College

This weekend I went back to my old college. (Inspired heavily by the opening line of Rebecca) Down the familiar lane I went, the bike jerking around a little almost like it was fussing “Where have you brought me mistress? , I’ve never been this way before”True , the last I went down this lane , I had had my old bike , my friend of 7 years. Now , he was a toughie , he knew that he had to heave him self down with a puncture right in front of the mechanic’s garage , he had to run until he exhausted his last drop of petrol a safe 100 meters from a petrol bunk!Ahh the red bikes of today, spoilt, I tell ya! Gimme my old Kinetic any day! “Parking for students” the board screamed.. there used to be a WELL here! That used to be filled...

Weekday Happenings

Legend PPP : Praying PillPopper , mother Potterer: Dad RM:meAltoid:The sister , she ,well , is mintyIts the end of the year feel , theres 10% of the normal crowd in the cafeteria and the caterer happily doles out sooka chappathis without counting them , he usually lurks behind the huge casserole and swoops down on anybody who grabs more than two..considering they taste like feet..!So now , the Pillpopper(She seems to be the high point of all my posts , shes a never ending source of post feed , I tell you!) decided to go her Maika , apparently it has been two years since she last saw her Mom.So , one fine Sunday morning ,PPP:" Hi !"Potterer:" err , what do you want?"PPP(*looking miffed*):" Why does everyone respond in that fashion to my Hellos!"Potterer(*Looks...

Potpourri

Don't know what to call this post , it's a mixed bag of all events and musings from the past week . Lets call it Pot potpourri , ok? Ok. First of all , Altoid , Dad and I threw a party for the Pillpopper J , we called all her colleagues (her oldest colleagues from a little school near home to the ones from her new extremely corporate school) .. PPP: “This is ridiculous, how will I ever host a party! I’ve never in all my life hosted one” RM: “Well, I’ve never gotten married either, so shall I back out on that too?” PPP: “Shut up! I won’t have a party!” Altoid: “Black Forest cake and samosas? Or something southie?” RM: “ yeah yeah …yum” PPP : “ I will run away from home” Altoid : “Ok , we’ll tell your friends you ran away and now...

Some gems ...

Do you know why my weekends are never boring these days? 'Cause I just discovered a new hobby! Cleaning up my inbox in my Matrimonial profile! Good time-pass I tell you , it has all the makings of a sooper dooper hit reality show -Laughter(Lots of it , sometimes I need to hold on to the table for support ), then there is Drama("I want a soul-mate who will dig into the crevices of my until-now-un-nurtured heart"), there is romance("I want a friend-wife-soulmate-companion-cleaner-cook all rolled into one hot looking slim fair iyer chick"), there is Dard(" I will continue smiling until i find her") ; Also , ALSO a great place to find quotable quotes!How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.........When you love someone, and...

Travel Tales

Ok , just returned from a week long trip to Delhi Agra and Jaipur and my ! was it good or was it good ! I'll probably bore you with a detailed account of each place I visited and what hit me most while being there in another post, Ok? Not ok ? Well , you've no choice 'cause you don't have my password , so there!Some " Did you knows" Did you know..1. That Delhi isn't like Bangalore ? Well Duh , I mean like no one wakes up before 11 and there is no concept of a Darshini ! People eat bread toast an chai from the road-side vendor who sports an oil tin for a seat!!2. That its very normal for a man to be carrying 5 buffaloes in an open cart , and casually lift up its tail so that the buffalo can attend to its nature call? I mean...

Weird me

HHG has tagged me to reveal 7 weird things about me and to further tag seven people to continue the tag ,Here goes! Ok this one extremely peculiar trait that I’ve noticed about myself. Manager gives me an issue to debug at work I pour and pour over documents , analysis files yadda yadda and something strikes.. this is the issue the brain says.. yes RM this is it.. and then I stop right there and go for a cup of coffee OR I go home , i.e I don't continue to check if the solution is right in which case I should’ve rejoiced nor do I prod along to see if I’m wrong , in which case I must’nt be going home. Methinks its cause I’m scared it might be wrong in which case it was all a lost cause and I’d have to start from square one. I have...

