The pleasures of an arbitary conversation

Have you ever had this feeling that you have been talking to a lot of people but never really connecting or making any sense? I realised a couple of days back that that is what I have been doing and I have been at it for so long that I have forgotten what a natural conversation feels like.

So when out of the blue on a normal work day, you find a friend online and talk about everything from Barack obama to the fjords to the contributions of Nehru, the effortlessness of it all ends up surprising you. And you realize, it is not the quantity of friends that matter, it is just the quality.

Thanks my friend. I owe you one!

The summer that was ...was not?

I haven't logged in to blogger for a while, for one American summer to be precise. So I have the perfect excuse for being erratic this time around - SUMMER VACATION !!

At the first hint of green around me, I had made plans to hit the road again - Partly to make up for the time that I lost all winter and partly to lose the sense of suffocation that I was feeling from being within four walls; and hit the road - I did, with a mad dash across florida logging almost 2k miles on the road in 4 days, and getting totally sunburnt (imagine skin peeling off).

June came and with it rain too - supposedly, typical "New England weather". For a change, I managed to do something about my interests, rather than just bragging/blogging. Me and the Pentax enrolled ourselves in an amateur photography course - a course that I religiously completed, every single assignment included. For someone who is prone to chronic disillusionment, this achievement is something that I am really proud about. Though I have been photographing for a long while now, it feels nice to have a good grasp of the subject ...rather than spraying and praying that the image comes out as I want it to.

July again was pretty rainy, but then didn't stay home even for a single weekend. White water rafting - will do it tonnes of times again, what a rush!!!
-Watched all the super hero flicks that came out - In the theatre, Batman in Imax :-)
-Hiked a few local trails and swam in freezing water at 6 in the morning , in a reservoir, that was not exactly meant for swimming - but then we are Indian, so sab chalta hai..hai na??
-A scavenger hunt through Boston - a group of 10 people, almost totally random, walking all day, up and down the town . Worth every ounce of fat burned (for people who do not know me, I value fat very much)
-All you can eat icecream for 5 dollars.

Rain brought with it August as well. And as they say the good times definitely do end. Beginning with my Photography class. As my instructor wound up the class with a preview of what was to come in the fall for another $250, a course on documentary journalism really caught my eye. But caught between that and the "bigger picture", I made my choice and moved on. Friends who have been my travel companions in the US decided to move on - back to India. I have chosen to stay on for a while - the "bigger picture" again. Homesickness, nostalgia all come swirling at me as I say my farewells. And as the reality sunk in that another summer has passed, which makes me 25 by the way, I settled down to a routine that I hope will get me through the next few months - crucial, nailbiting and hectic months.

It has been a hectic summer alrite. All said and done, I still managed to complete one year in the US with not much damage except for a few thousand dollars burned in "Pursuit of Happiness". I have also learnt a few things about myself ( will try and avoid making this sound like a cliche, so keep reading). From grinning like a little boy, when shamu the whale splashed water on me , to relishing the spirit of adventure as I barrelled down rapids in a tub to feeling a fleeting moment of total freedom as I swam in a pristine lake all by myself, I have realised that despite being numbingly routine in my everyday life, my passion for the things that I love has not diminished one bit. As my Chinese friend with his piece of Zen wisdom says - "Yo!! Just roll with the flow...Duude!!". And that realisation is really heartening to carry into the winter.

A few more totally tangent thoughts that I can't squeeze into another post

-Offlate I have been getting comments from a lot of people who really care about me - that I am indifferent, aloof, cynical et all. All I thought I was capable of doing was lame self deprecating humour. So people thanks for the complements :-). I will try and not disappoint you.

-I got nominated as a "junkie" at my work place. Totally damaaged by an idiot who left out a critical piece of info from my "award". That actually can make another post. So expect one soon


-Today is onam and I had sandwich and fries for my onasadhya. Not good, especially when the last thing you need is another wave of nostalgia. The thing is I do remember onam as a wonderful time of the year, but for some reason this year, onam seems a lot more special. I guess it is just the Nostalgia acting up again. So I better hit the bed then..

A cursed breed

This blog has thus far mostly been a mouth piece for my take on my life, I have a feeling that it is going to diverge significantly. When you have a routine grind that feels like you are walking on a treadmill, you are sweating, but yet you are going nowhere; there is usually not much to write home about. And as the whole kalachakram repeats itself over and over and over, you tend to notice things that were once overlooked in the mad rush. And these are exactly what i want to be writing about.


