It is the first weekend of spring 2009 for us. All of us were tired of being inside our apartment for the whole of winter. Without much plans, Mr D got a ‘Check out the groom’ interview in Jersey City. So we thought of clubbing a driving experience and an interview together for the weekend. On last Tuesday night, on half sleep D rented a car and he left a message saying he got a deal for ‘Ford Mustang’. We were on a high on Saturday about the car and went to the rental office on Saturday. We were received by an elderly chinky aunty.
Chinky Aunty: Hi Gentle man, How can I help you? or you want to proceed to the kiosk machine ?
D: Hi, we are here to take the rental car
CA: Your last name please …
D: He said the 24 character long name and handed his driving license.
CA: Oh ….You r taking mustang out for this lovely weekend. Have fun! We have a convertible also available! It is going to be sunny this weekend. Do you want to upgrade?
Me: How much it will come to?
CA: Don’t worry; I will give you 10 bucks less. Are you in? (Flashing a chinky smile)
D looked at me with a pleasant smile and I returned the smile
CA: OK, do you want full coverage
Me & D: yes

CA finished the formalities and she asked another lady to pull out the car for us.
When we got our hands to the car, we knew we are going to have a good time. For the first time in my life time, I had to look into the manual on how to operate the car. We were looking for the light button, gear shift lever, the hood open/close procedure and the audio system controls. Man this is what we call GIZMOZ! With a good car in hand, the atmosphere changes drastically. Everyone is ready to go out even if it’s a little on the cold side. We went out to HammanoZet beach on a chilly evening just to take snaps (posing with the car). Everyone had their dream snaps on a convertible. You know what happens if there is a digital camera, guys with nothing else to do and a sports car. In the crowd of 6, poor Mr. R had some thoughts of sitting lazy on the ground resting on the car, but see how the snap came out. Blame it on our creativity.

The best part about the car was its stability, sudden acceleration and comfort. Speechless about the audio system and wonderful power! Now I know how a Ferrari owner would feels when a Ferrari just zoomed passé s us. I had my hands on the steering and give a thought of giving a tough time to the Ferrari but before I could put my thoughts to action, Ferrari had long gone out of sight. That much for racing on the roads! We had our fun ride in jersey city with hood open with two of us with shades looking like vampires ( karinja vampires, vampires are meant to be fair, we are on the dark side!) People do look when you travel in a convertible, even if it was a rented car, it got style and we did turn some good looking blond heads.
These are some things which can be done only in US or such foreign countries. I can only dream about driving a merc back in India. A convertible will be not even in my dreams. But US gives you such wonderful options to have things for a day on rent and feel it like you own it. Only regret I had was on Monday when I stepped inside my good old ‘Vasumati’ ( that’s the name I had for my car, again we have mary kutty, meenakshi and kalyani around, mind you these are names of heroines in different Mohan lal movies except Vasumati). and peddled it, it was taking more than 12 secs to reach 60 MPH where as the FM would have jumped to 85 MPH in 7 secs ! .

ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am writing this as I am taking the tag from 'Devil's thghts’ on writing 25 things about myself. But to tag 25 ppl would be tough, I don’t think 25 ppl read my blog :D. So I would leave it to the readers if they wish to take it on. Now 25 things is a too long list for anything and when it comes to talking about me, that too in my blog, I feel a little ‘I’ centric. Folks if you get bored reading the list, please curse ‘her’. I would try my best to ensure that I don’t start each sentence with ‘I’
1. I am very good at lies but now the skill is put to rest
2. Can talk and talk for hours to ppl about usually nothing if I get the right ppl to talk
3. Have a pretty big inferiority complex on my looks ( Seldom displays photos anywhere)
4. I can’t stand looking at myself over the mirror for more than one minute!
5. Named modest-kumar for various reasons which I wouldn’t disclose! ( C’mmon, I got a little common sense not to write out all the ways in which ppl pull my leg)
6. Somehow ppl likes to keep various nick names for me and very less call me by my original name
7. Most of the time, ppl identify me when I am talking to them over phone and I does the same, almost
8. I am a movie freak, let it be any language (Malayalam, English, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Japanese)
9. I can sleep for any duration at any time given an opportunity to sleep
10. I love cooking.
11. I am blessed in a peculiar way that I don’t put on much weight ( Still 6 kg under weight for my height) even after travelling around and munching into fast food / gulping down beers
12. Pretty easy to talk with if the other person can start the conversation!
13. I seldom say ‘I am busy’ even if I am busy. Usually I don’t answer if I am busy :D
14. I make noise out of flute, guitar, mouth organ and keyboard. I meant it about ‘noise’
15. I have attempted and failed to clear Japanese language test but know broken Japanese for asking ‘Food’, shelter and nearest railway station, same with Telugu and Kannada!
16. Malayalam is my mother tongue but if I write in Malayalam, it will definitely have more spelling mistakes than single letters ( My English spelling is no better, thanks a ton to spell check) The peculiar spelling mistake creeps in when I have all the letters in the word but in different order. So whenever I write up something on paper I will be ‘Singing’ a check, ‘desinging’ software and the list goes on.
17. I thought I had a good deal of patience until I met my niece / nephews on my last vacation
18. I love kids (kids under age of 1.5 years), they just cuddle around ur neck and keep smiling. They are best entertainment if given to you properly fed / packed until they feel hungry. Baby leaks are ok until they don’t poop. They don’t ask for treats after kissing you!!!
19. I love big families and love to live in a place with lot of ppl around. You always get a choice of fighting with someone and go talk to the next person. In a nuclear family all u get to fight is ur sister/brother!
20. Loves swimming and beaches are the best time pass for me
21. I don’t enjoy shopping much as I get tired making decisions. I can walk around a mall not buying anything but stuck inside a shop with smell of new cloths is a big ask!. As I mentioned earlier, doesn’t care much about looks, neither spends time choosing outfits.
22. I am a strong believer of ‘karma’ ( ur deeds will reflect ur gain / loss) and I try to make sure that I don’t hurt ppl badly
23. I hate to be alone anytime
24. I get bored with same set of places and faces and it truly fits in for my current job profile
25. I like to live with a low profile, just like another face in the crowd who came, lived and left this place without much fuzz. Given a chance for getting another life, I would choose to be myself anytime! ( At least until now, all my dream have come true baring may be one :))

If we were given a chance ......

Disclaimer: Any non mallu reader wouldn’t enjoy this post much. It has lot of words taken from day to day conversations and Malayalam movies.


Some how I agree to the statement that men never grow up but simple become aged boys J. We stick on to the same kind of ppl and do almost the same sort of things for fun. It is amazing that how we end up keeping nick names for people around us. Matter of fact these nick names makes us converse so easily about others even in their presence. Converse in the sense, most of the time it is for fun, just for our own group not hurting anyone’s’ emotions. I used to have this going everywhere I went, mostly the names where more confide to me and our group. This is the first time I am publishing some names we (tetrad) are using this in our group. It is no hard guess; it is just names given to girls as a side product of ‘Vayinottam’ (Bird watching). Not all of the girls are given names, but some are due to peculiar reasons. As I am really bored with lot of pending jobs, I felt like writing up some and here it goes J

Killi – This is given to one of the sweetest good looking girl around and it evolved from the name ‘Chella-killi’ from the movie ‘Rajamanikkam’ so who ever roams around with her would be ‘Vedan’ So the names are now a days associated as Vedan 1 to Vedan 10. Yes killi has a long fan list following her. (We, the tetrad are just observers,, we don’t get into hunting!)

Subramanyapuram –This is a recent hit Tamil film in which the heroine just checks if hero is looking at her all the time during a song. We have one girl in our office that does the same. It is written all over face as if ‘Is anyone looking at me?’, Am I beautiful ?

De silva :A girl who just looks like Aravind De silva’s daughter and yet the name De silva

Panji kettu: Meaning ‘Bundle of Cotton’. I haven’t seen any person plump than this girl. I guess it is her body constitution, I have seen her burning her calories for hours at gym but some time we have to be happy the way we look!

Lottu loduk & Gul gullu: The best dressed girls at our work place who are always seen together. Being from SriLanka, they have a unique skin texture and they got some nice curves and have an awesome smile every time they are spotted. As they are together all the time and one of them has a name close to Gulgulmal, we kept the pair with the name from ‘Balarama’. If you have happened to read ‘Mayavi’ from good old ‘Balarama’ then the mad scientist ‘Lottulodukku and gulgulmaal’ would be familiar to you

Captain: One who just dominates any place just by her hefty looks! She must be 5’10 weighing over 170 pounds with broad shoulders and a commanding pair of eyes. But she is an angel at her heart but still she didn’t escape our naming radar! Matter of fact she is a good friend of mine

Kullikka-cura: (The one who doesn’t take a bath) Somehow every time we spot this girl, we get a feeling that, it has been weeks before she had her last bath. May be it’s due to her tiny eyes and the peculiar hairstyle but yes, she got that look. Generally we say that If we happen to see her any time in the morning, it is bad day for us (Proverb says if you face a person who hasn’t taken bath, your day is gone. But from my experience half my client personnel never takes full shower in the morning until they get two hours to spare)

Cutticura : She is another half of kullikka-cura and a little short. So we see them in pairs and hence the name Cutti-cura

Kuthira: (Horse) she just shakes the whole floor while she passes by with her high healed boot and ‘Bajaj–chetak’ like walk. We prey each time she passes by us that she doesn’t break the floor.

