I need one more!!!!

The queue in front of me looked kind of really long. I got up with my thoughts; yes, it is a long weekend having Veteran’s day on Monday. So there is a crowd everywhere. After a wait of 15 minutes, I reached the officer who decides which zone I will move in. I was traveling to Minneapolis to visit my cousin from Atlanta. I had taken the printout of my e -ticket. The print out was a little small, may be half size of an A4 page. The officer looked at my passport, then into my Ticket and asked me

AIRPORT-Officer: “Do you have a reading glass for this?” and smiled.
Me: Nope, I was in a hurry, so did not get time to enlarge the font.

He wrote the number 4, that means zone 4 and line 4. The queue crawled across slowly. My mind was floating around about the things I have to take out from my bag and put on the tray. Also I was thinking whether my sox are going to stink. In US you need to remove your shoes while passing through the Metal detector which is really annoying. More annoying when your sox stinks! :D

Any ways, I reached the end of the line and waited for the tray to assemble the things over it. After two minutes, there was no one to give me tray and two folks, one with two kids and another lady were waiting. I moved to the next line and mentioned to the family lady that we have tray on the next line. I went ahead and picked two trays, one for me and another for the other lady. The lady in front of her said

Lady-in-Front: I need two more.
Me: What?

I had the strangest of faces I can make but it took a moment for me to digest. She has mistaken me for the line in help boy. Man not in US!!!! It had happened to me so many times in India that people in Bangalore central come around and ask me
‘Can you get smaller size of this T shirt?’

If the person requesting a pretty looking lady, mostly I will help her out to find the right garment and then say to her that I don’t work here.:)
If the person is some guy, the answer comes straight away …But I never expected to have such an experience here in US.

So I took three trays and gave one to the lady in front, another to the lady with kids and one for me. I started taking out my digital cam and lap top and other stuff. The lady in the front went ahead and cleared the detector. Next was my chance and I went in.
My bag began to give the annoying beep-beep sound and I was asked to go near it. It was the bottle of drinking water I had left. Officer told me no drinking water in the cabin bag and threw it to the dust bin. I took my bag, belt, shoes (some how the sox was not stinking any more) and moved towards the next seat. I kept all the things inside my bag and was putting my shoes. I felt a nice fragrance around me and I looked up. The Lady-in-the-front is standing in front of me with her strangest-face.

Lady-in-Front: Oh I am really sorry, I really didn’t know!
Me: It’s alright; it happens :)
LIF: I was totally out of my mind and you might have felt that I was rude asking for another tray. I am terribly sorry
Me: it is alright ms, It has happened many times with me.
LIF: I’m ms T. Nice meeting you…
Me: I’m R, nice meeting you….
LIF: Where are you headed? Which flight?

Then the conversation went to the next coffee-bar. But I would say it was a good mistake!
How many times you have been into such situation where you are mistaken for someone else? Like a room boy? A domestic-help? A sales man in a mall? I don’t know if it is my looks or the way I dress up or my personality. Many a times this has happened and initially I got a little worried also. Thinking ‘Do I look like a servant?’

Then I started to realize the funny part of it. Serving the mistaken person and then letting them know that I was not the person they meant me to be. But this mistake, in US was really a lovely mistake which followed with a nice coffee chat with the gal!

I have to wait and see, next time I might be mistaken for a service boy in an elevator? :D

It is just the beginning

Me : Hello

Dad: Haan, What abt the thing I asked for?

Me : Err…dad ….what was it ?

Dad : A good looking snap of you!!! (With little irritation)

Me : That’s impossible, how it can be good looking with the part ‘ME’ on it ? (Sarcastic laugh)

Dad: Stop fooling around, when are you sending your snap?

Me: Dad, do you need all that so soon …I’m just turning 26 that too next year!!!

Dad: Who is dad here?

Me : You!!!

Dad: Who decides things?

Me : You ..But dad you said after 27 na ….

Dad: Yes, Even now, I say after 27, but I can keep looking rite?

Me: There is no point arguing you, I will send it soon.

Dad: make sure, no goggles, no new hair style and no pull over-coats. Ppl should know U r slim, u r dark, and ok?

Me: Dad, please ……give phone to Mom.

Mom : Hello …

Me: Mamma …Doesn’t dad has anything else to do these day? I’m not going to send anything (With lot of frustration)

Mom: It is ok da, I will find some snap of you in our PC, and don’t you worry.

Me: Mom, you are not getting my point.

Mom: ya ya , I do understand, don’t you worry, I will take care of it.

Me : Sigh sigh …why don’t you folks understand ?.......good night!!!!

I can’t believe this just happened with me. I had my stomach aching laughing at many movies where Madhavan and Surya and other good looking boyish heroes says no to marriage. I never thought this will happen not only in movies but in real life also ….

Nope, I am not putting me in place of Surya or madhavan but putting me in place of that character. Only two question why ME and why NOW ?

How and Why? Antzzzzzzz

Have you ever got time to look at an ANT colony? It is amazing to see how those tiny insects work together for uphill tasks. But how do they actually know what is each once role? If you see an ant group, once they find sugar on floor, they start carrying it back to their colony. But who decides which route is best? Who decides where the first ant will hand over (or head over) the sugar cube to the next one? Does every ant meets the queen Ant and they get the message like in a meeting or they communicate when they do that that teeny tiny thing with their antenna?
Or do they have telepathy? I had seen Ants fighting each other, I am not sure if they where of the same group or rival group but they fight. Do they have communal riots as we have? Do they fight for mates and food? If so how do they settle? Being the most intelligent creature in the earth (that’s what humans pertain to be) we struggle with each of this. But I think ants are better in their social aspects

From my limited knowledge,
Ants always communicate using some chemical called pheromones.
The queen Ant is a biggest and its job is to eat and lay eggs and make sure that next generation gets on.
Ants have a good communication structure where each knows what to do.
Ants fights when they are confronted with ants of other colony.
The one who losses the fight will be recruited to the colony for work.
All the ants don’t fight and all of them don’t lay eggs.
At the time of any alarm, ants secrete some kind of chemical which alerts the surrounding ants.
Ants have a memory to find out the trial which leads to food and get back on the same track next time. They also look for the probability of finding food in the same location.
Ants are good at engineering aspects also as the nest build by ant colonies using leaves are strong when considering the materials with which they build them.
Ant communication is more than where is food, A to B direction but how much left, how much more time required etc
Ants have emotion and they express it using gestures or by friction of one organ against other (Antenna)
An ant colony is made up of one or two queens, which spend their lives laying eggs, and thousands of worker ants which feed the ant queen and tend the young ant larvae.
The male ants only serve one purpose, to mate with future queen ants and do not live very long.
SLAVE MAKER ants raid and chase off or kill guards of other species. They then carry off the larvae and pupae. In some species the slaves do all the work. Their captors would starve to death without their slaves. One species depends on its slaves
Ants modify their environment. They regulate the temperature and humidity within their nests. They control airflow through their nests. They build mounds. They clear pathways.
Ants are vicious, merciless survival machines. They breed special castes of large, powerful soldiers. Along with soldiers, worker will fight for the survival of the colony, not giving a though for personal safety or survival. Some ants even use chemical propaganda in warfare. When ants fight, there is no surrender, no mercy, and no peace. They kill all the enemies and eat their babies. If it is necessary to the survival of the colony, ants will eat their own babies. Some ants steal the eggs and larvae of other species and raise them as slaves.

Ants might be another tiny organization but they have lived long enough in our planet to survive. Do we know how to survive?

Peice of thought

Realised after long

How mute a conversation could be

Not much to say or to listen

Yet so much to feel

Neither could digest the life

Truth remains the same

By far the ripples reach out

Yet to leave the pond

Rippling is here to stay

As for the stone or wind

Until another rock or wind, the pond remains still..........

What a 'Pause' can do in a conversation!!!!

