Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Oops! Did I step on your self esteem?
The real Aishwarya Rai. Thanks to Philip for the link!
Have you ever watched an Aishwarya Rai interview? It is perhaps the single most tiring thing to watch on TV after the saas bahu serials. After the interviewer finishes his question, you turn to her expectantly for the reply and what do you get? A lot of umm errr hmmm ahem before and after each word in the sentence till you realize that it will take a long time for her to reply and when she does, in between all those umm errr hmmm ahem the reply shocks you with its inanity. Most of the questions posed to her are more intelligent than the answers and the poor interviewer continues with his questioning for the sake of the program whether the reply makes sense of not!
Unlike other beauty contestants, Ms Rai still lives in the beauty pageant. There is very little of her that comes through in an interview. Every word she says is carefully and calculatingly delivered for maximum impact. You can see some furious thinking going on as she talks pausing before each word as though weighing it, leading to a very protracted and labored replies to questions. Her pose i.e the chin up as soon as the camera turns on her, also reeks of Miss India training.
Now she is married to a man who is not only eloquent but knows what he is talking about. The decimation of Ms Rai has begun.
I was watching a CNN IBN program the other day. The program played host to the entire Sarkar Raj Bachchan clan i.e Aishwarya, Abhishek and Amitabh with Ramgopal Verma. While Abhishek handled the questions with aplomb, Aishwarya came off as an air head with her err umm hmm routine. In fact she did not manage to say a single sentence and hubby had to intervene to save her face and airtime. And intervene he did with a grim face and none of the newly wed infatuation he displayed not too long ago. The charm of Ms Rai seems to be wearing off.
There was a moment in the interview when the interviewer turned to Abhishek and asked “How does it feel being the son of one of the best actor in the world and being married to the most beautiful mom in the world.” The “mom” was a slip of the tongue. Aishwarya corrected him immediately, and then realizing that she may have insulted the MIL turned to hubby and said ingratiatingly “Of course he has the most beautiful Mom in the whole world.” The decimation of Aishwarya Rai, the person was complete.
Whether at a Awards function or film premier, Aishwarya stands behind the Bachchan men and hubby even replies to questions thrown at her as she characteristically wastes time on the umm errr hmmm ahem routine.
The fact that she was now a Bachchan was delivered rather bluntly by hubby when he said “My father is the center of my universe”. I gasped and looked at Ms Rai, she sat like a dumb blond without batting an eyelid.
R.I.P Miss Aishwarya Rai. Long live Mrs Airwarya Bachchan.
Was it really worth it? I mean marrying into the so called “First Family” of Bollywood for the sake of the title Mrs Bachchan! Or was this an enormous endorsement campaign? Perhaps the Bachchans and the Rais laugh their way to their separate banks. Nothing else can explain this marriage.
p.s Ms Rai Bachchan, your neck shows your age. Time for a neck lift!
p.p.s I neither like nor dislike Abhishek or Aishwarya. But I am a huge fan of Amitabh’s older movies.
Read this hilarious post about a guy getting his first massage from an aashaan! :))
Sunday, June 15, 2008
I’m Reading, Listening, Thinking, Watching...
I have been tagged by Philip one of the best writers to emerge in recent times. If I were to describe his blog in one word, it would be "Refreshing".
Reading: Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People by Mark Gobe (A gift from the boss, who else!)
The World is Flat (Thomas L. Friedman)
Finished reading: The Bridges of Madison County (Robert James Waller)
Listening: To Rise Up. I love the energy in the song. Reminds me of school days when I used to be an expert in some of the skipping moves shown here. ( This song was plagiarized for the AHA advertisements if you recall :p) The next song on the playlist is Tempted to touch!
Wearing: An attitude!
Watching: The punju girl in the next cubicle sobbing quietly into the phone, pleading with her ex BF to take her back. He ditched her after three years of going steady on the pretext that she will not gel with his uber rich family. He gets engaged err he got engaged to someone else on Sunday! Every time she cries I swear I will join the convent! :(
Thinking: And worrying about gals like that Punju gal and how gullible they are and guys like her BF who think nothing of promising the Sun, Moon and Stars to gals just to get them to be their GF till mommy finds them the ideal wife! I am seeing too many cases like this amongst my Northie colleagues. It’s really worrying!
Loving: The intermittent rains. Mangoes. The brisk breeze, the leaves as they fall from the trees and the stars in the sky that become visible when there is a power outage!
Hating: The fact that I saw so many banned wildlife in a pet shop in Bangalore when I went to buy some fish for my aquarium. There were jungle wild fowls, Munias and African Parrots…real bad tempered fellows they were too, the Parrots i.e!!
Missing: A good ghee roast from MTR! It’s been ages since I ate one!
Hoping: To work in the non profit sector soon!
Craving: To witness again the monsoon fury in Kerala.
And now, I tag: No one ;)
Comments turned off. The busy period continues. So apologies for not replying to comments. Blogs updations will also be delayed for sometime *sob*
Reading: Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People by Mark Gobe (A gift from the boss, who else!)
The World is Flat (Thomas L. Friedman)
Finished reading: The Bridges of Madison County (Robert James Waller)
Listening: To Rise Up. I love the energy in the song. Reminds me of school days when I used to be an expert in some of the skipping moves shown here. ( This song was plagiarized for the AHA advertisements if you recall :p) The next song on the playlist is Tempted to touch!
Wearing: An attitude!
Watching: The punju girl in the next cubicle sobbing quietly into the phone, pleading with her ex BF to take her back. He ditched her after three years of going steady on the pretext that she will not gel with his uber rich family. He gets engaged err he got engaged to someone else on Sunday! Every time she cries I swear I will join the convent! :(
Thinking: And worrying about gals like that Punju gal and how gullible they are and guys like her BF who think nothing of promising the Sun, Moon and Stars to gals just to get them to be their GF till mommy finds them the ideal wife! I am seeing too many cases like this amongst my Northie colleagues. It’s really worrying!
Loving: The intermittent rains. Mangoes. The brisk breeze, the leaves as they fall from the trees and the stars in the sky that become visible when there is a power outage!
Hating: The fact that I saw so many banned wildlife in a pet shop in Bangalore when I went to buy some fish for my aquarium. There were jungle wild fowls, Munias and African Parrots…real bad tempered fellows they were too, the Parrots i.e!!
Missing: A good ghee roast from MTR! It’s been ages since I ate one!
Hoping: To work in the non profit sector soon!
Craving: To witness again the monsoon fury in Kerala.
And now, I tag: No one ;)
Comments turned off. The busy period continues. So apologies for not replying to comments. Blogs updations will also be delayed for sometime *sob*
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
The choice is out there!
“Will you marry me?” His question caught me by surprise! I hardly knew this guy. He used to drop in home from time to time whenever he was down from the US on holidays as his sister lives in Bangalore. He is a year junior to my eldest bro and his junior at college too. He, lets call him AS, is six foot tall, good looking but an extremely quite gentleman. So why did I say "no"? Because I am a chatterbox and someone like AS would drive me to suicidal depression. All he can talk about is technology, when he talks and that’s occasionally. I may not be spoilt for choice, but neither am I so desperate to say "yes" to the first guy who proposes. Besides...I am firmly committed to single hood till marriage, which will happen in a couple of years only! Period! Unless of course Mr Right walks into my life. But then such things happen only in movies. And I am a realist. I am no more the head in the cloud gal of high school. College beat the stuffing out any romantic notions I had about romance as I learned some eye opener of lessons from watching classmates and friends in relationships.
There are two ways to go about life if you are an Indian gal.
1)You learn from the mistakes your friends make.
2) You don’t learn your friends make and make the mistakes your friends made and wonder why life is so unfair.
I chose the former route long time ago. And hence the resolution to stay single until Mr Right walks by or get married on the appointed day at the appointed time to the appointed guy, mommy dearest fixes. I am sure she will do what’s best for me in her opinion! :p Let me not pretend that my wedding will be some dreamy Bollywood sequence. It will be as ordinary as anybodies.
Coming back to Mr AS. I looked at him and asked in absolute wonderment why “he” of all people on this Earth would have problem finding a gal with his credentials. AS like the Malayalee Christian men I mentioned here, wanted more than just a wife in the girl they marry. He is facing the same dilemma. That’s when I said something that surprised even me!!! “Why are you only scanning the resumes of girls whose parents have you promised you a good dowry? Why not girls whose parents cannot afford such a dowry?” He was taken aback. Clearly the thought had not occurred to him like many highly sought after grooms!
I refuse to believe that there is a dearth of well read and bright young Malayalee women out there. If there is a dearth, then it is of bright young Malayalee women whose folks cannot afford a big dowry. Mr AS was dumb struck at my query. I persisted. I told him that if he really wanted, he could get the best of the best gals if he could only give up the idea of a huge dowry. It is difficult to get both i.e a good dowry and the perfect girl!
AS didn’t say anything. I don’t know what he will do. But this conversation opened my eyes to something that was so obvious but unnoticed. As an addendum to my last post on the subject, I have to add that guys who grumble about stereotypical Malayalee gals are the types that have unconsciously narrowed their field of choice. They never thought of the other option i.e the millions of gals out there who may be the perfect fit, but whose pops cannot afford the big dowry they want.
And I also realized why so many Malayalee couples who have had love marriages are so happy. And that’s because they were not constricted by the considerations that govern an arranged marriage and hence gave themselves the best gift of all….the gift of choice!
You cannot have the best of the world. So quit grumbling all you eligible mallu Christian men who want that bright, intelligent, scintillating conversationalist etc lady! You do have a choice. Now let us see you taking it!
p.s On a lighter note...all you people who make fun of mallu names eat dirt!!! That includes me too, I just realized! *gulp* Congratulations Mr err Kanth! You just made us mallus, I mean all of us proud! Thanks Karthik for this gem!
There are two ways to go about life if you are an Indian gal.
1)You learn from the mistakes your friends make.
2) You don’t learn your friends make and make the mistakes your friends made and wonder why life is so unfair.
I chose the former route long time ago. And hence the resolution to stay single until Mr Right walks by or get married on the appointed day at the appointed time to the appointed guy, mommy dearest fixes. I am sure she will do what’s best for me in her opinion! :p Let me not pretend that my wedding will be some dreamy Bollywood sequence. It will be as ordinary as anybodies.
