Another year gone...

And the end of another year ! Sometimes I stop and stare at Life cruising along, least bothered about if I am able to keep pace. The race is on with a mob of rats and am doubtlessly one, racing, sometimes not knowing where. Wish to stop and take a road, not wandered on by my straying footsteps. But then, they are not too sturdy, my feet I mean. I get bored easily and my volatile mind wants to try too many things. Anyways, I am just sitting here, thinking about the emotional ride I was on, through out 2007. By the end of it, I gasp at the number of mistakes I had done, so much to learn from and the least happening, so much to do and more importantly so much not to do.

The year has been kind, overall. It’s like life taking a more meaningful dimension altogether with newer relationships every year. Family and friends, some new, some gold and old, aren’t they the sole reason for the beauty of waking up to face another day with a smile? Life is void, sans love, yea, with years,I realize it is. Imagine being part of a crowd and not knowing a soul !That cannot be life! All my insane philosophies apart, I feel so thankful for having people to love and be loved beyond conditions or limitations. So grateful for keeping my loved ones out of all the horrific mishaps and accidents and bomb blasts, over the year. It spooks the hell out of me to question or imagine how guaranteed safety could be. My friend says, don’t question, don’t imagine, just thank god we are doing fine today. That’s probably the way of being happy.

Adding to the wish list this year would be a strong will to actually do things that bring in joy and meaning and purpose to life and not just sit and stare and do the talking only to the computer. When I do not want to reach any place the train is going to, why would I just have to be in it ? I wanna step out and make my own road, taking for granted I will still have the money to pay my bills.

I am learning to let go of some of those memories, which are sometimes too intense, in a nice or not-so-nice way. I wish I could be more forgiving towards life as life has been to my mistakes. Perhaps I am growing. I can feel the slow transformation of turning into a young woman from a careless girl. I wanna fill in more care, strength, peace, hope and love to my soul, letting life add grace to my age.

At the end of it, Thank you and good bye to another fantastic year, you made me a bit wiser. Scooping up some hope, I wish the year gets so wonderful and adventurous and beautiful by all means, bringing the world to be at peace with itself.

I wish every one more of the best gifts of life, this year and every year to come.

Taare Zameen Par

Did I just sign off with the best movies of the year after watching Chak De and Jab We Met ?Yes I did and looks like I was far too much in haste while doing so or that was just a superstition, sarcastically drawing a line on Indian Cinema. But I had to hold my breath and gasp in adoration because I just saw one of the most wonderful movies I have ever seen !!! Taare Zameen Par is something every one, in a child's life MUST see. The little nuances that mould a child, the tool a teacher has in making a great human being, the most sensitive and emotional bondings a kid develops with his family and a lot more that goes into the wonderful experience of growing up, the movie has captured it all in a way that must be seen to feel. A gem and a clear product of the genius in Aamir Khan, Taare Zameen Par has proved good cinema does not really require to follow a conventional formula, it just needs to reach the heart of a simple viewer, by way of a fantastic story, life takes us through.

College, A Memoir...

I was in a scurry sorting out the books I read this year and stumbled over the college slam book, memories and friendships, signed and closed. Four years since it was last touched, yes, time hasn’t really permitted me to re-read those notes from the best years life could offer.

I lay on the couch, swirling a couple of strands of my curly hair and feel this trwaing-trwaing roll of white faded curls in a plain backdrop, taking me through these intense moments of college years; the best life has given me thus far.


The beautiful me - Haven’t you had this sudden transformation of getting conscious and more chilled out about your looks, as you enter college? I did, and I think it’s natural with all ‘cause until school was over, we were so used to projecting ourselves like nerds, you know, plaited hair, uniform, those boring black leather shoes, bags weighing our spines down all the time and all that. Nothing mattered more than marks those days, nothing at all. Thank god, I was finally rid of being an ugly betty. It was thrillingly fun to take time in the mornings to dress up and leave hair loose and wear all sorts of colored fabrics and head to college with a bag which carried more of CDs and fun books to exchange. This is the phase that actually made me feel the girl in me.


The first love – Well, they say, no matter how much life thrusts you with, the memories of a romance, which worked or did not will linger on for a lifetime. And I for obvious reasons, was not surprised when thoughts of those moments bubbled up, triggering goose bumps and a sense of bliss only love can bring. Waiting for each other in the class, exchanging boxes of chocolates, turning with a reason to talk to a friend but stealing looks, chit chatting on the phone till dawn and not being able to wait to get to college to catch up again, staying in the classrooms after college hours with a friend to guard the entrance, experiencing the beginning of what romance is, the special meetings arranged over annual and symposium days, the anxiety over a mysterious future, the last day of signing up autographs and bidding goodbyes, promising love for a life time and all the mix of joy and thrill and fear and strength and loneliness and longings, life can bring when you know you are in love, I don’t know if there is any other experience in life which takes you through a steep and exciting ride of emotions as much as love does. It’s been 8 years since I first had this guilty instinct warning me that I was falling in love. I didn’t want to, but eventually I did like every one else. The memory is still so very precious.


Friends - You finally learn to sit back, put an arm over your friend’s and let go of anything that used to scare you till the end of school - books, teachers, classes, labs, assignments, marks ,you just forget them all and smile. Those lunch hours, when we would sit on the fence, laughing over the silliest things in the world, forgetting the test assigned for the later half of the day ; the lost stares we would give each other while giving a test, I remember scribbling down the recipe of Vanilla Cake so studiously for an Electronics and Design test, simply to save the “you-people-are-hopeless” kind of look from my teacher ,which made my best friend burn in despair ‘cause she thought I was actually giving in the answers ; the nick names we used to carol around for almost every one; ganging up to spend some sleepless nights on the eve of exams, I remember calling up pals like at about 2 or 3 in the night, to discuss subjects; sighing out the relief on clearing semesters, partying over any and every reason with the little pocket money dad used to spare, oh gosh, why did College have to get over ?

Movie Reviews for the week.

Jab We Met

I really had this smile on through out the movie. Amidst all the movies that have come out recently on confused and confusing boy-girl relationships, Jab We Met was like licking a melting cone ice cream. Simple and sleek, romantic and beautiful. Though with the obvious shadows of DDLJ in some parts, Jab we Met is the best one I could catch in 2007, absolutely. And yea, I never thought I would love Kareena in a movie until this one.

13 going on 30.

Jennifer Garner doesn’t look juvenile enough to me to do romantic comedies. But 13 going on 30 was the pick for her. It’s completely imaginary. I mean, having a 13th birthday someday and the next morning you find yourself to be a 30 year old and successful and thriving and rocking??? Ridiculous isn’t it ? But that’s what she goes through and I liked the adventure. A pick for one of those Saturday evenings when you don’t really feel like going out.

Ice Princess

A fantastic theme! Do what you really want to do with life. But the whole story as such did not really keep me to it, probably because they couldn’t add more fun to the seriousness of the theme. And the characters, I felt lacked a little strength, especially Casy’s (the female protagonist’s) coach. And yea, the story is by Meg Cabot? You know the author of the Princess Diaries series. Well, perhaps not all books look good when translated into movies, I say.

The Shringaram about Chennai.

People, people every where, not a soul to stop around; that’s Chennai in a phrase to me. Every time I visit this place, the space has crunched further and people have expanded mercilessly beyond what the city can hold. Time seems to be a friend, long forgotten and nothing seems to stop to at least sigh. I don’t really care if you head up against me in the road as long as you don’t damage my car. I have no reason to tell you have been driving like mad because everybody does. People and more people, I was one among them and I had to like every 5 minutes, push myself a little harder to keep with the pace; when I had to place order for my food, when I had to ask the cab driver if he would take me to a place, when I was using the ATM or when I was paying my bill, there is a natural fast belt that keeps life on the move in here. Chennai, I would say, is a people’s city, the growth, the uplift in life style, the ever increasing space-constraint and all the facts that make the city as wonderful as it is, well, I can only think of one reason, people and more people.

It’s a cool December week, slowly creeping over the weekend and thankfully the climate plays a friendly host. I do not know the city. I don’t think I would ever, but I pretend to do so, conveniently when I speak to people and I believe it is to safe guard the lie that I knew the city and you couldn’t cheat. “This is not my kinda place, ma” I heard myself tell amma when she was talking about how quick the returns would be if you invested in Chennai’s real estate. When I told her I would rather invest in a place like Coimbatore, I saw her sigh and I think she told appa that I was hopeless in building money. Yea, that I am, I always knew that.

But strangely and almost always, I feel at home when I stray around the streets in Chennai. And coincidentally I have rarely had to put up with the city’s summer, prompting me to count another reason to like or dislike the place. I think I like it, I really do, but not in comparison with the other cities I have lived in. I expect more space and a relaxed pace to live life. I wouldn’t want to spend more time traveling than I would in the actual destination. I wouldn’t mind if it was crowded. But I need to have that time to stop and talk to a person, if in need. I don’t know, Bangalore is nothing short of crowded either. And the traffic is crazier because there is lesser space. People sprint for a hide-out which gets more crowded on weekends than how an office would be on a week day. I still have a never-ending crush for the place.