I accidentally bumped into one of my school friends, that too in US after a long 15 year break. But the funniest part was we could recognize each other so easily. The conversation went like

Hey ‘R1’ !!!!!
arreee ‘R2’…. you in US ?

Both of us has names starting with R, so I will keep R1 for her and R2 for me.

R1: Hey you look the same after so many years. Did you stop eating after you left school?

I was lost in some thoughts as usual about things I have to catch up with after a three days holiday break. So I was caught off guard with a blank mind with no answers. But I some how came back.

Me: Ya, now I know who was eating all that I had saved. You look really …..(Thinking, what word to use…..after a long pause here) changed.

But man she had put on at least 20 kg in 15 years. I remember her as the slimmest and tallest girl in the group. Now if I look at her, she is hefty, looks more like an aunty but has the same old cute face. The long pause I gave in between the word was too much and she was little concerned.
We started the ritual of exchanging our Orkut/yahoo/ mail ids/ cell numbers, started asking what is X,Y,Z doing. Who all got married, who all got kids (Man time to forward this list to my Mom and dad. Most of the people from my batch is having 2 year old kids and I am fooling around here in US :)). As we both had a one hour time to catch up before our gates open for our flight, we chatted along. Then it came back to the pause between the word ‘you really …..changed’

Even if you know a person very well ,it is very difficult to say that they have put on a lot of weight. The ratio of this difficulty grows if the person is a gal; it grows even further if the gal was a cute looking slim gal.

R1: Hey R2, tell me, Am I really fat? Do you think I should start working out?

she started blaming all the things in the world which caused her current body frame.the list contained

1. This is all because of my current work schedule
2. The eating habits I have these days. I luv chocolate and puddings and also fired items.
3. No one is there to stop me from eating any of these.

It went on and on .....
I was partially lost in my line of thoughts. How do you really answer such a question? If I say its high time you do something about it, it will go down as a bad remark. But If I leave it too easy, she will end up in the next SUMO national federation camp. I tried my best to give a good shot. But I think I failed miserably

Me: Look R1, people put on weight due to various reasons, life style, food habits, by genes etc. All we can do is stick to a healthy diet and make sure we do some exercise.

R1: I do exercise; I walk from my parking lot to office, also parking lot to my house pushing my cart with lot of groceries. You know it is 5 minutes walk from my parking lot to office and most of the time I gasp for air by the time I reach my cubicle.

VOICE_IN_MY_MIND: Buddy, that’s because you have a body weight of 170 lbs (after coming to US,everything in LBS …..You know US culture ;)). That weight is making you gasp for air, not the five minutes walk.

Me: OK R1, can you see your toes without bending your back? This is one of the things guys usually do, I don’t now about gals.

She thought for a moment

R1: I haven’t checked, may be I can see it over the mirror. Why?

You know, when these 'Cute-looking-gals' ask this 'Innocent' but 'dumb' question, but you cannot help control your laughter. But I had to keep the grim face and answer in a serious tone.

VIMM: Went laughing and rolling on the ground. The best possible answer I can get for my question. 'To see your toes, look at a mirror'. Second thought, how people can maintain their level of dumbness even after graduating from one of the best engineering college and working for one of the best IT organization in US ?

Me: I mean R1, it depends on the mass you have and not about looking at your toes. So I would suggest, you take a look at some your old photos and look at the mirror and decide for yourself. Looks doesn’t matter much, but we can keep the way we are looking with a fit body, a firm head and nice smile.

R1: My friends said that I have gained weight, but no one told me that I look fat these days…..
I could see her face, close to a weep. I was afraid that the old guy sitting next to us will call 911 any moment looking at us, An Indian making another Indian gal cry in an airport. I was thinking WHY DID I PAUSE SO MUCH BEFORE THE WORD CHANGE?
Any way our gates opened and we didn’t had a chance to finish that conversation. We parted catching on with our daily life nuances.

I think it is very difficult to say some one has to work on their looks without hurting them.
I usually get a lot of comments on my frame being so lean. People ask me to start eating something at least, but I hardly care because I can’t do much about it.

My answer is a best example of a 'usual' answer people often get. This is one way people react. There are some, who takes up eating less or gymming which fades away with in two days to two weeks. Some say that they are born in a good family and that’s why they look plump. Some gave pet name Assets, showing their 32 inch belly (Especially guys).

Everyone has their own right to be what they want to be and how they want to look like. But provided we have the time, patience and mind, we should work out a little to keep us fit rather than for looks. My generation (aged from 23 to 28) might end up with a list of ailments much sooner than age 50 looking at the life style we follow, the things we eat and due to lack of exercise. So folks watch what you eat and start jogging today...... We never know...

we might end up like king khan with 6 pack or the actor with a great body and looks but some one needs to help him to keep his half opened mouth shut -JA ;)

Random Thoughts……continued……

There is no switch in our mind to switch from office work totally to personal life or wise versa. To say things I am not much experience on having a married life. But even then I have a personal life, taking care of lot of things.
After coming home, I feel like, ok now full stop to office thoughts and time for homely personal stuff. The moment you want to think about it, there goes the thought about unfinished status report, the mail which need follow up, the bug in the last day’s code, the web post which I need to answer …the list is endless. How do we strike a good balance on these? When my mom start talking about the food I take, my mind is some where wandering about the mail I compiled last day! But when I sit in front of my client on the status meeting, my mind goes about wondering what I will have for dinner tonight. Most of the time we live with it until an awkward moment where u are asked for something in the middle of the meeting where u were dreaming about some thing else ….and got like
‘Err …hmmm Good question; I will have to think about it’
Where the question was
‘Hey did you send that mail?’ How stupid rite?

We can hardly control the stream of thoughts when they rush in. Thoughts does not flow in with a specific intention or out come, they are just like shooting stars which started from no where and goes into something but on the way it takes time from lot of people wasting their time on stupid wishes which they think will happen just because they saw the shooting star!

When our mind is clear on what to do and what to expect, it is so easy and life seems so boring to live. The moment we get something out of ordinary, mind gets filled with excitement, fear, joy or sorrow until we get used to it and again falls into a routine which will end up in boredom soon. Do any of these things really make a sense?

All I could think is I am wasting my time on a stupid thought where I need to prepare for my meeting tomorrow with a bunch of documents, reports and have a lot to catch up with home, friends, answer some personal mails …..
Life is exciting what else we can say !

Random Thoughts !!!!!!!!!!!!

Random Thoughts!!!

I had typed out this post and it vanished from my system in a giffy.
I stared on to my monitor and realized nothing else can be done. So here it goes again, a little refined random thoughts :).

As the title suggests following is some absurd random thoughts that crossed my mind last week. As usual I missed my 7:40 am bus and I got stranded at the bus stop, all alone on a chilly windy rainy U-S morning. Temperature was something close to 51 f (10 Deg Celsius). After two minutes it started to drizzle and I didn’t have any rain/winter gears with me. So I changed my face to a ‘GUY-WHO-ENJOYS-RAIN’ from “OH-S***-ITS-RAINING” expression. But the expression change didn’t have much effect on the chilly atmosphere. My nose went numb in less than three minutes I started to shiver from my thumb nail to my temple. I was gazing out to the other side of the road when the random thought crossed my mind.

The tree right across me is also out there in the winter. The leaves have already changed its color. If (I will call tree a ‘she’) she have a mind on her own, what will be going thru her mind. She stands out in the rain/winter/sun shine, all day/night all alone. I felt a little sad at my heart thinking about the tress. In winter these trees shed their leaves which are like food plates to them. As the life is sucked out of the leaves on a winter, they change its color which is celebrated and snapped by people like us saying ‘fall is here’.