Coming back to Mr AS. I looked at him and asked in absolute wonderment why “he” of all people on this Earth would have problem finding a gal with his credentials. AS like the Malayalee Christian men I mentioned here, wanted more than just a wife in the girl they marry. He is facing the same dilemma. That’s when I said something that surprised even me!!! “Why are you only scanning the resumes of girls whose parents have you promised you a good dowry? Why not girls whose parents cannot afford such a dowry?” He was taken aback. Clearly the thought had not occurred to him like many highly sought after grooms!
I refuse to believe that there is a dearth of well read and bright young Malayalee women out there. If there is a dearth, then it is of bright young Malayalee women whose folks cannot afford a big dowry. Mr AS was dumb struck at my query. I persisted. I told him that if he really wanted, he could get the best of the best gals if he could only give up the idea of a huge dowry. It is difficult to get both i.e a good dowry and the perfect girl!
AS didn’t say anything. I don’t know what he will do. But this conversation opened my eyes to something that was so obvious but unnoticed. As an addendum to my last post on the subject, I have to add that guys who grumble about stereotypical Malayalee gals are the types that have unconsciously narrowed their field of choice. They never thought of the other option i.e the millions of gals out there who may be the perfect fit, but whose pops cannot afford the big dowry they want.
And I also realized why so many Malayalee couples who have had love marriages are so happy. And that’s because they were not constricted by the considerations that govern an arranged marriage and hence gave themselves the best gift of all….the gift of choice!
You cannot have the best of the world. So quit grumbling all you eligible mallu Christian men who want that bright, intelligent, scintillating conversationalist etc lady! You do have a choice. Now let us see you taking it!
p.s On a lighter note...all you people who make fun of mallu names eat dirt!!! That includes me too, I just realized! *gulp* Congratulations Mr err Kanth! You just made us mallus, I mean all of us proud! Thanks Karthik for this gem!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Rant!
My cousin brother J, his wife A, mom and eight month old son were visiting us last week. J completed his MS in the US and is placed with a company in the US. His wife studied in Kerala and was working in Kochi before marriage. They were staying with us so that they could visit relations here and grab a holiday in Kodaikanal before heading back to the US.
During the one week they spent with us, A drove all of us crazy! Before she landed up in Bangalore, she called up my mom and told her that she needed Mineral water to sterilize the baby’s bottles and utensils. She wasn’t too sure of the Aqua Guard water we use in the house! My mom obliged by asking the Kinley suppliers to ensure a continuous supply to the house while they were with us.
What happened next had me boiling impotently! From the time we picked them from the airport till they left, the lady had everyone on the edge and that included her mother in law who accompanied her to spend some time with my Mom!
From the airport to the house, A regaled us with tales of troubles she encountered when she landed in India a week ahead of hubby with the baby. She had apparently flown Lufthansa who were very helpful to passengers like her traveling with a baby. The domestic leg of her travel i.e from Bangalore to Kerala was undertaken in Indian. And the stark contrast in service between the two carriers gave A enough fodder for chit chat for the week she was here and visiting relations. My tart inquiry as to why she didn’t travel first class in Jet or Kingfisher was met with a smooth excuse. Her mom in law mumbled under her breath that A was trying to save money by traveling Indian.
After that it was pure hell. From complaints of lack of oxygen in the air in Bangalore to the crowds and inquiries if the stuff my mom cooked was organic and the content of fat...she had everyone on tenterhooks. My brother countered her questions tongue in cheek till a well placed kick under the table from mom ensured he kept quiet for the sake of family peace.
My mother, the gracious hostess she is, put up with A with the patience of an Indian Electorate waiting for good governance! While A sterilized the babies bottles and washed his plates in Kinley and ensured that the baby ate nothing but the pureed bottle food she had bought from the US, her mom in law ensured that the baby ate rice and fish curry when the parents were out visiting! By the time they left, the baby was refusing to eat the bland pureed food! A almost fainted when she came to know that the baby had eaten the unsterilised Indian food and crawled around the house in her absence! And guess what! The baby never fell sick or had any problems with that! Don't get me wrong. A is a really nice girl. But she seems to have trouble acknowledging the lifestyle she left not so long ago!
This is not the first time we are having visitors from the US with small babies. Most of them are fussy. But A took the cake. Nowadays during weddings and other get together, the joke is almost always on the NRI relations and how soon they forget the India they left not too long ago, like two months in some cases!!
I wonder if it is really that risky for an NRI to live in India after living in the US!
p.s Sorry for the delay in posts and replies to comments but if life were a Ferrari then Schumacher would be my driver. Right now trying to over ride the brakes! *sigh*
During the one week they spent with us, A drove all of us crazy! Before she landed up in Bangalore, she called up my mom and told her that she needed Mineral water to sterilize the baby’s bottles and utensils. She wasn’t too sure of the Aqua Guard water we use in the house! My mom obliged by asking the Kinley suppliers to ensure a continuous supply to the house while they were with us.
What happened next had me boiling impotently! From the time we picked them from the airport till they left, the lady had everyone on the edge and that included her mother in law who accompanied her to spend some time with my Mom!
From the airport to the house, A regaled us with tales of troubles she encountered when she landed in India a week ahead of hubby with the baby. She had apparently flown Lufthansa who were very helpful to passengers like her traveling with a baby. The domestic leg of her travel i.e from Bangalore to Kerala was undertaken in Indian. And the stark contrast in service between the two carriers gave A enough fodder for chit chat for the week she was here and visiting relations. My tart inquiry as to why she didn’t travel first class in Jet or Kingfisher was met with a smooth excuse. Her mom in law mumbled under her breath that A was trying to save money by traveling Indian.
After that it was pure hell. From complaints of lack of oxygen in the air in Bangalore to the crowds and inquiries if the stuff my mom cooked was organic and the content of fat...she had everyone on tenterhooks. My brother countered her questions tongue in cheek till a well placed kick under the table from mom ensured he kept quiet for the sake of family peace.
My mother, the gracious hostess she is, put up with A with the patience of an Indian Electorate waiting for good governance! While A sterilized the babies bottles and washed his plates in Kinley and ensured that the baby ate nothing but the pureed bottle food she had bought from the US, her mom in law ensured that the baby ate rice and fish curry when the parents were out visiting! By the time they left, the baby was refusing to eat the bland pureed food! A almost fainted when she came to know that the baby had eaten the unsterilised Indian food and crawled around the house in her absence! And guess what! The baby never fell sick or had any problems with that! Don't get me wrong. A is a really nice girl. But she seems to have trouble acknowledging the lifestyle she left not so long ago!
This is not the first time we are having visitors from the US with small babies. Most of them are fussy. But A took the cake. Nowadays during weddings and other get together, the joke is almost always on the NRI relations and how soon they forget the India they left not too long ago, like two months in some cases!!
I wonder if it is really that risky for an NRI to live in India after living in the US!
p.s Sorry for the delay in posts and replies to comments but if life were a Ferrari then Schumacher would be my driver. Right now trying to over ride the brakes! *sigh*
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Choice!
Abortion! An issue that I want to take a strong stand on yet cannot! There are two schools of thought about the topic “in my head”.1. You protect your life and your right to live with laws that punish people who take other people’s lives. Wouldn’t you like to afford the same right to a human fetus?
2. There are many girls who get pregnant unwillingly like rape victims. Don’t they have the right to set right what has been done wrong to their body via an abortion?
Both these arguments hold water. For the second group of people selective abortion can be advocated. BUT that would vitiate the principals of Thought No 1. That is the right to life. After all how many of us here had a choice to be born whether as a product of marriage or otherwise?
What do I think of abortion? I think it is abhorrent. It is like killing a child! It is murder! Because I think it is hypocritical to talk of human rights and political correctness and think naught of the unborn defenseless child!
On the other hand no one should take away the right of a woman who has been raped and unwilling to carry the product of that encounter as a constant reminder of her humiliation!
And in this debate we forget the tiny fetus that has absolutely no right or voice over its life! We were all tiny fetuses once upon a time! If we didn’t endure the pain of being chopped up or chemically killed it is because our parents or procreators chose not to.
Though I would not judge a woman who wants an abortion because she is pregnant after a rape, my heart will still cry for her unborn, condemned to dying because it was a fusion of lust and not love! Nature didn’t differentiate between the two when it created human procreation. Or we would all have been spared this discussion! What an interesting idea though! If a child were to be conceived only from two people who were in love, humans would have been extinct by now :p
In a country whose rivers are overflowing with female fetuses, posts like this are I guess laughably immature!
This post might seem confusing. It is…because I am confused about the topic!
Please note, this post does not have anything to do with my religious views or religious principles governing the matter.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Famine and Plenty II
How many of us here were told to eat up our food because “there are so many poor people who do not get food!” I guess all of us have grown up to that refrain! It was not just prudence but empathy for the poor and an effort to avoid wastage!
Mr Bush recently accused Indians and the Chinese of depleting world food reserves due to the increase in purchasing power of the average citizen of these countries. Indians were incensed at what they think is Bush trying to tell Indians to eat less so that the US can eat more. Without delving on the merits and demerits of his statement, I decided to take a critical look at something I had blogged about earlier too.
Ten years ago when we attended weddings, the left over food was usually packed and taken home and distributed to relations and neighbors. Wastage was unheard of! Today if you were to visit a Kalyana Mantapa or Wedding Hall in Bangalore, the amount of food thrown in the dust bin will leave you sick in the stomach! Except for the lower middle classes no one thinks of taking leftovers home because it is passé besides leftovers are in such large quantities and also spoil easily! What is ironic is that at such functions people have to pay per plate consumed and then the leftover is thrown away!!
There is a Kalyana Mantapa near my home and I have seen the changes in food habits of people over the years by just observing its dustbin! Ten years ago the dustbins here were a repository of used banana leaves! Today those very same dustbins are overflowing with mounds of food and plastic ware and attract dozens of stray dogs and giant rats!
Go to any hotel kitchen and you will see the afternoon buffet spread in the dustbin by evening! Some years ago, buffets were confined to star hotels and smaller hotels and restaurants cooked against orders. The demand for faster service and increase in customer’s has made many hotels adopt wasteful tactics like pre cooked food which is thrown away if a particular dish is not ordered by customers! The high returns in the food business offsets wastages!
