The Mess..

It... is a mess...the life... If I call it 'this', the entire responsibility comes on my shoulders and it is too much a burden for 40 cms , if I call it 'that' it will be like shrugging off all the responsibility and I am well above 18 to do that. I... am a responsible citizen...responsible for unnecessary competition , responsible for global warming , responsible for McDonald & CCD outlets , responsible for attaining the benchmarks , setting them and many a times not achieving them , very much responsible for the march of the country towards the future 'Super Power' image and at the same time responsible for the brain-drain. So it is better to call life, 'it' ,which gives a neutral view.

So far it has been very ordinary. To become extra-ordinary , it takes extra-ordinary events to happen in life, like the great einsteins, the hitlers but it took long, very long indeed to realize that the events can not be made to happen, they happen if they are supposed to happen and it is destined most of the times,otherwise the life continues the way it is , if you allow it to... unless you pause and think and guide it towrds something extraordinary in the future. Though , sometimes the word 'extraordinary' puzzles me, whether it means someting 'unusual' or something very very usual, commonplace. But , one thig is certain, whenever life becomes very predictable and obvious ,one must pause and redirect it .How long one should pause depends on the urge to change ,to transform and moreover to evolve to become something that one wanted to become. All that we want in life ,from life , is contentment... but we can't be passive and wait for the time to bring it to us, sometimes discontent about the things going around is necessary to bring about the content.

Those who can't do it themselves, nature takes care. Sometimes, I feel this global recession is one such act of nature to reshuffle the lives to bring them back on track in some cases and throw out of the track in some other... all for good , are we alert enough to understand the signs ? for some who are not so fortunate, action is necessary and for the luckier lot... caution is sufficient.

I sometimes wonder , if Darvin was alive, he would have come up with a revised version of the theory of evolution, 'suvival of the luckiest' ! So, the people who have seen through the bad times have got a boon of continuing with their ordinary lives with a profound lessons learnt from other's lives.

But ,yes... if I look back now, it is full of chaos, complaints about anything and everything around... about the politics, the education system, following the herd, burden of expectations and liabilities and what not.... but the history of life teaches us that , Chaos has always given birth to something beautiful , something great. This universe was born out of chaos in stellar life , Amrit was extracted as a result of chaos... that is the only positive side of having a messed up situation... there is always a hope of clearing it and the things can only get better !

HORN OK PLEASE!

I..always believed , I was a good observer...since my childhood, e.g. when it was asked in the english class,what is the right term for the barber ,I had promptly answered Hairdresser, for I had seen it on the nameplates... but it took me several years to realize that being an observer means being a mere witness ,It just means you are a bit less ignorant than others in some aspects, it doesn't mean you are a good interpreter, for when it was asked again by someone..what is common of all the Tankers & Trucks...I was the first to reply, "HORN OK PLEASE" ,it did not mean anything to me then...untill recently when I discovered those discrete words were really not senseless and the spaces between them were really not empty...there was somethingg written in between,it just needed a different perspective.

A regular evening for me,when I left office and headed towards home...the mood was differentt than ususal...

..................Hum hain raahi pyaar ke hum se kuch na boliye...

Jo bhi pyaar se milaa hum usi ke ho liye.....

I was humming this tune while riding on my bike..I never rode like this before on that road, at the speed of 40,the speed at which the engine produces the sweetest sound giving you a sense of harmony (Please excuse..every biker has got such weird notions)...was giving way to those who wanted to overtake by honking continusously signalling that boss I am going to go that way..don't even think of blocking me...or else...I will honk even more!!

Not necessary that they might be in a hurry or the traffic was heavy... It was just that they wanted to be ahead...of someone..rather everyone..or probably no one?? I was one of them few days back. I used to rush past other vehicles experiencing the doppler effect,sometimes feeling sorry for them and many times happy for myself...but it never lasted long,coz there were many vehicles still ahead of me, I honked everytime somebody wanted to cross the road to stop him/her and allowing myself to keep going with the same speed. But something had happened which had changed my attitude, It was not some realization, it was the helpless situation...my bike's horn was damaged It did not speak..or should I say, shout???