Just for one moment if we can think about being alone, being immobile all your life in one place, it is a big torture. These trees/ plants are out there in the winter without a company, without leaves, without food, without a blanket, open to all the chilling- cold-swirlling wind holding on to their roots. On a sunny day, things are not much different, no where to hide but to get fried under sun. I do think, it is not an easy life for them. Life as it does to us, test her each and every day on her tenacity to live, to adapt, to the varying season around her. The seasons roll down to them as inevitables, pushing their limits year after year until she is turned into furniture or until the she stumbles out to the fury of our Mother Nature.

Oh thee help her fight the winter hard
Let her have another season of springs

We can see her beaming smiles
With her trunks covered with leaves and cherries ….’


Oh it ended up too random :D ……

My First client Escalation , being in client location

My hands were wet with sweat. I was feeling the pressure of committing a mistake while being in a client location. The only way out I had, was to accept the mistake and go ahead. The review meeting will come out with some decisions which will reflect badly on my further growth. What have been done is over and we cannot do much about it. All I can do is learn from the mistake and don’t loose the lesson. I have to forgive my self first and then look forward. These words look very easy but being in this situation is really tough.

Growing tough out of bad situation is what makes a man different from being a looser. I have to believe in myself and work towards quality and standards on my deliverables. It will not be easy and it would require an organized approach on each step to come back from a lost battle. The competition in this arena is very critical and we always have to be on the top to be alive and successful. Each moment counts and it pays off later.

The mistake I have committed was out of over confidence, compliance and care less ness
So here it goes, facing the challenge of accepting the mistake to the client in a highly competitive environment with all the mud slashing aimed at me. I’m going to stand up and stand tall what ever the reactions may be. It happened and it happens always with some one some day. So today is my day to face it. Grow up and stand for it, I can grow out of this and come out with flying colors. This might be a bad patch which teaches me all the way for a grand success path.

My meeting starts in two minutes and what ever happens for the best. I am taking it with a smile on my face and guilt in my heart. I have to improve a lot from where I stand today if I decide to hang around in this arena.

Aftermath:
Nothing of head slicing happened. It was all an analysis on the impact of re work we have to do. The re-work part was nullified as we are 'experts' on our work (Said by me who just committed a big blunder). Client is ok for now, but this thing will pop up any moment some thing else go wrong.

Lessons learnt:

Most part of the suffering is not when you go through the problem, but waiting for the out put just after identifying the problem.

A client escalation is a big thing when it happens for the first time with any one, then the client get used to it or you get used to it or client changes the contractor and we get used to it :)

Experince is the funny name tag we give it the mistakes we have done in our life, but this comes at cost of many valuable things!

Late realizations!!!

Late realizations!!!

I had lot of assumptions about US and people in US. Here are some realizations which were so stupid assumptions. Some might be so obvious, but forgive my ignorance.

1. Americans are not the best fit people in the world. May be I had seen all Hollywood people fit and fine which left me an impression that all the people in US are good looking and fit. Here out of 10 people I can see, 8 of them are over sized on their hips or on their tummies or other parts

2. Left hand drive is an expected part but people walking along the street are also in the same lines. I mean the people opposite to you walk on the left of you, not on the right of you.

3. 'The coloured people are dangerous and keep away from them' was one such assumption. But what I can see here is they are as human as we are and there is nothing to keep away from any one of them.

4. There are lots of beggars in America, I assumed there was none.

5. Here everyone does not speak good English; they struggle with their grammar and tenses.

6. Car is more of a necessity than a luxury here

7. Public transport in our country is far better than what we see in sub urban US. We should never take our public transport in India for granted.

8. Poor people in India live a better life than those in US. Because it is very tough to live if you don’t fall into an at least one bread everyday category.

9. Buying alcoholic drinks or cigarettes require an identity proof to show your age otherwise these products will be denied for you in US.

10. There are day care centre for pets in USA.

11. Indians are considered clever, intelligent and educated people in USA. (Don't know why)

12. American people talk a lot and they talk about their private life also in office. What I have learnt is, they are very particular that they don’t talk about their family. What I can see is they talk out like all normal people. Nothing particular but nothing hidden.

13. Every one greets each other even when they don’t know each other.
The Indian in US will not greet the other Indian until and unless some one needs some thing from the other Indian.

14. Honking is done only to give a warning about a probabilty of accident or when there is a serious mistake done by another driver, not the Indian style honk for clearing the road.

15. Half the cars will have their head light 'ON' irrespective of being a day or a night.

This much for now, I think I will have a longer list before I leave US and I might change some things listed here...... Things change with time na !

American Adventures............

American Adventures

It was another boring 16 hour journey, over conflicting time zones to reach the dream of an IT professional ...USA. I had mixed thoughts in mind, when I had my first step in US. The major thing going on my mind was, how I am going to find out the address that I printed out two days back from my E mail. There are two addresses, one mobile number and two home numbers. But I had my own list of problems.


1. My flight reaches around 6 in the Morning, US timing. Will the guy whose number I have will pick up a call 6:00AM in the morning that too from an unfamiliar number where incoming costs you in US.


2. What if he doesn't pick up? Will he pick up the LAN number?


3. My connection flight is in one hour and if I miss him in this one hour, all the people whose contacts I have will be in their office and I will not be able to contact any one.


4. I don't have coins to make a call and I searched the whole Navag airport for a phone machine which accepts dollar bills.


Finally, I decided to buy a coffee and get some change. Got change for three dollars. But my first two dollars where eaten by the machine because I forgot to press '1' before the number I had dialed. +1 is dialed in US for out of state calls.
But the lady luck shined on me as I got the person pick up my call next time. He was kind enough to tell me how to reach office and get in touch with him. The driver of the cab I took from airport to his office let me use his mobile to call my friend and get the keys to his house.

But I forgot to give him a fat TIPS. I gave him a nominal tip of 1 dollar where you have to keep it at least to 10% if you are satisfied with his service

I had a little problem in the leasing office, as the lady @ leasing office didn’t allow me to get into the apartment. I had to call my friend, to convince the lady to let me into the apartment. Then the numbering problem! If you are not aware I have a strange problem of not remembering any numbers lately. I had a sharp memory but these days I struggle with almost everything which is lengthier than four digits. My friend had given me the code number to open the gate to get into the apartment. But as usual I forgot, but my instinct helped me to type it in. Even today I don’t remember the 6 digit number to press to enter but I enter it correctly when ever I reach that particular place.

The rest of the day was like I had six peg of vodka. It was all the sleep and tiredness from a 16 hour travel. But I had to keep my self awake to fight the jet lag. The very next day I had to kick off my work in full swing. So the formula was like If I sleep today, I will have to sleep at least for another three weeks. I managed to keep my chin up until 5:15 pm, that’s the last time I remember reading my system clock.
My adventures continued on the next day with a train episode. Every place I had visited, I had problems with the directions for the first few days. Here also it happened. From my place I had to catch a bus to stop E7, and then catch a train to Five Points which is the central station and then a train to N2. So the funda looks very easy. I travel from east to centre, then to north. So while coming back, it will be travel to south until I reach Five points and head towards East.

But on the first day when I traveled back, this was not the case. I reached Five points central station and I got confused whether I need to take towards east or west. To put it clearly, I have to go to E7 but which train will take there was the question. There were more than 5 sign boards saying east bound and west bound, but some how I managed to avoid all those and get into a west bound train. After the first station itself I realized that I am traveling in the exact opposite direction. After a while I realised, any way this train will go until the end and come back to east. I had a good hard sleep for next 25 minutes. By the time the same train traveled to the end of west, came back to central station and traveled to E5 station.

The next adventure was with the coin washing machine in the washing centre. My friend had told me on about 1.75$, 2.75$ and 4.75$ washing machines. He also told me to use the smallest one as I had very less cloths. Any way after I went to the washing area, some how I found only 4.75 $ machine and wasted almost 3$ on that because I had very less cloths. The people around me was staring at me putting so less cloths in so big machine. My ego or my ignorance kept me away from asking where the right machine is. But now I found out the 1.75$ machine.


