A Weblog

2010-03-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

Now, I blog here

Comfortably DUMB

2007-03-24T03:40:00.000-07:00

For the second time in my life, I cried while watching a cricket match. The first was during the 96 World Cup. No. Not during India's shambolic defeat against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens. I cried during India's group match against West Indies. I am a leftie and Lara was the only southpaw performing well the world over(India din't even have a decent left handed batsman in its line up then xcpt for the ever in n out vinod kambli). So naturally, I was hoping Lara would come good against India(din care much about patriotism back then...).Srinath bowled a peach of a delivery and Lara edged it to the keeper. West Indies were bowled out for 180 odd and India won comfortably. I cried.

I cried again yesterday night. Mind you, I am not a regular cricket watcher these days. I would prefer watching football over cricket. But WC is something special and I was hooked to the tele yesterday right from the first ball that Zaheer sent down to Jayasuriya.

India bowled really well and the fielding was gud enough. But Lankans had an edge over us. Even when Munaf Patel and Agarkar were bamboozling them, they dint flinch and were ready to wait for the bad balls. Compare this with Indian batting: Four dot balls. Ganguly went for a big hit and lost his wicket. One ball down the leg side that almost hit the stumps;Sehwag suddenly lost all his confidence and edged one to the slips couple of deliveries later. The less said about the other batsmen, the better I guess. This ain't the first time. Even against Bangladesh, the same thing happened. In fact, Zaheer and Munaf Patel batted better against Bangladesh compared to the top order. Atleast now I hope, we wouldn't be referred to as the strongest batting line-up in the whole world!

Tactically too, Lankans had an edge over us. Asking Sangakkara to keep upfront for Vaas was a brilliant ploy. And the positioning of their fielders was superb. Indian batsman struggled to get the ball past the 30 yard circle. Sachin should have opened and Dravid should have come at number 3. Knowing very well that Murali feared Ganguly, he should probably been sent down the order. Of course, its easy for us fans to suggest things. But where the heck was Greg Chappell and what the f**k was he doing??Booking tickets for the trip bak home??Chappell's performance has made even Sven Erikson look like a great manager.

During the post-match interview, Dravid said that we din deserve to go the second round. He was spot-on. With a selection chief openly criticizing his selections and a coach whose tactically superior brain churning out one dud after the other(experimentation with the top order, pathan fiasco,etc), what could he do? I think he was ready for such a thing to happen even before the WC began.

India went into the World Cup with High Hopes. Ready to sizzle and bring back the Cup. And what happened? we all became comfortably dumb by witnessing the Great GiG in the sKy(Floyd overdose..I know).Things can't get worse for Indian Cricket. Watching all those ads during the match only reaffirmed my view on Indian Cricket:the vultures are feasting on the carcass. Or is there still life in it as yet?
[©pictures from cricinfo.com]

All You Need is Love

2007-03-04T18:53:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time...
---------------------------------------------------------------------
".... this is y......"

(stare at each other...)

"...goodbye...."

(they walk off in opposite directions..)

'if only...'

"if only..."

(turns..luks...waits...turns back and walks off...)

(turns..luks...)"heyyyy......."(waits)

(smiles...turns..)

(smiles bak...)"fuckk off..."(....wickedly...)

( face turns red..points middle finger...)

(....they turn and keep walking....)

'...good riddance..'

"...good riddance.."

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

And they lived happily ever after..

Taggit

2007-02-28T19:26:00.000-08:00

Trinity Teal had tagged me...so finally got sth to blog abt..
its a set of 10 qs..here r my answers

1..One thing you are very much afraid of?
What if all those dystopian thoughts in my head come true one day..??

2.Two incidents you can never forget in your life?
1.Watching DDLJ with my dad and sis sometime during feb '96...last days of innocent childhood..
2.My engineering studies...an exercise in futility.

3.Three books you would love reading again and again?
Tried voting here...
realised i have not read anything at all..:-(

rmmr:these r books i enjoy reading again and again...ther r whole lot of books which r gr8 but i cant read them again..

.Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
.I met a lady by Howard Spring
.Barbarians at the Gates by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar.

4.Four women who are most beautiful?
.Elisha Curthbert.
.Ayesha Takia.
.____________
.____________
[to be filled in later...;-)]

5.Five of you favorite food items?
.Onion vetha kuzhambu(with tiny pieces of fried coconuts :D) and deep potato or cabbage or kovakka fry cooked by ma mom(unlyk my sis, my mom deep fries it..i prefer it tat way)
.Akka's patented veg. rice and whole lot of other food items[she experiments a lot..almost everytime i ve been the guinea pig :-( ]
.Paati's puri masala and rava kesari.
.Coffee@5 30 am...@Chennai...no adding any water to arokya milk and rite amt. of dicoction and sugar.(for the exact formula, ask my dad)
.Finally,Martini, shaken but not stirred :P(seriously,vodka...)

6.Six words you use very often oral/written?
Fill it wit six swear words in any lang...fuck tops the list tho

7.Seven things you like about yourself?
And I thot this was a tag...not a job interview :P

8.Eight film personalities who are your all time favorites?
.A. R Rahman and Illayaraja
.Sivaji Ganesan and Kamal Hassan.(Sivaji only b&w...exception:thevar magan..)
.Martin Scorcese and Robert De Niro
.Al Pacino.
.Steven Spielberg,Tom Hanks and Janusz Kaminski
.Mani Ratnam, P.C Sriram and Santosh Sivan.
.Darren Aronofsky.
.Countamani, Senthil, Vivek and Vadivelu
.Jyothika.....first heroine on whom i had a crush..
[yeha i ve listed more than 8..cant count..so wat? :P]

9.Nine movies you wont mind watching again and again?
Gonna watch Scorcese's Raging Bull, Goodfellas this weekend...
1.Godfather( I and II)
2.Iruvar, Mouna Raagam.
3.The Departed.
4.If Only
5.Reservoir Dogs, City of God(this movie deserved an Oscar for the best picture..)
6.The Matrix Trilogy (duh!)
7.Munich, Saving Private Ryan
8.American Beauty,Requiem for a Dream
9.Karakaatakaran, Micheal Madana Kaama Rajan, Singaara Velan.

10.Ten songs you would like to listen to everyday?
Been listening to rock for quite sometime but listening to it seriously these days[yt to listen to metallica,iron maiden and lots of others..studyin II std in the skool of rock :-)].
1.Stevie Ray Vaughan cover version of Hendrix's voodoo child(first song in any playlist of mine...SRV=God)
2.John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess' Hang On and Furia Taurina(Petrucci and Rudess create magic!)
3.Illayaraja's melodies from the 70's,80's,90's(any time,any day..)
4.Breaking the Habit from Linkin Park's Meteora(lyrics speak for itself)
5.Dream On and Janies got a gun by Aerosmith(truly inspiring stuff!)
6.Your body is a wonderland by John Mayer(even romantically challenged wud b swayed by Mayer's singing)
7.Santana's Evil Ways and Smooth[Santana's guitar+Rob Thomas' voice=Grammy ;-) ]
8.Bob Dylan's Things have changed[Best lyrics in any english song i ve heard till now..]
9.High Hopes by Pink Floyd.[Best Pink Floyd song according to me]
10.Music Director: A. R Rahman. Song:_________ (U can fill it :D)

Anyone who wants to continue this tag,feel free to do so :-)

Obit

2007-02-01T13:20:00.000-08:00

Two very popular literary figures breathed their last the previous month: Sidney Sheldon and Art Buchwald. Both have had a profound impact on my life: The former's novels allowed me to glimpse the cynical attitude prevalent while the latter showed that being funny is the best form of revenge.

I was introduced to Sidney(Windmill of the Gods) during my class 6 vacations. Fast paced action with a lucid storyline, his novels saved me from eternal boredom during my high skool years. His masala novels have inspired many a bollywood and kollywood writers(even serial writers).

My sunday mornings used to begin wit a cup of coffee and The Hindu. And the first article used to Art Buchwald's syndicated column. At first, I use to find it difficult to understand what he wrote about(american politics was as alien as pizzas back then!). With time though, I was able 2 appreciate his humor. If laughter is the best medicine, then i guess researchers don need 2 look far to cure AIDS.

Both the writers would be sorely missed :-( May their Soul rest in peace

Home Truths

2007-01-27T11:32:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: The author doesnt endorse or support any liquor or any kinda smoking
1. Reality bites. So stay away from it.
2. Ganja is cheaper than liquor(even the spurious ones! expect our FM to tax it this budget:P)
3. I kept up my new year resolution for all of 15 days. My resolution was to stop drinking coffee. I managed 3 cups for the first 15 days. The next 13 days, I had arnd 40.
4. Rushdie is in no way equal to GG Marquez. Its lyk claiming that Big B is equal to Al Pacino.
5. Shilpa Shetty finally proved that she can act; Jade Goody made an ass out of herself; And the whole episode proved that all those who even talk about it are morons.
6. How can one justifyKannagi burning the whole of madurai for her husband's unjust killing?
7. Last year it was Atlas Shrugged, this year it was Midnight's Children: book i read for 6 consecutive hours during a train journey.
8. I have fallen many times but (un)fortunately, never in love.
9. If we Indians are good at one thing, it is this: Snatchin defeat from the jaws of victory.
10.Truth is bitter. Beer is bitter. So is drinking beer seeking the ultimate truth?(I think i have read this somewher..not sure)
11. Quizzing, not water is the elixir of my life :D
12. These days, I am most comfortable when its just the two of us: Me and my EGO.
12. And finally, we stood for a minute in silence expressing solidarity wit US after the 9/11 attack. But till now,I dont recall us standing for a minute to express solidarity wit the ppl of Kashmir(Arundati Roy, take note)

Plundering bookshops and a few questions

2007-01-14T11:43:00.000-08:00

Friday the 19th:
Its not every evening that u walk into a city and the first thing that u notice is a thalluvandi selling second hand books. Much to my delight, thats what exactly happened.I walked into CBE and the first thing I noticed was the ubiquitous thalluvandi selling books instead of gobi manchurian(or in some cases, kaka biriyani :P).The usual fare: Rushdie,Roy,Stephen Covey; an iCON here, a Road Ahead there. My favorite book haunts were the three bookshops(I call them thrimurtis of luz) that dot the luz corner. But I was not ready to pass up an opportunity to buy a book at cbe(A souvenir :-P). God chose not to play dice and I found a lil book hiding behind "Seven steps to Succes" (or was it "Seven approaches to success?" who cares!). It was the booker prize winner "Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai. An Indian winning a Booker prize is a rarity and trusting the judgement of the Booker Committee members, I bought it. My patience as usual ran out and I started reading it the moment I got into the train.
Strangely, I felt disappointed after reading the first few pages. Oh no!not another novel on post colonial angst and pseudo-Anglican thoughts! As I read on, I realised that the book had lot more to offer. But I was still stuck by one thing: why is there an obsession with everything Raj? Do Indian-English writers still write to please the Sahibs? Or is it the only thing that gets them recognised? Of course I may be wrong. But glance through all award winning Indian authors (Roy, Rushdie, Naipul,Jhumpa Lahiri, Vikram Seth and now, Kiran Desai) and you will realise that the recurring themes are the effects of colonial past and the pressure of being a migrant somewhere outside India. I do accept that the two above stated issues have affected our lives but can't our writers write or think about anything else? Why should it always be about stuff like racism,colonialism,imperialism and all the shit that comes along?? Or are the authors caught in some kinda time warp which forces to look behind these issues?
Two articles that shed some light on these issues:
1. Writing the Raj way by Una Chaudhuri
2. The Currency of Arundhati Roy by Amitava Kumar

Bak to the few hours @CBE:
After buying the book, I had some time to spare and so walked around an empty Race Course Road. The road seems to have been given a neat facelift and there are models of Architectural landmarks like Tower of Pisa, Red Fort, Hawa Mahal,etc placed arnd the Road. I paid a visit to my favorite Sringeri Temple. I was visiting it for the first time in 4 years. And its still the same. One among the very few places where my mind somehow manages to stay clear of all unwanted things and I feel truly who I am.

Yeah, I still love the city :-)

Sunday the 21st:
People of Chennai, listen up!!Therez a Higginbothams@Alwarpet. Seems they are clearing out stock to make way for fresh arrivals.Guess wat this means???A "Midnight's Children"@ Rs. 100(added that to my lil collection of books :D). I even found a book on David Feckham(yeah, the spelling is rite!) and a psycho analysis of Samuel Beckett(how absurd!) but I wanted Vikram Seth's Golden Gate.Unfortunately, it wasnt available. No II hand bookshop seems to sell it these days:-(.Nevertheless there are lots of other gud novels and non-fiction stuff available. The collection is gr8 and all are available at rock bottom price.

Before plundering Higginbothams, I had spotted a gem at a bookshop near the LIC building@Mount Road: We, the People by N.A. Palkhivala. It is an incisive analysis of what went wrong with India 20 years back(1984 edition). The author has expressed much pain and regret about the state of public affairs in our country. If the eminent jurist were alive today, he wouldnt have made many changes to '84 edition. But he does hold onto an "unquenchable confidence" in the long-term future of India. The same confidence which we hold onto even to this day.

The Voice of Ada

2006-11-28T11:04:00.001-08:00

There is a silence where hath been no sound
There is a silence where no sound may be
In the cold grave, under the deep deep sea.
-Thomas Hood

Click here to view the clip: The Heart Asks Pleasure First

The clip is from the movie "The Piano" starring Holly Hunter(as Ada McGrath, a mute pianist). A joint winner of Palme d'Or for the year 1993 and various other awards around the globe(including 3 Academy Awards), the movie features a piano score by Michael Nyman that,well,...watch the video,listen to the score and tell me :-)

The Amber Nectar Effect

2006-09-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

Fosters !

(burp!)(I am so wasssted!!)

Cats for beer!!

Crawl-ing

2006-09-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

Nope!Its not easy. To be a two year old baby and to have every personwho looks at you, touching or kissin your cheeks and exclaiming supposibly "child talk" is not easy. Its ok if couple of people do it. Not every idiot who sees me!My biggest problem is that I cant talk yet. Wait till I start talking.These people are gonna run so far that they cant even find their way back to me.

Its eight o clock in the morning and I have been awake for quite sometime. I have tried my best to cry and tell the morons here that I need food. Wake up people!My mom is one of those new age gen Y moms. She belongs to the ilk of women whose first question to the doc, after the child is delivered, would be "Any way to remove these stretch marks of my belly?"Think how I would have felt.Heres my mom whoz has just delivered me and her first words are not "OH!Hes so cute(BTW i hate tat expression so don t u dare use tat in front of me). Some say you should not judge people based on your first impression. But my impression of my mom hasnt changed much after two years. Very rarely, she realises I am, after all. her child and hugs me and all. But most of the time, shes very busy in her work. I can understand if she expects my dad to accept her behavior but me??I need constant care and attention! Don t they ever understand?

And then my dad. Dont get me started about him. Instead of helping me change my underwear, he keeps writing something called software on his komputer. I dunno wat it is but he keeps staring at it all day long. Even mom has one lyk tat and she too does tat. How nice it would be if they were staring at me instead. Not all the time but atleast for sometime :-(

Mom and Dad fight most of the time. At first, it was good entertainment. Itz funny to watch two grown ups fight about something as silly as bedspread but then it got awefully boring and sometimes I wished they would stop fighting. You know, there have been times when they dont talk to each for other. She says it helps in maintaining peace. Peace??Is this some war ravaged country? His friends and her friends never get along. Her friends always keep talking about something called fashion. I ROCL ( C stands for cradle) whenever they talk about cooking. For the past two years, I have hardly seen my mom enter the kitchen. She used my birth as a pretext and never entered the kitchen during the first year. The next year, she started working and so smartly skipped cooking. I doubt if she even remembers where the kitchen is! And my dad's friends?Most of them are nerds I guess. They all look creepy and sit beside my dad and keep staring at the komputer. I think my dad would have stopped fighting with my mom if she had delivered a komputer instead of me :-(

My grandparents drop in quite often. They are ok people. But they are mega serial addicts and between 7 30 and 9 o clock in the evening, all they do is to sit and watch mega serials. My mom and dad return late from office and these people are to take care of me. But they care more about how, some ass called Siva's third wife learnt about his first wife who is dying of something called cancer, than me.

I know. I can understand if u feel "I have heard all these shit before so shut up". But just because it sounds cliched ( I heard my mom use this word once :D) does not mean its untrue. I am celebrating my second birthday today. My mom keeps asking me what I want for my second birthday(as if I can talk!). I want to tell her that all that I want is to start talking. start crawling. start jumping start walking. And start running. Away from all these people. So that I can jump off the cradle and crawl away to freedom. I doubt if someone will ever realise that I am gone. No problem! All I want is to crawl away. Crawl away to freedom.

In search of freedom,

PS:
If any of you think that you might end up like my dad or mom, please, for heaven's sake,do not have any kids. Better do not marry. It would be the one thing that would ensure your passage to heaven.

