Granny in my dreams

Last night I got a very very wierd dream. Maybe its a culmination of this regret which I have deep down about not being there with granny when she breathed her last. I remembered the dream perfectly when I woke up in the morning. In fact, it was the dream that woke me up from my deep slumber. Now, I don't remember the dream all that well, but still I'll try my best to describe it here.

Just to give a background, my paternal grand-mother (click here for more details) died a year-and-a-half or so back. If I'm not wrong, I think the date was 18th April 2007. During that time, I was in the US and I really really REALLY felt bad about not being here to see her one last time.

Anyways, back to the dream...

Apparently, I was travelling from somewhere and coming back home and was sitting at my seat. I think it was a flight and I saw this lady looking exactly like my granny. Broad forehead, greyish black hair braided and neatly combed back with a middle parting. Wrinkles around the neck, but the face surprisingly devoid of any wrinkles. A couple of gold jewelery around her neck one having a couple of tiger nails. Wearing big round glasses. I also noticed that she was dressed EXACTLY like my granny. She was wearing a dark blue blouse and a blue floral night-gown with a round lacy neck.

At first I was completely flummoxed thinking how can it be. I was scared. Terrified to be precise. I kept looking at her and she kept looking back at me. Smiling almost exactly like the way my granny did. With each glance, my fear compounded. With each smile I started getting restless. It was as if she knew me always. It was as if she was beckoning me to come over towards her and talk to her. I was trembling.

I mustered some courage and then started to walk towards her. She was still smiling, looking at me with un-wavering gaze. Each step I took towards her, her smile grew wider and wider. I extended my hand to touch her and suddenly, I saw that the flight cracked open, exactly at the place where she was seated. I saw the lady clinging on to the edge of the crack, screaming and shouting loudly.

I bent down, outstretched my hand, shouted at the top of my voice and told her to make an effort to catch my hand. She tried to reach out and catch my hand. Suddenly in the process, she lost her grip and started to fall down. I screamed at the top of lungs, calling out to granny, but she just was looking at me and although she was falling, her smile never stopped.

I turned around unable to see or comprehend what was happening, or why it was happening. I knelt down banged my head on the floor, covered my face with my hands and just could not stop crying. No...not crying...I was wailing. I was totally devastated. I was inconsolable.

And suddenly, I just woke up. I was sweating profusely. Slowly, I raised my hand and felt my eyes. I had expected them to be damp, but they were absolutely dry. I could hear my heart pounding like a bullet train. Slowly I woke up sat down at the edge of my bed, gathered my thoughts, took a deep breath and started walking towards the wash-basin to start off my daily chores.

My MBTI - ISFP

The other day my friend LIB was talking about his personality trait and about MBTI (Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator). It got me thinking and eventually lead me to google it. I wasnt able to remember it perfectly but proper searching eventually led me to it.

Its fascinating as to how a series of YES / NO questions can actually eventually determine your personality trait. So whats my personality trait? Before that, I'd like to say - if anyone would like to take the test please click here. Click on the "DO IT" button on the "Jung Typology Test" side of the page.

Here's the result of my test.




So there it is....I am a ISFP (Introverted-Sensing-Feeling-Perceiving) person.

And my type analysis as given by typelogic.com is ...

ISFPs live in the here and now. Their impulses yearn to be free, and are often loosed when others least expect it. The ISFP who continually represses these impulses feels 'dead inside' and may eventually cut and run. (One ISFP friend has become nonambulatory within the past few years. He will still, on impulse, leave home in the middle of the night and go to Las Vegas or wherever, regardless of the difficulties of his physical condition.)
I can so easily identify myself with this

ISFPs may be quite charming and ingratiating on first acquaintance, flowing with compliments which may (or may not) be deserved. On other occasions, the same individual may be aloof and detached. Some ISFP males are fiercely competitive, especially in sport or table games, and may have great difficulty losing. This competitive nature, also seen in other SP types, sometimes fosters 'lucky,' 'gut' feelings and a willingness to take risks.
I rely on my gut feeling a lot

For more information, read here...

And finally my analysis is....



I perfectly agree with this analysis. This is what I am.

Lazy Intelligent Baldy

Reposting this...

This post of mine is dedicated to an awesome friend. Someone whom I'd like to call LIB (Lazy, Intelligent, Baldy)

Why I'm calling him LIB?? Because thats his personality. It defines him totally, completely. He is each of these words personified. And why am I posting about him today here?? Because he's recently got a job after a hiatus of 2 years. This guy dared to quit his job of 6 years for good, started studying for MBA. Gave CAT, got about 94 percentile. Got into a decent MBA college and then finally got placed. That too at a young age of 29 when people are already married and start having kids. Now that guts for you.

