Oh Joy! Another meeting

My company loves acronyms. Absolutely adores them, so much so, that even the most mundane of things are shortened to some acronym or other.

So we had this meeting for the full team of 50 or so folks to discuss PMT on PSN for GDC, which will incorporate PQA, and can be found in PMSS and PTD.By the second acronym I was already in ozone.

The room was nicely darkened and I went in eagerly with the idea of finding a good place right at the back of the conference room and rest my poor eyes.

Since I have always been lucky in such things, all the seats were already taken and it was SRO (hehehe sorry! force of habit.. Standing Room only.. ). So my friends and I perched our small behinds in the little place available on the computer desks to listen to the lady drone.And who comes to stand right next to me , but my boss' boss. Darn! cannot even comfortably whisper and snicker. sigh!

Since time flies when you are having fun, the clock was ticking ever so slowly and my legs were starting to ache, thanks to my awkward perching, and I was squirming all over. A faint smell of sweaty socks was wafting in the closed room, just to make us feel even better.

At last the presentation wound to an end and I jumped off the desk in great relief... when aaargh!!! there were people in the room who had actually been listening to the BS going on and they had questions to ask.. hmph!

Anyways after a clear understanding Einsteins theory of relativity (you know, the one about sitting on a hot stove for a minute, feeling like an hour), I am back at my seat, still feeling dazed and sleepy and cursing fate, for I have another meeting to attend later in the evening.
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Obituary: Chivalry and Manners

It’s with great regret that I am writing about the death of manners and chivalry.

Just yesterday, travelling in the public bus, I saw men rushing towards any empty seats, lest any of the women standing might sit in it. But what shocked me was when this guy in his 30s pushed this fragile looking old lady to take an empty seat. She almost fell and he did not even give her a second look… He had got a place to sit and that’s all mattered.
What pushed me right over though was when I got up to give my seat to this hugely pregnant woman, carrying a toddler, and this hale and hearty woman walks in and coolly sits in my seat and refuses to get up. Some people really ought to be tarred in honey and tied to an ant hole.

Most of the mails I get officially lack a “Please” or “Thank you”. Even when it is asking me if I could help out someone and do some work, it comes with a “Can you do….”
I hold the door open for someone coming behind me and they just breeze by me. Hello! Do I look like the automatic door opener here?
One person was actually surprised when I said I would not do the work he wants me to , if he does not send a proper mail to me. He feels that I am being too sensitive. Hmph!
While such people grate on me like a nail scraped on glass, every one else seems fine with it?
Do you also get irritated with such manner less folks? How do you handle it?
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Random Thoughts

=> I told my friend this morning that it was great to be misunderstood as long as the misunderstander has only good things to say about you. My friend gawked at me and asked what I had had for breakfast.. hehe
But seriously, some one told me today that I would make a good mother, since it was really all about love. Now! I dont know if I would be or not but hey it was a really sweet thing to say. What say?!

=> Why do we get angry when we get frightened? Or is that just me?

=> I dont want to go back to school, but I miss my school friends. I am still in touch with most of them, but somewhere down the line they have become intimate acquaintances from best friends. I am still puzzling out how that came to be.

=> My parents make a lot of sense and I seem to be agreeing with them on most issues nowadays.. Oh my God! I must be growing old!!!

=> Speaking of parents, it just stuck me that I wouldn't like to have a kid just like me. My mom has the patience of Job. Hehe

=> Have been reading about all these world travellers and I am SOOO Jealous. I wanna go too. There is this guy who has travelled to 40 countries and I have been to 4 :-(
Thats it! I am going to quit my job and become a World Traveller. Next on Agenda.. Egypt!!! Anyone out there wants to sponsor me? I will send you photos of the sphinx. :-)

=> Why is it OK to say one can do a bit of work, even if they cannot and do not. But Not OK to say its not possible to finish it by the time line given, at the outset. Have you come across such a situation? I have and it always confuses me. It does not show one's reluctance to work, just the lack of resources to complete it. Y'all get it, right?

=> Will I be ostracized if I say I have never seen "The Sound of Music". Heard the songs, seen some posters but never seen the movie. hmm! thats next on Agenda.

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Rant

=>Is there anything worser than sitting at office when u have truckload of new
books sitting at home beckoning slyly at you. if there is I sure dont know. So here I am sitting at office, not able to concentrate on my work and not able to read the books either.. Wahhhh!!!


=> Heard of Transport Jinxes? For some reason yesterday, all my means of transport got jinxed. Wanted to take the metro bus for a change and got into one after 15 minutes of wait. The bus was soooo crowded that I got stomped, groped, screamed at, even had a guy doing some heavy breathing down my neck (ohhhhh! yuck!!!!) and the bus was crawling so slowly, that it took 40 minutes to reach two stops away (my office being 15 or so stops from home). Disgusted, I got down the bus and got into an Auto (for an atrocious amount) which broke down after going some 2/3rd of the distance. My luck was holding good and I could not get any other means of transportation from that place. So had to walk half a mile to the nearest railway station to get a share auto to office. What takes me generally 20 minutes took 1.45 hours and I literally had to drag myself up to my office to flop tiredly. (I shan't even start on how I came back home .. *phew*)


=> Its bad enough being underutilized. but it really gets my goat, when these folks talk intelligibly (read stupidly) on stuff they have no idea about and expect us to take their word as gospel.


=> Well! whaddya know, I seem to have got a following at office. I wouldn't mind it so much if these guys were single too.. hmph!!!!

3 idiots

I am not a movie buff, I can take or leave it and most of the times I leave it. Hence I had this mild curiousity towards 3 idiots. It had Aamir and was getting all these rave reviews and Chetan Bhagat was upset because his mom cried when he did not get enough credits for the movie and that made "the people" upset. (I actually know one of these upset people too :-O).

So anyways when my team were planning to go to this movie, I snapped up the opportunity to see it.
And I was mildly...hmm! dissatisfied?!

If you are the kind of person who goes to a movie with expectations of depth in the story then this is not the movie for you.

It was 3 hours of laughter riot (with lots of jokes taken from internet and mail forwards) but no real depth.

I don't know how many of you saw the movie Santhosh Subramaniam. In this movie Genelia was supposed to be this really cutesy bubbly naive innocent blah blah character and she ended up acting like a slightly mentally challenged person.

In some scenes in 3 idiots I felt Aamir was doing a Genelia from SS. His wide eyed, over bright expressions were mildly annoying. And oh yeah! whatever Glycerine was left out after Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Ghum was used up in this movie.

I have this aversion to Kareena Kapoor, especially since I had the misfortune to see Kambaqt Ishq, but she had surprisingly done a decent job here.

Anyways if you want to ditch all your worries and laugh and have fun for 3 hours , then be sure to check out 3 idiots.

PS: The last movie I saw was "Achamundu Achamundu", a movie on child abuse taken by an NRI, which was surprisingly tastefully told and got its point across very well. I came back with the satisfaction of having seen a good movie and more ....wanting to do something to change the situation. Wanted to write a separate post on this movie, but somehow never got around to doing it.

Humanity.. where can we buy it?

Its pathetic how inhuman we humans have become. A dying man does not get help, but everyone around him takes great glee in taking photos and video of his suffering until he dies.
Two recent bits of news has disturbed me greatly.

One of the Sub Inspector who was brutally murdered in front of 2 ministers and their entourage which consisted of many of the dying man's own brethren and not a soul to help. The ministers even refused to come near the wounded. There was a great big crowd of people, one guy taking photos of the man bleeding and crying pitiably for help and moaning in pain and not one person felt the need to help. There was another taking a video of the whole thing, which is now being put up as breaking news in all the new channels to pour oil in the political in fighting.
It was only when the Collector came to the site that he called for an ambulance, by which time the police man had died. The ministers find nothing wrong in not helping and the government has promised to pay 7 lakhs and a job to the dead man's family. So the case is closed and everyone is happy. Especially the news channels for some days as they can use this to increase their TRP.

Then there was this other case that happened couple of months back in AIMS Delhi. Our puppet Prime Minister was visiting the hospital for God Knows what, when a man in critical condition was being rushed in. The PM's security refused to let the man in (because despite his critical condition, what if he got up and shot the puppet) and he died just a stone's throw away from help. The PMO dutifully sent across a press release that they were sorry for the man's demise, with which they washed their hands off any responsibility and the man is ofcourse just another road kill.