The Beauty of the Bag

2006-08-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

My all time favorite scene(from the movie American Beauty).As Ricky says in the movie:"There's so much beauty in the world I feel I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in"Click HERE

The Final Words

2006-08-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

To Boddah

Speakings from the tongue of an experienced simpleton who obviously would rather be an emasculated, infantile complainee. This note should be pretty easy to understand. All the warnings from the Punk Rock 101 Courses over the years, it's my first introduction to the, shall we say ethics involved with independence and the embracement of your community has been proven to be very true. I haven't felt the excitement of listening to, as well as creating music, along with really writing something for too many years now. I feel guilty beyond words about these things, for example when we're backstage and the lights go out and the manic roar of the crowd begins. It doesn't affect me in the way which it did for Freddie Mercury, who seemed to love and relish the love and admiration from the crowd, which is something I totally admire and envy. The fact is, I can't fool you, any of you. It simply isn't fair to you, or to me. The worst crime I can think of would be to pull people off by faking it, pretending as if I'm having 100% fun. Sometimes I feel as though I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on-stage. I've tried everything within my power to appreciate it, and I do, God believe me, I do, but it's not enough. I appreciate the fact that I, and we, have affected, and entertained a lot of people. I must be one of the narcissists who only appreciate things when they're alone. I'm too sensitive, I need to be slightly numb in order to regain the enthusiasm.But, what's sad is our child. On our last 3 tours, I've had a much better appreciation of all the people I've known personally, and as fans of our music. But I still can't get out the frustration, the guilt, and the sympathy I have for everybody. There is good in all of us, and I simply love people too much. So much that it makes me feel too fucking sad. The sad little sensitive, unappreciative, pisces. Jesus man! why don't you just enjoy it? I dont know! I have a goddess of a wife who sweats ambition and empathy, and a daughter who reminds me too much of what I used to be. full of love and joy, passing every person she meets because everyone is good and will do her no harm. And that terrifies me to the point to where I can barely function. I can't stand the thought of Frances becoming the miserable self destructive, deathrocker I've become. I have it good, very good, and I'm grateful, but since the age of seven, I've become hateful towards all humans in general. Only because it seems so easy for people to get along and have empathy. Empathy only because I love and feel for people too much I guess. Thank you from the pit of my burning nauseous stomach for your letters and concern during the last years. I'm too much of a neurotic moody person and I don't have the passion anymore, so remember, it's better to burn out, than to fade away. Peace, love, empathy, Kurt Cobain.
Frances and Courtney, I'll be at your altar.
Please keep going Courtney for Frances for her life which will be so much happier without me. I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU!

I still dunno y i am posting this. Sometimes, we read things that moves us so much that we keep reading it again and again and again.....this is one such thing....

The One with the Comeback

2006-08-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

The Old, The Mighty n The Bakseesh

2006-05-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

oneLast sunday, I had a chance to visit the Howrah Railway station. I had to drop off my uncle, on his way to chennai, there and thought i could try and shoot a video of the mighty bridge. After saying bye to my uncle, i came out of the station and shot some gr8 fotos of the bridge :D. After tat, i planned 2 walk along the bridge for the first time. Till now, the only memory of the bridge in my head was a smoke filled old precariously hanging bridge.I kept shooting pix and then started shooting a video. The weather was gr8 and i thot i cud walk along the bridge and shoot the whole bridge. Alas! after 30 secs or so, i found myself facing a policeman. He asked me to look up:
"Photography is strictly prohibited"
The policeman threatened 2 throw away the camera(:O) but then i told him i was a tourist and a whole load of lies. After I buttered his fingers, he got convinced tat i was not planning to plant a bomb on the bridge and let me off! Long Live Kolkata Police!
Click here to watch the hoogly bridge.
PS:
To appease the policeman,i hve also shot him(wit my cam tat is!). Do catch a glimpse of him at the end of the video...

The Tale Of Two States

2006-05-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

Painting the town red!!!

While one chose to turn left , the other chose to remain in the red.is this a thumbs up for communism or sign of desperate people stuck with hobson's choice?

The Rasagula Times- I

2006-05-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

Beginning from today, a series of posts on my trip to calcutta titled,

"The Rasagula Times"
First of all,sorry,sorry,sorry..haven been able 2 login to net regularly...cant say tat i am lazy...just tat everytime i plan 2 post sth,i am lured instead by the prospects of havin a rasagula or kachori :D
my aunt has got a puppy. its name is sniffy and its a german spitz. i hve uploaded a video of it..check it out here.

Wakooww!!

2006-04-21T02:15:00.000-07:00

A search for the word Wakooww in Google,Wikipedia,Webster and all other kinds of search engines drew a blank. So I thought I could give my own definition for this word :D

Wakooww-Ur favored or favorites to win something. You start off with THE most stupidest plan to do so;realise your mistake half way through and make conscious efforts to change but however gud ur efforts are,you lose out.
Examples:
1. My B.Tech education.
2. Jose Mourinho's gameplan for the FA cup semifinal against Liverpool.
In the end, both of us ended up being losers :-(

I am not gonna gloss over the former(Worsht kinda self damage:O). So lemme write about the latter.
For all those who still think soccer and american football are one and the same, Senor Jose Mourinho is the manager of Chelsea Football Club. Hes got a big brain but the problem is that hes got a bigger mouth. So he shoots himself in the mouth most of the times with whatever he says. However, he IS ONE of the best managers in the EPL(English Premier League) at the moment. Senor Rafael Benitez is the manager of Liverpool FC. I would rate this guy as the second best in the league at the moment. He isnt as controversial as Mourinho though.

When the two teams met @ Old Trafford(home of Manchester United which is an arch rival for both these clubs),lots were at stake. The two clubs had already met lotsa timez in the recent past. Also, this was Liverpool's only chance to grab some silverware while Chelsea wanted to continue with the "double" saga( last time, they won the League Cup and EPL).

So amidst much tension and frenzy, the two teams started the game. To put it in a single word, Mourinho's gameplan was "Dumb". It was blasphemous!! He had at his disposal,midfielders lyk Duff,Cole,Robben,Wright-Philips(yeha he does play for Chelsea!). Instead, he starts off with Ferreira in the midfield. He is a very gud defender and at the max, a defensive winger. Geremi plays on left flank(hes basically a midfielder). So we have Essien, good ol' Makelele, Lampard and Ferreira in the midfield andDrogba and Crespo up front. This formation would have come good against a relegation threatened team. Not against a team that had come back from being 0-3 behind and become the European Champions! I still don understand what Mourinho sees in Drogba that he chooses him over Crespo.
So the game starts. Drogba got a sitter early in the game and as usual, he missed. In fact, no one expected him to score. It was such a shock when he scored later in the game. Liverpool got an freekick and they scored by penetrating through a "crack" in the chelsea "wall". After the goal, Chelsea midfield was in tatters. It was mayhem all around. No one knew where to pass. Of course, Liverpool's defence was awesome but then this wasnt what one expects from a side that could afford losses around 80 million pounds and still spend more on players!

At halftime, Mourinho must have been thinking what the heck had he done(similar to what I felt in my second year;I shall save that story for some other time :P). As one of my friends quipped, Chelsea did not have anyone playing who could do a decent dribble. No midfielder attacked. Hence Drogba and Crespo were left fuming since they rarely got the ball. He makes amends at the half time by bringing on Robben instead of Del Horno( a defender). But it was Liverpool who went further ahead through a peach of a goal from Luis Garcia. The 'keeper Cudicini was left stranded by the spaniard's left foot strike. The game was in the bag as far as Liverpool was concerned. Mourinho decided enuff was enuff and brought on Duff and Cole in place of Crespo and Geremi(yeha, u read it right, mighty Crespo was subbed :-( ). And the results were there to see. Almost the whole Chelsea squad attacked. Liverpool was dumbfounded. Their defence was under enormous pressure. The pressure cracked the Liverpool defence finally and Drogba sneaked in a goal after a rash clearance by Riise. The temperature rose and we all thought that Mourinho had got it right this time. They kept attacking. One has to give credit to the Reds' 'keeper Reina. He had a gr8 game and almost single handedly made sure that Chelsea got nowhere near that second goal. Joe Cole had an easy chance during the injury time but his shot was inches above the crossbar. And when the refree Poll blew the whistle signalling the end of the game, Mourinho had shot himself again. This time around,it was coz of his brain and not because of his mouth. Hope he returns to sanity by next weekend (Man U vs. Chelsea :D). If not, then I guess its "Adeus Senor Mourinho" time for the Blues.

PS:
The author is neither a Mourinho hater nor Anti-Blues. In fact, he is a true Blues fan and an admirer of Mourinho. Now can you understand how Wakoowwd Mourinho had been???

Milestone,The

2006-04-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

Hurray!This is my 50th post...i hve been rackin my brains as to wat to write for a week..then i thot i shd let my drawing skills do the talking.Presenting to all,inspired out of sheer boredom and lack of will to write sth meaningful,

The Milestone by Viive Van Anand

Milestone,The
MS-Paint
261.0 x 297.0 pixels
Calicut,April,2005.

To everyone whos has kept visiting this blog,thanks a lot...the cafe is open and the coffee is hot... keep visiting :-)

I Me Myself

2006-03-28T15:15:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by Demonic Dude. The thing is to answer 50 questions about myself :D
So ladies and gentlemen, here we go :

1. Were you named after anyone? Yes. After the gr8 philosopher( Swamiji,plz do forgive my mom :D)
2. Do you wish on stars? Noo(Esp after watching the lead actors do the same in Hindi movies..Rule of thumb,never follow hindi movies:P)
3. When did you last cry? A month ago. Well.actually, I am crying a lot these days :(
4. Do you like your handwriting? Lyk???U kidding???????????I lost 2 marks in maths in my +2 exam because of my messy handwriting!
5. What is your favourite meat?Tried chicken once but then it tasted similar 2 paneer..basically a veggie
6. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?I had this broken CD of some dumb movie called fifth element..doubt if its ther still..
7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Yeha
8.Are you a daredevil?Hmmm...err...huh...kinda...
9. How do you release anger?I shout out
10. Where is your second home?If chennai is my first home, then coimbatore is my 2nd home ;)...calicut is more lyk a jail :(
11. Do you trust others easily?Yeha...luk how kind hearted I am :D
12. What was your favourite toy(s) as a child? My He-Man, a Jeep, my cycle and my teddy bear :D
13. What class in school/college do you think is totally useless? Engineering Graphics(I f**kin hate it X-( )
14. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Wat a sucky question...of course Yes.
15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit? No
16. What do you look for in a girl? I had put up a post earlier...plz do read it :P
17. Would you bungee jump?Yes.
18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No I dont...hey wait....its been eons since I wore one:O
19. What's your favourite ice cream? Butterscotch and chocolate
20. What are your favourite colours? Blue and black
21. What are your least favourite things? does mess food come under "things"??
22. How many people do you have a crush on right now? 8 i guess....hillary duff,elisha cuthbert,Reese Witherspoon(I lyk gals wit blonde hairs.....but not the stereotyped "blondes" :P) etc.:D
23. Who do you miss most right now? My parents
24. What are you listening to right now?Fort Minor...LP!!LP!!!LP!!!
25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? I don wanna b a crayon...better b an eraser :P

26. What is the weather like right now?Its sultry
27. Last person you talked to on the phone? Don remind me abt fone...It took 6 calls for the customer care guy 2 understand tat I am the subscriber and not the retailerX-(
28. The "first" thing you notice about the opposite sex? Smile and eyes(esp if they hve kajal on ther eyes..gals wit kajal luk soo .... :D) and the way they tie ther hair
29. Do you like the person who sent you this?Man I luv him :P
30. How are you today? My graphologist friend told me tat my confidence is at an all time low :((
31. Favourite non alcoholic drink? Sprite
32. Favourite alcoholic drink? I wud luv 2 taste a martini :D
33. Natural hair colour? Black.
34. Eye colour? Black
35. Wear contacts? Nope but planning to.
36. Siblings?A elder sister...how I miss our fights :(
37. Favourite month? July
38. Favourite food? Home made...my mom dad n sis can cook..now if u ask wat abt me..i hve started cooking :D..so all r welcome to ma home :D
39. Favourite day of the year? Saturday :P
40. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?Nope I guess
41. Scary movies or happy endings? I despise scary movies....happy endings r ok as long as they don sound cliched
42. Summer or winter? Summer
43. Holi or Diwali? Diwali
44. Do you like your name?I just feel pity for the Swamiji :(
45. What book/magazine are you reading? Finished One Night@Call center, reading LOTR, Alfred Sloan's "My years with General Motors", Bill Gates "Business@Speed of thought" and Norman Peale "Amazing results of positive thinking".
46. What's on your mouse pad?Muaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaa...no mouse pads :P
47. What did you watch on TV last night? Gunners and Juve match and I very well doubt tat Juve has fixed the match...how do u explain Gunners winning 2-0 and two Juve players being sent off????
48. Favourite Smell?Smell of petrol and smell of deeply fried potatoes :D
49. Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone? Yes
50. Most tiresome thing you’ve ever experienced/done?I watched a movie called "Madurai" in the theatres :( and travelling in buses in kerala!
On this solemn occasion, I pass on the tag to everyone on my blogroll :D(claps all arnd)...

Sense and Sensitivity

2006-03-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

I have always blvd tat its a crime 2 send fwds esp the chain mails. A bigger crime is to copy n paste those fwds in blogs! So do forgive me for committing a crime :D. I was browsing thro Dilbert on ma comp when tis particular cartoon caught my eye...
I lykd the question tat Dogbert asks:"Is it my fault tat i was born without the ability to sense the feelings of others?!"

Omerta

2006-03-18T07:52:00.000-08:00

This is the third part of the trilogy after Love Story and Christmas Gift.

OMERTA

'Inspired' by real n reel events

"There is a dark man in everyone. It's just that we choose to be who we are...."
-Silence of the lambs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
43 years ago, my dad landed on the shores of this gr8 wide land. 25 years later,he married my mother. And they never regretted my existence. But one day changed everything....

20 years after I was born, I woke up one day realising I had not done anything to justify my existence in this world. My friends told me that I still have a long time to go before I find out wat the Real Me can do. Alas!If only my parents had understood that. Instead they forced me to do this and do that. The vesuvius dormant inside me exploded one day and I ran away from my house. The hearts of my parents crumbled like the city of pompeii. I did not care.

A month later, I met someone on a bus. They say life is a matter of choices that we make and that day, I chose to talk to him. He looked like a stereotyped ruffian. Long hair,unshaven beard and unkempt clothes. Yet he sounded so knowledgeable and harmless. I told him everything that was to be told about my life. I rambled on and on and realised that I had missed my bus stop. After an hour of patient hearing, he offered to help me. I got out of the bus along with him and he took me to his place. The next day, he took me to his 'office'. One cannot call it an office. It was a house rather. He asked me to wait outside. An hour later, he returned and asked me if I knew how to drive a car. I said yes and I was appointed as the driver.

I was very happy. I then thought I was on the path to identify the real Me. Anyway, I was asked to drive around the city and the boss seemed to be happy with my driving. Somewhere in the corner of my mind, something was nagging me. That night, I was asked to drive my boss around to a night club. The 'boss' was a short guy of medium complexion. If someone had not introduced him to me as the 'boss', I would have mistook him to be a circus clown. The boss asked me to wait outside. I had never been to a night club before and realised I have to work for few more years before I can accompany them inside. Sometime later, I could hear gunshots. I was terrified. I saw my boss running out of the night club and approaching the car. I started the car and the moment he got into it, I drove out of the place. I could spot a hint of relief on boss's face thro the rearview mirror. I was shy by nature and hence,drove without opening my mouth. After sometime though, the boss talked. He explained how he had shot the owner of the nightclub. He seemed jubilant and in fact, let out a huge laugh. It scared the shit outta me! I dropped him at his place and ran over to my friend's house. He was sleeping and took sometime to open the door. I was panting for breath. I asked him and wat his boss was doing. The trouble with this guy was tat he really knew how to talk to people. He let me shout at him for sometime and then explained quietly that our boss was a local thug. As he gave me more details regarding my boss's "profession",blood drained outta my face. He then warned me that since I had driven him around the city, everyone would have spotted me and my name would be marked as a member of THE Gang. I cursed myself for the first time for running outta my house and the deep shit I had gotten into.

The problem with choices are that,sometimes, our decision lets others control our future. My condition was similar to that of a bird who has had its wings cut and stuffed in a cage. With great trepidation, I reported for "work" the next day. My friend seemed to have told our boss regarding my outburst the previous night since the boss appeared very friendly to me. In fact, he even boasted to some outsider that I had saved his life yesterday and that I had a gr8 future!That day, he proclaimed himself to be my 'guruji' and began my tutelage. For the next couple of months, he taught me. He told me how a person could rise in this world only by pushing someone else down the drain. To me, it all appeared nonsense in the beginning. But as days passed by, I realised I had little choice and so picked up a few tricks. The boss was really impressed with my 'learning' skills and after sometime, I was 'promoted' from a driver to a henchman. I din know whether to rejoice or cry.

Every day, many came to seek counsel from my boss. They ranged from ordinary mortals visiting him out of fear to bank executives paying him to track down defaulters. One fine day, a man came to meet my boss. He looked omnious and deeply worried and angry. For the first time, my boss let me talk to the person. It was the clear indication of another 'promotion' for me. This time, I did feel elated. I asked the person what his problem was. He told me about his wife's dallings with her ex-boyfriend. He offered to pay me whatever I demanded if I could drive out the other guy out of her life. Though I was reluctant to accept, I relented after sometime. After the guy left, my boss ordered me to deal with this 'case' myself. This was going to my first kill.

For two days, I kept following the other guy. In broad daylight, I saw them walking down the street hand in hand. What made my blood boil was the fact that the lady had a kid. I decided to put an end to the story the next day.

That night, I couldnt sleep properly. The next day, I was to commit my first real crime. Till then, I had accompained the boss and his henchmen but then never had got myself involved. My friend, who was really amazed by my 'growth' in the gang, suggested that I try weed before I hit him. I had never tried drugs till then and was slightly hesistant. I realised my friend had always been right and asked him to explain the intricacies of smoking weed.