I first met him 11 and a half years ago in my engineering college. I still remember the first day I met him. He and I were in this classroom waiting for lectures to begin and the suddenly, the seniors barged in and started ragging. One of the things they told us to do was to do a catwalk. I did an awful impersonation of a ramp model and was booed by all seniors and this guy was shaking his butt like as if he'd always been a ramp model

The next stint of my interaction with him was when I had this crush (more on this later) on this gal in college. He used to gate-crash into us each time I was alone with this female. And he made me believe that he liked this gal and I kinda put a full stop to everything. I always get nervous when something like this happens. I feel extremely vulnerable and insecure when somebody reads my thoughts without me telling them and I feel that anyone can rip me apart leaving me helpless. Anyways, back to the post...

Despite all this we became good friends and I've always considered him as a very very special friend. Someone for whom I can do anything. I've borne quite a lot of his puns and been at the receiving end of many of his jokes, yet I value him more than anyone else. After his CAT, I accompanied him to each and every B-School interview call, except one (that was IIT). He couldnt tie a tie knot properly and I used to tie it for him.

For his last b-school interview, we (me and another friend) went to his place at night, slept there till 3:00 am and then drove all the way from Bombay to Pune, dropped him off at Symbi, spent 3 hours just waiting for him and then drove back all the way. Ultimately it so happened that, that was the only interview which he cleared and got selected. And we were able to attend my other friend's wedding in peace.

He's got unbelievable brain, amazing intellect. He's absolutely ruthless with words and his humor. At the same time he's incredibly lazy. He's so addicted to TV that the day of his IIT b-school interview he was supposed to prepare his SOP (statement-of-purpose) and he didnt because he was watching the Oscars on TV and asked our another friend to do it for him. If his favourite show's on TV, he doesnt even pick up our phone calls. On the other hand, he's always ready to meet us and spend some time with us.

He's a complete spend-thrift, a foodie. At the same time after our meets, when I offer to drop him home (he stays further beyond than I do), he refuses the offer and prefers to go in a rickshaw. He'd christened my car "CHINDI-Ca" (I have a TATA Indica) and I used to get really mad at him for this and now he openly admits to missing me and my car. He's got great philosophy about friendship and he says its completely give and take and it shouldnt be one-sided.

I am so very lucky to have him as a friend and I just cant express in words my admiration for him. I wrote him a testimonial in Orkut and he made a statement to one of our other friends, you cant express in words what someone actually means to you. And that is so very true.

Although I try my best, I just cant express in words what you mean to me. My dear baldy friend!

Not much Ado about Something

Today was a landmark day in the 30 year history of Mr. Ramalingam G a.k.a Vivek. Here's what happened.

I was in the midst of serious work. I was preparing for a client meeting involving very senior delegates and my mom calls me up. I answered the phone and she asked me if I had some time to talk. I said yes inspite of the fact that I was in the middle of something. I dunno why I said yes, because normally whenever I'm deep in work, I always tell mom or dad or anyone that I'll call back later. But today I said yes.

I could feel a tinge of elation in mom's tone. So here she goes about this marriage alliance which she found on some matrimony site and how the next month in the Tamil calender is not an auspicious month so she wanted to go and visit the family. I said, "Mom-I'm busy I dont think I can make it because of the client meeting coming up but nonetheless I'll give you call when I'm free to talk".

Now, fortunately or unfortunately, my work today got over early and I was free by 07:00 PM. So, being the dutiful son that I am, :-)) I called up mom and asked her where she is. She said she's on her way to meet this family and dad's also coming. She started trying to convince me also to come and tells me about how the bloody "HORRORSCOPE" has matched very well and of all the different "Yog" and blah blah blah.

I always literally close my ears whenever mom starts yapping away to oblivion about damn "HORRORSCOPES" and planets influencing peoples' behaviour and life and most irritatingly about future. I just dont believe in them. I just cannot believe how a planet billions of miles away can influence an abstract entity like the future of ones' life. Anyways I'm digressing from my post.

So she's trying to convince me and out of sheer frustration from listening to her rant, I relented to her emotional blackmail. I agreed to go and visit the family. All through my drive I was thinking about my decision. Brooding about how to conduct myself in front of a family who would be watching or probably scrutinizing each and every one of my move, every action, every response, every statement that I make. I will be "evaluated" carefully at every step to see whether I am "suitable" or not.

And frankly, I can now perfectly understand what goes through the mind of nearly every "eligible" girl in India when she is subject to such an ordeal.

