Morning Coffee

Random Rambling!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:44:00 +0000

Do read the follwoing ONLY if you are extremely bored!

You were warned!

Life does not give you everything you wish for,does it?Well if it did you wouldn't exactly understand why you deserve it right?The past few months have been completely memorable experiences.Memorable good?Memorable bad?

Memorable and unforgettable!

You always get what you deserve!Taught by religion and elders to comfort us in times of distress.Ever wondered why didnt get more?All the time right?Ever wondered why you didnt deserve more?Maybe throwing some light on that will help.

I've always been a strong believer of karma:What goes around,comes around.Saddest part is we dont always remember what went around but when it comes around we're all up and ready to cry and feel down.

Anyway, it doesn't seem fair if we don't get something we deserve.What if you deserved it,got it and then it was snatched right off your hands because the price to pay to hold on to it was too much to handle?Now that is NOT fair!

Anyway,the semester has started,course work is getting to my head already along with other stuff in the back of my head that keeps nagging me.Adios!

Gayathri.

A plan made is a plan followed : For 21 years! :)..

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:13:00 +0000

Hello blogosphere! Its " that " time of the year when I give myself license to go a little crazy :) Yes!The year end holidays are HERE! So as we make all these grand holiday plans and getting excited here I am thinking of totally random things!Without fail,every single year my birthday has managed to excite me.Right from starting to clapping aloud every time a mere mention of it is made to jumping about in excitement it has been awesome!Agreed,there were a few setbacks this year!But despite that there are things I am totally looking forward to too.

Okay,that said let's go down the "Timeline" for a bit now :D.So being called "princess" by a few was not enough as my dad did feel a "princess" like treatment was the only thing fit enough for his daughter.Lo!The first birthday was celebrated at Taj!(Ofcourse I didnt know that I was the centre of attention then or I wouldnt have cried when I saw the knife and got scared of it!And the cameras HAD to capture that!)Well!yeah so that done,it was a lil downhill for some years from then as I saw my sister getting cakes in the shape of ships,trains etc as I had to settle for a BlackForest cake from Spencers(Standard round and guaranteed to make me feel nauseated later!).That said the last few birthdays have been awesome as this time not only the relative group but the friends group too chipped in catering to every one of my whims and fancies :)

The 18 was welcomed with much pomp as the family took "care" of cakes,gifts and entertainment,Then came 19 with the wishes of everyone and my first "official" birthday treat!And then came along the best-est birthday of all!The 20!My official exit from the teens was one which I would never forget! :)Friends! 2 gatheries and loads of "happie bday to me"s

Then came 21.The whole family was there !(Well they were there for my grandpa's 81st bday but forget that I told you that! :P ) The day was picture perfect!

Finally,I stepped into 22.And what a ride it was!A great personal loss and all that!So the spoilt brat this year went into the hibernation mode and out came the "I dont expect anything this year lest I get disappointed Gayathri".

And she was proved wrong ! :D For the wonderful ppl around me threw buckets and buckets of water on the hibernating creature and woke her up with a hugggggggeeeee BANGGGGGG!!!!!

Updates:

So I kept running around from one house to another and finally settled down at one.The door was burst open and in came the gang with an OREO cake singing happy birthday!! :)

So that was pre-birthday for you.Along in 4 days came the Real one!Again the well behaved one came out but was driven back again!

All the super-awesome friends calling twice:once on their timezone and once on mine made the day.And to top it all (the cherry on top of the superawesome sunday that is my birthday :D.... Thanks Barney :D) there was this awesome surprise bday cake cut at midnight and a shower of gifts from the kin.(PS-Harish,Priya and the Chennai group : You all rock)

PS - Well,I just wish I was reborn everyday just so that this happens over and over again . If only there is a tooth fairy around *Sigh*.I wish ,if only..........But wait I already have like 25 tooth fairies(or should I say tooth friends and family :D) don't I? :D

Until the next one,

Gaya. :)

A promise made.

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:54:00 +0000

We all make promises and resolutions and that too with new year right around the corner I'm imagining all of you might be scampering around trying to figure out your goof-up list of the previous year and prepare a goody-goody list for the coming year.Yeah?Well if you are religiously able to stick to a resolution you made for more than May then you have my salute.I bow to thee!

Unfortunately,me being one of the lesser mortals cannot stick to anything that I promised myself or others often.This post is about a promise I made to myself that so far I've been able to stick with and hope will do so forever.

Now thats a lot of build up I say.Dont you think so too?Of course you do.Because finally after all this hype that I create to make you read on further ,I give a very sappa climax.But my dear friends,wake up and smell the coffee.Life is all about mokka endings because at the end of the day you dont find Shah Rukh Khans and Kajols prancing on the street and falling in love with you on the first sight.All you find is a Kundalakesi,2nd std,Avvayaar Aaramba paada saalai stare at you on the bus until you feel so creeped out that you opt to walk the last kilometre.

Anyway,enough digressing now.(Well,I am to blame.I was just testing if my "fractured" funny bone was actually healing :P ) (Okay that was lame,I know.Remind me why you are reading my blog,again? )

So yeah,back to the resolutions and stuff.And ofcourse the promise.You make very few promises that you want to hold on to even if every single thing around you forces you to let go and still you don't.Test of character?More like test of the worth of the word that you have given yourself/to someone else.I am holding on to a few (Surprised?Even I am ! ).

There once was a guy who could make anyone laugh,be a shoulder to cry on,be a gentleman despite being extremely drunk and ofcourse protect me yet not so much that I feel stifled.He always had a ear when I ranted and that ear was reserved for me.A guy who could make my birthdays special.One that has seen me in my good times and bad times.One that could pick me up from the worst of falls yet pull me down from the creepiest of heights.We watched happy,sad and stupid movies together.I was habitually late:something that he always hated yet I am still late and he still complains.We have traditions.We have our idiosyncrasies.We get mad at each other.I scream.He listens patiently and calls me after I calm down.He knows when I am fake-mad and really mad.I just piss him off for the heck of it and he still takes it in his stride.The trips we had,the secrets we share:everything is so special.

I promised to myself he would always be a priority for me.The best-est and irreplaceable friend.

I might be 10000 miles away and not call you as much but to me Harish,you always come first.You were,you are and you will be my best-est buddy always.

PS-Gautham and Anu your posts are on the way :)

Until the next one,
Gaya. :)

Ambitions and destinations.

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:03:00 +0000

This post is a result of a sudden shock,a personal loss that left me speechless in the last couple of days.

Ever had a dream?One that you cherished for a little more than a decade ? Felt it was the right fit for you?and that it was yours and yours alone?

I did.All the above and when I actually achieved I was the proudest person at least for a few days until recently when one day I woke up and realized how insignificant it all seemed.

There once lived a man.A great and righteous one at that.He was a strict father,a considerate husband and a loving,loving grandfather who ran until the end of the passage only to see his granddaughter disappear as an escalator ascended slowly and rails blocked him from moving further.Little did the granddaughter know that it was the last time she would ever see him.Because if she did she would have never left.Or at least her last words to him would have not been "Ok let me get to the immigration before its too late.Bye!"

Guilt.A very strange feeling.Particularly when you start appreciating the fragility of life.You start blaming yourself for the very things that you took for granted.And strangely this happens right after the loss of a life.We all start thinking about what we could have done when indeed right after we're done grieving we get back to square one.This has become a vicious cycle of life.

Anyways,there are so many stories to tell and I wouldn't know where to begin or where to end but here is my wish list.

Thatha,

I wish I had deferred my admit just a year.

I wish you had come here this march.

I wish I talked to you more often on skype.

I wish I spent more time with you.

I wish we had watched more matches together.

I wish I never told you off for the millions of times when you saw a serial and scolded the characters through gritted teeth.

I wish I had visited more temples with you and learnt the names and stories behind everything.

I wish we had watched more movies together.

I wish I could still drive you to the bank.

I wish we could have had more Grand Sweets trips together and you bought me my favourite things.

I wish I was there to get the 100 rs from you this Diwali

I wish I was there for your Birthday this year.

I wish we could have gone to the beach more often.

I wish I didnt discourage you everytime you wanted to eat the tea-kadai vadai.

I wish I didnt tease you everytime you got scared for a little headache.

I wish we could have celebrated many more Indian world cup victories.

I wish we could have seen the UofA matches that we both were looking forward to.

I wish I could have seen your face beaming with pride when I graduate.

I wish I could get that Well done Gaalu! everytime I achieve something.

I wish I could hear more about how you passed your art exams or how you swam across rivers to reach schools!

I wish I could still feel those goosebumps when you described those Independence times stories to me.

I wish I could still hold your treasured signed Independence day declaration and hear you talk about that day!

I wish I could still sit on your lap , pluck at your hair and call you "Sanku!!"

I wish Thangaapandi saloon did not lose its most loyal customer.

I wish we had more "computer sessions"

I wish I had been more patient with you.

I wish I didnt have to look at your phone and realize that you'll never answer it.

I wish I heard your voice one last time.

Finally,I wish I was not here writing a blog post but there consoling paati.

I will miss you always.

My Ambitions seem nothing and Road to the Destination is faltering.I will however continue on holding strong just to make a grandfather who meant everything to me proud of me.

I know you're always near me ,watching over me and protecting me.

I will always look at the sky when a flight goes by ,believing that someday you'll be here watching a match with me ,cheering the Wildcats.

I'll always remember the last laugh we had thaatha.I wish I could associate you with it always instead of the phone call I got from mom telling that you are no more.

100 and still counting...

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 05:47:00 +0000

So it has been almost like an eternity since my last post which agreed was absolutely not the usual vetti talk.Pardon me for,this post is nowhere close to that too.So,U-S-A.My Dream of 10 years.Finally a reality.Rude shock?Definitely yes.

So,landing here on July 14th with all hopes and dreams and 2 lazy weeks spent in California was by far the best thing that had happened to me.What am I chasing after?Well,if I knew that I would tell you.

So until the funding was confirmed everything around me seemed in monochrome.Life became much brighter after the "financial aspect" was taken care of.

Things started getting downhill as pressure mounted.Life as I knew it seemed to have never existed.And even if it did it seemed to hover near the horizon.As I chased after it more and more it started moving away from me further and further.From a person trying to hold on to every piece of her past I have become someone struggling to hold on to atleast one distant faint memory of my motherland to keep me warm.Life as I knew it ceased to exist.