Since I was doing it all alone, I decided to catch a bus instead of driving around in a vehicle. I got down at the bus stand. I remembered my friend's instructions and walked up to the auto stand. I lighted a cigarrete while standing between two autos. A man walked up to me and he offered his hand. I held up 50 bucks in my palm and as we shook hands, we exchanged the cigars and the 50 bucks. He informed me that the cigar contained the dope and I can smoke them jus like ordinary cigarettes. Before I could reply, he had disappeared. I took a doped cigar, placed it between my lips and smoked. For sometime, I did not feel any change. Then I felt as if I was flying in the air. Everyone around me looked as tiny as liliputians. I kept laughing. I kept crying. I saw him getting out of his car and escorting her into the departmental store. The kid was standing beside her and ran after them. Strangely, the kid looked happy. I thought it was the grass tat was playing some trick. I followed them into the store. They were standing near the other end of the store. While the kid was checking out the chocolates section, the other guy and the lady were holding each other's hands. She was crying and then hugged him. For some reason, it drove me mad. I snatched the chocolate out of the kid's hand, paid the bill and got out of the store. The kid started crying and followed me. His crying disturbed the other guy. He too got out of the store following the kid who was following me. All while, the lady stood inside the departmental store looking through the glass door. I got out and turned left and waited. The kid did not know where I turned and chose the wrong direction. The other guy too turned the same direction. As they searched for me, I ran behind them. The kid stood and the guy ran ahead. I knew this was my chance. I closed his mouth using my left hand and held the knife in the right hand. I knew that the lady was watching us from the other side of the door. But she did not shout. She came running towards the door. I realised I had very little time. I tapped the guy's shoulders. He turned towards me and before his brain could send a signal to his hand tat I held a knife in my hand, I drove the knife into his stomach. I took it out and drove it in again. Blood was sprouting out of his stomach and I could see his intestine. The lady came out of the store and rushed towards the guy. She was in tears and her face was white. It had the mixed look of fear and anger. And she shouted."Oh Nikhil...nikhil..." No sound came out of her mouth but I could hear each and every mouth she mouthed as if she was whispering them in my ears. She told me how much she had loved this guy but had spurned him since she thought his love was based on sympathy. How her husband suspected her each and every action and without realising,drove her into Nikhil's hands. How she had named her elder child Nikhil although she could never call his name. How I had spoilt her only chance to regain happiness in life. How she had continued her liason with him despite knowing that she was committing a cardinal sin. She kept rambling on and on. I realised that it was the first time her voice had found an audience. Till today, I do not know how I was able to hear it. May be it was the dope or may be it was something else. She sighed as she got up and looked at me with a motherly look on her face. She was still crying as she took the kids in her arms and ran away from the place. Suddenly,everything appeared clearer to me. The choice had been made. And I know she too remained so. Her secrets were safe with me and so were mine with her. And we both knew we had to live with it. The code had been signed.
I too ran away the next moment. I did not go back to my boss or my friend.Instead I ran away from them too. They did not bother to chase me since for them, their job was done. The police
did not bother to chase me since they never knew I had existed. 5 years later, I am happily married and settled in life with my husband. Till this day, I have not come across that lady.However, that code of silence we two women accepted that day is still being honored and shall be honored ever after......

Timeout

2006-03-10T21:20:00.000-08:00

I have been writing lots of stories lately. My previous two posts were stories. My next one is also a story(yawn!). It should complete the trilogy. Now don ask me wat the common thread connecting the three stories...even I am searching for sth :O!
Many ppl have asked me why I changed my blog name from Me Te ReBel to Viive. Well after reading Ayn Rand(its her again!), I realised tat the rebel in me has disappeared. I hve become wateva I din want myself to be. Anyhow, the rebel in me is down but not out ;-). And to indicate tat, i hve changed my blogger disp pic to that of a flicker of light. Again inspired from Rand. Terz a similar flame in the book Atlas Shrugged:the flame from Wyatt's Oil Field. Any Rand followers wud know wat its sup 2 mean. For others, the flame is the symbol of the crusade against the looters. They say "Alcohol breeds philosophers" but I should add tat "Vettiness breeds philosophers"!
Watched a cricket match after a very very long time. And wat a match it was:Aussie plundering 434 against South Africa and the Springbooks chasing it!I din watch the Aussie innings. In fact i watched the SA innings only after20 overs. And wat a chase it was!I shd add tat Aussie bowling attack was below par. Without McGrath and Warne, their bowling is akin to a rock band without guitarists. It wud b better if any of the two bowling greats is roped in as the bowling coach or sth.I do think tat the match signals the beginning of the end of Aussie Domination of cricket. They have been beaten comprehensively(by their standards that is) in Test by the Poms and now in One-Day too,their performance is beginning to deteriorate. Rest in peace Aussies...Ur time is up :D

Hurrrrrrrrrrayyyyyy!!!Schumi is back..the king is back....Long Live the King!!I know Schumi din win...but a 2nd place finish has laid the foundation for a Championship victory this time...Last year, he was defeated not by his competitors instead by changes in the format...LOL..luk wat happens if someone keeps winning!
Now they will ask Federer to play without a racket or order Ronaldinho to play as a keeper :O
I was a cars n F1 freak during my skool days and the frenzy hit a all time high during my 11th n 12th stds when I became a big Schumi fan.Everything changed when I arrived at college. I left cars behind and instead, embraced computers. Not tat I don derive the same pleasure but watching Schumi battling out wit Hakkinen(anyone know where he is??) and leaving the rest of the pack to battle it out amongst each other just felt great!These days, I am a soccer fanatic(soccer,not football :P) but I shd admit tat I am beginning to lose interest in soccer too...
Listening to lots of tamil songs these days. Lotsa movies r gonna release in the near future. Vetaiyaadu Vilayadu,Pattiyal,Godfather,Poi,Pudupettai, Paarijatham,etc. The trend these days seem to b this:two duets, one masala,one 'pheelings' number,a classical,a remix of any of the previous mentioned songs n a rap. Sometimes, the rap n the remix r the same though ur often left wondering wats the point of a remix in the same album! And the rap lyrics all sound cliched n stale.
The third part of the trilogy is titled "Omerta". I am doing a lot of research for this. Its inspired by an event in my college. Before I reveal nething else, I stop....(konjam over build up :P)

Christmas Gift

2006-03-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

"Wake up,Amar Wake up!!"Nikhil whispered excitedly into Amar's ears. It was the early morning hours of the christmas day. The sun was yet to cast its rays on this side of the world. But Amar was impatient. Last year, Santa had given him a set of sketch pens. The previous sunday, he had prayed to the Lord asking for the best christmas gift ever. He hoped his wish would come true. He also hoped that unlike the previous year, he would get a better present than Amar. The fact that his brother was 3 years younger to him never struck him."Boys!" He often heard his mom telling him,"They never grow up".

"You STILL believe in Santa Claus??"his friend Ajay had laughed at him when they were walking back home after school. Nikhil replied "Yes of course.He comes around my house, riding his reindeers every Christmas eve, sneaks into my room and leaves me and my brother Amar, sweet little gifts."Ajay kept laughing and teased him that he hadnt grown up yet.This set Nikhil thinking:"Who is doing it then?Does that mean that someone knowingly leaves my brother better gifts??".

On christmas eve, Nikhil went straight to his bed after a sumptous dinner. He did not join his parents and brother for their regular nightwalk. Earlier that evening, he had noticed his dad walking into the house with two large bags. He had also grudingly noticed that one was slightly larger than the other.

Nikhil could not sleep properly. He was constantly thinking about Santa Claus and was praying that he should see Santa that night. Nikhil excitedly thought how his classmates would respond when they learn that he is the only kid to have seen Santa!He wore his watch and set the alarm at 11 45. He woke up even before the alarm rang. He switched off the alarm and sat up. He waited in silence for Santa Claus to come. "Lets see who gets the bigger bounty this time"He told Amar though Amar was sleeping without any sign of anxiety that was writ large on Nikhil's face.

A few minutes before the clock struck 12 and announced to the all the children in the world that Santa was on his way to their houses, she quietly walked into their room and tiptoed to the table. This time, they had chosen the presents very carefully especially that of Nikhil's since he had caused a ruckus the previous year. She placed the presents on the table. Nikhil's heart lept in anxiety as he heard someone's footsteps. As she turned around, her leg hit the bed. His doubts were confirmed. After all, Santa never wore anklets.

He waited for his mother to get back to her room. Nikhil felt as if his mom and dad had betrayed him. He was very disappointed. He checked whether his brother was asleep or not and then walked quietly towards the table. The only source of light in the room was the moonlight that pierced the curtains. He moved one of the presents near the curtains. It was Amar's. He placed it back on the table and weighed his present. He wanted to yell out in anger.

"Why do they do this to me?Did they pick me out of some garbage dump?Or did they adopt me?"He was asking himself all these questions as he got back into his bed and tried hard to sleep. He cried. He cried to God and asked them why they were doing this to him. Didnt they love him?He decided to ask them the first thing in the morning.

It was 2 30 when he woke up again. His face was drenched in sweat as he looked around his room. The first thing that stuck him was his present. Next he looked at his brother still fast asleep. He got out of the bed and paced the room. He stopped. He realised that all this was happening because of his brother. He, who had been the darling of his parents, had to suffer because of his brother. His brother's well being was their sole concern and he had been left out. Nikhil realised that he had to do something to reclaim his position as the prince of the house.

"Enough!!I goto do something....I goto..."he told himself.He searched the room for the bat. The cricket bat was gifted to his brother by Santa the previous year. He was so fond of it that he used to sleep with the bat tightly held in his hand. He found it behind the door. He picked it up and swung it and hit his brother's head. His brother's head split open and blood splattered all around the room."Yes!!!I have done it...I am !!"Nikhil laughed as he watched his brother die. He felt elated. A minute later though, Nikhil felt numb and nauseaous. He looked in horror at his brother's open skull. He let out a yell and fell on the floor unconscious.

The yell woke up his parents. They came running into their room. She noticed Nikhil lying on the floor with the bat in his hand. She shook him and tried her best to wake him up. Nikhil woke up gradually."Amar!"He let out a cry. He got up all of a sudden. Amar was still sleeping with his lips curled up in a smile.He ran to him and hugged him. His parents kept asking what happened. Nikhil felt relieved and asked his parents not to talk since Amar was sleeping. They both were dazed and left the room after Nikhil dozed off.
"Wake up, Amar Wake up!!" Nikhil whispered excitedly into Amar's ears."Look at what Santa had got you this time..Hes got you two gifts!!!".Amar shrugged in his sleep and opened his eyes slowly. Nikhil thanked God for the best christmas gift ever.

Love Story

2006-03-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

It all started wit an ordinary friend's request. Nikhil was a newbie to the social networking site called orkut and was searching for some gud friends. Wat impressed him was her profile picture. Generally people had their own picture. But for safety(!) reasons, gals somehow preferred to have cute pictures lyk cats or dogs or flowers. But her picture was different:it was a black and white picture of a withering flower. To others it was just another pic. But to him, it sounded lyk a cry for help. cry for hope. He was intrigued and even doubted his own judgement on the pic. He couldnt contain his anxiety and so he messaged her and asked if his judgement was true.

When she read the message, Lekha was stumped. Two things stumped her. The truth in the question asked and the message itself. For the message contained nothing but the question. It was impersonal and to her, it sounded as if the person was least interested in knowing anything besides the answer. Her immediate thought on reading the message was to ignore it.She did not reply for a couple of days.Then she got another message from him. It read:"Therez nothing to be ashamed of".She went wild after reading tat message and she was short charged the whole day. The next day she replied:"Yes".He was glad tat she had replied.He then added her as a friend. She too added him. And the world was never the same for both of them....

Since orkut was a public forum, they shifted to IM(Instant Messengers).When he asked her about the profile picture, she let him have a peek into her troubled personal life. A life filled with deep misery. Till she met him, all her spare time was spent in solitude. She wrote long letters. To that doctor who she wished wouldnt treat her as just another patient. To the teacher whom she hoped would stop taunting her wit her huge eyes. To her father whom she hoped would care more for her. To the guy in the first bench whom she hoped would notice her. To the girl who sat beside her in the class hoping tat she would stop ignoring her. After meeting him, she stopped writing letters. She got no time to write them since she was chatting with him whenever possible. Her 9 to 6 sleep timings went awry and as days passed, she became a nocturnal. As she let him know more abt herself, she realised she was getting the replies for all her letters. One by one.Slowly and steadily.

Nikhil's life was an open book. His mom and dad were both busy with their own careers and pay cheques. He had never cribbed about the fact that he to spend the hours after school not knowing when his parents would turn up. His grandmom was ther to take care of him but she was treated more like a maid. The computer he had got for his 15th birthday was God sent and within no time, he became a netizen. As he started chatting with Lekha, he realised that she wasnt yet another gal looking to fry some groundnuts. She opened those pages in his life that,till then, he never knew he had existed. Or rather, were so dark tat he was oblivious of it.

Nikhil's parents then moved to the same city where Lekha was living. First he hesitated but to his surprise, it was she who asked whether if he had a mobile. He sent her his mobile number and he received an sms from her. This meant tat they could contact each other whenever and wherever they want and were able to share their daily ramblings and musings more frequently.After a month or so, Nikhil realised that he had not given his number to anyone but her! and wat was even more surprising was the fact that they hadnt even spoken to each other.He once sent her a message asking whether she wud talk if he called her. The reply was a curt NO. Nikhil wasnt hurt. He realised that their relation was unique because they hadn talked to each other:hadn heard each other's voice or for tat matter hadnt even seen each other. To him, she was always the withering flower. The flower he wanted to bloom again and jump with joy.He realised he was in love with her.

It was six months since she had replied to his message. She realised how much she had changed since she had met her. The world seemed to be a better place to live and everyday she woke up awaiting his message to kickstart her day.She had stopped writing letters since she saw the doctor,teacher and everyone else in him.She realised that he had become the world for her.She was in love with him.

With every passing day, Nikhil became more and more impatient. He wanted to tell her somehow. He wanted to meet her in person. Kneel in front of her and tell her what she meant to him. One day,he suggested to her tat they should meet. Knowing her very well, he kept dropping hints every now and then. Finally she relented and they agreed to meet on a sunday evening at a cafe.

Nikhil walked in a bunch of flowers. They both agreed to wear yellow. The cafe was empty save for a young gal sitting at a corner table wearing a yellow salwar. He felt silly since he din know how to greet her. He walked towards her. She suddenly turned and found him walking towards her. She smiled. Nikhil gave her the flowers he was holding and said "Hi". Lekha kept smiling. Nikhil's mobile rang. He had forgotten to switch it off. He checkd his mob and ter was an sms from Lekha."Hi....thnx 4 te flowers :-)". Nikhil looked up at her. She moved her head as if to suggest tat he should reply. Nikhil replied "Well..2 can play tis game ;-) ". The waiter arrived to take the orders. He knew wat she lyked and ordered the same for both of them. Lekha wasnt a bit surprised. She asked him "So do I look beautiful :D?". He replied,"Ravishing :)". They kept messaging each other till the waiter arrived with the orders. They ate in complete silence.
After having her favorite ice cream, she looked at him and smiled again. He sent her a message"Now..wont u say thanks??"
She replied"Thnx :)"
"Cant u talk to me?"
"No"
The realization hit him..."Oh U neva told me"
"We never talked abt it did we? ;-)"
"It never stuck me"
"Does this change things between us?"
"I luv You :-)"
"Y?"
He stopped messaging. He saw tat she was on the verge of crying. He held her hand and spoke "Look...the fact tat u cannot speak doesnt change anything between us. I have wanted to tell u this long time back...In fact whenever I chatted wit u or messaged u,this was the first thing I wanted to say."She was about to message him but he din let her hands "Lemme speak...Right from the moment I messaged u first time,u have meant everything to me....may be u wont accept but am sure tat its the same wit u...if u think tat i proposed just out of compassion towards you, then you are mistaken. The only moment when I felt compassionate towards you was when I saw tat picture of yours. The withering flower crying out for help. But if it was help tat u vr seeking then u would have stopped talkin to me when u stopped writing those letters..I luv you and I cannot live without you"She looked at him as if suggesting she felt she was helpless."Plz don leave me Lekha.."She saw tat he was crying now.She got up and walked away...

Motive Power

2006-02-24T12:54:00.000-08:00

Dedicated to Trinity Teal :-)

"Don't ask so many questions, children should be seen and not heard!"-"Who are you to think?" "It's so, because I say so!"-"Don't argue,obey!"-"Don't try to understand,believe!"-"Don't rebel,adjust!"-"Don't stand out,belong!"-"Don't struggle, compromise!"-"Your heart is more important than your mind!"-"Who are you to know?Your parents know best!"-"Who are you to know?"Society knows best!"...."Who are you to object?All values are relative...."

Sometimes, while reading a novel, we feel tat the author has struck a common chord wit us. Well tas wat exactly i felt when i read these lines in the novel,"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. The above quoted words form but one part of a complex story interwoven wit philosophy. Trust me its been a bitter pill to swallow. You may ask why. For atleast in my life, I had been a puritan. Notice "had been" :( Because, in this wide wild world, sometime or the other one is forced to become impure. Not that there are nt puritans around but they are lesser in number even compared to the citizens of Atlantis in the novel(Atlantis is lyk the last resort of all puritans). Now wat or who is a puritan?In simple terms, one who thinks before acting. I don wanna go deep into the philosophy of Objectivism but wat i have said above results in a conflict of interest(or rather ideologies) wit ppl who believe or rather lead to believe tat terz this mystic force behind all our actions. Watever said and done, Objectivism does sound a little bit idealistic to me. Therez one thing tho which struck me:"Happiness is the successful state of life, pain is an agent of death. Happiness is tat state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values..A morality tat dares to value the failure of your values is an insolent negation of morality"
Now, I guess I hve totally deviated from the purpose of the post.Havent we heard the above stated words quite often in our life??Especially during our school life??When we were brought up thinking that to question and think is a crime. When choice of schooling and even college was made even before we knew wat they meant. When none of us were heard and some of us were not even seen? Whenever we envied tat student not because of his/her innate talent and hardwork but proximity to "thos who matter"?We fought harder only to be overlooked.A friend of mine told me long time back that it wud be dumb to fight and better to adjust. Yeah!!Adjust....compromise...accept fate..move on..be another brick on the wall..we all have done these things without realising one thing:we have someway or the other successfully stopped the motor. Stopped the motive power within us. The power essential for us to keep moving in a straight line in this universe. Instead we keep moving in circles thats leading us to nowhere and losing everything and clinging onto just one thing:Hope. The eternal hope for a John Galt to come and save us. Save us and take us to Atlantis. To break the Wall.
PS:
This post was not only inspired from Atlas Shrugged but also by the songs of Pink Floyd. We had the band, Parikrama play in our college today and they did an awesome job:).

