madras talk !

Okay, I said to myself right now... "time for my first post from chennai !"
its really nice of u guys to wish me good luck with this transition...really made me smile :D thank u!

first things first.... i'm gonna try n recollect stuff that i've been doing since I came here....

honestly, i was really freaked out about coming here initially.... partly cuz i don't know a soul in this city and partly cuz ALL my friends who've joined the same organization have gotten their posting in bangalore .....

the first week here was pretty chilled out... i was putting up at my dad's company guest house....no probs there...besides, it was in a relatively posh locality so there were nice places to hangout.....

i came across some colleagues from work who were also looking for accomodation here.... so we decided to look for one together.... to top it up, one colleague had a friend along and this guy was from chennai itself...so he helped us out a LOT ... talking to the brokers and house owner's in tamil (obviously, they'd quote a higher price if that guy wasn't a local) ..... he also showed us quite a few places to chill out...which included both types of drinking ..... coffee and booze !

there's a few things i've noticed about the city...i can't say if my observations are accurate or not though......

1) a few area-names end with 'pet' ....namely, 'chetpet','saidapet'...a few others which i don't remember...so i'm guessing 'pet' would mean an area or sumthing
2) the arterial roads are 'anna salai' and 'MGR salai'.... so it'd be ok to say 'salai' means road......but i was told it also means 'statue'....not sure
3) chennai vaguely gives me the feel of chembur in mumbai.... perhaps cuz of the architecture.... haven't figured out why...but it just does.... its one of those feelings u can't pinpoint the reason for....
4) The public transport is pretty good here... almost everyone you meet at a bus stop is capable of telling you the bus number to ur destination..... doesn't happen in delhi a lot...
5) chennai has two kinds of weather.... (a) hot ... (b) very hot
6) almost everything u get to eat is directly or indirectly made of RICE :P .... makes me think of the umpteen no. of times i refused to eat rice at home . poetic justice, perhaps? (waving fist at the skies)


Oh, n i'm trying to learn tamil..... till now, i've learnt the following :

1) counting from 1-10. it goes like this:
urr, rend, moon, naal, anji, arr, yel, ett, umbodh, patt

2) how are you : "apdi irkinge? "
i'm fine : "naan nalla irke"

3) i want to got to chennai central: "naan chennai central pono"
how much? : "avelo?"
50 only : "50 ta"
don't want: "vanda"

4) crazy : "pythium"
happy : "santosham"
sad : ....forgot this one
big: "perusa"
very big : " rombo perusa" (what're u thinking of ? don't get any ideas !)
small: "chinh"

5) i love you : "naan unai kadli kirane" ( really important , eh?! )

6) Tomato: "takkali"
Onion: "Vengayam"
coconut : "tenga"

7) yes: "ama"
yes yes : "amama" (duuh :P)
NO : "ile"


enough for today?
hopefully i'll get a chance to write soon.....
the thing is, i'm currently on training... and so wer'e kept #@% busy all week..... i finished with one main assessment this week...so have a few days to myself... that'll explain my visits to Eliot's beach, and booze sessions at bikes and barrels ;)

catch all of you later... all the new readers and especially the old ones !
mwaaah !

a temporary au revoir, or an incredible beginning?

There's something big happening with me right now that I wanted to share..... I'm changing jobs...and the new one's taking me to chennai !
I rly don't have a lot of time to write..... and perhaps I won't be very regular on the blog either for a while.... and i'll miss it
Also the incredibly sweet ppl who read..u guys really make it worthwhile, honestly ...mwah!

after 4 years of living in a hostel, I was at a point where I preferred being away from home...cuz of the obvious reasons...freedom,blah blah.......i've stayed at home with folks for a year now, and strangely, i'm a bit jittery (i'm ashamed to admit this ) about the change ...... esp. cuz the entire city is totally new to me and i don't know a soul there...... i'm also kinda curious about how i'll gel with the place :P

who knows, maybe it'll actually turn out to be good for me....hopefully....

wish me luck guys !

PS: moving tomorrow!

no no no !

Don't you just HATE some stuff from your past cuz it simply refuses to get out of ur head, and possibly ur life?

Everyone has a past... and there's absolutely SO many things i'd like to change about mine...... one in particular... I won't say what..

I met up with a friend yest evening and she happened to mention something related to that particular era of my past..... phir kya tha.... ALL the bloody memories came gushing into my head as though the flood-gate that i've been so desperately trying to close, and keep shut, never existed....

Its funny how I tend to think about the very thing that I tell myself to ignore.....n I don't like it.

Why? Why is it that I still remember everything vividly? Why is it that the sadness associated with it doesn't go away..... why is it that I still feel I should've done better, or something different...when I've had so many discussions about how there was nothing wrong with my actions...

Why am I still thinking about it, when it was mentioned just for a fraction of a second....

I'm sitting in office and all I can think of is what happened then.... there's so much other stuff happening around me and in my life... so many transitions (my next post is gonna be about that probly)... then why does it seem like everything's moving in slow motion all over again?