Still there is a trace of hope hovering somewhere between fading away and becoming stronger,waiting for my decision.Would I destroy it or keep going on?If I did trudge along what am I running after?Is it all worth it?

I just hope time can give me some answers.

100 days in the USA and still counting..

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

MS in US-Basics you need to know!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:35:00 +0000

I obviously do not have like 10-15 years experience in this field but let me share with you stuff that I went through when I decided that this was for sure my line.

Okay the first thing to make sure is that you plan in advance.Let me chart out a lil' schedule.

Also please make sure you apply max for the Fall batch since a lot of schools dont offer many programs in Spring.

Ok the schedule.

Say suppose you are going to apply for the Fall 2013 batch.(The earlier you start the process and start making up your mind the better).

Please decide your specialization(Not ECE or EE ..Stuff like Networks,Databases etc) atleast by 2012 May.

If you require coaching make sure you take and complete the course by 2011 December.

If you are confident enough go ahead and take GRE by March 2012.(The scores are valid for 5 years!So dont worry) and no problem if you goof up! You have enough time to take it even twice.

Okay the next step.Prepare and take TOEFL(About a week should be more than enough if you speak good english).

[Clicking here takes you to an article I wrote about my TOEFL prep and test taking experience]

All that done make sure you are done with all this by July or at the most August.

Now begins the real process.Go through various university websites and check out their programs and which suits you.Read about the research of various professors and see who you'd like to work with.Allow yourself atleast 3-4 weeks for this(If you're in a hurry atleast 2 weeks).

In the meantime start writing your SOP(Statement of Purpose).It should through light on why you are applying for MS?Why this particular field?Why this university?How you got interested in it?What all have you done to prove your interest and passion for this?Other extra curriculars etc.Make atleast 5 or 6 drafts.Ask people around to read it to make sure it sounds good and then prepare a final copy.Take atleast 2-3 weeks for this.

Now also speak to 3 professors in your college/superiors in your workplace for recommendation letters.Sometimes they do it themselves in which case just give them a short summary of your achievements for them to highlight and in the worst case that you have to do it yourself make sure that they sound poles apart and not like they have been written by the same person.

All right , lets get back to the shortlisting.Now that you have done your research,spoken to seniors,seen all those rankings you must be ready to shortlist those univs that you want to apply to.Ideally choose 10(2-Dream,4-You can get into,4-Safe Admits).This done get your univ list approved by some seniors who you know or by other means just to be on the safe side.

Next Step:Start filling out applications.Most of them are online applications and require registration so careful with the username and password!Fill out all the details they ask..

[A typical appln will require the following:

Name,Last name,Contact address and phone no,DOB,College that you studied in and graduation date,GPA,SOP Upload,Recommender contact details,Resume(Optional in some cases) and details about your citizenship and Visa type you require,what course/term you are applying to,Test scores(GRE,TOEFL),Publications,project details(optional),Scanned copy of transcript(optional),Work experience details(optional)]

While sending the application you'll have to pay for it either by credit card or send a DD to them.I'd recommend credit card.You're application processing will begin only after you pay this amount.

Okay now to get your application packet ready.This is the one you'll be couriering to the universities.

And before I forget send your GRE and TOEFL Scores to all these univs by using the ETS Website.(I think it costs 40$ for a GRE+TOEFL Report).Univs accept reports sent to them from ETS and not your xeroxes so it is mandatory that you do this.Again credit card payment is better.

Now back to the packet.First of all see how many univs require a transcript and how many copies.Total all this up and add 2 to it just to be safe for later(Some univs may require after they give admits so its up to you to decide how many you need.Typically I'd suggest atleast 16 or 17 copies initially)

Go to the univ which you studied in and follow the procedure to procure this.Let me tell you the procedure for Anna Univ,Chennai.(Experience is quite harrowing here unless you get everything you need beforehand.)First Get a DD drawn in favour of whatever is mentioned in the website(I think mine was drawn in favour of Controller of Exams,not sure though).Get a copy of 10th and 12th mark sheets,all your degree marksheets and put it in a cloth cover and give it to them.You can collect the transcript in a week(I think there are some revised rules now.Do check the website)

See what else the university requires and put all these in a folder and create an index for them.Now use a A3 or A2 size cover for all these and courier it to the univ.(I used TNT.Edulix members get a discount there.It cost me around 685 Rs./courier but its 704 now I guess).I would not advise speed post.(Friend of mine had little trouble with it)

Now keep checking the status page for the updates and follow up to see all the documents are received and updated.

Wait for the decisions and All the best!

(Steps after getting an admit will be discussed in another post when I am feeling too lazy to touch my books just like today :D)

You can refer to Edulix or Happy Schools Blog.This is just an intro.You can find in-depth information in the above two links.

Cheers!

Gaya. :)

Dashing before dining!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:54:00 +0000

Now I am not exactly proud of this incident.And I am not fairly sure when it happened but should be some time around this January.Now wait,January 4 th I think(How did I remember? Because it was just one glorious day away from the last working day at college) ..Right so why exactly am I not proud of what I did?Well,now that I think about it could have turned out a lot worse and probably could have happened to anyone.

Okay it almost always goes without saying that whenever I got out for dinner with my friends it is always a place atleast one of them has been to before.And I am basically not encouraged during the "suggestions" session much due to the fact that I often end up suggesting an allout Vegetarian place(I do get my way on my Birthday though :D).Okay so yeah I did read about this one place on the newspaper which got like a 4.5/5 and naturally I was intrigued and so naturally I suggested the place and turns out I got that one in the bag and a 30 mins of no-vetos later we decided on that place.

And one thing I do have to mention is that I am in general the last to reach any place and I almost always arrived 20 mins after the agreed upon time + grace time.So you should actually imagine the surprise on my face when I reached the place the first(Well even then I was around 20 mins late :D) but yeah the next part is quite embarrassing.

So I go inside with this friend of mine and around 3 are yet to arrive.The interiors are quite pleasant actually and we walk through and are alloted a table.There was no one there and hence all the eyes were on us,the two poor souls who'd walked in then.

We were handed the menu(which was like around 2 pages I guess) and trust me it was quite a good one except for the prices!We didnt expect a mere starter to cost that much and all of us were pretty much broke(me from my trip and others from their new year splurge) and then began those uncomfortable moments on deciding whether it was worth spending so much on such pretentious food!And obv I had to take responsibility for the fiasco.

And so we made this awesome (!) plan of sneaking out but frankly,it is really difficult to escape unnoticed when you're like the only customers in a restaurant.And what do I do except the usual mobile dance?You know pretend like you're not getting signal inside and running out.(But to save some face I did leave my friend inside) and so I call up the other guy and quickly explain the situation and while he was successfully stalled I went inside to the get the poor dear who was braving the piercing glances of the staff there.

What pretext did I use?The usual.One person is not able to find the way and we had to go get him.Solid plan.We told them we'd be back in a few minutes and made our way through those questioning looks.And we got into the lift we remembered something...

...That we had forgotten to inform the other two! Just as our lift doors closed they came up! and were greeted inside by the staff and it was too late and us going back to get them was stupidity+embarrassment.We first had to clear our head and stall the one guy who didnt report yet.That done we set to work on the other two who by now were seated already and probably were screaming curses under their breath looking at the menu.Finally after about twenty minutes of this nail-biting drama we managed to escape and shamelessly(!) laugh about the whole incident.

P.S-Dinner that day ended up being a huge tub of icecream and cron nuggets with salsa(as put by our rising star Mr.Anu Kapoor-"Enna machan bonda vum thakali chutney um vechutu 100 rs.vangitaan!Eduku namma Taj laye saaptrukalaame") at Sandy's chocolate lab.After effects included heavy fever,cold and missing the last working day of college.

P.P.S-Taj is a very royal thallu-vandi thattu kadai at mogappair apparently with awesome mutta-dosai and biriyaani.

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

Kaaka Pongal

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 09:02:00 +0000

To all those true-blood Tamilians out there Happy pongal!Maatu Pongal!Kaanum Pongal and what not! :)

My Mobile Service Provider has used this golden chance to steal 50 per text for the whole 3 days!Guess they wanted to spend their pongal reveling in curses from the public..To each his own well.

Okay so after watching movies like Its a Boy Girl thing and The proposal and activities like applying mehendi and decorating the rangoli painstakingly drawn by Amma I felt it was enough getting in touch with my feminine side this week(Wait!I think I did a year's worth)..All right so here's a post but sadly its not about that cool tomboy stuff..

The day after pongal is the traditional Kanu-pidi or Kanu Pongal which we fondly refer at home as Kaaka Pongal. See its very simple.In olden days they made loads of pongal and after the younger lot and elder ones were done with it they didnt know what to do with the leftovers next morning since they didnt have fridges see? And who would clear up the mess...Ofcourse the crows..And crows apparently I ve been toldahave this streak of pride so they dont just eat food flung at them and hence to make it presentable it became a traditional thing a.k.a Borth of our Kaaka Pongal.

(All right here's my moms take on the birth of tradition: Apparently elders did not know if the leftovers were safe enough for them to consume the next day and hence they used bhola crows as testers.)

Anyway this is how it goes all the ladies of the household get up early and take this small ginger leaf I guess(Trust me its like playing with the dolls.All miniature portions) and there is some order in which you place seven crow sized bites of various items like :Sakkara pongal,ginger,turmeric,thayir sadam,sugarcane and stuff. and after wards there is one 2 secs pooja and then it all shouting kaaakaaa to glory.And then all us kids huddle behind the door seeing food from whose leaf is consumed the most.

And then starts our Pongal-2 with the variety rice and all that.

Its been a super tradition but this year I missed on accounting of sleeping away to glory(I know!I know! ) ..Anyways happy kaaka pongal to you all and all you crows out there watch out for those dubakoor sakkara pongals and diahorrea thayir saadams.

P.S- As Vivekh rightly put it "Iniku Kaa Kaa nu kooptu saapadu podreenga..Nalaiku vaadam mela ukkanda kallala adikreengle?"

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

Dai Sottai!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:20:00 +0000

Now wait this is not directed at all sottai people..Just those who act like douchebags and instill the urge to kill in even the most demure student..

Today was one of the most trying days ever.I had my semester practical exam and with the amount of preparation I had done and this lab being one of my favorites I was pretty confident that I could finish off within an hour so and walk away happily.So did it happen?NO..I was left all huffy and puffy and my mind was filled with so many expletives that if I had let even one slip that would have been the end.

