Frost At Midnite

Moved on!

2007-06-23T01:35:00.001-07:00

Moved on!

This blog has now been moved to http://frostatmidnite.wordpress.com/

Thanks!

Hyderabad Express

2007-06-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad Express

I had decided that I would go along with Lakshmi PL to Chennai the next time. The reasons are fairly simple, if I have to travel alone, I take the next flight out of the city and the entire trip costs a lot of money in comparison to train travel. Besides with Lakshmi there is company. Only I didn’t realize that I was still psychologically sick of train journeys. It generally happens on the trains when people open up their food packets or the train begins to stink. It is a sad state of affairs. I took tablets for digestive disorders and its immediate aftereffect-systems. After frantically rushing to catch the train, we got into a compartment filled with “bugs”. There were bugs everywhere, coming in from all corners of the train. Argh! Then there were the people around, who were like the most nosy people. This huge lady and five others who were traveling with her. Amazingly gobbling up food and water like there is no tomorrow. After showing the tickets to the ttr and making ourselves comfortably seated away from the bugs, though it was a pathetic attempt at that. No matter how much you avoid it, you just cant escape it. Especially when you are tired and don’t have the energy to react. There have to be babies to just complete Murphy’s law! One starts and it is like a chain reaction. There is no escaping that particular fate. Just has to happen. We try to sleep, get on our respective berths and try to sleep when the train just has to come to a halt and slumber just vanishes. It takes about two hours for it to come back, by which time the train is approaching the next station. The weird part of traveling by trains is that you can’t read a book after the lights are out by popular demand. The concept of photography at dawn is also not allowed in these means of transport.

Talking about instances where you have to share confined spaces with unknown strangers, it should not take too much common sense to figure out basic manners, and that you should not be a pain in the arse for the people around you. As while using the public loo – it should occur to you that you should leave it clean, if not for anything just for the chance that you may have to use it again. Most of the times it so happens that I have to spend my valuable time with some dumb ass un-couth rogue from the most metropolitan cities of this country! To put it in other words, it is just not enough that you say you use toilet paper, but it is most important that you know how to use it. Most of these uncivilized pseudo westerners hardly know that there are seven forks in a full course meal, but claim that they always have eaten by fork and spoon! Argh!!!!! Lets just say when the colonial rule ended, they left behind some of the half-bred vultures without culture. In case you want to see the specimens in live, just look in the cab/train/bus that you travel in or maybe even your roommate. No I am not talking about Lakshmi! Sometime more often than frequently you may have to witness or hear things that simply are out of the world. Some personal experiences.
· In a cab from work to airport, traveling with a three others - one from the same team as me and the others from a different team. This girl from the other team is Indian by birth but spent her good years abroad. The guy from the team is a fake.. May be from some interior village in Bihar – it is quite a shame that he comes from a place that Mr. L.P. Yadav belongs to. The conversation begins and we painfully have to listen to it. Our dude claims to the girl that he can actually write a search algorithm, and would love to work on the Google search algorithm. He happily assumed that we(my colleague and I) were from the HR dept. Now we had to interrupt and ask him how he planned to go about writing the algorithm.. And once our dude got to know we were from SQE he went on to say.. “Umm… well.. Been really long since I studied the paper.. Besides I am not confident and all that.. but I would love to see you guys work”
· Another day in the cab... two people talking about threshold energy and activation energy. When you are from a science background and get into a job that has no relation with science other than maybe the occasional biology influence, it obviously speaks a lot about your interests in life. Therefore when you claim you are fresher with a science background, and end up boasting about concepts of science, please be careful about the things that you may end up saying - people may end up having their theories and hypothesis disapproved by the scientists. By the way, for the sake of it, threshold energy is the minimum kinetic energy a pair of traveling particles must have when they collide. The threshold energy is always greater than or equal to the rest energy of the desired particle. In most cases, since momentum is also conserved, the threshold energy is significantly greater than the rest energy of the desired particle - and thus there will still be considerable K.E. in the final particles and Activation energy is defined as the energy that must be overcome in order for a chemical reaction to occur. Activation energy may otherwise be denoted as the minimum energy necessary for a specific chemical reaction to occur
· Any time you travel with married/committed people you will get to hear “miss you “’s and all that mush but then sometimes it gets worse... Makes you want to stop the cab, get off, and say “yuck”. I then understood the need to invent some of the new gadgets like Ipods and cell phones with music/radio players.
· Cleanliness is quite a problem. Do not go by external appearances. They may be the most well dressed people in the world, but trust me they do not wash their clothes for more than three months. I again understood the need to buy deodorants. Thank god!

Sometimes I wonder where they get so many with the same kind of “personality” may be a 100% foolproof hiring strategy! Should seriously consider a 6sigma on the process. Will get to learn a lot.

Let me not digress anymore from the topic, am sure if you have spoken to me about my dislikes on a certain breed of Homo sapiens, you would have understood. Anyone who has an opinion (good or bad, I don’t care) do leave a comment.

After some vain attempts at sleeping, we reach Chennai central at last. After an awesome four days in the humid weather of Chennai, it was time to get back to dry Hyderabad. We get into the train. And the train is again filled with a weird crowd. Would not like the racist streak come out in the open by writing about the crowd. But I slept so very well. And I wake up after five to find myself in the middle of nowhere. And nowhere is called Nagiredipalli. The train stood there for more than three and a half hours. Eventually moving like the Hyderabad traffic to get us here four hours after scheduled arrival time. The crowd from this train had jumped onto a train, which had taken a brief halt. most of that trip was peaceful. While we were waiting in the middle of Nagiredipalli, Lakshmi wanted to get on to the next train that stood there and go to Hyderabad. Restless and hyperactive from lack of sleep, the woman had a plethora of ideas of how to get to work without being late. Finally, after much coaxing, actually stubbornness, we stayed put in the train. We had to get to work. Coming home to a disgustingly dirty apartment, we had to rush to work after freshening up. I felt like I belonged in SQE and did not have to go in search of my calling. Felt just like a pig then ;) entering its sty. It is marvelous how these people can mange to get a place so dirty. And I have to learn something from my roommate; it would be how to maintain clothes. Think about it, you do not wash clothes, and wear the same thing for more than three months, and they do not look worn or dirty. Maybe this is why people like them do not live with their social circle; because then it would become hard to keep up the neat and clean image. I dont like it when i get critical and try to avoid being so, but when things go beyond threshold, I guess I have to let it out to maintain my insanity!

The Middle of Nowhere

That's the middle of Nowhere

And Finally... Hyderabad!

2007-06-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

I have no clue why I have to be in such a rotten state of mind. May be it’s the cause of all the happiness around me. Some thing to perk up my mood would be some really happy news! Which I am not really sure what it will be. One can not imagine that people could be so used to mundane routine that keeps them happy. “Comfort zone” if you may say so. Get out of it. Go and explore the world. There is so much more to it than anything that you can possibly imagine. But yes it is a very relative thing that some may like to venture out more spiritually than dragging bag packs over their shoulders.
Many a time I have wondered how people set their priorities. People who are focused are a huge exception. They are so focused that priorities are their first priority. But people who I would call “lesser mortals” or obvious scum are the ones that tend to get me into this mood - Of nothing but a meagre dispassionate existence. How could fashion and pseudo westernisation be the world to you? You are basically the most narrow minded of the lot that anyone has seen, yet you seem to carry an air about that comes across and the most nonchalant entity to the most explicit cultures. Thou may need to be paid enough to afford thy “fashion” or well if u aren’t just bring them to us and we will cut them or rip them apart and create fashion for u. Argh!!!! Scum!

Why should I waste my words on scum!

Anyways, some news, in case you do a “I am feeling lucky” on Google for “ jayasree monotony” you will end up with this blog. May be it ranks first at a monotonous existence! The fact that I work for Google does not have any relation with it. At least now I shall be visible to the world in the name of monotony!!!

I kinda, sorta, honestly feel like I am going to cross the line between sanity and insanity. Don’t know which way though!

the Flowers are for me btw!!!!!

2007-05-30T02:59:00.000-07:00

Some things are just not meant to be. Like discussing work (or working, itself). Many have asked about what work I do or the nature of work or how much I earn… my answers have been different to each person and the weirdness of it varies with the relationship I share with the questioning authority, but none even close to reality.

Well a day of great blogging makes me want to write about it (whatever!!!). It is a routine day at work and we are doing nothing but work ;), which I can describe as reading all the blogs that come up when I hit the “next blog” button on the top bar of the template. One full day of blogs, then I also ventured to live journal. Thought I would put up some of the stuff I encounter which I found weird... Don’t think I have the patience to create links to them. But yeah guess a general search would lead to the page.

