Random scribbles

Time to move on..

2007-07-14T16:45:00.001+05:30

Tides change... Seasons change... Fortunes change... People change... Life itself changes. As someone said, the only thing that is constant is change. And who am I to resist it? I am nought but a mere leaf carried along by the gentle, and sometimes stormy, wind. Hmm.. do I sound philosophical? Ah, that's very unlike me, isn't it? :) Well, I am moving from here to here!! Cya soon!! :)

Time flies...

2006-04-25T21:38:00.000+05:30

Just crossed 10K hits... and it seems like yesterday when this happened!!!

When the going gets tough...

2006-04-24T21:56:00.000+05:30

... the tough get going.

Working from home?

2006-04-22T22:38:00.000+05:30

Having to support client testing for a couple of weeks (ending yesterday), I was to work in some weird timings – 4:30 PM to 12:30 AM. Truly speaking, this suits me quite well, for a host of reasons - I don’t have to kill myself by trying to get up at 7, I don’t have to try to go to work early, I don’t have to travel indefinitely to reach office… and so on. But never in my dreams did I think working from home would be so challenging.

The first challenge I had to face was, of course, the BSNL broadband connection I have at home. Awesome, to put it in one word. I only had to login. The logging out was automatically taken care of by BSNL, disconnecting at will every 10 mins. Struggling with the connection for several hours yesterday, my emotions ranging from pure fury to extreme despair, I experienced it all. Having been outsmarted by BSNL every time, I decided to prove I could do it, too, and I logged out myself! Ha!! <evil laughter>

Whenever BSNL was busy disconnecting someone else’s connection and let me be, for say 30 mins at a stretch, TNEB took over the responsibility. Every night, promptly, there is an electricity failure - usually lasting under 5 minutes and sometimes over 15 mins. Sweet.

And whenever, by a freak coincidence, BSNL and TNEB did let me work undisturbed, VPN entered the fray, apparently, trying to prove that it was equally adept at disconnecting. Once dc, even though the broadband connection was just fine (surprisingly!), VPN refused to let me log back on, saying that the ‘Remote peer is not responding’. Nice.

Ultimately, when fate managed to keep all the conspirators at bay and I had finally logged onto VPN and was actually working/talking to D on the official messenger Jabber, I suddenly realized that there was no response from D. Ah.. well, you guessed right - Jabber’s turn. *shrug* But Jabber was not as relentless as the others, it let me log right back in, though I missed several msgs in the process… *sigh*

Last night was particularly bad. I think I got disconnected at least 20 times…. Ummm, actually, you could actually make that 25, and I’ll give you the benefit of doubt. *sigh* D and I were discussing about assigning a piece of work to one of the team members… (or rather, we were trying to discuss it but fate willed otherwise). I got dc so many times and she kept trying to copy/paste her previous msgs every time, that she finally lost patience, and refused to copy/paste her previous msgs. Hmph!!

Well, the Airtel representative came over to my place a short while ago. I decided I have had enough and am switching connections... Please tell me Airtel isn’t half as bad.

தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்!!

2006-04-14T14:06:00.000+05:30

Template Change..

2006-04-07T14:10:00.000+05:30

... for my 50th post! :) Howz the new template?

Career... and... life...

2006-04-01T19:27:00.000+05:30

Didn’t want to write a post on this, but this thought has been irking me at regular intervals over the past few days, that I feel it is much better to simply write it down and forget it…

Anyway, this is what triggered the stream of thoughts…

While commenting on the post of a fellow blogger, another blogger says “Career is life”. I found it so ridiculous that I actually laughed aloud. But the amusement was instantly replaced by sadness, at the thought of some people’s priorities... “Career is life”. Nice. So, what would family and friends be? What about dreams, desires, aspirations and goals a person might have…? What about interests and hobbies? Love might, of course, be a side issue. Happiness, I assume, is a non-issue. These concepts probably don’t even exist (or maybe don’t matter) in their world. *sigh*

Get me straight, I have nothing against hard-working people. I work hard, too. But beneath all that hard work, there’s love for what I do. And that’s what drives me. I hope people who kill themselves for their career know what they’re doing.

My only wish is that people stop occasionally, to take a deep breath and reassess their priorities… think about what they truly want in life and if they’re going the right way about doing it.

Evergreen Illaiyaraja?

2006-01-28T12:57:00.000+05:30

I dunno why people say Illaiyaraja's music can never get boring, how many ever times you listen to it... Was listening to the song 'Idhu oru pon maalai pozhudhu' the other day and it just struck me that I had heard the song so many times that I was really bored of it. Am not supporting ARR or anyone else here. Just that IR's songs don't seem to be as enduring or perpetual to me. *shrug*

Call it quits!

2006-01-19T19:54:00.001+05:30

Says who?

If any of you have been thinking I'm planning to quit blogging, you may please get those thoughts out of your mind now. I've just been busy.. :( Between shifting to a new office and taking on additional responsibilities and working from home as well and helping people organize two weddings at home... I have really not had anytime to mail/call any of my friends, let alone blog. *sigh*

I don't see a respite to this state of business in the near future also (*sigh*)... I will try to write as and when I can...

And Vijai, congrats!!! Uma/Ferrari/Aravind, no, I'm NOT writing soppy stories!Naan yaaru... enna madhri blog ezhudharen... en blog-oda reputation enna... en fan following enna... enna poi ipdi ellam post ezhudha solreenga... cha cha... :D seri seri, me escapes now!

That's 24 happy years down....

2005-12-22T07:14:00.000+05:30

...and countless more to go!

Irritants @ Work - 2

2005-11-12T22:23:00.000+05:30

It was during our technical training some 2 yrs ago that I got accustomed to the vagaries of human nature. Well, not all, but some.

6 people almost living in a training room for 3 months, we were in a world of our own. Most times during our hands-on session/after office hours, the room used to be absolutely silent, except for the sounds of the keyboard, the occasional rustling of paper and the rare profanity (on discovering the pathetic coding error we'd have committed!) And so we led hard-working, peaceful lives until the plague set on us one day.

P had somehow found some songs that were shared on the network and we were obviously interested. But we didn't have headphones then. In fact, we didn't even have specific machines assigned to us at that time. The training room had enough machines and we used to settle at any machine we wanted. Anyway, without headphones, the information seemed pretty pointless and we were soon back to work.

P was relentless, however. As we were unsupervised most of the time and we had a huge room all to ourselves, he played the songs on the system speaker. Though his choice of songs did not exactly match the choice of the other 5 souls in the room, we didn't quite mind, all of us exhibiting exceptional levels of tolerance.

Soon, however, there wasn't much of a choice – P actually added a single song to his Winamp and played it endless times, over and over and over… Granted, the song was a good one (namma Karthik song 'Nenjae thulli po' from 'University') but listening to the same song played non-stop, for hours at a stretch usually had each one of us wanting to throw the monitor on P's head, sometime or the other. (I mean, just picturize yourself trying to concentrate on a particularly vague piece of code making an attempt to figure out what went wrong with it and the speaker blares 'Kaadhal solli pooooo…') The scene usually ended with one of us begging/requesting/screaming at P to stop the music, or, at the least, change the song, depending on the foulness of our mood.

For the scene to end amicably thus, you need to have one thing in the vicinity. Well, not a 'thing', actually, I was referring to P. *sigh* There was an occasion when P left his Winamp to play the song endlessly and went away to attend a call on his cell phone. Totally engrossed in our world of assembly language and dumps, P's exit went unobserved.

Fate, however, had sinister plans for us. Unnoticed, P's system was automatically locked after a short while. Unaware, we continued working, trying hard to concentrate when we realised something.