I dont understand how people are going to "save the environment" when they cannot be bothered to save their own brethren and be absolutely callous about it too... :-(

Swing

I am not sure what there is about a swing, that brings out the kid in every person who comes across it.

I dusted out the old swing, that my grand pa used to swing on, from the loft and had it hung in the hall. Since then it has become the central point of interest to all our guests and visitors.

Its cute to see my friends' eyes light up when they see it hanging out there. They dont wanna sit on a chair or sofa. Its almost a compulsion to sit on the swing and give it a couple of mighty pushes.

I was really amused when my dads friend, a sexagenarian if not older, got so excited seeing it. Owing to some leg problem, he even had trouble walking, but he absolutely had to sit on the swing and reminiscence on his childhood and his father who had a similar swing for sleeping.

A swing is almost always a representation of care free times and sweet memories. Swinging in parks, with one person standing and the other sitting. Swinging so high that you feel you can almost touch the sky and the downward swing brings ur stomach rushing up into your throat and you want to stop, until the next swing upwards. The dizziness after a good time swinging.

But the children of today somehow do not seem too excited about swings and other simple pleasures of lives. Poor things, dont know what they are missing

PS: Hey waddya know .. I complete 150 Posts with this one :-).

2 states

I had been hearing so many raving reviews about the latest book by Chetan Bhagat, that I just had to read it. I had read his first two books with some difficulty, but found the third one was beyond me. After I read this book, though my eyes were opened in many ways.
First, I guess I am too mature to read books like this. It felt like some of these gossipy, schmaltzy stories you get to read in women's magazine. (I am glad to say, most of my friends felt this way too)
I had thought apartheid was over and done with. I didnt realise it was still prevalent in the north indian mindset. I hadn't realised being fair was such a great honour and they thought south indians were blackies.. (i guess, thats like saying all north indians are dumb show offs)
The worst part was the judgemental snobish writing that sneers at the Tamil people's interest. Why should tamils enjoy the same way that Punjabis do? where does it say that you have to be totally out there and scream your enjoyment, your love and every emotion. It seems childish to rate one culture with another culture as yardstick or write about something one has no idea of. For God's sake, since when has a love for knowledge become a bad thing?
If kissing in the middle of a crowded shop is the contemperory fun thing to do, I am not sure we will find many such people in Chennai and thank you god for that.

I have an unfortunate habit of finishing any book I start, which I did with this one too and felt disgusted with myself for having wasted my time on it. (and I am now wasting a few more minutes ranting about it.. coz someone triggered me about that book again.)

My Grandma's Tales....

(Happy New Year 2010!!!! :-) )

It was a hot summer night. The night was heavy with the humidity and smell of ripe mangoes and the grandchildren had come down to visit her. They were a joy and she had been looking forward to this time all through the year. But no one could disagree that her four little joys were also four little tail-less monkeys. They had run her ragged throughout the day and had still not wound down. She could hear them screaming and running and it was dinner time, something she was surely not looking forward to.

Looking out the kitchen balcony she could see the beautiful moon rising out from behind the palm trees when it stuck her.

Armed with mixed rice in a vessel, she called down to her monkeys to come up to the terrace for dinner and she would tell them stories that she had had heard from her mother and they could make it a picnic under a beautiful moon...

http://mygrandmatales.blogspot.com/

(The above URL takes you to my new blog, which contains stories mostly from mythology and folklore that I had heard from my Grandma. An erudite lady who has the knack of making her stories so very interesting that she could hold even us terrors, bent on mischief, spellbound. I have always felt sad that people even of my age (leave alone the next gen) do not really know these lovely old stories and hence decided to do something about it and so here goes... )

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas has always been a favourite time of mine. Though we don't celebrate christmas, it represents the start of the half yearly holidays in school, new dresses, friends to hang out with and basically whole days of fun. And more recently it still represents holidays , games at office (Here I have to expand a bit more and say that my mercenary heart was overflowing when we played chrisma chrischild at office (something I had always deplored as childish until this year) and I got gifts from my chris pa, chris child and my neighbour .. hehehe) and an excuse to shop (not that I need one) and a New Year to look forward to.

Its also the Tamil month of Marghazhi, which means getting up early to see the mist over everything and listening/ singing to thiruppavai and thiruvempavai songs (30 songs, one for each day of the month, praising Perumal and Sivan respectively) every morning. Every lady in the neighbourhood vying to create the most beautiful kolam and rangoli (and to draw them as early as possible so as to take up as much space in front of the gate, which would result in constraining the speace for the next house kolam) .

Its a time of beauty, with colourful lights and decorations all lit up in the evening sky, making even the most dreary place cheerful and something to look forward to and little oil lamps around the houses in the morning to welcome the day in. Winter being my favourite season, adds all the more cheer to a great time.

Today being the christmas eve, is also the Annual Kids day in office and there are screams, laughter and pattering feet in the otherwise very quiet atmosphere. Parents bursting with pride as they show off their children. Santa with his entourage of elves and children dancing down the aisle giving away candy and wishing everyone. And a gala function at the end with loads of prizes and fun galore to cap an otherwise eventful day.

And even more miraculous, my Scrooge McDuck of a Lead, actually smiled at me and said he understood my problem when I told him I would not be able to deliver my work on time.

And so while I goggle some more at the miracles happening around me.. Here is Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New year!!!! :-)

PS: That top foto was taken by me in Singapore coupla years back. Whole roads were decorated beautifully by lights. such as this one wishing 'Merry Christmas'. (Well! I just had to get that one out.. hehehe)

Bovine Angst

When I used to go to college, the OMR used to be THE Bovine Hangout. Middle of the road, pavement, sitting, standing, calves, bulls, cows, buffalos, you name it and we will have a variety there. Travelling down that road used to be a crazy experience. We could never be sure when a playful calf would end his life under the college bus tires.

Then at last an injunction was passed and all four legged creatures other than pets were banned within the city. Which means most of the bovines were moved out of the city.

Having given you the history, it annoyed me when I saw the strip in Tintin in Tibet, about the huge traffic jam in an Indian road, caused coz no one wanted to shoo the sacred cow which was blocking the traffic. But it really pissed me off when I saw something quite similar in Delhi – 6 movie. (Not that the movie was anything to write home about, but still it was taken by an Indian, for God’s sake!)

With that out! Every morning on the way to office, on this really busy road, I see a cow standing right at the center of the road. Everyday for about an hour, it calmly stands amidst the heavy traffic flowing around it, and no one bothers to shoo it.
I have often wondered why that is so.

Then I came to conclusion that most of these people are like me… Not blindly superstitious, just Lazy! :-)

Hey! We Indians are a superstitious lot, and we love our superstitions (Good, bad or ugly). But I do wish, people would not stick their explanations to our way of life.

Zoozoo

From its inception, the Zoozoo ads of Vodofone has captured everyone's notice and held on to their interest.
Personally, I adore them
For more folks like me .. this video, I found in youtube, might be of interest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efRNKkmWdc0

Enjoy! :-)

Bond.. James Bond!!!

Almost over 3 years after its release I saw Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royale yesterday and was very glad that I had not wasted 10 dollars to watch it in the theatres when it released.

Dear God! Have you seen the movie Pokkiri in Tamil or Telugu or Wanted in Hindi. Unwanted killing and violence and "goonda gardhi" through out the movie with no respite. That is how I felt when I saw Casino Royale and to an even greater extent "Quantum of Solace".

Daniel Craig (much against popular opinion amongst my friends) totally turns me off. The man has absolutely no panache, charm, verve or style to carry the character. He walks around stone faced, fighting, shooting, stabing, and blowing up people and property. He looks and acts more a thug than a double O agent.

And to boot, James Bond, the casanova extrodinaire, has a love interest and even attempts to quits his job to be with her... whoever has heard of a love-lorn, sleep deprived, drunk and sentimental James Bond?
As Scrooge would say "Bah! Humbug!"

Sean Connery! Now thats a Bond we can relate to and Pierce Brosnan too to an extent, but please not this guy.

PS: Though this post is about Craig, I would rather have Connery's foto in it than Craig :-)

The Female Of The Species

When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail,
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When Nag, the wayside cobra, hears the careless foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can,
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail -
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws -
‘Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale -
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Man’s timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say,
For the Woman that God gave him isn’t his to give away;
But when hunter meets with husband, each confirms the others tale -
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Man, a bear in most relations, worm and savage otherwise,
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise;
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.

Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the wicked low,
To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.
Mirth obscene diverts his anger; Doubt and Pity oft perplex
Him in dealing with an issue – to the scandal of the Sex!

But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same,
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.

She who faces Death by torture for each life beneath her breast
May not deal in doubt or pity – must not swerve for fact or jest.
These be purely male diversions – not in these her honor dwells -
She, the Other Law we live by, is that Law and nothing else!

She can bring no more to living than the powers that make her great
As the Mother of the Infant and the Mistress of the Mate;
And when Babe and Man are lacking and she strides unclaimed to claim
Her right as femme (and baron), her equipment is the same.

She is wedded to convictions – in default of grosser ties;
Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him, who denies!
He will meet no cool discussion, but the instant, white-hot wild
Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.

Unprovoked and awful charges – even so the she-bear fights;
Speech that drips, corrodes and poisons – even so the cobra bites;
Scientific vivisection of one nerve till it is raw,
And the victim writhes with anguish – like the Jesuit with the squaw!

So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
To some God of abstract justice – which no woman understands.

And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
Must command but may not govern; shall enthrall but not enslave him.
And She knows, because She warns him and Her instincts never fail,
That the female of Her species is more deadly than the male!

-Rudyard Kipling

Tid bits

=> Obama gets his nobel peace price errr... Prize. Why? I don't know. What did he do to help world peace or even US peace? I mean, other than a temperory seizure to bombing other countries? I Don't know.Now! what I would like to know is, what is the qualification to get a nobel prize? Money? power? Popularity or the lack of it? Coz I dont see the deserving getting it anyways.
(In case you people are interested this is what Nobel committee has to say about it http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/laureates/laureates-2009/announce-2009/ )

=> TN's grand old man to retire from Politics in June 2010... hehehe
Hmm! guess he wants his children to have a chance at looting the state too (what a nice father!). What ever his future plans I sure wish he would stop travelling around the city during the peak hours. Got caught in traffic for more than 45 minutes today morning coz he was going somewhere... Grrrr!

=> Saw a hoarding outside a shop today, reading "Buy 1 shoe and get 1 free" . Not sure if it is good marketing strategy or bad english, but I definitely plan to investigate.

=> I had quiche (remember my fascination with exotic food). It was very unhealthy and obviously very tasty :-) .. I am still not able to pronounce it right.

=> Andhra all set to break up into pieces! Setting a precedence, as next Karaikal starts demanding. Reminds you of the pre-british time when all the kings were busy in-fighting paving way for the british to sneak in? Wonder who is going to sneak in now or maybe we can outright sell India to someone... say italy???

Indian Adventure

"That looks fun!"
This was the phrase I kept hearing again and again last week. Why? My clients from abroad had come down for a week long visit.Lucky gal that I am :-P ! I got to take them shopping and site seeing (which consisted of the kapaleeswarar temple and a sweet shop next door)
Everything looked fun for them.

One person had come down to Mumbai some 10 years back and had got some silk pajamas and kurtha then. He wanted me to get him just the same thing now... wellll!!! When browsing around the shops he asked me why the men here wear these big clunky shoes, that they generally wear back home during peak winter when temperature was down to -40, when this was a sandal wearing weather. (I couldn't really answer, except its the price we pay for fashion...:-D)

The two things that quitefascinated them was the tuk tuk (auto rickshaw) and the traffic.
They really really wanted to go on a drive in the tuk tuk but weren't ready for such a big
adventure. So what they did do was take photos of themselves sitting in the auto.They just could not understand how so many vehicles could drive around, following absolutely no
rules whatsoever and still not have an accident at every road corner.

Took them to spencer plaza for shopping and all chennaites know that it is a place to go only
for window shopping or if money is no limit. But hey! thats the one place where they could get
all they were looking for, at one shot.

( I didn't even know there was something called a pashmina shawl until I went along with them..
But I believe its something very famous and exotically indian.)

When I took one of the gentleman gold shopping he was quite awed to see a little todler
dripping gold from her hands, ears and neck and even wearing anklets. They all got churidhar
kurtha for their wives and daughters and these big danglers and stuff we would generally not buy ourselves as they are very traditional :-)

Since we were running short of time, I gave them a short overview of the hindu trinities and
stuff on the way to the temple (and the driver of our cab said I was better than a guide *preen* ..hehehe).

They hated having to leave their footwear outside the temple, they were even willing to bring it in their handbags rather than leave it out :-) . The jasmine strands , the holy ash, the aarthi, and more importantly the beautiful statues and buildings quite impressed them.

Thankfully the time was up and I could end my speel before the end of my repertoire .

I got a whole new perspective of India through the eyes of these foreigners. Not all good, definitely not all bad, but very dear! :-)

Its Party Time!!!

Had planned for a surprise birthday party for my brother and I guess we were more surprised when he refused to come home in time for us to surprise him.

Had a full day of meetings at office, which is a tiring piece of work by itself. Then went home ... rushed my brother out with his friends and then fell to decorating the room.

The guy who was supposed to collect my bro's friends and bring the cake was not coming in.. other guests had started trickling in. When suddenly my brother turned up home.. aargh!Had to do quite a bit of juggling act to get him out again

Then once everyone was in and we were all set to surprise him.. well! he surprised us. He was having too much fun somewhere else and he did not want to come home .. We were left scratching our heads wondering how to make him come home. hehehe

But Alls well that ends well. We did convince him to come home and he was thankfully surprised (or atleast acted surprised). But the one take-home I got from this - I am never going to plan a party .. ever...

Groan!!! Next day morning and I am still shambling around with an aching body.. Vive la Moms! I sure dont know how they manage to do everything and still end up looking so spritely.

But Hey! I am happy.. My bro did have a great time. :-)

The First step

Despite great dreams of becoming an astronaut when I was 10 and read Tintin's "Explorers in the moon", a deep abiding fascination towards egypt leading to a career in egyptology and archeology, Reading Perry Mason and wanting to be a Attorney, my life was already charted.

Starting from my 10th class whenever I was given a choice, I knew what I wanted and just went ahead. I wanted to learn science and CSC (biology was never an option since I cant stand dissection). Then my UG, despite much disappointment to my Dad for it not being a professional course, I went my way. and so on...Somehow it was all very clear, where I was going and how I was going to reach it.

Now! settled in a career of my choice and with great growth opportunities, I want to try something new .. something moreMaybe start my own business, Move to a totally different sector, become a rocket scientist (quit,stay at home and quietly go mad)...anything

But How? what? when? Its not easy answering these questions and even more is the fear of unknown. The fear to put that first step forward.

Do I dare shake my contented life by adding a whole new dimension to it? Do I dare not to? Is it enough to continue the way I am? hmmm...

Back, Back , Back...

Not sure for how long, but for what it is worth, I am back again.. again. :-)

Have even been thinking of events in my everyday life in terms of posts in my blog, but somehow it never materialised.

But thanks to the insistence of two good friends Rush and Hazel, I decided to ditch the excuses and actually write. Not sure what.. but something.

Anyways to catch u up on whats happening with my life..

I have atlast quit the last company where I was so miserable and moved on to a new place to be slightly less miserable ..
This new place is a foreign based company and one of the largest in the world and I came here with high expectations only to find chaos and confusion and lotsa headless chickens running around (and me one among those).

Surprisingly I have also found a great new fount of patience with in myself or maybe its just me growing more mature (not old just mature.. mind it )
On the flip side, lots of new friends and loads of new experiences. Travelling by public transport again ... (hmm not sure if that is good or bad, but its a definite experience)

In fact most of my new friends are new or expectant mothers and I have been hearing, really more than I want, about mothering and child care... everyday. Trust me! its enough to frighten a girl outta her wits :-)

What can I say.. its a whole new world out there

Tempest in a Tea Cup

The Continental Airlines frisked the esteemed ex-president and great Indian scientist Dr. Abdul Kalam and he blew it off as part of their job, and the whole news died a swift death (though I was honestly flabbergaster and enraged by the incident). The horrible thing was that it took place in the Indian soil and the great man was undettered.

Shah Rukh Khan goes to US and when he is detained for a measly 2 hours and questioned, he creates such a hullobullo that even the Civil Aviation minister Praful patel had to threaten with the wrath of God.

Now SRK has been going around making grand statements about never setting his foot on the US Soil again (until the next time he has to visit there, ofcourse) And he has actually given some kind of press statement about wanting to frisk Angelina Jolie, who is expected to come to India in the near future, to show how traumatic the whole process was for him .. DUH UH!!!!


