The year that was - 2011.

Ok it's that time of the year when nondescript political commentators, film-critics, sports columnists - at times all rolled into one like indian news channels who have the same panel of 'experts' discussing defence deals and cricketing debacles - have a party writing about their top 10, bottom 10 and middleton. The end result is some megabytes of cyber waste.

Me being the not-so considerate cyber user has decided to contribute to that ... here goes my list of top i-dunno-wat

a) A wonderful 3 months trip to Copenhagen....had some lovely as well as not-so lovely time

Lovely bcoz of the following reasons

• Blond girls
• Blond girls in clear heels
• Blond girls playing volleyball in the beach

   Err...that's the top 3 reasons..incredible isn't it. The other ones

• A place where indian english and accent is not the funniest
• Ppl stopping and watching us with confused looks...when we are playing cricket that is.
• Was back to my bachelor days..and realized my booze resistance is not the same as it was 5years ago..ah age is catching up
• Ofcoz was paid in a currency which was more than INR
• Blond ...ok I stop it here.

No-so lovely bcoz

• Missed the chaos
• Had a visit to germany- which made me feel why didn't the americans nuke germany...argh..hated the place and no i aint buying a BMW or Audi or Merc ever ever in my life... well not that there were too many affordable..either way.
• And yeah..i was single..come on there was no one to blame when things go wrong.

b) Moved into my new apartment. There is a saying in tamil "Get a wedding done and get a house built".. means both are financially exhaustive. One can never estimate the costs and none ever knows all the nuances.

If building the house part is smoother,trust me the moving in and settling down will make sure it sucks out  everything left. Guess I can write a whole series of blogs on this.

c) Managed to stage 2 shows with my theatre group. Was a miracle indeed,what with 80% of the team members being offshored.

d) Hearing quite a few voices speaking inside me..and asking me to write a book. I hope it would be a bigger best seller than some of the holy scriptures going around.

e) There was some point in the year where I was completely lost with gadgets, bikes n cars..was using lot of smileys in mails and worst started loving justin beiber's music(i know that's a oxymoron)..phew..it was like some teenage girl's spirit taking over me. Thanks to non-stop rambo movies, absolut, JD and their ilk, the spirits are gone now tho.

New-year wishes..
- Wish SRK stops acting...Anna stops fasting...and obama starts working
- To enter politics
- Stop drinking
- Reduce social networking
- Write more on this blog :-).

Last but not the least..I wish the calendar app used by mayans had crashed,hence there was no 2013 for them ;-).. the world is still so beautiful...

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Ello Blog...

Yeah it has been eons since I dropped in here to visit you, leave alone as the blog's owner but even as a visitor :). Sorry for being so mean and cruel, there are hundreds of valid reasons for not being able to visit. Be it the total net blockage at work[we have requested for blogspot unblocking saying there are loads of tech blogs to read thru :P..hope they show mercy],no computer at the new house and then the internet connection. But I know you wont accept these reasons and will keep harping on my changed marital status as the sole reason...thats how the world works. I mean every status message of mine in twitter or FB is somehow related to my married life and my better half..phew I am thinking what status to put up nowadays. Thinking - A concept which I was not used to previously, I am doing a lot of it now.No doubt married men get bald...sigh.

The year 2009 was pretty good for me. The first 2months were hectic at work, post that it has been bench party :-D... I got a new car, new bike and yeah a wife :P...evil, materialistc me. The Rebelz front was not upto my expectation but then not too bad,so can let it pass by.

I have loads of wishes for 2010, listing a few out here and hope Lord harry reads them and helps me to achieve a few

-- Complete all my half written scripts

-- Attempt writing my own book. C-Log aka canine log :-D

-- Try not to get bankrupt by 10th of every month

-- Start gymming

There are a few more not-so-good wishes like sealing the mouth of my project admin who enquires abt my wife's well being...noble intentions, but she screams it from 3 bays away so that all the girls in the work area know i am not single. Assasinate the head of ISS, the caterer who serves lunch at work..the food makes me delusional, I mean...I end up thinking my wife is the best cook!! this is more dangerous than food poisoning you see.

