cruisin thoughts

The first prayer!

2010-02-17T10:39:00.001-08:00

Hunger.. Pasi.. Bhook.. All refer to state of mind where you can only think of food and nothing else.. this blog is just about that one word.. and my experience with it recently.. this blog is real, comical and ofcourse philosophical..

A few months ago I read about this magic diet program called as the Master cleanse program. Googling this would give you tons of information. it is basically a ten day diet program where u drink nothing but a special lemonade and some salt water.. nothin just nothin more.. it guarantees to clean ur body.. make u feel more healthy and lost around 10 pounds of fat. I have been wanting to try to this program for a long time but never had the guts to do so.. coz i am so much into food.. to tell a little fact of how much i love food.. this incident happened when i was in my 4th standard in school.. was about 9 years old i shud say..

I was always inspired by these tamil movies at that time.. and had always heard of little boys running away from home after fighting with their parents and sometimes even big guys running away from homes and making it big.. one fine day the same situation happened at my home.. for some reason i had a fight with my dad and it was turning out big.. in the end i had to use the most powerful word to my dad.. (my mom was making something in the kitchen as usual).. I shouted at my dad.. "Ippdilam panna.. Nan veeta vittu velia poiruven.." which means "If you keep doing like this i would run away from the house forever".. i expected my dad to keep his hands on the head.. and in a very sad way sit in the couch.. and my mom to come out running with tears in her eyes asking me not to go.. thats why i said those magical words so loud.. well for those of u who know my dad.. it turned out a bit different..

VELIA PODA.. (GET OUT).. was my dad's only words and he walked away.. my mom dint even bother coming out of the kitchen.. and my sister was happy that i was leavin home and she dint have to fight or share stuff.. I was kinda dumbstuck and dint know wat to do.. but my ego had gotten into my head.. how can my dad say that.. so i really wanted to show him i can do it.. so went to the bedroom.. took a bag out and started taking my clothes and putting them in.. my dad suddenly came into the room.. i thought he had realized his mistake and had come to ask sorry.. he gave another me another shock "You got all these in my earnings.. so it belong to me. leave it here and go and earn on ur own.. " I was full of ego now.. but i had nothing to take.. still i wanted to leave home.. i walked out.. with nothing in hand and not even knowing wat is earning.. the only income i had was my dad s purse.. i cud take 5 rupees or 10 anytime i wanted.. never had to ask him..

we were living in a rented home in salem at that time and so i went to the ground floor where the house owner lived.. and was sitting in the stair case.. thinkin where to go.. i had never been outside a lot and the only place i knew to go was my school. it was a sunday and it was a long distance to walk.. dint know the bus routes at taht time.. my house owner came to me and asked why i am sitting here.. i said i ve come out of home.. he laughed and went inside.. i was even more angry now.. full of fumes in my head.. i came out.. there was a tailor shop next to my house and i used to chat with that tailor at times.. so went and sat inside his shop.. even he laughed when i told him wat had happened.. i sat there for 2 or 3 hours.. thinking of wat to do.. wehre to work.. cud i join in that tailor shop itself.. while these thoughts were running in my mind. there was another feeling growing strong.. very strong.. MY HUNGER..

oops i badly wanted to eat something.. all i was thinking was about the next meal.. i cud not control it any more.. my dad never seemed to care and he was doin his work.. while sitting hungry even one minute seems like an hour for me.. so after a long time.. my mom came to the balcony and shouted.. "Nambi.. food is ready..."
I never thought of anything else.. my legs started running towards my house automatically.. i convinced myself saying that my mom and dad had convinced me and asked sorry by sayin food is ready.. all my ego and fear had melted away in my hunger.. i ran to the table and started eating like an animal..

Now coming back to today.. the lemonade diet. i badly wanted to try this one.. to loose those 10 pounds.. i thought this was a short cut to all my regular workouts in the gym.. i have to sweat for an hour everyday and dont know for how long to loose ten pounds.. so i decided to give it a try...

It was day 1.. i was all ready for my office witha big bottle of lemonade for all day.. it was fine till evening when i got back home.. i cud see all the nice restaurants on the way.. the smell was pulling me too hard.. i cud not sleep in the nite.. for the last 48 hours i ve been thinking of nothing but the food.. but i still cant beleive i was successful on day one..

when i woke up on day 2.. i was so hungry i wanted to eat something.. i thought of even chewin some food and spitting it out.. coz i was so much into biting somethin.. but still with great determination i made the second bottle of lemonade and took it to office.. everyone around me was eatin something or the other.. icud see ppl only eatin.. nothin else was visible to me.. it started to look like as if the whole world was designed for ppl to eat.. which when u think abt it.. is a lot true.. it was almost end of second day.. when i got two emails.. first for a bday party this weekend. and food started comin to my mind again.. how can i miss that party.. second for a six hour meetin tomorrow.. which i cannot handle.. as i need to use the loo every 30 minutes coz of the lemonade.. it was then i decided to quit.. i had a soup and called it off.. i thought it was easier to sweat it out in the gym.. infact on day two i was only finding reasons to quit..

the worse part was taht first day i was googling all the good things about this diet to keep myself motivated and the second day i was googling all the side effects to finda reason to quit.. on the whole i was not myself when i was on this diet.. but finally i was in this diet for two days.. and ten days seems like an eternity..

Oh yeha and here is the philospophical part... "We all say God created everything in this world.. but think about.. it was Food that created God.. what would have been the first prayers.. go back a few thousand years. would man have asked for a ferrari car.. or a CEO job.. or a beautiful wife.. or Pass Mark in Board exam.. what would he have asked for.. what would have reminded him of God.. it shud ve been his hunger.. when there is no food and no where to go.. his first prayers would have been... God give me some food.."

Cheers!!

Nambi

The DAY!!!

2010-02-04T10:12:00.001-08:00

love marriage vs arranged marriage.. well this is one of the most common topics of debate in india.. it does not exist anywhere else because arranged marraiges are unique to india.. especially south india..

I remember having given this topic for debate when i was in college or even in school.. its the topic that comes up most between parents and kids.. but this blog is not about the debate or the argument.. but how one would feel on the day of those marriages.. even though i blindly support love marriages over arranged ones.. when I think about the day of the marriage.. i am force to change my stance.. there are many things that an arrange marraige offers that love marraiges dont.. this blog is just another cruisin thought of mine on this topic..

First let me analyse the boring side. the day of a love marraige.. the guy knows the girl well.. the girl knows the guy TOO well.. they have already had their arguments and differences sorted out.. you really dont ve big dreams or expectations coz u pretty much know what u r gonna get.. u kinda know how things are going to be after u get married to her.. a comparison wud be liking eating a meal that u ve cooked.. u pretty much know how bad or good its gonna taste.. another simple comparison would be think of the topper of ur class in college.. The way he goes to write a sem exam.. All confident.. he knows he can answer any question that comes up.. all he is thinking of is if he will get a 99% or a 100%.. he is cautious not to make any silly mistakes that would cost him the centum... cmonn.. is this how u go to an exam.. how boring it is.. ur like a machine writing all the correct answers for those 3 hours.. but this is how precisely love marraige will
be..

Now comes the interesting analysis of an arranged marraige.. u ve no idea if the girl is devil or an angel.. its like taking you to a field.. tossing a coin and saying.. heads.. spend the life with a devil.. tails.. ur lucky.. in real life probability heads would come up 75% of the time.. coz many angels have already fallen in love.. you have many dreams and the most common one wud be to marry a village girl like the roja movie.. or u also have the nightmare of a nagging wife who always comes in old Visu movies.. I really wonder how my dad wud ve felt on the day of his marriage.. he saw on my mom a few minutes before he was about to tie the knot... thats real guts i tell u.. and not only my dad.. many from his generation had those guts.. i dont even wanna think of it.. Infact the first person who my dad met was my mom's dad... who had come to receive him in the railway station.. if my dad had imagined my mom anything close to her dad.. he wud ve run
away ;)

well this scenario is pretty much like how most of us had taken a semester exam.. we are awake all nite long slogging for that one extra mark that could determine pass or fail.. while going to the hall we think of all the gods possible and offer anything for a passmark.. we study like 10 percent of the entire book and we expect the entire question paper to be out of that.. even the last minute discussions are like who is going to be the supervisor today.. many of us wud be wanting a cute hot young lecturer.. who would not really mind us looking at the anwer paper in front.. and one who we could admire while we are not writing anything.. (which would be like half of those 3 hours) we get so creative that we make new hand signals every exam to pass one mark answers.. usually those ten multiple choice questions decide the result.. we are more bothered about the seating arrangement than the questions taht are gonna come.. so much to write about and it cud
still be never ending.. this the thrill that arranged marraige offers u..

but its all for one day and one day only.. for those of u want to risk a lot for this one day.. go for arranged marraige.. i am not in for it..

Cheers!!

Nambi

1 idiot...

2010-01-18T12:48:00.001-08:00

Watching the 3 idiots movie was really an eye opener.. made me think more about what i have been doing.. especially after one scene where Amir says.. "people who do their engineering.. switch to MBA and finally end up working for a bank are donkeys".. i was a shade worse than this.. i cud not get that final dream bank job like the description says. infact most of the banks that i applied to for a job.. went bankrupt.. to quote some were lehman bros.. bear sterns.. well dont wanna fill the list here..

Even before my engineering.. i have to rewind a few years to see where I do stand.. The earliest memories go to around 6th grade.. when the school begins every year the teachers used to ask on the first day of class.. "Tell your name and what you want to do.." Each student had to stand up one by one and say their mission statement.. which unlike the ones of a fortune 500 company are much simpler to understand.. I really used to like standing out of the crowd and saying something unique so i will start seeing wat others says. we had doctors in our class.. scientists.. and I got closer and closer to standing up and answering.. all the while I could only think of marrying the girl sitting in the next bench.. When the student next to me has stood up.. i would instantly think of something and say.. "I want to become a pilot officer.." "I want to become the President of India" .. the whole class used to applaud for having such a big ambition.. after sitting
down i ll instantly forget that and start to admire the girl next bench..

Now I remember I even came close to becoming a pilot officer. I cleared the National Defence academy exam when I was on sixth grade and lost interest in joining that school coz i had to leave home and study in a hostel.. no ways. i used to hate those hostels til i was in school.

After a few years just like the movie I went to the engineering councilling.. why? because i had NO idea wat other options even existed.. or what people really did study in other streams. The biggest surprise was I had no clue wat people did in engineering either..

"Which College do you want?" was the question the officer at Anna university asked me. The college I wanted was not available any more... so guess he should have asked me.. of the available colleges which one do you want? There I chose my path of becoming an Electrical engineer. EEE (i did not know what the third E stood for when I took EEE). And that third E (Electronics) remained my biggest blind side through out the engineering course. Till the day of my graduation i never understood how the transistor worked (for non EEEs who are as ignorant as me.. tahts the first chapter in electronics). The only consoling part was that none of my class mates understood it either.. and most of my lectures had no clue too.. That other two E's were not like i expected them to be.. One E (electrical) took you to a lab of 100 year old machines and made you feel like an illiterate.. and the third E (engineering) was something that I got on my degree.. never had to learn
that part of EEE.. so was fine with that...

After 5 years of enjoyment.. when many of us got placed in software companies.. we were looked upon as traitors.. as we had ditched EEE and joined the software stream.. well people dint understand that only IT companies were dumb enough to offer us jobs.. a few of my friends who attended interview for EEE companies.. unka balathkar ho gaya.. (they literally got raped in the interview)..

Even software was not my strenght.. so went to MBA :). well.. now i think about what they said in the movie.. just do wat u like or have passion for.. if u ask me.. i wud say.. my biggest passions are sitting on the beach.. having beer with friends.. is there a career for that.. well i am working towards it.. make loads of money and retire early.. but how much is loads and what is early.. another blind side of the statement.. thats the catch on which the entire economy works..