This is not from one of those wild mood swings that I usually have, this is something that has been bubbling up for a long time. And something just pushed the trigger. It was the sight of some misinformed idiot on Indian national TV who was cursing the hapless IT breed for everything that was wrong with the nation, the latest being inflation.


From what I gather taking potshots at the yuppie generation has become the national pastime. India has always been about the mad rush; trying to make a living and a life and "settle-down". So is it wrong that youngsters opt for "engineering" so that they can make use of the really few oppurtunities that are in fact available. Parents are often as much a part of this decision. And now that, those decisions are finally making life a lot more bearable for a broader swath of the population, why in the Freaking world, do people want to go cribbing? Sour grapes? Beats me.


For every layman who wants a ring side view of how things go on inside the Indian IT machine, read on. The bright young minds come straight out of college, raring to work on cutting edge technologies and prove themselves to the world. But when they do land up some place, realisation dawns - sometimes real fast, that this is not what they want to be doing in life. It doesn't help that people call you a software coolie to your face. But coolies do make a lot of money these days and money definitely talks - to the maid in your house, to the land lord who charges throough the roof for a couple of rooms and a kitchen, and all the way to the cop who pulls you over because you have a tag around your neck - you are a cash cow.

The IT creature has to take free advice on everything from money management to career to even getting married. Career advice is sometimes the most insulting - you know IT being a dead end job that even a school kid can do, you should look for something better. Like what? Go back to the employment exchange? When you hear someone say that to you in your face, the motivation just drains away from you. And the funny thing is, these same people come to you for advice, when they want to get their kids into the engineering colleges with the best placement records, or the best IT company to join when you have a brilliant kid with multiple offers. And I was under the impression that cognitive dissonance affects everyone uniformly. My A##!!

And if someone is really fortunate, even one on traditional Indian values that need to be followed. For the uninitiated, the core values of the Indian system, is followed to the T here. You have the BPOs which are the bottom most caste and considered untouchable sometimes, then you have the low level service companies- which are basically between here and there, then you have the MNC service companies and then the hi-tech research firms and their lot. Unlike the caste that you are born to, perseverance can ensure that you do move up the food chain. And within each tier - we are neatly split along languages, educational degrees and the designation. The engineer developer hates the B.Sc tester. They both hate the project managers and everybody in turn hates the MBAs. Isn't this what Indian society and culture is all about? How can someone in their right minds accuse us for the lack of moral values in the industry? Fools. All of them!

So here they are, doing a thankless job, burning up the best years of their lives in pursuit of happiness and security for a whole lot of people around them. In doing so, slowly pumping blood into the veins of a still born nation. Money that has rippled down and ensured that everyone gets a share of the pie. Do they get thanked - No!. Do they want your sympathy - absolutely not. All they request for is to be let alone. They are young and ambitious and know what they want in life. They might be having a good time - the fast life and the works; but please realise that deep inside are anxious beings that are always on the look out for a better future. So the next time you see a bunch of youngsters hanging out in a fmaily restaurant , YES! Girls and Boys togethor!, dont give them the scowl, they are just having some fun. They are sons and daughters too and a little smile will do you no harm.

SuRReaL - 1

An ordinary saturday morning
-------------------------------
I wake up, do the chores. Fix myself a steaming hot tea. Roomie screaming at the top of his voice at friend with the choicest expletives in Tamil. L.Shivaramakrishnan, Tony Greg and the crew hyperventilating in another room. A.R.R going "You are listening to Aaha fm, the climax of entertainment". I am still sipping on the ginger tea, and sweating in the morning heat. It is Chennai after all.

A screaming wail of a police siren and it is not Chennai after all. I get up turn off the heater in the room. Close the lid of the laptop playing Aaha and join my friend watching the IPL streaming online.

- Waltham, MA.
______________________________________________________________________

Greed
-------

Casino. The temple for sin. A saturday night. I start on the slot machines at 9.00 PM, I play with 10 dollars, it lasts me half an hour. I put in 5 more to win back all that I lost and I win 15. I cash out and hop to the next casino. I sense a momentum that I have. I put in 50$ and loose it all in 10 minutes. I am left licking my wounds. A few more casinos and I loose 20 more dollars.