Musings of the inSanE

2006-02-20T22:15:00.000-08:00

Two days ago, I heard tat a renowned politician,in his column in some mag or sth,does a weird thing.As in he himself asks the questions and answers them(i guess no one carez abt him!). i thot i shd try this out sometime. And i got a boost by reading Catch-22. Till date, its the craziest book i hve ever read. So this post is dedicated to all the crazy ppl out there ;)

Q&A:

Q:Do u see any point in ur existence in this world?
A:Yeha,of course. I mean without my existence, some of the major MNCs in this world wud simply collapse.

Q:Care to explain?
A: Sure...take the case of PepsiCo...everyday i make it a point to have Ruffles Lays...either i buy it or i persuade ma frnz to buy it..n if aint exist, employees in PepsiCo wud b outta work within no time...similar things apply 2 Coke too..i hve a coke atleast twice a week...so think abt wat wud happen to Coca-Cola Corp without me! Also I use Airtel SIM, a Nokia mob, a Compaq comp,a digi by some "confuciously" named company and my wishlist includes an IPod, a Ferrari and more...now do u realise who sends those plainclothes policemen to protect me?

Q:Did u ever try to commit suicide?
A:Interesting question...i have given this thing a lot of thought and time.Suicide wud b the Lord's call 2 bail me out of abyss.. i realised tat I wud b bailed out but wud multiply the problems of all thos who luv me...which totally contradicts the purpose of suicide which is to relieve ppl of miseries caused by ma existence.

Q:Wat is ur opinion on putting pix in orkut?
A:Well,by not putting pix, ppl are hiding from the world..however one tends to have a better first impression by looking at other's pic..so by putting a gud pic,one cud easily mislead others into blving tat one is gud which one isnt.

Q:Do u agree tat a fotographer can never take a picture of himself?
A:No I do not agree. A man' shadow keeps moving wit the passage of time. And man is in the best position to capture those shadows. And if one captures all those shadows,u have an autobio which is nothing but the best picture of one's self ;-)

Q:Y do u hve pimples on ur face?
A:Everyone prays to God to relieve them outta misery. And everyone is in a miserable state now. Tat means tat God is facing lotta misery. Now He asks Me to relieve some of the misery. And when I do, a pimple appears on ma face..

Q:Don u think tat ur insane?
A:I don think I know..

Q:Huh?
A:I don think. I know!

Q:Do u think or know or wateva tat insanity is contagious?
A:LOl..yup..i know insanity is contagious...

Q:Y is it so?
A:To judge someone as insane, one should know wat or how is one insane.According to a study, 50% of the world think tat the other 50% of the ppl in this world are insane without realising tat they are also insane.

Q:And?
Q:Do u think I am insane?

A:Hmm...yeha..you are insane
Q: Y do u say so?

A:Because you are not sane.
Q:Y do u say so?

A:Because your are not lyk me.
A:Ok..accepted...now there are two ppl here...me & you...and so u call me insane..so 50% of ppl here call the other 50% insane..without realising that u have also become insane..

Q: Wat The F...?
A: So now you are also insane..which means tat insanity is contagious.

PS:
The fact tat u hve had patience to read till this proves tat either ur jobless or insane. Now if ur jobless,then ur insane because sane ppl always hav sth or the other to do...if ur insane, tat means tat ur jobless since u stray away from sane state only if ur idle...

Main Aisa Kyo Hoon!!!

2006-02-18T23:37:00.000-08:00

Wone more tag post...tis time i hve been tagged by Gokul aka The Optimist from Utopia...n the subject is 5 weird things about me..actually it aint a tuff task at all...

1. I get easily addicted to things....for instance,orkut,blogging,internet,computer games,reading books(no no ..not college books),etc...i can do these things without even caring 2 have food or sleep..
2. I never step outta my house or room without applyin vibuthi...n if i don do it,sth or te other goes wrong..
3. I am so bad at drawing tat when i drew a mango in my bio record, the teacher asked me if i hve ever seen a mango in my life....*sob sob sob*
4.My mood keeps swaying al te time..I will b happy one minute n the very nxt moment, i bcome all pissed off..pissed of not bcos of wat is happenin 2 me..any general thing can piss me off..even te state of affairs in the kenyan cricket board put me off once...:O
5. I have had this weird feeling tat I am gonna rule the world rite from my childhood..even now i have it...lol...:D
lots more r ter...but am@home now n jus now had a gr8 lunch...so in no mood 2 sit n type...
I stop wit this....i tag all te visitors to this blog who haven been tagged yt :D

PS:
To Teal:this aint the post tat i had promised u...wil b putting it up soon :D

Perfect lover

2006-02-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

OK ARCHIE...here I am...ur wish is gonna come true...The tag fever is bak..I had already been tagged once before...not tat I am bored or sth..but jus tat a general feeling of warmth n love is in the air...suddenly a thot occured..wat if my perfect lover reads this post...the probability is more so since Valentine Day is arnd the corner(don ask me why...if u still persist, wats spl tat ppl choose to propose on feb 14 ?? :P)..I had other plans for a Val Day post...but why let go an oppportunity ;)...

So here goes the tag:

"tu bin bataye mujhe le chal kaheen
jahan tu muskuraye meri manzil wahin..."

Some day in the YEaR 2010:
Here I am...26 years old...working as a s/w engineer in some firm...appearing single,content and without any sign of tension or sth..well well, appearances are deceptive..i know myself and however calm i look, I am always tensed.
So mah sweet mom n dad think tat I am working too much and tat me not paying any kinda attention to my personal life(dreams........sigh!!)...so they catch hold of my grandad(if hes still arnd..hes an astrologer..hes predicted tat I wud hve a luv marriage..btw most of his predictions hve been true...notice" most" :D). My grandad, takes me to a corner and asks me wat kinda gal do i need. I feel like laughing out loud(no offense meant to my grandad but he knows me te best :))..I tell him tat I hve no intentions to "settle" down so early in life.The wily old chap tat he is, he raps me and tells me, "Dey, I know U hve been waiting for me to ask this for ages. so wat kinda gal do u want??" We are more of friends than grandad-grandson. So no surprises there :D
Now, this sets my brains on fire. I ask for a cpl of days time and my thatha cedes to my request. I bunk office(who wudn luv to do this..I mean bunking for thinking abt ur future spouse..*very big grin*). I go somewhere I am left all alone(tat wud b my bedroom most prolly). I think hard. For two days. 48 hours. I rack my brains hard. I start thinking wat wud hve happened if I had used an ounce of brain earlier during my college days....hmm...
Ok..48 hrs have come to an end. The D-Day has arrived. I wake up b4 my grandad(he wakes up at arnd 4 or 5 in the morning..cmon I CAN change in the future and not b an insomniac). I go on a jog and meet him at his favorite resting spot in the nearby park.
Grandad asks me"So Vivek, wat do u think?"I realise tat two days of thinking haven helped me in anyway..All those words that I had written in ma mind abt the one n wonly seemed blur. I look up aimlessly and realise I am all lost. To break the ice I tell him"It shd b a gal". He smiles and replies "Well, tat reduces my burden..wat next?"
rub my hands.Its winter(this is the ultimate dream.me jogging during winter..heehe..hoho..LOL)..n then the first quality or thought or wateva comes out of my mouth."Jo apne zindagi jeeye or mujhe meri jeene diye.."This is a lift from the movie Dil Chahta Hai. I luv this lines esp the way in which Aamir expresses them. My grandad thinks for sometime and says"Tuff ask esp letting u live ur life ur own way..well lemme see..hmm..". He then adds"Tas it?"
Pat comes the reply"Of course not..She shd b a good singer". I am surprised tat I mouthed those words. But its true. I aint a gr8 singer. Was gud in my school but used to hate my music teacher so much tat I used to cry when he taught me. But yeah, I luv music and its becoming an inseparable part of my life. U may wonder tat I wud better do wit an IPod but wat the hell, this is my tag!! btw all the gals I have had crushes till now hav been amazing singers ;)
This time my grandad looks up and then looks at me and says "Independent and a singer...wat else?"
The nearby coffee shop has opened and I suggest tat we shd continue there. My grandad agrees wit me and we move ter. Cuppa coffee...I jus luv tat!
"She shouldnt be insane like me" I say.
"OMG, then who wud marry u??"my grandad replies wit tat sly smile on his face. Et Tu Grandad.I make up for the lost ground by saying"I mean she shd not be as crazy as me. U know how crazy I am."(The U refers to all the blog readers :)
"Independent, singer and sensible..hmm...ok..continue"
Three down, three to go. Eight aint my lucky number so I am gonna stop wit six.
I bite my nails.I tell myself "Cmon dude..this is ur life partner..think hard.."
"She should have a sense of pride in wat she does. I mean.." my grandad interrupts me and says"U mean arrogant?"I reply "Well...hmm..yeah..something like that.."This aint means tat she shd be egoistic or sth. But a lil bit of arrogance does make a gal appear more beautiful and sexy ;)
"Independent
Singer
Sensible
Arrogant"
"Nething else?"I realise tat with just 4 points, the odds wud hve been shortened.Hes kinda impatient. So I tell him." Wait..she shd b a die hard optimist..u know.. temme tat wat I do is correct and make me believe tat I gonna succeed...like being the rock solid force behind me.. givin me hope "

By now, the sun is out blazing. My grandad looks at his watch. One more one more.."She shd be intelligent enuff to understand wat I say and dumb enuff to accept them" My grandpa is all flustered now. "Wat in god's name was tat?" He asks me. I grin and say"Well she wud understood this..If she does, then shes perfect for me". He knows tat I have given this thing too much of thought and agrees to stop wit this.He gets up and starts walking. I suddenly remember another point and I shout loud.."Grandad, U gotta hear this...her name..."He does not turn back. Instead he keeps walking.I keep shouting but in vain. Suddenly someone raps me on ma head. Its her. She kisses me and whispers.."Is it tat tag dream again??Oho boy..too late..;)"

Note:
The fact tat I have been a victim of a vicious game called Tag has hit me. And after giving it a lot of thought, I have decided, the best way to clean up my conscience is to pass on the tag :D
So here is the hit list.
1. Divya. Don ask me why..Perhaps its the fact tat U were the first visitor to my blog*smiles*
2. Gokul. This is the ultimate revenge. Dude u shall b spared if u agree to spare me ur tag ;)
3. Sankar aka Mighty Titan..Machcha..unakku kai vandha kalai..:D
4. Sushila..Chammathu ponnu aa seekarama tag post podutu :-)
5. His Excellency...dude, do give this a thought amidst ur social posts(btw ur 4th part is yet 2 b posted..me waiting here da..post it soon)
6. Sankar...dey its been long time since u blogged. Hope this will b ur come bak post :)
7. Niranjana...Some more introspection..lol..:D

My Mood

2006-02-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

"Ur playing..u think everything is going fine..then one thing goes wrong..then another..and another...n you try to fight back,the harder u fight back, the deeper u sink... until u cant move..u cant breathe..because ur in over ur head.....like a quick sand..."
-From the movie, The Replacements.
I am wondering as to why I am putting up this post. Tat too at 3 am...except for a handful,everyone else is sleeping..but I cant...:O

"I don't want to be the one
The battles always choose
'Cause inside I realize
That I'm the one confused.
I don't know what's worth fighting for
Or why I have to scream....
I don't know why I instigate
And say what I don't mean
I don't know how I got this way
I'll never be alright
So, I'm breaking the habit
I'm breaking the habit"
-Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park

Oh MY Gawwwd....wat the f**k is wrong wit me??????????????????????

PS:
Well..I wanted 2 put up the above mentioned song on my blog for quite sometime..but it kinda din match wat i wrote...so decided 2 put sth relevant to the song :D
Again....Oh MY Gawwwd....wat the f**k is wrong wit me??????????????????????

Rayil Payanam

2006-02-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

Okies...this is ma first attempt at a travelogue...

1.2.06: morning 6 30 am:
Knock..knock..as i had been promised, my frnz woke me up at 6 30(ok ok don blv it...but yeah its true tat i woke up so early :O...)the train was scheduled at 8 am. So we din hve a choice but to leave college asap. All of us(n tat wud include me, dino, harish, vinodh, deepan and shanky) somehow got ready n left by 7 :05. We were runnning late. It took around 45 mins to reach the bus stand n an auto ride from ther 2 the railway station meant we reached station just in time for us to get the tickets and some food. We hurried off to the 3rd platform and to our dismay, a huge crowd of commuters were already waiting for the train. And as luck wud hve had it, the train was running late. By the time the train arrived, we gobbled up half the junk food. The train was running packed and we somehow got into cpl of upper berths.6 of us and a train journey for 5 hours meant wholesum fun n wat a fun we had.
First things first and we had our breakfast. Station food was aweful as usual but no one was in a mood to complain. Dino had brought his discman and we had packed a set of speakers planning 2 rock the train. To our disappointment, the speaker din work(damn us...we nvr tested it bak in the hostel..). This meant that we had to manage wit the headfones and hence took turns to listen 2 music. Next we played cards. Wats a train journey without a game of cards. We din play rummy(is tat the correct spellin??but guess all kno wat it is :D) or asH(sometimes the H is misspelt as S ;). Instead we played "No Kiss". Ok ok its not strip poker or sth. Its the NIT-C's version of the game "Numero Uno". Does it ring a bell?I am sure it does. The rules r simple. U goto empty the set of cards tat u got wit u. And for the NITC flavor, we make use of a Draw 7 instead of Draw 4. By the time the game ended, the rules vr bent n twisted so tat poor shanky was made to Draw 7 thrice :D. After the game ended, we all felt sleepy. Not a bit surprising since we are used to sleeping during class hours. Dino had brought a book "The monk who sold his ferrari" and I had "Atlas Shrugged" for company. Shanky was reading "the monk" and got bored within minutes of reading it. So we exchanged our books and I found him snoring after a page of "Atlas"..(I wudn blame him). I had been looking around for a "How To" book for a long time. The first few pages sounded promising and I started reading it earnestly. Till a particular page where a guy is shocked to learn that "concentration is the key to mastery of mind"...wat the hell...any kid in India wud know tat...So I stopped reading and continued wit Rand for sometime and b4 long, I too dozed off. By the time I woke up the train had reached Cbe.
1.2.2006: noon 1:30 PM:
Aaaahhh....Coimbatore.....the city wit which I have fallen in love....It felt gr8 to be bak in Cbe. We din stay there for long since our train to Salem was scheduled to depart at 1:45. In between tho, we had a look at the score(wher else do u hve live telecast of the cricket match being shown??Long live CBE..:D) and got into the train. I was planning to continue my siesta but my frnz suggested tat we play Rummy. Dino and Harish din kno the rules. So Vinodh carefully explained the rules and the cards were distributed and everyone was ready. This is were the fun started. Harish's face lit up when he saw his cards and not even a round had got over when he put down his cards. To our utter disbelief, the debutant claimed that he had finished the game even b4 some of us had chckd our cards. PPl, its like a batsman scoring 400 on debut. Someone amongst us recovered quickly and chckd his cards and after a minute, we all were rolling on the floor with laughter. One of the sets that Harish had formed contained three 6's. Well that is legally permitted excpt tat cpl of 6's belonged to the same flower :D. The game was wrapped up bcos of his wrong call and he ended the game wit 80 pts(the one wit the min credit wins@ the end). It was the jus the beginning of Harish's misery. He kept piling 80 points every game after game till we reached Salem. He did win a game in between but lost the nxt two to kinda compensate :D. And when we reached Salem, Harish' credit stood at 400+!!!

We then got down at salem at around 4 30. Bala came n picked us up and in no time we were in the mandapam. Sap joined us from Tiruchengode at around 7 pm.... This was my first trip 2 salem and its a nice place..small tho compared 2 other cities in TN(bala....ru listenin?? :P)..the mapillai azhaippu and the kalyanam went off well and we had gr8 food after a very long time:D...our best wishes to Anu and Sivakumar :)...Wishin both a happy married life....

PS:
Do wotch out for the 2nd part of the travelogue :DAll pix vr taken by ma frnd Deepan...

RDB=RDX+Bhangra

2006-01-31T12:25:00.000-08:00

na koi padhne wala na koi sikhne wala
apni toh paathshala masti ki paathshala

5 rebels let loose....by the society..by ther parents..searching around for a purpose to lead ther life for....booze...bike...fun...rebel...

hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar
aur hum taiyyaar hain seena liye apna idhar

5 rebels let loose....simmering wit anger...angry wit the world...angry abt their country's pathetic state..ready to weed out evil..

Rang De Basanti- the movie everyone was waiting for especially Aamir Khan's earlier dud at the box office, The Rising. And trust me, its worth the wait. It teaches one patriotism without the jingoisms usually associated with it. Bet ppl of our generation wud hve learnt more abt Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad & Co. through this movie than the earlier attempts at glorifying them(three movies i think and all were flops). You laugh out loud when DJ realises that Sue can understand and even speak hindi. You cry when Sonia learns about Ajay's(a pilot) death due to a plane crash. You rise from ur seat with anger when the defence minister says that it was the pilot Ajay's mistake. You can feel the goose pimples when Sonia says "Maar Daalo" to her friends.

