Chennai Police Goes Global!!!

Received this as a forward, and found them in Panangal Park too.

Chennai cops get new cars...

Chennai Police goes NYPD Style with 100 new Hyundai Accents !!!

7 Boys and a Pizza Hut

Last weekend, I had dinner at Pizza Hut. It had been a long time since I had had pizzas and it was perfect timing since my parents were not at home that evening and I didn’t bother to make dinner by myself. Since it was a Sunday, the T-Nagar Pizza Hut exceeded its seating limits and I found a few people sitting outside waiting for their table. There were four, 11-year old boys sitting outside in those miniature chairs that look like the chairs kept outside dental clinics, quietly talking to each other. I was under the impression that their parents, or whoever they came along with, are inside Witco the shop beside Pizza Hut doing some window shopping. Pretty evidently, these four kids could not be less interested in window shopping; they were fine by themselves outside Pizza Hut eagerly waiting for dinner.

A couple of minutes went by and as soon as a few diners left the place, these children were ushered in. They promptly sat down in a table for four, and immediately ensured another table for four is reserved as well. Curiosity got the better of me; here I am wondering “Whatever happened to the parents? Why aren’t they here yet?” When all of a sudden, three more 11-year olds pushed past me and ran in.

By now, you should know that for the remainder of my meal, I was observing these seven children (all boys) not caring less to what is happening at my table. They deftly ordered seven pan pizzas, all with different toppings and no sodas! As it goes for every big crowd, the waiter took his time in bringing the meal (seven pizzas IS a big order). In a little while, the impatient children started asking each other about when their pizzas are gonna arrive. And when they did arrive, unlike us, they continued their chitter-chatter even while eating. Now, I don’t have to tell you what will happen to us when the food arrives, we’ll royally ignore the others at the table, stop all conversation and concentrate only on what is right in front of us! [grin]

After their meal ended with ice cream for dessert, they talked a little more about how disgracefully India lost the match (which they just about picked up from the news on the TV in Pizza Hut) and started throwing opinions on each of the players (which I enjoyed the most). When dinner was done, one of them bigger boys paid for the bill by cash and carefully counted the balance money. When they left, each one ensured to ring the bell that said “Ring bell if you enjoyed!”

But of course, the whole time, my sister was trying to have a conversation with me, and she finally realised, I wasn’t even listening to her.

The thought of how children go out by themselves and eat whatever they feel like surprised me. When I was 11, we would hardly go out for dinner, and even if we did, I’d need my mom to pick my food for me. Serious! I wouldn’t know what to order and eat. Not that I felt embarrassed looking at these children, but all of a sudden, I was speculating if my children would be going out by themselves when they are 7, or maybe 6 years old? Ahem!!!

Beat This

For Sale!

The first thing that catches all our ladies’ attention to the newspapers (that is, IF we do get anywhere near them papers) on boring weekends is the “For Sale” sign. Throw in some bright flashy colours to the advert, and you can be rest assured, you will visit the place, even if they are selling away winter clothes and you know you can’t wear them in Chennai.

Come to think of it, I know of clearance sale for apparels, footwear, even air conditioners (during the off-season), microwave, and all other consumer durables. But have you heard of a sale for laptops?

The insert on yesterday’s paper said “Mega Clearance Sale!!!” Notice the three exclamatory marks, all part of promotional activities, I guess. It’s not jus a sale, it’s a cry “Mega Clearance Sale!!!” And what? Yes, brand new HP and Compaq laptops (and they choose to call it Mega Clearance).

At first, I didn’t believe the ad, or anything associated with it. But when I went there last evening, I should admit I was appalled by the display of them laptops, really cool ones starting at 50 grand and even the high-end ones didn’t go beyond Rs. 65,000. Free USB mouse, Bluetooth kits et al. (Just so you know, I still can’t believe what I’m writing.)

The sale is on till today at Vani Mahal, GN Chetty road, T-Nagar.

