Her last moments...

*A true story* I watched in agony as the light flickered out of her eyes. 'Can't you please do something?', she seemed to ask me pleadingly... Oh, how I wished I could!! But the fact was glaring at me in the face. She had but a few moments to live and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. And I chose to do the only thing that was left - stay with her for her final moments. I held her in my arms and watched in pain. I knew I would miss her like hell. It isn't easy to let go of a loved one, someone who has been with you for more than 2 years - every second of those two long years. She was always there when I needed her - to share my happiness, confusion, loneliness, my tears... everything. And here I was, not able to do anything at all for her, exactly when she needed my help. She looked into my eyes helplessly and I watched her, just as helplessly. I finally lay her on the bed and turned away. The pain was too much to bear. * * * * * A few minutes later, the light finally flickered out of her eyes and she passed away into another world, as I watched, unsuccessful at stifling my sobs. PS: This morning, I came to office and there's power here. So, I was finally able to recharge my mobile here, and she came back to life. Hurray!!!

En soga kadhai...

Swamped with work for the last couple of weeks, I was unable to visit other blogs at all, let alone write a new post... I honestly didn't (and don't) mind the work, even though it was killing at times. But the worst part was I had to miss the afternoon training sessions at another office. Cha, if you thought I was worried about missing the training, you can't be more mistaken. The whole point is they serve the most toothsome food there and we had all been looking forward to letting ourselves loose. Every single day, for the past three days, I have been setting out to TIDEL under the hope that I'll make it for the training at least that afternoon. But as fate would have it, I have been unable to make it to the training. Which meant - lunch at Foodcourt. *sigh* (I had, anyway, wanted to write a post on the atrocity that we TIDEL-ites have had to endure for a long time, and this seems to be an appropriate time.) I don't know how early the tragedy struck, but I have been subjected to the RKHS disaster ever since I set foot in TIDEL. (For those who are fortunate enough to have never eaten in TIDEL's foodcourt, RKHS is the name of the caterers here.) Calvin here does a pretty good job of expressing our reactions to the 'food' served here. Well well, I am not going to try to use words of any language to explain about the Foodcourt food. No words would suffice, even bad words of every language wouldn't do justice - the garbage here has to be chewed to be believed. I shall try to restrict my post to things that Prabhakar has not written about but it's a tough call, really. Once you begin thinking about Foodcourt, well, ketta varthai aruvi madhiri kottudhu.... ana adha ezhudhanum nu nenacha, namma blog-oda decency, reputation lam enna agum-ngra thought enna thaduthududhu. *sigh* One of my friends, Muthu, is very well known in our circles for his ability to eat anything that can be slightly classified as edible. The most tolerant, uncomplaining guy (wrt food, that is) with the largest appetite I have ever seen. And with his help, we generally make sure that no food is leftover at lunch (I'm referring to the lunch we take from home!). Ipdi patta Muthu-ve oru naal RKHS la senja so-called-puliyodharai-ya saaptu thuppitan, the rage in his eyes unmistakable. Actually, romba exaggerate panren. He's not the only one to be enraged by the 'food'. You can see lots of equally furious faces around foodcourt and I guess Muthu was just one of them. It's a marvel, actually. Beats me how anyone can make stuff that's absolutely uncooked, that has no uppu, sappu, kaaram, karmam... nothing! I mean, you can understand if the stuff is too salty or maybe, too liquidy. But a veg pulao with no taste? Even plain boiled rice has some taste by itself.. To extract out even that minimal, God-given natural taste must surely be the work of an expert*... Hmmm... I guess you would understand better when I say that even I can cook better than those foodcourt guys. Idhula funniest thing is that they come up with surveys occasionally. (Ye, they also come up with food festivals appopo... the entire place would be decorated and would have a festive look with the setting to suit the 'theme'... nicely done rangoli right before foodcourt... and the guys who serve would be dressed in weird attires, apparently adhering to the 'theme'... and after all this vethu scene, they'd dole out the same crap. Or crap that's differently named, but of exactly the same taste and quality, both of which are non-existent, as you must have understood by now. Prabhakar has dealt with some upcoming food festivals in his post.) Ye, coming back to our surveys - on food quality. Yes, yes, TIDEL-ites, I know it's hilarious, adhukaaga ipdi sirika koodadhu. Konjam moochu vittukonga. 'Food? What? Where? Quality-a..? Apdina?' nu adukadukka neenga kekkaradhum puriyudhu. Indha doubt TIDEL la work panni, Foodcourt la sapdara ovvoru jeevanukum varradhu dhan. Still, the RKHS guys go about with their innovative ways of conducting surveys. One fine day, foodcourt poi patha, munnadi oru moonu kutti jar irukum. Pakkathula moonu different colours paper la smileys - :) in green to indicate 'satisfied'; :| in yellow to indicate 'okay' ; and :( in red to indicate 'poor'. The first thing that pops up to every mind is 'Where's terrible? pathetic? disgusting? revolting? etc...?' (Once my friend wanted an option 'puke-inducing'. Which is a very valid request, I feel.) Anyways, to continue with our tragic story, we'd pick up one of the red smileys and drop it in the jar designated for it. 'Dropping it' isn't as an easy task as I make it sound, what with the jar already overflowing. Irundhalum, kashta pattu, epdiyo, andha paper-a ulla pottuduvom. And then, we'll go ahead to pay for and consume the waste products, provided by the one-and-only foodcourt. On returning from lunch, however, a casual glance at the jars would reveal a different picture. After running out of red smileys, enraged TIDEL-ites would have gone ahead to dump all the green and yellow smileys in the jar meant for the red ones. The green and yellow jars would be absolutely empty. Even as we watch this poignant scene, a few more TIDEL-ites would walk over, quickly glance at the 'survey', become enraged at the fact that there are no more smileys for them to express their opinion, and immediately begin contemplating about their next course of action. With a loud sigh of understanding, we would walk away, leaving the anguished souls to fend for themselves. * - Actually, that's not entirely a true statement. Deeps did comment that the white-n-light-brownish rice they served yesterday had kaaram. PS : 5000 hits cross panniyachu nethu!!!