I decided to approach this as a visit to a family friend. I decided to NOT think about the "real" nature of visit. Not that the visit was meant to be that, it was just a friendly casual meet between two families, but I couldnt help but think about the underlying motive which was only subtly expressed. Anyways, I decided to conduct myself in a very casual and friendly way.

Something all the more surprising is the near total lack of traffic that day and believe it or not, I completed the journey between Powai and Andheri in a span of 35 minutes. Which considering peak hour traffic and bad east-west connection roads is a phenomenal achievement.

SO I met mom and dad and then together we proceeded to meet this family. We entered their house and they were extremely friendly and completely contrary to my thinking of me being "evaluated". I soon relaxed and got introduced to the family members. The whole talk proceeded in a very casual manner.

To be very honest, there were a couple of instances when the "elders" started to talk among themselves and I felt left out, but during some of those times, the girl's mom came to the "rescue" of my silence. And I found that quite interesting. The girl's mom showed me the girls' pictures and I must admit she's definitely pretty.

Mom and dad were talking about how the HORRORSCOPES matched and times when they lived in Matunga and all typical "elders" talk, while I was talking about my educational background, my work, my career focus change from deliveries to business development, about my movie interests, about my new flat in Powai, all these things.

Anyways, at the end of it all, I guess this was an ice-breaker for me of sorts. Until now, I was pretty closed about "settling down" and I even told this other girl I met - that I'm not ready for taking the plunge yet. But somehow this visit opened me up to atleast acknowledging the idea that I might have to "settle down" eventually.

UPDATE (11/07): If anyone else is reading this please understand that whatever is mentioned here are just my thoughts and views and perceptions and mine alone and what went through my mind. Please donot misunderstand the post because it does NOT have a bearing on anyone else.

Narrow Domestic Walls...

Today, I was just browsing through my blogger friends' blogs and I came across a wonderful poem posted here about yin and yang which set my mind whirring. One thing led to another and yet another until I remembered Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali. I'm quoting it here.


Mind Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.


This used to be my Assembly Prayer in school. Everyday in the afternoon, as soon as we reached school, we were made to stand in the school assembly grounds and "sing" a Hindi Prayer, followed by the above poem from Gitanjali and then made to recite the pledge. I used to think it was an ordeal undergoing all this every single day of school and I used to recite it without ever trying to understand the meaning of it.

And then sometime last year, when I was in the US, I visited my friends in Milwaukee. My friend is a bengali married to a UP-ite. Of course the UP-ite is also my dear friend - all of us studied in the same engineering college. During the course of a conversation, my bengali friend's parents talked about Rabindranath Tagore and his poem collection Gitanjali and in particular this poem.

Impromptu, I told them that I used to recite this poem everyday when I was in school. My friend's father then immediately recited the Bengali version of the same poem. Later, after coming back from Milwaukee, I decided to google it because I wasnt able to recollect the complete poem. I found it at the link here

I read each and every line and then read it again and then re-read it again and again and yet again, each time reading it slower than the previous time. Trying to understand the meaning comprehend Tagore's logic behind the composition. It made sense.

It made sense THEN.
It makes sense NOW.

The poem is so relevant even in today's scenario although it was written as far back as 1912.

I have nothing further to say dear Mr. Tagore. I rest my case.

30 days to 30...

Yes...you read it right...in 30 days time, I'll no longer be in the 20s. I'll "graduate" into the 30s. Oh My God!!!!! 30 YEARS. Nearly 40% of my life over and done with. I will no longer be known as a young man. I will be now known as middle-aged man. WOW!!!! Its scary. Really very scary.

A look back at my 20s and its been a wonderful joy-ride. Passed out of college after a great struggle, taking a 3-4 month break to study for the CDAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) entrance exam, staying up at night to complete assignments at Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishtan - the C-DAC centre. And then came a string of my-firsts.

