A Mixed Bag!

Penthouse Pauper

2009-01-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

Man 1: Do you know that there are thugs who kidnap children from the slums, blind their eyes, make them beg on the streets and get a living out of that? I learnt about it from the Slumdog Millionaire movie.
Man 2: I see. A tad worse than people who show the ill fortunes of slum dwellers in a movie and make millions out of it, definitely. The Penthouse Paupers are a little better.

Good Fortune

2009-01-19T17:45:00.000-08:00

There are times when you just look up at the sky, and thank God with your arms wide open, for giving you enough sense to not pursue something that you were totally crazy about, which if you had, would have been devastating for you.

PS: visited India and had the best time of my life(in a long long time) for 46 whole days(Nov 24-Jan 8). it's official - i hate to be back here.

Happy Birthday, Kamal!

2008-11-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

வயதைத் தொலைத்தவன் யாரு?

நீதான்!

நீடூழி வாழ்க!

Happy Birthday, Shah Rukh

2008-11-02T22:45:00.000-08:00

My birthday wishes to a warm and passionate actor.
God Bless.

Happy Birthday, Aishu

2008-11-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

Married?
Thirty Five?

So What?! :)

My Second Water Fast

2008-10-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

...has just begun. Trying to replicate last year's effort. When i successfully completed it last time, i was hoping to do it more often, but never found the motivation. Hope i have the mental strength to go through it one more time... - (12:01 am)

(3:00 pm) - Not bad at all. But, this phase was relatively easy last year as well. After 7 pm is when the struggle begins...time to remember the Mahatma on his 139th birthday :)

(10:00 pm) - It's very hard to believe how easy it has been so far. This is so different from last year's experience where the temptation to give up was very high late in the evening.
After work, i went to the the San Diego State University, with a friend, to attend a speech titled, "Mahatma Gandhi and Religious Pluralism: The Relevance for World Peace", by Dr.Nicolas Gier. It was quite an intriguing speech which interpreted Gandhiji's stance on religion and equated it to Religious Pluralism. I was not very comfortable though, with some of the speaker's answers to questions that were clearly not from his area of expertise. I felt he gave an incorrect picture of Gandhiji's stand on non-violence, in particular. But it was good to see the audience defend Gandhiji. Sure it was a prejudiced crowd, but it was still a heartening sight. The speech was preceded by a Bharathanaattiyam performance by a couple of local girls, dancing to "Vaishnava Janato" and "Vande Maataram".
90 more minutes. I am starting to feel confident...

(12:01 am, Oct 3) - time for some well deserved pineapple juice...

Sixty One

2008-08-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day to all the Indians out there.

Happy 61st birthday, Independent India! :)

Wimbledon '08

2008-07-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

What a Finals! It's always great to see these two challenge against each other(except on clay, ofcourse :P) and it was no different on Sunday. A 5-set cliffhanger which Nadal won 9-7 in the final set. Phew! What a relief, i say :D

Until the 4th set, the game was not very different from the '07 Finals, in which Federer won the 1st and 3rd sets in tie-breaks. Here, he won the 3rd and 4th sets in tie-breaks after losing the first two 4-6, 4-6. The tie-breaks were the highlight of this game, with both players producing some unbelievable winners. Thankfully for Nadal and me, 5th sets in Wimbledon don't have tie-breaks. ;)

Nadal had an excellent opportunity to wrap it up in the 4th when he served 5-2 in the tie-break. He served a double-fault at the wrong time and then went to net for a volley, only to see Federer whip an amazing backhand winner(passing shot) to bring the tie-break back on serve. Federer went on to win the tie-break 10-8.

At that point, it seemed like deja vu from last year's Finals. Federer annihilated Nadal in the final set last year and won the deciding set 6-2. This year he had to contend with a man who had gained a lot of experience over the past 52 weeks. Nadal was not going to give up. He was pretty much holding on to the game in the fifth when Federer fired some amazing aces. The eagerly awaited break came in the 15th game of the set. It was Nadal's golden chance to win the Championship, after failing to do so in three attempts earlier in the match(all on serve). He held his nerve and his serve and served it out like a champion, forcing an error from Federer, to win the set 9-7. Oh yes, Wimbledon's got a new champion!

This surely means the end of Federer era, atleast in my books. He has to lose the US Open later this year(a full year without winning a Grand Slam), and then it will take him a lot of time to understand what went wrong, by which time a lot more would have gone wrong! Well, it might sound like wishful thinking, but it has been my instinct for over a year now, that this was not far from happening. He will probably equal Pete's record of 14- maybe even better it by 1, but it will take a lot of self-confidence and a lot of luck to equal Pete's 7, let alone better it.

As far as Nadal is concerned, the future is looking absolutely bright! This was a worthy reward for his perseverance! He still has the goal of reaching the top spot. That will keep him motivated. He will also know that his serve needs to improve. He can't afford to lose crucial tie-breaks the way he does now. He is definitely not the classy type, like a Sampras or a Federer, but he is the type that is hard to beat and is always getting better. He has age on his side too. He will stay focused until he claims that coveted number one spot. How far beyond can he go depends on his focus "after" he becomes number 1. For now, it looks inevitable that he will be number 1 in about a year's time or sooner.

The Finals was absolutely worth spending over 7 hours on(rain delays and all)! Tennis rocks, thanks to contests like this!

Dhasaavadhaaram (Spoiler Alert)

2008-06-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

Oam Namoa NaaraayaNaaya...

Message:
Yes. This movie is incomplete if we discount religion. This is an out and out religious movie. But wait, the religion being preached is not Sri VaishNavism, nor Saivism, nor Hinduism in general, nor Islam, nor Christianity, nor Sikhism. No, not even Science. The religion being preached is Humanism, a religion that must be preached and used extensively to convert indifferent masses into followers. It is the religion that our planet needs at this juncture. Faith in humanity is the need of the hour. So, why did i start the blog the way i did and not by saying "Hail Humanity" or some such thing? Because, being a follower of humanity does not mean that i cannot follow another religion. That is the beauty of humanity. It lets you live for yourself, as long as you care for others around you, as long as your religion does not forbid you from being compassionate towards fellow human beings. That is the top priority. As long as you follow the hierarchy, you can embrace any religion you want in addition to humanity. So, that is what the movie is trying to say, and i believe that everything in the movie can be explained using this theory.

It also says that men control the happenings of this planet to a large extent, whereas some things are out of their control. Owing to the inability to understand such exceptions, men must not come to believe that "everything" is being controlled by an entity that is not "human". It sounds atheistic, but it is not false. Most religions ask men to do their duty if they want to reach God's abode. So, in a way, it is a theistic viewpoint too. We are already beginning to see the beauty of this movie, i believe. There is a positive message for everyone- theist or atheist, Hindu or Muslim, as long as they choose to close their "moodakkaN" and see the movie using their "nyaanakkaN"!

Kamal, God and Religion:
There is a notion that Kamal is being anti-some-religion, instead of atheistic. Let us conduct a debate amongst representatives from different religions and castes to see if they can dispel that notion. This is just my imagination and in no way represents holistically how a member from any of these communities will behave typically. I let them take it away...

Muslim: What a biased movie! Everything happens because of PerumaaL? After all, Kamal was born as an iyengar, wasn't he? It's in his blood.
Vaishnavite: What on earth are you talking about? He shows that 200 odd Muslims are saved because they were inside a mosque. Obviously, he means Allah is the savior.
Muslim: What nonsense? He implies that it happened only because the Govindaraajar idol that made its presence in our man's household.
Christian: Oh yes. The Hindu God helps the Muslim family, and the mosque saves them all, thanks to Allah. He killed our representative, didn't he?
Saivite: Stop it! It is Vishnu who helps the family, not Siva. Saivites are shown as rowdies.
Vaishnavite: Is that right? It is only because of what the Saivite king does, does the statue reach the bottom of the sea, thereby altering the arrangement of the tectonic plates as time goes by, and causes the tsunami, thereby saving millions of lives that would have been lost otherwise, because of the virus. The only men with divine powers are shown to be the Saivites. Atleast, he showed the Muslims as ordinary men, and their God as supreme. But in your case, he showed that your men are by themselves Godlike in nature.
Saivite: Oh. But, the Sikh is the one who undergoes a miracle. Is his God better than our Gods??
Sikh: Oye, Oye. Were your eyes shut when he shows that the Hindu God...er...Vishnu, comes into the dressing room and that is why our mundaa is saved??
Muslim: Nahin. He prays to Guru's photo. That is why he is saved. isn't it?
Sikh: Nice try! One small simran...matlab, prayer. That's all??
Saivite: What- that won't save the man? There was only one prayer for our God too. Only the Vaishnavite got many prayers.
Vaishnavite: Aahaa! Prayers! My foot! Everything was so ridiculing of our traditions and customs and most importantly our beliefs!
Muslim: Enough, man. Ridicule or otherwise. Everyone was saved only because of that idol and all the prayers that the heroine sang. There was no trace of any of our men doing namaas. Only the occasional "Ya Allah", and that too casually, almost mockingly.
Sikh: What about the truck which takes the police to the hospital, man? There is a Siva Linga picture in that truck. And we all know that the inspector diverts Fletcher's attention by handcuffing Mallika and also comes back in the end to tip off the hero to not goto the local police. So, Siva is also shown to be a savior.
Saivite: What? I did not notice!
Vaishnavite: Maybe you were too busy only noticing scenes where he was ridiculing the Saivites!
Saivite: What better are you?? Anyways, the scene following that, Kamal lands on a truck from the top of a bridge and there is "Sri Rama Jayam" written on that truck, along with Sangu and Chakkaram. What have you to say for that??
Vaishnavite: And the man poses like our Lord Ranganatha! Again thrusting his belief in, that man is God!
Christian: Dudes. What are you talking about man? What should i say then? Just churchbells a couple of times. That's all!
Sikh: Arre. The boat where the hero and the heroine and even the Hindu idol rest in the end is on top of a church, meaning that Jesus saved them all, including the Hindu God, isn't it?
Vaishnavite: Yes, yes.
Christian: What yes, yes? What about the Anti-Christ symbol?
Saivite: What is that?
Christian: The symbol on the hero's forehead, when a bullet scrapes his skin. He wears a bandage that symbolises Anti-Christ. So, the hero of the movie is against our God! Isn't that enough proof of what the man thinks about our religion?
Sikh: What are you guys talking about, yaar?
Muslim: I did not know that. But who is the hero of the movie? I thought it was your man Vincent only. He is the one who is called "Ulaga Naayagan".
Saivite: Oh, yes. Never struck me. I thought it was the scientist guy.
Christian: Yeah, right! Already he is shown as a Dalit. Now, you tell me he is the hero? Am not your bakra.
Sikh: What if he is a Dalit? He is shown wearing the cross. He is a Christian.
Christian: Well, maybe. But, he is a Dalit. What about the Fletcher guy? He is the villain and what first name did Kamal choose for him?? Christian! What blasphemy!
Saivite: Yeah, well. It's just a name. Don't read too much into it, man.
Christian: Just a name? Right! What about the hurried fashion in which he asks the priest to do the rituals and the way he shows his finger to Mallika when they get married? Dude. He has taken our customs for a ride!
Vaishnavite: Not as much as ours anyways.
Christian: Yeah, right.
Muslim: Forget it. What about the name of the monkey? Does that not show he is a Hindu devout.
Christian: What is special about Anu?
Vaishnavite: Not Anu. It is Hanu! He has named a monkey using our God's name!
Sikh: Ye Hanu kaun hain yaar?
Muslim: You keep quiet, man.
Sikh: Oh man! Gotcha.
Muslim: But he is a monkey-God, right? He even says that it is an intelligent monkey, meaning that your God is intelligent. Why do you feel bad when he aptly named the monkey, man?
Saivite: Intelligent? How about when he calls it "little devil"??
Sikh: Arre. That's just a joke, man.
Vaishnavite: I don't care. He's anyways an incarnation of Siva. So, it is the Saivite's problem.
Saivite: Oh, come on. Hanu...i mean, Hanuman is a devotee of Rama, who is an incarnation of Vishnu. It is your problem.
Muslim: Kyaa bakwaas hai yaar! I thought he was endorsing your religion, and you see it as a problem? Maybe we need better understanding of each other's religions.
Others: Yes, yes.
Vaishnavite (continues for a couple of seconds longer than the others): Yes, yes.
Christian: What yes, yes? Don't be a hypocrite. Admit that he showed your God to be supreme.
Vaishnavite: No, our God is not supreme.
Others: Aaah!!
Vaishnavite (embarrassed): I mean, Kamal did not show it that way at all!

Alright. I think they have shown us enough. They agree that they need to understand each other better. After all, they need to live in harmony if this country of ours is to prosper. They'll be fine, am sure.

I can safely say that Kamal is an atheist and is absolutely against the concept of God, irrespective of religion. That does not mean that he is intolerant towards believers. He is not. But, he sure wishes for a world where humanity stands at the top of all religions. He is definitely not claiming that man is God. Infact, he almost yearns for that to be true by pointing out how men are unable to control everything. So, when it seems like he is ridiculing God, he is only ridiculing the people who have blind faith in God. He cannot ridicule God, because he does not believe in God. Believers will do well if they understood this fact.

Story:
Very, very simple and straightforward. A group of scientists discover a virus that has the potential to kill millions of people. The bad scientist wants to sell it to a bad guy, Q, for money. The good scientist tries to save the world from this virus. He is followed by an ex-CIA agent, who is an ally of Q, who tries to get the virus and kill the good scientist. A lot of events happen, and millions of lives are saved in the end by a tsunami which destroys the virus but takes away thousands of lives in return...

Graphics:
60 crores was spent on the movie, and about 2.5 crores on Kamal's make-ups alone. What can you do with a few crore rupees spent on graphics? You saw that in the movie. I saw the movie in an ordinary theatre the first time and really felt embarassed by the graphics. I watched it in a very good theatre the second time, and the graphics looked way better! I have seen tens and tens of Hollywood movies with excellent graphics, and to my eyes, the graphics looked reasonably good. Imagine someone watching it for the first time in a tamil movie. It must have blown his mind off. The graphics are by no means perfect. But, they have done a pretty good job with the money they got.

Music:
"Kallai Mattum" and "Mukundhaa" are awesome. You'll start liking "Oh Oh Sanam" and "Ulaga Naayaganae" after a few times. I certainly did. The BGM was pretty good, except for that one chase scene after the inspector is sent off to the hospital. Fletcher chases Govind and the music makes you cringe. But, except for that one instance, the BGM was pretty good, exceptional at times.

Screenplay:
Now, let us talk about the much-hyped aspect of the movie- its screenplay. It is not simple- given. But, giving up without even trying to understand what it is about is a bit disappointing. What the screenplay tries to say is that things of astronomical proportions do not happen just like that, spontaneously, by the flick of a finger, or atleast not specifically because a finger was flicked! The sequence of events happen in a particular order owing to small contributions by infinite number of factors. This is what "Chaos Theory" is about. An extension of that is the "Butterfly Effect", on which this movie is based. It says that a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa can cause a cyclone in America. Ofcourse, the butterfly by itself does not have the power to generate a cyclone. But, since it flapped its wings when it did and where it did, things happen in a particular sequence, the end result of which is the cyclone in America.

This can be explained by taking very many examples. Let's say am on my way to work in my car, and the car breaks down. So, i get down and board a taxi. The driver guy drops me off at my workplace, and heads out of the parking lot, when his cab gets hit by a truck. Now, he gets badly injured and loses a leg. So, he gives up being a taxi driver, and takes up welding, where he can do well without a leg. There he gets into an accident, and loses his vision. He lives the rest of his life under the care of his wife and son, who had to stop going to school and take up a job at a young age in order to support his family. The family that had a decent income and a content life is now in shambles. Why? Because my car broke down! Ofcourse, nobody intended it to be that way, but that's how it turned out to be. We can extend this even further to trace why my car broke down, and the "blame" will goto someone else. (It is a different thing that when we run out of people to blame, we resort to blaming God, the believers, i mean). I hope you get the idea. Now, Dhasaavadhaaram says exactly that in a very very commercial way! There are 10 Kamals and so many others who are responsible for the vial reaching the sea and the tsunami occuring at that same exact time.

I think tsunami is the confusing part for most. Although he doesn't say that clearly, it is obvious that the statue that sinks in the 12th century goes on to disturb the tectonic plates' structure in some small way, which centuries later erupts out as a tsunami. The fact that the statue comes out is an indication that it settled down somewhere near the epicenter of the earthquake that causes the tsunami. Ofcourse, Rangarajan Nambi delayed the inevitable(sinking of the statue), and also increased its mass, altering the position in, force with and time at which it would have landed on the ocean bed otherwise. Each of the other Kamal characters play their part voluntarily(Govind, Fletcher, Bush) and/or involuntarily(the others including Bush, Govind and Fletcher) and take responsibility for the end result. Worth the hype, i say!

Are the other characters(besides the ones played by Kamal) not responsible? Ofcourse, they are! So, why did Kamal play 10 roles and not 7 or 14? Because of the title! It is a movie which suggests that men are closest to being Godlike, that men control most of the happenings of the planet knowingly or unknowingly. There has to be a religious connection, and hence the title. Since the title was chosen to be Dasaavadhaaram, it was only apt that he did 10 roles. That can be used for commercializing the movie as well, and it is already turning out to be a mega hit for that precise reason. For those of you who are not very fond of Kamal, i empathize with your feelings. It was probably an overdose for you all. But, deep down, you must have enjoyed something about every single character of his in the movie, am sure. If not, it's debate for another day.

Now, let's take a look at some of the subtle things in the screenplay, things that play a part in making sure that the vial reaches the sea exactly at that time, thereby saving millions of lives, taking away thousands of lives which were going to be lost anyways(Ofcourse, Kamal doesn't stop short of blaming science as well, for failing to save the lives, when the satellites failed to do what they were expected to do). Let's forget some of the obvious ones like:
1. Avtar Singh's introduction scene at the airport, where he diverts the Singh inspector's attention and unknowingly helps Fletcher and Jasmine get away from the airport.
2. The truck which saves Kamal when he falls off from the bridge. If it hadn't been there at that time, Fletcher would have gone to Chidambaram and acquired the vial without any trouble.
3. The paatti dropping the vial into the idol. Otherwise, Govind could have gotten away from there before Fletcher arrived.
4. Bush letting the flight goto India.
5. Avtar coming out of the hospital, making Fletcher take the stairs because there are police around. Govind who is inside the elevator escapes because of that.
The not so obvious ones:
1. When Nambi is about to be dropped into the sea along with the statue, the king Napoleon makes gestures with his hands asking the boatmen to go further into the sea. Maybe if they hadn't, the statue would have landed in a different place in the sea bed and there wouldn't have been a tsunami, on that date and time at the least.
2. When Sairam sends 5 packages to India: The guy there says that he could try calling the airport and stop the package. Sairam tries to retrieve the receipt but notices that Kamal is getting away with his BMW and rushes out, forgetting all about calling the airport. Had the guy called at that time, the package might have not reached India.
3. When Yuka gets killed, Fletcher leaves a bomb in the apartment. That seems unnecessary. But, remember she tries to throw it at the helicopter and it narrowly misses? Imagine what if it had hit the target...Fletcher might have been dead, and it would have taken Mr.Q some time to find another man for the job, and who knows what that man could have done?
4. The elephant that goes wild: Fletcher almost grabs the idol, but the elephant doesn't let him grab it. If he had, end of story.

None of the characters in these scenarios intended to play a part in making sure that the vial reaches the sea during the tsunami. But, that's exactly the end result of their actions. Am sure there are many more such scenes. It'll take me a few more viewings to spot them all. But, to single-handedly come up with such a complicated screenplay and make it near perfect takes a genius. It took exactly that- a genius. I say near perfect because i noticed a couple of flaws in the movie.
1. "Don't ruin my weekend, man" - the guy says it on a Monday. It's near Christmas and it's presumable that that was the man's last day at work for some time. But, yes, it is far-fetched.
2. "Koormamaaga maNNil thoandRi boomi thannai meettaai" - The paatti poses as Varaagam when this line is sung. This is kind of unbelievable for me, coming from Kamal. Maybe they did not find an easy way to show a tortoise, to match Vaali's lyrics. The saving grace is that Asin does not point her hands towards the cloth screen for the audience to look at it, like she does for each one of the other avatars.

There is an argument on how ridiculous it is to show a bullet taking away tumor. First of all, it is not illogical. So, that cannot be considered a flaw. The scene, in my opinion, is there in the movie to depict that some things are not in humans' hands. Miracles do happen, and make a mockery of science and technology. This is another example to show that the movie is not totally atheistic. It tries to portray that while humans can control a lot of things in this planet, not everything is in their hands. To conclude...

What i heard the first time...

Asin: "neenga kadavuL illannu mattum sollaadhaengoaLaen" ("Don't you say that there is no God")
Kamal: "ayyayyo. naan kadavuL illannu enganga sonnaen? .......irundhaa nallaa irukkumNu dhaan sonnaen" ("When did i say that there is no God? I am just saying that it'd be nice if there was God")

What i have been hearing from the second time onwards...

Asin: "neenga kadavuL illannu mattum sollaadhaengoaLaen" ("Don't say that you are not God!")
Kamal: "ayyayyo. naan kadavuL illannu enganga sonnaen? .......irundhaa nallaa irukkumNu dhaan sonnaen" ("When did i say that i am not God? I am just saying that it'd be nice if i was!")

Amen!

Happy B'day Sachin! - 35

2008-04-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1161160

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1161161

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1161162

God Bless You! :)

755 Days

2008-03-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

^^^^

21st March, 2008
-------------------------------------------------------
22nd March, 2008
vvvv

Spite

2008-03-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

Feels great every time you overcome the feeling, but the struggle before that is not pretty at all.

மதிதன்னை மிகத் தெளிவு செய்து - என்றும்
சந்தோஷங் கொண்டிருக்கச் செய்வாய்!

3rd Year On...

2008-02-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

>>>>>>>>>Last Year<<<<<<<<<

R.I.P.

2008-01-30T11:03:00.000-08:00

...just back after observing 2 minutes of silence for the Father of My Nation.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14597180

Twenty one and counting

2008-01-29T16:15:00.000-08:00

Karthikeyan, Shyam, Shankar, Sivakumar, Divyachapan, Daniel, Vikas, Amit, Abhik, Sundar, Anandan, Mandar, Harish, Prabahar, Santosh, Senthil, Manish, Sudhaker, Shailesh, Sridhar, Aakaash,........

EDIT(April 5, 2008)::: ...Gurmeet, Vikrant,...
EDIT(September 15, 2008)::: ...Deepak,...
EDIT(August 7, 2009)::: ...Ramesh,...

EDIT(August 12, 2010)::: ...Ranga, Sambi, Raj(Srujan), Dhana, Sasi, Udhay,...

EDIT(January 8, 2012)::: ...,Jayachandran, Shikhanshu, Akshay, Amuthan, Harish B.

yes, that's a full stop. No more roommates, hopefully! :)

Getting back to the basics

2008-01-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

Happy 59th Republic Day, India.

Had To Happen

2008-01-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

Just when i was starting to feel happy by the thought of Federer taking on Djokovic in the Semis and Nadal in the Finals of the Australian Open, this had to happen! Federer, as much as he is talented, has been lucky enough to not play quality opponents in consecutive games of big tournaments. A fair bit of that has got to do with his opponents themselves(losing in early rounds), ofcourse. Nothing like a Sampras-Courier quarters, Sampras-Becker semis and a Sampras-Agassi finals or a Lendl-McEnroe quarters, Lendl-Connors semis and a Lendl-Wilander finals. Grrrrrrrr.

One To Rule Them All

2007-12-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

It's very true that there cannot be two swords in one scabbard...one starts to acknowledge that more and more after being one of those two swords too often. Many is good; Single is even better; 2 is as wicked a number as it is a lovely number...

On a different note(seriously), i got the date of births of two of my old friends wrong this year...one i wished late, and the other i wished ahead of time. An old wise man once said that it is the thought that counts...i wonder if it's that simple. Before i forget, let me wish another old friend of mine Happy Birthday. பிறந்த நாள் நல்வாழ்த்துகள் பாரதி!

It's an old wide world...

Moment of Truth

2007-12-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

What will be running through your mind at this very moment if you knew that an hour from now you'll either be too happy or too sad?

EDIT::: 12/6/07, 3:30 pm
So much hype for nothing in the end. Turned out to be just another moment. No joy, no sorrow, only evasion...

The Best

2007-11-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

The Man:
Age - 36
Retired - 5 years ago (and hasn't played any competitive tennis since)
Grand Slam Titles - 14
Wimbledon Titles - 7
Last Title Won - US Open, 2002
Name - Pete Sampras

His Opponent:
Age - 26
Retired - 2 years from now, probably :P
Grand Slam Titles - 12
Current Rank - 1
Last Title Won - Masters Series (less than a week ago)
Name - Roger Federer

Now, when these two men take on each other in a tennis court, you can expect even hardcore Sampras fans to think that Federer would beat Sampras 999 out of 1000 times. If it's a 3-match series, they can be excused for thinking that the odds of Sampras winning 1 set is about 1 in a hundred. Now, if you had told them that Sampras actually won 2 out of 6 sets, won one out of 3 matches, 3 out of the 6 sets were tie-breakers of which if Sampras had won all three, he would have also won the 3 match series 2-1, they'll tell you they knew he was capable of doing it :P
I believed that Sampras would win the third match after he lost the second one in 2 heart-breaking tie-breakers, and he did. Some people are so convinced about the invincibility of Federer that this will not change their opinion one bit....but for people like me who believe that Sampras is way better than Federer, well, it doesn't change our opinion one bit either.

Bow to the King, the only KING! B-)

Seven Fours are...

2007-11-18T23:00:00.000-08:00

...the number is getting bigger by the year.

Breaks My Heart...

2007-10-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

I have a small picture of her(cut out from "The Hindu" daily), taken after she won the Olympic gold(s) in Sydney(2000), stuck in a corner of one of the two huge blow-ups of Aish that adorn my bedroom in India. Her cherubic smile was energizing and inspiring. And now i hear THIS:

it breaks my heart...

My First Water Fast

2007-10-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

Association for India's Development organized candle light vigils tonight in as many as 58 cities in India, USA and the Netherlands(in Amsterdam). This was to show solidarity in fighting for the Indian farmers, many of whom committed suicide in the last two years, and to tell the Indian government that people are watching and that there needs to be significant changes in the government policies concerning farmers. The agenda was also to spread awareness amongst the masses about this agrarian crisis that is plaguing our country.

What better day than October 2nd(Gandhiji's birthday, for the uninformed) to do this? Mahatma always had a special place for farmers in his heart. He believed that rural India was the backbone of our country. So, it was only apt that the candle light vigil was scheduled for today, despite it being a week day.
There was an option for people who were organizing the vigil(s) to also fast for one day, to show support. I decided to fast too...
It's just past 9:30pm now and i have two and a half more hours to go. Let me tell you that it has not been an easy day at all. I woke up at around 7:30 am, skipped the usual breakfast, went to work, drank gallons and gallons of water, missed the two cups of coffee i take for granted each day at work so badly, got tempted a few times in between by the apple that was lying on my desk and by the various vending machine food, but stood my ground, came home at 6 pm and took a nap for 45 minutes so that i wouldn't have to think about food, went for the vigil which started at 7:30 pm and lasted for about an hour, got tempted again because the venue was in the heart of Indian restaurants, 3 fellow fasters, each of us looked like we'll give in, finally decided not to and came home. The last one hour has been particularly bad that it even forced me to blog, something that i have been avoiding big time of late. Another 136 minutes to go...
Half way through the day, i started thinking about all those people who fast for days and days. My God. What resolve. What strength. How important their goals must be for them! That's when i thought that when you want something so badly, you wouldn't mind the suffering that comes along the way, in order to attain it. I was also thinking about those farmers and poor people who are not assured of even one square meal a day. What will it be like for a small kid to starve? Will they get used to it after a week? a month? maybe a year? knowing that that's what their destiny is...it was painful to even think of such people...what must it be like to be one of them? I thanked God for giving me so much in life...
Mahatma Gandhi fasted left, right and center for many many worthy causes. He fasted in his old age- something i can only look at and admire. What was the need? Where was the motivation coming from? It's simply unbelievable. He has been on 21 day fasts like it was some fun thing to do. Hats off to his mental strength.
There are thousands of social activists like the Mahatma and hats off to every single one of them. They'll continue to inspire people like me in a million different ways on a daily basis- maybe not to do big things that will move mountains, but to do small things that will move a heart or two...

Plus One...

2007-09-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that it's been a year since i posted this...
...have to remind myself that "There's always hope", as Aragorn would put it.

Sixty

2007-08-15T00:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day to all the Indians out there.

Happy 60th birthday, Independent India! :)

VeNmathi VeNmathiyae Nillu

2007-07-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

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back after a couple of months' break :P -poor Harris Jayaraj again ;)
Let me know what you think.

...And Then He Became A Thing Of The Past

2007-07-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

कोई हमदम न रहा, कोई सहारा न रहा
हम किसी के न रहे, कोई हमारा न रहा

शाम तन्हाई की है, आएगी मंज़िल कैसे
जो मुझे राह दिखाए, वो ही तारा न रहा

ए नज़ारों न हंसो, मिल न सकूंगा तुम्से
वो मेरे हो न सके, मैं भी तुम्हारा न रहा

क्या बताऊं मैं कहां यूं ही चला जाता हूं
जो मुझे फिर से बुला ले, वो इशारा न रहा

As It Happened-2

2007-06-20T22:30:00.000-07:00

Please Note:

Date: June 21, 2007
Time: 8-9pm (Your Time in the World)
Planned Action: Turn Off The Switch.

For details, please visit http://www.aidboston.org/LightsOffDay/

Am looking forward to spending the hour without consuming electricity in any form- no computer, no TV, no Mobile, no Microwave, no Light, no Fan, no A/C, no Heater, no Ipod! Since I cannot force my roommate to do the same, it'll be hard to stay indoors at that time. A walk around the area will help, perhaps.

Part 2 begins here...
Balaji's speech was on a Tuesday(May 22nd). I was kind of skeptical about how many people would turn up, considering that the speech was scheduled for 6:30pm, when most of the Qualcomm-ers would still be at work(about 70% Indians in San Diego must be working for Qualcomm, i think), and was pleasantly surprised to see about 30 people turn up before the clock had struck 6:30. By the time the speech started at 7pm, the auditorium which could seat about 60 plus had capacity crowd, and more.
I was awed the very moment i saw Balaji. He was very simple....so simple that he was wearing Hawaii slippers! He looked very much like a guy who gave up Communications and a heap of dollars for his country. Refreshments were served before the speech and it was Balaji all the way from the time he started the speech off by showing a video of a couple of village girls trying to read a paragraph in Tamil- one being reasonably fluent and the other struggling to read words.
His "Padippum Inikkum" campaign has created magic in the government schools in Tamilnadu. To give a sample statistic, "5^th standard children who can read at least small sentences has increased from 58% to 85% in 5 months!" The campaign started off in five districts and having impressed the Tamilnadu government with its results, is now going to be extended to 10. The government wants to project it as its own idea, and it needs to be seen to believe Balaji's reaction to it. He says, "How does it matter? As long as things get done, let the government take all the credit". This essentially underlines the man's character. He is so selfless, generous and humble. He maintains that all his "Padippum Inikkum" campaign has done is to make some kids who had troubles reading to read fluently and that is all. When people like me, who have hardly done anything for the society, get to hear this- the effect is unbelievable.
He went in depth about the campaign. The program basically classifies children in third to fifth standards into five different levels, based on how well they can read. Each level has specific training tools to improve the children's reading skills in that level. The current goal of the program is not to make all children read equally well. The program understands that all children are not equal. Its goal is "only" to improve each kid's reading skills from what it was before starting the program. "Only" Balaji could have framed the previous sentence using the word "only"! He is so modest and is un-accepting of praise that it makes you want to adore him. In essence, each kid is compared only against itself. There is absolutely no pressure on the kid, given that the training tools are totally fun! It is designed in a way that it makes the children want to read! He collects different materials for his campaign wherever he goes. There are people all around the globe providing him with training materials.
The schools in each of these five districts are also classified into three types- A, B and C, based on how co-operative the staff in each of those schools are(most cases there's just one staff, for Tamil atleast!). A-schools are those where the staff were really co-operative and C-schools are the opposite. In C-schools, the staff would not allow "Padippum Inikkum" at all. Most of them felt that it belittled what they were doing and some of them were demanding a pay hike to allow the program be a part of the school curriculum! Given that A-schools would take care of themselves and C-schools had minimal scope, most attention was given to the B-schools(!!). There were volunteers who made rounds to each of these schools on a regular basis, monitoring how well the program was being implemented. The results were staggering, and that's how the Tamilnadu Government took note of the program. They wanted the program to be implemented in all 30 districts of Tamilnadu, but Balaji was very realistic about it and advocated that only 10 districts should be considered for now. He needs crores and crores of rupees to even make it work in 10 districts, and that was the prime motive of his visit to the US this time! He has no doubts that he'll get the required money as and when he needs it and that showed another dimension of the man- a quiet confidence and lots of optimism.
Here are some vital statistics about Padippum Inikkum:
* 4, 50, 000 children from 7300 schools benefitted from the campaign, which lasted from October 2006 to March 2007 in 5 districts.
* 92% of the children have improved their reading skills by at least one level within 5 months.
* Number of schools where more than 70% children can read went up from 78 to 2107!
The speech went until 8:45 pm or so and there were tens of questions and we had to forcefully end the program at 10pm.
We went to one of the volunteers' place to eat some home-cooked dinner and he continued from where he left and answered the questions we had for him through dinner. One of the volunteers, who's an American lady in her late fifties was left in awe hearing him talk. She confessed as much to him. She told him that the fact that he kept his feet firm on earth despite his achievements, and the fact that he's ready to give up all credits as long as things keep happening are things that she doesn't get to see in day to day life. He replied by saying that he felt she was placing him high on a pedestal and that what he was doing was very small. She said, "See. That's what I am talking about", and we all had to agree...
It was almost 1 am when i finally reached home that night. I was so excited by what i got to see and hear. There was an exclusive meeting for the volunteers that evening and I couldn't wait for it to get started. There was also this party my company had organized that day in celebration of the successful launch of the product that my team was working on. That was at "Dave & Busters" at 3pm and the meet with Balaji was at 6:30pm. So, a busy day was awaiting me and it hardly took me a minute to goto sleep after i went to bed that night...
More about the informal talk with Balaji, HH Sri Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji's talk about Vedas, Mantras and Meditation, my trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park, Dr. Menon's talk and Ravi and Aravinda's visit in my upcoming blog entries!

Yet Another Beautiful Dream

2007-06-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Me and my family are at this girl's place. We are talking general stuff and i suddenly find myself all alone with this girl. She's very pretty and is wearing a saree. We talk about a lot of things, and suddenly, in my dream, i realise that what's happening is part of "poNNu paakkaRa padalam"("bride-watching" :P episode in an arranged marriage?). I seem to like her very well and suddenly we are walking(or just standing-not sure) hand in hand! She seems to be very emotional and quietly happy. I learn that her Date of Birth is June 30, 1985(about five and a half years younger to me). That seems to bother me. I ask her if she's ok with the age difference and before she could say a thing, the beautiful dream comes to an end.

I watched Sivaji Thursday night and that could be the reason for this dream. Rajni and his parents frequent Shriya's house a couple of times before their eventual marriage, and those scenes are pretty long and elaborate. Coincidentally, June 30 happens to be the birthday of one of my closest friends- very worst :P

As much as i fear marriage(s) in general, and arranged marriage(s) in particular, this dream is by far one of the most beautiful dreams i've ever had ;)

As It Happened-1

2007-06-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since i wrote last. It sure doesn't feel that way. The past month has been a period of revelation in a number of ways. There were moments of fun, despair, joy, anguish and peace- all interspersed in equal amounts. To think that i feel mostly happy at the end of it all is good.
I have been volunteering for AID(Association for India's Development, San Diego Chapter) for the past two months or so. This has exposed me to a lot of facts and figures about India, the magnitude of which am still trying to take in. One thing is very clear. There is so much work to be done and any help, how much ever small it is, is most welcome. AID, in my opinion, serves as a perfect platform for that. It won't be a great exaggeration to say that the kinds of projects it undertakes are as diversified as the number of problems India is facing at the moment. So, there's something for everyone.
I must consider myself very lucky for having picked this time to join AID because Memorial Day Weekend(last weekend of May) is when the annual AID conference(in USA) happens, and that's when people like Ravi Kuchimanchi and Balaji Sampath visit the States to attend the conference and to render speeches in the different AID chapters(36 chapters in USA according to the website- possibly more). More luckily for me, they were both going to visit the San Diego chapter this year(i couldn't attend the conference because of my trip to the Rocky Mountains that weekend- more on that in my next entry). Balaji was slated to give a speech about his "Padippum Inikkum" campaign in Tamilnadu on May 22nd, Ravi about the recently launched NREGA Act(National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) on June 9th and his wife Aravinda about the need for promoting rural arts/practices, on the same day. In between these two speeches, there was another speech by social activist and Gandhian, Dr. Prabhakar Menon, on "Violence Against Women in India- Connections to the Caste System" on June 6th. I attended all three talks(four speakers) and am so glad I did.
Let me try and give a brief intro about Ravi and Balaji. Ravi can be considered as the official founder of AID. He was doing his PhD in Particle Physics at the University of Maryland-College Park in 1991, when this idea of doing something for India struck him. He sent out an email to a bunch of his friends asking them if they'd be interested in contributing money to do something good in some village in India, and most of them did. This motivated him and he started organizing CSHs(Community Service Hours- this is an AID culture to this date) and gathered more volunteers for AID. By the time he graduated, AID had become very popular there. He married Aravinda Pillalamarri, who grew up in USA, and left to India for good in 1998, and has been living 50% of the time in Mumbai and the rest of the time in the villages of Orissa and Srikakulam(AP) district, working fulltime at the grassroot level on a variety of issues. They have a four year old daughter, Khiyali. They have been acknowledged as one of the inspirations behind Ashutosh Gowariker’s “Swades”...and i personally feel that they make a wonderful couple.

sharing a light moment with Ravi at one of the volunteers' house, couple of hours before Khiyali, Aravinda and him left San Diego.

I don't know much about Balaji's personal life- mainly because there was rarely an opportunity to ask him any personal questions. He had so much to tell us about his work in Tamilnadu and boy, can he speak or what?!! He's amazing when it comes to discussing issues, and is very methodical and down-to-earth in his approach. Balaji was in Ravi's junior batch at College Park and used to evade Ravi to avoid going to CSHs! He did his PhD in Communications. His wife is Kalpana is also an active volunteer of AID. Balaji also left US for good and is based in Chennai, working at the grassroot level in the villages of Tamilnadu. His area of expertise, so to say, is education. He has been, and is, instrumental in improving the reading skills of kids in village schools.
More about the speeches rendered in San Diego by the two prime figures of AID and much more about the past month in my upcoming blog entries!

When Dreams Get Weird...

2007-05-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

...Your erstwhile crush, who's married now(in real life) and is your uncle's daughter-in-law(in the dream), will be serving you food and will be discussing Bharathiyaar poems with you, while your uncle sings her praise all along!

Oru Maalai ILaveyil Naeram

2007-05-06T23:30:00.000-07:00

orumaalai_gajini_m...

at last...the torture begins :D :P - this was my best out of no less than 11 attempts(am sick of the song now!!) at singing this song! so you can imagine :P -i think i have yelled a little(well... :P) in this song.

Let me know what you think.

Happy B'day Sachin!

2007-04-24T20:00:00.001-07:00

God Bless! :)

So Long, Dears!

2007-04-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

What a heart-break this is! I've been in love with her for so long now...for over 10 years! She's the one girl who hasn't turned me off even once! There is no parallel to her beauty...she's beauty's epitome. She's now the wife of Abhishek Bachchan(their wedding was on April 20th). Am glad she postponed her wedding for so long...i'd have had a bigger heartbreak had it been a few years back! I wish her all the very best in life and that Small B better take good care of her! Please continue to entertain, Aishu! Love You! :* ;)

What a performer. If there's one player who can match Sachin's every single shot, it's this genius. A total class act. In my opinion, the best left-handed batsman cricket has ever seen!(let's face it- i haven't seen much of G Pollock, Gower and Sobers to say this and yet i wont be off by much!). One of the elite few including Viv Richards, Sachin and Ponting who could play any form of cricket without the slightest problem. He announced his retirement from international cricket yesterday(April 19th), after their game against Bangladesh. He will play his last international game, his 299th ODI, against England on Saturday. Am hoping to see a brilliant century from him, a West-Indian victory and a memorable send-off for this black beauty from West Indies! Brian Charles Lara- you will be badly missed. Goodluck!

Give up?

2007-04-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you got to lose something in order to find something...
...but most times, there is no equivalent to being perseverant and hopeful.

Let's hope that the branch breaks off completely and the man survives...and more importantly, let's hope that he realizes that giving up is the easiest thing to do.

Life is tough...

2007-03-25T16:45:00.001-07:00

I moved into a new apartment recently with a guy...well, man...who sent his wife and kid back to India, just before i moved in, so that his kid can join a school there, because education was costly in the United States. The kid is four years old. I did not quite know how to react when, a couple of nights ago, he started talking about all the hardships he was facing in life, about the tough decision of whether to stay here or go back, etc.. All i could think of was about the millions below the poverty line, struggling for their next day's meal. He earns in dollars and i guess that's saying enough for a corporate Indian in USA, more often than not.

I just hope that I won't live to see a day when i'd acknowledge the seriousness of what he was talking about...

365 days since...

2007-02-26T21:30:00.000-08:00

...my last visit to a salon.

A short story-8

2007-02-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

Dedicated to all the lovers in this world...happy Valentine's day.

Valentine's Day
------------------------
Priya was looking out through the window in her office room on the 40th floor of a New York skyscraper. The pitch black sky was in stark contrast to the snow that was coming down steadily. Not too bad, she thought. She had always loved snow. She could never forget her first experience with snow.

It had only been her third month in the United States then. She was sitting in the library, preparing for her midterm test. "Probability and Random Processes" was boring to put it mildly, she thought. She had been thinking about the probability involved in an arranged marriage ever since her cousin got divorced a couple of years back. "Not very exciting at all", she muttered. If she were to marry somebody, it had to be a guy she was in love with. She just had to find out who the lucky guy was.

She accidentally looked out through the window. It was raining. A second look got her all excited. It was snowing! She forgot all about her midterm examination and rushed out through the doors. Snow in october? One of her seniors had mentioned, "Not before Christmas". So much for predictability!

There was a steady flurry. The concrete platform outside the library looked like it had a coating of ice. She took a couple of steps on the sleet and immediately lost balance and fell down, resting on her hands awkwardly, spraining her wrist. She was lying flat on the floor facing the sky, taking down all the snow falling down and crying aloud in pain.

A few seconds later, she heard a voice.
"Are you alright?"
"No. I am not alright. Do i look alright?", she was trying her best to keep her voice from breaking down.

She looked in the direction from which the voice came. A handsome guy was standing there, sporting a sympathetic look. He took her to the university hospital in his car and dropped her back at her place. Not many words were exchanged because she was in pain and the painkillers made her feel drowsy. She thanked him for his patience and kindness.

She learnt the next day that his name was Rahul. She learnt the next week that he was two years elder to her. She learnt the next month that he too was a big fan of Archer. She learnt the next year that he was in love with her. It took her 6 hours before she said she loved him too. After all, he was extremely lovable and very predictable...nothing random about him. Starting that year, Gandhi Jayanthi became doubly special to her...

Priya was done for the day at work. Tomorrow will be her last. She closed her office door and headed towards the elevator. The board on her office door read "Priya Rahul, Research Analyst, Probability Modeling". She got into the elevator and selected P2, where she had her Mercedes parked. Rahul had gifted it to her last year, on the occasion of her fortieth birthday.

The year after Rahul had proposed his love for her, she graduated and joined a startup company in upstate New York. He got his doctorate degree in Geology 6 months later and started working in New York too. After initial apprehensions, their respective parents were convinced about their love for each other. They got married in Chennai, a week after he completed one year at work. She was really happy with life. They decided to go back to India for good after their fifth anniversary.

Priya got out of the elevator and walked upto her car and got into it. It was a 20 minute drive to the hotel in which she stayed now. Her memories went back to that day...the day she would never forget for life.

"Happy Anniversary, Priya", Rahul kissed her on her cheek.
"Thanks Rahul. Happy Anniversary", she kissed him back.
"Five years", he smiled.
"Yes. It's been a lovely journey", she said.
They now had a two year old son, Sunil.
"So, did you think about when we should go back?"
"Go back where?"
"To India"
"Oh...Rahul, what do we not have here? We have our lovely family, our own house, nice careers, luxurious and peaceful life. Do you think we can afford to have all this in India?"
"What do you mean? Ofcourse, we can", he sounded weak.
"No Rahul. You have to think about it. I do not want to go back to India. This is our country. We should apply for citizenship. We can visit India every other year ofcourse"
"But we agreed"
"Oh, come on Rahul. People change. Decisions change"
"But you hate change. You like things to be straightforward and predictable"
"Well, i used to..."
"Priya. Our parents are back in India. It is neither feasible for us to bring our ageing parents here nor would they like to come here and live their last days in an alien land. Atleast you have brothers. Am a single kid. Do you love me more or do you love this country more?", he knew he was not making sense.
"Rahul. Don't be a kid. Your cousins live in India. Your parents should be fine. You can visit every year, maybe"
Rahul could not believe what he was hearing. It wasn't the Priya he knew. He had never felt the need to discuss the issue prior to this day because he did not have the slightest doubt that she'd fail to live up to their decision. He left the room without speaking another word.

She parked the car in the allotted spot and got into her hotel room. It had stopped snowing. She called Divya to confirm if she'd pick the car up the following night. She did not remember what the offered price was. She did not care. Their house was sold last week.
It was February 14th in India. She was waiting for Sunil to call. He had turned thirteen the previous week. Time was flying by really fast, she thought. Her little kid was now a teenager. Her mobile rang.
"Hello Amma"
"Hi Sunil. How are you?"
"Am doing great. Chennai is very nice. Very hot compared to New York though. But I love granma and granpa. They take very good care of me. Oh, i almost forgot...happy Anniversary ma"
She did not realize that she was crying. Sixteen years had passed since that day in Chennai when she had exchanged numerous marriage vows with Rahul, the meanings of which she wasn't aware of. But there was one vow she knew she had made, but failed to keep up...well, almost. She was late by eleven years...but that's ok.
"Thanks da kannaa. Give the phone to your dad"

"It's a very mild heart attack Priya. He's not been his own lately, ever since his dad underwent a major surgery last year. He has also put on so much weight. He needs special care. Give him what he wants. Anything to keep him happy", said Manoj, their family doctor.

It had been a month since that terrible day.
"Hello...Priya"
"Hello Idiot. Happy in India? Don't you dare give me any more heart attacks"
"Happy Anniversary Priya. I love you"
"I love you too...and so much more than this stupid country"
"I know"
"I'll see you on monday"
"Looking forward to that. Happy Valentine's day"
"Happy Valentine's day", she hung the phone.

She had never been more happier in life and still found it hard to stop the tears flowing liberally out of her eyes. She looked out through the window. It was beginning to snow again...

Windows E Senator Jon

2007-02-07T21:30:00.000-08:00

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Now we'll,
Ram

Back to Tagging

2007-01-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

I have seen a lot of people take a dig at "Tags" whenever they get a chance. Whatever they say, i always get the feeling that deep down they acknowledge that the concept is really cool. I certainly think so. What better than stereotyping when you run out of ideas ;)

So here I am, answering 50 questions about myself. Tagged by Sri. This is a really long post.

1. Were you named after anyone?
Lord Ram and my paternal grandfather.

2. Do you wish on stars?
Yes.

3. When did you last cry?
In someone else's presence? 5 years back.
When alone? some time last December, when i watched Mahanadhi for the humpteenth time.

4. Do you like your handwriting?
It used to be a lot better. Not wielding the pen a lot doesn't help. My sister's handwriting is far better though.

5. What is your favourite meat?
Haven't consumed meat at all.

6. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?
Don’t really have anything like that.

7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?
Very much.

8.Are you a daredevil?
Don't think so.

9. How do you release anger?
I procrastinate and it goes off...every single time.

10. Where is your second home?
United States of America.

11. Do you trust others easily?
I show that I trust, even if I don't initially. But most times I really do.

12. What was your favourite toy as a child?
I can remember a few...but can't really call any of them a favorite.

13. What class in school/college do you think is totally useless?
None, in retrospect.

14. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
I wish I had the talent! :P

15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit?
No.

16.What do you look for in a guy/gal?
Honesty, Simplicity and Compassion.

17. Would you bungee jump?
Not in a million years. But things change...people change...

18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
Every single time.

19.what's your favourite ice cream?
Strawberry Cheesecake at ColdStone.

20. What are your favourite colors?
Depends on what the color is on.

21. What are your least favourite things?
Probability and by extension, arranged marriage.

22. How many people do you have a crush on right now?
One.

23. Who do you miss most right now?
My parents and sister...my home.

24. What are you listening to right now?
The slight buzz coming from the computer adjacent to the one am typing this on.

25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
Orange.

26. What is the weather like right now?
Very pleasant outside- slightly cold inside cos of the AC.

27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
A friend of mine, here in San Diego.

28. The "first" thing you notice about the opposite sex?
Things confirming that it's indeed the opposite sex :P

29. Do you like the person who sent you this?
How can anyone say anything but yes to this question? i think i just did :P

30. How are you today?
Good, so far.

31. Favourite non alcoholic drink?
Sweet Lassi.

32. Favourite alcoholic drink?
Piña Colada - i like this name the best :P

33. Natural hair colour?
Black.

34. Eye colour?
Black.

35. Wear contacts?
I used to- not these days.

36. Siblings?
Younger Sister.

37. Favourite month?
Maargazhi.

38.Favourite food?
Chipotle Fajita Burrito.

39. Favourite day of the year?
Jan 1st.

40. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?
I have never asked anyone out.

41. Scary movies or happy endings?
Both.

42. Summer or winter?
Summer.

43. Holi or Diwali?
Diwali.

44. Do you like your name?
I do.

45. What book/magazine are you reading?
Bharathiyaar vasana thirattu.

46. What's on your mouse pad?
No mouse pad on this computer.

47. What did you watch on TV last night?
Serena vs Sharapova-Australian Open Finals, Memento-the movie and India vs West Indies-Chennai ODI

48. Favourite Smell?
Axe Voodoo ;)

49. Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone?
Not Applicable.

50. Most tiresome thing you’ve ever experienced/done?
Trying to walk the ten metres distance from my bed to the bathroom...the first three days after the knee surgery i underwent in 2005. I can't thank my then roommate enough, ever.

I tag:
Ramya
SivaM

Mismatch

2007-01-16T23:30:00.000-08:00

I have long hair too, but without a girly hair band! u still have time, Aish! :D

Nenju PoRukkudhilayae...

2007-01-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

Got a mail from a friend today. It was a video file. There were these two girls, supposedly working for Infosys who were fighting with each other. Not just a verbal fight...but also a physical one. What was it over? What'd merit such hitting and pulling each others hair out and worst of all kicking each other so badly, in public. That too, corporate girls? I still cannot believe what I saw.

nalladhoar veeNai seydhae- adhai
nalangeda puzhudhiyil eRivadhuNdoa?...

samaikkindRa karamingu sariththiram padaippadhai boomi paarkka vaeNdum
dhooraththu dhaesaththil baaradha peNmayin paadu kaetkka vaeNdum
peNgal koottam paeigal endRu paadal sonna siththargaLum
eendRa thaayum peNmayendRu eNNidaadha piththargaLae
veedu aaLum peNmayingu naadu aaLum kaalam vaeNdum...
...manadhil uRudhi vaeNdum...

The Pursuit Of HappYness

2006-12-26T23:00:00.000-08:00

It was April 2000. I was bored at home. My sixth semester exams were about to begin and study holidays was generally the time i gained an easy 5 kg weight. That particular study holidays was special because Maniratnam's "Alaipayuthey" was about to be released. I tried my best to gather as many people as possible to go watch the movie on the first week of release. Since not all of my friends were as "casual" as I used to be about preparing for the exams, i had to be content with the number of people i got in the end...and the number was an emphatic zero! Yes, i went to watch the movie all alone at Udhayam, a few days after the release. As it turned out, it was the first time ever that I watched a movie in a theater, accompanied by none. I'd have thought that it'd be the last time too, but alas...
I've started getting used to five and a half days work weeks of late. I goto work on Saturdays as early as is possible and work for about 4-6 hours, thanks to an impending project deadline. So, it was natural that i ran out of things to do over a 3-day weekend! Sunday went off without a problem in cooking pongal, watching football(American) and sleeping. Monday was a bit of a struggle...but again watched more football, slept and cooked during the night. Today was unbearable. Woke up at around 9am and it was a big struggle passing those four hours between 10 am and 2pm. Felt happy to know that a friend of mine was going through the same torture(and learnt a few minutes ago that another friend almost went crazy too).
So, what did i decide to do? Yes...to go watch Will Smith in "The Pursuit of HappYness" at the UltraStar Poway 10 theater, all alone. Took a long walk to the nearest Starbucks before that and got myself a WMFrap, since the show was only at 4:30pm. Then drove to the theater and got myself seated in one of the last row seats. One good thing about matinees is the ticket price. It's usually two or three dollars less than what it is for evening shows. Convincing myself that the decision is not all that bad, i waited for the movie to begin.
I expected the movie to be very good. Sadly, it did not meet my expectations. The screenplay was very weak. The story was straightforward and it did not help matters. Will Smith has done a good job as a man who goes through a lot of hardships in life and still not losing humor and hope, which is very very important. The message is good and that probably makes the movie a "can watch once".
Over six years ago, I went to watch "Alaipayuthey" with atleast twice the amount of expectations with which i went to watch "TPOH" today and the movie gave me double of what i expected. "TPOH" was not even half as good. I was swept off emotionally inside Udhayam, but was left dissatisfied inside UltraStar.
It wouldn't be totally inappropriate to say that I went in Pursuit of Happiness to the theater today and returned with empty hands..and you'll be excused for not believing your best friend tell you that they saw me inside Ultrastar two days from today, sitting all alone inside one of the movie halls.

Dhoom-2

Director: Sanjay Gadhvi
Producer: Yash Chopra & Aditya Chopra
Staring: Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Uday Chopra and Bipasha Basu

Show Times:
Thursday the 28th December at 7.30 pm at

Theater Information
Ultrastar Poway Creekside Plaza 10, 13475 Poway Road, Poway , CA 92064

Oct 20-Nov 19

2006-12-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

Bored?

2006-11-27T17:15:00.000-08:00

I have not been reading quite a few of the blogs listed on the left hand side of this page for quite some time now. It's not that I don't have the time...but am bored. I seem to have lost motivation to read blogs, somehow. But, I'll try to catch up pretty soon...hopefully by year end.

Think Small!

2006-11-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

Wonder what the guy who came up with the phrase "Think Big" must be thinking right now. Thinking small seems to be the trend.
Many thanks to my friends who made it possible for me to post about a gadget in my blog. The greatest advantage it offers me is that I don't have to charge batteries for running the traditional mp3 player in my car. Am secretly hoping that it'd motivate me to start running in a treadmill and make me lose all those pounds I put on in the last couple of months ;)
Thanks guys!

Words just can't describe...

2006-11-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Kalai Ulagin Thamizh Chakkaravarthy ku adiyaenin iniya piRandha naaL nalvaazhthugaL. needoozhi vaazhga un nadippaatRal! :)

The King of Bollywood!

2006-11-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

What an amazing actor...happy birthday SRK!

Peerless Beauty!

2006-11-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

innoruththi poRandhudhaan varaNum!
Happy Birthday Honey!

Be Safe...And Let Be

2006-10-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

There's a couple about the same age as my parents in our neighborhood in Chennai. They had two sons and both of them are not in this world any more. Their first son died in a train accident while travelling on footboard about 10 years ago when he was only 17 and their second son died in a car accident two nights ago. He turned 26 two months back. When i learnt about the message this morning, I was very very upset. I did not know about the nature of the accident since it was a text message from my sister. I was left staring at my mobile for a couple of minutes in utter disbelief. I was feeling very sorry for him. When i called my parents later on, I learnt that he was driving a car and that the car had hit a stationary bus. There were 4 people in the car and all four had died, three including himself on the spot. I was a little furious after knowing this. Then I learnt that it was a case of drunk driving. I was really infuriated at this point. Then my dad cried on the phone. He was really upset after hearing the news. My mom did not how to confront the bereaved mother. I knew that my sister was very upset too. Now, I was feeling sorry for him again and more so for his parents.

The worst thing about death is that more often than not, when you die, you leave atleast a handful of people helpless and in a pitiful state. The rest of my day was mostly spent on thinking about him and his parents. The feelings ranged from extreme pity to uncontrollable anger.

To me, the only villain in this whole episode was alcohol. Why is there such a big urge to consume alcohol? What's the big deal in losing one's senses? Even if that's tolerated, how could one drink and drive, being fully aware of the consequences? I have been easy-going as far as my friends drinking alcoholic beverages is concerned. But today's incident makes me think. What's the point? I am suffering because my friend drove under the influence of alcohol. My father is. My whole family is and many such families are...the biggest sufferers being none other than his very own parents. What he gained by drinking alcohol is nothing compared to what his family has lost. Why don't people understand this simple fact?

Please stop consuming alcohol starting now. It's simply not worth it. Even if you are weak and can't let go, atleast make sure that you don't drive while you are drunk and please don't be your own judge as to how much alochol is "acceptable". Even if you don't care to do this, the least you can do is to make sure you die your death all alone. I am not going to shed a single drop of tear in the future for anyone who invites his own fate and puts the lives of others in danger by driving under the influence of alcohol.

Those of you who don't drink, don't feel uncomfortable to keep reminding your friends about the grave danger that comes with drinking and drunk driving. Be a pest if that's what it takes and be willing to be the driver if you feel the slightest suspicion that your friend will drive under influence if you don't accompany him or her.

Those of you who drink, be safe and feel free to make full use of people like me who can drive so that you can drink to your heart's content. A little discomfort is nothing compared to saving your priceless lives...

Note To Self

2006-10-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

Chicken Pizza...never order one(well, half) again!

India will treat you like a Queen, my girl!

2006-10-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to go back to India for good and I still do. There was one astronomical concern though. I was not concerned about the big bucks...not wholly.

How was I to survive in India leaving my American love back here?

My first acquaintance with her happened in Pittsburgh, more than a year after i moved to the United States. Was it love at first sight or smell or touch? I don't think I can solely attribute the reason for my love to one of the above...it was something else- something that I cherish till this date and will for years to come. She was blazing hot but was bitter about something(she still is sometimes, depending on my mood though). I tried my best to cheer her up and within seconds she showed me how sweet she can be. I learnt that she was born in Seattle and that she was nine years old when I was born. Well, to be honest, it did not matter to me.

Then what some people would think is magic and what I think was a matter-of-time happened. I met her in Cincinnati, right inside my university. I started meeting her frequently, but could not open up to her, for i hadn't started earning then. A man needs to have some money before he can love without any inhibitions, doesn't he? "cruel world", i used to think. The coffee shop had become our vantage meeting point.

My love for her reached it's peak after i moved to San Diego. As you must have guessed by now, she was here too, ready to give me company wherever i went. But India? I felt again that it was a matter-of-time, but how long will i be able to wait? "If your love is true", I told myself, "she will come to India". But somehow, there was not much optimism left in me, despite the fact that India is westernizing a lot and that she might not find it hard to feel at home and prosper there.

I was worried that I'd end up missing her badly in India.

Now, there's no concern. She has decided to come to India...she's even planning to go there before I do and wait for me to make my arrival special. i'll perhaps even get a chance to embrace and kiss her right at the Arignar Anna International Airport...

you won't be missed dear, for I'll come to you soon...

A salute to the Mahatma on his 137th birthday

2006-10-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

To the humblest soul ever to have graced this planet...

...it so happens that this is the 100th post on this blog. it couldn't have been better. Jai Hind!

World Elders Day

2006-10-01T23:57:00.000-07:00

October 1st is(was almost, where i live) World Elders Day. I take this opportunity to remember and thank all the elders who were instrumental in making me what i am today. My parents, my grandparents, my relatives, my "elder" friends, my teachers and countless people from history, some of whom lived ages before i was even born were all in one way or the other responsible for my growth and prosperity. Without them, i'll be nothing today...

All great men and things come to an end...

2006-09-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

...but they live in people's memories forever...

Independent?

2006-09-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to love and dread a country for the same reason? I do.

I love the United States of America for it gives me the freedom to do what i want to do, without the necessity to bother the people around.

I dread it because it thinks that a 70 year old lady driving her car without anyone in the passenger seat, living alone and managing everything on her own, is an epitome of "independence".

A short story-7

2006-08-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

A Dramatical Trauma
---------------------------------

"Wassup Priya?", Raj was surprised to see Priya calling his number. She hadn't called in over a month and hadn't even bothered to answer his text messages. The frequency of calls was getting lesser and lesser ever since she got married.
"Raj. Can we meet at 6pm, my place?", she uttered as fastly as she could.
"Sure. I'll be there", said Raj.

She was relieved to hear the answer she was so sure of hearing. "Raj is so predictable and yet so complex", she thought. That's what attracts all the girls towards him and makes him an intimate and a trustworthy guy to rely on, for just about anything. She was thankful that her husband was not at home. "He will not understand. He's insensitive to my feelings".
The time in between was so boring, like watching the all-too-familiar advertisements on TV over and over, but the curiosity to know if things will go the way she wanted them to, definitely made it interesting and made her sweat a bit...whatever happens after the clock strikes six will make or break the way she looks at Raj in the future. It was a very important moment and she was glued to the couch, waiting for the doorbell to ring.
After what seemed to be an eternity, it was 6pm finally...

"Come in Raj", Priya greeted him. Raj could tell immediately that she had been crying for hours now.
"What's the matter Priya?"
She burst into tears immediately after hearing him say those words...it was all too dramatic and unbelievable.
"Rahul's a jerk, Raj. My marriage is in danger. He wants to get divorced from me", she hugged Raj.
He tried to console her. He so badly wanted to say, "I warned you", but refrained. He smiled emphatically, feeling proud of his judgement, completely indifferent to the pain Priya was going through. He did not say it, but "I told you so" was written all over his face. Priya could not see his face obviously. She felt she was being genuinely comforted and cried even more, enough water coming out of her eyes to fill a bucket.

Swetha could not take this any more. She did not realise that she had been crying too, watching Priya's anguish. She shouted at the top of her voice, "Get off of him, you idiot. Raj's a bigger jerk than Rahul. Don't you see it? Are you a moron? Get off of him or I'll..."
"Break the remote control one more time?", Swetha's husband, who's entry into the house a minute ago went unnoticed, completed the sentence, as a matter of fact.
"There it is, his insensitivity towards my feelings in full flow...", Swetha thought.

Happy Independence Day

2006-08-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

Happy 59th Independence Day India.
Jai Hind!

Miscellaneous...

2006-08-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

Finished reading The Fountainhead at last. I had finished reading half the book about 8 months back, and finished the remainder during the last month. The book was good in parts, but it was not to my liking overall. The way Rand has presented the complexities and simplicities in the different relationships is enjoyable for its poetic beauty...it's certainly a fantasy world that she' writing about. She gets carried away a lot of times. She wants a man who earns $40 a week to get more benefits than a man earning $15 a week, completely ignoring the circumstances which lead to him earning whatever he earns. She tries to justify it with her potrayal of Wynand, which is but a one-in-a-million exception. When you dont have bread, you wont have the motivation to do anything, is my belief. There's nothing wrong about Roark. He's adorable. But Rand is not. To make Roark a hero, she makes everyone a villain. Toohey is useless anyways. But the whole world is not full of Tooheys. There are people who live for the world sacrificing everything. They dont bother being Rand's first handers even if they can be one, and they dont need say that. Overall, a confused book by a confused lady. it's byebye Rand anyways.

Watched Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa. What a movie. Loved every bit of it. Very very real story. Comedy was good although A-rated occasionally. Amitabh was superb. SRK was amazing as usual. Bollywood seems to be improving. But then, Karan Johar has always been good.

Nothing much happening otherwise. Went to Huntington beach once. went to la jolla shores a couple of times. watched a lot of new-release English movies. Watched 23-aam Pulikesi. was refreshing. Vadivelu was very good. a must-watch. work's good. san diego's getting a bit colder, hovering in the low 80s mostly. playing a lot of tennis. yet to resume playing cricket. might start playing in the near future. Looking forward to Sachin's return in Srilanka(whether or not SA pulls out). Reading Darwin's Origin Of Species. Pretty boring so far. I hope it gets interesting soon enough. One of my friends is visiting San Diego in September. Will be seeing him after three and a half years.

Life's good. Looking forward to the future...

Manju Baby

2006-08-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

this should do...

Tears...

2006-07-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

For no particular reason and for all the reasons in this world, he felt like crying.
Being at the right place at the right time was impractical, to him atleast.
He wished he would learn to live with it...and without loving.
At last he was helped...by the small drop that wouldn't retreat.

A Human Hug

2006-07-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

கட்டிப்பிடி வைத்தியம்

அன்பின் பாதை சேர்ந்தவனுக்கு முடிவே இல்லையடா
மனதின் நீளம் எதுவோ அதுவே வாழ்வின் நீளமடா

Pregnant?

2006-07-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

how easy is this?

The AXE Effect

2006-06-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

"Voodoo" has always been my second choice, until yesterday. Even this time, i was only forced to buy it cos "Phoenix" was not available in the store and cos I knew I won't get as good a deal on the price in any other store(ok, I was too lazy to goto another store). I felt proud that my first choice deodorant was used by so many that the store ran out of stock! I decided to compromise, not realising the blessing in disguise,...if i may.

At about 1 pm yesterday, I was in the lunchroom in my office, watching Germany take on Poland in the World Cup Soccer. There was a really pretty blonde girl in the room, which was a surprise in itself, sitting a few feet away from me, also watching the game(i was watching the game too, mind you). We must've stayed together there for less than 10 minutes. The room was crowded and there was no scope of talking to her. "Damn my luck", i thought, as always(good thing to put the blame on for my incapacities).
I went back at 3pm for tea and surprise, she was there too!
PBG: "hey. how you doin'?"
me: "hello"
PBG: "what perfume do u use? u smell great"
me(not blushing surprisingly enough): "oh, thanks. it's just a deo. Axe...Voodoo"
PBG: "oh! cool. see ya around..."
me: "sure!" ;)

Was relaxing browsing the net after a tiring day. It was about 11 pm and it was hot inside the house, thanks to the heater set at 78 degrees. Went outside to get some fresh air. There, sitting all alone, with a can of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other was this beautiful brunette girl, who has been saying hi's and hello's to me from outside my window for the past 3 days. I decided to put some "kadalai" and asked her whereabouts. She was in San Diego visiting my neighbor and was from Arizona. We "kadalied" for about half an hour.
BBG: "am waiting for my friend. She's in the jacuzzi. hope am not ruining your sleep"
me(thinking, "not yet"): "no no. not at all. I don't sleep before midnight generally"
....
BBG: "what soap do you use?"
me: "eh?"
BBG: "what soap do you use? you smell very good"
me: "Dove"
BBG: "I've been smelling you for a very long time now. It's very good"
me(successfully avoiding blushing again): "well, it's probably my deodorant. Voodoo"
BBG: "oh. very good"
her friend, a cute brunette girl, who was half lost cos of the 6 beers inside her belly and half cos she lost her contact lenses in the jaccuzi arrived. BBG intro-ed me to CBG as A's neighbor(they both were visiting A, who's married unfortunately). CBG offered her hand.
CBG(pointing to the window in my room): "you are the guy who sits in this room, right?"
me: "yes, i am"
CBG: "What's your name?"
me: "Ram"
CBG: "What does it mean?"
me: "It's a God's name"
CBG: "that's cool"
CBG(sniffing the air): "it smells great, doesn't it?"
BBG: "it's his deo"
CBG: "cool. it's very good. must be an expensive one"
BBG: "it's Voodoo"
CBG: "good choice"
It was too much for one day and i did blush a little. They did not seem to notice ;)
BBG(offering her hand): "Thanks for keeping me company, R-A-M. Good night"
CBG: "Good night, R-A-M"
me: "good night girls. Enjoy the remaining days in San Diego"

12:15 am, today.
me(asking myself): "What must be the title for the blog, when i do blog later today from work about the remarkable day that yesterday was?"

Voodoo's here to stay...goodbye Phoenix! ;)

After all, who cares what my first choice is?!

Around Southern California

2006-06-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

The last 15 days were full of action for me. Practically know the roads connecting my house to the different hot spots in San Diego byheart now. Also have a good idea about the Pacific highway running near Los Angeles, which is full of beaches and to an extent the streets in the LA downtown. Drove 60 miles a day on average during this period...phew!

A friend, another friend and his parents, and another friend of his visited San Diego on the 27th of May. It was a long weekend. Went to the Pacific beach, went to the San Diego harbor and did go-karting that night...twice. a very expensive sport...wont go near it for another 3 months atleast, or so i hope. The following day we went to the SeaWorld in San Diego. what a place! the animals are simply amazing. although, at times, i felt like an ASPCA agent, i couldnt help but wonder the way these animals are trained. Shamu, the whale was amazing. So were the dolphins, the walruses, the penguins, the sealions, the sea otters, the sharks, the polar bears and the infinite varieties of the fishes. the entire day was not enough to cover every nook and corner of the place. bought a pass for a trivial $11 on top of the actual entry fee, which i can use any number of times through the remainder of 2006. hoping to go there atleast one more time this year. that night we met some common friends over dinner and remembered some good old times in Cincinnati. on the 29th, we started late, exhausted by the previous two days. We planned to go to the Malibu Venkateswara temple, near LA and return by 5pm in the evening, while my friends will drive to the bay area from there. Blame it on the amazing LA traffic, it was 9:30pm when me and B reached home that night. The only solace was the good darshan we had in the temple...

The next four days were really busy. Four day weeks are surely more taxing than the normal five day weeks. had to drive to the airport to drop B off, who was leaving to India for 10 days for his sister's marriage. Have to pick him up from the airport tomorrow, and that should put an end to driving more than 10 miles continuously, atleast for a while.

On the morning of the 3rd of June, i drove to LAX international airport, to pick up my cousin, whom i was meeting after about five years, his wife and kid, whom i had never met before. We checked into the Marriott in the LA downtown and set to Santa Monica beach after having lunch at an Indian restaurant. It was really hot and we couldnt stay there for long, cos of the infant. We then went to the Malibu temple(twice for me, in 6 days). kept driving on the Pacific highway for a long time, enjoying the scenic beauty and then set about to Beverly hills. We were all exhausted by then and missed our way somewhere and decided to skip it and went back to the hotel after having dinner at Denny's. The next day was spent in Universal studios, a miniature version of the one i had been to in Orlando in July 2004. Relived some of the old rides and enjoyed some of the new ones(ones that werent in Orlando). Mummy Returns and Jurassic Park were good in particular, and Back To the Future chose to remain my favorite. We spent a good time outside the Universal Studios, at the Universal City Walk and had good mexican food. I then dropped them at the hotel and returned to San Diego at 1 am. They chose to stay back for a couple more days in LA.
Work resumed on monday and only monday was relatively peaceful. Had to pick them up from the Amtrak railway station in San Diego downtown on Tuesday. They went to the World Famous(as they claim) San Diego Zoo on wednesday. took a break and dropped them off at the zoo and picked them up after work in the evening. We went to the San Diego harbour(twice in 10 days) that evening and spent some time taking pictures. On thursday, i dropped them off at the SeaWorld and then picked them up in the evening. They supposedly had a very good time at both the zoo and the SeaWorld. On Friday, i went really early to work(woke up at 5:30 am!) and returned early too. They just walked to a nearby mall and did some shopping and had lunch. We then set out to Old Town San Diego, where the oldest settlements were supposed to have been. There were a lot of shops and restaurants, all in mexican style. We had a good time there. Then we went to the Coronado beach in Coronado island, south of San Diego. The beach there was lovely. We spent over an hour there, taking videos and pictures and then set back to the Old Town San Diego for dinner. It was midnight by the time we reached home. Yesterday, all of us and my roommates went to an Indian restaurant and had some good food. My cousin's flight was at 2:40 pm and i dropped them off at the airport at 1:40pm sharply :D.

It was about 4pm when i thought of taking a short nap, cos i was feeling really exhausted. By the time i woke up, it was well past 11 pm! I went back to bed at 3 am and woke up again at 8 am and i feel rejuvenated as i write this. The last 15 days were sapping the juice out of me. But, i will have the memories and the photographs to bring to life the various places i visited taking away my tiredness with them...

God's biggest game...

2006-05-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

It was 4am in India when my mobile rang. The number displayed in it was "+0". I knew it was my dad and I knew what he was going to say.
My maternal grandfather passed away at 2:30 am IST tuesday. He was 85. The magnitude of the news is yet to fully sink in me. He was so dear to me...rather, i was so dear to him. Staying miles away from home sucks. It sucks even more at times like these. I couldn't be there when my dearest paternal grandmother passed away in 2004 and now for him.
He was a lot of things to me. A source of inspiration. He educated all of his five kids single-handedly bearing all the financial responsibilities and made sure that all of them settled down well in life. My mom amazes me with stories on how he always made sure that all of his kids went on every single excursion in school and college despite a not-so-great financial situation at home. Borrowing money at the last moment from his mill owner was a routine act for thaathaa. Nobody in the family had any clue on how he managed to return all the money back...
He stopped wearing slippers during the freedom struggle and never wore them again until he was 75 when his kids and grandkids forced him to start wearing it, after seeing him struggle walking in the scorching sun. He worked until he was 70 plus- man, it wasnt a surprise at all then. when i think of it now, i feel so humbled.
He was a tall man, close to 6 feet and had a heart of gold. He was so restless after he stopped working. He was not meant to retire...but, like all great men, he had to...He wanted him to.
He was suffering from stage III cancer, the doctors amazed by the fact that he did not complain of pain until he actually did. They suggested that he bore all the pain and that there was no other possibility.
I always thought of him to be a strong man. I think I am thankful to God that I dont have to carry any sad memories of him, although the fact that i couldnt be at his side when he drew his last breath pains me a lot.
I spoke to my mom and she was struggling to talk. She was his clear favorite. I was always intrigued by the bond between my thaathaa and his first son, my uncle. There was not much external affection evident. I always assumed that he liked my grandpa the least of the five children. When my mom told me that he had been crying non-stop ever since thaathaa died, i couldnt quite believe it. But when my mom passed the phone to him and i heard him cry, that's when the fact that my grandpa is gone for good sunk a little in me. He said, "unna paththi kadasi varaikkum kaettuNdae irundhaar Jagan. Thanks for calling". I did not know what to say.
I know that my thaathaa is safe now from all earthly pains at His feet. I havent spoken to my paatti yet. That's going to be really tough.
I'll miss my thaathaa and his kadhar aadai...

Yet Another Tag

2006-04-26T23:30:00.000-07:00

Tagged by Raz

Name 10 of life's simple pleasures that you like the most and then pick 10 people to do the same (optional). Try to be original and creative and no to use the things someone else has already used.

1. Singing out loud
2. Enjoying simple lyrics that convey big meanings with a teardrop trying to pop out of my eyes
3. Returning a powerful smash back to the opponent much to his surprise, in Table Tennis
4. Getting a batsman bowled with my slower ball in Cricket
5. Eye contact with cute-looking girls
6. Teasing my dad
7. Sleeping in broad daylight with comforter and heater on(sorry Raz- had to say this)
8. Utilizing the snooze button in my watch alarm to the maximum
9. Getting teased by my sister
10. Saying "Yes" to anything and everything my friends plan to do

I tag-
Shy, MJ, Nostalgia, Sri and Siva - do it if and when you guys find time...

God Bless You, My God...

2006-04-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Iniya Thamizh PuththaaNdu NalvaazhthugaL!

2006-04-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

Am so getting used to making last minute posts. April 14, 2006 is history throughout the world except in the Pacific Time Zone of USA and in parts of the East Pacific Ocean(which is actually the west end of the world...interesting). Still, somehow i manage to make it in time.

Here's wishing u all a very happy tamil new year!

anaivarukkum yen iniya puththaaNdu nalvaazhthugaL!

I decided to give myself a small gift on this day. So, i gave birth to this tamil blog of mine. I hope to get the support(read comments in the new blog) of all the Tamil readers out there and those who are even remotely interested in this beautiful language.

keep visiting...

Courage...

2006-04-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

Will I ever be able to do something like this?

Mizaz said when the fire broke out, Javed managed to come out safe from a burning tented enclosure but went back to help those trapped inside.

Anida, his mother, said, "Javed saw six kids were stuck in one corner of a tent and so he went back inside the burning enclosure to save them. He tore a part of the synthetic cloth that was used to make the outer cover of the tent to make way for the children."

No one knew then that Javed's presence of mind and exemplary act of bravery would save so many lives but claim his own.

May his soul rest in peace...

thanakkena vaazhbavan irukkayil iRakkiRaan
piRarkkena vaazhndhavan iRandhumae irukkiRaan

Vaira vari...

2006-04-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

maNNoadu saeraamal nadakkindRaen unnaalae...

An evening away from my bedroom

2006-04-10T00:30:00.000-07:00

Isn't it ironical that "bedroom" and "boredom" are anagrams? hmmm...

S called me at around 2pm on Sunday and said he'd drive down from Irvine along with his GF "R" at around 6pm. I was more than happy to say "sure". After all, we had met only once in the last 4 and a half years and got to spend only about 12 hours together then. He wanted to go out for dinner and spend some time here. It was a pleasant surprise cos one wudn't have associated S of the yore to pay friendly visits by driving 140 odd miles to and fro. He wanted my roommates to join us too. I thought "right!" and told him, "I'll ask them". As expected, one of my roommates had to iron his clothes and the other one was not feeling well cos he had slept at 3 am the previous night!

S and R arrived just past six. I was introduced to R by S and then I introduced them to my roommates. One of my roommates was going to the temple and we thought we'll join him too(hattrick for me- that too friday, saturday and sunday!). We then dropped him at home so that he could iron his clothes peacefully and then headed to the San Diego downtown. It's been four weeks since i moved to this place and this is the first time i got a chance to go there, thanks to S for that. Seeing the downtown from the ground was certainly worth the hype i had gotten twice before, when I had seen it from a few thousand feet above the ground, although the fact that it was all dark by the time we got there is a pity.

We went to "Sea Port Village", which was a cool place. We had dinner at a restaurant there(forgot its name- "Sea" something). To my surprise, there were "three" vegetarian dishes and i chose Thai noodles. They ordered shrimp, fish and Margarita. So, i had to be content with my food and pepsi!

We soon got into discussions about our college days. It was great to remember those golden days. S was telling about the problems they were facing. R's iyer dad wants an iyer maaplai for her. She was telling me that they are kind of "ok" now, after seeing his photos(er- how?) and all. They are going to India in July to face the music. Goodluck to them!

S was also telling me about J- about how J had fallen in love with a chat friend of his, who was equally mad about him apparently, about how he went to Canada to see her parents and about how she never spoke to him ever since he returned! It was a depressing story. I feel that online relationships are becoming banal these days. hmmm...anyways, J's moving on and is thinking of getting married in December. He's another nice chap. Deserves a lot better in life. Hope it works out well for him.

So, S and R saw my depressing life...yeah, my roommates. They wanted me to come to Irvine(LA) every weekend on Friday night after work and leave sunday night. It was so nice of them and was hard to say no to. Let's see. If not every weekend, am thinking of going there atleast once a month until i find some "friends" here.

They left SD at 11pm. Before leaving, he gave me a card. It made me feel nice. He has changed quite a bit and i am sure R must have made a significant contribution to this cause. Left me feeling a bit jealous. What on earth am i doing being single at 26? where are you, my girl? ;)

Vanity Shattered- Continued...

2006-04-09T23:50:00.000-07:00

This is an interview with Sarath's mom, interviewed by Meera Srinivasan.

Monotony

2006-04-08T00:30:00.000-07:00

Life has been REALLY monotonous ever since i moved to San Diego. The first week was the most interesting- staying at a friend's place, driving a brand new PT Cruiser, eating out, getting used to the job environment and such cool things...so u can imagine the plight since then.
Moved into a 2-bedroom apartment with two others. Both of them goto bed at 8:30pm on week days and at 9:30pm on weekends, making me feel guilty about sleeping "late" at 11pm. During grad days, 1 am was the earliest i went to bed, barring very very rare exceptions. Wonder how one moment people are young and the nano-second they start working, they become old. For all those worrying about not getting jobs and not being able to work...take my word- "working sucks"...not exactly because of working but because of all the revised schedule. Take ur own sweet time before facing the inevitable.
Contrary to popular belief, eating out has reduced a lot. I even carry lunch to office, which surprises even myself! Going to gym and temple are the two great pastimes here.
At last, i got something to talk about today. Went to the temple last night(it's just past 12 now) cos they had Ramanavami celebrations. That i would have been there otherwise too is a different issue. There I saw two beautiful girls(girls with sweet voices are known as "beautiful" in my dictionary!) singing Carnatic songs. The temple was full of people and i was forced to take a seat. I'd have stayed anyways, for the only other choices were going to the gym or cooking. So i took my seat at about 7:30pm and finally got to stand up at 10:30 pm to join the crowd in giving the artists a big and richly deserved standing ovation. Ranjani and Gayatri- the sisters, sang very very well. I found out only a minute ago that they are not as amateur as i initially thought they were. More info on them can be found at http://www.ranjanigayatri.com/ - kudos to them. Not for a single second did i feel like even stretching my legs during the 3 hour performance. It was absolutely engrossing to say the least. They are on a US tour now, singing in Cleveland this Sunday(tomorrow) and travelling to other places after that. As usual, i was lost in the crowd of Carnatic zealots talking about all the ragas n stuff.
I used to be part of SABHA(http://www.uc.edu/groups/sabha/index.html) during my grad days. Like most others who were there, i went to the orientation only cos they provided free pizza. As luck would have it, i ended up being the treasurer for that year and got the friendship of a few amazing student artists and got to meet a lot of renowned performers. We had a big SABHA family then. It was fun. The concerts were great and instilled in me an interest for Indian Classical Music. I was and am not comfortable with the theories, but listening to Carnatic music is a delight, more so if the song is in tamil. Learning it for 7 years, albeit against my will and with zero interest, did not hurt at all.
Cooked Maggi at 11pm and had it for dinner along with two bananas. Things are back to normalcy now. Winamp's singing "Maerkae Maerkae", roomies are into their 2nd quarter of tonight's sleep and i am feeling guilty about staying awake...

Veezhvaen yendRu ninaithaayoa?

2006-04-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

THE Bond...

2006-04-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

Nagesh, a 70 year old in the movie "Rhythm", says this to his wife...
"idhu oru sowriyam di enakku. enna thittinaalum nooRu roobaa kudutha maadhiri sirichukittae vaangikkaRa"
("this is a convenient thing for me. how much ever i scold you, you take it all with a smile, as if i gave you a hundred rupees")

Vanity Shattered

2006-03-29T23:00:00.000-08:00

Just when you feel you are the best, take a look at this picture and feel humble...

indRu oru thagaval

2006-03-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

listening to a winamp radio now...a tamil one. A few minutes back, a lady was saying some thathuvams, one of which went like this,

"selvaththai saemiththu vaikka siRandha idam yezhayin vayiRu"
got goosebumps immediately.

"thani oru manidhanukku uNavillayenil indha jagaththinai azhiththiduvom"
-mahakavi Bharathi

Tag- International Women's Day...belated

2006-03-26T15:14:00.000-08:00

sorry for the delay, Raz! here it is...

Women whom I admire most in my life...my mother, my sister and a lot more...

"viNNavarkkum maNNavarkkum vilayattRa selvam peN...vilayattRa selvam peN"

Mother...
Reasons for liking :
1. Very honest and straightforward
2. Very hardworking
3. Very spiritual
4. Compassionate
5. She's my mom!

Reasons i dint like her sometimes as an adolescent(now i know why she did what she did):
1. Her straightforward behavior hurt at times
2. Demanding and Dictatorlike sometimes
3. Not very encouraging

Sister...
Reasons for liking :
1. Straightforward
2. Compassionate
3. Source of motivation
4. Very witty(never seen a girl with a better sense of humor)

Reasons for dislike:
1. Gets angry easily
2. Shouts a lot!

Foods I like:
Bhel Puri
Chipotle Burrito
PooNdu Rasam(cooked by mom only!)
ThakkaaLi Saadham
veNpongal
sakkara pongal

And then...

2006-03-25T23:38:00.000-08:00

...i met my destiny!

procrastination

2006-02-25T01:30:00.000-08:00

i procrastinate a lot. 9 out of 10 times, i feel bad about it, and rightly so. But there's no better feeling than that one time, when i feel so glad for having procrastinated.

I feel glad i procrastinate my anger. More often than not, my anger dies fastly with time. The longer i procrastinate, the calmer i feel. It avoids me "suttufying" someone with my "naa" and thereby causing "vadu".

I feel glad i procrastinate vengeance for it'd otherwise crumble all the faith i have in, "innaa seydhaarai oruththal avar naaNa nannayam seidhu vidal".

I get a lot of time to think when i procrastinate and i feel that my way of thinking gets better, the longer i take to make up my mind about something(eventhough i do not keep thinking about it all the time).

Procrastination educates me. Procrastination ruins me.

I am nothing and I am everything if i do not procrastinate.

Here I am, still thinking whether i should click on the "publish post" button or not. I think I will...

Logical Feelings...

2006-02-15T00:30:00.000-08:00

just past midnight and she was lost in thoughts. she knew that opposite poles attract. but...

does the analogy hold good for people with contradicting views about most things in life?
****if yes, what is the binding force?
********physical appearance?
************if yes, is it not transient?
********if not, what is it?
****if not, what is this feeling inside her?

she was smiling at the way she structured her questions as if she were coding a program, something logical...

she knew one thing for sure. people with similar views get attracted to each other. but, for now, she only cared to know if the logical corollary was true. she knew she wished it to be false. but, is it? she was caught in a whirlpool of logic and feeling. the only problem was that her opposite was a logical thing and she was a feeling person...

"wish life had a simpler logic", she felt...

Happy Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T17:20:00.000-08:00

to the millions of lovers and mere livers all around the world...celebrate love!

EDIT::::::Feb 17, 2006- 10 am:
changed the pic cos some of my readers thought the previous one was offensive and yucky!

EDIT::::::Mar 26, 2006- 5pm:
just realised that this pic is a beauty. It's tough to say whether the couple is walking towards the waves or away from it! My initial reaction when i posted this pic was that they were walking towards us and away from the waves, but now am not sure! Help me out on this, if you can...

Happy Republic Day!

2006-01-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Dictionary.com

2006-01-22T17:30:00.000-08:00

Jealous

Fearful or wary of being supplanted; apprehensive of losing affection or position.
1. Resentful or bitter in rivalry; envious: jealous of the success of others.
2. Inclined to suspect rivalry.
Having to do with or arising from feelings of envy, apprehension, or bitterness: jealous thoughts.
Vigilant in guarding something: We are jealous of our good name.
Intolerant of disloyalty or infidelity; autocratic: a jealous God.

Possessive

Of or relating to ownership or possession.
Having or manifesting a desire to control or dominate another, especially in order to limit that person's relationships with others: a possessive parent.
Grammar. Of, relating to, or being a noun or pronoun case that indicates possession.

Anniversary...

2006-01-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a year since i started this blog. Interesting to see that it's still alive. What started off with(as) a beautiful dream is still going on reasonably strongly and has managed to be more than just a dream...

My intention behind this post though is not to look back and relive old memories or to celebrate a year of successful blogging or to thank my readers for their support. It is to apprise my readers about another blog, one that was founded by MJ recently and one which aims to bring all patriotic Indian bloggers to write under one roof, as a first step towards creating a social organization which works for the development of India. As the description of the blog says, it is a dream vision of a clean,orderly and progressive India.

You need not be a person who fits in perfectly into the idealistic expectations the blog prescribes. I know I do not. It is enough if you want to be one and would give your best. Anybody without a cynical view towards India is welcome to join the blog and voice their opinions.

The central idea, in my opinion, is to get rid of the tentativeness most of us have in doing good things for our country. I believe that if it is acheived, half the work can be considered done. Working for the country without expecting anything in return, shunning the sense of embarassment one might encounter while failing, in an attempt to be radical and yet maintaining an optimistic view throughout the ups and downs are considered to be essential.

If you think you are someone who would love to spend some time and thinking for the welfare of India, please do send an email to MJ at LM20_iyengar@yahoo.com or to me at rammgopalt@yahoo.com or leave a comment to this post. We'll send you an invite that will let you post in our blog.

Every journey begins with a single step and I hope that this small endeavor of ours turns out to be helpful in some little way to our country...

Jai Hind!

New Blog URL:
http://myindiaasabeacon.blogspot.com/

Happy New Year 2006...

2006-01-01T20:59:00.000-08:00

"30%", said I. "0% chance", claimed 3 out of 8 people. "20%", claimed a couple. "15%", said one and "50%", said another.

The 8 of us were returning by BART(Bay Area Rapid Transit) train from San Francisco downtown after watching the fireworks there at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day. PK started this idle discussion by asking, "What % chance do u guys give yourself for love marriage?".

It can be safely assumed that all 8 of us are single as of now and in all probabilities have never had a gf. Our ages span between 24 and 26 years.

My reasoning for saying 30% is the strong belief i have in love marriage. I said that marriage comes first, love marriage next and arranged marriage third :P. Two of the three people who said 0% were convinced and convincing that if nothing happened for 25 odd years, nothing was going to happen in the future! The third, PK, was against getting love married for whatever reasons. J, who gave himself a 20% chance did so because he was planning to get back to school for MBA in the future, and SSB gave the same reasoning for his 15%. SMS, who gave himself a 20% chance did so considering all possible outside chances he might be having in the future.

The 0%-ers were convincing in saying that it was near impossible for me to meet a "single" girl, who'd be to my liking, with whom i'd be able to spend considerable time to fall in love, once i start working. Thus, they concluded that if i were to get love married, then i'll have to meet the girl through orkut or blogspot- in essence, it'd be a long distance relationship.

Tonnes of pessimistic thoughts were floating in the air and i was beginning to feel let down when BG said that he had a 50% chance. We were surprised to hear that from him. He said, "When i am not sure whether it'd be a love or arranged marriage, the % chance has to be 50"...and the 7 of us couldnt stop laughing for quite some time...

Baasha...

2005-12-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

Honesty "will be" rewarded. Check this out. Unfortunately, people react only when someone suffers for being honest, failing to see, or sometimes shunning the responsibility of playing a part in implementing the bigger picture behind such a suffering...let's think positive...all the time...

The Story of My Experiments with Truth- An Autobiography

2005-12-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

I finished reading this book a month ago. The book left me in awe.

This is the first autobiography or for that matter, any biography that i have read. I am not sure if the others will be anywhere near being as candid as this one. Experiments with Truth- nothing less, nothing more.

All of us might have different opinions about the political correctness of this man. That is beyond the scope of this blog and the book. What's impressive is the way he lived his life. So simple, so selfless and so so tolerant! He was passionate about a lot of things, but that never affected his decision making. In his view, all men were equals- there was simply no villain worth hating.

I'd recommend this book for anyone aspiring to be a tolerant person and just for them. The book tries to emphasize that we should look at only the positive side of a person. Needless to say, it preaches a lot about being truthful to our self. A great book, overall.

PS: People who dont like the man, please dont read the book, for there are quite a few points which will make you hate him even more. The penalty he pays for being candid...

Feel proud!

2005-11-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

"You are back again. Is there a problem?", the lady behind the counter was concerned.
"No. I took my driving test and I am back now to get my license", I said.
Her face showed genuine surprise. Only an hour had passed since I got my temporary license permit from the lady sitting next to this lady and now I was back having passed the maneuverability and road tests, to get my Driver's License. That must've been a record shared by very few.
"Wow. That's great. Congrats", she said surprised by my efficiency and talent.
"Thanks", I said smiling with a feeling of achievement, shamelessly.
Little did she know that I had let my previous license expire beyond renewal date and so had to go through all the procedures again like a rookie.
When there's some easy pride up for grabs, why let go off it? :P

A short story-6

2005-11-20T20:45:00.000-08:00

Compassion
---------------

Tears were flowing down Sudha's cheeks. It was nothing new. She was a very emotional 21 year old, caring a lot for people around the world. Death news of a few tens of people due to some mishap or another, wherever it might have happened, invariably sent a stream of tears out of her eyes.

It was an earthquake in Pakistan. 84 people killed and more than 300 injured. The sight of a one-year old, newly orphaned girl child was vividly captured by BBC. There was mud all over the child's body and that was enough to trigger the tears this time around.

All kinds of thoughts were racing in her mind. What is God doing? Is there a God at all? If there is, will He(or She) let all this happen? God's supposed to do good to the people He created, isn't He? No...wait...what am i thinking? There is God..."am sorry God", she said looking towards the roof of her bedroom. Ofcourse He does all this to prove that there's a supreme power governing the human race.

So, what am I supposed to do? I should help the mankind, feel pity for the ones suffering all around the world and contribute part of my time for their welfare. I should help the needy. I should be thankful to God for making me so fortunate...not as one of the many suffering all around the world.

Compassion is the need of the hour, she realised. She decided to join the Social Organization she had heard about last week. That way she'd be able to contribute as much as she could for the society.

Her mind was now clear. She decided not to waste any more time and was all set to leave when her 80 year old grandmom, who was pretty much confined to her bed 24/7 called out for her. "Sudha. Can u get me a cup of water, please?", she cried, unaware of the kind of urgency Sudha was in. "Mom will be home in 5 minutes. Ask her to give you water. Am in a hurry". She started her Scooty and accelerated it and felt the fresh air hitting her face.

"It's a new beginning to my life", she said to herself.

26 and running...

2005-11-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

...actually, just ambling for the time being!

Anbae Sivam...

2005-11-16T15:00:00.000-08:00

...

Ah Aah

2005-09-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

Saw the movie a couple of days back. There's a dialogue in the movie that got me thinking. The translation goes something like this...
"Do we ever break our relationship with our mother? No. We never go in search of a different mother, come what may. Then, why are there so many break-ups in bf-gf relationships? It's because we don't treasure it as much as that of a relationship with a mother. We are not totally sincere in love."
- what else could possibly be the reason?...i wonder...

A short story-5

2005-09-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Was tagged by K7 and here it goes, a short story in 55 words...

A Must-Do
---------------
What a misfortune! There were hundreds of things that Raj had stopped doing while in USA, things that MUST be done while in India.
"How come THEY dont have this facility?", his grandpa blamed the States' infrastructure. Raj couldn't believe he let his slippers in the open outside the temple and not to a person-in-charge.

Tagging Bugs and Shy- write at your leisure girls...

Andre Agassi and The Ashes...

2005-09-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

I used to hate the name even until 3 years back. I smiled whenever he lost, the way i do for Federer now. It was because i loved Sampras. Once Sampras retired, i kind of started liking Agassi, for i always knew he was a good player...a very good player. This is Agassi's 20th straight year at the US open, starting from 1986. Am not sure if anyone else has this kind of record...simply unbelievable. At 35, he's still the king of service returns, which was amply on display in his Quarterfinal game against compatriot James Blake last night. This was one of the best games of tennis i have ever got to see and i am thankful for it. Down 3-6, 3-6, 1-3, only Agassi could have possibly taken it to the fifth set, let alone...win it! I kept believing that he'd somehow pull this one off and he did! Agassi won 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(8-6). He did not give Blake a single matchpoint, which was not great only because it was Agassi. I started feeling sorry for Blake right after Agassi evened things out in the third set at 3-3 and almost lost my confidence when Agassi was down a break in the fifth. For all his worth, he broke back and took it to tie-break. There he was down 1-4 again! Agassi was on the comeback throughout the match, where he showed a lot of character. If he gets to meet Federer in the Finals, it'd be an awesome game where Federer would be made to give his everything to win, which is itself becoming a rarity these days. Ofcourse, there's Ginepri waiting to pounce on the old tiger to enter into a Grand Slam Finals for the first time in his career...but after seeing the way Agassi played in the QF, Ginepri would be hoping for something more than just his talent to beat the legend...

Another bad day for the Aussies in the Ashes. England are 319/7 at the end of the first day's play in the fifth and final test. Atleast, it wasnt too bad relatively based on what has happened in the last 3 games. I thought that losing the toss was a blessing in disguise, for this will give them enough time to take 20 English wickets. Hope rain doesnt take too many overs away from this game and spoil a well fought series...

IIT? what is it?

2005-08-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

i hereby announce with great pride that i studied in a college that is one step ahead of IIT Madras and two steps ahead of IIT Kharagpur- hehe!

Read this

Dead Man Alive!

2005-08-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

How i wish i had the mentality to disregard this as absurd without giving it a second thought....or do i?

just in time...

2005-08-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

Happy 58th Independence Day, India. You've done me proud and I'll try to make you proud in all sincerity. Jai Hind!

gandhiji.jpg, originally uploaded by Minimal Ego.

Knee Injury...

2005-08-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

Lack of a proper fitness regime, it's got to be. On Friday, during our regular cricket practice, I was bowling as usual. Suddenly, on my follow through i heard a cracking sound from my knee and the next moment i was on the ground crying in pain. My immediate thought was that i had broken a bone. I have never had a fracture in my life before and to have one at this point in time was the worst i could imagine. My teammates took a good look at my knee and the experienced ones diagnosed that it wasn't a fracture since there was no serious swelling. I waited there for another hour and a half for the practice to end and by that time i was feeling reasonably better and so decided against going to the doctor that night(i hate visiting hospitals- am quite the opposite of an hypochondriac). I was helped all along by two of my team mates, who took me to a nearby pharmacy to buy a pain relieving gel and then took me to a restaurant where we had dinner. Thanks guys, for being very helpful. They then brought me home and I was on my own from then on for another hour or so until my roommate came home. I broke a towel hanger in the bathroom putting my full weight on it! I took a painkiller and decided to sleep, when my roommate arrived. I told him about this and we decided to go see a doctor the next morning if it did not get any better, and it did not.
So, i went to the university hospital on Saturday afternoon and after having waited for nearly 5 hours, saw the doctor! Thanks to my roommate and another friend for their patience and support, the time flew by. The doctor diagnosed it as a possible lateral ligament tear or an inflammation in the meniscus. He said that he would not be able to find which one it was without being cruel to me. He said that it would hurt me a lot if he tried to then and so asked me to see an orthopaedist on monday when the pain would have lessened. I'll have to fix up an appointment and it could well be a week before I actually see an orthopaedist. Am on painkillers right now and was on crutches until earlier today. Now, am able to walk around without the crutches. There's pain(better than what it was yesterday though) and the swelling hasnt come down by much. Hope it heals soon.
Thanks a lot A and J for your help. Thanks a lot K and S for your patience and help. Living away from home will only be a nightmare if not for friends like you...