Crossword in Chennai

At last, Crossword is here in Chennai. Considering the market for books has always been on the higher side in Chennai, I’ve been wondering why a bookstore like Crossword took such a long time to land up here. Well, better late than never, they have opened up their second shop fairly three weeks ago at T-Nagar, Chennai (their first one was above Shopper’s Stop in Harrington’s, Chetpet) along with the UK chain Mothercare and Brio, the coffee shop. The bookstore itself is located on the first floor while Mothercare is on level one. Although the store isn’t as big as the one I’ve been to in Bangalore, it sure is exciting to be inside one after a boring Sunday at home. Thankfully, no stuff toys, very little CD/DVDs, which creates ample book-space for book lovers.

I also found The Oxford Bookstore at Haddows road although I really am not sure how long it’s been since they opened.

Crossword is on Kuppu Archade on Venkatnarayana Road in T-Nagar.

Chennai now has our very own Landmark, Odyssey, Fountainhead, Crossword, AND the Oxford Bookstore. Now, DO I have places to go to on weekends?

License to Kill

Note: This post has got nothing to do with the latest Bond movie with its tag line “License to Thrill” although it’s in perfect timing.

I am on Lord Yama’s “Most Wanted” list.

Don’t believe it? (Or are you among those who really want to believe it and desperately want to see it happen soon?) Ahem! But yeah, at the end of this narration you sure will believe that I really am on Lord Yama’s “Most Wanted” list. In fact, I top the list.

For the benefit of those who do not know what I am talking about — I dream a lot. In fact I dream tonnes! I can dream almost every night and most nights I dream more than once. And strangely enough, unlike others who have trouble even remembering if they dreamt the previous night at all, I can well remember my dreams the next morning. And it’s not as if I dream that I’m out camping, or learning how to dance ballet, or being on a date with Antonio Banderas! These are crazy dreams that require a lot of mental stability to remember the next morning; know what I mean? :-D

On a serious note, often times, they are everyday events or events I would wish happened. But one of them recurring dreams is of someone killing me, or at least trying to kill me. Although each time the person trying to cold-bloodedly murder me, is different. (Poor me, don’t you think?)

I was six when I first dreamed that I was going to be killed by a lion and a snake hiding under my bed. I am aware of the fact that they are there, but I know for sure that if I put my foot down they’d pounce on me and eat me up. Fancy how a lion and a snake would team up on an act like that, AND sure enough WAIT for me to get out of my bed and not actually jump on the bed and eat me up!?!?! Phew! That was more like a nightmare than a dream o’course.

And then the tradition carried on till when I was 15 when I dreamed that my uncle was trying to kill me by strangling my neck. This time, not just me, our entire family; the best part being, all four of us diligently standing in a queue awaiting our turn to be strangled.

The next was when I was 23; a pal of mine stabbing me on the stomach multiple times with that devilish laugh of his on the background (much like our Bollywood movies). I dare not give his name here, lest he stabs me for real!

A few months back one of these creepy nightmares had me call every single person on my phonebook living in the city of Bangalore. I successfully had half the city up at 2:00 AM and told them that someone was trying to kill me through the phone. Through the phone? Yes, through the phone. You’re NOT listening. I told you it’s my dream!!!

If by now, you are thinking of closing my blog and moving on to read something on a much saner level, hang on, you still haven’t read the part where I am on the “Most Wanted” list remember?

Alright, getting to that, last night I dreamt that I am crossing a swamp of wasted land with some of the farmers in the village (don’t ask me which village or how I got there). The next minute I hear them screaming at me asking me to run for my life and then all I see are hundreds of thousands of wild buffalo’s running at my direction (picture the stampede from that Lion King movie). That is correct! All of them trying to attack me and I’m running for my life. In the end of course I dauntlessly shake them off!

So what has this got to do with poor ‘ol Lord Yama? Well, legend has it that Lord Yama, the Lord of death rides on a buffalo and pulls the soul from the corpse. Now, if he has to send thousands of them buffalos, he sure must need me desperately and yeah, I must really top the "Most Wanted" list, don't you think?

