CYA

Most of my industry, and I am sure all others too, have a few things in common.
One of the major commonality is CYA or Cover Your Ass.

Its funny, that even when I am talking for my team's good, my team members do not want to risk their collective asses and agree with me.

As PSR rightly pointed to me, a big part of that is indifference. I come, I work , I don't care a fig what happens outside that. If there is an issue, I will crib and grumble to my lead or manager, who ever is sympathetic. If they are not sympathetic, I will grumble to my team members and then work around it.

But ask them for a feedback or agree with you when you talk to the higher management about their trouble. You might as well be talking to the wall for all the response you get.

If by some one else's efforts their issues get resolved, they are happy. But if it is not, its still OK, as long as they are not asked to involve themselves anywhere in the process.

Can't even really get pissed with them, coz they dont want to involve in any good stuff either.

Their own worlds, their own work.
Sigh! I don't even understand this kind of attitude... :-(

Life's little pleasures

Ever wanted to walk around on a Jimmy Choo or Manolo Blahnik? Or wanted to drip with diamonds?

I have wanted to. Well! We are talking about hundreds of thousands of moolah. God knows most of us dont have that kind of money to throw on these things.

Which is why women, in all their wisdom, invented "The Window Shopping" *Clap Clap*

Had time before my train and decided to spend it in the UB City mall in Bangalore. The only affordable thing there would be the eats on the 4th floor, but it makes a great place to hang out. Saw a Jimmy Choo's show room there (first time I have seen one in India)
One of those skinny heeled, barely there pair of shoes cost over 89,000 Rs. Consider me provincial, but if I bought something like that I would probably keep it my locker, the way I do my jewelry.
So what I did was try it on, tottered around the shop and came back with the satisfaction of having worn Jimmy Choo and not spending anything on it :-)

There was this other time when I went to GRT Jewelers to give my sis some company. Was waiting in the diamond section, when I saw this gorgeous Diamond necklace set. Costing just over 7 Lakhs. Tried it on, oohed and aahed over it and then regretfully returned it back to the man waiting on us, with the promise of returning in the near future with my Dad :-D

It is a very precise art though, these window shopping sprees are very sneaky and you might end up spending more money than you planned.
But I am sure most you gals (and guys too, though you might not wanna come out and say so :-)) out there will agree with me that this is one of life's little pleasures

Tired .. Just tired of the whole fleeting world.

It doesnt make sense to wake up everyday, just to go to work. Would rather sleep some more and see movies or read books or just do nothing.

What does it matter what you do, there is no recognition for your work and you are just taken for granted.

Not able to kick up any enthusiasm for the work. Its all a drag anyways.

So get out! you say? Would love to, but stuck in a nice rut. And the thing about these ruts are that they are safe, comfortable and give you a feeling of security, even if false.

Anyway whats out there? More of the same?

So alternately living in a nice state of fugue and in Calvin's favourite state.. Denial.
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My Loves

I fall in love every week, sometimes the love lasts for as much as a month, but eventually I get bored and move on.

But its all cyclic. I come back to my old love eventually.

For eg. Last week I was all melty for Bhupinder singh. Was downloading his songs like crazy.
The way he croons and caresses the words of the ghazals he sings,sigh!... Like each word is the most important word at that point and there is no hurry to go to the next word. mmmm!!! and what a deep voice. I am a sucker for deep voices. (I dont like Jagjit singh and Suresh Wadekar though I love ghazals)





This week its Rafi saab. I listened to his Woh jab yaad aaye and kuch kuch yaad aane laga.




Sometime back it was Mukesh Saab. God! the man can cry like no one's business. Was singing "Waqt karta jo Wafa" repeatedly and driving myself wild.



Talat Aziz, used to have a crush on his voice and him, until I saw him act in some serials. But I decided to forgive him for his voice :-)




I am off Kishore for sometime. ODed on him. Lata and Asha are all time loves

Why I hate Flipkart!

Honestly! Flipkart has made my bookshelves so much healthier and my wallet that much less.
It is so easy to buy a book with just a click and they give such great discounts and darn them! they deliver it at home for free and I don't have to move out of my seat.

