But, why does she refuse to accept that there's a limit to everything - just like her mom (Ironically!) Ironically again, it was not my mom or dad or my brothers, or sisters. Not even my husband that I am thinking of now. It is this girl! Girl?. I was smiling to myself on the thought. She was a fully grown up lady now! Somehow, I am still comfortable with the idea of a girl. This girl, showed me how much of a pleasure, pain can actually be while she was born, showed me happiness when she made her first toddle, showed me what bliss was when she spoke first, showed me how good it felt to be proud by coming home with a first rank report card, made me conquer the unconquerable for her, made me feel eternal when she finally stumbled upon a nice guy for a husband (well! We made her stumble upon him! Nywayz!!), gave a purpose to my life, made me feel guilty by babysitting me few days back and what not? She had shown me everything that I might have never got to know, had it not been for her! What more does she want me to see?

She had been putting me in the comfort zone for a really really long time. Now it's payback time. I am going to do what might comfort her. Die a peaceful death that OUGHT TO BE apparent to her at least. And I don't care what it takes.

And this time, I smiled again. She is a grown up kid. She can make out what my smile meant. It's called P*E*A*C*E.

SHE speaks:

"She is dying! But I won't let her go!!", I was thinking to myself. "Come on mom! You can fight the Grim Reaper , again. I shall fight him for you!! Like you have not dealt with things before. You were the one who made me into what I am today. You just cannot call this the end and leave me just like that!". And I don't care about my son or daughter. Not even my husband now. Right now, I want you back. I turned to see her smiling. The mysterious smile that can inflict upon us a confidence, a courage, a positive feel. She was giving me the same smile now. You have taught me so many things. But that doesn't mean I have to deal with losses that can never be compensated. You cannot just go away, because you've felt proud of the little things that I have achieved or just because you feel that you might have been a pain in my ass for quite sometime. Mind you! That's not the way we were raised by you lady! You got me my soul mate, gave a purpose to my life, made me feel all too happy in the past few days, because I was able to repay you for all that you've been to me in some way and what not? You have shown me everything that I might have never got to know, had it not been for you. Now it's my turn. You just can't walk away from my life mom.

It's payback time. I must tell you how much I love you and how much I owe you. You simply cant.... Well! She's smiling! Again! That mysterious smile that I had never been able to define. Mom!! Mom!! I was losing a war! That bloody war with a Grim Reaper.

She (well..) thinks!!
My little girl is controlling her tears.
I am proud of her, as always* One tough day for her. For here I am, in my coffin. But hey, She needn't carry a burden around her for the rest of her life.

SHE Thinks:
You taught me to fight. Now I am fighting my tears. But never mind. I shall take our memories for the rest of my life. And in case you thought, you won't be a burden anymore, well! you are partly right mom! YOU will not be a BURDEN (you have never been!). But whenever our memories pop up, there is going to be a tinge of bitterness, for you will not be around. And that part is definitely a burden, in case you missed out.

Hmmm... Looks like no female blogger's blog is complete without a post about her mom. Mom!! In case you are reading this, YOU are the one and I've got something to tell you:
One day I will make you proud, just like how you made yours :)

-Sindhu

It's a kid's world

2010-04-02T20:36:00.003+05:30

Do you know, that even mistakes can be beautiful? That even meaningless and incoherent words actually sound like a fine work of poetry? Something that could beat the unparalleled mastery of the likes of Bard of Avon or John Keats? And guess when you would feel so!!

Guess 1 : When your girlfriend talks -- (Err... We are not talking commercial South Indian movies here)
Guess 2 : In my blog -- (Haha.. No no! I am in a serious mode cum mood now!! I am not planning to pull my own legs here!)

Clue :
குழல்இனிது யாழ்இனிது என்பதம் மக்கள்
மழலைச்சொல் கேளா தவர்.

Translation : He who hasn't listened to his own child prattle, claims the pipe and lute to be enchanting.

Stop guessing! That was spot on!! Kids talking :

Sample this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEBsqoOSG-E

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Z6pWhM6TA

And this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgcNMrUzK5o

I caught a kid next door singing Lavender blue nursery rhyme: Wasn't able to record it. My bad :( But here goes:

Lavender blue didi didi lavender green
Lavender red didi didi lavender cream
Yugoslavia didi didi bother the moon
Lavender blue didi didi lavender green.

I am just curious. What does lavender red look like??

One more by another kid : (Aahhh. The advantage of living in an apartment!!)

Tinkil tinkil littel star
Ovvai wander where you are!
The clock struck one
And the mouse ran down.
Ickary dickary dock!!

(Cocktail rhyme I guess ;))

Aawwwww!! Watching a child's lisp is a bliss!! What more can I say?

My (mis)adventures with Kannada

2010-03-11T22:41:00.001+05:30

Phew! "Summer has come and passed... Seven months have gone so fast!" (Green Day. Don't sue me! It's not worth it :P). Having been in Bangalore for the past eight months, I thought it's hightime I blogged about my (not-so-thrilling) adventures here. And sweet heavens! By the time, I've drafted this, it was all about the language. So , I made a quick title change.As easy as 123. Hehe!! Now of to the fun that Ms. S had talking this language.

Scene 1:

Now Kannada gifted S two words on the same day. ' Nilsi' and 'swalpa'. The former means stop and the latter roughly means 'a little'. Guess the obvious. She interchanged the words. Ms. S was talking her own terrible broken Kannada to a friend, while the friend asked, "Oh!! Kannada gotha?" (Aw! So you know Kannada, huh?)
Ms. S replied 'Nilsi nilsi gothu'. And to make matters worse, in a not-so-friendly tone. Lol! She later discovered the real meaning of 'nilsi' and the fact that she had actually sounded rude. Arey phir kya? She wanted to say, "Yeah! I know a bit of Kannada" but ended up saying something like "Enough! I know!!" (Phew! What attitude :P )

Scene 2:

Ahem! Ahem! Thanks to Kannada ! Ms. S won a bet ;)

Ms. S faced a challenge once against Ms. J

J : Gimme 5 proper sentences in Kannada.
S : Uhmm.. Oh k!!
J : Shoot
S : Ashwakthaagide !! (I actually was feeling hungry!!)
J : Fine. That's just one word. But still it's a complete sentence. And sort of, grammatically right too!! so awryt!! One down. Next!!
S : (giggles!!)
J : Heyy.. What sort of a reaction is this? Like you are going to tell me 'I love you' in Kannada. What next?
S : Err.. Thumba ashwakthagide!
J : (Casts a nasty stare!!)> NEXT??
S : Thumba thumba ashwakthaagide :P
J : **censored** [Bad words pottu thittitta .. hehe]

P.S. : Yeah! Ms. S won the bet without actually making 5 sentences ;)

Scene 3:

Ms. S practises her broken Kannada throughout the day. It so happened, that she framed two proper sentences once, a bit loudly at Hopcoms :P :P !! She lives in an area, where Tamilians outnumber Kannadigas. And as luck would have it, the lady next to her ended up talking something on the lines of, "Oh!! You are a Kannadiga? That's really nice!! Here there are so many Tamilians that sometimes I feel like I might forget Kannada! Yada Yada.. something something aagide. Something something beku! some thumba something hogitwa?". 120 seconds of nonstop Kannada. And all that the lady finally received was an "Ashtu Kannada gothilla" from Ms. S . Haha! You should ve seen the lady's face then!! Poor thing !!

Scene 4:

This was a prank played by someone Ms S hardly knows :( Ms. S listens to music in even the most unfathomable set of languages, that includes Zulu, Korean, etc). Do you think, she would spare Kannada? I dunno if curiosity ever killed the cat, but it did play big time, with S. There is this particular peppy number in Sandalwood that caught her attention. She was told 'Chitranna' means 'darling'. Well!! Listening to the song, (which was meaningless anyway ;) ), Ms. S thought it perfectly made sense. Yeaohhhh!! And later some time, she heard few verses like, "Chitranna thinthey" (What!! He gobbled up his darling?!?!?! Barbarian idiot!! - Or so she thought!!) After listening to similar phrases, she kinda confirmed what chitranna actually meant. For people who dunno Kannada, please stop making guesses. You are not even close!! Chitranna actually means 'LEMON RICE'. Can you believe it?? Lemon rice!! Of all the words in this vast galaxy, S had assumed Lemon rice to be darling!! Aarghhhhhh!!

Just so you know, Miss S still had her doubts as to who was actually playing the prank part. She had confirmed the translation of Chitranna at 3 different occasions. But she still has her doubts. Hehe!!

Scene 5:

As luck would have it, this took place in Chennai, sometime back!!

Few background information here :

1) Ms. S can speak Kannada that was good enough to take an auto and give the driver the directions that he needed(IF she knows the place that is!), by then.
2) Chennai auto drivers are known for a certain kind of slang, that Tamilians fondly call 'Madras Baashai'. None, I mean NONE can outsmart em while talking this language. And they are actually smart people who act dumb (if you know, what I mean!)
3) S grew fond of Kannada too ;)

And mind you, this took place in Chennai!!

S: Purasaiwakam hogu beku (As, luck would have it, beku in Kannada means want/need and in Tamil, it means a fool.)
AutoDriver : Innathu bekha? Neenga thanniyum kudukka mateenga, bekhu num thittuveenga!! Inna thimira?......
S : (Damn it!! You are in Chennai!!) Ayyo. Bekilla boss! bekilla!! Aala vidunga!!

End of the adventures. Aeno? Saakaitha? Smile maadi, mazaa maadi. Everything maadi! Till I meet you with an English post(which I bet, will be way better than my not-so-broken Kannada ;) )!!

-Sindhu

Save the Tigers

2010-02-23T13:51:00.006+05:30

A bunch of school girls having the time of their day, a middle aged lady who cannot stand their noise, a little child begging for alms and a silent observer is not a rare scene in the ladies compartment of an electric train during a morning.

Well! The people are not. But the actions are.

This good old lady was too busy cribbing about how such young girls were becoming intolerable nowadays. She was scorning at those young girls and eventually on the little child who came begging for money. The poor child walked further down towards the schoolgirls. These girls were now looking at each others' face and one of them finally pulled out a plastic cover from her bag, while the rest of them took out their lunch boxes. The cover was quickly filled with little amounts of eatables of various forms that they've saved for their lunch! The girl with the plastic cover carefully sorted them all and the little child had enough food for the day. The satisfactory smiles on the girls' faces said it all! And the silent observer was secretly happy for the girls when the middle aged lady was dumbfounded (by shame?!?!).

Pause there!! This is not a rare scene too, huh? Read on!!

The little child, once it reached the platform, was searching for someone, who turned out to be another kid, of her age. She smiled at the new kid and there they were! Sitting under a tree to share what they got. It seemed that the child did not give a damn about the fact that she might have got more food for the day had it not been shared! May be, the world is still a good place to live in !

End of what I wanted to say! And on the title note, I just thought that many bloggers are out there saving the tigers. So I thought I might contribute something in advance to the next most endangered entity - humanity and hence this post.

There's a place in your heart and I know that it is love
And this place could be much brighter than tomorrow
And if you really try, you'll find there's no need to cry
In this place you'll feel there's no hurt or sorrow

There are ways to get there
If you care enough for the living
Make a little space. Make a better place...

-Sindhu

During the pre-blogging days !