The room was suddenly silent.

Absolute, pin-drop silence. A silence so divine we could have almost tasted it… And then it struck us – the song's over!!! Even as we sat savouring the peacefulness of the moment, the speakers began blaring again. Dash it! Profanities tumbled around freely as 5 heads turned towards P.

Who was, of course, missing.

Profanities failed me. And the other 4 tortured souls.

Words might have failed him but A is a man of action. He sprang up from his chair and moved over to P's monitor to exit Winamp when he discovered that the system was locked – much to his chagrin and to our horror. Someone sunk their head into their arms in despair and was patted consolingly by someone else.

'Where the f*** is he?' A asked and none of us had a clear answer. 'Probably he has gone to attend a call…' one of us theorized. 'F***! His system is locked da… Does anyone know his password?'

Silence.

Actually not. Karthik continued to sing '… oasai indri solli vittu pooooo'.

That did it. A turned off the system and went back to his testing. We followed suit.

I tell you, silence is absolute bliss.

* * * * *

P does not listen to music on the system speaker now as he obviously values his life. But then, there's no need for him to. He plays music on his headphones at 120 decibels and goes away. I can hear the songs two cubicles away. *sigh*

Thirundhave mateengala pa?

* * * * *

By all means, people, go ahead and play songs to your heart's content. But unless you have been explicitly requested to, kindly refrain from acting like you have been entrusted with the responsibility of managing jukeboxes.

Irritants @ Work - 1

2005-11-05T15:40:00.000+05:30

I was engrossed in analyzing a system problem when I heard someone's cell phone ring. Busy with my research, all that I noted subconsciously was that it wasn't my phone and I continued to work. As the cell phone rang incessantly, I got bugged, took off my headphones and turned towards the source of disturbance.

It was X's cell phone that was creating the racket, X being my teammate and cubicle-mate. He had left his cell phone on his desk and presumably gone for a 'dum'. Actually, I didn't know for sure if it was his desire to acquire cancer that kept him away from the scene. Maybe he had just gone to the pantry. I didn't know and didn't care. All I knew was that the cell phone kept ringing on and on, with its owner nowhere in sight. Not only had he been considerate enough to leave the damn thing here, the angel had also been thoughtful enough to enable the 'ascending' option for the ring volume. I stared at the phone furious. It stopped ringing.

It took me a few more seconds to cool down and I had hardly turned back to my monitor and reached for my headphones when the cell phone rang again.

I sprang out of my chair exclaiming, 'Where the hell is he?' and realised to my surprise that it was not a solo performance. D and I had almost chorused that question. J and S also looked in, irritated. 'Throw it out of the window', suggested S solemnly and J seconded the idea. For a freak second, I seriously considered the suggestion but I somehow calmed myself enough to just cut the call.

Taking several deep breaths, I stepped back to my chair and D peeped from the next cubicle –
'You cut the call?'
'Yes! And one more time the bloody thing rings, I'm turning it off!!'
'Good! Do it!'

As I lowered myself into my seat, X walked in and I turned to him –
'Your cell phone rang –'
'Oh!'
' – and I cut the call.'
'Ohhh…' A pause. 'I had been in the pantry.'
'Good. Please take your cell phone with you the next time you go to the pantry.'
Silence.

Soon, I was back to work and I didn't hear his cell phone ring for the rest of the day. Peace!

* * * * *

I really want to know what the f*** people think cell phones are for. Amongst the numerous purposes they were designed to serve, I don’t quite think they were intended to be disturbances for the rest of the society. If you have to move out of your seat, pray, take your cell phone with you. If you don’t want to take it with you, for some vague reason beyond human levels of intelligence, well, at least change it to the 'silent' profile or something! The whole world does NOT need to know when you get a call.

Her last moments...

2005-10-28T11:26:00.000+05:30

*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...

2005-10-26T22:26:00.000+05:30

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

2005-10-17T20:01:00.000+05:30

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

2005-10-15T22:20:00.000+05:30

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

:(

2005-10-15T22:10:00.000+05:30

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

2005-10-12T18:20:00.000+05:30

(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...

2005-10-10T15:39:00.000+05:30

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....

2005-10-07T07:02:00.000+05:30

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!!!!!!!

2005-10-06T17:09:00.000+05:30

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

2005-10-05T11:34:00.000+05:30

'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....

2005-10-03T10:18:00.000+05:30

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.)

Meendum oru kadhal kadhai...

2005-09-28T10:06:00.000+05:30

As my blogreaders must be knowing, me's a major Anil Kumble fan. After the heartbreak I got during my 2nd year of college, when the dhrogi got married, I have been roaming around the planet like... a lost, beaten, broken, shattered soul.... in search for eternal peace.... barely managing to carry on with life*....

Later in life came Tarun, the ridiculously short guy. Worse, he was younger than me too. Much much younger, I guess. Anyways, me was taken in by his looks and drooled around for sometime. In the desire to catch a glimpse of him, I think I might have even watched a few telugu channels (which is, of course, a matter of shame to me, now.) *sigh*

And then came Prasanna. Maybe you disagree with me, but I really, really thought he had a striking resemblance to Kumble. (Did I mention that my 'first real crush' resembled Anil Kumble? That's why I had a crush on him in the first place. But I digress.) Anyways, I was bowled over after watching 'Five Star'. The guy was good. And of course, I wasted no time and immediately set about with the drooling and ogling routine. And as always, someone had to spoil it all, by making it a point to tell me that the guy was in college and was junior to us. Aaahhh .... But the strong girl that I am, I bore it with resilience.

After a loooong hiatus, during which I didn't find anyone worthy enough of my attention, came Arya. He's awesome, of course. And cool. And handsome. And manly. Can't think of enough adjectives to glorify him. (Neha, help!!)

And now.... I'm in love with Prithviraj**. Dash it, exactly when I run into the love of my life... exactly when I discover the reason for my existence... exactly when I am delighted to have found the other half of my life... my soul mate... my life partner... comes the shocking news that he's younger than me..... CRAAAAASH. That was my heart breaking, of course. Into a million pieces.

SIGH. When every guy you fall for is younger than you, that's when you realize you're getting old. Of course, I refuse to let the age factor deter me from my pursuits. Still, it's like a grim reminder that I'm aging… Dammit!!!

*Nambiteengala enna? Hehe... Please! You don't know Ms. Naicker well enough. I'm disappointed.

**So, Neha, Arya-va neeye vechukalam. ;)

Why me?

2005-09-28T08:54:00.000+05:30

Yen enakku nu ipdi ellam nadakudhu? yen enakku mattum... yen yen yen...

*sigh* Well, this is the story. After seeing this on Visithra's blog, I was naturally curious to check out my 23rd blog and its 5th sentence...

(1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. )

And guess what it turned out to be?

This - "'Are there any cocky boys around?', he asked."

:( Vidhi en vazhkaila epdi velayadudhu parunga... Idhukum kooda enna pervert nu solveengale? Ayyago... enna ulagamada idhu... :'(

* * * * * * * *

By the way, people who can read Tamil might want to head here. Priya has begun translating the Thiruvasagam and I think she's doing a great job already!!

* * * * * * * *

Pssst.... people, do you think I should get a shoutbox?

Women and.... the rest (part - 2)

2005-09-25T15:21:00.000+05:30

Yes, I picked this up from Siva's blog. But this is by no means a retort to Siva, it's intended for all readers of the male gender. (So, Siva, if you find anything offensive, it's not aimed at you, but at all men.) And here’s his original post on women.

Women and ...
...Driving/Riding skills (Most can't, even if they do... u know what)

Here's my response.