I have a strange gut feeling that lots and lots of Mis-adventures are lined up my way…No worries ....enjoying each day by being the dumbest.

Athapukkalam ...Behind the scenes ....

Busy taking the flower pellets

More Yellow flowers.....

More Jamanti flowers.......

Yellow hi yellow hey ......

Busy drawing out the initial design

This is the best part of doing an atha pukkalam

posing for a snap contest ;)

Finally ..its ready for the show
Thanks a ton to Shane, Sasank, Jaime, Khusboo and Nagasudha .....without you folks we would have never got it done .......

finally me ..... :) a snap next to pukkalam.....

hApPy OnAm

Wish you a Happy and Prosperous Onam.......

8 Below

I was in tears, when I finished watching this movie. It doesn’t mean much because many movies left me inters like ‘ You’ve got mail’, ‘Angles in the Baseball ground’ etc.
But this movie ‘8 below’ touched me very deeply. I see it every time I get time.
The movie is all about love and care for 8 dogs by its care taker. The movie has a good crispy script, a lot of emotions, true moments which takes away your breath and a good message.
It starts with one Doctor Davis McClaren comes to Atlantic to collect a meteorite.
Our hero who is the guide in Atlantic sense that it is too late to travel to the mountain the doctor wants to go and the ICE is too thin to travel. But he takes the challenge having great faith in his sludge dogs. The scenes where he introduces each f the dog to the doctor is very good. It shows how much he cares for them. Through out their journey I could feel how much obstacles they have to live thru every day in an expedition in Antarctica
Without much hassle the team reaches the destination and the doctor finds what he was there for. But in between there is warning of a bad storm there way. Once they start back, they are badly hit by the storm, thin Ice, an accident for the doctor. The scene in which the dog saves the doctor is really good. Also the heart stopping one is the place where the whole team is about to plunge from a cliff. We can feel the power of each dog pulling them out of their. The lead dog Maya is really amazing.
Only the sense of direction from dog and determination of the guide will get them back to base on time to move out. Then the expedition team had to leave dogs there as there is not enough place for everyone. But they never comes back to rescue the dogs.
The next 20 to 25 minutes is what is all about sludge dogs, how they are trained, how they help each other, how they survive on birds, whales and literally anything they could have their palm on. Mean while our hero is totally heart broken, finding some or the other way to reach Antarctica to get his dogs. Things finally get a turn around when the doctor decides to use his money left from the expedition to catch up with the dog.

There is some romance between our fellow care taker and the pilot, some crazy stuff from Adam saddler from water boy fame. But the best part is done by the lead dog Maya and the hero…..

Smile …The sweetest curve on earth!!!

We see each other for almost two years but we never bothered to look at each other. That day i got a beatiful smile and that smile made my day wonderful. I don’t know if I smile at some one, they will be happier like this! If I know I would have happily smiled at them. Because it is not goanna cost me anything. It’s just a wonderful gesture to exchange pleasantries to make each others' day …..

So people smile at you friends, colleagues,

You never know what the other person was thinking about you until you start smiling....

You never know how great you can make feel other with a very simple curve using four muscles on ur face ......

Keep smiling :) ........

Jimman Alias 'J'

Mr J is my roommate since August 2005. First thing you notice about him is his physique. He is well built, 5 8’ (there is big argument going as he is 5 6’ or 5 8’) but lets keep it for 5 8’, charming looks, stylish clothing and a great smile.
Ok this much is what people see. But believe me he spends almost two hours everyday in one or the other way about his looks. His mannerisms go like this

1. Eats at least one chicken biriyani everyday.

2. Have Chicken biriyani as break fast, lunch, snacks or dinner

3. Got as many as six or seven names in our house. I will name a few
i. Steel man ( Translate it to Malayalam)
ii. JK ( Cannot expand due to censor problems)
iii. Natural G booster ( Linked with a performance inside a car)
iv. Jimman ( With his looks)

4. Always manage to get into a heated conversation with waiters in any restaurant.

5. Starts eating any thing ( from ground nut to drinks) with one opening statement ‘ This is not good for health’ and makes sure that he finishes it

6. A family pack Biriyani is just enough for him as a snack.

7. Can eat as much as 9 piece of fish piece as a side dish for a dinner

8. He will switch off fan/light/TV the moment he leaves from the room irrespective of who ever else is in the room

9. Hates vegetarian food, volunteers to cook everyday if there is chicken everyday

10. Always out of money even when we all get almost the same salary every month

11. Takes at least two hours to select a shirt from any show room even when the show room has only one shirt

12. Knew to play Violin, Guitar and used to sing very well in school days. He has got certificate to back up all this. He has got first price in Malaylam poetry elocution , Arabic poetry and he has a certificate for that too

13. Hales from a place where Tuesday is not a holiday for barbershop but Monday is a holiday for the same

14. Was the best athlete in his school and in his district.

15. Breaks every empty plastic bottle after use. He breaks in the most violet manner in which he can do that. By hysterically kicking it and then stamping it by jumping over it

16. Dances to any music which has some drum beats, ( Dances in the sense jumps up and down swinging his hands like chicken wings) while DANCING, if there is some plastic/useless material in the vicinity he will go ahead and kick it in the spirit of dancing, in short ppl around should be careful if he is on the dance floor.

17. Has broken two chairs and at least three glasses due to mishandling or becoz of substandard glass making / chair making.

18. Require the whole balcony and the full length coir to dry his one pair of gym dress.

19. Loves to play with water as his washing session may go from 9 to 11 or 12 in the night

20. If he starts singing, you are gone becoz he cannot even hum two lines of any song with correct lyrics. But he insists on singing in the loudest possible way.

21. Any thing, loss or gain will be calculated to equal of Biriyani or beef plates. For example a share gain of 300 bugs is compared to having two family Chicken Biriyani.

22. Says that he goes to church every week but in last two years I have seen him going only three times that too when some one had persuaded him to go.

23. Gets angry on the phone if the caller starts to talk in Hindi

I can go on writing more than 50 things in the same way but I guess this will give u an idea about Mr J.

But apart from having all this I want to tell some other things about him.
1. Mr J is synonymous to commitment, when he says he is going to do some thing, it means he just did it.
2. An ultimate fitness freaks who goes out on jogging even when its chilly cold or a warm morning
3. Very good in mathematics, he will always take care of the room account.

4. Fast learner as he learned two card games in last five months and plays them well.

I will miss him in my room as I started feeling the emptiness once he left yesterday. It was always fun to be around him as he will make us think and laugh one or the other way.

May our roads will cross again some time later. Time will flow and things have to move on.
Best wishes for the new ventures you will be into in the new workplace friend ……

My Mind -->>> Its Blank!!!!!

This will be a series which will have all the absurd thoughts I have every day from morning to evening. Yes this will be boring things like should I switch on the fan today or wait for my roomies to do that …..u know still u need to think about it :)

I’m totally blank these days.



This month three of my friends are leaving due to various reasons. Three had already left and one more to leave on this Sunday. If I look back for last two weeks, my mind was totally blank. On each day morning, all I think about is the exact time at which I need to reach my office. Becoz my company has been strict on timelines lately, so I have to be punctual. But if I think beyond, I don’t do much of work once I reach office as I’m on bench.
Breakfast time used to be enjoyable when I had a company to be with when I go for breakfast. But now even pretty gals sitting opposite to me doesn’t interest me. God am I loosing something here. After breakfast also there is no hurry to reach my cubicle as I know there is no urgent mail to be replied. Apart from the machine generated mail and some stupid process mails, I don’t get much mails also.
I hardly make any conversation with new people now days. May be my life style prevents me from meeting new people. I commute to office by bikes which prevent me from meeting anyone in auto / bus. Here I’m not talking about gals or something. I’m talking about the people with I talk on a daily basis. I talk to my mom daily, then to my roomies and some times to my boss. Otherwise I’m all along thinking about nothing and doing nothing my dreams has dried out and I don’t dream much also.