Anna University has this wonderful habit of updating its syllabus every decade or so.This is one of the reasons I have never been taught a program in the lab more difficult than addition of nos or fibonacci series.While we are on that my college has this again wonderful habit of giving the programs ready made and its surprising how most of them follow this practise unquestioningly.Probably because of the fact that it is the easier way.And most of the externals who sit lethargically eating sojji-bajji does not open any door for development either.

But there is one particular thing that I have never understood.The examiner literally tortures the very few people who make an attempt to answer.Now this can be viewed from a positive angle that they want you to learn more.Wrong! The way they ask you question after question and then some more questions and after what seems like eternity finally say "Ennama!Idhu kood therila!"..Dude! I am human not a humanoid ...My mind can work till maximum the 10 th question thrown at me.And the way you watch my lips move fast trying to comprehend what I say is not helping either and neither does you butler english.

So I hear this guy trying to ask me to do something..He speaks English like he is been transferred to Chennai recently from a place where English is even unheard of(He thought he spoke like a Brit but well to each his own) .So I tell him"I am sorry sir but I am not able to understand what you expect".Next thing I know he says the same thing like a broken record.Word and word with nearly 5 seconds gap between each.Dude!You think I am a cave woman or what?

The worse part was that he asked me to make nearly some 15 changes and after catering all those whims and fancies I finally had enough.The 16th change completely pissed me off and when he kept chuckling it was evident that he was trying to break me.This was not a competition.It was a game that he was playing at my expense.This mark is on my permanent record and he couldnt care less.Finally though I got both the outputs he refused to verify even one because apparently it was not the format he wanted.Loser!

After all this there came the viva.In a time interval of 5 minutes he shot nearly 12 questions at me and I was able to manage some 8 or so.Impressive?No it earned me 5 marks!And then I was told that a lot of them got zero on their viva!

I literally threw the paper when it was being collected and was so glad when it was my chance to leave.

Efforts are being made to trace the Sottai.

P.S-The sottai had an amazing "Gadothgajan" lunch and tortured the afternoon batch with an even greater vigor.

Sottai,I sincerely hope your lips seal shut forever.

25! a.k.a The beginning or the end.

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:19:00 +0000

Its been almost 10 months since I started blogging and I am down to a quarter century.Impressive? Definitely not! Am I getting better?That is left for you all to decide.

So what do I write about?But before that let me give you a good reason for the irregularity in posting.I have been held up lately with the application process for my Masters and hence am left with almost no time for even regular gossip( :O)

And apologies for I have nothing remotely fun to write about.It has been a really long time since I posted and I just felt I had to get back.

Okay..let me write about how I sacrificed a first day first show of "Enthiran" for a trip to Rameshwaram.Now,now hold the "ayooo ippove kaasi,rameshwaram nu poriyaa?" thoughts..(yes yes I am only 20) .Far from being a bhakthi trip it was an amazing one as I travelled from north of TamilNadu to an end point of India.

So as I did near one point and it suddenly struck me that I was just an hour away from an end point(Dhanushkodi) I was left wondering the same thing that I did when I was at Kanyakumari(that actual end point) .It was something very simple.So I turn to face the sea and I am walking towards the end(Oh,Common! not the literal end..Its not like I am going to walk into the sea ).But if I just turn around I am walking towards the beginning of a nation.Its just one weird feeling.

Its the same point.But it is the beginning and the end.It all came down to the side you face.So was it the beginning or the end?In the end what struck me was even if you walk towards the end,you'll have to turn right around and face the beginning.The end is always there but so is the the beginning a turn away.It all comes down to the choices you make that decides which side of life you want to see:The optimistic one or the pessimistic one.

All right,all right I'll come up with something better next time :)

My Security Blanket

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 16:01:00 +0000

Realization dawned on me akin to the smell of Sundal announcing the arrival of Navarathri. It has been nearly 6 months since I got my license ,yet,I cannot drive without the L board on my car.It has been in many ways some thing that protected me.

Now I've had some really bad experiences when I started to drive and hence it was put on suspend mode for nearly 2 years.It was under Dad's insistence and the lure of my i10 that I resumed driving.Like Sridevi dancing around Rajinikanth I drove around the same street for nearly a million times until I got my left and right turn right.(That goes without saying that half of those million times my dad's preaching was heard over my panicky-breaths).Of course you do understand how important the L board was during those"stressful"times.

Around February of this year I was allowed to drive alone in and around Anna nagar.The fear did slowly start evaporating but still I needed the L board for reassurance.

There were times when I almost ran into someone and they came to me,looked at my L board and quietly passed me.The countless times when I looked at my rear view mirror and saw

cars standing at a safe distance from me were always accompanied by a sense of reassurance.

As Feb dissolved into march which gave way to April,May,June etc I grew more confident and my radius slowly widened to areas like Nungambakkam,Aminijikarai,Halls road and such.The L board was still there.I was bidding my time thinking"Let it be there for a few more days".

July ,August and mid Sept were pretty busy months and I rarely was seen outside the house let alone the car.

I finally resolved that the day I took my car to Satyam alone I'd get the L board off.

Final Update:I drove to satyam and infact a bit further than that to Express Avenue with the car full of a bunch of noisy friends,blaring music and blinding flash lights but still the L board didn't come off.

It has infact become a part of my car right from the day my driving was graded as "When Gayathri has to drive the road has to be cleared to avoid any casualties " to "Oh!Okay she can drive till Kilpauk in the peak hours".I just hope some day I'll be ready to part with.

Not now maybe but some day I know I can get out of my safety net for sure.Until then Oh!My L board you are my saving grace :)

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

Update:As of 10/10/10 10:10 A.M the 'L' Board has officially come off.No more heads up for the death cab or wait the death i 10..No,wait that sounds lame.

Daddy's little girl

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 10:35:00 +0000

All right guys,before we move further "senti" alert:This post has some waah-waah moments and is not completely random.That clarified,lets get a move on.

Now,dedications.To all the daughters in the world who on the outside are hard headed and independent but on the inside are sissys who still want to be fussed over by their dad.

I recently had to be at Bangalore.I had to travel alone since my parents were caught up with some work here.It was arranged that I stayed with my dad's cousin.I put on my "oh-I-am-so-well-behaved" face helping them out around the house and such.A completely "un-brattish " behavior if you will.I must have overdone it since my aunt called up my mom soon after with a few well chosen words " Chitra,un ponna nanna valathruke.She is so well behaved and quiet.She helps around the house too.I am very pleased to have her here".My mom goofed up by laughing out loud adding an "Yaaru avala?Gayathri patthiya solre?". Aunty was of course surprised.As of me I wasn't but still I was mad at her for giving my game away.

Well why exactly was mom surprised?

Fact 1:I cannot go for more than 2 seconds without speaking.

Fact 2:I speak so fast and so much that asking me to shut up thrice won't do the trick.

Fact 3:I don't lift a finger around the house.

Fact 4:I use the best of tricks to coerce my dad into getting my own way.

Right from when I was little,I have always looked up to my dad and craved his approval.I do get it all the time.I literally swell up with pride every time someone tells me I take after my dad.I do have the guilty pleasure of throwing a lot of tantrums when mom is not around so that dad will let me have my own way.Everytime dad tells me that he is proud of me my feet are lifted a couple of centimeters above the ground in fact.

Dad has always been very patient.He did not care about grades ever.I do remember when I was in primary school when we went for shopping to the biggest supermarket in my area then:Yeses Super market. Me and my sister loved board games.Mom never allowed us to buy them since we already had a lot of games and rarely used them for more than a week.It was an unwritten agreement between us sisters.One had to lure mom away on some pretext and meanwhile the other had to lead dad to those games and get whatever was necessary for both of us.This kept on going until we were caught red handed.Mom was glowering at us until finally dad said " ippo vilayadama eppo vilayada poraa?" which earned few well-chosen swea words from mom and of course a bad dinner.

Whenever I fought with my sister I used to go hide behind dad because he deflected her away.If it were mom she would have slapped me hard first before handing me over to my sister for further slaps.

He loves his work and more than that :cars.The showcase at home is stacked with various miniatures and every navarathri he fights to have a car display with me.Oh wait,I forgot to mention that I am officially incharge of the golu at home.Last year when I put my foot down and refused that random cars here and there do not go with the tone of the golu,he made it a point to make cross roads and told me it was a traffic jam(scroll up for the picture).I had to give in.Every year also sees a display of his cable car zooming up and down which pisses me off to no end.But nothing gives him more pleasure than to work it up and down as all the kids gape with an open-mouth.I remember all those years when he made all my art-projects and I finally ended up scoring full marks when I actually know enough only not to glue my fingers with the fevicol.

He always has chocolates no matter what.I remember going to school with a box full of imported chocolates and all my fighting over who gets how much.The tradition continues till now.My fridge is never devoid of chocolates or Minute Maid. And while we are on food ,he cooks really well and makes sure even after a tiring day at the office,he makes whatever I ask him to.He makes it a point to take us all out for dinner atleast once a week.

He has a wonderful sense of humor.We love the nicknames like (Penang para mundam abb to PPM)he comes up with .Let me give you one example that happened on our Sunday morning drive.

Appa:Car otta kathukardu computer kathukre maari dhan.Evlo nondaromo avlo kathukalam

Me:Epdi solre?Car Innum kashtam pa.Difference iruku.

Appa:Enna di difference? Adula thappu aachu na hang aaydum.Idhula hang pannuvan avlo dhan.

It was not the words but the casual attitude that made me laugh :)

I never did come to the tantrum part did I?I often am a diva and to get my way I do throw a lot of tantrums.And every one of them are directed at dad since I am aware that he is the only one who gives in to my ludicrous demands.It may be something small like something I'd want done or bought to demanding him to say sorry for something he had said by mistake.Being called a wall,hard headed,impassive by my friends all take a back seat as I make it a point to cry at the slight sign of frustration shown by dad.Its just that I have always wanted to not disappoint him.

Anyways why am I reminiscing? Mom and dad have already started talking about me leaving next year and making loads of phone calls to relatives to take care of me and I am not even in the acceptance phase yet.I have never lived alone and I don't know if it'd be good,okay or bad.I haven't even traveled alone until recently.I have never been financially independently.I never thought that the time to say goodbye would come so soon.I always imagined that I'd be ready by that time.I don't think I am yet.

I don't know if I ever will be.

