Deserved Respect

Today I fired my servant maid. Not a great start of the day, is it?

The conversation touched a topic that I have always found very unfair and irritating.

She took up another house’s work at my time slot and told me she cannot come before I go to the office anymore. The reason she gave is that the people who had asked her to do the work were older than her, and hence out of respect, she could not deny. Apparently, they are older than her, hence it is her duty to do whatever they ask of her, even if it is unfair, but I should not ask her about delays coz I am younger than her!

This is the thing with our country, isn’t it? The word RESPECT is not defined correctly. They call it culture. They call it values. They call it tradition. I call it b**l s**t. 

Respect is something every human being is entitled to. The amount of respect a person deserves may depend on – being human, outward cleanliness and personal hygiene, social ethics and one’s beliefs & acts. In a professional setting- one’s education and position, and in social setting- senior citizens, handicapped people, pregnant women and sick people get higher preference. I say preference here, and not respect though it is misconstrued a lot in our country. Isn’t a Janitor as much of a human as a firm’s Partner. Doesn’t a child / teenager deserves as much of respect as senior citizen in a bus / train / party?

NO ONE is entitled to be unfair or arrogant or manipulative and take the world for granted because of age! The time ticks the same for all and the world revolves the same for all. 

Below are some of the social thoughts around the older generation, and my personal beliefs.

Older people are Gods, they should be worshiped – they are humans just like everyone else. 

They have the right to take all decisions – only when it concerns them, and to an extent, their dependant under-aged children. Above 18ers deserve to make their own decisions. Older generation can guide, consult, and support if they wish to. 

They know the best, they know it all, they are always right, they don’t make mistakes – they, like any other human beings, they can most definitely be wrong and should have the humility to accept that. Their experience can definitely be a perspective to consider, and might bring many new angles to the table, but that doesn’t mean they are always right. 

It’s ok if they are unfair and unjust, they don’t have to be brought to justice, they should not be challenged, they should not be questioned, they need not apologize as they are older – No one has the right to be unfair or hurtful or unjust to anyone – age no bar, caste no bar, religion no bar, sex no bar. Anyone who does a mistake can be and should be held responsible and brought to justice, and at the very least, apologize for their mistakes.

IT IS NOT SAD IF SOME ONE OLDER THAN YOU MAKES A MISTAKE AND APOLOGIZES TO YOU! It is the right thing to do! YOU DON’T HAVE TO FEEL GUILTY FOR BEING APOLOGIZED TO! A person apologizing doesn’t look bad, in fact earns more respect by acknowledging their mistake.

Younger people around them have adjust to them, they don’t have to adjust to anyone – I don’t have to adjust to ANYONE beyond my tolerable point. My daughter doesn’t have to adjust to me beyond her limit either! And I shouldn’t expect her to. In fact, the older I become, the more understanding I should become, and more tolerant and adjusting that should make me. Adjustment is mutual, if someone doesn’t adjust to me, I am NOT OBLIGED to adjust to them because of their age – and this is NOT DISRESPECT. 

Raping is a sin (also a crime); But so are others like  insulting someone, depriving any human being of freedom, fundamental rights and self-respect in the pretext of being older, hurting anyone – be it  a child or an animal, considering oneself superior and others inferior, being arrogantly proud and egotistical. God doesn’t weigh good and bad based on age. Law doesn’t change no matter what the age of the convict is. 

Old age can be entitled for a separate queue, sympathies and support; NOT an excuse for boosting self-egos, making mistakes and stomping over youth on the grounds of culture / tradition / values. 

Respect is earned, not forced out using threats and blackmails. Respect should be given at will, not under pressure. Respect should be deserved.

The Big Change

For the world population that is not following up with my super-fast changing life, I am now married! Yes, went through all of the traditional arranged marriage routine.

Past few months… So much has happened!

Numerous heavy bull fights with parents when the tabooed topic of marriage was initiated; mom’s strong persuasion; crying out to friends on how painful and irritating the discussions were; Progress in career and hectic stressful 16 hour working days in office; Finally mom’s victory in finding ‘The Guy’ for me and days of convincing me to get married; my first retaliation to the very idea of marriage; Dad’s pitching in on the project of convincing me for marriage; my first embarrassed gtalk chat with Him at 12 in the night; our first few hesitant and awkward talks over the phone; our first meet in McDs’ in Velachery; His first gift of a Fasttrack watch; nice McDs' Burgers and ice tea :P; Both of us nodding a ‘Qabool’ to “Us”; Our Engagement; His visits to Chennai and mine to Blore; Wedding plans n shopping; More and more office work in the peak; Kadalai with fiancé; More Shopping; Advices from every Tom Dick and Harry; More work; Driving in Chennai heat and increasing traffic due to Chennai Metro; More kadalai; More and more unending shopping… and it went on till the end on my bachelorette life!