Some wishes for the welfare of general humanity... wish tiger woods gets back to playing[playing golf i meant], amir khan stops behaving like an idiot in real life[yeah they usurp the story from chetan's book n threaten to sue him..its more of stupidity I say], My name is khan will have only a stammerin SRK[got bored seeing the hamming version of him], Pawar & Modi take up the job of bowling & fielding coach [You say Pawar faster than Venkatesh Prasad?hmm..], RGV delivers a movie which will run till I park my bike in satyam cinemas and rush to the ticket counter, the home minister stops drinking too much [I can give clearer statements on telengana with 5 shots of teqila]...and last but not the least I keep blogging...buhahhaaa...Happy new year all. Have a rocking 2010 !!

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May so far >>>

On a normal day I hate it when people interrupt when I talk...but not the other day when I had to wait for the laughs of 150+ houseful crowd to subside so I can continue with my lines.

On a normal day I love perfection and detest when people miss synchronization ...but not the other day when a few of our actors missed some lines yet came out with spontaneous reactions which were better off than the ones in the script. 

On a normal day I don't prefer too much of experimentation, this time around tried something called the Pirandello technique in the script of a 2omins play which luckily worked out!!!

Yes the Rebelz play was a rollicking success, more than the laughs and the applauds what made me happier was that we now have a bigger team to take care of things. Starting with just 3-4 guys who were doing all the work[yours truly was the script writer cum PR cum set design coordinator cum compere cum...many more] now we have a team of around 10 who are motivated enough[come on theatre doesn't pay :)] to pull off a wonderful show...As an icing on the cake we got some really wonderful reviews too. A heartfelt thanks to all the blog friends...those who came and those who did their best to support virtually...thanks a ton folks.

Well...stopping my rebelz tomtoming  and bragging[blogging rhymes with bragging eh?] here. All the high obtained on sunday evening was drained out as soon as I reached office the next morning. The first mail on monday morning... A notification, SSAS,SSIS,WSS,SSPS - these are a few technologies which I need to ge trained on. In days of recession do I have a choice to pick the technology I work on?. After a week of so-called training I am yet to know the abbreviations of those technologies!!. My great march towards the pink slip I guess.....but then not too sure if I do care.

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Hello blog....

After a pretty long time [ I suppose] am back to blogging. Don't think I can write anything coherent so trying to list down my activities

• Had an awesome trip to Hyderabad,the best part all the people who made is awesome were blog pals. The guy who accompanied me to the trip, the person who invited us and most importantly the wonderful man who made the whole trip memorable. I knew all of them thru blogs yet never felt they were any different from other friends. Cheers to the spirit of blogging.
  
  
• Hyderabad trip can be summarized as Eat-Go around-Eat-Go around-Eat-party-Eat-Sleep-Wakeup- Eat-Go around. All this in an infinite loop. Add to it the Eat part mostly was biryani, not just normal biryanis... yummilacious hyderabadi biryani. As soon as we gorged down the last bit of paradise biryani,there was this great sense of achievement and bliss which covered us. Finally mission accomplished...burrp
  
  
• With the train man around we never needed any guide for the city, he knows the history, geography, civics, chemisty and many more subjects of hyderabad more than what the nizams would have ever known. He has a deep love for the city and its cuisine,lucky us got to eat at the best places and visit the most important spots.
  
  
• Not sure if it was the over eating spree or the hot weather, fell sick with typhoid and was on a curd-rice wonly diet for ten days...it sucks
  
  
• If there is something more suckier than the above point, got to admit it is IPL and it's on-your-face commercialization. When the cricket jockeys like gavaskar, shashtri over hype all the matches as the match of the century and then ball of the tournament, shot of the decade, catch of the millenium... God give us a break..nop not the strategic breaks with Ads.
  