My first job offer,
my first job,
my first pay cheque,
my first resignation letter,
my first lay-off,
my first foreign language course,
my first domestic flight,
my first international flight experience,
my first overseas trip,
my first tryst staying away from home in Vienna,
my first cooking lesson,
my first trip to Rome and Pisa,
my first drive on the German Autobahn,
my first trip to Munich,
my first SLR camera,
my first important work project,
my first long term overseas assignment,
my first trip to a Formula 1 grand prix,
my first trip to London,
my first drunk makeout,
my first "fling" with a german woman,
my first trip to Amsterdam,
my first visit to a strip club,
my first Lap-Dance,
my first trip to Salzburg with my dearest engineering friend,
my first date with a CDAC friend for new year
my first love....my dear lovely car....my Indica,
my first project in Bangalore,
my first night out in a Bangalore pub,
my first trip to wonderful Paris, the visit to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre,
my first "ditch" of a friend whom I promised to meet in Paris,
my first Oktoberfest,
my first sleep-over at my German friend's place,
my first official trip to Alsace on behalf of my client,
my first "bold" decision to return home instead of opting for a Japanese assignment,
my first start-to-end project commitment,
my first car break-down at the end of the Mumbai-Pune expressway whilst on my way to celebrate New Year with very close engineering friends,
my first official trip to Manchester,
my first crush on an office colleague,
my first upgrade to Business Class with Air France,
my first exposure to product management,
my first motivation to do MBA and get into a B-school,
my first negotiation about my salary,
my first trip to USA,
my first gajar halwa,
my first discussion with my bosses about moving into business development,
my first GMAT score,
my first BLOG post,
my first paper presentation on messaging technologies,
my first paper presentation award,
my first long term US assignment,
my first B-school interview call which I did not attend,
my first house in Mumbai (which was always my dream to own one),
my first trip to New York,
my first New Year Celebration outside India,
my first car rental in the US,
my first car driving on a US freeway,
my first solo client-presentation,
my first Starbucks cappuccino (it was to become an addiction later - the triple venti wet cappuccino)
my first DP in the US with all my dearest engineering friends,
my first visit to Disneyland,
my first visit to Las Vegas,
my first 7 hour overnight drive from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa and back,
my first visit to San Diego,
my first lay and that too in a car parking lot,
my first trip to Miami to watch a basketball game between Miami Heat and Cleaveland Cavaliers,
my first visit to watch a tennis match - SonyEricsson open in Miami,
my first drive to Key West,
my first manager promotion,
my first date with an american woman,
my first Linkin park concert,
my first 10 hour solo-drive from Kansas City to Milwaukee covering 10 states,
my first hindi movie in an american movie hall,
my first visit to Universal Studios,
my first visit to Grand Canyon,
my first manual transmision (stick-shift) car drive experience in the US,
my first trip to Gatlynberg, Tennessee,
my first 2-day stay in an old 19th century log-cabin which seemed nearly like a ghost house,
my first visit to Singapore to spend some time with my dear engineering college friend,
and finally.....
my first ever "ice-breaking" conversation and meeting with someone whom my parents had chosen as my "the-one" but me being myself...getting cold feet and not wanting to go ahead with the "alliance".

The whole of my 20s has been very exciting, wonderful, amazing. I couldn't have asked for anything better than what I got. I will always fondly look back on these firsts and cherish them forever.

Blame it ALL on the IPL...

Here I am....Back again....after a longish hiatus. Why the break? Blame it on The Indian Premier League - IPL. Its become a regular feature of my evenings and weekends. So much so that I make it a point to leave from office bang at 05:30 PM(occasionally as early as 05:00) to rush home before 07:00 so that I can catch the evening IPL extravaganza. The are a number of posts I want to write about, but this IPL just takes so much of my time.

The other day, I was just discussing with my brother about how the TRP ratings of other shows on TV have gone down because of this IPL. At that time, I started to wonder, how will I kill time in the evenings when the whole IPL thingy gets over. I'll definitely get a lot of time for myself and maybe I'll utilize it to update my blog. That would be a good way to kill excess time. :-))

Coming back to the IPL, its such a fantastic idea. Great concept. It has the makings of becoming a-la English Premier League. It brings together talents from all the cricket playing nations of the world. It provides a great opportunity to budding young Indian cricketers to showcase their talent in front of the world. Before this tournament began, who knew of Siddharth Trivedi, Shaun Marsh, Swapnil Asnodkar, Shikar Dhawan and lots of more young talent. If I mention all of them here, I'll run out of blogging space. HEHEHE. :-)

Until now, 40 matches have been played and except for a couple of matches during the early part of the tournament and some matches during my friend's wedding, I've watched almost all the other matches. My loyalties rest solely with Mumbai Indians. It is owned by Mukesh Ambani, the richest (or the second richest - depending on whether his stock does well or not) Indian. He has shelled out a WHOPPING 111.9 million USD. They started off very badly when the tournament began but are now starting to make ground with last 5 consecutive wins. They're playing the Deccan Chargers today but they're up against the Law of Averages since they've won the last 5 of their matches.

The other team that I like after of course the Mumbai Indians is the Rajasthan Royals. They were unfancied underdogs at the start of the tournament with only the great Ozzie Leggie Shane Warne as their star player. They're also the cheapest team in the IPL with only 67 million USD. I guess not having big stars helped the team because, Shane Warne as captain and coach has brought about great camaraderie in the team. He has given each player well defined roles and an execution plan which the players do with great elan. Afterall, cricket is a team game.