The marriage itself was a blur. Lots of people telling me when to do what, what to do how, how to do why, why… there was almost never an answer to that other than – “That’s the tradition, and it has to be done that way. End of discussion.” I was specifically instructed to bundle up my rationality and logic thinking and throw it away until the marriage got over. Rule number 1 was DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS.

Though a lot of people came to the wedding and told me that the food was great, I was hardly able to have a bit of it. Loads of controversies; several rituals – both meaningful and meaningless; many Saree changes; numerous pics – by professional photographer and relatives/friends; now and then pampering :P; parlour ladies and their resolution to make me look unrecognizable; Flowers everywhere; And Jewels too; Hymns, Chants and Holy Fire; Buzz in my ears; People colorfully dressed, running around; Total chaos and noise; People saying “Aww she looks so beautiful” though I felt that I looked like a stuffed goat with Jewels and flowers; Continuous ‘Cheese’ and ThanQs in the reception for full 3 hours… Sigh!

These are all I remember! The rest of the picture, I got only from the photos!

It all blew so fast, with hardly any time to stand aside and breathe. After a week in Andaman (yeah, nice break, but not planning to elaborate on that :P), here I am in Bangalore, settling down - back to eating eggs, going on facebook and GMail as and when I want, blogging, sitting in a silent office that the Bangalore branch is (dead-silent when compared to the Chennai office, which is much more friendlier, casual and noisier), wearing sober cotton kurtis, watching Dexter and House, driving my pep+ (which was taken away from me in the month before marriage for ‘my safety’), eating corn flakes, sight-adichufying good looking guys in Bangalore (;D)… slowly settling down…

The Challenge

I woke up on Saturday morning to find out that there was a ticket to the second day second show of Enthiran. The movie unexpectedly turned out to be pretty good. The theatre was about 45 min from my place and considering the traffic on mount road n all, I was looking at an easy 1 hour drive. But I was not really worried about it. I love driving! So there I was, returning home after the show, and you know my driving skills, when I was challenged.

I wouldn’t have crossed a few of blocks from the theatre when a couple of guys driving a bike stopped right next to me in a traffic signal, right behind a huge truck. The signal turned green but without the truck moving, neither of us could move. I, not usually a patient driver, sneaked through the side making the car coming in the side brake and honk like crazy, but hey, I was gone by then. But I guess this impressed the guys.

I saw them watching me while I cruised through the continuous vehicles with speed and smartness and in the next signal, they again stopped right next to me. Though I was doing my best to ignore them, it was hard to do so when a couple of smart looking guys standing next to you are staring at you. So I looked back to see what the hell were they starting at (hoping it wasn’t me).

The green signal turned on and the cars in front of us rolled, and the guy in front gave me a look that screamed out “Go on, let’s see who is better!” Right then, I heard Ross Geller’s voice saying “Challenge extended.” and I accelerated, overtaking the car and them, which I think they heard in Ross Geller’s voice as “Challenge accepted.”

So there we were, driving in and out, overtaking as many vehicles as possible like crazy people all through the Mount Road, both of us enjoying the little competition, when it suddenly struck me that these guys were total strangers and I was almost nearing my place and I definitely didn’t want them to stalk me forever! So then I tried to slow down and let them go ahead, but they just wouldn’t! They slowed down too, and in the middle of the road with vehicles at high speed right behind them, they both (including the guy driving) started turning their heads and searching for me. It was so creepy (but in a weird sort of way, flattering too :P).

So after some time of this hide-n-seek of me slowing and hiding and them slowing down and seeking me out and me eventually catching up with them, I found a perfect way to outsmart them. As I was nearing Kathipara flyover, I slowed down and stuck to the right side so that I could climb the flyover. FYI, people who need to go towards the airport do not climb the flyover, they go left. So these guys, just a few vehicles ahead of me, turned back and saw me trying to climb the flyover and decided to extend their chase and took the flyover. When it was my turn, I took a sudden left (making the car behind honk like mad for which I was really sorry), and went down the flyover. These guys got a shock and applied sudden brakes, but they knew just as I knew, that the flyover was a one-way and it would take them more than 20-25 minutes to come back to the same place by when I would have safely gone. They knew they were outsmarted. So they started their engines, waved a goodbye, while I shook my head, laughed out at the ordeal and came back home!

