Cookery shows...

Please! I HAVE to write about this.. Dont stop me..
The smalll amount of television i see is when i am at home in chennai... Most of the stuff nowadays in TV makes me look at it from a hilarious angle, as i dont understand as to how artifical things can get....

Well, talking about cookery shows... One day, I was flipping channels, not able to stay in one for more than a minute, when my mom wanted to watch a particular cookery show...
These shows are pretty funny...

This is the place where you will get to see 'hand care' at its best!! ... be it well manicured, highly nail-polished hands or a whole bunch of designer hand ornaments.. its all there for the viewers... They know that their hands are going to be 'the focus of attention' throughout the show ......but i still wonder as to who would like to knead a sticky dough with 4 finger rings and 2 coats of nail polish on.... ;)

In these shows, you can clearly observe that the statement "Idhu panradhukku romba easy and odambukku nalladhu kooda..." ( Its easy to make and very healthy too...) will be repeated atleast a hundred times in the course of the show...
Even if they fry it in deep oil or add a liberal layer of cheese on top of what they are making, they will still pinpoint the 20mg of DAL which happens to be present in the content, and say that it has a LOT of protein it... or the stem of the vegetable which they have added will provide an lifelong supply of Vitamins .. or the milk which they have mixed will keep your bones strong even after you die...!!! :D well.. exaggerating...

One more thing which has to seriously BANNED from being said on these shows is "Kozhandhainga school lendhu vandha virumbi saaptuduvaanga... avangalukku romba pidikkum" ( When children return from school, they will really like to eat this stuff) For GOD's sake... its not only children who have to eat, in this world... even grown ups DO EAT..!!
They keep repeating that children will love it, and mention that they are adding every ingredient keeping in mind what children like...
And i really wonder if these people make this for their children when the kids get back home...

Last but definetely not the least, the 'garnishing/decoration' which they do, after they finishing cooking... Half a kilogram of whatever they make will be accompanied by another half a kilo or corriander, cashew, sliced cucumber,carrot,tomato and all such stuff on top of it... and at the end of it, you see a colourful end product, when it is focussed, and by the end of it, you end up forgetting what she had actually cooked... as it will be hidden, under the covers..err.. colours... And i bet all those 'extra' stuff will be treated as untochables after the show...

Theres one incorrigible show on one of our channels, wherein a team from the company which has sponsored the show comes on air, and they are served all the stuff which has been prepared and they taste it then and there.. The cameraman simply refuses to take them out of focus till they FINISH whatever is there in their plate/cup... !!
THE LIMIT I TELL YOU!! :)
Even as i am typing this i am ROTFL.... and hoping that situations would change, but still wonder as to how people put up with such consistent crap! :)

Well.. feel free to comment...i hope you will empathize.. :)

A tribute to Mukesh…

The days when I would go to sleep hearing old hindi numbers humming in low volume on Radio(on "Aap ki Farmaish") with the dim night lamp on, is still vivid in my mind. Thanks to my dad, I got to hear so much of it.



This time when I went home, my dad and me happened to see this particular programme on Doordarshan, about Mukesh, on his death anniversary.. Though I am a die-hard fan of Mohammed Rafi, nothing can stop me from penning down the songs of this legend, which has left deep impressions in the hearts of millions of people worldwide… including me...


In the old hindi music industry, which was dominated by Rafi, Kishore and Mukesh in the male voice segment, Mukesh has probably sung the lowest number of songs…(around 1200 songs…comparitively) in a span of 30 years… but the singer has carved a niche for himself very nicely..

Dad was telling me that mukesh is famous for what is called 'straight singing' where there is not many variations(brugas u call them..).. The songs are all plain and simple.. But what makes it so tough is that even a slight deviation from the tune/pitch will be clearly heard and 97 out of 100 people CANT maitain that even for a stanza, leave alone one complete song…

Even a person who has hardly listened to Mukesh, would have surely appreciated some of the following evergreen melodies at some point in their lives…

Chandan sa badan...
Amazingly melodious number… sung with a voice with very very less expressions… but will make you drool over the song, and make you listen to it a million times..By the time he sings 'Ho jaoon agar meinn deewana' I would have already become one…

Kabhi Kabhi mere dil mein…
Starts of with an elegant flute piece, and followed by the simple singing of Mukesh… Singing a romantic song WITHOUT added expressions and getting away with it and the song creating a fan following for him is somehting which is not done often…Seriously!
The song leaves an unimaginable impression… :) One of my all time favourites...

Awara hoon.. & Dil ki nazar se...
I am already running short of adjectives… These two songs beautifully bring out the base voice of the maestro.. Rendered in a highly simple style, He is simply unparallelled in such numbers…

Dil tadap tadap .. & Woh chand khila...
These two duets with Lata Mangeshkar are too cute and out of the world..contains equal parts sung by both… It’s a must listen folks…
Very very sweet to listen to…. :)

Kisi ke muskurahaton pe... & Mera Joota hai japani...
The song with no nonsense lyrics… And a nice foot tapping ,peppy number with nice pace… Gives a real nice feeling at the end of it…

Jis desh mein ganga behti hai..
Nice patriotic number… Have to listen to it to experience the proud feeling which surfaces from within...

The popular Ramaiyya Vastavaiyya... & Dum dum diga diga…
Nice ones which you can never ever get bored of….

Ek pyar ka nagma hai…
Must listen… a romantic duet with lata of the 70s… Very tough for anyone to even compose such a melodious tune...

And lots more…

I am actually listening to these songs as I am typing this…
At the end of it I wonder…. Man! this guy sings very very plain and simple! He projects emotions in such a raw and unpolished manner... How the hell did I fall… Hmmm…

I realize...
Its a magical voice.. which has got a mysterious mellifluous sweetness associated with it..
Cant think of ANY other possible explanations… Probably these are what you call 'mystic melodies' ;)

A tribute in my small way... :)


Ps: Even if you cant listen to all of them, I request you to listen to atleast the first two in the list from one of the online music sites… Really worth the time spent, and you will end up appreciating simplicity which is in its best form...

They take you places...dont they!

As I was reading the blog of one of my friend(Sudheer), who had written about the "Economics of transaction with an autowala…" There are a lot of thought provoking issues which one comes up with, when they realize the common patterns in most autowalas in the country.. Be it madras or bangalore…or wherever…



1. He decides the destination…
Not difficult to see such kind of auto drivers…
We: Nungambakkam?
Autodriver: I am going to Tnagar…
( as if we asked him his plans for the day..!!!! )

2. They demand both the to and fro fare, for you to travel one way….
We: (at Koramangala...) Electronics city….?
AutoDriver: Electronics city… very far away madam… I have to return back home all the way madam… double meter….
( We argue and finally settle for 1.5 times the meter rate, as we also feel that it is in the outskirts.. )

Some other day..
We: ( at Electronics city…) Koramangala…
AutoDriver: 1.5 rate madam…
We: Why the hell? You are going to the main city area only right…?
AutoDriver: No madam, we are this area autodrivers… Have to come back all the way…
( Too much!!!!!!!!)