...Parking skills

I have never parked a vehicle myself, being in the category of those-who-do-not-know-how-to-drive. But I do think it's a tough thing to do. At least, it looks like it. Please leave me a comment if you were an astounding driver and managed to park your car perfectly in the middle of the parking slot the very first time in your life, and I'll dedicate some post to your name.

...What they find to be cute ?

Oh, give us a break, guys. It's just an adjective we choose to use. When guys can find boxing and stock markets fascinating, pray tell me why girls shouldn't find babies and flowers cute? We don't go around raving 'Mennnn… how on earth can they like football and gadgets? It irks me no end.' We understand. Well, if we don't, we accept. And we let you be. So, why the dash can't you let us be?

...computers

ROTFL… Girls kum computers kum sambhandham illa nu endha dash sonnadhu?

...punctuality

Hmmm… let us see…. how many women have turned up late for team meetings… or maybe classes….? If your gf makes you wait, ask her why. Don't generalize.

...crying

This is the easiest of all to explain, actually. We don't pretend, nor see the need to. If we're hurt, we say so. If we're deeply hurt, we cry.

...liquour
(Haha! Yaar kitta vandhu enna pechu pesareenga…. =)) okay, okay, I was joking.)

I guess women have enough commonsense to realize the health problems that alcohol (and cigarettes) can bring.

...their dolls

What dolls? You mean soft toys that we choose to have? Ye, I have a Nemo at home and I think he's the cutest soft toy ever made on planet earth. So, what's your problem? (We're not gifting you teddies and nemos for your b'day, are we? You get watches and CDs, don’t you? Just take it and STFU.)

...SMS

Hmmm… I honestly don't know if more girls than guys are addicted to SMS. I have seen enough people of either gender who use SMS a lot. But if it's true that more girls use SMS, it's probably just that girls find the written medium equally comfortable.

...gossip

Hmmm… tough one. Ok, I have to agree this is quite common amongst girls. Why? I do not know. I have seen enough gossipers to admit this. (Happy, guys?)

...politics

If we don't find something interesting/useful, we don't waste time on it.

...talking straight
...knowing when and what to
...chocolates, and biriyani
...the ATM

[I have no clue what the author wanted to say when he wrote these four… 'talking straight' na? Does it mean we do/do not talk straight? What's the complaint? Yeah, we love chocolates... don't you? And what's with ATM and biriyani? :) ]

I just can’t end this post without this calvin strip.

(click on the image to enlarge)

There there… Susie Derkins has summed it up perfectly, hasn't she? :)

PS : I am starting my very own He-She series soon, inspired by Ferrari, Vee-Jay and now, Uma. But it going to be kinda different. Watch this space for more!

Women and..... driving (part - 1)

2005-09-24T18:52:00.000+05:30

This post is in response to Siva's post on women's driving, amongst a hundred other complaints he has about women. He's by no means the only one who's got complaints against women drivers. Here's what dear old Praveen has to say on the subject. And I'm sure several others would have ranted away similarly.

In response to posts of this kind, I have only this to say -

* I think it's high time people begin looking at bad women drivers (and bad male drivers) as just bad drivers and not as women/men. Ditch the gender bias, people.

(Mmmm.... Maybe you should try to reflect on what you've just read for a few seconds before you continue reading.)

* Anyone who still has complaints about women drivers should see chennai's auto drivers (most of whom are male, need I add?). Period.

I rest my case.

Oooohhh....

2005-09-23T18:46:00.000+05:30

Ohh... thank you, thank you, thank you...

Aah, please, it's nothing...

Thank you so very much...

Please, please... please be seated...

Now, really, it's enough...

Adada.... clap panninadhu podhum pa...

(audience encore finally dies down)

(For the dumbos who haven't realised yet....)

Me crossed 2000 hits today (in exactly two months... the counter was set up on 23 July)!!! Yipeee....

(Odane ellarum alpama treat kekkadheenga! Congratulate pannunga pa...!!!)

'Anyone else want to say it?'

2005-09-23T18:45:00.000+05:30

Forget the comments I received, this more or less sums up the response I received for my previous post.

(click on the image to enlarge)

Kathirikka... Kathirikka... Gundu kathirikka...

2005-09-19T23:17:00.000+05:30

Take it from me - for every girl who's conscious/supposed to be conscious about her age, there are ten guys worried about their weight.

And it's downright hilarious.

Huh… you don’t agree? Well, try it out for yourself, friends. And when I say friends here, I'm referring to friends of the fairer sex… hmm.. seri, let's make that gentler sex… hmmm, maybe I'll just safely say female gender (and stay out of controversies on this!!!). Anyway, all you have to do is select one of your male friends of, let's say, average build. Actually, he can even be of less than average build, wouldn't matter much.

In the middle of a totally unrelated conversation, punch him jokingly in his tummy (make sure you punch lightly cos you can never be sure about guys. They might just hit you back. And I don’t quite think it will be a pleasurable experience) and exclaim 'Thoppai!!?!??!' with an expression that can display as much shock and disgust as you can fake. Now, stand back and watch him squirm. Even guys who are usually glib and talk non-stop nonsense will falter. 'Thoppai ellam illa', he'll say feebly, sub-consciously trying to feel if he really has such an obvious tummy. Go on and say 'Gym ku ellam pora nu sonna' with a thoughtful look, and he'll invariably respond, 'illa… ippo konja naala poradhilla' with an extremely pained expression.

And if you're ever beaten in an argument (verbally, of course) by a guy and don't know what to say, try 'poda gunda', with obvious emphasis on the 'gunda'. That should be enough to silence most of them. If caught off-guard (as most of them are bound to be), guys are usually rendered speechless. Of all things on the planet, this one's close to their heart and they will usually take a few moments to untangle their vocal chords, think of a reasonable retort and start refuting the charge. Responses vary. Some would try to prove with detailed statistics as to how their weight has gone down in the last few weeks/months/years. It might be tough not to, but then, it is not exactly appropriate to laugh out aloud as they rattle off their ways of fighting the evil. Instead, maintain the seriousness and say 'Apdiya? Gym/jogging poriya enna? Patha weight koranja madhri theriyave illaye…'. If, however, they try to act clever and say, 'illa… last one month la dhan 5 kgs eritten', be sure you respond with 'Apdiya enna? I thought you were always overweight...' with a bewildered look. (How to carry on this conversation is left as an exercise to the reader.)

Of course, you don't need to wait for a special occasion to try this out. Feel free to spring this on the nearest guy anytime you're bored in life. And be rest assured that the next few minutes will be absolutely entertaining.

A few words of advice before you go ahead with this, though -
1. Avoid the word fat. For some vague reason, guys resent the usage of this term. 'Gunda' might make them wince and squirm in discomfort, but 'fatso' can have undesirable and often, unpredictable results, ranging from calculated indifference to a raging desire to use nearby objects as missiles.
2. Guys trying these techniques on other guys just wouldn't work. For yet another vague reason (actually it's not vague at all), guys don't care what other guys think. They take all the teasing in an exceedingly sporting manner. But the minute a girl jokingly says 'gundaaa..', well…. hmmm….
3. Don’t lose heart if some guys do not care (or pretend not to). They are exceptions. But then again, it doesn't mean anything. They must be the guys who tried to lose a few pounds and were unsuccessful in their repeated attempts. So, just carry on with the next guy.
4. As mentioned earlier, responses usually vary from specimen to specimen. Hence, it's best to be prepared.

Best of luck... and have fun!!

PS : This post is dedicated solely to Scudie, with prayers that he would succeed in the war he's waging.

Disclaimer : This post is strictly meant for girls to try on guys. Guys, please don't go about trying to punch girls. Adhanala yerpada koodiya vilaivuku sathyama naan porupilla!!!!