A’s Girl friend (Self explanatory) : Unfortunately this girl sits next to my pal ‘A’ and we named her ‘A’s gal friend. ‘A’ hasn’t even talked to her in one year time but still we tease him with the same

QA lab: Just because she works in the QA lab, she was named QA lab. This is used just to mention when she is around. She was earlier voted to be mayor of our company as she smiles at every one and say hello to everyone around.

Shalina sundary (Homely good looking girl) : This is one peculiar girl who behaves like a proper Kerala girl from a remote village even if she is in USA. Everything about her reflects simplicity and hence name SS. It is pretty tough to be simple in this complex world!

Vella Bandar (Partially Malayalam and partially hind – translates to white monkey) Nothing particular about her towards monkey but got this name as we were leaving the cinema hall after the movie ‘Delhi-6’. I guess by being an ardent fan of Abhishek and was screaming about kaala-bunder, she got the name.

Kalliyankattu Neeli : Kalliyankkattu Neeli is a famous mythical character from Kerala which is supposed to be a ‘Yakshi’ who lures and kills young men. Here the name actually came from the amount of lipstick used by this girl which looks more like she just finished drinking blood from someone. Different people and different dressing style, so we cannot blame her but at least we make fun of it in our group. Doesn girls think that my putting a lopt of lipstick means anything to guys ? Still wondering about this!

Motta kutti : The lady with boys cut named as ‘Motta’ and added kutty later on

Akashdooth: Name taken from the old tragic Malayalam movie. This is one girl who is always on the phone with a very sad face moving around at a snails pace. Looks like she is recently married and her better half is somewhere else which makes her face so sad. If by any chance you have seen the movie ‘Akashadooth’ you will understand why the girl is named so!

Challu (Translates to poor joke) : Nothing to do with her humors sense but her name has already a ‘Challu’ part in it and henceforth she is named as challu

5 Minutes: This purely depends on the mind processing speed of a girl who laughs about a joke after 5 minutes. It had happened for more than one occasion that she laughs in the car for a joke she saw in the movie! So even if we ask her some question, we would wait for 5 minutes to get the answer. This name is an accepted even by the girl!

15 Minutes: This is 5 minute’s friend who takes more time for realizing what is happening

Round Floor: This is just broken English translation of one family name

I feel like writing up some guys-nick name also but the censorship of this blog doesn’t allow un-parliamentary words to be published. So even if try to write, it would be more of ***** or #####. So I will leave it here and start running my jobs again!

Coffee @ 1024

It is kind of strange that the food and scent always pulls in old memories. All of my lower primary school days where linked with a touch of Cuticura powder scent as my mom used to put a lot of talcum powder on me, it is the same thing with my vacations, The Chandrika soap always gave me thoughts about long forgotten wonderful baths at ‘Panavalli, Cherthala’ on open ponds where the soil is white in color… The latest thoughts where more related to food rather than soaps and talcum powder.

It was just another interesting weekend where I found various levels of thought process after watching the movie ‘Nan kadavul’, which roughly translates to ‘I am God’ where the hero kills the heroine at the last scene with a verse,

“Death is a gift to some one who cannot sustain their life and a curse to a bad soul”.

The second score was Delhi – 6 which turned out to be great entertainer for me. From the crowd of six guys, only two liked this movie and others where all sleeping by the time movie ended, if otherwise, Sonam kapoor was the only reason which kept them awake. Every one was leaving the cinema hall saying ‘No story line, what a waste of time’. But me and my friend were grinning ear to ear thinking about how good the movie was!
For Delhi 6, the movie trip itself was interesting. The pretty girl in the cinema hall two rows down the line sitting next to (probably) her sister and her sister’s husband was a serious distraction to the movie until the movie really synced in. But as the movie set in with the streets of Delhi blossoming, the fair lady was long forgotten and the music just flourished.

OK now back to the weekend. After a movie each on Friday and Saturday, it was time for a feast on Sunday. So Mr ‘A’ ( the one who liked the movie) decided to make his special ‘Beef’ curry at his home. The beef curry and a side line of entertainment (it was in A’s place) where all the other four guys including me where running different kind of queries into Kerala matrimony website to get series of search results. Yes, this is one of the favorite time pass for many these days. To look for a bride, where we get to see the best pictures and unless and until we commit the mistake of contacting some one, it is good to know what people are looking for. We were little scared to see so many profiles’ of girl’s which said ‘ Software professionals please excuse’, that much for the recession !