The moment I started the engine my left thumb went to the horn..but no sound , I smiled to myself...and came upto the office gate and again my thumb went to the horn...what for ...dammit! I said to myself, don't you understand it's not working! As a result I had to look to my right and then to the left before hitting the road... I had no other option but to take a chill pill ... My bike had lost its voice...My voice...I could no longer make my presence felt on the road..Everyone was speaking,talking,shouting,yelling,screaming,crying... but I was silent...or I should say.. at peace...I was not in a hurry, but I realized I never was... I allowed others to go ahead...some threw a glance at me as if i was underusing the capabilities of my bike by driving so slow, (40 ..by no means is slow.. probably it is, as compared to 45 or 50) few others acknowledged my kind gesture. I felt satisfied.
I slowed down at a junction to allow a lady with a small kid to cross the junction, unlike in previous cases when I honked as if to command , "Stop! right there!" It was not just the sound of horn.. It was my ego. But this ego, did not help me at the traffic signal, it never turned red into green for my honking,evryone was at the same level there, people who drove fast in automobiles, also those who peddled their way slowly on bicycles and even those who pulled heavy carts loaded with goods...
but just for a moment , as soon as it turned green, everyone started speaking (honking) , shouting...just one beep from some restless guy was sufficient , all the others started honking too...for no reason..yet another example of man behaving like a Dog, just one bark is sufficient ,all the rest pitch in.
But a bark may not be as harmful...it is the same always, and predictable... I have heard some weird horns which would cause heart attacks even to a strong hearted person.
I suddenly remembered the conversation with Rahul about necessity of having a 'sound' horn.. him saying that it was not really necessary and me explaing him a specially devised theory about maintaining the speed with the help of a horn...it made me smile again as I reached home and got down to open the gate when I heard a loud horn..somebody was passingg through that narrow lane,warning me not to even think of turning back... But...I felt it was unnecessary... I looked at him and saw a sense of satisfaction that the message was conveyed effectively...probably he might have seen my pitiable expressions in the torch of light thrown by his headlamp... I did not expect any gesture of sorry from him... I just wanted to tell him, "My friend...

HORN (is) OK...(but)..PLEASE.."

The times...they are a-Changin' !!!

Come gather 'round people Wherever you roam

And admit that the watersAround you have grown

And accept it that soonYou'll be drenched to the bone.

If your time to you Is worth savin'Then you better start swimmin'

Or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin'.....

......The line it is drawnThe curse it is cast,

The slow one nowWill later be fast,

As the present nowWill later be past,The order isRapidly fadin'.

And the first one nowWill later be last

For the times they are a-changin'...