3. Even a small news item in the newspaper about a 'possible' oil price rise in Saudi, could result
in he demanding atleast 5 bucks more per kilometer, and even if you try to argue a little, your
day will be made miserable with his groanings and complaints…

4. In bangalore, the auto meters are set to run at 1.5 rate before 7:30 am and after 9:00 pm… If you happen to get into the auto at 8:45 pm for a half hour ride, then the driver will demand that you pay 1.5 times the rate as by the time you reach the destination, the time would cross 9 o clock!!
After so much of argument, you get into the auto, and after 2 minutes, you wonder as to whether the autowala had put the meter after you got in.. Or it was already running… anyways for the first few minutes you will see that it will show a standard "10 rupees" only… so one cant differentiate… Mental tension all the way...

5. Travelling that last mile…
Not actually a mile :), but the last 100-200m ...
The worst part of the journey, I would say… Obviously we don’t tell the autowalas everything from the door number of our house, to take us there… Suppose we say "17th main" and your house happens to be in the middle or end of 17th main, you are done!! From the time he sees the board reading '17th main' till he takes you to your house, he will ensure that he drives at a mere 2 kmph and keeps cribbing that you are exploiting him and making him cover more distance than what he had expected… You have to console him everytime, and say that we are almost there.. we are almost there....

Pheww!! All this for you paying your hard earned money…. But whatever... they've become our lifeline.. :)

Do you need reasons to send e-cards?

When I logged on to this 123india.com site, to send a card to my friend, I had the most hilarious experience of scannning through
the "events" calendar which had almost everyday of the year, with a special(crappy) event attached to it..


To be noted that they have cards for each and every occasioon they have mentioned in the calendar…
I was literally ROFTL when I read them…

A selected few abmormal events, from the entire list...

jan 17th - ditch your new year resolution day (wow! Even before jan ends??)
jan 24th - beer can appreciation day
jan 29 - bugglegum sculpture day (heights of creativity!!)


feb 4th - homemade soup day
feb 11th - grandmother achievement day
feb 19th - temporary insanity day (too much….)
feb 27th - polar bear day


march 1st - pig day
march 3rd - i want you to be happy day (Oh no...)
march 12th - departmental store day


april 3rd - chocolate mousse day
april 4th - "tell a lie" day (right royally?? )
april 5th - bell bottom day
april 15th - rubber eraser day
april 17th - nosy neighbour appreciation day (I like this one a lot.. Don’t now why.. ;) )

may 13th - frog jumping day
may 15th - flip your mattress day

june 15th - a friend in need is a friend indeed day
june 15th - sneak a kiss day
june 29th - remote control day

july 14th - cow appreciation day
july 31st - jump for jelly beans day


august 7th- lighthouse day
august 11th - grab some nuts day
august 19th - soft icecream day
august 25th - kiss and make up day
august 26th - toilet paper day
(Aaaaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhhh…. The limit!!! )

Apart from these, you have other days like
Get it over day
Turn up the heat day
Step in a puddle and splash your friend day
Eat something raw day
Penguin awareness day
Rubber band veteran day


k people... Tomorrow (August 23rd ) is "hug your sweetheart" day... so enjoy..
but please dont fail to visit this site incase of any clarification for celebration...

Speaking of insurance…..

There was this presentation on Medical Insurance at office by some guy from a top insurance company with which our insurances have been taken…
The guy was was really good at what he wanted to say.. and this is what happened...

Insurance guy(Agent): We are from blah blah insurance commpany.. We are glad that we got an opportunity to present in front of you people.. Blah blah….

Agent: We cover illness, accident and maternity stuff…. And by accident, I mean anything and everything which is mentioned under the oxford dictionary as the meaning of accident… (Wow!!) For eg. Even if you slip and fall in the bathroom, it is an accident…
** Wow.. If u jus slip and fall and produce some fake bills, they cover you ? **


Agent: But remember these ground rules.. We cover you only under 2 conditions Number1: You should necessarily be hospitalized for 24 hours .... Number 2: The doctor should diagonize some illness/disease or major complication….
**Ooooh .. Ok ok.. **

Agent: And see.. You cant fool us… If you walk into any hospital and tell them you want to do some tests and hence and you want to get admitted, they will be too glad to admit you, as all they want is money.. You get admitted… and they make all tests and your bill comes to around 15,000 bucks.. And then the doc looks at the report and says that you are completely fit and fine…. Then in that fit and fine condition, you need to bear the entire bill.. We wont pay it for you…
**Huh… all plans spoiled! **

Agent: The eligibility for the employees of this company is Airconditioned/Non airconditioned room…. There are two hospitals in the city which have special suites which is almost half the size of this hall… In case you want to take that up, then we pay part of the cost and you bear the remaining…
**One guy is very interested about this suite thingie… so he asks..**
"How much percent will you bear.." and a lot other questions related to it…

Agent: Sir, you generally don’t go to a hospital for vacation… You want to get out of that place as quickly as possible, so generally the suite doesn’t make a difference.. (everyone laughs) Anyways, we bear 80% of the charges…
But the ground rules are.. should be hospitalized for 24 hrs… and diagonized for illness/disease...blah blah…
**we know we know…**

Agent: One more thing… you are free to drink and drive, but we wont cover u if you meet an accident in the process…. (giggles..) or atleast get a report from the doc saying that there was no alcohol in the blood… :)

**the ppt now displays a long list**
Agent: these are the conditions we cover… ( goes on reading every type of diesase/illness ) **ugghh..**
But again , the ground rules…
**aaarrgh...ok…ok… these rules are kinda becoming our anthem...**

Agent: And these are the things we don’t cover…
**another list comes up… felt sick**

Agent: Incase of accidents, for loss of limbs, we have different rates… If you lose a hand, you get back the insurance amount, ...Even in case of a finger, different lengths of finger amputated will have different amounts… the doc has to say that -"the person is amputated to x%" and accordingly we will reimburse…
**Please continue the cannibal talk! Feels great when I listen to cutting limbs...** ugh..

After the presesntation got over, we were walking back, when my HR smiles and asks me -"How was the presesntation?"
Me: "Uggh… kinda feeling sick already… will they reimburse me something for a sick feeling?.. Oh no… How can I forget the ground rules.. !"
;)

About school days....

Well.. Decided to blog about my school memories.. Certain interesting ones here and there right from the age of 3, which have left unerasable trails in my memory… Most incidents pretty funny, but nostalgic…
Year-wise if I start narrating all that I remember about me at school…

Lower Kinder Garden …
We had these small cute colourful chairs and tables of various shapes.. The whole class was filled and decorated with fun stuff! How I wish it stayed that way till the end of our schooldays…

In this particular class, I was known for not keeping my bag on the floor.. Till date, I don’t like to do it… I was told that inspite of my teacher asking me to keep it down, everyday, I never did it, and always had it on my lap… :D
When my grandma used to come and pick me up after school, Ms Yasmine(my teacher) used to tell her -"She safeguards her bag as if she's got lots of gold inside! "
This was LKG…

In UKG, I remember this incident when, half way through the year, our teacher didn’t turn up to school for almost a weeks' time… In school assembly, they announced that Ms Bella, my teacher, was to undergo an operation…
I got so disturbed on hearing that, that immediately after I reached home, I went and sat in the corner of the room with God's photo in front of me, and cried so much and prayed really hard that god should save Ms Bella and she should be back in school..
My grandma kept asking me as to why I was crying but I didn’t tell her a thing... Infact she was a terror as she was known for beating children, with a wooden scale on their knuckles, if they talk in class… She came back in two weeks time…
Was so glad to see her...

