Mexican Sambar

Dec 30 th Bangalore/Bengaluru* Yes, I had become one (NO! Not self proclaimed, but was made into one!). After a hectic jobless week in the office, Friday was a welcome relief (Mmmm). It was the last working day of the year and Sunday would welcome New Year and I was on my way to Madras to celebrate it. Life couldn’t be better- I was on time to the railway station to catch my train, tickets booked months in advance, I’d bought all the items my mom had asked me to, the activities for the weekend were perfectly scheduled. Well, just like my LG laptop, Life’s Good! Everything became hazy or feel good factor waned away when a handicapped beggar arrived (The bugger who cleans the floor for alms). I was in no mood to donate or rather remained aloof about the whole issue of giving alms (Well, the debate of whether to contri

I'm not attaching any pictures; it would make the post awful! When I was a kid, my mom always insisted on using the ‘ thengaai ennai ’ to keep my hair healthy and neatly combed, but heroes never used them, so why should I? Always fascinated with long hairs, I thought I should grow too and have them bouncy kinda stuff! Well, it was only a thought and remained so forever! Our bram-families always advise to have long hairs, but you notice them only among kovil gurukals, and it always used to be tied and neatly combed using thengaai ennai. Also they would shave their front part of their head (or are they bald?). No idea why they do that! Guess, I’m deviating from the topic. If I’d to grow hair, I should be like them (similar to Ambi ) and not like Remo! All set thought I can manage and started growing, but after few weeks I noticed that I couldn’t style it! Reasons: Certain areas were not-dense, curling and OMG! I was balding! People can never come in terms to associate me wit

About a month ago, we moved to a newly built apartment-kind-of house (The previous one was a godown!). It was new to-be finished with almost 90% complete. And in that street there were lots of kids with a passion for gully (and not this ) cricket, like all of us had. On a Sunday when I was up at the terrace washing clothes, I chanced upon eyeing the game they were playing. The whole preparation and executing reminded me of my school cricket days! Preparation: One of the hunks goes from house to house, in a cycle, pulling out each kid. At one such instance, one of the kids emerged from the balcony and mimed that he'll not be able to make it (Remember those days when we used to say the same thing, with our mom/dad at our back and seeing whether we'd completed our homework(s) before we ventured onto the streets with a bat?!). He was miming that (It is a disadvantage/pity that I could not show the whole process. Hope you can run an imaginary video in your head or reminiscence of a

Destination: Planet Fashion, Jayanagar 4th Block, Bangalore, India As a routine of a regular walk to Jayanagar (for a cup of coffee), me and another colleague headed to Jayanagar Cotha's Coffee Shop. After a steaming, refreshing cup, we headed to, main part of the journey, Planet Fashion. My colleagues who is leaving to US this weekend, was in need of a apparels. The hunt was on, but I found a place to sit at the corner of the showroom and after a few minutes on the mobile, I heard someone speaking in Bram-Thamizh and it was a kid's voice! For sometime I sat there listening, intently, to what she was saying. She was talking about selecting some particular colours which her mom was picking for the kid's dad. From another end I heard an old lady, talking in Bram-Thamizh accent. She was pleading to the child to stop roaming and have the food which she was carrying around - "Konthey (Not kozhanthey !), vaadi vanthu saapudu di. Vaadi konthey!" (Child, come here and hav

It has been raining badly, here, for the past few days! Guess what?! These are the times I miss so many stuffs. Apart from worrying about the millions rendered homeless and floods havoc crops and submerging places , I wander into more heavenly pleasures. It is always customary that during days like these you tend to have hot stuffs to munch. Feel Good Factor! Imagine this: It is raining constantly and steadily and you are too lazy to get off the bed after an evening nap (A long Nap!!!). And there comes an angel with a cup in her hand, which is steaming hot (You can see the aavi ! ), containing that coffee you were longing to have from the moment you opened your eyes! You are reluctant to even step down and feel the chill of the floor! But get off and wash your face in the cold water (would have been happier if it was hot, so that you'll never get that sleep off your face!) from the tap. Then, as you walk, you notice the cooker is giving a whistle to indicate that the contents is

Yet again, the torments faced by the XY S/W Engineers After the last weekend's encounters, I'm writing this. Its been a month now and we are yet to find a house to move in. Everywhere, we are either not interested the way the house is built: With less ventilation With no big rooms With only one loo (or No western style) and bath Very far away from work place Or how the house owner: Looks like an A diyaal ! Is not good in body language (very reluctant!). Looks at us as though we are some disgusting thing (Imagine me with all those fancy beards)! Is a Kezha boltu ! And not ready to talk! Apart from the above there's always this common get-away statement " No house for Bachelors!!! " ( What if a group of Bachelorettes ?!) (Tell him that we are S/W engineers he'll start thinking about our salaries and day dreams of raising the rent!!!) What did the men community do, for earning such-a-good-name?! The below para in an anguish of a mad maan! T

