Greetings from Ithaca

It has been six months or more I think, let us just say things have happened and move on. As for these said things they have been breakneck, too many to even recall in entirety, but I will try as I am sitting here enjoying my first vacation. Ithaca is officially known as 10 sq miles of paradise surrounded by reality. Could not be more true. I get to wake up to the chirping of birds and a wonderful open vista ...something that i always wanted, but then there is always a catch; academics this time around.
The first six months has been hectic as hell, but people who have been through this assure me that the worst is now behind me. So there is still hope, I guess. I digress. My purpose of getting back on the blog is to wish anyone who still strays onto this corner of the web
A very special new year ahead!!
Hopefully I will not be brain dead and will see you around in the new year with something interesting. CHEERS!

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!

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.

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

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 :-(

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!!

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.

Mango mood again

Somethings jump up from the store shelves and bring some great memories...On one such routine visit to the Desi grocery store, hidden away was this packet of 50 pieces of absolute bliss - MangoBite..mmmmmm

Writer's block

Of late, life has been very restless. I have been testing my limits for non-stop travelling. Hate to admit it, but however much i would like to consider myself an itinerant traveller, always ready for the rough and the tumble of the road, the truth couldnt be far from it. True that I have been covering distances here, distances that back in India would qualify me to be right there among the top 1% of the "Thendis". But the truth is I couldnt have been farther away from the "Rough and tumble" of the road.

I have been keeping count, 6 weekends since I landed here, and the last 5 of those were on the road, with plans for the foreseaable future as well . But all the 5, were boring journeys, Boring being the understatement. It is not that the destinations were boring, I had a gala time, with friends and family alike. But this throws the proven slogan that people like me hold so dear "It is the journey that matters, not the destination". It was like somebody took a piece of paper, wrote the slogan down and ran it right through the shredder. SIGH.

Compared to the rickety KSRTC buses, toyota corollas, Indicabs, and the ever lovable but tiring indian railways, the rides have been luxurious. Wonderfully plush buses, quick hopper flights, chrysler 300 a hyundai tiburon and of course the corolla as well. These coupled with the boringly smooth roads and interstates should have ensured a journey in absolute comfort. Sadly, though that was the case my already softening "software" demeanour found the going a little tough. At the end of each trip, the lethargy that sets in is incredible. And now I am stuck.

This has been the case with me for the past few days. I have been observing all the goings on in the world in the US - with my ever "Sharp" and "observant" eyes. Thinking up lines that will make the post readable. I come home, the hotel rather and then quickly key down a few lines and the inevitable happens - Writer's block.

I always thought that writer's block, was a state of mind that was widely publicised to display the true intellectual or the pseudo that you are. So in a way that makes me proud. I am in hallowed company - Hemingway, Shakespeare and others. The prospective articles have been languishing in my drafts folder for long - an insightful article on the american dream, an unbiased critique of the new york times, Inside the cubicle - claustrophobic , A tale of 3 cities and many many more. Articles that in due course will get the 2 comments (excluding mine) that they deserve. But right now are crippled by lack of creative inputs.

Well, I quit, I can't go on any longer... This post was a desperate attempt to get myself going again..a swift kick in the balls sort of..A compilation of the best hyperbole, euphemisms and shameless self promotion. Inspired by none other than Sachin, Ganguly and the gang. People who never say die. Despite their poor form never giving up their spots. Coming out all guns blazing and scorng 30 runs from 50 balls. And finally striking it big against bangladesh. Persistence pays people - look at sachin. It is only a matter of time before Dada and then yours truly make it big. Thanks for your support

P.S - If you have managed to labour on till this point, Please be sure to leave a comment that will win you a free autographed copy of my book( that I am going to write soon)..