2009-12-24T15:04:00.002+05:30

Story Time

2009-12-02T14:24:00.002+05:30

The Nameless Story

It happened eons back. I was a child, who refused to accept the fact that I am one (Even back then!!). I didn't have too many chances to prove it, though they did come on the way. And I , for one, made sure I grabbed every single one of them. There was one such opportunity that stopped by during one of those long, tiresome train journeys to my nanny's place. You know how Indian trains are like. And you know how the Indian scenery is like (Back in the1970s of course). So it was even.

An American* 40-something woman who was wearing a long skirt was fiddling with a cube with six different colors. From the way she was struggling with the plaything, I was able to figure out what she was trying to do. Back then I did not know it was called the Rubik's cube. I was eager to offer her some help. I wasn't any great at strategy building, delivering the result or understanding the customer requirements completely. But good for me, I did not know, any of these jargons either. All I knew was I must align these six colors in the right spot and all I had was the curiosity and the prove-my-mettle mindset. Sounded easy, thence!!

The lady spotted my staring at the 6-odd-colored-cube. She smiled - a courteous, yet pleasant one -and that gave me enough courage to ask a not-so-confident 'Can I?' . My mom cast a stare. I wish I were a grown up, so that she stops staring at me!! I know what that stare means : 'You are not supposed to talk to strangers' or maybe "You cannot poke your nose into other's business" or may be a plain 'Don't act smart. You are spoiling the image of Desis all over India'(!!!!!), or well, whatever. But it was too late. The Rubik's cube was already in my hands.

I set to work. Don't expect me to describe what I did because, I was so involved into what I was doing that I did not take some time to remember what the moves were. But then, after a half an hour struggle, Well!! I was not successful - not completely at least. I had sorted out one color - red.(Since then it had become my favorite color!) I knew what the final result was too. So the colors on the sides of 'the red face' were also aligned. I was almost done with green , but could not proceed any further.

My bad!! I was about to make a frown, while to my surprise, I saw 2 things: 1) the skirt-wearing-40-something-old-American-woman was amazed 2) *glee* was the expression in my mom's face. The lady exclaimed: "How did you do it?" I struggled a lot to finish one side. But you are on the verge of completing 2 sides. That's.. That's amazing!! What is your name again sweetheart?"

I never told her my name earlier. Moreover, I am not used to being addressed sweetheart or addressing others sweetheart, because I did not know in what context it was to be used,exactly and I was told it was a bad thing to say(!!!!!!); But nevertheless I told her my name - confidence building up in every syllable. But I have already given up. I cannot proceed further, I thought.I did not know that this in itself was an achievement - for a little girl of my age (Needless to say, I hate that tag - every single word of it). But yes! That day, they still thought I was a kid. But then, they also realized that I had begun to grow up. Nice!!Something is better than nothing after all!!

That was at some 1973 and I was some 12 years old.

Yesterday, I and my husband had taken our 8 year old daughter , Layaa to Kids Kemp to keep her preoccupied with something, while we were away at work, especially tomorrow, for she will be having a holiday and we won't be.(I wish I were young again, so that I get some more free time!) We did not want her to feel left alone. While we were in one section - The Barbie doll section, Layaa ran across the floor to the other end and pulled out a little cube from somewhere at the other corner. It was a Rubik's cube.Well!! I was not surprised. It was her choice and we gave her some space (which we were deprived of at our childhood or so we thought!!) and let her make her own decision. We did some more shopping and left.

That was yesterday.

I was just recollecting these memoirs (in the same order) while my hubby was driving me to my office. Today morning, to my surprise(read, well may be, horror!) I saw this : Layaa had broken the Rubik's cube into individual pieces!! I was rushing to my office and did not have time to bubble up enough anger to tell her the value associated with each and everything on earth. Now that I am in our car aaraam se, of course,Come to think of it. .Well!! Wait!! Oh fish!!I forgot to get my mobile. And in 10 minutes time, I was rushing back to my home, while my hubbie was busy ranting, on how worse the traffic is going to be., all because of the 15 minute delay that I had caused. I picked the mobile from the table at the hall, and something caught my eye.

Layaa was inserting back those individual pieces into the right spots, and she was almost done. I was staring at the completely solved Rubik's cube, marveling at MY daughter's lateral thinking, wondering how she happened to establish her mettle - even before I could get some time to point out that she was still a kid, totally stumped by the fact that she had already finished it and moved to something else that had caught her attention, like this was no big deal. But the blaring horns hardly gave me any time to decide which reaction of mine am I supposed to reveal.

All I managed to do was, shout back a 'Coming Sweetheart' and rush towards the door, with my mobile and a smile - the proud smile of a mom.

* On those days, any fair, non-saree-wearing lady was considered American, no matter what her nationality actually was.

Tagged - Long Back!!

2009-10-18T15:58:00.006+05:30

Wait a minute for two minutes. There's already a tag in pending. Last year tag pannathu!! Found it out just now and I thought I can do this one too!!

Rules : Type in 20 people's names in random and answer the questions that follow!!

Sowmya (Cuz)
Santhosh
Anija
Preethi
Shalini
Arthy (Schoolmate)
Subashini
Mythili
Arthi (Colleague)
Anierutha
Arafat
Mohan
Kishore
Vignesh
Padhu
Madhu
Vivek
Prabha
GeethaPriya
Sowmya (Senior)

How did you meet 14?
At NSN. He is a colleague. Got to know through my other friends.

What would you do if you have never met 1?
I might still be searching for a friend, with whom I can share almost EVERYTHING in my life. I might have still been an introvert! I wouldn't have got into blogger's world in the first place (Inspiration ;)!!) I wouldn't have been comfortable with the Chennai Lingo. I might have never got to read some really good books. Wouldn't be listening to Eminem today. Loads and loads of might and might have not beens!! And most importantly, I won't be blogging this post today (She was the one who tagged me this long long back!! hehe) Luvya Somsie :) :)

What would you do if 20 and 9 dated?
Arthi and Sowmya Senior?!?! Err.. I might sing, Maa da ladla bigad gaya :P

Did you ever like 19?
Who wouldn't like GP? Shez loadsa fun to be with. She is the one who is making all my trips back home, not so boring!! A very good companion :)

Would 6 and 17 make a good couple?
Hahaha.. Uhm!! Why not? Opposite poles attract or so they say! So yes! (Or may be no!! Whoops!! Make it I don't know!!)

Describe 3
Cakewalk to me!! Excerpts from the testi that I wrote for her, a year back:

Our friendship started 'just like that'. Infact,if your definition of friendship stops wid hangin out 2gether, chattin everythin beneath the sun, well yes, we are a bit of that too, but more importantly, we've stood up for each other in times of need. This femme's a 100% pack of innocence (well!! not really), malloo n geeky traits, Nd guess how she starts saying a secret! SINNDhu, DOO You know one THing?(Stress on tha capitalized letters, yo’ll get d way, she actually 'sings' a secret.) Lolz! Btw,she olarifies compilers while SLEEPING, wonders if shez made any 'kutram' (Ahem! Ahem!! I’m not finishin the full sentence juz to maintain some decorum here),n rocks when it comes to being a Class Rep!(Once again, Ahem Ahem!). Jokes apart, I admire her for her malloo slang, the way she stands up for wot she believes in.

Do you think 8 is attractive?
Yes! In ways too many!!

Tell me something about 7
Subbbbuuuuuu. .Schoolmate *Glees*. Infact haven't talked to her much during schooldays. We happened to be in sister colleges and we've had laods and loads of fun ever since. I've never felt left alone in CEG coz she used to be around. A happy go lucky chap with so much enthu about things that you might never imagine, 24*7 chatterbox, the one who you can be with . A friend for a lifetime!! She's still in touch!! And most importantly, she takes all those silly-billy FB quizzes, Farmville queen, but a dedicated workaholic (!!) . Fun personified - that's Subashini for you!!! She's too good to be true!!

Do you know any of 12's family?
Nopz

What's 18's favourite?
Her mobile. God only knows, what she has in it. She stares at it, pretty much everytime.

What's 11's specialty?
Uhm.. May be, making Dosa.!! On a serious note, quoting some scientific facts at the right (or not so right) time!!

Who is 9 going out with?
Haha. Sollatta Arthi!??!

How old is 16 now?
23

When was the last time you talked to 13?
Must be the last working day at NSN - During Lunch Time. He'z part of the Lunch time gang(8 thru 14) again!!

Who's 2's favourite band/singer?
Actually it is ARR and BackStreet Boys. But ask him and he'll modestly tell you that he is his own favorite singer!! (Ahhh.. The typical Leon pride of a typical younger brother!!)

Would you date 4?
If I had been a guy yes!! (Preethi is such a nice gal to be with! My X roomie) If she was a guy, yes again!! (You can count on her for sure, and that is what every girl looks for in a guy, right?!?)

Is 15 single?
Padma is single. As far as I know!!

What's 10's last name?
C ;)

Which school does 3 go to?
3 used to go to school. Not anymore. Once upon a time, she used to go to a school called Sacred Heart, if I am not wrong!!

Where does 6 live?
She is in Chennai now :(

What's your favourite thing about 5?
Chaalu' smile and her bachi-jaisi voice. I used to like her specs too - the Preity Zinta kind, black metallica!! She'z not using em anymore.

Finnnnnnnyyyyyyy!! Soms!! I hope you are not pissed off!! I really din't see that you've tagged me!! Now, I am tagging.. Well!! : This time only Prithi!!

Ho ho VengaBoys (Title's misleading btw!!)

2009-10-18T14:33:00.007+05:30

Blog Tags are always fun. Especially the ones like this - you know, the ones that don't require too much thinking. So, this is the tag game:

Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, IPOD etc. on shuffle.
For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
Tag friends.

Ok.. Done!! Now the tag part: (Forenote : I am not responsible for the answers. I am just playing by the rules)

1. If someone asks you, "are you okay" you say:

The only thing that looks good on me is you --> Bryan Adams (lol! My turn to ask , 'Are you ok?!?!' hehe.. But please read the forenote!!)

2. How would you describe yourself ?

Khabar nahi --> Dostana (What a filloshophical anshar!!)

3. What do you like in a guy/girl ?

Love Story --> Taylor Swift (Hehe!!)

4. How do you feel today ?

If the world crashes down --> Cry Babe Enrique Iglesias

5. What is your life's purpose ?

Human Nature --> Madonna (Out of Synch - the question and the answer)

6. What's your motto ?

Escape -->Mr Cry Babe again (Yeah rite!! Escaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappe!!!)

7. What do your friends think of you ?

Enthan Nenjil neengatha thendral neethana -->KJ Yesudhas (Hi!! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You . TRANSLATION : You are the breeze that never leaves my heart ;) )

8. What do your parents think of you ?

When You are Gone --> Bryan Adams ( :( :( )

9. What do you think of often ?

PaperCut --> Linkin Park

10. What is 2 + 2 ?

18 ;) Till I die --> Bryan Adams (Enda Bryan, Un timing Sense ah thooki kuppaila poda!! -- roughly means : Curse your timing sense Bryan!!)

11. What do you think of your best friend ?

You are the one for me - Get Down --> BSB

12. What is your life story ?

Jee le --> Luck (haha.. Kinda yes!!)

13. What do you want to be when you grow up ?

Aayirathil Oruvan --> ARR (Yeah!! Next to MGR and Mohan Lal!! Lol!! Translation : One in a Thousand!!)