What do readers look at in your email? (A post’s title)
Fuchster – (the name of some one’s blog)
Bicycling is the number one reason for the increase in the ranks of reckless girls who become outcast women. (Something that someone wrote)
The reign of boredom is fading. (Something that someone wrote)
Photos about the auto show in Minnesota, Atlanta, and St. Paul winter carnival.
To Pee or not 2 Pee (a post’s title)
I wrote and recite this dream so lucid and divine for I love you so. (**Sigh….!!!**)
What a boyfriend should do and what a girl should know (really!!!! There was a post on this)
Intranet and portal technology (Zzz….)
Waffles = Square Pancakes (a post’s title)

I lie in bed at night & praythat you'll think of meI cry until my eyelids closeand dream - EternityI wake to sunlight on my facefor a moment I forgetThen a cloud passes byand I realize, this is itI carry on throughout the dayfeigning joy, and feeling painI long to gaze upon your faceand share a smile, an embraceThe day is drawing to an endand still I think of youI try to relax, yet in my mind,I wonder what to doSo now I lay me down to sleepShould you chance to think of me,Know that I love you - Eternally

And there a lot of realllyyyy cool templates out there…

And like anusha says… “Today has given monotony a whole new meaning”

Found this one waiting to be published while cleaning my desktop. It is about 2 months late.

Argh.. stupid M!@#!@!uc@#$!!!!

2007-05-11T01:24:00.001-07:00

I have given up on myself! After all the stupid courses that you go thru in life you expect something fro an outcome. Anger management, personality development, math class, IMS, and all the blah that I went through to keep myself busy and become more civilized. Well guess nothing worked. Come to think of it, personality development, guess there was nothing to develop in the first place, so that money went drown the drain. Then there was anger management… even after all the serious counseling I am still scared of my own anger! But yes from something bordering close to hysteria, it has come down to an occasional irritability that makes me want to go and hit someone so bad that they don’t ever even think about annoying me. But yeah, guess the angry look keeps people away.. It works mostly on Bj I think. Then there was math.. I don’t really practice all of it anymore and the entire cat training well.. It has eroded away with time, and there are attempts to renew and refresh it as and when there is time. Like now, when I am supposed to be working, but monotony need a break. Besides, the last nail in the coffin was yesterday, when out of a sudden impulse I decided to go home! I still can’t believe that some where in my mind I still have all the characteristics that most people in the civilized world detest. Impulsiveness, stubbornness, short temper, indecisiveness, laziness, lack of any kind of “lack of life” maturity. All of it is so boring. Time management was something that I went thru last week, was a good session. After which I concluded that if I can manage my time I would have a lot of time to go around doing the things that most of the civilized people wouldn’t approve off. Btw, I really think I am going to jail for physical assault sometime soon... Very soon. Anger building up as a result of overexposure to a human chimpanzee.

And almost three weeks after what I wrote a little bit of anger showed up today. What an annoying animal! Maybe evolution stopped somewhere in between. If u drove on Chennai roads, chances are that you would have encountered at least one buffalo standing in the middle of the road. This thing probably wasn’t there 20 seconds before, and wouldn’t move no matter what u did. And you can’t run over it because you are not driving a truck. Sad situation that drives you mad. Exactly what makes me loose my temper and say stupid M!@#!@!uc@#$ with a !@#!#y@#$ 2#$@#$@.

2007-05-07T05:44:00.000-07:00

I got this one in a Forwarded Mail (I check them most diligently). could prove helpful!

Guess you will have to click on the picture for more clarity. :)

Missing Chennai....

2007-05-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues
Just gives you the blues

:(

If I said Chennai was Hot, I take my words back... I want to go home for summer vacation!!!!

2007-04-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Guess I am done hibernating!

On another note.. Today has been “adjective” day for me, with adjectives pouring in to describe me from all corners. Some stuff that I already knew about myself.. some others non disclosed.

hardik:
u are a bit crazy
Jayasree:
thanks
I always knew
that
hardik:
but good blog
Jayasree:
thanks
hardik:
interesting

Another one

sjpaul
hey bharathee naree
sjpaul is online.
Jayasree
geee....thanks
sjpaul
naree is smellin
natram
Jayasree
true
sjpaul
you are my countries bad smell
Jayasree
yes.. thank u :)
sjpaul
U R SHAMELESS
Jayasree
u realised it now?
sjpaul
ada paavee
soodu sorana onnum ilaya unaku
Jayasree
none at all
sjpaul
may the almighty throw u to hell
Jayasree
I already booked my seat there
sjpaul
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Poor sjpaul!!!!the tortured soul! :)

My Painfully boring Blog!!!!

2007-04-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

My Painfully boring Blog!!!!

If you thought the content in here was an utter waste of my time and yours, what do I say Wise men think alike (or may be fools seldom defer???). I have all the time in the world after work to sit and come up with this trash!

Well I realised that not only is the content boring, so is the blog itself. Looks terribly plain and monochromatic compared to the lively author. [Who am I kidding; I probably am as boring as my blog.] One of my low days where I crib about myself I guess. But then Zareen brought it to my notice that my blog was really boring, thankfully she added “let’s change the template” or I would have to go and revamp thought process. There starts the search for a new blog template! She showed me a nice and flowery one, but it looked too tropical for frost. Ideal template should have snow flakes falling slowly and should land softly on the horizontal scroll bar/status bar of the window pleasing the eye. But alas, I have no luck. Absolutely no luck. No luck even when Ekta Kapoor admits I am her inspiration ;) Spend close to an hour googling and give it up finally.

Like the sooooo many other things, may be this too wasn’t meant to be. Poor blog...it will continue to look this way until I find just about the right template for it. Until then I hope u find this not so garish looking plain blog a good place to drop by when u crave for some thing stupid to read.

2007-04-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

If you are wondering about all the blue around, dont bother, it is all under construction. And also the map, which does not work(maybe there really are no visitors) :)

I am still hibernating by the way... away from random slander by bj!

Oooops!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-04-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

You cannot find another fool who would anything as stupid as me. I laugh out aloud for anything I find hilarious, I read a joke online and smile, and all that can be excused; but today was the real heights of stupidity!

Some gyan for readers: When u maintain a blog, never put in what you feel about people in there. If you do then do not send them the link to your blog. Even worse, when u have expressed yourself on details from their orkut profile! ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only I could ever do something this stupid. [Sinister grins coming from some weird corners of the world – you shall be dealt with]

As I write this Dhuti came online for a fraction. No wonder she calls me dumbo! Feel like getting into my shell and hibernating!

2007-04-18T07:10:00.000-07:00

Unable to fall asleep, at 3 AM, browsing the net and reading a good number of articles and other things finally get bored of doing it. But still no sleep. Orkut and gtalk help. Keeping my eyes wide open for the next prey who could help me and chat up for while before I fall asleep. No scope. Boring! The days are fun, Mom, Anju, someone or the other keeps me busy. However, the nights are terribly boring. It is hot and I am not tired enough to fall asleep anytime soon. That’s been most of my trip back home, meeting everyone I knew, still have a lot of people left out; eating sadya for vishu; taking my sister shopping; and getting a really huge piece of my parents mind. I really would not be surprised if I score better on an IQ test than Dad. (A really weird thought, can intelligence be associated with the mind!?!?) Anyways, people at work have started missing me and have let me know about it. Sweet! May be all the silence would have disturbed them ;)

Trying to write something to while away time is also a tough task. Brain has become dormant. Needs repair! Then finally a story, fact or fiction – you figure it out(I am really sad at writing a bio). May come across as over dramatic.

Girl1 has a few friends (girl2, boy2, boy3, boy4…) and a crush on boy1. One day, an innocent and honest game of truth or dare and friends get to know about girl1’s rather elaborate dream romance. Then the story of satire starts. “Hey may be I should talk to boy1, lets see if I can help you out” says boy3, “Duh! No, no thanks” replies girl1. Boy3: “ok, then let’s go to pizza, your treat to keep my mouth shut” Girl1: “Arghhh…. Ok!” Dream sequences narrated just to catch a glimpse of girl1 blushing and unable to control her smile were often a source of entertainment for friends. After much blackmail and demands met like this, girl1 realizes this has to stop. She just cannot jeopardize her reputation by turning pink most of the time. Then, finally, (after minutes, months, years or whatever is the measure on that planet), admits to herself that she has to let boy1, who she is barely in contact with due to the difference in frequencies, know about the whole issue. Sometime (again relative measure) later... boy1, sitting far far away on another distant planet with access to the equivalent of high speed internet pings girl1 and starts chatting up. Girl1 not under the influence of alcohol (guess alcohol will be alcohol on any planet) confesses her feelings for him, and narrates stories of her friends pulling her leg. Maybe a little more of it and she would have been too tall. Boy1 gracefully remains polite and does not shoo her off, instilling respect in her. A victorious girl1 tells this story to friends and makes their day, such a sadist, our girl1 is. They ponder on how this dame finally gathered the courage and after affirming that she was not under any kind of influence, decide that their main advantage over her was gone! A happy girl1 leads a peaceful life. Alas, girl1 is rather dumb and her friends would get something new to gain the lost advantage. And there is peace!!!

Now you really know how dormant my brain has become. And no, my books do not have any rubbish like this. Think my next question would be about interplanetary communication… lets c when my brain wakes up.

If you think of anything wrong with this post, other than a major coincidence between alien and human psychology, let me know. The coincidence is but natural, it was written by a human who has not had any alien encounters.

2007-04-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

Its been a really normal day in Chennai. Went and met my friends, relatives etc. But it also is the, although the day has become history some 3.5 hours back, last day of the Malayalam calendar. I don't do anything but wish people on DEC 31, but on April since the event is rather subdued, I kinda review myself. That's why the last post was Sigh!!!!! it should have been a ARGH!