What an adventure!

The Long Process

The worst time to run out of petrol in your two-wheeler, esp the one where the petrol tank inlet is below the seat, is in the morning, when there is a heavy downpour and when you are already late to work, when you are wearing multiple layers of rain proof clothing to protect your office laptop and your clothes so that you wouldn’t look wet, filthy and stupid in a monthly meeting with your superiors.

But when Murphy strikes with his world class law, there is simply nothing you can really do but brood and swear under your breath and well, fill petrol!

Now here is the process it goes through. While standing in the queue, first the helmet has to be opened and removed as the raincoat’s hood is stuck under it. Then the raincoat’s hood is untied, and the raincoat is unzipped and removed. Then the bag is removed, unzipped and the purse, which is placed inside a plastic cover (for water protection in case there is leak into the bag), is taken out from the cover. To avoid the other contents and the bag itself from getting wet, they are again zipped and hung back on the shoulder, and the raincoat is worn again. Then you get up, open the seat, and fill in the petrol, by when the wet helmet slips at least thrice.

You pay the guy, move forward, close the lid of the tank and the seat, and again the raincoat is unzipped and removed. The bag is removed, unzipped and the purse is placed back into the plastic cover and safely tugged in, then the bag is zipped back and hung on the shoulder, the raincoat is worn again, zipped, the rain coat hood is worn in the head and tied tightly, then the helmet (finally) is placed back on the head and finally, you get to sit back and drive away!

Phew!

6117

I was driving back home at around 8 pm a few days back, in fact to be exact, on 31st July, after a really long tiring Saturday, with lots of multi tasked work and weekday-pressure-spilt-over-weekend. Work that should have taken ten minutes took half an hour, work that should have started was not even remotely close to starting and work that was planned to have been completed was nowhere near the end.

Above all these, I was damn sleepy!

About my current sleep pattern -

The more I sleep, the sleepier I feel.

The less I sleep, the sleepier I feel!

I ALWAYS FEEL SLEEPY!

So there I was on my pep, trying to safely-drive-rashly (yes, I find rash fast driving very soothing, but I tend to drive cautiously all the same, n hence I call it a safe-rash-drive), when I saw something that made me smile.

I have this habit of looking at the cars, if a really royal cool looking car, look at the driver (it is my belief that the coolest of cars mostly get horrible looking drivers) and any vehicle, look at the license plate to check out the numbers and their pattern.

So back to my story, I saw a really cool Honda City, in royal red color. But I did not even go to look at the driver, coz I was too busy staring at the license plate. It was 6117.

6117…

That was my first year’s room number. 6th block, ground floor room no 17. 6117.

It brought an instant smile on my face, and brought back a series of memory flashes. I had shared the room with a Delhiite, who hated South Indians, esp. Tamilians.

We hardy used to talk to one another, since both of us were a part of totally different worlds and had complete different attitudes and absolutely no roads crossing each other’s paths. But surprisingly, we kind of got along pretty decently.

I was thinking of all these things when an Innova crossed my track, with the number plate 6320, my third year room!! Boy, would you call that a titanic coincidence or what?

6th block second floor room no 20. That was the best year, my third year.

Filled with hopes of future and beliefs in present and loads of extracurricular activities and positions and fun in labs, lots n lots of friends and what not!

I just can’t remember the last stretch of my drive home. I was drowned my pensieve filled with memories of my past, my insides happy and sad at the same time.

I am afraid I might never, you know, be there, ever again.

Last July 31, our ID cards expired and we officially became the BITS Alumni. This July 31, it was like the world was reminding me about my one year of having been a part of BITS Alumni.

I was truly overwhelmed and came back home and watched a couple of college videos. I truly felt like back in Summer of 2004. :)

Yelagiri Part II

Do you know that climbing down hill is exponentially more difficult than climbing up? Yeah.. we had heard about it too, but got to experience it in Yelagiri.

At least on our up-way, we were able to control out movements and the thorny bushes. While climbing down, the thorns were as much of a problem as the gravity! And the place was becoming cloudy and dark so fast, and the guide kept taunting us by barking like a wolf or a bear now and then when She, the meek docile female, immediately clung on Her who in turn held to Her-Bf for her life. It was hilarious when the guide hid behind the rocks and I went a little ahead on the path. They followed me, trying to wrench their way out of some bushes, when the Guide jumped out of the rocks on them barking and freaked them all totally! She was nearly going to have a heart failure! :D We all reached the resort, laughing big time about it.