It is past midnight already and I need a coffee badly to stay awake. I grab my coffee and give my feet some much needed rest. And Eddie Vedder opens up on the instore music system -

Oh it's a mystery to me.

We have a greed, with which we have agreed...

and you think you have to want more than you need...

until you have it all, you won't be free.

Society, you're a crazy breed.

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

When you want more than you have, you think you need...

and when you think more then you want,

your thoughts begin to bleed.

I think I need to find a bigger place...

cause when you have more than you think,

you need more space.

Society, you're a crazy breed.

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

Society, crazy indeed...

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

There's those thinkin' more or less, less is more,

but if less is more, how you keepin' score?

It means for every point you make, your level drops.

Kinda like you're startin' from the top...

and you can't do that.

Society, you're a crazy breed.

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

Society, crazy indeed...

I hope you're not lonely, without me

Society, have mercy on me.

I hope you're not angry, if I disagree.

Society, crazy indeed.

I hope you're not lonely...without me.

- Atlantic City, NJ
____________________________________________________________________

My first tagged post

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER
The Bank job - After a six month gap last year, I am on a movie spree, spending nicely in the cinema next door - a small independent theater that shows some nice movies and a few offbeat ones as well

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING
Right now many - Mark Twain by Ron Powers, and Walden by H.D. Thoreau - the second one inspired from "Into the Wild"

3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME
hmm...Trade is all time favourite, Scotland yard too.

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE
Outlook Traveller - Combines two things that I love - Travel and Photography. And nothing captures India better.

5. FAVORITE SMELLS
U mean other than Pouring rain on red earth? That will have to be the smell of Dosa being roasted in Ghee

6. FAVORITE SOUND
For some strange reason, though I dont like to wake up - Suprabatham by M.S and no one else.

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD
Splitting Migraines - That is me sounding like a manic depressive person. Thankfully, I havent had to bear anything worse.

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?
For the past 6 months or so, unless I am travelling, it has been "hopefully today will be better."

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE
Murugan's Idli shop on BB in chennai, Swagat in Indira nagar (dont go looking it is a hole in the wall that you will not find easily)

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME
hmm...tough one. Will think of crossing the Bridge when I come close to it.

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D...
Quit my job.
Go to Stanford (buy my seat I hope).
Buy a Leica RangeFinder, A 1969 Mustang.
Buy a lot of land in Palakkad and do organic farming.

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST
Yes, 99.9 % of the time. The rest of the time I am plain Rash, especially when I have those migraines.

13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL
What is this ...a trick question??? I wish - Stuffed animal. I still dont get it.

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY
Incredibly cool. Especially in Kerala.

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR
After driving for almost 6 years, bought a car a month ago - A 98 toyota camry. My Mule.

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD
Travel around the world, without any plan - follow the wind.
Chase the monsoon around the country with my camera.

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
Brocolli should be disqualified from the vegetable list.

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
It would be a fine streak of brown. I love my hair the way it is

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.
Palakkad - Chennai - Kochi - Palakkad - Chennai - Mt. Pocono - Waltham.
There is only one home town though- Palakkad.

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH
Cricket - Football (american and otherwise) - F1 - And developing a liking for poker.

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.
Trusted friend and confidante. Cool as a cucumber and solid as a Rock.

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED
I am a nomad. I sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor even inside the house. So there is just the carpet underneath.

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
Yes. With the memory of my present life intact.

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL?
Night owl.

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Sunny side up

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?
In chennai it was Beasant nagar Beach. Now my sleeping bag

29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Butter scotch, with caramel - all time fav
caramel and chocolate from cornerhouse while i am bangalore.

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
Well dont have many to tag, the one who tagged is one of my most dogged reader. The only regular blogger that I know of who can respond to this is -
Piyush Khan

Racism

Being in a different country, an entirely different kind of people, can sometimes be a real test of your values and beliefs. Growing up in a small town can mean that sometimes you grow up with a sense of a rigid order in society that has been followed since the time of the fire. That is how god intended it you are told. You grow up knowing people as Nairs, Menons, Pattars, Chettiars, Iyengars, achayans, mapplas and what not. And once you come into the big city, you also learn to put in another level -northies, southies, gujjus, marwadis, of course - bongs, mallus, tamilians, kannadigas and again what not. This is all fine, because whenever you talk about the "others", it is always to people within your own "herd". In essence, closetting anything that is offensive and presenting a front that is perfectly agreeable. Also, there is no way of identifying who belongs where just by looking at them (we are not even talking finance here) - except for the Chinkis and the Sardarjis maybe. So as long as you are in a society where everyone accepts that no one is equal, you are safe in a bubble of beliefs - about your political correctness and moral highroad; giving you all the credibility you need to criticise the zionists and racists in far away White man's land.