I've become a compulsive buyer, and I feel almost ashamed (Almost being the operative word)
:-) .

Believe it or not I have almost 40 books that I have yet to read, stuck in my bookshelves.
The number never seems to come down, since I keep stocking up on newer books before I can make any headway on the older ones.

My librarian is not happy with me, I have not been borrowing much from him nowadays.

Sigh! I just came to office and ordered myself the new Jeffrey Archer book at 40% discount :-).

Oh Yeah! you can see why I hate Flipkart.. Can't you?

The Indian Speciality

My friend RJ asked me what I would like from Canada and I asked him what was the Canadian speciality. He could not think of anything that was special to that country. So I asked a few other friends here who have visited the country. They too thought hard and could not think of anything.

That had me thinking about how many many things we Indians take for granted. When Canadians had come down to India, they did not even have to ask what was the speciality here. There were so many exotic things for them. Sweets, Taj Mahal momentos, Jewellery, Shawls, dresses, you name it we have it.

Forget about India at large, Each state here has its own speciality. Hyderabadi pearls and bangles, Kashimiri shawls, Kerala chips, Kanjeevaram Sarees, Jodhpuri slippers, Calcutta sweets, especially Ras Gulla.. yum!!! just to name a few.

I've written about how other countries, especially the US market their tourism so well, despite having nothing much worth talking about. Where as here with so much to show off we are busy scratching "He loves She" and drawing hearts on the monuments.

Have you seen the Incredible India ads? They are incredible and not just coz Aamir is in it :-)

Hyderabadi trip

*Phew* Now that I have got the rant out of my system. I can tell you about the very eventful trip I went on, over the weekend.
A piece of sincere advice from a sun burnt, heat boiled person. Do NOT go to Hyderabad in March or later.

The forward trip, had us travelling with a lady going to see her school kid in Hyderabad and 2 men. We started discussing about places of interest in Chennai and moved on to Temples here and from there one of the men caught on and he was cribbing about how its not right for Hinduism to have more than one God when God is only one. Fun was had by all arguing about it.

They were allowing people to climb up the Charminar. Its very charming from up there, but you would probably be aching every where from the steep climb to enjoy it too much. The place is a shopppers paradise. Birla Mandir must have been nice too, but I was busy jumping around on the hot stones, trying to get on and off the temple.

Everyone must go to the Ramoji Film City atleast once. Its expensive, so might I suggest you go as soon as possible, before they increase the entry fee again. Despite the terrible heat (The hyderabadi citizens tell me its not really hot, just warm... *gak*) we still had fun, the shows, sets, bus tours are a must see.

Finally rounded off with Salar jung Museum, I enjoyed the European Paintings and Marble and Bronze statues section. The other stuff was OK. The musical clock which brings in scores of people was a disappointment to me. Well! Its good, but not sure if its worth the publicity it gets.

Oh! How could I forget the Lumbini Park and the trip down the Hussain Sagar Lake in the evening. I would love to hang out there with friends. Its softly lighted, nice cool breeze coming off the lake and a variety of restuarants with seats looking over the lake. Sigh!

Hmmm! Reading back what I have written, it looks like I have said mostly negative things, but not so. It was a really enjoyable trip. Will add fotos later.

Women's #$%#$% day

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. Every year I hate the concept of Women's day more and more.
Its hypocritical, commercialised and down right stupid.
I do not see any one using this opportunity to celebrate any woman's growth anywhwere. Most people do not even have a clue why we have a Women's day. Hell!! I am not too sure myself

Every darned year I get to hear juvenile comments such as "You are so lucky to be a woman, we do not have a men's year". Please take it. Make March 8th as men's day and welcome.

What pissed me off even more this year was that the over enthu's in my team organised a WD celebration. We were all made to pay 100 bucks towards it. Anyone who does not pay will obviously be looked down upon.

So Thanks to peer pressure, pay I did. Now! I know 100 bucks is not such a big deal, but its the principle of the thing. (I would have preferred to sit at my desk and do my work rather than play)

We were all given gifts at the end of the games. Worth less stuff, I got a fevi quick stick, for God's sake!!!
I hate peer pressure almost as much as I hate the WD. We were all forced to pay for christmas celebrations too. I have no problems with christians or christmas but I am neither and dont want to be. But NOOOO, I had to play along.
The same kind of enthusiasm was not showed during pongal or Diwali.