This started sometime back and it is getting intensified when two of my roomies are leaving and two of my last project mates left. I guess time has cure to everything and this environment will change soon. When ever I was into a state of too much comfort in one or the other way, things will start to change drastically which happens with entrance into a totally new thing or a new person. I hope the same thing will be repeated here also.
Waiting for a change to my life style ……yes it is time to change some things in my life

I guess you are utterly bored or die-hard-situation-nothing else-to-do, otherwise you won’t read this blog this far J . But believe me, things will be back on track, busy and streaming all along soon….its just a hard turn, not a dead end for me, what do you say?

Latest craze .....Guitar

It all started with my roomie having this guitar-craze went ahead and bought a guitar for himself. We started playing lead music of many favorite songs in that off tuned guitar. It went on fine for some time. Then my rommie found out a guitar teacher who came hardly for three classes and almost everything scraped.
After one month, I got a mail from my HR team asking
“Don’t you want to play your favorite tune in guitar?

Join in for a four-month guitar class in our company premises”

It was a welcome sign when I already have a guitar at home. So I started going for guitar class. But I had to sort out things. First to get a proper cover for the guitar as the earlier cover was too bad to carry around. When I started playing it with the basics of music, I realized the strings are rusted and it might break any moment. It did not took too long before the strings gave away. I cleaned guitar, corrected the bend fret board, new strings, new stricker …..Everything in place!

Then came another challnge, to play the basic minor and major chords notes, to move from C to D properly, u need a lot of practice. Some how the interest in me kept me going even when my finger tips where bulged up, wasted a lot of time trying to figure out the rite chords etc….Then came the second huddle, my roomie with guitar got a transfer to Bangalore. I was in the heights of practicing guitar. It made me to buy my own guitar. I cannot believe my ears when I told it to myself for the first time. Then I realized it is a need and I bought my own guitar. That was cool and I started tuning it, playing it. Every day I would play at least 10 minutes with some of the favorite tunes in mind, even when what ever I play hardly resembles any of them, still I love to play guitar ;)

After three months of effort I was able to play the rhythm for one of my favorite song ‘welcome to the Hotel California: - Eagles’ I realized that the three months effort did not go in vain. Then the guitar-class frequency came down as the weather was pouring down on us and managing guitar in bike on a rainy day was not easy. The classes went off but I still keep practicing, playing & tuning my guitar. But now the craze is slowly going off as mind tends to move towards emptiness…. Let’s see where it takes me next time

but i am really glad that if you hum a misc i can reply some thing similar to it, mind me, its scale, tone and rythm might be differnt but there will be similarity in music. I'm happy that i was able to achive at least this much. God knows where i will end up

Life-> A journey!!!

I don’t know when I have started this journey, and I have no idea where I'm headed. On the way somewhere in my childhood, I realized it’s a journey, which has cold hands of death waiting for me at the end. But there is something we can do about the how we make through this journey. The choices seem to be very easy when we take them at the beginning which turns out to be critical later.



But the more you know about the journey the more complex choices seem like. Any way we are going to loose some and gain something else. Even if we make the right choice, sometimes, god thinks otherwise! Sometimes things take an unusual twist and end up in big mess. But we have to believe in ourselves crossing the 'cross roads', Which ever way we are traveling, we will meet our destiny in time, on schedule. The partners, friends, events, gains, looses, scenarios are some inevitables in our journey. If we can make ourselves ready not to hold on to anything for long, it will make our journey easier. It is very easy to say that but very difficult to do that. Letting some things drift away which we really die to have is what life is all about.
Sometimes, our mind gets out of control and cry like a baby doll, who wants all the chocolate for herslef. It is really tough for us to identify the right limit for ourselves and move on. God will be there all the time with a splendid glowing lamp showing us the path. At difficult times, we fear that the light is gone, but once we suffer through it, we will realize that god had played a trick to make us realize, we can walk even with limited light, its only we set our limits. I believe this as journey of life.

I definitely try to leave a smile in everyone’s face who-ever passes through my ways. So if we happen to meet in our journey of life, don’t hesitate to say a ‘hi’ to me. I will be always there to repla you and wish you luck for your journey!!!!

Breakfast blues- Boost & the Beauty

My usual break fast is two idly, one vada and one cup boost. This is the same thing over last three months on all weekdays. I don’t like idly much but I realized that from our canteen menu this is the only dish with which I will not get bored very easily. Our break fast starts when we see the message from our OC ‘Breaking for Tea’. Then it is a walk of 100 feet on our floor. 60% of cubicles will be empty at that time. My eyes will be riveted to cubicle number one on the way out. We have named that cubicle with the name 'ONE' to say G1 and B1 which is the girl @ cubicle-one and Boy @ cubicle-one.
G1 & B1 pair is very famous among our group becoz we can see all ‘coochhe cooche’ things in that cubicle at all times. In the 9 hours they spent in the office I guess only one hour they might be apart, when each go to rest room and when the gal goes around talking over her phone. Otherwise the guy will be sitting on her table beside her computer not leaving space for even a phone to be placed in-between. If not the gal will be sitting right next to B1’s system doing 'cocche cooche'. Things like this make our floor interesting to work. BG1 pair will be going for breakfast just before or after we leave. So we will have fulltime entertainment in the food court also where u can see various company policies are being violated. Things like
Eating from one plate!
Eating with one spoon!
Drinking from one glass!
(Yes you are right, a little bit of jealous when cute gals have fun with boys )
But for a good cause, if company policies are violated, we have to keep our eyes closed na.
Love and care is good right?

Apart from this we have lot of other interesting characters out in the food court.
The Guy Seenu, who is the tea-Horlicks-Boost Master who will give us great milkshakes with lots of sugar which half the time will be left as solid at the bottom of the tumler when we finish our drink. But the drink is always the best.
We have one girl by the name ‘BOOST’. Nothing in relation to the ‘boost- secret of my energy’ but the person who comes to have breakfast at the same time as us, always have boost and will spend almost 20 minutes sipping one cup of boost, so we thought to name her boost. There is lot of things peculiar about this person. She requires at least six feet wide walk-ways and who ever gets to overtake or come against her be careful, her hands might slap you as it goes on a almost half a circle march past, as she sways ahead. It is a pleasure to watch her!!! ( Hooo ....hope watching and admiring beaty is not considered as a crime) We usually watch her from our food court entrance to the queue for food and to the desk. She manages to do the same half circle sways with her hand even when balancing a plate of idly with Sāmbhar.
One day she happened to sit right next to us. So we had to limit our comments about the surrounding as we might hurt others!!! So our breakfast topic for that special day was fulltime concentrated on how bad India had played in the world cup and about the Bob wollmer murder case. As usual she finished her idly and came back with her boost. Even when I was explaining about Ganguly’s comeback, my eyes where following her boost cup. She had kept it on the desk thirteen times and held it in her hand for at least 10 minutes without even one zip. I wondered how it is possible, even if I made a point not to drink some thing and hold it, I will be involunterly zipping it at least once. Then came the worst part, the tumbler slipped from her hand. Half the boost was all over her. She was startled for a moment and then got back to her usual self. Got the tumbler with no boost left, took into the spoiled glass section, and cleaned at the wash area, She came back with a new cup of Boost and finished it. First of all, one need real guts to come back to the same place where we had done some thing funny/mistake/stumbled. I was happy to see that she got her composure back very fast and no one around her laughed at her. We struggled to keep a 'WE-NEVER-SAW-ANYTHING' expression and still serached for the killer in Bob-wollmer incident.
This is a kind of thing that can happen to everyone. Last time I tried to learn ice skating, I fell down at least 15 times in 30 minutes, but the crowd was so impressive to laugh at each stumbling and ice breaking falls. I’m some how used to laugh at myself and each time I spent some time laughing at myself after the fall. I did skate properly after two hour struggle. But if we have a crowd waiting around to laugh at everything we do, then it is a tough society to live.
I felt very bad on that day for her and the lost boost. May be she should have finished it a little early to avoid the wastage but now days she seems to drink it faster!!!