...These lines from the famous Bob Dylan song.. really forced me to think,while the trailing music piece on mouth organ still played in the background. About..In what direction our race is going...are we fit enough to survive in this rapidly changing world? Are we made like this ,or our tendencies are acquired ...
People say, 'Man' is God's best creation ! (I beg to differ on this, I feel it is.. 'Woman'!) But that is a different debate . Time and again, I tend to think that... he ,the almighty went wrong somewhere...that's kind of a bold statement ,but sadly that is the truth!
speaking in IT terms, man is like those technologies which seemed to be perfect when launched and later became obsolete,or those softwares which were never upgraded... if there is a factory in which he creates human specimen..then I guess.. he needs to procure new machinery,probably he can outsource this contract to Japan,with six-sigma compliance.
Anyways, coming back to the topic... I strongly feel that,human model needs an Upgrade, yes! An upgrade,that is what the time demands. We are afraid of expressing this,that is why we admire super heroes,X-MEN , but never speak out...all right! I am ready to take the balck mark and propose on behalf of the entire human race."We want upgrade"!!
These days...I am unable to cope up with this old model... for example...its happening very often ,especially in the cafetaria during lunch hours, that...while turning back after keeping the plates in the 'used plates' tray...I tend to develop a fear of collision with other people or while coming out from the wash area,they seemed to have acquired the ignorance which i and few other human beings lack , also...I am unable to give alert to other people in order to avoid 'pehle aap,pehle aap ' situation.. the other day,it so happened that, a lady with plate full of semi- solid edible substances (they call it full meals) almost brushed me...I had no idea how to react to it, whether to call it Just saved or Just Missed!
I wish we had an inbuilt horn or hooter or an alarm installed with an RFID circuit which would detect people entering in the danger zone (i.e. crossing a certain proximity level). Ofcourse this circuitary would fail in local trains and Big Bazaar but we can program it for few exceptions.
this is one example, the other time I feel the urge for upgrade is while coming out of the elevator, people outside simply charge in,blocking the door and leaving no space to come out, its not their fault... actually I am unable to convey the message that,I entered coz I wanted to get out and I am not the resident of this lift, I wish we all had bluetooth recievers or atleast an inbuilt programmed PA system.
one more example is related to elevators, sometimes it takes as long as 15-20 seconds for the elevator to come!! what a waste, of time, I wish we had gliders,parachutes installed .
another area of disappointment is, the poor memory, people whom you see often and regularly but have never interacted with... if encountered in a different setup other that routine fail to recognize you...very often you meet such familiar faces who work in the same office for months and years, but when greeted, fail to acknowledge you... what a challenge to the existence!!!
but, its not their fault.. with so much data flowing in every minute, the age old memory system is outdated, I think god doesnt know about the cache-memory and RAM concept... The times are changing... and posing new challenges day by day...I think they dont have consultancies up there.
Anyways.. I have found some temporary solutions.. for some of the many above mentioned problems.
These days... I look down and walk...so it is the other person's responsibility to avoid collision,I'm freed from the burden of saying sorry :),rather i can afford to throw an angry glance..howzzatt!. while waiting for the elevators, buses to come...I make calls from my cellphone,recently, I have noticed.. many people imitating me...sometimes I feel irritated..why cant they pass that time differently??? why can't they have a conversation with the other people around.. so what, if they might not know each other ? Why should everyone speak on phone...? copycats!
also, I play songs on my phone and set loud and weird ringtones.. so that people can identify me distinctly, I dont like those noisy ringtones,myself,but what to do..Darvin's survival of the fittest theory gets things done...and guess what! This trick seems to be working out, as..when my phone rings...people turn in that direction and for that moment atleast.. I can see some acknowledgement in their eyes.no more threat to my existence you see!
these are some remedies... but not the permanent solution...the revised edition is due...We badly need an Upgrade,If we want to live happily...For the times...they really are a-Changin'....

Routine ? Or Sub-Routine...?

Words are the most powerful Tool we have got... 'Just Another day of life...' The moment you say this, any achievement,any special moment,any different experience can lose its importance.

I was chatting with a dear friend on office communicator when suddenly she typed my name , and i knew that something important was going to follow...
she : 'I'm getting bored'
me :'As Always...'
she : 'Life has become a routine...'

ahha! Routine... the phenomena which we all suffer from. So, I asked her to tell me her routine,just to check the definition... Waking Up , Coming to office, Spending a fixed amount of time either working or without work as per the need, going back home etc.... Sounds pretty Routine-like doesn't it ?

But is it really what we can call as Routine in true sense? Do you need breaks routinely to come out of a routine...? weekends are there for that...but it can still come under the 'Routine' category! how funny !

SO, I thought deeper... all those things which we call as Routine... are actually check-points ! without them we can't survive, for example... can i afford to skip office,for a day ? Though it sounds very cheerful, underlying reality of losing paid leaves or Loss Of Pay... will not encourage me to do that. similarly... waking up , lunch time ,sleeping... are all inevitable, rather necessary to maintain harmony & order in life.

But, the golden question remains, how to come out of routine... answer is simple...Change the Sub-routine ! That's the key to break out from it,Still being in it.Generally, it's not the apparent duties which create boredom, but the small activities we do in between these bigger tasks.

I started reviewing my own day so far, I realized I had actually broken my routine today. Instead of coming on bike to office, like everyday I came in a Bus (bike is given for repair), I had just a coffee on the way rather than having regular breakfast, I observed people busy in their thoughts in the morning rush, entered the office through a different gate... and few other things which I don't do everyday!!! No wonder I felt different! And as a result of that maybe, I had been working on different set of things since morning in a more organized,result oriented manner as compared to the other day when i felt it was a total waste at the end of day. still, to sum it up in one sentence, I can say, "I woke up and came to office.nothing special,just a routine!"