Meanwhile, I’m seeing my psychoanalyst to try and analyze my peanut-sized brain if any of these dreams are conveying anything brighter than death!

Of Horlicks and Rasam Rice

Whoever said “all of a sudden I went down with temperature” must be a lot like me. Because, believe me, I never know that I am falling sick until I’m almost half way through with it. Even when my mother sticks that much predictable thermometer under my tongue, removes it, narrows her eyes, and makes that “tch tch” noise, I still wouldn’t know that I am sick.

Not until she tells me with that perfectly guileless expression;

“I’ll fetch you a glass of Horlicks” What? At an unearthly 2:00 AM??

Notice, no “would you like to have a glass of …”

Or

“Will you drink a glass of …”

No! It’s a simple statement!!!

Mom: “I’ll fetch you a glass of Horlicks”
Me: “Horlicks? Maybe” Do I have a choice?
Mom: “Without milk?” Alright NOW I have a choice, with or without milk; like I cared a tinker’s damn if a glass of water from our infamous Adyar river went through my wind pipe at that hour!

And then, if I still chose to be stupid and said “Nah! I don’t have fever.” Then comes the inevitable Rasam rice. It’s almost like the “meal for the ill.” For all the times I’ve ignored the rasam rice, this is how it avenges.

That is why sometimes I think that I was keeping better off when I was staying away from home for a brief seven months. Not that I didn’t fall sick, I DID. But well, by virtue of doing what pleases me, I have stayed away from Horlicks AND rasam rice!

As much as I loved it when my pals stopped by to see if I was doing ok, it sure is easier to kick them out if they behaved like my mom, is it not? Thankfully enough, none of them behaved that way.

So what pleased me? Making my own grub when I was unwell? Nah! At most, I’ll make Bournvita. Now you’d say “what? You drink Bournvita? Euuuww!”

Well! Try the Horlicks (without milk)!

When you have an eye as big as Madras

I have managed to stay away from Conjunctivitis for years now, and abruptly, it appeared last night at 8 PM while I was trying hard to finish writing a document. I must’ve been having the irritating sensation for a couple of hours before it actually struck, but I realised that I was a victim too, only after I felt that my eyes were on fire.

It started off with dirt being discharged out of my right eye; and then; the real pain starts. Your eyes feel like they are being constantly rubbed against sand paper. Watery and puffy eyes, redness, and irritation follow. All nerves split across in different directions. :) I think I’ve made my point here. Don’t mess with me for the next two days!

Care? Yes, keep your hands clean. Stay out of pollution, and wash your hands as often as possible. Yes, it is contagious, and NO, it does not spread to other people if they look into your eye. So if people in your workplace treat you like an untouchable, don’t give a damn. Look at the positive side, you can run as far away as possible from them! Ain’t that good?

Even as I write, my left eye is also having the same symptoms. Right now, I look like I’ve been shipped right out of Monster Inc.

See some pictures of me, here!

Why I like Calvin and Hobbes so much!

November 18^th marked the birth date of the famous comic strip Calvin & Hobbes. This is one comic strip that has worked its way through my attention and has got me glued to the morning papers every day, having me riffling through the papers to the last but one page, to read this strip. Often times, I get the feeling that my morning isn’t complete without getting to read what this amazing six-year old has to say in just a few words.

Here are 10 reasons why I like to read C&H over and over again:

1. Calvin can penetrate deep into your emotional thoughts making you think about certain things the way you would never imagine.

Calvin to Hobbes: “Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you're just a reflection of him?”

Profound!

2. Calvin always finds a work-around to complete (or not complete) his homework. And most often, you will find Hobbes helping him out (essentially with math) and Calvin agreeing with him in entirety.

Calvin to Hobbes: “What is 8 plus 3?” Hobbes, without missing a beat “83”

Innocence!