Yes, I had started with food and memories and ended up on recession, lost in the trail again! So the beef curry was too good, hats off to MR A for the awesome beef curry despite being from a Variyar family (A caste by which he is supposed to be a temple guy ‘Ambalavaasi’, who is forbidden from eating eggs, chicken on any meat for matter of fact) The rest of the evening was on Oscar and another Tamil movie ‘Arinthum ariyamalum’ The food and memory part kicked in just there. As the Oscar fever was spreading its fumes with A R Rahman and Pookutti on centre stage, Mr B was busy making chappathy and I was busy switching my eyes from Oscar and the movie on laptop.

There, the thought of beef roast + chappathy came into my mind and pulled in some old memories. At my house, chappathy for supper was always accompanied with light black coffee. It was so nice of MR A to offer me coffee. A piece of chappathy with curry followed by a small gulp of coffee ..aaahhh, I closed my eyes. I could feel myself sitting over the gas cylinder (My usual place at my mom’s kitchen is over the spare gas cylinder for eating the hot chappathy straight from hot plates) Thanks a ton to Mr A and B. The fun part was ‘making of black coffee’. As A offered me coffee, he did a small calculation and put only one cup of water for coffee and started searching for coffee powder.
He found 6 empty jars of coffee bottles, but he could hardly find enough coffee powder from all of the six jars to make my coffee. Then A started asking rhetoric questions in kitchen like
‘Who drinks so much coffee here?
Why are these empty bottles still here?
Who is collecting all these empty bottles?
Are you folks planning to start a road side shop ? ( Murukan kada – where you could find lot of candies in bottles in the front row)
It was fun watching him pulling his hair out on the empty Jars of coffee bottles. To add fuel to the fire, I took this snap and said I will be blogging this tommorow….

But the food really pulled in some memories …the scent and flavor always push us back to some old memories attached with it. It is strange how we remember things which are getting faded in our mind just comes back fresh and crisp with sensations like taste and smell.

Concentric circles ......

I struggle to keep myself off drawing circles and keeping things 'in' and 'out'. But some how they just appear and things begin to fall in and out. I don’t know how they got in, but when they leave the circle, it is sure to keep my face frowned for at least from 'moments' to 'seasons'. As I am too bad in drawing or it is just the way the curves and brush behaves!!! Each time I select an invisible paint, on time the more invisible paint was, the more pronounced it becomes! Every time I thought the circle was so good and strong but the paint was too loose and it just required a gentle weep or a precious tear ….. :)

This is analogy at it heights and I want it to be like this. I hope no one understands but for those who does, I think experience taught them :)

Pain ......

Some how when ever I end up in a pressurized situation, out of water on the ground, gasping for some energy for life, all of my so called ‘friends’ gets busy. I don’t know if it is bad timing or my so called’ friends’ are unable to realize that I am in trouble! It is just plain pain when I realize that I don’t have many to talk the things I go through - fire fighting issue in project and life. I always have a smile pasted on my lips ploughing through what ever I face. It really doesn’t mean that I enjoy what I do all the time. There are crunch time where I would look around if any one is watching what I am going through and how long I have been doing this. No! If you are thinking about sympathy, I am not talking about that, what I am talking about is a little care from some one around! No I don’t want to make my life as a big thing and say that I am doing the most tenuous job which no one has done. I am just doing what everyone of my age would have been doing. I am doing this all by myself for almost 5 years now. Yes things done and taken care is only for me and for no one else. But I was there for so many people when they wanted some one to burst out their frustrations, their problems and their worries. I never shared or never tried to share such things with any one. I thought there will be some one some where, who will have time and energy to see the things I am going through and understand me. May be I am too proud to ask my friends to hear me out. Either way too proud is making me suffer things all alone

I am not talking about plain loneliness, I can say proudly that, if my friends have a problem, may be a screw fix to a big decision in their life, I will be one among the foremost whom they will reach out and talk. It has been like this for years now. Even when a big failure, a big loss , a huge excitement, yes they call me, But they call me , reach to me only when they need me! There wasn’t one person reaching me asking what I am going through, this includes my family and so called big group of friends. I don’t know if I am alone in this or there are unlucky folks like me out there. I don’t think it will make much difference writing this out here but it helps a lot as writing shells out a lot of frustration in mind and feels like I was talking to some.
Another realization that all I have is myself and have to gather myself from the broken pieces back to smile pasted bulk face and go along. The expectation of having a great friend is too much in this busy world where careers is bigger than care for any one. Expectation just doesn’t reduces joy but it just kills the instinct to smile J

Half the time, I was living through my wonderful past and experiencing anxiety about my future. Let it be a small matter about today’s climate to about big matters like family and career. I came to present moment only when it is of extreme happiness or sadness. Otherwise mind just swings to and fro from past to future. I have read some where that ‘present’ is where we need to live and people who live in present moment are mostly happy. I thought about this for long and realized that when ever I am in present moment, I am never bored. But to be in the present moment is never easy. Trying my best to shift to the present winter leaving the memories of a fresh summer at home and trying to stay happy!