Smaller hotels attract customers during weekdays with Buffet spreads and these also lead to a lot of wastage as the number of customers is not predictable and subsequently the left over food has to be thrown away if the patronage was low! Indian cuisine, especially the type that is sold in hotels is resource intensive unlike Continental cuisine. This affects other commodities like Gas, Edible Oil and water and the vicious chain is complete.
There is an order of Nuns in Bangalore who collect left over food from Hotels and Wedding Halls and feed the poor. But what they collect is just a drop in the ocean of waste! It is humanly impossible to collect the entire amount of leftover food from eateries in a given day!
Whatever the US may do and no matter how much they waste food, we Indians should not use that to justify ourselves! We have a large section of the society that lives hand to mouth! While I am not advocating that we live frugal lives because of that, a little bit of thought to the poor like in “not wasting food because there are so many poor people who do not get food” would be immensely helpful!
Mr Bush recently accused Indians and the Chinese of depleting world food reserves due to the increase in purchasing power of the average citizen of these countries. Indians were incensed at what they think is Bush trying to tell Indians to eat less so that the US can eat more. Without delving on the merits and demerits of his statement, I decided to take a critical look at something I had blogged about earlier too.
Ten years ago when we attended weddings, the left over food was usually packed and taken home and distributed to relations and neighbors. Wastage was unheard of! Today if you were to visit a Kalyana Mantapa or Wedding Hall in Bangalore, the amount of food thrown in the dust bin will leave you sick in the stomach! Except for the lower middle classes no one thinks of taking leftovers home because it is passé besides leftovers are in such large quantities and also spoil easily! What is ironic is that at such functions people have to pay per plate consumed and then the leftover is thrown away!!
There is a Kalyana Mantapa near my home and I have seen the changes in food habits of people over the years by just observing its dustbin! Ten years ago the dustbins here were a repository of used banana leaves! Today those very same dustbins are overflowing with mounds of food and plastic ware and attract dozens of stray dogs and giant rats!
Go to any hotel kitchen and you will see the afternoon buffet spread in the dustbin by evening! Some years ago, buffets were confined to star hotels and smaller hotels and restaurants cooked against orders. The demand for faster service and increase in customer’s has made many hotels adopt wasteful tactics like pre cooked food which is thrown away if a particular dish is not ordered by customers! The high returns in the food business offsets wastages!
Smaller hotels attract customers during weekdays with Buffet spreads and these also lead to a lot of wastage as the number of customers is not predictable and subsequently the left over food has to be thrown away if the patronage was low! Indian cuisine, especially the type that is sold in hotels is resource intensive unlike Continental cuisine. This affects other commodities like Gas, Edible Oil and water and the vicious chain is complete.
There is an order of Nuns in Bangalore who collect left over food from Hotels and Wedding Halls and feed the poor. But what they collect is just a drop in the ocean of waste! It is humanly impossible to collect the entire amount of leftover food from eateries in a given day!
Whatever the US may do and no matter how much they waste food, we Indians should not use that to justify ourselves! We have a large section of the society that lives hand to mouth! While I am not advocating that we live frugal lives because of that, a little bit of thought to the poor like in “not wasting food because there are so many poor people who do not get food” would be immensely helpful!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Urban islands!
I saw Achchuvinte Amma the other day! A tolerable movie with gaping holes in the script. This is not a movie review. But something in the movie has been bothering me for some time.
There is flashback scene in the movie on Urvashi’s childhood when her caretaker, an old lady dies, leaving her at the mercy of her male employers, each one of whom tries to satiate their lust on her. The young girl escapes each time thanks to her street savvines and finally ends up in a weaving unit in Tamilnadu. At the unit she meets several girls like her or in similar circumstances. Soon the young Urvashi realizes that this was a kind of holding place for girls before they are shipped off to the Red Light area of Mumbai. The young Urvashi escapes, taking with her a two year old girl, also being held for trade at a later date.
I don’t know how many people dwelt on that scene or paused to think of the very powerful statement that the director unwittingly made with those scenes. I don’t think many! After all girls being bought and sold for flesh trade is stale news now. What doesn’t affect us doesn't bother us and we as a society do not believe in getting involved in anything other than our own family or professional affairs.
Instances of girls being sold in the flesh market are talked about in living rooms and around coffee tables. We cluck our tongues at the government’s inaction to curb the menace. Every thing and anything that ails the society is the government’s responsibility. No wonder governments themselves are under such strain in India!
With a population that does nothing or gives nothing back to the society (except taxes), but believes only in taking, no government will be able to cope up! We want our governments to function in splendid isolation so that we do not have to dirty our hands and expect wonders from this arrangement.
So what am I saying? That we leave our work and start doing social work. Yes! But you don’t need to leave your work for that. A little bit of involvement will do wonders to our country. Like in respecting public property as our own! And the right of our fellow citizens to all that we aspire for ourselves! The parasitic existence that we live now has to stop, if this country has to change what we want changed.
How do we go about that? I don’t know! But this giant populace has to get off their butts and start getting involved in matters other than their own!
If aliens were to observe India from space, what would they see? As dawn breaks over the country, massive hordes of people scurry out of their homes and stream into their workplaces. And as the evening falls, the hordes scurry back like mice to their holes. After which there is no movement visible outside the holes except perhaps for trips to the grocery store! We live in holes and do not get involved beyond our holes. It’s no wonder that people living out of the holes have a free run of the road! And we expect to outsource our social wellbeing to these people!!!
It is no wonder we are moving further and further away from each other!
There is flashback scene in the movie on Urvashi’s childhood when her caretaker, an old lady dies, leaving her at the mercy of her male employers, each one of whom tries to satiate their lust on her. The young girl escapes each time thanks to her street savvines and finally ends up in a weaving unit in Tamilnadu. At the unit she meets several girls like her or in similar circumstances. Soon the young Urvashi realizes that this was a kind of holding place for girls before they are shipped off to the Red Light area of Mumbai. The young Urvashi escapes, taking with her a two year old girl, also being held for trade at a later date.
I don’t know how many people dwelt on that scene or paused to think of the very powerful statement that the director unwittingly made with those scenes. I don’t think many! After all girls being bought and sold for flesh trade is stale news now. What doesn’t affect us doesn't bother us and we as a society do not believe in getting involved in anything other than our own family or professional affairs.
Instances of girls being sold in the flesh market are talked about in living rooms and around coffee tables. We cluck our tongues at the government’s inaction to curb the menace. Every thing and anything that ails the society is the government’s responsibility. No wonder governments themselves are under such strain in India!
With a population that does nothing or gives nothing back to the society (except taxes), but believes only in taking, no government will be able to cope up! We want our governments to function in splendid isolation so that we do not have to dirty our hands and expect wonders from this arrangement.
So what am I saying? That we leave our work and start doing social work. Yes! But you don’t need to leave your work for that. A little bit of involvement will do wonders to our country. Like in respecting public property as our own! And the right of our fellow citizens to all that we aspire for ourselves! The parasitic existence that we live now has to stop, if this country has to change what we want changed.
How do we go about that? I don’t know! But this giant populace has to get off their butts and start getting involved in matters other than their own!
If aliens were to observe India from space, what would they see? As dawn breaks over the country, massive hordes of people scurry out of their homes and stream into their workplaces. And as the evening falls, the hordes scurry back like mice to their holes. After which there is no movement visible outside the holes except perhaps for trips to the grocery store! We live in holes and do not get involved beyond our holes. It’s no wonder that people living out of the holes have a free run of the road! And we expect to outsource our social wellbeing to these people!!!
It is no wonder we are moving further and further away from each other!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Higher Education!
After writing this post and the creative suggestions that were made in the comment section...I was pleasantly unsurprised to see a commercial in Kairali TV for .....*hold your breath*......Institute of Heavy Machinery, Kollam!
Apparently the Institute teaches students to drive and operate vehicles like Earth Movers, Lifts, Tractors etc. How ingenious! And how predictable that a mallu is involved here!
The ad shows a fat, but apparently under-the-mistaken assumption-that-he-is-fit Principal of the Institute operating several run down PWD vehicles. He looks rather sincere though and jumps down from the vehicles without too much problems or losing focus of the camera.
You wanna make some easy money? Dare your friends to see the ad with a straight face....and collect the cash in Hydraulic Excavators...which btw is not part of the curriculum.
What next? Institute of Maidservant or an Institute of Ironing Clothes? I wouldn't be surprised if they are already existing! brr
I am off for a much needed vacation folks. The other blog will be updated as usual on Sunday. Catch up with you all later. Ciao!
Apparently the Institute teaches students to drive and operate vehicles like Earth Movers, Lifts, Tractors etc. How ingenious! And how predictable that a mallu is involved here!
The ad shows a fat, but apparently under-the-mistaken assumption-that-he-is-fit Principal of the Institute operating several run down PWD vehicles. He looks rather sincere though and jumps down from the vehicles without too much problems or losing focus of the camera.
You wanna make some easy money? Dare your friends to see the ad with a straight face....and collect the cash in Hydraulic Excavators...which btw is not part of the curriculum.
What next? Institute of Maidservant or an Institute of Ironing Clothes? I wouldn't be surprised if they are already existing! brr
I am off for a much needed vacation folks. The other blog will be updated as usual on Sunday. Catch up with you all later. Ciao!
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Love or companionship?
AV and AM met a couple of years ago when both were working for a company making Laptops. She was in Sales. He was a techie. Both were from the same community and soon their friendship blosommed into romance. Soon AM got an admit into a B-School and left for his higher studies. They kept in touch in the intermission.
After graduation AM rejoined the company in a senior position and is now a busy manager! He is ambitious and works long hours. Soon their regular meetings fizzled out to occasional meetings for coffee and their social life came to a stop.
Sometime back, AV made the difficult decision to call off this relationship. AM is an extremely nice guy. I will vouch for that! At 26, he is a very mature person and the kind of guy you can rely on for anything. He is still the same...but busier.
AV's decision shocked all of us. We were aghast, because no girl in her right mind would leave a guy like AM!!!
But AV had a point. She didn't want to spend her life waiting for AM to come home and live a solitary life after marriage. Its bad enough that she hardly sees him these days! Then why should she take the inevitable into marriage!