The world in a cube

My friend SRC has spent the last week trying to convince a russian that her name happens to be S , she even signs off as S in big black and bold. And yet somehow..SRC :"Hi Rai (or Chatterjee?),RM says: wowRM says: she wrote that?SRC :very soon i'd rather sign off as RaiSRC:a certain Cynthia watever!SRC:bah!RMsays:bahSRC says:how mean wud it be if i replied to her and addressed her as 'Hi watever'RM says:send her some abuses...RMsays:"hi WTH"SRC:she might not followSRC:she's russian i guessRM says:send her a linkSRC:her designation is "Software Entwicklungsingenieur"RM says:if shes that dumb mebbe u shudnt mail her queries?A little while later SRC mailed an almost diabetic mail that went "Dear Cynthia... Just to clarify.."Yeah yeah , we Indians...

oh so sigh!

Cool "Reebok Dance" RM gave her heart to = 600 Rs (Yes , yes Gulp)A cool book the sister recommended = 300 RsA cool non fruity non flowery non girly but "Hmmm oh so fresh n tangy" perfume = 500 RsAll this bought thanks to a "Diwali gift Voucher" from hamara company shtrongesht = Summation of all above.The feeling of dread which overpowers all the above positives of hamara company shtrongesht on a Sunday night = Priceless...

Happy Diwali..!

Here's wishing a very happy and a prosperous Diwali to everybody :)May every one of your whim /fancy/crazy idea/most bizarre thought come true !Leaving you off with a favorite poem of mine(one of the very few I've read) Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, lead Thou me on!The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on!Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to seeThe distant scene; one step enough for me. I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou shouldst lead me on;I loved to choose and see my path; but now lead Thou me on!I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years! So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on.O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night...

Sound of music

6:15 AM: *ZZzzZZ*Sounds from the wash stand:"Splash splash , tweeka tweeeka brush brush"RM:"zzeeh?"RM:(glaring hard at the ceiling)" Appa?"Dad:"Shploosheh?"RM:"Never mind , am up anyway!"Some other day,4:11 AM:* zzzZZ dream dream*Sounds from the kitchen"BANG clang scrub bang ""Ting ting ting ting"RM:*Looks at the ceiling*RM:"Ma?"Mom:*Sing song voice from the kitchen* " Oooh did I wake you?"RM:"No no , I'm still dreaming"Mom:" Early morning sarcasm eh , hehe"RM: " WHAT are you doing at this hour? Is it that Kanu festival today?"Mom:*bang bang clang* "I slept in the afternoon yesterday and I couldn't sleep at all in the night , so I thought I would finish up with the cooking and call Kedar earlier so that I could finish up with the tuition as...

Nothingness?:)

Everybodys left early , this being a combination of a day before a State holiday , a possible long weekend , and a blissful Diwali week waiting ahead.Its 6PM and all I can hear are the sounds of my hands tapping the keypad , my floor mate G's voice as she pulls her colleagues leg , my friend S's groan(she's got a lot to do this week and apparently can't even *think* of a day of respite), I like this feeling , of having some work to finish off , of not having too many heads around me(sounds so gory eh?) , of the thought of polishing off a pastry at the cafetaria plus a cup of coffee , messaging Alto a Good morning , of telling Amma that I will reach home in time for our serial...errrm now I'm thinking "Do you think I'm asking for trouble...

All in the family

Now , just before I decided to do a post about it , I did ask my Mom if she had any objections to my content. As always she said she did , and as always I choose to disobey , so here goes..I think my family has a strange strain of sadism running through it that has gotten better with each generation.With that Dhamakedar opening , I shalt resort to using less fancy words.You've knitted your brows? You wonder why it is so? RM patti will tell you why.Here's why.Shall I commence now? Or now?See what I mean?Let me start at the very beginning.I was born in Secunderabad(besides that , I do not have any attachment or sentiment attached to the place ) .During the formative years of my life , my Mother and Altoidster led me to believe that I was actually...

