Hi
I came across this forward (in red)….….thru a frnd of mine and have written my opinions on what I feel below …in blue .pls do respond back with what u feel on the issue.

The awkward first phone call..

The Scene:
The Girl is a 23 year old investment banker, working in New York. The Boy is doing his residency in Boston and was given her number by his mother, who is a friend of the Girl's aunt's brother-in-law's cousin's uncle's wife in Chicago.

Time:
Monday night, 10 pm

Girl: Hello?

Boy: Shit, she's home! Umm, hi! Is this Pooja?

Girl: Speaking.

Boy: My name is Karan. I don't know if you know who I am. God, what if she doesn't know who I am? I don't even know why I'm doing this!

Girl: Oh, you live in Boston, right?

Boy: Yeah. Ok, so she was told about me, that's some relief. I wonder what she was told - "He's a resident, tall, and fair and he graduated from Ivy League school!". God, she probably hates me already!

Girl: Yeah, my mother mentioned you had my number. I can't believe he actually called!

Boy: So, how are you? Oh yeah, that's real original, but what the hell else I am supposed to say- Umm, hi, I don't know you, but do you want to be my wife?

Girl: I'm fine. And you? Ok, this is off to a great start

Boy: I'm good. Ok, think, think! So, I heard you're an investment banker?
Oh, that's a real winner. Now I can be a bad conversationalist and an idiot!

Girl: Yes.

Boy: Ok, she is not helping me at all! Where do you work?

Girl: Merrill Lynch.

Boy: Hey, that's a great firm! I sound like a complete moron. I should just hang up except my mother would somehow find out and kill me!

Girl: Yeah, it's a nice place to work. God, this guy sounds like a complete loser

Boy: So... Stall, Stall!

Girl: So you're doing your residency in cardiology? Like my mom didn't tell me that 500 times already!

Boy: Ok, I can handle this... Yeah, I'm in my second year. Alright, now say something else, but what do I say? Do you drink? Cause if you want to marry me, you can't be one of those goody goody Indian girls who think that if they kiss a guy, they've practically gone all the waySo, what do you like to do in your free time?

Girl: Umm... get wasted... Oh, you know, hang out with my friends, go to movies...

Boy: Where do you like to hang out in NY?

Girl: Shit, what am I supposed to say? This guy could be some religious freak! I can't say bars - I'll say clubs, you can go to clubs and not drink... Oh, sometimes we go to the movies, or there's a couple clubs that are good... That was good, I made it sound like I like clubs, but I'm not really into them...

Boy: Ok, she goes to clubs, that's a good sign. If she was really religious she wouldn't do that. Yeah? I like to dance also.

Girl: He likes to dance- that's a good sign. He can't be that stiff! So where do you hang out in Boston?

Boy: Should I say it? Alright, I'll say it, what the hell! Umm, the same, bars, clubs, stuff like that.

Girl: He said bars! So he probably drinks. Good sign. I should explore this further... Are there any good bars in Boston?

Boy: Yeah, there are some nice ones, I mean, I'm not a huge drinker, but I like having a good time. Ok, that gives the impression of someone who enjoys drinking but is not an alcoholic - pretty good, if I do say so myself

Girl: That sounds really positive. This guy sounds kind of cool. But if he's so cool why is he calling me? Shouldn't he have a girlfriend? Or not need to call random girls his mother tells him about? God, what if he's completely ugly? Yeah, me too. Although I hope my parents never find out.

Boy: Yeah. I know exactly what you mean.

Girl: Ok, so he didn't freak out at the living a double life reference- another good sign. I just wish I knew what he looked like... So...

Boy: Or she could be really fat with a huge mustache. Well, there's only one way to find out! So... I know this sounds a little crazy, but I'm visiting some friends in NYC next weekend and I wonder if you'd want to get together for coffee sometime.

Girl: Coffee. That's totally safe. If he's totally nasty I can have a quick espresso and run like hell! Yeah, that sounds great.

Boy: Alright that went pretty well. Coffee's pretty harmless. And who knows, maybe she'll be cool. Now I have to get the hell out of this conversation... So I have your e-mail, should I just e-mail you soon and we can figure it out?