Class 1, we had an interesting dance for our School annual day, called the 'Angel Dance'.. I was one of the 10 tiny ones selected for it.. We had a full and flowing dress, in different colours, and they gave us netted wings too… The wings were pretty heavy for me to carry, and it was bigger than me, at that time… Even when I look at that photo of mine, now, I cant stop smiling as to how sweet/comical it was…
I used to fall sick very often, and my teacher Ms Regina Louis name me 'Delicate Darling' at that time… the name failed to leave me till the time I left school…
My absence record in my diary used to overflow with "Cold and Fever" and nothing else…

Class 2, we had Ms Girija, who taught us hindi also… She used to write the letters of the hindi alphabet in such a big font size on the board that I used to be scared of sitting in the first row and even look at them…. But she knew how to manage an unruly bunch of kids…
This was the year when I developed my 'crow phobia' … One day, when I was with my friends during lunch time, a crow flew towards me and took away my lunch… I was terrified by that incident, that TILL DATE, I am extremely scared of crows!!!!!!!! :(

Class 3 and 4, there was Ms Tereza Fernandez, who was an angel in disguise… They way she carried herself, the patience with which she taught us, and her polite and affectionate nature etc etc was more than enough to make her our favourite teacher…
She gave me the "Best Behaviour" award for that academic year… :D I don’t call her an angel, because of that.. ;) Jus tha only one angel can identify another… :p

Class 5 was Ms Joyce, who was not my favourite… She was the kind who was partial and totally biased towards a particular community…
One incident which affected me a lot - We generally sit in the order of our grades/rank , in our class , while receiving the report card from our principal… I used to be in the top 5, and once after the half yearly exam results were announced, and we were waiting for the princi, she pointed to one particular girl sitting in the row at the back, and told her, "You could have performed better than her! Try to do it the next time" It really hurt…but I resolved to do better... And when I finished school and after class 10 and 12, bagged awards, and I went to her and showed them all, as we generally do it to all the teachers who have taught us… She
was in all praises, and said that she was proud that I was her student.. I was happy to hear that from my teacher… :)

Class 6, was fun, as we had a new class teacher every week… Every teacher left after a weeks' time.. Don’t know why, but it we had different versions of geography and biology everytime,,, ;)

We were this unfortunate lot who had their classrooms immediately adjacent the Teachers' staff room…. Thus even a small amount of noise (read: having fun) is enough to bring a teacher to our class… we were branded as the "Unruly class"

The first half of school life was lot of fun… It was the age of crayons and sketch pens…Age when you sit with dad and help him cover all your new notebooks and books with laminated sheets and write names on labels… enjoy the smell of fresh paper from notebooks.. gape at the pictures in the new text books..

Age when we used to go gaga over pencil boxes with pianos and buttons (press buttons to open every segment of the box, which contains erasers, sharpeners etc)…
It was the age of School bags with Clocks and squeezy water bottles…
Age when you graduate from pencils to pens…

Hmmm… Memorable days.. Weren't they?? :)

From mehndi to body painting….

The 'Annual/Family day' of my company was held at Club Cabana, a chill away place in the outskirts of Bangalore! The whole day was filled with fun and frolic, and I got to try some out of the ordinary stuff…

Mehndi…
Mehndi (or Marudhaani, it is called in tamil) is one of my all time favourites.. My perima(aunt) has a huge marudhaani plant in their house, and she makes sure that she picks fresh leaves from there, grinds it and gives it to me whenever I go to their place..

The sheer joy of seeing that bright maroon thing on your hand is simply unexplainable..


The south indian way of applying mehndi is not like what is done up north.. We have no designs as such.. Theres a big circle, surrounded by smaller ones, and caps(we call it..) at the end of the fingers… Even such a simple design, in its bright colour is an amazing contrast to the hand….

Pattu paavaadai (silk skirts..the kaancheepuram one..) and marudhaani, used to be the rage! And how we to retain it for longer hours than the other person, so that it becomes darker…

Back in college, I won a mehndi competition too… not for applying.. :D The girl who made the design on my hand won a prize too.. But I got it for 'The best hand suited for mehndi' hee hee.. Seriously!! Believe it or not! :)

At Club Cabana, there were professionals.. And I got this arabic design done.. Cute isnt it…





Body Painting...
First experience in this area was when my face was painted by Nithya, at the IIMB culturals.. She did an amazing job and had a superb theme too… Now don’t ask me whether I won 'the best face to be painted' award… The best, we felt was the 'chinki' face, its perfectly flat, and has lot of area on which u can paint without any hassle.. :)

At club cabana, there were funky things being painted on peoples' cheeks and hands.. Grown ups had everything from skulls to scorpions and flowers.. All the kids wanted either a pokemon, spiderman or power puff girls… Almost the entire crowd had something or the other…

And I decided to get my Zodiac painted..
I am too attached to this 'piscean' thing that I asked him to paint two fishes in the opposite direction.. He did it so well, that I couldn’t stop admiring it… Here it is…

I wish the pic showed all the perfect and intricate painting strokes which he made in this particular piece of art… It was really nice that he matched the colours of the fishes with those in my t-shirt.. In short, it was nothing short of being Cute and cool… :)

Didn’t have the heart to wash the paint off… The next day, took care to see that it doesn’t get affected during bath, but inspite of being very careful, a bit of it got scraped off... And hence I took the entire thing off… :(

Waiting to get a tattoo done next time… :D

Early bird gets the worm??

This is one of my favourite calvin strips… :D Had an overdose of Calvin last night, and when I came across this fav one of mine, I resolved to write my next blog about something related to this..



I have become a real sleepy head nowadays… Probably compensating for the lack of sleep in the last 2 years of my post graduation…

The workplace being near the house, is also a major contributing factor for this lazy attitude of mine.. Have seen my friends giving envious glances, as they have to travel for quite a distance, and if they miss their office bus/cab, it takes an Arabian nights 'magic carpet' to take them there, crossing all traffic jams …

Well, this is my rigourous process of waking up... ;)

One thing I religiously do everyday, is to set the alarm at 7 before going to bed.. :D Whether it is of ANY use at all, will be known later in this blog…

Alarm set in the phone, rings….

Me refuse to open my eyes, my hand automatically going to the place where I generally keep it.., make a few attempts to pick it up if it had got displaced from its ideal position… and then with a wicked grin, still with my eyes closed, I think -
"Hee, Hee, I command you to ring everyday at this time.. But do you think I do it becoz I want to get up??.. Not at all !! … sorry.. Its jus to take that guilty feeling off me, and to make myself feel that I atleast 'attempted' to get up… :D, So I shall the put you in the snooze mode, buddy…ring again later.."

The alarm rings for the second time after 10 minutes…

"I know that you are obedient! But pleeeeeeeeeeeease! Let me sleep for some more time….
:( I shall set you to ring at 7:45.. That’s a decent time to get up.. Isnt it?"

Feeling satisified that I wont be disturbed for another half an hour, I doze off again..

Rings after half an hour..
Hmmm.. Now I have no other go! I need to wake up, but still make some brave attempts of convicing myself that I 'could possibly' … err.. Ok ok.. Now I get up…

As soon as I come out of my rug, I get the feeling that the eskimos have conquered my room along with their igloos…!!!!