There is something new Chennai has in store for my each visit. The new mall Citi Center resembled Forum to me but surprisingly less crowded. I think I feel nostalgic about Spencers every time I visit and hence would choose to say Spencers remains the hottest spot to hang out despite getting a little older and withered. After hanging around the multiplex-and-branded-stored-malls for a day, it was and it has always been excitingly convincing and tiring at the same time to bargain and do street shopping through Pondy bazaar. After all, what would a trip to Chennai mean sans buying loads of goodies.

After a couple of days of romancing with the Singara Chennai, it was time to pack off and leave. On my way back from the city, my cabbie wants to know if I belonged to the place. I smile and give him a No. We were driving through Sterling road, Nungambakkam and the lights and the hoardings were brilliant.
“Can we reach in one hour ?”, amma asks him looking at the blocked traffic. He politely says, ‘I will try ma’ and the next half an hour he took us through the shortest but bumpiest routes possible, or at least we believed, to avoid the wait at signals so we get to board the flight in time. We smile at him thankfully after paying and he asks “inime eppo varuveenga?” (When will you come again)”.
“Varuvom, seekrama”, Appa replies (We will, soon ), signing ourselves out of the city.

Yet again, I get convinced by the truth that this is the thing that brings life to the popularly favorite Chennai, its people.

Top 10 reasons why I am not blogging much !

1. Sitting jobless at office. This is not intriguing ‘coz when I really find time to do things I love, I don’t end up actually doing them. I can do things only when I make time out of the crazy schedules.

2. Reading, I have been into this 1-800-where-r-u series by Meg Cabot at office (now that I am actually jobless at office, there’s nothing wrong keeping company to a book, you see).

3.I find my fellow bloggers have become a wee bit sluggish too . I think I am losing the move-on spirit. Now, that’s not an excuse, I know.

4.Life seeming to have slowed down a bit, there isn’t much inspiring me to write about. May be I have learnt to love the I-don’t-have-time-to-breathe days. I could draw inspiration from my own crazy self.

5.I can’t stop mulling over why don’t I just quit this profession of writing software.

6.It’s discouraging when you know you just can’t and you can’t really get over it especially when you have all the time in the world to think about it.

7.My machine crashed yesterday and I had to let go of some of my important e-mails, let alone my favorite music and pictures.

8.Someone just asked me if my cat died. And I was like ‘WHAT?’. He didn’t bother to explain, but I guess I look like sulking over my cat’s death, but HELLO, I don’t even HAVE a cat !!! (Finger to self- That’s not a reason for not blogging).

9.I think I have really loved Enrique’s Insomniac. I have been hanging over it for the last one week, thanks again to no job at office.

10.I think I have come to the most factual part of it all. It’s insane, it’s dreadful, it can win your boss’s hatred for you. It’s called laziness and it has been my best friend for the last one whole week.

The last few days and my life !

Call it the influence of Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows but that's how I felt like naming the post. Yes, finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, finally and it made a good read. After a lingering stretch of nonstop hunt and action and threat and a few very quick and unexplained deaths and some violence here and there, it was all well in the end and that was quite relieving. The author after a dreary 5th and an ok-to-read 6th series has patched up in the final book with a number of surprises and twists .The last chapter, after the strenuous read, was the funniest!!

Sunk in for an evening movie on DVD, after a long time, yesterday and it left me and my sis-in-law utterly bewildered on how can the director think of such a logic-less story. We had a good laugh, though, over the obviously stupid way the entire story progressed. I am talking about the recently much-expected-but-bombed (oh no, not Sivaji) movie Satham Podadhey.

There’s this new pastry shop out here in Trivandrum, called Square One Home made talents and this is slowly becoming my weekend hide out. You wouldn’t find too many variety eateries in this city so I don’t blame the sweet-tootheres to find it a welcome place despite the very heavy rate they price the pastries at. It manages to graciously burn my wallet with a profound hole. I don’t know, they have got this limited but scrumptious collection of some home made pastries and treats and I like it somehow. The waffle with maple syrup (I had to repeat it to myself studiously quite a few times so I could ask for it confidently the second time) is really amazing. For those who wonder at the word like I did for the first time, waffle is a wafer-like bar (harder and sweeter than wafer), baked and consumed hot and maple is a leaf that grows in abundance in the US, especially during fall.


And yea, they banned You-Tube too at office, after Orkut. Not too many days, I think, before they come up saying, sorry but we have found too many obscene usage of yahoo and gmail and google.

But anyways, that’s about it.

Whoever said the internet has made the world smaller…

Wait a minute, the statement could be proved wrong, thanks to the customer care given by the Indian Airlines and Indian Railways.

Just assume you are left with no choice but to treat yourself with some annoyingly careless customer care, wouldn’t you expect the least of regard for your time and money?

Had to factually chase both the help desks, undoubtedly and unsystematically managed by the government, to get after all one ticket cancelled from my itinerary.

Indian railways online helpdesk : Thanks for contacting IRTC customer care, please press…blah blah…or 9 to speak to the customer care executive…
It’s ringing. I am ready with all my transaction Ids and other details I expected them to ask for , it’s still ringing, I assume the executive is busy on another call, it has been ringing for 25 seconds, I frown, The ringing tone gets transformed to a DDLJ title song, I say ‘nice, they can keep the callers entertained’, the music plays for about 10 seconds and whorls back to the normal tring-tring; I get bored; Wow, I can hear a voice, but wait, it says ‘ we appreciate your time, our executive will be with you soon’, I wait patiently; tring-tring; ‘Sorry your wait has exceeded the limit’ ; they throw me out of the call; I flip my mouth open, aghast; dial again and the same thing follows through my Call2; I don’t give up; Trial 3; no luck; Trial 4; still no luck; Trial 5 Luck worsens; call gets disconnected before connecting to the customer executive; I go determinedly vengeful; dial up the help desk to complain; I am in queue again, undoubtedly people are so natural to have complaints with the way things have been progressing; I wait; call disconnected – Total number of calls 6 ; Total time wasted – 38 minutes ; I silently curse the government and decide to try out Indian airlines cause I had to cancel an air ticket as well.

This is relieving. I immediately get connected !

Me: Hello, This is Sandhya, Could you please cancel one of the e-tickets …

Beep beep beep

Me: Hello, This is Sandhya, Could you please cancel one of the e-tickets that I had booked for the 6th of Dec …

He: Sure, ma’am, please give me your PNR number
Me: (Glad at him responding), it’s R***

Beep beep beep

Me: Hello, This is Sandhya, Could you please cancel one of the e-tickets that I had booked for the 6th of Dec
She: Pls give me the PNR no: ma’am
Me: it’s..

Beep beep beep

Me: Hello, This is Sandhya, Could you please cancel one of the e-tickets that I had booked for the 6th of Dec.
I was trying to speak to the customer care executive for about 3-4 times now and the call was getting disconnected.
She: I am sorry ma’am, Pls give me the PNR no:
Me: Its R*****

She: Thank you. Your ticket cannot be cancelled online.

Me: (Fury slowly igniting through my veins): I can book the tickets online but can’t cancel?

She: No ma’am , you can’t.

Me: What do I do now ?

She: You have to raise a request and mail the helpdesk. They will send you an application form. You have to fill….

Me: (now gravely desperate for a positive answer). Sorry, That might take time. Could I go to the city office and do the cancellation myself?

She: The city office will do only the postponement of the tickets ma’am.

Me: Is there no other option of getting my tickets canceled ?

She: No ma’am

Me: (confidently irritated): Alright, can I have the mail id?

She: Sure ma’am, it’s….
Beep beep beep


..........When will this change?

Tagged again !

Thanks to Santosh for saving the puzzlement on what to post today !

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night?
Quite a few, dad, my sister in law, Aravind’s granny.

2. What were you doing at 0800?
Taking a shower.

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Working !!! .

4. What happened to you in 2006?
So many things…got married, moved in to a new city, broke my arm…

5. What was the last thing you said out loud?
ohh..anything…I say IS loud…I think I said ‘Bye ‘.

6. How many beverages did you have today?
One.

7. What color is your hairbrush?
Pink

8. What was the last thing you paid for?
Marker pen.

9. Where were you last night?
Airport .

10. What color is your front door?
Coffee Brown.

11. Where do you keep your change?
In my bag, in a box in my showcase, in the car, which ever I access frequently.

12. What’s the weather like today?
Outside, it’s kinda ok, inside , I am feeling blue

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor?
I prefer a combo of butterscotch n chocolate.

14. What excites you?
Almost everything.

15. Do you want to cut your hair?
Nope.

16. Are you over the age of 25?
Yes.

17. Do you talk a lot?
Yes, but only to people I am really close with.

18. Do you watch the O.C.?
huh ?

19. Do you know anyone named Steven?
Nope.

20. Do you make up your own words?
Yes, sometimes..

21. Are you a jealous person?
Nope.

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’.
Anju.

