Off to Chidambaram

I'm off to Chidambaram for the next couple of days. There's a friend's wedding AND (most importantly) I'll be visiting some temples in and around the place.

I'm sooooo looking forward to it! :)

Won't be posting anything until after Monday!

Keep missing me :-D

Talk about predictions!

I stumbled upon a Blogger's page that was filled with astrology related posts and tarot reading. On an impulse, I decided to check what Yahoo Astrology had written for me for today. Here’s what I found:


"For Gemini (May 21 – June 21): Today your energy is so bright and engaging that it's downright obnoxious -- so naturally, the world will be taking special notice of you! Expect some advances from people who might not care whether you are single or not. Put an end to any uncomfortable situations as soon as they start. Silence may be seen as compliance, so be sure to speak up if you're feeling uncomfortable or manipulated. The good news is that you are also attracting friends to spend more time with you. Get ready for a reunion."


Although put together all that shit does'nt really make any sense, I've got to agree, all text in orange are rightfully true (at least for today)!


PS: Darn, its not even 4 yet! I still have remainder of the day to go! :(

Movies & more movies, and some Classics!

I saw Notting Hill last evening; AGAIN!!! :) After I finished watching that movie, I was wondering that there are few movies that I’ve really enjoyed watching in the last 20 something years.

Here’s my attempt at trying to recall a few (Please Note: This is not listed in the order of how entertaining it was):


English

1. Notting Hill


2. Sea Biscuit


3. Sense and Sensibility


4. American Pie (all 3)


5. A Beautiful Mind


6. Erin Brockovich


7. Gladiator


8. Gone with the wind (I’m yet to watch it, but I’m damn sure I’ll like it)


9. Indiana Jones (Temple of Doom)


10. Joe’s Apartment


11. Million Dollar Baby


12. Pride and Prejudice


13. Top Gun (A die-hard fan of Tom Cruise, I can watch this movie any number of times <grin>)

Disney

1. Mulan


2. Finding Nemo


3. Ice Age


4. Shrek

Regional (restricted to Tamil and Hindi)

1. Split Wide Open


2. Iqbal


3. Kadhal


4. Rang De Basanti


5. Dil Chahta Hai


6. Michael Madhana Kaama Rajan


7. Kalyug


8. Aaradhana


9. Naayagan


10. Kaaka Kaaka


11. Kannathil Mutham Ittal


12. And a lot lot more that I can’t remember...

To Touch Thy Heart!

Jan 18, ‘07


I’m a messed-up batter

My phone hasn’t rung in ages... As in, aside from the frequent calls from mum, dad, and sis asking me where I am or whether I’m going to get home on time, there hasn’t been any messages or calls from outsiders for a while now. I’m not really a phone person (read, I don’t call anyone, THEY call me < grin >). But on a more serious note, I realized that I’ve been slipping away from keeping in touch with my friends since July last.


Am I a pie or a cake?

Last night though, I made an effort and called up a friend in Bangalore. It was after 8:30 in the evening and I was unsure if he might be at work or if he had landed home yet. Nevertheless, minutes later, I found myself listening to the steady tring tring for what seemed to be hours. I finally realized he was never going to answer it and when I was ready to give up, I heard an unmistakable “Heeelloooooo” in that nice singing-humming kinda way.

Instantaneously I realized, “oh! I couldn’t possibly have called the wrong person.” A lot of my friends do that to me; sing away the good ‘ol “hello” as though they are ready to talk to a kid, you know, like when they look down at 1 year olds and go “hiiiiiiiieeeee, sweeeetiiiieeee piiiiieee.” Get what I’m saying?

Anyway, back to the call I made, I gave out a whoop back at him with a “heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy” in that loud shriek of a voice, grinning from ear to ear, glad that he answered the call finally.

He had been riding the bike and was heading home, the reason why it took a long time for him to answer the call. I told him I’ll call him back and he suggested I call in 10 minutes.

I let a full 20 minutes drift by before I called him again. It had barely started to ring and he answered at once. I could almost SEE him smile while he answered with his trademark “heeellloooooo” once again! This was what happened after:


Me: hiieee

Him: hey

Me: You home yet?

Him: of course, a long time ago (in a “what took you so long to call back” tone)

Him: you wouldn’t believe it, but incidentally, I was gonna call you tonight.

Me: yeah right!

(Some background here: he recently shifted his job and the new company doesn’t allow instant messengers to be used at work. And if you knew him well, you’d think that it’s a capital punishment on him! He can eat, drink, and sleep on instant messengers.)