Bret "The Hitman" Hart

An ad caught my eye while riding yesterday. Something, that made memories rush from the past and instantly brought a smile to my face and sent the adrenalin rushing up my brains. They are gonna be telecasting WWF (World wrestling federation) fights on Jetix. May praise be on the lord. A generation will be grateful to you. For people who are wondering, yes i am 24 and I do like wrestling. For people who missed the boat, this is something that you will never appreciate. An entire generation of boys, who grew up with a heightened sense of machoism and aggression and are better off due to that.
The Ad naturally came up for discussion during the elaborate lunch at work and people were immediately transported to their happy places. Names came tumbling down - the undertaker, hulk hogan, yokozuna and of course my all time favourite - The hitman. Someone suggested that wrestling was not for him and was quickly silenced with furtive glances and the discussion went on.
And as the discussion raged on, I was winding back to my school days. When RAW used to air at 4.00 PM on thursday Evenings and gully cricket stopped for that one hour. All kids in the neighbourhood indoors, much to my mom's irritation. Result, cable TV was cut in a month. Not giving up, we were soon meeting at an Old lady's house in the neighbourhood. Too much noise and complaints. Cable TV reconnected.
Gully cricket tends to be hard on the pocket. Especially when played with cheap rubber balls which tend to pop easily. And being the captian the onus of the sponsorship fell on me, which in turn fell on my mom. This also happened to be a period where the balls were breaking with alarming regularity and my mom refused to pay up.
It was "King of the Ring/ Royal rumble / Summer slam" I guess. A gud 3 hours at the end of which we saw "SABLE" make and appearance and take her clothes off...Almost. Mom saw that and we never had any trouble funding our cricket team after that. A special hitman glass, again from the latest duty paid shop was thrown in for gud measure :-) I still wonder y this sudden change came about in her.
The statutory warnings were always for small boys and we knew what we were doing and so had tournaments. On mats made of palm and coconut leaves, in the backyard, of our house. A broken nose put an end to all that. Or was it a broken head?? beats me.
Of course, we never gave up on wrestling. For the rainy day, we had stashed away a nice pair of triumph cards, imported all the way from bombay. Yours truly courtesy of being owner, being allowed an upper hand most of the time. Well those were the days, sigh!
And as I rejoined the conversation, it was thankfully still on wrestling and how my friend Aravind and his Bros had a photo taken with King Mable and Steve "The Rattlesnake" Austin when they came down to India. AND FYI the pic finds the pride of place in his room - STILL. I am proud of u my friend.

P.S - Readers will well be advised to catch up on jetix. Last heard, Undertaker is into his 8th life and hulk hogan had turned 67. And they are all set to clash for the title in a casket match. WOW

P.S.S - "The hitman" rules and will return.

Updates

I am penning this post at the risk of readers tracing a pattern to these updates. (Please detect the hidden message in the previous line intending to convey the increasing readership for the special crap that I dish out)

- It is official now. I am a bench warmer. For people who thought bench warmers were only associated to sports, take a break. This is a relatively new phenomenon that has been developed in software services firms, which have the propensity to recruit in terms of colleges (not heads) and then try and locate work for this very enthu crowd. Always for projects in the "PIPELINE".
Speaking of which, IT seems to be full of jargon like this. On second thoughts, let me not get into the jargon part of it.
The bench has been this "utopia" for me ever since i joined this company. This mysteriously wonderful thing that people talk about. No work, Late to office, leavy early to compensate for that. Ill-fated that i have been, in a company with very few long term projects, I got stuck into one that has been going on for the past 6 years...SIX years and from day 1 it was one word "SLOG". Have seen people around me enjoy this period. Heck, my roomie was on the bench for one whole year and then he moved onto IIM. Speak of luck.
And now that i am here at this wonderful place, in a gap between 2 projects, i don't want to leave. But I wil have to leave and the thought of working again makes my head spin. I will think of crossing the bridge when i come to it. SIGH!

- Chennai finally got to me. This summer has been horrible. Chennai temperature usually hovers around 38 and peaks at 41. this year it has been hovering around 42 and yesterday peaked at 43. And my luck, I was riding around in bike all day. 8 to 10 in the morning, 2 to 4 in the noon and 6 to 8 in the night. Sweating like a sponge when squeezed, I was dehydrated beyond description. surviving on tender cocunuts and water. and sleeping all the while in between. I would have set a record of sorts by sleeping 8 hrs during the day time. The end result being i was unable to digest any solid food in the evening. And my sister, like an angel boils me some rice. Add water, Add salt, My grandma's pickle and that was the best damn food that i had tasted in a Looooong time. My sister is definitely a good cook...PERIOD.

And i guess that is enough ramblings for a night. So adios. As i go hit the bed.. Lot of sleep to catch up on.