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’.
Kumaresen.

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list?
Aravind’s dad.

25. What does the last text message you received say?
That my bank account is running low.

26. Do you chew on your straw?
oohh, I hate that.

27. Do you have curly hair?
Yes.

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to?
back home from work.

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life?
None !

30. What was the last thing you ate?
Chicken Noodles.

31. Will you get married in the future?
huh ? of course, not.

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks?
haven’t seen any in the last month.

33. Is there anyone you like right now?
anyone ?? I like about hundreds of people.

34. When was the last time you did the dishes?
may be a month back when my maid was away.

35. Are you currently depressed?
not exactly depressed, but a little , hmmm..., should I say lonely ?

36. Did you cry today?
Nope.

37. Why did you answer and post this?
Reason1 : I wanted to update my blog
Reason2: I usually oblige to invitations.
Reason3 : I badly needed a break from the 4-hour long analysis I had been through.

38. Tag few people who would do this survey.
I think Scribbler hasn’t taken it. So am choosing her. !

She thinks I am crazy ! Damn !!!!!

Doesn’t it usually claim the heights of sanity you are bestowed with when you deal with people who think you are actually nuts? Have I made it sound complicated? It IS, I know. And it’s maddening to concede that my sanity has been consumed by a person who cooks for me and takes care of my house. I have, with all due respect to my own conscience and her job, tried to make this lady understand that she works for me, not the other way round. But today, I helplessly crossed the threshold when she refused to listen to what I was trying to say for the 100th time. I mean every time there is something I need to tell her to do, she has this horrific body pain (which I later genuinely translated to ‘laziness’), claiming she had just done the work the previous day and starts making faces that throw questions on me like why am I talking utter nonsense so repeatedly with love. She tempts me so much to politely show her the way out, so many a time, but considering the fact that it’s annoyingly difficult to find a new maid , I know I will dig my own grave if I ask her to just leave. But today, after she started nagging non-stop for me using up some of the usually-not-used dishes, I was almost in tears, saying, “but why not..; but of course..the dishes are mine, the kitchen is mine, the house is mine…but her strong sadistic high-pitched voice killed mine. Those who complain I talk loud would be surprised, but it’s true and I contentedly decided to tell her “ma’am, your service has been terminated”. She will go by the end of the month (sticking to the monetary agreements), but I am sure she will fight her best unto death to eat up the remaining crumbs of my sanity till then.
Aaargh…for maids !!!

Let there be light to guide us to joy.

I am on the splurge of blowing out my money on welcoming the brightest festival of the year. I am kind of getting lost in bewilderment at the inability to choose cause of the sea-like clothes in any textile shop or while crazily noting down the dessert-recipes to experiment, the season for sure lights up the festive spirit in all its might and light.

Diwali is celebrated, in honor of the day Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura, although in the north, the reason is essentially the return of king Rama to Ayodhya after his endeavor with the punishing woods. Whatever the reason, the true quintessence of the festival in all means is the reinstatement of the fact that the Good wins over the Evil, no matter how feeble the good might seem. (Does Rama seem strong enough to win over a ten-headed Ravana?; but he did and books know how.)

May this Diwali bring in peace and light and hope and love to the world!
Happy Diwali !!!!!

around the corner..

‘So, what’s the program for Diwali ? ‘; the question of the season. With all the hype and shopping ads built around this occasion, my heart has become only stronger and matured to accept the fact that I am going to be working for Diwali. My leave balance has hit such a level that I cannot dare ask for it. Sigh. If you planned to flick another off on Friday, clubbing with Diwali, you got it all wrong babe, the management knew exactly what you were up to and they said, for the goodness of a long weekend, let’s work on Diwali and save the celebration for Friday. There was this huge clean-up mission I have started to work on cause they say, goddess Lakshmi visits your house on Diwali. Well, I didn’t want her to take back her blessings seeing the state my study room was in, so I rather got into the mood to please her, cleaning up the muck myself. It would be fun to back home and celebrate with the whole family. New clothes and sweets and crackers; ohh, the ones with more lights and colors and less sound and smoke I mean. Why smoke up the city with loud bombs when the terrorists are already celebrating Diwali most time of the year. And yea, I am reading Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows(yes, finally) , saving the last few chapters to be read on the eve of Diwali, so the celebration this year would be for the victory of Harry over Voldemort, at least for me. Only joking to keep me forgetful of the fact that I am going to be hitting my key board hard when the whole world would be having fun. Mercy Lord!!

What's wrong ?

What’s so wrong about dropping Dravid for a couple of matches against Pakistan? As far as my memory swirls, there has always been drop and pick-up-later panoramas with every Indian cricketer. This is not even close to being a drop out. The team is announced just for the first two one-dayers and they said Dravid was simply rested. So why so much hype around the news? Guys in the media, please chill down. It’s quite irksome to flick through a handful of news channels talking about the same thing over and over again like it is the gravest thing ever happened ! Does Doordarshan telecast news yet? I’ll have to ask my cable operator to broadcast DD with a wee bit of more deligence. I wish to go back to the good old days. Or does he already ? I never bothered to stop over. Sigh.

A Love that was arranged - Concludes.

They talked about it again and again and finally decided to stop slogging over the discussion that found no solution.

They left the place when it was almost three hours, sitting there, and as they sauntered slowly, both of them were looking away from each other.

Anju’s mind was on a rove, that night , thinking whether she was taking the right step.
The discussion had grown to be a debate and eventually a cause of worry to both of them. They had spent hours talking on the phone. They had gone out, shopped and dined together and felt good about it all.

But this seemed to define and set limits for their future.

‘May be Ram cannot compromise. May be I am being too adamant to adjust Am I?. May be… May be we both cannot get along well. May be, arranged marriages always have opposite priorities. ’ It was an endless list of maybe’s that tormented Anju the whole night. And she was intrigued by the fact that she was taking the subject a lot more seriously than she would have otherwise and she had to put herself one final question , was she in Love with him ?
‘Damn, No. What the hell. I hate men and I don’t want to get married and I am not compromising on my career . My job means the most to me.’ She concluded and fell asleep, whilst the dawn cracked.

“Papa, I want to talk to you”. Anju said in a mushy voice, the next morning.

Anju’s father looked at her intriguingly.

“Papa, I want to quit my job. “

There was a silence and she was embarrassed by it.

“What are you saying baby. I know how much that means to you”.

“Papa, I hate to leave it , but …”

Anju’s mother walked in, looking at her grimly

“I want to travel with Ram. He would be away on work most of the year and I think it’ll be a dire thing to lead a lonely life, after marriage”.

There was silence again and Anju desperately wanted it to be shattered as she was astonished by her own words and the smile on her parent’s face.

“You don’t need to, dear”. Anju’s mother helped her break the stillness.

“Ram had called up in the morning and he told us he has decided to switch his workplace that would keep him here for at least a couple of years. He said, he does not want to be flying around the world, while you are here .”

Anju could not deem what she was hearing. Her eyes were wide open and she wore a surprised smile.
“Anju dear, we are proud to see you both ready to compromise for each other.” Her father patted her.

Anju ran to give Ram a call.

“Hello, Ram here”, came the answer.

“You changed your mind ! “ , Anju’s voice was still mushy.

She could not wait for an answer but Ram kept mum.

“I did not want this relationship to be tested too much”. He said, finally.

“Neither did I, But you said you wanted to go”.

“That was until the moment, I fell in Love with you “ , came the reply.

A Love that was arranged - Part 2

She worked for a school, with the administrative department. She loved kids and loved her job. And she was so happy to spend the evenings either shopping with her mother or chilling out with her college buddies. She felt coerced at the thought of being pulled away from the life she was too acquainted with and more threatened at the thought of spending the rest of her life with a stranger.

And as she drove, she sighed at the fact that the day had finally come, when her parents would want her to get married and have another life. She thought about her college days. She had been a freak, back then. There were always some conceptions on marriage, on her mind. She had never been in love. Sometimes she wondered if she would fall in love and then get married. But she had never met a guy, she thought she admired. Anju had a few good friends, a couple of them boys. But they were just friends and the friendship to her was too noble that she never in the wildest hallucinations saw any of them as her boyfriend. A smile surged over her lips as she remembered two other guys who had proposed to her in college and the way she had just whisked both the proposals off.

And a couple of days later, they met. Anju and Ram were sitting in the park , as their parents decided to take a stroll around.

Ram smiled at her. “ I don’t know what to talk .” He smiled again.
” Mom and dad and more particularly my brother and bhabhi have been pestering me to get married for sometime and I managed to flee the whole idea. But now, they seem to have grown aggressive. And here I am, talking to you. “ He looked at her and they both smiled.

“So tell me, tell me if you don’t like me “ he tried to joke.

“Honestly, I have never given serious attention to the idea of getting married. “ Anju said, ” And mom and dad have not discussed it with me either, until they met your family. I am just happy with the school and home. But yea, Life cannot be the same through out. And they finally made me say yes to meet you up.”

