Blue?? May be.. May be not..

5ive days is a lotta time for a vacation if the plans are minimal. But it lets you eat more, sleep more, catch up with good ole movies, you always wanted to see. And also a draconian thing!, you think more (Of course nothing productive). You lock yourself up in a room, with a lap top full of movies, junk food and a mug of coffee. First movie you watch. No break. That's the beginning fella. Second movie on. you start taking small brakes. 'course not because the movie is boring. you take brakes to think about yourself. something good. something bad. but about a lotta things, that you never think about when you are occupied. you get new ideas. you become a wannabe this. wannabe that. sometimes you feel energized. sometimes pissed. but alas, you ain't a character in Tarantino's movie, to use the F word as you please. you start watching the movie again. soon as you complete the movie, you spring outta the room. albeit nobody locked you up inside, you taste freedom for a moment when you are out of it. you look like a dork to yourself, looking at the mirror. you want to write. you wannabe a writer even though you suck at it. you start writing. half way through, you realize, its a lotta "YOU" and the steam was lost, somewhere, midway. you just reduce the write-up into a stupid blog. shut down your computer and start walking. Is this a mid-vacation blue?. You ain't sure about it either.
Cool breeze is an invisible magician. It plays the 'abra ka dabra' game with you. and BAM, you are back, normal again. all set to go back to the same old room and watch another movie. you do this all the time. till the vacation becomes history. you are a human and no god. you start missing your vacation once it's over, and a tiny corner of your mind starts thinking about the next vacation. you shitty mind. you bitch.

A Visit to God's Own Country!

Folks, i am back, to kill your time with my blog.. This Iteration has.. oOps.. sorry, itz the effect of endless software testing.. Well.. this time, with my trip to wayanad.. Lemme jump into the story..

Day Zero:
9:45 AM:
Sanjo.. dude.. get me a plate of poori.. an extra poori as well..
4:59 PM:
Its been seven minutes already.. But the Sand clock was still appearing in my screen.. My Outbox has not sent the mail yet..
5:01 PM:
Started home atlast..i knew it was too late.. but alas, therez never a rewind button in life.. Reached home 45 minutes later.. Fellas, that extra poori was a real mistake.. It was the reason behind my delayed start from my house.. Somehow managed to reah Gopi's house at 6.30 PM.. He looked a little tensed.. it was quite obvious.. wait.. guyz.. dont jump into conclusion.. it wasn't me.. It was the Van which was late this time.. Eventhough i looked to share his sentiment, the fifth vault in the thirteenth chamber of my heart secretly thanked God.. (Sticking on to schedule was never my strength, and the delay i van's arrival erased my perennial Mr.Late image for once :)
We started at 7PM, picking up gentlemen and ladies, one by one.. Tour sans music is garbage, and ours started with a bang.. yep.. The same old ghana songs drove everyone crazy.. Mission accomplished in just 5 songs.. our gang went berserk.. then on it was only la la la la la la la la......
To get tired and hungry after singing and dancing is human.. Our first pit stop was hotel Annamalais... Technically, it was just a dinner break.. but a few jokes and some thunderous laughs.. there started THE TRIP.. that pit stop was the harbinger of all the fun we had in our tour..
A few more hours later.. few more minutes to midnight.. We reached Maggi's residence.. The whole family came out to welome us.. to put the reception in nut shell, it was "Hospitality Redefined". Her's was such a nice family. Anyone and everyone would want to revisit them..Day zero was almost getting over.. to put it in cricketing terms, it was almost the death over.. Just like MSD's gamble to throw the ball to an amateur bowler in the twentieth over, we decided to go by an alltogether new route, with a lotta hope and assumption that we would make it to the wedding on time.. But gamble do not pay off always..

Day 1:
After a lengthy night and a much needed nap, we started waking up.. we guys were severely infected by regional movies i would say.. we always assume, the destination would come as soon as we wake up.. fish.. we were still a solid 30 kilometers away from Kerala.. Thanks to Sanjo's PJs, we survived the morning without breakfast..

My Grand ma always says, reaching the God's lotus feet is very difficult.. but i felt its even more difficult to reach God's own country.. NOM guyz.. but the roads suck.. Even though in reality, it was next to impossible to make it on time, i had a small ray of hope, i can still have a glimpse of gorgeous mallu gals clad in Traditional kerala sarees.. but this time too, my dreamz went elusive.. by the time we reached, beautiful ones were already gone.. but we made it atleast before the food was over.. oasis in the desert!!