We were back just in time for dinner, all feeling so great about our achievement, and planned for a night safari in the jungles too. But sadly it started raining so heavily, that we could go, as the resort owners said that there would be too many poisonous snakes prowling and the forest was not exactly a neatly paved tar road with neon lights, and they were bound to be extremely slippery. So we didn’t really want a snake hanging on our framed-photos instead of flowers and just went back to our rooms and slept soundly.

The next morning was one big comedy. Before I go on with that, there is a side track you should know.

Yelagiri is the name of the entire mountain as such, which includes a number of villages (basically just a few houses put together) once every few kilometers. Our resort was in Athanavur, the biggest ‘town-with-an-ATM’, with a single road with about ten or so shops here and there, and the rest of the buildings were other resorts. So the previous day, we decided to go cycling in the mountain side in the early morning, in the cool breeze. Aaah, it all sounded so good… But trust me, BAD IDEA!

We had gone to one of the other resorts- Yathri Nivas, and booked three cycles for rent at 30 bucks/hour/cycle (She couldn’t ride, so we all took turns in taking her doubles). We picked up the cycles at 8 in the morning, with the idea of returning it by 9. Horrible planning!

It was awesome fun while riding downhill. The cycles were completely out of control, moving at like a 100 km/hr (or so it felt) and there were 2 hairpin bends too, where gravity overtook our breaks and even I started praying (funny, when science and rationality lets us down, the only thing anyone can do is call the ‘God’), but well, I could hear Her screaming out to Her-Bf with her hands and feet in the air, and Her-Bf too was helpless and in quite the same state.

We could come to a stop after half an hour of the downhill slide, our hands and feet and all wrong parts were all sour and we all wanted a break. We found this small rocky hill in the side, and decided to lock our cycles in the roadside and climb it. Later after a 45 min climb up and down, we kind of didn’t know which way to take to return, We couldn’t take the way we came coz It was too steep to climb on cycle, but a passerby told us that the other way would lead us to our resort after some 2-3 hours!

We decided to take the route we came and climbed. The cycles started rolling backwards, downhill even when we were putting in all our energy trying to peddle the other way! We got freaked, and decided to push it and hopefully reach the city within an hour. The sun was soaring up and we were barely prepared for such a scorching heat. We didn’t have a cover for the head, not a bottle of water. The place was completely desolated from any civilization and we were stuck, without as much as a tree to take shade, in the middle of nowhere, unable to climb the steep mountain roads, with or without the cycles. We found some rocks under some bushes in the side of a huge valley, and decided that we couldn’t take one step more, and sat down, waiting for someone to walk by to guide us.

So there we were sitting in the valley side not knowing what to do, when a shepherd, an old lady sympathized with us, took out her Nokia handset called the auto-stand in Athanavur, told them to get a tempo big enough to accommodate four people and three cycles and thanks to her, a tempo with an open back arrived to our rescue! We piled up the cycles, stood like politicians in the back of the tempo and in the scorching sun and three cycles tied in front of us and no place to hold to, we climbed the mountains thus! What a roller coaster!

We returned the cycles at around 12 noon, completely exhausted in the heat, went back to our resort, washed up, ate our lunch, played chess (and FYI, almost won) and finally, took back a cab to the station at 3pm. The return journey was pretty uneventful, in the train filled with bickering and bitching families and irritating mamas n mamis.

But as we returned home with sour legs and sun burnt hands and tanned faces, we were thinking… What a weekend!!

Yelagiri Trip - Part I

The talk of a trip had been going on for quite some time now. With parents, sister, friends, colleagues… They all mostly vanished after the planning stage. After Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jodhpur, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal, I now got a chance to take a weekend off in Yelagiri.

About approximately 350 km away from Chennai, Yelagiri is supposedly a hill station. I had expected something like Ooty, cool and commercial, but it wasn’t. It was as hot as 9 am or 4 pm in Chennai, not as sweaty and irritating though. There was a cool breeze all through the day, compensating for the hot sun.