YsDay It Rained in Hyderabad !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time : 12 :35
Place : My office Cubicle
Atmosphere : chilly, sleepy as usual
Work Status : Slipped one day on Delivery





I’m not in a mood to write anything serious or anything interesting. But have to write something to get out of the current mood. We lost our cricket match that took place two days back. Courtesy to the mallu batsman, who slapped me with three sixes on my opening over and started the big land slide for our team, which struggled to defend a low total of 52, in six over. But we had real fun playing that game. Have to give full praise to my team captain T to give me opportunity to bowl that important over, which changed the course of the match and our team. The opponent reached their target with 9 balls and one wicket to spare. I had bad dreams of that batsman when I went to sleep yesterday. This morning I got up listening to a big thunder. Yes a heavy rain slash with thunder and lighting in the early morning in the middle of Hyderabad summer. My jogging sprits dried out looking at the overcast condition. I went back to my bug infected bed after having a look at the dark shaded clouds waiting for me to get out. I had my dream gal with a cute face close to Vidya balan with all homely features. But again the bug on my bed attacked me, which I left alive yesturday becoz I had reached a killing score of 50 . He broke the dream!!! Still I had a heavy heart to get out bed. The climate, sound of rain, thunder and a great dream to catch up, against all odds I came out. Even when I got dressed up and was looking for my umbrella, I was cursing the bug in my bed to ruin my dream.

I got a share auto, with no one to share as there was heavy rain. I waited 10 to 15 minutes hoping any cute looking gal will come to give me company on such a wonderful rainy morning. Two gals came but they were not happy with me or the auto driver, they went to the next auto. I had to come all alone in that auto paying full money. But the trip was enjoyable, way better than managing my fellow roomies’ bike with no (Brakes, light, horn) on a chilly rainy day. Imagine pushing along a bike in the heavy rain, on a chilly morning to sitting inside a dry auto and feeling pity for people who already drenched in rain. Later is better I guess!But as usual the rain god changed his gear the moment I reached office. The clouds vanished in a flash and clear blue sky appeared. Last week also rain god played his game on me.
Last thursday, the weather was over cast, I took my breakless-hornless-lightless vehicle to leave early to home. As I drove along to maximum 40 km (the engine will cease due to over heat if I go over 40kmphr) on a plain straight road under cloudy sky, g-walkers gazed at me in disbelief. Big vehicle and two wheelers were humming pass me, trying to make home before the showers begin. Even if I was helpless, I changed my face expression to GUY-WHO-ENJOY-RAIN. With in seconds the rain started. But it was a soothing rain on a very hot afternoon and the road was empty. When I crossed the busy Y junction with no one in the road, I felt I’m in the middle of Sahara desert on a dusty desert wind. But the heavy crowd in the bus stop under the shelter and the people in front of all the shops proved me otherwise.
Every one had one expression written over their face, is this guy Nuts? I wanted to tell them several points about my bike (Roomie's bike)
1. I’m not sure if this thing will start again if I stop here in this rain
2. It is already dark and my bike does not have anything close to a candle as head light
3. As a rule, after a heavy rain, it will be a big traffic jam
4. my bike does not have horns either.

Am I nuts?

Some how I managed to reach my room not leaving even a single inch in my body dry.As it was too early for corporate timing, none of my fellow roomies are in. So I had to take my entire wet things myself.
A comprehensive list

1. A fully wet valet with credit/ debit cards (good that plastic cards were invented)
2. A water dripping Nokia mobile (It works, I have tested it dipping in hot Sambar also)
3. couple of keys
4. A wet spongy looking leather shoes which will solve half the water problem of tamil nadu, each time I keep a step.
5. Two nasty smelling soax ( I wash it weeekly).
6. Wet ID card
7. Then you know what else could be wet.



I changed my wet attire, settled into a dry pajama with a hot black coffee with Hyderabad times on my right hand and opened my balcony under a breezing wind with small amount of fresh rain. (Feels like heaven, but my pajama is not even close to Raymond’s suiting’s and no pretty gal like the one we see in raymond advertisement (Aaj Kal Tere mere ......)

A Matter of Choice!!!

I salute his Bravery, dedication and selflessness. He was my neighbor, my cricket mate and a hero in all sense. The family lost a beloved son, the nation a hero, the army a leader and I lost my friend. He was the school captain when he came out of Sainik School, a great sportsman and a dear friend.

An alumnus of the Sainik School, Kazhakootam and National Defence Academy, Capt Harshan R volunteered for the Special Forces and was commissioned into 2 PARA (SF). Para Commandos are an elite Special Forces unit of the Indian Army. Nicknamed as The Red Devils, the Para Commandos are considered to be among the best elite special force in the world. They topped first among the best in a recent united operation.
All Indian paratroopers are volunteers; some enter the regiments direct from civilian life, while others transfer in from regular army units. There is a probationary period of three months when trainees undergo various physical and mental tests, during which many are rejected.
This three month probationary period, is when an individual is tested physically, mentally and psychologically. The Bali-Dan (Sacrifice) badge is conferred after a stint of one year with the Para (SF), or a six month stint with the battalion if it is involved in active operations.

Being from civilian background of highly qualified parents and brothers, Harshan could have chosen an easy and comfortable life but he chose to serve the nation in the most direct and daring way he thought he could. Toughness and tenacity of Capt Harshan was reflected in the operations conducted by the Officer as he relentlessly conducted operations with success in the harsh confines of North Kashmir.
Only two weeks back at Sogam (Kupwara),the Officer was single handedly responsible for eliminating the top leadership of Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen (HuM) in an operation in North Kashmir by killing2 hardcore leaders of HuM. On 20th March Captain Harshan received specific inputs regarding presence of a group of hard core terrorists in Chhoti Margi area of Kupwara. Without wasting a movement and in spite of inclement weather, continuous snowfall and pitch dark night, he rushed to the area with his troops and laid cordon of the house in the early hours of morning. At 0350 hrs terrorists attempted to break cordon taking advantage of darkness and poor visibility.
Four terrorists rushed out firing and virtually came face to face with Capt Harshan. Despite being outnumbered Capt Harshan killed one terrorist on the spot, however received a gun shot wound in his thigh. Unmindful of the injury Capt Harshan killed another terrorist. However, in the process the Officer received a fatal gun shot wound on his neck. After eliminating 2 hardcore terrorists Captain Harshan succumbed to injuries but not before his valor and supreme courage encouraged the others to eliminate 2 more terrorists in the same operation.
A grateful nation salutes the brave and determined officer who in the highest traditions of the Indian Army and "THE PARACHUTE REGIMENT" put service before self and gave the supreme sacrifice.

Cricket, An out of proportion game in India!!!!

The nature has some universal rule by which it thrives. One among them is to terminate anything that grows out of proportion. It is only my understanding and many won’t agree with that!!!
I think Cricket in the subcontinents have fallen into the same genre. Here the game is considered more as a religion and the cricketers as gods. But this happens only in the subcontinent. There is cricket and other sport stars all over the world but only in the subcontinent this godly image exists. This image is created by the television media and the advertising we all see everyday. Any brand which has a cricketing personality as the brand ambassador is going to be a super hit. I was really surprised to see a ‘Dhoni kite ‘flying by on last kite festival.
Its big time to forget about the world cup fever (it was close to a typhoid, if you are an Indian fan). The out of proportion took care of itself and all the cricketing personality where grounded. Dhoni trimmed his hair, Ms Mandira stated to where some cloths over her shoulder, Mr Sidhu took a break from commentary. These folks where flying high forgetting what they were and what they can be.
Now when the old passion is dim and no one talks about cricket. India had a marvelous victory over South Africa with six wickets to spare that too two times in a row and it just went as news, not as s sensation. Now I guess cricket is back to where it belongs.
I followed the whole two matches and looking at the misfields South Africa managed to do give me good number of questions about the authenticity of the match. We all know that the cricket stars are master when it comes to act! I felt that some thing was wrong and they were playing to well written script to loose the match on a edge slipping scores. But what ever it was I enjoyed the match, cheers to Yuvraj on his acting abilities and his determination (still to prove that Indians are good at acting ;)) I guess this will again grow out of proportion and will be dusted one after that …..