The teams languishing at the bottom of the table right now are the Bangalore-Royal Challengers owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya and the Deccan-Chargers owned by the print media Deccan Chronicle. The Royal Challengers have a few "big" players but most of the players are dare-I-say inexperienced in the shortest version (Twenty20) of the game. Rahul Dravid, Jaques Kallis are great players in their own right, but are not suited best for Twenty20. The other team, Deccan-Chargers, have BIG HITTERS (Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs, etc) but they don't fire well as a team.

Another new aspect in the IPL is the teams having cheer-leaders. I think its fantastic. The evening is given the dimension of wholesome entertainment rather than just come-watch-the-game-and-go-home kind of a feeling. Afterall the spectators have to get their money's worth. One thing that I don't like about the cheerleader concept is to call girls from western countries. Yes, Indians have always lusted for white skinned, big boobed, skimpily clothed girls gyrating lasciviously to groovy music, but I do feel that the organizers would be better suited to use Indian girls.

Why do I feel so? Because, off-late there have been lots of reports of foreign tourists being molested. The possibility of molestation will decrease when Indian girls are used, because I feel that as yet, we as a society have not become mature enough to handle exposed skin. Indians have always been sex-starved people. Actually, its a hypocritical statement - country with the largest population growth being called sex-starved. Nonetheless, its true. Anyways, I guess I'll leave that thought there, maybe I'll post about it later.

Today's a big game for two teams vying for a semi-final spot - firstly The Kolkata-Knight Riders (currently in 6th place), (owned by Shah Rukh Khan) who are playing The Chennai - Super Kings (currently in 3rd place) and secondly of course the Mumbai Indians. Given the current standngs it looks like its going to be a three-way battle between Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi-Daredevils.

Lets hope for Shahrukh's sake and for Sachin's sake both Kolkata and Mumbai win their respective matches.

On that note, I'll sign off from here. Mom's been pestering me for the last half-an-hour to come and have lunch, but I wanted to finish off this post before I indulge myself in some sumptuous lunch and some great T20 cricket.

Happiness...

Okay...this is a post inspired from here, which in turn is borrowed from here

Happiness is...
....Meeting up with close friends after a long gap.
....Memory of the time spent with late grand-mother and great-grand-mother
....The smell of the mud during and just after the first rains.
....Realizing that dearest darling sister has become big and mature enough to be a mommy.
....Seeing the excitement on mom's and dad's faces when they search for their daughter-in-law for their eldest son.
....Eating pav-bhaji laden with lots of cheese and butter.
....Achieving something close to impossible, something which everyone has said is a foolish thing to do.
....Not committing a mistake which was already made under similar circumstances.
....Passionately describing the story of a favourite movie to other friends who havent seen it.
....Venti-Wet-Capuccino-with-extra-shot from Starbucks.
....Feeling proud about the phenomenal improvement shown by a dearest brother in academics.
....Talking to Nana-nani (maternal grand parents) about their younger days on a Saturday afternoon.
....Stepping into your own house which you bought with your own hard earned money.
....Distributing laptops, T-shirts, perfumes bought from the US for your dearest loved ones.
....The thought of owning a house on the beach.
....Visiting siddhi-vinayak mandir.
....Listening to your favourite RJs on the Radio.
....Seeing an empty road on a strech which always has a traffic jam almost everyday.
....Driving a BMW or a Mercedes.
....Seeing old photos of when you were a baby.
....Watching the Indian cricket team defeat Australia in Australia.
....Falling off to sleep knowing that there's no work tomorrow.
....Hugging a near and dear one tightly.
....Removing shoes and socks after having come from work and feeling the coldness of the floor hitting your leg.
....Getting a compliment.
....Blogging trying to remember nearly every happy moment. :-))

Alas! Happiness cannot be described in a single blog post.

So comes a Tag my way...NO its not a Tag Heuer watch

There I was in San Diego, USA, counting my last days in the US, when suddenly I checked my mail and found this comment by a certain Jammin Dudleybouy...a-k-a Vikirum

I had been TAGGED!!! I'd like to christen this tag THE GREAT EIGHT .

Anyways...so here are my answers....