But when you actually get down to the middle of the action, realisation can sometimes come with a thud. You land up in a hodge-podge of races and you do not have a significant herd to bounce your thoughts off and constantly reassure oneself. By default, the moment you set foot on the jersey shores, you become a desi. Your fellow desis tell you, that you need to be wary of the goras, scared of the kallus, indifferent to the mexicans as they are all illegal, obviously. And this is the classic "to be or not to be" as far as I am concerned. I could become a part of the herd and find my own little group somewhere in there or else I could choose to walk the talk.

Things become even more complicated when you see the stereotypes being turned on their heads - Desis can sometimes stab you in the back as well, Goras are not racist bigots - most of them are genuinely nice people, Kallus are not necessarily only - murderers, gangsters and thieves, they are a people with a zest for life that is quite unmatched. And mexicans, for all I can gather, are indistinguishable from Indians in their beliefs and family values.

Walking the talk, is not easy my friend. Not easy at all.......

A swift kick in the B@!!$

You know things are ominous in your life when a piece of code can split your life into the banal details that make it mundane. And in a mouseclick can send your suave, smoothtalking and cool ego into the bin.

Check out - http://www.google.com/virgle/application.html. I logged in and filled out the survey and there could not have been a better indictment. Given below is what the program told me.

"Well, you're distressingly normal and could conceivably adjust to life as a deep space pioneer, though we recommend instead that you leave the Mars missions to the serious whack jobs who scored over 130 and instead finish year 3 of law school, tuck your toddler into bed, design Web 2.0 applications, run for Congress or do whatever other normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road thing you're currently doing with your normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road life. If you're determined to give Virgle a try, though, you can submit your video here. "

My result speaks for itself. There could not have been a worser blow below the belt, when you are least expecting it. Am taking a sojourn to assuage my tattered self esteem so might not be back in a while :-(

RIP Sir Clarke

Random musings past midnight!!

Whew!!! that was one breezy week. Seetling down - at work, in the new apartment. Not much time to laze around. I am surprised that I am beginning to like the state of affairs for a change. And to signal the end of the first week, decided to celebrate it with a movie - at a cozy theatre that shows offbeat movies - JUNO!!

It has kind of become a pattern - a normal, down to earth story that inevitably is picked and everyone decides to run with for the oscars - Sideways, Little miss sunshine and now Juno. I was hooked onto the movie long before it was a hit - an article about a copywriter-turned stripper-blogger-turned author-and script writer and her movie about a 15 year old preggo girl. Not something that hollywood manages to come up with regularly. But I never stood a chance of catching it in my earlier neck of the woods. And now that I finally got around to watching it, I can see why everyone seems to be so gaga over it.

Ellen Page - all I can say is wow!!. This is one lady that is going to set the screen on fire with her sheer understated casualness. Something that I last saw in Julia Roberts in pretty woman. Sad that these manifestations seem to be purely onscreen phenoms and I can't seem to bump into one who can hold a conversation beyond a cup of coffee. But something tells me that there is a strange underground movement happening here.

Looking at the way things are going, I have this creeping sense of this planet being slowly taken over by intelligent creatures of the fairer sex - while the weaker sex is distracted by the sisterhood - Britney, Paris and the lot. Path breaking blogs, unbelievably original music, fashion and for the sheer in your faceness - chicks are beating men at their own game. Refer here

So dudes wake up!!!I will be glad to organise a male chauvinistic movement from my blog - Volunteers welcome :-)

The end of Part 1

Last weekend marked the end of a challenging yet interesting 6 months in the US. My first 6 months. Part nomadic. Part bundling against the cold. A lot on the road. A bit spent reading NYtimes at work. Forming friendships across races, colors and tounges. Shovelling snow. Cooking and eating lots of potatoes and getting a little career planning out of the way. All togethor a good six months.