And they talked for not more than 40 minutes. The chat invited topics on their interests, friends, the latest movies in town and their favorite restaurants in the city and then they badly wanted their families to come back.

So that was it. Anju did not have an answer when her parents asked her, later that night, if she found him boring.

“Mom, all I know is he’s a business analyst with an IT firm and he’s looking quite good. It’s too early to decide and besides we did not talk on getting married” .

The next morning, there was a call from Ram’s father saying Ram was ok with the wedding. And Anju’s parents were thrilled when she said,
“He seems ok to me. And if you people want to go ahead with the plans, I don’t want to say no” .

They could not believe what they had just heard. They were elated and Anju smiled.

Later that evening, Anju received a call from Ram. He sounded matured on phone.

“Listen Anju, they asked me If I liked you and I said yes, because there was nothing to be disliked about you, as long as our meet went. And I heard from pa that you have no issues as well. But I know it’s too early to commit on something as serious as marriage. Anju, err, if you want to take time before deciding, I would never object and besides, we did not talk about our life together. I mean your plans and mine.
Would you be comfortable quitting school. I mean, I would never ask you to, but
my work involves a lot of traveling. So I think, we need to talk over a few things that might crop up later.”

Ram said quite a few important things and Anju felt he sounded very serious. And she wondered if he was basically a serious person. And they talked for a couple of hours. But at the end of it, they had not convinced themselves that they were doing it right, because there were issues to be talked about and resolved if they wanted to go ahead with the wedding.

Ram somehow had the strange feeling that his career might disturb Anju’s and that would be a problem. And he was sure Anju would be thinking the same thing.

So, it was a fortnight, an engagement ceremony and few jaunts that had all happened between them.
There were more smiles with every meeting and once Ram tried to tease her, when a bunch of teenage school chaps giggled , as they recognized Anju, with him.
The evenings slid in as they indulged in more conversations and coffees and as the night got lit up, they realized it wasn’t too tough after all, to talk about life to a person who had been a stranger, till a few days back and would be the better half for the rest of their lives.

Anju knew, they both still had questions for each other, and more importantly to themselves. Sometimes she wondered if Ram was the kind of guy, she would be comfortable with and she frowned as she doubted if Ram was going through the same thoughts.

And this day, they sat in the coffee parlor and tried to talk about their Life together.

Anju told him she loved the school and he understood she wanted to continue working.
She felt too joyful to be involved with the kids. And there were events coming up and few big plans. She was expecting a promotion to the management unit. Her MBA had groomed her managerial skills finely that she was sure she refused to think about quitting work.
They both had careers they loved and that would draw them in two different directions. But they appreciated that they had decided to talk about it.

They tried talking of making compromises. But eventually, acknowledged the fact that they could not, as far the career was concerned.
They liked each other and had enjoyed being in each other’s company.

“But, this is Life, Anju. We need to settle on compromising something for us to think of a sharing a life” , Ram said, this time on a very serious tone. “If we cannot give up on something, I think it would be better to part ways, before issues get tightened:”

Anju looked at Ram in surprise. Was he hinting at calling the wedding off.

“Are you sure, you would not be able to postpone your trip or change your job ?” Anju wanted to know.

“Of course, I can’t, the most I can do is try and get another job that would keep me here”

“Can you do that ?”

Ram did not answer for a while.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to do that. I love my job”.


-- To be continued

A love that was arranged.

“And so will I be “, Anju replied when Ram told her scornfully that he would be a lot more occupied with his business assignments, for the next one year.

She looked at him, took her eyes off and smiled, in perplexity over the Life that was arranged and hoped to be bloomed between them.

This was the fifth time since their engagement, Anju and Ram went out together. They were in a coffee parlor, down the road where Anju’s workplace was, to discuss the plans they had for their wedding. The first few times they met, they talked about the list of friends to be invited, the count of days they would be off work for, the places they would visit post wedding and the places to shop. They had enjoyed the conversation and they kept it light and friendly.

But this time, Ram seemed to be too keen on his agenda for the next year. He would be away at his client’s location for five months, immediately after the wedding. And he wanted to know if Anju was interested in accompanying him.

“The new project, I am sure, will keep me traveling around for a while. I am off to Australia, in about ten days after the wedding. Might take five months until I return.
And I will have to fly again in another month. Anju, I don’t want to amuse you, with all the travel stuff. It could get tiring. But I leave the decision to you. If you want to come with me, then we need to get your visa processing initiated and you’ll need to decide on your job” .

Anju gazed at him. She did not have an answer. She did not want to have one.
And she hoped Ram would understand her silence. Ram looked away, thinking his plans might have intimidated hers. They sat in silence and watched the world go by, bending down occasionally to sip their coffee. This was the first time, since their two-week courtship, they had talked less and felt a bit uncomfortable.

Anju and Ram were engaged for a week now and had known each other one week before the engagement. To both of their apathy, it was arranged. Their parents had met over a common comrade’s wedding and the tête-à-tête deduced to the point of getting their offspring meet up. If they would feel ok with each other, things would be great. And that is precisely what had happened.

“Mamma, I don’t want to get married now. And I am not meeting anybody. I can’t believe you just fixed up something as important as this with out even asking me ! “
Anju was in plain anguish, over what had been discussed to be arranged, when her mom told her two weeks back about the proposal that had come up.

“Beta, we are not forcing you for this, in any way. We are simply asking you both to meet up sometime and see if you can get along at all. I promise that will be all. “

Anju’s mother tried to put her hands on her daughter’s cheeks as they spoke the same thing for she did not remember how many times, that day.

“And If I don’t like him ?” Anju snapped.

“We are not even going to think about it again”. Her father assured her, as he gently pressed her shoulders, from behind.
Anju sat there with a cranky mood and managed to listen as her father continued.

“We are never against your wishes, sweetheart. And we have always loved to see you live by your choices. But now that you don’t seem to have anything else on your mind, why not give this a try. Just a try and that’s it . You are 24 and mom and I feel this is the right time for you take another big leap in your life. And who knows, this could be the best thing to you. “ he smiled as he looked longingly for a positive gesture in his daughter’s eyes.

Anju replied. “Okay. Bu if I don’t like him, don’t even bother to pull me again to this crap, until I decide to get married. “

“Never, never”. Anju’s mother’s voice was relieved.

Anju smiled at both of them and picked her bag as she checked on her watch, ready to leave. And she drove off in her two-wheeler.

--- To be Continued

For the love of it and me

You are fortunate if you can reach out to a pair of sneakers when you know you are good at running and are raring to go. Your sneakers could be your cubbyhole to walk on the muck, to run graciously on the patio or to casually give a jaunt along with a fellow adventurer. They are of use, anyways. But the roads you choose to walk on, says not about the fortunes you make but all about you and the swashbuckler in you.
The sneakers I have adventurously chosen to ride with is this experience called blogging. The roads I enjoy to walk on are instances from my own life, inspirations I derive from the world around me , my dreams and imaginations, my work of ramblings, possibly politically correct or incorrect or just about anything that makes sense to me. As a baby, when I entered the world of blogs, I was lost in wonder to see the bold and positive expressions of talent and imagination in each one of us. Some blogs made me scowl in disgust, I must say. But my take in general on the whole blog world was ‘wow, why didn’t I discover it till now! ’

After about half a year of being a blogger(I started extensive blogging only this April, though I had an account created since last December ), I feel nourished to have groomed the writer in me and to have found people who make me smile sometimes in adoration sometimes in humor sometimes in empathy sometimes at the mere fact of how astonishing it is to experience the freedom to be yourself with what you want to say and to remark on what others have to say about themselves or the world or me. I read other posts and most of the times it happens so that I don’t realize that it has brought a sense of worth or joy to my day until I finish reading it. I blink and go ‘Wow’. Sometimes when I read and unconsciously hit the last line of the post, there is still a smile on my face, shrugging off the fact that I have wasted 5 mins of my life reading it. But the experience was worth the smile, anyways and hones the sense of responsibility in me to continue what I have begun, for the good of my own soul and the people who invest time and energy to read my thoughts.

I blog because I know there are things to be shared between people who think alike and who think differently.
I blog because I believe we all have fascinating stories happening with us, all the time.
I blog to independently express what I feel and face to accept what you have to say, even if we disagree. I call that maturity and am glad I have it.
I blog not to win hearts but to share the intellect that you and I are blessed with.
I blog not to get offensive or obnoxious about the world simply because I have a page of my own and some people to read it but to be transparent and clear yet careful and responsible about the freedom to express.
I blog because this is a fantastic world in its own, making me experience life altogether again.
I blog because I love the writer in me.

I look up at the road ahead with joy in heart and love for the feeling of walking, jogging, trekking, trailing on my own road with this new pair of sneakers I have found. Wow! A long way to go !