The trip as it is wasn’t exactly a ‘planned’ one. It was more like a last minute idea. Wednesday morning, we discussed about how nice a trip would be, Wednesday evening, we browsed and thought of Yelagiri, Thursday morning we booked the tics in tatkal to Jolarpet (Thanks to pathetic speed of irctc at 8 am, managed to get only waiting list tics), Thursday evening called some resorts and ended up getting one- Auro Ville with two single rooms available and booked it, Friday morning booked the return tics to from Jolarpet to Chennai again in tatkal, Friday evening left office at 9.30 pm, went home and slept off, got up at 4 am on Saturday, got dropped off in central station by dad at 5.15 am.

The unconfirmed onward tics were the least of our problems. The seats actually got confirmed, and we all, Me, She, Her and Her-Bf successfully boarded the train at 6 am. Our main impending problem was the fact that Her father did not know about Her-Bf coming along with us. She had told him that the fourth person was a girl named ‘Divya’, whose seat was in some other coach. So Her inquisitive father came and sat with us until the train started, and enquired about the ‘fourth girl’ and about her seat and where she was n all. Little experience that I had in lying, my BP was rising with every question of his. After a point, I just got up and went outside in the pretext of getting water, and returned only as the train started moving!

Phew!

Her-Bf came and sat with us only after the train left the station and the coast was clear. We got introduced, had our breakfasts (She thought she could survive on biscuits) talked about everything from religious beliefs, purity of Ganges (much to the irritation of the old mama n mami sitting with us in the same bay) to office politics and movies & series. We then played rummy and ace, and finally reached Jolarpet about an hour late.

As we had missed the bus that was supposedly at 9.45 am, we took a share auto for 300 bucks and climbed the mountain at the speed of ooty toy train. On the up side, we got to take a lot of snaps on the way.

We finally reached the resort, got freshened up, had lunch, made friends of Nala (the dog), and fixed up a guide for trekking.

 

We started at about 4.30 pm from the resort and went into jungles in the mountains. IT WAS AWESOME! Initially, we were all so highly enthused and the slopes were quite easy to walk on. We went on taking loads of snaps and enjoying every small thing like the touch-me-not (or so we think) leaves, and watching huge termite hills and everything.

  

Our guide was equally enthused about climbing the mountain with three girls (and a guy :P), and taught us to suck nectar out of small flowers, to walk on wood splinters on the ground without falling on them and getting killed, showed us the holes that bears had dug to eat the roots, dead scorpions, how soft the nest of birds felt and how a forest looks after a wild fire.

  

 

 

 

 

We were amazed by them all!! The path was so difficult to cross, with the thorny twigs scratching our faces and our skins, getting caught in our hair and our clothes. The mountain became increasingly steep and rocky and thorny and slippery and hence, more and more interesting to walk.

           

      

      

We passed all our obstacles and finally reached the mountain top, and sat there, panting like Nala. We had forgotten to take a bottle of water. If only we too had a bucket of water to plunge into!

      

We took some rest up there, talked about the jungle life and wild fires and emergencies and bears and snakes for a while and finally as it was getting dark and cloudy, decided to climb down. We took a long shot of the projecting rock on the right opposite mountain peak, and started off.

     

Our return journey and the next day events in Yelagiri Part II

My Choice

DISCLAIMER: The contents of this post are not meant to be offensive and definitely to the general population. It is just another post with no double/triple meanings or inner implications or any other intentions, just plainly right from heart.

A lot of things that some of the NRIs I know been saying saying about me that has been pissing me off for quite some time. But something that a dumb pampered distant relative with rich parents and no idea of the actual meaning of life or reality said quite recently about me and my life and my choices kind of ticked me off a lot. It was like a spillover from a bowl that has been getting filled for quite some time now. The first thing that came up in my mind was:

House: "Spoken like a true circle queen."

Cameron looks at him funny.

House: "See, skinny, socially privileged white people get to draw this neat little circle. And everyone inside the circle is normal. Everyone outside the circle needs to be beaten, broken, and reset so they can be brought into the circle. Failing that, they should be institutionalized, or worse, pitied."

Cameron: "So it's wrong to feel sorry for this little boy?"

House: "Why would you feel sorry for someone who gets to opt out of the inane courteous formalities which are utterly meaningless, insincere, and therefore degrading? This kid doesn't have to pretend to be interested in your back pain or your excretions or your grandma's itchy place. Can you imagine how liberating it would be to live a life free of all the mind-numbing social niceties? I don't pity this kid. I envy him."

I am not comparing anyone here with anyone I am referring to, including myself. But what he says is almost always the absolute and unarguable fact, which people sometimes in real lives just refuse to accept because of their own circles.

So here is some clarification for the sake of all the above mentioned circle kings and queens.