Then I Try to calm myself by just lingering on orkut for a really long time and uploading photographs online - Useless!

This year's review unlike last year's shall be written online. I landed up with a nice job. have maintained a lot of friends and managed well on that front. Academics this year has been the greatest disappointment this past year, have to plan on that front!!! Money matters still continue to keep me busy with planning up. Reading has been at a terrible low the last four months, should work on that too. Health seems to be OK, except for... well need to get moving and get new glasses. Mental well being is as usual in doubt. I learnt that I still have a lot to learn(backlog has been increasing). No romance in real life so far.... So good. concern is only a certain person who I would do away with if I were Don, or may be a serial killer. Ups and downs, I didn't learn anything more than that I have a lot of patience when it comes to surprises.
The next year, some things are predictable, but I really don't know what might happen. I don't have a clue where I might be in life. Lots of questions, that I don't know that answers for at the moment.
Its already 3:43 AM, cant sleep for half hour, will jsut have to go back and gape at a few more photographs.

2007-04-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

Sigh!!!!!!!!!

Thats the closest thing that describes my emotional status at the moment. Time 2:26 AM. Mood: Sigh!!!!

I cant help but put this in here, when it comes to searching for stuff online and you are reallllllyyy DESPERATE, nothing, not even my brains come up with anything intersting. Sigh!!!

:)

2007-03-28T07:13:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I go mad, or rather sometimes I get my sanity back. Like now when I am incessantly writing. This is the third post I started. A couple of days I had this question about : ) and about naming movies.

: )
How would you respond if anyone on your IM chat’s friends list pinged you a : ) ?
People I am great with I just kept pinging them : )’s and Rahul thought I really lost it this time around; Bj thought I became a lot more girly than he ever knew me to be and was preparing for some serious emotional chat. Aj smiled back a couple of times and then changed to :P,:D and finally contemplated suicide. Some others just said hi, then after a few more : )’s said I was in one of those days of insanity. Then the others I was not so great with, I wrote the entire question down so they don’t block me. They replied they would smile back or just think about it and say hi and if persistent ignore. Well general conclusion was Smile… It confuses people!!! (some people flicked my status message btw)

Then the next question - if you were to make a movie what would you name it? Mostly asked at work.
Rahsuna: Carrot Halwa
Azaliahs: kinley
Grluap: whatever
Htanuhgar: the last mundu
Kilam: me
Itok: Movie
Adithya: Jai Jaipal!
Aj: KARMA
Rahul:Itni darlins', but no GirlFriends ;o)

The more fun when you think of it like this… “In theatres now”

Best answer was Kanji’s “Phatta poster nikla chutiya”

Yet another one...

2007-03-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

Something about my friends, insight for you to understand what I really think about you, if you are featured I know a li’l /lot about you, If not, consider yourself lucky.

In random order,

Bablu: My best friend from college, God fit my EQ also into his mind. Therefore he is
twice as sensitive as I am

Dhuti: My bestest friend in the whole wide world!!! She is too good for any guy I can imagine. Hmmm… let her get back from her cruise will seriously write her a pigeon post.

Sabs: My cricketer, bodybuilder, most good looking, friend (also a mallu). Claims made by Bj are not true - we are not siblings. He speaks one word yet conveys a lot. He is not a Neanderthal; I went to school with him from start to finish. He is my lucky charm for a very long time.

Dhi: The cutie with the dimple. And he really is not perverted. Speaks from his heart, although a business man.

Bj: Ummm… mad MBA, gross, perverted don’t know why I still know him after 20 years.

Sujatha: My darling bad girl!!! red wine plan still on! I don’t want to write more about her, it wouldn’t look too good.

Pappu: Know him for 20+ yrs now. He is probably the one person capable of ruining the romance in my life. (OK… the romance in my dreams!) But I can rest in peace until he gets to use a computer. Jaadu hai nasha hai – best thing ever been narrated to me by some one.

Vicky: He is getting married! I have to go witness a child marriage, at least he has been educated enough for it, done his engineering with us after all!

Gadhia: He knows too much about me, if I were Don, he should be afraid… he should be very afraid.

Chotu: He does business in diamonds. Now you know why I am friends with him, although I don’t know why he claims I am the only girl he is friends with. (Claims!?!?!)

Puttur: My Puttur always! It is sad that we can’t have those much enjoyed ‘ who wakes up late’ contests anymore… retired life still seems to show some hope!

Upma: Piche – also now a married aunty. Don’t think her hubby (Guruji) will appreciate her doing the things that we did in college. Keep your eyes closed when you step out of home.

Aunty: Delicate darling! Married, working that’s becomes her life now. She was fun before. Now we can’t pull a prank on her, don’t know if her hubby will take our side or hers.

Rahul: I didn’t know he existed in college, until he told me so in IMS. He is nice company when you want to have a ‘insanely though provoking yet getting no where’ conversations.

MK: The stud! No comments! I still think he has the best laugh I have ever heard. Don’t change it for any reason.

Champa: One of my sweethearts, has survived my temper and yet is my friend. Hmmm.. nice guy to hang out with.

And now that you have read through, you think I would have actually written what I really have in mind about you all!!!

One more from last nite

2007-03-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

So…!!! I just wanted to use the very essence of sentence formation that is followed by most of my team members – starting a sentence with ‘So..’!

I moved to a new place on Saturday, and the past four days have been filled with fun, work, and gossip! It is Tuesday nite and I am sitting on my bed under the window/by the window or whatever the usage is. I will write about my roomies sometime later. But for now, there is this ‘Nice Guy’ staying opposite to our apartment who has been playing this one song and it kind of got stuck to my head. Yeah, you know I am going to write about it. Well I don’t blame the nice guy because the lady who sang the song is a Beautiful Lady, sung a Beautiful Song, with Beautiful Moves. Or more exotically wording it, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. And no I am not giving away the link to the video, it is not Shakira and most of you are too mature and experienced for the video( although some requests may be entertained. Seek And You Shall Find). Oh, and she did sing well, why else will the song be stuck to my head.

After the song faded, subdued by the whirr of air coolers, my roomie and I start chatting. Chatting… Chatting… Chatting… clock strikes 2 AM. Phew! She has a lot of patience to have heard me all the while without explaining. Or may be if I do this one more time I will have to start house hunting again, I will just have to take the risk : ) I spoke about all my friends, Vicky, Bablu, Dhi, Gadhia, Chotu, Upma, Adarshba, Aunty, Champa, MK, Puttur, Suji darling (you know Sujatha!)… I even spoke of Singhi and Dhave, you can imagine the vast expanse I covered. Now my roomie knows that I am a huge pervert, I can’t help pass comments on incidents that I think should not go un-commented, and that I can go on and on and on… Talking about all these people makes me miss them a lot. Haven’t stayed this long without meeting them. Sigh…!!! Oh, And no matter how many times the incident happens I never learn to not ask Bj if he has min to answer a question… he invariably pings back “ Yes, I will marry you.” Help!!!!!!!!!!!

Written a long time back....completed last nite

2007-03-28T05:09:00.000-07:00

I am depressed! Come to think of it, I have more than enough reasons to be a happy person, but even more reasons to be depressed.
I wish to die in peace. I lie with in the four glass walls of society, painting a picture of happiness on the outside, pondering upon the myth if existence in a flickering candle’s light. [On reading this again later, I wonder how can anyone possibly paint the outside wall staying inside?]

I wonder why I even wrote all this in the first place. May be I was trying to put the confusion in my head in words, but it paints a sad picture. It is like this, 75% of my brain is vulnerable, 25% is fixed with basic stuff like what I learnt, my contacts and other basic ‘can’t forget’ information. Of the 75%, 70% is confused and 5% is of thoughts that wander. Sometimes the 5% takes over or the 70% is also utilised by the 5%. (Think memory allocation!) So…, the 70% that is confused because of reasons to be happy and reasons to be sad. And I am a person who does not need a particular reason for either. By the way, I have observed that, my sleepy face and my sad face look the same (well, I do have just one face!). Now everyone else is confused. This is my problem I figured. I either convince or confuse and I am reasonably good at both I have been told.

On another thought, someone I know said that my perception of male-female friendship is bad. I seem to be narrow-minded and therefore misunderstand this aspect. I need a revamp or go through an overhaul. This is the second time I have been said this and by the same person. Some thing is majorly wrong. I have mostly guy friends, and have been in male company for a great part of my life, do I not understand when people are friends? Do I need to look beyond myself and go through a course on how not to use your common understanding? I need help on this one and humbly request you to leave a comment/scrap/ping me on what you think about this issue. Would be greatly appreciated.