Battle in the War

It was a lousy dusk
Clogged by the mundaneness of a war

A war battled on for time so long
and losses so huge

Grasses shed blood and stooped low,
paying homage for brave were the souls
that lay but flesh now so numb
numb with the war, numb with death

It was a war that warned of danger
but never of the end
It was the body and the soul in it
that they had to offer to the war and to the fellow warriors

And it went on until they died
leaving their dreams behind their hopes ajar
and Love so incomplete

The loss brought little difference
to those who woke up to fight again
for they knew they would be killed soon, as well

But they battled to keep the spirit in their souls
To hope to go back home ,
to live onthey battled anyways.

Now, this will not go to the Trash can!

After having shared with you my familiarity with books-that-you-start-to-hate-once-you-read experiences, I must talk about this. Something that has come to my relief after a long wait. This book is called ‘The Hindi Bindi Club’.Caught a glimpse of it on http://www.curledup.com/. The synopsis was catchy and that lured me to read it. Well, I never had to regret, really. All about the relation between mothers and daughters, migrated to the US from India who are confused, torn apart between cultures yet prudent about themselves. A cache of some very warm conversations, thoughts and yes some scrumptious Indian recipes. Now, I am not gonna deny completely on the point that it is a girly book. It is in its own way. It however stands out in the way the strength of characters are projected. A good Tea Time read !

Up, Up and Away

The best fact about mere existence is that Life is full of surprises all the time and I wouldn’t be surprised if this truth is declared the soul spirit that keeps me going.
Anyways, it wasn’t a smooth ride all the way, for the whole of fortnight and to cream it up, fever from the deep down jungle has kissed me down. Sometimes it makes you feel nice to cruise through the tough times, loving the resilience that life has bestowed you with, isn’t it? Quite a handful of advice, suggestions, some serious instructions and some scorn, but there is a kick out of moving on , racing along with a smile on your lips and faith in yourself .
Life will get back to normal, that’s assured. But you would have a greater sense of strength.

All said, my life for sure has slowly turned to normal and above all, I am back to blogging !!!

My friend requires a laptop of about 40GB hard drive, 3.5", 1.44MB Floppy Drive (Modular) and the likes with atleast a period of 3 years warranty. Would Compaq presario be a good choice ? I personally would suggest Sony VAIO. I donno to choose between the two.

GioVane

That’s what we christened our Team with for the week long events/competitions scheduled between 4 different teams at my work place. They made me do a write up on why ‘Giovane’ as a Team name, which is to be presented over the first event, ‘Team Branding’.
And this is what I did about it. By the ways, Giovane is an Italian word, meaning YOUNG. The phrase within quotes is a flick from ‘quotable quotes’ .

It takes faith in the young heart in you to determinedly stay young even when Life moves on to bring in a higher count to your age. "There is an innocence within me that already knows how to trust my Higher Power, to cherish life while holding it lightly, to live fully and simply in the present moment. I will allow that part of myself to come forward and nourish me as I continue on this journey”, That was an extract from the book ‘Courage to Change’. And if I were to redefine it, I would look within to derive the sense of light, radiant and bright.

Life can’t stay young forever. But the mind within can even outlast life. I can trust the power within myself. I must be a big boy. But I own a flair for my innocence. I must be still young. I can look ahead at the future with courage, thanks to the experience Life has given me. But I will forget tomorrow while I play this moment to the fullest, thanks to the young heart in me. I am so focused on the target, the victory that I want to make. I can feel the maturity in me. But I love to see the spirit in my opponent and enjoy playing with him. I can feel the kid in me. Life will grow old , but I never shall , I only want to grow UP. I am eternally young. I am GioVane.

Oh, a Welcome Change !

I saw Chak De India and it’s absolutely brilliant. I mean to have come up with an attempt to make a bollywood flick with king Khan (me not particularly a Shah Rukh fan but I think he’s really talented), 16 average looking new girls and a story that whirls around the national yet one of the least popular sports of the country , I think, is so brave and positive. I loved the movie and the Indian sprit drawn about it, especially during the 60th Independence celebration season.

So all those movie makers and money lenders who firmly believe to go by the conventions of film making, think about it, the latest sensation is of stories on sports. Chennai 600028 is another fresh change I recently enjoyed. There is fresh air around. Isn’t it? To me , as a fair appreciator of good cinema, I am loving it.

Princess of Hearts, 10 years on...

Ten years on and I still feel a sense of dampness when I watch her videos or read about her. With so much to reveal and so very much to hide, I have always been really snoopy about what was it with this lady that made her quite extraordinary.

Wasn’t she a real princess who genuinely tried to use her influence and power in a way that mattered? Reaching out to the helpless and the needy and maintaining her sense of poise and smile despite having reportedly a broken home with a very unhappy personal milieu was truly princess-like. I mean, she could have still made some news if she only made royal appearances at the Wimbledon finals every year and hosted regal dinners to the most illustrious political folks from the world. I remember to have read somewhere that only out-of-no-choice did she let herself indulge in social activities to flee from the trauma she had to experience from her busted marriage. All the same, she did, whatever for, and continued to go by her heart’s choices and that made all the difference in the world.

You will always be the best real fairy tale princess the world has known, rest in peace!

I am okay today, but tomorrow could be anybody's.

The news is now outdated as there very well might have been other devastating calamities that would have rocked the lives of other innocents. It’s a heart breaking truth to digest that human life is no more guaranteed to rest in the warmth of peace and safety.

I was nerve wracked to see several naïve lives being torn off in the Hyderabad bomb explosion, last week end. The politics as I could see however finds its home in the hearth of security, after claiming no hands what so ever in the happenings around them. What the devil does the terrorists need after all ? Our lives? And claim what? May be this is something we have repeatedly asked ourselves to find no answer. Life has been kind enough to count us out so far from such barbaric misfortunes. But it’s terrifying to think of how long will I or my loved ones get spared. I get cynical about the government of the largest democratic nation when I come to think of how safe I am tomorrow. May be this is again something we have repeatedly asked ourselves to find no answer.

In the least after we have lost, like always I could only silently send a prayer, may God bless the families of those whose life had been seized off for nothing by a mob of ruthless folks and may the souls of every one who died, dies or will die (God forbid) at the hands of such cruelty in the world rest in peace.

It’s Onam !!

It’s that time of the year in Kerala when you find almost every one in the traditional wear of cream colored sarees/dhotis with silky weaves of golden zari, gleaming lustrously.
Schools and colleges have shut down for the yearly Onam holidays and children are thronging the streets in full spirits.

Florists and weavers have turned intensely joyful for their business just flourishes to the maximum, this season. It gets me wondering to look at the quantum of flowers imported from the other states during this time of the year, alone.
Corporates in Technopark have been making merry for the whole of last two weeks traditionally marking the onset of the Malayalam month ‘Chingham’. Everywhere you turn, there are competitions of Athapoo, wherein people make floral Rangoli, Thiruvaathira, which is a traditional dance by girls around the athapoo and onam songs .The festive sipirt is in full swing all around the state and if you do want take a jaunt around Kerala, there must be more eventful excitements of Boat races and Onasadhya (Festival Feast) happening all around.

Nonetheless, Onam marks the homecoming of the beloved King Mahabhali who won the hearts of people for love, generosity and humility. I hope and believe the true essence of celebrating Onam is to mend again the sense of caring for fellow human beings and be truthful to the self and then you wouldn’t need to look anywhere else for God.

Hmm…that aside it’s a visual treat that I get to enjoy being a non-keralite and the most wonderful part of it all is that we have a 4-day long weekend up ! I am blessed !

Too many,Thank you , A good one please !

This is the umpteenth book I am chucking after having been half way through. It is annoying because you have spent about 3 to 4 hours of your life, reading it and through the middle of the book you discover the story is taking you nowhere and you don’t particularly agree to the persona of the protagonist and so, well, you decide to go ahead and close the book down for good ! Anything wrong ? Nope, but it happens almost all the time with me. Yesterday, after having reached about 280 pages in a 500+ paged book called ‘Wedding Day’ by Catherine Alliot, I had to scowl cause there was nothing more to the pages I read than how things were on page 1. I usually make a profound research on the book and its reviews on the internet before I decide to start reading it, cause I think we need something more on the blurb of the book other than the excerpts from the story and the usual, ‘New York Times Best selling….’ blah blah. A good book is that which keeps you guessing what would be happening next and should eventually prove your guesses wrong, irrespective of its genre. And if book review websites can sometimes surprise you with the high star ratings they offer a book, which might seem just mediocre to you, perhaps it’s better to take the good old way of walking through the bookshelf and letting the instinct randomly choose one. But then again, I run a risk of picking a bad one.
Too much for being choosy, I say.

Dave in INDIA

Dave is eccentric after his plans for the valentine’s day had taken terrific response from his estranged parents. Fed and Sophie had in all ways decided to sit and talk things out for once, for they could in fact realize that out of every one in the world, Dave undeniably still fancies for their ‘Red Tulip Cottage’ to come back to life again with the trio . Despite all odds that has taken the relationship for a toll, Fed and Sophie do miss the life they had together, somewhere implicitly. It is just that they could not get as expressive as Dave.