This is for the people who keep wondering: Why are you not doing a foreign MS?
1. I have chosen not to do an MS simply coz I was, and still am not a fan of 'an-MS-in-US' concept, and I specifically wanted to get a few years of work-ex before an MBA.
2. I do not feel the pressing need to race the world in getting settled in some foreign land and get an NRI title, coz I am fully happy and satisfied in what I am here, what I have here, what I get here and who I am with here.
3. I chose not to study immediately after graduating with 2 degrees simply coz I was and I still am, sick of studying. I will probably just go and murder anyone who asks me to take a test or study some course at least for some time in the near future.
4. I joined a good company after passing out coz just like a lot of people, I too wanted self-earned-money, quality experience and an identity other than a college kid. I am extremely happy with what I have now and I DEFINITELY don’t envy or judge anyone who has taken along a different path of life.

This is for the people who just can't get over the question: Why are you working in a field that is not relevant to your degrees?
5. I took up a job in a field that may not appear too relevant to my degrees because, one of my degrees is useful only for research purposes, which I am not a fan of, and to be an expert in the other degree, I had to do an MS, and not what I wanted either.
6. The job I am in gives me most of what I want and a good percentage of what I need, and that is how much any human (not an Indian, any human) working anywhere would expect. Even a professional bungee jumper would have at least 10 things to brood and complain about his job!

I could go around asking people, about why you had chosen to get settled in US when you were born and brought up in India. No matter if you are studying or working there, you still are an Indian by birth. No matter how much you fake your accent or eat burgers for lunch or wipe your ass with a tissue, you would still not be accepted as an American there. But I certainly won't ask any of that coz its rude to intrude and I certainly won't judge you. I would respect the fact that you are educated, have brains and are old enough to think and set your priorities and choose what you feel is right for you.

Please note, I have NOT attempted GRE or any other exams even once, so I am NOT in a 'the-grapes-are-sour' state. I am simply not interested right now.

Also, I am NOT in any way against NRIs. In fact, I know a lot of sane and sensible NRIs whom I respect and admire a lot; so many relatives and friends. But I am a 100% against the those who sit around judging me for being me and not them!

I am also not against people's suggestions. They are all welcome. But just understand that the final decision is all mine. I shall go abroad when I wish to or when I choose to, and not just because some narrow minded people happened to have low opinions of me or insult my parents for my decisions. My parents have given me full freedom to decide my life and they give all the respect in the world to my choices and for that, I am extremely thankful to them.

And finally, there is only one thing I would like to say - Climb out of your holes, people!

And yet again

There was an incident that made my close friends think that I am an extremely sensitive girlie creature, which I most certainly am not. It was even mentioned in my write up while leaving the campus. The incident left me so embarrassed that I never went anywhere near doing it again, until today.

For people who have no idea what I am talking about, there is this sweet romantic movie 'If Only', which I happened to watch in my third year. My roommate was lying fast asleep on the other side of the bed, while I was happily watching it in mine, with my head phones on. The rest of my friends were all sitting in the next room gossipping away.

The movie was no suspense, highly predictable and I could guess where it was going and the ending too, within the first few minutes. I got so engrossed into the panic and desperation of the hero and his romantic ideas and his way of showing how much the his girl meant to him and everything, that by the end, I myself fell in love with him!

With his last monologue I was already in tears; and when she asked "Aren't you coming?" and he replied "Of course I am" knowing what was going to happen, and him covering and protecting her and actually dying for her.. I was weeping by then, uncontrollably!

I hardly realized that my roommate had woken up and was blinking groggily asking what had happened, and even my wingies in had come from the next room inquiring as to why I was crying. When they all saw that I was crying over a dead romantic hero, omg! They burst out laughing so loudly, that it broke my 15 minutes trans and brought me back into the real world.

All this while it has gotten screened a number of times in HBO, in Star Movies n all and I never even turned to that channel. I was that embarrassed! In fact, I have had it in my comp for quite sometime now. So I took a bet against myself, and decided to watch it and check out how mature and realistic I have become.