"Its so damn cold at this hour! How the hell can someone expect me to get up and get ready??? Totally unfair"…

So I snuggle back under my rug..Then I send a 'good morning' message to my friend who is already on the way to office… When I explain this 'unfair' situation, I get a "How-the-hell-do-you-think-I-get-ready?" reply...
Ok.. Ok.. Wrong person to complain to...Then I get mocked as to how lazy I am nowadays… By this time, I am fully awake…

I get ready in around 45 minutes…Only to find my roommate STILL fast asleep, coz she has to leave only at 10:30 for office… So I wake her up.. In a sleepy tone, she says- "Itni jaldi taiyaar ho gayi tu?" Me in a total bragging mood - "Yeah! Of course.. U thought I was like you.?? Never! " ;)

Now, taking advantage of the fact that she doesn’t know a thing about my waking up process, I play this 'active-girl role' and call her names (Aalsi anshul, lazy leo.. Blah blah.. ) Make statements like 'even god cant save u if u are such a lazy goose' … taunt her to the maximum extent possible… ;)
And get totally entertained by the statements which she makes in a 'half asleep' condition! And remember them, add some masala and again pull her leg in the evening about all that she said…

At the end of the day, I am the early bird ! (err.. Atleast in my house….) ;)
and the worm??? Reaching office on time..! "Big Incentive!" huh..
;)

"Of soaps, and all the hype that surrounds…"

"Tulsi is not going to die .. !" screamed the headines on one of the major news websites….
Wow.. What an electrifying news I thought…

Who is this tulsi…

Someone who fought for the rights of tribal population somewhere, went against the law and had been sentenced to death and her supporters are protesting that such a thing shouldn’t be meted out to a noble soul like her?

Or was it someone who has stood up for some noble cause in controlling some epidemic and prevented a catastrophe somewhere in the world, and in the process got infected with some grave disease and is finally cured…


Hmmm…Well… realized that there is no use thinking about such accomplishments in anything related to what our news websites have to say… She is tulsi….




Now u get the picture? Tulsi is a character in KSBKBT … and for those who havent heard this world famous acronym.. It stands for "Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi…. " ok.. Now u know..

The news item, from mumbai, was about this character being diagonised with lung cancer (in one of the episodes), and there was apparently a rumour that she was going to die, and wouldn’t appear hereafter..

The website said- "home viewers were shocked out of their couched stupor" and "viewers went into collective dismay.The major soap minus its protagonist was Inconceivable and unimaginable"

Give me a break! I thought.. Arent there better things to protest about? Why not protest for the poor municipal infrastructure which which came to light due to the heavy rains there? Why not protest against the hard earned tax payers money( 33% of the nations' which comes from mumbai) not being used for the public property and facilities?

Ok.. Even if u don’t want to protest about all this, going into a "collective dismay and anger" n all, for some rumor about a person dying in a soap, is really really tooo much!!!!!!!

More interesting information given in the article, about this character.. Guess, previously, tulsi had been pregnant gone through a lot of crises and lost all her memory and then, she totally revived from all that…
So the actor says that - "when people have seen things like that, accepting this should be a Cakewalk… "
( read: when people have taken extreme amounts of unimaginable crap before, this seems to be lesser crap to me..)

In one more popular soap called "jassi jassi koi nahin" (sumthing like that..) a news item about the special "wedding episode" of Jassi is being aired on someday… the channel has a special designer for the occasion and she says - " the wedding outfit is a pink lehenga choli with an aqua-orange dupatta. It weighs around 5 kgs, comprising exquisite embroidery and
zardozi work, crystals and semi-precious stones." (total extravagance! for nothing at all..)

And moreover there are celebrities like abhijeet sawant, mandira bedi etc 'blessing' the show with their presence…

** not talking**

As I write this, I can visualize my grandma in front of the tv, watching the 5th or 6th soap for the day, but one thing I know for sure that atleast, she is not the one who goes to the extent of protesting, if some girl tripped and fell down the stairs and is in the hospital…

Hmmm...
Wheres all this leading???? **wondering… **

Annoying yet entertaining ...

Scene 1:
Venue: Citibank ATM, Jaynagar
I am about to enter the ATM place to withdraw some cash..
I see a group of men crowding right at the door..
Me wondering whats wrong.. Thought process wanders from every place right from thinking whether the ATM machine has run out of cash , to, whether some burglary/ security breach has happened there…
Later I realize that they are Citibank agents, marketing credit cards..
I try to get past them and gain entry, when I am stopped…

Agent: Ma'am, we are offering a life time free …. (** I go deaf **)
( I am sick and tired of this "life time free" concept that even if someone actually offers me life time free supply of haldirams or toblerone, I might jus not listen...)


Me: I already have a card, thank you..
A: No ma'am, I don’t think you will be having a life time free … ( I am again irritated...)
Me: I do have a LIFE TIME FREE card Sir, which jus happened to arrive to my address through post, when I hadnt even asked for it..
A: Ma'am but you could try this one.. Its got other advantages like.. Blah.. Blah..
Me: No.. Thanks… Can you please leave way…
Hes kind enough to let me enter the ATM…

After cash withdrawal, I come out, thinkin about how my expenses were growing.. And suddenly I am stopped at the door..
The same agent again..!
A: Ma'am, you could try this life time free…. ( Aaaaaarrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhh )
Me: ( really pissed off, and in a literal pleading mode..) I thought you jus asked me when I entered…
A: ( smiling..) Yes ma'am, I jus gave it a try, incase you had changed your mind..
Me: ** didn’t know how to react ** Please… I have enough number of cards, which I hardly use.. I DON’T NEED ONE MORE..
Guess he took pity on me and let me go…
A: Ok ma'am..


Scene 2:
Venue: My cubicle in office…
I am totally engrossed in fixing a bug which was to go in the next product release…
Some change which I made to the original fix I had given was causing some problem, and I was trying to revert the changes and getting it to work, when the phone rings….

I pick up the phone but continue looking at the code…
Me : Yeah ( asm_t_varp->NLMUnload = TRUE; )

Voice : Ma'am, i am calling from Manhattan..
Me : yeah.. ( asm_t_varp->Quit = TRUE; )

Voice: blah... blah…
Me : what did u say.. ( Shit man! All flags set.. Still this damn thing not working.. Now let me look the other function... )

Voice: blah blah….
Me: yeah….

Voice: ok ma'am then can we send our agent to your office, Today or tomorrow ?
Me: For what??!?!?!??!?!?!?!?! ** all of a sudden becoming alert to what was happening.. **

Voice: You jus said you needed a loan ma'am…
Me: What the hell.. What loan…???!?
Guess she started all over again..

Voice: We have selected you for a pre approved loan…
Me: Wow! I was selected?? Great! And what were the parameters you had, to 'select' me? ( you dial all extension numbers in my floor in sequence and tell them that they are selected? )
Voice: No ma'am, your colleagues have recommended you and your salary certificate, length of stay in the company etc ma'am
Me: Hmm.. Interesting criteria… ( I myself am yet to receive my first pay slip thru mail… been here as an employee for jus a month.. !! )

Voice: So ma'am.. There are a lot of advantages of choosing us.. Blah blah…
I interrupt her in between..
Me: You are more irritating than the bug which is buggin me here!!
Voice: Ma'am?
Me: Nothing… I don’t need it …. Pleaaaase…!

Voice: Thank you ma'am.. Shall call you after a few weeks…
Me: For what?????????? I don’t need it.. I'll get back if I do… please don’t call…please…
Voice: ok..

Phew! Marketing people kill you.. Don’t they !!!! :)

A great cook is born....