Manju Kalam ........

I struggled for about two minutes to get the rite spelling for 'Manju- manzhu - manzju '- what ever, i mean Winter :) I asked my roomie for the english spelling of manju and he said 'S -N-O-W' and started laughing .... So the title is Manjukalam .... ok about the new experiences in winter ....

It is the last week of November. Starting of another winter season with lots of memory! During my school days, November was always a time with a lot to study, a lot to finish off. It these days bring back memories of cold early morning hours sitting on my balcony looking at the dim light across my compound wall with a text book on my hand. My eyes would be searching for some thing interesting in and around, but not in the book. Eyes will fall back on the books only when I hear foot steps of my mom with a hot black coffee. Most morning would be misty and rainy. I never realized that, those where one of the best November rains I experienced.
Today when I wake up to a cold freezing morning, yes here freeze means, (it literally freezes) I have around 5 to 10 things in my to-do list which includes my laundry, my insurance memo, to my project release dead line, list goes on. Now I feel the mid term exam of November or December is a luxury compared to what I have today. After the exam its care-free days until the next school day / term day start. No need to worry about the back log of emails I need to reply or work pending when I come back after vacation. No worries about the contract renewal or the lease I have signed. But going forward I guess even the to-do list what I have today will be a luxury. I guess that’s what life is all about. But the winter here in US is different. It is more some how paints a painful memory of empty trees, blank looks and dull atmosphere. I have heard that only thing which is good about winter is Xmas. Winter for sure affects my daily life

I started understanding new meanings of shelter: The heated indoor feels like heaven when you are made to wait in the freeze outdoor for 5 minutes by your roomie.

Even after igniting your car, you have to sit in a freezed car with ice over all the windows for 5 minutes to see outside.

Running is as close to impossible as its slippery. So car or heated place 500 feet away means, you are 8 minutes away from heaven or you have 8 minutes before your nose burst with blood or freezes down where you cannot even yell ( Like rose was freezed in Titanic climax :) )

Anything in refrigerator is no more interesting as they are too ‘cold’ that goes for ice cream and beer too

Nature call means taking off layers of cloths in seconds to unleash the power-with-in in-time, otherwise ends up in smelling wet dreams!!!

The only territory on your bed to sleep is where you are already occupied; any other place means dead cold!

Driving nightmares comes with new names as ‘Black Ice, un serviced roads, hidden pavement in Ice. The list goes on and on…

Random thoughts ....

Random thoughts …..
I have heard about writer's block but never felt one. May be becoz I am not a writer or never got blocked without crap thoughts. But here in my new work place which is no more much 'new.
It has been 6 months and it still feels yesterday.I had several blocks to my blogging hobby. First and foremost was my smart client who have blocked all the blogging sites. So no more blog away while charging my client a hefty '$' rate per hour. Also, no time to read thru interesting posts and comments. My blog world almost came apart as I didn’t find time ….

I was busy taking drive to DMV, playing tennis / cricket, eat outs and movies. In last 6 months I must have watched 25 movies in movie theatre apart from online and movies over cable TV. The count will defenilty be more than 200 if i include everything. Went out on weekend trip 6 times, each time traveling at least 200 miles. Innumerable booze parties at house / outside and a sports fest which kept me busy through many practise sessions and matches. All of them made sure that I don’t have time to sit in front of my laptop and type out this crap. Ok I had started with the random things which came to my mind lately and I am unable to find answers for these ….

1. Every time in any of the restroom, people show all their frustration to the poor tissue paper holder. You can just pull out one tissue easily but people just hammer it / pull it / and bash it at times.

2. Why marriage is the buzz word? Every friend of mine is getting married or all they have to ask is about when’s my marriage. (And I hope that unfortunate soul is happy some where )

3. Why there is a season like winter? It is damn cold, winter doesn’t help anything. No one can farm / harvest, people cannot go out / plants can’t grow properly/ even we cannot play. Why it can’t be like without winter?

4. Why there is a day light saving? India works without daylight saving for ages. Why this country cannot live without that?

5. Why a problem is detected only at such a time frame where there is no going back but just to get stuck with it for a life time ( eg : marriage, Job and career )
Planning to continue this, rite now got a call with a production issue :(

last on ..in a hurry, why I always get some block wehn I feel like blogging away :)

Wht's there in a name ?????