P.S-I gotta run.Dad is making more-appams and the smell is wafting all the way over to my room .Smells like a mini Saravana bhavan heaven.

Until the next one,

Gaya. :)

A Tryst with Destiny

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:20:00 +0000

Oh how I love those words!

Do I sound a bit like a character dropped straight out of an Enid Blyton or perhaps a Jane Austen novel?Oh so be it!But wait just for a minute.Weren't they too one of "those"who we fought against for decades before we could reclaim what was rightfully ours?

History was one subject that always ranked #1 in my list of favorite subjects,occasionally losing out to English.Not because I loved remembering dates and names but because the finer shades of it fascinated me.The quirky nature of various rulers always had me thinking about how much damage/good a momentary change of mind could have done.How you ask?Let me illustrate.What if the apology demanded by Austria was probably let go in the interest of many?Oh but no!They had to fight.And there was no reason for the others to join them.But they did.For their own benefits and in all this hustle and bustle thousands of lives were lost.It was quoted as "towards development".Hell yeah!You splurge our tax money on such unnecessary things and finally ask us the only thing we have left for ourselves-our heartbeats.And lo! it was termed World War I and was a mark in history.And I do not even plan to go into detail about World War II.

Hold on!We digress again.Yeah Independence. Protests,deaths,marches,injuries,insults and what not?The story of Independence is not what I plan to go into in detail.I am sure almost all of you would know that from the 80 page illustrated text books of the 6th and 7th grade.

What I am asking you to do now is to do an introspection.What according to you is freedom?Do you think our country is travelling in the right path?Do you think that so many years of labour and sacrifice are in vain due to the vested interests of a few,who we have the misfortune of ruling us?

Keep thinking.Let me know.

Until the next one,

Gaya. :)

Permutations and Combinations.

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:52:00 +0000

Now please dont get the wrong idea that this is some kind of maths tutorial.Trust me when I tell you that Maths is one of those subjects I absolutely loathe.Strange coming from a person who has never scored below 70 in math.But it is not necessary that you'll have to love almost every little thing that you do or then again there is no hard and fast rule that only if you have the passion for something you'll be able to get on with.If that was the case I'd be happily doing psychology by now in some corner of the nation and not be sitting with pillow sized textbooks titled "Database Management" or "Network Management" while trying to maintain a balance in my sanity-meter.

But ,as always is the case ,we digress.The title is about one of the most unpredictable things.How about a few rounds of guessing?Okay?

Oil prices?

World Economy?

Next World War?

Is Kalmadi insane?

The next general Election?

Tomorrow's dinner menu?

NO.

This post is about the story of a passport.The story behind how a perfectly i-toe-the-line citizen was made to rush from one end of the state to another before he could obtain a passport.And all because of his name.One of my earlier posts,What's in a name? had a reference to this.(The second paragraph)

(For those who feel the soberithanam to navigate I Ctrl+C,Ctrl+V it here)

It appears that if you have multiple names+multiple surnames+You native place's name annexed to your name it is not very easy guessing what name and what combination will actually turn up in your passport.

Now I should not be the one to talk.Because thankfully my whole lineage has had single names.And my passport was attached to mom's when I was barely 1 year old wherein there was not much that I could offer for proof than a bokka-vaai smile and a goo-gooo-gaaa(Roughly translated to : Sotta maama I have done my part.Please hand over that chocolate before I forget my niceties and grab it myself)sound which due to lack of technology was not recorded for voice recognition and sadly I cant do that goo-gooo-gaaa anymore.I can voice my thoughts though which will prove much more disastrous of course.

That said,this particular guy(Shyam Anand) had the misfortune of carrying two names and in addition a family name and his dad's name.The family name ,as like in most Telugu families,was his native place's.

So the full name as per his school records is T.G.Shyam Anand.

Now there was a reason for the urgency.He wanted to write his GRE exam soon and a passport is mandatory as the validation proof for the exam.The name you give while booking cannot be changed and must be found alphabet-by-alphabet in your passport.Else out of Everonnn systems you get.

That said the usual procedures of filling out applications were gone through and a bonafide was received from the college.

Now here entered the villian.It appears that they got his name was spelt wrong on the ration card.Since his certificates and bonafide held the correct spelling.So his passport application was daar-daara kilichified and hurled royally into Chennai's Thames Koovam.

However,unfazed by all this he tried to apply again.Now began the cat and mouse game.He was supposed to show his birth certificate as the proof(For the name).

Problem 1:His birth certificate did not have his name.

Consequence:He had to run to the gazetted officer to get a signature.

Problem 1.a:He was born in coimbatore so he had to run there.

Problem 1.a.a:The database crashed for the babies born on that particular month of 89.

Problem 1.a.a.:They could not do anything because of Tamil-Maanadu preparations.

Poor guy almost died running from end to end.Finally after around 3 or 4 months the passport appeared and it was neither one of the combinations we had guessed.It was....Oh wait a minute I never told you our guesses did I?

Guess 1 : First Name :Shyam

Last Name :Anand

Guess2: First Name :Shyam Anand

Last Name :GopiKrishnan

Guess 3: First Name :T.G

Last Name :Shyam Anand

Guess 4: First Name :Shyam Anand

Last Name :T.G

Guess 5: First Name :Shyam

Last Name :Anand Gopikrishnan

Guess 6: First Name :Gopikrishnan

Last Name :Shyam Anand

The Final name:Thota Gopikrishnan Shyam Anand

Result:University applications did not have enough boxes to fill his name :)

P.S-Getting passports is like gambling.You have luck you get it.Else in Coimbatore you stay :)

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

"Classical" tales of an aam aadmi.

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:31:00 +0000

I have often been criticized for my choice of books.They are well-uh often very masala. Noe come on, don't act all surprised.I am sure you would have read at least a few of my posts(or so I hope!) and definitely noticed the masala-ness(!) in them.Yet I was content until sometime ago when I saw almost everyone raving about one "Master piece" or other.Not the one to be left out I jumped in the bandwagon too.

My first tryst with a classic can be summarized in two words:Epic Fail.The saddest part was that it was an abridged version."Vanity Fair".Disaster spelled in two words would be an acute description.For someone who had religiously read school non-detailed versions of Shakespearean plays,the Harry potter series,Enid Blyton's books and all of Sheldon's books it was a completely different experience as there it involved no murder/theft and chasing around the culprit around the globe and the detective finally falling in love with the to-be-convicted.Emotions were given importance and it was required that I understand all the nuances.It was NOT a page-turner.Realization dawned a bit too late off course.And around 10 pages later I decided Wikipedia can give me more information than I possibly can and would ever gather from the book myself.

The next tryst was with "A tale of two cities".Now this time the description and two pages later there I was turning faithfully to my Wiki.

That said I had stayed away from them for long and with good reasons too.And recently I received some gift vouchers from college for having won some competitions and well Landmark was the place we had to abuse them in.So we started picking up books by the dozen and I noticed this Jane Austen complete collections.Now I know that these novels have had filmi-adaptations as in here,here,here.But I did want to give a classic at least a shot.

Experiment:Finishing at least Sense And Sensibility within the next month(I am a bit hard-pressed for time now actually and the fine print isn't helping either :( )

Probability=0.25

Update 1:Done with the 1st chapter.

More updates soon.Lets see if I can do this.

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

Madarasapattinam-Epic fail.

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:11:00 +0000

Now come on, I already mentioned once that I am not a very good movie reviewer.I only write(read trash) those which not appealed to me and this is considering the bar tolerance set abysmally low.You very well know how this one is going to turn out.So if you havent seen the movie yet/you liked the movie a lot/if you are in love with Amy Jackson/Arya(or both!) please stop reading further.Dont tell me I didnt warn you.And mind you this is just my opinion and comments like "You have no taste" "Arya/Amy is(are) way too hot to be criticized" " The movie is an epic " "Dont you dare utter a word against such a novel attempt" etc will not be entertained.Atleast not here.

The movie is an epic allright.An epic fail.A poor man's titanic.An absolute scene by scene rip off of the Titanic and Lagaan.And to add to this poor lighting contributed in its own way to this british-girl-falls-in-lovvu-with-brave-man-story.

The movie begins with someone dying and moves to an 80 yr lady returning to India to seek her true love,one who she lost on the day of Independence.Cut to 1945 as the story beings to unfold through her eyes.And right from there I saw the movie through Cameron's eyes.

The first scene is exactly similar to how she sees the rusted interiors and starts visualizing how the original titanic was.Everytime I hear the theme of Titanic the catch that lodges in my throat refuses to go away.Yes,all these 12 years.And what did I feel when I heard this so called "Feel of love" theme?Sorry for the music director for attempting to recreate the masterpiece score of Horner.The soul stirring score has been reduced to something totally pathetic.

Allright moving on,yeah the same visualization with a pathetic attempt at a vivid description(Highly unlike the one by Gloria Stewart) the movie opens with a shot of Spencers in 1945 and strangely there were two characters resembling the character Broke Lovett and his assistant and of course a grand daughter.

The heroine is forced to get engaged to a british commander(Again duh!) and she has a mother who forces her into it.And right about that time she meets the hero.Now forget Titanic for a while as we get the copy of Lagaan out.Our hero is a dhobi and their settlement is annexed by the British who need the place to build a golf course.Hero opposes and fights the General one-on-one and wins the land.

Now too much digression from the Titanic cant be welcomed ,can it?Back on,they meet and fall in love.People start noticing.As per tamil cinema rules a Thaali sentiment sequence which is a must is also present.The thaali is of course a replacement for the Heart of the Ocean.

After a couple of duets being sung(with pookal pookum sounding strangely familiar(!))we are back to a bit of Lagaan when she dons on a saree and dances with the Hero and there is a small English bit in one song(again resembling O Rey!) and then Independence is declared and she has to return to England.She doubles back from the train and then on begins the chase very much like that in Titanic.They keep running and running until you start squirming in your seat,the popcorn and coke long gone.They hide in a clock tower with the heroine singing "Where will I be without you?"(Again sounded strangely like "Come Josephine").Finally,the villain gets hurled from a clock tower.And then they run some more(phew!)...

Finally hope rises in you(more like suppressing the bile rising) when you see her trying to save the guy by rowing them away when they are caught....So what does our heroine do? She forces the hero into a swimming ring and leaves him under a bridge,lest the britishers kill him.Now during the letting go of hands she again pulls a classic Rose.The same kind of dialogue is spoken and finally she lets go the same way Winslett actually does and the hand is seen sinking into the water and Amy is taken away to be married off.