14. What do you think when you see the person you like ?

Taal Se Taal Mila

15. What will you dance to at your wedding ?

We like to Party --> VengaBoys (Haha!! Imagine my inlaws(to be)'s reaction when they get a bahu, who likes to party!! ;) )

16. What will they play at your funeral ?

Haule Haule ho jaayega pyar --> Rab Ne (Ada Paavigalaa!! Pick up panna en funeral thaan kedachuthaa!! My bad!! TRANSLATION : Something like, she will slowly fall in love!!)

17. What is your hobby/interest ?

Skater Boi --> Avril Lavigne (Skater Boi - my interest!! Yevavan?!?!)

18. What is your biggest fear ?

How does she know you love her --> Amy Adams (lol!! Bayapda vendiya vishyam thaam!!, meaning, a fact worth fearing )

19. What is your biggest secret ?

En Vaanile, Orey vennila -->Ilayaraja (Shecretuu!! TRANSLATION : Only one moon in my sky)

20. What do you want right now ?

The Cup of Life --> Ricky Martin

21. What do you think of your friends ?

Maayeri --> Euphoria

22. When you want to rush to the toilet, what do you think ?

Galway Girl --> Steve Earle

23. The person you hate the most is in front of you, what will you tell the person ?

Roop tera Mastana (lolllllllll !! Roop tera, mastanaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)

24. You have just won a lottery. What will you sing ?

Too Many Fish --> Frankie Knu

25. What will you post this as?

Ho ho VengaBoys (Done!!!!)

I tag Sowmya and Prithi (Music freaks again!) and ppl who find this interesting!!

The Forgotten Pursuit of HappYness

2009-10-15T10:49:00.012+05:30

Highly inspired by this video (Thanks to my cuz!!), I thought I can spin up something on achieving our childhood dreams, but chucked that idea out immediately. I did not like that 'spinning up' part.

Hmmm.. Let us see. I am certainly nowhere near achieving my 'childhood dream'. But what about others? Did everyone really wish to be what they actually are today? (Isn't the answer obvious?!?!) Well!! I kinda got numerous responses (few really interesting ones). Here is a compilation of few childhood dreams, that I stumbled upon recently!!

Become a doctor (Not one, but way too many)

Do my own business
What business?
That I did not decide back then.

I wanted to be Sachin Tendulkar (Interesting!! He did not say cricketer)

Me?? Uhmmmm!! Uhmmmm!!! (One of the typical Karan Johar movie characters!! This girl!!)

I wanted to represent India in F1.

I wanted to get into fashion designing!! (This girl is kinda on track for your info)

Me?? I wanted to run my own band and play some great music, perform live concerts, and so on!

I wanted to start a playschool.

That I did no!! But ever since I was a child, I was imagining, that I will step down from a really big car .. Uhm !! What car? That I dunno. but it was a huuuuge, shining one.. Yeah! I will step down from the car and sign autographs and walk faster than a normal person would, with so many securities around and I was a really busy person in my dreams ...... (Nice!!)

Hmmm...ok...when I was a child , my dream was to be like my dad!!!...as in i thought he was of some super hero kind!!! I would imitate him!!!!...but now things r different!!!!

I wanted to take up medicine.. And a house near the beach..

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... Nothing!!

Scientistuuuu

I wanted to be some Chief Minister or some head or someone like Mother Teresa. Oh hey I forgot!! I wanted to be a tribal girl too!! :)

Ok!! Looks like most (if not all) of them, have moved on, accepting life as it comes!! And most dreams remained dreams(some forever). And there were few people who really are in pursuit of their dreams(read happYness - but isn't it implicit? ). And the best part? Well!!Most of them were atleast able to give the dream a little space in their busy world - which means, those desires, those goals, those anything still have a chance to become true after all !! ONLY if you can really go for it, breaking any barricades though.

Last Minute Update : On that very last line, going for it, breaking the barricades, it is not an impossible feat - which I discovered here. (Sent by the same cuz. Yin Yang!!!)

I hate losing bets

2009-10-03T14:55:00.005+05:30

I was so damn bored yesterday. I was ready to do pretty much ANYTHING to come out of this dumb dumb phase. By bored, I mean this : Kinda routine monotonous day. And in my effort to overcome this, I was having a chat with my lil bro (He is not exactly little) . You know, if you are bored, just pass on the boredom to some other scapegoat. Seriously!! It works, Big time ;) Watch this:

ForeNote : For the Tamil- Challenged, I am sorry, I can't post this in English for reasons that will become obvious to the non Tamil Challenged so soon :)

Me : Dei, bore adicha ennada panve?
Bro : (Giving a look like, Aarambichittiyaa? Epdi naan unkitte correct ah matreno?!?!) Ennathu?
Me : Unakku romba bore adikkithu !! Enna panve?
Bro : Summa iruppen (I was expecting this!!)
Me : Summa irunthaa bore adikkumey da!! (Part of passing the boredom. Torturing the scapegoat over and over)
Bro : Enna olarre!! Ayyo 16/2. pochu po!! (Aussies Vs England match)
Me : Solraa....
Bro : Summa irunthhaa eppidri bore adikkum? Jolly ah irukkum.
Me : Seri! Apdiyum bore adikkithu nu vechikko. Enna panve??
Bro : *He casts a nasty look by this time*. Seri!! Summa angayum ingayum olathhuven.
Me : Hmmm.. Apdiyu..
Bro : Naan padikkanum!!
Me : Kizhicha. Kaalailernthu Naruto parthutrikkey. Ippo padichi enna panna pore? Enakku bathil sollu.
(He knows I'm impossible. So he tries his level best to 'escape' without hurting me. After all, I don't visit home all too often and hence, Mom's decisions will obviously be biased, in favor of me. This boy can foresee things. And hence that without hurting me clause ;) )
Bro : Mmmm?? Oru sottai thalaiyan irukkaan. Avana mathiri 20 varusham inorganic chemistry la research pannittu book ezhuthu. Neethaan blog laam ezhuthriye?
Me : Ethukku, neengallaam enna thitrathukka?
Bro : Appo kuda ennaala nimmathi ya unna thitta mudiyaathu, Kudavey iruppiye !! Vera nu ketkaatha. Naane solren. Bowling pannuven.
Me : Ball illanaa?
Bro : Naan ball ah vechittu bowling pannuvennu unta sonnenaa? Summa poduven!
Me : Seri... Vera?
Bro *This time, his looks are suggestive of Vidamaattiye!!*. Bat ...
Me : Vera?
Bro : Iru iru.. solla vidu! Bat eduthu summa suthu suthu nu suthuven. Ethu kittayavathu fast ah kondu poven. Aprom niruthuven. Thiruppi fast ah kondu poven. Thiruppi niruthuven. Pothumaa? Bore eh adikkathu !!! (Deep down he screams, Vittu tholaiyen!!)
Me : .....
Bro : Atha mukyamaa amma munnadi pannu. Amma ku BP eghirum. Ithukku melayum bore adikkumaa enna?
Me : Dei athu danger daaa!! Ethu melayaavathu pattu velai veikkum. Vera sollu.
Bro : Nee ethukku kashta pattu reason laam solre. Simple ah, vera nu ketta sollittu poren. Epdiyum nee vida porathilla!!
Me : Hehe
Bro : Unakku enna thaan prechna?
Me : Seri. Atha vidu. Nee sonna bat idea vaye implement panrennu vechippom. But en veetla, things romba illa da, kitta kondu poi sutharthukku :(
Bro : Athaan veetla innum 3 peru irukkangalla. Avangala thorathi thorathi adi. Enna paduthaatha!!
Me : Avangalaiyaa?
Bro : Aamaam. Un thollaikku athuvey thevala nu avangalum neneppaanga!!
Me : Seri Vera?
Bro : (You know Netrikkan?? Not the Rajini movie. THE Netrikkan. By now, my bro opened it!! His face was too red to take any more sips of my boredom syrup.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(After sometime!!)

Bro : Ethukku thideernu enna apdi torture panna konja neram munnadi?
Me : Sonnene!! Semayaa bore adichithu. Athaan un patience level enna nu test pannen. Why? Any problem? (I was asking it seriously!! :P)
Bro : Ketka matte!!! Naalaikku mattum naan test la kammi mark eduthen nu vei, unakku irukku.
Me : Thoda. Nee match parthathu, Naruto velaiyaadnathu ellam entha kanakkula edutthuppe? Gandhi kanakkulayaa? Haha. Naan itha blog panna poren (Inga thaan, ennoda Sani Peyarchi kanna pinna nu velaiyaadidichu. En vaaithaan ennoda Kshathru nu enakku late ah purinjathu)
Bro : Pannu. Oorukkey en nelamai theriyattum.
Me : Mudiyaathu poda.
Bro : Seri, innikki naan match parkala naa, naalaikku itha blog panre.
Me : Correct usage , blog la post panre. Blog panre illa :P
Bro : Ithukku onnum korachal illa. Apdiye, blog panre, itha!!
Me : Deal!! Nee match parka kudathu. Innikiki Friday, So Naruto Episodes padikka kudathu. Antha mokkai game um velaiyaada kudathu. Ok vaa?
Bro : Seri Ok!! Aanaa apdiye post pannanum.
Me : Panren!!

P.S. You guessed it. My stupid little brother won the bet. So here I am , forced to be a woman of words :( :(

The Journey Home is Never Too Long

2009-10-02T11:37:00.002+05:30

You are in a bus (traveling alone) and are fast asleep. The bus waits for a train to cross. It is sometime past midnight. What do you do?

Talk to yourself (("Shit Mann!! Why do these trains take so much time?"))
After waking up with a shudder, start cursing the driver or someone for reasons that is not clear even to you.
Or much worse, rant about the mode of Transportation in India, their flaws,inefficiency to the fellow next seat. The 'Why don't they change?' kind.
Get out of the bus for a quick smoke/a drink/ wodeva.
Where am I?!?!?!?!
You don't even wake up. You are sound asleep!! (That is the best of all the options)
Take a deep breath and enjoy the fresh air that brushes your hair, and then that of the fellow behind and on and on. (But seriously, do people have time for htat?!?!)
Pull your mobile to text your friend/loved one something like Am waiting at a railway crossing :-( :-( :-( .
Where are the biscuits (or anything else @ hand reach) that I bought at the last stop?
Face wash!!
Discuss world politics with the neighbor.
Turn the music on (As if, it was switched off earlier ;). But never mind!!)
Paranoia fills you in and you start checking if your wallet is safe, if your Purchased-coz-I-got-an-incentive-Nokia-mobile safe, etc,etc,etc.

Even if you are with family or friends, the options don't vary too much. You might talk to them, fight with them, etc, etc. And when the train comes, you will have your *Sigh!! Finally!!* moment when the bus begins to move. Pause there! Rem'ber what you did as a child? Or have you ever got to see what a child does?

Count the number of compartments in the train.
Pester his/her dad with infinite questions about a train.
Wave at the teleporting people inside the train.
((And what not?? There is so much to explore, so much to ask, so much to gape at - needless to add, on those days))

Everyone loves to be a kid - as in, go back to childhood (with a *good riddance* feel, if I might add); Only God knows what prevents them from doing so. We live in a world where growing up has been (erroneously) denoting toughening up to meet the dirty world. Hmmm.. May Be - but that, most assuredly, is NOT the complete definition, for it doesn't tell us what growing up does NOT mean. So, here goes, my version! Growing up does NOT mean losing the kid in ourselves for eternity. I feel the right way to grow up is to allow the kid in you to stay - forever. Why not? You can still count the compartments in a moving train. Who the hell is preventing you from it? At least that way, you don't rant about the so called flawed world around you to people around. Growing up WITH the kiddy-you gives you a chance to be nice to others, to make this world a better place to live. And that's just an opinion.

