Mexican Sambar

There’s this episode in Dilbert show where an axiom was revealed that Engineers never can get the girls from the management, for that matter any good looking girls! It is either those management gurus, marketing dudes or those converts, who call themselves Technocrats! For Engineers it is always either the next house Kannama, Rakkamma, pinky or some-one ; or desperate to know who has taken the seat next to yours in the bus or train (Chart always helps you know who sits in the whole coach!). All you find is Vijayalakshmi F56 or Bhagyalakshmi F75 (Damn!) . If you do find F23 , then she’s always accompanied by her husband/Boy Friend, who sits right opposite to her and next to you! Or you may find M63 (What the?!) asking you take the upper berth and snores away to glory making you and other such miserable creatures to burn the midnight oil with a laptop and thinking of the next post in the blog! There are the others who walk the entire stretch of the train to find where the figures are...

E for Engagement... 20 th January was the D-day that was imbibed into everyone’s mind. Reason – Prem finally deciding that he has grown old enough to take the first step towards wedlock, with Vinu, the first step towards joining the elite club, constituting Anand, Arun and Lathish. He has finally given thought about his graying hair and other aging materials (Yeah, I’m balding too, but have no concern as to what happens to my hair and me as I age, I’m giving no room for anyone to take me down! Be it malapaambu as well!) Vaday and I duly arrived at 1630hrs, even though we had promised a bit earlier – 1530hrs. Reaching only to notice the rest of the party has not yet started from their respective places. Bob and Muthu were the only dudes working their life out! We both pitched in and helped them a bit. Makkal started to flow in as time tended towards the muhurtham! All periya thalais were in by the time. And there comes the greatest shock (Should I have t...

Soru - One of the basic necessities to sustain the sojourn on this planet! To earn it I must work! How? Robbery – Out of the way, that’s because either I’m not smart enough (Think! Why else should I be a Software Engineer?) or not bold enough to face this society as a proclaimed robber. I could have chosen to hunt, but you see I was brought up as Brahmin ambi (No, not amby!), so that too ruled out. Thus finally ended up being an Engineering (Present continuous…) graduate, which put me into this (No, never am I going to address the IT field as ocean) Maattu santhai – IT industry. Yeah, you guys are right we all celebrated Maattu pongal yesterday (15th January). Between maadu, pongal and S/W engineer- They have horns that are painted with different colours, we have our arse painted in RED-u (Ajith way of saying) due to our sitting posture OR black and blued by our higher ups, clients and employers (Who knows where to aim for when something gets screwed up (Hit here – Bum beating and C...

As I sit and ponder as to how to fill this post, I went through the previous ones and found that I have an incomplete post- “ Enna ma Gay3?! ” part. Yup, the post is going to be on the good ol’ tuition days! @Gayathri: If you chance upon this post in the future, please do not take me wrong! I’m not defaming your image, that’s a promise. And please do not sue me for not consulting you for posting on your name! @Kicha: The above applies to you as well! Sorry, guys! @All: All characters portrayed in the post are not imaginary or fictitious, and nothing is coincidence! Tuition and Tuition Masters, without them it would have been difficult to cope-up with what was taught at school! First let’s us attack CSR! Or shall I take him at last? Hmmm… on second thoughts, will save him for the last! KND He was our Math tuition master. The initials expand to K.N.Desikachari. Yup! You guessed right: he’s from the old times, strict, fundu and what not?! The process started (a...

Caution: What had happend was not to be mistaken for a Child Marriage! I totally forgot to write about Chottu’s marriage and his reception! Oops! Chottu got married, so no more calling him Chottu! Chottu’s, nope Vasu’s, marriage, if my memory has the retaining capacity (I’m sort of a Ghajini!), took place on Nov 16 th . I was supposed to attend it and finally had to ditch it as I could not allow myself to extend my leave (which had already touched four) to another week!). For the sake of friends and other relatives, he had arranged a reception in Madras . And right away I thought this would be the best way to have a school get-together. So, the D-day arrived and the invitees were flowing in to the hall. We had bought him a gift – A night lamp with clock! When we reached there, we were unsure whether the function had started or not, as there were makkal standing outside the hall. So, we too decided to stand and wait for others to arrive. First to come...