The next scene is again a typical one from the Titanic where all the listener's of this classic(!)tale cannot control their tears and burst out like sissys.Now I had no idea what was going through the director's mind.Probably he must have been so tired in ripping off the Titanic and lagaan that he must have finally laid his hands on another DVD for the ending.-The Notebook.

When Amy finds him dead I actually felt no sympathy for her or Arya.The characters were so shallow and Arya in particular is neither funny and nor can he emote.The lighting is pathetic too.

There are no ways to differentiate the past and present when the movie cuts between both.

Somethings that I should have done:

1)Not trusted any movie reviews or for that matter all these emo cases raving that the movie was an extra-ordinary attempt.

2)Grabbed a copy of Lagaan and Titanic,kicked back at home and experience the catch in the throat that I do everytime Jack's hands disappear into the water.

3)Gone to Woodland and ogled at the pictures of old madras.(Wait!Googling is easier)

4)Thrown a live wire at GV Prakash for trying the "Copy" Raagam.

5)Asked to meet the non-existent Script writer(I am very sure 20 copies of all the three afore-mentioned movies did that work)

Finally:

Mr.Vijay(the director)if only you were about some 15 years early you could have won accolades for this movie for its novelty.Paavam,you too are the victim of plagiarization .Tch,Tch.Let's sue Cameron come on.But ,oh wait! he is not even aware of your existence,is he?

Madarasapattinam-A pathetic attempt at recreating Titanic.

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

What's in a name?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:35:00 +0000

Now,for once my dear Shakespeare you are absolutely wrong.There is plenty riding on it as I soon found out recently.

I was lucky enough to have single first name and a father who again had a single first name which became my last name.Now dont ask me why my mom's name is not included in my initial or last name.It appears that if you dont have a particular family name(Dutta,Patel,Rao etc) your father's name is automatically super-glued to your name until the Husband factor displaces it(Thanks for the terms Aristotle).

I did ask my mom once why my initial was only S and not S.J.She went off on a rant about how not only the Indian system but the whole world keeps conveniently forgetting women's roles.She kept digressing more and more and then some more and finally when I couldn't nod anymore I got up hurriedly thinking of someplace I had to be.

My next target was paati(grandma).

Me:"Why is my initial only S and not SJ?"

P:That is how it works.My initial had only my father's name until I wed your thaatha.

Me:But why paati?Didnt you protest?Tell them that its unfair.Didnt your mom fight for her rights?.

P:Mom had no time for that.She was very busy.

Me: Doing what?

P:Managing the household,looking after dad and us and most importantly delivering child after child.You know?She delivered 11 children in total.

Me:After that?

P:She died.So you see no time whatsoever.We were either busy trying to save our lives during the World War or studying and cooking that we had no time to ask these questions.

Me:Didnt education want to make you ask questions?

P:No.Andha kaalathla ellam unnoda appa kita nee ippo adam panra maari mudiyadhu.If we have to talk to the menfolk then we make sure there are in a good mood.

Me:And still you stand by your statement that those were the best of times?

P:Yes I am sure.Atleast people were people.Honest.

Me: We are digressing paati.You havent answered my question yet?

P:Yeah yeah.I dont know.It was your parents' decision.Left to them.

Me:That is not an answer.

P:Go ask your Thaatha.

Target 3 -Thaatha.

As I was ascending the staircase I heard the choicest of TamBrahm swear words.It could only mean one of two things if liberal amounts of "shanniyane,kazhutha,kaataila poravane,azhu moonji" were used.Either he was watching a tamil serial or a cricket match.It was a very bad time to aggravate him further.Nevertheless I decided to meet the lion in its den.

Me:Thaatha.

T:Erumma maatu Thaa...*Turns*Oh..Enna?

Me:Oru question.

He looked at me unbelievingly.The look suggested "Since when do you think I started putting out invitations for "Common ask me questions" sessions ?".Nevertheless I continued staring at him till...

T:*Impatiently* Enna?

Me:Why is my initial only S and not SJ?

T:Eh?What does J stand for? Ethavdhu TV la dance aadra pudhu Shanniyanna?

Me: Illa.Amma peru.

T:Unga amma peru Chitra dhaane?

Me:illa.Official name vera.

He looked like he couldn't care less.

Me:Sollu thaatha.

T:Ummmmm,errrr...Therile di.Poi paatiya kelu.

Me:Ketachu.

T:Amma?

Me:Ketachu.

T:Appa?

Me:Innum illa.

T:*Sensing the escape route* Appa va poi kettuko.Enna ippo TV paaka vidu.

I sensed a lost battle.As I turned to leave the Tv was un-muted and there were screams of "Shanniyane" that filled the room.

Target 4-Appa.

Me:Appa.

A:Ey..Veedu poora kuppa potruka.Poruppe ille.

Me:Wait wait.I want to ask you something

A:Enna?

Me:Why is my initial only S and not SJ?

A:*Same expression of disbelief* Office la irundu vanda odane loosu thanama kelvi ketu uyira vaangadha.

Me:Sollu pa.

A:Adhelam theryadhu di.My initial is only S and not SA.Your mom's was S and not SK.Your sister's is not SJ but S.Dont question all this.This how it is.

Me:But Aishu's is PG no?

A:So?

Me:So why is mine not SJ?

A:What difference does it make? Ennoda peraye nee full eluda maate.SundarRam le first half eh cut pannitu style ah Ram nu poda vendyudhu.Idhule Amma per en illanu 10000 kelvi vera.Podi.

Me:But...

*Phone rings* Appa senses chance

Appa:Ey Business call disturb pannadhe.

Goes to the side.I listen on...

Appa:*on the phone*Ah sollu Baalu.Next week dhaane Fox Hunt?No problem.Lunch ku Veg Biriyani solidalam.

I sighed.Hopelessly.

Lessons learnt.

When you question an age-old tradition

1)All women go on a rant about how they were suppressed "andha kaalathla" and ask you to be thankful that you can talk back to your elders.If she is also your grandma she might add subtle hints about how your dad and mom are giving you too much freedom by allowing you to ask questions.

2)All men stare at you in disbelief.Not because of the question you raised.The expression is more likely "Why me?" .They shrug and nod and go do their work.If you pester them they point out that you haven't done your daily duties either and expect that guilt should stop you from asking questions.

So,Shakespeare there is a lot riding on a name.

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

After Mahabharatha here comes Ramayana....

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 07:57:00 +0000

I dont know exactly why but I have never really understood the so-called hidden meaning behind the subtlety of Mani Rathnam's movies.Now I have no doubts about his movie making skills.He is a fine film maker.Point duly noted.Its just that I dont get the point behind few things he religiously sticks to.

*Like the themes he used to adopt in most of his movies-Love,Terrorism or Love and Terrorism(Dadagiri is a subcategory) .

*On why he insists that the movie be shot in minimal light so that half the time you have to squinch your eyes to see who is in the frame.

*The usss--bhusss sounds that periodically arise indicating that some dialogue is being delivered that makes you strain your eyes to get the drift of what is being spoken.

*On why he still thinks Abhishek Bacchan can deliver in rustic roles that demand a lot of performance and gamut of emotions to be expressed effortlessly.

I really feel sad for AB jr.I do.The gargantuan nature of stardom of his father and his wife weighing upon him,and always being used as a reference scale to judge him has eclipsed his skills.But still he does maintain his cool.I do admire him for that.But this movie gave him a new standard to be compared to : Vikram.

I have always admired Vikram.His career graph has had the worst start but he patiently held on till he had his start and once it took off he never looked back.He is not the one to sit around and complain about how no one took notice of him.Rather he gets into the arena and performs.And how!Commercial cinema or parallel cinema,he gets noticed.

Hardly two months and the movie is already on TV !

Dhalapathy worked Mr.Rathnam.Our thalaivar Rajnikanth and the script did the magic.

Hold on to Vikram and shake off AB Jr.Let him go prance around beaches with John and his insured-derriere while you can watch your scripts come alive with the magic they were intended to.

P.S-We wouldnt say no to another mushy Alaypayuthe with Maddy :)

What a Bollywood addicted soap fan would do when she comes across a hindi song in an english sitcom...

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:14:00 +0000

To those not very familiar with Bollywood cinema-

Dancing away are Shah Rukh Khan , Juhi Chawla and Sonali Bendre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVrwxKao74s

P.S-Why am I sharing this video?Very simple...I heard this song play in the background of one episode in the 3rd Season of The Big Bang theory(The one with the kite-flying and all..Do watch closely the scene where Howard enters with the patang..Before Raj answers the door this song can be heard playing on the TV)It took me some time and some hits to get the song right and well managed a few laughs after watching this :) ...

P.P.S-I fell in love with SRK after watching DDLJ and managed to fall out love (!) watching this.

A time when you could not even trust the air you breathe

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:44:00 +0000

Thanks to Shyam who inspired me to write this...It is a wonderful break from the cheesy romantic stories I have been writing so far..I owe you one da :)

All right this is not another post about some futuristic or far fetched world(V for Vendetta, Equilibrium and countless other Hollywood flick typos) and where the world is under an imminent threat and one hero rises among the masses to save the people.This,in fact is a story of the past...A deadly past which people even shudder to think about. The night of december 2nd 1984 when the deadly tragedy struck taking with it almost 3000 of central India's population.To be killed for some fault of yours or maybe as a turn of events is different.But dying in your sleep agitatedly without having no clue as to what is going on,when the new hope of a tomorrow remains a dream crushed by some crude corporate giant is unacceptably.Have we reached a particular realm of capitalistic society where currency notes can been exchanged for few hundreds and thousands of lives?If honestly you answer in affirmative to the above question then long gone is the time when life was for living.It has become existance.It has passed beyong coining it "Survival of the fittest".Rather it has become "survival of those who can kill and get away with it".

Mr.Warren Anderson,Union Carbide.I am not going argue on the perspective of letting him away was a big mistake.It was,yes.But even if we punish him there is no way that we can ressurect the dead or abate the suffering of those still undergoing the agony for the past 25 years.All I ask is do consider what compensation was given.Was it justified to bribe hundreds and thousands of politicians who were totally did not require the money and pay so little to those who actually needed it?

All these poiliticians raising this issue now,with all the finger pointing and commisions going on "to probe" into the issue,how much probing did you all actually do to make sure the issued compensation actually reached the masses?