So Dave finally got them say Yes to venture out for a holiday. And the choice wasn’t too difficult, with Dave always wanting to visit India, (he would naturally have the urge to meet the one who created him, right?, pretty obvious ! ) . So here they go, all packed and seated in Air India from San Francisco.

Fed and Sophie are not particularly comfortable yet with each other, though.

Air Hostess to Fed : Would you like some Tea/Coffee , sir ?
Fed: Some Tea please

Air Hostess to Sophie : And you ma’am ?
Sophie: I am fine, Thanks

Dave hisses to Sophie : I’ve read it’s not really a hospitable gesture in India to deny a welcome drink.So, go ahead and accept it, mom.

Sophie : I don’t feel like , Dave. Now stop acting like the know-all, alright ?

Dave to the Air Hostess: ‘Namaste’, my mom isn’t really keeping well. She cannot take tea or coffee at the moment. I’ll have a cup of coffee, with milk and about half tea spoon sugar and some honey, please.

Airhostess: Of course , Is there anything else I can help you with ?

Dave : Nothing for now, Namaste

Airhostess : Namaste .

Fed : Since when have you started liking Coffee ?

Dave : I still don’t like coffee, dad. That’s for you .

Fed : Really ? Thanks, but I have had my share of Tea, so you really don’t have bother, Dave .

Dave pours in the coffee into Fed’s emptied Tea cup and terrorizes him that if he doesn’t drink the coffee , he would pee right on Fed’s T shirt.

After a while

Fed has gone sick after having had treat himself to a mix of tea and coffee and that has kept him disappeared from the seat for quite a while.

Dave is indulged in a magazine (Sophie is sleeping), when the beautiful airhostess offers him a pillow.

Dave: Oh, Thanks .

She offers him two more , possibly one for Fed and Sophie, each.

Dave: No Thanks, Mom doesn’t really like pillows and I don’t think Dad would be back soon to sleep.

Airhostess: Alright

Dave : That was a wonderful coffee, by the ways. Thank you.

60 and still young !

60 years of freedom to be ourselves and it’s truly historic !

It means so much to be part of a nation that has emerged from the grapple of an alien governance to the largest democracy in the world. Economic reforms, Industrialization, international capitalism, IT boom, there has been so much happening and I wouldn’t really know but I am damn sure there is so much to boast of and am extremely proud of it.

And oh yes, they always remind you to focus more on the areas to be worked on, especially in times of celebrating your strengths. On a more serious note, we know there is a long, long way to go and India, after all the restructuring that has been positively happening over 6 decades, still remains a developing nation. I wouldn’t really deny if someone told me, the growth has particularly made the rich richer, ok, may be not, the poor poorer, but with the population shooting up helplessly beyond an accommodating limit and all the fancy development happening with the metros, there is a lot more to be accomplished to strike a balance between the urban and the rural India.

Keeping faith in APJ Abdul Kalam’s dreams, I would love to believe that India would indeed turn a superpower by 2020! But 13 long years cannot build a super nation by itself and that’s perhaps the reason why you and I are still young and raring and faithful. Some one beckoning and we cannot be away.

At this moment, though, I feel like just carelessly whisking off all the imperfections that we live with (No nation is perfect, right ?) and I am raising my glass with all festive spirit in tribute a nation that is a beautiful blend of good and bad, right and wrong, dark and light, success and failure, you and me !!

Saluting my country that has a big heart and a deep spirit, we call it home to the world, INDIA !!

Tagged !

I must do this because Gomathy and Chriz have got me tagged.
I am reckoning a few things about myself/my life which are/were either special or funny or embarrassing to me or simply something to remember.

1. I used to hate eggs when I was young and would stealthily chuck my morning eggs onto the farthest horizon possible, and simply would pretend like I had them all. This did not go on for long ‘coz mom was intelligent enough to figure out from my happy face that I had not really had them, or I wouldn’t be happy at all.

2. I want to fuse all my likes into one point and that could get pretty long. I would try and get this done anyways. I like people who are warm and friendly yet honest and genuine with others (I am always enthused by human behavior), loneliness (sometimes), getting nostalgic with memories that bring a smile, changes in the way things look, music, experimenting out various things that might be beyond my capability (I might fail most of the time but I enjoy the experiment anyways), face cream, reading in candle light and quite a handful of things more.

3.I sometimes wonder at the change in me, that has taken place over the years. I mean, I have had my own share of time when I really used to feel uncomfortable with new people, new place, new timings etc. But I now I have learnt to enjoy them.

4.I am writing a book (yet to be titled). Yes, so that should hopefully make me an author, sometime this year or the next.

5.I am really scared of water bodies. I once, out of sheer enthusiasm, got on to some steep water slide and almost got drowned and I thought I had been swept by water to the deep sea. It was so embarrassing and I felt ridiculous when I was lifted off the water by the guards and I was screaming like I was getting pulled out of the Atlantic ocean.

6.I once fell flat on the road while walking alone but had to pull myself up and resume walking like nothing had happened. I was embarrassed to the core.

7.I had known Aravind for about 7 years before I married him.

8.I donated blood today for the first time and I feel awesome about it.

Now I don't think I have anybody from my Blogroll, who is Untagged yet. Every one whose blog I read are already tagged.

May be, Gomathy, should I just end the game here ?

Just Like that . . .

My Job is running for the last 20 minutes (I am a software engineer, so I frivolously choose to go by the common techie man's phrases) and am here, hitting enter every five minutes and slowly feeling a sense of fulfillment, as I see my files getting successfully loaded .

Meanwhile, my Life around me at this moment is nothing really exciting but interesting and it goes like

1. I had got a new cubicle mate, yesterday and we got instantaneously friendly with me having to help her with the installation of printer and the like, but today it’s a new face again (I don’t know where the other person is ) and I haven’t even said a ‘Hi’ to her yet. She looks really, well, grouchy.

2. I am listening to Rang De Basanti after quite a long gap and wow, I love this album.

3. It’s almost 4:00 and Smitha and Pinko (my team buddies, ok, he is actually Jisho, but we call him Pinko, for reasons best known to us ) should be here anytime now, nudging me for the traditional ‘coffee Break’ .For me, it’s the heavenly Banana Fry break.

4. I want to tell my manager that I will be on half day leave tomorrow, but I am sure she is gonna look straight at me like I am always here to give her a headache.
(May be I should just bunk ).

5.The flowers I got for Friendship day have gone pale. But I don’t feel like taking them off my desk. They were given with so much of Love.

6. I have just taken about 2 sips of water today (Gosh, I’m gonna have to suffer from dehydration).

7.Yipppee….My job has completed fantastically with zero errors !!

And just what I need right now

is, for heaven’s sake, some sleep ! This spell of monsoon has been keeping me feverish for the whole of last week and with work beckoning me for the weekend, my last hope of just snuggling down went for a CRASH ! If only those Banking folks didn’t need to ask for an umpteen number of documents, Life would not have driven me to total insanity today. Had to get all those stupid papers Xeroxed and after all these days, they moved the photocopier out of its usual place. Sigh, not to complain, though, Mondays are destined to be bad, no matter how much you push yourself to welcome the new week with a smile !

There was a peaceful Sunday, though. After all the scuttle around the kitchen for the whole forenoon, my insatiable culinary instinct pushed me to experiment with the recipe I had carefully noted down, last week, for Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I can’t believe I spent 3 hours on it, only to succumb to the mess it finally turned out to be ! My buddies at work (I had promised them I’ll bake one for Friendship day) were very sweet to have enjoyed it, despite the fact they had to bite the cake down like it was some roasted chicken. I swear I’ll make a really, really nice one for them, someday. And I saw Aravind trying to treat himself with this atrociously hard thing, somewhere in the middle of the night. He goes hungry in the night sometimes, especially after having to go by my experimental recipes on weekends. I didn’t dare tell him to kill his hopes, so went back to sleep. And he was probably caught up with the lip locking taste of it, ‘coz I found him really awry, this morning.

Anyways, thanks to Monday, my server is joyfully going to sleep every 30 mins and I am falling all over it, in my attempt to get something done, SOMETHING, done at least. But most of the time, I am falling asleep myself, in the midst of my Crazy Life on a crazy Monday !

I have learnt to care !

It has been there for so many million years before you and I were born. Got adorned with civilization by the degree of the needs and intellect of each generation. And the process went non stop. It still gets overstuffed with what we call the transformation of a not-so-friendly companion to an oyster. We have been enormously successful in what we wanted to achieve for we have indeed turned it into an oyster. All we need to do to fetch what we desire is to extend an arm and grasp, it could be from New York, it could be from the mall nearby, you wouldn’t need to care, because it is open out for you at just a click while you can just cuddle in a cushion. I am talking about the home we reside in. Nope, not the one built with bricks and stones. The one that has been silently and gracefully accommodating us all ever since Life originated, perhaps even before. The beautiful Earth around us. . It does not seem to enjoy the adornment we have been garnishing it with, anymore. Perhaps it’s getting suffocated. True and not to complain because we are taking away the trees it used to breathe from. Perhaps it’s hurt. Are we not digging it deep to construct the multi floored complexes? It’s not an open carpet anymore to the warmth of the sun, thanks to the harmful gases and pollutants we continue to forgetfully discharge while rushing to and from our daily chores.