  
• I suddenly find every girl I come across attractive!! The best[or worst]part, I dumped my I-can't-woo tendencies and stuck a converstaion with couple of them n even got their numbers. Phew tell me about the side effects of typhoid...it's pretty baad I shud say.
  
  
• Bought a new car, it looks like a toy car[a Wagon R]but then serves the purpose. Had the most irritating 2hours of my life when the car was delivered, right from the showroom guys to my parents wanted a 100 poojas[rituals] to be performed. At the end of which the red color car was covered with so much petals and other stuff I forgot which color I had booked for. These theists...argh.
  
  
• They have pink slipped my team mate...now it's like Mera number kab aayega ?. Wish to quit the job and go for a long trip across India. Hmmm.....If wishes were horses
  
  
• Elections are up and still undecided as to which moron to vote, probably vote for some independent candidate so that I feel content that I did vote and at the same time don't feel guilty I chose another corrupt dumbass to represent me.
  
  
• Seriously contemplating to take up sanyas full time and start an ashram to preach gyaan and whenever I think of this I feel I am getting old.
  
  
• Met my schoolday crush in a friend's post wedding dinner, she is a mother of two and is like a walking talking blubber...how times change. Whenever I come across the previous point I think of her and feel younger ..Complex mind I have got.

---The End---

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The BIG Fat Indian Arranged Marriage...

Act 1
The drama unfolds when an uncle or aunt's comments[rather a snide remark] make our parents think that their kid is getting really old and it's time he/she stops enjoying life. After all happiness is not everything in life. So they conclude we are ready for the holy union. The same uncles and aunts are then used for broadcasting the availability of an eligible bachelor/spinster in the household.

Act II
The show starts with a bang. With phrases like "Fair,slim,goodlooking girl wanted"(for a Bappi Lahiri look alike)... or a "Boy with decent family background and clean habits"(for a girl who idolizes Rakhi Sawant) going around in matrimonial columns or portals.

Act III
The verification, validation and elimination round. Innumerable matches are browsed and are eliminated based on pedigree[The Aunt: The bride's sister's brother-in-law is married to a person from another community it seems..how blasphemous].

Mars is in second house and Venus is in 4th house, that's a bad combination for a horoscope you see. If we marry this person there will be bad luck for the next 14 generations.The groom's father, mother, brother, sister and puppy will get a cardiac arrest, a tsunami will strike from the flush and engulf the house. No way we can take a person with this kind of horrorscope !! -- This is the uncle-ji.

A year passes by … they get bored and lose hope with this act. Then starts the phenomenon called as *.* search. Well it goes like this.........
First the parents would have started off with the search string 'Beautiful iyengar girl looking out for vadakalai iyengar boy preferably professionally qualified'...then due to lower success rate it is now changed to 'Beautiful iyengar bride looking for iyengar professionally qualifed groom'.W ith not much success either the search criteria is transformed to 'Iyengar girl looking for brahmin boy'...then at a later point changes to vegetarian boy. Finally the search is like Bridegroom wanted..caste, community no bar(Wah! wah!what a broad mindedness)...this implies to all castes,communities and creeds(last survey counted more than 50 thousand castes in my state alone)

ACT IV
At last the wedding gets fixed with some compromise or the other. Then comes the huge cost involved in an arranged marriage. The bride's & groom's side competes in building up a crowd. Hence we can see old pals, school/tuition teachers, plumbers, car mechanics, newspaper boy anyone and everyone who the bride or groom's side knows. We need witnesses for once in a lifetime occurrence you see. Of course jewels, silk saris and 'n' number of food varieties are there in the list by default.

The compromises too are not reached without a reason. The color and looks of the bride determines the dowry rate(let's not be so crass..its called kanyadhaan).The fair & slim girl conditions can be compromised if a few bucks are passed.

ACT V
Post all the drama and tamasha slowly the truth starts sinking in for the boy and girl. The boy thinks his wife is extremely beautiful, caring and would bear him kids who would win Spelling bee contests. But she may turn out to be someone who hates guy's who has parents or someone who won’t get a proper sleep if she hasn't heard the sound of her hubby's credit card being swiped every day.