Just leave me alone.....

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

Why Hinduism is so much fun

Hinduism is one of the most fun religions to be in, basically because it is not a religion at all but a way of life. It shows us the pros and cons of any path we might choose and lets us do the choosing. This is also one of the reasons why one cannot convert into Hinduism.

It teaches, by example, that even if you are God himself, your sins will be punished. (Lord Krishna was shot down by a hunter in hiding, as He had done many sins from behind the Pandavas, to make them win the Kurukshetra war. Lord Rama drowned for his treatment of Sita)

How many religions do we know, that lets their believers question its tenets? Hinduism does. It allows its believers to look at its principles from all angles and perspectives and question it until a person is totally satisfied and comfortable with what it says. This is one of the reason why it can accommodate all walks of life so comfortably.

Its epics and mythological stories! Wow! I have read some 5-6 different versions and perceptions of the Mahabaratha and every one of them sound totally logical and all of it will lead to the conclusion of good triumphing over good. None of the heroes are totally white or villains totally black. They are both shades of grey and its the degree of greyness that makes them good or bad.

Talking of questioning even our Gods. There is this story my grand ma once told me. There was this great saint (whose name, I forget :-( ) who was doing Kathakalakshebam (Praising the Lord by telling stories as songs) of Ramayana in a Krishna temple. As he was telling the great deeds done by Rama, the listening deity inside the garba graha (Inner Sanctum) piped out saying "It is my deeds you are singing about". When the saint started singing of Rama's unfair treatment of Sita in asking her to jump into fire , he turned to the deity and asked how could you do that to the innocent Matha Sita. After a brief pause a voice sounded from inside " That was not me, it was all Rama's doing". :-)

Is it not the ideal world where even the highest authority is answerable to the lowest order of beings.
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In Memoriam

Can you think of your childhood without the tinkle and amarchitra katha stories?
I remember my mother buying me the tinkle at the beginning of every month for years. And everytime we used to go out of station, she used to get the amarchitra katha books to read in the train. I have not thrown out one of the books so collected.

In fact I just spent over 3k on ACK series books.

The Mahabaratha 3 volume series containing the 52 books that were originally published by IBH and later by ACK is a beauty worth mentioning and owning.

I still read and enjoy those comics. My neices are crazy about them.

How many of us would have even known about the great Indian heroes or our culture and mythology if not for Uncle Pai? Hardly any one at all.

You leave a grateful and very entertained indian youth behind and will be remembered for a long time.

RIP Uncle Pai!
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On News and more...

God Knows why I have started reading news again. I pride myself on not reading or seeing news as it invariably makes me depressed. And I really do not need anything more to do that, Thank you very much.
But then the news also hardly varies, whether I see it today, last month or next month. The faces might change, the amount might change but it is still murder, rape, scandal and mayhem everywhere.
I am sure there are good things happening out there somewhere. But they are just not newsworthy. Who wants to see/read about altruism, awards (unless it is the filmy awards or the Padma awards .. lets not even start talking about them ) or discoveries and inventions? Hmm! unless it is Rahul Gandhi, then if he even sneezes it is for the good of the country, for he epitomizes the good Samaritan and is absolutely news worthy.

It sickens me that even the media is bought and paid for by the powerful and politically inclined.

I was trying to read Arundati roy's interview with Amitava Kumar, could not complete it as I started drowning in the ocean of her hubris. God! What a condescending, all-knowing so and so. She gets one Booker price and suddenly she is the queen of the world and the all-wise Oracle rolled into one. She is clearly blabbering in the hope of keeping herself in the limelight and unfortunately she is given all the opportunities to do so. She says in her interview that the sedition charges against her was not brought about by our government but by some right-wing crazies. I could say something about the Government, but I do not use that kind of language.

On other news, a Chinese man played games in his computer for over 3 days without any food or sleep and slipped into coma and died. Sigh!!!!