The inhabitants of this home are not to be blamed, for the change that has happened was inevitable. There were necessities and hence we had to give room for inventions. Sometimes it disturbed nature. We had to pretend as if we didn’t notice. Suddenly there were more number of people and the needs, naturally, so very more. We continued to live with more technicalities integrated into our life. Life got out of the natural way but did not dare complain because these new inventions made our lives a lot more easier and we enjoyed every bit of it.

More and more and more and we are still on the race of finding more. In the run, have we turned hostile to our own home? Perhaps yes, because after all these years of remaining silent and motherly to us all, nature has gradually started to complain. And if we still haven’t noticed it, it’s high time to lend an ear to what mother nature has to say because if we don’t do that now, a little down the lane, we might unexpectedly realize that before we can turn things to normal, it might have been already dangerously late.

The earth, they say, has warmed up beyond the threshold which might get monstrous to the life of every single being, in here. It rains acid over the Taj. The coldest regions have found their way to melt down the way. The average temperature above the earth has gone up by an average of 0.74 ± 0.18 °C, over a century. The protective ozone layer is not so protective any more. All this and more, they call it Global Warming.

So here I go, chalking out the list of To-Dos which I have dutifully promised to go by. I hope all of us throw ourselves some light as to how to go ‘Global Cool’ and contribute at least in a minimal quantum to preserve our beautiful but One Earth !!


1. I switch off the lights/fan of any room, that is not used.

2. I do not let my TV/DVD player stay on stand by (Yes, this consumes a lot of electricity)

3. I try not to use motor vehicles if I need to take a short errand to the nearby Grocery store.

4. This was very surprising. Using Fluorescent bulbs instead of the regular ones helps reduce the consumption of electricity and I gladly opted for a Fluorescent one when my reading lamp went out, last week.

5. My office is highly conservative already and they promptly switch off the air condition by 6 PM every day. I am now starting to like this, really.

6. The most important of all, I have planted three saplings around my first floor and I visit them, every morning.

7.Last but definitely not the least, I am spreading the message through my Blog to people who care, just like you. :)

Come Back soon Munna !!!

If only people who genuinely had transformed into better human beings after having gone through their own rides of mistakes and failures, were let free by the court, Sanjay Dutt could have been back very well, doing movies as good and entertaining as the MunnaBhai series. He appears to have had his share of trauma with all that had happened around the ’93 Mumbai blast case. And life can't be all low rides. Perhaps it was life’s way of gaming by bringing him to one of the most entertaining stars in Bollywood, with his recent flicks.

Well, me not a particular Sanjay Dutt fan. But Lage Raho Munna Bhai was the best movie I got to watch in 2006, yes more than Rang de Basanti. And I am so eagerly awaiting his next flick in the series. May be this time, it will be tough to have this feeling that ‘He’s in jail now’ while watching the movie.

Nevertheless, he somehow made me sympathize after I watched the judgement that he is sentenced to 6 years imprisonment . Well, now that he has been much liked about Munna, I just wish he is bestowed with the strength to let this cloud pass through him and we get to see more of his movies. Till he gets back, take care Sanjay and

Tension nahin lena ka Mammmmmmmmmmmmmooooooooooooo !!!

Life has to move on, but somethings just don't.

Sometimes I wonder what would Life mean if it was not for the people around you who love you more than anything else in this world. When I was young, I would ask mom what is God and I still love to believe in what I was taught. God could not make himself available to every one in this nutty world. So he created a home and a few people to take care of us and love all the sanity and insanity we were born with. We call them family. And somehow they go on to become the base of our spirit. We wouldn’t know.
The strange and the natural part of it all is that when Life takes you to different destinies, you would crave for those times when you could sit together for a lousy chat or the hug you used to simply get when you got back home in the evening.

I remember, when I hit the gate at 4 o’clock in the evening from school/college, my grandmom (maternal) would wait for me at the doorway, simply to greet me with a smile (ohh, I would do anything for that beautiful smile of hers). She would kiss my hand (I wouldn’t let her kiss my cheek because I would be all sweaty and dirty after the tiring day) and follow me in to talk of how the day was.

My grandmom, mom and I would get down to a cozy chat over a nibble and talk of all that had made the day. It always enthused me to find that my grandmom was more interested (than my mom) in discussing all the crazy things we used to do at college, all the latest fashion on TV, cheesy episodes of some of our favorite programmes, my friends et all. She would ask me if I had seen that latest ad on TV, where a girl came in a very trendy salwar suit. Sometimes I would just whisk her comments off saying, “No Achi (Grandmom in Tamil), I don’t think it’s nice”.

We lived in the same place, same compound I mean but she used to live in a separate house for she needed her own space and had so many styles I wouldn’t understand. Sometimes she would beg me to have a spoon of payasam (kheer) she prepared when I would be racing like an athlete to find a place in my morning cab. My cab driver would have already lost all the patience in the world, after waiting for me for 10 minutes.
Sometimes when I would walk over to wish her Good Night, I would find her sitting in a rocking chair, in the corridor, gazing at the stars. And I would assume she was thinking about grandpa. But most of the time, she would be engrossed in a book.

She used to buy me pastries and chocolates every day when I was in school. And as I was enjoying my late teens, I think she still didn’t want to treat me the same way with chocolates and cakes so she would ask “shall we go out for a pizza! “. And those evenings when we would flick appa’s car and drive down to the bakery to have pizzas and ice creams still linger in my heart and I know they would always make some of the best memories of my life.

She may not be with me now. But when I look within, I feel truly blissful to have a smile at the memories I had with her and to have a feeling of warmth she left in me. Some relationships in life have a beauty of their own to be best experienced and left unexplained because words may not do justice to describe the best of what life gives you. Even while distance has intruded your bonding, there is no stopping the relation that is built, there’s no stopping the love, because more often than not, the best things in life are not always tangible.


This post is in dedication to my Achi, who left us this day, three years ago.

What do I call it

The sky is blanketed by the flounce of the clouds. It’s like heavens sprinkling down the drops to the ever thirsty terrain. Traffic is oddly less. Blame it on the rain. It’s 5 o’ clock in the evening and people seem to have somehow forgotten that. There isn’t any rush in any one’s heart to get back home. May be the beauty of it all has taken me by storm and I refuse to take my eyes off it. My silky beige curtain is vehemently trying to kiss the rain but the iron bars against the windows are its sudden villain and the flow of the breezy air is what the curtain is battling with. I have helped it the best, by keeping the windows open the farthest. But I can't hide a smile at the restless dance of it . ‘Please Forgive me ‘ by Bryan Adams is looping on my system. The Moment is in complete purity and the world is in harmony.

If only this moment could be painted, I would describe it as my love and would want to rewrite ‘Paint my Love’ by MLTR. But then again, the best moments can neither be painted nor described. They need to be experienced and lived and relived by memories. I am in Love, head over heels, with this magic I am experiencing right now and feel like hugging God for creating a place as beautiful as the earth.

And another Monday !!

Why did God have to create Monday mornings? Okay, my scholarly instinct has given an immediate reply that only then you can have Friday evenings !
Yeah, that’s so true and if life was all like partying over the weekend every singly day, then the thrill of looking forward to those 2 days of living life, would fade into the blue.

Nevertheless, weekend was just awesome like any other. More rejuvenating this time, as I repeatedly surprised myself with more exotic cooking than ever!

With Aravind away at work, had to get friends with a couple of DVDs and so picked ‘Provoked’ and ‘Cheeni Kum’ from the library. I better not talk of
Cheeni Kum, a movie well deserved to be forgotten, though Amithab stood out like ever.

‘Provoked’ was thoughtful. Definitely not an entertainer, it kept me glued, despite the incessant prison and court scenes for the true story it was based on.
It is gratifying to find movie makers who, amidst all those commercialism we adapt to sell the movies these days, dare to set out on a venture, projecting nothing but truth for a cause as good as, may be, Global awareness.

‘Provoked’ may not find a slot in the biggest movies of 2007. But if the money made at the box office is kept out of the criteria that makes a movie, Good or Bad, then Jagmohan Mundra (director) can be proud of what he created.

Ash was a powerful face to portray the real-life character. She (am not particularly an Ash fan) has shown immense maturity in depicting a personality as influential as this. The movie on the whole was quite filling to make up for the hollow created by Cheeni Kum.

So that made all and I had to kiss my weekend good bye. And am here, calling Monday a fresh start to something nice and counting down the days to Friday evening.

Doodling self !

Aravind, (that's my husband, if I had not mentioned that before) told me his friend had met with a damn accident, a couple of days back and that when he went to the hospital to pay him a visit, it was really a shaking experience to see the entire hospital flooded with casualties in the middle of the night. It’s so depressing to think of the increase in the count of road accidents that occur every day. If only people could get a wee bit more lucid on their life and others …
Anyways, I wanted to distract this sagging thought off my mind and tried answering a set of questions I found on the internet, which were indeed, well, distracting.
And I thought I’ll tune them up to make a post on my blog.