And the girl who was expecting this caring and sensitive husband, may realize her man is as caring as Emperor Nero and the sense part..well he may be a non-sense though, especially if it's someone like me, whose idea of a fashion icon is govinda and the only sport he plays is throwing pop-corn into his mouth as he watches IPL,ICL,India Vs.Holland, Ranji trophy and any cricket match played on the television.

Final ACT
The man and woman realize there is no way to get out of this and either end up loving each other, probably sympathizing with the other’s plight Or they keep the marriage intact by remaining single deep inside their hearts.

Yes yes.. accepted arranged marriages have a positive side too. It's like a huge family reunion and two unconnected families coming together..where else can we expect the guy serving sambhar or one giving you rose milk to be a distant relative and gives aptitude books a run for the money in solving the blood relations puzzle.

With all its pitfalls and drawbacks the show still goes on with the BIG Fat Indian arranged marriage.

And yeah the Rebelz take on the same - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-VpTnliFRk ;-)

----The End----

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Scriptopdia - 2

Aftet this, thought of filling up my blogosphere break with another piece of script. Here it comes, from a play we staged on 2007, a play which taught us a lot.. not just with regards to acting n writing but more with regards to marketing, planning and budgetting a theatre production :-)

Character sketches

Dave,Hari,Roy - Three modern day young men who have been there and done that

Raghu - A naive 30year old virgin

The 4 are sharing a drink with some open talk about their past relationships. While Dave, Hari and Roy are more than happy to share their's Raghu isn't, not that he is shy it's just that he doesn't have any worth mentioning.

Hari: So Raghu..now its your turn

Raghu: Well..actually I don’t discuss my private life.

Hari: You are speaking like a virgin. Are you one ?

[Raghu gives an expressionless look]

Hari: So you are one. I knew it... I knew it

Roy: Harry!! Stop the nonsense. So what’s wrong if he is one? It's good he is. Raghu, its not necessary that you got to speak about it. You can also speak about your closest encounter.

Raghu: Good. That's fair. I did have one in college

Roy: Wow!!..just share it..come on!! go ahead

Raghu: Well it was in the college bus, the hottest girl of our department prabha was sitting next to me. The bus was going on a very rough road with a lot of potholes. Then came a really abrupt brake and.

Dave and Hari[excitedly]: And?..

Raghu: Her dupatta touched my pant..

Dave and Hari[doubled up excitement]: And?

Raghu: And nothing else.

Hari: You mean this was your closest sexual encounter ?

Dave: Dude!! He must have had an erection for 2 days for this.

Hari: Oh Raghu don’t you have anything interesting to tell ?..I guess you have never been hooked to a girl all your life.

Raghu’s Monologue

Yes. I have never been hooked to a girl. I feel that’s because I am a nice guy. I know I am a nice guy because everyone tells me so. That’s why I don’t get hooked. I am nice. I remind every girl of her brother and am their best friend, but a date or movie..naah..I am not a date material I suppose.

Eventually all this should have led to pent up desperation inside me but NO..I am too nice for that. Once in college I tried not to be nice..Reejo the cassanova of my class told me to stop being nice and pick up a good girl. So I went to this girl and dropped a pick-up line “Hey baiiiby..is your daddy in army...you look explosive”..and know what? She started crying. The first time I try not be nice I make a girl cry. I spent the rest of the semester asking her sorry at every point I saw her. This was simply not going to work.

I don’t even have an un-nice name to lean on ..Raghuraman Rangarajan..you can imagine a Dave or a Roy to be suave and romantic. But a Raghuraman..no he can't..The writing is on the wall I simply cannot be un-nice and can never get a girl. Period.

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The other 3 character's did have their monologues. Yet this was the one which got the maximum applauds. Probably because there were many raghus in the audience 'inspired by life' works wonders I say ;-)

---The End---

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The weekend that was.