Oh, on that note, somehow, my comp can predict my moods much better than I can. It was screaming out Bryan Adams' 18 Till I Die. Oh!! Man!! It would have been a perfect fit had it been --- let's say--- 6 Till I die. I wish!!

P.S. On the title, mine is around 8 hours long. What's yours ;) ??

This Post is So Moronic That It Doesn't Deserve a Title!!

2009-09-30T10:57:00.001+05:30

A note before you peep into this post. This link came into my mailbox longback and the content itself is kinda bullshit. So I thought I can post it per se. If someone is really interested in getting a glimpse of my future (even more than I do), go ahead, give it a shot! It might give an aura of Professor Trelawney's class though ;) And like I said, the content is absolute crap!! Don' t tell me I did not warn you!!

Dear Sindhu

!!!!!!!!!Shtart MEEZIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the weeks to come, spectacular changes are going to turn your whole life around. I therefore must advise extreme caution because it would be dangerous to ignore this warning of destiny.

Wogay!! Wot else??

This is why, without waiting for your permission, I have attempted to find out more and therefore I performed for you, Sindhu a string of Mystical Beneficial Occult Aid Ceremonials. --->

Rem'ber the Trelawney warning? "I see S*P*I*R*I*T*S!"

---------------------------
------Blah Blah Blah------
---------------------------

Believe me, I simply had to do it, there was no other way. If I am determined to continue for you these very complex and dangerous Occult Ceremonials, it is because I sense that something new and very special (even dangerous) may happen in your life very soon. --->

At this point, I am beginning to think,
0.5 Chennai Beach's Palm Reader + 0.5 Sivagami Computer Josiyam = Sara Freder!!

Indeed, these Mystical Beneficial Occult Aid Ceremonials gave me an insight into your life.

-------------------------------Blah Blah Blah -----------------------------------

The first of these images came from your fairly distant past, and the others from your near future, where tremendous beneficial changes are awaiting you. Yes, Sindhu I can tell you the exact cause of your present problems and, above all, I can say that we are able to act so that luck, love, and money triumph in your life. I think this is very important for your future, and I think this is particularly important to you!

But before saying anything else, I must absolutely tell you something else about yourself and reveal certain hidden aspects of your past that led you to the difficult life you are living today, for it is true that all your hardships today come from your past.

If, above everything else, I am insisting on your past, it is because a life-changing negative event happened then. It is paramount that we diminish the power of this wicked incident and relieve you of the psychological pressure you are suffering today.

I have perceived that this negative event occurred on the day of your 13^th birthday. I don’t know whether you can recall it. You were among your family and you thought everyone was your friend. One of those people, jealous at you and your family, acted very rashly and inflicted a very deep wound on your soul. However, at the time, you tried to forget the incident and put it behind you. But it never went away; it left a deep imprint in your memory and it is very likely one of the main reasons behind your problems today!

Hmmm!! My memory is still intact! And most of my BDays were pretty normal - like any other typical Indian BDay! This 13th BDay was no exception!

Indeed, since your 13^th birthday your personality has changed. Today you are a different person than before that evil incident. Anxiety has taken the upper hand in your soul, once filled with energy and joy. Your passionate nature, your immense sensitivity have been impounding on your relationships with the others. Some people know your weak points all too well, they often use them and sometimes abuse them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, Sindhu tremendous opportunities have been offered to you in those proposals you chose to refuse.

Aama!! America la Michael Jackson kooptaaga, Japan la Jackie Chan kuptaaga!!

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This is the best of the crap - the one that follows!!

Let me know about your most urgent problems (feelings, money, relationships), let me know what major changes you hope to accomplish in your life (a gambling win, an interesting encounter, a new situation...) and about anything else that you desire!

As soon as I receive your Confidential Personal Questionnaire, I will be able to continue the Mystical Beneficial Occult Ceremonials.

And you are about to witness spectacular changeovers happening in your life

- First of all, you will find that people you see every day, who haven’t been paying the slightest attention to you, will start looking at you differently...

- Then, you will notice better luck in anything you do. You will succeed in things where you used to fail before. This is going to be the first sign that the course we have taken is beginning to bear fruit.

- Just weeks afterwards, I would encourage you to buy a lottery ticket to test your new LUCK. But don’t do anything within the first 15 days, because it is then that I am going to perform something very special for you. I am going to take action to help you settle your most serious financial problems.

By this time, I had googled Sara Freder's image, and guess what was missing?!?! An instrument that gives you the perfect BGM while someone is making a prediction - especially about one's life. Back home, the instrument is called Kudukuduppai ;). But, she had a crystal ball instead!!

And if love is what you miss, you will see love unexpectedly pouring into your life... If it’s friendship and company that you crave for, you will witness scores of people coming to you and seeking your presence.

Yes, I promise you, after these mystical ceremonials I am going to perform for you, your life will never be the same again and you will cry out in amazement: OH! Miracle!

ROTFL!!!!!!!

But remember, Sindhu
it is NOW that we must act...

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I am truly counting on you and I an eagerly waiting for you to return your Confidential Personal Questionnaire. Remember that time is running against us and every minute counts.

This is why I am urging you to act now

I embrace you from all my heart and as I wait to hear from you, please accept my deepest regards.

Free of Cost!! Sara Freder's deepest regards :P

Your devoted and sincere friend,

Sara Freder

P.S. : This is by far my quickest post, for all it took was a Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V with few insertions and deletions here and there!!

Omens and Auguries

2009-08-10T16:15:00.006+05:30

Long time! But tis a short post.

There was this girl who was listening to her geography classes way back at 1999 (A.D. of course), in a typical suburb school. The teacher was recalling an incident which goes on like this:

There was a young boy who seemed to have marked Texas wrongly in the US map during one of those Map tests conducted in the school. This guy happened to settle at Texas, a few years later. And he had quoted this incident to the Geography M'am (or wait, during school days there were no mams right?? It was Miss, no matter what the 'Miss's' marital status was). The Geography Miss in turn makes it a point to quote it to her students.

Now, it so happened that this young little girl, who could listen to Geography classes with utmost concentration (?!?!), took this message to her heart. And hey, she took something else to her heart too. She had marked Chicago wrongly in the past test. Voila !! Good Omen! May be she might settle down in Chicago sometime ;) And blimey, she hasn't seen Chicago in her lifetime, nor was she impressed by scenes of Chicago in TV shows that were telecasted back then. But she was fascinated for no reason - or may be , because she will settle in a far far away land, that is so different from the town that she was used to (if you might consider that a reason!)

But, ironically, she has been away from home for 4.5 long years, sometimes here and sometimes there, but never at Chicago! And of course, she is grown up and does not believe in jinxes or auguries anymore. But it does not hurt to be a child once in a while, does it?

So, here she is, wondering in which map test did she mark, Chennai and Bangalore wrongly!?!?!?!
Uhm! Not that she loathes these two places, or neither is it that she thinks, Chicago is heaven. But it so happened to be a childhood belief - something that's difficult to give up, even at the most challenging stages of life.

In the Limelight

2009-06-14T12:19:00.001+05:30

Guess what I discovered, after scanning through those useless TV channels, these days?? There are plenty of ways for a common man to get into the so called media limelight and have fun.

GET INTO REALITY SHOWS:

Ok.. It's a few step process.

1) Are you a better singer/dancer/crapper among your peers? If your answer is a confident yes, goto step 3. Else, Goto Step 2.

2)Do something REAL CRAZY(Crazy to the core, I would say). Coz, they always have a 'special episode' in which they recollect 'memoirs'. That way, you will be recognized. And if you are not comfortable with doing crazy things on screen, then ask your Friend/relative to sign up for the show and become his/her 'Moral Supporter'.

3) It is not enough if you just excel in the competition. You must also know to react. Forget good old Rudyard Kipling's "Treat those two impostors just the same" stuff. But it is enough if you know to react. The crew that conducts the show will make it appear like 'overreaction'.

No seriously!! When they chuck you out in one of the rounds, juz look sad. And you will be surprised when the show is being aired. Coz you will appear sad, while a bgm that is melancholy's musical form will emphasize the fact and as if that's not enough, someone at the background, will express YOUR feelings in ways which even you might not be comfortable with. You know, "Inniyoda ivangaloda (isai/nadana/wodeva)payanam mudiyuthu" (TRANSLATION: Thus endeth their _____ journey) followed by a 2 second silence followed by a small beat that repeats at regular interval. And THEN 'a big round of applause' as a token of encouraging you for future endeavors. Feel the difference??

And the same ritual will be performed for Season-infinity too. I can safely bet.

4) Ensure that your birthday falls somewhere during the show. Or it might even be your mom's or dad's or naaikutty's or mentor's birthday. Doesn't matter. If it is the former, needless to say, CRY (out of joy). If it is the latter, grab the microphone and say how much they mean to you. Did I say, 'say'?? No No!! 'Express'!! That's the word :P

5) And IF you are adjudged the winner, Err.. you know what to do!!

Kneel down.
Stretch your hands at a 45 degree angle to your shoulders and let it point towards the sky.
Pass flying kisses to the camera.
Activate those tear glands. The sooner, the better.
Get up.
Get your friend/phiolosopher/guide on stage.
Thank the judges, the channel, the sponsors, your guide (in order).
Wipe away those tears.
Break into a smile.

Just do this alone. The BGM and the hostess will take care of the rest.

Seriously these reality shows are becoming so 'unreal'. But never mind!! Their TRP ratings will show a steep downfall if they air things as they actually are.

APPEAR IN NEWS CHANNELS:

To be honest I am beginning to feel that this task might as well be easier than the reality show idea. Only if you could be fast enough to grab the real 'What's-cooking' thing!

Few months back: (This one is specifically designed for women)

Go to a pub.
Preferably a pub in Bengalooru.
Get beaten up by a bunch of clowns, who claim themselves to be God's own army and will frame rules for God Himself.
PROTEST VEHEMENTLY.
You will see yourself in the TV until the news channel gets another news.

But mind you, Steps 1 and 2 are THE most important. You know, it doesn't matter if you are just a lower-middle-class woman beaten up by a drunkard. Nobody will telecast that.

Few days back (applicable to all):

Bruise Yourself.
Fly to Australia.

Oh! Who really cares, if it were Australian racists who wounded you in the first place or if you are a victim of racism who lives in some other part of the world(and that includes India too!)!!

Today:

Ha... You don't stand a chance! There's IIFA, T20 World Cup and Swine Flu(in order of importance, needless to say ;)) There's enough news for the day.

The Typical Indian Enthusiasm

2009-06-12T22:15:00.003+05:30

This is a quickie. The match between West Indies and India that is part of the 'T20 World Cup's Super Eight' is about to begin and the national anthem is being played!!

The part Tava shubha name jage was being played!!

And the camera was focusing on the spectator stands. Guess what!

The crowd was standing in that Attention position that they were taught during their good old school days, for the 'Tava Shuba' part.