Come on gimme a break.. can anyone in the press not see the difference between true maturity and greatness and the spoilt tantrum of a popularity hungering actor?


PS: Really, I think this is SRK's excuse of putting into words his fantasies about Angelina Jolie, rather than any actual revenge against anyone.. What say? *smirk*

Harassment at work

Are you being harassed at work? Do you even realize that you might be a victim of such harassment?

Let me ask you a few questions then…

=> Do you feel uneasy coming to office and meeting with your peers and boss?
=> Do you hate going out anywhere, even to a lunch, with them?
=> Do you feel like you have been trapped with no means out every time you come to work?
=> Do your peers or boss, make sexual based jokes and comment on women/ men’s physical attributes in mixed company, making you feel uncomfortable?
=> Do they tease you “with” other men/ women, at your work place, to the extent that you are not comfortable talking to that person even on official business, making your work life and efficiency suffer?
=> Do they use unparliamentary words that leave you feeling disgusted?
=> Do you have to worry about your clothes as you will be getting off colour comments on them?
=> Do they find nothing wrong with their behavior despite your telling them you are not amused by it?
=> Have you or your associates been penalized for complaining about this behavior?

These are just a paltry set of questions, but if your answer is YES to any/all of the above questions then you are being harassed at work place. And its time to take some action!
It is unethical, unprofessional and definitely illegal.

Why am I suddenly talking about this topic? I read this great book called “ Emotional Intelligence to Survive and Prosper – Coping with Toxic Managers, Subordinates… and other difficult people” By Roy H. Lubit, M.D., Ph.D.

Its only as I read this book that I realized some of the things I was feeling was not just unique to me, but an universal problem. Ironically, I didn’t even realize what I was facing until I read the book, thinking that I was just me who is feeling miserable.

Do you know that upto 50% women and 10-20% men are harassed at their work place.

Please put a stop to this. Its your right!

My foray into violence

Hmm!!! Can I call it a foray... not sure, but this is the first time I came eyeball to eyeball with violence.

I have written about how much violence disgusts, pains, shocks blah blah blah before. But for the first time it frightened me and I was not even directly involved.

I never realized how much the TV and News papers distances the happenings around the world until yesterday.

I was leaving for home in a metro bus listening to Jagjit Singh, when I realized some disturbance behind me. I was too immersed in my own thoughts to even turn and see.

The stage came and the TC got in to check our tickets when there was a shout and the sounds of a person getting hit. There was this guy being hit and kicked by three other guys. And the hitee was actually inciting them to hit him some more. Then the four guys got back into the bus and the hitee started loudly demanding that the bus be turned towards the nearest police station. When the conductor did not heed, he went straight to the driver and started pulling him off his seat.

Now another concerned traveler got into this foray and started pulling the hitee away. When he refused to listen, the traveler too started hitting the man.

By now my eyes started burning and I realized that I was watching the whole thing without blinking. So I blink, only to find that the hitee had pulled out a knife and was brandishing it in front of the traveler, threatening to stick it into him.
My God! Do things like this actually happen in real life???

The hitee was boasting that he had been to jail twice before for knifing someone and did not have any problems going once more and screaming at the traveler for hitting him.
And in another blink, the traveler had pulled the knife from the hitee and thrown the man out of the running bus. The hitee calmly got up, brushed himself and went away.

I was staring at the whole thing wide eyed, open mouthed and scared witless.

Trust me when I say, violence in real life is much more horrific and unrealistic than when seen through the TV. *phew*

Idyllic weekend

Think of this….

A Saturday evening, you have pop corn and juice and pillows all set up. Its raining outside and you can smell the wet earth (mmm!). You have nothing in your mind except that its Sunday the next day and no work. The lights in your room are dim and the system is showing movies …

1. Pride and prejudice (How many ever times I read and see the movie, I adore Darcy.. clichéd but so what ?
:-)… I even had my copy of the pride and prejudice and was checking out my favorite quotes)
2. Emma (Another Jane Austen. Not quite my favorite but still a fine one)
3. Ever After – A Cinderella story
4. You’ve got mail (God knows how many times I have seen this movie.. love Meg Ryan in this)
5. Kate and Leopold (Hugh Jackman. Need I say more..sighhhh!!!)
6. The Wedding Date (The hero tells the heroine and I quote " I would rather fight with you than make love with anyone else"... wowow!)

… dreaming a bit, smiling a bit and loafing a bit. :-)

And lets not forget the books rented from the library ….

Oh Yeah! Idyllic indeed… and this is exactly what I did last saturday :-) ...

Priorities Priorites!!!!

My mobile phone service is prepaid and in November I had to recharge it. The service provider told me not to recharge for a large amount as December was just around the bend and there would be some great offers for Christmas and new year.

hmm!!! sounded sensible and so I agreed and went my way.

December came rolling and Christmas came , no new offers... New Year came.. no new offers.. Pongal came .. no New offers

I was getting desperate and recharged my mobile anyway.

Then February came whistling along and my mobile literally burst with messages about all those great offers that were promised...

Yep!!! Valentine's day was on the brink and there would be loads of people wanting to talk to their sweethearts....

What were two bit holidays like Christmas, New Year or Pongal when compared to Valentine's day...

Sigh!!! As I said Priorities Priorities!!!! J J

Confused and sad

As I sit at work, I look down a precipice, towards which two people, with whom I am in no way connected, have pushed me.

Like vultures waiting for the wounded to die and pecking at them to hasten the process, there were so many taking great glee in the situation.

From a valued worker being wooed by so many, I am suddenly tainted (Hmph!!!) - who cares that I had nothing to do with it.There are so many in my boat, but I am not sure if this is a blessing or a curse, as all of us are being pushed along the wild ride and none of us have the rudder. Every day brings new surprises and not sure who to turn to or trust.

Will I have to jump? Can I make it safely to the other side? Do I have a parachute that will save me otherwise?

And just to make me feel even more comfortable are the curious who want to know what will happen to me? The ones with concern, I understand , but its the ones with glee or pity in their voice that irritate.
I am furious, but not sure against whom?

Then I look around, there are breadwinners with their whole families dependent on them, some of them with big loans or awaiting their marriage. hmm!!! Guess I am better placed after all.

Friends advice me to not worry, after all I have no control over what is happening. Does that not add to the over all confusion? Are they really so cool? Are their paths clear, where mine is confused? Or are they just asking me not to say all the things they fear, for it makes it even more real?

But life revolves around hope and that is what we are all clutching at.

So here I am looking down the precipice and telling myself "This too shall pass".

India - Abroad

Slumdog Millionaire has won accolades and awards everywhere. I was delighted for the whole team, especially Rahman and Pookutty. It’s a rags-to-riches story, which has portrayed poverty quite dramatically.

While poverty is a facet of every nation, I am saddened that most movies taken about India, by foreigners, deal only with its poverty.

It made me wonder whether people outside ever get a chance to realize that there are so many things other than snake charmers and beggars (of which there, really, are not that many) in India. Its rich culture and languages, varied art forms, great architecture and its wide variety of people to name a few.

Until today, when I got a chance to converse with some Brazilian colleagues …
Do you have any idea how many non-Indians enjoy Indian music, especially the Hindustani and Semi-classical styles?
I am told, in Brazil, India is a trend now. One of their more popular soaps is based on India(ns).( Nice isn’t it?!)
A colleague from Brazil and I were discussing accents, when he said, despite UK having colonized India for so many years, you all have still maintained your individuality and have your own accent. (Hey! So true! Why have I never thought about it along those lines??)

Meanwhile I am learning a little of Portuguese, so I shall bid you adieu at this point and say até mais (see you later)... hehehe

Preamble

I have always been quite proud of our constitution. In fact I knew the preamble by heart for the very sentiments it professes. The preamble says

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBYADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.

Below are some examples of our adherance to the Constitution.

1. Valentine's day and activists have been going around with a mangal sutra and rakhi to catch up couples and force them into marriage or to tie rakhi. News paper reports say that even a brother-sister walking down the road were not spared. Pub culture is banned because a few people feel it is against the culture. People are assaulted and the government is not willing to do anything other than throw blame on each other. (Nobody had even heard of Muthalik and his Ram sena before this incident and the man was thoroughly enjoying his time of fame, even if it meant getting arrested. I have never seen a happier, more smiling face on a man being arrested)

2. A stonemason's wife delivered a healthy baby five days back. They had scrimped and scraped and saved money so that they could go to a private hospital in the futile hope of better service. Yesterday the three day old baby was taken in for a vaccination and returned dead to the parents. He is a broken man today and has no means to get justice, he is after all poor, while the doctors are rich and life must go on. (Reminds me of George Orwell's Animal Farm "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal")

3. while Tamil people in Tamil nadu are suffering, this is one government that only cares about tamils out of India, right now the ones in SriLanka. Whether the Srilankan tamils really want their help or not, they are forced with more help than they can handle.

sigh! Despite all this, I cannot think of one other country in the world I would rather be in.