Girl: E-mail is sooo much better than the phone. Thank God for e-mail!
Yeah, just e-mail, I check it all the time at work, so - God, this is getting painful

Boy: Alright, I'll e-mail you soon. Meaning in two days, cause I don't want to look too desperate, but at the same time I don't want to look like I'm trying not to look too desperate

Girl: Cool. Well, I'm glad you called. I think...

Boy: Me too. Well, I'll see you soon. Please be hot, please be hot!

Girl: Alright. Bye. I can't believe he called! Too late to back out now.
Besides, maybe he's cool. He didn't sound so bad on the phone.

Boy: Bye. I did it! I am the man. I think she wants me. Yeah, she definitely wants me...


I actually wonder to Indian guys actually call girls only at the behest of their mother....and do girls speak to a guy only because their parents have asked them to.... it’s highly improbable that a guy/girl has not had a crush …over a member of the opposite sex…from school …to college …or even at the workplace……(dosent matter if u’ve been thru an all-boys/all-girls education ….



I actually find a good mixture of hypocrisy and desperateness characterized by Indians (guys/girls )these days . The current trend is some thing like this .... both of them wanna dabble with members of the opposite sex ....get mushy ...go out 4 cofee ....movies ....and after a point, meeting each other starts triggering emotions of a different kind ....where commitement and support would come into play ....they do a CTRL-ALT-DEL on the relationship and say the cliched bollywood kollywood line " actually I saw u only as my close friend " and pack off ...only to start a relationship with somebody else and go through the same procedure once again....uptil a point where age catches up with them ...and their parents decide whom must they pair up with ...and the boy/girl behaves as if they are the "obedient child" and quietly marry with the person selected by their parents. Now in this "official" marital relationship is more of a relationship where experimentation and actual flirting ,wooing and loving takes a backseat and "mutual respect" only stems in the relationship ....therefore the variety in life suffers... and extra marital relationships slowly tends to creep in .

And to add to the already ....love lost "respectful" relationship , add a couple of "saas bahu wars" and "dowry issues" ....and lo the marriage is heading towards a divorce ....and yo !!! the lawyers are getting business and so are the “soap opera enthusiasts like ekta kapoor and radan “radhika” who make use of the above clichéd formula ….to the maximum exploiting the public with their “ always glycerine coated” depiction of “THIS WAR COULD HAPPEN IN YOUR FAMILY !!! S A A S vs B A H U )

Its actually strange ......lemme stress the point of a threshold limit ..on the age below which any flirtatious move is inversely proportional to the approval of parents and after the threshold , when the "child" is hardely interested ....but the parents are egging them to marry ...and swearing by nike's slogan "Just do it " !!! ….such an irony isn’t it ……..

So that more or less charectrises the double speak …..mentality where one wants to have the cake and eat it too ….?

SO WAT SAY ???

Are U Nuts about having that COCONUT

Are U Nuts about having that COCONUT, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

How many of u would pay 150 rs for that piece of lemon sitting over a tender coconut ...that has a straw in it ...? Isnt that blasphemous that people actually pay that much to have a "liquid drink " that can actually be brought across the corner roadside cocunut vendor for 10 rupees.

Well that's the state of Indian IT corporatedom. In most of the IT companies project parties are very common ...where treats becomes common place for every little accolade u get ranging from a good appraissal to return from Phoren lands (Onsite ..in IT parlance <> . People generally plan parties in upmarket swanky places...that burn quite a crater ..in the purse... which is all the more visble if u happen to be a fresher who's earning barely 10-11k after all the deductions ....

Though these parties give u chance to taste different cuisines and help ur taste buds ...sqeak and say "Variety is the spice of life" ...I am very much opposed to actually dining..(when the treat's on me ) as most of the items are so exhorbitatntly priced tand given the fact that most of the people follow a 3-4 course meal ...and given the number of people in the team(close to 30 ) and the high proprtion of non veggie people in the team ... u know that the bill is going to be a himalayan one....especially if not many people are pooling upto sponsor the eatery bash.

I am not saying that such a culture is wrong ...or pasing comments ..but its just that I cant tolerate paying 10 times the amount ....for something mediocre with a fancy name that goes with it. I am totally a guy who loves freaking out ..but being reasonable with my spending ... is what i feel comfortable ...