It was 11th of October, and the next five days were to be the best days for the last 1.5 years! That's because of the below reasons Long Weekend 13th was my sister's birthday Chennaiyil oru azhagiya mazhai kaalam---> Yes, it was raining cats and dogs in Madras! How was that to be starter? There were several other good things that was special and to-be-celebrated! Madras will always be my first love. Best place to be in (everyone will disagree!!!). It was Vijayadasami and company gave a vacation (3 week days!!!) to all its employees. Highlights of day One- In the evening I accommpanied my sister to our Music Sir's place to get his blessings. The whole day we had to wait for the rain to stop, but finally around 6pm the rain reduced to a drizzle and we decided to start. Water was clogged up everywhere and to top it all Varna Bhagavan showed up again, this time- Fiercer than ever! Maan, it was too good to get drenched (always a nice stuff)! We got drenched inspi

For 25 odd years you had lived your life eating and munching the food and delicacies made by your mom or anyone in your house. You are like what is called Rusi Kanda Poonai ! That's just a starter for you. There are several other stuffs that's IN-HOUSE. You do not want those to change, do you? Yes, absoultely, no one wants to. But, force can make onself lose our likes and identity sometimes. Consider the mattu ponnu who enters the new house of her new-relation: purusa purusa ! What can she expect? The same maruvathey and stuff she got in her place? No ways! It's totally different ball game. As a purusa will you be ready to eat what she cooked? Well, for somedays it would be tasty (Just like the new restaurant that was opened recently!). But after sometime it would be amma pasikuthu ! Yes, your mom. You wouldn't get the same kai vannam everywhere! As a pondatti you cannot eat what your purusa cooks! Antha manga madayanukku onnume theriyaladi!!! Living through all the

Madras Sept. 12th Government Office: Railways Have you ever cancelled tickets? A day after the train had departed? Well, if you have not. This will teach you the process, trauma, agony one has to go through before getting his refund back! The central railway owns 3 buildings in Madras (I got to know about this after this incident!). First - I filled in a regular reservation/cancellation form and stood in one of the zillion queues waiting for their trip approval from one of the counters. I took the one that had lesser queue strength. Stood there for forty-five minutes! and finally gave the man behind the counter the form and the ticket. He gave a strange look and returned it back, and added that I need to be at the second floor (this episode was in first floor) to do a cancellation of post-train-departure. On hearing this, I left to the first floor and there was a counter named Refund-blah-blah, I was also informed that I need to meet the Superintendent, to request for a refund. So, on

Love is something that should be shared, with not just one person, but everyone! This was how it all started. He started it. Thus he continued, "I'm not gonna marry anyone!" And with that he stated, he's not talking about any age limit, but as such no one. The line, he stated, is still reverberating in my ears. "My mom is insisting to tie a knot. I want to live my life on my own!" "If she wants her grand child, my brother is always there." "Getting married at 23 or for that matter, any age and later realising that it was a grave mistake, no i don't wanna do this." "Thus, imagine getting married at 23 and at 28 you/she realises that she/you are not the one, and BTW you've kid. What will you do?" Valid question - I pondered. "You get married and you are, thus, forced to love her." "And few years later, you have a kid and you are standing in a queue for his/her LKG admission. I don't think I'm ready f

Yet another trip and yet another account. Vrooooooommmm.... No it's not the Honda that's speeding away, it's the josh-machine Ford's iKon. I was blessed to be on this mean machine to transport myself to the world's richest temple (Is there a contender?), Tirupati. The whole drive constituted 250kms or greater of wilderness, human habitation (former beating the latter), lakes, hills and what not? Blimey! It was on ammaaaazing start!!! Though there were several pit-stops, gash! the journey lasted only 4.5hrs. It was a pure ecstasy (return journey was something more than this and cannot be explained, should be felt!). Warm-air greeted us. We knew we reached Tirupati (that days forecast was hot). It was, if Calvin's dad was to answer, due to solar winds. We started on Friday at 1500hrs and reached the Tirupati at 1930hrs. Purpose: to attend our ex-team-member's (Nagendra, at present employed in iNautix) Marriage. We reached on-time for the reception, the time as

The deisre to write about my home town never struck me. May be sometime in the future i'll be writing about it. May be it was beacuse i never stayed away from her for that long! I'll write... Bangalore -Thru my eyes. Am hardly a year old in this city, the account here is something "thru-my-eyes". I'm not criticizing the place but just laying out the pros and cons. If there's anything wrong, correct me. Bangalore, capital of Karnataka, a place known for its beautiful locations! I stay at Basavangudi, and a place near to it is Jayanagar. Jayanagar, Asia's largest colony - Divided into 'n' blocks (cannot find how many!!!). And a place for shoppers to stop is the Fourth block. Rest, n-1, is fully residential (so is Fourth block, but couldn't digest to say so!). At fourth block you'll find something called BDA (Bangalore Development Agency or something like that). These BDAs, you'll find them scattered all over the city. These are like the o