On yet another note, a bad girl on her way to matrimony asked me when I was planning to take the bait. As sweet as she is, she even offered to speak to my mom! Me being me, wouldn’t bother waste my time on the likes of a commitment. I shall continue dreaming about the perfect romance, but in real nothing is perfect! Zareen one day while chatting said about marriage, “ the lucky folks found someone with whom they wanna grow old with, who can understand each other… who make a beautiful ‘us’ ”.Then she said something that Rahul Bhansali has said before. People get into predictive mode at times and I am more than happy to hear good things! Although the chance of ther predictions coming true is zero or even sub zero. Anyways, why do people talk about marriage at all the wrong times. When I am least bothered, mom brings it up, and when I am interested she is not : ) (Seriously!!!). Or people bring up the topic just after you come out of the theatre after watching 300! Guess no one has heard about the concept of relativity. Am sure John Abraham and Upen Patel will be ashamed and Salman will just put in more effort!!! 300 Men showing their chiselled (no clue if it is digital or hard work) bodies, portraying 300 Spartan warriors. Could I ask for more? OK, I know I sound a tad too desperate, but they really look damn good. I never liked history and always wanted to go way back in time so I don’t need to study the subject. And if they were as they are portrayed I really don’t mind being guinea pig to a time machine experiment- I volunteer!!!

PS Koti and Vivek, thanks for the concern.

Tagged

2007-03-21T02:11:00.000-07:00

Tagged by Teal! Answers to most of your question… Ask and you shall get the answer... most of the time at least.

1. One thing you are very much afraid of?
My temper

2. Two incidents you can never forget in your life?
Lots of incidents qualify, picking the best two would be everytime my heart skips a beat ;) for reasons unknown to anyone else

3.Three books you would love reading again and again?
Depends on my mood!
4. Four women who are most beautiful?
4. Katrina Kaif
3. Lisa Ray
2. Julia Roberts
1. Angelina Jolie
No, has got be me seriously!

5.Five of you favorite food items?
1. Fish Fry
2. Any thing with JackFruit
3. Butter Chicken
4. Bread, butter, and jam
5. Chocolate

6.Six words you use very often oral/written?
1. Generally
2.Yeah Right!
3. Whatever!
4. lol!
5. : )

7.Seven things you like about yourself?
My sense of humour,
My attitude
My eyes
My anti philanthropist tendencies
My loyalty and love for family and friends
My versatility
Actually I like everything about me!

8. Eight film personalities who are your all time favorites?
Mohanlal, Anupam kher, PareshRawal, Rahul Bose, Jim Carrey, Robin williams, Renee Zellwegger, Julia Roberts

9.Nine movies you wont mind watching again and again?
Manichitratazhu, Mannar mathai speaking, Any flick with mohanlal!, happy feet, Parineeta, 300, jurassic park, home alone, schindlers list.

10.Ten songs you would like to listen to everyday?
When we dance, walking on the moon, message in a bottle (sting and the police),All would Envy(Chris Botti), New York nagaram (SOK), Is this love(Bob Marley), Pink Floyd!

Hopefully tagged victims will follow the trend.

Ajay Shankar
Lord RainRider
Rahul Bhansali
Pritesh
Zareen
:)

good times....

2007-03-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

ok.. Sujatha finally read "good times" and called up to say she loved it (...and she loves me even more..i figure form her speech I told u she does!) Anyways, just one correction it was red wine and not white! I am seriously gettin forgetful, or I must have had one hell of a high to have forgotten this. Oh, and it stil is our drink.. no one else is allowed to join us she says! ;) Sigh... guess its time for some blessing from lord krishna!!! (please dont mind, we are bad girls!)

2007-03-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

War of the Worlds!

A very touchy topic indeed. Not something like the two worlds that I wrote about earlier. This is about the gender war. The world of the man and the world of the woman! OK… So some of you, (my gang, the gang!) would actually question my thoughts or the validity of thoughts from the female (emotional) perspective. Never have I been treated like a girl by them for them to believe that I actually think like a woman! [like!?!?!]

It is not really a debate but more of a comparison of both the worlds. I may be wrong, but who cares, it’s just some of my observations and inferences.

1> It is being widely accepted that men do gossip, and sometimes it is much more interesting than ladies gossip.
2> Women can categorise well. And if I am a specimen for a research, it can be proved that oestrogen has nothing to do with this. I guess being with girls is what the contributing factor is. Everything falls in categories. Set theory also applies [wonder why women hate math anyway!]. Men on the other hand have well defined categories. E.g. Socks, is just socks! Not ankle socks, finger socks, or stockings... Ok I admit defeat! I would rather label all of it socks myself, but definitely co-ordinate them when I wear them.
3> Men are colour blind! They have the basic 7 colours of the rainbow in mind. Women can even plot a Karnaugh map. (I still have to define mauve in the map!).
4> Women shop longer and in larger quantities. Reasons for this is when you have too many choices you definitely get muddled decisions. Besides the look, colour, pattern, texture and make etc… imagine how many permutations and combinations this gives. And men are not all that quick either. Well they do have limited choices and all that, but with limited resources if they take so long, sigh! Well basically everyone gets confused shopping! :) Another reason is that men have costlier shopping. While a woman can fix an entire ensemble in 1000rupees and man can probably get a decent shirt and tie! Even Tantra and barking dog t-shirts are difficult to choose form!
5> Humour. Most of the jokes, the ones with the entire pun (*big grin*), 90% of the women don’t understand. The rest of the lot are mostly perverts, like yours truly, and they get almost all kinds of jokes. I can’t help but mention that I had a good laugh when I saw the commercial of the girl digging into her back pack at the waiting lounge ;) Basically most of us just need a reason to laugh! And oh yes, the male junta does have a huge collection of good and bad jokes!
6> Women have some worldly pleasures (sometimes painful) that we have to indulge/sit thru for not being labelled uncouth by other women. While men may come across (they really do at times) as disgustingly dirty sometimes, they love to pamper themselves. These days our cine stars and the who’s who of pg3 are setting a trend – the qualities of the metro male! [It would be an interesting argument – if they can get away with doing girly things, so should we when we don’t do things the girly way]
7> Men do watch sitcoms and soaps. So it’s not just cricket or football but what we call ‘serials’ too. And oh yes, it happens in private. If another homosapien enters the room, then it is channel swapping. Women can be broadly classified as [read ‘broadly classified’ with special effects, I am after all female] ones with functional brains and bimbos. Simple fool proof test, specimens from the first group read the newspaper back to back and the ones from the latter define the newspaper as Hyderabad times or the metro plus. And I have not really come across more than two women who read the business world or the economist or the competition success.
8> Having fun: This has been such a difficult area for me. Not describing what the gang did for fun. Gals on the other hand, do window shopping, bird watching (which don’t mind at all), chill out over coffee and catch all the gossip (guys do this too) or just go to the spa/saloon with the entire gal gang. While with the gals at the movies, you don’t comment, or whistle and remember to sob, when anyone on screen sobs. Some guys also expect the same.
9> Men and women think completely different. If I explain it, most of the guys will come down to hyd to deal with me and moreover our society is not too very open minded, neither am I very verbose so most of it would be outright obscenity. But it takes just the right line of thought for both the worlds to please each other.
10> Well, the emotional quotient closely associated with this is also pretty complex. Well, those who fall in love can be ‘classified’ as dumb and dumber. The ones who don’t do not qualify. This applies to both the sexes. Dumb that they fall in love, no matter how much they realise it is a lot of time and money invested. Dumber are those people, who I personally know a few, still believe in the love letters soaked in blood or feel there is no life without the one you think you are in love with. There obviously can’t be a dumbest as this whole theory is baseless if not for the concept of relativity. One class determines the dumbness of the other or non-dumbness. Given that, the comparison between men and women is less relative. Both of them fall in love (saxophones playing in the background ala main hoon na style). Then the man still stays in this stage, no matter what the stage of the relationship is. The woman gets over the song and dream phase and gets more practical. 6 months after graduation from the first phase, man still stays ‘possessed’ (no matter what sun sign they are, they are romantic, blindly and foolishly in matter of the heart).the woman sees no scope for improvement and realises that she needs a ‘man’ and not ‘a love struck pet pup’, thus ends up dumping the relationship. And then goes ahead and gossips about her ex to her gal friends. While Mr. Ex goes around advocating that girls are heartless and very opportunistic. This scenario can happen even the other way around. Oh, and given the modern times, I wish I could write about the other side of the world, but I have no insight into it.

All of a sudden, due to the over exposure of homosapiens of the same gender, I seem to be loosing some of my super powers! Using categories and classifications and cleaning up a li’l, my cupboard is still a mess though! And I am as much of a pervert as I was before : ) I haven’t as yet started blackmailing people emotionally. Three months before 95% of my friends were male, now it has reversed. I hope I am alert enough to send am SOS to my space ship before it gets too late and I don’t get to enjoy the benefits of both the worlds.

good times....

2007-03-07T05:32:00.000-08:00

Sitting in a cab going home from a long day at work [note: long day at work, not “working my arse off” at work] with two fellow Googlers who are probably thinking why this mad woman is writing and what is she writing about! Four years of writing assignments and records in a fast moving college bus has given me enough practice to write in an office cab stuck in traffic, moving at the rate of 5kmph, makes me realise that Hyderabad is not that bad a city after all. Look at anything, lets say 30 feet above the ground level and 30 feet far from you [you are stationary for a min of 3 minutes given the traffic], what you see is something that is right out of a film set. Bright lights, a very light hazy fog, due to the pollution - a very dreamy setting. Look right in front of you – a scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – the maze, Desperate souls trying to get to the other side of the road, making their way through the maze of Beelzebub automobiles of all sizes and shapes. It can also be a scene being shot for Jurassic Park [the magic of animation!]. You never know what is lurking in the behind and when something can spring up and take you for a ride.