3. Friends Forever

Calvin forgets to buy Hobbes a Christmas present or make him a Christmas card. Hobbes admits that he has forgotten too and that it really didn’t matter. Then, Hobbes gives Calvin a Tiger Hug. Calvin then says “Not so tight you big sissy. You’re squeezing my tears out!”

Sweet ain’t it?

4. His totally perplexed expression when he finds it annoyingly bothersome that his parents can’t comprehend his ways.

When his mom asks him what the hell he was doing when she sees him hammering nails into the coffee table...

“Is this some sort of trick question?”

No Comments!!!

5. That very occasional smile on his face depicting that he is extremely satisfied with whatever he just did.

Blissfulness!

6. Levelheaded

“I would hate to have a kid like me.......”

Woah! How far-fetched can HE think?

7. The way he hates girls and how Hobbes troubles him by asking over and over again if Calvin actually likes Susie Derkins.

Calvin to Susie: ”How is it like to be a girl? Is it like being a bug?”

Ready to ship the girls to outer space, you would think.

8. Innovative

G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy girlS)

Calvin Ball

Time Machine

Stupendous Man

Transmorgifier

Duplicator

Tree House

Monster Snowman

and many many more...

(Do I really have to explain?)

9. Brilliance:

Calvin to Hobbes: Sometimes, I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.

No doubt about it!

10. Let’s go exploring!

There is not one moment that Calvin finds boring, and if he does find anything boring at all, Hobbes is always there to indicate that television is not truly the right way to spend summer. AND, have you seen them spend winter? Exploring unknown territories every single time ending up getting lost in the process…

Finally, the last C&H strip that Bill Watterson wrote in December 1995 depicts Calvin and Hobbes outside in freshly-fallen snow, reveling in the wonder and excitement of the winter scene. "It's a magical world, Hobbes ol' buddy!" The last panel shows Calvin and Hobbes zooming off on their sled as Calvin exclaims. "Let's go exploring!"

Phew! It really must be very tiring being Calvin!

Nostalgia!!

Children's Day has always brought back to me the familiar thoughts of my school days. We would all save our best dress for a whole year to show it off on this day and spend the rest of the day at school, eating candy and trying to see which fat teacher danced better than which other fat one. Aww! I swear, those sure were the best days!

While I was thinking about Children's Day this morning, I was trying to recall all my class teachers since class I. Here's my attempt at remembering most of them:

• Class I: Ms. Prema (She gave me 1/10 in a science paper for the Final exams. There was one question and it carried all 10 marks. Distinguish between Living and Non-living things. I wrote them all right, and in the wrong columns! All non-living things under Living things and vice versa :-D )



• Class II: Ms. Prema (Not the same one)



• Class III: Ms. Sheela (She'd write a note to my parents everyday in my school diary "Talkative in the class" and made me get it signed from my mom! How I dreaded it.)



• Class IV: Don't remember :-/ (Although I vividly remember the room, my classmates etal)



• Class V: Ms. Lalitha (Don’t know the last names of most of them)



• Class VI: Ms. Anita (The cruelest of them all)



• Class VII: Ms. Marina



• Class VII: Ms. Anuradha (By far the best class teacher I’ve had)



• Class IX & X: Ms. Shanthi Francis



• Class XI & XII: Ms. Anuradha (No one can give you the idea that economics is fun the way she did)

Kudos to all teachers of Holy Angels for making all my Children’s Days fun for me!

Blogger Beta

I have started blogging only for three weeks now and it is wonderful to have discovered that I can now move my page to Google’s Blogger Beta. Much like all other Beta’s, it has its own hiccups, but there are loads of stuffs that no-good coders like me can make use of.

For a start, you don’t have to wait for eons for your post to get published. I have less than 20 posts online, and if I am saying that I have to wait for eons, you can imagine how impatient a woman I am. The time it takes to publish your post, depends on the size of your blog, and if you have a large one it makes matters even worse. Anyway, now with Blogger Beta, all you have to do is, write your post, and hit on the “Publish” button, and ta da your post is online in less than a few seconds.