Him: I told you, you won’t believe it! Anyway, since I haven’t been chatting in a long time, I was thinking about the good ‘ol days and the person that came to my mind, was you!

Me: really? (blushing and continuing to grin from ear to ear)

Me: (now that he confessed that he wanted to call me too) actually, I didn’t have a reason either, I was thinking about my previous employment and you were the only one that came to my mind too!

Him: hehehe (by now he had hit the ceiling and was back on the ground again)


We then talked about some idhar-udhar ki baten, and some bakwaas about some of the people we know in common. Then, he tells me about his absolutely rocking life right now, with parties and night-outs almost every other evening!

He says he’s coming to Chennai soon on a biking trip. We hang up, and I feel glad I called. Moments later, he sends me a message saying that as always, it was good talking to me and that he hadn’t spoken so much in a long while (that is when he’s not drinking or smoking grass.)


Frosting on my cake

Miraculously, while I was writing this post, another friend of mine Charlie called. We spoke for 28 minutes! And even while I’m talking to Charlie, I receive a call on the second line, and another friend from my former employment calls; not only does he call, he surprises me by saying that he’s right outside my office waiting to see me.

I’ve never had any misgivings about calling or talking to my friends, but apparently, I just don’t feel the absolute need or urge to talk to anyone at that moment. As in, I may have something important to tell someone about. But since I procrastinate the actual “calling” part, in time, the subject becomes unimportant and stale.

I know that leaving a workplace or moving cities cannot be an excuse to stop being in touch. But oh well! Gemini’s are excellent manipulators, they love giving their own excuses. < grin >

Besides, I think I have another reasonable excuse. After I’ve started blogging, I start to get the feeling that I don’t really care about anyone else’s opinions but mine. Oh God Gosh! Is that really true? :-/

I almost started to think that may be I’m insignificant. No one wants to talk to me? Isn’t anyone missing me at all? But lo, how lucky can I be; when I know that I’m on the top of the minds of at least three people (in one day), it sure does lift my spirits all the same!

Now, what makes me NOT keep in touch with my friends, I really don’t know and I don’t think the purpose is to answer that either. But yes, I know for sure there’ll be a handful of friends at least, that will cry on my grave after I depart. It’s a much better feeling than having a yummy chocolate frosting (with cake underneath it!)

And believe me, there is nothing that beats the feeling of reaching out and touching the hearts of as many people as possible in the smallest conceivable way.


Although right now, I’m trying mighty hard NOT to think about that cake! :-/

It's an A540

That's right! Finally, my digital camera has arrived. It's a Canon Powershot A540 with 6.0 megs and a 4x zoom (that is as much as I know about it as of now). It is still in Bangalore with my friend, and I'm really looking forward to start clicking away as soon as I lay hands on it!



You may want to watch this space for pics very sooooon :)

Profound

A thought-provoking quote at Dharmabum's, that one should NOT miss. I went silent for a long long time, moments after reading the quote. Please visit this page to read it.

The NEXT Big Thing!!!

Anything is possible with Genetic Engineering. This is the crux of Michael Crichton's newest novel.

Crichton has once again excelled in giving the mix of fact and fiction in the right proportion to his readers. He did that with Jurassic Park, with The Lost World, with Congo, with State of Fear, and now the master story-teller has returned with NEXT!

Although, if he were smart, he’d disassociate himself from “Timeline” but that’s a different thing altogether, we’ll talk about it in another post.


About NEXT, I found a lot of Congo and Airframe in it (not in the strict sense); what with the talking ape (remember Amy from Congo?) and of course, a LOT of technology (Airframe had tonnes of information; I had to frequently revisit some pages to understand how the mass of information was used later in the book.) Although the storyline seemed a little like it was forced to merge into the technology part of the book, NEXT is a good read all the same.

Imagine one of the following scenarios:

Scenario I

Your genes are someone else’s property.
You’ve taken a blood test, your tissue samples are with the hospital; now they not only use your tissues for research purposes, they later on sue you in court and ask of complete ownership of your tissues/cells/blood for more research, simply because you signed some form at the hospital and you don’t even know what was written in that tiny font which when translated into simple English merely means “you’ve agreed for your tissues to be used commercially.” Not just yourself! Your children and grandchildren too, since they carry the same genome as yours, the hospital can now claim ownership of their tissues as well!

The hospital of course sells your tissues to labs that conduct research on them, for millions!

Scenario II

You have children you don’t even know of!