She never entered the kitchen all her life… She didn’t find the necessity… And moreover her mom didn’t allow her to… She knew nothing about the specific constituents which went into her food… She couldn’t differentiate the different kind of dals, she found she was better off doing C programming... She was the object of ridicule of her friends, when it came to cooking.., and once when asked by them as to whats required to make something as basic as idlies, she replied - "just soaked rice", only to realize that even most of the guys knew that there was soaked dal which went along with it… :p


After she left home for bangalore, again there was no opportunity for her to cook… Amidst the hectic academic schedule, all that needed to be done was make a trip to the cafeteria for lunch and dinner.. But jus like any other amateur cook, she could boast that she could make maggi…

After quite some time, on her friends' birthday, to make the occasion special, she made payasam(kheer)... but there was nothing great about it, as it was a ready to make one… In the process, she didn’t know when the milk would boil overflow, and slightly burnt her fingers in the process..But it was really worth the effort, as it tasted pretty good and her friend loved it! :)

She was this confident female who thought that nothing was very difficult to achieve… So during one of the trips to chennai, she told her mom that she wants to learn to cook… Her mom was kind of shocked to hear that, but at the same time was glad that she had atleast given a thought to cooking..

She wanted to cook on her own.. She thought she will take her mom's guidance whenever necessary.. She gave a "here-i-come" look as she entered the kitchen, knowing that she would master the art.. And if she had even a small part of her mom's genes, she would do a wonderful job…

Her cousin gave her a call.. He said he would come home to see her, as it was real long time since they met up… She invited him for dinner and said that she would be cooking… He said he was reconsidering his plan of coming home, then… ;)

She commenced...opened the cook boook… scanned it to see as to what she would cook… decided on 'peas pulav' …Methodically cut all the vegetables required, occasionally getting instructions from mom as to how to cut, with which knife etc…Then she followed the instruction from the book perfectly, and started making the dish… Her pre-conceived notion of kitchen work being tiresome and sweaty was proved wrong.. She moved around with sophistication and confidence and did things as if she was an expert..

Towards the end of the process, the aroma of the peas pulav made her feel on top of the world.. Her first creation.. She was desperately waiting to taste it… And as it cooled a bit, she made onion raitha to go along with it… Then she tasted her masterpiece.. Wow! It was amazingly tasty ! :) She thought she could give the peas pulav at 'Gramin' a run for its money.. :D Here it is….




(You cud click on the pic to enlarge... :D)

She couldn’t stop talking about how good it was.. Everyone at home, including her cousin tasted it, and said that it was nothing short of amazing and it had exceeded expectations, and the entire thing was finished off in no time… But they still wonder as to how, this person, who has never entered the kitchen, managed such a good job…! She never failed to take a pic of her maiden attempt.. When her friends, who didn’t get an opportunity to taste it, saw the pic, questions like -"Pic looks nice, but who knows who cooked it? " and "Whats the guarantee that it tasted as good as it looks" kind of questions… But at the end of it all…

A great cook is born… All the Mallika badrinaths and Sanjeev Kapoors… watch out… :D


Psst... The 'she' referred to all this while is none other than ME (if you havent realized...)!! :D

The Demonizing Cold (acchoooo… Excuse me..)!

Whats life without cold! It has become an integral part part of my life that if I DON'T catch a cold atleast two times a week, it means something is terribly wrong with me and I need to consult a doctor… Thanks to my classical music classes and my guru, for the major part of my life, I had abstained from cold stuff…And now, all of a sudden in the last few years, if I expect my body to put up a brave fight against the virus… poor thing, its helpless…


Last couple of years came the usual hanging out with friends, hundreds of coffee day trips and ice cream parlours etc.. And after each of these events, it could be proclaimed beyond doubt that I will land up coughing and sneezing, the next day… And Cetrizine came to my rescue most of the time… Pop one cetrizine and the cold is gone..! Though I claim that I don’t take alcohol...the quantity of Benadryl(cough syrup which contains alcoholic content too...) consumed in my life time is enough to send any big time boozer to a dizzy state… well… that’s an exaggeration.. :)

My mom always prefers natural stuff to allopathy… hence thanks to my grandma and mom, I have been fed with enough shoots, barks and leaves… well now that I am well equipped to handle these situations...I can survive without any hassle even if I am stranded in a forest..!! The traditional 'kashaayam' which my grandma makes is very effective.. But its kinda bitter and hence she adds lots of sugar to it and somehow used to make me drink it 3 times a day! And her statement- 'All that is good for the tastebuds is not good for health' is so true most of the times..All our pizzas, bhel puri's icecreams etc… But comeon… we don’t belong to mountain community to eat such stuff all the time… I can hear people say.. "Prevention is better than cure" .. but it jus doesnt happen that way always.. does it.. missing all the fun in life.. so its better to search for a cure, in this case.. ;)

Even when I came to bangalore, I was so worried as to what would substitue all the pampering I was subjected to… And along with my luggage, mom (advised my grandma) packed 6 - 8 medium sized boxes, containing stuff ranging from pepper(which is known to control cough.. Believe me..its so effective..!! ), panan kalkandu (which is also an effective remedy for cold..) , turmeric (which I have always had with milk, which is supposed to be good for the throat.. Especially when it comes to singing..)and lots of other things which I don’t even remember the names of… Since my fav 'Cetrizine' has come under the banned drug category(the papers say...) it is the godsend 'Samahan' which is what I majorly consume nowadays..(Its some ayurvedic powder which contains an extract of 14 herbs which can be added to water/milk and consumed… that’s whats written on the packet!! ) Pretty effective…

And to put an end to this by boosting my immunity level to cold, I decided to take homeopathy medicines(for 5 months..), which is kind of permanent cure..But the major headache being that there are different 'powders' and sugar balls to be taken religiously 6 times in a day! :-O …(early morning, before going to bed, half hour before lunch and after lunch… half hour before dinner and after dinner..!)
Give me a break! I thought initially.. Sometimes I even forget to have my lunch/dinner.. Then comes this half an hour before and after thingie.. But to gain something, u need to sacrifice something else.. In this case sacrifice my irresponsible behaviour and have meds on time! Well.. Reminders in phone work pretty well.. ;)

Lifes a lot better now, and strong piscean intuitions tell me that permanent freedom is jus a few months away.. :)

Ode to my phone....

As I sit on my bed, wondering what I should pen down, before I sleep, I look at my new phone which lies next to me. Me went back in memory lane.. was reminded of my old phone...that was a really really special thing...
It entered my life on the 29th of May 2003, when I was just preparing to leave for Bangalore, going away from home for the first time.. It was a Nokia 3315! Nowadays, these old/obselete models are looked at with a lot of contempt that no one would even like to accept it for free as their second phone(except for people who still own it before they change.. ). But at that time it was real special! And moreover it was extra special as I had got it with a part of my engineering scholarship money.! Took a hutch connection at that time, and still faithful to the same number and connection!