Cheers!!

Nambi

The turning point...

2009-05-13T19:16:00.001-07:00

I had a good laugh reading one of the news today.. this is probably the most important day in life for many in Tamil Nadu. The day of board exam results.. its a tradition that every person has to go through.. taking the board exam. and one year prior to this day is something close to hell.. The most common definition of Board exam as put by many of the "oldies" in home and school is "The turning point in your life.." the only turning point i see is that the girl who you had a crush during school on will go to a better college.. how do i know that.. its simple pattern.. since you had a crush on her.. you would not have studied well.. and she would have.. just to impress her grandparents and get a scooty when she joins college...

you hear someone asking you about the exam.. or using the word "board exam" wherever you go.. they ll even use it when someone wants to scold you.. "you wont do well in your board exam.." I probably heard this a million times in that one year.. I started to wonder why everyone around me is more bothered abt my exam than me :)

The worse part.. the exam result is like a permenant tag that you have to carry almost all your life.. if u dont do well in the exam.. you are considered a fool for almost a long time... if u do well.. people look down on you as saviour for the country.. i really wonder how much Abdul kalam got in his boards.. what is the person who got state first in my batch doing now... worse part.. in my batch the state first person happened to be my dad's college mate's son..

even Worse is taht all that you do after this day is determined on this stupid exam results.. I could not become a mechanical engineer because I could not tell what a benzene ring did.. why should that determine what I should do.. but tahts how the system works.. may be ferrari chief engineer should be made to take our board exam.. and if he scores low in anything snatch away his mechanical degree..

All is fair in love and War.. but in Board Exams.. Hell NO.. its not fair.. you will see a dumbass scoring more than you and walking away with your dream admit.. even worse.. someone with a reservation will beat the shit out of you.. I AM NOT against reservation.. i am infact FOr it.. but i thought it was for the people who struggle.. when I took my boards people in that "reserved" category came in a luxury car to school.. and they still got the benefits.. In our state many of the systems are good.. just that it has been implemented in the most screwed up way possible...

Anyways.. leavin all that and coming back to board exam results.. from what I learnt here is a little experience and some advice I like to share.. (Now all of a sudden I feel old.. coz of givin advice.. but i dont mind.. for the first time someone is giving you good and young advice)

I know the last nite wud ve almost been sleepless.. just forget it.. watever be the result.. just forget it. Do what you like.. do what your heart tells you.. If you are good at what you do and what you like to do.. nothing can stop you.. Dont let a benzene ring or differential equation determine who you are.. if your marks get screwed up for some reason.. i know the whole society will mock at you.. but remember the society as a whole is a failure.. and no wonder you are a part of it..

I cannot give you any guarantee except for this.. and this is the moral of my blog.. (for the first time it has one)

NO MATTER WHAT THE RESULTS ARE TODAY YOU WILL LAUGH THINKING ABOUT IT FEW YEARS LATER.. you will be laughing at yourself that a bunch of idiots fooled you on how important this exam was.. this is called self realisation.. the ultimate TURNING POINT..

Cheers!!

Nambi

Kadhal Konden..

2009-03-16T13:25:00.001-07:00

At times when you have nothing much to do.. and wanna kill sometime.. i wud suggest that writing a blog is the best thing to do.. it lets ur own thoughts flow.. brings back some "good old" memories.. and in the end u feel so relaxed.. unless you are writing about how ur stock portfolio has performed or how our politicians have screwed up things..

Looking at the title of the blog.. many of you who know me may guess that its another love/romance/site/crush blog. oops. i am sorry to disappoint you this time.. it is NOT.. then why did i name this blog "kadhal konden..." .. there was no sonia agarwal in my class during engineering.. well not even someone who was 1 percent close to her.. for those of you who studied in PSG tech.. you are smiling now... but there was one scene that happened with me.. which was kinda replicated in that movie.. well wait.. that scene happened after the movie came out. so I replicated it.. and i dint do it on purpose.. and tell you which scene it was.. it was the place where the genius gets hits with a duster from his Math professor.. who prepared a 4 step math problem for 3 days.. i really wonder if such colleges and profs do exist in our state.

Having said that.. where did i manage to create the same scene. It was during my final year. oh wait.. i am thinking if it was my final year.. My friends complain of having forgotten the content they read in engineering subjects after having joined in IT industry.. but I seem to have a bigger problem. I dont even remember wat subjects we had.. and for those names that I do remember.. I dont remember when we had.. it was a very tought high level course called CAPSA.. so must be my final year i am assuming..

Someone named that course damn right. CAPSA.. for two reasons.. One u cannot leave any GAPSA in it and ur almost sure to get a CUP in taht subject.. The course was called Computer Aided Power System analysis.. wow.. i got the name right.. not bad.. We had a very tough instructor for that course.. dont wanna mention his name here.. but in the previous class who took that course he gave CUP or arrear to 19 out of 40+ students in the class.. and that class was supposed to be a brighter one. So obviously we expectd around minimum of 10 cups in our classs.. no No doubt if it those cups were to go least scoring ppl.. I would be there :).. but i was not worried.. coz my other close friends would then be fighting for that remaining 9 cups..

That instructor was known for his strictness.. it was basically a no nonsense class.. and i as usual was kinda quiet in his class and dint do anything... i dint wanna get noticed.. so one fine day.. he catches me in the class with a rough note book.. (That was my only note book for all subjects and mostly had some thoughts scribbled in it..) he gets furious at me.. but lets me go.. thats one i said to myself..

a few classes later.. he gives a tough problem to the class and asks us to solve it.. he keeps goin around.. just like the movie.. i had no idea wat that course was all about.. it was way too complicated for me to understand.. but it had a lot of Math in it and most of it was matrix multiplication..

He points out to a guy to solve it on board.. as usuall my friend does not know how to do it... so he gets blasted and sent out.. his next pick was me.. I was sitting in the last bench.. took a deep breath.. while standing up i asked someone to help me.. one of my good friends whispered while i walked past him .. "Machi take those two matrix and multiply da.. and do thiss #$#@$.." his voice faded away..

The instructor was sure I would not be able to do it.. but I bravely walked up.. took a piece of chalk and started solving it.. just liek the movie.. a BGM of surprise sound was comin from the class.. everyone was looking at me.. I was solvin the problem all over the place.. we usually have a very big black board and the space was not enough.. i had filled it with numbers in few minutes.. everyone was surprised and amazed..

I tried to search for a duster now to erase some portions and solve the problem.. i saw that the duster was in his hand.. i looked at him.. this was the magical question he asked "ITHULA ENTHA STEP YA CORRECT?" translated to "Which F$#@ing step in this is correct?" it was then i realised it was entirely wrong.. and worse part even my classmates did not know that and everyone was thinking i was really solving the problem :)

I stood there.. waiting for the duster to hit my face like that kadhal konden movie.. aioo.. I should have hit myself.. i wanted to run away.. but my instructor was kind enough to give the green signal "GEt out..." With a sad and puppy face i walked out to see my friend waiting out side.. and he adds more fuel to the fire "Machi ennaku appave therium.. athan nan velila vanthuten.. nee ennamo peria vigyani mathiri solve panra.. vaada vaa.. tea kadaikku polam.. namakellam athan correct ".

Time for a break

Cheers

Nambi

Bday drinks...

2008-12-13T19:40:00.001-08:00

I left office a bit early on Dec 12th as it was my birth day next day and I wanted to celebrate.. The drive back home usually takes about 30 minutes but for some reason I was not all that excited to go back home.. wanted to go some other place.. kept thinking how I had celebrated birthdays before.. wanted to do something different this time..

All my school days my birthday celebrations were mostly the same.. it used to be the first day of half yearly exams and for some reason that always used to bother me.. if i had a tough exam the next day then I could not really go out with family.. i even once had a fight with my mom for taking me for a movie.. If i remember correct.. it was Roja. I was in 4th grade and next day I had social studies.. one exam i had never done well.. it was my bday and my mom wanted me to study for the exam. i threw the book around and had a fight. while i was in tenth my dad took me to a nice restaurant where they actually sang a birthday song and i was ready the hindi exam with a book below the table.. i dint even realize that people were singin for me.. looking at this all of you might actually i am a real studious guy who gave more importance to an exam than a birthday.. nope you got it wrong.. i was more of a last minute guy.. be it any exam or anything i ve always
done it at the last minute..

college days birthdays were real fun and totally unforgettable.. december is cold in coimbatore and my friends used all sorts of torture mechanisms.. it used to start with a round of bashing up (pothu maathu) and then throw eggs and tomatoes at me at 12 in the night.. i cud hardly count the number of people hitting me.. then a cold shower in the nigth 12.. and again second round of hitting and throwing dirty stuff.. infact this was the treatment for anyone who celebrated bday in my hostel.. the birthday guy used to get cautious before a week and wont make fun of anyone in class as he would know all this would be given during the bday night. we even used to collect rasam and sambar from mess the previous night mix all taht up.. pour some shamppoo.. mud.. watever we get in our hand and pour it on the guy s head after his first shower.. then beating would continue again.. we would lock rooms up and not give him a towel.. and used to be creative everytime we
beat someone.. there have been guys who have escaped all night from the room and went into hiding in another building just because they were scared this.

after college it was usual stuff.. used to go out with friends.. too many phone calls.. many more messages and email.. all those wishes made me special everytime.. but driving back home this time i realised that there was something new this year that was not there before.. i really missed the love of my life.. though she is already far off.. i always had the feelin of being with her.. but just a couple of days she had gone home where her wont work and even talking to me became difficult.. i dint want to go home for that reason coz i would miss her so much.. but i had no option now... so went home and saw a parcel for my name.. it was an amazin chocolate cake.. with a sweeter message from her.. sayin how much she wished she had been with me..

thats it.. now i needed a drink.. went to a bar.. ordered a jack and coke.. coz everytime i drink that i am reminded of her.. i thought abt her seriosly for the first time when i drank a jack and coke.. i was sitting and drinkin all alone .. round over round.. had even lost count of number of drinks i had.. looking at me.. the girl who served me at the bar what happened.. i told her it is my birthday.. her next question was then "i have to dance with you.." i have always had a passion for dance.. i thought i shud take a break from all this and go and dance with her.. we went to the dance floor and it took me five seconds to realize that i dont want to dance with her.. i just cannot imagine myself with any other girl.. not even on the dance floor and not even in my dreams.. i told her the situation.. she said my girl is very lucky and gave me a bday hug and left..

came back home.. drunk.. what would have been the next thing to do.. switched on New york nagaram song.. enjoyedddd it so much.. felt that the song was written for me. in the mean time my dad called to wish me.. i was drunk and dint want to pick the phone but insteaad i pressed the attend button.. after wishin me the first thing he said i was gettin old and he shud start looking at some girls for my marraiage.. i dint want to hold the secret any more.. told him everythin about that girl except her name :)

he was stunned.. he even found out that i was drunk.. had blurted so much.. actually waiting for the next phone call from him :)

moral of the story.. dont attend a phone call from your dad when you are drunk.. that too while you are missing someone coz that will be the first thing you would tell to the person on the phone :)

Cheers!!

Nambi

Whats in a name...