Rebels turn revolutionaries. All thanks to Sue's plan to shoot a movie about the revolutionaries who challenged the British might and woke up a nation. A nation that was the jewel in the crown of the "Empire". A nation whose people let themselves be looted without even caring to raise a voice. As they shoot the movie, the rebels realise that India hasnt changed much. Here is where the director's ploy has to be lauded. Instead of going overboard with long speeches about brastaachar and parampara, he underplays and let the script do the talking. The correlation between the Old and the New order is just perfect. India has not changed much, the rebels realise. The nation is sleeping once again and to wake them up, they resort to the same method. The result??well, that only the future can tell....

The king is back....Rahman's music is not only refreshing but also has been cleverly placed in the movie. Be it bhangra or rap or blues or plain melody, he scores. About the cast: Aamir(DJ) is his usual cherub self. The character can be described as a cross between Mangal pandey in The Rising and Akash in Dil Chahta Hai. Atul Kulkarni(Laxman) as the Hindu fundamentalist realises that you need not be a Hindu to be a Ram and politics based on religion does not go beyond vote bank. Kunal Kapoor(Aslam) is the restrained muslim youth who cannot understand why on earth is he expected to hate a Hindu. Sharman Joshi(Sukhi) is the happy-go-lucky guy who cant live without his friends and is ready to give his life for them. Soha(Sonia) acts so well tat i am sure her brother Saif can learn a thing or two from her. Alice Patten(Sue) first hindi dialogue is "teri maa ki..." :D Till the end she carries the movie but then is sidelined and she remains a mute spectator to metamorphosis from rebel to revolutionary. Maddy(Ajay) is like the godfather who makes the rebels realise that therez no use in sulking as long as they cant take up the matter in ther hands. His is a cameo and he plays it without much of a fuss.

Then comes my favorite, Sidharth aka Karan. Guess he represents the Generation-Y more than anyone else. He is like how Amitabh wud hve been before his angry young man image. Totally restrained. Lost and looking hopeless. In search of some purpose. He steals the thunder from Aamir especially at the climax. The retro look with a 70's ishtyle Ray Ban and a cigarrete throughout the movie suits him to a T. The way he lets out his anger at the maligning of Ajay's name and his handling of the climax shows how much he has matured as an actor. Though one hopes he is not typecast in similar roles and suffer the same fate as Madhavan after RUN.

Overall, a movie that should be a casestudy for other directors in Bollywood. Especially those who ape Western movies and think that shouting profanities or melodrama is wat we people luv wotching.

Statutory Warning:
This review is for those people who have wotchd this movie already. So do not complain that I have revealed the story and all other stuff :D

Tsunami in Calicut

2006-01-20T00:57:00.000-08:00

NIT-CALICUT:

RED ALERT........

MAY DAY MAY DAY MAY DAY!!!!!!!

SOS...SOS.....

Calicut,friday the 20th:
On wednesday, the 18th, the wireless link b/w the prod. engg dept and the F hostel in NIT Calicut failed. Since then there has no internet in the F hostel. For people's information, F hostel is the final year hostel out here and is the only one with 24hrs(!) internet connection at present. The timing tho was perfect:just three days before the sessionals. For some it was God sent. The administrator told me that the Inet in NIT Calicut stands for Intelligent Net since the connection somehow fails just before the exams.
However some felt otherwise. Sample quotes:
"man i surf for relaxin in between studies...no net.... n its all drivin me crazy :O"
"hostel is so lifeless without the net :(( "
"Wheres ma oxygen...?:X"
"F**k...Damn.....Screw it...Bull S**t..."
The inmates are so despo that the F hostel Janda is on half mast now. Also, a statue of Lord Vinayaga(the e-God!) has been erected and the special Cybera Yagna has been started.(Its the cyber world Aswamedha Yagna...a virus has been let loose and the admin has to chase it :D) Also for support measures, students from other colleges are rushing in with extra bandwidth to save the life of the inmates. And to top it all, a bug(Aloha Kirkaldy) has been spotted in the Campus Networking Centre. This has resulted in erratic connection to even the Computer Centres located in the various departments in the college. And this has resulted in frequent black outs in the whole college. Latest reports indicate that it would take atleast 2 or 3 days for the connection to be bak to normal. Till then, students have been asked to bear wit the authorities and not to resort to any means of violence(!).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PPL, I have my internals from tomorrow. So all the visitors do remember me whenever u pray to God :)(I know u do but then just 2 remind all) Next weekend,I wud be visiting Coimbatore to meet my skool buds and then to NIT Trichy to participate in the Techfest there. Then from Trichy to Salem, for my friend Bala's sister's wedding and wud be back in Calicut by 3rd of february. So doubt whether it wud be possible for me to drop in a post till then..Kindly do bear with me :)
Also, i am getting into a lot of blog debts lately...cant really help it...the net sucks and it takes ages for me to post my comments...shall clear my debts when I come back :D
Till then...ciao and bye.....Have a gr8 time :)

O Presario

2006-01-12T20:03:00.000-08:00

Diamond knocked over the candle on Newton's desk, starting a fire that destroyed records of many years' research. Legend has it that Newton, viewing the destruction, said only, "O Diamond, Diamond, thou little knowest the damage thou hast done."

Monday 16th January 2006:
Time 6:30 AM
I had slept early the previous night(1 30..by my standards!)....had a pretty disturbed sleep...calicut seems hotter at night time. I had set an alarm in my cell phone for 6 30 and it did its duty and rang. With no intention to wake up but just to switch it off, i got up. Before i did so, i looked at ma computer. I never switch it off and so looked if i had got any new mail or scrap. To my horror, I was not staring at the usual Tarzan2 sleep wallpaper. Instead there was some message being displayed. Having wotchd a rerun of the matrix trilogy a week ago, I thought Morpheous had finally found me.Yessss....I knew it....... I am the ONE....wow!!! 8-) I cudn believe my eyes and so rubbed them and looked again....my happiness was shortlived and as i read the contents on ma screen, my face turned pale:

chainloader error
(hd0,0)
Error no: 13: Unspecified format. blah....blah....blah....

Wait a nimite.....This aint anywhere similar to wat I had expected:
Do you want to know wat the matrix is, Vivek?

So at 6 30 on a monday morning, I learnt my comp was knocked out...wat a start to the week!!!

Such a knock down is a usual thing in a computer. And being a CSE student, I knew there was no need to panic. But the real horror hit me when I learnt tat my entire C drive was wiped out(it contained 4 GB of data) and the worst part was when I realised that the 4 GB contained also contained the only copy of the tech paper and its references which I had finished a week back. I had sent the paper to a tech symposium a week back but it was not selected and was hoping to send it to other techfests. Usually I have backups in my various inbox(u never know which Mail is gonna konk out) ,my friends comp,etc. But this time, I had not done anything of tat sort and had lost the only copy of my precious(!) paper.

I reinstalled Windows XP Pro....it gets installed in a jiffy and my comp is bak alive and kicking. However all I cud do was to stare at ma computer and say:
"O Presario, Presario, thou little knowest the damage thou hast done."

May his soul RIP

2006-01-10T19:42:00.000-08:00

I had sent one of my stories, "Did it rain..." to blogchaat and they have accepted my entry...do check the site out :)

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I was once chatting wit a gal from USA.

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Me:Hi
Her:hii
Me:A/s/l??(age/sex/location)
Her:18/f/Virginia u??
Me:19/m/India
Her:India??????
Me: Yeah..y??
Her:I just love India
Me:Oh..tas so nice
Her: I have two friends who are Indian
Me: good...so wassup??
Her: Are you a hindu?
Me: Yes I am.
Her: Do u mind if I ask u somethin?
Me:nope..go ahead...
Her: Err...you have lotsa Gods rite?
Me: lotsa Gods?
Her: I have seen in my friends house...they worship lots of Gods and some of them are animals in fact...why do u worship them?
Me: who...the Gods or the animals?
Her: The animals...y do u worship animals ?? :)
(The answer was like a response to stimuli...I don even know if its true or not)
Me:Hmm...ppl then were like barbarians..they used to kill any animal for food...
Her:Then?
Me:In the olden ages..n they vr illiterates..so it was not an easy task to convince them about such stuff..so the priests told them that each animal is a God and strung together a story to convince them that they should not kill all animals :)
Her: like?
Me:for instance, we worship the cow. we call her kamadhenu..in fact we even hold festivals for Her and pray for our welfare. we have lotsa stories
Her: like fables?
Me: Yeah like fables...epics,etc...wat about u?
Her:I am a good natured Christian.
Me: :)
Her: I visit the church every sunday..a good goody gal :)
Me: oh yeah?
Her: :) ...U know wat the priest was telling us during our previous Mass..??
Me:wat?
Her: He told us abt our president
Me:oh bush?
Her: yeah...hes done so much for us...u know wat, hes gonna save the world from doom..for instance 9/11..wat all good he has done...
Me:hmm..
Her: Ii will b eligible for voting durin the coming elections and I am gonna vote for him..wat do u think??
Me: Dunno much abt US politics...so cant say much ;)
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"Like it or not, faith in the Apocalypse is a powerful driving force in modern American politics. In the 2000 election, the Christian right cast at least 15 million votes, or about 30 percent of those that propelled Bush into the presidency. And there's no doubt that arch-conservative Christians will be just as crucial in the coming election: GOP political strategist Karl Rove hopes to mobilize 20 million fundamentalist voters to help sweep Bush back into office on Nov. 2 and to maintain a Republican majority in Congress, says Joan Bokaer, director of Theocracy Watch, a project of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell University."

Neat rite???.... :)

PS:
No offence meant to anyone :)

From Beverly Hills to

2006-01-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

I had forgotten to include my favorite songs of in my new year post...well the list is pretty lengthy rite from suprabatham(yeah!) to Greenday's Boulevard of broken dreams. But theres one song which will always remain in my memory..kinda perfect song: good lyrics, well picturised and soul stirring music...its from the OST of the movie"Notting Hill". The song is "Aint no sunshine" by Bill Withers.
The situation is: Julia Roberts is an actress who falls in love with a bookstore owner in Notting Hill, Hugh Grant. They break up due 2 a difference of opinion and the hero is left heart broken. The song comes in the background as the hero walks thro the streets of Notting Hill. Time keeps moving, weather keeps changing and a year later, its spring again. The hero realises that its for the good of his own self n the people around him if he forgets the whole matter as the sun comes out blazing :)

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
and she's always gone too long
Anytime she goes away

Wonder this time where she's gone
Wonder if she's gonna stay
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
and this house just ain't no home
anytime she goes away

And I know, I know...

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
Only darkness everyday

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
and this house just ain't no home
anytime she goes away

The movie also has another hit song as its OST "When you say nothing at all" by Ronan Keating
Also, this was one of the major hits of the year 1999 and will forever b remembered for what 15million paid actress tells a divorced bookstore owner @ the climax " After all... I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. "

Mera Number kab Aayega

2006-01-03T18:58:00.000-08:00

I had always luved the rebel tag. It allowed me to be regularly irregular, lazy n carefree. At one point or the other, I knew tat I wud hve to shed the rebel tag n assume the one of a ordinary guy ready to join the millions of people in leading an ordinary life:without any purpose or issue. We have to keep moving in a circle trying to hold our heads higher than the neigbhouring person never realising that one is standing besides a midget.
So I decided on December 31st of 2005 that I would try out all the cliches. Become a stereotype :O
First cliche was the new year resolution. Still cannot understand why people take new year resolutions. "Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.", Oscar Wilde stated once. Not my favorite author still, I accepted wat he said. But I had to change. So I said no thanks to Mr. Oscar and looked around for a resolution. After a brainstorming session that lasted for more than a day, I found one:"Never to settle for the second best.."Hmmm..last year, I had to settle for the second best many times.
First off was food. Some eat to live. I live to eat(atleast till I joined college). What the heck..why do u wanna earn so much money if u cant have good food? First thing that I checked out in col during ma first year was the food. I had heard enuff abt REC food. My cousin once found a dead cockroach in his dinner plate. So I had 2 ready myself for anything. But I wasnt ready. Cmon, I had luvd food all my life. Had fought wit ppl who din like good food(yes there r few ppl like tat). So wit gr8 trepidation, I tasted REC food. It wasnt as bad as my cuz had told me. Still, it tasted aweful. When we met our seniors for the first time, the first question that I asked them was whether the food is always bad. They all broke into laughter(cmon ppl, I am serious). As years progressed it only got worse and the previous sem was the worst of all. Aweful food in all the mess. Then a new mess was opened in the E hostel. North Indian ishtyle. Gr8 and awesome food. I had never been there n as per my new year resolution, I decided to join this mess.
So I walked into the mess on sunday evening. If I had joined then, I wud hve had 2 pay for sunday also. So, I told the mess guy tat I wud join the next day n hav dinner as a guest to a frnd of mine. He said no problem and I had a sumptuous dinner. I usually skip the breakfast. But the fee for this mess was very high n so I had no chance but to b regular(sob! sob!)
I walked in to the mess on monday noon n the mess guy politely told me that the mess was full n I cannot join n wud hve to get permission from the steward. The issue was that all the other mess in the college were run by a single contractor and this one by a different person. As usual politics had raised its head and so the contractors fixed a limit of 250 per mess so that E doesn hve a monopoly. I met the steward and he asked me to meet some higher authority. I had seen lots of such things n knew that this wudn get anywhere. Some ppl got the higher official to sign a notice that the first 250 who gave the mess card wud b allowed to join the mess. Mess card is given if one has no dues(wit regards to the previous months' mess bill). I duly got one(regular me :)) and gave it to the mess guy. He warned me that if the ppl who had signed up b4 me gave the mess card, I wud hve to go. I thought others wudnt and so enjoyed the food without any worry.
Today mornin, I got up early and trudged to the mess for breakfast. The mess guy grinned and I knew there was somethin wrong. He told me tat others had given the card and I had no option but to exit. He asked me to hve breakfast there and then leave.Hummph!!!So much for being regular :( I had the breakfast(which was good) n resigned to the fate that I wud hve to join another mess. I then went to the F hostel mess n signed up there :(

Fate has this subtle way of dealing with people's mind. It shows us that one cannot have an instant change. Instead, it gradually allows us to change. Of course with pain n happiness in equal measure so that we remember each step we took upon the path of change and never commit the same mistake. I have to accept it and go on and be patient. But bad food :(( Mera Khana Kab Aayega :O

Buh Byee 2005

2005-12-31T20:04:00.000-08:00

2005..Itsnt a year I wud forget for a long time to come..so thot of putting up a post ...inspired by Trinity's post on the same.
Moments of the year:
1. When I was selected as the placement rep for my class
1. When I got placed in Infosys
2. When I wrote my first poem :)

Week of the year:
1. October 1 to October 8: Was successful in bringing Intel, Google, Yahoo, HP STSG and McAfee to our campus. Its a week I would b proud of for years to come :)

Bleaky days of the year:
1. October 7: Was selected for HP STSG interview but screwed it big time...first question was a routine quiz question(the interviewer had spotted quizzing in my resume) n i answer it wrong..next moment, i knew then that the job was down the drain.
2. November 1: Worst diwali in my college life...Was the first person in my college to hve booked tickets for chennai but the floods ruined it...then thot of leaving for cbe but an upcoming project submission ruined tat :X...ended up sleeping n wotching "Dil Chahta Hai" on divali.

Days of the year:
1. July 13: when I got placed in Infy
2. Dec 31: started the day wit a darshan of The Almighty at Guruvayoor temple. Met every1 I knew someway or the other. Had a gr8 dinner at Mezbaan(A star hotel in calicut) and roamed around on the beach.

My Gadget of the year:
1. My nokia 1108. Da best mobile for Indian conditions..cant imagine how I wud hve spent this year without tat..thnx mate :)
2. My new digicam(yashica!).haven tinkered with it yt but its a sleeky thing n gonna max it nxt year
3. Apple Ipod..Haven bought it yet but shall b buying it tis year..top on my wish list.

Addictions:
1.Orkut.. started in september...1280 scraps n counting... ;)
2.Blog world..tho i started bloggin in my first year..tis is te first time i hv been blogging for so long.
3.Total Club Manager 2004 By far, the best computer game I have played all my life
4.Fifa2005: second best ;)
5.English Premier League on Espn Star
6.Movies..must have wotchd more than 100 easily :)

Books of the year:
1. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2. "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand(yet to finish reading it but every page is a lesson learnt)
3. "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling(bcos its sorta groundwork for a fitting finale for the HP saga)

Been Awed By:
1. Google's pre placement talk and interacting wit their employees when they visited our campus.
2. The fact tat the world has shrunk so much.
3. Chelsea FC 's awesome display in 2005.
4. Mother Nature(Tsunami last year n floods, earthquakes and wat not all over the place...gues She was very 'piss'ed off :O)
5. Kasi Viswanathan Temple at Thenkasi.

Dumbest Quote of the year:
1. "Yahoo and Google are not competitors...Yahoo leads Google in search engine domain" :D
2. "I can tell you that the evidence for global warming is weaker than its proponents would ever admit"-Micheal Crichton

Movie of the year:
1. Schindler's List: never has a movie affected me so much as this one did.
2. Memento
3. Snatch
4. HP4: best HP movie till date
5. Finding Neverland
6. Chandramukhi-Thalaivar bak in form n a movie for all ages in tamil after a very long time.
Nicknames:
PRrr, Crazzy, Freakkk, Peter Pandi, Geekio, Pressure Cooker, Vetti Officer lol :D

Lastly, I wud never forget this year bcos
1. I met unbelievably large no: of people :)
2. My technical skills vr at an all time low :((
3. My memory is becoming very 'leaky' nowadays :O
4. I can TALK :D
5. Have found a reason to look forward for the new year with lotsa hope,optimism,vigour and warmth ;)

WISHING ALL THE VISITORS A VERY VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR n A ROCKING 2006!!!!

Did it rain.........