My phone was such a darling thing to me that I couldnt even imagine spending an hour without it. The time when local smss were free in Hutch, for almost a year's time, my phone was subjected to brutal torture and Nazi treatment I should say, with 'hi' 's to even the next room exchanged strictly through sms only! And the hundreds of hours spent talking over the phone, Poor thing.. it had to put up with all that..
How many times has it faithfully woken me up during exam times and forgiven me and kept snoozing every ten minutes even if i hit it in anger when the alarm i had set in it, rung...
How many times I had choked its memory with messages and finally had to make tough decisions as to which special message can I afford to delete...
How I had to subject it to double work whenever I had sent messages, by asking for delivery reports..
How many times I cause pain to it by pressing its keys, and it gives me nice little characters in return,,,
How many times I had made it reset its Total Call Duration value, as it ran out of digits..How many times I had tried my hand at composing awful tunes that it had to bear with...
How many birthday's has it promptly reminded me of, making so many of my friends feel special.. One thing I have never exploited my phone with, is, by playing games.. vaguely remember seeing something like Bantumi and Snakes or something.. :)
Cannot forget as to how its calculator helped me in the finance exam, when I forgot to take one on that day...(Ok.. ok.. i can hear people say "For gods sake, ANY phone is supposed to do all this..but still... my phone is special...) :D
I loved my phone..I adored it.. Ask anyone associated with me as to how proud I was to own that instrument,..even after the keypad showed signs of ageing, and could work properly only after excess pressure application...
I liked it even when the down arrow used to make the screen scroll upwards, and thus me having to read every multiple screen message in the reverse way( scroll 5. 4. 3. 2. read 1st page.... then scroll 5.4.3. read 2nd page etc... ) ...
I loved it even when a vowel key didnt work and i had to kindle the usage of brain for guessing, in those people who were reading my messages. I refused to part with it even as my friends begged me to change it, as they felt that it might land up in some museum... Then one day when it had dutifully reminded me of my cousin's birthday at 12, and i tried to call her, the main 'CALL' button simply refused to work, and I was for the first time kind of irritated and spent almost 10 minutes trying to press keys properly..
Then with no option left, I removed the outercase and the keypad cover, and pressed the key directly..Ah.. it worked beatifully..By now it was looking like a hero of an AI movie,hmm.. more like an Intel chipset... and still looked fundu to me.. :D And then used it for a few days like that..
I changed its case.. then... Friend: "Oh good! So you finally changed the phone.. ?Good Good :) "
Me(with a big grin...) "No.. No..jus the case.." Friend: "Oh No.. you are incorrigible..!"
But then,slowly, the ageing factor played a major part,with the battery.. So finally I took THAT decision.. The decision to give my dear thing away..
I let 29th of May 2005 pass as it as it celebrated its 2nd birthday with me.... And on the 30th I went to the Nokia dealer to get it exchanged... People passed comments like "If you want to exchange this phone, then you might end up paying him excess for him to have this phone.." or "Its an antique piece, so it might fetch a lot of money! "
But even as it left me, it did so much of good.. The dealer checked the phone, he wanted to check the volume of the phone and played a few ringtones.
It sang clear and real loud with all its glory....It never let me down... He was impressed..
Then he asked me whether the battery when charged would last for 2-3 days.. I replied with a confident "Ya.. Ya.." and thought to myself about its actual state where it would last for 5-6 hours if I charge it the whole night! He said he will exchange it for 1000 bucks! Whoa... That was real good!
My phone surely deserves it, I thought.. Comeon.. any hardworker deserves recognition... :D My friends were shocked to hear the news.. Till date they wonder as to how the hell the dealer gave a 1000 whole bucks for my phone!! :D Well... my reply .. "I told you.. my phone is the best....You never believed when I said that.." :)
Bottomline....I love my phone...! :D :-*

From BTM to E-City

Had to travel from my place at BTM, to electronics city, where I had to go and get my "no dues" done ( an essential part of college life when leaving..)
Events in a nutshell….
-> only one particular bus could take us to e-city.. 373!
-> waited for sometime in the signal, greedily hoping to get the bus there,instead of walking to the bus stop (I can hear some of my friends say "Anniyan avadharithu vittan…! :D)
-> Hundreds of Infosys buses pass by…...
-> not even a single 373 is seen…


-> frustrated, I suggest that we take a bus which will drop us at Bommanahalli and take a connecting bus from there…
-> bus crowded, moves inch by inch… takes 20-25 whole minutes to reach silk board(distance of 1 km)
-> jus when u think the bus has started to move, it stops..!!
-> god has indeed blessed BMTC bus drivers with a lot of patience..! Else they wud all be at NIMHANS by now.. ( for those who don’t know, nimhans is the bangalore eqiuvalent of namma kilpauk!! )
-> I put on my earphones...to add to the irritation, radio city plays "god-knows-from-where-the-got-this-song" kind of music!
-> I pull them out, and decide to resume after sometime for some better music..
-> Since I had so much time n nothing to do, I even ragged the conductor as to why he gave me an Rs 8 ticket when it’s a Rs 6 ticket generally… he also needed some time pass I guess, and gave me lengthy lengthy explanations… (half of which I couldn’t understand..) and finally said.. "rise in the price of ticket due to petrol price rise , madam! " I didn’t want to drag it beyond that… I kept quiet...
-> We get down at bommanahalli, we wait at the signal there for a connecting bus, and we see half the bangalore junta waiting for the bus at the signal only… !!
-> Scores of infy buses pass by, packed with employees… and they are promptly stopped at the signal and by the traffic police standing there….
->Infy employees looking out of the window, and giving "poor-things!-they-look-lost" kind of looks!!
-> And finally when one BMTC which is capable of carrying normal population appears after almost 5 whole minutes, the police guy waves and asks the bus to not stop at the signal, but proceed…
-> Now we are totally pissed off !!!
-> This "infy-bus-stopped" and "bus-which-we need-not-being-stopped" process repeated 2 times, ..
-> We couldn’t stand the stink of the place..
-> Vouched that we should never attempt something like this again…
-> Not left with much option, finally decided to board the much hated private bus...
-> It welcomed us with some really really jarring telugu songs… which made my blood reach boiling temperature...
-> switched on radio city again, hoping to find something decent now…
-> reverted back to the telugu music in a few seconds…hmm...so u can understand…
-> decided not to be affected by this, and looked out of the window, and conciously diverted my thoughts to nicer things in life.. :)
-> didn’t know what happened around me, till my friend who was sitting 2 seats away from me, told me that we were supposed to get down….
-> My friend, (who has her office at e-city) had a pathetic nauseating feeling after getting down.. and I tell her.. -"Whatever it is.. Please ensure that you don’t miss your office cab! "
Whooooo….What a journey that was…. ( knowing that it was a part of life for thousands of software professionals, travellin to office everyday, held up badly, by the bangalore traffic...)

Guess however miserable things turn out to be, how to manage to get out of it, is all in the mind….

New House Adventures!!!

Finally, my friend and me packed our bags, bid byebye to our good old hostel, and headed for our house! Packed our bags is a total understatement I should say! We had to make two trips from hostel to house in Sumos..
We totally underested our luggage, thinking that it would be 'a few suitcases and bags' And we ended up having atleast 23-25 huge polythene bags EACH apart from the suitcases !!! We were puffing and panting by the time we loaded all the stuff in the car!

We were greeted by strange glances, as we entered our street and started unloading our stuff! People would have been wondering whether a whole khandan was moving into that house, seeing our luggage! My friend and me still wonder as to how we managed to accumulate stuff of such magnitude, in 2 years time!
Since our house is on the 2nd floor, with strange feelings of back aches and dizziness, we some managed to get all the bags inside the house, We were almost dead by that time!