Author's personal note : Although it's fun while it lasts, it would be nice to end with a 'summa dhan sonnen'. The simplest of reasons for this would be to give the poor souls a break. But I would prefer to do it for the bright smiles that instantly light up their faces, when you reveal that you were 'only pulling their leg'. Maybe your friend is really a fatso, but explain that you were only teasing him and that you honestly don't think he's overweight and watch the relief and satisfaction on his face. It's worth it, I tell you. :)

Guys!!!!

2005-09-12T20:49:00.000+05:30

P peeped his head through the door, appearing extremely apprehensive. He was greeted with our warm smiles. As he kept looking around suspiciously, my smile was replaced with curiosity and amusement. 'Enna, P? Ulla va', I invited him to our room.
'Are there any cocky boys around?', he asked.
'WHAT?', reacted D in absolute shock. 'What?', I repeated a little softly…. surely, I had heard wrong?
'Cocky boys here?'

There was no mistaking what I heard. D and I kept staring at P, waiting for some explanation. S was the only one who seemed to have understood what he meant, as she started laughing at the expressions on our faces. We were simply aghast. I turned and looked enquiringly at S. What on earth was going on? After laughing a short while, amused at our expressions, S clarified - 'he's asking if there are any cockroaches in our room'.

'Pathetic', I ejaculated. 'Terrible', added D. As we both gave him dirty looks, P slowly entered the room, still apprehensive. He grinned on seeing our looks of disgust. 'Yen ivlo perverted-a irukeenga?'

I struggled to find speech. Couldn't think of words strong enough to berate the chap. Thankfully, D had taken it upon herself and was doing just what I intended. But he wouldn't agree. 'Adheppadi... S ku purinjudhu la.. you are the ones who are perverted'. We threw dirty looks at S, one of the most perverted beings I've ever known. (When she had originally landed in chennai, she was like this pucca pattikadu, so much so that P still calls her 'patiks'. We had to educate her on several aspects of life. Now, of course, she's the expert, finding double and more than often, multiple meanings in absolutely harmless sentences.)

Ellathayum vidunga, makkale, let S be the saint here. But heck, I mean, dash it, how on earth is anyone supposed to comprehend his phrase to mean cockroaches??? And when we understand it the only way any normal person can, we are called perverts!!!

Guys!!!

Aarambichutangapa!

2005-09-10T16:48:00.000+05:30

Tamizh Kudimagan (who has recently re-titled his blog to Tamizhan, for reasons he wouldn't reveal clearly) tagged me. So, here goes...

Seven things I plan to do before I die :
1. Involve actively in social service. (No, I'm not talking about giving away some of my money... I mean much more than that.)
2. Adopt a child.
3. A long drive down ECR with you-know-who [Actually, you-don't-know-who… after all, even I-don't-know-who :( ]
4. Travel.
5. Learn to cook (hehe!)
6. Try my hand at various things… like bungee-jumping, parachuting, scuba-diving etc etc…
Actually, 7 is too less a number to write things I want to do before I die. So, I'll sum it up with this :
7. live life the way I want.

Seven things I can do : (but don't)
1. Control my temper
2. Stop lazing around
3. Stop procrastinating
Here are the rest of the seven that I can do and actually do:
4. Laugh like mad
5. Forgive/forget when people hurt me
6. Talk
(Yeah, right, it doesn't total upto 7. So?)

Seven things I cannot do :
1. Control my temper
2. Wake up early
3. Lie
4. Pretend
5. Forgive myself when I hurt others
6. Act feminine :(
7. Taste beer again. (yuck, it sucks!)

Seven things that attract me to the opposite sex :
1. Intelligence
2. Common Sense
3. Sense of humour
4. Ability to hold interesting conversations (on anything, actually)
5. An enthu for life… enthu to learn/explore people, places, activities, things… in short, an enthu to live life.
huh.. well, that's all. Period. (seri, okay, good looks will help. but that's honestly all.)

Seven characteristics I cannot stand/dislike :
1. Hypocrisy
2. Dishonesty
3. Chauvinism
4. Intolerance/Narrow-mindedness
5. Selfishness
6. Whining
7. Indecisiveness

Seven of my favourite quotes :
1. Live and let live.
2. Differences of habit and language are nothing if our aims are identical and our hearts are open. (-Albus Dumbledore (J.K.Rowling), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
3. The heart has its reasons, that reason knows not of…
4. If you judge people, you have no time to love them. (-Mother Teresa)
5. No man is worth your tears and the one who is, will never let you cry....
6. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.
7. Life is too short to be spent worrying.
(Seri, the last two 'seven's were not in the original 'format'. I added it.)

Seven things I say most : (as of the moment)
1. Close
2. Odi po!
3. Karmam
4. Kevalavadhi
5. M
6. Ditch
7. Un moonjila en left hand-a vekka.

Seven Celebrity Crushes : (why only celebrities? I will write about any crushes I feel like.)
1. Surya
2. Arjun Rampal
3. Madhavan
4. Ajit (once upon a time… long long ago…)
5. Arya (*blush*)
6. B, my first 'real' crush (in college)
7. S, my second 'real' crush (in college again)
(Anil Kumble per enga nu yosikadheenga… it cannot be classified under an alpamana heading as crush… adhu unmayana, thooimayana, punidhamana kaadhal.)

And, no, I'm not tagging any poor, unsuspecting souls. Consider yourself tagged if you wish.

(By the way, people, what's with seven?)

Ramya Kalyana Vaibhogame...

2005-09-09T21:32:00.000+05:30

When words fail, what do I do? Resort to photos, of course. Ramya's wedding was as emotional an event to me as it was to her family. Hence, friends, I will just post some photos to take you through the ceremonies I was around for...

Ramya and Vijay at the reception..

With the vettEEEs...

Oonjal..

Ammi midhithu...

Right after the wedding...

Post-wedding meal..

(@ the nalangu) the Treasure hunt is on....

... all for a lollipop!!!

The apple of our eye...

People, join me in wishing the couple a happy married life!

Waiting for the perfect man... ?

2005-08-27T15:27:00.000+05:30

Well, don't.

hehe... you don't want to end up like that, do you?

[I hope I haven't incensed any guys out there!! ;)]

Pssst....

2005-08-25T09:08:00.000+05:30

VettEEEs updated.

Ondra renda kelvigal...

2005-08-23T11:33:00.000+05:30

'iru vizhigalum vizhigalum inaindhana…
iru imaigalum imaigalum thigaithana…'*

idhula slight doubt enakku… adheppadi iru vizhigal/imaigal… kanakku thappa varudhe… shouldn't it be two pairs of eyes… assuming that our hero/heroine/whomever are not visually handicapped, idheppadi possible?

(* - the opening lines of the song 'Yaaridamum' from 'Thotti Jaya')

*****************

Indha 'VITOMINE - Active clothing for men' apdinu city la anganga hoardings iruke… (by Chennai silks, I guess…) adhula irukara model namma* Arya-va?

(* Hehe… I just wanted you to note the usage of the phrase 'namma Arya'.. avlo dhan... ;) Last week 'Ullam Ketkume' patha after effects… :D I still haven't seen 'Arindhum Ariyamalum' yet. 'Life-a waste panreenga, Madhu', V said wistfully yesterday… Hmmm….)

*****************

Captain-oda movie 'Perarasu' eppo release agudhu?

*****************

And about my struggle with the template to remove those spaces, I'll forever be indebted to Vijai for pointing out to me that the problem was only with Firefox. There are no spaces when viewed with IE. (I wasted 3 hrs on this and might have spent more, if not for him! Avanoda style-laye sollanum na, 'Nandri hai'… hehe…)

Phew....