And to my greatest shock, the final scene this time, left me weeping only for 5 minutes rather then the 15 last time. Sigh! Apparently I am still quite unrealistic! But now, may be I can bet again next time, and end up not crying at all; Or may be never ever attempt watching it again!! :p

Physics

After the movie ‘Daybreakers’, I still wasn’t sleepy, though it was 12.30 in the night. So I started watching an episode of Bones, the one that started with a devil burning on the table in a church n all. The episode went on with the usual cool gross stuff and a psychiatric ward full of weirdoes. I wasn’t sleepy even after the episode, but decided to close the laptop nevertheless and tried to shut my eyes and brains. The AC was making such a noise and it was pretty cold already, so I switched it off and lay down in the dark silence, trying my best to go into my very own Pandora, when I heard a sound. It was a small hissing-squeaking sort of a noise. I got up to check if there was some insect in the room, but found nothing. So I switched the light off and rolled on into the bed, when the noise started again. It was growing bigger and was not continuous. I kind of got a little freaked, with my mind considering all sorts of possibilities from squeaky rats to snakes and switched on the lights to give a thorough inspection of the room, with the door open in case I needed to run out (;P), and yet I still found nothing.

I switched everything off again and cuddled back into my sheets, but the hissing sound kept bothering me. I decided to ignore it, filter it out and stop my bloody imagination from running miles. A few minutes later, it struck me. The darn sound was coming neither from some cricket nor from a rat. It was simply from the water bottle’s cap that was squeezed too tight, and was generating air bubbles at the cap rim. Damn you physics!! I simply got up again, opened the cap a little and the sound just vanished, and I finally drowned into deep deep sleep. :)

Anandi Dies?!?!?

WTF?? This is the girl who has till date, been portrayed as ‘the-innocent-Indian-village-kid-being-illtreated-in-the-name-of-culture’, is seen (in the trailer) to be running behind gangsters in Mumbai, in her shiny Rajasthani robes, and somewhere down the line, gets shot at and falls down dead. The subsequent clips also show her Photo framed with a lamp lit in front of it. Good God it was shocking!

If this twist in the story was even given as a headline in India Today as “Twist in Balika Vadhu”, then imagine the shockwave it must have created! Jobless that I am. I went ahead and Googled it to find that she has either bagged a huge movie offer or she has her annual exams in real life and might later on, come back from the dead. Well… Good for her either way!

The Beeper

Once again, its been a while since I had time and mood enough to blog. And yet again I am typing away while importing an obscenely huge ugly file into an analytics tool and waiting, waiting and waiting. This waiting seems to have become quite a habit these days, but all the funny incidents that I keep thinking of posting now and then get lost in huge numbers and scripts and other screw-ups.

Yeah! The past 10 days have been an utter screw-up of a lot of things, and then me getting bashed by seniors and managers, first politely and then not-so-politely for my stupid gimmicks. Even at home, parents these days are not as forgiving as they used to be!

Everyone keeps telling me to grow up, though I seriously can’t really relate me growing up as even a remotely possible solution to the existing problems! First of all, why should I grow up?!? And what fun do they all get in making? I live in my own goddamn world and do not intrude into theirs, nor do I try to change their world. Why do people keep trying to invade into mine? Oh well, I guess that’s the definition of ‘Mature Adults’.

Seniors in work keep telling me to take things seriously and attend all meetings and trainings and remind me that I am no more in College and I should learn to be a ‘Professional’ in a ‘Corporate world’.

Parents go a step further… No No.. One step each, and one + one here = three… so three steps further and have taken it as a primary mission in their lives to make me ‘a-marriage-material’ for which I somehow show a shockingly strong resistance, according to them.

Mom that day made me stand in front of the servant maid and her little girl and asked me to identify the different Dals (Kadala paruppu, thuvaram paruppu, ullutham paruppu, etc) and the different types of flour (kadala maavu, maida maavu, arisi maavu etc). The wicked Grandmom and gossipy Servant waited for my answers, which as everyone expected, were totally and completely wrong. I got embarrassed n irritated, Grandmom started laughing and as usual called up the relatives and narrated a hugely exaggerated version and mom was extremely psyched about my ignorance even at something so basic such as ingredients. From that moment, I just resolved openly that I would not set foot into the kitchen even if the rest of the house was on fire, and have been religiously sticking to it since then. The fact that I can cook pretty decently when the ingredients have been identified and given, doesn’t get a lot of credits, it seems.

Grand mom then asked: How are you going to cook for your entire family after you get married?

Me: Family? It would be me and some loser iyengar guy, who would be earning too, I suppose, so we’ll either order from outside or go out and eat! Convenient for both of us!

Beeeeeep. Wrong answers. Yes… Plural.

Grand-mom’s reply to my wrong answer no 1: After marriage, my family would not only be the guy, but his family too.