Moved to my new hometown - Waltham/Boston. A nice apartment with a gud internet conn. a river by the side, and indy movie theatre right opposite to it. Something tells me I will like this place a lot more than PA. Touching wood!!

FILTH!!

It was during one of my brain-trawling sessions that something strange struck me, make that two. I am suffering from, for lack of a better phrase,information overload. And two, I am married to my laptop. After 4 years of "working" and not really much reading, I tried getting back on the habit. I did get myself a few books in all earnesty, among them "The argumentative Indian". An unbiased, lucidly written , highly thought-provoking collection of essays. I read them with rapt concentration, only to wake up the next morning to realise that I couldn't recall much of what I read. Instead, what came to my mind was Britney being rushed to the hospital and Saif and Kareena's "Nikkah"...I know...WTF??

I begin my morning routine and settle down at work with the US, UK and Indian editions of google news. And every edition screams at me with news designed to capture eyeballs, literally. I was happy with the sports and the front page in "The Hindu" and the occasional filmfare featuring Vidya Balan and off late Ms. Padukone and now I can't seem to find what I want anywhere. It is as though every snippet has tentacles, that go deep into your eyes. And the fittest survive. I can only scream in helplesness - FILTH!!!!

There is so much filth around these days. Now, don't jump the gun yet. I am not a member of the moral brigade and I do enjoy titillation when done correctly. But that is besides the point. Filth is all the information out there that I do not need and yet information that is being shoved down my throat. Surely, the human brain obeys the laws of physics and to top that,it doesnt have Moore's law in its favour. Result - rejection. It plainly quits and I am thinking that is what is happening to me.

I forced myself offline for extended periods of the day, reading up on things that really matter. Tried starting off with a fresh clean slate and Mark Twain. The ever reliable Calvin and Hobbes. All to no avail. And then I stumbled upon Einstein and his thoughts on creative expression. Creative expression that has the power to cleanse one's soul and free the mind.

And here on, I am laying bare all the filth in my mind, on this blog for the few of you to see. In the fervent hope, that I cleanse my mind and free up some RAM inside my head - Space that is reserved for my imagination.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge... knowledge is limited, but imagination encircles the world. To see with one's own eyes, to feel and judge without succumbing to the suggestive power of the fashion of the day, to be able to express what one has seen and felt in a trim sentence or even in a cunningly wrought word... is that not glorious? When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of imagination has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing absolute knowledge.” --Albert Einstein

P.S - I am no Einstein and I harbor no ideas of becoming one. I am too busy right now and will not be able to handle the extra attention. But anyways thanks for the suggestion.

Soul Music - Part 2

Post-Lunch sessions are generally reserved for Kishore/Mukesh or sometimes Rafi. But that day felt lazier than usual, so I just put shuffle on and let it roll. A few unremarkable tracks later, it was still neither here nor there. Work was not getting done. Not surprisingly aye?. More importantly, I was nowhere near drooling. And then providence struck - "Paattu paadi urakkam njan, thamara poo paithale" - I am sure every mallu worth his salt has this song ingrained in his/her psyche somewhere. This is one song that holds a special place on my playlists. A Tharattu (lullaby) that my mom used to telling effect. A gem of a song that has been passed on down the family tree. Needless to say, it still retains its potency.
"Happy-place " here I come.

It was almost 3.30 and I was almost napping, just like the good old days...I felt like a little kid again. Rushing back from school to watch Malgudi days on DD - going "Taannanna thanna nna nna hoy" and then taking a short nap before going off to play again. And memories of DD brought back memories of "Mile sure mera thumhara", the unofficial anthem of India for over a decade before Rahman's Vande mataram replaced it.

Set to the tune of Chinna Chinna asai, the huge red sun slowly rising on the screen over a wet beautiful country, is the imagery that has always defined rehman for me. He went electronic when everyone was into harmoniums and huge orchestras. And when imitators followed, he embraced world music, reinvented himself again with hindustani and carnatic strains and did it many times over this past decade. Isn't he a genius, this little guy? Copying tunes? I frankly don't care.