Rants and Raves..and a few musings too

Over the past couple of months, I have had this tendency to consider myself as perpetually "Busy", thereby convincing myself that i don't have time for the less important things in life ...one of them being this blog. I have also been noting that most of the times more than many tomes of advice, often, it is an innocous off the cuff remark that sets things in perspective. Sometimes painfully so.
And thus, as the truth rung home and broke my little bubble, it dawned on me that my being "Busy" was a big haze that hid my growing tendency to procrastinate and my inability to "manage" work and life. And to restore that balance, I have finally stopped contemplating and started acting. No more work for me. A lot of loose ends to tie up in Singara Chennai before I set out on that great Indian dream..across the seas, to the land of oppurtunities..the U.S of A. My Visa is all but done and the possibility that i might soon find myself on that 00.30 AM Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and then onward is very real and here. And as I drew up my to do list (for the unitiated, planning by writing on paper is a good way to beat procrastination), a growing sense of panic set in as the list just went on and on and on.....
Started off by dusting my camera and setting off on a whim to my grandparents' place, a quaint little malabari village in kerala. Of course with a few basic amneties - a couple of multispeciality hospitals, a few imported corollas, an odd landcruiser, gold souks and the neighbourhood vegetable shop run by "Idrose"...things that a little money from the gulf brings in.
The pooram was on at the temple, nothing that I hadnt seen in these 23 years, but this time i wanted to see how it looked from behind the viewfinder. And boy, was it good. In a period when the peaceful temples in kerala are being taken over by the "Boards", the "members" and their security shenanigans, it was good to see that people still gave respect where it belonged....Me..
(u didnt see that coming did you;-) ??? ). Jokes apart, the humongous dSLR hanging around my neck meant that i was given a free hand to run amok. And to the, odd enquirer who wanted to know in which edition of Manorama his picture was going to come, I would casually reply "freelancer"..with an air that conveyed a little irritation at being disturbed. End result..over 300 pics with the best of them to be put up at Flickr...(i will do it soon and share the path here..I will). And if you are into photography, You will be blown away, by the sheer richness of colours in Indian festivals and the way they lend themsleves to photography.

A visit to kerala a couple of weeks later and the sense of almost everything being right in this world was quickly wiped off... with one that was sinister and reeked of human excesses..more on that later...Going now, as early to bed and early to rise makes Kiran healthy welathy and Wise..adios

YEEE!!! it new years eve and i am gonna sleep right through

hello all

As i am tired answering queries on phone/orkut about my new year plans, I am writing this piece to shout it out....Had a very exciting 250 km bike ride and a 4 km trek yesterday...lots and lotso pics on my new camera...a very refreshing bath under a waterfall in the middle of a reserve forest...so to sum it up 2006 is a year that started with a whimper and as far as i am concerned has almost ended in a bang...
Will start a photo blog soon.... any cute ladies who want to get shot by a future cartier- bresson just get in touch with me ;-)...and considering my frequent travels, thinking of a travel blog too...trying to keep the essence of this blog as such...Zimble and boring...:-)
I better get going now...got to call up a whole lot of friends before the telephone networks get clogged..and FYI i am going to sleep through the new years eve...so please dont call me up at midnight...and if u r having a party in chennai and want a photogrpaher.....u know were to find one who will work for free

Wishin you all a new beginning with the new year...

lotso luv, camaraderie, not many fights, tons of gud laughs..at urs' and others' expense...

Goodspeed and God bless...

Adios 2006

Cheers

Kiran

Cut throat marketing !!!

- Had been to Palakkad a week ago where still life seems to be chuggin along at a slightly faster pace than when i last left the place..This was one incident that made me realise that...A day at the Barber Shop (still not a saloon or a gent's beauty parlour)..Balan Brothers' Barber shop...Has been the same hole in the wall for as long as i can remember...and my memory of the place...a quick ushering in...radio/squeaky tape blaring...no questions asked...one size fits all cut that looks like a pot...5 rs...Done

I enter the shop all shabby and dishevelled..making eye contact with the barber and then taking my seat.."welcome sir"..i turn and look back at him....in a state of suspended disbelief...ok sir...so enthu venam??..i reply with "short, slightly mushroomish, no step"...he looks at me, my head from different angles and then feels the hair ....and an "mmmm" that sounded more like contemplation..."You have very nice thick hair"....on the mirror in front i can see a grin breaking out on my face...

the man gets on with the job....with the usual deft use of the scissors, precious bits of my mane tumbling down the "clean" cloth around my neck..." nannayittu nokkunnindu alle mudiye?"...again a small grin of acceptance on my face...He was now waxing eloquent on how thick it is...it can grow long without breakage and stuff...oil will help it grow....i am slightly on cloud nine and i am begining to lower my defences....and then ....he did it...."You will not become bald at all sar...."..working hard to suppress my smile...with a small blade on my hair, he starts "but u could actually use a good head massage"...got me thinking...an oil massage...it is only 250 rs...actually it is 300...but for you it is 250....and suddenly am brought back to earth with a crash....there isn't a hint of emotion in his eyes as he goes about his job...
all i can manage is a "anhaaaan"....quickly collecting my wits i evade that with a sneeze and a sniffle..."I had cold u know"...