It's not my fault ! I wish things had turned out differently...I really do.... but it happened...and the tide turned against me..... there was a time when I actually thought I could make things better.... and I kept trying... what I now realise is that I shud've just let it be... "SCREW IT", is what I shud've said..... there were so many events that stemmed from that situation I was in.... I would've been at a totally different juncture of my life right now..... but I'm dealing with it....

I was so dumb, is also what I feel at times..... perhaps it was all fake..... perhaps it was make-belief.... I can't say.... I just DONT want to think about it ever..... I try n make myself angry at the events, so maybe i'll develop a disgust towards it.... but it doesn't work...

Why did my friend mention it again?

Its like I'm screaming out LOUD inside my head....continuously..I hate this.... STOP !

PS: I'm sry , this is too vague...but there are times when I don't know what to do....so I just write.

jlt pics from work

This is the photo on my office wall... just behind the comp.. try and focus on the colours :D

I was sitting on my office chair one day, and I noticed there was bit of dirt on the floor, maybe brought in by my shoes only (probably).... so i just kinda sweeped it with my feet, under the desk, so the cleaning guy would clear it later... and look at what the pile of dirt turned out to look like, when i noticed it 5 minutes later.... and i didn't shape it deliberately...i don't even think I CAN :P

Love is in the air, eh?

The day Delhi stood still...

I SO wish things were different right now..... its saturday morning, the beginning of the weekend...and there's so much i want to do.......and so much that I have to do....!!!! I want to listen to music on my lappy, I want to write a blog post, I want to fair out a letter that i've been writing (yea, an actual snail mail letter !), I have to go out and shop, I have to go out for lunch with friends (this i want to also, actually :P).......? I CAN'T multitask !! If i listen to music, for example, i'll be unable to write a post.... I don't want the weekend to just whizz by...again ! -So much to do, so little time- its funny, isn't it? sometimes this phrase seems so apt...and so ridiculous at others....

There's something I've wanted to write about since monday, but somehow have been too cought up (read lazy) to do so..... IT RAINED LIKE CRAZY ON MONDAY EVENING ...in Delhi...... and the city fell on its back, and died like an insect..... i'm seriously disgusted with the whole thing..... you know I love driving, right? it usually takes me an hour to get to work, and another to get back home in the evening..... well, this monday evening, I left work at 7:30 in the eve.... As I walked towards the car, it started to rain...all of a sudden...a lot of things in Delhi have a habit of creeping up on you suddenly...the weather is one of 'em, traffic jams are another...... so, it suddenly had started raining hard...like a sprinter who gives out a burst of speed as soon as the gunshot is heard......
fine, I said to myself....and got in the car fast...... for the first 15 minutes, after i started, I was actually enjoying the whole scene.... rain crashing down hard from the heavens, me all alone in the car, the AC making it really nice n chilly inside.... even nice music playing on the radio..... it was almost magical, when i looked towards the skies and saw the raindrops in the streetlamp's glow...out of a book, as if......specially since i was dry

(wierd pic, i know..but hey, i clicked it ! ... streetlight seen)

Then I got stuck.... the route i usually take was waterlogged at a point...so i took a diversion...turns out, everyone else in the entire WORLD had also taken the same #$%# diversion ! That's when the night's horror starts..... the point which I usually cross in 15 minutes, had this huge jam.. which kept me stuck for an entire hour! i'm serious, i didn't move an inch...... when I stopped in the jam, initially I didn't mind...cuz i had expected the roads to be jammed (a little).... but after 30 minutes, my patience started to give way..... there were people getting out of their cars, soaking in the rain, shouting at the traffic from the opposite side, who were doing the same thing too...... I kinda don't love the rains too much, remember...i preferred to stay in and not participate in the intellectual (and innovative) exchange of words (read @#$@) ...

Somehow, after an hour , stuff started moving a little, and I manoeuvred the car out of the mess... initially I thought of going back and stopping at a friend's house for the night.... but after being stuck there for so long, i just had to move on.....

Little did I know that there were 3 more equally horrendous jams waiting for me.... with one resulting in a verbal exchange of 'pleasantaries' (riiight) between a biker and me....... and one resulting in my car getting flooded with rainwater and me singing "row row row your boat, gently down the stream ...." in my head.... I seriously thought the car would die that time... cuz the water level had gotten so bloody high !

I actually saw myself going through a lot of emotions in that entire time..... especially since i was alone in the car that evening (co-incidentally) .....

First, there was glee, and awe at the rain Gods and their work....... then there was disgust at the delhi municipality and their work...... then there was concern for my car, and myself , possibly a hint of fear too..... then there was a burst of brainwork, and a realisation (and joy) that I could innovate, adapt to and overcome difficult situations.....

Finally, when i had cleared all the obstacles, and it was 11.45 in the night, there was peace..... and it was magical once again..... I had rolled down the car windows, the air was chilly ..... the roads were empty, it was dark, almost midnight, I was speeding home.... happy, cuz I was returning home after ages of war, like a true knight (stop laughing...i was happy OK !!) ..... it was one of THE most memorable scenes of my life, I just knew it....... empty, dark road, cool midnight breeze, my car waaaay over the speed limit..... and everything was good.... as they say ...

hakuna matata