Anonymous sperm donors, ring a bell?
In an age where people resort to all kinds of medical techniques in order to have children, a lot of young men (mostly students) choose to donate their sperm (anonymously) with the sole objective of helping infertile couples have children (and of course pocket a little easy money themselves). And that leaves you with? Yes, you’re the biological father for God knows how many children around the world.

Scenario III

Insert a little gene here and a little gene there, and lo, you have a smarter rat, an intelligent parrot that can do math, and an ape that can think, talk, and behave like a human being!

Crichton has presented all of the above and more scenarios in his book and concluded some of them with disastrous results.


Cons?
Yes,
- Too many medical terms (genetic disorders); indecipherable scramble of codes; Vogelman’s paresis, Hypertrichosis, Aminocarboxymuconate paraldehyde decarboxylase, Chimerism?!?

- Way too many characters; half way through the book I figured I’d been misinterpreting some of the new characters with the ones already introduced!

- Possible genetic behaviors you didn’t think is possible; Giant Cockroaches, Permanent Pups, Bio-Terrorism, Blondes are smarter, Humans and chimps interbred, the works;

- Events that are beyond your comprehension, at least initially, which he tries to clarify later in the book with proof to back them up.

- Poorly knitted storyline.

Bottom line: Much better than Airframe, but not as good as State of Fear.
Michael Crichton has concluded NEXT with a lot of complex questions. I don’t wish to wrack my brains trying to answer any of them. If we know most of them are going to happen anyway, or maybe happening already, then what’s the use of fretting over it? One un-put-down-able book that is worth the read from the technology perspective, if you don’t want to spend too much time answering his questions that is.


PS: The paperback version of NEXT was a New Year gift from Aarathi and Allen.

The Magic Number

I was elated when I logged in and found this figure this morning. In about a month and 7 days, my site counter shows 1000 visitors!!! That's good for a start, is it not?





Thanks you guys! Keep popping by, cheers!

The Eloquence of Silence!

I'm listening, but there's hardly any sound ... I may hear something, if I wanted to ...


Only if I want to listen to the inner peace... the inner serenity... the inner struggle... the inner battle...


I start to hear something... walking by the sidewalk, lame and low, waiting for the rain of silence to soak me down; soak down whatever remains of the jaded confusion and grounded apprehension!!!


When the cold reality displays its foreboding self… realization strikes my brains... bam... takes away the best of me… rubs against the raw wounds, fighting it and bringing more, leaving me numb no more!


The stillness of the grave, the cold wet land, the hush of the leaves from the branches soo low, quietly hanging on for dear life...
while the rest of the world wages war against silence but needs peace all the same; peace they have been deprived of.


Right here, right with me, is everything I want to know, everything I need to know, everything I want, everything I neeeeed...


but desperation doesn’t count it... it needs more and more and more AND just a little more


When I can feel silence, read silence, understand silence, appreciate silence, relate to silence... I write silence too


I'm guessing that when I finally wake up and lose the substance of my dreams, when I start to live outside of my dreams, I may find what I’m looking for...

And sometimes, silence, like thunder, may take me away from here... may shine into my bedroom, the light that will explain everything, the bright blue skies that will show me the way... far far away from here!

Cuppycake

The original 1994 recording of the cuppycake video.

The cutiest thing I've seen.

Isn't she a doll?

Cablewalas… and Radiowalis

I was in class eight when Junoon was the biggest hit television series with the people of Tamil Nadu. The not-so-correct Tamil translation of the hit Hindi series was so popular with Tamilians, that my fellow classmates would discuss the series at school more often than they would discuss cultural events or P.T classes. Eventually, the virus spread about, and cable TV became an obsession by the time I moved to class 12. But of course, our home didn’t have a cable connection, and none of us bothered to sit in front of it either.


Cutting to the present, you'd agree with me if I said that now, the same people that were obsessed with those zillion channels on TV simply prefer to scan their television sets with the remote, and within a matter of seconds, all 300 odd channels are surfed and the remote is thrown away on the couch. Clearly, nothing interesting is being telecast, or it's not worthwhile watching!


Cable operators can conveniently blame the radio stations for stealing their thunder. And why would'nt they? The last few months have seen at least 4 new FM radio stations in Chennai, (adding to the existing 5 stations) in their launch pads, trying to attract their listeners with big noises and celebrity guests, spoofs, promos et al.


Today, yet another radio station has been launched in Chennai, Radio One FM 94.3. They are proudly presenting their first 50 days on air with 50 celebrity interviews. And of course, all the discussions/views/events/current affairs/listener’s calling and singing/song requests/SMS contents/exciting prizes will follow. In no time, this will also become just another one of those other mundane radio stations.