A defeated look on his eyes....and that of a victor in my eye..he suddenly starts scratching my head....what is this...OMG u have dandrufff.....i am bewildered...u have lots of it...we will cure it once and for all..witha treatment...cold is not a problem....i am at wits end now...and suddenly start smiling....no money anna ....and that look on his face said it alll..

It kindo wanted to say "ethu alavalathikkum Flying machine jean idam...kali kaalam"...and in a jiffy after that i was done....only to realise that my head was looking like what else...a POT...
and did he push me out of the chair...??? it is a blur now....25 rs and Done...

i guess this is what they call cut throat marketing...

Another Chapter in the Life of a Software engineer

UAT, deadlines, release, Timelines are all the stuff of nightmares for us unfortunate people..It was yet another of those damn nights...when nothing seemed to go right and the whole floor in the office was empty...the lone tubelight shining on me and my hapless neighbour as we slogged away to deliver...fixing... testing...fixing..Delivery done...QA testing begins....Time 11.00 in the night...Already 12.30 in the US....Onsite screaming...QA testing...nothing much else to do...ORKUT ............
Preparing for the Long haul and the night ahead...GO buy an instant cup noodle and a bottle of cold "Vennilla" flavoured milk from the canteen...Settle down into my chair..I log into the communities and start looking....in plain mallu speak...Vaay nottam....some interesting things people have got going in orkut...I am not speaking normal stuff....a "Jayalalitha profile"...a Karuananidhi profile...Karunanidhi asking for amma's friendship...but strangely both seem to have queer preferences..check out for urself..cant say more...without putting u off this blog for ever....
Religious communities..a lot of really flirtatious ladies....some too much for my liking...and slowly started looking up friends...friends of friendds...and so on and so forth and started leaving scraps....clearing the night was getting to me...left a lot of scraps in a short while and started getting responses ranging from "Hey sexy", "get lost" to "get a life"..and the response kept coming thru the next day...so had to be online all day....and a normal response from one of the addressees, had me pleasantly surprised....only short lived as after a couple of scraps the next day...she stopped altogethor...Zilch...no more...maybe i am not as suave and sophisticated as i try to be sometimes ...Sigh
The clock flies to 2.15 AM and QA has all but wound up and we decide to call it a day....A slight problem... my feet suddenly seem to be wavy....and the floor seems to be uneven...i steady myself with a cold splash to my face...and get on the bike....the cold breeze from the sea refreshes and i am cruising on the road...1 km from my house..and the desolate mile... I continue down the road and pass a couple of stray dogs who start chasing....A smile appears on my face as i imagine lissome babes not dogs chasing me...only for the slightest trace of the smile to be wiped off in a flash...
A good 100 metres ahead all i could see were lotso gleaming eyes glistening in my headlight beam....and i slow down and the mass orgy of Dogs on the road reveals itself.....i guess it is that time of the year that a dog doesnt need a calendar to tell (a mallu proverb).....The orgy is interupted and the canines r not clearly amused....i stop and survey...a mexican stand off if u can say so...I turn around only to have the chasers staring from afar.......The lesser of the evils....My brain cells firing left right and center....
Will I be able to turn the bike before the dogs get to me...will i be able to accelerate faster than the dogs.....where do i keep my legs...Dogs like to eat bones...i am bony...no I am slightly fat now...ok.....Who gets my personal fortune in case I dont survive.....Who will respond to my emails...What do i tell all my disappointed blog readers...and what is thaaat smellll.....What is that sound..........IT is suddenly so much more brighter......and what is that sound...I see the morbid fear that has over come the menace in the canine eyes...Maybe it is god coming to get me...Give me a painlesss death....but god's vehicle doesnt sound like a corporation garbage truck ....
I turn back and there i see, barely 100 meters behind me a beautiful garbage truck...fully loaded and stinking...in all its rusted glory...with the driver gesticulating at me....i move aside and let the chariot pass......The enemy rank is in disarray and using my slightly superior brain I mange to ride away to glory alongside the garbage truck...Not complaining about the stink one bit...
But those few minutes had given me one hell of an adrenaline rush, one that ensured that i was fresh as a daisy...not a hint of sleep...and thinking clearly ...clearer than in along time...A small incident that put things in perspective....