All the fun,the different experiences i had in between... what does it account for, nothing..? have we become so result-oriented to weigh our life against accomplishments and achievements always ? have we started missing little elements of fun in day to day life ? In the longer run,these small things help you to connect yourself with society,with nature...and above all , with yourself, how can that be boring ! If you feel your life is becoming stereotypical, then step up and bring the change yourself! Wake up a bit early and watch sunrise, or sleep extra five minutes and hurry things up to feel the rush (multi-task to achieve time lines!) , stop by a Tea-stall and sip the hot tea in your own company for a change, look at the sky while stepping out of the office rather than at the wrist watch, or just pause and take a deep breath... the list is endless.

That means, its important to step out of the habits, as they say "habits are like soft beds, easy to get in, very difficult to get out". But , somewhere we get used to them, and create boredom ourselves, don't we ?

If this much for the thought then,there must be something for the action as well.

I don't know if she got the solution or not coz to break our routine,we mutually decided not to chat today, just for a change.But, that gave me another topic for blogging, the Routine I never get bored of ! ;-)

Over A Cup Of Tea...

Tea... I don't know the exact origin of it, but most probably India and some neighboring countries.As per Wikipedia , Its consumption is second largest after water all over the world.

Those who know me, or even spend some time with me, know my love for It... rather good,quality Tea. I always say
'Its very difficult to spoil coffee , but equally easy to spoil Tea ' . You got to have an art , it's like playing a Violin... Not everyone's cup of Tea you see.

Excuse me for this Tea Saga,thats not the scope of this blog...just got a little carried away :) .

So,There are very few places here in Chennai where you get really good tea...what they call as Spl.Chaai (with ginger,ilaaichi) and I make a point to visit these cafe's run by mostly Mallu's at least once in a day (There are many other things for cost-cutting, not this!)

Yesterday,I woke up in the evening after a small nap and felt the thirst for some Spl. Tea (yes, Thirst can become very specific at times). So, hopped on the bike and went directly to the mallu-cafe. As it always happens...alone on a table,waiting for my cup.The only bad thing about Spl. Tea is,it takes some time to get ready...and when its ready,you don't need to be told , the scent just knocks on your nostrils(excuse me again... :)).
But, a little while later a middle aged man having all the typical middle aged characteristics came in and sat opposite to me on the table.

now...I have this (good/bad) habit of guessing abt ethnicity from a person's face, which i mostly keep it to myself.One thing about 'habits' is u don't realize when they come into action.Thus, I started examining him, wheatish complexion,old fashioned spectacles,thick mustache, and peculiar cheeks.My first impression was he was a telugu but then the saffron tilak on forehead confused me and i thought he can also be Maharashtrian.

I could have very well kept this confusion to myself, but when he ordered another cup of Spl.Coffee(yes, there's a Spl.Coffee too) I thought may be I can Clear my confusion with the gentleman himself. "Good Evening!Where are you from ?" certainly not the best way to start the conversation though,but he smiled and asked "what do You think ?"
me : Ummm...Telugu,most probably,but the saffron tilak confused me.
him: (smile widened) Right! (Coming Closer..) Certainly not from here right ?
(Now,i dont really know why he said that) I discarded the possibility and our conversation moved ahead.

He is DGM at a very reputed Finance Institute and keeps on moving all over India, I realized that he was not very happy with that and wanted to be with his family (very obvious!).he didn't like Chennai much... maybe on account of previous experiences.Slowly he started opening up as if he wanted someone to talk to , someone who doesn't know him and wont have any interaction with in future,many times we end up speaking very frankly to strangers about our feelings than our near ones, don't we? maybe, that was what the situation was with him.
He seemed to have had a bad day,had a fight with his boss over some small but irritating issue,but could not vent out his frustration "You have a long way to go.Remember,Boss is always Right!"
i nodded,I had decided not to stop him at any point and he went on and on and on...whatever he spoke was so simple,I must say... probably as you go higher things become simpler.We discussed many things,ranging from Satyam Scam to cultural similarities between Maharashtrians and telugus... "See,you have Rao we also have Rao,You Have Shatris we also have Shatris,But Thank God that You Don't have Reddys,hahha.. Also, the style of wearing Saree is similar!"