Diverse are we

I believeDiversity is a part of the natural order of lifeAs natural as a billion shapes and shadesOf the colors of springOr the leaves of autumnWe had "Diversity Day " at work this Friday . A day to acknowledge the fact that we were a French-American organization with one of the branches in Southern India with one of the campuses next to Bangalore's largest drain.Yes , diversity in all shapes and forms there."Do your floor" was one of the bullets in the To-Do list.10 heads came together on the first day with cups of coffee and a board marker .K: "All the floors will do the cliched color paintings and colored lights"L:"Last year , we did nothing , When the judges came in , we were still cutting color paper, we were the worst decorated floor,...

These are a few of my favorite pictures ..

"Happiness is a toothless smile"Taken in a village very close to Muthathi , you'll find a representative from each generation, different people , same smile :)Kaladi , Shankaracharya's birthplaceMurudeshwara , a few days before lightning struck the idolSomebody's very pretty house in Mangalore :)Urrm , any single guys inhabiting this place ?...

Return to innocence

"Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of to-day. It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism; it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul."Friend's Mom to Friend's Dad: Wonder what little R will look like five years from now(Friend's Dad looks amused)R: Auntie , I will marry a PunjabiAuntie: Why a Punjabi , little R?R:Thats as wild as I want to be and as north as I can ...

A rose by any other name

I have been tagged by HHG , so here goes!There are 3 rules.Rule 1. The rules must be mentioned in the beginning of the tag.Rule 2 You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.Rule 3. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.Ok , since my middle name is quite unmentionable , I (cringe) choose one of the pet names that my sister Altoid has erm bestowed upon me?And the name is..is..*HOWL*"Anshuman"Ok , now shut up with the laughing and read on...Atmais something we all have? I'm sorry , I thought over this "a" a zillion times , ironically a is the...

Sights while on a "Pleasure" trip

Blame the bad resolution on my 2 Meg camera phone , but this happened to be an evening when the sun was peeping coyly from out of a cloud on one side and the rain man decided it was going to be shower time on another side , but what did the weary traveler see ?A beautiful rainbow!God forbid , but if this Cab was involved in a hit and run case , what would a genius of a witness see ?W:"Poleeceman , the car's number was a Chinnu cab owner who said a Hi to Chethan!"P:"Sounds a simple case , we will get cracking!"Seriously , is this allowed??I feel guilty as hell for taking a picture of this man without his knowledge , but what to do :( , these are dire circumstances , aren't they??Ok people , any idea where such cute wind cheaters are available?Cute-bunny-man...

Game

“Hello?...Nalin?”“Akki , meet me at 8 for dinner?”“Ok..Khej”“Done!” At 7:30 Pm , Akanksha shut down her computer , signed out and started towards the parking lot . It would take a good twenty minutes to drive down to Indiranagar , with just about 10 minutes buffer time for the Airport road signal .RADIO CITY! blared the FM.“Welcome back to Route 91 and this is Darius” blared he.The next request is from Varsha who says “Hey Darius ,I’m madly in love with my ex-boyfriend and I would like to dedicate a song to him and he is currently going out with my best friend.So, I’d like to request a song from Bewafa….”. Akanksha slammed down the accelerator and cruised down the inner ring road. 8:15 Pm :“Aks!Sorry am late..left office a little late”“Lemme...

Yes , Ma'am

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. ~Jacques Barzun Here’s wishing a Happy Teacher’s Day to all my dear readers!Why the wishes even though you aren’t really a Teacher? It does happen to be a vocation all by itself, but tell me, aren’t you also one if you happen to be a Father/Mother/Sister/Brother/Friend? Aren’t you one everyday? Aren’t you imparting wisdom to someone each day like I am to you now? :D The mention of a Teacher brings Amma to my mind, or rather Amma forces herself into my mind .Amma kept insisting that I had to be logical and methodical like the pesky sis , now could I help it if I was born minus the left brain? It also worked as a great...

The K factor

Met K online today after almost 2 months. He’s scored 99% in his USMLE and is already in the land of a million opportunities. And guess what , he’s studying in a place that's very close to the Altoids’.K , in the very remote possibility that you landed up at my blog , congratulations !:)(for landing here , of course)Ok ,whos K , you ask? And you look indignant too? That I haven’t ever mentioned a K in my blog ? He’s my old old friend , probably known him for 8 years. I met him online on Yahoo , he was a mad medico and I was a budding-semester-exam-fearing Engineer.Like Anton Chekov aptly said “Love, friendship, respect, do not unite people as much as a commonhatred for something.” And our pet grievance? Exams, Telephone bills , Exam results!God!...