Wayanad.. Our next destination.. The journey was for four hours.. But 400 hours's worth joy.. stopped while climbing mountain for the evening chai and snacks.. Thanks to the chai wala, who took eons to prepare each and every omlette, we got umpteen time to pose for photographs..oops.. sorry.. to do something stupid/crazy in front of camera..

After spending an eternity in van, we reached our nest for the night.. It was beautifully furnished with three bedrooms, a drawing room and a dining hall.. LCD tv.. comfy chairs.. a good change of atmo, after a few continous hours of tiring journey..(For people, who will want to visit Kerala, look out for 'Greens Vista'.. contact one Ms.Alice Shajan, 9995777255/97464084444)

The next part of my trip is called awesomeness.. we had an amazing campfire by the river side.. The sound of crickets and the scary darkness couldnt reduce our enjoyment.. we still danced and sang goodol songs.. also had a lighter moment by sharing our thughts about each other!!! We did not do anything else in Campfire :P
I would like to describe more about that night. But all i knew, after camp fire was.., One.., two.., three.., and DARKNESS..,

Day 2:
It was a pleasant morning! I got up from the same place where i had slept the previous night! SO..., nothing wrong happened! Had a hot cuppa Chai with an extra spoon of sugar.. Heaven.. We went for a walk.. to the same river bed where we spent the previous night.. Just 8 hours had passed.. but the same place looked a whole lot different.. Our dear Rama Prasanna was very happy as he had plethora of places to pose in front off!!!
After a good morning walk around the place, we had the authentic Kerala food of appam and curry.. it was yummilicious!!
Next came the falls and the pukoot lake.. Both these places were terrific.. Especially the boating in the lake.. Since the boat can carry only 2 people at a time, we formed 4 amazing teams/couples... And needless to say, me and Sanjo made the best pair ;-)

All that starts well, ends well...Our gang's motive was very simple.. as the latin phrase says "Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero".. which is, 'Seize the day, putting as little trust as possible in the future'

Eventhough it was 2 lengthy days, we felt as if things were over real soon.. As the van approached Chennai, slowly things started coming back... Office.. testing.. DART.. status mails.. Fish...

PS.. Two days.. 48 hours of fun.. which went in to my mind.. so down.. so deep..!!

Expect The UNEXPECTED!!

It was a Balmy evening! I went for a cuppa tea with my friend. Tea time chit chat ranged from Politics to education.. from cinema to office work.. ofcourse without exception about girls!
There she comes, he pointed his index finger towards a group of girls.. I asked him, who his "SHE" is... "The most Beautiful" was the prompt reply.. In my office, most of the girls look beautiful, thanks to cosmetics, else God knows what :P
I took a wild guess.. "The Punjabi kudi on the left side??" i asked.. a nerdy smile was his reply.. For a moment we both were smiling.. for me, it was a treat to my eyes, to look at a bunch of neautiful girls.. and for him, it was a treat to his ego, as i have guessed the gal in the first instance, which substantiates that his girl is the most beautiful!!
A Few days rolled by with frequent exchange of smiles between the two. Then she became the permanent lunch time topic, though i was a lil bored ;-) but couldn't get helped. Then cam the final day. He came to my cube, sported a sad look. I asked him why?? (As a good friend, i am obliged to enquire!!) He said the girl was gone.. She was no more with the company.. I made my face reflect his sadness, and knock some sense into him.. but he was into it.. i couldn't help..
A Coupla days later "i ran to his cube panting, and said "something UNEXPECTED has happened.. your kudi has not left the company.. she just got transferred to another location.."
Just like in the regional cinema, i expected a 1000 Watts bulb glowing in his face.. but got back a sadder look!!. "I have found another girl.. now, you say shez back.. i hafta choose between the two" was the reason given by him for his sadness!!!!!!!!!!!
I am still figuring out how to react to the unexpected situation!! God help me!!!

Crush.. Hate..

I first saw you, when i was in my kindergarten.. atleast that's what i remember.. I started liking you right from the first sight.. slowly the liking became a crush sorta thing.. there were days when i didn't want to miss you even for a single day!!. Your curves mesmerised me.. I went crazy.. It was irresistible when yu were hot..