BJP blames Rajiv Gandhi for the escape of Anderson.So be it.But there was BJP govt after all this.If they wanted to,they could have helped these people.May be they did to a small extent.Truth this at the very heart of a abundant with wealth,weeps an entire state for almost quarter of a century.We have not yet extended our hands to wipe away the drops.Will there come a day when we look beyond all national,cultural and monetory barriers and view people as people,the way it was meant to be?

I leave it to time to answer this question.

P.S-Thanks to Swathi who gave me valuble viewpoints on this.

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

Kulir-100 -Freezes you to Death

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:40:00 +0000

I am not generally very interested in writing movie reviews .Why?I dont consider myself a good critic.

Therefore,most of the time my opinions on movies are restricted to ok,good,attu padam or oru-dadava paakalam. Not that I dont watch a lot of movies.I do.I catch almost every boring flick in town just because I have a lot of free time,vetti friends and the smell of butter-popcorn beckons me(!) from Satyam.

But there was one particular movie which surpassed all the boundaries of obnoxiousness that any movie at that time had not.(Sura was released much later and I havent seen it yet and so I havent been affected by the usual nauseating feeling or randomly wanting to stop the car in the middle of the road and advice a police-maama on the evils of maamul or go about kissing pallu-vizhuntha paatis for apparently no reason,bursting into a dappan-kuttu right in the middle of anna-saalai , bashing up a wannabe cool-doood (Signs to identify this category-the high lights which look like he had some seth-ji spit paan all over his head , the skull keychain on the chest bouncing away,one group of vethu-vettus ,a cellphone without a battery or balance purchased at pondy bajaar and the vetti engeeelees) or pretty much any other feeling that you get when you watch a Vijay flick.)

June '09

I was attending an in-plant training at Southern Railways when suddenly one day was declared off due to the arrival of a minister.Thrilled ,we started making plans and soon we took hold of the faithful 7F to Abirami theatre..I was trying to show off when I got on the foot board while the bus was still moving which earned a few well chosen swear words from the conductor.Brushing them off with a smile (read gloat) I alighted ,which agitated the conductor to the extent of making rude hand gestures.Feeling triumphant for apparently no reason other than setting a very bad example I stood there ,as my friends got down at the stop and walked towards me with one look that said-"Wow!Bad ass behaviour man"(edukkelam?Kadavulle)..If I were my guruji Vadivelu the first words that would have sprung to my lips would have been "Ippdi ussupethi ussupethiye odamba ranagalam aakidradhu".But I was not Vadivelu and I did enjoy that attention back then.

Yeah we checked the list of movies playing and there was Pasanga and this Kulir 100..Pasanga looked quite rural and this Kulir... looked pretty urban and stylish so we chose the latter(And what a mistake it was!I saw Pasanga later and loved it..)..So as we entered the multiplex(!) and were directed towards the screen we stumbled on until we reached our seats.The theatre smelled pleasantly of one that hasn't been cleaned in atleast two days and chairs with broken arm-rests.It rather looked like a cross between the dingy theatre that screens colour-padams(If you get my drift) at Parangimalai and the newly renovated Raaki(Swear ! it is way better)at Ambattur.

So yeah , post advertisements when we were comfortable seated,complete with the stale popcorn that we were mercilessly charged Rs.50 something for ,we heard an ear-piercing scream which went like,

Nallavan evan ?

Kettavan evan?

Kodum vishatukku porandhavan ivann...

(Crudely translated to)

Who is the good guy?

Who is the bad guy?

This guy is born to deadly poison(The kind you would want to take after watching this flick!)

This crap went on for around 3 minutes and we successfully missed the titles as we frantically looked around for a place to safeguard the popcorn and cover our ears to save the eardrums.

Finally the noise subsided and as everyone went WTF was that? we were soon treated to our hero waiting atop a building waiting for someone.Well,the someone arrived and was kozhi-amukkified (covered in a sack akin to what someone would do while trying to steal a hen) and beat up.You have no clue in the confusion that prevails and the hero runs away.Next day surprise surprise(!) police lands on his door step since they found his ID in the crime(!) scene.He is whisked away to the station and one MLA like katta-panchayat guy arrives and demands his son let go.Now from where did this son character arise you might think.Anga dhan director twishttuu.Namma hero's appa is a rowdy.Appa and amma Lovvu marriage.Amma does not like appa's ways.They separate.But they are all paasams over their son who as expected grows up like a Thadu-thala(dunder-head).

Appa is all proud(!) that son is a budding-dhaadha(don).(Enna appan da?).So cut to Koyambedu market where our hero dances amidst vegetables and colourful lights with a skimpily clad Item-girl imported from Mumbai to celebrated the release from jail.(shabbha!)

Enter amma who thinks that the thadu thala is out of control and interfering with her bank exam.So he is carted off to Ooty to continue his studies.Now with the hero's face so bloated up and the rowdism depicted you might think he is probably joining his final year or something.Anga dhaan Second twishttu.Namma hero is joining 11th.

He is made to share a room with a sidekick who looks like one yaanai without its thumbikkai (Elephant without trunk) and goes "Broooooooo"(Dey!Adha yenda Bru kaapi maari solre?)

The first day and already namma hero invites the "wrath" of seniors.There are three of them in all.And as per formula they all look like settu paiyans placed in the middle of mariyamman thiruvizha , all vetti peter thamizh(Hey!I am getting pasi ya.Lets go to nair kadai and drink tea and eat porai typos) and they go about controlling the school and everyone quivers under the looks they shoot.

Our hero has given word(read traditional amma-mela satyam-The highest word-bound ever produced by Tamil cinema) that he wont be involved in any fights any more and hence satisfies himself by throwing the villains looks of utmost disgust and contempt(yeah the kind we kept throwing at the hero).Or I think that is what he was going for.He finally looked like a constipated dog torn between the desire to make and nibble at a bone.

Now if the hero was frolicking about in the hills Ooty our heroine can't be far away,can she?For some strange reason she keeps jumping from trees , speaking stuff that has no coherence and even people realized that coz they kept calling her loosu(local word for touched in the head)throughout the movie.And yeah the clueless Bombay-import type only.

Hero and heroine ore lovvus in parties and tree-houses where yaanai has managed to hide copious amounts of food.Heroine tries to etthi vittufy hero's gethu by keeping up the constant stream of encouragement and plans..

And now third twishttu...Heroine's anna is one among the villians.Now you might think of a 3.a.twist where anna is using his thangacchi(No offense to TR fans) to sabotage the hero.But no.Heroine hates her anna who keeps offering advice to his dad that she should be in a facility for the mentally challenged (Thambi inda advice ah nee directorkum,producerkum kudutrukalam)

Now hero stands against one of the gooja-jalras in the villians for some Vice-President(apdiye Indian national election maari oru build up vera) and our yaanai tirelessly works to make him win.Hero wins.Seniors fight.Oreeyyy nail-biting tensaaan.

When all this circus was going on ,suddenly a break was declared for 15 mins. Interval.We all rushed out akin to how students rush out of classes on Friday after the dismissal bell.We seriously considered not going back inside.But it was never in my book to leave a movie unfinished.I comforted myself saying "Vandachu,pathutrukom,mudichudalam".I kept saying this throughout the second half of the movie.

If the first half of the movie was like Mummy-3 then the second half was nothing lesser than Thiruppachi.And the director takes her revenge against the audience and how!Ummm..Ukkare mudile..

Seri second half begins with some treasure hunt like thing which I dont remember who won.(By this point I had stopped paying attention!The popcorn was over and I was massaging my head and checking my watch).I think it was the hero.

Something called "the Ring" was mentioned when I looked up hoping to see some Frodo like character holding the one ring which would add some dimension to the story I was yet again disappointed to see that it was a piece of land(very much in the shape of a sotta-maama's head)

where they amicable settled(read fought like street dogs) their differences.Sad;y I returned back to the massaging.

Suddenly,I heard some screams and looked up.The yaanai was forced into a toilet by the villians and he dies.And as per rule,someone had to remove their specs when the news was delivered.It is generally the doctor.(but inga lightcha twist )It was the school princi informing amma-yaanai and appa yaanai that their son had died due to cardiac-arrest.

Hero is crestfallen at the loss of his pet..Chi..Friend..Simbu's rendering of Manasellam starts playing in the background.Hero runs to heroine for some quality romance .But namma heroine is finally declared loosu and sent to Delhi for therapy.Hero is all Bhusss when one day, he hears from the seniors in the same bathroom(The circle!) that they killed the yaanai. Hero turns all red and time for revenge baby!

I was all happy that it would be over in a few seconds and so I decided to watch patiently.Suddenly the ear piercing scream was back on...

Nallavan evan ?

Kettavan evan?

Roshathukku porandhavan ivann...

which yanked the couple who were indulging in some quality romance behind us, apart.(enna power)

Hero makes a super plan.He lures the villians towards a forest.He burns one alive,beats one to death and engages in a fist fight with the third before pushing him into a pit finishing his chapter.Finally he gives us that look that we have very often seen in a lot of amman-movies .I heaved a sigh of relief and proceeded to get up when my friend pulled me back indicating that there was still some of the movie left.Grudgingly I sat back.Strangely nobody seemed to protest that I got up(If I were at a Rajini movie I am sure that few Bata shoes would have been flying at me for momentarily blocking the view of Thalaivar) .

There were two voices in my head now.

Voice1:Please polame..Mudile..Indha 2 mins le Oscar award performance aa kuduka poran avan?

Voice2:Ivlo neram irundachu wait panallame.Innum edavdu "Twist" varalam

Voice1:Thu.

As it turned out Voice 2 was right.There was a fourth twisshtu.

When the hero returns ,surprise(!) he finds his mommy dearest dead.

Hero runs towards an electric pole and bangs himself against it hoping to die(Uff!),when daddy dearest takes him away. The implied moral is Karma.Newton's 3rd law.

Atlast it being over we rushed out to hear someone commenting

"Macchan anda Director ellarayum potu thalirkaangle..Inorru 10 rs.ticket ku extra vaangitu hero vayum pottrunda santosha patrupenne"

(Friend,the director almost killed everyone.For one extra 10 Rs. which I would have gladly paid she could have killed that hero too).

He had reviewed the movie in just a sentence.

P.S-Thanks to Hari,Sangeetha,Madhu and Aishu who patiently endured this crap with me.

P.P.S-Ms/Mrs.Udeep-Naa Padam edukka vendam nu sollale , please edukare padatha ollunga edunga nu dhan solren.