Found at the entrance to Transit.If a stray packet of chips is found , ULP! it will be incarcerated!A burger found? It will punished to solitary confinement and where its internal parts will rot slowly and painfully...A hot dog found? Oops! It will be hung upside down and whipped mercilessly!Really? What with the helmet check , the check-for-the-parking-ticket, the check-if-you-have-outside-food, check if-you-are-armed ..they expect you to smile?Waitamin they forgot something vital! yes , yes! The sanity check ! For having visited the Forum on a weekend!It was all I could do to stop myself from running pell-mell shouting "Get out of my waaaaay!"Ok , now we're done with ranting.Watched Chak De India. Shahrukh Khan.No histrionics , very well...

Weekday musing

For all those of who spent sleepless nights over how my first day at a new work place would go(*Beams around*) , we have done you proud! It went really well , people .Nice place , Warm people , wonderful coffee , God's in his heaven , all's right with the world!I decided to decorate my cubicle with all kinds of stuff that my friends gifted me . Item # 1 : Confused GaneshuGifted to me by Vi.This little Ganeshu can make the hardest of hearts melt.It looks at you with such sorrowful eyes(Rather likes its blaming you for its twisted trunk)Note to self : Item to be thrust into the manager's face whenever aforementioned self in trouble Item # 2 :Enchanted CupAlso gifted to me by Vi.It reads"Take a sip...

Stuff nightmares are made of

"Dear RM , this is with reference to your resignation from the position of Director , Wireless Communication group ... " read my relieving letter."EH? Ki hoya??"RM storms back to the HR and thrusts her relieving letter into the hands of a sleepy HR.Agreed , I do not expect you to personally type out every relieving letter and there exists something called a "format".But just 'cause the previous resignation was that of a director and you were too lazy to click "Do not save changes " , I get to be Direktor? Seriously? Too much!I have been unemployed for the last 48 hours and I have mixed reactions to this state , and please add nightmares too.Thoughts running in my headRM in a starched cotton salwar sporting a new stylized (read lots of goo...

Tagged!

I have been tagged by Altoid to list 8 things about myself.So here goes nothing..I’m a sucker for natural cures. More so if you tell me you found them in the Himalayas. Which is why I bought 3 huge packets of “wonder hair herb” while on a trip to Thirunelveli.Which is also why I pay a small fortune to my ayurvedic doctor who incidentally is the only person who says I look radiant and “cured”.I hate reading the newspaper, its something I’ve never ever done. I wouldn’t know the Prime Minister from the Chief Minister, unless erm... a central/state holiday was declared because they happened to go to the land of no return. I know, I know! Will work on this one.I love imitating people. The milkman, the ...

TV trouble

Ring out the old, ring in the new said Tennyson but I hardly feel happy parting with things that have served me loyally for a long time. Same feelings felt when my old BPL TV let out a final shudder before blacking out forever. While I was skulking around mourning the loss of an old friend, I found myself being subjected to my Mom’s rather caustic tongue. “Don’t be an idiot. It’s just a TV for god’s sake”“Yeah, Yeah” I leered. “How’d you like it if I were to turn you out of the house ‘cause you were getting ole and rickety”“Altoid’s right. We really did pick you from the gutter. With that logic you simply CANT be my kin”*Scared Face* Luckily for us, the man from the orphanage happened to be visiting us that weekend, which was not...

Week Update

Time to move on to newer pastures. I have given in my notice in the hell-hole and the feeling is just too damn good. I yam jesht loving it.Now, everybody from the Director to the sweeper wants to have a talk with a certain RM who had the audacity to say “NO” to exploitation. I’m like the Jhansi Ki Rani minus horse minus a lot of courage plus a red colored Pleasure. The number of cups of coffee and tea over which I have explained the “thought process that provoked such dire measures” are staggering. I am finally reaping the rewards of coming to work at 6 A.M in a rickety auto and an empty stomach. While everyone’s slogging with my share of the work , I , on the other hand have managed to put aside “The Malory Towers” and the “The St. Clares”...