During our final and pre-final years in college, when Sujatha was preparing for GRE and me for CAT, we used to improve our math by playing around with numbers from the number plates of vehicles. Oh, btw it is 1kmph now! So the number plates – it really improves your math – try it sometimes, and no, we were not completely jobless as you think. Here in Hyderabad, you really cant do that kind of thing, mostly because you cant see the number plates; the vehicles are too close or too far according to normal (not my!) visibility standards. Oh... and all this I wrote while travelling a very short distance, and then later when we covered the last 10 km in 10 mins I really couldn’t do much. Btw, the entire journey of 20 odd km took me an hour!

Now that I have brought Sujatha into the picture I had rather write about her – long due! For all “moments of verdant merriment” that we cherished! I didn’t know her from the first day of college; neither were we the most outgoing personalities in the bus. But some how we got to become good friends. Our friendship grew, or dramatically speaking, [I thought I could get something, but courtesy Paul], from germination to blossoming, during our bus journeys. Well like typical lovebirds [stop thinking fellas] she used to hold a seat for me next to hers in the morning and I did the same in the eve! [I really don’t know why I want to describe the process of reserving seats in this manner! Lol! Sujatha, I know you love me even more for this!!!!] Then our Post grad plans bonded us together, or cemented our relation [she may really be missing me now]. We planned to finish our masters and then go tour the world ogle at cute looking phirungs and drink white wine in New York [ I can sense your thought process now]. To realise our dreams we did our number plate math in the morning and our much ridiculed word card game while getting back home. And the FM enabled cell phone. With one earphone and two of us, you can imagine how things would have been. It was such a great time listening to the green parrot* program [*translate in Tamil]. Scandalising her with my knowledge base of adult jokes and just watching her clueless expression was worth a million dollars and another of my favourite activities. Even better was when she comes back in the eve having told the joke to her friends after understanding! Worth a zillion dollars! Oh and finally she ends up with the reputation of being the copyright owner of these jokes! And we really did our assignments and semester exam preparations in the bus. Those good old days, sigh! But neither of us went on to study further despite a not so bad performance in our exams, guess the perfect dream scores that we dreamed of never happened. But we will definitely realise our plans, no matter how long it takes. Now she plans to go far away from home, my li’l birdie that she always was, the enthusiasm that always makes me happy whenever I meet her (am also happy catching up on all the gossip that she gives me). Sigh, I just congratulate her for whatever reason I think I need to and am happy for her for maybe the same reason too. I have laughed alot as I write about her[ Sujatha, remember when u fell off the seat once in the bus and we laughed a lot!], just thinking about our time together and the ridiculous things that we have done. People around me may be getting ideas. But it is always such great joy thinking about our good times together and you don’t need kingfisher for that! Laughing does give you a high, I realise, my typing has gotten faster, spelling mistakes are more and I am writing gibberish, but its all worth it cos I have just had a lot of fun writing and letting the world know about someone I hold close to my heart. :)

By the time she reads this, and comes to this part I am sure her love for me must have taken off in geometric progression, but I still like arithmetic progression! ;)

Thought Process automation????

2007-02-23T05:01:00.001-08:00

I have always thought of funny and odd situations but I have never before realised that I usually, atleast once a week am in one. For instance, when in college, I forgot the name of a person who I met everyday of college, thus failing to introduce the person to the someone who accompanied me. How can some one possibly forget the name of someone who u meet every working day??? I thought I was developing Alzheimer’s or something. Reiterating my fears is the present condition of a major deterioration in English(spoken and written). Lets see if I can cope up and get out of the stale situation.

I had started writing this post in the morning way before I started work today and now its way after work time and I have not a clue as to where my thought was leading me to. Anyways about the situations. As Murphy would please, why me!!!! The other day I had to see my friend, who is senior to me, get the blues by merely speaking to a person from Motorola. Talk about Customer service! So Dear friend gets all upset, irritated, and pessimistic. And even better was when we got out of the premises and she took a photo of the huge Abhishek Bachchan poster on the exterior of the building. Mood swings!?!?

And a phone call home later and speaking to Dad, I have no clue of what to do next, except for leaving this post as it is as going home!

Ok. Feb 23. So I called up this friend’s whose birthday it is today and began my day. The most interesting thing that happened to me was Vint Cerf’s speech. He is fondly called, with all due respect, as the “baap of the internet” by colleagues here. It was not all the tech stuff that he talked about, that was interesting, but the way he thought. All has had was a slide show which could have passed for a normal presentation. But he made it interesting. Connecting the little dots; making it simple for people from non technical background. These are details that lesser mortals like me would miss. Lets see how can I put it across to you underprivileged people.(Not biasing here, but I think I have had the privilege, it’s a once in a life time opportunity and I am glad I got it; you don’t get to listen to people like him too very often.) So he states this example for gadgets using the internet. Refrigerators with plasma displays that are connected to www! [don’t even think of asking!!!] So this high end model has a gr8 feature and it would evolve or morph into some thing that can decide what u can cook based on its contents. Or even better send you a list when shopping and keep inventory. Then after a while we had this other example of Japanese intelligence. Intelligent bathroom scales. It would evolve into something that can recognize the individual’s weight and other stuff and send it to your doc. Now he just connects all the examples and makes a small network. So when your bathroom scale sends the data to your doc, the refrigerator is also advised, so next time you open it, maybe it just wont part with your ice cream or would give you only diet recipes, or maybe even not open at all! I would never have thought of all this so relatively. The rest of the stuff from the hour long talk would be terribly enormous to write about. But I am glad I have brains that were functional, at least not to his scale, but fair enough to absorb his talk. Guess that’s why he is who he is and we are happily browsing the internet and exploiting all the benefits not bothered about TCP/IP or IPv4 and IPv6.

I still can’t figure out how to connect the dots.

One thing is for sure, if I had a teacher even closer like him, I would have appreciated what I learnt. The passion, the zest with which people like him go about their business, rubs into you making you want to act on the same lines.

Oh and ironically, I just wanted to write about this, and from starting with forgetfulness to joining dots! I never figured it was automated!!!!

Sleepy gal.. slee... zzzz....

2007-01-29T03:49:00.000-08:00

I am feeling sleepy!!!

Yawn…!!!

Well, I am feeling sleepy on a Monday afternoon at work and I attribute it to the rather lousy long Republic day weekend! Three days of doing nothing. … Yawn!... With all the agony and frustration of the weekend that passed by I am in a mood for complaining. The three days that we had anticipated so much for such a long time, Sigh! We spent the first day trying to figure out what to do during the other two days. The second day we spent watching SRK’s Don, and sleeping… Yawn!.... When I had done away with all options for whiling away time, I read a book! A very romantic one along the lines of a
Mills & Boons (Zzzzz…) But of course there had to be some kind of way in which u can spend time. Engrossed in mush and romance of its pages I slept around 3AM (or was it four?) Sunday was the same again, only with the frustration and agony of house arrest being flared. (Adding to it, the depressing feeling that one has due to romance, or the lack of it.) To wash off that effect I started a book… Yawn!... , Inscrutable Americans, …some relief. But still the weekend had gone bad. 72 hours gone badly is a lot of time.

Now the actual cribbing starts. What is a republic? A state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them. Or so the online dictionary states. What a useless and rather meaningless description for the state of affairs that we are in! … Yawn!... Citizens have been stranded across the city for the past week, due to the autos and the Govt. being at loggerheads! No cabs are available and we can not go out paying exorbitant auto fares due to the fear of the unions. … Yawn!... And we have our public servants being chauffeured around on the streets with the unnecessary fleet of pilot vehicles and causing traffic jams everywhere on the already congested Indian roads. So why is that our representatives put us through this agony? Or looking at it the other way round, … Yawn!... why is it that the ones with the supreme power have to undergo this plight? May be, the pilot fleet is required after all, a prudent move before all citizens use their super powers to turn into wicked green monsters waiting to devour their own beloved representatives. … Yawn!... Damn it! I am ranting and rambling away in my sleep...Zzzzz…

4:45 PM

Awake!!!

Finally woken up from deep sleep. Sweet dreams amidst all the cacophony that googley-ness causes. Well rested and calm now. Concentrating on work and blogging for leisure, interspersed with overindulgence by the form of excessive breaks. Well, wonder why at all was I in a mood for cribbing? ;-)

Ah… And now you have a found a reason to, perhaps (winks and ducks under the table).

2007-01-09T23:36:00.000-08:00

Anf for those of you who haven't heard/read Moonlight Drive, here it is

Let's swim to the moon,
Let's climb through the tide
Penetrate the evenin' that the
City sleeps to hide
Let's swim out tonight, love
It's our turn to try
Parked beside the ocean
On our moonlight drive

Let's swim to the moon
Let's climb through the tide
You reach your hand to hold me
But i can't be your guide

Easy, i to love you
As i watch you glide
Falling through wet forests
On our moonlight drive

Come on, baby, gonna take a little ride
Goin' down by the ocean side
Get real close
Get real tight
Baby gonna drown tonight
Goin' down, down, down, down
Goin' down
Goin' down, way down
Down, down, down, down, down

...Sigh!!!

