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

Electricians!!!!!

The Calendar read 23-Jan-06. The electricty bill was supposed to be paid a week ago......or was it supposed to be paid this month..will they disconnect it immediately...aye...they will atleast intimate us before doing that...after all Electricity Board people are caring souls ....these were the thoughts running through my mind in the morning....and I shared these aloud with anil as we left for work that day.
The day passed uneventful...but the nastiest of surprises....in a sea of light in our building...a lone spec of darkness...way up in the third floor......and the fact sunk home slowly...the electrician had pulled the plug..After cursing the EB, the electrician and the others responsible for this.....went out, had dinner and slept in someone else's place. As events set to unfold the next day would prove, this was just the beginning...
It was a pleasant morning the next day...and after running thru the morning's chores set out for the EB Office...rather i should say...EB tin shed...hidden away in a maze of wires, transformers and broken equipment. It was actually a miracle that the filing system and the people working there actually got some work done.
The tougher part..paying the bill and the fine..actually went of smoothly. A simpe query at the counter after that.."sir!!current disconnect pani irukkanga...Reconnect Panni kudunga"..
"OK Sir..aala anupparen..."...Panneer!!! dai Panneer..Panneer in Tamil stands for scented water...but names seldom bear resemblance to the person they represent. But for a change this guy was actually smelling of water...i mean "Thanni" in tamil. It was 10.00 in the morning and here was a man who was walking all over the place. Have to give it to him..if he had attempted a moon walk there, he would have done better than M.Jackson himself. The man was a total mess. He tells his supervisor that he was the one who pulled the plug the day before and comes and tells us that he doesnt remember the house...aiye?????...are we missing a point here...???
Anyways, we agreed to show him the way, asking him to follow us in his cycle...a beautifully rusted Raleigh cycle. he hauls his bag with a graceful swing of his whole body and places it in the carrier, holds a roll of wire in his left hand and after a lot of deliberation and shaking of hips puts his right hand through..all the way to the shoulder. The combat gear is on and we are all set to go.
The man kicks thrice on the stand..I guess he was aiming for the region where he thought the stand was.. the third kick hits home and the cycle lunges forward, taking the man with it..Hero holds on to it though...well things are not that bad after all..or is it a case of beginners luck????
He starts running with his cycle, hops on and after successfully avoiding a fall, manages to start pedalling....he still hasnt got the cycle going in a staight line though...he was all over the road..maybe was under the impression that he was aamir khan in Ghulam...But there was hope amidst all this despair...he had managed to get his direction right..and he was following the bike...
I was driving the bike with one eye on the road and another on the rear view mirror. It was a tough ask...one second he is on the right mirror the next he is on the left. Things had reached such a point that it was not annoying anymore...infact it was amusing to the core..we were laughin our assses out..2 minutes would have passed and we would have covered 100 meters ...and our hero starts waving from behind???
What is he trying to do....he cant balance the cycle with 2 hands..what is he upto...?? we decide to stop and investigate. and the cycle gently rolls in ...Technical problem the chain had snapped. and our hero was going to Fix it.....again LMAO....and to our surprise he does manage to fix it..seems like he is used to these sort of conditions. The journey resumes..
On a more sombre note, Anil reflects from Behind..." He has made drinking into an Art Form. The bugger would have been drinking all night and to avoid the hangover in the morning would have gone to the Bar and knocked himself out again...one long chain of postponing the hangover....." Could never have come up with a better explanation for a drunkard at 10.00 in the morning.
The road we are on is a major thoroughfare and he is holding up traffic. Our attitude was "As long as he doesnt die and reaches the place well and good". On second thoughts how was he going to set the fuse back if he is like this...again..let him reach the place first and then we will see..
The road splits into 2 and we turn to the right. Our guy misses it and turns left. The left is a nice little curve and he takes it in style, Banking all the way to the left like race bike drivers....but from the rear view mirror i kind of felt that he was taking banking to the extreme and i was right...He crashes to the ground with the cycle on top of him. Surprise. The bugger was actually trying to stop and get down as the chain had snapped again...Unbelievable
we turn around to help him on his feet..suddenly realise, we are right in front of a Cafe Coffee day, a Hero Honda Show room and a posh gym. PPl had stopped doing their work and were staring at us.. Sure would have been a sight, A drunkard who fell off his cycle and 2 wannabe executives(if we can call ourselves that) talking to him..we slowly and tactfully distance ourselves. The guy collects his wits and cycle togethor and once again sets off...Still AAmir Khan...."Bugger stop doing that u r gonna kill urself..there are Govt buses behind u and they r worse off than your cycle"..Guess that piece of advice was never taken ...
We were nearing our house and this guy was still floating around. Luckily a few of his colleagues who seem to have decided to face the hangover earlier were nearby. They guide the bugger to the flat and show him the meter.
The meters were in a wooden covering. Our guy takes out his tools and begins looking for the meters, nothing found..no meters...????.....of course not...the meter box is still locked. We open it for him and tell him..."Annay!!Meter 36 and 40"..and he says "Righto.." , takes out ihs tester and starts scratching the wall...the other elctrician was watching the fun and decided to take things into his hands, lest hte drunken bugger put his hand into some open fuse socket.
He reads the numbers and moves the switch in the meter from off to ON....What....????
i thought the fuse...removed..where how..u didnt remove it...??
nope i just switched the power off..i told ur neighbours too...u could have switched it back on and paid the bill in the morning.
F#$%..a night wasted...anyways thanks.... and we leave... me, Anil and the stable elec...
Our hero was totally forgotten..but he still wanted to be in the action..
"approm....!!!!"
"What Approm...?"
"SEriaachule...?"
"AAmam"
"appo 200 rupa kudu"
"What the !@#*$%^#$%$#%^#$&#$&#$&#%^&#%32#@@#%$%&^%$*^&)"