And as the cameras started focusing them, they made a 45 degree turn to face the camera, and waved with ebbing enthusiasm - you know, the one where they jump and wave with perfect synchronization with all smiles on their lips - to the camera (Oops!! To the infinite million audience), while still chanting 'Naame Jage'.

There's something called Respect to National Anthem right?? Yes! These people in the stands forgot what is supposed to be one of their Fundamental Duties (If I am not wrong) and I totally disapprove of their act. But I am NOT going to rant about it. You know, little mistakes make life beautiful. And these typical Indian acts, at least bring about a smile in the faces that watch them.

On that note, Gambhir hit a four! Like I said, this is a quickie :)

P.S. : On the other hand, the cricketers were singing the Anthem with full 'devotion'. Ha! Bunch of guys who know how their single facial expression can backfire at them!

The Smiling Clowns

2009-05-14T09:41:00.013+05:30

The most brutal form of making friendship with freshers is back into business. (No! Don't call it ragging. Ragging is definitely a healthier way of making friends. ) It has been around in the news for quite sometime. I was awaiting a follow up, but Alas!! Looks like the media cannot spice up the news any further - which means, the news sinks into oblivion. So I thought I can come up with an imaginary followup. This is more of a generalized post! I am not pinning it down to Akhil alone, nor to the accused (Ashwin, Ajmal,Arjun, Mehasil, Sameer) alone - nor to the faceless hero of this post. I am kinda sure this thing happens everywhere. What thing?? Read on!

It has been two months since Akhil Dev almost lost an eye and a month since media paid him some attention. Well! So what next? He seems to have lodged a police complaint. And he was courageous enough to do that! Even after days, with a little bit of efforts, one can easily recollect this fella as a victim of fate (read ill-fate), or if he gets lucky, he can earn the help of some kind-hearted or recognition-craving socialites, or at the least, their sympathy. And needless to say, a live coverage from some news channel covering the entire story (Even the victim might not be aware of few parts of the covered story ;-)) And the accused, I really don't have much to say! They got into limelight, for notorious reasons and that makes the difference. They may either turn out to be responsible citizens from here on (I dunno the odds of the same!) or be careful while treating the freshers brutally. Something positive there too!

Have we left out someone? Yes(The generalization starts from here!)

Someone who was forced to play second fiddle to the villains or some friend of the victim who was tortured too, but not as badly as the victim itself. Do you see the whole picture? This fellow cannot claim that he was hurt too (this is the operative word -- too) coz there is someone who is hurt more badly out there. Or take the former guy, he might have accidentally slipped into the room and would have found himself tagged with the ' society-spoiler' label, something which he really did not intend to do!

The Smiling Clowns --> The REAL victims of ill-fate!

You see these people in a deeply wounded assistant of Hemant Karkare, in the junior artists and the stuntmen, in the chorus team of a piece of music that has hit the top of the charts, in the Fake IPL player's brother, in social snobs, in the poor son who opts thievery, juz because he has no option, in the dirty little guy, who earns a tight slap from his mom(who is unaware of the fact that her son got into the wrong bunch of friends!!)

The point is this --> A bunch of these people have been a part, too, of something nice . Without them, that 'something' would be incomplete. But then they cannot claim the same, because they 've JUST been a part of it. And he becomes a Smiling Clown. (Yeah!Right!! Acccording to few speculated versions, the Fake IPL Player might just be A Smiling Clown turned 'hero' too)

There is another set of people who, too, have been a part of something nasty . Without them, that 'something' would be incomplete. But then, they cannot opt out of it. Oh!! Come on!! They have ALSO been a part of it. And he is a Smiling Clown too.

You don't get a credit(not even an iota of it) for what you actually deserve or are blamed for the wrong reasons --- Tadaaain! You become a smiling clown - forced to hide your actual emotions, all under a mask of a smile. Poor things! While their own silence wants to scream out loud the actual facts behind, they cannot let the words out. After all they've been a part of something too. I guess they are the ones who would be very happy when the world reaches the state in which nobody cares about the rest. Till then, these Smiling Clowns can juz bear the injustice (that apparently is not injustice in the society) done to them, no matter what. Somehow, that has become a trait of these Smiling Clowns. So folks, the next time you see the limelight, do look around, observe the people next to the limelight. There will be too many Smiling Clowns around. What hath NOT been said, will carry more content than you actually think! And these Smiling Clowns will have all that 'hath not been said'.

The Dubious Case of Pakki PackRat

2009-03-24T18:01:00.017+05:30

A notebook
A pouch (wid a Mickey Mouse pic)
A blue pen
A black pen
A crazy mind
An artistic one
An awfully boring lecture

is all it takes(Not necessarily in the same order) to spin up a story ;-)

1) Pakki Mouse - during its stay at MIT (So sadddd)

2) Pakki Mouse - when it went home (Happy Happy!!)

-----END OF INTRODUCTIONS------

Now off to the actual story

3) Pakki Mouse - after it met with an accident :-( :-(

4) Pakki Mouse undertook a plastic surgery. But unfortunately, Voh Flop Ho Gaya!! :-(

5) PakGay Mouse - after THE Plastic Surgery

6) Hardy Mouse(a.k.a. Pakki a.k.a. PakGay Mouse) weds Laurel Mouse. But (s)hez not taller than him. Check out her heels ;-)

7) AFTER 20 YEARS:

Laurel Mouse died.
Pakki Mouse still uses Make up to appear younger.
And then, she lived happily ever after. :-)

*----------THE END-------------*

(AVM BGM Please!!)

CREDITS:

Story : William SINDHUspeare

Direction : ANIratnam

I will miss you forever :-(

2009-03-02T16:35:00.004+05:30

READ THE ENTIRE POST.

Somewhere out of the blue, something appears, stays in your life for eternity (apparently), but again, it disappears from your life forever, ONLY to show your crazy minds, how much it ACTUALLY meant to you.When it was around, it's presence meant nothing, absolutely nothing to you. But the lull it creates, the void that its absence evokes, it's disgusting.It's absence hurts, hurts you very badly. Holy Hell!! You juz end up crying "Why me?" It had been with you 24*7. But you never gave a damn about it. Did you? (Wait.... Thru out, it's not 'you'. It's 'me')

The mistake. The only mistake of my life. I shouldn't have done it. I should have given it the importance that it deserved. Or at the least, what it felt it deserved. Brutal me! Why? Why? Why did I turn cold? Why did I turn a deaf ear to it? And when it went AWOL, I... I juz didn't realize how much it meant to me (even then). But it hurts. It's absence hurts very badly. Spilt milk. And I am crying over it for the past few nights.

I have never done this before. Why now? What brought about the change in me? ?The domination of emotions over rationale - Something that I loathe (read 'dread'). Now I know, I am not feeling for what hath left me. But for what it had done to me by deserting my soul. Oh my dear Titan Sonata. I will miss you forever :( :(

Reflections!

2009-02-23T19:47:00.004+05:30

"When you dream, nobody tells you how much you have to lose to make em come true"

This was from a movie, that I watched recently.Most beautiful messages are conveyed in a very few words actually. May be THAT makes the message more beautiful. This one belongs to that beautiful message category. It left me in an ocean of thoughts. [As usual ;)] But somehow, I felt that it had a kinda pessimistic feel about it. Still one cannot stop dreaming. Human nature - It's a darn thing. But then, realizing a dream needs much more than what you can possibly afford to forsake. So there goes - That beautiful yet pessimistic message that brought about a smile in my face. But wait. Try this one too...

"It's easy to give up. All you need to say is I quit. The difficult task, though, is to carry on"

Another typical Dadaish quote. Aggressive yet optimistic. No wonder, Dada rocks!! So there goes - 2 messages that brought about a smile in my face.

P.S. : 14 lines... No. I CANNOT make this post any smaller. So, Shalini, what do I owe you now?

Just for Laughs, Gags!!

2009-02-06T11:41:00.007+05:30

Here we go!! Valentine's Day celebration is a NO NO, this year. I personally don't have a problem with that! But the news had me in splits for a whole host of reasons. As a matter of fact each and every line of the news did. So, here we go! You must ve got the actual news already. (Check out 'THE HINDU', dated Feb 6th, 2009. There's some catchy news in the front page) So now, off to the part of it that gave me a good laugh:

... has now announced an action plan to target couples found dating on February 14, Valentine’s Day. - Fair Enough!! Daz human rights!! We live in a democratic country, where people have the rights to beat others up. I mean, we have withstood these harassments till 1947 - harassments done to us by people we hardly know. Can't we withstand it when a fellow Indian does it to us? I don't ve a problem with that.
....not only hold protests where Valentine’s Day celebrations are held, but also forcibly marry off couples found dating in public. Room pottu yosippangalo?!?! But yes!! Love is a mistake and you need to repent for your mistakes. And is there any other way daz better than wedlocks, to do so? If yes, ENLIGHTEN ME!!

THE BEST PART:

Our activists will go around with a priest, a turmeric stub and a ‘mangal sutra’ on February 14. If we come across couples being together in public and expressing their love, we will take them to the nearest temple and conduct their marriage”. Uhm!! Seriously, Have Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists,.etc been deprived of rights to date or love? Not so far, I guess! How can you force em with the mangalsutra! We have a right to embrace the religion that we like and practice the customs that we are fond of. And they can't force people this way! But I guess THEY can! After all, THEY are the people with a cane!

OK!! THIS IS BETTER THAN THE BEST:

If the couples resisted the move, the girl would be forced to tie a ‘rakhi’ to the boy. So far so good!! But, this is THE best part of it. Giving the lovebirds an alternative... Good!! Infact, glad for the loverbirds, that THEY didn't force em with the option of sending em here. Coz, if you don wanna be a householder, forcing em to choose the next stage - that of a forest-dweller seems to be a plausible option.
...would ensure that Valentine’s Day greeting cards were not sold. Activists would check out stores that sold such cards. - I thought THEIR problem was only the lovers hanging out together (before marriage, may be). But greeting card sellers? Poor things!! Feb is one month where they can make big bucks, all at the cost of blind (and matured) lovers. And they are not allowed to make a killing this month. I pity them and I mean it!!

AND HE WHO MADE US, LAUGH LAST...

On the threat to forcibly marry off unmarried couples seen in public places on Valentine’s Day, he said: “Let them first commit such an offence and then the law will be enforced.” Ok!! got the subtle hint. THEY will get it done, no matter what!! And the afterbands of it??? Policemen come ONLY after everything is over. As usual!!

Seriously, there are more pressing issues that demand our attention, THEIR attention too. But for now, there would be so much hypes and melodramas on Feb 14, this year, especially in Karnataka (accordin to the news of course) Well!! I am all set to watch NDTV's live coverage on that ;)

If 'SlumDog Millionaire' has a question, then 'The White Tiger' has an answer

2009-02-02T20:40:00.016+05:30

To begin with, this is not a critic's post on SlumDog Millionaire or The White Tiger, eventhough , it is one (Actually, I like all of em: criticism - the virtue, SDM - the movie and 'The White Tiger' - the novel. So make it they are three) of my personal favorites. But then, many seem to have come up with the notion that this is REAL INDIA. May be, may not be. That I dunno. And I tell you that because, if a discrete answer does exist to this question, one need not put India into the confusing and rather misleading category of 'Developing'. But as a fellow Indian, I guess I am bound to answer the question. Or at the least, I have the right to provide an answer, leave alone providing the right answer (As a matter of fact, one must first answer fellow Indians before answering the world! And it happens only in India).