Normally I avoid writing the year that was, thanks to my memory which is as good as an indian voter. But the weekend that passed off was a pretty active one so thought of penning it down. Will also help me in drawing up my 2009 year end post.

• A bachelor party @ GRT granddays.The meal was so sumptuous that i ended up dozing in the lobby. Realized a delicious heavy meal can be a good substitute for alcohol :).No doubt gujjus eat so much, probably to get over the fact they are in a dry state :D.
  

• Also realized I am dumb with regards to mechanics.Damn my bike.
  

• Received the wedding invite of one of my..wat can i say..crush may be!! Went into a poignant mood n was thinking how it wud have been had my name been there.Well we never think abt how it wud be if Bush won an IQ contest, Manmohan Singh wore a pink bikini or Bappi Lahiri wins gold in an athletic meet. So lemme leave that "how it wud have been" part alone.
  

• Another binge shopping spree, I am sure to become bankrupt soon. Will need to fake my balance sheet like Mr.Raju,only then there is a prospect of someone giving their girl to me.
  

• Saw a movie and realized I am a very loyal lover, been in love with the same girl for the past 8years,a mean achievement amidst fickle-minded men..The girl is named aishwarya and her dad is Mr.Rai,ofcoz hubby is Mr.Abhishek and haan the movie was guru
  

• Saturday was an activity filled day. Post the bachelor party went to a toastmasters club meeting. Was a a very normal one,until I came across anupam. He had a serious speech impairment and for speaking out a single sentence it takes 5 attempts[for framing it word by word] and more than 2 minutes.Yet he went on to speak and completed it amidst loud applauds. The kind of will power he had to overcome his issue, all my troubles and problems looked like a speck in front of that.
  

• Then came the most happening event of the day. Thanks to some chennai bloggers, we went to a French folkdance show. As we settled down in the comfort of our chairs the organizer nick took the mic and informed it is not a show but a workshop and everyone inside the hall shud join in for the dance. Initially I planned to run out,but on seeing a few really pretty girls stay put :D.
  It was total fun and some of the dances they taught were named like rigodon, polka, mazurka,farandole...Well who is bothered abt the name of the dance, most of them had guys n girls dancing with different partners :D. The dances reminded some of our kindergarden games and were fun, though energy sapping. After a long time I slept for 8hours that nite. The best add-on of the event was the 2 cute kids of the organizing couple who were running & falling all over the place and providing a different kinda entertainment.
  

• Sunday,the same bloggers bunch and went to bookfair. Bought a book by Richard dawkins, was really cheap when compared to the price tag displayed @ posh bookshops. Just that the fair was too crowded and got out in less than 2hours to avoid death by suffocation
  
  A kind request to folks from Bengaluruu.Me and my theatre group are planning to stage a show o'er there and if you do know any good[read as one who charges the lowest and most nominal rates :P] event management/marketing company which can help in organizing the show/sponsor hunting please do mail me at nautankey@gmail.com. Thank you in advance.
  
  Adios

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One pipty tag !!

Wogay looks like till 21st my mind will be on a strike and nothing useful or cohesive will come out, those who think when has it given useful/cohesive thoughts are to be presented with a fully paid holiday package to afghanistan!!.

Thanks to these tags this space is surviving. Was tagged by the revenrend GoST Zephy, it was about making bold all the things I had done in my short useless life. Since it was just coloring work took it up with a glee :-). Here it goes.