AM understood her position, but he is helpless! He has his career path clearly charted for him. And that does not include a wife or free time for some time.
Though AM was extremely hurt, he bid goodbye to her and wished her luck!
AV got married six months ago and she is a happy girl. Watching her, one of my married female colleagues wondered if the new Indian woman, would ever be happy only with the title 'Mrs'. I think not! Just the 'Mrs' tag is no longer attractive even for me or my peers. I'd rather have a Mr with it...like AV!
Love or companionship? Companionship definitely! What will we do with empty love!
After graduation AM rejoined the company in a senior position and is now a busy manager! He is ambitious and works long hours. Soon their regular meetings fizzled out to occasional meetings for coffee and their social life came to a stop.
Sometime back, AV made the difficult decision to call off this relationship. AM is an extremely nice guy. I will vouch for that! At 26, he is a very mature person and the kind of guy you can rely on for anything. He is still the same...but busier.
AV's decision shocked all of us. We were aghast, because no girl in her right mind would leave a guy like AM!!!
But AV had a point. She didn't want to spend her life waiting for AM to come home and live a solitary life after marriage. Its bad enough that she hardly sees him these days! Then why should she take the inevitable into marriage!
AM understood her position, but he is helpless! He has his career path clearly charted for him. And that does not include a wife or free time for some time.
Though AM was extremely hurt, he bid goodbye to her and wished her luck!
AV got married six months ago and she is a happy girl. Watching her, one of my married female colleagues wondered if the new Indian woman, would ever be happy only with the title 'Mrs'. I think not! Just the 'Mrs' tag is no longer attractive even for me or my peers. I'd rather have a Mr with it...like AV!
Love or companionship? Companionship definitely! What will we do with empty love!
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Making news!
This year when the Hogenakal water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka sprouted up, most of us of old Bangaloreans cringed at the thought of another round of protests and Tamil channels being blocked, Tamil movie posters being pulled own and other childish acts that vested interests seem to wait to rabble rouse!
However nothing of that sort happened! A pleasantly surprised populace watched as the Cable operators from both State resolved not to let their business be affected by politics and most political parties except the BJP decided to exercise restraint and let the law take its own course. This is unheard of in Bangalore and Karnataka! We are so used to violent protests at the very mention of the word “Neighbor”!
Most of us watched in disbelief as not a single incident of violence or protest was reported on TV except for some mature statements by people like S M Krishna! People seem to have changed overnight! It was evident that at last, people have realized that the bogey of outsiders threatening the culture and language of Karnataka was only doing harm than good to the State’s image specially since Karnataka generates most of its revenue from Bangalore! For people like me who have grown up here, it was a huge relief to see this change.
Therefore I was really shocked and taken back to see a program aired on prime time by CNN IBN about Bangalore and Karnataka. The program has been clearly put together by someone sitting in Delhi or Mumbai unaware of the changes in Karnataka, deciding to cash in on what he/she thought were burning issues!! The entire program is made up of old issues dredged up from news archives, garnished with commentaries and interviews with old hawks and trouble makers and can be positively harmful if such people realize their power in giving fodder to news hungry channels like CNN IBN!
It is true that every Kannadiga loves Kannada and wants Kannada to be preserved! But instead of talking to doyens of Kannada literature, the program interviews people who made it to the news till some time back by blackening English sign boards, demanding 85% reservation for Kannadiags in IT and BT companies and throwing stones at movie theaters showing Tamil films!!!
There is absolutely no effort or pretense in this program to catch the pulse of the people or report facts! If CNN IBN had made the effort, they would have found out that the situation is changing in Karnataka! Linguistic chauvinism is on the wane and people are realizing that there are better and mature means to solving disputes with neighbors than resorting to Xenophobia and violence!
However no such effort has been made by CNN IBN in the making of this program and the show talks about how the people of Karnataka want to assert their Kannada identity over Bangalore and their discontent with the modernization ( read pubs) of Bangalore!
After watching this program, I was reminded of the movie ( I forget the name) about a News Channel tycoon who decides to ‘make news’ so that his channel will be the first to report it! That movie was a pot shot at the CNN! How ironic that CNN’s Indian arm, the CNN IBN is actually doing that? Who could have predicted that?
I guess for lazy channels like CNN IBN, News Archives is "the" hot and happening place for “making news”! So what next? A program on the Khalistan movement? Or the Tamil separatist movement? How many dying embers will they rake up to a fire in their quest for viewer ship? I dread to think of the topic of their next Prime Time program!
For a population that labors from 9 to 6, news channels are the only window to the outside world! And news channels like CNN IBN realize this very well! And in their quest to fill in air time, they will not hesitate to stoop to any levels to "make news" !
However nothing of that sort happened! A pleasantly surprised populace watched as the Cable operators from both State resolved not to let their business be affected by politics and most political parties except the BJP decided to exercise restraint and let the law take its own course. This is unheard of in Bangalore and Karnataka! We are so used to violent protests at the very mention of the word “Neighbor”!
Most of us watched in disbelief as not a single incident of violence or protest was reported on TV except for some mature statements by people like S M Krishna! People seem to have changed overnight! It was evident that at last, people have realized that the bogey of outsiders threatening the culture and language of Karnataka was only doing harm than good to the State’s image specially since Karnataka generates most of its revenue from Bangalore! For people like me who have grown up here, it was a huge relief to see this change.
Therefore I was really shocked and taken back to see a program aired on prime time by CNN IBN about Bangalore and Karnataka. The program has been clearly put together by someone sitting in Delhi or Mumbai unaware of the changes in Karnataka, deciding to cash in on what he/she thought were burning issues!! The entire program is made up of old issues dredged up from news archives, garnished with commentaries and interviews with old hawks and trouble makers and can be positively harmful if such people realize their power in giving fodder to news hungry channels like CNN IBN!
It is true that every Kannadiga loves Kannada and wants Kannada to be preserved! But instead of talking to doyens of Kannada literature, the program interviews people who made it to the news till some time back by blackening English sign boards, demanding 85% reservation for Kannadiags in IT and BT companies and throwing stones at movie theaters showing Tamil films!!!
There is absolutely no effort or pretense in this program to catch the pulse of the people or report facts! If CNN IBN had made the effort, they would have found out that the situation is changing in Karnataka! Linguistic chauvinism is on the wane and people are realizing that there are better and mature means to solving disputes with neighbors than resorting to Xenophobia and violence!
However no such effort has been made by CNN IBN in the making of this program and the show talks about how the people of Karnataka want to assert their Kannada identity over Bangalore and their discontent with the modernization ( read pubs) of Bangalore!
After watching this program, I was reminded of the movie ( I forget the name) about a News Channel tycoon who decides to ‘make news’ so that his channel will be the first to report it! That movie was a pot shot at the CNN! How ironic that CNN’s Indian arm, the CNN IBN is actually doing that? Who could have predicted that?
I guess for lazy channels like CNN IBN, News Archives is "the" hot and happening place for “making news”! So what next? A program on the Khalistan movement? Or the Tamil separatist movement? How many dying embers will they rake up to a fire in their quest for viewer ship? I dread to think of the topic of their next Prime Time program!
For a population that labors from 9 to 6, news channels are the only window to the outside world! And news channels like CNN IBN realize this very well! And in their quest to fill in air time, they will not hesitate to stoop to any levels to "make news" !
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Its all in the family!
There is this old uncle of mine, lets call him John. Now John is among my favorite Uncles. Recently my mother revealed that years ago, Uncle John had taken a portion of her family property through doctored documents. He was exposed and the property returned back to my mother’s family many years ago. But all these years when we visited him and his family I never had an inkling of what had transpired between him and my mother’s family.
When my Dad came to know that my mother had told me this family secret he was annoyed. He felt that I would not respect this gentleman like I did before and he felt that "children" should be kept out of family politics. My mom, who usually backs down when it comes to my Dad’s policies like this, held her ground this time and argued that it was time that I knew the truth. She felt that I would still treat him the same as I was capable of independent judgment now!
I was shocked to hear about this facet of my Uncle! And unknowingly my mom opened a can of worms and soon a lot of family secrets came tumbling out of the closet of secrecy! My head started spinning as I heard the tales about people I love and their part in the small intrigues that most families harbor.
Though the family secrets shocked me, what really amazed me was the family’s attitude to erring members!! No matter how big or small the crime, it was forgotten after resolving it, with no trace of bitterness or revisits! I realized that no matter how horrendous the crime, a family member had to be forgiven and accepted back into the family fold. Of course one has to be cautious with the knowledge that one has about people in the family and their weaknesses, but one has to forgive too because there is no other way out here for errant members except complete ostracism from the family!
For the first time in my life I felt in awe of my extended family and their willingness to turn a kind eye to the mistakes of the weak among them and keep the family bond strong despite so many unsavory aspects amidst its members. What I took for granted i.e the extended family, was a result of a lot of hard work, a lot of giving and taking and forgiving! And I am glad that these people worked at it than taking the easy way out, i.e breaking off relations and depriving us i.e the youngest in the family the privilege of knowing and growing up amidst this huge sea of very nice but very human people.
I would like to believe that this revelation was my mom’s way of telling me that I am grown up now. However the look she gave me when I told her that I wanted to drive to Goa alone with a few friends, would have melted a bar of cast iron! *sigh*
When my Dad came to know that my mother had told me this family secret he was annoyed. He felt that I would not respect this gentleman like I did before and he felt that "children" should be kept out of family politics. My mom, who usually backs down when it comes to my Dad’s policies like this, held her ground this time and argued that it was time that I knew the truth. She felt that I would still treat him the same as I was capable of independent judgment now!
I was shocked to hear about this facet of my Uncle! And unknowingly my mom opened a can of worms and soon a lot of family secrets came tumbling out of the closet of secrecy! My head started spinning as I heard the tales about people I love and their part in the small intrigues that most families harbor.
Though the family secrets shocked me, what really amazed me was the family’s attitude to erring members!! No matter how big or small the crime, it was forgotten after resolving it, with no trace of bitterness or revisits! I realized that no matter how horrendous the crime, a family member had to be forgiven and accepted back into the family fold. Of course one has to be cautious with the knowledge that one has about people in the family and their weaknesses, but one has to forgive too because there is no other way out here for errant members except complete ostracism from the family!
