Wailing in the Rail...

Side Middle Berth – ever heard of such a concept? Thought so…..Neither have I. But then given my ultimate luck with train tickets (or the lack of it), train timings and fellow passengers I have no business being shocked.

As it is I had opted to take the worst train possible – the Cauvery express which as the name suggests just refuses to take off from B’lore leave alone reach its destination…..Adding to my woes was the lack of ventilation which coming from me is something – I was practically gasping for air all through the journey and was actually delighted to draw in the cooum-ridden air when my feet touched the sacred platform at Chennai Central.

Each trip is turning out to be an adventure of sorts!

The Lizard effect

Move away butterflies and chaos...here comes the lizard....& what an effect it had.
A huge one landed with a *blub* on my head last sunday just I decided to draw the curtains on the weekend. I squirmed in horror & images of the panchaangam flashed before me along with a cloud of terror stories of all the bad things that come to people who cross paths (albeit unintentionally) with the reptile. The shivering came down gradually as I chanted the 1000 names of Mr.Vish and sleep engulfed me.......

The entire week was sheer horror ......& am barely recovering from the volcanic effect the lizard had managed to create....Yeah - blame it all on the lizard baby!

AMEN!

Is it just me?

Post-interval the movie rocked and how! The 1+ toddler in the row in front of ours was so damn cute! She squealed in delight and tried to grab my finger to bite/chew that resulted in oodles of saliva on my otherwise dry hand. Wish she had chosen to stay awake during the first half of the movie as well - would have been a big relief.

Sigh! that was not to be..& destiny followed its path.....

Kuchelan it was - the unanimous choice for the weekend's entertainment quotient & off the group went - thankfully to the "local" theater in the neighbourhood (which is still more expensive than the balcony class ticket in our very own Satyam complex - but lets reserve that one for another blog). The movie was through n through mediocre, entirely predictable and completely prosaic. It was a little late in the day to make alternate plans and THAT was the only motivation for me to sit through the 2.5 hours of self inflicted torture.

Maybe it wouldn't have got onto my nerves as much as it did if the so called humor element provided by the madurai puyal had seen the "cut". It amazes the level of tolerance we desis have toward the crap that gets churned out in the name of entertainment. The Nayan-Puyal scenes pander to all the perverts out there who simply cannot view a woman in any other context. Beauty should be presented in a manner that can be enjoyed by all.....this was pure crass & worse, had nothing to do with the core of the concept - friendship.

The subject of Kuchela-Krshna is the most touching portrayal of friendship in our religious texts and to some extent the take-home message of the movie did come in - in the last 15mins or so. But the rest of the movie with the zillion something characters who I would by all means avoid in real life was so revolting that I could have walked in toward the end.

The protagonist had this "I'm a loser" expression written all over his face that made it very clear that it was going to be very tough for me to like it/him. He might be a great actor blah blah ...but what is the big idea if he continues to operate in the loser mode in all the movie he's acted so far (Veyil, last part of Majaa & now this) but for Anbe Sivam/Virumaandi (in which he was brilliant).
Anyways, it was a rare sight to watch thalaivar cry - maybe that is what this movie is all about...or if you care - theres a close up shot of his pretty daughter in one of the songs.....

You have been warned!

Another week and an end...or a beginning?

Let's see - Monday was as blue as it could be - i mean how much more miserable can it get when you don't have a ride to work? yeah you get the point

Tuesday - Sort of settling in coz the ride is on & am getting used to the week's routine, albeit at my own pace...all was well that ended well...in cofy n pastry (date??????? nah...who am i kidding...;))

Wednesday - Hmm...a site visit, a painfully painstaking one at that - but a super strong dose of cofy at shanti sagar helped me come to terms with the outside world coz i was lost in a world of smses and resolving matters with a dear OLD friend of mine...

Thursday- After a near-guilt feeling that nothing concrete was accomplished (if one were to unjustly exclude all the gyaan-giving), spent substantial time on "hands-on" stuff ....had the "hey-i-am-cool" expression all over my face and convinced the rest as well as i headed home

Friday - Yipee! another site visit - this time moi was more attentive and did not need cofy to get the brain cells working.....eagerly awaiting the weekend....- oh almost forgot - dinner - which I later found out was a BAD idea.....

Late Friday night/Saturday - BAD BAD dinner after effects - GONE for the whole day....hibernation and dehydration....sigh...what a "waste" of a weekend....Spidey-3 on HBO wasnt a bad bet though....

Sunday - Cool movie - the latest sensation (or so it seems) - "Jaane tu...." - thoroughly enjoyable one at that...reminded me a lot of my own college days.....(kaks are you listening?! :)))
Almost ended up being a disaster - let me not get into the details......arrrrghhhhhhhhhhh.....WHEW! okay ....so now all set for the coming week....am I really??????? can I have an extra day off puhleeesseeeee? uhuhuhuhuhuhuh.....:(

Event mis manager

I hate the google event set up thingy. Wait a minute - it is actually the other way around. The event manger or calendar or whatever it is called doesn't seem to connect to me at all. Read on...

The first time I sent out an "event" - it was complete chaos - showed up as an event scheduled for the next year (or was it the previous? i forget...) Never mind I told myself; you try again - which is what I did - sent it out again only to discover that it was the same story. The boss came to my rescue and set the clock settings on my official mail account. All was well (if I were to ignore the smug condescending look and the constant digs and jokes at my expense)..and the right mail was sent out at the 5th attempt....


The second time around I decided to make it fool proof. Shot a mail to myself, ensured the time,year,date,month whatever it took and felt confident enough to send it to the ENTIRE team (including ALL the big bosses)..Murphy was waiting just around the "send" button. Within minutes there were groans and complaints all around - "hey we decided on 2-4!" "why do we have it at 5pm?""there is another meeting at 11!".....Google seemed to have take it upon itself personally and invite each team member at a different time slot in no particular order....

I GIVE UP! :(

Lord of the Seven Hills

1.45pm 5.30pm - Sapthagiri express to Tirupathi
6.00pm - Tiruchanoor - Glimpse of the Goddess resplendent in all Her glory
7.00pm - Darshan of Govindaraja Perumal - a humbling experience
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10.30pm - At the Tirumala - Heavy showers and cold winds - as the Golden Gopuram stands majestically reminding the mortal of HIS presence
5.00am - Parayanam of the Lord's 1000 names as we join thousands in the queue
6.30am - PURE BLISS......time stands still as I surrender to the supreme being..............
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7.30am - bliss continues - swamivari prasadam......

Silly fellas....

Never before have I seen a group so boisterous and preposterous on a flight as the one I chanced upon last night. Even before they were seated, cousins decided to cluster in the narrow space between seats to giggle; paan-chewing uncles guffawed at cheesy jokes; cards were dealt and loud squeals of delight erupted...this was just a trailer - when the unsuspecting flight attendants stepped out to perform the drill of pointing out safety procedures catcalls went out and juvenile attempts at imitating their accents did their rounds.

As if all this werent enough, cell phones were switched on to shoot random pictures - of the aircraft's wing, the roof, the cabin luggage, the food trolley, the toilet-occupancy indicators so on and so forth. One individual was also found filming a wailing baby.

I tried my best to shut all the noise off and catch some sleep but it seemed practically impossible inspite of my impeccable reputation to doze in any setting.

Unfortunately it is rather impossible to change flights in mid-air......