Ghajini

I hate writing reviews of movies or books... especially as I am no good at them. But I just could not resist myself after seeing the Hindi Ghajini.

Not sure how many of you saw the Tamil Version of the movie. Surya and Asin were great and they seemed to gel so well and their screen ( much as I hate to use the word) chemistry was just awesome.
The songs by Harris Jayaraj were and are so wildly popular and extremely catchy. Oru Malai and Sutrum Vizhi still topping my personal favourite list.

Aamir being another favourite.. I was eagerly looking forward to his Ghajini. Saw it today and was pretty disappointed. :-( ...

Aamir and Asin both Rocked... unfortunately they rocked separately. Though they were on the same screen, it felt like they were not even talking to each other.
The songs .. An Aamir movie with Music direction by A R Rahman... Sheeesshh!!!!

I hear its a big box office hit... good for them!.. but still an over all thumbs down... :-(

Beauty and Brains

I wonder why the beauty and brains become mutually exclusive when the gals n guys enter a beauty paegent. Some people like Sushmita sen, do give me some hope (note I am not including Aish here), but invariably the brains seem to leak out of their ears.

The latest example for this was an interview in one of the famous news channels with the Miss. India-Universe (whose name I can really not be bothered to remember).
The lady was loaded with shopping bags and standing in front of a shopping mall all set to start her christmas shopping.
When the reporter seeing her all set, asked her what she wanted from Santa this christmas. Pat came the reply from the Miss Universe-hopeful "I am not at all materialistic. If Santa were to give me something, I would want ... (no prizes for guessing) World peace"
Well! Duh uh! I was not sure if I should gag or snicker.
I did snicker though when the reporter came back with a "Since we can't buy world peace at the mall.. why don't u just tell us what you plan to buy"

Honestly!! These gals must be taught to say something original or atleast different whenever a mike is stuck in front of their face.... World peace is postively going stale ... *smirk*

Siege!

India's two top metropolis both under siege, one by terrorists and the other by nature. Chennai (actually the whole of TN state) is drowning in water, while Mumbai in bullets, bombs and blood as death toll rises in both places

Mumbai: While the city was under siege with 100s of lives lost and an even greater number injured, two things were reassuring. The absolute courage, dedication and sheer grit shown by the Indian armed forces, from the firemen, police, army , navy upto the NSG and MarCos and the extemely responsible media coverage spanning the whole terror strike (I would have to specially mention Arnab Goswami and his team at Times Now for a job well done).
The Nariman house tragedy saw a two year old israeli boy orphaned on his birthday, while he was saved by his nanny. A man who came to the VT station to put his family of 6 into the train, went out to get them water and came back to see them all dead. The newspaper is full of horror stories of the survivors and the dead. The terrorists causing this carnage are said to be all in their early twenties. (I don't understand why I am surprised everytime, by the human ability to destroy brutally and ruthlessly)
The one thing that irritated me and the nation to the core was the political game playing that was played by the bureaucrats. One idiot politician actually came to the Nariman House while the terror situation was still on, and contributed his part in/by hampering the situation by collecting a crowd and attracting media attention to himself. Should this person be locked and key thrown away or should his sheer dedication to grab every bit of limelight be applauded, I am not sure. Our PM for once seems to have acted decisively and maybe for the first time in my memory all the political parties showed an united front.
But I hope against hope that this would not turn in to the usual 9 day wonder and be forgotten once all the juice has been squeezed out of the situation (which is what happens whenever our politicians are involved).
I really believe, India needs a strong national anti terrorist policy, especially as it has always been under terrorists' attacks from the time of its independence and not the wishy-washy excuses given so far to pacify us. Will the last two days awaken the urge to do it? Time should tell. Even as I write, 3 of the 4 places taken over by the terrorists have been brought under the NSG control and the war is still going on at the Taj Mahal hotel and I hope to wake up to the news that everything is under control and Mumbai is back.

Chennai: Nisha, the cyclone terrorizing Tamilnadu, is not yet ready to leave her hold on the city. After just four days of her creating havoc and mayhem, the city is almost at a stand still (it has to be, since even my company declared a holiday today :-)) and news sources say that we have enough water to last us for more than a year without another season. The water levels at lakes and dams have reached perilious levels and had to be drained by 1000s of square feet, bringing in more water to the already drowning low lying areas. Death toll has been on the increase as dams got breached and lakes flooded and people have lost their homes and are waiting on the streets for shelter and food promised to them.
The whole thing sunk in to me, especially yesterday, when my office let off early and I was coming home with a colleague in his car. I live in a relatively high area and we were about a mile from my place when I was commenting to my colleague that if the rain continues, we will need a boat and not a car to travel, when I felt something cold and wet on my foot, I turned to see, that the road was totally under water and it was lapping near the edge of the car window and slowly seeping in to the car. We were nearing a signal and praying frantically that it would be green (which it was... thank God!) or the car would have stalled and we would have had to leave it there and walk. If this is the condition of higher areas, I shudder to think of what is happening in the lower lying areas, especially with no electricity for almost a day and hardly any let up in the rain.

While it makes me sad that I am am not really equipped to help out in either situation much, what I can do is pray for the Victims and their families and hope we never have to face such a situation ever again

Rain

The sound of rain never fails to bring a smile on my face. Just as the thought of walking out on it never fails to put a frown.

When I am walking down the road, with the dirty rain water flowing at some places and stagnant at some.. never sure if I am going to step into an open drainage or ditch and break my leg, Wet. cold and miserable, the only thought running in my head is "Who ever said walking in the rain was romantic must be hit upside of their head and made to walk down this road".

But today when reminiscing ... one of my favourite memories is of my friend and me caught in a warm summer rain while standing in the cold water in the beach.

Now as I am all cozied up in my room, snuggled under a quilt and reading books or writing, listening to the soft patter of rain and loud growls of thunder all around me... sigh!! I can smile, for it truly is a wonderful feeling and I am content.

PS: For those who have not had a chance yet, the beach just before a storm is one of most beautiful places to be. You can actually see the two great forces of nature fight for dominance

This corner of the world!

It all started as friction between two factions of students in the Ambedkar Law college over wording in a hand notice and blew up into a major riot situation.
The pre- informed police and college management stood mutely by and watched while three of the college kids were brutally beaten up.

The whole thing was covered by the media and the violence shown by the instigators were shocking and the callousness of the police and to an extent the media, breath taking.I have been trying to imagine - what kind of mentality would it take to catch a running man and hit him with a thick stick, so mercilessly and brutally, throw stones at his head and still live with themselves... all over a piece of hand notice!

Even bombing can be understood, 'coz the cowards are nowhere near the place of impact. But to actually be there and inflict the kind of horrendous injuries on a fellow human being... to see the person break and bleed and still stomp and throw stones and sticks .. and dare to show their faces on the national TV with absolutely no fear of repurcussion (Divine or otherwise)... God!!!!

There was this boy... badly hit, bleeding and trying to get up and failing and the cameras were all around him trying to capture his pathetic condition until it was thoroughly utilized for ratings, before sending for help.
Another beaten student was dragged by two constables and dropped into a waiting share auto which did not even have a driver.

And while all this was happening, the government was busily collecting money to save the Tamils in the neighbouring country, as everything is milk and roses in our own. While the opposition was busy trying to glean as much support for itself and gain points against...

The capacity of the human species to cause so much pain, havoc and destruction and flick it off like so much dust, incessantly continues to surprise and nauseate me.

Sometimes I really feel sick and ashamed of my own and how sad is that? :-(

PS: My aunt says this kind of violence has its basis on movies. I don't really agree.. How about you?

Michael Crichton - A tribute

Michael Crichton, bestselling Author of many novels, such as "The Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain" passed away in Los Angeles on Wednesday. He was 66 and suffering from Cancer.
Today’s newspaper screamed this news, shocking and saddening me.

I am a fan of Crichton and consider him to be one of the best writers of his genre.