For the first time in my life I felt in awe of my extended family and their willingness to turn a kind eye to the mistakes of the weak among them and keep the family bond strong despite so many unsavory aspects amidst its members. What I took for granted i.e the extended family, was a result of a lot of hard work, a lot of giving and taking and forgiving! And I am glad that these people worked at it than taking the easy way out, i.e breaking off relations and depriving us i.e the youngest in the family the privilege of knowing and growing up amidst this huge sea of very nice but very human people.
I would like to believe that this revelation was my mom’s way of telling me that I am grown up now. However the look she gave me when I told her that I wanted to drive to Goa alone with a few friends, would have melted a bar of cast iron! *sigh*
Monday, April 28, 2008
And now...Grime Collar jobs!
Have you seen the handicapped beggar at the India Garage junction on Richmond Road? I am talking about the young guy who goes around parked vehicles at the traffic signal, showing off his legs with multiple oozing sores! There is another guy at this very same junction, who will come close to you and suddenly bare his arms showing the skin peeled off and the white flesh beneath. When he did that to me, I nearly passed out and the next thing I know is that people were chasing him down the road. For a business man I must say, he went a little overboard in selling his wares! Now if you are wondering if I am talking of the same beggar, then I am.
Beggary is big business today. Gone are the days when you saved all those five paise coins to give to the beggars sitting outside the Church after Sunday Mass. Today there are no beggars in the city. Instead we have a business called begging.
Like most businesses, this too is an organized trade, with careful strategizing and marketing to the target audience for maximum profit. Most of the beggars you see on the road are simple businessmen and women. The wounds you saw on the legs of the young man is carefully done with chemicals and simple surgery! The same with the peeled off arm! If you want to know how to look sick and fool your teachers or bunk school, head to where a “sick” beggar is sitting and he will teach you a thing or two in faking authentic diseases that will leave your Chemistry teacher proud yet a little sick in the stomach.
The beggar lady with the baby you see on the road is not the mother of the baby. The babies are borrowed from construction workers, drugged and carried round in the hot sun and a fraction of the pickings from this heartless activity is shared with the mother. The baby is handed over to the mother after the “business day” is over. When the baby is too old to be carried around, he/she is discarded for another small baby to be drugged and carried around in the hot sun amidst vehicle fumes for close to twelve hours a day! Can you imagine the amount of drugs that is needed to keep that baby asleep for 12 hours?
When you put that coin into the “poor” lady’s hand you are arming her to carry on the abuse and toxify and pickle the baby forever. The real beggar in this story is the mother of the child and our concern must be with her than the lady who walks the roads in torn clothes looking pitiably at you. Try and give that lady a piece of bread and see the reaction! She will possibly walk away glowering …because she can afford to eat better!!!
Most beggars are quite well off. Yet they live in squalor as it is part of their profession. It is their very existence! And they will do nothing to threaten it. They are not interested in homes and hearths. All they are interested in is the money. Most of them are money lenders, some have land back home that they support, but everyone of them carry on the profession just like any dedicated workers in a regular job!
Real beggars have no place in the scheme of things on the road unless they are willing to follow the rules and regulations of the road! By rules and regulations, I mean, give a part of the pickings to the local area goon and some other pacts that only they know of! And when the money is good (beggars earn close to Rs 3000/- a day), why fight the system?
Remember that ad that says “When you give alms to a beggar you condemn him to begging for life”? Nothing can so succinctly summarize the situation as that simple sentence!
It took me some time, but no amount of pitiable looks will move me now! I’d rather give the money to the NGO that works towards educating children of construction workers!
Information above gathered from talks with a friend who worked in an NGO that tried to rehabilitate beggars only to learn that it was foolish to tell a person to leave his well paying job for a lower paying job!
Beggary is big business today. Gone are the days when you saved all those five paise coins to give to the beggars sitting outside the Church after Sunday Mass. Today there are no beggars in the city. Instead we have a business called begging.
Like most businesses, this too is an organized trade, with careful strategizing and marketing to the target audience for maximum profit. Most of the beggars you see on the road are simple businessmen and women. The wounds you saw on the legs of the young man is carefully done with chemicals and simple surgery! The same with the peeled off arm! If you want to know how to look sick and fool your teachers or bunk school, head to where a “sick” beggar is sitting and he will teach you a thing or two in faking authentic diseases that will leave your Chemistry teacher proud yet a little sick in the stomach.
The beggar lady with the baby you see on the road is not the mother of the baby. The babies are borrowed from construction workers, drugged and carried round in the hot sun and a fraction of the pickings from this heartless activity is shared with the mother. The baby is handed over to the mother after the “business day” is over. When the baby is too old to be carried around, he/she is discarded for another small baby to be drugged and carried around in the hot sun amidst vehicle fumes for close to twelve hours a day! Can you imagine the amount of drugs that is needed to keep that baby asleep for 12 hours?
When you put that coin into the “poor” lady’s hand you are arming her to carry on the abuse and toxify and pickle the baby forever. The real beggar in this story is the mother of the child and our concern must be with her than the lady who walks the roads in torn clothes looking pitiably at you. Try and give that lady a piece of bread and see the reaction! She will possibly walk away glowering …because she can afford to eat better!!!
Most beggars are quite well off. Yet they live in squalor as it is part of their profession. It is their very existence! And they will do nothing to threaten it. They are not interested in homes and hearths. All they are interested in is the money. Most of them are money lenders, some have land back home that they support, but everyone of them carry on the profession just like any dedicated workers in a regular job!
Real beggars have no place in the scheme of things on the road unless they are willing to follow the rules and regulations of the road! By rules and regulations, I mean, give a part of the pickings to the local area goon and some other pacts that only they know of! And when the money is good (beggars earn close to Rs 3000/- a day), why fight the system?
Remember that ad that says “When you give alms to a beggar you condemn him to begging for life”? Nothing can so succinctly summarize the situation as that simple sentence!
It took me some time, but no amount of pitiable looks will move me now! I’d rather give the money to the NGO that works towards educating children of construction workers!
Information above gathered from talks with a friend who worked in an NGO that tried to rehabilitate beggars only to learn that it was foolish to tell a person to leave his well paying job for a lower paying job!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tagged by an able guy...but not for long!
I have been tagged by Thomas Sebastian, the brilliant raconteur whose college anecdotes will leave you smiling, laughing and reminiscing about those good old days and those goofs you studied with…and the feeling that those days are never gonna come back again! *sob*
Hope he lives long enough though to regale us with his tales though. Right now I fear for his life. Contributions to the 'Save Thomas Sebastian from his Victims Fund' are welcome. This guy will need it because soon he will be hobbling around on his one unbroken leg, walking with difficulty to collect his monthly disability pension with his one eye, half an arm and dislocated jaw.
The Fund, I hope will help him stay at home so that people do not have to see his severely deformed face, broken teeth, absent nose and bare scalp where a lush vegetation of hair once grew before it was yanked out by one of his well built victims without a sense of humor but great muscles.
Please contribute generously!
Rules of the tag:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
4. If you fail to do this within eight hours, nothing will happen to you and you will die of boredom.
Disclaimer: I think I have done this tag before!
1. I cannot eat in between meals. Not even a biscuit…because it would kill my appetite for lunch/dinner. When those inevitable rounds of pastries, cakes etc come around because it is someone’s birthday, fatherhood /motherhood day or return from holiday/offsite day, I will be seen pushing these delicacies into a Tiffin box specially kept for the same. The same is disgorged at home to a very thankful brother who can eat anything and everything that is moving or dead. Ditto during school days. The last biscuit I ate was four moths ago when I absentmindedly picked it and bit it only to spit it out. I like salt biscuits though.
2. I don’t like cakes, pastries, biscuits, chocolates. I don’t hate them, but I wouldn’t eat them if I could. Eating these is a waste of energy in chewing some tasteless stuff. I rather uses that energy to eat Gulab Jamoon, Samosas and other Indian delicacies.
3. I love kids to distraction… even spoilt brats. I love playing with them and a hanging out with them and helping them with their projects! I guess I have taken after my Dad in this regard. The greatest compliment I have ever got from the rug rat brigade in the family is that I was the coolest chechi in the family.
4. Gardening is slowly taking over as hobby number one among my many hobbies. I never tire of collecting plants and I putter and fuss over them till they throw up their hands in despair and grow up to get me off their neck! I am one of those rare souls who can grow roses no matter how stubborn they are.
5. I am greatly disadvantaged being the youngest in the house. I tend to respect anyone even one hour elder to me. I have to consciously prevent me from doing this at work and outside the home. I am hoping it will become a habit soon.
6. I love old people. I come from a family with lots of old folks. I can sit and talk to them for hours. When I go to friends/relations homes, I go straight to the old people’s room. I love to answer their questions and chit chat with them. They are the last of a generation of people with individuality, values, innocence, unconditional love...and some other old words.
7. From Millstone to Milestone….I have become comfortable with my religion. I don’t care anymore for the perceived/real faults of Priests and Nuns and Popes! I have realized that those are just excuses of the weak looking for a way out. Do your best and leave the rest to God is my mantra when it comes to religion.
8. I grew up with a complex for being slim. I was told by my well endowed classmates that fat was in and thin was ugly/unwomanly/unfeminine/without personality etc etc till I developed a severe inferiority complex and defensivenesses. I have spent more time and energy trying to put on some weight than a fat person trying to lose weight. College restored all the dignity, self esteem and belief in thin self that school had so viciously robbed :p
And *whew* I am done and am passing on the pain err tag to Neena.
Comments disabled for this post!
Hope he lives long enough though to regale us with his tales though. Right now I fear for his life. Contributions to the 'Save Thomas Sebastian from his Victims Fund' are welcome. This guy will need it because soon he will be hobbling around on his one unbroken leg, walking with difficulty to collect his monthly disability pension with his one eye, half an arm and dislocated jaw.
The Fund, I hope will help him stay at home so that people do not have to see his severely deformed face, broken teeth, absent nose and bare scalp where a lush vegetation of hair once grew before it was yanked out by one of his well built victims without a sense of humor but great muscles.
Please contribute generously!
Rules of the tag:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
4. If you fail to do this within eight hours, nothing will happen to you and you will die of boredom.
Disclaimer: I think I have done this tag before!