The Aarushi murder case.. the less said the better. The poor girl's murder is being gleefully made into a three ring media circus, while the police have already destroyed most of the evidence that could possibly point to the guilty. And to add insult to injury, they are making a movie out of it. Can people be more callous?
As Mark Twain said : “When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”

The Romantic Hero

Today, the shareauto I travelled in had a DVD player attached to it and the good man was putting on some great songs.
Chand Sifarish from Fanaa and Rab de bana di Jodi songs.

I have always maintained that Aamir is the ultimate romantic hero of Bollywood.

I would definitely not mind a boy friend/ husband (hmm! one who would not divorce me ofcourse. I have lost my respect for him since his divorce.. hmph!) like him.
I get the shivers when I see him in those songs. From QSQT to Ghajini (though in Ghajini he was more in love with his six.. sorry 8 pack than Asin) the man is groovy...sigh!

Speaking of Ghajini, have you seen the song Guzaarish? They repetitively show only three things in it, Aamir's 8-pack, Aamir long shot, showing his 8-pack and face, oh! and some shots of Asin...  hehehe

Shah rukh on the other hand,does the obsessive psycho, rather well. But the romance..hmm, he does nothing to me when he tries his hand in it.

I know N and P are probably up in arms for my saying so.. But sorry gals, there it is. :-)
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7 Khoon Maaf

I wanted to write about this movie, last friday when I had the misfortune to see it in its first day of release.But somehow never got around to it

Saw it in Escape Cinemas in the Express Avenue mall. The theater is awesome but the popcorn and other foodies are less than mediocre (though you would not know it by the amount they charge for them). One regular popcorn and coke cost more than the ticket.

7 Khoon Maaf is touted as a black comedy where Susanna kills her 6 husbands and the sathva khoon tho audience ki hothi hai and the joke is on  us :-(

I didnt realise the father in the very end was Ruskin bond, having never seen him before.
But I was sorry that he has given his approval to the way the movie has been taken, by actually acting in it.

By the third khoon, the whole thing starts getting tedious and every one is wondering why she does not just divorce them. (Though a kind of explanation is given that she is stopping these guys from spoiling any more lives or some such)

The two reasons we sat through the whole movie, when a lovely mall full of shops were beckoning us was.
1) We wanted to know who were her other husbands
2) The cost of the tickets and food.

The best thing about our foray into 7 khoon maaf was that we had a good time at the mall.

If you really want to see this movie, wait a couple of months and you can see it for free in the Colors channel.
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tick tock

My god! time moves soooo  s  l  o  w  l  y when you are not having fun.
I have literally been counting seconds until end of day .









And I have another 11700 seconds to go.
I am so bored that I actually drew that pathetic looking clock using MS Paint.. hehehe

Shareauto Tales

PSR has been telling me for sometime that I must write about my shareauto tales. The traffic gives me the heebie jeebies and hence I do not drive. That means public transport. Since taking a bus at the peak hour is not even worth mentioning and regular autos are way too expensive for daily travel, that leaves shareautos.

It gives me a chance to see the human race at its weirdest.

Before I tell you anything more, you really need to understand the concept of shareauto. Its a large auto or small van, where the people (mostly the IT ppl) are stuffed like salmon in a tin can. The drivers try to take in as many people as (in)humanly possible. Sometimes as many as 13-14 people travel in one auto. Idea is to make maximum money out of each trip.

=> To prove me wrong, just yesterday I noticed a poster in this romantic owned shareauto. It said "Valentines Day special - Couples can travel for free today". Sweet huh?! :-)

=>The other day. much to the irritation of the rest of us travellers, a drunk got in and promptly sat on a gal's lap. She squealed and moved away and got out ASAP. So now he was sitting between a lady and another guy. When the lady moved a bit forward to the window (probably coz of the smell next to her), the drunk fell on her. (I got kicked by him in the process and I was happy enough to crush his feet with my heels and aargh! the heels of my favourite pair of slippers broke and the man didn't even flinch. Though he removed his feet, I might as well have been a fly). Anyways after getting pushed off and threatened by the lady to take him to the police station, the man sat contentedly feeling himself up. So there we all were staring at him in disbelief. I can tell you there was a concerted rush to get out of the auto when it came to a stop.