Well... thats a pic of our house! the second floor... :D

It was a total surprise to my parents, when I told them about my hardwork.. They were shocked to hear that their daughter
managed to do so much work here, when she wudnt even move a finger at home… ;) This is probably the only
darker side of an independent life u see… :D
Well.. Getting back….
That night, we cleared up some sleeping space in the bedroom, neatly spread the new mattresses/cushions we had bought
and slept! Didn’t have the energy to unpack the things…
After a good night's sleep, the next morning, started a lot of trouble!
Me: "Hey, do u remember the bag where I had packed my brush and paste? Hmm….Not able to find it yaar"
She: "Hey comeon... I don’t even remember where I kept MINE!.."
We ended up searching for almost 45 minutes, applying various techniques of logical reasoning as to where we could have
kept it.. And finally! Managed to find it… Both of us extremely happy, now..
In 2 hours, we ended up carrying out exhaustive search for every damn thing, right from a comb to 'which-suitcase-has-this-ironed
-kurta' and … The worst part was that we hadnt got a mirror in the house, and I didn’t realize that I went to office wearing one earring
And forgot the other…!!!! Heights!
We realized that we should, clear up things as soon as possible, and we simply cant continue at this rate!
In the evening, both of us took a walk to the shops near our house…we had a made a list of things which we should be buying
for the house, right from broom, dustbin, odonil, mat etc.. We came back like victorious people after a war, carrying all those things,
Once in a while exchanging "look-how-responsible-we-are" kind of looks! :D
After retiring to bed, we made a list of our expenditure for the house right from beginning…had our laptops open,
New-> Microsoft Excel Worksheet .. (afterall... the habit doesn’t leave you!)
I made the entries…
Then becoz of pazhakka dosham,
my friend says: "Mail kar de yaar! "
Me: "Okies! "
(Then we exchange shocked looks! And then smile...)
"No wi-fi from now on..!!! " (In chorous) :( :(
Both of us jokingly… "Kitne backward area mein ghar liya hai yaar hamne… wireless bhi nahin hai..." and we laugh..
"chalo IR se kar…."
Welcoming ourselves to the non IIITB world!.....

Brokers - how smart they are! And how they try to fool you!

Searching for a house and finalizing it is not the end of story, we had a real novel experience with our broker. When you think back at the conversations and analyse every statement he makes, you understand that there is a lot more 'business' involved in it, they are not from the whartons, harvards or the IIMs, but they sure know how to make money! ( that too totally non-taxable :(
We searched for quite a few houses before we met this guy who found the perfect house for us.
Starts the conversation after hearing our requirements by saying..

B : Which place are you from madam.. Native..
Me: Chennai

B: oh tamil a? naanum tamil nadu dhaan madam..(and starts speaking fluently in tamil, my friend who doesn’t make out a single line is standing next to me fed up!)

Now here, point to be noted is as soon as we hear someone speaking in our mother tongue, theres this feel good factor which automatically surfaces…and he says..

B: neengalum tamil a irukkarudhunaala, brokerage la oru 500 rs kammi pannikalaam madam…namma ooru kaarangalukku seyyama vera yaarukku
And you stand there, extremely happy, with a feeling that you have made the accomplishment of your life!
( Realizations will happen later… but at that time, he hits the chord with you…)

Now he sees that my friend there is bugged… he turns to her and says..
B: Madam, you are from which place.?
My friend: Kanpur …

B: Oh hindi.. I know hindi very well madam… meine north bahut travel kiya hai… aap chinta math keejiye..bahut acha ghar mil jaayega…main hoon na..
(me thinking: Aaaaah … statement a?? )

Phew! Now he's managed to get her confidence also…
So both of us are happy, he manages to show us a real good house, we loved it!

Lesson one: Once the broker manages to show you a house you like, start talking with the owner directly about all payment related matters…
They will promise you the moon and the stars to get their brokerage….
Our experience…(even when the owner was present in the vicinity...)
Me: We can give only half the advance amount initially , as it has to get processed in our offices…
B : That’s no problem at all madam…..
Me: We'll give a post dated cheque for the remaining amount…
Broker murmurs something in kannada to the owner… he too nods his head.. So we think that things are fine with him too…

On the day of payment….(broker hadnt arrived...)
When we hand over half the amount, owner asks for the remaining also..
We: The broker told us you are ok with a post dated cheque..!!!!
Owner: He told me that you people will give it when you shift...
We: Oh no.. We told him clearly and he said you were ok with it…
The owner being pretty well educated and nice agreed that we could give it a little late...

All of us together: Let that guy come.. We wont spare him today….
The hero arrives… all of us pounce on him…
B: madam, I only said that you can give him a cheque for the remaining advance..
We: What the hell !! We explained the whole damn situation of processing in office, delay etc….
B: No madam, probably u misunderstood… our owner is a very nice person…
Turns to the owner…
B:Sir, they have to get the thing processed, so they'll give it asap…

Me: We've all sorted it out, and since you caused the confusion, your brokerage will be a post dated cheque only, as we don’t have money now…
Keeps quiet… and says..
B: Ok madam.. Please give it in one week madam..

After a week….
We give him Rs 500 less than the actual amount…
B: What madam 500 less….
Me: Ennanga… namba oor kaarangalukku idhu kooda pannalena enna….
B: (grins) No madam.. We have to pay taxes.. But ok.. Thanks madam….
Me: Get us the receipt for this, we have to give it in office(for some other processing required at my friends office)
B: ok madam.. Tomorrow morning sure madam…

Morning we see a cover on our door.. Contained a receipt…
Receipt was a print out on an A4 sheet… received rs--- from --- towards brokerage… and his signature and name below it…

We got furious.. Gave him a call…
Me: Sir, what sort of a receipt is this? How will they accept it in office..no bill number, no letter head of your real estate, nothing….Even I can take a printout and put my signature and give….
B: What madam, this is what we generally give to others also madam.. In that paper, can u see my signature there? That’s what is important madam, I have signed there, that’s the proof madam..

I have mixed feelings… I am irritated, at the same time its comical….

Me: Sir, onga signature enna RBI governer signature a sir? Ellarukittayum oru copy avanga purse la irukkum and avanga verify pannuvaanga nu…. Even if he signs it has to be on a revenue stamp sir, engalukku onnume theriyaadhu nu nenaichingala..…Freeya vidunga… I cant take more….
And I hung up...

How hitting emotional aspect can make you succumb… i learnt lessons to look at things with a small percentage of suspicion…
Nice experience though…..
:)

Resuming...

Me decided to move my blog from the active to the passive state, thanks to a friend who made me think about it again, when i had almost forgotten about my blog...

Playing with words...

