Yo!! - ism

It all started with an inoccous question while i was being ragged during my first year at college.
"Ninakku odukkaththe JADA- anallo ...pakshe nee onnnum oru Ma....-um ondakilla JADA
kanichchal...JADA de spelling ariyavo??..." it went on for some time then...and the only ex-pression that i could manage on my face was one of total blankness and bewilderment...my mind was meanwhile racing away to figure out what or who exactly this JADA thing was...and my friends who were more educated in worldly matters opened my eyes that night...and in i stepped into the wonderful world of JADA..
I picked up the tricks of the trade fast, identifying JADA in its different forms..The info that i gained then was to prove valuable..i would soon be using it on my Juniors ....The HUNTED had just become the HUNTER..
And from then on it was a saga of tolerating JADA for 2 years...JADA that ppl put on in front of chicks...The "Echchuse me" kindo JADA...JADA that has been programmed into the brains from child hood..and then the most irritating kind of JADA...DEMO..JADA just for the sake of JADA....
Shifting the scene of action back to Chennai, I was mentally prepared for JADA now..after all how much could a place have changed in 4 years...As it turned out..a lot indeed..
Beasant Nagar beach, saturday evening..a few of us were staring at the Elliots memorial and cracking a few onliners...For ppl who are not familiar with chennai...Remember the small memorial on the beach in Naadodikkaatu...(saadhanam Kayyil indo..:-) )
A couple of bikes screetchingly pull up near the beach...the "dudes" and their "Chicks" get off the bike...and then out of nowhere comes a baritone "YO!!!"..and i was like YO???
For all i know these ppl could have popped straight off a 50 cents video...but then YO is not what u associate with these types..
"YO" is how an Auto driver begins to address u when u piss him off..usually followed by carefully handpicked expletives in chaste tamil...enough to ruin a week for u..
But this YO was different..The dudes remove their helmets and with a deep baritone the first YO was followed by a "YO!!!! maynnnnnn"...i guess that was man in a Texan accent...
"People ..Welcome to the world of Yo!!ism"
For people who have not been introduced to this phenom...u might tend to mistake this as JADA..this is not JADA...JADA is more like show off...
"Yo!ism" is more about being "YO"..sorry people cant find a better definition..with experience u will learn to differentiate..
YO!ism has now permeated into every level of society ...

traditional Mamis wearing Nike sneakers and going jogging...
dudes wearing pants thrice their size and tying it up with a long "Naada" at the waist
Dudettes wearing pants half their size ...T shirts 1 quarter their size ...BTW..i am not complaining bout that though..and then pulling the pants up and the Ts down...this i do dissapprove of
Guys wearing socks and sandals...yes have seen this a few times around
asking for coke for lunch at Andhra mess
Kids, barely heads popping out of the windows of the Scorpios and safaris..rolling down the windows at signals...just so that we can hear EMINEM foul mouth in the car...make eye contact..convey that u r useless and then roll up the shutters...this is one thing that really pisses me off
the list goes on....

The peer pressure too can be amazing...friends u knew in college are no longer recognizable.."Aliya" replaced by "Hey dude"...
a cotton shirt now replaced by Leather jackets....
may be this is what they teach u at those cross-cultural adaptability classes which i have been lucky enough not to attend..

But Yo!!ism does have its advantages..ppl who have already gone yo in a secretive way want borderline cases like me to join their ranks..and they sometimes do end up doing the most wild of things ..like getting me my new mobile..yes i got an L7...
and to top it my company inches me even closer with a video ipod....

But then even as i fight a losing war, It is comforting to see that there r ppl who even in times of extreme pressure, despite earning the right to go YO!!...have managed to hold their dignity...even when lesser mortals, some of whom r called sanoop have gone berserk...a simple unwashed pant, a reusable shirt and a RS.160 saandak...
I would like to call them the Anti-YO club..
PPl who r balancing out all the YO in the world so that the Entropy in the world remains constant!!!

I dont think people realise that we are at a turning point in the history of this country...
A war is being waged out in the open as well as in your brains..the battle between YO and Anti YO...
Let us wait and see how the story unfolds...

and another not so normal day

We live in an age where media has the power to make or break a man. And the humble blog has come to stay as a means to the way, especially for people like me whose lives have been tragically intertwined with the computer...

But as for me, my blogging experience has been kind of like flirting, ON and OFF. The relation surviving because of the Constant egging-on by a "friend"...
a friend who seems to be taking pleasure in bringing down people, planting gossips and then rubbing his hands in glee...
who desperately wants ME to write about his roommate..a gentle person this roommate of his..who seems desperate to hide something...giving "Quotations" to ppl..I wonder what really is cooking in bangalore...but then keeping with true jounalistic traditions i am not going to write about hearsay in my blog...so anoop a.k.a Kaanthan u can rest in peace....but be aware that "oru kachchi thurumbu mathi enikku"..hoping that my next blore trip gives me some info
for ppl who still havent figured it out it is Paul and Elias that this blog revolves around..Arun , Who seems to have forgotten that he himself has a blog, is hell bent on getting me to write anoop's obituary..I wonder why...definitely not as an appreciation for my superlative writing skills...maybe it is a continuation of what he did a couple of months back....
For ppl who have forgotten....Flaaaaash baaaaaaack...
he took the last shred of respect that PPL had for me,
spread it nicely on the ground,
stomped all over it,
then fold it nicely and set it on fire......
But i have forgiven him ..for he had the foresight to invite me into ORKUT

But then Paul and Elias if u r planning to use innocent me as a pawn in ur turf war..u r mistaken..cause i have had the painful realisation (thanks to Paul) that

the pen is mightier than the sword...rather the key is mightier than the sword

going for a break in my training session

I'm Back

Now coming to ORKUT... ahh ORKUT....

It is estimated that the time between 2 to 4 is when the maximum number of people enjoy their beauty sleep..people in that half of the world where the sun has not risen and people in the other half where its time for the noon siesta...It gives me great pride to mention that, on a given normal day, as a matter of principle i always do my bit to ensure that this is one estimation that is not violated...But then, today is not a normal day..
To address my manager's concern that other than my routine work, I am not "creating any value-adds at the vertical level" by constantly "training and retraining myself" ( whatever that is supposed to mean), i decided to enroll for the first course that did not require any prerequisites- DATAWAREHOUSING. Come to think of it, yesterday too was not a normal day as the week long session (after-noons only) started yesterday.
As is my habit i arrive late at class, and am forced to sit in the first seat right below the trainer..and any thoughts of sleep is thrown right out of the window..but then old habits do die hard and to keep myself awake I log onto the invention of the decade - ORKUT.
And what do i see...a new scrap from my friend..just what the doctor ordered
And if u had told me a week ago, that google has come up with something more path
breaking than a blog, i would have rubbished it...but then Orkut is one hell of a
thing.....Orkuttin right below the trainers nose reminds me of "Paashanam" and...and.....i just heard the trainer say see u tomorrow..so let us leave it at that..
so catch u all tomorrow