2005-08-19T13:37:00.000+05:30

Aaargggh... I've been spending close to 2 hours on this new template tweaking it like crazy. For a person who does not have any clue about html, it's a pretty arduous task. I would have thought I was doing considerably well, if not for these two irritants -
* see the 'Pages I frequent' list in the sidebar? It's got no padding to the right. And I'm clueless as to how to stop the words from entangling themselves on the right edge, as obviously, this list is picked up from my blogroll. (I'm making a mental note to check blogroll soon.) I have also removed the HP excerpt for the same reason. Will have it back as soon as I figure out a way to do this. (Or if I give up in the process.)
* and there's this huuuuge space after my blog, before the comments. And this happens with the first post on the page only... happening with both the main and the archive pages. Irukara space la pudhu blog-e ezhudhidalam poliruku...

Oh, by the way, how does this new template look? It's not my goal in life to keep changing my template every week, but then, I saw this on someone's blog and fell in love with the template. And you see where it's led me. I'm yet to make it exactly the way I want it to be.... but I'm almost there. If any of you have any clues about the above two problems I'm facing, kindly let me know.

Comments on the template are welcome. I, for one, think it looks cool and is pleasing on the eye. (Krish, indha dhadavayum nee edhavadhu sonna en template pathi, adi vanguva.)

vettEEE updates...

2005-08-18T21:04:00.000+05:30

Okie, there's one more story on the vettEEEs. Ellarum ennoda soga kadhaiya kelunga, idho inga. Jolly-a oru kalyanathuku pona naan, epdi sogame uruvana madhri veliye vandhen-ngradhu dhan kadhai.

And Krish had advice on how to handle the war I wage every morning. Hmm... oru official advisor range ku ayitu varan, la...? Anyways, with his permission, here's a part of our chat yesterday :

Krish : i jus read ur post ..hilarious
me : which one?
Krish : i suffer frm the same problem
me : morning blues?
....
Krish : but i found a remedy re
Krish : if at all u get up
Krish : see
Krish : u get up rite
me : of course i do... i don't die in my sleep..
Krish : say at 7.30
Krish : then ur brain will have a struggle goin on between 2 sides
Krish : one will remind u to work
Krish : one wud want u 2 sleep
me : there r no 2 sides...
me : only 1
me : :D
me : seri.. so
Krish : so wot u do
Krish : when its battling
me : ditch both and sleep?
Krish : make it a point to get up and run to bathroom and wash ur face
me : haha!
Krish : dont even think
me : hmmm...
Krish : ur sleepy side will always win if u dont do it
Krish : i have found this
me : hmmm...
me : seri, will try it 2m morning..
Krish : after that if u start sleeping no one can save u
me : vera vazhiye illaya?
Krish : no way ;)

Okay, I didn't try it this morning, as I actually woke up at 6:30 AM. Nethu naal polambina polambal-la, some internal alarm was set nu nenaikaren. aar-rai mani ku thaana ezhundhutten. So,I haven't had a chance to try this today. Will try this sometime next week, Krish!!

And oh, I almost forgot to mention Raam's comment on the 'Ada Raama' post. Here it is :

Raam: well, you pretty much described the incident the way it was.. Except for the fact that i was a little surprised that nee enna avalova vaarala nu ;)

Kavala padadha, nanba, innum evlovo iruku life la... unna vaarama enakku thookam varuma, sollu?

Monday morning blues...

2005-08-16T10:54:00.000+05:30

I hate monday mornings... Well, on some occasions like today, I hate tuesday mornings too. Heck, I hate every morning... every single one of them - when I'm forced to wake up mid-sleep, that is... I mean, what sort of a time is 6:45 to wake up? Muzhichukara time-a adhu...? Endha kevalavadhi ipdi kalankaarthala ezhundhukara pazhakatha kandu pidichano... kai-la kedachan, samadhi dhan. And if I ever get hold of the chap who said that 8 hrs of sleep is enough for an average human being, I'll stone him to death. Seriously.

Okay, I'm not prone to such violent reactions all the time, think what you may, but when my alarm rings at an ungodly hour - 6:45 to me is a just little past midnight - my first reaction (after turning off the damn alarm) is indeed to strangle someone. Realising that it's not exactly possible, my reaction switches. I want to roll over to one side and sob. Yes, you read that right. S o b. Enna dhan office irundhalum, avanga month-end la decent-a pay pannalum, I'm forced to think - is all that effort equal to the sleep I lose every morning? Okay, I do make up for some of it during the weekends by refusing to open my eyes till it's well past 11 o' clock, at the minimum. Still, what's the point in sleeping all through the weekend - I'd have given anything under the sun to have been able to sleep this morning.

If it had been, say, Raam calling me at 9 or smth on a saturday morning, I would have had no hesitation whatsoever in saying 'Naan thoongittu iruken, phone-a vei'. And I'd be back to my slumber the next second. But there's no way around coming in to office, is there? Unless they let me WFH, of course. I'm seriously going to ask my manager as soon as he gets back from the US about this. You should see the kind of WFH mails these onsite chaps send - 'Gotta take mom to the dentist. Will work from home.' Neenga nadathunga pa... nadathunga… ellarum nalla irunga...

But then, coming to think of it, why does the entire world have to wake up at 7, be ready by 8 and rush to school/college/work by 9? I mean, why do we have to kill ourselves? Why can't we just set a decent, more comfortable pace for ourselves? Forget the normal mornings... there are times when we go on trips somewhere... supposedly vacations... and we're rudely awakened by someone, who informs us that if we aren't ready in half-an-hour, we'd miss the sunrise. 'Damn the sunrise. Naan sunset pathukaren, it'll be just as beautiful' nu sonna kekka mattangale... There was a time when I was up, ready, off and waiting at 4:30 AM.. Can you believe it? 4 :30 AM, for a sunrise? Okay, I concede it was one of the best I've ever seen (atop the Tiger hills at Darjeeling )... Hmm… seri, I'll actually go further and say it was THE best I've ever witnessed… irundhalum, naalrai mani... ippo nenacha kooda azhugaiya varudhu...

(deep breath) Trust me people, I'm not a professional cribber or anything. I know I'd give Huthas a run for his money at this rate.... but I usually hate to crib. But for a nightbird like me, and a certified sleep-lover, waking up at unholy hours is THE limit.

LOL...

2005-08-14T16:06:00.000+05:30

Writing about Chennai's heat, Praveen says
"Ramar mattum vanavaasathukku Chennai area-la engayavathu poi irundha, Bharatan seruppu kaettathukku adhalaye piyya piyya adichirupparu! Seruppu illama nadantha half boil dhaan!"

And about Captain's entry to politics, he says
"Kaveri prechanai-a theerka, Karnataka CM-a he will meet, will meet, meet. "

Hahaha... indha payyanoda kusumbu-ku alave illa!

More blogrolls... and blogs...

2005-08-13T16:00:00.000+05:30

Just blogrolled Praveen and Neha.... Praveen, cos I have been visiting his site for quite sometime and I find his blogs too damn funny... and Neha, cos she's one independent, assertive girl... It's truly a pleasure to see people like that, who don't mince words... Just read her very angry post... I understand exactly how you feel, girl!!

And the new blog I'm talking about is this. Well, I had originally intended to pen down some of my college memories here (and a little bit of school stuff too)... It's too fresh in my mind and too good to be forgotten... I'm sure no one from BIST 2K2 EEE (it has now become Bharath University) can help smiling when reminded of some of these incidents... Honestly, we had an amazing college life and it just had to be chronicled somewhere... So, well, I have begun to write it down. However, I might not be the only person to write these stories... Raam, Aarthi, Bhargavi and Ramya have all shown enthu and might join in sometime... So, for that reason, it's a new blog here.