2007-01-09T04:02:00.000-08:00

People actually read my Blog! So when there was no action for a long time, frequent and not so frequent visitors came across asking me enquiring about future posts or even thinking about posting. So here goes…

A change of location.

It has been a month since I shifted base to the Deccan plateau/plain [I never was interested in Geography]. A new job brought with it a new environment, new friends and new experiences. Some good some bad! Well, actually nothing that would be worth complaining about or even qualifies.

Since the last post, which by the way had a good number of responses, there has been a mild aversion to blogging. The reason being a short story. Something that came as a nightmare turned to be inspiration to write. The short story turned out to be not so short and is incomplete. With the file stuck some 700 Km south on my personal computer, which is not anymore personal, the only option to write is to Blog. So getting over the first hurdle… Phew!!!

Where were we? Hyderabad! My trip started in the midst of viral fever. I didn’t want to get out of bed and the last thing on my agenda was to board a flight. And all of a sudden, the morning of departure, fever subsides…and I end up at Hyderabad. A cab was already arranged to take me to company’s guest house, my temporary residence. A nice bungalow in what is considered a really posh area of Hyderabad. Posh, in my definition would be rich people with huge homes and a huge fleet of luxury cars, and all other luxuries really close to them. But then this place hardly had any amenities around in the locale. All buildings were at least three stories high and to get to the nearest store you would have to walk a good half hour! So finally when weekends came, and boredom struck, moving out of the guest house seemed to be very enticing.

A paying guest accommodation was what was in store. A reasonable place. Warm people, who took me into their family right away. Now that I am all settled in and having fun I thought I may as well start writing about it. [Special mention about the food I get here… Yummy!!!] [PS Mom, in case you are reading I do miss your cooking a lot too]

My first happy moment was when I saw the auto rickshaw meter working. For those of you who don’t what I am talking about, all three wheel public transport automobiles have a little box near the driver’s seat. These things are what determine the fare that u need to pay for your journey. And seeing, what I considered to be antique pieces that were mere objects of decoration, in working condition was a huge setback. Then, the traffic! The existence of traffic rules and the explicit lack of disciplined drivers are so evident on the roads of Hyderabad. In case there is a truck carrying your favourite soft drink or anything else that you would require, you can happily put out your hand and take it, unless the truck is parked inside your vehicle.

Having formed a good circle of friends, and hanging out around the normal places, the city is not too very different. It is congested, polluted, and dirty but it has its own advantages also. [I may have to do some more research on that part]. All weekends fly away just like that because of these guys. They have already taken me out to a whole lot of places, and they are so much fun to be with. Have not felt the home sickness syndrome as yet only because of them.

Work on the other hand is some thing that cannot be expressed in words. There are different kinds of people that I could not have imagined existed in this part of the world. I am not being racist, but when some one breaks the prototype Indian version; you are left at a loss of words. People from different backgrounds and different interests coming together at one place is quite an enriching experience. All things come with one or two minuses and so does this. However, it is not worth writing about.

Everyone at work is addicted to the internet. Blogs, websites, and all the rest in between, you name it they have it. I often have wondered if I am at the right place, but the enthusiasm with which they share knowledge and help others learn really makes one feel at home. Chance happening: I happened to show my colleague, also my buddy, my Blog; the reaction was astounding [obviously for the most spoken about post here]. It was further encouragement to write here. It is very co-incidental that I am feeling cupid’s strong influence, ever since I saw Moonlight Drive’s lyrics on Hjkl’s profile. It is high time I got over him. [Incase you are not on the right track, got out of this issue]. Not digressing from the topic. So my buddy. He has a Blog too [“Rahul Rishi” on Blog roll]. A rather simple guy, very kind and caring. I really do not know what would have happened if it were not for him helping me around in the so many issues that I have had. From finding a house to setting up my computer, he helped me out. The idea of having a buddy for a new hire is a good thing, but the kind of buddy I got is amazing. [This will go in his review, if I get to write one that is]

Another thing about this city is that pretty much everyone is committed or is in an open relationship or even worse, married. Very few singles. All the good-looking ones already taken. Sigh! But why bother, for now I am content with his Moonlight Drive!

Adios!

2007-01-07T04:54:00.000-08:00

Work in Progress!!!

Thank you for your patience.

A topic suggested!

2006-09-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

A topic suggested!

So what does one who asks for advice get? Advice! So on hot autumn night, the author sets to the taks of finding something worthy to write about. (Actually, it does not require too much fuss, just some ability to think on the topic for a while. Now that you have been reading this blog, you should have realized it.) Nothing comes across to the mind as a topic, which can occupy the thought process for more than a couple of seconds. Then finally settle down to seek help! A friend suggests trying to write something with emotion, and the emotion to be portrayed – romance. The suggestion was made with a certain person in mind. Moreover, given cupid’s current monopoly over a certain part of the brain (or should it be the heart?) it comes across as a worthy idea. There are many perquisites to this, as listed
Ø incase a blood relative comes across my blog, there is awareness created(chances are high of my absconding then)
Ø Incase there is 'the' certain person visiting this blog, well, it would be worthy.
Ø In addition, gives time to think about writing for the certain person.

After having suggested the crux of the topic, dear friend elucidates the manner of the post. (Takes the form of a letter, must be romantic…) this may not be a worthy attempt, but nonetheless, it is just an attempt. Better to try n fail than have never tried. Therefore, to try, we all use the help of Google these days. After some vain research, finally, it seems that inspiration for the same; (inspiration already defined) comes from within. Let us set the ball rolling then. Consider reading a love letter from the author addressed to a certain person.

Dear Hjkl,

I haven’t the foggiest of how to start this letter! It is sans an introduction.

I arise from dreams of you
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright;
I arise from dreams of you,
And a spirit in my feet
Has lead me — who knows how?
To your window, sweet!

The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream —
The Champak odours fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale’s complaint,
It dies upon her heart; —
As I must on yours,
Oh, beloved as you are!

Oh lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let your love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast; —
Oh! Press it to your own again,
Where it will break at last.

A vain attempt at copying poetry, you think! True. I Am love struck. I don’t know how many fathom deep I am in love. Yet, when I hear you voice, I fall in love all over again!

Signed…
jhgf

Guess this the most that could be done now. Let’s see when the real opportunity arises.

Ok folks! Show’s over. Damage done!

Coffee Shop

2006-09-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

Coffee shop!

There is nothing altruist or philanthropic about this post, just a little something expletive to make blogging a habit.

Sitting in a coffee shop with great company sipping cold coffee! (Cold, ever since a freak accident with hot coffee) That is what most people do these days. In addition, it is catching on a consumer base spread across age groups.

Spending around four hours like such can be very invigorating to the mind. It primarily has to deal with the plethora of people you observe! This post is dedicated to them. (Completely expletory, don’t you think?)

When we entered in the afternoon, we had just a few people sitting around. Mostly Couples – dating can be so much fun, for the observers. People tend to be very nice and sweet to each other with no benevolent intention. At least that is as much as observation was today. Then a few others were hanging out with their peers. Male herds were mostly jealous of the lucky odd male who braved all odds to bring a female along for a date. Then there were the hetero group of friends, such as us, who prove to be eye candy (despite all variations of colour n size n make) for the opposite sexes. The location or scene of crime was a nice coffee shop. As we entered, we rush to seats with the best view - of the road, of the coffee shop and of the neighbourhood. Our usual seats are not taken, and we settle in. The corridor - that’s where we generally sit. It has the best view considering the above-mentioned criteria. Open to elements also. What started as a very humid Sunday afternoon, random drizzles came as respite spells. Hence the four hours.

The one thing that we need to understand about the coffee shop is that they charge you for the time you stay. Can u imagine why else would they serve you coffee at the price of a full meal and add tax upon it and still let you hang around? Therefore, the theory of time is money is proved. (In case you are wondering where this going to, I warned you forehand, this is an expletory practice.) (In case you are wondering what is expletive, here is the definition, in this context it is anything but the first usage.

Expletive
1.A profane, vulgar or obscene oath
2.(linguistics) A word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position
Example: - It in It is snowing
3.(linguistics) A word that adds to the strength of a phrase without affecting its meaning
Example: - bloody in I'll give you a bloody good hiding. …)

So then, it is some random gossip about people you know and people you do not, interspersed with observing the periphery and the people around. Our first candidates were a couple. The normal guy/girl next-door kind of people. The guy was trying his level’s best to take a picture of his beloved (!?!) on his mobile phone while the lass was brushing off all of his attempts. You can imagine what fun we had watching the replay of Newton’s law of action and reaction. (Physics ma’am – I still remember, you can be proud now!) Then came around a bunch that would not have passed beyond the sophomore age. And they take up a seat similar to ours for the obvious reasons. What a bunch! College Romeos and wannabes. One sometimes spots a wannabe stud with hair straightened and colored. With the coolest mobile phones and then finally the icebreaker... terrible sandals. No, the kind of rubber slip-ons that make u wonder where this person has emerged. Or else it will definitely be sound. Light travels faster than sound; and when they begin to talk; you want to go back in time n undo things. (Desperately hope my physics teacher notices the physics in this post!) As we fill each other on the happenings of the society and go on observing the other coffee sipping Homo sapiens, we notice an uncle standing in his balcony, in the neighboring apartment complex, having a great view at the coffee shop. He must have been sexagenarian or beyond, and was very keenly observing the happenings in the shop. It may have been a ‘God, kids today!’ or a ‘why weren’t coffee shops available during our glorious days’ kind of a thought process happening. In addition, there are the occasionally cruising through the streets, Mercs and BMW’s that leave us wanting and wishing.