=> Two young things, a gal and a guy were sitting in the back seat of the shareauto. We generally try to not let a 4th person sit, when 3 could sit more comfortably. But these YT all twined up together kept asking people to sit next to them. I was staring at them puzzled until i realised that it gave them a good reason to be pasted to each other. They were so entwined that the guy had to put his arm all around the girl, just to scratch his other arm.
Well! He has his arm around her shoulder and the rest as they is History. I should probably have averted my eyes .. Yeah right!!!! I sure had the satisfaction of seeing a rom-com movie until they got down one stop before me.

=> The softest hand that ever touched me was that of a 1.5 or so YO child. A lady got in with her school going kid and this child. Just a look at the kid and you could see he was a special child. He was attracted to my bright kurti sleeves and my handbag handle that kept moving with the autos movement.His hands were only as big as a newly born baby and so soft and tender. I let him play to his heart's content. But it hurt to think of the future in store for him and his family.

=> oh! The other day I got into this shareauto and I should have known better. Generally the seat next to the driver is occupied by men and there was a girl sitting there.It sent my antenna quivering but I was too sick to notice. As expected, it turned out to be the driver's girl friend and the auto kept getting stopped now and then, so they both could feed each other pop corn or coo at each other. By the time my stop came I was ready to break my laptop on both their heads.. sigh!!!

More to come...in meanwhile, feel free to add any experiences you might have had travelling.
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:-(

It must have happened to you all too.


When you were saying one thing but in your minds you were hoping for something else to happen.
Despite knowing that the chance of what your are hoping is very very less, when it does not happen you are surprised and sad.

My boss is moving on to greener pastures and being qualified, experienced, certified and what ever else you can think of, I was hoping to fill his shoes, or atleast some kind of improvement in my role.

But I knew ofcourse that the chances of that happening were less, after all the man does not even like me. Except when he wants some work done, of course.

Anyways someone else has been chosen and when I asked why I was not chosen, I was given the usual run around. I am mad and sad.

And basically enjoying wallowing in self-pity. sigh!
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What a weekend

I have so many thoughts jumbled up in my head, that I wish i could pull them out like silver threads, the way Dumbledore does.


Spent most of the weekend seeing movies from early 90s.

It started with Kshana kshanam, my friend PSR was raving about it and I had this urge to see it. So thanks to youtube, I started on it.

Anyways so I decided I would see some more Sridevi movies, Nagin, chalbaaz, nigahen, gurudev (Rishi Kapoor should NEVER act as a policeman. He looks quite grubby and unkempt, despite trying to be otherwise)

I also saw Ram Lakhan (Jackie is sooo handsome) and Khalnayak.



Not sure if my tastes have matured/changed or whatever, but these are movies I would have (and I have) heartily enjoyed a few years back but I was finding faults with the storyline/ dialogues and what not (I am thinking I will blame PSR for this too ..hehehe )

I saw some comments comparing Sridevi with Madhuri, but I felt it was more like comparing apples and oranges. Sridevi is a class comediene (except for that irritating giggle), great actress and sensuous effortlessly despite having her dress on.

Madhuri is a great actress too, but cannot carry comedy well and sometimes I find her vulgar when she is trying to be sensuous. Especially in those early 90s movies.

Moving away on a tangent, after college, played hookey last week to go see Yudham Sei. It was a movie worth seeing once definitely. But the second half they tried to dramatize and it fell through. Also the poor CB CID has never heard of the latest technologies and police processes like BOLO, APB. But what the heck, I enjoyed myself. :-)
Anyways I have had a surfeit of movies for now and feeling slightly nauseous even thinking of seeing any

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What is marriage?

I have always thought marriage meant a partner to share my life with. Some one to love, fight. and generally belong.


But I am wondering if I am being very naive, even down right stupid.

Are these the same things men look for in their wives? I am not so sure.
The kind of expectations I have heard from the guys I met, makes me feel mad and sad.