Most, if not all reviews of the movie, claim loud that it has exaggerated the satanic state that India is in now!! The state that it strives hard to hide!! Lemme make it loud and clear... This is ALSO a part of India. The fate of blind beggars who are hardly 14, young girls being abused ("You dunno how much this virgin is worth!" may sound too strong, but it happens), the riots in the name of religion and God, young kids opting thievery and thereby becoming their own breadwinners, children from slums being separated from each other, etc - Every part of it was true. My cuz has her own response to the critics here. And I couldn't ve put it any better, myself. So that raises a question in every curious mind. As put forth by a fellow blogger in his post, (more precisely, a friend of his in a foreign country)

"Is this real India, which they show in these movies?”

That must have made the question and it's background clear. Now, off to the answer part. Surprisingly, I needn't invent my own answer for this question. There's an excellent answer that is already making rounds (and needless to say, it is receiving its own share of criticism too.) A certain book by a first time writer gives you the answer - Nail on the wall!! No prizes for guessing the book or the author. Everybody knows that it is 'The White Tiger' by Aravind Adiga. Adiga portrays only the Dark Side too. But, he steers clear of one crucial point, before doing so. And THAT is the crux of the answer for the question that was put forth above: India is actually made of TWO Indias.
Daz wot Adiga has to say!! I second him. Only that the explanations vary a bit!!

The two parts of India are:

The one, which could be the subject of any movie that aims at making it to the box offices. The novel addresses it Darkness. But I take a different stand on it. There's nothing called Darkness in India. Lez call it 'The Less Bright Side' -the side that's being nourished by the Black River, in the author's own words. E.g. : People in Juhu who knew who stole Constable Varma's bicycle outside Santa Cruz Station are all part of 'The less bright India'.
The second one, the India of Light, that comprises of entrepreneurs, software engineers, politicians, NRIs, filmstars and all those fat cows!! (A day in the life of a software engineer being the subject of a movie --> Bad idea!! Now you know why only The Less Bright India is being portrayed in the movies, for it has all the essential elements of a movie, emotion being the main bait) . E.g. : The policemen who did not know who the bicycle thief was, are part of the Brighter India.

That being said, I have one more point to make: SDM is after all a movie. Movies are one of the most powerful means of communication. Agreed! But making it sound like they are the only means of communication is crap!! You feel that India is shining - Then watch these movies. You feel, that India is a land of the poor and downtrodden? - Watch the interviews of Suhas Gopinaths elaborating their success stories in some 24*7 News channel. India has 2 diametrically opposite faces! - where one face is not aware of the other. And we need another Messiah to help us unite, for we Indians have never been our own Messiahs!! (Don't get me wrong here: An individual Indian is his own Messiah! He could carve his own life, and make it much BETTER THAN HIS PEERS'! I am speaking about the IndianS)

Closing Note: There was this scene in SDM, where little Jamal and Salim escape from a policeman. On doing so, they are almost hit by a car!! The camera zooms in to show the master inside the car, bellowing at them. Somehow, while watching the movie, I felt they should have shown the driver too. Chances that he is Balram Halwai and the master is Ashok(or any master) is too high! But yes, I forgot: SDM shows Mumbai's slums and 'The White Tiger' revolves around New Delhi and Laxambargh. But wait!! Mumbai is not the ONLY land of Jamals nor is New Delhi, Balrams'.

What's in a tone??

2009-01-31T19:23:00.017+05:30

And the postwoman is back to business!! Are you one of those who ve got a craze towards wierd ringtones or message tones in your mobile. Well!! Ahem, ahem! Do take care. Sometimes, your mobile can juz convey whatever you wanted to say, but it could screw you(or the listener) with its awesome(ful) timing sense!! Guess what happened to Miss. SternFace the other day?!?! Read on!

It was 06:45 p.m.
Venue : Some softy stall in No man's Island
Cast : Ms. SternFace, Ms. I'minlove and a villain (or may be an anti-hero!!) with that awesome(ful) timing sense.

I'minlove : Guess what?
SternFace : What??
I'minlove : What do you think about love??
SternFace : Err... It's a nice feeling, I guess.
I'minlove : That's it??

SternFace, gives a bored look.. Yeah!! so soon!!. And that was her mistake #1. She must ve given a bright look no matter wot she though about I'minlove.

I'minlove : Ok then, What do you think about people in love??
SternFace : Well!! Where is this leading us to?? (with a raised eyebrow! For Ms. SterFace clearly knows, where this actually is leading to)

(Ever flipped through pages of a women's dictionary? If not, you might not follow the next exchange of conversation, unless of course, you are an avid watcher of Commercial Indian movies!!)

I'minlove : Ok?! What if you are in love??
SternFace : Aha!! I can guess somethinggg ;-). And is THAT so??

Ms. SternFace had been expectng this for quite sometime and so she was able to (re)act naturally.I'minlove, shakes her head up and down!! (Obviously!!)

SternFace : Wwouhwwwww!!

(It's not just any wow!! It's a Wwouhwwwww!!! Something that sounds too artificial to SternFace, yet is the apt one for such circumstances. A way to equivocate, you see!!)

Sternface :Whoz the guy?? Temme!! (Again the same (re)action process!!)
I'minlove : (Well!! You don't want me to describe the way she blushed and all that!! do you??)
SternFace : Cmon!! You can temme! I am supposed to be one of your good friends, yaar!! So, how did this happen??

Ms. SternFace did something really messy here. She was giving a gentle smile that she has originally planned to, for these kinda circumstances. BUT, in parallel, she was messaging her friend too.
I'minlove went on and on and on about, how she met her guy and how she fell in love and all that!! Miss SternFace indeed gave all the (gasp),(!!),(K.E.W.L),(How sweet!!) expressions that I'minlove was expecting her to. And then came the crucial moment.
THE moment!! Filled with Silence. For SternFace must decide how she must react and she must do it fast!!
I'minlove made a smile!! Not any smile!! But something where her lips contract, then widen, then shivers, juz as her eyes do!! Something where, she breathes faster and continues to, until she could calm down, all coz, SternFace was(hopefully, she still is) one of those friends whose opinions DO matter to I'minlove . And she then proceeded to ask...

I'minlove : Well!! Wot do you think??

And that was The last mistake that SternFace did - Listening to the argument that arose between the Devil and the Angel in her. THAT momentary distraction led to the anti climax.

Devil :But isn't I'minlove supposed to be one of those very ambitious, matured and smart fella out there?? How come SHE fell in luv? That's crap!!
Angel : Well!! Point 1 - Love simply is!! Point 2 - Wotz YOUR problem, in her loving someone??
Devil : That someone is the problem!! He is hardly a good match for I'minlove. She deserves someone better!!
Angel : It is her life!! You aren't going to live it. Juz don't lose a good friend by saying some crap NOW!! If you wanna advise her something, this is NOT the right time!! It's not love that's blind, nor the lovers who are blind, but ppl who call themselves lovers, allright?? So better tell her something nice, and change the topic asap!!

Note the time gap!! That was also a mistake - Taking a longer time to react!! And to be apt, filling that gap with silence. It made the mess messier!!!

SternFace : (Judgement reserved!! She begins to smile)Yaar...

SternFace's mobile says something out of the blue:

Then comes THAT moment!! Filled with an awkward Silence. SternFace now has to decide how she must react and she must do it fast!! AGAIN!! But there's a difference.

SternFace: Whoops!! Sorry!! It was my mobile!! Not me!! I actually wanted to tell you, how...

SternFace's mobile - AGAIN!!

SCREWED!!!

MORAL OF THE STORY: There's only one God and He is impishly witty.

It happens in India!! Dunno about the rest of the world!!

2008-12-28T19:00:00.008+05:30

A picture is worth 1000 words, so they say!! I shall therefore let the pictures do the talking this time. I shall still steal my space to write something. India is indeed shining, and so are many Indians. But, certain things done so unwittingly, can 'adulterate' the country's image. Want instance? I will give you two!!

1) The famous 'Not my Job' pic :

2) Dunno if it was just me!! But, I thought(And I still do) these people were doing their level best to prevent Land pollution(in their own style, of course!!)

Again, Wish you all a happy 2009 that would give you everything that's the best for you!!(be it what you propose, or what He disposes!! :-))

Tagged!! Thankfully!!

2008-12-27T20:22:00.008+05:30

Ok!! There was this friend of mine, who has stumbled upon a blog that has been sleeping for nearly 4 months. You know, what she did!! Did something that I could never trash even while I am at the world's end!! Tagged ME!. But that wasn't enough to get my blog going!! She has 'music-tagged' me, I should say. And THAT did all the magic!! I would do it, no matter what!! So here goes, a post to my blog and a toast to the lovely friend who made me do it!!

Tagged for the second time actually. The previous one was a sort of self analysis thing!! But, This was pretty easy for me to fill and moreover, gave this blog a rebirth. That gives me an idea. If my blog begins to doze off again, I shall better get someone to tag me!! Hehehe...

Rules of the tag:

Answer each question with a song that comes to your mind(Why not? But, needn't be A song).
Tag 15 people to do this tag. Leave them a note to say they're tagged.(I hafta break the 2nd rule.. )

P.S. : (Gosh!! Wotz with this P.S. and me?!? Could never never avoid it). My blog's growing one year old and I still din't find the right spot to insert this song. But I shall never give up. Read the 16th question first!!

16) What would you like to sing now??
Happy Bday to You,
Happy Bday to you,
Happy Bday dear OcclumensChronicle!!
HappyBday to you!!.

Ok!! Off to the actual tag part!!

1) If you were stuck in a car, in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, what song would you listen to to get you through it?
Uhm?!?! NightTime?Middle of nowhere?? Ok then.. Wher's the party tonight?? Somewhere down the road ;-)... from KANK

2) If you were to make a mixtape for the person you like, what is one song you have to put on it?
No idea as to what are the songs that MUST be there, but i would for sure, add an introductory note saying, how special this mixtape is!! But what's the point?? I shall add only the fella's favorite songs.

3) The one song you cried to all night?
Cry?? I juz enjoy songs & ve been moved by, Meri maa from Taare Zameen Par. But, I can't spend one full night , CRYING FOR A SONG!!

4) The song you would listen to just to get you through life?
Life's a RollerCoaster by Ronan Keating and that very old Senthamizh thenmozhiyaal(Unlike other songs, it falls into a Chonng category - the cho chweet chong category), in the sense that it could heighten your spirits for sure!!

5) A line from a song you would scream at your ex?
EX ah?!?! Crush eh vara kaanum... Idhula Ex verayaa?!? LOL!! Ok.. Assuming such circumstances, this is what I would sing:
Shut Up, just Shut Up Shut Up....
........
........
Tried to be your lady. I think I'm going crazy!! By Black Eyed Peas.

6) The last song you had a moment to?
Uhm!! Don't cast a nasty look, but it was a Scout song, a famous one:
There was a farmer who had a dog,
And Bingo was his name O.
B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O,
And Bingo was his name ho!! (Heard the FULL song ;-)).

7) The song that would annoy you?
Any Of Simbu's remixes, especially that Ahaan vanthuduchu, .... (Switch over to Nasal Singing mode, to know, how irritating it actually is). And how did I forget, Mr. Bronchitis, Himesh Reshammiya's numbers!!(And coz this is a Song tag, I am sparing KarzZZZ). Especially when I hear them in a 21G(Remember ;-)?)