2008-11-25T17:54:00.000-08:00

well.. a lot of people think what is in a name.. for me it is the first impression you actually create.. and somehow i have felt that a lot of parents dont take enough care while naming their children.. I have always felt I was lucky in that case as Nambi is a sexy name.. anytime.. some people do mistake me for a girl when i send an email... just like the way it happened today for a rental ad. I was interested in taking up an apartment and the owner happened to be a indian guy named Sumi Siva. I had no clue if it was a guy or girl and i call up thinking Sumi is going to answer but unfortunately Siva answers.. he even sounded like my head master in school. He said after looking at my email he thought I was a girl and said he was not interested in renting his apartment to guys.. I got so mad.. I thought of sending a email to Sumi saying Siva is planning on some naughty things :) Now i know how my good friend Thendral would have felt all his life.. and
Yeah Thendral is a guy too... all of them who i know mistake his name for a girl and for those of you who know thendral THEY ARE IN FOR A BIGGG DISAPPOINTMENT..

With a name like Thendral someone would imagine a bharathiraja movie scene.. a village tamil girl.. full shy and blush.. speaking not more than a whisper and not looking into your eyes at all.. but my friend THENDRAL.. well.. yeah somewhat close I should say.. Dark.. tall.. drunk.. and those few words he speaks.. ooofff u actually ve to decode it :)

While naming a kid a lot of people i know tend to use their grandparents name.. and sometimes the combination of both grandmother and grandfather.. their names are already so outdated and when u say that name today all of a sudden u feel a burst of laughter. these were some of the issues I have had with names..

our family was looking out for a girl for my cousin and they come up with this picture of a very pleasant looking girl and when they show it to me.. i ask for her name.. they told me it was Gandhimathi.. i burst out laughin.. cud not imagine my bro getting married to her and calling her gandhimathi or vadivukarasi.. or somethin wierd.. my parents got furious and said i shud not make of fun of someones grand parent's name.. most of the tamil names are either some flowers or name of a goddess.. so nothing great about it.. in my opinion a girls name should sounds nice short and sweet.. something like Divya.. sneha..akila.. all sound very nice.. but our people in the name of adding some tamil flavour to it make those names as divyalakshmi.. snehapriya.. akialanda.. and wat not.. no dont do that :)

Ok.. I agree... for girls anything is fine.. coz one smile from them will make you forget your own name itself so we are not much bothered about their names. but wat if something like that happens to a guy.. once a guys name is screwed up then he is probably gonna stay single all his life.. imagine.. a real handsome guy.. walking with a smile towards a girl and looks at her eyes.. and says.. "Hi dear.. I am Ayyasamy.. wanna dance?". You think this is going to work out.. never dude.. never.. some guys even have names that are so long that u ll sleep.. Ananth Muthukumar Maharaj was my room mate in college and yeah that was his first name alone :)

and yeah on top of the above instructions dont make a name start with "A" as in all the exams in school he ll be the first to sit and not have a answer paper to refer to in the front... This is something that happened to Abbas in my class.. even if there are two names with A they take the second alphabet but look at this name A B B A 4 alphabets within A and B :)

and yeah to conclude i did see some nice names from this generation too.. met a couple recently, Anand and Ramya.. they had named their daughter Ananya .. Anan from anand and ya from ramya.. I suggested the same to my girl friend to name our daughter Nameetha (Nam + ___eetha) wont tell her full name. but she got so madddd that i had to drop this Nameetha name..

Cheers!!

Nambi

The three kings!!

2008-10-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

Taking some time off on a Monday morning thought of filling my blog space with another post. Mmm.. what should it be this time? A lot of ppl reading my last post told me that I took them back to A310 where they had their own night mares. Well I guess everyone does. One of the most curios questions that runs in your mind when you are writing an Exam in that in that huge A310 hall is that "Is the question paper tough only for me.. or for others too.." coz all you see is people writing pages and pages and you sit there struggling to get an extra sheet so that you will have something to tie your paper to when the staff distributes the THREAD.

this blog is about another one of those memorable nightmares that happened in A310. Before that I need to talk to about two other people who made this blog happen. Srini and Thendral. Both my good friends in college and I always felt more comfortable with them during exam times coz we all had same CGPA. Well in fact mine was a shade better and was a bit happy to find two people below me in the class rankings :)

But for some reason all of a sudden we get this sudden burst of studying for one exam and proving ourselves. So the three of us decided on what exam is going to be. It was the first internals of Utilization of Electrical Energy. It was more of a theory paper where u can get away writing some jargons but we were not scared of the course but the instructor. His name was JK (not to be expanded in the blog). People who know him know how tough he is and in all his classes were more silent and serious than a board exam. We could not talk, sleep or send sms in the class. It was like an hour of freeeze. For some reason we chose his exam and taht too being the first internals not much was there to study.

The three of us studied hard and on the day of the exam we were sure to get atleast 27 or 28 out of 30. Believe me it was a dream target for me and not once in all those 5 years i Remember getting such a high mark in internal exam. So three of us combines should be getting more than 80 at least. It feels sooo good when you are so confident and happy about the fact that for the first time the myth of group studies has worked. I ve always believed combined studies (boy teaching a girl or vice versa) has a better chance of working than group studies (men teaching men).

Ok now into the exam hall A310... well before I take you inside the exam hall I have to tell what happened to me a few minutes before that. It was a new crush that I was having in college at that time and some very good friend of mine (dont remember who.. good for him.. else i want to beat him now.. My guess is that it is dhilip/sujan) told me how to differentiate between a crush and love. He said.. when you are doing something else if that girl keeps coming to your mind it is love.. I said i dont understand.. he says.. "say when u r writing an exam.. like now.. and that girl keeps coming to your mind then you are in love with her.. so all you have to do it.. whenever you think of the girl in the exam hall put a mark on your paper.. If the number of cross marks exceeds 5 or 10 in the first 30 minutes then you are in love.."

I really want to give him a Nobel prize for decoding the symptoms of love in paper. And when you say that all I can think of is that girl. and sayin to myself.. am i in love or am i not? am i or am i not?

And now I enter the exam hall. The JK arrives with the question paper. Thendral and Srini are roaring to go. I am thinking Am I or AM i not? As soon as we get the question paper JK says those who dont have a calculator please walk out of the exam hall. He was known for his strictness and not only him the entire EEE department. We had many names for that kind of strictness (like psych dept and so on..) and no one dares to question them. It was actually a theory paper and the three of us did not realise that we would ever need a calculator. And there was only one 2 mark problem in the exam and to do that you really dont need a calculator or u can skip that too.

Thendral the most obedient boy walks out of the exam hall because he did not have a calci. Felt sad for him. He had worked hard but now has scored a ZERO. I accidentally had a calculator not because I remembered to get one. I always wear the same jeans pant with a big 712 written all over in it. Never washed in it. And guess the calculator was there in the pant for sometime now. Must have kept it a week back I thought. So I escaped. Srini did not have a calci too. He uses all his soft skills.. inter personal skills.. and communication skills.. and manages to convince JK by saying "Sir please sir.. sir i ve studied well.. this and that.." JK did tell him to leave but finally said alright. So JK did let him write the exam.

Thendral was standing outside furious thinking if he shud ve also asked and not just walked out. The exam starts.. I am still thinkin AM i or AM i not? I put a cross mark every time and in the first fifteen minutes I had marked it 20 times.. Oh shitt.. I am in love.. felt so happy for being in love.. Felt like singing a song.. flying around.. like they show in movies and i was sitting here writing an exam .. No ways.. I am in love.. I walked and gave me answer paper back wiht a few lines written.. he corrected it there and gave me 6.5. I dont careeeeeeee... i left the hall too..

Thendral got even more mad coz i had a calci and could have atleast given it to him. But we were happy that atleast Srini got a chance to write the exam. He wrote and wrote.. additional paper over additional paper.. Haa.. have never seen him write like that.. So much he wrote.. and finally after 1.5 hours of hard work the exam was over.

Here is the icing on the cake: Srini walks and gives the paper and JK straight away puts a ZEROOOOO... hahah..

JK says "I told you to leave before you were the one who wanted to write the exam but i cant correct this.. Get out now.."

HAHAHAHAHA.. me and thendral were laughin like hell.. So the combined score was 6.5.. and we felt even studying for an exam cant really help us!!

Machi vaada NMB polaam..

Cheers!!

Nambi

Study well and you'll do well

2008-09-23T13:20:00.001-07:00

Being our Sanscraintz birthday this week. Thought would share some of those mind blowing experiences that happened in college.. Somethings can only happen in college life... and somethings can only happen in my class :).. to write about all that.. i ve no idea wat it takes..this is just another one of them...

I have always had a tough time in all my exams. I have no clue as to why. But when I look around the people and what they have to say.. its very simple: "Study well and you will do well..." it s not as simple as it looks.. there are many assumptions and complications inside that one line. You may study well.. but not get what u studied in the exam.. or u may forget it. or not have time to complete the paper.. or misread a question.. i mean so many things cud go wrong.. but for me it was usually one thing. i dint study well.. so i dint do well in a lot of the exams. But luck was going to change for once...

What is a college life without having a crush on a girl from another department. That is one of the best time passes and best excuses to bunk classes.. get drunk.. recharge mobile and get lost in ur own thoughts.. i had one such crush in college.. i was so sure that it was not goin to work out.. just like any of my other crushes.. but killin time was a mind blowing experience. every girl who i had a crush on will ve a unique quality and this girl used to top her class.. i mean really a mindblowing cgpa she had..

My dad always used to give me something like 1500 rupees at the start of every semester for buying books. But as usual i blow it on smoke or drinks.. but just to avoid the guilt of spending dad's money like that I made sure to buy one book every semester. a random subject and made sure it was a cheap book.

Now here comes the connection between all the above lines. It was my sixth semester and that time I had bought a book called Microprocessor 8085 or somtehing.. and never had opened the book until a couple of days before the semester exam. but i get this wierd news from one of my friends that one of my classmates who i was not in good terms has the same book of the girl who i had a crush on.. all of a sudden i get really possessive before my sem exams. my crush had that same course a semester back and she had topped it.. so when taht guy is not there in his room.. i break into his room.. steal her book and keep my new book as a replacement. wow.. dad;s money wasted.. but i felt as if I had got a precious item in return.. the same book with her name written on it..

I came to my room.. decided to study that book well.. and top taht exam. she was my inspiration i said to myself. For two days I hardly got out of my bed. I read every page where she had marked it as important. and added comments near her comments. I was sure that book wud go back to her and this was agood chance to express myself i thought. Some of the comments I wrote were ;
1. in the front page next to her name, Good ppl buy this book.. smart ppl borrow it.. smarter ones dont return it..

2. in some places where she had marked as important i wrote why to waste time studyin abt some microproicesor that no longer exists..

and comments like this in many places.. i tried to be funny and smart at the same time.. in the end wasted more time thinking abt wat to write as comments.. but somehow.. i also used that book as a pillow and managed to finish studying for the exam. This time nothing could stop me.. I was too sure..

For those of you who have studied in PSG taking an exam is a really stressful experience especially if ur exam hall happens to be A310. Its like a hugeeeee rectangular hall with some 500 plus students.. and some 15 invigelators.. pin drop silence.. and even a breeze was a noise.. all u can hear wud be sounds of pen scratchin at 50 words per minute. I went there to race those pens that day coz usually my pen wud be sittin in my mouth acting like it is thinkin wat to write next and win a nobel prize.

Sharp at 2 the question paper arrives. We usually get multiple sets of questions papers.the first set has only long answeres and has some 4 or 5 questions in taht for 30 marks. if u dont do well in that ur probability of clearing the exam reduces by 50 percent. u ve to write that question paper for about 2 hrs and dont even the option of running out. and 2 hrs later then u get the rest. In many ways i felt PSG exams had been made fool proof and this was the one. I smiled.. thought abt her.. thought abt her book and opened the question paper. forward 30 seconds into the exam hall..

DAmaaaallllllllll. a sound of an explosion.. it was my heart.. the whole paper was greek and latin to me.. not one question i knew.. How can that theory of study well and u will do well not work for me.. i did study well.. but then I realised.. I was in EEE (electrical and electronics engineering) and she was in ECE (electronics and communicationss..) and they have two courses with the same book... all those places she had marked as important were of least importance to me all of a sudden..

helll.... i studied the wrong syllabi.. i dint even know wat was taught in class and wat was not.. how dumb cud i be.. Gone baby gone.. exam gone baby gone.. i said to myself.. and the worse part was sittin in that A310 hall for those 3 hrs.. it cud really drive anyone crazy and make u shout at the middle of an exam.. my pen went back to the mouth..
other hand started scratchin my head.. and felt as if my watch stopped running.. after 3 hrs.. finally it was over.. i wrote watever i had studied..

A monht later results come.. Just pass.. Escape da ...

Cheers!!

Nambi

let me drink?

2008-09-08T14:36:00.001-07:00

It is hard to imagine how much impact tamil movies have on boys of chennai.. we always get inspired by a scene in some movie and we keep tellin our friends some day we wanan do that. A few of the examples cud be.. throwing the cigarette in the mouth like Rajni kanth (most popular but too tuf..).. Dating 3 girls at the same time like kamal hasan... but they were all tough for normal ppl.. so Surya became an instant hit with more "DO"able stuff. Taking your Girlfriend on a long drive at the ECR.. or drinking with your wife on weeeknds like Jilnu oru kadal..

Somehow for all my friends who are likely to be married in the next couple of years.. that Drinkin on weekends became a dream life. And all of a sudden the girl who sits with u while u drink became a dream wife for most of my friends. and this blog is just about one of those victims and how far he went to make that dream come true. (I am not going to mention the name of that guy.. for those of u who know my friends. here s a little clue.. He spent most of his college days in gym.. broke his sisters savings bank to play pool.. got palce in infy.. has been changing jobs ever since.. got married to a doctor recently.. well if u ve not guessed it then its Satish)

I have no clue why his dad decided on his marriage suddenly.. but the best guess me and partha (We three together are like the tripod) make is that he was drinkin with us and goin home drunk without taking any precautionary measures of eating pan masala or anytin.. In spite of warning him not to do that.. he used to convince us saying his dad does not drink and thus he cannot know how it smells when someone is drunk.. What a logic machi.. or probably he even assumed that his dad had never seen a drunk person before in his life and that he would never doubt his golden son would ever touch poison like alcohol..

That had been going for a while when one fine day Satish's mom complaints to Partha's mom saying her son is coming home drunk everyday.. and by assumption everyone now knows all three of us have been drinking outside.. so his dad waits fora chance.. catches him red handed and gets him married.. ok now his dad's assumption might be :From now on my son wont drink outside and come.. That did come true.. when i had a online chat with him a couple of weeks back..

Me: Hi da. Called you this weekend and you dint pick the call. What have you been doin.
Satish: Illa machi. Had gone to get sarakku (alcohol) for the weekend

(I am initially shocked to know that he was drinkin over the weekend and I was thinking with who did he go out...)

Me: That's great da. So where did u drink and who all were there?
Satish: Not outside da. Inside the house. Do you remember Jillnu oru Kadal movie. same style machi..

Me: What?? Dey. They were staying alone in Bombay in that movie. But you are staying with your parents.
Satish: Yeah. That is why I drink after they go to bed. (What an way to escape.. I used to watch all mid night masala after my parents had slept and he is taken that one step further..)

Me: Machi thats kool. So guess you are really happy after marraige and good that your wife does not beat you up for this.
Satish: Yeah da. Things are going fine.

Me: So Machi.. still with Haywards 5000?
Satish: No beer da. Only whisky. (But that movie showed him having beer i guess.. or may be i was wrong)

Me: Machi whiskyaa.. why da? why not beer
(this is the place where he gave the most intelligent answer of the night)
Satish: Beer will smell bad and parents may find out next morning. That is why..
(What the F____ as if whisky will smell like room freshner or something or as if his parents cannot find out when his son is totally drunk with whisky and not beer..)

Me: Super machi. Super. So happy for you man.
Satish: Machi got to go now will catch u later.

I was wondering if he was heading to the liquor store again to get some sarakku but it was a weekday he wont do that i thought. But why not.. a person who is capable of saying whisky is better in smell and drinks in his home after parents sleep might as well drink on weekdays!!

All of a sudden my whole concept of marraige had changed after this chat. All this while my definition of marraige had been losing freedom. Now its like gaining freedom. You can drink inside your own house.. cmon guysss.. time to get married!! and more than that we get to fulfil our dad's dreams. Not coming home drunk.. but drinkin inside the home.. wow.. times have changed.. generations have changed.. guess the first question when i meet the girl i want to marry will not be "Will you marry me?" but i ll ask her "Will you let me drink?"

Cheers!!

How good is your english??

2008-08-20T12:21:00.001-07:00

Somehow my Dad till day feels that I have never improved my english and that he dint get the returns of making me study in a real expensive school when it comes to English knowledge. He is the real old school types where he learnt his English mostly from Law books and that shows what level his command over the language should be in. Having studied in CBSE school we never concentrated on grammar and for my Dad that was the heart of language. He wud say.. without knowing the grammar how can you even think about talking in that language. For him english is used for business proposals, writing law books and judgements.. and so on.. but for me.. english is used for Peter udrathu.. kadala podrathu.. and film katrathu.. so I guess i never required the knowledge of grammar. My Dad once got me a gift.. it was a thick red book with high quality paper and wanted me to read it everyday. I instead made paper rockets out of it and flew it out of the balcony whenever I
was bored.. "Pala naal thirudan oru nal agapaduvan.." (The thief will be caught someday..) i know its not the exact translation but thats my level..

It was an interview with Gill Adarsh and another one of those unforgettable moments. for my mark in Tenth I shud ve been given an admission on a silver plate instead those people called me for an interview. and worse they wanted the parents to accompany the ward.. I went for the interview with my dad and on the way to the school my Dad was trying to teach me all the interview manners.. I somehow felt he was stuck in the 70's when it came to interviews.. I dint listen to a word of what he had said because my board exams had just got over and my friends were waiting for me in the movie hall and I was here attending this dumb interview for 11th admissions.. I jsut wanted to get over with this soon and run to the movie..

I enter the hall.. I see a man sitting in the center of a big table.. Shud be the principal I assumed and 3 ladies were sitting there who looked like teachers to me.. so I went and took my seat.. The first thing the Principal said was "Stand up.. dont you have manners that you should ask and sit". My Dad had told me to ask permission just 5 minutes ago.. I looked at my Dad's face to get that cold stare.. And I never asked for a seat instead decided to stand and answer.. Could have been easier to have run away.. but this was just the start.

The first lady questioned me in Math.. Since I was from CBSE and math was my fav subject I blew her off. all the answers were perfect and she was impressed.. Thats one lady down.. Next was the lady who questioned me in Physics.. Ah.. it was her turn. I was shooting answers like a bullet and she was totally flat.. Two down.. My Dad was all smiling looking at his son's intelligentce.. I was waiting for the third person to ask me in chemistry.. (Cmon thats how we all assume.. math phy and wat comes next... chemistry..)

Chemistry was not my strongest subject but still I had taken the exam a couple of days back and was quite confident. So this old female asks me "What are Gerens? (I am not sure if i ve spelt it rite but thats how it sounded) I was not sure which part of chemistry that was in.. would be some form of a gel.. or would be in organic chemistry.. I dint wanna take a guess and make a fool out of myself in front of my dad.. so I decided to accept that I dint know and spoke up bravely "Sorry mam.. We HAVE NOT LEARNT THIS IN CHEMISTRY...." It all started there.. She said "This is english grammar my boy.."

I had totally blown it off... I dint wanna look at my dad's face.. How stupid could I be.. I was cursin myself.. She interruped me asking "Have you not learnt this in your grammar". How dumb could that question be.. I thought it was in chemistry and that shows I was way off the correct answer and she asks me this dumb question.. I said "No we have not.." and I thought it all ended there.. when the next bomb fell..

She started Explaining waht those gerens were in grammar.. "Subject following verb.. adverb.. athu ithu. this and that.. greekl and latin @#$@# .." And Finally she said she was done. To tell you the truth even today I dont know what all this subject and object is.. wats a noun verb.. none of this i know.. And I had to listen to an explanation which was a combination of all this.. And finally she asks "Did you understand?" I said "YES" but it was not over yet,

"Now can you give me an example for this?". I was like What the F______ is happening.. Seriously I shud ve run away at that point.. but wanted to see where this was heading.. Now I was acting like kamal hasan as if I was trying to think.. With my hands folded and then over my forehead.. everyone in the room were silent & staring at me and probably those two mintues were too long and finally she herself broke the silence with "Give an Example with Swimming" I made up a sentence saying "Sheela is swimming." Is it over now? tell me it is.. She said " No.. that is a wrong example.. The right example would be to say Swimming is a good exercise"

Happaa.. it is over.. I acted like I realised a mistake and then I said "Oh yeah that would be a better example and smiled" the smile was genuine for it all getting over.. Now that female asks "Where is the GEREN here??" I felt like Lifting my hands up and saying I surrender.. but after many more questions it was finally over..

AAAAAAAA.. Mudiala.. And finally after all this I was given the admit.. NOw that principal who signed the interview form told me.. "Dont waste your time in these summer holidays.. Your grammar is too weak.. There is a book called Wrenn and Martin read it everyday.." and then he looked at my Dad and told him "Get your son that book soon.. " It was now my Dad became even more angry.. I had no clue why.. But that book name did sound familiar to me..

We came back home.. He went and opened a shelf and dusted some old books out.. It was right there. The book he had got me.. It was actually Wrenn and MArtin Grammar.. And half those pages were missing (those paper rockets..)

The thief was caught..

Cheers!!!

Nambi

Crash Boom Bang...

2008-08-01T13:58:00.001-07:00

Today is such a special day.. for every tamilian.. Kuselan movie release. Even if our Superstar has just acted for 40 minutes.. this day is bigger than all our festivals put together. Like everyone else in the state I am die hard fan of Rajni.. name says it all.. So thought of narrating a memorable incident that happened when i was in 4th grade.. the day when Mannan movie was released...

I was in my native place then... a time when there were no cellphones and no advance booking in theatres.. (this is not there even today in my native place). I was arguing with my mom and grandma all morning for going for the first day first show.. Both of them are usually known for bashing me up in such arguments but surprisingly it dint happen that day. My mom was really worried about the crowd at the theatre and dint let me go alone but I promised to take another cousin of mine 4 years elder to me and 4 times as crazy a superstar fan as me. Still half heartedly my mom agreed and with my uncle's influence I managed to get inside the theatre.. the movie went well.. and it was over.. we thought we cud stay back and watch just the introduction scene of Thalaivar on the next show and leave home.. and then it became lets leave after the first song.. soon we ended up seeing the next show also back to back.

Back home the scenario was this: kids are not back home and its late in the evening.. assuming that we had gotten lost.. ppl have been sent in different directions for search everybody is panickyyy... and we were having some Bajji and Vada in a shop and took a long walk back home..

Now the ultimate action begins.. as soon as we enter the house, My grandma and mom come running out to see us.. they should have actually been happy to have got back their lost children but for some mysterious reason all that happiness turns into extreme anger and my grandma even managed to grab a groomstick while rushing out.. Theres a kids play area in front of my house and we have a big slide over there. I somehow managed to climb on top of it knowing that my mom nor my grandma can do it. So it was my cousin first who was being beaten badly by my grandma and my mom was negotiating with me saying "If you come down now and get ur share of the beating it will be less.. if i catch u later avlothan _______ " but looking at the way my cousin was being bashed up I somehow decided to stay on top. AFter an hour so when the dust had finally settled and members of my family looked more calm and composed I got the guts to climb down and walk inside the house.

But I was very careful with each step I took I looked at my mom and grandma.. they were normal doing their own work. I thought their anger is gone and somehow went crossing 3 rooms inside the house and finally i realised.. in that room there was only one exit and now it was being covered by both mom and grandma.. Then you can imagine the scene in tamil movie where they show the outside door only.. camera shaking and some bashing sound all over the place.. that was meeee.. oooffff.. mudiala.. It could have been lot better if i had not climbed up the slide.. coz i got share of beatings for that too..

Ah.. alas.. everything was over.. woke up next day morning.. Went for that movie again.. third time.. Thats the magic of Rajni.. simply unexplainable..

Time for Kuselan!!!

supersize subs...

2008-07-29T15:14:00.001-07:00

Being single has its own pros and cons. You are always happy - the biggest advantage. The con - you have to be health conscious and have a flat tummy if you have any intentions of not staying single. Based on the above assumption I made one of the toughest decisions in food. Not to eat in McDonalds hereafter. I would terribly miss those dollar menu items but had to let them go. Subway its going to be.. I told myself.

Eating at the subway makes you feel like a cow. They say everything is fresh and it is also uncooked. Chewing on those green leaves does really hurt your jaw. Its been almost two weeks and all my lunches have been at the subway and recently going to subway has become lot more fun than I thought. There is this one pleasant looking girl working at the subway near my house and I see to it that She prepares all my sandwiches. She is not all that beautiful but its hard to remember her face and makes you keep looking at her. And as usual looking into her eyes I get lost in my own dream world. So this is a typical healthy lunch conversation I have:

She: Hello, How are you?
My mind: ooffff blushin.. feelin shy..
My Mouth: err.. cud I have a 12 inch oven roasted chicken
Mind: you dumbass.. you were supposed to eat healthy and now u order a 12 inch..

She: What kind of bread?
Me: Honey oat..
Mind: Just using the chance to call her Honey..

She: Toasted?
Me: Yeah ( I can look at her for 30 more seconds..)

She then asks me list of all tat I want.. I nod my head to everything. Cheese? Yes.. ranch? yes.. Chips? Yes.. Drink? Yes.. Finally I carry a sandwich that like stuffed with everything in that shop and weighs over a pound or two. Finally she says "have a great day..." and thats the icing.. day is bound to be great.. everyday I go to the place for lunch with intention of callin her for dinner.. but you know how bad indian guys are when it comes to inviting a girl out..

So as of now.. I am eating the Supersize sub everyday.. and running 3 miles to burn all those calories down.. Mcdonalds was a easier option..

Cheers!!

Breaking ice..

2008-07-20T08:29:00.001-07:00

I am going to start this blog like a million other bloggers do. "Its been quite sometime from my last blog...." Well why that delay or the break. Was I exhausted of my ideas or the so called cruising thoughts.. nooooo.. never is that gonna happen. Was I busy?? If you know me well you are proabably laughing now. I was the lazy ass sleeping all day and even too lazy to brush my teeth. Okay now I have to think why others took a break from blogging and some never came back. Why did that happen. I am sure they were not busy either. Most of the guys start writing blogs just to attract some girls and I am guessing those people have all got a "committed" status in orkut. Hey.. dare you think I blog for the same reason.. if you girls are interested.. I am sorry that you are going to be disappointed :)

OK now coming back to my blog.. I need a topic to write on something. When I was in Infy i was never exhausted of topics.. there was always something going around the cubeville of mine. No wonder you find so many corporate blogs these days. But now after having graduated from my masters things ve become a bit boring I shud say. Late night movies.. mid afternoon breakfasts.. an additional ten pound tummy.. have all made me more of a normal and a boring guy.. now i guess that makes me more qualified to get committed.

Well heres the simple deal. I dint have anything really to write on.. but hope to find something soon enough.. but this was just to break the silence and blabber something.. so lets end with a bunju dialogue.

I AM BACK!!!!

Cheers!!

Real Madrid Soccer solutions

2008-01-14T21:58:00.001-08:00

All my experiences in infy and inspirations from the
Dilbert series have inspired me to write this blog.

Woke up late in the morning after a watching a good
win by real madrid over a hopeless levante team. Went
to morning to attend a class of Information technology
and ERP. Could not help laughing thinking about those
days in infy and how much fun it was to work in a
place like that. On top of that a friend from a rival
company TCS comes online and we start talking about
the match. Soon the topic on the gtalk became what
makes a soccer great and consistent and we instantly
came up with the solution that it shud be
professionally managed more like a company and not
just a sports club. A few minutes after logging out I
realised how wrong my thoughts were and could not help
laughing at the very thought what if infy/TCS or any
other software company had run a football club (My fav
club being the Real Madrid). A brief description of
how things would have looked:

we would win 10 matches after playing more than 100.
The results will show only the victories and targets
of the next year.

The team would have ten captains and one player and
during the game all the captains will give
instructions to taht one player on where to go and
what to do.

The one player would have trained to be a defender but
due to "urgent business requirements" on a match day
he will be made the striker.

Each player would have to fill out a time sheet after
every game describing the time he spent passing and
chasing the ball.

After every team practice one person will write the
minutes of the meeting.

All team practice would involve 40% playing soccer and
60% on documenting what they did. A CMM level 5
practice.

During free time players will have to take
"initiative" and take training sessions in Cricket,
hockey etc and implement the "Best practices" in
soccer.

Soon that one player will put his papers and the coach
will be promoted to higher level. A new coach will be
appointed as lateral from another Basketball club with

atleast 10 years experience.

Now a look at the pay packages..

Each player would have signed a 10 million dollar
"variable pay" or "performance based pay" and will end
up making less than ten thousand.

The players will get lowest in performance appraisals
because the defender did not score goals and the
striker did not defend. Thus making the pay even
lower.

Some of the Companies from outside..

Real Madrid Football Solutions
Setting Goals for tomorrow..

Manchester Technologies United
Powered by value systems.. Driven by opponents..

Barcelona Cognizant Club
Win in the Flat ground.

So far so good.. just the mission statement and value
systems is missin..

"Our Mission as a football club is to offer world
class goals and solutions by offering every one the
next generation technology combining with state of art
training facility thereby making our clients happy in
the field and off the field"

Oooff.. enough of it.. Now i know i was wrong.. Sports
club is more of passion and tradition and cannot be
managed like a company where processes are more
important than people.

Cheers!!

____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.

http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

How I wish..

2007-12-16T00:30:00.001-08:00

Lying in the bed I tried hard to recollect what
happened a few hours back. It was so hard to remember
but the feel was still all around me. It felt so good
and felt like having more of it. Just wanted to know
where it all started and could recollect glimpses of
what had happened.. what made me feel so good now..

It all started in the movie hall. She was sitting next
to me and holding my hands. I tried to hard to
concentrate on what was going on the screen but was
more interested in just looking at her eyes when her
eyes were watching the movie. It was too dark to get a
good glimpse of her face.. Somehow I had felt even
when I dint know her much she was the one who I
loved.. another one of those unexplainable phenomenon.

As the movie got over we came out and found ourselves
in one of the Malls of Fairfax County. It was so dark
outside yet so pleasant at this time of the year. She
wanted to walk home. Looking at her eyes I even forgot
how we had got there. I cursed the sun for having set
so soon and I still couldn't get a good look at her
face. She hugged my arm and rested her face on my
shoulders and we walked very slowly in that dark. I
tried to take her to a place that was well lit but
there was none in the vicinity. Then came another
surprise from nature.. a rain that poured heavily but
without a thunder. We got drenched before we found
cover under a small sunroof of a closed shop. With
rain water pouring on all sides we suddenly felt the
temperature go down.

It was then the magic happened. A lightning struck out
of no where lighting up the whole world for a fraction
of a second. In an instant I turned my face to see her
.. to see her seeing me.. a thousand signals exchanged
in that moment. A look as pleasant as the whole rain
and smile as bright as the lightning. She was the
nature herself. I wanted to talk to her. No idea how
to start the conversation. Out of words.. out of my
mind and out of this world..

It was then I knew I loved her and now I also knew
that she loved me. I still dont have an idea of who
she is. She was there standing next to me trying to
fight the cold. Lying on my shoulders.. the rain
stopped.. the clouds cleared making way for us walk..
we dint move.. I wanted that moment to last for
infinity. There are times when you want the time to
freeze. Stop Everything for ever and say to time
.."Yeah this all taht i wanted.. make no changes.."
Everything froze as I wanted.. total darkness.. going
deep and it was all dark..

After a few hours.. The alarm went off..How I wish I
had switched it off before I had slept..

Lying in the bed I tried hard to recollect what
happened a few hours back. It was so hard to remember
but the feel was still all around me. It felt so good
and felt like having more of it. Wanna conclude with
the words of the song that I am listening to now..

Lay a whisper on my pillow,
leave the winter on the ground.
I wake up lonely,
there's air of silence in the bedroom
and all around
Touch me now, I close my eyes and dream away.
- Roxette

____________________________________________________________________________________
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Week of Finals..

2007-11-28T08:43:00.001-08:00

How fast can things go from good to worse? I had this
experience today. After a good thanksgiving break of 7
days (not doing anything other than eat, sleep and
watch movies and some of the least calorie consuming
activities) you wake up on a monday morning and walk
to class thinking of all that you have to catch up.
With just two weeks left for the finals it takes you
less than two hours to realise you have work that
would take two months to complete. I tried to shake
myself and wake up. Hard to beleive that there is so
much left and I have no hopes of making it.
I tried to compare this experience to some of the
real life incidences that happen. Some of the best
ones I could come up were.. 1. you are having a real
nice dream and someone pours cold water on your face
2. A really cute girl smiles at you, you walk up to
her and first thing you notice is her wedding ring 3.
Enjoying a can of coke and realising that it has past
its expiry date months ago and you already feel ur
stomach calling the doctor. I tried to write many more
but nothing could really match what happened to me
today.
The week of finals looked like a brick wall
seperating me and my vacations.. and I had no
intention of breaking the wall instead wanted to jump
over it. I tried to estimate how worse the results
could get. All of a sudden had wierd ideas of "why not
start to study?" (One of those ideas that has never
worked for me.. ) Atlast I reached the point that I
usually do whenever I get stuck in such idea loops. My
brain gets heated and stops thinking and asks for a
break.
Ah.. Enough of thinking.
Guess its time for another break!!

____________________________________________________________________________________
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Arranged .. What??!!

2007-10-31T21:55:00.001-07:00

One nice way to talk to people here is to tell them
about your homeland and any system that exists there.
Almost all the time you say something people are just
fascinated by it and all of a sudden you feel a rush
of patriotism flowing inside. One such incident that
did not very much turn out the same way was when I
told my friend how people get married in India. The
Arranged marriage.
People here have such a funny expression when they
even hear it. It as if they are hearing these two
words together for the first time and they have no
clue as to
what it means. For some people to understand this is
as tough as rocket science. I have people shoot so
many questions even before I finish telling them how
it works. The Most frequent questions being:
1. Arranged .. What?? what do u arrange.. do u mean
the food and party??
(you dont want to listen to the answer buddy.. u
may faint)
2. What.. do your parents really go in search of a
girl for u? wow....
3. So you marry a girl who you have never dated
before?
(we work so hard to get an "intro" .. dating is too
far fetched..)
4. And you just nod your head to what your parents
say?
(do i ve an option.. if its not this stranger.. its
gonna be someone else..)
5. Are things changing in your generation??
(Oh yeah.. things have changed a lot.. believe me
its totally different.. My grandfather did not meet my
grandma till the day of marriage.. my dad met my mom
once.. and I (The generation today) have been given
the right to talk to the girl before marriage. See we
are changing fast...)

The list goes on.. and by the time I try to answer
these questions I feel so stupid.

The only question that I can answer well is when I
show them that marriages like that also work (with
some statistical divorce rate that i google out..).
The
funniest part is that they are more shocked at the
fact that it works..

Explaining "the searching process by parents" makes
you feel a little better when I show websites like
bharathmatrimony.com / shaadi.com. The whole
innovative concept was developed and deployed in
India( I would say there are no equivalent websites in
any other part of the world.) Everyone looks at it
amazed. They think of it as a "marriage that's click
away" kinds and feel that we are way advanced in the
marriage technology.

Apart from all that when I sit back and think how it
works.. I have no idea.. I am not able to figure out
even the probabilty of such marriages working.. but it

works.. its an unexplained phenomenon just like love..
now i dont want to dive into love marriages..

Cheers!!

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You have got mail!!

2007-09-17T12:38:00.001-07:00

Someone told me when i had started my MBA.. that till
the completion of the course i would be married to my
laptop. I dint believe them a bit.. but a few months
down the lane i have started to realize how true it
is.. Just like a wife my laptop has everything in it.
It entertains (Utube,orkut).. looks cute (got her pic
as the wallpaper)..it makes me work (assignmentzzz)..
it makes me think.. it makes me miss my past crushes..
it lives with me.. comes wherever i go.. and makes a
note of all that i do.. and on top all that shuts down
when i least expect it and when i most want it..

Recently I have started to notice an additional
feature in my dell inspiron.. I call it the surprise
wake up.. its a pop up message that reads "You have
got a mail!" I call it a surprise for two reasons.. 1.
You never know when its gonna appear.. and 2. You have
no idea what the mail is about..

Monday morning classes are horrible.. Was trying to
keep eyes open and sleep.. it was like a great battle
between my self control and my senses.. and the
surprise package arrives to save me. You have got a
mail.. within a fraction of a second a thousand
thoughts run in my mind on what that mail could be.. a
few of the guesses i made in that half awake state
were..

is the mail from my bank saying my account has been
credited with @#$@ dollars.. or by some magic i have
got free flight tickets for this christmas..no.. i
want it to be the girl from india asking if i can
marry her.. or is it her dad asking how i had the guts
to propose to her.. or is it my dad blaming for having
such a bad taste..

each surprise mail like this lasts for seconds and
finally when the mail opens.. its usually from
professor about an assignment.. give it a break!! i am
shutting this laptop down....

The next word my professor says.. "Please open your
laptop and go to Yahoo Finance.."

____________________________________________________________________________________
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That night!!

2007-09-02T00:15:00.001-07:00

Once a year the whole of my state goes into frantic
activity. Its the day of twelfth board exam results.
Every girl or guy you see has the looks of person who
is about to hear his final judgement. Thats what they
have been told all year long and the result that they
get is gonna be their brand name for the rest of their
lives. At the end of the day some are happy. some are
frustrated.But In reality all are fooled.

As like any other person in my country even I had my
day. It was May 31st. Year 2000. At nine in the night
rumours start spreading that results will be out in a
couple of hours in the internet. Internet was not so
popular then in my native place and not many people
had access to it. So I was running around trying to
get access to some site.. think it was
chennaionline.com. That site had never supported more
than 10 users at a time and no wonder the server was
down. Came back home disappointed for not getting to
see the results and was awake the whole night thinking
of what could the possible outcomes be.

I tried hard to evaluate myself in all aspects.. how i
had worked.. where i could lose? I was even thinking
about all the celebrations that would take place once
my results were out. I was so confident or to say that
blinded by confidence that I was sure of getting great
marks and my dream college. My plans were becoming a
long list of endless dreams.. taking friends out..
asking for a bik.. giving tips to juns on how to
study.. But it was not so to be. Destiny was
different. One of the worst nightmares was to become a
reality the next morning.

The results went so bad that my friends had to take me
out to console me. and the rest i forgot what
happened. Everyone around started their chants: we
told u this is a turning point in ur life.. and u ve
missed it.. and they literally meant that i was not
fit for anything else again..

Looking back.. i laugh at those people.. who give so
much importance to what happens in an exam.. and now
the only thing i missed by not gettin good marks was
that the girl who i was to have a crush on was sitting
in the next class.. other than that.. oopss.. dont
wanna say more...

someone ritely said.. what happens to determines 5% of
ur life.. the remaining 95% is decided by how u react
to it.. and now i doubt even that 5% part..

____________________________________________________________________________________
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Ladies First?

2007-06-08T09:28:00.001-07:00

I have always disguised myself as one personal
councilor for all love issues for my friends. I do it
free of cost at a bar where I have couple of beers and
the client pays the bill. I have almost managed to
give a solution to all the problems I have faced but
the one I got today was different. A guy says the girl
proposed to her. What? How could that ever be
possible. I thought the rule of ladies first dint
apply to this place and some girl had broken that. And
if she had told him what was this guys problem and why
is he talking to me. I told him there is nothing to
worry and things are gonna fall in place for him and
returned home. All way back I was confused if I had
told him the right thing. I was not so sure. The only
way to find out would be to discuss it with another
girl.

I called up one of the few girls I talk to and
consider her to be smart. She hit me out of the blues.
She said I was wrong and it would never work out when
the girl proposes and these were her exact words.

"Girls are tough when it comes to falling in love but
are an easy prey when it comes to marraige. For the
guys its the other way round. A guy can fall in love
with 100 girls and still not marry one. A girl will
reject 100 love proposals but nod her head to anyone
who marries her."

Wow it was like sitting under a tree and getting all
the hidden secrets. I had never thought of anythin all
long from a girls point of view and had considered any
girls reaction to a guy as a RANDOM function of her
mood and the time of the day and the color of the
dress she is wearing.

Everything that looked random now made sense. I should
have known this long back that a guy looks for love
and girls looks to get married. No wonder all my
clients had a bad experience failing. I had made the
clients push their to the wrong side.

Now that I know the powerful secret I request all my
clients to come back and get things repaired through
another free councilin.

Cheers!!

____________________________________________________________________________________
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The First Feel!

2007-05-23T08:33:00.001-07:00

How does it feel? I have seen it in the movies. I have
read about it in the books. But I have no idea how it
feels. Naah. I am not talking about love. Love is
something that every person has a experience on. Most
of it is one sided though. But the experience remains
the same. Nothing can be so special about love because
its what everyone does. Pick anyone and ask them about
love. He will give you a lecture on that. Of his past
ones .. current ones.. true ones.. puppy
ones..successful ones.. untold ones.. broken ones..
the classification goes on. To add to all this misery
every guy who has been in love has a feel that his
story is unique and needs to be told to this world. I
have even met a guy who wanted to make a movie out of
their love story or give the story to some famous
director. How could this ever be possible. With over a
7 billion people in this world can there be something
called "unique" that too in something that does not
even exist in reality. Whats the probability of that.
Its almost null. I really wonder how that guy even
passed his tenth standard exams.I am talking about
something more than that.

The kiss. You need not be attractive to fall in love.
You need not be smart to fall in love. In fact you
have got to be nuts in a way. But for your first kiss
that too from a stranger you got to be attractive. You
got to be smart. For this reason now I have started
considering the people with a feel of a kiss to be
more successful than those who just create an illusion
of love. Love is not real. Its an illusion. Where as
kiss is something real. You have the proof of it if
the girl was wearing a lipstick. Let me tell you why..

I was standing there in the dark. I was too tired
after a week of never ending exams. It was the night
of the last exam and I had decided to party. Got
dressed up well and went to a pub. Had 3 beers. Next
destination was a dance floor. Could hardly move. I
was tired and exhausted. I dint remember when I had
slept well last. Sleep is something that I wud never
compromise that too for exams. She was standing there
looking at me and she started walking towards me. Not
sure if she was walking straight coz she was all
drunk. She could not balance herself and fell on my
giving a hug. Now I could not balance myself. She
lifted her head and looked into my eyes and whispered
in my ears. "your mush is so nice.." I had never smelt
a ladies perfume so close. Its so different that when
it is in the bottle. I thought that was the end of it
but destiny was different. She placed her lips on my
cheeks. And thats the last thing I remember. It was
like a discharge. It was like an awakening from
darkness to light.

Ah.. All this happened in seconds but still. Worth
writing a blog on. I had lost all the effect of my 3
beers. But it was worth the loss. I started dancing
again. All energy and all young. Not because the exams
were over. Cheers!!

____________________________________________________________________________________
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Connecting your Dots

2007-04-30T00:14:00.000-07:00

For the past few days I have been a bit restless. Dont
know why. Wanted to know it but. I recalled all that I
had done in the past week that had made me so
restless. Nothing was new.. nothing was unusual. I had
attended all 4 days of classes except two. Managed to
submit all the assignments but in the last minute.
Woken up 15 minutes before the class and rushed in 5
minutes late. Had thought about my home.. my friends
there.. my crushes back home.. listened to music..
smoking had not reduced. Everything seemed to be
normal but something was not. All of a sudden it
struck me. The exams were coming and I had still not
started studying. Now i know the reasons.

Having done most of my education in India I have
already taken up different types of exams at different
phases of life. The most important being the boards
which they say is "the turning point of my life". I
screwed it up big time and the only thing that turned
was that the girl who i was to have a crush on was in
a different class. Then came the series of engineering
exams. Took 63 of them if I remember correct. My
college had lost all hopes of trying to make me a good
engineer. For all people like me there is always the
software field where I again had to take exams in
Infosys, the company I worked, to prove that I am bit
more than useless. and now I am here in a different
part of the world studying all new subjects and the
exams fast approaching.

I really wonder why we take up an exam. Is it to prove
to myself that I know something in that topic..NO. why
should I prove to myself. Is it to make the professor
happy that he was successful in delivering some of his
thoughts and prove he has effective communication
skills. I am not in for that. I tried hard to figure
out a reason why? and I ended up getting two answers.
One is to make yourself look cool. I can look into the
people eye's and say MBA and act humble. The look that
the opposite person gives (if she is hot) is one
reason worth it.

Leaving jokes apart the other reason is something
serious. Someone said You can never connect your dots
looking forwards. You dont know what are u doing but
later you realise what you did. What you do now
becomes what you have done later. Hence another reason
could be I badly want to connect my dots.. looking
backwards.

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The Free booze!

2007-02-13T22:57:00.000-08:00

The usual way of killing time over mails is very
simple. CC all my classmates and ask them for somethin
i know the answer.. or pull someones leg. The chain
reaction starts and in no time my mailbox will be
flooded. One such similar topic today happened to be
"what plans for tomorrow?". How wierd could that
fellow be who was so far away but still
wanted to know what i am going to do on a weekday.
Middle of the week where i have to get up early and
attend 3 classes and a lab sessions. Is that what he
wanted to know. Couple of minutes later i saw the date
tag of the mail and it was Feb 13. OH!! he wanted to
know what i was doing for valentine's day. For dumbos
and singles like me he should have had that Question
more clear. Other than wat i said i raelly dont know
what i am going to be up for tomorrow but back home
valentines day was very special to me. We used to
celbrate like anythin. Like anyother new year party.
It was the day of free booze.

Two weeks before everyone gets so secretive. There are
some ( say category X) who are choosing the target to
confess their true love to. Some (category Y) already
have the targets in mind but they have something more
than that. They either want to give her a gift or take
her out to the best place. So they start saving money
or call up parents asking for some cash to join a C
programming course in a non existing computer
institute in my college. Some(category Z) saving money
to recharge their phones in a big way to call her up
who is in another city / another college thinking of
someone totally different.

On the big day of Feb 14 these little groups of
secretive suddenly disappear. Category X is found in
the hot spots of college where the chance of seeing
their target is maximum. Category Y is running all
around the college searching for their girl to give
the gift or ask her out. In most cases the girl also
disappears with some other guy. Category Z calls her
up at nite 12 to find the number engaged and keeps
trying for an hour before sleeping wiht the phone in
hand. Finally heart broken ends up sending her a sms
which is free. By the evening of feb 14 the truth is
getting revealed. Each category finds out what their
girls have been upto. I remember one of my friend
seeing his girl with his best friend in the restaurant
that he had suggested her. Now comes the best part All
those people are frustrated and come asking for
suggestions asking how to forget this great tragedy
they have had today. As my favorite saying goes

" Drinking may not be the solution to your problems...
but it helps you forget the problem itself.."

So with the excess money they have they take all of us
to a good bar.. and rest is history!!!!

____________________________________________________________________________________
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Woh Lamhe!

2007-02-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

Sitting in front of my laptop i tried hard to
concentrate. It was a class on Business analytics. 4
weeks had gone since this has started but i had not
even installed the required software for it. Came back
home totally exhausted and covered with snow. I used
to listen to music whenever it rained back home. It
sure is not possible here as all i get is the white
flakes floating in the air and unwilling to settle.
They are not willing to accept that they are out of
the clouds and have to hit the ground. Concentrating
hard on one single flake I see it being hit by many
others before it settles. I am watching all this from
my window sipping on a coffee and my laptop is playing
one of the borrowed mp3 cd. Surprises are the best
when they come least expected. One of my favourite
song started and I turned and looked at my laptop as
if it were a mind reader and had played the song that
i had to hear now. A romance song mixed with the sound
of thunder and rain droplets falling. I smiled..
Closed my eyes and everything around me had changed.
The first time i listened to this song was when I
was talking to her online ..carefully typing every
word of my chat and enjoying more the few words of
reply i got from her. Volume had been full in my
earphone and this had been the only song enqued in
winamp. Every line she typed I read it twice and it
gave me different meaning. It was the first time I was
talking to her after I had admitted i liked her but I
was convinced that she liked me too but its not going
to work out for various other reasons. Should i feel
happy or sad. I dint know. It was already late in the
night and i realised my office was deserted. Said a
bye and took a coffee with me to my smoking lounge. It
was then i realised that It was pouring outside and
people had left because of the rain. I smoked and got
totally drenched in the rain as I went back home and
listened to the whole song again. It was so much
different this time. Opening my eyes I still see those
flakes fighting to stay up in the air. Its such a
strange feel of looking at a mirror. I could see
myself as one of those flakes unwilling to accept the
reality. I still sit and wonder if she really had said
a no or if my english was so bad that i interpreted it
that way or may be reading every line twice had taken
me off my senses. Now I am in the other part of the
world and this strange coincidence had bought a flash
of my favourite moment. The same coffee cup.. the same
song and the same water droplets outside. The
cigarette was missing. Now you know where i am heading
next.

Woh Lamhe!! (Those Moments!!)

____________________________________________________________________________________
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Born Habits.

2007-01-07T13:35:00.000-08:00

How much could the world around you change and that
too all of a sudden. Ask someone who has quit a job
and come to study abroad. I am still trying to settle
down in this whole new world with all new people, new
food, new coffee and the list of the "new" goes on.

With the classes starting tomorrow I was finally
going through list of things that need to be done
before going to college and all that I need to watch
out for. Out of the blues something flashed in my
mind. New college means new class mates which means
"SOMEONE" new to watch out for.. but one thing I am
not sure is if that "SOMEONE" back home would be the
same as the someone here. I dont think so.

In my five years of college I used to go to
college on time for the first day of every year,
wearing washed clothes, clean shaven and combed hair
just to see if that SOMEONE has come atleast in the
junior batches. Someone who can make you come to
college but bunk classes and wait just to get a
glimpse of her or to say a Hi. Someone who makes you
give away the internals paper in ten minutes just to
accompany for a coffee or reply to sms. Someone who
makes me stay awake all nite making me think if they
have studied well for the exam when I myself have one
the same day and I dont even know the syllabi.

I am sure all this is not possible here with so
many studious people around and 16 credit hours per
sem in hand. I would be having weekly assignments..
case studies.. wait.. someone just passed accross..
let me go check out.

BORN HABITS NEVER CHANGE.

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Standing in the Q..

2006-11-13T00:11:00.000-08:00

Chat with the DC head. Though I am not into the habit of “chatting with” guys.. that too someone who is unknown and very much old. What can we have in common. Inspite of all this I wanted to peep into the chat room and take a look at what is happening. The portal was a remake of the old yahoo chat rooms but unfortunately you could talk to only one guy. U paste a question and you are supposed to get a answer which all others can see. Now let me check out what the kids are chatting with the DC head. As usual I am shocked looking at what is happening in infy.

Out of ten people nine were discussing about the food quality / food pricing / food queues and any issues that had the word food associated with it.( The remaining one question which was sensible and needed an answer got rejected.) I really wonder how much people are into this food. I double checked if i am into the rite chat room or had logged into some canteen committee discussion. I was in the right place but the discussion that was going on was total non sense. I really pity the DC head who wud have felt himself as a Chief cook or Head of a catering committee.

No wonder I don’t like certain parts of the country where the problem is wrongly focused or the focus is on the wrong problem.

This was just one fine case of what I have said. The few who asked the right questions were either ignored or left un answered. When you have so much to ask about people are most bothered about food. I read this famous quote somewhere.. "Give a man a Fish and he eats for a day .. Teach a man to Fish and He eats for a lifetime.." and here in my company this will need a rephrasing. "Give him a decent meal with a spoon and No long Q.. He stays in infy for a life time.."

Why do HR s break their head on reducing the attrition levels. I found it out so easily.. but can my solution be applied .. no. no way..

We are CMM level 5 .. we follow processes.. Innovating in the Challenging environment.. Taking the initiative.. oops all that is coming back to me now.. I better take a break.. Going for lunch before the Q gets too long.

miss you dear..

2006-10-18T04:24:00.000-07:00

October 2006 month is going to be special in one way. It will be officially the last month in Infosys and hence my last salary from Infosys. I still cant believe that such a day has come. I still remember the day I got placed in infy and made the plan of what I would do with my First Salary. Well a part of it did come true. I used to have a sony ericson T 100 phone. A phone that was almost scratched at every possible place. My first and the big plan was to get the phone changed. It took me nearly a year to do that and the new phone I got a new phone as a gift from my bro. Else I guess I would have stuck to that old and dear phone of mine.

This new one that I have is a motorazor V3. Looks amazing with a 64k display flap type and VGA camera with 4x optical zoom. But do I like it. No I don’t think so. Every time this phone rings I am scared to look at the phone thinking it to be my PL or PM asking about the “status update of the customizable Functional Gap in Finacle to be delivered by EOD”. Every time I get a sms its from HUTCH asking me to set a telugu song as my caller tune. In simple words I am least bothered about my phone and as far as possible I try to stay away from it. On top of all this I end up paying 1500 every month for a service I neither like nor use. I don’t even remember my number and I ve stored it as “Mine” in my own sim. No .. this is not the phone I wanted to buy with my first salary.

That T100 was a part of me at those times. I used to have it even in the toilets and under my pillow. Even when someone asks me my number today I end up saying 9894141326. An Airtel pre paid sim card loaded with unlimited free international sms. I made a lot of friends .. full night kadalai sessions .. in simple words .. I expressed myself. If anything could be called my personal diary then it was my phone. The forward messages.. The missed call pranks.. Those anonymous chats… The 10 rupee recharge cards.. ( the monthly recharge of 330 was something my uncle did for me…). More than that I call it a lucky phone. Have ended up getting so many appreciation messages in that phone. So many sweet sms from so many sweet people.

Now plans with the last salary. I will buy that sim again back home and use this V3 like my T100 for sometime... coz I MISS YOU DEAR…

The papers..

2006-10-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

The papers – A modern day non technical software terminology which means you have just resigned the job. Everyone believes in my company or in most of the companies that there will be a day when he will put his papers. Well in my case it was a little bit different. I have put 4 papers already. The first was for my friend who wanted to escape this place to get into another under the pretext of doing higher studies. The second did the same but told the truth that he was joining another company. I don’t understand why people speak the truth to their PM. For him I would say the girl who marries him is lucky coz if he is capable of telling the truth to his manager then no wonder he can tell the same to her. The third was for another guy who has no idea what he is up to next but leaves coz of frustration. The fourth of course was for me.

Putting the papers is so much easier than writing a love letter. You are sure to get a YES as the answer and manager cant ask you to stay back. That’s one reason why I love putting the papers.

I have always wanted to build on my writing skills. This was one of my passions rite from my college days. So I ended up writing love letters for all my friends in college. I have always heard people say that writing a love letter is one of the toughest things to do while penning down your thoughts. Thus I ended up taking the domain of “love” as my field of interest. I even remember writing love letters for a bottle of beer in the house of lords ( the most expensive bar in Coimbatore) or a grill chicken with egg noodles. Those were the heights of luxury for me at that time. Well In a short span of time I became such an expert that I could write a letter at a single go. No scratches.. no paper tearing business. Please don’t ask me what happened to all those love issues. Everyone who used my letters had a miserable experience falling and failing in love and till date no one has blamed the letters I had written for what had happened to them. Some people even got me a beer after all ended up badly to celebrate in the Devdas style.

And now all my skills are bein used to put papers.. make huge worthless documents.. send senseless emails.. Well theres one thing I still want to do.. write a letter to the one I love.. wanna know how it feels when u do it for yourself. I am sure that day will come.. till then keep reading my blog..

will you?

2006-09-21T00:58:00.000-07:00

“So what do you expect me to say?” She asked me in such a simple tone. No one could ever make out if it was a yes or no. Anybody would have had a lot of expectations. But I had never even wanted an answer for this. Anybody would have expected a yes for what I had said. I dint. I had just done what I wanted to do for a long time. I had done it all of a sudden.. my way.. my style.

“I am waiting for an answer. What do you expect me to say?” She pressed me with her words. How ironic could get things get. Now she wants an answer. I smiled and I was out of words. I had just told her everything I could and now she wants more. “I don’t want an answer. And I also know what the answer is” I told her.

She asked “Then why take the trouble of telling me?”

Oops. She has a lot of questions and I had no answer. It was like writing an exam the way my Dad asks me to. Somehow at this moment I was reminded of his words. He always says: go to the examinations with so much confidence that you know for sure what the result will be. This will take away all the fear of an exam. I have always tried to follow this but failed miserably. Its been sometime since I ve written a sem paper but everything still remains fresh. 2 nights before the exam I am sure I am gonna fail. The next morning I wanna pass but I cant so I start studying and one night before the exam I just feel its possible. In the exam I look at the paper .. the one in the front for one marks.. and till the result comes I am not sure if I ve cleared the paper. Haaa.. those were the days. My style of writing an exam.

Today I had done what my Dad has said .. too cool.. too confident.. I knew the result .. and taken the exam just that way. I feel things are so different. The next morning everything had changed. My mind was so clear. Happy that for once I had done what Dad has asked me to. Oh yeah I still have not told what my question was.

I had just sent her a sms asking “Will you marry me?”

when things work Randomly..

2006-09-16T01:22:00.000-07:00

The last one year in a software industry has changed the way I say things. I have started to use many new words, a bit complex in nature, in place of simple words.

Certain things have become Mandatory. Processes will have to be followed to maintain quality. The list goes on.. when so much importance is given to the few lines of code written.. u cud imagine the importance given to “We the people” who do it. U have just guessed it wrong. We are treated the opposite way. Picked up using a thousand criteria.. but managed randomly. To manage us Randomly there are bunch of HR’s. I can recall one of my favorite Dilbert strip.

At a board meeting in the company…

Boss: We thought employees were the most important asset.. but now things ve been re-organised and employees are the ninth most important.

Dilbert: What comes 8^th.?

Boss: Carbon paper..

If the condition of SE is this.. in name of processes the weekly activity reports of how time is killed every day has to be filled in against the correspondingly developed modules. I have even ended up entering 277 hours of effort for a moduel that was never developed nor assigned to me. When PL asks my why ? I say its random too..

And believe me all the ppl I know enter random numbers.

In all this confusion.. there are a bunch of quality people who work on the random numbers we enter as efforts. They calculate the efficiency of the worker .. and finally sum up everythin to average output per employee of the company.. oof.. how pathetic and senseless cud they be.. And to add to all these miseries. They say my company has the per employee output. That’s the limit.. and its published in the b-magazines. What started at the lowest level.. is wat the whole country reads and gives a brand image.

Everything is different THE FIRST TIME.

2006-06-07T23:32:00.000-07:00

After a real hectic day of checking mails.. scrapping almost everyone in orkut.. using the infy lan to call up friends in usa.. three frames of snooker and not to forget the 6 coffee-dum breaks that I had in a span of 3 hrs in my seat, I came back home totally exhausted and surprisingly early( trying to study something.) . In spite of all this I had not forgotten to call my friend Muthukumar for saying… “congrats on ur engagement.. “ OR “good luck on your engagement..” I really dint know wat to say coz he was my first friend to get engaged and my usual calls to him were like .. “Machi oru 2k transfer pannu… “ OR “Mama.. vaada ramba polam.. neee sponsor pannu..” ( yen pun patta nenjai pugai vittu aathiya maamanithar..)

I really feel uncomfortable when I am out of words.. My first call was at 1 in the afternoon.. It was ringing and there was no answer. “He must be in cloud number nine.. “ I thought. But what was he doing in cloud number 9 without his cellphone.. I tried again.. Now the phone was not reachable.. Ha.. I knew it .. he had come down and taken his phone up there.. where u don’t even signal. After a few more trails I finally got through him at 9’o clock in the night, when he was about to get into the train. ( I have not tried so many times even to the girl who I had a major crush on.. ) . Like I said this was my first time having made such a call it was really different speaking to a commited person. (that’s how we say in orkut)

He seemed to be really exited not because the engagement got over but he was to go back with her in the same train.. ( At the same time .. he was very upset about the fact that he has to travel all alone from Coimbatore to tirupooooooorrr.. That was the expression he gave for distance for 60 kms which is covered in 45 minutes. ). He even went to the extent of explaining the theory of relativity by Einstein in the same context. Then we got into some general talks on how the engagement went and other stuffs.. Out of the blues… he suddenly shouted out of excitement..( as if India had needed six to win of the last ball against Pakistan and Dhoni had hit one..)

Asking him wat had happened I was shocked to know that blue mountain express had started moving out of the Coimbatore station towards tiruppooooooorrrr.. ( I guess this is an event that happens everyday at 8 45 pm ). But still… wishing him again I kept the phone down.. Knowing him for more than 5 years.. I can bet saying he would have stood in the door waiting for her.

Telling you all again.. it was such a different experience.. and if u ve missed it .. u can still give Muthukumar a call, I am sure he is still in that state.. and now I realize.. getting engaged is not just about changing your status to committed.. but about doing everything with all your heart .. packing every moment with excitement .. making life worth living.. and last but not the least.. realizing the basic laws of physics.. Really Happy for you my friend.. (Machi treat in ramba for getting engaged..)

Cheers!!!!

My new search..

2006-04-19T03:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend had gone out to have a beer with some of my friends in one of the beach resorts of Chennai. Couple of bottles had become empty when one of the beer-boy came up with this question. “Heard there are a lot of pubs in Hyderabad. Which is your favourite?”. I dint have a second thought. “Club 8” was my immediate reply and I told him with a big smile on my face for having made my favorite Hyd-pub popular in Chennai.

Gulping down another mug of beer I thought what made me say club 8 as my favourite hangout. Was it the ambience.. No ..my coimbatore hangouts are the best in terms of the ambience. Was it the music. Never.. I hate music being played so loud in such places. The cost.. Not .. it was expensive… when too many confused answers came I suddenly realized why that was my favorite.

That was the only place where stags are allowed. Recently I had many bad experience of being kicked out .. or not even being sent in just coz of one board hanging outside..”Couples only” or “Stags not allowed” both meaning the same. What is even worse is the cold stare the security guy outside gives me. He looks at me as if I am waiting outside for a interview for which I am not qualified at all.

One with a pessimistic thought would read the board as ; Unlucky and Unfit people stay away. The optimist would read ; Happy people you have better places..

What I would do… well I am search of a partner.. not to get drunk but to learn salsa… that was recently another one of the places where I was denied a admission.

2006-04-05T01:01:00.000-07:00

This Sunday I had visited one of the eight wonders of the world, but the only wonder dedicated for love. Everybody had come back from this same place giving descriptions of how they felt.. wat kinda emotions were flowing inside. I even know some who swore that they will come back with their love.. and others with their husband or wife(since they were unlucky in love.. just like me..). I set out on the trip thinking I ll also come back with same kind of thoughts and as always these things never come to me.. propable that’s one reason I call my self different..(Can be taken in the way u want.)

The first site of the Taj Mahal is just awesome, in fact that first images keeps flashing all the time in your mind. I really wonder how crazy can one go when he falls in love. He had gone to the extent making his own kingdom bankrupt. Defining the concepts of globalization centuries ago without knowing what it was. The Persian architects.. the Lankan painters.. marbles from some other place.. Indian funds.. the list just goes on. But I am sure the guy who built it dint ve a idea of any of this and was only focused on doing something which no one has ever dared before. The leaning tower of Pisa was a accident. The statue of liberty was a gift from France. The China wall was for self defense and all others except for this don’t have the symbol of determination.

The question “how crazy can love take someone?” now needs a need a rephrasing “to what crazy heights can love take someone?”. I frankly feel that his love was only the spark that ignited his determination. His dream ignited by that spark made it a determination, then a reality, today a wonder of the world, tomorrow the world can only stand and see. And this spark varies in every individual depending on what his passions are. I am a great admirer of people who live to chase their dreams and for that reason I truly salute this guy.

Today I have seen so many people in search of that spark and many till end never even get close to it. I myself am in search of that little spark.

And finally I returned with such mixed feelings .. to have seen something that happens only once in history.. pride that my country was once the richest in this world .. unhappy that the black taj was never completed..(In love.. everything needs to be incomplete and that law applies to a world wonder too..)

where B schools fail!

2006-01-20T02:59:00.000-08:00

I have always wondered what guides people in making decisions .. is it by instincts .. is it the people around them .. it is not uncommon to see people around you being carried away by many things while making decisions but at times it is shocking to see someone at the very top level of management make such bad ones.

I got a forward containing all the changes that have been made in the Income Tax Calculations. And a small line stated that “from this financial year the amount paid towards education loan will not be deducted from taxable amount and only the interest will be considered for deduction” This unimportant line in the huge document could make a huge difference to millions in this country.

Education loans are generally taken by students who wanna study but don’t ve the funds .. this is wat I thought and that change in IT regulations was a direct discouragement towards this younger generation who are just about to finish school and have already loaded their minds with dreams.

In a so called developing country where u get to save tax on almost everything from buying houses to saving money.. u don’t ve the privilege to do it on a investment for education. May be this government still considers education to be a investment and not a dream to be fulfilled. And to everything this was signed by our finance minister who is one of the very few Harvard graduates from India. The person who is so interested in bringing more FDI to India .. makin censux touch 10k and make our place a truly globalised one is not bothered abt the education loans. Really wonder what they teach in Harvard’s. but one of my strong opinions is that “management and decision making” is very much a personal skill and will ve to be developed with self realization . Even the best b schools on earth fail in this. And no wonder the greatest decision makers in any field are not even graduates leave alone being from a world class b school.

a weekend nightmare!!

2006-01-09T04:08:00.000-08:00

This had been one of my worst weekends. I had spent both saturday as well as the sunday working on one of the darkest terminals of unix. People call unix dark only coz it looks so dull but i call it the darkest coz I really dont ve a idea of what is happening inside.Was trying hard to get some sleep .
I was having a nightmare of all my programs throwin errors on monday morning just when my pl had come to check the output. I wanted to run away. Break that server. In simple words i was having trouble sleeping.
I rolled.. twisted and turned in my bed but taht nightmare wud not go away and wud never let me rest.
To add to all this misery i could hear a distant sound. A very familiar one but coming from a place far away. soon i realised that it was my cellphone just next to the pillow. It was around 2 in the night or 2 am early in the morning.. whatever u call it. but the phone was ringing and it had to be answered.
With a real great effort opened my eyes and saw the number .. all eccentric digits. Who could that be. Could it be my pl callin my from the server tellin me that i am thrown out of this project or cud it be the unix server itself wanting to blast me for writing such a bad program. Who ever it was it had to be answered.
"Hello.." a very sweet voice @ the other end. WOw.. unix is programmed to talk in female voices i thought. " Have u slept da? Have i disturbed u..?" was the caring next liner.
Now i am sure it was neither unix nor it was my pl. I was still blabbering @the other end wiht words i dont remember but when she revealed who she was . all my sleep was off and was back to 100 percent normal. Wow.. it was one of my very sweet frnd from usa and i talked for abt 30 mins.. not lettin my roomie sleep too.
It was so good at that time of the night . Out of no where she had come and saved me from the unix nightmares.
After i kept the phone down. I dint sleep a bit. Was thinkin abt her.. And soon it was time to leave for the office.
to work in unix.
Now i am confused.. who dint let me sleep.. the dark terminal of infy or the sweet friend of my school..

book that saved..

2005-05-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

A few days back was totally burnt in the heat of chennai so decided get a free treatment by droppin into the spencers. The place they say is the most happenin one in chennai but as on date i ve not seen any one purchasin anythin there . Other than that wat s there to happen i really dont understand.

stepped into the Landmark.. again "the most happenin place" in there.. browsin through all latest musical collections.. just then saw a prety lookin girls huntin for somethin . oops... the automatic trackin system got enabled and my footsteps followed hers..

she took me a lonely place of the mart. And yeah it was the section of books for the techies.. and no wonder why it was so deserted. She selected THE BOOK.. which is popularly known as the Final year Bible especially to the engineering Boys of chennai. BARON's GRE. Everyone had to read that to complete engineering and takin up a MS was only a secondary option. I always wondered how one can estimate the enginerrin capabalities of a final year student based on how many useless words he knows.

I smiled at her.. she gave me cold stare and walked away with a victory in her face which showed she had found her route to the usa.. But in reality i had not smiled @ her but at myself.

I was also into one of these books a long time back. It was my prefinal year in college and the whole class all of a sudden became real goody boys preparing for the placement interviews. I had no idea of wat was i upto and the pressure from people around especially my seniors was simply too much. Everyone wanted me to learn the basics of electrical and electronics.. ( Cmon man .. i am in final year and stil u want me to learn the basics.) do a project in C..( whihc no one uses today.) be more communicative.. ( not to waste time on sms.. ). I too had to find a way to escape from all this. Then came this bible.. With this in hand, no one dared me to ask anythin.. i ll just say i am gonna do my MS and not intrested in placements.
It was really a book that saved.

The day i got placed in infy.. put this in some second hand book stall. bought a beer for taht money. Now in infy ppl ask me wat my future plans are..
i say i am...... TAKING UP MY GMAT..