Slowly.. the liking turned into love.. love turned into addiction... my mornings were never complete without you!!

It was fine with me till i was in my college.. But those days were gone.. I got married.. My wife never liked me, having you... She always wanted me to ditch you... But i couldnt.. Instead i chose to quarell with her.. It screwed some beautiful evenings of mine..

But now.. i wana get rid of you... i don wana see you any more!! I promised her..
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Hey POORI... I hate you now... You are the reason behind my beer belly... I hate you.. before i use to have you only with Bhajji... but now i am ready to have you even with sugar.. i hate you for making me addicted to you..!!
Get Lost... :@

ChildLabour's Otherside!!

Yesterday. It was one of those days when the Work was less and Boredom was more. I tried to read some official documents, tried some macros and stuff, but at the bottom of the heart i knew what i wanted to do. Not any of those C-rap as it was a Thursday evening and just 2 hours separated me from my long weekend. I decided to checkout some of the reviews of the Nikon D5000 dSLR in the Internet. Its a light weight 12MP slr camera designed exclusively for amateur but interested would-be photographers. Everything was colourful and glossy about the camera. But when i saw the price, it was a real juxtapose! The Review told me to buy, but the cost told me hold on. So i decided to go with the latter. Broken heart. So i closed the browser and looked at my watch. Time was slowly ticking away, but still 90 mins to kill. I picked up the phone, pressed 9 and asked the operator to connect it to bangalore. i did it so slowly to buy sometime to decide whom to call. Ms.V's name came across my mind. Dialed her extension. Hello she answered. A few, Hi.. Howdy do.. exchanges. Then i asked her about the shopping and stuff for deepavali. She spoke about her dresses, sweets and everything but not about crackers. Crackers are for deepavali just like salt for a spicy dish! How can we miss the salt. The answer she gave was "Child-Labour". I was so pissed hearing about Child labour stuff for the zillion Th time. My honest thought was, no one should talk about it when we do not know the other side of it. We say kids should not be sent for work and they should be headed to schools. Agreed. This argument holds true when a kid is sent for work even if his/her parent is very much hale and healthy. But what if otherwise. There are so many kids whose only blood relation in this world would be an ailing mother/father. what do those people, who comfortably sit back in an A/C room and discuss about Child Labour for the sake of a group discussion.
Those kids and their parents belong to that part of the world where Mediclaims and Pensions are unheard off and tomorrow is a distant dream. Their parent's evening medicines depends on the money they earn for the day. So stopping these kids from working is not going to solve all the issues. This is a national issue and government needs to plan meticulously and do something more than drafting a Child Labour Act.
After a high voltage argument, we drifted to other topics, laughed our heart out and kept the phone down with a "happy weekend" wish which made her yell at me as she will be working on Friday too. i thought a coffee should make me feel comfortable. so, i picked up my cup and called all my mates for an evening snack!! There started my Weekend!! Hurray!!

Yelagiri - - We made it Happening!!

04:45:55
Alarm was screaming at its loudest pitch! But i never woke up! It was a warm saturday morning after a hectic week. No wonder it was hard to wake up. But the sudden flush of enthusiasm poured in.. yes.. yelagiri.. made me wake up like a bolt. I rubbed my eyes, just to discover that, my whole family has woken up because of that alarm but me! alas! but i immediately rushed into the bathroom!
It was 5.30 when i started from my house. already late by half an hour! Picked up Mr.V, Ms.G, Ms.A, Ms.N and Ms.S (Names shortened :) ) Sun had already come out of its den. It took us an hour to go away from the concrete jungle and have a glimpse of some greeneries. The trip was not a school trip to keep "Finger on the lips". We wanted to play. But as every other group has, our group too had the starting trouble. To melt the ice, we had no other choice but to start a fight between, which movie is better, Chandramukhi or manichitrathaz (As our group had tamilians and mallus!!) Even though the argument was mild, it provided us enough spark to create a fire! Antakshari was started. No trip was complete without an anthakshari and ours was no different. Songs varied from Hindi to malayalam to tamil, and from the times of Raj Kapoors to mohan lals to Suryas! Then on, we pleaded time to move slowly. Only then i understood, under the facade of cultural diversity, every kid (22 though :P) loves to enjoy to the fullest in the same way!