Then two of our friends joined us for coffee. After which we continued our watch even more passionately. People came and went. Big cars, small cars and all that in between – the aura (or faux) of opulence is directly proportional to the size of the vehicle and so is the kind of company. Then there were the bikes. Mostly friends just wanting hang around, or the lone souls who come single and go with a pillion rider. And the ones who take the walk. This category is the simple person – employed/student; just wanting to have a cup of coffee and have a nice time observing what the other person is doing. After all man is a social being! From being a couple friendly place in the early afternoon the coffee shop become family friendly as the evening grew upon us. There is one thing that the coffee shop always proves to be - a place for friends to hang around, irrespective of the time. After having pinched and nipped our wallets and paying for all the time well spent, we finally left when a busboy prompted at our occupying the seats free!

What a Day!

2006-09-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

What a day!

This weekend starts of with a CSR calling up for offers! Then the comp goes bonkers, rather the console does not cooperate. The evening was a misery. It is Statistics! Mode, mean… hmm, I was out of it in school now it comes back with a bang. Then comes some very gruesome English. Believe me; I was subject to torture having to hear the person talk. Then like much awaited respite, a friend drops by. A blogger himself, he definitely requires mention. It is always so much fun having to spend time with people with whom you can share sensible conversations. Alas, there are so few of the kind left on this world. Once the monitor was functional, routine work on the www. During a chat session, an erudite friend delivered an in-depth definition of inspiration vs motivation. Then after all that, I sit to write this post. Phew!

Forget the statistics; forget the English! The evening, that was interesting. After his arrival, we sit to talk about a mutual friend. A very sweet dame, who can be clearly vulnerable to whatever friends say. She, in short, cares a lot for members of her social circle. Old stories from college fill the room with nostalgia. Then discussing some abstruse topics; - what differentiates motivation and inspiration; some random musings about how clichéd the family circle can be - all in the earshot of the family! Well it does help to keep everybody appraised about general perceptions. So with what do we end up? A couple of hours and a great time spent. In addition, some fabulous ideas and some random stuff that we can ponder upon. The purpose of his visit was to discuss a few intricacies of his plans to motivate people to write. Moreover, with me… a person who has never taken writing for serious all this time. A perspective of this person: he is charming to say the least. Has a great mind, underutilized sometimes and Ambition. Well sometimes, excited about a pair of smart shoes, and otherwise thinking of why we see a crescent like a ‘U’ and not the otherwise? U can imagine the might and range of his thinking. That’s the influence of statistics. Then there are his predictions – seems to work out for a couple of people, let’s see if it does in my case. (I owe him a Louis Vuitton pair of shoes if it does. Thats what you see at the top. Vain attempt to place it right.) Let me leave that at that, anything more would prove to be revelation. So with all that done, and a few ideas and thoughts being smuggled in and out of our craniums, its time to bid adieu and get to the www. A very erudite and selfless friend gives me insight on the inspiration vs. motivation concept over chat. Plainly stated, inspiration is from within where as motivation is from others. The ‘urge to’ can be called inspiration. Ever thought about this?

Well, inspiration is there. Now motivation is in place. After logging on to orkut and some random souls sending you friend requests and one line scraps... you finally find solace blogging. Not to forget wikipedia. Then eventually you decide that its time to write some thing sensible.

Hmmm… Did this post even come close to being sensible?

Dated!?!?

2006-08-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

incase u are left wondering what the 'Dated' at the end of the post signifies, well it is when i actually wrote the post, the post gets published much later.

This day that year!

2006-08-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

How could I not have written about this?
Aug 13, 2005 night. Get dropped off at the MAC to go to London. What trip! The flight from MAC was delayed. And after a very long day, it was just the apt time to fall sick! Stand at the boarding gate and rush to the loo!!! What a day! Reach Mumbai. Delayed flight gets us stranded in the air port for 8 hours. The food – terrible. Just what makes you feel even sicker. After what seemed to be a million trips to the loom I finally decided to go see the doctor. God bless him! After ORS/electrolyte and a heavy dosage of antibiotics, lesser trips to the loo and then finally – the boarding call. OK, so we board the flight and I fall asleep for the next 14-15 hours to see the Big Ben without even realizing the stopover at Ahmedabad or wherever that was. Phew!
The trip back was relatively nicer. Completely recovered. Heathrow – Mumbai. And the n from there to MAC. Well from a Boeing to an airbus. Very bad if you get the emergency window seat next to the engine or turbine or whatever that thing is called. The 14 hour fun trip from Heathrow to Mumbai was fun but from there to Chennai was horrible. It left me dazed, deprived, and half deaf. Not to mention the Maharaja’s service and food needs really needs an overhaul.
This was a year back, when we carried hand baggage – a hand bag and a backpack. Now, well no trips in the near future to comment on travel experiences.

Dated: 14/08/2006

Repentance

2006-08-28T12:39:00.000-07:00

Close to 0040 hours. Just finished reading an article about Guenther Grass. He was awarded the Nobel(lit) in 1999. Now he admits to serving on the Schutzstaffel.
Germans-Nazis-Hitler-Schindler’s list!!! As one grows old, perhaps one feels the need to go back in time and do better the things of the past. As one ages, Ok, as one matures with age, one really understands what Repentance means. Am I also a part of this lot? Guess so…, No; it is a definite Yes. Why else would I say ‘Thanks for being my friend’ after having ignored a ‘cheer up’ sms? All of 22, look back into the so many months that I have been what have I done to repent? Why do I feel guilty? Too many to list, yet for the sake of killing time I shall make an attempt.
Ø Disregard/disrespect for the people who I hold close to heart. It may be because I take them for granted, but alas commitment or relationships don’t seem to weigh more than regard, respect and all that.
Ø Oscillating between love and hatred. [The opposite of love is not hatred, its indifference] if you are thinking ex-boyfriend, well I let romance pass me by. No repentance. But when kith and kin have to bear with such extremes of ones personality, you look back in retrospect and want to correct it.
Ø Not having studied properly
Ø Pizza
Ø Lying
Ø Too much TV
Hmmmph… all those are the cravings that I repent for. What would life be at 70? What are the things that I would repent for? Well, one thing is for sure now, I do repent for having wasted a lot of the earth’s resources, my dad’s money, my mom’s patience, my sister’s time… but at 70? Well I am not so very interested in living till then, am sure I will have to repent for every breathing second then. God Bless

Dated: !4/08/2006

2B or not 2B?

2006-08-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

Well, that was on an invite that I’d received a while ago and more than anything else, it has been occupying my mind for ‘oh-so-many’ days.
2B or not to B? A very dangerous question if one were depressed and on an extreme high. But since I am only maudlin and mooching around delirium, the question does not actually come across as an extremist’s point of view.
All this may be yet another one of my really obscure thoughts on life and in case you have tolerated with it this far, I presume you have a great level of tolerance and give you an applause for the same.
This topic is definitely an all time favourite. [Slightly in third person and majorly impersonal]
Ever wondered what many people in your social circle are thinking about at the moment? It’s definitely got to be a “2B or not to B” situation in question.
One such person has a problem; a real 2B or not to B issue. Dreams of making it big, venturing with the who’s who of the field, lots of travel… and if one has been working for it and yearning for it for quite sometime and it all of sudden slips… dreams shattered… all because of something as trivial as money… or the lack of it. Think of someone who has planned everyday of every month of every year ahead, this person has to go back to square one because of this. Can a pedantic soul recuperate from such a disaster? Thoughts galore. I can sit at this desk and pen down my pity but would the same avenue prove to be a gateway for me if I were to be facing a situation like this? Perhaps yes, only whatever was penned down would never see the light of the day.
What would this person do is a question that remains unanswered. When confronted with a question, ‘what do you think I should do now?’ it left me speechless. Dwelling close to depression, actually a freaky thing, gave me the creeps to even think of the answers. The only solace being that what rubs off this person is the optimism and the positivism. Hence I shall retain my sanity abt this frnd. God bless.. Everyone.
PS: never ever have I seen money play such a pivotal role in making and breaking destiny. And am sure you are pondering on a 2B or not to B thought.

Dated:14/8/2006

2006-07-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that write it; for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if (I say) you look upon this verse,
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse;
But let your love even with my life decay:
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.

William Shakespeare.