Oh, btw, here's what you can expect there -
* I shall try not to 'damage' anyone's reputation... But then again, I decide the level of damage... (so, you don't have much of a choice, Raam) :D
* I shall frequently choose to have selective amnesia.
* I will try to write amusing, funny and in general memorable incidents. No serious stuff....

Just written the first post... Slight-a ennaye damage panra madhri irundhalum, it's ok nu ezhudhi iruken... :D

Appadi podu!!!

2005-08-10T17:59:00.000+05:30

'Avan seriyana poruki... seruppala adikanum' - One girl in my van said to another, this morning, the 'avan' in question being director S.J.Surya!!!!

I vehemently agree.

My favourite tamil lyrics

2005-08-07T14:22:00.000+05:30

I have finally begun jotting down the lyrics of my fav tamil songs. I don't listen to much of English, and I don't understand too much of Hindi. Tamil, being one language I can really appreciate, I will be posting lyrics of some of my fav tamil songs. And this is where you can find the lyrics. Of course, I'll be blogging on this page everytime there's an update.

I've added the lyrics for 'Thavamindri Kidaitha Varame' from 'Anbu'. This is an awesome song, with some really good lyrics. Hariharan and Sadhana Sargam have done such a great job on this one. I must have heard this a thousand times, but I saw the video for the first time on TV last sunday. And now, I wish I can get hold of the movie's director and give him a good kick, a real good kick.... on second thought, several kicks. I mean, how mad/bad can someone possibly get? Just look at these lyrics, I'll explain why I'm furious in a moment...

'vizhundhalum un kannil kanavaga naan vizhuven....
ezhundhalum un nenjil ninaivaga naan ezhuven....
madindhalum un moochin sootal madiven....
pirandhalum unaiye dhan meendum serven...
ini un moochai kadan vaangi naan vazhuven...'

and just look at this... 'kai korkum podhellam kai regai theyyatum'...

Hariharan and Sadhana Sargam apdi urugi urugi paadi irukanga... all the director had to do was to ask the lead pair to walk hand-in-hand or just look at each other or smth... instead, he's got them dancing... Can you imagine? Dancing, for heaven's sake!! Okay, they didn't exactly hop, skip and jump... but swaying away to glory in a shower-cum-God-knows-what clad in white, in the middle of a pathetic set is not exactly my idea of a perfect picturization for this song.... The music director and the singers probably cried their hearts out after seeing this video (if they were unfortunate enough to undergo the torture, that is). I can go on ranting about the horrible sets in the song and the worst picturization ever, but I'd better stop, and save my breath for better things.

Anyways, let that not deter you from listening to the song (which I'm sure you can find somewhere on the net), or having a look at the lyrics. Trust me, you'll love it.

Feedback time!!!

2005-08-05T23:37:00.000+05:30

Barely weeks into writing my blog, I've been receiving feedback, comments and advice from people.

Deepak's comment was the worst of the lot. He began -"hi M.... read ur B... its very N... but at T... it S..." huh.... and then, he went on to add cruelly (quite typical of him, I might add), "blog = not always..ur personal diary.. appo appo.. ulaguthukku therinja vishayam kooda eludhalaam". I think I should mention here (to all of you), that I wanna keep this blog light-hearted and I won't be writing much serious stuff in this - at least, not until it affects me in some way. (And let me also mention that this is not a news website or a public forum or a discussion board. Nor will this blog contain temperatures of the day or news tickers. And 'Ulaga vishayangal' will not be discussed here until I deem it necessary.)

Kris had some useful feedback for me. The first was the template. I was aware of the strain that the white on black was causing, but I was too fond of the template to change it. So, I promised myself I'd change it after the first person complains and well, Kris promptly did. And apart from the template, we discussed about RSS feed. I had no clue what RSS was, even though I had enabled it for my blog. Kris was patient enough to explain its relevance to my life. More importantly, he didn't react with a 'You mean you don't know what RSS is?', but simply went on to explain. Thanks for that, buddy!

Vijay had some good words of appreciation - "u have a good writing style, Madhu" and some general advice too - "write abt general stuff.. u will have fans". Thanks for that Vijay, but I honestly intend to just jot down whatever I feel. I'm not gonna deviate from what or how I wanna write, just to bring in people here!! :)

Sathish had some good words of appreciation too - "nee nijama romba nalla ezhudara... You can be proud about it.." (Gee!!! Mez the shy gal....) And he had some very important advice about the chair - "u know.. andha madiri problem vanduchina.. andha chair-a pakkathu chair kuda maathitu, gum'nu poyiduvoam.." [:D] I had to explain to him that I didn't have the heart to change it with my friends' chairs! (I must admit here that I greedily eyed one of the chairs in a Manager's cube, right next to my cubicle. 'C! Anga rendu chair irukku... visitors kaaga... yaarum illa cube la... naan ippo silent-a poi maatha koodadha?', I asked and he answered 'Koodadhu', much to my dismay.)

And, oh! Raam had the nicest things to say. We were chatting as he read my blog, and he mentioned that he was reading 'Swami and his friends' and went on abt the stories - "the english is great - with the perfect Tamizh Brahmin kadhai .. with a few thamizh words here and there etc. Unnoda blog padikarabodhu, you make it sound like that." (Aaaahhhh..... I'm floating.... Help me get my feet back on the ground, people!!!). Raam also had two other pieces of advice - "you know, for dialogues, you can still use thamizh - the exact sentence what a D,P,M says... but otherwise, you can set the tone / situation in english and I am sure you'll have a lot more fans like Vijay, me etc :) ". Hmmm.... The other thing was he wanted me to keep up the tempo and keep writing - "Don't lose the enthu after sometime, Madhu... Keep it up!". Will do, Raam :)

Thanks to everyone for all the comments!!!

Huh???

2005-08-04T18:02:00.000+05:30

'Algebra ivan dhegam... Amoeba-vai uru maarum..'

'You wanna salsa... take me to uppa'?????

I'm stopping with this... am not writing down any more of this crap on my blog!!

But honestly, what the dash is all this? (Ok, I can actually somehow accept amoeba... but what's with algebra and his dhegam...????)

Scramble for a highchair - Scene 2

2005-07-31T10:29:00.001+05:30

It's afternoon & no sign of another chair. Cha! No one seems bothered. I call up again, and I'm reassured that 'someone' would be sent soon. I continue working, keeping my hopes alive. As the day fades away, so do my hopes.

The next morning I walk in, hoping that the chair would have somehow been replaced overnite. Well, it was not. Thoroughly disgusted, I call up again & tell them it's the third time I'm calling for this. I'm told again that 'someone' would come. *sigh*

A short while later, I'm in the next cubicle clearing V's doubt when my phone rings. I pick it up from her seat.
'Madam, xxxx?'
'Yes?'
'Neenga chair -'
'Yeah!'
'- vendam nu call panneenga illaya?'
'WHAT?'
'Illa, chair seriya irukku, maatha vendam nu marubadiyum call -'
'NOOO!'
Ada paavingala! Is this their idea of a joke???
'Ennoda chair seri illai-nga...', I recite the story again.
'Oh, seri Madam'.
I hang up & narrate this story to C & J and they burst out laughing. Instantly. Ellam en neram!

A few minutes later, I'm in V's cubicle and someone arrives to take away my chair. I look at him suspiciously - irukara chair-ayum eduthuttu porare? As if on cue, C looks at me, grinning and shaking his head - 'Avlo dhan, pochu!'. 'C! Summa irunga!!!'