Most of the Junta at office seems to sleect the costliest place to dine ..only when ....ur set to treat (thats the feeling most ppl would have before a hole is burnt )...

I am any day comfortable eating an idly vada dosa ...for 25-30 bucks ....and not really a personw ho would fall for some great setting and fancy names on a menu card.

The picture of a coconut that u see above was priced at 140 odd rupees at a restaurant called Benjararong(on TTK road) that specialises in THAI cuisine....

One more reason that I am whining away ... is primarily because most of the restaurants have very little Veg items on offer with a majority of the dishes favouring the Non veggies tounge.. so that leaves me ... with hardly a choice to eat something other than the soup/some parathas /sweets and curd rice ....

To conclude ...i'd like to say just 1 thing ... I dont mind spending money as long is it's good value for money ...JUST PAISA VASOOL is the feeling that should float in my mind after a good dinner..nuthin esle

The law of forwards and email

Generally When i have lots of work and need to work at a quicker pace to complete some work by a stipulated time ....mails tend to flow in ..just as letters flew in the inaugral harry potter movie ....where i used to get nothing less than 250 mails in a single day ...most of them being forwards with lotsa redundancies anmd repetitions. some forwards may be "quotes" ,while some may be interesting ..to read ..or some raunchy photos ..

These days ...(the last 4 days to be precise) ..when i dont have work, i see that the number of mails has dropped to less than 10% of the existing traffic ...and sitting in front of the monitor waiting for an email to arrive is so ...much like waiting in a lonely station ....for the perenially late train to arrive on time.Last week I had to find newer ways of killing time ... but it was slightly assuaged by ill health due to some cold n headache ..i was more so in the rstroom trying to blow my ever overflowing nose ...

I guess work will soon start getting hectic....and that is when the mails would also start flowing in by the numbers... thats life ..if not murphy's law..it's kartik's laws !!!

staring down the barrel ???

51018, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

Seeing australia now is like a wounded anoconda coiling itself up to prevent itself from further damage.It is not anymore interested in the adventurous risks that steve waugh's men used to indulge in ...in the name of playing for a a victory.They were adventurous to the extent that they let their instincts chase chase 384 against india in 70 odd overs on a final day eden garden's wicket ...and that was the star of the myth that the aussies can be busted ...and the second jolt came to the aussies in kangarooland when the Indians drew level and the australian bowlers were pumelled by the likes of dravid,sehwag,laxman,sachin and of course ganguly ...

Now this myth that peak australia can be conquered used to do the rounds whenever the aussies lost a dead rubber (when the West indians rallied to chase 422 against the aussies after aussies won the first three tests )...and slowly but steadily ...the law of avereages seems to have atleast slowed them down , if not catch up with them.


The ashes for the first time is competitive in so mnay years after having grown up seeing gooch,atherton stewart ,hussain fail miserably against the giants in yellow...and its competitive simply because england have not only worked out their strategy well but have also maintained the pressure on the aussies ...thereby not allowing the wounded aussies to come back.


I just love to see the aussies actually in a situation where their backs are to the wall and they have to avoid defeat by drawing test matches...

but in reality are the aussies really staring down the barrell ..... i guess a little deeper analysis with the numbers ...reveals that england have actually not played to their potetial when they were supposed to mop up both the games , allowing it too close for comfort...


What if harmison had not bowled that super dooper bouncer to kasprowics...would england still retain the same fire in their bellies ...thats something worth asking ...but anyway now that england have overcome that mental barrier.... they just have to learn to close it in against the aussies to make a match of it .

so at the end of typing this little piece which started off with burlesqueing the aussies ...i belive that for all that ashes has shown till now ..may just not be the same for the remaining tests ...as we know the wounded tiger australia's reslience in bouncing back in true champion fashion.

whatever happens the cricket lover is in for a treat unless u happen to be marooned in chennai without a SET TOP BOX

Life has indeed come to a standstill ,but I am learning to move on ... It is depressing to know that I will never get the oppurtunity again to meet my grandpa.Today the 13th day ceremony got over ...and thinking of my grandmother...i know she would feel damn lonely without her husband,but she's putting up a brave front ..by controlling her emotions.

I will be rejoining office after quite a hiatus (3 weeks now)... I guess the work pressure would remove any sort of negative feelings about the death....and the constant thoughts about the uncertainties of life.