1. I cannot eat in between meals. Not even a biscuit…because it would kill my appetite for lunch/dinner. When those inevitable rounds of pastries, cakes etc come around because it is someone’s birthday, fatherhood /motherhood day or return from holiday/offsite day, I will be seen pushing these delicacies into a Tiffin box specially kept for the same. The same is disgorged at home to a very thankful brother who can eat anything and everything that is moving or dead. Ditto during school days. The last biscuit I ate was four moths ago when I absentmindedly picked it and bit it only to spit it out. I like salt biscuits though.
2. I don’t like cakes, pastries, biscuits, chocolates. I don’t hate them, but I wouldn’t eat them if I could. Eating these is a waste of energy in chewing some tasteless stuff. I rather uses that energy to eat Gulab Jamoon, Samosas and other Indian delicacies.
3. I love kids to distraction… even spoilt brats. I love playing with them and a hanging out with them and helping them with their projects! I guess I have taken after my Dad in this regard. The greatest compliment I have ever got from the rug rat brigade in the family is that I was the coolest chechi in the family.
4. Gardening is slowly taking over as hobby number one among my many hobbies. I never tire of collecting plants and I putter and fuss over them till they throw up their hands in despair and grow up to get me off their neck! I am one of those rare souls who can grow roses no matter how stubborn they are.
5. I am greatly disadvantaged being the youngest in the house. I tend to respect anyone even one hour elder to me. I have to consciously prevent me from doing this at work and outside the home. I am hoping it will become a habit soon.
6. I love old people. I come from a family with lots of old folks. I can sit and talk to them for hours. When I go to friends/relations homes, I go straight to the old people’s room. I love to answer their questions and chit chat with them. They are the last of a generation of people with individuality, values, innocence, unconditional love...and some other old words.
7. From Millstone to Milestone….I have become comfortable with my religion. I don’t care anymore for the perceived/real faults of Priests and Nuns and Popes! I have realized that those are just excuses of the weak looking for a way out. Do your best and leave the rest to God is my mantra when it comes to religion.
8. I grew up with a complex for being slim. I was told by my well endowed classmates that fat was in and thin was ugly/unwomanly/unfeminine/without personality etc etc till I developed a severe inferiority complex and defensivenesses. I have spent more time and energy trying to put on some weight than a fat person trying to lose weight. College restored all the dignity, self esteem and belief in thin self that school had so viciously robbed :p
And *whew* I am done and am passing on the pain err tag to Neena.
Comments disabled for this post!
Friday, April 18, 2008
The exodus
My neighbors...people from Kottayam like us, who have been settled in Bangalore for the past 40 years, were surprised when their relations a family from Trivandrum, suddenly landed up in Bangalore after selling off all they owned in Kerala. They moved into a rented house and soon shifted to a house of their own. This is the 6th family from Trivandrum that I have heard of from friends, relatives and colleagues who have shifted out of Kerala and settled in Bangalore this month.
The shift is not as innocuous as it seems. These are people who were well settled in Trivandrum, with houses of their own. Never in their wildest dreams did they think that they would leave it all. The discontent built up slowly. And the main reason for leaving was the feeling of helplessness and loss of control over ones life in Kerala and the existence of a better choice of life in places like Chennai or Bangalore, to live in dignity!
These people gave their best years to the State, built homes in Kerala and then over a time realized that they were zilch in the scheme of things in the State. The almost daily bundhs, hartals, morchas, threats from locals politicians and miscellaneous goons that they took as part of life, seem to be absent in the other Indian metros. And most importantly, the ignominy of being held hostage by uncouth people who hold their sway in almost all aspects of public life through political patronage and muscle power. It is with heavy hearts that they left their home and hearths, happy nevertheless that they escaped and can at least in their twilight years muster up a life of dignity.
The exodus is happening…in trickles now and from what I have heard, it will become a deluge soon. I am told there are families out there, waiting patiently for their kids to finish studies so that they can move out to Bangalore, or Chennai or Hyderabad. People, who are bound to stay there due to work constraints quietly pick up properties in Bangalore and give it for rent, waiting for the day they can crossover to a life more suitable for human beings.
This post like similar posts will go down into the archives like the voices of right thinking people. But what is frightening is that no one is putting up a fight. Everyone is fleeing and I totally understand their reasons and sympathize with it too. But what is disquieting is that there is not even a small movement for change. The flight of the educated right thinking people out of Kerala, is a premonition of worse things to come. And if the people of Kerala don't get their act together, then they might as well start packing now.
p.s Please note I am not talking of people leaving the State due to work or transfers here.
The shift is not as innocuous as it seems. These are people who were well settled in Trivandrum, with houses of their own. Never in their wildest dreams did they think that they would leave it all. The discontent built up slowly. And the main reason for leaving was the feeling of helplessness and loss of control over ones life in Kerala and the existence of a better choice of life in places like Chennai or Bangalore, to live in dignity!
These people gave their best years to the State, built homes in Kerala and then over a time realized that they were zilch in the scheme of things in the State. The almost daily bundhs, hartals, morchas, threats from locals politicians and miscellaneous goons that they took as part of life, seem to be absent in the other Indian metros. And most importantly, the ignominy of being held hostage by uncouth people who hold their sway in almost all aspects of public life through political patronage and muscle power. It is with heavy hearts that they left their home and hearths, happy nevertheless that they escaped and can at least in their twilight years muster up a life of dignity.
The exodus is happening…in trickles now and from what I have heard, it will become a deluge soon. I am told there are families out there, waiting patiently for their kids to finish studies so that they can move out to Bangalore, or Chennai or Hyderabad. People, who are bound to stay there due to work constraints quietly pick up properties in Bangalore and give it for rent, waiting for the day they can crossover to a life more suitable for human beings.
This post like similar posts will go down into the archives like the voices of right thinking people. But what is frightening is that no one is putting up a fight. Everyone is fleeing and I totally understand their reasons and sympathize with it too. But what is disquieting is that there is not even a small movement for change. The flight of the educated right thinking people out of Kerala, is a premonition of worse things to come. And if the people of Kerala don't get their act together, then they might as well start packing now.
p.s Please note I am not talking of people leaving the State due to work or transfers here.
Have a nice weekend everyone! I surely have earned it!!!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Jo bola wohi Sikandar
Venue: His room. “He” and “She” ( a senior colleague and friend) are getting well...err cozy!
He: err hmm you know…now that we are well...kissing and all, I think we should go all the way...
She: mmm I don't know…
He: C’mon we are engaged and getting married next month.
She: hmmm I am not sure. I have never done it before you know!
He: Me too! But what’s the harm...we are merely preponing the inevitable heh heh
She: I am a little scared...
He: Don’t worry! I have protection.
She: Protection! Why would you keep that here?
He: Well...
She: *gasp* Did you take it for granted that I would say "Yes”!!!!
He: Hey it’s not like that. I just thought it would happen someday and...
She: So was all this an orchestration towards the grand finale on the bed????
He: No!!! Absolutely not…..
She: How could you be so cold and calculating???
He: Listen honey…
She walks off angrily!!
Yours truly and fellow single females at work couldn’t stop giggling because we did not know what else to do, but it sounded soooo funny! So we all went out and got drunk *hic* and laughed some more while "She" seethed in anger and resentment! I am going to sleepover the hangover so that when I get up I can better appreciate the humor in the situation. But what happened next at this watering hole after her "revelation" was, even more well...see for yourself.
Girl 1: OMG!! I didn’t expect this from HIM!!!
Girl 2: Chill yaar! "It" must belong to his roomies!
Girl 3: Or maybe he was just stocking it you know, for the wedding!
Girl 1: *snort* The wedding is a good two months away. It would expire by them surely!
Girl 4: These things have expiry date also?
Girl 2: I don't know but I am sure there must be!
Girl 1: You must do a rethink yaar now that you have come to know all this about him.
She: *sniff*
Girl 2: Chill yaar! What’s so earth shaking about a guy buying a "you know what" in anticipation of something happening. I think he was being very considerate!
Girl 4: Yes!!! I agree!! He doesn’t want her to get pregnant!
Girl 1 (sarcastically): You are a genius!
Girl 4: What brand was it?
She (shrieking): What?????
Girl 4: I said what brand was it?
She: #$%@^
Girl 4 (muttering to herself): What did I say!
Girl 3: hmmm give him the benefit of the doubt. He was just playing safe!
Girl 4: Playing safe? But... they haven’t done it yet no?
Everyone except “She”: LOL!!!
Girl 4: heh heh why are you all laughing?
She (angrily): Exactly what I was trying to say! He was taking me for granted *sob* Like I am a cheap slut *sniff*
Girl 2: If he thought you were a cheap slut he wouldn’t be marrying you naah? Relax! He just jumped the gun that’s all.
Girl 4: “Jumped the gun” ha ha ha!!!
She: Exactly! He thought he could make the decision for me!!! Bah!!
Girl 1: Guys!! I tell you! They are like chameleons!
Girl 4: Yep! You are right! One day red color the next day green color! Bah!!!
Everyone except “She”: ROTFL!
Girl 4: Why are you all laughing?
Girl 1 to Girl 4: Did you mean to say one day Strawberry and the other day Green Apple?! :))
Everyone: ROFL!
Girl 4: *clueless look*
Everybody…including “She” were by now rolling in their seats laughing their innards out.
Hope the ad guys who make “those” ads are reading this and target a vital section of the society that this blogger belongs to, who have no clue to a lot “things” about “that” you know! I am serious!
p.s isn’t it a trifle dangerous to be delivering bonny babies via a puny Stork? Just saying!
He: err hmm you know…now that we are well...kissing and all, I think we should go all the way...
She: mmm I don't know…
He: C’mon we are engaged and getting married next month.
She: hmmm I am not sure. I have never done it before you know!
He: Me too! But what’s the harm...we are merely preponing the inevitable heh heh
She: I am a little scared...
He: Don’t worry! I have protection.
She: Protection! Why would you keep that here?
He: Well...
She: *gasp* Did you take it for granted that I would say "Yes”!!!!
He: Hey it’s not like that. I just thought it would happen someday and...
She: So was all this an orchestration towards the grand finale on the bed????
He: No!!! Absolutely not…..