2005-12-27T11:21:00.000-08:00

A week b4 diwali:
The black Maruthi Alto stood outside the gate honking as if the gates wud open on hearing the horn. The gatekeeper came out hurriedly. He was cursing the driver "Thoonga Vida Matangaley"(Y don they lemme sleep).His afternoon siesta was disturbed. Without any delay, he opened the gates and the let the car in saluting "Salaam Saheb" at the same time. He was from a village near tirunelveli but always said "Salaam Saheb" though after 8 years of being the gatekeeper, he din know wat it meant. The gatekeeper was sure something was wrong. Aiyah(Sir) never came home at noon. He usually leaves at 9 in the morning and came home at around 10 pm when the last show began. Aiyah was the owner of Saty** Cinema. He had carefully nurtured the cinemahouse with all his time and energy as if he was raising his own child. Only two times before had Aiyah come home at noon. First time was when India reached the finals of Cricket World Cup in 2003. The second time was when the Tsunami wreaked havoc in Chennai and his best friend had gone missing along with the waves.
Aiyah did not wait for the driver and got out of the car himself. He was suffering from arthritis and usually walked with a walking stick. This time, he left the walking stick in the car. The driver understood that Aiyah was in some sort of trouble and drove around to the parking lot. The honking had alerted everyone in the house and a cup of coffee was ready when he sat on the sofa. His son Ramalingulu was waiting for his father's arrival and walked over and sat near him. Ramu knew exactly why Aiyah was angry. The past six months had been disastrous for the cinema house. Though 2 or 3 movies were good hits, Aiyah had invested in a movie which bombed. Collections were falling and in fact two theatres were running empty.
"Vera Vazhiye Illayaa?"(Isnt there any other way?) Aiyah asked.
Ramu just shook his head. He had learnt long time ago that the best mode of communication with his father was through signs and minimum use of words and it was completely useless to raise one's voice against him.
"Vera Vazhiye Illayaa?"(Isnt there any other way?) Aiyah asked again.
The idea had struck him when he was searching for topics for his thesis. He was doing his master's in management in Australia then and he was to do a thesis on Crisis Management. He was a history buff and chose Greeko Roman methods of crisis management. He learnt how they used the gladiatorial arenas and the Colosseum for safeguarding people at times of natural calamities and then used entertainment as a source of comfort and morale booster. These structures were built at the centre of the city and hence safe from the fury of the seas and the volcanic mountains. "Throw some silver iodide and lo! You have rain !!", his Chemistry teacher had taught him during his school years.
"Eppo Seyya Pora?"(When are you gonna do it?) Aiyah asked Ramu.
"One week before divali", he replied calmly.
Aiyah was taken aback. "Appo Divali collection??"
"Vijay Padam thaane...adhu aal illame odum...oru problem illa.."(Vijay movies will run even without any crowd)
Aiyah was glad that Ramu had thought of everything and tears of joy came running out of his eyes. "Unna Sadharanama Nenachen..Peria Aala aaga pore"(Ur gonna b a great man one day)

Some days later:
Just when the SUN News reporter announces that the there will not be any rain for the coming week, Aiyah comes in to the house. His face is red with fury. Ramu's plan had worked out but again the collections are falling . He is totally tensed. He picks up his mobile and calls up Ramu:
"Dey Ramu..."
Ramu interrupts his dad and says"Appa...Kavalapadhey...naan pathukeren.."(Donot worry...I shall take care..) and hangs up.

18th December 2005:(Sunday)
X: dey machcha...exam thirumbiyum postponed huh?
Y: think so da...stupid site is not loading..
X: okie da..one of ma frnz temme tat it is postponed..anyway do check it da..
Y: tat news has come from ever reliable"Sun news"
X: oh ten plz call up ur col n confirm da
Y: macha...confirmed no exam today
X: yippieeeeeee!!!gr8 da..adhu seri...endha padam polaam da??

PS:
References to all works of art,etc are entirely factual and can be seen even today. This is a conspiracy theory and so any factual error, if present, would be attributed to another conspiracy theory
-Author

Oru Maalai..Nila..

2005-12-26T03:56:00.000-08:00

First of all... Belated Merry Xmas 2 all of u..couldnt post any during the weekend since I was away in Coimbatore. Coimbatore is the place where I grew up n all my frnz r there. Met as many frnz as possible n had a gr8 time during the stay there n got bak 2 calicut yesterday.

One of my friends told me that the blog is kool(felt elated!) but the background pic is too bright and affects readability. Asked some of the regular readers of this blog and they too felt the same. So decided to tinker with it n hence the new look.Hoz it??

Had written my first poem a month ago. Used to hate poems in school since prose was so easy to read. Y do people take pains to write about things so cryptically??Was never able to understand it. So I surprised myself when I sat on my computer n typed in this poem. N the mother of all coincidences is tat the poem is about the moon and the new look is also about moon!!!!

Every day I wish
that I wake before the sun
But I sleep after it rises
Instead of the orange splendour
I grizzle in the fierce yellow

Why?
I love the moon and
Her fake illuminance
I share her grief all night
For she carries
the weight of elses glory
And cannot hold a place of her
own under the sun.

But once in a fortnight
She basks in glory
The glory is stygian
All are stupified and
grope in search of shadows.
This goes on till
the moon rejoices.

Let her rejoice
on the sole day
She is promethean.
Why?
Because its ephemeral.
And again I sleep
after the sun rises.

The Prince's last rites

2005-12-21T09:48:00.000-08:00

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly: A year ago, the question in his mind was whether he would be leading India beyond the World Cup 2007. The next question was whether he would lift the cup dancing down the track to the bowlers like he almost did in South Africa. Then someone asked him who the next coach should be. Pop it came out of his mouth:Greg Stephen Chappell. Greg Chappell was largely seen as the factor behind India's surprisingly good performance in Australia. Ganguly had sought his advice before the test series there. They would have even won the test series if only Parthiv Patel had learnt how to stump rather than pose before cameras. Despite the tries n cries of many ppl 2 bring in a "Swadesi" coach,(here too..duh!) Chappell became the coach of the Indian Cricket Team. Scene then: Camel rider(Ganguly) inside the tent, Camel(Chappell) outside n the tent held firmly by its owner, Jagmohan Dalmiya(Club-standard wicketkeeper) and the rest, as they say is history. Camel kicked the rider out of the tent. The owner also got kicked out democratically(the election actually was observed by a former election commissioner...man how jobless these ppl are!!). The man in power, Mr. Pawar(whoz only cricket connection is his Father in law, a former leg spinner) is currently trying to kiss the well tanned Aussie's ass. Ever heard of an agricultural minister becoming the President of the richest sporting board in the nation??U should not be surprised since we already have ministers ruling almost all the sporting boards(tennis, football, shooting....the list is lengthy)
And how did Ganguly get kicked out??Chappell quietly told him that his rule is over. He patiently scores a century against a sub-standard bowling attack and revealed Chappell's intentions.He was unceremoniously sent off the one day team because of his poor performance. Kolkattans were infuriated to such an extent that they actually clapped when Dravid was bowled when he played there and the now obvious Eden Garden Fire lights(the dismissal deserved it tho!). Then they brought him back. They then kicked him out with such a force that I doubt whether he wud come bak again. I guess the act was so well planned that even if he had scored a 300+(oops..my imagination!!), he wud have been dropped. And his replacement,last seen, was warming the reserve bench when India played Lanka. Then Mr.Pawar read out his funeral address("Pawar n Ganguly had an amiable meeting") today expressing shock over his dismissal from the team. How good these politicians act!
Guess the last rites have been performed now. All we can do is now to look back with misty eyes over a career which had started so impressively (after a largely forgettable debut Down Under) that Geoffrey Boycott revered him as "Prince of Colcotta".The man would be remembered for his heroic leadership skills especially down under and also for resurrecting India cricket when it was hit by an earthquake called Match fixing, the after effects of which are felt even now. His exquisite timing and those regal shots offside largely compensated for the vacuum left by Azhar's termination from the game. For his "bare-chested act" after winning the Nat West series at Lords' in 2002 defying all traditions and decor of the English dressing room.A man who has been asked to drop his batting gloves just because they dint fit the President's hands. But he will always be remembered for one quote:"We know and they know that we can beat them." before that immortal series when Aussies were Laxmanised. Ask the English. All they would say is"He showed us that the Aussies are not invincibles."

PS:
I sincerely hope that he makes a comeback to the Indian cricket team and pooh pooh this obit:-)

Long wait over

2005-12-19T03:48:00.000-08:00

Ever seen this TATA SAFARI ad on tv??A guy walks, head hung, shoulders drooping: monday morning blues wit a 'requiem' as the bgm n then releases all his pressure by driving a Tata Safari?I have always wanted 2 do such a thing ...to release all the worries and the dull moments of life on a monday morning...Alas!Dint have any luck this monday :-(

Me, my friend n another buddy walked into the bank at noon. Bcos of the last week's events, we went in prepared for anything. First I got my passbook n I updated it n found tat the cash has been transferred. Even b4 I cud say 'hurray',all te staff walked out all of a sudden!"Now wat the @#$%", my frnd askd me."Who knows",I replied. All the employees walked out n all the customers were left wondering wat was going on. Then someone enquired n seems they were gonna protest. I prayed to God tat the strike doesnt take forever. All the staff stood outside the bank n started making a peaceful(!) protest. "**** zindabad....**** zindabad....".Though I have been in kerala for 3 n half years, I never seen a demonstration or a strike live. They started off slowly n then someone with a took over. They were protesting against the implementation of core banking since it puts a lot of pressure on them. But it was an amusing site.Did someone tell them tat we were short of entertainment there? No offense meant but why did they do it? This continued for almost half an hour n we were keepin an eye on the clock. Seems there will be bank strike on New Year's Eve. Then normal service resumed. As usual I was made to move around b4 I cud withdraw my cash..Peace atlast! My frnd got a record of the transaction n guess his case will also b solved asap. Thanks to all readers who have cared n helped me n my frnd see through this ordeal :-)

PS:
Ma dear frnd Dheeraj has started a techie blog. Do read it, especially userz of orkut,terz lot u guyz can make use of ;-)

Weekend Watch

2005-12-18T00:22:00.000-08:00

Evry1 likes 2 celebrate 25th,50th,75th,etc..i hate numbers endin wit 5..so am three cheers 2 everyone whoz taken painz 2 read my blog everyday on my 26th post! ;-)
Haven been doin anything over te past couple of dayz. Not even lazin around. Was tied to my room due to the sprain. It was very BAD on friday nite. Then due 2 my frnz massaging skills, it improved a lot on saturday n i am almost free of pain now. N thanks 2 all of u ppl for carin abt me :-)
Wit nothing 2 do, wotchd two movies.
Forrest gump:
A classic 2 say te least!Zemeckis n Hanks @ ter best. Anybody noticed how al te classic movies hve minimal dialogues n used te scene n te actorz body language 2 te max...a must watch.
Tarzan2:
Yet another cartoon movie. Had a kind of aversion to cartoon movies.Wat de hell,all te movies have te same storyline:some kid runs away n ten his frnz or family hunts him n te all join together n evrything is fine @ te end. Te masala in it can put even a Bollywood movie 2 shame Its a kid or an ape or a fish or a lion or even a monster.But isnt it evry kids dream come true on screen. Everyone of us,at some age or the other, must hve wanted 2 save te world at times of crisis n beat the shit out of the bad people.
Tis movie too follows te same path. Tarzan is thought 2 b dead by his family. He thinks tat his absence wud b good for his mom(An ape) since hes not an ape. Ten he meets te monster Zugor whoz actually a gorilla tat jus keeps shouting "Zugor, Zugor..." to scare away from other animals for food. He discovers tis trick n ten te gorilla promises 2 help tarzan discover wat type of animal he actually is. Ter is tis song where he follows other animals n does wat tey do. He tries 2 fly, eat fruits from trees like te giraffe,etc which is wholesome fun 2 watch. Tis is te best part of te movie. Ten his frnz hunt him down n after some tense moments, terz a reunion n tey live happily together!
Read THE HINDU SUNDAY MAG. Wat hit me vr two articles: Ramachandra Guha's article on te "Temples of Modern India" ie te Dams. Seems Nehruji repented tat the dams vr built since it had caused te displacement of so many ppl n all te other negatives associated wit it. And te writer contrasts tis wit te reactions of Indiraji n Rajiv Gandhi. While Indiraji made ppl realise tat she was helpless, Rajiv Gandhi was totally ignorant of te issue. Ten there was tis article by M.Malleswara Rao on the golden jubilee of Nagarjunasagar dam which was more like a brochure read. The stereotyped article extolling the virtues of Panditji's foresight, the sweat n toil of the ppl, te technical capabilities of the engineers(yawn! yawn!). And it ended wit a plea for 6k crores for renovating it!
The best article,according 2 me, was te one on AIDS rehabilitation in Tamil Nadu. Seems the AIDS related work is being carried out wit gr8 concern n seriousness n tis has resulted in a reduction of prevalence rate from 0.75% to 0.50% n te awareness rate is 95%! Guess no more "Pulli Rajakku AIDS varuma.."! ;-)

Y does IT happen 2 me!

2005-12-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

With jus a single class in the whole wide day, life does get boring. Had a gr8 lunch. Getting tired of doing nothing, I slept off in the after noon. Then woke up 2 a shrill call from a frnd of mine for playing cricket. Had played cricket actually two days back. Without spirit, without enthu, cricket sucked! Cud neither bowl nor bat properly. And in the end, all tat i got was a sore shoulder n a tennis elbow(hope it doesn lead 2 an operation as in te case of Sachin ;-) ) .So decided 2 give it up for a week inspite of angry glares from ma frnz. Then at precisely 8 pm, my frnd sap walks in n calls me for a football match. Football n tat too under lights!!i cudn refuse...sore shoulder n tennis elbow aint gonna affect me playing football, i tell myself. So i step in to te field. We played very well(!) n coupla passes wud hve made Becks envy. Then my junior decides enuff is enuff n v both engaged in ruff play which meant tat v stamped each other's legs:my left n his right. I go down wit pain. I din pass out. So no fracture, I convince myself n played wit renewed vigour. Then tried 2 kick a ball which I shd hve headed n injured my right leg's toe. Arrrrrrrhhhhhh.....!

Came bak 2 room n had a fun time wit my frnz forgetting all about my leg injuries. Tats te thing wit frnz. Tey make u forget all ur painz. Ten i got up to attend a fone call. Aiyoo!I realised wat had happened. I look down n c blood on my right leg's toes n te other one is swollen.I thought of moving 2 te next room but stood midway since I cud walk no longer. I limped bak 2 my room n let out a cry of pain. I hated myself for havin played football. I sent my frnz all over te hostels to get me some pain balm or the other. Hated myself for having refused to pack iodex when my mom told me to(Mothers hve a gr8 foresight i think). Within five minutes, the pain moved from bad 2 worse n ma frnd saved me when he came rushing in with a Moov. Used 2 hate moov since it used 2 blantly depict iodex as a loser in its ad. Who te f**k carez! The pain has subsided to an xtent tho i hav cramps since I havn moved ma leg for so long....Wat a gr8 start 2 a weekend(sob..sob!!)

AI...way 2 go

2005-12-15T09:38:00.000-08:00

Artificial Intelligence: wats te fuss abt it?
It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable.

Relevance of AI (within past 24 hrs):
Instance #1:
After two weeks of unrestricted access to the internet back home, tis Cyberoam thing is driving me crazy in my room. Tis is wat cyberoam is all about:
"Cyberoam is the only solution that gives you the benefit of dealing with your Internet problems through a single installation. That translates to ease-of-use. A must-have solution to create and enforce efficient Internet Management Policies"
In layman's termz, its a s/w tat blocks websites based upon its content and helps in managing internet traffic.Te product seems to b a conspiracy against Firefox (read:*****soft corp & co. ). Most of the websites gets blocked for no reason at all in Mozilla Firefox browser alone. Wats wrong wit viewing orkut.com?More so if te same is not restricted in Internet Explorer?? The same also occurs wit many other sites especially those of Google. Another major complaint is tat any link wit cricket gets banned n te request is logged on to a central server. But herez te catch: cricinfo.com can b viewed unhindered! Tis site is like the Bible of Cricket on te net. Seems the restriction on cricket was to prevent employees of s/w companies from keeping a tab on scores. The person who designed tis product must have been quite a dumbass. How come cricinfo.com missed his/her eye I dunno. The students though have fun wit tis Cyberoam when one found out tat our exam timetable cud not be viewed since it was classifed as pornography by Cyberoam!!!The only time we agreed with its behaviour i think [;-)]!!!!

Instance #2:
Had our first class on AI today morning. Sir started te slide show wit some intro quotes n a take on Turing. Rewind to ma third sem when I was very much interested in Turing.Te whole of me was bristling wit excitement as if i am gonna b te nxt Alan Turing! Spent a lot of time on te net researchin abt him(not wat he did ;-) ). As te year went on I lost all my interest n realised tat I wud b yet another s/w engineer cursing wateva hes doin.
Titbit: Turing Prize given annually is considered as Nobel Prize for Computer Science.

Instance #3:
Read in BBC tat some researchers from the Univ of Amsterdam hav found out tat Leo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa was mainly happy when she was painted using emotion recognition s/w(another instance of AI). It concluded tat te subject was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry.(Hmm..these guyz should help out the Cyberoam gang i guess)

Instance #4:
Reputation is more a social notion of trust. In our lives, we each maintain a set of reputations for people we know. When we need to work with a new, unknown person, we can ask people with whom we already have relationships for information about that person. Based on the information we gather, we form an opinion about the reputation of the new person. This system works well, even though there are a lot of people in the world, because communities tend to be highly interconnected, and the number of steps between any two people tends to be rather small. This is known as the Small World effect, and it has been shown to be true for a variety of social and web-based systems. Best eg: orkut.com!