The best part about his books was the way he explained complex scientific phenomena in such layman terms, so that everyone could understand and still not make it sound patronizing. We would not require going back and forth to the Appendices or post-notes to check them either.

Though he has not churned out innumerous books, like many other authors, Crichton's style of writing and the depth of research shine out of each of his books, making it a best seller.

While his Jurassic Park, The Lost World and Prey remain my personal Favorites, I found every one of his books equally gripping and a compulsive page turner .

Salute to a great Author, whose loss will surely be felt.

Sherlock Holmes

One of my favourite characters has always been Sherlock Holmes. His style, his powers of observation, his sense of humour all strikes a chord with me.

So well, I have always wanted to look at a friend and observe casually that she got up at 6.00 AM, ate dosa for breakfast and travelled half the distance to work by the metro and rest by share-auto, which she shared with 5 other people, all by looking at her ...say finger nails... a la Holmes
Today, I decided I would try and note my observations on anything that catches my fancy and when there is something to note, can a post here be far behind?
So here goes....

=> People dont take kindly to be gawked at by "Observers" ... :-p

=> Wished I had a camera when I saw this Macho looking guy, wearing a mean-looking Helmet, Denim jacket and boots, driving a scooty :-)

=> Obama Won... glad it happened to an ethnic .... but will it help India?

=> I was digging through my bookshelves and was sooo delighted by my collection. So many old friends forgotten and waiting for me to rediscover them.

=> Street Hawkers have a pretty interesting and colourful collection of great and unbelievable stuff available at such bargain.

=> Along the same line, there are no greater creative thinkers and sales people than those available in the big shops, such as Globus. I saw a bracelet made out of 100 or 150 safety pins and a piece of elastic, costing 200 bucks. (That's what?... like 10 times profit?)

=> There is a fat rat living in the crack on the platform near my bus stop... (I do mean the four legged variety)

=> Its pathetic the level drinks make a person drop to. Was most astounded and disgusted by a drunk's antics on the road today.

Life sure is interesting when one takes a few minutes time to slow down and look around.

I am tagged!

After a looong hiatus, I am back again to blogging and I have to start with an Apology to my friend RS. (Sorry dear! I have not read or written blogs in over a month and Thanks for tagging me, I think :-) )

Alrite so RS has tagged me and I am supposed to : "Jot down 5 of your favorite quotes from the various books you’ve read. If you don’t have the books with you now, googling (Wikiquote and the like) can be used to find them. Tag five people and acknowledge the person who tagged you.”
So here goes

1. All animals are equal but some animals are more equal
- Animal Farm - George Orwell

2. Well I give it two weeks and it just don't work. She makes me get up the same time every morning. She makes me wash. I gotta wear them fancy clothes that just smothers me. I can't smoke, I cant chaw. I gotta wear shoes all Sunday. I gotta ask to go swimmin, I gotta ask to go fishin'. Well I'll be damned if I don't have to ask to do everything. I tell ya, I had to sneak up to the attic and cuss for ten minutes just to get the taste back in my mouth
- Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

3. Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves."
-Ian Malcolm - Seventh Iteration "Destroying the World" - Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton

4. Discovery is always a rape of the natural world. Always.
- Dr. Ian Malcolm - Jurassic Park

5. If you keep quite and mind yer own bisiness, you might live until you die
- Sudden - Oliver strange

Now I have to tag some other people ... aah! that's more difficult than I thought.. So am tagging only two who i think may enjoy this exercise

Tamanna
Archana

.

Flu -- Hmph!!

There is something very diabolic about getting the flu. Everyone suddenly notices you and you are pampered to death and you can't even enjoy it, coz you are busy feeling miserable.


You go to the doctor hoping for a quick check up and a prescription and end up with having to take a helluva lot of tests, which always includes blood test or something similar that requires piercing or cutting your skin.


Armed with the test results you go back to the Doc, with a hopeful look on ur face and tell him please no injections.. he grins at u ( the devil!!!) and says its best if you have a course of 15-20 injections of some medicine or other... and it has to be intravenal... in other words.. most painful...

And this is one time when parents and relatives all ditch you to your miserable fate ..

Well! Yeah! the doc has asked me to take injections for 15 days and I hate injections... Waaahhhh

Nostalgia :-)

Someone asked me "If you could go back time and change some event, what would be it?"
My answer then (and now) is that I would not change anything for I have always been a staunch believer in Butterfly effect, even before I knew the term.

But I would love to have a chance to turn back the clock and go back to some of the times of life's joys

A time where the only responsibility was to get up in time to reach college/school.

A time when all our friends were just around us and going to a movie or just hanging out meant turning your head to call out to them or at most call them over the phone. You never had to worry about your appointments or theirs.

Cutting classes, snickering about lecturers, playing pranks, teasing the "pairs", fighting with friends... feeling miserable and them making up, spending hours over the phone talking god knows what.

I remember a time when six of us, got together at a friend's place for group study and the next thing we knew...we ended up in the VGP Golden beach. It rained cats and dogs and we ate everything on sight and went on every ride and got sick. What Fun!

Another time when almost 15 of us went to see "Bend it like Beckham", bought wrong tickets at the theatre and went to see a Hindi movie (i don't remember anything about the movie except it was totally lousy) and none of my friends understood Hindi..

And there was the time when 10 of us and some of us meeting that day for the first time, went on a bus tour in the US. The bus was filled with Chinese, except us and another Indian family of three. I doubt the tour company will ever take Indians on another tour again.. hehehehe

Walking to the beach everyday with a friend, where we used to play in the waves and make up stories of all the people out there.
Sigh! where has the time flown away. When did we all grow up and away from each other. Different priorities and responsibilities.

Sometimes I wish....
my boss would let me dream in peace.. OK folks time to go back to work.

Ghost in the empty house

I move around restlessly in my sleep and suddenly jerk up awake... sweating and totally disoriented.
Tick tock tick tock... the only sound in the dark empty house.... I stare at the place where there should be a clock trying to remember where I am. Its either 12.15 or 3 in the morning...my eyes are too blurry... my heart starts pounding as I realize I am alone in the house after having bravely accepted to house sit.

Crrrrkkkkkkkk Crrkkkkkkkkkk ... the fan slowly starts rotating again as the current comes back up... when I suddenly sense a movement from the corner of my eyes...
I turn my head slowly towards the veranda,.. and there it is... it has a mop of dark shoulder length hair , pale body and is watching me with its head tilted to one side and floating some 2 feet from the ground....

I grab my pillow petrified... Just when a Whineeeeee loud enough to wake the dead (pun unintended, of course) ... by now I am shaking from head to toe and stumbling up to put on the light, all ready to run screaming out of the apartment.
As I fumble with the door latch, the light comes on and I turn my frightened eyes towards the veranda and stare in disbelief at my ghost.....


Sigh!!! A white plastic overturned bucket was sitting on a dark platform, on top of which there was a small pot, tilting crazily and a mop was placed next to it, so that the stick was hidden and the mop was hanging over the pot. The mop must have moved from the breeze....the Whineeee BTW was a police car going on its rounds.

As for me... my knees wouldn't hold me after I finished scaring myself half to death. So I sat shaking right by the door for sometime, before going around the house once, to check there were really no one (hey! better safe than sorry) and then spent the rest of the night cursing myself for seeing horror movies late in the night.

Needless to say next day I was safely cozied up in my room at my house :-)... *Phew*

Boys will be Boys

If you are a guy, you are probably nodding your head in agreement with the title. Well!!! dont
Having been lucky (touch wood and all that) most of my life, I have hardly had to fight my way through road side romeos and other leches at work or school... until recently.
Suddenly a whole group of flirts seemed to have sprung up around me and I was most irritated. I did not find it funny and they did not care how I felt about it.
While this was shocking by and of itself, what really made me mad was when I was cribbing about this to some of my friends of the male variety, they blitheley brushed it away saying that it happens everywhere and I should not take it personally... after all boys would be boys...

Hello!!! while I did not expect them to stand in front of me with a sword and armour... this is hardly the kind of response I was expecting and not take it personally? It is something very personal and not the kind of behaviour to be condoned at all, especially so matter of factly.

For all these boys and their approvers - GROW UP. We dont find you amusing... just pathetic.

PS: Tut tut! I do seem to be doing a lot of lambasting the last few posts.. hmm!!!! gotta change that

Back to college

Had gone to a college to meet a prof. Was waiting for him in the teachers’ lounge in his department and there were other lecturers and profs hanging out in their leisure time.
I wouldn't have been surprised if some of the ladies were probably only my age.