My response (Sarcastically): Shearr.. just like my current family would become his. So he can come n cook n serve my parents in my place, n I would do the same to his in his place.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Wrong answer again.

Grand-mom’s reply to my wrong answer no 2: ‘Order from outside or go out and eat’?? Really?? You are really proud that you are earning, aren’t you?

My response (Bewildered): Well, why shouldn’t I? I mean… I am not stealing money or doing anything illegally or immoral, for me to feel ashamed! I have money, so I can spend it the way I want! Now if I buy one pizza, after marriage I’ll probably order two, one for each.I won't mind that.. Honest!! What’s wrong in that?!?!

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppppppppppppp
And the beeper never stopped!!

Well, maybe, just may be, sitting in the office was a tad better than sitting at home with an irritatingly ultrasonic beeper going on every time I open my mouth!!

Good lord.. the import is done earlier than expected! Yeah well, I m sure I’ll get more of such ugly huge files in the near future, and hence more possible blogging time!! :)

Queen of the Road

And yet again, its been quite long since I could write my heart out into my dear darling pensieve. The job takes up almost 3/4ths of my day, and the remaining 1/4ths goes off sleeping and in driving. Yeah.. driving my pep+. :)

Oh yeah… driving.. :) :) Even though my family has been in Chennai for quite sometime now, I used to come home for hols n drive the old scooty now and then, but actually driving for about an hour every day, is cool! Infact a couple of days back, the whole road from Cenetoph Road to Raj Bhawan was empty, with traffic police all over the place expecting some VIP. I was the only one on the entire road with no signals, all the police personnel stopping vehicles from perpendicular streets just to let me pass to keep the road free, and there I was riding alone, with all the police and people in sides giving me so much attention that I felt like the Queen of the road!! I was wooping with joy when the speedometer in my pep+ reached 80! IT FELT AWESOME!!!

There have been quite a number of such small small incidents, that I keep wanting to post into my pensieve. Infact I type the whole thing in my mind as and when they happen, just never get time to physically do it. Thanks to the really loong time that 'vlookup' takes for like a million records, I could type this post! :P

Just like millions of other Indians, work has taken over my entire life, it seems!

Happy New Year

There is always a lot of excitement surrounding ‘the New Year’. Everyone wishing one another greetings and wishes, loads of offers, HOLIDAYS, special TV shows… It’s truly a great time. The one thing that really beats me is the usual (ridiculous) question that usually follows the wishes, “So, partying tonight? Big plans?”

Seriously people! Help me out here! One thing I don’t understand is what their very idea behind the question is. I mean what DO people do ‘specially’ on the New Year’s night that they don’t do in the other nights or in other parties that the party-buffs may attend, other than probably wish one another “HAPPY NEW YEAR”? I think the whole thing has become too hyped-up.

This weekend, being a 3 day weekend, one more question follows- “What plans for the 3 days?”

This question is even more maddening! I live in Chennai with parents, friends’ living with parents too, in places that are quite far from one another, sick bored of travelling. The only places that one can think of is eat-outs and restaurants where families/hungry-hostel-people would go, or spencers/city-center which has become a little too clichéd, or beaches (that are toooo far for the only few friends living in Chennai) or some local shopping places like in T-Nagar where we have already met a little too often and have nothing left to do there.

Well, honestly, I can’t seem to think of any other place(s) to generally go out here in Chennai, probably coz though this is my native, the main high-school and college days of mine n my friends weren’t spent here! Plus when living with friends in Bangalore or in Pilani, going out for fun or for time-pass or for food and entertainment and to avoid loneliness made sense. But now, being at home with a TV and more importantly, parents, meeting every weekend just to eat, or for time-pass when work is tight, or to avoid being lonely when you always have company doesn’t make any sense, especially when we all (friends) get to happily talk about every small detail of our lives all over the day through mails n chats.

This is why, the very question is sad bcoz it has no answer from my side! And yet, every known-unknown person walking past asks “Hey! Happy New Year! So what plans for the 3-day weekend? I m gonna Pondy with my gang with some bottles n glasses! What about you?” And I dumbly say “Uhh.. I don’t know. No plans yet/can’t think of places to go/don’t have a huge gang here/living with parents well… I might just have a quite weekend at home, I think. Happy New Year to you too!”

As I entered the house, my parents were right there, drowned deep into Sudha Raghunathan’s concert on TV; and I said to myself, “Here starts my New Year weekend.”
Oh yeah… Happy New Year you all!! Hope you guys have a great weekend and a great year ahead!!