After a few more mins, the office boy returns with another chair. I ditch V and her doubt and run to my cubicle - well, if you can call it a run. I do the slow-motion, old movies la hero, heroine types of run. (Trust me ppl, I really did this.) The office boy darts glances at me, unable to comprehend why on earth anyone would run like that. I ignore his reaction and thank him for the chair. It seems to work fine. Yipee!!!

'Boohhoooo.... sob...sob...', I try to express my happiness. The office boy stands there just long enough to look at me very weirdly before moving away. C grins and J chuckles. Sniffing, I turn to my monitor and msg D -
'Yeeee!!! I finally got a proper chair!!! sob... sob...'
'Hehe.... loosu ponne... velaya paaru!!'
*sigh* She's right. I really need to get to work now - 76 hrs, you know.

Scramble for a highchair - Scene 1

2005-07-31T10:18:00.000+05:30

After a refreshing weekend, I return to office dreading the 76 hours that I need to bill this week. As usual, my vinayagar idols are displaced, the miniature plane on top of my monitor is upside down, my keyboard is at an angle and the dustbin is under the chair - proof that someone's been 'cleaning' my desk. Rearranging everything, I pull up my chair and sit down. Sensing that my chair is at a level lower than what I'd find comfortable, I reach for the lever and try to raise the chair. Nothing happens. I try again - and again. Nothing happens, whatsoever. The chair's at its lowest possible position. Exactly what went wrong with a chair that had a perfectly functional lever two days back beats me. Or maybe the chair got mixed up with another. It does happen at times. *sigh*

I turn to J and complain. He laughs. Apparently, he finds this very amusing. I ask him to try the chair and he does. No difference. *sigh*. 'Okay, J, vidunga'. We get to work - at least J does. I have to crane my neck and look up at the monitor - I could have as well been sitting in the front row of a cinema theatre. At least, the latter would not have been so boring. 'Karmam!', I mutter as C walks in to our cubicle. 'C! Ennoda chair-a parunga!!', I exclaim even before he can put his laptop down on the desk. 'Enna achu?' he asks, amused, as J chuckles. Ignoring J, I explain. C tries again and we give up. '2802-ku phone panni complain pannunga. Ask for another chair', he advises and turns to his laptop.

I dial the number and reach one of the office boys.
'Hello, naan xxxx-lerndhu call panren. Inga - '
'Hello? Hello?', pipes a voice. It's extremely noisy there. Why exactly, I cannot fathom. I raise my voice a little and repeat, ' Naan xxxx-lerndhu call panrenga. Ennoda chair -'
'Hello? Madam? Konja sathama pesunga, inga ore sathama irukku, edhuvum kekkala.'
'NAAN XXXX-LA IRUNDHU CALL PANRENGA. ENNODA CHAIR.....' blah... blah... blah...
'Oh, okay, Madam, yaarayavadhu anuparom.'
'THANKS!'

No sooner had I hung up, relieved at the thought of getting a proper chair -
'Ipdi dhan oorukke kekkara madhiri phone la kathuviya?', asks D, from the next cubicle, raising her eyebrows at me. Shaking her head, she puts on her headphones and turns to her monitor before I can answer.

Sighing, I get to work.

Of Thayir Saadhams and Geoffrey's - Scene 2

2005-07-30T21:42:00.000+05:30

Later in the day, as we go down for lunch, we continue our tirade. 'Un kalyanathuku vandhuttu unakku gift tharama, avaruku mattum gift tharuvom', P tells B and then adds, 'Avar mattum use panra madhri edhavadhu tharuvom'. My eyes meet P's for a fraction of a second and we both burst out laughing. 'You're perverted. Kevalam di nee', P accuses me. 'Ada naaye! Nee dhan modhala siricha... Unna pathu dhan ennake thonichu!!'. 'Illa, nee dhan modhalla -'. 'Of course not, nee -'. 'SHOO!' exclaims a loud, disgusted voice from behind, the source being B, who stalks out of the elevator. P and I continue bickering until we reach foodcourt, where we unite to bicker over 'traitors'.

It's evening and we're back in the pantry for a tea break. The conversation, of course, drifts to 'thayir saadhams'. And K points out, 'Dei P, unmaiyileye neeyum naanum dhan da thayir saadham!'. 'Naanum, naanum!' I pipe in. 'Hey..', it's D, 'actually, it's not exactly her fault, you know.' All heads jerk in her direction and we look at her, amazed. 'Illa pa,' she hastens to explain, 'ennaiku ava kovil ku poren nu sollitu Geoffrey's ponalo, annaike we should have known, iva thayir saadham illa nu,' finishes D. Aha! This does open a new line of thought.

(I'm reminded of the day long, long ago when D was telling B that she had called B's home and was told that B had gone to the temple. When D mentioned this in office the next day, B explained that she had, in reality, been to Geoffrey's. 'Geoffrey's-a?' asked a surprised P, at the mention of his frequent hang-out. 'Geoffrey's-a?', the rest of us chorused. 'Yeah, I went there with my xxxx'. 'Anga poittu nee enna panna?', asked P unable to control his laughter at the very thought. (I don't quite remember what she had replied - soda maybe? or juice or some such thing.) 'Adi paavi! Amma kitta kovil nu poi sollitu poniya?' asked D. 'Hehe... ama'. 'Adhu yen kovil? At least, friend veedu-navadhu solli irukalame...', I question her. 'Hehe... summa dhan... Veetla therinja naan sethen!!'.)

*sigh* You're right, D. Appove we guys should have realised that B was not to be classified as thayir saadham. Unmaiyana thayir saadham P, K and naan dhan. *sigh*

( Geoffrey's, by the way, is the name of a pub in Chennai.)

Of Thayir Saadhams and Geoffrey's - Scene 1

2005-07-30T21:16:00.000+05:30

After a 3-month sojourn abroad, D and I return to office. It was truly great to be back amongst my friends P, B, M and K. After the initial 'hi's and the distribution of the chocolates to my team, I take off for the pantry to discuss more stories over our cups of tea. D and B went in a few minutes before I did. No sooner did I enter the pantry and walk upto B & D, does B say smth to me. I didn't quite catch what she said. Apparently, B has smth important to tell me. 'B! Don't tell me you're getting married!', I exclaim. She grins (no blushing, of course - no one in my gang can blush very well.) 'Wow, B, eppo?'. D prompts me, 'Ask her who it is.' The implications of this statement strike me instantly. Someone I know? Someone in office? I gasp and turn to B. She laughs. 'Oh God! Who is it?', I just can't guess. B? Love?? Getting married to someone in office??? What's happening here?

B finally tells me who it is and I reel from the shock. I thot B hardly knew the guy. Apparently, I was wrong. I realise I'm konjam over-reacting and downplay it. And then, smth else strikes me. She said marriage.... which means - 'Veetla othukittangala???!!!!'. She nods. 'WOW', I exclaim. 'Cool, girl!!', I add just as P joins us.

Varum podhe, he closes his eyes with one hand and stretches out his other palm flat out - 'Where are my gifts? iPod enga? G-Shock enga??' he questions D and me. All of us laugh. 'Un gift seat la iruku, we'll give you, wait', D tells him. And then she adds, 'BTW, B wants to tell you smth.' All of us look at B as she tells P. He reacts a hundred times worse than I did. I then ask when things happened. She explains that he proposed to her on Feb 14th. 'WHAT? Adi paavi!! Naan kooda edho naanga oorla illadhapo neraya nadandhudhonu nenacha, ipdi solriye!', I exclaim as P asks, 'Ivlo naala sollama ippo yen B solra, with the wedding just a month away? Kalyanathuku apram medhuva solli irukalame... enna pa avasaram?'. K joins us. I look at K warily, not sure if he knows any of this. And then, B tells us that he indeed knows. And she tells K that her wedding date is fixed. Now, it's his turn to react surprised, 'Enna B, date fix panra avalvuku nadandhuducha?? Sollave illa?' he asks.