01. Bought everyone inthe bar a drink - Will do it the day Big B's bahu walks out of his house and comes to me
02. Swam with dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree - The guava tree in my old house before shifting. Was a sentimental moment
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea - Some resort in ECR we were in tents and watching the lighting storm, in few mins the downpur drenched us
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise - After the drenching sleeping in wet dress was not a good idea
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game - If the cric matches @ Chepauk are counted
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa - May be the annanagar tower
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables - onions and bananas
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars - when we had power cuts and no generator back ups
20. Changed a baby’s diaper - My almost 2yr old nephew is what we call an urine tanker, needs a change once in an hour.
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower - I aint a karan johar fan
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment - Actually the worst possible moment worsens after this fit
27. Had a food fight - Everyday in school and college
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger - And did not pursue as she wanted her hubby n kid to come along
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can - Yes I do sing
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse (On TV)
34. Ridden a roller coaster - Kishkinta and VGP :)
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking - Thats what happens when we get drunk with champagne
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day - Eeeth was the Arabian accenth
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment - Everytime I see my pay cheque
39. Had two hard drives for your computer - Once had 4 connected and formatted the wrong one
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk - Comrades in arms
42. Had amazing friends - Not sure if they share the feelings
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love - Well movies run for 3 hours but hearbreak lasts pretty long,latesht sameera
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them - It was a pretty crowded restaurant and not much of a choice for me as well as him.
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero - I am hollowman in all my team meetings
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theatre
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business - kind of though can't call it a full fledged one
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken - still feeling lucky about that
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo - The stick ons and painted ones
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on Stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten Shark - Baby shark, what they call sura puttu
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone - Do ya count my hosue during mom n dad's fights :P
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over - planning to do this in 2009
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open - Do that even in bike
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived - And realized walking in railway tracks in not the smartest thing to do
105. Wrote articles for a large publication - Two of them, wish I was still doing that
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback - Do that often as I hate flashbacks
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol - At Marina beach
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse - Marina beach again
119. Had major surgery - root canal can't be called major naa
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period - After a walk to tirupathi
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about - About being a teetotaller :)
130. Gone back to school - And felt miserable at its current sate
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach (I stamped it accidentally! Eeeeeks!!)
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read - Don't ask me who it was
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - Felt horrible after that and did not touch meat for 3-4 months
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language - It was hilarious and awesome
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you - If lyrics is considered as art work
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair - Burgndy it was
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life - And felt happy that my blood is from the universal donors group

61.. .Hmm guess I have had an ok life!!. Left the tagging other's part as I thought it's too long a tag to be taken up with a smile :)... But have found people who can still do this with a smile, so I hereby tag Aparna, Swarna, Bhargavi and Vimmuuu. Read more!!

Train to Tambaram.

After putting up a post with the picture of a rather bloody railway station I decided to write something positive about my train experiences. The other trigger was my qucik trip to kerala. It was really quick, imagine spending 36 hours in travel and 5 hours in cochin. My back is still sore after the trip and given a choice I would have watched the latest Mike Myers movie thrice a day....

The most vivid and recent memories of train travel is the one I used to have to my previous company. It was a daily train travel to Tambaram [the first time I saw the board I read it as Tam-Bram as in tamil brahmin,too much influence of matrimonial sites you see :P], which lies in the outskirts of Chennai city.

Train travel has always been an enthralling experience for me, right from my days in kinder garden. You are advised not to go as far as the Jurassic age for this. I am quite young, just 5 years and a few months, the value of few being 275.

As a kid, traveling by train was a special occasion akin to a travel in a time machine. It came once a year during the summer vacation trip to my grandma's place. Innumerable sights and scenes fill me up - the noise of the screaming vendors, the hustle bustle of railway station, suitcases that come in different dimension, potpourri of unique co-passengers and much more.

Once inside the train the moving landscapes and the excitement to climb onto the top most berths were added incentives. The other memories which strike me are the innocence and trust while hearing wide eyed to my sister's stories about fifty men pushing and pulling the train from the platform for its move and halt, the greedy wish to buy everything selling on the platform and of course the earful I get from my mom after failed attempts to climb to the top berth. As I recall these, a nostalgic cloud surrounds me and makes me feel as old as a tortoise. Obviously while the journey up to my grandma's place was full of fun like a bullish investor, the return one was as sad as that of an investor run over by the bears and waiting for a bail out.

From an eight-hour journey in a 15 bogey express train to a thirty minutes journey in a nine compartment electric train, the differences do remain. But the soul is the same, be it the rattling ku-chiku sound, the smell of iron in my palms or the interesting characters I come across.