"Cleanliness is sometimes next only to godliness"

JARGON!!!

A chapter in a software engineers life

A two month sabbatical was to have cured me from a lot of ailments, and i guess it did too....I am not hating my work.....Maybe i was not doing any.....My depression is more or less gone...In fact, I am on a high most of the time...No, I do not use pot...But there is one thing that seems to have gotten worse and that is my abhorrence of Management speak...JARGON!!!!

It is a phenomenon that you get to see more in the software industry...People trying to reinvent the wheel...Why use catchy phrases, when a simple word can do the same in a much more understated way..
In my managers words "It is all about perception matching".
"You mean satisfying...rite?"
"No....Perception matching..."
"oh ok!!" and a vigorous nod of the head.

The higher you go up the corporate ladder the amount of well dressed crap that goes around is humongous...sample this...
The best practices awards are coming up, why dont we pitch process evolution as a paradigm that has helped redefine the way offshoring has helped the client get more baing fozh the buck...open quotes in the air " Pezzh se" close quotes in air..vis-ahhh-veeee the competition.....and so on and so forth...Bewilderment...Brain cranking to decode....a smirk as the realisation dawns..."Bang for the buck","Per se", "Vis- a-vis"...all in a texan twang...and the speaker (originally from Madras) lost me...

This was one of the first things I heard as i was settling in to my seat on the first day after my vacation. And all I could manage to mutter was..
"mmm..can be done"....

Though felt like standing up and apploading the seamless way in which seemingly disconnected words formed apparently meaningful sentences...More of the same for a couple of more days and I decide to rate my tormentors on a scale of 1 to 5. This but then had to be based on a few normalized parameters that also took into consideration the innovation and the Out-of-box thinking that they brought to the job.

I set about formulating a methodology and the standardised unit that I arrived at was "Jar-in-Hundreds"...(subtle Pun intended)... Jarring Hundreds ...Get it?...No???...better stay away from the IT industry then..It measures the number of Jargons in every hundred words..(will patent this soon...so forget it)...
And i think i hear my manager calling me for a Re-org meeting to discuss specific niche' sets....so as i try and figure out what it all means and perfect my scoring system, let me leave you pondering on your career paths....

updates on updates!!!!

- CAT is Done...now the long wait for the results...no more nails to bite..so moved on to better things

- Reported back for duty at work...but this being the festive season in the US of A ..not much work either...so relaxed...BTW blogs are enabled in office...so hoping to keep the creative juices flowing

- Enjoying my new found freedom by planning trips out of chennai every weekend...mmmm...

- Just back from a ligthning visit to blore..called up all my friends there...forgot to wish a friend at blore on her birthday....I AM THE SORRRRRRRRY........but still managed to get 4 scoops of icecream out of her..something inside seems to be stinging me now...i think it is indigestion :-)

- Have extracted promises from friends to keep reading my blog and LEAVE COMMENTS..
However boring and trivial the post might be...someone suggested that i write a program to automatically pile on the hits...which will save me from checking out the site every few minutes

- GYAN FYI - Only one hit from an IP is recorded every fifteen minutes, how many ever times u may login....trying to prove it wrong now

- Working overtime to revive my comatose creative cells and come up with fodder for thought...
suggestions are welcome...the trickier the better...subjects of social relevance and national importance will be given a miss......

- And the small matter of the missing Computer is still not recolved...looks like i might have to go to court after all...thinking of being my own lawyer.....(smirk on my face)

- Your truly also contibutes to a new and more slanderous blog called PAASHAANAM. Check it out at
http://paashaanam.blogspot.com

P.S:- Over the past two days something did strike me as blog worthy..so will put my thoughts online soon...Bloreans relax...no gossip will find its way here...."Hitler" are u happy now????

P.S. S :- For people tracking this blog for over a year, the roads in K.R.Puram have been improved and now look a bit like the Autobahn. Slush is nowhere to be seen, though the stink remains. Claims of speeds upto 60 KMPH were heard from residents around the area..

September october

A general update on life.....

- A break from work and chennai since sept 22.