Our Conversation was getting more and more interesting, but It was more than 40 minutes and I was getting a bit restless as I had some important tasks still to be done. He might have sensed it and said, "I am Mallikarjun,Its a common name among telugus. " I smiled and shook hands with him. We exchanged the numbers and said bye with a promise from him that whenever he is in town he will give me call, and we may again meet over a Spl.Chaai.

An Online ticket booking Fiasco

haaah !

it gives such a joy to me to write something after so long... it was not that i was very busy... I am never so busy... but yes, a bit lazy.All these days, many topics crossed my mind on which i thought i could write something... but.. it was just not to be.

But why this incident alone ?
Coz,
"The Magnitude of importance of an event depends upon the number of people it affects" (e.g. world war II,soccer world cup,Kumbh Mela,Wednesday Market etc....)

So, how it happened -

Friday, The 13th - a combination most people consider to be the most ominous.

I always laughed at it.You see, Numerology wise i consider it to be lucky as my birth date is 4 (1+3 = 4) , its really funny how stupid people can get behind these things.Fools! On top of that, Friday being a weekend, spirits(I mean, energy level) were already high!

After having an extended break-cum-discussion-cum-brainstorming-session in the office cafetaria, I asked rahul to come along with me to KPN Travel's office to book tkts for our friend Vishal & his brother who were coming to Chennai for some exam.

rahul dismissed the idea saying that it can be very well done 'Online' from office itself... feeling very relaxed at the suggestion we headed downstairs to our desks, unaware of what lay ahead of us.

So, we found a suitable website and booked the ticket on my credit card (yes, icici still allows me to do transactions on it). After booking the ticket we punched in the air and I asked Rahul "Is it So Simple???" I have been always going to these travel offices fearing that something will go wrong in online transactions(Typical Indian mentality,we are yet to get used to this 'online' thing) "Hmm...let's see" he said and refreshed the page to cross-verify whether it reflected in their database. Yes, It did, now the next level of validation,Print-preview... Wolla! what do we have here! in place of 15th, we had actually booked for that night itself!!!!

we hurriedly went to the cancellation page, but it could not be canceled within the 24 hours of the time of journey and we had only 4 hrs. in hand... and if we could not find any bakra before that, it meant i had lost thousand bucks straight away , in this time of cost-cutting it meant.... it meant something very serious.(more serious than cutting down to only 3 tea's a day!)

Still managing to hold the nerve we started making calls to... almost every possible resource to come out of the situation.To the website office which redirected to the Travel agent's office (that guy spoke as if my father had taken a huge loan from him) then redirected to another branch... nobody paid any heed to our request(probably something wrong with our communications skills).Now, this was serious... I started contacting people who could possibly be traveling to bangalore on weekend and not yet got tickets (sounds funny but being a last-minute person myself, I had some hope) , meanwhile Rahul tried to use his contacts to take us out of this situation.

Slowly, all the hopes started diminishing and we knew that Friday the 13th had started showing its charm.After some deep thinking we resolved upon getting our money back (what a joke,it was more of need than resolution) took the printout and were just about to leave for the Central Station when Vivek came back from his Toastmater's meeting and showed willingness to join...unaware of what he was jumping into...

6 p.m. At the gate of Satyam Office :

khikhikharrrr(electric start hona yaaron!)... the two bikes started and headed towards Central Station.
How we falsely think,how easy things are...this was just a trailer The movie was about to begin...The tentative plan was to cancel the tkts,re-book for 15th , shop in the 'mor market' for some leather stuff, have famous Biryani,faluda and Irani Chaai at the National Darbaar hotel and come back happy,victorious.At least...this was the picture painted in Vivek's mind (He had no idea,what happened and what was about to happen..) In this effort, we canceled Friday -special food also (puri-chole-pulav-kheer) , U must be really either over confident or become nuts to do something like that.
So v reached Central at 6.25 and rahul went in to negotiate with the travel agent...and as expected Our Commn Skills failed again and that meant we were left with three choices,

• wait till the boarding time and try to find a bakra
• Go to the main office i.e. Koyambedu Bus Depot (now consideing central station and traffics in peak hrs that was out of question for me)
• Travel ourselves on those tickets to make up for the lost money(how weird!)