One guy was shocked that I even had a say on choosing my life partner. He wanted me to fall at his and his parents feet and kept giving me hints all the time to do so.
He even told me stories about how very well educated and working women served their hardly educated and non-working husbands with great cheerfulness and live happily ever after.

Another wanted to me to quit my job, he was earning enough for both of us and I should learn to run a house within my husband's means.

Another's parents said that their son had no training in the kitchen what so ever, but could I cook for 10 people if they suddenly dropped by.The guy was sitting next to them nodding his head. These people were also shocked that I might actually want to talk to their son alone.

I really didn't know such archiac people still lived on earth. Are the guys looking for a submissive,cost free slave/servant/cook or a wife to share their life with?

What shocks me even more was that some of my relatives, women, just a few years older than me, do not see anything wrong with this kind of expectations. They think I am being too picky for not having said yes.

While this kinda talk sometimes makes me question my own judgement. I have a set of great parents and friends who are solidly behind me. Thank the good Lord!
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Bye Bye G'ma

Happy New Year!
Hey! so what if it is a month too late, there is still 11 more left to enjoy.


Its been a rather eventful month. I generally love January.
It has a lot of holidays :-) and somehow its like even the nature is shaking off its doldrums and starting afresh.

But thats not the reason its been an eventful month. I lost my 95 YO gma. It was a crazy 13 days after her demise. So many relatives and friends. House was full all the time and loads of work to do. And it was not like we were not expecting the event for some time now. She had been so very sick and sometimes we even prayed that God would help her out of the suffering, even if it meant losing her permenantly.

She was hardly 5' and almost skin and bones at the end and totally immobile for the last few months. Her eye sight was almost gone but not her ears or her memory.

How the hell does a person of such a small almost insignificant stature create such a big vaccum in so many peoples lives?

The house seems empty, and we still cannot bring ourselves to give away her things. We all feel a little lost, as though the very roots that held us all together has suddenly gone.

Married at 14 to a much older man, as was the norm at the time. She ruled her house and husband with an iron hand.

Like Kunti, my grand ma ruled over her children and her siblings and was the center of their lives. and What a fighter she was! She was the type who could squeeze water out of stone, in times of need.

At 85 she decided to make her first love known to the world and compiled her favourite recipes into 4 cookbooks in two languages.

But my most favourite memory of her, other than our common love for mythology, was the stories she used to tell us during the evenings of our summer vacation, while she used to feed us mixed rice in the balcony.

As my dad said the other day,Its the end of an era, but what a legacy she has left behind!!!

We miss you g'ma, but you have fun with all our relatives up there! Bye!
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Hypocrisy thy name is politics

Especially if it is the current TN govt. This govt. is staunchly atheist. Which means they are totally anti-hinduism and according to their beliefs would love to totally eradicate that religion (just like small pox or cholera).OK, the central government is this kind of atheist too, but that's a story for another time.

The government went so far as to dictate when hindus should celebrate what festival and decided that the Tamil New year's day (which for centuries have been celebrated on the 14th April) will be celebrated on 14th January going forward. The CM claimed to know all about the religion, just, I am guessing, as he knows all about Ramayana too. (During an Interview with NDTV he claimed to have read Tulsidas Ramayana and it said that Sita and Ram were siblings *Gah*)

They did not  just stop with proclaiming a new date for New year. When people still continued to celebrate it on the 14th April, the priests in the temples were forced not to give any special poojas. The devotees were beaten up. All in all a great fun time for them.

Now the TV channels affiliated to the government have taken to calling this weekend programs as Vidumurai sirapu nigazhchi (Special programs for the Holidays). Is it because they do not believe in mentioning any Hindu festival name??? What happens when Diwali is in the offing I wonder.

But of course being a pure Hindu hating atheist, the government has spent 420 crores on renovating a temple. After so much hatred from them, this sudden change in mind, especially just an year before election, seems very suspect.

On the flip side, whatever their motive, we at least get another good place of worship

PS: Going off on a tangent, it has become fashionable nowadays to put down hinduism and especially brahminism, ironically its mostly done by brahmins themselves, who have no clue what so ever about their culture but want to sound cool. (Personally I think they end up sounding stupid and ignorant, but hey! that's just me)