Eight Songs I Could Listen To Over And Over
Oh my god...there are so many....and they keep changing....but here's a list of my ALL time favourites...(in random order)

1. Shine on you crazy diamond - Pink Floyd

2. Creep - Stone Temple Pilots (the acoustic version)

3. Mocking Bird - Eminem

4. Kholo Kholo - Taare Zameen Par (Shankan-Ehsaan-Loy)

5. Almost all songs from Nirvana unplugged in New York. (Kurt Cobain ROCKS!!!)

6. One - Metallica

7. Time to say goodbye - Andrea Boccelli and Sarah Brightman

8. Diary of Jane - Breaking Benjamin


Eight Things I Want To Do Before I Die

1. Watch India play Australia in a test-match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

2. Go on the Kailash - Manasarovar Yatra.

3. Make a difference to somebody's life so that THAT SOMEONE remembers me all his/her life even after I am gone. Something worth dying for.

4. Visit the Rio Carnival.

5. Take mom-and-dad on an around the world tour.

6. Fly an airplane.

7. Have sex in an elevator. (hahahahahahaha)

8. Buy a Mercedes Benz.


Eight Things I Say Often

1. Fuck/Freak/WTF!!??!!

2. Oh My God

3. Chirkut

4. Bhendi/Bhenchod

5. Dude

6. Yeh Kya Chutiyagiri Hai!!??!!

7. Holy Mother Of God!

8. Paplu


Eight Books I Have Read Recently

Not much of an avid reader but, I've read these books over a span of about 4 or so years. :-))

1. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - Richard.P.Feynmann

2. Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum

3. Memoirs Of A Geisha - Arthur Golden

4. Its Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong

5. Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat

6. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown

7. Almighty - Irving Wallace

8. Michael Schumacher: The Edge Of Greatness - James Allen


Eight Things That Attract Me To My Friends

1. My Openness

2. Helpful Nature

3. My Quirks

4. Willingness to accept my mistake and learn

5. Dependability

6. Willingness to spend money

7. Always trying to keep everyone connected

8. My Car (hehehehe)


Eight Things I'm Passionate About

1. Friends

2. Car

3. Driving

4. Rock Music

5. Blogging

6. Cooking

7. Photography

8. Travelling



Eight People That Should Do This Tag

Honestly, since a lot of blogger mates are common between Vik and me, I dont have 8 people to whom I can pass on this tag. So, I'll just say....Anyone who's interested can pick up this tag.

Have fun doing it. :-))

Here I am....

Take a deep breath.....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmph......(hold)....(hold)....(hold)....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah......the air feels strange. I can smell a slight tinge of pollution, a little bit of humidity. The sky seems hazy. I can see people everywhere. Walking on the road...tens of millions. Travelling in overcrowded buses...millions. Sitting inside a dingy little 3-wheeled motor like creatures (auto-rickshaws)...tens of thousands. Driving swanky and not so swanky cars...thousands. Welcome to my home country, India. My home town, Mumbai.

I have been here close to about 3 whole weeks and boy it hasn't changed one little bit. What am I saying?? Of course it has changed, there are new malls, new restaurants, new night clubs, new road construction, new residential complexes, new commercial properties, new multiplexes. But, the problems compounding the city are the same. Lots of traffic, very few parking spots, lack of road discipline, people driving expensive vehicles but still stopping to spit their pan-masala, corrupt politicians targetting innocent bread-earners under the pretext that they are not locals. At times, I do tend to think whether I did the right thing in deciding to come back from the US.

And then I see my mom, my dad, my dear (maternal) grandfather and grandmother, my sister, her husband, my dearest younger brother, my mom's home cooked wonderful food, the innumerable options for vegetarian food available the moment you step out of the house, cheap but excellent medical treatment available nearly at my beck-and-call, not having to rely solely on cars to get grocery, negotiating with the vegetable vendor to get the best available bargain. And most of all my new house which will be under my possession in the next month or so. And I think, it was worth it coming back from the US.

Yes, it has been completely, totally, absolutely, positively, one-hundred-percent worth it. I have lots of things to blog about, including the "ice-breaking" conversation I had with someone whom mom-and-dad would call "prospective marriage alliance", until then keep reading and keep smiling.

Blogging from SFO Airport

Wow...The power of internet. Here I am with the first leg of my journey back home is done. I've come to San Francisco from San Diego. The flight just one and a half hours. And thats what I'm doing. HEHEHEHEHE.




Nows the big one...San Francisco to Singapore via Hong Kong. A humongous 14 hour ordeal. I dont know how I will spend time, knowing that I sleep really bad in flights. And unfortunately my DELL XPS can at best work for 4.5 hours only.

Had huge trouble with my check-in bags. Apparently, it was 18 lbs over weight. Dunno how much that translates into in terms of kilograms, but the maximum allowed in a United flight is a lousy lowly 60 lbs. Compare that with a maximum of 75 lbs allowed in Singapore airlines, United sucks big time.