after some discussion among ourselves, we decided to have the Irani Chaai and faluda first at National Darbaar..lol! (aji, aisa mauka fir kahaan milega!) what a sound decision to make under such situation. If u r thinking i'm just trying to make it funny, trust me we actually did it(Except faluda).This also gave us some time to think on the matter, as myself and rahul discussed vivek justified his liking for cream-bun.

finally we decided to follow this matter to the core and headed to koyambedu, Asia's Biggest bus terminal and road towards it...? probably Asia's sickest road to drive in evening.It took me an hour or so,a lot of back-ache and frustration to reach koyambedu when i realised this is Not the place where we wanted to go, but thankfully our destination was not very far. After a short essel-world ride i reached Omni bus stand where rahul had already reached and had cracked the deal.So, we finally got our tickets for 15th,Sunday and were relieved.

Now came the time of realization,the golden picture painted in our minds was washed off and we were in midst of million particles of dust and equal number ppl waiting for their buses.This was the point of No Rollback,as the food was already canceled, we quickly(after some argument between me & Vivek) decided the eating spot and got out of that sick place, I following rahul in order to not miss the route like before.

Our suffering didn't seem to end as ,while coming back at one small junction we were stopped by the traffic Police who revealed that it was one-way and we had been driving in the wrong direction...I don't have words to explain that situation.I fear traffic police more than Yamaraj...the rason is obvious,The latter does not humiliate.But this chap was nice ,after knowing that we were really innocent he left us for a nominal chaai-pani charge.

the time was getting better,as we had delicious set dosai and appam with coconut milk at balaji bhavan.After the food got over I bid bye to rahul and started back home via office for Vivek to collect his bike from there.

Finally after 4 hours of drama,we reached home.As I prepared myself for heading for a quick bath, Vivek stopped me and asked... how it actually happened ?
It was a mystery even for us...as we remember selecting the date properly,may Friday,13th was the reson(thankfully we didn't inform Vishal about this)... who knows, all I could reply was, "Sod, paise wachle!"

A sunday afternoon at the 'Guindy National Park'

how to get lucky ?

One wise person said... just trust your 'Gut feeling' 90% of the times, it pays off !

My guess was, it should... & my experience says it does, it did in my case,when i struck a gr8 deal for my new entry level D-SLR camera, though that deserves a separate blog,the scope of this one is different, 'how i got lucky again!'

A lazy Sunday afternoon...mostly I spend it sleeping,failing 2 get over drowsiness after a heavy meal @ Sangeetha or hot-chips,but this time it was not 2 be... I had a reason, i had something which I always wanted to own...to use @ my liberty...the way I want.

I... had a Camera! I had a whole afternoon free! and I had this beautiful picnic spot just a walk away, 'Guindy National Park'.

I had been there before, a year back & this was the time to revisit and to view the same place thru a different eye...i proposed this idea to my roommates and i don't have words to thank them, coz , for the first time they all replied in one voice, 'NO'.(I think the previous experience of sunrise-cricket at elliots beach counted for their decision, when I really tested their patience while I was taking snaps..through my mobile.If this much for a mobile-cam,just imagine for a d-SLR!)

I trusted my gut feeling and moved on (all alone), took a ticket and entered the park...and what i saw through my lens is in front of you.

O Deer! Why are you so shy?

definitely female :)

otrai kal kokku (i.e.bako-dhyaan)

Vedanthangal Birds!(thanks for the pose)

barso ka sapna... ek butterfly ka photo ho apna..

colorful makkhi!

illuminated tree.

cleanliness is next to godliness!

ek duje ke liye.

By this time i had covered almost one big section of the park and had tested my camera (a practical test) and it was time turn back home to catch sunset from the terrace...as i started packing up, suddenly all the garden-hoses started sprinkling from all the directions which filled air with the heavenly fragrance of wet soil.while I ran ,along with other people to save my camera,that situation put a smile on everyone's face and all those people who had seen each other for some time that afternoon acknowledged each other.

got lucky once again... as i reached just in time to catch sunset from my terrace.
kashala ugach... khaket kalsa ni gaavala valsa !

the demo battery lasted enough to provide me with these clicks. Thanks Fuji S700!