I reckon, the day is not far off when I might surfing those 10 odd radio stations in my music system at home and immediately throw the remote control away!

By virtue of being the younger one

I picked up a teeny argument with my sister last evening (obviously for no rhyme or reason what so ever) which finally ended favoring me.

It was then that I figured that being the younger one in the family comes packaged with a lot of advantages. By now, you know that I’m the younger one of the two. [grin]. So, no introductions needed here; just picture a mum, dad, an elder sister, and me of course; now, go on and read the advantages and I’m sure you’ll nod along with each statement (particularly, if you’re a younger one too)

1. Mum calls you "kutty" or "papa" in Tamil, meaning "little one" or "baby". You don’t think any of that suits the elder sister, do u?



2. In an argument, you get to win, irrespective of whether the base of the argument has any logical reasoning or not.



3. If you find yourself under interrogation, and you know you made a mistake, you can make that pout-mouthed-puppy-dog face and get away with it. (Try it, it works miracles).



4. Whine. Frown. Throw a tantrum. That is ALL you need to do to get your way. Believe me, at 25 it still works for me.



5. Often, when it comes to new clothes or shoes, mum will tell my elder sis, "Why don’t you let her wear those new pair of slippers this time?" (And not just once, it happens ALL the time :) )



6. You always have someone’s attention and there are lots of people to take care of you. YOU don’t have to take care of anyone :-D



7. You get to borrow money off your sister and not feel guilty about it. The best part is you don’t have to bother paying back.



8. You get to let out a loud squeal and jump into the nearest bed when you spot a tiny creepy crawlie about 40 feet away from you; but still no one would utter a word, in fact your elder sister would take care of it herself.



9. And lots n lots more…

Supernova, you got anything else to add?

But naturally, you’re the best sister anyone can have Ramya. Love ya!

PS: You can also get away with anything by saying a simple "Love ya"; know what I mean? ;)

Casanova? Or Cannibal?

When I was between the age of 12 and 15, I first started hearing about a train accident (read incident), a plane crash (planned incident), terrorism et al… basically, the evil in the world! Although at first, such news came as a shock to me, as I grew older, I started taking it in with a much slacker reaction.

So there’s a crash; that happens every WEEK of the year
So there’s a murder and no one knows who did it or why; that happens EVERYDAY of the week
So there are serial killings, and there’s no probe for more than a decade now; that happens TWICE everyday of the week
Yeah so?

*** I’m assuming that in the subsequent generation, children will grow up seeing and listening to disaster and sorrowful stories around them all the time…***

But the recent abduction, and further sexual harassment of 30 something children (mostly girls) below the age of 12 in Noida, India, shook all of us, didn’t it? Can we even begin to comprehend what would be crossing the minds of the parents of these children when they found the remains of their kids?!?

When the case was not even filed…

The TV tells me that on further investigation, the parents of the misfortunate children had in fact approached the Noida police department about the children when they went missing, but the police conveniently didn’t bother to even file the case! The people behind the redtape? The Congress party! And now, the same Congress party demands probe into the issue. Not that I am against any political party, but that’s how much this incident tells us about the people that are ruling us, doesn’t it?

How many more angles does it have anyway?

• Casanova?
For starters, these children could have been abducted/tortured, and then sexually abused.


• Business?
  There could have been organ trade involved. Postmortem report of the skeletal remains indicated that they could NOT rule out the fact that organs could have been removed; and eventually sold!
  
  
• Cannibals?
Could they actually be feeding on human flesh? (Euuww, this is like my worst nightmare)

For all this, a handful have been taken into custody, including the police that was in charge during the kidnapping. Yeah haan!! Now, that did a lot of good!

The Fall Out?

• Two policemen will get suspended (NOT relieved from services, simply suspended, so they can walk around comfortably when the heat is down)
  

• The accused will conveniently become “mentally-ill” and the court cannot do anything about it than send him to a mental institution, but naturally!
  

• The parents? Will keep burning the candle of hope that their missing children may actually be alive and living somewhere, far from all the evil that happened to the others in the village, and one day return home safe and sound.

All this aside, do you know what the hottest subject is? Each political party accusing the other that it’s a shame that law and order wasn’t maintained during their reign! Woah! Now that is something that the parents of all the missing children of the village in Noida really need right now, even as they hope their worst nightmares would not come true!