And oh, by the ways, Aravind’s friend is doing fine with a minor bruise on forehead.


1. Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it:
Come to think of it and I go nuts because I’ve got 3 dreadful ones on my left hand. I once slipped off the vehicle and got hauled over the debris of some construction materials.

2. What is on the walls in your room?
Walls ? The Qn should’ve been what’s on my bed and I would have named loads, coz that’s my table cum reading room cum workshop cum writing pad.
But let me try to answer this, hmm…books, some read and over read magazines, some T-shirts and the dupatta I wore yesterday.

3. What does your phone look like ?
Grayish blue MotoRazer and it’s brand new !! In fact I still haven’t got off the hang of the latest features it has .

4. What music do you listen to?
Anything, excepting hard metal.

5. What is your current desktop picture?
A R Rahman – A still from Pray for me Brother.

6. What do you want more than anything right now?
Banana Fry from the canteen, upstairs. I have lately developed a gaping crush for it.

7. Do you believe in gay marriage?
I genuinely have no comments on it. If it’s fine with you, I don’t disrespect it.

8. What time were you born?
Can’t remember. What big deal ?

9. Are your parents still together?
Yes, thankfully.

10. What are you listening to?
Tere Bina from Guru.

11. The last person to make you cry?
Any out-of-family member. Only my family sees me cry.

12. What is your favourite perfume/cologne?
Barbie.

13. What kind of hair/eye colour do you like on the opposite sex?
I don’t really look for eye/hair color in any person.

14. Do you like pain killers?
Of course, if it can put an end to a thing as bad as pain, why not ? But if it’s going to be worser than the pain like alcohol, then No Thank you, I am alright.

15. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
I din't have to. He did it for me :P

16. Fave pizza topping?
Cottage Cheese, Red Capsicum, Grilled chicken !

17. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?
Banana Fries, Chicken cutlet, Cold coffee with whipped cream and chocolate sauce, Devil’s own food cake with vanilla Icing ! (Ohh mine, why did this questions have to be there ???? )

18. Who was the last person you made mad?
I usually drive everyone at home crazy. My in-house folks have now learnt to retain their sanity during my most vulnerable moments.

19. Have you walked out of a movie theatre before the movie ended ?
Yes, several times, the last one was Neal n Nikki (I just couldn't stand it) .

20. Is anyone in love with you?
Yes, every one in my Life and am so much, so very much in love with them, back!

Mom, Roses and valentine's day.

It’s the eve of valentine’s day. Dave is sitting all alone at his father’s place. He appears thoughtful, solemn.

Seeing his dad enter the room, Dave forces himself to offer a smile but doesn’t resist asking him the first thing,

“Dad, have you got any roses for mom”

Fed (That’s the short for Federer, Dave’s dad and I realize I hadn’t given him a name so far ) manages to keep the smile, though he could feel a sudden sense of hollow inside.

“No son. I haven’t” He kneels down to hold Dave. They face each other now.

“You always used to get her flowers when we were at the Red Tulip Cottage”. Now Dave can put a grave face when ever he feels like, especially with his dad and it might seem so genuine that Fed always tends to feel “oh-my-baby-anything-for-you” sort of thing.

“Yes, but things have changed now. Your mom and I don’t live together any more. You are a big boy to understand that. Right “

There is a pause .

“Can we go to see mom, tomorrow? “ And yes, he hasn’t changed his expression.

“Dave, Dave, now, you cannot be a baby. You know that’s not likely to happen. We cannot do that”.

“Why? Pearl’s mom and dad are going out for dinner tomorrow. Ms.Ruggets is not coming to school at all tomorrow. I saw your friend, out there buying roses! Why can’t I have all this ?”

Dave is shouting now and he has no idea what he is saying. Pearl hasn’t told him anything about her parent’s plans for Vday. Ms. Ruggets is ill and has not been coming in to school for the last 2 days. Dave really did not see any friend of his dad’s buying flowers. But who cares, Dave has got his reasons to sound defensive.

“Why can’t I have a normal life. Why is it like I have to stray around at your place and mom’s all the time. I am not asking for more. Just one evening at my house, OUR house. Can’t that be done. I am hurt, dad”.

“Dave, whatever the reason, you cannot get this adamant. Alright ? Your mom and I have decided to stay separate for some reasons. You may not understand and I don’t care about it. You don’t want to stray around at both the places ? Fine ! You can stay wherever you wish . And I am sure I will not ask you to come , stay with me, ever, EVER. Do you understand that ? Now, I want this discussion to end here “ ! Dave was for sure taken aback by the fury he saw on dad’s face. Fed doesn’t usually yell like that.

There is a pause again and Dave walks to his room, with a bowed head.

Thirty minutes later …

Dave is sitting on the bed, fiddling with the letters of scrabble.

Fed walks in. He is guilty. He has not shouted at Dave, this badly, before.

He quietly walks in and sits on the bed and smoothes Dave’s hair.

“We’ll go tomorrow to mom’s”

Dave swiftly looks closely for any that’s-not-going-to-be-easy kind of hints in Fed’s eyes. But there isn’t any.

“But you have to give me a word that you will not tell her anything that happened between you and me. It’s all going to look like a casual visit. Alright ? “ Fed is smiling now and Dave always feels his dad has got the best smile ever.

“I promise” Dave wipes out a tear from his cheek.

Fed goes back to the living room and Dave finds him immersed in a book.

There’s someone in pure stealth at the phone and Fed isn’t bothered a bit.

“Hi Mom, It’s Dave”

“Dave, what’s up. Why are talking so low? Is everything ok“

“Yes, I just wanted to tell you that Dad is planning for a surprise visit tomorrow.”

“What, Dad? “

“Yes, he says, he must meet you for the valentines day”.

There’s a pause on the other end.

“Mom, so see you tomorrow evening. Dad said he would like some pastas for dinner”.

Just a little Magic !

What’s it with this Potter boy? Just a bit of magic and he has the world hooked to his tricks.

With the last in the series all set for release, every one I know is talking about Harry’s end. J.K Rowling seems to be the most talked about person this season and I genuinely can’t get over the incredible way she personifies the book.

Anyways, Could Harry die? That would mean that the good has lost over the evil.

The polls on TV said Harry could probably die in the last book and there could be sequels further, bringing him back from the death. That could get it all stirring but nevertheless I would want Harry to survive and win over Lord Voldemort (I always wonder why is Voldemort addressed ‘Lord’ in the first place, when he is nothing but a bundle of evil) and reinforce the presence of righteousness.

The author may kill Harry, if this is the last in the series because she may not want the character to be consumed by another author.
That aside, some one (close to Harry) must die in the book not to break the convention that has been persisting in the series. Alright, but please let that not be Harry and please, please let that not be Ron or Hermione either.

"I.....Errrrrr......Ummmmmm.....Sure....Thank you "

“This could get disappointing for you, but I’m afraid your performance has not been up to the level of expectations”. There is a punch of scorn in his statement.

“Errr….ummmmm…..” , Shit, What am I hearing ? !!

“You should understand that to pace up with the rest of the team, which I must say is efficient in every way, you have to be more, much more aggressive “ .

“Err….ummm…..” Aggressive? Should I go blast you for keeping me overloaded all the time ?

“But I believe, every one has got his or her own low rides. I trust you will learn from your mistakes” He is trying to keep himself stern yet friendly. But I know he’s NOT friendly. But it doesn’t matter. I must say something !

“Err…....ummmmm…”

“Would you like to know what are the key areas you can improvise up on? “ He has his
eyebrows raised.

Is he expecting me to answer ? Honestly I don’t want to know. Why the hell would I have you tell me what my weaknesses are ! Ohh God, I want to say No, Mr.Boss, No, okay ? I don’t want to know !!!

“Yea, sure, That’s exactly what I want to know “, I have no idea what is flowing out of my tongue .

“Good, point no: one, you need to draw out a specific timeframe for your work. You can think of coming in, well, a little early so that you find time to complete your tasks”

Xcuse me ? Come in early ? Right, but in that case, I suppose I must be able to head back home at least by midnight. You don’t like me walking out before you do anyways and that’s not until your laptop shows you a zero-charge indicator. You don’t like people having a life of their own. You don’t like me taking breaks at work. You don’t like ME !!!!

“well, err…..actually ….” Come on, say something.


“Sandhya ?”

Shhhhhheeeeeeeeesh !

My imagination sometimes could get annoyingly speedy when it comes to scenarios where am most likely to lose.

I turn back and am sure I look like I have just unknowingly gulped down a chunk of dung. But who cares, that’s how I feel totally.

My boss looks perplexed to see my face sweat in an air conditioned room.

“All set ? Let’s go for the appraisal discussion” Only HE can smile.

“Absolutely ! “, I manage a smile and follow him maintaining the curved-lip , like having an appraisal discussion is the coolest thing of my job.