I think I heard this a long time ago in some old Malayalam movie
‘ Wht’s there in a name ?’
But believe me, there is a lot to do with a name, I am not talking about numerology which suggests a names starting with V is for Victory and each word and the sounds it makes is evil ‘Evil or Good’. What I am talking about is the names which have to go with the personality of each being.
In an average Indian family the naming comes with following factors
Grand parents name will be cut into pieces and jumbled around to find a word which looks like a name and ppl will start calling the poor baby with that.
The family name attached with one or the other god / saint’s name forms another name
Apart from this, it will be film star’s name, the local popular figure name.
It can be a popular Hero’s name in a movie followed by the Family name, Village name, Gothra and the list goes on. ( In 1980’s it was Vijay, 1990’s name Rahul was the favorite, then it turned to Raj in 1990 to 200 and the latest is names or sound what ever that starts with the Alpabet ‘A’)
Now a day, it is mostly the Dad names her daughter with their long lost love or Wife names her boy with her long last love! (This is a trend which I have noticed lately, it was only passwords earlier but now loved once are honored by naming their kids!)

Taking all of this into consideration, I was named after my Grandpa. Yes, his name was butchered around and fitted in to give me my name. But the name was not good enough for me or I was not fit enough for the name. That’s what I could make out from the list of nick names I had in these years.

Each of the nick names I got until now comes with a story attached to it. Small stories but stories! First and foremost was – ‘Viruthan Shanku’, later got cut shot to ‘Shanku’ which came as I was very small in size when compared to my cousin but ‘smart’, taking into consideration that I didn’t talk until 3, but always did what I was asked to do ( I am good at Dumb C ;)). Now adopted myself as ‘Shanks’ as I couldn’t get shanku!

The next name I got was a ‘Bhaiya’ attached to my original name and later my ,name faded off and ppl started calling me only ‘Bhaiya…’ That sounded good but it was only at home circle. By the time I reached my high school, my nick name was re assigned to ‘Kakka’. This refers to ‘crow’ in Malayalam. Thanks to my skin complexion and slim frame. I am invisible in dark nights until and unless I ‘smile-in-cheese-click’ mode. Also there was one more boy with my name, so I was called with a prefix of ‘Kakka’. It was like Kakka-XXXXX. This name went on until I completed my 10th. Going on with my Diploma, I had to move to middle Kerala from the south side. The south side (Thekkan) nativity which was more closer to Tamil Nadu, gave me a name ‘ Paandi’ which is the colloquial word for a tamilian in Kerala. My ‘Tamilian-looks’ was one of the factor other than the fact that I knew to speak in Tamil which encouraged ppl to call me Paandi. For the engineering college stint, I was spared and ppl called me with my original name. The same went in my office until I reached the current office location.

In last three months, I got almost 4 names, each with its own stories. First one was ‘Vista- man’ as I was the only person associated with the new windows operating system in the new work location. As I was all new in this crowd of strangers, I had introduced myself several times at several different places on different occasions. In each introduction, people were interested to hear about my Japan stint (or I had only one thing to talk everywhere, which was ‘Japan’). Anyways there were some unfortunate common audience to all of my introduction speeches who got bored of the Japan stuff (I can’t blame them; even I got bored telling the same things). They thought out and pre fixed my first two letters of my original name to form a new nick name for me, which forms ‘RA- JAPAN’. This was further faded to form Rajjappan and to Rayyappan in proper Trivandrum slang! This name got a sir name attached to it which was linked with my DMV incident where I forgot to put my seat belt for my driving test! So the name was further elongated to ‘Belt Rajjappan’. Some thing like ‘Sir CP’. Now after each introduction, as soon as I finish, there will be at least two ppl saying,
“He says his name is ‘XXXXX’ that but we dearly call him Rayyappan, Belt Rayyappan!’ Obviously ppl will be interested to know why and the story goes around !!!

Hey, got to go now, some one yelling at the door
“ Rayappooo, Vannu vathil thurakkada!!!”
Translation --

Drive to DMV V

So if any one has doubt about my long standing stint with DMV’s in US, please check it out here As my job demanded a location shift, it also made me go to a DMV to give a driving test. I have to say, it is destiny. But I have to wait until next month to see if it is actually destiny.
As per the US law (GA state law), driving license expires together with I -95. So my precious US-Driving license which I got after all the memorable events was expired on April 15th. I moved to a new state by May 21! My visa extension paper took a big route and reached me on June 28. I don’t know if its my luck or just fate that June 25 means 60 days mark for my expired driving license, which mean I have to get a new driving license, going to DMV, stand in queue, Write the test, get a slot for driving test, gave a ride to another fellow DMV officer and not to mention the number of documents to be submitted.