I simply cannot understand their process. Here I am flying out of the US, on a major carrier (read Singapore airlines) but connecting through United's flight from San Diego to San Francisco. This is written perfectly clearly in my ticket. There's no way in the world that I'll forego my journey and yet United will not allow me to check-in bags with the same weight as Singapore airlines. One thing which is all the more surprising is that they're both affiliated to the same group - Star Alliance.

So, here I am arguing at the counter about whats right and whats wrong and the way it should work but to no avail. The check-in counter lady did not budge. Tired of the argument, I relented and asked her how much would it cost me. She said since my bag's 78 lbs, it would cost huge. I was shell-shocked to hear the amount.

It would have cost me a phenomenal, earth-shattering, 3-hundred-frikkin-odd dollars for that weight. I told her that no ways I'm gonna pay that much. Then she gave me an alternative. She said if I were to remove 8 lbs then I would have to just pay USD 50. So there I had it. Pay 50 or chuck everything to bring down to 60. I removed out some of the unwanted stuff and some more stuff I moved to my hand luggage and finally I was down to 68 lbs.

I thought I went rather early to the airport, but with all the time I spent first arguing and then later re-arranging, I was left with just 30-odd minutes before my departure. Having taken all my stuff, I hurried to the security check. It was starting to sink in. I was heading HOME. YIPEEEEE.

Flying in an airlines in the US is a pain in the frikkin ass. The security check is so severe that you're bound to forget something or the other at the scanning machine. And thats the exact thing that happened to me. With all the adrenalin pumping because of the baggage ordeal coupled with the thought of heading homeward, made me forget my digital SLR camera at the scannin machine.

Luckily, when I was sitting down at a chair bang opposite to the scanning machine, I saw a security attendant open my camera bag remove all my stuff and pass it through the scanning machine AGAIN!! They were probably suspecting that it contained some sort of explosive. And then I shouted, its mine....its mine. Thus I was finally united with my camera.

PHEW!! All this and I've just finished the first leg of the journey. Wonder what else is in store for me. For all those who dont know, I'm gonna take a 3-day break in Singapore. Will be meeting my dear friend JK. I'll be meeting him after nearly 3 long years. I'm sooo looking forward to it.

Snip...Snip...Snip...

As you all know, I'm entering the last 10 days of my stay in the US and as a build up to my grand departure, I decided to get a hair cut. I had been "growing" my hair for nearly 3 long years before I decided to get it trimmed. Of course its still quite long but definitely shorter than what I was having couple of months back.

One reason was mom's constant bickering about my long hair and also about how I'm losing prospective brides in matrimonial sites because of long hair. Honestly, she did not know that I was growing it just avoid the very reason why she wanted me to trim it off. HeHeHeHe :-))

So, without further ado lets get to the before the haircut and after the haircut looks.

Here's how I used to look...



And this is what I look like now....



What do you guys think?

Anyways, now the damage is done. I can't undo it. All I can do is wait until it grows back. Actually, as a matter of fact, I'm beginning to like this new look. Every once in a while its good to change your look. It seems different. It feels different. Its refreshing. And one more thing....my head sure feels light.

My First Marriage Proposal

Alright....Alright....Keshi and Vik, your persistence pays and I have no choice but to relent. The full story on the alliance goes like this...

One fine day somewhere in and around end of October during my regular weekly home phone call, my mom tells me about this girl they found as a match for me. I'm sure Vik and all other South-Indians especially Iyers would know the process. For everyone else here's how it goes.

Basically, whenever a child is born the family consults the family-astrologer (yes! almost akin to family-doctor). The astrologer, based on the date, time and (maybe even) location of birth, prepares a diagram which symbolically represents the position of the entities of the solar system. Thats what everyone calls the horoscope. I like to call it HORROR-SCOPE!! LOL. Also, based on the position of the sun, the child's birth star and birth constellation is decided. The part I like about all this is that the ancients - at a time when there were no telescopes and spacecrafts - were also able to "calculate" the position of earth/sun with respect to the star formations known during that time. Thats so fascinating.

Anyways, this HORROR-SCOPE is mainly used for two things, predicting the future and finding a match for marriage. My mom and dad also made one such HORROR-SCOPE for me and now its performing its duty. :-)))

Sorry for the digression, so coming back to what I was saying earlier, mom and dad had registered my profile with a couple of matrimony sites and this match came through one of those sites. Apparently, my folks had uploaded a couple of my pictures and also my HORROR-SCOPE in the site. The girl's parents had looked up my pictures and my profile and downloaded the HORROR-SCOPE for a match. They consulted with their astrologer and then contacted my parents.