Day was dull and the holiday was coming to an end! Went and got the 120Gig hard drive which Bala had sent across to me as my birthday gift! Mounted it, installed OS and did the data transfer, but not fully completed! Mean while arranged a meet with Dee at school. So, went again to the paradise to have good chat with her! Maan, school rocks! By the time I’d returned NB had arrived and we were doing the remaining data transfer from the old hard disk to the new one. But, it hung and gave an error! So we have postponed the copying to a later date! Dinner: Cauliflower Manchurian! Rest couldn’t end better! Finally departed to railway station to return the land of work! Night breaks; Day five over!

Today was another special day- It was my Paati’s Devasam! Devasam is always the best, since it deals with food. In their name we have a feast. Till now you have never found out whether the feast is to mourn their death or to give a sigh of relief that they are gone for good! Think about this: When will you feast? It would be when you are happy about something, but on Devasam?! Oh! Never mind! The day was good! Mom had prepared cheppang kezhangu roast (mild), Sarkarai pongal, Sambar, Vada and Melagu rasam (Mulagu Thanni = Mulligatawany???) and Vada finally soaked in rasam! Well, yes, it is mouth watering! After which, the plan to Besant Nagar beach was on. My first thing was a walk to Adi’s place where every one was to assemble and start. And there I finally met Diesel after 6 months, he has grown big and strong! Had nice fun playing with him! One hack of a Rottweiler! On the way Karthik told me about his experiences in the US of A! Being hit by an Afro-Am...

Off the bed by afternoon and then watched Mind Your Language Vol. 1. Evening’s beach plan was cancelled. But prior to that there was another plan of going to Bala’s place to rectify the problem in his computer! But later in the day Prem had called to say that there was a beach plan (Me, Karthik, Prem and Adi). Finally it was called off, and I headed to Bala’s place and fixed his comp. It froze after any application was started and was unable to do multi tasking. So, I first installed the service Pack 2 and then went about uninstalling all the big and unwanted softwares. Well, it solved the problem of freezing, but it took a hell of a time to load! NB asked me to check with the hard disk’s pin (Slave or Master) and also to change the BIOS to suppress the Intel stuff! I need to do that… Meantime Fatso had called and informed me that he’s in the Airport and was on his way to China ! I was lost as I’d assumed that he was to leave only during the end of month! Somewhere I’d ...

Yeah! The day was special for two reasons- Mom’s birthday and next I'd cooked Fried Rice after 2 years! Everything was great, neatly cut vegetables, Gravy prepared separately and side by side (mom) preparing rice with aid from our neighbour (Since rice had to be vadichifyied ) I had requested help from my neighbour. If the rice is boiled to perfect temperature it would be soft and easy to be chewed. Everything went well, I mixed rice and the gravy and the smell was awesome. I also let myself taste it. It was perfect [ Oru pana sorukku oru soru patham ]! But as it became cold, I noticed it was going worse! Wait till I explain it- Everyone sat for lunch [My sis played a delaying factor], and when I started to chew the food, I could not stop chewing as the rice was half baked! Everything was ruined [My mom who had already had the food gave a wry smile]! The process some what resembles what a cow does, but we never followed the process of asay podrathu! Or...

Unlike the last off, this time everything went at peace, well almost! First day was dramatic and will stay memorable for years to come. Well, my uncle who is suffering from Muscular Dystrophy, well a form is BMD , which I believe is the one that has affected him. Links- http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/bone/muscular_dystrophy.html http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/md/md.htm http://www.mda.org.au/specific/mdadmd.html http://www.mdausa.org/publications/fa-dmdbmd-what.html Yeah that day belonged to him. He has difficulty in getting up, so others assist him to get up. That day his uncle (yeah mama thatha for me) helped him to sit and all of a sudden my uncle fell backward (Domal!) and started to moan my name, I came rushing to find my uncle in total drowsiness. I gave him some water and made him lie down again! Time went on and after half an hour I went to check him again. He turned towards to me and asked “When did you come?” I was appadiye shocked to...

The post carries the memories, though jumbled, of my days at school. This post is after a two short visits, consecutive weekends, to school! The first time it was a planned event and Vaday was supposed to accompany us and bugger ditched us at the last minute. Finally, it was just Dee and I who were left to enjoy the reminiscence and carry home nostalgia of our good days at school! School at night time sure looks better than at the morning hours, or was it just the silent night that did the magic?! No idea, but it was beautiful. It was like the scene from DCH where Aamir Khan sees himself and the others having a good time at their college. I was seeing myself doing that, there and this, here (well, guys picture it yourself!). I'm getting all senti now! They have connected our Higher Secondary block (some '_KV_ Iyer') with the Middle School by a path from the flight of stairs which leads to Physics lab to the newly constructed block. That path, and the walk through it wa...