Hmmm… it is Shakespeare season in India, with Omkara releasing in the near future. The first adaptation of Othello the moor of Venice, that I have seen was a Malayalam film called kaliyattom. In the movie, Othello is played by Suresh Gopi (who won the national award for his performance in the film), Desdemona by Manju Warrier.
Omkara has Ajay Devgan as Othello and Kareena Kapoor as Desdemona. Not that I am film critic or anything, but when there is a scope for a gr8 script and some good performances, you have some idea of the actors who would fit the role. Saif Ali Khan seems to be the perfect(my pick) choice for the role of Iago. Hmmm.. I really don’t think I would waste my time and money in watching the movie for one too many reasons. The performance of Kareena Kapoor vs Konkana Sen, I know these two actors are not in the same plane, but nevertheless, would be rather hideous. And it’s nothing new for Ms Kapoor to play a romantic femme. Second the movie will definitely not be close to the Malayalam version of the same. Third the movie would definitely have an item number, Bipasha basu is also a part of the movie. Next reason would be a character completely wasted in Cassio, played by vivek Oberoi. The reasons that fail to beat the many that coerce me not to watch the movie are: Ajay Devgan, Konkana Sen, N Shah.

That’s abt the film critic that I can play. I wonder if anyone ever has read the above sonnet of his. But it is something in day to day life these days. The fact that not many of us ever think of others before ourselves. Not even if they are with us. Wonder what it would be to be in a state where your existence or the lack of it would affect the life of some one who was a complete stranger to you to a great extent. Ok that’s on a serious note… Life, I guess, is like that!

Indecisiveness

2006-06-28T00:03:00.000-07:00

France vs. Spain

As Thierry Henry gives a small tete-e-tete to ESPN, I take on the strong calling from my innerself to use the pen. A decision after a very long time!!!

Two years ago, July`04, a friend of mine in a n email said that " CAT was meaningless now and that his GRE had gone well.. blah blah.." The guy is now in Uncle Sam's land pursuing his MS. Going through my email archives, I stumbled upon this one email, realising what was missing in my life - Focus!!!

A simple column during the process of making a blog - Who am I!!! (too difficult to answer, can't I just pass this one...). I dont know, other than saying I am D/o or sister of someone, I cannot describe myself. To console my poor little heart, I can say it may be because I cannot be defined in just a confined character limit :-)

Who am I? - not going over that question again. What do I want to do? - too many answers!!! When choices are plenty and practicality leaves you agape, you are left confused enough to become chicken (not from Kegg farms).

The end result is it leaves you indecisive. I have taken decisions all through my life. My parents have encouraged me to do so, and it helps in making you a better person. But now, The thought of having to make a decision leaves me in the dark, with a terrible hollow, emptiness in my cranium.

So why all of a sudden the indecisive outburst you ask? Only cos I took notice of it now. When I ponder if or not to delete a testimonial cos of the english and the person's overtly nice words, it leaves me wondering why am I even thinking (or a very long time) of how I am to act in a trivial situation. I even think of getting a friend's help.

The step to sit and write - well the decision comes as a relief. The absolute chaos of ' to do something worthwhile in life', the 'study/work' question, 'what next?'....Arrggh!!!

Terribly ironic that I wrote about being childish yet mature in my last post. [Present scenario: child in me writes blog content etc in my book; the computer using adult rewrites them onto the PC.]

Can't I just be Daddy's little girl and forget about all these not-so-important questions. But then thinking of making my Daddy proud puts me right on track; No, not the indecisive one, the one which leads me to proving my worth. Where there maybe delays in decisions, certainly no inability to decide. Alls clear now.

And for those of you who read this post and wonder what the answers to the questions aforementioned are... Well, I was never an openbook to be now. All decisions are taken prudently and with a larger picture in mind. God is in his heaven; Alls well with the World.

PS: I wonder who manages to clean up these pristine white soccer uniforms. Probably designed as use and throw artefacts.

MOOD: damn Vieirra - missed a goal; disappointed
Listening to: Football commentary.

Two worlds

2006-06-20T01:47:00.000-07:00

My Friend's blog had this one topic that I felt I had to write about. Two Worlds he said and went on this way...

...The 'two worlds' I refer to are two different stages of a human's life - childhood and adulthood. Do you love kids? Most of us do.Rite?? Ever wondered what makes us love them? Are we even conscious of the fact that we love them.. I suppose most often it is an un-conscious process... I am attempting to understand, if not all of it, atleast some portion of it...

Well, ok, people know how much I love kids, I really don't. Being the eldest of the lot as far as my maternal family is concerned, I have to baby sit a huge army of lilliputians when the older people do their chores. This is not any peace loving person's pleasant ordeal.
Then he goes onto write about how as kids we desire to ride bikes, drive cars, have girlfriends/boyfriends, make our decisions and when we eventually grow up, we desire to be kids. Long for our childhood Here's the link: http://outofmamind.blogspot.com/

As far as I am concerned, the child in me never grew up. Come on, I have to put up with a lot of kids and even though it is not my favourite pastime they love me a lot. So lets investigate what makes us this way. I do not want to live my childhood again, once was memorable and those memories last for ever. But why do people when they grow, decide not to enjoy the little things that once made them happy. Imagine how u could still play hide and seek with 5 year olds and hold a valid drivers license, with out feeling out of place.

Elders do call me immature at times when it comes to fooling around like a primary school kid, but if being mature means, I cant just do my thing, cant roll around in the mud playing, cant eat an icecream with out a desert spoon and all that blah blah, I prefer to be immature.

Growing up, and becomin mature, some how has narrowed down the angle of thought. Do we really think about why the moon appears orange sometimes? Even if we do, do we ask people if they know the answer to it? NO, just because we as adults don't want to be seen wasting our precious time on trivialities.Hmmm... we just quit learning and exploring as we grew up. We had a broad spectrum to think in when we kids,our imagination ran wild; but now we do not think out of the box, we can let imagination run wild, mostly perverted.

I for one realise the pleasures of being a kid, and I refuse to grow up. For those who want me to act my age, all I can say is, I have got the best of the two worlds, why would I want to give up on one???

2006-06-05T00:07:00.000-07:00

Ok.. The peace is gone. The silence shattered.

My news paper reading habit is not very tasking. I do not scrutinize the news to every li'l bit. But yes, nevertheless I do read it. Being an ardent fan of the written word, I appreciate the few interesting articles that feature in everyday news. These days however there are completely undeserving topics making the headlines. So that section is skipped. The editorials are a must read. I remember days when editorials were diplomatic, pondered on all the avenues and premises of the topic at hand and yet did not take a stand on the topic. These editorials were making people think. Their thought were theirs, but ends none of their own. Today it has degraded to the extent of favoring a particular view. The Editorial board does realize the power of the medium and hence would exploit it to the maximum. Does this ring a bell? On the lines of the news channels? Hmmmm... That's another very sad story. Common sense is so un-common these days! When people tell us their opinions instead of just plain unadulterated news, how can the junta take a stand on anything? I am venturing away from my initial thought.
So what's with the news you ask? Here goes. You may have read or even written down on the topic of affirmative action taking the help of reservation. This is by far the worst that I have read - in today's newspaper. A survey on the population of journalists in the top newspapers of the country suggests that this field is dominated by the upper caste people. A dismal amount is held by the largest segment of population - the OBC. Before I know it I may well be buying a newspaper meant for the uppercaste run and produced by people from the same caste. I may be exaggerating, but I am prepared for it. We may have learnt that caste is a social evil in school, I wonder why then is the union ministry is taking action based on such an evil. I am no communist. I will definitely allow the government to divide and rule based on caste. Afterall I do belong to the upper class and it doesn't hurt me to look down on the backward classes. All coins have two faces to them. If a person can get priviledges on the basis of his/her caste, definitely endorsing their caste in all walks of life should be a part of the package.

Anyways, that's just the anti-reservation spirit writing. But then, the last question remains. With the office of profit bill and the like happening, why are there no surveys on the grounds of caste taking place to show us the membership of Political parties. Why are there no statistics about the decision makers of the various political parties, the ministry also should not be spared. Can Indian politics practice before it Preaches!?!?!?!?!

2006-06-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

My first post!!!!

Hmmm.. I have no particular topic in mind to write about, my mind is as clear as a crystal having the read the first page of Frost at midnite, by ST Coleridge (U noticed the URL). I shall warn Thou that this is the very first of the many abstruse musings that will feature on this blog.
My good friend from college introduced me to blogging and this post had been long overdue. Having known that the basic essential of blogging was to toy with thought I have started, with no sharp idea of where will this lead me to.
Old thoughts are prejudices and new ones are caprices, and I do require a change from this amazing state of nonchalance that my mind has succumbed to. There have been so many things happening around me that ignites a spark but none that I am bold enough to write about. Some I am nonchalant about, others, well I prefer to keep them to myself!
Retrospect - that's what this post shall be about. Afterall I did meet my friends from school after 5 long years. Looking back on the years I have lived, it does not seem to me that I would have turned out any thing better than what I am now. A happy family, great parents, fabulous siblings, amazing friends, and I thank God for them. I am sure that everyone has thought about how they would have turned to be if they were born into another family, I am no exclusion. I have finally concluded that this was the best for me. The question also arises about friendship, and it is better late than never to clear any fog. Relationships, well People who know me know that I am nonchalant about the opposite sex, and hence none to count on. The favourite word for this post seems to be nonchalant, maybe due to the subdued state of activity happening in my grey matter. I must stop running around the bush and start thinking of something, anything to write about.
Incase you have really had the patience to read the above infantile gibberish, I applaud your patience and apologise for the misery. I had already warned you about the absurdity of this blog.