There had been occasions, which give bad experiences. Like this guy who dropped a huge sack- which many guessed had Mike Tyson in it- right on my leg and gave a reaction as though I had hurt his parcel. The girl who gave this bewildered here-is-the-most-wanted-serial-rapist look when I had just enquired for the name of the station which passed by or the obnoxious old man who was shocked to know I can read tamil while all along he was thinking I am an alien from a different galaxy. He started to correct each and every syllable I pronounced. It is a weird package indeed.

Yes accepted, the good things do come along in this package. Be it the cute and pretty girl who got onto the 8:12 AM train at my station and gives a small chuckle or the hot girl from who comes in the 8:00 train. It made my time schedule go as crazy as a tom cruise on the Oprah winfrey show.

Rarely, I did get a chance to travel with a bunch of pals from my training batch. The whole journey turns lively and is full of fun and banter, after the end of the party we used to take a resolution about group trip once a week. Ten days later a mail would peep out and remind us of our resolution. Life just went on like the train with joy and sorrow being the two tracks’. Oh! Am I getting philosophical here?

The funniest things in the trains are the stick-on ads. Paper ads stuck for sexual potency and to increase the size of manhood or to stay erect. Good lord!! Aren’t we folks obsessed with it? Yet we say no to sex education of kids. Hope they don’t learn that from these so called therapy quacks.

The train gets its primetime obviously when the students step in. With their group songs, meaningless jokes followed by loud hearty laughs and the graffiti on train walls...we can see some wonderful couplets like "unnai kandein ennai marandhein...un thangayai kandein unneya marandhein". A literal translation would be … I saw you and forgot myself...saw your sister and oh I forgot you! These couplets would be decorated with hearts and piercing arrows rented from Cupid and of course the couples’ name in the middle. It should be sheer coincidence that many times the guy’s name remains the same while the girl’s keep changing in every heart.

The atmosphere is radically opposite during the night times when none but the breeze keeps me company and sometimes a beat constable gets into the compartment to catch a small nap up to the next station. His loud, reverberating snores give the confidence to travel the distance alone. The station would have become the bedroom for the beggars and street urchins who owned it during the day. The otherwise old n weak lady who stands in the steps and pleads for mercy costing Rs.1 a pinch can be seen shouting and acting as the boss of the place, commanding folks and demarcating the borders for other legions. It’s a puzzle as to what kind of disease strikes her in the mornings to make her so weak and frail.

The street urchins who plead for something to be given can be seen smoking pot or some cheap drug with an air of supremacy about it. They do try out different styles and mannerisms to leave the smoke out of their lungs via the mouth, I am sure movie super stars can get some style lessons here.

The daily travel offered so many things to view, enjoy and relish yet I used to see folks immersing themselves in a book or their gizmos in a train...weird world.... I hope to continue my train travel saga with lots of interesting things for years to come.

A poem I came across

The rain streams across the window panes;
the hills loom sombre though the failing light;
the carriages sing steel along the rails;
the brooks rush brown and fierce through the fields;
autumn is torn to pieces by the storm;
night falls, and I am homeward bound.

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My Locality....

A Man’s home is where is money is made

This was the adage, which drove a whole generation of young men from Deep South of tamilnadu away from their homes to the city of promise – Chennai. My dad was not an exception. He was a central government employee, a species which used to top the matrimonial market with regards to demand and dowry,but thanks to influence of IT and the 6 digit earning programmers, they have totally lost out. My dad settled in the heart of Chennai with this central government job which gave a decent living, a good bride with a not-so-good dowry..err..kanya dhaan to be politically right. Thought I will pen down a few things about this locality in which I spent the first 14 years of my life.

It was not the affable adyar or the posh besant nagar, neither was it a cultural hub like Mylapore. It was a locality called Thousand lights, aayiram vilakku in tamil. Those who have been to Chennai may have noticed the huge thousand lights mosque near the anna flyover on your way to spencer’s plaza. Opposite to this huge mosque in those lanes, by lanes and cramped allies lies a place, which is home for more than a million people. Thousand lights is a place where people of different language, religion, culture and even race – its home to many Tibetans and srilankan refugees- live together.