But first things first, you need to use your Gmail account to sign in and move to Blogger Beta. Don’t have one? You need to create one! That’s one of the most admirable promotional efforts I’ve seen with Google. Any webpage associated with Google, needs you to access it using a Gmail account. Remarkable, ain’t it?

On the eBlogger home page, you need only click on the link that says, “Switch to Blogger Beta” and you can simply enter your Gmail account to sign-in.

This is how my Dashboard looked like, as soon as I moved my blog:

Under “Layout”, there is a whole new tab that says “Page Elements”. You can include, remove, and edit practically any part of your Blog by simply clicking on the appropriate Page Element. Here’s the best bit; you can also move the page elements around, the way you want them to arrange, add header, footer et al. ALL this, without having to touch any messy HTML code! Seriously!!

This is how I can now arrange my archives on the LHS:

Know what I mean?

Fiddle around, change fonts and colors, click on Save, and refresh you blog… all changes updated within a matter of seconds. No re-publishing and looking at that silly sun-like figure, showing the percentage of your changes in progress.

Starting November 8th, all new sign-ups are being created on the new version of Blogger in Beta. Check out its new features here.

I’m still fiddling around with it and if you encounter any problems/bugs with Blogger Beta, you can report via the Contact Form.

Happy Blogging!!

Weekend Getaway with my Boyfriend

For those of you who know me extremely well, you’ll know that the only boyfriend that has the audacity to take me away on a tryst at anytime of the year, weekday and weekends alike, HAS to be my Migraine.

Very well, it appeared first thing on the morning of Saturday and got even worse during the day; what with all the roaming around in the sun. The constant throbbing on the temples, traveling way down to the back of my ear, nape, and the upper and lower jaw making it impossible for me to concentrate on anything! Now is this a headache or what? Maybe I should term it face-ache?!?

Some people can sleep through a headache but I can’t. :(. It gets worse; I wake up with a heavier head, a higher intensity hammering, and a tougher attitude. As a rule of thumb, my parents try and stay away from me when I suffer from one. They get to see me throwing things at them; making an already tough me, tougher to handle. Well, Sunday is almost over and my head is still pounding.

One of these days I’m going to chop off my head at the neck, scoop out the twisted nerves, and fix my head back in place. Aaaah! The very thought of it, makes me feel soo much better!!!

Windows Vista

Almost five years after the release of Windows XP, Microsoft has finally announced the release date of the subsequent version of Windows. Windows Vista will be available to consumers starting January 30, 2007.

The next generation operating system will encompass features such as desktop search, Flip 3D; where you can navigate through open windows using the scroll wheel in your mouse, a new Vista Document Explorer with improved features, an enhanced speech recognition software that enables you to dictate into it and it automatically fills out documents and email forms using voice commands; AND smart enough to adapt into your speaking style and vocabulary.

It also includes Internet Explorer 7 with tabbed browsing much like our good ol’ Mozilla Firefox (looks like they’ve improved the user-experience here). I’m not too much an IE person, what with all the extremely useless service packs that it needs, I detest working on that browser. Believe me, I still don’t know what those service packs are for!

Getting back to Vista, check out more on the experience here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

Overall, on first look, I can see a lot of ‘Mac’ from the look & feel perspective in Windows Vista. With all the jazz, let’s hope Vista doesn’t crash as often as Windows 98 did!

:|

Scenario:

I am 8 years old, playing with some of my previous generation toys; mum is in the kitchen of the tiny two-room house we stayed in when I was young, and daddy on the chair reading the morning paper. Four feet away from dad, the ugly black telephone we used to own (now considered as antique) begins the ring the steady tring tring… Dad continues to pour into his paper while mum is oblivious to the fact that someone at the other end is desperately waiting to talk to one of us.