AI has come a long way since Bill Bulko quoted: "Artificial Intelligence: the art of making computers that behave like the ones in movies." AI is penetrating our life in every way possible. Don wanna sound frankestenian. However one must remember, "A computer's attention span is only as long as its power cord."Instead of trying to replace human activities by things like AI, it wud b better off as a supplementary force(wanted a happy ending..cheers!!! :-) )

Wait....So wat if U r not in queue

2005-12-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

Had a first-hand experience of red tapism today. Well we all came bak to calicut after the hols(too short to call it a vacation) n as alwayz tere was this huge crowd outside the bank to pay the fees. And this time we have a 7 day period to pay the fees. The lazy bum i am decided to wait for a couple of days. So I got up early(somewhr around 9 30...the sun was about to rise ;-) ) and around 10 i reached the bank. Its been long time since I had deposited a dd. I had my dad's atm card n so never had to wait for a demand draft to relieve my monetary woes. After 30 minutes of exchanging hi n hellos to all ma frnz i finally get to the front.

Clerk:a/c no?

Me : ****

(Clerk types it in and tries some wizadry with the computer. Me standing there and chuckling)

Clerk(as if to avenge me): A/c does not exist

Me:(shocked) Wat (the f**k)?

Clerk: Core banking, so accounts gets closed (as if i was born wit knowledge abt core banking)

We try to cross check it but seems due a long period of inactivity, they had decided to close my account!!!!Gr8 na??Wat a customer service! They close my account and doesnt even bother to inform me,stayin justa coupla miles away from them. I ask them wat to do n the lady clerk cooly replies tat I wud have to open a new account in order to encash the draft n returns to her work(ie to stare at her monitor)

I am dumbstruck. After 5 minutes, I return bak to normalcy. Then I decide to call my dad. My dad works in a bank. When I tell him, he is totally pissed off. He advises me to do just as the clerk had told me. With great trepidation, I walk in again. The lady flashes a sly smile n gives me a form to fill up. I do n seems I need someone to recommend me. In walks my lab tutor last sem and he signs duly. I must mention that I was impressed because the whole process of opening an account hardly takes more than 2 minutes. Everything is gonna b fine I tell myself. Then the manager in charge asks me to pay 500 bucks as min balance. I do that and since everything is goin well, the lady asks me to come in the afternoon(tats 4 hrs later) so tat i cud hve my account no. Man! core banking or wot, these ppl won sleep peacefully unless they mention "Ucheku sesham vandhaal madhi"(Its enuff if u come in the noon).Guess my a/c no is decided by some complex time bound algorithm which wud take atleast 4 hrs.

So, me n frnd(another victim....more on tat below) walk in to the bank again at 2 pm. The queue is still there but I walk straight to the clerk's place. Shes yet to return from her lunch. By then, her neighbour tries to make me understand how much the bank wud bear becos of my account(duh!). Around 20 mins later, she comes n immediately recognises me. I am happy as she flashes all her teeth n grins at me. I din know then tat te smile of a lioness readyto pounce upon her prey. Happy at last tat the ordeal is gonna end, I give her the forms n wait till she shows off her typing skills. The dd is from another bank and usually the drawee bank allows the account holder to encash it with some money discounted. She returns the counter foil. Me checks it and then asks her quitely as to when the draft can b encashed. Taking all the time in the world, she replies,"Oh, adho naal divasam edukkum....aduthu aayicha vandha madhi"(It will take four days..come next week). Her reply din at all come as a shock to me. She retaines her smile n answers all our questions wit "naa" "hmmm..." "ummhummm..". I press the panic button n call my dad. When I tell him abt te clerk's behaviour, he din seem surprised and instead asks me to try again. I tell him tat itz futile. He understood it fully and told me tat itz of no use and I wud have to wait till next monday. I remember an earlier conversation wit my dad when he talked as to how ppl expect royal treatment in a private bank n bow down to the public banks.
And as to my frnd, well hes one of those early birds and decided to pay asap. Alas, even public bank ATMs resemble their employees. He tries to pay the mess dues(around 1500+). First te ATM tells him tat the transaction was not processed. Then the next time, he finds tat te 1500+ amount is missing from his account! He prints a mini statement n even then there is no record as to where the money went! For the past three days, hes been running from one branch to another n calling up te managers everywhere. Reason: "E therukkunu sesham ingana aavam chance kuduthulaa.."(Due to tis rush, tere are chances of such mistakes happening). Till now, his efforts hav been futile but v all do hope he do gets his amount bak.
Had read tis poem long bak and searched for it in google n found it. Was reminded of it when I was pleading wit the lady clerk especially the lines..
"And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait."

Ore Nybagam

2005-12-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

Something I have always wanted 2 post for a long time. Tis song was one of my favs wen i was in school. Te song is from movie Minnale. The other songs in te movie vr a hit but tis wasnt noticed much. But i love it totally.
Ore Nyabagam from Minnale
Eru vizhi unathu
Emaigalum unathu
Kanavugal Mattum
Enathe enathu

Naatkal Neeluthey
Nee Enge Ponudhum
Enn Dhandanai
Naan Inge Vazhvadhum
Oh o....Ore Nyabagam
Oh o....Unthan Nyabagam

Kaadhal Kaayum nerumbodhu
Thuukam ingu yethu
Ore Nyabagam........
Ore Nyabagam......

Tags Up!

2005-12-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

Divya tagged me! so i am also supposed 2 list down 7 things i do b4 i die, 7 things i can do, 7 things i cannot do, 7 things tat attracts me tp another person, 7 things i say often, 7 souls i tagged. Been truthful 2 an xtent.

1. 7 things i do b4 i die:
1.start a company
2.direct a movie
3.manage a football club(EPL preferably)
4.do somethin good socially
5 innovate constantly
6.to write a best seller
7.world peace(duh!)

2. 7 things i can do:
1. write anything
2. quizzing
3. B in front of te comp altime
4.managing n motivating people
5.talk wit a vision
6.think up crazy theories(futuristic n highly possible ones)
7. like everyone around me

3. 7 things i cannot do:
1. write n draw neatly
2. write wit my right hand
3. not b lazy
4. talk definitive crap
5. b definitive in my career ambitions
6. sleep b4 2 i n te nite
7. wake up b4 te sun does so

4. 7 things that attracts me to other person
1. never say die attitude
2. Jo apne zindagi jeeye aur mujko meri jeene diye
3. intellect
4. quizzer
5. makin complete use of their talent
6. b responsible
7. Trustworthy

5. 7 things i say most of the time
1. yeda(sometimes ada)
2.machcha
3.wokay
4.kewl
5.******
6.ennada aachu
7.f***

6. 7 souls i tagged:
1. ponds
2.Trinity Teal
3.Ravi
4.Abhishek
5.His Excellency
6.Nikhil
7. Satya

Rain..shine n a movie

2005-12-05T06:34:00.000-08:00

Peace atlast in chennai...after a day's rain on friday,the rains have stopped n today, te sun was out n blazin. Tis meant tat Zee Sports was able 2 telecast a day's play atleast(An omnious start 2 its telecast monopoly).I had a gr8 time wit my school mate tis weeknd. Hari studied along wit me in cbe nn his parents 2 shifted 2 chennai after he finished his +2. v usually meet durin the hols n vacations or i drop in at cbe for cpla days. V usually meet at spencers n tis time it was no different. For non tn ppl, spencers is te place 2 hang out in chennai. U can hve as much fun as possible without spending a single paisa. But u can also splurge out as much as u want. We usually meet at landmark n after a tour of all te shops. Women mite call it window shoppin but v nvr look at te things on display.The only things worth looking tere r te books at landmark n te gals. Poor shopkeepers! Out of 100 ppl who whiz past these shops, hardly 10 visit thier stores n 2 or 3 buyin sometin. U got all sorts of food outlets there wit bhel puri being sold at 15 bucks at one place n 50 at another. After cpla hours at landmark debating over hitler, gabriel garcia marquez's latest book n arguing over dada's records n google' future, we move 2 te food court. First thing tat came 2 mymindz sick. I like eating peacefully. After a quick bite of franky n walkin thro te same corridors, past te same shops, v finally make it 2 Java Green whr v hve a gr8 cuppa coffee n then havin more junk food all over te place, v decide 2 head bak home. Then came te call from my mom which made us jump into an auto asap. Mom told me tat cpla bridges n canals had broken apart n chennai was all but submerged. The eternal source of info, te auto driver, told us tat some canal had broken but it was 35 kms away from chennai. Tis wat i call overhypification n i got one more reason not 2 watch sun news. Man, all kno tat chennai is reeling under floods but one shd watch sun news: CMs a reincarnation of nero(who fiddled when rome was burnin) n chennai is just days away from bcomin history n TN wud b wiped out of the map in cpla months!
How do u feel when everythin tat u had planned goes awry and yet ur happy wit the outcome?Exhilarating?tas wat happened today. Me n my frnz(sap, ponds n harish) had planned 2 eat at spencers at te xpense of a senior. But the senior fell ill n v had 2 fend for ourselves n our pockets vr busted. So wit things not goin as planned, v decided 2 go straight 2 te movie theatre n watch "Kanda Naal Mudhal". Heard lots abt it esp wit a gr8 techie crew. But v got into te wrong theatre n ten went 2 another theatre n ten satyam. By te time v reachd satyam, no tickets vr available. Satyam has tis wierd policy whr in each movie starts at different time. The only other good movie running there was HP4:te GOF. me n my frnd r potter maniacs n had actually made advance bookings wit our frnz for te coming week. But te opportunity was too temptin n v decide 2 watch it despite missin te first 15 mins. V had been plannin 2 watch it ever since v came 2 chennai but te floods meant tat our plans vr at bay. Movie review: Best of the four potter movies. I guess my review wud b pretty much similar to all te review available online..

Rain rain everywhere...

2005-12-02T09:56:00.000-08:00

The hols tis time hav been very different,very very strange too. First of all, the sun is not shining. Its been raining all over the place. Theres no cry for water scarcity. The cry of chennaiites has been aswered n the ever generous God hasnt stopped showering them with His elixir. The heat was one major irritant before. People got irritated over trivial things. Each and every thing had a sinking feeling. There was a general sense of discord and tension among people. As if everyone wanted to drink other's blood to quench his or her thirst. The rain has driven away all such disliking. Auto drivers dint chase me till i got into a bus, the conductor did accept a 10 rs note. Wats happenin 2 chennai?
So wat am I doing now? Stuck between four walls because of rain, I am reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I had attempted Fountainhead before but I think I was too young then to grasp wat it offered. Actually my introduction to Ayn Rand had been thro ugh a Ist year friend of mine. He offered me a book which contained her unfinished or crap short stories. Things which she had written before her success. It was not very impressive though I did like Fountainhead to an extent. But I stopped midway. Even Atlas Shrugged I wud have done the same a lot many times. Except I realised that it does have more to offer than just 1000 pages of love, lust and greed. I do like the book and am reading it with a kind of interest which has never been there since I finished reading "I met a lady" by Howard Spring. Also, I had read Ayn Rand's "Night of January 16th", a Broadway drama. The plot is very much the same in all her writings: Two lovers who are too greedy,lost in love for each other, highly principled and care nothing but a damn for people around them. In short representing the evils of capitalism. The people around them try their best to destroy them. The ironic fact is that these people use the communist principles of equality of labor et al to revive Free Economy! What a shame! I have just finished 350 pages so it will b quite a while before i can write a decent review.

And I have attempted a few changes to da Blog. I liked tis template becos its just the perfect background for my kinda writing: Evening, after work hours n all u want to do is to discuss te day wit someone over a cup of hot coffee...Constructive comments r welcome.

4 days in chennai

2005-11-30T22:18:00.000-08:00

Its been 4 days since te Mail from Mangaloore 2 Chenaii reachd the Central at 6:15 in te mornin with me n te Boka(Bengalis) eager 2 jump out of te s3 coach. The train had actually come 15 mins earlier 2 te perambur station. Then it stopped there for 30 min so tat it cud reach central at te rite time. I had come with plans up my sleeve to hve a holiday quite different from te ones which i hve till now. There vr two major differences. The computer in my home sucks big time now and my grandparents had come from kolkata 2 b with me.

The hols began promisingly with guests droppin in. Chennai is filled wit my relatives.From shollinganallur 2 tambaram, theres someone or te other in every street. Once in my second year, I had come home for te onam hols. I was walkin on te St. Mary's road in Mandaveli when someone came up 2 me n asked "Nee Muthu payen thaane?"(Arent u Muthu's son?) I explore my options:
Option no 1: Shake hands n look up wit respect n "Hello..eppidi irukkel?(very elder)
Option no 2: Act as if shocked n again te respect n " Enna Mama(or Attai or chitti or...)Evalo Naal Aachu !"(Somewat elderly)
Option no 3: "Unga Aathukka thaan varalaanu irunthen"(10+years elder)
Option no 4:"Hello da..Ennada..enna pannara?"(Ur age)
Option no 5: Marked indifference n "Enda veetikey varalla..Amma sollaleya?"(Kid)

Since he was very elderly, I shook hands n answered. He seemed 2 hve understood my predi cament n told me how hes related 2 my dad. I felt relieved n he asked me 2 come 2 his house sometime. I said "Ok...nichiyama" n got away from there.

During my first year summer hols, I invited my college frnz 2 my house n v wnt out for my bday treat. I had already told them abt my relatives in the area n they all teased me since i had 2 b "very careful" n don get into trouble. Tis meant tat even b4 i look at any gal on the street, i had 2 b sure tat shes not my relative! V vr walkin near the mylapore tank when all of a sudden,a 40+ couple approach us. One of my frnz who had come from madurai for tis treat hid behind me. I understood. Its his uncle n aunt! He went forward n used option no1. He had a hard time pacifyin them since he always stayed in their home whenever he came 2 chennai n tis time he had come without even informing them. The others had a tuf time controlling their laughter.My frnd then said "Mama, Kandippa Aathukku varen"(Uncle, I wil surely come 2 ur house). His uncle's face was red with anger n replied "Poda...College onna romba maathirichu..."(College has changed u a lot).He somehow managed them n came bak 2 whr we were. He then told "Dey machcha, ippo puriyidhu da.."(I can understand ur problem now)

And then tere r weddings.Especially durin the summer hols. Its like the london bus stop theory: Sometimes u will have 4 or 5 buses n sometimes none. Usually teres a shortage of muhurthams. So everyone ends up gettin married on te same day. That means: reception at one place, mapillaiayeppu at one, nxt day muhurtham at another. The catch is tat u end up spending more on travelling+gifts+misc than wat ppl spending on weddin itself! Its fun if there r good no of cousins around. Else it will b an alltime bore. U end up watchin the same thing again n again n wondering wats te use of ur presence there!

So wat have I done during this four days?
Wake up at 9, Get into some fight or the other wit my sis, complain abt te food 2 my mom n get scoldings in return, tell te same thing abt my col 2 whoever comes 2 my house,"College has 8 hostels, food is very bad, it rains there very often, its quite cold there, i will b stayin till 11th,shall defy come 2 ur house tis time." Argue with my dad abt my monthly expenses n my daily sleeping habits, try as far as possible 2 control my anger while watchin umpteen mega serials. The only thing of some note has been readin "Atlas shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Good read n filled wit lot of things tat one can learn from.

Btw, who is John Galt?

Journey 2 Chennai...

2005-11-27T23:10:00.000-08:00

Yet another exam gets over.nee examinations Exam on a saturday and one hour b4 boarding the train meant tat i kept looking at my watch more often than my question paper. As if it made a difference. N some guyz left even b4 i had planned 2 leave. As time kept moving, i cud see tat my presence in the xamination hall was totally pointless. I wrote some crap, returnd the answer sheet , wished my frnz n ran 2 the hostel. Then the rain Gods intervened. Its been troubling me ever since divali. Heavy rains in chennai meant tat i had 2 stay at calicut for divali n i felt totally lost when some1 told me tat a bus had toppled n more than 100 r dead or missing. Yet another trip cancelled?? I was firm on leavin the place asap. N with some help from frnz i got into the bus to the railway station. Its a journey i luv 2 hate. The col is on a hilltop n so v hav 2 come all te way down in order 2 board te train. The roads r smooth but F1 like driving by the bus driver(on S, U curves) meant tat more often than not, i felt my head ache n nausea overcoming me.Usually i keep talking 2 my frnz durin the journey and tis keeps away the headache. But tis time i was all alone. It seemed some1 ls was also feeling the same n the guy tried his best to strike up a conversation with me. "Bad rain" "strange rain" "sunshine in te noon n rain in te eve huh?" n i knew it was becomin pointless 2 talk 2 him. However his stop came n he left wit a rlvd look on his face. There was a kid sittin in front of me. I was sittin on te last seat n tis kid kept turnin behind n starin at me. Initially i thought tat he was lookin out thro the glass behind me. But he kept on starin at me. Then i thought tat probably he worked in some shop near my col n had recognised. I stopped thinkin abt him when when my head again started aching n i cud feel te butterflies in my stomach. With jus a cpl of stops 2 go, i kept prayin 2 God tat i shdn throw up on the way. Then all of a sudden, somethin happened. The kid looked at me as if i was his only hope.His face reflected the anxities in his heart and then he asked me" Anna, puthu bus stand entha stopunnu solla mudiyuma??"(Cud u temme which stop is te New bus stand?). I was taken aback not only by te look on his face but also te fact tat he spoke tamil. I ten recovered n replied "Intha stop thaanda..erangikko"(Tis is the stop, get down). He then bent down n drew out a huge fish holding basket beneath my seat n got down hurriedly. The bus moved on. I wondered wat made him ask te question in tamil n y did he wait so long. I then got down n at te bus stand i got te answer when i looked at myself in te mirror in te newspaper stand. The vibuthi on my forehead! Did it so blatantly indicate tat I am a tamilian tat the kid spoke 2 me in tamil? A point worth pondering.
The journey in the train was uneventful except for this punjabi junior who was woken up in the sleep by the TT for the tickets. He started explaining some method in Fluid Mechanics and n asked his friend 2 clear the TT's doubts! The best was when he drew a graph on a paper n wrote an equation 2 explain it in an easier way. His friend then took the ticket from his shirt pocket n showed it to the TT n apologised for his friend's behaviour and put his friend to sleep. Do all sardarjis behave the same way at 12 in the nite?