So after an initial search I found MR ‘B’ who was also planning to go to DMV for driving test. I got with him and other two friends to the DMV. The first trip was un eventful. We where four folks appearing for test that day and all cleared the written test. Mr B had a tough time answering the last question of 16 in which we were allowed to have 4 wrong. He had already 4 wrong by the time he reached 16th question. The question being the % of speed reduction on a snowy day on road with provided answers where like
1) 50%
2) 25%
3) 75%
4) No need to reduce
Was a little tricky, But he cleared it and we got driving slot for two days, two guys on a Tuesday and other two on Wednesday. The other two folks cleared it on Tuesday, B & I had on Wednesday. As the other two folks cleared it on Tuesday, we (Me, B) where under real pressure. Mr B has been driving in US for last one year with his Indian Driving license. I had been driving in Georgia (I drove exactly three times)
So on the charming day, we left our office by 12:35. B’s wife also accompanied us as the owner of the car is required. I had a very bad feeling about the test. On that day I got to know that even B had the same feeling. We reached exactly at 1:00 pm for our test appointment at 1:00 pm. We had to wait until 1:45 to get our driving inspector to get to the car and start testing. B went first with the car as I waited for my chance. He came back after 20 minutes. He came directly to me and said,
B: It’s your chance, best of luck
Me: How was the test?
B: I flunked
Me : How come !

I was thinking if B, who is driving for last one year was made to fail, which means I don’t stand much chance. Anyway I had to give the test. I went in, sat in the driving seat. I am driving this car for the first time. The seat was too close and I tried pulling all the cables out from underneath the seat, but of no use, the seat didn’t move back. Finally I thought, I will give the test like this only. I started acting as required by adjusting each of the mirrors, and driving seat. Then the Driving inspector asked me to back me up.
Even when there was not a living thing around, I looked 360 before backing up and backed up the vehicle. Then went around the ritual of stopping at each stop, giving signals, changing lines until he took me to a big junction with an protected green for a left turn. I had a straight green but I waited for my protected green to take a left.
Driving Inspector (DI): Why are you not taking an yield left?
Me ; I am waiting for my protected green
DI : Ohh, you are pretty safe guy.
Me : Thanks
DI : By the way, please put you seat belt.

My mind went blank for a moment. I had drove almost three miles from the DMV office crossed a rail road, covered two blocks to the main street without wearing my seat belt on my driving test with my inspector sitting next to me!

Me : I think this was the most stupidous thing I have done lately.
DI : hmmm may be, I don’t know what else you have done!

I kept on driving, pretty cool now as I already know the test result. The DI took me to a free way, I reached around 60 MPH and got a lane change also and got took an exit from there to the DMV. In between I had a signal where I had a steady yellow in which I could have stopped but I accelerated. I think by the time we reached back, DMV, my DI forgot what all mistakes I had done as there were too many. So the stint with the DMV continues as I have next driving test on Sep 2nd! God knows whts in store for me there!

Onam 2008

A totally unplanned Onam celebration at middle town, CT in our aprtment. We started planning out only on last wednesday and the toughest job was to find out the group with which we will celebrate our onam. Any team , project, mallus, southies northies, all were too big to be acccomadated in our small apartment. Finally settled to have it with only 'mallu bachelors', which counted up to 15 follks ... And we had things sorted out by end of friday with who makes what, how much and lots of details ... Only thing we missed was plantain leaf. the best part was the cutting and shaving session on friday night which went to early morning 3:00. But it was one of those cherished moments...On saturday we started our Onam celebration with typical ' Arrpooooo irro irro irro ' shouting it loud and hard, three times. We expected a 911 call from the old American couples staying in the apartment above us, but thankfully their patience has increased a lot these days ...
The menu was Parippu, Pappadam, Ghee, Sambar, Pulisherry, Rasam, Mango pickle, Inji curry ( Ginger curry), Kichadi ( Cucmber + curd), Olan ( Pumpkin Olan), Payaru mezhukkuperatty ( Beans fry), Cabbage thorran and Semiya pal payasam. We had to settle for white rice as Red rice ( Chabba rice) was not available. As host we had settled for making five dishes + rice. Parippu was a big challenge as the quantity challeged our vessels! Five dishes we made were Inji curry, Pulisherry, Parippu, pappadam, Kichadi and Payasam. We 15 folks drank up 4 gallon of palpayasam on that day.... followed with some onam photo sessions...
Couple of people were towed away after the feast as they havn't ate this much in a long time ... seriously ate ate ate and out .... :) The ambiance was too good with a lot of nadan pattukal, some good old jokes which is apart of any mallu gathering and awesome food ...
Full thanks to all of the guys and their offshore online buddy (Mom / aunts). Half the people got help from mom / aunts who are cooking experts, who were on phone when ever required. My thanks goes to my mom and her sister who guided me through Inji curry and Kichadi... Snaps will say the rest ...
Belated Onam wishes ..... Ente hridayam niranja onam ashamsakal