I pity the producer.May his soul RIP ..Amen!

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

Few Reasons why I would not make a good movie critic

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 06:52:00 +0000

1.I go to Satyam for the popcorn.

2.My all time favorite movie is Jeans.

3.I did not like Avatar.

4.I'd prefer It's a wonderful life to The GodFather any day.

5.I am still smitten by James Stewart and not only managed to sit through but also liked(!) The man who knew too much.

And finally the top reason-Once upon a time,long long ago, I was a fan of Vijay,Action king Arjun and Jayam Ravi....

Until the next one,

Gaya:)

If only...

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:04:00 +0000

There are many instances in life when you came close to something that you have always wished would happen but missed by inches...Or again would have happened but not quite the way you had expected..If only they have gone the way they should have....

If only...

To everyone their first crush is special..Most of them would have forgotten it but to those who did not...

It might probably have been on a teacher who was nice to you and made you the "Class Leader"(It was the highest honor those days you know ;) ) or may be on your next door neighbor who always gave you a chocolate/who played with you...

But the first real crush you have probably must have been when you were about 11-14....

Every one of us did believe in filmi-romances at some point or another..To guys it was always saving the damsel in distress..And to girls it was obviously the meet-your-prince charming-and-fall-in-love-at-first-sight....Sadly,as you grow up you realize all this almost never happens..And looking back it always makes you smile...

That somersault your stomach did every time you caught sight of him/her...those long hours you stood waiting for him/her....those butterflies flying randomly here and there...The adrenaline rush everytime he/she comes near you...The thousands of words that want to rush out ,yet are chewed back and somehow momentarily your tongue seems to be glued down with Fevicol(Though you have no idea how it manages to unstick itself when he/she has passed you)

and all those nights that you were lying in your bed staring at your ceiling as though it would split wide open and he/she would enter right through the gap....

Now go stand right in front of the mirror and watch the corners of your mouth crack into a smile and then.....

...Go right back to some useful work...Enough reminiscing now! :)

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

Villupuram Thaandi Varuvaaya?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Sat, 01 May 2010 11:06:00 +0000

He was ready to cross the skies for her.The very bat of her eyelid was a sign enough.But would she oblige?

Sounds like the tag line of a typical boy-meets-girl and they fall in love movie?All right,this is just corny shit..Yet again one mindless true love(!) story brought to you by one of the vetti-est persons in Chennai right now, who finds nothing better to do than stare at her system all day ..And Why?Just because it is there...(I must really be going crazy,right?)

Now,where were we?Ahh..yes...Boy-meets-girl...Our hero did meet our heroine yes...She did fall in love..But if only,she had..with him...

How long do we have to keep using X and Y?...Just plain frustrating right?Lets give them proper names...Hmmm...How about Akash and Nandhini?Sounds good?Right lets get a move on...

She was the kind of girl anyone would fall in love with.And when I say anyone,I stand by my statement.Anyone.The typical girl-next-door,yet,a pretty one too..The kind that you wished you lived near.

He was not bad either.The typical gregarious,jumpy,fun yet understanding kind he was(Mind you it was not overdone :) )

Reasons for calling this post Villupuram Thaandi Varuvaaya(Will you cross Villupuram for me?)

1)The similarities to Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya?(Will you cross the skies for me?)

*Akash's similarity to the protagonist Karthick.Namma hero is again forced into Engineering(To quote"Ennaku apovve theryum indha engineering lam velaiku aagadhunu"). His life's ambition is actually to cross the skies i.e, get his CPL and become a commercial pilot.Namma Karthick is from Namma Chennai..

*Nandhini's similarity to Jessie.The homely and sweet kind and yeah definitely confused as depicted in the movie

* The cheesy, corny dialogue exchanges between them.

2)Our Nandhini hails from Villupuram.Hence the name .Villupuram is a place in the interior of TamilNadu).And she did visit her Villupuram now and then...

Yet another typical college love story(Maybe I'll grow up someday but for now just let me be)

They did not fall in love at the first sight.There were no filmi dialogues or songs that played as they danced in the rain or around trees,yet the story is cheesy(atleast to those of us who are not very much the romantic kind)

The first time he saw her he felt the same things he had only read about or seen in movies.The kind of light hearted fluttery feeling which jerked him a few feet away from the ground,as though his body weight dropped a few kgs and lifted him up...He was almost instantly pulled back to reality when he heard his friend's voice next to him though it all seemed so far away now...It took him a couple of seconds to register the fact that he was the one being addressed..She seemed far away yet she seemed close enough too.He was puzzled as he tried his best to muster his concentration to listen to what his friend was saying.

Friend:So naa solitrunda maari...

Akash:Yes,machan,okay.

Friend:Okay va?Naa inum solliye mudikale..Kekariya illaya?

Akash:Kettutudhaanda irukken...

#Mind Voice#Talk about her..Talk about her..Talk about her..She is standing right in front of me..Talk about her...

Friend:So I think I like her da..

Akash:*concentration back on*Good for you da...*Trying to sound casual and pointing to her*Yaar machhan adhu?

Friend:Avala pathi dhaan ivlo neram solitrundhen..Avala dhan na love pannren.En figure macchaan.Propose panllam nu irukken...

Akash:#Horrified#Enna da sollre?

Friend:aama da..First day le irundu paathutruken.

Akash:Unakku set aagumnu nenaikriya?

Friend:Try panni dhan paapome..Friends encourage pannanaga so apdiye...

Akash:All the best da.

#Mind Voice#Enna Kodume sir Idhu?Vetti pasanga..Encouragement veraya?

A few days later-

The friend did propose and got turned down badly.Akash's hopes once again shot up.Some chance,some opening,something had to happen but alas.

Now Akash had a best friend.Lets call her ummm (oh what the heck?Return of the X) X...

Now our X was a very cute,patient,understanding type..and she had a nickname too..Love guru....Best at giving vetti-ideas and bulbu plans....

Akash and X were beshhhtuuu buddies...And as luck would have Akash's phone was under repair when one day...

Nandhini:Hey!Did you prepare for the test?

X:Edho...You?

Nandhini:Kodume only...Very bad.

X:Like Flunking level?Rock bottom?

Nandhini:Kinda..This is Akash's number right?

X:Erm..yeah..Why?

Nandhini:No..I called him yesterday but it was not reachable.

X:Oh.

Nandhini never called Akash again.

A year passed in which everyone came to know that Nandhini was in a very serious relationship(Everyone includes our Akash too) and again he had abandoned all hope when again....

Nandhini stopped attending classes.She became very irregular and in those rare occasions she was present also she was very distracted and very dull..

One day..

X:Oye!Extra pen hai?

Nandhini:*looking up* Whaat?

X:Pen..Pen..Extra pen...Hai tumhaare paas?

Nandhini:No..

X:What is up with you these days?You look like you wish that the ground would open up and swallow you these days.

Nandhini:I wish it did..

X:What is wrong with you?

Nandhini:Just some personal trouble..

X:Boyfriend trouble?Why fear when the love guru is here?

Nandhini:Its not like what you think..

X:You tell me what I should be thinking...

Nandhini:Well,its just that you know he is very paranoid..Always jealous,possessive...Keeps fighting with me always...I am so pissed..

X:Eh?So?Ditch him...

Nandhini:I cant do that..I've been in love with him for like 6 years.You know some days I even feel very suicidal..

X:#Horrified# Seriously get a grip man..Suicide eh?Thats just rubbish talk..Listen..Take my word and dump him...

Nandhini:*Sigh*You'll never understand

X:#Scornfully#Maybe I won't but I am not the one contemplating suicide here...

Almost a year passed since this conversation when one day...

Akash enters the class...Excited whispers...

Akash:Macchan,What's going on da?

Friends:Dont know da ..but something is wrong with Nandhini..

Akash:What?#Blood rising to cheeks#

Friend:Why are you this shocked da?

Akash:Nothing da..

That evening on the phone...

Akash:Hey what is wrong with Nandhini?

X:#Suspiciously#Why are you this concerned?

Akash:Classmate no...

X:oh...She attempted suicide...

Akash:#Gasping#Suicide eh?Why?

X:The nutcase boyfriend of hers dumped her..Thats why...

Akash:What a lame reason

X:Why ask me?Do I look like the one on the verge of death...

They did not see Nandhini until the year end.

The next year...

One very casual night time conversation...

10.40 pm

Akash:Ey...Whaddup?

X:Nothing much da..What you upto?

12.50

X:Yeah man these idiots are getting crazier by the day you know.

Akash:I know..Hey what do you think about Nandhini?

X:What is there to think about?She acted really stupid.If it were me I would have dumped him first..Bloody chauvinistic piece of crap he was...Deserves two slaps....

Akash:I don't mean this incident..Your general opinion you know?

X:Why are you this interested da?

Akash:Nothing ...Chumma I wanted to know

X:Erm Why are you acting strange all of a sudden?

Akash:Is it possible to get a straight answer out of you?

X:Provided you answer my questions...

Akash:You are so full of them.

X:I know :D

Akash:So?

X:So what?

Akash:What do you think of her?

X:Yeah yeah...She could have turned out well if not for that boyfriend of hers..They got back together now.

Akash:Oh

X:Why are you sighing?

Akash:I didnt.

X:You did..

Akash:Not important.

X:Eh?Whatever....

He was not ready to let anybody know.Not yet.Maybe somebody but definitely not now.He did not want to be ridiculed least of all by his best friend...

Few more months passed until in the September of 2009,

Akash:Oye!

X:Whaddup?

Akash:Listen what were discussing so seriously with Z during lunch?

X:Lunch eh?ummm errr I dont remember

Akash:You have the worst memory

X:I know :D

Akash:So completed you assignment?Get it to me tomorrow I want to copy it

X:Wait I am copying it from Z now only..

Akash:All right see you tomorrow.

X:Hey wait wait I think I remember.

Akash:Remember what?

X:Look who is talking about retention capacity.It is like coal calling the kettle black.Sarcasm Intended you know,in case you didnt get it.

Akash:I did get it.Dont try my patience.

X:All right All right..Just messing with you...Well seems that we would have to go through our class teacher everytime we want OD from hereon..*casually*and yeah also Nandhini broke up with that bloke yet again.

Akash:*sputters*What?

X:I know man.Sad.

Akash:Sad?What are you talking about?It is awesome.