Updates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Folks, it has been some time I have touched up with what I’m doing these days
Last two months were mostly eventless and a little boring. The work got so much organized as we hardly feel that we work! Oh ya that’s a great way to work J

The month of March came with its usual vigor of rating. There is one thing funny about this month ‘March’. It always comes with a lot of estimation or exams or test which will decide almost all events next year. Until my 10th, it was the annual exams, then it came with the name public exams in my Diploma, then it was the internals and externals in my engineering and now it comes with the name Appraisals and ratings. But one thing is there, as man gets used to everything, by the end of our engineering we will get used to all kind of exams.
Here with last three years I got used to all kind of politics and the way the HR management system is programmed to keep half the employee population under the impression that if we do some thing great in work it will be reflected in the next year’s salary. I have to thank god to make me understand things very fast which enabled me to strike a balance of work and personal life together with corporate growth ( If one can call this growth). Oh ..I’m going way ward.
Back to the updates!!! From starting of this year, I was pretty busy attending marriages and family functions. The trip to Japan and the busy schedule for last five months, kept me away from many of my friends and I think now I’m getting back to where I belong. My office had a full bunch of new faces and I felt I’m a new comer here. People around me look at me like what is this new guy doing here. As our team is only of three and we talk less of work and more of the surrounding, hardly any one knows what is going with us.
This year Feb I was involved in a big project mess due to some miss-communication and I have to wait until end of April to find out how bad it was. Now trying to find out new ways of killing time at home as well as at home. The summer of Hyderabad is going worst than ever testing our survival instinct every day when we go out for lunch. As yelling “Shits its damn hot” is not going to help us by many means, I thank god looking at the number of trees we have on the way to our food court. That’s all what I’m going through.

Latest news: - again started with a good routine which I left before going to Japan, a morning 4 km jogging and a good lot of exercise to keep me fit. Now I have laid my hands to one more musical instrument, Guitar, looking back for the last three weeks, I can play all the major cords and sing two three Hindi songs with ‘Guitar’ rhythm. Lets see how far this will go J

Looking forward to a ‘nice and soothing’ change. I read some where “If you are in hell keep walking, otherwise you will end up there”. So I’m ready to run out of this

Ladies only bus !!!!!! A horror episode........

This is something that happened when I was on 6th standard. Its long time back back but the whole episode is still crystal clear. One of the worst ways to find out that I went into the wrong bus.

Time was around 3:45 pm and kids from all schools were rushing towards the main bus stop at East fort. (For people not aware of Trivandrum, capital city of Kerala, East Fort is a busy bus station in the centre of the city.) I was eagerly waiting for my bus towards 'Attukal'. I had to catch the first bus to get in time. The 'first-bus' was linked with many thinks for the evening there after. If I get to go by the first bus, I can reach the cricket ground first, I will be counted in the first team which can bat first. It also means I can bat and bowl. If the match gets prolonged the team batting second need not field. So many things get into place if I get the first bus.
'Time is life, don't ever waste it'.
Many buses went past the crowd and I was concentrating only on KSRTC.(Kerala Road Transport Corporation) buses which goes via Attukal. I had a student's concession ticket from the stop near my school to Attukal. To show the concession ticket to the conductor itself is a big problem. I'm getting into the bus from an interim stop, so some times the conductor will be angry on me.

The crowd was so big in the bus stop that half the people were standing on the road. For every bus that comes, people would rush on to the doors before the bus driver even stops the bus. I was aiming to get seat that day. My aim was to get to the door first. A bus came down the curve in front of the 'Padmanabha theatre'. I hardly saw the bus board and its destination. All I saw was 'Attukal' written on one corner. I rushed from back of the crowd with all my strength. To my surprise the rush was far less than I expected. I managed to get to the foot steps of the bus quite easily. But still there were two or three folks on the edge who were trying to get into the bus at the same time. I took advantage of my slim frame and rushed in-between them. Ahhh I was successful in breaking in. I happly took my steps in to the bus. Almost all the seats were filled. I was hurryingly looking for a seat. Then I spotted bus conductor right next to me. He was staring at me and I was about to pass him. He stopped me and asked with a surprised face,
Conductor: Were you headed to?
Me: Attukal!
Conductor: In this Bus?
Me: Yes. What is the problem? I have concession ticket with me!
Conductor: But this is ladies only bus, you are not allowed!

I was stranded in middle of gals, Gals everywhere. Half of them were from the girls' high school next to my school. I visibly shrank and everyone in the bus started to laugh. I could hardly walk out and all the energy I gave in 'getting into' the bus went in vein. I was cursing myself not to notice the corner board (Ladies Only). When I came out of the bus, there was another burst of laughter from people standing out side.

The bus left the stop without me and I started walking.

I was visibly shaken and my self respect did not allow me to stay any longer in the bus stop. I started walking towards my house. A 2 km walk. That walk was one of the longest walk I took in my whole life. All the way that day I kept cursing myself for the blunder I made. From there onwards, ladies bus any where is a horror episode. The moment I hear the word 'ladies only', a series of incidents comes to my mind.

One Hungry Evening in Nihon …..

It’s just around 6:30 pm. We both were waiting for the meeting to end. It seems like it will be going on and on. IT related meetings usually have close to 20 guys over one tele-conference and there will be two guys who really have some problem. They keep on talking and no one else will be bothered about the conversation until one asks,
“R u guys with us?” that will be answered with a chorus ‘YES’
This meeting was one such crap. But this time it was the booking system which helped us. Some one had booked the conference room from 6:30 and we had to come out of the call once our slot was over (This is a usual thing that happens in all corporate offices). We sincerely thanked them in our mind

I don’t know what happened today but rite after our lunch, we both felt hungry. Oh the “we” I’m mentioning is me and my project mate. He is quite senior to me, but he added only years to his experience, still have all craziness and Great Spirit for eany thing crazy. It was 6:45 by the time we came out of office. We decided to take a walk around to look for something to eat. First we went to “Coredo food Mart”. (FYI:- My project mate is a pure vegetarian who eats egg and he never stopps if he starts with chappathi and kurma). We roamed around looking at various shelves in the food mart and asked for 'Meat-less' sandwitches, but couldn’t find any. I was happy with anything but I couldn’t stand the smell of some special sauce they use. We came out empty handed (Empty stomached)and went to the next shop. It was MasonKasor this time. The aroma of sweet bread and cheese had attracted me so many times, but there also we ran out of luck. All we could find was empty basins becoz the shop was about to close. We went around eating the sample bread pieces adding fuel to our burning appetite.

Finally decided to check our luck outside, started to walk back. My project mate asked me to sit down in the restaurant MasonKasor (I will address him as MB, he had some looks of Mahesh Babu, Telugu hero ….I know its time to check my eye power). I suggested we should leave and look for MC Donald. But he was adamant and made me sit there. Then he asked for an English speaking person in the restaurant. After a short while, a pretty gal came out from the bakery asking “How may I help you?” We were startled with her accent free English. She was dressed up like a cute doll with nice brown hair and silky hair. The maid uniform of Mayson Kaysor made her beautiful. MB asked about what she has in the restaurant and about meat free sandwich. She gave us some options and asked about what kind of bread (Hard or soft); what kind of vegetables to put (As far as I know, vegetables means cabbage for Japanese ppl).