Of late, I have taken to extensive or excessive, I should say, crosswords and jumbles..
The mind which is losing its acumen because of the mundane things which it is subjected to gets a new life when it comes across such challenging and fun stuff! It has almost become a part of my daily routine, I shoud say...Attend morning's class and then head straight to the library, for the Deccan herald and Hindu, for the day's crossword! Never knew that the college library had a dictionary and a thesaures, until the day when I decided to resume my crossword solving, went and asked the librarian - "Do we have a dictionary in the library? " After getting a reply in the affirmative from the librarian, I was wondering as to how I never came across them in my one year stay at IIITB!
The best thing is to start with the day's jumble! most of them are sitters which will boost your confidence which would have reached its acme by the time it is done, except a few rare ones where you try out all possible strange combinations of the letters in various positions, and grin sheepishly to yourself as to how one can even come up with such words! But you may never know! Sometimes it even happens this way that you guess the final phrase right and then backtrack to find out what the words are.. thats also fun in a way! And if the final phrase is not done, then rest assured that the mood for the entire day is spoilt, cursing yourself as to why it couldnt be solved...
The Deccan Herald crossword is pretty easy compared to the 'Hindu' one which is basically cryptic, and if manage to get around 7 to 8 in the latter, you can find me on top of the world!! But my friend who is adept at solving hindu crosswords say that, Hindu crosswords have a particular pattern and there si a particular knack for solving it.. and that will be realized after months and years of continuous solving. Hope that day is not that far away.. Man! its too good..
The whole process filling the grids in the crossword is fun.. more or less like chess, though a strange comparison, where you think you have cracked one particular clue, but you are not so sure and hence try solving all the other across' and downs which are adjacent to it so that you can be sure that the intital word is right...And believe me there are quite a few situations where you think that you arrive at a solution to one particular clue , which is the most perfect fit (not referring to the number of letters but to the context and quality of the word!) but you are highly disappointed that it is not so friendly with the other words around! ;) Then you pity the crossword guy for lack of creativity and quality and carry on with the next clue, occasionally peeping into the same clue and thinking- "Huh... it SHUD have been the one I thought of !! "
And its all the more fun when you have another person for company. With different ways of thinking for the same clue, ridiculing each other by saying that, the probability of what was guessed was wrong, could be really high !! Best of all, a good thinking exercise and neat improvement for the vocabulary...
But just that, if I get a little late to the library, the CW and J are already attempted and quite a few of them solved.. :( .
Anyways, nice to see that there there are quite a few who are as or more enthusiastic than me, in playing with words......

The heart and the mind!

The following was written while waiting for the train in the railway station! Though a slightly amateurish one, this is my first try at poetry and hence its pretty special....

During moments of despair,
When the heart feels insecure,
A blitz emerges from somewhere,
and reminds of all your goals that you need to procure.

The mind adopts self defense,
Re-emphasizing its stand of supreme control,
Placing its counterpart inside a well secured fence,
Knowing well that it is still so much out of control.

But you finally decide to crown the mind,
Knowing that best decisions are made in that case,
And you allow the heart to assist and bind,
With the 'all powerful' mind as the base.

Navratri time

First one here.. starting on a 'homely' note...

Nothing like being at home for navratri....
Now here comes another "I miss Home,I miss Chennai" stuff from me. When it comes to the traditional hindu festivals, banglore is extremely pathetic! At least the part of the city in which I stay is pathetic I should say.. Here comes navratri with all its festivities, grandeur and charm, ad here I am stuck, and so unfortunate of not being a part of this special festive season. Being in the "silicon valley of India" simply means that, to find out about your culture and days of religious importance, you log on to some damn website and realize that it is an auspicious day! Thats exactly what I did! Happened to log on to one of the news websites, and there the headlines scream " here comes navratri !" and a whole lot of articles about celebrations in ahmedabad! dandiya etc.. Then realization dawns! "oh my god.. its the lovely navratri time yet again! " .. Then hurriedly I call up my mom, to ask her about the nice preparations which we generally engage in, to welcome this special span of 9 days...
For an hour or two after that, I am lost in memories of all the lovely navratri celebrations which we have had back home, for the last 21 years.And that inspired me to scribble some stuff here. The way the festival is celebrated down south is totally different from the way it is done up north. lot of cutural and religious stuff of importance, learnt, which i dont have much space to elaborate on.. Well the fun stuff, of course..yes..here it comes..
No preparation starts without 'Kesavan' who is our family carpenter.. has been doing all possible wood work for our entire khandaan since ages! Kesavan takes the entire set of dismantled metal fixtures from the attic in our house, which had been kept there after the previous year's celebration. Then he places the metal plates(huge ones) in the actual order, with beams and other supports and fixes the nuts and bolts in an impeccable way, so that the whole structure is 'real sturdy'. For those who are wondering as to what this structure is, this basically forms broad metal steps(more or less like a staircase) on which the navratri dolls are kept. There are a lot of rules which my paati(grandma) makes, that the number of steps always have to be odd etc.And it is generally 5 steps at our place. Then a nice long white cloth is placed on top of the steps so as to cover the metal. Sush(my younger sis) and me then start decorating the steps with all those glittery things. Those decoration stuff is given due importance every year by both of us, and we ensure we do a good job! And its really strange that, it is 'one' thing sush and me suprisingly agree on.. :) Then the traditional "golu petti" (box containing the dolls) is brought down from the attic! Every time, after a year, we look at those dolls, they seem so new and nice! After checking out the "nalla neram" (auspicious time!) n all, we finally get down to business. Instructions from my paatti and amma, which have become a part of us nowadays, that the ganapathy idol goes first, right in the middle on the top most step, with goddess laksmi and sarawathi on either side. Then all the other dolls take their own places, with occasional rearrangement suggested by one of us. There are some real interesting sets of dolls which will be a part of every navaratri household, like dasavadharam (depicting the 10 avatars off lord vishnu), "Chettiyar chettichi" with a huge provision store in front of them, ashtalakshmi etc.. Aling with the traditional golu steps, comes with it an accessory called the "park"! god knows who started this concept, but its been major fun working on it.. sush and me try hard and get some good soil which can promote plant growth :) then we put scatter some mustard and other seeds, and dutifully sprinkle some water on it every morning.. first job in the morning wud be to check out how much its has grown! then ofcourse, build our own zoo, placing animals dolls in between the grass , make a tiny artificial pool where we drop some plastic fishes etc... then we place some benches for ppl who visit the zoo to realx and innumerable number of such things! And sometimes, its a cricket stadium with a match going on...I have exculsive control over the scoreboard... its always..India vs Pak match with Afridi scoring a century :) but india in a extremely comfortable winning position... All this park n cricket stuff within 5X4 square feet!!! And clear instructions from amma that cleaning up all that mess is strictly our responsibility!
Then comes the interesting part, visiting neighbours and inviting them home to take "vethala paakku sundal" (prashad..u can say) The whole locality buzzes with activity! What a sight it used to be! And whenever we go to another house to invite them wearing our "pattu paavadais" (long skirts and blouse made from silk), they inturn give us their 'sundal' for the day, and thus a number of visits per day, will make u carry a bag full of wide variety of sundals! But nothing comes without a price u see! Since most of them know that my sis and me learn music, we had to sing a song for their "golu" before we run off from their place. Thus ended up singing one song, and some times due to popular requests, two, at every house!! :) The different varieties of sundals made at home is devoured with a lot of enthusiasm by sush and me, my favourite being the 'kadalai sundal' :) and poor appa when he gets back from office, hez not even left with a bit of it to taste, unless amma had saved some for him, before showing the rest of it to us.. ;p.. The weekend during navratri is strictly for visiting relatives! Saraswathi pooja is one day, when you can royally be excused from studying, as all the books are kept at the goddess' feet for the puja! And after the pooja is over, one full hour(sometimes extends to a little more..) of saraswathi vandana, by me sometimes joined by my sis.. with appa, amma and paatti listening to us! Me finishing off, praying that goddess saraswathi shouldnt run off, on hearing my extended vandana, and stay atleast a stone's throw away , if not in my study room ;p
All this fun during school days!! when in college, the same fun stuff continues, but just that, the number of visits is restricted to relatives,friends houses and immediate neighbours and not to anyone and everyone in the locality... And the during my PG days...state of affairs is such that i logon to times of india website to find out about navratri ! Hope this situation changes!! God ...have some pity! :(