My Kinda Travelogue - Part 2

I gaped at Prince, open-mouthed, as he stepped over the connector. 'Idhu namma train illa, erangunga', he bustled around, hastening everyone and total pandemonium ensued. And before we could rally around, the compartment door had been opened and a few people disembarked – I should say jumped. Cos there wasn’t any platform for them to gaily step onto. The train had long past moved from the station and there was only a slope with plants growing alongside. Trust me when I say all of this happened real quick. I don’t wish to go into any more detail. Suffice to say that we tried to drive sense into Prince that you don’t go about pulling chains in running trains and jumping out wherever you please. And failed. But the elusive TTR eventually showed up and those who had got down were made to get back on the train. Terrible. (All right, I'm gonna refer to Prince by P, Deepti by D etc from now on. Me's tired of writing entire names.) As there wasn’t much space in the compartment, the TTR moved over to the next compartment, P and J in tow. D, S and I helped the juniors put away their luggage – the place was getting crowded by the minute, with a hundred interested onlookers peeping from everywhere. Well, what else did I expect? We had stopped the ruddy train and all those virtuous citizens who had turned in promptly at 10 were wide-awake now, obviously wondering what the hell happened. As someone commented rudely about how they 'knew from the way we barged into the train that something of this sort would happen', I got really bugged. Honestly, we had enough things to handle without listening to disparaging remarks from passers-by. I couldn’t take this crap and so, weaved my way across the connector to the next compartment where the TTR was busy writing something; at the same time asking P what had happened. P explained that we got into the wrong (Rockfort) train. The TTR asked us to produce the ticket, of course, and P pulled it out from his pocket. He looked at P queerly before saying 'Idhu Erode Express ku ticket, Rockfort ku illa. Erode express Srirangam la nikkave nikkadhu.' I think at least some 10 pairs of eyes bore into P's, as it was he who had (along with N) booked the tickets and told us that we were returning by Rockfort. (To be entirely fair, the day the tickets were booked, P had sent us all an email with both the to and from trichy train details – and it did contain 'Erode Express'. However, we all concentrated on the 'to' train and none of us really noted the return train details. Later on, P had confused himself into thinking we were travelling by Rockfort and none of us disputed his statement. So, it really is everybody's fault.) Well, it was turning out to be a day full of unexpected twists. *Sigh* The TTR had meanwhile, begun filling up a form for the fine, of course, and lo and behold, P indignantly questioned the TTR as to why we had to pay the fine. 'Sir, around 10 people got into the wrong train by mistake…. Isn't it a valid reason?'. F***. 'No, P, it isn't', I almost shouted, absolutely flabbergasted and J began hastily quietening P. The TTR, meanwhile, was unmindful of all this, and was busily composing a letter (apparently from P addressed to God-knows-who). Ultimately, P paid the fine. That was when I noticed the two railway constables standing right next to us and was gripped by an instant, insane desire to laugh at the absurdity of the situation we had landed ourselves in (if you don't pay the fine, you may be sentenced to an imprisonment of smth like 6 months, right?). I controlled the impulse, of course. Anyways, on enquiry, the TTR told us that we could we able to get our 'real' train at a down line station (Arandhangi? Vedharanyam? Some such vague name). We bombarded him with several questions. Andha train ethana mani ku andha station ku varum? 1AM, 15-20 mins after this train reaches there. Evlo neram nikkum? Endha platform? I finally asked what I dreaded. Andha train la engaloda confirmed berths-a RAC pax ku kuduthirupangala? Most probably. Will we be allowed to travel then? Yes, you might not have a berth or a seat though. Indha train la ippo ticket vanganuma, until that vague-named station? No, it's okay. The TTR finally departed leaving us in gloomy silence. We slowly settled near the doors, with our luggage. It was past 11, I think and we soon fell to discussing gen. things when a kindred soul from that compartment offered advice. 'Normal-a indha madhri group-a travel pannum podhu, ticket-a photocopy eduthu ellarukum kuduthudunga. That way, even if the person having the ticket doesn't turn up, you can still travel with that copy, if you can provide adequate proof of your identity.' (Cool! I never knew this funda, did you?) We thanked him heartily and he retired to his berth. A short while later, P came over from the other side, with the most pathetic look on his face. I grinned – the guy looked so remorseful, it was so funny. 'Enna, P? Poi utkaru… We have got over an hr… evlo neram nippa?', I asked and he replied, his voice sounding every bit like that of a pained soul, 'Illa Madhu, unga ellarayum ipdi tharai-la utkara vechutene'. 'Hey, it's okay P, in a way it's good we got into this train. Namma train doesn't stop at Srirangam, we'd have missed it if we had been waiting there… at least now, we're gonna catch it soon.' He wouldn't let himself get pacified. He looked sorrowfully at S, who added 'P, poi utkaru… we're all fine'. He still looked like someone right out of a funeral home when D got up, 'P, ippo edhuku feel panra? Ippo enna achu? We're all safe, our luggage's safe, we're going to catch our train in a little while and we're going to reach Chennai exactly as planned, safe and sound. Vera enna venum unakku?'. This didn't pacify him either! We ultimately had to ask one of the junior guys to take him and make him sit down. He did keep popping in, once in a while, guilt etched on every inch of his face. The rest of the journey passed peacefully. We got down in the right station and managed to get into the right train. Sadly, only 4 of our 10 or so berths were free and we had to share them. There was a small disagreement there, as to who would take the berths, everyone graciously offering it to everyone else. P insisted that we girls could share the berths amongst us. D and I absolutely refused. I have spent too many nights on the train, simply yapping away and I had no necessity of sleep that night. Plus I was on leave the next day, which I was gonna spend sleeping anyway, as I usually do after any trip. P wouldn't accept. Guess he was trying to make-up for what happened. The worst part was it became a guys vs girls thing. I mean, if P didn't want a berth, heck, it's his choice. But why poor N, J, B and the rest of the guys? N had already dozed off on one of our berths even as were discussing this! But no, P wouldn't have it that way. *sigh* I gave up. And we girls finally shared the available berths, after offering one to N. It was actually uncomfortable, with hardly any space to move a limb, but the magic that train travel is, we had soon drifted off to sleep… There were no more adventures (thankfully!) for the rest of the journey and we woke up to find ourselves in good old Chennai and sleepily made way to our homes. Poor Prince still feels guilty over this entire episode.