Cutting and shaving -I

Cutting & shaving II
Hot paal payasam

Pappadam

All dishes ready to be served


Parippu

Sambar

Avial Pulisherry
Cabbage thoran ( fry)

Pandhi - I

pandhi -II

Tolkilla njan ....

mundannmaar

Still going strong ....

Aftermath ...nobody can sit .....

Just before serving .......

Aftermath ...rest

Special guest, checking the food :)

Trip de Newyork - July 4rth

I wanted to write up a travelogue for the trip to New York but I am pretty bad at it. But worth a try I guess. We (Abhijit, Sreeraj, Deepak,Rajeev(Non-mallu), Rajesh, Sanu & me) was the gang assembled. Sriraj and Rajesh joined us in New York. Poor Rajeev had a bad time roaming around with five mallu speaking guys who took liberty to talk all the time in malayalm. But it was nice that Rajeev understood 'Enniku Vishakunne - I am hungry' all the way because that was one phrase that repeated all day.



This was not at all a planned trip and we liked it that way. None of us had anything specific to see in NY. So we started off around 5:30 am from Newhaven train station. The Newhaven station, CT is a small compact station with a great waiting lounge. Also took a snap of the toy train display in the station.



We had a 2 hour train journey from Newhaven to Grand central railway station. The train journey was made memorable with some amazing snaps from my friend Sanu and a good deal of posing.


Me trying to read the NY map, its really complicated! Courtesy Sanu



Abhijit giving a pose Courtesy Sanu

Deepak, lost in the poster Courtesy Sanu

Grand central station stands up to its name with heavy looking pillars, a four sided round clock and some beautiful sealing drawings.
Grand Central Courtesy Sanu
From Grand Central our first stop was at Brookline Bridge. A long cable stayed bridge with twin pillars which made us think about SRK running around in the movie ‘Kal Ha NA Ho’. The view to Manhattan from the bridge was too good.

Brookline Bridge Downtown view from Central park
The day was too hot and humid. It made us think about days we had in Trivandrum and Ernakulum. After a 30 to 45 minute walk and bird watching the fellow joggers over the bridge we head to the Battery park. One thing I did not understand was, why these joggers where particular to run on this busy bridge on which people hardly allowed them to run. But on an empty bridge even I would have loved to run.
This is my second visit to central Park in New York. Last time when we came here, we were busy doing this
Sleeping Beauty - Anoop (last trip to NY)


This time we went into the church near by the ground zero which had lots of memories from the sep11 day. The place was quiet and I felt really heavy going around. . On the way we visited another church with heavy and beautiful glass windows. I struggled to get a good shot of it. Even with a 'No-photography' sign board, people were crazy taking snaps @ this place
A fantastic shaded glass work in Trinity Church


Next to the famous 'Bull'

Next stop was near the fire holding lady.
Lonely lady on the back ground Courtesy Sanu


Kids playing in water fountain, A joy to watch .....
We didn’t bother going to the island as the queue length was too much and we spend almost three hours sitting around the bench doing bird watching and also one of the best things I can do – Sleeping. My cozy cushion bed was a better option to sleep but sleeping in the busiest city in the world is another feeling. The central park had a touching moment when I saw this ballet dancer who was posing herself like this for more than an hour for money. The worst part was her mom was sitting by a side bench watching her doing this.

The dancer and Kid posing

Kids @ Central Park

Saxophone player ....all alone


The small girl trying to pose hardly knows what exactly is going on. We spend another three hours in the central park before moving to the Time square.


Relaxed horse ride @ Central Park


A peace ful evening @ central park Courtesy Sanu


Contrasting smiles ;)


After another set of photo posing in front of NASDAQ and time square we headed for the 34rth Street to see the fireworks as it was on July 4rth.We managed a place by 11:00 pm on a drizzling rain to see 20 minutes fire display. It was not an ideal place to get snaps of Fire works and I didn’t bother much to loose the amazing fire works by futile attempt to catch them in my snap-N-shoot camera.

Other than posing for snaps and bird watching we didn't visit any place of particular interest. It was a wonderful get away trip to New York. Some how I felt New York is crammped than any other place I have been to, even crammped than Tokyo ...

More snaps at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurianjose