After a hiatus!

I’ve been in a trans-state all the while. Ever since I moved in to the new city, I’m bombarded with so much work that I literally don’t have a second in a 24 hour day for myself. I have become a perfect s/w robot shuttling between work and sleep (I mean, my home). At least the last two weekends were nice and easy. Last Sunday, we had invited few friends to our house for lunch. We made Chicken Briyani, Fish fry, Onion raitha (I made this :)) and bhajjis. Everything came out very well and I couldnt believe my ears when one of the girls who had come over appreciated the food. She is a very good cook and to hear a word of appreciation from her is something GREAT!

Today, I was literally shocked to see tons of emails from my college friends. They are planning for a get-together in Chicago. Initially, I wasnt all that interested in joining them but now I'm the one eagerly awaiting for the day. The reason is plain and simple. One of my friends is bringing her roommates along with her. They are supposed to be very pretty and the fact that my friend has created so much of a hype about them, I would be the stupidest person on earth, if I dint go there :)

Coming to the present, I need a car desperately. Yesterday, I had a look at a Honda Civic and I liked it very much but today when I called up the owner, the car was already sold. Today I went to another dealer and saw a Mazda 626. The engine needs a tuneup but apart from that the car is worth every penny. I should go there tomorrow and have a look at that again. Hoping to close the deal tomorrow!

I’m totally in love with the Ford Escape that I hate the thought of returning it back. But like the adage goes, "All good things must come to an end", I will have to part with it on Saturday :(

That is pretty much what I was doing all these days! Hoping to post things regularly but I cannot vouch on that :)

Rang De Basanti - A movie par excellence!

I watched Rang De Basanti on Friday! An amazing movie, technically superb, the narration was unique and splendid, AR Rehman has rocked throughout the movie, Siddharth, Aamir, Kunal and Alice have lived their roles..what else could I say? Just watch it and look for yourselves!!

Another First Day!

Everyday starts afresh and has always got something new in store for us but we are so much engrossed in our simple and mundane activities that we rarely enjoy the nicecities of a new day. But when we go to a new place, we watch pretty much everything that are happening around us with curiosity and with maximum attentivity. Having stated the general rule, I must confess that I too fall under the same bucket. Today being the first day at work in a new place, I was enjoying each and everything that was falling on my eyes. The huge identical buildings that stretched like a maze from North to South and from East to West left me totally disoriented. I started feeling like Columbus startled in the high seas without a Sailor's Compass. The driveway to the parking garage was winding and weaving like Priety's curly hair (this is history now!) that made me clueless of where it was taking me. I was glad to have my friend beside me who navigated me so well that I felt once in a while(Yea, only once in a while!) that I was going in the right direction.

Things inside the new office were not less amazing. The receptionist was way too much friendly that I felt she was flirting with me (I know, this is too much!). Then I was escorted to meet my manager. I guess I was too early (I went in at 8.45 AM !), nobody from my team was in. I sat in my friend's office for a while and in the meantime my manager had arrived. We went in a whirlwind tour to meet all my clients and the the client partner managers. It was so quick that I still cant relate the names and faces of the people. But anyways, Im going to be here for a while and Im sure I could remember the names by then. The project is starting actually tomorrow and so it was more a setup day for me. Call up the IT helpdesk, configure the Lotus Notes, setup voicemail and in similar things my day flew off.

The brand new Ford Escape that I have rented is really cool. It is a pleasure to drive it. The 4 x 4 drive train is a real fun to drive in the snow covered roads. I came back home at 5:30 PM and my roommate baked me an omlette. Wow! It tasted like elixir. Then, I had to drive back to the office again to pick up another room mate. In the meantime the snow had covered my car completely and I had to clean off the windshield and the mirrors standing and shivering in the Minnesota cold. Now, I'm writing this post while cooking on one side. Sambhar is getting ready and I'm expecting it to come out well! Lets see!! Nothing is certain till the last moment!

Life goes on!

This is not new to me. I have lived with this all my life. I have never been in a place for more than 2-3 years (college being the exception!). And now, history is repeating itself. I’m moving out of Salt Lake City where I was for the past 10 months to another – a much colder place. The thought by itself is making me feel jittery. There are so many things that I love about Salt Lake City, the snow clad mountains surrounding the calm and the serene valley, the polite and amiable people, the not so crowded social centers and above all my group of friends.

Va, Ak, Ar, Sa, Ra and Mo (I’ll miss you guys!) have been the best bunch of friends that I have made ever since I left college. My ten months of stay in this city would be fresh in my memories for a long time to come. The night long arguments that we have had, our cooking escapades, the tickets that we got, the endless nights of movies, the places that we visited and all the fun that we have had so far have been perpetuated in my mind.

Somewhere deep down in my heart, I can hear voices enunciating that I would be missing this place and these friends. The keener I tend to hear them, I also hear someone saying, “That’s life for you. It is a long journey and no matter what happens on the way, it goes on and on till you die”. Ohh! How true?

I have to just go and find out what the Saint (my destination abridged!) has in store for me! Hope it would be as exciting as SLC!

Auf Wiedersehen SLC!!

Seducer in Me?

Was a bit curious to know my style after reading Nothings Aplenty and My Ramblings posts on this :)

Your Seduction Style: Au Natural

You rank up there with your seduction skills, though you might not know it. That's because you're a natural at seduction. You don't realize your power! The root of your natural seduction power: your innocence and optimism. You're the type of person who happily plays around and creates a unique little world. Little do you know that your personal paradise is so appealing that it sucks people in. You find joy in everything - so is it any surprise that people find joy in you? You bring back the inner child in everyone you meet with your sincere and spontaneous ways. Your childlike (but not childish) behavior also inspires others to care for you. As a result, those who you befriend and date tend to be incredibly loyal to you.

What Kind of Seducer Are You?

In no mood!

I’m stressed out too much today. I feel as if my head weighs 1000 lbs. Too many things are running in my mind, clogging up my brain. As the saying goes, “Physically present but mentally absent”, I’m moving around like a non-living thing. Gosh! By tomorrow noon conditions should improve (or worsen!), I cannot stand this any further.

The Tag - Expectations Unlimited !!

Rita had tagged me and here are the rules of passing the tag:

1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.

2. Need to mention the sex of the target.

3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they’ve been tagged.

4. If tagged the 2nd time, there’s no need to post again.

Target: Female

My love should be (given in the order of precedence),

1. God Fearing
2. Loving & Loveable
3. Knowledgeable
4. Smart & Humorous
5. Accommodative
6. Hyper-active
7. Smiling and Pleasant looking
8. Optimistic

Now, are these high expectations ?? :)

It’s the turn for these guys to open up,

Ricky, Harini, Akshay, Vidya, Sai

I couldn’t find 8 victims, most of my friends have already been tagged ..:(

The Math Teacher

I got this story as a forward long back..but I still do read this once in a while!

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers. That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that meant anything to anyone!" "I didn't know others liked me so much." No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another.

That group of students moved on. Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin. As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded, yes. Then he said "Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher. "We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it." Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him. "Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."

Mark's classmates started to gather around us. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list it’s in the top drawer of my desk at home." Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.” I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary." Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. I carry this with me at all times, “Vicki said without batting an eyelash.” I think we all saved our lists." That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be. So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important.

Tell them, before it is too late....

Be serious!!

Being playful and funny has its own flipside. I was very playful when I was at college. Never really bothered about anything, no strong emotional attachments, I had always lived the moment. I would always love to hang out with my friends enjoying things, be it the Re. 1 bhajjis or a night show movie. Exam seasons were the most dreadful times to me, not because I had to read but because all my friends would be seriously preparing for the exams and I would be left alone with no company. Even if I go to their rooms they would shoo me because I would not let them study.

I had a good friend who used to hang out with me most of the times. She liked my company because she would have hearty laughs all the time she was with me. Slowly, I started getting attracted to her and the scenario changed, I started preferring her company. Everybody in my college believed that there was something going on between us. But actually there was nothing. 2 years passed and we were in our final semester. I became so restless that I wanted to let her know that I liked her (whatever!). So as usual one day we were having coffee in our mess room and I found it was the apt time to start the topic.

After profusely sweating, I finally managed to tell her that I liked her (Gosh, I was feeling shy to use the word, love and I never knew a better way to propose). She stared at me for a moment and then burst out laughing. “Naveen, don’t play! Be serious in life!.” She had thought that I was making fun of her as usual. Oops, what was I supposed to do? How could I prove that I was serious? I just smiled at her and turned my face away from hers. Till date she never understood that I proposed her. Oops, I have paid the price of being funny all times but have never managed to become really serious.

PS: X, if you are reading this, just ignore this. I know it is too late now :)

Brothers are cool!

Date: January 7th 2006
Time: 6:30 PM
Place: Fashion Place Mall
Characters: My friend, his friend and Me

Situation: My friend’s friend was returning back to India. He wanted to buy some gifts for his family and for himself. So my friend and I joined him in his shopping spree.

My Friend: Why not buy some nice perfume for your sister?
His Friend: Sure. She would love me for that!!
My Friend: Cool! come on let me show you something good.

[We two follow him in perfect silence]

My Friend: Ok, here we go. See this blue one? Check it out..
His Friend: Wow! This is amazing stuff. Jasmine perfume…though this seems to be pretty expensive, I’m gonna buy it!
My Friend: Good choice man. See how many boys are gonna flock around your sis if she starts applying this!!

[I stared at my friend. Gosh! Why did you say that??]

[His friend was startled for a moment ..of course, he would be!]

His Friend: Don’t ya think this is way too much expensive?
My Friend: But you liked it?
His Friend: I don’t think my sister will like perfumes, lets look for something else..

[He leaves the place swiftly and we run to catch up with him]

We brothers are cool! Aren’t we?? We gift such romantic gifts to our girl friends but when it comes to our own sisters, we back track. Does this mean, we care about our sisters more than our girl friends? Huh? No Idea!!

Cell phones – A new cause of concern!

I’ve always been pondering if the invention of the mobile phone is actually a boon or a bane to the human society. Though the cell phones have enabled the phrase, ‘Kar Lo Duniya Mutti Mein’, there are actually many flipsides to it. A couple of years back people made frivolous objections to the cell phones stating that the radio waves were detrimental to the brain cells. There are still researches going on in this direction to prove/disapprove this thesis. Even amidst these quibbles the number of cell phone users is growing day by day. I recently read a statistics that said nearly 99.8 % of people in Malaysia use mobile phones. 65 % (and still growing) of the Indians are cell phone subscribers.

Given these state of affairs, an interesting article caught my eyes today. According to this article, usage of mobile phones might hurt family relationships. This seems perfectly logical to me because I’ve been prone to this. My cell phone has made be so much accessible that I’ve got official calls at midnights and weekends. I’m sure many of you would empathize with me on this. This article also states that women are doubly impacted by the cell phone because they not only get official calls when they are not working but they also get calls about their family problems when they are out at work. This not only reduces their productivity but also becomes a cause for mental stresses.

So I guess it’s high time for us now to decide how we make use of the latest electronic gadgets. Are we going to rule technology or are we going to let it rule us? Sounds like the theme of a Steven Spielberg’s movie, huh?

Life ho tho aisee!! :)

Dude, why do you seem to be so much uninterested? What else do you want bro?? :)

Bandit Queen Outside and Cleopatra Inside

Places that we visit are unique in their own. I was reading Shikha’s ‘Bus Chimp – 2’ post. It reminded me of an incident that took place when I was in Pune last year. My company has operations nearly in all the major cities in India. Last year, I got an opportunity to travel to the Pune office to conduct a training. The Pune office is located in Hinjewadi. Since there was only one direct flight (this is a misnomer, the flight has a stoppage in Bangalore!) to Pune from Chennai, I was booked in a Mumbai flight. They had arranged for a cab to take me from the Mumbai airport to Pune.

As we reached Pune, it was close to mid-day. I’ve heard that Pune is a beautiful city known for its pleasant weather and sweet girls (!). So the next day on my way to the office I was hoping to enjoy the pleasantries of the city. But to my dismay, I found that nearly all the girls who were driving 2 wheelers had covered their faces entirely. All I could see were their eyes (and many of them were magnanimous enough to cover their eyes with sun glasses!). I was wondering what could be the reason for this – Fashion? Eve teasing? – are girls trying to avoid the lecherous looks of men? I had no clue and decided to clarify this with my friends at the office.

I was supposed to meet a manager at the office. But since he was scheduled to be in a meeting he had asked a girl from his team to help me. I would say Pune office looked sluggish when compared to the Chennai office in the mornings. This girl who was supposed to receive me hadn’t arrived till 9:30 AM and I had to wait for her in the lobby. Then she came, I thought it was Benazir Bhutto! She was wearing a jeans trousers and a denim jacket. She had covered her face with what I thought was her duppatta. Then I realized, girls don’t wear duppattas with jeans :)

She identified me and after the mutual greetings, she took me in to the office (her face was still covered!). She showed me a seat near hers and helped me with the user id and the password to boot up the system. After every thing was set for me, she went to her seat and started taking off her facial paraphernalia. I was curious to see her face. She had Bandit Queen’s look outside and Cleopatra’s look inside. She smiled at me and after she was done with her chore, I saw a 22 or perhaps 23 year old girl in her. I could not help myself from asking her, why girls were covering their faces.

Her answer was plain and simple – protect their faces from pollution!

If Pune is supposed to be polluted, what about Chennai?? I'm still wondering!

Tu Bin Bataye

….this song from Rang De Basanti is currently running in loops in my playlist. Wow! What a fantastic song! The lyric is great - subtle and soothing. The tempo is amazing and Madhushree has maintained it throughout the song. There is no assemblage of too many instruments and that makes the song pleasant and sweet – a treat for people who adore easy-listening. Naresh Iyer who has given the male voice has done a marvelous job too. Kudos to A.R. Rehman. He makes a deadly combination with Aamir – Why not? Geniuses collaborate to produce some sensational results.

tu bin bataye mujhe le chal kaheen

jahan tu muskuraye meri manzil wahin

Hmm..sounds lovely and still lingers in my mind. I guess repeated hearing of this song would make a romantically challenged person like me to become a poet :)

Making faces outta words!

I’m answering the prayers of my very good friend Ricky. He had been for quite a while pestering me to post a snap of mine. I was snubbing his request for a long time. Then, suddenly I started to ponder over the idea of visualizing the face of a person from his/her writings. Going back in to the past, we used to have a course called ‘Engineering Design’ in our B.Tech curriculum. It was one of the courses that I enjoyed doing the most. We would be required to draw the 2D side, top and the front views of a 3D object (generally a machine part) and the vice versa i.e. drawing the 3D image from the given side, top and front views. We had problems initially visualizing a 3D object but as we attended more classes, we became adept in doing so. I still try to rip apart objects in different views in my mind. It gives me a satisfaction that I remember something that I had learnt in my college days.

Coming back to the subject, I’ve heard that the human brain is the best television. But I still cannot believe if it would be 100% possible to imagine the face of a person from his writings. But to some degree, I firmly believe that it is very much possible to visualize the lifestyle, the person’s way of dressing and his/her attitude towards life from the way he/she writes. But unless we compare the visualized image with reality, there is no way we could validate the accuracy of our visualization.