She: How could you be so cold and calculating???
He: Listen honey…
She walks off angrily!!
Yours truly and fellow single females at work couldn’t stop giggling because we did not know what else to do, but it sounded soooo funny! So we all went out and got drunk *hic* and laughed some more while "She" seethed in anger and resentment! I am going to sleepover the hangover so that when I get up I can better appreciate the humor in the situation. But what happened next at this watering hole after her "revelation" was, even more well...see for yourself.
Girl 1: OMG!! I didn’t expect this from HIM!!!
Girl 2: Chill yaar! "It" must belong to his roomies!
Girl 3: Or maybe he was just stocking it you know, for the wedding!
Girl 1: *snort* The wedding is a good two months away. It would expire by them surely!
Girl 4: These things have expiry date also?
Girl 2: I don't know but I am sure there must be!
Girl 1: You must do a rethink yaar now that you have come to know all this about him.
She: *sniff*
Girl 2: Chill yaar! What’s so earth shaking about a guy buying a "you know what" in anticipation of something happening. I think he was being very considerate!
Girl 4: Yes!!! I agree!! He doesn’t want her to get pregnant!
Girl 1 (sarcastically): You are a genius!
Girl 4: What brand was it?
She (shrieking): What?????
Girl 4: I said what brand was it?
She: #$%@^
Girl 4 (muttering to herself): What did I say!
Girl 3: hmmm give him the benefit of the doubt. He was just playing safe!
Girl 4: Playing safe? But... they haven’t done it yet no?
Everyone except “She”: LOL!!!
Girl 4: heh heh why are you all laughing?
She (angrily): Exactly what I was trying to say! He was taking me for granted *sob* Like I am a cheap slut *sniff*
Girl 2: If he thought you were a cheap slut he wouldn’t be marrying you naah? Relax! He just jumped the gun that’s all.
Girl 4: “Jumped the gun” ha ha ha!!!
She: Exactly! He thought he could make the decision for me!!! Bah!!
Girl 1: Guys!! I tell you! They are like chameleons!
Girl 4: Yep! You are right! One day red color the next day green color! Bah!!!
Everyone except “She”: ROTFL!
Girl 4: Why are you all laughing?
Girl 1 to Girl 4: Did you mean to say one day Strawberry and the other day Green Apple?! :))
Everyone: ROFL!
Girl 4: *clueless look*
Everybody…including “She” were by now rolling in their seats laughing their innards out.
Hope the ad guys who make “those” ads are reading this and target a vital section of the society that this blogger belongs to, who have no clue to a lot “things” about “that” you know! I am serious!
p.s isn’t it a trifle dangerous to be delivering bonny babies via a puny Stork? Just saying!
Friday, April 11, 2008
Brandalgia
I was reading this really interesting post by Nikhil today and I was astonished by the knowledge that there are people out there like me that collect old 'junk'! I love collecting tins and jars of consumer goods that were made years ago! My fascination with the brands of yore began when I chanced upon an old Ponds bottle in my ancestral home when I was around 15! It was a milk white ceramic bottle with the familiar leaf icon on the label.
As I beheld the bottle I could almost smell the cold cream being applied on my face by my mom or some aunt in my childhood as they got me ready for some function or outing. I held the bottle close, petrified that it may fall and break into pieces shattering my memories with it. Memories of getting ready for the countless palli perunnaals and weddings with all my aunts as they dabbed Ponds cream or Cuticura powder, depending on the type of skin and kohl lined their eyes and drew those long vertical lines as pottus on their foreheads and a dot on my cheek also known as “beauty spot” in Kerala [:p] and adorned their hair with jasmine or a rose from the garden! What a lot of noise, smells and colors and feminine bonding…and memories.
Soon I started noticing a lot of these old bottles and tins of brands that have changed so much over the years that they bear little resemblance to their old selves. Fascinated by their shapes and sizes, I started collecting these old receptacles taking permission from people who owned them and who parted willingly with them, amused at my fascination with the “junk”. I now have a box full of this stuff waiting to be put up at the new shelf in my bedroom as my mom will not have anything of it in the living room!
Recently my uncle told me of a box in the attic of our ancestral house in Kerala and I found a treasure trove of stuff like Himalaya Snow Cream bottles, those colored Vaseline jars, Hair oil bottles ( *ugh* remember those scented hair oils?), old Nivea tins, Navy brand shoe whitening cake tins, old Farex tins with the baby face and colorful bottles with no labels and a whole lot more dating back to almost 50 years! Thank god for the culture of recycling present in those times! I am sure if I comb the huge house I will find more and that is what I will do when I go home next.
You find these stuff in the most unseemly places too!! An even older Farex tin with the red and gold lettering was used to keep Ayurvedic powders wrapped in old issues of Malayala Manorama forgotten and untouched for so many years in an old wooden cupboard somewhere is the deep recesses of the old house!. A typical Kerala country house and kitchen will have many of these remnants of the past. And since both the parents homes have not been renovated for a long time due to their architectural significance, we have thankfully not lost some of these memories bottled inside those old bottles, tins and jars. If you chance upon a relic of those times when consumerism was unknown and a few brands held sway and people identified with a particular brand unlike now, don’t throw them away…keep them as a reminder of a simpler life and simpler times.
Here is a blog devoted to old magazine ads. And here's one I found on old Indian ads that show the products as they were then.
As I beheld the bottle I could almost smell the cold cream being applied on my face by my mom or some aunt in my childhood as they got me ready for some function or outing. I held the bottle close, petrified that it may fall and break into pieces shattering my memories with it. Memories of getting ready for the countless palli perunnaals and weddings with all my aunts as they dabbed Ponds cream or Cuticura powder, depending on the type of skin and kohl lined their eyes and drew those long vertical lines as pottus on their foreheads and a dot on my cheek also known as “beauty spot” in Kerala [:p] and adorned their hair with jasmine or a rose from the garden! What a lot of noise, smells and colors and feminine bonding…and memories.
Soon I started noticing a lot of these old bottles and tins of brands that have changed so much over the years that they bear little resemblance to their old selves. Fascinated by their shapes and sizes, I started collecting these old receptacles taking permission from people who owned them and who parted willingly with them, amused at my fascination with the “junk”. I now have a box full of this stuff waiting to be put up at the new shelf in my bedroom as my mom will not have anything of it in the living room!
Recently my uncle told me of a box in the attic of our ancestral house in Kerala and I found a treasure trove of stuff like Himalaya Snow Cream bottles, those colored Vaseline jars, Hair oil bottles ( *ugh* remember those scented hair oils?), old Nivea tins, Navy brand shoe whitening cake tins, old Farex tins with the baby face and colorful bottles with no labels and a whole lot more dating back to almost 50 years! Thank god for the culture of recycling present in those times! I am sure if I comb the huge house I will find more and that is what I will do when I go home next.
You find these stuff in the most unseemly places too!! An even older Farex tin with the red and gold lettering was used to keep Ayurvedic powders wrapped in old issues of Malayala Manorama forgotten and untouched for so many years in an old wooden cupboard somewhere is the deep recesses of the old house!. A typical Kerala country house and kitchen will have many of these remnants of the past. And since both the parents homes have not been renovated for a long time due to their architectural significance, we have thankfully not lost some of these memories bottled inside those old bottles, tins and jars. If you chance upon a relic of those times when consumerism was unknown and a few brands held sway and people identified with a particular brand unlike now, don’t throw them away…keep them as a reminder of a simpler life and simpler times.
Here is a blog devoted to old magazine ads. And here's one I found on old Indian ads that show the products as they were then.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
The absent sense of belonging!
My first ever post on attrition is here. It was prompted by the steady number of people who landed up at my cubicle to say “Today is my last day! I have come to say bye!” From the time I started college holiday Internships, I was struck at the number of people per month who dropped by my cubicle to say goodbye. ‘Here today gone tomorrow’ was the norm of the day in most IT companies till sometime back. Today I work in the marketing wing of my company and far away from the development teams and hence do not know how things are in the attrition scene!
Sometimes the departees would tell us a day or two in advance about their departure. The subsequent discussions revealed that the reason for leaving was almost always dissatisfaction with their Manager. A small percentage left for better salaries because they were refused the hike the company eventually paid the new incumbent who filled the post of the departee. What an irony! The saying that “employees leave managers and not organizations” is so true and I have seen it happening myself. It happened to me too in my first job. The manager I left was later fired for the attrition levels in his team, but not before many valuable people had left their jobs.
What strikes me most about our employment scene is that people do not identify with the company they work in. All they are bothered about is their post, perks and package! I would put the blame squarely on some of the managers and top management for this because they themselves have no loyalties to the company they work in. Their lackadaisical attitude towards retaining talent and their half hearted attempts at the same are usually due to their job obligations. And due to this attitude they make no effort to respect or retain the talents under them.
What I have seen from my experience of the IT industry is that we Indians are not mature enough to work in an environment that is meant for professional people back in the US. We are still to attain the professionalism that most Americans display and bring our personal likes, dislikes and moods and prejudices to the work place. What we need to function effectively is managers and top management folks who are responsible professionals themselves and bring such values to the work place. This can be ensured by making the management and managers responsible for attrition. This will force them to create a conducive and fair working environment for their employees and hence create a sense of belonging towards the organization. Otherwise modifying HR rules and regulations more suited to the way we think is the only way out now.
Top management of most companies is also lacking in professionalism and work more for their career advancement than organizational development. It is no wonder that no one has a sense of belonging to the company and most companies are now functioning with a floating population of employees!! Ability is rarely given credence and a new breed of people who know the corporate loopholes, are the winners in the corporate race.
The situation is a lose lose one. What foreign companies need to do right now is train the people at the helm first and sensitize them to the fact that their subordinates are equally if not more important than them to the organization. This point has to be driven into them and they should be held responsible and answerable for every employee that leaves the organization! This will make them sit up and get their act together!
The company where I work has a rule that the Managers word is the last word. This has led to some people in Managerial position to abuse their power and finger whoever they want in their team. Which has led to good talents being swallowed up by the competitions after the mandatory cooling period! In the US, the very same manager would have been evaluated and promoted not only on his contributions to the company but also his people skills and man management and employee retention records. But here in India these practices are just on paper!