My Kinda Travelogue - Part 1

The auto screeched to a stop to let the bus pass by. As I watched the volvo ambling across carrying loads of people happily reclining in it, there was a familiar ache in the heart - the yearning to travel. *sigh* When was the last time I went on a tour? I think back… Not counting the US trip, well, I think we last went in the beginning of March to Coorg. What a trip that was! Great place and lovely company… really wish we guys can go again somewhere. *sigh* Kerala, probably... Would love to go there again… I smile involuntarily as I begin reminiscing about my past tours… there are too many memorable experiences… in fact, every one of them was memorable in a way. And there is something I can never forget about every single trip I have ever been on in my life - fights, reconciliations, tears, laughter, friendships being sworn, relationships lying shattered, lonely hearts, broken hearts, kenjals, konjals, ottals, the songs, the dances… *sigh* someday, I'd write them all down. However, for some vague reason (maybe it's because this one's not got much of an emotional value to it), I'm now going to write about one relatively recent trip that my team went on. To attend Chandru's wedding in Trichy last year. (Only Deepti, Sang and I belonged to the same team, so the rest of my gang – Karthik, Prasanna, Muthu etc - won't figure in this story. And our protagonist Prince is a teammate.) Hmmm… this is a weird story... in the sense that the story is not about the wedding or our visit to Mukkombu or Srirangam… it's the travel - the train journey - that I am going to relate now. (Aaaahhhh…exactly when I was composing this, a team-mate just shared photos of his recent trip to kerala… Athirampalli falls, Chotanikkarai temple, Guruvayur, Malampuzha dam, Trissur... aahhh… mixed memories begin to flood me … of a college tour… of a tour with office makkal… and, of a trip with my parents… *sigghhh* I guess I'd get back to my story.) Let me start where it ought to be started - the 'To' journey. The tickets to and from Trichy were both bought by Prince and Nanda, as Prince had taken it upon himself to organize the trip. I won't elaborate on the train journey to Trichy, lest I take up too much space. Suffice to say that Deeps and Sang both missed the train.... hehe. Deeps arrived at the Egmore station exactly as the train took off and Sang was struck in a traffic signal in Teynampet! (Deeps and I are like experts at missing trains and flights... more details some other time!) Ultimately, the two girls went to koyambedu and got a bus instead. Apart from this the trip went without any hitches - err, if you ignore the fact that we went late to Chandru's wedding the next morning. Later in the day, we went to Mukkombu dam and then on to Srirangam. The Srirangam trip was because our manager stayed there and had invited us home for dinner. (OC saapadu ache, pogama iruka mudiyuma?) And we had planned on taking our train from the Srirangam station. So, after a peaceful dinner at our manager's place, we reached the station arnd 10-15 mins ahead of time. The station was deserted. Samatha, we walked over to the place where our coach was supposed to stop and waited. Soon after, the train rolled in to the station, exactly on time. Our coach doors had been locked from the inside and after someone banged the doors, some kindred soul let us in. After the entire gang was safely inside the train with the luggage, we went over to find our berths. The entire compartment was asleep, except for a few people we had rudely awakened by the door-banging. Behold our surprise when we discovered people sleeping on what were rightfully our berths. Nanda spared no efforts in waking up people sleeping on our berths. Rudely awakened from their slumber and questioned, one guy irritatedly told us that he had a confirmed berth. (Trichy-lerndhu train Srirangam varradhukulla TTR vandhu enga berths-a innorutharuku allot panna chance-e illaye, I wondered). Another occupant of 'our' berth said that they had been travelling from Thanjavur. (Huh? I thought Rockfort was from Trichy. Mathitangala?) I was absolutely confused and as we resolved to find the TTR, people went back to sleep. What train were we on? I asked a guy sitting, watching the proceedings with an amused eye. 'Rockfort Express'. 'Thanjavur-lerndhu varudhu nu solranga..?', 'Amaam, idhu special train.' Hmmm... fine... or was it? It still didn't seem to explain anything. Prince and Prasath had meanwhile gone over to the next compartment trying to solve the mystery. As we clamoured with our luggage trying to move near the doors (basically out of the way), I saw Prasath coming over to this compartment, walking thru that connector between compartments. 'Madhu, idhu Rockfort dhan, aana namma Rockfort illa'. 'What?' - didn't make any sense to me. As he came closer, he lowered his voice and repeated 'idhu Rockfort express dhan, aana...'. Aana enna-nu I didn't get a chance to know, as the rest of his sentence was drowned in an extremely loud hissing noise. Though I have never really heard this particular noise so loudly or from such close quarters, I instantly knew what had happened. Prince had pulled the chain. Update : New story on vettEEEs

:(

I had posted something about Managers this afternoon and most of humanity seemed worried... and I had quite a lot of people advising me to take it off. *shrug* And for once, I'm taking people's advice... After all, it isn't an important post... nor is it smth close to my heart... so, well, I've taken it off... Maybe I should change my blog definition of '... I scribble what I please...' :( PS: I'm gonna post smth else to get over this....

Between the Devil and the Deep Sea (Boulder Trip) - Part 2

(The first part is here.) I dunno if it was Aditya or Gopi who spotted the Zapata Falls on the map, a little distance away from the Sand Dunes. None of them had been there before and we decided to stop over for some time. The road that led to the falls seemed an unmotorable stretch of road, with gravel and loose stones on the path, like they show in those ads for SUVs. Only, this was much worse. Huthas's car is anything but a SUV and he hesitated quite a bit before driving up the path. I don't blame him. I'd have refused to drive my car up the road. (Not that I have a car. Nor do I know driving. Hehe…) Anyways, we ambled along at smth like 10mph, as though we had all the time on earth. Thankfully, we soon reached a properly laid piece of road and H parked his car in the parking lot there. As we got out of the car, we noticed the uniform layer of orangish-brownish sand-cum-dust on H's car. I think H would have cried his heart out if not for the fact that there were 4 people with him. He probably sobbed into his pillow that night. (Needless to say, he took his car for a carwash the very next day.) A sign nearby said that we had to trek another mile to reach the fall. It wasn't much of a trek, actually. It was a very negligible slope and we easily ambled along. A few minutes later, we reached a small stream of gushing water. We tried to look around, trying to find the falls but none of us could spot it. And then, we noticed several people walking up/downstream. Only there wasn't anything you'd call a bank – everyone was walking in the water. We realised the falls was beyond the curve of the stream, perfectly out of sight. And the only way to get there was to walk thru the water. So, we took off our shoes and stepped into the water – or what seemed like it. It was colder than ice. Damn! It was freezing. As our legs started turning numb, we slowly waded our way upstream. This snap, you guys saw just now, has me smiling benevolently, my-life's-a-bed-of-roses kinds. Nothing could be farther than the truth. A fraction of a second after this photo was taken, I was yelling in pain. Man oh man, did it hurt! It's a truly painful experience to have both your legs go numb. We were in incredible pain as we walked across the water, but it was nothing in comparison to the pain we had to endure every time we stepped on to land. It. Was. Killing. As our legs discovered their long-lost life and the blood unfroze, we did all it took to stop ourselves from howling away. Finally, we almost reached the curve from where you can see the waterfall. And if you thought that things couldn't get worse, you err. So far, I've been talking of how our legs were turning to ice. As we walked thru the last stretch of water and stopped metres away from the waterfall, the saaral from the waterfall magically turned our hands into ice, too. Brilliant. But the view was pretty good, actually. It was quite a small waterfall, water gushing thru what appeared a crevice in the rocks. It wasn't a breath-taking view or anyth, but was good, nevertheless*. (It had to be. Or you'd have had a killer on the loose.) (Picture courtesy : http://www.desertusa.com) And we slowly made our way back, dying slow deaths. The difference in temperature of the water was too obvious, even between points just metres away. The water steadily became warmer - less freezing would be a much more appropriate description, actually - and the pain in our limbs increased proportionally. On reaching land, we spent quiet, painful moments waiting for our limbs to become fully functional. It did eventually. And we were soon back to the car, stopping by just to take this snap of the 'Sand Dunes' from there. The drive back home was pretty long and we stopped at one of the subways for dinner. And after dropping Aditya and Gopi at their homes, we were back at the apartment, where we parted ways with Manju. Between the Devil and the Deep Sea is how I'd remember that day. From walking on Sand Dunes till I developed blisters in my feet, to walking on water so f****** freezing that my legs almost froze, it was a day of extremes. But trust me, it was very, very memorable. The sight and the experience was unbelievable. If I get a chance, I would honestly not mind going back to those two places and killing myself again. It was worth every bit. Period. * - The photo of the waterfall that you saw was not taken from my cam... Oh, come on, you do know Murphy's law about cameras and batteries, don’t you?

When it rains music, it pours...

Warning: This is a long, long post. Read it at your own discretion. And the photos were taken from the Rs.499 enclosure, which is of course the farthermost from the stage, which is why this is all I could manage even with my 10X optical zoom. In any case, please excuse me. Check Swaroop's blog for some really good pics! We (Prasanna*, Sangeetha, Karthik** and I) managed to start from Prasanna's home at around 5:30 PM. The rain started when we were midway, lashed relentlessly and seemingly achieved its goal. I was half wet when we reached Palace Grounds, around 6:30 PM. The autodriver must have been one in a million. The madman dropped us some one kilometre away from the entrance. And we got down and jogged the entire mile in the heavy rain. It was actually cool, if you ask me. Considering the fact that we were gonna get drenched in the concert anyway, it didn't matter one bit. :) Sang's friend Deepa was waiting outside the Rs.499 entrance, pretty furious at Prasanna that we were late. (We had two extra tickets and she wanted it.) She was dripping wet and I guess that added on to her anger. (Sang had worn a denim jacket, I had borrowed Prasanna's jerkin and we guys had an umbrella with us. Honestly, beats me how people didn't expect it to rain. Prasanna had been telling me that morning that it starts raining there every single evening and he was very sure that we would have to attend the concert in the rain.) Anyway, Deepa and her friends had been waiting outside in the rain and she was bugged with Prasanna for having shown up late. 'Inga wait panna edam kooda illa, see we're fully drenched', she glared at him. Poor Prasanna. 'Neenga ulla poi irundhalum, nananju dhan irupeenga, so there's no big difference. Maybe we should stop wasting time and go inside', I responded. And she went on to tell him, 'Inga moonu ticket Rs.500 ku tharanga ippo'. Okay, so? I managed to hold my tongue and we went inside, Deepa and her friends waiting for yet another friend. (Ummm... err... slight-a Prasanna va yen thittinanga?) * * * * * * * * Once in the Rs.499 enclosure, we somehow made our way towards the front of that section and I managed to slide inbetween two guys, both of whom were soaked to the bone. And the wind, Oh God, the wind was the killer. We braved it for a long, long time. I could hardly see the stage from where I stood but what struck me was that the people in the Seating section were standing, holding their plastic chairs above their heads for protection against the rain. Sad!! The rain stopped sometime past 7, and soon the compere came on stage and announced that the show would indeed start in an hour. Yeeeee!!!! The guy went on to say smth like ARR wanted the show to go on, and said that it might not go on as per the original plan (groan) but we would have it anyway (yipee!). He also said smth to the effect that 'the chairs are for you guys to sit on'. Don't know what he was thinking, that it was people's hobbies to hold up chairs above their heads? I would have thrown a chair at him in response, if I had one. Hehe. At one point, the compere went on to say smth like '... I have only one question to ask you. Are you guys -'. (Uh-oh. I'm not, but can I please stay for the concert?) It was hilarious. I believe he intended to complete the question with smth else (as we realised quite soon), but at that moment, he stopped abruptly with 'Are you guys'. A few seconds later, he resumed with 'Are you guys ready?' or smth to that effect. And yes, it was after that that the singer, Prasad or whatever his name was, decided to pray to the rain God to stop raining. A prayer to the rain God to stop. Pretty ridiculous, if you ask me. The fact that the drizzle turned into a steady downpour after the guy started singing only made things worse. Well, if that weren't enough, the guy wouldn't stop. Gosh. He just went on and on and on and... (Can someone please request him to come down to Chennai and sing that same prayer song here?) I think that was when Deepa and her friends decided to leave. Apparently, it was too much for them to bear. They had wanted to leave before 7, we had convinced them to stay back for some more time, saying the concert itself was supposed to begin only at 7. But after waiting for a long time, wet, cold and shivering, I don't think she was in a mood to attend the concert, and they left soon after. * * * * * * * * The jerkin that I had taken along did not have a cover for the head. We had an umbrella but Karthik seemed intent on holding it for a pretty girl standing next to him, rather than for us! Terrible!!! Every two minutes, one of us had to beg him, 'Karthik, engalukkum konjam kudai pidiyen, please.' I knew that there would be no shelter or respite from the rain but what I hadn't really expected was the slush. Urrgh. I wonder how we guys managed to dance without tripping and breaking our limbs. (Prasanna and Karthik managed to get us something to eat during this one-hour break. God bless them!) As we waited till 8 o clock, it started drizzling again. No, God, not now. Not now. Sang was totally confident that the programme wouldn't be held. 'Sathyama avanga perform panna poradhilla, konja neram kazhichu vandhu program cancelled nu solla poranga… veetuku polam vanga', was her constant refrain, which Prasanna, Karthik and I totally ignored. Whatever was gonna happen, we wanted to stay on. And she was proved wrong soon enough. The show did start. With 'Fanaah' from 'Yuva'. Awesome. And then Hariharan went on to sing 'Telephone mani pol'... Prabhu has put up the entire list of songs here. After a few songs, we noticed that the entire crowd in the Rs.999 section had jumped over the barrier and made their way towards the Seating section. Standing on the tips of my toes, I couldn't see anyone in the Rs.2499 (or was it Rs.1499?) Seating Section either! An instant later, we followed suit. And soon found ourselves right behind one of the seating sections, pretty close to the stage. Dash it, of all Murphy's laws I've experienced in life, this one is probably the worst – Exactly when you need your digicam, the batteries go down. Absolutely frustrating. Ayyo, zoom panni azhaga fotos eduthirupene. I didn't even have spare batteries. Wanted to kick myself. But please save your breath, don't blame my poor digicam***. Or me. The poor thing somehow got wet in the rain. We had kept it inside Prasanna's waterproof backpack, which I had slung over my shoulders. And I had worn the jerkin on top. And the rainwater still managed to find its way. Thanks, God. None of the buttons in my Cam work now (the mode button doesn't work, not do the direction keys!) and I'm honestly hoping it would be a very minor thing to fix. (I was thankfully able to transfer the pics to my comp.) Maybe servicing would fix it. Please, please pray for it guys. I don't mind how much I ought to pay for it, am just hoping it would ultimately work. *sniff* Anyways, we were there, right next to the seating section. And soon after, some really fantastic song was being played. Inbetween my shouting, screaming, whistling, swaying and dancing, I happened to notice the people in the seating section closeby. The damn guys wouldn't even clap. Daey, enna padama katranga inga, ipdi utkarndhu vedikkai pakreenga? Karmams of India. If I had my way, I'd have thrown all the people in the Seating section out. (Sorry, Ferrari, it's not intended at you, but if you happened to be one of those bovine creatures, well then, I meant you as well). Personally, I have always felt the audience in the standing section is the liveliest. It's sad that they are given the least preference and thrown to the fag end. And thus went on the show. I honestly can't tell you if the crowd went wilder for 'Humma humma' or 'Chaiyya chaiyya'. Hmmm… Or was it wildest for the 'Secret of Success'? Uh-oh, people who didn't attend, no, I'm not trying to rub it in. :) ARR came back after a break to tell us the 2 lessons he had learnt that day. 'One is not to conduct any programmes during Ramzan. And the second is how much you guys love me. Till today, I thought that people just listen to my music and go away. Only today, I realize how much you all actually love me'. Aaah… *sniff* * * * * * * * * Here are a few things I particularly liked about the concert. * There was a piece that Rehman had composed for the UN's campaign against poverty. It was good, but I couldn't make out most of the lyrics. (Anyone knows where I can get the piece from?). * Sivamani's too good, man, I swear. There was a small break for around 10 mins, which was filled in by this guy. The crowd could only gape. (I had earlier attended a fusion show at IIT Saarang while in college and Sivamani had performed with some classical person, I honestly don’t know whom. This guy had worn some weird dress then, seemingly made of metallic rods, and he actually scraped on it and generated music. Gosh!! Incredible guy.) Anyway, he was equally good, if not better, on Saturday, and he went on and on. And had us totally enthralled. Towards the end he had us clapping rhythmically for his music and he obviously kept increasing the pace. Oh, we most definitely can't match you, Sir! :) * I felt the choice of songs were good. There weren't too many slow songs, thankfully, nor did he save the best for the last (unlike his Chennai concert in 2003, when I felt he played a lot of slow songs in the beginning and faster, better ones towards the end). This time, there were good songs throughout. :) * And most of the songs selected were hits in both Hindi and Tamil, and had the entire crowd swaying and singing, each singing the lyrics in their choice of language! :) * Shankar Mahadevan began, 'the next is a slow song from Bombay'. 'Humma humma', said Sang instantly. He went on, 'It was a super flop..'. Confirmed-a 'humma humma' dhan, she added. And yes, they did play the song. Ooohhh... he went on to sing the song in a totally different tune, before playing the actual version. Hehe... it was hilarious. * Rahman dedicated the song 'Chale Chalo' from 'Lagaan' to the crowd for our spirit. :) * Oh, there was another awesome piece. After singing 'Ghanan ghanan', Shankar Mahadevan went on with how Rahman would have composed that song if, in the movie, the song had to end with rain. Ooh man, I found that piece simply brilliant. * The concert began at arnd 8:30 and went on till 12. Prasanna says this is the longest concert he has ever attended in Bangalore. :) * * * * * * * * A few minutes before 12, Sang again began reminding us of the ordeal we had to face to go home. Prasanna refused to leave until 'Vande Mataram' was played. Ultimately, just as ARR began the song 'Aazadi' from 'Bose', it started drizzling. We finally decided to leave, turned half-heartedly and walked a couple of steps when he switched over to 'Vande Mataram'. Veetukavadhu poradhavadhu… We were immediately back in position, screaming our hearts out… heads tilted towards the sky… arms stretched out… welcoming the raindrops that descended on our faces. Perfect finish. As the banner outside the palace grounds said, 'Rahman tujhe salaam'. * * * * * * * * So, well, how was the concert? Perfect. And the experience? One in a million. Anything else I wanna say? Next time, God, just remember it takes a lot more than that to deter us. * * * * * * * * Read more about the concert here, here, here and here. * - Our cocky-boy phobic friend, of course. ** - the rest of the thayir saadhams. *** - they didn't check us for digicams at all. Mazhai la indha check ellam romba thevaya nu feel pannangalo ennavo.

Bye bye....

Yeee… Me's off to Bangalore tonight. For the ARR concert, of course. After my US trip in July, haven't been anywhere. Looking forward to this trip for that reason, amongst several others. Sadly though, this time we're very few in number. *shrug* Let's hope it doesn't make much of a difference to the fun we're gonna have. And I have a team outing today. We're off for lunch somewhere in ECR. Forgot where…. Hehe… The lunch will be, of course, followed by the usual OB adichifying (no, I didn't mean work... I was referring to those games or whatever). Anyways, let's see how it turns out! That's it then. Cya people. Take care and enjoy your weekend. Will be back on Monday, with loads of pictures and yarns of stories to share. Update : Just back to office from the team outing. Had looooads of fun. Pics and stories later!!! Harish, in case you're reading this… buhahaha… naan innum marakala. Unakku confirmed-a uruttu kattai dhan. Concert-il sandhippom. Vijai, rendu naal thangai oor la illana odane, thalai kaal theriyama aadadha. Please poruppa padikaraa vazhiya paru. Scudie, enga anna va kann kalangama pathukaradhu un kaila dhan iruku… hehe…

Aaaaahhhhh!!!!!!!

An official mail was sent out to my team yesterday indicating the upcoming change in my team structure, describing our new roles. C told me about my new roles last week and one of them is something I still can't believe I have got. Although it is an indication of the confidence my PM has in me (and I'm truly gratified), I am a little apprehensive too. Anyways, once I got the mail and read through the details, I forwarded it to my friends gang, as is my practice with any good news. Everyone replied with congratulatory mails, but I feel this reply from Vijai's the best. I read it first thing this morning and it has made my day. Check out the mail, esp the parts in italics. :) -----Original Message----- From: Vijai To: Naicker, Madhubala Subject: Re: FW: TPF team Structure Anbulla thangai ku, Un anbu annan ezhudhikolvadhu. Un madalai padithen. Mikka magizhchi. Unnaku pala pudhiya porupugalum padavigalum varuvadhil aachiripapaduvadharku ondrum illai. Namadhu munnorgalum naanum sadhithadhai dhan neeyum saadhithullai. Aanaal engalai vidavum vazhkaiyil nee nangu muneri engal peyarai kaapatra vendum embadhaye naangal virumbugirom. Adhu unakum nanrakath theriyum. Aagave, adhanai manadhil vaithukkondu, indha vayadhil thondrum theeya sindhanaigalil manadhai alaipaaya vidaamal kudukappatta paniyai sevvena seidhu mudithu, unaku keezh panipuribavarukum, endha samudhayathirkum nalla oru eduthukkaataaga ne iruka vendum endru kori, naanum un annaiyum unnai nalla vidha maaga valarka eduthukkonda muyarchigal veen pogadhu endra nambikaiyudanum endha madalai mudithukkolgiren. Varta .... Vijai Dei gunda*, I honestly think you rock! :) By the way, idhuku unakku special treat iruku! ;) PS: "indha vayadhil thondrum theeya sindhanaigalil manadhai alaipaaya vidaamal " - apdina enna na...? * - No, Scudie, I didn’t mean you. I meant Vijai.

Between the Devil and the Deep sea (Boulder Trip) - Part 1

'Hey, unakku coffee okay, la?', Huthas asked and I looked up from the laptop (his laptop, in fact). 'Yeah, fine…. Errr… by any chance, filter coffee seyya poriya?' He stared at me, dumbfounded. A highly profound silence followed this simple question. After 5 whole seconds, during which he was obviously struggling to find speech, he finally found his voice – 'Ennadhu? Filter coffee-ya? Madam, idhellam too much-a therla?' Oh, damn! 'Nooo! I thot you were going to make filter coffee and I wanted to tell you not to take the trouble. Instant coffee…', I faltered, what if he was using the coffee machine? '… or from the coffee machine… anything's fine…', I finished. He looked at me suspiciously. 'Sure?', 'Yeah, I drink instant coffee all the time.' Pacified, he disappeared into the kitchen and I returned to my browsing. * * * * * It was day one of my trip to Boulder, having reached the place the previous night. Huthas had, of course, picked me at the Denver airport and driven me to his apartment where I was to stay for three days. The poor chap had actually cooked dinner for me and had packed it so that I could eat it during my 1-hr drive to his place. Aaarrrrggghhhh!!! Touchings of India…. I don't remember what the time was when we reached his apartment - probably past midnight. His roommate had gone to sleep by then. We yapped for sometime as I hogged the chappathis he had made. Later, he offered me his mattress and slept on the couch instead. *Sniff* I was awake for sometime but drifted off to sleep soon. The next morning, I woke up early but was still rolling on the mattress. Heck, avangalum avanga day-light savings-um. Enna oor pa adhu? The sun rises around 5 or something (dunno for sure, as I was obviously never around to clock the occurrence) and sets at, like, 7:30 to 8 PM. Kashtam. Anyway, what with daylight streaming in at that insane hour, and the sounds of his roommate who had woken up and was bustling around the place doing God-knows-what, I was up too. Well, how long would can you simply roll about in the bed even after you're fully awake? Indefinitely, would be my answer under any normal circumstance. But here I was, having flown out some 800-odd miles to this beautiful city and I was not going to spend my time sleeping! So, I finally woke up. As if on cue, Huthas did too. It was some 15 mins later that I had settled before his laptop, checking my mails when the question of filter coffee popped up. (For those of you who are wondering if this is the pace at which I'm gonna tell the story, ye, baby, this is the pace.) Ah! There's nothing like a good coffee in the morning to awaken your system. As Huthas and I happily sipped through our coffees, we continued our yapping from where we left off the previous night. And then, he filled me in on the plans for the day. Soon after, we were ready to go. And while I was getting ready, Huthas packed lunch for all of us. (Awesome host, he was turning out to be.) We then hopped over to his car, where we were joined by his friend and college junior Manju. After the initial intro, she rattled off to Huthas in hindi. Huh… I can't speak hindi (and don't try.) So, I merely listened as Huthas drove on to pick up Gopi, his collegemate. He turned out to be quite an interesting and amusing guy, full of energy and zest. The next to join the gang was Aditya, also Huthas's junior. After everyone was safely tucked into the car, we set off to the destination for the day – a place called 'Sand Dunes', a national park. Throughout the journey, I could view snow-capped mountains at a distance and kept 'Oooohh'-ing and 'Aaaah'-ing. Finally, Huthas told me to relax. 'We are visiting the rocky mountains tomorrow, and will be going to the same mountain range you're looking at.' Woooowww!!! I couldn't wait. After quite a long drive, we reached the place. It was, well, exactly as the name describes – Sand Dunes. But right in a place it doesn't belong, ensconced between greenery on one side and snowy mountains behind. Interesting. (Those tiny dots in the stream towards the right bottom of that pic are, of course, people.) * * * * * After parking the car and assembling the necessary gear (hehe… I, of course, refer to water, goggles and digicam), we trekked. It looked real easy – didn't seem too high – but trust me, it was anything but easy. Halfway thru the trek up, I declared my innings and sat down. So did Aditya. Huthas was plainly disappointed - 'Ivlo dhooram vandhutu, idhuke tried aana epdi?' I turned him a deaf ear. Aditya turned him another. Meanwhile, Gopi had covered three-fourths of the distance by then and Manju had gone ahead to join him. I urged Huthas to go ahead but the friend that he was, he wouldn't leave me. Fine, as you please, sir. (Guys!!) So, we spent time some time just sitting in the sand watching people, the sand, the scenery and the likes and, of course, yapping. Huthas kept complaining about our lack of stamina and we kept complaining that he planned to kill us. ('I didn't travel this far to die on a sand dune out of exhaustion, give me a break!'). Actually, I was tired but I could have surely made it after that loooong break we took. The problem was I hadn't worn my sneakers and the sand kept getting into my footwear as my feet kept sinking into the sand. It was not hot on the surface, but when your foot slips into the sand up to the ankle, that's when you realize how hot it is. I had actually asked Huthas that morning if I needed to wear my sneakers and I distinctly remembered him answering no. And he distinctly remembered answering yes. *Shrug* So, we kept arguing for a little while longer and then, decided we could as well make better use of the time and shot a few more photos. Gopi and Manju later joined us, Gopi having scaled the heights. He declared it was an awesome sight on top, much to my envy. Someday, I told myself, some other day in life…. The trek down was much easier and there's this smaaaalll stream at the foot of the dunes, no more than ankle deep at any point. Having developed blisters on my feet, stepping into the cool waters was bliss. Truly. * * * * * Uh-oh, this is turning out to be a much longer post than I intended. So much so, that I'm tired of writing. And all I have covered is only half of the first day! Gosh! I can only imagine your plight. Anyways, me takes a break now. Will be back with the second half of the day soon.

Nenju porukudhillaye indha nilai ketta manidharai ninaithu vittal....

I just read this. And am disheartened. At times like this, I concur with the Chinese remedy for rape. "Any man who dares to abuse a woman should be hung upside down, repeatedly whipped and beaten with wooden clubs, burned with cigarette butts, branded with soldering irons, and have his genitals ripped off." (Thanks to Ramya for the info.)