Under the pretext of the emotional trauma that Ricky should have undergone trying to visualize my face, I’m posting my picture below (hey, Ricky - I'm just pulling your leg :)). Let’s see how many of you would have imagined such a face! I’ve always assumed that the cartoon in my profile resembled my actual countenance. Hope you guys concur with me too :)

PS: I'm removing the snap..It's been long enough here :)

Of Excitements and Disappointments

Well, all of you who have read my previous post would have known what I was doing for this New Year. The plan was grand and rapturous. Since we had very little time planning everything, we missed out to check out the mood of one important person, the Rain God. Gosh, southern California is supposed to be dry and warm. So we were lethargic and condoned to check the weather. We started off on time (30th, 6 PM) and reached LA earlier than we expected (31st, 5 AM). The hotel that we had booked did not allow us to do an early check-in. So we had to book another hotel for sleeping that morning.

Then, it all started one by one. It started raining cats and dogs in LA. We were barely able to get off the car. Imagine, how it would feel if you are not able to see anything in a place that you had visited with high hopes. We drove through Malibu and the drive was grotesque. I went agog when I saw the palatial houses built over the hillocks facing the Pacific Ocean. It’s a dream place to live-in and undoubtedly one of the costliest abodes in the whole earth. On the way, we saw a Hindu temple and decided to have a look at it. My friends had a good darshan and I had a good lunch!

We returned back to check-in in the hotel that we had booked in earlier. To our dismay, we found that the place was wretched and run down. We were planning to go to a good club to enjoy the New Year party. As we were new to the place, we dint exactly know which club would be the best. So we decided to start off early and look out for the clubs. Adding to our woes, all the good clubs were booked for the night. We became a perfect case study for Murphy’s Law! But just to put a full stop to our cribbing, we ‘sighted’ good chicks in party wears. Desi girls were predominant in the crowd. We were ogling at our ‘very own’ girls clad in revealing wears. Wow, Indian damsels look like goddesses if they wear the right outfits. Then we had a very good dinner at a Thai restaurant.

Sad and disappointed with no place in a club, we decided to go to the beach to welcome the New Year somberly. The time was 11.40 PM and the countdown had already started for 2006. We reached the Redondo Beach at 11.50 PM and found out there were hardly two people apart from us. One lady was watching the ocean pensively and it was obvious from her looks that she was in no mood to party and was enjoying her solitude. Another one was taking her dog on a walk in the beach. So it was just five of us left in the beach to do whatever we wanted to greet the New Year. We just shouted “Happy New Year” on top of our voices and left the place with emptiness. We went to a liquor shop to get something to drink in our room and enjoy the New Year’s morning. Rum was the instant choice of my friends (they are connoisseurs of drinks!). We headed back to our ‘nice’ hotel room and my friends started enjoying their best thing of the day!

The next morning was sunny and bright. I guess, the Gods wanted to show some mercy on the five poor souls. So we hurried up to the Huntington Beach which was 30 Mi away from LA. We had a nice time playing ball in the beach and taking some nice pictures! In all, we enjoyed the 3 hours that we spent on the beach. Had the rains still continued, our entire trip would have become meaningless. I played to my heart’s content in the beach. It had been more than 9 months since I’ve walked on the sandy shores of a beach! So it rejuvenated my spirits. We dropped off our initial plan to visit San Diego assuming that the weather would not be much different there. So we headed back and reached home at 4.30 AM on the 2nd. We were so tired that we slept till 12:00 PM. One of our friends was kind enough to treat us with lunch at their home. We had a great and sumptuous lunch. My body hasn’t yet coped up with the 1700 Mi drive and it is still begging for more rest. Here I’m sitting at my office trying to complete this post. But my brain goes off and on forcing me to take more than my usual time to post.

But anyways, it was a different kind of an experience altogether. We enjoyed each and everything that came on our way!