Shifting businesses to India may be cost effective but it can be made more cost effective by ensuring that employees stay in the company for longer periods and hence reduce the burden on the company on hiring and training newcomers. If the US majors spruce up their act in India, India would become much more cost effective than it is now!
This is my 200th post here ! Right now feeling a little senti because my little baby that completed two years on March 5th is all grown up now *sniff*
Sometimes the departees would tell us a day or two in advance about their departure. The subsequent discussions revealed that the reason for leaving was almost always dissatisfaction with their Manager. A small percentage left for better salaries because they were refused the hike the company eventually paid the new incumbent who filled the post of the departee. What an irony! The saying that “employees leave managers and not organizations” is so true and I have seen it happening myself. It happened to me too in my first job. The manager I left was later fired for the attrition levels in his team, but not before many valuable people had left their jobs.
What strikes me most about our employment scene is that people do not identify with the company they work in. All they are bothered about is their post, perks and package! I would put the blame squarely on some of the managers and top management for this because they themselves have no loyalties to the company they work in. Their lackadaisical attitude towards retaining talent and their half hearted attempts at the same are usually due to their job obligations. And due to this attitude they make no effort to respect or retain the talents under them.
What I have seen from my experience of the IT industry is that we Indians are not mature enough to work in an environment that is meant for professional people back in the US. We are still to attain the professionalism that most Americans display and bring our personal likes, dislikes and moods and prejudices to the work place. What we need to function effectively is managers and top management folks who are responsible professionals themselves and bring such values to the work place. This can be ensured by making the management and managers responsible for attrition. This will force them to create a conducive and fair working environment for their employees and hence create a sense of belonging towards the organization. Otherwise modifying HR rules and regulations more suited to the way we think is the only way out now.
Top management of most companies is also lacking in professionalism and work more for their career advancement than organizational development. It is no wonder that no one has a sense of belonging to the company and most companies are now functioning with a floating population of employees!! Ability is rarely given credence and a new breed of people who know the corporate loopholes, are the winners in the corporate race.
The situation is a lose lose one. What foreign companies need to do right now is train the people at the helm first and sensitize them to the fact that their subordinates are equally if not more important than them to the organization. This point has to be driven into them and they should be held responsible and answerable for every employee that leaves the organization! This will make them sit up and get their act together!
The company where I work has a rule that the Managers word is the last word. This has led to some people in Managerial position to abuse their power and finger whoever they want in their team. Which has led to good talents being swallowed up by the competitions after the mandatory cooling period! In the US, the very same manager would have been evaluated and promoted not only on his contributions to the company but also his people skills and man management and employee retention records. But here in India these practices are just on paper!
Shifting businesses to India may be cost effective but it can be made more cost effective by ensuring that employees stay in the company for longer periods and hence reduce the burden on the company on hiring and training newcomers. If the US majors spruce up their act in India, India would become much more cost effective than it is now!
This is my 200th post here ! Right now feeling a little senti because my little baby that completed two years on March 5th is all grown up now *sniff*
Thursday, April 03, 2008
New age get togethers!
I bumped into a couple of friends the other day. We haven’t seen each other in almost three years. Both were my seniors in college. It was an emotional reunion.
M: You haven’t changed a bit!
B: Neither have you. Vaise ki vaise moti hai!
M: And Anju looks vaise ki vaise pathli he he
B: You have become fairer!
Me: Naah! I am just the same, except none of that tomfoolery around the sports field.
M: Those were the days! Remember we dented the sisters Sumo?
Me: The dents still there with more dents to keep it company now.
B: ha ha…well I have to go now. Why don't we get together on Friday!
M: Sounds great! Hope my Internet doesn’t give problem and the webcam works as well as it is doing today!
Me: Amen!
B: Amen!
And we log off promising to meet again virtually from Bangalore, Mumbai and Tempe. Not bad I say....something is better than nothing.
( Internet blocked in office? Here's why! Hilarious!!)
M: You haven’t changed a bit!
B: Neither have you. Vaise ki vaise moti hai!
M: And Anju looks vaise ki vaise pathli he he
B: You have become fairer!
Me: Naah! I am just the same, except none of that tomfoolery around the sports field.
M: Those were the days! Remember we dented the sisters Sumo?
Me: The dents still there with more dents to keep it company now.
B: ha ha…well I have to go now. Why don't we get together on Friday!
M: Sounds great! Hope my Internet doesn’t give problem and the webcam works as well as it is doing today!
Me: Amen!
B: Amen!
And we log off promising to meet again virtually from Bangalore, Mumbai and Tempe. Not bad I say....something is better than nothing.
( Internet blocked in office? Here's why! Hilarious!!)
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Trivial trivias
These are few uninteresting things about me that I have been blackmailed err tagged into writing by Mind Curry. So if you feel you have wasted your time here then kindly proceed to Miss Scissors house and put in a word and a wad of cash and she will take care of him rather creatively!! (Serves him right too for tagging my usual victims err I mean taggees hummpph!)
So here we go....
1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER:
I am a menace to the movie industry because I watch too many movies on DVD :p But the last movie I saw in a theater was “Taare Zameen Par"
2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?
The Appeal, by John Grisham
3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
Scrabble and Pictionary! Pictionary being my fav.
4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Reader's Digest, National Geographic, Time, Savvy, Femina... (all these are kept at our office Gym so I get them free)
5. FAVORITE SMELLS?
The smell of Earth after the first rain. The fragrance of Jasmine flowers and Rajnigandha. The way babies smell and many more….
6. FAVORITE SOUND?
Birds chirping in the trees...sounds of water flowing and waterfalls... and the sounds of the forest.
7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
When I see poor kids and when I see people stricken with terminable diseases.
8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?
Is it Friday yet?
9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?
Kanti Sweets at St Patricks Complex on Brigade Road.
10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?
Natasha...but I will be magnanimous and let her Dad also have a “small” say in the matter :p (Do I hear someone say "Divorce court?)
11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D...?
…scratch my head and wonder what I would do with it. I am not used to the lifestyle of the rich and famous.
12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST?
I am a Bengalurean duh! We are genetically reengineered to drive fast and recklessly on non existent roads.
13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
Yep!!! Two very stuffed animals. Stuffed on rice, mince and veggies and anything else they get under the table from me and bro. I never got into the habit of sleeping with stuffed toys. My only aim in life as a kid was to sleep in my parent’s bed.
14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?
I am plagiarizing MC’s reply here "Cool till it gets scary."
15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
I don’t have a car as I beg, borrow and steal from the other people in the house. But the first car I drove was a Maruti Van.
16. FAVORITE DRINK?
Water followed by Fruit Juices and Tea made by me.
17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD
..... work for Wildlife conservation.
18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
Yes. I love Broccoli!
19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
Brown, to match my eyes.
20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.
Too many to mention but the places where I have stayed a decent amount of time is Pala, Changanassery and Bangalore.
21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Football(ers)
22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.
Genuineness!
23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
If I put my hand under the bed, I will get a joyful lick from one of the doggies who sleep there sometimes, chumma just like that when they get bored of occupying my bed
24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
Yes!!!
25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL?
Morning person.
26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Who cares? Any which way you can!! I luvvvv eggs!!!!
27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?
Hill stations, parents homes in Kerala, my room, the hammock in my back yard, the swing on the giant tree in front of my house...
28. FAVORITE PIE?
Hot Apple Pie with Vanilla Ice cream!
29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Vanillas with sauces like Strawberry, Mango, Raspberry but no chocolate please. I don’t like anything in chocolate flavor nor do I like Chocolates!
30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST? Deepti!
And this tag goes to…
Alexis
Neena
JJ
Deepti
So here we go....
1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER:
I am a menace to the movie industry because I watch too many movies on DVD :p But the last movie I saw in a theater was “Taare Zameen Par"
2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?
The Appeal, by John Grisham
3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
Scrabble and Pictionary! Pictionary being my fav.
4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Reader's Digest, National Geographic, Time, Savvy, Femina... (all these are kept at our office Gym so I get them free)
5. FAVORITE SMELLS?
The smell of Earth after the first rain. The fragrance of Jasmine flowers and Rajnigandha. The way babies smell and many more….
6. FAVORITE SOUND?
Birds chirping in the trees...sounds of water flowing and waterfalls... and the sounds of the forest.
7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
When I see poor kids and when I see people stricken with terminable diseases.
8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?
Is it Friday yet?
9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?
Kanti Sweets at St Patricks Complex on Brigade Road.
10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?
Natasha...but I will be magnanimous and let her Dad also have a “small” say in the matter :p (Do I hear someone say "Divorce court?)
11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D...?
…scratch my head and wonder what I would do with it. I am not used to the lifestyle of the rich and famous.
12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST?
I am a Bengalurean duh! We are genetically reengineered to drive fast and recklessly on non existent roads.
13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
Yep!!! Two very stuffed animals. Stuffed on rice, mince and veggies and anything else they get under the table from me and bro. I never got into the habit of sleeping with stuffed toys. My only aim in life as a kid was to sleep in my parent’s bed.
14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?
I am plagiarizing MC’s reply here "Cool till it gets scary."
15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
I don’t have a car as I beg, borrow and steal from the other people in the house. But the first car I drove was a Maruti Van.
16. FAVORITE DRINK?
Water followed by Fruit Juices and Tea made by me.
17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD
..... work for Wildlife conservation.
18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
Yes. I love Broccoli!
19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
Brown, to match my eyes.
20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.
Too many to mention but the places where I have stayed a decent amount of time is Pala, Changanassery and Bangalore.
21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Football(ers)
22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.
Genuineness!
23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
If I put my hand under the bed, I will get a joyful lick from one of the doggies who sleep there sometimes, chumma just like that when they get bored of occupying my bed
24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
Yes!!!
25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL?
Morning person.
26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Who cares? Any which way you can!! I luvvvv eggs!!!!
27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?
Hill stations, parents homes in Kerala, my room, the hammock in my back yard, the swing on the giant tree in front of my house...
28. FAVORITE PIE?
Hot Apple Pie with Vanilla Ice cream!
29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Vanillas with sauces like Strawberry, Mango, Raspberry but no chocolate please. I don’t like anything in chocolate flavor nor do I like Chocolates!
30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST? Deepti!
And this tag goes to…
Alexis
Neena
JJ
Deepti
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