Rains...

Rain, rain go away,
Come again another day,
Joe Anand wants to play,
But Chennai doesn't have a good drainage system even today!

Mobile manners

Perhaps you have already noticed, every 2nd chap on the street has a cellphone in his hand or he/she has earphones plugged in to make you wonder why the hell he/she is talking alone.

I really appreciate the economic growth and the power it has given to Indian consumers. We can be proud to say that we can afford to buy whatever an American can buy (even though most goods cost 10 or 20% higher, we can still afford them thanks to the 0% interest schemes and/or low EMIs schemes.)

What bothers is me is the noise pollution these folks create.
Inspite of posters in every church gate, cinema halls and other public places where cellphone use must be restricted, people still keep their mobiles on and let their phones ring in high volume.

Every now and then you have some1 sitting next to you yelling at the top of his voice abt some crap on his cellphone. Go ahead and flaunt your latest cellphones but please reduce the volume.
Nobody really wants to hear your romantic stories or your family affairs.
Ranting is ok but keep it low.

Diwali in Chennai...

It's Diwali today and it wasn't a lot of fun.

It's so damn cliche to say that it wasn't as good as last year. But that's exactly how it went, It was probably the most boring Diwali ever... (But as a matter of fact, I didn't celebrate Diwali last year, I was in Tokyo and I didn't bother to go to Diwali function organised by the Indian embassy)

On Saturday morning, we woke up early to watch the special programs on TV (which doesn't happen on Saturdays) We ate some chicken n mutton for lunch, Stel & I lit some sparklers n fireworks in the evening. Alan enjoyed the fireworks 50% courtesy other Hindu boys in the neighborhood). We had to go back as Alan didn't like the noise pollution torture of crackers & I couldn't put up with the drunk security guard who was bugging me Diwali inaam for 15 minutes! (Azim premji doesn't give a sweet box to his employees even after making 40% increase in profits last quarter and this bugger expects Diwali inaam from a Christian! Go f*&k yourself man!)

I don't remember celebrating Diwali after moving out of St.Joseph's colony.
Living in an apartment in Chennai, where I don't know 80% of the residents, I wasn't surprised abt none of them coming to my flat to deliver some sweets, or to exchange greetings. Perhaps most of them had already left for their native towns on Thursday night.

I wish I could go to St.Joseph's colony where I can meet my childhood buddies, chat abt every trivia, fire some crackers, eat some sweets prepared by Babu athai & Parithi athai but unfortunately none would be around to shake my hand!

We are all completely scattered out now but can we all meet in St.Joseph's colony someday?
It would be "Mission Impossible" but I would like to think that we can meet someday...

Xmas 2007 may be?

Traffic chaos...

Raingods blessed Chennai and it's so cool outside.
It rained for more than 5 hours continuously and as usual the roads are filled with water, the drainage not being put in place even though it happens to be one of the 4 metros of India.

We can very well imagine the state of affairs in the suburbs when the city itself drowns everytime it rains. I remember Stalin promising as a Mayor, to make Chennai as beautiful & organized as Singapore. It's been more than 10 years since he said that. Governments changed and the people are still waiting for government officials & politicians to fulfill their promises!

I was standing near Tata concorde motors in Velachery main road and signals went down. (We, Indians need 2 policemen in every signal even if it's working.) Our folks just can't seem to understand that red light instructs them to stop, amber asks them to slow down and be prepared to stop and green lets them go! Damn, isn't that as simple as a, b, c?!? There's one policeman trying to regulate the traffic in velachery main road intersection near Tata concorde motors, wearing a raincoat which hasn't covered him completely and what do our folks do to respect him? They just don't listen to him and make everyone's life miserable. Wipro shuttle bus scheduled to reach Tata concorde motors stop at 9.30 arrives at 9.55. It has taken the driver 30 minutes to cross a distance which isn't even 2 kms, thanks to signals not working and the chaotic behaviour of fellow citizens on bikes and cars, who refuse to obey the rules.

Everyone wants to occupy the whole road and move ahead. If you don't try to follow the rules and don't stick to your lanes, the traffic jam will only get worse! It's time Indians learnt the basic rules of traffic and made our lives easier!

VV flaws...

Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu is a great film that captivates you for 3 hours. But then it has a few flaws as well.

1. Why would a super-intelligent cop with gifted intuition hunt for a dangerous serial killer without any weapon in his hands? Cops going abroad for a joint mission are allowed to have guns. Even chinese martial arts gurus who dodge bullets by bending their bodies to impossible angles, possess guns if they are featured in a hollywood movie.

2. In the climax scene, Raghavan ridicules the serial killers' sexuality. If they are homosexuals why are they lusting to rape every beautiful woman? If he has to be politically correct, they are bi-sexuals not gays.

3. In the 21st century, when even Indian homosexuals are out in the open with most fashion designers in our country openly declaring themselves as gays, should a movie with such quality ridicule some1's sexuality?

4. If Raghavan is gifted with a great intuition, wouldn't he ask for z-category security for himself and his family? After all, he's hunted by 2 maniac serial killers (and going by the opening scene, anti-social elements in Chennai want him dead as well). The serial killers give him a near-death-experience in USA and even then he has only a sentry with a lathi to protect him and his family. A super-brainy cop wud've asked for security cover for his prospective bride as well.

5. US immigration uses forensic technology to regulate passengers in and out of USA. If NYPD knew the list of 8 or 10 suspects, Raghavan & Anderson come up with, after checking the manifest of passengers from Chennai to NewYork, they would've arrested Amudhan & Ilamaran in the NewYork airport as they try to fly back to India. There is no possiblity of the culprits flying back home!

6. The last one is not exactly a technical flaw. But "Yaar" featuring Sivaji Ganesan, released 50 years ago without any songs was a super hit. I feel, Indian cinema needs to move on and make movies which narrate only the story. The hero & heroine dancing around trees, singing melancholic songs are so "yesterday". The 2 songs in the 2nd half of the movie "neruppe" & "uyirile" hamper the smooth flow of the narration and they cud've been deleted.

The weekend...

I boarded Bangalore mail on Friday night and reached Bangalore on Saturday around 5 am. Inspite of all the windows being closed, it was pretty cold in the train and my sweater didn't seem to be good enough.

My brother-in-law Jerald's wife Reena confused the route directions a bit and we were stranded on jogupalya main road for a few minutes. A shopkeeper came to our rescue and provided us instructions to reach the destination but before we move ahead Reena & her son Euvan Bryan arrived to the spot and led us to their house.

The house wasn't big enough to accommodate 5 guests, so slept on any space that was available.

The landlord of the building wasn't worried about giving the tenants enough water, so we were stuck up with no water to take a shower. I had to go to Jerald's friend's house to take a shower in the evening (no heater, so I took bath in cold water in Bangalore chill weather!)

Beats me, why a network engineer with 36k p.m salary should take such a terrible house in such a bad area!

Tired of being stuck up in the small house with nothing to do other than watching TV, I tried to catch up with my friends but unfortunately Frank was sick with viral fever. (Frank is one of those guys who doesn't have to ask the medical shops to provide fake bills for medical reimbursements in the company. He falls sick for 2 days every quarter and gets bills more than his medical reimbursements limits!). My MCA classmate Doss called me up and asked me to meet him on Sunday evening for dinner.

So I was looking forward to Sunday, the birthday party at 12 noon and some wine & dine plans with Doss in the evening. My bother-in-law, oops I meant father-in-law, fell sick on Sunday morning around 6 a.m and had to be hospitalised for half a day. The birthday party plans were postponed to the evening and Doss's party goes for a toss.

I spent two days in Bangalore and I couldn't have a pint of beer! What a waste of time & money!

Alan had a good time playing with Bryan, I guess that was the only good part abt this trip!

Old friends...

I got a mail from an old friend accusing me that I am following the footsteps of another friend X , who doesnt send more than one email in a year to friends. Ironically he had asked another friend for my phone#, who has never bothered to keep the phone#s of other friends who stay in other cities.

Even though the thought that I'm being remembered made me feel good, the accusation put me off.

I am reminded of the song by Eric Clapton "Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself". (Even though it's about a slutty girlfriend who leaves him, it suits this context perfectly fine!)

Before accusing me, my friend should check his sent items or dialled calls in his phone, if he has initiated a conversation with me in the past 3 months. The answer would be NO. So how am I supposed to write paragraphs on emails to a friend who only writes two lines once in a blue moon like "how are you & where are you" ?

Simply put, friendship lives on reciprocation.
If you don't seem to act concerned abt me, sooner or later I would mirror you. May be it's a bad choice but I am not inclined to spend my time & money on friends who don't even reflect 10% of what I do.

"why do you try to follow bad examples? After all friends don't keep scores and you should try to keep in touch with your friends even if they are trying to reach you", opined another friend. Well, I did try to be nice and call up my friends & email them whenever I could, inspite of them never returning a call. (free sms, emails & phone calls from the office, clearly don't count) But after a while, I felt like knocking on the wrong door and decided to cut off friends who aren't really inclined to talk to me on their own. Probably I'm a bit immature for my philosopher friend, but I like my friend to call me at least once in a year, otherwise I delete his details from my contacts. I believe there's nothing wrong in it.

After marriage, most guys tend to go into a shell. They go out with some colleagues for lunch & coffee and over the wknds they are with their family. They remember old friends once in a while but they don't bother to spend some time & money to reach out to them.

If you suffer from shell-complex-syndrome and stay out of touch, I am not going to complain. So be kind and don't complain abt me either. You burnt the bridges behind you and not me.
End of the story!

P.S: Was it Pink Floyd who said "everyone's expendable and no-one has a real friend"? We all have a few real friends, others are bound to fade away in due course of time, after all shedding is only natural.

Another Happy Gandhi Jayanthi day...

Today is Gandhi Jayanthi! It's a national holiday. Birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, one of the greatest souls that ever walked upon this earth. Aren't we proud to have such great men in the Indian history? Ofcourse we all are proud. Ofcourse we salute the Father of our nation, and enjoy another holiday watching tv, shopping, entertaining ourselves, in every way possible. Then again, not a single channel seems to show a good programme, celebrating Gandhiji's birthday. In and out of any channel, it's movie, movie songs and movie stars all the way. It's as if we've totally forgotten how much Mahatma meant for us when India got it's freedom. He taught us great principles like truth, non violence, equality and peace. He stood for the one common teaching of all religions, love for all. Are we atleast remembering any of it today?

Our generation was not there when our nation had to struggle a lot to achieve our freedom. So may be we didn't get a chance to breathe the air and the feel of freedom, when it was born. In short we don't understand the importance and value of freedom. Today we, the citizens of India, are ready to fight each other on the road at the slightest excuse. Not to mention our politicians, always ready to trigger violence, run riots, and bomb the whole nation to death and destrution for their selfish ends.

It all looks like we are slow poisoning our lives, our culture, our nation, jeopardizing civilization along the way. The nation is on a destructive collision course. Not a day would suffice to talk about the many ways in which our nation has deteriorated. It's time each and everyone of us learnt the value and meaning of being a good citizen. Let's take an oath today, and try to resurrect and keep alive all the great values of Indian civilization as taught to us by our great leaders and wisemen. Jai Hind!