Then abruptly, as if dad all of a sudden came back to reality, asks mum to answer the phone and tell whoever that is on the other end that he isn’t available. Mum dutifully does what she has been told. Mum takes down a message, hangs up and returns to the kitchen as if everything was normal.

All this while, I stopped playing with my toys, raised my head up and with a tiny "O" in my mouth, watched the entire episode in awe!

Why I recall this incident now is because I found myself in my dad’s position last weekend. I was confronted with the same situation; I avoided answering the phone on Saturday afternoon (with my mobile phone conveniently switched off) and asked dad to answer it instead and asked him to tell whoever that was on the other end that I wasn’t available.

When you are 8, you yearn for someone to call YOU! And it is difficult for you to comprehend why your dad does not want to talk to someone who’s taking all the pains to call him.

Well, as they say, what goes around comes around. Oh, did I mention not to provide your residence numbers to credit card guys?

Yahoo can now talk Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, and more

With the new Yahoo Messenger release version 8, a lot of you know that Gabbar Singh from Sholay could talk to you. But did you know that in IndiChat (India launch), yahoo is also offering free plug-ins in Hindi, Kannada, and Tamil?

Thanks to the UTF-8 format (Universal Transformation Format), you can now chat in your desired language using our very own Standard English keyboard.

Check out for more at

http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/
http://in.gallery.yahoo.com/messenger/

Monsoon Woes!!

Five days after the monsoon depression moved away from the coast of Tamil Nadu, most part of the city of Chennai is recovering from rainwater clogging,

T-Nagar

Ambattur Industrial Estate

Relief measures in the Pallikaranai marshlands

(Images Courtesy, The Hindu)

Air and water can turn into a deadly combination

The recent heavy rains in Chennai and the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu last week hit normal life and saw a lot of chaos, destruction, and death. Not to mention the scores of diseases that the slums have picked up due to rainwater stagnation, there were also reported and unreported incidents of drowning, deaths due to ineffective sanitation facilities, accidents due to traffic holdup et al. Oh! and the freak accident of three young men dying in their sleep while simply sitting inside their parked car with the engine and air-conditioning running.

That is exactly what the three software engineers did on the night of October 28^th on a busy GN Chetty road in T-Nagar. The stormy night had the rains lashing against every vehicle on the roads and had forced numerous car owners to crawl along the jammed roads to get home. The trio was found dead inside their car the next morning. With the postmortem report indicating that the cause of death was suffocation, most believe that it may have been due to the fatal Carbon Mono-oxide gas creeping into their system.

They had apparently parked their car alongside the road to wait for the remainder of the traffic to edge by. Their air-conditioning set in re-circulate mode (which is set by most car owners to ensure the polluted air does not sneak in), the engine running, the windows up; the occupants inside the car were oblivious to the fact that they were being silently killed. Since the exhaust pipe was submerged inside the waters, there was no outlet for the exhaust fumes, invariably, leaving the deadly CO gas to get into the car through the air-conditioning vent. CO has the property of entering into the blood stream at a tremendous rate causing little or no symptoms of suffocation at all. In fact, the only symptoms that a physician says are nausea, giddiness, and fatigue that we would brush off as a result of the stressful work day.

How would you justify someone drifting off to a peaceful sleep and never waking up at all? The incident sent shock-waves among many vehicle owners in the city.

However, Chennai City Traffic Police (CCTP) has given a report on how to stay out of CO trouble in your car.

• Keep your windows down
• Keep your car’s air-con system in ‘ventilate’ mode
• Turn the engine off if the situation looks difficult to handle
• Ensure your power-windows and central-locking are kept open. It’s rare, but your car’s electric system can short out with rising floodwaters and may jam the system.
• Carry a hammer with a pointed end or an ice pick in the car — if you have to break a window open
• Finally, if you find symptoms of CO poisoning, take it seriously, get out of your car and get as much fresh air as possible.

(The above report is from CCTP: courtesy The Hindu)

More on the repercussions of the monsoons in my next post.