PS: My mother doesn’t approve of my opinion. She strongly believes that the world will start to become a better place to live in (pssst, simply because she doesn’t want her grandchildren growing up amidst all this mess!)

When I Whine...

I found this inspirational poem in one of the forwards, and sure it moved me:

_________________________________________________

Today, upon a bus, I saw a girl with golden hair
I looked at her and sighed and wished I was as fair.
When suddenly she rose to leave,
I saw her hobble down the aisle.
She had one leg and used a crutch
But as she passed, she passed a smile.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine
I have 2 legs, the world is mine.

~~~

I stopped to buy some candy
The lad who sold it had such charm
I talked with him a while, he seemed so very glad
If I were late, it'd do no harm.
And as I left, he said to me,
"I thank you, you've been so kind.
It's nice to talk with folks like you.
You see," he said, "I'm blind."
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have 2 eyes, the world is mine.

~~~

Later while walking down the street,
I saw a child with eyes of blue
He stood and watched the others play
He did not know what to do.
I stopped a moment and then I said,
"Why don't you join the others, dear?"
He looked ahead without a word.
And then I knew, he couldn't hear.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have 2 ears, the world is mine.

~~~

With feet to take me where I'd go.
With eyes to see the sunset's glow.
With ears to hear what I would know.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I've been blessed indeed, The world is mine.

My Blogging Personality

Found a link to Blogthings from a fellow blogger's archive; Dharmabum. Here's my blogging personality...

Your Blogging Type is Confident and Insightful

You've got a ton of brain power, and you leverage it into brilliant blog. Both creative and logical, you come up with amazing ideas and insights. A total perfectionist, you find yourself revising and rewriting posts a lot of the time. You blog for yourself - and you don't care how popular (or unpopular) your blog is!

What's Your Blogging Personality?

I must agree, the last bit is quite true!

Wedding Bells!!!

My friend Beta wedded Pavethra last Friday, the 29th of December. The wedding took place at Nagercoil. Beta was right about the warning on how the actual wedding will be. He said that it will be a circus and he will be the clown, well, I can’t say that I was disappointed. Circus it was! Yes, there was a band, and two funny looking dwarf men dancing around the band with colorful ribbons tied to their hands; and lo, behind the band, gallantly walked the groom with a blue suit and a huge white garland.

Pavethra was clad in a cream coloured saree and the church wedding was all of 20 mins! From Chennai, six of us attended his wedding which included, Deepu, Suzy, Arvind, Prasita, Smrithi, and myself.

Apart from us, there were nine of Beta’s other friends who are all part of his aquarium hobbyists community. Beta and some other aquarium hobbyists run a community called http://indianaquariumhobbyist.com/community/. It is an open forum for all aquarium hobbyists. Feel free to visit it if you’re another one of those fish/sea creature fan!

After the wedding, Arvind, Prasita, and myself joined the nine of them to venture out into the tiny town. Purpose? To collect sea creatures, coral, et al, what else can it be? But since they could'nt find anything, we finally found ourselves on the sands of a sparkling beach at 4:00 in the afternoon getting roasted under the sun like retards!!

All in all, it was a great trip.

Will try get hold of some pictures of the couple and the wedding, and post them in my next post.

Theatres Galore!

The New Year seems to be unveiling itself with a lot of plays this Jan-Feb.

The National Bestseller ‘Five Point Someone’ is being adapted into a play and is being performed by Madras Players at the Museum Theatre, Chennai on 5, 6, and 7 of January. I liked the book a lot and for those of you who haven’t read it, it’s a story about three young men and their lives during the years they spent at IIT.

In the author Chetan Bhagat’s words “This is not a book to teach you how to get into IIT or even how to live in college. In fact, it describes how screwed up things can get if you don't think straight."

If you want to catch it, be there on time because they are running only one show each evening at 7:15 PM.

Evam, the entertainment company that started in 2003, completes showing 150 plays this February. To mark their third anniversary celebration, they’ve scheduled to stage four plays (old and new); Art, Love Letters, The Odd Couple, and Oh God, in January and February. They are calling their new production 'Evam150'. Visit www.evam.in for play schedule/timing and venue.

Au Revoir 2006

A year has gone by as fast as it came, and honestly, I don’t feel anything new or good about this 2007. I’m not going to write anything about this year or the new year to come, simply because I’m not up to it.

So here’s a simple wish from me, (FOR me) for the coming year to be as good as, or even better than 2003-2004, purely because I enjoyed every bit of those two years.

Here’s wishing you all a glorious New Year!