- Sept 16 - send my computer by courier to Kerala

- Landed in kerala on sept 23..Rains...mmm..so refreshing...2 days goofed away to glory..doing nothing..realisation dawns that i have to set out to tame the CAT..so pack my bags and push off to my grandparents' place..Comp not yet arrived

- 2 Hour bus journey-over potholes seperated by islands of TAR...leaky government bus...not so comfy seats..2 fat asses to my right on a seat for 3...sit on half an ass for half of the journey....Rains....and drinking a bottle of water before the journey was not such a good idea after all....Rains ...ouch....not comfortable at all.....end result...shoulder and neck pain..Courier guy causing a big pain in the ass...Comp not yet here

-prep starts off in earnest..no comp..no TV (my grandma chases me off from the TV room)..and my young cousin for some company...Rains...so good...go all the way to the GM of the courier company...verdict..Comp has been stolen....F#$K

- journey another 2 hours over smaller pieces of TAR ....a full blown sprained neck..doctor.. medications...allergic reactions...mouth ulcers...cant speak.... cant eat..only kanji vellam :-(

- 3 more days to go ...run out of dry clothes...Rains suck big time...Still cant eat..no power..so no studies :-)....MGR singing on my dad's transistor
"Nanmai undu nermai undu poru raja.."
"Neram varum kaalam varum poru raja.."
so uplifting.......

- Back in chennai....no rains all sticky...if only it rained in chennai...

P.S:- joined work...so nothing much else happening these days

What the organisation did to me..mmm..scary

It was just another normal sunday...until now that is...a meeting over coffee with a friend from college, Divya, after 2 years can be such a refreshing thing..yes..but it can also leave u reflecting on what u were and what u have become ..can be scary too, as you are slowly realise that you are becoming something that u never thought u will and yet not even aware of these changes creeping in.
We were meeting after a good 2 years after college, and as conversations with friends go, this one too got off without any intros. Being one between me and a girl, it was sans the obscenities that are a given in guy talk... How i had become chubbier (finally :-)) ..what others were upto..and when it is clubbed with the cup of filter coffee, it does manage to create that illusion of a carefree world..only just so..
We talked about how we missed college, how we never seemed to hate mondays as much then. How the only couple we had in class were faring, who were getting married...and the little bloopers that happened with her/ with me..
The conversation freewheeled..After college she had managed to stick on to academics for 2 more years , but as fate would have it, she was destined to join the same software company(no names here people) that i was working for..and now that she has joined, it was my turn to ingrain the corporate culture into her. ..and i launched my by now well-rehearsed, monotone on work, pressure, boss, politics, promotion, CAT etc..
Having spent a year in Bangalore (P.S:- engineers from kerala went to chennai or bangalore) with other friends, she was echoing similar feelings that they had too..and a simple incident about one of our friends, rung home the simple truth..people have changed and i have too..This friend has always had to suffer people wishing her Bday on fools day though she was born the day before..In keeping with tradition, divya and others did the same, only to be taken aback by a really angry and upset voice at the other end of the phone, who abruptly cut the call...and come to think of it, the voice at the other end was one of the most carelessly carefree souls while in college..Things returned to normalcy as they always do, but then ...as divya sighed at the end of that story....How people change..sigh
True..very true....i reflected as i looked into my coffee cup. Everyone now had their own pressures, priorities...and now that i think of it, i had begun to sense this change in others last december during our annual getto at blore...only that i had failed to realise that i had changed too..and how??
well..my irreverence to life in general has all but gone..i am worried about where i will be ten years from now...how i have begun to analyse everyone around me, even my friends...how i have lost contact with all but a few of my friends..citing work as the excuse :-((..How i have not completed a single game on my comp after leaving college..this from a person who can drive a 911 in reverse all the way around monte carlo in NFS...Heck, i cant even remember where i put the AoE 3 DVD that i bought..and as i write this blog, how seriously i have begun to take myself..shit that is bad!!!
Whoa!!..and the organisation managed to do this to me in a mere 2 years..I already feel like the french fries that u get at pizza hut...exactly similar to one another, undistinguishable :-(
and as i sit contemplating my rapidly deteriorating sunday afternoon, the "Gods must be crazy" DVD gleams from my DVD collection..maybe it is divine intervention telling me that i rather try and rescue my Sunday while i wait for Arsenal to kick some Man U ass...
People enjoy ur sunday, movie and football..lemme go check out how crazy the gods can get after all..or may be the gods are not crazy after all...what say people??