It was almost 9 and my stomach showed signs that it was time to break the morning fast. We went to Hotel Saravana bhavan. myself and mr.V faced the usual problem, when the Damsels are more in number,they just ordered a plate of Idly [which just had two  iddlies] and declared that, 2 idlies will be sufficient. Even though we too wanted to stop, we couldn’t. we went on for two more plates of dosa!

The next stop was jolarpettai railway station. One more guy joined our tour. Mr.P. It took another half an hour to reach Yelagiri. Boating was the first activity. We took two pedal boats! Then it was a small trekking experience! (Even though the ppl came for the tour won’t accept it as trekking!! ) We walked in the greeneries
till the foot of a hillock. I took out the phone to make a call, just to find out that there was no signal. I confirmed with others just to make sure whether, it was only for me, but to my surprise, none of the mobile phones had signal. It was a nice feel though, to go off the grid in our own country!! We took pics, standing over rocks, posing with a cranky smile, which just ensured us that we will have great memories down the years when we see those pics.

It was almost noon, and we were searching for a restaurant. We saw one near the park. The variety of cars parked in front of the hotel, the façade of the building, the cacophony of the utensils, gave us the feel that, it was the busiest and the best hotel in Yelagiri (may be the TAJ of yelagiri :P) . But as the old adage goes “Appearances are deceptive”. It just had meals and no variety. The idea that we would starve made us eat there. Our next destination was the Park. The dance performance of Ms.G on a wooden plank was the harbinger of all the joy we had for the whole of evening! We nearly ragged her to make her dance (It was not a pappu dance ppl… a real nice one) That gave a new life to the tour! Then the see-saw games and photo sessions! Everything made us laugh like hyenas! It was almost sunset and we started back! The beautiful mountain curves of Yelagiri was awe-inspiring and Ms.N desperately wanted to take a pic of it! But to her disappointment, the local monkeys present over there surrounded her and ensured that she couldn’t take the picture :D.

The happy tour of us came to an end and we started back to Chennai. To add on, even the movie we watched in the car while coming back ended just before the apartment of Ms.G. Even though I never had the “Happily ever after Syndrome”, this incident took me closer to acquire the syndrome!

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FEAR aka PHOBIA ! ! !

It was a Humid friday evening. I was standing in Paranur Railway Station waiting for the BGEMU to come. Even though train took time to come, Sweat never took time to ooze out in chennai's hot weather! sudden thought flashed across my mind. "Who is God... How does he look like.. ?" As told by the Hindu Mythology in "Threthayuga", Gods walked alongside men, in "Dwaparayuga", Lord Ram was there, in "Kruthayuga" Lord Krishna was there!!. But what about "Kaliyuga??"... As seen in Dusshhera Bommai aka idols, can he come in a Horse with all those Maharaja costume?!?! Definitely not!! Even our own folks won't accept that!
Then came a thought... would he have taken the shape of FEAR!! which keeps all the people under check!! "YES!!"... i thought, God has taken the shape of FEAR, so that every one can realise him... He gives fear and he is the one who takes itaway.. as told in Vishnu Sahasranamam "Amoorthy Ranako Chinyo Bayakrith Bayanasanaha!!"

From Children to Aged people, from politics to share market.. Fear is Omnipresent!! It doesn't spaer anyone or anything! Our very own Netas, fearing of being ousted outta this country, hoard all the money in swiss bank and other Tax havens for a rainy day! (Ofcourse, the amount is too much and we can even manage a whole rainy season with that money.. but still.. that is outta this context ). When Greece's Economy tumbles and Spain's Bank fails, FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors) run for liquid cash, withdrawing the investments in India.. Simple reason.. FEAR... This fear can be used in constructive way.. as the ageold adage goes "Prevention is better than Cure".. fear helps man prevent disasters.. But when fear takes the negative role, it makes things ugly.. In India fear and conservatiness mixes together, and the result seems dangerous! ULIPs (Unit Linked Insurance Policies) are a standing example for this. People fear for future and Insure themselves, but the greedy conservativeness doesn't agree to give up all the premium, and they go for ULIPs.. As long as nothing happens, ULIPs are profitable as they give back certain amount.. But what if otherwise.. People forget the purpose of Insurance and see that as an investment to avoid tax!

"Boooommm"... heard the loud horn of the train.. BGEMU was approaching.. my mind concluded the thought about FEAR as TGIF syndrome (Thank God its Fiday syndrome :-P) took over my mind!!!