And for the next 20 mins, P, K and I jointly denounce people who hide things from friends. 'Ippo theriyudhu P, namma value enna nu', I say as P and K agree. 'Indha kaalathula yaara nambaradhune theriyala, Madhu', says P sadly, 'Idha thayir saadham nu nenachitu irundhen... Iva training time la ennelam solli irukka theriyuma, Madhu? 'Enga veetla idhellam suthama pidikadhu. Naan ellam apdi pannave matten... appa amma ku kashtam kuduka matten' nu dialogue ellam vittiruka, Madhu'. He gives B a dirty look and she immediately begins 'Illa, P, actually -'. 'Close!!!', exclaims P and she falls silent. 'Ama P, indha madhri case dhan ellathayum pannum, idhula vettiya dialogue vera. At least, dialogue vidama irundhirukalam', I say and K nods vigorously. P continues, 'Seri, panradha pannita, ithana naal namba kitta sollama marachu vechirukka paar... B, unna mannikave mudiyadhu'. 'Acho, illa P -', B tries to speak again and is instantly shoo-ed by all three of us. D meanwhile, watches us all with a great deal of apprehension. (I know for sure that she has smth up her sleeve too. But then, at least, she was never in the category of a 'Thayir Saadham'.) 'Iva lam enna vendikuva Madhu? 'Enna mattum nalla vei' na?', asks P and I respond, 'Ama. 'Enna mattum nalla vei... And naan nalla irukaradhu yaarukum theriyavum koodadhu' nu'.... We go on....

A for Arya??? Naaah! A for Anil!!!!

2005-07-27T21:39:00.000+05:30

'Arya? Who's Arya?' I ask V.
'Arya theriyadha? Arya theriyadha ungaluku?,' V sounds very surprised.
D and I exchange looks. It's obvious to me D doesn't know Arya either.
'Illa, theriyadhu', D tells V.
'Arindhum Ariyamalum hero... super-a irupan...' V explains as a sheepish grin crosses her face. 'Epdi Arya theriyadhu ungaluku?'
'Yei... adhan THERIYADHU-ngrom la', I say.... Cha! Oru moonu maasam oor-la illana ennena miss panna vendi iruku... Innum ennelam miss panni irukomo, I think, as I ask V again... 'Yen, avan avlo nalla irupana?'
'Amam, Madhu, super-a irupan... Oh, I think I might have a photo... in some forward... irunga', she says and turns to her PC.
Interested, D and I move closer to her monitor to get a better view. After a few moments, V locates the mail and opens it...
Hmmmm.... I think... 'Okay va dhan irukan... ana...'
D looks at the monitor thoughtfully, she's still judging him, I can see.
'Enna Madhu 'ana', nalla illaya?' V questions me, with a little indignation. She glances at his picture again and adds, 'super-a irukkan... neenga enna ipdi solliteenga...'
'Illa pa, he's okay, but you know...' I sigh. 'Therila, enakku avlo super-a irukara madhri theriyala... Maybe ellarayum Kumble-voda compare panradhu nala, enakku andha madhri thonudho ennavo... hmmm...' I trail off.
D comes out from her reverie just in time to say 'Thoo! Karmam!!'
I grin and escape from their cubicle.

[Seri, all right, here's the truth - none of the above actually happened, though it very possibly could have. And I reserve my comments about Arya. For all I know, my mind might change at a later point of time!!! ;) ]

The shortest and (happiest) love story

2005-07-27T08:00:00.000+05:30

This is one of the best forwards I have ever received.

He asked "Will you marry me?"
She replied "No".
They lived happily ever after.

When you come to think of it, there's a lot of sense to these three short sentences. Wouldn't life have been much simpler and happier if women had stayed on Venus and men on Mars?

Reaching God

2005-07-24T13:44:00.000+05:30

This is from Paulo Coelho's note in his book 'By the River Piedra I sat down and wept' :

"..we must never forget that spiritual experience is above all a practical experience of love. And with love there are no rules. Some may try to control their emotions and develop strategies for their behavior; others may turn to reading books of advice from "experts" on relationships - but this is all folly. The heart decides, and what it decides is all that matters.

All of us have had this experience. At some point, we have each said through our tears, "I'm suffering for a love that's not worth it." We suffer because we feel we are giving more than we receive. We suffer because our love is going unrecognized. We suffer because we are unable to impose our own rules.

But ultimately there is no good reason for our suffering, for in every love lies the seed of growth. The more we love, the closer we come to spiritual experience. Those who are truly enlightened, those whose souls are illuminated by love, have been able to overcome all of the inhibitions and preconceptions of their era. They have been able to sing, to laugh, and to pray out loud; they have danced and shared what Saint Paul called "the madness of saintliness." They have been joyful - because those who love conquer the world and have no fear of loss. True love is an act of total surrender.

...Thomas Merton once said that the spiritual life is essentially to love. One doesn't love in order to do what is good or to help or to protect someone. If we act that way, we are perceiving the other as a simple object, and we are seeing ourselves as wise and generous persons. This has nothing to do with love. To love is to be in communion with the other and to discover in that other the spark of God."

I don't think there is anything more I can add.

All in a day's work...

2005-07-23T18:18:00.000+05:30

'M, what would you like in your guy?' a chat window pops up, when I'm working hard to decipher the code in my black-n-green screen. It's A. 'Huh?' is my response.

'No, I wanna know if you would like your guy to wear clothes of one particular colour', A tries to explain. To me, it sounds like A's recently been hit on the head with a brick. I'm truly mystified. 'A, what's up? What exactly is it that you want to know?' I try once more.

He then sends me a forward in an attempt to explain - it's a forward I have received several times before. (It's the questionnaire from a guy to a girl asking 'Why do you stop talking and look at me everytime I enter the classroom?', 'Why did you stop singing the other day, when I looked at you?' and other such foolish questions with equally foolish options. The forward also has the reply from the girl rebuffing the guy, with obvious answers to every one of his questions. Apparently, at some point, some guy decided that the rebuff was too much to endure, and modified the genders, making it appear as if it was originally from a girl to a guy.) One of the questions in the original forward was 'I mentioned casually that I like the colour blue. The next day you wore a blue salwar. Why? Options (a) You wore it because it's my favourite colour. (b) You wore it to please me... and other such lousy 'options'. This had been altered to the girl mentioning that she liked blue and the guy wearing a blue shirt the next day, in the forward that A received.

*sigh* Poor A, the fool that he is, found this a little bewildering and wanted to know if girls indeed prefer guys wearing shirts of specific colours. (Trust me A, as long as a guy is fully clothed, I wouldn't mind anything, I want to answer.) 'No, A, we really don't have any such preferences. Now that you mention it, we don't even notice the clothes that guys wear', I venture to explain. A is startled. 'You mean girls don't care at all about all that?'. 'Of course we don't, A. We have better things on the planet to discuss about'. 'Oh....', A trails off. After a few seconds' silence, he ventures again. 'Appo pasanga dhan loosu madhri ponnunga pinnadi alayarangala?' he asks. Sadly, A, yes, I say. With another 'Oh....', he relapses into what I assume is a thoughtful silence. I leave him to ponder over what was apparently a relevation to him and resume my war with the black-n-green screen.