Anyways there I was sitting twiddling my thumbs and thinking about my college days and grinning at the students' antics outside...when suddenly one of the ladies came to me and said "excuse me ..."

For a moment I forgot I was not a student anymore and the long forgotten college etiquette, of standing up when a teacher talks to you, blasted into me and I shot up from my seat...
The poor lady had just wanted me to pass a book to her, but my getting up so startled her that she dropped the things she was holding.

Anyways it ended up with both of us apologizing and me going my sheepish way.

Funny what lurks in the bottom of your subconscious to spring up and embarrass when you least expect it.

Rediscovering books!!!

For as long as I can remember books have been my most loyal and staunch friends. I could lose myself in so many different worlds with so many different people, sometimes even at the expense of whatever work I needed to do. (I've been known to bunk school/ college or work just so I could finish a book :-))
Some of my happiest memories include cutting classes in college to sneak into the library, sometimes just so I could smell that lovely perfume of old books. Hiding a book between my class notes and reading it while my lecturers droned on.
It used to amuse my friends and parents that I loved the smell of books and I do, it ranks right up there with newly soaked earth...mmmmm
But I digress....
The last few years I have hardly been into any libraries or book stores. I had discovered the eBooks and it was so much more easy to just read it off my computer as I am on it most of the time.
Last week, thanks to a friend, I had been to a book store after God Knows how many years... oh!!! what an experience. I had not realised how much I missed it until then. Though I was tempted to buy every book out there, I controlled myself to just three.
Reading them now was like falling in love all over again.

On the flip side, one of the books I got was a self help/ philosophical kinda book and reading it reminded me why I generally run from them ;-). Can't remember the last time I fell asleep so fast.

PS: Tamanna, I did like the Kavitha Dasavani you suggested I buy.... Thanks :-)

Rambling in to the night!

Its 00.35 AM and my work requires me to be here for another hour or so.
I am sooo sleepy I can't think straight.

I think I have been staring at my monitor for the last 15 minutes and not been able to make any sense of what’s on it.
I have a deadline for tomorrow.. but hey wats a deadline when u r half dead...

Two people are fighting over the mails and I am following it with some interest until everything smoothens out and everyone is friends again *sighhh* :-(

They have cut all access to the Net and I am sure I totally enraged by it....ummm!!!! yeah I am... totally ...

OK! I got this great idea suddenly to see if I can post a blog from my mail id.
I am punchy as hell… so will stop right here before …zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!

PS: Next day: hehehehe reading back, it sounds just like I was drunk and rambling... thought for a minute I should remove the post... but then Naahhh!!!

Losing Independence ?

Last sunday's "The Hindu"-> Open Page featured an article about Women Losing independence after marriage. It struck a nerve as I was discussing about something quite similar just a few days back.

The example the author had quoted was this. Her well educated and well employed colleague was engaged to a guy abroad and when she wanted to go out with some friends for a party, she called him for permission and he refused. The girl did not go.I bet the thought in most of your minds is "So what?"... right?Do you think if the guy had been in the girl's place, he would have even thought of getting her permission?

We were sitting at the canteen eating lunch and in the course of our discussion my friend casually commented, how his sister hated cooking but after marriage she has no say but to cook. Everybody noddded their head like it was something common (and sadly it is)

I know this lady who got a great job offer in India and her husband got one abroad. There was no question of her taking up her offer, instead she quit her job to follow her husband. Sounds Familiar???

A girl married off even before completing her studies and in the family way, Pronto!, despite her wishes. Why? "Its God's wish, what can we do?" (I had to bite my tongue to not say anything for that excuse)

After waiting the longest time, this friend of mine got a chance to go abroad. She was quite excited about it and she did leave too. Hardly four months later she was forced to come back ... her husband was not sent by his company and he was not ready to go on a dependent Visa.

In so many interviews with Kiran Bedi, they ask her how her family and husband have adjusted to her work and if they approve of it. Have you ever had the same questions asked of a male policeman?

I can go on quoting more examples...

Yes! I do know of a few cases (a very few instances) where the guy has adjusted to the girl's requirement. But in these cases the men are so feted for being so understanding (and don't mistake me, I am real glad to know and see such men do exist), while when the same is done by the girl it is taken for granted.

While there is a lot of talk about equality and modern thoughts, traditions and out dated values still bind us very tightly, stopping us from making much progress . :-(

Numbed to Violence?

Two weeks back in "We the people" in NDTV, the debate was "Have Indians become numbed and indifferent to Violence?"
The answer is a Big Fat YES. Everyday and I do mean every single day there is news of one or other death, maiming, massacre, suicide, murder and mayhem in the news.

A 14 year old girl and her 45 year domestic help are brutally murdered and the media, police and everyone involved are having a gala. Every bit of blood and gore is shown, multiple times a day... just in case someone misses it. The father of the child is suspected and all kinds of vulgar innuendoes are flying around.

Brother kills brother, parents kill children and vice versa, father abuses a 4 year old daughter and the court gives the guardianship of the child to the same father. Police brutality is a by word. Women cannot walk down a road and expect to reach their destination safely. Bomb blasts by terrorists and then bomb blasts for saving the people from terrorists... (like we had in Afghanistan). Irnoically enough in both the bomb blasts its only the innocent people who suffer. Hundreds dying due to drinking poisoned alcohol.

And the reaction from the masses varies from lurid, obscene interest to a total indifference.

And where humans stop killing, nature takes over.
78000 people were killed in Myanmar, thanks to Cyclone Nargis. 65000 people killed in China due to an earthquake. And this is just yesterday's news.

I guess the phrase "Familiarity breeds contempt" holds true here too.

Stereotypes

Girls gossip, girls love cooking and cleaning. Girls cry.
Guys just grunt for communication and don't even know what gossipping is all about, a Macho guy does not cook and definitely not clean. Guys dont cry.
Well! Hello! The ice age is over and its the 21st century. Grow Up!!!Maybe in the Ice age, the men hunted while the women kept the house.But now men and women work at offices and the old ways are no more.
I am sure there are girls who like to gossip... Just as much as guys do. Dont u dare deny it! for I see it every day around me.

During a tea break, my colleagues of the male variety, were cribbing about how women are not "domestically trained" anymore (Sounds like maybe a puppy???) and dont show any interest in cooking and cleaning. I obviously could not stand this kind of a statement so I casually mentioned that I dont like to cook. You could have heard a pin drop. Then a colleague with a most baffled look on his face turned to me and said "But you are a girl!!!!". Well Gee!!! thanks... I did notice that. But where does it say I have to like cooking?

I will vouch that some of the best food I have eaten were made by men and as for keeping a neat place. Well! anyone who is interested in living in a house rather than a pig sty would be neat. Why should that be gender oriented?
Girls cry and guys dont. I totally agree and my full sympathy to you guys. Its a great way to vent emotions and its closed to you just cause it will not be macho... well boohooo...
I really do get pissed with women who use their tears to get their way though...

People! look around you! It is one thing to do something because we enjoy it, but is it not unfair that tradition, peer pressure or stereotyping forces a person to do what they dont like or prevent from doing what they like?

Beautiful day!!!

Got up smiling... was sure it was going to be a beautiful day. Didn;t realise how prophetic I could be, especially as my office starts in the middle of the day.

Stepped out of home in to the cool weather. Walked to the bus stop, and the bus was late... of course.
Did I forget to mention that the weather in chennai is hovering at a low 110 with a humidity factor, thanks to a depression in the Bay of Bengal, of infinity. And the weather guys dare forecast rain.

By the time bus lumbered down to where we were standing I was ready to bite the driver's head off... but contented myself with a glare and sat down... *OOOWWWW* the seats were #$%$% hot. The open window was blowing in a gentle breeze... I swear I could feel the gentleness when my skin was being peeled layer by layer.

Just in case we did not realise that it was summer... There was a huge machine spewing out HOT air to welcome us right at the entrance to the office.

Came in ready to tear someone's head off... hmph! everyone here is sitting with a scowl and the same idea in their minds... In the name of cost cutting... the office had reduced the AC...
Aaargh!!!

PS: Anyone enjoying cool weather, snow etc... Pls don't tell me about it or I shall not be held responsible for my actions .. boohoo

Languages, Accents and Places

A colleague of mine and I were discussing about accents and how the places affect it. I was cribbing that I was not able to get an american accent during my tenure there and he was cribbing that even the americans at his place were now speaking in Indian Accent :-)

Which of course started me on this journey...