X:What?We will never get OD again if it goes at this rate and given my record I am most likely to be debarred for lack of attendance.

Akash:Attendance?What are you talking about?

X:What were you talking about then?*Suspicion*

Akash:you know the other thing.

X:The other thing?

Akash:nandhini.

X:Oh that.Aeah What difference does it make da?In another two days she'll run back to him.

Akash:You think so?*Crestfallen*

X:Why does it bother you this much?

#A long pause#

X:Oye!There?

Akash:Because I like her.

X:like her as in?

Akash:I want to ask her out.

X:As in boy friend and girl friend?

Akash:Shabba...Tubelight...

X:Seri...Seri...But of all people why her?

Akash:Have I ever asked you that question?

X:Ermm sorry I didnt mean to be hypocritic.

Akash:Listen Can I ask you something?

X:What?

Akash:Can you help me?

X:What help?

Akash:I want to talk to her.I need a proper opening.

X:Give me sometime.Ill come up with an idea.

She did come up with an idea.A stupid idea.But surprisingly due to cupid and lady luck being jobless that particular day and in a particularly helpful mood things worked out in his favour.The idea clicked and they exchanged numbers.

What idea you ask?Very simple one.A mutual friend was made to call her and pretend as though Akash was near her and she asked Nandhini is she would like to talk to him.She did not object.They did talk.But the catch was that Akash was not anywhere near the mutual friend.What Nandhini never knew was that it was a conference call.

And then began the struggle.Once the introduction was over,Nandhini seemed very hesitant to talk.He felt like banging the phone on the wall half the time.All this effort going wasted.

Their conversations were filled with unspoken words.He so wanted to talk.He so wanted her to talk.There was no ice,it was an iceberg that had to be broken.

His days were spent in confusion and nights were spent in frustration.And so passed two months,until one day....

Akash:Hi...

Nandhini:*sob**sniff*hi..

Akash:What happened?

Nandhini:nothing..

Akash:Oh,come on..You can tell me..

Nandhini:Well I guess...I fought with him..

Akash:with who?

Nandhini:Yoou know himm...My boyfriend...

Akash:You mean you ex-boyfriend right?

Nandhini:Ex?no no Didnt I tell you?We are back together..

Akash: #Mind voice#Enna kodume Sir idhu.

Nandhini:What?

Akash:*Jerked back**Accusingly*No you didnt tell me..You never tell me things you know..

Nandhini:Sorry..

Akash:Thats okay...What does he want now?

Nandhini:Just the same..He is being paranoid again.

Akash:You know if you are not comfortable you should say so you know,break it off.Talk to him

Nandhini:Breaking up is not the solution.

Akash:Sometimes it is.*silently praying that she should be convinced*

Nandhini:Not always.Anyways Ill talk to him.Thanks for the advice.

She did talk to him and it put one major reverse gear which drove Akash up the wall.Yes,they got back together again.Akash abandoned all hopes,yet again.And as for therapy?He always had X.

Finally a new year dawned and he decided to let go of all this and decided to concentrate on something worthwhile when one encouragement booster arrived in the form of his friend/relative/whatever you call someone really close to you.

Now this friend was pretty hyperactive and believed that you'll never know what happens until you have done it.So go for it type aka Schrodinger's cat.Akash who was already on the verge of spilling the beans to her,occasionally held back by X,had reached his wits' end now.

He was yet again looking desperately for an opening to bring this up.He tried talking to her about her idea of love,ideal guy and other blah blah blahs but no,she would never hand it to him.Did she know and is she ignoring it purposefully or does she not understand at all?was the only question on his mind which was successfully driving him mad.

January slipped into February and along came Valentines day..What more an opening could he ask for?He mustered all the courage he had and finally decided to take the plunge.He dialled jher number slowly and put the receiver to his ears.One smooth female voice answered.

The subscriber you have called is busy.Please try again later.

Bhusssssssssss.His face deflated like a punctured tire.

He was not able to get in touch with her the whole day.So close,he thought.So close.

When the next day dawned he threw away all thoughts of ever telling her what was he was going through.He did not know if it was anger or frustration or disappointment or fear that overlapped him but then again he had made his decision.He was never going to call her again.That decided he leaped out of bed and put the past behind him.All was well for 2 days until ...

*Beep Beep*

Mom:Akash I think you're phone is ringing.

Akash:No ma just a message.

Mom:Check it na.Might be something important.

When he opened the message-

Nandhini:Hi I am sorry for not attending your call that day.Can you please call?.I am really upset and would like to talk to someone.please.

His hands automatically acted as though they were receiving orders from a distant voice.Yet it seemed as though the voice originated from his own brain.Seemed so distant yet so real and close.

As he dialed her number there were two voices that were crying the exact opposite.

Voice1:Common!Now is your chance..Act all nice..Maybe she'll fall for you.

Voice2:Oh..Dont listen to him.He means nothing but trouble...Think of what she has done so far.Dont embarass yourself.

Akash:Shut up both of you.

And she answered.

Akash:Hi..What happened?

Nandhini:Hi...Thanks for calling.Just wanted to talk to someone.

Akash:oh...tell me.

Nandhini:I was waiting that day for his call but he did not even give me a message.Sorry that I decided to show my frustration on you.

Akash:#losing his patience#

Oh so thats the reason is it not?When your pretty boyfriend turns his back on you I get the brunt..Else you are all happy with him and ignore me..Whats your deal?

Nandhini:But but...

Akash:DO NOT INTERRUPT ME.Understand?

Nandhini:*Meekly*Okay.

Akash:So I am somebody you call when you are pissed.I am not saying you should not.But dont use me like this.Either you ignore me or cry to me.What kind of relationship is this?

Nandhini:but thats what friends are supposed to be like right?

Akash:Not all the time.

Nandhini:Okay listen I am sorry.I had no idea that it would hurt you..I am really sorry...Please Please..Henceforth Ill try to be good..Are we good?

Akash:Eh whatever..

Nandhini:oh common..Smile na..please

Akash:*All smiles wonly :D* smiles.

Nandhini:now thats a good boy..

Akash:If you want to share something do that but lets have some fun too you know

Nandhini:Sure.so you know blah blah blah....

And on and on she went .Once started it was difficult to stop her.She told him about her childhood,likes,dislikes,friends,the on-off love story she had and slowly started recovering from her break up.Ofcourse it is needless to say that Akash talked her out of it.And people started noticing that something was going on between them.The lunch time conversations,gift exchanges and the class time chori-chori looks were a dead giveaway.Now the only question that remained was when he would pop the question.

May 22,2010

X:So how are things between you and Nandhini?

Akash:Couldn't ask for anything better.

X:So sema happy only you are?

Akash:No di..I havent asked her yet...

X:Asked her what?

Akash:To be my girlfriend.

X:so ask her...

Akash:Yeah but opening ?

X:enna chumma opening opening nu...? Go tell her da...

Akash:Yeah di...tonite is the night..

X:Good luck man :)

That night

X:Eyyyyyyyyyy....What happened?

Akash:not yet.

X:Choo #Disappointed#

May23 morning.

X:Eyyyyyyyyyy....What happened?

Akash:not yet.

X:Choo #Disappointed#

Afternoon

X:Eyyyyyyyyyy....What happened?

Akash:not yet.

X:Choo #Disappointed#

Evening

X:Eyyyyyyyyyy....What happened?

Akash:not yet.

X:cha po...you text me after you have done it...

That night 2.43

Mobile message.X wakes up rubbing her eyes.

Akash:i did it I told her.

X:Eyy...super..What did she say?

Akash:She said she needed time

X:How much time?

Akash:That I didnt ask..

X:loosu..Seri Tell me when she replies.

Nandhini took her time..There were many times when she almost felt like this was a good idea and times when she felt this was a huge mistake because of her past experience.Times when she felt pressurized and times when she felt she did not want to make this decision.But fact remained that she had to give him an answer.When did not matter.What did.

Finally she made her decision.Right or wrong she was going to stick to it.She took her phone and fed in her answer and hit send.

At the other end,Akash was alerted to the receiving of a message by the tone.He looked at his mobile.

The screen said You have one new message.

He hit the open message button and gave a gasp.

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

How the chappathis crumbled in front of 11 idlis.True Story.

noreply@blogger.com (Gayathri Ram) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:12:00 +0000

IPL 2010-8 teams.60 matches.45 days.

It wouldn't exactly be fair on my part if I call this the victory of an underdog...The coveted cup has eluded Chennai for long and finally here we are celebrating the rightful win...It has been one of the most consistent teams making past the selection matches everytime and now lifting the cup..Let me not bore you with statistics but we'll take a small detour 12B(English:Sliding doors) shhtyle.......

What if they had sent Pollard out first?What if Sachin's hit had not been caught?What if Rayudu had stayed in his place and not lost his wicket for a measly run?What if their maiden over had earned them 10 runs?

If the above were true we'd be listening to the gloats of Mumbai-kar's and for the matter a lot others who would have said Idhu thernjadhudhane?Mumbai dhan top.Obviously they have to win. But truth is,there is no obviously in cricket.There has never been,there never will be...You'll never know when a bowler'll smash boundaries or a world-class batsman will get out for a duck....

Anyway given the fact that we,Chennai-ties have been pretty gloat-y about the whole affair..Time to reveal our modest side and show them though we won they didn't give up without a good fight....

Finally-Namma chennaiku whistle podu!

P.S-Here are few interesting texts/FB status updates that I came across yest/today-

Chennai ku whistle podu...Mumbai Kaadhu-mela podu....

Given that we won, should we drown/cremate the MI s?

(Vijay shtyle) Dei Point table first irukradha romba aada koodathu..Kadasila finals la win pannanam.Naanga panitom.Goli adalam,kabaddi adalam Aanavathla mattum aada koodadhu.

Men in yellow (though) subtle ,

Unarguably proved their mettle,

They played in style,

Conquering all the while!

"Pooriku venum paani,1man army dhoni.

lion irukkura idam den,namme singam hayden.

ammaku opposite naina,best fielder raina.

Veg la gethu kathiri,middle order gethu badri.

Song mix panna dj,shots mix panna vijay.

DTS sound na dolby,alrounder na albie.

Ingiku english ginger,batsman ku yaman bollinger.

Bike la best Ducati,spin la best jakati.

Namma spinner aswin,avan pottale namme win!

Adra whistle!"

Cheers to Chennai!

Idli-Sambhar guys all the way! :)

Until the next one,

Gaya :)