My Grandparents (maternal)

27-02-05_1601, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

Zindagi ek safar hain suhana ,yahan kal kya ho kisne jaana .....(Life is one joy ride,who knows what will happen tommorow !!)


These words immortalized by the voice of kishore da and the onscreen prescence of rajesh khanna ....rings a bell in my ears every time I hear this song in the past 1 week.Life was going on normally for my grandfather last week ,as usual switching programmes on the telly and the occaissonal fight with my grandma and his son as to whether "kolangal" deserved to be played to or the ashes series...but all of sudden his asthmatic breathing problem showed up one fateful night , in the toilet where he probably was struggling to breathe...and given the fact that he had some constipation problem over the years,he may tried that extra hard to lessen the load on the stomach...which may have lead to him being a suffocated and lead to lack of breath which left him dead in the toilet...and its quite sad to know that this wasn't noticed by my grandmother as she is 85% blind,after fighting many glaucoma operations in the eye. She noticed only a while later that my grandpa wasnt at his couch ....and later to her consternation realised that he had not yet come out of the toilet...he went 2 hours back ...and then felt for him in the toilet ..as she couldnt see ....and when her hands touched his body, it was gone cold ..an indication that he had long been dead,probably an hour or 2. That traumatic moment of realisation that he was dead with no one around ....must have been really chilling for her.

and then in minutes my cousin who lived a floor above my grandparents ...came down and pulled out my grandfather from the toilet and laid him on the floor ,only to get confirmed that he had breathed his last and all of us got the info with a phone call at 3 am , that my grandpa was no more.When i got the news ....my stomach was churning with a fury that had never been witnessed since my operation last year....It was hard to belive that he was no more.

When i went over and saw his dead body, it just looked that he was looking at us .....with his eyes open , and i knew that never in my life would i get to hear that husky " helllou " on the phone ...from my grandfather.As i lay next to him ....my mind traversed a journey 20 years in time , when i grew up with them(my grandparents ) in the suburb of nanganallur ...the walks he often took me ....across the nangallur market....the times when he told me mytholigical stories ....of mahabharata and ramayana....

I even remember the times he used to pick me at my cricket coaching in YMCA in the summer of 92 often cracking a joke at my innate ability to get bowled often , the stories he told of his days in the army ..... and his english had a certain 1940's feel about it ...pretty much on the same lines as C.V.Rajagopalachary's ....small talk on M.S.Subbulaskhmi's eternal bhaja govindam.

The days we had a cold war as to who would beat each other to getting the newspaper in its unruffled virgin form reading the headlines first...was such an important daily event for me .There were times my grandma used to occaissonally glanceto me that the newspaper guy on his cycle was nearing our street,so I would make a quiet ,unpretentious dash to the gate and grab at the newspaper.I realise that there is no one to fight with ....all for 20 printed pages of news that one has hot with the cofee.


Even as I was recovering from the huge mental blow of reconciling myself to the fact that he was not there,matters got a little worse when some relatives mine came over feigning a tear or two ....that they always used to think about my grandpa...and blah blah ..blah..when they actually didnt even care about him.To see people like that blatantly pretending ....was like rubbing salt on my wounds .....and its even more hard to digest the fact that these shameless people are part of our large family ....

The most depressing part was accompanying my uncles , carrying pieces of burning wood , to the place where we had to burn him and the last rites being performed....seeing my grandfather amongst pieces of wood...and finally when the pyre was lit....My heart seemed to be on fire more than the logs of wood ........as I made the journey back from the cemetry to my grandpa's place .


I got to know life a little better that day !!! It was the first time I experienced sadness of a different degree,spent a day staring at a dead body, saw feigning hypocrites and of course ....wept inconsolably ....

when are u going to sweden ???

49194, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

This is some sensational news ..got it from http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/politics/61694


ADDING to its reputation as the most sexually liberal nation in the world, Sweden has just legalized looking up ladies' skirts!

In a nearly unanimous vote in the Swedish Parliament, the motion was carried 332 to 17. To celebrate the new law, the Parliament's second floor was replaced with a see-through glass floor, and women were invited to stand on the floor, wearing their loosest, widest skirts, with or without underwear. Men were invited to bring their cameras, stand on the floor below and look up.