In my last company, the helpdesk recorded message was changed to a man's voice that gave us the different options in a Spanish accent. What an accent!!! I used to dial in sometimes, just to hear it. Music!! Of course I would probably have suffered if I had not already known what the different options were, for it was very difficult to understand him. Nevertheless...Music!


Antonio Benderas for example, I like the Italian accented English too but not French ... Kevin Kline in French Kiss, Hugh Grant and Rupert Everett's clipped British accent (hmm though I think I like the actors better than their accents :-p) ... I will ofcourse hold back further comments on the very great hope that I might actually visit these places and research... all in the name of furthering my knowledge, you understand!

I love to hear urdu mixed hindi too.. the kind you can hear in movies like Jodhaa Akbar and other old Muslim related ones. The way they caress some words and clip others, sounds so ... posh?!
The first time I went to Cochin. I was staring at everyone wondering if they were really talking or singing... but now with time and exposure I seem to have lost the music in that language... :-(

Speaking as a perfect novice who does not understand a word of the language, the first time I heard Konkani was at a function. This old gentleman was "scolding" my friend for a long time and I was wondering how she could smile at him all through it. It was later I was told that he was actually blessing her in Konkani :-)

Oye theenk oye weel finis ze post heere ;-)

Power of Mom

God Knows I have faced many situations in life and not been nervous but I have no armour against the "Power of Mom".

I don't remember my mom ever scolding me, even when I used to get caught after doing some mischief, nevertheless her glance and the thought I might have disappointed her was enough to make me squirm. (not that it stopped me, when it was time for the next mischief)

Its funny how even now, as soon as my mom calls me by my full name and says she wants to talk to me, I start quailing.

I rapidly go through the last few days trying to find any mistake I may have done, what could mom have found ???? and start getting nervous :-p

Ofcourse most times she just wants to talk to me about something innocuous.
Guess this is one piece of my childhood that is never going to vanish.

Asianet's Idea star singer 2007 - :-(

A really big but expected disappointment for all the viewers of Asianet channel's Idea star singer reality show when the results for its mega finals was announced.

I have always wondered why a marked partiality was shown to the one mediocre singer who won the show when many really great singers were pushed out during the eliminations under one guise or another.
I am still not sure what could have initiated the three masters in the music industry to consistently give high marks to a most undeserving candidate, despite people's disgust. Because sure as hell, it was not his singing capabilities.

There was even a furor sometime back in Kerala about this one guy being consistently shown up by the judges and rumours going around that the judges have already decided that he would be winning the 40 Lakhs worth of flats, which was the prize for the first place . The three permanent judges, naturally, vehemently denied any such claims.

This was a person who should not even have come as far as the semi finals and now he seems to have won the show... all due to extreme partiality from the judges. While the best singer came up at the 4 position, the third and second position were taken up by extremely good singers... its just the first place that grates on my, and every viewer I know's, nerves. After patiently having followed it for one whole year.. I really dont think we and ofcourse the contestants, deserve to see this end.

The one good news I hear is that while most of the talented singers have been booked by music directors, no one seems to have booked this guy to sing in their movies. Sounds catty , sure, but it is good to be vindicated.

The 2008 star singer starts from April 28. Here's hoping this one is not going to be as much of a disappointment as 2007. :-(
PS: Its almost 1 AM and I am still so pissed that I cant sleep... grrrrr

मैं शायर तो नहीं...

अर्ज़ किया है ...
आपकी मुस्कुराहट ने हमे बेहोश कर दिया
आपकी मुस्कुराहट ने हमे बेहोश कर दिया
हम होश में आने ही वाले थे
की अपने फ़िर से मुस्कुरा दिया
====
कोई पत्थर से न मारो मेरे दीवाने को
बंदूक और बम का ज़माना है
उड़ा दो साले को :-)
====
वक्त गुज़रता रहा, पर साँसे थमी सी थी
मुस्कुरा रहे थे हम, पर आंखों में नमी सी थी
साथ हमारे ये जहाँ था सारा, पर न जाने क्यों
तुम्हारी कमी सी थी
====
तुम्हारी इस अदा का क्या जवाब दूँ ,
अपने दोस्त को क्या उपहार दूँ ,
कोई अच्छा सा फूल होता तो,
माली से ले आते
जो ख़ुद गुलाब हो उसको क्या गुलाब दे !
====
तुम बनके दोस्त एसे आए ज़िंदगी में
के हम ये ज़माना भूल गए
तुम्हे याद न आए हमारी कभी, और हम!
हम तो तुम्हे भूलना ही भूल गए
====
ज़िंदगी में हमेशा नए लोग आएंगे
कहीं पे ज़्यादा तो कहीं पे कम मिलेंगे
एतबार ज़रा सोच के करना
मुमकिन नहीं हर जगह तुम्हे
हम मिलेंगे :-)

My Ramblings

=> Just when you think you know everything, someone comes along to hit you upside your head and show stuff that you didn't know. Quite a humbling experience :-p
=> Read Aamir Khan's blogs, it was a bit too much like reading his diary, but he writes well and sounds pretty down to earth. (http://www.aamirkhan.com/) I know it should be none of my business, but he sure lost his shine after his divorce :-( )

=> Am waiting for the Hindi version of Ghajini... Aamir promises a different end to it. I found the tamil ending quite stoopid.

=> Dontcha just hate it when miracles are expected of you and they dont teach u any magic. *Phew* Talk about pressure.

=> A long lost friend from school popped up in messenger. Here I was feeling whinny about all the pressures in my life and there she was cheerful about her life, which consisted of having to stop studies to marry and move to a strange, war stricken country and raise two kids, while trying to convince a husband to atleast let her get a part time job. Sure put things in the right perspective for me.

=> History lesson or a 4 hour bore, I still loved Jodhaa Akbar *phew got to see it atlast. Maybe because of Birbal stories but Akbar has been one of my favourite characters from History. But Hrithik gave a whole new face to him. My favourite scene was where he tells Jodhaa that he never learnt to read. Dunno why but it touched me... and sent me on a flurry to find if it was true... (No, I still don't know)

Magic Fairy Tales

Every one of us have grown up hearing and loving the tales about Magic and Fairies. If not the ones about Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, then the tales from Panchatantra or about dragons and Knights of Romanian Legends. As a child my aunt used to tell me the story of the three little pigs and about "Huffing and puffing and blowing the house down". I remember getting frightened for the pigs everytime the wolf huffed and puffed, even when I knew the end of the story. Later when I discovered the world of words, I got an old fairy tales book, which would send me dreaming about kicking the dragon's butt and swimming with Ariel. The tales from Panchatantra from my granny was a source of great entertainment too.

I still Love the Fairy tales but now they always make me just that little bit sad.
Do you know that the Grimms Fairy Tales and the Panchatantra and the 1001 Stories of Scherezade and all the children's stories of yore are stories for adults and mostly have sad endings. :-(

Little Mermaid was my most favourite story from childhood, when Ariel and her Prince live happily ever after, it used to give me great satisfaction. But the original version of the Grimm's Fairy Tales ends with the Prince falling in love with another princess, and Ariel commiting suicide.

In the Three little Pigs, the first two pigs are killed by the big bad wolf, before it is killed by the clever third pig.
While I rue my lost innocence in having read the original versions and knowing the sad endings too, it makes me happy to see that the pessimistic views of the original authors have changed to make the stories so much more joyful for the children of today.

PS: Was seeing Shrek yesterday, all the three parts. Wow! its so cool...I loved every minute of it.,despite seeing it god knows how many times... :-)

MuRdErEr!!!!

I hear the language screaming "Murderer!!!" whenever I hear some of the new tamil songs.
Was travelling in the Cab to office today when there was this song in Radio. Gosh! I was cringing with every line the guy was singing. He was mispronouncing at least couple of words in every line...Consistently. He was tamil guy at that. I am not sure if this massacre was because he could not pronounce it right or he thought he was being stylish. The end result was extremely hard on my ears.

Asha Bhonsle or Sukhwinder Singh have the license to mispronounce the words and it can be considered funny. But its a sad state fate affairs when a person can't speak their own mother tongue right.
This is not a curse that only Tamil bears... It seems to have contaminated most of the other ones too.

On the positive note it made me realize how good an "Unmassacred" songs sounds... sigh!!!