Refreshed by that dash down memory lane, I went about creating a quick list of 5 or 6 of my favourite rehman hits on the ipod. Boy Was that tough - ennavale??? - nah...Vellai pookal - definitely...narumugaiye - maybe...Petta rap - WTF??...Malarodu - hmmm yeah I guess...Dil se - 50:50....Yeh jo des hai - Bingo!....des mere des mere - too much patriotism..O paalan haare - hmmm....Look in Tamil songs you fool...Mettupodu?? - yup, bring it on...dhim thannana - WOW!
pachchai nirame -yeah....new york nagaram??? - I give up...I am better off with shuffle....Especially after the pod has started growing a brain.

My Ipod has sort of become my soulmate (pitiful. I know it is) these days. When it is on shuffle, it kind of senses my mood and selects the song. I am sure Apple has gotten an advanced AI engine in there that can uncannily sense human emotions, I am not scared of that. But I am scared of that day in office when it is gonna play - Roobaroo when I am asleep and I am gonna loose my sense of time and place and start crying out loud - "AYE SALA"..:-)

And an internal timer jolts me, as it was well past my tea-time. I make a mental note - Be more disciplined and stick to your daily routine better. As I waited while the wending machine brewed me some "Tea", I was thinking about my non-existent plans for the night. Forced offline due to a non-existent net connection, my pathetic evening routine of ORKUT - Facebook - Rediff- google news - Gtalk has been eliminated. I make yet another note - fiddle with your Ipod, it might help you sleep better...And hope for another dreamy day tomorrow..

P.S - The concept of a playlist based on your mood is already doing the rounds people. check out http:\\www.musicovery.com. You can thank "Kit" for this piece of info. Keep dreaming.

Soul Music - Part 1

This post is an offshoot of an earlier one about meditation , but don't you worry. This one will not ramble on and on about nothing and finally lose the plot. Hopefully.

It all started one morning, when I woke up to a humming prelude on my roomie's laptop and I immediately burst out in full throated vigor, even as I lay in bed - "Usilampatti penkuttyyyyyyy muththupechchu"...All i had heard was an initial couple of seconds of the instrumental to a song that i had loved, then hated and forgotten and not heard in a long time. I was wondering where that sudden recognition had come from and thus began an interesting quest and a few hours of thought.

I thought, on the bus to work, about the songs that I liked, about the ones that I loved....It was all one big clutter. "Kaatrin Mozhi" from the morning playlist was still running in my head. The soothing voice, coupled with the cool morning breeze wriggling in through the window, can be an unbelievably lulling way to start the day. I sat back and let the song take over.

The wooded pennsylvanian landscape and the moist greenery all around, felt like the lush green slopes of wayanad or Munnar back home, in all their rain drenched glory and me smack in the middle of it, taking it all in with arms wide open. And thinking about Kerala, brought back a song that asianet plays every now and then - "shyama sundara kera kedhara bhoomi".Along with it visions of dancing paddy fields, rolling clouds and coconuts. And as always managed to bring on a few nostalgic goosebumps. Strangely uplifting on an indifferent morning, I felt ready to take on the world. Felt like setting off on a long journey into the wilderness...."Jane kya doondtha hai yeh mera dil, Tujhko kya chahiye zindagi".

I must have been in a semi-dreamy state by then 'cause I felt my self spinning around on my feet, arms wide open, the sky spinning around me. I could feel the rain drops on my face, like the first refreshing drops of the monsoon unlocking the scents of the earth after a parching summer. Summer that reminded me of younger days of abandon. Cricket, tender coconuts and "Nongu" and "Veyil odu vilayadi" which again brings on nostalgia by the loads - .....A raptorous song that races through a few cherished memories, and brings to life the dust bowl that Palakkad is in summer.

A few quick shakes to my shoulder and reality hit me again. My roommate again staring at me - "Enna da, cycle gaple oru mayakkama, vazhiyuthu - thodachchukko, Stop vandhidichchu". Quickly gathering my bearing, I wipe the drool off and get back into my "professional" alter-ego. But there was this spring in my step that I felt really nice about. Sadly as the saying goes, good things don't last for ever. But I promised myself then, that I will dedicate some more time to dreaming. I mean in addition to the 8 to 10 hours that I already do.

I did not have to wait too long to fulfill my new resolution. A big can of strawberries and raisins dipped in creamy yogurt for lunch, can be one potent dream-inducer. Combined with an Ipod with a wicked brain of its own, "Happy-place" is just an earphone away....[To be continued]

P.S - Start dreaming. It does wonders.