The people, yes they are the most integral part of this locality. If not for them there would be nothing to speak about thousand lights and it would be yet another lower middle class locality.The most attractive section of the population are the local goondas whom even the cops dread..did I say dread..yeah only the cops dread them. We can see these goondas getting thrashed by the local lady vendors when they demand too much. What’s more interesting about them are their names. They had names like dolphin kumar, plastic pandu, iron ranga and so on. And the reasons for their names are a local folklore..like they used to say dolphin kumar possesses this sharp knife which can slice a dolphin into pieces with a single swish. No body can authenticate these stories, as the truth was lot funnier. In fact I personally knew the true story behind plastic pandu’s name. He was called so because the first FIR that was filed on him was for stealing plastic bucket from an old lady..so much for bravado… but ofcourse the folklore has a totally different story. Need to build the aura around them you see.

The locality was not just a residential one; it has its share of shops especially wine shops. In fact a friend of mine used to tell directions using these wine shops as landmarks. “Go straight you can see the Ponnu wines right? Take the road opposite to it after a 10metre walk there will be the aishwarya wines..take the right next to it, the street where you find karuna wines is the one you are asking for”.

Next to wine shops the other shops that were high in numbers were the teashops. You can call it cliché or stereotyping but somehow all these shops were owned by malyalees. And too add to the stereotyping all of them were addressed as nairs, just as how a person coming from any part of north india is called as set-ji. Of course these nairs had some titular differences like the munda banian nair, one legged nair, bald nair… It was a kind of fixed equation. Mallu tea shop owner = nair, even if they belonged to different religion..so we had Jacob nair , mohammad nair and also a nizzim nair. A jew who was a nair.

Then there was this small but vibrant Anglo Indian population. There were two good things about them. One is the way they live their lives, though they were not well to do they carry themselves with a Victorian elegance and lived life king size. Two, is the pretty Anglo Indian girls. I had a friend called Sharon, a very pretty little girl whose English I always used to admire. I had this misconception that Anglo Indians are rich folks getting monthly cheques from queen Elizabeth, all these misconceptions took a beating ..... One fine Saturday morning when I went to Sharon’s house, she was having her breakfast, but kind of covering and hiding it up and me being the curious cat was trying to peep in. At that time Sharon’s mom came in and seeing the cat and mouse game screamed at her “Sharon why cant you share it with that kid!!”..she called me into their 7x8 feet kitchen and gave porridge. I was totally enthralled..porridge!!!...I am gonna have some British breakfast. I took the bowl with a royal look and a body language which would have made Prince Harry feel like a rickshaw puller...to my utter shock, surprise and disgust what she had given me was old rice mixed in butter milk..something we call as pazhaya saadham in tamil…if this porridge had been served at my home the porridge along with the bowl would have been flying out of the window…but here I was gulping it down and exclaiming to Sharon… “the porridge of your mommy ..tastes so yummy ”

As said the thousand lights area had a huge mosque, so a noticeable number of Muslim families lived there. The best thing about the Muslims bred in thousand lights is their ability to fuse 3-4 languages and speak in it. An instance…. When me and my friend khaddar play cricket on the street his little sister used to call him for lunch from the balcony…the announcement goes something like “baayi ammi therey ko bulathi hein..soru daalna hein” so you had urdu[ammi], hindi[bulathi hein], and tamil[soru-rice]…they can speak for hours together is this dialect.

With folks of almost every religion and community living in my locality, there has never been the smallest communal clash in the area. A perfect locality where you can stand and scream “Mera Bharath Mahan”. Its not just we the kids of all communities play together even the adults socialized very well. Infact I know the ceremonies that happen in any Indian marriage a Hindu, Christian or a Muslim. Hats off to my locality which has taught me the biggest mantra in life religious tolerance – a concept very relevant today.

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