Royal resurrection

2005-11-25T06:50:00.000-08:00

So dada has made a comebak now...not a comebak actually since he was never dropped from te test team..ok a comebak 2 te international cricket..n surely bak with a bang!Hes taken 5 wickets n scored a century(plz don faint!!)...n te Prince of Calcutta is on rampage(duh!)...n all he has 2 do now is 2 score cpla fifties n if possible a century or two..(ie if possible) n ten wat??no Dada, its not te old days anymore..even if u score one fifty in 5 matches, u cud find urself out of te team. Poor Dada..if only he had nvr recommended chappell in te first place! i cant wait 2 see how well te two wud patch up after tat 3000+ words e-mail. btw seems te prince has scored more than 10k one day runs..wow!!
Long long ago, there was tis cricket team called te West Indies..they had a motley crew which went on trampling all te cricket teams in te world . Their names evoked fear(literally!). Then one by one left the team and the team petered out n now it is in ruins with jus one player left from tat golden generation:His Highness Brian Charles Lara. So the king knows tat they are not gonna win against the Aussies. And a double century(not a century..sachin note tis ;-) ) was overdue..Aussies wrap up the series n its a dead rubber..B4 the aussies cud perform the last rites the king decides tat its time for one last Calypso dance...n just as Shane Warne had predicted, Lara scores a double century, is 11 short of becoming the highest run scorer in test history...We bow to you, the Last Emperor!
One person who constantly reminds every1 tat India is a democracy and even kings (or princes) hav 2 perform or perish: Sachin Tendulkar...hmm..93,67,2,11,19, 38, 2, 2,2 ..chappell ru listening? Try droppin sachin: thou shall kno wat crucifixion is.

Goo Google..

2005-11-23T00:18:00.000-08:00

Every1 in my college n also frnz bak home r always excited wen they talk abt one thing :Google And the umpteen mail forwards tat hve been sent from one Y! groups to another only added fuel to the fire. Suddenly everyone wanted more information about Google. And to top it all, the heated debate as to who wil win the cyber cold war :Google or Microsoft.
So wats so special abt this post then?
Check out the following links:
1 A flash movie abt wat Google wud b doin in 2015
2. Wat cud b the potential causes for a Google wipe out
3. Obstacles Google cud face in the future

These speculations r scary but r good n interesting read. e-NJOY!

WOW!!!!

2005-11-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

Our college's s/w lab has tis reputation:worst lab in te col! in fact some say tat its te worst lab in te whole city. Wats te problem? There are totally around 40 comps (right from P4 to eniac). And none of them in perfect condition. Some vr not even properly earthed. So v used to work on them with gr8 caution. In fact,by the end of the 5th sem, almost every student in my class had a comp in his room so te visits to the lab vr very minimal. Then in the final year v got internet in our hostel rooms(xcpt for a few unlucky souls in D & E hostels ;-) ). Even then, v frequently used to lament upon the fact that THE dept in the col din even have a proper lab. And vr at the rcvin end of many taunts and snide remarks of our fellow year mates. Then someone in the dept came out with the idea of renovating our lab.Tenders vr floated and ten Faiz from our class was put in charge of all te intricacies involved in buying the computers. And the result?

At 2 in te noon (siesta time :( ) Faiz gave me a ring and asked me to help him out. Seems the computers had come and there was no one to check its state. And since i was jobless ten, I decided to help him out. I walked into my lab and presto! I thought i had walked into some scene from the latest sci-fi movie...ever seen the computers used by Ben Affleck in Face -Off..well 40 similar things were there in our lab! I stood there for a while shell shockd at the change that i just witnessed. Faiz came up to me and v ten together set up the comps and checkd whthr they vr in proper condition and met te requirements. There vr 40 new comps and 5 servers with the latest stuff inside tem. Then v called in another frnd and he too was standing at the entrance entranced by the comps. Me and my frnz tho vr slightly disappointed. The reason: no labs next sem :( n the lazy bums tat vr, doubt whthr any of us wud turn up in te lab to work there. And there r talks of moving to a new building rite behind our present location which looks gr8!
Then, thanks 2 divya n dino for wishin me luck n all te best 2 u guyz too...algo on thu, ind eco on fri and distributed on sat....ten home sweet home here i come!!!

Te "time" factor

2005-11-19T04:45:00.000-08:00

I am supposed to b busy studying. But a weeks leave b/w two xams means tat i am not able 2 read a word..."time he na...phir kya problem.." n add to it the fact tat i am readin "One hundred years of solitude". Wat a book! will b finishin it tonite n shall post a review then..Comin bak 2 te topic..any1 suggest any cure for tis "time hai" problem?

Econocomicz..

2005-11-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

It has began..Its exam time now..n all tat i am supposed 2 talk is complexity,synchronization et al. The worst is wen v guyz go to the mini canteen 2 hve a cuppa coffee in te nite n c the tronix guyz drawing fourier waves on their plate of noodles n tellin each other how 2 solve te 81st problem in the 4th exercise in te 3rd lesson of some signal shit book..n some try 2 contact te author of te book n tell him abt some errata in te book!!however these guyz have mellowed down this semester n have started relaxing. I cud see JPM(da ECE topppperrr!!) asking some1 for xerox copies! I still remember my first year. One of my frnz was his room mate n usd 2 curse him since tere was always some nerd or te other asking him doubts. No wonder hes able 2 maintain 9.5+!These guyz have had an insatiable desire for studies over the past four years(some of them all their life). But even they were clueless as to how to study economics. Sample tis:" Wat is te importance of land?" V dint find it tough since v already had software engg in our fifth sem. Tat was one subject man!28 chapters...400 pages..no numbers...only theory..every engineering students nitemare come true..economics was a cakewalk compared 2 tat..n our system nvr permitted 2 relax in between xams..usually v have 5 xams straight n tats it..but this time due 2 te CAT xam, v got hols in between...but does it help???atleast i can write my blog!

ps:
For the economic stability of te constipation of te consitution of te financial sovereignty of te nation!phew!!!

My tryst..

2005-11-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

The ever favorite of mine:Linkin par k...my tryst with rock music took place in the first year of my college education. My exposure to western was restricted to all the pop stuff in MTV during my schooling in cbe and tat too had 2 stop when i got to my 12th. It was only raja and rahman during my 12th. I had a cultural shock when i came here(atleast w.r.t music). My col mate was a rock freak and i was itching to hear some. He gave me a Judas Priest cassette to hear. I had tis new walkman with me. So i lied down on my bed and switched on my walkman. No sooner than 10 minutes, I had the first headache in the college. It was awful(then!). My head was splitting and I even felt feverish for sometime. I had my first rock lesson: Dont start off ur day with a Judas Priest. That was the last time i listened to Judas Priest. From nowhere, I got a linkin park. The best thing about the songs was that it was ust cpla minutes long or in some cases 3 minutes. It was love at first sight. I had the cassette with me for a long time. N i cudnt stop myself from singing the same songs when i went back home. All I got back was empty stares from my mom n sis. They thouht I had gone crazy! Then came debutante. Its our first year fest and we have this event called rock mime where we had to mime a rock song. We did a linkin park song and i still maintain that ours was the best performance. Except for the fact tat a stanze went missing from the song while my frnz vr on stage. That spoiled the whole show and we din win a prize. The thing about rock mime is that it sets the ball in motion for rock amateurs. I have seen people with no interest in rock getting addicted to rock after rock mime. This carried on even when i goto my second year. I had expanded my range to evanascence, paparoach and many more. Then there was a brief lull when I got back to tamil songs. Then in the third year, I got my computer and my love with linkin park was reignited. Their latest album had released sometime back. I was addicted to it like anything! It was eternally on my playlist and was a must especially during my exams! And why am I mentioning this now??I got my exams now....and nothing 2 help me study than linkin park! I am hearing it after a long time and all the memories came rushing back. Move over John mayer. Ur time is up! Welcome back the devil....Long live LP!

Lonely

2005-11-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

I'm tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here
So tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here

Searching all my days just to find you
I'm not sure who I'm looking for
I'll know it
When I see you
Until then, I'll hide in my bedroom
Staying up all night just to write A love song for no one
- A love song for no one,John Mayer.

Not the best song that I have heard but very aptly describes my situation.

Chennai's own Fourth Estate war

2005-11-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

My previous post seems 2 have woke up te journos in Rediff ;-)...heres their take on te Chennai's own fourth estate war!

Romantic ode to love

2005-11-10T04:11:00.000-08:00

Have been listening 2 tis song 4 quite some time: John Mayer's "Your body is a wonderland". Really sweet song with some simple n delicate lyrics. It won te Grammy for te best male Pop vocal performance in 2002.

We got the afternoon
You got this room for two
One thing I've left to do
Discover me
Discovering you

One mile to every inch of
Your skin like porcelain
One pair of candy lips and
Your bubblegum tongue

And if you want love
We'll make it
Swimming a deep sea
Of blankets
Take all your big plans
And break 'em
This is bound to be a while

Your body Is a wonderland
Your body is a wonder
(I'll use my hands)
Your body Is a wonderland

Something 'bout the way your hair
falls in your face
I love the shape you take when crawling
towards the pillowcase
You tell me where to go and
Though I might leave to find it
I'll never let your head hit the bed
Without my hand behind it

You want love?
We'll make it
Swimming a deep sea
Of blankets
Take all your big plans
And break 'em
This is bound to be a while
Your body Is a wonderland
Your body is a wonder
(I'll use my hands)
Your body Is a wonderland

Damn baby
You frustrate me
I know you're mine all mine all mine
But you look so good it hurts sometimes

Your body Is a wonderland
Your body is a wonder
(I'll use my hands)
Your body is a wonderland
Your body Is a wonderland
Read a review of tis song here. The best thing abt te song is tat its not only touchy n feely but also no extra frills..jus a chorus here n tere n a beautiful guitar tat jus elevates te mood!

Narain's plight

2005-11-09T07:41:00.000-08:00

Just now read in espnstar.com that Narain Karthikeyan wont be racing for Jordan(nee Midlands) anymore. It does seem that his options are quite limited. And the reason offered was that the Midlands group wants a sponsorship backing of atleast $8 to $10 million. Such a HUGE sum cannot be afforded by his sponsors. The irony is that the other Jordan driver is being retained because his sponsor is able to afford the fee. And guess who his sponsor is: the Portuguese government. Now if any state government starts talking about building up a F1 circuit, ask them to pay for his fee and then think about building the circuit. This doesnt auger well for the future of India in the F1 circuit because we have 2 or 3 budding drivers who needs to be groomed well. All these days, the non availability of talent was the major complaint. Now with talent abundantly available, the next complaint is sponsors. Read in Rediff yesterday that the Mittal group of companies are planning to sponsors up and coming youngsters. Already Joshna Chinnapa has been enlisted. Now, they should take up Narain's cause(!) and sponsor him. One of the few sportsmen in India to shine in something other than cricket, i think the 311 billionaires in India can also join forces and help him.

Ambi Mama!

2005-11-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

Hey guyz,
read tis in a community called "Iyers Express" in orkut...really a hilarious read:

A survey has revealed that 'Ambi Mama' is the leading relative among Tamil Brahmin families worldwide, with six in ten families having one of their own (a 60% repsesentation. Apparently, Ambi Mama held off stiff competition from Mani Mama (with 55% representation) and Baby Chitti (39%) for a well-deserved win.

"It's a great day for all Ambi Mamas. All the years of hard work – drinking coffee, criticizing the Indian team selection and complaining about blood-pressure – have finally paid off. Yay!", said Ambi Mama, a spokesman for the Ambi Mamas Association of Dear Old Rascals (AMBASSADOR), a division of the Hardcore Brahmin Organisation (HBO).

[Editor's note – The previous sentence has been roundly condemned by the Society for Prevention of Abbreviations that are Needless, Dumb and Execrable (SPANDEX)]

Some of the stalwarts of the Ambi Mama team pose for a photographer, after blading him with outdated advice on the best cameras, film, and lighting.

Mani Mamas all over the world watched in anguish as the final results were announced, plunging them into gloom. "It's no fun being a Mani Mama anymore", said Mani Mama. " Maybe if I change my name to 'Ramesh Anna', I will have a brighter future", he pondered pointlessly.

The survey also said that a respectable number of families (or a number of respectable families, as the case may be), have a Vaidhi Thatha, Bangalore Anna, and at least one random guy named 'Chandroo' who is at all functions, but no-one can really place (and may not be related at all).

Predictably, bringing up the rear were non-entities like Driscoll Periappa, Jessica Alba Anni and Darth Vader Mama, which had zero representation. "Brahmins are way too conservative, dude!", complained Cleveland Shankar, one of the more modern Iyer boys (or boyz, if you prefer. We offer multiple-choice reading. You're welcome.). "When are they going to drop old duds like Venkatakrishnan, Suresh and Balaji, anand start using hipper names like Jason, Beyonce and The Human Torch?", he asked, to wide applause from a group of people watching cricket on a nearby television.

Not all are happy with progress, however. "These youngsters are ruining everything by naming their children Archish, Dhruv and Plaha.", thundered Badri Athimber. " Can you imagine how it will sound? Dhruv Mama, Anamika Athai, Archish Chittappa – Ugh! Phooey! That is so not cool!!", he growled, using expressions of disgust picked up from his states-based co-brother.

When asked for their response, several Brahmins living in Adyar merely arched their eyebrows, pursed their lips, and continued waiting for the December music season.

Yuppie! Me a digital citizen

2005-11-08T01:28:00.000-08:00

Now, BBC has got a quiz in its website 2 check whthr a person is a digital citizen or not: Are you a digital citizen or not? i took tis quiz n got 8/10!!!yuppie! tat makes me a digital citizen!te citation reads: "Impressive. You have mastered MP3s, dealt with downloads and embraced blogging" So Mr. Tim Berners Lee, get tat goddamn passport of mine ready!

Look whos..

2005-11-05T04:32:00.000-08:00

Supposedly, "new loo at the Sofitel in Queenstown, New Zealand"..Looks cool rite ;-)..man! whacky 2 te core..got it from http://woofnanny.blogspot.com/

Blues vs. Red Devils

2005-11-05T03:30:00.000-08:00

Hey elles n gmen,
B4 te actual Blues vs. Red Devils tom., v guyz thought tat v cud do a preview match today..n if not in Highbury(c te pic!) wher ls?(for ur info...highbury is one of te smallest stadium in te world n tats ARSENAL's home ground..) i rmmber playin football te day b4 divali n since i had returned almost a year later(achiles heels n ligament tear had kpt me out of te game) i was completely out of sorts tat day. n te trouble resurfaced on divali day.. but ten tis game was too important! n with nothin 2 do..i thought 2 heck with my heels n stepped on 2 te ground...tere vr totally six of us on te field..since v hardly commit a foul v had no need for a refree...me, fooby n ponds on one side(te BLUES)...praantha, donKy n sap on te other(U-kno-who)..te teams vr evenly matched with my superb ball positionin skills n ponds dribblin skills vs. saps strikin skills n praanthas defensive capabilities...altho tey had a gr8 striker in donKy, v vr ready 2 offer a stiff fight..fooby was our keeper(he played some game on divali nite ;-) )..te game kicked off n v vr able 2 score goals at will..n their defense was totally open n v ripped tem apart...then they regrouped with saps playin right(sometimes left) mid n donKy alone in te front...v vr able 2 block donKy n despite tryin his best he cudn touch te ball(literally!)..ten saps came fwd n they 2 started scoring goals..ten my problems came bak 2 haunt me..my heels was painin as hell n i let fooby take my position ahead n bcame te goalie..but ten i cud hardly move..in te meanwhile ponds n fooby vr playin a gr8 game..passin tat wud put beckam 2 shame..now Myke joined te game as te other team's goalie..now guyz tis is te first time tat Mykes playin..but whoa!!he played like a tru champ..v really had a tuff time gettin te ball 2 te bak of te net..i ten came bak 2 mid n me n ponds paired up front n scored goals..tis being a practice match v had decided 2 play till v ran out of steam..finally when v decided 2 stop te score read 9-7..v edged tem out in te final min wen v scored 2 quick goals..it was a gr8 game n v r plannin 2 've another one tonite..tat is if my heels stops troublin me n if it doesn rain..rain plzzzzz go away..ppl r awaitin u in jharkhand n uttaranchal...
N reg. wodehouse, well teres no surprise element in te book n i am beginnin 2 get bored..i guess its better if i stick 2 fiction n business...yeh mera type nehi hai ;-)..chal..bye!!

Of bowler hats, tea cups n pig sty!

2005-11-03T09:06:00.000-08:00

this one is abt te book tat am readin currently..lemme recollect te title...ok...P.G.Wodehouse's "Sunset at Blandings"..I dunno if its te best book for a wodehouse intro...newayz i like te way he writes...n i can see were te hindi n tamil screenplay writers get inspiration from(david dhawan.for one)...its more of a toned down version of te classics of beth n victorian era...of bowler hats, pig sty n impostors...right recipe 4 a bollywood masala...replace te pigs by cows, bowler hats by topies..tere u r..te story tho sounds familiar..i mean lover gal locked up in house..romeo 2 te rescue...n u hve a uncle ready 2 b te playmaker(football term: means u set up a goal scorin opportunity)..but ten tere u have aunties ready 2 frighten any war veteran...i can c whr te story is headin...probably more masala n ten "all tats well tas ends well" kinda finish...ok lemme finish it..more on te book 2 come later..byee..