Any way we waited for another 10 minutes and MB started to give fundas about his knowledge about the English speaking ladies, about his intelligent guess on vegetable sanwich etc... The gal was taking two piece of bread and going into the bakery, I enquired her about the cost of sandwich, and she replied it is 800 Yen. We waited for some more time and it was getting late. Then the gal came with a bunch of cabbage, two piece of tomato and some other green leaves (Whose name I couldn’t figure out) over it. She had two sandwiches with her. We had only one in mind as I was not interested in taking the sandwich. She had a bill of 1600 yen attached to the basket she gave us. MB stared at the sandwich in disbelief.
I checked the bread, it was really hard and it looked totally out of place. The bread was old, I took it in my hand and decided, I’m not goanna eat it, even if I’m starving. When I looked towards MB, he also had the same thoughts in mind. Time was running out and we had to rush back for our next meeting at 7:30.
We called the English speaking gal and asked her to pack the vegetables and the bread (I mean the sandwich). The came the next bombshell, from that shop, they cannot parcel anything. Everything has to be ate there itself. Listening to that that, I took the jug of water in front of me and drank to reduce the acidity in my stomach and to cool my head. MB was helplessly looking at me, with a question what next.
On the way both of us didn’t talk anything, we stood up, started walking away leaving our 1600 yen sandwich on the table with a hungry stomach, to the next never ending meeting. We entered the lift and pressed floor button three and looked at each other and burst out laughing. Both of us started laughing and when we entered the floor, both of us were grinning ear to ear leaving our team mates wondering what these guys have done. We only know the fun of leaving a 1600 sandwich over the desk , walking away with a hungry stomach.

Life in Nihon

"Nihon no Seikatsu"




I had a lot of misconception about Japan before coming here. It is not a shocking difference but the images were more or less wrong. The life here in Japan is definitely different. Everything around seems to be so organized that I found myself totally out of place as a disorganized individual.
Life starts everyday with my alarm making the nuisance. I don’t know but all the alarm tones are really irritating noises when u r in the climax of a dream … then it’s a tug of war between thoughts getting out of my rajayi and the urge to go back to the sweet dream. The morning dampness and the chill of the air conditioner adds fuel to the thought of going back to the dream. Finally the face of my onsite coordinator flashes in my mind if we reach late to office, which will win the tug of war and I’ll be out of my bed. First thing, to put morning raga song on my lap top to make morning cheerful (Please note: Morning means 9:00 am for me). Once all set, it’s time to wait for my turn for the restroom. We four are staying in a monthly mansion which is meant for two guys. So people have to adjust. By the time our famous cook ( Mr HOD, or Mr T) will give me hot strong red label Tea.
Sipping my tea, I’ll be busy with my pending mails in all my mail accounts, also with scraps in my orkut. Internet and lap top is getting to be an integral part of my routine. Refreshing up, it’s time to get into suit-boot-coat. Here even the cab driver will be in a three piece suit. So people like me working in a client place, I have to be in full formal attire. It really bugs me to tuck-in itself, so u know how it is to wear a full formal suit and accessories like tie and formal shoes…. But client is god here and no chance for a memorandum to change it. But we got lucky to get our working timing as 11 to 8. Most of the time breakfast is just an apple or a piece of bread. Apples we get here is very big and one will be enough. Next is a five minutes walk to our railway station ( Nakano). Usually it’s a run as we are always late.
Climate here is very much like what we have in India. No dust, less windy. Here we have tremors!!! The streets are very quiet and people seldom talks to each other. If some one comes straight opposite to you, even if u gave them way or they are giving way, they will nod, not a big wish but a small node to acknowledge kindness. I really liked it. On the way to railway station there is a two storied cycle stand. Yes it’s not a mistake two storied CYCLE stand. So many people here use cycles. It’s really nice to watch people with their kids on the carrier, food on the front carrier and a pet dog running around the cycle ….it’s a usual scene here which I love to watch.
Entering to the railway station is another intrigue part. Getting the rite train is another puzzle to solve. Altogether Tokyo has 9 public lines and 3 private lines. Each goes on its own way and they have a map which looks like a closely woven knit. Fortunately my friends had sorted out which line, which platform and time to go. There are automatic ticket machines and the checking machine is also automatic. We have to just put in the ticket; it will come out with a hole. When u put the same ticket at the exit at the destination, the counter takes it. If the ticket is not enough, it makes a noise and the gates will close on you. Then you can go to a fare adjustment system and put in the additional charge required. We got monthly pass now, so it’s just push in and collect. No fair adjustment
Inside the train people usually sleep or listen to music on their ipods or iaudio or iriver, many things which play music, video games, TV and lot many things which I have only seen, couldn’t understand. One thing they are never gonna talk anything. I used to count the station as the 10th station was mine to get down. The escalators here are all crowded. Here they usually walk even in the escalator, because all are in a hurry. The rule is like this, those in the left line can stand and the right lane for busy people to walk forward.
My starting station is ‘Nakano’ and destination is ‘Nihonbashi’. ‘Bashi’ in Japanese means bridge and we have a big bridge rite next to our office. I’m happy that the place names are easy when compared to other station like’ Takadanobaba’ and ‘Oteimachi’.

When inside the train I have a feeling like being in the matrix movie. On a busy Monday morning inside the train all u can see people like Smith in the movie matrix. I mean Japanese smith sleeping wearing black coat. The trains have announcement in English and Japanese. On all stations, just before the station we will get an announcement which station is next. The train in these subway movies pretty fast that one can feel the air pumped into our ear drums when it gains speed.
From Nihonbashi railway station I have a walk of three minutes to my client place. On the way there is a bakery named ‘Maison Kaiser’. Everyday we get a mesmerizing aroma of butter baked sweet bread. But as we will be hurrying through, we will never get a chance to get a taste of the bread. After getting this aroma I started to believe their can be aromas which can mesmerize u for!
In my client place every day we wish to two guys in the gate, one security and one security officer. They stand in the same pose even when we go out for lunch, even when we leave to home. I wonder whether these people get bored standing and smiling at everyone coming into office. All they say is ‘Ohayo Gozaimasu’ and ‘Osthukara samadesu’. First one is good morning and second one is a wish saying ‘it’s hard for u, u better go home’.
In the client office, there is nothing worth writing up here. It’s all technical. That’s what we say when we don’t want to say what actually happens there. On my way back, I usually sleep or read some novel. I probably get seats by our 3rd station and by the time we reach our station one among us will have a good sleep day. I started swimming after coming here. U must be thinking what happened to me to go for swimming at 8:30 after a tiring day in office. But it really helps to keep me fit and keep me refreshing.
It’s two minutes walk to ‘Sunplaza’ gym. On the way there is a silent street where there will be guys practicing skate board. They do so many things which we cannot even dream about doing on a skate board. Then there might be fellows in the near by park playing his saxophone or trumpet or just playing jazz. They just sit alone and practice music (sometimes it is worst than me, which gave me idea to try out my weapon also there). It’s a nice feeling to listen to the non rhythm music and walk alone thinking about nothing. I feel so empty in my mind and now a day I began to enjoy that emptiness. Whole through the 1 km swimming, I’ll be having a free mind. The night will be the same damp one when I walk back at 10:30 pm local time. Like smooth background music, walking through the empty street with hungry stomach.
Once back, my supper will be prepared. We will finish it off and cleaning the vessels will be my job. We divide work among us like that and because of my swimming schedule I seldom cook. So I wash vessels. Then the next one is to check the download status of some movie in my torrent, open it and watch it until sleep take over. Weekends are more or less sleeping washing, watching movies. Exploring Japan is in top priority which will have lot more entries here…..

Many of the things I have written here must be silly and usual things for u, but I felt it’s a little different for me or different from what I expected in Nihon