"I was fully aroused for the next three weeks," gushes male viewer, Tor Lundgren, 24.

The women standing above the men were no less enthusiastic. "It was even more exciting than I'd imagined," reveals Christina Schollin, 32. "I chose to wear no underwear, and, well, I just felt this electric thrill run through me as the men stared up at me. I may just leave my underwear home from now on."

Lutheran minister Gunnar Bjoernstrand, 40, has made peace with the new law. "It was just a question of time before it became legalized. And, really, something harmless like this should not be a crime. Sex and the body are beautiful, natural things.

"When we appreciate and adore the body by looking up ladies' skirts, we are, to a certain degree, giving thanks to the creations of God, who after all made us in His image."

Celebrating 365 days past L.U.C.K

Infosys, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

It's exactly a year and 5 minutes since my life changed for the better.Last year this time I had just finished writing the Infosys test at Meenakshi college and had just come ut of the hall,with a slight premonition that I may not make it ...but luck had it just otherwise and the rest was history ...

Last year I went to bangalore literally every weekend ,spent nigts in some dingy hotel rooms near the railway station all in search for a high paying software job. Bangalore and IT was the buzzword when i passed out of college ...and I decided to hunt extensively in bangalore where jobs were handed out and sellink like idli vada in saravana bhavan !!!

I learnt the importance of having a referall, in a company who could inform u about when the tests for frshers would be conducted and since I hardly had any godfather's working in plush IT companies in bangalore I decided to hunt on my own and went to the extent of spotting people ...who came out of their company for a tea/cofee or to sneak a fag....and requested them to give their emplyoyee number and passed on my resume to them. I remember walking down to almost every company in ITPL bangalore(equivalentof our chennai's tidel park,giving away my resume ,as it were a wedding invitation). I did attend quite a few tests ,but luck simply wasnt on my side as most of the tests in bangalore were cancelled on the day of the walk in because the company couldnt handle the crowd that came in to take the tests and in the tests that I got thru ...I didnt make it to the tech interview.

I actually didnt need to do this as I already had a job in polaris software solutions (chennai),but seemingly was reluctant to go there as the pay wasnt high there for an entry level software engineer,as compared to other software companies.

I had to join polaris on August 9th and By quirk of fate ,I had my Infy test the previous day ...which I qualified...and waited for a few days for the results ,while I didnt join Polaris ...in the hope that i would get through Infy (terribly risky !!!).

In the end ,I guess It was worth the wait,working for the best software company....in India .

So kinda celebrating the anniversary ..of my "change of luck" .

Withdrawal of ratings for IIPM

Withdrawal of ratings, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

I came across this a few backs in an edition of Outlook ,where the magazine ,famous for its annual B school rankings,has decided to show IIPM(a self proclaimed "Top" B school) the door.

If u cant make it just fake it ....

If u cant make it just fake it ...., originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

Every other day in the papers I get tired of DR Arindham chaudhary's efforts to get his B school IIPM noticed.He has the chutzpah to compare his B school (IIPM) with the IIM's ,even going on to say that IIPM is notches ahead of a few IIM's and other reputed B schools.

What does he think , By just arming students with a Laptop,he can change the way Indian's go about business or bring about a radical change in a motley bunch of students.I may be a little captious about IIPM by pointing out their gimmicks to get inside the TOP 10 elite B schools in the Indian scene,but am definetely convinced that IIPM is just trying to make up the numbers and create some unneccesary hype rather than actually focussing on improving the quality of education.

IIPM seems to have meddled with some ratings and has purpotedly published some incorrect details while advertising (as said in Outlook).

some respite

I am contemplating a getaway to tada ,which is about 100km's from chennai along the TN-AP border,more so in andhra pradesh.I am tagging along with krib's gang ,which planned to go out there.Kiruba had posted this a few minutes back ...and it seems the that the 5 enfield bikes were booked in just under 3 minutes of the his post on his site. That's real fast ..... Any way no probs , I guess I would have to play pillion on kishore's bike for the journey.

I have been thinking for taking a quiet break ,but seriously have not found time.Now , though I am on leave ..for a few days ..I have no friends to accompany me as every one is quite busy ...
so this break ..for a day should do me a world of good ...

So thats about it ...