8) Song most youtubed?
Cruel to be kind!! It's a very old Nick Lowe number!! But still worth a watch!!

9) All time favourite song?
Theivam thanda poove from Kannathil Muthamittal!! (A Tamil Blockbuster by ManiRatnam). The lyrics are THE BEST!! And the music is all the more soothing!!. It shares a special place in my heart, like my first story!!

10) If you were stuck on an island, what 5 songs would you play on again and again?
Why 5?? I have a big playlist of around 148 songs!! I shall play em all over, until some poor 6th sense lacking creature would come and smash my Mob into pieces(out of sheer irritation). A 6th sense lacking creature has never done that to me b4, but my bro has ;-)

11) Song you would like to hear live the most?
Any of Shankar Mahadevan's number!!

12) First song you listened to today?
Err!! Actually all thanks to my brother, who made me listen to that track!! o might not ve heard of it at all!! It's a certain Fooling Mode, from Naruto ;-). Shud I make it my ringtone or callerTune is the debatorial issue now ;-)

13) The song that got you through a depressing time?
Kabhi Kabhi Aditi - The best of ARR's numbers so far and Pachai Nirame from Alaipayuthey!!

14) What is the song you like to sing in the shower?
Jaaaaaaaane Jaan.. Dhoont tha phir rahaa....... Tum kahan?? Mein NAHIN yahaan ;-). Right!! that's the way I torture my parents and off late, my fellow roommates ;-)

15) What is the most played song in your iPod/Walkman/phone?
Hmmm!! Soching!! But My best guess is Bin Tere Sanam's Remixed version(forgot the DJ's name)

Oh hey!! The point of this post was just keeping up a promise. And the links leading to my previous posts were(intentional, yes) just to make a difference from a normal, monotonous, typical tag post!!

Wish you all a happy 2009 that would give you everything that's the best for you!!(be it what you propose, or what He disposes!! :-) After all, what is NOT given, might also be the best to you!!)

-Sindhu :-) :-)

Rain Rain!! Come again!!

2008-08-24T22:28:00.010+05:30

I was cleaning my room and something accidentally slipped into my hands. Aha!! The 1st ever story I wrote in my life. ‘Rain Rain!! Come again!!’ was how I entitled it. Déjà vu!! The last time it slipped into my hands was also during some sorting-out scenario and it went into Persoplus, my college’s magazine. This time, it goes into my blog :-). Oh!! Wait!! I wrote it while I was in Standard XI. Roughly 5 yrs ago!! So, I don’t think, I can write something THIS hyperemotional now!! Nywayz, it was my 1st story and hence it is as special as the first slap I got from my Papa :-) (Aye!! My Papa’s slaps are much more special to me than his gentle pats. Coz, after sometime, I end up getting whatever, WHATEVER I want in the former scenario ;-)). STORY TIME now!!

23/01/08 – Manhattan:

3:30 p.m. : I usually hate these odd hours. They carry with them a sense of lifelessness. But today, something would keep me going for the rest of the day.

‘Split… Splat…’ Continuous sounds followed by a beautiful splash of moving rings over a muddled pool of water. Welcome back, rainy season!! Wot exuberant force drives you from the clouds deep down in2 the earth? “GRAVITATIONAL FORCE!!!” Ahhh!! Curse the human ability to reason and justify things around. It sometimes alienates my soul from me, but not today!! The rain seems to carry the winning bait!!It was answering me with a sense of sagacity, with the same placid euphony . I ve heard the same answer, once before, while I was 6 years old. Only that, now it makes perfect sense.

28/07/1985 - Malgudi:

“That’s how everything is destined to be. However high you fly, you ought to be back to the base. And if you don’t enjoy it, life becomes a curse”, said those pure drops of water to me. “But why did nature create us this way then - preferring victory over failure, love over loneliness? Everyone likes to win, to be happy. Don’t they?”

The rain seemed to slow down. ‘See!! It can’t answer me. Hurray!! I won :-)’ I prided myself on winning one of nature’s assets. But that wasn’t for long. With full force, loads of raindrops seemed to plummet into the land again.

“No lass… To come down is not to lose. It means to carry your past into your future, more like a time machine, to go back to some earlier point of life and start afresh. “It was gone, leaving a befuddled 6 year old alone.

Back to square one:

Manhattan or Malgudi – the rain is my ally everywhere. BANG! The reality was awakening me!! Well!! I’m quitting work today! I doted on my job, more than anything else in the whole world. But that was a week ago. ‘The rain was right!!’ I thought, as a wave of acrimony swept past me. “IF YOU DON’T ACCEPT COMING DOWN, LIFE COULD BE A CURSE”, it echoed again!!”Or worse, life could be hell” I thought.

My apartment was unusually quiet that day. My daughter, a 2 year old, was starring at the rain drops outside. With full force, I closed the window, trying to get her full attention. And if you think that I’m such a cold-blooded mom, I simply don’t give a damn about it. It’s just that I really don’t have time for your hastily drawn conclusions. Human Nature!! Damn!!

My daughter is fighting autism and I’m her only army. SHE is more important to me than anything else, even my career. I proceeded to show her all those silly little actions that I ve done in my childhood to obtain her rarely acquired attention.

‘Split… Splat…’ was all I heard outside. I know it roughly translates to, “That’s how everything is destined to be. However high you fly, you ought to be back to the base. And if you don’t accept it, life becomes a curse.” “The rain was right. “I thought! But this time, with an elated sense of bliss…

- Sindhu

21G (Part I - 8:30 a.m.)

2008-06-29T20:00:00.008+05:30

Hi… Long time no c :-) Wogay!! This time I’m going to write about something that gave me the necessary boost in confidence to kick off my race in the Corporate Ladder. N it’s ‘A day in 21 G’. The HR part of the first technical interview I’ve ever attended on earth was testing my potential to write creatively (which was one of my hobbies, as per my resume). The interviewer casually gave me a paper, a pen and 10 minutes (How generous o him!!) to write about something - in detail - that has created an impact on me. Aha!! I cudn’t ve asked for anything better!!(I mean it). So there I go, writing about the most recent one – A travel all the way from Chrompet towards the Sheher!! I am not reproducing the exact words that defined my destiny, but then the stuff n structure of it, is the same. The original one wasn’t THIS long. That must ve gone without saying. The one yo are seeing here is the detailed version of wot I finished in a few lines. So, here we go :-))))))))
N to save you from getting a feel of reading a llllllooooooonnnggg RC (as in the CAT, GRE, GMAT, etc) I’m breaking it up into 6 parts. N daz the best I could do :-)

8:30 a.m. :

Oh boy!! How long am I to wait here! While my lips were gradually turning into a sine curve between 0 and 180 degrees, Presto!! The hero of the day turns up – the ever crowded 21G, that has become a part and parcel of every South Madrasi’s life.

For all the hypes around me, I dunno if I wud ever use the public transport THIS frequently in my life, but I’m enjoying every second of it. Time and again, I dint get a seat to sit down (I’ve heard about people who travel all the way from Chromepet to Tambaram, that is on the other end of their destination, juz to fetch a seat).

I was even checking if any guy was sitting in the ladies seat so that I cud ‘annex’ what was supposed to be a woman’s basic right. (As put forth by a typical 21 G user – the honorable gigantic auntie who chews paan always) Tough luck, there too!!

Oh, Yep!! The tickets!! Lucky me!! The conductor came all the way to gimme my ticket to Anna University. (Mute)‘Thank yo conductor saab. Yo saved some of my energy!! May yo become a superstar.’ (’unmute’)

21G (Part II - 8:35a.m.)

2008-06-29T19:50:00.005+05:30

8:35 a.m. :

Cmon!! This is going to be interesting. The next step is to find a right place to stand. Perplexed?? Lemme explain.

Suppose Your destination is Kaliappa hospital. Where do yo stand?? Near a college gal [whoz seated, of course], wid a crossbag(N preferably wid the dark green Anna University tag too) to improve your chances of getting a seat at Anna University. Or if the stars of luck are smiling upon yo, may be in Guindy itself.

But put it the other way round!! Yo wanna get down at Anna University!! Would yo, by any means, stand near the typical maami - whoz very appearance screams loud that she wud be getting down only at Mylapore Tank n definitely NOT b4 that? Ha, f yo do it, I cud very well ask you “Oorukku pudhusa??” [New to this place, huh??] This is called common sense, daz VERY essential to travel in 21G. (As a matter of fact, to survive in Chennai)

One last note on this!! This needn’t be true always. But this approach has proven fail-safe to me.

21G (Part III - 8:37 a.m.)

2008-06-29T19:30:00.002+05:30

8:37 a.m.: (Coz two minutes is all yo cud take to decide the right place to stand. Getting to that spot gracefully w/o being cursed isn’t a big deal!! It juz requires practice!!)

The mazaa starts exactly here. Give your bag (and other things that yo r holding)*, to the lady seated nearest. Yo hafta add the customary ‘Idha konjam pidichikkireengala please??’(Can yo hold this for sometime, please??). Phir kya!! Yo are quite free for sometime while standing!! Kewl Naa!!

*(RULE OF THUMBS: Yo shudn’t carry more than one medium sized bag in 21G, especially in the green ones that cost least, because, YO CAN’T)

Now yo start observing ppl around!! 21G has a really interesting set of ‘customers’. Yo cud get a better glimpse of em while standing.

The timid looking gal who uses carefully hidden pocket knives to safeguard herself from the dirty Romeos behind.
The braver looking gal who actually keeps moving uncomfortably, in the same scenario [Was she timid or was she juz maintaining her semblance of dignity? God knows!]
The Red Hills going, paan chewing auntie, who comes to her rescue.
The guy who cudn’t reach his tie to loosen it (Yo are askin me why?? Crowd yaar, crowd!!)
Not to forget, a hodgepodge of schoolboys, guys and uncles who are dangling near the steps as a result of the conductor’s ‘Ladies nikkaranga illa!! Vazhi vidunga pa!!’ (‘Don’t yo see the women standing there?? Let them in!!’). Poor saab!! He doesn’t know that even women love dangling near the steps, AT TIMES ;-)
The familyman who blames the unaffordable rates of ‘Deluxe 21G’ and how its ‘Express’ counterpart was far far better than this, only to recoup the conductor’s “Apram enyaa erreenga?” [“So, why do you take this bus, then?”]
Newbies who seek out the nearer ones’ help to reach their destination. It’s an exemplary instance of ‘The Madrasi hospitality phenomenon’. Yo juz ask only question, “Excuse Me!! XXX stop vandha solreengala??”(Excuse Me?? Can you in4m me when we reach XXX stop?). In return, yo get to know all the stops en route(Socializing?!?! Wowwie!!) So 2 speak, the first time yo travel in 21G, the farther the destination, the better!!
People balancing themselves during 21G’s famous ‘sudden brake phenomenon’ that occurs despite the bus moving at a pace slightly gr8er than that of a tortoise.
Young guys and galz (mostly college going ppl) wearing headsets, and shaking their heads with a gamut of varying speeds. All thanks to Apple, and the Mobile Industry. (FYI, the writer belongs to this category too ;-) So does that mean that I shake heads,too?? Much worse!! I sing out loud… Hehehe)

21G (Part IV - 8:50 a.m. )

2008-06-29T18:59:00.010+05:30

8:50 a.m.:

Oh hey, on that last note, I was almost drenched into the music that my mobile’s memory card was showering into my ears. But I lllllllluv doin it in 21 G for another peculiar reason thou. Yo ll know it soon ;-) I was hearing the ARR number, Kabhi Kabhi Aditi 4m Jaane Tu yaa Jaane Naa. Thou it’s one of my recent favorites, I was saving it for today evening (Wot if I need Imran Khan to console me, that evening, just in case I flunk??). So lez hear the bluffmaster number. After all, at the end of the day, wot matters in an interview is whether yo are one of the better bluffmasters, out there ;-)

roozi bood aasheqat boodam
az daste to kheyli excuse me oru kannaki
selato ba'd sheytooni kardi
nazdike man nayaa to

boro, boro, delam toraa, toraa namikhaahad
vazhi vazhi vazhi. Thalli nilluma
boro, boro, delam toraa, toraa namikhaahad
digar, digar, namikhaaham bebinamat
(Lady1:)Ulla poi nilluma, inga nikka mudiyutha??
(Lady 2: )Angaye nillunga. Naangalum adjust pannithan nikrom
bure bure ham ham ham shaitaan
zara zara thagna re hamse

Shaba

say shaba!! Shaba say oru 3 rupee ticket

roozi bood aasheqat boodam
az daste to kheyli raazi boodam
ammaa to ba'd sheytooni kardi
dele man 1 Red Hills

Chilrey chilrey aasheqat boodam
az daste to kheyli raazi boodam
Guindy ellam velila vandhudunga
nazdike man nayaa to

Bure bure ham ham ham shaitaan
zara zara bachna re hamse
bure bure ham ham ham shaitaan
zara zara thagna re hamse
(Whistles) Guindy Guindy Guindy
bure bure ham ham ham shaitaan
zara zara thagna re hamse

((Beats)) wid Hey!! Hey!! N Hey!!

boro, boro, delam toraa, toraa 2
adyar gate bebinamat
boro, boro, 3 beach um
digar, digar, namikhaaham bebinamat
boro, boro, delam toraa, toraa namikhaahad
digar, digar, namikhaaham bebinamat
Hey Hey Bhachao ji!! (N the famous Bluffmaster beat)

(I’m sorry if yo ve been misguided by the part-tamil-part-persian lyrics. Ppl might find an actual translation here.)

21G (Part V - 9:10 a.m.)

2008-06-29T18:29:00.003+05:30

9:10 a.m. :

Phew!! The stars of luck are smiling upon me, indeed!! I got a seat at Guindy. Derz only one more stop to go. But still, a place to sit, is the best 21G could give you!! So why ditch Santa Claus’s gift? N this didn’t last long.

An old, weak lady was standing pathetically. Poor thing!! Like any of my fellow travelers wud ve done, I offered her my place to sit. After all, it’s her basic right too :-)

And, there goes the little, heartfelt eulogy, that’s one of 21G’s unparalleled fortes. “Nee Maharaasi ya irukkanum ma. Indha kaalathula ethana perukku indha manasu varum??” [This encomium roughly translates to “May yo live longer(like a Maharaasi). How many people could ve such a noble heart nowadays?”].

While I was wondering what exactly a Maharaasi meant (for all I know, it’s an expression of praise), the lady went on, “Aana kaadhula sevittu machine maattina pillaingathaan ipdiyellam udhavuthunga. Paravaalla!!” [“But nowadays it is youngsters with hearing aids (In case you din’t get it, that’s my headset yaar :-() who help oldies wholeheartedly. Not Bad!!”] Is that a compliment or a brutal sarcasm? Now wot am I to do? Accept the compliment part of ‘the eulogy’ alone or cast a nasty look on her?? STUMPED!!

Before I cud react, Baaaassshhhhhhhh!!!

21G (Part VI - 9:20 a.m.)

2008-06-29T18:12:00.003+05:30

9:20 a.m. :

A flat tyre!! Kewl!! That's the last thing I could ve asked on earth. But hey, Take one left turn and there I am (the intended destination that is going to make/break my day!). That being said, I needn’t get the conductor’s signature at all. Yet I just couldn’t get past the crowd that wants his ‘autograph’. ( Ppl who use the public transport frequently, would know the worth of this signature)

(Mute agn) Conductor saab!! Yo might not become a superstar!! But still yo can sign autographs. So THAT makes you a half-superstar ;-) (‘Unmute’)

Aahhh!! If only I could Apparate!! :-(

After a 2 (precious) minute struggle, I made my way to CEG thru a share auto, to avoid the chances of my turning up late to the interview. The share auto was quiet, unlike the hussle-bussle of 21G, that’s a moving abode of enormous amount of new, interesting people. May be, was it that, which made the 21G, a friend that Chennaiites love to rebuke, yet could never forsake it to most other modes of transport?? Definitely, may be!!

N hey, I dunno if the sarcastic eulogist (Aye! The sweet, old granny!) had her day. But the lil Maharaasi did, for reasons too many.

For those who take life too seriously!!

2008-05-14T14:08:00.008+05:30

I went thru this, sometime back, n they all seem to be true facts that we mostly oversee (sometimes intentionally :-p). Might sound old to some of you, but hey, any day, any time old wines taste better ;-)

Save the whales. Collect the whole set.
A day without sunshine is, like, night.
On the other hand, you have different fingers.
I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.
42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe.
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.
Nothing is foolproof to a talented fool.
Atheism is a non-prophet organisation.
He who laughs last thinks slowest.
Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Borrow money from a pessimist - they don't expect it back.
The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes.
Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.
When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane and going the wrong way.
If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. [Objection overruled!!]
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.
For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism.
Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks
Never do card tricks for the group you play poker with.
No one is listening until you make a mistake.
Success always occurs in private and failure in full view.
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. [A damn god one!!]
To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles.
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
Change is inevitable except from vending machines.
Get a new car for your spouse - it'll be a great trade!
Plan to be spontaneous - tomorrow.
Always try to be modest and be proud of it!
How many of you believe in telekinesis? Raise my hand...
Love may be blind but marriage is a real eye-opener.
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving isn't for you.

East or west Dada's de best!!!

2008-04-18T23:03:00.012+05:30

"I don't believe in making right decisions!! I believe in making decisions and then making them right"

No prizes for guessing de Indian celebrity who made this quote. In case, you are not a follower of Indian cricket, try imaginin an aggressive leader full o spirits, enthusiasm n o course, a fierce ATTITUDE. He must resemble this guy for sure!!

A(aargh)ttitude!!

2008-03-18T14:55:00.006+05:30

Mr. A: (While inviting a class for a function in some college) N yeah… Galz can also take part in organisin events too. DON’T SIT LIKE DOLLS IN SAREES, AS USUAL.

Mr. B: (While answerin someone regardin his kind of gal in a tête-à-tête) I DON’T WANNA MARRY AN EDUCATED GAL, COZ I WOULD LIKE TO LEAD A PEACEFUL LIFE. So, definitely not a gal wid high intellect!!!

Ms. C: (While ‘exclaiming’ someone’s successful career) HE ACHIEVED SO MUCH COZ HE’S A GUY (or put any other adjective you feel is apt). You can’t achieve so much and even if you do, they won’t accredit you (She meant women and it was very obvious) so much. [Phew!! Too much of ‘so much’]

Mr. D: (You hear this almost everywhere, I bet) (S)HE SUCCEEDED DESPITE BEING PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED (or poor or blah blah blah)

Mr. A has a point when he said that galz can contribute their fair share to something (Wow!! Thanks for that offer, Mr. A!). Only that it has been put forth to the class in the nastiest possible manner! May be, Mr. A intentionally forgot one point - Not all galz would love to sit like dumb, useless dolls.

N as for Mr. B, aaahhhh, You are yet another hopeless prat!!

Ms. C’s comments might make some sense too. That I don’t know. But still, I feel once you put your mind n heart into whatever you want to achieve, you’ll get it sooner or later!! My point is one’s gender/any such diversity doesn’t make a crucial difference in one’s achievements, at least not always.

The same thing applies to Mr. D too. Only that, the physically challenged fella would find it hard to approve it.

N I found only 3 things are common to all these comments:

A, B, C and D are city bred and are in their early twenties. They are obviously a part of Today’s youth who are supposedly open-minded and stuff like that!!
They are all in THE best colleges of the state, n constitute the so called ‘cream of the society’. ((Sadly, Education influences ONLY your knowledge, nothing more nothing less and in particular, not your mindset))
And the obvious one – the comments made by A, B, C and D are BULLSHIT!! N it is hightime someone told em this:

"RESPECT (OR HURT) PEOPLE FOR THEIR INDIVIDUAL TRAITS, NOT BECAUSE THE SOCIETY CALLS THEM THE WAY YOU LIKE (OR LOATHE)."

or this:

!!Be Your Own BOSS!!

2008-02-29T20:16:00.004+05:30

Few days back, I was listening to one of the myriad “Tell-me-your-problems-and-we’ll play-you-a-song” shows that were aired in the FM. The following verse, suddenly hit ma ears. Well!! It didn’t make the show any different, but it did leave me thinking. It goes like this:

“IF HUMANS ARE GIVEN THE POWER TO FORESEE FUTURE, THEY’LL STILL BEHAVE THE WAY THEY WANT TO”

A smile spread across my face – A smile that could be interpreted as ‘Very true!!’ Life is definitely not what we want it to be. As a matter of fact, Most of the times, it’s diametrically opposite. To reflect on that verse, I strongly feel that it shows how much man believes he’s right and that ONLY he’s right. But HOLD IT, HOLD IT! I take a different stand on this issue, in the sense that, thou’ this verse is a bit satirical and true(I hate to accept it thou’), there’s nothing wrong about this attitude.

Let’s see!! To err is human, agreed; to believe that it’s not entirely your fault is even more human, right??? Why on earth should one not stick to what one firmly believes? Most of the times, you get one dumb answer and it’s some or the other version of this: “Because, the majority of the world out there has a different opinion”. 10000 fools!

No more arguments. Lez get into a real life scenario. You made a decision on some issue, acted in accordance to what your mind (Heart doers can replace ‘mind’ with ‘heart’. No offenses meant and no offenses taken, either) told you to, and unfortunately, it’s all screwed up at the end. SO WHAT? It’s entirely a result of what you decided and did. You were your own boss and wotz so wrong about it? Only that it didn’t turn out to be what you wanted it to be. Arey yaar, It’s juz your tough luck that it’s all screwed up at the end.

Remember, the impact of others’ decision leading to your failure or personal loss is far more grievous, than your own decision leading to a sorrow or wodevah. In the former case, you otta digest de fact that, it’s not your mistake that you landed in the wrong end, in the first place. On the same scale, the impact of your own decision leading to your happiness/success is far more pleasant than others’ decision leading to the same! (I know, most of you will impromptuously deny it. But think!! There must ve been a difference!! Still say no!! Okiez, *P*E*A*C*E*)

If you wanna argue that “We must listen to others’ advice too”, I’m coming to that. My point is: listen to everyone’s suggestions, scrutinize them and then comes the vital part, don’t let others make the decision for you. Be your own boss!! And if you fall, juz get up and walk more carefully. Being a boss in itself is not as easy as it sounds to be; Being your own boss is no easier! But, that is the only way to lead, what is called, YOUR life :-)

----- :-) Sindhu :-)