Then my parents got her HORROR-SCOPE and consulted our astrologer. Mom told me that this "match" is an 80% HORROR-SCOPE match which - in astrological terms - is considered exceptional. She also said that the girl fulfilled criteria which I had put down. When my mom and dad started to look for a match, I had told them that I did not want anyone from my field of work, I wanted someone who is very educated, who is not more than 4 years younger than me and who has been brought up in a city environment. This girl is a doctor and she is from a town called Vapi just north of Mumbai and has studied in Mangalore.

During the call mom and dad told me that they intended to go ahead with the "proposal" of course subject to my approval. I told them I needed some time to think over it. A couple of days later, mom and dad sent me three pictures of the girl. The girl was quite good-looking. She was doing her post-doctoral internship and she had (allegedly) liked my pictures in the matrimonial site. My parents told me that if you give the go-ahead, we can go and have a look at the girl and then if everything goes fine we can have the marriage by May-2008.

Whoa! now things were moving too fast. Way too fast. I told my folks that I can take a decision only and only after I come back to India and this will not happen before February-2008. My mom is the greatest person in the world and I admire her the most. I am very open with her. I explained to her that its very important for me to meet the girl face to face and talk to her and only then I can come to a conclusion. She understood my predicament perfectly and told me that she completely supported me.

With mom by my side, I talked to my dad and told him about my decision. I told him to tell the girl's parents that they would have to wait until my return to India. Meanwhile, my mom and dad gave me the girl's email address and asked me to send an introductory email to her.

Honestly, I am very shy at these things. I told my mom that I'll do it. Weeks passed and I didnt send the email. The girl's parents started to ask my parents nearly every week whether I had sent the email. My parents would in turn ask me and I would tell them that I'm busy with work and hence I didnt get the time. After about 2-3 weeks I could not avoid it anymore and I sent an email. I just apologized to the girl for the delay in sending the mail and I just re-iterated to her that any decision on the proposal would be taken only after me meeting her.

I told my folks that I sent the email and asked them to confirm with the girl and her parents. A couple of days later, I got the message that the girl had not received my email yet. I told my parents to check with the girl to see if my mail accidentally went to the spam folder or something like that. They confirmed and said that she had never received my mail. I then re-read my email and thought that my first email sort of indicated my negativity in the proposal more then I intended it to. I felt that the tone of the email sounded more professional than personal.

So, I recomposed it. This time making it a more personal email than the first one, but still conveying the same intention as the first (i.e. to meet her face to face and then arrive at a decision). My parents had given me another one of her email addresses so this time I sent the mail to both her email addresses. About a week later when I asked my parents to check with her once again, I got the same response. She hadnt received the mail.

So now things had come to a complete standstill. I had sent her a couple of emails but she claimed that she had not received any of them and I sensed that this "proposal" is on its way down. Its not going to go through. And it happened just the way I thought. A couple of weeks later my Mom told me that the girl's parents have finalized her marriage with somebody else.

So thats the story on that "alliance". And I'm still here. Still single. My parents still looking. And more importantly - STILL HAPPY. Hehehehehe.

Mindblowing....

Dudes and dudettes,

Check out this video. This amazing kid sells peacock fans and its fascinating to see that he has picked up many different languages just by interacting with tourists that come to visit the Hanging gardens in Mumbai.

The kids language learning skills are simply superb.

Enjoy this wonderful video.

Now you see him....Now you don't...

I'm back. After a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong break. Why the break?

Honestly, I've been feeling a little bit low on confidence. One reason being, I've been away from home for nearly 2 years and 3 months and am feeling very very homesick. There are other reasons too but sorry, I cant explain them here. Still feeling a bit low but not as down as some weeks back.

Anyways, the big news from my side is that I'll be leaving the shores of uncle Sam soon. Yes, I'm going home. Home to Mumbai, home to my motherland, home to my family. I'm so so excited about it. At last something to look forward to. I will be flying out on the 6th of March via Singapore. I'll be spending a couple of days in Singapore at my friend's place and then heading home.

So my shopping spree has started. I've already spent nearly 500 dollars in buying lots of stuff - mainly clothes and electronics. Bought a lot of T-shirts, jackets, track-pants, shirt and tie for my sister's husband, a DVD set of "I Love Lucy" the 1950s sitcom starring Lucille Ball for mom, wireless routers, rechargeable batteries and charger. Of course, this is discounting the fact that I had already bought a laptop for my sister. This is not all, there's lot of stuff more for me to buy and by the looks of it, I might end up spending all of my last month's salary on Shopping.

But all this is great fun. I'm starting to get more and more excited about my trip with the passing of each day.